TIS THE SEASON TO....P A R T Y

December wouldn't be December without a constant flow of holiday parties, right!?
Although Japan doesn't celebrate the advent season as traditionally as the states (everyone eats KFC on Christmas day...what??) many of my friends are still very much in the Christmas spirit. This past weekend was full of a lot of good food, awesome company, and cold weather! 

THURSDAY

This was the first day of finals so students took tests in the morning and then left after 3rd period. What that meant was that in the afternoon the school was dead quiet and the gym was empty! Whenever this happens, I always take the opportunity to go shoot some hoops.

Proud to sport the Bridge (young adult ministries) shirt from my sis and bro-in-law. "For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." Ephesians 5:8. Love that verse!  And also somewhere along the line I got some "baked apple pie" drink from Starbs and it was WAY TOO SWEET. pass. 

For dinner Steph and I met up with Mina and Naoya in Kashiwa to eat sushi. Once a month, this restaurant in the station mall has sushi rolls for $1 and the line is usually an hour long! HAHA. We waited a little over an hour...but it was worth it. 

Don't get too excited, because I still don't eat sushi. Everyone else smashed on these usually $5 rolls while I happily ate away at my tamago (egg), Nasu (eggplant), tsukemono (pickled raddish), umeboshi (sour plum), and was completely satisfied! We each ate 8-10 rolls and payed less than $40 total for the four of us. Crazy good deal! 

FRIDAY

On Friday the English department went out for lunch at the nearby golf course. We went to lunch at this same place last year during finals, so it felt very deja vu! It was a lunch buffet for $13 and it was soooo bomb. They had an ochazuke bar and I was in heaven. I ate two huge bowls! 

My wonderful coworkers/family! 

As we were walking out of the restaurant I realized Ikeda and Mashiko were matching perfectly! 

After work, Steph and I headed to grab coffee at a nearby mall. Recently I've been feeling adventurous with my orders so I got the seasonal special and it was AWFUL. ahahha. So much for trying new things. It tasted like pure ginger and milk. Burned my throat so bad! not down. 

Then...Friday night around 7pm we met up with Tamaoki and his wife Noriko at their cute little house! They invited us over for a "takoyaki" party and we had such a fun time hanging out and cooking together. 

Noriko is so sweet and made sure there was plenty of non-tako ingredients (tako is octobus btw) and my favorite was mochi and cheese! They showed  us their wedding videos and we looked through a bunch of their photo albums in which Noriko kept every ticket stub they had together - so cute. 

Couple goals!! love them. 

SATURDAY

You would think that was enough partying for the weekend...but that was juuuuust the beginning. I woke up Saturday and headed to Omotesando to do some Christmas shopping. 

Then at 4 I met up with Steph and Ayaka to get some coffee. We went to about 4 places and they were all so crowded. We ended up finding some room at Blue Bottle but even that was packed. Not cool Tokyo, not cool! But Blue Bottle omotesando does have a chill vibe...just way too touristy. 

At 5:30 I headed to Roppongi to attend a Christmas party at Nathalie and Tony's house. I grabbed a pizza on the way and when I walked up to their place I saw all these shoes outside and knew it was going to be a fun night! The potluck was LEGIT and I ate my weight in chicken adobo (made by their filipino nanny) and HUMMUS. I seriously ate so much hummus hahha. I even personally thanked the lady who brought it because I was so happy.  

Nathalie and Tony feel like old friends from back home, even though I've only know them a few months. They're such a fun couple and hosted a great party with a white elephant gift exchange! I walked away with the best gift in the bunch -a copy of C.S Lewis' Screwtape letters! 

At 8pm or so the families with kids headed home, which left a fun crew of people who were around the same age. We have representation from California, NY, Indiana, New Zealand, Japan, and England. We played a few super fun games on the TV and it felt nice to just speak some fast witty English all night haha. 

I took the train back and got home around 10:30pm and was pooped. But so thankful for a successful day in the city and for having met a lot of new friends :) 

SUNDAY

Started off Sunday at church! I love this place. We sang Christmas songs in Japanese and that was so special and poweruful. 

I usually stay after to eat lunch at church but on this day I quickly made it back to the station to meet up with my dear friend Yuki in Ginza! We are both busy with work so whenever we have a small pocket of time we try and meet up. We walked around the new Tokyu Plaza mall and let me tell you...IT IS AMAZING. So well curated. bravo Ginza, bravo. 

Loved all the cozy shops (although they were WAYYY over budget) and the architecture. 

cool view of the city

After lunch and shopping we headed to cafe Ohana, nearby, to drink some good coffee and eat some cake! The most popular thing to do for young working people, especially ladies, is to go out with a friend to get a "cake set" which is usually around $12 and you get your choice of coffee and cake. Yuki and I have been to quite a few together and we're on a mission to rate them according to the quality of food and atmosphere haha! 

Both of us had to head off to another event so we parted ways around 5pm! I got on the train back to Kashiwa area because...

I had dinner at my coworker, Yoshida's, house! He is the tennis coach at school and history teacher. He recently got married and wanted us to come over and hang out with his wife. How sweet!! They made us the most incredible food and served us really delicious sangria. 

They kept bringing out these amazing dishes and I really felt like I was at a restaurant. Epic Japanese hospitality per usual! 

They are a super chill and friendly couple...and I mean look at that pasta! legit. 

They invited a few of their friends and we all hit it off sharing dessert and talking about our travels and hobbies. More new people yay!!

phew. well folks, another weekend in the books and only a few more sleeps before I'm back home for the holidays! This has been a whirlwind of a season for me and being able to go home for a while will be really good for my soul. This season was marked by a lot of new faces, dinner parties, late nights, early mornings, big events, fantastic highs, and troublesome lows. I have learned so many things just by going through these experiences and am currently in the process of reflecting more deeply on how I've grown. But, save that for another day. Time to post this and then eat some cereal! 

CHICHIBU - PART III/III

After a solid nights rest on those cozy futons, I woke up early Sunday morning to go for a walk. Mina and her mom were still sound asleep so I headed out to roam the streets with the new Phil Wickham album blasting in my headphones and my camera in hand. 

Just at the end of the street were these old Japanese style houses. How rad are they?! 

There aren't many building like this is Kashiwa, so I was having a field day taking pics. Everything was soaking in history...generations of stories and memories. 

I was just wandering down the streets randomly, going where the views looked nice. I stumbled upon this cool house that seemed like the most glamorous artist shack. I'd live there! 

I turned a corner and BAM. What a view! 

I saw this funny cat just chillin there, and when I walked over to it, it seemed to notice me and look straight into my lens.

Cat model. 

This house and tree reminded me of one of my favorite movies, Big Fish. 

Since Chichibu is a small town, my 40 minute walk turned into a scenic adventure. I even made it over to get a view of the "Harp Bridge" .

Not a bad view to start the morning.

Seeing the mountain all hazy in the background was pretty magical. It's not often that I spend time in a city nuzzled right up to a mountain side, so I was loving the view from every angle. 

ahhh...Japan. 

The fall colors are unreal. Growing up in LA I never saw colors like this before! 

So after my nice morning walk, I headed back to the house to pack up, eat breakfast (really yummy paninis!) and then Shizue drove us to explore some more nature. Yay! *perks of traveling around with a local* 

I could have stayed in this area allllll day.

We walked up to the top of this staircase to see an epic panoramic view of the city...ready for it...

Chichibu!! As you can see, it's pretty cozy tucked away in between the mountains. 

Mom and daughter pic! Mina and her mom Yoko...and Haruka and her mom Shizue. Such beautiful women inside and out. 

Mina and Haruka both work at Narita airport and are such perfect airline ground staff ladies don't you think? They totally have that approachable, poised vibe about them. They're also just fun to hang out with! 

After admiring the beautiful views at the top of the mountain, we headed out to eat lunch. 

I was pretty tempted to go on this high ropes course. 

We went to this cute cafe on a campsite. The view outside was so cozy! 

How beautiful is this curry?! 

Alright, so in Chichibu there is a famous tsukemono (picked veggies) called Shakushi which a specific type of bok choy (chinese cabbage). It is AMAZING and being the tsukemomo lover that I am, I had to order the Shakushi pasta! Tsukemono pasta, how crazy is that?! It was really bomb though and kinda wish I could just take 7 bags of that stuff home to eat everyday. 

After lunch we went to see Chichibu shrine and on the way we saw these dried kaki (persimmons) which always make me think of my dad's kaki tree in our backyard. 

And we saw a fantastic sams! How random, right!? 

The shrine was cool, soaking in history and tradition. After that, we had a little bit more time to kill before heading to the station to catch the express train back to Ikebukuro, so we roamed the streets some more. 

We picked up a snack from the local supermarket - inari! But, this inari was special because it was sooo sweet and delicious! WOW kinda wish I bought three more packages haha.

The main station is pretty epic and reminds me of Lake Arrowhead or Mammoth. Wish I could just grab a cup of hot cocoa, sit by the fire, and watch the snow fall. Thats the kind of magic this place has. 

Ahhh...alas...we said our goodbyes and headed on the express train back to Tokyo. 

Major shout out to Haruka and her mom Shizue for their amazing hospitality all weekend! I owe it to them for showing me this awesome Matsuri and a true locals guide to Chichibu. Memories like this are truly priceless.　本当ありがとうございます！めっちゃ楽しかったです！

On the train back to Tokyo I was just thinking about how much of my heart stirs up for this kind of adventure. I think it's in all of us you know, that deep curiosity to see new things, learn about new places and people, and be wowed time and time again. I think that's why so many of us crave adventure, that next plane ticket we could buy, that dream vacation, the perfect instagram post. The truth is, we were built with a curiosity in us to love as much of this world as possible and that absolutely comes from God. A lot of times we confuse that with doing things for ourselves, or our own gain. We want our lives to seem cool to the rest of the world and we seek outward approval for our experiences...but the best adventures are when you forget about yourself and learn to love a new place and new people from God's perspective.

God really created our hearts to be forever learning, constantly pouring out and eternally awed by His creation. That's pretty cool. 

What a year this has been. Glad I could end one of my last weekend of 2016 on such a rad note like this! 

CHICHIBU - II/III

We got back to Haruka's house and were able to warm up! Her mom then presented us with the best kind of midnight snack! Man, there is nothing quite like Japanese hospitality!

Dumplings and pickled veggies! 

My fav, tonjiru (pork soup)...nothing beats this on a cold day. 

Okay so after filling our stomachs with yummy food we rested a bit until midnight...then put our jackets back on and headed back out to the festival! The reason for this is, during the main parade the streets are way too jam packed. After the shrines are walked down the street they return to a big lot area where they wait for a few hours, people take pics, and they load them up and carry them back to their respective parking places for the next year. So midnight is the perfect time to go see the parked floats and take up close pics with them in a bigger area. Welcome to the main attraction folks...and the reason 300,000 flooded this tiny town...

*also I keep saying floats/shrines because I don't really know what to call them but you get the idea!

Basically the whole town shuts down for this event, even closing down the main train stations and reworking the wires. 

Seeing all the Japanese men dressed in their traditional kimonos carrying lanterns made me feel like I was stepping back in time. 

Mina told me that the men on the floats are chosen from their various districts and are picked to represent their area once in their lifetime! that's pretty epic. 

These things weight 12-20 tons!! that's two elephants (I googled that) !! 

Due to the weight of these things, they move suuuuper slow. Combine that with the amount of people and you get a very jam packed street. 

The floats are very intricately designed with animals and characters crafted all along the outside. That's me, Mina, and her mom Yoko trying to not freeze ha!

How rad do these guys look? I want that Kimono print. 

OG swag. 

squad goals

So at about 12:30/1:00am the men load up the floats and pull them back to their parking spots. In the pic on the left, the men are tilting the float in order to turn in to the right position. It took about 40 men just to turn it a few inches...and one guy even crawled under it to make sure everything was set right (dangerous!) The floats are too heavy to carry so they just position them properly on giant wheels and roll them down slowly. 

All the people in headbands are volunteers who help guide the floats down the streets. I saw a lot of younger people helping, high school kids and college friends, which seemed like a fun thing to do at that age!

And fun fact...as of this year the Chichibu Yomatsui is now officially on the UNSECO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. That's pretty rad. 

Sometime after 1am we walked back to Haruka's house but not before seeing this funny old man posing in front of the railway tracks. The floats were passing by in the background so him and his friends stopped to take a picture and they were laughing saying "this is a rare moment!" lol! 

Back at the house we were guided to the big room upstairs where three amazingly warm and comfy futons were waiting for us!! I am not a night owl, never have been, so staying up until 1:30am usually isn't my favorite thing in the world...but for this specific event I was more than stoked to be out late where the party was happening! We were SO SO lucky to have stayed with Haruka and her mom and I am truly grateful for their hospitality and kindness! 

one more post coming...

CHICHIBU - PART I/III

A few weeks ago, my good friend Mina told me about the Yomatsuri in Chichibu that takes place every year on December 3rd. This festival happens to be one of Japan's three greatest hikiyama (float) festivals along with the famous Gion matsuri in Kyoto and the Takayama matsuri in Gifu. Mina told me her good friends happen to live in Chichibu so we would have a place to stay...and this year December 3rd fell on a Saturday so it was literally a perfect chance to attend. YOU BET I JUMPED ON THAT OPPORTUNITY! 

I taught my KIRA class Saturday afternoon then quickly jumped on a train to Ikebukuro. From Ikebukuro there is an express train called the Red Arrow that takes you to Chichibu station in an hour and a half. 

We took the express train at around 4pm so the sunset view outside the window was magic. When we arrived at the station, Mina's friend Haruka and her mom Shizue met us to show us around! They were immediately so friendly and welcoming! 

Straight from the station we walked over to save our spots for the firework show and then had an hour to kill to walk around and check out the street food. Also, it was COLD. So everyone was squeezing by each other in their puffy jackets. 

The main attraction happens at around 6:30pm when 7 or 8 GIANT 10-20 TON floats (portable shrines) are rolled down the street as men dance and stand on top of them chanting and holding lanterns. It is quite a sight to see...but more on that in PART II of this post

So apparently this festival originated in order to celebrate two gods coming together. Japanese history has many of these stories that are reminiscent to ancient Greek mythology. It was interesting to hear the history, how the main god in Chichibu had two wives. One wife he could only see once a year, on December 3rd, so the men of the city carry the shrines down the street to meet each other. The main first wife's shrine happens to be half way along the path so when they approach her area, the loud booming Taiko drums have a tradition of becoming silent, as to not draw attention to the meeting. And this story and festival has been going on for over 300 years! 

Chichibu is a small country town with a population of around 60,000....but this year for the matsuri, since it was on a weekend, over 300,000 people packed the streets!

INOSHISHI...say it with me folks...I-NO-SHI-SHI... aka wild boar! It is famous at this one shop in town where they just so happened to have a dead boar hanging from the roof as they sell the boars meat right in front. Does not make me want to purchase anything lol.

This man was making tiny pancake puffs..they were bomb!

Okonomiyaki nommzzzzzz! How beautiful right?

straight streetfood artwork right here! 

The firework previews started showing up lighting the sky and warning everyone to get ready for the main show. 

This was apparently the best spot to watch the parade and fireworks!

Ok funny story...I bought a stick of this bread...toasted with sweet sauce all over it (yummm)  but two seconds after I took a photo of it I dropped the entire stick on the ground and the people near me were like "awwww so sad" lol. What's funnier is I went back to ask the lady for a new stick (IT WAS ONLY $2) and she said NO! HAHAHA. Man, chichibu people are not to be messed with. I felt like I was back in the states for a second (unfriendly customer service)...since Japanese people are more than likely to give you what you dropped, and then some. 

Oh and how cool are these waffles on sticks!

BEST FOOD TO EAT WHILE WATCHING FIREWORKS : KARAAGE (FRIEND CHICKEN) and MAYO!!! yummmmm.

We had the perfect spot in an old parking lot to watch the fireworks! *perks of going with a local* And let me tell you, they go ALL OUT for the show. 5 small town compete with individual shows and judges choose a winner that gets 10,000 or something. Then they do color themed shows...this year there was a green show, blue, red, and gold! I was blown away. Also, my feet were frozen the entire time haha. 

The show finished around 10pm (yes, 2.5 hours of fireworks) and the we walked back to Haruka's house to warm up and take a break. 

On the way back we saw the results of the firework competition posted in front of the shrine.

The cutest chocolate bananas I have ever seen. That sign says "premium" ha! 

Our last stop before heading home to warm up was this 200 year old sake shop. They were selling warm sake that we all tried (sooo strong) which is a classic Japanese drink in winter. Harukas house is 2 minutes from the main shrine so we walked home in no time and were able to warm up because at 10:30pm our night was just getting started!! haha...seriously...stay tuned...

25

"Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and my hope is in you all day long."
Psalm 25 on my 25th

A quarter of a century...the big 2-5! When I look back on my 24th year of life, I am so thankful for all the adventures the Lord took me on here in Japan. This was the first full year of life I've been away from home and living on my own, so that feels like a big life accomplishment and a push into adulthood! My birthday almost always falls on a school day (aka many in-class celebrations) but this one goes down as one of the most epic days in my life...

The celebrations started off by opening some presents I had been waiting to open*...the first one from my dear friend Liane and her daughter Mina. They gave me some yummy snacks and a big pack of coffee that I took to work. How cute is the wrapping by Mina! 

Next was a letter from Nati who I took almost all my college classes with...so seeing her handwriting again brought the biggest smile to my face! haha. She sent me sparkly AK letters and a rad sticker LION OF JUDAH which has special meaning because her daughter (who I will meet so soon) is named Judah! And if you know....you know that if you ever send a package or letter to Uganda you are supposed to write "God Bless This Package" on it and rumor has it, it will always get to its destination without being opened. Thanks for the love Nat! 

And then there was the big package from my sissy + good friend Adrienne! I popped open the box and first thing I see is this cute letter from Hunty...haha!

BEST CARD EVER! Nothing beats a 5yr old's writing. That's me holding balloons btw. 

They jam packed the box with so many goodies... a new planner, a bunch of adorable earrings, candyyyyyy AND...

AHHHH!!! An amazingly warm and beautiful scarf, a cute new tshirt, and an amazing quilted jacket. Do they know me or do they knowww me??? Bonus points to Adrienne who works at anthro and hooked it up. Obsessed.

Then I headed to school for what would end up being a crazy day!

I take the bus at 7am and get to school by 7:40 so once I'm there I make my coffee and spend a few minutes journaling before our morning meeting. It has become my routine and I look forward to it everyday. Gets me in the right mindset. 

 The day started off with 2A singing happy birthday to me in their homeroom before 1st period...and I was given a bag of snacks. The funniest one was from Hideki who gave me "JAM-PAN" (bread with jam inside) with his name written on it. No message, just his name LOL. 

The soccer coach and cool dude Yanagibashi left this card on my desk with candy taped to the back! so sweet of him!

I received the most adorable tiny hedgehog from my 3B class along with two mikans from my student's grandpa's garden. And Steph knows me well and brought me my all time favorite donut from Mr. Donut! 

I taught two classes and then after school, 1A pulled me in their class to surprise me with a beautiful chalk board message and more candy! These kids are incredible. 

Then, the English department sang to me and made me give a speech haha...and Ebisawa sensei handed me this adorable package of two loaves of banana bread!! She is an incredible baker and that gesture was so thoughtful of her! 

Kawamoto sensei's kids (6th graders) made me tiny ornaments!!! SO CUTE!! 

And how cute is this...the teachers remembered that apple pie is my favorite so they brought apple and blueberry pie from costco. tears! 

Kawamoto sensei, Tanaka sensei, and Ikeda sensei...I get the honor of working with these people every single day and I love them so much! They are some of the kindest people I have ever met. 

Half of the english department! L-R:Mashiko, Steph, me, Ebisawa, Kawamoto, Tanaka, and Ikeda. 

A bag full of goodies from each of the A classes. It was hilarious because they basically each put in whatever candy they had in their lunches so I got a crazy random mix of things...

The best one was someone who gave me ONE STICK on gum...HAHAHAHHA

And Steph coordinated this incredible book full of letters and pictures from people at school. I cried. obviously. These kind of sentiments really get me...and this book will be something I treasure forever! 

Wow...so after an incredibly blessed day at school I headed to dinner with Steph, Mina, and Naoya who are some of my favorite people! Of course, my meal of choice was Tonkatsu!!

Naoya and Mina are like family to me and I love them so much. So thankful I could spend time with them on my bday! And the tonkatsu was SOOOOO GOOOOOOOD.

Just when I thought all the fun was over...I woke up Friday to more bday love. Funny thing is, since Japan is 17 hours ahead of the states, I almost celebrate two birthdays haha! 

After our morning meeting on Friday, our school principal runs up to the English office to give me a gift!! What! He gave me this adorable 3D card that said "Hope your life will be full of happiness" awww...and then revealed a box with a tiny snowglobe inside that plays music when you twist the bottom...HOW AMAZING IS THAT? From my principal of all people! I couldn't believe it! 

Fridays are always my busiest days...
1st per- conference period...aka prep time
2nd per- 3D, we made Christmas cards with English phrases inside
3rd per- 3C, working on an autobiography project with them
4th per- 2A, they gave their speeches about their time in Torrance
lunch
5th per- 3A, had to judge their reading (they read a passage out loud)
6th per- 3B, made Christmas cards

phew! But the day wasn't over yet...you see, once a year we have an End of The Year party with all the teachers and this year it happened to be on Dec 2nd. It was at the same venue as last year, a super fancy banquet hall. I figured it would be a nice night of chatting with my coworkers and avoiding the fancy seafood dishes served...but little did I know...

First thing they do is announce "YESTERDAY WAS AMIE'S BDAY" (mind you, this was a party for ALL of the teachers at school aka a lot of people) and come out with a hat and glasses for me to wear along with the cutest cake! They all sang enthusiastically (beer had already been consumed) and cheered loudly while asking "AMIE HOW OLD ARE YOU??" haha. Also, in typical Japanese party fashion, I had to give a speech. They all complained though "SPEAK IN JAPANESE!!!" haha but I'm not at that level yet. 

The night wrapped up and I headed home exhausted, but in the best way possible.

I could have never imagined this kind of day, this kind of birthday, which is why it will be a day I always remember. I wrote these words along with the birthday video of my students singing to me and it's the only way I can adequately sum up what I feel "God has an incredible way of orchestrating our lives. When we follow His lead, He puts us places we didn't even know we needed to be at and shows us a world we couldn't even have imagined." Never could I have dreamed up something this good! But that's the God I serve! 

"Look at the nations and watch- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told."
Habakkuk 1:5

*not to mention the packages sent my my lovely auntie Julie as well as my mom and dad! I called the company and I should receive them tonight haha! 

**UPDATED 7:28pm DEC 5, 2016

RECEIVED THREE PACKAGES IN ONE NIGHT GAHHH....

MY MOM AND AUNTIE ARE CRAZY/AMAZING. Mom and Dad sent me these EPIC Hunter boots and they happen to fit perfectly (mom magic). Auntie Julie and the Lams sent me this amazing Sparkling grape juice + CANDYYYYYY AHHH!!!! THANK YOU LOVE YOU!

And last but certainly not least...my dear friend Caroline (who I met in Japan last year) sent me this amazing book! Recently she had shared a sermon from REALITY SF with me and it was such a good word. Everyone, go to listen to it (you can hear it HERE). I had no idea Dave Lomas actually wrote a book on it so when I got this nugget of wisdom I had a complete bookworm moment! Caroline, in the short time we lived in the same country, really understood me well and is the perfect book friend in my life!! THANK YOU CAROLINE!!!