• 09Feb

    My local Japan-America Society had this booklet out and it has some interesting recipes and pictures, including bento. Click on the images below for full-size versions.

    An online version is also available at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries page.

    Read more »

  • 23Jul
    Categories: Japan; Comments: 0

    So, I am the art teacher (leaving next Thursday) and 1) I don’t have all of my ideas finalized and 2) the ideas I did send to the staff were not approved/un-approved and I wasn’t told if they had the materials I need.

    Here’s the breakdown of what I need:
    Kindergarten (5) [20 kids]
    First (3) [27 kids]
    Second (5) [4 for 27 students, and one activity for 13]
    Third (4) [19 kids]
    Fourth (4) [12 kids]
    Fifth/Sixth (3) [14 kids]

    I’m the art teacher, so I need to have… art activities.
    I want them to make a scrapbook, which I can display at the end of the program, each day their art goes inside. I don’t know if I will make this a ‘bound’ book or if I will just make a file folder to hold everything that they can decorate and tie closed with ribbon.

    Here’s where I’ll be at:

    View Larger Map

    edit: I solved my problem! I mapped out the art classes, reusing some crafts and just changing the difficulty of them.

    Kindergarten: Folder Scrapbooks, “About Me” page to put in scrapbook, Calendars, Weaving & Bookmarks, Illustrate a Story, Sponge Painting, Picture Frames, Tissue Paper Flowers
    First Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, Mosaics, Calendars, Weaving & Bookmarks
    Second Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, “About Me” page to put in scrapbook, Mosaics, Calendars, Tissue Paper Flowers, Paper garlands, Picture Frames, Yarn Paintings, Weaving & Bookmarks
    Third Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, “About Me” page to put in scrapbook, Mosaics, Calendars, Puppets, Tissue Paper Flowers, Picture Frames
    Fourth Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, Collages, Mosaics, Calendars, Picture Frames & Bookmarks
    Fifth/Sixth Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, Calendars, Top Hats

  • 17Jul
    Categories: Japan, Personal; Comments: 0
    Danny!
    I talked to you a bit a few hours ago.
    To answer your question(s):
    Yes, I did get your letters! and you called me at 6am! I was definetely still sleeping and I didn’t even hear the phone ring. Maybe I was dreaming about things ringing, so it blended in.
    You didn’t tell me you were buying an ink cartridge and a new case! I wish I could have helped you shop for one, I like shopping for things with you, especially things you use everyday.
    Yesterday there was an earthquake and today the train was delayed and it took twice as long for me to get to school as it usually does! When I got to school, I ate my bread that I get every morning (I STILL haven’t gotten around to taking a picture of the bread!) and then ran/speed-walked to class to get there on time.
    Class was okay, easy as usual. I bust out massive – kick ass explainations in Japanese for Japanese grammar, and its basically me and the teacher having our own class. ^_^. After school I went back to Mizonokuchi with Amanda (it was really cold and slightly raining all day, the rain felt like pin-pricks all over my body like when some part of your body falls asleep). I picked up my FAILED package from the post office and then hauled it up the hill to add more things into it. Then I packed up a danny box and sent two packages for about $300. (But the come fast! I sent one on Friday and my mom got it on your Monday, my Tuesday!)
    Then Amanda and I tried to eat lunch in Mizonokuchi but all the restaurants were “Junbi Chuu”, In preperation. Finally we found this little cafe where I had a miz sammy (super yummy) a yummy salad, and some coffee that I added sugar and milk to. Unfortunately, this made me sick, but I’m better now.
    Amanda and I then went to Shibuya and went to Tastukya or whatever itis, this 7 or 8 floor book store/best buy like place that has a internet cafe and 2 floor starbucks as well as a used video game section. After I bought the donut world game and a kanji ‘game’, we went to LoFT and I bought hilighters, a case for my podster, face blots (for me AND jessica as a souviner), and eyeliner. Amanda and I didn’t want to go back to the cafe for a fourth time to study, so we went back to Mizonokuchi.
    When we got back to Mizonokuchi I sorted and organized all of my stuff and then it was time to go eat dinner. We ate at a restaurant at the bottom of the hill and it was pretty good and cheap. Amanda and I split Yakisoba and Cheese Pizza. Only with the Nikster could this happen. ^_^
    We went to the Grocery store after that and you called me during my massive medicine translation thing, and then I talked to you. I just finished cleaning my bathroom (OCD nikster) and then talking to my mom. My mom is SO bad on the phone, I hate talking to her!
    Tomorrow I’ll prolly go to Kaiten Zushi with Amanda and then go to Futako-Tamagawa (a town two stops away that I went to to ’see fireworks’ on tanabata, which didn’t really work) to study.
    This SO COUNTS AS A NIKSTER NEWSLETTER, and I finally answered one of your emails! Now I’m gonna read your and Jessica’s letters, take a shower, and go to bed. Oh wait, and study. Darn it.
    Oh, and I TRIED to do my eyebrows, and it didn’t work. I miss you danny, and your awesome eyebrow skills. I made the left one higher and thicker and the right one lower and thinner. Not to mention that I accidentally made a gap in the left one. >_<. I guess I can try to fill in my browsters tomorrow, but that tends to make my eyebrows WAY to dark, and they already are dark!
    Tomorrow I’ll try to get up early so that I can wear my new clothes and have a “japanese style”. It’s so hard!
    Love You!

    -Nikstere

  • 26Jun
    Categories: Japan, Personal; Comments: 0

    Hi Danny!

    It is 12:37 am here and I should really be doing my homework because I have to wake up at about 6 am tomorrow so I can take a shower and talk to you! I just made 2 short movies for everyone that is a compilation of videos and movies I took on 6/23 (Saturday) and 6/24 (Sunday). I’m hoping to catch up really quickly, and maybe make a compilation of a few days where I have less pictures into one movie. I’m so picky about the music I choose to go with it, I shouldn’t really care.

    Sorry its taking so long for me to contact you! I don’t like the internet café’s keyboard, so I’m going to just type my emails here and copy and paste into the café’s PC until I get my internet connection. It will also be cheaper that way too because its like $2 or something for just a few minutes!

    I’ve found that transportation here is really expensive. Once you get into the city, all the lines are JR (japan rail), but I live far from Tokyo, so I have to take Tokyu ( 東急) to Tokyo. The characters mean east and fasts, so its like an express metro to Tokyo. So, any travel I do outside of my school’s stop, I have to pay for, even if I go to a stop that’s on the way to school/dorm. It’s about $2 to one stop, $1.30 being the cheapest ticket you can buy and when you get to the next stop you have to pay the difference which ranges from 90 cents to two dollars and 90 cents. I kinda like the train system, once you figure it out, its very easy to ride and transfer and such, not like the DC metro.

    So, today we went to school as usual, BUT today, the results of the placement test were posted. @_@. Remember that yesterday I was really worried about my placement test since they said I got a 28/200 and that was equal to level 1? Well, I got placed into the highest class with one fellow classmate from JPN 202 at UVa and one that was in 302!! I don’t know how that happened, but I’m glad!

    This week and the next are special sessions for students from the US to review and prepare us for our level when it becomes “real” school July 10 th. It’s kinda weird, but I like it! And, we can take the test again at the end of the 7 days to see which level we get placed into (if we want to, I don’t want to. I’m in the class to go into 3 OR 4, and I’m happy with 3!). We have two classes each day. In the morning, 930-1245 I think, I have a really nice Japanese woman, the person that I had my oral interview with yesterday. (and because of her I got put into class F instead of A ^_^). We have a 15 minute break half way through and then we have lunch for 45 minutes, until 130. I went with a few other people to this place called “Freshness Burger” and ate a Spam Sandwich. The problem is that all the good or cheap places to eat are a little far away from school, so we were late! From now on, I think I’ll just grab some bento from a convenience store or vending machine near by. The good thing is that starting July 10 th, I will only have morning class. ^______^, so I can use that time to explore and eat at good places THEN.

    So, the second session is with this old Japanese guy, and I was late, so I was kinda scared of him. He is much harder to understand than the woman, and I got so tired from straining myself to hear and process what he was saying. After that class we had a mini-orientation for a trip to Yamagata we’re taking on Thursday and Friday. [Don't worry, I'll take lots of pictures and I'll have the weekend to upload them!] After that, I tried to get help filling out my internet modem (*_*) request form and then Amanda and I went back to Mizonokuchi to try to get an Alien registration number from the ward office (to get a cell phone), but it closed at 5!! Then we went to “explore” Mizonokuchi and found out that our small town wasn’t small at all! We have a mini-NYC on the other side of the train tracks! We met fellow KCP people/person downtown and then went to a stationary store where I bought an orange pen, pencil, notebooks, index cards, and some postcards. The postcards are so pretty (and expensive), that I don’t know if I want to send them! After that, Christine (the person we accidentally met down there) went back to the dorm and Amanda and I went to this huge mall called O1 City and went into this food court that had a KFC, Mister Donut, Baskin Robbins, and a LOT of good looking inexpensive restaurants. From now on, we’re going to eat there because by our dorm is too expensive. The food court is like 2-5 dollars and our dorm area is like 7-12 dollars. BIG difference! Plus, I don’t eat that much, so yeah…Amanda ate her ‘freshness burger’ that she didn’t get to eat from lunch (she didn’t have time) and I ate a small scoop (kids size) of Lemon Cranberry Cheesecake Ice Cream from Baskin robbins (SO YUMMY!) I didn’t take pictures of the burger place outside or the food court, but I took a picture of the burger place inside, kept the menu, and took a picture of my sandwich and ice cream.

    Then we went back, got a *little* lost and then came home. I did laundry and the dorm manager said that she could lend us a fridge! (Only one though, that will be put in MY room! ^_^)

    I would like to write more, but for now I need to do my Japanese homework because I need to go to bed really soon if I want to call you and take a shower and get to school on time!

    I love you so much Danny, and send me some packages!
    my address is: I have two. Letters go to Mizonokuchi, Packages (or both!) go to KCP.

    KCP International Language Institute
    University-Accredited Program
    1-29-12 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku
    Tokyo, Japan 160-0022


    or, if you can print the Japanese, it is better:

    日本

    〒160-0022
    東京都新宿区新宿1-29-12
    KCP地球民日本語学校

    - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - –

    Tokyo Student House Mizonokuchi
    TOKYO STUDENT HOUSE MIZONOKUCHI
    453-1 SHIMO-SAKUNOBE, TAKATSU-KU
    KAWASAKI-SHI, KANAGAWA 213-0033 JAPAN

    日本

    〒213-0033
    神奈川県川崎市高津区
    下作延453-1 216号
    オアンダサン・ニコール

    東京スチエーデントハウス溝の口

    —————————-

  • 25Jun
    Categories: Japan, Personal; Comments: 0
    Hi everyone!
    Im here in Mizonokuchi, the town I live in. I am in an Internet cafe right now that is by the train station. I have pictures and videos to send you, but I havent been able to gather them all up and put them on my USB drive.
    The day I got here we rode the train for 2 hrs from the airport. I was so tired, I went to bed at 8pm after eating dinner at a small ramen shop in our small town. Sunday I went to Harajuku and Shinjuku to eat, shop, and find out where our school was. At Harajuku we visited a shrine, saw a Snoopy town and a claires, and ate at another ramen shop. Everything here is $8-$10! Im kind of worried about money, especially since we dont have a refridgerator at our dorm so making our  own lunch and dinner would be very difficult. Today we went to school and took the placement exam. We had listening and writing. For some reason I got a 28/200 for the writing!! Other people in my level got 75-100s….The test was all fill in the blank and I can:t understand fill-in-the-blank, even in English. i tried explaining this, but I don]t know what is going to happen. i dont want to come all the way here and take level 1!!! Well see…. Im really worried and wanted to cry!
    We rode the train this morning and it was SO CROWDED! I saw a lot of people get stuck in doors! It was better when we went out later, but the train is a little expensive. I think Ive already spent $100 in just transportation and food. The only thing I bought was an umbrella when it started raining when I was out. Today I ate at a little Curry/Udon place by school with one other person I know and then two other people came in that live in our dorm [7american people live with me in Mizonokuchi]. then we went to the post office to try to get an alien registration card so we can get a cell phone and then we had to go to kawasaki (30 min away) and that was wrong! the place we really had to go to was right next to our dorm! The post office just told us the wrong information. and by the time we got back to the right place, it was closed. oh well, at least we got to get used to the train system.
    we went to harajuku again today and then saw the rest of our dorm people there. how weird is that?! japan is such a big place! I dont have internet for 2 weeks here and I dont have a cell phone because I dont have Alien registration #, so the only way I can contact you is with my phone card that I bought here in Japan and through this email.
    The keyboard here is hard to push and is very small, so from now on, Im going to type my emails ahead of time and transfer them here.
    A more detailed email is to come soon, probably tomorrow! This is just a quick hi!
    Love,
    Nikki

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    On this site, you'll find:
    Reviews (Book, Movies, Music, Restaurants, and Miscellaneous Products & Services), Recipes, Bento, Portfolio, and eventually tutorials for making Bento (including book scans), learning Japanese, and maybe some other handy-dandy things.