no more moldy futons, tomorrow I will wash my clothes in hot water

There are many things I will miss in Japan, but most of all I will miss my husband.

sightseeing

We rented a car and drove up the coast of the Sea of Japan. We stayed at a beach cabin, there were no spoons so we ate our oatmeal with chopsticks and seashells. We were the only ones there, and found tons of shells. It was alot like the Oregon coast, but the little seaside towns were pretty incredible. Tiny winding streets, wooden houses butted up against one another with no yards, we could never tell if a house was new or 100 years old, but it looked like they were built to endure many cold winters by the sea.


Sightseeing wears you out!

The day Donna and Gene left the sun came out for the Asanogawa River festival. We saw geishas performing, music, taiko drumming, and hip-hop dancing. We also ate alot, it was like going to the fair! Snow cones, ice cream, popcorn, more snow cones (Nate's students worked at the booth), hanami candy, dumplings and a gyro for Nate.

And of course, cherry blossoms!

There are many more pictures to see on flickr

Thank you so much, Barry and Jeanne, for the camera- we have been making up for lost time!!

This is Hume and Alex. Hume is the coolest kid in Japan. She reminds me so much of Holden. Alex loves her, and so do I.

This kid, on the other hand, is a little devil. But something tells me we'll be seeing more of him.




















We went to the zoo. It was surprisingly nice, I was anticipating it to be kind of depressing, because I heard the zoos here were not very good. There was alot of concrete, but there is alot of concrete everywhere in Japan and over-all it was really well designed. There were a couple of times where I felt like my child was the main animal on display, but by now that is just to be expected.
















The coolest was the tiger. Everytime we go to the portland zoo, the most you see of the tiger is it's tail. This tiger was out pacing, it seemed like it was constantly thinking about how to break out. As was the other tiger who was inside in a viewing room about the size of a bathroom. That was depressing, as was the roaring, male lion next to it, but we think they must just get put in there temporarily. At least I hope. It was a great warm and sunny day and we all got sunburnt.

Now Donna is on her way, and it is snowing. Yesterday it was probably 65 degrees, today, 39 maybe? I am way to tired to be doing this, but with company coming the days will fly by and the next thing you know I am going to be the one on the plane home, and this blog is most likely done deal. I hate writing!

Since I have been here there have been so many times I have thought about how I wish I could just go home for just an hour, and how everyone else can just go home (except Melissa and Iris) but for me it is impossible. Now this really weird place has become what I know as home, and I am leaving and know I will never be back. I mean really, unless we somehow acquire tons of money, when will we be back? There are so many other places I want to travel to. I will never make the walk to the grocery store, never take Alex to the train station and hear the song, never have to hang out and put away my futon (thank god for that one), never take the bus to the market to look at fish and flowers or make the uncomfortable, but always nice, trip to the neighbors apartment or watch terrible japanese television. I know "never say never", but I just know it will be never. I wish I could describe what this feels like, but I really can't, I would cry and I really have to start cleaning now.

This just in (according to a breaking story on national news last night) - Today cherry blossoms began blooming in Fukuoka as temperatures had risen 2 degrees. This is three days earlier than last year. Next week cherry blossoms should be able to be viewed throughout all of Japan. The official forecast for Kanazawa: estimated flower-opening date- April 4. Estimated best viewing dates: April 9-16.

A side note- it's true, I love to poke fun at Japan. But a whole country where all men, women and children are equally, genuinely excited about a flower opening is also truly endearing.

new pictures click here

hello spring!

Today is White Day, which contrary to what it might look like, has nothing to do with the amount of snow that has accumulated today. White day is the boy's version of Valentine's Day and they are supposed to give girls cookies or something sweet. On Valentine's Day, girls give boys chocolates. I am a little let down, to tell you the truth. Immediately after Valentine's Day the White Day stuff arrived in the stores, I thought it would be a bigger deal, but last night at the grocery store I didn't see a ton of boys gathered around a gigantic cookie display like I did for Valentine's day, there was no Godiva booth selling deluxe editions of chocolate wafers. The display was pathetic, and I only saw 2 teenage boys. Girls always get the short end of the stick, except when being targeted to choose between 35 different chocolate items for some boy. Alex and I made cookies for his little play-group girlfriend, but after an hour of deliberating whether it was worth trudging through a blizzard, dragging a crying toddler, wearing a coat that I can't even button up around my stomach all for the sake of cookies and love, I decided. Forget it.

This is the view out my front door, notice that the name of the other apartment building is Fragrance. Next to that, is another apartment complex named Hermes. Ours? Residence K-1, it sounds like a dog kennel.

bread and colds

This is Alex and Riku, the boy who lives upstairs. We all went to Fanfare (pronounced fawn-far-e, here) with his mom, Yuko, who is equally excited by pastries. In case you have forgotten, Alex and I have been to Fanfare once before, when we first got here, and it is the closest thing to home, as far as bakeries go. I wish I could go to Fanfare everyday.

The downfall is that Yuko's kids are always sick, and guess what, so are we!

My new favorite thing here is melon pan (aka me-ron pan) . It actually doesn't normally have melon flavor, it is called that because of how it looks. It is best when bought hot off a vending truck on a cool day.

In other news, Alex and I have plane tickets home for April 21st. We even get to fly home with Lindsay! A big relief since she is familiar with the Vancouver airport where we have to change planes, and my last lay-over experience was pure hell. Nate is staying here, and hopefully flying home June 3rd for 3 weeks, then returning to Japan for another month to complete his contract. Someone needs to come and make sure he is not eating instant ramen every night and keep him in check.

photo essay

I have a friend! This is Satomi. She and her son Hana came over to our house. I remember thinking I would never have any friends here. We are almost to our 8th month here and I have made 3 japanese friends! (4 different people, but considering the language barrier, I think it counts more as 3 friends) Having a japanese friend is really nice. Satomi sent me chocolates when I was sick and yesterday spent at least an hour calling travel agencies for me, and I didn't even ask her to do it. I am so happy I met her, who wouldn't be!


Alex loves watching videos, but he is banned from Sesame street because he is always talking about his emotions- which are usually either sad or scared. I think he watched too many hurricane episodes. Ok, I know it is good to talk about these things, but really, how sad can a lego really make you, on an hourly basis? Anyway, he is still pretty cute. He is going to throw everyone through a loop when he comes home.















I bought this fabric to make a cool bag for new baby stuff, or whatever it happens to be used for beyond that. It is not a diaper bag, I hate that term because usually diaper bags are just ugly and who wants an ugly bag with a dirty diaper in it. If you have to carry around something like a dirty diaper, because that situation will arise where you know you have to just stick it in your bag, you need something to compensate for that. Anyway, in anticipation of being reunited with my beloved sewing machine in the near future I have been looking for patterns online.

















Maybe I am the only person who spends endless computer time looking up patterns, besides possibly Ted (who I love because he recently introduced me to pattern review), but can I just ask who in the hell thinks people want to still see patterns that look like they are from the 70's? This is a NEW Vogue pattern in the current issue of Vogue Patterns. Whoever makes these books needs to be tortured for all the years they have tortured me.

I was just reminded of something. About a year ago I was sitting on a park bench at PSU reading this and I knew then that marrying a genius like Nate was no mistake.