Day 21

Oops... I guess it's still August 24th for you readers in America ^-^; Anyway, today marks exactly 3 weeks in Japan! It’s Sunday. I love my Sundays because, so far, they’ve been very relaxed. Sundays seem to be the only days that I get to sleep as late as I want and then have the entire day to myself. I usually clean, sort trash, run errands, do laundry and organize things. It’s just really relaxing and low-energy.

Today, I woke up to rain which was very refreshing. It’s the first time I’ve seen the rain since I came to Japan. I absolutely love rain so I’m in a really good mood! It feels much better too... I don’t even have the aircon on today. I felt like making breakfast, so I decided to tackle my first real cooking encounter since coming here (I’ve been eating out A LOT).

First, I cooked an egg on my gas stove. It was the first time I’ve ever had/used a gas stove! I got to use the heart-shaped cut-out that I bought to fry eggs in. It came out pretty well! I also wanted toast with my egg. The bread in Japan is different, though... It’s really thick. Each slice is about as thick as 2 slices of American loaf bread. So, I cut one piece in half to make 2 slimmer slices. I don’t have a bread toaster so I cooked the bread in my little toaster oven. I put butter on the toast. Even the butter is different in Japan! It’s in one big block as opposed to the sticks that I’m accustomed to. For one of the slices of toast, I added some caramel cinnamon sugar toast powder that I picked up at my grocery store. It was yummy !! I got a bunch of different flavors of this toast powder--chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, apple, etc. At first, I didn’t realize that it was meant for toast and I planned on adding it to my tea. I think I might still try that! I also had iced coffee for breakfast. I got to use the new glass that I bought from Daiso that has little pink flowers on it. For the coffee, I actually have some in my refrigerator in a bottle that is meant to be served cold. I added individually packaged cups of cream and liquid sugar. It seems so different from how it’s usually made in America, but maybe it’s just because I’ve never seen that stuff there. To the coffee, I added some tiny heart-shaped ice cubes that I made. I thought they would be a nice touch for when guests come over but I couldn’t help using some myself. The breakfast was pretty tasty and I even ate it with a fork that has a heart cut-out on the handle! My predecessor left a set of these cute utensils which I’m excited about.

♡ my first time making breakfast in Japan ♡

As you can tell, it’s really reeeeally easy to find cute things in Japan. For me, it’s like a wonderland... I really like girly, cutesy things! I’ve even bought a pizza cutter with a red heart-shaped handle ^.^

Right now, I’m sitting on my couch in my living room typing this blog. In front of me, my TV is on and it’s showing the weather. It looks like it’s pretty rainy all over my area today. Oh, it’s noon! When the clock strikes certain times, like now, a little jingle plays in my town. Like, I can hear it pretty clearly from anywhere in my apartment. I wonder where it comes from... Anyway, it’s just really cute. My curtains are open, so I can see all of the thick fog wrapping around the mountains. I can hear the cars splashing through the puddles as they drive past my apartment.

♡ view from my couch ♡

Maybe I should update you as to what I’ve been doing since my last post... Let’s see. I went to Yuko’s house! Wow, that feels like forever ago. I’ll never forget it though! Yuko is an extremely nice person and I’m so glad to have met her. She invited us over for coffee and we got to talk about all kinds of things. I met her niece who also seems really sweet! She’s actually going to be one of my students so that’s cool. Yuko had this really neat little room in her house. It’s called a “naka niwa,” which translates to “inside garden.” I want one someday. When we left her house, Yuko’s mom generously gave me 2 huge green apples and a cluster of HUGE purple grapes. I don’t know why, but all of the fruit in Japan is just gigantic. Except pumpkins, pumpkins are smaller and dark green. The fruits taste different too! The grapes were so big that when I ate them, I actually peeled each one.

Oh yea, and I went to that jazz concert in Ozu. That was like really amazing. It was a tiny tiny Beatles-inspired venue where we watched a band play some super smooth jazz. I got lost in the music a few times... My mind danced around the idea that all of this isn’t a dream. “I’m in Japan.” Maybe someone should pinch me! There were even a few moments during the concert that I teared up because... Well, honestly I’m not sure why. It was a good feeling though. I’m just really really happy to be here. Everything feels good and right. Right now, I just can’t imagine leaving. People tell me that Stage 2 will hit me and I’ll come crashing down out of the honeymoon phase but my fingers are crossed that I won’t. Anyway, the (AMAZING) saxophone player approached us after the show and introduced himself. He was really cool! He added us on Facebook and invited us to his next show, which will be a beach party.

I’ve been meeting some of my neighbors lately, which is nice. I live in a teachers’ housing complex so everyone around me are fellow teachers. One of them is a teacher at one of my schools, too! He and his family came to my door and introduced themselves. They also gave me a big bottle of locally grown and made orange juice! So insanely polite and thoughtful! They are a pleasant family and I’m glad they’re my neighbors.

♡ orange juice that my neighbors gave me ♡ 

Japan is so awesome. On one of our lunch breaks this week, the head of our BOE, our supervisor, our coordinator, and us 2 new ALTs all drove up into the mountains to the coolest restaurant I've ever been to in my life. We trekked along a rocky path, into the woods, until we reached an oasis-type spot where there were quite a few other customers gathered in this open air tree-house. We assembled around hand-made wooden tables that included a little river actually running through the table in front of us. It's hard to describe... Anyway, clumps of cold soumen noodles flowed along the river in the table and we were to pluck them out with our chopsticks, dip them in our sauce, and slurp them up! So sugoi~ We filled up on these noodles, taking in the beautiful scenery of the surrounding forest in the mountains. A little creek ran right below us, where there were families playing in the water. After we ate, we walked further up into the mountains and got an amazing view of the nearby river before returning to work.

♡ the creek that was near us as we ate ♡

This past week, we’ve been doing kindergarten visits everyday! Can you believe this is my job...? Me either. It’s literally been like the cutest experience ever! We go and we introduce ourselves and we sing Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes and we jump around and dance and read The Hungry Caterpillar and it’s just a blast. I’ll be sad when this phase is over because kindergarteners are the best. I think we only have 2 more to go to this week and then no more :c

Aside from that, I’ve been working on my self-introduction that I will present to my students. It came together pretty quickly but I think it’s good... Hopefully anyway, because I have to practice it for the first time at a seminar tomorrow in front of all of the JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) in our area! So yea, wish me luck?? Heh. Then we have another big meeting with al of the principals in our area on Thursday. Big deal! I’m excited though, I’m excited to do everything.

Yesterday, the other Yawatahama JET and I met up with the Ozu JET again! We checked out this place in Ozu called Fuji GRAND. One the first floor, it’s like a grocery store... But then on the floors above that, it turns into something like a mall! Like, one floor is department store clothing, one floor is furniture and home goods, one is restaurants, one is toys, and then the top one is an arcade--complete with purikura booths!! Of course, we had to do that :3

♡ our purikura ♡

I ended up buying a cute yellow collared flowy shirt and black pleated skirt for work from this shop called Honeys. I also got 3 cute pairs of no-show socks (which are a must-have in Japan btw) and a pink polka-dot apron for cooking class. One of the floors had this whole section of Swimmer stuff. I had heard of and admired brands like Milklim, Spank! and Swimmer for years before coming to Japan so it was a little surreal to be standing in front of all of this Swimmer merchandise.

♡ part of the Swimmer section ♡

I couldn’t even choose one thing to get so I ended up getting a giant button with a white cat face on it and “Swimmer” written in cursive. It’s more of a souvenir than anything else I guess~ And there was a Dragonball bouncy ball dispenser! I had to get one, and I ended up getting the Dragonball with one star!!

♡ Dragonball Z Superball machine ♡

It was a fun trip. Then after Fuji GRAND, we went to a little local restaurant where I had chicken fried rice and tried gyoza for the first time! Oishiiiii. After we got the train back to Yawatahama, I took a taxi to Honai--my first taxi experience ever! 3 weeks in and I’m still experiencing “firsts.” I don’t think it will ever stop, lol. Anyway, the taxi was a bit expensive but it was better than riding my bike all the way back home in the dark like I did after yoga last Thursday.

Yea, yoga! We met up with a couple of other nearby JETs and did yoga at the Yawatahama Sports Center. It was really cheap and a good workout! I found it to be pretty tough but I’m probably just out of shape~ It felt good though; I hadn’t done yoga since I took the intro class in college. After that, I had to ride my bike back home like I said. It’s about a 30-45 minute ride but I probably did it in like 20 minutes because I was going as fast as I could. I was so spent after doing yoga but once I got to riding, alone in the dark, I got a little freaked out. As you know, Japan is super safe and especially Ehime... But I’m from Memphis. Memphis has one of the highest crime rates in America, so I’ve always been taught to be SUPER aware of possible dangers. Therefore, I couldn’t help but imagine some creepy man jumping out of the bushes and attacking me... Even though that will probably never happen here. When I got home, I was literally dripping sweat ALL over my whole body from biking so hard. That’s what ingrained fear does to you I guess, hahah!

And on that ride, I wasn’t even using my own bike. Earlier that day, just after leaving work, I discovered that my bike had a flat tire. My coordinator took me to a local bike shop where they took my bike and let me use a replacement for the day! They also offered us coffee and “wagashi” (traditional Japanese sweets). It was nice to meet even more generous, caring people in my town. They offered me coffee and sweets again the next day (yesterday) when I picked up my bike, too! Good people.

As I mentioned, I plan on regularly attending a cooking class here. Yesterday, before we met up in Ozu, the other Yawatahama JET and I went to one in my part of town! What an experience. We witnessed these women make salad, dry curry with rice, and pumpkin soup. The teacher even gave us the recipe for all of the stuff, so I hope to be able to make it on my own someday! My only worry is that it felt a little more like a cooking club than a cooking class.. And I wonder if I would just be in the way, not knowing how to cook and not speaking Japanese :/ We’ll see though!

♡ my lunch ♡

Along with cooking and yoga, I have also arranged to observe a karate class as well as an ikebana (traditional Japanese flower arrangement) lesson! I’m so excited for these things. How cool would it be to be able to say that I learned karate in Japan?! I’m also interested in jiu jitsu! Ah! But I can’t do everything I suppose... We’ll see how karate goes. I may not stick with it if I end up being in a class of all little boys haha!

Another thing that happened was that I found 2 mukade centipedes in my apartment!! Mukade centipedes are probably the scariest bugs in Japan, in my opinion. They’re poisonous (although they have not been known to kill anyone that didn’t have previous medical ailments)! They bite painfully hard... And they can get to be pretty big. They can climb and swim and they’re really resilient too! If you cut one in half, the front part can keep running ! If you just throw it outside, it can retrace its steps back to your place !! If you smash it, it releases a chemical to attract other mukade !!! So the only ways to get rid of them are pretty much to drown them in poison, throw boiling water on them, set them on fire, or freeze them. I found some spray that instantly freezes them and I want to try it because it seems so weird... Anyway, yea. One of the ones I found in my apartment was already dead and the other one, I sprayed with tons of poison and then threw outside. And I bug bombed my apartment after that, so they shouldn’t be a problem anymore for now. It was freaky though!

♡ the 2nd centipede I found ♡

I realize I skipped around a little bit as far as the sequence of events I’ve been experiencing... Sorry! It’s a little disorienting for me, being so busy alllll the time. And things will get even more hectic when school starts back up again in September! I can’t imagine. But right now, I’m just trying to take it one day at a time. Thanks for reading ^_~

Currently listening to: 
"Beautiful Morning With You" 
by The Pillows