I Got My Voice Back!!! (almost)

Maybe Japanese medicine isn't all that bad, something worked my voice is almost back to normal. I woke up yesterday with my voice back-but very squeaky. I could only say a few words at a time, and no singing at all. This morning I woke up and my voice is back, just a little squeaky (and according to Kae-sexy:). One the teachers said I sound like a pubescent boy. I can't say anything in a high pitch and I can't sing more than 2 verse of any song but at least I can talk to my kids, although shouting is pushing it. I think by Monday I should be back to normal and shouting once again, YEA!! I'm sure Yasuko is will be very happy :)

Have a good weekend, I'm off to bed-ahh I love Saturdays

First Doctor's visit in Japan

Well, I didn't find my voice this morning. I woke up and I couldn't even make a squeak-my voice didn't get better over night, it got worse. When I arrived at school I couldn't even say good morning, so Mitani-san the school director took me to the doctor while Yasuko and I shoved the kids outside to play (poor Yasuko had to be the voice for two today).

I have heard some sketchy things about the Japanese medical system so I was a bit nervous going to see the doctor. We went to the local clinic for the ear, throat and nose doctor. This isn't your average HMO doctor's office. You walk into the waiting room and there are benches upon benches for people to sit. Luckily no one was there today and I was the next patient but Mitani-san said she usually has to wait for an hour or two to see the doctor (although that isn't so different from Kaiser). The first thing we did was take a number, then Mitani-san filled out the questionnaire for me. There were about 8 nurses standing around in pink and white uniforms, quite cute reminded my of nurses outfits from 50 years ago. When my number showed up on the screen I went into the other room. It wasn't exactly a doctors office, it was quite large and had these strange machines along one wall and tables with the doctors tools on the other side. I had no clue what was going on so I had to rely on Mitani-san to tell me what to do. I sat down in a chair and the doctor (female) poked around in my mouth for 1 minute pulled on my tongue and told me to say ahhh and ehhh. She said four words: laryngitis, vocal cords swollen. Then she sent me over to those weird machines by the wall and one of the nurses told me what to do in Japanese but I just watched her had movements and guessed what I was supposed to do. I put the tube up to my mouth and inhaled something for a good 2 minutes.

Once I finished the inhaler I got my medicine-three different pills: 1) bring down the swelling, 2) help with saliva (not sure about that one) 3) make sure the other two don't upset my stomach, hmmm.

With that my first visit to the Japanese doctors ended. I just hope my voice comes back soon, I have a feeling Yasuko's voice might be the next to go if I don't help her with all the yelling soon ;) If you were wondering the kids have been pretty good the past few days. Yasuko gave them the kids the guilty speech. You need to nice to Brenda she doesn't feel well and it worked!!

But, the best thing about this whole episode is that I got homemade lasagna from Aidan's mom today. We were talking about it with her yesterday and she brought me some today, ahhh. Made me sooooo happy. And it was YUMMY!!!!

Gamagori Festival/Onsen/Dinner w/ Saori's Parents-what a day!!!

I'm not really sure how to start this blog. There is sooo much I want to say but I don't think my written words can describe my weekend. I think the pictures will do much more justice therefore I will have LOTS of pictures-don't worry I took 205 of them. In a nutshell, on Sunday we went to this amazing festival, went to my first onsen, had dinner at Saori's parents house, played musical instruments and sang with her parents and watched the very end of the festival. This will all be explained-keep reading...

Ok, where do I start... I went to a festival in Gamagori with Saori one of the Japanese teachers, Lizzie and her friend Matthew. Gamagori is about an hour northeast of Nagakute, it is this picturesque coastal town up in the mountains of Japan. Saori picked us up in her car at 8:45 on Sunday morning (not cool-especially since Lizzie and I didn't get home from Fujigaoka where we talked about American politics with 3 other Americans till 3am-major buzz killer, yikes). The day started with a bang-right off Saori took a wrong turn on the freeway and we ended up back in Nagoya-ohh and did I mention we were going to Saori's hometown (I think she fell asleep during Lizzie's story about the size of our Chu-hi's form the night before). Anyways, we made it Gamagori an hour later after taking the scenic route and arrived just in time to watch the floats go into the water.
Saori
I need to explain the festival a little bit so you can understand the pictures. This festival was absolutely AMAZING and I wish everyone was there to witness it. We were lucky enough to talk to some locals who were apart of the festival and knew the history of the festival (with the help from Saori :) This festival has been going on for 300 years. The story behind it: the land owner had a dream one night that a road must be built between the east shrine and the west shrine so they can be connected, so the gods could meet and talk. Before the road was built the only way to get to the shrines was by water. So this is a festival celebrating the road being built between the east and west shrine. Once the gods meet they throw a big party and there is lots and lots of music, traditional dancing and celebration.

We found the perfect spot to watch the floats. There were four floats that went into the water(there were 5 total the 5th was to small to go into the water)-each float represented a specific section of Gamagori. These floats were absolutely amazing-they were enormous and covered in gold. There were children sitting inside the floats and grown men dragged the floats through the water. In the back ground you could hear the drumming and wooden flutes playing traditional music. It was very mysterious, magical, and wonderful. Once all four floats went into the water and paraded down the streets the dancing began.

This part of the festival was just as amazing, the music, costumes and traditional dances were incredible. There were many dances. They had the 7 gods of happiness (men with the large masks) the comedians (men with the large poles) and I didn't get the story behind the children dancing. During the entire festival you could hear the drums and flutes playing in the background given the entire festival this hauntingly beautiful atmosphere. It took you back in time, it was very ancient ritualistic soundtrack that filled the whole air and took over. It was very powerful. For the first time I realized I was in a very ancient land with this amazing culture and history. I felt very privileged to be apart of this festival.


ONSEN TIME!!!!
We left the festival around 2pm to go to the Gamagori Onsen. I was sooo excited to go to the onsen, my first one since I've been here. I know its a disgrace, I have been in Japan for 2 months and have not visited the hot springs. The Gamagori Onsen was incredible it is at a hotel-so it was especially nice. Going to the onsen is incredibly ritualistic. First the men and women separate to undress and wash our bodies. The Gamagori Onsen was separate sex so we did not bath with the men (which, for my first time I was very thankful :) Once your bodies are clean you go into the water and just sit there taking in all the minerals. NO SWIMMING!!! Saori was very strict about that-Lizzie asked. Gamagori onsen faced the ocean, so we were looking out onto the ocean while in the onsen. It was gorgeous!! Once you were finished soaking, you go back wash your body, face, hair, dress and then the your done. Afterwards my skin was sooo soft. Lizzie, Soari and I decided we are going to onsen once a week-there's one in Nagakute! Once dressed we met up with Matt and went down stairs and drank a complimentary soft drink. We just sat there exhausted, glowing, smelling really good and reminiscing about the festival and onsen. The day would have been more perfect if it had stopped there but it didn't.

Saori's parents invited us over for dinner. I've heard that its a priviledge to be invited over to someone's house because their houses are so small in Japan so most people would rather entertain in a restaurant. So we felt very honored and lucky to go to Saori's house. Once again dinner was absolutely amazing (I know I keep using that word, but that word describes the whole day). We arrived at her house, and it is absolutely adorable it's very homey and warm. We right off started helping Saori's mom with dinner, Lizzie cooked potatoes, I picked nuts out of salt and Matt made rice balls. Dinner was DELICIOUS. There was soo much food, we had rice balls, fried potatoes, and shabu shabu-a special stew Sumo Wrestlers eat it's basically veggies, tofu (yes, Dea I did eat tofu-aren't you proud of me :) and meat are thrown into a communal bowl in the middle of the table and is cooked right in front of you.

After dinner we all moved into the living room and talked about the day. Saori came down stairs with some festival clothes for us to try on and wooden flutes to play. It was fun to try on the clothes and try playing the flute. I couldn't get a note out of the thing but Lizzie became a pro by the end of the night. At this point Saori's father came home and we wanted to hear him play the flute. So we sat in the living room while he played the flute for a good 15 minutes. He said he just made the song up on the spot. It was absolutely surreal. I really felt like I was in another world at that moment. We then cracked open the piano and forced Lizzie to play a little for us, then the guitar came out. We sang lots and lots of songs including DoReMi, House of the Rising Sun and edelweiss (reminded me of Kansas and Grandma :) all together. It was really one of those "what a small world" moments. We are in Japan sitting in a Japanese living room with 3 Japanese, 2 Aussies and 1 American from different generations all singing the same songs. We all got a little quiet when Lizzie pointed that out. It was really an incredible experience. Saori and her parents are such gorgeous people and I will never forget them and their wonderful hospitality.

The night didn't end there. To top off this incredible day the festival was about to conclude so we rushed out the house with umbrellas and made it just in time to watch the closing ceremonies of the festival. We watched the five floats (with their rain coats on, as Saori pointed out) go home. The flutes and drums were playing as people crowded around to say goodbye till next year to the festival and floats. And just as the last float made its exit it started to pour down rain. Seeing the end of the festival was the icing on the cake-it just ended the day perfectly.

I know this is a LONG blog but Sunday was one of those surreal days that I can't believe really happened (but I do have 200 pictures to prove it did happen). It was just so perfectly planned and I was able to see some incredible cultural events, have my first onsen experience and the evening at Saori's house. Another incredible day I will never forget.


SIDE NOTES:
***I have my costume for Halloween but I'm not telling you what it is-you will have to wait for the pictures woahahaha
**I woke up this morning and my voice was gone-I'm not sure where it went but I am sitting her drinking tea (yes mom I am drinking tea) and not talking so I can hopefully find it and start yelling at my kids tomorrow :) hehe

Children-what fickle creatures they are

Children are funny things. Last week they were little devils running around the class not listening and going crazy, no control what so ever and I came soooo close to walking out the door about 40 times. And I could ate about a pound of chocolate everyday when I got home from school. I blame it all on Friday the 13th!!

But this week... they have been little angels and I love them all dearly and I have literally only wanted to walk out the door once. It may help that several of the kids are sick and 2-4 have been absent each day, but I feel I have had total control over the class all week. IT'S BEEN GREAT! We'll see what next week will bring.....


HALLOWEEN UPDATE
Halloween is in 7 school days, we are trick-or-treating in Japan-who knew. One of the kids told me I should be a mouse for Halloween, I'm not sure what that means, hmmm.
I do need some ideas so if you think of any let me know. I am not going to be a blond witch, tried that one out already, check out the picture: to be added later...

Retail and other types of therapy needed

Really awesome building in Sakae, a mini glass lake on top of a roof

Saturday was one of those crazy random days were you wake up and you dont expect much from that day, but it turns out to be one of those fun, unforgetable, awesome days. I woke exhausted from work, the whole week the kids had been riding my back (I'll just say, I took a 5 hour nap on a friday night-greeaaat week). I woke up Saturday morning and decided I needed some retail therapy (and so did my roomate) so we headed to Sakae the major shoppind district in Nagoya. We ended up going crazy shopping-we walked into the massive Hyakoyen (I think thats how you spell it ?? hundren yen) shop when it was still a bright sunny day and emerged from the store in the pitch black-talk about being disoriented. We spent a small fortune but it did make us feel better : )

This weekend was also the Nagoya Festival-big festival with lots going on. We didn't see a whole lot of it-but were lucky enough to catch a Paiko drumming demonstration, and it was absolutly amazing.



I'm just going to say, the night didnt end there, we met up with a group of Americans (finally around people who understand my jokes-j/k love you aussie girls:) at the Amadillo a Tex-mex bar in Japan-who knew, and ended up at a karaoke bar. I will spare you the details mom, dad and grandma and grandpa but I didnt get home till 5 am.

WHAT A DAY!!

Just for you dad, the same John Deere coffee mugs we bought you from Walmart in a random funky cool shop in Sakae :)

Hump Day

OHHH, how I hate Wednesdays, especially rainy Wednesdays. And today was a rainy hump day-the worst kind of day. The kids were CRAZY all day cause they couldn't go run all thier energy off outside. Oh, and its not a real hump day (we had this arguement on the bike ride home from work) since we only have a 4 day week. Monday was a National Holiday-guess why we had the day off-National Sports Day-only in Japan do you get a day off from work for celebrating sports-reason #63 as to why I love this country!!!

THANK GOD HUMP DAY IS OVER (for this week anyway)!!!

P.S. For those of you wondering, Wednesdays are called Hump Days because the are smack dab in the middle of the week. Weekend rest has warn off by then, and you still have two more days to go before the weekend-meaning there is no reason to look forward to a Wednesday : ) therefore its the hump day (think bell curve).

Update-its a long one...

I know, I am sooo bad at updating this thing, but hopefully I will make it up to you with this one-I promise it will be a big one : )
A few side notes before I update you on everything that has been going on:
*The weather has gone from blazing hot and humid-I had not touched a long sleeved shirt for five weeks, to cold and windy-all I can say is thank goodness for Fall and I'm scared what winter will bring.
*Today I went to the 100 Yen shop (think dollar shop) and found my first bag of M&M's in Japan-I have not seen M&M's in the 6 weeks I have been here-needless to say I was a bit excited and got a little carried away
*Oh, there is a Old Spaghetti Factory (just like the one in Folsom) 10 minutes away from my apartment-who would have ever thought there would be OSF in Japan-one of those little mysteries, hmmm

The past few weekends have been jam packed with lots of firsts for me-my first rave which included first time in the country and my first Japanese Karoake experience. Here are the highlights of the past few weekends...

Lake Biwa-6am At the Rave-good times
Last Saturday, I was informed the day before I was going to be going to a Brazilian rave on the shores of Lake Biwa a two hour drive from Nagoya (the largest lake in Japan, if you look at a map it is the big hole in the middle). We took a train from Nagoya station to some random little town in the middle of nowhere Japan-we arrived at 9pm...5 hours later at 2 in the morning we finally arrived at the Rave. All I can say is a lot of nothing happened between the train station and ride to Lake Biwa, but we finally arrived. By this time I was ready for bed, we had just traveled for 7 hours and it was way past my bed time. I danced for a bit but by 4 in the morning I was ready to go home. Naomi and I sat on the beach and watched the sunrise over the lake. It was absolutely GORGEOUS. The lake goes on forever, and with the lush green mountains surrounding the lake its one of those memories I will never forget. It was also one of those moments where it hit me that I really am in Japan (you would never find lush green mountains like these in Cali). We finally left Biwa Lake at 7 in the morning to head back home. The scenery on the ride back to the train station was amazing, we drove through the countryside and the lush green mountains and apparently we got lost but I was asleep during that part-we made it home at 2pm on Sunday. It was a long and random weekend that I will never forget.

Did you know Karaoke in Japanese means empty orchestra...Isn't that hauntingly beautiful---If you can name what show that is from I will send you 1000 yen note (KIS Aussie girls don't count) hehe
I went Karaoking on Friday with the foreign teachers and Kae and Japanese teacher for the first time since I have been in Japan (I know, 6 weeks in Japan without karoaking is a disgrace) and all I can say is SOOO FUN!!! Karoaking In Japan is much different that in America. The major difference is that you have your own room for just you and your friends, so the embarrassment factor that you face in a karaoke bar full of strangers is not there-you only embarrass yourself in front of your friends-something I can live with :) We got there at 11pm and left at 4 in the morning-it was THAT MUCH FUN-plus all you can drink was included : ) And yes, I can say I actually got up and sang a few songs-highlights were: It's Raining Men and Living on a Prayer-I bet you wish you were there, hehe







Today, I went to the Nagakute festival which is right in my own backyard. There is a small/medium shrine 3 blocks from my apartment and today is the anniversary of a big battle that happened there 300 years ago. I really had no expectations when I went to the festival-Saori (Japanese teacher) took Lizzie (my roommate) and I saying it was small. But to my delight it was quite fun and interesting. The festival was basically a reenactment of the battle. There were a couple hundred Japanese men who were involved in the reenactment and dressed up in the battle uniforms of that day. There were two groups and they first greeted each other, some gun shots were sounded, then both armies walked towards each other and up towards the shrine. Once the armies past we followed them up the hill climbing though forest to watch them. Both groups ran around the shrine three times-each side had a horse that was elaborately decorated and being chased. It was quite interesting. After they finished there were kids fighting each other in a traditional karate style I have never seen before. We also bumped into a couple from America whom Lizzie had met at a party a while back, so we hung out with them at the festival and ended up going to get Raman after the festival. And with that, that pretty much brings you up to date...oh yes, the kiddoes are doing great-they are still crazy but they are starting to settle in.