Mel's Adventures in Japan

Home for the holidays (pt. 1)

2012-01-22T18:38:00.003+09:00

As always the trip home for the holidays was fun and busy. This year’s itinerary was particularly packed since a friend from Japan came with me so we needed time to play tourist on top of all the appointments with friends and family.

The first day back was relatively relaxed, though. We all (my parents, brother, friend and I) had dinner at Swiss Chalet with family friends before heading off to church (Mississauga Chinese Baptist Church—MCBC) for the Christmas Eve (Eve) service.

Swiss Chalet: Festive Special!

Christmas Eve was breakfast at Tutti Frutti (a bit of a break from our usual Cora’s) and lunch at Frank at the AGO—both with friends, of course. (Between the meals we did spend some time walking around the Eaton Centre.)

Tutti Frutti: salmon eggs benedict

Frank: scones

Frank: beef brisket burger & sweet potato fries

Eaton Centre

After lunch we wandered around Chinatown and Kensington. Then it was a GO Bus back to Mississauga and some time relaxing at home. Dinner was Chinese takeout.

(friend's pic) Chinatown

(friend's pic) Kensington

(friend's pic) Chinese takeout dinner

We watched Kung Fu Panda 2 after dinner and hung out in the living room until midnight when we all opened our Christmas presents. I got an iPad from my brother and parents (my mother also got one from my bro) so we stayed up fairly late downloading apps and playing games.

(friend's pic) playing with my new iPad

Christmas Day service at MCBC was followed by a family lunch (dim sum with my aunts and uncle) and a trip to Niagara Falls.

(friend's pic) dim sum: duck feet

dim sum: lychee "pudding"

The car ride was mostly spent playing games on the iPad. Unfortunately it was rainy in the afternoon and foggy in the evening so the view wasn’t all that great. A nice steak dinner at Canyon Creek (and crème brûlée for dessert for me!), however, made it a nice evening.

Canyon Creek: filet mignon

(friend's pic) Canyon Creek: crème brûlée

Niagara Falls night view from outside Fallsview Casino Resort

Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort

Our hotel suite at the Hilton Niagara Falls Fallsview was also the most strangely designed set of rooms I’ve yet to encounter. Rather than having two separate bedrooms with a common area in between them (my image of a “normal” suite), the “sitting” area was next to the window next to that was a king bed. The bathroom was in the middle, separating the main area from a smaller bedroom with two double beds. Other than the awkwardness of having the one king bed open to all and sundry in the room (compared to the double beds room which had a door to ensure privacy), there was also the design of the bathroom. Right next to the tub was a “window” that overlooked the king bed/main area. Although the window had shutters, the shutters didn’t lock! Of course we kept the shutters closed, but it was always possible for anyone in the main room to open the shutters and get a full view of the bathroom!

open concept bathroom: why?!?

But anyway, Boxing Day we were able to check out late so we slept in a bit. After checking out and eating lunch, we took some pictures at the Falls and did some souvenir shopping before heading back to Mississauga.

double rainbow!!

After a short time at home (to pack and relax a bit), we headed off to Montreal. (Every Christmas vacation where I’ve come back from Japan we take a family trip somewhere. Last year it was San Francisco, the year before that Las Vegas, and before that Michigan.)

(to be continued...)

Christmas insanity

2011-12-22T13:03:00.000+09:00

It's been a tradition of mine to bake chocolate chip cookies (with red and green M&M's for a festive touch) for presents since high school. (Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the recipe.)

Back home with a regular big oven that can bake something like 50 cookies at once, it only took me about an 1.5hr to make around 100 cookies, but here in Japan all I've got is a regular toaster oven and a two-tier toaster oven. I can only make about 25 cookies in one shot so it takes me about 2.5hr to make a batch of about 70-100 cookies.

Still, that's an improvement from my first two years in Japan when I only had a regular toaster oven and it took me 3hr to make a single batch. (If I make multiple batches at once, the time savings are even more noticeable.)

Since this is my last year on JET I decided to be super ambitious and to give cookies to pretty much all of the schools I've visited regularly this year (thankfully there aren't so many--2 junior highs, and 4 elementary schools) as well as my Board of Education, Japanese dance teacher, and taiko group members.

The breakdown:
Tue. Dec. 6- 2.5hr for 67 cookies
Sun. Dec. 11 - 6hr for 281 cookies
Mon. Dec. 12 - 4hr for 189 cookies
Mon. Dec. 19 - 2.5hr for 89 cookies
Total = 15hr over 4 days for 626 cookies

It was an insane amount of work, especially since I also had the JLPT (where I flunked the N1 spectacularly) and English Day (two days of activities from 9am~4pm with 60 elementary 5th and 6th graders and junior high school students) in December.

But it was totally worth it. Some of my highlights from giving out cookies were:

1) at an elementary school, the student I was sitting next to during lunch noticed that I didn't have any cookies for myself and asked "Sensei, hitokuchi wa doudesuka?" (Sensei, would you like a bite of my cookie?). Of course I declined since I had had plenty sampling each batch to make sure they were OK, but it was soooo sweet of the student to offer. ^_^

2) at Kirita, after I gave out the cookies to the 3rd years, one of the students commented that they looked forward to the cookies all year (ichinenkan no tanoshimi--or something along those lines). And another student asked me for the recipe. =D

There's really nothing better than the feeling that you've brightened up someone's day even just a little.

Xmas night museum

2011-12-01T17:25:00.000+09:00

For those sticking around in Japan over the holidays, some Christmas-themed events going on at the Towada Art Center from Dec. 23-24.

Christmas Workshop: Make Ornaments & Cards
Date: Dec 23, 2011
Time: 10:00-12:00
Place: Shimin Katsudou Space 市民活動スペース
Materials Fee: 700yen
*Limited to 20 people, reservations required*

Gospel Concert by GRACES
Date: Dec 23, 2011
Time: 18:30-19:30
Place: Kyuukei (Rest/Break) Space 休憩スペース
Admission: Free

Night Tour
Date: Dec 23-24, 2011
Time: 17:30-18:30; 18:00-19:00
Place: Meet at Reception 受付
Admission: 500yen (regular exhibit fee)

Cafe Extended Hours
Date: Dec 23-24, 2011
Time: 9:00-20:00
*Special Christmas Sweets Available*

Love Wari (Love Discount)
Date: Dec 24, 2011
Time: 17:00-20:00 (last admission, 19:30)
Admission: 2 for 1
**Please hold hands and ask for "Rabu wari onegaishimasu" at reception**

Also, completely unrelated to Christmas, the shimin (citizen) free days for December are the 10th and 23rd. On these days, admission to the regular exhibits is free for Towada citizens. Simply say that you are "shimin" to the receptionist and show proof of residence (alien registration card, driver's license, etc.).

Tohoku Expressway Toll Free Zones Dec 1, 2011-Mar 31, 2012

2011-12-01T10:03:00.000+09:00

Portions of the Tohoku Expressway will be free for all cars, everyday from Dec. 1, 2011-Mar. 31, 2012.

See the map for more details, but basically you can go from Hachinohe to Sendai for free. (The roads marked in blue are free all the time for everyone; the brown is only free for ETC users on weekends and national holidays.)

For complete details, see http://www.mlit.go.jp/road/road_tk1_000022.html (Japanese).

Roppongi Hills

2011-11-24T13:25:00.001+09:00

I went to Tokyo last weekend with a friend for a mini-vacation. Transport and accommodations were super cheap thanks to a great JR (Japan Rail) View package. The package included round-trip Shinkansen fare and a night's stay at an upscale (not business) hotel--in our case, the ANA Intercontinental Hotel in Roppongi.

Usually train fare from Shichinohe-Towada Station to Tokyo by itself is about 29,000yen (~$390 CAD) and the Ana Intercontinental starts from about 18,000 per night per room, but the package for both was 26,000yen!

Since the hotel was in Roppongi, we decided to do sightseeing around the area. I've never really had much of an interest in Roppongi mostly because of it's slightly seedy reputation as an ex-pat/foreigner trap. (I went to the Outback restaurant there once with some fellow JETs once, but that's about it.) However, other than the larger than usual number of hustlers on the street trying to drum up customers for clubs, etc., it wasn't really all that bad or even much different from other touristy parts of Tokyo at night.(Then again if I looked more obviously "foreign"perhaps my impression would have been different--like maybe the hustlers would've been aggressive/persistent.)

Anyway, we went around Roppongi Hills and were able to see a lot of things in a limited amount of time. Our timing was good since the streets were lit up for Christmas.

Our first stop (and one of the highlights of the trip for me) was "Le chocolat de H"a chocolaterie by the (apparently) famous Japanese confectioner Hironobu Tsujiguchi. (Japanese website: http://www.lcdh.jp)

It's definitely a place you go to splurge (a set of 3 chocolates matched to your choice of either coffee or black tea was maybe a little over 1000yen) but if you like chocolate and cakes it's worth it!

"maron" (chestnut) cake

chocolate soufle

After that we went to the Mori Art Museum, Mori Arts Center Gallery (Japanese only) and Tokyo City View (1800yen for admission to all three). The Art Museum had an exhibit on Metabolism: The City of the Future: Dreams and Visions of Reconstruction in Postwar and Present-Day Japan. It was interesting, but I don't really know much about architecture and the Metabolism style, while practical isn't particularly attractive to me.

I much preferred the The Dragon Quest Chronicle of a Quarter Century exhibit at the Mori Arts Center Gallery. Even though I've never really played the games, I enjoyed it because it was interactive. When you enter, you choose your character type--warrior 戦士, martial artist武関家, magician 魔法使い, or priest/cleric 僧侶--and get a quiz card to complete throughout the exhibit. If you answer the quiz questions correctly (the answers are fairly obvious) you get a small present when you leave! They also have a mini show/performance where audience members participate to fight and defeat a boss.

with my "martial artist" quiz card

quiz completion prize

Apart from the interactive aspects, the exhibit also brought back fond memories of old SNES (Super Nintendo) games like Chrono Trigger (same character designer, Akira Toriyama). It was also rather coincidental that there was a Dragonquest Exhibit on since prior to heading to Roppongi we had stopped by the Square-Enix Character Good Shop Showcase in Shinjuku and I had just been talking about how I love Final Fantasy but don't know much about Dragon Quest. (Ignorance about the games didn't stop me from buying a small "slime knight" stuffed toy and slimetower mechanical pencil, however.)

After the Dragon Quest exhibit, we checked out the Tokyo night view from Tokyo City View. Unfortunately it was a rainy and slightly foggy night so it the view wasn't the greatest, but it was nice to be able to see Tokyo Tower and city lights.

By the time we left Tokyo City View, it was close to 11pm but it being Tokyo (and Roppongi) there were still plenty of places still open for dinner. We settled on a "spaghetti" place, "Spajiro"すぱじろう that was actually open until 8am. The interesting thing about the restaurant was that for the same price you could choose between a small, medium, or large portion of pasta. (I wasn't very hungry so we split a medium eggplant tomato sauce spaghetti and a tomato salad.) They also had a natto (with eggplant) spaghetti!

Art Station Towada - AST Grand Opening

2011-11-10T12:12:00.001+09:00

Art Station Towada - AST Grand Opening
アートステーショントワダ　エィエスティー (十和田市観光物産センター) オープニングイベント
Date: Fri. Nov. 25- Sun. Nov. 27, 2011
Time: 10:00-15:00
Place: Art Station Towada (on Old Rte. 4 (awning street) just south of the Aomori Bank, parking is on the west side between the Aomori Bank and JTB parking lots - see map)
Admission: Free
Events: presents ("art goods") for the first 50 visitors; free samples (mochi, juice, etc.); performance by nursery school children (Nov. 26 only); junior high school brass band performance (Nov. 26 & 27 only); etc.

AST General Information
Hours: Sun.-Sat. 9:00-19:00
Closed: New Year's Day (January 1)
Includes: tourist information center (観光案内); local produce/products shop (特産品販売); rest area (休憩スペース); food area?(厨房スペース literally means "kitchen space"), etc.

Lake Towada Himemasu Festival

2011-11-04T20:27:00.000+09:00

Towadako Himemasu* Matsuri 十和田湖ひめます祭り
(himemasu = kokanee, a landlocked variety of sockeye (red) salmon)
Date: November 5,6, 12 & 13, 2011
Time: 9:30-15:50
Location: Towadako-han Yasumiya Sanbashi-mae Hiroba (Lake Towada Yasumiya Plaza - in front of the pier) 十和田湖畔休屋　桟橋前広場
Admission: Free
Events: free ひめます汁 himemasu soup and hot apple juice (*limited to 500/day); shamisen & taiko performances; a 500yen sightseeing boat tour (湖上遊覧体験); etc. See the Yururira Towada site for a full event listing (in Japanese)

Oirase Gorge Road Closure

2011-10-23T22:56:00.000+09:00

The road through Oirase Gorge from the intersection with the Shell gas station on Rte. 102 (coming from central Towada) to the Nenokuchi intersection exiting the Gorge (国道１０２号の惣辺交差点～子ノ口交差点) will be closed to regular traffic from 9:00-14:00 Oct. 29-30 for the annual Oirase Gorge Eco Road Festa. (See the green route marked on this map).

Bikes, buses, taxis and other modes of public transportation will be the only vehicles allowed to use the road during this time.

For more details about the Eco Road Festa, see the website (Japanese): http://www.eco-oirase.com

Towada Koma Festa 2011

2011-09-26T13:09:00.000+09:00

Towada Koma Festa 2011 第１８回十和田駒フェスタ
Website (Japanese) | Flyer (Japanese)
Date: October 15-16, 2011
Time: 10:00*-15:00
Location: Towada Chuo Koen (Central Park)
(十和田市中央公園緑地)
Admission: Free
Events & Activities: yabusame (horseback archery) competition; show jumping competition; children's horseback performances; horse-drawn cart rides; horseback riding experiences; leather craft making, etc.

You can view pictures of last year's event on the Towada Horseback Riding Club's Facebook page.

*The flyer says it starts at 10:00 but the schedule for competitors says that the opening ceremony starts at 9:00 and the competition starts at 9:30, so...

Towada Fall Festival on TV!

2011-09-22T13:40:00.000+09:00

Some TV specials about this year's Towada Aki Matsuri (Fall Festival) will be airing on Aomori TV stations this weekend:

【RAB青森放送】「空に響け　十和田市秋まつり2011」平成23年9月23日（金・祝）10：55～11：25
RAB Fri. Sep. 23 10:55-11:25

【ATV青森テレビ】「十和田市秋まつり2011」平成23年9月24日（土）13：00～13：54
ATV Sat. Sep. 24 13:00-13:54

Takko-Machi Garlic & Beef Festival

2011-09-21T17:11:00.002+09:00

Takko-Machi Ninniku To Bego Matsuri (Garlic & Beef Festival) 田子町にんにくとべごまつり
Date: October 1-2, 2011
Time: 10:30-15:00
Location: Ookuromori 229 Dome (Tapukopu Souyu-Mura)
大黒森２２９ドーム(タプコプ創遊村)
Admission: Free
Events: "Country Dance" and Yosakoi performances; large grills are available to barbecue your own meat/veggies,etc.
"BBQ Set": Pay 2000yen to get 250g of Takko beef, plus veggies (presumably including garlic), tare sauce, a plate and chopsticks; tickets must be purchased *in advance* from select shops in Takko, Aomori City (Shinmachi Narita Honten), Hachinohe (Lapia, Miharuya, etc.) Oirase Town (Shimoda Jusco) and Misawa (on base)--see flyer below (Japanese) for details; takko beef will be sold on site, but the 2000yen set will not be sold at the festival

BBQ Set (from 2007)

We brought our own yakisoba noodles (from 2007)

Support literacy!

2011-09-15T16:53:00.001+09:00

Growing up, I was always encouraged by my parents to read. I have many fond memories of cuddling up on their big bed while they read me story books I'd borrowed from the class library.

Although I had an allowance that I was supposed to use to buy things I wanted for myself, books were always an exception. Pretty much every time the Scholastic book catalogue/order forms came from the school, I could count on getting at least a book or two. They also gave me extra pocket money to buy books from the school library book fairs.

Most recently, last year, they gave me a Kobo eReader for a Christmas present.

Not only did my parents support my reading habits, but I was also lucky to go to schools close by public libraries. In junior high school and the years in high school before my brother and I got a car, I often spent the couple of hours after school waiting for my father to come pick me up at the library.

Since reading has been and continues to be a big part of my life, I strongly believe in the importance of encouraging reading and literacy, particularly in children.

So here are some great and easy ways that I've come across to support literacy in your local community and around the world:

Indigo Adopt a School (Sept 11-Oct 1, 2011)

Did you know that most of our school budgets don't allow for one book per child?

The Indigo Adopt a School program helps puts more books in the hands of children by partnering with the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation. Its power is in the grassroots outreach between Indigo stores and a school in their community they raise money for. To date, we have raised over $533,000 to put more than 46,000 books into the hands of children at 305 schools across Canada.

1. Choose a local school to support.
We’ve identified over 150 schools across Canada that need your help. For every 100 supporters of your school, Indigo will give a book to its library.

2. Give books by donating, or buying an Indigo e-gift card.
For every $25 gift card purchased, Indigo will donate one book to your school - you can redeem the full value in any Indigo Chapters Coles store or at chapters.indigo.ca. You can also make a direct donation - every $12 will give a book.

3. Become a top fundraiser by spreading the word.
Tell your family & friends and get credit for every person that gives a book. The top fundraiser for each school gets a $25 Indigo gift card. Top three fundraisers in Canada will receive a Kobo eReader!

We Give Books

Sign up to read children's books online for FREE. One book will be donated to a campaign of your choice for each book you finishing reading online. Read classics such as "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," "Madeline" and "The Snowy Day," or new titles such as "You Can't Go to School Naked" and "Goodnight Goon."

Better World Books

Better World Books collects and sells books online to fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than 8 million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders.

All books are available with free shipping worldwide. And in case you're concerned about your eco-footprint, every order shipped from Mishawaka is carbon balanced with Green-e Climate certified offsets from 3Degrees, a leading green power and carbon balancing services firm.

Here’s the best part: In addition to selling new titles, Better World Books supports book drives and collects used books and textbooks through a network of over 1,800 college campuses and partnerships with over 2,000 libraries nationwide. So far, the company has converted more than 53 million books into over $8.6 million in funding for literacy and education. In the process, we’ve also diverted more than 26,000 tons of books from landfills.

Because we believe that most every book has lasting value and the potential to help change the world, we see our job as helping to find new homes for unwanted books. Thus far, we’ve donated 3.3 million books to partner programs around the world. Our five primary literacy partners are Books for Africa, Room to Read, Worldfund, the National Center for Family Literacy, and Invisible Children. Good company, no doubt.

Every book purchased from Better World Books contributes to individual literacy throughout the world and the promise of a better life. Clearly, we can’t do this work without our customers. That's why we’re so passionate about trying to offer the best price, selection, customer service, and overall shopping experience.

[For a true story about Better World Books' superior customer service check out my blog post from July 11, 2009: http://melt-in-japan.blogspot.com/2009/07/superior-customer-service.html.]

Cozy night in

2011-09-13T23:48:00.000+09:00

I ended up skipping taiko practice tonight in favour of spending a quiet night at home. I went grocery shopping and--for the first time in ages--cooked dinner for myself rather than eating out or buying a pre-made meal from a convenience store/supermarket.

Since the weather has gotten cooler lately and I just happened to get eggplants and tomatoes today from the Kirita vegetable patch, I decided to make tofu lasagna. I also had some dashi in the fridge (made using the super easy Just Bento method) so I made miso soup (with tofu and wakame) as well. To round out the meal (and to use up the veggies before they went bad), I also threw together a salad with apple dressing and baby leaf greens (from within Aomori), and cucumber, yellow peppers and mini tomatoes (all from local Towada farms).

All in all, it was a very nice, comforting meal for a rainy night at home. ^_^

I also made banana chocolate chunk bread (the recipe was actually for banana chocolate chip bread, but chocolate chips are relatively expensive here so I usually just substitute them with cut up chocolate bar chunks ) using hot cake mix and my rice cooker.

Yes, my rice cooker.

affectionately nicknamed "Jiro"

One of the main reasons I decided to buy a new rice cooker with only a year and a half left in Japan was so that I could try out the "rice cooker hot cake mix bread" recipes from a magazine I'd bought not realizing that it was only meant for IH (induction heating) cookers.

I've tried out other recipes from the magazine (potato & bacon bread; kiwi steamed bread; sweet potato sesame honey bread) but the banana chocolate bread has definitely been the easiest and tastiest one I've made so far.

Vote smarter

2011-09-08T13:38:00.000+09:00

Let's start thinking about the bigger, long term picture and vote smarter. Quick-fix cost-cutting mostly just leads to higher costs later. If we cut back on our efforts for clean energy now, we will be paying for it later with our health and future (the Earth can only take so much damage).

Dear friends: It ain’t always easy being green, but it’s damn important.

Ontario’s election is beginning, and the future of our clean energy economy is at stake. Thanks to Ontario’s world-class Green Energy Act, thousands of people across our province have new, well-paying jobs creating clean energy for our economy, our communities and our future.

Yet, just as this landmark legislation is building economic momentum for Ontario, some candidates are threatening to rip up the Green Energy Act if they get elected. Gutting the Green Energy Act would kill thousands of clean energy jobs and halt billions of dollars of investments. Worse yet, it would make Ontario more dependent on dirty, expensive and unjust energy sources that pollute our air and heat up our climate. It’s actually a life and death issue: air pollution from dirty power in Ontario contributes to thousands of premature deaths, alarming asthma rates, and lung disease, especially among children.

In this election, we can do something about it. The bottom-line is simple: the candidates want our votes, and that gives us a lot of power if we act together.

I just signed the Power Your pledge by telling my provincial candidates that I will vote for clean energy, new jobs, and healthy communities. I’m joining with people from all accross Ontario to ask my candidates to show us their best plan to build on the success of the Green Energy Act. You can find the pledge, sign it and send it to your candidates here:

http://www.leadnow.ca/power-your-vote-ontario

In only two years, the Green Energy Act has spurred the private sector to invest more than $20 billion in green power projects in Ontario. This investment has created tens of thousands of new well-paying jobs for people like engineers, electricians, carpenters and forward-thinking entrepreneurs. People who used to build cars are now building turbines. This is today, and this is our future.

I want Ontario to continue to be an international leader in the race to build a clean energy economy that protects our environment; I don’t want to stop clean energy investment, kill jobs, or fall behind the rest of the world because of shortsighted political gamesmanship.

The fate of Ontario’s clean energy future depends on the choice we make today. If we work together, we can build on the success of the Green Energy Act and make Ontario a world-leader in the trillion dollar clean energy revolution that is sweeping the globe and giving us hope for a safe climate for all generations.

By working together we can build on the success of the Green Energy Act and make Ontario a world-leader in the trillion dollar clean energy revolution that is sweeping the globe, and inspiring hope that we can ensure a safe climate for all generations.

Will you join me in telling our candidates that we support the clean energy economy, and we will back up our words with our votes? Here’s the link again:

http://www.leadnow.ca/power-your-vote-ontario

Thank you.

Sources:

Ontario urged not to scrap renewable energy policy (Globe and Mail)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/ontario-urged-not-to-scrap-renewable-energy-policy/article2096481/
Populism beats good policy: the Ontario Progressive Conservative platform (David Suzuki Foundation)
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/panther-lounge/2011/05/populism-beats-good-policy-the-ontario-progressive-conservative-platform/

Hudak urged to support green energy law - Program spurs job creation, say local businesses (Ottawa Citizen)
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Hudak+urged+support+green+energy/4787642/story.html

Clean Energy Toolkit (Climate Action Network)
http://www.climateactionnetwork.ca/e/clean-energy-ontario/index.php?WEBYEP_DI=1

Towada 2011 Aki Matsuri

2011-09-07T23:32:00.002+09:00

Towada 2011 Aki Matsuri (Fall Festival)
平成23年度十和田市秋祭り
(PDF Flyer - Japanese)
Date: September 9-11, 2011
Location: Central Towada (various)
Events:
September 9 (Friday)
14:00~
Parade　
パレード等の行列行進・山車合同運行
[三本木大通り　Sanbongi Odori, 旧国道４号　Old Rte. 4]
18:00~
Mikoshi, Yosakoi, Hip-Hop Dance, etc.
みこし運行・よさこい・ヒップホップダンス等
[Kanchogai Dori (Komakaido)　官庁街通り（駒街道）]
September 10 (Saturday)
10:00~
Geinou Matsuri (Performing Arts Festival)
十和田市芸能まつり
[Bunka (Culture) Center 文化センター]
13:10~
Opening Ceremonies　
オープニングセレモニー
[Intersection in front of the new City Hall building 市役所新館前交差点]
13:50~
Hayashi (Festival Music) Competition　
囃子競演会
[Sumo Dohyo 相撲所]
17:00~　
Kids' Performances
キッズパフォーマンス
[Intersection in front of the new City Hall building 市役所新館前交差点]
18:00~
Twilight Dashi (Float) Parade　
薄暮運行開始（１周目）
[Kanchogai Dori (Komakaido)　官庁街通り（駒街道）]
19:15~20:30　
Night Dashi (Float) Parade
夜間運行（２周目）
[Kanchogai Dori (Komakaido)　官庁街通り（駒街道）]
September 11 (Sunday)
14:00~
Mikoshi, Parade, Ofukanai JHS Koma Odori　
みこし・パレード等の行列行進・山車合同運行・大深内中学校全校生徒による少年駒踊り
[三本木大通り　Sanbongi Odori, 旧国道４号　Old Rte. 4]
17:00~20:00
Hula Dance, Popular Song Show, Impersonation Show
フラダンス・歌謡ショー・ものまね
[People's Square (Horseshoe Statue/Fountain Area) 人口広場（駒っこ広場）]

Small joys

2011-09-06T23:54:00.002+09:00

Lately there's been a lot of stuff going on and it's been taking a lot of energy just to get through the day. I feel like I'm getting by on fumes.

But this week I've had some reminders of why I need to really cherish all of my remaining time at schools:

On Monday I went to a junior high school (that isn't my base school) and taught the third years. To get back to the teachers' room, I passed by the second year classrooms and got a number of cheerful "Hello's". And in the midst of the "hellos," I heard one boy saying "Poo. Poo." At first I didn't realize that he was talking to me, but then I heard him say (in Japanese) to some friends, "Do you know what "poo" means in Japanese?"

And I realized it was a student I had taught when he was in the fourth grade of elementary school!! At that time, he asked me how to say "unko" in English and I told him without even thinking. After that he didn't even say "hello" to me, but always just said "poo" whenever I saw him. The ALT who visited that elementary school fairly regularly the following year (my second year in Towada) told me that the student continued the tradition with him.

So back to Monday.

When I realized what he was saying and who he was, I turned around (there were a bunch of boys so I couldn't pick him out) and called out (in Japanese): "You still remember that?!" The guys all laughed and I continued on to the teachers' room. Then at the end of the day the same boy passed me and again he greeted me with "Poo! Poo!" rather than the standard "hello."

I should probably feel guilty for teaching him the word, but, well, I find it pretty funny and almost touching that he still remembers something that I unthinkingly taught him so long ago. ^_^

(I've got to admit that even after that experience, I still--even up to now--tell students almost whatever word they ask me to teach them in English. I've taught "diarrhea" and "pawn shop" among many other words.Obviously I don't teach them anything completely inappropriate, however.)

Then another nice moment came today, when a former student of mine and sister of a current student at Kirita came into the school to wait for her mother to finish having a discussion with one of the teachers. Since I was free, I hung out with her in the multi-purpose room and helped her with her (high school) English homework.

It wasn't anything special--mostly I was just reading out the textbook sentences that she needed to write in her notebook--but it was really great to be able to spend time with a former student.

Oh, and I guess another "small joy"--although not school related--is that the July JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) results finally arrived today and somehow I managed to pass the N2. (The test has five levels, with N5 being the lowest level and N1 being the highest. So N2 is the second most difficult level.)

Actually, I'm not all that happy about it because I truly believe it was pure fluke that I passed. (Just look at my scores!) I didn't study at all for the test and I had signed up for it with the idea that by spectacularly failing this time around I would become motivated to study properly for the December test.

(And when I say I didn't study, I mean it quite literally. Not counting stuff like reading manga and watching dramas/movies in Japanese, I'd say I probably spent maybe 5-10 hours--and that's a generous estimate--specifically studying for the test from the time I registered til the day I wrote it. I've probably spent more time studying Japanese in the past week or two than I did before the test!)

So I really didn't actually deserve to pass. All the result tells me is that I'm a pretty decent guesser. Well, that and my listening is fine--that was the only section that I had confidence in, and I aced that part.

And it actually leaves me with a dilemma since I had never even considered that I would actually pass and so I bought the test application form planning on taking the N2 again in December. But since I did manage to pass, I now need to decide whether I will attempt the N1 or if I'll just try to sell my form to someone else.

Given that I barely passed the N2 (20/60 for the Vocabulary/Grammar section!), it would really be a waste of money to try the N1, particularly given that I'm going to be super busy until about the beginning of November and won't have time to do the hardcore studying that would be required if I seriously wanted to pass.

And given that my contract will end (and I'll have to go back to Canada) at the beginning of August, I don't think that failing the N1 in December would particularly motivate me to try to pass it in July because I know that I'll be way to busy with my departure preparations around that time.

But it seems like kind of a waste to not at least give it a shot while I'm still in Japan. Plus writing the test is a great excuse for taking a road trip to Morioka with everyone. (And since December is so busy, I don't think I'd go on the road trip if I wasn't writing the test.)

So yeah, I don't really know what I want to do. And I still don't actually feel particularly happy about passing the test since it wasn't something I accomplished by my own efforts/skill but simply through dumb luck/fluke. If it wouldn't be a waste of money, I'd almost like to write the test again (even though I've already passed once).

A good thing?

2011-09-01T18:06:00.000+09:00

A friend of mine always says that being busy is a good thing. But I think this might be too much of "a good thing:"

Friday's schedule:
- elementary school 1: periods 2-4 (6th gr. classes) & lunch
- elementary school 2: periods 5-6 (2/3/4 & 5/6 split classes)
- junior high school: after school speech coaching (~30min)
- Japanese dance practice (~1hr)
- Towada Fall Festival Kirita taiko practice (1.5~2hr)

AND it's forecast to go up to 29 degrees tomorrow. @_@ Thank goodness I don't have any particular plans for Saturday, otherwise I think I just might die.

Sanbongi Kouta: Michael Night 三本木小唄マイケル・ナイト

2011-08-22T12:57:00.000+09:00

三本木小唄マイケル・ナイト Sanbongi Kouta: Michael Night
Date: Saturday, August 27, 2011
Time: 19:00~
Place: Towada Art Park 美術館アート広場 (inside the Towada Art Center in the event of rain)
Details: Join in dancing to a traditional Towada song/dance, Sanbongi Kouta. Wear a yukata (Japanese summer cotton kimono) if you've got one! Admission free.

Japan's Festivals in Aomori 日本の祭り in あおもり

2011-08-18T20:48:00.001+09:00

日本の祭り in あおもり Nihon no Matsuri in Aomori
(Japan's Festivals in Aomori)

Location:
Main Stage メイン会場: Aomori City Bunka Kaikan (Culture Center) 青森市文化会館
Secondary Stage サブ会場: Aomori Bay Area 青森ベイエリア
Date & Time:
Saturday, September 24, 2011: Main Stage: 13:30-18:00; Secondary Stage: 11:00-17:00
Sunday, September 25, 2911: Main Stage: 11:00-16:15; Secondary Stage: 11:00-16:00
Admission: FREE *tickets required for main stage; register by Friday, August 19th, 2011*
Parking & Access: Free parking lots (limited spaces - see map) and free shuttle service between the parking lots, Aomori Station (青森駅), and the main & secondary stages
Details: Watch festival performances (dances, Nebuta & Neputa floats, instrumental performances, etc.) from all over Aomori Prefecture, other parts of Japan, and even other Asian countries (Taiwan, Korea and China)
Ticket Reservations:
To make ticket reservations online, go to this page http://matsuri2011.jp/cgi-bin/magic/ and fill out ALL the sections of the form:

郵便番号 - Postal Code
都道府県： Prefecture (set to Aomori by default)
住　所: Address (part of it should be filled in automatically when you type in your postal code, but you'll need to complete it)
お名前: Name
フリガナ: Furigana (Japanese phonetic reading of your name - although you can just re-write it in English if you want)
電話番号: Telephone Number
希望人数（2名まで可）: Number of people you're reserving tickets for (max. of 2)
観覧希望日: The day you're reserving tickets for (you can only choose one at a time)
メールアドレス: Email address
メールアドレス（確認）: Confirm your email address

Click the button on the left (確認画面へ ) to get to the confirmation page. (The button on the right リセット is to reset the form.)

Double check the information and click the left button (送信する) to submit the request. (The right button　編集する is to go back and edit the form.)

You will get an email confirmation. In the case of more requests for tickets than there are spaces available, tickets will be allotted by random draw.

Eating in Towada

2011-08-14T16:38:00.001+09:00

I never really thought about it before, but there are actually a lot of restaurants in Towada. And over the course of four years, I've probably visited more than my fair share of them. (The benefit(?) of being a lazy/indifferent cook at best.)

In recent years I'd started compiling information about restaurants in Towada--thinking I'd make a more detailed restaurant guide for new ALTs or something--but it seemed like a lot of work to take pictures and write descriptions, so my project never really went anywhere. Then this summer it occurred to me that it'd be much easier to just make a Google map!

So here it is, the result (well, it's actually still a work-in-progress, but anyway...) of four years of living and eating out in Towada: Eating in Towada - Google Map (English)

Hopefully people will find it useful!

(Observant readers may have noticed that I actually posted the link in the "Enjoy Towada City" sidebar under "Dining" a while ago. I just didn't want to draw too much attention to the map until I'd gotten it to a point where I felt like it was mostly complete.)

Towada 2011 Summer Festival Fireworks Display

2011-08-12T18:16:00.000+09:00

Natsu Matsuri Hanabi Taikai　十和田市夏まつり花火大会
Date: August 14, 2011
Time: 19:00-21:00
Location: Fireworks will be set off from the track and field track, so anywhere along Kanchogai Dori (particularly around the City Hall/Library) is a good viewing place **Apparently the fireworks display will also be streamed live on the website: http://www.towada-kankou.jp/summer-fes/**
Parking: Limited free parking as well as pay parking available; see below map for parking lot and road closure locations (roads around the Chuo Koen (Central Park) will be closed from 17:30-21:00)

Towada 2011 Sumo Tournaments

2011-07-27T00:05:00.000+09:00

All-Japan University Sembatsu Sumo Taikai 　全日本大学選抜相撲十和田大会
Date: August 14, 2011
Time: 9:00~
Location: Towada Sumo Dohyo 十和田市相撲所
Admission: 1500 yen advance tickets; 2000 yen at door; free for high school students and younger

High School Sembatsu Sumo Taikai　高校選抜相撲十和田大会
Date: August 15, 2011
Time: 8:30~
Location: Towada Sumo Dohyo 十和田市相撲所
Admission: 1000 yen advance tickets; 1500 yen at door; free for high school students and younger

Ticket sales: Tickets can be purchased at the Towada Sougou Taiiku Center (Gym)　十和田総合体育センター, Towada sports shops　市内スポーツ店, and at the Towada Shiyakusho (City Hall) Seikyou　市役所生協

See the Towada Sumo 2011 Google map for tournament and ticket sale locations.

Blueberry Picking

2011-07-20T14:59:00.001+09:00

Blueberry Picking ブルーベリー摘み取り
Date: July 9-August 14, 2011
Time: 9:00-17:00
Location: Risoukyo 手づくり村鯉艸郷
Admission: 500 yen (200 yen for elementary school-aged & younger children) for 1hr all-you-can-eat blueberry picking (1時間食べ放題 - 500円, 小学生以下200円)
- additional 150yen per 100g of takeaway berries (持ち帰り - 100gで150円)
Description: Enjoy a selection of 10 different varieties of blueberries: Earliblue, Northland, Bluecrop, Big Darrow, Coville, Blueray, Dixie, Late Blue, Chandler and Spartan
10品種（アーリーブルー・ノースランド・ブルークロップ・ビックダロー・コビル・ブルーレイ・デキシー・レイトブルー・チャンドラー・スパータン）の中からお好きなブルーベリーを摘み取りできます。

When the Towada ALTs went on July 10th, only 2 varieties were ripe for picking (Earliblue and Northland), but the guy predicted that all the varieties should be ready by the 20th so...!

Some advice: Bring a hat, remember to drink water and watch out for the spiders! >_<

Picked a little too early--still a bit green

Fully ripened

Namiki Gelato

2011-07-13T16:28:00.001+09:00

Last summer was a scorcher (in Japan). And this year seems to be following suit. @_@ I'm fine with cold weather, but heat really kills me.

The only good thing that I can say about hot weather is that it makes frozen treats extra delicious. And Namiki, a gelato place in Shichinohe is the best place to indulge!

Address: 青森県上北郡七戸町字立野頭69
(Shichinohe-machi Aza Tachinogashira 69)
Telephone/Fax: 0176-62-2646
Website: www.namiki-gelato.com
Hours: 10:00-17:00* Daily
(*Or until everything is sold out--which happens pretty early on weekends in the summer)
Parking: Available (Free)

The gelato is handmade every morning using farm fresh milk and organic fruits and vegetables. Not only is it delicious, but it's also super cheap--250 yen for a single cone/cup, or 300 yen for a double. (Compare that to Baskin Robbins where a regular single cone is 320yen.)

summer flavours: tomato & pineapple

regular flavours: jersey milk & cheese

fall flavours: pumpkin & cookies 'n cream

It's off the Shichinohe Bypass (Rte. 4) just south of the 394 and there's a big NAMIKI sign with a cow and picture of gelato marking the turn off and plenty of signage showing the way from there.

Towada Street Festa June 26 (Sunday)

2011-06-22T21:04:00.002+09:00

十和田ストレートフェスタ Towada Street Festa
Date: June 26, 2011 (Sunday)
Time: 11:00-16:00 (Road closed from 10:00-17:00)
Place: 旧4号線（旧気田金物店からホテルルートインまで）　
Old Rte. 4 (a.k.a. "awning street," from the former Keta Hardware Store to the Route Inn)
Events:
11:00~ 55m のり巻　55m Nori-maki (参加無料　participation is free)
11:40~ ギター演奏　Guitar Performance (北里大　Kitasato University)
12:20~ よさこい　Yosakoi (北里三原色　Kitasato Sangenshoku)
12:40~ 子ども劇団　Children's Theatre Group
13:00~ ちびっこサンバ　Chibikko Samba
13:30~ 縄跳び選手権　Jump Rope Skipping Competition (参加無料　participation is free)
14:30~ ストリートパフォーマンス　Street Performance (北里ＫＤＣ　Kitasato University KDC)

Towada Art Center Summer 2011 Events

2011-06-15T21:58:00.002+09:00

Upcoming events at the 十和田市現代美術館 Towada Art Center

企画展示：　マイケル･リン　ミングリングーふれあい
Special Exhibit: Michael Lin Mingling
Date: May 28 - July 28, 2011
Time: 9:00-17:00 (last entrance: 16:30)
Admission: 400yen adult; 300yen per person for groups of 20+; Free for high school students & below

ジャズコンサート Jazz Concert
PDF Flier (Japanese)
Date: June 25, 2011
Time: 14:00-15:40 (including a 20min break)
Location: 十和田市現代美術館休憩スペース　Towada Art Center Rest Space
Admission: Free (no registration required)
Description: Featuring SASAKI Yuuka on the flute and INOUE Satoshi on the guitar

オペラコンサート Opera Concert
Date: July 30, 2011
Time: 18:30-19:30
Location: 十和田市現代美術館休憩スペース　Towada Art Center Rest Space

Admission: Free (no registration required)

レイト開館 Late Hours
Date: July 29-August 6 & 9-14, 2011
Time: 17:00-20:00
Admission: Permanent Exhibit: 500yen adult; 400yen per person for groups of 20+; Free for high school students and under (see above for Special Exhibit admission fees)

2011 Summer Events in Towada

2011-06-09T18:31:00.002+09:00

ルピナスまつり Lupinus Matsuri (Festival)
Date: May 28 - June 30, 2011
Time: 9:00-17:00
Location: 手づくり村鯉艸郷 Risoukyo
Admission: FREE for Towada residents (proof of residence required) until June 30, 2011; Adults 500yen; Elementary-Junior High School Students 200yen; Groups (15+ people) 450yen; Physically Disabled 400yen
Description: Enjoy 10,000 flowers spread over 4000 square metres

芍薬まつり Shakuyaku Matsuri (Chinese Peony Festival)
Date: June 11-26, 2011
Time: 9:00-17:00
Location: 手づくり村鯉艸郷　Risoukyo
Admission: FREE for Towada residents (proof of residence required) until June 30, 2011; Adults 500yen; Elementary-Junior High School Students 200yen; Groups (15+ people) 450yen; Physically Disabled 400yen
Description: Enjoy about 2000 blooms of 140 varieties

花菖蒲まつり　Hanashoubu Matsuri (Japanese Iris Festival)
Date: June 18 - July 24, 2011
Time: 9:00-17:00
Location: 手づくり村鯉艸郷　Risoukyo
Admission: FREE for Towada residents (proof of residence required) until June 30, 2011; Adults 500yen; Elementary-Junior High School Students 200yen; Groups (15+ people) 450yen; Physically Disabled 400yen
Description: Enjoy 20,000 flowers of 500 varieties

第15回奥入瀬ろまんパークフェスティバル Oirase Roman Park Festival

Date: Sat. July 2 - Sun. July 3, 2011
Location: 道の駅おいらせ「奥入瀬ろまんパーク」 Oirase Michinoeki "Oirase Roman Park"
Description: Peruse stalls selling fresh local produce and foods while watching various performances.

第46回十和田湖湖水まつりTowadako Kosui Matsuri (Lake Towada Lake Festival)
Date: Sat. July 16-Sun. July 17, 2011
Description: Enjoy yosakoi and various other performances and activities during the day, and fireworks at night.

十和田市夏まつり第54回花火大会　Natsu Matsuri Hanabi Taikai (Summer Festival Fireworks Display)
Date: Sun. August 14, 2011
Location: 陸上競技場・中央公園内 Athletic Track/Chuo (Central) Park

Disgraceful political opportunism

2011-06-01T15:58:00.002+09:00

Perhaps this is just my political naivety showing, but I really can't imagine how ousting (Japanese Prime Minister Naoto) Kan with a non-confidence vote and initiating an election would be of any benefit to the disaster recovery and nuclear crisis handling efforts.

If, as many pundits seem to believe, the vote of non-confidence isn't actually meant to succeed but is merely an act to weaken/divide the party, then I think it's truly a disgraceful display of political opportunism.

At a time such as this--with the nuclear crisis still ongoing and a long road ahead for recovery from the earthquake/tsunami--all Japanese politicians should be focused on creating and passing policies that will aid the recovery efforts rather than wasting time, resources and taxpayers' money on political bickering and power mongering.

I am particularly disgusted with Ozawa and his supporters in the DPJ. It's understandable that other parties would want to take advantage of a chance to take down the DPJ, but I think it's self-defeating to weaken/destroy your own party just so that you can take power. Even if you succeed in taking over, you end up with a weakened party and a bad public image. (I see some parallels here with the current state of the Liberals thanks in part to the Chretien/Martin debacle.)

Some online articles:
Bloomberg: "Kan No-Confidence Vote May See DPJ Split"
Japan Times: "Kan foes in DPJ set to join ouster ploy" "Kan's foes readying no-confidence vote"

[Update 1: Japan Times Online "No-confidence vote set for Kan cabinet"
Update 2: Japan Times Online "Kan survives no-confidence motion yet offers to quit after 'certain degree' of postquake recovery"]

Tired =_=

2011-05-16T23:33:00.001+09:00

It has a been a very long week of Sports Festival preparations.

Apart from Monday (when I was at the Board of Education and not at school), I stayed late every day (Thursday I left Kirita around 6:30pm and Tuesday I was actually at school until 8:00pm! @_@ ) and on top of that I worked both Saturday (7:55am-4:45pm) and Sunday (7:55am-3:30pm).

Then today I had daikyu (a substitute holiday since I attended the Sports Festival on Sunday) today, but I spent pretty much the entire afternoon preparing the script for the play that Towada and other nearby ALTs will be performing in Japanese at the June 5th Towada Association for International Relations party.

It's all stuff that I chose to and enjoy doing, but it's still tiring. (Going to school on Saturday for the Sports Festival practice/preparations, for example was completely voluntary--i.e. I won't get daikyu or even mileage reimbursement.)

There's so much that I want to do, but I just don't have the energy to be running around non-stop for days and weeks on end anymore. Even though in retrospect they often feel like "wasted time", I think the days that I can sleep in and then lounge around the house doing absolutely nothing are becoming more and more important to my sense of well-being.

*sigh* It's times like this that make me feel really old.

What the HECK, Canada?!?!

2011-05-05T18:04:00.004+09:00

I thought things seemed pretty promising for the May 2, 2011 Canadian National election with the whole Vote Mob movement encouraging youth to vote.

Then election day came. And there was only about 61.4% voter turnout (a mere 14.7 out of 24 million eligible voters bothered to show up).

I have never been so disappointed in my fellow Canadians in my life. Seriously, what the HECK Canada?!?!

Are people seriously that out of tune with the news? Do people really care so little about things like the environment, foreign aid, poverty reduction and democracy (re:Parliament and voting)?

We just gave a freakin' majority government to a party that was held in contempt of Parliament (which is what got the whole election thing started in the first place).

Honestly, I have so many beefs with how Harper has run Canada thus far I don't even want to try writing the specifics because once I get started I won't be able to stop--and this is from him being in charge of a minority government! I can't even begin to imagine how much Canadians (who aren't running big businesses or producing oil, that is) and the Canadian international reputation are going to suffer now that he's got a majority government.

And what the heck is wrong with our voting system? Just take a look at this graph of votes vs seats in Parliament (from the Vancouver Observer).

As my friend James broke it down, here's the number of voters it took to elect one MP (Member of Parliament):

1 Conservative MP - 34,925 voters
1 NDP MP - 44,201 voters
1 Liberal MP - 81,858 voters
1 BQ MP - 222,447 voters
1 Green MP - 576,221 voters

I've honestly never thought too deeply about the Canadian voting system, but after this election, I'm really thinking that we need to work out a more proportional system. (Although fat chance of any election reform happening with the Conservatives getting 137%of seats relative to their percent of votes.)

ARGH!!! Talk about spoiling what would otherwise have been an awesome Golden Week holiday (more about that later). I just feel so ~~disappointed~~, no, disgusted with my fellow Canadians. It's like how I felt when Bush (George W.) got re-elected for a second term--except I don't have the comfort of being able to say, well, that's America. Ugh. This is probably the first time I've felt ashamed to be Canadian.

The only good thing about this election was that the NDP got official opposition status. I don't have anything against the Liberals (heck, I voted Liberal), but they probably did need the kick in the butt to get them out of their complacency. And the NDP is actually the party whose policies best fit my values/ideology, it's just that I was never convinced that they'd be able to run a fiscally responsible government (which is why I've always voted Liberal instead).

Apparently the next Federal (and Ontario Provincial--don't even get me started on that) elections are slated for October 2015. Maybe I'm better off staying in Japan until then. (Although I'd have to get a government-related job or go back to be eligible to vote since that would make it more than 5 years living outside of Canada.)

[Edit: I just bought Open and Shut: Why America Has Barack Obama and Canada Has Stephen Harper by John Ibbitson- it's been on my reading list for a couple of weeks but I feel that it may be particularly timely now.]

2011 十和田市春まつり Towada Haru Matsuri (Spring Festival)

2011-04-19T20:22:00.005+09:00

Here is a sampling of some events during Towada's Haru Matsuri. For a map as well as a more detailed listing of events (in Japanese only), please see the Yururira Towada website. [Edit: See also the Haru Matsuri Kanchogai Dori PDF Guide Map and the 2011 Haru Matsuri Guide Map on Google]

The 2011 Sakura Yabusame event will be held as originally scheduled, but Yosakoi Yume Matsuri has been canceled. In its place, however, there will be a yosakoi performance in Chuo Park on Sun. Apr. 24th from 14:00.

桜流鏑馬 Sakura Yabusame (Cherry Blossom Horseback Archery) (Sat. Apr. 23-Sun. Apr. 24)
(PDF Flyer)
Location: 十和田市中央公園緑地 Towada Chuo Park Time: 10:00-14:00
Events: Women's yabusame competition; children's horseback performances
Fee: Admission is free, but reserved viewing seats for Sunday can be purchased in advance for 2000 yen (includes lunch, tea, and entry into a yabusame bingo game)

春らんまん！笑顔SunSun！よさこい元気祭り Haruranman! EgaoSunSun! Yosakoi Genki Matsuri (Sun. Apr 24)
Location: 十和田市中央公園緑地 Towada Chuo Park
Time: 14:00~
Admission is free

桜展望台の開放 Sakura viewing platforms:
十和田市役所　新館5F City Hall - 5th Fl
商工会館　5F Towada Chamber of Commerce & Industry - 5th Fl
9:30-20:00 Daily while sakura are in bloom

夜桜ライトアップ Night Sakura Illumination
官庁街通り・中央公園 Kanchogai Dori and Chuo Koen (Park) will be illuminated from 18:00-22:00 while the sakura are in bloom.

LEDライトアップ LED Illumination
十和田市役所階段脇芝生 The stairs in front of City Hall will also be illuminated from 18:00-21:00 between Wed. Apr 20 and Wed. May 5.

ワックスボウル点灯 Wax Bowl Lanterns
官庁街通り水路 Wax bowl (ball?) lanterns will be lit along the Kanchogai Dori aqueducts from 18:00-21:00 between Wed. Apr 20 and Wed. May 5.

Proud to be Canadian

2011-04-17T23:59:00.003+09:00

I've been trying to keep up-to-day with news on the upcoming May 2nd Canadian national election. Here are some articles/videos I've seen that make me proud to be a Canadian and give me hope for our country's political future:

RMR: Rick's Rant - Vote
Rick Mercer asks youths (aged 18-24) to vote in Rick's Rant during the March 29th season finale of the Rick Mercer Report:

So there we have it, we are heading into an election or, as Stephen Harper calls it, a dangerous and unnecessary exercise. Because as we all know, Canada is one of the world's greatest democracies and the greatest threat to that democracy is that we get to vote. But vote we will.

See the full text on RickMercer.com or watch the video on YouTube.

Vote Mobs
University students respond to Rick's Rant by creating "Vote Mob" videos declaring their intentions to vote and challenging party leaders/candidates to impress them. Read more about the Vote Mob movement at the Leadnow.ca and Toronto Star websites.

Go Ethnics Go?!?!
In response to the battle for the so-called "ethnic" vote--and, in particular, an email request for "up to 20 people in national folklore costumes which represent their ethnic backgrounds" for a photo-op with Stephen Harper--The Colour of Poverty, an Ontario-based anti-poverty group created a music video to the tune of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" to "reject the tactics of certain politicians in their targeting." As one line from the song states: "Don’t wanna be an ethnic, be Canadian." Read the Toronto Star article or watch the video on YouTube (English subtitled).

S#*T Harper Did
A website with pithy comments about some of the...less impressive...things Harper has done in politics and as Prime Minister. Obviously it's completely biased against Harper (and by extension the Conservative Party), but I recommend reading the links to fuller online articles accompanying each statement as some of the stuff that has gone on under the leadership of Harper is really deplorable, for example: closing the Canadian embassies in Malawi and 6 other countries and cutting aid to Africa by 50% before freezing foreign aid increases in 2010. Personally I've thought that Harper has very little to no respect for democracy since he prorogued parliament--and not just once, but twice--so I LOVE this site! (Read more about the prorogation(s) on The Economist, Toronto Star, and Globe and Mail websites.)

Omar Alghabra: The Right Way to Run for Parliament
Found this blog post about a YouTube cartoon self-introduction made by the Liberal Candidate for my home riding, Omar Alghabra. I love that it's a statement of who he is and what he stands for rather than an attack ad (which I despise). I was disappointed that he didn't win during the 2008 election, but am hopeful that he will win this time around. (I only recently learned that the reason was most likely because the NDP also had a strong candidate so the leftist votes got split between the Liberals and NDP allowing the Conservatives to win. ARGH!) Incidentally, my special ballot should be delivered tomorrow (Monday, April 18)! I am definitely planning to vote for Alghabra again this year.

So, on a related note...

How Canadians Overseas Can Vote:
It's getting down to the wire, but if you need to register for the International Registrar of Electors to vote by mail by special ballot, you can get the application form from the Elections Canada website here: http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=reg/svr&document=index&lang=e

Completed applications for special ballots must be received at Elections Canada by 6pm on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 to be eligible for the May 2, 2011 election. And (obviously) completed special ballots must be received at Elections Canada by May 2, 2011.

If you want to save yourself some postage/international faxing costs, I'd recommend scanning and emailing the application and copies of the supporting documents to a family member/friend in Canada to fax (so it won't matter that it's a scan and not an original signature) to Elections Canada.

It really doesn't take all that much effort, so I really hope any fellow overseas Canadians reading this will take the very little time needed to register for the vote. With everything that's been going on in the Middle East and North Africa, I feel it's more important than ever to exercise our democratic rights by voting. As Rick Mercer so aptly put it in his Vote rant, it's something "people all around the world are dying to do."

Towada is all right

2011-04-15T22:53:00.000+09:00

Life is pretty much back to usual here in Towada.

Of course there are still aftershocks, but thanks to a luck of geography, Towada hasn't been hit very hard. The worst aftershock we've felt was last Thursday, April 7 around 11:30pm. Power was out (and some parts of Towada--closer to the lake area--had the water cut off) until around 5:00pm the next day but that was it.

There are minor inconveniences--many stores are closing earlier; low-fat milk and yogurt are hard to come by; and I have yet to see size C or D batteries in stores... But for the most part, work, school, and community/extra-curricular activities are going on as normal.

If I didn't read the Japan Times news every day, it'd almost be easy to forget that we're still living with the effects of the March 11th disaster.

Well, the email I got the other day from the Embassy of Canada was also a pretty big reminder. In light of all the panic and media "fear mongering" about the nuclear situation in Fukushima, I'm glad that the email's content and tone is basically one of "keep calm and carry on." You can read the message in full below (emphases are mine):

Dear Canadian,

We all recognize the enormous impact the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and corresponding dangerous situation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has had on Japan and the Canadian citizens residing in Japan. The Embassy of Canada in Tokyo is working to provide the best possible guidance to Canadian citizens in Japan. To this end, we are updating Canadian citizens in Japan on current advice and information.

The travel warnings for Japan were updated on April 8, 2011:

Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant and surrounding areas:
The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) advises against all travel within 80 km of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
Following damage to the Fukushima nuclear power station in Okumacho, Canadians are strongly advised to follow the advice issued by the Japanese authorities. An evacuation order is in effect for the zone within 20 km of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Japanese authorities recommend that people between 20 km and 30 km from the plant remain indoors with windows and doors closed and refrain from using ventilation systems.
Given the evolving situation, Canadians located within 80 km of the plant are advised that they should, as a further precautionary measure, evacuate this area. The directions of the Japanese government and local emergency response personnel should also be followed by all Canadians in Japan.

Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures:
DFAIT advises against non-essential travel to Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures.
The earthquake and tsunami caused extensive damage to infrastructure in these prefectures. Ongoing reconstruction efforts are affecting telecommunications, transportation routes, emergency and medical care, as well as power, water, food and fuel supplies. Canadians in these prefectures should exercise caution, monitor local news and weather reports, and follow the advice of local authorities.

Northern Honshu:
Canadians should exercise a high degree of caution in northern Honshu.
In areas of northern Honshu less affected by the earthquake and tsunami, commercial means of transportation are available for travel. Canadians are advised to verify the availability of transport and other services, and confirm their reservations prior to departure, as there may be limitations in some regions. Water, food, and fuel supplies may be disrupted in some areas.

Canadians are urged to monitor our travel report for Japan for travel advice and advisories: http://voyage.gc.ca/countries_pays/report_rapport-eng.asp?id=140000

Information on radiation levels in Japan:

Following consultations with Government of Canada experts, and based on information available from the Government of Japan and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Government of Canada has assessed that at this stage there is no indication that there is a radiation health risk to Canadian citizens in Japan (outside the evacuation zone) and in other countries in Asia.

Based on current information, areas outside the Japanese evacuation zone are not subject to radiation levels associated with a health risk. Health risks still exist within the Japanese evacuation zone; therefore, Canadians should not enter this area and should continue to follow the instructions of local authorities.

On April 12, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency of Japan raised the alert level of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant from a 5 to a 7, according to the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. While there has been some media comparison to the Chernobyl event, which had been put at the same level, this comparison should be viewed with extreme caution. Japanese authorities confirmed that this is a backward-looking assessment based on better estimates of the amount of radioactive contamination released in the early days of the crisis. It is not meant to imply that there has been a sudden change to the levels of radioactive contamination. Environmental radioactivity levels continue to remain very low outside the immediate vicinity of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Information on the status of nuclear facilities in Japan can also be obtained on the websites of the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Potassium iodide (KI) is only needed in a worst case situation where there is a large amount of radiactive iodine in the environment. At this time, only people in the immediate areas of the Fukushima Power Plant might need this medication. The Government of Canada does not advise anyone to take KI. KI will be available from local health authorities in Japan if the need arises and should only be taken on instruction from the Japanese authorities.

Please visit DFAIT's information fact sheet on Japan's radiation levels for further information on health, potassium iodide and food safety: http://www.voyage.gc.ca/countries_pays/issues_enjeux/article-eng.asp?id=1106

Get prepared:

Are you and your family prepared? Learn more about emergency preparedness and how to create an emergency plan and kit at www.getprepared.gc.ca.

Connect with us:

Follow us on Twitter for up-to-date information on the evolving situation in Japan at: http://twitter.com/#!/DFAIT_MAECI

If your contact information has changed, or if your location has changed, please update your profile in the Registration of Canadians Abroad service on www.voyage.gc.ca/register or send an email to the Consular Section of the Embassy at tokyo-consul@international.gc.ca.

Please direct any questions you may have to the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo:

7-3-38 Akasaka, Minato-ku
Tokyo 107-8503, Japan
Tel: (011-81-3) 5412-6200
tokyo-consul@international.gc.ca

or to the 24 hour Emergency Operations Office in Ottawa at:

(613) 996-8885 (collect calls accepted)
sos@international.gc.ca

Take care and stay safe,

Consular Section
Embassy of Canada
Tokyo, Japan

I am particularly pleased that they mention specific prefectures heavily affected by the earthquake/tsunami rather than generalizing to Tohoku. Eastern coastal cities in Aomori Prefecture (like Hachinohe) were hit pretty hard by the disasters, but even then the damage here wasn't as severe as in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. (Although Aomori is also part of the Tohoku region, we're the northernmost prefecture and thus a lot closer to Hokkaido than Fukushima.)

So yes, we're all doing our best to carry on as usual. As such, my thoughts are mostly occupied with the recently started school year:

What can I do to encourage my students to use more English when speaking with me? (They know I generally understand what they're saying in Japanese, so they don't feel as compelled to make the effort to speak in English.)
How can I keep myself from (over)using Japanese at school?
How can I keep things fresh for the students (some of whom I've taught since they were in elementary school)?

These are the things within my control right now. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and the nuclear situation in Fukushima are not.

And while I'm doing my best to stay informed and my thoughts and prayers are certainly with those who have and are still suffering from the disaster, I feel like the best and most respectful thing I can do is to live my life to the fullest now--appreciating that things I once might have taken for granted (ready availability of electricity, running water, gas, etc.) or considered to be ordinary/routine (going to work, eating school lunch, etc.) are really all blessings.

Nostalgia

2011-04-09T15:30:00.000+09:00

Thanks to Ceci, I rediscovered the NFB.ca (National Film Board of Canada) site. These are some of the animated "classics" from my childhood which are available to watch online:

I also found a series of wordless ~4min short films that show how things are made:

How Do They Put the Centers in Chocolates? (it's filmed in a Purdy's Chocolates factory!!)
How Do They Make Potato Chips?
How Do They Make Money?

Watching the potato chip film in particular, I was struck by how wasteful our current consumption habits are. I never really thought about it before, but it takes an awful lot of energy, machinery, ingredients, water (e.g. to wash the potatoes), packaging, etc. to make food that (often) isn't even particularly good for us! And what do grocery stores do with all the foods that are past their expiry dates, anyway? Does it all just go into the trash? Our eating habits are definitely not sustainable...

A load off my back!!!

2011-04-07T14:52:00.001+09:00

I had made the decision to cancel my planned trip back to Toronto for Golden Week around mid-March (a little more than a week after the earthquake, when it seemed like the Shinkansen might take two months or more to be repaired) but didn't actually cancel the plane tickets until today.

When I first called Air Canada, their policy was that full refunds would only be offered for departures up to March 28th. For anything after that, regular cancellation fees (30,000yen per person) would be applied. Change fees would be waived (although fare differences would be charged) for planned departures up to April 30th. I considered re-booking for Christmas but since the tickets were at least $200 more expensive than the tickets I had booked, it didn't seem worth it.

Since I could cancel up to the day before the scheduled departure (April 28), I figured I would just wait and see if Christmas flight prices would drop. (And if they didn't, well, I'd still be paying the same cancellation fee anyway, so it wasn't like I was losing anything by waiting.)

But then on March 24th, when I was checking prices for Christmas prices, I noticed that Air Canada had changed its policy for flights to/from Narita--the cancellation fees were being waived for flights up to April 10th.

When I saw that, I had hope that Air Canada would eventually change their policy to enable me to cancel my April 29th flight without charge. Since then I've been checking the Air Canada website almost every day.

And the waiting game has finally paid off!! As of yesterday (April 6th), the policy was changed so that cancellation and change fees for flights booked before March 11th for travel until April 30th would be waived (although for re-booking (to Japan/Asia), fare differences would apply).

I was so excited, I let out a fairly loud "YES!" while I was sitting in the teachers' room at Kirita.

^o^;;

The teacher across from me was surprised, so I briefly explained the situation. He was probably wondering why I was making such a big deal out of it, but really, 30,000 yen is no small chunk of change.

And even though I can understand logically why Air Canada's policy was set up the way it was (the airport and planes were able to run/fly as usual and businesses can't be expected to make exceptions for people's personal situations), emotions aren't logical, so it was really really bugging me that I had to pay a cancellation fee for a trip that I really was only canceling because of the earthquake.

But thankfully, Air Canada's policy did change, so now I'm perfectly happy with the airline again. Although, I did have a bad moment when I called reservations to make the cancellation. At first, the lady I spoke to was like, "You can cancel, but there's a 30,000 yen per person cancellation fee."

Which of course made me go: "HUH?!" It took about an extra five minutes or so, but after I told her what the website policy said, she was eventually able to confirm that I could indeed get a full refund. *Phew*

Even though I thought that it was best to cancel the trip, I did regret that I'd have to pay the cancellation fee. But now I can feel fully at ease/peace with my decision.

A dream

2011-04-04T09:46:00.000+09:00

About a week ago I had a dream where five students from my first graduating class from Kirita came to see me. Even though that's all I remember about the dream, I do know that the dream made me really happy. And it got me thinking.

As far as dreams go, that really is one of my dreams right now. I wish that I could see all of my past Kirita students again before I finish my time on JET (August 2012).

If I was a Japanese teacher, I think I would have a much better chance of realizing my dream. See, in Japan, newspapers publish lists of transferring and retiring teachers in mid-March. So anyone can look through the lists and see where their old teachers are going (if they're being transferred). Consequently, last week four students who graduated two years ago came to Kirita to see our principal before he changed schools. (They even got flowers for him!)
(Although they came to see the principal, they actually ended up staying and chatting with me and some other teachers for about two hours!! Even though I should've been feeling sad since it was the last day of school—hence the last day I'd be working with some of the teachers—I was really happy to be able to talk with former students.)

Thinking about that, I really wish newspapers would do the same thing for ALTs finishing their contracts. I'd like to think that if some of my former students (and/or even co-workers) knew I'd be leaving Kirita that they'd come to say goodbye...

Thank you

2011-03-24T13:26:00.003+09:00

I'm not Japanese, but as a current resident of Japan, I've got to say that I am so grateful and feel totally humbled by the tremendous support coming in for the Tohoku-Kanto Earthquake relief efforts.

Here's just a small taste of what some friends and colleagues are doing:

Origami Ornaments for Japan:

A friend of mine in Toronto is making origami ornaments for a minimum donation of $10. She has currently raised nearly $400 in pledges for the Red Cross, and will continue to accept pledges until March 31st. (All this with a 7-month old baby at home!)

Man Up for Japan:

National AJET (the Association for Japan Exchange and Teaching) set up this Facebook event page to encourage JETs (and anyone else interested) to donate 10,000yen (one "man" in Japanese) to the relief efforts on Friday, March 18th--the first payday for JETs following the earthquake. There are nearly 5000 "attendees" and more are still joining.

Japan Benefit Party:

Live Bands, DJ, Silent Auctions 1 Apr 8pm - 2 Apr 2am @ Hard Rock Cafe, Toronto - Hosted by JETAA Toronto (the JET Alumni Association of Toronto) Proceeds to go to the Red Cross.

Love on Japan:

A friend of a friend is donating 100% of total sales from her baking business, Cakelette from now throughout April to the OMF Sendai Earthquake Relief Fund.

At a time when a lot of the news is bad (such as the news of the death of a Miyagi JET participant), it's especially encouraging to know that so many people from all over the world are thinking about and doing things for Japan.

Smoothing out...

2011-03-18T16:07:00.001+09:00

Amazing what changes a new day can bring. I'm feeling a lot...lighter today than yesterday.

Something that definitely helped was going out with all the other Towada ALTs for a St. Patrick's Day drink last night. At first I really debated as to whether or not I should go. With everyone doing their best to limit consumption, I felt like it might be an inappropriate time to be going out for drinks. But as I thought more, I realized that if everyone thought that way and therefore stayed home and away from bars/restaurants, then the owners/workers at such establishments would eventually have a hard time making ends meet.

Besides, going out and relaxing for an hour and a half with everyone really gave me a much needed respite from the niggling sense of anxiety that had been with me since I realized how serious the earthquake had been. Talking with friends over drinks (and fries! yum!) let me put things aside, at least for a little while.

It's one thing to decide to spend a quiet night at home reading to conserve energy, and another thing altogether to make oneself stay home out of a misplaced sense of guilt over going about things "as usual" when others are persevering through difficult conditions in evacuation shelters, etc. Yes, we must be mindful of our consumption during these difficult times, but that doesn't mean we have to deny ourselves the right to try to resume as normal a life as possible.

In fact, I think one thing that such a disaster as this demonstrates is how precious every single moment of our life is. You can't predict when something catastrophic will happen and change your life, so it's all the more important to take the time to enjoy the company of friends and family.

Anyway, another big part of my change of mood is probably that I have a full tank of gas in my car right now. If I continue to practice economy in my driving (not using the heater, shifting to park/neutral at red lights, carpooling, walking everywhere I possibly can), I should be good for at least 3 weeks.

How I managed to get the gas is really a story of good luck and patience. It started yesterday afternoon around one something. A bunch of us teachers were talking about the gas problem in the teachers' room and I ended up suggesting that maybe we should try calling the father of one of our students for advice/clarification, since I knew he worked at the gas station near my house.

This particular chain seemed to manage to get gas daily, even if amounts were limited, but sometimes you needed to have a voucher and none of us knew how to go about getting one... At any rate, my principal called him and got information that the gas station near my house would be opening at 3pm--no vouchers necessary! With the permission of our principal, half of the teachers headed out to get gas!!

Since seven of us had carpooled in two cars that morning, I actually ended up driving three other teachers so they could get their cars. (And once we got gas I drove everyone back to school as well.) After dropping everyone off, I managed to get into the lineup for gas--at least 1km away from the entrance to the gas station!-- around 2:40pm.

That day I was supposed to be teaching extra English at 3pm, but thankfully my main plan had been to give out prizes (based on the number of stickers students had collected from the year's extra English classes) so I was able to ask their homeroom teacher to take charge of that for me instead.

Once the gas station opened things went pretty quickly, but I still didn't get back to my place (the rendezvous point for the teachers who had come with me) until about 3:20 or so. But we were all able to get 1000yen worth of gas (6.58L) so it was worth it. (If 6.58L doesn't sound like much, just consider that I can get close to 10km/L.)

Even though that gave me considerably more breathing room than before (I went from half a tank to close to 3/4), I still felt uneasy. Since I had today off, I woke up early and headed to the gas station around 6:15am to line up for gas (at the same gas station). This time I was probably 1.5km (or more? I can't estimate distances for beans!) away from the gas station, but shortly before opening time (7am), staff members came around with the vouchers that would enable us to get 2000yen worth of gas!!

Thanks to the efficiency of the gas station staff, I was able to get my 2000yen of gas (well, 1720 yen's worth, actually, as that's all I needed to get to a full tank) and be back home by ~7:25am!

After showering and eating breakfast, I headed out to the bank and grocery store. I got enough ingredients to make two batches each of tomato & meat sauce (easily frozen for later use) and curry (one pot can last me up to a week, and can also be frozen). I've already made one batch of meat sauce, and I plan on making one pot of curry either tomorrow (Sat.) or the day after (Sun.). Even though I had sufficient food for a week of school lunches--as well as plenty of cereal thanks to my last trip back to Canada--before I went grocery shopping, I feel better knowing that I've got some foods I can simply reheat stocked in my freezer.

That's definitely something about me that has changed since the earthquake. Before I was totally fine with an empty fridge/freezer because I felt like I could always just go to a grocery or convenience store, or even a restaurant to grab a meal if I didn't feel like cooking. Heck, I've even gone a couple of days eating nothing but junk food (mostly chocolate) and cereal when things have been crazy busy. But now I feel like I need to keep my cupboards a bit better stocked...

Not that I think it's a bad thing to be better prepared (with sufficient gasoline and food supplies), but the fact that it makes me feel so much better to have a full tank of gas and a well stocked fridge does make me wonder if I'm relying too much on things for security.

I mean, as a Christian I'm supposed to be relying on God. And while praying about things and knowing that others are also praying for Japan has definitely eased my mind/heart, to be honest, out of everything up to now, filling up my gas tank has probably given me the greatest sense of relief/comfort about my current situation. (I was fine with having "just enough" gas to get by at first--before I really understood the extent/implications of the disaster, but as the uncertainty with the gas situation has gone on, it's gotten harder for me to remain so carefree.)

But I am still hopeful that things will start to stabilize/improve within the next couple of weeks or so. I'd like to think that with all the global support pouring in and with the ability of Japanese people to really pull together and work efficiently in hard times that things are bound to get better sooner rather than later.

Reflections on "the BIG one"

2011-03-17T12:34:00.001+09:00

This isn't a summary of what has happened (you can find plenty of articles online for that) or even of my experiences. Instead, I'd like to write about things I have learned from or have thought about so far as a result of the largest measured earthquake in Japanese history, in no particular order:

If an earthquake lasts a really really long time and is also unusually strong, it's probably not just an unusually long/strong earthquake.

Okay, this makes me sound like an idiot, but having spent all but the past three and a half years of my life in Canada and having never experienced a major earthquake before, when the earthquake first happened I really had no idea that this earthquake was any different from the others in my past experience. The first email I sent to a friend was just like "Wow, I've never experienced such a long-lasting earthquake before."

I found it odd that the power was out--I was at the office at the time--because usually we can turn on a TV right after to watch news about the quake, but that was really just an annoyance. Then the aftershocks starting coming and kept coming. It was only when someone dug out a radio so we could listen to the news and we heard the initial reports about a magnitude 7 earthquake (the same magnitude as the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995-though it was later upgraded to 8.4, then 8.8, and finally 9.0) and a 6m high tsunami hitting Miyagi Prefecture that I realized that this was really really serious.

Even then I didn't fully realize the implications of such a major earthquake. I remember talking with a fellow ALT during the car ride back from the office about how inconvenient the timing was since our work party for that evening had to be canceled and we both had to cancel our plans to travel to other (nearby) cities to visit friends due to the earthquake. Looking back now I'm appalled at my own callousness, even if it was springing from simple ignorance.

I think the gravity of the situation only really started to sink in when night fell. As I looked out at the darkened city from my apartment window, I saw a thick plume of smoke rising from the southwest. As I watched the smoke was illuminated with the bright red of a raging fire. Alone in my apartment, with no electricity and no cell phone service (email reception was spotty and calls weren't going through at all, although now that I think of it, if I'd tried to call the fire department, perhaps that would have gone through?) I don't think I've ever felt so completely helpless before.

View of the fire from my apartment window

The time I spent watching the rising flames (minutes? seconds?) in growing shock and horror before the night's silence was finally and thankfully broken by the sound of fire truck sirens seemed like an eternity. It was especially scary since the fire seemed to be in the vicinity of my old house--in the area where I knew some friends were staying. (My friends were OK. The fire was at an old house somewhere else.)

Always be prepared.

The time to take precautions is when things are going well and no trouble is in sight.

All new ALTs are advised to make an disaster/emergency kit containing water, food, matches/candles, a flashlight/batteries, first aid kit, copies of important documents in a waterproof container, etc. and to leave said kit in a location easily accessible if/when a hasty evacuation becomes necessary. But how many of us actually did/have done so? I'd guess that not a single Towada ALT had such an emergency kit prepared.

With Towada being so far inland, we were lucky this time to have avoided the ravages of the tsunami and to have retained use of gas and water, but who knows if we will have the same luck in another disaster? We were able to go home and fill water bottles, grab blankets, warm clothing and food before gathering at friends' houses for warmth and safety, but many many others were not so fortunate.

I will definitely never take safety from disasters for granted again, and as soon as things return to a normal state, I'm going to make an emergency kit. Heck, I'll probably make two--one for my apartment and one for my car.

Another thing I'm definitely going to get is a battery-operated emergency cell phone charger. Thankfully I always re-charge my cell once it drops down (from three) to two power bars, but with the flurry of mails coming and going after the quake, my batteries ran down pretty quickly. (Plus my phone is old and I've dropped it a number of times so it doesn't hold a charge as well as it did when I first got it.) If the power outage had lasted any longer than it did, I would've been unreachable (by email, anyway) from Sunday on.

Batteries are another thing that I need to stock up on. Pretty much the only batteries I have in my apartment are the ones in small appliances (clocks). I don't have any spares. A battery-operated radio is also an investment I plan on making.

The one thing I was really glad that I had prepared well in advance was a crank flashlight-radio. I bought it in Canada before I came to Japan just for such emergencies. (Would that I never had to use it...!)

Another thing I am grateful for is that I never let my car gas tank go much below a half tank. Very little gas is coming in right now so lines for gas are insane. On Sunday I was able to get 10L (after waiting for about 45min) to bring my car up to 3/4 of a tank, but I wasn't willing to drive around and to wait to get it up to a full tank. (In hindsight I admit that might have been a mistake since wait times have gone up probably exponentially, but at the time I also thought that my situation wasn't as dire as others so I didn't want to potentially keep someone in greater need from getting the gas they needed.)

Docomo is the best.

Anyone on Docomo was able to continue sending and receiving emails even throughout the power outage. A friend on AU stopped being able to send/receive emails maybe an hour after the initial quake until Sunday morning. Not sure about Softbank, but from the news it seemed like they also had reception issues. Since Docomo is linked with NTT (Nippon Telegraph & Telephone -- like the Bell Canada of old) I'd say they had the best service throughout the emergency. (I was even able to receive an international phone call from a friend on Friday night!!)

Even though Docomo's monthly plans are a little more expensive than other carriers, the coverage (and
coverage security) it provides is totally worthwhile.

I'm also glad that I've maintained the expense of a land line all this time (again, with NTT). Land line service was restored well before calls to/from cell phones were able to get through, so I became reachable that much faster.

Mutual assistance is essential in dire times.

Ironically enough, the topic of how a country's citizens react in times of disasters came up in a conversation with a friend not so long ago. We talked about how you can gauge the amount of faith people put in their country by how they react during emergencies. Judging by the lack of reports of looting, price gouging, hoarding, etc, people in Japan in general seem to have faith that the government and/or fellow citizens will offer assistance and aid during times of crisis. It's been really heartening to hear instead reports of people going back to their homes and making food to bring back to evacuation shelters (in Hachinohe, for example). Selectivity of media reporting might have something to do with the utter lack of negative reports, but from my own experience, Japanese people really are that good.

I mean, there's a severe shortage of (car) gas right now, but gas prices are only 2 yen higher than they were before the quake. And to ensure that the largest number of people can get gas, many gas stations have limited each customer to 10L. To me it feels like people are really thinking about not what's best just for themselves, but for the greatest number of people.

To that end, a friend told me about how when he went to pick up groceries on Saturday (the day after the quake, when the power was still off), he heard an old woman commenting on how if she bought up everything, other people wouldn't have anything, so she would only buy a little.

I can't help but wonder if Canadians would be anywhere near as civil in a similar time of crisis?

Taking affirmative action helps ward off feelings of helplessness.

Even though I know I'm extremely lucky to be in an area only indirectly affected by the earthquake/tsunami (we can't get gasoline and other things because our supply line through Hachinohe has been cut off), there's still a lot of stress with not knowing how long we'll be cut off, if/when another big earthquake will hit (after such a large earthquake, there's apparently a chance of magnitude 7 aftershocks for up to a month afterward), how exactly the whole nuclear situation in Fukushima will impact us here in Aomori...

For me, doing small concrete things, like cutting back on my energy consumption is a way to ward off the feelings of uncertainty and utter helplessness. I've unplugged pretty much all electrical appliances apart from my refrigerator and telephone. I only keep the light on in the room that I'm currently occupying and I've been trying to sleep earlier to reduce electricity usage. As much as possible I try to wash my hands and dishes in cold water. Although I can't quite bring myself to take cold showers, I've turned the water heater down 2 degrees and I do turn off the water while I'm lathering up. I'm also not heating my apartment at all--thank goodness for long underwear and -40 degree sleeping bags, plus a natural (developed?) resistance to cold!

I'd like to think that my energy-saving efforts, combined with even the smallest economies put into practice by others in the prefecture, have helped to contribute to the cancellation of two recently planned rolling outages.

I'm also happy that I was able to give two fellow Kirita teachers who have less gas in their cars than I a ride to work today. It meant waking up at 5:30am (since I also had to prepare a bento--the kyushoku (school lunch) center didn't have enough supplies to continue with school lunch from today onward) as opposed to my regular time of 7:00 or even 7:30am, but it made much more sense than coming separately.

It's easy to say "Keep calm and carry on" but very difficult to do

Even though I've been at work every day since the earthquake (I have no scheduled school visits or graduation ceremonies to attend on Friday, so I took the day off), my mind is really not on the job. As much as I love my work, right now I just want to stay at home and read. It doesn't change the situation any, but at least reading keeps my mind in the world of the book and distracted from the doubts and anxieties of Japan's current situation. It's escapism, I know, but a necessary release valve for all the built up stress in these anxious times.

As I said before, I'm safe and living comfortably here in Towada, but the constant uncertainty is really wearing me down mentally/emotionally. As much as I try to put forth a calm/confident face, I'm really a worrier and worst-case scenario thinker. I may choose to think positively, but it's not head-in-the-sand optimism.

My mother has asked me to try to come home right away. But I think that with the nuclear situation going on, I'd rather leave seats open for people closer to Fukushima. Aomori is over 300km away from Fukushima, so for now we're OK (don't know how badly we'd be affected in the case of a nuclear meltdown, but again, thinking positive...)

Another thing that makes carrying on as usual difficult is the guilt. I know that there's nothing wrong with me feeling upset or unhappy about my own circumstances, but I can't help but feel bad for wanting to complain about my situation when I think of the thousands of people who have been injured, have had to evacuate their homes, have lost their homes, have lost friends and/or family members or even their own lives.

It makes me feel petty and selfish to wish that I could use the heater in the morning (I'm fine bundling up at night, but it's hard to get out of bed in the mornings when my room is cold) or that I could fill my gas tank to get to work without worry when I think of how people are sleeping on cold gym floors (without the benefit of long underwear and -40 degree sleeping bags) in evacuation centres in Hachinohe, Sendai, etc. and can't get enough gas for their cars to evacuate from around Fukushima...

I know that the greater suffering of others around me doesn't invalidate my own feelings of anxiety/stress/hardship, but it's hard not to feel guilty for them when I have been so lucky here in Towada. And it's not like I feel "oh woe is me" all the time--for the most part I do stay focused on the blessings and what I have rather than what I lack, but...

But anyway. I'm safe and all the Towada and Aomori ALTs are safe and accounted for. Life here in Towada is continuing on--things may be not "as usual" but the hardships, such as they are, are relatively minor and altogether bearable. It sucks that after the warm weather a little over a week ago that the temperature has dropped (back in the low minuses at night) and it has started snowing again, but at least we're heading towards spring rather than in the dead of winter.

Prayers are very much appreciated at this time. If you're interested in making a donation towards Japanese relief efforts, here's a handy article from TheStar.com (for Canadians):

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/953284--how-to-donate-to-relief-efforts-in-japan

There's also this site (for Americans): http://www.donatejapanquakerelief.org/

Bittersweet joys of teaching

2011-03-07T15:22:00.002+09:00

Graduation is looming.

I had my final classes at one elementary school on February 18. After lunch all the students lined up in the hallway and three of the boys stood in front of me. They did a sports festival-like cheer: "Hurray, hurray, M~sensei..." and ended it with a "Thank you very much" from all the students.

Then I received a present from each class as I walked down the hall--high-fiving the students as I went--and headed towards the staircase (to leave). The last class even made an arch (with their arms) for me to walk under/through.

A group of students even followed me down the stairs and all the way to the teacher's office! I was walking backwards for a while so I could shake hands with them. ^_^

I was completely surprised and very nearly moved to tears. Then when I got home and looked at the presents--an album with a class photo on the front and messages from each student. It was humbling to realize that I've been so very blessed as to be able to teach such appreciative students and to work with such thoughtful teachers.

Then today was my final 給食 (kyuushoku = school lunch) with the graduating students at Kirita. Everything felt perfectly normal as we were eating, but as I was leaving, I could feel the beginning of tears welling in my eyes as I turned to give my habitual "See you!"

At least this year watching the students practice for the graduation ceremony hasn't made me teary-eyed. (Last year seeing them practicing their entrance was enough to get the waterworks started...) Still, I'm definitely expecting to need tissues and a handkerchief for the actual ceremony, to say nothing of the party afterward.

If last year was the group I was most emotionally involved with (because I worried so much about them and whether or not they'd be able to pass the exams for their first choice high schools), this year's class is probably the group I've spent the most time talking with. In class, outside of class, during extra English, they asked me random questions and talked to me (in both English and Japanese) more than any other class in my memories of Kirita.

One of my best and most recent memories is playing with them in the gym during lunch break. All the other students were on a trip to go ice skating in Misawa (the third years couldn't go because they needed to study for their entrance exams, plus if someone got injured before the test it'd be bad), so they had the gym to themselves. Most other grades would play basketball or something, but not this group: they played tag! I usually do work in the teachers' office during lunch, but I'm really glad I decided to go see what they were up to that day.

Even though I say this every year, I always truly mean it: I love my students and I'm really going to miss them once they've graduated. Still, there's no greater happiness for a teacher than to see students grow and continue on their life journeys...

Oh, and on a side note, after a weekend (from Friday night right through to Sunday) where I only left the house twice--to buy groceries on Saturday and to eat dinner on Sunday--I've finally finished this year's graduation sock monkeys! (I started working on them at the beginning of February, but until Friday I only had six done...)

~2500yen
+ 30hours
= 14 sock monkeys!!

Completed with two days to spare before the graduation ceremony!!

q(^-^q)(p^-^)p q(^-^q)(p^-^)p q(^-^q)(p^-^)p
(This is my happy dance!)

Upcoming special exhibit at Towada Art Center

2011-02-09T17:31:00.000+09:00

From March 19-April 10, 2011 there will be a special exhibit of works by Canadian (Quebec) and Japanese artists on the theme of l'intimidation /いじめ (ijime; bullying) on at the Towada Art Center.

As a teacher (I haven't seen a lot of bullying in the classrooms I've visited, but then again I'm not in them full time) and as a Canadian this is definitely a must-see for me!

I've also been told that the artists and curator will be present for the vernissage (preview) on March 19.
For more info on the exhibit, see the website: ijime.ca (in French and Japanese).

Fun teaching moments

2011-02-07T16:19:00.001+09:00

After class one day, a third grade junior high student came up to me and asked: "What does 'some of the beach' mean?" (Then added, "I heard it in Bio Hazard.") At first I was totally stumped. I asked the student to repeat the phrase.

This time I heard 'sun of the beach.' I was still confused. Why would there be a reference to beaches in Bio Hazard?!

After getting the student to repeat the phrase and saying it to myself a couple of times, the light dawned. It wasn't "sun of the beach", but "son of a 'beach'!"

So I explained that 'beach' is what you call a female dog and how it's not a nice thing to say to a person. Of course I also cautioned that it's not something that should be said in school. I'm proud to say that--keeping with my goal of using less Japanese at school--I managed to do pretty much the entire explanation in English! And I'm even more proud of my student for getting what I was saying!

Another recent fun teaching moment was playing the Broken Telephone-Pictionary game (rules explained in this previous post) with the same third grade students during my jishu gakushu class. (An extra English class I teach pretty much on my own for 30min for the first and second grade students, and for 50min for the third.)

The one that had us all practically in tears laughing at the end of class started off innocently enough with the phrase "cutting cake". The phrase remained mostly unchanged for the first two people (1 drawing, 1 sentence) but then the third student misread "cut" as "cat" and.... Well, you can see the results for yourself!

Check out some other gems from that activity here.

I really love this particular class and will be sad (but also proud and happy) when they graduate next month. Ah, the bittersweet joys of teaching...

Towada February Events

2011-01-27T14:49:00.002+09:00

第21回とわだ雪見ラリー Towada Yukimi (Snow Viewing) Rally
Date: Wed. 2 Feb. 2011
Time: Sign-in: 17:00~; Start: 18:00; Finish (for Prize Draw): 20:00
Location: (受付・抽選会場)十和田商工会館
(Reception/Prize Draw) Towada Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Fee: 2500 yen (in advance); 3000yen (day of)
Description: Your fee gets you one drink (of your choice) at each of five specified bars. Get a stamp for each finished drink and bring the completed stamp card back to the Chamber of Commerce & Industry (by 20:00) to be entered into the prize draw.

十和田湖冬物語Snow & Light Fantavista Towadako Fuyu Monogatari (Lake Towada Winter Story)
Date: Fri. 4 Feb.-Sun. 27 Feb. 2011
Time: 学びの旅と十和田湖食彩ドームActivities & Food: Weekdays 15:00-21:00; Weekends 11:00-21:00
ステージStage: Daily 19:00~
花火Fireworks: Daily at 20:00
乙女の像ライトアップ Maidens Statue Illuminated Daily 17:00-21:00
Location: 十和田湖畔休屋特設イベント会場 Lake Towada Yasumiya Special Event Venue
Admission: Free (fees may be required for specific activities but performances are free)
Description: Enjoy activities in the snow, live performances, fireworks and more! Get all-you-can drink mulled wine and keep the glass as a souvenir for 500yen! Sip cocktails and sake inside kamakura (kind of like igloos) bars. (View photos from the 2010 Towadako Fuyu Monogatari here. Read the 2010 blog post here.)

第21回十和田市伝統芸能まつり Towada Dentou Geinou Matsuri

Date: Sun. 20 Feb. 2011

Time: 13:00~

Location: 十和田市民文化センター・大ホール Bunka Centre Grand Hall

Admission: Free

Description: Watch traditional (performance) art performances from various areas of Towada, e.g. Horanai, Ofudo, etc. (See pictures from 2010 below.)

年末年始 End of 2010, Beginning of 2011

2011-01-26T15:31:00.003+09:00

The end of 2010 was super busy for me (hence the lack of updates here). I spent most of my free time in December making/wrapping Christmas treats.

I went a little crazy this year and ordered four 1.5kg bags of Holiday M&Ms off of eBay. Somehow I didn't realize exactly how much 1.5kg actually amounted to--see, last year I used 2-3 bags of M&Ms for Christmas cookies, but after I saw the 1.5kg bags, I realized that I had probably used 750g bags before!! So yeah, 6kg of Christmas M&Ms was about four times as much as I actually needed!

So this year, on top of giving cookies to the Board of Education and students and teachers at the small schools (schools/classes with less than 30 students) I visit regularly, I also ended up giving Christmas presents to the entire sixth grade at the only large elementary school I've visited regularly this year (~120 students in total). I put some Holiday M&Ms in a small bag with some Japanese cookies/candies to make it fill up nicely.

The second last week of school (Dec. 11-17) in particular was crazy. I spent practically the entire weekend baking cookies, and then all of my spare time after work, dance practice and taiko wrapping everything! But even though it made me insanely busy/tired, it was totally worth it!

Money spent on Christmas cookies/treats: ~$200
Time spent baking/wrapping: ~20hr
Spreading Christmas cheer: PRICELESS

(Ok, cheesy, I know, but so true! I really look forward to making Christmas cookies every year!)

Then we had our office trip to Hakodate. It was my third time there so the sightseeing wasn't so important to me as the food!! I had いくら・ほたて・とろサーモン丼 (salmon roe, scallop and toro salmon rice), いかすみソフト (squid ink soft serve ice cream) and かにまん (crab meat steamed bun) all within the first 2-3 hours upon arrival!

A co-worker also had the Lucky Pierrot (a local Hakodate burger chain) 函館山バーガーHakodate Yama Burger. It's a massive burger roughly three and a half to four times the size of a regular burger and costs 1100yen. There are only 20 burgers available per day at each shop. My co-worker happened to get the very last one of the day at the shop near the station! (Apparently someone tried to order one after we ordered and was told that they were sold out.)

Other than eating, we did actually manage to see some Hakodate sights: the night view from Mt. Hakodate, the (daily) lighting ceremony for the giant Christmas tree (from Halifax!) at the Bay Area, and Goryoukaku.

December 23rd I flew back to Canada. That night we (my parents and I) had dinner at Canyon Creek (steak!) and then hit up the Chapters to get my Christmas present: a Kobo eReader!!

Christmas Eve was the church's English service. A bunch of us hung out at Ollie & Cheese's place afterward. The next morning (Christmas day) my parents and I had to be out of the house by 4:30am to catch our flight to San Francisco. My brother joined us there the next day (Boxing Day).

Some highlights from the trip:

Sea lions at Pier 39 (Fisherman's Wharf)

Mint Bliss sundae @ Ghirardelli Square

Lombard Street, "The World's Crookedest"

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Park Japanese Tea Park

Boudin Bakery's turtle-shaped sourdough

On our last night we were also able to meet up with my aunt, uncle, cousin and her family for dinner at Park Chow. It was my first time meeting my cousin's husband and daughters since I was in Japan when they came to Toronto for a visit. Another cousin who is studying in a nearby university also dropped by our hotel room later that evening for a visit. It really was a family trip in more than one sense of the word! ^_^

We got back to Canada on the night of the 29th. The 30th I met up with Steph and Lisa and we went to Hubert and Angela's for dinner (Ceci was there too, of course)! It was my first time at their new place and meeting Caleb--such a cutie! And I was surprised at how social/talkative he is! Steph and Lisa taught us a fun game--a cross of pictionary and broken telephone--and we nearly died laughing over some of the results...

Basically every starts off with a piece of paper and writes a sentence or phrase (movie title, song lyrics, etc. are fine). Then everyone passes the paper to the next person who draws a picture of the sentence/phrase and folds the paper down so the text isn't visible to the next person. The next person looks at the picture and writes a sentence/phrase based on the picture and folds the paper down so the picture isn't visible to the next person. And so it continues until you get the sentence you originally wrote back.

(The above are from our very first round, I believe.)

The 31st was brunch at Cora's with Steph and Lisa.

Then I headed downtown to hang out with Liz and Clara until Alan came home and Huston, Ivy and Elizabeth came over and we all had dinner together.

After that I headed to Syv and Justin's for the countdown. Jen and I slept over and Syv made us pancakes and eggs (and smoked salmon!) for breakfast New Year's morning.

My parents picked me up and I spent the rest of New Year's Day reading and sleeping. The second was breakfast with the girls at Cora's (again!) before service. After church I headed downtown to have lunch (steak crepe--yum!) and hang out with Carly.

The third was the BSGE hot pot!! We actually did a good job with buying the food this time and didn't have too much leftover. We also played the pictionary-telephone game--again, with hilarious results.

My final day of vacation (Jan.4) was another do-nothing-day at home, but in the evening we had a family dinner (i.e. Nate came to Mississauga) at Pho, of all places. (Mostly because I had overeaten throughout the holidays and really wasn't up for a big meal.)

All in all I had a pretty good end of 2010 and start of 2011.
^_^

Airport lounges

2011-01-21T16:54:00.001+09:00

Even though this is my second year as an Aeroplan Elite (Star Alliance Gold) member, today is my first time using the lounge.

I've got to say, it's pretty sweet! I had no idea that you could get free food and drinks in one! Unfortunately I ate a larger than usual lunch at the train station (a cream cheese & salmon sandwich, a mixed fruit sandwich, and two anpan with, respectively panda and penguin designs!) so if I ate now it'd really just be out of simple gluttony.

Still, seeing that I have access to free food I'm very glad that I gave away the 2000yen food voucher I got from the airline (because of the delay). I knew there was no way I'd be able to eat anything, so rather than letting it go to waste I "accosted" a couple standing and looking at a restaurant window and offered them the voucher if they were planning on eating at a restaurant somewhere today. Thankfully they accepted it so I didn't have to force myself to eat close to 2000yen worth of food just so it wouldn't go to waste. (I really would have!)

Oh well, since I'm here maybe I'll just nibble on something, or at the very least have something to drink. Still another 2.5hr to go!

[Update: So much for nibbling! I totally pigged out on inarizushi, sushi, sandwiches, senbei, shortbread cookies, chocolate and soup! And I actually had a second plate, too! ^_^;; ]

The power of desperation

2011-01-08T15:13:00.001+09:00

(Note: This is a continuation from my previous post.)

So flight AC003 was supposed to arrive in Tokyo at 17:25 and in order to catch the last Shinkansen to Shichinohe-Towada Station at 20:04, I needed to catch the 18:15 Narita Express (N'EX). (Actually, I later found out that I could've also taken the 18:48 N'EX but that would've left me with only 15min to catch the Shinkansen which is doable but difficult.)

I was hoping that the third time would be a charm and I'd arrive on time or early just once this trip (to recap: my original flight was delayed 4hrs, and the AC103 flight to Vancouver arrived almost 30min late) but my bad luck held and we arrived 20min behind schedule--leaving me with only 25min to catch the N'EX.

As soon as the seatbelt sign was off I jumped up, grabbed my stuff and raced to the front of the plane saying "Sorry, excuse me. I need to catch a train that leaves in 25min!!" I managed to be one of the first five passengers to get off and as soon as I had enough space I literally ran past the people who had gotten off before me and booked it to customs.

I'm horrendously out of shape so I only managed to sustain the run/sprint for about 15m (although in my defense I'd just gotten off a 10-hr flight and was carrying a fairly hefty backpack and duffle bag) and thereafter had to settle for a fast walk.

It was 17:56 by the time I hit the first movator (i.e. moving walkway) but thankfully the distance between the international gates and customs at Narita is a lot shorter than the distance between the domestic and international gates at Vancouver Airport! I made it to customs right around 18:00 and was lucky to have been able to go straight to the front of the line because they were just splitting one line into two when I got there. (I felt bad about basically butting in front of a bunch of people, but I was desperate, so...)

The one minor bump in my journey from the plane gate to the train platform was the fingerprinting. I'd forgotten that I had a bandage on my right index finger so I wasted a bit of time there first getting an error message and then having to hurriedly pull off the bandage.

But still, I managed to make it onto the N'EX train by 18:08--with 7 minutes to spare! I was embarrassingly out of breath and huffing and puffing like mad, but at least I was safely on the train!

So the lesson I learned is that it *is* possible to make it through customs within 15min of getting of the plane with a little luck and a lot of desperation.

To save myself from the stress, next time I'm not going to bother buying return train tickets. So even if my plane is super late (and with my luck recently I'm fulling expecting to get hit with more delays) at least I won't have to worry about the money I spent on train tickets going to waste.

Oh, and on a slightly random but related note, I *did* actually end up writing Air Canada to compliment them on their helpfulness in re-booking my tickets so I could have a chance to catch my trains. And as thanks for the email, they actually sent me a code for 5% off of a future ticket purchase (for travel up to Jan. 13 2012)!! Sweet!

Hoping lightning doesn't strike twice in the same day

2011-01-06T04:19:00.002+09:00

It's 11:19am (PST) on Wednesday, January 5th and I'm currently sitting in the Vancouver airport. I was supposed to be on a plane to Tokyo by now but thanks to my colossal bad luck I realized late last night that my direct flight from Toronto to Tokyo was listed as being delayed by FOUR HOURS.

This was a huge problem since it pushed the scheduled arrival time to 19:10 but the last possible Narita Express train (to Tokyo Station) that I could take to catch the last train to Towada was the 18:15. And I already had tickets purchased. (Once a train has left you're pretty much out of luck and just have to buy a new ticket--no sympathy for situations beyond a traveler's control...)

On calling to inquire whether I'd be able to receive any compensation for the new train tickets I'd have to buy after missing the last possible train out to Towada, I learned that since the delay was due to mechanical problems I had a slim chance of being able to make a claim. (If it was a weather delay I'd be out of luck.)

After that call ended, I thought, maybe I can get re-booked onto a flight to Vancouver and then Tokyo! So I called Air Canada yet again and found out that there was space on the flight to Tokyo, but no seats on the flights to Vancouver (from Toronto).

Following a couple of calls to Japan (to see if I was completely out of luck with the train tickets or if I could cancel them from Toronto and get some money back), inspiration hit: could I go on standby to Vancouver?

So I called Air Canada for the third time in less than two hours and confirmed that it was indeed a possibility.

The tricky part was that even if I got the flight from Vancouver, I'd have a very small margin for delays. The Vancouver flight was scheduled for 13:55 and would arrive at 17:25--giving me a mere 50min to get through customs and to the train. (On a good day I can get off the plane and be out of customs in 30min but with my luck recently...)

Anyway, I figured better to take the chance of being able to catch the train rather than waiting for the delayed flight which would give me no chance at all. (My dad also had an experience where a mechanical delay ultimately ended up getting the flight canceled so he had to go back home and try again the NEXT DAY!!)

So I re-packed my bags so I wouldn't have any checked luggage--only carry-on--and then my poor dad had to take me to the airport around 5am!

I managed to get onto the 7am flight to Vancouver on standby. Once I got on that flight they were supposed to try to check me into the 10am flight to Tokyo but since it was a special/added flight (AC2003) I guess they made a mistake and put me on the regular AC003 (13:55) flight instead.

Unfortunately I didn't know that so when the flight arrived in Vancouver at 9:38 I nearly killed myself running to the absolute farthest international gate (for future reference going from a domestic flight to international gate D63 in less than 20min is VERY painful--particularly carrying bags). I made it just before 10am (9:56 or so?) and only found out at the gate that I was actually checked in for the later flight.

Not that I'm complaining because before this morning I hadn't even known about the 10:00 flight and had been planning to take the 13:55 flight originally anyway, but I really wish they had told me that when I got onto the 7am flight to Vancouver so I wouldn't have had to kill myself running through the airport....

But anyway, I'm extremely grateful to Ms. LG who was at the AC ticket sales desk in Toronto this morning. I know it was a lot of hassle to re-route me and I suspect that since it wasn't an emergency (family illness, connecting flight, wedding, etc.) other staff might have just said: "Tough luck, wait it out." But she was really helpful and I'm definitely going to email AC to tell them how thankful I was/am for her help. (I'm pretty quick to complain about poor service, so I figure it's only fair to praise good service as well.)

Now I'm just waiting an hoping that lightning (i.e. delays) won't strike me twice in the same day and that I'll be able to catch trains to get home "tonight" (Thursday) as originally planned.

Must resist...

2010-12-03T00:15:00.000+09:00

I first learned about Shinzi Katoh in the spring of my first year in Japan. My parents, Brenda & Ceci were spending a couple of days in Tokyo and there happened to be a mini Shinzi Katoh fair going on in the Ginza Mitsukoshi.

There was so much stuff that I wanted, but I limited myself to a bag, an aluminum water bottle, and two "clear" files:


My friend lives next door. A boy has a black rabbit. A girl has a white rabbit.

I went shopping with my neighbor.

We bought black&white rabbits, a big-eared monkey and three pigs.

I got a hairstyle like a mouton when I went to the hair salon today.

I've also seen a variety of Shinzi Katoh mugs, teapots, etc. in various stores but have always managed to resist the temptation to purchase any for myself...

But then recently I had the urge to check out the Shinzi Katoh Collection Online Shop (there's also an English site). Probably not the smartest idea since Christmas is around the corner and I have ZERO presents purchased so far, but now all I can think about is how much I want to get a mug for myself (or two or three or...) !!

The only thing saving me from spending a ridiculous amount of money ironically is that there's such a huge selection available that I can't decide what to buy! =P I know that I want a cafe mug (it has a small dish for candy, etc. that stacks on top), but there are three different types to choose from--"upside down" "ボミ(bomi)" and "ワイド(wide)"--not to mention the "ダンダンマグ(Dan Dan Mug)" which is pretty much the same thing except the dish stacks on the bottom rather than the top. And of course within each category of mug there's a variety of designs to choose from as well.

The "upside down" mug seems the most practical, since it has a small cup that can be used as either a cup or a candy, etc. dish.

In particular, I like the "murmur" design.

But the "bomi" style has a really cute set of bunny characters - "Oui."

But the "wide" style has some fairy tale themed mugs which of course call to the book lover in me. I particularly like the "Snow White(白雪姫) - poison apple" one.

In terms of overall cuteness, though, the Dan Dan mugs really call to me with their bright colours and super cute animals. I love the giraffe and monkey and pig and...

Apart from the cafe mugs, there are also a bunch of different mugs with lids. It'd be perfect to use during the summer at Kirita when tons of flies are around... There's the basic "ノンラップ(non-wrap)" type with the plastic(?) snap on lid, and the slightly funkier "Facile" style.

Then too there's the Paint Club Mug Set which is just a regular set of mugs, but has really cute characters and gives you 5 mugs for the price of ~3 of any of the other ones I've mentioned so far...

And finally there's the "Tea for Two" series which is a stackable set of two mugs plus a teapot! Again, super super cute!! I like the "ソラベア (Sora Bear)" one--and I also happen to have ordered the picture book (illustrated by Shinzi Katoh, of course!) recently, so...

Wah! Too many choices and not enough money!! Oh well. I'm definitely not going to order anything (for myself at any rate) until the new year because, as I said earlier, Christmas is coming up and I need to "save" my money for buying presents!

Maybe it's time...?

2010-11-28T23:23:00.000+09:00

Recently I've been wondering if I should finally learn how to use make-up properly.

For one thing it's rather embarrassing that at my age I still have to ask someone to do my make-up for me for Nihonbuyo performances.

But really the main reason is that I'm starting to think that it would be the best way to make myself look older...

At the Kaminari Daiko nijikai (the after party--lit. second party--following the wedding of one of the group members) a member who hasn't really been around since I joined the group was shocked when I answered his question re: my age. He told me that he thought I looked like a high school student! @_@ (A step up from being mistaken for a junior high school student--which happened in October--I suppose, but still...)

And earlier this month, a regular taiko member made a comment about how he would leave re-tying the taiko strings to us "young people"--even though I'm actually 6 years older than him! (Since he's only 21 he must have thought I was 20 or younger?)

It's flattering if people think I still look like I'm in my early rather than late 20s, but somehow it doesn't really make me happy to be mistaken for a teenager...

I was used to people getting my age wrong back in Canada because Chinese/Japanese/Korean people generally look a lot younger than their actual age. But I rather figured that in Japan people would be able to guess my age fairly accurately... So I'm thinking it's the fact that I don't use any make-up that throws people off.

But the thing with make-up is that it's expensive and it takes time to apply. Since I'm really not a morning person, finding even an extra two minutes in the morning is really really difficult for me. Plus I get the impression that make-up is one of those things that you have to keep using once you start using it routinely--meaning it'll become a regular expense. And quite frankly I'd rather spend the money on books/manga/eating out, etc.

Guess I'll just have to put up with being mistaken for a student until I (naturally) start looking more like my actual age.

More "fun" with English

2010-11-17T14:01:00.001+09:00

Here are some other recent gems from English class:

From a third year dialogue activity. There are two pictures: 1) Ken is reading a comic book with his notebook open in front of him and his English textbook on the desk; 2) his mother comes in with cake; the comic book is peeking out from his now closed notebook and Ken is holding his English textbook upside down.

Students had to choose from a selection of responses to fill in [correct answers here]. Then students had to write original sentences to finish the skit:

Ken: Just a minute.
Mother: Here's some cake. Are you studying hard?
Ken: [Yes, of course.]
Mother: Really? What subject are you studying?
Ken: [I'm studying Japanese... I mean, English.]
Mother: What's that in your notebook?

Ken: Oh my god!
Mother: You are [a] bad boy and fool!

Ken: This is my friend.
Mother: I'm sad to hear that.

=D I was particularly impressed with the originality of the latter ("I'm sad to hear that").

Then, today the second grade students got their Unit 5 tests back. For one of the questions they had to write original sentences using the pattern: "I think that [friend's name] likes [something]." I'm not sure if these answers (emphases are mine) are so much funny as mildly disturbing....

I think that [friend's name] likes little boys.
I think that [friend's name] likes little girls.

@_@;;

That was unexpected...

2010-11-16T17:26:00.001+09:00

Students never cease to surprise/amuse me. Two original sentences from today's classes at Kirita:

"My favorite place was the [hotel] bathroom."

The second years went on a school trip to Tokyo last week. In today's English class they wrote about the experience using a fill-in-the-blank style worksheet. The student originally only had "bathroom" written, but made it more specific at my prompting.^_~ (The student did eventually replace "bathroom" with the more appropriate "Gekidanshikigekijo," a.k.a. Shiki Theatre.)

"Tuesday, November sixteenth, cloudy

You nooooooob!!"

Before class each day, a different student is in charge or writing the day, date and weather on the board (in English, of course). The third year students often draw pictures nearby (Doraemon, poop, etc.) but today "You noooooob!!" was written in very small writing under the weather. It turned out that the student had picked it up while playing an online game. =P

I was pleased that the student was able to understand when I explained the term using English appropriate for a third-year--something along the lines of: "A noob is a new person. It usually means a new person who doesn't understand the rules or can't play the game well."

Sunday outing

2010-11-07T20:08:00.003+09:00

Today was a rare solo Sunday outing to Hachinohe. (I'm a homebody and--with the exception of major trips, like to Hiroshima, Osaka, etc.--rarely go to places outside of Towada by myself.)

It started with a trip to Sweet Peach Salon スウィートピーチサロン for lunch. I was a little nervous about getting lost, but I only had to pull over ~~once~~ twice to check the map and regain my bearings. ^_^

Even though the Salon location is a little further out there than the main shop (which is right in downtown Hachinohe), I picked that location because it has free parking and I figured the roads would be less busy and thus less stressful to navigate for someone unfamiliar with the area.

Anyway, back to Sweet Peach Salon! It's a pretty little shop (seats about 18 people total, with 3 tables for 2 and 3 tables for 4) with a nice atmosphere.

The lunch menu is limited to one set that you can choose to have by itself (680yen), with cake (880yen), or with a parfait (1100yen), but within that one set, you get a good variety of smaller dishes: some bread, a waffle, a small salad, some fruit, and curry, plus a hot drink (coffee, tea, etc.).

Being the glutton that I am, I went for the lunch plus parfait. =P It was pretty simple, but I liked it because instead of the usual corn flake or whipped cream fillers, it was pretty much all fruit plus a bit of ice cream: pear, pineapple, persimmon, strawberry, kiwi on top, plus banana mixed in with the ice cream, to be precise. The proportion of fruit to ice cream made me feel much less guilty about indulging myself. ^_~

Following lunch I headed to the Hachinohe Koukaidou (公会堂 public hall/civic auditorium) to watch my Nihonbuyo teacher, Rika-sensei perform. Thankfully I didn't get lost at all (hooray for signs leading to City Hall, which is next to the Koukaidou!) and made it just in time for her performance. (I entered partway through the performance before hers, in fact.)

I didn't get the story 100%, but it was still a really impressive dance--she played 3-4 roles (indicated by the changing of headpieces) all by herself! She was a baby (or little kid), an old man, and a husband and wife couple, too, I believe. I was really in awe of her skill, and that of the guy who was helping her with all the headpiece changes.

The guy had to sit in a kneeling position unobtrusively in the back for most of the dance and only moved forward a bit when it was time to change the headpiece or to take a prop from Rika-sensei. The timing was impeccable and super impressive! With all the different props I imagine it must have taken a fair bit of practice to ensure that he had the correct headpiece ready for her to take at precisely the right time and in precisely the right location (on the stage).

After the performance I went backstage to give my compliments to Rika-sensei.

It was pretty crazy because she had to remove all of the makeup from her face, arms and legs AND change into a regular kimono while accepting presents and congratulations from various visitors. She also had to make sure that each visitor received a small gift (sandwiches and tea) as okaeshi (お返し a sort of return gift/answering gesture of thanks).

Once again I was struck by just how expensive it is to do Nihonbuyo. I mean, on top of paying for kimono/wig rentals and dressing (and possibly a make-up artist as well), you have to think about preparing/buying sufficient okaeshi for people who come to watch you perform. @_@ Though I get the sense that at least it's only something you have to do for major performances (i.e. where there's an actual admission fee), since I only remember seeing all the お返し being given out during last year's big Hanasuzukai performance and not for the annual Shimin Bunkaisai. Or maybe it's for all performances and I just wasn't really paying attention last weekend...

Anyway, after the performance I headed back home--again miraculously managing to avoid getting lost on the return trip! ^_^ And that was my Sunday out in Hach!

スウィートピーチサロン (Sweet Peach Salon)
http://sweetpeach.jp/
〒039-1114
青森県八戸市北白山台5-2-5
5-2-5 Kitahakusandai, Hachinohe City, Aomori Prefecture
東奥日報社八戸2F
To-o Nippo Press Co. Hachinohe, 2nd Fl.
TEL/FAX0178-23-5370
Parking available
Hours: 11:00-18:00, Mon., Wed.-Sun.
(Lunch Served 11:30-14:00)
Closed: Tuesdays (except National Holidays, in which case it will close on the Wed. following the holiday Tuesday)

Jam-packed weekend

2010-11-02T00:27:00.002+09:00

Saturday morning (Oct. 30) I got up super early (4:30am!) and headed down to Oirase Gorge to check out the autumn foliage. Waking up so early I was super slow getting ready, so I didn't head out until about 5:45am (15min behind schedule!) and didn't reach the Gorge until about 6:30am. But I still managed to get a good hour and a half of walking and taking photos in before I headed back (~8:00am). The leaves weren't nearly as pretty as last year (apparently due to the unusually long and hot summer?), but it was still nice just to be walking around and enjoying nature--listening to birds singing, breathing in the crisp autumn air, etc.

I arrived back home shortly before I was scheduled to meet a friend at 9:00am to drive around to various historical sites around Towada/Shichinohe.

Oh, but before we went on our drive, we stopped at the Towada Aeon so I could get an electric nabe (re: Oct. 25 "Gadgets" post). Since it was the 30th of the month, I got a 5% discount when I paid using WAON, plus it was a Saturday, meaning I also got a pink receipt (get 1 stamp for every 2000yen worth of pink receipts and get a 500yen coupon after 15 stamps)! On top of that, the model I chose (a no-frills older Tiger model, just the right size for 1-2 people) was the display model, so I got an additional 5% off. ^_^

Anyway, while driving around Towada/Shichinohe, we saw the sign for Namiki, a hand-made gelato shop in Shichinohe!! One of my co-workers from the Shidoka recommended it to me a while ago, but I had almost completely forgotten about it until recently. I went for Kabocha (pumpkin) and Cookies & Cream, while my friend had the Jersey Milk and Cheese flavours. The other flavours that day (they do change seasonally) were: blueberry, matcha (green tea), coffee, goma (sesame), caramel, and strawberry.

It's open daily from 10:00-17:00, although they'll close once they sell out (which I've heard is highly probable on summer weekends). The shop has a nice, casual-chic atmosphere and the gelato is both delicious and cheap--300yen for a double!! It's so awesome, I suspect I'll be making a trip out every month or two! =P (If it was open later and located closer to my house, I'd probably stop going to Baskin Robbins and just go there instead!)

Anyway, some of the historical sites we visited were pretty interesting (to us, at any rate).

For example, there was this rice field that was said to have been owned/worked on by a famous local Buddhist monk (priest?). And right by the rice field there was a tree where the monk was said to have hung his clothing while he worked the fields. There's a stone monument (visible in the photo just left of centre) and everything explaining the tree's historical significance. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere (along the road from Towada/Shich) so I was pretty impressed that my friend 1) knew about it; and 2) was able to find it!

Similarly, there's a big ginkgo (大銀杏 oicho) tree in Shichinohe where the monk/priest guy was said to have played as a child. There are signs marking the way to this tree, though. ^_~

On the way back to Towada from Shich, we also stopped by a...shrine? temple? near Fukamochi elementary school. It was cool because it had these giant human-shaped straw dolls which I'd seen before in the Aomori Kenritsu Kyodokan (Aomori Prefectural Culture Musuem 青森県立郷土館) and had heard were from Towada, but I'd never seen them in Towada before!

Aomori Kyodokan Display

The real deal (in Towada)

After getting dropped off back home, I took a long nap. Then I went to the rehearsal for my dance performance at the Towada Shimin Bunkasai (Towada People's Culture Festival 十和田市民文化祭). And following that I went to a party with the taiko group to celebrate the pending wedding (at the end of the month, November) of one of the group members.

Since the taiko group also had a performance scheduled for the next day (which I obviously couldn't go to, unfortunately), we were supposed to finish no later than 11pm, but I didn't leave until around 11:30pm and I suspect that others were probably there until close to 12am! @_@;;

The next day was another early start since I had a 7:20am appointment to get my hair done for the performance. Then I went to my dance sensei's practice studio to get my make-up done before moving to the Bunka Center to get dressed in the kimono. Since it was a real deal (apparently geisha-style) kimono and there were 7 of us in total who needed to be dressed in them, it took around two hours to get everyone dressed! I was the first one to be dressed, so it was a long wait--you can't use the bathroom when you wear a kimono!

Our group's performance was between 11:00-11:30. The performance was actually worse than most of our rehearsals! For some reason we were totally out of sync--with each other and the music--and we all made a bunch of small (and some not so small) mistakes. ^^;; But anyway, we got through it and hopefully the audience didn't catch on to all the mess ups. =P

My supervisor and AJ, as well as an assistant teacher (AT) I work with at an elementary school were able to come watch the performance and they came backstage afterward to say hello, which I was thankful for. My supervisor also gave me flowers (Halloween-themed!), and I got Halloween cookies from the AT (made with/by her daughter, I believe). It was super nice of them!

After the performance, we took group pictures before we had to get changed and clean up the room we were using as a dressing room (so another group could have it for the afternoon).

I had volunteered to help man a reception table from 14:00-16:00 so I just removed the make-up and changed clothes, but left my hair. I had just enough time between cleaning up and my reception duty to go out for lunch. I had the "C Lunch" at Sheep's which was curry + salad + dessert + soft drink (the "A Lunch" included all-you-can eat bread for only 100yen more, but I was craving curry, so I went with the "C Lunch") and a Belgian Chocolate soft serve cone from Mini-Stop for dessert.

Sheep's "C Lunch"

When I finally got home (close to 17:00!) I was finally able to take down my hair and to take a shower! I did laundry and hand-washed three pairs of tabi (the "socks" I usually wear for practice, the pair I wore for the dress rehearsal, and the pair for the performance).

Halloween pose after taking down my hair...

I was too tired to bother with cooking so I went to Isshin for dinner. Even though I often go to Isshin, it was an unusual night for me in that I ordered Japanese (rather than Western style) food--saba fish fried with sesame サバのゴマ揚げ--and that I didn't linger to study/read (even though I brought materials) but left shortly after finishing my meal; I was just too tired to stay longer.

And that was my jam-packed weekend!

On a related note, I made use of my electric nabe tonight and had da bin lo as it's known in Chinese (basically the same idea as Japanese nabe--a.k.a. "hot pot" or "steamboat" in English). I'm used to eating with friends (BSGE!!), so I prepped way too much for just myself and seriously overate.

It was pure gluttony! ^^;;

But it was SOOOOOOO good! I have a feeling this winter is going to be one of my happiest (and that I'll actually be eating fairly balanced dinners with veggies and meat instead of just convenience store breads) thanks to my new handy dandy electric nabe! (Plus my new electric kettle! It boils 1L of water in about 5min, which really cuts down on the waiting time!)

Road closure through Oirase Gorge Oct. 30th-31st

2010-10-27T13:32:00.001+09:00

Rte. 102 will be closed to regular vehicular traffic through Oirase Gorge (国道１０２号惣辺交差点～子の口交差点 (約10km)) from Sat. Oct. 30-Sun. Oct. 31 9:00-16:00 in order to promote "eco(logically friendly) tourism."

For more details, see the Oirase Gorge Eco Tourism website (Japanese only).

Since the road is closed from 9am onwards, I guess it's still OK for me go to on Saturday morning from about 6-8am to see the fall foliage... (I was planning on going last weekend but ended up sleeping in... ^^;;).

布ぞうり制作体験・実演 Cloth Sandal Making Experience/Demonstration

2010-10-27T13:21:00.000+09:00

Have been busy with Nihonbuyu practice among other things, so I'm a little late with this (the first chance was last weekend! ^^;;), but if you're not busy with Halloween stuff this weekend, it's something to consider checking out!

布ぞうり制作体験 Cloth Sandal Making Experience
Date: Sat. Oct. 30-Sun. Oct. 31
Time: 10:00-15:00 (1 pair takes about 4hr to complete - it's also possible to make a single shoe)
Location: 十和田湖畔休屋　十和田湖科学博物館入口
Towadako Yasumiya Towadako Science Museum Entrance
Fee: 2500yen (材料費・講師料)　新郷温泉館入浴券付
(materials + instructor fee) comes with coupon for the Shingo Onsen
No reservations necessary!

布ぞうり制作実演 Cloth Sandal Making Demonstration
Date: Sat. Oct. 30-Sun. Oct. 31
Time: 18:00-20:30
Location: ホテル十和田荘 1階ラウンジ前 Hotel Towadaso, 1st Flr Lounge Area

Gadgets...

2010-10-25T21:48:00.000+09:00

I'm usually not one for gadgets (preferring to spend my money on books/manga, DVDs and Uniqlo clothes), but recently my list of desired electric/electronic things has grown fairly large...

1) Electric Nabe (~3000-8000yen)
2) 5.5 cup Zojirushi IH Rice Cooker (~15,000-25,000yen)
3) Canon PowerShot SD1400IS (~$200 CAD +taxes)
4) Kobo eReader (~$150 CAD +taxes)

I suspect that I'll get the electric nabe (just need to figure out what'll give me the best value for my cooking needs/wants) sometime within the next month or two. And as a substitute for a better camera I'll probably get myself an 8GB memory card so at least I don't have to change cards and upload pictures so often.

But I'm actually rather surprised at my own restraint. Usually I don't think too much and just buy things within a short period of deciding that I want them, but with all of events I've had to budget for lately, I guess I've been trying to be more prudent than usual...

Incidentally, here's the list of big (re: somewhat expensive) recent and upcoming events:

1) Oct.: 4-day trip to Kanazawa/Shirawaka-Go/Takayama (totally worth every yen!!)
2) Oct.: Japanese Dance Performance (can you believe just the kimono rental fee is more than 30,000yen?! and with all the other fees, it's costing me nearly 50,000yen--and I'm not even the type who likes being in the spotlight!)
3) Nov.: taiko performance in Saitama (I'm going along as a helper)
4) Nov.: wedding (of a friend from taiko)
5) Dec.-Jan.: trip home
6) Jan.: wedding (back in Toronto)
7) Feb.: Sapporo Yuki Matsuri
8) Apr.-May: trip home (Golden Week!)

So yeah, with all this stuff on my plate, I'm having a hard time justifying buying the gadgets that I want but don't really need... Maybe I just really need to stop cut back on the manga/books/DVDs... Or maybe I need to set up another savings fund--I'll save up all my 100yen coins, and match 50% of what I spend on manga/books/DVDs. Hmm...The 100yen coins might actually be difficult since I need them to pay for school lunch, but the spending matching is definitely doable. Or maybe instead of matching manga/book/DVD purchases, I should match the money I spend on eating out?

(For my travel savings fund, I save 500yen coins and my mileage reimbursement money, and match 50% of what I spend on clothing/shoes/accessories--although recently I haven't been buying much clothing--so it actually accumulates fairly quickly.)

And of course there's still the sad fact that I have practically nothing saved up in terms of real savings and not just savings for spending... @_@;; *sigh* Looking at my financial situation is what always reminds me that I'm still far from being a mature, independent adult...

Kanazawa (Oct. long weekend trip, Day 1)

2010-10-19T22:04:00.000+09:00

I went down to 金沢 Kanazawa (石川県 Ishikawa Prefecture), 白川郷 Shirakawa-Go and 飛騨高山 Hida Takayama (岐阜県 Gifu Prefecture) for the October long weekend with a friend. It was a trip we'd been planning for more than half a year (from about February?) and it was totally worth the wait!

The trip began with a ride on a night train. We left Aomori around 19:30 on Thursday evening (Oct. 7) and arrived the next morning (Fri. Oct. 8) in Kanazawa shortly after 6:00.

Kanazawa Station

After dropping our bags off at the hotel, we meandered towards 金沢城公園 Kanazawa Castle Park and 兼六園 Kenrokuen, stopping at various temples (there are a TON in Kanazawa!) as well as the 近江町市場 Omicho Ichiba (market) along the way. (The Castle Park and Kenrokuen are both open from 7:00-18:00 from March until mid October which makes it perfect for early risers and/or visitors who want to maximize a short stay in Kanazawa!)

Kanazawa Castle Park

Kenrokuen: Kotojitoro Lantern & Nijibashi (Rainbow Bridge)

Kenrokuen

After Kenrokuen, we had "breakfast" at a nearby 茶屋 cha-ya (tea shop), 堤亭 Tsutsumitei. Going for the shop's most popular item (it was also recommended in the JTB るるぶ (Rurubu) magazine), we had the 抹茶ずくし Matcha Zukushi, which consisted of matcha flavoured soft serve ice cream, 白玉 shiratama (rice-flour dumplings), and 寒天 kanten (also known as "agar(-agar)", a gelatin made from tengusa seaweed).

Our next stop was the 金沢21世紀美術館 Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. It's a pretty fun museum as far as modern art museums go. My far and away favourite piece was "The Swimming Pool." You can view it from above (admission free!) as well as below (from Gallery 6, ticket required). After a brief coffee (or iced lemon tea, in my case) and cake break at the museum's Café Restaurant Fusion21, we headed back to Omicho Ichiba.

At Omicho Ichiba, we wandered around for a while before settling on a restaurant for a sushi lunch. Kanazawa sushi is excellent but can be extremely expensive (some places offered "specials" of three pieces for around 1500 yen @_@ ). But the place we went to--鮨処源平 (Sushi Genpei?)--was quite reasonable, offering 8 pieces plus miso soup and chawan mushi (cup-steamed egg custard) for around 2000yen.

Omicho Ichiba

Although we were quite full from the cake (at the Museum café) and sushi, we had just enough space to go for the るるぶ recommended 甘えび ama ebi (shrimp) and たこ tako (octopus) クロッケ croquettes. Yummy!!

Ama ebi croquette

Tako croquette

Our next stop was 東茶屋街 the Higashi Chaya (Teahouse) District. A brief introduction to chaya from the Kanazawa Tourism site:

Chaya is a traditional place of feasts and entertainment, where geisha (traditional female Japanese entertainers) have been entertaining people by performing dances and playing Japanese traditional musical instruments since the Edo period. The central part of Kanazawa was dotted with a number of chaya houses in the past. These chaya houses were moved into four districts distant from the central part in 1820. The largest one of the chaya districts in Kanazawa is the Higashi Chaya district.

The construction of two-story houses except chaya houses was prohibited in the Edo period. A chaya house is characterized with a beautiful lattice called "kimusuko" on the outer side of the first floor and Japanese-style guestrooms located on the second floor. When you enter back streets, you will soon find a maze of continuous alleys.

The walk from the Omicho Ichiba had created just enough space for us to have ice cream at a shop there called 茶ゆ Chayu. There were a lot of interesting flavours to choose from, so we decided to order a double cone each so we could try four flavours in total: みそ miso and 甘酒amazake (sweet sake), はなり塩 hanari shio (salt) and 梅 ume (Japanese apricot). If I had an extra stomach (or two), I would also have liked to have tried the 醤油 shoyu, とうふtofu, and お茶の葉と手挽き抹茶various tea flavours. They also had really delicious looking カレーパン curry bread. (Strange mix, right?--ice cream and curry bread!)

After that, we checked out 志摩 the Ochaya SHIMA (国指定重要文化財 a designated Japanese National Important Cultural Asset). It's a really beautiful building--well worth a look!

With that we managed to hit all three of るるぶ's "Most Popular/Must-See" sites of Kanazawa: Kenrokuen, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, and Higashi Chaya. Still, I think Kanazawa is a place I would really like to go back to--if only it wasn't so far. ^^;; In particular there were a ton of cafés and confectionery shops mentioned in the るるぶ that looked really delicious. If I had more time there I would want to check out more of them!

We stopped back at Omicho Ichiba on the way to the restaurant we picked from the るるぶ to try out. The plan was to buy tamagoyaki from the store recommended in the るるぶ but we ended up not buying any because we knew we would be too full to eat it after dinner. *sigh* It was definitely the right choice, but at the time I really regretted not having a larger stomach--or four, like a cow! =P

For dinner we went to a 加賀料理 Kaga Ryori restaurant called 大名茶屋 Daimyo Jaya. Since we were still both pretty full, we didn't order the pricey 会席料理 kaiseki ryori set (10 dishes for close to 5000yen per person!) but instead ordered some of the more home-style kaga ryori dishes a la carte: 冶部煮 jibuni, ドジョウの蒲焼 dojou (a type of fish) no kabayaki, seasonal vegetable tempura, etc. It was delicious!

Jibuni

Dojou no kabayaki

Vegetable tempura

And that was the end of our day in Kanazawa. I was satisfied with everything that we saw/ate. I think we definitely hit all the key/must-see places, but as I said before, I'd really like to go back to Kanazawa to eat some more!!

Kanazawa Links:
金沢観光協会公式サイト - Kanazawa Tourism Site

茶ゆ - Chayu
兼六園 - Kenrokuen
近江町市場 - Omicho Ichiba
金沢城公園 - Kanazawa Castle Park
加賀料理大名茶屋 - Kaga Ryouri Daimyo Jaya
金沢21世紀美術館 - Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art
志摩 (国指定重要文化財)- Ochaya SHIMA (National Important Cultural Asset)

I love school festivals

2010-10-17T20:47:00.002+09:00

This weekend was school festival (文化祭) weekend in Towada.

Saturday (Oct. 16) morning I went to Ofukanai JHS from about 9:45-12:00. The most memorable event: I was mistaken for a junior high schooler by students' parents when I was eating lunch in the 食堂 shokudo--twice!!

Today (Sun., Oct. 17) I was at Kirita JHS from 8:00-18:00. As usual I helped out in the 喫茶 kissa(ten) (coffee shop). It seemed like this year was a lot busier than previous years. Once things got started I didn't really have a chance to go off to take pictures of other places... But it was a lot of fun. Seeing former students (from three years ago to the most recently graduated) especially made me happy.
^_^

The first, second, & third year plays, the (first ever) culture club violin performance and the song presentations were also particularly well-done this year, I thought.

And the 当夜祭 toyasai (a kind of wrap party for the students where groups present song and/or dance routines, comedy skits, trivia games, etc.) marked my first actual performance. Well, technically I performed "More Than Words" with another teacher last year but that was a spur-of-the-moment encore request when some of the other teachers realized I was singing along during that teacher's performance...

Some of the third graders and I planned it (on Friday afternoon) as a surprise "guest performance." I was actually really flattered that they asked me to perform something, particularly since when they asked first asked me, they said something along the lines of 「もしメリッサがでればみんなはメッチャ盛り上がります」 (basically, that it would liven things up/make the other students excited/happy if I performed).

So I wrote out the lyrics and practiced singing the theme song for Evangelion (残酷な天使のテーゼ Zankokuna Tenshi no Theze, "Cruel Angel's Thesis") for something like 2 hours in preparation yesterday.

[I chose that song because a) I already knew the melody and first verse/refrain and only needed to learn the words for half the song; b) they play the song all the time during lunch/cleaning so I knew that all the students would be familiar with it; and c) no one else was already scheduled to perform it. ]

Since I didn't want to perform entirely solo, one of the third years who was in on the plan kindly agreed to sing along with me. Even though we never actually practiced together, I think it went pretty well.

But still, I felt a little bad because the 当夜祭 ended up running late (*shock* *horror*) and so the last two scheduled "performances" had to be cut short as a result. It wasn't entirely my fault--we were 10 minutes late and the song couldn't have been more than 5 minutes--but still... =( That was my only regret from the 文化祭.

Another thing that I found flattering--even if it was simply a coincidence--was that for the final song performance by the third years (a 当夜祭 tradition--at least since I've been at the school), they chose the Porno Graffiti song that shares my name: メリッサ.

So I think that this year's festival will probably end up as my all-time best 文化祭.

Seeing as the 文化祭 is the last major school event before graduation, it also made me think about how much I'm going to miss this year's third year class when they're gone.

Just thinking about that makes me realize just how blessed I am to be at Kirita, where I can truthfully say that I'll miss the students when they graduate every single year.

And considering how terrible I am with names and what a poor memory I have in general, I think it's also a testament to how great the students are that I can still remember the name of every single student I've taught at the school.

Although I've had a lot of great experiences in Japan--seeing festivals, traveling to different places, learning Japanese dance and taiko, etc.--it's really the job and being able to interact with students (particularly my Kirita kids) that has kept me here for so long.

For a while--around the end of August when I was exhausted from the super hot weather and the busyness of work and other things and was starting to feel like I was plateauing out in terms of my work ethic/motivation-- I wondered if I'd actually made the right decision in re-contracting, but today I can unequivocally say that I am happy that I stuck around for a fourth year.

And thinking about today also makes me feel like I should stay for a fifth year because how could I possibly pass up the chance to attend one last Kirita 文化祭? Besides, if I stayed for a fifth year, I'd be able to see my first class with students whom I've taught since elementary school (6th grade) graduate... Sure there will probably be times ahead when I will struggle to stay motivated and...fresh...but I think I would really regret leaving my Kirita students by my own volition.

Character education

2010-10-03T01:30:00.001+09:00

Recently I actually had to stop a class to address student behavior--a very rare occasion.

Having overheard--quite coincidentally--the teachers discussing the issue during the recess break before I taught the class, I was thankfully more aware of the classroom dynamics than I might otherwise have been and also was somewhat mentally prepared to deal with the situation that arose.

A student was consistently louder than the other students and they (the other students) found it very irritating. Their feelings were quite obvious as most of them were holding their hands over their ears when that student spoke too loudly for their liking (which was most of the time, apparently).

Usually I'm fairly loud and energetic when doing the "teaching words" portion of a class (i.e. I say words/phrases/sentences and the students repeat them), but, being conscious of the class atmosphere, this time when I did my "three times fast" repetition (e.g. "Apple. Apple. Apple, apple, apple!"), I purposely said it in a whisper. I was trying to gently hint to that student to lower his volume and also trying to defuse some of the tension with the other students.

Unfortunately the student only lowered his voice for the three times fast portion and went back to being noticeably louder than everyone for everything else. Some of the other students, frustrated/irritated, started saying "urusai!" (meaning "you're loud/noisy!" with a "shut up!" connotation) to the student. I let it pass once or twice, but then it wasn't just one or two students saying it once to let off steam, it was multiple students saying it repeatedly.

So I stopped the lesson and said something along the lines of (all in Japanese):

You know, if you always hear the people around you saying "urusai, urusai," you may stop wanting to speak. So please think about how your words make people feel and maybe ask in a nicer way, like "Could you please speak a little more quietly."

Also, I think it's great to be excited about English and to speak in a genki way, but it's also important to pay attention to the feelings of the people around you. Please look around and maybe contain your excitement a little if you see that it's bothering the people around you.

After that the atmosphere got a little better. The student did speak a little less loudly--sometimes. And the other students refrained from angrily saying "urusai"--for the most part.

I'm sure it will take quite a bit more time for the class dynamics to settle down, but judging from the looks on the students' faces while I was speaking, I think that they were at least really listening to what I was saying. And I can only hope that they were able to understand what I was trying to tell them.

My intention wasn't to scold them. I wanted to encourage them to think more about each other's feelings and to show more consideration and kindness to each other.

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to talk with the teacher who was in the classroom at the time that I was giving the talk. I would've liked to have heard her opinion as to whether or not what I said was appropriate/beneficial in that situation.

(I also regret that I probably wasn't able to express my feelings as clearly as I wanted to--in general I'm not good at expressing myself when put on the spot, and my Japanese also still isn't up to par... )

I'll be at the school again this week, so we'll see how the atmosphere in the class is... I really hope I won't have to give a similar talk again...

Filling out the national census form (国勢調査調査票)

2010-09-30T11:20:00.009+09:00

In Japan, a national census (国勢調査 kokusei chousa) is done every five years, and one is being done this year!

Every household should have received a form sometime between September 23rd and 30th. The forms should be filled out and returned by October 7th either by mail (in the small envelope) or in person (in the large envelope) to the official census staff who will come to collect it.

Here's some information (slightly tailored to JET ALTs) to help you fill out the form:

[Edit: Hah! The Japanese government actually created translations and explanations on how to fill out the census form in English, Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese! You can download/read the PDF files here: http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/kokusei/index.htm Oh well. It was good Japanese translation practice for me, at any rate! =P]

Section 1: 氏名及び男女の別 (Full name & gender)
氏名 (Full Name) 男 (Male)　女(Female)
They want your name just to make sure that your information hasn't been submitted elsewhere. The data won't be kept, so it (probably) doesn't matter if you write your name in katakana or English.

Section 2: 世帯主との続き柄 (Relation to head of the household)
世帯主又は代表者 (Household head, hereafter HH)
世帯主の配偶者 (Spouse of HH)
子 (Child)
子の配偶者 (Child's spouse)
世帯主の父母 (HH's parent)
世帯主の配偶者の父母 (HH's spouse's parent)
孫 (Grandchild)　
祖父母　(Grandparent)
兄弟姉妹　(Sibling)
他の親族　(Other relative)
住み込みの雇人　(Live-in employee)
その他 (Other)

Section 3: 出生の年月 (Month & Year of Birth)
明治(Meiji)　大正(Taisho)　昭和(Showa)　平成(Heiwa) 西暦 (AD)
年 (year) 月(Month) - For Jan-Sep, just the single digit is fine
If you don't know the Japanese year (Showa, Heisei, etc.) for your year of birth, you can just select 西暦 and write 19-- (You can also look up the Japanese equivalent in your JET Diary!)

Section 4: 配偶者の有無　(Marital status)
未婚(幼児などを含む） (unmarried [also for children, etc.])
配偶者あり (married)
死別 (widowed)
離別 (divorced)

Section 5: 国籍 (Nationality)
日本 (Japanese)
外国 (Other country)　→　Remember to write the country name in the box!

Section 6: 現在の場所に住んでいる期間 (Length of time you've lived in your current location)
出生時から (From birth)
1年未満 (Less than 1 year)
1～5年未満 (From 1 to less than 5 years)
5～10年未満 (From 5 to less than 10 years)
10～20年未満 (From 10 to less than 20 years)
20年以上 (Over 20 years)
(If you were living in your current location but were transferred, traveled, or lived elsewhere for over 3 months before returning, please calculate the length of time from when you returned, e.g. 3 years in the house, half a year overseas, 5 years back in the house = 5 years)

Section 7: 5年前（平成17年10月1日)にはどこで住んでいましたか (Where were you living 5 years ago? Oct 1, 2005)
現在と同じ場所 (same location as currently)
同じ区・市町村内の地の場所 (within the same area/city/municipality)
他の区・市町村(other area/city/muncipality)　→　住んでいた場所を記入(please record the place where you lived) 都道府県(prefecture)　市郡支庁city/district　区町村 ward/municipality
外国 (foreign country)

世帯について (About your household)
(1)　世帯員の数 (Number of Household Members)　
総数 (Total)　男 (Male)　女(Female)

(2)　住居の種類 (Type of Housing)
持ち家 (own house)
都道府県・市区町村営の賃貸住宅 (Public-owned--prefectural/city, etc. rental housing)
都市再生機構・公社等の賃貸住宅 (Urban Renaissance Agency or other government/public corporation rental housing)
民営の賃貸住宅 (privately owned rental housing - apartments, mansion complexes, etc.)
給与住宅(社宅・公務員住宅など) ([company/state-]provided housing)
住宅に間借り (rental housing, e.g. renting a room in someone's house, etc.)
→ If any of the above, continue to (3) and (4)
会社などの独身寮・寄宿舎 (company, etc.-provided dormitory for single employees; boarding house; residence)
その他 (other)

(3) 住宅の建て方 (type of building)
一戸建 (House)
長屋建(テラスハウスを含む) (row housing, e.g. duplexes, townhouses)
共同住宅 (Apartment/"Mansion" complexes)　→ 建物全体の階数 (Total # of floors in the building) 住んでいる住宅のある階 (The floor you live on)
その他 (other)

(4) 住宅の床面積の会計 (Floor area)
Don't include veranda/balcony or separate storage space (e.g. a storage locker outside) measurements

電話番号 (phone number) - you may be asked to clarify things

Section 8　教育 (Education)
在学中 (currently in school) / 卒業 (graduated)　
小学・中学 (elementary/junior high school)
高校・旧中 (high school)
短大・高専 (junior college/technical college)
大学・大学院 (university/post-grad)

未就学 (preschool)
幼稚園(yochien: kindergarten; preschool)
保育園・保育所 (hoikuen/hoikusho: day care center, nursery school)
乳児・その他 (still in nursing/other)

Section 9: 9月24日から30日までの１週間に仕事をしましたか (Did you work during the week from Sep 24-30?)
少しでも仕事(収入を伴うもの)をした人 (If you worked even just a little [things earning income])
主に仕事 (You worked)
家事などのほか仕事 (did housework or other related work)
通学のかたわら仕事 (attended school and worked)
→ Complete sections 10 ~ 14

少しでも仕事(収入を伴うもの)をしなかった人 (If you didn't work even a little [things earning income])
仕事を休んでいた (vacation from work) → Complete sections 10 ~ 14
家事 (housework) → Survey ends here
通学 (attended school)→ Complete sections 10 & 11
その他（幼児・高齢など） (other [infant; senior, etc.]) → Survey ends here

Section 10: 従業地又は通学地 (Location of Work/School)
住宅(住み込みを含む) ( house [includes live-in employees])
同じ区・市町村 (Same area/city where you live)
他の区・市町村(other area/city/muncipality)　→ 都道府県(prefecture)　市郡支庁city/district　区町村 ward/municipality

Section 11: 従業地又は通学地までの利用交通手段 (Main mode of transportation to work/school)
徒歩のみ - On foot only
鉄道・電車 (railway/train)
乗合バス (bus)
勤め先・学校のバス (work/school bus)
自家用車 (personal car)
ハイヤー・タクシー (taxi)
オートバイ (motorbike)
自転車 (bicycle)
その他 (other)
(If your mode of transport changes from day to day, to write your MAIN/regular mode of transportation only. If you use more than one mode of transportation, e.g. drive to train station, train, then bus, fill in all applicable forms of transportation. If your going and return modes of transportation differ, fill it in based on what you use to go to work/school.)

Section 12: 勤めか自営の別 (Type of Employment)
雇われている人 (employee)　
正規の職員・従業員 (regular (full-time) staff/employee)
労働者派遣事業所の派遣社員 (temp employee dispatched by a personnel agency)
パート・アルバイト・その他 (part-time/"baito"/other)
(Because our contracts are only for one year, ALTs are not regular employees, but in the category with part-timers, etc.パート・アルバイト・その他!)
会社などの役員 (company, etc. executive staff)

自営業主 (self-employed)
雇人あり (have employees)
雇人なし (no employees)

家族従業者 (employed by family??)
家庭内の賃仕事(内職) ("piece rate work"--work done at home for a wage (piecework, cottage industry??) - second job? )

Section 13:勤め先・業主などの名称及び事業の内容 (Place & Details of Employment)
勤め先・業主などの名称 (place of employment)
e.g. ~市教育委員会の指導課 (~ City Board of Education, Guidance Section)
事業の内容 (details of employment)
e.g. 市区町村事務 (Municipal (city) employee) OR 都道府県事務 (Prefectural employee--i.e. high school ALTs)

Section 14: 本人の仕事の内容 (Job Description)
e.g. 外国語指導助手 (Assistant Foreign Language Instructor, i.e. ALT)

十和田駒フェスタ 2010 Towada Koma (Horse) Festa

2010-09-27T23:45:00.004+09:00

第17回十和田駒フェスタ 2010 Towada Koma (Horse) Festa
Date: Sat. Oct. 16-Sun. Oct. 17
Location: 十和田市中央公園緑地 Towada Chuo Park
Time: 9:00*-15:00
Events: Yabusame competition (horseback archery); show jumping competition; children's horseback performance

(*the Yururira Towada site says 10:00-15:00 in some places, but after double-checking the Towada Horseback Riding Club site, I'm fairly sure the yabusame starts at 9:00)

I went last year and really enjoyed it! Yabusame is definitely a must-see Towada event!!

(I'm quite torn as to whether or not to go this year since Ofukanai, a junior high school I visit a lot this year has their school festival (文化祭) on the Saturday. And Sunday is the Kirita Festival so I definitely will be there and won't be able to see the Koma Festa on that day...)

Walking around before the competition...

Yabusame

Show jumping (one of my Kirita students!)

Children's horseback performance

Feel free to check out my Facebook photo album Towada Horse Festa 2009 for more photos if you're interested, although it's mostly just more of the same. =P

Do nothing vacation

2010-09-23T22:58:00.018+09:00

Sometimes it's important to take a holiday just to take a holiday. ^_^

When I first booked this Friday (tomorrow, Sep. 24) off, I was originally considering going to Hiroshima. Then I realized that I probably wouldn't have the money or energy to do so between my trips to Takayama in Gifu (night of Thu. Oct. 7th to Mon. Oct. 11th for the apparently fairly famous Takayama Matsuri!!) and Canada (Dec. 23-Jan. 5 for Christmas vacation, then again in Jan. 21-24 for a friend's wedding). And besides, I already went to Hiroshima once this year when my best buds visited in Mar.-Apr.

But I never got around to canceling my holiday request, and in the end I just decided that it'd be good to take a break.

And so far, so good!!

Today the only "productive" things I did were doing the laundry (a load of darks) and going to taiko practice. Other than that I wrote emails, went on Facebook, and read Koko Be Good and stated re-reading Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.

Koko Be Good is the debut (full) graphic novel of Jen Wang (she has previously had short comics published in the first and second volumes of the Flight graphic novel series). I first became aware of Jen Wang's work back around 1999-2000 when I started reading her awesome awesome webcomic Strings of Fate (1999-2003) the archives of which are sadly no longer available online. =(

But anyway, Koko Be Good--buy it! From the inside flap: "Honest, wrenching, and sharply funny, Jen Wang's Koko Be Good is a stunning debut about human nature and the inhuman efforts we make to find ourselves."

The graphic novel is quite different from the original short comic of the same name (which you can read on her website, just look under Art→Comics)--but in a good way. For me it really resonated because, like so many of the characters in the story, I'm at a stage where I'm trying to figure out what I really want to do with my life. And seeing so many of my friends finding their paths and/or settling down and getting married/having kids, I feel a lot of self-imposed pressure to "not to get left behind or something." So the story really speaks to me and it's definitely a book I expect to be re-reading a lot (which is really important when you live in a tiny apartment with only a single bookshelf).

So yeah, back to my original topic...Sometimes it's really important to just take time to relax. This week, Kocho-sensei (at Kirita) mentioned that I've been less than "genki" recently and he asked if I've been really busy/working too hard. Right now actually isn't the busiest at work that I've been, but since I'm doing both Nihonbuyo (classical Japanese dance) and taiko (Japanese drumming) now, I guess I haven't had as much "do nothing" time to refresh myself as in the past, so I'm less energetic...

Plus, much as I hate to admit it, I *am* getting older. I really can't survive on just konbini bread for dinner and 4-6 hrs of sleep per night like I used to be able to...

But anyway, I'm definitely going to enjoy the rest of this long weekend by sleeping in, reading, surfing the net, taking naps, "studying" at my favourite cafe/restaurants and maybe even cooking!

野菜のめんつゆ煮おかず Vegetables simmered in mentsuyu

2010-09-19T11:01:00.000+09:00

[Note: Mentsuyu = Japanese noodle sauce/soup base]

Here are 3 great recipes for おかず (side dishes) requiring little more than vegetables and mentsuyu--so they're all super easy and cheap to make!

にんじんのめんつゆ煮 (２人分) Simmered mentsuyu carrots (serves 2)

材料 Ingredients
にんじん... …１本 Carrot - 1
黒いりごま ……少々 Toasted black sesame seeds - a little
めんつゆ（市販品・ストレートタイプ)...…大さじ３～４ Mentsuyu (store bought, straight type) - 3-4 tablespoons

Directions:
1. Wash and peel carrots and slice into very thin ribbons using a vegetable peeler or mandolin slicer.
2. Put carrot and mentsuyu into a hot and bring to a boil over high heat.
3. Once boiling, reduce to medium heat, cover and boil for 3 minutes (stirring occasionally).
4. Once carrots are tender, remove from heat, arrange in serving dishes and sprinkle with black sesame seeds

ピーマンのめんつゆ煮 (２人分) Simmered mentsuyu green peppers (serves 2)

材料 Ingredients
ピーマン......４個   Green peppers - 4 (Japanese green peppers are small--probably equal to 1 regular-sized North American green (bell) pepper!)
サラダ油......大さじ1/2   Vegetable oil - 1/2 tablespoon
めんつゆ（市販品・ストレートタイプ)...…大さじ４   Mentsuyu (store bought, straight type) - 4 tablespoons

Directions:
1. Cut peppers in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Cut in half again width-wise (approx. 3-4 x 5cm pieces).
2. Heat oil in a fry pan over medium heat. Fry green peppers until both sides are lightly cooked/browned.
3. Add the mentsuyu. When it begins to boil, cover and let simmer (occasionally turning the peppers) on medium heat for 3 minutes.

じゃがいもの甘辛煮(２人分) Sweet & salty simmered potatoes (serves 2)
(Forgot to take a picture! @_@;; )

材料 Ingredients
じゃがいも......大１個（２００－２３０ｇ）   Potato - 1 large (200-230g)
めんつゆ（市販品・ストレートタイプ)...…大さじ３ Mentsuyu (store bought, straight type) - 3 tablespoon

Directions
1. Wash and peel the potato and cut into 4 pieces (width-wise). Cut again into 2cm pieces (width-wise) and let soak in water 5minutes before draining.
2. Put potatoes, 1/3 cup water and mentsuyu in a pot and bring to a boil over medium heat.
3. Once boiling, reduce to low heat, cover, and let simmer until potatoes are tender (~10min).

Incidentally, all of these recipes are from this Orange Page cooking magazine: 手間なし、きっぱり「即」ごはん (Tema nashi, kippari soku gohan--loosely translated: "No hassle, super quick meals").

Out of all the Orange Page magazines I've purchased (~7?), this is probably the one I use the most. I like it (and the other magazines in the series) because not only does it have pictures for each step of the cooking process, but it also shows how all the meat/veggies should be cut in preparation for cooking! The ingredients for all of the dishes are also quite common and inexpensive.

Free mandolin performance

2010-09-17T14:21:00.000+09:00

十和田マンドリンクラブ演奏会 Towada Mandolin Club Performance (Sep 25)
Location: 十和田市民文化センター大ホール Towada Bunka Center Dai Hall
Doors Open: 13:00
Starts: 13:30
Admission: Free!

Counterbalance

2010-09-14T23:52:00.000+09:00

After my awesome "おひとり様" day on Saturday, I thought I'd be going for a repeat on Sunday.

But instead I ended up having an equally good time meeting up with other Towada ALTs to catch the final parade of Aki Matsuri and then going for a drive and a sushi dinner in Hachinohe with a friend afterward.

Impressively enough, the master of the sushi place in Hachinohe remembered my friend and I from when we first ate there way back in March! (I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it's across from the police box near the アルパジョン (Arpagon) bakery.)

I suspect that he remembered us because both this time and the last time I was doing my usual thing and taking photos of all the food before eating. =P I got the impression that he's seen very few (if any) other customers take pictures of their food, so that probably made us memorable. I'm also assuming that was why we got a small plate of fruit for dessert as "service"!

So with my taiko debut on Friday night, my awesome day of solitude on Saturday, and a fun day with friends on Sunday, it was an extremely excellent Aki Matsuri weekend.
Speaking of my taiko debut, here's a photo a friend took during the performance:

(I made a number of mistakes but it was so much fun I didn't feel embarrassed about them the way I usually would. Instead, the mistakes strengthened my resolve to practice harder so I can do better next time! ^_^ )

This weekend also promises to be a good one with the 中体連新人戦 (chuutairen shinjinsen - newcomers' sports tournament) on Saturday and the Kirida Aki Matsuri on Sunday. And Monday is a holiday, too!

おひとり様物語 Ohitori-sama monogatari

2010-09-11T23:59:00.002+09:00

[Side note: This post is completely unrelated to the 2-volume manga おひとり様物語 Ohitori-sama Monogatari by Tanikawa, Fumiko--a collection of short stories featuring women who are "by themselves" in some form or another. I simply borrowed the title! =P I really like the manga, though, so if you get a chance, definitely check it out!]

Particularly since coming to Japan, there have been days when I've regretted being the solitary, introverted type who can't handle long and/or extended periods of socializing with people (unless they're really really close friends). I've pretty much accepted that I'll never feel at ease at large JET events/ALT gatherings, but I've definitely struggled with feeling like an outsider among the more local community of nearby JETs.

Over the past three years there have been a number of painful moments where I've realized that I've been excluded from an outing/event organized/attended by seemingly all the other ALTs from my area. I know that I kind of set myself up for it since I tend to decline a lot of invitations (because being with large groups is draining for me) and obviously people get tired of constantly having their invitations refused and naturally start to give up on inviting me... But it still stings.

But anyway, this post is NOT about that.

Today was not one of the lonely, regretful days. Today was a day where I could revel in being おひとり様 (ohitori-sama, a.k.a. by myself).

I slept in a little (until 9:30am), then did laundry and puttered around the house until about 1pm. From 1pm-3pm, I enjoyed a leisurely lunch/study time at one of my favourite Towada restaurants, イッシン (Isshin).

It was rainy and slightly cool today, so the クリームシチュー (cream stew) really hit the spot! I followed it up with my favourite アーモンドココア almond cocoa.

Cream Stew (comes w/ salad & choice of bread/rice)

Almond Cocoa

Usually when I eat by myself I eat pretty quickly, but today I ate at a very leisurely pace since I was studying kanji and Japanese vocabulary for the N3 JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) at the same time. I don't know if my study was (or has been) particularly effective, but I definitely enjoyed doing it today! ^_^ (I think I may head back to イッシン for a dinner/study session tomorrow too!)

After イッシン I headed to Jusco for groceries. I was so full, though, I couldn't even begin to think about what I'd want to cook for the week, so I ended up just buying milk, yogurt, and some chocolate chip cookies.
^_^;;

Back at home I took care of some emails and otherwise bummed around until about 6:30pm when I decided to head out to see the Aki Matsuri 夜間運行 (yakan unkou, loosely translated, evening parade). I actually considered not going since it was raining and it really doesn't change that much from year to year, but やっぱり even in crummy weather it's something I can't miss.

Thankfully it was only a light rain as opposed to the torrential sounding rain I woke up to in the morning, so it really wasn't too bad walking out and sitting on the curb (I brought a tarp for that purpose) throughout the parade.

Plenty of spectators, even in the rain

Even when I saw all the other Towada ALTs go by with the Chuo Group mikoshi, I simply thought "I'm happy that they look like they're having a good time; but I'm definitely happier sitting here watching them!"
=P

Doing the mikoshi carry once was more than enough for me. Even if I enjoyed (pardon the crude language) being dry humped by mostly drunk guys for an hour, I still wouldn't join again due to the religious conflict. True, the Towada mikoshi carries are mostly 形だけ (katachi dake = shape/form only), but it's still supposed to be a god's shrine that they're carrying. In my first year I didn't really think too much about the religious implications and just took it as an experience in "Japanese culture", but now that I know better, it's not something I feel like I should participate in.

After the 夜間運行, I slowly made my way back home, stopping to try out interesting street food. This year it seems like there was a lot of new Ｂ級グルメ (B-Grade Gourmet) food stalls, like 揚げもんじゃ (age monja, a.k.a. deep fried monjayaki) and ラーメンバーガー (ramen burgers--although I had one yesterday, not today). Not that I'm complaining, of course--I LOVE trying out new/weird/interesting foods! =P

So today's dinner was 揚げもんじゃ, シャーピン (shaapin--my favourite festival food (as of last year)), and トルコアイス (Turko Ice (Cream)).

揚げもんじゃ

crispy outside, gooey monjayaki inside

The BEST シャーピン stall!

トルコアイス - It's stretchy!

Safe even upside down!

I was pretty impressed by the showmanship/salesmanship of the トルコアイス guy!

All in all, it was an extremely satisfying day on my own! ^_^ I look forward to a similar one tomorrow, with the mikoshi/parade/Ofukanai JHS Komaodori, etc. in the afternoon (starting at 2pm) and--unless something comes up--another meal/study time at イッシン! (If I have the space, I may even go for a parfait tomorrow!)

Awesome イッシン parfait!

Oh, and I've uploaded my pics for viewing in my Facebook album Towada Aki Matsuri 2010.

Closing shot:

Coolest back of a float I've seen yet in Towada! GUNDAM!!

Towada Aki Matsuri

2010-09-09T16:17:00.001+09:00

Towada's biggest event is finally upon us! This Friday, Saturday and Sunday is the 十和田市秋まつり (Towada-shi Aki Matsuri, a.k.a. Fall Festival)!!

Selected Events:

Friday, September 9:
14:00~ Parade along 三本木大通り（旧国道4号線） (Sanbongi Odori - Old. Rte. 4)
18:00~ Mikoshi (Portable Shrine Carrying); Nagashi Odori (various dances: Yosakoi, Hip-Hop, etc.) along 官庁街通り (Kanchogai Dori)

Saturday, September 10:
19:00~20:30 Evening parade (floats, mikoshi, etc.) along 官庁街通り (Kanchogai Dori)
*There are also various performances during the afternoon

Sunday, September 11:
14:00~ Mikoshi, parade, Ofukanai JHS Komaodori (horse dance), etc. along 三本木大通り（旧国道4号線） (Sanbongi Odori - Old. Rte. 4)

Check out the following links (Japanese only) for more detailed information:
Website | Event Schedule | Road Closure Map

Taiko debut!

2010-09-09T15:53:00.000+09:00

I started practicing with the 十和田水神雷太鼓 (Towada Suijin Kaminari Daiko) Taiko group last October. Almost a year later and I've finally gotten the OK to perform in public with them this Friday at the 十和田市秋祭 (Towada-shi Aki Matsuri a.k.a. Fall Festival)!

Even though I'm super excited, personally I still don't feel like I'm quite up to snuff for performing yet. Actually, this technically isn't my first time performing with the group; I went to watch a performance in April (on Showa Day) but there weren't enough "real" members of the group, so they asked me to join in.

At the time, I only had a couple of weeks of practice under my belt after an approximately 4-month long break from practicing (because I went to Canada for Christmas vacation, then Osaka in January, was crazy busy with graduation video/gift preparations and then had friends over for spring vacation). Needless to say I performed pretty badly. It also didn't help that the drum available for me to play on was at the front, so there wasn't anyone in front of me to take a lead from... I got a DVD recording of the performance, and it was quite painful (but also amusing) to see how terrible I was. Thankfully I was cut out of the shot for most of the video. =P

Anyway, since that experience I've been much more diligent about practicing so even though I expect I'll still make a bunch of mistakes, I'm a lot more confident about performing this time around. In fact, I'm really looking forward to it! (I even recently bought a Wii taiko drum/batchi set--just the drum and sticks, no game--so I could practice in my apartment at any time without unduly disturbing the neighbours. I'm such a nerd! =P)

This is probably the first time I've ever been able to honestly say that I'm looking forward to a performance. I actually really dislike performing in front of people, but when I went to see the group's performance in July at the 十和田湖湖水祭 (Lake Towada Kosui Matsuri) I thought performing looked like so much fun I really wanted to be able to perform with them.

I never expected I'd be able to do so a mere two months later, though. Actually, I suspect part of the reason I got the OK to join the performance is probably because it's a Friday and many people are probably working and unable to make it in time, so they need more members... ^_~ Regardless of the reason, I'm glad I can finally make my debut!

Japan Post Undeliverable Item Notice: Automated Phone Rescheduling

2010-09-02T23:26:00.001+09:00

I've explained in a fair bit of detail the process of rescheduling a package delivery using the Japan Post website in my "Rescheduling Deliveries in Japan" post, but I just got a new-style "Undeliverable Item Notice"--it's yellow!--and decided to try out the 24hr automated phone service. It's even easier than rescheduling online!

1) Call the toll free number provided: 0800-0800-888
(Call 0503-155-3155 from a keitai *calls will be charged)

2) The voice will ask you to press a button (I couldn't catch exactly what they said, but I tried twice--once pushing the asterisk * and once pushing the pound sign # and both were OK)

3) ＊ア→ Enter the 9-digit number consisting of your postal code (郵便番号) plus the two-digit number next to it (種類番号).

4) Enter your phone number, including the area code, followed by the pound (# a.k.a. "sharp") sign

5) ＊イ→ Enter the 4-digit month and day code for the original of delivery, e.g. 3月5日→0305

6)＊ウ→ Enter the 6-digit delivery notice number (お知らせ番号)

7) The number will be repeated back to you. Press 1 if it's correct or 3 to cancel

8) Enter the 4-digit month and day code for the desired date of redelivery, e.g.3月6日→0306

9) Enter the 1-digit code for your desired redelivery time:
   1: 09:00-12:00 (can be requested until 07:00 of the same day)
   2: 12:00-14:00 (can be requested until 10:00 of the same day)
   3: 14:00-17:00 (can be requested until 12:00 of the same day)
   4: 17:00-19:00 (can be requested until 14:00 of the same day)
   5: 19:00-21:00 (can be requested until 17:00 of the same day)
   0: No preference (can be requested until 17:00 of the same day)

10) Your requested redelivery date and time will be repeated. Press 1 to confirm or 3 to cancel

11) Finally, press 3 to end the call or press 1 to enter (new) information from another notice

Behind the times

2010-09-01T23:48:00.000+09:00

Most people probably have an image of Japan as a place for all things high tech. But after living here for a while--particularly in rural areas (inaka)--you realize that Japan can be surprisingly behind the times in some ways.

For the most part I try not to complain too much about things that aren't the same in Japan as they are in Canada. And I do love my life in Towada/Japan, but I do find these three things rather irritating sometimes:

1) Non-subtitled DVDs:

This is probably my #1 pet peeve. I mean, it's a matter of equity, right? Why is it that people with hearing impairments have less selection when it comes to DVDs that they are able to watch and fully understand?

I can't imagine a DVD (unless it was a freebie or cheap $1 one episode thing) being released without subtitles in Canada. Heck, if a DVD was released with only English or only French subtitles there would definitely be complaints.

And the thing that really gets me is that DVDs of TV series (anime, dramas, etc.) in particular seem to lack subtitles even though when they were aired (on TV) they had closed captioning! I mean, clearly subtitles were produced at some point, so it's not like including them on the DVD would be a lot of extra work.

Apart from the equity issue, I find it personally annoying because even with just Japanese subtitles I can probably understand anywhere from 10-50% more with than without. (On the other hand, some DVDs do come with English subtitles--and I love the companies that produce them!)

2) Cash-Based Society

I find it incredibly frustrating to constantly have to go to the bank to withdraw money for grocery shopping, eating at restaurants, etc. It's especially inconvenient since you get hit with service fees for using an ATM before 8am, after 6pm (I'm often at my base school until 6pm!), or on weekends/holidays (when people are most likely to use more money).

In Canada people can get away with carrying very little cash (like $20) since they can use debit/credit cards almost everywhere (Chinese shops/restaurants are probably the main exception =P). In Japan, however, it's common for people to walk around with over 10,000yen ($100) in cash. I suppose I could apply for a Japanese credit card, but I've been "scarred" by my Tsutaya W-card rejections (twice!) and it's better for my budget to avoid buying things on credit anyway.

The lack of internet banking is probably a corollary of the whole "cash-based society" thing. Apparently Aomori Bank has started a bit of an internet banking service, but it seems rather limited in scope--you can't send money overseas through online banking, for example. I guess I should research a bit more and see if I can at least view transactions on my account online. It's a pain for me to constantly have to go to the bank to update my passbook to see if my automated withdrawals went through on schedule. (Since I keep track of my spending, etc. using Quicken such information is important to me.)

Ironically, though, when I go back to Canada I often forget to use my debit card instead of cash. Just goes to show that you can get used to something even if you don't particularly like it, I guess. =P

3) Local Information Offline

This is more a problem with Towada in particular (i.e. a life-in-the-inaka rather than a Japan-wide issue), but I find it extremely frustrating to not be able to find information on various local community events, etc. online. I mean, they all make big posters and such for the events to post in community centres, etc. so why can't they just put in a little more effort to convert them into PDF files and to post them online?

The Yurirara Towada website is great, but it usually doesn't have anything more than basic information about events until a week or two before the actual date. And since it's aimed at tourists, it often doesn't have information about smaller, more local events (like the Kirida Aki Matsuri, for example).

Even for events big enough to have their own websites, said sites usually don't go up until the two or three weeks right before the event. Since I'm the type who likes to plan things well in advance, I find this extremely frustrating. The lack of advance information is also frustrating for me as a blogger trying to make more information about Towada available in English in a timely manner.

Dancing in Towada

2010-08-22T22:18:00.005+09:00

There are two events involving dancing coming up in Towada:

三本木小唄　ＹＡＹＯＩＴＡＩ　ＮＩＧＨＴ Sanbongi Kouta Yayoitai Night (Aug 28)

Location:

アート広場／十和田市現代美術館向かい　Art Park/Across from the Towada Art Center→　

旧国道4号商店街へ（19:30-19:45） Towards the Old Rte. 4 Shopping Street→　

街中展覧会「稲生町タイムトラベル」会場（みちのく銀行駐車場周辺） Inaoicho Time Travel Exhibit Grounds (Michinoku Bank Parking Lot Area)

Time: 19:00~21:00
Description: The finale event for the Yayoi Kusama Singing in Towada Special Exhibit at the Towada Art Center (it finishes on Sun. Aug. 29). About 30 people will be wearing wigs to match Yayoi Kusama's trademark brightly coloured wigs while dancing the Towada traditional Sanbongi Odori. Come to watch and/or join in the dancing!

(As a member of the 花柳流花すず会 (Hanayagi Ryuu Hanasuzukai) classical Japanese dance group, I pretty much have to participate, so if nothing else people can come to see me dancing in a yukata and neon orange wig! =P)

A photo from last year's Bon Festa (for the finale of the CHOI JEONG HWA "OK!" Special Exhibit):

Dancing Sanbongi Odori on Old Rte. 4

十和田湖国境祭 Towadako Kunizakai Matsuri [Lake Towada Border Festival] (Sep. 4-5)
(PDF Pamphlet & Flyer http://towadako.or.jp)
Location: Lake Towada
Time: Opening Ceremonies: 14:00 (Sat. Sep. 4)
1st Performance: 15:30-17:00 (Sep. 4-5)
2nd Performance: 18:50-21:20 (Sep. 4-5)
Tickets: Seats for the 2nd Performances can be purchased for 1200yen in advance or 1500yen on the day of. No tickets are required for seats for the afternoon performances.
Description: Traditional festival and dance performances from the 3 prefectures (Aomori, Akita & Iwate) surrounding Lake Towada: Aomori Nebuta, (Towada) Sawada Keimai, Hachinohe Enburi, Morioka Sansa Odori, (Iwate) Onikenbai, & more!

Some photos from last year:

Iwate Onikenbai

Towada Sawada Keimai

Hachinohe Enburi

Kuroishi Nebuta

Morioka Sansa Odori

Aomori Nebuta

I went last year on Saturday for the opening ceremonies and first performance, and again on Sunday for the second (evening) performance! It's definitely well worth the trip out to the Lake!

"The most excellent way"

2010-08-20T22:49:00.002+09:00

In April I was visited by some Jehovah witnesses. It wasn't the first visit I've had (they came once when I was living in the old house, and once shortly after I moved into the apartment), but it was the first time I actually spent a fair amount of time listening to them. (I was originally going to say "talking with" but realized that it was a mostly one-sided "conversation".)

Unfortunately I've forgotten the exact references of the verses that they shared with me towards the end of the "conversation", but I do remember that I was fairly appalled by their choices. Both verses were emphasizing dichotomies between believers and non-believers. One was from Psalms talking about how God punishes the "wicked" but rewards the "righteous" (or something along those lines) and the other was from Revelations, so of course it talked about the end times and hell and heaven and how "the wicked will perish".

Listening to them talking about how "The world we live in today is corrupt, but isn't it great that believers in God have the future hope of going to heaven?" I felt really frustrated. I didn't want the conversation to drag on so I just kept smiling and nodding, but really I was thinking "This isn't--can't be the "good news" God wants us to be spreading to the world! Whatever happened to "Love, for the day is near"?"

That feeling really reinforced the thoughts I've been having lately about what it means to be a Christian.

I've been thinking that we run into trouble as Christians when we try to become more like Christ/God. When we try to become perfect--and that's what it boils down to, since God is perfect--I think it's easy lose sight of our own inherently flawed natures; we unconsciously start believing that being Christians makes us "better people;" we grow proud of our "higher morals/values/standards" and turn into self-righteous prigs.

Since leaving my comfortable bubble of Christian community and coming to Japan, I've definitely become aware of such tendencies in my own thoughts and actions. And when I try to compensate by attempting to become as loving and gracious as Jesus, I become superficially nice and fake--not wanting to voice my real thoughts/opinions for fear of offending someone or coming across as judgmental.

Recently, though, I realized that what I should really be doing is trying to become more and more aware of God's love for me. When I realize how much He loves me, I naturally want to reciprocate that love--to Him and to others around me.

I still want to be a "better person," but the difference is I'm not doing it for my own sake or in an attempt to reach God's perfection, but simply out of a desire to not hurt/disappoint the God who loves me unconditionally. (To be more accurate, I suppose what I really want to be is a more loving person.)

When I reflect on God's love, I am humbled.

On my own I can't love others unselfishly. But when I think about how flawed I am and all the wrong things I do/say/think and realize that God loves me all the same, I can draw from that grace and love to try to be kinder and more loving towards others.

One of my all-time favourite manga and anime series is Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya. It's a story about a girl who comes to live with a classmate of hers considered by many to be the school "prince," Yuki Sohma. But the "prince" has a secret: his family has been cursed so that when embraced by members of the opposite sex, they turn into their respective (Chinese/Japanese) zodiac animals!

Anyway, one of my favourite scenes from the manga/anime is when Yuki is talking to one of his younger cousins, Kisa, who has been bullied because of her naturally tawny hair and eye colour (part of the curse since she's the year of the Tiger). As a result of the bullying, she stopped talking and stopped going to school. In the scene, Yuki reads a letter she has received from her teacher asking her to come back to school. The teacher basically says that Kisa simply needs to learn to like herself in order to deal with the bullying. But Yuki disagrees:

Here, it says to "like yourself." What does that mean? Good things- how are you supposed to find them? I only know things that I hate about myself. Because that's all I know, I hate myself. But even if you force yourself to find good things, it feels so empty. It doesn't work that way. People like your teacher just don't get it. I think when you hear someone say they like you, for the first time, then you can begin to like yourself. I think when someone accepts you, for the first time, you feel like you can forgive yourself a little. You can begin to face your fears with courage.

When I first watched/read that and even up to now that scene really resonated with me. "Here is the heart of Christianity," I thought: "We love because he first loved us" 1 John 4:19.

And for me, that's really the key. Christians aren't any better or more moral than non-Christians. Nor are we more beloved by God--God loves everyone equally; we're simply aware of and believe in God's unconditional love for us where others are/do not.

So I find it really sad when churches set themselves up as "voices of moral authority in a corrupt world." To me that kind of stance tends to set Christians up in opposition to people, rather than extending God's love to them.

I think I first really started feeling that way when the whole issue of legalizing same-sex marriages came up in Canada. I felt really uncomfortable with how churches were petitioning against the bill and encouraging people to attend protest rallies, etc. While I understand the general principle of the whole "love the sinner, hate the sin" thing, I think that it's really difficult to make such a distinction in issues such as homosexuality. At that time, I decided that if I was to err, I'd rather err on the side of loving people rather than judging them. (So yes, I think it's entirely possible to be Christian and homosexual, even though "the Church" does make that difficult.)

When I was thinking through that issue, these were some of the Bible verses that led me to that way of thinking:

Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." - Matthew 22:37-40

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet and then turn and tear you to pieces."- Matthew 7:1-5

And, of course, the classic:

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
   Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
   Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary:

              "If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
              if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
              In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."

Do not overcome evil by evil, but overcome evil with good. - Romans 12:9-21

Even up to now these are the words I want to live by.

Of course, to love people I actually need to interact with them. ^^;; I've definitely become more and more hermit-like the longer I've stayed in Japan.

As an introvert I find it tiring to be around people--particularly large groups of people--unless they're really close friends or their personalities just happen to mesh well with mine. Throw lots of alcohol into the mix--I'm pretty much a non-drinker--and the situation's discomfort factor for me is doubly compounded. Unsurprisingly, large JET functions in particular are extremely draining for me.

In my first year I made a significant effort to attend functions--just to be social. In my second year I tried at least a little. This past year I really didn't try at all. With four new ALTs having just arrived in Towada, however, I feel like I should really try to make a bit more of an effort this year.

Summer in Aomori

2010-08-15T16:56:00.000+09:00

No time to write--I'm going to need to get changed into my yukata for the 十和田夏まつり花火大会 (Towada Natsu Matsuri Hanabi Taikai - a.k.a. Summer Festival Fireworks Display) soon--but I wanted to quickly post links to some newly uploaded Facebook albums:

Towada August events

2010-07-31T15:23:00.003+09:00

街ロボフェスタ　Robot Festa (Aug 1)
Location: 十和田市稲生町　八丁目街区国道102号（旧国道4号）Inaoicho Hacchome Gaiku National Highway 102 (Old Rte 4)
Time: 11:00-15:00
Selected Events:
・知能ロボット『DiGORO』デモンストレーション (Intelligent Robot "DiGORO" Demonstration)
・ミニSL機関車乗車 (Mini SL Train)
・ラジコンカーサーキット　(Remote Control Car Circuit)

十和田サンバカーニバル2010 Towada Samba Carnival (Aug 7-8)
(PDF Pamplet)

イベント (Event)	日時 (Time)	開催場所 (Place)
遊びの広場 (Play Space)	8/7（土）13：00～17：00 8/8（日）10：00～14：00	文化センター屋外 (Outside the Bunka Center)
サンバ電車 (Samba Train) （チケット1名様　2,000円 per person）	8/7（土）13：20～14：37	十鉄路線・十和田～七百の区間往復 (Towada Toutestu Line: Towada Station ～ Shichihyaku, round trip)
前夜祭 (Zenyasai - Festival Eve) （入場無料 - Free Admission）	8/7（土）17：00～19：00	文化センター (Bunka Center)
パレード (Parade)	8/8（日）11：00～13：00	産馬通り (Sanma Doori)

夏まつり花火大会 Summer Festival Fireworks Display (Aug 14)
Location: 陸上競技場、中央公園内 (Track & Field Track, Central Park - Many/most people watch from Kanchogai Street)
Time: ~19:00-20:30

選抜高校相撲十和田大会　All-Japan High School Sumo Tournament (Aug 15)
Location: 十和田市相撲場 (Towada Sumo Dohyo)
*Time: 8:30~
*Admission: Adults 1000 yen advance/ 1500 yen at door; free for youth/children high school aged and younger

全日本大学選抜相撲十和田大会 All-Japan University Sumo Tournament (Aug 16)　

Location: 十和田市相撲場 (Towada Sumo Dohyo)

*Time: 9:00~
*Admission: Adults 1500 yen advance/ 2000 yen at door, free for youth/children high school aged and younger

盆フェスタ Bon Festa (Aug 28?)
*Location: 十和田市稲生町　八丁目街区国道102号（旧国道4号）Inaoicho Hacchome Gaiku National Highway 102 (Old Rte 4)　/ 十和田市現代美術館前 Towada Art Center
*Time: 17:00-21:00

* Assuming it's the same as last year

How to make heart-shaped food

2010-07-31T13:40:00.001+09:00

I've gotten some comments about my heart-shaped tamagoyaki, so I thought people might be interested in knowing how to make heart-shaped food. ^_^ It's super simple, actually: all you need is oval-shaped food!

Cut the food diagonally like so:

Then flip one of the pieces over and put the two pieces together (along where it was cut) to make a heart:

For small but thick foods like tamagoyaki, you can use a toothpick (I bought reusable plastic ones designed specifically for use in bentos from the 100 yen shop) to hold the shape together.

There's actually another method that's great for bread which I learned from the manga-form essay book My Darling is a Foreigner 2 (Darling wa Gaikokujin) (p18):

^_^ I love ideas that are really simple but make you think "That's brilliant!" the first time you learn about them.

I hope everyone can enjoy heart-shaped food from now on! =D