Briefly, here's what has occurred to me as to why I've stopped blogging. Basically, when I got here, I was "living abroad in Japan," and my time here was like a reeeally protracted vacation or study abroad experience. Now, in my second year, and particularly in the last 6 months, it's started to feel more like I LIVE in Japan. My life is here. I've gotten into a routine. I'm abroad, but this is my life now. At least for now. You know? Anyway. With a mindset like that, the everyday things seem less noteworthy, and any travel I do tends to be to places I've already been. However, I will try to update periodically, with pictures and things.
Here's an overview of what I've been doing for the last 6 months:
Fall 2009
Birthday Party: Lee and my birthdays are pretty close, so we had the 2nd annual joint birthday party at my place. Of course, like all our parties, it was... a costume party (though tame in comparison to the ones we've been having this winter. See below). Check out the pictures.
Hiroshima Sake Festival: In October, right around my birthday, we went to Hiroshima, like we did last year, for the annual Sake Festival. Of course we also went to Miyajima and the floating torii gate. Sadly, this was the weekend I got the phone call that our dog Midnight had passed away... Then as we were preparing to drive home, we discovered Emily's car battery had died. Luckily fate (and Lara, from half way around the world) intervened, in the form of jumper cables Lana had reluctantly accepted from Lara when she left, and swore she's never need. Fail. Photo gallery here.
Shiso International Festival: The Shiso International Festival was in October. The Shiso ALTs worked 2 booths, selling "American food," aka corn dogs and ice cream sundaes. Yum... Also, my friends from Kobe came all the way for the festival! Int'l Festival pictures.
(Oh, in the first series of pictures, we were having a welcome party for Julie, who replaced Andrea as the teacher at Tsukasa School, when Satomi mentioned she needed a haircut. So Caitlin said: "Got a pair of scissors?")
Halloween: We had two Halloweens this year: One in Himeji, a JET party, and one night out in Osaka (us and the hundreds of other crazy foreigners packing the streets of Shinsaibashi in costume and scaring the locals, who had no idea what was going on). Halloween pictures.
Kobe JET Conference: Also known as the biggest waste of time EVER, this is an annual two day conference run by JET which brings ALTs and JTEs together to listen to lectures (read: sleep), participate in workshops (read: do the Hyogo Tourism Board's job for them by spending half a day coming up with promotional campaigns to increase tourism), and come to a better understanding of effective ways to team-teach English (read: accomplish absolutely nothing). But we did have a fun time getting Mexican food and bar hopping at night! Also a few random pictures from dinner at Julie's house and a game of Cranium. Kobe Conference pictures.
The rest of my pictures from roughly September through December, I've thrown into an album I'm just going to call Miscellany. This includes:
- All night clubbing in Osaka, where we made some new Japanese friends, including a guy who studied abroad at UMSL! Woo St. Louis!
- The Shiso JHS Speech Contest (my kids won again--4th year in a row!)
- A trip up Mt. Shosha in Himeji, where they filmed The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise
- A weekend trip to Kyoto, where Caitlin, Emily and I met Emily's friend Nami and her boyfriend Hiroshi (they've since gotten married!)
- A day at the Kobe Outlets with my friend Sayu
- What I guess was effectively my first date with Takuya, when we went up to the top of Mt. Rokko in Kobe.
- Some crazy birds
- A day trip to Okayama with Lana and Heke
- 2ND ANNUAL SHISO THANKSGIVING!!
-Kobe Luminarie
- Yakiniku in Tajima to meet Matt's fiancee Khwan, ahead of Lana, Caitlin and my trip to Thailand, where we attended their engagement ceremony!
That takes care of fall. Now on to...
Winter 2009-1010
THAILAND!: Over New Years, Lana, Caitlin and I went to Thailand! The trip coincided with our friend Matt's (a fellow JET) traditional Thai engagement ceremony, in the small northern town where his Thai fiancee lives. We were so lucky to be invited to that, and they even had us participate a little! It was really amazing. We spent a day there, then went to Chiang Mai, a really cool city in the north of Thailand; spent 2 days at the beach in Hua Hin, near Bangkok; and then finished the trip in Bangkok, where we shopped saw the sights for three days, before flying home. We had some amazing experiences, and some I'd rather forget (the 12 hour overnight train ride from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, followed by the 5 hour train ride with no AC in 100 degree weather on wooden benches to Hua Hin on New Years Eve day).
Matt and Khwan's Engagement Ceremony (professional pictures)
Parties: We've upped the ante for parties this winter, with the last three becoming increasingly more ridiculous.
1. Feliz Derelicto (Christmas / Zoolander themed party) (December)
2. Alice in Wonderland party (Caitlin's birthday party) (January)
3. Mardi Gaga (Mardi Gras / Lady Gaga themed party) (March)
January Recap: January sucks. The holidays are over, and it's freezing cold and dark. So we livened it up with some fun trips. One day, I went skiing (only the second time in my life, and possibly the last if I don't get my back in shape) with Takuya, Emily and Takuya's friend. Takuya and his friend are decent snowboarders. Emily and I both suck at skiing (it was her first time, and for all intents and purposes, mine too). We took a lesson, and were the only people over the age of 12. No joke. Also in January, we took a trip to Kyoto to see Caitlin's sisters play soccer with their team from Mt. Holyoke. (That's why they were at the Alice party). January pictures.
February Recap: February was a busy month! There was a masquerade party in Osaka; a (small) matsuri in Ichinomiya for the Japanese holiday Setsubun, with a big bonfire and yummy stall food; a Superbowl party; a "superdate" (initially supposed to be like a massive double date with all the couples, but turned into "everyone date Paul," because Heke's boyfriend was visiting from the states); a sushi eating contest at a 100 yen kaiten (revolving) sushi restaurant (people are STILL full. The winner, Lee, ate 32 plates. For point of comparison, I ate 9 plates. I usually eat 4 or 5 plates. 9 was pushing it for me); and, saving the best for last, the OKAYAMA NAKED MAN FESTIVAL!! (Hadaka Matsuri). It's an annual festival where thousands of men dress up in fundoshi (loincloths) in the middle of winter, get drunk, and run around the temple splashing themselves with holy water and yelling, before gathering in the middle of the temple to battle for the holy sticks dropped into the crowd by the monks, which, if you get them, will bring you good fortune in the coming year. I know. You totally wish you had been there. February pictures.
That's it for the recap of the last 6 months. Enjoy the pictures. I'll try to update periodically (though hopefully in smaller installments, because no joke, this took ALL DAY. Luckily, it's spring break right now! So I'm just hanging around the office).
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