I Think I'm Turning Japanese

     Ok I'm sorry. I know I'm way behind on my blog, but I don't have time to spend on my computer when there's just so much Japanese-ing to be done.  Sorry everyone. But I've got some good stories to share and I know everyone will enjoy this so I hope it's well worth the wait.
I think it's been not quite a month since I last wrote so I'm going to just have to focus on the high lights or it might take so long to read that I'll be home from Japan before you finish (perish the thought!)

      So I'll start off with just some basic things. Like this photo which looks straight from a Miyazaki movie (like Spirited Away) or something.  I pass this every day on my way to work and it kind of makes me want to go in and explore.

I've been doing a bit of exploring around Sapporo (and really it's probably a miracle that I haven't gotten completely lost yet) and I've started discovering cool places like this just hanging out around the city.  I thought it was pretty cool. Some days I'm just biking to work and I'm like 'that looks like a nice trail to go down' and so I do. And then I am rewarded with things like this. And then I wander around until I find a landmark I know and I am once again on my way.

I've discovered some nice places to eat. For example, this delicious udon restaurant that I'm addicted to because of the tempura veggies that you can buy with it. Ah I want it right now as I type this...but that's probably because I haven't had lunch yet. But seriously, doesn't it look delicious? That U shaped thing is a squash or something (it's orange) but it's kind of sweet and I love it.  Ahhhhh.... food.


Also, I bike over this bridge every day and only recently explored it's banks with Souhei and Adrian. But look how pretty it looks. (Who am I kidding? Everything is pretty here in Japan.) So this is also a daily part of my life that I probably take for granted and just really need to stop, sit back, and re-evaluate.
                                                    I SPEND EVERY DAY IN JAPAN!

And I spend lots of time exploring the city with these two boys. Not only do I get to be the only white person in the group, but I'm also the only girl. Hooray for being the minority (this is never a thing at BYU.)

Also I may have totally gone to the zoo in Japan.  Now I think that makes 1 zoo in Nebraska, 1 in Paris, and 1 in Sapporo. I think I'm dominating this world zoo list. Not that I have one...but maybe I should get on that.
It was actually a lot of fun, despite the fact that it was freezing and super windy. That actually made it more ideal because there wasn't really anyone else around. No lines! That meant we could just stroll right in to see these adorable little monkeys and we didn't have to share them with anyone. Buahaha. Ok so not that I think it would have been that crowded anyway, but it's fine since I like the wind.

But let's be honest, all of the most exciting things happened the day after the zoo. Does anyone know what happened that day? It begins with an H and also ends with an H!... You got it! HANUKKAH!


Oops. I meant Hannah-close enough.  Obviously I had to greet her with this sign. My host parents made it for me when I came to Japan but since we were all at different terminals they didn't actually get to use it. So now seemed like the best time. Hannah's here! She's in Japan with me! (Well she was. Now she's gone.)  This was the beginning of the greatest adventures of our lives. (Kidding. But maybe some of the funniest.)

First of all, let me just say that Hannah and I being in the same country means that big things are going down. Which explains why Elder Christofferson felt the need to come and say hi. I mean how often are all 3 of us ini Japan together? (Not often.)






 So each day we would go out and do things. This is a cool park that we discovered on our way to somewhere else and so we got slightly distracted.  That's Hannah in the middle and Souhei doing the robot on the right side.  Sometimes it's kind of scary having Hannah here because it's just so easy for her to blend in and get lost amidst all the other blonde heads here....oh wait. I forgot that we are generally the only blondes for miles. That's actually pretty fun and definitely a first.


We also saw this cool park that wasn't really a park but rather a Hokkaido government building lawn. But it's totally epic.  We would have done more exploring if we weren't so hungry and on the hunt for sushi.

And, as if our hair doesn't make us stand out enough, sometimes we like to make really embarrassing mistakes. Like at this sushi restaurant, for example. That green stuff, despite what you may think, is NOT (I repeat, not) powdered wasabi.  Sadly, all 3 of us (Adrian, Hannah, and I) had already mixed it into our soy sauce. I'm actually not sure who was more embarrassed for us: the store person who came to inform  us that we had just put green tea into our soy sauce or us...Good thing we didn't have Souhei with us. We'd never have interesting stories like this if natives were around to keep us from looking silly. What a relief.

Also I can finally mark 'ride tandem on a bicycle' off my list. Although this picture probably won't be what most people expect when they see 'tandem riding.'

Saturday was quite the day. We had a fun filled day planned that began (quite early I might add) with Momo's sports festival! Look at how adorable and Asian she is?  I've never had little sisters before, but I'm thinking Asian ones are the way to go. Luckily, cheering for Momo all day out in the sun gave me the perfect opportunity to work on that tan I've always wanted...Because who doesn't find these kind of tan lines attractive? Really.





This is Momo dominating at her race. Okay, so she got third, but that means that she dominated the other two people. That's my girl! The one who is running like her legs and arms are made of spaghetti because she's got such great form.

And here's a picture of some of the other stuff they did. They had a bunch of events. This one was a flower dance something or other. It was extremely entertaining. And let's not discount the fact that Hannah and I participated in at least 2 different events during this sports festival. (Any visiting foreign girls' dream-obviously.) For one of the races they had to run, find their partner, and then find somebody who fit the description (which changed every time.) For example, the first one was 'fathers' so my host dad hopped up and ran for that one. The one that Hannah and I did was essentially for people not from the Hokkaido area. I figured we counted for that. So we both hopped up and ran with these kids. It was adorable because after running the little kids gave me their cards and they are the cutest things ever.


We, sadly, weren't able to stay for all of Momo's sports festival because we had a wedding reception to get to! And apparently, so did this one girl from my BYU Japanese class. Don't worry, she's not in the Sapporo ward or anything-she just randomly happened to be at this wedding too. Soooooo unexpected. But awesome also.

So this is that point where I attach that video that everyone has been waiting for. The one where my sister partially tricked me into agreeing to dance at this Japanese wedding reception when really it was partially a fault of me not understanding and the rest of me underestimating Japanese weddings. Regardless, I accidentally (on purpose) volunteered Hannah too once I was a part of it because, apparently, my sister needed 2 more people so I figured us 2 were perfect. And then it somehow spiraled into us being part of a 5 person Japanese boy band wearing high school uniforms and doing a choreographed dance at the reception.
(Not sure when it got to that point-but this was definitely a thing that happened.) I used to think that the Japanese onsen (public bath house) was about as Japanese as I could get, but this may have taken the cake. (That's me on the right. In case you get me confused with the other 1 white person dancing up there.)
Here's a sneak peek of us in our uniforms to get you mentally prepared for watching the video. Or else it's awesomeness might just make you pass out.

5 person J-Pop boy band at a Japanese Wedding Reception

(Sorry, I did my best to embed the video but technology is just really hating me at the moment.)

Anyway, after the wedding, Hannah, Souhei, Adrian, and I took the Ropeway up the mountain so we could see Sapporo at night. It was beautiful and totally worth the $11 up there. Except our tickets didn't take us all the way to the top and I was too cheap to buy another so I made everyone walk.  But it was actually pretty nice out and only 1/8 of a mile more to the top (so not worth $6.) Of course it was also pitch black and nothing but stone steps-so great and adventuresome!  So enjoy this night's view of Sapporo. I know I did! The trip down the mountain was actually pretty fun because who doesn't like a trip down steep, stone steps in the dark a possibility of bears roaming around? Obviously that was also an adventure. 

I was kind of exhausted when we got home that night. Since Hannah and I had ridden to the church with my family in the car, we didn't have our bikes waiting for us at the church. So we decided to walk home because  taking the subway and the street car and walking between isn't that much faster than just walking. Plus it was a super nice night out-so walking it was! It only took us 75 minutes to get home but it gave us a good chance to talk.

  Man, I forgot how nice it is to have someone around who understands me completely.  Not that I'm complaining about Japan-because I love being here- but it would be nice if Hannah didn't leave.

(Contrast the beauty of Sapporo at night to Sapporo in the day. Behold!)









The next day we got to spend lots of quality time with the family because it was Sunday so we all went to church, hung out, drove around and saw some sights, had dinner together, the usual. So these pictures are from some of the places they took us to see.


The first one is Hannah and Momo because they got along so well while Hannah was here. Finally, someone Momo's own age for her to play with. :)

I bet you didn't realize that Stonehenge was in Japan. Or that it's under construction.  Yup...both of those things happened. (Sorry about the glare from the car window.)

Then there are these Easter Island statues. Also very normal. But not quite as normal as the fact that I'm actually trying to sit like a lady on that fake deer while Hannah is completely straddling hers. (Momo's doing her best to accomplish both at once.)

Just look at how well Hannah fits in-she can't leave now!

Monday was a big day too (every day is a big day when Hannah's here.) My host mom dropped the 5 of us off at an onsen town about 30 minutes away and we spent the day at the water park/onsen there. It was a ton of fun. Momo had the day off of school (since her sports festival was on Saturday) so she came with.  So we all had a ton of fun at the water park. Mainly we just followed Momo around as she chose where to go. But it was nice because I understood a lot more this time.    I even felt less awkward about the onsen this time. Not quite sure how Hannah felt about that. But obviously we both had a great time awkwardly laughing and not looking at each other and just enjoying the hot springs. 

This is a creeper shot that Hannah took of Souhei, Momo, and I walking around. It's kind of far away because well, it's apparently not a very good creeper shot, but Hannah said we looked like a little family. Ahhh I wish. I hope I have cute little Japanese daughters like Momo.                                               We got home around 4 pm and had to rush to church since classes start early on Mondays. So even though I really wanted to take a nap, we left to go teach. (Hooray for night classes. Oh wait.)                         

 But since class ended early we decided to go out for dinner and get some delicious Japanese food (since Hannah's time is running out. At least, her time in Japan.) So here's the 4 of us getting yakiniku. Which was so delicious but even though the menu said for 3-4 people what it really meant was 1 Hannah.  This is Adrian's sad face that it's already all gone. No more meat. 

Monday night we ended up watching Harry Potter with these guys so we got home kind of late. So we decided to go home right after class on Tuesday to get extra family time in since Hannah was leaving on Wednesday.

We spent Tuesday doing some last minute errands for Hannah/drinking chocolate milk and eating ramen. This was our first and last bowl together in Sapporo.  Luckily, even though today was bitter sweet, we spotted this random lady doing her grocery shopping in her casual kimono so that made up for the fact that Hannah has to leave. (I think she would agree with me here.) We have now dubbed Tuesday "Kasual Kimono Kayoubi" (Kayoubi-Tuesday) and if you're feeling really wild you can even throw 'Kaimono' in there (as that is Japanese for shopping and also starts with a K.) Anyway, obviously a creeper shot was necessary. I'm just a little bit disappointed that Hannah and I didn't think to ourselves 'gee, I need to run to the store real fast. I'll just throw on this kimono that's lying around and be back in a few.'


Here's another example of how awesome my family is. Since it was Hannah's last day they made this delicious meal of sukiyaki where you just throw a bunch of delicious food in a pot and then dip it in egg and eat. Then they even bought a small pack of fireworks for us to do together. It was so much fun.



Plus Hannah decided to get 'thank you' donuts for everyone so then we all ate those. The fun and food just never stopped. Although, from this picture I'm not completely sure these Japanese people know exactly what to do with donuts. But never fear, us Americans will teach them the way of sugar!






(Speaking of 'fatty' Americans = Hannah and I) Don't worry that this was a normal ritual at night. Hole up in my room after we've 'gone to bed' and snack on all the American junk food I brought with me. Obviously it's an important part of the ritual that I didn't bring a spoon so we were trying to reach the bottom of the peanut butter jar with our fingers.




Sadly, the day did eventually come where Hannah had to go. So this is us together at the bus stop waiting for the bus that signifies the end of our friendship.....in Japan. She's so stinking excited to be rid of me.
Luckily as we were waiting for the bus we randomly saw 5 tanks drive by, so we decided to dub Wednesday "casual tank wednesday' (Sorry there's no alliteration this time.)


Anyway, now she's gone.  What to do with myself?
Playing frisbee seemed like a good option-so I did that on Saturday. (My friend even took some pictures, but I don't have them yet and I don't want to take any longer to post this.) We also went to the Yosakoi festival at the park. Which, essentially, was like a giant dance competition. People formed teams and then performed their dance. It was like a giant never ending parade of traditional Japanese dances. It was actually pretty cool. We watched that for about an hour. This was my first time hanging out with some of the other YSAs outside of church so it was fun to get to talk to everyone.

Anyway, I think I'm going to wrap this up because I've kept my family waiting for this post long enough. And there are potentially lots of epic things you guys are missing out on because I can't remember them at the moment (I'm tired.) But oh well, this post already has too much fun in it.

So I'll leave you with this video as proof that I'm putting my time to good use here in Japan. (I practiced how to do a pull over.) Hopefully it works...you know me and technology.

(scratch that. The pull over video hates me.)

Also, does anyone else feel like facebook is a little racist? Momo and Shelly definitely do not look the same. 

Also, I might cry. My time in Japan is already half over.  Make it stop!!! Why is it going so fast?!

Strike 1 Japan

For those of you who are reading the title and now dying to know what could possibly cause me to give Japan a strike-let me put your curiosity at rest.
Since coming to Japan I've noticed a few things that are rather odd about this country. Like how I used my first squat toilet the other day. Why was that ever a thing?  Or how you have to separate your garbage (that's not so bad) but then you have to pay for the little bags to get it collected. Or even how they love cleanliness here but refuse to put out garbage bins anywhere so you are just stuck lugging your trash around. These things are definitely note worthy but they don't cause me to wonder as much as these next few questions. I feel I can't go much longer without having them answered...
1-Why do the guys carry around purses? I'm not saying they probably aren't useful for them, but it's definitely throwing me off.
2-Why are the forks and spoons so small here? I don't understand. At all. Just look at this thing! (The one on the left is a normal sized fork and the one on the right is what everyone actually uses.) Luckily, we use chop sticks for just about everything.
3-But what's really got me is why ISN'T CHOCOLATE MILK A THING HERE? I tried to ask one of my students where it was in the grocery store and he looked at me like I had just made that up.  This is crazy. Luckily I've been getting by on substitutes. This is some cocoa mix that they sell at the store. It's not quite the same thing, but it gets the job done. Here is the beginning of what I can see turning into quite a large collection.

Anyway, I'm through ranting about chocolate milk-onto all of my adventures!


 So I stopped last week's blog on Saturday which was obviously a mistake since that day was just full of stories to tell.  My parents took me and two of the daughters to a place called Lagoon which is a combination (mini) water park and onsen. This is what the water park looked like. (I'm pretty convinced it's actually for kids but, hey, who's going to complain about going to a water park when it only costs $6?...Or, just in general, who would complain about going to a water park?)

 So enjoy these photos. Especially the one of us and the polar bear. 

Little did I know that after the water park the actual adventure began. Turns out, that I forgot a major component of what an onsen is - 'public bath house.' Boy was that awkward (It was separated by gender, obviously, but still so awkward.) But I guess it's pretty fun to have that experience under my belt. (Although I'm rather glad it's already taken care of and not something I still need to experience.) Despite my constant awkwardness, it was actually really pretty. Obviously I didn't take pictures while we were all there, but here are some from the website. These windows were open so you could feel the fresh air and see the pretty view while relaxing in the hot water. I actually really enjoyed that part. Plus I went to my first Sauna. That was definitely on my bucket list.

 Let's see, I've started biking to work every day and it's so pretty outside. This way I will really be able to explore Sapporo. (Although it's nice to have the option of the subway if I need it.) These are a few of the things I see on my way to and from work. There are always mountains around to look at. Plus I bike over this river every day on a bridge that has some random German name.

 This bottom picture is one I really love. There's a little river I bike by and the cherry blossoms are still in bloom as well as some random tulips. It's so fantastic. Biking is the best.

  So, let me try to summarize my week since this is already kind of long.  I went to my first Japanese library and got my own library card.  Good thing I'm so good at reading in Japanese. (Yes, that is sarcasm for those of you who have trouble recognizing it on the computer.) However, it is still pretty exciting. I love libraries.)  I also went and saw the cherry blossoms. This time I went with the bishop, his wife and son, the bishop's brother-in-law (who is also in my English class), and my teaching partner Adrian. I'm glad that we went now because the blossoms were really pretty. Here is the entrance.

And I will be silent for a few to let everyone enjoy the beauty of Japan.  Go ahead. Bask.

Ok, silence is over. Explanation time. 

This is a place where you wash your hands and 'drink' the water to cleanse yourself and get blessed before entering the temple. Pretty cool. 

Everyone, take a good, long look at this adorable little boy. (This is the bishop's son. He is 1/2 Canadian, 1/2 Japanese.)  How adorable is he? Hopefully this is what my future looks like. (Not this exactly, but the whole 1/2 Japanese part at least?)

You would probably think I'm crazy if I told you that I tried squid at dinner one night and it looked like this.   Ya....I didn't really like it. It tasted like tentacles.

 So you will probably think I'm even weirder if I tell you I tried it again later.  I've always wanted to try one of these squids on a stick (since I've seen it on Japanese shows) and now the chance had arrived. I couldn't possibly back out now. But I could possibly convince my coworker to try it with me.  


Not bad...a little salty but all in all, definitely worth trying. The man even cut it up for us so it was easy to eat.




This was all happening at Maruyama park where we went with 2 of our students to go see the cherry blossoms again. Sadly, they were already gone by Saturday (good thing we went earlier.) but it was still fun going with everyone. The four of us walked up to the park together and it was a nice day and, again, a pretty view.   Then we got there and looked at the Yatai (which are kind of like carnival stands, with games and food.) We bought some Taiyaki which are little fish shaped things with cream or sweet red bean paste inside. So that's the 3 of us with our taiyaki (that was also on my Japan to do list. Plus it was only $1!) This is a picture with all of us that went today.

                                                                         

On the left is Adrian, 24, who is my English teaching partner. (He is from Malaysia, but people often mistake him for Japanese here and try to speak to him in Japanese-poor guy.  He isn't fluent or anything, but he's lot better than me. Pretty handy to have around.) Next to him is Taiki, 16, who is one of our English students. He's a pretty funny guy.  Next to him is Souhei, 21, who is addicted to Coke (which is why that coke bottle is also in the picture with us.) Finally, there's me. Woo for being the only girl-always. After this we went to a different part of the park and we played ultimate frisbee. Well, we did the best we could anyway. Another of our students showed up so we had this slightly awkward game of 3 v 2. So....I will practice frisbee with them along with their English and my Japanese. It was fun. :)

 So...to wrap up here's a few last pictures. Momo (my youngest new sister) took me out onto the roof yesterday and these are some pictures from there.  This is her.
And here are some of the cherry blossom tree next to the house.  This was last night and today all the blossoms are already gone.

The sun was setting so this was kind of pretty. 

Oh and my family asked to play Spoons for our FHE game tonight. So that was pretty fun that they enjoyed it last week enough to ask to play again. 

Finally, Ane made a beautiful cake for her mom since it's mothers day. So we celebrated by eating it! Yum! I even got milk to drink with it. What a feast!

To sum this up in a sentence: I just spend every day hanging out with Asians.

Bucket list- I'm still coming for you.

Can You Be Jealous of Your Own Life?

       Well, I've officially be in Japan for a full week now (since I landed in Tokyo around 3 pm.) Of course, I didn't get to my house in Sapporo until about 9 that night, and even then the adventures didn't start until Saturday, but still. It's a big day for me.
   So let's see. What have I done since coming to the dream land.  Hm. Nothing much.
Joke. If you believed that then that's the real joke. Every day's been an adventure.
   Monday was my first day teaching the LTL class and I was all alone because my partner hadn't yet arrived in Japan. So it was just me and 4 boys hanging out-and by hanging out I obviously mean learning English. We ended up playing frisbee (obviously I have no idea how that happened...but there was still English involved!) That morning I had some time to myself at home so I hung out and tried to be productive. But really, who can be productive when there's Japan to be in? (I haven't done a single hour of work since coming-woo!/fail.)
    Tuesday- This is Golden Week in Japan so today everyone had school and work off. So we went Japanese thrift shopping. Hooray-that's a thing!  After that we went to go look for a present for my host dad's mom and we got lunch at McDonalds. (I'm not sure if they eat there normally or if they just went there because I was there. Either way. First McDonalds in Japan-check.) For some reason the water cups only come with that much water. They hate hydration. Or maybe just Americans/me.  Anyway, today at class we had 6 students and both teachers-success! I don't know if all 6 students will keep coming bu it's fun. It's pretty entertaining because it was me and 7 guys in the classroom. I sure know how to fix the odds in my favor here in Japan. I'll work on that in America.    That night after class I went to a restaurant with my family for the birthday dinner and there was about 11 of us there. During dinner, I noticed Remon chan (my 10 year old sister) kept looking over at the next table and giggling. There was this table of boys (in their late teens) over there and they were totally flirting! The boys would look at her and wave and  she would giggle and look away.  Why is my 10 year old sister already better with boys than me? Something else to work on.

     (Wed) So I mentioned to my family that I have a list of things to experience while in Japan so they've taken it upon themselves to help me fulfill it all.  So on Tuesday they took me to a famous ramen place in Sapporo. Here's my bowl. It was delicious. The shop was called Menya Saimi-so good! Here's a picture my dad took of me and my ramen. The bowls are so large and full of deliciousness! Don't even try to not be jealous. Just accept it and keep reading. They even took me to a sakura park to see the cherry blossoms (also on my list.)  We'll go back again later when more trees are in bloom, but look forward to these kind of pictures!

Thur-Today I had a nice relaxing morning and used the opportunity to finally catch up in my journal. It's good to know that I'm doing so much that I'm always behind in my journal, but, at the same time, I hate being behind in my journal! Anyway, I didn't do much this morning (except for my first hour of work-nice work, Laura) but this afternoon my parents and I made takoyaki together. (Tako=octopus) This is the tako. I know-it looks weird. And it is weird. But also, delicious. (At least inside the takoyaki it is.) This is us making it in their takoyaki machine. We put a bunch of stuff in it. Then you let it cook and you make little balls out of it.  Finally, these delicious little things are cooked and ready to eat. We put some sauce on it and ate a ton. (Ahhhhh so good.)

Then I had to hurry to church for my lesson. Don't worry-so used to taking the street car, the subway, and walking to church by myself now. Everyone stares at me and my out-of-placeness and the fact that I'm alone.This is what I see on my walk to church.

 Turns out, I'm kind of allergic to Japan (like every foreign country I go to.) So I've started wearing this mask in my room so I don't sneeze every few minutes. It's cool though-now I look just like everyone else. (Not my family really, but so many people wear these masks here. So strange.)

(Friday) Finally, it's Friday! Today I had the morning to myself so I worked and caught up in my journal. This afternoon I went to my sister, Remon chan's (10), elementary school with my parents to watch an assembly.  This was probably the second time in my life where an auditorium full of people stared at me (with the first being that time I wiped out in American Heritage.) Still not sure which is weirder. Oh well-so fantastic. That's my sister there with the white sweater, skirt, and leggings on the right there. She's adorable.

All in all, this past week in Japan has been fantastic and I can already tell my comprehension has increased a ton. So I have high hopes for the next 11 weeks. I couldn't have asked for a more welcoming family and everything about this country just makes me love it more. I think my brother summed it up pretty well when he sent me this picture which represents me in Japan. So...until next time! Gotta go teach class.

A Hobbit's Tale. Joke. It's a Drake's tale. And this Drake is headed to Asia!

     So....this was one ridiculous(ly epic) trip to Japan. At least, that's what I tell myself to make all the traveling seem less....*insert slightly unsavory but not completely awful adjective.* To start off the trip, I woke up at 5 am and Sarah drove me to the Front　Runner station so I could return to Provo. (I had to spend one last day with little Max before he gets any less little. And Sarah and Johnny, of course.)
 
 From 6-8 am I was on the train listening to this lady tell me all about her trip to Japan  while I tried to work (fail.) Then it was time for my fantastic road trip with Whitney Gould. Essentially we just sang for 12 hours straight  (except for those 20 minutes we stopped for lunch.) This was actually the first time (that I remember at least) driving through southern Utah, so here are the mandatory pictures of the red rocks.
 Wooo. So pretty...and all that jazz. But let's focus on what's really important-which is this picture Whitney took of me driving which somehow has a stamp with her face on it inside.  So great! Her photography skills never cease to amaze.

     So we finally made it to her house in Thousand Oaks (after successfully running into all the traffic-hooray) and we got Korean food one last time together (well, the last time for the next 3 months anyway.) That night we didn't really sleep because I was preparing to leave the country in the morning (no big deal.) I was up until about 12:30 am and I didn't want to sleep because we had to wake up at 3 am to leave for the airport, but I couldn't do it. Around 12:30 am I crashed but no worries. Anyone who knows me might, at this point, be worrying that I will sleep through my alarm. Because, let's be honest, that's what I do. I sleep (through alarms. Like for finals, for meetings, etc. It's a skill I've been working on for years now.) But NOTHING was keeping me from Japan. I totally woke up on my own (my own=with an alarm but without anyone having to call.)


The next day was just one really long day of travel. (If I thought Wednesday was long, I was wrong.) I got to the airport around 4:30 am, had my first flight at 6:30, a layover in Canada, my next flight to Tokyo, and then once I made it to Tokyo I had another flight to Sapporo. The lady next to me on our super long flight was very friendly and we became friends and once we got to the airport her mothering instincts took over and she totally took care of me.  She showed me where to change my money, where customs was, where to find my next train, essentially she was a miracle.

 And then, because one miracle apparently wasn't enough, I ran into Natasha at the airport. It was crazy-we were on different flights and different airlines and yet we saw each other.
 So, I woke up on Thursday morning at 3 am (after sleeping so well the past 2 nights) and didn't make it to my host family's house until about 9 pm Friday night. Sick, right? (And not that new, hip way of using sick where it has some positive connotation.)

But, regardless of how long it took me to get here. I'M HERE! I've been waiting for this all of my life! Okay, well at least a solid half of my life.  I'm in my dream country. Except in dreams you generally understand what people are saying.  Turns out, sadly, people do not walk around with subtitles in real life. But it's cool, my Japanese has already gotten better (I hope.) I'm going on two days now in Japan, so here's just a few pictures. I haven't done anything too wild. Here's one of me and my new sisters. In case you can't tell, I'm the one in white (I know it's hard to tell us apart. Oh and I'm also the white one.) That's Sakura (14), Lemon (10) and Akane (18).
   Even without leaving the house, every day is an adventure, (just trying to speak the language is an adventure) but so you can experience this with me here's some pictures of the bathroom.  Don't even ask me what all these buttons are for on the toilet (that box on the left)- I have no idea. I have one that I use. It works. I'm sticking with it. The shower...well. Not the most accurate name. You get in the bath, but you actually wash your body while sitting on those stools out of the water (the frog face is my preferred one) and then rinse off with the little shower head.  So...that's happened. Twice.

 



Finally, today was my first day at church in Japan.  I never really expected to find myself playing the piano in Relief Society in JAPAN.  Also we had some choir practice thing after church and after it ended this lady tried to recruit me to the choir but I'm pretty sure it's not because she heard me singing during practice. In fact, she must have not heard me, otherwise, that invitation would so not be a thing. Anyway, today was a strange mixture of going through an entire lesson/sacrament without really understanding a thing and then having one translator replace another as soon as the spot was vacated. I'm so popular in Japan. I should just always be here.   I'm just going to wrap up here because this is already pretty long. But tomorrow is my first day of teaching (don't worry, my lesson plan is definitely not a thing at the moment) so wish me luck! My teaching partner won't get in until tomorrow or Tuesday.

Also, now that I have a fancy, new smart phone I have instragram and snapchat (I'm so high-tech.) So if anyone wants extra pictures of Japan, just find me. Just look for Laura Drake and with snap chat I think it's drake-san.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　じゃあみんあ。さよなら。
And yes, this is everything I wanted and more. So great.   Bucket list here I come.