Sorry I didn't write yesterday. I was actually not busy at all. As a matter of fact, I was the complete opposite of busy. I was so bored I could not even bring myself to do anything or think of anything to do. I caught myself staring at the computer screen a couple of times as if trapped in a catatonic state of some kind. In any case, there was not much to write about. I have spent the last 2 nights in Uchinoura. I have been in solitary confinement watching the Star Wars Trilogy and its bonus features. I have to say that I am ready to rejoin the outside world.

Yesterday for lunch, I decided to be a bit adventurous. In Uchinoura, there is this mountain that divides the town in half -- Kanondake. It has some cabins at the top that I have always been curious about and this gate that can be seen from the bottom where my town hall is. So, I picked up some chicken for lunch and explored the mountain. It takes a good 7-10 minutes to drive up to the top because the road is so windy. Once I reached the apex, I was awestruck by the view all around me. You feel as though you are almost on top of the ocean it is so close to it. You can see all of Uchinoura, many of the buildings which I can identify for you, including my house. There is a nice wooden terrace up there for the public's enjoyment while taking in the view. On the other side of the mountain, you can actually still drive a bit up to another point where the cabins are located.

As for today, my office is changing locations from the town hall to Ginga Arena. The Boards of Education in most towns are housed in the town hall, so I do not think it really makes sense for us to be moving. However, I guess since we were donated the large sum of money to build this thing, which is probably too big for Uchinoura, we should have a new office in it. The office lady tells me that we are going to be the only people in the facility which makes me think it a bit odd. Lucky for me, I will be in Uchinoura Junior High today so I do not partake in the relocation festivities. I would probably slow down the process because one or two people would have to stop what they were doing to explain to me what they want me to do. This was the case during the breakdown of the facilities on the Sports Days anyway.

I am excited about tonight. I will be meeting Cristina and friends in Osaki for dinner at Anzu's. I dont know if you remember, but Anzu's is the great place run by Tomo-chan who loves ALTs and makes anything you want. It looks a little bit like a worn-down pub or a cafe where intellectuals used to gather about half a century ago. Point of this, I am excited. He also makes the only good coffee on this peninsula.

Well, I am off. Let the internationalization for today begin.

Act III

Romeo and Juliet are both dead. If you are wondering who Romeo and Juliet are, both of their last names are Mukade. That’s right. Today, when I got home to put my futons back in my house (I had been staying at Cristina’s ever since I set off the bug bombs), I saw it lying there right at the front door – the second mukade. It had tried to take the same path that the prior one had taken. This makes me think that I should be aware of where I kill them since there are more to follow in its place. Needless to say, I am very excited that although I only found one dead bug as a result of my $40 investment in bug bombs. At least that one dead bug was a juicy one. It is kind of like striking gold, when they are dead. Anyway, I will definitely buy the same type of bug bomb from now on. I also bought a bug killer. Apparently the one I had been using this entire time for spiders (and on that one mukade) was a bug killer intended for flies. This is probably why it takes me about half a can to kill one spider. Therefore, I invested in this more expensive spray that is intended to kill a variety of species including spiders, mukade and small children.

I am a bit frightened at what I may find tonight since we are currently experiencing heavy rains and thunderstorms. I hope that this does not result in any more creepy guests crawling into my torture chamber known to the outside world as my toilet room (aka closet).

Yesterday I went to Uchinoura’s kindergarten. Like usual, I got kancho-ed, but this time less times. They were amazed by my clay sculpturing skills and began to fight over my original works of art.

After the kindergarten, I wasted away in the office until leaving for Cristina’s house at 4:15. Actually, I odd story about the office. My office lady for some reason has been holding my bills hostage. They are blaming my predecessor for not having changed the name the bills were under, but I really do not think this is her fault. It really does not seem like a responsibility she should have had. When I do not understand what she is saying, I request to use one of the younger English-speakers of the office or an English teacher to help. She, however, refuses making me think that she is trying to hide her mistake. In any case, I gave her the money to pay for my electric bill ($40) and she said that by next month the name will be changed.

Cristina set off a bug bomb in her house yesterday. She found lots of dead spiders. After I arrived, we went to go buy me a pair of indoor gym shoes so I don’t get huge blisters on my feet today when I participate in P.E. After that, we had some 100-yen sushi and returned home to meet Laura for some Alias. I was so tired I fell asleep by 7:20. I woke up a few times but ended up sleeping through the night.

Osaki Week-ender

Osaki Weekender was a hit. I think all parties involved could not deny the fact that the intercultural gathering was a success (with perhaps the exception of the neon-colored rice pudding that was a bit difficult to get the Japanese to like). I get ahead of myself. I will start with Friday. In Kishira Junior High I was invited to take part in the 6th period games. Three times a year 4 students get together and plan some games to be played during 6th period with the teachers. We were divided into three groups – mushrooms, fish and chestnuts. I was a mushroom. The first game I had never played before. One of the children held up a paper that had people with different color hats in a certain formation. Each member of the team had to wear a colored hat and be in the position that corresponded to the man of the matching hat color as in the drawing. The team to get most in a minute won. This happened to be my team. The second game was an arm wrestling tournament. I came in second place in the men’s division. (I lost to a 3rd grader.)

After our tutoring session that night in Kanoya, we went to Laura’s house where she prepared a delicious salad and pasta dish. We met two very cool ALTs from Fukuoka Prefecture about 3-4 hours north of us that came to partake in the Rotary Club’s party.

The next day, Cristina and I spent the morning making our Halloween costumes. We decided last minute that I was going to be a leprechaun and she was going to be a bumblebee. Both of our costumes came out very good and just cost us a little bit of time and $8 for both. We met up with the other 13 ALTs in Laura’s house and arrived at the campsite at around 2:30pm. We started off by splitting into several groups to play ground golf. Ground golf here is a mixture of put put and croquet. Both Cristina and I were good but did not manage to be in the top 3.

After ground golf, we went to Osaki’s onsen. It was just us ALTs so I did not have the fear of 60 Rotary Club men accompanying me to my first time at an onsen. I was surprised at how much I liked it and how luxurious it was. Luxurious is not the word that I was looking for, but it did exceed my expectations as to the atmosphere it provided. First, you walk in and you split up according to height (just kidding) gender. Then, you walk into the bamboo-floored locker room where you place your stuff in a locker and undress. Then, you walk into the next room where all the pools and showers are. About a 1/3 of this large, open room was dedicated to showers. There are several nozzles sticking out of a slate wall. You basically pick one and sit down at a bucket in front of each nozzle and scrub yourself with a towel that you take in with you. You are supposed to make sure that you scrub yourself thoroughly before stepping into a pool. It was quite odd to see children in there too. Apparently that is why a lot of ALTs say never to go to the onsen in your town, because chances are that you will be with some of your students. They had quite a few pools. They had a couple of 1-person Jacuzzis, a big ceramic-tiled pool, a smaller ceramic-tiled pool that was ice cold, a small 10 person wooden tub and another 10 person hot tub outside. All the pools had some type of waterfall that was pumping hot water from the springs. Apparently, there have several onsen in Japan that have been getting in trouble for saying that their hot water is from a spring when it is really not. Also, some have been fined for mixing cold water with the spring water too cool it since it is usually too hot. The way you are supposed to cool it is with a pipe pumping cool water circling another pipe that is just for the spring water. Anyway, we were there for an hour. I see myself visiting these frequently in the winter.

After the onsen, we were escorted to the cabins, which were amazing. They were log cabins in a wooden area on Osaki’s beach. This also exceeded my expectations. I wish I had pictures of all of this but I do not because I didn’t get the right batteries for the camera. After settling in, we went outside for some yaki niku, grilled meat at our table. We ate, we drank and made new Japanese friends. Japanese children came and they asked us to get in our costumes. So, we did. Apparently, Japanese people are not familiar with bumblebees or leprechauns. They kept on asking me if I was Harry Potter. We paraded around the campgrounds until we came to this part of the campground that had a stage set up with some music equipment and microphones. We introduced ourselves to the hundred some odd people who were there. They laughed and cheered. We were treated to some mixed drinks from a bar. Mine was something with some macha, the stuff used to make green tea. We went back to our cabins to drink and play some more. In the midst of all of this, I was obsessed with this one little boy that kept on wanting to play with me. I kept on doing the “Give me five, up high, down low… too slow” thing for hours. His name was Shotaro and I swore that I was going to adopt him by the end of the night. I thought that it would be neat if us ALTs could do some kind of big brother big sister program here.

After the kids left, we went into the main cabin for an after party. Here we played some drinking games. Some of us ended up getting into some deep conversations concerning American politics. The ironic point being that most involved were not even American. They then replied saying that it does concern them because of the amount of control that Americans have over the world. I was surprised at this comment and the frustrations that they had with not being able to vote for who they considered the world leader, the American president.

The next day, we woke up and cleaned up. We went to Shibushi to show Laura’s Fukuoka guests some of the beaches. After they left, we went to this shady, dingy looking amusement park with about 7 rides. It is so funny because it really does look like an abandoned amusement park. We paid $3 to get in and another $3 to ride the “roller coaster”. We sat there for a while with Laura and Jill and had some frozen coke (very popular here).

We stopped on the way home at a pizza place that Laura’s predecessor had recommended. We had some great cheese toast and pizza. Cristina and I then went home, killed two giant spiders in her house and watched 7 episodes of Alias. The Alias episodes were a real treat because there were some we had not seen.

Well, that’s pretty much it. This morning I went to the nursery and now we are going to have our Monday morning meetings in the afternoon. Hope to hear from you soon.

Smoke'em Out!

Yesterday I set off four bug bombs in my house. Cristina thinks it is a bit much and said that all I really needed was three. I tossed in the 4th then for good luck. I am hoping that there is a mukade dead on one of my tatami mats when I get home. Anyway, in order to make sure that my futons don’t get all full of pesticides, I stuffed them in the backseat of my car. I do not know if you remember, but I have a small car and now it is full of both futons, my thick comforter, a couple of blankets and a pillow. Needless to say, you cannot see out the back window. Anyway, yesterday I took the laptop to Cristina’s house, where I will be camping out for the next few days, to take to Laura’s house where we would begin our Alias marathon. First, we went to the grocery store though to get some dinner and stuff to make arroz con leche (rice pudding) for about 60 people for this Rotary Club thing this weekend. After that, we returned home and watched a DVD of Alias. I am excited to get to the one where Will comes back. Being that that’s the one I am sure I missed when it was on TV. Anyway, that’s pretty much it. This morning I did not go to my house. I figure I let it sit for another few hours and go today after school. Hopefully by then, it will be safe.

Well, I don’t really have anything else to write about. Oh, I am probably fixing to send some packages soon so if any of you have any requests, please let me know.

Episode II: Attack of the Mukade

I have some good news and bad news. The bad news is that the mukade situation is getting worse. As the title of this passage implies, I really do feel as though I am in some movie. Actually, come to think of it, I think that in Episode 2 of Star Wars there are some robotic centipedes that are sent to kill Queen Amidala in her sleep. In any case, remember how I mentioned that they always travel in pairs... well, Cristina found the mukade whom she killed's mate. Yesterday as she walked into her flat, she saw something red on her black shirt. As she realized that it was a mukade, she ripped her shirt off even though all the windows were open and went to the bathroom to see if the mukade was still on her or had bitten her. When she realized that the mukade was not on her anymore, she went back to the living room to try to search for the mukade. She could not see it but grabbed a plastic bag and put her shirt in it. She took it outside and shook it. The mukade quickly crawled out of teh bag and into some hole. So, now that she has found the pair, it is a little less scary; however, just the thought of possibly having more in your house really does keep you up at night. I am almost certain now that what I had seen crawl into my futon closet when I woke up during the typhoon was the other mukade. Due to this alarming situation, I bought $45 worth of pesticides including a spray and 4 bug bombs. I am thinking of setting them off tonight.

As for the good news, we received another package from home. The Gainesvillians sent us lots of gags and goodies or tricks and treats if you will to get us in the Halloween mood. It including tons of chocolates and candies, gag Halloween gifts, Alias Season 3, Star Wars Trilogy, some CDs, some gifts and great notes, and best of all -- a couple of tumblers with pictures of all our friends. It is really funny because we have been talking about buying tumblers to carry around hot drinks during the winter and at our schools. Now, we have one that also reminds us of home and that we can show to everyone here. Everyone in my office loved mine.

Well, I should be getting to school now, so I will write some more later. Mom, as for your comment, I have not been receiving any emails to my AOL account. Rule of thumb* If I do not reply, chances are that I have not received it. I have definitely not received any emails from you. Perhaps, you can call AOL and notify them of the situation. I love you.

Mukade

So, here I am. I think that the board of education staff in my town gets some sadistic pleasure out of sitting here in the office with the blinds up staring at the storm. I have to admit it is quite impressive, but I do prefer watching it from home. Actually, I would like to strike that last sentence. Last night, I walked into my toilet room, and right on the toilet room slippers (you have to have these in every Japanese house out of courtesy and good etiquette) was huge (a little bit longer than the length of my hand) mukade. If you are wondering what a mukade is, I'll tell you. It is about the only thing I fear more than a giant spider inside my house. It is a poisonous centipede. Let me tell you that they are some fierce looking creatures. The mukade as I already mentioned is pretty big and a bit thicker than a pencil. At its head, it has a pair of claws that are used to bite defenseless humans while they sleep. In Tokyo orientation, they told us to never bash these things. However, when I tried to spray it with the bug "killer" as they instructed, it did not work. The mukade floated (it really does look like its floating) right out of my toilet room, through my hall, into my genkan where I was about to bash it with a shoe but just quickly rammed it out as I opened the door. All of this in the midst of a typhoon. This morning when I woke up, the dead mukade was right next to my front door. I will try to take a picture of it if it is still there by the time I get back. What freaks me out even more is that the Tokyo orientation people and the office staff here have warned me that they travel in pairs. I have not see the other half of this mukade and am fearful that it is roaming in my house. To make matters even a bit more interesting. Cristina sent an email to my phone at 2 AM telling me that she had happened to find one also underneath her desk lamp. She also did not find the pair. My office jokes that perhaps they are eachother's pair and decided to go to different towns to attack us. Yeah, I know, I didn't find it funny either. I am surprised that they have not made a movie out of these.

To change the topic of conversation, I will tell you about this weekend. Laura's town, Osaki, has a rotary club that has this big halloween weekend every year and invites about 20 ALTs. We go to some cabins by the beach in her town and eat and drink. It is all expenses paid. They even take us to an onsen. An onsen is a hot springs. It can be either a natural outdoor spring, or it could be an indoor spa that uses natural hot spring water pumped from the Earth. These are very popular here and just about every town has one. They are extremely hot and seem to be the one true way of getting warm during winter. When you get to the onsen, people separate by gender. Then, you go into this shower room where you are supposed to scrub your guts out since you are about to go into a public bath. Thus, you would not like it to be filled of other people's germs. Then, you go into the bath with your modesty towel that you keep on top of your head as to not pollute the water. It's supposed to be a very cool experience and I am excited to go for the first time. Apparently it is all very ritualistic and I am scared of doing the wrong thing.

Halloween weekend, we are going to participate in dragon boat races in Nejime ( the town where we climbed the mountain). It seems pretty neat and traditional and an experience which we are sure we will not forget any time soon. I am still not too sure of the details, so I will write more about it as I am informed.

Well, I have to get back to doing nothing. Speak to you soon. Watch our for mukade!

Physical Entertainment

OK, so I just got back from Uchinoura Junior High, where they decided to have me be their P.E. teacher (a.k.a. entertainment) since half of the children were away at a regional sports event. So, whereas before each class is divided into two, today they were both together to make a full class. I played basketball with the first graders (13 year olds) and volleyball with the third graders (15-16 year olds). I have to admit that I had much more fun than I was expecting. The only downfall was that since I did not have indoor gym shoes I played in my socks. Therefore, by the time it came to play with the third graders, my feet were all blistered up due to the basketball game the period prior. I have to say that school is getting more fun as time goes by. It seems that now the classes are fighting over me whereas before they were all a bit timid.

There is a typhoon coming tomorrow, but apparently people are still moving forward as if it is not. They have canceled school, but I am still required to go to a meeting at 3:00 with the elementary school as if they are still holding class tomorrow. I did ask them to change my appointment at the hospital because I would prefer to not go during a typhoon if I do not have to. Therefore, now it is on November 2nd (my dad's birthday). I am still curious as to why they are having me do it. Oh well, when in Rome...

I am dreading going home now and putting up my shutters. I am really not in the mood to go into the scary wooden utility shed and battle the monstrous spiders. I could try to endure the typhoon with out them like the last one, but they say that this one is monstrous. I will probably just bite the bullet and go.

With luck and good fortune, we will still have power and I will be able to write to you come Thursday. If I write tomorrow, it is because I was forced to come in the midst of heavy rain and strong winds to fill the foreigner-shaped void that would exist in my absence.

So Close

Nothing really to write home about, but as usual I will try my best to muster something up for your entertainment. Yesterday, I was extremely close to having BS channels once again. I was under the impression that I was to bring in a adapter box that is hooked up to my phone when my internet was cancelled, but as it turns out I was only supposed to bring in a paper. However, since I thought it was the box, I messed around with the cables and was left with no phone service. When my office went to my house to take a look at it, they brought a new antenna with me to see if they could get BS channels. They hooked it up but got nothing other than the blue screen. Then they began asking me if I really needed BS channels. I answered that no, I did not need it but I would really like to have it. They asked me again if I needed it, pretending not to understand. I just kept repeating the same thing until they became tired of it. So, let's see what happens although they pretty much gave the impression that would pretty much be their only attempt.

If I have not mentioned already, we are expected to be hit by another typhoon tomorrow. There is a huge tropical storm looming over Japan right now and the rain has not let up for 2 days. Cristina actually drove to my house last night and said that it was the scariest drive of her life. I am kind of hoping that the typhoon is coming so I wont have to go to the hospital here. My office says that I have to go for a check up although I have no idea why seeing that I did it before I left. Once they check me out, I am scared that that the whole town will just begin gossiping about my blood pressure or some other menial thing just for the sake of making conversation. Oh well, I guess its all good fun.

I gotta head out now. The third graders in junior high requested that I bring my sports clothes so I am heading back to my home to get them. Talk to you later.

Yabusame

This weekend was amazing. It all started with Tongue Twister Friday in Kishira Junior High. I took copies of Peter Piper, How much wood…, and She sells seashells. The students and teachers had a great time. They also took the liberty of teaching me some Japanese ones. We did a few relays with the tongue twisters in both English and Japanese. Anyway, the English teacher, Kanae, invited Cristina and I to hike the following day with her sister and the Japanese teacher, Hiromi. I thought it sounded like a great idea so I agreed. Later that night, we drove to Kanoya to as usual for our Japanese lessons. An hour before class started we had rosemary-seasoned fries and a latte in the Bluebird Tea Room. This café looks exactly like something that would be in the same family as The Top or Satchelz in Gainesville. It has a crayon blue ceiling inside and matching walls outside. The décor is an eclectic collection of what appears to be dated flea market finds reminiscent of the 1960s. Even the waiters don’t look so much Japanese and wear some indie-rock outfits just like they do at The Top. We promise to take pictures for next time. The store next door is a cross between a bar, a barber shop and a music store/venue. It is decorated in the same manner as the Bluebird Tea Room with some random hammocks tossed in the mix. After I finished most of my homework, we were off to Yotsumoto-sensei’s house for some nihongo-ing.

The next day we went back to Kanoya to meet Kanae, Ho-san, and Hiromi at a book shop so we can go hiking. We drove to the town on the other side of Uchinoura, facing Kinko Bay rather than the Pacific. We were not able to take the usual route that they would take because of some fallen rocks. So, it took a bit longer than expected. When we got there, we hiked up for about 20 minutes to the apex. You could see all of Kagoshima from this mountain. It was simply stunning. There was also a set of rocks that jetted out that I was too frightened to climb all the way, but Cristina and Hiromi did. I sat with Cristina on the them for a quick picture. It reminded me of the rock where they lift Simba on in The Lion King. Anyway, you get the idea. There was a great view and we had much fun hanging out with some friendly Japanese folk. They also informed us of the climb up Mt. Fuji. Apparently it is an overnight 8-hour hike to the pinnacle. You catch the view at 8 a.m. and then you hike back down. Cristina seems interested in doing this. I am still not too sure as to how I feel about it.

After climbing the mountain, they took us to Nejime Otaki Park. This is a park with a couple of big waterfalls. It was also very breathtaking to see a large waterfall having never seen one that large before. This is no Niagara, but it still quite impressive. After the waterfall park, they took us to a place where we had some amazing pork ramen.

The rest of the afternoon, Cristina and I decided to go shopping for some winter wear. We started out at Uniqlo when we realized that we only had about $130 between the two of us. We tried to go to the post office to get some money, but they were closed. Therefore, we were not going to be able to buy what we wanted to including a hot carpet for Cristina. We still went to shopping though. We decided to go to some new stores that we had not been to before. Boy was that an experience in itself. We went into this one store with some cool punk-looking clothing called Road Runner. However, the music that was playing the entire time was from a Backstreet Boys CD. The two did not exactly mesh. After Road Runner, we went to Shoe Plaza where Cristina found a pair of red sneakers that she fell in love with, but that they did not have in her size. After that, we went to Mac Jeans Warehouse Plaza. Another very cool store that carried Levi’s and some other European stuff. A lot of it is what we could consider in the States kind of vintage or indie-rock-ish. I actually ended up buying a $60 Dickies coat for $10. I am not exactly sure why it was so cheap, but there were several more for the same price. In any case, this is not why I come to mention this store. When we first entered, there was a song that was blasting very loudly that is absolutely the most vulgar thing that any English-speaker will probably ever hear in a song. The worst part about it was that it was all very clear and discernible unlike rap. Therefore, Cristina and I felt very awkward being in this family clothing store (it had a kid section) listening to this song. It was very strange. Later that night, we returned to Higashi-Kushira and had some \100 sushi.

Sunday was Yabusame, Koyama’s famous festival. It is very difficult to describe the feeling during this festival but I will try. We arrived in Koyama at noon. We walked up and down the streets until we found a booth we wanted to buy lunch from. We ate kebabs from these middle-easterners, Greeks or Turks that own an Indian restaurant in Kanoya. Then, we ate as we walked over to the Shrine where the event was going to take place. In Koyama, there is a long narrow street that leads to a shrine up on a hill. The street was divided in half with bamboo poles attached by string creating a roped off area for spectators and a means for hanging some white paper foldings. The other half of the street was covered in wet sand. Now, here is a little background to this tradition. Every year a junior high school boy is chosen, usually the liveliest, healthiest, (wealthiest) boy. He is sequestered from females (or maybe just his mother and sisters, I didn’t really understand) for the period of a month. He is to practice for that month how to shoot arrows at targets from horseback while charging down this long alleyway. The fate of the town and its harvest rests on the number of arrows that hit the targets. The boy that was on horseback the year before, runs after this year’s archer as fast as he can to mount the horse if the archer should fall. The boy has to this while wearing face paint and a big hat with confetti flying and all. Usually during events like this the Japanese are always screaming Gambatte kudasai or Gambare, Gambare, Gambare (meaning do your best). During this event, there fell a hush over the crowd that was electrifying. To top it all off, the sky appeared quite ominous due to the approaching typhoon. We were standing at one side of the street in front of the shrine. The boy had to parade back and forth holding his bow up in the air and a huge stick to represent an arrow. There were all these old men parading around him in archery garb which I can only assume are his teachers or past years’ archers. The boy must ride on the horse ushered by these men in three circles in front of the shrine before being shot like a slingshot into this alley. All the meanwhile, the boys face was serious as can be. He looked scared senseless. We are not exactly sure of the numbers of arrows that hit the targets. We are sure at least 5 out of 9, perhaps 6. As the boy was ushered to the shrine, he was crying. I can only assume from the amount of pent up tension and anxiety. I apologize if this explanation of the event is a little unclear, but I would hope that the pictures we post assist in clearing it up.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading about our weekend as much as we enjoyed living it.

Wild horse at Cape Toi

Cape Toi

Yet More PHOTOS!

Hey guys, here are some pictures of Cristina's field trip, Yume"s birthday party, the kindergarten sports festival, Cape Toi, and I forget what else. Enjoy.

VIEW ALBUM

Last Sports Festival?!?!

So yesterday was yet another sports festival. This was in the form of a field day or track meet with children of only certain grades. It was fun when I got to do the whole stopwatch bit, but then it got a bit boring during the high jump and long jump. It is crazy what they make these kids do. Anyway, I was also wearing my clog type sneakers that I use for easy slip on/off while coming in and out and the Superintendent of Schools told me that it was a sports event and that I should wear sneakers. I told him since it was not an event where we would be runnning ourselves that they were not necessary. I then pointed to him and asked him why he was wearing a suit with shirt and tie. If its a sports event he should be wearing a track suit or at least a t-shirt. He staerted laughing. I really don't think that they notice how stupid they look wearing suits with sneakers. And for what, all they do is sit underneath a tent or play with a stopwatch. In case, I do hope that he understood the irony of his comment.

I received my phone bill today. It was a whopping $70. I consider this very high especially since I only call Cristina and that is only when I am not at her house. I think that there is a $30 charge for internet that I don't have. Also, it was due on Sept. 27 and I just got it today. So, I hope I dont have to pay any late fees because of my office's mistake.

Teeth of Wisdom

So yesterday I went to Kishira Elementary School. I will have to tell you that it was a lot more enjoyable this time around that I had an idea of what I was to do. I first arrived there and was under the impression that I had a planning period. However, since the people in the teacher’s room were a bit frightened that I would not know what to do or even try to speak to them, they sent me to the 3/4 grade teacher (the one slight English speaker of the staff). I was to set up my computer to show them pictures of my hometown. Although I do not have any pictures of Miami, I showed them some other pictures of family and friends and they seemed to be content with that. I was also to play a couple of games with them, but was only able to think of one before I got there – duck, duck, goose. However, in a moment of pure inspiration, I played “I Spy” but changed it to “I see something (color)” and they got to point and things and say, “is it this?” They liked this so much that there wasn’t enough time for duck, duck, goose. I also reviewed last month’s vocabulary, modes of transportation, and introduced new vocabulary, drinks. The only thing that upset about the entire experience is that at times the teachers underestimate the ability of the children to understand. When I did the classes with the translator teacher, the kids were not forced to make an effort to comprehend what I was saying. This makes it so much more difficult for them to actually learn the material. They also tend to just repeat the sounds of the Japanese teacher rather than trying to learn how to pronounce the words correctly. I did grade 1/2 without his help and found that the children learned so much more.

For lunch, we had a chicken and rice dish which consisted of orange rice and a few small pieces of chicken. I think that this is adapted from the Spanish dish of arroz con pollo. Only reason I think this is because there is quite an Iberian influence in this part of Japan, especially with the Portuguese. After lunch, I played dojibaru (or dodgeball) with the kids. I had so much fun. I only wish that I didn’t wear that sweater.

As days pass, I feel more and more a part of the office. My office lady is having a hoot speaking with me. She tells me I have to study Japanese and I tell her she has to study English. After work, I went to Cristina’s house. She had made an appointment with a pseudo-English speaking dentist because she is afraid that she may need her wisdom teeth taken out. It has been hurting her since Sunday. The scary thing is not knowing whether it is her wisdom teeth or an infection after flossing very thoroughly. In any case, the dentist cleaned her teeth, took an x-ray and gave her some pain killers all for $8. So, she is a bit relieved at how good our insurance is. However, if you saw the condition of so many people’s teeth over here, you would know why it is a bit frightening to think that you will have to get treated by a Japanese dentist.

I am a bit excited about this weekend. We are going to the Koyama Festival (Kaz’s town). It is famous for the horse riding archer. Every year a young man (usually a son of a wealthy Koyama family) is chosen to shoot arrows at difficult targets while riding down a long path on horseback. It is supposed to be very dramatic. It is actually in The Last Samurai (not the actual scene but a representation of it). As a side note, the clan of samurais that are known in Japanese history are from my Kagoshima prefecture (state). In any case, it sounds like a lot of fun. However, Koyama is a bit at ends right now because the horseman fell yesterday in practice. He seems to be ok but they still had to take him to the hospital.

Well, I am off to teach Japanese children about the concept of American nicknames. After that, I have to go to another sports festival, but thankfully this one is during school hours. Hope to hear from you soon. All of you have been slacking as far as emails are concerned.

Oh, by the way, do remember my entry about the cow that would not stop mooing. Well, the other day I found a pen near my house with several cows or bulls. Most of them were black and I only got a quick look. I will fill you in later when I get a better look. Also, in Kishira I saw this weasel looking animal that ran in front of my car. This stuff is interesting for me anyway. Sorry to bore you.

No More Monkeys

Sorry I was not able to finish my blog yesterday. However, this is the remaining events of Monday afternoon. After we saw a few horses up close in a wooded area, we headed toward a lighthouse on the cape. It is a large, white plain lighthouse. Nothing too amazing. However, there was a wonderful view of ocean to either side of the cape. Laura mentioned that it was a bit strange that they have the lighthouse so far inland though even if it is up high. We did not go into the lighthouse because we really didn't feel the need. There was a quirky little gift stand including lots of horse figurines and some vulgar key chains of horses mating (at small children's eye level -- think cigarette ads in the States 10 years ago). In any case, I resisted the urge to buy the key chain and bought a cola-flavored sno cone instead. We resturned to the car and headed to nearby Koujima Island where there were supposed to be monkeys.

We drive some 20 minutes to the island. When we get there, it is an island that is densely wooded about 1/4 mile off the mailand. There is no way that you would be able to see monkeys from where we were at. However, there were other people there nonetheless. Now whether they were in the search for monkeys or not, I do not know.

We decided to return back to our side of the road by means of some secluded mountain road. I will have to say that we were a bit afraid at times that we were not heading in the right direction, but as you can probably guess we got home quite alright. The mountains we traversed were covered in Obi trees that are these pines that are very straight and tall with not too much foilage. There were several areas were they were being cut and prepared for exporting. (Just felt like mentioning -- I heard enough times while being over here.)

We had dinner near Laura's town in a place called Live Kitchen MoMA. It was neat. The place looked like a beach/Japanese bar where you sit on tatami, but played some rock for music. We had some real good food. The menu was in a hard to read calligraphy so Jill did what she could to order an amazing meal for us, but when it came to the salad we had to do some random pointing. The surprise salad ended up being tuna which was delicious. We returned to Laura's house and had some ice cream and watched a movie.

Yesterday, I went to Uchinoura Elementary. The students are getting more and more excited about English and at the fact that I am learning their names. The teachers are thanking me because of how enthusiastic the children are. In one particular class, I had to partner up with a student for a phone skit because his partner was absent. We practiced and performed the skit and the teacher said that it was the first time that the child spoke in English in front of the class. Reason being is that he does not know how to read in English. I think that this is usually the case with the 3-5 students that are always trying to make the other students laugh during class.

Well, I know that you are probably still anxious to read some more; unfortunately (for you), duty calls and I must drive on a cliff side road with a stunning view of the Pacific to Kishira Elementary.

Toi with Me

I know. I have been a slacker as of late concerning my blog. However, I will do my best to inform you of this week's past happenings. My schedule has becoming a bit busier as people are recognizing that I am friendly and I am capable of handling more than two or three things on a given day. Apparently, they were trying to ease me into it. I have been participating in more classes at school. I was under the impression that I visited all the English classes on the day I am at a certain school. However, they have more than one English class on a given day and I usually only go to one or two a week. Now that everyone is warming up to me (and that the students really like me) I am invited to several more English classes.

Last weekend was tons of fun. On Friday we went to the Japanese tutor. I have noticed much improvement between classes with her and my intense language immersion. People have been mentioning how much I have improved. Now the only problem is that since several people in my town have warmed up to me they usually want to speak English with me. So far, I speak the most Japanese with the children (who are the people I am paid to speak English too) and the office lady. It is a real hoot communicating with her. She is this older woman that breaks all stereotypes of how you would imagine an older Japanese lady to be like. She is very quirky and reminds me of the absent minded professor.

Saturday, I invited some some ALTs over my house. Cristina and I were originally going to just buy sushi but ended up making tapas instead. We made salsa, spanish omelettes, ground beef, guava and cream cheese, guacamole and I forget what else. Jill brought some delicious pumpkin and Laura, Kaz and Alex brought wine and gifts. Since they were coming over and Alex and Kaz were sleeping over, I bit the bullet and did some deep cleaning. I am happy to say that now my toilet room is up to par, my kitchen is a lot closer than it was before, and my tatami rooms are simply amazing. It seems like a trivial thing to mention, but if you saw the condition of my house when I first arrived, you would beg to differ. We ate, drank and were merry.

The following day, Sunday October 10, was Health and Fitness Day and Cristina and my 4th year anniversary. Cristina and I had to split and go to our respective sports days. She was able to participate in most event because she was part of a team in her town. My sports day is a little different because the Board of Education is not really on any team. I participated in one relay race that I am still sore from running in. At first they were scared that they were not even going to be able to hold the event because of an approaching typhoon. However, the typhoon missed us and it was an amazing day. They held it on top of a mountain which made it even more stunning. After the festival, I had to go to a party at the town hall. These work parties are an opportunity for everyone to get drunk and talk about things that they would never ordinarily talk to each other about. In my case, several people sat around me and spoke or tried to speak English to me, even the Vice Mayor of my town who I had never met before. After that, I drove to Cristina's house so we could spend the rest of the evening together. Since I was driving, I was able to not drink which is often a blessing in one of these things because people are continuously filling your glass with beer or liquor. Cristina and I exchanged gifts. I got her a green coat she wanted, a matching purse and white scarf. She got me a 256mb memory card for the digital camera for our upcoming trip. After gifts, we enjoyed dinner at a dingy Denny's-type restuarant called Ringer Hut and some dessert at a Mister Donut.

Since they do the Sports Days nationwide on Sunday, Monday is a holiday so everyone can recover. We drove to the prefecture above us to visit Cape Toi. It is a nature park with a cliff side shrine and wild horses on large mountain greens. We saw a few herds from far away and three really up close in a wooded area next to the street. ( It is cleaning time at my school so I will continue later. )

Last Will and Testament

No, not mine, but I will explain in a bit. I know what you must be thinking. I have not been able to recount my mundane daily activities for two whole days now. Glenn, you must feel lost in life without my daily blog post (or so I hear). Well, not much has happened I guess. There seems to be people coming over my house now almost daily in an attempt to get my internet up and running. I am not sure if I find it humorous or annoying. First of all, let me say that these people are driving all the way from Kagoshima City (which means a 40 minute ferry ride and an hour and a half car drive) for a futile attempt. It is a bit frustrating to see them just do the same thing over and over agin in the hopes that the next time they do it, it may just work. It never does. Now they say that my computer does not have a floppy drive or some other type of drive. If this is so, I found it odd that they did not notice the other two times they had worked on my laptop. Yesterday, the man even brought and english translator with him to read the messages that popped up in the computer. I feel bad because now I think I don't really need nor want the extra expense of the internet. The people are supposed to be coming to my house again on Friday so I think I may tell my office man before then that I just don't want it anymore. He has been really persistant that they come from all the way over there and has been really stone faced when they look at him and tell him that its not possible. (I think he suspects that the drive excuse they gave last was a bunch of bull crap too.) I think I should make him rice pudding or something.

RED. This is now the color my kitchen. So after walking through the green genkan that beckons you to go, you arrive to the kitchen that screams STOP. I think (now) it looks quite good. At first I thought it looked like someone was murdered in there, but after the paint dried, the finish looked more matted. So I have the red and white checkerboard thing going on the ceiling with a red shelf and wall. All I need to do is add some black borders and I am done.

If I were to have a last will and testament, I think that as of now it would only include Uchinoura Blockbuster which now resides at my home. I think due to my current experience, I would have to leave it to ALTs in the surrounding areas which I know would have a greater appreciation for it than anyone back home. Thanks to my mother I now have several movies and TV shows (and a can of guava paste and electronic pest control units). The reason I do bring up this somber subject is because of what happened to me today. As I got back to the office after spending a VERY ACTIVE day at the Uchinoura Elementary School, they handed me a manila envelope about an inch thick from a lawyer in Seattle. After a bit, they told me that they would like for me to read it and let them know what it was about and what they needed to do. I read it and it was in regards to a woman's last will and testament. About 40 years ago, a woman from Uchinoura married and American and moved to Seattle. About 2 years ago, she died (the husband had died some time before). She had a huge estate; over $1,000,000. She left the Uchinoura Board of Education $90,000. I hope you are thinking what I was thinking when I heard that -- that is more than enough money to provide a nice house or apartment for the ALT. I guess that they found a better purpose for it. In any case, they were a bit afraid that they would have to pay something. Apparently, it was just a settlement of accounts of the deceased woman's money including what was billed by the lawyers and split between the remaining beneficiaries.

Before I go, I must tell you that it is really beginning to get chilly. I have slept the past 2 nights with the air-con off. Everyone keeps on saying that the winters here are intolerably cold because you never have a warm place to be (other than the hot springs). No buildings are insulated which makes it very difficult to retain heat. In any case, I am hoping that I will somehow survive. Whenever someone mentions it, I just imagine how I would truly die if I were placed anywhere north of here. What makes it even worse is that I hear this from the people who were here last year who say that it was the mildest winter in 15 years. Apparently this one will be pretty darn cold because of the early migration of the birds (or something like that).

Well, as always, I hope to hear from you soon. I think that several of you have been lacking in the mail department.

Weekend Update

I just finished my Monday meetings and handed to my office man a memo written in a language I cannot understand, although I am beginning to decipher bits and pieces. I have to say that today I understand more today than I did Friday. The memo was a note written by a young man that came to my house with a very charismatic older man to check on my TV antenna, specifically the one used for BS channels (that show at least one English movie each evening). After having mentioned on Friday for about the 15th time, my office seemed alarmed as though it came as a surprise. At that moment, in the middle of the workday, the office man went with me to my house to check what was wrong with my reception. They kept on telling me that it was probably just out of place because of the typhoon, but I kept on telling them that this occurred after the typhoon just a couple weeks after arriving here. Furthermore, the screen was not snowy as it usually is when you lose reception, it was entirely blue. He called the Uchinoura TV repair men, who said they would be at my home by 5:30. When they arrived, they tried to maneuver the antenna only to tell me that the antenna was not working. They proceeded to tell me several things in quick Japanese, but after seeing that the attempt was useless, they wrote it down for me to show someone.

After the episode with the antenna men, I hurried to Higashi-Kushira to pick up Cristina. We were late for our tutoring session in Kanoya with Yatsumoto-sensei. Luckily, we only got there a few minutes late. It was humorous to see Laura, Cristina and I doing the same things we do with our students during the week but in reverse. This time its us role playing and practicing conversations and greetings. We did several listening exercises and we learned several new vocabulary words. Most of the words, however, were written in katakana which means that they are words that come from foreign languages (many English). Once you know the tricks, they are simple to decipher. For example, rajio = radio, teipu = cassette tape, bideo = video tape, terebi = television.

After lesson, Cristina and I were starving. We dragged Laura to the closest place we could find by our tutor’s house which was a small independent coffeehouse called the Bluebird Tea Room. It is very European looking with mismatched chairs and couches and mosaic tables. However, as soon as we pulled up, several people began to stare so we decided to go somewhere else down the road. We went to Gusto!, a restaurant that is a bit like a Denny’s but with a American Southwest décor. It was a pleasant and clean place to have a meal, not to mention cheap. The thing I like most about these restaurants is that they have a Drink Bar for about $1. This means that you can have unlimited tea, soda, coffee or hot chocolate. Since this is a rarity in Japanese restaurants, I usually take advantage of it.

Friday night and Saturday morning Cristina and I began to freak out a bit. We are really excited about our upcoming Winter holiday, but were a bit scared of not being able to find a place to stay in Vienna during the week of New Year’s. Apparently, New Year’s in Vienna is amazing. As of now, we still don’t have a place to stay, but we are working on it. I think that the worst-case scenario will be that we have to pay a bit more than was previously expected.

Later that day we met with Jill and Laura to go to Nejime on the west coast of our peninsula. It was pretty (I guess) but I still prefer Uchinoura. Since the Nejime coast is Kinko Bay, you could see the volcanos and the City. We ended up finding a beach and just relaxing for a bit. Later that night we went to Osaki (Laura’s town, north of Cristina) to have dinner in Anzu’s. This is the place we went to a couple weeks ago that is owned by a man who loves and is very kind to all the ALTs. It is great to be there because it looks just like a place I would go to back home and the owners are always so inviting. When we arrived, we saw another foreigner in there. His name was Ryan. He was the Osaki ALT 6 years ago and comes back about twice a year. He has a really nice job where he travels the world selling flooring for indoor basketball courts. (Who would have thought?) It was really interesting to see things through his perspective. He told of several things about his time as an ALT which I always find interesting. After hanging out there for a few hours, we returned to Laura’s house and watched 10 Things I Hate About You. After the movie was over, we went back home.

Having arrived home so late, Cristina and I were a bit tired at the Uchinoura Preschool Sports Festival which started at 9 AM on Sunday. It was darling to watch all these tiny Japanese children (who adore me by the way and who I adore when they aren’t giving me the Kancho) partake in these Japanese dances and races, but at the same time we were so very tired. All we wanted to do was to go home and take a nap. I actually partook in a relay race that the children have with their parents. I took the place of a father who could not make it. Just in case you were wondering, I came in 2nd place. The festival ended at 3 and we were able to go home and take a nap before Yume’s birthday party at the Katos’ house at 5 PM.

At 5, Kaz arrived at our door with the presents she had purchased on our behalf from the City (not too cute of a selection ‘round these parts). Cristina and I gave her a set of Winnie the Pooh gloves and hat for winter with ears and all. We wrapped them and left to the Kato home. Yume turned one. They dressed her in a kimono and had her walk on these traditional rice patty pastries called mochi for good health. The evening was so much fun for everyone. Cristina and I were actually surprised with the amount of Japanese we learned. There was so much food that they sent us home with some bento boxes for the next day.

That brings me to today. I am extremely tired even though I slept for 8 hours last night. After writing this blog entry, I guess I have a better idea of why that is. Oh, and the weather here is incredibly pleasant. It is beginning to cool; however, I am fearful of the upcoming winter. Apparently they are bitterly cold because you are never warm. It is not like the States where you go inside a building and its warm. Here you are always cold. There is no insulation or central heating, so the heating units that people do have are usually put close to your body because it is impossible to heat a house or to retain heat in a space as large as a room. Anyway, I get sidetracked. I hope to hear from everyone soon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNY!

Jenny, I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday and remind you how much your big brother misses you and loves you. I hope you have fun bowling. Bowl a gutter ball for me and knock down a pin for Cristina. I cannot believe that you are eight already. Please send pictures. I love you! Happy Birthday!

Some More Pictures

Hey guys, here is a link to the new pictures I have posted on Shutterfly.com. These pictures comprise of our time in KAPIC Center where we studied Japanese language and culture, Sakurajima (volcano) and Kagoshima City (where we went to the new mall) and the sports festivals at my schools. Enjoy!

View Album

Collating Curry

Just another day in the office. I just realized that this entire week I have been in the office. Wednesday was the only day where I was supposed to visit a school and the typhoon hit, so school was canceled (but I still came to the office). All the schools are either on field trips to cool places like Nagasaki and Fukuoka or are doing some kind of work experience thing. Since Cristina only has one base school, she actually went with her students today to Kirishima (the first national park in Japan that consists of a chain of volcanos on the Kagoshima-Miyazaki border). It should be fun. Apparently it is some great hiking and some great views. After the typhoon we have been getting nothing but clear skies. Temperatures are also beginning to cool but I think it is only because a cold front is passing through.

Please forgive my lack of cohesion between paragraphs or even sentences, but since I try to chronicle my daily events in addition to some random observations, it is sometimes difficult to weave them seamlessly. With that being said, I will skip back to yesterday. Like I said, I was in the office all day and struggled to find something to do to pass the time. (Did you know that the Taj Mahal turned 350?) One of these things that I do in the office for entertainment is help collate. For some reason, there are tons of pretty large xerox machines in this town hall, but none of them apparently collate or staple. Therefore, my office periodically (nearly every day) has some kind of pamphlet or packet they have to put together. They are usually anywhere from 5 to 15 pages long and require stapling. So, my office unites in the center conference table and begin to put together the packets assembly line style. It is quite humorous to watch all these grown ups doing something which looks so stupid. However, I figured that I would join them although I was never formally invited to do something that would actually prove to be helpful to them.

As for dinner, we went to this Indian restuarant that is infamous among ALTs. To be quite honest, I was not that impressed with the particular kind of curry that I ordered, but I did enjoy the nan which I had never had before.

I would like to keep writing some more, but a packet actually just came in and the assembly line is begining to form. Duty calls.