I think it's obvious to anyone that knows me and Sean as a couple that Sean is extraordinarily tolerant and flexible when it comes to the type of work that he does to earn money. Although English teaching is not his favorite thing, he does it because it's an easy way to get a visa and work while we're abroad together. In addition to English teaching, he's always on the lookout for contract, temporary jobs for extra money to fund frisbee tournaments and camping gear purchases. He's found forums and job postings aimed at foreigners interested in exactly these kind of opportunities and so far the gigs he's found are pretty unique, to put it mildly.

While in Japan, Sean's odd jobs have included everything from being interviewed about his experiences as a foreigner in Japan to editing stories in English and everything in between. He has done a lot of voice recordings for GPS companies and also app developers who are preparing translation material ahead of the 2020 olympics. He's also worked on writing/speaking possible questions for new robots that will be stationed at popular metro stops during the Olympics to help tourists with different problems. One job involved writing essays in English on assigned topics for research by a linguistics foundation studying the difference in grammar and vocabulary of monolinguals and bilinguals.

Burger King's new "Snow Cheese" Whopper - Sean's first meal after the medical testing experience

Sean's most recent gig was medical testing which involved spending five days and four nights in a clinic with nine other caucasian men and ten Japanese men. The study was Phase I of a human trial for a new type of antibody. Before committing, he attended the informational session and we researched the drug in question. It's already been approved in the States, Canada and Europe so he felt fine participating in the study but it was definitely a strange experience. Because the compensation is so incredible (upwards of 3,000 USD), the competition to get into these medical trials in Tokyo is quite competitive for foreigners and Sean watched his diet, alcohol and caffeine intake for weeks so he could (just barely) make the cut.

He was released from the clinic today and was more than happy to go for a run, eat fast food and crack open a beer after days of strict eating requirements and being confined indoors. Sean recently found out that he'll be leading backcountry hiking expeditions in Alaska for the summer, which he's really excited about, but between now and then who knows what job he'll do next?

I am the kind of person who makes To-Do lists . . . a lot of them: one for the year, current month, current week and current day. It's a bit out of control and sometimes it gets a little too extreme if I let the drive to complete tasks be the only thing that guides how I spend my day. I was reminded of this today as I was running around doing errands and feeling frustrated by the fact that I had to meet with four different people for various reasons. The meetings broke up my day so I didn't have long stretches to work on some upcoming assignments and final papers. Before the day had even started, I looked at my schedule and made another list (like I said, out of control) - a list of activities/commitments I could cut out of next Spring Term in order to be able to work on my thesis uninterrupted.

From 9:00 to 10:30 in the morning I met with Hori-san, my 82-year-old volunteer community Japanese tutor to practice my Japanese. She was waiting for me outside the neighborhood gate and was, as usual, impeccably (and snazzily) dressed complete with dangly earrings and full makeup. We spent the morning together catching up about the last few weeks (I didn't meet with her when my sister-in-law was here) and I slowly attempted to share a few stories from her visit while she patiently and tirelessly corrected my grammar and suggested alternative words and phrases. Whenever I tell how I bungled some form of Japanese culture she laughs and laughs which makes me laugh even harder. It's not really language practice, it's more like inter-generational/inter-cultural therapy.

Fast forward to 3:00 pm and I'm sitting in the library waiting to work with an undergraduate Japanese student through a university program called the Writing Support Desk. I had worked with her the previous week on some research for her final paper in her History of the English Language Class and we picked up right where we left off.  With five minutes left, we looked at her research proposal together one last time and I noticed that she tended to use the same words over and over again. After pointing this out I asked her if she knew of any resources easily available to look for synonyms. She didn't so I opened my computer and showed her a popular online thesaurus. After seeing all of the options for similar words in English, the student got so excited she almost fell out of her chair. I'd never seen a Japanese student get so dramatically stoked about something so mundane and it was hilarious. I started laughing and then she started laughing while still managing to eek out, "I've been looking for something like this for years!"  It was the strangest and most entertaining interaction I've had with a student for weeks.

About an hour later I met with a professor whose class I'm observing as part of the research for my MA thesis. She's moving to another university to accept a new job from next term and was starting to go through things in her office. She had scheduled a brief meeting with me in order to pass a few things along such as a space heater for my shared office and a stack of books related to my thesis topic. "Merry Christmas" she said to me as I giddily accepted the armload of presents.

From 5:30-6:30 pm I met with Nanako-san, a middle-aged widow who lives in the neighborhood and who I met at yoga class. I meet with Nanako once a week to teach English, but it's usually more of a gabfest and hangout time than verb conjugation practice. Not only that, but it's always obvious that she puts a fair bit of time and energy into preparing for our weekly sessions and this week was no exception. Nanako-san is a very classy lady who not only appreciates the finer things in life but loves to share them as well. When I arrived, she had a hot pot of tea warming over a candle, fancy teacups, a vase of flowers, high end snacks, an envelope of cash to pay me for 'teaching' and the usual stash of small presents like stationary, stickers, candy and chocolate to 'share with Sean'. Lately, Nanako-san has been trying to help me with my fashion sense. For a large part of the class we talked about nail polish - she got some new, fairly wild, nail polish called "chameleon" that changes color depending on body temperature! My meetings with Nanako always span the whole range of human emotion: we laughed over funny stories from the previous weeks, we cried a bit together because her dog of twelve years had just died, and we got excited about her upcoming birthday. At the end of class, we made plans for her to have me over for dinner the next week and then she thrust a hand-me-down peacoat on me saying that it will look better on me than my athletic winter jacket.

Arriving home, my To-Do list mostly naked of crossed out lines and check marks, I felt a stab of panic for unfinished assignments and looming deadlines but also a wash of gratitude. Looking back over my day, the moments that I remembered clearly and enjoyed the most were those spent with people, not the bits of time I cobbled together to 'work on something important and tangible.' When I think back on my two years in Japan I'm not going to dwell on papers that nobody will read but I will remember Hori-san's saintly persistence in improving my Japanese, the delight in finding a new writing resource, the generosity of an incredible academic mentor and the impressive science of chameleon nails.

Don't get me wrong, I still make plenty of To-Do lists, but I'm trying to make more time to experience and appreciate those meaningful moments in life that are not prescribed by an academic syllabus.

One of the many fun and quirky snacks/souvenirs that Japan offers is the incredible and unique variety of Kit Kat flavors. Because it's a tradition to bring back small gifts to family, friends and officemates from a trip, there are always many regional specialities available to purchase as omiyage. Nestle has cleverly entered the market and advertises specific Kit Kats for each region of Japan. There are bars with nearly every flavor imaginable and others that we can hardly identify. Sean has spent the last five months collecting flavors of the candy bars to host a Kit Kat Challenge taste-testing game night for friends when we return to Holland in about three weeks.


Last week, however, we saw some exciting breaking news online that a new Kit Kat "Chocolatory" was celebrating its opening in Ginza, Tokyo by offering limited edition "Sushi Kit Kats" from February 2 - February 14. The store opens at 10:00 a.m. and they have about 30 boxes each day for sale. Sean and I went during the weekend but they had already sold out. Determined, we got up extra early this Monday morning, made the trek to Ginza, waited in line (!) and finally managed to snag some of the weird chocolate sushi rolls. After grabbing coffees to counteract the sweetness, we tried all of the combinations and were pleasantly surprised by the flavor and texture, though perhaps we were swayed by a sever sugar high.



Overall it was a super fun, albeit strange, experience and an interesting way to start off the week. We're looking forward to coming home and sharing the tasty and mysterious Kit Kat flavors with friends and family this spring. Are you ready for the Kit Kat Challenge?

After the holidays and the chaos of ski camp was over, the next big highlight that we looked forward to was a visit from Sean's sister, Jen. Jen currently teaches at a university Saudi Arabia and we always look forward to a visit from her during one of her breaks between courses. Having visitors is always such a fun excuse to plan activities that we might normally do and this trip was no exception. We kept Jen busy with quite the packed agenda of things to do both inside and outside of Tokyo - it was so much fun!

After she arrived, we hit up Shake Shack, a Western restaurant in the trendy part of Tokyo that we had been wanting to try for awhile and then on the next day (Friday), we left for a weekend ski trip to Shiga Kogen resort - the largest winter ski area in the whole of Japan. The weather was great for skiing and at night we enjoyed soaking in the hot pools (onsen) of the hotel along with a hot pot dinner. The next day we traded skiing for a tour to the snow monkey onsen park and then rode the bus back to Tokyo. On Monday we had a long and elaborate cooking class which involved first learning how to cut and prepare fish for sushi and then making a few different kinds of sushi. The class was topped off by eating the finished product and washing it down with homemade plum wine.



Later that afternoon, we made a visit to the hedgehog cafe where we each had 30 minutes to play with our own, individual prickly creature. I would definitely go back for a second or third visit! We concluded the already long day with a free lecture at United Nations University and then joined Sean's frisbee friends for an all-you-can-drink sake event at Kurand Brewery.


We took Tuesday completely off and recovered from the previous days' activities by hanging out at our neighborhood onsen before spending the evening with my Rotary host counselor for a sushi dinner and then a night of tea, dessert and karaoke. On Wednesday, Jen spoke in one of the undergraduate classes that I'm observing, which was a lot of fun - I was so excited about the chance for Japanese undergraduate students to learn from her experience living and working in the Middle East. We celebrated her last night with us by having fancy drinks at the New York Bar at the top of the Park Hyatt building in the center of the city. Jen, thanks for your up-for-anything attitude, your humor, your generosity and for bringing me a ton of new baking supplies! Please come and visit again so we can plan more fun things to do!