Winter

Well, I am back in snowy Aomori. As I write this I am in my office, staring out the window, and it is a complete whtie windy mess! Soon I will be heading to lunch for soba followed by a workshop at a Elementary school. I don't want to go out in the cold, I already had my bizarre medical exam this morning and had to be out in it for too long!

But luckily, Aomori is not as cold as it was at Deep Creek when I went home. But what I do miss from the lake, is the central heating. When I return home from work my room is about 8 degrees C (like 46). That doesn't sound too bad, but it's inside, and in the rooms by my door and hallway those are colder, taking a shower is not fun! But being in the US after 1.5 years was very nice. Although I did not get to see as many people as I hoped, all the snow at the lake and the warm fire, kept me up there most of the time! Due to all the snow there were many winter activities occurring, including snowboarding, snowtubing, sleigh riding, and crosscountry skiing.. oh yea and a geocache scavenger hunt. So my days were filled with snow, yummy food I don't get in Japan (CHEESE), many games (of course), the fireplace, player piano, and Wii Fit. Of course, after I leave the country, my parents decide to get a wii. So while I was home I played wii fit for the first time, so fun, Im a pro hula hooper! It was nice to be home, to have the fam in one place for once and of course see my BOYS!! goblin and buckey!

Now its back to Aomori life, this week has been an office week, but school visits start up next week. Ive already had a curling game and practice and have another one tomorrow. Tonight is the first night this week I have not had any plans, so I am looking forward to that. And also, after my game tomorrow I am meeting my friends for karaoke... I mean, i've been out of the country for 3 weeks, I needed some karaoke!

Christy wants me to start an everyday/life sort of blog, since this one I usually only write in after travels, so if I decide to do that, I will let you all know the link!

Hope everyone had a merry christmas and a good new years!

Taiwan - Touch Your Heart

During the month of September my friend Christy and I ventured to the little island of Taiwan. Why September? Why Taiwan? Well, in Japan in May there are three consecutive holidays - that five day break is called Golden week. So with three September holidays just HAPPENING to fall in a row, the week was aptly called Silver Week (I originally thought I made up the name, but then a month later the news was calling it that.. apparently it caught on). Christy and I have wanted to travel together - so we made a list of where in Asia we had been and the two countries that we both had not been to (and had a small desire to go) were Vietnam and Taiwan. With only a week we decided Taiwan would be best - and knew nothing about it (at first).

We planned out our six days in Taiwan, mainly sticking to the east coast. We couch surfed the entire time (amazing thing in the backpacker/traveler world). Couch surfing, although to non-CSers sounds sketchy, is actually wonderful. People open their homes to travelers. Some are involved, some are busy with work, but all give you a place to stay and are generous in their help and recommendations. (I have actually hosted over 12 in Aomori, mainly during Nebuta).

We started our our journey in Taipei, staying two nights with 30 year old Taiwanese English tutor Grace and her roommate Ellen. Our schedules clashed and we only were able to chat with her late in the evenings, but she saved us from traveling to the Western part of Taiwan (that we had purchased a ticket for) when we wanted to go to the South!! In Taipei we did the touristy city things -- went to Taipei 101 (tallest building in the world and fastest elevator), San Yat Sen Memorial, lots of walking around, and of course night markets and lots of yummy food. Food was actually raved about by anyone who has been to Taiwan (foriegners and Japanese alike).


Next we continued our journey (using Taiwan"s incredibly easy to use transportation system) south to Taroko National Park. We met this 26 year old Taiwanese girl (Vivian) at the visitor center. She asked us what trail we were planning on hiking and she said she has a car and can take us to the entrance of the trail. Turns out she is an interpreter/guide in training with her trainer and they ended up taking us around the national park the entire day, taking us to places and teaching us things we never would have known. Vivian actually lives in Hualien (city about 1 hour away) where we were staying for the night and drove us to our new couch surfer, Gloria's home.

Gloria is queen of couch surfing and travel. She is 31, traveled the world and couchsurfed for 7 months straight and has hosted numerous ones. She lives with her family is a very large home (so we only briefly saw her mother) and has two adorable dogs (who I gave English names). She took us to the best dumpling shop and then to a native dance show and a night market. Christy and I had read about white water rafting and she helped us book that for the next day.

White water rafting day -- well, let me just say, was the strangest rafting I have ever taken part in. Basically, we had no guide on our boat, a ditzy couple who thought the boat was going to be automatic, a group of people who could not work together and two boats who when we got close would just start water splashing wars. Needless to say, the motorized boat basically pushed us down the river or would turn our boat down the right rapids, to haphazardly go through.

That night Gloria had to work until later, so she set us up with two adorable college girls who took us to a little place to eat, where we asked about the Taiwanese shampoos, that we later treated them to. Great 50 minutes of waterless soapy foaming shampoo and head massage!
That evening met back up with Gloria who took us to a night market where I tried Chicken food, Chicken neck, duck tongue, bread stuffed with deer and cheese, and other yummy foods and fresh fruit juices.

The next day Christy and I headed back up the coast (and stopped off at great places Gloria had recommended and given us all the train times for). We stopped at a cold springs (which was very fun, we had our own private room) and then stayed the night in Jiaoshi a town known for hot springs. This one night we did not plan couchsurfing and stayed at a nice hotel and just relaxed and spent time in the hotsprings!

Getting close to the end of our trip on our way back to Taipei we went north and stopped at this mountainous town with great views and an amazingly fun market and old time looking streets!


When we got back to Taipei we met up with Huo, our final couch surfer host. She is 24 and has the most adorable apartment that her and her interior designer boyfriend decorated. That evening she again introduced us to great night market food and then her boyfriend and his friends wanted to take us to this trendy little rock bar that had a room with hundreds and hundreds of records. The following day was our last day and Huo cooked us a traditional Taiwanese breakfast and then came with us to the bus to head to the airport.

Overall it was a wonderful six day trip. Do not rely upon English if you ever do go to Taiwan (although the book said most young people speak it fine). Without the help of our Japanese (either to converse or read Chinese characters) I don't know how we would have survived - def couch surfers!

Now Aomori is getting chilly, fall has arrived. This past Sunday Christy, my friend Steve and I ran the 5 K in the Hirosaki Apple Marathon. My days are becoming very busy with curling starting as well, as I have a 2 hour practice and 2 hour game almost every week. And in the fall there is AT LEAST one four day week a month!

Summer in Aomori

It has been a while. Last I wrote was Golden Week when I went to the Philippines! Since then summer in Aomori has come and gone. Aomori is so far north that the summers are nice and cool. Every week there was always a barbecue, beer garden, or festival happening. Japan loves summer. It is never hard to walk down the street, bike around or listen outside your door to find a festival. Local shrines, neighborhoods, just about anything will hold a festival. Usually consisting of numerous food stands, yaki soba, yaki tori, chocolate bananas, shaved ice, many little fair games, and giving people chances to look cute and walk around in summer kimonos.
One of the largest festivals in Japan is Nebuta, which is held in Aomori city, but other versions of Nebuta are held in other parts of the prefecture. Nebuta is held every year from Aug 2-7. Months prior Nebuta artists start constructing their intricate paper floats, and musicians practice the traditional Aomori nebuta flute and drums. So many people visit Aomori during this week, so many that only one out of ten people actually live in Aomori (statistic I learned this year)!! During this week I hosted many couch surfers (a new phenomenon where you can stay with people all throughout the world to learn more about the local area and have a place to stay). I hosted people from, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Ireland, Serbia, and Spain. It was a busy week and a full house!
During this week, people dress up in the Nebuta outfits, join a group, hop two times on one foot and two times on the other, yelling "Rase Ra, Rase Ra"! For about three hours. I participated with the foreigners group the second night, and the PTA the third night. I went every day to the festival though. The final day is a two hour fireworks display and floating the winning floats out on the ocean for their final appearance. Once Nebuta is over, it is said that summer in Aomori is over. And it pretty much is. It has started to get cooler and beginning to feel more like fall.
But the following week after Nebuta I took a week off work and went to Shizuoka and Osaka. I studied abroad three years ago in Osaka and I wanted to be reunited with my friends and host family! So first I went to Shizuoka where my good friend, Hiroaki, is working. Spent a few days there, and experienced my largest earthquake (a six, highest is seven), we were rocking and rolling and a few things falling. Then we drove together to Osaka where I met up with my good friends Shunsuke and Hiroshi. The following days I met up with my speaking partners Akira, Kitt-chan and Aimi. And then spent some time with my amazing host family. It was very hot in Osaka, 38 degrees, whereas Aomori only gets to about 25!
But now I am back in Aomori which is beginning to get chilly. But in one week I will be headed to Taiwan with my friend Christy for a week! Three holidays happen to fall in a row, so its like another Golden week, so new name - Silver week! We are really excited, Taiwan has SO much to offer, more than we ever knew, six days will be too short but we are looking forward to couch surfing and a lot of great scenery and delicious food!

Here are some more pictures of Nebuta and trip to Shizuoka/Osaka, please check them out!
http://picasaweb.google.com/TesiaSmith

Philippines

Well I just have to say this might have been one of the best places on earth. Before going I knew there were over 7,000 islands and that they have the highest English literacy rate in South East Asia. Post going I learn there are actually 7,107 islands and 7,108 at low tide. And that I did not realize how nice it is to travel to a country that has their own language but everyone there (over 90% eng literacy) speaks english, perfectly, little children included.

Things I loved about it. Its BEAUTIFUL. The water is so warm and clear. Each island is so different. The people are genuinely nice and go out of their way to help. It is so incredibly cheap (highlights: 60 cent drinks, 4 dollar meals, 1 dollar bag of mangoes, 10 dollar rooms, 12 dollar flight from Manila to Cebu). I ate mangoes and bananas everyday in all forms. I never once felt unsafe. And its just overall awesome.

Let me back up a bit. In Japan, the first week in May is called Golden week, three holidays always fall right next to each other so its a five day weekend where everyone travels. I took off Golden week and the week before, with two of my friends Chris (a JET from Minnesota) and Yumiko (a JET from Australia) and traveled to the Philippines.

So basically, we spent most of our time in two locations - El Nido on the island of Palawan and the island of Boracay. We did visit Manila for a night and another place in Palawan called Coron.

El Nido was gorgeous, huge cliffs just sticking out of the ocean. The island of Palawan is not too touristy so you really got a local feel. During the day and some streets at night turned off the electricity, so it was cool walking around with stores lit by candle light. The first day we went there we did island hopping. Just got on a boat and spent the entire day stopping at remote islands, snorkeling, swimming and relaxing. Our guides ended up being really cool and so we went and saw their band play that night and island hopping with them again the next day. Our final day was also a great day. We rented motor bikes and Christian and Richard (the two guides) came along. We motor biked on remote beaches that we wouldn't have known about, as well as went to Christians aunt's place. Which was some thatched houses, with kids running around, animals running around and great fruit trees (delicious mangoes). Richard caught and killed a chicken and made lunch. It was pretty great.

Next we went to Coron (for two days) and Manila (for one day). But then Boracay for about 5 days. Boracay is much more touristy than Palawan. But not bad, it was nice to have many restaurant and bar options, it was a good change. And its probably one of the most beautiful white sand beaches ever. I just couldn't get over the beauty and the amazing weather, which is why I did not do much at all here except enjoy. There are tons of water sports and activities to do, I was planning on parasailing, but the beach and relaxation just drew me in. We do go for a sunset sail one evening though. Enjoyed reading, meeting new people, and eating good food. Boracay reminded me a bit of Koh Samui in Thailand, but it was much more beautiful, the beach was larger, the tourists were more local (filippino) tourists, and BEST of all when people try and sell you something when you say no, they leave you alone. People in the Philippines just seem pretty chill and awesome.

people who went out of their way to be nice:
Christian and Richard in El Nido; did not need to turn down more money to hang out with us and show us around.
Nino the Philippine Airline worker who (after we missed our flight) said we volunteered our seats up (to people who were on the canceled flight) so we didnt have to pay extra, drove us back with eight other staff members, found us a room, and hung out with us that night.
Chito: older man visiting Boracay who walked up and down the beach trying to find us the best place to stay, went to dinner with us twice and took us around, and made sure we had his hired friend to help us out after he left.

The list actually goes on and on.
I originally thought two weeks was going to be too long, but it sure was not. I could stay for so long. I am hoping to get back to check out the other islands some day!!

Other interesting facts: I ate BALUT. The delicacy of partially developed chick, you crack the egg, suck the juice, eat the chick and then the yolk. Not too bad just sorta gross to think about. I actually ate one the following night as well.

I also ate a chocolate avocado milkshake.

To get home we took a Tricycle (motorized thing), a boat, a van, a flight from kalibo to manila, flight from manila to cebu, flight from cebu to seoul, flight from seoul to tokyo, and a 9 hour bus ride from tokyo to Aomori. To arrive at 6 am just in time to get ready for work that day. It was VERY difficult to come back to Japan (especially landing in Tokyo). The price of our first meal in Tokyo was probably a few days worth of food in the Philippines! (its painful seeing prices here, I had gotten so used to ignoring how much it costs here and just buying whatever I need). The people too, although Japanese people are incredibly nice, you never really know what they really mean. As well as having to be more aware of appearance and actions.

And now the weather here is cold and rainy. UGH. I asked my friends, would you eat ten balut to go back right now, answer: in an instant.

Well, please check out pictures of paradise, island hopping, balut eating and more PICTURES

Upcoming Events:
Sunday: May 17th: Yokohama Flower Marathon
(not really a marathon, any race they call a marathon, but I'll do the 5k)

It's been a while

Well, it has been a long winter. The cherry blossoms up here in Aomori are finally starting to blossom. The cherry blossom phenomenon in Japan is amazing. Once spring appears to have hit southern Japan the cherry blossom track is on. The daily news will have maps of blossom sightings and will plot the average dates areas of Japan are supposed to bloom and the time period to best view the blossoms. Hirosaki, in Aomori, is supposed to be the most beautiful place in Japan to see cherry blossoms . Cherry Blossom season means many Hanami Parties. Hanami is cherry blossom viewing parties, where large groups of people gather under the blossoms have have large picnics, eat a lot, drink and view the cherry blossoms!

But, to back up a bit since the l

ast post. February I spent my birthday at the Sapporo Snow Festival. I went with my friend Christy and we spent the weekend looking at huge snow sculptures, ice sculptures and enjoying the snow! The rest of the winter was just spent with some snowboardin

g, curling, and the regular bread making, hip hop dance, and hanging out with friends (foreign as well as Japanese haha). 

Much of March and April was spent without school visits. The kids were on spring vacation and then started a new school year (starts in April). So that meant many boring days in the office. But thankfully school visits have started up again. My two new regular schools are Tsutsui JHS and Toyama JHS. I enjoy the kids and almost all of the teachers at Toyama, so I am looking forward to that. And I had never been to Tsutsui. I have been going there this week though. Its one of the largest JHS in the city, with around 700 kids (for three grades). Its the biggest school I have been to. This week I am teaching the first years (7th grade). There are eight cla

sses of about 30. I like the kids a lot, they are not boring yet not out of control (although there are many loud kids but that makes it even more fun), well behaved but get excited about the work and will participate, so I think it will be a good school. 

So, now I am looking forward to spring. It is finally starting to warm up. But, more importantly Golden Week is coming up. Golden Week is the first week in May where the entire country of Japan gets three holidays in a row, making it a five day weekend, where everyone travels. Luckily I am able to take off days of work, so me and two of my friends will be spending two weeks in the Philippines!! 

I leave this friday for Tokyo and 

the Philippines on Saturday. So my next post hopefully will not be so delayed and will have many fun stories from the phils! 

South East Asia Trip

Well, well, well! So much has happened since my last post! So I will try and keep it brief! Maybe I will make lists!

I started my winter break and adventures on December 20th when I headed on the overnight bus to Tokyo from where I departed to Bangkok with a fellow Aomori City ALT Steve.

THAILAND was wonderfully fun and exciting adventure, full of delicious street vendors, insane Tuk Tuk drivers and bargaining!

Places Visited: Bangkok (about 4 days), Island of Koh Samui (about 4 days)
Things Seen: Many Wats and Palaces, Amusement Parks, Lady Boy Show, Muay Thai Boxing
Excursions: Day of fishing where we caught and ate our own fish, Elephant ride
Best Meal: SPICY meat, chili peppers, onions on rice with an egg - ate at koh samui on the beach.
Most interesting person met: Mon, the Thai tattoo artist
Steve's Illness: The usualy travel sickness (3 days) combined with terrible tooth pain and having to get a tooth pulled.


MALAYSIA was very neat because it does not seem like there are many tourists and they have an amazing amount of ethnic diversity (chinese, malay, indian) which combines for amazing food and friendly people!

Places Visited: Island of Penang(about 2 days), Kuala Lumpur (about 5 day), Melaka (few hours)
Things Seen: Colonial town of Georgetown, Batu Caves, Petronas Towers, many temples and mosques, markets, chinatown, little india
Best Meal: Indian Curry at a place near my hostel
Most Interesting Person met: Three Japanese people we met while waiting in line to get a ticket to walk the sky bridge of the petronas towers. They did not know each other so they were introducing themselves saying where in Japan they were from and then when we were like Aomori, they were surprised -- first because why can we speak japanese and second WHY do we live in Aomori! haah we ended up spending the entire day with them! (they might come visit at Nebuta, our big famous festival held in August)
Steve's Illness: Well -- we spent New Years Eve in Kuala Lumpur (probably the best nye ever), we were wondering why they were selling silly string and foam. Well at around 11 pm everyone in the streets just started spraying everyone with foam, esp us because we are foreigners and it was funny. And it was all a great time covered in foam, people wanting pictures with us. Obviously you are not supposed to get this in your eyes, and my contacts were bothering me so after midnight I went back to the hostel to take them out. Well Steve did not wash out his eyes and the next morning had terrible terrible pain and could not open his eyes at all -- so there was a trip to the hospital.

SINGAPORE was an AMAZING difference from both the two other countries (all differed greatly from one another) but Singapore is so very developed, has insane amount of rules that everyone follows and is the most expensive. While in Singapore we stayed with a man who worked for the British Embassy and he showed us an amazing time! He made great suggestions of where to go and took us out to amazing food that we would def not have tried on our own! For any of you travelers out there I would highly recommend the website Couchsurfing, people are willing to give up a couch and have people from all over the world crash, and not sketchy due to all the recommendations and details required.

Places Visited: Singapore (not a very big place!)
Things Seen: Singapore Zoo (very good), Singapore NIGHT SAFARI (by far the best thing in Singapore), Singapore Bird Park, Sentosa Island (an island that is like a disney resort), the city
Best Meal: Chili Crab or Sting Ray
Most Interesting Person Met: Couch Surfing Host Anthony from England
Steve's Illness: maybe a hangover after Anthony took us Ladyboy/Prostitute watching haha


The trip was great! Loved all the countries I went to, loved all the foods, loved all the people, loved the differences each country had and just all the new sites and architecture I had never seen before!

Coming home I spent three days in Tokyo. I stayed with my friend Steve (different Steve) who graduated a year before me at WAKE FOREST (GO DEACON BASKETBALL!). He works in Tokyo and I was so excited to see him after 1.5 years! It was great, we hung out, ate good foods (the restaurant from the Kill Bill movie, a Ramen museum, a Jamaican place...), and bought SNOWBOARDS!!

Things to look forward to:
AOMORI SNOWBOARDING SEASON (NOW the snow keeps falling!)
Feb 6-8 SAPPORO SNOW FESTIVAL
Feb 8 MY BIRTHDAY (and next curling match)
Feb 11 National Holiday: National Foundation Day

PLEASE check out my pictures on Picasa from my travels: I have tried to organize them so you can pick and choose what you want to look at, or you can click on them all and see small thumbnails, click through them all, or view a slideshow.. i believe they should load relatively quickly. And I enjoy any and all comments! :)

Winter Time

Well, Aomori is becoming snowy, currently giant snow globe snowflakes are falling from the sky! We have had on and off snow throughout December, it accumulates very quickly but then usually it has warmed up a bit again so it melts away. January and February are supposed to be different with nonstop snow.

But, next week I will be in tropical South East Asia!! I leave Aomori next Saturday on the night bus to Tokyo and fly out of Tokyo Sunday evening. I will be traveling with one other friend (but might meet up with some other JETs in Thailand). We start our adventures in Bangkok and head South hitting up various islands and towns, making our way down into Malaysia. In Malaysia we do bascially the same thing making our way down to Singapore. After a few days in Singapore we make our way back to Tokyo on Janurary 9th. I'll most likely spend that weekend in Tokyo and then head back up to Aomori. That weekend and week there is an all Japan Curling tournament in Aomori, so I will probably try to get back up to Aomori to help my team participate in that!

Last night I had a curling match, we won 6-2!

Recently I have just been busy with the normal business of life, teaching, hiphop, bread and curling! The other weekend though I made a trip to the neighboring prefecture of Iwate and went to Morioka. Morioka is famous for a specific type of soba (a type of noodle). In Morioka you can eat Wanko Soba, here at a certain restaraunt they gear you up with an apron, you sit there, and the goal is to eat as many bowls of soba possible (15 little cups = one regular size serving of soba). The thing is, the women stand above you with a tray of cups of soba and constantly dump them in your bowl. In order to stop eating you must put the lid on your bowl, BUT you are not allowed to leave any noodles. And the women stand above you in constantly dump the soba in, so its quite tricky to place the lid on your bowl before she dumps in more (since you are holding your bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other). I surprisingly ate 101 bowls!! Everyone is shocked, I wanted to make it to 100 and get a little wooden certificate HAHA. It was a ton of fun though, the atmosphere is great and the women serving are fun and keep talking and encouraging you to eat more and do not stop dumping the noodles!!

This past week I had my favorite school and favorite grade -- the Sannai Junior High School Third Graders (9th grade). I love them, they are so fun to hang around with. It might be my last time with the third graders, as they graduate in March and I will only be going back in January and February so I will probably have the two other grades. So that makes me sad, they are by far my favorite!

Well, my next post will probably be after I return from the tropical paradise to the snow covered Aomori!

Aomori's Getting Cold!

Winter is slowly coming to Aomori. Last week some people say it was the first snow, I did not see snow, I saw hail. But there snow on the mountain tops and it looks really pretty, I can see the mountains really well from my office! Yesterday going to work it was one degree C. But these days are ranging around 4-10.

So, for Halloween I ended up being a Kingyo-Nebuta. Nebuta is the really famous festival held in Aomori in August, and Kingyo means gold fish. During the festival and all around Aomori there are these gold fish (sort of) looking things hanging around. So I was one of those!

Curling has been going well. I have not practice recently but I went to see the women I practice with place a game, they won. Afterwards they asked me if I was free on the 18th, I said I think so, and then they invited me to play in their next match because they needed a fifth teammate. We will see how this goes....uh oh...

This past weekend my Japanese friend from studying abroad in Osaka came up to Aomori to visit and we did many Aomori touristy things! We went to Osorezan, which is famous throughout Japan. Osorezan is, Mt. Fear, and the gateway to Hell, where people can communicate with the dead, its pretty creepy. Its very barren, cold, gray, and the most terrible stink in the world from the volcanic sulfur lakes.
On Saturday we took a four hour morning ferry from Aomori to Hokodate in Hokkaido (the most northern island of Japan). I was excited I have always wantd to go to Hokkaido and it was beautiful. It was really really cold and windy, but really fun. There was a lot of history, with foreign countries (Perry was actually there for a bit and there are brick buildings so you dont feel like you are in Japan). We ate sheep (because Hokkaido is famous for having sheep), we went to some museums, we went to Goryokaku fort (where the last battle of the Japanese Boshin Civil war was), went up Mt Hakodate via the ropeway and then took the 1130 pm ferry home. It was really cool, felt like christmas with all the foriegn looking buildings, the cold weather, and the lights! I want to def go again!
Then Sunday we did Aomori things that were close, like went to a farm and picked apples (aomori produces 50 percent of Japans apples), we went to Sannai Maruyama (a site with old structures from the Jomon period of Japan) and the Showa Daibutsu, one of the largest, if not the largest Buddah statue in Japan .



















Well, Dad is coming through Japan for business, so he is actually coming to Aomori tomorrow! Crazy! So I might be doing some more Aomori things or taking him to some yummy restaurants.

Other highlights are I booked my flight for winter break, I am going to go to Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore from Dec 21-Jan 9!! Not sure where or what exactly but that is what the rest of this month and December are for!

October in Aomori

So, the last time I left off I was preparing for the Beef and Garlic Festival, the Soccer Tournament in Nagano and the 3K race in Towada. Well, those have all been completed! And as you can tell (from the picture to the left) I made some time to try out curling!

The Beef and Garlic festival was very fun. We took about a two hour road trip and arrived there around 11. There were many events of the day, such as a rock, paper, scissors competition vs. the garlic lady and the garlic queen (who comes from California). Stands were all set up, selling food and extremely cheap garlic (Takko is the garlic capital of Japan). Then you could buy sets of beef, vegetables and some garlic and then there were lots and lots of flat grills to cook all your food and enjoy. It was a very fun day. On the way home we checked out Jesus' grave. In case any of you were confused, there were 12 years in the bible that were missing, that is when Jesus trekked through Russia and ended up in Aomori, where he had a wife and children. When he was supposed to be crucified, his brother Izukiri took the cross for him instead. And now Jesus is burried here in Shingo, in Aomori prefecture. Just though I would inform you of the correct history about Jesus.

The following weekend was an exhuasting weekend but extremely fun weekend filled with soccer. About 25 of us left from Aomori on Friday night for our long bus ride to Nagano, which took about 11 hours. The bus ride was a blast getting to hang out and talk with a bunch of people, but the sleep wasnt the best. We arrived at our hotel/Japanese inn around 5 am. Our first games were around 9, so we had a few hours to rest up and nap. The girls team, the Ringo Stars (Ringo means apple in Japanese, and Aomori is famous for their apples, they produce a little over half of the apples sold in Japan), had four games that saturday. So it was a very tiring day. We won 3 games and tied our last, i scored a goal too. woo. The tournament was an All Japan ALT tournament, so jets from all over were there. We all stayed in the hotel so the hotel was crawling with hundreds of jets, it was fun and that night there was a big party. The next day everyone was so sore and still tired, but there were more games to be played. We ended up loosing a game to Nagano prefecture, but we came in third. Coming in third meant we got a trophy and a case of beer (its Japan). The boys, Aomori United, did not fair so well, but it was still fun. We then were in for another 11 hour bus ride back for everyone to return to their homes only a few hours before work.

Then, last weekend Christy and I took trains down to Towada for the 3K race. The first night we stayed with our friend Aaron, who was running in the 5K. It was nice to relax and just chill before the race. Sunday was the race and Christy and I were not going to race, but just to have something to run in (since we are doing a running scheduled called from the couch to the 5k). We ran our 3k in 15:59, not sure what we were hoping for haha. But the race day was really fun. That night we stayed at a Japanese Inn, where we relaxed, took many onsens (the Japanese public baths/hot springs). This place had a nice outdoor one which we did a lot. We also had a good traditional Japanese dinner of Sukiyaki and other small dishes. Towada has some great horse, so we were also given a lot of delicious raw horse meat, which I highly recommend.

This past week has been a little more relaxed. Since Monday was a holiday (Sports and Health day) I did not have hip hop class. And my bread baking class is every other week. So I thought my nights would be free, but they got filled up with a big trip to Nittori (Japanese Ikea) to buy things for my apartment and dinners with friends. This weekend is a relaxing one with no plans which is nice. The weather is starting to get nice and autumnish. Today I just biked around a bit and then walked around this beach/park by my house. Tomorrow my middle school near my house is having their school festival, I might stop by and make an appearance there, see some of my kids.

Coming up:
Next week: Halloween Party in Hachinohe (any good costume suggestions?)
Week after: 3K Race in Rokkunohe

September in Aomori

So, I have not written recently at all. I have been very busy and have not found too much time.
I have been busy with work, after work activities and then many excursions.

Monday through Thursdays go to middle school and Fridays I go to Elementary schools, where they are always crazy. It's amazing how fascinated and excited the kids get about a foreigners. I also live near one of my middle schools that I attend once a month. The students do not think that we (the ALT) exists outside of the classroom, so when I ride past my students they get really excited and start screaming Taysha Sensei!! Which is always fun, last week I was on the way to dinner and saw two groups of kids, then at the grocery store saw another group too.

Other than work I have been busy with Japanese club, hopefully trying to get better at Japanese. Then, Christy (another JET who lives two doors down and who I am always with) and I have started running (we are running in a 3K near Towada Lake in a few weeks). We have also started a bread making class at the home of a really nice Japanese woman. And in October we are starting hip hop classes at the NHK Culture Center. So, that should be interesting.

I have filled up my weekends and long weekends. A few weekends ago was the Aomori scavenger hung and JET welcome party. The scavenger hunt took your team all over the prefecture to find things such as the oldest apple tree in Japan, Jesus' grave, and various other things like eating scallop ice cream. Last weekend I went hiking and camping with some other people at Hakkoda, it was very tiring and very cold on top of the mountains. This weekend Christy and I went to Mutsu to visit our friend Alex. Mutsu is very rural and very far north. To get there we took the train and got off at the most northern train station on Honshu. There we saw the most northern monkeys in the world, went to the most northern point on Honshu (the main island of japan and we could see Hokkaido), Oma, where we ate Japans best tuna, and had a good time!

Life in Aomori is interesting. Aomori is the second poorest prefecture in Japan and you can see it, especially when we leave the city. Aomori is also mainly comprised of old people, its hard to find younger people our age, because many leave the prefecture and those who attend college outside of Aomori usually do not return. Japan has an aging population, but it seems like they have all ended up in Aomori!





Things coming up:
- Next weekend -- Garlic and Beef Festival in Takko
- Oct 3rd weekend -- Soccer Tournament in Nagano
- Oct 10th weekend -- 3k Race in Towada

Aomori, Japan

I am now in Japan!! I will try and keep things brief, as so much has occurred since I first arrived. The first few days were spent in Tokyo at orientation. It was nice being back in Japan and I actually met up with a Wake Forest person who was in Tokyo too. Then -- Orientation ended and trip to the new home of Aomori began.

My first few days in Aomori were hectic! I arrived on the final few days of their famous Nebuta Festival. In this festival there are giant floats, lots of music, and lots of people in crazy outfits jumping around shouting. We, the foreigners, were dressed up in these outfits, given crazy hats, and put on jingle bells (which were to be ripped off and thrown out into the crowd, sort of like candy at parades). So, my first few days were fun filled with that festival.

Since then I have been going to work, which is at a branch of the board of education at an education training center. Because kids are still on summer break, there isnt much for us ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) to be doing at the moment. So some of our time has been taken up by learning how to ride the bus and get to the train station, me learning to ride and bike, and getting bank accounts and cell phones.

The leaving CIR's (Coordinator of International Relations) contract did not end until about now (and her apartment is where I will be living). So while she is still here I lived with my supervisor and his family for a few nights. They were awesome, his wife was so sweet and he has two teenage daughters. On the weekend they took me great places. Aomori is wonderful because it is right near mountains as well as the beach. So we visited Mt. Moya (which you can take the chairlift up and take little scooters down), then we went to the beach and aquarium. The next day we went to a big Buddha. Now I have moved into the apartment though and have been sharing it with the girl who will be leaving soon. The apartment is really nice and really large (esp for Japanese standards). I have a large kitchen, a large living room with tatami floors, and two bedrooms upstairs (one tatami floored, one regular). It is in a really nice area and only about a 7 minute bike ride from work.

Well other exciting things about Japan right now, is that me and some of my friends have explored the wonderful Onsens (public baths). One that I went to, other than having the indoor and outdoor baths also had a wonderful rock-bed sauna room, you laid on hot slabs of rock and your body just completely sweated out all your toxins. Another one that I went to last night, had a very cold bath, and a very hot bath (apparently good for circulation), an electric therapy bath (a bath with a current going through it apparently good for sore muscles and arthritis... it sort of hurt) and a nice outdoor bath.. there were also doctor fish, a little tank you stuck your feet into and all these little fish ate your dead skin cells, it felt so funny and your feet came out smooth and soft!

Today after work did some exploring of the city, learning how to get around on the major roads, which I think was very necessary!

Well I am off for now! I will try and keep this updated although I feel I will be rather busy here, especially for a while!

Pura Vida

Sad. I leave Costa Rica tomorrow morning (Monday the 14th). I cannot believe how quickly almost six weeks went. INSANE. Seriously, we discussed this so many times while I was here how fast time goes.

In comparison to last weekends blog, this week was pretty calm, but very good. I got to enjoy my last days of my Costa Rican life. Worked, went to my final pilates classes, and hung out with friends. Lots of hanging out with friends and people I work with was a great way to spend the last week. Friday at work we had pie and ice cream, at least you get to celebrate leaving I guess. I absolutely love the people I work with and really hope to stay in contact with them, and def come back and see them again! (See picture below, some of the people I work with and Alvaro's kids) Friday night went out to dinner and around San Jose with friends, who are also the best people ever. I really did not think I would make so many great friends coming here and will miss them a ton, at least I got to spend a lot of time with them this weekend.


Friday was great fun hanging out with them and the entire weekend basically consisted ofbeing with my Ticos and having goodbye parties! Saturday I also went to Andres' climbing competition, it was an outdoor climbing wall on this huge mountain cliff, the wall was TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY FEET HIGH! (see the above picture) It was incredible how high this wall was. Saturday night I also went to this CRAZY performance. It was pretty much all in the dark with black lights with people in black but then would have parts you could see that formed insane creatures and illusions, it was really the strangest, coolest, and trippy thing I have ever seen and had no idea what I was getting myself into. Check out these pics I found online - truly you need to seem them here

Not too eventful for blogging, but it was great hanging out with my friends before I leave, as I have already mentioned numerous times.

Tomorrow I open the office one more time, when Nora gets here at 8, and then I think I am heading to the airport around 9ish. Sad day.

Costa Rica has been amazing. I had no expectations, let alone knowledge (I thought it was like Puerto Rico or something) about this place. And oh my goodness, what an amazing place this little country is. I will forever love Ticos and this land of theirs!

Advice for this blog, Lime and Salt make everything so much more tasty, seems simple, but its true.

So, everyone should travel to Costa Rica, need any advice let me know. But if the website that I worked so hard on writing the content for ever gets up I will def let everyone know so they can book their Solimar Travel trip to Costa Rica ;-)

South Pacific Coast

Well, well, well. This past week has gone by so fast, been a pretty normal week, filled with working, pilates, and going out with friends. But it was also spent trying to figure out this weekends transportation to the secluded south pacific coast. For some reason I was taking public bus (which was still like a charter bus) and was going to have to make two transfers, at different stations, and all the places were not answering their phones so we could figure out times. Eventually it was planned that I would take the 5:30 am bus from San Jose to San Isidro and meet up with the hotel manager (who was going to be there) and he would take me. Phew, much easier for me! Then we called a cab to pick me up at 4:30 the next morning (the station said to get there 40 mins early). Alvaro, who set up my cab, said to call the company at 4:25 if they had not arrived, and he wrote down what to say in Spanish. Oh no, this just isn't going to go well, I could tell.

Saturday Morning: 4:15 am the cab arrives! Early! Perfect! And playing good music, it's going well! I did not have to call the company, did not have to wake up Alvaro! It's going to be a good day. I thought way way way too soon. Get to the station and no one is there, completely closed down (and its dark outside and rainy). I was like aqui?? And the cab guy was like yea. So I get out, walk around, the entrance is closed. The cab guy got out, made a call, and was like it does not open til 530. And then continued to tell me that this area is very dangerous, very dangerous. So I did not know what to do, maybe I would have to make the call to Alvaro. The cab guy told me to but my bag in the car, while I crossed the street to call (since it's very dangerous). Luckily I could not figure out the phone and could not get through, because what could Alvaro have done? So three women arrive, so I guess all I can do is wait. While waiting, some crazy man came up and started babbling on, I could tell he was no bueno because the women were trying to avoid him, I could also tell he was saying stuff about me. But the line got longer and the doors finally opened. Next issue: the only tickets left for the bus were standing (which had to be explained by someone since no one around spoke english), but I needed to get there so yea I bought a standing ticket for the 3 hour journey to San Isidro. Luckily there were seats and I got to sit the entire time.
Get to San Isidro, look for the manager's car, I do not see anything. Time to attempt the public phone and call his cell phone. After it finally decides to take my coins and stop speaking Spanish to me, I get ringing, but no answer. I keep trying and the phone keeps not working. I ask a woman near me if she speaks english, of course not, but she helps me and tries to call the numbers I have, and then attempts with her phone card. Doesn't work. After more attempts, contemplating taking the bus back to San Jose (since it was only 5 dollars) and asking more non-english speaking people for help, I head into the jewlery/clothing store behind me to see if she speaks english and can help with the situation of me being stranded in San Isidro. Of course seh does not speak English, but uses her cell phone to call, and eventually we get through to the hotel. The woman there tells me he waited at 8 and I did not show up... my bus arrived at 9 and it was supposed to arrive at 8:30, wasn't THAT late. Anyways she said to call her back she would try and find me a taxi. Well after lots of waiting and calling she gets me a way there. It's this old man driving a truck, obviously no english. But I did use some of my Spanish and found out he lives and works in San Isidro, has two kids a son and daughter who also live there and a few other things and he asked me some stuff. Eventually I get to the eco-lodge, but the cab was expensive and I decided I am def taking a plane home.

At the eco-lodge I watched a video about the lodge and Uvita (where I was, south of Dominical). "Please feel free to kill any wasps, scorpions or ants in your room out of self defense" oh great, I do not have Andres my scary bug catcher, "And do not walk on the trails alone as there are numerous poisonous snakes" hmmm I am alone. My tours that I was supposed to go on, Kayaking on Saturday and Whale watching Sunday did not happen, the area is so secluded that some days people are not signed up so they do not go. So, Saturday I hiked down to the beach, which I could only stay at for about 30 minutes since high tide was coming and that meant the beach would disappear and I would not be able to get back to the trail. Then it rained, so I took a nap, since I had been up since 4 am (oh and I did not eat until I got to the lodge which was like 1 pm). Oh, I did forget to mention, the lodge has an AMAZING panoramic view of the ocean and all the rooms have their own porches which have great views as well. But I realized that secluded places, true nature eco-lodges (without pools, tvs, bars, etc..) and without tours are not really places for single travelers.
Sunday: I had to go on the trails since I had no tours. I started of with the Los Ajos trail, took me deep into the jungle and I was paranoid about snakes, thinking that no one would find me if I were to be bitten and die in the jungle. Suck the venom out right? I did have a basic first aid kit with me and my leatherman (thanks laura haha). The trails were really long and great actually and this deep in the jungle trail was made great by me seeing two black and green poison dart frogs. (And then I remembered what a guide had told me earlier about how you become paralyzed, start convulsing and die.. or something like that). I also saw a lot of snake holes, and then realized they belonged to spiders as well when I saw a giant spider crawl back into it. About after an hour loop I returned alive! Next trail I took led me deep into the forest and then out onto the ocean with lots of rocks to climb around, then another place with huge rocks, which were all very beautiful and I took way too many pictures that probably look all the same! There I also walked through a huge spider web and disrupted a huge spider, debated whether I would be able to pass or if he would jump on me and attack or something. Luckily I passed because climbing on the rocks was great fun. Again I made it back! Decided to head to the beach again during low tide. The rest of the afternoon just rested around, read a book, hung out on my porch. This morning I was woken up by a howler monkey right outside my room at 430, it was SO loud, I really cannot believe how loud they are, but they are, and if I had not heard them before I would probably think a gorilla was coming to get me. Also, before I left I saw some spider monkeys right outside my porch, they are my favorite because they just fling themselves around.

But, yes, I did take a plane. Again the taxi to the airport was a bit expensive but the plane ride was totally worth it. I waited at the "airport" ( I put that in quotes because it consisted of about four benches and a landing strip), at the airport I met a Japanese woman so we talked a bit (in Japanese of course, especially since she did not speak English).
But the plane was small but the flight was awesome and Costa Rica is beautiful. On my cab ride home though I did have to stop at the ATM since all my money was taken from me by cabs trying to get to and out of the South Pacific.

But now I am home sweet home. And very very sad that a week from today is my last day here. GAH i don't even want to think about it.

Oh, my advice for the week. learn spanish? take flights to remote areas? no.. umm oh, stay at hotels or lodges that have airport transportation, that would be nice.

Arenal

This past weekend I headed to the Northern Region to check out the Arenal/La Fortuna area! And let me tell you, it was one packed weekend! I got to my hotel around noon on saturday and had a tour at 2:30. My tour was a canopy zip-line tour through the rain forest! Amazingly it was only me and the two guides, which was so awesome, did not have to do any waiting and just zipped along all the different lines! I went upside down on one, and flew like superman on another one! haha. Then at the end of zip-lining I rappelled down a cliff to a river, then took a horseback ride. And this was not like a trail ride, it was just me and the horse guy and we galloped all the way back, which was up steep rocky trails, I think I might have been more tired than then horse at the end! so fast! But then I was able to see the entire volcano (it had been cloudy before).
Arenal volcano is the most active volcano in Costa Rica and often on one side lava is flowing and other times it is grumbling or little eruptions. When I got back to my hotel I heard a boom and saw some ash and gas come out, and then there was a second bigger boom and another. It was pretty awesome and I was pretty excited about that!
Sunday was totally packed, I did the combination tour which started at 8 am and ended at 10 pm. Yea, busy. Started with a hanging bridge tour through the rainforest, which was 15 suspension bridges in the forest and we saw tons of animals. Poison dart frogs, howler monkeys, hornet hawk, eyelash vipers, mott motts, tons of things. Then went to La Fortuna waterfall which was nice, got to swim and relax around that, then to a volcano look out place and learned about the history of Arenal and then went on a volcano hike, then to a lava look out place but it was too cloudy and a bit rainy so I did not get to see lava. But I did get a full view of the volcano on my weekend which is rare because it is often covered with clouds, so I was very lucky. THEN after this long long day, got to go to Tabacon Hot Springs, AMAZING. They are these springs, pools and jacuzzis that are heated by the volcano and so warm and the location is just like a tropical paradise. You can walk around and find secluded hot rivers with waterfalls or hang out at the big pool one that has a water slide and a bar. But the perfect end to a busy but so fun day!!! Then up early to head home the next morning.

Bug Story time: The other night I went to my room, turned on the lights, and something HUGE scurried across the room. At first all I could think of was giant cockroach (because I have yet to see one in my house) but then it slowed in the corner and it was a huge, brown, furry spider, a bit bigger than a half dollar. So I was just was like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, NELA! (she was still here). She came in and decided to go get Andres. He came down, with plastic bags, caught it, and we took it outside. It was actually quite calm, he said its good and eats cockroaches and other bugs, so I am glad its good but much happier that it is out of my room. So now Andres is my official bug catcher and am very glad he lives in the upstairs apartment.

Words of advice from this week: Even if your itinerary says something make sure to check the ticket voucher for the exact time. Itinerary says: 630 am pick up Ticket says: 8:20 pick up.