Awesome Ski Trip

So this Friday was National Foundation Day (Kigen-setsu) in Japan. I have no idea what that holiday is all about, but it meant that we got a three day weekend! After four days sitting at a desk for training, Lauren and I were ready for something fun and outdoors. Skiing! So we asked around and found out that Matthew, a teacher from Australia, was planning a trip and he let us come along.

It was about a one hour drive to the Zao Onsen ski resort, but the drive up was beautiful.

These pictures are from the road to we drove on

Renting skis was very simple. We just went into the shop, signed a piece of paper and paid some money. They didn't ask for ID or a credit card or anything! I love that they can do that in this country and not get robbed blind.

Matthew claimed that the mountain was "Okay" but not that great, so Lauren and I weren't expecting anything too amazing. We must have terrible skiing in Pittsburgh, though, because this mountain had the best skiing we've ever experienced! It was huge. It took a half hour and three different ski lifts to get to the very top. Whoever designed the ski lift system there is brilliant. First, they give you a magnetic card that you put in your coat pocket. You just walk by a little machine at the bottom of each lift that verifies your lift ticket! Second, they have lifts with wind shields that drop down in front of you as you go up. This made the lifts the warmest part of the day instead of the coldest like they are in Pittsburgh.

The weather was gorgeous, the snow conditions were great, the trails were all really wide and a lot of fun. The best part, though, was the view. Here are some pictures of what we saw.

This is me!

The love of my life in her cute purple hat.

At the very top of the mountain, the trees were covered in snow to the point where you literally could not tell they were trees. The ski resort advertised them as snow monsters. It was kind of a creepy site. Here are some pictures of them.

SNOW MONSTERS! AHHHH!

Here you can see the trees turning into snow monsters.

At the end of the day, Lauren decided to try some Kanyaku, which is some kind of jellied root vegetable that was on sale at a street vendor next to where we rented skis. You can kind of tell from the picture how much she enjoyed it. Hooray for trying new things!

We Can Ride The Bus

Today was a very exciting day -- it snowed, we took the bus ourselves, we went to welcome parties, and I found out that I'll be teaching 3rd grade!

This past week we've been training in the MeySen curriculum and teaching strategies for 6 hours a day.  We've received a ton of information, but it's all be very helpful and neither of us feel like it's been overwhelming.  I am really really excited to be back in the classroom -- I've almost forgotten how much I really love teaching.


When we woke up this morning we were excited to find a dusting of snow and see snow falling to the ground.  Maybe it's the kid in me, but I just LOVE snow.  Every time it snows I get excited about it like a little kid.  Unlike Pittsburgh snow, almost all of this white fluffy stuff had melted by early afternoon :-\


After training, Kris and I decided to try a new adventure -- taking the bus to Book Off (a kind of thrift store or Big Lots).  Since all the buses and bus schedules are in Japanese, this is no easy task!  We asked a few teachers who have been here before if they'd ever taken the bus.  One teacher asked the assistants (who help English speakers get around Sendai and figure things out) to look up the bus schedule for us.  She let us know which bus to take there and where the bus stop was, but told us that there were no more buses coming back to MeySen.  We decided to take our chances -- MeySen is uphill from a highway so we figured we would probably find a bus coming back towards the school on the highway.  We figured that if we didn't get a bus, we could just walk the 3 km back to MeySen.


Thanks to the instructions on the Sendai Bus Transportation English Page, we got to Book-Off with almost no trouble (except I didn't realize which stop was ours, so we had to go to the next stop, which gave us about 1 1/2 extra blocks of walking).   Contrary to its name, Book-Off sells more than just used books (though there were rows and rows and rows of shelves filled with Manga -- eat your heart out Madelyn!)  It has clothes, music equipment, sporting equipment, clothes, toys, housewares, etc.  We were both able to get clothes for our upcoming ski trip (since we didn't have room to bring all our ski gear with us).

Kris waiting at the bus stop

Catching the bus back turned out to be a bit of an adventure.  We decided to walk in the direction of home and see if we could find any bus stops.  Just as we got to a bus stop, a bus pulled up.  We got on and hoped for the best.  Turns out we got on the wrong bus lol! When the bus went straight at an intersection where we wanted to go left, we decided to get off at the next stop.  We showed the bus driver our English map of Sendai and tried to find out if there was another bus we could take, but he didn't understand us. One of the women on the bus did speak English, but all she could tell us was that the bus was not going where we wanted to go.  The bus driver did have mercy on us by letting us get off the bus without paying.


We turned around and continued to walk back towards the intersection we passed and back to the school.  When we got to a bus stop at the intersection, a bus pulled up and appeared to be going in the same direction as us.  Again we crossed our fingers, hoped for the best, and got on the bus.  This time we were right!  The bus let off on the main highway right by the school!  When we got off the bus, I jumped up and down and happily shouted about our victory.  I may or may not have karate kicked the air a few times in glee (as Kris pretended not to know me haha).  It may not seem like a big deal, but I was THRILLED that we were able to accomplish something on our own in a foreign country without speaking any of the language.

Can you see why it was so confusing?!

Tonight each department also hosted welcoming parties for the new teachers.  Kris and I went to separate departments since he is teaching the Friends Club and I am teaching the Immersion Friends Club.  At my party we ate tacos and ice cream (both big treats here!).  We also played a few games -- it wasn't until we got into 5-team charades that I realized how competitive people at this school are!  For 5-team charades, each team had 1 representative that acted out the motions while their teammates guessed.  So all the teams were guessing and acting out at the same time.  The team that got it first and made noise won the point.  This lead to some disputes about who really guessed it first, so we solved the problem by saying that which every team guessed correctly, got the marker, and put a point next to their team first was the winner.  Well, this turned into some hilarious chaos as people began wrestling for the marker.  It was so intense!!!!  After that we also played cops and robbers which is basically hide and seek with all the lights off.  It was a fun night and even felt a little like youth group for adults haha.



Playing 5-team charades in the Tatami room

 I also found out that I will be teaching 3rd grade which I am super excited about!  I was hoping to get 3rd or 4th grade (since this year the oldest grade in the Immersion program will be 4th grade). Greg, who is also a new teacher, will be teaching the other 3rd grade class.  He subbed with 3rd grade, so I'm glad we'll get to collaborate.  I bet he'll have some good ideas for playtime too.

Goin Dahntahn

Today we went ta dahntahn Sendai.  (Yinz guys can take da girl outta da burgh butcha can't take da burgh ahtta da girl. If yinz guys dahn't know what dat means look it up.)  Our adventures today included a group of 19 new American teachers travelling together in a pack to learn how to take the subway into downtown Sendai (since MeySen is on the edge of the city).  It was a fun but exhausting day.

The subway station is about a 15 minute walk from our current apartment.  When we got there we spotted something wonderful....STARBUCKS!!!!

After we stopped to enjoy some delicious Starbucks, we learned how to buy subway tickets.  This is a picture of our guide and transition expert, Melissa buying tickets. 

To get to the subway, you put your ticket in the slot at one end and it shoots out at the other end and you pick it up as you enter.  It's the same as subways in NYC.  I think it's easier to get used to walking around Sendai and taking transportation if you've lived in or been to a big city before. 

The Japanese people treat the subway like Americans treat the elevator -- they sit in silence, looking slightly down.  If they do talk it is in a whisper to the people next to them.  Needless to say, as a large group of excited Americans, we made a lot of noise.  We weren't shouting or trying to be loud, but we certainly weren't silent.  I'm sure they were glad when we got off the train haha.

The Sendai subway stop lets off in the middle of the shopping district.  Our first destination was the Ichibancho Arcade, an open-air covered mall that is 1.5 km long (a little less than 1 mile).  Like an American mall it has all kinds of clothing stores and restaurants.  It also has many drug stores, arcades, Karaoke places, and pachinkos (casinos where panchinko machines are used for gambling) and 100-yen stores.

We were thrilled to go to the 100-yen store.  It is basically a dollar store, since $1.20 = 100 yen.  This store was 5 stories and had everything you could imagine!!!!!!!!  It really puts the dollar stores in the US to shame!  We bought a ton of stuff we needed (and a few things we didin't!) while we were there.  Most of the other teachers were thrilled to go there too, since things at the grocery store and drug stores can be expensive.

Eileen, Barbara, and Danielle in front of the 100 yen store.


After lunch we hit up one of the Karaoke places with our friends Aharon, Caitlin, and Ashley.  It was really frustrating at first because the woman who worked there didn't speak any English and we didn't speak any Japanese.  Who would have thought it would be so hard to communicate that 5 people wanted to do Karaoke for 1 hour????  We finally had to break out Ashley's phrase book and butcher our way through "One hour, five people" and it worked!  I am already learning how hard it must be for non-native English speakers in the USA.

The Karaoke place had about 9 floors, and each floor had about 10 small rooms/booths in it.  We were given a room number and inside were 3 benches, a table, a TV and sound system, remotes in Japanese, and some sweet lighting effects.  Again we ran into some trouble - the remote, tv, and sound systems all had Japenese writing.  We were so worried that we were going to spend the whole hour trying to play music.  Luckily I was able to find the English button on the remote and Aharon figured out how to work the sound system, so after about 10 minutes we were having a blast!  Because you are singing in a small room with only your friends, you can go crazy singing and dancing without feeling self-concious.  It is AWESOME!!!!  And it only cost us 160 yen (about $1.75) each!!!!!  I think they make most of their money from the drinks and food you can order. I included a video of Kris singing Karaoke so you could see all the fun lighting effects!

One of the floors with many rooms in the Karaoke building.

The walls looked white like this when regular lights were on or when a flash goes off (like when Kris took this pic). This is Ashley, Caitlin, and I singing "Love Shack".

When the lights went out, the walls came alive with blacklight effects like this one behind me!

As we walked back to the beginning of the mall we stopped at one of the arcades.  Half of the main floor were claw machines.  There had to have been at least 20 claw machines! 

Of course the claw machine with Hello Kitty was in front. Notice how all the toys are lined up -- all the claw machines are like this.  The OCD in me appreciates this very much :-)



All the machines you see are claw machines!



We saw 2 guys playing this game that was like Guitar Hero but with drums!  It looks like so much fun and they were crazy good at it.

There was another game that was also like a combination of wack-a-mole and Guitar Hero.  When the colored dot appears on the screen you hit the corresponding colored light on the panel.

The last place we went before meeting up with the rest of the group was the AER building, which is the tallest building in Sendai.  Don't get too excited -- it's only 31 floors tall.  But there was a neat look-out area on the top floor that was free to go to.

The view from AER tower.  The long tube running through the middle of the building is the Ichibancho Arcade (the mall).



This picture is for my mom: look it's a salt shaker parking garage!



It was a great day, but by the time we got home we were exhaused.  We made our own dinner of rice and these instant beef curry packets -- not too bad for 75 yen.  I ended the day, as I do every day in Japan, with the Japanese art of bathing -- a hot shower followed by a nice, relaxing soak in a hot bath. (Have you guys noticed that she has written about this in every blog? This woman loves her hot bath!)  This is definitely my favorite thing I've experienced about Japan thus far.

Downtown Sendai

Birthday Celebrations in Japan

Today was my birthday AND my first full day in Japan.  Though I was sad to be away from home and the people I love on this day, it was a fun day filled with new experiences.  We spent the day traveling around with 3 others: Jake, Alycia, and Caitlin.  We went to the alien registration office where we sat for a looooong time and got to know each other while Rumi and Mia filled out paper work and spoke to officials for us.  We also went to the bank and opened up bank accounts.  Again, we sat while they did the work.

The Japanese LOVE cartoons for everything.  This is a cartoon pamphlet for...something.  We were bored so we made up our own dialog to go with it.   Notice how in the one picture there is snot and tears coming out of the frog's face. Gross.

Rumi and Alycia at the immigration office.  Notice the face mask of the worker.  The Japanese LOVE to wear these.  Everywhere. All the time.

In the evening Jake, Aharon, Caitlin, and Alycia came with Kris and I to a Korean Barbecue place.  We ordered a large platter of raw meat and grilled it at our table!  It was sooooo good and very fun! We had pork, beef, steak strips, and cow tongue.  The cow tongue was surprisingly good! It was hard to communicate with our waitress because she didn't speak any English.  Luckily the menu had a lot of pictures so we could point to what we wanted.  She did get confused and sent us 3 orders of something we didn't want that we had to send back.  I felt pretty silly about it.

This is where we celebrated my birthday

Cow Tongue -- tastier than it looks!

After dinner, I showered Japanese style and it was glorious!  This means you shower first outside the tub with soap and shampoo.  Once you are clean, you get in the tub to soak -- basically a hot tub!  Because you are clean, when you are done you cover up the tub and can use it the next day.  When you are ready to use it all you have to do is hit the "reheat" button!  In this way the Japanese are BRILLIANT!

Thanks to everyone who offered me wonderful birthday wishes on facebook, email, or phone calls.  I miss my friends and family, but I am definitely enjoying this exciting new world!

Welcome to the Old Apartment...

We'd like to show you where we will be living for the next 2 months.  At the end of March we will move into a new apartment -- we will take over an apartment for a married couple that is leaving. 

We live in Sendai (on the east coast of the country).  It is about 200 miles north of Tokyo.

This is our apartment building.  It is located on the MeySen Academy campus.  The building next door has the cafeteria where we eat 2 free meals a day.  Our apartment is the one on the top left.



Welcome!  When you step inside, please leave your shoes on the entry way.  In Japan, guests walk in each others' homes in their socks or in guest slippers that the homeowners provide, like the ones pictured here. (I have an issue with feet, so I prefer to walk in socks rather than slippers that have been worn by other people -- gross!)

When you turn to the left from the entry way, you walk into our tiny bedroom, like Kris is doing.  Careful, Kris, you almost hit your head on the doorway!  It's so short! (I'm HUGE over here! I love it)

Look how tiny our bedroom is!  And yes, we are sleeping in 2 twin beds that have been pushed together.  At least they are western style beds and not futons. Behind the beds is a sliding glass door to our small balcony.

Here is the view to the left from our balcony.  That road goes up the hill to MeySen Academy.  In fact, you can see the office building sitting on the top of the hill.  Makes for a nice short walk to work!

If you walk out the bedroom door, you will walk straight into the kitchen.  This is a view of the kitchen from the toilet room and shower room doors.  Look how small it is!  Fortunately, the cafeteria next door offers free lunch and dinner, so we won't have to do much cooking.  In this room is also our washer/dryer - which we are THRILLED to have so we don't have to go to the laundromat.  Even though the kitchen is limited in space, there are 5 ways to heat water (the Japanese love their tea).  From left to right: the gas stove and kettle, the faucet (has an option for boiling water coming directly out of the faucet), the electric water heater, and the coffee pot (behind the heater).

Next to the kitchen table is the door to the shower room and the toilet room.  In Japan, the toilet is located in a separate room from the shower.  This is because the Japanese shower differently than we do.  They are brilliant about bathing, really.  First, they shower with soap and shampoo on the right side of the room (in the shower area).  Then, after they are clean, they soak in very hot water in the tub to relax. Because you are clean, when you are done with your bath, you can cover it up to use it again the next day to save water.  When you are ready for your bath, all you have to do is hit the reheat button and the water in the tub will be warm and ready for you.  It's like having a hot tub in your bathroom!  I love it and after only 2 days of using it, I am convinced I must have this in my own home when I get back to America. (She's not exaggerating. Lauren loves this thing. She uses the tub at least once a day. I tried it too and it's a great way to relax.)

Our Trip to Japan

So the long wait is finally over. We're in Japan! The trip over was very exciting and very boring at the same time.


We got up pretty early so we could stop in at my men's group meeting in order to get prayed over. It was a pretty emotional goodbye for me since we have been meeting together for over a year. It really meant a lot that they were willing to lay hands on us and ask God to help us on our way.


I was really stressed about getting to the airport on time (Holy moses, yes he was!), so of course we were late. God took care of us though. It was the fastest check-in and security line that I've ever seen during daylight hours before!


We were supposed to fly out on Delta and have a fifty minute layover in Detroit before heading overseas. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed by more than fifty minutes! At first Delta said we were out of luck, but they found a United Airlines flight for us through the Washington-Dullas airport.


On our flight to Japan we were in the second to last row which was good and bad. It was good because we had the whole middle row of four seats to ourselves. And the armrests lifted up! Lauren took full advantage of that by laying down all the way for about half the flight. 

The downside of that was the meal choices. They fed us three times on the plane and two of those times we had a choice of meals. They actually had really good meal choices... for people sitting near the front. There was always one really good meal and one terrible sounding one and we knew as soon as they announced it that they would be out of the good meals by the time they got to us. We survived on Ramen and tea. (Coffee for Lauren of course).


The first six or seven hours of the flight were really enjoyable for us. We got to relax, read, watch movies, snooze. We hadn't really gotten to relax all week because we were so frantically trying to get everything ready before our trip. The flight just went on and on and on though. It eventually got really boring and uncomfortable.


When we got to the airport we went through passport control and then got our bags from the conveyor so we could take them through customs. When I picked up one of my suitcases, it felt really light to me, so I opened it up. My xbox, which I had packed in the suitcase, was missing. Some baggage handler somewhere has it in his house somewhere I guess. I was pretty upset at the time, but I'm over it now. I think the airline will reimburse me for it anyway.


Then we met up with all of the other new teachers and stood around in an awkward 'I don't know who you people are' get to know you kind of circle (Calling it awkward is an understatement!). We actually really like all of the other new teachers. We've had a lot of fun hanging out already.


We had a five hour bus ride from the airport to our apartment. Pretty much everybody just slept the whole time. We did make a couple stops. At one of the rest stops we were basically a bunch of tourists going through the gift shops and asking each other 'What is this? What kind of drink is that? Did you see the cute little Japanese toys?'


When we finally got to our apartment, we were so tired we didn't even care that it was approximately the size of a sardine can. We had to push our beds together, which made us laugh. We figure we can deal with anything for two months. After training they are moving us into our permanent apartment, which is supposed to be a two bedroom place.

The MeySen staff is so friendly and helpful with us newbies that it blows us away. They had the apartment well stocked with snacks and breakfast stuff and sweets and drinks. They translated all the appliances buttons into English for us. The sweetest thing about our place is that it's right next door to the campus where we'll be training.


I guess this blog post is too long already, so Lauren or I will tell you all about the last couple days in a different post later. This week is just flying by!