American Thanksgiving...and lots of Mexican food

For those of you that I didn't get to see when I was home last week, my apologies. There are a lot of you that I didn't connect with, and I wish I'd had time to see more people than I did.

Instead, I can offer the next best thing. Here are some pictures of what I did while I was in Portland:





Photos:

• Top left: had an early Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night. It was soooo nice to eat turkey and cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes and stuffing...you get the idea.
  
• Top right: Two days later I followed it all up with the best Mexican food I've had since leaving the states last year.
  
• Middle left: Took some photos of Portland to show my students in Tokyo
  
• Middle right: came back to Oregon just in time to see the turning leaves.
  
• Bottom left: and here are those evergreen trees that I've been missing so much.
  
• Bottom right: took time to meet some of my friends for a cupcake party at Saint Cupcake downtown. I told everyone to act natural in the photo--and for the record, I think the result is pretty accurate. :) (Sometimes I miss you, Ted.)
  

Soccer practice and Japanese take-out

Photos:

• Top left: Take-out from a true Japanese restaurant: they bring it to you in real ceramic bowls, not styrofoam. And then when you're done...
• Top right: ...all you do is put them out in front of your house and someone from the shop picks up the tray later.
• Bottom left: this is from the youth soccer club that my host family helps coach every weekend. Yota and my friend Jake were having a lot of fun with the kids.
• Bottom right: the little ones are my favorite--they're so tiny!

This is YOTA

This is Yota, my host brother. He wanted to be the "model" for some pictures. :) The last one is of him digging for what he likes to call "nose treasures." Ewww....

Three weeks in a blog-shaped nutshell

Just a few pictures to let you see what's happened since the last post:

 


Photos:

• Top left: as I may have mentioned in a previous post, my school illegally evicted me from my apartment, but a friend of mine graciously offered me the extra room at his place until I could start my homestay with a Japanese family. This is the room I slept in for 3 weeks. Needless to say, I positioned my futon very carefully in case there was an earthquake. I didn't want the sword to fall over and chop off my leg. :)
• Top right: after we didn't get paychecks, most of my coworkers stopped going to work. Instead, we all took a day to sit around at my friend's apartment and play card games. I made taco salads for everyone as incentive to get them to come.
• Middle left: a few of my favorite students. We took this photo just a couple of days before my school closed. L to R: Yumiko, Ayako, Me, and Kiyomi.
• Middle right: later in October, I began a homestay with a Japanese family in Tokyo. Since my friends were still not going to work, I recruited them to come help me move my things. (They're so nice!) Here they are taking a break while we rode the train from Yokohama to Otorii.
• Bottom left: This is the outside of the house I live in now. It's way cool and modern.
• Bottom right: My new home is only a 15 minute walk from the Tama River (which separates Tokyo Prefecture from Kanagawa) as well as Tokyo Bay. In the distance you can see Haneda Airport. I love the view here!