Sweet Notes From my Sweet Students

I meant to write this post a while ago, but I've been to busy enjoying the adventure that is living in Japan as an ELL teacher.  

At the end of September, after my father passed away, it was really, really hard to come back to Japan.  Even though I love my job and students, the thought of leaving my family and friends behind was overwhelming.  Despite the support of my supervisors, I knew that just getting through the day without breaking down would be a struggle.  I wasn't at all looking forward to just jumping back in and pretending like everything was normal.

My first day back to work was on a quiet Saturday morning.  All the staff had gone to the other campus to observer other teachers, but I had gotten permission to use that morning as a work day instead to catch up on writing lesson plans.  When I came into the office, I was surprised to find a stack of construction paper sympathy cards hand-made by all the third grade students.

Reading these touching cards was the perfect way for me to ease back into the working world.  I later found out that the other third grade teacher, Greg, had suggested that the students to write these cards.  I've always enjoyed working with Greg because he is a nice, funny, skilled teacher.  His thoughtfulness at organizing this little activity made me appreciate him even more. Even now I can't adequately express how deeply those sweet  cards touched my aching heart.  Thank you, Greg, for being such a thoughtful guy.

Now that I've shared about how much those cards meant to me, I thought I would share some of them with you (the images have been altered to protect students' privacy).

This was Kris' favorite card - for obvious reasons!

"...We are praying for your father, but don't be sad. Your father is alive in heave and in your heart. If you get sad you can hear fathers voice in your heart. Don't forget your father. You can't see but he is alive and doesn't forget us..."  This one still makes me cry when I read it.  Out of the mouth of children comes truth.

 

Most cards had pictures of hearts or of me and the student.  This card cover is just epic and made me smile!  Please notice the 3-headed dinosaur (labeled with the student's name) eating the flying "America" dinosaur and also the moon man(?) standing on a flying saucer (?) saying "I miss you!"

Winter Staycation

Over Christmas break, Kris and I decided to save money by taking a short vacation within Japan rather than vacation internationally.  Because we had decided so late that this would be our last year at MeySen and we wouldn't be going home for Christmas, ticket prices to go anywhere were ridiculous. We decided we'd add an extra trip onto our year-end trip in March for a fourth of the cost of going over Christmas.  But because this Christmas was such a difficult one, I couldn't handle the idea of doing absolutely nothing.  So we planned a week-long trip around the Mt. Fuji area, a part of Japan we had yet to see.

Map taken from www.freeworldmaps.net

On the first day we traveled by two different buses from Sendai to the Mt. Fuji area.  Here, Mt. Fuji is referred to as "Fuji-san" ("san" is a term of respect given to a person, kind of like saying "Mr. Fuji").  Walking towards our hotel from the bus stop, we could see Fuji-san towering above us in the moon light.  It was massive.  The next day, as we rode away from the hotel to FujiQ Highlands, we were struck by Fuji-san's great magnitude. 

We spent the whole day enjoying FujiQ Highlands, an amusement park at the base of Fuji-san.  This was the first time in my life that I met my match when it comes to roller coasters.  Maybe it was the altitude, maybe it was my old age (28! ha!), or maybe it was just really incredible coasters.  Whatever the reason, those coasters kicked my butt! 

Two coasters with Fuji-San in the background

Takabisha's many curves

Takabisha's 121 degree free fall

A very cool roller coaster entrance

It wouldn't be a theme park in Japan without some ginormous lucky cats!

This sign puts you in your place if you can't go through with the ride!

Normally Fuji Q Highlands is packed, and wait times can be 3 hours.  Because we went in the winter in the middle of the week (between Christmas and New Years), our longest wait was only 1 hour -- and most were only 30 minutes.  It was cold, but we were bundled up and didn't start to feel cold until the sun began to go down in the late afternoon.

I had injured my ankle in November and its movement was still limited, so we rented a wheel chair, and Kris pushed me around in it.  Unlike in America, guests in wheelchairs do not get to cut through the lines. Furthermore, they are prohibited from going on many rides!  We didn't realize this at first, especially because the line for our first ride of the day was on a ramp.  Kris pushed me up the ramp and people gave us very strange looks.  I assumed it was because of the usual reason of being foreigners -- WRONG!  After the ride, we found out that the exit was only a flight of stairs!  It was the only way to go down!  So, I hobbled down the stairs and Kris carried the wheelchair.  After going on that ride, we noticed this sign:

This ride is inaccessible, thankyouverymuch!

I guess I shouldn't be surprised: Japan is definitely not the most accessible country.  I've gotten so used to how accessible America is that I wasn't expecting this.  Kris ended up pushing me around the park to save my ankle, and I waited in he lines without the wheelchair.  At least theft is not very common in this country, so we could leave the wheelchair at the ride entrances without worry.


That evening, we took a bus to Hakone, a beautiful, mountainous area south of Tokyo.  We stayed for a night in a traditional ryokan and enjoyed the public baths.  That is something I am REALLY going to miss about Japan!  We had the best night of sleep of the whole trip on futons in our tatami room.  It was so relaxing -- we both really enjoyed it.

Our room

We slept on those futons

Entrance to our room

Tea and cute tea set included!

The next day, we went sight-seeing around Hakone.  We rode on a touristy "pirate ship" on Lake Ashi.

かわいい!!!!! \(^▽^)/

I'm under attack!

Kris to the rescue!

Torii (gate) for Hakone Shrine, as seen from the boat

We "checked out" the Hakone Checkpoint.  During the Edo period, a highway linked Tokyo and Kyoto.  At the checkpoint in Hakone, officials searched travelers to ensure that women and guns were not being smuggled across, as their travel was limited.  True story.

Hakone Checkpoint gate

We explored the Hakone Temple and lake torii.

lake torii

Dragon-shaped purification fountain

When we got to the open air sculpture museum, it began to rain.  A chivalrous gentleman, Kris pushed me in a wheelchair around the hilly park in the rain.  We enjoyed seeing all the sculptures, but by the end we were ready to get out of the rain -- and into the hot baths at Yunessun.

This play area inside the Open Air Museum is completely CROCHETTED!

Now that's what I call a cup of coffee!!!

Yunessun is a hot bath theme park.  There are two parts to it: the co-ed part where bathing suits are worn, and the nude area that is segregated by sex.  The co-ed part (which is called Yunessun) has 25 different baths and water activities both indoors and outdoors.  While there was a normal swimming pool and a "kiddie pool" and a set of short slides, the main attractions are the various relaxation pools.  These pools are made with different things.  For example, there is a green tea bath where the water that you sit in has been mixed with green tea (and food coloring, I'm sure).  We also tried out the coffee bath (which Kris hated), sake bath (which was super hot), apple bath, wine bath, and floating bath (which had minerals in the water that increased its buoyancy, causing us to float).  My favorites were the wine bath and the apple bath.  Not only did the apple bath smell really good, but there was an adorable toddler playing with all the apples.  When we got there, it was snowing, so unfortunately we weren't able to take any pictures.

Throughout the day, Yunessun has "shows", during which bathers are entertained and experience an ingredient being added to the bath.  We went to the wine show.  Even though it was in Japanese, we could understand bits and pieces of what they were saying. The one guy said to Kris, "Boy! Come!".  So Kris went to the front of the pool. The entertainer had us all chant, "Wine come on! Wine come on!" and then emptied half of an enormous bottle of wine over Kris's head, face, and chest.  Then he emptied the other half onto the bathers! They also gave us wine to wash our faces with (but not drink).  It was really entertaining (even if we couldn't understand everything).

On our way back to the hotel, we got really lucky by making the last bus.  We hadn't checked the bus schedules beforehand, assuming that the buses ran late.  But the last bus that we just happened to make (thanks to God's provision I'm sure) was at 8:30 pm!   

On our second day in Hakone, we rode the Hakone Ropeway car up Mt. Hakone to the volcano at Owakundai. It was a beautiful view, but unfortunately Fuji-san was being shy that day.  At the top of the volcano, which was mostly a tourist trap of souvenir shops and food vendors, I tried some eggs that had been boiled in the steam of the volcano.  As a result the shells had turned black.  They tasted like normal hard-boiled eggs, but at least it was something to say I tried.  After making our way back down the other side of the mountain on the ropeway car, we headed for Yokohama.

Lake Ashi, as seen from the ropeway car

Yes, that's Hello Kitty dressed up like a black egg!

The famous Owakundai black eggs

I was nervous to try them, but they were just like any other egg.

Owakundai Volcano

Ropeway car

Passing over part of the volcano in the ropeway car

We wandered around Minato Mirai, an area in Yokohama with parks, shopping, restaurants, an amusement park, and an observatory.  We enjoyed strolling around the area,

Ferris wheel at Cosmo World

Nippon Maru, a training ship that has become part of the park scenery

watching an evening street performer near the mall,

seeing Yokohama from the Sky Building,

and feasting on the best Tex-Mex that we've had in Japan at El Torrito.

The next day, it was raining heavily, but it was our only day to see the rest of Yokohama, so we got umbrellas and made the best of it.  We had wanted to go to the Cup Noodle Museum (yes, there is an entire museum dedicated to a specific brand of instant ramen), but it was closed :-( Instead we went straight to Chinatown where we weaved through the many narrow, colorful streets.  I was surprised at how crowded it was, even in the rain.  

Hello Kitty loves Chinatown!

One of the 9 gates around Chinatown

Walking down a street in Chinatown

Kantei-byo, a shrine in Chinatown

 

Kantei-byo, a shrine in Chinatown

This column is at Kantei-byo is carved out of marble stone

Ma Zhu Maio, a shrine in Chinatown

Entrance gate to Ma Zhu Maio

Lanterns hung for Chinese New Year at Ma Zhu Maio

A street in Chinatown

  
By the way, this Chinatown should have just been called "Pandatown" because those black and white bears were everywhere!

This store is literally called "Panda Store"

We ate at a Chinese restaurant that we found randomly.  It was just "okay"...and I regretted not researching ahead on what the most favorable restaurants in Chinatown were.  Especially since after the meal, when I went to the bathroom, I realized that there was no soap at the sink.  Ew! Ew! Ew-ew-ew!

I bet my sister would like to try the duck!

Our last stop in Yokohama (since we didn't want to walk around in the rain any longer) was Costco, which is very similar to Costco in America, except for the large sushi section.  People were even laying around on furniture!  We bought 11 pounds of cheese (since you can only buy real cheese at select stores in Sendai and it is very expensive), feasted on Costco pizza and free coke refills in the food court, and carried all our purchases the mile walk back to the subway (in the rain).  Yes, it was quite the adventure.  But it was deliciously worth it.

Want a sample at a Costco in Japan? Better make a nice, straight line!

That about sums up our winter staycation in Japan!  Soon I'll get around to writing about our trip to Tokyo for the Sumo Tournament and our trip to Hokkaido for the Sapporo Snow Festival.