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.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!
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!
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.
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.
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?
At Asakusa Temple. We bonded with this guy, and he gave us some unsolicited information about all that is Japan. He got a chance to practice his English. He really enjoyed the phrase "On the other hand..." and used it appropriately in conversation at least 10 times during our 10 minute conversation, which might not be appropriate.
One of the most popular Kaiten Sushi restaurants in Asakusa, according to the rickshaw driver. It was delicious, and Stephanie bravely tried a surprising amount of raw fish and other strange and wonderful foods.
We even went to a friend's birthday party at a cute little bar near Tsuchiura station. Good times. I am a lucky person to have such great friends. Thanks for coming, Steph!!!
This is at least a month overdue, but I will post anyway. During the second half of Golden week, my favorite person on Planet Earth, Claire, flew millions of miles to visit me. I still cannot believe she came all the way to Japan. She was only here 3 days, but we had such a good time, and it was so so good to see her after many months of not. She arrived around the beginning of the swine flu craziness but managed to make it through the 17+ hour flight and quarantine process with impressive amounts of energy. I learned at the airport that it is quite difficult for some Japanese people to announce foreign names over the loudspeaker. Syllables were added, "l"s and "r"s confused. Luckily, we were able to reunite, despite the painful (and slightly comedic) attempts. Thank God for her. I do.
There were a LOT of people in Tokyo and in Kamakura that week. It was scary. At one point, we were jammed into the train and couldn't breathe (or stop laughing for that matter).
This was the first night when Claire got to Tsuchiura, and I made her eat at an いざかや and try various types of Japanese food, which she may or may not have been in the mood for but happily accepted anyway. I love her so much.
Kyoto is famous for Matcha (Green Tea). We tried green tea and a Japanese dessert at The Golden Temple. おいしかたですね。We also ate lots of other Matcha desserts. We ate big Matcha parfaits at a parfait shop in Gion. Mmm.
This is Fushimi Inari in Kyoto. 伏見稲荷 <--This may or may not be correct. It is more likely incorrect. There are long "tori" archways up the mountain so we took a little hike and saw lots of these and temples/shrines along the way up.
My former Manager, Yuriko, and her friend were also in Kyoto the same time we were so we met them for dinner in Gion. We ate at a small restaurant at a really small shelf-like table against the wall. It was interesting and of course delicious.
Today, I ran my first 10 mile race in the Kasumigaura Marathon. This race was held close to the station and not far from my apartment, near Lake Kasumigaura. There were over 20,000 participants in the race. It is an internationally known race for blind runners so there were lots of blind people running with partners. I finished the race in an hour and 42ish minutes, thanks only to all the encouragement and excitement around me. There were little kids and old people yelling "ganba re" (you can do it!) the whole way. There were also little performances which kept me extremely entertained. There was a high school band and cheerleaders, a few traditional Japanese musical happenings, a random man playing some kind of flute-like instrument and wearing tights..., fireworks, and I've already forgotten what else. I wish I'd had my camera with me. I ran part of the way with a friend (an AEON student with whom I'd decided to run the race a few months ago), and I also saw a few other students after the race. The course went through our city, up a lot of hilly roads, and through little neighborhoods and wooded areas. I am sunburned and will most likely be sore tomorrow, but that might have been one of the best experiences of my life.
Cherry blossom season has arrived! I've been in Tokyo the last couple weekends to see the trees in bloom (they bloom a little earlier in Tokyo than in Ibaraki). Millions of other people were right there with me. It was extremely crowded, but somehow it didn't really matter because I was so distracted by the beauty of the Sakura trees. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. And the "O-hanami" tradition is pretty fun. People gather together in groups to drink alcohol and eat snacks under the trees. The weather has been perfect lately too, which just makes it all that much more wonderful.
