Clubbing

I wasn’t that much of a party person in college, but I enjoyed dancing every now and then. It wasn’t until I came to Japan that I could really indulge in that interest. Osaka is a huge city with many dance clubs. The more I go, the more and more I’ve come to love them.

It seems like dance clubs get a bad rep and for good reasons! Half of the men there are trying to get with girls, and many girls play right into it. It can be very dangerous! If you set boundaries for yourself and go with a group of people, however, I think it’s totally fine! I’ll be honest, I’ve broken boundaries before and have drunk too much, but once you make that mistake once, you never want to go there again.

I’ve never been a particularly good dancer, but once a have a few drinks in me, I don’t seem to care about that anymore (the magic of alcohol)! Something about dancing makes me feel happy and confident…even when I’m sober (I can just dance a lot longer and enjoy myself more when I’m drinking). I love hard electronic/dance music. There’s nothings that makes me feel more alive currently then dancing with friends to bass pounding music. I feel connected with everyone in the club. Some people go to clubs to hook up, but my sole intention is to listen to good music and dance my face off!

Recently, I went to a new club called Club Jaws. I went with a group of friends after fueling up at torikizoku, and ended up staying all night! It was a really fun place! Yes, there were creepers, and yes, someone grabbed my butt, but since I was with friends, I felt safe, and Nari-chan told off the guy who touched my butt haha! Thank you! Good thing I’m there just to have a good time otherwise maybe I’d be mad lol!

The neat thing about Jaws was that if you signed up for their email and showed it at the entrance, it was I think free for ladies and only 500 yen for men to get in. Best of all (or worst of all if you are weak haha), the drinks are completely free until midnight for women! WHA?!? We got there at like 9:00 or 9:30 haha! Needless to say, I took advantage of that! My guy friends kept asking me to get them drinks. :P Good thing I’m nice! Here are some pictures from the night:

Getting pumped up before the club at Torikizoku.

I think we were in the right mindset!

We were the first ones there to get the party started. By
12 am, the place was packed!

I've been to several different clubs in Osaka: Pure, Owl, Bambi, Live and Bar 11 Onzieme, Club Jaws, Giraffe, Club Joule, Circus, Sam & Daves (Bar One), Azure, Club Wax, and Ammona. Let me know if you are looking for any recommendations!

Takoyaki and Hiking

This post has two parts: the takoyaki part and the hiking part. I’ll go in chronological order. One a random weekend, a group of us girls decided we wanted to have a sleep over takoyaki party. It was my first takoyaki party. For those who don’t know, takoyaki is the staple food of Osaka. It’s basically balls of batter with octopus inside. You cover them with sauce, mayo, fish flakes, and seaweed. Sound gross, but they are pretty addicting! You can buy takoyaki from any vendor on the street, but another popular option is to have a takoyaki party. So, five of us JET girls got together and made takoyaki. It was fun! We chatted, drank plum and yuzu wine, and ate takoyaki until we were about to burst haha!

Homemade takoyaki.

Itadakimasu!

The following day, we woke up early and met more of our friends to go hiking in Takarazuka-shi. I’m not particularly an athletic person, nor do I enjoy hiking that much, but this was different because there was a unique allure. The hike was in the mountains along a river and old abandoned railroad track that involved walking through pitch black tunnels. You had to bring a flashlight (or torch as my kiwi and aussie friends called it haha) in order to see.  In any case, the hike was beautiful! The tunnels were so much fun! It wasn’t that strenuous of a hike either. I’d recommend it to anyone.

It was a nice area!

The first tunnel.

Emerging from the dark.

This river was full of rocks. It was cool!

We had to walk over this bridge...It was scary!

At the end of the hike.

Tea Ceremony

Recently, I’ve been getting very involved in my tea ceremony class. I really like it! It was always a goal of mine to practice the tea ceremony in Japan since I practiced it back in the U.S. for two and a half years. It’s been over six months since I started practicing again in Japan. There were two main events related to my tea class recently.

First, I went to my first real tea ceremony as a guest. It was a lot different than I imagined. I always imagined a tiny tea house in a garden of a temple; very intimate with one tea maker and around 4 guests. This scenario is true of the past and possibly for rich people today, but these days, large groups of people will come to a temple to watch a tea ceremony. It costs around 2,500 yen to attend.  I watched two or three different performances. We were in very large rooms in a temple in Kyoto. Guests could wear kimono or formal western clothing.  There were about 20-30 guests watching one person make tea. It was fun and interesting, but not what I was expecting. It was less formal than I thought it would be.

My Japanese tea ceremony teacher.

Second, I actually performed my first real tea ceremony in the same temple!! I was SO nervous! I thought I would for sure mess up. I was the last to perform of my classmates. It was the same set up as before. I performed in a large room full of about 20-30 people. I was in full kimono all day. It was so hot! It was a very good experience, though. All of the guests were surprised to see a foreigner serving them tea and okashi (Japanese sweets) haha, let alone perform a ceremony! One of the best things was that my American tea ceremony teacher who is living in Tokyo now came all the way to Kyoto for the day just to watch me perform! I hadn’t seen her in like over two years! I was so happy and excited! She sat in the 2^nd position of honor so she was very close to me when I perform. The main guest of honor was an old man. My friends warned me before I performed, saying that the old man was a “talker.” They were not wrong. He was really distracting and kept asking me questions in Japanese and asking if I understood while I performed. He said, “Wow, this is the first time I’ve been served by a foreigner!”  I just tried to channel him out like I was instructed to. I ended up doing my ceremony perfectly for the first time! I was so proud of myself!

Kimono time!

My previous teacher came to watch! So happy!

Me performing!

Afterwards, my American teacher and spent some time together. We walked around Kyoto a bit and browsed the shops. We went to this really nice traditional Japanese style restaurant that specializes in yuudofu (basically tofu in hot water that you dip into sauce and put other things on top). We sat on cushions at a low table with a view of a beautiful Japanese garden out the window. She treated me to dinner. I felt so gracious seeing as she came all the way to see me (shinkansen (bullet train) tickets aren’t cheap), gave me gifts, and took me out to dinner. I don’t know how I can ever return the favor! She said that getting to see one of her past students move to Japan and continue practicing the tea ceremony and perform at a real tea ceremony was gift in itself. She said she thoroughly enjoyed watching me. At dinner, she picked my brain about ideas on how to run her class better when she returns to America. I still feel like I owe her so much. She was the one who wrote me a letter of recommendation for the JET Programme to begin with. I’m sure that because of her, I am able to be in Japan now.

Garden view.

Yuudofu.

Teishoku (meal set).

Field Trip

I was lucky enough to be invited on the first graders’ field trip (first grade of junior high school, that is). My favorite thing about my job is interacting with the students. They are so funny, cute, and nice (mostly)! They all think of me as a superstar which is a great ego booster. Haha! This was my first time going on a trip with the students. This is how it went…

We left the school a little after 8:00 am. In Japan, they don’t have school buses so we rode in huge charter buses! On the way, students played games and sang songs. I got to join in as well. The first part of the trip was going to a museum in Suita, Osaka. That was my favorite part. Then, we got back in the buses and headed over to Ikeda, Osaka to go to an “athletic park.” Basically, it was a hiking path in the mountains with about 30 different obstacles on the trail. It was pretty hot outside. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but the students seemed to enjoy it, and I enjoyed watching them. Before doing the hike, we had a picnic. I sat with three girls and chatted. I particularly like the 1^st graders this year. They are a good bunch.

It was a long day, but I enjoyed it! After the trip, the group of us teachers who went on the field trip went to this amazing restaurant in the middle of nowhere. It’s called Mukune-Tei. They make their own sake there. It may have been the most delicious Japanese meal I’ve had! It was high class, and I got to try a couple types of their homemade sake.

First course (Japanese pickles, aged tofu, and fried chicken).

Second course: Soumen. You dip the noodles in sauce.
 The sauce isn't in the picture though.

Third course: Tofu with sticky potato and octopus on top.
You cook it up on this grill.

Fourth course: Sake flavored jelly.

Fall Illumination

As I was going back through all my previous posts, editing them and adding pictures, I realized that I never wrote anything about the fall illumination I went to. Fall illuminations take place a various temples and shrines in Japan. Some temples and shrines will be open to the public after dark during the fall. Bright spotlights are shined on the colorful trees. They are illuminated in the darkness, and it’s very beautiful. It’s like the trees are ablaze! This was something I had wanted to do since I learned about it. Since it’s now summer again in Japan, hopefully this post will come as a nice escape from the heat.

I went to Kyoto for the day with my friend Marielle (unfortunately, she isn’t in Japan anymore). We went in order to see the fall foliage. It was raining almost the entire day, and it was a little chilly. However, we still had fun. We went out for lunch at an Italian buffet that had been recommended to us. It was good!  It was Marielle’s first time in Kyoto, so we hit up some of the major sights.We went to Kiyomizu-dera. Afterwards we went to Kinkakuji. We got there right before it closed! It was finally dark, so we made our way to Eikandou to see the fall illumination. Eikandou has a reputation for being a good place to see a fall illumination, and it did not disappoint! By the time we got there, the rain had let up, too!

Fall is my favorite season. So for me, this was right up my alley. I can’t wait to go again next fall! Please enjoy some pictures! 

Marielle.

Me.

I was so happy!

So pretty!

This was like the grand finale.

Me being a dorky narrator. Anyway, it's cool

to see the trees in the video.