The days in between

I'm just going to admit it. I've gotten lazy. I've gotten comfortable in Japan. It's become home and I no longer see it as this constant foreign experience. Using chop sticks, practicing with the katana, speaking Japanese, praying at a shrine and earthquakes have kinda just become a part of my daily life so I no longer report on every experience. In a way it shows how I've grown here and it shows that this has really become home. In another way I'm worried I might regret it if I don't try and keep track of all the things that made me smile in these past three years. So here is my attempt at a bit of summarizing between winter and summer.

First and foremost. I officially got my black belt certificate. It truly didn't feel real until I was holding the actual thing in my hand. Unfortunately with iaido I don't get an actual black belt but the meaning is the same when it's on a piece of paper. This is because in Japan it's not call a black belt it's called 'shodan' and all it really means is I'm a level 1 of taking myself seriously as a samurai martial artist.

Then it was my birthday. Turning 27 was a bit harder than I was expecting. No that's a lie, it was just as hard as I was expecting. I'm no longer in my early 20s, past my mid-20s and now embarking on my late 20s. When the kids ask me how old I am (because they forget every single time and ask me over and over again) they no longer say 'oh you are so young.' They ask 'are you married?' When I say 'not yet.' They give me that look that says 'you aren't so young anymore Sarah-sensei.' Eeep! Anyway, with such a big number looming over me I flew under the radar and Kevin and I just hung out and ate chicken and cake on a snowy evening. But before that I visited my favourite shrine in the snow and it was spectacularly beautiful!

For my birthday weekend we went to Tohoku because that's what I most wanted to do. We hadn't been volunteering in over a year and I was really missing it. Instead of trying to fill the car, Kevin and I went alone. It was an adventure. Friday night was wonderful. We drove to Sendai in record time, ate a fabulous western style dinner and then spent the night at a quaint inn. It was Saturday that gave us problems. Not only was Kevin in loads of pain because of his back but he ended up with a fever. Backtracking just a little, we met up with Kousuke and Satoko who took us to the Yume na Ie, dream house, a community center for those affected by the tsunami. Along the way we stopped at this ruined building. it took a full minute of staring at it to realize what we were seeing was a building on its SIDE. I had no idea water was powerful enough to push a four story building off its cement foundations and on to the ground. In the distance there was a hill with a hospital atop it. Kousuke said the water went as high up as the first floor way up on that hill. It was impossible to believe. So here we were, at the dream house, painting when Kevin falls ill. And then it snows. And snows. AND snows. It stopped being beautiful just as I tucked Kevin into bed early with lots of medication and started being a hazards by the time I woke up and found two feet of it on the ground. What followed was nearly a twenty hour journey home a full day early. It took Satoko and I three hours of digging to even get the car to the road and then many MANY hours drive to get us back to Yamanashi where the majority of the roads had closed letting in only a fine (very backed-up) trickle of traffic. At least Kevin began to feel better but still we did not get home until three in the morning.

I slept at Kevin's but the next morning I had to be up at six to dig out my own car, drive home, shower and be ready for school by nine. In the end there wasn't class but I still had to sit there, exhausted, miserable and knowing I had three feet of snow waiting for me in my parking spot when I returned. At least Sheena lent me a shovel and my wonderful neighbour cut down my shoveling time by half so it only took two hours to park my car and turn in for the night.

Little did I know what was in store for that next weekend or I would have never complained about all that snow then.