Goodbyes and staying behind

27 July 2011 - It's almost been a year since I arrived in the Land of the Rising Sun as an ALT. It's been an exciting year with many new experiences and it's been fun. As we approach August (the month we welcome the newcomers), I've been busy with goodbye parties. While I'm sad to see some of my closest friends here go, I'm also happy to see how excited they are to  close their Japan chapter. And, this makes me wonder if my decision to stay on for another year is right.

Staying behind was not an easy decision to make. I have things back home left undone and another year in Japan seems to be a way to escape returning to my "real" life in Singapore. As my parents constantly remind me, I'm not getting any younger and my job hunt in 2012 might be tougher. Similarly, going home means I got to put up with questions about my plans to settle down and bear children. It's annoying how people just keep pushing you to get married because they believe that a woman's value diminishes as she enters the ripe old age of the three-Os.

*sign* I'm whining.... going to leave this post as this. Hope my whining mood passes soon. It's probably all the goodbyes that are making me so grumpy. I'm also a tat worried that I might not be as chummy with the newbies as I was with Katelynn and Alex. I'll be missing them...  *sob*

I guess now that I have decided to stay, I'll just have to work harder at making my second and last year in Japan an amazing one!

Japanese grapes & summer

10 July 2011 -- You know summer is here when the supermarket starts selling limited edition cold desserts and cold drinks are 30-40yen more expensive. The weather has been killing me the past 1 week. Coming from Singapore, I've been told repeatedly that the summer in Japan is mild compared to the weather conditions back home. However, what the Japanese fail to realise is that in Singapore, there are air-conditioned places everywhere. When the heat gets unbearable, one just simply need to step into the nearest shopping centre or bus terminal and you"ll be cooled down immediately. In Japan, the air-conditioned places are still warm and stuffy because the AC temperature tends to be fixed at around 26-25 degrees. Also, in the wake of the March disaster, most places are on an energy saving campaign and this means the number of AC places have diminished. It's so warm that I am perspiring from just sitting in my apartment and surfing the Internet. Having a fan aimed at me and blasting at top-speed doesn't seem to help. 

One of my favourite "cool style" desserts

A mix of red bean and green tea cream that taste like ice-cream when chilled

Cheap juicy grapes!

In an attempt to cool myself down, I have gobbled down 2 ice-creams and a whole box of yummy grapes since this morning. Japanese grapes here cost 395~495yen for a box and back in Singapore, I have to fork out about 1000~1200 yen for the same amount. The price difference is crazy and this also explains my recent grape gobbling craze. The box I just finished is my third this week :D.

Hot............ Going to try and hold out a little more before I turn on my AC. Hoping to hold out till August. Wish me luck!

ラベンダー (Lavender) Matsuri in Misato - July 2011

My tall friend & I

My first weekend in July was really busy but filled with tons of fun. On Saturday (2nd July), a bunch us gaijins went to the lavender matsuri (festival) in Misato. Once a year, the lavender fields are opened for three weeks and on this day, there was a meat event, as well as a "heaviest" rabbit competition. First, we had grilled meat for lunch and the meat was amazingly delicious and not at all expensive. Part of the fun was also due to the fact that we get to grill it on the spot and consume it there and then. After that, we got lavender ice-cream. I bought some lavender flavoured mochi too and those were yummy!

Oishii niku

 Aside from the lavender fields which were the main attraction, there was also a mini animal petting zoo for kids. You can choose to pet rabbits, goats and even calves. I got to hug a rabbit which was really sweet. Poor Jeff got scratched when he tried to hug one of them. Guess that little bunny wasn't in the best of moods.

We also got balloons!!! Just the gaijins! My Japanese friends weren't as excited as I was about the helium-filled balloons. I love balloons!!! We were lucky too :). The balloons were meant for the kids but I think we got away with it because of our gaijin status. *One of the perks of being a foreigner*  Look how gay we look with our ice-cream.

We love balloons!

The lavender fields weren't in full bloom yet. My kyoto-sensei explained that our winter was much longer than usual and as such the bloom has been delayed. It was still fun though and pretty. The weather was really nice but it would have been better if we had more breeze. After seeing the pretty purple flowers, we enjoyed cakes and coffee in the quint air-conditioned Gomashio-Kitchen. It felt wonderful to be able to escape from the harsh sun and just sit and chill. The whole outing ended before 1:30pm and I had the rest of the day to myself which was great. Think I should try and start my weekends earlier so that I can get the most out of them.

Sunday (3rd July) was interesting but not as fun. The day started off with a 2-hour drive to Morioka for my JLPT N5 test. This is the 3rd time I have signed up for it and the first time I'm attempting it. The last 2 times, I got lazy and didn't prepare for it. The test went well. It was't as difficult as I expected it to be and while I was uncertain about some questions, I should be able to clear it. Going to give myself a break and start preparing for the N4 test in December.

運転免許 ga hoshi desu!

20 June 2011 - I woke up at 6:15am this morning despite not having to go to work today. Was planning to get up at 6:45am but my nerves were all jittery and I was way too nervous to sleep in or to laze in bed. Why? Today's the day I'm attempting to get my Japanese license and I'm freaked out. I hate driving tests. In fact, I hate driving too. When I first got informed that I needed to drive in Omagari, I was asking if I could get around using a bike or public transport instead. When I was told firmly that I would HAVE TO drive due to the infrequency of the public transport, the huge amounts of snow we get in winter and ba ba ba... , I was miserable. I even considered if I should just not go to Japan.

Anyways, I'm getting distracted. So, I got up early and left my place at 7:20am so as to reach the driving centre (located in Akita City) before 9:00am. Got a little lost along the way but thankfully, the ever-reliable and knowledgeable Bec was there to help. Reached the centre just in time to register for my written test and spent much of my morning just hanging around the centre waiting. Got to wait 30mins before I could take the test and after that waited another hour before I could get my results. Waited 20mins before I could take my eye test and another 50mins before I could walk the driving course. 

The only driving test centre in the prefecture

A shot of the driving course from the 3rd floor

 To convert my license, I had to take a driving test within the driving course. While I was thankful that there was no on-the-road test, I was still freaked out especially when I was told that I would have to memorise the route. WHY??  Isn't it bad enough that I have to deal with the butterflies in my stomach? Now, I got to remember the route, as well as, the "tips" to securing a license. Ahhhhhh...

So, I spent 40 mins (from 12:00pm  - 12:40pm) walking around the driving course to familiarise myself with the route. It was really hot and uncomfortable but it did make me feel better about the test. I still failed though T.T. I was so nervous that I failed the test within the first 10 seconds. HOW?? I somehow forgot that it was a single lane road and I drove into the lane with the oncoming traffic in my attempt to make a right turn. Yup. I know it sounds ridiculous but it's true. Ahhhhhhh....

My driving route for the day

Check out the rest of the driving routes

The guy in white is walking the course too.

All the obstacle courses are surrounded by these intimidating looking poles

I managed to continue on with the test and it was good because after the test, the instructor pointed out all the mistakes that I have made. This was really useful because there were stuff I did which I thought was fine but apparently not. So... I'm going to have to attempt the driving test again and hopefully I'll miss on my next try.  Wish me luck!

<Kit Kat corner> 

I managed to find Cheese Kit Kat at the snacks vending machine in the driving centre :) Can't wait to try these. Don't they look interesting?

My Cheese Kit Kat!!!

Insert the coins and just open up the box you want to retrieve your snack.

Found some Bitter Strawberry Kit Kats too (They melted in the car though. My bad!)

Wanko Soba Challenge- May 14th

Been really lax about updating my blog for the past few months. I'm attributing it to a mix of factors - the aftermath of the earthquake, my trip to Oz, Golden Week trip home, as well as plain old laziness. I have a few stuff that I've been wanting to blog about and I decided that I'll just start with this one first --- My Wanko Soba experience.

May was a really happening month for me :) Besides making a trip home, one of my close friends here in Japan got married too. *Congrats again to the new KJ!* When her newly-minted hubby was in Omagari, we decided to make a couples day trip to Morioka. It was great fun! We had our Freshness Burger fix at the town centre before spending 3 hours in Round 1. After that we took a short stroll along a weekend street market and went for Wanko Soba.

Look how genki we were before we started

I've heard so much about the Wanko Soba experience since arriving in Akita and this was definitely something I wanted to do before I ended my stay here. What's Wanko Soba? Well... basically it's a game. The aim is to eat as many little bowls of soba as you can possibly stomach and be real quick to cover your bowl when you are stuffed to death so that you can stop the endless flow of soba, which is being dished out by this lovely staff hovering over you. Each little bowl is about one mouthful of soba noodles and 15 small bowls made up a regular bowl of soba. 

I only managed to down 70 bowls because I was so sick of the taste of soba towards the end. My dearest was the champion :) He managed to consume a total of 93 bowls!!!!! KJ came in second with 85 bowls. It was all great fun. It was an interesting but rather pricey experience. To get the full Wanko Soba experience, everyone has to fork out about 3000 over yen. This deluxe package meant you get to have photos of yourself with all the little bowls you have emptied. If you got the basic package, which only cost 2700 yen (i think), matchsticks will be used for keeping track of the number of bowls you ate. The basic package also came with two more side dishes. We decided that since we were going to "torture" ourselves and we were most likely only going to do this once, we would fork out more for awesome photos and I'm glad we did. In addition to awesome photos to record the day, each of us also received a little certificate with the date, as well as the number of bowls we ate.

I'm HUNGRY!

 Here's the link to the restaurant we went to Azumaya Soba Restaurant. If you are ever in Morioka, do spare some time to do the Wanko Soba challenge. I'm definitely going to make all my friends who come visiting do it. In fact, I'm considering attempting it again.

Off to Sydney soon... lalala

31 Mar 11 - Heading to Sydney tonight to attend a wedding party. Pretty excited about it for a few reasons (not listed in order of importance):

(a) I get to leave Japan (Don't get me wrong. I still love Japan and do feel safe despite all the radiation fears and the persistent aftershocks. Dakara (However), it's good to take a break and go on a mini holiday. Hoping to finally get some authentic Chinese cusine.)

(b) My first-ever flight alone (It's pretty late in life to embark on your first alone flight but better late than never. A little nervous despite my ripe old age. Hope everything goes smoothly and I get to Sydney in one piece with everything in tact.)

(c) Weddings! ( I love attending weddings, especially those of couples who look simply adorable together. Can't wait to see the bride decked out in all her pretty gowns.)

(d) Meet-ups (Finally get to see dear ones from home. Miss them)

(e) Holidays are always exciting!

Lalala.... another hour to go before I begin my drive to Akita Airport. Waiting...waiting...waiting.


(Separate note):

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE TWINS!!!! Sorry I missed your celebration. Love u always!!!

Can you guess what 八百屋 refers to?

八百屋  = (eight) (hundred) (house) = Historical building???

Make a guess and see if you got it correct.





Ans: vegetable store/ green grocer (look for the answer here)

And in case you are wondering, it reads やおや (yaoya).