4 day weekend

This past weekend was one of the best weekends I've had in Japan so far. It was nice having a four day weekend, with no school on Monday and a national holiday on Tuesday. On Friday I went over to the Shimoyamada's (my 2nd host family)house for dinner. Their daughter Aki picked me up and we ate nabe, a popular dish eaten during the winter in Japan. Mr. S is so cute and always has something he wants to show me. He is an Obama fan and showed me a CD he bought of Obama's most famous speeches set to classical music. He has been listening to the CD, not only because he likes Obama but to also practice his english. Mr. and Mrs. S speak very little english and I noticed this time I was able to communicate more in Japanese with them! Mr. S always takes pictures when I am with his family and he develops them and gives them to me in a photo album the next time. Mr. S' sister Noriko came over with her three children to visit. She is an english teacher at an elementary school and has a private ALT teaching there from Fiji. Her daughter is in elementary school and interviewed me about elementary schools in America. It was a nice relaxing evening after a busy week.

On Saturday I was able to skype with my best friend from home. Definitely a highlight of my weekend and wish we could talk more often. Afterwards I hung out with my friend Mish who lives in Isohara (town North of me). We decided we need a hobby and are going to try out tennis. Mish has a car and we went to the home store to buy rackets and balls. The rackets were only 2000 yen about $20, not bad! Since I do not have a car I rarely go to 'big' stores like this and ended up buying a cartful of things for my apartment. In the store I received some odd looks from people..difficult to explain that I am not homeless, just carless! After shopping Mish and I went to eat at Genki Sushi aka kaiten zushi where the sushi is on a revolving conveyor belt. The color of the plate is how much you pay for the sushi. I had kaiten zushi once in Arlingthon Heights, but this was my first time in Japan.

On Sunday I woke up at 6:30am to get picked up by my Japanese friends in my english conversation class. We were taking day trip to Nikko. Nikko is known for Kegon Falls (one of the top three in Japan) and famous shrines and temples and monkeys. There were five of us that went and it took about 3 hours to get to Nikko. They all speak very good english, but I tried to listen to their Japanese conversations to learn more. It was beautiful weather, perfect for walking around. We went to Kegon Falls first and drove up a winding slope to the top. The changing of the leaves in Japanese is called koyo. As we ascended the slope I looked out of the car window and saw mountainsides covered in reds, oranges and yellows- it was a fantanstic view!

More about rest of the weekend later...

Kegon Falls & Mountainside

Kayo, Kin, Mame, Mantaro in front of Mt. Nantai

Lake Chuzenjiko at Nikko National Park

Canned, hot ramen and udon in vending machine!





Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil monkeys (left)
Shinyosha shed for portable shrine (right)










































It was so interesting to see all the different temples. There were quite a few tour guides, so my friends tried to translate some of the history of the temples for me. Also, went inside my first shrine and had to take my shoes off before going in. One of my friends, Mantaro bought everyone a combination ticket, so we were able to see all the temples. It was a great day of beautiful weather, sightseeing, friends, food and good memories.

On Monday my friend who is Japanese teacher of English at Takahagi HS took me out to lunch. She speaks almost fluent English and is my closest Japanese friend. I'm finding out that we have so much in common and I enjoy hanging out with her. One thing we have in common is that we like to try new things.. especially restaurants. She took me to this fancy restaurant in a hotel in Isohara right along the coast. I had a great view of the ocean from our table and had a nice conversation over lunch with Fumiko. She stayed with a host family in New Zealand and went to church with them on Sundays. We started talking about my church back home, differences in worship styles and communion. She had taken communion at the church in New Zealand, but didn't know what it was. I told her the symbolism of the bread and grape juice and she listened intently. She wants to visit Chicago with me on my next trip home, so hopefully I'll have the opportunity to take her to CCP! After lunch we went shopping for a kotatsu and futon cover. A kotatsu is a small coffee table with a heater underneath. Since I do not have central heating in my apartment, this is what will be keeping me warm during the winter. I have an AC unit that works as a heater, but using the kotatsu will help keep my bills low. I didn't want a fancy one, so I lucked out and got the last inexpensive kotatsu. Since it was the display one Fumiko was able to bargain and bring the price down by about $12! I'll post of pic of my kotatsu soon.

More to come about climbing Mt. Tsubuka...

Tuesday was a national holiday in Japan so my friend organized a trip to climb Mt. Tsubuka. It took about 2 hours to get there by bus and train. Beautiful weather for a hike, although the trail was pretty muddy from rain the day before. The hike was very scenic and only took about 3 hours to the top, a much easier and enjoyable climb than Fuji! Stopped along the trail to take lots of pictures and passed a small shrine and several big boulders. Also saw some snow near the top of the mountain! At the top there was a rotating restaurant where we ate lunch. Since it was so muddy we decided to take the cable car down and only took about 8 minutes! You could tell the true hikers from the people taking the cable car up and down the mountain..heels were a death giveaway. Getting home took longer because we took local trains and there was no direct train line back to Mito city. Since Tsukuba is west we were almost in Tokyo and went a very roundabout and crazy way. It was nice on the train ride home to watch a beautiful sunset with deep purples and reds. When we finally got back to Mito we went to a new kebab restaurant that just opened near the train station. It's funny because I had been craving Pita Inn and was very excited. It's run by an Iranian man and my pita sandwich was no Pita Inn, but it hit the spot.