Livin' Life...

A-Team!

My volleyball girls had a great weekend and both the A and B team won their last regular season games!  My A team girls are ready for the big A-team tournament on Nov 6 and practicing hard up until then.  I'm building some great relationships with kids and its awesome to just love on them and encourage them...can't imagine doing anything else!

B-Team!

I also had the opportunity to meet up with three Japanese families that used to live in Lux and attended ISL: Moe, Yurika, Masaki, and Yuki!  We all met for lunch and had a great meal, me learning about different foods and life here in Japan, and of course reminiscing about Luxembourg.  Two of the moms were so kind and took me to the grocery store so that I could be enlightened.  I often walk through the grocery wondering what in the heck a variety of things are, so it was perfect to be able to ask as many questions as I wanted and them be able to fill my head with useful information!  We all plan to meet up again in the near future!   I've also recently found out that there are a few other ISL kids in the area so we are going to plan a big get together...International Schools are GREAT! :)  

Oeshiki Festival

Festivals are everywhere around here and I had the opportunity to attend another one last week, a Buddhist festival called Oeshiki.  Of course it was at a temple, and there was a huge mando parade with lanterns, people dancing, and playing musical instruments everywhere.  Apparently there were over 10,000 lanterns...the streets were even closed and it completely took over the little neighborhood...pretty cool!  Of course, there were people EVERYWHERE.  I'm learning there are very few places that there aren't mass amounts of people!  

I'm keeping busy here...unfortunately I tweaked my back playing basketball Friday night, so am a little under the weather.  Coaching Saturday morning was rough, I felt like a grandma trying to move because my back was so stiff!  The mom's were great, one gave me some pain killers and another went out and bought me Starbucks, and then a third brought me a heating pad later in the day!  They offered giving me rides if I need it too, so its great to have that support!  I hope that its not anything too serious and I'm trying to lay low this week...which is tough for me!  Its definitely improving, but I know something is still up.  I've also been having people over to my apartment so its been fun to be hospitable and I'm learning the ropes about living here and everything that goes with that.  Hard to believe that I've been here just over two months...time sure flies!  I did book my ticket home for Christmas though, so I'll be home in less than two months to catch up with family and friends...Dec 17-Jan 3!  

View of Mt. Fugi from my school!  Of course it's zoomed in a bit! :)

I saw my first sighting of Mt. Fuji...from school so it wasn't too spectacular, but it was the first clear clear day here...I will be going mid-November for a Ultimate Frisbee tournament there so I'm excited to see it up close then!  Still enjoying hanging out with lots of different people doing a variety of things, dinners, game nights, festivals, so staying busy and having fun.  I'm still trying to get connected with a church and community, but know that takes time!  

Game night with some friends!

One of my 8th grade girls, Alex :)

Point and Guess!

Me and some 8th grade girls at the Festival of Nations

Yes, I know I'm tardy on the post.  :)  Better late than never, right!?  Guess where I just paid my cell phone bill?  You are probably thinking...the bank, online transfer, wrote a check.  WRONG!  I just paid it...at a convenience store!  Yes, I paid not only my cell phone bill, but also my water bill, and electricity bill at your normal 7-11!  Who would have thought!?  You can pay your bill at any convenience store, which are all open 24 hours, and are EVERYWHERE!  All you do is take your bill to the store, hand it to them, they scan it, you pay it, you get a receipt, and you are done...just like that, no Japanese needed!  Online bank transfers aren't as common here, not to mention my bank doesn't even have an online English website!  

Tiako-Japanese drumming performance that is quite impressive!

The gym was turned into a store!

The first weekend in October my school hosted an event called Festival of Nations, and that's exactly what it was!  It was a big fundraising event for our school and there were not only food booths from 30 different countries, there were games for kids and a main stage with many different performances.  For those of you living in Luxembourg, the food booths were VERY similar to the International Bazaar...you can eat your way around the world!  The students' parents run the food booths with help from the kids, but each grade is in charge of running a game, much like a carnival.  It makes for a fun day for everyone!  One other part of this festival is something called a White Elephant sale, where people donate EVERYTHING from clothes to household items, books, toys, etc and then they resell the items for a profit.  Let me tell you, I found things for a steal of a deal.  For less than $60 I got a vacuum, iron, ironing board, humidifier, blender, a ghetto convection oven (there is no oven in my apt!), DVD's, and a few travel books!  

What do I order!?!

Couldn't resist the craving!

I had the pleasure of having my good friends from Lux, Micah and Jess come for a visit before their baby arrived.  The weekend was highlighted with a lunch that almost came down to "point and guess"...what Micah names a menu that you cannot decipher one thing!   There were no pictures on the menu and it was all in Kanji, which we really couldn't make out at all...you've heard the saying, "That looks Greek to me!"...while that's what I feel like 90% of the time here!  Luckily for us, an English menu came to the rescue, but Micah still wanted us to try some pretty interesting stuff.  We ate at a Yakitori restaurant which I thought was just skewers of grilled chicken.  What I didn't know was that its not just your typical chicken wing, or chicken breast...they have options such as: chicken liver, neck, gizzards, bum, heart, cartilage, etc.  This place also had some other grilled meat, veggies, and rice.  Micah likes to be adventurous and insisted we order outside of our comfort zone, so for round two, we ordered: chicken bum, dried stingray fin, and beef intestine!  The chicken bum and dried stingray fin weren't bad, but the intestine was a texture and taste I'd like to forget! :)  We of course splurged and got some Krispy Kreme doughnuts as well...I like to say that we gave into Jess'  pregnancy craving, but they were delicious!  It's been so fun having friends visit and them being able to get a little taste of what life is like for me here!  I've got space to host you, so come on over! :)  

Jessica super preggo!  Congrats to her  and Micah and their new baby girl, Kairi!

Things at school are continuing to go well, I love my kids and the one colleague I work so closely with is awesome!  Coaching volleyball continues to be fun and my girls are improving so much!  We have our last game before the tournament this weekend.  We are 4-3 right now, but all of the games we lost could have easily been won either game.  That's the joy of coaching middle school...its UNPREDICTABLE!  :)   

CHAMPIONS!!

The championship team! :)

I somehow have played in one ultimate frisbee tournament and have one championship!  Trust me, it was my team that got us the win, but I had a really great time playing, and feel like I have improved a lot in the few weeks I've picked up this new sport.  There were 24 teams at the tournament, and the Tokyo Ultimate Frisbee Club brought out three teams, all who finished in the top five!  We played against both of the other Tokyo teams in the tournament-one went into overtime and the other down to the last second, so we represented well!  :)  Before the tournament, I had played "pick-up"  ultimate twice, and thrown the frisbee with the guy who works at my school once, so I was a beginner to say the least.  My goal for the weekend was to not drop the frisbee...because in the game any sort of drop is a turnover.  Thankfully, due to good throws and the athleticism I've been blessed with, I was successful in attaining my goal, and even scored some points for my team!  My teammates were great and really encouraging and want me to continue playing with them.  It's awesome exercise, a team sport, and they are fun people to be around...a great combo if you ask me!  Usually its not a beach game, its played on a big field, but this tournament was different and a good intro into the sport for sure.  We had a BEAUTIFUL day along the beach and couldn't have asked for a better outcome!

Sleeping on the futon on the floor!

I also stayed in my first Japanese hotel, called a Ryokan, this weekend for the tournament...and it was definitely not your typical western hotel!  The room was much different...there were no beds, only futon mattresses!  There were four of us in each room, and we each had our own futon mattress.  The floor was not a typical floor either.  It was a tatami floor, which means the floor was made up of a series of tatami mats that were made out of straw, with the futon mattress directly on the mats.  The straw has a distinct smell, and it is very typical for a Japanese house to have at least one tatami room.  Besides the room, the cuisine was VERY different as well.  Everyone said our place had a great breakfast...and I'm sure it did for the Japanese, or those accustomed to a typical Japanese breakfast.  However, for me the thought of having rice, miso soup, grilled fish, tofu, vegetables, and pasta for breakfast didn't entertain my stomach at all.  I was hoping for some cereal or yogurt, or at least some bread and cheese!  Luckily there was a little western corner with a very dry roll and jam, and some runny scrambled eggs and french fried potatoes.  I gladly ate that over the other choices.  I was completely used to the European breakfast with meat and cheese and bread, but I'm not so sure I'll be able to convert to the Japanese style!  Time will tell. :)

Me and a few 7th grade girls

I went bowling for the first time here in Japan, and it was completely the same as in the US, a huge bowling alley with over 20 lanes!  It was much more organized though, and there were racks for each size ball, instead of all the balls just all being mixed together, AND there were boxes for shoes, so you just had t pick your size!  I was a chaperone for the 7th and 8th graders, and we went bowling with two other schools, our brother boys-school and another all-girls school.  The kids had a great time and of course me being able to bowl made it even more fun!  

This is just a quick post in my attempt to "catch-up"  a little bit as I always seem to fall behind because so much is going on!  More to come soon! :)

Japanese Bowling alley filled with kids

A few 8th grade girls

View from my hotel room when I woke up