Until Today!
- Aimee Miessler
- Feb 1, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 2, 2023
I greatly apologize for the 3 month long hiatus; time seems to move faster here. I'll divide this post into 3 parts, one for November, December and January until today. As always, thank you for being here on this journey with me and I hope you enjoy!
November
First, and most importantly, I found a Brazilian market! It is a city about an hour and a half away in the neighboring prefecture, Toyama, where my mother's extended family actually lived for a bit. The market is stocked with quite an extensive amount of products that I'd see at the local Brazilian market back in South Florida, which shocked me. I bought ingredients I needed to make Brigadeiros (Brazilian Chocolate Balls) and made some for my friends, co-workers, and students, who had briefly learned about Brazil in one of their English lessons. Unsurprisingly, the kids enjoyed it and have since asked me to make some more for them.
I went on a weekend trip to Toyama and saw some cool rock formations, ate delicious food (as always), and froze to death on the Kurobe Railway and nature trail.
When a student doesn't do well in a group class setting, they are placed in their own classroom with their own teacher. One of the first graders (6 years old) in their own class was practicing how to read to other people and came into the teachers office to give us a quiz game on tails of different animals. My quiz picture was the tail of a beaver. I had no idea how to say beaver so I said "hm, looks like a fish!" and he laughed. He then gave the answer and said some cool facts about beavers! He had such a contagious happiness which made the support staff in the teachers office and I perk up with happiness. Little moments like these remind me how important it is to make learning fun for children so they're encouraged to continue beyond school.
December
What a month! I experienced my first snowfall, made a snow-mickey (?), almost drove off the icy road, and visited my family in Tokyo for the New Year. I have had countless people ask me how I'm doing with the true winter weather and tell me to please continue staying safe and driving carefully. I feel very grateful for the location of my apartment because I get to wake up to a beautiful view of the temple and houses behind my building.
One of my co-worker friends, who I call my Ukawa mom (she works at Ukawa Elementary where I teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays who is super kind), took me to her friends house. Her friend is a retired principal of an elementary school in Suzu, the city north of Noto, and lives in one of the older homes in the area. Her home is filled with beautiful paintings and artifacts roughly dated to over 200 years ago! She was really excited to meet me since she has been living alone for a while because her husband has been in rehabilitation for his legs. She was incredibly kind and allowed me to take pictures of her beautiful home and decor, some of which she and her husband created, which I placed in a collage below.
I also put up a Christmas tree in order to make my cold and lonely apartment a bit more cozy. (It worked! But I forgot to take a proper picture) The holidays felt a bit somber since this is the first Christmas and New Year's I celebrated away from my family. I hosted a potluck Christmas party at my place where I made Feijoada (Brazilian Black Bean Stew) which was a feat in and of itself. It has about 5 different parts to the recipe, which ranges from slicing up oranges to soaking the beans for the stew three days in advance. With the help of FaceTime and my amazing mother, I was able to make the feijoada a success! Everyone enjoyed trying this staple of Brazilian cuisine and someone even asked me how to make it so they can share it with their family! It was a super cool culture exchange.
January
Speaking of culture exchanges, Oshōgatsu (お正月), is the first day of the New Year in Japanese. Every Oshōgatsu, Japanese people eat Osechi ryori, traditional New Years foods in an easily recognizable boxes similar to bento boxes eaten for good health, harvest, and safety for the new year. Japanese people also eat zoni, a mochi soup which is eaten to bring good luck. You go to a temple or shrine where you pay your respects and pray for what you want in the year ahead (normally good luck and/or fortune). You also get omikuji, your fortune on a slip of paper, and omamori, protection charms. These are the ones I got when my aunt, cousins and I went to a temple in Kawagoe, Saitama, a quaint Edo-period town an hour and a half trip north of Tokyo.
I went to Tokyo to celebrate Oshōgatsu with my family. As luck (and Covid) would have it, some of my family got sick just two weeks before my trip, so I wasn't able to celebrate with them. Instead, I celebrated New Years with my aunt and her family who, thankfully, remained Covid-free. I also went to visit my maternal grandfather's younger sister who lives in Chiba, about an hour train ride away from where I was staying. My grandfather passed away before I was born, so I wasn't able to meet him. There, I learned more about my grandfather and was able to connect to his side more deeply. I also went to the Japan National Soccer Tournament, where one school per prefecture competes in the tournament. We went to see the Kanagawa Prefecture HS vs Okinawa HS game. My family lives in Kanagawa; we were happy they won!
The rest of January consisted of work, continuing to make the apartment my own, planning trips with friends, and trying not to get sick from the cold.
I hope you enjoyed this 3 month recap! I can't wait to show you even more about Japan as I myself learn more! Thank you so much for your patience as I continue to navigate this major life change and I will see you (promptly) in the next post!
Aimee
Thank you Aimee for sharing these awesome experiences with us! Great pictures 😍
Love you ❤️