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. :)

update dump (end of year three)

Oohh boy. It's been over three months since my last update and there has been so much going on, I could write for hours and only just barely catch up. (Does anybody even read this anymore?)

I don't think I'll be able to do everything justice, especially so long after everything has happened, so this will have to be a big summary info dump, and then maybe I'll get back to updating regularly, though things should be much quieter/less exciting in my life after this month (... is what I've said to myself every month since May -.-').

Anyway, since my last post I have:

- Visited my GHP friend Tomas in Thailand for Golden Week! I wanted to go to Thailand and he has been doing a research Fulbright there for the past year and was kind enough to take me all around (Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Khon Kaen) and interpret for me for almost a week! I saw so many beautiful temples, ate so much delicious food, took a million different types of public transportation (including an overnight train!), and rode an elephant! A fantastic trip.

- Done some cool things at work like interpreting for the daughter of Peter Drucker (the "father of modern management") as her parents' at collection was on exhibit at the Chiba City Museum of Art and also helping interview candidates for the new basic interpreting course run by the city.

- Met up with three different friends/acquaintances from college and also some other alums/current students who were here on an of-campus program. It's always really nice to keep up the Carleton collection and there's always such great intellectual conversation, haha. Sometimes I miss being surrounded by nerds. :)

- Participated in the Yosakoi Soran Festival in Hokkaido for the second time, except this time as the head of a committee and therefore the leader of a fairly large group as we went from venue to venue over the course of the weekend. Actually it was super stressful and we didn't place, like we hoped we might, but it was still fun and a good experience overall. Best parts: two of my friends in Sapporo volunteering as staff for us and seeing the finals live from quite close.

- Officially ending my terms as Chiba AJET President, National AJET CIR Representative/Project Manager, Chiba-kun Ambassador, Chiba block coordinator, and API AJET block representative. I'm still the head of the international committee for my yosakoi team and taking interpreting classes, but finally having less responsibility and the pressure to be constantly doing something productive is feeling pretty nice. I'll be taking it easy this year and trying to plan more for the post-JET future.

- Gone home for the wedding of our dear family friend Faye (the first of two weddings I'll be going back for this year). It was a very short trip (just a few days for the wedding since I am actually running low on vacation days for once) but full of family and friends and love and I enjoyed every single minute of it.  <3


- Taken my friend Michael around Chiba and Tokyo as he visited Japan for the first time on his way to Australia! We've been talking about him visiting ever since I came and now he finally has, and it was super fun. He actually came back on the same flight from the US as me and we managed to get seats beside each other, yayy. We spent five days walking all over Tokyo (over 20 miles one day!) and just seeing the sights, eating all sorts of Japanese food, and generally having a good time. Next it'll be my turn to go to Australia, maybe.  :)

- Spent every weekend so far in July at a CIRHP meetup! The CIRHP is an online forum for CIRs where I spend far too much time and have made many of my good friends in Japan, and this year we've started actually hanging out in person too. So the first weekend I had (delicious deep dish) pizza with people in Kanto, last weekend I went to Ehime Prefecture for castles and mikans, and I just came back from an epic trip to Okinawa that involved renting a little house by the beach, Cards Against Humanity, and lots of good conversation and just chilling out (also cats).

So the end of my third year on JET has been pretty action-packed so far, which is all I can really all for, anyway. It's weird to think that after this I still have a whole year left before things might change, but I have high hopes for what's to come. :)

ramen and long lines for food & alcohol (a summary of my mother's trip to japan)

As the title suggests, last month my mother came to visit me in Japan! She stopped by for almost a week on her way back from a college reunion, in which we spent hours waiting in lines for food/alcohol and probably ate more ramen than I usually eat in six months, haha. <3

She came in on Thursday evening but still offered to cook us dinner (so of course I accepted, haha), and on Friday, we got up early-ish to head to the Tsukiji Fish Market! I'd never been and thought maybe she would like it, and it seems like she did! After wandering around and trying not to get in the way amongst giant crabs and tuna heads and all sorts of other marine delicacies, she insisted that we find the longest line to stand and wait in for lunch, with the logic that longest line = most delicious (even though I warned her that sometimes in Japan people just get in lines without knowing what they're for). Luckily, the logic was sound this time and the lunch we had was absolutely delicious!

Next we headed over to Yokohama, to wander by the Red Brick Warehouse and the pier, which are pretty much the only places I ever go in Yokohama but I always enjoy it anyway because it's so pretty. On the pier we saw what we thought was one lone tree blooming with sakura, but when we approached and tried to take pictures it turns out it was fake and they were shooting some sort of drama around it (no pictures allowed). I wonder who it was... Anyway, after that we went to our actual destination, the Yokohama Ramen Museum! (Not to be confused with the Cup Noodle Museum.) Because I know my mom loves ramen, and basically all there is to do there is eat ramen (it's more ramen shop than actual museum). But it was also decorated in this great Showa-style way (we came in through a part that was decorated like a bathhouse and I thought we were lost), which was a nice atmosphere. And they have smaller bowls of ramen so you can taste a few if you want (though we only had one little bowl each).

The next morning we got up bright and early to take the shinkansen to Niigata! My friend who lives there was performing in a musical, on a weekend that also had a huge sake festival, and since I wanted to go I essentially just dragged my mom along with me, haha. So we boarded my first ever two-story shinkansen (!) and wandered around a little after dropping of our luggage. Then we headed to the sake festival, but upon seeing the line (which we could see from across the bridge) we decided to go have lunch (ramen again) for sustenance first. And then we waited in line for over an hour before entering the craziness that was Niigata's Sake no Jin! Tickets were 2000 yen and with it we each got a little sake cup, with which we could then taste as many types of sake we wanted, in a giant room full of sake brewers. We decided to try drinking every sake that had 雪 in its name (since it's in my name), and then some. We also ended up meeting with the friend I came to see, a friend who's sake lover group was selling their original sake (Connect! Which my mother decided was the best she had tasted and came back to buy later), two National AJET friends, and another friend who I volunteered in Okinawa with two years ago. :D And then we had dinner with my friend and some of his friends, before going back to our hotel early and just going to bed.

Day 2 in Niigata was spent wandering around for a bit and having a seafood lunch before video chatting with my dad for a few minutes before seeing my friend's musical, The Frog Prince, by Niigata AJET. It was an original musical (apparently written by the cast of last year's musical) about a princess who wanted to be a pop star and a prince who thought he was a frog, and it was really entertaining! I was very impressed by the guy playing the prince, who had to hop around stage for like two hours. After the musical we visited a nearby temple and then took a walk/train ride to wait in line for another hour or so for the ramen place where my friend said he had the best ramen ever. Yes, ramen again, but I'd say it was worth it! Apparently on weekends they do thick noodles and on weekdays thin ones, so I'm glad we went on a weekend because thick noodles are my favorite and it was really delicious!

Our final day in the prefecture was spent visiting Yahiko Shrine, a little shrine way up top of a mountain, which we took a cable car up to. After admiring the nature and buying some sweets, we headed to Tsubame to catch the shinkansen, but not before spending an hour or so shopping at an industrial goods center (apparently what the place is famous for). My mom finally bought a Japanese knife, and we had a very tasty semi-fancy lunch made of local ingredients before finally taking the shinkansen and train back to Chiba.

On Tuesday I went back to work and my mom spent the day packing and making me lots of delicious food, for both lunch and dinner and to freeze for the future. <3 And then on Wednesday it was time for her to go back to the US! She wanted to try Japanese tea ceremony so we dragged her giant suitcase (no big lockers available at the station) all the way to the Japanese garden in Makuhari, but the teahouse was being rented out for the day so no tea for us. :( After that we just went to the airport and had ramen one final time and did some shopping before it was time for her to leave.

And then she left. Sigh. But it was a great trip and I was really happy to spend almost a week together! Hoping she and the rest of my family will make it back here at least one more time before I leave. :)

katsuura hina matsuri

So recently I made my way back to Katsuura, where part of our third Chiba-kun Ambassadors tour took place, for their hina matsuri, or doll festival! Hina matsuri is actually something that is celebrated all over Japan and is also called Girl's Day (it's on March 3). Apparently the dolls represent the emperor, empress, court musicians, and attendants in Heian-era clothing, and I think it's traditional to buy a set of dolls for girls to display in their houses.

Anyway, I'm not sure how famous the hina matsuri in Katsuura is, but I think it definitely deserves attention, because there are so many dolls everywhere! When we started walking to the main areas, suddenly we noticed little displays of dolls in bamboo pipes all around the streets. I tried to see what they were made of and it looked like some were made of plastic while others were wood and maybe a few of porcelain? I thought it was cool that they weren't all girls/women (which is what I was expecting) - there were a lot of little old men, too.


Our first stop was actually to eat tantan-men (a type of spicy noodle which I think is from China), because Katsuura's tantan-men is actually famous as a "B-grade gourmet" food - food that isn't expensive but is very tasty. And it was! I was very happy with my bowl, which I ordered with menma (bamboo shoots) as a topping.

The rest of the day was spent just wandering around and looking at ask the dolls, which were in almost every store and along the streets, but also in giant displays with probably hundreds of dolls in each one. The biggest one was at a temple w

here dolls filled a whole staircase, which was pretty impressive to look at. Somebody told us that all the dolls have souls and so they take care to put them all away if it rains, which must be a big undertaking.

All in all it was a pretty neat thing to see, so I'm glad that I went! I still didn't make it to the places I missed on the Chiba-kun Ambassadors tour though - maybe next time!