I will never forget when I found out my sister was engaged. I had been in Japan for less than 12 hours. I was checking my email amongst many other JETs in the Keio Plaza. I get this email with only exclamation marks in the title from my sister. I open up the email and alas, Erin, my older sister was engaged. This was a moment we had talked about our whole lives, coming true. Scary and exciting at the same time. This was no surprise...we had been expecting Fin to do it for a while. So, I am sitting around a bunch of strangers freaking out about my sisters wedding....talk about a goo first impression. :-). They all probably thought I was crazy! Then through much discussion and confusion of where the wedding would be ... read more

So when you think about Japan there are many things you associate with it....sushi, kimonos, karate, and of course SUMO!!!! I was fortunate enough to get to experience a sumo wrestling tournament this weekend. It succeeded my expectations. I had such a good time and would definitely go to another sumo match in the future if I was given the chance. Originally we were supposed to go with the AJET group, but things fell through. That did no stop us from going. There were 9 of us in our crew headed to the tournament, me, Lisa, Nikki, Marc, Mercedez, Jen, Ellie, Julie, and Simon. The weekend started out a little chaotic. I was running late and thought I was going to miss the bus to Shimonoseki. As I am running in the direction of the bus, ... read more

Well that is your Japanese lesson for the day, "Happi Harroween" is Happy Halloween in Japanese. Tough, I know. So, yes, this past weekend I celebrated my FAVORITE holiday (what can I say, I love costumes!), HALLOWEEN!!! Japan does not really celebrate Halloween, but that was not going to stop me from dressing in costume! As a matter of fact, it is becoming a bigger holiday because of the foreign influence. You think they would all trick-o-treat and make jack-o-lanterns becaues of all the Halloween paraphanalia they sell starting in September, but then again they really don't celebrate Christmas and they already have huge displays of Christmas stuff out and its not even December. I definitely had a blast this Halloween dressing up in costume and dancing like crazy. First, I celebrated Halloween with my English ... read more

The Monday after the sake festival we had the day off. Sunday we were supposed to go to Hagi in Yamaguchi Ken...we did not move most of Sunday! Sunday was spent happily getting Italian food at my favorite place in Kabe, and romping around the Fuji Grand department store. Lisa and i are entertained very easily. Monday we decided to take a day trip to a town in Hiroshima Ken called Takehara. According to our Hiroshima Ken Guide Book, it is the 'little Kyoto' of Hiroshima because of its preserved historic buildings. It once used to be a thriving town through salt mining, but since then I believe it has become pretty poor. They can't even afford to have JETs at their schools (which may not be a bad thing, hiring us is expensive!). There ... read more

For my four-day weekend I decided to take off down to Kyushu. The original intention was to hike some more (possibly Aso-san, the largest caldera in the world) and meet up with my friend Jonathan. It quickly involved meeting up with many other people and turning into a fabulous trip...although I think I needed another vacation after!!! It included, hiking, shrines, boat cruises, drinking, dancing, street performers, hitching, a baseball game, and complete chaos....just the way I like it. Those random trips are the best. I hit up Shimonoseki and had some incredible sushi. Then I headed down to Fukuoka to get lost amongst the shopping malls with the clothes I could not afford and meander along until I found some cool shrines to check out. I did see the largest wooden buddha in Japan. Looks ... read more