Home Sweet Home

Well, we are now back home, home....in hot and sunny Orlando, FL. We had to come back prematurely for medical reasons. Nick was not feeling so good and we decided it was best to return, for him to see his doctor, get tests and get better in our home environment. We have been back since Monday night (May 22). Nick has gone to the doctor, and since the symptoms were a little peculiar we are still waiting for the results of various blood tests to make sure he's 100% OK. He is feeling much better now and has finally been able to digest a normal meal.

No one in our families (except my sister) knew that we were coming home. We literally just walked into their houses and waited for their reactions. Nick's mom had a sixth sense about it and was not shocked at all. She had even spent the entire day cleaning the house for no reason...so she thought. My mom, grandma and aunt screamed and cried as soon as they reacted (there was a 5 second delay while their brain processed the image of us in front of them). Everyone is so happy to see us back home safe. We have been overwhelmed with their support.

It feels good to be back although we have experienced a little shock just like when we went to Japan. If you read the blog in the first month you might remember how when we visited the supermarket we could not find anything that we really wanted (especially because we couldn't read the labels). Well, after 4 months it's like our brains forgot what food we used to like. On our second day home we were excited to go to the supermarket. Oddly enough as we stood in front of aisle-long choices, nothing really looked appetizing. Our families kept asking us, "what do you want to eat? what do you crave?" and we had no answers. The only thing we are sure of is that we don't want any fast food at all especially hamburgers and fries. The only thing that sounded good to us was a home cooked meal. I guess that's one thing that I'll have to thank this Japan trip one day, I actually want to learn to cook!

Now that we are back the blog will continue although updates will be less frequent since our lives won't be as exciting anymore. Although now the purpose will be to keep our friends in Japan updated on our lives. I will be returning to Japan in August as a tourist because two of our best friends, Ashleigh and Tim, had already purchased tickets to visit us and they are non-refundable. I am excited to go back and visit the main island of Honshu and sightsee new places. I haven't figured out the exact date of when I'll be coming because I'm trying to figure out whether I will go a week before them or stay one week after so that I can go down to Sasebo and visit. We'll see.

For those of you in the US, you can contact us at our same cell phone numbers as before. For those of you in Japan, if we didn't get your contact information before we left and you would like to keep in touch please email us or leave your email as a comment on the blog and we'll be sure to contact you. Also, for the Nova teachers who may be reading this, Nick wants to apologize for the inconveniences caused by his rapid departure. Please feel free to pass on our email addresses to any students who wish to keep in touch with us.

Fresh Green Tea, Spring Water and Japanese Dinner

Today was a day that I won't forget. We got to spent the day with two local women. First on the agenda was a market that has been held for 400 years. One of the women told us that the smells in the market would be very "Japanese" and she was right. The aromas ranged from fresh tea leaves to fish/whale to sweet potato desserts.

Our guide tours for the day, Hiroko and Yumiko, couldn't help themselves in showering us with souvenirs. We found some curious things to bring or send back home. They would not let us pay for anything so I finally had to almost make a scene in order for them to let me pay for my last few souvenirs. I bought some unique bottles, ear wax removers....these are very unique and cute souvenirs and also some chop sticks.

As we were leaving the market, there was a fortune teller booth. Hiroko asked if I was brave enough to do it and I agreed as long as she translated it for me. I was happy with my fortune reading, everything was good and I got some good advice. It turns out this year and next year are my lucky years so I should try new things.....I think I am doing good so far! He also gave us some marriage advice and told us that next year would be a lucky year to have a baby, which we laughed about. After a little convincing from the fortune teller, Hiroko and Yumiko also had their fortunes read. It was their first time also so we had a lot of fun with it.

After the market, we headed towards two spots where natural spring water comes out of the ground. Curiously enough one spot is said to have "feminine" water because the water is "soft". The other spot has "masculine" water because it has a "crisper" taste. The "feminine" water spot was inside a Shinto Shrine and it was a beautiful place. It felt like a rainforest because of all the moisture in the area.

At the bottom of the shrine is where you can fill up containers with the natural spring water that comes up from 3 meters below.

When you go up the stairs towards the actual shrine there's a water fountain with the same spring water where you are supposed to wash your mouth and hands to cleanse yourself before entering the shrine.



After a quick prayer, we left to go to the "masculine" water spot. On the way up the mountain there were beautiful views of rocky sides of mountains where rice is grown.

At the top of the mountain next to a tea plantation we found the "masculine" water shrine.

There was no shrine really just a small spot for offerings and the water spout. The "feminine" shrine was much better!!:) However, there were lots of people waiting to fill up their water containers with the "masculine" water so I think this one may be more popular.
I had a taste of both waters and I really couldn't tell the difference but they both had a really good crisp fresh taste.

After the water excursion, we were all hungry so Hiroko invited us to her home for a small dinner. She apologized for not having a fancier dinner prepared because it was so short noticed but as you can see it was a full table.

Dinner consisted of salad, sesame tofu, regular tofu with soy sauce, fish soup, tempura fish and vegetables, white rice with green peas and green tea. It was all very good. It was very neat to be inside a traditional Japanese house. It had such beautiful details inside. Here's a couple of pictures so you can sort of get the feeling.


They both really went out of their way to please us and make us feel like family. At dinner I happen to mention that I recognized one of the patterns in the China from the Pottery/China Festival we went to a couple of weeks ago and Hiroko said "do you want it?". She was getting ready to hand over her china to me. After dinner I noticed she was looking through her cupboard and I couldn't believe she was setting aside dishes for me to take! She ended up giving me a choice of 4 tea sets. I ended up choosing one and taking it because she said they had so many they would just end up donating it anyway. I am now the proud owner of a china tea set, even better an old china Japanese tea set with a history. It will definitely be an heirloom in our family.

Hiroko and her mother's hospitality reminded me a lot of my grandmothers who never stop offering food and never stop working when a guest is at their home. We will never forget how good they were to us and we hope that one day we can return the favor.

Ramblings

So we have decided to ramble about random things that we've ignored in previous posts.

People
There's been a couple of times where I've experienced the generosity and kindness of Japanese people. For example, during winter I dropped my glove a couple of times around the front entrance of our building and each time it was placed on the handrail of the steps so that I could see it. Also, just last week it was pouring rain and I didn't have an umbrella. A elderly man yelled for me to stop and he walked me from the train station all the way to the front steps under his umbrella.

It is still a common practice for women to quit their jobs once they are married. This is easily visible during the day when all you see are groups of women with strollers walking around together. Another curious observation is that housewives walk around with aprons on while shopping around town. Nick has often confused them with actual store employees.

Food
The strangest thing we've encountered is how raw food is so common. Not only do they consume raw fish but also live squid, raw eggs, raw chicken, raw sea urchin and even raw horse meat (*gasp*). Although we may find these disgusting, we have found that many students feel the same way about some common American foods (i.e. biscuits & gravy). Actually, if you look at it while imagining that you don't know what it is, it does look pretty disgusting.

Shout Out
We would like to thank Aaron Guittar for equipping us with a region free DVD player. It's been a lifesaver for us. We are the only ones in our office with this commodity and we're very grateful for it. Also, thank you to everyone who's sent us care packages: Mom and Dad, Madre y Padre, Titi Evelyn, Titi Maribel, Aaron & Trinnia, and Ashleigh & Tim.

Household Items
When we first came to Japan we were excited to sleep in the traditional Japanese futons but after three months we feel otherwise. Maybe if the company would have provided us with high quality futons we would feel different but the cushioning is fading fast. Also, the lack of quality in our sheets is evident in the little nubbies that formed throughout the sheets.
In our apartment we do lack some "standard American items" such as a microwave, oven and a dryer. Having an oven or a dryer is not very common since most apartments do not come equipped with them. I think dryers are not widely available since everyone hangs their clothes out to dry. We thought we would have a harder time living without a microwave but since there are no '5 minute frozen meals' available at the grocery store then it's not as useful as it was in America anyway. I do miss the clothes' dryer badly. Laundry is a week long event. On the flipside, we have discovered how great it is to cook with a gas range (which is fairly standard in Japan). It literally takes 2 minutes to boil water, and cooking is fast overall.

Technology
A misconception that we and other people have is that Japan is technologically more advanced than the US. While this may be true for some industries we have found that in other industries it's equal to and sometimes behind technology in America. For example, while every household in America has a can opener (some even electric ones) in Japan these are pretty rare. Instead I had to use a "primitive tool" by hand. In their defense, there isn't much need for a can opener in Japan because cans are fairly rare, and the cans the do have come with an easy open tab.

We also thought cell phones would be tiny but they are a "normal" (or bigger) size. The reason phone aren't tiny, however, is because they're packed with so much technology. Most phones have a digital camera (with 2.0 megapixels), full internet access, and a second camera that allows the user to make videoconferences. I had a student tell me that she didn't have a computer because she didn't need one; she used her cell phone instead. Cameras and Video cameras might be slightly smaller and cheaper than the US but not significantly.
In regards to dvd/video rental, there seems to be a balance between japanese and foreign language formats. While on the subject of movies, in Japan we have not heard about the widespread use of high definition and we definitely have not heard about someone owning a "big or widescreen TV". I told one of the students that we had a 50 inch high def TV and she thought I was rich! After visiting the electronics store I realize why. Although many of the best TV's are made in Japan, they are still surprisingly expensive here (for example, our TV costs about 60% more here).

Wrap Up
I think overall we have noticed that the Japanese lifestyle is not based on huge possessions like it is in America. Everytime I do an English lesson on "What's important to you?", a home is the last thing on their list. I guess that's only the "American dream". Everyone focuses on other things (women do seem to have an obsession with clothes shopping though).
Of course, never use our statements as generalizations for the Japanese as a whole because we do live in "the country" as most students refer to it. Life in the big city might be completely different from what we've experienced (just like the difference between New York City and rural Oklahoma).

Our First Castle

On our second day off during Golden Week we went to Hirado. Hirado is an island just to the north of Sasebo. Located on Hirado Island is Hirado city with a population of about 25,000 people. We have a few students that live there so we knew it would be a long drive to get there, about 1 hour. The main attraction in the island is Hirado Castle. But first we stopped off at a park (still in Sasebo) on the way to get a scenic view of “99 islands”. Even though it’s referred to as “99 Islands” there are actually 208 islands.

There are castles all over Japan that are legacies of the Samurai, and 4 of these castles are in Kyushu. Japanese cities used to be guarded by a wall, with a castle in the center, from which the Samurai Lords could oversee their territory.

Hirado Castle is very small compared to others but since it’s the closest one to us we decided to start with that one. It was not overly impressive but it did give us a good view of Hirado.

The bridge that connects Sasebo and Hirado looked strangely familiar. Can you see the resemblance?

As we looked around the area there were lots of shrines and we found the ‘toilets’. It felt like Disney where they make everything themed. They even made the toilets look like the castle.

We are looking forward to visiting Kumamoto Castle which is supposed to be much larger and more impressive.

Golden Week in Arita

This week is Golden Week in Japan which is a weeklong national holiday. During this week the town of Arita has a pottery/china festival. As a lover of handmade things I was really looking forward to this event. Today the weather was perfect to walk around outside (61° F & sunny).

The town was really festive with banners at the train station and along the streets. We had been forewarned by the students that it would be crowded. It really was not bad. It was somewhat crowded but it was still very comfortable to walk around. We saw everything from high quality china to handmade pottery. The designs varied from traditional Japanese (white background with blue details) to modern to earthy.

As we were walking around we saw a group of little leaguers that were trying to attract attention to their booth. It seems like all the profits from that tent were benefiting their league. When they saw us, they immediately said “Hello…How are you?”. They followed us around and were so cute we felt obligated to buy something to help them out, which we did.

Along the way, we also found a cute, friendly dog with personality. He reminded us of our own little doggie, Baby.
After hours of walking we were still not at the end of it. By then we were so tired and everything was starting to look the same. I had lost the motivation to keep going. We decided to turn around and call it a day. We did buy a few small things that caught our attention as unique. Overall, it was a wonderful day but we are completely exhausted. This resulted in the best nap we’ve had since arriving in Japan.