Vagabond Sara

Please donate to Japan

2011-03-22T14:14:00.002-04:00

If you read and followed my blog for the two years that I lived in Japan, you might realize that the affected areas was exactly where I lived. The days following the earthquake and tsunami have been heartwrenching for me. It took many days of worrying sick until some information started floating through the internet that some of my friends are okay. I am only now starting to receive first hand emails from my friends. But, what do you say to someone who tells you that both of their parents died, or their entire home that their family has owned for hundreds of years was washed away, or that many of their friends died? What do you say back?

I am asking you to please consider donating. At this time, I can only make referrals to donate to larger organizations. However, if you'd like to wait, I'm trying to determine how I can donate directly to Ishinomaki.

Redcross

Text "redcross" to

90999 for US

30333 For Canada

or visit https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?idb=0&5052.donation=form1&df_id=5052

For UK

http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now/Make-a-single-donation/Japan-Tsunami-Appeal

Send cheques or call 08450 53 53 53. Donate online through the link above.

Global Giving

http://www.globalgiving.org/ - I gave 100 to this organization, they in turn work with the other organizations.

or text "Japan" to 50555 (US only I assume)

Japan Society

Recommended by the US Japanese Consulate, they also work with other organizations, like Redcross.

https://www.japansociety.org/japan_earthquake_relief_fund

Shelterbox

Can donate in 18 currencies

Provides shelter boxes. Each box supplies an extended family of up to 10 people with a tent and equipment to use while they are displaced or homeless.

http://www.shelterbox.org/

Save the Children:

https://secure.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6239465/k.544E/Childrens_Emergency_Fund/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp?msource=wenlpaqk0311 (US/International)

http://www.savethechildren.org.au/what-we-do/emergencies/japan-disaster (Australia)

http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/Tsunami-and-quake-hit-Japan.htm (UK)

Doctors Without Borders:

https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=214&hbc=1%3Fref%3Dmain-menu

Salvation Army

text "Japan" to 80888 (US only I assume)

New cooking blog!

2010-05-18T20:55:00.002-04:00

Hey folks -

I've decided I like to cook so much that I want you to read my cooking blog:

http://www.eggyveggiekitchen.blogspot.com/http://www.eggyveggiekitchen.blogspot.com/

This blog (vagabond Sara) will be used for my travel stories. In my daily routine of cooking, please check out my yummy recipes!!!!

Chinese language lessons

2010-03-04T20:37:00.003-05:00

I started taking a Chinese class at the end of January. I'm not learning very fast, but that's my own fault. I'm not practicing much out of class. We have a main instructor and a sort of TA. I call her the teacher in training because she'll be doing it next semester. Our instructor is Fred, who happens to be one of my favorite international students of all time. He'll be at my wedding, so everyone will have the opportunity to meet this amazing young man. Fred is the first international student I met when I started my job here. If I could adopt a Chinese adult, it would be Fred. Once you meet him, you'll see why.

Anyways, I'm not progressing very fast, but I know I will. The class is an interested group of people. All from students to professors to grad students and local people from the community. Chinese is grammatically easier than Japanese. The grammar is very similar to English. However, pronunciation and memorizing words has been difficult for me. There are four different tones which changes the word meaning. It also seems that the word 'shi' is used constantly.

So, until mid- May, you can expect me to be learning Chinese :)

I love to cook

2009-12-08T19:55:00.007-05:00

I came back from Japan and over the course of the last 16 months I have grown a love for cooking.

I make mostly "ethnic" foods. With some good old American classics. I love it because I'm vegetarian. A lot of people go on and on about how can I be a vegetarian. Well, if you tasted my amazing recipes, you wouldn't need your meat. I love soups. They are by far my favorite things to make.

Tonight, I made Indian food.

The top bowls are mulligatawny soup. The first time I made it, it was horrible. Tonight, it's pretty great. I will let Jon finalize that opinion. The bottom bowls are butter tofu curry. It's made from the same recipe as butter chicken curry. Naturally, I substituted the chicken for tofu.

Some others of my favorites:

These dishes above and below this text is a Korean dish called bibimbap. It usually includes beef, but of course, I leave it out. It's sooooo good!

annnnddd....

Lentil Soup
So good that the first time Jon and I made it
we ate a whole pot. We've never accomplished that since.

I'm back folks!

2009-11-30T19:55:00.005-05:00

I think I'm going to start blogging again. I miss it. I don't know if anyone actually will look at this anymore. But, it's worth a shot.

I started this blog when I was 22. Now, I'm 26. That's pretty crazy. For my 26th birthday, Jon took me to Point Au Roche lodge which is about 10 miles north of Plattsburgh. It's across from our favorite state park called Point Au Roche. This is where we have gone for many hikes and of course, this is where Jon proposed to me.

Jon had the room decorated so that it came with champagne, chocolate covered strawberries and candles. It was a rainy day, so we definitely took advantage of being inside the lodge more than being in the park.

I feel so fortunate to live in such a gorgeous part of the United States.

Back in the Adirondack's

2008-09-23T20:10:00.004-04:00

One of the reasons I love Plattsburgh so much is because it's so close to the Adirondack State Park. This is 6 million acres of nearly undisturbed land, mostly mountainous. There are 46 peaks over 4,000 feet (1,219 m) and those that summit all 46 are called 46ers. Jon and I have decided to try to become one of those elite hikers.

The first hike we did this fall was to Indian Head. This one isn't a high peak, but offers spectacular views of the Lower Ausable Lake. It's an easy, short nice hike. We spent hours at the top to ourselves. We couldn't believe that we didn't run into a single other person.

The second hike I did was Noonmark with my friend Julie. This one was much more strenuous with the summit at 2175 feet.

The third hike I did this season was with my colleague/friend Cody. We drove a short distance to do another simple hike that leaves you with spectacular views. This hike is called "Silver Lake" since you get to see the lake that is called that.

Montreal

2008-09-13T20:31:00.002-04:00

Plattsburgh is only an hour south of Montreal. I have always loved this city and clearly still do. After working about 70 hours in a week for orientation, my colleages and I had a bit of a "disorientation" in Montreal. My office is very small and we all get along really great. I feel I was able to easily walk into friendships because of this. So, here's a bit of an introductory blog.

The picture below is of Cat and I in front of a church in the evening in Montreal. Cat is my direct supervisor at work.

This is Cody and I in Old Montreal. Cody is a student advisor for issues mostly concerning visa and immigration. Him and i started at the same time. A great part of working with Cody is that he also spent time in Japan on JET for two years. It's helped with my transition back to America. We can share small stories about Japan and it helps keep it alive in my head!

Sara's Crib Season 3

2008-09-08T20:40:00.005-04:00

It's been a long time, but here it is - my home!

Japanese things in America (1)

2008-07-29T00:14:00.003-04:00

I got a new cell phone today, my first day back in Plattsburgh. I've already found some "Japanese things in America", and maybe I'll kind of do a series on that.

All Japanese cells phones have what foreigners call "ketai bling". I don't know the proper terminology for it. However, a ketai means cell phone...and bling..means bling as we know it in English. There are little hooks on the top of cell phones, which people put all types of souvenirs or memorabilia.

I was thrilled when I saw my cell phone has a spot for me to put bling on. I've got all sorts of bling as goodbye gifts and now I can use them.

My model and current bling is a gift that my ikebana teacher made for me as a goodbye present.

Honestly, I am so thrilled over ketai bling in America.

PS email me for the #!

emotions

2008-07-16T09:27:00.003-04:00

I finally lost all control of my emotions and cried tonight. It was the farewell party for my adult class and I couldn't hold it in anymore. When I left Plattsburgh nearly two years ago, I felt so full of life and happy. I came to Japan and felt that I lost a lot of that. But, as I am leaving Japan, it's true, I am again, full of life and happy. I didn't think I could find such real and good friendship as I had found in Plattsburgh. But, I did...I found it in my students, my young students and especially my adult students, I found it in the other foreign English teachers this year, I've built it with other Japanese people who mean so much to me, my friend Yumie, my Japanese tutor, my ikebana teacher and co-student, the people at the board of education who help me...the list goes on and on. I always looked at my photos from the end of my life in Plattsburgh as a student and felt that I was looking at a truly happy Sara. Now, I look at the photos I am taking now...with my students, with my friends with everyone around me.....and I see a truly happy Sara again. I made the best decision of my life by staying for a second year in Japan...

The Office, Japanese Style

2008-07-13T10:10:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite TV programs is The Office. I nearly died when I saw this clip from Saturday Night Life combining my favorite American TV show with my Japanese life. It's quite accurate! I love it!

The T's in Tokyo

2008-07-06T06:18:00.005-04:00

I met Mom and Dad at the hotel since I had to work on that Friday. The time seemed to pass so slowly taking the train from Ishinomaki all the way to Ueno, the district in Tokyo I decided we would stay in. As I walked through the doors, Dad was there waiting to meet me in the lobby. He took me by surprise. We took care of checking in and I finally got to see Mom upstairs in her room. I was ecstatic that they were able to figure out how to get to the hotel by themselves. I was worried that they might get a bit lost and need to call.

Our first dinner was in a small alleyway in the streets of Ueno. Mom and Dad tried their first real Japanese food dining outside. They really enjoyed yakitori, grilled chicken on a stick, edamame, and other food that evening. A drunken old businessman that wanted "communication" with foreigners sat down at our table and chatted my ears off. I felt bad since Mom and Dad couldn't understand. I excused myself after about a 20 minute conversation with the drunkard.

Our first full day in Tokyo was jam-packed of sites and I am so glad that we did it all on that day. We woke up early and went to Asakusa, a district I have been to uncountable times in the past. There's a famous shopping street and very large temple, 5-storey pagoda and Japanese gardens. As always, the street and temple area was full of visitors and sight-seers from all over Japan and the world. Mom was in heaven, we must have shopped on that street for almost two hours.

Afterwards, we took the Sumida River Cruise from Asakusa to the Hama Rikyu Teien Gardens. Claimed to be one of the best gardens to see in Tokyo. The river cruise was interesting, you see the looming towers of Tokyo around you and I believe in only this one stretch, we passed under something like 13 bridges

It was about a half hour long until we finally arrived to the gardens. The garden/park was really big and a good get-away from the craziness of Tokyo. There's a pond in it, mini-Fuji-san, lots of Japanese flowers and trees and just a nice stroll.

After that, we had lunch in Shiodome. We had curry-udon which both mom and dad enjoyed. Then, we went to all the different districts of Tokyo. We checked out Shibuya, which has the potentially the busiest crosswalk in the whole world. We watched people pass over it a few times before going to join the crowd. It started raining while we were walking around.

From there, we went to Harajuku, my favorite shopping district and finally to Shinjuku, the part of Tokyo that people probably see the most photos of. It's famous for it's neon lights and towering buildings. Unfortunately, by this time, it was down pouring, so we had coffee in a Mister Donuts. I decided to take them to an izakaya for dinner.

The next and our last day in Tokyo, it was still overcast when we woke up. I was able to take them to Tosho-gu Shrine in Ueno which is one of the few shrines to have made it through all the disasters that Tokyo has been through.

It dates back from hundreds of years ago. As it was the first shrine Mom and Dad had seen, they were very impressed. The rain started coming down hard as we finished. So, we spent the rest of the day, until 6pm at the National Museum. I think it was a good introduction of Japan for them. Our last stop of the day was to Roppongi Hills, an amazing living, working and shopping complex that took over a decade to build. We only saw one tower of the whole complex and it was fantastic. I can't even imagine how much it costs to live there. The restaurant we had dinner at was so Western, I completely forgot we were even in Japan anymore.

That was our last adventure in Tokyo. The next morning we woke up early and rode the shinkansen to Kyoto.

for all the photos of Tokyo, click here

My official return home date

2008-07-02T09:03:00.001-04:00

I have put down a deposit and getting my tickets tomorrow. I'm flying back to the USA on July 27th. Whether I go straight to Plattsburgh or have time to go to Buffalo first depends on if I get my dream job. I had my second interview with them last night. I should know in a week or a bit more if I am offered the position. Either way, I am headed back to the USA on July 27th.

It's too soon.

Maiko Makeover!

2008-06-29T10:38:00.004-04:00

While in Kyoto, Mom and I had a "maiko makeover." Most Westerners will understand this as we were geisha's. In fact, a maiko is a geisha apprentice. As a maiko, we wore white make-up, bright red lipstick, black eye make-up and our kimono and obi (the belt around a kimono) is more vibrant than a geisha. Most Westerners see this and think it's a geisha but in fact it's not. We had our make-up done in about 20 minutes, then we got to choose our own kimono. From there, we were dressed up in the kimono and chose the obi. Next, came the wig which was heavier than I had ever expected. Last, we had to wobble in the proper sandals for kimonos. Then, we got to go outside for photos! It was really funny to see the photos! We look so different. The hardest part was taking all that make-up off. It took forever!

Parents in Japan!

2008-06-19T10:44:00.003-04:00

My parents are flying somewhere between NY and Japan right now. I will see them in like 16 hours. YAY YAY YAY YAY! I can't express my excitement. I am thrilled they will be here..so soon. How will I ever make it through work tomorrow? We're going to be in Tokyo for 3 days and then Kyoto for 5 and then they will come back up to Ishinomaki for the weekend to meet all my awesome friends here. :0)

Earthquakes scare me now

2008-06-15T11:46:00.003-04:00

I was surprised to learn that my mom had no clue that there were so many earthquakes in Japan. As quoted from the BBC, "Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries and experiences thousands of minor tremors each year. " Certainly, I have felt many of them in my almost two years here. On Saturday morning, my time...there was a pretty serious earthquake measuring at 7.2 on the Richter scale only 50 kilometers North of me. I didn't feel it because I was in another prefecture planning on going hiking. When we learned of the earthquake and the severity of it's magnitude, we immediately drove back home...

In case you missed this news..

Click here to see it

Anyways, my prefecture is due to get an earthquake even worse than this one within the upcoming months. I only hope that I am out of Japan when it does occur. But, in case I'm not...I've prepared an excellent earthquake kit and my escape route. It still scares the shit out of me though. Blah.

On positive news, for those of you who haven't heard.... I have a phone interview this Tuesday with my dream job. If I get it...I'll pretty much be the happiest person alive. Wish me luck and cross your fingers for me!

Random Parades

2008-06-11T10:22:00.002-04:00

One lazy Sunday afternoon I was laying in my apartment reading a book on globalization when suddenly very loud music started. It continued slowly that I finally decided to go out to see what all the commotion was. Ruth had the same idea and we found a parade passing by our apartment with dozens and dozens of kids in their traditional yukatas and floats of interesting decorations. Some of boats and others just cars decorated with traditional Japanese decorations.

Here is my terrible recording jobs...but enjoy anyways!

and the lasts begin...

2008-06-10T09:48:00.002-04:00

I have already had 3 lasts.

1. Last day at one of the best elementary schools I taught at between the 15 different elementary schools I was placed at in the past two years.
2. Last day with my volunteer position as a Peer Support volunteer for other English teachers within Japan.
3. Last day teaching the advanced adult class on Global Issues that I started this past year.

With all these 3 lasts, I am starting to wonder if I made the right decision in going home?

Life's tough.

Mount Asahi

2008-06-01T08:18:00.010-04:00

In the beginning of May, there are quite a few national holidays that fall at the same time. This usually gives everyone a good chunk off of work to go places. As everyone gets these national holidays, traveling within Japan can be a nightmare because everyone is traveling. Japan isn't the only country that has this Golden week, but so does China and Korea and maybe others that I am not aware of. Thus, everything is hiked up and overcrowded at this time of the year.

I went on a 3 day and 2 night hiking trip during this time. I went with my two faithful hiking buddies and their family. It was Suzuki-san, Kimura-san and his wife and niece. The first day was probably the most difficult day for me. I wasn't used to having my big backpack on yet. We hiked uphill for about 5 hours on this day. We stayed in mountain huts both of the nights. (See pictures below, one from the inside and one from the outside)

I was overly sore after the first day, I was worried I wouldn't make it through all 3 days. But, surprisingly after resting a bit, my body started feeling a bit better. We were in bed really early to get up the next day. The second day was a lot of uphill and downhill hiking through the snow. We reached our highest peak at 1870 meters on the second day. The second day, at the mountain hut, the overseer man was a rather crazy man. It didn't help that he was drunk. The guy kept telling me to speak in Japanese and that English wasn't allowed. It didn't matter that I actually was speaking in Japanese, he kept reminding me. He was a bit crazy....

(from the highest peak)

And then, we woke up to a sunrise that I will never ever forget. There was a 'sea of clouds' with only the tip of the mountain we were staying on peeking out from the top. Then the most colorful, vibrant sunrise. It's one of my top sunrises ever. It was totally worth it.

The 3 day hike was great. :0)

Please click HERE if you want to see all my photos.

Takenoura Festival

2008-05-05T03:57:00.005-04:00

Last Tuesday we had a day off of work for a national holiday. Don't ask me what the holiday was because just like in America - I really don't care what the holiday is as long as it's a free day off of work. Suzuki-san had invited all of us English teachers to his small community for a local festival. It was a beautiful Spring day for an outdoor festival. His small town is a hamlet with gorgeous scenery. The festival consisted of all the local boys and men carrying a mikoshi, or a portable shrine about town. The Shinto priest takes the 'Shinto God' from the main shrine and puts it into the portable shrine. It is believed that the local men are carrying God about town this way. A man walks in front of all these men carrying the mikoshi and sprinkles salt before them to make the ground purified. The mikoshi weighs one ton and is decorated with bells and orange rope. The actual little shrine that the God sits in is gold. Between rest stops, all the strong men indulge in sake. Following this are taiko drums and flute players. Also, there is a lion dance, where men (and women can now, too) walk about "biting" people on their heads. It takes 3 people to be under the costume to create this affect. In Suzuki san's small community, the make it mandatory at their schools that all the student learn how to play the Japanese taiko drum, flute and how to do the lion dance. This way their tradition will never die. Suzuki-san is a teacher of all 3 of these things. Japan is amazing in keeping it's culture and custom even as it keeps up with the changing global demands. After the festival finished, we all went back to Suzuki-san's house for lunch.

getting my head bit by the lion

Me, Jane, the Shinto Priest and Emily

The Shinto Priest putting God into the Mikoshi

The boys and men carrying God around town

Lunch at Suzuki-san's house

For all the photos, click here

SPORN

2008-04-19T22:06:00.003-04:00

Last weekend, I attended a benefit that raised money for a few popular Non-profit organizations amongst foreigners living in Japan. It was themed SPORN - which meant the attenders were to dress as either a SPORts star or as a PORN star. Ruth and I went as team Ishinomaki's Volleyball team.
Jane and Emily went as Ping Pong stars and Kyla was an Extreme Football Player. The benefit was held at a club with musicians all night long. It was also Jane's birthday.

It was a good evening, everyone dressing creatively for their outfits.

For all photos click here

Happy Birthday Lisa!

2008-04-14T07:51:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday to Lisa!

delivery

2008-04-11T03:58:00.003-04:00

One thing that I really love about Japan is that my mailman delivers the mail on bicycle. He straps a tubberware tub to the back of his bike and rides about delivering our letters. Awesome!

Public speaking and sneezes

2008-04-10T03:40:00.001-04:00

One class I wish that I took more seriously in college is public speaking. Japan is a country of speeches and I wish I was more comfortable with it. It's not that I am scared to talk in front of people so much anymore, it's just that these speeches I need to do are always impromptu. It's always like, Sara, please give a speech now...in Japanese. It's hard and I hate it. I had to do one of those fun impromptu speeches today and it made me stop and think how much I wish I had taken that class more seriously.

Another thing I learned today. Random Japanese culture fact:

Japanese people think that when you sneeze, it means that someone is spreading a rumor about you.

Interesting!

Aerobics

2008-04-08T06:54:00.002-04:00

I joined an aerobics class last night. I've never done aerobics before last night and if I hadn't already paid for the 3 month course, I'm not sure I'd return again. To be honest, I absolutely loved the whole ordeal but I have next to zero coordination. Thus, I'm not as some would say a natural for this. If it were back in America, I'd probably never go back but as I have been somewhat conditioned to situations of complete embarrassment here in Japan, it barely phases me. I've joined with Ruth and Jane might come as well. The teacher is this woman who has so much energy and the biggest smile and positive attitude that it's just refreshing to be around someone like that. This class also reminded me how much I love exercise classes. Prior to Japan, I used to go to a core class at least 3 times a week. I haven't gone to an exercise class since that one ended in May of 2006. I miss it! I totally need someone encouraging me and pushing me along to get me to exercise like that. Hopefully this aerobics class helps me get in shape for my return back to America. I look forward to exercise classes back in America that won't cost me an arm and a leg.

On another note, today was my return back to my school after Spring Break. I was really nervous to go back today because I haven't been there in a while. And while I was away, 8 teachers left and 8 new teachers arrived. To my relief, it wasn't nearly as awkward as I had been expecting. It was even more of a relief as the morning progressed, I began seeing who had stayed. Much to my joy and mental well-being, the teachers that talk to me the most had stayed. In fact, one of them has even moved two desks away from me and I couldn't be any happier. And somehow, I felt my relationships strengthened in the time I was gone somehow. The new principal of the school is a lovely man which is a big bonus as well. While I don't realize at all the relationships that I do make, today was a good indicator of how I have made relationships without even trying. I even helped out a lot today, and it gained me some major bonus points. Out of the 8 new teachers, 3 of them I have already worked with in the past at other schools. I guess a bonus to working at so many schools is getting to forge acquaintances all over. I was shocked when I saw a face that I hadn't seen in 8 or 9 months - but was one of the faces that I had seen when I first came to Japan. He knew me since my first day in this city, since when I could speak zero Japanese, from when I was a complete awkward foreigner understanding very little of the culture and making all sorts of social taboos, all throughout my culture shock phases. I probably look like I've grown from being 5 years old to atleast 15 in his eyes. It's pretty cool.

I had dinner tonight with my friend Yukiko. I met her this past November at one of my elementary schools. She's the same age as my younger sister and just the sweetest girl. I wish I had met her sooner, but November is better than never. Her goal is to be living in Montreal one year from now. I really hope she strives and meets her goal because then she will only be an hour away from me in Plattsburgh.

I am having a day where I feel I have succeeded in my life here. I love the relationships I've built and I love seeing how far I've come. It's just so nice when I have days like these.

Longer days, warmer days

2008-04-06T05:18:00.004-04:00

I am so happy right now. This is mainly because it is still dusk out and it's almost 6:30pm. In the winter in Japan, we have about 8 hours of sunlight and so when the days start getting longer, my mood immediately gets better as well. My weekend was nice and laid back - just what I need because I'll be starting to get hectic again starting this upcoming weekend.

On Friday night, I did nothing but lay in my futon all night, it was great. Saturday, I hung out with the girls' all day. In the evening, we all hung out in my apartment which looks as if an earthquake hit it. Prior I had purchased wine at the cheap liquor store. I really enjoy wine and wish I knew more about it. Unfortunately, I don't and thus rely on my major to pick out a brand. I look at the photo on the label and buy it that way. In fact, when Jon and I went to Napa Valley - which is what, the wine capital of the country or world or something...that's exactly how we decided on how to buy our wine - by the picture on the label. I bought one that said on the back "eat critters drink man" with a picture of a man on the label dancing or running or something. It was dry but enjoyable. We ordered pizza for dinner which is always fun to do over the phone in Japanese. Friendly arguments over who would be the sucker who had to call and order the food and deal with the foreign language barrier, I volunteered. We ate, drank and played a few card games before heading out to a karaoke bar. I am totally going to miss karaoke when I am back in the USA.

This afternoon I met with Tamo for some coffee. She just got back from a trip to Borneo and I wanted to hear all about it. I waited for her at the train station where I just felt so happy about the beautiful weather. Tonight, I'll meet Ruth for dinner, her parents were visiting her for a while and she's coming back to Ishinomaki tonight.

In other news, I applied to a job...my first job interest for when I return back to the USA. I think I would be awesome at this job and I only hope after reviewing my cover letter and resume, they will think so too and that I can score an interview. I'd rock at it. I know I would.

Jane

2008-04-01T08:41:00.002-04:00

Jane deserves a post all in her own. Jane is an awesome person in my life in Japan and we always have lots of adventures together. It seems whenever we are bored or have some time, we go exploring. It works out good. We have a system, Jane is Korean-American so people mistake her to be Japanese. I am unquestionably foreign. Sometimes, Japanese people are taken back by a foreigner entering their restaurant, small shop or whatever business it is they run. Well, Jane and I are curious - more curious than cats are. Our strategy is that Jane enters first to keep the shopkeeper calm, then when I enter they still remain calm because they still think Jane is Japanese. I usually do the talking - asking the questions about the particular shop. Usually, they listen to me, look away from me and respond to Jane. I then respond to their response to Jane. After a while, they come to realize, Jane also is a foreigner. But, by this time, we've somewhat calmed them down that I can speak some Japanese. This is how the system works.

Jane and I don't go everywhere together, but when we go exploring, it's with eachother. It's always an adventure. I always remind Jane that she will miss me when I am gone next year. She reminds me the same - that my life is going to be dull and listless when I return back the USA. It's true as far as adventure goes - I won't have much of an adventurous life back in Plattsburgh. I will, but in such a different way.

Today, it was really windy but a nice spring day. I asked Jane to go for a walk with me up to this park on a hill that gives awesome views of our city. We took some stairs down the opposite way because we didn't know where it led to. Coming out, we saw tennis courts. Jane likes to play and has been looking for hard courts. We saw a little court house so she wanted to get information about the courts. Implementing our strategy - Jane enters first and then I. He knew me. He reads this blog! One of my adult students passed this address onto him. It was very surprising to me. He studies English once a week at an adult class in the city. We ended up speaking with him and his wife joined us for over an hour. While he was walking us to the main street, he let us see his home which was a log cabin - that he built by himself. It was fantastic.

It's interactions like these that make me really love my life here. I am here on the JET Programme. Certainly, the outlying motive for this programme would seem to be for English teaching. However, the main initiative of my programme is more for grassroots internationalization rather than to teach English. It's hard to see that since our main job is to teach English. But, if you came here on another program - you are only expected to teach English, that's it, the end. In my job description, it's expected of me to get involved in the community and do cultural exchange type activities. This is not a measurable aspect of my job and it's totally up to each person to do these things. I think that is one part of my job that I do excel at even though it's not measured. I love the interactions and I love exploring with Jane.

It was only a week ago when we went to a restaurant for dinner and the man sitting next to us talked us up a storm and bought us beers. That was by pure chance but only with Jane would something like that happen, it seems. :)

update indeed

2008-03-31T03:40:00.002-04:00

It's Spring Break here again...meaning a new school year again. This year instead of sitting at school all day, I sit at the Board of Education. It's a nice change because the other English teachers are there as well. Mainly, I spend my time writing, reading, studying Japanese and goofing off with the others. As the same as last year, all the staff are being switched up. I haven't created strong relationships with a lot of the teachers this year, so it's not as depressing as it was for me last year. I get to do this for one more week and then I have to start reporting back to school. I doubt I'll teach much until May anyways.

I believe we've entered the rainy season again as well. Last week it rained 3 or 4 times and it's raining again today. April Showers bring Cherry blossoms...I hope. I can't wait - the cherry blossom season is one of my favorite aspects of Japan. Everyone meets underneath the trees to enjoy a little food and a little beer. It's a time when Japanese people don't seem to mind the foreigner sitting across from them and might actually engage me in conversation.

I've started my job hunt. I am definitely going back to Plattsburgh to live with some old friends for at least a year - and am looking for something to give me employment. Unfortunately, the economy is the worst it's been in 30 years and that's not positive for a young inexperienced person seeking employment. Wish me luck!

I've fallen into a bit of a rut and am wishing time would go by a little bit faster. I know I should treasure my time here because it's only a few short months and then I'll probably never be back here again and I'm really going to miss my friends but I am really looking forward to going home again. Hmm. Here's to staying positive through all the rain!

Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs

2008-03-23T08:29:00.006-04:00

Yesterday, on Saturday I performed in my very first play ever...a re-written version of Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. The actors were all foreign English teachers from around my prefecture. I of course, played a dwarf.

The Dwarfs were as follows:
Kawaii dwarf -translates as Cute dwarf who was to be the equivalent of Happy Dwarf,played by me.
Salaryman dwarf - he was to be grumpy dwarf - a salaryman who works many, many hours and was looking for a wife. My character has a crush on him, but he doesn't know.
Neet dwarf - he was to be Dopey Dwarf. His character was a womanizer and considered very lazy.
Flu Dwarf - the same as Sneezy dwarf. In our version, he's a hypocondriac dwarf that's always sick.
Scary Dwarf - the same as Sleepy dwarf - this character pretty much stayed in a well all the time. (see picture below)Sensei Dwarf - the same as Doc dwarf. He was our leader pretty much.
Otaku Dwarf - the same as Bashful dwarf. He was in love with Snow White. An Otaku in Japan is pretty much a huge dork that only plays video games and never goes out.

(from left to right. Flu Dwarf, Neet Dwarf, Kawaii Dwarf (me) hugging Salaryman Dwarf, Sensei Dwarf, Snow White and Otaku Dwarf)

The beginning of the play was very similar to Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs - an evil queen asks the mirror who is the prettiest of them all? When he replies it's Snow White, the queen takes action to remove of her. She hires a hunter to go kill her. The hunter takes Snow White out to "go hunting" but can't bring himself to kill her because she gave him a wreath of flowers.

Instead of killing Snow White, he tells her to run away and never return to the castle again. While running through the woods, she comes upon our "dwarf home" where she comes to stay. The story then turns to introducing each of the dwarfs to the audience. My role in the play was to always be smiling and making it clear to the audience I really like the Salaryman Dwarf. At the same time, I also really admire Snow White and want to be her best friend forever. Neet, the womanizer that he is tries to hit on her, but she doesn't have any of it. Flu is constantly warning everyone of the diseases they could get and to be careful. Otaku secretly admires Snow White and can't speak when she's around. Sensei Dwarf keeps us all in line.
Salaryman proposed to Snow White and I get really upset. I go wailing off stage. While I am off stage, the other remaining dwarfs explain to Salaryman how I am in love with him. He didn't know. He then takes tips from all of them and eventually they bring me back on stage. He tells me he likes me and wants to get to know me better and what do I think? My lines at this point were to say, 'I love you! I love you! Honeymoon in Hawaii, Hawaii! Kawaiiiiiiiii!"
Then, we all dance off stage and it's intermission. The 2nd half of the play starts off with a "Cos Play Convention." We brought audience members up on stage for this part and they got to wear masks. The Cos Play Convention is attended only by Otaku Dwarf (of all the Dwarfs). The Queen at this time learns that Snow White is not dead and makes everyone leave the Cos Play Convention (being held at her castle).

She makes a poisonous apple in which Snow White eats and goes into her coma. We all say sorry to her because we think she is dead. Then, Otaku kisses her goodbye and she wakes up. The Queen comes back to try to kill her but Scary dwarf comes out of his well and brings her back into it with him. That ends the play.

I really enjoyed acting a lot. Like I mentioned, it was the first time for me to do anything like this and I wish I had done acting before. It was a ton of fun!

For all the pictures, click here

Tokyo Disneyland!

2008-03-19T07:22:00.003-04:00

Way way back in December, I went to Tokyo Disneyland. It was great to go at this time because the whole complex was decorated for Christmas. Everything was Christmas themed including the parades. Ruth, Sarah and I left from Sendai at midnight and took an overnight bus there. I don't sleep very well on buses and this time was no exception. The first place the bus stopped was in actual Tokyo. A lot of people got off and I was able to sprawl out in the back of the bus where 3 seats are next to eachother. Thus, I was able to get a few hours of sleep before heading out.

I was really excited to go to Disneyland because I had actually done a ton of case studies on it during college. We often compared how successful Tokyo Disneyland was in comparison with EuroDisney which was a complete flop.

The first ride of the day was Space Mountain at about 8:30am. There was already a 40 minute wait. It was really fun. I had forgotten how much I enjoy roller coasters!

The second ride we went onto was It's a small world...each country wearing the clothes and showing the cultures from fake dolls dancing to the song. Of course, they were all in Christmas attire! This wait was for an hour and a half.

From this point on, it got incredibly crowded and the waits were ridiculous. We figured out something called Fastrack but you could only hold one ticket at a time, unfortunately. The other rides were got on was Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted House, and another roller coaster ride (but I've forgotten the name of it) 2 or 3 times.

We witnessed a few parades and went to a 3D movie that was luckily also showed in English for us. We went and checked out the different Disney characters floating about the complex.

One thing that we had a good laugh at was the extent that Japanese people take when going to Disneyland. Grown adults were wearing these ridiculous hats of their favorite Disney characters. It was ridiculous when girls my age were wearing them but then it was just pathetic when their boyfriend was wearing a matching one. I can understand little kids getting into the Disney spirit and begging their parents to wear these hats but I had a good laugh at grown adults doing it as well.

All in all it was a great weekend trip and I am glad I got to go Disneyland in Tokyo. We took another overnight bus from Tokyo to Sendai and caught the 5:30am train back into Ishinomaki. On the train, we ran into this guy named Paul who is an English teacher in Ishinomaki but through a different program. He was really drunk, coming home from the bars at 5:30am dressed like Santa Clause. He was ho-ho-hoing everyone that came onto the train. The people you meet overseas...

Click here for all the pictures of Disney!

Snow Shoeing

2008-03-16T05:48:00.002-04:00

I went snowshoeing for the first time ever yesterday. My two favorite hiking buddies ever - Suzuki -san one of my adult students and Kimura-san, a 68 year old man who is in better shape than I am invited me to go. Ruth and Sarah also came as well. We went to Mt. Zao which is about a 3 hour drive for us.

From inside a house or a car, the weather seemed ideal. It was sunny and blue skies. In actuality though, it was so windy, one could barely move. In the below picture, take a look at the pants on Suzuki san and I - they are blowing huge!
Actual Snow-shoeing was harder than I expected. It really works your calf muscles and thigh muscles in ways that regular hiking doesn't. But, it does increase your productivity as the bottom of the shoe has a cleat that grabs the snow allowing you to have better traction. The below picture is of Ruth, Sarah and I hiking up the first major slope in our shoes.
Unfortunately for us, the weather only got worse the more altitude we gained. The wind was so strong that if we stopped moving, we were nearly blown backwards. A few times, Ruth saved me from falling backwards into her. It was pretty scary and intense to think about how strong Mother Nature actually is. After losing nearly all visibility, barely being able to move forward and receiving really bad wind burn on our faces, we decided to turn around. There was no point in going further because we couldn't see anything anyways.
We chose an area where snow was built up against a tree to sit and have lunch. The tree blocked most of the wind so we could enjoy lunch without everything blowing away.On our way back down, the weather cleared a lot. The below picture is of us girls and Kimura-san with the mountain in the background that was our possible goal destination given the weather was good.
I really enjoyed snow shoeing even though I was incredibly sore afterwards. I hope to do it again in the future! In Japan, there is a superstition that if the weather is bad when you want it good for something in particular then it means you have been being a bad girl or boy. So, I guess from now on, I need to become a better behaved girl! :)

Kanchanaburi

2008-03-08T01:33:00.007-05:00

Ruth and I got back from hiking, quickly showered and ate and made our way to the bus stop. We had to take the bus from Chiang Rai back to Chiang Mai to catch an overnight bus down to Bangkok then catch a ferry and another train to reach our final destination of Kanchanaburi. It was a bit hectic and we almost didn't make it down. From the annoying 3 hour bus ride from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai that played a Thai game show at a volume level that I'm pretty sure even deaf people could hear to someone giving us incorrect information as to where to catch out bus, it wasn't mean to be. I hate buses. I don't mind short bus rides but given the choice of bus or train, I'm totally a train person. I really don't like overnight buses. I can never sleep on them. For some reason, I'm afraid the bus driver will fall asleep like his passengers and we'll all end up off the road.

When we arrived to our destination- it was only a short walk to find our guest house on the river. We had wanted a riverfront room, but of course they were sold out. We had to settle for a different room but we still had a nice porch overlooking the river - just with the part on the river blocking some of our view. No problem! Since we arrived really early, we had decided to check out a museum. The reason why we came to Kanchanaburi was to ride on the ever famous Death Railway. It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful and scenic railways in Thailand.

We went to the museum which was quite startling and a bit appalling regarding the history of the Death Railway. Prior to going to Thailand, I had done a bit of research on the death railway and learned that it received it's name because of the amount of people who died in order to make it. I was aware most of these people were POW's of Japan during WW2. What I didn't know and wasn't entirely prepared for was the way these POW's and other forced laborers from around Asia were treated. Japan was trying to strategically build a railway from Thailand into Burma during WW2 to assist in their war strategies to get supplies from one area of Asia to another. In the beginning, approximately 60,000 POW's of the Allies were shipped up from other parts of Southeast Asia to construct this railway. The work began in 1942 and was completed 1 year and 3 months later. It is estimated that 16,000 POW's and 100,000 Asian laborers died completing it in this time.

When looking at pictures of the laborers in the museum, the only thing you need to think of are pictures of Holocaust survivors. The ones where the human staring back at you only consists of skin, bones and nothing else. When you see those pictures, you think to yourself, how are they still alive? How is it possible? If someone were to give you a Holocaust survivor photo and a photo of a Death Railway worker, you could never tell the difference between the two. The men constructing this passageway were barely fed and not immunized for the diseases in the Southeast Asia area - such as malaria and cholera. Most died from these these inhumane situations. They were literally worked to death. 38 Allied POW's died for each kilometer of track laid on the railway.

To make it even more of a tragedy, it wasn't even in use for two full years. Once the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the British took over the railway and separated 4km of track to cut Burma and Thailand's easy passageway. It's stories like these that makes me wonder why in America we never learn of these tragedies of WW2. Certainly, we can all recall the events of the Holocaust in Europe, but why not these situations in Asia where the conditions were just as terrible if not worse?

We spent quite a few hours in there and then headed out for lunch. Our first day was just exploring what the town of Kanchanburi offered. It's famous for the war sights that are scattered about the long, narrow town. Pretty much the whole reason to go here is to see the war sights. In the middle of the town is the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery. It is here that most of the men that died were buried. It's kept up beautifully. There are nearly 7,000 POW's that were laid to rest here. The majority of the men that died for this railway were under 25 years old. There is yet another cemetery for the remaining men in another area. If anyone has seen or heard of the movie, "Bridge on the River Kwai"- well, it's here, in this town - that the actual bridge of the actual river Kwai exists. The original bridge had been destroyed twice by Ally bombers in both 1944 and 1945. However, after the war, it was rebuilt and it's still in use today.

The next day, Ruth and I woke up reaaaaaaaallly early and caught the first train out to ride on the infamous Death Railway. In it's entirety - it's two hours one way from Kanchanaburi to the end of the line at Nam Tok. The railway was really beautiful - with certain spots of the river winding beautifully with the river, at other times, going through 30 meter deep solid rocking cuttings. Then there the sections with towering cliffs above you, - this part of the railway, everyone that worked on it, died from the impossible task of creating this part of the railway and surviving it. The landscaping was reminiscent of Japan for me. The rice paddies in your immediate view with mountains protecting them in the distance. Since we got the early train, we not only got to watch the sunrise but didn't have to deal with tons of people riding with us.

When we reached Nam Tok - the end of the line - we had quite a long layover until the next train would come. Nam Tok consists of pretty much nothing. There is this one waterfall called Sai Yok Noi that we spent way too much time at. It's pretty much the only thing to do in this area. We took a lot of photos and were asked to be the foreign celebrities in many others. Somewhere in Thailand, Ruth and I exist in someone's photo album as the foreigner they met that day. I never know to be flattered of creeped out at the thought of this fact.

We went to see where the end of the line actually is. There's an old train just sitting there as well. We climbed up a bunch of stairs to an overlook and walked about up there. There was a set of stairs that led us up to a cave that enshrined a few Buddha's.

After expiring all of our options we decided to try to find the River Kwai from where we were. We spent an hour to two walking around in the noon-sun finding nothing but stares from the locals. Finally, it was time for the train to come. But as it was Thailand, it arrived easily 45 minutes late. We rode the train back with herds of people all cramming on to see the sights. After riding on the train, we went to see the River Kwai bridge up close and not just by riding over it. We walked across the famous bridge and took a bunch of photos.

Our evening consisted of drinking beers and watching beautiful sunsets over the river on our front porch. It was technically our last night in Thailand - at least our last comfortable night with a bed. The next day we headed back into Bangkok and caught the bus to the airport where we spent the night. My flight left before Ruth's. Thus, we departed ways at about 5am and I made my way back to cold, dark Japan.

Thailand was great. Thanks Mom and Dad for a lovely Christmas present. :)

The Death Railway Photos

Kanchanaburi Photos

Hiking in Thailand's Jungle

2008-03-03T07:21:00.004-05:00

New Year's Day. Ruth and I woke up really early to prepare for our hike. It was a two day, one night adventure. It was a small group, the two of us, our tour guide whom never once introduced himself to us and a French man that was rather interesting. The first half of the morning, we were given the typical run-around of a tour in Thailand. Finally, after lunch we embarked on our hike. The jungle that we hiked in was fantastic. I showered myself in the cancer causing chemical of deet to keep the mosquitoes off me. We had only been in the "high-concentration of mosquitoes" part for about 2 minutes when our tour guide killed one that was a malaria-mosquito. Thank goodness for the pills I was taking.

The jungle wasn't one that is tromped through a lot. Our guide, along with a knife sharp enough to behead someone cut his way through the overgrown bush. He even cut down an entire banana tree with this knife. He taught us survival techniques in the jungle - such as if you ever come become prey of snakes. His knowledge extended to the types of jungle food one can eat. He always gave it to us to try, but it was never anything I'd want to try again. The view was fantastic. It wasn't a terribly difficult hike but nice to be out nonetheless.

Our resting place for the night was in an Akha hill tribe village. We got there just around dinner time and turned the bamboo hut into home. The hut which was typical of what the hills tribe people sleep in was built up on stilts with hard futons, a few blankets and a mosquito net to sleep under. The porch had a gorgeous overlook of the hills in the distance. We all changed into fresher clothes and relaxed. The actual hill tribes people live about a 5 minute walk away from where we were staying. We were staying in their village technically but not imposing on them at all. Unless, they came to our part of the hill, they'd never know we were there. I preferred it that way.

There was one man that was in charge of assisting us. His hut was across the threshold from our hut. He served us tea, brought us snacks and ended up helping our guide by making us dinner and breakfast. The helper man was sweet, no words ever exchanged between us but his smile always so friendly. Later on, while the French man was in the hut talking on his cell phone (yes, his cell phone worked here!) - Ruth and I had a visitor. His name was Chang. Chang was this vibrant 11year old boy.

Our guide while walking had made this pop gun out of a bamboo twig. It soon becomes a spitball gun with the help of some paper. Luckily for me, I had brought a small notepad of paper to keep notes that was soon used for ammunition. Chang taught us. First, rip off a piece of paper and put it in your mouth. While inside your mouth, soak it with your spit and make it into a ball. Put the spit covered ball of paper in one side of the gun. In the other side, put in more bamboo and put it in and out quickly to get some energy going. Last - push the bamboo in and watch the spit ball go POP and fly.

We must have done this for a good 45 minutes. The spit balls getting increasingly larger and us starting to aim for targets such as the local pig or what not. Chang was great - always laughing and never getting tired of the spit ball gun. He was good company. Soon, night fell and we were served dinner. With the setting of the sun and the increase in altitude by being in the hills, it was incredibly cold. I had brought layers and layers but nothing could prepare me for the coldness of the night. Ruth, the tour guide and I played several rounds of rummy by candlelight before calling it a night at 9:30pm. There's not much to do at night in a bamboo hut without electricity.

I must have slept nearly 11 hours when the tour guide forced me awake to have breakfast with the others. We hiked back down that day with even more wild plants to eat, coming across a beautiful waterfall and him showing us more and more tricks

As we made our descent, I couldn't help but to be impressed with the agility the guide had in the jungle. He was always 5 steps ahead of us chopping stuff down, moving rocks in the stream for us to walk over, making sure the trail was clear. What took him a split second would take me a minute to even figure out what to do next. He knew this jungle like the back of his hand. It was at this point that I realized it's no wonder we couldn't win the Vietnam war. This man has been raised in the jungles, hunts in the jungles, he is practically one with the jungle. There's no way we could compete with this type of knowledge, no matter how much training our soldiers may have had. This guy was good. He's been doing it for 35 years, easily. He doesn't need to think twice, he sees, he reacts, he's ahead. Thanks to our skillful guide, we made our way back into Chiang Rai with enough time to shower and catch our scheduled afternoon bus back to Chiang Mai.

Click HERE for all the photos.

New Year's Eve in Chiang Rai

2008-02-07T04:24:00.000-05:00

Chiang Rai was a haven away from tourist central, so we thought. Unfortunately, it wasn't so much that way at all. Sitting from our dinner restaurant the night before, you couldn't tell at all if we were in Thailand or a Western country from the stores in our view. All of English or American backgrounds. Ah, well. It provided us for decent shopping for things we needed for our upcoming hike. It was New Year's Eve this day and a bit cooler than Chiang Mai since we were even more northern. This day was pretty much a temple day for us. The temple you see below was nearby our guesthouse. Not even sure of the name of it but just went in for a quick glance.

The main goal of our day was to get to this one temple that was recommended to us by the tour guide we booked with the night before. It is called Wat Rong Khun and was out of central Chiang Rai. We went to the marketplace and somehow bartered with the songthaew drivers without any English on where we wanted to go and for a decent price. It was probably about 20 minutes out of Chiang Rai using a songthaew. It's pretty much the main transportation used in Thailand. In Chiang Rai, they were a regular truck and in the back, there's a roof and two benches where the customers sit facing each other. You tell the driver where you want to go and negotiate a price. So, you cram as many people as you can, sometimes 15 people in the back of these trucks and all going separate directions.

Wat Rong Khun temple was phenomenal, my most favorite temple by far. In case you haven't noticed yet, in Thailand, all the temples are glittery gold. Wat Rong Khun was completely white set atop lush, green grass and with the bluest skies that day. According to wikipedia, the white color stands for the Lord Buddha’s purity; the white glass stands for the Lord Buddha’s wisdom that shines brightly all over the earth and the universe.

The place was just brimming with people. As it's new, only just recently constructed - it's not mentioned in guide books yet. In fact, it's not even completely finished. So shockingly, we were the only people there that weren't Thai. When approaching to go to the main temple, you have to cross a bridge. The bridge represents the crossing over from the cycle of rebirth to the Abode of Buddha. The small semicircle before the bridge stands for the human world. The big circle with fangs is the mouth of Rama or Rahu, meaning impurities in the mind, a representation of hell or suffering. The bridge isn't there to protect you from water, but rather from hundreds of hands reaching out at you. Each hand is uniquely different. Some fingers are regular, some are like alien, some have crazy nails, some have amphibian like hands, one nail had nail polish, one hand was giving me the middle finger, no two were the same. We walked through the temple twice to get a good feel for it. I still remember it very clearly over a month later.
Getting back to Chiang Rai from the temple was a bit more difficult than getting to the temple. We were hoping to catch another Songthaew but weren't really sure where to find one. We decided just to start walking and flag one down. We reached the main strip of road, somewhat like a highway and we still hadn't seen one. Ok, we thought, the walk won't be that bad. Walking, walking, walking...sweet a Chiang Rai sign! Shit, 13 kilometers. Nothing to do but keep walking - 3 bicyclists pulled up besides us and starting speaking to us in Thai. I said back to them Chiang Rai because I figured they were asking why the hell we were walking there. Since we couldn't communicate they just keep going on. Finally, we saw one of these Songthaews coming down the road, we flagged it down and hopped in. Thank goodness. About 4 minutes later, we passed those bicyclists and I waved goodbye to let them know we'd get to Chiang Rai okay.

The next place we went to was the Hill tribe museum and Education Center. I don't even know where to start on about Hill Tribes in Thailand, it's a topic that I am actually researching right now for my adult advanced class. Basically, in a nutshell - there are 6 predominant groups of hill tribes that reside in mainly Northern Thailand. They have emigrated from Myanmar/Burma, Laos and Southern bits of China to escape persecution for one reason or another. Here they reside in Thailand for hundreds of years, moving from one area to another once they run out of good land to grow crops on/live on. These people have no money, no schools, no health care, no rights as humans. Some are trying to wait their time out until human rights workers can get them to developed countries as war refugees to set up a new life. There are all sorts of issues that have arisen with these people. The Hill Tribe museum high-lited not only their cultures and history but about several controversial issues. I'll leave that for another day as well. Maybe, I'll post up here on what I end up writing for my adult class because we'll be talking about all the controversial bits. Strangely enough, since returning from Thailand, one of the main issues has been written about on the BBC.

Here are the links, if you're interested in this topic:

A video report on it

The written report

I promise, I'll post up my report on it in the next week for further information. The museum really affected me, it was so informational and one of the best things I did in Thailand. I hate being 24 and feeling so ignorant about topics. This is one of those topics that I wish I had known more about prior to my trip. The museum was really eye-opening and pretty amazing. We must have spent about 2 hours there before leaving.

The last place we went to on this day was a temple called Doi Tong - which was placed high up on a hill. We read that it was supposed to offer amazing sunset views - but that was a bit of lie. You couldn't really see much because the trees were too high. It would have been beautiful had we been able to see it. We got to see some of the landscaping through openings and it was spectacular.
Doi Tong is described as a phallic Stonehenge up on the hill. It's supposed to be the Buddhist layout of the universe. The biggest penis was made to represent Mount Sineru, the axis of the universe, while the series of other smaller penises and moats and pillars are to represent the heavens and the earth, the great oceans and rivers and the major features of the universe. I think you need a really phenomenal imagination to be able to see all that, but that's how the story goes.

So, yea, today was New Year's Eve. We started it out at a restaurant that had live dancing and music.
But we actually rang the New Year's in at the Tee Pee bar with a bunch of Australians and their tour guide. The bartender was absolutely insane, he didn't ever speak - he only screamed. He took your order in an Ozzy Osbourne type of way...screaming. HOW CAN I HELP YOU? THAT'S TWENTY BAHT! HELLO! and all the while screaming along with the music that he chose to play...which also involved screaming. If I were friends with him, I'd nickname him SCREAMER. The bartender and tour guide put together a beer bong for us. So, I did my first beer bong in like 4 years that night....Ruth did one and so did some of the Aussie's.
For the countdown, we all made a circle around a table and put our arms around each other and counted down and screamed HAPPY NEW YEAR! It's not such a big deal in Thailand because they don't really celebrate New Year's Eve as December 31st like we do in Western countries. So for being in small Chiang Rai, if we wanted to celebrate it, we needed to celebrate it with other Westerners. It was a lot of fun though. The night ended when one of the Aussie's started throwing up all over the place and Ruth and I decided since we had to wake up early to go hiking it should be time to go.

Click here to see all the pictures from this day

Baan Thai Cooking School

2008-01-27T06:59:00.003-05:00

Our last day in Chiang Mai, Ruth and I went to a cooking school. We went with one of the recommended spots out of our guidebook that also caters to vegetarians. There were 5 other people in our class besides Ruth and I. Our teacher was a cute Thai girl, probably 28 named Yam, but she told us to call her Yummy. After very brief introductions, we all went to the local market to get the food we needed for the day.. Yam pointed out all the different types of food at the available. It's hard going to a new country with all this new food and not knowing what any of it is just by looking at it.
After about an hour at the market, we went back to our school. Yam brought us out a Thai "welcome snack" to wait on while she prepared stuff. This includes many different ingredients - coconut, dried shrimp (or without for the vegetarian), ginger,lime, shallots, chili peppers, and roasted peanuts. You take a type of green leaf and you fold it so it kind of is in the shape of an ice cream cone. Then, you put all those above ingredients into it - soooooooo good.

After that, the first thing we made was papaya salad. This dish includes papaya, garlic, chillies, tomato, green beans, peanuts and some sauces. You are given a mortar to use to pound it all together. You can choose how many chilies you want to put in it for spiciness.
1 = somewhat spicy
2 =spicy
5 or more = Thai spicy
I went with 2 chilies. So, you put the bulk of the ingredients into the mortar and mash away with a heavy pounding stick. That's it! Put on a dish and it's done! We also made spring rolls to eat with this dish as well. It was good, shocking that I can actually cook in fact. After that, we made mango sticky rice - which is just soaking sticky rice in coconut milk for an hour and then putting mangos on top. We did that now to make sure the rice was soaking while cooking more.
While the mango sticky rice was sitting, we moved on to make curry paste. This involved mashing just a bunch of red chillies, shallots, garlic, Thai ginger, lemongrass (which actually smells like lemon!), lime, coriander and tumeric root in the mortar. We took turns passing the mortar around and mushing the stuff together because your arm gets really tired after a while. She said there's a rumor in Thailand that a good Thai wife makes a lot of noise as the pestle (stick that you mash with in the mortar) - hits the mortar. A bad wife is quiet about the process. Once the ingredients have become smooth and fine, it's finished! We used the curry paste to make the next dish, my favorite Thai dish called Khao Soy. It's popular in this region of the country...not sure if you can find it in the Southern bits of Thailand.

You put the freshly made curry sauce, oil, and indian curry powder together in a wok. After a while, you add coconut milk, tofu (or chicken), and keep stirring. Then you put it over cooked egg noodles. It becomes likes a soup. Then, you put hard noodles over it when ready to serve. It was soooooo delicious.
Afterwards, we ate our mango sticky rice. Yum! The school was a lot of fun and it was nice mingling with the other students. There was a guy from Corning, NY who currently resides in Hong Kong. A French couple currently residing in Jakarta and a Malaysian couple (that actually live in their country). It was nice to talk to others who are "ex-pats" living in Asian countries and hearing their challenges and experiences. I enjoyed comparing it to my own experience here in Japan. We all got along well. In the evening, we went shopping in the markets with Tamo and said goodbye.

The next morning Ruth and I headed up to Chiang Rai but with a few complications. We had intended on taking an 11:30 bus up North. We were unfortunately barred from this when all buses were full until about 3:30. So, we sat in this coffee shop for 4 hours because unfortunate for us, the bus station isn't central at all so we had nowhere else to go. Here's a photo of what it was like there - we did a lot of reading, writing and listening to our ipods before finally getting on the bus.
The bus ride went smoothly aside from a weird stop we had. The bus pulled over, a police man came on and shouted something in Thai. We couldn't understand him but saw lots of people pulling out their ID's. Well, if you know anything about traveling in 3rd world countries, it's not very uncommon for foreigners to be bribed to pay a lot of money. I thought that is what was going to happen. I was really nervous searching for my passport. Luckily though, that didn't happen - instead one man was removed from the bus and we were back on our way. Here's a photo of Ruth and I on the bus - happy we're on the bus and I was happy we weren't bribed.
This was December 30th. The next day was December 31st, New Year's Eve. We had wanted to be hiking on this day but since we got into Chiang Rai a lot later than expected, we couldn't get the reservations made in time. So, we had to settle for booking it for January 1st. After making our booking, we just had some dinner out on town and went to bed. I'll write about New Year's Eve next blog.

Click here for pictures from this day and for a sneak preview of the next blog.

Doi Suthep,Handicrafts and Muay Thai Boxing

2008-01-20T05:01:00.000-05:00

During monk chat - our monk had informed us of the "best temple to see while in Chiang Mai." We took his advice and hired a tour guide one of our days to get to this far-away temple. I was a bit of a fool and had got too drunk for my good the night before. On the way to the temple, I had to ask the tour guide to pull over so I could get sick on the side of the road. Sometimes, I am still very much not a responsible adult.

Doi Suthep - this infamous temple is about a 30 minute ride out of Chiang Mai up on top of a large hill. This temple is the holiest temple in the Northern part of Thailand. It has a "miraculous legend" to it's founding that goes a bit like this. Long, long time ago, there was a king that wanted to enshrine holy artifacts, so this king put a mini shrine on the back of a white elephant. He wanted to see where this sacred animal would go to. After a lot of time, it climbed this hill, trumpeted three times, turned around three times, knelt down and died. The king took this as an indication that this was the spot.

In order to get up to the golden temple, you need to climb up 300 stairs. On the top of the hill, is a beautiful temple complex. The temple's Golden point (called a Chedi) was glittering bright in the sun. It's claimed that this part of the complex is one of the most harmonious pieces of temple architecture in all of Thailand.

From the back of the temple complex you could see a beautiful view of Chiang Mai since we were up high on a hill. It was a bit hazy for us but we could still see a bit through the haze. The tour guide provided us with a lot of helpful information about temples in general. Things that were useful to us, not only at this temple but just in general. For example, when viewing a temple, you should always walk around it with it to your right hand side. It should never be to the left of your body. And surprisingly, he informed us that Buddha did not originate in Thailand, nor even Asia. It's shocking since most Asian countries practice Buddhism. I can't remember exactly where he said it originates but I am pretty positive he said that it was Crete.

After Doi Suthep, our tour guide brought us to have lunch at a local restaurant. He introduced to us my new favorite Thai dish called Khao Soy - which is a very spicy dish. I'll talk about that in my next blog. From there, we went to a handicraft part of the city. The first stop was a place that made homemade umbrellas. They make it right from scratch. The paper they use is made from a certain tree OR from elephant poop. Elephant poop, isn't that funny?! They take their handmade paper with their handmade umbrella skeleton (made from bamboo) and glue it together or tie it together. Then someone hand paints it. This was my favorite handicraft spot we went to.

After the umbrella stop, we went to a silversmith. It was interesting watching how they make the form of the jewelry but this particular spot seemed more interested in trying to get us to purchase something as opposed to showing us the factory for a long time. Then we went to a silkloom spot. This one was really cool, too. I learned about where silk comes from. Now, I've always been aware that silk comes from silk worms; but I guess I never really understood what that meant. In the picture below, you can how the silk comes. Those white and yellow bulbs in that hot water pot are silk worm cocoons. This woman take a cocoon out, takes a bit of the string and then runs is through that circle like thing and that keeps the silk straight and prevents it from breaking. She keeps rolling it through that circle-like thing until it runs out of thread. When that happens, a dead silkworm falls out and back into the water. That part grossed me out. If you look to her left hand, you can see all the thread she has been getting from the cocoons.
Then, there were actual women also working on the looms there. They use all 4 limbs to work these huge machines. Their legs are pushing on petals and their arms are moving things around above their head or in front of them. It truly appears as if they are doing a dance with the looms. I walked around quite a bit and just watched them intently doing this. These women are so skilled, I don't think there is any way I could figure out how to run one of these looms. It's so impressive!

We went back and had "The Last Supper" with 3 of our friends, Kyla, Andres and Emily who separated ways from us this evening. They headed down South to an island resort while Ruth and I remained in the North. That night we met up again with Tamo for some Muay Thai boxing! We got front ringside seats for this event.

Muay Thai has fans in Thailand to likes of how we have fans in America for American Football teams. Every province has a stadium and when it's shown on TV, it's like Superbowl Sunday at a sports bar every time. There's a strong spiritual and ritualistic way to Muay Thai adding more grace to an otherwise violent sport.

You soon get used to the ritual of the ring and boxers. Each boxer enters into the ring to the wailing music of a three piece orchestra called the phipat. The boxer first bows to the direction of where he was born and then to each 4 corners of the ring - which is actually North, South, East and West. He also has to honor his teachers and the spirit of the ring. Next, he performs a slow dance.

In Muay Thai, and part of the body aside from the head can be used as an offensive weapon. All parts but the groin are allowed to be fair targets. Kicks to the head is the strategy that causes the most knock outs.

The first two boxers were young boys which I thought would bother me but it wasn't bad. The later into the night it got, the stronger the boxers became. It was such an eye treat staring at these men's incredible ripped bodies. We had an older Thai man sitting next to us so we started chatting with him a bit allowing for some fun interaction with the locals. To the right of us was a whole crowd of locals sticking their hands in the air placing bets to a bookie. Everytime a good hit was made, the crowd all screamed "oy!" as loud as they could. The atmosphere here was phenomenal. Everyone is so excited. The last 3-4 fights were soo good. The boxers were a lot stronger and vicious than the first few we had been seeing. I was really getting into it. The last round of the night was a joke. In comes two men. One - a Thai guy with a fat belly. The other a tall, lanky white guy with "White trash" tattooed down his chest. They fought for 3 rounds before they ended it. We're not really sure why he was up there, but we figured that he woke up the next day with a killer headache trying to remember what he did the night before because he was so drunk. Then, it came back to him. And now he will have a story to tell his friends in the future...."This one time, in Thailand..I got really drunk and ended up in a Thai boxing ring." It was really good fun and ended at 1am. Ruth and I went back to our hotel and Tamo back to hers. Muay Thai was by far one of my favorite things I had done in Thailand. That's a thing to do if you ever come to Thailand

Click here for all the photos of this day

Waterfalls, bamboo rafting, whitewater rafting and elephant riding...

2008-01-15T09:42:00.000-05:00

Our second major day in Chiang Mai we did a really awesome tour that got me back out into nature again.

The waterfall in the picture below was our first destination on our tour (besides the small pit stop to an Orchid prior to this that needs no more mention than this). The waterfall was cool, but nothing overly impressive. Even though December is Winter in Thailand, it feels as hot as our summer. There is a lack of water at this time of the year...thus, this waterfall wasn't much to see. There was a natural rock slide one could go down but I didn't know about it until our tour guide was gathering us to go. I was a bit disappointed because I totally would have gone down it had I known. When I saw the few men doing it, it made me very nostalgic for the Adirondack's again. My last summer in the area before moving to Japan, I had done all sorts of cliff jumping and waterfall seeking with Jon. It's such a rush and seeing those men do it made me itch to join them.
After the waterfall, we all went Whitewater rafting. It was so much fun! I haven't gone white water rafting in over three years now. The safety procedures in Thailand are nearly non-existent which made me a bit nervous. My life jacket - about 3 sizes too big would most likely not save me in an emergency situation. Our guide, this guy - probably the same height as me but pure muscle didn't speak English. He could say the commands in English and that was about it. Then, there was a guide whose boat we pretty much followed and went down the rive with. This guide was an absolutely nut. He was constantly screaming and whacking us with water via his paddle. The rafting wasn't anything that difficult or scary but the guides made it so much fun. Halfway down the line, we just picked up random Thai guys that were fishing on the shore but needed a life back down river, so into our raft they go - with no helmets and no life jackets. We floated down the river lazily for some of it allowing the current to take us.

When we finished the rafting bit, we then went onto bamboo rafts. These were about 15 feet in length and 5 feet wide. We fit about 10 people per raft and there was one guy steering us in the front with a long stick. Our lower bodies were submerged in the water. It was relaxing.

Then to go do what nearly every tourist in Thailand does - ride an elephant. We took an hour ride through the jungle and down a river on the back of an elephant. There's an elephant steerer-guide man that sits in front of you and gives commands to the elephant to make sure it keeps going and prevents it from stopping and eating for the next hour while you're on it's back. They just climb up the side of the elephant as if it's a brick wall that just needs to be hopped onto. I shared an elephant with Ruth and Kyla. Our friends Emily and Andres were on the elephant in front of us. They were the leading elephant but by the end of the tour, their elephant was last. It was a bad elephant, that right in front of our eyes ripped down a tree in half! It was intense! So powerful! It apparently was really hungry.
The last thing we did was go to a Hill Tribe. This was a Karen Long Neck Hill tribe. The women here all wear gold rings around their necks. The men believe that the more rings around the neck, the sexier the woman is. Girls start wearing them around the age of 6. I had a hard time grasping that I was going to go see these women. I felt like - I was just going to see a zoo exhibit or something. But, they're human beings . Maybe I have such a hard time with it because I can't stand when people stare at me in Japan only because I am foreign. It's the same idea here - going to see people just because they are different. One of my co-travelmates really really really wanted to see them so we did it. It was pretty cool to see the long necks in person but it was really depressing as well. I've since learned alot about their culture and what brings them into this situation that I will elaborate on another day. This picture below wasn't taken by me - it was taken off the internet - but just for a better visual for you to understand long neck women. I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of them. Basically, these women have no choice but to do this zoo exhibit of themselves. Most of them came from Burma/Myanmar to escape war or death. Therefore, they aren't Thai citizens but they can't go back to their own country. So, they are forced pretty much to go into these touristy villages where loads of tour guides bring people like me to gawk at them. These women all own shops and try to sell you all sorts of unneeded crap. Most people buy stuff just because they feel bad for them. The stuff is not authentic. In fact, some of the stuff had "Made in China" stickers on the bag. The picture below is an example of the huts they live in.
That night we met up with Tamo, another girl in my area that happened to be in Thailand and the city we were in for a few coinciding days. I ran to meet up with her at McDonald's after our tour. We all had dinner together and then 4 of us went out for drinks that evening. It was the most I drank in a while....

For pictures of this day click here (same link as last post)

Chiang Mai, the beginning

2008-01-12T06:52:00.001-05:00

When people ask me, "Where in Thailand did you like best?" - my answer is Chiang Mai. Again, our first day was spent taking care of tours and things of that nature. Our afternoon - we went out to do some more temple viewing recommended by our guest house owner.

The first temple we visited was called Chiang Mun that was built in 1296-1297 AD. The temple held several important artifacts for Thailand. One of these was a white quart Buddha image and then also a stone cut Buddha. Behind the temple was a 700 year old stupa that was surrounded by elephant carvings. The temples were sparkling gold as usual.

The second temple we went to was called Wat Chediluang Varaviharn. This was supposed to be one of the best 3 temples to see in Chiang Mai, but it was under construction. However, in the back it held yet another old Khmer -like structure that is 60 meters high. It used to be 90 meters - which you can tell by looking at the top of it, but was destroyed in an earthquake nearly 500 years ago.
These Buddhas below - represent every day of the week. From left to right shows Sunday through Saturday. If you know which day you were born on - you should pray to that particular Buddha. They also have Morning and Night Buddhas - so if you don't know what day you were born on but you know what time of day you were born on - you can pray to that Buddha instead.
This temple was supposed to be the 2nd of 3 temples we intended on seeing this day. The plans changed as we were leaving the temple grounds. There was a program here called "Monk Chat". There was a sign that said, "we don't mind if you come to look at our temple, but we are sad if you just leave and don't speak to us." We thought it would be super cool to talk to monks so we decided to join in monk chat. Ruth and I went together to talk to one monk, Andres went by himself and then Kyla and Emily went to speak to another monk together. Now, when people ask me, what are the best things you've done in Thailand? I will always respond this monk chat at this temple. We spoke for two hours to our monks. It was so great to speak to someone. He was only a year younger than I - 23 years old. He became a monk when he was 14. At the moment, he is attending Buddhist University - which is who puts on this monk chat program. In the future he would like to become a teacher. He talked about all sorts of things from Buddhist beliefs, his university to his favorite sports. He really made me think a lot about the purpose of life and just about how I live my life. It's just so intriguing to me that I can speak to someone my own age and how different we are. How different our thought process is, how different our past 10 years have been...how we can think so differently yet be at the same age. He seemed so in-tune with life, with who he is, so sure of these things - that it was attractive to me. A lot of times, I feel so lost in life. I think I want one thing but then am not sure. Especially since living in Japan, I question life all the time. It was very comforting to have someone that seemed so confident in life to talk to.

After we literally closed down monk chat, we went for dinner and a few drinks. Then, we played under the lit up lanterns. I haven't mentioned it yet - but I think it's very Thai to speak about. The king. Everyone and I mean every Thai person loves their king. You see pictures of him everywhere you go. Everyone wears yellow shirts because it is the king's favorite color. You know those "livestrong" bracelets that were so popular like 3 years ago? Well, they all wear them, too, except they don't say "livestrong" but they say "Long live the king". I doubt there's another country in this world that loves their king as much as Thai people love their king. So, here's a photo of us, with one of the millions huge posters of the king hung around Thailand.

Click here for pictures of this day and for a sneak preview of what future postings will be

Christmas Day

2008-01-10T05:39:00.001-05:00

My Christmas Eve slumber was like that of when I was a kid. I didn't sleep well. Unfortunately, it wasn't because of the excitement of what Santa has brought, but because there was a dog that was barking for easily 4 hours throughout the night. It was terrible. Since I used to have really bad insomnia at college, I've pretty much adapted to functioning with a poor night's sleep the next day.

Christmas day. It was spent on a train all day. Our train arrived an hour late, which seemed to be the norm in Thailand. If it's 30 minutes late, it's still on time. If it's an hour late, it's properly late. We rode 1st class - which gave us seat cushions, air conditioning and some food. I couldn't eat the food because it was all meat but even if I had eaten meat, it didn't look that appetizing. We called Ruth's food, "prawn head curry" because we weren't exactly sure what it was - but the head of a prawn was the biggest thing in there.

(above: Ruth and I making the time pass acting like fools)

(above: Kyla and Andres making the time pass, too)

(Above: and of course Emily, too!)

I taught Ruth the American childhood game of MASH. We had a good time doing that for about 30 minutes. We played "guess where the foreigners are from" making up code names for countries. The scenery was nice but it was very similar to Japan. The sun had set leaving us with about 2-3 hours of nothing to look at outside the window. Kyla taught us a game called GHOST which got a bit heated up right before the train ride ended.

I think we arrived to Chiang Mai at about 9:00ish. Our guest house was really nice. The most spacious rooms we had in the whole of our travels there. The staff was friendly and it was clean. We wanted to have a Christmas dinner but by the time we got situated most places weren't serving food anymore. 711. 711 is everywhere. Seriously, every turn in Thailand offers a new 711. That's where Christmas dinner came from. It was by far the most disgusting Christmas dinner I've ever had. I had muesli, which was good. Then, we tried making sandwiches out of cheese, jam and wheat bread. Nasty. Andres had bought "pickled mango" thinking they were something else. Pickled mango is nasty, I don't ever recommend it. The best part of Christmas dinner was the beer. I called my family on this night and then headed to bed. It's just another day, now isn't it?

Andres: These pickled mangos are going to make me puke!
Ruth: They're going to make you pube? what? what is that American English word?
Andres: You thought I said I was going to pube? and that is his face that followed that conversation

Ayutthaya , the full day effect

2008-01-09T08:26:00.000-05:00

Cock-a-doodle doo. Cock-a-doodle doo. That's all I heard from 7am on Christmas Eve morning; possibly even worse than waking up to an alarm clock. Our plans for this day were to see as many of the lost ruins as we could fit into the day. We took an opposite turn out of the guest house this morning and discovered where the "restaurant and bar" part of town was and stored it in our mind for later.

The temples were all a pretty far walk from our guest house. The first temple we arrived at was called Wat Thummikarat. There wasn't much left of this temple. You could get a good idea of what it would have been like prior to being ransacked, but it had really been destroyed.

Then we walked to Wat Naphramera, the only wat in Ayutthaya that wasn't destroyed when Burma invaded. According to my guidebook, the story goes when the Burmese were on the brink of capturing Ayutthaya in 1760, a siege gun positioned here burst, mortally wounding their king and prompting their retreat; out of superstition, they left the temple standing when they came back to devastate the city in 1767. It was a white building with the traditionally Thai gold trim around it that was built in 1503. Inside is a 6 meter high Buddha.

Then we ended up at Ayutthaya Golden Palace which housed several ruined buildings as well. The bits that were most in tact were pagodas that were all over the compound.

It was a hot day, so we enjoyed the fruit of Thailand, sipping coconut juice through a straw.

Inside the wat in this area housed a very large Buddha, resembling those I have seen in Japan. This buddha was called Phra Mongkhon BoPhit. The lap of the buddha is 9.55 meters wide. The image is 12.45 meters high and the base stands at 4.50 meters. The total height is 16.95 meters high. This Buddha was restored in 1957.

We all had quick showers and then went out for a night tour we had signed up for. First, it took us to distant temples that we couldn't get to by ourselves without a car. The first one was called Wat Yai ChaiMongKhon and was probably my favorite temple in Ayutthaya. It was built in 1357 as a meditation site for monks returning from study in Sri Lanka. It had a reclining buddha draped in gold silk.

The actual temple was surrounded by sitting Buddha's also draped in gold silk.

Behind the temple was a main buddha and then a bunch of little statues worshiping it. It was placed in front of a gorgeous garden as well.

Also included in this tour was a stop at an elephant camp. It depressed me a little bit seeing the animals chained but it was neat to be so close to them. I fed one as snot from it's trunk went all over my hand.

We watched the sunset from Wat Phu Khao Thong. This temple was really tall and white. You could call it "the leaning temple of Wat Phu KHao Thong" if you wished as it wasn't exactly perfectly upright which was kind of funny. The sunset from the top was terrific - it set over the rice paddy's of Thailand. While watching it, I really fell back in love with Asia again. I truly think that the best sunsets I have ever seen have been in Japan. The sun appears so much brighter and bigger here than back at home. Moreover, while setting over the rice fields - it really makes the earth look sooo much greener, so much healthier, so beautiful. I used to almost get in car accidents last year while driving during the sunset because I can't stop looking at such beauty. This year, as I'm in the city, I don't really get any mesmerizing sunsets. I know though, that when I think back to Asia, one thing I will always tell people is how gorgeous and stunning the sunsets are here. Just as the sun finished setting, nearby monks began chanting reminding me that we're in Thailand, not Japan.

The main selling point of this tour was to see the temples and ruins under illumination at night. We saw about 3 different ones this evening. I tried my best to capture it but it is definitely something you can't capture and just have to see. At the finish of the tour, we went back to that bar and restaurant street we had discovered earlier.

Tonight was Christmas Eve and so we definitely wanted to celebrate a bit. We chose dinner at an outdoor seating restaurant and decided to drink there. It was a really fun night with my friends. I had really wanted to stay out until it turned Christmas day but we had a curfew at our guest house so we had to go back.

Please click here to see all the pictures from this day.

Ayutthaya, the land of lost ruins

2008-01-08T09:37:00.000-05:00

Ayutthaya, at it's peak was the capital city of the Thai kingdom. According to my guidebook, Ayutthaya was so well endowed with temples that sunlight reflecting off their gilt decoration was said to dazzle from 3 miles away. Ayutthaya was founded in 1851 by a man who became a king. In it's heyday, it was an amphibious city with it's 1 million population using canals as transportation. These people were also living in houseboats. To gauge it's success, at this time it had double the population of London. It even had 40 different nationalities living here at one point. Unfortunately, as every good city has to fall, so did this one. In 1767 after 400 years of stability and prosperity, neighboring country, Burma attacked and destroyed the city. All the citizens had to retreat into the jungles as Burma was taking tens of thousands of prisoners back. It's now a popular spot today to go visit because you can see the remains of all the temples that had been destroyed. The architecture of the remains are from the Khmer era, resembling many of the temples I had seen at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Ayutthaya is located 80km north of Bangkok; our trip there was very adventurous. In Thailand, you can take either 1st, 2nd or 3rd class trains. 1st is the best - you get a cushioned seat and air conditioning. 2nd class gives you a cushion and sometimes air conditioning, sometimes a fan. 3rd class has wooden seats and no air conditioning, but just open windows and sometimes a fan attached to the ceiling. We took 3rd class. It cost us less than 50 cents a piece. It actually wasn't so bad and I enjoyed the wind blowing on me while we made our way North. I wouldn't want to do a 10 hour trip like this, no way; but for the 3 hours or so it took - it was fun.

Our guesthouse was a cute home set back in a garden. It's meant to give you the "real Thai experience." It certainly did - the roosters that live in the garden woke me up both mornings. Moreover, the barking dogs kept me up all through the night. Roosters are the norm in Thailand - they are everywhere. I think from now on, whenever I hear a rooster, I will be brought back to Thailand. Street dogs are everywhere as well. They run the place. Some cities have homeless people, but Thai cities have an abundance of homeless dogs. We just nicknamed them all "scurvy dogs".

After checking into our guesthouse, we went for a walk about town. We were trying to find the tourism office, but stumbled upon the ruins. Change of plans - time to check out some cool World Heritage Sites!

The first one we went to was called Wat (wat means temple) Ratburana. It was built in 1424 by the King at that time.

At this temple, you could walk up a flight of stairs and then go down inside following a bunch of really steep stairs to enter a crypt. At one point, there were several hundred Buddha images, but robbers have come to steal them away.

The second one we went to was called Wat Phra Mahathat. This temple was made to enshrine the remains of Buddha himself. The king between the years of 1388-95 claims that he was looking out his window one morning when ashes of the Buddha materialized out of thin air here. A gold casket containing these ashes also was placed here.

This temple is also famous for this Buddha head that has been overgrown by the roots of a tree.

In the evening, we found a great restaurant that had live music and dancing. We had a pleasant dinner with some Thai musical guests in the front. Since today was actual election day, we ran into the problem of not being able to drink again. Luckily for us, our guest house owner was unaware of this or didn't care - she sold us beer. We played cards over several beers - finally enjoying my first beer in Thailand.

Click here for pictures of this day

Bangkok, Thailand

2008-01-07T07:38:00.000-05:00

I am back from Thailand after two weeks straight of traveling. I'll be updating my blog about my travels there from here on out. My first day there - was just simply flying into the Bangkok airport and meeting up with two of my friends who had taken a different flight. Ruth, Emily and I after a bit of confusion found our guest house and immediately crashed. It was already 2:30am and we had been traveling for well over 12 hours.

The next day we just walked about Bangkok and situated tickets for transportation for later in our trip. The only real thing we managed on this day was to go see the Grand Palace which I had seen my first time in Bangkok. The Grand Palace officially opened in 1785 marking the founding of the new capital and the rebirth of the Thai nation after the Burmese attack. At this palace, there are 61 acres of gold and glittery goodness to feast your eyes on. Moreover, the mural paintings on the wall could take ages to look at there are so many of them.

This day was also the day before elections in Thailand. As a result, nowhere in the whole country was allowed to sell or serve alcohol. We were a bit disappointed that in our first day on vacation, we couldn't even enjoy a beer with dinner. We went to Khao san road, one of Bangkok's most famous. Khao san road is considered a traveler's haven. You walk down the street and you could forget you were in Thailand. Not only that, but you could forget that there are countries. This street has people from everywhere, different fashion, hairstyles, languages, beliefs, everything. I believe that if the world were just one big country, it would probably be a bit like this. The sides of this road are covered with neon signs, restaurants, bars, shops, people's good for sale on the side of the roads, cluttered. There are services to make you fake ID's, braid your hair, sign you up for tours. It's an abyss of craziness. Cars that try to drive down it, only a mere 100 meters would take ages to get through the floods of people walking slowly looking at everything. You have people shouting to you to use their tuk-tuk, take their taxi, buy their water, buy their fruit; constantly needing to say "no, thank you" - even though they never take no for an answer even after the first 5 times you tell them. I imagine men are also receiving offers of prostitutes at this point, although I can't confirm that for truth or not.

On Khao san road, we were given a flyer and actually took it. It was for a nearby vegetarian restaurant. We followed the map on the little piece of paper and found what I consider heaven. Atleast, a vegetarian heaven. The whole road was lined with vegetarian and vegan restaurants. If only my city in Japan had one of these. We enjoyed delicious Thai vegetarian food minus our desired alcoholic beverages. The steaming heat of the day made us feel overly tired. We were in bed before midnight.

Our other two friends, Kyla and Andres arrived in Thailand sometime in the middle of the night. They joined us the next day. I only really stayed in Bangkok this one day. The last time I was there - I didn't like it. I thought maybe because it was the last day of my trip, the weather was 10times hotter and we were all sick that were the reasons for that. However, this time, being my first destination with decent weather; I still am not a fan of Bangkok. It just seems that everyone there is trying to rip you off as much as possible, it's polluted, it's hard to get from point A to B because of all the traffic and people were generally rude. Once Kyla and Andres arrived, we left Bangkok to go North to a city called Ayutthaya.

Click here for all the photos of the Grand Palace

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-19T10:24:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!
I'm off to Thailand until January 6th. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year's!
xoxo

Zao Quasi National Park

2007-12-14T08:05:00.000-05:00

Zao Quasi National Park is about 3-4 hours South of where I live. It is a really famous place to go visit in the Fall because of how beautiful the area becomes from the changing leaves on the trees. The first time I went this Fall(back in October) was a bit of a flop. It had already snowed. It was still a cool experience because I have never been in wind that insane before. It felt like the earth was sneezing on me every now and then. When it sneezed; I was whipped with ice and rain and could barely move from the pressure going against me. It was intense. I imagine I will never attempt to summit Mt. Everest, but I feel if the winds are stronger than this(and I imagine they would be) - then I would probably just be blown right off the mountain. I really think a three year old would just be blown off. It was crazy!

You know you're getting close the Mount Zao when you pass through this red torii that cars just drive through. Pretty cool!

Even though we couldn't see the beautiful fall colors due to the crazy snow, wind and ice...at the base of the mountain, it was still fall. We got to play in fields of flowers nearly as tall as I am. It felt like a nature-lover's heaven. It was so gorgeous.

A few weeks later, one of my adult students from last year wanted to go, too. I accepted her invite and off I went again! Our first stop was to this awesome onsen in the picture below! It was outdoors and the water was so naturally clear and smelling of sulfur. This is by far one of my favorite onsen I've ever been to in Japan. It's called the Zao Onsen Dairotemburo....and Lonely planet calls is "staggeringly beautiful." Which to say, it an understatement.

A group shop at this famous onsen below. The girl I am standing next to, named Alex is who now lives where I was living last year.

The picture below is what we went to go see when it was filled with snow and fog. A stunning view!

And the picture below is the reason nearly all people go to the summit of Mt. Zao. This amazing lake is called Okama or a Volcanic Crater Lake. The water is just fantastically blue! A group shot below with the Sakurai -san's, Mrs. Sakurai being my old student from last year!

Both times I went, we stopped to see these pretty waterfalls!

This area is also famous for soba in the fall season. On both trips, we had famous soba from the prefecture next to mine...called Yamagata Ken. Soba is a thin noodle made from buckwheat flour. It is served chilled in the summer with a dipping sauce or hot in the fall and winter season. Of course, I had it hot since it is getting cold here! My favorite kind is served with mountain vegetables. Delicious!

To see pictures from the snowy trip, click here

For all the pictures from the second trip, click here

Desiderata

2007-12-01T02:36:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite people in the whole world sent me a birthday package. It came about two weeks ago. His box that he sent it in was decorated - he always had decorated boxes around dorm room holding items. One of the decorations is a suggestion of a way to live. It's famous, I believe. I love it and am going to post it here.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser person than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however, humble it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is, many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortunes. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the tress and the stars, you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you now, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

-Max Ehrmann

A bus ride to Sugimoto-Dera

2007-11-28T09:25:00.000-05:00

This unforgettable bus ride happened over the past weekend trip I took down to Kamakura City. Ruth and I woke up really early to finish up our weekend trip. We caught a city bus to get to Sugimoto-dera, the first buddhist site in Kamakura City. We're not overly sure on which bus stop we want to get off at, nor can we read the kanji, so we're intently listening, hoping it'll work out.

After about 4 minutes into the bus ride, the bus driver through his microphone for the rest of the bus to hear asks us in Japanese, "foreigners, foreigners, where are you getting off at?" We're incredible embarrassed, I mean, he's not just asking us where we're getting off, he's asking us over the loud speaker of the entire bus. I tell him, "Sugimoto-dera" He clarifies the spot and asks us, again, over the loud speaker, "where are you from?" I respond that I'm an American and Ruth responds she's from Scotland. Poor Ruth. No one ever knows where Scotland is. The bus driver's next question is, "that's near England, right?" Right. Then, a woman to the front right of us turns around and tells us our Japanese is good. The bus driver doesn't stop there. Soon, we're explaining that we're English teachers, that we live in Miyagi, our basic "why are you in Japan" life stories. Again, in front of the entire bus. We had an audience. This went on for probably a total of 3 minutes, the conversation over the loud speaker and us shouting up to the front of the bus. Of course, we couldn't understand everything he was saying; some of his comments weren't understood by us, but the rest of the bus was laughing at what he was saying. We provided good entertainment for people at 10am. Well, atleast we got off at the right stop. It was a funny start to a great day.

A bit of history about the temple we went to see, complete with pictures.

In Spring 734, Sugimoto-dera was founded by Fusasaki Fujiwara, minister of the Imperial Court and priest, Bodhisattva Gyoki to meet the wish of Empress Komyo. This Bodhisattva enshrined the first Juichi-men Kannon - an image of Buddha that embodied 11 faces in which he carved himself.

In 851, priest Ennin stayed in the temple. He carved the second one of these and enshrined it.

In 985, Emperor Kazan ordered priest Genshin-Eshin Sozu to carve and enshrine the third one. Afterwards, he designated the temple as the first amulet distributing office of the Eastern part of Japan. The Emperor himself made him pilgrimage to see it. Since then, the temple has been visited by a great number of pilgrims.

On the night of November 23, 1189, a fire broke out. According to a legend, those 3 principle images of Buddha mentioned above hid themselves under a huge cedar tree. This legend derives from Azumakagami - the 1st official documents compiled by the Samurai federal government. They have since been called Sugimoto-no-Kannan or the Kannons under the cedar.

On September 18, 1191, a ceremony was helf for miracles in all ages when Shogun Minamoto no Yorimoto reconstructed the lost Kannon hall. The 3 Kannons were enshrined in the inner-back and the juichi-men-Kannon at the height of nearly 7 feet in the front.

The first Kannon used to be called "Geba-Kannon" - the geba meaning "dismounting a horse" - this is to caution people against their faithlessness of riding horseback into precincts because they were believed to fall off their horses. Zen Master Daigaku, founder of another shrine called Kenchoji, once stayed in this hall. He prayed that these horse accidents would cease. The Kannon has since been called "Fukumen-Kannon" or the masked Kannon.

the scary protector of Sugimoto-dera

Walking up to Sugimoto-Dera

The bell of Sugimoto-dera

This is Sugimoto-dera

A children's graveyard here.

A test

2007-11-25T08:14:00.000-05:00

I have kind of failed at blogging. I had aspirations once, secretly - of course, some people knew, that I would like to become a travel writer. I even had a travel writing book given to me so I could learn more about it. I felt more and more that perhaps I could do it when people told me they used to read my blog every week. Some people even dedicated whole afternoons to catching up on it. I felt a bit of pressure between my secret aspirations, people that actually read it and then what I was reading in the book. So, I slowed down a bit. I think the biggest reason being I got too busy. But, I want to keep writing it, even daily. I want to write about things that are kind of funny that happen to me daily, or things that I think about, anything, really, I want to write about it from now on. So, I will and in between, hopefully, I can get some stories out about my weekend holiday trips to you as well. I apologize because it's not going to be chronological and that is why I never included my everyday life in my blog because it wouldn't have been chronological. So I guess expect the future posts to be something like this. sara's random funny story of the day. sara's long weekend to somewhere from 3 months ago. sara's book she just read. sara's future plans. Sara's short weekend to somewhere 2 weeks ago, sara's past thought combined with present occurrences. Don't expect any type of organization from here on out. It's just going to be....

....starting now...

I'm freaking out a bit. I've signed up to take the JLPT - the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. I am taking it on Sunday, December 1st. That's less than one week away. I shouldn't be nervous because I study Japanese daily. I study while teaching English, I study at the grocery store, I study with friends, I study at the train station, on the train, reading the passing signs as they whiz by the train. When I'm not studying by simply living in Japan, I am studying out of a book, about 5-7 hours a week. And, I have a nice tutor who I meet for about two hours a week, where she helps me read Japanese more fluently and we practice speaking skills. We work on my pronunciation, she always corrects my casual form of Japanese into polite , "speak like a princess" Japanese. She is correcting all the mistakes I've grown into a habit saying when I teach myself. You can see that my life is constant studying. However, I'm still nervous for this test. Why? I haven't studied for "the test." I have "the test" studying materials here. I have old exams to practice off of, to get the ideas of what the test will be like. To do several examples of a possible question. These tests provide the basic set up of what all tests will be like. Yet, I haven't opened it once. Not once.

Now, if I were back in college; I would have been studying my ass off, for about a week in advance. Maybe a week before, 2 hours a day....all the way until the night before the exam, 8 hours a day plus pulling an overnighter before taking the exam. This is how prepared I was for taking exams back then. I knew the types of questions inside and out, I knew the test format inside and out....and it was all up to me to just take it and pass it. I haven't done that here. I used to do that with 5 tests being lined up to take. Each test receiving the same amount of proper studying time as the others. I only have one test here. I still haven't done it. What am I thinking?

I guess I am hoping that because I actually, fully understand it - minus the test set up and the types of questions that will be asked - I am hoping that just by knowing the language well, that the test set up and questions will not throw me for a loop by being unprepared for that. I am feeling pretty confident that I know the grammar. I am a little worried I don't know the kanji (Chinese characters). I'm taking level 4, which means it's the easiest level. I think I could do level 3 - vocabulary and grammar wise, however, I could never pass the kanji section, ever. Never, ever. For level 4 - you need only 100 kanji. For level 3 - you need 350 kanji. I can probably recognize 115 kanji. Here's a crash course in kanji - 木 this one to the left is tree　　山 this one to the left is mountain　　目 this one to the left is eye　　肉 this one to the left is meat　　私this one to the left is i or my　　人　this one to the left is person or people　車 this one to the left is car. Crash Course 2 - they don't have the same pronunciation 　水　this kanji to the left means water. it is pronounced mizu. But if you combine it like in the next example, it's pronunciation becomes sui. So, one has to know when to change it's sound when being combined with other kanji as well. By the way, this sui pronunciation goes together as suiyoubi which translates as Wednesday.　水曜日　　- So, the more you learn, the easier it gets. But, I still pretty much suck at it. I only started studying them since February, so I haven't even bothered studying for a full year yet. And since I've moved, I barely study it at all. I used to study only kanji with my tutor prior to moving. But, we can't meet anymore because now we live too far apart from one another. With my new tutor, there isn't must structured kanji studying. So, I'm not nearly as good at it as I should be. After writing this, I decided I am going to buy myself a kanji studying book because I would get much better at it if I had the book she used to teach me with.

Alright, that's it for now. will probably write again soon. I also am not going to be so anal about my word usage, sentence structure or capitalizatoin. I will try to make this a bit casual and not so professional as how I was trying to make it before. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Ikebana`

2007-11-14T06:45:00.001-05:00

I'm trying out a new hobby. I think I will have tried nearly everything Japanese by the time I actually come home. What I'm up to now is called Ikebana or what is translated loosely to flower arranging. The purpose of this tradition is to arrange different flowers in an aesthetically pleasing fashion. There are several "schools" of ikebana. All that means is that there are different headmasters to each school who determine what rules are acceptable for arranging your flowers. The type of ikebana I study falls under the ohara school. It is said that ikebana developed around the 6th century as an offering in Buddhist temples. However, my school, ohara is relatively recent being founded in the late 19th century.

I have been attending the school as an invite by one of the women, Yumiko, that works at the Board of Education. I attend with Ruth and Jane as well. We go with Yumiko to her teachers' house to learn. Traditionally, one uses flowers and is expected to arrange them in ways to represent sky, earth and mankind in a well-balanced manner. The founder of my school, ohara wanted to create a type of ikebana that balanced natural beauty, such as mountains and fields. It was also created to allow for the adoption of Western flowers that were being introduced to Japan during the late 19th century.

I have predominantly been studying how to do the Rising Form which allows for one flower or vine or plant piece to serve as the main subject. Then, another form must be cut to 1/3 of the size of the subject and that becomes the object. The rest of the flowers or pieces are to be arranged as to not take away from the object or subject but to serve as fillers to make these two pieces become even more beautiful.(this is the rising form that I made this past week, I chose these flowers for the first time, too!)

There are several rules you need to keep in mind while arranging your flowers. For example, sometimes the stems cannot cross; some flowers should not be facing directly forward, there are certain measurements that must be followed. The object must always be 1/3 of the length as the subject. The filler flowers, stems and leaves cannot go outside a particular measurement in comparison to how tall the subject is. I'm still a beginner and learning in Japanese so I learn from my mistakes. It would be impossible to be taught all the rules at once in Japanese, so each week that I make a new mistake, I am taught about that mistake and write it down as to not do the same mistake again the next time.

Ikebana is incredibly relaxing. We are just studying how to do the next form, called the Iclining form. In this form, the subject cannot stand straight up but must be curved off to the side. Perhaps, if I get confident enough and understand it enough, I will have an exhibition someday!

(above: this is the inclining form, notice how the longest flower is off to the side and doesn't stand straight up like in the example above)

(above: Yumiko, who is way more advanced than us. Her flower is a two -tiered - the top tier is the rising form and her bottom tier is the inclining form, she's so good!)

(above: I went to see my Japanese teacher's exhibition, who also does ikebana. The above example was one of the arrangements. I was shocked at how big it was. It was about 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide. )

(above: this is also the rising form. This is my Japanese teacher's exhibited ikebana!)

(above: furthest left is Ruth, the middle one is mine and the furthest right is Jane's. This past week we all got to choose our own flowers! They are all in the rising form)

reincarnation

2007-10-22T12:09:00.001-04:00

I think if reincarnation exists, in my prior lives I was probably some of the following

An animal that gets eaten for meals by humans
A poor person or a sick person
A bird
A humanitarian
A tree

Health Insurance

2007-10-17T04:35:00.000-04:00

In the past month, the never-ending debate regarding providing National Health Insurance to American citizens by the government has been floating in and out of my thoughts. This subject hit home to me when I was back in America visiting and realized that if anything happened to me, I had no health insurance. That's a scary thought when I spent some of my trip in the mountains hiking, engaging in risky behavior. I realized I feel a bit trapped by the fact I don't have health insurance. Because of this - it seems whatever I want to do with my future has to provide me some sort of health benefits. When I want to do some non-profit work or volunteer work, it seems like that's not even feasible. I envy the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, etc that have National Health Insurance for their citizens. Like really, they can go galavant around wherever they please without having to wonder, "what if something happens to me, I need to take out travel insurance,etc" I've talked to some friends of mine whom are floating around from temp job to temp job. I've heard horror stories of people breaking their arms and owing thousands and thousands of dollars to the hospital because they have no insurance. I've talked to others who are pretty sure they needed to be on crutches but didn't bother going to the hospital because they have no insurance. How crazy is it that we live in a first world country and my friends can't even get the proper medical help they need? It certainly doesn't help when our president is spending as much as he pleases on a stupid war but vetoes health care for children on the grounds that it "costs too much". Maybe before killing our citizens off in a war that was started on false grounds, we should take measures to help lives in our own country first.

I rant this much because I have had bronchitis. I've gone to the doctor three times. Guess how much it costs me to go to the doctor in Japan? One doctor visit cost me the equivalent of $3.16 US Dollars. Let me spell that out for you. Three dollars and sixteen cents!!!!!!! And my prescription? $4.62 for THREE prescriptions! Imagine that health care. That's why I'm ranting because it just blew my mind how cheap health care is here and how amazing it is that everyone has it. Even me, a temporary citizen.

The Odyssey Years

2007-10-16T07:40:00.000-04:00

So - here I live in Japan. I'm often reminded by friends and family back at home how lucky I am to have this opportunity. I don't dispute that fact ever because I know I am priveledged in not only this opportunity but the many things I take for granted just being a middle-class white person. However, no matter how good things seem to be, no matter how much I remind myself that I am lucky, no matter all these factors - there are times that I feel so lost and so confused. There are times that I feel completely lost in life. Moreover, the things that I feel at a loss for - I often feel I have nowhere to turn to find the answers. A self help book? My parents? the Internet? Who? I know all these sources could provide some answers, but still - not be able to relate very well. I've engaged in several conversations with my peers - not only in Japan, but back in America, others living lives in other countries temporarily, mainly those in their mid to late twenties. As humans, we tend to socialize with those who have similiar interests, hobbies, etc. Thus, most the people I am talking about this to, also think similarly to me and haven't started their permanent career, etc. Someone once mentioned to me that there used to be only be 4 steps in life but now there are more because life expectancy is longer and there are more opportunities. These additional stages are new to society, so there's not much to say about them yet. Today, another English teacher in the area showed me this article...I think it's neat because it kind of describes who I am, and this sometimes overly confusing period in my life for me. So, without further ado, here it is...it's from the New York Times...

The Odyssey Years

By DAVID BROOKS

There used to be four common life phases: childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. Now, there are at least six: childhood, adolescence, odyssey, adulthood, active retirement and old age. Of the new ones, the least understood is odyssey, the decade of wandering that frequently occurs between adolescence and adulthood.

During this decade, 20-somethings go to school and take breaks from school. They live with friends and they live at home. They fall in and out of love. They try one career and then try another.

Their parents grow increasingly anxious. These parents understand that there’s bound to be a transition phase between student life and adult life. But when they look at their own grown children, they see the transition stretching five years, seven and beyond. The parents don’t even detect a clear sense of direction in their children’s lives. They look at them and see the things that are being delayed.

They see that people in this age bracket are delaying marriage. They’re delaying having children. They’re delaying permanent employment. People who were born before 1964 tend to define adulthood by certain accomplishments — moving away from home, becoming financially independent, getting married and starting a family.

In 1960, roughly 70 percent of 30-year-olds had achieved these things. By 2000, fewer than 40 percent of 30-year-olds had done the same.

Yet with a little imagination it’s possible even for baby boomers to understand what it’s like to be in the middle of the odyssey years. It’s possible to see that this period of improvisation is a sensible response to modern conditions.

Two of the country’s best social scientists have been trying to understand this new life phase. William Galston of the Brookings Institution has recently completed a research project for the Hewlett Foundation. Robert Wuthnow of Princeton has just published a tremendously valuable book, “After the Baby Boomers” that looks at young adulthood through the prism of religious practice.

Through their work, you can see the spirit of fluidity that now characterizes this stage. Young people grow up in tightly structured childhoods, Wuthnow observes, but then graduate into a world characterized by uncertainty, diversity, searching and tinkering. Old success recipes don’t apply, new norms have not been established and everything seems to give way to a less permanent version of itself.

Dating gives way to Facebook and hooking up. Marriage gives way to cohabitation. Church attendance gives way to spiritual longing. Newspaper reading gives way to blogging. (In 1970, 49 percent of adults in their 20s read a daily paper; now it’s at 21 percent.)

The job market is fluid. Graduating seniors don’t find corporations offering them jobs that will guide them all the way to retirement. Instead they find a vast menu of information economy options, few of which they have heard of or prepared for.

Social life is fluid. There’s been a shift in the balance of power between the genders. Thirty-six percent of female workers in their 20s now have a college degree, compared with 23 percent of male workers. Male wages have stagnated over the past decades, while female wages have risen.

This has fundamentally scrambled the courtship rituals and decreased the pressure to get married. Educated women can get many of the things they want (income, status, identity) without marriage, while they find it harder (or, if they’re working-class, next to impossible) to find a suitably accomplished mate.

The odyssey years are not about slacking off. There are intense competitive pressures as a result of the vast numbers of people chasing relatively few opportunities. Moreover, surveys show that people living through these years have highly traditional aspirations (they rate parenthood more highly than their own parents did) even as they lead improvising lives.

Rather, what we’re seeing is the creation of a new life phase, just as adolescence came into being a century ago. It’s a phase in which some social institutions flourish — knitting circles, Teach for America — while others — churches, political parties — have trouble establishing ties.

But there is every reason to think this phase will grow more pronounced in the coming years. European nations are traveling this route ahead of us, Galston notes. Europeans delay marriage even longer than we do and spend even more years shifting between the job market and higher education.

And as the new generational structure solidifies, social and economic entrepreneurs will create new rites and institutions. Someday people will look back and wonder at the vast social changes wrought by the emerging social group that saw their situations first captured by “Friends” and later by “Knocked Up.”

Link

Sara's Crib, Season 2

2007-10-11T08:03:00.001-04:00

Alright, here they finally are - videos of my living space

Watch this video first

Watch this video second

Watch this video third

The Kiwi Club!

2007-10-04T06:53:00.001-04:00

Last year, I taught English to a group of adults in the community who were interested in learning or practicing their English. That group was amazing, helping me meet people in the community and doing my part. Unfortunately, as a result of the move, I had to stop going to that class because I need a car to get there. But, on a very positive note, I now belong to a new class called The Kiwi Club. This class also consists of adults in my community who want to study English. Last year, I was teaching once a week, but this year I only teach about once a month. However, I am starting up an advanced class for them, allowing me to teach them about 2-3 times a month. I'm excited for it - I really enjoy doing volunteer work and working with adults. This below picture is the majority of the class at our welcome party!
Like last year, the Kiwi Club organizes events to show us around Japan and help us get to know all the members. The first fun thing we did was a hike to a mountain called Haguro san. We went to the neighboring prefecture called Yamagata ken. In Yamagata Ken - there are three sacred peaks that are called Dewa Sanzan. Earlier in the year, I had hiked one of them called gas-san. Afterwards, we actually visited the base of Haguro, which is another one of the sacred peaks to visit the famous pagoda, but didn't do the hike up to the peak. The peak is only a mere 1,358 feet but clincher is - it's all stairs, not so much a hiking trail. You need to climb 2, 446 steps to reach the top.
Along the way, you can get beautiful views like this. I don't know if you can tell, but in the distance of this photo is the Japan Sea! There isn't any type of view from the actual top, just some shrines. We got to see people praying and chanting in the shrine when we reached the top. We also got to view two museums while here. There is one at the base of the mountain and one at the top as well! It displayed items from hundreds of years ago. You can view all the photos from this trip in this photo album, here.
More recently, we've held a moon-viewing party in a local shrine that is basically behind my house. According to my lovely student, Saito Sensei (Hi Saito Sensei!!!) - this is the reason behind a moon-viewing party. He told me that we have a moon-viewing party because long ago, Japanese people's ancestors wanted to thank God for their autumn harvest. So, they used to have a party in autumn to thank God. He said, recently Japanese people don't really thank God for their autumn harvest anymore, but it is still custom to have a moon-viewing party! We were able to enjoy lots of delicious food and spend time with eachother. Below is a silly photo of Ruth, my student, Kyoko and myself. We bought these masks and made a debut with them here!

They also had two people dress up as a dragon(in the below pictures) and dance around. Additionally, there was taiko drumming and flute playing. It was a really fun evening.

So, this is my new adult English conversation class! I think it's going to be a lot of fun with them this year!

Welcome to my life...in the city

2007-10-03T03:52:00.001-04:00

Ishinomaki City. Yes, the actual city this year. That what I call home now. As mentioned, I live in a tall white apartment block. In fact, it's the tallest around in comparison to all my neighboring buildings. I have a back balcony in which I seem to spend no time. My front doors opens out to a hallway. However, it's not really a hallway because it's just open air out there. I live on the second floor.

From my back balcony, I only get views of rusty, old homes(see photo to the left). From the front open area I can see the Kitakami River. This is the longest river in Tohoku, or Northern Japan. It is also said to be the cleanest river. And, it flows right in front of my apartment practically).

I have a pink bike. This bike has a handy basket. My bike is 3rd hand used. I bought it for about $40 USD. The breaks squeak uncontrollably and it sounds like the chain will fall off at any moment. However, the bike shop I had look at it told me it's fine, just noisy. I should survive the next year on it.

Across from the area that I park my bike is a soy sauce or miso soup factory, I forget which(see below picture). So, sometimes my apartment smells of that. When it's not smelling of that, it's gagging me of the smell of fish. And, I mean fish! Somedays, it's so gross, you can't leave the glass door open with out feeling nauseous. This nasty fish smell is a result of the fish factory in town. I think it smells a lot more like catfood than fish though.

As mentioned, I live with 4 other English teachers in the same apartment block. There are two guys whom I see occasionally. The first is Brock, who has been here for a year already. The second guy is Azrael who hails from Singapore. The other two girls and I have become good friends in our short two months of being neighbors. Allow me to introduce you with the below picture.

Ruth, the stunning young lady in red is my direct neighbor. She lives right next door to my apartment. She's from Scotland, her town is where the writer of Peter Pan grew up or something like that. Before Japan, she was finishing up her law degree. She lived here four years ago doing a gap year. I'm learning all sorts of British/Scottish slang from her. We like to fool around a lot. Like me, she has an older sister and a younger sister. Not only are we both the middle child of an all female family, but our birthdays are only a week apart.

In the middle in black, is Jane. She lives 3 doors down from me. Jane comes from Chicago and spent time doing business before coming here. I like to think Jane keeps Ruth and I grounded sometimes. I love both my neighbors. This year in Ishinomaki, we have a bunch of women. It's lovely. I'm sure with time, everyone will slowly be introduced to you through stories.

Last year, I taught at nine schools, this year it's eight. I've adjusted to being spread thin between my schools. So, it doesn't bother me anymore. The breakdown is nearly the same. I teach at two Junior High Schools, five Elementary Schools and one kindergarden.

So, welcome to my life in Ishinomaki City! Still so much more to write, but one day at a time!

A new life in a new city

2007-10-02T09:22:00.001-04:00

As most of you are aware, I moved way back when- two months ago. I've been incredibly lazy and busy at the same time to ever find time to really blog about it. In retrospect, making the decision to move was the best idea and the best thing for me. I don't think I could have survived a second year in my rural town.

I now live in an apartment building where 4 other teachers live as well. I have daily social interaction in English again. I have an escape when I have bad days at work. I have people to eat dinner with, people to watch movies and TV with, people to laugh with daily. It's amazing and I love it.

It's still too soon to determine if the school switch will be better or not. So far, it seems my students are way better than my bad school last year. Granted, there is still the isolation at work that I don't feel like hurdling over this year. I have accepted the me as the foreigner and "them" as the Japanese teachers ideology that is seen working here. Certainly, if I put forth the effort, I could create small relationships, but to be honest, I don't have the energy or will power to do that this year. I'm content with doing my work and spending my free time reading or writing. I still am enjoying every minute of elementary schools.

I've given up a big house for a one room apartment with an attached kitchen, toilet and shower room. The picture below displays the building I live in. It's the big white one you can see in the distance. I'll show close ups later! I've given up a car for a bicycle. However, these two "pleasures" being removed from my life has made things easier for me. I'm happier without them.

I don't regret or wish my first year living situation could have been different. I've accepted it as one year of my life that I constantly stood up after being knocked down incessantly. I've come to grips with the fact that I am a social person. I tried to live the non-social life and I was unhappy. That's okay - that's me, this is who I am - I am person who loves to be around other people. If I hadn't lived in Monou for a year, my Japanese would never be where it is now. I wouldn't have challenged myself in the hardest way possible until my 23rd year of life. I think I am capable of trying to find happiness in any situation. As someone who has left said to me recently, "not only did I experience my all-time most depressive lows, I also experience my all time - euphoric highs." I think she put it best when she said that when speaking of living in the middle of nowhere Japan. I'm proud of my one year. It was tough, but I did it. I recognized I needed change in my life and I took a risk and went for it. It's working out for the best so far.

Pretty soon I'll blog more about what I have actually been doing since living in my new city. I haven't been traveling every weekend like I was last year, but I have still been remaining involved in the community and those around me. I'm pretty sure this will be my last year in Japan, as there is someone back home I want to be back with and the feeling is mutual between us. So, I'm going to live out my remaining 10 months with as much positive energy as my body can breathe. Then, hopefully get a job back in Plattsburgh for a year as an International Student Service Intern. A stepping stone to becoming a study abroad coordinator or something along those lines.

An Article on English Textbooks

2007-09-30T18:47:00.000-04:00

This article was taken from a Japanese Newspaper, called the Daily Yomiuri:

Prof probes 'grammar control'

Midori Matsuzawa Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

Now a professor at Fukuyama Heisei University in Hiroshima Prefecture, Toshiaki Ozasa once served as the principal of Hiroshima University's affiliated high school. In that role, he says, he might have been questioned by the then Education Ministry if his school's entrance exam had included an English sentence like the following:

"The athlete has been studying English since 8 o'clock."

Why would it cause a problem? "The sentence is beyond the official curriculum guidelines for middle school as it uses a present perfect progressive form," Ozasa said. "We're 'supposed to teach' no more than present perfect by that point."

Ozasa was speaking during a convention of the Japan Association of College English Teachers (JACET), held Sept. 6-8 in Hiroshima under the theme "English Education at the Tertiary Level: in Search of a Consistent Curriculum from Elementary School through University."

In his lecture titled "English Language Teaching in Japan: A Diachronic and Synchronic Perspective," Ozasa described the nation's English education at the secondary level as something "totally tied up" in rules, and stressed that teachers simply went along with this situation.

However, "These 'absolute rules' taken for granted were not actually a matter of course when considered from either a historical or international perspective," he said. "I have no intention of criticizing or placing blame, but just stress that there has been a historical necessity behind it."

Serving as president of the Society for Historical Studies of English Teaching in Japan, Ozasa has collaborated with other experts in examining English textbooks used at the secondary school level since the Meiji era (1868-1912). He focused on the first five grades of secondary education under the previous system implemented until the end of World War II, and the corresponding levels under today's system, namely from the first year of middle school to the second year of high school.

In the beginning of the Meiji era, U.S. primary school textbooks were imported for use in foreign-language classes for Japanese secondary school students. English Readers: The High School Series, written by a British educator, was the first original series issued by the Education Ministry in 1887.

Ozasa did not find major attempts to control grammar in these early textbooks. For example, even the first volumes of these series weaved "be-verbs" and other verbs throughout the passages.

Ozasa believes Masakazu Toyama (1848-1900) was the first educator in Japan to implement grammar control. Writer of the Seisoku series published in 1889, he later became the president of Tokyo Imperial University, the predecessor of present-day Tokyo University, and an education minister.

Unlike its predecessors, Seisoku's first volume did not weave be- and general verbs together from the beginning. When looking into how frequently three grammar indexes--past tense, verbals and present perfect--were used in each lesson, Ozasa found that the book enforced control over use of past tense and present perfect.

Textbooks made since Seisoku also employed grammar control, which was gradually strengthened. Eventually, out of the first 11 volumes published from 1916 to 1951 surveyed by Ozasa, six took control over use of all the three grammar indexes.

"As you can see, the nation's grammar control was established bit by bit over a long period," Ozasa said. "It can be described as a kind of culture in our English education."

The speaker also touched on studies by his fellow researchers that compared a Japanese textbook series for middle and high school published from 1986-87 with textbooks published from 1999-2003 in four other Asian countries.

When it comes to control over the three grammar indexes, only Japan set regulations over all three, while Thailand and China did so regarding past tense and present perfect. However, a closer look revealed that their controls were not so strict and allowed some "exceptions"--although past tense and present perfect were basically not used over certain lengths of lessons, a few would still slip through.

"This is the biggest difference between Japan and other Asian countries," Ozasa said. "Japan has established strict grammar control, but other Asian countries are rather flexible, sometimes using the target grammar ahead of the time when they [officially] think it's necessary."

Ozasa also has looked into vocabulary control--counting how many words secondary school students have been exposed to since the Meiji era, and also enumerating how many words their Chinese and South Korean counterparts today are exposed to.

Textbooks were generally thick tomes in the Meiji era. The first volume of one imported series consisted of just 5,600 words, but that number skyrocketed to 106,000 by the fifth. The English Readers series had nearly 40,000 words in its first volume, growing to nearly 70,000 in the fifth.

As time went by, however, Japanese textbooks tended to contain fewer words. Seisoku started with about 14,000 in the first volume and ended with nearly 34,000 in its fifth, while the recent 1986-87 series offered only about 1,500 words to students in the first year of middle school and about 8,500 to those in the second year of high school.

When looking into neighboring countries' textbook series, the word counts were much higher than those of the Japanese series. Ozasa described the Chinese and South Korean figures as "roughly corresponding to our Meiji and Taisho (1912-26) era levels, respectively."

The studies also examined the number of new vocabulary in each volume as well as the ratio of new words to total words, through which Ozasa came across an irony of Japanese textbooks.

Because Japan has cut the number of new vocabulary items students must learn, the recent Japanese series had new vocabulary appearing more frequently, making it difficult for students to read passages because they could not guess the meaning of new words from the context, Ozasa said.

"We've taken control over grammar and word lists to make our textbooks easier for students to use," Ozasa said. "But such efforts have produced textbooks that are unnatural and difficult to read. It's quite ironic."

===

Education system review needed

Ozasa said his studies suggest that before the end of World War II, the textbook screening system did not check for control over grammar and vocabulary. "It didn't matter, probably, because only a limited number of students could attend secondary school in those days," he said.

After the war, secondary education became common--compulsory education has been extended to middle school, and almost every student goes to high school today. "In this sense, it's inevitable that the authorities would intensify their control over what is studied and make textbooks easier, so as to prevent students from dropping out," Ozasa said.

As a result, "Japanese textbooks today are the easiest, from both a historical and international perspective," he concluded. "Nonetheless, there's the harsh reality that many of our students find it difficult to catch up with even these textbooks."

Since World War II, Japan has had a "single-track" English education system in which students are supposed to learn the same content in the same class hours. "I believe the time has come to discuss this system," Ozasa stressed. "It wouldn't involve English education alone, but the basics of our education system as whole."

The expert also suggested that now is the time to examine introducing a "multiple-track" education system that would accommodate various learning styles--motivated students should enjoy high-level learning, both in quality and quantity, while slow learners should be guaranteed to receive fundamental learning.

"Anyone who mentions this has always been rapped as it's regarded as a taboo in our educational system," Ozasa said. "But someone has to talk about the elephant in the room."

The difference between Japanese Schools and American Schools

2007-09-11T04:40:00.001-04:00

I was asked to present on American Culture for the oldest grades I teach to. This class was an elective course, so the student's abilities are a bit higher than a regular student in English. I thought I'd share my speech with you here, so you can get an idea. I left it as is, so you can see a 15 year old student's English abilities. Also, I do have Japanese followers of this blog, so they can understand it to! Of course, this is also reflective of MY Junior High School experience, which may not be accurate for ALL of America!

Japanese Junior High Schools and American Junior High Schools are a little different.

In Japan, everyday, there are 5 or 6 classes.
In America, everyday there are 8 or 9 classes.

In Japan, class is 45 or 50 minutes.
In America, class is 39 or 40 minutes.

In Japan, students must learn English.
In America, students can choose what language they want to study. Many students want to study Spanish. Secondly, many students study French. Other popular languages are German, Japanese, Chinese and Russian.

In Japan, students eat lunch in their classroom. Everyone must eat Kyushoku.
In America, students eat lunch in a cafeteria. I will tell you about this now. A cafeteria is a very big room. There are many, many tables. During lunch time, all the students go into the cafeteria. Some students bring lunch. Some students buy lunch. Teachers eat in another room. Teachers and students do not eat lunch together.

In Japan, students have cleaning time. Students clean the school.
In America, people have jobs to clean the school. These people get money.

In Japan, students must do club activities.
In America, not many students do club activities after school. Many students do club activities in High School, but not Junior High School.

In Japan, students come to school by bike.
In America, most students come to school by bus. But, some must walk or come by bike.

In Japan, students stay in the same classroom all day.
In America, students change classrooms. They have 3 minutes to go to their next class. Teachers stay in the same classroom all day.

In Japan, students keep their books, notebooks, bag, jacket, clothes in their classroom.
In America, in the school hallway, students have lockers. Students must leave their books, notebooks, jacket, and clothes in their locker. Between classes, students must go to their locker to get their next class's book.

In Japan, students must wear uniforms.
In America, students can wear what they want.

In Japan, students change grades in April.
In America, students change grades in August or September.

In Japan, Junior High School students are from 12 years old until 15 years old.
In America, Junior High School students are from 11 years old until 14 years old. If you lived in America, you would be in High School right now.

In Japan, summer vacation is for 5 weeks.
In America, summer vacation is for almost 3 months.
Winter vacation and Spring vacation are the same in Japan and America.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2007-09-09T03:29:00.000-04:00

Just a quick Happy Birthday to Dad!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you dear poppy, Happy Birthday to you!

Love you lots!
Sara

Julie in Miyagi!

2007-08-31T04:28:00.001-04:00

To conclude my trip with Julie, I will write this blog. After we had departed Nara, we made our way back up to my prefecture of Miyagi. Spending some time in the capital city, Sendai, we walked around and I showed Julie some of the sights. I think the most memorable part of this day is when Julie fell into the toilets, yes, I am serious...she fell into the toilet (hehehe). We caught a train back to Ishinomaki and Yumie picked us up from the train station We went out to eat with her and Julie was able to meet Yumie's amazing family afterwards.

Julie spent her last few days in Japan understanding where I live and what it is I do everyday. I feel it's a very important part of my life and to actually be able to see and do what I do, gives an entirely new meaning to me, "living in Japan." Julie is probably one of my avid, faithful readers of this blog and as best as I try to relay my life to those at home, she had pictured a lot of what I had described to be completely different from what she saw in rural Japan.

I received permission from one of my Junior High Schools for Julie to come in with me. She was able to observe my classes, eat lunch with the students, meet my co-workers and see how a typical school day in Japan is done. The teachers treated her like royalty and the students were extremely curious of her. My favorite questions from the students were "how is she American if she looks Japanese?". After school, she got to meet my Adult Conversation Class. Friday, she came to a class of Elementary school with me followed with about 30 minutes of Kindergarden. I had a meeting in Sendai, so while I was in the meeting, she went shopping in the city. That evening, we met up with my friends and had dinner and went to karaoke. The next morning, I took her to Kinkasan Island, a trip that I had originally done with Meghann last September or October.

This evening, we just took it easy and rented a movie as Julie said I had kept her on the go way too much. (Don't worry after she thanked me for jam packing our days of things to do) Sunday morning, I woke Julie at the crack of dawn, so we could go to Kurikoma mountain to do some hiking. I have hiked this mountain in the past with Brock, but it was so cloudy we couldn't see a thing. Julie and I lucked out and could not in any way, have asked for a better day. It was hot, but not deathly hot, the skies were extremely clear and the summit of the mountain wasn't too cold. From the top of the highest mountain in Miyagi, we were able to see as far as our eyes would let us. It was such a spectacular site, with views of not only Miyagi, but two connecting prefectures as well.

We went back down a different course, which gave us new scenery and terrain to cover. On the way down, we had to cross through natural waterfalls that had been created by the melting snow from the summit. There were a few parts of the trail down that I wasn't entirely positive that we were headed in the right way, but it all worked out. We drove the three hours back to Monou and went to Yasko's house for a BBQ dinner.

Julie's last day in my town was spent all day at an elementary school. Afterwards, I took her into Sendai and we had dinner one last time. I stayed with her as late as I possibly could and then made sure she would make it on the overnight bus alright. I said my goodbyes, thus concluding a wonderful trip with Julie for two weeks.

CLICK HERE for all the pictures from these events

Thanks for coming, Julie, I had a lot of fun. I can't wait to go to Egypt with you =)

Nara - Japan's First Capital

2007-08-23T23:16:00.000-04:00

We rose bright and early to catch an early train to get to Nara from Kyoto. Around the year 646, Japan decided that they needed a capital to govern the country. They tried out two previous areas before deciding that Nara was the best spot. Therefore, Nara became Japan's first real capital in the year 710. It was only the capital for 75 years before it was changed to Kyoto. It was during this brief stint of 75 years that Japan imported many Chinese customs and ways and began integrating these things into Japanese society, such as declaring Buddhism the National Religion. Since the capital was moved to Kyoto, many of the temples & shrines in Kyoto had been destroyed with attacks on Japan. However, with Nara on the back burner of these attacks, several of the shrines and temples were never destroyed and are in tact from the way they were originally developed. It is the number two tourist attraction in this part of Japan following Kyoto. In 1998, there were eight sights deemed worthy to be UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

As we exited out of Nara Station, I stopped and asked for a map of the area from an Information center. We were asked if we would be interested in having a free tour guide for the day. After having the day before be a bit ruined by my lack of understanding of the area, we decided it would probably be for the best to have one. We only had one day in Nara and we wanted to be able to see the sights hassle free. It also relieved a lot of the stress on my shoulders by not having to try to read the maps and figuring out where we were. Our hotel wouldn't allow us to check in until 3 or some late hour so we stored our luggage in lockers at the station for the day. A friendly stranger helped us lift our bags and carry our bags for us. We thought he worked at the locker area, but so it turns out, he didn't and was just a friendly stranger trying to help us.

Our tour guides' name was Yoriko and we met her at another Tourist Information Center. She was this absolutely adorable woman, about 60 years old who just wants to practice her English so she gives free tours. Immediately, I really liked her, she was so helpful and just so absolutely cute! The majority of the temples and shrines were in an area called Nara koen area or Nara Park. One trademark of Nara that is well-known throughout Japan is the large number of tame deer that walk around trying to get food from the tourists. There are about 1200 deer in this area that were considered sacred before Buddhism was introduced into Japan. At that time, they were considered messengers from God and thus have been declared as National Treasures for Japan.

We didn't really see many of these deer until Yoriko led us towards the various temples and shrines. She stopped us at a pond along the way to tell us of a Japanese folklore story about the pond. I already forget it now, a month and a half later but it was a love story for sure. From there, she took us to Kofuku-ji temple. This temple is quite interesting as it was transferred to Nara from Kyoto in 710. It originally had 175 buildings, but destruction has left only a dozen standing. There are two pagodas in this area, and I think the more impressive one dates back to 1426. It is actually the second tallest in Japan. Yoriko taught us that each layer of a pagoda represents the earth's elements. For example, one represents water, another level earth, and so on.

We walked to the next shrine called Kasuga Taisha which was founded in the 8th century. Approaching the entrance of the shrine, you begin seeing hundreds of lanterns lining the pathway. It was set in the woods, so it made it really feel "sacred" to me. According to shinto practice, the main shrine needs to be completely rebuilt every twenty years and the keepers of the shrine keep this up.

The next few places we visited were all part of a place called "Todai-ji". We first stopped at sangatsu do hall. It is the oldest building in the Todai-ji temple complex. It houses a small collection of statues from the Nara capital period. There were 16 statues inside and 12 are designated as National Treasures and the remaining 4 are considered to be Important Culture Properties. 14 were made between the twenty years of 729-749. Most of them are deities to the Buddhist beliefs. They all had very fierce looking faces and generally made of Gold and painted over. They were so old, that you could barely distinguish what color they were supposed to be painted. Others that weren't looking fierce had their hands put together and were in prayer. They were very impressive.

Afterwards, we moved onto the nigatsu do building. We needed to make a small climb uphill to view it, but it was well worth it for the views that we got from up top. The outer part of the building had all sorts of paintings around it. There were two people that were sitting inside practicing mantras, it was really cool to listen to. We rested here for a bit intaking the views.

The last place we went to, which is considered to be the most impressive building in all of the Todai-ji complex is called the Daibutsu-den hall. The building is the largest wooden structure in the entire world. The current building was built in 1709, and it's actually only 2/3 the size of the original building. The old, wooden building is actually home to an gigantic bronze Buddha

And, I mean gigantic! Th name of budda is Daibutsu which literally translates to Big Buddha. It is one of the largest Bronze figures in the world. It was originally cast in 746, however, the current Buddha had been recast. It stands over 16m high and consists of 437 tonnes of bronze and 130 kg of gold. It is believed by Historians, that this Buddha was cast to as a charm against smallpox within Japan. The reason it had been recast was because it had lost it's head a few times due to natural disasters such as earthquakes or fires. You can see a color difference between the head and it's body for sure.

I had seen another Daibutsu in Kamakura, that was impressive, but this guy in Nara, was definitely even more awe-inspiring. It is rumored that the Daibutsu in Nara can hold the Daibutsu in Kamakura in the palm of his hand! In addition, to this one large Bronze Buddha, there were other protectors that were just as impressively large that were alongside Daibutsu.

Towards the back of the Daibutsu den hall is a pole with a hole at the bottom of it. The hole is rumored to be exactly the same size as the Big Buddha's nostril. According to our tour guide Yoriko, there is a belief that if a person can fit through that hole, they will go to paradise. We first watched a group of Junior High School boys wiggling their way through the hole. Then, Julie went and was successful and then it was my turn. I was a bit nervous I wouldn't make it but, I did, with the help of some of those boys helping pull me through. It turns out, we are going to paradiese!! See you there?

The last part of this temple complex that Yoriko took us to see was to the gateway entrance to the temple. It turns out we must have gone through a back entrance or something. On the side of this gate, called nandai-mon, are two intimidating "nio guardians." These wooden figures were originally carved in the 13th century. It is claimed that they are some of the finest wooden structures in all Japan, if not the world. They have been recently restored. To me, the most impressive thing about these guardians were how tall they were.

At this point, we had seen all the temples and shrines in the Nara Koen park and it was nearly noon. The last spot that Yoriko took us to was a gorgeous Japanese style garden named yoshikien. There are three different styles of gardens here, a pond garden, a moss garden, and a tea ceremonial flower garden. There is a tea house in the moss garden that we were allowed to look at. Most of the gardens were carpeted with cedar moss, other parts had seasonal flowers and others had rock paths to follow. I am so in love with Japanese gardens.

Finally it was lunch time. Yoriko recognized my vegetarian eating habits and took me to one of my favorite food restaurants in Japan. Any restaurant that makes okonomiyaki is awesome in my eyes. Okonomiyaki is kind of like a pancake, with all sorts of things tossed inside such as vegetables, meat, mochi, anything really and then a sauce to put on top or mayonnaise, seaweed, all types of toppings as well. After lunch, we said goodbye to Yoriko and walked around the city a little more to do some shopping or whatnot. The city is rather small and we were really tired. We finally checked into our hotel, a hotel called the "Super Hotel" - sounds really ghetto but was actually a cute little room perfect for us. We had been staying in hostels up until this point so we were really happy to finally have a room to ourselves.

We took a short nap, watched some Full House in Japanese and then headed out to dinner at a cute little French cafe' to have a taste of Western style food again. We ended our night at a bar that was around the corner of our hotel. We definitely found some hole in the wall bar where we were the only foreigners and we had a blast that night. The bartender could speak some English, so Julie was able to talk with him a bit and then the rest of the night ended with us playing darts, Julie demanding which song be played next to the DJ, and then singing at the top of our lungs as the rest of the bar stared at us like we're nuts. We took some shots and then I woke up the next morning ... it felt like college again with Julie =) I love it.

Click here to see all the pics from this day...

Sakura Wind

2007-08-21T23:22:00.001-04:00

The first thing we did on July 2nd was head out to the Southeast Outskirts of Kyoto. I had seen pictures from friends that had visited this area previously and I thought it was definitely worth a visit. The shrine named Fushimi Inari Taisha, itself was dedicated to the gods of rice and sake in the 8th century. Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine is one of Japan's most popular, but that wasn't evident as we had woken up and arrived before 9am, before the rest of the tourists. The entire complex consists of five shrines that are scattered across wooded slopes of the Inari Mountain.

When we arrived, we saw several businessmen and locals praying. We definitely stuck out as the tourists at this time of the day. Pretty soon, we found what I had been looking for, the pathway of torii's. I know I have gone into detail about what a torii is in the past, but let me remind you as that is the significance of this place,

"A torii is what you can use to distinguish if a holy place is a temple or shrine. The torii is the gateway to a shrine. It is usually composed of of two upright pillars, joined at the top by two horizontal cross-bars, the upper of which is normally slightly curved. Torii are often painted a bright vermilion, though some are left as bare wood. "

Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine has a pathway that wanders 4km up the mountain and is lined with hundreds of red torii. There are also dozens of stone foxes that are symbolic as a messenger of the God of cereal grains named Inari. Julie and I wandered around this amazing shrine complex, coming into contact with some of the shrines along the way. Mainly though, we enjoyed running, just the two of us, on this pathway in the woods with red torii as our guardians. Eventually, the cereal God let the rain pour down on us, but we were prepared with umbrellas. Each red torii had kanji written all over it, perhaps with significant meaning or perhaps just a Marketing scam of the people who had donated money for that particular torii to be constructed. That, I'll never know, but it was amazing anyways. We easily spent around 2 hours going through the complex and the trailways of torii before I started worrying we might be lost. It was about 15 minutes of worrying before we came in contact with a crossing guard who gave us simple directions back to the train station. This shrine was both, mine and Julie's favorite shrine/temple/ sightseeing spot in Kyoto.

Not only had we been mistake free the day before, but also getting to Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine without any problems, we felt extremely accomplished. We were on a roll, it seemed. It wasn't even 10am and we had the whole day before us to check out the rest of the area as planned. We hopped on a bus and off we went. I wasn't really listening to the bus stops as I had counted out that it should be about 6 stops until our next spot. After 6 stops, then 7, then 8...and finally after 10 stops I was like what the hell, where is our next location? I started following the stops and matching them up on the bus map I had...it turns out we got on the right numbered bus, but headed the opposite way. We had been on the bus for about an hour and decided we might as well get off and see what else is on this line instead of just sitting here for another hour waiting to get to our original plans.

The bus map showed of some major temples in the area of where we got off the bus. There weren't any signs on the street and I didn't have a detailed map of the area we were in. I stopped into a store and asked for help on directions. We were directed a way, but eventually it seemed we were not really headed the right way. So, we improvised the plans, yet again and ended up going to some temple that was hidden amongst a small bamboo forest. This temple was named the Koto-in Zen Temple and was established in 1601. It housed several important historical objects from Japan, China and Korea. The garden to enter was probably the most impressive thing about this little hidden place we found.

After that we continued on our way down a beautiful path that was enclosed by large trees until we came upon yet another shrine. We walked around the area but pretty much viewing all that you can see anywhere in Japan. We decided to try to get to our original destinations since we weren't have too much luck finding things we wanted to.

We took a brief lunch break at some random Italian restaurant on the side of the road before finally reaching one of our desired destinations for the day. Ginkakuji Temple, otherwise known as the Silver Pavilion was FINALLY reached three and a half hours after we set out to find it. This Zen temple is also a major tourist sight for anyone going to Kyoto. It was built in 1482 as a retreat from the civil war that was going on at this time. I always thought that this temple was called the silver pavilion since there was a gold pavilion and this was one "second best" or something. But, in actuality, the creator of this temple had wanted to at some point cover the building with silver. However, that was never accomplished.

When you first enter the temple area, you go through a pathway with hedges made of stone, bamboos and camellias lining both sides for about 50 meters before you finally see the famous Silver Pavilion. Again, the actual temple is quite anti-climatic in comparison to the other beautiful gardens and structures that encompass the temple. The temple is two stories, the top floor being the Chinese temple style having a panel wall and a Chinese sliding door. The first floor is built in Shoin style, or traditional Japanese residential architecture style. On the roof, is a golden bronze phoenix that is facing east to guard the temple.

In front of the temple is a beautiful Zen rock garden named ginsyadan and kougetudai. The part of the rock garden named ginsyadan represents waves whereas the large rock pile named kougetudai has been built to represent Mount Fuji. As you walk further, you enter a stunning garden, with all sorts of moss grass, bamboo walkways, rocks and old trees that curve up on a small hillside that leaves you with beautiful views of the whole temple complex and the city of Kyoto as well.

Throughout our viewing of Ginkakuji Temple, we were being inundated by Junior High School students wanting our pictures with them. This gives meaning to my placement in Japan as a means of grassroots internationalization at my job. Many of the larger cities such as Kyoto, Tokyo, Hiroshima, etc. don't place foreigners in their school systems to teach English to their kids. The reason behind this is because they feel the students receive plenty of international experience with foreigners since they live in cities that most foreigners go to. However, these kids were really excited to have their pictures taken with foreigners meaning that perhaps, they don't receive as much internationalization as the cities think they do. I am sure my students would never ask a complete random foreign stranger for their picture with them since they have had exposure to foreign English teachers since 1st grade.

Since we wasted so much time on buses and being lost, our last goal of the day was to get to a castle. We took the appropriate buses to get there, but we had missed the entry time by 5 minutes. It was such a bummer because from the outside it looks really cool and it was our last day in Kyoto. We walked around the outer moat for a little while. A very curious man on a bike stopped to talk to us, he was really intrigued by Julie's tattoo. He went on and on about how the yakuza, the Japanese mafia, are the only people in Japan that have tattoos. He wanted to know why she got it, why she chose a butterfly why she chose that place, etc. The conversation ended up lasting for at least fifteen minutes before we went on our way and he hopped back onto his bike and cycled past us. Grassroots Internationalization even in the biggest tourist city of Kyoto, the difference of being able to speak a language and not.

Through the city of Kyoto runs a river and it seems it was the best date place to be for young couples living or touring in Kyoto. We joined those couples and sat down besides the river for a while. It was very relaxing to just sit and take in what was around us instead of constantly figuring out bus schedules and walking around.

My friend Yumie had told me about Kyoto's delicacy named Yuba. Lucky for me this is a vegetarian delicacy so I was keen on trying to find it. There was a woman standing outside of a very Japanese restaurant in her summer Yukata trying to recruit people to come in. She sold me as soon as I learned that Yuba was sold at this place. This was a perfectly Japanese dinner for both of us. Julie was in love with her miso, tempura, and sushi and I was thrilled with my Yuba.

What is yuba? The restaurants gives you a mini cooking device which consists of a small pot over a flame. Inside this pot was soy milk that is slowly brought to a boil by the flame. After a while, the soy milk grows a skin on top of it, when that happens you distinguish the flame. I was told to add some sort of oil or vinegar into the yuba and mix it all together. It coagulated into a firmer substance and from there you eat it!. It was pretty good and I would definitely recommend everyone to try yuba if they ever come to Japan to visit me =)

Our plans were to find a place to drink, but only ended up back on the streets drinking beers and checking out the men that were walking past us. We were discussing which boys we found attractive and why when we heard some guitarists playing. The music lulled us into finding where it was coming from. It was only across the street from where we were, so we walked over and sat down next to two girls who were also listening. They turned out to be their "managers" and we chatted a bit about the two boys singing who call themselves sakuranokaze or Cherry Blossom Wind. We watched them for about a half hour until they stopped playing, and at the end we chanted for them to do one more. Julie and I were in love with these two cute guitar players and asked for their picture. It was a great way to end our last night in Kyoto, with local music, friendly girls and cute boys. We headed back to our hostel via taxi and chatted with some lovely women from Taiwan before heading to bed.

For all my pictures from this day, click HERE

If you want to check out their webpage (entirely in Japanese), it's:

http://pksp.jp/cherrystyle/

July 1st continued

2007-08-14T17:03:00.000-04:00

After a very successful trip in the morning to Takao, we still had a lot of temples and shrines on our list that we were very interested in seeing. We finished lunch at another soba shop before seeing one of the most famed sites in Japan. Kinkaku-Ji, which is better known as The Golden Pavilion. The actual temple area is properly called Rokuon-ji temple. It was a villa of a man during the 1220's. The famed site, a pavilion that is completely painted gold was impressive but not nearly as impressive that one of the most well known sites in Japan should be. If anything, it was a major tourist trap that gives you that picture that says "Yes, I've been to Japan." I'm still glad we went because if we didn't, every single time I told a person I went to Kyoto, they would have asked if I saw that spot and I would have had to answer no and explain myself. Instead, I was able to say yes, and agree that yes, it is really beautiful! Not that it's not beautiful, just not as amazing as they make it out to be. The pond that is before the pavilion is named kyoki-chi which means, mirror pond. Quite perfect really as it did reflect the golden pavilion quite well.

The pavilion consists of 3 types of architecture. The 1st floor, Shinden-zukuri is palace styled. The 2nd floor is buke-zukuri, the style of the samurai house. The 3rd floor is karayou style or Zen temple style. This temple area became a World Heritage site in 1994 due to it's history.

The next stop on our route was catching another bus to ryoanji temple. The temple area is famed for a zen rock garden. It was founded in 1450 for a school of Zen. The area consists of a circular path with many things to step off of the path to see. Some of these include the main temple named Kuri which houses the rock garden, a beautiful pond, and a few other smaller buildings.

The rock garden is twenty five meters going from east to west and only ten meters from south to north. It is definitely in the form of a rectangle. It really only consists of millions of smaller rocks with fifteen large rocks laid about. There are no trees or plants. According to the legend of the area, it is up to each visitor to discover for himself or herself what the unique garden signifies. They say that the longer you gaze at the garden, the more varied your imagination will become. The rock garden that is surrounded be low earthen walls is the epitome of Zen art. It's believed that this rock garden was laid out in 1525.

Another item worth noting at this temple is a famous wash-basin of stone called "tsukubai". Apparently it has a unique inscription that says "I learn only to be contented" in kanji. This phrase is an important concept in the Zen philosophy. It is meant that the person who learns only to be contented is spiritually rich, while the one who does not learn to be contented is spiritually poor even if he is materialistically wealthy. It is said to have been contributed somewhere between the years of 1628-1700.

An eye catching beauty to this area is Kyoyochi Pond which was man made in the 12th century. There's a small island that is connected from land by a small bridge. On the small island, which is barely big enough for 5 people to stand comfortably is a hidden temple where they house an image of Sarasvati. Julie was in love with this little island bridge and we walked all the way back round to check it out.

Otherwise, we just spent our time there walking around this captivating pond, taking pictures of things as they came and went.

The last place we visited on this day was yet another World Heritage Site, the old imperial palace called Ninnaji. This place was a massive area. Ninnaji was founded by the 59th emperor in year 842. It was the old imperial palace because years ago, emperors had lived here. It is now headquarters of a flower arranging school. The first place that we went to was the main temple. In this area, we walked around and inside one of the bigger temples we had seen.

The doors were all painted uniquely and were on display for tourists. On the outside of this main temple was another rock garden stretching towards the main gate that we had entered in. Opposite of that garden was a real green garden, beautiful, but unfortunately, we couldn't walk through it.

The rest of the complex was really large so we took our time going through it. The first stop we went to was to was a 5 story, wooden pagoda, followed by several other smaller buildings. These temple buildings were unique as some were brown with white trimmings and turquoise window shutters, others were bright red and white just standing up amongst natural colors surrounding it, others were brown with gold trim, not one looking the same. We walked around, some of the last tourists there as it closed to the public while we had entered before.

It was on this day that we learned that the temples all closed around 5-5:30 allowing us to plan our next day with that in mind. To be completely honest, I don't really remember what we did when the temple closed. I am sure we went and had dinner somewhere, but I can't remember exactly where or what we decided to do after. I just know that we went to bed early so we could get up early again to see more temples and shrines as effectively as our first day had gone.

To see all the pictures from Takao and these temples, please click here.

The Takao District in Kyoto

2007-08-13T03:28:00.000-04:00

July 1st

The night before in the soba shop where we had eaten dinner, Julie had expressed interest in going to a location that seemed difficult to get to. I read the description in Lonely Planet, "Takao is secluded district tucked far away in nothwestern part of Kyoto." The fact that it was secluded was enticing, the reason I didn't want to go was it seemed like a pain in the ass to get to. That assumption wasn't too far from the truth when we arrived to the bus station in the morning. I went into the bus center to ask for further information on how I should get there. The woman there was not about helping me. I went in and expressed where I wanted to go and the means I wanted to get there by. The woman cut me off and just started speaking rapid Japanese. I couldn't understand her. I tried again, with a map showing the way I wanted to go and expressing I needed a ticket. No, she wasn't having any of it. I finally got fed up with her, purchased a two day pass for later and went to use a different bus service other than hers to get to Takao.

We got in a line that was already queued up to about 20 people full of hiking gear. The bus pulled up and we didn't get a seat. Julie was really worried that we were being shipped off to some huge mountain since everyone was in hiking gear, boots, packs, hats, hiking clothes and we were standing there looking cute in skirts. I asked the woman next to me, who didn't really understand me but really only understood I was asking where people were going. She responded to me that they were all going to a ping pong game!!!! I chose the one woman who wasn't geared up in hiking stuff to ask and so I never really got my answer. This entered us into a nice conversation about my self introduction and all that.

In the meantime I was keeping a close eye on the kanji and try to hear the Japanese on what was being said for the next stop. This bus offered no English whatsoever. Moreover, they didn't put hiragana on the upcoming bus stop. That was a bit wierd; usually they always offer hiragana, too. So, for example, the name of where we were going was 山城高尾．That is the Chinese characters for where we were going, or Kanji. My Kanji understanding is lower than a first graders reading level. I am studying it but it takes years to get to the fluency level of an adult. Whereas, I can read hiragana which looks like this: やましろ　たかお. I can read all of that, no problem. So, the last two things I wrote out - first in Kanji and second in Hiragana are read in the same way and mean the same thing. But, you see, Japanese custom uses the Chinese characters for names of people and places as default. I was really worried we might miss our stop which would have problematic as buses only come once an hour. But lucky for me I knew two of the kanji that is used in the name of this area, I knew 山 and 高　so I was lucky and able to get off in time without missing it.

We sat down in front of a little shop and Julie practiced saying Good Morning in Japanese, ohayo gozaimasu to the people coming in and out of the shop before we headed on. The area was secluded and set into mountains, it was gorgeous. First we needed to walk down and down a bunch of steps, walk down a narrowly paved road, cross over a bridge and head up, up and up into the mountains to get to the first temple. We had to walk up hundreds of stairs to get to the top, a task that was a bit arduous for 9 in the morning.

We finally reached the Buddhist temple, Jingo ji, which dates back to the 9th century. The name of the temple means "god's protection" and is one of Japan's 3 oldest areas for higher Buddhist officials. The area is about 200,000 square meters and offered a few buildings to look at. The first one we looked at was set up on the end of dozens of stairs tucked away with the greenery of the trees surrounding it. It's called the Daishido (Founder's Hall) and has been around for seven centuries. Following a small path heading away from the gate, you reach the kondo or the Gold Hall. This is also set up at the top of the stairs, but we didn't need to climb up them as we came in from the side. The Gold Hall houses many of Japan's National Treasures, 16 in all, in addition to more than two thousand important cultural assets from as long as 1100 years ago. We walked around for a bit looking inside before to the back to look at a locked up temple behind it.

We followed a wooded path, not entirely sure where it led to. Where we came out to was gorgeous. It was the Kiyotaki River Ravine and soooo green. We fed our eyes to the majestic beauty of the area while playing photographer of the area.

We made our way back down to the river area again and headed in the complete opposition direction as jingoji. It was a quick walk uphill for about 5 minutes alongside a river, over a beautiful red bridge until we reached the gates of saimyo-ji temple.

This temple was founded between 824-834. When first entering the gate, you see several stone lanterns. There is one main building that we were able to walk around and see. The land surrounding saimyoji temple was really beautiful, and we walked around it a little bit before going to the last temple in this area.

To get to the next temple was a bit of a walk. Most of it was uphill and through crowded streets. I asked a group of people when we reached a large set of stairs if this was, kosan-ji temple because I wasn't entirely sure. Thankfully it was. It seems the story of this trip was stairs, stairs, stairs. We had to walk up MORE stairs to get to this area. Then we had a choice to make, go straight up more stairs or go right. I asked that same group of people for help because I wasn't really sure. It turns out we had to go right. This area was made a World Heritage site in 1994 and the area was more of a complex than the other places we had been to yet.

You first enter into the actual temple that was created in 774. It has been regarded as a sacred Buddhist site for hundreds of years. The original temple was destroyed in civil war fires in 1547 but had been restored in 1636 to nearly it's original state. This temple also houses thousands of objects that have been declared as national treasures. Kosanji was really small, so we were in and out of it in maybe 10 minutes..but the area is very large. We walked up steps into the woods again and saw other smaller buildings throughout the woods that were significant to the well-being of this temple and who took care of it.

We had spent nearly 3-4 hours total in the Takao District. Without planning it, we lucked out and caught the next bus out of the area. I am so glad Julie stressed how much she had wanted to go to the area because I wouldn't have even bothered with it's far location on my own. However, it was great to get out there mainly because there were very few tourists to deal with and the area was really gorgeous. I will save the second half of this day for my next blog.

Busy Buses and Incoherent Japanese

2007-08-09T23:38:00.001-04:00

Saturday June 30th

We said goodbye to Tokyo, took care of checking out, shinkansen tickets and made our way to Kyoto. The time passed quickly and it was about mid-noon by the time we made it to Kyoto City. Kyoto was a whole new ballpark for me. Walking out of the station, I had no bearings on my directions, no clue where anything was, I knew nothing except for the few things I had read in books and on the internet to this point. The first thing we did was make our way to the hostel. It was an okay hostel, overly strict on the rules they put in place, but it was cheap so what can you expect? We unpacked our stuff and realized that for the next few nights we would be sleeping on a thin futon on top of a thin slab of wood...not what one would call comfortable...

On one of the top floors of Kyoto Station was a tourist information center that gave us a lot of helpful information. A map with all the temples and shrines and the buses to get there by, walking tours, and most importantly for that time was a map on where there are restaurants. Up in Miyagi where I live and also in Tokyo, the cities employ the train system to be the main form of transportation. However, Kyoto does it a bit different, the way to get around Kyoto wasn't trains but buses. I don't understand buses. When I lived in Australia, I had to get around via bus as well and it took me quite a while to get the hang of it, even when it was in English. Now, I had to figure it out in a new city in Japanese in a few days. Downtown Kyoto is the hotspot to be for restaurants, cafe's, shopping and bars. We hopped on the right bus and made our way there problem- free. There was a cute, covered street that consisted of little shops and restaurants. We chose a soba shop to eat dinner at and spent about 45 minutes planning out what we wanted to do the next day in Kyoto. Following dinner, we walked around with beers from the convenient store while Julie went souvenir shopping. We decided we should start heading back to get a start on our day when I realized I really don't understand the bus system at all. I figured well, we got off on this side of the street so we should probably be on the other side of the street. I really didn't know what I was doing at all, but going with what seemed logical. Then I came to the other problem in Kyoto that haunted me for the rest of the trip there. The Japanese. It's a completely different dialect from that I am used to. I am learning and speaking Japanese from the "sticks", from the backwards type of speaking, it'd be like going to America and learning to speak Southern English. I could barely understand people when I was asking them for help.

So, we ended up buying more beers and walking home. Those few more beers we ate pretty much did us in. There was a bus bench on the side of the road so we ended up stopping there and talking for quite a long time. A bus that would have taken us back to Kyoto station actually started to slow down for us but by the time I realized that bus number goes to Kyoto station it had pulled off. That was our one chance at getting to Kyoto station quicker. We continued on our trek back , stopping for an emergency "we've had too much to drink" toilet stop before continuing back on to our hostel. It was a fun night and set me up for the challenges I would face the next few days between understanding bus schedules and crazy Japanese I wasn't used to...

Tokyo with Julie

2007-08-08T23:17:00.000-04:00

Thursday, June 28th

Every time I go back to Tokyo, I seem to love it more and more. I'm going to be honest and say the first few times I went there, I wasn't too keen on being there. I enjoyed the challenges of learning about the city, but never seemed to be too impressed on what I had learned. This last time I went was when Julie came to visit and it was by far my favorite trip to Tokyo. I've come to understand the train lines, where things are, the best way from A to B, it's great.

I met Julie at Narita airport and we ran into each other's arms like long lost lovers do in the movies. After all, who said that platonic love doesn't deserve showing happiness and affection for a close friend you haven't seen in 6 months? We took care of all the airport stuff, money exchange, train rail tickets and my most needed addiction when I come to a city, good coffee which can usually be found at Starbuck's. During WW2, the introduction of instant coffee was brought to Japan thanks to American Soldiers. It caught on like wildfire and that's pretty much the only kind of coffee you are served, even at restaurants. In my humble opinion, I think I could live the rest of my life without another cup of instant coffee when I leave this volcanic island.

I brought Julie back to my favorite hostel, which is located in Asakusa, Tokyo. The staff there knows me and my name and probably should reimburse me for the free marketing I do for them. Julie had never stayed in a hostel before, so she was excited for this experience. We were sharing a 6 person dorm style and got our bed situated before heading out. My friend Dave, who lives up in Ishinomaki was with his friend, named Chris, who happened to be visiting and sightseeing Tokyo at the same time as us. I called him up and we made arrangements to hang out that evening. We met up in Ueno station before going off to dinner and for drinks. We went to Shinjuku, the district of Tokyo that is most popular for visitors to see. It's an awe-inspiring place for the first timer with it's thousands of neon signs lighting up the skyscrapers at night. There are thousands, millions of people walking the streets, eating dinner, drinking beers - truly a magnificent city life.

Dave and I don't really know *the best* place to go, so we started on a search of where to get dinner and drinks. We finally got hungry enough we just chose an izakaya, a Japanese style restaurant/drinking place. It was like entering a hot cave, you took a stairwell down into the underground with no air conditioning. It certainly wasn't a tourist spot as people showed their surprise as we entered their safe haven. Then, we had a quite annoying experience. The server, a woman in her 40's or 50's was very freaked out by us. Atleast that's the explanation we made for ourselves. She refused to understand neither mine nor Dave's Japanese. Now granted, Dave & I are not perfect at the language, but one thing we can definitely do is order food at a restaurant. This woman couldn't even understand when I asked for water. It's common knowledge in my foreign community that some people, despite how good your Japanese is, think they can't understand you simply because you're foreign. I guess this is what was happening. Luckily, there were two women sitting next to us who could understand what we were saying. Pretty much, we said what we wanted to the server, she stared at us like a deer caught in headlights, then one of the women sitting next to us would say exactly what we had just said and she'd understand.

We decided to leave. Mainly because it was just too hot to be in there much longer but also because the atmosphere wasn't great. What did we do? Enjoy a luxury that I've been afforded both in Australia and also while living here in Japan. What's that? Buying beer and walking the streets with it. It's legal to do that here and I love it. It just seems so natural. It was also a great way for Julie to see more of Shinjuku. We had a good time, walking around, chatting, stopping at convenient stores and buying more beers.

It was on this night that I had come to see how I've changed in the past year. I spent time with Julie, someone that I've known for almost 3 years and someone who has known me for less than a year. My interests and things I talk about have changed so much. Certainly, it's all circumstantial when we have new interests, but I found maybe I'm boring to people from home. The things that interest me the most are "Do you know how to read this?" or "Do you know how to say this in Japanese?" It seems the majority of my conversation surrounds the language that surrounds me. The thing is though, I am truly interested in all this. I am sure if I was living at home, these interests wouldn't peak my interest as strongly as they do now. The night was coming to an end as we had to catch the last trains back to Asakusa, we bid our farewells to Dave and Chris and started our drunken journey home.

Friday, June 29th

A really great sleep allowed us to wake up fairly early. I spent quite some time at the hostel in the morning trying to work out a plan for our day. It was our only full day in Tokyo and I wanted to make the most of it for Julie. Of course, the first thing I did was show Julie the star attraction in Asakusa - Senso-ji temple and the surrounding gardens.

After that, I had planned to take her to Ueno, a part of Tokyo that I have never really explored as well. Dave and others had told me there were some things worthy of a visit to see, so I planned on it. I didn't know exactly where to start, but we headed up some stairs and into a beautiful park. It was really humid and hot, but the towering trees provided us some shade to escape the sun. This park was actually the first public park in Tokyo, created over 200 years ago. As I didn't know where we were going, we pretty much just walked through until we came to a temple named Kiyomizu Kannon-Do, founded in 1631. It was a cute red temple that you need to climb some stairs to find tucked away in some trees. We spent about 5 minutes admiring it.

A row of red torii sparked our interest in heading to another shrine. The name here, I do not know but we entered into a small shrine that had a big circle in front of it made of what looked like straw. We watched a woman pray in front of it and then do circle 8's through it. She did it twice. Upon completion of this praying act I have never witnessed, she decided to come talk to us. She explained to us the significance of this shrine. According to her, this shrine is a place you come to when you want to pray for your health or the health of a loved one. She was actually an English teacher back where she came from and said normally she would not have spoken to us but while praying God told her to. We had some small talk about where we came from, Japan, where I'm living now and all that before parting ways.

It wasn't until about 15 minutes later when we got to the attraction that I had come to see in the first place, Tosho-gu Shrine. It dates back to 1651 and it is considered a National Treasure.
The shrine was beautiful, painted of Gold and other beautiful colors. It's designed to be a lot like the shrines I saw in Nikko with Tim. We had to pay something like $2.00 to enter and see the inside. Inside housed old artifacts and a bright red carpet. The day was hot so we rested inside quite a bit.

It was time to leave Ueno and move onto the district of Tokyo called...Tokyo. As we were leaving, we noticed a lake just overflowing with lily pads. It was quite stunning to see lily pads pretty much as far as the eye can see.

We reached Tokyo from Ueno and came out of the ever-famous Tokyo Station. The station is made of all brick and is thus a famous sightseeing spot. By this time were were really hungry, so we walked around until we found a really cute lunch spot. The staff was lovely, sending their English speaking waitress over to help us with the menu and take our order. I wanted curry but ate the only thing I could eat being vegetarian and that being pasta. The story of my life! It was a nice rest in the middle of the day. After lunch our destination was to see the Imperial Palace and finally we saw it in the distance. First, we decided to lay down in this park. It had grass so green it looked fake, it looked like turf in a sense. There were cool trees scattered about and we chose one to sit under for some time.

When our little rest finished, we continued the trek up to the imperial palace or kokyo. It's home to the Japanese emperor and imperial family. The present palace was completed in 1968, replacing the palace that was built in 1888. However, that palace was destroyed in WW2 bombings. In it's prime day, it was actually the biggest castle in the world. Unfortunately, what remains is the rebuilt smaller version, a moat for protection, and the bridge, niju-bashi that is surrounded by people protecting the royal family. It's still a picture perfect spot and I think it was a nice stroll to see it.

Our next destination was to take Julie to yasukuni jinja , the most controversial shrine in Japan...it was my second time visiting there and felt with it being so controversial it was worth another visit. As we were leaving, it began to rain. We took the train to Ginza because supposedly Ginza is to Tokyo as Park Ave is to New York City and Julie wanted to shop. Walking around we ended up in places like the Coach store, the Sony Building, and finally a coffee shop to relax. Following we went to the real place to do any shopping in Harajuku. I love this district of Tokyo and some compare it to Paris. It was only my second time there but there is such good shopping! I went on a shopping spree on the famous takeshita-dori street buying all sorts of cute skirts and we enjoyed a delicious Japanese style dinner overlooking the city!

We weren't able to cram in as much as I had wanted to for that day, but we got enough in that I think Julie got a good, short trip to Tokyo. It was fine though because I would have rather seen less and enjoyed ourselves rather than cramming in thing after thing just so Julie could see it all.

To see all the pictures, click here

Good Morning...

2007-07-26T03:50:00.000-04:00

It's packing break time again.

I realized something today at work. That's what I am going to write about today. I guess this blog is turning from Japanese culture enlightenment to personal thoughts but it's also refreshing to know that people are reading my thoughts. I mean it doesn't seem that important to most people, I bet, but when I can't reflect back on my thoughts cause I don't have the language capabilities, it's nice to know someone somewhere is listening via my sentences.

Some of you might already be aware of this, but I am presenting quite a few presentations in August to the new teachers arriving to my prefecture. I signed up not really know that I would have to be responsible for 4 different topics, I figured 2 maybe 3 at most. It's 4. Anyways, now that it's been summer break for the past week I have been busily working on these responsibilities. For the past month and a half, I have been gathering information from other people, the internet, my own experiences, brochures, etc. I have been slowly working on each handout I will be giving out. I have 3 out of 4 handouts nearly done. I can never really finish the handouts. As soon as I decide it's finished, I think of something new I want to add and go on the hunt to find out that information to pass on. I work, work, work and then it's lunchtime and it feels like I have only been there for an hour. I enjoy the research and creating the documents. I turned my "area guidline" from one page into twelve. I turned things to see and do in Miyagi from about 6 pages to 12.

Then, there's my real job of teaching. When I work for 8 hours a day to teach, the day couldn't go any slower. At the end of the day, I don't feel accomplished and the day takes forever to end. Even the mornings are different. When I woke up this past week, I didn't mind it because I knew my time was going to be useful. Normally, when I wake up for work I struggle to get out of bed and don't want to go to work.

All of this makes me realize that maybe my future real job should include some form of research or creativity. I really enjoy working on these things. The four things I am presenting on are:
1. The Ishinomaki Area guideline
2. How to make Elementary School Curriculum
3. Things to See and Do in Miyagi
4. Self Introduction Classes

This morning I went to my local convenient store, FamilyMart. I go there just about daily, it's probably where a good portion of my paycheck ends up. I was purchasing my breakfast and lunch- a cold coffee, a gatorade, salad and some breakfast cracker things. I go up to the counter, still half asleep and put everything up. The cashier says to me, in English - Good Morning. I look at him, not quite sure I was actually hearing him speak English to me cause that neeeevverrr happens. Then he smiles at me and I realize, yea he just said Good Morning to me in English! I smiled, about to respond back in English that no one speaks to me in English and I wasn't quite sure I heard him right and then realized he wouldnt' understand that...then I didn't feel like trying to explain all that in Japanese because I was half sleeping. Instead of saying Good Morning back to him in English, I said it in Japanese because I was just a bit dumbfounded by it. Seems so stupid, I know, but then driving back to school, I was thinking wow, my life is wierd, that when someone speaks to me in English on an average morning I get speechless. Life will be wierd when I go back to America next year.

Packing Up

2007-07-25T02:52:00.001-04:00

As I take a break from packing up my house to move into the city next week, I can't help but to stop and reflect on my past year, my life. Can you believe every year, for the past five years I have moved about two times per year? I guess that seems typical when you go to a college that's 7 hours away from your home. But even when I decided to live in Plattsburgh last summer, I had to still pack away most of my life to send back home with my parents and leave the remaining goods to be packed up later. You know what was great about all those times I've had to move in the past 4 years? I had my mom to help me. And even my last time leaving Plattsburgh, I still had my friends to help me carry all my shit down to my car. And my dad to unpack when I returned home one last time.

Here I sit, wondering how in the world I am going to get all this packing and cleaning in time for the deadline that my Board of Education has given me to evacuate the premises. I had initially intended on slowly bringing stuff to my new apartment as my successor won't be arriving to the end of August. But, no I can't do that, that would be too convenient for me. Next I wonder, how did I accumulate so much stuff? I mean I came here with 2 large suitcases, a carry on and that's it. Now all of that is already packed to the brim and my house is still in shambles. Worse, the place I am moving to is about half the size of where I am living now. Where is it all going to go???? Granted, I sent 3 boxes of winter clothes to myself by boat before leaving America and I am bringing things like a whole box of "school stuff" and intend on taking things that I've bought like a heater and big blankets and stuff, but man.

And my car sucks, it's a cool car but it's not a car to bring my life to the new city in. I need a bigger car, a van! I need friends that can help me. That doesn't work because my friends are all leaving before my move date and the few that are going to be around can't help.

Change is imminent. I'm beginning my move on August 1st - the same day as a festival in the city I'm moving to. That's going to be difficult, too.

Why do I have so many things? It's really not needed. blah.

The Olsen Twins speak Japanese!

2007-07-24T09:35:00.001-04:00

I guess we all underestimated that beautiful blondes can be smart as well! Who knew that the olsen twins and even Uncle Jesse and Danny Tanner were so intelligient!

I thought this was the funniest thing when watching it so I video'd it onto my camera to show you. hahaha.

Where in the world have I gone to?

2007-07-12T05:47:00.001-04:00

Where in the world have I gone to? I haven't blogged about my life since Cambodia! I've decided to tell you about my last two months via a picture blog! Enjoy, sorry I won't get into too much detail! I put it off and put it off because I wanted to be detailed about my experiences but I don't think I'll ever find time to catch up. So, here's my life in brief...

Alright so, I came back from Cambodia and the weather here was finally improving. I spent time playing park golf and hanging out with my friends on the weekends.

Saitoh San, one of my lovely adult students took us out to eat after golf, at a Japanese - Italian Restaurant that looks like a castle.

On a spur of a moment, after learning how to play the Chinese game of Mahjong from Annie; I was asked by her "crew" if I would be interested in joining them to go to see Sumo Wrestling in Tokyo. I said for sure! We headed down really early from Ishinomaki and made it in time to see sumo. It was located at the Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Stadium in Tokyo. It was so much fun. I want to go again. It was Dave, Hashmatt, another Sarah and myself. When the pro-wrestler's came on - we started placing bets on who would win. We really got into it, cheering for the guys that were from our area or the foreign wrestlers.

A bit about sumo from the pamphlet they gave me,
"According to Japanese legend the very origin of the Japanese race depended on the outcome of a sumo match . The supremacy of the Japanese people on the islands of Japan was supposedly established when the god, Takemikazuchi, won a sumo bout with the leader of a rival tribe. Apart from this legend, sumo is an ancient sport dating back some 1500 years ago."

As you can see, the origins of sumo matches were mainly religious. However, with time, sumo became more or less a form of national defense. In 1192, a military dictatorship was established and a long period of intense warfare ensued and then sumo wrestlers became soldier-like. After 500 years, in 1603, peace was finally restored. It was around this time that professional sumo groups began organizing. These groups were organized to entertain the rapidly expanding plebian class and it was at this time that sumo became the national sport of Japan.

The other reason we headed down to Tokyo that weekend was for a festival named Sanja. The festival was held in the older part of Tokyo called Asakusa. At this festival, hundreds of mikoshi or portable shrines were being carried by dozens of people. The men were wearing nothing but loin clothes made into thongs and their "happi" coats as they carried the heavy shrine to the main temple in this area.

Read about the Sumo & Festival Trip on Dave's blog here.

This is also the one day in the year that the Yakuza, or the Japanese mafia are allowed to bare their tattoos. These men have more power than the Japanese government. There were women on their float and I was asking Hashmatt if he thought they were Yakuza too, when a Japanese woman overhead me. She simply said to me, "stay away from them, they are very bad." I said, "women, too?" she said, "Yes, all Yakuza are very dangerous and bad". I still think the tattoos are cool.

On our way to our next spot, we passed these guys on the street. I wish these types of people lived near my house.

We went to Yasukuni Jinja, the Shrine for Establishing Peace in the Empire. This is the most controversial shrine in all of Japan. This shrine is a war memorial dedicated to all their Japanese people who have died in wars, that number being 2.4 million since 1853. The Japanese government has also laid to rest war criminals here back in 1979. This makes countries like S. Korea and China very angry that Japan honors the men who tortured their citizens years ago. You can read about it all over the news whenever the Japanese Prime Minister visits here. Usually this outrages the other Asian countries and it's all over the news. This is also known to be the "racist" shrine - a shrine where groups like the Yakuza stand on vans and shout that foreigners should leave the country and stop dirtying the blood of Japanese by marrying them. That was the main reason we went, but we did not see any racism going on.

In the BBC, too - all pretty redundant
In the BBC - explaining why this shrines pisses off S. Korea and China
In CNN's News

To see all the pictures from Sumo, the Asakusa Festival and the controversial shrine, click here.

A week or two later, Katie and Akira arranged for a fun weekend on an island off the coast of Ishinomaki named Tashiro Island(pic below). The three of us got there early and explored. We found beautiful coastlines with waves crashing into the shore of rocky beaches. We walked around all morning enjoying the peacefulness of the island.

But soon, our party started. We invited a lot of people from around our prefecture, and about 30 showed up. The afternoon and evening was filled with a bunch of foreigners taking over a beautiful island eating and drinking all day. We spent the night in cabins that were shaped like cats, as the nickname of this island is Cat Island. The reason? There are a bunch of stray cats that are walking around!

Or in the words of Dave in this blog, he says"i have no idea when it was now, but we made a weekend retreat to a place called cat island, which is, strangely enough, famed for its felines: dogs were banned there long ago; cats roam free. the human population, meanwhile, is small - like the island itself - and consists of aged japanese; the invasion of several tens of foreigners one saturday surely must have been a shock to their system. we stayed in two cottages with cartoony cat paint jobs designed by some semi-notorious manga artist."

OR you can read about it, in Katie's Blog, here- if you dont' want to read - she atleast has good pictures up!

Did you know I have an ex-boyfriend that lives in Japan? He's in the Navy and located near Yokohama City. So, I went down to see him. It was great, it was like going back to America for the weekend. He has everything you could ask for - from Bud Light to Taco Bell to Subway. We had a great time together, drinking at night, hanging out with his friends and doing some sightseeing. It's amazing how different "Japan" is from where I live to the navy base - I mean honestly - I really felt like I was back in America. You could never walk off base and just feel like you live in a small community in America. It reminded me a lot of college - everyone knows everyone's names, they live in barracks that reminded me of dorms, everyone hung out and had BBQ's and was just having a good time. It was very enlightening for me, interesting to hang out with Navy guys for a weekend and learn their views on the world, which is completely different from mine.

Our first full day together, he took me to see a very large Buddha - and I mean very LARGE! It was located in Kamakura. I even was able to walk inside this Buddha for the equivalent of 20 cents! It is called the Kamakura Daibutsu which literally means Big Buddha. It was completed in 1252 and is Kamakura's most famous sight. It used to be in a big hall, but that washed away in a tsunami in 1495. It is cast in Bronze and weighs 850 tonnes. It is nearly 38 feet tall!

He also took me into Yokohama City, which like I said is the 2nd biggest city after Tokyo with a population of around 3,555,000 people. Yokohama is famous for it's Chinatown, so we went there first. We saw a temple and basically just went into shops and walked around, it was cool.

After Chinatown, we just walked around Yokohama for the day. We first went to Yamashita Koen or park. There were boat races that were going on off the sea side of the park. There were about 50 men (maybe women too?) racing in each boat, all manned with a paddle. Three boats at a time. We watched a few races before moving on. We also went to this really old part that had a lot of shopping and ran into a Save the Environment type of exhibit. There were a bunch of really cool cars that were made to be better for the environment. I really enjoyed being there and seeing that Japan, unlike America is taking large steps to decline the rate of environmental destruction. That is one thing I know I will miss when I return to the states, people caring about the state of the world and not only of themselves and how it's easier to toss stuff and not recycle, for example. There was also a guy playing covers of Stevie Wonder, he was sooo good! I really enjoyed Yokohama as it was a young city with a lot to do.

After Yokohama, I spent 3 days in Tokyo at a re-contractor's conference. I got to enjoy Mexican food, becoming better oriented with Tokyo and spending time with people I generally don't because of the distance.

Then, it was the weekend of my cousin Julie's wedding when we all just hung out at Meghann's apartment and area for the day. We made curry for dinner and drank. The next day, we went hiking - this is my lovely 4 and me playing at the summit of the mountain - Kenjo san.

It's become summer here, so the next weekend or two later Meg cut my hair again at Katie's apartment. We watched movies and TV...something that I have grown an addiction to. It's funny to me because before I moved to Japan, I maybe watched one hour of TV per 3 months. Honestly. I'd sometimes watch movies to relieve stress, but not often. Now, I am downloading American TV onto my computer at rates that are catching me up to the rest of the world that watches TV. I guess when I have no one to talk to when I get home at the end of a long day and feel like relaxing, it's the only thing to do. It also helps me to see "normalcy" or American drama and what American life is like. I say "normalcy" because it's all relative. I'm really into The Office and Lost.

And then the next morning Meg and I went hiking in a town near hers. The hike seemed easy at first but the last leg was like going up something that gravity won't let you. Thank God someone put ropes up. We went to onsen afterwards where we were bombarded with questions from old women who were interested in us. I could only half understand them, but I appreciated the effort that they made to talk to us. From there we made a plan to get coffee and do some shopping in a town that we thought would only take us 40 minutes to get to. But we were wrong and got a bit lost. We stopped and asked for directions to find out we were really far, we turned around and just had lunch at a delicious cafe' that overlooked the ocean. It was a wonderful day.

The next morning we went and played on the beach...I got really bad sunburn. We went for sushi and then I went home...

Pictures up to this point

The following weekend, Meg and my hiking crew (Tamo, Bri, Suzuki san and Kimura san's) went hiking on gas-san. The summit is 6509 feet high and at the top is a shrine. It was beautiful at the bottom but full of snow at the top. On this day, I was attacked by papparazzi or random people taking my picture simply cause I'm a foreigner. ha.

Afterwards, we went to onsen, of course.

and then went to another siteseeing spot named Haguro to see the Pagoda named Goju no to, dating back to the 14th century. A 5 story pagoda is built to honor the elements of earth. For example, wind, water, earth, air, etc.

To see all the photos from GasSan mountain and this siteseeing spot, Haguro in Yamagata ken, click here

Since then, my friend Julie has come to visit and I took her to Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara before coming back up to my house...but we'll leave that for another blog!

I hope I still have followers after letting this thing die for nearly two months!

Happy Father's Day!

2007-06-17T02:23:00.000-04:00

Happy Father's Day, Poppy!
I love you & miss you.
xoxoxo

p.s. please quit smoking

A day spent in Bangkok

2007-06-14T03:52:00.000-04:00

I will try my best to finish what seems like the never-ending vacation full of stories today. It's really only the last day in Bangkok that I need to cover. We woke up the next day with the goal of discovering Bangkok. After finishing getting ready and checking out of our hotel, we headed out to see what was out there. Our first goal, was to find something to eat as soon as possible. There was a huge food court on the way to where we would be able to find some taxi's, so it was there that we ate. I ordered the one thing that I could find that I was pretty sure was in fact, vegetarian. I read it off the sign with my English accent and the man just laughed at me. After my dish was finished, I handed him my money, whereby he laughed again. He wouldn't take it! He kept directing me towards some sort of booth. I walked over there, hoping that I would see something that represented something along the lines of "pay for your food here" but to no luck. I stood, hopeless, lost, confused and then a man approached me and explained in very broken English that I need to buy a card and then bring the card back to the place I bought my food from. I walked around the corner and found the card buying place. I gave the woman the exact amount for my food and she gave me a card back, I ran it back over to the place and they took it. It was rather stressful, but so simple if the language barrier hadn't been there.

After finishing up brunch, we headed back out into the oven that is known as Thailand weather in May and began our walk. We ended up in a taxi and told him the area of where we wanted to head to, and we ended up at the Golden Mount.

I don't really know the purpose of this place, but you climb up a lot of stairs and into a building and up a few more stairs until you're outside and able to see a beautiful skyline of all of Bangkok. It was some sort of Buddhist holy place from what I could tell. True to it's name, there was a Golden Mount on the top, where many people were on their knees saying chants or prayers.

From there, we went for a walk to find the Giant Swing - it's name intrigued Brian greatly and we set out to find it. When we got there, it wasn't much more than two red poles shooting into the sky, topped off by what looks like typical Asian architecture for the roof. In front of the Giant Swing, across the street was a temple, we didn't enter it because it cost money and it was our last day, overly hot and people just weren't really into doing the whole tourist thing.

From there, we decided to try to find the water that goes through the city, we ended up walking through this amulet market that was just crazy. There were dozens upon dozens of amulet dealers just sitting on the sidewalk with all their amulets on display for those who were looking. I honestly couldn't tell the difference from one dealer's amulets to the guy sitting next to him, but it seemed the Thai people knew what they were looking for. This market went on and on and on for about 10-15 minutes of walking through it and people just looking from one blanket of amulets to the next. They were also related to Buddhism somehow or another, but I'm not exactly sure how. We finally got through this craziness and into some inside type of market until we reached the end. We did in fact, find water, but nothing exciting to do with it. So, after all that, we walked back out.

Our next destination was to the Royal Palace. From afar, the colors were so eye catching that I really wanted to go in. Brian, Haruka & I went in as Katie waited outside. Brian thought that it wasn't that different from the Royal Palace that we had seen in Phnom Penh, but I thought it was a lot different. A lot of the buildings were so much more colorful and not just painted. They were almost like 3-D murals - as each building had a small square of color on it. The many small squares of colors combined together to make a spot on the building that all appeared whatever color those small squares were. Inside this area was also another Golden Mount look alike, and many LARGE Buddha's that were also 3-D murals. The area had all sorts of holy places for Buddhism - all colorful in nature and very extensive handiwork. There was also an outer wall that had extensive painting - that goes all the way around the area. It was very impressive, my favorite part being the gold paint.

After that, we just walked around, got some lunch back on Khao San road and pretty much called it a trip from there. Katie believes it was because it was the end our trip, but not all of us were really overly impressed with Bangkok. I thought the sites that I saw were beautiful and impressive, but the city and the city people were not that great. It seemed everyone was trying to rip us off, from taxi drivers to tuk tuk riders to anyone on the street. It got annoying when we knew how much it cost from our hotel back to Khao San road and when people were telling us waaaaaaaaay more than it would cost. Then, when we expressed we're not stupid tourists and we know how much it costs, the taxi driver's would refuse to give us a ride. The traffic was terrible which in turn led to unbearable pollution. The pollution combined with the heat led to a pretty difficult breathing situation. This is definitely a city I would never want to live in. When the tourist road in the city was one of the best parts of the city, that's a bad situation. At this point in our trip, all of us were really sick with all sorts of digestive problems from the food. We don't know exactly when and where our stomach's lost the ability to digest food, but we were all pretty much dead from digestion. After eating some ice cream, we caught a taxi back to the hotel to grab our bags and went straight to the airport hours and hours in advance.

One thing I learned from this trip, mostly from Cambodia is that even the poorest people in the world are happy. I had a hard time accepting this and coming to this conclusion because we have ingrained into our minds from home that the Western way is the only way. The fact that a person that maybe does not possess materialistic things, have huge homes, new clothes, and the best cars can actually be truly happy, maybe even happier is a hard thing to grasp. Most of these people seemed generally happy with their living conditions. I think that if health care and education could be brought into the country, the standard of living could improve a little bit, but really there is no reason to change how these people are currently living if they are happy and healthy. I think that's a problem that a lot of people have with the PeaceCorp or other organizations that go into third world countries and try to westernize it. Just because they are living differently from us doesn't mean it is wrong. What should be focused on is health care and education. Of course, these are areas in our own country that there are huge problems.

I haven't given up on Thailand yet, I am planning a trip back there to see the country side and to head into Laos, but don't expect me to spend a lot of time in Bangkok! Anyone want to meet me there? I'm serious, right now I'm planning this trip alone (which would be lame) but hoping someone along the way will want to come!

To see ALL my pictures from Bangkok (42 in all), click HERE