Yokohama!

This weekend was our first trip to somewhere other than Tokyo. A woman at the Nishimura's church, who speaks wonderful English, has been asking us for a few weeks now if we had visited Yokohama yet. So we felt it was time to check this city out. Tokyo has been great, but it was nice to mix it up a little and get a change of scenery. Yokohama is also a large city, not as huge as Tokyo, but still big.

We decided to sleep in and head out in the afternoon. I can't sleep in. I really never have been a good sleeper-inner. I just like the idea that I can sleep if I want to. I still ended up waking up at the same time I do every morning though. But I did get a little homework done and reading too. After making a brunch of banana pancakes and pizza-yes, weird and carbo loaded but yet delicious combination- we biked to the train station. It's definitely getting warmer here! Saturday was beautiful; around 60 degrees and sunny.

We had heard Chinatown was a popular tourist area of Yokohama, so we planned to go there but left the rest of the time for whatever we found when we got there. Minako gave us plans to get through the train and subway stations, but never having been to Yokohama herself, her directions didn't take us to the station that led us to Chinatown. We exited at the station she suggested, walked around for a while and didn't find a whole lot. We did get some pictures of buildings and bridges though.

Finally, we decided we should ask someone for help. Lori took charge, telling Mike and I to wait right where we were as she marched up to an older man to ask for help. Way to go Lori! The man was very helpful and his broken English told us to get back on the subway for a few more stops. When we got off at the new station in Yokohama, we found a huge stadium and park right away.

The park was filled with people, especially families with younger kids. There are so many parks in Japan! I love it!

This park had an area with lots of fountains. This was one of them.

We had to walk a little ways to get to Chinatown area. I saw this cute billboard! Mike took a picture of Lori and I standing in front of the two larger people on the right side. They're holding a flower. I think it was for a building company.

Chinatown is really just an area with about 100 Chinese restaurants- all with pretty much the same food and prices! We decided it was necessary to get food at one of the restaurants and started scanning the menus, hoping to find a really really good deal. While Lori and I were reading over the menu of one place, the owner came out and started pointing out lower priced items on the menu and telling us to come in. We told him we were looking at lots of places, so maybe we'd be back. He looked really disappointed, and Lori and I both thought that he must not get a lot of business. We went across the street to look at another place's menu, which did have some things a bit different and better looking. But the guy from the first place was still outside watching us, with sad puppy dog eyes. We talked it over with Mike and we finally decided we'd go to the first man's restaurant, since he looked like he really wanted us to come in.

When we got inside, there was only one other family there but it was still pretty early in the afternoon. The owner sat us down at a huge table, probably for a family or big party. The three of us decided to order a large dinner for two deal, which had several dishes of appetizers, main courses and fruit. We figured it would be plenty of food for the three of us. However, when we tried to order, we had a difficult time explaining to the waitress that we just waited one dinner for three people. Finally, the owner came over along with the rest of the restaurant staff and told us that we would have to pay extra if we wanted to order that item since it was only for two people. We then tried asking if we could order two of the smaller two person dinners, which would be food for four people and the owner agreed to this.

We thought everything was fine and dandy, until the waitress started bring out the food. First, she brought us a bowl of soup that was just the perfect size for two people. Then, she brought out a plate that had two pot stickers on it. Then a two person sized portion of chicken. We kept hoping that we'd get the first meal and then she'd start over again for the second dinner. But when she brought out just two cups of fruit and the bill, we knew something was up. We had been charged for two dinners, yet we were only given one. I called the owner over and tried to explain our complaints the best I could, but his English was good enough to tell us that the dinner was only for two people, so we had to pay the price for a second. And one person couldn't order a dinner for two one their own. Funny that he didn't try explain that to us when we ordered! We had been scammed. On the positive side of things, we did get to try several different dishes and since we ordered the smaller dinners it didn't cost that much per person. But it still wasn't much food for dinner and we got scammed! To make matters more annoying, the restaurant had filled up quite a bit while we had been there so clearly the owner wasn't in need of business from us. Grrr.

After the restaurant, we walked around the packed streets of Chinatown for a while. I tried not to look at the menus of other restaurants for fear I might see a good deal that we could have had instead had we only waited a little bit longer. Since we were still a little hungry, we decided to grab a small treat from one of the many carts on the street. We found this shop selling these big rolls with meat and veggies inside. The line was long, so we knew it must be good! It sure was. The bread was hot and doughy and the inside goodies were delicious.


Other than food places, Chinatown has some souvenir stores and the China Museum, which has more food and souvenirs. There was one store filled with panda bear collectables and another with everything Hello Kitty.

After a while, Chinatown was kind of exhausting so we walked around other parts of Yokohama for a while. It was dark by this point, but it was exciting to see some of the nightlife atmosphere of the city. For not having much of a plan for what we wanted to see and do, I enjoyed seeing Yokohama and just having a laid back day. Our trips to Tokyo have been fun, but we plan several stops and it seems like we've been rushing from one place to the next. I liked being able to just see what was in the city, even if it wasn't always something that would be a big tourist attraction.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I love my birthday. I get really excited for it and starting counting down several weeks in advance. On my 18th birthday, my Grandma Moore sent me a card where she recalled that when I was little I used to run around telling people that my birthday was March 4th! I still do that! Anyway, I was extra super excited for my birthday this year because I turned 21 in Japan! As many family members and friends have told me in cards and messages, not many people can say that they celebrated a birthday while visiting another country!

The day before my birthday was the kindergarten's birthday parade for the March birthday kids. Keiko had asked if I would like to be a part of the parade (of course!) but I still had to wear the embarrassing flag costume like the other teachers. I asked if I could wear the princess costume that the Birthday Fairy wears, but she said no. I still got to do the flower shower for the kids and had one of my own and I had to sing a little song in the microphone. I was told I'd be singing the song that the oldest group of kids sing, but the music started playing for the youngest kids when it was my turn so I was caught a little off guard! The song has the audience say your name and then say something that translates to "where are you? come here!" and then I was supposed to answer back with "here I am!" I'm not exactly sure if what I said in the microphone was right! The kids liked it though!

My actaul birthday started out with my making the decision not to get up early and go running, but rather to sleep in and enjoy my day by being lazy. As I was coming back up to our room after taking a shower, Lori met me on the stairs and asked if I wanted to eat breakfast with her. I could tell she was planning something because she had a goofy little smile on her face. I went back downstairs to the kitchen where she had put balloons on the door- only these balloons had rabbit faces on them and little ears! Lori had made me a lovely little card the night before and gave me a tasty pastry treat to enjoy for breakfast. Yum!

Throughout the day I received lots of happy birthdays from teachers. They had posted Happy Birthday posters throughout the office and one on our room door too. After school, I had to do two lessons of English for two groups of teachers. As a thank you for teaching English, the teachers usually give us some Japanese junk food, so I got several different snacks along with the Happy Birthday song (it's the same song we sing in the U.S., except the Japanese people can't say their r's very well, so it sounds like Happy Basday). At the after school program, I showed this little boy, Kaiya, how to fly like Superman and he loved it. My mom used to do this with my sister and I when we were little and I used to do it with my neighbors Kourtney and Brady when they were a bit younger. If you've never done Superman, you lay on your back and puts your feet in the air while the kid rests his or her stomach on your feet and holds onto your hands. If you have good balance with the kid, they you can let go of their hands so they can "fly"!

For dinner, Minako and the rest of the Nishimura family took Mike, Lori and I out to dinner. Minako had asked where I wanted to go, but I

told her to pick since she'd have a better idea of what places are the best. She chose an Italian restaurant called Fracasso where I ate waaaaaayyyy to much food. I'm not going to go into details about how much I ate for dinner and dessert because I'm too embarrassed but I'll just say that there was a lot of melted cheese and chocolate cake involved. I was delicious however. I think I was pushing my limit though of the excuse "It's my birthday! I'm in Japan! I can do whatever I want!" At dinner Minako gave me a gift bag filled with a couple little presents and a card signed by all the teachers. How sweet!

Keiko's daughter, Yui brought us these display carrots at the restaurant. Yum!

So, all in all, good birthday. I sort of felt like I had two days of birthday celebration because of the time difference. I was half way through celebrating here, but back home my birthday was just beginning! Thanks everyone for the birthday messages on Facebook and Skype. I also got a few cards in the mail that I really appreciated. Both of my Grandmas and Grandpas sent me cards (thanks for the surprise confetti shower, G'ma Moore!) and from my mom and dad and from Mr. and Mrs. Worpel (Lori's mom and dad). My sister, Jen, is going to have her baby any day now and her due date was set for March 4th. I wasn't sure how I felt about sharing my birthday, since I already do with one of my best friends, Julie Daniel (which is kind a of a special bond we have). However, little baby Sophie hasn't come yet, so I am free to from sharing more birthday attention. Pretty soon though, my darling sister and Kevin will be parents! Hooray! Tomorrow we are going to Yokohama, so we can explore a new area of Japan!

Here's Mike with his new best friend, Dr. Shin! And more carrots too.

Panda Bear Feast!

As promised, Minako took us to a real authentic Japanese sushi place last week for a special dinner treat! We went to a place that was conveyor belt style, which was completely new to me. In the middle of the restaurant, there was a kitchen area where two chefs were preparing all sorts of goodies wrapped up in seaweed. Mike, Lori, Minako and I sat at a bar-like table that wrapped around this little kitchen area, so it was easy for us to see what was being made. The plates of food rotated around on the conveyor belt; if something looked good, you were supposed to just grab it right off the belt! Minako knew we liked sushi, but she is not a fan of it herself so she was able to order different cooked fish instead. Lori and I shared several dishes and I enjoyed everything I tried! Some of my favorites though were tuna (which was just over rice), a seafood salad with octopus pieces and vegetables wrapped in seaweed, and salmon (again, over rice). Lori and I tried fish eggs too, which were bright orange! Each plate was a different color and represented a price, so it was easy for the waitress to add up add the different items we grabbed off the belt. My knowledge of sushi isn't that expansive, but I don't think this place ranked on the very high-class end. However, I thought it was delicious...and in the end, raw fish is raw fish, right?

Here's Minako looking cute, with the ice cream cone she had after dinner. Mike and I ordered a piece of chocolate cake and Lori tried a piece of cheesecake made from tofu.

On Saturday, we decided to explore the area around the school a little bit instead of heading into Tokyo again. We'd like to travel every weekend, but we also want to make our money last the whole trip and wait to see some places when the weather gets a bit warmer. We took our bicycles out and tried out different areas we haven't seen yet. Down one street, we stumbled across this path which opened up to a huge bamboo forest. There were trees everywhere! We saw houses not too far away, so it may have actually been a backyard. What a wonderful backyard it would be! I could have spent hours in there, just exploring little paths and looking up at the trees. We walked around a while to take pictures and I snuck away from the other two to explore a little of the forest on my own.

There was another clump of trees, except these were closer together, and I found a trail that led me right to the middle of the clump. The wind was blowing just a little, but since the trees are so light, they were swaying back and forth and making a creeeeeking sound like they were going to fall over right on top of me! Lori had said earlier that she likes exploring new places by herself because no one else is the world is seeing what you're seeing, so its really special to you! That's kind of how I felt being among these towering trees just by myself.

The path ended at a clearing where there were a few houses. Most were traditional Japanese style home, but one was a huge log cabin. It was three stories tall and had palm trees lining its property. It looked a little out of place next to the others

When I came back from my adventure, Lori and I picked these lovely flowers (they're everywhere, but I just can't get over how pink and pretty they are!) off the ground and decided to pose with them. Mike loves his new camera and took lots of pictures with us and these flowers on his camera, but I had him take a couple for me too!

Dead Fish and Trendy Kids

On Saturday, we decided to take another trip into the Tokyo area by train and subway. We had planned earlier in the week to visit Tsujiki Fish Market and found that most of the activity starts very early in the morning. Lori and I woke up at 4:00 am so we could be ready to meet Mike at 5 to bike to the train station. I didn't have much of an appetite at this early hour, so I just grabbed a piece of toast. It was probably a good thing I didn't eat much because our meals for the day were a little off schedule.

The Tsujiki Fish Market is one of the biggest in Asia and it provides most of Japan's fish supply and for other countries too. Over Thanksgiving, my sister and Kevin brought over a puzzle with pictures from the "1000 Places to See Before You Die" book and this market was one of them. It wasn't a pretty place by any means, but it definitely was worth seeing. When we got off the subway at the Tsujiki station, Lori and I thought for sure we could faintly smell fish. We didn't have to walk to far to find the market. We first made our way down a very streets, which was a little shopping area with stops selling everything from vegetables and fruits to big knives to pottery. What we really wanted to find was the area with all the fish! The streets around the market were mass chaos; we had to constantly be looking all around because there were trucks, men driving carts full of stuff, people on bicycles, and people walking everywhere! I think we came close to getting run over several times.

Lori, Mike and I finally found the inside of the market where all the fish we being prepared to be sold. It was huge! There was only a little bit of room to walk, and most people inside knew exactly where they wanted to go to buy their fish. I think we were so overwhelmed by the size and the amount of dead fish all around us; I felt a little out of place trying to take pictures and watch the workers chop off fish heads :). We saw all different kinds of things and it would have been cool to buy some fish for dinner, but since we would be walking around all day we thought it would probably go bad if we did.

It was only a little after 9 am when we got outside of the fish area and were making our way back to the outside market. We were a little hungry and thought it would be good to at least try some kind of snack being sold. When we were walking around the outside market, we had seen small restaurants with lots of people already waiting to go inside. We really didn't want to wait too long to go inside, but Lori found one of these restaurants with only a few people inside sat down immediately. The inside was very small and had a bar-like table with stools for us to sit on. There was a small kitchen in the back too. The owner greeted us warmly and offered us two choices of food- sashimi or yakitori. Mike and I ordered sashimi and Lori got chicken yakitori.

There were a few other customers there too, but the waiter paid us a lot of attention. While we waited for our food, he gave us Japanese lessons that were very useful. He wrote down different phrases like, "How do I get to...?" and "I want to order..." and "separate checks, please!" It was very helpful and hopefully we can practice using the phrases. The food was delicious. My sashimi included a serving of raw tuna, raw salmon, shrimp, and a prawn that I had to take out of the shell. My meal also had a bowl of miso soup (soup with tofu and seaweed), a bowl of white rice, and hot tea. Mike had told me earlier that he liked to mix wasabi with soy sauce to dip the raw fish in, so I tried that with mine and it was great.

The waiter, J.J., was very friendly and talked with us the whole time we were there. It was nice to get to know him, but I felt a little bad for the other customers. When we were getting ready to leave, he took our picture to put on his restaurant wall, which was covered with pictures of Americans who had come in. J.J. also asked us to sign a guest book. It was a little funny. I got a picture with him too.

After Tsujiki, we had planned to go to another area for a few hours, but first wanted to stop at the area near Tokyo Tower to visit the coffee shop that had been closed last time we went. We when got there, it was closed again, but a sign said it would open at 11 am, which was in only 30 minutes. We walked around for a little while taking pictures and exploring. We found a staircase that led up to a garden area with a shrine. I tried talking to a woman there who lived right next to the shrine. She spoke a little English and told me it was a Shinto shrine. I could tell she was trying hard to talk to Lori and I. I sometimes feel bad that the people I've met try so hard make me comfortable by speaking English. They never expect me to know Japanese, even though I'm the one visiting their country.

She showed us another staircase that led down to a huge Buddhist temple. After walking up huge flights of stairs, the we looked inside at the sanctuary. It looked more like an auditorium with big statues at the front. There were a few people inside praying and I think there was a tape recording of someone speaking playing. I didn't see anyone talking, so I'm guessing that's what it was.

After looking around a bit, we made our way back over to the coffee shop, which sadly was still closed. There was another one across the street, which didn't look as good as the one we hoped to go to but we tried it anyway. I ordered another delicious hot chocolate while Mike and Lori got their coffees. This shop did have big windows over looking the street, so we could people watch for a little bit. We saw a little boy who kept falling down and then "an intense jogger who kept throwing his head back in exhausting and heaving in huge breaths when he got stopped by traffic" (Lori and I made this description up together just now).

Our next stop was Shibuya, which we had heard was a site of new fashions and trends for younger people. When we left the subway station and got up to the main streets, we found they were packed with people and full of towering buildings with TV screens playing ads. It was, again, overwhelming, as most Tokyo sites have been. I think we were all excited to do a bit of shopping, but we soon realized that the stores and clothes were a bit out of our price range. I didn't think to take pictures inside the stores, I guess I assumed that probably would be frowned upon, but I wish I had. I was hoping to see some kids wearing outrageous outfits like I've seen in this book my friend Kay has when she came to Japan, but I didn't see anything too crazy. Just lots of kids wearing really stylish outfits. Everyone in Japan is really stylish, I've discovered, even the moms at school. One girl fashion trend Lori and I like here that's popular is longer shorts with big pockets with colorful tights underneath. The girls here usually wear winter boots with it too. We are hoping to find an inexpensive version of these shorts and tights to bring back to America! Boo ya in Shibuya!

At about 3 pm, we were hungry again for lunch/dinner, so we found a buffet to eat at. I was really excited because the ad for the restaurant, Los Cabos, had a picture of taco salad (yes I know, not Japanese at all but it is my favorite). However, we became victim to false advertising, as there were not tacos at all! The restaurant did make up for it though by having an extensive dessert table, complete with ice cream sundaes, honey toast (toast stacks with honey on top) and a chocolate fountain and fruit. YUM. I tried to justify eating a lot of dessert with the fact that I our "breakfast snack" of sashimi was probably really healthy.

We came back to school kind of early, since we had started our day at the crack of dawn. It was another good trip. A woman at church was telling us about Yokohama, another city south of Chiba, which sounded like a fun place to visit. When I was in high school, we had an exchange student stay with us for a month who was from Yokohama, so it might be nice to check that out. We also got an invite from Brianna Danese, a girl who went to SAU and now works here in Japan teaching English, to come visit here place near Mt. Fuji (Hi Brianna! She reads this blog) And in a few weeks during "Spring Break" we have a scheduled trip to Kyoto, which is supposed to be beautiful! There is still more of Tokyo to see, but I'm excited to explore other parts of Japan too, so I'm really looking forward to some of these other trips.

School Days

After spending a couple weeks at the kindergarten, it is easy to see why any kid would enjoy coming to school here. Every day, kids run happily off the bus and in through the gates to the playground or their classes, giving us "high touches" as they go. Every day is filled with singing and dancing and of course playing on that amazing playground. Lori and I sometimes wonder if the kids actually do any learning, since our room shares a wall with a class that's always so noisy.

Each day of school is a bit different for us and for the kids too. On Mondays, Lori, Mike and I have two short English lessons with a small group (about 8) of kids from the three year old class. My first group is great. When I talk, they are quiet and listen. When I want them to participate, they are loud and energetic. The second group is smart too, but a little harder to control. They get up and look out the window a lot. There's one little boy who will just randomly run up to me with a big smile and then hand me something (he's in the picture with me holding "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" book when you scroll down) and another girl who always has to be first in line or first to get a sticker. After lunch, we have "Genkide Go-Go," which is dance time. All the students and teachers gather under the dome and we dance to different songs. Lori, Mike and I are supposed to teach a new song and dance every month, so this month's is the Macarena. I think I might have written earlier about how I am just saying all the moves into the microphone for this dance. I think today was the last time we had to do the Macarena, thankfully.

Tuesdays and Fridays are Kumon days. We each have an hour time shift to go and work with individual students on their English homework and afterward we work on our Japanese homework. I work with two boys, Yuma and Hiroto, who are both very good at English but both get antsy. Kumon is the brand of books that we are learning language from. We have small books and CDs so we can practice writing and speaking. I was telling my friend Megan in an
e-mail that the hardest part of learning Japanese compared to when I learned Spanish in high school is we have to learn a new character and the sound it makes. In Spanish, the letters looked the same but only the sounds were different.

On Wednesdays, we rotate in assisting either the gym teachers or two English teachers in the classes. I worked with the gym teachers my first week and had a blast, and last week I worked with Rori, a Canadian woman. She and the other teacher, Robert, have been working at the school for almost a year. It was nice seeing how someone else who speaks English runs the class. Rori did a good job of acting out everything she wanted the students to do and it was fun assisting her with games. She was pretty sarcastic too, so it was funny catching her comments and being able to laugh at them. Most of our English classes require us using flashcards, which is helpful but also frustrating for me. I'd like to try to use other ways of teaching, so I often feel like my creative talents are not being put to good use. There are only so many flashcard activities I can think of! Thursday are our day off for the most part. I think we're supposed to clean, but that usually gets forgotten :) Next Thursday will be another birthday parade and also the day after my birthday!

We also go to a different classroom everyday and eat lunch with the students. Sometimes after lunch we are supposed to teach a different letter of the English alphabet. Lunches have been...interesting, I guess is a good word. Some days we'll have yummy thinks like shrimp or mango slices or rolls with cream in the middle or chicken stir-fry and rice. Other days, I won't always know what something is when I put it into my mouth! I opened my lunch one day to find little sardines staring at me!

Each week, we help at a different after school program. I've now been to all of them, so I can now honestly say that each one has it's ups and downs. I am back in the nursery with the Little Angels (or Little Devils as we sometimes call them) and today I got beat up by some five year old boys. I guess I kind of started it- I lightly tossed a ball at a little boy's head and he and his friends decided the appropriate response would be to kick me in the shins and pull my lovely hair. It is funny to watch the kids do weird things too. They can't sit still and will just show you stuff and smile like its the coolest thing ever. I find myself giving a lot of thumbs ups. The after school program with junior high kids worried me at first because no one wanted to play with me. They just did their homework and laughed when I tried to say the few Japanese words I know to them. Then I decided to bring in the Lisa Frank coloring book I found in the room Lori and I share. Boy, did that make me popular! I had so many 11 year old girls wanting to color unicorns and tiger cubs and golden retriever puppies with me.

I hope that I can learn more names of students. I know a couple and it will be easy to learn more as I get better at reading characters. I already have a couple favorite kids though and teachers who's classes I enjoy visiting.

A Day at the Park

Valentine's Day, I was surprised to find out, is a big deal here. In Japan, the girls are the ones who are supposed to be giving gifts and valentines to boys, instead of the other way around. In any case, Lori, Mike and I were showered with chocolate on Friday because there was no school on the actual Valentine's Day. Lori and I have been saying how much we've been snacking since being here. I think its the combination of having so many new things to try and not being able to read the nutrition labels. To us, this says that since we can't read them, all the calories and fat and sugar just disappear!

It's been fairly cold since we got here, probably somewhere in the 50's everyday. On Friday night, the wind was blowing like crazy but it was very warm outside. It must have blown away the cold because Saturday was incredibly warm. I woke up and put on my usual running clothes (pants, under armour, and a long sleeved shirt) just as Lori was getting back from her run. She told me to change my clothes because I would be way to warm. I put on a t-shirt, and I'm glad I did because it was probably about 70 degrees. The sun was shining. It was perfect running weather. I couldn't stop smiling for the first couple minutes of my run! I explored some different paths and I think I ended up near a landfill at one point, but it felt so good to be outside that I didn't really care.

Lori, Mike and I decided that we wanted to enjoy the sunshine as much as we could so we headed to a park on our bikes. The part was across the street from Big Hop Mall and was already filled with people. We brought a few blankets to set on the grass; the grass was very dry and very yellow. Right now I'm reading Home, a memoir of Julie Andrew's early years growing up with her family and her career on stage. I think she's so charming and fascinating, so I've enjoyed reading her stories whenever I have time and Saturday gave me lots of time to do just that. We were seated on a hill and below us was a flat area where a father and daughter were playing frisbee and several mothers and fathers were out with their children or walking their dogs. Along the paths of the park, people were eating their lunches. I think everyone wanted to enjoy the beautiful day.

I took a couple pictures, but it was so bright outside so they're not terrific.

Lori sitting and sketching. That's my bike next to the tree.

The grass was pretty yellow and dry. We sat father up on the hill to the right and people were playing down here below.

There were lots of trees and nice sidewalks

This was near the restaurant we ate at for lunch. We all took pictures riding the donkey!

Foundation Day

Yesterday was National Foundation Day, which meant no school for the teachers and kids. This holiday, we were told is similar to our Independence Day, except there are no fireworks and hot dog picnics. Just a day to remember the foundation of the nation!

As far as sleeping in goes, I didn't quite use the morning to my advantage because I still woke up at about the same time. We decided we make scrambled eggs and toast later but I was pretty hungry when I got up. We have limited breakfast supply, so I heated up a few pieces of frozen squash- something I had bought last week and we've never wanted to make it because, let's face it, how many people like squash on its own? I read for a while and then went for a nice long run outside.

Over the years, I have come to love running more and more. I like it because it is not only a physical exercise, but also a mental one too. It requires so much concentration to stay focus, to tell yourself to keep going just a bit farther and faster. I've been able to explore Inzai-Shi a bit from my runs. There's a lot of farm and country sides where we're staying, but then a main road with wide sidewalks is not too far either. Simple things like big sidewalks on main roads, I think, help promote Japan's healthy lifestyle. Bikers and walkers are seen much more. Families have one car, rather than 2 or 3.

Lori and I went to Gospel Choir practice when I got back from running. We thought we might not have practice today because of the holiday or if we did, it would be later in the afternoon. I had just enough time to shower, but not eat breakfast or drink much water so I felt a bit weak during practice. It was fun to sing again though. The woman next to me kindly wrote in the sounds for each character again and I have a couple lines from songs down now. The director is this tiny little woman who, like most women here, is very trendy and fashionable. When she talks, she gets a very excited expression on her face and you can tell she's very passionate about music and the words of the gospel songs we sing. I am almost happy that I can't understand what she's saying; I like to image that everything she says sweet and encouraging.

Lori, Mike and I decided to go to Big Hop Mall on our bikes to eat a later lunch. As soon as we got there however, I felt awful. My head hurt and I could tell I had little patience to be walking around a mall aimlessly. Rather than forcing Lori and Mike to put up with my crabbiness, I decided to bike back to the school on my own. When I got back, I attempted to do some homework for my online classes, but I ended up getting more annoyed so I decided to take a nap. Two hours later, I woke up feeling much better and made some soup mix my sister and Kevin gave me to bring, and finished my homework.

We had been invited to dinner at the house of a woman who works in the office of the school that night, so I'm glad I felt better and refreshed. Her daughter and three friends were coming along too. I was excited to see the inside of an actual house too. When we arrived, the daughter and her friends (I've been so awful with names, sorry!) were so welcoming and excited to talk to us about our experience. We've been spending most of our time with five year olds or older adults, so it was finally nice to be able to hang out with people our age.

The daughter and her friends were 25 years old and had gone to college in the U.S. to study abroad. The daughter and one pretty attractive male friend spoke English very well, so we could easily talk about their experience in the U.S and their first impressions of our country. They said they liked "doggie bags" at restaurants because we get huge portions and can take the leftovers home. The daughter had told us about her experience in a speech class when she first arrived and having to do an impromptu speech. She knew very little English at the time, so that must have been awful. Poor girl! They told us about places they had visited too; the guy friend had visited San Francisco and we could tell he had trouble describing it!

For dinner, the daughter prepared takoyaki, which means octopus balls. She prepared these in front of us. First she poured a pancake-like batter into a fryer that had little holders in it. Hard to describe, but picture an egg carton when it is flipped open. Next, she placed chopped octopus, a Japanese potato, pickled ginger and onions into the batter as it was cooking. After a couple minutes, she took a long toothpick and scooped the batter and mix-ins to flip the ball so the top could cook inside the holders of the fryer. She kept rotating the balls until they were cooked all the way through and took them out of the fryer and onto a plate. She then drizzled on okonomiyaki sauce (dark brown and kind of like teriaki), a mayonnaise dressing and fish shavings. They were delicious. I don't think that is a recipe that we can copy for our dinners at the school though :).

For dessert we had a large brownie and ice cream sundae that they daughter made at the restaurant she works at, Planet Hollywood. And lots of green tea too. We had so much fun talking and laughing with the daughter and her friends and hopefully we can meet up with them again sometime soon. We gave them gift we brought from home; I gave them bags of puppy chow, Mike gave chocolate covered pecans, and Lori gave Mackinaw Island fudge. They all loved chocolate- so the gifts went over well.