小浜 Obama, Japan ...

In light of all that was going on in America in the world of politics and in our own attempt to be political, other than religiously watching MSNBC TV via the Internet, Daniel and I decided to venture to a teeny, tiny town up north called ... OBAMA.

Political opinions aside, the trip was about finding some sort of connection to American politics to celebrate the election and the end of the Bush era. Here's what I had to say about Obama, Japan previously ...

"So I found this little tiny news clip once that said something about Obama, Japan supporting Barack Obama since they were bound by the same name and I thought to myself, "Self, you gotta go to Obama. Round up Daniel & get to it". The only problem was I knew nothing about it and neither did the (at least) 100 Japanese people I asked. The longer Daniel & I looked at the map, the more nervous I got. It was a lot further than I originally thought (maybe 5 hours on the train) & it was going kind of expensive to get there. Even after searching the internet I still couldn't find any decent information so the whole trip turned into a gamble. Were we willing to pay the money and take the time to travel to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere with the possibility of having nothing to do but turn around and get back on the same expensive train back home just to say that we visited Obama, Japan before the historical 2008 election? Hell yea we were. Duh."

And our journey began ... with my alarm going off at 6:00am on a Saturday. Now, anyone who knows me well knows that, unless it's to tailgate, I don't wake up in the 6's. I don't even wake up in the 7's. I despise waking up early actually so the fact that I was waking up so early to go to Obama, on a gamble!!, speaks volumes.

Because Obama is in the middle of nowhere, sorry to those that live in Fukui ken, we had to be very careful with our train times and plan really well. Not only did we have to transfer 4 or 5 times, but the trains run so infrequently that if we would have missed one we would have been stuck at a train station in the middle of BFE for an hour or two.

The Obama line departure time table ... See? There are some hours that don't even have a train!!

Luckily enough we made all of our trains ... the locals, the shinks, and the rapids ... and we arrived in Obama around noon. That's right - 6 hours after I woke up. It was a long trip. But in every trip there is an adventure. And an adventure this was.

The entire train ride resembled a long drive through Nebraska ... boring enough for me to want to jump off of the moving train. So stepping off of the train I was half holding my breath for fear that this trip was going to be a total bust. I was just praying that there was going to be something, ANYTHING, for us to do in Obama, although I did have the return train times beginning just ten minutes after our arrival just in case.

We found a map of the city and I swear it was no bigger than the size of Hinton. I'll have to look up the total population but I'm sure it couldn't have been more than 10. At least that's what it seemed like.

Obama ... the WHOLE town:

We started walking and within the first two minutes we had seen enough to make the trip worthwhile. The entire main street (all six blocks of it) were lined with these Obama banners.

How awesome is this?:

Daniel looks like he's saying the Pledge ... he probably was.:

HAHA ... hilariou picture. I'm particularly fond of his sparce hair and disproportionate ears.:
Obama for Obama ... awesome.
It took us approximately ten minutes to walk from one end of the city to the other and everywhere we turned there was Obama something or another. Hanging in business windows, stickers on people's cars, fliers on lampposts... It was crazy.

This is translated as a sign of encouragement like "You can do it" or "Try your best"

Obama for Obama support group? Where do I sign up?

Isn't this crazy? Where did they get these campaign posters? And I don't really get the whole "Vote Tuesday March 4th" but whatever...

This is an official letter from Barack Obama himself thanking the town for their support.

Dont' forget to pick up your own I Love Obama t-shirt. This one was even autographed.

No idea who signed it, but that's besides the point. :)

A traditional Japanese hapi ... it was expensive though.

Like $100 if I remember correctly.

HAHA

I was beginning to wonder if they have ever really seen a picture of Barack Obama ...

Of course Daniel & I registered with the official "Obama for Obama" fan club:

What most of the storefronts looked like:

We even found Obama snacks ... these are like bean paste cakes.
They taste about as good as they sound, but that was besides the point.
Daniel's face says it all:

So we walked the entire town and were pretty astonished by the local support for Obama. Yet another thing we couldn't get over was how extremely nice the people in Obama were. People went out of their way to say hello and wave to us. Some people stopped their cars in the middle of the street to wave and some high schoolers crossed the street just to say hi. That NEVER happens in Japan. EVER.

We decided that we weren't quite ready to leave Obama yet and Daniel and I were actually taking a real liking to this tiny town. We decided to rent bicycles and ride up the mountain and get a view of the ocean and doing some political reflecting.

Our awesome bikes that we rented for like $5

We rode up the mountain encouraging each other with "Yes we can"s all the way up and then we found a spot where we could make our way down to the beach.

Finding our way down the trail:

The sun was slowly setting but it was still warm and I would go as far as to say it was perfect.
English:
Japanese (yes, those are my skills):

Thinking back on the whole trip, it couldn't have been more perfect. Sometimes the gamble is so worth it.

much love

-tara-

xx

Halloween ...

Now that I am FINALLY (almost 3 months later) finished blogging about Australia & New Zealand, we can move on to what I've actually been doing in　にほん (Japan), part of which has been studying. I figured I better write about Halloween before it's February and completely inappropriate.

So Japanese people don't really celebrate Halloween. They have decorations and I see a witch hat every once in a while, but that's about it. No pumpkins (which are green in Japan anyway), no trick or treating, no spookiness or costumes or Halloween parties. That is unless you're a がいじん (gaijin - a foreigner). And even then I think it's pretty much only Americans. I know my friends from Australia didn't really get Halloween either. I'll have to ask around and see of Europeans are hip to the holiday.

There was a party that we were hosting (we, as in myself and the other foreigners) at a bar here in 岡山 (Okayama ... see how good I'm getting at this Japanese stuff?). Wear a costume, show up at 8:00 and you can trick or treat at the bar for 4 hours. This is usually the standard Japanese way of hosting a party ... It's called のみほうだい (nomihoudai) and you pay a fixed price at the door and then it's open bar for a set amount of time. This party was 3000￥ for 4 hours ... yes, that's right. All you can drink for 4 hours for approximately $30. I'm a huge fan of the nomihoudai.

I dressed up as Sarah Palin and gave myself some ridiculous bangs while speaking in character all evening. This meant avoiding direct questions, becoming increasingly adorable when cornered, and using the term 'maverick' a lot. It was all in good fun.

Barack Obama even showed up ...

Of course the Joker was there. I'm sure there was a Joker (& probably a Sarah Palin at damn near every Halloween party this year):

My friend Tina was adorable as Fiona ... I had to help make-up her and it wasn't pretty. I can imagine it wasn't fun in the morning either. Ahh, the things we do for a costume.

My supportive mummy and Einstein ... otherwise known as Daniel and F2.

Those glasses do great things for his eyes:

Japanese BFFs:

Star Trek meets politics and shares a drink:

Some of my favorite boys in Japan .. Erik, Taylor & Daniel
3 people with ridiculous hair:
Hancock (real name = F1 or Tapio) & myself ...

Halloween was fun. Always is. I made the most out of my $30 and spent the next day watching feel good movies and taking long naps, but it was worth it. Oh yea, & I did get to eat some Halloween candy compliments of a package I received in the mail ... THANKS MOM!! :)

much love

-tara-

xx

All Good Things Must Come To An End ...

After 10 amazing days in the land down under, it was time for us to go back home. I've never quite thought about Japan as my home before then. When we were all leaving as a group and saying things like, "I'm not ready to go back home" or "I have so much to do once we get home" and I got this realization kind of a feeling that I'm no longer (& haven't been for a long time) the temporary foreign tourist in Japan. I live there. Though not a citizen, I'm a resident. I have a house and an amazing job and great friends. My life is in Japan. A realization that only took me 16 months to come to.

I spent the shuttle ride to Brisbane International Airport thinking about just how lucky I am and the amazing opportunities that have come to me in my short 25 (ALMOST 26) years of life. Five years ago I would have never thought in a million years that I would be where I am today professionally. I've done things in the past 4 years that many people will never get the opportunity to do in the entirety of their career. I have international business contacts, overseas job offers, invitations to present at incredible institutions, fantastic colleagues from all different continents, and overwhelming support from every direction. It's not about bragging, it's about being proud. I feel accomplished in what I've done and have even bigger aspirations for where I want to go. Being in that moment, in Australia and on my way to Korea, was yet another realization that I am doing exactly what I want to be doing at this exact moment.

There are a thousand quotes about taking risks and seizing opportunity and I had never thought them to be so true as I do now. Every once in a great while I stop and think about where I would be if I had chosen a different path. If I would have gotten married or if I had never returned to Freeburg after that infamous first day back in 2003. Or if I had declined the opportunity to come to Japan to stay in Iowa. Where would I be now? Not on my way home from Australia ... I know that much. :)

much love

-tara-

xx

Dancing in Brisbane ...

On one of our last nights in Brisbane (from L-R) Naoko, Daniel, Emi, me, Kazuyo, and Mariko went out for dinner, drinks & dancing!! We had so much fun and really got a chance to see each other in a whole new light. :)

At dinner Kazuyo asked everyone, "What is your dream? What do you want to be doing in 10 years?" I really thought about it, for the first time in a long time, and my answer was so simple, "This". I want to travel to most amazing places with the most amazing people doing the most amazing work. I couldn't think of a better example to illustrate my point then all of us being right there at that exact moment reflecting on everything that we had done over the last 10 days.

After dinner we took water transportation, in the form of a City Cat water taxi, to downtown Brisbane. The whole idea of a 'water taxi' was completely foreign to me. There was a time table with multiple operating lines and plenty of stops and you had to buy a ticket to board and it was essentially the same set up as any other form of public transportation. I guess being from the great state of Iowa we don't exactly need to take water taxis up and down the Missouri from South Sioux to North Sioux.

Naoko, Emi, Mariko & Kazuyo waiting for our water chariot, I mean taxi:

I so wanted this boat to be our taxi, but for $1.50 I highly doubted this was the one:

And there it is, in all it's glory ... The City Cat water taxi:

It was pretty amazing honestly. We got this amazing view of the city at night & the bridge was all lit up (sickening) & all of the city lights & being on the water, which I love. What a great way to get around.

Brisbane at night:

Mariko & I:

The Three Amigos:

We got off at our stop and walked through the downtown area to where we knew there was salsa dancing. This whole dancing thing was Daniel's idea and I'll admit that I was a skeptic at first. I knew that Daniel and I would have a good time but everyone else that we had talked to in the group did not seem the slightest bit interested in salsa dancing. Japanese people don't really dance in general. I know they don't have high school dances and they don't dance at wedding receptions and everyone seemed to find it a little odd that we wanted to go out dancing for fun. But 4 brave souls followed Daniel's lead all the way to the bar.

Mariko, Emi & Kazuyo:

So we had lessons and got the basic moves down (& had another cocktail) and we were ready to go. Daniel was the most patient dancing instructor ever and slowly but surely everyone came out of their shells and broke out of their comfort zone and were dancing like crazy. It was unbelievable.

Daniel teaching Mariko how to move her feet ...

She never quite got it, but she had SO much fun:

Daniel & Kazuyo:

Look at how much fun they're having ...

And then next thing I knew Naoko was dancing in the middle of the circle,

which about made my jaw drop.

Kazuyo, Emi & I could not stop laughing ...

Our stomachs hurt and we had tears streaming down our faces.

I don't know if I've ever laughed so hard in my life.

The whole thing was just perfect. Hilarious and perfect. Of course I took a video but really all it is is me laughing for 4 minutes. It's of Mariko and she was the most skeptic out of everyone in the group when it came to the idea of going salsa dancing. She was also the last person I expected to join us because she is so serious and focused all the time. She's always working so hard and is the one that would remind us not to stay out too late and I always thought she was kind of a fun-hater (shh... don't tell her I said that) and then this whole salsa dancing in Brisbane just gave me a whole new perspective. I have seen her in a completely different light and I love it. I highly doubt you will find this as entertaining as everyone in our group did, but here it is for ya ....

Just Click Here!

That has almost brought us to the end of the entire trip. Just one more bittersweet blog to go.

much love

-tara-

xx