The wonder of Food

So I am updating again but not quite the way I have been before. I am going to show you the amazing food I have been eating, the cool things I have seen and random wackiness that sometimes parades about; usually in the form of ojisans (old men) who want to give the foreign girl something to gawk at. Japan is amazingly great at starling me.
I adore my town, and the way it wiggled itself into my heart was through its Matsuri---the town festival. It was awash with fireworks, yakuza, great food, bugs, drunk people, beer and lots of chances to prove one's prowess.

These are the darling people who took me the night of the fireworks. I was really happy to meet little Taiyou and the Chikakos (both women are named Chikako). It was nice to socialize a bit!
The fireworks lasted for about 35 minutes. It was long and rather grand. Mori really went all out! In Japanese, fireworks are called Hanabi, with literally translates to fire flower--which in my opinion is both prettier and more actuate.


During the day on Saturday and Sunday I heard drums and shouting all over the town. When I peeked outside my window, guess what I saw??!? This! And they were pulling this thing in the HEAT.

The lovely Chikako has been a dear to me and has really been great at coming over and inviting me out to do things. For instance that Sunday, the Sunday of the Mori festival, she took me out to this yummy place. Which has REAL hamburgers.


It is a Hokkaido only hamburger place and is famous for its Chinese Chicken burger. Which was great except for all the mayo it was doused in.

The Japanese people have a love affair with their mayo--its epic and obsessive, a romance to last a lifetime of clogged arteries and heart attacks.
Ok, because it is super late, I will update in the morning!
Goodnight and be back soon!

Dancing Bears

Shocking!!! Look at this!!! Another update!!! No, no, please, don't drop the computer or fall off your chair. This isn't a real update with tons of writing. Its a fundate. Things about my house and Mori that I love so dearly I want to share it with you all.

My town's Mascot. The love child of a frog and a duck. A Ducog? A Frouck? Hmm...that last one is a little too close to a naughty word for comfort. Let's keep it PG.


I adore these brown shoes! They were on sale!!! In Japan I am a size LLL. I didn't have any brown shoes and I have two pairs of brown pants so it works out and is totally justifiable.


My name on my door! I had fun drawing the sunflower, which in Japanese is called Himawari.


I have to have my very own hanko, or seal. They made one for me, it says DORI WHITE in romanji and not in Japanese. Which now I kinda wish I had it in Japanese but all of my office workers are really fascinated with it and love to try it out. And I do so love it.


Ok! That was a little tease about some of the things I did my very first few days!

Meeting Mori Round 2

Welcome to part two of Meeting Mori! This is about day two, friday, and the hectic beginning of my life here. My BOE was incredibly kind to give me the day off, which worked because there was a lot to do. I woke up around 6 or so to my pred thumping and bumping in the living room. She had been desperately cleaning and packing for the past 24 hours, when not dragging me around to get paperwork. She wasn't near done. She was supposed to leave at 9. It wasn't going to happen-- she was going to be late. After a call to my supervisor, he was to arrive a quarter till 9 to help her ship boxes. This is how good byes work in Japan. You tell everybody a time, they show up to send you off, there are signs, tears, cheering, and presents.

This is the entire town waving off my pred. They held the train for her. I hope that they love me like this too.


Its a very big ordeal. If my pred could have, she would have gone later because she wasn't finished. After was all that was said and done, she had 13 boxes to send to her new home and the house was (sorry pred, you know how it was) a war zone littered with trash, dirt, and junk.
This is what the living room looked like with the boxes, before my co-workers took them away to Kuroneko, the national shipping service.

And this is after my co-workers lugged out the boxes and I had been working in it for a little while.

Honestly, I don't mind cleaning, but it was really overwhelming. When my two co-workers, who had been dealing with the boxes, left me and didn't come back right after lunch like they said, I got really, um, overwhelmed. However I didn't get down for long as I had my very very very first visitor, Chikako, whom I had meet at the welcome/birthday party. She came to welcome me to my house. I was extremely touched. And then the day really got amazing.

Not only did those two co-workers return, but they brought re-enforcements. It was all of the male office workers. It was rather moving for me to see all of these people cleaning in their little button-up white collar shirts. I believe there was 8, but some left to sort trash. And they were cleaning the shit out of my house. It was the beginning of the Hokkaido heat wave so it was getting hot too. The young thing in my office, Kasai-kun, took his shirt off to vaccum the ceiling. After a few hours of intense cleaning, in which I really felt that we bonded, the office lady took me shopping (I got an ethernet cable for my internet) and took me back to my house. She showed me how to make Miso soup and Yakisoba.
Here is the spread of amazing food after a day of hard cleaning.

For lunch I had to try the very famous Ika Meishi. Squid stuffed with rice. It is what Mori is famous for! It was pretty yummy too, but smaller than I thought it would be.


That friday is a day I will most likely never forget. And for now, I have to go!

Meeting Mori

Ok, so this is a re-post. I can't believe I had so many typos. I really must have been tired last night. O.o

You know those typical Asian scroll paintings of mountains shrouded in mist and all that mysterious, mystical stuff?
something like this perhaps?

Well, I am here to tell you the truth. Believe it or not, it is like that more often than not. It was like that the day I rolled into Mori, not that I could see much as night was falling and I was simply exhausted. And its been like that since. In fact, this is one of the best views I have of the volcano, Wannahocaluggi (seeing as I am Dori I renamed the volcano appropriately. Its real name is komatakage---I think) But, as the Japanese say, it hides its face from me. It always clears up when I don't have my camera handy. Coy, coy mountain. One day I WILL get a good picture of you. My camera doesn't help matters either.

Let's talk about my awesome town. Mori is nestled between the sea and the volcano/mountain. Which, when viewed via the Mori side, has two peaks and is shaped like a M. The weather is, for the most part, great. In fact I woke up my second night here cold. I was hugging the fridge for warm while I was waiting for my shower to heat up. But now, hah, we are in a bit of a heat wave at the moment. Which kinda is a bit of a drag because I don't have AC and neither does the office. In fact, the heat has been breaking records right and left. I went to get a fan and they were all sold out in my town.

Anyway, back on the timeline track. Sorry I get derailed easy.

The first night I was here, my pred took me to meet three other wonderful ALTs. My townmate, a neighboring JET and a JET who was leaving for home in a few days. Not only was it my welcome to Mori party but it was my townmate's birthday. We dined at my favorite restaurant in Mori, Mori No Cafe. Its run by canoe fanatics who have hand made canoes and adore taking them out on the nearby lake Onuma. Everyone was really sweet and I was very very upset to learn that all of them, including my pred, Bry, was to leave. From vacations to job changes, all of these great people were leaving. I was a little floored to realize that I would alone for a while, although my pred was staying a few more days to help me settle in and finish moving out. But was hard because we all had so much in common, from fanfiction, Star Trek, LOTR, Arashi, 100 yen shopping....actually just shopping for shiny things, that I felt even though we had just met that these girls were going be my friends for a long long time and I was sad to say good bye. It seemed that all I had been doing is saying good bye to friends both new and old and I was sick of it. It was just an emotional overload.
Mori No Cafe's sign--its right across the street from the BOE office.



I woke up to my first full day in Mori to rain and a growing sense of misplacement. It wasn't my bed, but it was, it wasn't my house, but it was. It felt a little odd being in the same house as my pred. The prevailing sense that I was replacing her (which I was) made me feel guilty. I also wanted to begin settling in and there was a lot to be done. Most of it involved cleaning. But first I needed to check in, so we showed up at the BOE (board of Education--its my office) and began taking care of the big stuff. Transferring her car, car insurance, getting my official seal made, starting the Gajin (foreigner) card paperwork. I met the mayor and the head of Mori BOE. I was very grateful that my pred was there; she helped translate for me as they had a bit of an accent which made understanding them hard.
My house, the outside of which really does look like a pink ghetto.

The view of my mountain out of my living room window. Sadly I can not see the sea, however I do see and hear often the seagulls.


Ok, I have to cut this in half. I am super tried and its past midnight! I will finish tomorrow!

Through the Mist; Getting to Mori

Let's play catch up shall we? As you can tell I am writing about events a couple days behind. I will try my darnedest to get it all done while its semi-fresh, although there is ALOT to talk about. So lets get to it.

Leaving Tokyo
So my last day in Tokyo began early. My dear roommate was leaving at a shocking 7:10 AM and I really wanted to have breakfast with her. I also really wanted to see the other Kansas girls before I left and I figured that being up early would give me more time to look for them. I parted with my roommate and went up to grab my bags---let me backtrack and describe something I failed to mention in the previous post.
Our hotel was HUGE. We were in room 1723---and the hotel's rooms went up into the 40s and had two towers. There was a room open 24 hours for computer use and ironing (I used that) and a room open 24 hours for skype (had to be under three minutes though) for JETs only. The support for both the JETs and the JET Programe was AMAZING. They really took care of us, and everything was on a tight schedule. There was only limited time we had to explore Tokyo and most of that was in the evenings. So when they said to be there at 8:15 or they would leave you, they meant it. Seriously. So I was super paranoid about being on time, which was yet another reason to be up early. I can be a bit of a bear in the morning so the more time I had to wake up the better off I am.
We had to leave our bags in a room the night before, so all we had to carry was our carry-on (for those taking buses or planes) and our personal item. We had a few minutes to shove things (like PJs) into our checked luggage at the airport. Anyway, all of our Hokkaido group made it, and as we were marching to the bus, one of the girls from Kansas called my name I was able to say good bye and give her a hug. Marching out into the heat we boarded the bus for Hanada airport (the domestic airport in Tokyo) on our way finally to our destination.
Waiting in line at Hanada Airport to drop off our luggage. I was one kilo over weight but they let me slide. Look at the man who's job is to carry the 'end of line is here' sign.

And here is the plane I wish I went to Hokkaido on......

And my last taste of Starbucks. The only one in Hokkaido is in Sapporo. I had Dark Orange Mocha Frapp . I got orange sprinkles. Happiness.

And so I got on the plane and sat next to two absolutely great people who, by chance or design, are very close neighbors of mine. Hopefully, once things are a little more settled and they get their net (by sheer dumb luck I got to keep my pred's internet--who knows how long that will last) we can meet up. We talked the whole time, about previous Japan adventures and what we think our classes might be like. I had discovered that I would have to take a four hour car ride to get to Mori so I expressed my worries about the car ride to them. They were absolutely great at settling my fears and encouraging me. I was extremely nervous about my level of Japanese and my Supervisor's level of English and the potential for awkward silences. As I mentioned in the previous post, I was fidgeting over everything, especially my clothes, for my first meeting. First impressions are lasting impressions and they are extremely important in every culture, Japan is no exception to that rule. In fact they take first impressions very seriously. But my two seat mates were great at relaxing me and we laughed it up.
Here is my first view of Hokkaido.

And here is the welcome banner that, erm, welcomed me to Hokkaido.


And then, all of sudden, it was there. That moment of separation from my fellow Hokkaido JETs and the beginning of my very own path, one that no one else tread on but me. People, nervous was an understatement. And I can't tell you how immensely relieved I was when this foreign girl approached me with my supervisor. My poor, tired pred, who came straight from HEC camp, had come to meet me at the airport with my supervisor. Honestly, I can not, can never, thank her enough for the lifeline that was her mere presence at the airport. Could I have met my supervisor alone, yes, I could have. I am a big girl and like to think that I could have handled it, but frankly; with exhaustion lingering from jet-lag and my stretched nerves, having her there was a blessing. My supervisor can't speak very much English and with my brain fried, having my pred translate was awesome.

We had a four hour car ride from Sapporo to Mori. My sweet sweet supervisor was so very terribly excited to show me how wonderful Hokkaido was. So what was suppose to be four hours blended into five cause we did a little sightseeing on the way home. And I fell in love. These pictures don't do it justice.

This was a lake, it was the first lake we went to and the only place we stopped at. Hokkaido at this time is green. Gloriously green and, when it rains, creates a mist that gives it an air of mystery.

At least its mysterious until we came across these. Then it was just plan awesome.

This is me and my supervisor-- with the swan boats.

Here are the mountains we rode though! Dad, Gina what you wouldn't give to ride this!! A-freaking-mazing

Look at this! Sorry that it is so blurry but it was so cool I really wanted to share it-- this water is HOT. Its from hot springs and it was actually steaming! Its rust colored from all the minerals from the underground spring.

And this is at the second lake we went to- it had islands in the middle and it was...it was...I have run out of cool words to describe how beautiful everything was.

And see this! There is STEAM coming out of this mountain---only its not a mountain, its a VOLCANO. And things just got intense, cause yeah, apparently according to my fellow JETs in the town, my volcano is overdue. Yippy skippy. I need to buy a hard hat.

In fact, most of the lakes around here are volcanic craters. This lake has very jagged islands. Absolutely stunning--again, remember a mist hung low all over the entire area, creating this wonderful other worldly atmosphere.

So what was something I had been dreading and worrying about was an unforgettable drive with breath-taking scenery that would satisfy the imagination of any Tolkien fan. I half expected to see elves and centaurs in the forests, frolicking and disappearing into the mist. And it was with this sense of wonderment that I meet Mori and the sea.

Volcanos and the sea! What more could a girl from flat, land-locked Kansas wish for? Next post--let's see what other delights Mori holds when I describe my new town and my new home.