♥ My friend Hanae. She meant to say “pimple” —- English is hard guys!
For my friends back home, I thought you might like to see a little bit about what the onsen is like. I have gone to the onsen a few times and I have really enjoyed it after the initial feeling of being uncomfortably naked in around people you don’t know.
However, it’s totally relaxing and fun once you get used to being naked.
Enjoy!
New post coming soon! (I hope…)
Tennouji Zoo & Daigakusai 2011
This week we had a national holiday so there were no classes! I had originally planned to have an early Thanksgiving day celebration with some American friends, but things didn’t work out. Instead we decided to take our own little feild trip to the Tennouji Zoo on Thursday.
My favorite part of the zoo was the aviary, it was so fun to walk inside this gigantic birdcage. No one got pooped on, so it was a successful day.
Bird nests!
Trying not to get pooped on. Esther and Grace decided to be twins.
This bird reminds me of Florida, they are everywhere down.
After the zoo closed we walked were rushed through the park and we caught a beautiful sunset before we finally had to leave. After the zoo we had dinner together at “Bikuri Donki” (Surprised Donkey) because no one was really ready to go home yet.
On Saturday, we had the yearly college festival called the Daigakusai. Students were selling food, handmade things, or they had game booths that they created in order to raise money for their clubs or groups. There were also student performances!
Hula is always my favorite!
My life has been rather uneventful the past few weeks, and it’s becoming more and more routine. The highlight of my week is always dinner with the Parry’s on Friday nights. The rest of the week, I’m moving between classrooms, hanging out in the office, attending a Japanese class, and eating dinner alone.
One of my goals in the upcoming weeks is to make more plans with friends. I do expect to be going to Tokyo this winter for a few days with my friends Sayaka and Hanae, so that is one exciting thing to look forward too :)
With love from Osaka,
Ashurii
♥ Dagobert D. Runes (via smallgirltravels)
♥ Lin Yutang (via smallgirltravels)
It’s been a while…
Since I’ve been home from work for two days with and upset stomach + fever thing, I figure I might as well do one productive thing.
For the record, I came back from a wonderful vacation in the States about 4 weeks ago and I am just getting started on one more year teaching in Japan. I am really happy to be back, but it was a bit bittersweet leaving because now I really know how long a year is. I feel blessed to get to teach English for another year at Kiritan, because there really isn’t a better job out there :)
While I was in America…
I went to Gatorland.
I went to the beach.
I went to Tarpon Springs.
I visited NYC with some of my Japanese students!
I went to Buffalo, NY to visit some college friends… yet, I didn’t take many pictures.
You have no idea how much I have missed Wings and Tim Horton’s.
Needless to say, it was nice to be back in the States.
Much love from Japan,
Ashley
So, I went to Korea.
With Hanae’s family for 5 days.
Highlights: It was fun, the food was delicious (though spicy), I made friends, and I got sick. There you have it.
The Korea trip went by too quickly and I was a zombie for half of it since I was feeling sick. Anyway, we visited a church, where I made friends…
Oh course, I don’t have pictures of those friends… because I am an idiot.
We also did a home-stay, of which I only took pictures of my younger host brother and the critters… typical, Ashley.
Host Dad and part of the kitchen… this house was amazing and it had WARM FLOORS! Apparently this is a Korean thing, but all the floors in the house (and at the church and hotel we stayed at) were heated.
I caught this little monster chewing on my bag, I didn’t mind. I mean, look at the cuteness!
This guyy is adorable.
This is Hanae and the Pastor’s wife…. they were making fun of a Korean Drama we had watched, there was this young guy who would walk into a room and make this wide eyed surprised face every time he came on screen.
Look at this breakfast that our host mom cooked for us, it was crazy delicious, though I’m not sure what any of it was.
The Ramen (Ram-yeon) I ended up throwing up later, I know you didn’t need to know that. When you go to Korea, don’t eat the Ramen. Don’t do it. Trust me.
Akiko and Masahito (Hanae’s brother & sister-in-law) with their delicious Korean dishes… notice the metal chopsticks, very Korean.
This was at a castle in Seoul, the were doing a changing on the guard.
I went to Korea in February, so now I am trying to catch up with things. I’ve more or less abandoned this blog, but I hope to change that.
Love you all!
Life goes on in Osaka.
So, the Earthquake that happened last Friday definitely put a damper on things in Osaka, however, life has continued as usual down here. We are completely unaffected this far south.
So, life continues.
Last Wednesday (before the earthquake), I had the opportunity to go to Uji and participate in a green tea ceremony! Which was very cool and exciting, but painful.
This is after the ceremony, in the room where we had it. We sat like this for about 30 minutes, which is painful if you aren’t used to sitting like this. If you think I’m joking, try it. I dare you :)
This is where the tea is prepared, at this cute little table. The edge of the table is curved so that the hostess won’t catch the sleeve of her kimono on the corner. The style of the pottery reflects the season, so these pieces are decorated with Sakura, since spring is almost here.
Fire pit in the middle of the room, you know, totally safe. This is where the water is warmed for the tea.
We also did some sightseeing in Uji and we had a delicious lunch.
Famous Byodoin Temple, at the top you can see there are phoenixs, which is the symbol of this temple. It’s also on some of the Japanese money.
Inside this temple there is a big golden Buddha. We didn’t pay the extra money to see it up close, but it was beautiful even from a distance.
This river is famous in the mythical tale of the Genji, which is a famous old story in Japan and it takes place in Uji which is a real place, but the characters and the story is mythical.
This is the statue of the woman who wrote the tale of the Genji, she was the tutor to a princess, I think. The story is also remarkable because it was written by a woman, which is rare for the time period she lived in.
Flowers! Do you see this? Spring is coming! I am SO excited.
This is lunch. You can see there are green tea noodles, with many, many side dishes that include miso soup, radish, mushrooms, little fish and many other unrecognizable treats.
This is desert. I know, you’re jealous!
This was in front of another shrine we visited. I’m not sure what it’s all about, but I appreciated it regardless.
FLOWERS!
So, that was basically my trip to Uji.
As all of you know, Friday there was a huge earthquake and Tsunami in Japan. During the earthquake I was at my neighbors house and I was sitting and the dining room table with them, talking. We had finished lunch and we just hanging out. I had been at their house all morning with students who were making cards for the graduates who were in English club.
I believe it was just after 3pm. I noticed that the blinds were hitting against the window and my first thought was, “Is the window open?” which would be strange because it was a cold day. Then I noticed the lamp over the table was swinging and I felt the ground moving. I have never felt and earthquake before so I didn’t know what they felt like. This one felt like we were on a boat, it was a gentle gliding but it was very noticeable. Initianlly we didn’t think it was a big deal. After a minute it stopped. But I was very nervous, I won’t lie.
Then we felt it again, it was the same but longer, that made us nervous and so we turned on the TV. Immediately there were warnings for huge a tsunami, people only had 30 minutes to get out. I remembering thinking in my head, “They aren’t going to make it.”
We kept watching the news, NHK, and they were filming near a logging company when the tsunami hit. At first it didn’t seem to bad, the waves didn’t crashed against the shore, the crept up slowly. But then, the water kept coming and coming. Soon cars and semi’s were carried away. The water was knocking down trees and ripping holes in the side of this sheet metal building, crumpling it. I couldn’t believe what we were seeing. We were a little concerned about about our safety, but we so far from the ocean, and a bit elevated, so it didn’t seem like there would be any issues for us at least. But we knew that it would be awful for everyone along the coast and near the center of the quake.
I had to prepare for an English class that night, but I was very shaken up from the quake, it made me so nervous. Knowing how powerless I was to it, I couldn’t control it, I couldn’t run from it. It was a very scary thought.
I didn’t sleep well that night.
On, Saturday, after the earthquake, I went to an English bible study with some of my American friends from Grace Mission. We ate together and talked about Spiritual Disciplines, but mostly we just hung out. It’s nice to just be with people, I hate having structure time.
Here are some outtakes…
Nehemiah, Amy and Dan’s little cutie pie.
Our meeting place, I think its called Cafe Joyful?
Hooligans. Bible study is very serious, you see?
Sign on the train about proper train etiquette :)
Yesterday, I went to a Graduate Party for all of the student who are graduating tomorrow! There was talk of canceling it, but they decided against that. Gotta keep the economy going I guess. It was a fun party, but my feet hurt from standing for 2 hours. There were no chairs, weird, right?
Minami and Shoko
English communication students!
Erika’s hair, she kept telling me she was just like Lady Gaga.
Me and Chihiro, I am going to miss this girl!
Anyway, this last week was quite eventful even in light of all that has happened. Though Osaka is unaffected by the earthquake and tsunami, we definitely feel the emotional weight of knowing that not too far away thousands of people have lost their lives, lost loved ones, and lost their homes. There are plenty of towns that are completely demolished and and thousands of people who are missing and thousands who are displaced. My prayers are with the people of Japan, who I dearly love and have always prayed for. I hope to be apart of relief efforts in the near future.
Please continue to pray for Japan.
- A concerned follower"
Yes, I’m fine! Don’t worry about me.
I am in Osaka, and where I live is inland quite a bit, so we are safe from the Tsunami that was caused by the quake.
I did feel the earthquake, it was very slow moving, like being a ship and it hit 2 times. I was at a friends house, but like I said, we were fine. No buildings were damaged in our area and, of couse, no one injured.
However, many in Japan are not so lucky. Please keep Japan in your prayers as we recover and respond the damage caused by the earthquake and the tsunami! Keep the families who have lost ones in your thoughts as well. Pray that the missing will be found.
Love you all!
