Fall is finally h.. NOT ANOTHER TYPHOON!

Halloween has come and gone and November has arrived; time for a new blog post! With the weekend rolling around, I finally have a moment to update everyone on what’s been going on in my corner of the world. October was one crazy, busy month but it definitely provided me with some of my most interesting (and spooky!) experiences so far. I hope you enjoy this whopper of an update (I’ll be splitting it into two parts) as much as enjoyed living it!

The month kicked off with a bang with the arrival of our Australian exchange students. A group of about 16 high schoolers arrived from Canberra, Australia to spend nearly two weeks in Japan. After spending almost five days in Tokyo, they were slated to spend the next three in Obama in a homestay program hosted by my school. It’s safe to say that we were extremely anxious. A bunch of 16-17 year olds had just been in the biggest, exciting city in Japan and now they were coming to Obama? How in the world were we going to compete with the bright lights of Tokyo? In reality, all our fears were for naught. The kids were so exhausted from the go, go, go of the city that they were practically begging for some low-key activities and the relaxed atmosphere of the countryside. Well, that’s exactly what we do best! While Obama has access to all the modern conveniences (and you are more than able to satisfy all your basic needs), it sometimes feels like you are living in small-town America from the 1950s. Take my situation for example: I don’t have a dishwasher so I hand wash everything, my clothes are line-dried since I have no dryer, and there is no central air or heating in my house or my school so I’ve begun to acclimate to the weather and use the wall units sparingly. Heck, even my school relies on kerosene heaters; we have “move-in” day where all the giant, portable kerosene heaters are brought out and placed in the different rooms. Just don’t get too close or you’ll burn yourself. Oh, and make sure to open the windows at lunch time to air out the fumes. Japan has been stereotyped as being the land of futuristic technologies but life outside of the major cities is a different story. I’ll be honest, though. While there are some days where I would kill to have a Starbuck’s in town and be able to run my heater all night, I have begun to truly appreciate the inaka lifestyle and tend to get overwhelmed during my sporadic visits to the bigger cities.

The welcome board designed by my students for the Australian exchange students.

They’re here!

They had just arrived by taxi from the train station.

Our group of about 16 high schoolers from Canberra, Australia.

Everyone settling down before the welcome presentation begins.

Everyone getting comfy.

Anyway, I digress. The majority of the Australian students quickly took to the laid back air that Obama provides and I enjoyed playing hostess for the few days they were here. They attended classes with the Japanese students they were partnered with and got to experience the daily school life of a typical high schooler in Japan. I was even able to sit in on a couple of special sessions created for them as well, including koto (a stringed Japanese instrument) instruction and calligraphy (my favorite). My best memory, however, will always be the cooking lesson I led that many of the Australians joined in on. Our school’s English Club activity that week just so happened to be a cooking session (led by yours truly) on how to make authentic chocolate chip cookies. None of the girls had ever EATEN a real chocolate chip cookie, let alone baked them from scratch. I just couldn’t let that sad reality continue! Not only was I playing Julia Child that week, however. Oh, no. If I’m going to give a cooking lesson, I want to have a cooking SHOW. Even if it is just local access television. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. I have officially made my TV debut in Japan! The TV station for our area wanted to do a special segment on our club and we were more than happy to oblige. So what originally was going to be just the English club, eventually turned into: the English club students, Michael and I, our club JTEs, a group of Australian students, Will and Vin (who were honestly just there to get free cookies :P), the TV crewmember, and random students and teachers being lured in by the smell of freshly baked cookies. Let’s just say that there was a constant undercurrent of chaos that always threatened to spill forth. Delegating roles, making sure that the cookies weren’t burning (because converting into Celsius is always fun), trying to facilitate conversations between the Japanese and Australian students, and all the while being filmed? Yeah, slightly stressful. It all turned out right in the end, however, when all the cookies were baked, coffee and tea was served, and everyone sat down to enjoy a little chitchat with each other. Cultural exchange? Check. Everyone coming out without getting burned? Check. Homemade chocolate chip cookies that literally made my eyes roll back in my head? Check, check, check! (Side note: both the Japanese and Australian students thought they were good but too sweet for their tastes. All the Americans in the room? We were pretty much in heaven. If there’s one thing America does right, it’s cookies.)

The students receiving instruction on calligraphy.

Everyone hard at work.

The calligraphy teacher gave us a demonstration how you can express different “emotions” even though you are writing the same kanji

He had written the kanji for “dream” but he wrote it using many different types of strokes.

My attempt at calligraphy!

The music teacher gave us a demonstration.

Our school’s music teacher instructing the Australian music teacher on how to play the “noto”

The Japanese and Australian music teachers are on the floor and the Japanese and Australian art teachers are on sitting down.

Treating the Australian teachers to a nice sushi meal before they head out to Kyoto.

Food! Glorious food!

Look at all that glorious sushi!

Test batch of cookies the morning of the TV taping

Some of the delicious cookies we made. The girls wanted to spell out ESA (English Speaker’s Association) which is the official name of our club.

All too soon, it was time for the Australians to pack up and head out from their Obama pit stop and continue on their way to Kyoto. Fortunately, I didn’t have too much time to wallow in our goodbyes since my schedule was quickly filling up again. Only a few days later I was hopping the train to Takahama, another small town about half an hour West along the coastline from Obama. Here is a delightful café called Tea+Honey run by my good friend Keiko. She has become my food savior in Japan in so many ways: 1) she hosts an International Night once a month where someone presents about their home country and we eat authentic food from that region and 2) she has graciously opened up her kitchen and has started giving cooking lessons to me and some other friends on how to make traditional Japanese dishes. Number 3, however, almost made me cry. To give a little context, Keiko used to teach English and has lived for an extensive time in the United States. Therefore, she has brought back some American favorites to Japan that I have literally never seen anywhere else since getting here: Hummingbird Cake and Red Velvet Cake. Let me repeat. RED VELVET CAKE. Any self-respecting Southerner knows the role that Red Velvet Cake plays in our lives. All I know is that I can truly celebrate my birthday here now knowing that I will have a slice of that beautiful, ruby-red, mouth-watering, sent-from-heaven-itself Red Velvet Cake. Anyway, my purpose that day was not for cake (more’s the pity) but for cookie decorating! I and Vanessa (the wife of a fellow ALT) helped Keiko bake and decorate cookies for a combined baby shower we were throwing the next day for two friends. It was great having time in the kitchen again with other ladies and it got me excited for the upcoming baking sessions to come with my own mother this holiday season when I return home for Christmas. It was also Vanessa’s first time decorating cookies so it was an adventure for everyone! They were a big hit the next day at the baby shower which, interestingly enough, is not a popular thing in Japan. I’m starting to find out that baby showers are actually not celebrated in many cultures because it is seen as bad luck and that you are courting trouble by celebrating the baby before it’s born. So it was the first baby shower for almost everyone there, which was nice because we could mold it into our own kind of party. It became a relaxed get together of good food, conversation, and best wishes for the new moms-to-be!

Keiko’s beautiful Tea+Honey cafe

Here it is. In all it’s glory, y’all.

The spread from last month’s International Night . My friend Jaz presented about her hometown of Noto which is north of Fukui.

The cookies are baked and ready to be decorated.

Vanessa was nervous at first but then she got intense!

Decorating cookies is hard work!

My creations

Our hard work being displayed at the baby shower

But I couldn’t relax for too long! I hopped the train back to Obama, got in a quick karaoke session with some friends, and then headed out the next day for the North where I met up with Celeste for the biannual arts festival at the Kanaz Forest of Creation Art Studio & Park. Local artisans gathered to sell their wares and to host workshops for different art techniques for visitors. I unfortunately did not get many pictures because I was so focused on shopping but I did manage to grab a few shots of Celeste and I participating in one of the workshops where we able to design and dye our own handkerchiefs using traditional techniques and natural dyes from a type of plant native to Japan. The ladies that taught us were so sweet and I hope to be able to attend another of their workshops in the near future.

Some other women receiving instruction on how to design and dye their handkerchiefs

Celeste checking out the merchandise

You’re supposed to let the fabric air dry but we were running out of time. So ironing it is!

My first attempt at the batik technique

You don’t mess with the hornets in Japan

It was a great weekend but I had to head back down to Obama early in order to get home since another typhoon was scheduled to hit Japan. I was able to fit in one last get together (a horror movie marathon with some friends; chosen theme: cheesy, slasher 80s films) before hunkering down back at my place as the typhoon pounded through the main island. This wasn’t my first typhoon but, man, they really don’t get any better each one you go through. It’s like experiencing tornado season back home: no matter how many you’ve been through, each one manages to freak you out over and over again. Thankfully, by the time the storm completely moved through I had the English Department’s Welcoming Party enkai to look forward to that Friday. It was a combination welcoming party for me (I know, I know. I arrived back in August but everyone is so busy here!), birthday parties for Michael and another teacher, and a celebration for one of our teachers who just passed their teacher’s licensing exam. It was a great way for everyone to relax after a stressful week of work and typhoons. And we’re only halfway through October at this point!

Some of my JTEs digging into the delicious food at the Welcoming Party enkai

The food was so good!