View from the entrance of the hotel

I just called to reserve Sean's taxi for tomorrow and it feels sad and surreal that he leaves tomorrow morning. Months ago, we had planned to spend a romantic weekend getaway in downtown Tokyo to celebrate both our birthdays and our anniversary this summer when we'll be apart from each other. We spent an amazing couple of days together during which it felt like we hit the pause button on reality.

View from our room on the 46th floor

We stayed at a beautiful hotel downtown, enjoyed the swimming pool and onsen baths during the day and went to the New York Bar at night for evening jazz and drinks at one of the highest view points in Tokyo.  It was a brief but delightful escape from thesis writing and dorm/centipede life. It's harder each year to spend summers apart and it makes us appreciate the other and time spent with each other so much more.  Sean's excited for his summer filled with workshops and trainings, bachelor parties, weddings and, of course, working in Alaska. I'm looking forward to having some free time to travel around Japan post-thesis. The most fun, however, will be recounting our summer adventures upon seeing each other again in the middle of August.

Hotel tea room

Evening jazz and drinks at the New York Bar (where Lost in Translation was filmed)

The giant centipede that woke us up this morning

This morning, when we woke up, Sean complained of a weird burning sensation on his foot and I joked that perhaps it was one of those giant Japanese centipedes that we had heard about as their bites supposedly sting pretty badly. When we got up and pulled back the covers it turns out that it WAS one of those giant centipedes and it was a pretty dramatic and horrifying sight. The insect was about ten inches long and the width of my thumb, including all of its legs. I immediately freaked out and took pictures of it obsessively while Sean sprung into action. He grabbed a dust pan, got it to crawl on it, which was quite a trick because it could move extremely quickly, and then dropped it out of the window.

A picture from Google Images to give you some frame of reference

After we got rid of the centipede, I did some research. It turns out that it's called "Mukade" in Japanese and is known for giving a nasty bite, which hurts worse than a bee sting. Here's the information on Mukade that is given to new JETS (Japanese English Teachers):

The very first week I was in Japan, some friends introduced me to the neighborhood okonomiyaki restaurant near campus and I was hooked. Okonomiyaki is a Japanese pancake that's not sweet or eaten for breakfast but instead filled with vegetables, egg, and seafood or pork. At a restaurant, you usually grill it yourself on a large griddle and then cover it with mayonnaise, sweet brown sauce, seaweed powder and dried fish flakes. The combination is delicious!

Mixing the veggies, batter and shrimp together

During one of Sean's last visits with his Japanese tutor, she gave him all the ingredients to make okonomiyaki at home and last night we gave it a try. In this version of the recipe, we chopped up cabbage, green onions and shrimp and mixed it with two eggs and the mix in the bag. Then we spread the mix in the pan, waited a bit, flipped it over, and waited a bit more until it was cooked all the way through.

The finished product

A close-up of the savory pancake

Finally, we added mayonnaise and brown sauce on top and sprinkled seaweed and fish flakes for the final touch. Sean and I devoured one entire pancake ourselves and have enough to make one more for lunch tomorrow. Making okonomiyaki at home was fun and easy and it inspired us to bring a few mixes back to Holland for others to try as well.

The instructions in Japanese

Ever since Sean started getting involved with temporary/contract jobs in Tokyo for extra cash he started signing me up too whenever I was free so we could go together. He got to know a lot of the administrators pretty well and now we're on a lot of email lists when odd gigs for cash open up.  Cue two months ago when I was offered the chance to apply to work with the Japanese Government and new technology for the Olympics for a day. I was invited to apply because they were looking for American females between 25-35 years old who were native English speakers with intermediate Japanese skills. Interestingly, a headshot had to be included. I was immediately intrigued, sent in my CV and was selected as one of the participants. Did I mention that it was five hours of work for about $300? Major score for the savings account.

After a flurry of emails with specific details on what to wear - "smart business casual" (specifically a black suit, a basic color shirt, scarf and dress shoes with stockings), what to bring (copies of resident card/work permit and my Japanese signature stamp) and when/how to get there, the actual day arrived and today I got up early, put on something other than a T-shirt and yoga pants and headed downtown feeling happy to be doing something different besides staring at a computer all day.


The whole experience was hilariously fascinating and very Japanese. Extremely unsure of what to expect, I quickly learned that I was to be a prop/demo of a foreigner who needs help in a taxi. The actual gig was working at one of the booths during a translation tech fair where each company was trying to win the contract and government endorsement of their translation technology in order to prepare for the upcoming Olympics. My booth was technology that allowed foreign passengers to talk into an iPad to communicate with the driver in either English, Korean or Chinese. We practiced for about 30 minutes before the event started and then for the rest of the day I repeated the same phrases over and over: "How long is it to Tokyo Sky Tree?" "Where can I see cherry blossoms?" and "How much does it cost?" Aside from a few obnoxious comments when members of the audience would ask me questions (in the mic in Japanese) like "How do you like Mr. Trump?" etc.  The whole thing was pretty tame.



My supervisor for the day was very excited about his taxi "cosplay" costume (his words) but extremely nervous about all of the demonstrations. He kept buying me waters to "keep my voice working" and said that I was chosen to be a demonstrator because as an English teacher it was assumed that I would speak slowly and clearly. One of the most interesting things was talking to the other foreign demonstrators who were selected; they were easy to find as we all fit the same demographic and were the only foreigners in the room. The girl next to me was from California and was being used as a foreign prop to show translation technology in a hospital. Her first question to me was, "Who's your agent?" After explaining that I had ultimately gotten this job off the internet she was surprised and encouraged me to find my own "agent". She said she and the other foreigners at the event do this kind of thing full-time and it runs the gamut from voice recordings, being a "foreigner" in marketing or ad campaigns or testing new technology.

The other interesting thing was the blatant hierarchy present in the audience made obvious by the color badge everyone was wearing. The room was packed with men in suits and each one wore a different color badge which showed which level of government they were. My taxi driver always got particularly nervous for the ones wearing the purple badges with some sort of gemstone inside as they were cabinet ministers.

I don't know if I'll ever get called back to work but I hope I do! Thus, I've found a new project for post-thesis until I go home and it's definitely time to get an agent.

When planning blocks of time to write my thesis during these last few weeks, I neglected to take into consideration the number of goodbye parties for Sean. We had our first one last weekend with my women's community yoga class. Because he was the only guy invited and also one of two people in the group who was leaving soon he received a lot of attention. We love when we get invited to go out to dinner with a group of Japanese friends because they always know what to order. As Sean put it the other night, "These ladies know how to do things right!" and they certainly did. We had an elaborate spread of all kinds of fish, salads, tofu and vegetables with a variety of dipping sauces. As I'd dip a bit of something into one brown sauce invariably one of the ladies would "tsk" at me and motion for me to dip it into one of the other brown sauces. It didn't matter to me because they were all delicious. Our table was the most raucous in the restaurant as the beer, champagne and wine flowed while hilarity ensued. Japanese farewell parties set the bar high, without a doubt.


I'm headed to yoga class tomorrow night and I'm excited to see these friends again and bring some special treats for tea and snacks afterwards. Sean and I finally finished completely unpacking and organizing and opened a few of our souvenirs from our trip to Tokyo Disneyland. The top selling item at both Disney parks is rice crackers with the shape of Mickey Mouse made out of seaweed. We bought a pack and I can't wait to share them with everyone tomorrow. It doesn't matter if they're tasty or not as long as they're cute!

It's time to resurrect this blog and catch up on the last six weeks of spring break, which were fantastic but also very tiring. Winter quarter finished up around the end of February and then the day after finals, Sean and I flew home to Michigan for some Hope College alumni workshops and also to enjoy two weeks visiting with family and friends. Highlights of the trip home included eating at our favorite restaurants and stocking up on our favorite foods to bring back to Tokyo, Sean hosting the Kit Kat Challenge for his friends, teaching Jon and Susie how to make sushi, enjoying fires in the fireplace at my parents' house, and hanging out one-on-one with friends I haven't seen in about two years. The trip home was fantastic but the jet lag and long plane rides were brutal.

Sean's Kit Kat Challenge - friends worked in teams of two to guess the flavor of 14 Japanese Kit Kats during three challenge rounds. Competition was intense.

Getting ready for the Hope College alumni banquet

When we arrived back in Tokyo we had just a few days to recuperate and unpack. I spent a day meeting with the members of my MA thesis committee who reviewed my outline and then Sean and I did a Japanese homestay with a local Japanese family. Even though we live in Japan, it can be quite difficult to actually enter a Japanese home and see how a family lives. Living intimately with a family in a tiny apartment for three days was an interesting experience, to say the least, and I'm glad we gave it a try!

Posing with Miki and Saki (Ryoji, the dad, is taking the picture)

The day after our homestay our first visitor, Becky, a friend from high school, arrived and we immediately headed to Tokyo Disney to spend a few days at the parks. This was our first and only visit to Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea and we had an awesome time. Although Disneyland was fun, my favorite was definitely Disney Sea as the park is unique to Japan and doesn't exist anywhere else in the world! After two jam-packed days at theme parks, we headed back to our apartment and explored neighboring Kamakura one day and Tokyo during the rest of Becky's visit.

Meeting Mickey Mouse - he speaks Japanese!

Visiting Kamakura

The day after Becky left for the States, my friend from childhood, Linde, and her husband, Joe, arrived for a visit. After they landed, we hopped on a bullet train to Osaka and spent the next week exploring Osaka and Kyoto. This was my and Sean's first time to Kyoto as well and we enjoyed being tourists and hitting up all of the spots that had been on our list to see since arriving in Japan. Kyoto was busy since it was cherry blossom season and the weather didn't always cooperate, but we had a really good time anyway. Some of the highlights included visiting Fushimi Inari Shrine (red gates), exploring Himeji Castle, strolling through gardens and bamboo forests and catching glimpses of geishas in the evening. It was a magical trip!

Arashiyama bamboo forest - just a few people there that day (photo by Joe)

Kyoto at night (photo by Joe)

Fushimi Inari Shrine (photo by Joe)

Himeji Castle (photo by Joe)

Selfie at the Golden Pavilion

After Joe and Linde returned home, I had a three-day Rotary Peace Fellow training called The Art of Hosting Meaningful Conversations and then spring term began the next day. During this first week of class the cherry blossoms reached their peak and were spectacular even amidst many rainy and chilly days. Sean skipped the flowers in favor of spending the week in Boracay, Philippines at an international ultimate frisbee tournament.

Weeping cherries on a rare sunny day

Puddles of petals

Petals litter the road to campus under the tunnel of cherry trees

Sean with his team in Boracay

As we're heading into the second week of class, I'm trying to stay disciplined in writing my thesis while balancing time with Sean and spending time outside in the beautiful weather. The thesis is due May 15 and Sean leaves May 1 for a month of training and then a backcountry guiding job in Alaska starting in June. I'm still not sure what my summer holds or what we'll be doing/where we'll be next year but we're working on it and I'll keep you posted. Although two years in Japan have been incredible, I'm content with closing out my time here during the next two months and returning home at the end of June. Thanks for following along and Sean and I are looking forward to catching up in person with you this summer.