30 days of blogging: Complete!

Today marks the end of NaBloWriMo (In trying to find some sort of image, I found out it’s a real thing)



Image found here.

It’s been fun, but after this I’ll be slowing back down to a more normal blog pace of 2-3 times per month. I hope you enjoyed it despite the illnesses and other randomness that slowed me down a couple of days.

With this, tomorrow starts the first day of December, so home in less than a month! Woo hoo!!

Decorating for Christmas

Last Sunday, my church started decorating for Christmas. We started by taking the tree out and starting to try to piece it together.







It slowly got put together, each piece needing to go in a specific place, like a puzzle.



Streamers were hung from the wood panels above the windows.



Hanging garlands and making funny faces over a window.



Putting the star on top of the tree, it was always my favorite part as a child.



Another silly-faced pose . . . no wonder I get along with this church so well.



L hanging streamers.



More garland hanging, along the wood trim.



A cute smile, rather than a funny face.



Another cute smile. This is one of the little girls I claim as my church little sisters. She’s about the same age as my actual little sister.



Another one of said church sisters.







And another funny pose. Christmas-bell-boy?



Then of course, I had to get decorated here’s one of our hair.



And one of our faces.



A photo as shot by the one in the blue turtleneck.



The three of us with L sneaking in.



After all the Christmas decorations were taken out of my hair, I was given a very Japanese style hair-do.



It was loads of fun working with everyone to decorate our church for Christmas. Unfortunately with all the hair antics, I missed out on getting a shot of the outcome. I’ll try to get one next time.

One of my favorite places in town

One of my favorite places in town is the bagel shop. I love how warm and inviting it is and I love the bagels! I claim they're the best in Hokkaido.

This is the seating area and one of the first things you see when you enter the shop.



This bulletin board shows the specials for the day and the shelves behind hold the bagels. Unfortunately, on this particular day at 11 am he was already out of most of the bagels! That just shows how good they are.



This is the area where the cash register is. He also has bagel themed postcards, which I’ll have to buy some of for my collection before I come home.



The left side of the photo above, the bar-seating area. This area is fun because you get to look out the window. Nothing super exciting, but I love being able to look out the window. The other bonus for sitting here is you get to chat with the bagel guy. He always seems really kind.



This little scene sits above the shelves that hold the bagels. It’s kind of fun random things gracing the top of the shelf.



Since he was out of bagels on this particular day, I decided to get the quiche (pumpkin-bacon) and the curry soup. A perfect brunch for a day with a cold hovering over my head.



I’ll be coming back again soon!

Getting ready for tomorrow!

Tomorrow a friend in Sapporo is hosting Thanksgiving, so I’ll drive out and then drive home in the same day. It’s going to be a bit epic, but it should be loads of fun.

She asked for help making things so I volunteered for bread. I made beer bread.



That’s my moven (aka microwave-oven). It does a great job cooking small things, but big things (like this) tend to over cook a tad on the outside.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Four Years Ago, Today

Four years ago, a drunk driver took you away, my friend since kindergarten. Since that day you've missed so much.

You were supposed to graduate with me, just a few weeks later, start school and finish it together.
Your niece that you had just heard about and were so excited for is getting so big and by the sounds of it, more and more like you every day.

C, your little sis, got married. You’d have been so proud, she was such a beautiful bride. You should have been there celebrating the day with us.

You have a nephew too, who I’m sure you’d love. I haven’t met him yet either, but all the pics C posts of him are adorable.

K joined the Navy. You would have been so proud of him, too. Had you been in the car with us, you would have had a great time with A, M and I in the car on the way back from C’s wedding when we got a flat in insane Arizona heat with him in his “whites,” unable to do anything for fear of staining them.

My sister got married without telling anyone (ok, well except maybe the judge). You would have loved getting to hear about the craziness of it just before your sister got married and how my parents reacted.
I wish you could be here to see all of the things that have happened in both of our families and with our friends. To share in the joys, laugh at the insane things and just be here.

We miss you Cara.

Cara and I before our first week at summer camp

Today’s drugs of choice

I have a nasty cold. I don’t really feel like blogging, but to keep in spirit with my NaNoWriMo friends, who are writing 50,000 word novels this month, I decided to blog everyday.
So today, I’ll introduce you to today’s drugs:


From left to right:

• Tea – pretty much my favorite anytime
• Mystery Japanese cold meds – take them three times a day, with meals. Or in my case once when you’ve forgotten yours at home. Likely, I’ll take them again tomorrow in the morning and at lunch time.
• Nyquil knock off – got it from a neighboring ALT who was leaving. It’s been great for sleeping through the cough that started two nights ago. Took the last two doses over the last two nights, so a new bottle tonight.
• Honey – great for stopping coughs and feels good on a sore throat.
• Ginger tea – tastes NASTY, but makes my clogged up sinuses so happy.
• And a special guest Kleenex – wouldn’t want to have a runny nose without them around.

Not pictured:

• Vicks’ vapor rub – the only way to be able to sleep if you have congestion.

Well, there you have it. Those are my best friends today. Are there any other cold remedies that might help this nastiness go away faster?

Happy Pocky Day

Apparently 11/11/11 is national pocky day in Japan. All those ones in a row and apparently Japanese people think of pocky.



They look like a bunch of 1s in a row here, right?



Enjoy 11/11/11!

Pumpkin, peanut butter and oats, oh my!

Every year at this time I start seeing delicious recipes pop up for all kinds of delicious looking recipes that call for canned pumpkin, that can of stuff that says “Libbys” clearly across it. 

The problem is, that in Japan, it is hard to get canned pumpkin and it’s expensive. Why spend so much on it when I could probably make it, but have I ever tried? Nope.

Last year, I made a few pumpkin soups by throwing the pumpkin in the rice cooker until it was soft and then putting it in the soup.

This year, as I was reading Tokyo Terrace, a food blog I enjoy, I spotted a recipe for pumpkin puree. Of course, I had to try it, but what would I put it in? Then, I found Pumpkin Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars on Pinterest, and of course there was no question I had to try them.

On Sunday night, I decided that I wanted to make this snack. When I thought about how to do the pumpkin, I saw no reason to use the slightly scary microwave/oven/toaster contraption I have sitting in my kitchen. Instead, I used my favorite Japanese kitchen appliance – my rice cooker! I put the pumpkin in and pressed start . . . or so I thought.

When I went to look shortly after, I was surprised at how little it had cooked and then I realized I hadn’t pushed start, but stop. I pushed start and went about doing other things until it was ready. The pumpkin was so hot when came out, I had to stick it in the fridge for a little while so I wouldn't burn my fingers while I peeled the skin off.

Once I had the skin off, I stuck it in my tiny food processor, adding small amounts of water, and whirled away until it had a texture I was happy with.

After pulling the pumpkin out, I stuck it in a container to be measured out with the ingredients for the next master piece – the Pumpkin Peanut Butter Oatmeal bars. Her recipe mentioned that none of the measurements were exact, so I didn't measure most of the ingredients either, but just put them in as I was happy with them.

I started with the peanut butter, oats, vanilla and sugars. At that point, they smelled a lot like peanut butter Captain Crunch. Of course I stole a small taste and they tasted just like it. I continued and added in the pumpkin and spices – the whole thing smelled of peanut butter and delicious-ness.

Then I put them in the oven and baked them for the prescribed amount of time. When they came out, it was hard not to cut into them, but the recipe said specifically to let them cool before cutting them so they would set.

I wasn’t very successful with this, because I wanted them put away before I went to bed, so I wouldn’t be tempted by them for breakfast. Since they were still a tad warm, they crumbled a little, but they were so delicious.



They turned out very delicious and I recommend both recipes to anyone with a little pumpkin, peanut butter and oats to spare.

At the end of this, I still have about a cup of puree left and another whole kabocha. Do you have any favorite pumpkin recipes? Share them in the comments!

Searching for Gold

On Saturday, I was invited to go “gold mining” with people in town. This was translated by my JTE. It also included a bit of a historic tour of half of town (next year is the other half).

We started in the parking lot near our michi-no-eki. We did the greetings and heard a quick overview of what we’d be doing that day – most of which I didn’t understand at all, but I just smiled and nodded along, figuring that when we got to an important part of the day, someone would make sure I knew what I was supposed to do.
After the beginning intros, we headed inside and upstairs to the small town museum. I was surprised at how relaxed it was. My students who were along started picking up and touching stuff and they weren’t scolded and told to put things down. They were even allowed to take one of the things with us so that it could be used while we were out “gold mining” later that day.

This man was leading our tour, he used to be in my Eikaiwa class and is super friendly. I think he must be a pretty good teacher of all levels because all of my students seemed quite interested in the mini-history lesson he seemed to be giving about my town. In fact, they seemed to have longer attention spans than I did.
I knew that in the past, farming had been a major industry in town, because it still is. I also knew logging and woodworking had been because I had seen pictures. But I had no idea that gold mining had also been a major thing back in the day.

Here are some of the things they used to do in town. 

Could you imagine Snowshoeing or even having to go for long walks in the snow in shoes like these?



An old-fashioned Japanese type writer, because there are so many characters, they had to pick out the ones they wanted and then put them in the thing in the back that
picked them up. No wonder type writers and computers took so long to pick up here, if you had to do that every time you wanted to write a simple note, it’d be so much easier to just grab a pen and start writing.

And, of course, an old English book! So glad I wasn’t an ALT in those days. Though, I do think they might have done a better job of teaching kids simple words before they start to move on to tougher ones.

After our walk around the museum, we set off!



Apparently we have a suspension bridge in town. It was fun to walk across it with my students. It made me laugh a lot that they all came in red hats. They were three of my first graders. It was fun to talk with some of them in a non-school setting though.

I was glad to have not gone by myself though, between the red signs with a line and the signs declaring “danger,” on my own I would have guessed the bridge wasn’t safe for walking on and that it wasn’t ok to go on it. Instead, we had a good laugh at the kids adventuresome spirits and the moms being scared of how much it moved.

After a bit more driving and showing us a few more historic places (often from the bus), we headed out to start gold mining. My friend from eikaiwa showed us how to do it and we got to work. My students were so excited to try their hand at finding gold.

The adults, of course got to try too. I’m not sure any gold was found, but we all managed to get our fingers pretty cold in the November waters. By the time we finished, my fingers were like ice and one mom passed out hand warmers to all the kids. One of my students shared one with me and then proceeded to show me how to get it to warm up so it would keep my hands warm.

On the way home 3 of my students, one mom and I played shiritori. Shiritori is a word game where the word you say has to start with the last letter of the person before you’s word. I realized as we played that, while I have a lot of Japanese words in my head, I don’t have them connected by first letter, so some letters were incredibly hard to think of words for. It was an interesting realization as a Japanese learner.

I don’t think anyone went home that day with any gold, but it was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning.

Gender Identity In Japanese and Western Culture: The Definitive Something or Other*

Today I spent another day with my Junior High School students. It was a good day. But as I stand there often not involved in classes except to read for the students to repeat (human tape recorder, we call it), I get to observe my students. This is always an interesting way to keep my mind occupied.

As I stand there, I frequently notice that the boys in the class have some very “girly” school supplies. Minnie Mouse Folders, pink pencils and plenty of other things. Why is it that guys in the US think that these types of things would make them less “manly”? Why is it that American society deems these things “girly?” Why do we have to separate things and jobs as feminine or masculine?

The differences continue outside the classroom. Construction equipment here is often cute. Elephants, frogs and monkeys hold up bars to keep people seeing the edge of the road. The lifter things that help people reach power lines, painted like giraffes.Why is it that construction equipment at home is never painted in pastel colors? Or pinks? Or any of the colors we deem “feminine?” Or is it because animals are “childish?” If that’s the case, who quit liking animals after they were an adult?

In the states, we also seem to classify jobs this way. How many male elementary teachers have you met? There are usually one or two at any school, clearly outnumbered. How many women do you know going into computer science? I know a handful, but I know way more men. Why is this? Didn’t God give us each unique talents and abilities? Why would women not be able to do some jobs and men not be able to do others?

I may be crazy to share all of these thoughts, but at home I get annoyed when the boys in the classroom think they can’t be good at reading or writing because they’re “girl subjects” (or sometimes even school at all), or when a girl thinks she can’t be good at math or science because they’re “boy subjects.” Students seem to choose this way of thinking all the time (or did when I was subbing).

I’m not trying to say that women should be better than men at everything or vice versa. I just get annoyed with the way we box things into gender. Why are school supplies, colors, school subjects and professions categorized into genders? They have no gender. They’re inanimate objects.

Will we ever be able to disconnect these things from gender? Would lifting these boxes that we have put ourselves and those around us in change anything? I’m not sure. I would hope that it would make everyone help to be themselves. Help them to dress in the colors they want to. Help them to do a job they love rather than shying away from it because it’s not something they should be doing.

*Title thanks to: Elizabeth, author of Futons, Fish, and Ferries and one of my regular blog editors

"Someone needs to do something about that"

Yesterday, I found a link back to this blog I had read a while ago. It’s called Stuff Christians Like. Kind of an odd title and I probably wouldn’t have read it before, except a friend had posted it on facebook and it a funny title, “Thinking you’re naked.” What??? I had to read it. It was an incredible article.

I found myself there again, this time through a completely different website. I remembered the previous article and decided to look at the more recent articles. I wanted to see if this was a rare good article, or one of many (it’s definitely one of many). This time, I found myself on this one: “What if?”

The author, Jon, was inspired by his 6-year-old daughter to fundraise for a school in Vietnam. They were reading a book and she saw a photo of a young child somewhere else in the world living in poverty and asked, “That’s not real though. That’s pretend right?” He realized that her question went deeper. People don’t really live like that? Kids my own age? Why isn’t anyone doing something? Why aren’t we doing something? He decided to act on it.

I’m amazed. How many times does the Lord speak things into my life in equally small ways, which I can brush off and I do? Why do I not see something that needs done and do it?

Why don’t I notice the “someone needs to do something about that” moments and realize that they may be the Lord saying, “You need to do something about that”?

Why do I let fear and complacency get in the way of living my live completely for the Lord, especially in the small ways that no one else will know about?

I love . . .

. . . staying warm when it’s cold outside!

My JTE and I went shopping this weekend for things I need for winter. I bought winter boots, warmer pants, sweaters, a hat and nice-warm pants (wear to work).

I walked to work today and though slightly cold (I should have worn layers on my legs), I wasn’t freezing. I didn’t feel the need to run into the nearest house to get out of the cold (like I did before).

While I was terrified of winter and am still not so sure about driving in it (I have yet to drive in the snow/ice), I now know I have the clothes to stay warm (which makes it way less terrifying).

We were at, but not below freezing today. See how I feel when we’re -20° C.

Rhythm

Today, the pastor at church chose to speak on Numbers 28-29. I wasn’t particularly excited. At first glance, this is one of the chapters where the Lord is telling the Israelites how to do sacrifices and various ceremonies. BORING! Or so I thought.

She said (well it was translated) that the Lord wanted to teach the Israelites to have a rhythm. She gave the example of a rhythm of going to bed early and getting up early, which she established as a child. Something may happen to cause her to stay up late or sleep in occasionally, but life is better when she has a rhythm.

In this passage, the Lord was trying to teach them to have rhythms that took place daily, weekly (Sabbath), monthly and festivals. Each had its purpose. Daily, to connect with the Lord and hear his purpose for our lives. Weekly, to have fellowship with other believers. Festivals to remember what he has done in our lives.

In what ways do I have rhythms that take place daily, weekly and less frequently? I can easily look at the way I spend my time and see that the daily and weekly rhythms are in my life (devotions, church and a skype Bible study are easy to see).

What about less frequently (monthly). How do I make a rhythm in my life for remembering what the Lord has done in my life? How does that look in your life? How can I build that into my life in a real way, so it actually grows me and helps me realize more and more how amazing the Lord is?

English Class today

Today I got to visit what is probably my favorite school, mostly because when I go, I get to spend the entire day at the school and really get to know the kids (which is incredible). The students are one sixth-grade boy, two third graders (girl and boy), three third graders (2 boys and one girl), two second grade girls, and two first-grade girls. They are an insanely fun group.

I was informed about the English lesson moments before going into the classroom. The teacher wanted me to pronounce the cards with the animals on them and then read the story. That got my brain going. If I was going to read this story, which the students weren’t likely to understand all the words to, how was I going to keep them engaged? (Keeping students engaged is always a big question for me, because it cuts down on management problems).

We got into the classroom and I asked, “How are you?”, “How’s the weather?”, “What’s the date today?” (the regular set of questions). As usual, most of the students do not know the month to be able to say the date. I have one third grader who seems to be particularly gifted in English who can almost always answer the question (maybe he studies at home?).

Then we pronounced the words, kids repeated (pretty standard way to start). After some questioning of students on the words, we moved on and played karuta. Karuta is a game I was introduced to in my high school Japanese class. The teacher calls a word and the first kid to slap the flash card wins it. The kid with the most cards at the end wins. We played a few rounds, with me being silly at the end and calling random non-animals (like carrot) when there was only one card left, to see if they were really listening.

After Karuta, came the story. It was about animal noises. To solve my earlier problem, I decided to pass out the cards with the animals. Each student was responsible to hold up her/his card when she/he heard the animal’s noise.

Please remember that as they were being asked to do this, most of the animal noises that we use in English are different than the ones that Japanese people use for animal noises. So as we went through the story, a few of the students held their animal up for every noise, until they got it right, and a few actually tried hard. They stayed engaged the whole time though. That was the best part; I didn’t lose any students while reading a story which most students didn’t understand.


My view a couple of mornings ago.