日本人は親切！ Japanese people are kind!

Recently, I have met so many kind Japanese people!

For example, last weekend while I was at a street live, a woman came up to me and told me thank you for always coming to Yoshida Hiroki's lives.  I was kind of surprised, because I don't remember seeing her before though... And, as she was saying thank you, she gave me a cup of coffee along with the thank you, because she didn't want me to be cold. What?!! Surprise level-up!  It was a really kind thought (even though I don't actually drink coffee).  A while after she came back and talked for a little bit, and then offered to take my garbage, to which I declined for a couple reasons....one: she shouldn't have to throw away my trash, and two: I couldn't give it to her because I couldn't drink it, but she doesn't need to know that.

Then, when I was at a live (this time in a live house), one of the older women, Kiyo-san, who I know from various lives I've been to, came to talk to me and wanted to check that I was doing okay, because the last time she saw me, I didn't seem as genki as usual.  We ended up talking a lot, and walked to the station together afterwards (even though I didn't take the train...I actually walked home, but it was nice to walk together and be social).

Also, last week, when I went to my Japanese class, my teacher asked me what I was doing for my birthday, and when I told her I'd probably be on my own, she was kind of sad and told me that unfortunately she had plans that day, but we should try to do something together the following weekend.  I was so surprised! But it was really nice of her to say that!

Recently, I injured my foot, and so my kids have been very kind as well, stroking it and saying the Japanese version of "there, there".  Completely unnecessary, however, I appreciate that they are learning to care about other people.

And, most recently, I wanted to talk about last night.  I was out and about, and then I got to thinking, I really wanted to drink some apple cider, but they don't really have that in Japan, so I decided to go to Pinot, to see if he could make me something that was at least along those lines.  I ended up with an apple-y/lemon/honey hot drink.  It was good, but didn't have the spiciness of apple cider because there was no cinnamon or cloves, or whatever else goes into apple cider.  That's not what I wanted to talk about though.  When I walked in, there were a few people already there, and coincidentally, one of them was Ryosuke (who I know from Yoshida Hiroki's lives).  So, when I sat down, I kind of got pulled into their conversation, and eventually the question of my age came up.  When I told them that I would be ??? until the end of the night, they were so excited to hear that it would be my birthday the next day, and started to try to sing Happy Birthday.  Eventually, when I was ready to leave, I paid and was just getting up when Shifumi (a woman that had been there from the start and was talking together with us) said, "Only 30 more minutes to Amanda's birthday!!"  After that, some of other customers who had come in after wished me a happy birthday as well, and then total chaos happened.  Tatsu-san asked me what I would do for my birthday, and was I going to have a birthday party.  When I said no, and that I would probably be by myself, suddenly they all started talking about their plans for the next day and how unfortunate it was that they were busy too and wouldn't I be lonely.  Wait, what??!!  But I'm not finished yet...then they all suddenly decided that we should have a birthday party right then, and an older man (who I've seen in there a time or two) decided that he would go buy a cake.  And so he went out with another guy and they went out to the entry and started discussing cake shops, then Tatsu-san ended calling a cake shop (honestly I thought they would all be closed, but apparently not).  But they told him they could make one but it wouldn't be ready until 1am, and so they decided not to do that because that time was kind of difficult for me and for the other people who would be catching the last train.  The older man decided to actually go out and look for a cake and so even though I had been ready to leave, I had to wait and stay until he came back.  When he did come back, he hadn't been able to find a cake, but did come back with some chocolates.  Then, because it was after midnight and offically my birthday, they all sang happy birthday, and wished me a happy day.  Craziness!  But it was really nice of them!  I was happy that they wanted to celebrate with me, even if we didn't really even know each other!

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Also, as an unrelated aside, let's talk about my recent walks.  Since the beginning of 2017, it's been my goal to walk at least 10km every day. Most days, I can do more than that, although sometimes it's only 8.5-9.5km because I don't have time after work.  On the weekends, though, I'm able to walk for much longer.  On Saturdays I've been taking much longer walks, upwards of 20km. However, I decided that I wanted to try for 30km, which I did yesterday (the beautiful weather definitely helped)! (Although by the end of the day it was actually just over 35km. Yay!!  I had ended up walking to Nishinomiya Gardens (a really big shopping complex) and stopped there for a lunch of yummy waffles and fruit tea, before heading back home

 

Awesome, for the end of January!

Because I didn't leave Pinot until after midnight, it got split into 2 days, but in total, yesterday I walked 35.7 km (over 51,000 steps).

 

 

Maui and more...

For this year's winter vacation, I used 10 days of that vacation to spend some time in Maui together with my parents.

Because my vacaction started before the official holiday season, it was very easy to travel there.  I breezed through the airport: checking in, security, customs, all that probably took me less than 15 minutes!  Awesome!  There were no lines, the customs staff even walked me step by step through a form I had to fill out (even though it wasn't necessary...it was in English...but they were probably bored because there were so few people....).  Actually, there really wasn't many people in the airport at all!  Most of the people there were groups of high school students going off on school trips.  In fact, I ended up sitting next to a group of high school boys on a school trip on the flight there.  Surprisingly (although, maybe not so much when you consider they were Japanese), they were quite quiet considering.  At the beginning there was a good amount of chatter, a lot of it because it was the first time on a plane for some of them, but as we got into the flight, they got really quiet (could be because it was a night flight as well, but I'd rather think it was their manners).  I think the boy who had to sit beside me was a little bit uncomfortable though, he seemed frozen for most of the flight.  I'm sorry if sitting beside a foreigner was scary!

Early morning on one of our last days...

Maui was very nice and warm!  Plus, we stayed very close to the beach, so (after getting over jet lag a little bit), I could hear the waves at night before going to sleep and in the morning when I woke up.

Unfortunately for us, there were quite a few days in that 10 day period that were rainy/cloudy/extremely windy.  However, on the sunny days, most of them were spent absorbing some sunlight at the beach. 

Sometimes, I got some visitors while I was on the beach...

Of course, the beach wasn't all that we did either.  I, of course, did a little bit of shopping for some things that I may not have been able to get in Japan. 

One day, when it started to pour in the afternoon, we went to a tiny little lavender farm and checked out all the lavender merchandise and wandered around a little looking at the interesting plants.

Rainy (and lots of lavender)....

Bird of paradise

After visiting that farm, we went to a glass-blowing studio/gallery.  The things that they make are so pretty! I had hoped that we would be able to see them actually blowing glass, but it was on a day where they didn't do it.  Too bad.

We took a drive down the road to Hana.  That road had some waterfalls along the way, and the road itself was interesting.  Constant switch-backs and tiny one lane bridges. 

And we stopped at a fruit stand for smoothies!

So many cats at the road stop!

And chickens?!

On our way to that road, we stopped at a lookout point, where we saw some GIANT waves!  We also found out that on the beach below, it's possible to see sea turtles.  And we found one!  It was quite large, and attracted many people, and some of the people weren't so intelligent, getting right up next to it to take selfies.  I am so surprised it didn't try to bite any of them.  I would have, if I was that turtle.  Of course, you all know my feelings about having my picture taken.

 

 

 

 

I think it's easier to see how big some of the waves are from video...we heard some of them were ~7.5m tall!
 

On another day, when the weather was particularly disagreeable, we ended up going in to watch a movie.  We saw the new Star Wars movie.  I didn't even know they had been making a new one!  So disconnected!  Anyway, in my opinion, this one was much better than the last one they made (episode VII).

On our second last day, we went ziplining!  And we ended up having great luck!  The time that we booked, no one else had booked! So, it was just the 3 of us together with the 2 staff that took us around the course! Lucky!  It was a lot of fun and our guides were really funny too!

Speaking of being lucky -- one night as we were walking home from dinner, I happened to look up and saw a meteor (shooting star...whatever you want to call it)!  It broke off into a couple pieces before it completely burned up, but it was really pretty!

I also got to see many nice sunsets at the beach (prepare to be bombarded with sunset photos....)

December 13, 2016

December 14, 2016

 

December 17, 2016

December 19, 2016

December 20, 2016

 When I got back to Japan, I was disorientated for a couple days (I had left on the morning of the 22nd, but with the time change I didn't return until the evening of the 23rd). 2 days lost to the void of time!  It was really nice coming in though.  The night-time scenery was beautiful from the plane!

Bye, Hawaii...

Since then, I've just been hanging around at home, catching up on sleep, walking around, meeting up with friends, and such things.

I actually found these cute things at the beginning of the month, but I didn't take pictures then, but I did this time!

Then, on Thursday, I got a message from one of my co-workers, asking about how my vacation went, and asking if I was back yet, because she had made a soup that she knows I love, and wanted to bring me some!!  I was so surprised, but extremely happy!  And it was delicious!! 



Tonjiru (A kind of pork and vegetable miso soup)

 Then, on Friday afternoon, I met up with a Japanese friend, who had asked if I would give some lessons/have English conversation together.  We went to a cafe together, and had a really nice conversation, (in a mix of English and Japanese).  I really enjoyed it and I learned some interesting things as well!!  It seemed to have been well recieved, because he posted on Facebook/Twitter:

今日は神戸で 英会話を堪能してました。 喋れるって楽しい。 まだまだ全然やけどね（笑）

So, basically, he said he had fun talking in English, although he's not fluent yet.  I'm glad he enjoyed it too!  I want to do it again -- it really was fun!!

And that's what I've been up to since leaving for Hawaii.  A few more days left yet...what will I get up to???