Things I’ll miss about Japan:
1. The amazing and super-fresh sushi (duh)
2. The convenience of having two grocery stores, a farmer’s market, a post office, and a bank all within a five minute walk.
3. Doho Park (although it’s pretty similar to Green Lake park, so I’ll manage).
4. The awesome public transportation—and the beast.
5. The super-cute kids The other day I stopped at a crosswalk to let a nursery school class cross, and they all galloped across holding hands and shouting “arrigato.”
6. The beautiful flowers – on the cherry trees, in the gardens, and in the parks.
7. The luxury of having time that was all my own. Unsurprisingly, life had a very nice pace here.
8. Tokyo
9. The great produce—and the amazing variety of super-cheap mushrooms.
10. The fact that there’s a tool, cloth, box, sponge, etc. designed for every purpose, from picking things up off the railroad tracks, to tying up various goods like a hobo, to giving gifts and eating your bento lunch, to cleaning the space between the burners on your stove.
Things I won’t miss about Japan:
1. Not really being able to understand anything unfamiliar. I’m at the point now where I can do rote tasks with ease, but even the slightest change or hitch really confuses me, and I’m apt to (want to) give up.
2. My social life here. I have a few great friends, but they all have lives that are much busier than mine. Sometimes, it’s just downright lonely. I’d see women my age out on the street, but I just know that the odds are certainly stacked against us ever becoming friends.
3. The cold winter in the poorly insulated house. Also, the very sticky and buggy summer.
4. Not having an oven. This might be the longest I’ve gone without baking anything since I started cooking seriously in high school.
5. The very small fridge and the very small washing machine – this meant that I had to shop and do laundry nearly every day. Which was okay, since I really wasn't doing anything else, but still . . . . .
6. Using only salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash, and chili pepper as spices, and no reasonably priced fresh herbs. All our food started to taste the same.
7. The puffy white bread the size of pillow, conveniently sold in packs of three(!) slices at the grocery store. What’s a girl gotta do to get a loaf of whole wheat bread?
8. Not having a decent gym or any exercise classes. I ran outside when the weather allowed, and did yoga DVDs when it didn’t. But that was it.
9. Being out of the country for holidays, weddings, birthdays, and other special events.
10. Not having to go down a steep and narrow staircase in order to use the facilities in the middle of the night.
(the last photo is of the cloakroom/closet in our room)
2. Farewell lunch with Daisuke, Chie, and Nagu. Saturday we went into Tokyo for a farewell lunch with our friends. Even though it isn’t really farewell, since they are coming to the States for a visit in late August and Mike will be able to keep seeing them here, it still felt very sad. I also think that, over the long term we’ll remain great friends with them and be able to keep seeing them – but goodbyes are always sad! We had a super-yummy Japanese lunch and then we went out for some super-yummier dessert afterwards. Nagu was, of course, as cute as ever.
It also had a few classic signs:
Then we walked around Harajuku, where I saw this toy. Not sure that I would buy it for any budding geniuses I know, though. (Pay careful attention to the lower left corner of the label).
Last, I leave you with the unspeakable humiliation of being a lapdog in Japan. As if being a lapdog wasn’t enough.
On their first day, we poked around Akihabara, had soba at the place that SYL and I found, they went to Ueno park (while I went to go participate in a focus group about what Americans think about transportation in Japan), and then we all met Mike for Indian food for dinner.
Then, we headed back to Tsukuba in time for The Official Antti and Kate Sayonara Party. The party was great, and after the party we hit the karaoke box. We sang our hearts out for two hours (others stayed on for extra time, too!).
Sunday we again went to Tokyo, this time to Harajuku, in hopes of catching sight of some of freaks. Unfortunately, since it was POURING rain, the freaks weren’t out in great numbers. Apparently being a freak is a bit of a fair weather enterprise. However, we still had fun shopping for various whatnot at Daiso and then buying neat socks on Takeshita Street.
We also had a great view of the rice paddies from the mountain.
Onsens are usually associated with traditional Japanese inns, so we were treated to bean snacks in our rooms, yukata robes to wear down to the baths, and a nice dinner.
It was good fun!
Next, we made bookmarks with a sappy poem (scroll to the bottom of the page). In keeping with the poem’s theme, we used some Ed Emberely-inspired fingerprint art to decorate the bookmarks. When all the bookmarks were finished, I laminated them.
Overall, teaching art was a really fun and rewarding experience. I really don’t have any interest in teaching elementary art for the long-term, though. I worry that I am not nurturing enough to be both nice and firm/structured with a large number of young kids for long stretches of the day. And I still have a lot of trouble with balancing the importance of following directions with allowing space for individual creativity with the art materials.
