Doing things in the RAIN!

So theoretically 梅雨 (tsuyu), the Japanese rainy season, is over, but you really could never tell from how much it has been raining lately.

Last weekend, Alexis and I headed over to Mie Prefecture for a hike, and of course it rained. Which didn't really bother me all that much, as I adore hiking in the rain. . . but still. You would think just ONCE I could plan to go hiking and have it NOT rain.

First, we headed over to see the wind turbines, and they were AMAZING! They were a little smaller, I think, than the ones I've seen in Texas, but still awesome. And because of the rain and the fog, they were all creepy and mysterious. <3ed it! What made it even cooler was that they kept disappearing and reappearing, so you would be walking and not even realize at first that you were about to walk right into one.

The we headed over to 青蓮寺ダム　（Shourenji dam, I think), and it had the most AMAZING view! At first I wanted to jump into the water, but then Maranda pointed out a very large mass of floating oil, and then I no longer wanted to jump into the water. Still, the water was still and gorgeous and with the mists in the mountains, it just felt so peaceful and nice. I think that misty mountains with water in front of them has to be my favorite view in the entire world. And the Japanese know what they're doing when they throw a red bridge into the mix - sheer gorgeousness!

The we headed further into the depths of Mie for a hike (in the rain!). We were supposed to see 48 waterfalls, but, while we did see an ENORMOUS amount of waterfalls, I don't think there were that many.

The hike was super easy and breathtakingly beautiful, which I was more than grateful for, as the car ride there made me totally motion sick.
At the end of the hike, there was a salamander museum, and we got to see some of the CUTEST salamanders native to Japan. They have five fingers,and when they move them it's really just the cutest thing ever. I wanted to hug one and bring him home with me!

Then this past Friday, despite the fact that a typhoon was very obviously coming in, I went to Nagoya to meet up with Rachael to go see Skull Candy and Bunny the Party. Skull Candy played a very short set, but Bunny the Party was ON! The singer was ridiculously energetic, and just watching her up on stage filled my heart with happiness.

At one point, though, she pointed directly at me and said "あの白いお姉さん、超素敵！”　　That basically means "That white person is super awesome!" Maybe I should have felt flattered, but I think more than anything I felt embarrassed. In any case, I love Bunny the Party!

The last band to play was Splash, and they were SO amazing! Super fast totally addictive ska punk, and I was into it (unfortunately the lyrics leave much to be desired, but, well, meh). Now, I know that a lot of times this kind of band will single out one person in the audience, but after the Bunny the Party comment, it felt weird that this person should once again be me. Especially since he was speaking in super fast Japanese, and he had no way of knowing if I would understand him. He asked who I came to see and then he asked if it was my first time seeing them. . .and yeah. I guess it's normal to do that to someone in the audience. I dunno. . .

Anyhow, it was SUPER fun, and I fell in love with Splash and will definitely be seeing them again. And Bunny the Party. And Skull Candy. And the Rattle Trapz, who also played and were fab!

Last night, Martin and I once again braved the typhoon and went to Nagoya to meet up with Rachael (again!) and some of her friends! Her friends were all awesome, so we had a great time! First, we went to an izakaya, where we were practically accosted by crazy people.

Note that we didn't know about half of the people in this picture

Then we went bowling, and I feel bad for Martin, who was on a team with me. I think I must have bowled the worst game ever of my entire life. I was very consistent in bowling 0s.

Will, Tatsu, and Chiko, seen in the left of the picture, weren't much better than I was, but Stephen (picture, right) was an interesting bowler.

He would either get 0s or strikes. But there was very rarely much in between. He also had techinque, which all of the rest of us were completely lacking.

On the right, there--> Tatsu, me and Chiko.
Rachael's friends were all really amazing.

Except that, for some reason, the boys (Will, Tatsu, and Stephen) felt the need to be anti-social and go off and smoke. I hate cigarettes. I hate smoking. I eventually went over and threw their cigarettes away (yes, I actually threw them in the trashcan - why they didn't seem to hate me afterward, I'm not entirely sure), but in the meantime, I had to make some new friends.

The guys sitting across from us were ridiculously amazing bowlers, and they were also quite nice. Plus, they were eating ice cream and NOT smoking. I really don't know why I so regularly feel the need to talk to random strangers, but I do, so. . .what you gonna do?

Other things I have recently done in the rain:

I went shopping in Nagoya with Rachael, and she received an extraordinarily large number of kleenex

And that's sort of it, actually. I'm sure I've done other rainy things, but none of them are coming to mind.

In the meantime, this is getting extraordinarily long, and I've got some homework to finish.
以上です。

自己PR

This has very little to do with anything, but I just finished writing the first draft of my 自己PR（jiko PR)in Japanese, and it's awful. I don't know how I ever am going to make it good.

For those of you that don't know, when you're applying for jobs in Japan, which I presently am trying to do, a 自己PR is a necessary paragraph talking about all of your good points and how awesome you are. It's similar to a cover letter, except that, to apply to a job in Japan, you need both. It's basically a short presentation of your attributes.

The thing is, I really don't clearly understand myself what my attributes are, so I have NO IDEA how to present them to an employer. It was hard enough writing all of my English cover letters, so this whole 自己PR in Japanese really seems like an impossible, insurmountable task. Especially since, despite studying for over a year and a half in Japan, I still feel like my Japanese is horrible.

My "I might as well just give up on life and make fake hair mustaches with Martin" face

That said, the first draft is done, and I really think I say the same thing about 1000 times over and over again. It feels like I said nothing.

In other news, yet another typhoon is hanging out in the area. I braved the fierce winds last night and went to a FABULOUS concert in Nagoya, which, since it's me, you know I'll write all about (later, though, as I want to now type up what I have just written), and it looks like I'll be going out again tonight, despite the fact that the winds are so strong that it's felt in my room as if a series of small earthquakes have been going on non-stop since I got home last night.

Hike, concert, and tonight's activities - to come later! Back to typing and feeling discouraged.

Nagoya Grampus, Shink and Jackpot Bell ROCK 豊橋(Toyohashi)!

I've still got to write about my Mie hike with Alexis, but I'll skip that for now and come to more recent things. Because I'm all fired up about last night and this night, so it's time to WRITE!

Yesterday, I met up with a friend in 豊田市(Toyota) so that we could head over to Toyota Stadium to see the Nagoya Grampus play Ventforet Kofu (I don't know if that Ventforet is supposed to be French for windy forest or what, but it's weird). We would of course be routing (have I ever mentioned that I HATE this word?) for　名古屋！！！！

Toyota Stadium was absolutely LOVELY, surrounded by trees and with two very cool bridges leading up to it on both sides.

When we got there, I felt very out of place. First of all, I was wearing blue, which ended up being the color of the opposing team. Second of all, I wasn't wearing red. And when we got into the section where we could sit, it seemed like EVERYONE was wearing a jersey - and those that weren't were at least wearing red t-shirts. In any case, certainly not blue.

See all those people with the flags up - yeah, every single one of them had on a Grampus jersey.

Miho and I were also both SHOCKED by the amount of people that there were there. The last soccer game I went to was in Colorado, and it seemed like there was practically no one there (granted, it WAS snowing, but still), whereas this wasn't even a special match, and the stadium seemed practically full. We actually had trouble finding seats.

It was AMAZING, though, because everyone was SO into it! There were people with loudspeakers leading chants and cheers and dances, and everyone was just SO into it! Miho and I have decided that we must go again, and next time we will wear jerseys and get there early enough to sit in the real "supporters" section with all of the crazies. SO MUCH FUN!

I'm happy to say as well that Nagoya totally rocked - 4 to 1. Two of the goals literally happened in a period of about 3 minutes. It was amazing!

With that super exciting experience under my belt, tonight Alexis and I headed out to Ell.Knot in　豊橋　(Toyohashi) for some awesome concert action. Five bands played, and I kind of loved all of them!

The first one was ポタリ（Potari), and, aside from one song, the music was upbeat and fabulous and exciting. The drummer (who looked like he couldn't have been more than 15) was the most adorable thing I had ever seen. He reminded me of L from Death Note, in a weird way.　　I gather from their website, though, that he's not their usual drummer. Sadness. The bassist actually started CRYING, and for someone like me, who cries a LOT, it was absolutely FABULOUS. I loved her!

Up next was 洗脳集団キミとロック (Sennnoushuudann kimi to rock, which basically means Brainwashing group, you and rock). They were SUPER fun, and I will totally be seeing them again. For serious. If I can, that is. Like perhaps Sunday when they play at Cam Hall in Okazaki.

Then was Eve. I think that I could have liked them if I hadn't seen them. The music was very screamo rock with the occasional punkish or skaish twinge, and I was into it. Unfortunately, the guys in the band seemed. . .well, ridiculous.

Then Jackpot Bell!!!! I have been dying to see them for ages, as they seem to play in Okazaki a lot, and I always just keep missing them.



They were just as amazing live as I expected them to be, and they'll also be playing Cam Hall Sunday, so really I've just got to go.

Then Shink. They were AMAZING, but I think they could have been MORE amazing. The crowd didn't seem to be all that into them, which I really just don't understand. They put on a better show this time than when we saw them last time, and still, most of the crowd just wasn't having it. :-(



i am a concert addict, and all I ever want to do anymore is go to concerts.

以上です。

郡上祭り (Gujo Festival)

I don't know why I've decided to always write my titles in Japanese and English lately. But I have, and so there it is.

Anyhow, so after our lovely day at Ise Shrine, we slept in and had a lovely lazy day. Abby made okonomiyaki, so I got to try to first real vegan okonomiyaki, and it was delicious beyond belief. It makes me want to move to Gifu just to have them around more often to make me delicious food. (I'm a user, what can I say?)

For those of you that don't know, okonomiyaki is basically a Japanese vegetable stuffed pancake. Usually, it's stuffed with cabbage, but Abby's version had none. It did have this delicious green leafy Chinese vegetable thing, though. Yum!

Then we had the perfect ending to a lazy day (during which I did my best to attempt to study)! Abby's friend Shio came to pick us up to bring us to her house, where her mother put us in yukata. It was SO cool - her mother had TONS of old yukata and a huge box of obis. She seemed quite experienced at obi tying, and she tied a different style bow for all of us - me, Abby, Shio, and Riho.

The boys decided not to wear yukata. :-(

Around 8:00 PMish, we headed over to Gujo for the all-night dancing festival. Gujo's a pretty small but extremely gorgeous town which is famous for it's all night Obon Dancing festivals, during which, instead of dancing Bon Odori, you dance the Gujo Odori, which is really quite similar, but somehow much more difficult. We danced until about midnight (which was long enough to leave me exhausted beyond belief, and I literally fell asleep the second I hit the futon when we returned to Matt and Abby's).

Despite being there for approximately 4 to 5 hours, I think I only managed to pick up on one of the many dances (which I promptly forgot). I did, however, manage to step on the feet of about 10 different people and almost elbow some poor woman in the face. Apparently dancing is not for me. Which I knew beforehand, but what can I say, quite like singing, I love it anyway!

Abby and Shio dancing it up!

Matt and Abby's friends were super great, and we had an absolutely fabulous time just hanging out in Gujo and dancing! Even if I was slightly intimidated by Abby and Shio's mad dancing skills, since Riho and Shio's husbands were in the same lacking the coordination necessary to dance boat as I was.


Both of these are things you're probably NOT supposed to do in a yukata. And my shoes - definitely shoes you're NOT supposed to wear with yukata!

A definite success of a night, and I am looking forward to my next all night dancing festival! :-)

We were all basically dead when we woke up the next morning (and I'm sure Matt and Abby won't appreciate me taking a picture of our deadness, but I'm doing it anyway).

I was feeling kind of sick and headachy, so I headed home fairly earlyish (which was around 4PM, but we woke up late, so it felt early), and when I got home, I had some delicious vegan Doughnut Plant doughnuts waiting for me that Alexis had brought back from Tokyo. There were three, and I ate two and immediately felt better. Then I made peanut butter cookies and ate about 12 of them. I think I might have been in overly hot Gifu sugar (and maybe protein) withdrawal.

As is becoming usual when I do things with Abby and Matt, Abby's blogging of the event is way more interesting and comprehensible with better pictures. SO check it out!

And with that, お盆休み、以上です。

お盆休み (Obon Break): 伊勢神宮 (Ise Shrine)

Obon is on of the biggest holidays in Japan. It's basically a big festival in order to honor the deceased, and it's pretty much the ONLY time of the year that most Japanese workers can be guaranteed a full week off.

I, of course, only had off Friday and Monday, so I decided to head over to Gifu to hang out with Abby(fine, I'll spell your name right) and Matt for my four day weekend. I was originally planning to just spend one night with them, but somehow that turned into the whole weekend.

Normally, it takes 40 minutes on the train to get to Gifu, but there were some train problems (a suicide, it seems :-( ), and it ended up taking me two hours. My first Japanese experience with train delays (and I was even in Tokyo the day after the earthquake)! There was something kind of exciting about it! After heading up to the top of a super tall building and getting a lovely view out over the city, they brought me to this DELICIOUS Italian restaurant where their friends work - they have tons of gluten free options for Abby, and they were very obliging in whipping me up some vegan pasta and a vegan pizza. Now I need to go back to Gifu again just for the deliciousness of this restaurant!

Then we woke up super early on Saturday morning, met up with Martin in Nagoya, and headed all together to Ise Jingu in Mie Prefecture. If you want a well put-together blog entry with lots of info, check out Abby's post, as you're probably not going to get that from me.
It's this amazing shrine complex that is dedicated to the goddess Amaterasu. I guess she's apparently enshrined there, but according to Matt, she's also enshrined somewhere in Nagoya, so that's weird.
There's an outer shrine and an inner shrine, and while the outer shrine itself was nothing overly impressive, I can't even remember the last time I felt so peacefully surrounded by nature. There was this HUGE hollow tree, and despite Abby's lack of desire to meet a spider or get bitten by a mosquito, I managed to convince her to go in with me! She left quickly, but it was my first time actually INSIDE a tree, and I practically had to be dragged out. I could literally stand up inside and look up all the way through it. It was amazing!

Us in the tree!!!! As amazing as everything about this day was, this might have been the highlight for me!

When we got to the inner shrine, which was infinitely more impressive, there was this big box thing, which supposedly contained something that the goddess once touched. Except that it's never been opened. And when they move it they don't open it. And so it's just been told over and over again over the generations that it contains something that the goddess has touched, and you've just got to believe. I like believing in things like that, so I've decided to believe.

Apparently the buildings are changed fairly often, so what we were seeing wasn't old. You can read all about it in Abby's blog, but I guess they just dismantle them and then rebuild them every few years or so. I guess the Shinto's don't believe in permanence, and really, why should they? The world is an ever-changing place, after all.

After exploring the shrines, we walked a little bit around the small shopping district nearby. It was very old style Japanese, and we bought some akafuku, which is basically like reverse daifuku - the red bean paste is on the outside, and the mochi is on the inside. It was utterly and absolutely delicious! The picture to the right is the akafuku shop - I have no idea for real, but I'm just going to say that maybe they make some of it in those vat looking things! :-)

And that was our day in Ise! We stopped in Nagoya on our way back for some delicious Indian food (it's wonderful that Indian food can almost always satisfy both the gluten free diet and the vegan diet) and were basically exhausted beyond belief upon our return home (well, Abby, Matt, and I were - I can't really say for Martin)!

岡崎花火大会 (Okazaki Fireworks Fest)

And because apparently I do things in excess (like how I have pretty much listened to nothing but the Radwimps for the past 2 or 3 weeks; and how yesterday I listened to the same song on repeat approximately 40 times in a row), one fireworks festival just wasn't enough for me.

So Saturday afternoon, after working in Obu (where I apparently have a twin - I was told by at least three people "looking forward to seeing you next week!" and by a good 5 people "it's so good to see you again." - seriously, what was that about?), I headed over to Alexis's for help putting on my yukata to head over to the Okazaki Fireworks Festival!

Alexis had to put on our yukatas and tie our obis, as we were totally incapable.

I wore my new yukata that I got from Miyoko - it was my first time in yukata, and I was super excited about it!

me in my new pretty butterfly yukata - thanks for tying it, Alexis!

When Alexis finally got our yukatas on, we walked painfully slowly in our geta (which, despite all of my best intentions, I had not worn in) to catch the bus up to the castle fireworks area.

Alexis, Vickie, Me

Alexis and Martin had headed over earlier in the day to put out mats, and it was a good thing, too, as there were SO MANY people there's no way we would have found a place to sit if they hadn't headed out earlier. Apparently, 70% of the fireworks in Japan are designed and made in Okazaki, which basically means that the festival, which has at least 20,000 fireworks, ends up being HUGE! It was.

When we got there, we met up with Martin and Paul.

And then Mai and Voi.

me and Mai

I was waiting for Mai and Voi by the bridge when everyone else was taking pictures, so I don't really have great pictures of everyone. Though I did manage to get a nice picture of most of us.

Me, Vickie, Joanna, Sandra, Zack, Alexis, Mai, Voi

And the fireworks were AMAZING! Seriously. . .I thought the ones in Gamagori were pretty spectacular, but really, they had absolutely nothing on Okazaki.

They lasted for about an hour and a half, and the start was like the mega intense end in Gamagori. And then it just kept getting bigger and bigger. Apparently they kept making stars in the sky with the fireworks, but I kept missing them. :-( I did see a heart, though! (I would have much rathered a star)

My camera's definitely not the best at fireworks pictures - I bet Zack got some nice ones, though

After an hour and a halfish of amazingly impressive fireworks, there were SO many people leaving that we decided to hang around by the river talking for a bit, and we got to witness someone jump in and swim. Interesting. . .

It was an AMAZING evening, and I'm so glad I got to go this year - I missed it last year as the day after the festival, in which I danced yosakoi and did the obon odori, I headed down to Hiroshima and Miyajima.

And that's it! Totally awesome day. . .(and the next day I went to see the new Transformers with Nathaniel, which was AWESOME, despite what everyone else says!).

蒲郡花火大会 (Gamagori Fireworks Fest)

Still got that paper due and still have no desire to read the newspaper article - so I figure I might as well just write two blog entries in a row, right? Especially since I've been doing so many awesome things lately!

After my amazing Saturday in 春日井市(Kasugai), I headed over to 蒲郡市(Gamagori) to spend the day there with some friends and then hit up the fireworks festival that night. It takes place every year on the last Sunday in July (or maybe the last day of July? can't remember), and I didn't go last year, so I was psyched to get to go this year. You might recall that I also took a day trip to Gamagori with Alexis and Martin when I first got here last year. It's amazing how different the experience was this time (though both times were defo fabulous!).

I met up on the train with some friends heading over from Gifu and some of their friends, and we got there early enough to do some exploring before the sun decided to come out and kill us.

The tide was down, so instead of using the bridge, we headed over to the turtle island under the bridge, and there were TONS of adorable little crabs (or crabby things) crawling around everywhere - SO CUTE! :-) The turtle island is this adorable little island that is uninhabited and covered with shrine type things. Very natural and very Japanese, and I love! (Note that it is not ACTUALLY called the turtle island - I just keep calling it that because it reminds me of the huge sleeping sneezing turtle from the best movie of all time, the Neverending Story).

Exploring the island was super fun. There were lots of flags and cute statues and shrine things everywhere!

Why do Rachael and Abi look so perfect and well-kept while Matt and I look as if we are attemping and maybe failing to survive a windstorm?

There were also fun rocks everywhere, and everywhere we looked there were the BEAUTIFUL iridescent blue and green lizards. I totally wish it were appropriate to keep a lizard as a pet. I wonder what they eat. I can just imagine it hanging out in my room and then sleeping curled up in my elbow. Yes, I want a pet lizard. There were also some extra large scary lizards, though. Like the little dude to the right. Click on him to make him bigger. If you want a picture of a pretty lizard, , check out Abi's blogging of the day!

Me being rather monkey-like and Abi being a dancer, we couldn't help ourselves and just had to climb out on the rocks. There was one that looked like a duck-billed platypus (which I apparently also noticed the last time I was there)!

Abi's got a nice version of the pictures from all three of our cameras put together. Check it out - mine's super boring compared to the other two.

After exploring the island, we found some shade and ate lunch. The sun was so strong, though, that we might have all gotten sunburnt despite the shade and the spf 45/50 sunblock. I was wearing a unicorn necklace, and I was hoping for a unicorn burn on the chest, but no go. :-( In order to escape the sun, we then headed over to karaoke. Being with two Japanese guys and three Americans all capable of singing, I had NO PLANS of actually singing anything myself. Somehow, though, when I get into the dark room with music, I can't help myself, and I destroy everyone's ears with my inability to sing.

In front of the karaoke place, there was a hair salon, and there were all these really creepy practice heads just sitting outside in a line.

I made a new friend!

Karaoke done and the sun setting, we headed back over to the beach for the fireworks! We sat right on the water with an amazing view!

The fireworks lasted an hour and a half and were すごく迫力　(i.e. super intense - somehow it sounds more powerful in Japanese)！ They counted down with fireworks in the sky - it was amazing!

Getting home after was a bit difficult because of the CRAZY amount of people at the station, but we managed, and all in all, it was a FABULOUS day! :-)