-“would you like me to rub your back for you” and “please excuse me for the unwanted hair”

-Two lines I saw in my student’s notebook of phrases that she had learned to use on the school trip to San Francisco

I just reread my last newsletter and it feels like I wrote it during a different trip, totally unconnected with this present. That snowstorm that I talked about has melted away and we are in the first days of spring here and I couldn’t be happier. Winter seemed very long here and I am very ready for a change in season and to run out the door looking for adventures that I have been dreaming about for the past two months. Already the plum trees have blossomed and they are some of the most beautiful things I have seen yet in Japan. I am sure I have seen trees like this in the past, but since plum and cherry blossom viewing is such an established tradition here, my attention has really been focused in on them. Vegetation has always marked where I am much more than buildings and man-made structures have. In South America there were the massive flower covered lapachos which grew in such whimsical shapes. In Europe Sycamores lined most streets and will forever be associated with French and Spanish cities. Here these dark trunked twisted trees covered in little tiny white and pink flowers will forever represent Japan for me from now. Many are inconspicuous and hit your eye unexpectedly. Today I found a beautiful one by the school’s trash pile.

Winter was somewhat slow here and I spent a lot of time around that little heated table reading, studying and watching movies. In February I bought a used touring bike online and that has already provided me with some great adventures. I would like to talk about one of those adventures today, which I think is an anecdote which contains many of the things I love most all here.

It started off at 7 in the morning on a Saturday. I took the train an hour away east to a little neighborhood of Chiba city where I was going to learn how to make rolled sushi. Within two hours I had learned how to roll up little sea weed tubes filled with purple rice which when put together looks just like a flower. It was very fast and just a wonderful way to start the morning. I took the train back home and Ben was arrived at the exact moment I did on his bike. We were going to test out my new bike with a 22km ride to the very outskirts of Tokyo to a place called Kita-Senju. The bike ride took about 2 hours along not so pretty roads following local highways, which included one unintentional illegal expressway crossing that was particularly frightening. Tokyo is now home to the world’s tallest tower called the Sky Tree and it was really rewarding seeing the tower grow bigger and bigger as we approached Tokyo. It also helps to not get lost. Upon arrival we went to a little French restaurant and had a coffee, then to a curry restaurant to have some great Indian curry which listening to reggae, then to coffee roastery where we got another cup of coffee (it was cold and well, we just love coffee). We finally ended up at a very famous bathhouse that was part of the reason why we had chosen Kita-Senju to visit. Most bathhouses here are fairly unremarkable buildings that have nothing too architecturally striking about them. This one though is in that beautiful flared roof design and made of wood and looks like something from another century. Inside they have a wonderful wood ceiling painted in fading flowers. The bath is mostly just like any other bath, just very well laid out, clean but still traditional, and with the added feature of an outdoor walled in bath which makes you feel like you are far from the city.

We get out of the bath and ride home in the nighttime, something which I personally love. We made it home in an hour and a half and ended riding down a famous street near my home which is known for having cherry blossoms for about 2 miles straight. There were no cars and just us on the road and it was so peaceful. We pulled up to our favorite restaurant called Sama Sama where we have known the owner Hiroshi since we got here. He is one of the most interesting people I have met here and amazingly generous and I feel like I cannot do him justice here in this little sidebar of one journal. Ezra has come to my house and grabbed my other bike and rode to meet us at the restaurant. We stroll in, sit down in our normal velvet couched corner and almost immediately the waitress comes and sets a bottle of wine on our table and says that Mr. Watanabe has bought the bottle for us. Watanabe-san is an 80 year old retired fashion something (we have never been able to figure it out exactly what he did) who legitimately resembles a very fashionably dressed Japanese coronal sanders. We had literally only seen him one other time we had gone to the restaurant, never spoken with him but I guess that was enough to entitle us to a free bottle of wine this time. He motions for us to come over and we are joined by the waitress’s son that is around our age. Watanabe-san says that is going to buy us all dinner and whatever we want to drink all night, so go crazy. He also calls his daughter in Tokyo just to have us say hello to her because she can speak English. We end up staying for 4 hours until well after the place was suppose to close, drinking and eating with Hiroshi, the waitress and Watanabe-san until he retired back to his home. I have mentioned this before about the Japanese generosity but I am constantly reminded of it and still do not really understand it. Watanabe-san did not speak English and Ben and I can say only very basic things in Japanese (Ezra has great Japanese), but here we are, not really communicating in anything other than gestures, and he is buying us a full meal no questions asked the very first time we talk with him. Needless to say, we biked home very happy that night and snuggled up in my little apartment, giggling all night long.

Yesterday I watched my first Japanese graduation and it was very similar to our graduations back home, just with more bowing and the occasional Lion king background music during people’s speeches. People cried, the kids sang a song and no, nobody wore a gown, just their normal school attire. It means though that soon I will start with the official school year and see it come to fruition which I am excited about. This year has really felt stop and go for me because I arrived half way through the year and I never knew what was happening. This year I will see it pass step by step in the natural rhythm and I think that I am may understand more.

I am excited for spring and the adventures that it will bring. I have not ventured too far from home during the winter and I am very excited for my friend Jannik to visit and to explore other parts of Japan with him at the end of this month. I am going to Kyoto for the first time at the beginning of April. I will try and take more pictures from this time on, but as many of you know, that is not my strong suit. Thank you all for your support and letters.

-james