World Traveler: New chapters!

I am planning a trip to Senegal in the fall. Next year I hope to get back to South America... I just want to see and do everything! So I resurrected this blog as my travel blog. I would have posted earlier but technical difficulties, blah.

Friday, March 11 to Saturday, March 12 -

2:00 am - Wake up because my neighbor still has his TV blaring. At least it drowned out his snoring!
2:30 am - Alarm goes off
3:00 am - Papa and JT pick me up to go to the airport.
3:40-6:00 - JT and I check our luggage in (once the office opened), eat some snacks, yawn and feel exhausted, wait excitedly for our flight to LAX.
6:00-7:00 - JT sleeps most of the flight. I wake him up for take-off and landing since it's his first flight ever.
7:00-8:30 - Land at LAX, change our money to en (yen), wander around the airport, take a shuttle to our rental car place
8:30-9:00 - Take a mini adventure in one of the "ambassador" vehicles since they had run out of economy. We drove to JTB in Torrance and picked up our train passes.
9:00-13:40 - JT and I kill time until our flight is boarding. (We were able to get our seats together on each flight.)
14:20-FOREVER (18:50 Saturday, March 12 Tokyo time) - We flew for 11 hours. JT slept the majority of the time. I can't sleep on planes and the guy next to me kept elbowing me and moving the arm rest. It was driving me nuts! I watched a series of movies.
19:40-21:40 - Catch our shuttle bus to the hotel and I shower. I try to not feel crazy and scatterbrained. Set the alarm for 5:30 so I can shower and then try to sleep.

Sunday, March 13 -

I, of course, wake up far too early and am just awake until my alarm goes off.
We get ready and walk to the nearest train station (Keisei Narita) and head to Tokyo Station. At the station, we activated our Rail Passes and got Shinkansen tickets to Morioka.
We grabbed breakfast at a French bakery. JT was FREAKING OUT about how much he loved the food. I neglected to watch the time.
Missed our Shinkansen by TWO MINUTES. DAH! Get new tickets, and have to wait a half hour.
Arrive in Morioka, grab the first bus to Takamatsunoike to go to church
Walk into church a half hour til finish to gasp and many hugs
We stayed at the church for a couple hours. I asked about members who weren't present - phone calls were made, cars driven, and I got to see nearly everyone. It was AWESOME! The members kept remarking how much better my Japanese was.... Not sure if that's a compliment or not, lol.
Shiwa-Kyoudai, my former home teacher, drove us all the way to our hotel (out in Tsunaji Onsen) and then back to Nanak in the center of the city (to give you an idea, we're talking about $80 in cab-fare or $27 in bus fares)
Yasue comes with us and we go to Mister Donut, Michel (bakery), Tartes des Demoiselles Tatins (cake shop), Hachnimanguu (largest Shrine in Morioka), and Daiso (where JT proceeds to fall in love - as one does and should).
Yasue rides with us to the Eki (train station) and sees us to our bus stop
(Note: It was SO amazing to see my friends in Morioka. I gave many hugs and it was like coming home to see them all. I'm so grateful I got to spend so much time with my oneechan!)
When we get to our hotel, I force JT to try to onsen. I only last 15 minutes because of my heat thing, but I am stoked!

Monday, March 14 -

JT says to me at some point, "You REALLY love Japan, don't you!?" Understatement.
We eat breakfast, and take the bus into town (to the bus center)
We wait and then are able to take a bus to near Morioka Minami (one of my old schools)
None of the former Principals/VPs are there - o.0 - one VP still allows me to visit (thank goodness!)
Only one of the English teachers is still there and my friend Oikawa Koichi - we chat with them and catch up (they had to pull Hashimoto-sensei out of proctoring a test - oops)
It was AMAZING to see them! Hashimoto-sensei told JT that the school was so lucky to have had me, and that I was an amazing woman and he should show me a lot of respect. That meant SO MUCH to me!
Koichi finds out that we are going to my other school and offers to drive us (saves us a lot of bus fare!)
I show up at Chokkaku Shien and Kaori-sensei is SHOCKED to see me! (I TOLD her I was coming!)
Everyone is freaking out and shaking my hand for a LONG time and so happy to meet JT and so happy to see me and I them
They gather ALL of my former students who are present and not-yet graduated and we have a class period to talk and so on
I spoke to the students (in Japanese) but Kanako-sensei translated for me (into Nihongo no Shuwa)
The students ask me questions - most of them just want to know if I remember them - OF COURSE I DO! They are so excited when I say their names! One girl tells me that she often looks at my facebook. ^ - ^ The whole exchange is incredibly amazing and heartwarming for me. JT feels pretty awkward as the Deaf students are all signing at him and he doesn't even know ASL. Poor guy.
Lunch time comes and JT and I hit the road with many handshakes and I tell them I plan to come back in 2.5 years (to pick up JT from his mission)
JT and I head back into town and we grab lunch at a soba place in Nanak.
We hit up Maruichi (grocery store) and buy some awesome goods (to eat, to take home, to save for later meals here, etc)
We then walk into the center of town and visit the other Daiso
We go to Karaoke for a half hour and then head to where we're supposed to meet my friend Yoshiko-san
We can't find her and I accidentally drop and break something I bought at Daiso
JT goes alone to buy a replacement for me (it was only a block away) - he gets the wrong size and I tell him what to say in Japanese to exchange it - he starts to panic and says he'll just use his money to buy me the right size since it was his fault he got the wrong one. I told him, one of us had already wasted a dollar and no way, etc. We walked back together and I showed him how to exchanged goods. ^ - ^
We catch the dendenmushi to the station because I know I can use foreigner wifi there to message my friend who never showed up. Even though it was an hour and a half later, she answers quickly and says she's coming. We wait for her and meet her at the station.
We go to Aeon and make JT choose where to eat (hahah poor guy) - he chooses Tiger Gyouza. We share our food and enjoy conversation.
Yoshiko-san drops us off at our hotel and it's 21:45. The onsen closes at 22:00 so I book it to the room to grab a yukata and get in before it's closed. JT confesses he really disliked the onsen (which makes me sad because I love it so much but it's ok that he doesn't like it).
I onsen as long as I can and then can't fall asleep until around midnight.

Today! Tuesday, March 15 -

I wake up very early again (this whole trip I'll been feeling like I'm in some sort of dream state - the exhaustion plus my insomnia -- even though I have my sleeping pills here --)
I head to the onsen and get to spend a nice long time there while JT sleeps (JT has slept on every plane and train at this point... except for one. I am very jealous of his ability to just sleep when he wants but I wonder if he has CFS or something. It seems like sleeping every available minute is too much...)
We have breakfast and the owner of our Ryokan finds out that we are going to 手づくり村 (Tezukurimura) and he insists on driving us there
He finds out we're also Christian and starts shouting glorias and hallelujahs - FANTASTIC!
We arrive there 20 minutes after the place opens
We make senbei and wander in and out of some of the shops - we each buy one of their wooden goods and some sweets specific to Iwate
We then wait outside for 20 minutes (under the impression that a certain shop doesn't open until 10). The wind is blowing but we find out that walking halfway down the hillside shields us. We end up dancing to some music on JT's phone while I laugh about how the Japanese may now think of Americans.
We get into the shop and make reiman - I LOVE it and JT doesn't care for it (he doesn't care for it because it comes with kimchi - which he gave to me - and it's a cold noodle dish). I eat and relish my dish!
We head to the bus stop and make it back to the train station
We had a plan to go to Kakunodate, but since things are closed and our bags are too big for the train lockers, we decide to head to Tokyo early.
We get to the hotel (after getting help and directions from workers at the train station) and check in. We sort of veg and use internet and eat dinner from the things we bought at Maruichi.
We head to Roppongi and I can't find the shop I had been to before - we find a hyakuen shop and stop there instead. I am able to buy a three to two prong converter and charge my laptop (thank goodness it wasn't an expensive paperweight on this trip!)
(On the way into the hotel, I hear people skyping someone in French. I internally FLIP and excitedly tell JT how they're speaking French and I decide not to talk to them... now I'm regretting that!)
We watch a little bit of a Chinese movie on my laptop until JT tells me he'd rather watch Naruto and I type this.

Tomorrow I will tell some highlight stories from the past few days. The nice thing about feeling this tired/weird is that the days are lasting really long! LOL Of course we're packing a lot of things into them... in any case... I have some good stories that I will eventually all get typed up. Tomorrow we will spend the day in Kyoto!! WOOOO!!!!

XOXO, A