good news: it's fall again

I seem to have gotten out of the habit of updating my blog at some point. Life here has just gotten better and better, if you can believe that. I've gotten to do and see more incredible things than I ever expected to in my whole life. I am content.

Sailboat on Lake Kasumigaura in Tsuchiura. I went on a 50 minutes cruise around the lake and saw some of these up close.

My friends and I climbed Mt. Tsukuba early one morning (around 3am) and saw the sunrise. It was a wonderful and ridiculously tiring experience. I think we made it to the top around 6am, but we spent the remainder of the morning wandering around and back down Tsukuba-san. These people are precious to me.

a whole year

These are pictures from the Kirala Festival in Tsuchiura earlier this month. I had a good time eating and drinking and watching the big parade with friends.

This week, I've been in Japan for one year. I started training for my job at this time last year with absolutely no idea how awesome the year was going to be. 

Last week, I went to three cities in China! for the week-long Japanese summer holiday, Obon. I'll post more pictures from that trip soon!

 

sisterly love

Katie came to Japan and stayed for a week in July. We had a really good time sightseeing and talking, hanging out with friends, and doing most of the things I normally do each week. I was sad that I couldn't take more time off work to hang out, but she did a really good job of finding her way around the Tokyo area while I was working. She even met a random (and possibly slightly creepy) Japanese fellow one night while I was at work and had some dinner with him. I was pretty impressed. I was really glad that Kate got to meet most of my good friends and experience what my life is like here. That meant a lot to me!

Here are just a few pictures. The picture at the top is at O'arai Beach in northern Ibaraki. We went to Fukuroda Waterfalls (also above) one day with our friends Megumi and Abie, and then we stopped by the beach in Hitachi-naka and stuck our feet in the ocean for a few minutes. 

Kate and I ate Japanese sweets for breakfast one day. A mango parfait, sweet red beans and mochi (rice cakes) with ice cream, and pancakes. We decided it was the best breakfast ever. My sister is one of the only people who could possibly appreciate this kind of food as much as I do. 

This was on our day-trip to Kamakura. These cute little guys were everywhere. There were lots of hydrangeas too. I'm not an excellent tour guide so I got us a little lost, but we saw Hasedera Temple and the big ol' Daibutsu (sitting Buddha).

I'll be so happy to see my sista again in December. :D

humid & happy

There's always something going on here in Tsuchiura. I want to share more of my life on here, but whenever I finally get a chance to write, it's so hard to pick the highlights. Every day, something noteworthy goes on. I can't even explain how lucky I am. Katie visited me a few weeks ago so I'll be posting pictures from her visit very soon. It's hot and humid here. This is not entirely surprising given that the country is an island. I must still mention that it is indeed humid here. My calendar has curled off the wall on both sides. I can't decide whether that is impressive enough to take a picture of, but for now I'm going to say that, no, it's not, relatively speaking.

Since I've been in Tsuchiura, the train station has been just a train station. But last week, the station mall, which I didn't even really know existed before, re-opened right inside and by the train station. It is marvelous. There are lots of stores inside including clothing stores (with some clothes that fit my big American self!), an Excelsior Cafe (a real coffee shop!!), a bakery, and an international food store. Not to mention the cute "perch" icon written everywhere and the cute birds perching on the perches all over the perch shopping center. It's all new and makes the once quiet (and still quite quiet) Tsuchiura seem like a happenin' place. I love Tsuchiura, happenin' or not, but I do enjoy having options and places to go on my lunch break at work.

These are two of my good friends-Maiko and Nao. Maiko is my brilliant anesthesiologist friend who ran the 10 mile race with me, and Nao is brilliant teacher friend I work with and hang out with all the time. My everyday hang-out buddy, if you will. I've lost count of how many times we've done karaoke all night.  This is the town singer. I can't remember his name, but he's everywhere. He plays at restaurants and festivals and at least once a week at the train station. He has an extremely impressive voice.

This is the inside of my regular Wednesday night hang-out place. It's right between work and my apartment (about a 3 minute walk from work), and sometimes there's live music on Wednesdays. It's a really small, organic, vegetarian, and slightly hippy restaurant. I also take yoga lessons here sometimes when there are not bands playing or people eating. This is one of my homes here.This is the owner, Haru san. He's one of the funniest, most loving people I've ever met. He's a really good cook and teacher too.

And this is his adorable little baby, Rin. And Koto san, the best guitarist (and guitar teacher) in the city, is holding him.

And this is my second almost-weekly hangout. It's an Indian restaurant a few minutes away from my work (and Tsuchiura station). The owner is from Sri Lanka, and these guys in the picture (on the left and right) are from Nepal. The one in the middle is a soccer player on the Ibaraki soccer team. Yep, I know someone famous.

Fields of yummy things. Possibly lotus root. Beautiful. This is what I get to see every time I go running. Hydrangeas were everywhere in June when it rained almost every day. There were huge bushes of them on the sides of roads. I've never seen naturally growing hydrangeas like these. Have you?