okinawa once more

At the end of March, I took my third trip to Okinawa! It was less than a year since I had been there last, but my friends were planning another trip and I couldn't resist joining them, haha. Because I was trying to save as much vacation time as possible (I've run quite low this year), I was the last one to arrive and also the first one to leave...but anyway I had a great time as usual!

I arrived late on Thursday night, when everybody was well into the night and already singing karaoke. Having missed out on most of the fun worked out well for me the next morning though, when we got up early to take the ferry to Zamami Island and everybody else was in a very...fragile state haha. The ferry ride was a couple of hours long and surprisingly choppy, and even I started to feel a bit seasick. But by and by we made it to the shore, so we trooped over to our hostel to check in and had some really tasty burgers there for lunch.

Next we ventured up a winding road to see the view from the top of the island, which was quite pretty even though it was cloudy. Then we wandered all the way back down again to see the beach! We only had one night in Zamami and we figured if we wanted to go into the water this was our only chance, so we did, even though actually it was cloudy pretty chilly outside (for Okinawa). The water was super clear and pretty though, and nice after we warmed up a bit (only to get cold again not too long after).

After the beach we went back to the hostel and showered before heading to a local izakaya, as recommended by our CIR friend who lives on the island. The food was very delicious! Afterwards we bought some drinks at the little shop nearby and went to hang out by the port and chat, until everybody got tired and sleepy and we went back.

The next morning we took a quick walk to the little park by the port, which included a giant whale sculpture, a tsubo foot therapy path, and a gazebo with a nice view of the ocean. And then it was back on the ferry, which was much more enjoyable the second time now that nobody was hungover. A few of us also went up to the top of the deck, where there was a great breeze and sometimes splashes of ocean water, plus a pretty much constant beautiful view.

After getting back to Naha we split into a going-home group and a Shuri Castle group, and even though I had been before I chose to go to the castle. This time we went along a path I hadn't been on before, and got to see some great views of the city from above. Then we went back and rejoined with everybody and went to a Turkish restaurant for dinner. It was very tasty but took a very long time because there was only one chef working to serve a whole (little) restaurant of people, and after dinner we took a walk along Kokusai Street to a bar, then walked back and went to another one nearby that had delicious french fries.

I had to get up early(ish) the next morning to catch my flight, so apparently I missed some more tasty food and good times, but I had managed to swim in the ocean, have Okinawan soba, and see everybody so I think it was a successful trip. :)

sparkles and supper

The next two blog-worthy events of 2016 were going to see takarazuka in Takarazuka City and then attending my first Burns Supper!

I had gone to see takarazuka (all-female musical theater, basically) before with my friend Jane in Tokyo, and this time she helped get us tickets in the home of takarazuka itself, Takarazuka City! I took a night bus to Osaka and met up with our other friend Charlie for a quick breakfast before taking the train to Takarazuka and meeting Jane, dropping off their stuff at their hostel, and heading to the theater! The show was the story of William Shakespeare as he became a writer and grew more famous, followed by the usual musical revue. Just like last time, I thoroughly enjoyed it despite not fully understanding everything. Then after the show we relaxed for a bit in a

cafe before heading into Osaka to meet up with other friends for dinner, drinks, and fun. :3

Then, two weeks later was the Burns supper! Apparently this is a common thing in Scotland, to celebrate the Scottish poet Robert Burns, and the St. Andrew's Society of Tokyo and Yokohama hosts one every year in Tokyo. This year, because the ball that they usually held separately didn't happen, they combined the two into a black-tie Burns supper event! I borrowed my sister's prom dress and brought it back to Japan when I came back after Christmas, because I figured I might as well take the opportunity to dress up. :D The dinner featured an open bar with lots of different types of whisky, an absolutely delicious dinner menu including haggis and lamb, the traditional Address to a Haggis, bagpipes, address to the lasses and reply to the laddies (where both sexes poke fun at each other), and my favorite part of the night - a ceilidh of Scottish country dancing! They didn't do a very thorough job of teaching us the steps, but luckily my date was Scottish and knew all the dances so all I had to do was try and follow along. :3 All in all it was a super fun night and I hope we go again next year!

atami adventures

Whoops, another huge gap in posting. But things have finally calmed down a bit so hopefully I'll be all caught up soon!

So shortly after I returned to Japan, my friend Tomás came to visit on his way back to Thailand! You may recall that he took me all around Thailand last Golden Week, so this time it was my turn to return the favor. We didn't go all over, but we did go to Atami, a place famous for hot springs that neither of us had every been to before.

We set off Saturday morning on a short shinkansen trip (per Tomas's request) and arrived at Atami Station, where one of the first things we saw was a foot bath right outside the station! We didn't use it but saw lots of people enjoying it and little vending machines with commemorative towels. Then, as it was lunchtime, we wandered around the shopping streets looking for a place to eat before deciding on a place with fresh seafood. To be honest I think I have had better but Tomás seemed to enjoy his a lot so that's what mattered, haha.

After lunch we continued wandering and went along the beach, where we found a (supposedly) famous statue that Tomás actually knew from a game he played! We saw lots of early cherry blossoms and also visited a shrine nearby (Kinomiya Shrine), which had some very old and big and impressive trees before visiting the Atami Plum Garden, which was having a festival. Unfortunately we got there just before closing and there wasn't much there in terms of festivities, but there was a cool little waterfall and cave as well as a few plum trees in bloom.

Then we walked up some windy roads to our hotel, which was kind of in the middle of nowhere but had some pretty nice baths. There I discovered that I somehow had forgotten to make sure I had enough cash to pay for the hotel, and they didn't accept credit cards. D: They were kind enough to accept payment on check-out instead though, so we averted a crisis. Then we took s bus back down into town and wandered around before finding a ramen restaurant for dinner, which was delicious, and then returned to the hotel for a soak in the bath and some drinks before going to bed early.

The next day we got a bus pass and went around the Itou Peninsula. First stop:  the Jogasaki coast and bridge, which was probably my favorite part of the trip! The weather was very nice and the trail was beautiful, with stunning views of rocky coasts and ocean everywhere.

Next we went to the Izu Cactus Park, to see capybaras soaking in hot springs! Well it was probably more just like a bath, but anyway they were happily soaking (and pooping?!) in it, along with some citrus fruits. Very cute. :3 There were a lot more animals and exhibits (and cacti), but the capybaras were definitely the highlight.

Our next stop was Mt. Omuro, an extinct volcano covered in grass that reminded me of Stone Mountain back home somehow (maybe just its very round shape). We took a chairlift up and took a walk around the rim of the crater, which had a spectacular view of Mt. Fuji. You could do archery inside the old crater, but we didn't try.

Our final stop of the day was Lake Ippekiko, which frankly wasn't really worth stopping for in the end, but we took a short walk before heading back to wait for the next bus before it got too dark. And then we had dinner at a cute little restaurant and ice cream before heading back to our hotel.

Our last morning in Atami was spent at the Museum of Art, before having a final sushi lunch and heading back to Yokohama! I took Tomás around to all my standard spots, including the passenger terminal, red brick warehouse, and Cup Noodle Museum, which I think he enjoyed. Then we went back to Chiba and had yakiniju to celebrate his birthday!

And that was the end of his trip, since he was going back to Thailand the next day for a conference. It was a short few days, but lots of fun and a great first trip of the new year! :)

wrapping up 2015, starting off 2016

Well it's been a while, again (sorry parents), but I've finally dug out some time today to try and catch up on blog posts and Facebook photo uploads. This first one will be a bit short, just to catch up on the rest of 2015 and beginning of 2016.

After Kanazawa I:
 - went bowling with the General Affairs Bureau, which was surprisingly fun (I even bowled several strikes!). Our team won a prize for having the lowest total score out of all of them, hahaha. -.-'
 - attended a block event in Narita and Chiba AJET's traditional Thanksgiving dinner, which as usual involved lots of turkey and pumpkin pie from Costco :3
 - went to the CIR mid-year conference, which was probably the most fun one yet, involving a LINE chat that was most active during boring seminars, the traditional meetup at Irish Pub Always on the first night, and lots of good times in general
 - went to Kuroshio Yosakoi, the last yosakoi event of the year
 - helped welcome 100 barangay captains from our sister city in the Philippines
 - finalized that this will be my fourth and final year on JET, which is bittersweet and exciting and scary at the same time. 

And then I went home for Christmas! Since this is my Japan blog I won't go into too many details, but my family and the two other families that were my parents' good friends in grad school (who I basically consider my extended family in the US) all gathered together for Christmas for the first time in apparently over a decade! We rented a little cabin in the mountains of north Georgia a few days before Christmas (with things like a jukebox and a hot tub!) and generally had a wonderful time, including rewatching all three Lord of the Rings movies. :3 The rest of my time was spent eating far too much of my mom's cooking and generally doing nothing at home, which was fabulous.

Then it was time to go back to Japan, which was a bit of an ordeal that turned out all right in the end. I had originally booked flights that would get me back in Japan the day before New Year's Eve, so I could spend it with friends and have some time to adjust to jetlag before work started on the 4th. I had booked with United instead of my usual Delta for cheaper tickets/slightly better travel times, which was fine on the way over.

But then on the day I was supposed to leave, snow in the midwest led to delay in my first flight, which made it impossible for me to transfer to the next flight, so I had to call and reschedule for the next day (luckily we had checked before leaving for the airport). Except that my friend had been planning to stay at my apartment that night after I arrived. :/ But anyway, I booked a new flight for very early the next morning.

And then woke up and found out that flight had been completely cancelled (presumable due to bad weather). D: We decided to go the airport anyway to talk to agents directly about rescheduling (I tried calling on the way there but couldn't connect even after waiting for like half an hour), and after a long, tense wait in line.....the United agent hooked me up with two Delta flights to take instead! Which meant that I got miles, and because I was Silver Medallion last year I even got upgraded to business class - on both flights!! So I got to enjoy free breakfast on a short domestic flight, followed by the most comfortable trans-Pacific flight I've ever had, with a seat that reclined, super cushy blankets and pillows, and lots of tasty food. So all's well that ends well. :)

I got back on the afternoon of New Year's Eve, and a couple of hours later went to go pick up my (very drunk from having spent all day drinking cheap wine in a chain restaurant) friends from the station and brought them back to my apartment! The rest of the new year's adventures (not all in one day) involved watching Japanese NYE TV, (starting and) finishing up a bottle of vodka somebody had given me forever ago, mixing hot chocolate and whisky, playing Set and Bananagrams, and going to Mcdonalds for our first meal of the year. Good times all around. :D

kanazawa take 2

Okay, so I'm slowly catching up on posting about events of the past few months! As I mentioned in an early post, October was pretty busy after my business trip, with going back home for my friend Nicky's wedding (which was so so great as a mini-reunion with my Carleton friends, who I hadn't seen since graduation, but I won't go into too much detail here) and our big yosakoi festival, Chiba Yosakoi right after (which ended without any judging because crazy wind almost destroyed the event venue the night before the second day...O_O).

And then at the beginning of November my friends and I took a trip to Kanazawa/Ishikawa! My family and I went shortly after I first came to Japan, so I was interested to see how my impressions might change after living in Japan for three years instead of just three months.

I took a night bus there and arrived bright and early on Halloween morning, where I met up with my friend from Shizuoka to take the train to our friend's station in Tsubatacho, where we met up with everybody and had Mcdonald's breakfast while waiting for our last friend to arrive. Then we hopped on the train to Nanao, a city on the Japan Sea coast with a fish market that one friend wanted to visit and castle ruins for another. The market had lots of fresh fish but also restaurants, so we had lunch there first while admiring the view from the restaurant. As expected of a place right by the sea, the seafood was delicious (and the miso soup came out in a gigantic bowl)!

Then we took a bus to the ruins of a castle on the list of Japan's 100 castles (one of my friends' projects is to visit as many of them as she can), though as it turns out we greatly underestimated the time/effort it would take to get there, as it was 2 kilometers up a mountain with muddy trails, haha. We also didn't have much time to go up as the last bus back from where we were was at like 4:30, so after panting and hurrying up a trail (none of us in appropriate footwear), we only spent about 10-15 minutes at the top. But the view was absolutely gorgeous, and totally worth it!

After managing to catch the last bus, we headed to an onsen (apparently the 11st best in Japan?) and soaked for a bit before finally heading back to my friend's place for the night, where we had some drinks and chats and also for some reason started playing Hatoful Boyfriend, which is a dating game involving pigeons...?? Also since it was Halloween I had on my Pooh bear onesie and my friend also had on his (not Pooh bear) onesie, with various Halloweeny headgear as well. Good times.

The next morning we slept in and then had a (mostly) traditional Scottish breakfast! My friend had brought haggis/black pudding/bacon from Scotland and I provided dried hash browns, so after a grocery run we all cooked together a mess of scrambled eggs (with and without haggis), haggis, black pudding, sausages, bacon, and hash browns. I was a bit skeptical as to whether or not I would like haggis and black pudding, but they were both very tasty!

Then we got on a train and went into Kanazawa proper, to see all the touristy stuff. First we went to the Kanazawa Castle Park, which I hadn't been to, then Kenrokuen, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (where I finally got to see the pool exhibit that was closed last time we went). After some wandering, we then decided to get curry, at a store that would give people free curry if they managed to eat like 2 pounds of it in 30 minutes. Or something ridiculous like that - needless to say none of us did, but anyway it was tasty. And then we went to a local bathhouse before it was back to my friend's and more revelry in the form of a Pokemon drinking game where somehow everybody except me managed to skip half the board...

The next day we slept in (again) and maybe went to the bathhouse again? before making a very late start to tour the "ninja" temple (that I had been to before), wander around Kanazawa, have curry (of a different kind) again, stop by an Irish pub, and then hang out at an izakaya until the wee hours. On our final morning, we went to the Shinrin Park, apparently the largest forest park in mainland Japan. We had a very nice lunch and walked around outside, saw the most depressing free zoo ever, and then headed back to go on our respective ways. It was really nice to be out in (semi) nature, especially because Ishikawa has some really beautiful clouds.

All in all, it was a really fun trip and I'm definitely glad I went! Yet another successful CIRHP meetup. :)

quezon city

Well, as expected, October went by in a flash! Right off the bat was my business trip to Quezon City, Chiba City's sister city in the Philippines. The occasion was to celebrate the 75th founding anniversary of the city, as it had been over 20 years since a mayor of Chiba City had visited, to visit some places and learn about those studying to be nursing care workers (a very relevant issue for Japan), and also to encourage them to come to Chiba City in two years for our 45th sister-city anniversary.

I went as an interpreter, the only female and the youngest in an official delegation that included the mayor, the assembly chairperson, other city assembly members, and several division chiefs, and my boss/coworker. I think my coworker was pretty glad to have me along as somebody else who was just a (lowly) staff member without any particular titles or anything, since we could help each other prepare each night and also complain to each other, haha.

The trip was four days and three nights overall, and the first day was just traveling. After an early flight we arrived in the afternoon, took a bus to our hotel, had a meeting with the staff members from Quezon City Hall,  had dinner together at the hotel, and went to bed.

The next day we got up (very very) early to attend the flag-raising ceremony at City Hall, which apparently happens at 7AM every Monday morning, with all of the employees. This morning there were also Boy Scouts, teachers, and city council members, so it was quite a crowd that greeted us as the two mayors "walked the line" of policemen before coming to the stage. I definitely think this was the biggest crowd of people I've ever interpreted in front of (thank goodness the speech was scripted and the mayor stuck to it), and it was definitely pretty cool to be there.

Then we went in for a long meeting in which I did very little (there was a professional interpreter) and we had breakfast and listened to presentations about Chiba City and its sewerage system (something they asked to learn about). Next we got on a bus and went to see a housing project supported by the city and the Quezon Memorial (dedicated to the first president of the Philippines), had lunch at the former villa of the president, and then we went to observe the City Council. Apparently the day we went was one where they usually hold proceedings in Tagalog, but because we were there they voted to change to English, which was very nice, and also for some reason they gave us fried chicken? (I appreciated this later though when I didn't get to eat any of the delicious-looking food at the reception.)



After that we went back to the hotel to freshen up before the welcome reception hosted by Quezon City. There was a bit of a wait involved as the mayor of Quezon City got stuck in traffic, but overall it was a very nice reception, with a live band in the background, videos about Quezon City, and performances of traditional dance by high-schoolers. I was interpreting for the two mayors all through dinner so I didn't get to eat, but at the end of the night when our mayor threw out his prepared speech and just talked of the cuff I totally nailed the interpreting, which felt pretty great. Afterward I helped my coworker prep for the next day and then finally went to bed.

Day three in the Philippines also started bright and early. Our first stop was a Japanese language school, where we heard about students who hope to work in Japan and also observed a class for a bit. Then we went to the Japanese Embassy, where all but a few of us waited while the mayor and other VIPs met with (presumably) the ambassador, then we all listened to a presentation about encouraging nursing care workers and the like to come to Japan. We had a bento lunch on the bus before going to a school that trains nursing care workers, where we listened to some presentations and also sat in on a class.

Finally, we went back to our hotel, which was also where we would be holding our return reception. Which ended up being an utter disaster in many ways, which for the sake of my city and myself I won't elaborate on here. Definitely not the best night.  But after it was all over I helped my coworker write notes about our meeting time for the next day and do some other prep and I think being able to commiserate helped me feel at least a little better before going to bed.

The next day was just stopping at a mall to do some souvenir shopping before going to the airport, so I bought some things and tried Jollibee, a fried chicken fast food chain I had kept seeing from the bus. The staff from Quezon City actually treated me and my coworker, which was very kind of them. Then we went to the airport and got to spend the wait time in a fancy VIP lounge, which I've never done before. And then it was back on the plane and back to Japan!

So the return reception on our last full day kind of spoiled the memory of everything that went well before it, but overall I think my first overseas business trip went off all right. I'm definitely grateful to even have had an overseas business trip, as well as the chance to visit a new country and one of our sister cities. That's one down, four more to go!

year four?!

As expected, it has been a while since my last post. Things have been a little quieter, especially now that it's September, but they will go straight back to full speed in October: my first (and last?) ever overseas business trip (!), yet another wedding (even in Pittsburgh again, no less), and then our own big yosakoi festival in Chiba.

But anyway, back to what I've been doing since my last blog post. I feel like I haven't done as much as in the past, but what I have done has been pretty interesting/cool!

- I got to accompany the youth exchange students from Montreux and North Vancouver on two separate occasions, which is cool because 1) they were here at the same time, which usually doesn't happen and 2) since the program is run by the international association, I usually don't get to do anything with them other than interpreting for their courtesy visits to the mayor. This time though, since they overlapped and altogether made for a sizeable group, I got to go with them to the science museum/planetarium, lunch, Japanese garden, and a dinosaur exhibit (not all in one day)!

 - I also met and interpreted for the Irish ambassador to Japan. She was quite nice and friendly and didn't bring her own interpreter like ambassadors usually do, which means I did interpreting for both sides. But the content was actually much simpler than what we had been covering in interpreting class so I felt pretty good about it, haha.

 - Then I spent a day judging at a speech contest/presentation day for high-schoolers. I only judged the English speeches (not the Japanese ones) and may or may not have fallen asleep during one of the presentations (I wasn't a judge or anything though). I was impressed by the overall level of English, but it was the national level of the tournament so I guess that makes sense!

- August is the peak of yosakoi season, so there was only one weekend that I didn't spend dancing. The last one was the Nippon Domannaka Matsuri in Nagoya (the one where we made it to the finals last year), and while we didn't make it to the finals, we did make it to the semi-finals! Also a whole bunch (5 over the course of two days) of my friends from the CIRHP agreed to volunteer as staff, which was pretty awesome. I think they had a good time and I think having a group of Japanese-speaking non-Japanese volunteers around was good for the team, haha. (Fulfilling the goals of the international committee, yeahh)

 - And then - this is the highlight of my summer so far - I got to meet the US Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy! I received an official invitation from CLAIR to accompany a CLAIR official to his courtesy visit to the ambassador, as a representative of current JET Programme participants. Altogether they picked one ALT, one CIR, and two alums, so I felt pretty special. It was also very cool to go into the embassy and be on the visiting side of a courtesy call (for the second time ever). I was tickled to see the US seal on the coffee cups and napkins. But more importantly, it was an honor to be able to meet and introduce myself to Ambassador Kennedy, and she even asked me a couple questions about what I liked most about my job/my plans for the future (-.-'). Definitely yet another example of the amazing opportunities JET has given me.

 - And just this weekend I went on the monorail beer train with my old supervisor and some of my coworkers! I had been on the wine train before but they didn't seem to be doing the beer train - until this year, where I noticed just a few days before the application period ended. And in fact I didn't make the lottery the first time, but we were able to go because somebody cancelled last-minute! Apparently 6 times as many people applied as got in, which makes it even more amazing. Basically we got to spend two hours on a private monorail car, eating delicious bento lunch and drinking lots of beer (and cider and sangria). I was really amused because everybody was quite boisterous and drunk, which was definitely not what it was like on the wine train. At any rate, it was a good time, and I even won some goods in the lottery!

As I mentioned earlier, September is going to be my one quiet month for a while, because we don't have many yosakoi events and it's also the break in between interpreting classes. I actually wasn't planning to continue after finishing my last class (level 4, the last of the consecutive interpreting classes), because it takes a lot of time/money and I don't really plan on becoming a professional interpreter, so I didn't see the point in continuing to simultaneous interpreting, even if I got permission to move on. But then I got permission to move on, and after lots of thinking, I decided that this was an opportunity that I should just take while I can, since it can't hurt (anything but my wallet) and will surely help both my Japanese and hopefully my future career prospects. To be honest I wasn't even sure I could pay for it this time around but I remembered that I have a US credit card, and that the exchange rate would actually work in my favor for once! So I feel like I have managed to get a good deal despite having to dip into my American savings, especially considering how much the exchange rate cost me the last time I sent money to the US. I am excited to try simultaneous interpreting (though it will be hard), and even though I will have to skip two classes almost immediately after it starts.

For the moment though, I am enjoying my month of having relatively little to do and have actually been fairly productive in terms of things around the house or things I have just never had the time to get around to. I'm sure by the end of the month I'll be ready for some excitement again though, and luckily my business trip will be the first weekend of October! Until then, I plan to be as lazy as I can and give myself a chance to recuperate from the busyness of the first half of the year. :)