Mountains

Misty Mountains of Takahashi

Here's a picture from our mountain climb yesterday. :) It took us threeish hours to get up and down the mountain (or well, more like two hours total to go up and down since we practically flew down the mountain).

I'm so. Sore. My legs and my butt. See where that fog is at the bottom? That's above where we started. I'm pretty sure it was over 2 km, and that was 2 km going up. Worth it though, for the view.

The reason why my post yesterday-slash-this-morning-slash-before-I-went-to-bed was because I had planned that parfait outing for the ALTs (and people in Okayama AJET) and ohhhh my goodness, it was like HERDING CATS. Which is to say, it was ridiculously difficult. I forgot how hard planning stuff for people in my age range is! 

Personally, I blame it a little on facebook and the Internet. Not that other things are not to blame (or ourselves). But with the ability to say attending or maybe... a lot of us now (myself included) will stay maybes until the last moment or will say they're attending but then at the last moment will change their mind and drop. Some people send messages, some don't, but it feels like this era of "Me" has really come around. If you don't feel like going, then don't. 

Don't get me wrong, I do this too. And people have their reasons for not going; I don't think I can really judge whether reasons are good or bad (though I do have my opinions). The people who contacted me yesterday, I understood why they weren't coming out. I don't (really) blame anyone for not coming out yesterday. It just made me a little disappointed and frustrated, but not at anyone in particular.

But like... I dunno. It was crazy planning this thing. There was also a small hitch - this needed a reservation for the restaurant. Things without reservations, it's alright if people drop at the last minute and stuff, but things with reservations are a whole different beast. Reservations need something more definite than a maybe, more definite even than an attending. 

When I first made the reservation there were 16 people who had told me yes I'm going to be there. This was also a good 3 weeks before the event itself - which another problem itself,  person pointed out. We set these things so far in advance and then sometimes forget about them as life happens day to day. I'm definitely guilty of doing that. That's why I try to write as much as I can down. Sometimes unforeseeable things happen. People get sick, people have to go in to work, people don't feel well. That's all well and fine. 

I made the reservation and then a few days later, I rechecked the event and the number had jumped to 23. 23. That's a difference of SEVEN people. For the small restaurant we were going to... that was a lot. Even in American sized restaurants, that's a whole extra table (or two). We don't have big restaurants in Japan really, let alone in Takahashi. There was also a festival going on at the local university, so they told us we couldn't change the reservation.

After that, it was a kind of hellish planning nightmare. Since I was expecting everyone to show up, I kind of panicked and told people that hey, we don't actually have space for 23 people. In retrospect, I should have just said nothing, and I'm sure people would have just dropped on their own. But I said something and asked people if they were going to come or not - and if they weren't, if they could let me know so that we know who all was going to come. I kinda dropped the ball as the organizer, since I wasn't completely sure who had signed up when.

But like magic, people found other plans. The numbers started going down, until we reached the magical 16 that we needed. That was a couple days before yesterday. However, when I checked the list on Friday, for some reason it was down to 14 instead. And then two people actually contacted me and told me they weren't feeling well and wouldn't be able to make it. 12. 

It also rained yesterday, which may or may not have had something to do with it. Then two people just didn't show up, which put us at 10 people total.

10, down from 16, down from 23. I don't understand. 

If this were just us climbing the mountain I wouldn't care. But it was also a reservation for eating parfait, which I did care about. I cared about keeping our reservation (though we were kinda really late for it - my fault since I can't estimate time well). One person kindly offered to pay for her share despite not eating it, but one person's share, since we all were splitting the cost, wasn't much per person. It would have been like, an extra hundred yen or something. 

Six people's shares though, that adds up. Also ten people to eat that giant bucket thing was definitely not enough people. I *still* feel ill today. Lord only knows how ill I would have felt if I hadn't hiked beforehand. I think I spent the rest of yesterday with a giant headache too, until I ate some real food. Actually yeah, that was a bad idea. The ice cream was my biggest meal for the day. Go being an adult. Such a bad idea.

Anyways. That's the end of my rant. Today is going to be fun; I'm going to a concert. It's going to be AWESOME. My first Japanese concert. :D The group is called Rockatrench. They did the opening for Mei-chan no Shitsuji (Mei-chan's butler). It was ridiculously cute. Obviously, they are a japanese rock band. I'M SO EXCITED.

I crave salad

It's pretty much official; I'm coming back to California for about two weeks at the end of July/beginning of August (until the 14th), and will be back in Japan before the last day of the obon festival here. Two obon festivals in four days. Yea-yuuuh.

I wanted to come back earlier, but I actually got chosen to be one of the orientation assistants for the Tokyo Orientation, and on top of that, I was picked to be one of the CLAIR (official) workshop presenters. The application for Tokyo Orientation Assistants (TOAs) are based on the outlines for two workshops you submit, as well as comments from your supervisor. In some places, getting a TOA spot is harder than getting into JET in the first place, so I'm super excited! It won't, however, be a free ticket into Tokyo; they're actually going to make us work by helping people get from place to place, from the airport to hotel, answer questions, give workshops, act like Role Models (ahaha...) but in exchange, we get our ticket to and from Tokyo paid for PLUS accommodations (and breakfast). So yeah. I'm excited for it. :) I've been working on the powerpoint with three other people, though one of them, I swear, it's like, did you even LISTEN to the "how to give good powerpoints" presentation? STOP WRITING SENTENCES ALL OVER THE POWERPOINT. It's distracting. And Y U NO LIKE PLAIN B&W BACKGROUND? Sigh. lol. I'm sure it'll be fine.

Immediately following orientation, I will be flying back to the US. It was too good of an opportunity (not having to pay for the shink or a hotel) to not come back during this time.

I also need a little sanity break, I think.

By sanity break, I mean visit my family. My grandma. My friends. Eat food. Oh god. The food. Mom asked me what I wanted to do when I got back and I could not think of anything else other than "see friends" and "eat ____________." Since I listed everything out individually, this was a long list.

Don't get me wrong. I love Japan. I love the food here too. I have not lost weight here because I love the food so much.

But I really miss the wide range of foods you can get in California. I miss easily prepared dinner salads. Cheddar cheese. To make a proper dinner salad here, first you have to buy a head of lettuce, wash the lettuce, cut the lettuce, buy the (expensive) vegetables to go on top of your salad (I like to put baby corn, 500 yen; onions, 158 yen/bag; red onions, 1 for 300 yen; bell peppers (red, yellow, green) - 198 each for reds and yellows, 300 yen/bag for greens; button mushrooms, 400 yen for 6; and cheese. I won't even get started on how much the cheese is. Tofu is super cheap to put on, but things like meat, especially beef or steak... yeah, that gets expensive. Occasionally they'll have it on sale, like today. I got a strip of steak (dunno the cut) for 500 yen! Woo hooo! But yeah. By the time you buy all the ingredients - and remember, this is a dinner salad so most of the ingredients will actually be used - it's one hell of an expensive salad. Of all iceburg. Romaine lettuce is really hard to find. Arugula is out. You can get spinich here, but not baby spinich. Have I mentioned I miss bagged salads?

There's this fantastic bakery under one of the department stores in my area that sells a ham on ciabatta sandwich. Oh god. It's amazing. Seriously, it's a good thing I don't live near these places, otherwise I'd be even fatter and more broke haha.

Badger badger badger badger

MUSHROOMS MUSHROOMS

So I'm at my agricultural school in Niimi today. It's FREEZING here! I think the weather said it was like... 12-8 C. ._. I mean, that's how cold it got in San Diego at its COLDEST. I'm going to freeze, hahaha...

But I did a little bit of exploring today around the school. Guess what I found?

A PONY.

AND DUCKS. AND CHICKENS. Though these were the fluffiest chickens I've ever seen haha. I don't know if they were being raised for food or for their eggs.

But they also come around to the teachers room and sell things that they grow at our school. So far, they've come around with GIGANTIC grapes, GIGANTIC mushrooms, and today, regular sized mushrooms but for insanely low prices.

It's a shame I don't like mushrooms more.

They had a bunch of different varieties too. There were shiitake mushrooms, but also hiratake mushrooms that were this gorgeous steel blue/grey color. I wanted to buy them just for the color, but what was I going to do with a whole tray full of mushrooms?

Maybe I'll end up liking mushrooms by the time I leave here.

There are like, a billion different mushrooms they sell at the grocery store. Some of them are really really really expensive. Matsutake are generally the most expensive; some can get up to 10,000 yen (about $100). Craziness.

The kids also came around with nametake mushrooms, which were this beautiful caramel color. And, they had shiitake. Seriously, grand shame I don't like mushrooms.

Thankfully, this fascination with mushrooms has been enough to dispel this feeling of homesickness for thanksgiving holiday food. Some people would argue that it's these foods - turkey, ham, pumpkin pie, cranberry stuff - that makes up the core of what is considered 'American food'.

I'm probably one of them. Yeah, burgers are American I suppose, and garlic fries, but turkey... oh man. I miss turkey. And delis. And ham. And pumpkin pie.

I also miss driers. I think if I had to chose one thing I could have brought from home, I would have brought a drier with me. I hate having to hang dry my clothes. :< They end up all stiff, and they don't always dry super fast. Plus, I don't want to hang my clothes outside for all my students to see... so I hang them inside, where they dry more slowly. I miss warm, just out of the drier clothes. Sigh.

Frustrations

So, normally, I would feel bad about making this rant post at work. But I'm sooooooo annoyed right now.

Also, I swear, eventually, this blog will contain posts that AREN'T rants or "oops I forgot to post while I had internet."

But it's been two months almost. I've been patient. Really patient. I've been a good girl and not gotten all princess fussy. But two months. TWO MONTHS. You'd think I'd be able to be a little bit more patient at this point since I've already waited so damn long.

For some reason though, it is way harder, and way more frustrating to wait right now. They finally came to my house and got the internet connected. I thought I would be able to set it up pretty easily, since I was able to do that fine at home. But no. Japan has a F'IN' CRAZY AS SHIT Internet set up. Seriously. If anyone EVER tries to tell me that Japan is super advanced in technology so naturally everything in Japan is superfast easy to use wifi, I think I might start to giggle hysterically. It's so not. While the speeds are definitely fast, the set up, the process, and the attitude towards wifi here, ESPECIALLY in not the cities (which, asides from the sprawl that is Tokyo, Japan is probably mostly made of). I never thought I'd be able to survive this long. But a lot of the teachers and students don't have internet at home. If they do, generally internet is wired. Granted, it's blazing fast, but Japan's still tied up (bad pun yes) in wires.

It's that ARG I'M SO CLOSE feeling that's really frustrating. Unlike in the states, you don't just plug things in and they work. Or even, plug things in, determine connection, and it works. They leave you with a modem, and another box thing. This other box thing is completely foreign to me. I've never seen it. All my "hey I set up internet back in the states once" training goes out the window. I'm f'in' clueless.

So I went to bed last night a little angry.

I had this... oddly realistic dream too. Jeana was in it, as well as some family and some friends. I don't remember the details, but I do remember that I was constantly getting left behind. Like, I'd be a minute late and they'd just LEAVE. I'm sorry, but it's kinda annoying when people leave right on the dot. lol. Talk about cultural differences of time. I mean, I'm all for waiting a minute or two, but I can understand when time is of the essence and you must be exactly on time. But unless you like, warn me early about it...

I like, literally just kept missing them too. I was like, OMG JUST WAIT ONE MINUTE AND I WILL CATCH UP. I had to take a *taxi* to try and rondevous with them, and it cost me a fortune!

I think I woke up at that point.

It was raining this morning. I really need to buy a real umbrella. For all Okayama calls itself "the sunshine prefecture" sorry, you ain't got shit on San Diego. Actually, it's probably raining more often than it did in norcal too, for all I haven't been here for very long.

Homesick

Alright, I admit it, I'm a little homesick. And I mean sure, I miss people. Friends, family, food buddies. I'm well on my way through stage two right now in the Great Cycle of Culture Shock. I've learned about this cycle like... formally three times now. The Scholar Ship was probably the most thorough about it though.

In case you haven't had the talk, I mean, you probably know what culture shock is. Going into ANY new culture. And I mean any. Culture shock varies in degrees, and varies with each person of course, but it's a cycle. You have the honeymoon phase, where things are faaaaaaantastic. Most people go through this. Unlucky people don't, or have a super short one. Things are looking up.

Then comes the dreaded stage two. The most obvious part of the cycle. Things suck. Things go wrong. Things are frustrating. It's like PMSing on your period. You get tired of things. You're not as happy as you were before. Sometimes, you suck to be around.

Really though, it's like menopause. You have your good days, your bad days. No hot flashes though. Or it's like brainwaves. When you're measuring EEGs, and looking for waves, when you look at the big pattern, they look like curves and stuff. But, upon closer inspection, these hills and valleys are actually made up of smaller hills and valleys of their own. It's a rollercoaster. Just cause you're headed down doesn't mean you can't also go up for a little bit before going back down.

But anyways, I digress from what I wanted to write originally. I miss people, but most of all, I'm homesick for food.

I've been looking at pictures of food with every self intro I do, and menus, and oh my god, bacon food truck and bacon popcorn. I crave bacon popcorn. And hotdogs. Proper hotdogs. Or Costco hotdogs. I'm so hungry. Hotdogs and bacon just aren't the same over here. The bacon, while tasty, is limp. I'm a fan of crispy bacon. The hotdogs... aren't the same. Their casing is a little tough to chew through. I miss hotdogs. And garlic fries lol.

FOOOOOOOOOD. I wonder how it became to be such a big part of my life. I'm pretty sure I can say now, with certainty, that I am obsessed with food. Friends like Viv don't help either lol.