Jenni and I on the early bus

Last night, another graduate student and I hopped on a redeye flight to Seoul to spend the rest of the week and weekend at an education conference with many other students and faculty from the International Christian University's education department. The title of the event is the "International Conference on Education Research" (ICER) and it's held at the Seoul National University. Last year, many of us submitted proposals to be able to present and also received some grant money to help with the funding of the trip.

Icy green noodles - not my favorite

Jenni and I arrived in Incheon Airport at about 4:30 in the morning and caught the first bus to the university. From there we took a cab to our hotel and promptly crashed until about noon.  We attempted to get some lunch, but without language skills we ended up with bowls of cold noodles, eggs and ice cubes and then walked to the convention center where we listened to the opening session of the conference.

Posing on campus

After spending a few hours at a cafe on campus working on our presentations for the next day, we joined the rest of the ICU group for a Korean BBQ dinner.  Fortunately, some of the faculty are Korean and they not only helped us with what we should order but also how to cook and eat everything. Korean BBQ is delicious and I remember how impressed I was with it last time Sean and I were in the country. There's heaps of tiny side dishes and sauces which are combined with cooked pork and fresh lettuce leaves into bite-sized wraps of goodness. After buying some plug adaptors at the nearest convenience store, we headed back to the hotel for more work on our presentations and additional catch-up on sleep.

Impressive BBQ spread

Being in Seoul is kind of surreal; in many ways it feels like being in Tokyo except that I can't speak any of the language or read any of the writing. The other two things that I noticed right away is that this country actually has trash cans everywhere (and they aren't separated into many categories) and that it's not nearly as expensive as Japan. What a relief!

How to eat Korean BBQ

During the afternoon at the Tokyo National Museum, I had the chance to participate in a Japanese tea ceremony. Although I had been a part of a few tea ceremonies in the past, this was my first time to have every step thoroughly explained along with a brief history of the tea ceremony tradition. The museum garden has five tea houses and we got to enter the oldest and largest. The Okyo house was built in 1742 and donated to the museum in 1933. It is a typical Japanese tea house made from wood, paper and straw.


To begin, we took of our shoes, entered the very old and beautiful tea house and sat around the room. Most people sat indian style or on their knees but I sat on a tiny stool since they warned us that we would be sitting for an hour. We had a short introduction and then our traditional Japanese sweets were delivered to us.  At this point we were given a written sheet of instructions on how to complete the tea ceremony, which I've shared below:



"When the sweet is delivered to each person, do not take it until the volunteer asks you to do so. You take up the sweet goethe with the paper underneath and put it on your left palm. Then, cut the sweet into two or four pieces by the wooden stick provided and pierce one sweet with the stick and convey it to your mouth.  The stick is the scent wood and can be used as cutter and fork. You can take it with you.



When tea bowl is delivered to you, you bow to the carrier. Take the bowl by right hand and put it on your left palm.  Then turn the bowl two times clockwise and start drinking tea in three sips. The reason why you turn two times clockwise is that when the tea bowl is delivered to you, the front part of the bowl is facing to you. As the front part of the bowl is sacred, you turn the bowl avoiding to drink from the front part. This shows your humility.



We hope you are enjoying this atmosphere surrounded by nature, isolated from the no noise of urban civilization. This stillness and nature will be important ingredients to enjoy the good taste of Japanese tea. How was the taste? The sweetness of the cake will be neutralized by the slight bitterness of the tea. We believe you could enjoy the harmony."

Entrance to the museum

Sean left early on Saturday morning for two weeks work with the outdoor English immersion camp and I headed to the Tokyo National Museum for the first time. It was a good day for poking around exhibits as the weather was stormy, windy and pouring rain. It also happened to be "student cultural exchange" day so by showing my ICU ID I got in for free and was able to take part in some special tours and tea ceremonies offered for all foreign students.

Unsurprisingly, Japan has a very efficient, safe and organized way to store your umbrellas when not in use

There were plenty of interesting exhibits on Japanese history, art, archeology and architecture. My favorite were the descriptions of how clothing and Japanese calligraphy has changed. The museum complex is a huge part of Ueno Park and consists of several other galleries and gardens. The Tokyo National Museum opened in 1872 and has the longest history among all museums in Japan. Their collection comprises around 116,000 items including 87 National Treasures and 634 Cultural Properties. According to their guidebook, it is the best collection of cultural properties in Japan in terms of both quality and number. The regular exhibition galleries exhibit about 3,000 of these works at any given time.

My amazing bento lunch - a work of art in itself

Other highlights of the day included an afternoon in one of the oldest preserved tea houses in the country (more on that later), a delicious Bento lunch, browsing in the fantastic gift shop and meeting the museum mascots. I had lunch on the museum grounds and enjoyed one of the most beautiful, detailed and delicious Bento boxes I've ever had in my life. I was impressed with the quality, presentation and taste of the foods included such as the tempura, sushi, miso soup and pickles. I had a lot of fun in the gift shop where I picked out a few small posters for above my desk at home as well as an assortment of postcards. If you get one in the mail from me in the next few months, chances are I got it at the museum. Before I left, I made a point to meet the predictably adorable and fuzzy museum mascots who seemed to be drawing more of a crowd than the actual exhibitions themselves. The brown one is called "Tohaku-kun" and is modeled after "Dancing People Haniwa" which is a Terracotta tomb figure from Japanese history and on display in the museum. The female mascot is "Yurinoki-chan" who is modeled after a leaf from the tulip tree in front of the main museum building.

Museum mascots

They drew an impressive crowd

Upon arrival in Japan, Rotary gave all of the Peace Fellows a month of intensive language training which was fantastic. After that, Japanese language classes were not mandatory and surprisingly not encouraged because of the large time commitment they require. I decided to keep going and was able to complete Japanese I - III my first year. Although I learned a lot, the experience was stressful, extremely challenging and very discouraging at times. I lost a lot of sleep over those Japanese classes.

Hora-San finally let me take her picture last week - isn't she adorable?

My goal was to continue with the Japanese sequence that ICU offers and this term I started in Japanese IV but after the first two weeks I had to drop it. The amount of kanji and vocabulary required for students to memorize outside of class had doubled since J3 and I simply couldn't keep up with it along with doing my research and MA thesis this year. It was with a very heavy heart that I withdrew from the class because it felt like giving up. That being said, I'm still studying on my own and I'm finding it more enjoyable and much less stressful, though I am not being challenged at the excruciating pace as before.  Here are a few ways that I'm studying Japanese on my own:

Community volunteer tutors - My neighborhood has an incredible amount of retired community volunteers who give their time to foreigners who want to practice Japanese. I started meeting with Hori-san, an 80 year old widow who lives near the school. We have a great time chatting in Japanese for about two hours each week. She helps me with my speaking, reading and writing and I have learned a lot about Japanese daily life and culture because of her stories. Two weeks ago she suggested that I practice more with her friend that lives down the street so now I meet with Okamoto-san (83 years) once a week as well.  I cherish the time I can spend with these amazing Japanese women.

Morning tea with Okamoto-san this morning. She knows I like chocolate and this dark sea salt was amazing!

ICU student tutors - I have two ICU undergraduate tutors that I pay to help me with the nitty gritty grammar and speech writing (for Rotary Clubs). I meet with each of them once a week and I enjoy hearing more about what it's like to be a college student in Japan.

italki - This is an online language program that allows you to schedule lessons via Skype. You can pick your tutor and type of tutoring that you want. It's been great if I want to practice with someone but want to stay at home in my pajamas.

Rosetta Stone - Sean and I have a subscription to the Japanese program and it's been good for vocabulary review and kanji practice.

Wanikani - This is a great program for learning, memorizing and practicing Japanese kanji. Highly recommend.

Japanese Pod - I've enjoyed Japanese Pod for its short language lessons in the form of podcasts. This is really convenient when I'm taking the train somewhere and want to listen to easy Japanese.


So far the transition to studying on my own is going fine though I want to improve my self-discipline to work harder. Now there's no reason for me to stay up late or get up very early because of the possibility of a pop quiz. But, on the plus side, several people have already remarked how relaxed and happy I've seemed this year compared to last year. I guess all of those mantras about balance and moderation are probably true.

Sean returned to Tokyo about four days after I did but thankfully this time with a work visa in hand. He's spent the first few weeks in the city heading to numerous interviews and filling out job applications. He's hoping to find a part-time job teaching English that doesn't conflict with frisbee practice or require him to work in weekends - a tall order in a city like Tokyo.


Until then he's working part-time for a company called English Adventures that combines outdoor skills with English immersion education. It seems like a dream job and I know that he wishes it were full time. The company takes Japanese kids on week-long trips with activities such as hiking, backpacking, canoeing, rafting, skiing, camping and climbing all with native English-speaking staff. The whole trip is conducted in English so the participants have a language immersion experience in nature.



During his free time Sean plays on three ultimate frisbee teams: the university club team, the local community team and the Tokyo co-ed league team. Sometimes our tiny shoebox apartment smells like a locker room, which is not my favorite thing but the constant sports keep Sean quite happy.



We didn't travel in Japan hardly at all last year and that is one of our goals for our final year in the country. The challenges are finding time off together and affording Japan's insanely high prices. If only Sean could get a job teaching "English immersion ultimate frisbee". . .

Last night, I attended my first Japanese PechaKucha event.  PechaKucha "is a presentation style in which 20 slides (images only) are shown for 20 seconds each (for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds). The format, which keeps presentations concise and fast-paced, powers multiple-speaker events called PechaKucha Nights (PKNs)."

Deep sea diving

Physics of crystals

The last month has been a complete blur and although I miss being in Mozambique, it's been fantastic being back with Sean in Tokyo.  I'll write about how my internship finished up in another post, but for now, Sean and I have jumped right back into the routine of life in Tokyo and have hit the ground running in school and job hunting.  We've both resolved to be not as busy this year so we have more time for each other and for traveling in Japan. That being said, I'm only taking one graduate level class, starting my research for my thesis that's due in June, and continuing with studying the Japanese language. Sean's had several interviews and is now trying to decide which one is the best fit. He's dived back into ultimate frisbee and is practicing with the university team on campus, the local Mitaka team and the Tokyo co-ed league team.  We both pick up as many random part-time jobs as well can (thesis editing, tutoring etc.) to save some cash for traveling in the future. The other obvious big project is trying to figure out what's next for us in the following year and taking steps to make that happen. Suggestions, ideas and job opportunities that would be a good fit are more than welcomed!

At the Education Department welcome dinner

We have both agreed that the second year for us in Tokyo is heaps easier than the first because we returned to a solid community of friends and because we know how all of the systems work here (transport, paying bills, phone service etc.) which makes a huge difference. Our most recent big news is the addition of a tiny waffle maker and a crock pot to our miniature appliance collection. Super exciting, I know. It's amazing how waking up to fresh waffles in the morning or coming home to the smell of slow-cooked chicken help with the occasional pangs of homesickness.  I'm most thankful for Tokyo's stable internet which means that I can communicate with family and friends via Skype without dropped calls, which was challenging in Maputo.  With the return of reliable internet I plan on writing more regularly.  Thanks for reading!