Christmas in Nagoya

Here are a few holiday pictures from around Nagoya and our apartment.

Displays at Nagoya Station

Lights at Nagoya Station

Our "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree, and new stockings!!

Our new Japanese Santa doll

Opening presents!

New Red Wings PJ's :)

We are off to Australia today for a 3 week vacation! As much as we are looking forward to visiting Australia, we will certainly miss not being home for Christmas. We hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday --- Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! :)

Lake Kawaguchi 27km Race

Our 27-km (16.77 miles) race was this Sunday at Lake Kawaguchi, near Mt. Fuji. We rented a car, which was Joe's first time driving on the "wrong" side of the road. Unfortunately it was a Toyota Corolla, so Joe could barely fit in the car, but he somehow managed.

We left Friday afternoon to get to our hotel by dark. It ended up taking us a little over 4 hours to get there. We spent the day on Saturday exploring and relaxing, and then Sunday morning was our big run.

Lake Kawaguchi and Mt. Fuji.
This is the lake that we ran around for our race.

Another view of Lake Kawaguchi and Mt. Fuji.
Beautiful scenery all the way around the lake:
gorgeous fall colors, mountains, and of course Mt. Fuji.

Rising with the sun on Sunday morning. Up at 5am, race at 7:30am.
This is the view from our hotel room!

READY TO RUN!!!

We survived the 16.77 miles!!!
It was a beautiful day, completely sunny skies,
light breeze, and incredible views of Mt. Fuji.

Results: 2:37:02.

Hard to believe that just a couple of months
ago we climbed to the top of that mountain!

It was a wonderful trip! Very nice to get out of the city for a couple of days. We didn't have too high of expectations for our hotel, so we were pleasantly surprised when we ended up with a suite. :) The small town we stayed in was very cute, lots of little shops, cafes, and restaurants. Reminded us of a little country lake town you would find in the U.S. It would be really fun to visit in the summer time.

Joe also did a great job driving on the opposite side of the road and getting us there and back safely. It was nice to have a car for a few days, and we made sure to take full advantage of it: grocery shopping, going to restaurants, finding ice cream shops, etc.

Overall it was a great experience! We're happy with our race results, and hope to do it again next year... maybe even the full marathon next time!?!? :)

Michigan VS. Purdue

Since it's the Michigan vs. Purdue football game this weekend, I think it's the perfect time to tell you that Joe got into Grad School!!!

He will be starting the Purdue-Kelley dual degree program to get a Masters in Engineering and MBA starting in January. It's a 4 year program, so it's quite a commitment and he'll be very busy the next few years. Way to go Joe!!

Now the big question.... who will he be rooting for this weekend?
Undergrad or Grad school?!?!?

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

LIKE THAT WAS EVEN A QUESTION!!!!
He will always be a Michigan fan. GO BLUE!!!

Botanical Gardens

My friend Mimi and I ventured over to the Botanical Gardens for our own fall color tour. We were hoping to see the trees changing colors - but unfortunately, we were a little early. Everything was still green! But we still had a great time wandering around, walking the trails, and spending time in the beautiful weather. It was a nice little escape from city life. :) There were quite a few flower gardens, so we're hoping to go back in the spring to see the blooms and cherry blossoms.

Here are a few pictures from our day.

Bamboo forest

Cute little rest area :)

LOVE PINK!

School

Here are a few pictures of my school and classroom. The school is located in the suburbs, so I commute about an hour each way to get there.

It's a really old school, but very unique and Japanese-style. The kids and staff all have to wear a special pair of indoor shoes to walk inside the building. It's an English immersion school, so most parents put their children in this school when they are just babies so that they can learn English naturally. It's amazing how quickly young children are able to learn a second language. My students are only 5 years old, and very fluent in English!

Here is my classroom and kiddos! It's a pretty small room, but perfect for only having 7 students. The room was originally used for the older students, so a lot of stuff on the walls/books/toys are not very age-appropriate... it's been a long process of trying to change the decorations and find toys that are more appropriate for them.

I am really enjoying working here! The staff are all friendly, and it's a laid-back and fun working environment. I love having a weekly routine now - it certainly makes the weeks fly by. I'm still only working part-time 3 days a week... which seems to be the perfect amount. :)

Field Trip!

Yesterday I went on a field trip with my class. We went to a park called Little World, which kind of reminded me of a small Epcot at Disney. Each section of the park was dedicated to a different country - so the kids got to wander around and explore homes and artifacts from around the world.

My class of first graders, they are all 5 years old. I have seven students, all Japanese - but they speak English very well. And yes, they start using the peace sign at a very young age!

Unfortunately the only display the park had of North America was of tepees. So now my students all think that I live in a tepee in the U.S.

Mom's Visit

Joe and I had such a great time with my mom visiting! It was so nice to have her here :) We spent the majority of our time wandering around Nagoya. It was nice to explore different areas of the city we live in, while also relaxing and spending time together.

While most days we ate out, we did spend one evening making dinner. To start with, I introduced my mom to edamame (soybeans). Very easy to make: just boil in salt water for about 5 minutes, then salt and serve. Then I made yakisoba, which is basically just Japanese fried noodles (similar to Chinese "chow mein"). Also very easy to make: stir-fry prepared noodles with cabbage and veggies and any meat of your choice, add the yakisoba sauce, worcestershire sauce, salt & pepper.

Edamame

Yakisoba

Love you, Mom! Thanks so much for visiting!!!

Here are a few more pictures from her visit. To see all the pictures, go to our picture site: http://emilyandjoepictures.shutterfly.com/

Spa & Moroccan Restaurant

Today was a wonderful, relaxing day. Mom and I got a Japanese massage in the morning, which was fantastic. They worked a lot of pressure points, and spent a good deal of time on the neck and shoulders. :) We will be making this a regular routine when she visits again!

We drank sangria in the afternoon and relaxed... while Joe took his GMAT exam. According to his unofficial score - he passed! Now he'll just have to wait and see if he gets into the grad school program (which should be late November or early December).

Then we all headed out to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner: Moroccan.

Inside the restaurant - very cute!

Eating Moroccan bean soup with the cool wooden spoons.
Reminded me of chili - very good!

We each got a set course: 2 appetizers per person, a main course of your choice, unlimited Moroccan bread, dessert, and mint tea. Unfortunately the main dish Joe picked took 20 minutes longer to get than ours... poor Joe had to wait. haha :)

Osu & Sushi

Yesterday, I think my mom was a little "Japanese'd" out! So we had an American day... bakery for lunch, shopping, and Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. Today, however, we had a complete Japanese day! We rode our bikes around town, went to Osu Kannon Temple, browsed the local shops, and then headed out for sushi.

outside of Osu Kannon Temple

inside of Osu Kannon Temple

cucumber and tuna rolls

Mom tried many different kinds of sushi: shrimp, tuna,
eel, raw tuna rolls, corn rolls, etc! AND... she liked it!!!
I'm very proud of her! :)

Inuyama Castle & Monkey Park

Today we took my mom to Inuyama Castle... my favorite castle in Japan! I posted a blog about it back in April when Jenny was here visiting. But here is a little reminder of what it is: Inuyama Castle is the oldest standing castle in Japan. It was built in 1537 by one of Japan's greatest samurai warriors. After construction, ownership changed hands frequently - but it's the only castle in Japan today that remains privately owned. It stands on top of a hill next to a river... which makes for a beautiful view at the top.

Inuyama Castle - very pretty with the leaves starting to change colors.

In front of a few of the windows (small ceilings!) No shoes allowed in this castle.

At the top! You can walk all the way around the top outside. It was such a beautiful day, perfect weather and scenery.

Next we went to Japan Monkey Park. It has about 600 different species of monkeys. There were areas of the park where the monkeys could come right up to you!

We were disappointed there was only 1 gorilla at the park, and no orangutans! But overall, it was a lot of fun and neat to see all the different species. The conditions were much better than the Nagoya zoo, but many of the monkeys were still in pretty small cages.