crystal-in-nagasaki

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

what's next?

After almost three incredible years, my time here in Japan has come to a close. I've shared on this personal blog more than 100 memories that I can keep with me forever and look back on, which I'm so grateful for. Saying goodbye to my students, coworkers, friends, and neighbors has been incredibly painful, but I'm happy with my decision to return home, and believe the timing is right.

That means this blog has finally served its purpose and will come to an end. It's bittersweet, but I'm thankful for the opportunity to share all of my memories here over the years.

In this final post, I'd just like to give an update about what's ahead for me after my return to the US.

As soon as I entered my final year in Japan, I began planning for my future career back home. I was at first at a loss about what to do, because I majored in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) in university, but never did student teaching or received a teaching certificate as I had been planning to work abroad for the majority of my career. Although I've loved being in Japan, my priorities have changed, and I now want to settle in the US long term instead of abroad, so I had to begin figuring out a career path using my degree.

Eventually after much research and reaching out to past college professors, I decided to enroll in graduate school to acquire a teaching license in Michigan. I was accepted to an MA program at Western Michigan University in elementary teaching that will begin at the end of August and finish in December of next year, awarding me an MA and a teaching certification in the state of Michigan.

Alongside my course work, I of course wanted to continue to work in schools. Luckily one of my professors told me that due to the current teacher shortage, some schools will hire non-certified teachers as long as they are on a path to a license. Therefore, I began mass applying to schools all over the state to try to find a school that would hire me while working towards my license.

After many late night job interviews over video call, I was finally hired as an elementary ESL teacher by Kalamazoo Public Schools for the 2024-2025 school year. I'm beyond grateful to them for giving me the opportunity to work as a full-fledged teacher while also working towards my MA, and they will even help pay for my graduate tuition.

As many people know, I met my lovely girlfriend Frankie while abroad in Japan, and she is also returning to the US this summer. She's from Louisiana, but as we near one year together, we've decided to make the choice to move in together in Michigan. We've already found a two bedroom apartment in Kalamazoo, where we'll live together with my cat Kiwi and dog Rosie, inherited from my father after his passing. I'm sure it will be an overwhelming time, but we're excited to start our new life with our little family.

I've made so many beautiful memories in Japan that I will keep with me for the rest of my life. Though it's hard to say goodbye to the community that I've built here, I'm excited to head into my next chapter with my beloved partner and pets.

Thank you for reading this blog through the years. It's meant a lot to me to write it and keep these memories alive for me to be able to revisit later. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

I hope everyone keeps happy and healthy from now on, and good things come your way.

Goodbye <3

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

chijiwa minifes

Last weekend I visited a neighborhood of Unzen called Chijiwa’s famous Minifes, a rock festival held each summer promoting local bands and dance groups. I visited once before in 2022 (but never wrote about it here), and planned to visit last year but it was unfortunately cancelled due to bad weather.

Anyway, this year it was held on a scorching hot day, so my friends and I sat in a shady area in front of the stage to enjoy the performances and I kept under an umbrella for extra protection since I'm prone to terrible sunburns.

In addition to live performances, the festival also had many food stalls, a t-shirt stall, and carnival games for kids with prizes. Although it’s a rock festival and much of the music was rock/punk, it was open to families and there were many small children also enjoying the festivities. Japan is generally discriminatory toward those with tattoos because it historically represented someone involved in gang activity, but I was happy to see many Japanese visitors to the festival with tattoos and alternative hair/fashion choices. Japan can be pretty judgmental about presenting outside the norm, but it’s nice to see that punk subculture is alive and well even in the Japanese countryside.

Anyway, the performances started off with a group of junior high school girls performing a shrine dance in traditional clothing, holding a wand of bells and a fan. It was very beautiful and I commend them for fighting through the harsh heat in such layered clothing.

Next a band called Goldilocks opened on the stage. I’ve seen them before when they’ve opened for Nagasaki city’s ALT band MOODY, and they’re very talented. They had a local dance teacher choreograph one of their music videos and create a dance for their song “Diki Diki Dance,” so for this song, they invited the dance teacher to the stage to teach the dance to the audience and it was so fun! Her students also came up to the front and performed the dance, then they all created a train and walked through the audience to raise the energy. It was so cute and I loved the incorporation of the audience.

You can find Goldilocks on Instagram here!

By then we had gotten a little hungry, so we decided to get some food from the food stalls. One food truck was selling special hot dogs, which had cheese and local Unzen ham on them, so we got some. They were so delicious!

Next we watched a performance by another band called Have Nothing. You can find them on Instagram here!

After this was another dance performance by a dance group specializing in hula dancing. I haven’t seen much hula dancing in my life and was amazed at the control of their hips and waist! They were so talented.

After this a solo performer called Izuken played, and he had a very interesting style and voice. You can find him here!

Next another band took the stage called The Wanderers, a group of older men playing jazz and blues. They mostly played covers of well known songs and it was really nice to hear some songs that I heard growing up.

From there, several more bands and dance groups performed, but we decided to head out because we had already spent so much time in the heat and needed a rest.

This festival is very lively and is a great way to connect with the community and lovers of rock and punk music. I’m glad I was able to experience it again!

Thanks for reading :)

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

saying goodbyes

I’m finally heading home in a few weeks after almost 3 years in Japan. I’ve made so many connections with my coworkers and students, community members, and friends. The week before last, I said goodbye to each of my four schools, the BOE staff, Omura’s mayor, and my taiko group. It’s been very difficult finding the right words to say goodbye and express how much each relationship has meant to me, and I spent the week making many many many speeches. I’d like to share just a bit about what the process has been like saying goodbye to my workplace and my taiko family.

I first made a visit to the Board of Education office to say farewell to the superintendent and give a speech to the BOE members, the same as I had done when I first arrived. Talking to the full office of many BOE members is very scary, but I didn’t tremble this time. I didn’t even have a speech prepared and just spoke in Japanese from the heart about how wonderful my experience has been in a clear and confident voice. The contrast between my trembling legs when I first addressed them and my unplanned speech when I said goodbye really showed me how much I’ve grown and faced my fears here, and I felt so happy.

After this, we next met with the mayor of the city to chat with him. He’s a very kind man and listened kindly to our experiences and asked us many questions. At the very end, he took a Charlie’s Angels style photo with us and it was really silly and cute, but unfortunately my coordinator didn’t get access to the photo. But it exists somewhere! We got this very normal one instead.

Next let’s talk about the farewells at my schools. My two small mountain schools which each have less than 30 students across six grades both set a class period aside to hold farewell parties for me. In both parties, we played some final games together, then I said a few words, and they finally presented me with personal messages written to me by the students. At one of the schools, we played a version of the Newlywed Game, and students tried to guess how I would answer questions like my favorite food, animal, and even my favorite Pokemon. It was so cute and made me happy to see that my students remembered many things about me (including how much I love bread and hate natto). My other school has a taiko club, so they prepared a final performance to me and I was very moved by their music for me.

At my smallest school, they made this framed collage of all of their goodbye messages, with a picture of my face. It's so beautiful and I was so moved when I received it. My other small school gave me a laminated booklet with a page for each student and teacher.

At my bigger elementary school, I spent the day going to my regular classes and having goodbye activities in each one. One of my 5th grade classes played a Kahoot I made asking them how well they knew me, then they surprised me with their own Kahoot quiz, in which every student submitted one question about Nagasaki or the students’ interests. It made me really happy and it was so fun. I felt so happy answering specific trivia about Nagasaki and Omura, and realized how much I had come to know the area’s local history and products.

At this school, many students I didn’t have class with approached me in between classes and during recess to give me letter they had written to me and gifts of origami or other crafts. Many of them also asked me to sign their textbooks, which was so cute and I felt like a famous person as they lined up down the hallway to get my autograph.

I have a farewell speech to this school over the intercom in the morning, since the school has over 500 students. I told them that I was happy to have fun with them and what I would be doing when I return to the US. Many students wrote in their messages that they’re rooting for me, and it made me so happy for their support.

At the end of the day, I gave a farewell speech to the teachers in the staff room, thanking them for their kindness and guidance over the years. They gave me a gift of several Japanese cultural items so that I wouldn’t forget Japan, including a cute folding fan with cats on it and chopsticks with my name engraved on them. Then all the teachers made a tunnel outside the doors and gave me a send off with applause as I left the school. It was so incredibly kind and warm, and I drove away wiping away bittersweet tears.

Like my very first day of work all the way back in 2021, my last day was at my junior high school, which felt nostalgic and fitting. It was the day of closing ceremony, so there was only one class period in the morning before the ceremony, and then students left for summer vacation. Many students came to the staff room to bring me message books they wrote to me, and they gave me words of encouragement about returning to the US.

I went to this school every Friday, and at the start of class when I asked the routine questions about the day, date, and weather, I would always cheer when they said it's Friday. Sometimes the students were tired or bored, but I would always get them to join in the Friday cheer to be excited for the weekend. I received this message about my Friday cheer, and it moved me to tears. I'm so happy to see when I can make even a small impact on students.

Just after closing ceremony, I did a short speech over the school broadcast to all of the classrooms and then received a bouquet of flowers and a goodbye message from some students.

From there, I returned to the staff room and got ready to leave because I had to run some errands with my coordinators to end my utilities, internet, and banking services. I think my teachers had wanted to give me a big send off, but weren’t aware that I was leaving early. So I approached one of my coworkers who I’ve worked with since the beginning and who has shown given me so much support and guidance, even taking the time to write a recommendation letter for me while I was applying for jobs. I gave her a personal farewell and her and another coworker gifted me a very lovely kitchen knife to bring home with me.

The few teachers left in the staff room followed me out and gave me a send off, and I drove away waving at my coworkers through my rear view mirror. With that, I finished my job as an ALT in the city of Omura.

On Thursday night of that week, I went to my last taiko practice and then had one final performance on the following Saturday. I had a stomachache the day of the performance, but pushed through the pain and heat stroke (it was also INCREDIBLY hot) and was able to put all my power into my final performance. After playing our signature three songs, my taiko teacher introduced me into the microphone and announced that I would be leaving soon. He asked me to say a few words but I was nervous and unprepared so I just shouted “TAIKO IS SO FUN!!” in Japanese into the microphone and everyone laughed. After that, my teacher let us play about one minute of a song we had been learning so that I could have the chance to perform the flute part on the stage at least once. I was so happy and felt I could leave the group fulfilled that I could demonstrate the flute part I had been learning.

After the performance, we took one last group photo together and my teacher presented me with messages that all of the members had written for me and pictures of us from over the years. It moved me deeply and I cried telling everyone goodbye. From the start, my taiko family accepted me kindly and always gave me so much support. It was truly a great experience of my life, and I’ll never forget them.

Saying goodbye has been a long process, as I’ve made many relationships with many of people that have taken care of me. I’ve been making monthly visits to a mental health clinic to refill my antidepressants for the last two years, so at my final meeting with my doctor, I thanked him and gave him a small gift. I also did the same with the hairdresser that has been cutting my hair for the past 2 years. Even these small acquaintances have contributed to my life here, and saying goodbye to them is also difficult. My doctor always supported me learning Chinese and tried to practice with me, and my hairdresser gave me many local travel recommendations. I’ll miss them and the small comforting role they've played in my life here.

As my final two weeks pass by in a blur, I’ll have to say even more goodbyes to my closest friends. I know they will be very painful, but I know that my closest relationships have been forged for life, and we will see each other again someday.

This is a sad post, but also a happy one. Saying so many painful goodbyes is a reminder of being loved and welcomed into my community. Even when I leave here, I will think back on everyone I met with so much fondness and gratitude.

Thanks for reading <3

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

itoshima

In the beginning of July, my partner and I made our way up to the town of Itoshima in Fukuoka (which I also visited before here) to meet some friends who have a house there. Frankie met these friends when she first came to Japan, and they've been very important to her life as queer role models. One of the couple is a Japanese trans man, who grew up partially in the US and can speak native English. It meant a lot to both of us to see a queer couple thriving together in Japan, with their own house and careers. It gives us a lot of hope for the future <3

Anyway, we drove up on a sunny Saturday and stayed overnight until the following day. The first day one of our hosts had to work late, so we went to visit a shrine and torii gate with his partner.

The shrine we visited was called Sakurai Shrine. According to our friend, it has gained popularity recently because a popular pop band singer has the same name, which I thought was funny. The shrine building seemed very old, but beautifully built. Around the back of the shrine, some of the woodwork was painted in bright colors that reminded me of the Korean style. I received a goshuin at this shrine, but it didn't have a special design, so I didn't take a picture of it.

After the shrine, we drove a bit further to the coast to find a beautiful white torii gate, framing two large stones connected by a rope. According to JapanTravel, these stones are said to represent Izanagi and Izanami, the Japanese creation gods, and their eternal connection. Because of this, it's a popular to spot for couples, and is said to give their love power. It was really beautiful and seeing the two rocks inseparable by the crashing waves, I could feel its spiritual power.

After admiring the torii gate for a while, we headed into town to get dinner and drinks at an izakaya with our hosts and their friends, an international couple from the US visiting Fukuoka. It was a lot of fun sharing conversation in both English and Japanese about cultural and language differences. I love being a part of the international community and learning about many different kinds of people!

After a long night of chatting, laughing, eating, and drinking, we returned to our hosts' house and enjoyed lighting some sparklers together, which is a popular summer activity in Japan. The sparklers had many different kinds of colors and sparks, and it was really fun.

With that, we called it a night and headed to bed in their big beautiful old Japanese house.

The next morning, while our friends slept off their hangovers, my partner and I and one of our hosts took a short walk down the street to a local beach to go swimming. The water was cool and refreshing and we enjoyed swimming and playing in the waves.

A little ways down the beach was a small island with a tiny shrine and torii gate on it. I was interested in checking it out, so we made our way down the beach toward it.

We climbed up the island's stone steps through the trees to find a shrine, and we each said a small prayer to it. There are many small places like this in Japan that you can discover, and I think they're so lovely and hold a lot of spiritual energy.

We finished up at the beach and headed back to our hosts' home to rinse off. From there we headed out to see one of our hosts' childhood home up in a nearby mountain. Before stopping at his home, we headed up to the very top of the mountain to check out a waterfall called Senjuin Waterfall. I was not informed that it would be a bit of a hike to reach it, so I was struggling a bit in my beach trip crocs, but after about 500 meters up the rocky mountain trail, we found the beautiful waterfall with a stone monk watching over it.

From there we headed a bit down the mountain to our friend's childhood home, which was a beautiful house surrounded by nature. We also saw this cat outside, whose dark fur had been bleached brown by the harsh Kyushu sun!

In our friend's house we met their parents, who welcomed us and treated us to homemade tarts and this Japanese dessert in which you sandwich red bean paste between two wafers. It was so delicious and they were so kind! Since they had spent some time in the US, they could also speak English really well.

From there, our trip had come to an end and it was time for us to head home. It really meant a lot to us to have older queer friends in Japan, who can show us what a successful, loving, and proud queer relationship can look like in Japanese society. I'm so thankful I got to meet them, and that they so graciously let us stay in their home and showed us around their town. I hope that we can meet again in the future, in Japan or the US!

Thanks for reading <3

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

nagasaki's fruit bus stops

In my very own prefecture of Nagasaki, I recently was able to visit the famous fruit-shaped bus stops. They're located on the eastern coast just north of the bridge to the Shimabara peninsula, on the outskirts of Isahaya city in Konagai.

According to JNTO, the bus stops were first built in 1990 to attract visitors to the Journey Exhibition Nagasaki, which celebrated Nagasaki's rich multicultural history. There are 16 fruit-shaped bus stops in total that come in five varieties: strawberry, watermelon, cantaloupe, orange, and tomato. These varieties of fruits were chosen to represent Nagasaki's agricultural specialties, of which strawberries and oranges are the most prevalent.

On our way up to visit some friends in Itoshima to the north, my girlfriend and I stopped at the various bus stops to take some pictures. A few of them are placed beside the sea, which created a beautiful scene.

They're not just for show. The bus stops seemed genuinely comfortable and offered ample shade from the heat. You couldn't tell that they were made over 30 years ago because they are so well-maintained. We even saw one of the bus stops undergoing construction, proving to us that they are well taken care of.

The bus stops are a really great photo spot and show the quirkiness of Japanese tourism in the most unlikely of places. I definitely recommend stopping by for some pictures if you're in the area!

Thanks for reading <3

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

kumamoto beach party

According to my inside sources (AKA my girlfriend), the Kumamoto prefecture ALTs hold a beach party every year in a beautiful campground park in a town called Ashikita. By virtue of association with said girlfriend, I was invited to join the beach party, which was held at the end of June this year.

The party was held at Tachimisaki Park in Ashikita, a small peninsula in southwestern Kumamoto prefecture overlooking the sea and Amakusa islands. It's outlined on the map below in red.

We all enjoyed swimming and hanging out on the shore, then barbecued and stayed the night in cabins just up the hill from the beach.

The party happened just near the end of the rainy season, so we unfortunately got rained on a bit here and there, but overall the party was a lot of fun and the scenery of the area was so beautiful. Camping in cabins is popular in Japan, and the cabins are usually pretty nice, with a kitchen, bathroom, and shower, so it was really cozy.

I don't have many pictures, but here's the view of the sea from the window of our cabin. On the morning after the party, the sun finally came out and the view was gorgeous.

That's all I have for this post. Thanks for reading!

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

kumamoto alt pride party

I spoke extensively in my Pride post this year about life in Japan for LGBT people and how it's sometimes difficult to find or make queer spaces. Therefore, I haven't had much opportunity to meet and interact with other queer people in Japan, and have found almost no queer bars or other spaces. But thanks to the great amount of foreigners in Japan, many of which are on the queer spectrum, there have thankfully been times when foreigners create opportunities for queer people to get together.

Since Kyushu Pride is in November, I haven't been able to celebrate Pride Month for the last three years, and it's been a bit lonely and isolating. But this year, some Kumamoto ALTs set up a Pride event at a foreign-owned bar in Kumamoto city called Jeff's Bar, and I was able to attend with my partner. There were decorations such as pride flags and rainbows, and many people dressed up. One of the organizers even walked around with rainbow paint and painted rainbows on people's faces. After so long in Japan feeling like I had been shoved back into the closet, it was really nice to be in a space celebrating my queer identity.

I decided not to drink, but my partner and I danced all night with our other queer friends and it was so fun and joyous. Although it was a foreign-held event and most of the attendees were foreigners, it was nice to be able to openly express my queer identity in Japan for once.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to share. I'll be headed home soon and I'm excited to participate in the Pride activities in the US next year. Thanks for reading!

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

my last few english boards

For the almost three years I've been living in Japan as an English teacher, I've been making monthly English boards at my junior high school for my students. I shared about most of my boards here and here, but I wanted to share the last few remaining boards that I made as I am leaving Japan soon. I put up my very last board this month for July since the students are on summer vacation for most of August, and it was bittersweet. I've been working on the boards for so long and they've evolved so much since I first started. I'm really proud of the work I put into and them and I hope that my students enjoyed them each month.

Without further ado, these are my last few English boards for the months of May, June, and July 2024:

In May we covered the themes of NASCAR, Easter, and pets, giving historical background and fun facts. I also encouraged students to adopt pets instead of buying them from pet shops, since puppy mills are a big problem in Japan. For the sticker poll, I asked the age-old question of whether students prefer dogs or cats, which got pretty even results. For a matching exercise, students matched dogs with their English breed names, which are mostly the same in Japanese so was fairly easy for them. Lastly, for the free white I used an Easter theme of eggs in a basket to ask students about their favorite candy. I was happy to get many responses, but most of them were in Japanese or just pictures they drew. Regardless, I'm glad that they interacted with it at all.

Next, let's move on to June.

For June, we again covered Pride Month, as well as the themes of Midsummer and Flag Day. Again, the text sections mainly gave historical background and facts. I also decided since I was leaving soon to come out to my students publicly, and posted a picture of myself and my girlfriend on the board.

On the spring/Midsummer theme, the sticker poll asked students to vote for their favorite flower, and each flower also included a small bit of text explaining what each person's favorite flower says about their personality, which I thought was fun. For a matching section, I had students match country names to their flags. On the inside of the flaps I also gave hints about what each of the colors and symbols of the flags represent. Lastly, the free write activity asked students to design their own flags using a color key explaining the meaning of colors in flags. I was really excited about this, but worried the students wouldn't interact with it. I was very surprised to find that many kids made flags and it made me so happy!

Lastly, let's talk about my very last English board I made, for the month of July.

For my last board, we did the themes of rednecks and Southern US culture, Shark Week, and of course, a farewell to me since I'm leaving soon.

I decided to talk about rednecks because apparently there's a "redneck day" in July and I thought it was a unique part of American culture to share. But I got a bit concerned while making it, because I couldn't figure out how to approach the term "redneck" which can be viewed in several ways. Many people make fun of rednecks for being gun-wielding, Fox News-watching bigots, while there's another shade of meaning which discriminates against poor rural white people. I tried to approach it with empathy and education, because I think the root of the problem in the worst of "rednecks" is a lack of resources and education. So I didn't want to make fun of them for being poor or uneducated, but didn't want to gloss over the fact that many of them hold bigoted views. In the end, it's a complicated topic, so I just told the students the literal origin of the word and shared some surface-level culture like Southern food, clothes, and music. I'm in a really interesting place to share American culture with my students, so I want to be able to teach them about many different kinds of things, even if they can be complicated.

Anyway, that was a tangent, but I also covered Shark Week, in which I used the board as a platform to correct misconceptions about the danger, or lack thereof, that sharks pose to humans. I tried to pick the cutest, friendliest shark pictures I could and talked about how shark movies give sharks a bad rap, and they aren't actually the evil killing machines that the media makes them out to be. I also told the kids not to eat shark fin soup, because it's responsible for millions of shark deaths every year and doesn't even hold nutritional value or flavor.

I tied the poll in with rednecks by asking students if they prefer the countryside or city, to which I was surprised that most students answered with the countryside. I thought that many rural kids want to escape rural life, but I guess many of them are content here, which is nice to see. I also created a matching activity in which students can match different kinds of sharks to their names. I thought it wouldn't be so difficult, but many of the kids struggled with the names more than I anticipated.

Lastly, for my goodbye section, I wrote a simple letter in English to the kids telling them that teaching them meant a lot to me and telling them what my plans for the future are. I attached some pictures from my time in Japan to show them that I had many great memories here. Under this, I put a large heart for students to write goodbye messages, and for the message cards I used all of my leftover leaflets from previous boards. I'm not sure if the students understand what I was trying to do, but it meant a lot to me to throw back to all my past boards like that. At the bottom, I made a true or false quiz of facts about me for the students to see how well they got to know me. It was fun to make even if they don't know the answers.

Well, that's it. That's the end of my brand, English Boards by Cris-senseiTM. I had a lot of fun and learned some valuable creative skills from making these boards, and I'm really proud of them. I can't necessarily say I'll miss doing them because they were a lot of work and I was often rushing and sometimes even stayed late, but seeing the finished product up after everything always made me feel proud and happy. I hope that even after I leave this school, the English board will live on and the kids can continue to enjoy it.

Thanks for reading!

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

a small art exhibition in nagasaki city

Near the end of May, I made an impromptu day trip into the city with some friends to play board games, eat specialty ramen, and visit a small art exhibit for a few local artists.

At the beginning of the day, we went to a small cafe called Cafe Slow near the Chinese Confucius Shrine and Museum, where I watched some dances during the lantern festival in 2023. The cafe was in a beautiful old European-style building on Oranda-zaka, Dutch Hill, street. At this cafe, they had a board game event to bring together locals and foreigners to chat together and play games. I played Catan with some local people and it was a lot of fun! I love participating in cozy community events like this.

Next we headed to a ramen restaurant called Menya Always, which specializes in lemon ramen topped with pork. It was very delicious and very beautifully presented.

After lunch, we headed to a small art exhibition hall called PW/GALLERY. It was on the top two floors of a narrow building, and the uppermost floor was unfinished, which just made the place somehow feel even artsier.

The artists showcased at the gallery were three brothers of the last name Suga named Fumitaka, Takanori, and Yushi, all born in Nagasaki prefecture. I met the oldest, Fumitaka, at the exhibition, who told us about his work and told us he was an art teacher working at a high school in Shimabara, which was really cool. I don't have a trained eye when it comes to art, but I really enjoyed seeing the brothers' different styles.

Fumitaka tended to use a lot of colors to create complicated mosaics. He explained that he took simple landscapes and brought them to life with many colors. His work below on the left is a view of the ocean from Unzen. Can you see the scenery of a town by the bay? It's so interesting! You can see more of his work at his Instagram here.

The middle brother Takanori often travels abroad and uses spaces there as inspiration for his art. His art goes beyond the canvas, decorating skulls of animals, old houses, and even the landscape itself. You can see some of his art at his Instagram here.

The youngest brother Yushi has a very interesting art style. He creates symmetrical works of art on chrome and other mediums by scraping paint over them. So he will paint an image on one side, then cover the other side with paint and scrape out the same shape to create a reflection of the painted image using the liminal space. It's really brilliant and beautiful. You can see more of his work at his Instagram here.

Although I'm not the best at viewing and interpreting art, I really enjoy seeing the unique and creative ways that people can express themselves using various materials, and these three brothers showed me many interesting new styles of art. I'm grateful that my friend invited me to this event and that I could culture myself a bit more within the art world.

I hope you enjoyed too! Please check out the brothers' Instagrams to support their art if you're interested. Thanks for reading <3

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

mitsui greenland

In May as the weather got more and more pleasant, I made a trip to an amusement park in Kumamoto prefecture called Greenland with a group of friends. I had been hearing about this park from many of my students over the years, so I was very excited to check it out. I'm a big fan of roller coasters, but walked in with low expectations thinking that the rides would be small and not that thrilling. While I was sort of right about the coasters not being terribly big, I was pleasantly surprised with just how enjoyable Greenland was, and by the large variety of fun rides!

According to Greenland's website, they host over 70 different types of attractions, the most of any amusement park in Japan. They also have many restaurants, food stands, and shops.

The entrance fee for an adult is 2000 yen (about $20 USD), but in order to enjoy attractions you must either buy a number of tickets for each attraction or buy an attraction pass for an additional 4000 yen ($40 USD), which means an adult with an attraction pass will cost 6000 yen in total. It's a bit expensive, but comparable to amusement parks in the US and the lines weren't nearly as long. My partner isn't a fan of roller coasters and didn't want to buy the pass, but I got her one anyway and we found that there were so many things to do that didn't involve big rides that buying the pass for her was well worth the money.

The only complaint I really have about Greenland is that they were only open from 9:30 to 5:00, whereas amusement parks in the US usually stay open later into the evening. The park was so big and there were so many things to do and 8 hours is really not enough time to see it all. Ultimately I ended up missing out on some of the bigger rides because we never made it around to the other side of the park, and I wish I could've tried them!

Anyway, I'll share a bit more in detail about some of the attractions we tried at Greenland.

When we first entered, some of my friends and I first got on the merry-go-round. Although this is obviously a ride for children and families, my friends and I were prepared to experience anything and everything, so we happily climbed on top of the colorful plastic horses and it was a fun start to the day.

From there, we headed around to the nearest ride we could find, which was this tall swing ride. It was pretty standard, but still fun and a little thrilling to be high up in the air.

Next we headed to our first roller coaster called NIO, which was a hanging coaster with lots of loops. It was really thrilling, but I don't always enjoy these kinds of coasters because the momentum just makes me bang my head around on the sides of the seat and I end up walking away with sore ears. But the design was still really cool!

Unfortunately, NIO did not agree with one of my friends and she needed a few minutes to sit and rest, so my partner and I rode the ferris wheel and some other small rides to pass the time while she recovered.

The ferris wheel was huge and gave us a big view of the rest of the park.

Near the ferris wheel were some small children's rides, but that didn't stop us and we rode whichever ones we could fit in, including one ride where you go in a circle while shooting water at lit up targets. It was really cute.

There was also a section with an arcade and some carnival-type games, so some of my friends played a shooting game together.

Some of us next got on a ride called the Skyjet, which was misleading because it actually moved incredibly slow. But it was still pleasant and we got to enjoy a scenic view of the park on our ride.

Greenland also had a small petting zoo area that you could enter with a ride pass. We paid about 100 yen ($1 USD) for a cup of carrots and fed some cute farm animals. My girlfriend loves pigs and goats, so she was really excited to feed them.

At the petting zoo they also had a lot of dogs! There was an outdoor area for them, but when we came by they were taking a rest in a shaded pavilion. We were able to enter their area to pet and play with them, but most of them were sleeping, including this big floofer who flopped down right in front of the entrance.

Next we hopped on this cute chairlift ride to take us to another area of the park. There were no seatbelts and only a net below to catch us, so it was a little sketchy, but overall it was fun and nice to float down to the next area.

After we got off the chairlift, we headed to a race track ride where you could drive a small car down a track. It was fun and looped near the other rides, so it was an interesting use of the space.

Across from this ride we got on a train ride that seemed to be thematically somewhere between wild west, outer space, and world travel. We rode a train around a small lake and used guns mounted on the sides to shoot at aliens that had invaded. Along the track were also various decorations of landmarks from other countries. It was really silly and fun.

After this we got on another gondola-like ride and crossed over the small lake to yet another part of the park. The park was so big but it was cool that there were so many rides designed to take you around to all the various areas.

From there we got on ANOTHER chairlift ride, which took us up to the top of a hill where we entered a haunted house attraction. The haunted attraction was meant to be an abandoned school. I didn't take any pictures inside, but it was creepy and had many detailed grotesque props reminiscent of the Japanese horror genre. In one room, we walked past several old fashioned toilet stalls, with each stall holding a new horror within. My friends made me walk in front, so I tried to be brave!

From there we took the chairlift ride back down to catch a few more rides before closing time.

The last ride I was able to make it on was the GAO roller coaster, which was shaped like a dinosaur. Even the coaster cars had a little dinosaur sitting in the driver's seat, which was so cute. This was the only other true roller coaster I rode in the whole day, and it was pretty fun!

Like I mentioned before, I was a bit disappointed that they closed so early because I wasn't able to enjoy more rides, but I was surprised by the sheer variety of rides and how fun they were despite not being overly thrilling. Almost everything I rode was extremely tame, but somehow they all managed to be very enjoyable and it was overall a really fun day.

Whether you like thrilling rides or not, if you're the type of person that loves to try something new and fun, I definitely recommend Greenland!

Thanks for reading!

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

golden week in kumamoto: mt.aso, dolphin watching, and suizenji park

Each year around the first week of May, several national holidays fall together in a row, giving most workers and students the week off from work and school. This week of holidays has been named Golden Week, and it's a time when many Japanese people go travelling. This year for Golden Week, two of my partner's friends came to Kumamoto to visit her, so we all spent several days exploring Kumamoto's gems together. I had been to several of the places before, but wanted to share the pictures we took anyway.

On our first day together, we headed to Mt. Aso, which I've explored several times before and wrote about here, here, and here. Since I've covered much of Aso before, I'll just share some pictures. Since it was Golden Week, there were many people taking advantage of the days off to travel, so we waited for almost an hour in a line of cars trying to get in. I had never seen Aso so busy!

It was a beautiful sunny day, so the big field below the caldera where the visitor center is was breathtaking and almost didn't even look real.

After enjoying the sunshine and fields below, we headed up to the caldera itself, which was thankfully open and safe to enter. They have cement shelters at regular intervals with containers of helmets in them in the case of an emergency eruption.

On our way back to my partner's house from our day at Aso, we stopped at a small local restaurant called Kurinomi Cafe which advertised a fully vegan menu. It was a really cute shop seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and I had to confirm with the staff that the food was actually vegan, and she assured me it was. We were so happy to find this rare gem in rural Japan! I ordered the gratin croquette burger, and it was really tasty!

The next day we headed to an island chain in the southwest of Kumamoto prefecture called Amakusa. Amakusa is known for its beautiful natural scenery and strong Christian influence. Because of its isolation as an island away from the mainland, Christianity was able to spread and survive there in secret even after it was outlawed in the rest of Japan during the Edo period. Therefore, there are many beautiful churches on the island.

According to japan-guide.com, many hidden Christians found clever ways to practice Christianity in secret while it was outlawed, including disguising images of the Virgin Mary in Kannon and Buddha statues, carving crosses into the back of Buddha statues, and altering their prayers to resemble Buddhist chants. This way, the Christian population in Amakusa was able to survive and thrive into the modern era.

We didn't visit any churches during our trip to Amakusa, but instead enjoyed another of its famous attractions, dolphin watching. In the sea between Nagasaki's Shimabara peninsula and Kumamoto's Amakusa islands, about 200 dolphins live and breed year-round. Therefore, there are many companies offering boat tours so that tourists can enjoy watching the dolphins swim and jump in the water.

We took a 2 hour boat tour and were able to see many dolphins! It was difficult to catch them on camera because they appeared and disappeared quickly, but they were very beautiful and I felt like I could watch them all day if I could.

After our fun and relaxing tour, we looked around some souvenir shops and stopped at a cafe for dinner. For dessert we ate Basque cheesecake topped with syrup from a bankan, a citrus fruit native to the region. I'm not sure why, but Amakusa is also known for their Basque cheesecakes, often infused with bankan flavor.

After eating our cheesecake and enjoying a view of the ocean, we headed back to my partner's home to call it a night.

The next day was our final day together and we spent it in Kumamoto city visiting Suizenji Park and Kumamoto Castle, both of which I covered in previous posts here and here.

Since Suizenji Park is known for being a tea retreat, we enjoyed drinking traditionally made matcha tea and sweets while overlooking the garden.

From there we headed to Kumamoto Castle and enjoyed the museum inside the main building.

Outside the castle, I noticed they were doing renovations on one of the castle outpost buildings, and it was really interesting to see the process and care which they took during reconstruction, so I wanted to share a picture!

With that, we dropped our friends back off at the station so they could head back to their homes in Fukuoka. Although I had seen several of these places before, they were so lovely that I enjoyed visiting them again, and the weather was perfect for being outdoors and enjoying nature.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you are enjoying nature whenever you can too!

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

kuju flower park

If you've seen some of my past posts about flowers in Japan, you'll know that they don't mess around with flowers here. Japan is full of many huge and beautiful flower gardens that you can visit in the spring and summer. So in late April, my partner and I traveled to Kuju Flower Park in Oita prefecture, nestled between the Aso and Kuju mountains, to enjoy the many spring flowers in bloom.

According to Explore Kumamoto, the Kuju Flower Park is home to more than 3 million plants of 500 different varieties, covering 59 acres of land. The periods of blooming between flower species cycles in and out from March to November, so there are always blooming flowers to see no matter what time of year it is!

When we first entered the park, we visited a large field with various mixed colorful flowers in it. There were tracks between each section of flowers, so you could walk through them and be surrounded by the flowers.

I had dressed in a floral shirt for the occasion, so of course I had to take a picture next to the matching daisies.

They also had this cute photo spot where you could set up your phone with a timer.

In addition to the many outdoor flower gardens, there was also a greenhouse filled with various tropical plants and more flowers, including begonias and fuchsia shrubs. They also had some pretty decorative statues and another photo spot.

In the corner of the greenhouse, they also had a little spot to pull fortunes, maybe based on your birth month? I didn't try it, but it was in front of a beautiful statue, so it felt like a goddess watching over you as you drew your fortune.

Next we headed back outside to a huge field full of nemophila flowers, also known as baby blue eyes in America. You could again walk along tracks within the flowers to be in the middle of a sea of blue blossoms. When the weather is clear, you can see the Kuju mountains as a backdrop to the flowers for a breathtaking view.

From there we continued on to another section with many colorful poppies.

Nearby, we found another field of colorful linarias, commonly known as toadflax.

We headed up the hill next, passing the tulip fields, which had just passed their blooming window and had begun to wilt. I'm sad that we missed their full bloom, but some of the red ones were still very bright.

Lastly, we walked to the very outskirts of the park to look for the shibazakura, or moss phlox in English. We had just missed the blooming period on these as well, but there was still a tiny bit of color left to enjoy.

The park also had various shops and food stands to enjoy that sold local and organic goods. They also sold ice cream flavors like blueberry and lavender using the plants from the park. I didn't try any, but it was really popular and was a lovely color!

On our way out of the flower park, we found a friendly cat sitting by our car, so of course I gave him a few pats and took a picture.

As we drove away through the Aso mountains back to my partner's home in Kumamoto, we stumbled upon a strange place. It was filled in every direction with large hedge sculptures, most of them birds. They were placed on both sides of a big ravine and painted a very imposing picture.

There weren't any signs or tourist shops, just a field of these hedges on the side of the road, accompanied by a rusty shed and some deer, chickens, rabbits, and a goat kept in pens. It was so strange and fascinating. It seemed to me that somebody used the space for their hobby, but people could stop by and admire the sculptures if they liked.

Some of the sculptures had very obviously been given boobs or genetalia, so the artist had quite a sense of humor about his art.

There was even a sculpture in the distance made to look like the Nagasaki Peace Statue!

I found another friendly cat wandering around the grounds near the rabbits and chickens. I followed him to a box where he jumped up and laid down. Written on the box, it said you could buy food for the rabbits and cats by leaving it in the box. This smart little kitty led me over to the box to feed him. There was also a sign saying "looking for female goat," to be a companion for their other goat, which I thought was funny. What a strange and interesting place we found.

This day had an interesting ending, but of course it was a lot of fun to see all of the beautiful plants (and TWO cats)! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed <3

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

roll cake workshop

In April I had the opportunity to take part in a workshop making strawberry roll cakes at a popular local shop and farm called Chou Chou (pronounced shu-shu). This farm grows various fruits like strawberries, grapes, and pears where you can partake in fruit-picking during the on-season. They also have a small shop selling local fruits, vegetables, artisan goods, and crafts, as well as a very popular ice cream shop and bakery, which I visited after my hike in this post. In the bakery, you can participate in community workshops to make things like bread, pizza, cake, sausages, and yes of course, roll cake!

Since it was still strawberry season, we got to head to the greenhouse together to harvest a few strawberries for our roll cakes. We were instructed to pick five strawberries of a similar size and put them in a small cup to carry back to the kitchen. I grabbed some medium-sized, aesthetically pleasing strawberries, but realized my friends and everyone else were grabbing the biggest strawberries they could find, so mine were a bit small, haha.

After collecting our strawberries, we returned to the kitchen to watch a demonstration by the workshop teacher. She showed us how to cut the strawberries each for a particular purpose, how to spread the icing, and of course how to roll the cake. We were each provided with a pre-made sheet of cake and bowls of icing, so we got to work cutting up our strawberries and spreading icing on our cakes.

After icing what would be the inside of the cake and sprinkling pieces of strawberries in with the icing, it was time to roll the cake using the wax paper. It was difficult because if you put too much pressure, you could crack it, but I managed to do it passably.

After rolling the cake, we spread more icing on the outside and added more strawberries for decoration. The instructor showed us how to cut the strawberries into little hearts, which was cute.

My friend and I had some leftover icing and took turns trying to eat it when no one was looking. There were many kids at the workshop and we didn't want to set a bad example, but of course the icing was very tasty and we didn't want it to go to waste!

After we finished rolling and decorating the outside of our cakes, the instructor gave us each little boxes to put them in and an ice pack to keep them cold while we took them home.

Once everyone had finished and packed their cakes in a box, we all cleaned up the kitchen together, doing dishes and wiping down the tables. I think if this had been in America, it would have been normal to leave the mess for the workers to clean up after finishing, but I appreciate that Japanese people instill the value of tidying up after enjoying an experience. I'm not the most tidy person, so having small opportunities like this to value the space I'm in and clean up after myself teaches me a useful skill too.

The best part of making something special is sharing it with other people. So after the workshop I brought my cute little cake home to my partner and we enjoyed eating it together <3 As expected, it was very delicious!

I always enjoy finding opportunities participate in my community, even in the smallest of ways. This workshop was really cool and I got a fun experience and a tasty treat out of it! I look forward to finding more enjoyable experiences in my community.

Thanks for reading :)

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

sakura season 2024

In 2022 and 2023 I shared about my experiences frolicking in the cherry blossoms during their short blooming period, so I thought I would like to share my experience this year as well, which was my final year of enjoying the blossoms.

Like previous years, I stopped by Omura park to enjoy a hanami picnic with my friends and coworkers.

The following weekend, I attended the hanami festival again at Tachibana Shrine in Unzen and enjoyed the beautiful scenery with my friends and partner.

For the next week, the weather turned gloomy and rain poured down, prematurely tearing down many of the cherry blossoms with it. I had wanted to spend a couple of peaceful afternoons reading beneath the trees, but mother nature decided to make the short season even shorter this year. It was disappointing, but it did look beautiful decorating my car.

The nature of cherry blossoms is their impermanence, so I'm not terribly upset that the short time with them was cut even shorter. I'm just glad to have enjoyed three years of beautiful blossoms in my Japanese home.

Thanks for reading and please take time today to be grateful for the beautiful things in your life <3

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

tokyo 2024 and a discussion about vegan food in japan

In March of this year, I went to Tokyo to take an important teaching exam so that I could find a job as a teacher in the US after my return. (By the way, I passed the exam AND I have a new teaching job in Michigan starting in August!) Since I was heading to Tokyo for the exam anyway, my partner and I decided to turn it into a mini weekend trip so that we could see some parts of Tokyo we hadn't yet seen.

I've been to Tokyo several times in my life and I've seen pretty much all of the main tourist spots. I'm not a huge city person and generally prefer the quiet of the countryside, so I haven't been keen on making many more trips to Tokyo. But there are some things that I had been interested in checking out, so I was glad to have an opportunity to see them while I was in Tokyo for my exam.

Since Tokyo is a huge city with millions of people as well as many tourists, it's pretty difficult to find cheap accommodation close to any of the more popular boroughs. Usually when I visit Tokyo I stay in a hostel with dorm beds and shared bathrooms for about $50 a night. Luckily, for this Tokyo trip I was able to find a really cheap and cozy, if not a bit eccentric, place to stay right in the heart of Shinjuku.

This place is called Tama Ryokan. According to the lady who showed me around, it's her own home that she's lived in her whole life that she turned into a small hostel. The rooms all use tatami flooring and futon beds on the floor, with a shared bathroom and shower room. While it was a bit worn down, it was really cozy and the woman was really nice, even bringing me snacks and greeting me warmly each day. Despite being in the heart of the city, she assured me it was very safe. There was no room key and the front door to the hostel was kept open 24/7, but she said she's never had an incidents of theft or unwanted visitors. It was a really interesting little house with a lot of character, and I really enjoyed staying there.

After arriving and settling in, I decided to walk around a bit while I waited several hours for my partner's flight to come in from Kumamoto. I decided to walk around Kabuki-cho, the city's red light district, since I had never been there before. On my way there, I passed this famous LED screen at the crossing outside Shinjuku station that's designed to look 3D. Its most popular image is that of a cat, usually doing something cute and mischievous. When I saw it, the cat had gotten its head stuck in a hole and was meowing into it. So cute!

Next I decided to walk over to the famous Toho Cinema building which has a giant statue of Godzilla on top. I'm a big fan of Godzilla, so seeing it was super cool. When checking the showtimes of the theater I realized that they were still showing Godzilla Minus One, which I hadn't seen yet and wanted to see. So I decided right then that it would be perfectly fitting to see a Godzilla movie in THE Godzilla movie theater, so that's exactly what I did. Unfortunately, there were no English subtitles on the movie, and while my Japanese is pretty good, it was difficult for me to understand the combat and war-related scenes which used specialized vocabulary and a lot of what I like to call "gruff old man talk." Nevertheless, the action sequences and emotional scenes were easy to understand, so the movie was very enjoyable and I liked it a lot!

After the movie finished, I walked around Kabuki-cho a bit more and wandered in and out of some game centers. As it got later, some hawkers in the street working for shady clubs and bars started trying to reel me in to places so I decided that was my cue to head back and meet my partner back at the hostel. We nestled into our floor futons and went to bed, excited for what the next day would have for us.

The next day we headed to Odaiba area to go to Tokyo's TeamLab Planets, which is my personal favorite TeamLab exhibit, because it's huge and beautiful. I'd visited once before during my study abroad and was excited to see it again.

This TeamLab exhibit had many exciting rooms. One of the rooms was filled with long strings of lights that worked in unison to create brilliant light effects. It reminded my of the movie Interstellar.

Some of the rooms involved the use of calf-height water that you could walk through in your bare feet. This one had colored lights and moving projections of fish swimming across the surface of the water.

Another room was filled with huge inflatable balls that you could bat around as you made your way through the room. With the use of mirrors, white balls, and colored lights, the entire color scheme of the room could change.

In another room was a huge dome on which random generations of blooming flowers floated by. People were encouraged to lay down on the floor and get lost in the feeling of falling through a space filled with flowers. This was one of my favorite rooms and it was so relaxing. I could sit in there for hours.

I had seen these other rooms previously, but there were also two new additions to the exhibit since my last visit. One was these outdoor egg-like structures filled with light. Apparently the eggs change color depending on the weather and time of day.

The other new exhibit was a huge mirrored room filled with living orchids, which were suspended upside down. As you approach the flowers, they raise upwards, creating space for you. Since the orchids were living, it smelled wonderful and it was so magical.

We spent the remainder of that day wandering the city and eating lots of delicious food, which I'll talk about toward the end of this post. The next day after I finished my exam, my partner and I met up at the Hikarie building outside Shibuya station to shop and visit a few exhibits. We first went to the d47 exhibit, which showcases unique goods from each of Japan's 47 prefectures, but it was a bit disappointing because it was mostly just a shop to sell overpriced handmade goods.

We then wandered some more around the same floor of the building which held more creative exhibits. We found one exhibit about denim upcycling which featured many kinds of repurposed denim into jackets, shoes, bags, home goods, and more. Then we found an art exhibit by a Japanese artist named Kuniyoshi Kaneko. His works mostly featured female subjects with sharp features and many of them felt violent and/or erotic. I appreciated the distinct style of the artist, but wasn't very happy with the many depictions of women being sexualized and violated by a male artist.

From there we left the exhibitions and met up with a friend we had met at Kyushu pride, who was kind enough to take us to see Shinjuku Ni-Chome, Tokyo's gay district. If you'd like to read more about that, I talk about it in this blog post.

We got dinner at an American themed restaurant and I ordered a BLT, and was delighted almost to tears to find that it was made just the same as a diner in America would make. It was so comforting to have that piece of home after so long away.

After our night out, we hopped on the Yamanote Line, which loops through Tokyo's boroughs back to our cozy hostel for the night.

The next morning we went to a famous pancake shop called Flipper's to get their famous souffle pancakes, which are huge, fluffy, and jiggly all in one. They're so popular we waited in line for almost an hour, but it was worth the wait.

Next we walked through Harajuku to look at secondhand and antique clothing and accessory shops since my partner and I both enjoy fashion. On our way down a side street, we found a cherry blossom tree blooming with the year's first blossoms.

That night, we went to the Muscle Girls Bar. Yeah, you heard me right. Hostess bars (such as maid cafes) are very popular in Japan, where people pay for pretty girls (or boys) to entertain them or even flirt with them. In Ikebukuro, where many of these bars and clubs can be found, is the Muscle Girls Bar, which has become viral online for being the first hostess bar staffed by super buff women.

We paid a set fee to drink and hang out at the bar for about an hour and a half. During this time, the muscle girls chatted with us, danced, and served drinks. Each customer got a special drink in which the girls crush citrus fruits into a glass with their bare hands for you to drink. It exploded all over me and it was so fun.

You could also buy "muscle dollars" to get special services from the muscle girls, such as being carried by them or slapped by them. Yeah, so...I paid for one of the muscle girls to slap me as hard as she could. She even asked me if I wanted her to do it softly, but I was curious about how powerful these girls actually are, so I told her to hit me with everything she had and she sure did. It stung SO bad! My face went numb for the next hour, but it was really funny.

They also had a chest press in the corner of the bar set up with maybe 50 lbs? I'm not sure exactly how much. They told us that if we could successfully do fifty reps on the chest press, we could have 10 free muscle dollars to use however we like. I didn't try it because I'm a wimp, but watching the confident men line up and then fail one by one to get to 50 reps healed some deep patriarchal wound inside me.

Near the end of the night, a few of the women did pole dances for us. They weren't like ~sexy~ pole dances, but intense muscle-working displays. It was incredible to see the women hold their entire bodies in the air holding themselves only by their legs. I was so impressed with them!!

After this, our reserved time ended and we headed out. The muscle girl that was assigned to me and my partner was named Ren and we really enjoyed getting to chat with her. She told us that she works out six times a week and that during the week she's a high school civics teacher!! She was so cool. She told us she's just starting to join lifting competitions, and I hope that her journey is going well. <3

After this, we headed back to our cute little hostel and went to bed, then got up early the next morning for our flights back to Kyushu. Although I'm not a huge fan of city life, it's nice sometimes to join the fast-paced world where I can enjoy various art exhibits, food, and muscular women crushing lemon juice into my open mouth.

Before I wrap up this post, I want to take some time to talk about something I think is very important, which is the vegan/vegetarian food options, or lack thereof, in Japan. During my time in Tokyo, my partner and I were able to eat many kinds of vegan food due to the luxury of the big city, including pasta, ramen, burgers, and even buffalo wings! But finding this kind of food in Japan outside of metropolitan areas can be very difficult, so I wanted to talk a little about it.

Veganism is very popular in the US right now as many people consider the ethical and environmental problems caused by the meat and animal products industry. While some of the "trendiness" of veganism has reached Japan, it hasn't quite taken off in the same way, and it's incredibly hard to live a vegan or vegetarian diet in Japan, especially in the countryside. My partner was vegan prior to coming to Japan, but decided to switch to being vegetarian while in Japan to give herself some more food options, and even now has a lot of trouble finding things to eat.

Because of the rise of veganism, and because of the high number of people with allergies, American food plants often keep meat and animal products out of products unless they are specifically called for. For example, a "vegetable soup" found in America will usually not have any trace of meat in it, since it's advertised as only containing vegetables. Much to the dismay of many vegans and vegetarians in Japan, this is not the case here. Many times I've read a food ingredients label when shopping with my girlfriend and found that foods like "vegetable soup" and "vegetable curry" contain some sort of meat extract. It's very frustrating that food manufacturers are not cognizant of separating meat products and non-meat products for those that don't eat meat.

Traditional Japanese foods also often contain dashi, a soup stock made by boiling seaweed and fish flakes. It's used in almost all traditional dishes, from miso soup to ramen to even the flour of okonomiyaki. I found while at a sushi restaurant that even rolled Japanese omelets are cooked in dashi, making them inedible to vegetarians.

In bigger cities where the influence of newer thinking, trends, and other countries' influences are much more prevalent, it's easier to find vegetarian and vegan only restaurants. Even in more rural areas like around Kumamoto city they've been popping up, which is good news. But some restaurants incorporate vegan or vegetarian foods more for "trendiness" than for ethical or environmental reasons, which can cause some problems. For example, when at a restaurant with my partner, she ordered a lunch plate with a soy meat steak, but the sides that came with it contained dashi or other meat extracts. I also went to a cafe specializing in only soy milk drinks and soy donuts, but then accidentally served my partner a real hot dog from the menu assuming that everything on the menu was made with soy. While it's good that Japan is finally picking up more vegan and vegetarian options, I wish restaurants and food preparers would better understand the reasoning behind veganism/vegetarianism to avoid more mistakes like this.

Until I met my partner, I was completely ignorant of this problem in Japan and how hard it is for vegans and vegetarians to find food they can eat. While Japanese food is widely known for containing many vegetables and being very healthy, it's actually very difficult to find food not containing some sort of meat. My partner has to mostly cook her own meals and very rarely can find food to eat at restaurants, which makes going out for us challenging. I'm very happy to see some positive changes in recent years, for example the fast food chain Mosburger has a permanent menu item called the Green Burger, which is fully vegan. I've also recently found ice cream made from plant milk, vegan mayonnaise, and a larger selection of alternative milks like almond, oat, and soy. There's still a lot of work to do until Japan is vegan-friendly, but there's very solid progress happening!

This post ended up becoming a bit long, but I think it's important to discuss the dilemma of being vegan or vegetarian in Japan. During our trip to Tokyo, my partner and I went to every vegan restaurant we could find since she had been deprived of tasty and filling food choices for so long. So it seemed fitting to discuss Japanese vegan food in this post about our Tokyo travels. If you stuck around to the end, thanks for reading and I hope you were able to learn about some new perspectives to this problem! Have a great day <3

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

harajo marathon 2024

Last year I posted about the Harajo Marathon in Minami Shimabara and how I went to cheer on my friends who lived in the area while they ran. This year I was lucky enough to get to participate in it myself! It was really fun but of course very tiring as well.

There were a few different courses available to do, including a 2km for children, 2.5 km for families, 3km, 5km, and 8.6km. Of course since I'm way out of shape, I entered the 3km with several of my friends, but some people in our group that are regular runners joined the 5km or 8.6km.

If you remember last year's post, you'll know that Harajo Marathon also hosts a fun costume contest. Many runners show up in various costumes and it's really fun. Last year the other ALTs did a group costume of Mariokart characters, making the costumes themselves from cardboard.

This year we decided on a sushi theme! Many of the ALTs gathered together to create the costumes using cardboard and string, and they turned out really cool! Most of us wore white shirts and black pants, so that our upper torsos would be the "rice" and each person had a type of sushi on their back, like egg, shrimp, tuna, salmon, eggplant, and more. We also had one person as a bottle of soy sauce. Some people even put chopsticks and little plastic grass dividers that come in sushi containers in their hair. It was altogether so cute and fun!

Everyone started together at Minami Shimabara Elementary School and took a specified route depending on the distance. Each route took the runners past the historic Harajo castle, which was very beautiful. I wish I had some pictures to share, but I was too busy trying to desperately suck more air into my lungs and not die. If you want to see the beauty of the castle area, you can see it near the end of this post here!

I honestly underestimated how long 3km was and did not prepare in any capacity for the run. I figured I could run for a good bit of it and take walking breaks in between, but it was actually pretty hard. But the scenery was beautiful and it was fun to participate with my friends, so I did my best and made it through.

All of the races ended back at the elementary school. I got a time of about 30 minutes, which was written on a certificate. They also gave us cold drinks and commemorative towels.

The race start times were staggered, so we waited for our friends doing longer races to finish and then watched the award ceremony. They gave rewards of local goods and services to the fastest men and women in each race, as well as to the winners of the costume contest. Unfortunately the ALTs didn't win the costume contest, but the ones that did were a parent in a giant dinosaur costume and their child in a tiny dinosaur onesie. They were so cute and I was happy to concede the victory to them.

They had food stalls at the venue as well, so everyone could enjoy eating and being together after the race. It was really nice to see how the event tied the community together and allowed many people to come together. While running, many people on the sidelines cheered for me to keep going and not give up, and it made me really happy and motivated me to keep going.

Although I'm out of shape and didn't quite prepare as much as I should have, I had a lot of fun with my friends and loved getting to take part in a community event. It was a really nice memory and has encouraged me to work harder to exercise and try to join more running events in my community in the future.

Thanks for reading!

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

dominos japan pizza volcano

This won't be a very long or serious post, but I wanted to show this fun thing they had at Domino's Pizza in Japan called the pizza volcano. In the center of the pizza is a big vat of melted cheese in which you can dip the surrounding pizza slices.

The concept? Kind of liked it, kind of appalled and disgusted by it. The result? Actually kind of good. The cheese tasted like the artificial cheese you put on a soft pretzel and I was here for it. It was kind of expensive though because of all of the cheese, which is generally more expensive in Japan.

Anyway, I ate this monstrosity/heavenly gift together with my friends on February 13th, Galentines Day, a day to celebrate female friendship. I love my friends and am so glad to have them as a support system abroad. <3

Anyway, that's all I have to share today. Remember to appreciate the wonderful people in your life! Thanks for reading!