Sakura and Snow - It`s Spring!

Sakura and Snow - It`s Spring!

Believe it or not, it`s feeling like spring here in Tokyo! I know it`s a bitter contrast with the weather in Wisconsin...last week my disgruntled parents sent me a photo of more new fallen snow. It`s been great the past week or so--low 60`s, partly sunny, and course, adorned by cherry blossoms. They are finally beginning to droop now, most of the blossoms are on the sidewalk instead of the branches, but they really did live up to the hype while they lasted.

But, before I delve too deeply into the topic of sakura, I`d like to share some of my biggest highlights of March! I had a wild couple of weeks, jam packed with a ton of stuff. However, it was all extremely fun and exciting, the exact sort of
"busyness" that I love.

This period was kicked off by a visit from my former boss at WI 4-H International Programs, Kay, her family, and a volunteer for WI 4-H Intl/WI Price Co. 4-H Educator/former LEX intern, Amber. They are wonderful people, two of my biggest mentors. It was wonderful to take them sightseeing a bit in Tokyo. Meeting up with friends halfway around the globe truly makes the world seem smaller. 

Intern from Taiwan, Nancy, and I energetically MC`ing
for "Snow Sumo"

Immediately after my time with Kay and Amber, I headed off to Iiyama city, Nagano prefecture, for the third annual Multilingual Snow Camp. This is a huge event, with over 500 Japanese participants and 100 from overseas. The campers are of all ages, from 4th grade elementary students to college students and working adults. Everyone is divided up into groups of about 25 people, with adult Hippo fellows as chaperones and two college or high school students serving as volunteer junior chaperones. Each group stays in their own minshuku, local, mom-and-pop-owned/run lodges that provide lodging and meals. For four days, each group acts as a family, eating and playing together. Participants even sleep in the same rooms and share bath time (separated by gender).

I had an absolute blast! Our group got to try plenty of fun, snow-based activities, such as snowshoeing, snowball fights, sledding, building snowmen, and even making ice-cream. Beforehand, there was a bit of worry about the snow--it was quite warm when we went, and there was only one meter of snow on the ground. But honestly, it was perfect. It was nice and sunny, the kids had plenty of snow to play with, and those who hadn`t ever seen it before were able to get their fill.

A new friend from Snow Camp

For me, I`ve grown up in Wisconsin, in the northern part of the United States, and I`ve seen snow every winter. So it`s a little hard for me to get that excited about seeing it (memories of both shoveling the driveway and walking to my university on icy sidewalks are a pretty good ways to kill any romanticism).  But, as I threw snowballs and built a snow fort surrounded by tons of kids from all over Japan and from other countries,it was easy to release my inner child.

Hanami with my host family

Ultimately, my favorite part of the experience was getting to meet and make friends with the kids in my minshuku. They were all super energetic and friendly--always chattering away and excited to play. My Japanese is quite proficient enough for me to talk with them, but even if it wasn`t, we still would have had fun. There was a little girl from Shanghai, China, in our group who was really quiet and didn`t speak any Japanese, but sure enough, she was able to make friends. Once the kids got out together and started making snow forts, she started smiling and joined in tickling and teasing the other girls. By the last day, she seemed pretty comfortable--their goofing around in the bath ended up creating a quite the tsunami... In the end, making multilingual friends through playing together in nature, that`s the goal of Snow Camp. From what I saw, it worked pretty well! I`ve seen this with summer 4-H exchange students as well. Kids may not speak the same language, but plunk them down somewhere where they can play, and soon enough they`ll find a way to communicate all by themselves!

Little brothers

After returning to Tokyo from Snow Camp, I was able to marvel at the full splendor of the sakura (cherry blossoms). The blooming period for cherry blossoms is rather short, and the peak usually hits a high for about a week. Luckily, I was able to enjoy plenty of hanami! Hanami is a sort of cherry blossom-viewing picnic/drinking party that takes place in parks, or wherever there might be a good crop of trees. People spread out on tarps, eat, drink, and make merry. This can go on for an extended period of time! I got to go twice, once with my Hippo family club members and once with just my host family. Of course, I took the mandatory million snapshots of the blossoms, so I`ll always be
able to look back.

Making takoyaki, they`re like savory octopus donut holes!

As we move further into spring, it reminds me of how limited my time is in Japan. We are already halfway through April, and my flight back to the U.S. at the end of August has already been booked. Honestly, I`ve been fretting a lot about the future. I`ve been using my spare time to rewrite my resume, draw up a cover letter, and have started browsing job posting websites. Not having a plan yet for when I return to the States really makes me nervous. When I think realistically, I know I have time, and that employers are probably not going to hold something four months out. Of course, anxiety doesn`t like to respond to reason! Furthermore, I`ve been carrying tension in regards to the future of the United States, what with the presidential primaries and such. I think it`s easy to get disillusioned about your own country when you aren`t there, because you are only seeing the dismal headlines that get all the focus. It`s important to remember that life goes on, there are good people everywhere, and that if you put in the effort, things will usually work out okay. Worrying about the future and upcoming changes are typical--not just for people living abroad, you just have to find healthy ways to deal with it.

So, I`m striving for balance, planning for the future, but staying in the now! I have a ton more amazing things coming up--a preparation camp for the next students going abroad for 10 months, a one week trip to South Korea in May, dear friends visiting from the States, and much, much more. My Japanese feels stronger and even more comfortable day by day. I have wonderful host families, great friends and co-workers, and of course tons of amazing, supportive people back home. Really, there is so much to be thankful for!!        

Let`s end with this lovely shot of the interns` trip to
Hello Kitty`s Puroland!!