WKND

FRIDAY

Woke up and walked outside to this view...C-O-L-D.  

After work on Friday, a few coworkers and I headed down to Makuhari (1.5 hrs away) to have dinner at Tamaoki's family restaurant. We feasted on legit Nepalese food all night. My favorites were the potato soup and spicy dumplings. So delicious. And it's even better when your friend owns the place! 

SATURDAY

Saturday morning I woke up to a package from my sissy! She sent me a few new shirts and fun socks. This one says "LOVE ONE ANOTHER - JESUS" how perfect right? I headed to a local farmers market to watch some students from the light music club at school perform. This is the bus stop I stand at every single morning of my life haha...and let me just say how precious and stylish Japanese children are. Kills me every time. 

The farmers market had a mochi making station, the old fashioned way. This man was the owner so he was pounding it like a pro. 

And this tiny coffee stand serves as a reminder of how miniature Japanese cars are!! Surprisingly I withheld from eating anything at the market because I was preparing for what was coming Saturday night...

THANKSGIVING AT LIANES!!

I cannot even begin to express my gratitude to Liane for prepping this incredible feast every year. My highlights were the cranberry sauce from scratch and the most delicious corn bread with honey butter! 

Carey brought his homemade ume (plum) wine and it was so good! Never thought i'd be a fan of this stuff but it is slowly growing on me. It tastes really good with soda!

Thanksgiving crew: Liane's family along with her friend's family, Cary, Kevin, Steph and myself!

Kevin's birthday was last week and mine is this week so they brought us cake! Mina is Liane's daughter and I love playing with her whenever I go to their house. And as the resident kid, she blew out our candles for us. 

How amazing is this giant donut cake from Mr. Donut!? 

The only way to end a Thanksgiving day.

SUNDAY 

My friend Meg, from church, invited Miyoe (my other friend) and I over to her house for lunch! Meg is a teacher at an English Conversation School and has the most bubbly personality. On top of that she is a self proclaimed "health nut" and wonderful chef. Miyoe is a lady I sit next to every week at church and she is the owner of several retirement homes. She is a very successful business woman and is one of the most spirit filled people I have ever met. Spending an afternoon with these two was such a treat! 

Meg cooked us this incredible feast...salad with tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, chicken, cheese and noodle casserole, and 12 veggie stew!! We chatted all afternoon and the main theme of our talk was how being obedient to God brings us the most joy. When Miyoe was 45 and her two kids were grown up, she heard clearly from the Lord to start a new business in helping the elderly. She had a lot of doubts and had trouble getting started, but she knew she had to obey the voice of God. 20 years later she has two wonderful retirement centers helping hundreds of people in her community and on top of that, she is so aligned with the voice of the heavenly Father. Obedience brings such joy and produces much fruit!

MONDAY - (back to work)

After a great weekend I woke up Monday thankful to get up and go to a job I love. After school, at English club, the 2A students who returned from Torrance last week shared a few of their favorite memories. Kurt and Avhishek shared a bit and had me cracking up the whole time talking about their failed attempt to make yakisoba, the slang they learned ("gas up"), and how they had the coolest host brother because they are "the coolest students" HAHA. 

A good weekend in the books and an even busier weekend up ahead! 

NOVEMBER SNOW

I woke up yesterday morning to....S N O W!! 
Apparently, this was the first time in 54 years it has snowed in November in this part of Japan (hello cold winter) and it happened to be on Thanksgiving day. So instead of spending the day running the Turkey Trot and stuffing my face with mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, I walked to the bus stop in the freezing snow and drank 20 cups of tea to stay warm HAHA. Life is crazy sometimes. 

It may not be three feet of fresh powder...but to a girl from California...this was a straight up winter wonderland! 

The bust was packed in the morning with students due to the weather but luckily the bus drops us off right in front of school so we don't have to walk far. The shocking thing was, some students rode their bikes still! 

This was the view from the English Office. I could NOT stop starting outside...all morning I was just transfixed by the falling snow and I felt like I was right smack dab in the middle of a real life snow globe. 

Shout out to UNIQLO and their Heat tech undershirts/tights/socks for keeping me warm .

The rough part about the Japanese school system is the strict uniform policy. Even in the winter, the girls have to wear their regular skirts...so cold right!? They are allowed to wear some black tights as an extra layer, but most of them just rough it and come to school as is and I don't know how they do it! 

WOWIE WOWIE. It was such a strange feeling watching the snow swirl around the sky, and I realized this might have been my first time to actually watch real falling snow. I remembered a song I heard a few years back at a Christ Tomlin Christmas concert called Winter Snow, about how baby Jesus came to this earth, born on Christmas day:

You could have come like a mighty storm
with all the strength of a hurricane
you could have come like a forest fire
with the power of heaven in your flame

but you came like a winter snow
quiet and soft and slow
falling from the sky in the night
to the earth below

And for the first time, I totally get these lyrics now. The way the snow sprinkled all over the ground. I love that description of baby Jesus. He could have come in a fury, shouting and forcing His power over all of us to because He is the Son of God, creator of all Heaven and Earth so He had every reason to. But He was born a baby in a manger, a lowly birth, no room in the inn. He came so gently, so innocently, so softly...falling snow. It was magical watching the flakes dance around the sky and It shed a whole new light on the birth of Jesus Christ our savior! I love this season and I am eagerly awaiting the days til I'm home for Christmas!

ICHO NAMIKI - GINKGO AVENUE

Wednesday was a national holiday here in Japan (labor day) so I made sure to use my day off to check out some fall leaves! I met up with my friend Nathalie who just so happens to be a California girl, loves SYTYCD, Jesus, Photography and has two beautiful kids...uhm, hello perfect friend!

I met up with Nathalie and her husband Tony at Connel Coffee in Akasaka. I had seen photos of this place before and knew I wanted to check it out, and it was just as fancy and high end as I imagined! The coffee was really good too. After fueling up on caffeine, we left Tony to do some work and Nathalie and I went out for our photography adventure to see the magical land of Ginkgo trees right in GaienMae.

ALLLLLL. THEEEEE. HEEAAARRTTTTT. EYEEESSS!!! This guy agrees. 

One side was bright yellow...the other still green. stunning. God is amazing! 

Cute tiny children in winter coats everywhere. 

We got there around 11:30 or 12 and spend a good 30 minutes in ONE SPOT taking so many photos. It was crowded, obviously, so we had to get creative with our shots which made it fun. 

Real photographers/true friends get on the ground for the shot needed haha! 

50/50 magic 

A little lady and her grandpa :)

Trendy hipsters everywhere with their compact mirrorless cameras, beanies and backpacks...psshhhh so cool. 

Carpet of yellow! At this point I could not stop taking photos...every single direction I looked was magical. A true photographers dream.

"boots and coatss and boots and coatssss." oh wait, that's not how it goes

Thankfully they closed the main street down, creating THE MOST EPIC photo spot. The trees from the center of the street look suuuuuper orange, while inside the trees they seem more yellow. 

Love this one! 

Two old grandpas walked up to me and said, "お姉さん、写真？Sister, photo?” And took this awesome photo of us! We chatted for a bit and they told me they were from Chiba too, and that Nathalie looked 23 and too young to have kids - I agree!

After taking some photos it was time to grub on some shake shack. Tony came back to meet us for this part...aka to stand in line while we took more photos...he's the real MVP! 

unreal right?!!?

rad chick with a rad bike. aka #lifeandstylegoals

This dude was sitting on his tiny chair and painting the most stunning picture of the trees. I didn't want to disturb him so I didn't take a photo of his artwork...but it was a mix or watercolor and pencil and it was so legit. Like, what type of amazing human just casually sits on a small chair in the middle of Gaienmae whilst painting a masterpiece?! THIS GUY.

AND. THIS. EPIC LADY WITH GINKGO ON HER OBI!!!!! This might be one of my favorite photos I've ever taken, and I've taken a lot of photos...

Definitely felt like Disneyland at moments. I will say this...although Tokyo is an extremely crowded place, people are so courteous and kind that it never feels stifling or too chaotic. Even at a place like this, where thousands of people are all holding selfie sticks and taking photos...people would be ducking in and out of the frames like "ohhh I am so sorry!" "excuse me, i'm so sorry!" 

Had to do the classic leaf photo.

Being the natural people watcher that I am, I am always admiring people's fashion choices. Coming from CA, I never knew what people wore in winter so now I just freak out every few steps when I see some cool Tokyolite with an epic fashion sense. #nevernotinspired 

cute old man.

Ok so we ended up waiting about 45 minutes or so for shake shack...but the good thing is we played it like a team, taking turns in line to maximise our time taking photos so it wasn't that bad. The line moved fast and we got a table no prob. 

CHEESE FRIES. ICED TEA. SHACK BURGER. Although in&out will always dominate in the burger+price game, shake shack is pretty bomb and I am a fan.

The burger is really good and juicy...and the sauce they put on it (garlic aioli?) is VERY VERY GOOD.

Nathalie got the "walk in the park" concrete which had some gnarly mix of matcha+yuzu+miso??? She said it tasted even better than it looked!

LOL when your mom forces you to take photos in your puffy jacket.

Then, before we headed out, we did an impromptu photoshoot! How cute of a couple are they?!

love this one. I'm gunna give myself props for only getting like 4 people's heads in this photo considering there were about 927319 people walking around. 

when you bring your fabulous child-dog out to play

You're not a true Tokyo family until you have an electric bike with multiple kids seats on it...and you take a photo in front of the ferrari store lol 

In honor of Thanksgiving (which is today and I am at work) I am so thankful God brought this beautiful and wonderful family to Tokyo and let our paths cross. My heart is very FULL because of the good Lord and all He is doing!! I am also thankful for all of my loved ones back home, for a wonderful job, a Holy Spirit filled Church, and a blessed community here in Kashiwa. God is a good good Father and He orchestrates everything in magnificent ways - far better than we could imagine. 

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth
serve the Lord with gladness;
come before Him with joyful singing.
Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His loving-kindness is everlasting
and His faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 100

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you reading this. May you sense the presence and grace of God so richly as you celebrate this holiday season :) 

MASHIKO

Mashiko is known for its pottery, called Mashikoyaki, and I had a chance to visit this cool little town and took a bazillion photos as you will soon see. I was asked to go with my good friend Mina's mom, Yoko, and her two friends. Yoko is a really talented painter and enjoys a lot of different crafts, so when she asked me to go visit this town famous for pottery I jumped on the chance! 

Mashiko is in Tochigi prefecture, which is apparently famous for Strawberries, Gyoza, and this statue of Ninomiya Sontoku. He was a philosopher and farmer who was acclaimed for working hard and studying simultaneously. This statue is famous all over Japan actually, and many schools have it up on their grounds to remind students to work hard and study! 

Leave it to Japan to make cute Miffy strawberry bread! 

From Kashiwa we drove 2 hours to Mashiko city. The three ladies I went with were chatting about a bunch of interesting things from bakeries, to cooking, their kids, traveling, etc. It was incredible Japanese listening practice for me and I was sitting in the back seat vigorously typing words into my dictionary app on my phone. 

We made a pit stop at a market on the side of the road where I ate the most amazing bowl of Tonjiru (pork soup). The cutest grandma and grandpa were cooking it up in this giant pot with their home grown veggies, so when I ate it I could taste every bit of flavor, freshness and love. They even had thinly sliced onions, red peppers, and freshly graded yuzu to put on top. UHHH...INCREDIBLE. 

How cute is Mio with her giant negi (onion) haha! 

Next pit stop was this sake factory, the first I've been to! 

Mio, Yoko, and my friend Mina's mother-in-law! I had a lot of fun with these ladies. 

Magical little Japanese garden. 

Sigudama...aka giant perfectly spherical cedar ball. This is a common symbol at sake factories, so I learned, because it symbolizes the age of the sake being produced based on the progression of the green leaves turning brown. I think they should put googley eyes on it, don't you? 

Made it to Mashiko city where they have this giant Raccoon Dog that is nakey and looks like he is giving you the middle finger but he's actually holding a tiny cup HAHA. 

Funny side note... my coworker, who just visited Torrance and went to a Clippers game with my dad, is named Mashiko and has the same kanji as this city.

First thing we did was paint our own pottery. We didn't have time to hand make our own on a potters wheel (next time), but we were able to do a Japanese version of color me mine! In proper Japanese traditional fashion, there were only three colors of paint, blue, brown (looks red), and pink. It was kind of fun to have a limited color scheme, and I painted a tiny little vase with  mostly blue and a little pink. 

After that, we walked to lunch and admired some shops on the way. 

The beginning of the Japanese koio (fall leaves). 

Soba and curry combo for lunch = bomb

The main street of Mashiko is very quaint and lined with many many pottery stores. It was endless! 

This store was particularly beautiful with a giant Japanese maple tree in the middle courtyard. 

I wanted this ring, but not for $100! 

How cute is this bread clock? 

This man had a store full of bugs and insects he had caught!! CRAZY. I couldn't stop staring at the butterflies. I mean, we see them all over on prints, jewelry, designs...but when you really look up close at real butterflies...they are stunning. God is truly an incredible creator. 

I thought of my sister when I saw this color scheme. 

Cute little girl on a swing in a vintage shop. How rad is that Tokyo olympics poster? 

Surprisingly, I walked away from Mashiko city having only bought one thing - these earrings. I was tempted to buy many cups and bowls, but I told myself that it wasn't practical for me to have a bunch of dishes I would never use and that I should just enjoy the inspiration without having to buy anything (aren't you proud mom? I'm #becominganadult). But these earrings, I couldn't pass up! 

THESE COLORS...LOVE LOVE. 

We walked around and shopped the rest of the afternoon. It was a little rainy and very cold so we headed back home at around 4pm. It was so inspired by the pottery and artistic impression of everything in Mashiko city and was so thankful to have a day of crafts with three awesome ladies!

Also, speaking of pottery, watch this video about Kintsugi, the art of mending broken pottery together. Straight up sermon message in art form!! 

Filmed & Directed by: DANIEL EVANS Produced by SIMON OXLEY Edited by ALEX MEAD Music FREDDIE WEB & JOE FARLEY for WAKE THE TOWN [ http://www.wakethetown.com ] Kintsugi craftsmen: Muneaki Shimode & Takahiko Sato Project originator: Teruo Kurosaki UK co-ordination: Tim Toomey With special thanks to Yamakyu Japanware & tokyobike London [ http://tokyobike.co.uk ] About Kintsugi: Kintsugi is the craft in which chipped, cracked or broken ceramic pieces are repaired using a combination of urushi (lacquer) and rice glue. This process inadvertently results in a decoration, the form of which is dictated by the breakage the piece has suffered. Powdered gold is usually applied to the repaired patch or seam before the urushi has set, although less embellished repairs can be made by using urushi alone, materials used do vary. Kintsugi can also be applied to glass. Larger repairs are sometimes enhanced by the later application of decorative patterns or illustrations painted with urushi or a fine grade of powdered metal, in a technique known as maki-e. The craft dates back to at least the 16th century, and there are various engaging historical anecdotes which emphasise the value placed on items pieced back together, particularly tea-ware. The famous tea master Sen no Rikyu was renowned for his appreciation of the Unzan Katatsuki, an exquisite tea bowl, precisely because of the roughness of its repair. The moment in time when something has been shattered is permanently captured by the painstaking labours of a craftsman in building up the layers of lacquer to repair a piece. It is this reference to the now that recalls mushin, a lack of attachment to anything, but rather being present in the moment, something constantly available to all, but particularly so when we drop a piece of china.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:7-9

MOE

Last Sunday, after a wonderful church service with my family at HOPE church, I headed to Tokyo to meet up with a former coworker and now dear friend of mine, Moe (pronounced Mo-Eh). 

But first I had to make a pit stop at Starbs at Tokyo station to check out their Christmas cups. I will say, there is something comforting about living in a country with an actually cold winter. Cozy clothes, scarves, boots and warm drinks! I got the strawberry tea (is that only in Japan?) and it was amazing. 

Moe reminds me of my high school best friends...she'd totally fit right in with us. She is chill, super sporty (volleyball), but also loves fashion and has such a cool sophisticated style. 

First stop was LA KAGU, this super dope shop + cafe in Kagurazaka. Of course they would have a rad coffee cup design and murals on the walls...

Apparently in Kagurazaka there are a lot of French ex-pats so we decided to dive into European culture and eat some savory crepes. Our waiter had the cutest French accent and asked all the people in the restaurant to take a photo with him.

Fancy shmancy duck + pear + cheese crepe.

and the piece de resistance...egg + prosciutto + cheese. nomzzzz. 
Moe lives pretty far away now (2hrs) but if we meet in Tokyo its about an hour for each of us, which isn't bad. Steph and I try to see her once every few months and just catch up. She told us she's switching jobs this year and going into the corporate life in Tokyo which is good news for us because we can meet up with her more often! 

We ended the night with dessert at Saryo, which has a bunch of really good cakes and matcha desserts. Loved spending time with Moe! Tokyo is a crazy place, because although I've lived here over a year there is still so much to explore and SO MANY new places and things to check out. It's endless!