Fireworks, Moving, and Matsuris

Hello! A lot has happened since my last post. First of all, I moved into a new apartment. It is a great location, very clean, and a lot of my friends (and even two my my professors) live here. However, the house where Kate and I lived had four bedrooms, and this apartment is a studio which, all and all, is smaller than any one bedroom in our former house. I am perfectly comfortable in this size space, but I still have way too much stuff! So, I will hold off posting pictures until I have found a way to get rid of all the extra stuff -- probably until next week.

Also, summer fireworks shows are a big deal in Japan, and I have attended two in the past two weeks, lasting a grand total of 3 hours. And in both places, I had a connection which enabled me to watch the show from a comfortable apartment balcony, instead of jammed in with the thousands and thousands of people on the street. One of these fireworks shows was in Asakusa, a famous Tokyo neighborhood, and I watched it at my friend's nice apartment. The other festival was a part of the activities for the Tanabata Matsuri (festival) in Sendai which I watched with my friends Chie and Daisukes' families.

I went to Sendai this past weekend on the very generous invitation of my friends. In addition to watching the fireworks, we also walked around the festival in traditional Japanese yukatas, and ate delicious food prepared by Chie's mother. I wore tall "geta" sandals.





Nagu had a great time. He seemed to be particularly thrilled to have the opportunity to play with his older cousin, Yu-kun.





During the festival these streamer-type decorations are put up all over the city. No one was able to tell me why, although Chie thought it might have something to do with their resemblance to the Milky Way.




This sign says:
"The booth for fixing yukatas that have come unfastened." The booth is run by the "Association for the Spread of an Ethnic Clothing Culture."

Moving

is really no fun.

This past week, we both moved into out new places. I'll let Mike talk about his new digs.

As for me, I've carried in all the boxes, but unpacked nothing yet - fun for the weekend!

I hope to have internet soon, so that I can share some pictures of the interior.

Update II

Since I’m posting these about weekly, here’s to another week!

I don’t really have that much to report. I’m moving next week, so I’m mostly spending this weekend not thinking about moving (yeah right). On Tuesday the very lovely syl and I will rent a truck and drive down and get our furniture from Tacoma where our friend has been keeping it for us. The containers will all our earthly belongings will be delivered to the new address on Wednesday. I’ll spend Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights unloading them a little. I have friends coming on Saturday and Sunday for the big unload.

Also, I helped some friends move on Wednesday (my nanny charge was sick, so I had the day off). We discovered that they had a little Murphy bed in their apartment – they were using it for storage, not sleeping, so we never knew about it. I find this very cute. I wonder how old that bed is?Also, here are two of our Seattle friends toasting to the end of the moving day.Other than thinking about moving . . . .

I want you to know that I have been eating well. I, of course, haven’t really been cooking (if you don't count cheese sandwiches), but here are some shots of delicious food made by my friends.Blueberry pie made by Lisa and Corey.Antipasti made by Kristian.Milkshakes (a group effort).

In other news, although, like my friend Wally, I am not generally a fan of the cat-beasts, I have been seeing a lot of them lately.One of these creatures is much happier than the other

This is the cat of our friends who moved on Wednesday. She is exploring her new surroundings.

Hello Again!

I haven’t had great email access since I’ve arrived in Seattle. Where I’m currently staying, only my friend’s computer can access the internet, so while I can read and reply to emails, I can’t easily blog or post photos.

But today I’m at a very cool cafe, Cloud City Coffee (is that not the best name?), that has wifi, so I’m able to use my own computer. There's a picture of the cafe below.

Things have been going okay. I miss Mike a lot (a lot a lot!), but life here is pretty busy. I’ve been nannying for two different families that each have six month-old boys. The work isn’t all that intellectually stimulating, but it’s nice to take the babies on walks, to the park, etc. I even took one to Pike Place Market last week! I just about had a migraine from the stress of it all, but we survived just fine.

In two weeks, I’ll drop down to just one family and then start my new part-time job. This job is the same job I’ll be doing once school starts – it’s just on an hourly basis during the summer. I’m not going to say any more than that (or the nanny jobs) here because I don’t want to be dooced (although it might be worth it if I could write like that). But, suffice it to say, I’m very, very happy about said new job.

In part, I’m happy about the job because it allows us to get our own place. While I’d dreamed of staying in Fremont, the market has just gone crazy (funny what an organic grocery store and a spate of condo conversions will do to your neighborhood). Our money went much further elsewhere. So, after living in Fremont since 2000 (excepting the obvious, of course), I’ll be leaving.

Our place is big and light and airy. There’s secure parking, an elevator, and a washer and dryer on every floor. The kitchen is nice, too. There’s a direct bus to campus and another to downtown that run just a few blocks from our place.

Here’s a picture of the new building:Although we will no longer have seventeen Thai restaurants within a ten minute walk, the new area is quite nice, if more sedate: more single family homes, fewer young hipsters. There’s a ginormous Safeway not far away, and very cool coffeeshop (with free wifi and yummy food) just a few blocks from our apartment. Here’s a picture of the coffeeshop:So I’ll be moving in early August, hopefully with the help of my wonderful, amazing, beautiful, and very talented friends. I’m trying not to dread the move and rather just focus on how nice it will be to be settled back with all of our familiar belongings. It’s been pretty hot in Seattle these last two days (yesterday it was 98 degrees [just like the boy band!]), so I am fervently hoping that the moving day will be cooler.

I’m headed down to San Diego August 8th-14th for a little visit. I haven’t seen my grandparents in a year, so I am looking forward to the trip. My brother will also be in town then, so hopefully we can hit the beach together!

The Magic of Sumo

A sumo tournament runs for 15 days, and each day, there are scores of matches. There are no official time limits on the matches, and there is also no limit to the number of times that the wrestlers can throw salt and stare at one another before the match begins. And yet, somehow, the matches always end right around 6:00 pm, just in time for the news. How does that happen?

On a related note, here is a commercial where of one of my favorite sumo wrestlers eats noodles. Mmmmmmmm.

Tsukuba's extended forecast

Tuesday: Rain, heavy at times; humid
Wednesday: Rain
Thursday: Rainy
Friday: Humid with rain
Saturday: Mostly cloudy and humid; chance of a shower in the afternoon
Sunday: Overcast and humid with rain possible
Next Monday: Rain
Next Tuesday: Humid with rain.
Next Wednesday: Cloudy with rain possible.

Also, right now (Monday night), it is pouring. It has rained all day. Wikipedia has a good discussion of tsuyu, the Japanese rainy season, for interested parties.

Forecast from Accuweather.

What we've been up to

We've had a crazy couple of weeks, but things are finally settling down. We attended my old college roommate's wedding in Hood River, OR, which was fantastic. You can find some pictures here.

And this past week I attended a huge international conference in the same Japanese city where I was an exchange student in high school. Although schmoozing is usually not my forte, I did some pretty good schmoozing at this conference, and my presentation went pretty well.

Katem is now living in Seattle, getting ready for school in the fall and doing some babysitting. MHS is back in Tsukuba, getting ready to move to a smaller place at the end of the month.

The Fish for Breakfast World Cup Challenge: And the Winner is...

Team Competition for Breakfast, affiliated with Dogs that Blog (team owner lives in same house as chief blogger, Wally). The team owner is actually my former roommate, Jay. Great job, Jay!

Here are the other results:
2nd place - Team Semi-Rapid, affiliated with Matt Rochkind's Fat Blog.
3rd place - Team Gluck, no blog affiliation.
4th place (tie) - Team KL, affiliated with Finding Resonance.
4th place (tie) - Team Calicio and Cocomero, affiliated with Prosciutto and Peanutbutter.
6th place - Team Tsukuba Divers, by MHS, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
7th place - SE1 - by frequent Fish for Breakfast commentator MD
8st place - Team Okachimachi, by Katem, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.

Standings after Week 4 of the Fish for Breakfast World Cup Challenge

1st place - Team KL, affiliated with Finding Resonance.
2nd place - Team Competition for Breakfast, affiliated with Dogs that Blog (team owner lives in same house as chief blogger, Wally).
3rd place (tie) - Team Semi-Rapid, affiliated with Matt Rochkind's Fat Blog.
4th place (tie) - Team Gluck, no blog affiliation.
4th place (tie) - Team Tsukuba Divers, by MHS, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
6th place (tie) - Team Okachimachi, by Katem, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
6th place (tie) - Team Calicio and Cocomero, affiliated with Prosciutto and Peanutbutter.
8th place - SE1 - by frequent Fish for Breakfast commentator MD

This is the second to last week, but based on my understanding of the point system, no team has yet been mathematically eliminated. So, team KL should not begin celebrating just yet -- the Divers are close behind.

Also, for the record, the amount of kibbitzing on the Bulletin Board has declined below acceptable levels.

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was the Strausz parents' 33rd wedding anniversary! To celebrate, we took them out for a very nice Peruvian meal.Also, speaking of food (and why would one speak of anything else?), here are some pictures of the pancakes we ate the other day. According to AOL, this place is supposed to have the best pancakes in the city. They were good!In other news, the B&B where we are currently staying has a pet rabbit, Callie. So we got to hold Callie while we watched the soccer game yesterday. Some of us were more interested in Callie than the soccer game.Yesterday (between the two soccer games! Priorities!) we also went to Portland's Saturday market. The market had lots of beautiful flowers and yummy food.

Standings after Week 3 of the Fish for Breakfast World Cup Challenge

1st place - Team Okachimachi, by Katem, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
2nd place - Team Semi-Rapid, affiliated with Matt Rochkind's Fat Blog.
3rd place (tie) - Team Gluck, no blog affiliation.
3rd place (tie) - Team Tsukuba Divers, by MHS, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
5th place - Team KL, affiliated with Finding Resonance.
6th place - Team Competition for Breakfast, affiliated with Dogs that Blog (team owner lives in same house as chief blogger, Wally).
7th place - Team Calicio and Cocomero, affiliated with Prosciutto and Peanutbutter.
8th place - SE1 - by frequent Fish for Breakfast commentator MD

Also, for the record, the amount of kibbitzing on the Bulletin Board has improved markedly.

Whirlwind

We arrived safely back in Seattle on Wednesday morning. We had lunch with some friends, took a nap, had dinner with more friends and then tried to sleep a regular night Wednesday night. We couldn't. Not. A. Wink. So Thursday morning found us very tired. We also bought our car back from our good friend who'd been keeping it for us and then proceeded to drive down to Portland. The drive was rough, considering that we were both exhausted - but we got here, and Mike's parents were so happy to see us!

We spent last night (when we got much better sleep!) at a very cute hotel. The hotel is in a former school (operational from 1915-1975), so each classroom has been divided in two to make hotel rooms.

Here are a few pictures I took this morning:(the last photo is of the cloakroom/closet in our room)

Now we are off to have very delicious pancakes! Yay!

Japan, in a nutshell

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.

Final Guest Round-up

So the guests have all left (or moved on to other cities within Japan), and we leave for the airport shortly.

Here are a few last Japan pics from Monday, when Mike and I went to Asakusa and then met up with Karen for dinner.

An Ode to Choco Cro

I've ridden the Tsukuba Express for the last time. I've also had my last choco cro.

In honor of the latter event, I'll share with you a poem jointly written by me, MHS, Miso, and Peso. Although we wrote this together in March, I just found it again now as I was clearing off my desk.

First, some pics to set the mood . . . .
An Ode to Choco Cro

O Choco Cro, how sweet and melty is your chocolate center,
You are best fresh, still warm from the oven
Yet, even cooled, you are a tasty treat.

O Choco Cro, how buttery and flaky is your pastry exterior,
Clad in a cone-shaped orange wrapper
A treat beyond the electronic dictionaries of Akihabara.

O Choco Cro, 20 minutes not lost, but gained.

Big Events

1. Mike’s Happio. Mike gave a little presentation, a happio, at his university on Friday. For being at 4:45 on a nice Friday afternoon in the summer and in English, the talk was surprisingly well-attended. Mike spoke for about 40 minutes, and then took questions for about 25 minutes. The talk highlighted his research thus far and showed some really good information that he’d discovered - all making a convincing case for his approach. His slides were really nice and the talk was very clear. He definitely held everyone’s interest. Good job! After the talk, we went out for celebratory dinner. Here's a shot of the man in action (sorry for the quality of the picture - I kind of took it on the sly): 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.

Ch-ch-changes

So I am headed back to Seattle soon; Mike will follow in a few months. We’ll be living with our good friend Lisa, so in addition to saving money, we’re hoping to have a really good time!

I’m excited to be going back—but that’s a subject for another post. Or six.

First, I need to say something that’s been hanging over my head for a while. This is different from most of the posts I’ve written, because it’s more personal than most of what we post here. And maybe this isn’t is a big a deal as I am making it seem; but it feels pretty big to me, so that’s all I’ve got to go on. To some of you—the amazing ones who’ve listened to me cry, helped me work through things, given me the courage to move forward, proof-read my applications, and will, no doubt, be there in the days to come—this is not new. But for others, this is new news, or at least new news in this more settled form.

(With all those disclaimers out of the way . . . )

When we go back to Seattle, I won’t be going back to the graduate program. I love the subject, but I just don’t love the process of writing a dissertation. While I know everyone feels that way (What was I expecting? A pony?), I was feeling it worst than most, I think. But hiding it better, perhaps. I won’t detail how miserable I was because that’s just lame and pathetic. I’ll just sum it by saying it wasn’t that I thought I’d have regrets if a potato chip truck whipped around the corner and flattened me, it was that I kept wishing that it would.

Do I have a new plan? Heck, yes! I’ll be on campus at the College of Education, training to be a high school social studies teacher. I’m happy about this—happy to be back in the classroom, happy to be working with kids, and happy to be training in a sector where the jobs are relatively more abundant. If I hadn’t gone to grad school, I would have worked a few years and then become a high school government teacher, so this is hardly a new career direction for me.

All the same, it’s bittersweet. I think I’ll be much happier in the long-term, but I’d be lying if I told you that I felt totally happy right now. Truth be told, I feel like a total failure and a flunkie. Like someone who couldn’t hack it, because, well, maybe I couldn’t. Or maybe I chose not to. But I just can’t quite grasp the difference quite yet. I want to be in a place where I can say something like, “I was enrolled in a Ph.D. program, but it just wasn’t where I needed to be (or my calling?), so I left and became a teacher.” But right now that rolls off my tongue about as easily as dry cotton. I think, once I’m more settled in this career direction, explaining the switch will get easier.

I’m tired, though, of holding my breath when I tell people I’m doing this, searching for that flicker of judgment that a hyper-sensitive me is ever-ready to perceive. I’ve noticed that I get one of two responses. Response 1: “Teaching is great, it’s a very rewarding a career, you really make a difference, you have summers off, you have your kids’ vacation schedule, etc.” Often, this person will follow up by noting the teachers that are in her/his family. That’s nice. That makes me feel good. Response 2: “You’re doing what, considering what you could have done . . . ? With kids these days the way they are? And all the school shootings? Nobody respects teachers. You know, most teachers don’t even make it five years in the job?” Okay, see, this makes me feel less good. This is not a helpful response. You know, if you can’t say something nice . . . .

So this is where I am, and why I’m doing what I’m doing. You heard it here first (maybe).

Standings after Week 2 of the Fish for Breakfast World Cup Challenge

1st place - Team KL, affiliated with Finding Resonance.
2nd place - Team Gluck, no blog affiliation.
3rd place - Team Tsukuba Divers, by MHS, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
4rd place (tie) - Team Okachimachi, by Katem, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
4rd place (tie) - Team Calicio and Cocomero, affiliated with Prosciutto and Peanutbutter.
6th place - Team Semi-Rapid, affiliated with Matt Rochkind's Fat Blog.
7th place - Team Competition for Breakfast, affiliated with Dogs that Blog (team owner lives in same house as chief blogger, Wally).
8th place - SE1 - by frequent Fish for Breakfast commentator MD

Also, for the record, the amount of kibbitzing on the Bulletin Board has improved somewhat, but remains insufficient.

The guests, part 2

My brother and his friend spent their first day in Tokyo at Asakusa and Ueno. Yesterday, I took them to Yoyogi Park, Harajuku, and Shibuya. Today, they’re spending their last day in Tokyo doing a bit of everything – the Edo Museum, the Imperial Palace, Ginza, and kabuki theater.

Here are some pictures from yesterday. This was actually the first time I’d ever been in this part of Yoyogi Park – you have to pay to enter the iris garden, and it never seemed worth it when the irises weren’t in bloom. But I’m glad that I finally got to do this! The garden was beautiful.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.