Tacoyaki.com

It’s early in the morning on Friday the 25th over here in Japan. I can’t sleep anymore and I have a flight to catch in seven hours to head back to America. Finally? Too soon? At this moment, I’d say the timing is just right. I’ve had my ups and downs the last two years, but overall this has been an incredible experience. One that is difficult to explain and one that I will remember always. Sure, I’ve had those feelings like, “I can’t do this anymore. OR I’m not cut out for this.”, but now that it’s over I’ve realized, “Huh, no problem.”. I came out of this a stronger and more worldly person. I’ve made some of the best friends a girl could ask for, and I’ve seen and done things most people only read about. It’s almost weird to think about the person that arrived in Tokyo about two years ago right now. She was crying because she didn’t quite know what she had gotten herself into. Now though, I’m sad because I’m leaving my home. I have much to look forward to in the next few weeks and for the rest of my life. I’m happy to be moving on, and I’m grateful for the last two years for making me more willing and able to take on, or even to search out, whatever life may throw my way.

Here are some pictures of my last couple of weeks.

Bye bye, Brenda! (and MisDo) Our last dinner in Akashi on 7/17/08.

Bye bye, Kelly! Kel’s party in Osaka on 7/19/08.

Bye bye, JUMBO! Our last Jumbo with Stuart, Hide, and Yuusuke on 7/19/08.

Bye bye, school! Taken on my last day, 7/24/08.

One of my favorite JTEs. We taught until April my first year and have been buds ever since. She’s planning on visiting us in Hawaii!

Bye bye, students! The girl on the right was really awesome. Students were obnoxious and frustrating at times, but those like her made my life easier. She loves punk music and wants to move to America so she can dye her hair pink and meet the guys from Blink 182.

Bye bye, classroom! It’s the three windows on the second floor.

My last supper at Vivre with Lena, Kristine and Chris, and Dylan. 7/24/08 Delicious tonkatsu and matcha soba!

Our last grind! Grinding sesame seeds before dinner.

Bye bye, L-Kizzle!

I have some last minute pre-flight preparations, like showering for the last time before my 24 hour trek, EWWW. Thanks to everyone that has made my two years in Japan better than I ever thought possible. You all rock and I’ll miss the hell out of you!

So, 気を付けて and またね Japan! Or as my students say “See you!”.

Following the ticket fiasco a couple weeks ago, I wasn’t really feeling up with Japan and wanted to do little more than grumble on my couch. However, I had already made plans the day before to meet some friends for some Japanese fun. I really contemplated staying home, and I’ve never really been into the whole dressing up in Japanese garb thing. BUT, I ended up having a great time and it was actually very therapeutic to talk about my horrible day with my friends.

Lena and I met up and biked to Brenda’s where we met her and Tu. The long bike ride helped release some of the rage I was feeling, and it’s always nice being around the girls. Plus, I got to spend some more time with Tu, our buddy from New Zealand who is always good for a laugh. We dressed, or rather wrapped each other in yukata, did our hair and makeup and then headed out. I was in one of Brenda’s yukata, a nice purple/blue number from Uniqlo.

We met up with another friend, Ann, and all of us had a good time on the train heading to Himeji. Wrapping and tying obi and sitting in yukata while showing leg isn’t really the most appropriate, but no one was complaining. Not with such pretty girls to gawk at.

Ann was an obi-tying master on the train!

Tsk, tsk, ladies. Nice legs, though!

When we finally made it to Himeji, we were greeted with crowds of colorful yukata. Here’s our rainbowtastic group!

We met up with a few other people and walked up the street towards Himeji-jo. The sidewalks were lined with all sorts of food venders and I of course bought some takoyaki! It’s one of my favorite Japanese dishes, but it never fails to scorch the roof of my mouth. So piping hot that my eyes start to water and all I can do to keep from spitting it out is breath in and out in an attempt to cool things down. In the end, my mouth was shredded for at least a week. Still tasty, though!

I also got some kakigoori, or shave ice. I discovered that Tu is also a big fan, so we jumped at the first stand we saw. I went for my favorite, いちごミルク. Here’s Tu drizzling some condensed milk onto his melon flavored ice.

We made it up to the castle, but not before we ran into a monkey!

Then we enjoyed photo time in the dark cover of night, with the castle shining in the background.

Ah friends, you make all my worries fade away :-). I didn’t get home until after midnight that night, but it was so much fun. Sure I dressed in yukata which I said I’d never do, but it did make for some mighty cool pictures.

Thanks to everyone for the photos. I’ve found that I’m a bit lazy with pulling the ol’ camera out.

Rock on!

My countdowns are moving at full-force these days. I’m not sure where the time has gone, but I definitely don’t have much left. Exactly two weeks from tomorrow I will be heading to KIX to go back to America! It’s rather bittersweet, maybe a little more on the sweet side, but I will miss Japan and of course my friends that I’ll soon have to say good bye to. We’ve all been trying to do as much as possible with our remaining time, and I’ll pretty much be busy right up until the end. Have to enjoy for the precious memories! Let’s!

Being that I’ll be flying away in two weeks, it’s good to know that I have a nice, free ticket that was properly set up by my office ladies and the Hyogo BOE. All because of my assertiveness, I might add, and the fact that I asked about my itinerary two weeks ago, since I had heard nothing.

I knew the meeting in the office wasn’t going to go well from the start. The one JTE that I’m least close with and who takes a good minute to translate back and forth was my go-between with the office lady. I caught enough of what she said to understand perfectly well while he was thinking of the correct words, but anyway. When I got a pack of papers about my pension refund and it was all in Spanish?, I knew I was in for a long afternoon. At first I thought maybe they thought I spoke Spanish, because I am from Mexico after all. Then I realized, no, it’s written in the same funny letters as English, so it must be English, right? We quickly got that sorted out.

Next we talked about apartment schtuff and I signed and hankoed a paper stating when my last day will be. No info about my ticket was being offered, so I asked. How about my itinerary? Another lady came over with tons of forms and proceeded to tell me my flight schedule. Going from Osaka to Detroit. Sure, ridiculous, but whatever. Then Detroit to Denver. The End.

Uhhhh, and then to Albuquerque, New Mexico, right? Proceed with a half hour of mass confusion and me just dumbfounded with their completely illogical reasoning. My JTE just kept saying the same thing over and over again that the BOE sent this paper saying they can only buy tickets to certain airports. So, you’re getting me to Denver, Colorado and expecting me to get my own way home?? Hundreds of miles away with no shinkansen in sight? I have to buy another ticket to get to NM? Were you planning on telling me this before I got to KIX and would end up stranded? Why can’t I fly into Abq, they have an airport?! What’s the difference between going from Detroit to Denver or Detroit to Abq? That’s when the atlas was brought out. They actually measured it right in front of me, after they finally found Colorado, of course. LOOOONG story short, they used that atlas to find the next closest “international” airport to New Mexico. They thought Abq just didn’t have an airport or that it was some podunk little local hut, because it didn’t have an icon in the book. I said it does have an airport and it’s a big, international one at that. Send me there!!

Other JTEs were informed that actually knew my situation and with whom I had cleared the ticket change to NM months ago. They were just as confused and could clearly see that I was pissed. Yeah, I’m pissed. They already have the ticket purchased and it’s completely wrong. I tried explaining that it would be like them being sent home to Japan, and dropped in Tokyo when they live in Osaka. Get your own way home, my ass. America doesn’t have trains! That was Monday and by Friday the crap ticket was canceled and I made myself well-known in the front office by making sure they were doing things correctly. I even made them tell me the itineraries they were working on and I choose which one I wanted, not giving them any leeway. I was originally supposed to leave on the 26th, but since I will be arriving so late, I told them I wanted to leave on the 25th instead. Done. One day sooner, but I’m not complaining.

Lessons learned:

Don’t expect or trust that you will get something until you have it in your possession.

Use the INTERNET…oooooh scary.

New Mexico is a fully-functioning STATE in AMERICA!! I mean come on! It’s bad enough that my fellow countrymen think I need a passport or that I automatically speak Spanish, but I expected more from you, Japan. For shame.

A couple weeks ago Dylan and I met up with Lena to go to our hair stylist’s newly opened salon. He’s now the owner and operator, and as such, he was the only one allowed to wear colors other than black. The salon was very modern, almost futuristic, with dramatic lighting and clever use of mirrors and dividing walls.

As always, we were offered free refreshments while waiting to be styled, and of course we were given fresh towels to dry off from the downpour outside. Lena was there for a digital perm and I was hoping for a cut and to try some wedding up-dos. After my initial consult with tencho (Mr. Hip and Cool Owner), I had my hair shampooed by pretty much my personal assistant. She was obviously new, but very friendly and she took care of me during all three hours that I was back there. She made sure to comment on my “small face” and to ask what color my hair was and if everyone where I’m from has the same color? Oh, Japan, you’re silly

I’m too dramatic for such silliness!

Tencho did his thing with his scissors and before long my hair was perfectly trimmed and ready to go. But wait! Time for the second shampooing and a scalp and shoulder massage. No tipping required, I might add. Upon returning to my chair, there were magazines set out, opened to pictures of potential up-dos I might like. I picked a couple and tencho went to work.

He of course used the pictures and added his own flare. Maybe a little too much flare, I’d say. My hair was pulled, and twisted, and pinned and sprayed, and the final do was perfect maybe for a Japanese girl in a fancy kimono on her Coming of Age Day.

For me, however, and my beach wedding, it wasn’t quite right.

Still fun, though, and I’m glad I got to get my hair done one more time in Japan, and at tencho’s new salon, no less! I also got 29 free bobby pins out of the experience!

We <3 you, Tencho!

(pictures by Dylan)

On June 17th, Dylan and I finally made it to a Japanese baseball game. I’ve been feeling the baseball fever this year, since my Chicago Cubs have been rockin it hardcore! They’re sort of known for starting strong and finishing in a depressing pool of defeat, but I have high hopes this go-around. It has been 100 years, after all, since they last won the World Series, so we’re due. You hear that? WE ARE DUE!!

We met up with Keir and Stuart in Nishinomiya for a quick snack at McDonald’s before the game. Then we had a leisurely walk to the stadium, and stopped off at the Tigers Shop Alps so Dylan and I could get some goods.

Keir and Stuart had come prepared in their full Tigers gear get-ups, but they were nice enough to buy balloons for the seventh inning stretch. I got myself a pretty sweet t-shirt and a few other souvenirs, and then we headed to our seats in the Alps.

Just to give you a feeling for what the field was like, Hanshin Koshien Stadium holds about 55,000, and it’s no wonder why almost all tickets, even for this Tuesday game, were sold out months ago.

I enjoyed seeing in person the black dirt infield where the famous high school Koshien tournament is played every year. There were venders walking around selling Asahi beer, lemon Chu-Hi, and ice cream, and almost everyone had plastic noise makers to cheer on the players. Each player, by the way, has their own cheer when they are up to bat, and every time the Tigers scored a run, the fans congratulated them with the Tigers team cheer.

About half way through the game we went to explore the snack bars. Koshien curry is the most popular dish, and it certainly looked tasty. We also saw teriyaki chicken skewers, sushi, yakisoba, and hot dogs on sticks. It seems that recently they’ve started incorporating more American cuisine, so I got a delicious hot dog (with a bun!) and a cinnamon churro.

Dylan and I also shared some pretty ok nachos. While the beers were 600yen each, the food was surprising well-priced.

As for the game, I started catching onto all the cheers, but I also noticed other differences between American and Japanese baseball. Walking is definitely more common, and the players were cheered just as if they had made a hit. After a few innings, we could predict when sacrifice bunts were going to happen, and they were successful each time. I wouldn’t say every inning was the same, and there were some good hits, but power hitting and home runs clearly take a back seat to strategy.

Just as the Cubs sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the seventh inning stretch, the Tigers fans also have a tradition; the famous balloon release.

There was singing while we all got our balloons ready, and then a massive, squealing ascension. It was one of the highlights of the game. The other was unfortunately after Stuart had to leave to catch his train. I’m glad Keir was on the lookout, because the crowd-circulating cameras caught us and we were on the JUMBOTRON! It made my day! I’ve never been on one of those before, and I’m sure we gave everyone else a good show, especially since the camera guy seemed to linger a while as we waved excitedly.

So we had perfect weather, great company, food, and souvenirs, and the Tigers beat the Rakuten Golden Eagels 5-3! I love baseball anyway, but going to a game is something I didn’t want to miss out on while being in Japan. Yay us!

I finally finished grading my tall stack of journals. Although I was entertained by the students’ answers to “If you could have any animal in the world for a pet, what would you choose and why?”, I am happy I never have to grade those things again. There’s only so many grammar mistakes and spelling errors I can correct before my eyes start twitching. It has probably been one of my favorite parts about this job, though, and the kids really surprised me a few times with their creativity.

Now to get to the pile of blog posts I have saved up from the last few weeks!

A few weeks ago my friends and I went out to dinner. Brenda and Lena couldn’t make it, so it was Kelly, Kristine, and I. We had originally planned to get yakiniku, and the three of us decided to go for it, even though our party was smaller. We ended up ordering enough food for 4-5 people! Maybe our eyes were a bit bigger than our stomachs that night, but we took it down like champs…complete with plastic aprons.

Here’s Kelly with our meat and veg.

And me and Kristine with the seafood. Each of us also got a big bowl of seaweed soup and rice.

Next up was my school’s bunkasai. It took place on June 12th and 13th. The kids had a great time and it’s always nice not being in class, but I wasn’t very excited this year. Call it JET fever or whatever, but I’ve been more or less ready to go since May…at least. Still, there was some cool stuff to look at and pretty impressive performances in the gym. The yoyo student that I mentioned a few posts back put on a show for everyone, and there was no lack of hip-hop dancing. Can you say mother f-bombs being dropped while the girls danced and everyone looked on none the wiser? Thank you Dr. Dre, for giving me something to laugh at! Also, the ESS girls and I set up our room like a movie theater and showed Disney cartoons in English. Maybe you can guess that we weren’t the most popular attraction, except for the huge group of kindergarten kids. They at least liked staring at me and practicing their English greetings and giving high-fives.

Outdoor music fest and karaoke.

Groundo arto with many pieces of paper.

Most homeroom classrooms were decorated with something or other.

Some of the window children.

Some second years and stained glass.

Me and “Bob”, the YoYo Master!

Finally, the Hall of Poo, haha. It was at the end of one hall that was done up like the digestive tract. Rather clever, I think.

Next up, the Tigers baseball game!

Our pre-baking photo in the mirror. Aprons…check! Thanks Kristine!

Our work station . All ingredients were measured out for us, with dry ingredients like sugar in plastic wrap that we just had to open and add. Very simple and a great way to spend a Saturday morning with the girls.

Oh, so happy with our mixing!

The girls had a laugh when I showed my excitement at getting to use pastry bags. Come on, it’s fun!

Into the oven! That’s a good look for me, me thinks.

Waiting for our cakes to bake and playing with Lena’s cool camera.

A job well-done! Hooray for cheesceake!

Heading to Lena’s for a homemade yakiniku dinner…after a day of shopping!

My crown and a roll of toilet paper. Everyone had to take as much as they wanted. Little did some of us know, that each square meant one embarrassing story we had to tell. We learned a lot about each other that night.

Cheers with our sparkling wine!

A great group of friends minus Lena, our phenomenal cook. Thanks again, everyone, for planning that day for me and executing it so perfectly!

I had a bit of a crazy weekend. I was exhausted today after having done more than I have in quite some time. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a sad ending to a pretty perfect day on Saturday. With a lot of help from my computer-savvy fella, though, things are going alright.

It all started on Saturday in Sannomiya. Dylan and I were there early as we’ve found ourselves for the last few months. I was hoping to hang out for a bit, maybe get a Starbucks and do some shopping when stores opened. Dylan suggested we sit in the park near the station, being that it was a rather sunny day for this rainy season. I was anxious to move onto my coffee, but I thought sure, why not? There we sat and not five minutes later did I see Lena walking across the street. Hey, there’s Lena. I wonder what she’s doing here so early? Dylan replied with a confusing, “What if I told you you already have plans today?”. Not uh?! What? What’s going on? We walked up to Lena and Dylan proceeded to ask for my keys so he could go home. Ok, now I’m really confused. I don’t like this feeling much, tears may or may not be welling up in my eyes.

Lena and I walked to Starbucks, purchased some of the new seasonal delights and waited for Brenda and Kristine to arrive. The sneaky girls, with help from Dylan, had a whole day of Heather-centered activities planned for my bachelorette party! I was given a bag with slippers and a soon to discover apron. We walked to Junkudo and up we went to a cooking studio I’ve noticed many times before. How well these girls know me! We had a private baking lesson with a teacher and one other baker. We spent the morning making cheesecake souffles, talking and snapping as many pictures as possible. I, of course, didn’t have my camera, so photos will be coming later. We ate our souffles fresh from the oven and they melted in our mouths. It was awesome!

Next up was some impromptu shopping at Gap, where I bought a cute summery outfit. Lena even talked me into getting the bright pink shirt rather than the navy blue one I was leaning towards, saying I was moving to Hawaii soon and I needed some fun colors. Good choice!

We then bought some movie tickets to see The Illusionist. One of a few English movies playing at the Mint building, but the only one I hadn’t seen. We ate at a Spanish restaurant and filled up on all-you-can-eat bread and delicious pasta. Kelly joined us mid-meal to complete our wonderfully dynamic group. Then we shared some fantastic popcorn at the movie, and although some of us nodded off a bit, we enjoyed one of my favorite activities all together. Then we headed to Lena’s, picking Dylan up on our way past Okubo.

Chris joined us, too, and Lena prepared us a perfect homemade yakiniku dinner. We played some games, drank some sparkling wine, and got to know each other a little better than we already do. We were out until just about midnight, which is saying something for me and Dylan. It was such a great day and I’ll never forget it. I never thought I’d make friends like this in Japan, but I am so, so grateful that I have. They have made my time here exciting and all the more memorable. I don’t know how I would have survived without them, and I’ll love them forever! Thanks ladies!! You guys rock it hardcore!

With all the ups that day, unfortunately, there was also a BIG down. When we got home that night, I found my computer unresponsive. I tried restarting it, only to be greeted by a folder icon with a big blinking ? in the middle of the screen. OH NO! We’d seen that before, a number of months ago when the same thing happened to Dylan’s computer. We, or rather Dylan fought courageously to try to get things to work, but no amount of mouth to mouth could bring back my crashed hard drive. I was exhausted and didn’t quite grasp the situation, so we made some plans and went to sleep.

The next morning, Dylan tried one last failed attempt to jump start my precious laptop, but in the end we had to go to Osaka to spend some $$ on a new HD. We made the best of the situation by eating lunch at Kua A’ina, but in the back of my mind, the reality of the situation was becoming clear. A number of times I asked Dylan with my naivete, “Everything is gone? I don’t get it. Where’s my stuff??”. He said it was like telling a kid there was no Santa Claus, because of the look on my face. He even put it into simpler terms: “It’s like if you had all of your stuff in a box and we set the box on fire. It’s gone, honey.” My mind has been slowly getting it, and I actually did start to cry last night. I lost so many pictures and just so much that I’ve been accumulating on this laptop. It’s been my lifeline; my little world. We’ve been thinking about selling one of our laptops and I couldn’t imagine selling mine. It’s ALL my STUFF! Where did it goooooo??? I now where, it’s stuck in this little box thing on my table that now I don’t even know how to dispose of because Japanese trash laws are nuts. It’s in the computer? DAMMIT!

Ugh. Could be so much worse, and I count my lucky stars everyday for all the awesomeness in my life. Great friends, true love, loving family. All I lost was a bunch of zeros and ones, 00001000110. Even if they were some pretty frickin’ cool zeros and ones and MY zeros and ones, it was just that, and I’ll get over it. Next purchase, though, Apple Time Machine. Never again technology, will you make a fool of me…as long as Dylan is around to help, of course

What?

Your tongue - touch it to mine.

Why?

To make it official!

To make what official?

You know, ALL OF IT!

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My reign as ALT of this school is official, as seen here

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Also, if you didn’t know that bit of dialog…

Ever wonder what the kids over here do in their free time? Yeah, I don’t want to know either, but now I know about at least one of them. He goes by the name “Bob” in our Oral Communication class. Little did I know, that Bob has quite the talent.

Pretty awesome

Well done, sir.