The Last Month

At the end of July, the Lutheran Brethren churches got together for a family camp out near Mount Iwate. It was short - just one night - but we had a fun time singing songs, hunting for beetles, making bread over a fire, etc.


A few days later I had some of my Mana friends over for a movie and trying out some 5-minute Japanese recipes. We made potato mochi, sesame seed pumpkin, pork & herb leaf rolls and pancakes.

The next night after my English classes two of my high school students, Rieko and Sayaka, came over and dressed me up in my yukata. Then we went downtown for the Sansa drumming festival and parade!



The next night I got dressed up and went again, this time with Keiko and her co-workers. Gotta fit in as much Sansa as possible, since I don't know when/if I'll ever experience it again!

The next day my grandma and cousins, Ashley, arrived! And... we went to the Sansa festival :-D We went with Hannah, who had just finished her year of teaching in Akita, and her brother and cousins who had come to Japan to help with some camps. We got downtown just in time to see my students Rieko and Sayaka performing in the parade.





The week with Grandma and Ashley FLEW by!



The day before they left, the three of us took the bullet train down to Tokyo to spend the day with my grandma's friend, Yayoi. We had lots of fun sight-seeing and shopping in Tokyo and even took a boat ride at the end of the day. Then we went to Yayoi's home for supper with her family. There we had AMAZING food and LOTS of laughs!


The next day I said goodbye to Grandma and Ashley as our trains went separate ways and came back to Morioka, to spend the night with some of my English students. We had a barbeque, played games and then I stayed overnight at their house :-)


Here's Ryoto the next morning, making me his specialty of rice with butter, soy sauce and dried seaweed. It was really good!


After I got home from the sleepover, I met Heather, the current teacher in Takanosu, and our friend Sachiko. It was a HOT day, so we had Morioka's specialty cold noodle for lunch - reimen. Reimen noodles are almost clear and a little tough (hard to explain, but they're not soft). They are served in cold soup with a hard-boiled egg, kimchee, a slice of fruit (watermelon, in this case), a slice of meat, pickles, etc.


And the next day was SUMO! It was amazing, and I can't even begin to describe it all here, so I won't try ;-) But ask me sometime about it!

The day after that (yes, August has been a busy month!) Keiko and I traveled to the coast of Iwate Prefecture, on the Pacific Ocean. We met a woman on the train that night and after talking with her for abotu 5 minutes, she offered to pick us up from our hotel the next morning and drive us around to see the different sights along the coast! Here I am the next morning with Hitomi-san in Ofunato city.

And on the beach with Keiko:


A meal of fresh sashimi (raw fish) and delicious seaweed in Kamaishi city the second night of the trip:


Manhole cover in Miyako city:

The third day we went to Iwaizumi to meet my high school student Satoko and her parents. She was home in Iwaizumi on her summer vacation (she lives in a dorm house in Morioka). They took us to Ryusendo, a cave with beautiful, clear blue lakes inside - one with a depth of 98 meters! The cool temperature inside was a nice relief from the heat and humidity outside.

A couple days later, we had my farewell concert at church. I was surprised to see that Satoko's dad and brother came all the way from Iwaizumi! Some of my students came and also Keiko's parents. It was their first time to come into the church. Also, Kirsten, the teacher in Akita, came for the weekend (while talking to each other on the phone Saturday night, she decided come, so she packed quickly and made it to the station just in time to catch the last bullet train to Morioka!).

After the concert, Keiko, Kirsten and I went to an okonomiyaki restaurant. Here are the ingredients of the mochi (pounded rice) one:

The next morning, Kirsten and I went to a stained glass class and made a cherry blossom night light!

It's a hard process! I gained a whole new level of respect for stained glass artists!

Later in the week I had my going away party at a restaurant with my English class of Geothermal engineers.

And the next day was my going away party at Mitake chapel. We had a watermelon-smashing contest (like a pinata, but with a stick and a watermelon on the floor) and then ate lots of watermelon :-)

I'll miss these wonderful students!

Natsu Adventures: Travels, Tastes and Turning 23

At the end of June, I took a day-trip with Keiko and her mother to Omagari (her mom's hometown in Akita prefecture). We visited three homes of relatives, and I was the first foreigner to be in each house. They were all so kind and welcoming. At the home in the picture below, they served a wonderful homemade meal of rice grown in their own field and fried-tofu pockets filled with cold noodles.



The third house we visited was the house passed down in the family (through the oldest sons). Six generations have lived in this house:




Below is the barn/shed next to the house. It's made without using any nails:

On the way home, we stopped at Tazawako, the deepest lake in Japan:

To celebrate the Fourth of July, I had my high school class over to my apartment and we made s'mores over my gas stove. Some other treats were tortilla chips and salsa (they'd never had salsa and chips before), cherries - American and Japanese varieties, fresh pineapple and Kool-aid.


My birthday celebrations lasted about four days! I had to teach on my birthday (July 5th), but the night before, my friends from church threw me a "nagashi-somen" party. Somen is a type of noodle often served cold in the summertime. We rigged up a slide from the entrance of the church, with water flowing from the garden hose. Then we "served" noodles and more down the shoot. We enjoyed the challenge of catching mini-tomatoes, boiled eggs, cucumber slices, chopped up (edible) leaves, thin slices of scrambled egg, raw fish and even little single-serving fruit jello packs.

Birthday cake!

After my classes on the 5th, I took the bullet train to Akita city and met up with Hannah and Kirsten. We hung out and celebrated my birthday til I left on Monday! Here we are with our friend, Yuka, who we met when she was working at Starbucks.

Some guys were practicing for the Akita Kanto summer festival. The Kanto, candle-lit lanterns hung on a bamboo frame, can be as tall as 13 yards and weigh as much as 110 pounds! The men balance the Kanto on their shoulders, foreheads (shown here) and lower backs while walking!


On Monday I returned to Morioka to celebrate my birthday with the Miyakawa family. Mrs. Miyakawa's birthday was that day (the 7th), so we celebrated our birthdays together by going out to a nice buffet for supper.


After supper, we went to Izumi's apartment (the middle daughter) and had a variety of fruit. Check out this kiwano! It tasted like a cross between a banana, kiwi and cucumber.

Here's Mifumi "grooming" Chacha the cat with a lint roller :-)

A few birthday presents: the shirt (also with a pair of shorts - to be worn around the house), bag (goes with a kimono or summer yukata), and a delicious gift melon!

The cute sandals I bought to wear with my yukata (no pictures of the yukata yet, but I'm going to wear it to Morioka's Sansa festival in August, so you'll see pics then).


Miho, the mother of two of my English students, making a stained glass lamp. In August, I'm going to make a sakura night light :-)

Last weekend the Sorensen family came from Sendai to visit me! Here we are in my apartment - and William in my bathtub:

Kim and I enjoyed Starbucks coffee jello frappuccinos!


We went to Kenji World - an indoor water park with a beach-like wave pool, water slides, RAIN, a flowing river pool, and more! On our way there, we spotted this beetle vending machine in the middle of nowhere. 300 yen ($3) for a male and 100 yen ($1) for a female! They are a VERY popular pet here (no joke!):