Communication is Difficult

New Site!

2015-10-02T10:43:00.003-04:00

I've been working on something this past week.

I debated if I really wanted to do it for a while, and finally took the leap and did it. I have moved my blog over to a wordpress.org site, which means I am self-hosted and I have a lot more options to make this blog fantastic.

You can find it over at http://communicationisdifficult.com!

All my old posts are over there as well. I'll be leaving this site up for about a week, then I'll have it redirect to the link up there.

There's a new post over there, too! A Walk Around Lake Eola Park in Orlando, Florida

Tastiest Travels #4

2015-09-30T14:14:00.000-04:00

Fourth installment of Tastiest Travels! I am really glad it has been able to get this far. If you're interested in submitting something to the series please send an email over to communicationisdifficult@gmail.com with the subject "Tastiest Travels" and I'll send you the details!

Today we have some great food entries from seriously all over the world! Enjoy the tastes!

Xam

xamjulliarde.blogspot.com

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Spicy Lemon Scampi

Where you can get it: Makati, Philippines @ Café Mary Grace

Budget

The first time I dined at Café Mary Grace was with my mom, after a little bit of shopping spree with her. I have always loved eating pasta; it is my comfort food, I cook it all the time when I’m alone and hungry at home, and eating pasta never gets old for me. So, when we ate at Café Mary Grace, I knew I had to try this. Smeared generously with lemon juice, topped with prawns and lightly sprinkled with some spice, I definitely enjoyed the Spicy Lemon Scampi! What I love even more about this was that its portioning was neither too large, nor too small, for a hungry stomach. It gives you that satisfied feeling yet leaving you wanting for more.

Samurai Sushi

Where you can get it: Dubai, United Arab Emirates @ Sumo Restaurant

Upscale

Just a couple of months back, I traveled to Dubai to renew my residence visa. I have always been a fan of Sumo Restaurant so, one day, I decided to try their New & Hot Samurai. It is shrimp tempura and crabstick roll that is topped lightly with salmon, avocado, cream cheese and mayo. It has the perfect fusion of crunchiness and softness, spiciness and sweetness. Even with a small appetite like mine, one order of Samurai was not enough. I ordered 3 and one order was about 6 pieces! Until now, every time I travel back to Dubai, I still order Samurai. It is just so good; it feels like falling in love with your longtime beau over and over again, but way better.

Chocolate Crepe

Where you can get it: Paris, France

Budget

It was late in the evening, my friends and I were exhausted from walking around the city, and good food was what we needed. We strolled around our hotel area, looking for the best food we can try. After a few minutes, we found a little crêperie restaurant nearby. Putting my few basic French phrases to good use, I ordered one crêpe with hot chocolate melting from the inside, coffee ice cream on the top and heavy vanilla whipped cream on the sides. Perfect balance of hotness and coldness, equal rhythm of sweetness and bitterness, I thought I was in heaven! Truly, France is the home of the best crêpes.

Gemma of Gemoirs

http://gemoirs.tv

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Falafel Hommus Tahina & Salad with Pitta

Where you can get it: Bangkok, Thailand @ Ethos

Budget (500 baht/$13)

Struggling to find a vegetarian option in Thailand, I was recommended to try vegan and vegetarian restaurant in the Khao San area of Bangkok. Multiple people whom I had spoke with praised their food and I was really excited to try it! One evening after working in Nakhon Pathom, a colleague and myself ventured into Bangkok so I could eventually experience this much talked about cuisine for myself. I don't know if everyone had gotten my hopes too high or my tastebuds had changed during my stay in Thailand but I wasn't blown away by the food. It wasn't bad food, the humous was actually really good - I can sometimes struggle to find the perfect humous and it was nice to have some non-spicy and vegetarian food at last. I was so excited to eat here, I probably overindulged by following my meal with a chocolate pancake and multiple fruit shakes and Kombucha tea, leaving Bangkok feeling absolutely stuffed! The atmosphere was relaxed and informal, there were low tables and cushions to sit cross-legged on the floor and soft lighting, creating a middle-eastern dining experience. My bill seems somewhat expensive for Thailand, but the restaurant is located in a touristic area of Bangkok and I saw no Thai people dining at the time I visited Ethos

Chicken Stew

Where you can get it: Bangkok, Thailand @ Cafè La Vela Steak and Coffee

Budget (64 baht ~$1.70)

I discovered this cute little cafe nestled beneath the U Delight 2 tower in the Bang Sue area of Bangkok. After arriving late in the evening to the area for work, I wanted to find somewhere close by to eat and I ended up at this place. I wasn't expecting both convenience and yummy cuisine but I was pleasantly surprised! Consequently I keep returning to this clean and calm little place every time I am working in the area and I try to order something new each time. However the menu is in Thai, so I have to just point at the limited amount of pictures on the menu but I haven't yet struggled to order from their delicious drinks and dessert list.

Honey Toast with Fruit and Ice Cream

Where you can get it: Sam Phran, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand @ Green Mountain Coffee

Budget (60 baht ~$1.50)

Directly opposite the Nakprasith school gates, myself and fellow teachers would flock to this place for refreshing iced beverages every lunch time. After enduring one too many questionable school dinners, I decided to order some honey toast after witnessing the alluring imagery of the sweet treats on offer. The portion sizes are huge and I would strongly advise you to learn from my mistake and share. At the time, you will be enjoying the warm, soft toast, drizzled in honey or chocolate syrup, contrasting with the refreshing, chilled and quickly melting ice cream, to notice the full and sickly feeling you are about to experience. In this case you can definitely have too much of a good thing! But this place is great and the "lovely coffee lady" is so sweet - sometimes she would give me free drinks and snacks from the vendor next door. The only thing I would change is the plastic cutlery, cutting through the toast can prove quite difficult and would often result in me getting sticky hands (and face) as I devoured this scrumptious sweet treat!

Garlic Pepper Chicken with Rice

Where you can get it: Sam Phran, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand @ Aroy

Budget (100 baht ~$2.75)

I figured it would be rude not to include a Thai meal, or even a Thai restaurant considering my entire post consists of food in and around Bangkok. It’s hard to know the name of a restaurant when it’s written in Thai and the majority of places I do eat Thai food in Thailand are from street food vendors. However this one restaurant, located by my apartment in Sam Phran (just opposite the Malee factory) in Nakhon Pathom province, became my favourite sit down restaurant in Thailand. It makes such a difference when the server can speak English and the menus are translated to English and this is one of the main reasons I loved this place. The food was also very tasty and although I set out to try everything on the menu, I tended to alternate between garlic and pepper chicken and cashew chicken, just because I knew I would enjoy my meal. I could never work out how my bill was calculated as it varied because they would charge everything separately (rice came separate and they would always bring me a bottle of water without me ordering one) but my bill generally came to around 100 – 120 baht. Although a couple of quid sounds ridiculously cheap for a meal, this became expensive to me after eating street food for 25 baht per meal, though the portion sizes here were somewhat bigger and I could sit at a table and access their wifi.

The entries this week were fantastic! I am starving after just having finished my own lunch. Thailand is now a top spot I want to get to for food, as Gemma's entries are all fantastic. And Xam's crepe picture has me questioning my dislike of crepes. Thanks again girls for your great submissions! Stay tuned next week

A Walk Around Artlando 2015 in Orlando

2015-09-28T11:17:00.000-04:00

While on Facebook the other day I noticed an event for something called "Artlando" down at Loch Haven Park here in Orlando. I am a sucker for an art festival, or really any outdoor festival, so I had to go. I sent a message to my friend, who I actually met while living in Japan. She's the reason I moved to Hokkaido, convincing me to take her spot in Atsuma when my company wanted to move me there. I guess you could call her my "senpai".

Anyway, she agreed to go and I was very excited as it has been maybe three and a half years since I last saw her! We had a great time and it was fun to walk around and look at a bunch of local artists. There seemed to be a lot going on and I think in the years to come it will grow to be a wonderful art festival.

I ended up buying myself two piece of art. The above and below images are of the two pieces. The top is a fairy house that Fairy Found had made! It was apparently their first time out at an art festival and their booth was packed of people! Their pieces were also really well priced, the largest being about $45. I'll add a few more pieces of her work further on.

The second piece I bought is this sketch of a badger. I thought the colors were great and well, I am a Hufflepuff so my nerdy Harry Potter lover has to have this $5 print. It was made by Chelsea Smith!

My favorite art that was there was by NIX Abstract. The pieces were just so vibrant and the texture was great. Definitely going to look into buying one of his pieces when I have my own place.

Probably the most adorable art was by RobotsAreAwesome! The handmade and hand painted sculptures are just too adorable. That cake topper is fantastic and I think that the paint it yourself robot is super reasonably priced!

Another one of my favorites were these chickens by Tropical Zombies! I just love their colors and all of his work was vey "Florida" to me. Island inspired and witty. The artist himself was also really friendly and happy to talk to you.

There was quite a bit of jewelry on display, but the pieces by Jortra Boutique were easily my favorites. All made from organic pieces. The bracelets there have pieces of orange peel that were dyed! For $25 they are some of the more affordable handmade jewelry pieces you can find. They also have necklaces made of cantaloupe seeds and coffee beans!

Here's some other pieces by Fairy Found. They are all hand made using stones and various items. The seasonal pumpkin pieces were adorable and perfect for halloween and the larger pieces would be great for a patio stuck between potted plants! I have my little fairy house sitting on my nightstand.

There were also artists that you could see painting actual pieces, like this one by Peterson J Guerrier! Completely love his style and brushwork. Also in the corner you can see an "Artlando" board with stickers on it. You could vote for your favorite artists and at the end, they awarded a winner!

It was a great day out and I think that if I am around next year I will join up as well! They also had a huge grouping of food trucks and it was right by the Science Center so you could pop into some air conditioning to escape the hot heat of Florida in September!

My Stay at the Residence Inn by Marriott in Ft. Lauderdale Plantation, Florida

2015-09-25T10:47:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I went down towards Miami for my uncle's art gallery feature in Hollywood, Florida. My mom, Nana, and I drove down from Orlando to spend the weekend with family and celebrate my return to America, my aunt's return from the Bahamas, and my Nana's birthday as well as the art gallery opening.

My mom gets discounts with her work at Marriott hotels and picked the newly remodeled Residence Inn off of University Drive in Plantation as where the three of us would stay. It was located close to where my uncle lives, and is off of the main road that goes through Ft. Lauderdale. Yet it's nestled away in a grove of trees so you can't really hear any of the road noise.

My mom and Nana went to pick up my aunt and cousins from the airport, so I was left alone in the hotel for some time. I decided to take some pictures of it before we got it all messy and share the experience of the hotel with you guys! I was really impressed with my stay here and thought the room was completely gorgeous.

We were the first ones to stay in this room since it's remodel, and there was still a bit of construction going on. But the noise was minimal and only started up after everyone was awake, so it really wasn't a big deal at all. We did have an issue with two of the three TVs in the room not being properly connected, but once we called someone was up to the room within five minutes and the issue was fixed really quickly.

We booked a two bedroom suite for the three of us. The bedrooms were beautiful and the bed super comfy. The pillow were a bit flat but that is standard for most hotels. You're given so many pillows that it isn't really even a problem. Each bedroom comes with a large flatscreen TV and it's own connected bathroom.

One thing I really liked about the room was the almost obsessive amount of plus in the room. You can see a wonderfully located "ChargePort" next to the bed in this shot being illuminated by a handy reading light, though the LED in the light is so bright it nearly lights up the entire room (albeit dimly). These ChargePorts are all over the hotel and located in spots that make using your phone while it's charging super convenient! So if you're traveling for work and need to plug in a laptop and a phone and another phone and there's other people with you, you won't have to fight over outlets at all!

The bathroom was also big and beautiful. Plenty of space if you're staying for a while or have a lot of people sharing the room. The fixtures are also completely modern and sleek. American Standard was the brand they chose to go with. Their complimentary shampoo and conditioner is by Paul Mitchell, a brand that just reminds me of the 90s and childhood and I enjoyed seeing and using.

The bath itself was clean and nice. The showered was in good working order and the water got hot and stayed hot for a long time. The towels were fantastic. Really soft and lush and big. They have signs saying that you can hang up your towel and they will leave it so you can use it again, a nice attempt at making us all a bit greener, but I was a bit disappointed when the maid took my towel that I hung up on that rack above the toilet after I used it the first time.

The closet was big and came with nice hangers, some shelves, and the doors were full sized mirrors. There were actually loads of mirrors in that bathroom which lead me to looking at myself in angles I've never seen before, and never wish to see again. There's also an ironing board with iron in the living room closet and a hairdryer in the bathroom closet. They also have their spare bedding in that bag you see at the top, a great feature that makes moving it to the living room really easy.

The kitchen was nicely stocked as well. The faucet matched the bathroom which was a nice little touch and everything was put away and easy to find. I liked how the dishes were in semi-transparent cabinets because it made looking for stuff in an unfamiliar place a little easier. The next set of pictures shows everything included in the kitchen, so you can have a look at all the stuff!

I really enjoyed staying here, and I think the thing that really won my family over was when my Nana called down to the front desk to ask if her grandchildren could come to their free breakfast buffet to eat with her. Without even asking how many that would be, the staff member said "our pleasure" and allowed it. We ended up not having them come over in the end, but the fact that they were so willing was great!

The breakfast was really good as well, with a make-your-own waffle station, choices of breads, and a daily hot breakfast selection. We had these spicy potatoes, french toast, scrambled eggs, and sausage one morning and sausage gravy with biscuits, sausage, and eggs the second morning. It was delicious, especially the sausage gravy which is my favorite breakfast.

If you'd like to stay at this hotel the next time you're in Ft. Lauderdale, I highly recommend it. You can make reservations on their website, just click here. Rooms appear to start at $90 a night and the room we stayed it goes for about $170.

By the way, I wasn't compensated in any way for writing this, I just really enjoyed my stay here!

Tastiest Travels #3

2015-09-23T10:02:00.000-04:00

It's Wednesday, which means it's time for looking at some tasty foods other travel bloggers have had on their adventures! You can read the previous two entries here: number one and number two.

If you'd like to submit something to this series, please send an email to communicationisdifficult@gmail.com with the subject "Tastiest Travels" and I will get back to you with all of the details that I need!

This week has a great variety of things, so there is sure to be something that catches your eye! Enjoy!

Laura Lynch

http://www.savoredjourneys.com

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Leche de Tigre

Where you can get it: Lima, Peru

Budget

Leche de Tigre is the citrus juice that's leftover from curing the raw fish for ceviche. It's a delicious mix of lime juice, onion, spicy chilies and fish juice. You don't want that incredible juice to go to waste, so it's served as its own dish - mostly as an appetizer in a tall glass with a couple of prawns thrown in. I fell in love with Leche de Tigre when a Peruvian friend of mine took me to a hole in the wall Peruvian restaurant to try it. It is a flavor bomb that will alight your tastebuds in the best possible way, and it's super spicy, with just a hint of fish flavor. There's nothing else like it. If you like ceviche, you'll love Leche de Tigre. I couldn't get enough of it while I was in Peru and I've even tried to make it a couple of times at home.

Pulpo ala Gallega

Where you can get it: Madrid, Spain

Can be upscale or budget

I never really liked octopus much before I went to Spain. We had Pulpo ala Gallega at one of the restaurants featured in the Adventurous Appetites tour in Madrid and I instantly changed my mind about octopus. When cooked properly, as they tend to do in Spain, the octopus is delicious, tender and mouthwatering. Turns out it's not really all that difficult to make at home. You just need to follow a good recipe and serve it with the best, top quality olive oil.

Poutine

Where you can get it: Canada @ Granville Island Brewery

Budget

I know most people have already heard of poutine, but it's truly one of my favorite things to eat in the whole world. Last time we were in Vancouver, we had what has now become the benchmark for all future poutine at Granville Island Brewery on Granville Island. I've had so many dishes of poutine - some are served with shredded cheese instead of curds, some have a watery, weak gravy, some have soggy fries - so when I had this plate of poutine I was incredibly happy to find that all of its components were perfect. Irresistible!

Soumya Nambiar

http://www.travelbooksfood.com

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Zanzibar Mix

Where you can get it: Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania @ Kisutu school canteen

Budget

This is more associated with nostalgia. I grew up in Tanzania, Africa and growing up, there was this mess outside our school which used to serve Zanzibar mix. It is basically a soup with potatoes, chutney and Bhajias and is inspired by the cuisines of India and Tanzania (two countries very close to my heart). It has been years since I had this and you get this only in Tanzania. But the taste still lingers on. Hopefully one day soon, I will be able to have this again.

Lasagna

Where you can get it: Italy

Budget

This is a no brainer. I love Italian food and among all the pastas, lasagnas feature in the top of my list. You give me Lasagna anytime of the day and I would eat it up in a jiffy. I think this is one of the reasons that I fell in love with Italy.

Chocolate Cupcake

Where you can get it: Westmont, Chicago, IL USA

Budget

Last month I was in the US, traveling. I was staying in a quiet suburb, Westmont with my cousin. If I had to go to Chicago alone, I had to take a Metra train there. My cousin dropped me at the train station and then when we got there, we realized that the next train was an hour away. I asked my cousin to leave and then I decided to wander around the place. I found a cute pastry shop there and I had one of the best cupcakes I have had till date.

That does it for this week's Tastiest Travels! Big thanks to Laura and Soumya for the great submissions! Hope you all enjoyed reading about it. I need to get myself to Canada to eat that poutine ASAP, I know that much!

Seventh All-Media Biennial Art Exhibit in Hollywood, Florida

2015-09-21T10:18:00.000-04:00

This year my uncle was chosen to take part in the Seventh All-Media Juried Biennial down in Hollywood, Florida. So my mother, Nana and I loaded up into the car and drove down for the weekend. My aunt was also moving back from the Bahamas so all my cousins on that side of the family were in one place for the first time in, I want to say, years, thanks to my being in Japan.

Timing was also on my side and it turned out to be my Nana's birthday weekend. I also ate so much Mexican and Cuban food I was in bed with a stomachache before midnight. Welcome to American cuisine after eating the delicate Japanese diet.

Anyway, the Biennial was held at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, which is nestled in a great section of town surrounded by bars and tiny restaurants. On the way home my aunt stuck her head out and attempted to sing along with a mariachi singer...

Here are some photos I took of the show. If you'd like to check them out yourself in person, it'll be going on until November 1st!

That's my uncle's piece. ;)

This one was my favorite.

Vegetable Potato Hash Recipe

2015-09-18T15:57:00.000-04:00

Now for something completely different! I really enjoy cooking. I didn't always enjoy cooking, but I learned to enjoy it. I, like every other human, get hungry. And when I get hungry I want to eat. I don't want to eat fake processed nonsense. I don't want to eat food from a freezer. I don't want to get take out and throw my money down the toilet on food I can make at home. I also don't want to hate myself after making something gross. Though, believe me, in the early days of learning to cook there were many nights of "goodness I really don't want to eat this but I made it and I'm hungry and I have done this to myself."

This week my mom was baking a chicken, it was actually a Perdue Oven Ready Chicken Roast and it was delicious. They aren't paying me to say this at all (but if they want to, heeeey! I love chicken!) it honestly was just much better than I expected it to be. Something about cooking chicken in a plastic bag just seemed wrong to me at first.

I was tasked with the job of making a side for the chicken, and I wanted potatoes. But not mashed potatoes. So I made a potato hash. I would make this rather frequently in Japan, it was cheap and easy and I would usually cook it with ground beef for an entire meal. Sometimes I would sprinkle some cumin and paprika on it for some taco-taste goodness. You can really add any thing to it, it's such a versatile great dish.

The cast of players is as follows:

We have about 1.5-2lbs of potatoes, two smallish carrots, two stalks of celery, half a sweet onion, half a green bell pepper, some garlic, herbs de provence, extra virgin olive oil, and some butter. Also better lighting than what is in my parents' kitchen if you're taking pictures. I need to fix this for the future.

First thing you want to do is shove all the ingredients up the cutting board you just took a picture of and begin cutting up that onion. I go for quarter to half inch pieces. I also don't cut onions like every chef tells you to because my personal method is easier to me. Oh well. I'm no Iron Chef.

Put the onion in about a table spoon of butter and three table spoons of olive oil that have been heating up on med-high heat.

Begin cutting up your vey nicely washed potatoes. I used gold potatoes but any potato will work really. I just like the skin of these guys the best.

Debate if you've chosen to go with too many potatoes, and after a push from your mother add the last two. The veggies and potatoes actually loose a lot of water mass in the cooking process so you'll end up with less than you think.

Add the potatoes to the pan with the onions and sprinkle on some salt and pepper before stirring it around. I just feel like the potatoes need the seasoning more than the onions.

Cut up your celery. You can see my garbage bowl in the background, a tip I got from the hours and hours of cooking shows I watched as a teenager growing up. I never cooked, I just liked watching them. But seriously garbage bowls make clean up so easily.

Add the celery. I don't mix them up right away because I don't want them to overcook and get mushy while I cut up the carrots.

So I cute up the carrots and add them, then I go ahead and mix them all up.

Then I cut up the bell pepper. You don't want to add too much because it's such a strong taste, just enough to get that bitterness to offset the sweetness of the carrots.

Next is the garlic. I love garlic and I add loads of it in everything I cook. This is why my food tastes good. Because of garlic. Others may not like a lot of garlic. Add as much garlic as you like, I don't care!

Ignore your mother when she complains about the amount of garlic you're about to put into the food.

Add the garlic to the nicely cooking veggies. If the oil has been mostly absorbed you can add more so that it doesn't burn and stick.

Add the herbs de provence because it's easier than adding in each spice individually. And it goes well with chicken. You can replace these spices with anything you want, really. Also add more salt and pepper here.

Once the potatoes start to get very brown you are done. Should take about 5 minutes on med-high heat. Stir it around so that it cooks evenly. I added some of the chicken grease because why not?

And there you have it! Some lovely hashed potatoes.

Full Recipe

3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 sweet onion

1.5-2 pounds potatoes (gold works best)

2 small carrots

2 stalks celery

1/2 green bell pepper

6 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon herbs de provence

salt and pepper to taste

1. heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium high heat

2. chop onion into quarter or half inch pieces and add to the oil

3. chop potatoes into half inch pieces and add to onions, sprinkle with salt and pepper, mix

4. slice celery, add to potatoes and onions but don't mix in

5. cut carrots into quarter inch pieces and add to potatoes, mix

6. cut up green bell pepper into tiny pieces, add to potatoes and mix in

7. finely dice garlic and add to potatoes

8. add herbs and sprinkle with salt and pepper

9. cook for five minutes over med-high heat, stirring frequently, until potatoes begin to brown

Tastiest Travels #2

2015-09-16T10:59:00.001-04:00

It's Wednesday and that means I get to share some more tasty travels. If this is your first time seeing a this post (it's only the second so I wouldn't be surprised) you can view the first one here! In short, every Wednesday I will feature two different bloggers and their three favorite foods that they've eaten while traveling the world. Who doesn't love food, especially good food?

This week I have foods from Asia, Europe, and the US of A! Even the first upscale dishes for those of you who live to pamper yourself!

Shandos Cleaver

http://travelnuity.com

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Sacher-Torte

Where you can find it: Vienna, Austria @ Hotel Sacher Wien

Upscale

How can a chocoholic go to Vienna and not partake of the original Sacher-Torte cake, a cake so famous it has its own day? Originally invented at the Hotel Sacher back in the 1800s, the Sacher Torte has since been the subject of legal battles over the “copyright”. At the Hotel Sacher, just behind the Vienna Opera House, having a slice for afternoon is a fancy affair. Firstly, you may need to queue, before checking in your coat (at a cost), then ordering in the splendidly opulent café rooms. The price is similarly opulent. Now that I’ve had the “original”, I’ve meant to since with the many equally wonderful copies at cafés all around the world.

Ricepaper Rolls

Where you can find it: Hoi An, Vietnam @ Red Bridge Cooking School

Budget

On my first ever trip to Vietnam, my boyfriend and I were travelling on a budget from the North to the South. About halfway through the trip we stopped in Hoi An, the site of the Red Bridge Cooking School, recommended by a friend who had recently visited Vietnam. While it didn’t cost that much (about $12 USD at the time), it was a splurge on our trip, and it was a treat to spend the afternoon in the more luxurious surrounds of the restaurant on the riverbanks. While I had probably already eaten rice paper rolls on the trip, it was there that I learnt to make them, and have made them regularly at home since (although without making the rice paper rounds from scratch!).

Black Risotto

Where you can find it: Dubrovnik, Croatia @ LADY PI-PI

Mid-range

Whilst walking around the walls of Dubrovnik, my boyfriend and I spotted an lovely looking restaurant with outdoor terraces, that would be wonderful to lunch at in the late Spring sunshine. It was a bit tricky finding the exact location when back in the alleyways down below, but we finally found Lady Pi-pi, with its rather frank fountain (after whom the restaurant is named) in front of it. I jumped at the chance to try black risotto for the first time, a Croatian specialty, made similarly to regular risotto, but with the ink of cuttlefish or squid added, along with the meat, to turn the entire dish black. I love a good risotto and it was delicious, especially alongside a glass of local Croatian white wine, although it is a must to visit the bathroom afterwards to clean your teeth that end up turning equally black!

Majesta Zea

www.thereandbackwithsnacks.com

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Creole Cream Cheesecake

Where you can find it: New Orleans, Louisiana @ Commander's Palace

Upscale

I know this seems like a such a safe and basic answer. But allow me to defend myself. For starters, I love cheesecake. It’s my favorite type of cake if I can be honest! However, it’s difficult to find one that isn’t bland and also isn’t so sweet that you become a diabetic on the spot. So the one from Commander’s Palace in the Garden District of New Orleans is the best one I have ever had. They said it was made in a traditional Creole way with slightly different creams and you can taste the difference. It was so rich and flavorful without being too heavy. Every bite was magical and I haven’t been back to New Orleans in almost two years, but I still drool just thinking about that cheesecake!

Filipino BBQ

Where you can find it: Manila, Philippines

Street Food

Filipino BBQ triggers a soft spot in my heart for growing up in the Philippines. It’s so authentic Filipino and there must be something in my blood that calls out to it! Even if I can just smell it, I get excited and want some immediately. The mixture of the meats, bbq sauce and smoke is a delicious scent that’s hard to pass up. The selection of meats is definitely different from the typical American bbq, but fear not! Everything is excellent and taste a hundred times better than it looks. You can be as safe (regular pork and pork fat) or brave (pork blood and intestines) as you want. I personally love the pork and liver the most. It also helps that you can buy about five sticks for the cost of about $1.50.

Chocolate Terrarium

Where you can find it: Las Vegas, Nevada @ Rose.Rabbit.Lie.

Upscale

I love dessert. This is the ultimate chocolate lovers dessert. There is dark chocolate cake and brownie mixed with a milk chocolate fudge sauce that gives the appearance of dirt and is served with edible flowers as a garnish and decoration. How cool is that? Yes, this dish is exceptional in taste, but the real reason I love it is because of the presentation. It’s so unique and fun and is something that I haven’t seen anywhere else as of yet. It’s large enough to feed four to six people, but the chocolate isn’t overwhelming and I believe in my heart of hearts, the next time I order this item, I am going to finish it solo.

This entry was full of some of the most amazing looking desserts I have ever seen and now my sweet-tooth is nagging me a bit. Thanks again to Shandos and Majesty for submitting things to my series! Be sure to check out their blogs and follow them on social media!

Next week I will have two new bloggers to feature, so be sure to check back! If you'd like to be featured yourself, please send an email over to communuicationisdifficult@gmail.com with the subject "Tastiest Travels" and I'll send you all the info you need to submit!

My First Two Weeks of Food in America

2015-09-14T11:13:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow marks two weeks since I got back in America after living overseas for four years. It has definitely been an adjustment being back in America, especially since I now have access to all of the foods that I longed for on a regular basis back in Japan. In my first week in Japan I ate a piece of pizza all but one of the days. Though already there are foods I miss from my second-home-Country and I've made a trip down to one of the Asian markets in town to get some goodies.

Before I left Japan I told my parents that I wanted a Papa John's pizza waiting for me. Papa Johns isn't even my favorite delivery pizza I just hadn't had it in years and had a craving. The sausage is unbeatable in my opinion and I ate on that large pizza (and some of the meat lovers my parents got for themselves) nearly every day for the next week. Also their cheesy bread was fantastic.

For my second night back we headed out to a newly opened local sports restaurant called Friendly Confines. It was a sort of overwhelming experience for me (and prompted this entry) , and the wait staff was less than stellar. The restaurant seems to be going for a young college vibe, but has really just ended up hiring a bunch of cute young girls who appear to lack the proper training. The burger was very "meh" as well. Nothing special. Unlikely to go back.

After a few days of home cooked meals we had plans to meet up with family friends at this Italian restaurant over near Disney and Universal Studios, Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza. The pizza claims to be "well-done" but it is really about 30 seconds from being burned beyond eatability.

The toppings themselves were great, and if you got a less blackened slice it tasted great! We also ordered some side dishes and they were completely phenomenal! The meatballs were some of the best I have ever had and the marinara sauce was fantastic. The big dollop of ricotta was a perfect compliment. Not to mention it just looked beautiful.

We also ordered their chicken wings, which were a great light herby taste and perfect after being cooked in the coal oven. Their beer list is also great, featuring a nice variety of craft brews that I am still trying to wrap my head around after years of the one-note Japanese lagers.

The following day I made my way out to Chipotle for the first time. With my new eating habits I was able to enjoy something other than their tacos, and I can now say that I really do understand the love the place gets. I always enjoyed my barebones chicken tacos back in college, but getting a bowl loaded down with everything is even better.

Orlando has a few Asian markets. There is a rather large Vietnamese population due to the Air Force base that was here prior to Disney World. I drove way out down Colonial Dr. to visit the Eastside Asian Market. It had a nice selection of snacks and even a few surprising finds. Now I have what I need to make a few of my favorite Japanese dishes. They were also cheaper than I expected them to be!

Yesterday I met Suzy of The Kawaii Planet for brunch over at Dexter's. I actually met her years ago when she was dating a good friend of mine who lives in Sapporo! It's such a small world that she is now living in Orlando, my hometown, when she herself is from the Czech Republic! My uncle actually had his art on display at Dexter's years back so it was nice to return to the small, busy restaurant. Even though it was busy we didn't have to wait long for a table, and the food was amazing. My eggs Benedict were to die for, and Suzy's salad was beautiful.

That about sums up my first couple of weeks of American food! There are still so many things I want to eat and I am discovering things I didn't even know I missed on an almost daily basis! Hope you all have a wonderful day and I'll catch you next time!

Tastiest Travels #1

2015-09-10T10:47:00.001-04:00

A few days before I left for Japan I asked some fellow travel bloggers if they wouldn't mind helping me out with this idea I had for a collaborative post. I got a great response for my idea and have had a number of fantastic submissions. So many, in fact, that I am comfortable making this a series. I'll feature two different bloggers a week and share with you the things they have shared with me!

The topic of the posts is food. Since moving to Japan my love of food and cooking and eating has grown. I am more adventurous with my diet and I have grown to appreciate the natural tastes of food. When I traveled to Vietnam my favorite thing was the food, and I even went on a food tour that was one of the best experiences of my life. So I asked the bloggers to share with me the three best things they've eaten while traveling! Hope this provides some great insight if you find yourself in any of these places.

Marisa Martin

www.thetravelingstorygirl.com

Instagram

Pescado del rio

Where you can find it: Mindo, Ecuador

Budget (~$10)

· Deep in the rain forest of Ecuador, a small town called Mindo offers a unique eating experience. For just $10 you can catch a fish from the river and have it cooked for you! Catching the fish was surprisingly easy and you can watch it be prepared right in front of you. If you prefer, you have the option to take the fresh fish and prepare it yourself. It is a very fun way to eat fresh fish just like a local! The fish was very good and had a delicious taste to it. The herbs used to season it were kept secret but they added the perfect flavor!

Wiener Schnitzel with Fries

Where you can find it: Heidelburg, Germany

Budget (~$10)

· I remember this meal especially fondly because it was the first real meal I had eaten in almost two days. I came across the restaurant on the main Hauptstrasse of Heidelberg, Germany, while searching for the school I would be studying at. I never found the school, but I did find this delightful meal! The meat was cooked to perfection and wasn’t too dry or too rare. Even though I didn’t order my schnitzel with sauce on it, my meal was scrumptious! I can hardly wait to return to Heidelberg so I can stuff my face full of this Weiner Schnitzel!

The-Best-Pasta-I-Have-Ever-Eaten

Where you can find it: Fussen, Germany

Budget

· After spending all day hiking around Neuschwanstein castle, the only thing I wanted to do was get back to my hotel room and sleep. Unfortunately, we were among the last people to leave the castle and missed our train back to Munich. I was with my parents, so the three of us had roughly an hour before the next train came along. We were starving so we began to hurriedly walk the streets of Fussen in search of food. The only problem was it was during the World Cup and Germany was currently in the process of slaughtering Portugal (4-0). We finally stumbled upon a pizza shop where we could get something to go. The owner was so nice and jovial that he made sure to get our orders out as soon as possible. I found it so ironic because the owner was Turkish, serving Italian food in Germany. I thought it was funny anyways. The three of us took a picture with him and hurried back to the train station. We didn’t try the pasta until we were on the train, but it was the best pasta that I had ever eaten. Nothing I’ve had since has even begun to compare.

Hadas Aharon

http://www.thefashionmatters.com/

Instagram Facebook Twitter

Shakshuka

Where you can find it: Israel/Tunisia

Specific Restaurant: Dr. Shakshuka

Budget

As an Israeli, I grew up eating Shakshuka for breakfast almost every weekend. Therefore, as an expat, the flavor of Shakshuka always reminds me of home. Originally from Tunisia, Shakshuka was introduced to Israel by Tunisian Jews during the fifties. Ever since then Shakshuka became one of the most popular Israeli dishes. The spices that are being added to the dish vary, depending on the cooker, which makes each Shakshuka unique. The famous Israeli restaurant “Dr. Shakshuka” took the dish even farther and they are serving it with a wide variety of additions such as meat, cheese and vegetables. The best way to eat shakshuka is to dip a piece of bread in it.

Salty Frech Crepe

Where you can find it: France

Budget

As someone who lived in France for a year, I saw a “creperie” (restaurants that serve crepes) in every corner. Naturally, I couldn’t go on without trying the salty French crepes. When I first ordered the salty crepe I was a bit concerned since it seemed odd to me to eat a crepe that is not sweet. However, I was pleasantly surprise as to how tasty it was and how natural it felt. Therefore, it is no wonder why French crepes are one of the most popular dishes in the country. In France, you can order your crepe with basically anything- all types of meat, cheeses, eggs, vegetables or sea food; whatever you can think of.

Pastel de Nata

Where you can find it: Portugal

Specific restaurant: Pasteis de Belem

Budget

Pastel de Nata is a Portuguese egg tart pastry. I first tried it in Belem, Lisbon. I was stunned how delicious this pastry is, and therefore it is a must-try for everyone who visits Lisbon. The most well-known place to eat this pastry at is “Pasteis de Belem”. The restaurant has a rich history of making delicious pastries; it will provide you with an excellent traditional experience. While you’re at Belem, which is a short distance from Lisbon city center (accessible via train), you should also visit other tourist attractions including the magnificent Tower of Belem and the Hieronymites Monastery

Thanks again to Marisa and Hadas for the great submissions! Definitely writing a few new dishes to my list of foods to try while traveling. That last egg tart looks especially tasty to me!

If you'd like to submit something for the series, please send an email over to communicationisdifficult@gmail.com with the subject "Tastiest Travels" and I'll get back to you as soon as I can with details!

Check back next week where we will feature some foods from Austria, Vietnam, Croatia, the Philippines and the US!

Picture Post: Last Days in Sapporo, Japan

2015-09-07T09:29:00.000-04:00

My last couple weeks I tried to carry my camera around with me as much as I could and take pictures of the last days I had in the city. Here are the things I did before I left. And ate. Mainly what I ate.

I ate buta-don (pork over rice) at this tiny little shop across from the Central Ward office. This one is actually my friend's, mine was covered in cheese. I recommend no cheese.

I walked around at nice a bit to enjoy all the lights. My neighborhood, I miss you Susukino! Though I don't miss dodging all the vomit piles at 6am.

Had a final trip to the beer garden by Sapporo station on a random Wednesday with a friend.

On the way to get food we ended up walking past this big display in Odori park, probably for Obon.

And we ended up at Rad Brothers, a bar near my place that has one of the more entertaining bathrooms. Surprise long nights out are always the best ones.

That following Friday I went to Mugi Shu Tei with some friends. Mugi Shu means "beer" in Japanese, kinda like how "Nihon Shu" means sake to us.

The walls are completely covered in all of these old beer cans.

I started off my last week in Japan with my favorite Sapporo food, soup curry. This one has coconut milk curry. And pork. And all the veggies. You can find it at Soup Curry Samurai.

For my last dinner with my close friends I ended up getting yakiniku.

Then I made a final trip to Nakajima Park on my last day in Japan.

Where I met a friend for a final Sapporo Classic.

And that night I had more soup curry at a tiny restaurant with my best friend who was letting me crash on her couch.

And at the airport the next day I had my final meal in Japan, kitsune udon with some tempura veggies.

5 First Impressions About Being Back in America

2015-09-03T08:48:00.000-04:00

Well, after traveling for an entire day I have made it back to the States. It's currently nearly 6am Thursday and I am laying in a very tall, very huge bed compared to the five or so futons I had laying on the floor of my Japanese apartment. I've been back for over 24 hours now, and it doesn't feel quite real yet. Got approved for my first credit card last night (travel rewards so I'll earn airline miles for purchases) and I have completely unpacked my suitcases.

I've noticed a few things since I have been back, and I thought I would share them. It's really interesting how my view of how things function in public has changed since I was in Japan.

1. Americans really do randomly talk to you.

In Japan I would get the occasional Japanese person who would come over to me and ask where I am from, I was given a tissue cover by an older lady while sitting in Starbucks once and told "thank you for coming to Japan", for example.

I had barely stepped outside the airport (and nearly fell over in shock at the humid heat of 11pm Florida) that a guy laughed and said, "Well this is Florida!" to me and my parents, my parents replied back that I had just gotten back from living overseas and he welcomed me home. I stood there silently not really used to a random person talking to me like that.

2. The random differences in public manners.

When I first moved to Japan a number of things surprised me, and once of them was how when checking out people don't talk outside of the few phrases needed to get the transaction done. In America the cashiers ask how you are and just seem really nice and polite and less like robots than they did in Japan. It makes me feel closer to people.

Also people really do always hold doors open. In Japan you'll just be in a line of commuters and when you all get to a door everyone just walks through it without touching it, the door closes and the people before you just skirt through it, turning to the side and slipping through just before it ends up closed in your face. It's such an infuriating thing because I was raised in a place where you make sure the door is open for the persons behind you. It's also nice to hold a door open for someone and just have them smile and say thank you rather than the frantic rush to get through and over the top, "Oh thank you I'm sorry" that Japanese people do when the door is held for them.

3. Servers talk a lot.

We went out to dinner last night and the server just talked a lot. It was weird. In Japan you don't really even have a specific server waiting on your group, but just people who work there. They are just background figures who take your order and disappear until you call them again or they bring you something.

Our waitress talked to us and shared things with us and I found myself thinking, "okay that's nice but I don't care just go away." It will definitely take some getting used to. I can see why foreigners think Americans overshare all of the time.

4. You can be who you want to be in America.

When I got off my plane in Chicago and made my way through the airport to my departing gate for Orlando I noticed just how many different types of people. Ethnicity aside, people just looks very different. There was a girl with a full upper chest tattoo standing ahead of a me a few people in line and I found myself constantly staring at her because I was so shocked to see it so plainly revealed, there was a family of two mothers and a young daughter waiting at my gate that just made me really happy to see.

In Japan you don't see these things. There is an acceptable range of social "different" that you'll see of course, younger people with colored hair, strange fashion choices, etc. But there is still a very strict line that they don't cross. You don't see gay couples at all, I don't think I ever saw a gay family with children whilst out in Japan. There's huge social stigmas around many lifestyle choices that just don't exist in America.

5. Everyone can understand me.

Living in a country where your native language isn't the main one leads to a feeling of isolation in positive and negative ways. I can have private conversations in public and it's likely that no one will understand what we're talking about. But it's also frustrating when I try and do simple things like cancel my cell phone and am met with a guy who just says, "I don't understand..." over and over again.

Yesterday I opened a bank account and talked to a cell phone company about my options until the new iPhone comes out and I had never felt so anxiety and stress free in my entire life. It's great to just be understood.

So those are my five first impressions about America. It's definitely going to be a huge adjustment going back, and I am already sort of over the reaction I get from people when they find out I have lived in Japan. I had a bank teller talk to me about how I ended up over there, and she said she is now going to Japan when she graduates.

Every other person I've met I have said, "So I have just gotten back in the States after living overseas and I am wondering how I can do..." to try and hide the fact that I lived in Japan for so long, because I am already tired of answering the same questions over and over. Sort of like how I got tired of answering the, "Where are you from?" "What are you doing in Japan?" questions while in Japan.

The Next Step: Life After Japan

2015-08-27T09:20:00.000-04:00

As I've mentioned before, I have decided to leave Japan and move towards the next phase of my life. I get asked a lot what exactly I plan on doing after leaving here, and since it is a handful of days away (my apartment is looking really bare...) I thought I would take a few minutes to give a short update as to what the next steps in my life are going to be and some different things I am working on.

Living in Orlando, Florida (with my parents!)

Yes, you read that right. I, a 26 year old girl who moved out of her parents house at 18, am moving back in with the folks. It's a temporary set-up, mainly so that I can adjust to life in America and save money so that I can buy grown up things like a car and an apartment. They've also remodeled the house since I have been gone and I am looking forward to taking advantage of the HUGE kitchen and huge bathroom-that-is-bigger-than-my-apartment.

Finding A Job

This one is a no brainer. I want to get a job and save some money. What type of job? I'm not too sure yet. I haven't really looked into any serious careers, as I am not sure I'm quite ready for that yet, but I have been applying to various theme park, photography, writing, event planning type gigs that may provide me with some cash. I'm not picky at this point, I just want it to suit my interests. Hopefully it won't involve a cubicle.

Planning a Trip to Europe

I really want to visit Europe in the next year, and right now I am aiming for a Spring 2016 trip. What exactly that trip will consist of I am not sure of quite yet. It all depends on how the whole securing a job thing goes, and how much time off I can get!

Giving the Blog Loads of Attention

Now that I am a NEET I have loads of time on my hands. And while a lot of it is spent trying to get myself out of this apartment and onto a plane bound for Orlando, a lot of it is also spent doing absolutely nothing. This is what happens when you give yourself a month lag between stopping work and leaving. So I've joined a number of Facebook groups geared towards helping bloggers network and I am slowly trying to get myself out there. I also want to get up to 3 posts a week if possible!

Doing Collaborative Work with Other Bloggers

Part of getting my blog out there is doing work with other bloggers. I have begun writing some guest posts for various travel blogs which I will let y'all know about once they are live, as well as started my own collaborative post venture, which I hope to launch in the next two weeks! If you'd like to get in contact with me about collaborative work, I've set up an email just for this blog! Please send communicationisdifficult@gmail.com a message if you're interested in working with me!

YouTube Videos!

I have wanted to do YouTube videos forever, I have had a few (failed) ideas and I think my move back to America will give me the perfect chance to really focus on this area. I love YouTube and watch videos on there constantly. Way more than any other video media. I am hoping to start a vlog type series on becoming an ex-expat and moving back in with the parents at 26. Have I mentioned that my parents also have a beautiful home that I can film in? Way better than my cramped Japanese apartment.

Photography and Writing

While I have been doing quite a bit of photography lately, I would like to do more of it. I would love to step into portrait or wedding photography (I've applied to some relevant work!) to go alongside my travel photography. I also wanna give my Instagram way more love! Hopefully when I get the new iPhone next month it'll help, because my iPhone 4 camera doesn't cut it anymore! Especially next to my DSLR photos! I also want to get back into my creative writing, which is my true dream. If I could be anything, it would be an author, so I am going to try and get back into that (hello, NaNoWriMo).

Cooking!!!!!

This is probably the one I am most excited about. I love cooking so much but my Japanese kitchen really limits what I can do. Not to mention I can't really afford many ingredients in Japan. And cooking for one kinda stinks. So, living with my parents will give me the perfect setting to really develop my cooking skills. I'll probably post about it on here!

As you can see I have a lot planned once I get back in America, hopefully it will keep me busy! Also, all the distractions will be nice because I am sure I will miss my Japan friends so much. A lot of it is focused on this blog, so I hope you'll enjoy everything that I have planned!

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5 Ways Living in Japan Has Changed Me

2015-08-24T21:16:00.001-04:00

This Saturday marked my four year Japanniversary. And today marks the official beginning of my "Last Week In Japan". I've been doing a lot of reflecting on my time here, and I have come to realize just how much I have changed in the four years I have lived in this country.

I'm not the same person I was when I came here. For starters very few people are the same person they were at 22. Your mid-20s change you a lot and going from the sheltered life of a full-time student to an adult with a real job and real bills and a real apartment to manage really shifts the focus in your life. But, deep down, I still feel that I am the same Kaley I have always been, just cleaned up around the edges and more sure of myself.

College was a rough time for me in general, because of my anxiety I didn't really go out and meet people, I stayed inside my apartment watching anime and sleeping too much. I gained a lot of weight and was overall just a really unhappy person. Also didn't help that I was in a pretty emotionally draining relationship. Japan was my chance to start over and remove all off the bad things in my life. So often people have told me that I am so brave for coming to Japan, but I really view it as running away from a life I felt that I had failed at.

I wanted to try really hard in Japan to become that person I was before college, before the anxiety and the depression and losing myself in another person. And I think I did just that.

1. I am more forgiving.

While this is still a part of my life that I feel like I need to work on, overall I think I am a more understanding and forgiving person. When living in a foreign country you're constantly surrounded by people who don't think like you, don't act like you, don't believe in what you do, and don't speak like you do. Because of this you really have to learn to work with people, and not against them. Any sort of conversation I have with a Japanese person is a lot of compromise between the two of us trying to mix our languages and cultures together in order to understand one another. And it's beautiful.

2. Equal Rights matter more to me.

I've always been pro-equal rights. I mean, what good person isn't? But living in Japan has made me understand just how frustrating it can be to be judged for things I have no control over. While I did choose to come to a country that is almost entirely one race, I didn't expect just how often I would be treated separately because I am not "one of them". As a straight, white, female from a nice American suburb these issues have often gone over my head because I just can't understand them, but now that I have (in a very minor way) experienced this frustration I can see why people are as passionate as they are towards receiving equal treatment for things they can't control.

3. I care way less about "things".

When you move across the world you have to be picky with what matters. When you then move across a country you have to be picky about what matters, And when you again move to a different city you have to be picky about what matters. Not to mention my shoebox Japanese apartment doesn't really allow for a lot of "stuff". Looking around my apartment now on the brink of another global move, I realize just how much of the crap that fills me apartment doesn't mean to me and I just want it all gone. Bye!

4. I appreciate simple foods.

I've posted before about my food issues prior to living in Japan, but aside from widening the variety of foods that I was able to stomach Japan has taught me that loads of salt and artificial flavorings don't really make things more delicious. When I first moved here the food tasted bland, but in just a few short months I found that I can no longer handle bags of American Cheetos or bags of Skittles without feeling sick. And my trips back to America have often left me praying to the porcelain god when I gorge myself too much on these heavily processed foods!

5. I realized I can do anything.

Honestly, moving to Japan wasn't that difficult. Compared to everything else I have been through since getting on that plane four years back, finding the job and packing to leave was really easy. It was interacting with people in a language I barely understood, surviving an assault, moving between three different cities (once across country!), and building a strong foundation of friends in a country where I knew zero people that were hard. Thinking about moving to America and all the things I have to do there like getting a cell phone and finding an apartment and even getting a job seem so easy now because, well, everyone speaks my native language! Nothing can stop me because I've done it all before, but in Japanese!

Milk Mura, Sapporo: Ice Cream and Liqueur Cafe in Japan

2015-08-17T06:58:00.000-04:00

In all honesty, I don't really have the biggest sweet tooth. My family doesn't have the best history with sugar and I believe I am following their lead. I do, however, really enjoy alcohol. And every so often I like to stuff my face with ice cream. Ben and Jerry I am coming for you in September! Om nom nom.

Anyway, a few years back some friends mentioned this place where you get to eat ice cream with various liquors and I knew I just had to go there. I tried for months to go, but the odds were never in my favor. Once my friends even went a couple days after I went back to America for Christmas (thanks guys! D:). Eventually the stars aligned and I was able to go to this wonderful place, Milk Mura.

The reason it was so difficult to go here was because, well, it's really freakin' crowded on the weekends. So you basically have to go right when it opens or wait forever. So we usually end up only going here when we are off of work and free during the weekdays as it is nearly empty until evening.

And since it is summer vacation time in Japan, I was able to go to Milk Mura once again last week! This is the third time I have been here and every time I leave stuffed full of ice cream and slightly tipsy. What could be better? Nothing.

Located in the center of Susukino, right across from a giant Nikka Whiskey man and beside a really fancy looking sushi place, it's easy to pass by as it's on the sixth floor of some random building. But once you go in you are greeted with the most adorable front door ever.

I told you it was adorable. It opens from 1 o'clock in the afternoon and last order is at 11! It's a pretty small place, with only a few tables and a wrap around bar. Couples are the main source of business, along with young girls. I don't suggest bringing more than four people at a time because it is just really small, unless you go between 1 and 4 on a weekday, then you're likely to have the place to yourself!

The inside is adorable. The polka-dotted table cloths and the lights make it a perfect date spot, which is why so many couples go here. The walls are completely covered in so many different knick knacks that you can find new things hanging out every time you visit. There are also a number of interesting looking liqueur bottles around the shop lit up to give even more great atmosphere. The soundtrack is also French songs. Look at the little couples nook in the back wall!

Now for the menu. You can have a choice of three different sets, A, B, and C (though C has been unavailable I believe). A set gets you two liqueur choices and a few little baked goodies and some coffee. B set is three liqueurs plus a coffee and a cookie. I always get B set. They're all the same price and I would rather have booze than some baked things I don't care about. If you go with a group you can all share the booze.

The liqueur list is huge. It's like pages and pages of the stuff. Maybe hundreds. It's in both Japanese and English so you can order with very little Japanese knowledge. They have any fruit liqueur you can dream about (though I suggest staying away from citrus because... milk and citrus? Bleck). A variety of whiskey and bourbon. All the standard liquors, plus some strange ones like coffee and acorn and cinnamon. They even have absinthe (which I enjoy for the novelty of it).

The liqueurs are served in these adorable little wine glasses, you get about half a shot of each. You then have this tiny spoon that you can use to pour the liqueur over your ice cream. Once you eat the ice cream down enough you can balance your spoon on the corner of the cup and pour the liquid like that, rather than holding the spoon in your hand and trying to not spill all over yourself.

Not that I have ever spilled any liquor on myself.

You can also get seconds on the ice cream! Once you finish your first glass they'll come and ask how full you want your second glass. The answer should always be "as full as possible".

Along with the liqueurs you order you are usually given two for free, oolong tea plus a random one. We had grape with actual pieces of grape in it. They also give you coffee powder to sprinkle on your ice cream which tastes good with pretty much ever liquor I have tried there. Especially the cinnamon. And the acorn is surprisingly wonderful. All the nutty ones are my favorite. Whiskey, acorn, coffee, absinthe...

The coffee you get is served in the cutest little mugs, and the cookies are adorable. Usually a dog or a koala or a circle. The mugs are a bit difficult to hold. I mean my handle is a penguin. But you really cares about that?

Milk Mura @ tabelog (Japanese/English)

ミルク村 SAPPORO本店

北海道札幌市中央区南四条西 3-7-1 ニュー北星ビル　６Ｆ

New Hokusei Building 6th floor

South 4 West 3, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo

(map in the link above!)

The Beer Garden in Odori Park, Sapporo!

2015-08-10T22:34:00.000-04:00

The summer season in Sapporo is always really enjoyable. The fact that such a huge portion of the year is spent indoors thanks to the months of heavy snowfall just make the desire to get out and enjoy being outside when you can.

And the best way, in my opinion, to do that is the beer garden that happens from mid-July to mid-August in Odori park. This year so far I've been three times, and I'll likely go once more before it ends this coming weekend. As an American, I love any chance to just drink outside in public and not be judged for having a good time with friends. It's probably the aspect about Japan I will most the most when I go back to the States! Grabbing a beer from the 7-eleven and sitting in a park eating lunch...

Anyway, the beer garden itself spans four blocks of Odori Park. Each block is home to one of Japan's most common beer brands, Suntory Premium, Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo! Honestly, there is very little difference between the three beer brands, as Japan seems to mainly enjoy producing pale lagers that all taste completely identical (oh goodness how I am looking forward to darker beers in America).

These beers are also perfect for hot summer days. Which you get in Sapporo. Because AC isn't really a thing up here because "we don't need it". Tell that to my apartment which likes to get up to 90 degrees (32 in the C). Any excuse to escape the sauna I live in is very needed.

Suntory is the least popular of the four brands, mainly because the beers are a bit more expensive. I personally like Suntory the best of the four because it has a bit more flavor, but I like being cheap more so in all the years I have been here I've never bothered going to their beer garden. Sorry!

The most popular beer garden is easily Asahi. The block is covered in trees and just has a really cool feel. It fills up the quickest and is usually the loudest. This one is the one I enjoy going to the most, I think. Though the difficulty of finding a table makes it hard to bring larger groups unless you come at opening time!

Kirin is the third most popular and has the most interesting of the beer delivery systems: the beer tower. While the novelty of a meter tall tower of beer is nearly irresistible, the speed at which the beer warms in the heat of summer makes it a very "meh" experience once you get to the halfway mark. Or, I guess, you could just drink faster!

Sapporo Beer's garden is the one I have been to the most, two of my three visits have been spent here, and it may be my new favorite one to go because it is relatively easy to find a spot, not to mention they have upped their decoration game in the last couple of years and it now resembles a very Bavarian looking beer tent. Or at least what I picture one to look like because I've never been to one (next year??)!

The beers themselves aren't badly priced. You can get 500mL glasses for 550 yen. They also have larger sizes priced in the same value. Each area has their own version of a keg to share (like the toweres in Kirin) but I have found them to be over-priced when compared to the individual glasses (3,700 yen for 3L but 1,100 for a 1L glass). Yes, that's right. You can get a 1L glass of beer.

Even though it is called the "Handsome man" beer at the Sapporo tent I mainly see Japanese women guzzling these puppies down. Though maybe they are designed to attract handsome men? Who knows! If you find yourself in Sapporo in the middle of the Japanese summer, you definitely need to stop by the beer garden, you'll be sat at a table with the locals and they are generally really friendly. Last time I was there I was given a bunch of food by some older people seated next to us!

City in Pictures: Hanoi, Vietnam

2015-08-05T21:42:00.000-04:00

I've decided to start a new series, "Cities in Pictures". My goal in life is to travel to as many places around the world. During those travels I will take pictures to not only remember the places I've been, but capture their spirit. All pictures are taken by me, and I ask that none are used without permission. Please enjoy a look at the first City in Pictures, Hanoi, Vietnam!

From the top of my hostel I am able to see just how crowded the city is. City planning does not exist, and the same cheap materials make up most of the buildings. Even from this height the never ending cacophony of the streets surrounds us.

There is a railroad which runs through town, is it in use? I don't think so. There's so safety barriers and the shops are all very close to the tracks.

A visit to the Temple of Literature shows the dirt and grime with seems to coat the city. Opaque reflection pools of green, weathered monuments.

Along the streets you see traditional sights, mainly that of women selling local foods. They can be pushy, yelling at you as you wait to cross the street and shoving bananas and pineapples into your hand and demanding money.

Traffic laws are something unknown in the city. Most streetlights don't work, and the streets are so busy that traffic moves at a slow pace. There aren't many sidewalks, and the ones that are there usually have tiny plastic chairs where locals sit crowding the walkway.

The streets are crammed with buildings and the power lines are a cross-crossing mess. It's very easy to get turned around and completely lose your way, but that also leads to great possibility for adventure and exploration.

The pho is fantastic. A light, crisp meal in a bowl that fills you up so you can continue going about your day. Walking along the road you'll see a small shop with people outside, just go in and grab a bowl. Hanoi doesn't really have restaurants, and I think that's fantastic.

Banh mi is a must. Vietnam is great at marrying flavorful meats with fresh vegetables in ways you can't get anywhere else. Not to mention the bread. The bread is just so, so good. It's a light lunch to pick up as you walk towards your night sight.

The center of town boasts a lake. Foreigners line the red bridge to see the Temple of the Jade Mountain. The lake is also home to endangered soft-shell turtles that lucky visitors may get a chance to see.

The water puppet theater to the north of Hoan Kiem lake is an enjoyable way to spend an hour of your day, even if you can't understand Vietnamese. It's a unique production you'll be hard-pressed to find anywhere else.

Most of the streets themselves are covered in a canopy of bright green trees. It's amazing to see the branches appearing to emerge from the buildings themselves. The abundance of trees leads to nice, shady strolls through the tropical city.

Souvenir shops line most main streets, all housing the same goods packed into their stores, waiting to sell to unsuspecting tourists looking for something unique to bring home.

Remnants of the French occupation are still prevalent around the city, best shown by the dreary looking Notre Dame near the center of town. The gates which surround it give it a feel of an era long past.

At night the streets come alive with stalls selling anything you could think of. It's refreshing to not worry about traffic for once while walking along the roads, and the sound of car horns is replaced by the sound of music.

A food tour is a must in the city. Not only are you guided along by a local you get to try foods you never would have dreamed of. There are so many little set ups of all these different dishes lining the roads, it's hard to tell which are good and which are not-so-good. Hint: It's almost always good if there are people around!

Hope you enjoyed this first city in pictures! Please click on the images for better quality shots!

9 Reasons I Loved or Hated Being an English Teacher in Japan

2015-08-03T07:31:00.000-04:00

As of Friday I am officially an ex-Assistant Language Teacher. It's a weird feeling to think about how I will never again walk the halls of a Japanese public high school, and maybe even never walk the halls of a school ever again. I was an ALT for four years, and in those four years I taught in three different locations at over 15 different schools. I have taught toddlers and I have taught teenagers. I've run classes by myself and stood in the back for 50 minutes doing nothing but trying to stay awake. I think I have a pretty well-rounded grasp of the process of being an English teacher overseas, so I wanted to share what I consider the best and worst parts of the job.

♡ The Students Constantly Compliment You

I wasn't born with a huge ego, I don't think I am awesome, beautiful, or too witty. Most of my humor and jokes comes from the awkward moments that pepper my life and I have struggled with body image for most of my life. Being an ALT in Japan, however, has really, really given me a lot in terms of self-confidence.

When I started teaching at 22 I was always the youngest teacher around, and even at 26 I am still really young and often the youngest teacher in the school. Add this to the fact that I am extremely pale with blue eyes and curly hair and Japanese girls fawn all over me. The secretive whispers of "wow, look at how blue Kaley's eyes are" and "she's so white" definitely are nice ego boosts.

Confessions of love from boys is common, I change my usual hairstyle and it is met with choruses of "oh how cute!" all day long. I wear contacts after weeks of glasses and it's like I'm a supermodel. My name sounds very similar to Katy Perry, so I am often compared to the gorgeous singer since we're both similar in complexion and eyes.

X There's Often A Lot Of Downtime

Now, this one varies a lot based on your location and how many schools you have. The more schools you have, the less downtime you will have. But in my experience you generally have at least one or two hours a day with no classes scheduled, and once you get the hang of making lessons and preparing supplies for those lessons you realize how much free time you have. My ability to read over 50 books in a year is largely due to just how much I am not doing anything, at all, at work.

Elementary school is generally busier, as you're the full teacher 9 times out of 10 and there's just more elementary schools so you are likely to have more schools. And the lessons are usually very high energy and take a lot out of you. Junior high, on the other hand, is usually way more low-key. What you do is largely dependent on what the Japanese teacher who teaches the class wants you to do. You'll have teachers that want you to teacher full lessons, you'll have teachers who want you to do half, you'll have teachers that just want you to read from the textbook and stand in the back most of the class.

I personally prefer the more demanding and busy elementary school over the more relaxed junior high school. I don't enjoy having hours a day with nothing to do. I had schools where I was at 40 hours a week and only did 8 hours of actual demanding work a day (actively teaching or preparing lessons). The rest was spent sitting at my desk or twiddling my thumbs in class.

♡ You Get to Try Many New Foods

If you choose to eat school lunch (and you really should!) you'll be exposed to a lot of new foods that you likely wouldn't eat otherwise. I learned about so many new foods that I now love. I've posted before about my weird food anxiety, and Japanese school lunches really helped me in overcoming a lot of my anxiety issues.

While the lunches are generally very high in carbs, the dishes are usually interesting. Now, this largely depends on your school lunch centers. I've lived in places with VERY redundant menus (miso soup three days a week with fish!) and I've changed schools so often in a week that I've had four days of noodles in a row since Japanese school lunches are generally designed with one day of noodles, one day of bread, and three of rice in a week.

X Eating With Students in Junior High

Okay, I know I just said school lunch was awesome but the experience of eating with students is often very... depressing. Especially with junior high schoolers. In an effort to provide more interaction time with students the Board of Education has this great idea to make the ALTs eat with students. Students eat lunch in their classroom with the homeroom teacher, and the teachers without homerooms eat in the staff room. I've actually had a school or two where the extra teachers eat with classes, but usually the ALT is the only teacher forced to sit within a group of students and eat alongside them.

Younger kids usually like this, but the older ones view your presence as an intrusion. If you're the type of person to just push through the awkward "what do I do with this foreigner sitting here?" vibes from students and force them to talk to you, this won't apply to you. I'm not this person. I've even had a boy I was supposed to sit next to refuse to sit next to me because I am foreign and sit at the front next to the homeroom teacher to get away from me, and the next time I was in the class and seated by him he forced a friend to eat next to me.

Usually it's just silence. I sit there and try to eat as much as I can in 15 minutes and the students try to convince each other to talk to me. If I eat in the staff room, which has happened at some schools, I get a relaxing thirty minutes to eat my lunch and relax. I much prefer the latter.

♡ Your Japanese Listening Skills Will Get Really Good

Since everyone at school speaks Japanese at a native level around you all day, you'll quickly learn how to listen to Japanese conversations really well. You can just sit at your desk and listen to conversations around you during your free time and learn a lot of very handy Japanese.

If you're doing nothing in a class and the teacher is explaining grammar, you can learn too! I did this often just standing in the back and paying attention to the grammar lesson, trying to make sense of the language from a backwards perspective. I'd even grab an extra worksheet the kids were doing and write along with it.

You can also learn kanji by just looking around the room and seeing what they are using, as it's usually pretty basic.

X You're Often Not Taken Seriously

Since you're a teacher with very little responsibility it's very common for no one to really take you seriously. You'll be out of the loop for many things and you'll have very little control over how things are taught. You're told what to do and you do it how they ask. While some teachers may value your input as a foreigner with a different perspective, most will just want you to do what they ask of you.

This is also a good thing, because you'll have lower expectations for things and can easily feign ignorance in many situations. They don't expect a lot of you so your responsibilities are low. While this is great for a while it leads to the job not feeling very serious, as there's really very little motivation to be better at it unless it all comes from within yourself, and at times the job can be very unrewarding because you'll get very little praise or feedback on your performance. If you work for a contracting company the schools are literally prevented by law to give your company any sort of feedback on your performance at work. Yeah, they can complain about you but they can't actually say anything productive to what you do.

This fact leads to your job seeming very unimportant in the grand scheme of things to most people, I've found. Unless you have that great self-motivation to be good, you won't be. You have to want to make good lessons and that's what ultimately makes someone good at this job. And it just got to the point with me that I no longer had that motivation, which is why I quit!

♡ You Get to See the "Real" Japan

By being an ALT you are actually in a Japanese public school. Almost every Japanese person went through this system and you become very aware of a lot of things that make Japan what it is. You get to see Japanese people in their natural environment, and not out in public or in a specific setting geared towards foreigners.

I studied Japanese culture in college and I really enjoyed just being able to ask questions about certain things and learn about how a Japanese school works. It's very different from American schools and made a lot of aspects of Japanese culture make sense to me. I learned to appreciate things that had frustrated me in the beginning.

X You Will Just Be An "ALT"

In the staff room I rarely heard teachers refer to me by my name, usually I was just referred to as "ALT". "The ALT is leaving early today" or "The ALT is eating lunch with this class". My shoebox in the school entry is rarely labeled with my name, but just "ALT" whereas all the other teachers have a name there.

On the program for the closing ceremony at my school nearly two weeks back it just said "ALT" next to the goodbye speech section whereas every other teacher had their name written. I'm sure this isn't meant as a slight to me, but it's insanely frustrating to be nothing but those three letters to people you work with on a daily basis. I was at these schools every day for months as well, so it wasn't like I wasn't a permanent fixture.

X Teachers are Usually Afraid to Approach You

Since most teachers have very little grasp of English conversation they are nervous to talk to you. This is understandable. They don't not want to talk to you, and I've never been treated poorly by a teacher. Whenever I do add something to a conversation it is usually very encouraged, it's just hard because teachers often won't go out of their way to approach you.

On the other hand those teachers who do enjoy English will be all over you, but those are few and far between. Older ladies are generally the nicest, whereas older men want nothing to do with you. At least if you're a female. I imagine if you're a guy it's opposite.

This can often lead to you feeling lonely when everyone is talking and you're just sitting there hoping to understand Japanese to say something. Teachers are also often very busy so it may be hard to find the time to approach a teacher. Out of all the "bad" issues on this list, this is probably the least bad, but some people may not like the isolation of being the only person not included in things.

Monthly Book Roundup: July 2015

2015-07-30T22:52:00.001-04:00

I love books. Maybe you know this about me, maybe you have no idea who I am. But reading is how I spend most of my time that isn't cooking, watching YouTube videos, or drinking. I sadly don't have many friends who share my passion for books, and those that do don't really read the same books I do. So this blog is my main outlet for talking about all the books I read. I guess there's a lot of them. More than average but for a "booky" I feel like it's maybe not that much. I get through one or two books a week on average and sometimes it can take me longer. Honestly, those people who read 200 books a year confuse me because who has that time? Are you literally always reading? Do you just skim? Are you lying to me?

Anyway, I've decided to write more about books and give monthly summaries of what I have read. I'd like to write more detailed book reviews but, quite frankly, I'm lazy. So this is what you get. These overall impressions about books that I read once a month.

Also, please suggest books to me. I may spend just as much time trying to find books as I do reading some days. It's a constant struggle.

This month I made it through seven books plus one book I am going to most likely end up dropping because, well, I'll explain later.

An Ember In The Ashes

Author: Sabaa Tahir

Goodreads

Young Adult Fantasy, Dystopia, meh

I really hesitated about reading this book. I had a feeling of the sort of book it would be (your standard YA fantasy romance nonsense) but the "ancient Rome" reference plus some rave reviews made me give it a try. It was okay. I have read worse and I actually ended up finishing this one. It just has many of the issues that I have with this whole area in general. Love happens too quickly for no reason. Thankfully, the love isn't a main focus of the book but it is there and it is annoying if that sorta thing bugs you.

The other issue I have is the characters. There is a very interesting character who has some very cool stuff going on but she is sadly a secondary character. The male point of view is okay, he's interesting and engaging and didn't bother me, but the girl was just... ugh. Maybe because I am an only child I don't "get" her obsessive need to do ANYTHINGGGGGG to save her brother. But she just seemed foolish most of the time. I wish the above interesting female would have been the main and this stupid girl who made herself a slave would have just been thrown away. Boooooo.

Rating: 2.5/5 Read it if this is your thing.

The Novice

Author: Taran Matharu

Goodreads

Young Adult Fantasy, magic! dragons! or... pokemon! I dunno.

I read this book because it was like Harry Potter meets Pokemon and I am really glad I did. The main character was interesting and not annoying at all. The premise was (while not totally unique) really engaging. And I just really enjoyed reading about this world. It went by quickly, I read the book in two or three days, and I wasn't bored at all while reading it.

Yeah, there are cliches throughout the book and the whole "magic school" thing has been done to death but I am really kinda into that thing. Maybe it's because Harry Potter is what started my reading journey, maybe it's because that little bubble can just be nicely developed. I dunno. But it was a really great little book, though definitely geared towards the younger crowd.

Rating: 4/5 stars. A great young adult book, though a bit on the young side

The Knife of Never Letting Go

Author: Patrick Ness

Goodreads

Science Fiction Dystopia, Journey, Thriller, Gory

This book has been on my Kindle for three years. My Goodreads account says I started this back in March 2012. This isn't because it's a bad book, it's because it SOUNDED like a book I would't enjoy. Oh a boy goes on an adventure with his talking dog... so interesting. I wanted to read it because of the reviews but I just.... couldn't. I'd find another book and I would read it instead and now it's three years later and I finished the entire series in like a week and a half and I hate myself for taking so long to read it. Seriously.

The book is a lot more than it appears in the beginning. The world is so weird and interesting and alien yet familiar. The whole "you can always hear my thoughts" thing is addressed in such a way that it doesn't seem annoying. It is perfectly balanced between helping and hurting the main character. The book is so smartly done and I just found myself in love with it instantly.

Rating: 5/5 Read this book now I don't care what you're reading just do it.

The Ask and the Answer

Author: Patrick Ness

Goodreads

Science Fiction Dystopia this is a sequel to the last book just look there but I will add ~love~

This book is maybe better than the first one in the series. It really is. Which is rare. Even with the inclusion of ~love~ which made me dislike Catching Fire when compared to Hunger Games. Again the characters are great and the new conflict just adds a whole different level to the book. You really get to know the place you are in and see the growth of the characters.

This book was very dark and it isn't a happy book at all. But at the same time you just can't help but keep hope. You'll understand if you read it!

Rating 5/5 just buy both of the books when you get the first one

Monsters of Men

Author: Patrick Ness

Goodreads

This is the third of the last two books. I am not writing the genres.

Now, as much as I loved the first two this book sort of... lost a bit. The points of view change so quickly that I really didn't feel like I could get into it like the last two books at all. The vibe changed, the pacing changed, everything changed and I didn't enjoy it.

The story was still good. Though the ending was a bit "meh" and while the epilogue thing was great the actual ending made me very angry. I dunno. I feel like when you read this book just stop 90% in and make up your own ending. You'll be happier that way.

Rating: 3.5/5 DISAPPOINTMENT!!

A Head Full of Ghosts

Author: Paul Tremblay

Goodreads

Science Fiction? Horror, Thriller, this book should be more disgusting!

This books description sounded so good! Oooooh, a reality TV show about a family trying to get their young daughter to not be possessed when she really is just schizophrenic? Gimme the book! I love creepy weird things. I like being made uncomfortable. I like books that make me react.

This isn't that book. It was boring and so much of it just seemed pointless. It had so much potential to be AWESOME but was executed so poorly. I skipped so much of the "present day" stuff and just went to the past to read about the creepy sister who wasn't really even creepy. I dunno, maybe my expectations were wrong in this one. The narrator just didn't help things at all.

Rating: 3/5 stars If there's nothing else you wanna read I guess this is okay...

Pines

Author: Blake Crouch

Goodreads

Science Fiction, thriller, snooze

This book was just average. Nothing special about nothing bad about it. I feel like the entire three books could have been made into one book and 2/3 of the content of this guy cut out. The 10 episode series made off of this book is obviously the way it should have been done.

Watch Wayward Pines, don't worry about reading this. Not worth it.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars If you really love mystery go for it, but that's about it. Watch the show!

More Happy Than Not

Author: Adam Silvera
Goodreads

Young Adult Drama Boring Why?

I need to stop reading these sort of young adult discovery books. I just don't care. I don't relate to the narrator and I find it boring unless there's a lot going on. And in this book there's not a lot going on. Let's play manhunt for 15 pages!!!

Rating: dropped at 25%

Little Known Japan: Sapporo Outings Moerenuma and Art Park

2015-07-29T08:51:00.001-04:00

Sapporo is Japan’s fourth largest city after Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. It is the northernmost of these cities and you’re gonna have to travel a ways to get here, but it’s a fantastic city. I’ve been all over Japan, and there’s nothing quite like it. The people are very friendly and interested in you, the food is amazing, and the area around it is beautiful. It’s famous for skiing, having hosted a winter Olympics way back when, and has a relatively mild summer for Japan. You can get a roundtrip ticket from Tokyo for under $100 in the off-season and it will only take you two hours to fly here. Not to mention the ferry you can take or the train (though those will eat up a day of your time).

Sapporo has a lot to offer, mostly in terms of unique outdoor experiences. And here I would like to highlight two of them. This year I have visited two of Sapporo’s more famous parks, the architecture park of Moerenuma and the Sapporo Art Park.

Both are a bit out of the way, requiring you to travel to the end of the line on different subway lines and take a bus for the better part of thirty minutes, but they are both places you won’t find anywhere else in the world, and are worth a visit.

Moerenuma is north of the city, you’ll need to take the Toho line to Shindo Higashi station and then the Chuo Bus numbered Higashi 76. There’s other ways to get there but this is the route I took. Total travel time from Sapporo Station will be about 50 minutes.

You’ll get off the bus and think “where’s the park, there’s only farm?” but if you head across the street you’ll find the entrance, when you walk over a bridge you’ll be greeted with lush green and interesting looking manmade mountains.

The park opened in 1998 after nearly twenty years of construction. The park was designed by Isamu Noguchi, who was a Japanese-American sculptor. The park is perfect for a picnic with many trees to sit under and enjoy the huge sculptures that surround you.

You’ll find a glass pyramid on the eastern side of the park that houses a small museum to Noguchi as well as a great view of the surrounding neighborhood.

Secondly is Sapporo’s Art Park. A twenty minute bus ride from platform two at Makomanai station on the Namboku Line will get you to this art gallery art park hybrid. The day I went was to see the Star Wars: Visions exhibit with some friends. The art gallery hosts random exhibits throughout the year and entry fees vary. The constant attraction is the sculpture garden, which was only an extra 100 yen added onto the fee of the Star Wars exhibit. Just entry to the sculpture garden will cost under 1,000 yen.

There was also a small gathering of local artists selling their goods outside the art gallery, where you can find some unique Japanese souvenirs and support local art. The park has a number of other attractions, but I didn’t have a chance to see them as it closed around 5:30.

The sculpture park will take you at least twenty minutes to get around, and you can easily spend an hour wandering around the dozens of pieces.

While much of the year Sapporo is covered in snow and very, very cold. The few months we get of warm weather are generally jam packed trying to enjoy all the city has to offer before the cold sets in again. The people of Sapporo really appreciate the summer, and you can see that value in the events that happen this time of year that try to get the most out of their few months free of snow.

July and August are my favorite Sapporo months, and I am glad they will be my last. Go out on the best note possible.

Little Known Japan: Furano-Biei Flower Farms

2015-07-22T17:20:00.001-04:00

Two weekends ago I went on a trip with a few of my friends to a famous farming town two and a half hours north of Sapporo. It’s called Furano and its specialty is growing flowers. I had been there a couple years back, when I stilled lived in Atsuma and a friend had a spare seat in her rental car, but the weather was rainy and we had missed the lavender blooming, so I had always wanted to go back there.

A couple weeks ago I decided to try. I sent a message out to a handful of friends and organized a rental car and Saturday we were off. It was a great trip that went off without a hitch and the weather was perfect. I realized how much I enjoy roadtrips and it is now my goal to do more of them!

The day started at 9am and we got our rental car. I was the navigator and Allie, who I went to Vietnam and Cambodia with, drove us. I was planning on driving but I didn’t realize that my Japanese license expired back in March rather than the three year mark of me getting it. Nice job assuming, Kaley.

The drive itself was beautiful. We took the backroads to avoid the exorbitant prices of Japanese toll roads (only would have saved us 20 minutes) and the winding mountain roads and scenic farm towns we passed reminded me just why I love Japan and why I have stayed here for so long. It’s easy to forget when you spend your days in a concrete jungle.

The weather was so nice that I rode with the windows down. Until a carpenter bee decided to fly into my face and end up on Allie’s leg. Props to her for not freaking out and bigger props to Sevy for grabbing the thing with a tissue while I was frozen in fear and confusion.

We started about thirty minutes north of Furano in Biei, where we had lunch at a beautiful little cottage at a potato farm famous for their beef stew called Blanc Rouge then headed back south to Shikisai No Oka, a flower farm located on some rolling hills.

When I came two years back the blooming season for the flowers was in full swing, it’s a shame that the lavender and most of the other flowers aren’t in sync, but we can’t really expect to control nature now, can we? Regardless, it was still a beautiful place and there was something more exciting than flowers.

Alpacas.

I love alpacas. I think they are just the funniest and cutest animals. Their long awkward necks, fluffy bodies, and hilarious noises just get to me. And I have a collection of random alpaca cuteness all over my apartment and desk.

Though, the saliva warnings scared me a bit.

They’re animals and you can’t expect everyone to be perfect. Even an alpaca.

After we finished up in Biei we headed down to Furano itself and the main stop, Farm Tomita. This place is very busy as there’s only really two weeks in a year where the lavender blooms, so the Chinese tour buses were out in full force. I can confirm that Chinese tourists are the worst tourists. They’re just loud and rude and travel is large herds.

I got some ice cream, cantaloupe and lavender swirled together into perfection, and as I was waiting in line an old Chinese lady just shoved me out of the way to look into the drink cooler before walking off. There was a line of ten people behind me as well. Rude.

Farm Tomita was beautiful, the lavender were perfect and the weather even moreso. Though it was hot for the first time since, well, last year. I realized that Sapporo has removed any ability I have for heat adaptation and my move back to Florida will be a warm one. Though we have air conditioning in Florida and springs and beaches so I guess the heat really won’t matter too much.

After we got done looking at the flowers we headed over to the melon house where I bought the tiniest melon smoothie for far too much money. Melon in Japan is beyond expensive. A cantaloupe will cost you $15 and a honeydew $8. The only time I eat it is if I get it for school lunch, which happens a few times a month in season and I actually got some good cantaloupe this Monday.

By 5 we had to head back to Sapporo, to drop off our rental car by 8. The drive back was much the same as the drive there, though the windows stayed up and the setting sun was in our eyes. We got the car back with a full tank of gas ten minutes before it was due, so I consider it a success.

One of the main reasons I love living in Hokkaido also makes it difficult to enjoy living here. The island is largely farm land and nature, and the train lines go to only a few major cities. If you want to go anywhere it will take you ages (Furano is only 120km away from Sapporo), but the drive will be beautiful and a large part of your journey. We only spent four hours total in Biei and Furano and six in the car, and it was nice to just enjoy the beautiful mountainous country of Japan for a day, and really appreciate the country I have called home for the last four years.

I highly suggest renting a car and spending a few days driving around Japan, rather than sticking to the main cities. Japan actually goes from urban to rural really quickly, and you can experience the more rustic Japan easily in a day trip outside of Tokyo or Kyoto or Osaka. To me, that’s the real Japan. That special part of Japan that lets you really understand the country.

All photos are taken by me. Please don't use without permission. I hold all copyrights.

How I Get The Perfect iPhone Photo: SITS Photography Challenge Days 1 and 2

2015-07-15T04:09:00.000-04:00

For my birthday this year I bought myself a Nikon D3300. I've wanted a DSLR since high school but never really had the money saved to get one. Moving to Japan was expensive and moving around Japan was expensive and living in Japan is expensive. So it took me this long to buy one. Since I've gotten it I have tried my best to practice with it. Taking it to Vietnam and Cambodia, exploring around Sapporo, taking trips to surrounding villages. Mostly I just fiddle with the settings until it looks halfway decent and polish it in Photoshop.

Last week I got an email about the SITS blogging photography challenge and decided to give it a try. My time difference makes it a bit difficult to participate as I would like, since the challenges are usually posted right as I get to bed, but I am trying my best!

Day 1 was about composition, something I am familiar with thanks to the photography class I had in high school which spawned my desire to get a DSLR. And day 2 deals with phone photography, an area I am definitely lacking in thanks to only having an iPhone 4 (did I mention it took me six years to save for a DSLR? Yeah I ain't got money for new iPhones all the time). Thankfully I'll be getting the newest iPhone this September when I move back to America. You don't know how much I am looking forward to getting it! I can't get iOS 8 on this, which means many apps I want I can't have (VSCOcam being one that many people use to edit photos). Not to mention it's just small and slow. It's been a great phone but four years is definitely the most it will last.

I had some free time at work today (which really isn't anything new... Six days left!!!) and decided to try and play with my phone a bit. Japanese phones actually have permanent shutter noises thanks to all the perverts but I downloaded a manner camera which silences it, though it's a bit slow and I think the photo quality lessens. Another reason I don't use my phone much!

I started by setting up what I wanted to shoot. I decided on a colorful image of my pens with some Sailor Moon stuff thrown in because... I like Sailor Moon.

The background was a bit boring so I tinkered it a bit, then decided to work on the angles that I was using.

I really liked going from nearly a top down point of view, but the background was too cluttered for that.

I decided to change the angle to more of a sideview, and began snapping away.

I didn't really like the reflection of the lights on the table, so I tried to get some without them in it.

Which proved difficult when trying to get a somewhat decent composition going...

So I ended up dealing with them and changing the background to be a bit darker, and this is my final image!

You can see a higher quality image by clicking on the photo!

As you can see, it takes a lot of different shots to get the "perfect" picture. When you watch shows like Top Model and the contestants have like 100 frames to get one good image this point is really drilled home. So many little details go into making a great picture, and you really can only learn what those details are by practicing. Phone cameras are a great way of playing with different angles and backgrounds, as the limited settings narrow your focus down a lot. You're no so concerned with ISOs and f-stops and apertures and just really focused on the image you're taking a picture of. I think great photography comes from the ability to understand what you're taking a picture of, and not using fancy settings and editing to mask what flaws it may have.

What is your photo taking process like? Do you pay attention to these little details like I do? How many pictures do you usually take before you find the right one? Leave a comment below, I'd love to hear about it!!

Cambodia: Phnom Penh and Siem Reap

2015-07-13T17:17:00.000-04:00

It’s been a while since I have written about my trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. It was so long ago now that I feel a little silly typing it up after so much time. I’ve decided to put both Cambodian cities in the same post, as there really wasn’t that much difference between the two.

Our first stop was in the capital of Phnom Penh. The city was much larger than I expected, mainly because Hanoi has completely thrown off any expectations I had previously. It felt like a huge metro area with large roads, regular grocery stores, and an easy to follow layout. The hostel we stayed at was located right near the royal palace and pretty much everything else I wanted to do in the city.

Central Market in Phnom Penh

The first thing I noticed, however, was the heat. I am from Florida so I am no stranger to the all-encompassing humid kinda heat that you get in more tropical climates, but I’ve lived the last couple years in Sapporo where you’re in a jacket ten months of the year, so my body is out of practice with heat. And boy, does Cambodia really know how to do heat. The worst part is that there is very little escape from it when you’re outside, the tree lined roads of Vietnam aren’t a thing in Cambodia and walks around town are just you and the sun and heat. I mean, it’s beautiful out there with the cloudless skies but that just means it’s always, always hot.

Thankfully the hostels will have air conditioning in the room if you do it right, the hostel we stayed at in Phnom Penh was really nice and we ended up with an entire female dorm to ourselves. It was cleaned and the staff were really nice. Cambodian people are just really nice. They want you there, which is a big difference to the Vietnamese. The Cambodians have realized just how valuable foreign tourism is to their country and they are doing every single thing that they can to ensure it continues. The Vietnamese also embrace the tourism but in a very aggressive way. The Japanese, on the other hand, only want foreigners to stay in their nice little foreign bubbles, in my experience.

Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

In Phnom Penh the pace slowed down a lot, which isn’t hard coming from Hanoi. We went to the Royal Palace which was amazingly beautiful, but where I learned that the Heat is going to be an issue on this trip and that Water is my new best friend in the entire world. It doesn’t help that when you’re going to 90% of the tourist spots in Cambodia they double as a sacred place, which means your knees and shoulders should be covered. Which means you’re wearing way more clothes than you would like to. Shawls aren’t really acceptable either. So you’ll be walking around these amazingly beautiful places that you’ll likely never see again and half your focus will be on “man, I really don’t want to climb those ten steps into that hot palace building but I gotta do it, oh goodness why is climbing ten steps so difficult where is my water bottle. I made it! Thank goodness I made it. Now I need a rest.”

There was one point at the Royal Palace where they have all these chairs and fans set up (because people have to remove their shoes to go into the hall) and everyone is just sitting there by the fans and you can tell you’re all in this miserable heat together. This was also when I realized that even surrounded by foreigners I stand out as a foreigner. In Japan, I am usually one of only a few foreigners in an area. Maybe walking in a busy shopping area I’ll see a few others, but we’re a huge minority. At these spots I was visiting I would say that it was usually half foreign tourists and half domestic. Yet, I constantly attracted the attention of the natives. I didn’t really expect this to happen because I was constantly surrounded by people who look very similar to me, but for some reason my “foreignness” is extra special. My height? My extreme paleness? My beauty? I don’t know. But it was something that really surprised me. Because in America I have always just felt very “average” (outside of being a six foot female…).

National Museum in Phnom Penh

That being said, none of the tourist spots you will go to in Cambodia will have air conditioning. It’s a very hot experience. Pretty much the only time you will have any relief from the heat is when you are in your hostel or in a large, modern shopping complex. The markets are outdoors, the museums are outdoors, the temples are outdoors. So you need water, lots of water.

Now, in Vietnam water was cheap. Like the kinda cheap you don’t really even think about. You may your pennies for the huge water bottle and you drink and drink and pay pennies for another. In Cambodia, though, you can pay almost a dollar for 1.5 liters. Now, that doesn’t sound like much compared to bottle water in the States or even Japan, but when your ONLY option for water is to buy it, and you’re drinking maybe 6 liters a day of the stuff, it adds up. That was probably the biggest downfall, how expensive the water was.

In Phnom Penh we had the chance to take a day trip out to, what I would consider, one of the most moving experiences I have ever had traveling. I’ve heard references to the Khmer Rouge growing up, it’s a name I am familiar with but I never really knew why it was familiar. In Cambodia I learned a lot of the history of the country, which is one of the very important parts of traveling to me. I want to learn about the country I am visiting, not just visit a bunch of tourist spots because I can. There is an entire country of people who have histories that are just as detailed and important as my own countries. As an American I think this is a very important thing to do, because it is very easy to just get caught up in the influence America has globally and not really realize that there is an entire world of people outside of your own country.

Mass graves at the killing field

This day trip we took was to a killing field. For some reason the name didn’t really have the impact that it should have when we first started the trip. I’ve watched countless Holocaust documentaries and I have studied the awful things other countries did during WWII. But, it’s always had this distance behind it. We got to the killing field and they have these audio guides for you to take for free. You put the headphones on and suddenly you’re in your own little world. The sun is shining and the sky is blue and this man’s voice comes on and he just starts telling you all these awful things that have happened right where you’re standing. Then you walk on when he tells you to and you realize all those holes in the ground? Those didn’t have one body in them, not even a dozen bodies, they had hundreds. Each of the dozens of holes had hundreds of bodies in them. Then there’s warnings to step carefully because bones get brought to the surface every so often. And that tree? That tree is where they bashed the heads of children.

It’s a dark and it’s a devastating and it’s an awful, awful place. But it’s important. It’s important to see what can and has happened, just what we are capable of if we’re not careful. It’s so weird, knowing that people were trapped where I was walking, and I can just look over a fence and there is this huge open area of green with cows grazing. It seems so beautiful and peaceful until you realize that where you are standing someone died. A lot of someones, really.

I think it is important to note that the things that I enjoyed the most out of the trip were usually the things that I didn’t plan to do. The food tour in Hanoi was a last minute addition as was the trip to the killing field. I do a lot of planning for traveling, but I always make sure to leave plenty of time to do things that I didn’t realize were an option, or that maybe sounded horrible on paper (“Why would I want to visit a killing field on my vacation???”) but after hearing everyone I talk to say how much I have to do it, I add it in. I think that balance of planning and free time is crucial for a great trip.

Pub Street in Siem Reap

Siem Reap was the next city, and most of that time was spent at Angkor Wat, which I will write in my next Vietnam and Cambodia post. Siem Reap was a fun city, and I think it is a complete tourist town. The only thing that city really has going for it is Angkor Wat and it shows. Pub Street had more cuisines from around the world than I have seen in a long time, and there are foreigners everywhere. You’ll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t speak some English and it just feels really comfortable.

We stayed at a hostel near the night market and Pub Street and I think that is the perfect place to stay. Angkor Wat is a ways out of the city proper, so you’re going to have to travel to get there regardless. Might as well stay where all the fun stuff happens! When we weren’t at Angkor Wat we were walking around, and we managed to get a massage which was well worth the break. But there really isn’t much to do in the city itself, so I don’t suggest allotting too much time outside of Angkor Wat.

This house is on a lake

We did make a trip over to Tonle Sap, though. While the trip itself was slightly weird due to the two of us being the only two people on the entire river boat with a crew of nearly ten and a sick sea boat driver, the actual lake lake itself ("sap" means "lake") was fascinating. It is covered in a floating village. People just live there, floating and fishing in the middle of SE Asia's biggest lake. In the rainy reason I believe you can even travel between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh via this lake.

Cambodia, while hot, was a great experience. It's a very simple country and the people are very nice and welcoming. Maybe one day I will make it back to Cambodia, I could see myself returning there, that's for sure. Maybe not in the hottest month of the year, though!

All photos were taken by me. Please don't use without permission, I hold all copyrights!

Mid-Year Book Reviews

2015-07-03T21:03:00.000-04:00

Now that June is finally over, I thought it would be a good time to give a mid-year update on the books that I have read so far. As I write this, I have finished 23 books to completion and dropped another 7 after starting them. This year has been a bit difficult for me book-wise, as I have found myself either loving or hating most books I start. Maybe I’ve just turned into a tough critic, I don’t know!

Here’s a list of the books I’ve read, in order of rating. After that you’ll find a short list of “awards” to certain books.

5 stars (must read)

The Rosie Project – Graeme Simsion

The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty – Amanda Filipacchi

The Queen of the Tearling – Erika Johansen

Red Rising – Pierce Brown

Golden Son – Pierce Brown

Uprooted – Naomi Novik

4 stars (recommended)

The Rosie Effect – Graeme Simsion

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore – Robin Sloan

The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins

Firefight – Brandon Sanderson

Prince of Fools – Mark Lawrence

Me Before You – Jojo Moyes

The Wrath and the Dawn – Renee Ahdieh

Dar Four – Sara Lotz

3.5 stars

Shadow Scale – Rachel Hartman

3 stars (good, but slightly disappointing)

A Darker Shade of Magic – V.E. Schwab

The Invasion of the Tearling – Erika Johansen

Crimson Bound – Rosamund Hodge

2.5 stars

The Young Elites – Marie Lu

Mosquitoland – David Arnold

The Perilous Sea – Sherry Thomas
An Ember in the Ashes - Sabaa Tahir

2 stars (has readability but I didn’t enjoy it)

Shades of Grey – Jasper Fforde

Delicious Foods – James Hannaham dropped at 50%

My Heart and Other Black Holes – Jasmine Warga dropped at 20%

The Red Pyramid – Rick Riordan dropped at 20%

1 star (don’t bother)

Lois Lane: Fallout – Gwenda Bond dropped at 10%

Fangirl – Rainbow Rowell dropped at 10%

The Mini Awards

The Best So Far: The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty by Amanda Filipacchi

I was reading this while traveling around Indochina. My travel partner would often hear me just start giggling like crazy to myself at the absurdity of this book. It was such a delightfully unexpected book, and was nothing like I expected. I read it very quickly given the circumstances and I still remember the joy it brought me. You have to read this! It’s the perfect example of an author not taking themselves too seriously.

The Most Surprising: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

The cover didn’t really capture my attention, the blurb was mediocre at best, but after reading a few reviews I decided to give it a try. And it ended up being one of the quickest reads of the year so far. It was such a great little gem, and I love that it’s just one book. The characters were great, and I found myself just longing to get back to reading it. I feel like this book would be much more popular if it didn’t give off such a juvenile feel.

The Most Disappointing: A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab

The author’s previous novel, Vicious, was one of my favorites. I loved the characters and the unique take on the superhero genre. I came into this book hoping for more of the same and was just left feeling really underwhelmed. It’s still a good book, I just had far too high of expectations.

The Worst So Far: The Perilous Sea by Sherry Thomas

I’m only basing this off of the books I actually finished, and it has to be this one. Not only was it disappointing, I was barely able to make it through. It’s the second in the series. Apparently I really enjoyed the first one, though I honestly can’t recall why anymore. It was such a lackluster anything that I honestly can’t even remember a thing about it. That’s not very good….

Hope the second half of the year picks up a bit as far as books are concerned! Let me know if you have any I should read or if you have read any of the books I did with similar or difference impressions!

10 Reasons Why I Am Leaving Japan

2015-06-30T04:05:00.001-04:00

I’m going to take a break from my Vietnam and Cambodia posts to write an entry that I think is pretty important to my life as it stands now. The last few months have been an emotional rollercoaster for me and it has led me to do a lot of self-reflection, which has led me to make a pretty huge decision for my life.

I’m leaving Japan.

For the last four years (nearly) I have lived in Japan. I have spent all of my “adult” life here. I came here when I was 22, fresh out of college, and still not really sure who I was. I’m 26 now, and I feel as if I have just been playing house, in a sense, rather than really making a life for myself.

It’s been a difficult thing to deal with, I have people on both sides of my life giving me very mixed reactions and I have had to explain many, many times why I have decided to leave. A lot of people have considered it sudden, but anyone who has really talked to me about how I feel living in Japan will know that the unhappiness and displeasure with my life here has been for roughly the last year, I was just too scared to really do anything about it.

Just to clarify, I’ve not been unhappy with Japan, but rather the way in which I live my life here. I think it would be a good idea to write out my top ten reasons for leaving Japan, starting with the least important to the most in an attempt to make people understand why I’m leaving, and maybe help some people who may want to live in Japan (or overseas in general) as to what they can expect from long-term expatriate life.

10. Pizza

This may not seem like a good reason to leave a country, but bear with me. I love pizza. It’s the best food, and I ate it multiple times a week in college. Which may explain my weight-gain/weight-loss in my 21^st and 2^2ndyears… Anyway, pizza makes me happy. I like the ease or ordering a pizza, I love how cheap it is. It’s the perfect food.

More specifically I like the New York, thin, lightly sauced, meaty topped, wonderful pizzas. I like the huge slices that you can get at places around Florida, I like the random toppings. It wasn’t until I moved to Japan that I realized how different pizza in America is compared to the rest of the world.

Japan does have Pizza Hut all over the place in most larger cities. They deliver, they have online ordering, it’s much the same as the American counterpart. But… it’s insanely expensive. As in a basic small cheese pizza will cost you close to $20. However, they only have two size options (medium and large) and the medium is personal pan sized and the large is smaller than an American medium. Here’s some examples of their pizza for you to look at.

Needless to say I never order it. I’ve only had it twice. In four years. It’s this lack of American comfort food in general that has influenced my desire to not be here. I enjoy Japanese food, don’t get me wrong, but I like my American staples much better.

9. I want a pet.

I spend my free time looking at shelters online and seeing what dogs they want, picturing my life with this lovable pet, and crying over their sad little faces. Growing up I always had a dog, and my childhood dog actually passed away while I was over here. I just like having a little companion around. It’s something I have always wanted. Cat? Dog? Either is okay with me at this point.

Having a pet in Japan is definitely possible, and I have plenty of friends with cats (none with dogs). The only issue is that your options for housing once you get a pet goes down considerably, and most places that will allow a cat won’t allow dogs, and I want a dog more than a cat at the moment. Not to mention I don’t really want to put my pet through the stress over moving back overseas. So the days and weeks pass and I look longingly at all my friends with pets and I just want one. It will be one of the first things I do when I have a place of my own.

8. I like cooking.

Japanese cuisine is very different from how I was raised. For starters ovens aren’t really a thing here (along with dishwashers and clothes dryers and air conditioning and the list goes on and on). While I have a pretty decent microwave/convection oven it is really limited and doesn’t really retain heat very well, so cooking takes forever. Imagine a step up from an Easy Bake.

Ingredients are also hard to come by, Japan is a small country and nearly all their food is imported, so things get expensive. I enjoy cooking shows and looking at recipes, and more often than not I have to adjust recipes to suit Japanese availability or just not be able to make things. It’s difficult. Not to mention the cost of fruit (8 strawberries for $10! An apple for nearly $2!) or the cost of meat (a small pork tenderloin is gonna be over $10 and half a pound of ground beef is over $6) has limited me to using mainly chicken breasts and ground pork. I’ve mentioned before about my weird food anxiety that I’ve nearly bested since moving here, and I feel like I can’t really explore my new food options like I want to.

Don’t even get me started on cheese. That can have its own post.

7. “Basic” things are really difficult.

So I have an upstairs neighbor who a horrible human being. I’ve never seen or met this person, but I know that they are. You want to know how I know that they are this devil-span? For the last nine months I’ve been woken up nearly weekly (usually during the weekdays) after midnight by the sounds of their washing machine. If I were in America I would have called my apartment company after the first night and filed a complaint. I would have gotten the police involved when it didn’t stop. I know how to handle these things in America because, well, in college I’ve had it done to me.

In Japan, though, I don’t really know what to do. Let me correct that, I know what to do but I don’t really know how to do it. When you live in a country that has a completely different language from you, you realize that communication is difficult (oh hey blog name!) most of the time. And making a phone call in a different language really, really sucks. I don’t even like making phone calls in English.

Anyways, I struggled for a long time as to what to do, suffering for a few months, then a few months of it not happening, and then when it started up again I got so fed up I asked a friend to help me out, he called for me and they called everyone on the fifth floor and sent letters to the entire building telling them to stop. Which didn’t work (hence the evil part of this person, because they clearly don’t care) and led to me asking a different person for help. This week it happened again (because they are evil) and I found myself too shamed to ask for help again. I’m 26 years old, I should be able to handle this easily. So all day I planned what I would say, hoping that since they had been called twice about the issue it would be easy enough to get my point across. Sadly, I called and the woman on the phone had no idea what I was saying. After struggling for five minutes to get her to understand, all while trying not to cry out of frustration (and exhaustion) I snapped and broke down into tears, hanging up the phone and spending the next ten minutes hating how I can’t even do simple things. And this is a daily struggle, really.

6. Money

This is a huge issue, and I could really spend ages talking about all the issues I have with money in Japan. The biggest issue is that I don’t really have much. When I first moved to Japan and National Health Insurance and city taxes were near zero, I was able to save plenty. But once you get a full year of pay in Japan be prepared (if you’re not a JET) to lose close to 30% of your income to these two things. Yep, that’s a 3 and a 0 before that percent sign.

I have a second job, which means two days a week I work until 8pm when I have to be up at 5:45 every day. If my neighbor decides to do laundry at 1am on a Monday (like this week) I spend most of my week exhausted. Now, Japan is known for its insane working hours and I would venture to guess that the majority of Japanese workers are usually working 8am-8pm like I am, but I’m not Japanese and I refuse to live like this just to have money.

Then, things are really, really expensive. If you ignore the food issue that I mentioned there are still plenty of things that are expensive. Japan has an outrageous import tax on leather (why???) and so anything that’s imported with even a tiny bit of leather has a huge price increase (most backpacks, shoes, purses, jackets, etc.). Then there’s makeup. I don’t know why makeup in Japan is so insanely expensive, but a Maybelline lipstick costs about $15. That’s like buying a Mac lipstick back in America (which are $30 at least here). And Japanese brands aren’t any cheaper, so it’s not an importing tax issue. It’s just a Japan-has-expensive-makeup issue.

5. I am not Japan Size

This kind of goes along with number 6 in the sense that it’s really difficult for me to find anything “extra” to get myself. Now, I realize that I am not average size even in America, but I’ve never had an issue back in the States when it comes to clothes shopping. And yes, Japanese women are much smaller than I am in general. In Japanese stores, though, there is just a very limited variety of sizes available. Usually all you’ll find is a small, medium, and large option which is like a 0, 4 and 8 (US women).

I’m basically one size too big for anything here. Granted I’m roughly six feet tall so I can’t really blame them. But it just really stinks when I want to buy a sweater or a skirt or pants or anything, really. Don’t even get me started on shoes. If you have feet larger than an 8 you’re out of luck.

4. Job options are very limited.

Japan is the land of the Salaryman, a husband who goes to work in a black suit and tie and works endless hours and comes home to his stay-at-home-wife and kids half-drunk at 9pm every night of the week. This isn’t a 100% fact but my 8:30pm subway rides say that it’s definitely more common than not. I don’t want this life, at all. I want a job and a career and a family. I don’t want a barely there husband while I raise our kids alone. I don’t want to work so much and not have time for my friends or family.

Not to mention, women in Japan are still very much behind as far as fair treatment is concerned in a lot of aspects of equal rights, even when compared to America which hasn’t even had a female President yet (please let this happen, US!!). When I go into the principal’s office at my schools you’ll see over a dozen pictures of all the past principals. I’ve seen a woman up there maybe three times. Out of 15 schools. That’s hundreds of principals and only THREE have been women.

Add in the fact that I am a foreigner and my options are even more limited. I just don’t have a lot of choices where work is concerned, it’s basically teach English unless I have fantastic Japanese (which I don’t – see crying in my apartment after trying to make a bloody phonecall).

3. My family.

Now we’re getting into the meat of why I am leaving. My family has had a rough year, maybe even couple of years. I’ve missed out on weddings and births and deaths while I have been here. The former two are the hardest for me, mainly because the deaths have been of more distant relatives, but it’s still loss all the same. I’m reminded that my family won’t be around forever, and if something were to happen to an immediate family member while I was here, I’d never forgive myself.

My family needs me, and I am tired of being that distant relative off in college or overseas. I want to be more present. At least for a little bit (since I’ll likely move to the West Coast, sorry Mom!).

2. There’s no real reason for me to stay

When you add in the lack of job opportunities, the fact that I can’t fit into clothes, that I can’t get my favorite things, that having a pet is difficult, I am faced with the fact that I have no reason to stay. I have friends here, and I love them to death and I consider myself so lucky to have the great community that I have, but… they will always be there. They’ll always be a reason to stay. And it’s sadly not good enough. I need more than that.

I’ve given up on finding love here, that’s a bit more personal and I really don’t want to open that can of worms yet (in short, I don’t think Japanese guys take me seriously, and the type of foreign guys that usually come to Japan only want a Japanese girl). And I want that. Maybe not now, but someday, and I don’t think I am going to find it here in Sapporo, or Japan in general.

And finally, the last reason, which is the biggest reason of all:

1. I never planned to be here forever.

When I moved to Japan I expected to be here no more than two years. But things happened and I ended up staying longer. I would have honestly left earlier, I think, if not for a couple of factors which, until recently, made me want to stay. But I’ve always known, deep down, that Japan wasn’t going to be my forever home.

I love Japan a lot, it is a second home to me, but it is second. I don’t want to raise my children without my parents being in the same country. I don’t want to miss out on all of my cousins’ life moments. I want to be able to go home for Christmas. These things are just too difficult in Japan and I always knew they would be.

It’s never been a matter of “if I leave Japan” but “when”. And Japan has honestly done nothing to make me feel like it wants me here long-term. The Japanese people will never accept me as Japan, even if I live here longer than I did the States (because once I were to hit 45 that would be the case) and I have taught too many mixed-raced children to want that life for my kids.

So, Japan isn’t the place for me. I don’t want to assimilate into the country, and I don’t want to be stared at because I just so happen to be having a cup of coffee in public or be buying groceries. I don’t want the first thing someone says to me to be, “welcome to Japan!” when I’ve been here for years. I don’t want servers to look stressed when a table of foreigners (who all speak Japanese) sits down and wants to order. I’m tired of being “gaijin” and I just want to be “Kaley”.