| Happy Halloween - from Tiffany | 10/31 6:09 AM |
| Happy Halloween! It's time again for a fairly popular US holiday. We have our pumpkins sitting on our doorstep and the treats ready for the trick-or-treaters. It's always fun to see the neighborhood kids all dressed up in fun costumes. When I think of Halloween, I remember that the Toys 'R Us in Minami-Hikone always sold Halloween costumes and I always wondered who bought and wore them since it didn't seem like the Japanese in our area really celebrated Halloween. Maybe someday Halloween will catch on Japan :) My favorite part of Halloween is seeing the costumes and carving jack-o-laterns, and the beautiful fall weather we usually have here in Minnesota. All is going well in Minnesota. We are enjoying the fall season and as it starts getting colder, we are thankful we are in a better insulated house with central heating, rather than our thin-walled Japanese apartment. Good news - I got a job! I am actually working at the same job that I had before we came to Japan. I am the Conference Program Coordinator at the National Youth Leadership Council and I help 2 other people put on a 3-day educational conference. I really like the people I work with and, of course, I really like to plan and organize events! I am happy to be working again, although now I have much less free time. But I am making money, so that is good. Joe is hoping to hear about a possible programming job this week. In my time off, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen - cooking and canning lots of produce. This fall, I have been picking a lot of apples from our neighbors so I've made a lot of apple treats, like apple pies, apple crisp, apple butter, and apple sauce. Yum! Right now I have a lot of squash, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes, so I'm hoping to do some cooking with those. I really love how the produce here reflects and revolves around the seasons. We think about Japan often. We actually just made okinomiyaki this week! It was pretty good, but not as good as having it in Japan. We are still trying to find a good Japanese restaurant. And now that it's getting colder, maybe we'll have to get a nabe pot. We miss you all, our international friends! | |
| Fall in Minnesota - from Tiffany | 9/29 11:39 AM |
| I guess it's been awhile since we've posted here. We are wondering, do we keep updating our "Joe & Tiffany in Japan" website if we're not in Japan anymore?? Perhaps we will for a bit... Now that we're home, things don't seem nearly as blog-worthy as they did when we were abroad. And now we see a lot more people in person so it's easier to keep up with everyone. Now we have to try and keep up with all our new friends on the other end of the world. The Fall season has finally arrived in Minnesota! It is one of my favorite seasons. The leaves are starting to turn to oranges, reds, and yellows. The temperatures are cooler. The pumpkins, squash, sweet potatoes, and apples are in at the Farmer's Markets. I love it! We have been getting apples from our neighbors apple orchard, so lately I've been doing a lot of cooking with apples. I've made mini apple pies, apple sauce, apple bread, dried apples, and apple fruit leather. It's all turned out really delicious! I'm thinking about canning the applesauce so it'll last longer. Just today I brought home 42 pounds (about 20 kilos) of apples! Good thing I have a lot of time on my hands to be so domestic in the kitchen! We are still job hunting. It is turning out to be a fairly slow, sometimes disheartening, process. We are starting to have some interviews, so that's good news. Keep your fingers crossed for us! When we're not job hunting, we've been doing things around the house, like putting things away, cooking, and home repairs. I have finally gotten through all of our bins! Now we just have a few piles of things to get rid of for good. Our list of home projects/repairs is pretty long and we haven't really gotten around to many of those things. We've been going down to Maiden Rock City quite a bit, which is where Joe's family's cabin is being built. There was an old cabin there but Joe's parents are building a brand new cabin on the old spot and it's going to be great! We've been going down to help do a few things - Joe does electrical work with his dad, Joe's mom and I do yard work and cleaning up (and apple picking). It's been nice to go visit the cabin and enjoy the nice weather and beautiful view from there. Like I mentioned, I really love the Fall season. It feels like the season is "early" here because when we were in Japan, the leaves weren't at peak color until almost early December! That was so surprising to me over there. By December, there is usually some snow in Minnesota. So, we are enjoying Fall back at the time when we are used to it. We think about Japan alot and miss it often, too. We did find a really good Asian grocery store that carries Pocky, Pretz, Kewpie and Calbee products, okonomiyaki mix, yakisoba, gyozas, nabe ingredients and utensils, sauces, C.C. Lemon, senbei crackers and lots of other things we remember from Japan. It was so exciting to see all those things (and buy them to enjoy at home)! It's fun to eat these Japanese things at our home now, but it doesn't seem quite as good as when we had them in Japan. We were really missing Japanese food and treats so it was a lot of fun to find such a great Japanese grocery store. We hope everyone is enjoying a great Fall! | |
| Home Sweet Home - from Tiffany | 8/6 5:05 AM |
| I think by this time, we are officially fully integrated back in to life in the United States. It's been a great month and a half of being home. We've done a lot of traveling, visiting lots of family and friends, going to vacation places. We especially like going to our family's cabins on the lakes around here. Minnesota is such a beautiful place. We've noticed the skies are are so blue, which contrasts sharply with the bright green tree leaves of the maple and oak trees. The lakes are cool browns and blues and they feel great during a hot Minnesota day. We have started moving back into our house. We rented our house while we were away in Japan and the renters left at the end of July so we have just now been able to get back into our house. We are doing a few home repairs before moving all our furniture in, but we hope to be fully moved in by the end of next week. It is great to have our house again, although it seems very big after 2 years in a Japanese apartment. We were surprised at how much "stuff" we have here and how little "stuff" we needed in Japan. Perhaps we will be having a garage sale to get rid of some of it. We are also still looking for jobs. Joe and I have both applied for jobs but haven't heard anything back yet. Finding jobs is a bit stressful and nervewracking, but I'm sure something will turn up for us. Joe is looking for something involving computer programming and I am looking for something involving event planning. Wish us luck! Summer is in full swing here in Minnesota and we are especially enjoying eatting fresh produce from the Farmer's Markets. There are lots of great veggies in season now (tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, onions, potatoes, beans, etc) and lots of herbs too! I am excited to get my pots and pans so I can start cooking all this good food. We miss Japanese food here and there (for example, Japanese curry, ohm rice, sticky rice) but we've heard about a really good Japanese grocery store that we want to go check out. We heard they even have Pocky & Let's Pretz! Yeah! We hope all is well for all our friends in Japan. I think of Japan often, our friends there, our apartment, riding the trains, traveling around, Kyoto, BBQs, and Lake Biwa. I'm sure some day we'll be back and I hope it's sooner rather than later. We miss you all (but we don't miss the hot and muggy August in Shiga!) and think of you often. | |
| Loving Minnesota - from Tiffany | 6/28 10:09 PM |
| We've been back in the US over a week now. We've found it's been really easy to fall back into old routines and old friendships. It's been great to be around our families and friends and we enjoy the easy conversations. Some things have pleasantly surprised us, for example: the cheap, delicious fruit, making small talk with people around us, the blue skies, and the plethora of Farmer's Market full of fresh produce. And some things we have to be careful of, for example: giant portion sizes, buying gas instead of taking trains or biking, driving on the right side of the road, not being able to yell "sumimasen!" in a restaurant, consumerism from big box stores, using credit cards more than cash, and mosquitos. All in all it is good to be back! We will be heading "up north" tomorrow for the week of 4th of July. We will spend the week at Joe's family's lake cabin, with Joe's family, relaxing, swimming, and boating. We will be busy in July visiting different family vacation places and we are looking forward to it! We are also in the process of looking for jobs, which is never a walk in the park, but obviously we need jobs. Other than that, we are just enjoying being back in Minnesota, land of blue skies and sky blue waters. Happy 4th of July! | |
| Konnichiwa, Minnesota! - from Tiffany | 6/23 4:40 AM |
| We have arrived safe and sound in Minnesota. All our flights went well and we arrived with all our luggage. We ended up paying extra for one heavy bag, but that's OK - we figured one out of four wasn't bad. We were greeted at the airport by Joe's family, which was great! These past couple days we've been seeing even more family and friends. The weather is beautiful here in MN! The skies are bluer than we remembered and the temps are in the mid- to upper-70's (that's farenheit, no more use of the metric system now). Beautiful weather! After getting to Joe's house, our suitcases kind of exploded and we had stuff all over! But, we've cleaned things up, put things away, and are settling in. We will be able to move back into our house (that we are currently renting out to another family) in August, so until then, we are living out of suitcases at various family homes this summer. So, we are getting settled as much as homeless people can :) It's really great to be back! We are having a bit of reverse culture shock, but more on that later. We hope all is well in Japan, and are glad we are missing out on the rainy season over there :) We hope everyone is staying dry! | |
| Sayonara, 日本 - from Tiffany | 6/19 12:47 AM |
| We've arrived at our hotel, ready to get on the airport shuttle bus tomorrow morning. We've checked out of our apartment, deposited all of our cash, and packed and repacked our suitcases. We enjoyed one last night in Kyoto, having a light supper at Kyoto Station. Tomorrow we get on a bus to get on a plane to go back to the U.S. We should be home around 2:30 on Thursday, going back in time from Japan, which is always weird for us. So, we say, "Sayonara, Japan!" | |
| The Home Stretch - from Joe | 6/18 8:22 AM |
| I'm sitting on the floor in our empty apartment because there is nothing left to sit on. As Tiff said, the final things are being wrapped up today. (I believe we lose internet in an hour.) We'll definitely miss our apartment but it's easier to say goodbye when it looks so different with nothing in it. We want to thank all our friends and, yes, family for all they've done for us during our time in Japan. In the end, it's always the people that make the experience meaningful. It's been a life changing experience in Japan and we are so thankful to all! Keep in touch! | |
| Yes - It All Fits! - from Tiffany | 6/17 10:27 PM |
| Well, our Japan adventures are about to come to a close. Today the 2nd Hand Store came to buy back our large appliances and other big furniture. We were a bit disappointed in the final price they offered us, but in the end they took most of the big stuff and we didn't have to deal with it. Perhaps there's just not a big market for used things here in Japan. Let's just say we got less than 5% back of what we initially paid. But, what else were we to do? Luckily our pal Hiroshi was there to negotiate a bit and help us out. After the 2nd Hand Store took stuff, Joe and Hiroshi made a trip to the incenerator with the rest of our stuff no one wanted. And then after that (it was a big day!), we made trips with Hiroshi's help, over to Nova with lots of stuff for the teachers. It was a lot of up and down steps today! And it's not rainy season yet, but it was hot and sunny today, which maybe is just as bad for moving as rainy season is. After delivering a lot of things, Joe and actually started putting things in suitcases. I was a bit nervous that it wouldn't all fit, but we did some rearranging and fancy packing and it all fit!! We were lucky to have so many friends and family come so that we could send stuff home with them before our big move home. We've already sent home so much stuff! Our bags are pretty heavy and our carry-ons are loaded down with the even heavier things like books and pottery, but I think we'll be within the limit (fingers crossed). Tomorrow we have the gas guy, the internet guy, and the water guy stopping by to disconnect and turn things off and to settle our accounts. And then we check out of our apartment around noon. Then our Japanese mom and dad will pick us and all our luggage up and drive us to Kyoto. We're spending the night in Kyoto tomorrow night and then will catch the Keihan bus straight to Kansai airport. This is the easiest for us with so much luggage. It is going to be very difficult to say goodbye. It already has been. We are really going to miss all our friends here and the Japanese way of life. We have been blessed by so many wonderful people and experiences that we couldn't have asked for a more amazing time in Japan. Thank you to all of you who have come into our lives during our time here. You will be a part of our Japan memories forever. Please keep in touch! And since we may not have internet much tomorrow, I am saying "sayonara" now - "Sayonara Everyone!" :) | |
| Will It All Fit? - from Tiffany | 6/17 10:39 AM |
| We are sitting around waiting for the 2nd Hand Shop to show up. They are coming to hopefully buy back a lot of our big furniture. But, after they take it, I'm afraid we'll only have our futons to sit on. Today we have to pack our suitcases too. Things are sitting in piles, but we haven't tried actually putting things in bags yet. I sure hope it all fits! I guess we can always mail some things home if we need to. It is a gorgeous day here today! We are thankful that the "rainy" season has held off until we leave. We've had some really nice days lately, which have been great for all the BBQs and outtings we've been doing. We've been visiting more places, "one last time," including my favorite coffee shops. We enjoyed a BBQ and a trip to the local izakaya with our Japanese friends, staff, and teachers. It's been a great, but busy, past couple of weeks. I'm not sure why, but it smells like a campfire (perhaps someone is burning a rice field) and it really reminds me of Minnesota. It is very strange to think that we will be there in a few days. | |
| 3 Days and Counting - from Tiffany | 6/15 10:59 AM |
| Well, more things have left our apartment. Our friends are taking things and we've been giving away a lot of things for free. Since we are renting our own apartment, we had to buy EVERYTHING for our place. And now we've got to get rid of it! On Tuesday the 2nd Hand shop in Omihachiman is coming to take our big furniture, which we are grateful for. If they didn't take it, we're not sure what we would've done with our big things like our sofa, kitchen table, fridge, washing machine, etc. We will check out of our apartment Wednesday morning, so I'm not sure what we'll do Tuesday night - perhaps just sitting on our tatami mat floors, zipping our suitcases shut :) Last night we had a great time at our friend Hiroshi's. He had a big BBQ in his yard with a lot of our friends. The food was delicious (and there was a lot of it!) and it was good to see everyone. We brought S'mores to share with everyone for dessert. We like to cook them over a campfire, but the coals of a grill work just as well. S'mores (a roasted marshmellow smashed between two graham crackers with a piece of chocolate on it) were a big hit!! We are glad everyone liked one of our favorite camping treats. We also enjoyed BBQ'd meat, vegetables, yakisoba, and a birthday cake from Kaoru. It was a fun night! This past week we also enjoyed Omi Beef at Restaurant Tiffany's in Omihachiman. We had the best seats in the house and got to taste a very tender omi fillet steak. It was really delicious but haven't yet decided if it's better than Kobe beef, like everyone says around here :) I also made one last trip to Kyoto for some final souveniers. And on Friday, we rode the train all the way around Lake Biwa with our friends Shizuka and Keiko. The west and north side of the lake is really beautiful, so it was fun to relax on the train and look out the window. Today we're going to make one last trip to our favorite coffee shop on Lake Biwa called Chalet. It is a really cute log cabin coffee shop, right on the shore. And tonight we will have one final party with our Nova friends and staff at the local izakaya, Wara Wara. It should be lots of fun! I think we have conquered everything on our "To Do in Japan" list! We are really pleased and grateful for our time in Japan. We have so many memories and stories and new friends. | |