futomaki sushi

Last weekend we had our first Chiba-kun Ambassador opinion exchange! Due to a previous commitment I wasn't able to stay for the actual opinion exchange (defeating the purpose, I know), but I was able to make it to the first two events: futomaki sushi and a presentation on tourism in Chiba.

 

I've made futomaki sushi before (probably under the direction of the same group, even), but that didn't make this time any less fun! We started out with a demonstration from the teacher in charge, who showed us how to make both a rose (which I made last time) and the slightly more complicated peach flower (which I decided to try this time).

And then it was time for us to try it ourselves! We split into small groups with a teacher to help us, and gave it our best. Making the peach flower was certainly a little more complicated than the rose, but I still think it turned out pretty well! After we finished making them, we each traded half of our peach flower roll for half of a rose roll from another group, so we could try both.






Next, our teacher demonstrated how to make a panda! This was different from ours because it had egg on the outside instead of seaweed, and was also way more complicated. It ended up super cute though! Other groups' teachers made things like cherry trees, butterflies, and flowers.

Finally, it was time for us to eat! They also prepared some sort of delicious clear soup for us to eat, and with that plus the rolls we made and from the teachers, it was a loott of lunch. I managed to eat it all somehow (since I couldn't take it to my next destination with me), but to be honest I think I may have been the only one, haha.  It was tasty though, and the cheese stick that was in the center of the peach flower roll actually went with it pretty well, which surprised me a little. We got little pamphlets with the recipes/instructions on them, so if I want to I can try it again on my own sometime!

tokyo orientation, take two!

As I mentioned in my last post, at the beginning of this month I headed off to help greet this year's new JETs at as a Tokyo Orientation Assistant! I was assigned to orientation B, which I think is slightly smaller than orientation A (which is when I came last year), but it was a blast! Definitely hope I have the chance to do it again.

Although the actual orientation is technically from the new JETs' arrival on Sunday to their departure Wednesday morning, we TOAs showed up on Saturday to start preparing. I was assigned to be an airport TOA, aka one of the mass of people who greets and directs the newbies at the airport, so on Saturday night we headed over to Narita to spend the night. On the road back to Chiba in the evening we even saw fireworks from the bus, which I'm pretty sure were from the fireworks display in Makuhari that I was missing! Also I absolutely love seeing Tokyo from the highway at night; there's just something so pretty about all the lights and buildings and the occasional ferris wheel (if going to/from Chiba, which I usually am).

The next few days were a whirl of greeting new JETs at the airport in our bright green T-shirts, helping them find places in the hotel, having shifts at the information desk and hospitality center, delivering my presentation and facilitating some CIR activities, and meeting tons of new people! Tokyo Orientation is really one of the rare times when you get to meet other JETs from all over both Japan and the world, whether they're ALTs or CIRs or brand new or experienced, and it really is full of an incredible energy that I think really motivates the new JETs and revitalizes the old ones (not to make us sound decrepit or anything).

I did have to go to work Wednesday afternoon after riding home with the new Chiba Prefecture JETs (!) and attending their ceremony, which was tough because I was absolutely exhausted from five nights of little sleep (and none from the night before), but it was definitely worth it! The perfect way to start off my second year on JET. :D

hakone!

So this post is way, way late, but last month, my friend and I took a weekend trip to Hakone, a town (city?) a few hours away in Kanagawa Prefecture (not too far from Yokohama). We only stayed for one night, but it was super fun!

Hakone is actually a very popular travel destination, and after having been there it's easy to see why: it's a really gorgeous place in the mountains, with hot springs and interesting places to visit - not to mention the fact that they clearly know what they're doing as far as tourism goes, with a well-structured public transportation system that makes it easy to access the many museums and other sites they've built there.

We started out from Tokyo with the 'Hakone Free Pass', which covered our (local) train fare to/from Tokyo plus bus/ferry/train fare in Hakone, and also gave us discounts in other places. Our first stop was lunch, and then we hopped on a bus to the pier to board a pirate ship! For some reason in English it's only advertised as a 'sightseeing cruise' but the Japanese definitely says 'pirate ship', which is much more exciting, I think.




So after a short boat ride across Lake Ashi, we then got onto the Hakone Ropeway to ride a cable car up the mountain! Our next destination was Owakudani, which is a volcanic valley with sulfur hot springs, famous for black eggs that are said to make you live 7 years longer if you eat one. (They're boiled in the springs and apparently turn black because of the sulfur; as it happens, I ate 2.5)

Then we came back down via cable car and headed to our next destination, the Hakone Glass Forest/Venetian Glass Museum. Which doesn't sound super interesting, but actually it was pretty cool! There were glass pieces outside in a beautiful garden-like area, plus some delicate and interesting works inside. I think my favorites were the giant glass onions scattered around!

After that we just went to our ryokan and chilled for a bit, had dinner at a Korean restaurant (where we had to wait foreevveerrr but it was tasty so I guess it was okay), had a bath in the hot spring water, and went to bed.

The next morning was the main reason why I wanted to go to Hakone and what I had been looking forward to ever since I learned it existed: the Museum of Saint-Exupery and The Little Prince in Hakone! I spent most of the time freaking out about everything, which included statues of characters from the books, a stamp rally where you had to collect stamps and create your own Le Petit Prince book, and a lot of interesting information about the author. Needless to say, it was great, and I will happily go back sometime if anybody wants to see it! :D

We continued by taking a bus to Gora and having lunch at a cute little cafe called Woody, before wandering around the Hakone Open Air Museum, which was huge and awesome. There were tons of sculptures outside and exhibits inside, plus a free hot spring foot bath!

With that, our trip came to an end because it was Sunday and we both had to get back for work, but there's still a ton of things in Hakone that we didn't get to visit, so I'd like to go back someday! Maybe in the winter next time, when I'll really appreciate the hot springs. I got the feeling that my family would really enjoy being there too, so maybe if they come visit again...? :)