Spring Awakening

And on the day of our Lord, May 17, 2013, the clouds parted, and the sun once again shone on the land of Sapporo....

Yes, after 6 long months of snow, then cloudiness and rain, we finally saw the beautiful sun on Friday. It was the most beautifully warm day, and you could feel everyone's happiness all over the school.  It was as if all of Sapporo was giving a huge sigh of relief.

Saturday was cloudy but still warm, and we decided to ride our bikes over to Maruyama Koen to check out the sakura there.  We should have known that all of Sapporo would have the same idea, since it was the first beautiful weekend we've had, and the sakura was finally blooming.  Tons of people with their blue tarps and their BBQs were all over the place, drinking and laughing and having a great time.  We found some friends and ate our KFC under the trees.  It was a great afternoon, to say the least.

Welcome spring.  I've been waiting for you.

The Big 3-3

My birthday came and went this weekend, and even though the weather was terrible (why Sapporo must you be cloudy and rainy every day this Spring?) we managed to get out and have a good time.

We ate at our favorite little burger shop and we ate with some friends who bestowed upon me the sweetest of gifts.  Then Nathan made me a bloody Mary and we caught up on our TV shows.

Sunday I spent the afternoon with my boys.  I wanted to buy some plants for the balcony, but the weather is still pretty crappy, so I decided to wait another week.  Later in the evening, I met up with some friends and we went out for some karaoke.  A great way to end the weekend, if I do say so.

I've received so many lovely flowers/ cards/ gifts/ FB messages this weekend, and it's made me so happy.  All my family and friends at home and around the world, I learned so much from you all.  I'm so, so lucky to have come in contact with so many amazing people.  You all have made my 33 years on this Earth so very special!  I can't wait to see what's next!

Beautiful Distractions

Time is passing quickly these days.  Another birthday is rolling around this month, and I'm not too excited about it.  I'm turning 33 this Saturday, and well, it sounds old.

My friends would argue that I'm not old, and that I don't even look like I'm in my 30's (what lovely, lovely friends I have), but I can see the gray hair mixing in with my light brown hair, and the slight wrinkles that are beginning to form around my eyes.  Oh yeah, and having a 14 year old son kinda puts my age into perspective as well.

But aging is more than just physical changes.  I guess when I was in my 20's, I thought I'd have my life all figured out by the time I was in my 30's.  Nathan and I would have some kind of steady work, a mortgage, and be living in some suburbs.  You know, typical life stuff.  Instead, we're living in Japan and have jobs that can only last so long.  Then we have to return to America and figure out what we want to do all over again.

The fact is, I have no idea what I really want to do with the rest of my life.  Shouldn't I already know these things?  All I know if that the things I thought would make me happy in my 20's are not really the things I want now.  If I could, I'd travel around the world for the rest of my days, meeting new people and having new experiences.  But bills back home need to be paid.  And I want to see my family more.  And oh yeah, I wanna have another baby some time.

Worrying about this stuff comes in waves, so in between those times I like to distract myself - going out with friends, practicing and singing with Takuya, playing my ukulele, date nights with Nathan.  These little things keep me sane when I could easily freak out about the future.

But I can say this: a few years ago, I used to worry about every little thing all the time.  Change was really hard for me to accept.  Now, I'm no longer so scared of change.  I guess that's what a move around the world will do for you.  And these last three years in Japan (we came here when I was 30) have been some of the best life-changing experiences I've had.

Maybe my 30's won't be so bad after all...

Little by Little

Little signs of spring, popping up here and there.

Please excuse the lack of posting.  Nathan's father and friend have been in town for the last week, so we've been running around here and there.  It's funny - most of the things we take them to aren't sightseeing spots, but restaurants!  There's just so much good food to share!!

Odds and Ends

We're getting back into a routine here at the Robinson household.  Well, I am anyway.  After a two-month pity party, I'm back on the Japanese study wagon again.  I'm trying to be more serious about my studying, and doing a little something every day.  And I'm back to exercising again, after a two-week sick leave.  I love my zumba classes, and now that the snow is gone (yippee!!!), I can ride my bike again.  My little mama-cheri (what the little cheap bikes are called in Japan) has only one gear, so it can be quite a workout.  I also try to practice my ukulele every evening, and I'm getting pretty good at a few songs, if I do say so.

And it's good to be back in the classroom, after almost a month of not teaching.  The new first graders seem very sweet, and I look forward to teaching them all.  In fact, the more I teach at Keihoku, the more I realize that I am perfectly suited for this job.  Too bad it's not forever...

Anyway, here's some photos I've taken over the last week or so.  Just some odds of ends of my daily life.

Japan doesn't really have "bad words" like we do in English, so I don't think they quite grasp the meaning of this word sometimes, haha.

On the way to work one morning, I spotted this jacket.

Sometimes I just love the English on Japanese things.

This was Friday morning, and I was not happy about it.  Luckily, it melted by the afternoon.

A Japanese girl group.   Not sure I want to know what demographic they're trying to appeal to.

Ethan last night at karaoke, singing some Beastie Boys.  He's pretty awesome.

Spring Change

Spring is finally starting to poke its head around Sapporo.  Every day last week there was above-freezing temperatures, which has made the mountains of snow more like small hills.  It's gonna take a while for all the snow to be completely gone, but I'm just happy I'm no longer walking on ice to work every morning.  I never thought I'd love to see pavement so much!

This morning, it's raining for what has to be the first time in a long time.  It's washing away a lot of the dirty, grungy snow that's still lingering on.  In more southern parts of Japan, sakura (cherry blossom) season - the herald of spring - has come and gone.  It takes a while for it to get up here to Hokkaido - probably not until May (always around my birthday.  Much better than the tornadoes that would always pop up around my birthday in Texas).

For most of us, Spring is always the symbol for new beginnings.  In Japan, I think even more so.  The new school year begins in April, and businesses recruit for the new fiscal year.  It's a time of growth and change.  An exciting - and often stressful - time.

I found this short animation on the blog Spoon and Tamago, and thought it perfectly illustrates the feeling many newly graduated Japanese must feel this time of year:

Tokyo University of the Arts student Maho Yoshida beautifully illustrates all the anxieties of shu-katsu, an abbreviated term for job hunting. In the 7 and a half minute video the protagonist, which seems to be Yoshida herself, is peacefully enjoying school life when she begins to notice that her friends are behaving oddly. Before realizing it, she is suddenly swept up in the whirlpool that is, “Japanese ceremonial job hunting.”

There’s no dialogue so you don’t have to understand Japanese to appreciate this animated gem.

(I guess there is a bit of Japanese at the end.  On her phone, she receives a message that says, "Rejected". )

We're Back!

It's the second week of Spring Break here for us in Sapporo-land.  It's funny - the school years finishes, and I think I'm gonna have all this time to catch up on one thing or another.  And then I got sick last week, and it's hard to want to do anything.

But let's go back a little bit to before I got this crazy sinus infection that just won't go away.  On March 23rd, Takuya and I had our first Live performance since September.  We had a friend of ours open for us, and then we got back on that stage together.  It was awesome, to say the least.  Takuya had a new toy in the form of a Looper, which makes our regular songs feel new again.  However, the biggest surprise for us both that night was the huge support of our friends.  About 40 people came to the show that night, and Monkey Bar was packed!  I'm still in awe that people still like listening to us, since we started singing with each other over a year ago now.  I think we have some of the best friends in the world - from all over the world!

We took a few pictures, but the lighting's not so great.  I look like someone who's telling a ghost story while holding a flashlight under my face, haha.

Sorry (Mom), but we didn't take video this time.

And just like that, we're back to performing again.  We're gonna start singing the first Wednesday of every month at Mellow, like we did last year.  In fact, if anyone reading this is in the Sapporo area, we'll be performing there tomorrow at 8.

We also have our own Sarah and Takuya page on Facebook, and honestly, I don't know why we didn't do this sooner.  We're no professionals by any means, but we thought it'd be a good place to put up videos, pictures, and announce shows.  Come be our friend here.  All the cool kids are doing it.