Home for the Holidays!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! よいおとしお！Happy Holidays!

After a nearly one month hiatus, I am back in the saddle and ready to take on the winter. Assuming that almost all of my readers are either friends or family, you all know that I headed home for the holiday break - a three week adventure that I was particularly looking forward to for a variety of reasons.

I spent my last week in Takko before the break throwing a rather successful holiday party, continuing to make snowflakes with my students, and packing for home. In my infinite wisdom, I decided that I could be frugal with my packing and only took one suitcase back home. It was the larger of the two, in my defense, but still a stupid decision. I wouldn't be paying the price on that until the end of the trip and for the meantime, I was very proud of myself. It had been snowing on and off for several days, but nothing too serious and it barely stuck. The night before I left, however, it snowed about two inches (WOW!) and I was impressed, of course. I was only in town to enjoy it for a couple of hours before heading to Ninohe to make my way to Tokyo. Six hours, a bit of Christmas shopping, and a slight delay of the plane later, and I was on my way to Los Angeles for my first international connection ever. And yes, I was upgraded once again.

Upon arriving at LAX, my least favorite airport, I was led through the cattle call that is immigration and customs, speed walked about a half mile to the domestic terminal to catch my connection, and then sat for almost two hours waiting for my delayed connection. To put a date on all of this, it was December 17th, right around the time of the huge storm on the East Coast, which put a wrench into every flight plan in America, it seems. I finally arrived in SFO in time to drive up to San Francisco, quickly change in my sister's dorm, and then head to the Opera House to enjoy the SF Ballet's Nutcracker. Dinner? Nope. Just chips, cakes and wine.

The rest of my weekend hinged on Patrick's arrival on Sunday afternoon. I was stressed that his plane would be delayed to the point of near cancellation, since that seemed to be the theme of most airports on that side of the country, but we were lucky that it wasn't. After over-anticipating the traffic on the way to the airport, I arrived about two hours too early and sat in the arrivals lobby, obsessively checking my phone, waiting for the text that would read "we've landed". When it finally came, I, along with a number of other girlfriends and family members waiting for their loved ones, was pressed against the glass straining to see the gate. One of the girls jokingly remarked that the 20 foot high glass wall was placed there to prevent girlfriends from rushing past security when they spotted their boyfriend, although I didn't doubt the truth in that statement. The reunion was wonderful and I think I nearly squeezed his breath out of him, but when I finally did let go, we found his bags and started the next two very busy weeks together with a Christmas dinner at my aunt's near Discovery Bay.

Heavenly

Just as time together always does, it went by too quickly. Two weeks felt like three days, but we got a lot  done in that amount of time. Two days in Monterey, four Christmases, a week in Lake Tahoe, and countless other gatherings and get togethers later, and our two weeks were full. I am so utterly thankful for the holiday block leave that allowed him to come home, but now the ultimate test of patience has already begun: date and time of next visit, unknown.

The day after Patrick made his way back to the middle of nowhere, the Takko HS group arrived and thus began my true purpose of coming home for the holidays. Like all the trips, we hit up the usual touristy spots in San Francisco and Gilroy. The big difference between this trip and all the others was the obvious excitement that was constantly pulsing through the group. Their already excellent English developed at shocking speeds to the point where translation was barely needed. At the end of the trip, the sayonara party was full of tears as the students thanked their host families for the past week, and the tears continued to flow all the way to Japan. We were on the Shinkansen back to Takko and they were still saying that they didn't want to go home. They were home sick for Gilroy. You know it's been a good trip when...

Takko HS visiting USF!

Just a last note on the packing business, I ended up checking THREE bags (although one of them was checked by one of the students...the perks of traveling in a group): my suitcase, a duffel bag and a snowboard case. With the help of several space saver bags, I was able to fit everything, but not without having to pay the $25 overweight fee. Can't win them all!

I've been back for three days now, and I'm slowly getting back into my routine of things. We arrived back in Takko to feet of snow everywhere, but I did a bit of shopping in America and made sure I was prepared. As expected, there were icicles on the faucet in the kitchen, and my bathroom floor was iced over from the leftover water from my last shower here about a month ago. That evening, I had a slight panic attack at the thought of freezing when my heater in the living room wasn't working, but it was replaced the next day after mentioning it to my supervisor. The Japanese don't mess around. But all is well now; I no longer am afraid of the apartment being an ice box (although if the power were to ever go out for long periods of time, that would be a different story), and my plans for the next couple of months are slowly shaping up.

Because of the snow, new activities have fallen into our laps including snowboarding, sledding, and yuki matsuris! The new big adventure ahead is a trip to the prefecture north of us, Hokkaido. Sapporo (probably most famous among Americans as being recognized as the home of Sapporo beer) is also the home of the Yuki Matsuri, or snow festival. One week of the year, the city hosts a huge festival featuring snow and ice sculptures of all shapes and sizes that are spread out at different locations throughout the city. Since the festival is only for one week of the year, it can get pretty crazy up there. Hotel reservations should have been made months ago, and the trains are going to be packed. Traditionally, people in positions like mine (JET Program, etc) would couch surf in lieu of having to worry about hotels. That is Plan A...will let you know how that goes.

Other than that, I'm hoping my weekends will be filled with boarding trips in hopes of improving. During the two week holiday block leave, we went to Lake Tahoe, like I had mentioned. There was a bit of a misunderstanding in that Patrick thought I was more skilled than I actually am and I thought it was implied. Obviously not. Most likely relying on every bit of patience inside of him, Patrick gave me private boarding lessons, hoping to correct my bad habits so that I'll be able to keep up with the rest of the group next time we go. I'm counting on the countless trips to the mountain nearby to help me improve for the seasons ahead.

Coming up... To kick off this weekend, I'll be spending the evening doing my favorite Japanese activity: karaoke. Kendal's friend from home has come to visit, so we'll be keeping it classy in Sannohe. Sunday will most likely be my first day on the slopes here in Japan, so I'll definitely let you know how it goes. My two girlfriends will be coming with me, and they both identify themselves as beginners, although I'm worried that their Japanese modesty might be overcoming the truth. Just have to wait and see...

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