Some things in December

I returned to Japan on Dec. 1st- started a new 6-month contract with my same job and was welcomed back by coworkers, apartment-mates and friends. Japan is just familiar enough to navigate and to make it feel like I have built something that feels safe and comfortable.
I got right back into the swing of work- taking on more responsibilities, continuing to see the same students and getting recognized from those students that they really enjoy my lessons. I like knowing that I can handle the problems that arise at work, and if I'm not sure, I know who I can turn to.

Life sometimes feels like an extended weekend. I have Tuesday-Wednesday off from work, but then hanging out with friends on Friday-Saturday-Sunday night makes the work week seem extra short.

Although the temperature continues to drop day by day, the weather is still in mild-winter mode. I took advantage of this and found the last remnants of fall color in Shinjuku Gyoen- one of the largest gardens in downtown Tokyo.

Then of course there is bowling with friends- new and old! (yes, we are wearing mustaches!)

And finding new local hikes! Mt Nabewari- 1,273 metres in height.

A whole lot of TLC in California

It felt good to go home for two weeks. Seeing the people I love, spending time with them and reaffirming how important they are in my life.

Drinks in Monterey with America

Hiking in Point Lobos with Teresa and Heather

Shopping and eating out with Dzeda and Baboo

Cookie baking with Dans, Lex and Nels

Lunch and coffee date with Mare and Levi

Mnt. Diablo hike with Laurie and the parents 

Thanksgiving with the family

Salsa dancing in The City with Stefany and Ingrid

*Not pictured (but near and dear to my heart)- Auntie Leza, Oma, Opa, Alison, and John.

Yet, I came back to Japan with a smile. I'm still finding myself! But to the people at home: I love you so much :) Thank you for caring, thank you for letting me explore, thank you for welcoming me back too.

Halloween in Japan

All October, shops around Tokyo and my neighborhood have had Halloween decorations. The bakery by the train station sells special mini-pumpkin pies only during this month. And my school went all out with decorations and life-sized monsters lining the hallways and sitting in the classrooms.
I incorporated a few 'halloween-themed' activities in my lessons. Since Halloween fell on a Thursday, parties in Tokyo started last weekend, and continued on all week. Costumes were wild and parties were crazy!
Halloween has no meaning in Japan, aside from what has been borrowed from the US- and just a great excuse to dress up as risque, crazy, horrifying, and wild as you can!

Photo-booth with co-workers. Nerd, cat, Tigger, Michael Jackson and a bat

The delicious mini-pumpkin pies that would go on sale for 1/2 price after nine pm!

"Dear Lani, Happy Halloween!! From Honoka" A Halloween card from my 4-year-old student.

Dancing on Halloween night! Alice, Batgirl, Minnie Mouse.

Decorations at the front lobby of our school

"Moldy Mother" she lived in one of the classrooms all month, and freaked out nearly everyone!

Now that November has started, October has disappeared, and been replaced by Christmas lights and colors.

富士山語子 Mount Fuji Five-Lakes (Fuji-San Go Ko)

It's the start of autumn season in Japan. My friend Katy and I took an extended 4-day weekend in search of autumn sights and smells. We headed up to the Mount Fuji area- the five lakes and surrounding foothills. Two of the four days- we had rain and heavy fog/cloud cover, but on the other two days, we had some incredible views of mount Fuji- basically from everywhere you looked!







So, here are the photos to show our successful discovery of Mount Fuji views and autumn leaf color :)


Day one was rainy and cold- so we decided to find an onsen in the woods, where we treated ourselves to a 60-min full body massage! Totally painful, and totally worth it.

Day two: walking around the main lake: Kawaguchiko 河口湖 The fall color was just starting, and Fuji-san was visible from all around!

We even decided to give it a 30-min paddle boat, for more great views.

Day 3: A 14-km Mitsutoge-yama hike (1,768 meter ascent). For more incredible fall color and some neat scenic views...

Probably my favorite fall photo of Fuji san...

On night three there was a autumn leaf viewing festival with a line of trees along the lake-side all lit up! We even caught enough light at dusk to see the fog-covered Fuji.

 Day 4: rain again! From this temple, you are supposed to see Mount Fuji sitting majestically in the background- alas, this day was not to be today!!

Lunch Date

To my left is my student, Tsuneko, and to my right, her husband.

One of my favorite students surprised me with an invitation to have lunch with her and her family. We chatted about logistics in our most recently class session- she carefully wrote out directions and then explained them to me: which train station to get off at, which bus number to take, and then which stop to get off at too. Then I was to call her and she would pick me up. I also asked about the family. I would be meeting her husband, Takuso, her son, Takeshi, his wife, Yumiko and their kids, (her grandchildren), Kazusa (boy, 7) and Tamami (girl, 4).

We planned the lunch date for Monday, the 14th- a holiday for everyone. At the train station, I found a fancy cake topped with exotic fruits. All the travel pieces worked out smoothly. Right at noon, I was in Tsuneko-san's car with her and her granddaughter on our way to her house. She lives in a really lovely neighborhood, she has a two-story house, with a front garden, which she enjoyed showing me. Inside was a large entryway, living room and dining room. We all sat down for a multi-course meal that kept on going! Tsuneko-san outdid her self and continued to bring dish after dish. It was all delicious! The conversation ebbed and flowed, haltingly at times. My Japanese is next to zero, but I am getting better and better at guessing and interpreting ideas by stringing together individual words that I understand. All the adults' English levels were about elementary and rusty, at best, but we did our best and enjoyed each other's company. Later on they brought out photo albums to show me and we were able to talk about topics like: family, jobs, holidays, travel... Kazusa worked on a craft project during lunch, and gave me one of his paper cutting creations.
Lunch included: potato salad, cabbage salad, persimmon with cream cheese and prosciutto, stewed beef wrapped in cabbage leaves, lasagna, and yakitori (fried chicken skewers). Itadakimasu! *bon apetit.

Dessert included coffee, freshly sliced pear, the cake I brought, and jello/pudding topped with azuki beans and pineapple.

We all took a walk around the neighborhood, and then Tsuneko-san dropped me back off at the train station.

We are standing in front of their house. 

4 Seasons...

Summer Gardens

Autumn color near a temple

My neighborhood on a wintery walk to work

Spring cherry blossoms in a park

September Sights...

This month was a bit too much of the daily grind- and everyday living...not much excitement in terms of being 'blog-worthy.' So, I've been extra quiet on my blog this month. But looking back through my photo album for the month, a few gems stand out and I can give a quick recap of the month's happenings.
First of all, I decided to extend my work contract through June of 2014. It makes the most sense for me, for reasons that I don't need to bore you with. But also I'm not quite ready to leave Japan, and I need time to think about my big future plans, and that is better done if I am still working, rather than roaming and unemployed!
So, I will be home for two weeks in November to visit and catch up with you!

This month I exercised, spent lots of time with close friends, taught Zumba classes, took more responsibilities on at work, and did a few local day excursions.

The beach-lined coast is about an hour's train ride from my apartment, and I headed out there to explore a small island- of course with its food shops, restaurants, and signature temple. It also had a rocky coastline that was perfect for self-timer photos :)

And a view of Fuji-San in the distance...

My apartment friends have become just as obsessed with Zumba as I am, and so every 4-5 days we all meet in the fitness room for a sweaty hour of dancing fun! This cartoon was drawn by one apartment friend for the magazine he contributes articles to.

 Another apartment friend is taking classes at a design school- specifically in traditional kimono fitting- with a modern fashion twist. He's preparing for a competition, so he was trying out a more avant-garde hair style (think Elizabethan era, or Maleficent!). The kimono is traditional wedding wear...

Climbing Takao-San-this time with two awesome co-workers. Lisa (in red) a former high school English teacher from LA area, and Lisa (in purple) a wacky lady from London who lived in Hong Kong and Beijing teaching English. Here we are, enjoying a smooth tasting local Sake at the top!

My apartment mates organized a football day! I could only join them for the Japanese League game in the evening- Yokohama (my city) in blue, red and white vs. Osaka, in pink and blue. The teams tied at 1-1. The drumming section for both teams was raucous and I started chanting along with them as the cheers repeated over and over again!

Another photo shoot- working with Naoya (on the left) and Yuma (on the right). Naoya is the moody 10-year-old who drags his heels when completing most tasks, but as soon as you start talking about geography and bring out an i-pad to do research, he perks up- a bit!

Yuma is five now and a fluent reader- 3rd grade level! She loves being girly and is into fairy stories, and she enjoys playing "school" where she is the teacher to a group of stuffed animals. 

Koenji Dance Festival

Street parade and dance performances! Teams with musicians- drummers, flutists, samisens. Dancers from the age of 3 to 73.

Student stories

I wanted to share some of my students with you.

Tsuneko: my first request. An older lady in her late 60s, who I met in November and have seen regularly every Wednesday since. Its a great way to start my work week. She reminds me of Baboo- the jewelry, and accessories and her floral blouses. Her laugh is absolutely adorable! She's a beginner and her daily activities include working in her garden in the morning, house keeping and having lunch with her husband. She always attends calligraphy class after our English lesson. We move slowly through the text and there are some errors she consistently makes, but its such an enjoyable hour for both of us! She brought me back a small treat when she visited Hokkaido (northern region of Japan) and we enjoy each other's company.

Taiki: He's four years old and always sniffling! He definitely needs routines. So I always greet him in the hallway when he arrives and after he has taken off his shoes, he comes running to me and grabs my hands. We head off to wash hands and then start our lesson. He is incredibly stubborn and gets obsessed with certain activities and couldn't care less about others. We once spent 15 minutes with a small plastic clock practicing telling time and he loved moving the hands of the clock around to change the time. As he moved the hands, I would repeat in a rhythm: "what time is it? what time is it? It's ___ o'clock!"
He loves letter writing and I'm trying to get him into reading 3 letter short vowel words by having him write them letters out and then say the sounds with me. He is slowly learning that he can't dictate the lessons completely and if he wants something, he must first ask for it in English.

Taku: a six-year-old genius! haha. He's awesome! His mom loves me and we usually have a double lesson (two 50-min sessions back to back). She stays in the room taking notes with his baby sister too. Taku keeps me on my toes and I'm always trying to come up with new things to fascinate him with and pique his interest. Hs lessons are always entertaining for me! He's got great writing skills, an incredible vocabulary base, and a keen interest in science and how things work. He is the very definition of the kind of student all teachers want in their classrooms.

Tiny Tots: This is what we call our 40-minute pre-school lessons that can have as many as 6 students (ages between 2.5 and 5). I usually teach two groups on Saturday mornings- that's one way to wake you up!!
It takes a while for them to get used to the routine- especially since its only once a week. As long as each activity is no longer than about 5 minutes- I've got them eating out of my hand. They listen quite well, and love to sing and dance. Exhausting, but fun! They love to make me laugh too! Tickling, or looking for praise for something they did. They often jabber away to me in Japanese- and I pretend to understand them...I'm pretty sure they know that I don't

Yukina: My favorite 8-year-old girl. She is so eager and willing to try anything and her effort is always 100%. I like that I can challenge her and she rises to the challenge. She cocks her head to the side in typical Japanese fashion when she doesn't understand something. Her reading is improving dramatically and I always look forward to working with her!

Naoya: Thank goodness another teacher and I share this moody 9-year-old boy! I am always trying to get him to smile or get excited about something- but he drags his heels on just about everything! He does love using the small classroom whiteboard and is fascinated by geography. So when all else fails, and he wont do the required textbook (mom requested) we look up information about Antarctica and wild animals- which he finds very interesting.

The Fukushimas: (Shuji and Atsuko) This couple- in their mid-50s, have become my regular semi-private lesson after their previous teacher left. They love chatting, and teasing each other and learning English. Their lessons are always light-hearted and fun, and they ask me questions about my life and are always super interested about learning new words. They are off to Vienna for the next week, and our last lesson before their trip consisted primarily of role playing the hotel check-in process and how to send an email to reserve tickets for the Vienna boys' choir performance. I can't wait to hear about their adventures when they get back!

More stories to come...

My favorite trail

I am definitely my parents' daughter...and its entertaining to me that I seem more and more like them as I grow up and especially since I'm so far away from them. I am always full of pride when I do get to talk about them, and I truly am blessed to have their words of wisdom and life experiences to draw from. All too often I hear my mom's words and my abba's calming logical response in my head, inevitably when I am not sure how to handle a problem. Like my mom, I am in this constant need for change-too impatient to sit still and wait for things to happen, yet there are certain things that comfort me in their familiarity-which comes directly from my abba. Basically, I love you both so much and think about you often!

Anyways, Mount Takao is my version of my abba's Mount Diablo. I've made it to the summit of Takao-san (and further) four times now- in an attempt to hit all the different seasons.

November Fall Color...

The dead of March...

The early heat of June...

The blazing glare in August...

The train ride from my apartment to the trail head only takes an hour, then from the base, there are several ways up the mountain, from cable car, to chair-lift, to my favorite- steep path!! The summit of Takao-san is about 3.5 km, and as I have discovered, it is only the start of a long line of mountain peaks connected by trails. So this last time I turned my hike into 20 km as I meandered over 5 peaks. This phallic statue greeted me at the last one!!