The Last Few Months

Hey there. It’s been a long time hasn’t it? Sorry about that. I’ll try and do better about letting you know what is going on in my life in Japan and first I’ll start with this story, which is just a taste of the many funny little things my students say to me every day:

Setting: Kindergarten playground
Who: Me and a small group of kindergarten students
Language the conversation was in: Japanese
Translation for you: English

Cute kindergarten girl: “Austin sensei! You’re from America, right?”
Me: “Yes.”
Cute kindergarten girl: “But you live in Japan?”
Me: “Yep. I live in Mito.”
Cute kindergarten girl: “Wow, that’s amazing!” (many students think I commute
to Japan every day for school from America and are surprised when I tell
them I live in Japan)
“You came to Japan on a helicopter, right?!?”
Me: (laughing) “No, not a helicopter?”
Cute kindergarten girl: “An airplane?
Me: “That’s right!”
Cute kindergarten girl: “Oh, that’s what my mom said…” (she was so sure she was
right about me coming to Japan on a helicopter and that her mom had no idea
what she was talking about and very disappointed when she found out she
was wrong)

A lot has happened since the last time I wrote, although I can’t remember when or what I wrote about last time. [I was not connected to the internet when I was writing this so I couldn’t check] I’ll try and catch you guys up on some fun/important things that have been happening in my life since July.

My parents were able to come and visit me back in July! They arrived on July 3rd. On the 4th, after I got finished with a long day of teaching my highly impressionable students all the bad words I know in English, we went with a group of American and Japanese friends to a good Japanese friend’s house for a delicious dinner and fireworks, which got rained out…The next day, on the 5th, we had a great 4th of July barbeque/volleyball/surfing party at the beach and then dinner again at another friends house! Mom and dad stayed for 2 weeks with me in my little apartment and we had a great time going to Tokyo, Nikko National Park, the beach, hiking, lots of parks, etc. and we ate lots of good Japanese food. They even came to school with me for 2 days and got to meet some of the cutest students in the world and eat school lunch with me and some of the students and be treated like movie stars for a couple of days. Having them there even re-upped my status back to movie star rather than the strange looking giant with blonde hair, a huge nose, and blue eyes who hangs around the school all week and tries to get kids to speak English with him and miserably fails at speaking Japanese. It was a fun two weeks and after they left my tiny apartment felt huge! I was glad they got to experience a little of where I live and what I do everyday in Japan. Another bonus was I was expecting to have to spend a lot of money while they were here, since Japan is super expensive, but dad paid for just about everything so I actually saved money while they were here! Thanks Dad! FYI, gas in Japan is about $7/gallon. [update: it is down to around $5.80/gallon at the moment and it feels like heaven. Sad huh?]

My sister, Melody, was also able to stop by and visit me on her way home from the Philippines in July! Her trip overlapped with my parents for a couple days and we actually all went to Nikko together. We did a lot of the same things as I did with my parents: Tokyo, the beach, hiking, school, and she even went to the onsen (public nude bathing in a natural hot spring) with some of my friends. It was a lot of fun having her here as well. My students still talk about her sometimes. They think her name is really cool because the word for a musical “melody” is the same word in Japanese.

A week and a half after Melody left to go home I left Japan to head to Thailand again! This time I spent most of my time in a different area than where I was back around New Years. I also went to Cambodia! I got to travel with a great group of friends, Zane and Carla Schwab, Paul and Devan Weger, and Wade Miller. We spent a couple days in Bangkok sightseeing and meeting the friends I made last time I went, then we took busses/tuk-tuks/taxis from Bangkok into Cambodia and all the way to Siem Reap. Once you cross over into Cambodia you can tell you’re not in Thailand anymore. There are people begging everywhere and once you get through the horrible immigration process at the border, where they try to squeeze as much unnecessary money out of you as possible, the road from the there to Siem Reap is a basically one long, muddy, strip of huge potholes and cars/big trucks/bicycles/animals/motorcycles with numerous dead animals hanging from the back driving on whichever side of the road is available and going however fast they desire (and getting stuck if it is really muddy). We stayed in Cambodia for a couple of days and spent one of those days at Angkor and saw Angkor Wat and a bunch of other cool temples, including the one where Tomb Raider was filmed. Angkor is a really cool, huge, old temple complex and you’re allowed to climb all over most of it. It’s so big you can’t visit all of the temples in one day. I think it is definitely worth the hassle of getting there to see it once in your life and if you don’t mind shelling out the extra money you can just fly in and avoid that whole crossing the border process.


After being in Cambodia for a couple of days, we headed back into Thailand and then took a ferry to an Island called Koh Chang (means Elephant Island). We stayed in bungalows right on the beach for about eight days I think. It was a much-needed time of true relaxation and fun. I could really use another week like that right now. We spent most of our time relaxing, sleeping and eating delicious Thai food at an assortment of restaurants on the beach. During those eight days I finished up a book I had been reading for a while and then read through two Harry Potter books as well, all while sitting on the front porch of my bungalow with my shirt of, with the salty smell of the ocean in the air and the sound of the waves crashing onto the shore. We did more than just relax though. We played a lot of cards, rented scooters that were a lot faster than the one I drive here in Japan, took a day trip on a boat to some small islands for some great snorkeling, and did a treetop ropes course in the jungle. Anyways, it was a great vacation!


The last couple months I’ve mainly just been working. But I’ve squeezed in a few fun things as well. One day I went to Disneyland with Janet, Catera and Port and had a grand ‘ole time, I had my school’s sports festival and I’ve also had the opportunity to climb a couple of mountains in the Nikko National Park area. At the end of August Zane, Smitty, Wade and I drove to Nikko together and hiked up Shirane san. It is the highest peak in Nikko and in the northern half of Japan. It was a long, difficult day hike with lots of steep ups and downs and we summited two other smaller peaks along the way. It took about 7 hours total. I am in horrible shape. It was an awesome hike and a really cool area but, sadly, it was very cloudy and we could barely see 15 feet in front of us on top of the mountain.

My other hike was last week. Monday was sports day, a holiday in Japan, so I didn’t have school and this time I went alone because everyone else was busy with something else. I got about 2.5 hours of sleep on Sunday night (Monday morning), woke up at 4am and was on the road by 5am. Because of the holiday traffic it took about three hours to get to the trailhead of the mountain, Nantai san. Nantai san is a volcano and also one of Japan’s sacred mountains. It took me about 2.5 hours to hike up to the top. The hike was basically just straight up the mountain with hardly any switchbacks and a 1200 meter elevation change and because it is a cone shaped volcano it got steeper the closer I got to the top. Once again I was reminded of the pitiful state of my legs. Thankfully this day, unlike the last day I went hiking, the weather was almost perfect. The temperature was a cool upper 40’s/lower 50’s and the sky was clear. It was a little hazy, but I could still see a lot. On the way up I met a group of English speaking Germans and on top I met a man who I think was American who had a Japanese wife. We exchanged favors and took pictures of each other on the peak. On top I could see beautiful mountains all around, including Shirane san which I hiked before, and also Lake Chuzenji down below. It was beautiful! I stayed on top and rested for about 40 minutes and ate some sandwiches, chips and string cheese (a tradition of mine) for lunch while all of the Japanese people on top had brought their portable gas stoves and were cooking cup ‘o noodles. The hike down only took me about 1hr and 45mins and then I headed home in horrible traffic. It took about 4.5 hours to get back to Mito instead of 2 or 2.5.



So that’s a brief overview of what’s been going on in my life the last few months. Right now I’m struggling with the decision of whether to sign on for another year working as an English teacher in Mito or to go home or even on to some other opportunity that might present itself in Japan or another country. I am still really enjoying living in Japan and don’t really want to leave and still want to greatly improve my Japanese language skills, but I have been having days just about every week when I feel like I couldn’t do my job for another year, but then the next day is usually great. I hate big decisions like this. I think what I really need is an American summer vacation. I think I just need some time to recharge, but I don’t really get much of that here. I’m pretty sure that if I decide to go home, after I will have been home for a while I will be wishing that I were still in Japan. I still have things that I want to do here and I definitely feel like God can still use me here. I have to make a decision by mid November so please keep me, and the decision that I’m going to make, in your prayers. Also, more importantly, please keep Katie Blake and her family in your prayers. Katie’s father just had an unexpected heart attack and passed away within the last week. Katie went right home the next day and will be there with her family for a few weeks I believe. Like I said, it was very unexpected. Her mom and dad had just been to Japan for a visit during the summer and he seemed to be doing great. Katie’s sister is also going to be having a baby sometime in the near future and I’m sure that adds to the difficulty of this situation.

Once again, sorry it took me so long to get this post written and posted (I actually started it over a month ago). I will try and keep a more frequently updated blog. I know I say this every time I post, but this time I actually mean it ;)