A Week in the Life
I would like to begin by apologizing for not having written for so long. I do appreciate several of you that expressed your concern in both emails and blog comments. This past week we have been on a “business trip” at a countryside center with 50 other ALTs taking a language and culture course. However, before I share the happenings of the week let me begin by sharing what we were up to last weekend (the weekend before this past one). Before I do that, I would also like to apologize for not answering some of your emails. It has come to my attention that I have not been receiving all of them (gotta love AOL).
Well, the Friday before last, Cristina, Laura and I went to Kanoya for our first Japanese tutoring session with Yatsumoto-sensei. She was nice and it seems that the class will be enjoyable and a great way to get some guidance through the language learning process. After finishing the hour and a half session, we went over to Jill’s in Kushira for our week-long anticipated dinner. Let me tell you that was one good dinner. We ate pumpkin, rice, miso soup and some delicious fried things. We also had some dessert that I was not too fond of (It had the consistency of a finger, I promise you, sorry Jill.). We also found a liquor store to buy some Bailey’s and were lucky enough to find a bottle that was only expired by a couple of months, NOT BAD. (Laura and Jill had bought a couple bottles of Bailey’s before that had been expired for a few years, NOT GOOD.)
The next day we woke up and gathered the troops (us four again) to head over to Hetsuka beach in Uchinoura. I was excited and proud to show everyone the natural beauty in my town. We had an amazing time but were a bit fearful to bathe in the ocean. The waves were a bit strong. We did bathe in the river, soaked up some rays, and hiked on some rocks. Later that evening, Cristina wanted to try a conveyor belt sushi place that had been recommended by her coworkers. So, Jill, Cristina and I went, Laura opted out. The place had a very nice atmosphere but a bit of a wait. However, it was still fun to go some place new.
Sunday, I was supposed to go to Uchinoura Junior High’s Sports Day. I feel bad because I woke up late and went to Kanoya to do some shopping with Cristina instead. Our first stop was in a Uniqlo (a British clothing company with nice but affordable clothing). I was in need of dress pants and was excited to find 3 pairs on sale, a total of $30. Cristina bought a suit jacket and some very cool linen pants. I think the best part of the store is that they hem your pants within 10 minutes to your measurement. After spending 2 hours in Uniqlo (no, it wasn’t that big, we just took forever), we went to a couple 100-yen shops where Cristina picked out a plate setting. We got 6 matching plate settings (I know, it’s getting serious between us) complete with hot and cold cups and soy sauce dishes for $40.
Monday morning, I dropped off the car at the Katos’. The brakes were acting up; I think it needed new brake pads. No need to worry though, I picked it up today and everything is better than ever. Then, with my funny looking company car, I drove with Cristina to KAPIC (Kanoya Asia and Pacific Inter-Cultural Center) for the week. Like I said earlier, all the first years were there and we were separated according to language level. It was a blast. The actual center is beautiful and pretty modern looking. We sleep in twin or single rooms with air conditioner and eat in a cafeteria while there. The mornings consisted of language class. The afternoons were set aside for cultural activities. The evenings were for games and drinking. Since I took the company car, gas was paid for. The program including lodging and 3 meals a day was $110. My office gave me $388 for some odd reason.
Tuesday, we partook in a traditional tea ceremony. Four old women in kimonos taught us the proper etiquette at a tea ceremony. It was very interesting. The only thing I could have lived without was having sit seiza style with my legs tucked underneath my bottom. The sitting was not even the worst part. Getting up from that position was torture.
Wednesday, it was some more Japanese and some taeko. Taeko is the name for Japanese drums that are beat usually in a large sized group. We leaned a rhythm and dance to accompany the rhythm. I am sad to say that I am terrible at both. Despite my poor showing, I did find it much fun.
Thursday, we learned some more Japanese and had a VERY boring history class that lasted a bit over 3 hours. The lecturer was a Japanese man that concentrated on British studies (and inflating his ego). He kept on mentioning locations throughout Kagoshima as they corresponded to the history lesson and asking who came from those locations. When it came time to mentioning the space program, I was excited to raise my hand at the mention of Uchinoura. However, he mentioned Uchinoura and quickly followed it by saying that we are not proud of the having 2 space centers in Kagoshima because they were picked according to locations that the country would not mind having things blow up. I was extremely upset by this, especially because my town considers the Space Center to be a reason for pride. Thursday evening, a few ALTs were playing Round the World Ping Pong (not too sure if that is the correct name) and one ALT slipped and sliced open his chin. They brought him to the cafeteria where I had been sitting with others. He was bleeding so much that we were not sure the extent of the cut. He sat back and some others cleaned the cut. When they finished cleaning it, I saw that he had a cut gaping wound of about 1 inch long and .5 inch deep. I have never seen a wound that bad before. Apparently he did not feel anything, so he did not know the extent of the cut. He had to be rushed to the hospital where he got 5 or 6 stitches. Don’t think that this dampened his or our evening, the toga party continued and we played drinking games as the other nights.
Friday, it was time to leave. We all gave short speeches in Japanese about our week. Most of them sounded the same. (We had fun. We learned a lot. The food was delicious.) Then it was off to home. Upon dropping Laura off later that day, she decided it would be best if we had a weed party. So, she had Cristina and I rid her lawn of weeds while she sat and watched. (I know what you are thinking. Don’t worry, I don’t like her either.) Just kidding. We all rid her garden of weeds and cut the little grass there was with a regular pair of craft scissors. On the way home, Cristina and I rented Cold Mountain – good movie!
Saturday, we all met at Jill’s to embark on a journey to Kagoshima City in honor of the new shopping plaza that had opened the weekend before. We hopped in Laura’s car and drove to the Sakurajima (the active, always smoking volcano in our state) ferry port. It was a beautiful day. Hardly any clouds out. There was a clear view of the volcano and the City across Kinko Bay. After the ferry, we took a short cab ride to Amu Plaza. It truly is remarkable. It is not that wide like malls in the U.S. because it is 5 floors tall. We began with (DRUM ROLL PLEASE) a cup of coffee at STARBUCKS – the first to open in Kagoshima. They must have heard we were coming because they opened it just in time for our arrival. It was very busy and surprisingly not that big. It probably had the same seating capacity as our Starbucks in Gainesville. If you are wondering what I had, it was called a Matcha Creme Frappucino (matcha is the word for the powdered green tea they use for tea ceremonies). After Starbucks, we walked the mall. It has the neatest stores. Many things I wanted to buy but had absolutely no use nor need for them. The place was full of cool looking lamps too. For lunch, we ate at an Italian restaurant on the top floor with a view of the volcano. I ordered pizza which I had been craving for a couple of weeks now. We spent the rest of the day shopping and walking about Kagoshima City in the older shopping district, Ten Mon Kan.
This past Sunday was Sports Day/Festival at 3 of my schools. The first half of the day I spent at Uchinoura Elementary School. The field was beautifully decorated with flags representing every nation and tents at all sides of the field. There were several choreographed dances. If you ask me, I think the opening ceremonies were a bit too reminiscent of a documentary depicting a communist nation/army. Being a child of exiles of a Cuba that was being overtaken by communism, I was a bit alarmed and frightened. If you are wondering if I competed in an event, I did. I participated in the three-legged relay race. However, my partner and I were in the only team that had to use a cloth instead of an elastic band like the other teams. Therefore, our legs were a lot tighter which made it difficult to run. Midway through our leg of the race, we had to fetch a hanging piece of bread each with our mouth using no hands. Needless to say, our team came in last place. Cristina met with me later on. I introduced her to everyone and we headed to the other school. Before doing so, we stopped by to pick up some sandwiches for lunch. We ate them on a beautiful cliff-side out of Cristina’s hatch back. After we finished eating, we went to the beach for a while before going to the next school. In Kishira, since there are such a few number of students, the Junior High and Elementary students do it together. They also had four teams comprised of four different sectors of Uchinoura. Both Cristina and I partook in a relay race where we had to fill up a bottle with colored water that we picked up from a bucket. It was fun, but we still came in last.
Today, Monday, was interesting. However, I will wait till tomorrow to fill you in on it because I am sure that you are as tired of reading as I am of typing. If some of the things did not make sense, feel free to ask me about it. I tried to condense it as much as possible. Hope to begin hearing from you all soon, now that you know I am back. This week is pretty slow and I will be in the office most days. Please write.
Well, the Friday before last, Cristina, Laura and I went to Kanoya for our first Japanese tutoring session with Yatsumoto-sensei. She was nice and it seems that the class will be enjoyable and a great way to get some guidance through the language learning process. After finishing the hour and a half session, we went over to Jill’s in Kushira for our week-long anticipated dinner. Let me tell you that was one good dinner. We ate pumpkin, rice, miso soup and some delicious fried things. We also had some dessert that I was not too fond of (It had the consistency of a finger, I promise you, sorry Jill.). We also found a liquor store to buy some Bailey’s and were lucky enough to find a bottle that was only expired by a couple of months, NOT BAD. (Laura and Jill had bought a couple bottles of Bailey’s before that had been expired for a few years, NOT GOOD.)
The next day we woke up and gathered the troops (us four again) to head over to Hetsuka beach in Uchinoura. I was excited and proud to show everyone the natural beauty in my town. We had an amazing time but were a bit fearful to bathe in the ocean. The waves were a bit strong. We did bathe in the river, soaked up some rays, and hiked on some rocks. Later that evening, Cristina wanted to try a conveyor belt sushi place that had been recommended by her coworkers. So, Jill, Cristina and I went, Laura opted out. The place had a very nice atmosphere but a bit of a wait. However, it was still fun to go some place new.
Sunday, I was supposed to go to Uchinoura Junior High’s Sports Day. I feel bad because I woke up late and went to Kanoya to do some shopping with Cristina instead. Our first stop was in a Uniqlo (a British clothing company with nice but affordable clothing). I was in need of dress pants and was excited to find 3 pairs on sale, a total of $30. Cristina bought a suit jacket and some very cool linen pants. I think the best part of the store is that they hem your pants within 10 minutes to your measurement. After spending 2 hours in Uniqlo (no, it wasn’t that big, we just took forever), we went to a couple 100-yen shops where Cristina picked out a plate setting. We got 6 matching plate settings (I know, it’s getting serious between us) complete with hot and cold cups and soy sauce dishes for $40.
Monday morning, I dropped off the car at the Katos’. The brakes were acting up; I think it needed new brake pads. No need to worry though, I picked it up today and everything is better than ever. Then, with my funny looking company car, I drove with Cristina to KAPIC (Kanoya Asia and Pacific Inter-Cultural Center) for the week. Like I said earlier, all the first years were there and we were separated according to language level. It was a blast. The actual center is beautiful and pretty modern looking. We sleep in twin or single rooms with air conditioner and eat in a cafeteria while there. The mornings consisted of language class. The afternoons were set aside for cultural activities. The evenings were for games and drinking. Since I took the company car, gas was paid for. The program including lodging and 3 meals a day was $110. My office gave me $388 for some odd reason.
Tuesday, we partook in a traditional tea ceremony. Four old women in kimonos taught us the proper etiquette at a tea ceremony. It was very interesting. The only thing I could have lived without was having sit seiza style with my legs tucked underneath my bottom. The sitting was not even the worst part. Getting up from that position was torture.
Wednesday, it was some more Japanese and some taeko. Taeko is the name for Japanese drums that are beat usually in a large sized group. We leaned a rhythm and dance to accompany the rhythm. I am sad to say that I am terrible at both. Despite my poor showing, I did find it much fun.
Thursday, we learned some more Japanese and had a VERY boring history class that lasted a bit over 3 hours. The lecturer was a Japanese man that concentrated on British studies (and inflating his ego). He kept on mentioning locations throughout Kagoshima as they corresponded to the history lesson and asking who came from those locations. When it came time to mentioning the space program, I was excited to raise my hand at the mention of Uchinoura. However, he mentioned Uchinoura and quickly followed it by saying that we are not proud of the having 2 space centers in Kagoshima because they were picked according to locations that the country would not mind having things blow up. I was extremely upset by this, especially because my town considers the Space Center to be a reason for pride. Thursday evening, a few ALTs were playing Round the World Ping Pong (not too sure if that is the correct name) and one ALT slipped and sliced open his chin. They brought him to the cafeteria where I had been sitting with others. He was bleeding so much that we were not sure the extent of the cut. He sat back and some others cleaned the cut. When they finished cleaning it, I saw that he had a cut gaping wound of about 1 inch long and .5 inch deep. I have never seen a wound that bad before. Apparently he did not feel anything, so he did not know the extent of the cut. He had to be rushed to the hospital where he got 5 or 6 stitches. Don’t think that this dampened his or our evening, the toga party continued and we played drinking games as the other nights.
Friday, it was time to leave. We all gave short speeches in Japanese about our week. Most of them sounded the same. (We had fun. We learned a lot. The food was delicious.) Then it was off to home. Upon dropping Laura off later that day, she decided it would be best if we had a weed party. So, she had Cristina and I rid her lawn of weeds while she sat and watched. (I know what you are thinking. Don’t worry, I don’t like her either.) Just kidding. We all rid her garden of weeds and cut the little grass there was with a regular pair of craft scissors. On the way home, Cristina and I rented Cold Mountain – good movie!
Saturday, we all met at Jill’s to embark on a journey to Kagoshima City in honor of the new shopping plaza that had opened the weekend before. We hopped in Laura’s car and drove to the Sakurajima (the active, always smoking volcano in our state) ferry port. It was a beautiful day. Hardly any clouds out. There was a clear view of the volcano and the City across Kinko Bay. After the ferry, we took a short cab ride to Amu Plaza. It truly is remarkable. It is not that wide like malls in the U.S. because it is 5 floors tall. We began with (DRUM ROLL PLEASE) a cup of coffee at STARBUCKS – the first to open in Kagoshima. They must have heard we were coming because they opened it just in time for our arrival. It was very busy and surprisingly not that big. It probably had the same seating capacity as our Starbucks in Gainesville. If you are wondering what I had, it was called a Matcha Creme Frappucino (matcha is the word for the powdered green tea they use for tea ceremonies). After Starbucks, we walked the mall. It has the neatest stores. Many things I wanted to buy but had absolutely no use nor need for them. The place was full of cool looking lamps too. For lunch, we ate at an Italian restaurant on the top floor with a view of the volcano. I ordered pizza which I had been craving for a couple of weeks now. We spent the rest of the day shopping and walking about Kagoshima City in the older shopping district, Ten Mon Kan.
This past Sunday was Sports Day/Festival at 3 of my schools. The first half of the day I spent at Uchinoura Elementary School. The field was beautifully decorated with flags representing every nation and tents at all sides of the field. There were several choreographed dances. If you ask me, I think the opening ceremonies were a bit too reminiscent of a documentary depicting a communist nation/army. Being a child of exiles of a Cuba that was being overtaken by communism, I was a bit alarmed and frightened. If you are wondering if I competed in an event, I did. I participated in the three-legged relay race. However, my partner and I were in the only team that had to use a cloth instead of an elastic band like the other teams. Therefore, our legs were a lot tighter which made it difficult to run. Midway through our leg of the race, we had to fetch a hanging piece of bread each with our mouth using no hands. Needless to say, our team came in last place. Cristina met with me later on. I introduced her to everyone and we headed to the other school. Before doing so, we stopped by to pick up some sandwiches for lunch. We ate them on a beautiful cliff-side out of Cristina’s hatch back. After we finished eating, we went to the beach for a while before going to the next school. In Kishira, since there are such a few number of students, the Junior High and Elementary students do it together. They also had four teams comprised of four different sectors of Uchinoura. Both Cristina and I partook in a relay race where we had to fill up a bottle with colored water that we picked up from a bucket. It was fun, but we still came in last.
Today, Monday, was interesting. However, I will wait till tomorrow to fill you in on it because I am sure that you are as tired of reading as I am of typing. If some of the things did not make sense, feel free to ask me about it. I tried to condense it as much as possible. Hope to begin hearing from you all soon, now that you know I am back. This week is pretty slow and I will be in the office most days. Please write.
posted by Jesse Montano at
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