Golden Week Day 13

You can see the pics posted during the trip here.

前の携帯の写真はここで。

Here are a few shots of the area near the very rural, airport hostel. 

ホステルの近い所の写真。とても田舎だね。

This is the hostel. 

これはホステル。

I took the train from the airport to Narita station and then headed off to explore the area. 

空港から成田駅まで電車で行った。

Thankfully there was a tourist information booth near one of the Narita stations. I took a Japanese map and asked for the woman's recommendations all in Japanese. 

観光案内所があったが良かった。日本語でおすすめが聞いて、日本語の地図ももらった。

She recommended Narita's temple for the few hours I had in the area before I needed to get back to the airport, check in and have lunch. 

２時間３時間があったから、成田山がおすすめした。

These two old ladies with their umbrella were super cute. 

この2人と傘はかわいかった。

It was one of the most beautiful temples I've seen. 

この寺はとてもきれいだった。

The area with lots of little shops. 

たくさん店があった。

Still in awe at how green everything was. 

たくさん緑色い木があった。

An interesting pot. 

Look at all the intricate detail in this building. 

すごいきれい。

So many lamps with their interesting design. 

これもきれい。

Love how the orange stands out from the blue of the sky and the green of the trees. 

対比色いっぱいあった。オレンジ建物と青空と緑色い木があった。

More green! 

緑！

This was the part I liked the best. The forest part, where you could just walk and walk. It reminded me of many places in Oregon. 

この所が大好きだった。森みたいに歩いた。オレゴン州見たい所。

Another interesting area for selling things. I wanted ice cream. None of these stalls had ice cream. 

ここもたくさん店があった。アイスが欲しかったけど、アイスがなかった。

After I walked around the temple, I headed back for the train station and the airport. 

寺の後に駅へ戻った。

I decided to walk down a different street to see if there were any different things there. 

違う道に歩いた。他の事が見て欲しかった。

I found these two houses. One looks like old Japan and one looks like it was dropped out of California. 

この2台家が見た。古い日本見たいとカリフォルニア州から見たい。

Lunch at the same place as the day before. I loved all the colorful veggies. 

前の日の同じ昼食所へ行った。明るい野菜があったから。

It was such a cute little shop. 

かわいい店。

After lunch, I still had time to kill, so I went to the plane viewing area. It was sunny and a great place to sit and wait before having to go check in. It reminded me even more that I wasn't ready to come back to snowy Hokkaido. 

昼食の後にもう少し時間があったから、飛行機見える所へ行った。天気は良かったからいい待ちる所。北海道帰るの前の最後太陽見える所こと考えた。

The airplane. 

飛行機。

When I got back to Hokkaido, I got to meet up with my friend Aileen and her mom for dinner at the airport. It was nice to catch up and nice to meet her mom. 

北海道へ帰ったの後に友達と友達のお母さんと夕食を食べた。楽しかった。

Where'd the Oregonian go?

This morning I woke up and it was grey outside. We’ve had a lot of grey days recently, so I assume it will warm up. At my junior high (where I was today), they are doing construction and rarely open the windows. I choose light clothes, to keep from overheating, while sitting in the stuffy staffroom. Once ready, I grab my bag, slip on my flip-flops and take off for school on my bike.

I have one class over the course of the day, so I spend my day trying to book a flight home, studying Japanese and chatting with friends.

As I walk to the second year room for lunch, I realize it’s pouring and decide my best course of action is to hope it will let up before 4:30, when I get to head home.

Slowly the minutes tick by. I am working on an email when 4:30 rolls around. I say goodbye to the friends I’m chatting with and the teachers who are actually in the staffroom at that time (many are out doing things with the students).

When I get to the genkan, where we change our shoes as we come in or out, I stand there for a minute, just stare at the rain, and laugh. I’m an Oregonian, I should have known better, right? Why did I think the rain would hold off as the weather forecast said? (Probably because it didn’t come at all this weekend).

As I’m standing there, Kanayama-san, our janitor walks up and asks if I have an umbrella. I shake my head no and mention that I have no jacket either, thinking still about how I should have known better. He smiles and hands me an umbrella. I ask if it’s ok and he says it is.

As I reach my hand into the box labeled with レベッカ (Rebecca), I remember that I wore flip-flops that morning. I slowly switch my shoes, thinking of how wet I’m about to get and head outside to realize this is going to be my first-ever umbrella bike ride.

By the time I get to the bike shelter across the parking lot, I’ve avoided a few puddles and watched a few students go running to or from the building in rain suits. “They were prepared,” I think.

The bike shelter surprises me, when I arrive, because it has a good inch of water or so on the ground that I have to wade through to get to my bike. Getting a bike out with one hand on an umbrella is much more complicated than I expect, but I get the bike out with minimal water on the seat and only slightly wet toes.

As I ride across the parking lot, I realize that it’s not as hard as I thought it would have been (especially considering I was trying to text and bike ride the other day). Holding the umbrella out in the wind, so that I can still see is the most difficult part.

Very quickly, I realize that hurrying home on my bike with the wind in my face and an umbrella in hand is a bad idea and will likely cause a gaijin-bicycle scramble (gaijin = foreigner). Thinking about how crazy this is and that I’d never have attempted it at home, I spend the whole ride home laughing. I begin laughing even harder when I realize that the umbrella helped me avoid a shower that included my head, but very much didn’t prevent the rest of my body from being soaked.