Rice Planting

In October, I talked about Harvest Season here: the many garden plots and the plethora of potatoes, soybeans, cauliflower, tomatoes, and daikon that grace the fields and plates of our little town.  I also mentioned getting to harvest rice with one of my elementary schools, which we then used for the big Omochi Party in [...]

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Golden Week//China: Part II

The Great Wall   Contrary to our nature, Ellie and I decided to heed the advice of several concerned parents and friends and elected to use a tour service for our Great Wall trip.  We were told that the Wall was dangerous and that camping along it was illegal.  So, for a relatively reasonable fee, [...]

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Travel Go Girl Post: Dress for the Job You Want

“And if the job you want is as a professional skier in the Japan boom-time 80s, then you’ve come to the right place….” Check out the full article here!

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Ho Ho Hokkaido

Check out my Niseko post over at Go Girl Magazine!

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Sapporo Yuki Matsuri

On Sunday on travelgogirl.com, you’ll hear about the second part of my sojourn north to Hokkaido (a little ski resort called Niseko), but the impetus for the trek was the Sapporo Snow Festival, famous throughout Japan and also…the world! While I can see Hokkaido from my little town, I had never yet set foot there.  [...]

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Thailand

My two weeks in Thailand were sunny, warm, fun, delicious, challenging, eye-opening, and all together, just what I needed.  While it’s always a little hard to be away from family and friends during the holidays, exploring a new – and awesome – country helped in abating my lonesomeness for home.  The trip also came at [...]

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Snow’s the Theme

It’s been snowing for the past week in northern Japan.  Mostly the snow has been these soft little pebbles, brought on by very cold temperatures and high winds.  Everything was covered for the most part, but because of all the blowing, nothing really collected in my town, though the major inland towns and cities got [...]

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Most recent Mantra

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives.  It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Said by none other than Mr. Charles Darwin. He would know.

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Aoni Onsen

November was a busy month for many reasons, but probably the best one was that there was a surge in the amount of cool people in Aomori-ken by 3.  I had to rent them from America, but they took on the responsibility with courage and style. Sophy and Cliff, on their maiden voyage to the [...]

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Harvest Season

As the title of this post suggests, harvest season has come to Shimokita. Not only have I been the recipient of more cabbage and daikon radish than I could possibly know what to do with, but I have also gotten to experience harvesting some of these grains and veggies with my students in the past [...]

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