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.

and my life passed away like as it were unto me a dream

So I am extremely behind in my blog seeing as I still haven't written about my last 3 or so weeks of being in Europe, and I've already been home about 3 weeks. Life is flying by. This whole trip feels like a long time ago.

After the program ended, Emily, Megan, Amanda, Rachel, and I all stayed in Nice for another 4 days so we had plenty of chances to hang out with these crazy french kids some more :)  We went night swimming a few times, we saw the Men in Black 3 in French, we went to some random beach and spent the day there. It was a party with no homework or studying allowed! hooray :) We also ate delicious gelato. But one of my favorite memories was when Emily and I were waiting to meet up with everyone for the movie, and this random man comes up and starts asking us if we believe in UFO's and all that jazz. But it's really difficult to follow the conversation because we didn't exactly cover this sort of vocabulary in class, but still super entertaining :)

 
I even rode my first motorcycle in France :) woohoo.

 and of course there were randomly trees to climb at the beach, so that happened.  But of course, these days of vacation couldn't last. (Vacation never does) So at 4:30 in the morning the 5 of us take a shuttle to the airport and say goodbye. Sad day.

That was the end of our adventure in France together, but that just meant it was the beginning of our party in England! :)  Just to prove how much we were partying, here's me eating an english scone. So delicious.  You can tell England was going to be exciting because it started with Amanda and I sitting at the airport, still not quite sure where we were staying, barely made it through customs, feeling pretty hungry, and eating a fruit-by-the-foot that I found in my bag.
"I feel like a hungry, homeless person." -me

"You are a hungry, homeless person." -Amanda

(Thanks for that, Amanada) :P

We took one of those semi-lame/extremely touristy-y double-decker bus tours.  Which I counted as seeing all the important parts of the city.  

 that took a while, and we also wandered around the city enjoying the sights and the accents.   We also decided to find our hostel that we were going to stay out and I walked out of there thinking "a really run down efy center" while amanda thought "oh my gosh we're gonna die!" (or something similar)

Our second day in England, Sue (the mom) gave us a tour around Stanford Le Hope and we saw this cute little park. We did this awesome little thing, I can't remember what it was called. but it was more exciting than normal because of the giant puddle running all the way under it, if you fell you'd make a big splash :)

 She dropped us off at an outdoor mall to look around after we ate lunch together, and these were the portion sizes. Ridiculous right?  I don't think this could have fed a 3rd world country, I think it was the size of a third world country!  But it was delicious. I think it was called a Mediterranean Pie.  Funny story about the we found a FREE BOOK SHOP (if you don't know what that means then read the name again, it's exactly as it sounds) which was a huge problem, because I had very little (/really no) extra space. But don't worry, I ended up walking out of there with only like 7 books or something...not a problem at all.  The problem was that Amanda went to do shopping while I stayed and looked around and the shop closed while I was there, so I looked like some homeless bum waiting for her.  And then she came back like an hour later, and we went to starbucks to do some more waiting (we were waiting for a call to come home)  and then starbucks closed, so we were again homeless bums. Amanda was standing about 10 feet from me trying to use Starbucks internet, so I was sitting on the floor with all the bags, reading my book (still) and then a random lady comes up and gives me a pamphlet about Jesus. She was sure that I was a hobo, I just know it.  So that was entertaining, and weird.  Our last day with the family was fun, we just spent time together, ordered Chinese take-out for dinner and ate a movie while chilling. These kids are so sweet, and I even got used to the dog constantly licking my feet.  

 

Here's Steve driving us to the train for the last time. I had to take a picture to prove that I actually rode in these backward cars! :P

Of course we started our time in London with a visit to King's Cross station, because what Harry Potter fan wouldn't?  Of course, we totally missed this place at first and ended up wandering around the station for a while speaking in fake british accents. But as we turned around, slightly heart broken and fairly disappointed, we saw a huge group of tourists gathered by the wall, and sure enough, there it was! We had found it! Our ticket to Hogwarts!  Obviously we didn't get on right then because, as you can see, our luggage was at the hostel. 

Plus we had to go see PHANTOM OF THE OPERA! that night, so I didn't want to miss that.

Here's our room, this is almost all of it. What isn't shown is the tiny shower to the left of the desk/sink thing.  Our room was so legit. (code for: we didn't even have drinking water)  

Our days in London were amazing. We'd spend the day time wandering around the city or exploring different parks and spend each night at a different musical. Seriously, who wouldn't love London if this was all you did? (except it was rather expensive) but the fact that Sherlock Holmes takes place here makes it even cooler to me.

Of course I found some more trees to climb because we spent so much time in gardens, so it was kind of like paradise. Plus it felt like Pride and Prejudice, wandering around London.   Although paddleboats have nothing to do with Pride and Prejudice, they were still way fun (and a surprising work out for my pathetic leg muscles)

 This hill is called Parliament Hill and it's in a cute little park called Hampstead's Heath.  (I fell in love with all these british names) it was so cool because it had such an amazing view of London!

 Our last day we took time to go to EvenSong at Westminster Abbey which was so cool, and made me want to reread the entire Redwall series. (if anyone has not read it, do it, do it right now, before you even finish this blog)  I took some more random pictures of Big Ben and London.  We also saw Les Mis and our final night we saw Wicked. All amazing musicals. I'm in love.  But of course, it couldn't last, and all too soon it was time for Amanda and I to pack up our bags. But our roommates weren't ready for us to leave, so our final night we stayed up until like 4:30 am telling scary stories and just talking. It was funny because I'd tell a scary story, and the four of them would be staring at me with fear in their eyes, and I'd get to the end or the really scary part and then Amanda would scream and the other girls would look at her in confusion, and then we would realize that they really weren't understanding the rest of the story. So then we would have to re-tell it and it wouldn't be as scary. but it was pretty funny :P   So again, Amanda and I left for the airport after getting about an hour of sleep. (Kind of like how I stayed up all night before flying to Paris, or on the flight from Nice to London, and now on the flight home.) I love sleeping on planes, it keeps me from doing otherwise embarrassing things, such as spilling cranberry apple juice all over my pants (of course that was a completely hypothetical situation of what might have happened had I been awake during a flight...)

THAT'S THE END OF EUROPE.

Sad day.