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 :(