Category Archives: Travel

Travel

A Festival, a Birthday, and a Tiny, Giant Buddah

By Kris Brackin

In celebration of the birthday of another fellow ALT, a handful of us decided to meet in Kamagaya for the weekend. Our top priority was the festival in Asakusa, the Sanja Matsuri. It’s generally considered one of the largest festivals in Tokyo and attracts around 2 million locals and tourists over the course of 3 days. It’s a weekend long Shinto festival, where three portable shrines are paraded around Asakusa. While those bad-boys are out and about, there is a large array of traditional Japanese music and dance to enjoy. We spent Saturday there on request of Joey for her birthday! Continue reading →

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Travel

Golden Week: Second Half

At Yokohama Chinatown

After a rather disappointing day of lessons on Wednesday, I was really looking forward to Golden Week part 2. Carolyn and I were off to an early start on Thursday morning to head into Chiba-ken. The plan was to meet our friends coming from Mito-shi (the capital of Ibaraki-ken) and spend the day seeing some of the historic cities in Chiba-ken. As it turned out, the weather had other plans in mind. It was raining, a lot. About half way there, we get a call to meet in a different city and end up loosing an hour of driving time. We stopped through Moriya-shi to grab our friend Becky (remember Becky?). After a long, rainy drive, we ended up in Kamagaya-shi where we met up with our friends. Thus begins the story of Golden week, part 2.

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Travel

Golden Week (ゴールデンウィーク)- First Half

More vibrant fish

I didn’t realize that it’s been more than a week since my last post! I am so sorry! I normally try to keep it at a steady two per week. Not only did I fail last week, but I will fail again this week! It’s Golden Week all over Japan. Basically, it’s a bunch of national holidays that happen to fall within a week of each other. The good part is you get a bunch of paid holidays. The bad part is you have to go to work on the days that aren’t holidays. For me that was Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Fortunately, I went into school on Tuesday and they said it was a School district-wide holiday. Then they said to please go home. I didn’t argue. The first half of Golden Week (last weekend) was spent in Mito! For the full adventure, read on.  Continue reading →

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Around Koga, Travel

Sakura Flower Viewing (桜花見)

As I wrote in my previous post, mono no aware is such an important part of Japanese culture. It’s only been a few days since the blossoms were in full bloom and they are already beginning to pool at my feet. The petals flutter around like snow flurries and coat the ground in a fine dusting of white and pink. It’s almost heartbreaking that something so beautiful is so brief, but then again, that’s all part of it. It really drives home this idea of appreciating the now. It’s not something to be sad about, but something to cherish. I was lucky enough to enjoy the cherry blossoms and really learn to appreciate them. Now, I can look for other amazing things to celebrate about life, here and now.
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Travel

The Calm Before the Storm

School officially started yesterday. It was mostly opening ceremonies, so lots of bowing and congratulating. Very different from how we handle the first day of school in the states. Here, I would probably feel a greater sense of pride for my school. But, before I talk about today, I should talk about what I have been up to! Earlier in the week was mostly shopping for stuff, getting sick, and playing lots of video games. I was relaxing and recovering to say the least. Tuesday, I banded together a group of local ALTs to go to Nikko (日光), a city famous for it’s rich religious history. It’s basically mountains covered in shrines. Breathtaking.
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Travel

Training, Yatta!

Becky the banana.

Training is DONE! I repeat, DONE! I can’t say much about what I learned since that is all super secret stuff, but I can say that it was very challenging and motivated me to re-evaluate myself as a teacher. I want to do well, and this week has helped me to feel like I might be able to do it. Of course, that was after a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Or something similar. Continue reading →

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Travel

Hunkering Down

Matcha and ice cream latte

In an effort to shorten my posts, I should probably post more. That said, training is this week and I can’t promise how often I’ll be up to the task. I figure I might want to get one last post in before my 8am-9pm training days begin. Yeah, you read that correctly. So crazy! Yesterday was pretty relaxing. I got to hang out with Yoko-san, her mother and her father (both very kind) and we enjoyed a lovely “French” lunch together. Her father was so bold as to tell me not to eat very much so I don’t get fat, and ask me if I have any boyfriends (plural). Yoko-san said “Please don’t mind my father! He is so weird!” It was entertaining though, and that’s what counts! Continue reading →

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Travel

New City: Yokohama, Japan

Shoppers!

While I only have one day left here in Yokohama, it still feels like home already. Yoko-san has been so wonderful by taking care of me. She treats me like family and we have fun together. Not to mention, she is hysterical! I also practice my Japanese with her, and it has improved immensely since arriving. A lot of what I learned in college is returning and I am learning some other useful things (like jishin meaning earthquake). Speaking of! My first earthquake! I was asleep during the 4.0 in San Francisco last week, so this was the first earthquake I was aware of. It was kind of terrifying for this Florida girl. Mostly because it woke me up in the middle of the night and I could hear the entire structure moving. Continue reading →

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Travel

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Wow, what a ride. The last week and a half has been such a whirlwind! Please accept my sincerest apologies, I have not forgotten about you. Between GDC and moving to Japan, I don’t know which way is up anymore. Brace yourselves, this is going to be a long post! I promise to update more often from now on. My goal is a minimum of 2 posts per week. So, with that in mind, the only place to go is forward.

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Travel

New City: San Francisco

The fog was just beginning to lift as I drove past downtown Orlando on the way to the airport.

After a heart-wrenching two days of goodbyes, I’ve finally left Orlando.

So many people came to visit me the day before I left, I am truly a very lucky girl. I got to see almost all of my closest friends, those who would be top of my list to see before leaving. I was treated to breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. I couldn’t have asked for more. Yesterday morning at the airport was certainly very sad. My family is going to try to visit me, but it was sad saying goodbye not knowing exactly when I will get to see them next. I am very excited and happy about my move to Japan, but there is a lot of heart-ache that is going with this decision. Of course, everyone seems to agree, I’m not going to regret it. Aside from looking like a mess all day yesterday, I just spent a lot of time in airports and on planes.  Continue reading →

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