Yesterday, I went skiing with some friends for the first time in Japan, and it was really great!  The snow was powdery, and the temperature was around -3C, perfect for ski.

 The ski resort was pretty far, about 2h away from Takaoka (it was right between Takaoka and Nagoya).  However, due to the fact that it was located on the highway leading straight to Nagoya, the place was packed.  The slopes were really wide though compared to the ones I was used to in Quebec, so it wasn't that bad once I started skiing.  It has been such a long time since the last time I skied, so I kinda forgot how to, and it took me some time to get it right again...however, once I got back into it, it was so much fun! I wish I took some pictures now, but I forgot to bring my camera...I will take to take some pictures next time!

Afterward, I went to an onsen close by, and it was amazing!  They had an outdoor bath, so I could soak in warm water while watching snow fall on the water...it was almost magical (if there wasn't little kids running around throwing snow in the water..).

I had a really great time, and I can't wait to go ski again!  Luckily, I signed up for a weekend ski trip with the AJET community here, and I will be going to Hakuba on the 22-23rd. =)

 So I went to Tokyo for New Year, and it was as big as I imagined.  There were so many things to see that 5 days wasn't enough for me to taste Tokyo in it's entirety.
Here are some pics of my trip: http://s896.photobucket.com/albums/ac166/belzaybeth/Japan/Tokyo%20New%20Year%202011/
I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I did...oh well...

On the first day, I visited Asakusa's temples, and it was already crowded even though it was only the 29th. It was really interesting to see the temples, but I gotta say that after seeing China's temples, Tokyo's temples were not as impressing as I thought it would be...but I did draw my luck, and I got good luck (although I forgot to wish for something, so it might not work...)

Afterward, I went to Odaiba (dubbed one of the most romantic places for a date). It was quite a sight, with the big buildings and the miniature version of the Statue of Liberty, but I gotta admit that the highlight of the day was a Comic convention that was held on that day.  It was my first time seeing cosplayers, and really, I was blown away by some of the costumes.  They must have spent countless time and money on it!  It made me want to join them next time (as a cosplayer, of course^^).  

I went to Disneysea the next day, and to tell the truth, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of rides.  I didn't realize that amusement parks and theme parks were not the same thing, and thus expected a lot of thrill rides and such.  However, it was really interesting to walk around and see all the reconstruction of different sea-themed places (although I'm not a big fan of "fake" buildings...)

I celebrated New Year in a temple in front of Tokyo Tower, and it was really great!  Everyone had balloons that soared into the sky the moment midnight came, and it was really something to see all these balloons fly away into the starry sky...

During my trip, I also went to Yokohama and Mount Takao.  Yokohama is well-known for its Chinatown, but unfortunately I wasn't feeling well so I couldn't sample all the food from Chinatown..(snif..).  Mount Takao was actually really great, a great getaway day from the bustling city, and the view from the top was absolutely gorgeous.  The only thing that was a bit scary was going down the mountain in the dark...should remember that the next time I want to watch the sunset...

Overall, I had a great time (again!) in Tokyo, and I would definitely come back there (but after Osaka).  I think I really like bustling big cities, after all!

 Wow, it's been 2 months since I wrote something here...I really am a forgetful (and lazy) person...gomenasai!

Well, I have about 15 minutes to write what happened these last couple months before I catch the bus for Tokyo...let's see if I can do this!

November was exactly how you would expect it : gray and dull. I didn't do much, except work, work and work. The weather has also been terrible, which did not help me get active..

I did do a couple things, though: I gave a presentation about Canada and I sang Seasons of Love for the Takaoka International festival. I wish I could elaborate more on both, but I'm running out of time, so I will just say that it was great, and that I had a great time^^. If I get the chance, I might do a presentation about China in the future (even though my knowledge of China is extremely limited...)

Now, quickly onto December and its highlight (for now) : Korea!!!

I went to Korea for five days to visit my friend Yu Ghi (and do some sightseeing/shopping).  Photos can be found here: http://s896.photobucket.com/albums/ac166/belzaybeth/Korea/

It was amazing!  I had such a good time, I wish I could have stayed longer...The food was definitely was I appreciated the most.  Japanese food, even though excellent, sometimes lacks flavor (and originality), so Korean food was definitely a delight for my taste buds!  I was eagerly waiting to taste Korean street food, and I have to say that I was not disappointed.  Sausages,  Ddukppoki, dumplings, cakes, pancakes, name it!  I also ate tons of beef, which was amazingly tasty after a long diet of seafood and the occasional pork/chicken (Japanese beef being as expensive as caviar in Canada...). No need to say that I don't fit in my clothes anymore after 5 days of indulging myself...I also ate some strange food, the most memorable experience being the live octopus...

Basically, when you cut a live octopus into pieces, it still somehow "lives" (in other words, move) for some time. This cut-up "live" octopus is served raw, with some sauce, so I had the chance to taste squiggling octopus pieces on a plate. It was no doubt the scariest thing I've put in my mouth so far, as the octopus literally sucked on my tongue!  A one-time experience, not to be repeated for the faint of heart (which I am not, since I ate 2 other pieces afterward).

But the greatest food/dish was still kimchi, and the one made by my friend's mother was definitely the best one I've had so far! And she was generous enough as to give me 4 kilos of kimchi to bring back to Japan=). I'm really happy right now.

I also got a new haircut! I really like it, and I've been told since my haircut that I look more Korean now (which actually doesn't change things that much, since I'm usually mistaken as a Korean anyways...).  And I bought myself a whole new wardrobe, which feels really nice since I only had work clothes up till now...Takaoka not really being a fashion center.

However, I'm going to Tokyo now (in about 5 minutes), so I can probably indulge myself even more!  I shall post pictures of my trip when I come back (and update my blog, of course!)

 Well, it's been a while since I've written in my blog, and a lot of things happened...I should more dedicated to my blog sigh...

First, I went to Kyoto.  Kyoto is a beautiful city full of temples and historical sites.  Since it's been a while, I can't remember everything, so this one's gonna be short.  I visited Inari-dera, aka the Fox Shrine, or the shrine with the multiple red doors.  It was raining that day, and I had my mini easy-to-put-in-the-bag-but-not-very-effective-umbrella, so I got soaked through. However, the shrine was beautiful, and the weather actually gave a nice eerie feeling to the place.  I also visited Kinkakuji (the Golden Temple that many of my teachers told me was famous).  I was a bit disappointed, because the temple was much smaller than I expected, and we couldn't go in, and the place was crowded with tourists, but nevertheless it was a very nice (and soothing if not for the tourists) place. I also did a bit of shopping and bought two pairs of shoes, yay^^(and a bunch of small souvenirs/talismans). 

Pics can be found here (or on Facebook): http://s896.photobucket.com/albums/ac166/belzaybeth/Japan/Kyoto/

I also had my first speech contest...It was very interesting to hear all these contestants, and I was surprised by the level of English of most of the contestants!  If I could speak Japanese as well as they speak English sigh...

Saturday, I have to watch my students' play, and then attend a cooking lesson, and then go to a Halloween party (that sounds like the most epic party of the year happening in the ken).  We shall see how it goes...=)

 Saturday,  I went to my school's festival.  Students have been preparing it for the past few weeks, before and after school, and even on the weekends.  I saw some huge cardboard boxes, shiny decorations and even a shrine entrance made of wood, so I was really excited to see how it would go, and I was definitely not disappointed.  

It started at 8h45 in the morning with an opening ceremony.  The students each presented their class' or their club's program, and then we were free to check the various activities and events from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. I was a judge, so I had to check every class' activity or show and grade them.  Most classes had activities in their homeroom, except for two who had a show in the gymnasium.  Unfortunately, I missed the 12 grade show because I didn't check the schedule carefully, and it made me very sad, especially when I learned that their performance was deemed the best event of the day for the first years.  However, the other classes all had amazing stuff going on, such as labyrinths, fair games and themes like Doraemon, Halloween or Totoro (from the Ghibli studio).  My friend told me that the festival at my school is pretty well-known, as even teachers from her school wanted to go to my school's festival, and I understood why.  The students all put so much effort into it, making all the decorations, games and practicing for the show, it was really amazing.  I wish I could put pictures up, but unfortunately I cannot put minors' pictures on a public site.  

I had so much fun during the festival, despite running around in order to be able to visit every class.  And the best thing of all, since it was a "work day", I had Monday off as a result! It would be awesome if we had school festivals in Canada too...

Last weekend, I went on a free tour of Toyama prefecture thanks to my uneven luck!  I was chosen as one of the 6 ALTs that would be part of this trip, and it was amazing!

We started with a visit of the Municipal Folkcraft Village of Toyama. The NHK TV guys even came to film us!  We went inside a pharmaceutical museum.  I didn't know that Toyama used to be very well-known for their drugs!  After, we saw some amazing paintings by a Toyama artist. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures inside, but the art was really great!  We also saw the 500 impersonations of Buddha. It is said that you can find your ancestor among one of these 500 buddhas, as they are all different.



We also had a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. The sweets were delicious, and complimented the tea really well!





Afterward, we went to the Unazuki Beer restaurant for lunch, where we tasted the local beers. The food and the beers were great, no wonder that the beer won many prizes!  After lunch, we went to the Kurobe Gorge and we took a train around the Gorge. It was a really nice place, and the scenery was gorgeous!  I especially loved the color of the water, it was about the same color as the water in Bora-Bora.





You can't see it very well on this picture, but believe me, the water's color was really amazing!

After the ride, we were able to try on a hot spring for the feet, and to see the "Jumping Monkeys" passage.  It is said that flying monkeys jumped from one side to another because it is narrow enough for them to do so.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any monkeys that day =( but nevertheless, Kurobe Gorge was definitely one of the highlights of the day, and I would love to go back again in fall, when the leaves will turn into lovely autumn colors. 

The next day, we visited Gokayama village, which is a village with gasshō-zukuri style houses, houses made in a triangular shape.



There, we made washi paper, which is a traditional way of making paper typical of Gokayama.


We made postcards out of washi paper, and it was really fun!  However, I only got to make 3 postcards, so I didn't make enough to send to everyone=(  but if I go back again, I would definitely like to make more!

That day, we were lucky before there was a performance in the village, and we were able to witness it.  It was a traditional dance, and it was definitely worth it!



I love traditional Japanese dancing, dancers are always dressed up in nice clothing and the dancing always looks so cool!=)

After lunch (and I had a delicious wild edible plants soba noodle bowl), we went to the Tonami tulip center.  Because it wasn't tulip season, we only got to see tulips in the greenhouse.  It was freezing cold inside, because our tour guide explained to us that tulips grow better around 5C.  No wonder tulip festival in Ottawa is always held in the beginning of May!

For the night, we went to an onsen ryokan ( a traditional Japanese inn with hot springs).  There, I experienced the "sand bath".  Basically, you get buried under hot sand for about 20 minutes.  It was really uncomfortable because the room got really hot, but afterward, my skin felt incredibly smooth!  It might have been because of the hot springs (which I went afterward), but I like to think that it's a combination of both=)

For supper, I had the most A-MA-ZING food served to me.


What you see on this picture is only half of the total amount of food they served to us.  I was just too busy eating afterwards to care about taking more pictures=).

The most interesting dish served to us was definitely the firefly squid marinated in its own ink.  It was really salty, but also really delicious!

For the morning, we got served something similar, but morning version (eggs, porridge, miso soup...). Mmmmm...  If I could eat like that everyday, I would be sure to gain weight in no time!

On the third day, we went to the Zuiryuji temple, which ironically is a 5-minute walk away from my house.  I went there already during night for the light show, but it does look different in broad daylight.  It is a lot more soothing that Chinese temples, I would say. After, we went on a cruise liner in Shinminato harbor.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn't very good, so we couldn't do the longer cruise, but it was still a lot of fun.

To sum it up, I had a great time visiting the many attractions of Toyama, and I am really happy to have been able to be part of this trip.  Now, I feel that I know my prefecture a little better, and if someone comes to visit me, I will be able to show them around!=)  I took lots of pictures, so if you want to see them, you can just follow the photobucket link below:

s896.photobucket.com/albums/ac166/belzaybeth/Japan/Toyama%20trip%20and%20Tsukurimon%20festival/

 On Sunday, I went to a soba certification test in Toga, in the Nanto region of Toyama. My basic understanding of it was that there was an examination for all 4th rank soba masters wanting to reach the 5th rank, the highest ranking in soba making, and that we would be judges of their skills.  in other words, I thought I would be soba-tasting for the day, and the idea of eating noodles made by highly qualified people just sounded too mouth-watering to pass. 

Well, I couldn't be more wrong!  (Fortunately, in a good way.) When we arrived there on Sunday morning, people with our name cards were waiting for us.  After 10 minutes, I understood that our job wasn't eating, it was making the soba noodles! The examination included a section on teaching, in other words, we were to be taught one on one by soba masters, and they were to be evaluated on their teaching skills!  Well, it does make sense in a way: what better way to test them on their teaching skills than to hand them a non-Japanese speaker as a student? Even though it was a bit weird to be standing in front of a crowd making soba noodles with an instructor that I couldn't understand, I had lots of fun. It was really great to have a free lesson from a qualified person!


Yes, I am wearing a very colorful scarf on my head=D

 Today, tired of correcting copies over and over again, I decided to finally try to find the dojo that was supposed to be 5 min away from my house.  So I went on this (very short) adventure.  I found a lovely bakery on my way there, Boulangerie Casserole.  They also have a French restaurant (Yes!  first French restaurant I found in Tak!) close by.  Intrigued by the name (and the seemingly good French written on the windows), I went in.  I'm so glad I did!  The bread was really gorgeous, it smelled wonderful, and I came out of it with one of the most delectable pastry I have ever eaten.  It is a vol-au-vent filled with crème patissière and dulce leche ( a kind of soft caramel) and topped with chocolate covered roasted nuts. Mmmmmmmmmm sooooooo good!  And it was only 140 yen! I even asked the lady that looked like the baker if she ever went to France.  Well, all I got was a puzzled look from both the baker and the cashier, and of course the "Where are you from oh Canada wow so you speak English sugoiiii". Nevertheless, defnitely ten times better than the bakery (that shall remain nameless) where I found that insect-filled bread...

So after finding this wonderful place, I went into the only building in the neighbourhood that looked like it could host a dojo...I wasn't sure if it was the right one because it looked like an abandoned factory, but thanks to my (more or less) great knowledge of chinese characters, I was able to decipher the two kanjis for budo (basically martial arts).  Hesitantly, I went in and tried, with my very very limited japanese, if they offered shorinji kenpo (shaolin kung fu).  Good thing I could read the kanjis for it again! (my thanks goes to the Shaolin temple next to Luoyang city and the t-shirt that I got from there).  So this is where I am the most proud of myself: I was able to sustain a relatively coherent conversation with the receptionist for 15 minutes!  *clap hands*  So I was able to figure out that the class is on Wednesday and Sunday nights (but that's because I read it on the schedule sheet lol), that the cost is 3000 yen registration fee and 4000 yen per month (which is really cheap!), and that I can come to the next class and watch to see if I would like to attend. He also asked tons of questions about myself, so don't go thinking it took me 15 minutes to figure out that much!  

I will go to the class next Wednesday and see how it goes from there. Hopefully, I wasn't delusional and tried to convince myself that I understood everything, and then find myself in a bad situation...hahaha...

 Yesterday, I had one of these really crappy days that makes you feel like you fell straight into stage 2...I guess I jinxed myself by saying how lucky I was-_-; 

To start off, my bike had a flat tire that morning, and I discovered it just before going to school.  I decided to take the train instead, but the next one was only coming at 8h35 and I was supposed to start at 8h25...AND I had a class in first period! So I called my teacher and told her about my problem, and since I got great teachers, they told me it was ok and changed my class to 6th period.  God was I glad!  But then since I had a half hour to kill before the next train, I was thinking, might as well try to find a bike shop to change my tire, and maybe I won't even be late for school (it takes 10 min to go to school by bike).  Soooo I asked the train station lady in my very bad japanese where is the closest bike shop, and she told me on the north side of the station.  I went there, and (obviously) didn't find the shop.  After a while, I understood that she pointed me to the nearest bike RENTAL shop, and that was basically a row of bikes for rent, with no shops whatsoever.  By the time I came to my senses, I missed the train by 2 minutes, and the next one was at 10h16.   So I ended up taking the cab to school.

Because of the whole running in hot and humid weather, then getting inside ice-cold air-conditioned cab and then air-conditioned school, I starting feeling sick.  I had a mega sore throat and a slight headache, and I had to teach 4 classes in a row that day because of my being late. So I pretty much messed up my self-intro that I've already done 10 times and wasn't able to finish it in 2 of the classes.  

If that was it, it would have been fine, but nooooo, seems like God just wasn't on my side that day.  Since I left my bike at Takaoka Station, I thought, why not get some bread from the bakery since I'm already there?  I go in, buy some breads, get hungry in the process and decide to eat one.  Well, after two bites, guess what popped up from my bread?  A LIVE BLACK ROACH.  SERIOUSLY??? That's the SECOND time I find a live insect in my food! (The first being in a store-bought onigiri that I was about to finish) I'm actually starting to fear Japanese food now...

So I basically ended up cooped up in my bedroom, feeling worse than before, and just cursing the day away...

Hopefully, after all that rambling and complaining, I un-jinxed myself and will have a great day tomorrow (cross fingers).

 A month after I got to Japan and internet has finally come to me...I kind of got used to not having it, so it feels a bit strange to have access to so much information so easily...

In this short month, I climbed two of the three holy mountains of Japan, made tons of friends, found my true love in ramens and obentos (and of course the infamous white grape juice), and gave my first classes as a teacher...feels like I have a lot to say, but then I don't really know where and how to start...



Mount Tate was great, but Fuji was insane...8 hours of climbing, suffering, taking oxygen pills, drinking water, putting on clothes, turning on and off the headlamp...but I'm really glad I did it.  It was actually pretty fun and I was somehow strangely energetic for the first 6 hours...mmm maybe I had superwoman genes in me and didn't even know!  The sunrise at the top was amazing though, sun peeking through the sea of clouds, so pretty...it made me think of the sunrise in the Gobi desert in China=).




I had lots of seminars and business trips in August, and I had to prepare a self-introduction class of 50 minutes, so I had quite some work during that month and didn't have time to get bored, which is great!=)  I have a great school, with great teachers willing to help me anytime, shy but motivated students, what more can I ask for? To quote our great Tokyo orientation guru, I am still in stage one=) Hopefully it will last until I leave Japan.
And to make my life even better, I got a free trip around Toyama prefecture!  A three days, two nights trip all paid, with lodging in an inkan(if I got that right, it's a traditional japanese inn).  Am I not the luckiest girl on earth? (After all, I did find 800$ on the floor...) I will write more about the trip once I'm back. It is scheduled for the 17, 18 and 19th of September (which is a long weekend in Japan).  Ah, can't wait for the trip!  I'm pretty excited now!

I will try to post more pictures in the future, but since I just got internet after a month of web starvation, I'm still getting used to being on the web...so please be patient, more will come in the future!

I should go to sleep now, gotta work tomorrow!