Family Vists Days 1 and 2

Sorry that I have been absent for the past couple of days BUT my family came to Japan to visit me over my winter break! YAY! We had an exciting 10 to 11 days which I WILL write all about :D
So, let's begin with days one and two!
I had to go pick up my family from the airport first which was an adventure all on its own. See, Narita airport is about 2 and a half hours and a special express train away from me. I was meeting them at 5 but I left Honatsugi by 2. I took my normal express to Shinjuku and then hopped aboard the Narita Express, a special limited express train run by the JR. It cost me some good money but it was worth the time saved. Plus, I got to sit in a reserved seat which I have never bought for myself before.

Why hello fancy train

I waited for about 30 mins before we finally spotted each other. There was much hugging and talking. We had to wait a good hour for the next train bound for Shinjuku so we just sat and chatted. They were exhausted by the time we got on the train. Everyone plopped their luggage down and wanted something to eat. We ran over to one of the only places that is open at 10:30 PM and gives you food fast: McDonalds. At least they got to have some uniquely Japanese flavors. Me and my sister got a shrimp burger and my mom and brothers grabbed a teriyaki burger.

We all settled into my apartment, which was a bit cramped but we managed to find everyone a spot.

Jenny and Chris claimed to corner

Tommy slept in my kitchen

The next day, I started them off with an afternoon in Atsugi. We went to my one hundred yen store (dollar store basically) and the grocery store where we bought food for lunches and breakfast. I also introduced them to bento boxes and we grabbed a couple for their first lunch in Japan.

Yummy!!

After that, we went to Harajuku which is the fashion district of Tokyo. First thing we did was visit Meiji-jingu shrine which has one of the largest tori gates in Japan.

Then, we headed off to the main street, Takeshi-dori. Jenny and I popped into a couple of shops and marveled at the fashion. I bought myself an awesome pair of imitation Converse heels.

So fun!!

It was a nice slow and relaxed day to ease them into Japan.
Next time, we visit the only place I asked to go: Tokyo Disney Sea!

Christmas in Japan

Merry Christmas everyone (well a day late at least)! Thought I would share with you a little bit about how the Japanese celebrate Christmas. First of all, yes, they do celebrate Christmas. It is the most secularized version of Christmas I have ever experienced. Mainly because most people here are Buddhist or Shintoist so the birth of a Christian figure is not really celebrated. It was all about Santa and the lights! I saw plenty of beautiful light displays during the month of December.

A giant tree and ornament in the Tokyo Dome area

A whole tunnel lined with snowflake lights

The decorations at my station :) I'll miss them when they are gone.

There were also decorations and sales all over the place at department stores. I was even able to get some great decorations from the one hundred yen store. I bought a small cute tree, some garland, a fake wearth of poinsettias and a window decoration.

My tree :D

One of the things that amused me greatly is that most of the cards are 3-D. They looked really cool!

A card from one of my students

On the actual day of Christmas, everything and everywhere was still open for business and most people seemed to just go about their days. Most people celebrate by giving their direct family (like mother, father, and siblings) a gift and then having a dinner from KFC finished off by some Christmas cake. That's right, Japanese people eat Kentucky Fried Chicken for Christmas. It's what they think that we do in the States. Apparently, KFC used to be one of the only places you could find fried chicken so all the foreigners would go there during the Christmas season just to get something familiar so other people soon started imitating them and a tradition was born. The KFC by my station has had a table outside of the store to pre-order your Christmas chicken for about a month now. No joke. Many other places have started to catch on and sell fried chicken for Christmas such as the convenience stores and other American chains like McDonalds. I personally had a chicken sandwich from McDonalds for lunch that had a special Christmas sauce since KFC was way to busy for my liking. A Christmas cake is pretty much a regular cake decorated for Christmas. It's a layer of cake then icing and strawberry filling and another layer of cake. I went on a mission to find one for myself. Lucky for me, my grocery store was selling it in small two piece containers so I grabbed one of those!

Hello Christmas cake! Oishii!

I had a pretty chill Christmas. On Christmas Eve, I made my way to Roppongi so I could go to midnight Mass at the Franciscan Mission. It wasn't actually at midnight since the trains stop running. So I made my way right after work and got there just in time to join the sing along 10 mins before 9 PM. Mass was over by 10:30 and I went home to sleep.

There's poinsettias in front of the altar: must be Christmas!!

Christmas morning, I woke up early to Skype with my family and watch as they opened my gifts. Then I got a nice surprise of being able to talk to my boyfriend for a good 2 and a half hours. From there, I grabbed my McDonalds and Christmas cake. Another nice surprise came my way a little bit later. One of my friends texted me and wanted to meet up. So we headed to Tokyo to eat, drink, and be merry on Christmas. We had a great time and my friend almost missed her last train home! Yikes! But everything worked out. I didn't get home until about 1 AM and knew I had to wake up again to Skype with my dad's side of the family so I quickly hit the sack. I got to Skype with them as well and watched them open their presents and they all sang to me <3

Singing!

It was a pretty good way to spend the holiday. I still missed my family and friends like crazy and even cried a little during Mass but I tried to make the best of it. At least, I got to have fried chicken and Christmas cake.

Mt. Takao hike

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! I've been busy, busy, busy! But, last week, I had the time to go on a hike up the closest mountain to Tokyo, Mt. Takao. I went with my Tokyo adventure club so it was a lot of fun. One of the things that initially drew me to this opportunity was that it was also a service opportunity. We weren't just hiking up the mountain, we were cleaning the mountain as well! Also, we collected donations to go towards the Tohoku earthquake relief. As soon as I saw that, I really wanted to go! What a great opportunity to be helpful to the community that I am living in!
I met the group at the train station by the mountain as it would have been out of my way to go to Shinjuku and then to the mountain. We found ourselves a partner and we were off! My partner and I ended up at the back of the group so we didn't get much trash to pick up :( But, we had a great time hiking up the mountain and admiring the trees. It is amazing to me how the trees still have leaves in December! Back home, there would be nothing left so I was really appreciating the view! The people who were hiking on the mountain were also very nice! People kept walking by and thanking us for our hard work.
It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a hike and we made it to the summit in no time. Since it was such a wonderful day, we were able to see clear across to Mt. Fuji. It was a stunning view!

The view

There's Mt. Fuji!

Me at the summit :D

We stopped here and had a picnic lunch. I just brought a sandwich, chips, and an orange. We then started to make our way down to measure which team collected the most trash. On the way down, we did some extreme trash collecting. I tried my hand at it going off the trail to retrieve a bottle. It was difficult and I got dirty but at least I tried! We also stopped at a temple on the way down where I rubbed the statue of an octopus for good luck. It was a very pleasant afternoon with nature!

I hope I get some good luck!

Going off trail a bit to get a bottle

The trash I collected

Thanksgiving!

I knew that this time of year it was going to be tough. The holidays are quickly rolling up on us and that makes me miss my family more than I can say. So much so that sometimes I get chocked up singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas during my toddler classes. Anyway, this last Thursday was Thanksgiving and I was wanting to celebrate in style! I was lucky enough to find some friends who let me join in their Thanksgiving feast! On the actual day of Thanksgiving, I made myself a super American dinner of BBQ chicken and Kraft mac and cheese.

YUMMY!

It was excellent but I knew that Sunday was the day of my celebration with friends so I anxiously awaited the day when I would not only have some good old fashioned American food but also good company to go along with it!
The day after Thanksgiving which was actually Thanksgiving evening for my family, I got to have a Skype session with the whole family and it made me feel like I was there even if I only got to be there for an hour :)

Hey there family!

Sunday finally rolled around and I was off to Shizuoka for some friends and food! It was about a 3 hour train ride since I took local trains and not a shinkansen (bullet train) but it had a great view!! I had to go through all of these mountains and even passed right by Mt. Fuji. I also lost my apartment key on the train ride over here but I shall leave that to another post...I had ridden the whole train ride with my homemade pumpkin cheesecake in hand and it arrived safely with me. We spent the next couple of hours getting dinner ready and having some drinks.

Some of the cooking action!

Everything came out great and tasted fantastic! It was a memorable meal :D

I bet you're jealous

my cheesecake!

I ate sooo much

We were all pretty stuffed by the end of the meal but we were satisfied! We stayed up until 1 AM just chatting and picking at left-over cheesecake. Great way to spend my first major holiday away from the family. Thanks ladies!!

Kamakura Trip!

I live about an hour and fifteen minutes away from the great historical city of Kamakura. I've been meaning to head over there for quite sometime now but Sunday was the first time that I actually got to visit. It was a great experience and I had a fantastic time!
The experience started as soon as I pulled into Fujisawa. From there, I took an old historical electric railline it was really cute and fun!

The train!

While on the train, I got my first glimpse of the sea since I arrived here months ago.

There it is!

My first stop was to go to Kotokuin Temple to see the Great Buddha of Kamakura. This bronze statue is the second largest Buddha statue in Japan. It was originally cast in 1252. I couldn't wait to get it in person. I also heard that Kamakura was very beautiful in the fall so I was looking forward to what the scenery around the statue would look like. It did not disappoint!

Me and the Buddha

The Buddha's slippers

The inside of the statue

After seeing the Great Buddha, I did some shopping for gifts. I also ended up getting some green tea and sweet potato ice cream. I was unsure of how it was going to taste but it was really good! I liked it a lot! W While I was getting the ice cream, the clerk asked me where I was from. I told him that I was American and he pointed towards a picture of President Obama outside of the store dated 11/14/2010. He smiled and told me, "President Obama, okay! Nice!" I smiled and told him that I was from Illinois which is where Obama is from as well and he nearly freaked out! It was so funny. He shouted "Sugoi!" and told the other cashiers that I was from Chicago in quick Japanese and they all shook their heads and agreed that it was very awesome. It was quite the fun little experience. I then headed to another temple on my way back to the train. It was Hasedera, a temple dedicated to the goddess Kannon. I adored this temple. It had beautiful gardens, a fantastic view, and awe inspiring statues. Oh, and an amazingly creepy sacred cave.

The gardens

The temple lit up at night. The colors in front of the temple change.

Sacred cave!

The inside of the cave

The fantastic view

 

It was a fabulous day of exploring which I REALLY needed after a rough week at work. Great way to turn the week around!

Food Spotlight: Fast Food

I'm not going to lie here: I LOVE having familiar fast food restaurants around here. Japanese people have an odd love for American fast food. As a result, I have a whole bunch of familiar chain restaurants around me. It's actually really comforting to know that when all else fails, I can walk to the McDonald's or go down to the Starbucks where they treat me like a celebrity (true story). They just love a good hamburger here really. Some restaurants by me include: McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Denny's, Starbucks, Tully's Coffee, and even an Outback Steakhouse.

mmmmmm BK...

Of course, each of these offers unique items as well as the staples that we are used. This is what makes it so fun! Almost all of these restaurants have some kind of teriyaki burger or wasabi spiced burger or KFC even has soy sauce chicken (which is way gross in my opinion. Too much salt for me to handle). There are also some Japanese burger chains that are equally amazing such as Mos Burger and Freshness Burger. My personal favorite places to visit are Burger King and Freshness Burger. I love the hot chicken sandwich here. They taste like some one put some Asian Zing sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings on it. YUM! I go to Freshness Burger for some of the "stranger" items like a teriyaki chicken burger or the crab burger. Another thing I appreciate here is that no matter where you go, they bring you your fries or onion rings fresh. Yes, you have to wait a couple of minutes but it is well worth the taste boost. I truthfully end up eating this kind of fast food about once a week when I just need a taste food. It's at least a small culinary cure for homesickness.

Some good old fashioned KFC. Yes, that wrapper totally says Wa-fu chicken...

Achievement unlocked: Reading!

The day has finally come! I sat my butt down and studied hard and I finally know how to read some Japanese! You have no idea how much I as an adult took being able to read for granted. It was something I didn't even think about when I first moved here. I've been so frustrated that I could not do the simplest things like read a menu to figure out what I was eating or not knowing what kind of sauce I just bought at the grocery store. But, I finally conquered one of the Japanese reading/writing systems. I can now read katakana and I mean READ it. I didn't just memorize the symbols, I officially read a whole menu with no help from anyone :D It was an exciting moment for me. I'm clearly moving up in the world.

Here's a little bit of information about the Japanese writing systems. There are three different systems: katakana, hiragana, and kanji. I chose to learn katakana because it is used for "borrowed words" from other languages (namely English). This means that although I am struggling to learn Japanese, I can still understand the words I am reading because they are words like kohi (coffee) or hamubaga (hamburger) or rate (latte). Hiragana is kind of like the basic alphabet. It covers all of the basic sounds in Japanese and uses it to form words. This is taught to children before they can read kanji. I hope to conquer this next...The last and most complicated of the symbols is kanji. These are symbols derived from Chinese that represent many words and sounds. I actually have learned about 50 or so kanji from my day to day interactions. Things like "water", "day", "month", "book", or even the names of some local cities from the trains have all been burned into my brain as I see them at least one a week. I hope I can absorb more and would like to know at least 200 or so kanji before I leave.