Nikko Trip

Well, not too long and I think we can add another update. Maria enjoyed having her 5 day weekend for Golden week (May 1st-5th), though I had to do a lot of work on those days so I didn't get to enjoy it quite as much, but I managed to stay on top of it well enough so that we took a walk to the beach and had our friends the Casey's (currently in Sekikawa, where the giant snake festival was waaay back in August or September) over to hang out for a day.

Last weekend (the 8th and 9th of May) we went to Nikko with them as well, to see the shrines and the sites. We took a lot of photos, you can find about 100+ here  They're also on facebook too if you want to read the captions, though I didn't write a lot this time because I can only write "this is a building I thought was interesting" so many times before even I get bored of it. Unlike Kyoto, I didn't do quite as much research into the historical significance of the shrines around Nikko, other than they were built to do something like celebrate the success the Tokugawa Shogunate had in uniting Japan around 1600ish. 100+ pictures are equivalent to quite a lot of words, so that's all the update you're getting out of this post. Sorry. I'd feel bad but I've been tagging and uploading photos for what feels like all day and I'm definitely ready to go on a run. Enjoy! You have questions about them, Skype me and I'll go through them like vacation slides.

Long time between updates

And for that I can only apologize. But I'm guessing it's not that big of a deal. One big(ish) update is just as good as a lot of little ones. Probably. Anyway...that said, let's get to some kind of update.


The vacation was wonderful. It was great to get a bit of a break from work and do the things that people are jealous that we're in Japan for. Because I believe that showing vacation slides and photos are boring as hell unless the people being subjected to them were there or have been there... you won't see those photos here. I'll just link to the limited facebook galleries of our photos (I decided not to upload all of them to Picasa because well. meh. I took a lot of photos that are saved on my computer and most of them aren't good enough for people to even bother clicking through.). Anyway, on to the facebook photo albums:

Matsumoto Castle

Day Trip to Nara


Day Trip to Himeji Castle

Kyoto Sightseeing Day 1

Kyoto Sightseeing Day 2

Kyoto Sightseeing Day 3

It was a shame how things ended in Kyoto (us running out of time because CRAZY weekend sakura-viewing traffic) but it should have been expected. We still saw plenty of really cool things.

April has been a pretty decent month, but the days seem to be getting longer recently. I'm focused on a few projects for my research that need to be wrapped in two months, so there's plenty to do on that front. Maria's found the schools to be somewhat trying at times -- I'm sure she'd be willing to fill you in on that, but we'll leave it there for now.

There's vacation coming up here, 4 days off over the next week and only 3 days of school for Maria. After all that time off, we're having another trip to Nikko for the weekend with our friends, Amy and Kevin, which should be a lot of fun.

The weather in Murakami finally feels like spring, and that makes it a lot more pleasant overall. Maria's been cooking all kinds of new dishes and making a cookbook of recipes, and I'm happy to say that I've been reaping a lot of benefit from this. It's costed us more in the grocery budget, but our budget was so low as to be silly before. It's nice to get a bit more variety. I think that's about all for now, there should be another update after Nikko. (So much for that New Year's Resolution huh?)

Upcoming Trip, some treats, and stuff everyone should appreciate

We had a wonderful weekend. Monday was a Japanese National holiday so we had 3 days to work-out, hang-out, and cook!

On Saturday we went to the mall with our friends. It's about an hour away so we had to spend a couple hours there to make it worth it. We ate sushi and for a special treat Brian and I had Baskin Robbins. I chose a slightly healthier option of orange and strawberry sorbet, and it was delicious. I spent quite a bit of time at the foreign foods store getting whole wheat pasta, canned tomatoes and beans, and many other foods. I think most people go there to buy a couple things that are difficult to get, but I basically did a couple weeks worth of shopping! 

I also ordered a huge amount of Oatmeal which should last us the rest of our time here. I got a bit tired of paying about 4 bucks for a tiny box when we go through about two per week! So that combined with the oatmeal my mom is sending us should tide us over until July! I can even bake cookies and muffins without worrying about buying more oatmeal! Since I'm also trying to incorporate more beans into our meals since they count as vegetables and protein, I also ordered about 7kg of beans online. The price was great and I hope that will last us for a while as well.

I'm so excited about the provision in the health care bill (passed on Sunday) forcing chain restaurants to include nutrition information on the menu. I wish it were easier for all restaurants to include that information, but the provision is definitely a step in the right direction. It will be so much easier to control portions and make healthier choices at restaurants. Thankfully, this provision goes into effect much faster than other parts of the bill so we will see the benefits very soon! (Or in my case when I get back to America). Some restaurants in Japan include this information and it's really nice.

Brian and I are looking forward to our trip which is coming up on Sunday. The weather is supposed to be nicer in Kyoto so we are looking forward to it. It's pretty cloudy in Niigata and I need some sun! Dad will be in Osaka on Wednesday so we are going to meet with him and go to Himeji castle after lunch! Himeji is the most famous castle in Japan. Unfortunately it's covered in scaffolding at the moment due to some restoration efforts, but we will be able to go in anyway. They will be working on the interior around April 16th so it will be closed for the next few years to visitors. We might go to Osaka castle as well and we are visiting Matsumoto castle on the way down. It will take quite a while to get to Kyoto since we are taking all local trains, but the price was worth it. We bought a special seasonal ticket that only cost about $115.00 per person and can be used for 5 days of unlimited travel on local trains. We will be able to go to Osaka, Himeji, and Nara on this ticket and we don't have to worry about the cost of travel! 

We are returning our rental car today so I'll be back to biking and walking around Murakami! Hopefully it will help me with the biking part of my training for the triathlon!

I'd like to add that we went to the Murakami Doll Festival, when people open up their houses and display their special dolls. Often times, these dolls are hundreds of years old.  Here's some pictures.

There's a few more uploads on facebook.

Spring Means Stress for Fall Classes

I wish we had a nice spring. It gets warm for a day and then is plunged back to below 45 degrees. It's plain teasing -- and not a nice kind. I have to admit I'm looking forward to Raleigh -- slighter hotter, a little less humid in the summers, but I remember some kind of fall and spring. I could be wrong though.

Also, I'm applying for a fellowship at NC State sponsored by the department of homeland security. It means a pretty big raise (income + tuition & fees benefits) and some mandatory service during and after the fellowship.  I certainly hope I get it, though I think my odds are pretty good. It would also be nice to see Maria jump around in joy over something involving higher education -- the news from NC State and Duke hasn't been unqualified enough successes to make her do that. I should mention, if someone doesn't know for some reason, that she got into Duke, but due to some annoying stuff about their fellowships, we don't know if she can go. Her usual impatience (let's call it 'eagerness' so it sounds better!) means that she has already started working out the schedule she wants at NC State.

Which makes me remember that I really need to figure out my schedule at NC State next fall. I'd like to finish in two years and that seems possible but it means I'll only have 1 chance to pass my qualifying exams, the summer of 2011. While it shouldn't be too hard, I'd really like to not put all my eggs in one basket, because if I don't pass both parts it could make things a bit difficult. So I might have to spend this summer studying for at least one of the two qualifying exams I need and try to get that out of the way.

There's not a whole lot else to report for now, so I'm going to cut this one short. Thanks for reading, here's hoping we get all this stuff tied up before we go on our "honeymoon" to Kyoto at the end of March.

Cooking Eagerness

Last weekend I had a great time going to the mall near Niigata with some of the other female ALT's in the area. We were able to go to a foreign foods store, which was awesome! A couple of my friends here have figured out a way to make cakes, cookies, and breads without an oven! On Friday, Meghan, Brian, and I went to Aimee's house in Sekikawa and made carrot cake! We had a wonderful time, and the cake turned out pretty good too! They both inspired me (since Meghan made my birthday cake in her rice cooker as well as many other things), so when we went to the foreign foods store, I was so excited when I saw cornmeal! I bought quite a few things and spent most of the day Monday trying to find new creative recipes on the internet.

When I got off of work, I immediately went to the grocery store to buy the necessary things for baking. I had to go to three stores to get the necessary items. I started cooking right when I got home. We had curry and rice (Japanese style curry), and then I made Blueberry corn-bread. I made it without dairy (using soymilk and oil) since my friend here has a dairy allergy. I made the mistake of putting all the batter into the rice cooker, which made it take 2 hours to cook, and it became so thick I had to cut it in half at the middle. The blueberries also didn't make it to the top of the corn bread, so the top half was pretty much just cornbread. It felt great to actually do some baking though.

Yesterday I made an apple cake/bread (also dairy free). I think I need to use regular oil instead of olive oil since it had a slightly funny aftertaste (not to mention the price), but overall it  tasted pretty good. This time I only put half of the batter in at a time and it cooked much faster! I'm excited to try new (non-baking) recipes as well. When Aimee came over on Tuesday, I made a pasta bake with tofu instead of meat. It worked pretty well and you couldn't taste a difference. I made most of it on the stove, then transferred it to the toaster oven to finish off the cheese topping. We will have a few days leftovers from that meal! It's definitely lifted my spirits to be baking and cooking more familiar things. I have enjoyed the Japanese recipes I've found, but it's harder to know if I made it well since I'm not sure what taste to expect!

I've also been able to ride my bike to school a bit more these last two weeks. It really improves my mood when I get to ride to work. I feel like I've already done something productive early in the day. I've also started waking up early so I can do a quick exercise or stretch. It's also part of my "conserve gas and water" plan. When I got last month's meter reading for the gas I was shocked! It had never been so high before! I think it was high because I would use my morning shower as a way to warm up from the cold, but I guess I didn't think about how much longer I was staying in the shower. Now I try to take a max 10 minute shower.

Brian and I are looking forward to our "honeymoon" in Kyoto at the very end of March. We are going to leave for Matsumoto Castle on the 28th of March, and stay in that town that night. Then we will leave the next morning for Kyoto. We plan on spending one day in Nara, and one day going to Himeji Castle and Osaka. We have tickets to go to the Miyako Odori (Maiko Dance) where we will see apprentice Geisha perform their annual dance. We are hoping to also see a kabuki performance, but they have yet to start selling tickets! We will take the night bus back to Murakami from Kyoto on Saturday the 3rd. I think we will have a great time. I've been wanting to go to Kyoto since my grandma Georgianna got me interested in Geisha in middle school. After taking Japanese history, I wanted to visit even more, so it's kind of like a dream come true!

In May, Brian and I will be taking a trip with our friends from Sekikawa. We will be going to Nikko and staying the night there. I'm looking forward to that trip as well! Unfortunately, once we get back there will be absolutely no holidays until our trip to Tokyo to climb Mt. Fuji in July, which will make June a VERY long month.

I only have one more day at the school I'm at today. I will be very sad to have the current 6th graders leave, since they will be going to a school that I don't teach at. The kids here are really good and they like to talk to me. Most aren't too shy and they are very energetic. The teachers are fun to work with as well! I unfortunately have 2 days left at the school I dislike the most (but that's how it goes right? The elementary school you like least is the one you have to go to the most). I hope to get my schedule for April-July soon. It would be nice to have everything ready for the next school year. (I would also love to NOT be at my middle school on Mondays and Minami on Wednesdays. I wish I could switch them up because those are both bread days for school lunch and the bread is ANYTHING but whole wheat.

Anyway, that's all for now! I will let you know about my future cooking endeavors! If you would like any of the recipes I mentioned in this post, please let me know through facebook or email. =) 

- Maria

The month of February

I've read some pop statistic somewhere about New Year's Resolutions taking less than a month to break. It wasn't until I read one of the updates of this blog that I learned that I apparently had made a New Year's Resolution to update this every week. I'm caught between just saying Maria made the resolution and claiming I haven't dropped the ball anywhere, because I didn't really make the resolution (Personally, I don't want to do weekly updates.  My thoughts aren't that interesting and the day I think that they are, I will become even more of an insufferable bore. Might work for others, I'll possibly grant, but definitely not me), and sucking it up and saying "well, I certainly could have made an update, it was her update last time, so it's not as though I would be breaking the "less than 1 update a week" thing for myself and it's really the process of general apathy and laziness.  (By the by, did you notice how run-on that sentence was?  If you read this blog, aren't you GLAD that updates like that from my are terribly infrequent now?  It borders on and probably trespasses illegible.)

Since Maria's finally written an update, I'll just turn most of the rest of this over to her:

I know, I know, I've not been keeping up with my New Year's Resolution. To be fair, the month of February was probably the most difficult month here so far. I got sick on the 31st of January with a fever, and felt sick for the next two weeks. I did take a few sick days, but it took a long while to get it out of my system and get back to feeling normal. I ended up being sick for my birthday, which was unfortunate, but I still went to my birthday party and had a great time.

There were a few good things that happened during February. For one, I was able to talk to my boss about returning to the US, and they are letting me use all of my vacation days at the end of my contract so I can go home on the 15th of July! I will fly into Rapid City and I'm able to see my friend Erin's wedding! Brian is returning to the US on the 10th of July so he's going to drive out to SD to go to the wedding too. Then we are going to work our way back to NC on a 3 day adventure. I'm very excited to see my friend Kaleigh and my family during that time.

I also got accepted into NC State (I didn't get any funding), but I still got accepted! I'm waiting to hear from Duke still, but I think I should hear by the end of this week, so keep your fingers crossed! I also won a $1000 scholarship to go to school, which was pretty great and the funds will be released upon proof of enrollment, so that will be helpful.

I found out that I passed the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) Level 3 on my birthday. It was a relief to finally know the result! I studied so hard those last few months, and thankfully it paid off!

My friend Meghan had girl's night on the 11th of February, so all the Murakami area ALT's got together and ate a bunch of delicious food and fruit, and drank vodka cranberry cocktails. We had a lot of fun and it was definitely a boost after being sick for so long. We also celebrated her birthday on Valentine's day with a combination Meghan's b-day, V-day party. Her birthday is not on the 14th, but we decided since v-day was on a weekend it would be convenient. We went to a yaki-niku restaurant, where they give you raw meat and you cook it on a grill in the middle of the table. Afterwards we went to our favorite western food restaurant and got crepes.

As far as work goes, it's been pretty boring. I have one school where I had 3 "demonstration" classes that I wasn't really involved in. This is where the teacher makes up a lesson plan, and all the teachers in the school leave their classes unattended to come watch it. I was very thankful when they were over. Hopefully I don't have to do another one! February is also the cultural start of spring for the Japanese so there were fun school festivals where they threw peanuts at "oni" (Which are like little ogres or devils that try to get people to stray). Throwing peanuts at stuffed oni figures or kids with oni hats is there way of cleansing themselves. Mostly the kids just want to collect a bunch of peanuts.

The middle school 3rd years are graduating on Monday, March 8, and I'm pretty sure they don't come back for the rest of the month.  I will miss a few of them, but the majority were either a bit of a pain, or not very memorable. I hate to say that, if I were at the school more than 1 or 2 times a week I probably would know them a bit better, but overall I haven't gotten too close with the third years.

April is the start of the Japanese school year as I probably mentioned before, so we will have an entrance ceremony in April to let the new kids into the school. I have quite a few kids I'm excited to have coming to Daiichi from the elementary schools, and just as many that I can't stand coming as well. It's going to create a very interesting class dynamic with these kids. I kind of wish we could put them all in one class and just let them do their own stupid thing. The Japanese school system doesn't let students fail or hold students back a grade, and education is only compulsory through junior high school so if they didn't do anything, they might not be able to go to high school and they would be done with school right after JHS. Unfortunately, they will probably mix them up and divide them which will create bad atmospheres in every first grade class which will be even more of a pain, but I can't do anything about it except count down.

I have gotten a bit carried away with online shopping/ window shopping almost every weekend. Two weeks ago Brian and I actually bit the bullet and bought a painting from an artist we've been admiring. I'm very excited to put it up in our apartment in Raleigh. On Saturday I went to Macys.com just to browse and found that the table we decided to get a while ago was on a mega sale for the lowest amount I had seen! So we ordered that as well. It was actually an amount that didn't make me cringe so I figured we probably should -- Brian.  Thankfully the members of Brian's improv troupe are nice enough to hold them for us (but probably with a dual motive to get us to come back to Raleigh as well). We already put in our application to live in the same apartment complex we lived in before, so hopefully they will have one available for us.

Anyway, that's all I have to update! I hope you all have a great week and I will try to get back to my goal of writing once a week.
-Maria 

Back to Brian, I have very little to add.  I actually got to work some model runs this past month and that's been nice -- hearing that some people have trouble understanding the models and thus make some not always immensely helpful comments isn't so nice, but the group I work with is great so at least I can take comfort in that.  

It warmed up for the past week, though we were smart and never said "maybe spring's coming early" which has always struck me as a naive and needlessly antagonist comment to make to the weather -- maybe it's Minnesota/midwest upbringing. Or maybe it's a bias against optimism, which could be said to be the same thing sometimes.  We took a few walks, went on some runs and I sat in a park for 20 minutes one day in a t-shirt, and it was a nice brief break from winter, but we're back to days and days of cloudy skies and rain.  Thanks again to the Idiots who are holding things, I swear to you that I'm cutting her off from ordering anything ahead of time, no matter how great the deal is.  That's all we have for now.

-Brian

Mid-Year Seminar, Japanese Library Rules

I spent the last two days a little south of Niigata City at the Mid-Year Seminar. I really enjoyed seeing people I know who live pretty far away from me, and the party was pretty fun apart from the shortage of fries. Brian came down for the party as well so we had a good time. I felt a bit frustrated by the seminar itself.
    First and foremost there were too many remarks concerning ALT irresponsibility. This was very disconcerting to me because I feel like they implied we act like crazy college students, and I think we deserve a bit more respect than that. If they have a problem with youth coming to Japan, and they choose people who are irresponsible, that is their problem. There are plenty of people from all countries who act responsible at my age (or younger). It's certainly not like the teachers at my school always come in to work refreshed and happy to work.
    Secondly, many of the great ideas for the workshop didn't apply to me. The people presenting all have been in Japan for more than a year, but for many of the new people, we entered in a year where everything changed and the elementary school has a curriculum. For the people who've been here a few years, they are used to being responsible for classes and lesson planning and coming up with games. However, since I just came this year and we started a new book which really incorporates the homeroom teacher, it's not up to me to take over class and deviate from the lesson plan. Since I mostly teach 5th and 6th graders who use a textbook, there are relatively few classes I get to make games and activities for.
    When it comes to my junior high school, I have very little say in anything I do. I don't know what classes I have for the day until I get there and then I go around scrabbling to fill my schedule with something. I rarely know what the class is about until a few minutes before class, and then I end up reading aloud for the students and walking around. The book is incredibly boring and I think it doesn't give the kids enough credit. Whenever I read their writing assignments, they want to use more complex grammar and words, but they don't know how. I think they would be more interested if the book moved at a slightly faster pace OR we were allowed to do fun activities with the book. If I make an activity for class it's usually looked down on and then barely used. For example, I worked really hard on a song activity. I translated the song, got help with the translation, etc. Then I only could use it for two of the 4 classes.
    I understand it's difficult for the teachers to have the time to talk to me ahead of time about ideas, but I really need to have my schedule a week beforehand along with what pages the students will be working on so I can come up with ideas. I'm sure my ideas would have more clout if I were here longer, but I can't stay longer. My school has had a lot of turnover in the past 3 years at least, and it's difficult for the teachers to become close to the ALT and allow them to create activities, but there is a flip-side. ALT's need to feel like their work and talents are appreciated in order to want to stay another year. The only way to solve these problems is through honesty, communication, and time. I'm afraid to bring these things up to my teachers because I don't want to burn any bridges, but in order to make the most of the rest of my time here I really need to step up and just do it. Wish me luck!
    In other, happier, news Brian and I spent last Saturday entertaining my friend's boyfriend while she was in rehearsal for the charity musical. (Maria didn't read my blog update and know I've already written about this day..... so I've cut out some of the repeated stuff). I really had fun hanging out with him, and I'm looking forward to climbing Mt. Fuji with them in July!
    We also started renting a car for two months. (Remember two sentences ago or so when I said she didn't read my blog update?  Yup. Busted!) We got it through my teacher's husband's car dealership and we got a great deal! We have a little honda K-car which is great for the commutes I have and driving isn't as bad as I thought. I was very nervous about driving on the left but that part has been much easier than having to remind myself of the wipers and turn signals being switched. I drove this morning without any hassles. My biggest problem is backing into parking spaces. I had a rear camera on my prius and I still found it difficult. I will just need some more practice, I know.

Well, that's all for this week! I hope you all have fantastic weeks and enjoy the Superbowl, even though my team lost. I'm sure it will be an amusing game. Stay warm! Feel free to email me, I guarantee a response!

-Maria

Maria said that if I thought the blog post would be boring to have repeated, I should write something about what I've done.  I told her I've had some good breakthroughs in mathematics this week and definitely had some great ideas for how to proceed forward.  She said "well, why don't you write about that." Not the response I expected.

Instead of dazzling everyone with the joy of the newest mathematics I'm working on (Resource Allocations to Capacitated Supply-Demand Networks with Uncertainties in Supply and Capacity, it's gonna be really fun and not even anywhere near as bad as it sounds!) I'll just briefly say that having a car has allowed me to go the library. And then I learned that for no reason I could figure out, they don't allow laptop computers in the library.  I didn't get in trouble, I asked if it was okay to use one in the quiet study room and was told (actually, in broken English!) that they couldn't do that.

I'm sorry Japan, but....WHAT?  What on earth?  So, my plan on doing work in the library won't work out as well as I thought, certainly I can do a lot of brainstorming and even fine tuning of the mathematics (that's what I did before I asked about using my computer), but it's sure hard to prepare a paper for journal submission without my computer.... well, that's enough complaining.  I guess I'll have to find some sort of friendly coffeehouse type of place.... which I've never seen in Murakami.  That's all for now, we'll have another update eventually.

-Brian

Oshiroyama in the Winter, A Rental Solution

Things are pretty routine here since the last update.  We've been doing the same old things, work and study, without much in the way of breaks.


The weather continues to completely suck here.  I swear that it rains, snows or sleets a little bit every single day. The snow doesn't always stay on the ground, but there's enough of it to go around.  Nearly all of it melted by this last Thursday and I thought "great! Maybe I'll get to go running!" (The cold doesn't bother me, just having to run on unshoveled sidewalks through 6 inches of snow).  Of course, Friday we get about 4-6 inches of heavy wet snow dropped on the ground.

Oddly enough though, the snow definitely hasn't stopped this weekend from being eventful (eventful for us, maybe not for everyone).  We hiked up to the top of Oshiroyama today with Meghan's boyfriend Yuya.  He had to hang with us while she was rehearsing for the musical and the three of us had a good time.  You can see the views from the top in the pictures we have here.  I decided sometime in the last few weeks I want to get pictures on the top of Oshiroyama for all seasons, so that's two down now!

After going to Oshiroyama we went to what is probably the best western food restaurant in Murakami, Rover's Cafe, and all had the Mexican Plate, a weekend special of probably some of the best Mexican food we've ever had.

After hanging out for a bit, we went to the Subaru dealership run by the husband of one of the teachers Maria works with and we were able to rent a car for a really good deal for two months (hopefully the weather will be good enough by then that we won't want or need a car).  I'm looking forward to this because it means if I drive Maria to school and pick her up, I'll have the means to go to the library during the day without walking half an hour through snow and rain!  Working in the library suits me much better than working at home, I'm not cut out for it.  Apparently I like having my work area separate from my home area after getting spoiled with an office (okay, cubicle, whatever) last year at NC State.

In slightly more exciting news, after a month of pushing, I finally got Maria to watch Blues Brothers with me.  She said it was "fine" and that she enjoyed it.  I'm not sure that I can allow such a lukewarm endorsement of a classic comedy, but for the time being I'll let it pass.  I think that's about all for the updates for now, next week we should have more after a party in Niigata and Maria's two day mid-year seminar! Also, I'm interested to see what will happen at a Festival on the 31st in one of her elementary schools that we're going to.  Should be at least interesting!

PS: After first publishing this post, I thought of something interesting (to ME). Holy Ghost Tent Revival is a band from North Carolina that I've been listening a lot to since I bought their albums after Christmas. It's something like.... bluegrass-folk-blues-rock.... or whatever.  And powered by horns.  So awesome. If their live show is half as fun as their albums, I can't wait to get back to North Carolina and catch a show with them.  Internet review suggests that the live show is, in fact, MORE fun.... so... I'm pretty excited!  It's definitely something to do when we get back.

10 Biggest Differences between my life in Japan and America

(By Maria)

These aren't necessarily funny, just meant to be informative

10. Students are allowed in the teachers' room.

9. Teacher's main work spaces are in one shared room with individual desks. In Junior High Schools the teachers don't have a classroom, they move from room to room, but they do have their own room in elementary schools.

8. Carpooling is not considered a viable alternative to everyone driving separately. It's considered rude to ask for rides, and people think biking to and from work is very difficult, if not impossible.

7. Fish is in EVERYTHING. Sometimes it's in salad, sometimes it's mixed in with vegetables. It's the base broth in almost all soups. In actuality, it's VERY difficult to be a vegetarian in Japan unless you make everything yourself.

6. All students are required to be in a school club in middle school. They only have one club, and they practice almost every day (including Saturdays and Sundays)

5. If a person feels sick, it's expected that they wear a mask, even if the masks have not been proven to be very effective against the spread of diseases. Everyone also comes to school when they are sick., even if they have H1N1.

4. Everyone changes their shoes when they enter a building. It's not important for shoes to match the outfit, they should just be comfortable.

3. Track suits are considered more formal than jeans (I know, this one still confuses me).

2. I don't have an oven. I have a gas stove with only 2 burners and a fish broiler.

1. There is NO insulation, NO central heat, and it's completely normal to see your breath in the school hallways. (And in our apartment during the day while I'm working - so awesome).

My 10 Favorite things about living in Japan

10.  I can get to every school except one in a pretty easy bike ride (I have to take a taxi/car to one school, its very far). I can also walk all the way to the ocean from my house. I can walk 30 minutes to the train station and go almost anywhere in Japan! Yay fantastic public transportation. I don't know why people don't just rent cars only for the winter.

9.　Littering is almost non-existent, although it's worse in the country. This isn't because they have a ton of trash cans everywhere, because it's practically impossible to find a trash can. For some reason, people just seem to not litter.

8.　Murakami is really beautiful. We have mountains, oceans, castle ruins, pretty much all you need. We can hike, ski, and swim in the ocean all in one place.

7.　I love having a wet bathroom! This means that you have a whole room to take a shower in, not just a bathtub.

6.　There is a fantastic restaurant that serves Mexican food every weekend. Most of the time they have chicken enchiladas. I don't usually like spicy foods or chicken enchiladas, but I love their food.

5. We have an amazing Nepalese Curry restaurant close to our house which AMAZING garlic naan. We go every week. It's kind of our comfort food, I guess.

4. I don't like Japanese food much. This is good and bad, but especially great for me losing weight!

3. Recycling is not a should, but pretty much a must. Neighbors will go through your trash and separate it for you if you don't, then leave it on your doorstep. There are specific days for taking out specific types of garbage. It's a pain at first, but really beneficial for the environment. This hasn't happened to us, just to be clear. Only the garbage guys refusing to take stuff that apparently was put out on the wrong day.

2. ALL toilet seats (on a western toilet) are heated. I don't like this for the summer, but it really takes that shock of cold away in the winter. You can change the temperatures to suit your needs.

1. Drinking tea all day is normal. The tea is almost never sweetened. You can get bottled tea in vending machines everywhere. Japan really supports and endorses my tea addiction!

Holidays

Well, it's been proven. Brian and I are very poor bloggers indeed. So my first new year's resolution is to write at least once a week on all of our "adventures" in Japan, or whatever else we want. The major problem with writing about our daily lives is that we lead a pretty boring life. I know you're thinking "You live in Japan, that's not boring!" It's true that we live in an exciting place, but really we are such stingy homebodies so there aren't very many adventures to talk about.

Brian and I just got back from a two week journey back to Minnesota. We had a great time, and enjoyed seeing our family and friends, and most of all, Evi. Now we are both very tired of traveling since each way took about a day and a half of travel. Our itinerary went as follows:

December 22: Get off of work early, finish packing, leave for the train station at 8:30pm. Train departed at 9:19pm and we were on our way. We got into Niigata around 10:10 and waited for our night bus which left at 11:20pm.

December 23: We arrived at Shinagawa station (Tokyo) around 5:50am (a bit early) and took the train to our friend's house where we hung out for a few hours. We then went to Ikea before leaving for the airport. We enjoyed our trip to Ikea so much that we left a bit late for the airport. I didn't even think we were late because of a silly mathematical error I made earlier, so we arrived at the airport at 4:00pm for our 5:10 flight. OOPS! The line was really long and when I realized what I did I started freaking out. Brian tried to calm me, but I believed we were going to miss the flight and it would be all my fault. Thankfully the ticket counter people called the Houston flight passengers to the front of the line, we went through security, and made it onto the plane with a few minutes to spare.

The flight was pretty nice overall. The dinner was edible, the entertainment had over 330 movies to chose from, many TV shows, music, and games, and I was able to sleep for about half the flight. We arrived in Houston around 3:30pm central time and got through immigration and customs easily. We got on the tiny plane to Minneapolis and finally landed at 6:45 pm. My mom picked us up from the airport and we immediately went to Olive Garden to eat with my brother and grandparents, then mom drove us down to Mankato (a 1.5 hour drive). We finished our very long travel day around 11pm.

Evi noticed me right away and wagged her tail. We weren't able to get pictures of her reaction because we didn't get the camera out fast enough since she was already waiting at the door. We went in to see her and she was so happy, she wiggled her little butt and cried with delight. We didn't even have to bribe her to sleep in our room that night. She also started a new thing of sitting on our laps and showing her mean face to Kuma when he tried to get affection from us. It was pretty cute, although very bad manners and we had to kick her off of our laps for it a couple of times.

December 24: We woke up at a decent US time and I started preparing the Christmas Day turkey. I made the butter and we went to the grocery store to buy a few last minute items and to Lowes to buy a tub so we could brine the turkey. We spent most of the day being lazy and enjoying spending time with Brian's family and Evi. Brian helped me make the turkey brine in the afternoon by freshly grinding 1/3 cup of pepper. (Brian edit - it took absolutely forever). We left the turkey to soak in the brine and had Christmas eve dinner with Brian's family and the Dauk's. Our original plans of spending Christmas eve at the Wilson's was unfortunately cancelled due to the overexcited meteorologists at the Weather Channel, but we had a good time anyway. After everyone left I took the turkey out of the brine and applied the butter under the skin and let it sit through the night. I know you probably don't care about all the turkey preparation steps, but I thought I'd enlighten you for fun.

December 25: Christmas Day! My mom and grandparents came to Mankato at 12:30 and we opened presents. Then we ate Christmas dinner (with the very prep intensive Turkey), and it was delicious. I was so happy we were able to include part of my family in the celebrations. It made it really feel like Christmas! Brian and I did some of the dishes (I hate anything to do with dishes so this is quite an accomplishment), worked out, and went to bed to prepare for a fun filled fantastic day of shopping!  I still can't believe Nomi had fun despite and maybe even partly because of the dogs.  Maybe she and Deb need some dogs of their own.

December 26: Brian and I left for My grandparents house at 6:45am. We went to the Mall of America where I spent about 2 hours in Express trying on many, many clothes. I had ordered a couple things in advance from Express.com so I'd have some pants that fit me, but once we got to express and grabbed a bunch of clothes in a size 6, I realized that many of them were too big and Mom had to go out and grab size 4s! The size craziness definitely contributed to the length of the Express shopping trip, but after a while, and a nice mixture of 4s and 6s, we went to buy the clothes with a bunch of transactions and coupons. Thankfully now I have a nice wardrobe I'm excited about wearing that also fits! After the shopping at the Mall, we drove to the downtown Macy's and had dinner with my mom and grandma. I had a fantastic day, but I think Brian was a bit annoyed by a whole day of shopping.  The only truly annoying bit (besides being left outside Express) was at the end of the day when she and her Mom spent about 20 minutes trying to do multiple purchases with different coupons at Macy's to get the best bargain.  I figure if it it's that much of an inconvenience to spend money at their store, I don't have to spend that much and too bad for them for making it so difficult.

December 27: Brian and I got up early to drive to LaCrosse, WI to have lunch with My dad and Holly. It took about 3 hours and we went to a cute little restaurant called Maggie's (named after the owner's lovable yellow lab).  I didn't know it was named after a yellow lab when I chose it.  I'm glad I did though.  Maria and I discussed having a restaurant called "George's" in honor of my parent's yellow lab, George.  I'm afraid George would just want to serve garbage though. It was really nice to see them and enjoy a nice burger! After lunch we drove back to Mankato, excited about the prospect of not having to travel anywhere far the next day. (We also went to Scheels for exercise clothes and bands).

December 28: We went to Perkins for lunch with Brian's mom and then  went to the mall in Mankato for our hair appointments with Barb's hair stylist. I got my hair died brown and cut to above my shoulders. Brian got his hair cut very short so it won't be too long by the spring. Afterwards we went to the Wilson's for dessert and games. Evi was able to come and I think she had a great time with the Wilson's new dog and Amy and Fred's dog, although she was quite tired. She looked very cute, however, since she was able to wear the sweater Lisa and Tim got her for Christmas. Sweater was NOT my idea.  In fact, the sweater was forbidden by me, but when it comes to my wife and sister, they'll do exactly what I don't want.  We had a fun time playing Apples to Apples and eating many delicious types of desserts!

December 29 and 30: Lazy Days!

December 31: Brian had a doctor's appointment early. Switching insurances and countries at the same time is not recommended, especially when you can't speak the language to refill prescriptions. When he got home we went to the grocery store to get things for the new years party at the Sonneks.  I made homemade mac and cheese, two pans of brownies, and I baked 3 types of ready to bake cookies. We went to the party with all of our food and had a fun time seeing Brian's friends, playing games, chatting and eating. We left around 2am since I'm a party pooper and wanted to sleep in a bed.

January 1: Mom left the twin cities and came through Mankato for lunch at Dinos in North Mankato. It's a very tasty gourmet pizza place. It was nice seeing her and we also enjoyed our 3rd meal of pizza of the trip. I tried scrapbooking for the rest of the day, but my heart wasn't too into it this trip.

January 2: Nothing too exciting happened, I tried scrapbooking and a bit of packing for our return trip.

January 3: Finished packing and laundry. We had a hard time saying good-bye to Evi again, and we hope she'll forgive us for deserting her again. She got very worried by the suitcases and wouldn't leave Brian. It's so hard to leave her, but at the same time, we won't be away from her much longer, so that fact makes leaving her a bit more bearable. Barb drove us up to my grandparent's house by 3. My grandparents took Brian and me to a sports bar where we ate a delicious hamburger and drank dark beer. Last time for months.  It was delicious.  Surly Bender, apparently a somewhat local Minneapolis beer -- I had never had it before.  When we returned to my grandparent's house we had to repack our suitcases for weight and went to bed by 10pm.

January 4: We woke up at 2:15am to get ready to go to the airport. We left for the airport at three and when we arrived at 3:30 there was already a long line at the ticket counter, but the counter didn't open until 4. It was a very good thing we got there so early though because when it did open, the line moved so slowly I thought our flight might have to be delayed. We got into Houston with 2 hours before our Tokyo flight and ate scholtzky's. I accidentally forgot to say no mustard and didn't enjoy it as much as I would have without it, but it was still nice to have a delicious sandwich. We went to our terminal and realized that our flight had been delayed by an hour and a half due to servicing needs.. When we went to the counter to have them verify our passports, they apologized for the delay and gave us each $8.00 to spend on food, 10% off our next flight booked at continental.com, and a free alcoholic beverage on the plane. I thought that was pretty great considering it was a pretty minor delay (in my mind anyway) and I haven't gotten anything like that before. I was very impressed by them. The flight was alright, although the lunch left a lot to be desired. I didn't get any sleep really and watched far too many movies. I watched "The Cove," "The Devil Wears Prada," an episode of "The Tudors" and "Say Yes to the Dress," "Good Will Hunting," and "Harry Potter 6." I learned that Diamonds are Forever tends to be a good Bond film overall, but Never Say Never Again is abysmal.  Also, Arsenic and Old Lace Remains Funny and rewatchable, probably in great part because of Cary Grant.

January 5: We arrived in Tokyo at 4:45 and they immediately had a great system set up for helping the passengers with tight connections due to the delay. We went through immigration and customs easily and got on the train for Tokyo. Overall we had a pretty easy time on the subway even though it was rush hour until it came time to get off, and there were so many people, and we had so much baggage I thought we might not make it. Thankfully a couple other people in our way got off too and we spent the next 3 hours at the Starbucks at Shinagawa waiting for our night bus which left at 10:50.

January 6: We finally got to Niigata at about 6:00am, but had to wait until 6:47 for our train to Murakami. We finished our traveling by 8:00am and took a taxi home. Our apartment was 43 degrees when we got in and we immediately unpacked and went shopping for groceries and our new electronic dictionary which was a Christmas gift. We were lazy and ate lunch at the ramen restaurant in the mall here, then went home did a bit of organizing and took a "nap" at 2:00pm. We re-awoke at 7:45, watched NCIS with Meghan and went to bed again by 10:00.

January 7: Back to work today! I kept waking up starting at 2:00am, and decided by 5:30 I would just get up and do Lower body workout and ab jam for my morning exercise, watched the Daily Show, and got ready. Now I'm back at work getting ready for my first class of the new year. I have a meeting after school and I'm looking forward to getting back into my schedule.