okay!

i'm settled in now, and actually seem to be updating. gasp! my new website: www.loquaciousbaker.com enjoy!

WWOOOOHOOOO

sorry for the lack of updates! i'm super happy in tokyo right now. i live with a great japanese family, i have a fun job, and i'm super busy! i don't think i could be happier right now. woo!

hey everybody

just so everyone knows, i'm moving to a farm in a week. there should be internet there. i'll try and upload all the photos i missed :D and be more constant with blogging. damn.

Shabu Shabu

I think it's an onomatopoeia, and we would say 'swish swish'. In japanese, it refers to a meal where you have a pot of boiling water, and you can toss in some vegetables for flavor, and you grab a piece of meat with your chopstics and swish it back and forth in the water till it's cooked and then dip it in some sauce and eat it. We had soy sauce and vinegar or a peanut sauce, both very tasty. We had a large selection of vegetables as well. It was super fun.

Hatsuichi

Yamagata city had it's 'First Market' recently, which was a lot of fun. Branches adorned with brightly colored balls for the new years, many different kinds of food, pottery, vegetables, shoes, mochi making tools, and lots and lots of people. Everything was pretty much '500 Yen' or 'one coin', which is about 5$. Adrian and i had lunch, some yakisoba (fried noodles), takoyaki (fried octopus balls), and stuffed things for desert. Yum. I also bought an orange tree, and went fishing for plastic fish. I got photos from setup to takedown, yay.

Rotemburo

So I went back to my little Ryokan (traditional japanese inn which is of course huge) and managed to get into the rotemburo (outdoor onsen) this time. It was very cute. I was by myself the entire time, and I remembered my camera! I love onsens, they are very relaxing, and one of the best parts of being in Japan. I can just sit back and think about life all day. I've been there three times so far, and once it was snowing, so I would stand out in the cold air with the snowflakes melting on me for a bit, and then jump back in. It was crazy how much had to land on me before it stopped melting, but by then it was pretty cold. Normally temperature extremes bother me, but I'm getting used to being incredibly hot and then taking a cold shower and alternating. I'm aware of the temperature of my skin, but I seem detatched; it's an observation, not a state, if that makes sense. Onsens are like the beach, except backwards. This onsen is my favorite so far. I tried out a different one yesterday, but it felt pretty much just like a public swimming pool. Cheap, but no atmosphere, very busy; they had a sauna, but the water was not as hot as a normal onsen, and smelled of chlorine. The little kids were fun to watch run around.

Sorry for being quiet so long, I've been alternately busy and lazy.

Christmas was great, we got invited to Adrian's friend's party in Shiroishi, the next prefecture over. We met a lot of english teachers from all over. It was a potluck, and we brought gyoza (dumplings). They were a lot of fun to make. We learned how to make them a few days before at Dane's friend Fumi's house before we went to a potluck. It was a christian potluck, which was okay, because they're always friendly, but it was very 'god this god that' because the only word we understood was 'kami-sama'. We heard a Japanese flute player, a lady who performed a Chinese way of speaking/singing poems, and a guitar player.

Moving went all right, we had no map but we did have a GPS (in Japanese of course) and pretty good idea of where we were going. It took us two trips to get everything. We drove back the next day again because Dane forgot his shoes in the cupboard, heh. We absolutely love the new apartment, it has an amazing layout and somehow seems bigger. It came with a larger fridge and a gas stove (which is AWESOME) and some other furniture. It's a 10 minute walk from the school, 5 minutes from the train station (at most), and 5 minutes from the grocery store. Woohoo.

Also, driving is awesome. I need a new adjective. It was very easy to get used to driving on the other side of the road. There are very few differences between driving here and driving in Saskatoon. No turning on red lights, people go around people a lot because the roads are so narrow, there is no public parking, and you signal right before you turn (in advance is not good, they think you're turning into a parking lot instead of at the corner and pull out in front of you.) Gas stations don't have bathrooms or convenience stores, and they empty your ashtray and will fix broken lights for you.

My Wednesday class had a year-end party (Bonenkai) at Uotami, a private dining restaurant. It was super cool. We all shared food, and there were doors to our booth. It was one of those tables that has a hole underneath so you can put your feet down or sit on the edge. I went back a couple days ago so I have photos, but it was a smaller booth. Dane almost didn't fit inside. Some of the teachers in Yamagata had a small Christmas gathering too, we went to a Gyukaku restaurant which was super fun and had a gift exchange. I really wish I'd had my camera. Gyukaku is Japanese BBQ; similar to Korean BBQ, except it's a grill with coals instead of a metal plate to cook on. We had some pickled vegetables, and they brought out cow's tongue, two different cuts of beef with different sauce, pork, chicken, and scallops. The cow's tongue was my favorite. New years and winter break was pretty uneventful, Dane and I just got used to our new place and city. My mom sent me a camera for Christmas (thanks so much!) so I have a loooot of photos to put up.

more later!