Kendo and Japanese Culture

If you express interest in someone's hobby or culture, they will move a mountain to help you learn or experience it, especially the Japanese people, who are endlessly kind and generous to me. 

While anxiously waiting outside the meeting room to introduce myself to the town council, the head honchos who make the decisions and budgets and such, a man who was waiting outside for the next meeting approached my supervisor and me. A kendo master, he offered to teach me and my husband kendo. He saw my husband and I running several kilometers to a nearby park, which we wanted to see but didn't have car insurance yet. And my supervisor has begun to put the wheels in motion. I have given her a list of cultural things I would like to try: calligraphy, kendo, taiko, visiting a rice paddy, dairy farm, or fishing boat (main industries in my area), etc., and she is making everything happen. 

On Tuesday, my husband and I observed our first kendo practice. The participants were children ranging from 7-14 years old. All of them know me from school. The teachers were the man I met at the town office and his 74-year-old father, the most energetic and genki old man I have ever met, and I have met some very genki old men! Here is a video:

A member of the town English Circle was there, as she has two sons in kendo. She worked hard, with her limited English and our limited Japanese, to explain the rules and spirit, because we were very much in the dark. At the English Circle this week, she had made a copy of a few pages of an English textbook she had at home that describes kendo in great detail. To me, the process of learning absent the Internet, is a very organic and natural feeling. I could probably teach myself some kendo from watching YouTube videos, and I could probably get a Master's degree online, but there is something that just feels right about learning about kendo by observing and having it explained by friends and colleagues.

The kendo instructors said that my husband and I are welcome to observe anytime, but I will need to talk to my supervisor if I wish to take the next steps to join. I imagine that lessons and the whole get-up could be quite expensive.

Here are some bonus pictures from the Yakumo Matsuri Festival:

 My junior high school students' orchestra:

The elementary school brass band:

CouchSurfing in Japan

To plagiarize, www.couchsurfing.org is a volunteer-based worldwide network connecting travelers with members of local communities. From their website, "We believe that people who are different than us are good, trustworthy, and inspiring. And every day we're sharing our cultures, hospitality, and adventures with each other."

I heard about CouchSurfing two years ago at Macalester College, but unfortunately I did not have the resources or space to host surfers, the means or courage to travel, or the trust of strangers. Fortunately, on a trip to Chicago, a friend introduced me to the website www.airbnb.com, a similar service where people rent their homes to travelers. While airbnb isn't as specific as CouchSurfing when it comes to cultural/international exchange, I had such a wonderful time with our hosts on bike tours of the city and eating together at local restaurants. Then, traveling became more about enjoying the people than enjoying the views and tourist attractions (although, I still enjoy that part too).

I decided to start hosting surfers recently and for selfish purposes...do we really take action for any other reason? I can't say, really, I don't know anything about philosophy...some altruism stuff or something. I wanted to speak English with people, learn Japanese, fulfill my duty of internationalization in Japan by bringing foreigners and travelers to my city, and show people how cool the town I'm living in is.

So far, I have hosted two surfers, both who have inspired me, taught me, made me wonder, and helped me think more holistically about the world. In other words, they have fulfilled my selfish motivations for hosting, and then some. My most recent couch surfer was a Japanese man: a musician, world hitchhiker and philosopher. He wore a rainbow colored hat, baggy pants, and sandals, and carried a guitar that rivaled his height. Maybe he looked like a Japanese hippy, but this man had traveled to 65 countries. At some point in his life, he lived and worked in Tokyo, commuting to work every day being pushed on trains (have you seen these train pushers?):

Anyway, the way he engaged us in conversation, the way he was willing to communicate with us in English and share his knowledge of the Japanese language and culture, and his vivacity for life really made an impression on me. He visited on a Wednesday, and graced our English circle with the song "Hello, Goodbye" by the Beatles while the class sang along. When I dropped him off at Panorama Park (a stop from the Hokkaido Expy), he thanked me graciously, and as I pulled away, he stood and waved, both arms over his head, until I pulled out of the lot (I thought he had maybe forgotten something in the car and was trying to flag me down) but no, he was just gracefully waving his arms in a thankful goodbye.

In the next month, I will be hosting two more surfers, Hokkaido wanderers who, for one reason or another, want to come to my quiet village and share a few days with me. I am becoming a better host, a better communicator, more trusting and global and brave to travel myself. I have been inspired by descriptions of many countries, and the ease of which these CouchSurfers travel, often with no car, phone, money, etc. They make me want to travel the world too! 

how does one become a teacher?

Ready for a bad science joke?: The evolution of my posts is clearly a punctuated equilibrium.
"instead of a slow, continuous movement, evolution tends to be characterized by long periods of virtual standstill ("equilibrium"), "punctuated" by episodes of very fast development of new forms." Now for the post:

I love teaching. However, I am finding many hoops that need to be jumped through in order to become a licensed and legal teacher in the United States. For me, graduating from a 4-year college was a hoop dream for so long, and now, to pursue a Master's Degree seems an equally daunting task. About a year after the State of Minnesota gave approval for alternative teaching licensure programs, not a single institution has initiated a program. Government subsidies for graduate loans are being cut, but a master's degree is increasingly becoming the gold standard for obtaining a job.

I wonder, with a Master's Degree and experience in St. Paul schools with AmeriCorps and my TEFL experience in Japan, if I would be a competitive candidate. If I pursue graduate education, I would like to get a Master's in Elementary Education. My dream is to teach at a private school, charter school, or Montessori school with the hope that I will not be paralyzed by standards, testing, and bureaucracy.  Working with children so enriches my life, and with my love of the outdoors, working at an nature-based elementary charter school would be the ideal.

The fact is, I know many certified teachers who have been out of work. I have heard that the market for elementary teachers is completely over-saturated. My hypothesis is that the biological clocks of many females are ticking, while the average age of marriage and having children goes up. Women turn to Elementary Education as a professional calling, but what is really calling them is their maternal desires. 

While my dream is to teach at a private or charter school, I had many wonderful and inspiring teachers throughout my public education, and I would be overjoyed to find any job, public schools included. I believe in a high quality of public education, and if I ever become a public school teacher, I will fight for that, but now, the government is surely not doing its part to attract high quality public school teachers. 

There seem to be many more barriers and deterrents when it comes to finding a job in a public school. I am concerned about  becoming licensed in one state and wanting to live or finding a job in another. It seems that transferring licenses can be a difficult process, as each state has different licensing standards. It is surprising that the US doesn't have a nationwide license or more cooperation between states. While licensing is one barrier, I can think of a few more, like No Child Left Behind and the constant pressure for students to achieve high tests scores regardless of circumstances and with the teacher's position on the line.  

Supposedly, some school districts will offer on-the-job training while licensure is pursued. I don't know where those are, but it sounds awesome. Teach for America is an option, but having served two years already with AmeriCorps, the education award would be rendered moot.

I will ruminate on this topic for a bit longer. Maybe, instead of trying to become a legit teacher, I could pursue environmental education programs at nature centers. I hope to find some way to couple my love for the outdoors and my love for education, because, Confucius once say, "Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life." Finding a job that just pays the bills is an option, and following MLK's advice, if it falls to my lot to be a street sweeper, I would, "sweep streets like Michelangelo." But I believe that with vision and effort, I can shape the progression of my future. 

reflections & the reality of teaching in japan

Well, now that I have talked about my Japanese study, here are some updates about my other goals. 

First, I need to post more continued reflections and inspiring observations. I think many of my posts end up being travel reflections and general complaining, and I hope to better target my blog in order for it to achieve its purpose. While blogs in general seem like a narcissistic concept ("Look how cool and smart I am!"), they can also serve the purpose of providing information (in my case, for interested JETs or family members at home). They can be a medium for self-reflection, or digital scrapbooks of sorts -  pixilated catalogs of memory. Alas, I will trudge forward, submitting my musings to the void of anonymous readers. 

An inspiring anecdote from the past few weeks has been the joy I've discovered in working with special needs students. At one of my schools, a student who is particularly interested in and skilled at English, went out of his way to speak to me and bring me vegetables from the school garden. Another student at a different school came up to me after lunch and bravely offered, "Will you play volleyball with me?"  Life in Japan is packed with linguistic and cultural barriers and feelings of difference and otherness. The special ed students at my schools, like Houdini, make all of them disappear. They come from a place of otherness within their own society, and because of this, I think we are able to find common ground. Sadly, in my relations with other junior high students (especially the boys), I often feel ridiculed. They will laugh at me every chance that they get (somehow the English word "ankle" is really funny, and I have no problem laughing at myself, but I can anticipate it getting old.

Another issue has been becoming involved with activities and clubs at my main school, which also happens to be my most troublesome school. Some days, the teachers do not give me any responsibility or they tell me after class has begun where I should be. Their class schedule changes weekly, and I generally am not given this schedule and must somehow devise, with my lack of Japanese reading and speaking abilities, where I should be. Only once I step into the classroom and the teacher tells the students what page to open their books to, do I have any inkling about the content of the day's lesson. I do not want to misunderstand my role, or violate the sanctity of the workplace hierarchy by voicing my concerns, especially since I have only been in the school for about a month. I would like to get involved in the school activities, but I am sometimes not even involved in the classroom, which is my prime directive at school. Furthermore, the organizer of the town soccer team is an English teacher, but he doesn't seem to have taken a liking to me, despite the fact that I try to talk to him about soccer and play with students after lunch. I really want to play soccer in Japan! It is becoming very popular here because of the success of their national teams. I have been able to be active in community cultural activities, joining a taiko club, and I will soon be observing/participating in kendo and shoudo (calligraphy) classes. 

As for my relationships with my teachers, many are too busy or apathetic about my presence in the classroom to spend time meeting with me to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of lessons or to discuss lesson plans. In America, I worked hard to prepare for team teaching and effective instruction in Japan, and it is frustrating for me to find so little cooperation and enthusiasm from many of my Japanese teachers. Of course, there are exceptions, especially at my smaller schools who aren't as busy and who are very happy to have me there. 

I have been doing well with many of my personal goals, eating quite healthily, consuming few sweets, and going for 5:30am runs when it is cool and few pedestrians are around. I have come to realize that if I am seen in town by someone I interact with, they like to inform me and others that they "spotted the gaijin" (in different words) at the grocery store, hardware store, or driving with sunglasses on. Sometimes I don't know if I am like a local celebrity or, rather, a sideshow. 

Now, I ask myself, how is my progress on the culture shock spectrum? I think it is better described as a normal progression into a new culture - an "adaptation curve" perhaps. At the end of the curve comes adaptation/biculturalism. What does it mean to be bicultural anyway? Is it possible to straddle the line between your cultural roots and a new way of living? How is biculturalism related to acculturation/assimilation? I'm no cultural theorist, but it would behoove me to do some more research on this topic. 

And as I begin to become accustomed to life in Japan, it will also be important for me to think about my personal and professional life outside of the "JET/ALT/Japan" bubble. Once you arrive in Japan, there are many things that pressure you to stay. Your new friends, expatriates who have been in Japan for 3-10 years, have been sucked into the language teaching vortex. My #1 marketable skill is my ability to speak my native language, and here in Japan I am paid well and treated reasonably well while being able to travel and enjoy this beautiful country. What's not to love? Well, the fact that I am married and would like to set myself up professionally and financially in the United States in case we decide to start a family or to grow some roots somewhere. The fact is that in the modern era, a BA from a liberal arts college may not land me a good enough job to support a family.

I will continue to ruminate upon my goals, but for now, I will abruptly end this post.

How I Study Japanese

I taught two classes today, and although my classroom-related duties are over, I will remain in school for another five hours. I will take this time to make good on my promise of revisiting the goals I set for myself while in Japan, beginning with discussing the resources I use to study Japanese.

I have had an abundance of time to study Japanese at school. For me, I practice speaking and listening as a side-effect of every day interactions (e.g. speaking to students and faculty, going grocery shopping, and watching TV) but learning to read and write come the least naturally, especially kanji. I must read hiragana and katakana in many daily situations, but when I face a kanji in any reading material, I am stuck totally helpless.

For my birthday, the organizer of the English Circle gave me a really cool Japan Times book in the Genki series: KanjiLook and Learn, "512 Kanji with Illustrations and Mnemonic Hints." I also purchased the highly acclaimed but controversial book, Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig from my predecessor, and I must say that Kanji Look and Learn takes a more interesting and realistic approach to understanding kanji. The book provides imaginative drawings for each kanji, alongside sentences that help you remember the more complicated ones.

For example, the kanji for spring is made up of three other recognizable kanji: person, three, and sun. So, they show a picture illustrating the three and tell you, "Spring has come. Three people look at the sun." This totally helps me remember. In comparison, Remembering the Kanji gives you the kanji in a weird order (gall bladder is one of the first that you learn) and not only do you have to remember the meaning, but he also tells you to remember another unrelated meaning that supposedly will help you remember future compound kanji, but I find that it greatly over complicates things in an attempt to provide a shortcut. In addition, Kanji Look and Learn gives you stroke order diagrams, on and kun-yumi readings, and compound words of which the kanji is a part.

I couple use of this book with White Rabbit Press' "Japanese Kanji Flashcards I" for more accessible review, and Kodansha's Let's Learn Kanji to help understand the radicals and practice my writing.

Kanji is but the tip of the iceberg. There are a couple of fun games that I would recommend for reading too. First, a game for the iPhone called Kanji Pop. In this game you are given about 16 kanji, and a time limit in which you have to match these kanji with words that pop up. It is a nice distraction on a train or car trip. Secondly, a computer game called SlimeForest Adventure. It's an RPG type game where the enemies are slimes who throw katakana, hiragana, and kanji at you for attacks and your defense is recognizing them. They present kanji that look similar in a group so you can recognize the differences. The only downfall to learning kanji in this game is that you do not learn the Japanese pronunciation, only the English word.

On my 40-minute+ drive through the mountain pass to two of my schools, I have been listening to "speed learning" audio tapes. Specifically, I have found the Pimsleur method to be very effective. Lessons build upon one another and advance at a reasonable pace. Following the principles of Second Language Acquisition, the audio tapes require listener response and input. Each lesson begins with a conversation, and by the end of the lesson, one can participate in a similar conversation. Additionally, this method encourages listeners to make connections and discover rules for different words and verb tenses based on use in phrases. For beginners, these are a great resource. After every lesson, I think to myself, "If only I had known this when I came to Japan, I would have avoided many of a confusing conversation."

I have a variety of workbooks that I am using in combination. It has been challenging for me to focus on just one. I need to whip through the "Japanese for JETs" book that I have been working on when at the BOE, but the audio portions always take a little while.  I also have Japanese Demystified, and Genki I and II. When winter comes, I will surely snuggle under my kotatsu and put the hammer to the grindstone (is that the expression?) - that is - when I am not watching marathons of TV shows (my favorite embarrassing winter hobby).

As a whole, the time I spend studying Japanese on a weekly basis is like another part-time job, but I have enough down time at work that it isn't a hassle. What I need to guard against, now that I have been in Japan for almost 2 months, is the tendency that people have to give up on studying due to lack of motivation. Besides the functional need to learn Japanese, I will find it beneficial in the future to study for a purpose, like taking the JLPT - (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). That might help better focus my course of study.

Mt. Komagatake Rd. 2

We woke with the sun this morning, and we drove toward Komagatake. Scaling a mountain without knowing the destination of the trailhead was difficult, but we found it with the help of Tom's skillful navigation and my iPhone. Two years ago, I wanted to go back to a home phone and forsake the burden of mobile phone forever. But now, I have been convinced that smartphones are undoubtedly useful in many sticky situations, and essential in Japan where there is virtually no Wi-Fi.

Anyway, back to the mountain. Here's a link to the trailhead we ended up finding.We drove up a path to a parking area where we checked in and began our ascent as early as possible, 9am. For the hike up, there was an ojiisan who declared himself "yama no champion" - The Mountain's Champion, and stayed at least 15 m ahead us so he could be the first to the summit that day. We had no intention of racing him, but wanted to keep our pace. The ojiisan carried his lunchbox in his hand and swung it along with him the whole way.

Here are some views of the summit. The area was roped off, as if to stop us from venturing on to see the view from another peak. It worked. We wanted to continue climbing, but we didn't know if it was safe. Perhaps next time.

Last time I climbed, many children accompanied us. This time, we saw quite a few children hiking up with their parents like champs. I would like to see some of the kids I know in America try to do this, and see if they could keep a positive attitude and fighting spirit. In addition, a bus-tour of elderly people pulled up behind us in the parking lot, all of them scaling the mountain behind us. I am constantly impressed at the physicality of Japanese seniors.

On the way down the mountain, we had a telling lesson in intercultural communication. I asked my husband to guest write about the situation.:

So, when we on our descent of the mountain, we were passing many people who were on their way up. Occasionally someone would give a nod and a konnichiwa, and we'd respond in kind. At one point, we were stopped alongside the side, taking a short rest, enjoying the view and drinking a little water. An old woman, across the path, stopped, looked at me, and spoke a whole bunch of Japanese. I had to say "zenzen wakarimasen, sumimasen" (i don't understand at all, excuse me). Then, she said, "ah, sorry, thank you!" in English. She then looked me in the eye, with a gleam in hers, and said very slowly, "baka no hitotsu oboe". I thought she was trying to teach me, so I spoke it back to her, word by word, she had to repeat it a few times and so did I. I recognized the words baka (fool/idiot) and hitotsu (one thing) but I didn't really understand what she meant, at the time I thought she was trying to teach me "sorry" in Japanese or call me an idiot. 

Later when we got home, I looked it up, apparently it's an expression that means a fool only knows one thing, and so will say it over and over. Literally "Fool's one thought". I'm not sure if she was talking about herself or me, but it's funny in retrospect because I said that very expression to her several times.

 For me, there have been so many times in Japan where communication comes down to the "one thing" I know in Japanese or they know in English, but I think in a foreign language, using the one thing you know is an act of bravery. It takes takes courage to attempt to speak to someone in a language that is unfamiliar to you. Anyway, I thought that it was such a wonderful and true way to learn a Japanese proverb; something I will never forget.

The hike up and back took us about an hour and a half, discounting exploring, eating, and napping time at the summit. I hope to climb many more mountains in Japan!

BONUS: On the way home we stopped at a roadside restaurant and ordered our first ramen in Japan -

Lake Onuma

This weekend we traveled into the deep southwest of Hokkaido for the HAJET Southwest Welcome Party. While the party itself was not photographed (what happens at the party stays at the party), our explorations around Lake Onuma and hike up Komagatake were highly documented.

We arrived at Nagareyama Onsen Campground at 1pm sharp for check-in and only a couple other JETs were there, so we explored "Stone Crazy" - a sculpture garden not far from the campground.

When we returned, a couple more people were there, so we checked in with the help of a gracious Japanese-speaking dude who wrote the kanji on our license plate on the registration form since we are totally inept, but our tents weren't there yet, so we went to a feeding zoo. I just made that up. It's like a petting zoo but you mostly just feed things. Let it be known that I LOVE BUNNIES!

And I also love this progression of photos - Tom sought out the smallest, shyest bunny and made a super cute friend:

There were other animals too, including this aggressive horse with greenish teeth:

Next, whilst trying to find something fun to do (bike rental or a place to swim), we found a great, long path from island to island with bridges. We liked how each bridge was unique, rather than utilitarian and identical.

Back at the Welcome Party, we set up our tent and ventured into the onsen hot bath. Onsens are separated by gender. You bring in a small "modesty towel" and wash yourself thoroughly before entering the bath. My tolerance for onsens is comically low: I can only be in the bath for about 5 minutes before I am dripping with sweat. I especially enjoy the outdoor onsens at night: melting into the hot waters with the cool air on your face. Not only are onsens extremely relaxing and great for your skin, it is liberating to be absolutely naked in front of absolute strangers, sharing in the joy of the hot bath.

The rest of the night was kind of a blur, so I'll leave it at that.

good things come to those who wander with purpose

Why haven't I blogged in so long, you wonder? Well, I have been working long days and exploring in my free time!

My husband and I went to explore the random trail we found, and alas, we did not see a bear. But doesn't this look like a cave where one would live!? After all the research we did about encountering a bear, we were on high alert the whole time and neither of us was brave enough to explore the cave. We reminisced about the good ol' days of youth when we would have charged ahead, courageous and ignorant.

We found these cool shrines and statues, and wondered about the etiquette of visiting a shrine. No one was around, but the door was open. I must do some research. Could we have entered, meditated, left an offering? I have never experienced a shrine, so I don't know!

 And the view from the top:

One benefit of having a car in Japan is that you can take random weekend adventures driving around aimlessly! We drove to an observatory tower at the top of the tallest hill in Yakumo. Japan has gorgeous views in abundance.:

Tom and I set a date to return at the beginning of October when the leaves change, bring a picnic dinner and some wine, watch the sun set, and view the stars from the observatory. I can't wait!

Rotting Daikon, Empathetic Students, Pura, and Bears

Have you ever smelled rotting daikon? Something was stinking up the kitchen. We looked everywhere, even moved the fridge in case something had fallen behind. Then we found the culprit: a daikon radish that we only had for a few days, in the cabinet, fermenting in its own bile. It was too hazardous to even appear in a photograph. Summer in Japan can be quite harsh on produce.

Speaking of vegetables, another productive (as in produce) gift was dropped off at our door: watermelon and (more) tomatoes (a fruit, not a vegetable), with a sign: "I'm happy to get you to eat this." If you read my previous post about the correlation between tomatoes and weight loss, this note makes even more sense.

In class today I taught the 二年生 (ninensei - second grade middle schoolers) from hell. (I changed the font to hell-vetica for emphasis.) This class is a nightmare. Students get out of their seats in the middle of class to do random stuff. There is a boy who makes faces at the JTE while her back is turned. During their self introductions last week, about five of the "bad boy" students refused to give a full introduction, testing their limits with the JTE. They would just say, "My name is ____," and sit down, with obstinate looks on their faces. One boy does no work throughout the entirety of class, instead trying to catch flies that land on him.  Okay, it's not that bad, but some of these kids are starting to piss me off.

After class last week, the JTE said that their behavior was because they weren't interested in English (I don't think that is the root of their misbehavior), but this week she just said "sorry." Later in the day, the JTE told me that a female student had expressed concern about me. She feared that I would get angry at their behavior and never come back to the school, because she had an ALT in elementary school do just that.

Fortunately, I have been around children enough to have learned a +1 Barrier of Patience spell. I also have a spell in my wizard's book which can cause enemies to become stunned, called "Disappointed Glare." I used it today and it was SUPER EFFECTIVE. It is my personal mission to win over this  二年生 class. My final and most powerful spell is "Charm person," which is a spell that takes a little while to cast, but it has a large area of effect and persistent and quite powerful effects. To cast this spell, I must play soccer with students after lunch, befriend them during our five minute morning run around the track, and go out of my way to be kind to them at every opportunity. I'm cool. English is fun(ner than your other classes). Seriously, don't be little pricks during class. I swear I'm not angry.

Anyhoo...my birthday was yesterday! I was happy to get 2 packages in the mail, from mommy and mommy-in-law (having two mommies is double sweet). And extra sweet were the SIX pieces of mega fancy Japanese cake that my husband got me. By the time I got the camera out, the chocolate strawberry ones had disappeared. I don't know what happened.

Here are some other random anecdotes:

Most prepared food in Japan is bite-sized. However, to my chopstick-fumbling dismay, some things are not. For lunch today, we had a fish about the size of a small steak. Cutting things with chopsticks is hard. You have to like pinch 'em together, with force, but with enough control that neither a chopstick nor food goes flying once the pinch off is complete. Sometimes it's okay to take a stealthy bite of something that's too big to put in your mouth all at once (unless you're the bad boy that I sat next to at lunch today who just eats like a savage before we've even said itadakimasu).  My hands are becoming more nimble, but jitsu wa, sometimes I just can't cut stuff with two slippery wooden sticks. And now that I'm thinking about it, it's rude to stab things with chopsticks, and most people do not eat much food with their hands...so try picking up a baby tomato with chopsticks. I dare you. If you can, try holding it for 10 seconds. It's taxing!

And another thing, Japanese trash: there's the pink bag for PET plastic bottles, the green bag for glass bottles, and a red bag for cans. There is a blue bag for burnable trash, a yellow bag for non-burnable trash, a clear bag for paper recycling, and a clear bag for pura. I asked my husband to describe pura just now: "Pura is basically whatever doesn't fit into the other categories. At first, I thought it would be plastic, but it turns out it's like all the things you think of as garbage. Imagine in your mind a garbage dump: all that is pura. Any food packaging is pura." Pura is recyclable plastic.

Based on the sheer volume of pura we produce, my husband's new catch phrase is, "It's all comin' out PURA!" (based on the phrase, "Everything's comin' up roses.") But America could take a page out of Japan's book here, and recycle that page. Because somehow Japan's food companies package food with a type of plastic that their recycling centers are equipped to recycle! There may be some kind of mysterious communication and coordination between these entities. How can this be!?!?!?

Hold on to your britches for this announcement people: tomorrow, I will post pictures from our exploratory adventure to discover what lies beyond the random path entrance that we discovered from the road. It had a small pavilion and incomprehensible sign in Japanese. Bringin' bear bells just in case, but I kind of want to survive a bear encounter so I can tell all these people who think they know what to do in case one encounters a bear the howdy-doody. "Hit some pans together! Pretend you are dead! Run away really fast! Walk away slowly. Chase the bear. Yell. Use pepper spray. Try to be intimidating, like stick your chest out." I will try all of those simultaneously and see what the bear thinks of THAT! Ha!

The Minnesota Vikings & Shrinkwrapped Couples

Just a short heyo...

I follow a photo blog called Japanese Streets, which has been documenting fashion mostly in Tokyo for the last 10 years. I am far from a fashionista, but I enjoy observing the styles - alternative, cutsie, and just plain weird. Recently, a photo was posted of a girl named  Momoka sportin' none other than a Minnesota Vikings jersey! Currently, #14 is quarterback Joe Webb, who I know nothing about because the Vikings have been so terrible the last few years that any news has completely flown under my radar. Anyway, check out the blog and enjoy this 18 year old Japanese girl wearing a Vikings jersey.

There was also a fun article in Tofugu this week about Japanese couples being shrink-wrapped in odd positions for the sake of art. There are many more where this came from if you check out the above link:

Hakodate Virgin

Yesterday, due to the great kindness of a local ALT, my husband and I travelled to Hakodate, the third largest city (after Sapporo and Asahikawa) in Hokkaido. With a population of approximately 300,000, Hakodate was the first port city open in Japan for foriegn (particulary Russian) trade. I will spare you my plagarised history lesson and link you to Wikipedia instead.

Our first stop was the foreign import store in Nanae, where we found (wait for it) taco seasoning and tortillas (Bueno!). Next, we ate at our first conveyor belt sushi restaurant. You can grab anything off the line of your choosing, and more expensive dishes are labelled, otherwise everything is 110 yen. There was whale.

Into Hakodate proper, we stopped at my first recycle store, aptly named:

I don't know why I said aptly...because the store is likely to give you the opposite. It is nothing like U.S. thrift stores: clean, well organized, high-quality stuff. I suppose that's because it's more like a pawn shop than a thrift store, as they will buy your high value items from you. They had an amazing selection of laptops, musical instruments, TVs, etc.

From there, we drove to the bay area and saw the trolleys. Remind you of San Francisco? Me too.

We drove up Mt. Hakodate, which is open to traffic before 5pm and after 10pm, but closed during the winter because of its winding roads and steep inclines. Hokkaido is very much a motorcyclist paradise. There were some amazing views from the top.

More exploring, squid ink ice cream (actually quite tasty!),

and a visit to Cape Tachimachi aka "The Suicide Cliffs" from where, on less cloudy days, Aomori can be seen!

 Last, but not least, I learned about a starling character from Hokkaido named, "まりもっくり" wherein Marimo is algae and mokkuri is a guy's erection. Sorry for all the sketchy content in this post, but this is Japan: