Superlatives

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This is my last blog entry. I decided to make it a kind of "best of" list. I've posted all of my favorite photos I took during my two years teaching in Japan. In addition, I have a few lists I made during my last couple of months in Japan: my opinion of the best things about Japan and the worst things about Japan. I realized that a lot of my favorite things and least favorite things about Japan involve food, so I made a separate list: My favorite food in Japan that I can't get easily in the U.S. and Food I miss from the U.S. The items on the lists are in no particular order. Enjoy!

Best Things about Japan:

-tatami floors
-practical bicycles
-traditions (music, tea ceremony, ikebana, art)
-festivals
-public transportation
-enka (Japanese ballad singing)
-TV shows
-karaoke
-food
-people's general hospitality and generosity
-my students
-heated toilet seats
-showers and baths
-onsen (hot spring baths)
-architecture
-appreciation for aesthetics
-sense of humor
-advertisements
-the Yomiuri Newspaper
-kotatsu (heated coffee tables)
-reactions to seasons
-bamboo
-kaiten sushi (sushi on a conveyor belt)
-purikura (sticker photo booths)
-the Yugata Quintet show (Japanese version of muppets playing in a quintet)
-Chuhi (a beverage)
-rice cookers
-clothes (the styles, not the prices)
-100 yen shops
-cherry blossoms

Worst Things about Japan:

-the waste of plastic and the extreme overuse of packaging
-the lack of animal rights
-no vegetarians, vegetarian food, or knowledge about what vegetarian means
-division of gender roles and gender injustices
-xenophobic attitudes
-people's general resistance to express true feelings
-destroying the land with concrete
-politics
-apathetic pollution
-special treatment of foreigners
-people generally being too uptight or not laid-back enough
-katakana English
-kanji
-too much pressure to be one of the group
-work ethic (people tend to be workoholics)
-how often people tell you how good your Japanese is after just hearing you say "konnichiwa"
-how often people tell you how good you are at using chopsticks (seems more like an insult)
-people's general rejection of any rice that's not Japanese rice
-the institution of marriage
-NO CHRISTMAS!
-NO HALLOWEEN!

My Favorite Food in Japan that I Can't Get Easily in the U.S.:

-aloe (especially in yogurt)
-anpan and other anko food (red bean paste)
-yomogi (a kind of herb), especially in mochi (pounded rice cakes)
-nashi (a kind of fruit)
-kaki (persimmon)
-daifuku (pounded rice with sweet fillings inside)
-okonomiyaki (a kind of savory fried pancake)
-goya (a bitter green vegetable)
-kurogoma spread (black sesame)
-Japanese melon
-Calbee granola
-Japanese curry
-sansai (wild mountain vegetables)
-onigiri (rice balls with various things inside)
-kinako (a powder made from soy beans used for sweets)
-good selection of tea
-good selection of mushrooms
-kabocha (Japanese pumpkin)
-yummy icecream

Food I Miss from the U.S.:

-real cheese
-biscuits
-good salad dressing
-lemonade
-cornbread
-pumpkin pie
-lasagna
-casseroles
-good wheat bread
-tortilla chips
-canned soup
-meat substitutes (seitan, tempe, veggie burgers, textured vegetable protein, etc.)
-macaroni and cheese
-pizza
-apple butter
-bagels
-good peanut butter
-cream of wheat
-grits
-pita and hummus
-ice cream flavors

After making these lists, I realized that my best things about Japan were mostly material, and my worst things about Japan were mostly non-material things. I don't know what that means, but I thought it was interesting. If you have anything you want to add to any of these lists, feel free to leave comments! I hope everyone enjoyed my blog. I really enjoyed keeping record of it all. Thanks for all your comments and messages of encouragement! Sayounara!

-Jennie

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Photos

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Narrow roads on Yuge

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Cherry blossom festival on Mt. Sekizen. Yuge is the island in the upper right-hand corner.

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The Yuge amateur sumo boys. These are my elementary school students.

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Rickshaws awaiting customers in Takayama, Japan's Northern Alps

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One of my preschool students gets an unexpected splash on swimming day.

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The variety of bread available in the bakery at a train station. Most of this bread is modeled after characters in a popular children's cartoon about the story of a super hero made from bread.

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A small Buddhist sub-temple in the middle of a snow-covered mountain of pine in Kyoto

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Me snorkeling off the shores of Zamami Island in Okinawa

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My junior high school students jumping into the Inland Sea off Matsubara beach on Yuge

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Cooling off with melon and strawberry kakigouri at a Hiroshima Carps baseball game

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Training ship in the Seto Inland Sea off of Yuge

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My preschool students adjusting their happi for the autumn harvest festival

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The steep summit of Mt. Ishizuchi in Shikoku

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My junior high school students marching in the final procession to the Buddhist temple at the autumn harvest festival

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A washed up door on my favorite beach, Takahama, right before a storm comes to Yuge

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My junior high school students running in a five-legged race at the annual undoukai

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The torii gate at the Shinto shrine on my favorite beach, Takahama

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Teamwork is important for carrying the danjiri at the autumn harvest festival on Yuge.

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The sun setting on the Seto Inland Sea during my ferry ride back from Uoshima to Yuge

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The small island off of my favorite beach, Takahama. For a short period of time, when the tide is out, a path appears to the island.

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Me and my Yuge home

Comments

[Yotam]

Best Thing About Japan
Jennie's photos.

[Dad]

Sorry it's over...
Great lists. Thanks for doing this blog. It was great for us to keep in touch this way, and I think it was wonderful chronicle of your 2-year experience. Your photography gives us a "Jennie view" of Japan, too. Nice shots. Of course, we're glad you are back and so near to home. Also, looking forward to your next move in life with VISTA in Pocahontas County.

[Roslyn]

My Thanks
Jennie, thanks for taking me with you to Japan. Your blogs have been my only vehicle that I'm sure I'll ever have to the Far East. I got to see not only Japan but also other places such as Singapore and Malaysia. What fascinating stories and pictures of your time abroad. I enjoyed myself!

[amanda jane]

cream of wheat!
i love your photography! i am glad you documented you stint in japan so well and that i got to read it. maybe you'd just have to be japenese to get over your non-materialistic least favorites. but you did list generosity and hospitality :) hope to see yuo soon!

[natasha]

wish I could go back again, too
Your pictures are beautiful. (what more should I say?) Thanks for a few minutes of unadulterated enjoyment. Natasha in Stuttgart (an ex-pat who likes it in Europe, but made the mistake of tasting Asia last year. The world is too big for one lifetime.)