I moved out of my apartment today. I didn't damage anything! Yay! But, I still had to pay a huge professional cleaning fee, almost $300 for my tiny apartment. I was so shocked because it's basically just one room. Oh well.

Now, I am in Kyoto and have begun my end of Japan trip. I can't believe it's really ending. I was very sad to leave my little town. I will miss Kosugi. Everything was so convenient and close there. But, I will especially miss my friends and my Japanese family, the Saito's.

It's my last night in Kosugi. I am sitting on my futon and all I can think about is how I felt when I first got here to my empty apartment in Kosugi. I can't believe I'm leaving and that it's my last night in Kosugi. I will spend it alone just like I did when I first got here waiting for my luggage. Only this time, I'm not waiting for my luggage to arrive but for it to be picked up and delivered to Narita airport.

I cried when I left my schools. I can't believe I actually cried, especially because I cried the most at the school that wasn't even my favorite. I will miss some of the teachers and especially some of the students. They were so much fun to teach.

Last night Mariko and her family took me out for a farewell dinner. We went to a nice Italian restaurant in Toyama. I got to wear the kimono that Kinuko, Mariko's mother in law, gave me. It's soo beautiful. I will really miss them so much. I think they are what I will miss most about Japan. It was so nice to have a family to spend time with here. When I was with them, I felt like an exchange student, but one that could leave and go home to her one apartment. So, it was perfect!

I leave my apartment tomorrow for my end of Japan trip. I will be traveling with Lurdes and Nathalie. We are going to Nara, Kyoto, Himeji, Okayama, Naoshima, Tokyo, Tokyo Disney Sea, and possible Hakone to see Mt. Fuji. I'm very excited about my trip and I am especially excited to see Cherry Blossoms. A few days ago they bloomed in Tokyo, so I am hoping to see them before I leave!!

Friday night, I met Meguchan and Miho at CoCo's for dinner. I saw soo many of my students there. I kept hearing my name everywhere in quiet whispers, "Oh! Lisa Sensei!". The students were so surprised and telling their parents that I was their teacher. It made me smile:)Anyways, we got together to talk about our plans to visit Toyko Disney Sea. I'm so excited!


Yummm! Dessert at CoCo's!!!

Saturday, I went with Mariko to see robots. It was an event put on through the TCA. They host a few events each year and invite foreigners to attend the events so that they can practice translating to us. Unfortunately, for them, I was the only foreigner to attend. There had been problems with their email list or something, but they were very glad I was there. We went to some robot exhibition hall and the students in the class took turns translating what the guide was explaining about the robots. The robots were actually way more interesting than I had expected and the event was pretty fun. I got to ride on a segway too!

The group


The segway


Then, we all went for lunch and they treated me to thank me for coming. Then, I also stayed to attend an event where Japanese people practice translating for the foreign students in the schools in the Toyama area. The students are required to attend field trips and the parents have to pay for these trips. Last year there was confusion and complaints between the schools and some Brazilian parents. So, this year, they have held classes to practice translating the speech about the required school trips into English, Portugese, Russian, and Korean. Then, Mariko took me back to her house for dinner. During dinner, they told me that they will miss me. They are soo sweet! Mariko's mother in law, Kuniko, also told me that she would like to give me one of her kimonos. Wow! I was so shocked! That's soooo generous. I'm looking forward to that present!

Sunday, I met Mari-chan in Tonami for the Tonami International Get Together. On my train ride there, it finally hit me that I will be leaving soon. Many people have made comments to me like, "wow, you will be leaving soon" and so on and I generally respond "yeah I guess so." But, now I have finally realized that I'M LEAVING JAPAN! I'm so sad! I will really miss having dinner with the Saito family, my Japanese friends, some of my students, traveling with Nathalie, and being treated like a super star, of course!

At the festival, I was the only native English speaker there (Tonami is pretty small). There were a few Brazilians and Chinese there, but because I was the only native English speaker there, they were especially interested in me. I was asked to help make the mochi, as well as be interviewed, filmed, and photographed the entire time at the festival. One of my favorite things at the festival was the game, Tosenkyo. It's a traditional Japanese game played originally at Geisha establishments or with upper class folk since the Edo Period. It was so much fun!


The tea ceremony lady.


The game Tosenkyo.

After the festival, we went to AEON to go shopping! When we got there, some students saw me. They came up to me and I said hello and asked them a few questions. As they were leaving, one of the girls said, "Lisa is beautiful". Before I had time to realize what she had said, they had already run off! Mari and I were in shock! Yeah, I'm gonna miss that! I've had students write in class assignments that I'm beautiful but no one has said it to me! So, we had fun shopping and now I'm at school and my break is coming to an end.

This weekend I am going to Nagasaki with Lurdes. I'm really excited to be going somewhere south and hopefully it will be much warmer than Toyama! I'm getting tired of being cold!

Two weeks ago I went to Sapporo for the Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival) with Nathalie. It was really awesome. I took a flight from Toyama to Sapporo while Nathalie took an overnight ferry. My flight was delayed because of snow, but I still made it there a bit after lunch time. Once I got in, we ate lunch and headed to our hotel. After checking in, we decided our first stop should be chocolate! As, Sapporo is known for it's chocolate.

As we emerged from the subway and were pondering the map, trying to figure out which way was the Chocolate Factory, a young Japanese man asked us where we were going. He too, was headed to the Chocolate Factory. That is how we met Sakae.

At the Chocolate Factory, we were pretty disspointed. The guide books said the cafe was open later than it actually was. The cafe wouldn't serve us any cake. However, the shop was still selling cake and with our adorable selves we were able to convince them to let us buy cake at the shop and bring it to the cafe to eat. It worked and we had a lovely time!



After that, we headed to the Snow Festival with Sakae still as our tour guide. It was awesome seeing all the sculptures. We also drank amazake, which is a sweet hot sake. (We later found out it only contains 1% alcohol). Can you even call that sake?? Anyways, it was delicious and warming! We then walked around some more until about 9pm when we decided it was dinner time. (We had a late lunch because of my delayed flight). Sakae took us to the famous ramen street where we were able to eat Sapporo's specialty, butter ramen. It was sooo good. Definately the best ramen I have had in Japan!







The next day, we walked around Sapporo; there's always lots of walking on trips with Nathalie (which I like). We tried to go to the botanical garden but they were closed on Saturdays. We then walked to the University, which was supposed to have interesting buildings. We must of not gone to the "interesting" side of campus because it looked pretty ordinary to us. We then walked back towards the festival, but passed by the old city hall, which was very pretty, but also had a super cute snowman sculpture.



Then it was on to Sato Land, a new edition to the snow festival. It was a bit on the outside of town and was a winter wonderland! It was soo awesome. There were so many kids there! It was a snow park with slides and things all made out of snow! We went down the biggest slide and it was better than any water slide I've been down! We also made a snowman to join the hundreds of other snowmen. We drank more amazake and then it was closing time for the park.







Then we headed back downtown to the main part of the festival to see more sculptures and get dinner. We wanted to try soup curry, Sapporo's other specialty. Although, once we got to the food park, we were very disappointed to find out that it was sold out. So, we had to go with something else. After dinner and a few more pictures, it was time to head back to the hotel.


Sunday
We decided to start Sunday out by visiting the snow sculptures in daylight. It was sooo crowded. Monday was the last day of the festival, so there were many people there now. It was a lot of fun. We got to see some snow stunts and we got to eat soup curry. It was very good and spicy!

Then we headed to the Beer Museum! Sapporo's Beer Museum for Sapporo Beer! The museum was only in Japanese, but the museum had good drink specials and icecream! We got to try many unusual flavors of icecream! We tried squid, curry, beer, and cheese icecream! Our favorite was squid! It was soo good. We both got squid and white chocolate icecream cones. Then we had beer! We got the sampler platter. Three glasses of beer for 400 yen. You can't get better prices than that! I also won two cans of beer from the ring toss! Woo hoo! But, I brought those home. They are in my fridge right now. After beer, we headed to Mount Moya, to view the sunset over Sapporo. However, we got there a little late, but the night view was also pleasant.





After Mount Moya, we grabbed dinner and headed back to the hotel to gather our luggage. We boarded a bus that took us to the ferry. At midnight the ferry departed and we arrived in Tomokai at 7am.



Monday (National Holiday)
From Tomokai, we took a highway bus to Sendai. We arrived in Sendai around 1pm. After finding lockers for our luggage, we headed to Matsushima Bay, one of Japan's Top 3 Views! We met Nathalie's friend Chi there and she showed us around. The view was pretty nice, I don't know if I agree that it's one of Japan's top 3, but it was fun. Then we wanted to find an onsen. It had been quite a while for us since we had a bath. However, the only onsen we found wanted over 1,000 yen for a bath. It usually costs 500 - 700 yen for a bath. So, instead Chi took us to her house for us to shower and have dinner. However, we ended up eating, talking, and watching Will and Grace and completely forgot about a shower! Nathalie lives in Sendai, so she was able to go home and shower, but I still had another night bus to take until I got home.

Nathalie headed home and I headed to the bus station. I didn't sleep very well because there was a Japanese man a couple seats behind me snoring very loudly. The good news was, however, that the bus got in a little early and I was able to take an express train from the bus stop to my town. I was able to get home Tuesday morning with enough time to shower, eat breakfast, and make it to work on time!

And that was my trip to Sapporo!

So, for the first time since I've been here, I am frustrated with Interac. It seems like everyone I know has complained about something and I actually haven't had any problems. However, now it's my turn. My problem is that it's nearing the end of February and they still haven't sent out the completion/moving out information. I emailed my supervisor questions, when will I get my last paycheck and such and his answer was, "You will receive all that information next week with the packet." I think they are waiting until the last minute to send us this information! Our last day is March 24. I need to make plans and it's difficult when I don't have the information I want.

My other complaint, is actually more of a disappointment. After hearing others' stories, I had a feeling this one would prove to be inaccurate. When I was interviewing, the lady told us that if we complete our contract we will be reimbursed for our flight back home. However, other people I met here in Japan, had different versions of that or were never told that at all. I emailed my supervisor, and that is one question he answered without telling me to wait until the packet arrives. He said that is only for people who have completed a 2 year contract. So, I was kinda hoping on getting that extra money for my flight, but at least I know now that's not going to happen.

I'm leaving for Sapporo tomorrow morning. I think I am all packed. I'm nervous. This is my first time flying in Japan. But, what I'm really nervous about is surviving the cold. After all, I am going to a Snow Festival! So, Mariko let me borrow one of her big coats because she didn't think mine would be warm enough. I think I am fully prepared for the cold. Her mother-in-law Kinuko gave me some warming packets to put inside my shirt. I also bought some packets to put on my socks and for my hands. So, I think I'm all set. I'm nervous and excited and tired but I can't sleep. I just want to go to bed, but I feel like I am forgetting something. I hope I'm not forgetting anything. But, I guess I should go to bed. I hope I don't freeze!!

About a week and a half ago, I went over to Mariko's house so she could help me buy a bus ticket for my upcoming trip. After that, she invited me to stay for dinner because she said tonight they are having a very traditional Japanese meal. I wasn't sure what she meant by that because it seems to be that every meal they eat is very traditionally Japanese. They always have rice, miso soup, fish, and something else. That's pretty traditional Japanese. But, what she meant was a traditional ceremonial meal. Of course I accepted, she's a good cook and I enjoy her family.

She explained the meal to me and then we had to go shopping for the food just like we always do. She basically goes to the grocery store every day to buy fresh fish or vegetables. However, because this was a special dinner, one store was out of the fish we had to get, so we had to go to another store. We finally found the proper fish for the meal.

After grocery shopping, we had to start preparing the dinner. While we were preparing the food, we had to feed the shogun, or Japanese God of education, statue. On a nice plate infront of the statue we placed the special fish. Then, we arranged some octopus and squid sashimi and gave him that. We had to present him with food and pray or wish for someone's educational success. We had to feed him because he was "leaving" that night and the next day they would put the statue away. At first I wasn't sure what to do when they told me to bow, clap twice, and pray. I ended up "praying" that I wished Jason will do well in school this Spring. After praying, they told me they prayed for Atsu (Mariko and Nari's son and Kinuko's grandson) that he will do well in University and I said I prayed for Jason.



After praying we then took the fish and sashimi back to the kitchen. We cooked the fish and set the table. Dinner was miso soup, rice, oden, baked fish, and salad. They asked me if we do special dinners like this in America. I couldn't come up with anything that was similar to this experience.

This morning at 4:33am I was woken up from my sleep. I didn't know what was going on. My apartment was making a lot of noise and then I felt my body shaking. The noise was from my apartment rattling back and forth. By the time I realized what was going on, I freaked out and panicked. It was dark, I couldn't see anything and I was scared. By the time it had occured to me to move to my table, the earthquake was over. I just laid in bed, not knowing what to do. Should I turn on the TV to check the news? Should I go under my table now, because sometimes the earthquakes come in waves and another one might occur soon? Or should I get on my computer and call my parents? I had no idea. Should I go outside? Should I check to see if anything was damaged?

What I ended up doing was telling myself that there was nothing I could do if another one occured and I might as well go back to sleep. Besides, maybe it had just been a bad dream. Maybe it wasn't really an earthquake. It happened so fast. So, after laying there a while, heart pounding and praying, I fell back asleep until 8:30am. This time I was not woken up by an earthquake, just my rude neighbor that likes to play the music loudly in the morning.

First thing I did when I woke up this time was look out my window. Everything looked normal. Nothing had fallen in my apartment. I didn't want to see I had experienced an earthquake because I wasn't entirely sure. I went online and checked. Sure enough there had been an earthquake that was a level 5. However, where I live it was only a level 3. And I was right about more earthquakes occuring. There were two more earthquakes this morning occuring in the same place but it was only a level 1 and did not affect me where I live.

So I live in Imizu City, but since it was just formed a few years ago, most people still refer to the town or village that they live in, so I usually refer to my home as Kosugi instead of Imizu. So, we arrived in Kosugi around 11pm on New Year's Day. When we got off the train it was snowing and it was so pretty! I was so excited!

The next day, we celebrated "Christmas." We went to Mr. Donuts for breakfast and then came home to open presents.





It was fun celebrating Christmas together. I got some awesome presents from Jason, That 70's Show DVD's and a Des Moines University sweatshirt. Jason got a bunch of golf stuff and Japanese stuff!

After "Christmas" we went shopping at Al Plaza, which Jason really liked because things there are actually affordable compared to shopping in Tokyo or Kyoto. Then we went to the post office to pick up my Christmas package from Jason's parents. It was nice walking together and showing him around my town. I showed him one of my schools too, which he couldn't beleive was a school, since it looks like a condemned building; but that's pretty much what all the schools look like in Japan. Then we had to get ready for our shabu shabu dinner with the Saito-san's.

I wanted to take Mariko and her family out as well as have them meet Jason. They have been so good to me. Mariko has helped me so much and they usually have me over for dinner once a week. I really enjoy eating dinner with them. It's sort of like I get to experience what it would be like to be a host student. I help her cook and everything. Anyways, they picked us up and we went to a shabu shabu restaurant, which is like Japanese style fondue.

It was so much fun and of course delicious. I really like Japanese beef because it's sliced so nice and thin. Then we went to Karaoke!

Nari (husband) Mariko (wife) Kinuko (Nari's mother) and Atsu (their son)

This was also my first time meeting Atsu because he is in University in Tokyo.


The food!


This was definitely our nicest meal in Japan. We ate soo much and tried Japanese alcohol like sake, which I'm not a huge fan of. Then is was time for karoke. Nari was a master at it! Jason also really got into karaoke. He couldn't understand why I kept talking about karaoke, but he understood once he got there. He wanted to come back the next day!



THE NEXT DAY: Jan. 3
We pretty much just layed around this day and watched That 70's Show and Family Guy. It was soo nice to just have a relaxing day together before Jason left. The only time we left the apartment was to get ramen, which is very different from what you would expect. I really like it, but Jason wasn't super crazy about it. I took him to my favorite ramen restaurant, too! We also spent the day packing as Jason had to bring a suitcase of stuff home for me.
Then around 10pm, we headed to Toyama to catch the night bus to Tokyo.

JAN. 4
We arrived in Tokyo very early, of course. We ate breakfast at a bakery. I tried a curry donut. I actually really liked it. Jason ate a croissant, one of his favorite things that he ate in Japan. After breakfast and again, placing our luggage in lockers, we headed for Odaiba, Tokyo's Bay. However, we arrived too early. I thought things would open at 9 or 10am but mostly everything didn't open until 11am. The only place open that early was McDonalds. So we walked around for a while and took pictures, but then we found ourselves sitting inside McDonalds. I can't believe how many times we went there! Mostly we just sat and talked. Jason did not get a burger!





Then after a while, things starting opening up and we headed to Palette Town. Inside Palatte Town is the shopping mall, Venus Fort.

The Ferris Wheel at Palatte Town which costs about $20 a person to ride. That's crazy!


Inside Venus Fort


We ate lunch at a chinese restaurant at Venus Fort. It was very good and Jason liked this one. He ordered friend chicken and friend rice. I hate shrimp in a chile sauce and friend rice. Then it was time to head back to get the luggage and head to the airport.

We arrived at the airport. Jason checked in. None of the bags were overweight! We exchanged money. Then we exchanged hugs and I watched him go through security. Due to Jason's bad luck with flying, I decided to hang around the airport to make sure his flight actually took off and without any problems. After 6pm and his flight said departed, I wandered around the souvenier shops at the airport and head dinner at subway. I really like the tandori chicken wrap. It's awesome! Then I just headed back to Tokyo to wait for my night bus to take me back to Kosugi.

I arrived home in Kosugi and basically slept all day once I got back. I was so exhausted and I was feeling down since I missed not having Jason with me. I had gotten so used to having someone with me, that it was strange to be alone.

DECEMBER 30th
We arrived in Kyoto very early Sunday, Dec. 30. As soon as we got there, we ate breakfast and lucky Jason, the only place open was McDonald's! But, he kept his word and didn't say anything, it was me you suggested McDonalds. So, that's where we ate and this time Jason stuck to something he was familiar with.

Then we went to a temple that opened very early. I think we went there at 7am and there was actually a few other people visiting the temple that early. After that, we had to head to the photography studio where we would be transformed! Jason was to become a samurai and I became a maiko, geisha in training. The photography experience was pretty interesting. I had no idea what the make-up that is used on geisha's was actually like. It really felt like someone was painting me. Even though I could barely recognize myself, I still didn't look Japanese!









After the photography, which took over 3 hours, we headed to the nearby temple, Kiyomizudera. It had a really nice view overlooking Kyoto. Then we searched for lunch and tried udon. It wasn't very good, but Kyoto was sooo cold and soup sounded so good. I prefer ramen or soba. Then we headed to Gion in the hopes of spotting a real geisha. But, we just walked around and looked, but didn't find one. Then we headed back to the train station to pick up our luggage and try to find our hotel.

DECEMBER 31st
I can't quite remember the order in which we did things on this day. We saw so many temples and shrines in Kyoto, that I can't remember. I sent my notes home with Jason, so I may have to edit this entry in several months when I get back to the States. The following is some pictures of the places we visited on New Year's Eve.


Kinkakuji, The Golden Pavillion


Ryoanji


Nanzenji


We also visited a few others that day, but these were some of my favorites. After a pretty long day temple and shrine hopping, we headed back to the hotel around 5pm to relax before heading out for the night. We each took a Japanese style bath and even got to wear a yukata.



Then we got ready and decided to go somewhere for a nice New Year's Eve dinner. Well, basically everything was closed by now. So, we had to wait a while at the one restuarant that seemed to be open besides McDonald's. I enjoyed my dinner but Jason didn't like his and I think they forgot his food because we waited forever and had to ask about it. I had seared tuna and Jason ordered a Japanese beef dish. He didn't like it at all because most of the meat was fat, but I forgot to mention that that's the way the Japanese like their meat. They think the more fatty the more tender and better.

Then we headed to the bus station to head to Yasaka Jinja Shrine. The line for the bus was insane. I had no idea it was going to be this crowded. Then we actually arrived at our destination and it was complete craziness. The masses of people seemed to go on forever. We were able to slide right in and got into the shrine area pretty quickly, but getting out was a total different story.





At first the line seemed to be moving and then it came to a complete stop. We got afraid that it was going to be this long of a line but then I realized that we were probably just waiting until midnight to actually enter the shrine. Turns out I thought correctly. At the countdown to midnight everyone cheered, the few other gaijin there kissed and then we saw men carrying large sticks with ropes hanging and the line starting moving very quickly. People became so anxious to buy their fortunes, clap, ring the bell, pray, and so on.

In this picture you can see the ropes. I'm not really sure what they are for.


Happy New Year!


After seeing the shrine madness, we decided to head back to the bus stop. The traffic was really bad, so we waited about 15 minutes or so along with many other people. With no hope of a bus in sight, we thought we would get walking to at least warm up and hope the traffic would get lighten and we could catch the bus at one of the stops ahead. The traffic never seemed to get better and then once it did, we still never saw a bus again that night.



We walked all the way back home, at least an hour walk in very very cold weather. We arrived at about 2am. As soon as we got back to the hotel we cranked up our heat and Jason even slept with his mittens on he was so cold!

JANUARY 1st, NEW YEAR'S DAY
We slept in even though I had planned on getting up early. We checked out of our hotel around 10am. We took our luggage to the train station and put it in a locker. Then we headed out to see more temples. We went to Chion and the Heian Shrine. Then we went to Kyoto's southern outskirts to Fushimi to see the Fushimi Inari Shrine, which was another popular shrine to visit on New Year's. It was so crowded. I had no idea it would be so busy.

All the people heading to the shrine.


I think this photo was the only time in which we were not surronded by tons of people.


This is more of what most of our day looked like.


After all this, we were pretty worn out and headed back to central Kyoto. We ate dinner at the train station, bought our train tickets, and headed to my apartment in Imizu.