Finding Housing in Japan Using Mini Mini

When I first came to Japan with Interac, they took care of everything for me in terms of housing. They knew my schools (and therefore the general location), so I simply had to tell them what size apartment I wanted and they took care of the searching for me. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to specify the price, but they found a 1LDK for 63,000 a month, which was fine by me.

Yayoi Kusama: My Eternal Soul - National Art Center Tokyo

I had only heard the name Yayoi Kusama pretty recently. I knew the more famous sculptures like her pumpkins in Matsumoto and her famous polka dot motifs, and I knew of an older artist wearing eccentrically-colored wigs, but I had no name to put on them. It wasn’t until I was looking through some Tokyo art exhibits that I found out her name.

I knew I had to go. To have the opportunity to see the works of such an important living artist was something I didn’t want to miss. Her showing in Tokyo was only a few months long and if I waited another month, it’d be gone. So, I headed to Roppongi where it was at the National Art Museum.

Mt. Fuji & Hakone 1 Day Tour - Viator / JTB Sunrise Tours

In keeping up with my last post about my mom's visit to Japan, I was still struggling to find new things to do with her. And suddenly, it hit me: Mt. Fuji. We had never seen the iconic mountain before! (Actually, we did once when going from Osaka to Tokyo on the Shinkansen, but that hardly counts.)

I booked a Fuji tour via Viator (this is not a sponsored post) and the tour itself was operated by JTB Sunrise Tours. There were many different options to choose from: lake tours, rope way tours, half day tours, 2 day tours, etc. Even the plan we chose had a lunch and no lunch option.

Starbucks American Cherry Pie Frappuccino

 You know, for as much as I say I don’t go to Starbucks, I’ve kind of been going to Starbucks a lot lately. As I’ve said many times before, I’m a sucker for limited edition snacks/drinks/any kind of promotion that comes out.

However, Starbucks drinks don’t usually catch my eye. They’ve had some interesting sounding drinks, but nothing that I’d rush over to try… Until I saw the American Cherry Pie Frap. Now, I’m not a fan of cherries, but I love pie. And what makes this frap so special is that the dome is made of pie crust!

Recent Purchases: Cats, Gudetama, Starbucks, & Skincare

I wanted to start a new series on my blog called "recent purchases". I'll give you one guess as to what the posts will contain...

To be honest, I have a lot of pictures on my phone of things that I would like to share but I can't. Most of the time, I can't really find an appropriate blog topic to use them with, or I don't have enough pictures to warrant making an entire blog post entry.

So, why not make a roundup post of all the things I've purchased throughout the week? It gives me a chance to share the pictures, practice doing flat lays, and I can use this as a way to budget! Seems like a good idea all around. So, without further ado, here's the very first of the series...

Everything Elementary School - ALT Resources

Now that my time at elementary school is over, I figure that I'd create a link roundup to consolidate every post I've made about my time at elementary school! While elementary isn't that much different from junior high in the realm of teaching in Japan, there are some fundamental differences.

This list is still a work in progress because there are a lot of things that teaching elementary entails that I haven't necessarily posted about yet. It could just be that I forgot, so leave a comment here if there's anything that you'd like me to cover!

TBT: Calligraphy with Elementary Schoolers in Akita

Going through some of my old pictures, I found a lot from when I was studying abroad at Akita International University. I decided to start a new series on my blog influenced by the popular "throwback Thursdays." I really wanted to share a lot of my past experiences in Japan because those great experiences are what made me want to come back to teach here! 

I wanted to share one of my first experiences working with Japanese children. I signed up for a cultural exchange through AIU and I got to go to an elementary school in the area and hang out with the kids.