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

People, People, People!!

Me and Diane at Gora Park in Hakone

Owakudani

I think I have finally come to realize what its like living with so many people in Japan...unpredictable!  You can't plan things out too much because you never know how much traffic there will be or how long you are going to have to wait in lines!  It's good for me, but for those of you who know me, I like to run on a schedule. :)  Me and Diane decided to head to a quiet mountainous town away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo for a day-trip to Hakone her last weekend here.  Considering the fact that it was a 3-day weekend, many other Japanese had the exact same idea.  What we wanted as a nice relaxing, low-key day, turned into "wait in line over half the day with thousands of other people" adventure.  Don't get me wrong, it was a beautiful place, just tainted by the fact that there were people EVERYWHERE, which meant waiting in long lines for trains, cable cars, ropeways, boats, and busses, much worse than Disneyland!  We saw a handful of things while in Hakone and one of my favorite stops was at Owakudani, an active volcano zone that has bubbling hot pools, sulfurous fumes, and steam vents!  The unique thing about Owakudani is that they use the bubbling hot pools to boil eggs, and sell them at the top of the mountain.  The sulfur turns the egg completely black, but the inside of the egg is fully protected by the shell.  The Japanese believe that if you eat one of these eggs, it prolongs your life by seven years...so of course I had to try one!  Another highlight was the boat ride on Lake Ashi and being able to relax in the sun and take in the scenery.  I'd like to go back to Hakone, but note to self...not on a holiday weekend!

Lake Ashi, and the boat we took!

Patiently waiting in the lines that went on, and on, and on...

Making my dinner choice!

I'm learning that there are Hope College connections everywhere, even in Tokyo!  I was told by one of my math professors at Hope, Mary DeYoung, that there was a Hope faculty member heading over to Tokyo to teach at one of the universities here for the semester.  While I knew of this faculty member and had exchanged a few conversations at Hope with her since she was in charge of the Intramural Program when I was there, I had never really gotten to know her beyond that until last week.  I had the privilege of meeting up with Eva Folkert, who is now the Co-Director of Athletics and an Assistant Professor of Kinesiology there!  We decided to grab dinner at a local ramen restaurant, where you pick what type of noodles and toppings you want on your soup outside the shop at the ticket station, and then once you get your ticket and pay, you go inside and give the chef your order!  It was really fun and something I had wanted to do, and not only was the food delicious, the company was as well.  Eva is here through December and we plan to get together many more times in the future.  It's so nice to have a taste of home while here, someone who knows my roots and the impact that Hope College had on me as a person.  Both came to the conclusion that it must be a "God" thing! :)

Me and Ines

Not only did I have a connection with someone from Hope last week, I also had a connection with someone from Lux!  One of my students in Lux that I really got to know through both teaching and coaching, Iris, told me that her sister, Ines, was going to be in Tokyo for a month and that we should get together.  I had known Ines as she previously attended ISL so it was fun to spend some time with her and see what has been going on since she left ISL.  What an interconnected world we live in! :)

Shrine at Lake Ashi

Of course a Hello Kitty figure...its Japan!

Black Eggs!

Mountainous area by Hakone

Settling In!

Me and Diane in the Todoroki Gorge

One of the shrines

Last week was, yet again, filled with a lot of first time experiences!   I guess that is expected considering the fact that I've only been in Tokyo for 6 weeks and there is SO much to see, do, and experience.  The city itself is massive, and very busy, but there are also some very quiet areas as well.  I feel blessed to be experiencing a mix of the two.  I live about a two minute walk from the train station to my apartment, with little shops and boutiques all around me.  However, a big draw to taking the apartment I chose was that it backed up to a gorge, making the view out of my balcony gorgeous and not feeling like I'm in a big city at all.  I had been wanting to take a walk through it, but since it gets dark here around 6PM and I've had bigger fish to fry, I kept putting it off.  Me and Diane decided to take a walk through it, and I have a feeling  I'll be spending much more time there with my journal or a good book! :)  Its the only gorge-formed park in eastern Tokyo and its like a little promenade that winds through the woods for about a kilometer, with little shrines here and there, along with benches to sit on.  Apparently, when the cherry blossoms bloom, its even prettier!  I sometimes feel like I'm camping out, the two times that I've actually been able to open my windows instead of using the AC, I heard animals chirping all night long!

Cooking it up!

As pathetic as this sounds, I finally cooked my first real meal in my apartment last week!  Yes, you are probably asking yourself why in the world did it take her  two and a half weeks for this to happen!?  With traveling, coaching, running errands, and trying to get settled, I just hadn't had the time to make a proper meal!  I had cooked eggs, made salads and sandwiches, and always prepared my lunch for school, but was excited to finally cook a nice meal because I really do enjoy cooking! It was also great to have a friend there to share it with, and I plan to cook much more in the future.  Figuring out what things are in the grocery store as been quite and adventure, but I am slowly learning!

First real home-cooked meal with a friend!

Japanese baseball game in the rain!

Leading the cheers!

I had my first taste of a Japanese baseball game last week as well.  It was a supposed to be a sold out crowd since it was the two Tokyo teams playing against each other, but unfortunately it turned rainy here, and many people didn't show up.  In fact, it was the first time I had worn long pants in this country since my arrival 6 weeks ago because of the heat!  I still got  taste of what Japanese baseball is like, as I sat in the outfield seats among all of the crazy fans, standing on chairs, waving towels, etc!  Its quite an interesting concept here; when your team is up to bat, you go wild, with chants for each player who is up to bat.  When your team is in the field, you quietly sit down and watch the game, of course being respectful to the other team and letting their fans have a chance to cheer.  There is no one team's fans trying to cheer louder than the other, its very civil, but these fans are hardcore, waving towels, jumping up and down, wearing the jerseys of their favorite players, etc.  They even have a guy working in the stands with a whistle and leading cheers!

Fans standing up cheering for the other team, waving their orange towels!

Which one will work!?

I've been trying to get my apartment all decorated and put together, and was very fortunate in the sense that a lot of my decorations I was able to ship over.  In getting them all, I was eager to decorate my place and figure out what to put where!  In the process, however, I hit a road block:   you aren't allowed to put nails in the wall here, and when they tell you no, it means no!   I was told to get these hooks that leave no mark when you take them off, so off I went to the store to get them.  There were so many of these darn hooks that I didn't know which ones to buy, and not being able to read Japanese means you have to go on looks alone.   At one store, I literally just parked it on the ground instead of bending over trying to figure out what hooks I wanted to get and sat and studied what I thought would work.  Diane thought this was pretty hilarious and as you can see, snapped of picture of me intently focusing.  I spent lots of time deciding what to get and how many and thought I was all set, but I have been disappointed because more of the hooks have fallen off the wall rather than stay and many of my frames broke!  :(  I'm not sure if its because of the humidity that they aren't sticking or what, but I'm in the process of trying to find another solution or getting bigger hooks, not to mention some having to buy new picture frames!  I guess if this is one of my only frustrations in life, I am truly blessed!

Plastic Food!

Fun at the beach!

Me and Diane out to dinner!

Time just keeps getting away from me, and I must confess, updating my blog is always on my "to do" list.  As you may have noticed, somehow, some way, it always gets pushed to the next days list.  I am going to try and remedy this, though, I promise!  Part of my excuse is that I've had visitors here and been out and about exploring, so once my stream of visitors slow down, I'm sure I'll have much more time to post! :)  

Standing up at our table!

Speaking of visitors, its been a great month and awesome for my friends to see my life here, along with getting to do all of the touristy stuff straight away and learn as much about the culture as possible!  My friend Diane was broken into the Japanese culture straight away, as our first night out for dinner with some of my colleagues, we arrived at the restaurant and we had to take off our shoes and sit down on the floor!  It made for a fun experience here for sure, and always followed by some great food.  

Trying to be like Buddha!

One of the shrines

On one of my days off, Diane and I decided to explore Kamakura, a small city just under an hour south of Tokyo that is sometimes called the Kyoto of Eastern Japan.  It has many temples and shrines, and even the second tallest buddha in Japan, almost 45 feet tall (13.35 m)! It was built in 1252 and definitely a sight to see.  We visited a handful of other shrines there which are all very impressive, and its definitely a place I would like to go back to and explore some more.  We were pleasantly surprised that Kamakura had a beach and of course made our way down there and spent some time walking in the water...which was SO warm!  Considering the heat we have had here, it didn’t surprise me at all, and I’ve made note...next time I head to Kamakura in the heat, I need to bring along my bathing suit!  One thing I've learned to appreciate about the Japanese is their plastic food presentation outside of restaurants.  At first I found it silly, but considering the fact that many times now, when no English menus are available, the waiter or waitress often leads me to outside so that I can point to what I want.  They put GREAT detail in the plastic food displays and it really looks real.  Everything I've ordered off of the "plastic menu" so far comes out looking darn near exactly what I pointed to!  This doesn't surprise me at all, considering the fact that the Japanese are very articulate, and have come to really appreciate them having the plastic food displays EVERYWHERE! 

Plastic Food!

                                                                                        

A real Geisha

Going to Disney was one of things on Diane's list of things to do and since I love Disney as well, I was gladly willing to go!  They have two Disney Parks here, Disneyland Tokyo and Tokyo Disney Seas, and we opted for Tokyo Disney Seas, "Where Adventure and Imagination Set Sail."  It made for a fun day, with many different themed ports in the park.  I felt back in Europe as I walked through Venice in the Mediterranean Port, Morocco as we wandered through Arabian Coast, and on my East Coast road trip this summer in the American Waterfront which focuses on New York and Cape Cod.  I felt the most at Disney through Mermaid Lagoon, which has an "Under the Sea"  playground with rides, etc that was incredible!  I thought there would be much more of an Asian flare at Disney, but it felt very American, and everything was in both Japanese and English.  From being at the park for the day, I came to the conclusion about two things: 

1.  The Japanese like to match

2. They go all out when it comes to anything

Everywhere I turned, there were groups of people who either had on matching tops, or hats, or full outfits!  I guess it makes it easy to find your group, and it was quite the norm there!  Many people were all decked out in Disney gear, and let me tell you something, these people don't skimp.  More people than not had on at least some Mickey ears and some people had as much Disney paraphernalia on as possible.  They sported everything quite proudly, and the big souvenir popcorn holder that goes around your neck was a bit hit as well.  I guess that's their idea of a full Disney experience!  

I've now coached two volleyball games with my middle school girls and we are 2-0!  We have another two games this coming week and they are such eager kids who want to learn as much as possible, so it makes it fun to coach.  I think my highlight of the week with them actually took place off the court.  We were riding public transport back to our school from an away game.  As a general rule, you line up on the platform at the marked spots where the train doors will be, of course without pushing or shoving, to reduce the time that the train spends at each stop.  Once on the train, people are quiet on and if its around rush hour, don't expect much personal space at all.  There really are "people pushers," men in white gloves who push people into the subway cars if need be.  There is no eating or talking on cell phones, however, if you want to be like the Japanese, you either need to be on your phone texting the whole ride or sleeping if you are lucky enough to get a seat.  You have to make sure to suddenly wake up right before your stop, because that's what they do!  I'm trying to paint the typical picture here so you can envision a bunch of middle school girls jumping on the metro, psyched up from a win, and hanging out with their coach outside of the gym.  When we got on the train, it was towards the end of rush hour, but still quite busy, standing room only.  The girls were chattering away with each other, asking me tons of questions about everything under the sun, and just being kids, oblivious to the quietness of those around them.  At one point, I wasn't sure if I should try to quiet them down or let them continue on.  I contemplated it while observing the others around us to see if they seemed annoyed (they didn't), along with making eye contact with the other chaperone, a native Japanese mother.  When she smiled and nodded and non-verbally communicated that the girls were perfectly okay, I just enjoyed their company.  It turned out being a great 35 minute commute with a lot of laughter and getting to know the girls off the court, what I love most about coaching.  I really do feel so blessed that God has given me the opportunity to touch lives and be a role model for kids, and feel completely in my calling of life.  What a great place to be! :)  

Me and 3 other teachers

Me Diane in the Pacific!