Little By Little

I know I've posted variations of this same photo several times on this blog, but this view of the sun setting over the mountains that I get to see on my way to work for my evening classes gets me every time.  Does it get much more beautiful than that?

Hello, dear friends,

First, can you believe it?  A blog post two weeks in a row?  While nothing too exciting has happened in the past week, I figured that if I update more regularly, the entries won't be So Long to slog through.  I know some of you out there are keeping up with numerous blogs right now, and it can be a lot to read the updates of those people who just go on and on and on and on and...oh, wait.  Right.  Back to the update.

The highlight of this past week has been studying Japanese.  That's right - I've actually been studying!  Regular readers know that I've been taking Japanese lessons from the greatest teacher once a week since the end of September.  And technically, that isn't at all accurate, considering I had a total of about 10 lessons between October and January, what with all the Halloween and Christmas madness.  Luckily my sensei is patient and just tells me "You will learn, little by little."  But I've been doing a much better job recently of studying, and this week I finally decided to buckle down and Really Study.  I set a goal for myself to learn hiragana and katakana in 2011, and I realized it was time to start. 

The beginning of hiragana
a-i-u-e-o and ka-ki-ku-ke-ko

For those not familiar with Japanese, it basically consists of 3 languages - hiragana, which is comparable to a Japanese alphabet of characters, katakana, which are the characters used for foreign words (like a lot of recent English words that have been adopted into the language), and kanji, which are the 2,000+ symbols derived from Chinese.  I'm not even ging to pretend like I can learn kanji, because at this point, I really can't, but there are 46 hiragana and 46 katakana characters, and those are the ones I've committed myself to learning.  So far in my Japanese studies, I've only been using Roman letter spelling (example: "kazoku" = "family") to learn how to speak the language, but it'd be great to know how to read at least a little bit.  So far, I've learned 25 of the hiragana, and while I still have a long way to go, I'm really enjoying it.  It's literally like learning how to read again - sounding out words, remember what sounds each character makes, repeating the word over and over again until i recognize it.  Great moment last night: reading "かぞく" and being able to recognize the sounds as "ka-zo-ku"..."family."  It's like I'm back in first grade, sitting on the couch with my mom and getting excited about Grover Goes to School!

Other than that, the weather has been gorgeous the past two days.  I almost hate to mention it, considering the blizzard that i currently pounding all of you back home, but yesterday, I hardly needed a jacket on my walk to work, and I don't have to wear a hat on my bike ride to work anymore.  Slowly but surely, the weather is getting nicer.  I'll be complaining about the heat again before you know it!

Finally, the Academy Awards are this weekend, and it is just killing me that I won't be able to watch them.  Actually, I can't complain too much, seeing as how I'll be taking off for a quick trip to Tokyo with Sarah, Peter, and our friend Aki, but still.  One of the things I miss most about America (seriously) is my Entertainment Weekly and all the low-down on the best films of the year.  I can't help it - I'm a pop culture/film buff, and I love it.  Awards season is like my Super Bowl, and missing it just hurts.  So throw yourselves a party next Sunday night and tune in for me!  I anticipate that The King's Speech will be the big winner of the evening, but I'm hoping The Social Network goes away with the Screenplay Oscar.  Brilliant, brilliant writing.

Take care!  Stay warm!

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Snow and Swift

Hello, friends!

Laundry on the line and snow falling gently.

I can't believe how long it has been since I updated and how quickly time goes by here.  From what I can tell, all of you back home are feeling the busy-ness of these days just as much as I am.  I'm writing this on a Monday night after a hectic day in downtown Tsu.  It snowed all day today!  That's right!  Snow!  I can see the eyerolls from all of my Midwest loved ones from here, but I don't care...I love winter!  This is the second snowfall (and actual accumulation) of the winter, and I love it!  This afternoon, I watched the snow fall outside my window, and then when I hopped on my bike to work, it didn't take long for my jeans to be drenched and my eyes to start watering from the wind and flying flakes.  But that's nothing compared to the mess that was highway 23.  As some of you know, it's the main drag in Tsu, and the traffic was NUTS!  There were buses and semis stuck in the biggest intersections, traffic was stop-and-go, and sidewalks and stores were deserted.  Numerous evening classes were cancelled, and the students who did come were at least 15 minutes late.  And guess how much snow we got?  A couple of inches.  They just don't know how to handle it in these parts, and it made all of us native Minnesotans giggle a little.  Take a look:





Other than the snow, the biggest news I have to share is that I saw Taylor Swift in concert yesterday!  It was AWESOME!  Sarah and I bought tickets about a month ago with the help of one of my students, and she, along with her daughter (who is also one of my students), Sarah, and I all rode the train to Osaka yesterday where we saw Taylor Swift at Osakajo Hall.  Those of you who know me well know how much I lovelovelove her music.  Many of you might have also heard that she's known to not be very good live.  Well, let me tell you that, yesterday at least, that was just not true.  She sounded FANTASTIC, and she is an incredible performer.  She has so much energy and looked like she was having so much fun.  Sarah and I also enjoyed that we were among the few in the crowd who actually understood the occassional joke she dared to sneak in for her non-English-speaking crowd.  While our seats weren't grade in terms of being able to see the stage (we were the last row before we'd actually be considered "behind the stage), we were really close to her from the side, so we could actually see her face as she was singing and didn't need the big screens.  The music was awesome, and seeing my favorite song "Love Story" performed live is something I will never forget.

She moved out to a stage in the middle of the arena for the middle set of the show.

Talent.

We were behind the screens...but close to the stage!

It's a love story, baby just say YES.

We had a holiday on Friday, February 11 for Foundation Day.  It's the equivalent of our 4th of July, but there were no celebrations in Japan.  I didn't understand that, and my students looked at me strangely when I asked why not.  "Why would there be?"  Uh, okay.  But I won't complain about a day off.  I actually woke up that morning to snow accumulation as well (two days all winter and they happen in the same week!) and would have been content to just sit in bed and read all day, but I've been itching to get out and start touring places again, so I hopped a train for Nagoya.  This was a solo trip for me, and since Nagoya, Japan's fourth largest city, is only an hour north of Tsu, I ventured out for a day of sightseeing.  I visited the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology, the Nagoya City Art Museum, Osu Kannon temple, and Nagoya castle.  It was so much fun to navigate the subways and city streets in the snow.  Also great?  BLOSSOMS.  I'm sure many of you know how famous Japanese cherry blossoms are, and in the park at Nagoya castle, I saw the first buds of plum blossoms.  Cherry blossoms come a few weeks after them.  Spring is going to be so beautiful here!  I had a great solo outing and really enjoyed finally doing some sightseeing again (my favorite thing).

I had to take pictures of myself as proof that I actually went...and it was snowing!

And all of that machinery in the Toyota museum actually worked!  I'm not all that into manufacturing or cars, but it was pretty cool to see.

Osu Kannon temple

Nagoya Castle

Plum Blossoms

It's going to be SO beautiful.

I realize now just how long it has been since I updated my blog.  February 3 was Setsubun, or what we've come to regard as "The Soybean Celebration."  According to the lunar calendar, Setsubun is the start of spring, and Japanese people celebrate and wish for luck by throwing soybeans at oni (demons) - either masks or people wearing the masks - and then eating their age plus one year in soybeans.  They also eat a large sushi roll while facing a certain direction assigned each year.  This year, it was either south-southeast or south-southwest; it depends on which student we asked.  You're also supposed to eat the entire sushi roll alone and without cutting it, or else you'll have bad luck.  I attended the soybean festival at the temple in Daimon, near OBC, and also ate some sushi (ehomaki). 

The honored guests who threw the beans at the festival

The oni attacking the beautiful women

I like the guy in the Gap shirt.

Daimon temple

Ehomaki

Other than that, life in Tsu City has been life as usual.  We had another Beatles concert a couple of weeks ago, which we enjoyed with my student and her family, and I went out to lunch with a couple of my students this past Saturday, during which they gave me some belated birthday gifts.  (...which I'm totally okay with...a month-long birthday celebration? Excellent.)  Speaking of...my birthday (back in January!) was fantastic.  Sarah threw me a wonderful surprise party (though she told me about it a few days before), and I got to celebrate with some of the great friends I've made since coming here.  My students were so generous, giving me cakes and sweets and gifts, and Sarah organized an awesome party.  It was one of the most memorable birthdays ever.

A gift from Sarah's student

That's "Happy Birthday Angela" in Japanese



OBC teachers



With friends Marshall and Ai-chan (who shares my birthday!)

A nice birthday surprise at lunch with students

My feast last Saturday.  So delicious.

Now, it's Valentine's Day, and I have boxes and boxes of chocolates.  I can't tell you enough how generous our students are.  I'll be eating chocolates for months.  Oh, in case you didn't know, the traditional Japanese custom is for women to give men chocolate on Valentine's Day.  Lately, though, women have started giving to other women friends and co-workers.  But men don't give women anything!  But on March 15, or White Day, the men have to give women sweets that are worth three times the chocolate that they received from the women.  Not to do so would be insultingly rude.  It's worth the wait, I think!

Happy Valentine's Day!  Enjoy the SNOW!

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