Peachy Keen

Thursday was my first Thanksgiving back in the US. For my family, Thanksgiving is just another family gathering for us to pig out, but with a few differences. We dress up a bit and add a turkey and other classic Thanksgiving must-haves. It's also tradition to share at least one thing we are grateful for this year. Mine was pretty simple: I was grateful that I can spend Thanksgiving with my family again and able to eat an *actual* turkey.

Looking at the turkey was like this:

Thanksgiving in Japan pretty much marked the beginning of the holiday blues for me. I loved living in Japan, love it and miss it, but November onward was when the homesickness hit. Maybe its because the winter holidays are celebrated so differently in Japan (or don't exist at all, turkeys rejoice) that it really emphasizes the foreignness. At least Japan has a word for turkey(七面鳥、しちめんちょう、or seven-faced bird. lolz). A plus side was that it gave me plenty of lesson ideas/culture sharing time.


My first year in Okayama I had 2 Thanksgivings. The first was a potluck in Yakage, the next town over from Ibara. Awesome food, awesome people, lovely times. The second one was with closer friends. We decided that we wanted to celebrate on the actual day, despite the fact we all had work the next day and some of us had to travel over an hour to commute to and from the city (*ahem* me). Ordering turkey from The Meat Guy and/or the Flying Pig was pretty pricey, so we had KFC instead. I know. Looking back now I'm wondering what the hell were we thinking, but I think it was along the lines of hey, KFC is as American as you can get and its a kind of play on Japan's odd custom of eating KFC/friend chicken on Christmas. We did make homemade mashed potatoes and dessert though! And despite the near brawl of the Americans and British on what a biscuit REALLY is, fun was had by all. Not so much for me when I woke up 5 in the morning to take the first train back to my town and head straight to work. Never. Again.





The second time around we took the holiday more seriously. Sort of. Lots more homemade stuff including an awesome chicken bake (our turkey substitute) and homemade apple cider. Oh, and pazookie, can't forget that.  The day can be summed up into 2 words: food and Zelda.



So yes, I was very, *very* happy to celebrate Thanksgiving stateside. But, I am grateful that I was able to celebrate Thanksgiving in Japan with an amazing second family.

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Labels: 2012, day in ibara, food, friends, Japan, okayama

I never considered myself a hiking kind of girl. Sure, when I was a kid my family went camping over the summer, but I never did anything more than that especially when I got older and discovered the internet. Then, I climbed Mt. Fuji and I thought it was *awesome*. I guess it also helped that Japan is just a beautiful country and would inspire anyone to go for walks and take in the scenery. So, I was happy when I was invited to go with some of the Ibara English conversation students and hike a small mountain in Yakage, the next big town over. 

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Labels: 2011, day in ibara, friends, okayama

March is a time of great change in Japan; not only the changing of the seasons, but for the students and teachers as well. Students graduate and some teachers get transfered to another school. I was invited to my high school's graduation since it was on a Saturday. Not really sure what I was expecting, but what I experienced really wasn't what I had in mind for a high school graduation.

First of all, the only people allowed to the graduation is immediate family, teachers, and students of the school. Yes, it is mandatory to see your sempai off (that would kinda suck in my book to HAVE to go to my senior's grad). Students just wear their school uniform (and pretty much look how they would like a normal school day) while teachers/parents wear the awesome celebratory color black. Everyone filed in like it was a military drill: teachers and the lower years were first, then the graduating class, then the teachers from colleges/middle school to show support which I thought was kind of cool. Oddly enough the presentation of the certificates is the FIRST thing; then are the speeches from the officials and student reps. I kept getting antsy in my seat because I couldn't really move: apparently I wasn't allowed to even cross my legs. I was wearing pants too!! Weird. During the speeches the silence was broken by the sniffles of classmates and parents. Mean of me, but I was kind of amused by this. I guess it was because it was so *quiet* that the sniffles were so obvious and *loud*...

It was the most somber graduation I have ever been to. I think I prefer the gaudy loud graduations back home.

That was Saturday. March 3rd was Hina Matsuri so I really wanted to go someplace that displayed a lot of the dolls. Sadly I couldn't go to Katsuyama due to the lameness of the train schedules, but me, Rachel and Jessica decided to see the Bikan district in Kurashiki instead. Totally worth it, despite the rain. I definitely want to see the district on a sunny day and when the flowers are blooming.

The Bikan district is a historical preservation district of what used to be the merchant quarters in that area. Now it has a whole bunch of restaurants and unique boutiques of course, but the architecture really takes you back in time.

Personally it was a Hina Matsuri well spent. Now off to read my Sailor Moon manga.

Also, tried the last burger of the America 2 series in McDonalds, the Manhattan Burger. I really think it's my favorite, next to the Idaho. Burger Challenge complete!

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Labels: matsuri, okayama

Today I spent the day with Mariko in Okayama City. We wanted to spend a couple of days in Kyoto/Osaka, but because of the last minute hotel booking and the mass exodus to the Kansai area due to the earthquake, we couldn't find a place for the 20th. We ate lunch at The Market, a cute little shop that sells *actual* sandwiches. Not the sandwich stuff you find in the conbini. Like, Panera/deli type sandwiches. Mariko was happy with it so that made me happy.

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Labels: friends, okayama, Tohoku Jishin

aka The Naked Man Festival in Saidaiji. Or, The Big One. In my eyes, the festival is about a bunch of dudes wearing nothing but a fundoshi (that white cloth that seems like they're wearing diapers) and beating the crap out of each other to get the 'lucky stick.' Oh the dirty jokes are too many to count...

..and the fight begins! Actually the actual event was short and pretty anti-climactic compared to the preparation for the fight. The men looked like they were grouped with their work, or some other organization (so of course the foreigners were with the foreigners). The ran around the temple several times, screaming わっしょい！and getting purified by water. So not only were they running nearly naked, but running around wet. Ah well, I bet the alcohol (which none of them were not supposed to consume before the fight), was keeping them warm. I think after they threw the stick, they turned off all the lights in the temple because about 5 minutes later the lights were on and they announced the stick was caught. Little did I know that that wasn't the end of it. Now the unlucky guy had to get that stick out of the temple gates. I thought it would be more....violent, but from my view it looked very neat. It was the most organized brawl I've ever seen. But props to the foreigners/JET members who participated! I rooted for you! I'll post more pics and video on my Flickr site soon.

After the event, Jessi and I took the train back into Okayama City to wait for the others who went there via AJET. After meeting up at McDonalds (sadly the only 24 hr place open) Jessi, Caroline, Jessica and I went for karaoke. All. Night. Of course I had a taiko concert to go to the next day and while being sick. >_>

In a short note, the taiko concert was AWESOME. The group was Ura Taiko Dan. I guess the reason I loved it so much was that they were very theatrical in their performance. Their last song, Ura, had half of them dress as priests and the other as oni and the song was more or less their 'battle.' Even the kid group had a piece about Momotaro vs. the oni. And I thought my taiko group was hard! These guys were crazy!

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Labels: friends, matsuri, okayama