Kojurin Marathon

Gordon and I ran the Kojurin marathon today. Marathon being a deceptive word since, technically, Gordon ran a 5k (3.1 miles) and I ran a 3k (1.8 miles). Kojurin is the mascot of Tonosho. He's a bird, with a red cap and running sneakers.

Isn't he cute?! (his name is pronounced Ko-jur-een)

This is the actual bird, a kojurin, that you can see all over Tonosho.

We arrived at the site of the race around 8:20 am and checked-in. Several of Gordon's students were there along with their families. Basically, most of Tonosho showed up at the race. There were a couple different races. A 1k for small children, a 2k for the older kids, a 3k for women, 2k for families and a 5k for men. My race didn't start until 10:05 and Gordon didn't have to run until 10:40, so we got to observe all the race day activities.

Kojurin being mobbed by overeager kids.

Gordon sporting number 54 and representing UT. Hook'em!

First wave of runners. Those kids were fast! Notice that the race course was next to rice paddies...gotta love Tonosho!

Gordon and I watched as the kids ran their races and I started to get nervous as the time for my race approached. I don't like running short distances because I don't like running fast. I get tired. I'd rather keep a slow and steady pace and run 200 miles than run 1 or 2 miles very fast. O.k., I'm exaggerating, but I was not looking forward to running. Finally, 10:00 rolled around and I got into starting position.

Stretching.

Nervous adjusting of running shirt. See my competition? Junior high school runners!?

And we're off!

1.8 miles later...

And we're back!

Long story short, several girls finished ahead of me, but it turns out they weren't in my age group. Little did I know, I wasn't competing against the junior high schoolers...AND...I got first place in my age group! 

How many people were in my age group you ask? 

Is that really important? 

Does that REALLY matter? 

Alright, there were only four other women in my age group and I was the youngest.  

Anyway, Gordon's race was coming up so I took up my position as photographer and his personal cheer section.

Gordon talking up the competition. Being charismatic as usual.

I imagine he's probably deflecting a compliment given by one of his students. He's so modest.

There they go!

Gordon approaching the finish line. Everyone was shouting "Ganbare!" (Hang in there!).

After the race, Gordon was approached by several of his admirers.

Cutest. Picture. Ever.

Gordon and I joked that we should make this the Christmas card photo of "our family". The young boy is Kei, a student at Tachibana Elementary. Gordon's holding his time sheet, 26 minutes and 38 seconds! Awesome!

 Gordon and I had an amazing time at the race. My favorite part was seeing everyone from around Tonosho and getting to see Gordon interact with his students outside of school. I was reminded of how truly blessed we are to be surrounded by such wonderful people and to enjoy each others company in the spirit of competition.

On a side note, Gordon and I had a lot of time to kill before we had to run, so I sneaked this video of Gordon being his goofy self. Please don't be mad, Gordon :)

Mochi at Tachibana Elementary

Today Gordon and I got to experience mochi at Tachibana Elementary school. Mochi is a japanese rice cake that's made by pounding rice into a paste and then molding it (normally into small balls or dumpling shapes).

Gordon's last day at Tachibana was on Friday, November 25th. He's going to miss teaching the kids there. I got to go with him several times to watch him teach and the kids were always excited to see him.

Gordon with his students

Luckily, Gordon and I were invited to the mochi festival at Tachibana today, so Gordon got to see all of his students again. There were several kinds of mochi at the festival:

Regular/plain mochi.

Anko mochi (bean jam rice cake).

Kinako mochi (soybean flour rice cake).

Karami mochi (grated radish rice cake).

Zoni (rice cake in soup).

Unfortunately, we didn't come early enough to see the mochi being made, but we did get to eat it!

Students and their families sitting down to eat mochi in the gym at Tachibana.

Gordon eating zoni.

Gordon coming back after a second helping of zoni.

Gordon eating plain mochi.

Yummy soup.

Happy after a good meal of mochi.

Full and satisfied!

A Japanese Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was a little nontraditional. Nontraditional in the fact that it was my first Thanksgiving away from family and I was spending it in Japan. Thanksgiving kind of sneaked up on Gordon and I. There were no fat, Butterball turkeys at the grocery store or decorations of cornucopias to remind us it was the season. And even though the day before, November 23rd, was a national holiday in Japan (Labor Day and Thanksgiving Day) they only treated it like another day off and not an excuse to eat too much food.

So that left me contemplating what to make for Thanksgiving dinner so that it would actually feel like Thanksgiving. Our first course (appetizer) was guacamole, per Gordon's request.

Hogging the bowl.

Then I decided to make mashed potatoes (anyone who knows Gordon, knows he loves mashed potatoes) macaroni and cheese, dressing, green beans and Subu's Mexican chicken. This seems like a pretty conservative and modest Thanksgiving meal, but you need to consider the fact that I am working with a toaster oven. Yes, I don't actually have a real oven, just an easy bake that's pretending to be one.

This is what I have to work with. I'm not complaining, in fact I'm very THANKful (like that?) I even have a toaster oven.

Peeling potatoes.

The food turned out better than I anticipated, meaning it was edible, and it actually felt like Thanksgiving.

Helping myself to some macaroni and cheese and to the right is dressing.

Let's eat!

After dinner, Gordon and I played a game of scrabble and set up our Christmas decorations. Gordon was hesitant to put up Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving was even over, but I didn't want Christmas to sneak up on us. It took us a whole 5 minutes to finish (we don't have many Christmas decorations).

Scrabble time.

Gordon "fluffing" the tree. Its going to be a Charlie Brown Christmas ya'll.

Gordon being a ham. He decided to add his special touch and throw the last two ribbons on the tree and declare Christmas decorating "Done!"

The finished product. Gordon told me it was probably not a good idea to light the Christmas tree candles underneath the tree... thank you for the advice. (Notice the beautiful Thanksgiving card from our friends back home, the Hogues).

This was our Thanksgiving Day surprise, a box full of goodies  from Gordon's parents!

What's for lunch?

Here's what Gordon had for lunch on 11/24 and 11/25...

Rice, fried fish, konnyaku (potato jelly) with green beans and root vegetables,Vienna sausages, and milk.

Bread, an orange slice, corn and spinach, hamburg, milk and clam chowder soup.

School lunch

School lunch is always a mystery. The teachers have a list that shows what lunch will be each day but it’s in Japanese and I can’t read Japanese yet. A little before noon the lunches are delivered to each grade. The junior high school has three floors, so the lunches are brought up by a small elevator. The lunches are always different and much healthier than the school lunches that I remember eating when I was in middle school , like pizza, French fries, chicken sandwiches and chicken tenders. The food usually comes in two containers; a bright red and a dark red. The bright red container is almost always white rice and sometimes rice mixed with shrimp, mushrooms or pork. The dark red container is always something different. Meat balls, fried pork cutlet, korroke (fried mashed potatoes), a mixture of Japanese vegetables (roots, Japanese potatoes, bamboo, carrot, etc). Fish is frequently served. Vegetable or meat or fish soup is sometimes served. Curry with rice is served once or twice a month. Fried squid, fried octopus balls, crab rice and tuna spaghetti have also been served. For dessert there is normally some sort of jelly or custard. And to drink, there's milk. Always milk. No mystery there.

Lunch time! On the right, milk and a custard dessert. In the dark red box: fish, root vegetables and steamed cabbage. In my chopsticks is a small steamed bun filled with meat. And in the other red box, of course, white rice.

During my first couple weeks at the school I was still pretty hungry after eating lunch because the portion sizes are about half of what I was used to eating for lunch back in the states. I eat lunch with the third grade English teacher, Yashiro Hideki. In Japan, the students are all assigned to one room, or homeroom. The teachers have one large room used as the teacher’s room and move from room to room each class period to teach but are assigned to one classroom during “homeroom” period. So I eat lunch with Yashiro in his homeroom class. This actually works out great because there’s almost always extra lunch available during lunch period in his class. I think some classes just have more absent students than others and some classes just typically eat more than other classes. I’ve developed a close relationship with Yashiro because he’s one of the few people at the school and in Tonosho who can speak English rather well. 

This day's lunch had bread instead of rice, a meatball, broccoli with carrots, chicken, an apple slice and vegetable soup.

When I first started eating in the classroom I would eat at a student desk with the other students. Many students would stare at me while I ate, make comments about my usage of chopsticks and giggle if I did or said something strange. Now I eat with Yashiro at his desk in the front of the class and we talk about various topics during the 20-30 minutes of lunch time. He’s especially been helpful in letting me know what the lunch is each day if I’m unsure. Recently, I told Yashiro that school lunch is always a mystery because I never know what it’s going to be and even when I get it I’m sometimes unsure of what I’m eating. He responded, “That’s good. I envy you. A little mystery in our lives is a good thing.”

Rice (with mushrooms, carrots, crab and pork), yellow-tail fish and vegetable soup.

Tokyo Day 3: Time to leave

There was a Starbucks next to the hotel so Em and I decided to eat breakfast there. It was before nine and no other restaurant or café was open yet but we were perfectly happy with Starbucks being our only choice. It was a spacious Starbucks and looked as though it could’ve been brand new. Hot coffee, a breakfast sandwich and a parfait hit the spot. We wrote a couple postcards, skimmed the paper and people-watched before we headed back up to our room. The closest Starbucks to Tonosho is in Narita, 55 minutes by train, and there are no coffee shops nearby, so it was a treat having morning coffee so readily available. 

Breakfast time at Starbucks.

Writing postcards for family and friends in the U.S.

Next we visited the gym and squeezed in a good workout before check-out time at noon. The view of Tokyo, the gym staff and the equipment was all excellent. Having a gym nearby is definitely something I miss. After we checked-out, we left our bags at the bell clerk and headed to Ueno Station. Destination: Hard Rock Café Tokyo Uyeno Eki. I tried the veggie burger and was surprised at how good it was. Emily ordered a salad—of course! There are seven Hard Rock Cafes in Japan. Three down, four to go! 

At Hard Rock Cafe Ueno, Madonna memorabilia on the wall behind me.

Posing with some Tokyo friends.

The area around Ueno Station is famous for cheap shopping so we walked around before we needed to head back to get our bags at the hotel. Tokyo is any shopper’s paradise. No matter what you’re looking for, want or need, Tokyo probably has it. However my build is bigger than most Japanese men, so it’s rare that I try on clothing that actually fits comfortably. For example, in one popular clothing store, which I think is like the equivalent of GAP, I tried on a large shirt and it fit me like a small. It’s enough to get my self-esteem down if I don’t remember that I’m not the same build as the average Japanese male! Also, for a big city, I was surprised at how clean Tokyo was in most places we visited. We took the train back instead of the bus, which actually took us more than twice as long. Even though we enjoyed our trip to Tokyo, it felt good to back in Tonosho. We’re beginning to feel at home in this small rural Japanese town.