I realise that I have been neglecting my once-a-month resolution these days. Things have gotten a lot busier and I have gotten a bit lazier in writing this thing. I have recently been hearing folks asking about how they can access my blog, so it seems to me I will have to be a bit more diligent in future in keeping everyone regularly updated.
That being said, I will proceed with an update on happenings since October. Since I am now on the road to recovery since my last incident of fumbleitis (it's now been 6 months since what is now only referred to as "the incident in Korea"), I have gotten the ok from the doctor to start running again. With the air being much more clean and fresh here in Japan than it was in Korea (this may have something to do with being in a much smaller and less densely populated city) I am happily back to running OUTSIDE again, after more than a year of running in one place on the evil torture machine commonly called a "treadmill". I am 3 weeks into an 8 week 5K training program, after which I will be moving on to an 8 week 10K program. My goal is to run the 10K in the Sakura Asahi Health Marathon on March 29th. People that know me well know that I need to have a goal in mind to keep me motivated, so my friend Gail and I will be running this together. Now I have a commitment and zero excuse not to get my butt out the door and run 3 days a week.
I had my first Japanese lesson last week. I have been studying on my own, both with a textbook and some audio lessons. So far I am probably at the level of a 3 year old, which is fine for now, since I can at least ask where the washroom is, order a drink, ask how much something is, and a few other bits of polite conversation. Le monsieur is my current motivation for this project, as he considers himself quite accomplished at the nihongo (Japanese), and I must admit he showed pretty well on our last trip to Japan, so I would like to be able to keep up with him by the end of the year. I am hoping once the International Centre finds me a teacher that I will be able to take 2 lessons a week, as well as studying on my own, so I should be able to make good progress in a short time. I am also planning to start my TESOL course in the new year, so my already busy schedule is about to get a whole lot busier in 2009.
On the social end, things have been getting interesting. I had my first all-nighter in Tokyo a few weeks ago. One of my coworkers, Natasha, quite possibly the funniest person ever, is a comedian and takes part in an improv show in Tokyo. We decided to take in the show and head out for a night of dancing afterward. We ended up making some friends along the way and took our little party to karaoke to round out the evening, and finished up the night watching the sun rise over the empty *gasp* streets of Ginza on our way home (Ginza is normally wall to wall people, people who walk reeeeeaaaalllllly slowly and block the whole sidewalk, I might add...grrrr!).
I have also done a couple of crazy long bike rides along the river with Gail, who with her extra long legs puts me through my paces the entire way. The scenery is gorgeous though, and the weather continues to be pretty mild, at least in the daytime, and we have been treated to some beautiful sunny days here lately, making for good biking weather. Our first trip out was to attend a fall festival, which was a lot of fun, as we got to take in some traditional Japanese drumming, and enjoy checking out the "petting zoo" which consisted of some baby chicks and bunnies, and some other fauna, including a peacock, and turkey, which Gail briefly considered coming back for being as it was just before American Thanksgiving, and not a turkey in sight in the grocery store ;) The second time we decided to check out the "city" of Sakura, only to find out we were way out in the sticks, with not much to see or do. We walked around for a good 20 minutes or so just trying to find a ramen shop to grab a quick lunch. When we finally did find one, it was obvious the locals were not used to seeing many gaijin (foreigners) around, as everyone stopped what they were doing to have a good gawk at us...AWKWARD! Looks like we will be looking for a new destination for future excursions!
My next adventure took me to Narita-san, one of the biggest and most beautiful temples around in this area. I happened to go on a day where there was some kind of service going on so I decided to go in and watch. I am interested in learning more about Buddhism while I am here and I am told that there are temples stays available in some areas so I am looking into finding one to go to sometime in the new year. The grounds around the temple were really lovely too, lots of nice walking trails. Unfortunately for me it started to rain on my trip there, and I ended up getting soaked before I decided I had enough pictures and headed home. It was definitely worth the trip though, in spite of the rain.
So back to Christmas. This year I will be spending the holidays in Kyoto. Kyoto is one of the most traditional areas in Japan, so I am really looking forward to it. There should be lots of exciting things to see, temples, shrines, and maybe even a geisha or 2. I found out after making the decision to go that my coworker and friend, Justine had also planned on going, so we decided to go together. She had found a lovely ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) so we will be doing it up in old school Japanese style for the week that we are there. Luckily I have already become used to sleeping on a futon, which is not like a western futon, but more like a pad you put on the floor to sleep on, so this won't be an adjustment for me. That's right folks, I sleep on the floor, just like the Japanese folks do. A year of sleepover style bedding. Gotta love it. We are hoping to take in a kabuki show while we are there (this is a type of traditional Japanese theatre where all the parts are played by men, even the parts of women, kind of like in the old days in Shakespearean England when women were not allowed to perform in the theatre)and hopefully spend a day or 2 in Osaka, T's old stomping grounds, just to see what they have to offer. So stay tuned for plenty of new photos on Facebook coming in the near future.
The new year has lots in store too as some friends and I recently purchased tickets to go see a Sumo match. Though I am not a big sumo fan myself, I thought since this is an only-in-Japan experience, I ought to check it out at least once while I am here. Should be interesting! I am more interested to see the reaction of the crowd than the match itself. Sometimes it's the most unexpected things that you see that end up being the most interesting.
Well, that's about it for now. I will sign off here with a few pictures. I will try to get back on here for another installment before the holidays begin and then again once I get back. Much love,
~Jenny
Ginza, on a regular evening.
Unexpected windmill on the way to Sakura
Taeko drumming at the fall festival
The reason I have a job...Engrish...
The main temple building at Narita-san
The rainy courtyard...and me without my umbrella!
