Monday, June 4

Let's do that thing again where I write a post every day, no matter what happened, no matter how ranty, no matter how wonderful!

Today is Monday, it is about 2:15 right now and I have had an awful day!  Well...awful is pretty strong, but I have had small frustrating moment after small frustrating moment today and it has all added up to a not fun day..  Ranty post alert!

ok...I will start at the beginning.

I got to school like usual, no problems there, and I was just getting set up when one of my teachers came up to me and said the equivalent of "I am counting on you for today!" and walked away.  .......um..........  did I miss something?  20 seconds of PANIC, frantically searching through my schedule book to see what I had promised to do today that I had forgotten about found nothing, and followed after the teacher and asked him to elaborate.  Turned out he wanted me to do the whole class by myself (he would be in the room, but I would be in charge of activities)  which is fine, but then when I asked him for a theme of some sort, he gave me the very specific  "nandemoii"  (anything is ok) answer.  Well, great.  Thankfully I had first period to figure it out, but these kinds of moments just frustrate me.  I need more warning usually, and I need something a little more specific.  So that was 1 small moment of irritation.

Next...I went to the class I discussed above.  I made a word search and then we were going to play spoons.  Mostly the class went badly.  The kids were talking, not listening to me, not playing the games right, etc.  And the teacher mentioned above is not so good at disciplining, so he just let them go.  moments of irritation to 2.

Next.  You all probably know I like my space.  I don't like people to touch my things or go through them unless I have given them permission.  Well, another teacher was talking to me about 4th period and he came over to my desk and for one thing he does not know how to make eye contact, so he was looking all over the place, but then he started touching the papers I had on my desk!  And commenting on them!  (It was a stack of puzzles I have made...but still!!)  And he also had no idea what he wanted me to do during class, so it was one of those incredibly awkward conversations that was mostly pauses.  we decided I would just do a quick warm up game and then we would work on the textbook.  Ok, cool. but still touching things+awkward = moment 3.

Well. I went to 4th period, did my quick game, we were working on the textbook in which the students learned new words including appear and disappear.  The teacher decided this was a good time to point out the prefix "dis" and how it makes words mean the opposite.  He then decided to give another example:  appoint, disappoint.  He told the kids the meaning of disappoint, and then he just decided for himself that appoint means to put at ease.  (best I can translate the Japanese word he used).  NO!  THIS IS NOT RIGHT!  What am I supposed to do with this?!  Moment 4.

Sometime between moment 2 and moment 3, I came into the teachers room and there was cake on the table.  CAKE!  Just what someone who had already had 2 irritating moments needs!!!  CAKE!  So I get a piece, and a teacher says to me in a special* tone "oh, Elissa, that has anko in it, so be careful."  Back story...anko is red bean paste, it is sweet and delicious and in a lot of Japanese snacks.  I have lived here for 3 years and these people have ALL seen me eat anko and say I like it.  so WHY WHY WHYYYYYY would this teacher pick today to give me that condescending-toned "oh...it has anko in it" warning.  *Not sure if you know, but sometimes Japanese people get this tone...it is sorta condescending?  I can't really explain, but other people who have lived in Japan will probably know what I mean..  Like when someone says to me "Iiyama has four seasons!"  Basic statement, yes, but in the tone, there is this implied meaning: "aren't we wonderful? we have four seasons!  bet your hometown doesn't!"  So this makes 5 moments.

And one more for the list...this is a constant annoyance, though.  We have a hot water pot in the teachers room that everyone can use.  I wanted some coffee but then pot was EMPTY.  I have never understood why someone would leave the pot empty.  You finish it, you fill it back up!  Why is that such a hard concept!  But I filled it, waited the 10 minutes and then got my coffee, so, I will only count this as a half an irritating moment.  it probably would not have bothered me at all if it were the first thing of the day.

today's total 5.5

Add to all of this the fact that I am trying to write grad school goal statements, figure out how to get letters of recommendation from people who don't know how to write letters of recommendation, work on a letter to my successor, and study really hard kanji and you have a frustrated Elissa.

here's to tomorrow being better!  I think I will walk to and from my English conversation class tonight to de-stress a bit. 

World Heritage sites, scaffolding and deer, oh my!

A few weeks ago, I took a week off of work and went on a trip with Kim and Crystal.

Our route:
Iiyama to Nagano (train)
Nagano to Kyoto (night bus)
Kyoto to Nara (train) and back to Kyoto
Kyoto to Amanohashidate (rental car) and back to Kyoto
Kyoto to Himeji (train)
Himeji to Hiroshima (bullet train)
Hiroshima to Miyajima (boat!) and back to Hiroshima (technically, Miyajima is part of Hiroshima)
Hiroshima to Osaka (bullet train)
Osaka to Nagano (bus)
Nagano to Iiyama (train)

whew!  sounds fun, right??  It was!

For reference (and for fun/cause it's awesome!) a map:

The right-most point is Iiyama, and the left/bottom is Hiroshima/Miyajima (practically on top of each other)

 Well...where to begin...we got to Kyoto at 5am or so and went to our hostel.  Used the secret key code to get inside and sat there and just relaxed a bit and ate some freshly-purchased convenience store breakfast.

And then straight to Nara we go!  Hop on a train, a bus and voila, deer park!  DEER!  (Deer place #1) You can feed them!  Or rather, if you don't feed them, they will eat your clothes/papers/anything.

I feed a deer.

Big Buddha likes to get high fives!

The temple where the big Buddha is is a World Heritage Site (WHS #1)

ok...from Nara back to Kyoto.  We went to a castle in Kyoto, but I am not going to put a picture.

Next day...we rented a car (gasp!) and drove(double gasp!!!) to Amanohashidate.  It took about 2 hours to get there.  Amanohashidate is one of the "three scenic views of Japan".  And it was AMAZING!

"WTF?"  I hear you thinking.  Well...supposedly if you stand on the pedestool thing and look through your legs (see image) it will look like a bridge to heaven.  Well...go sometime and see for yourself, I don't want to spoil it!

At the view station where we were, there was a small amusement park.  It had a ferris wheel and this bike track thing where you could pedal around once for some fantastic views and that wonderful feeling of...being on a bike track in the sky!

Descend from the view station and you can walk along the sandbar itself.  You will also find a sign that proves this is one of the scenic views of Japan.

On the bridge/sandbar.  BEACH!  woo!  I got sand in my shoes.

 Drive back to Kyoto.

Next day...off to Himeji, WHS#2!!  And Scaffolding #1 

Only in Japan do they paint a picture of the building on the scaffolding.  We were fully aware that Himeji castle was under construction.  We went anyway, and it was still beautiful.

Continuing on from Himeji (we only stopped there a few hours)...Hiroshima!  These pictures are not in chronological order.

Hiroshima Castle.

Pretty garden.  Even in the rain.

Crystal and I try on some period clothing.  that helmet...was HEAVY!

Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki.  Here are the layers:  Bottom is a thin pancake of sorts, then yakisoba, cabbage, bean sprouts, some bacon, and an egg.  That is the basic, mine also had cheese and mochi in it.

A-bomb dome.  Well...I did not want to smile in front of it, so I am sort of smirking.  

One thing about Hiroshima...I will admit that before we went I was a bit nervous...I am American, though clearly I was not alive during WWII, but I still had some nerves that people would stare or glare or be rude/whatever.  I could not have been more wrong.  Everyone was incredibly friendly, even around the dome and in the peace museum.  They are not promoting hatred or revenge or blame or anything of the sort.  It is all about awareness, here is what happened, here is why it happened and (most importantly) here is why it should NEVER happen again.  I do not think I have ever been to such a well-thought-out museum.  I was very impressed and moved and I think I learned more in an hour in the peace museum than I did in school when we studied WWII.  I strongly recommend if you ever have a chance, please go to Hiroshima.  I think one of the biggest things for me is the fact that the mayor of Hiroshima writes a protest letter EVERY TIME there is some sort of nuclear weapons test in the world.  EVERY TIME.  They have copies of them all on display.  It was really incredible to see all of the letters that have been written.

One more picture...we took 1000 cranes with us and hung them in the peace park.  A lot of people do this, so they have these really nice cases where you can hang them, and I assume every once in a while they go in and empty them out to make room for more.

Alright...end of me telling you how amazing Hiroshima is and let's move on to Miyajima.  It is an island, so we went by boat!  Again, not chronological order here.

You may know Miyajima...have you ever seen a picture of a HUGE red gate surrounded by water.  It is often called the "floating torii."  Well if not...my pictures will be no help, because little did we know, the torii was under construction when we went!!!  It was so sad!!

There you have it...in all it's glory.  This is almost exactly high tide.

We were very very very sad that it was all scaffolded up.

Naturally, when there is scaffolding, the answer is to buy a small wooden statue of the torii and then stand at exactly the right angle...and...bam!  There it is!  The red gate.  This is low tide, and you can actually walk down where the torii is and walk under it gather shells and fill your shoes with sand and do other wonderful things, too!

Other things to do on Miyajima...take two cable cars to the top and make momiji manjuu!  Momiji are the maple trees and manjuu are a kind of sweet, cakey on the outside and usually filled with red bean paste.  though they have custard and chocolate and green tea and other deliciousness!

Maybe I should be a doctor...?

Deer place#2.  there are deer on Miyajima, too, but they don't get fed so they leave people alone.  We found Bambi, though!  He seems to be confused and thinks he is a cat.

Fresh grilled oysters!  Yum!

Thousands of small Buddha statues. 

 Ok, well...that is it.  It was a blast!

 Any questions?

I learn how to make soba

In case you do not know what soba is, it is buckwheat noodles.  You can eat it hot (soup) or cold (you dip the noodles in a sauce and eat them).  Nagano is famous for soba, among other things, so it only seemed right that after 3 years here, I would attempt to make it at least once.

Before we get to the soba making, Crystal and I took an accidental awesome detour on the way to the place to make soba and we discovered INSANE amounts of snow!!  These pictures were taken on April 30!

walls of snow.  WALLS!!

Did I mention this was taken on April 30?  I have short sleeves on!!

Ok...so we took some pictures, got back in the car and made our way to a place called Mori no Ie.  It's a cute little lodge of sorts that offers all kinds of classes and hiking and snow shoeing and skiing, etc.   They also have these cute little huts you can rent for a night and stay in. 

Crystal and Mori no Ie

Isn't it cute?!?!

 Anywho...we made soba.  I will let the pictures tell the tale.

Our supplies/tools

I empty the soba flour into our bowl

add a little water, a little bit at a time and mix carefully

add a bit more water and try to get the dough to be...well a dough.

knead about 300 times

we took turns on the kneading part

soba dough!!!  We named it Abos.  aren't we clever!  (that's soba backwards, in case you are like, wtf?)

roll it out

its supposed to be square...ours looked like a fish!

more rolling...it needed to be about 2mm thick

fold

fold again

someone gave me a knife.  mwahaha

cut cut cut!!

all cut and ready to be cooked

about a minute in boiling water, then rinse in cold water and eat!  You mix onions and wasabi into this amazing sauce, dip the noodles in the sauce and then eat them.  At the end, when the noodles are gone, you pour some of the hot water that the noodles were cooked in into the sauce cup and drink the rest.  It is AMAZING!

  Well, there you have it.  I did something traditional that did not involve going to a concert or even leaving Iiyama!

Coming up...I go to Kyoto, Hiroshima and Miyajima.