coming home

I have now been home for an entire 18 hours and they have been entirely fabulous (even if 11 of them were spent asleep). So far it feels like a bit of a dream - enjoying Chipotle and real Diet Coke and American TV and more. Sure, i did almost faint this morning at the size of the coffee pot. And i still haven't ventured into what is likely to be the excessively over-stimulating world of public places. But for now, i'm happy.

the final countdown

Its really here. In less than 60 hours i will be on my way home. And I only have 12 hours left in my apartment. The walls are bare, the floors are scrubbed (including some of the grossest stuff under the fridge and the washing machine), the drawers are empty, the dishes are packed and my suitcases are bulging at the seams.

Tomorrow the boxes and furniture will all be packed up and hauled away to Shimagawa for the new ALT (mostly, probably by me and Shannon). My suitcases will be sent to the airport so i dont have to haul the 100+ pounds by myself through 3 train transfers on the way to Nagoya airport. The next two days i'll be crashing at Shannon's with a small backpack of stuff and tons of errands to run - cancel my cellphone, empty my bank accounts, return my modem, collect my money at Heiwado and Liquor Mountain from my point cards, say final farewells at school, and more. Of course our last two evenings are planned too: Cannery Row tomorrow and the Omitetsudo Beer Train on Tuesday.

The last days have been long in coming, and while i'm sad to say goodbye and leave everyone here, i'm ready to go home. Sayonara Nihon.

holy balls

OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!!!!!!!!!!

In approximately 30 minutes i willl have, in my hands, my very own copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They came this morning when i was on my way back from Kobe, and as soon as I saw the slip i made Shannon call to get it delivered ASAP!!! I mean, its true that i have no intention of reading it today (i'm doing what i can to keep it for the plane ride home in 12 days, reading books 1 through 6 to distract me), but still, I'll have it!!!

Yes, i am aware that it is mildly pathetic that i chose to write an entry about this rather than discussing the exciting events of my last days (enkai, the total bust of yukata shopping, going out in Kobe, etc) but we're talking about Harry Potter here!

the last 14 days... one giant emotional rollercoaster

So its wednesday now, and exactly 2 weeks till my departure from Japan. And lets just say things are getting a bit more difficult. Today i had two more last classes with my second year students who i just loved as first years but who have become a bit less enjoyable to teach. The class that i'd had planned for 2 weeks (to play a Jeopardy-like game and give out candy as prizes) completely fell apart as the kids didn't want to have to think at all. The questions were slightly challenging, though they could have done it if they were interested in focusing, but instead they started a chant to play Shiritori (the word string game... egg, game, english, house, etc) which is, clearly, quite easy for them, and which we've played about a million times. I felt like it was cheating to give the winners for that game candy, but as i'd given it to allthe other classes i didn't think i could get out of it.

So after this seriously frusterating class, a group of my favorite girls came up to me and apologized for the class 'making noisy' and making me sad. At which point i, of course, start crying and apologize to them and say how sad i am to leave.

Then after school a girl (also a favorite 2nd year of mine) comes out of clubs to give me a gift... a miniature bintemari she had made for me herself in homemaking club, along with a cute note and purikura picture of her. So i start crying again.

I'm a bit worried about the waterworks, to tell you the truth. The last classes have been, up till now, fairly unemotional as i still see the students everyday. But friday is the last day of school where we'll have an assembly, i'll give a goodbye speech, and i'm sure there will be lots of picture taking and more crying (on my end). Plus after friday i may see some of the students when they come in for clubs, but the third years probably wont come in at all since they're finished with clubs. Woah.

So here i am, 14 days from leaving, and already feeling overwhelmed with the hugeness of it all. And i haven't even started cleaning this bloody apartment yet... something tells me the grime and grossness of it all will really bring me to tears.

adventures in yukata - me and the women of the Aisho-cho BOE

Yesterday i was told to head over to the Board of Education to discuss my going-away-present, after i finished my last class. Since i already had some papers and questions for my supervisor about my travels home i figured it was no problem. but, as usual, things didn't turn out as i'd planned.

At about 2:30 i show up at the office and am greeted by alot of confused faces. I mean, they know who i as but not what im doing there. I was informed that my supervisor had gone on business to the Echigawa office (a whole 10 minutes away) and that i should wait, though they didn't know when he would return. So i sat at a table and stared out the window as 15, then 30, then 45 minutes passed, and still he hadn't returned. But then another worker who (it seems) is in charge of helping me purchase my going-away-present although she speaks no English and i speak very little Japanese, came back from some errand or another and suddenly the office was in chaos.

I had mentioned to one of my JTEs the other day that i'd like to get a yukata (summer kimono) as a going away gift. So as soon as the woman walked into the office there was a flurry of movement... three yukatas were pulled from shelves and desks drawers, obi (the belts) were located and the corner where i had been sitting quitely became a dressing room. The had me try on all the yukatas and learn to tie the obi (belt) properly. And then i discovered that the 4 women helping me weren't the only ones working on my 'yukata search.' Once we'd determined my size they led me around to, count them, 6 different computers whose owners had been searching different internet shopping sites to show me the yukata design options... did i want red, pink, green, blue, a modern bright design, or a more traditional and simple design... the options were pretty endless.

Of course no one was really sure if the size of the Yukata i'd tried on would correspond to the sizes online (since they all had different sizing systems... some were 'free' size, some anywhere from L to 10L, etc). So, it was finally decided that despite 2hours of work and dressing up and computer searching, and the help of 10 different staff members at the BOE, most of whom i'd never met before, I will have to go shopping for a Yukata next week (during work hours of course). But this time Shannon will come along, partially in role as my decision maker/janken partner and partially as interpreter.

This one is my favorite. So hopefully in one week i will have my own yukata something like it. Where/when i will ever wear it, i have no idea.

Cambodia part 2 - and probably part last.

my earlier exhaustion gave way to illness and, while i previously planned to write a small novel for you all about Cambodia, you'll just have to make do with some pictures instead.

Angkor Wat:


The Bayon:




Ta Prohm:



Prasat Olok:


Banteay Srei:
They call this the Citadel of the Women, claiming the detail work on the buildings is so ornate and perfect it could only have been done by the hands of women.


Angkor Thom (the last capital of the Khmer Empire):


the north gate into Angkor Thom

The Phimeanakas, which, according to legend, is the temple where the king was to spend the first half of every night with a Naga girl (a race of supernatural human being, the original ancestors of the Cambodian people) to populate his city. He would return to his palace and his queen for the second half of the night. It was also believed that if the king failed to show up for the nightly ritual, calamity would strike his people.

Phnom Bakheng:

the temple on a hill

famous for views of Angkor Wat and sunset, which we didn't really get to see.

Miscellaneous Pics -


me, hanging at Bubble T



a Cambodian filling station.


With a name like 'Wrestler Red Wine', how can it not be quality?

Cambodia Installment 1 - getting there, getting around, getting home.

In my current state of exhaustion it seems that writing a bit at a time about my 5 days in Cambodia is the best answer. So here is part one.

I left Thursday night for Siem Reap, Cambodia by way of Bangkok. The flight seemed absolutely perfect at first; i left at 12 am and arrived in Siem Reap at 8am, thinking i'd sleep all night on the plane and have a full day to do whatever. Unfortunately i'd forgotten about the 3 hour layover in Bangkok and the meal and drink service on the flight which left only about 2 to 3 hours of sleep before my arrival. Luckily the flight to Bangkok (like all the flights i took on this trip actually) was pretty empty and i had 3 seats all to myself. I'd forgotten how fabulous Thai Airways is - really good blankets and pillows, nice (and of course beautiful) staff, good food, free alcohol, choice of green tea, black tea, and regular or decaf coffee, and more. Plus the hot towels... fabulous. And who doesn't love an airline whose color is purple? On the first flight, about 5 and a half hours, they fed us two meals, which just seems ridiculous. Especially given that in the states if you fly domestic from LA to New York you don't necessarily even get a free soda anymore. How Thai Airways makes it with a half-full flight I don't know. On the flight back they even offered cognac after dinner.

I also had no idea how great Bangkok airport was. Or maybe its been recently updated or i was in a different part of the airport. But for my layover I had the option of 'retiring' to the Thai Airways or Bangkok Airways lounge for a few hours, and with plush couches and the blanket and pillow from the airplane I had a good nap. At about 5 in the morning there wasn't much open for shopping or eating, but the couches were phenomenal.

Then we had a like 30 second flight from Bangkok to Siem Reap where they again served us food on Bangkok Airways "Asia's boutique airline." Never figured out what that was meant to mean except maybe small - on the way out to our plane every one we passed was basically a prop plane and i was terrified we'd be on a puddle-jumper with propellers instead of proper engines. Eeek. Somehow lucked out and had a regular plane 3x3 seats (747? i dont know my plane lingo).

So now that i'm done with my rant on planes, i'll move on to tuk tuks. While in Siem Reap and going around to the temples the most common mode of transportation is in a tuk tuk, a small roughly 4-seater cart pulled behind a motorcycle. For about 50 cents you can get a ride from your guesthouse into the main part of town or to a market or restaurant. For $10 the tuktuk will drive you around the temples all day. Given the climate of Siem Reap, especiallly now with rainy season picking up, the tuk tuk was great. It was breazy and kept me cool, and when it sprinkled protected me from getting wet. When it was raining really hard there were rain flaps with plastic windows to keep me dry. It was ideal. I will admit to feeling a little strange riding around alone in a tuk tuk... most tourists had 2 or 3 people in each tuk tuk. When i saw Cambodians in one there were usually whole families of 6 or so people. But it was always just me.

It was even just me when i was riding around the back of a tuk tuk and we got a flat tire. We had to pull off the road and push the tuk tuk to a small repair place a bit down the way. There i was all alone with the family of the tire repair-man who was helping the tuk tuk driver, as it was raining and i was instructed to go inside and stay dry with the family of 5 kids (two of whom were naked) and the mother. They spoke precisely three words of english, and i one of khmer. This made for lively conversation in which they said "hello" and "bye bye" about a million times, and i thanked them repeatedly.

Then i was all alone in the back of a tuktuk when the same tire went flat later and we spent an hour on the side of a fairly busy road trying to fix it before giving up, driving it flat to the nearest shop to buy a new one.

My final discussion of transportation leads me to trains. Today i got into Kansai Airport at 5:30am. I generally assume it takes about 2 and a half hours to get from Shiga to KIX, so figured i'd be back home by about 9. Unfortunately that early in the morning, and through rush hour, the trains weren't really running the way i expected. Plus there is the inevitable frusteration of catching a bus that leaves once per hour. I finally made it back to my apartment 3 trains, a bus, 4500 yen, and almost 5 hours later! Thank god i didn't try to go into work for half the day today.

bring on the kitty-chans: or how i'm finally living up to the title of this blog by becoming unusually obsessed with keitai charms featuring kittychan

It's true. I have a problem. And its only getting worse. For 9 long months i looked down upon all adornments (and adorners) of cell phones. Which means i disapproved of nearly 99.99% of Japanese people as practically everyone i see has accessories dangling from their phones - old men and teenaged girls alike. I, on the other hand, saw my cell phone as a convenient appliance, and at times a life-saver, but as something that should be kept plain, simple, and small enough to fit in my pocket. My cell phone did what i needed it to do and i appreciated that. But i wouldn't really say we had a loving relationship. Then one day, during golden week, i felt my heart leap at the sight of a Nara cell phone charm... Hello Kitty sitting on the lap of the famous daibutsu (buddha) statue. And i just had to give in.

For about a month i lived quite satisfied with my kitty and the subtle but classy touch it gave my pink phone with its coordinating pink/silver strap and shiny, lavender (and loud) bell. But then i broke down again. While convincing some friendly visiting Oles that keitai straps were a) the RAGE in Japan and b) the most convenient, affordable, and unique yet usable gift to bring home i discovered i needed a new one. In honor of our visit to Kobe (though we never actually went to the weather cock house), and the fact that i love the phrase 'weather cock' i got Weather Cock Kitty. For a few weeks, Daibutsu Kitty and Weather Cock Kitty lived in harmony (though the noises from two bells were beginning to get to me and probably everyone in my staff room at school). And then it happened again.

I had long since been a fan of Hikonyan, created, in the great japanese tradition of creating a character for every possible situation, advertising need or holiday, in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Hikone castle. I enjoyed Hikonyan's simultaneous resemblance to vikings and the pillsbury dough boy. SO much so that i began fantasizing about the PERFECT keitai charm - Hello Kitty in Hikonyan's hat. And lo-and-behold, such a charm exists! So a week ago i picked up my very own Hikonyan Kitty (thankfully no bell to speak of, only a little thing that says Hikone) and just for good measure, a Biwako Kitty (Kitt-chan dressed in a pink catfish suit laying on a puddle of water) key chain clip, so again, no bell.




And you think that would be about enough. But no. Once Shannon discovered my growing (and, yes, mildly unhealthy) obsession, she jumped on the bandwagon. Last Sunday, while shopping in Kyoto, she picked us up matching Tanuki Kitties (Kitty-chan in the suit of a Japanese racoon - sadly without the famously oversized testicles). So, after 9 months of a life sans accessory or adornment, my cellphone has become an entity onto itself - a pink striped phone carrying 5 Hello Kitty charms with 3 bells and many different colors.

But now i just dont know what to do. What if i can't stop myself? There are just too many more adorable charms out there for the buying! What will i do when i come back to America, a country where, despite my best efforts to spread the trend among friends and family, my behavior and over-excessive over-accessorizing will not be acceptable? I am doomed. Me, my cell phone and all my kitty-chans are doomed.

my famiry

After school the other day on of my special needs students drew a picture (copied from photographs on my desk) of my family members, and asked for their names. As i had expected, my dad's name (Mark) was written ma-ku in katakana and Amy was written aimi to get the hard A sound. but i did not expect that my mom's name (Marti) would be written ma-chin (sounds more like marching than marti if you ask me) or that Andy would be katakanized anri-. Too funny.

I have one picture on my desk of the whole family about 4 years ago, and another senior photo of Andy from last summer. This student was convinced that i had two brothers, and she kept referring to the 'kakoi' or cute brother and the 'other' one. Andy at 15 with his short spikey hair was the hotty in her mind, which is fine with me since she's probably 13 and i always did support his short-hair-look. I don't think she ever really understood that i only had one brother though, even after i said family and the only word i could think of to mean whole (all) and pointed back and forth telling her they were both "Anrin". Oh well, i liked it.

"that's what she said" - a weekend with the boys

Finally time to post:
Last weekend felt like an Ole reunion - Pants, Kevin, Carlson, Danny and I hit up Osaka, Kobe and Nara for a fabulous weekend. I'd forgotten how good it feels to see old friends and how my stomach hurts from laughing so hard and how much we Oles LOVE the karaoke. it was really too good.

The boys: Danny, Carlson and Kevin

Pants and me, probably singing a song we had forgotten we already sand. and kevin.

Friday we met up in Osaka and (after a long and not-so-happy search for our hostel) went out for dinner and some highlights of japan - purikura and karaoke. After last weekend's escapades i knew to head straight to 'Joy Sounds' for the free time Nomihodai special from 11 to 5:30. and let me just say, it did not disappoint.
around 4am, we started to drag.

Saturday we finally managed to drag our bums out of bed and head to Kobe to wander around China town and hit up Harborland (complete with Pants' favorite mechanical animals and a beer on the pier). Then we made it back to Osaka for dinner and by complete chance discovered the best restaurant ever - a little yakiniku place with a good all-you-can-eat deal, cheap beer, a guy who spoke the most excellent english ever, and even cute mugs (which Pants didn't have to steal but the nice man gave to us). Too perfect. We finished up the night with a conbini run and a round of Phase 10, which somehow none of the boys knew how to play. How is that even possible?


the gang with a panda statue. Pants is obsessed.

Carlson and Kevin.

Me, Danny and a pig with a tray of niku-man

Carlson and Kevin try their hands at Taiko

The boys ride the mechanical animals. Pants, of course, rode the panda

So cute it hurts. really.

back in Osaka, by the Hello Kitty Store. Cheez-u

Then Sunday we hit up Nara on a whim, at least partially so Pants could legitimately buy a pen with Hello Kitty sitting on the lap of a giant Daibutsu (buddha), but fun nonetheless. Especially when Carlson made it through the hole that is supposed to be the size of the buddha's nostril, and the entire crowd cheered. We managed to drag ourselves around for a few hours before grabbing okonomiyaki lunch and heading our separate ways.

the Nara Buddha - the largest indoor brass Buddha in the world.

Carlson makes it through the nostril-sized hole, with a little help

In the end i will remember the weekend something like this - lots of laughs, the impossibility of remembering what songs we sang at karaoke, more laughing, being extremely tired, drinking beer, laughing some more, seeing little kids "so cute it hurts" and feeling comfortably and happy the whole time.

oh, what a wonderful world.

sometimes i forget how fabulous it is here.

sunset over the recently flooded rice fields


more rice fields


yes, this sign does say "riberty" sadly it all got less funny when i discovered it was on purpose.


Pants and I in Nagoya at the Robot Museum


Erin and Amy in kyoto

The Hofers (and Erin) take on Japan - part II

We did it! Amy and Erin conquered Japan and allowed me to tag along for the weekend. We hit up Kyoto and Osaka for sightseeing, eating (yes, i took them to Mexican food in Osaka. i win), shopping, movie watching (don't see Hanibal Rising if you want to be able to eat dinner), capsule staying, drinking and of course, karaoke. I even hit up kinkakuji, the Golden Temple for the first time.

Ranting and Raving - so much for that thing called a future

Turns out looking for a job is the worst thing ever. In fact, i'll one-up that. Looking for a job while you reside in a foreign country is the worst thing ever. Especially if you find yourself a recent graduate of a liberal arts college, with no real marketable skills, who has just wasted a year of her life doing god-only-knows-what while not actually teaching (not that that matters since she doesn't even want to BE a teacher) in Japan. And in Japan of all places, where she hasn't learned the language enough to claim that as an asset, not that anyone in their right mind would consider Japanese fluency to be an asset in the field of psychology. So now, not only is job hunting the most ridiculously lame thing ever, but its totally ego crushing as well, especially running through a list of fields/techniques/degrees/experiences/etc. and having to check 0 out of like 5000 boxes because it turns out you know nothing and have done nothing with your life afterall. And there isn't even space to toss in any of your redeeming (yet completely worthless) qualities like your GPA, or that you're good with kids, or your test scores, or that you love communist Russia and Jane Austen novels, or that you make some kick ass banana bread (even without buttermilk and baking soda). And really, doesn't the banana bread part matter more anyway?


and this is how i fall into the trap of watching 24 and looking at Craig's List "missed connections" instead of doing anything of substance, whatsoever. Ok. I'm done for now. Both with the rant, and the job search. I need a glass of wine...

Golden Week Extravaganza - a few days of sightseeing around Kansai

This week was Golden Week. For no reason that was ever explained to me, 4 major holidays fall within the same week, creating one three-day weekend, a two-day work week, and finally a 4 day weekend. All of which were great fun! For the first weeked i just did normal things like hanging out in Shiga and shopping in Kyoto. But i reserved the longer weekend for some fun - sightseeing and road tripping!

On Thursday i went to Nara, an old town about 2 hours from my town by train. Nara is famous for being the old center of buddhism in Japan, and is home to something like 7 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. During my travels through China and Vietnam with Term in Asia in 2004 i became a little cynical about World Heritage Sites and their reputed fabulousness. It just seems to me that whoever assigns the title of 'World Heritage Site' needs to be a bit more discerning (for instance the temple in Nara that gained the title only by have 1,000 year old roofing tiles when those tiles covered about one square meter and had been replaced everywhere else clearly doesn't rival the bronze daibutsu or say the Taj... yeah, you get my point).

In any case, I think we only saw 3 or 4 of the World Heritage Sites at Nara, and for the most part they were fabulous. Inside one temple is the world's largest bonze image of the buddha. Woah. Actually the part i liked was that the daibutsu had sadly lost its head repeatedly in fire and other damage. It's current head was made in the 17th century. Another famous site is the five-story-pagoda. We also did lots of wandering to discover another of Japan's botanical wonders - wisteria. There is all this hulla-baloo about sakura (cherry blossoms) so i hadn't even expected all the trellises (trellii?) of beautiful violet blossoms. And of course, with the holiday season there was no shortage of festival foods - instead of lunch that day i had sakura ice cream and strawberry ame (fresh strawberries dipped in sugar syrup that hardens). Yummm!

So after the success of my Nara day trip i embarked on another adventure - an actual road trip to Fukui! For the first time in more than 9 months i got to ride in a car going MORE THAN 50 KM PER HOUR!!!! I relaxed into the seat as i felt the oh-so-familiar hum of the speeding vehicle and the forgotten concerns of traffic and stop lights and so much more (though not the forgotten concern of cost.... the reason no one ever drives on highways that their cost is so prohibitive... the two hour drive to Fukui cost $30!!!). I didn't really have any ideas about Fukui before, but i think its like a big secret in Kansai. Its mountainous and on the coast and beautiful and not really that far away. First we went to Eihei-ji Temple, a center of zen buddhism and a famous hide-away for trainees. It was phenomnal, built both as an enclosed building/structure and open to the elements. Every hallway or stair case had one wall and one open to the green hillside. If it weren't for the fact that i'm a chick, i would totally try to train there.

Then on to the Fukui coast, to cliffs crowded by tourists and stalls of snacks and food, and area made famous for the frequency of suicides that used to occur there. Yeah, not so fun now. But, besides being mostly terrified, it was a beautiful view of the sea. and there were dozens of more stalls packed with ice cream and roasted corn and takoyaki (fried octopus balls) so again, i skipped lunch and opted for festival food. My rationalization being that its about to be rainy season and surely all the touristy stuff will shut down and then where will i find my sakura ice cream?

All in all, Golden Week was a completely fabulous success. If only I could be looking forward to another one coming up now, instead of a full week of school and a cold :(