Thanksgiving in Japan!

こんにちは Konnichiwa!

Saturday mornings are always my absolute favorite because I get to sleep in AND I get to facetime with my family 🙂

My mom sent me this the other day… my room all packed up in boxes. EEK SO WEIRD.

it’s getting really real…

it’s coming along!

garage going up dun dun dun

So Thanksgiving felt really weird being here in Japan. To be honest, I almost forgot it was Thanksgiving on the actual day… my students were the ones that reminded me! It felt weird because in any other school in the U.S we would be doing Thanksgiving type of activities but here it isn’t the norm because some of the other students didn’t even know what Thanksgiving was! The 5th grade student council organized a quick activity for all the students/teachers to write something they are thankful for on dolphins and color them green. (Our school mascot lolz)

 

this is too cute

It was hard to see pictures of people together and posting pictures of all of the amazing food they were making. Props to Katie K for this master piece she sent me. We pulled it together and had a potluck here with the 5 apartments of teachers/interns it was so nice! Here was my spread:

THAT SPREAD DOE

I made that orange glob that looks kinda nasty but is super tasty. It’s a pumpkin and sweet potato soup, super thick that hits the spot. Katiria made a green bean casserole which was BOSS. Taylor made fresh dinner rolls that were really good! Karen bought rotisserie chickens from Costco that HIT DA SPOT. Her and Zach also made mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce that were really nom. Holly made this broccoli salad that was also really good 🙂

Even though I wasn’t with my family it was really nice for all of the Sunmall crew to be together. We don’t really do that a lot so it felt pretty home-y with great food and good company 🙂

 

Brett (my brother) sent me a picture of my cousins huge dog! 110 lbs who apparently gets along really well with their little baby girl. I wish I could’ve been a little baby with a big dog- basically a big toy to play with. I got to talk to some people at the Thanksgiving table on my way to work Friday which was nice 🙂

missing these guys more than I can put into words ❤ Thankful for all of you 🙂 

This week I was really bad about taking pictures of meals but we had lots of yummy things! We made spring rolls, turkey burgers with roasted sweet potatoes, kimchi fried rice, and this zucchini lasagna.

So my friend, Molly sent me this zucchini “lasagna” recipe that I really have been wanting to try. As I’m prepping it, I realize we don’t have a freaking baking dish besides this little heart one Katiria got to make brownies!! I was so pissed but I decided to use half the mix to make turkey burgers and have to make in as the lasagna.

LOL

 

This looks a little crazy but I tried a bit of each and the zucchini lasagna was SO good! I definitely will be making it again now that we have a normal baking dish.

I also whipped up some banana, peanut butter, chocolate balls! I just used a 2-3 ripe bananas, 1 cup of oats, 1/2 cup of chocolate chips give or take, 1 TBS of peanut or almond butter. Mix together and roll them into balls and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. I froze mine but they can be kept in the fridge too… super tasty and the perfect sized indulgence for dessert 🙂 I gave some to Hinata (my student) and his mom, Hiroko as a thank you for taking me to the doctor! They loved them and sent me this adorable picture:

hehehe

Another perk of this week was a friend of a family friend, Hayley is teaching middle school at a school in NJ. She has been asking about being pen pals and I was so excited to get the package from her this week. My students were also super excited to get the chance to write to someone from the U.S!

My favorite part in one of the letters was this line:

My favorite foods are chocolate,

candy, pulled chicken and ice cream. -DUH

adorable letter missing the stars 😉

so pumped about this!

This week was full of early mornings and late nights at school. It’s almost report card time and we’ve just been changing a lot of things in the classroom so we’ve been working super hard. Yoga on Wednesday hit the spot and also getting kappa sushi afterwards 🙂

new udon soup I tried!

#foodcoma

We went to the store way too many times this week because of all of the extra shopping we have done for our 2 Thanksgiving potlucks! I couldn’t believe the amount of Christmas stuff they already have out!!

xmas stuff already!

beautiful maple trees I see on the bike ride to work! 

pariwar = the best friday night dinner

I finally tried something new at Pariwar- Dal curry I think it was called. It was vegetarian with chickpeas, lentils, and I got it spicy so it had a nice kick. I’m glad I tried something new!

Today we are going to go food shopping real quick, prep our dishes for our second Thanksgiving potluck and then maybe go downtown. Tomorrow we are going to Asuke which is pretty close for a festival and to see the fall foliage, it’s supposed to be beautiful 🙂

I hope this rain goes away soon though…

さようなら sayonara for now 🙂

The things you only will see in Japan

こんにちは Konnichiwa!

I apologize for the absence of writing this past week but I’ve been sick and had no energy to write -____- But here I am!

Last weekend I had my weekly vid-chat with my family and captured this perfect picture of Jackson looking right at me!! I miss my doggies too much.

just look at that face!

workin’ on that yoga grind 😉

We hit up this store nearby called Naftco for cleaning supplies and some new additions to our rooms…

Naftco- a store where you want to purchase EVERYTHING. Kind of like Japan’s version of Target

finally got a body pillow !!

Not a normal sized one like I have at home butttt it’ll do the trick (:

new rug for the room 🙂

After lots of shopping we headed downtown to meet up with Hiroko (the mom of one of my student’s) and her daughter, and 2 of her daughters friends.

how pretty is this!?

okay wellll we were just a tad under dressed…

Silly me forgot to ask Hiroko about what kind of place the restaurant was… turns out it was much fancier than I had imagined. All she told me was that it was a famous Japanese traditional tempura place. I had no idea what to expect. When we walked in there were no tables just a big long “bar” area like this. Each seat had the following arrangement when you sat down:

dipping sauces! can’t even remember the names of them but you either dipped the food they were serving into specific sauces or you could just dip the veggies in between- that was one of my favorite parts! I even ate plain scallions with one of the sauces =0

So I wasn’t going to post all the pictures since a lot of them look the same but I think you need the full image so you can picture how this meal went. First of all, if we had lasted the whole time it would have been a 23 course meal!!!! We made it to about 13 I believe of the courses. Thankfully, they were like mini tapas so very small portions but still a lot of food! Also, I tried things I have never ever tried in my life. Mom, if you’re going to be freaked out by non-kosher things this is your warning to stop reading here.

This was the starter of an arugula salad, clam I believe (?) and pear – super fresh and delish

shrimp wrapped with some sort of leaf

fried asparagus… out of this world. Sounds simple I know, but this was made with love

I believe this was one of the white fish

This was one of my absolute favorites!! I believe it was fish eggs but it tasted super creamy. The sauce was the best part- I wish I knew how they made it! 

cream cheese with some sort of fruit (?) and wasabi- super nom

Katiria and I were FREAKING out because of the spike-y things we had to count to 3 before we could take a bite. Surprisingly I liked it!

smiling but scared!

 

OYSTERS… the only dish I was nottt a fan of. The mango topping was fab though

burdock! I liked this a lot… see explanation below haha

this was creepy but after taking the heads off I didn’t mind it!

I loveddd this one- some sort of mushroom with an edamame dipping sauce

I think this might have been beef? Half of this meal was questionable as you can tell…

can’t hang- dying slowly of a food coma

apparently it’s traditional to get some sort of soup with rice and pickled veggies to finish off a meal

Katiria and Hiroko had the option with the pickled plum, I got the salmon option! I tried both and they were both yummy 🙂

the BEST part of course!!

Katiria and I shared the two different ice cream choices- vanilla with green tea flavoring and crunchy mini puffs of some sort. The other was coffee ice cream with chocolate shavings… BOTH TO. DIE. FOR.

Even though it kind of stunk that we weren’t at a full table to really get to know her friends since we were sitting in a line, it was so nice to be out with a different crowd! I also loved getting the insider scoop of trying a new place 😉 Super fancy but fun to do as a treat every now and then!

On Sunday we drove to go to this fair that was supposed to be only 40 minutes away but turned out to be like 2 hours -____- I didn’t really get too much from the fair just 2 postcards and a holder from chopsticks. BUT I did capture lots of weird things that you would only see in Japan, check it out-

yes that’s a wolf in case you weren’t sure, just a normal day here nothing to see.

this was like an animal version of Miley Cyrus …

this was a huge hit at the fair… plastic food- why?

 

yes, that girl is real.

child having a tantrum in a leopard onesie- normal.

The painting section where artists were using huge space to make beautiful creations!

 

 

Last updates from the end of the week since I’ve been sick, I stayed home Thursday and Friday =/.

 

oats are the best when you’re sick 🙂

tea has been my best friend the past few days… plus agave honey from Costco makes the world a happier place!

this chicken avocado lime soup is also poppin’

Yesterday Hiroko was a gem and took me to a doctor since I wasn’t feeling any better 😦 Thank goodness she did because translating how I was feeling/filling out paperwork would have been a DISASTER. All I understood was bacterial infection and I got soo much medicine but it’s working! So that’s all that matters.

meds on meds on meds

Katiria also brought back this envelope full of letters from my kiddos it made me feel so loved 🙂 She said one of my students, Rana organized it during their recess! They are too precious!

my kids are the cutest ❤

exhibit A

I’m so sad I missed our field trip to learn about how water is treated here in Japan (related to our systems within a community unit) BUT I’m glad they enjoyed it and learned a lot!

I’m feeling a lot better but definitely going to keep it low key this weekend so I feel 100% for Monday 🙂

さようなら Sayonara!

 

If Only I Could Predict the Future

こんにちは Konnichiwa!

Since I never actually updated you on this past week here it is!

Tofu tikka masala!

So this is one of those recipes that we were missing a handful of the ingredients but we tried to wing it and make it work… didn’t work out as well as we had hoped. The naan was pretty awesome- we did half parmesan and half garlic. But cooking is an experiment and that’s what it’s all about right? Right!

KIMCHI RAMEN NEVER DISAPPOINTS.

Last weekend I went to a nearby ramen restaurant by myself on Friday (sounds lame I know) but it was actually perfect. I got to order the spicy soup that I normally shy away from because it’s one of those soups that make you sniffle and sweat all at the same time. Aka it makes you look as unattractive as possible. Afterwards I went to the massage place next door and melted into heaven. I got an hour massage for only about $35 where they did 30 minutes on my feet/calves and then 30 minutes on my backside everywhere. It. was. amazing. I am seriously considering getting one every week that’s how good it was! Super cheap and a great way to end the week 🙂

stuffed pesto/goat cheese chicken breasts with eggplant and tomatoes

Sorry mom, I know this couldn’t get more un-kosher BUT it was nom. com. Super easy too! Just stuffed the chicken breasts with some pesto and goat cheese. Then on the side I sauteed tomatoes and eggplant with garlic/onion and some pesto.

bombbbb recipe

This recipe was so damn good we are making it again next week! It was sweet and spicy sriracha glazed salmon with chickpea, avocado and feta salad! I followed this recipe for the salmon, SUPER easy: http://rasamalaysia.com/sweet-spicy-sriracha-glazed-salmon/2/

For the salad I just put the following together:

-1 can chickpeas

-2 avos (added at the end to avoid mashing them)

-1/3 cup chopped parsley

-2 TBSP green onion, sliced

-1/3 cup of feta

-juice of 1 lime

-6 small chopped cucumbers

-handful of calamata olives

MAKE THIS RECIPE NOW. Seriously it will blow your mind.

Thai noodles with veggies and garlic/ginger sauce- sounded better than it tasted

Another pinterest attempt but it was meh. I tried 2 different kinds of rice noodles- thicker and longer ones and then smaller and thinner ones. I realized I like the smaller/thinner ones! Next time I would probably do different veggies and maybe a peanut butter/sriracha sauce 🙂 Always an experiment though!

Onto last weekend though, Saturday was an epic FAIL. We attempted going to this Turkish restaurant but it was full 😦 SOOO sad considering it had such an inviting atmosphere and the food also smelled nomtastic… anything with hummus (considering it is hard to find in this country) COUNT ME IN. I’ll just have to be patient until next time.

Then, the epic fail continued when we walked around for two and a half freaking hours trying to find a bar. Either they were bars filled with people in their 40’s-60’s super quiet or there were clubs that were completelyyyy empty- exhibit A below.

looks bumpin right??

I had enough around 11:30 so I said sayonara, and the other people champed it out and went clubbing (not really my thang). I’ve just accepted I’m going to be a grandma here and find other things to do. Time to start exploring 🙂

On Sunday it was raining so we had a nice chill day!

cultural food shopping

We ran into Dan and Annika on the way home and went to Ton Ton (can never go wrong with ramen) and then Dan shared one of these bad boys with us …

mushroom candies– sooo good (chocolate biscuit cookie in the shape of a shroom essentially) 

Some other highlights from this week/things that make me happy:

how beautiful is this garden!?

The people I pass on my bike ride on the way to school take a LOT of pride in their backyards. It is amazing what they do!

going to be sad once all of the colors leave the trees 😦

little gift from one of my students, Sorami 🙂

Katiria got one too and we thought it was so funny she put this little tiny cookie wrapped all nicely in this bag. But nonetheless, it’s always a great feeling to feel that someone is thinking about you 🙂

this is what it looks like when we try studying Japanese…

So everyone warned us when we first got here that over time we would become less strict about Japanese and we have definitely gotten worse. In the beginning, we had our word/phrase of the day and would constantly quiz each other. Now, we learn so much in our lessons it feels like there is never enough time to actually study. BLAHHHHH JAPANESE IS HARD!!

Katiria is a few jumps and skips ahead of me but I have the Katakana and Hiragana memorized for the most part and we are starting to work on sentences which is exciting. I need to start getting better at consistently studying instead of cramming the day before/day of Japanese class.. yup I’m a bad student.

this is how I feel lately

So almost every day I think about the next steps for what happens after this year. In the international teaching world, recruiting starts about now in November which is why my school needs to know my intention of staying by mid December. I have my meeting with my headmaster on Monday to tell him where I stand.

There are so many pro’s and con’s I go back and forth all the time. BUT my gut is telling me to stay another year. I truly feel I won’t feel completely settled until after this year is over, there are still soo many places nearby I want to travel to, AND professionally I don’t think there could be a better school for me to be at. There is just so much room to grow, and I love my job. I feel like I’m learning so much and am loving the IB/PYP curriculum as I understand it more and more over time.

But at the same time, I’m scared out of my mind. I wish I could just predict the future and know what is the right decision, but it’s life- is there ever a right decision? Sometimes I feel like it’s the “wrong” decisions in life that teach us some of the most memorable life lessons and shape us into the people we are.

I’m scared of growing far from friends back at home, missing my family even more so than this year, I haven’t really found friends outside of work that I click with, and I have no idea how I’ll feel by the end of the year nonetheless even next year. It comes down to trying to define what’s more important- social happiness vs. professional/work happiness.

So even though I wish I could predict the future, I know that would make life boring. I need to trust my gut which is exactly what I did when I chose NIS out of the other international school options. Here goes nothing as I try to leap, stay positive and hope for the best to learn/grow and be happy 🙂

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

さようなら Sayonara!

So I Guess This Is Goodbye…

こんにちは konnichiwa!

I apologize for the bit of a delay… I have lots updates on the week but I want to make sure I write this post before I forget. As I’ve mentioned, my parents are selling the house I grew up in and are moving a lake house that’s only about 30-35 minutes away. I am SO excited for them but of course I will miss my home. It was so weird leaving this summer to think that the next time I go back to the states, I won’t be going to the place I normally call home.

BUT I most definitely can’t wait to live at the lake house with my parents because it is going to be… ABSOLUTE. PARADISE. Come visit me 🙂 With that said, I took some pictures before I left to capture some of the memories that stand out from the house.

our clubhouse!

This spot in our back yard to me is the epitome of my childhood. My dad built that treehouse and I vividly remember playing outside with my brothers in the sandbox all the time. There used to be a swing set/slide to the left and a trampoline on the right. I feel so lucky looking back to remember having so much fun playing with my siblings while just being complete monkey’s 🙂

Charles is the best part of this picture of course 🙂

This lawn makes me think of birthday parties where I worked very hard to persuade my dad to let me have slip and slide which he HATED because it ruined the grass. Looking back, you’re right Dad, I was a pain in the butt. I apologize…but it was killer fun clearly because it made it to the top memories. I also remember my brother Brett and I would play this game called Tarzan where we would run down the hill onto the swing screaming “Ahhhhhhhhh” hitting our chests and then spin around on the swing as many times as we could. I’m pretty sure we played that game over and over again… life as a child is just so great.

Not sure why this picture isn’t coming out great but I am going to miss this pool!!!! It always made me feel like I was going on vacation whenever I stepped in the backyard. Whether I was a kid and diving for rings or when I was older after high school being able to lay out while doing homework… this backyard made it feel like a getaway resort. So thank you pool, sayonara, and now onto bigger and better things = a lake!

When I look at this all I can do is laugh. Why might you ask? Because I can think of MAYBE 2 times my family ever really played basketball.  If you know my dad, he should have been a b-ball player since he’s 6’5… BUT we aren’t the most athletic family. Don’t get me wrong, we are active, like really active. But we did not play sports growing up really so this basketball hoop just makes me giggle.

This is just a random one but I am going to miss this driveway. There was always just SO much space. Sometimes a driveway can make or break a house like whether it’s up a big hill, if there isn’t enough room to park cars, etc. BUT this drive had a semicircle AND straight path to the driveway… Dad, you’re a genius. Hats off to you. I’ll keep this in mind for my future house.

At the end of the corner that’s the bus stop where I first stepped on the bus to go to school back when I was a wee little girl 🙂

Here is where my brothers and I (if I could convince them) would stand to have Lemonade stands… Not many people came, but I guess it taught me a thing or two about the economy. – Don’t sell something on a quiet street in a development. Yup.

In this B E A UUUU TIFUL kitchen, my love for cooking grew and flourished 🙂 I’m so lucky to have a mom who loves cooking healthy and new recipes all the time!

 

Soooo… this purple, pink and flowery throwup is my room. I don’t think the picture does it justice but let’s just put it into perspective that my room has been the exact same since I was a wee little toddler. You know how a lot of teenagers go through this moment where they are like “damn, my room is so childish” then they change it up and make it look like a pre-adult. Nope, never did that. So my room still had a princess bed, purple walls, and ribbons on the carpet when I left.

BUT, the best part growing up was having my own bathroom 🙂 Very very grateful I didn’t have to share with the 2 boys down the hall… no offense guys

 

BUT somewhere along the way, I think between high school and college I boycotted my room.. and moved into one of the guest rooms. My younger brother Brett did not find this amazing. Since behind those white doors all the snacks are in this back room, he claimed me moving my room was the same as deciding to sleep on the kitchen table. All I’m sayin’ is BIG bed. Also, the dogs loved coming to sleep on this bed and not in my princess bed soo this bed was definitely the move. I’ll miss you big bed!

 

 

 

Here is the TV in the family room I barely used because of the 6 remotes below…

I wish this was a joke, but even after living in this house for my whole life, I still never got it. Somehow there were constantly new remotes being added and it was just too darn complicated…

Dining room table for special Shabbat dinners and holidays with my family 🙂

the space that used to be my brothers’ Lego Laboratory hahah… I always wish I loved legos because they made the COOLEST things but I just wasn’t into them.

This used to be our little playhouse!! I remember keeping my Barbie dolls and the pretend house play toys here. I was lucky to have such a handy dandy dad who built it too!

Now THIS is the unfinished side of the basement but the more fun side of the basement. CHECK OUT ALL THOSE GAMES: pin ball, fooze ball, basketball, foozeball, and ping pong in the back! This side neverrrrr got old 😉

Now THIS room, was the BEST room. Workout central… mom and pops worked pretty hard on this room which led to great workouts, sweaty humans, and smiles 🙂

So thank you to my parents for creating a beautiful and wonderful home to grow up in with such fond memories (I just tried to pick the ones that stood out!) looking back now at 22 years old. I’ll miss you but I’m looking forward to the new memories and adventures in the lakehouse! Missing my family and thinking of you all ❤

さようなら Sayonara!

Lots of Learning and Good Food

Konnichiwa! こんにちは

So I haven’t written yet this week because not much has happened. So hopefully you’re curious about some yummy food I’ve eaten and what my students have been learning!

I’ve been LOVING using all the goodies we got from Costco. It almost makes it easier to decide what to make because I want to use everything we bought! Even though I’ve been loving my smoothies, I had to revisit my oh so favorite eggs because goat cheese brings it to a whole new level.

I whipped up this bad boy of 2 eggs, bok choy, broccoli, garlic, onion, tomatoes with avocado, goat cheese, some salt/peper, red chilli flakes and siracha after Facetiming with my family on Saturday morning. This was my nice big brunch 🙂

do you see that!?! GOAT CHEESE EGG HEAVEN!!

The crackers are also the bomb dot com

I don’t really eat crackers a lot but I loveeee grain-y things and sometimes I do have random cravings for them and these HIT THE SPOT. I can’t wait to try them with goat cheese and maybe a fig 🙂

The highlight from this past weekend was trying a new salsa bar called El Coco in Sakae, a part of downtown Nagoya.  When talking to some people recently they mentioned some salsa bars around here. If you know me at all, I LOVE to dance. I’ve been dancing since I was 2 and I started the Zumba Club in college, so this girl is a fan of salsa.

chicas go to a salsa club!

However, this place was muchhhh different than I imagined. First of all it was the day after Halloween and we were unsure if people were going to be in costume or not. As Japanese people seem to love costumes, turns out they were still rockin’ some funky outfits. Most of the people that were there were in their 30’s or 40’s. It seemed like most people were Japanese and a lot of people from Bolivia/Peru which was interesting.

I was also super impressed with their dancing skills!! These people knew how to salsa for the most part and here I was thinking I can shake my hips and all… but throw in another person and it’s a different game for sure. I will most definitely be going back so I can practice more 🙂

Onto some eats from the week check out the line up…

pumpkin chips!

This was the first time that I roasted not only the inside but also the outside of the pumpkin and boy was it yummy!! I used coconut oil, some Himalayan sea salt, and cinnamon. The worst part? I’m a dinkle and I didn’t keep them in the fridge and they went bad after a few days… LESSON LEARNED.

made by yours truly 😉

We brought back a sushi night which HIT DA SPOT. Nothing like some fresh tuna/salmon and veggies. I also added in black sesame seeds this week which had a different spice that added some nice flavor… nom nom nom

TACO SALAD

Katiria picked this recipe to make a Taco Salad and it was the most crunchy delicious salad I’ve had in quite some time. We both LOVEEEEE Mexican themed food so this left happy faces and happy bellies for the both of us. She cooked the chicken with peppers and some spices, then mixed in cabbage and tomatoes, I added avocado and hot sauce, and mixed some sour cream with salsa as a light dressing…FIESTA in my mouth!

Quinoa chili with white wine 🙂

This recipe I was quite unsure about but turned out to be a lovelyyyy surprise. At first it seemed too liquid-y but I let it sit for a while and it thickened up. Boy did it hit the spot! There is something about chili that is just so comforting and add quinoa/avocado with anything and I’m a happy camper!

I used this recipe and just adapted a few things. I didn’t have a cinnamon stick so I just used cinnamon, no cumin so had to skip that :(, couldn’t find cilantro, also only had 1 can of black beans so I substituted with red kidney beans… seriously this was so simple and super yummy!

Quick school update: This past week has flown by but at the same time has been quite tiring. On Monday we had 3-way conferences with the students and their parents. It was non-stop all day with lots of talking! On the other hand, it really goes to show the difference between an international school and a public school in the states. I remember during student teaching last year only about half of the parents showed up. But this year, every single parent showed up for my students… if only all parents could make that happen and be on board for their child!

There has been a LOT of brainstorming going on between me and the other teachers these past 2 weeks as we are really trying to make our classes more inquiry based. As I’ve mentioned, this isn’t how I was originally taught in college to teach (this is the same for most teachers) so it’s like reversing everything you’ve ever been taught.

My students are currently inquiring into a unit about how systems help communities organize themselves. They have done lots of different activities to help them sort out what they think a system is. Now, as our unit it winding down with just about 2 weeks we are trying to finalize a summative assessment for them to focus on to show what they have learned.

The struggle with inquiry based learning is it’s almost impossible to plan too far in advance. Why might you ask? Because it can be quite difficult to predict how 7 and 8 year olds will respond to the lesson. Sometimes they come up with things I would have never dreamed of them saying… you just never know!! That’s definitely the beauty of learning but as a teacher I feel like I’ve done this dance recently of taking 2 steps forward, 5 steps backward, and then repeat that on fast forward speed… YIKES it’s daunting!

Long story short, my new plan after lots of changing things up is to implement an inquiry cycle that the students chose to help them make sense of their learning. Today they went back to the activities we have done so far, and had to categorize at what stage of their learning they were in. The inquiry cycle is based off of this one:

 

Then, the PYP curriculum encourages field trips as a way for the students to explore what they are inquiring into. So we are going to have the students solve a presented problem that we are affecting the water system with people littering at school. They will need to come with a solution to this problem and then we will get the opportunity to see how the water system works here in Japan to see if it changes their own thinking.

I don’t know about you but this is most definitely NOT what I was learning in 2nd grade. The way of thinking goes beyond what I ever thought a 2nd grader could handle. I just never even thought learning could look this way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m a pro… but as time goes on I am understanding this way of teaching more and more 🙂

Which leads me to the point of yesterday’s dinner which was probably the most random meal I’ve had in a while. I skipped yoga (sad moment, I know) after our professional development meetings to work on making our inquiry cycle and hanging up all of their work so far from this unit and didn’t get home until around 6:40… woooof. So I missed our usual going out on Wednesday’s but decided to make what I could with some random leftover ingredients.

I ended up with: a sushi roll (not pictured), a fried egg, and sauteed cabbage/bok choy with miso from Takayama and onions/garlic. SO random I know, but surprisingly was perfectly satisfying.

the most random concoction…. ever

Tonight, I cooked one dish and Katiria made one dish…

broccoli and white bean soup 🙂

I’ve made this recipe before and I finally brought it back! SO simple it takes about 20 minutes if your veggies are prepped and it’s too good for words. I sauteed some garlic and onion with olive oil for a few minutes. Then I added in 3 cups of vegetable stock, 1 cup of water, 1 can of cannelloni beans, a couple handfuls of mixed spinach/bok choy, couple handfuls of broccoli, and some salt, pepper, and everyday seasoning.

I let it cook for a while, then put it in batches into the blender to make it creamy. I personally don’t mind it chunky with veggies but it’s up to you! If you have an immersion blender (mine are at home meep) this will be even easier for you. Then, feel free to top it with parmesan cheese and toasted pine nuts if you have any. You won’t be disappointed 😉

I’ll post Katiria’s Tofu Tikka Masala next time!

Right now I’m beat after school, Japanese, and a wee bit of yoga so off to bed for me… have a great day 🙂

さようなら Sayonara

Yes, we bought almost all of Costco

Konnichiwa! こんにちは

Here are some updates from the week and our unbelievable Costco trip…

new addition to the room from Takayama! 

cute board to memorize Hiragana from one of my students!

quinoa salad! Just some quinoa, spinach, feta tomatoes, olive oil and salt 🙂 

preview for Halloween 🙂

Everything downtown was super provocative so when I saw this onesie and a matching Santa one for KK for $10 each, I knew I had found the winner!

OATS!!! With chia seeds, almond butter, pumpkin butter, banana, some coconut chips 🙂 pure heaven

miso cucumbers from Takayama

miso bamboo shoots… too good!!

salad with the miso veggies and miso salmon 🙂

This week I was SOOO tired still from traveling so yoga/stretching and cooking good meals were the highlights to keep me chuggin’ along 🙂

whipped out the Uniqlo jacket on this rainy day for some Kappa sushi after yoga!

Ps- like my shoe-bie look of socks and flip flops?

I tried a fried maple leaf— it’s a real thing!! Courtesy of Kelli

COSTCO HERE WE COME! We decided to go during the week with one of the other teachers, Sylvia to avoid the craziness on the weekend. Boy, am I glad we did!! It was definitely a tiring night since it’s an hour drive, then unpacking, and cooking once we got back but it was soooo worth it!

WE MADE IT TO COSTCO

yup, this is for 2 people

…. dun dun dun

this her “holy shit” did we just spend a bit over $1,000 at Costco???

While we were unpacking I put up the soup so we would have lunch for the next day. I got the recipe from the music teacher, Wakaba and it was sooooo good. So simple too! It was just 1 pumpkin, 1 large sweet potato and 1 liter of soy milk and some salt. I boiled the pumpkin and sweet potato and then mashed it up and added the milk. Then since I don’t have my immersion blender here, I put it in the blender to make it nice and thick… super nom!

made Pumpkin/sweet potato soup!!

We were having a hard time figuring out where to put everything so we had some nice time cleaning out EVERYTHANG. We literally put everything we have on the floor and rearranged it all so now we have a more functioning kitchen!!

trail mix, chocolate chips, brownie mix, coffee, natural almonds, and a nut mix!

salsa, honey, pesto (it’s the ish from Costco), olive oil, and black pepper

spices organization!!

CLEAN COUNTER … also Himalayan salt- THE BOMB DOT COM

tortilla chips, figs!!! and huge thing of nutella… it’s necessary at times

Not pictured: quinoa, microwave popcorn, paper towels, toilet paper and lotssss of Oats! YAY!! I’m sure there are even other things we got that I’m forgetting… we got so damn much it’s wild

new awesome leggings!!! yes, apparently I’m an XL in Japan- how are they so damn small?

the best body wash EVER

ENGLISH DETERGENT YAY

no more of this weird stuff….

YAY FOR MORE ENGLISH BRANDS

MINCED GARLIC!!! Gonna save so much time

you don’t know how much I missed this

or these grapes… my mom calls me the grape monster and this is why (SO CRUNCHY)

chicken, naan, frozen berries, and that may or may not be a bottle of tequila…

So I don’t even want to admit it but we each spent $325… craziness I know. That’s almost how much my ticket to Malayasia that I’m thinking about for Spring Break would cost. BUT since it’s so far it’s definitely worth it to go all out so we don’t need to go back. Plus since it comes it bulk it will really last so long and this way we won’t have to buy these things as often.  It also makes me think of home and feel like I have a little bit of it here in Japan 🙂

Onto Halloween… here is what we looked like! At the end of the day the students changed for a parade which was pretty unorganized but the kids definitely had so much fun. There was also a carnival after school raising money for various causes.

Happy official Halloween!!

Ton Ton for some ramen after a nice nap 🙂

chillin’ in the ELC for movie night 🙂

I feel lame as most of my friends from home went out last night for Halloween but we decided to go to the Early Learning Center at school, move some couches and watch Halloweentown and Life Size Barbie 🙂 It was so lovely!

It’s been raining all day so far so who knows what we will do the rest of the weekend. I’m feeling a lazy weekend just getting things done/prepping for conferences on Monday! We shall see though 🙂

Have a great day!

Sayonara!

さようなら

Last Day in Nagoya!

Ohayo Gozaimasu! おはようございます。

This is the LAST post to update you on my trip with Sherry… I hope you have been enjoying catching up on our travels 🙂 After getting back to Nagoya we went out for Indian at Pariwar (my favorite) and then called it a night to rest up. The next day we went out with Hiroko, the mom of one of my students, Hinata for a day of shopping!

walking around with Hinata and his mom, Hiroko!

He looked so cute in his tight jeans, flannel shirt, and the hat I couldn’t stop smiling 🙂 We walked around for a bit and then went to a cute little place for Okonomiyaki where you cook the food in front of you.

Okonomiyaki!

soba noodles and veggies

the veggie “pancake”

I told Hiroko I have been looking for green tea liquor so she tried taking us to this green tea shop. So much great shop but the guy tried to tell me alcohol is bad for me… yes I know that thank you sir.

green tea place… no green tea liquour 😦

Then, the shopping began!! So many cute stores…

this place was DANGEROUS

Hinata kept himself occupied as the ladies shoopped- he’s too cute I can’t handle it

Osu Kannon temple

showing us how to ring the bell

green tea ice cream!

birds on birds on birds

all the gals 🙂

We got to feed the birds!!! It was such a strange feeling having them peck your hand but it was SO fun, Hinata definitely didn’t want to leave.

Sherry conquered her fear!

10,000 Origami each for good luck!

After a longggg day of shopping we couldn’t be more happy to make some yummy dinner and just hang out!

new tea cup!!

Spring Roll prep!

with a side of Tofu and veggies with my new miso paste! NOMMMM

new favorite wine from Chile that Sherry picked out!

It was so sad to say bye to Sherry but it was an AWESOME trip and something I will remember and cherish forever 🙂 I’ll post soon about the week and our Costco trip!

Sayonara! さよなら