From August 2000 to July 2001, I lived and worked in Yokohama, Japan, a city about 20 miles south of Tokyo. I liked Japan, but unlike many others, I never really fell in love with this country.
In my younger days I had always wanted to live in, or at least visit, Switzerland. While living in NYC, I mentioned this to a group of women at my church, and one of them responded "Oh, how antiseptic of you!" She thought there were more exciting places than Switzerland. I was a little miffed with this remark. To this day my only visit to Switzerland has been a three hour layover in the Zurch airport - no time to actually leave the airport.
However, after living in Cairo, Egypt for six months. I started to understand that stinging remark, and how the sting had left. Cairo was (and is) huge, gritty with sand, farm animals in the most unlikely places, and I loved it! The teachers at my school always had a bet going on concerning the new teachers, on who would bolt out of their contract at Christmas break. Living in a foreign country is not easy, especially, a third world country (which sorta harbors terrorists). A lot of teachers lost money when I returned the following January. I was the number one person on their list of people who would bolt! I was hurt. But, I did get some not so secret satisfaction in knowing that these co-workers had lost money! I would fly down to Luxor, another city in Egypt, every other month on my own just to go alabaster shopping! What part of flying off on your own in a Muslim country on a regular basis says "This girl is going to bolt!"?
Teaching in international schools abroad - a person either loves it or hates it. Most love it, and go to fairs to get jobs in other countries. This was how I landed teaching jobs in Turkey and Japan.
My job in Japan was not what I was hoping for. There was contention at my school, the elementary principal was the closest thing to a facsist that I will ever know, and I just didn't seem to fit. Oh, I made lots of friends, and did a lot of fun stuff. It is a beautiful country. But deep down, I missed the chaos and grit of the Middle East. Japan was just to tame and pristine for me. Go figure!
When I returned to Utah from Japan, I was not sorry to come home. I did not think I would ever see Japan again. Not even the Delta double skymiles from L.A. to Tokyo shortly after the earthquakes, tempted me - okay I was tempted for about a nano second. Then, I got a letter from the Western Association of Accreditation, asking me to go to Japan to do the final sign off for one of the international schools. My airfare and hotel would be paid for, and which airline did I prefer! Hmm... I would earn about 22,000 mqm frequent flyer miles, and I would do it for free. The school I would be visiting was Sacred Heart, a girls' Catholic school in a lovely section of Tokyo, not far from Haneda airport, and the Tokyo LDS temple. If I had any downtime, I could go to the bead district to my favorite bead stores! OKAY! I will go back to humid Japan! It would be less than a week.
This will be a very short trip, and I do not know what my exact schedule will be and what I will be able to get pictures of. So, this time around, the blog will start before I go. Some of the pictures were taken ten years ago when I lived in Japan. However, for the second time in my life, I will have flown across two oceans in one year.
Kimonos
Kimonos are the national dress for women in Japan. Few westerners know how difficult is is to get dressed in one. The following pictures were taken of me being dressed in a kimono for a church photo. I actually own my kimono, which I got at a thrift shop - yep, they have kimono thrift shops. New kimonos of the finest quality cost thousands of dollars! My friend, Jo, a native Japanese, took me to a few shops and helped me find a kimono to fit. I think she had more fun than I did!
Pictures of me wearing a kimono were taken ten years ago for a church group picture. They are part of my scrapbook now, and I cannot remove them from the washi paper they are adherd to. So, I have placed them on facebook.
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