It's weird to be able to say that I am actually living and working outside of the US. The furthest from my parent's house I have ever lived before was less than an hour. Now I am halfway across the world. I'm not going to lie, it has its downsides sometimes, like not being able to have many true conversations with friends back in Cincinnati due to the time difference. But, if given the choice again, I would choose to come every time.
During my third week of work I bought myself a "New Nintendo 3DS" (because why not be like everyone else and play Pokemon on the morning train?), the Japanese version of Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, and had a welcome lunch at work.
On Saturday morning I got up way too early to go check out Tsukiji Fish Market. It was really cool, but most of the fresh market was closing by the time I arrived and I would not want to get up any earlier than I did to go. Maybe some-day if I stay closer to central Tokyo I will visit again.
Saturday afternoon, I met Yuta for Indian curry before heading to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. All-in-all a fun experience... including my first birthday present! He bought me a book with gorgeous photos of Kyoto that I wish I was capable of taking!
On Sunday I cleaned my room and cooked (basic shufu duties) and got my birthday package from the family!!! Yay for Skyline and holiday Reese's.
During my third week of work I bought myself a "New Nintendo 3DS" (because why not be like everyone else and play Pokemon on the morning train?), the Japanese version of Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, and had a welcome lunch at work.
On Saturday morning I got up way too early to go check out Tsukiji Fish Market. It was really cool, but most of the fresh market was closing by the time I arrived and I would not want to get up any earlier than I did to go. Maybe some-day if I stay closer to central Tokyo I will visit again.
Saturday afternoon, I met Yuta for Indian curry before heading to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. All-in-all a fun experience... including my first birthday present! He bought me a book with gorgeous photos of Kyoto that I wish I was capable of taking!
On Sunday I cleaned my room and cooked (basic shufu duties) and got my birthday package from the family!!! Yay for Skyline and holiday Reese's.
The next week I turned 22 and took my first holiday (vacation day) of my internship!
On Thursday after work I headed to Sayama-shi for a tea event. I don't know how to put into words how cool and how much fun it was! I got a little lost but was much closer when lost than when I couldn't find my way in Harajuku. The event was a small one, in the town center (I believe it would be similar to the municipal center? Anyways, in a big meeting room we had two tables set up. My friend Haruna introduced me to all of her friends and the other people of Sayama-cha (which was nice because her explaining my situation to them in Japanese was something I could understand but it went much faster when I wasn't trying to introduce myself to each person!
After introductions we all sat down together and listen to Haruna-san demonstrate a quick "how-to" in simple Japanese on making tea. Then after we all tried that tea we split into two groups. All of the guys went to one table to practice presenting in English and the three of us girls stayed where we were to practice in Japanese. With a lot of help and reassuring, I was able to "introduce" Japanese tea in Japanese!!!! Then they asked me to give my "native speaker's" presentation on it in English, so that is what most of these pictures are from.
After introductions we all sat down together and listen to Haruna-san demonstrate a quick "how-to" in simple Japanese on making tea. Then after we all tried that tea we split into two groups. All of the guys went to one table to practice presenting in English and the three of us girls stayed where we were to practice in Japanese. With a lot of help and reassuring, I was able to "introduce" Japanese tea in Japanese!!!! Then they asked me to give my "native speaker's" presentation on it in English, so that is what most of these pictures are from.
Haruna-san even caught a video of me being all tea-awesome!
After we were done with tea, they invited me to dinner with them! So of course I went. There is a restaurant that I guess the group goes to a lot that is more traditional in Sayama, so that is where we went. They were awesome and kept normal conversations with each other but then spoke to me in simple Japanese to help me learn AND keep me involved in the conversation! I had an absolutely wonderful time with them all and when they found out my birthday was two days before, they all sang to me! Which prompted a man behind us to give me a birthday present too! After dinner I went to the bathroom and came back to my seat where two bottles of SayamaCha-UmeShu was waiting for me as another present!
Then we called a cab and I went with Haruna-san to her husband's share-house that he is working on in Sayama.
Then we called a cab and I went with Haruna-san to her husband's share-house that he is working on in Sayama.
The next morning Haruna-san and I got up and got ready to go. On the way to the bus stop we stopped for a quick bite to eat at a restaurant she didn't realize was opened (again?) until we walked past it. We both had tonkatsu sandwiches and the pork was from the butcher a floor below the cafe. I also got my morning coffee in (close call). But that sandwich... was like biting into a cloud. The meat was so juicy and tender and the whole thing was just superb!
And after taking the bus back to the station, I was off to Kawagoe!
The main attraction in Kawagoe is Koedo Kawagoe, or Little Edo. The area is named this because it is still very traditional and similar to what Edo (the previous name of the city now known as Tokyo…) was like! Of course, I headed straight to that area! While there I did some shopping and got items for tea much cheaper than I can in Tokyo, candies, and took LOTS of pictures.
My two favorite parts were: 1) finding flowers in bloom to take photos of and 2) spending 300 yen on a turtle-shaped lollipop that was made right before me! Like HOW cool is that??? I wish I had taken a video or something to show you all, but I guess that’s an experience I am keeping to myself since I forgot. Sorry!
The main attraction in Kawagoe is Koedo Kawagoe, or Little Edo. The area is named this because it is still very traditional and similar to what Edo (the previous name of the city now known as Tokyo…) was like! Of course, I headed straight to that area! While there I did some shopping and got items for tea much cheaper than I can in Tokyo, candies, and took LOTS of pictures.
My two favorite parts were: 1) finding flowers in bloom to take photos of and 2) spending 300 yen on a turtle-shaped lollipop that was made right before me! Like HOW cool is that??? I wish I had taken a video or something to show you all, but I guess that’s an experience I am keeping to myself since I forgot. Sorry!
The next day I met Yuta in Koganei to go to an open-air museum and a Ghibli exhibit. I really want to go back to this museum someday because we only had the chance to explore one of the buildings and half of the Ghibli exhibit before the museum closed! But there were many more historical buildings to explore!
Part of the building we explored was what I believe the oldest part of the building and it smelled a lot like my great grandma’s house from when I was a kid. It was cool/weird/sad to reminisce about being at Grandma’s house while in a building on the other side of the world.
On our way to the open-air museum, an ojisan (older man) walked up to us and told us to make sure to see the plum blossoms because maybe by next week they wouldn’t be as beautiful as they were that weekend, so of course we went to check out the plum blossoms. And you can see below that I took lots of pictures!
A cool thing about these is that the trees were low enough that we could smell the blossoms. Half of them smelled like bananas and the other half smelled kind of sour. I wish I could bottle up that scent and share it with you! It was such a wonderful time! And I found out a day or two later that Tamura-senpai had been to that park just that morning; crazy!
Part of the building we explored was what I believe the oldest part of the building and it smelled a lot like my great grandma’s house from when I was a kid. It was cool/weird/sad to reminisce about being at Grandma’s house while in a building on the other side of the world.
On our way to the open-air museum, an ojisan (older man) walked up to us and told us to make sure to see the plum blossoms because maybe by next week they wouldn’t be as beautiful as they were that weekend, so of course we went to check out the plum blossoms. And you can see below that I took lots of pictures!
A cool thing about these is that the trees were low enough that we could smell the blossoms. Half of them smelled like bananas and the other half smelled kind of sour. I wish I could bottle up that scent and share it with you! It was such a wonderful time! And I found out a day or two later that Tamura-senpai had been to that park just that morning; crazy!
Then we went to Kichijoji for some Thai food which was really delicious!! It was also very spicy. I actually ate a pepper that made me CRY from how spicy it was. It also raised my heart rate a lot like how my inhaler raises my heartrate. It was quite an exciting experience. Another cool thing about Thai food is that they have rice that you pick up with your hand and dip into your food and then eat it. Quite different but really cool! Let’s just say though, that the food was so spicy that I ordered a drink while we were there and had to get ice cream afterwards to feel okay. But that’s alright because I got myself some Ben & Jerry’s!! YUM.
Then on Sunday I went shopping and did some cooking, see pictures below:
Another week flew by and I ended it on Friday with a trip to Kameido for some ramen and then a lazy Saturday. On Sunday, I was off to Shinjuku to meet my family! One of the sisters (not sure if it was Miko or Miho) thought I would have trouble getting to or get lost trying to find the temple we met at, but I was able to make it all on my own!
At Tochoji (the temple) I was introduced to my great aunt’s two sisters and brother and a few of her nieces and nephews! Then they honored the family (?) by pouring water over the grave. I need to research this more, so please don’t take all of this to be fact! But this is what I got out of the experience:
- In Japan, everyone gets cremated. Therefore the whole family gets buried under the same tombstone
- Most tombstones reside in temples or on temple grounds
- My “uncle,” Homei, will be the last person to be buried in the gravesite I saw today because his three sisters married out of the family and he did not marry or have children
- Two or three times a year, the Japanese visit the grave of their ancestors to honor them
- March is one of those times and that is what I attended; at this visit, starting with Homei and then progressing down through the family, each member takes a scoop and pours water (both provided) over the top of the tombstone
- Also, incense is lighted for this
One of these days, I will research more into this to explain it all to people! It was very interesting and eye-opening and the next week at work I actually had to describe how in America each individual person is buried separately to one of my coworkers. It would be really interesting I think to compare the traditions between the two cultures.
After the temple, we went to Ginza for lunch (at a hotel, but free food is free food). I had a great time listening to the family talk and practicing my Japanese! Then at the end of lunch, we had dessert and I guess Chika’s birthday had happened recently because the staff brought her out a dessert. So OF COURSE then Miho asks me when my birthday is and I tell them it was last week, so I get sung to again and Chika pushes her dessert upon me to eat. (Maybe if I just tell people my birthday is the 10th of the month, I can get free dessert year-round!)
At Tochoji (the temple) I was introduced to my great aunt’s two sisters and brother and a few of her nieces and nephews! Then they honored the family (?) by pouring water over the grave. I need to research this more, so please don’t take all of this to be fact! But this is what I got out of the experience:
- In Japan, everyone gets cremated. Therefore the whole family gets buried under the same tombstone
- Most tombstones reside in temples or on temple grounds
- My “uncle,” Homei, will be the last person to be buried in the gravesite I saw today because his three sisters married out of the family and he did not marry or have children
- Two or three times a year, the Japanese visit the grave of their ancestors to honor them
- March is one of those times and that is what I attended; at this visit, starting with Homei and then progressing down through the family, each member takes a scoop and pours water (both provided) over the top of the tombstone
- Also, incense is lighted for this
One of these days, I will research more into this to explain it all to people! It was very interesting and eye-opening and the next week at work I actually had to describe how in America each individual person is buried separately to one of my coworkers. It would be really interesting I think to compare the traditions between the two cultures.
After the temple, we went to Ginza for lunch (at a hotel, but free food is free food). I had a great time listening to the family talk and practicing my Japanese! Then at the end of lunch, we had dessert and I guess Chika’s birthday had happened recently because the staff brought her out a dessert. So OF COURSE then Miho asks me when my birthday is and I tell them it was last week, so I get sung to again and Chika pushes her dessert upon me to eat. (Maybe if I just tell people my birthday is the 10th of the month, I can get free dessert year-round!)
Then after lunch and a super Japanese group photo, we walked around Ginza a little bit before I made my way back to Harajuku to meet up with my American friends! We went back to Meiji to enjoy walking around more without inhibition from holidays or school groups waiting on us and it was just great being able to talk to people who are at similar levels of English, Japanese, and Education as I am! After Meiji, we made our way (walking) to Shibuya where we had some Kaiten-zushi for dinner and went to an English pub for a drink before heading home to rest up for another week of work.
Also, while we were walking we ran across these really cool street performers doing some "grease" style dancing in a park!!