Whoa, 11 months?
January 30, Day 307: Sledding!
Today we took the kindergarteners to Mt. Izumigatake for a sledding trip! Remember when I hiked the same mountain nine months ago? There was much less snow. We headed to the mountain once all the students arrived at school, suited up from head to toe in snow gear. Since we needed to be back at school in time for lunch, we only sledded for about an hour, but it was the perfect amount of time. No accidents! The sun was out, (most of) my kids were happy, and I didn’t get run over by any sleds.
Basketball game:
Sendai’s basketball team is called the 89ers because the municipality was established in 1889. When we arrived at the stadium, we were handed a program, a sanitizing napkin, and a plastic bag. As I walked through, a man slid an ice pack into my plastic bag. “What is this?” I asked. “Protein bar” he replied. Confused, but thrilled to have a little snack, I continued on to find my seat. Finally opening the bag, I discovered two sticks of tofu. Protein bars. Haha!
The game started as an American basketball game would and we even cheered in English with the emcee. At halftime, we were highly entertained by 4 performances: cheerleaders, traditional Japanese fan dancing, a J-pop boys dance team, and mini cheerleaders. Unfortunately the 89ers lost by 10 points and I was fascinated by how both teams bowed to all four sides of the stadium when the game was finished. The most exciting part of the day was realizing I had the same exact birthday as #6 on the team: Taiki Okada.
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Valentines Day Party
What would kindergarten be without a Valentine’s Day party? We played many games, made cards for the other classes, and wore as much red, pink, and white as possible. Oh and we had a little chocolate snack too, of course. I like special celebration days because I get to see my students out of uniform and they always wear the cutest outfits. One of my boys wore a white sweatsuit with cute heart sunglasses and unfortunately chose the wrong day to have an accident in the bathroom…
Open House:
Our Valentine’s Day party was on February 10th because we had an Open House on February 14th. Last Open House of the year! The other open houses are called “Kids and Parents Day”, but this one is a bit more casual so I can see why they named it something else.
Snow Snow Snow:
It snowed a lot in February. On the 11th, we got 10.45 inches!
Garlic Hair:
One of my girls came to school with cute braids in her hair and she was trying to tell me what they were called but I couldn’t understand. She tried to draw a picture of the “vegetable” on the white board but didn’t know the English name. I called a Japanese translator into the room and he revealed the word she was looking for: garlic. “Garlic hair?” I asked her, laughing, and she enthusiastically nodded. It really does look like cloves of garlic.
Birthday!
One of my coworker friend’s birthday was in February and we used a whole day to celebrate! First stop: IMAX movie theater. It was a pretty similar experience to an American movie theater except the chairs had brilliant popcorn tray holders, umbrella holders, and everyone quietly stayed for the entirety of the credits. We watched Ant-Man in 3D which was very cool. Afterwards, we headed to a Japanese photo booth, also known as ‘purikura’. The pictures are altered to enlarge the eyes, soften the skin, and narrow the jawline; making us look like anime aliens, but in a cute way. We also added some sticker drawings. In between our photoshoot and dinner reservations, we had just enough time for a short karaoke session. Cue Whitney Houston and John Denver. After 30 minutes of shameless singing, we went to a fancy dinner spot called Forest Kitchen. I ordered carbonara pasta and a chocolate torte for dessert. Yum. If it were Saturday, we might’ve crammed another activity into the evening, but we all had to teach in the morning, so we hopped on the train and headed home.
Strawberries:
Every been berry picking? In February? Thanks to greenhouses, I went berry picking with a couple friends at a place called Yumeichigonosato Hanzawaichigono Orchards. “Ichigo” is strawberry in Japanese, by the way. We paid about 2,200 yen (about $16) for reserved time slot. The rules: stay in your designated row, stop picking when your 30 minutes is up, berries cannot leave the greenhouse, and no smoking. Since we weren’t allowed to take strawberries home, we had to pick AND EAT as many berries as our stomachs could handle in half an hour. We were also given a complimentary tube of condensed milk to use as a dipping sauce. I wish I would have counted how many strawberries I ate, but I’m sure it was more than eleven. Definitely won’t be buying strawberries for a while.
333rd Day in Japan!
Technically, I didn’t realize it was my 333rd day in Japan until my 335th day in Japan, but I did do some fun things on my 333rd day. I made a quesadilla for lunch, caught up on some journaling, and headed downtown for a girls night out. We started at a Mediterranean restaurant for dinner where we enjoyed Turkish pizza, a hummus plate with pita bread, lamb kabobs, and baklava! We made some friends who took us to a karaoke bar where we sang some Earth, Wind, and Fire while eating paninis made from hot dog buns. Strange, but memorable. We left with just enough time to catch the last train home. 
February came and went too quickly, but I am sure looking forward to warmer weather. Three words to describe my 11th month:
Melancholy
Explorative
Quiet
*a word on the second word:
Starting in February, I started listening to a different musical artist every day. I made a list of musical artists that are well-loved by other people but mostly unknown to me. Bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dixie Chicks, Lynyrd Skynrd, Saint-Saëns, Florence and the Machine, Fleetwood Mac, etc. I only listen to one artist as I get ready in the mornings and in the downtime of my evenings. Then, I rate the artist on a scale from 1-10 based on my personal opinion. My goal is to find and explore more artists I enjoy instead of listening to the same bands from the same genres that I have been listening to for the past couple years. I will continue this journey in March 🙂
ALSO, I BOOKED TICKETS TO KYOTO AND OSAKA IN MARCH FOR SPRING BREAK WHICH IS WAY OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE BUT I WANT TO BE MORE ADVENTUROUS.