Jesse Goes to Japan

THE Test

2005-09-15T09:01:00.000+09:00

I know…it has been a long time between blogs. This, however, means that I have been kept busy visiting several schools. It has been a great week so far with the exception of a request by the office.

Both Monday and Tuesday I went to Uchinoura Elementary School. Due to the amount of schools that I visit now after the town merger, I have many more classes that I have to visit at each school. If you recall, teaching English for non-native speakers in elementary school is like hosting a TV show or actually becoming Barney on speed with a strict exercise regiment. Being this animated though, really brightened my day and reminded me of what I like so much about my job. The kids are just so excited to see me and try to communicate with me that it makes the 6 hours of non-stop singing and dancing worthwhile. In addition to these visits, I hosted a after-school English game challenge in Ginga Arena for first, second and third graders. The task proved to be a bit daunting since the first graders hardly know any English and the third graders don’t really want to learn the same thing over. So, every time I introduced something very basic, I usually lost the attention of the older children. When I introduced something too advanced, I lost the attention of the younger ones. The one miracle game that worked amazingly was Duck, Duck, Goose. However, I changed it so that every few times we would use different animals (i.e. Cat, Cat, Dog; Fish, Fish, Bird).

The down side of my job. Tuesday afternoon, I was handed a blue envelope with my name on it and asked, “Do you understand?” I said, “No.” They opened the envelope for me. Everyone gathered round. They took out a small, plastic re-sealable bag with two plastic vials in it and a color pamphlet. One guy began to so eloquently illustrate how one has a bowel movement, while another frantically went for the online translator. The actor then pretended to get one of his droppings. He then pulled a stick out of the vial and stuck it in his imaginary poo. They pointed to the online translator where I read the words I was dreading -- stool test. They told me to type it in so they can do a back translation to make sure I understood. I typed it in but they got back what translated to chair test. I assured them I understood. They then told me I had to do this after two different bowel movements in the next 36 hours. Let’s just say they were lucky they got one. I asked why they needed this and they said that it was part of the health check (yearly physical) that I had to take like all the other public workers. I remarked that this wasn’t part of last year’s exam. They informed me it was a new addition. Fortunately, I went through all the different station less than an hour ago, and there were no more “new additions”.

A quick update on Cristina. Her wound is healing nicely. She will most likely get the next wisdom tooth extracted on October 1st. As for her Japanese driver’s license, she took the driving test for the fourth time and was failed once more. This time she was driving to slow. She didn’t reach 50kph and immediately break where the speed limit is 50kph. Last time I checked though, a speed limit was just that, a limit, a maximum, not a requirement. She’s taking it really hard because it is so taxing on her, her office and me.

This weekend, we are going to the nearest capital city northwest of us, Kumamoto. We are really excited about just hanging out in a new city and being able to read a book in a café, walk around new parks, shop on new streets and just get away from the countryside for a while. We hope to also use this time to plan our winter holiday to Cambodia and Thailand.

I know this entry is short, but I must prepare for my school visit today. I am going to one of my new schools in the next town and am a bit nervous. I’m preparing some props to introduce myself. I hope everyone is doing well. Hope to hear from you soon.

2005-09-07T10:05:00.000+09:00

Thursday was Tata’s birthday. Cristina, Laura and I drove up to Miyazaki to have dinner with him, Osa and other Miyazaki friends. As you may have guessed, we went to Akabei, home of the pumpkin mousse. Upon returning, Tata was greeted by a house full of birthday party surprises and some brownie sundaes for dessert. The following are some pictures of the event. Some people are so weird.

Saturday Cristina got one of her wisdom teeth extracted. I really don’t know what to say about this. Only that she complained that they didn’t give enough anesthesia and it hurt like hell when they were giving her stitches. Since then, I have been driving her to the dentist every afternoon so that her wound can be cleaned out. It’s a bit of a pain since Cristina does not have a driver’s license yet, but at least we’re pretty sure that her wound wont get an infection.

Much more has been happening since then, but unfortunately I don’t have more time to write about it. I promise to post a more detailed account when I have a free night and am at home. Since the town merger, they have put an end to my office days. I have to work everyday now.

Oh, and we just survived a Category 3 typhoon, Nabi (14). We are all ok; however, Cristina’s house has some SEVERE leakage and water damage. I will post pictures some time today or tomorrow. On the bright side however, we are the only 2 ALTs with power in our area.

Not currently wearing my I <3 Japan Shirt

2005-08-22T14:54:00.000+09:00

It all began with Laura’s birthday….(not really, only this blog entry). We had decided to go to MoMA, a restaurant very cleverly named after what we assume to be New York’s Museum of Modern Art, but who can truly be sure. Cristina had slaved for two days making a delicious pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing as Laura hinted she would love to eat that on her birthday. We arrive at 7 (maybe even earlier) and are give one of four tables in a raised tatami area behind bamboo-blinds used as trendy (or cheap) separations. As we begin to order, another party begins to arrive and are seated at the table next to us. We are told that they are going to need the table we are sitting at by 9, to which we tell them not to worry. We will most likely be done by then, or so we thought. The two people employed there begin to make what we had ordered and placed it on our table. The food was delightful; however, after about an hour, it was taking a lot longer to get to us. The place’s 4 tables had filled up as well as the bar’s 10 seats. We continue to wait and request another bottle of wine. Apparently, we had drank their only bottle so we asked if we could buy one from a combini and simply pay a corking fee. They agreed.

I walked out, went to an Everyone to buy a bottle of Chianti. As I approached the counter to pay, the two clerks were busy assisting other customers. The boy, who I thought was going to finish first, was ringing up a lady’s 10 rice balls individually rather than ringing them up as a lump sum. So, I went to the girl, who had an irked customer that left after she had only individually bagged three of the 15 single-serving size ice creams he had purchased. She rings up the Chianti and proceeds to bag it. I tell her I don’t need a bag. She’s stunned. I have hit her with a horror of a comment. She is about to sound the alarm if she can only escape out of her trance. She proceeds to apologize, PROFUSELY, and begs for my forgiveness because she will have to use a piece of tape to mark the bottle of wine as purchased. I do not respond. She continues to apologize, bow and all. She finally puts the piece of tape on. The Chianti costs 1098 yen. I place 1100 yen on the counter. She cant seem to enter the right numbers (probably from fear that I may eat her or do what I really wanted to do, smash the bottle over her head and scream). I leave after her 3rd attempt, without the change and with the taped bottle in my hand. She chases me, I ignore her.

Back at MoMA, our party is still waiting for their food. Another 45 minutes pass and we send Bryan to see what is going on. One doesn’t acknowledge him. The other tells him to wait. We wait another 10 minutes and decide to leave. They, then, decide to tell us our food will be coming out in 10 minutes, to please wait. We are so pissed that we tell him no and simply pay for the food, but leave anyway. Needless to say, I will never go there again. Whewww… Now that that is out of my system, I can continue.

On Wednesday, Cristina returned Momo, the Lapin. She says she is not as enamored by the car as she once was. We pick up her Marshmallow and leave Ono-san’s $750 poorer. I drive the entire time because she doesn’t have a valid driver’s license.

Thursday, I meet with Cristina at her house and drive her to the Kotobuki Driving School in Kanoya so she can practice for the driving test that she was scheduled to take the following afternoon. I pretend to go as her translator to help her with tips. Luckily, I was able to convince the driving instructor not to go over anything except for what is going to be in the course for foreigners at the testing center. She is frustrated by the whole experience, as you can imagine, and contemplates not driving a car in Japan again. We decide to bury our woes in a delicious KFC Twister.

Friday comes. Cristina takes her written test. She passes. Cristina takes her eye test. She passes. Cristina takes her driving test. She fails. Reasons given: Only one, her driving is a bit swervy. No rhyme or reason. Cry, cry, cry. Cristina loses faith in the Japanese Automobile Federation (understatement). Cristina must try again. *note: Entry is not well illustrated because of blogger’s absence and inability to more adequately describe the situation. For a more detailed account dealing with the torture of getting a Japanese driving license, please see blogger’s entry entitled “License to kill, I mean, drive”.

Friday night, I meet the members of the office in front of Ginga Arena. We are ushered into a resort mini-bus. I have no idea where we are going, only that it’s a drinking party. The mini-bus stops at Koyama and we pick up the other members of the other offices of the Kimotsuki Board of Education. Adam, the new Koyama ALT, is in the bunch. Some us talk while others sleep on the bus. It had been a long day for us Uchinouran BOE members who had to wake up at 5:30 AM to drive to some mountain in the middle of nowhere near Kishira to pick up roadside litter for one hour. Time goes by and the bus finally arrives at its destination. It’s a church! Sort of. It’s a fake church on the borderline that divides Cristina and Laura’s towns. Japanese people use it to get married in (just like the movies) with a hotel right beside. We walk into the hotel where there is a huge banquet hall set up with a buffet table at its center. I feel like I am at a wedding, but not. In true Japanese style, it’s as you cat sexy? (The previous sentence was just completed by a Math teacher from Uchinoura JH. I thought you might appreciate it, so I left it.) In true Japanese style, the party was all you can eat and drink. It was all good fun and great to finally hang out with new cool people. At 11, the party ends and we all get back in the bus. Everyone is looking very tired. The Koyama people are the first to get dropped off. As we are finally approaching Uchinoura, the head of our office says that the after-party will be at his house. I react surprised. Everyone looks half dead since we all got up so early to pick up trash and were all pretty much full of cold banquet food and gassy Japanese beer. I was ready for bed. I suck it up and go to his house since the bus dropped all of us off there (and I had no other choice). The after-party goes on for another hour, an hour more than the night should have lasted.

Saturday morning, I walk to Ginga Arena to pick up my car. I run into some students and stop to converse. I pick up my car and drive to Cristina’s. I pick up some pre-requisite yummies at the Ai-shop on the way. Cristina is cleaning, so I wait. We debated what we were going to do. We decided to go to the waterfalls, but it turned out to too dreary a day leaving the water to be unpleasantly cold. We leave after a while, and go back to the house for some movies, chicken fajitas and wine. We are joined by Laura, Matt and Adam.

The next day was even more uneventful than the previous. We lounge about all day and watch nearly the entire second season of Arrested Development. Great show. I feel so lethargic that I decide to go running. However, nature called and shortened the distance to the finish line.

To Bali, or Not Bali

2005-08-16T14:12:00.000+09:00

Sorry for the lack of writing. Cristina and I (me more that Cristina) have been in a gloom because of the possibility that we may not be going to Bali as we had planned for September. Reason being that all decently priced flights out of Japan have been booked, but don’t get me started on that. Don’t even get me started.

As for the happenings of these past two weeks, here they follow. As of August 5, Cristina checked in her car for the shakken test that every car in Japan must be submitted to every two years. In exchange for it, Ono-san, the mechanic, awarded her the peach Lapin we call Momo (peach in Japanese). If you recall, this is not the first time Cristina drives Momo. Momo was lent to us by Ono-san this past February when we went to Nagasaki with Kaz and Alex. It was good to us then and its great to us now. However, like all good things, this too has to end. Momo is being exchanged for Cristina’s marshmallow on wheels tomorrow.

Two Saturdays ago, Laura, Cristina and I went to Nichinan to visit Osa and Tata. We joined them for some fun in the beach and met up with other old and new Miyazaki ALTs. After some beach baking, we showered and reconvened at Akabei, home of the infamous Pumpkin Mousse. The night concluded with some bowling.

The following Sunday, the kids went to the beach while I went to the Miyazaki mall to try to find a Lonely Planet Bali guidebook. (This is while we were still very much thinking that the Bali trip was going to be possible.) As it turns out, the biggest mall in Kyushu doesn’t have any English guidebooks, except for maybe a few about Japan. Lucky for us Kagoshima foreigners (not so lucky for me that day) Amu Plaza in Kagoshima City has a huge English-language section (comparatively). My annoyance on this trip peaked when the mall was full of shopping carts on both floors like a giant grocery store. Who puts shopping carts in a mall? (Hint: The Japanese) To top it all off, half of them were attached to a plastic car with either one or two children (read: brats screaming because they didn’t get a green tea or a goopy rice paste treat). The evening was spent in Uchinoura. Cristina and I visited Roketo Matsuri and made our rounds saying hello to all of my students and their parents. We then left the festival early to meet the Katos who we were going to view the fireworks with. As we got there, it began to pour. The Katos called to confirm the fireworks were still being set off, and surely they were. Within minutes, we crammed in the car to drive to the cape to view the fireworks going off over Uchinoura Bay. It was a beautiful sight. The evening was only made better by having the adorable 1-and-a-half-year-old Yume sitting on my lap hanging over the window with her eyes set aglow.

The work week began with me calling all my reliable travel sources to see who could get me the cheapest flight to Bali. As it turned out, most flights were booked and the seats that were available were incredibly expensive. So, as it stands, we are now on several waiting lists in the event that someone cancels their reservations.

On Wednesday, we had a dinner at Laura’s. We invited all of the surrounding ALTs including several new ones. To introduce them briefly: Adam (in Koyama from England), James and Martha (married couple in Kushira from Canada), Andrew (in Shibushi from Brisbane), and Matt (in Ariake from New York). I am sure that you will hear more about them in the course of the year as we hang out more.

Thursday, my eye was itching and hurting. I felt like I had scratched my cornea. Worst of all, this wasn’t the first day I felt like this. My left eye had been feeling like this for the past 4 days. I decided that it was time to do something about it, so I asked my office if the Uchinoura doctor could possibly see me for my eye. They laughed and said that I would have to go to Kanoya for that. I asked them where in Kanoya. They responded Imagama Eye Clinic. I asked where that was. They began to seem annoyed. I didn’t care. I needed to go and I needed to go now. They finally called and I was there within the hour. Once I arrived, I pushed my way through the small, bedroom-sized waiting room overflowing with about 50 people. I gave my name at the desk and proceeded to wait by the door. Two hours pass, and I was finally permitted to go to the smaller waiting area inside the clinic. Within another 10 minutes, the doctor sees me. He asks me some questions and looks at my eyes (no gloves). The good news is: I live and so does my eye. The bad news is: I have conjunctivitis and writes me a prescription for an antibiotic. I am instructed to put drops in my eyes 4 times daily for the next 3 days. I do so, and as it stands today – no eye problems.

Friday, I felt so good that I had finally seen a doctor about my eye that I decided to file my taxes. I know, it’s an odd connection. I just felt that I was getting lots of things accomplished. By mid-morning, my file was mailed and I am now waiting eagerly for my refund to be electronically transferred. Later that night, we went with the newbies to the new branch of Kabochate that opened in Kanoya. We followed it up with some mandatory karaoke.

Saturday was uneventful for me. I felt extremely under the weather since I had probably slowed down my recovery with a few too many beers. I stayed home while Cristina joined Laura at the beach. When she got back, we went down to Nejime for a dinner Mike was hosting to welcome the new ALTs in South Osumi peninsula, but we left early because of how not-well I felt.

Sunday, we had a lazy start. I still felt under the weather. However, Cristina urged me to go to Osaki Beach with her for a picnic and to meet up with the others. We got there and ate our food. We didn’t do much there and the beach looked like a junkyard probably due to some storm that had washed so much trash ashore. The newbies were restless and wanted to do something. After some debating, we finally agreed to take them to the Koyama waterfall, Todoroki-no-taki.

We got there and the place was packed like a cool swimming hole on a hot summer's day (largely because it was just like that). I had never seen it so full. Within no time, James, Martha and Cristina were wading in the lagoon. As we sat there staring at people climbing the boulders and sliding down the slippery slopes, we pondered whether or not to do it ourselves. While the rest of us just sat there, James and Martha scaled up the waterfall and explored its third tier. After a few minutes, we saw them sit at the top of it and push themselves off. It looked somewhat tempting to me, but the vertical climb up the rock had me a bit frightened (not the actual waterfall itself). Furthermore, I didn’t want to look like a fool trying to hoist myself up and possibly fall embarrassingly and sacredly at the lagoon’s edge. Therefore, we decided to test the other cascade that you didn’t have to climb. It was great and lots of fun. It’s just like going down any slide in a waterpark (except it's a natural rock formation that has probably taken hundreds of years to take shape rather than some sad pexiglass cutout labeled Slush Gushers or Summit Plummet). As we climbed up to go down it again, we noticed that the other waterfall that I was too frightened to climb before was empty. I was reminded by someone of what I said earlier and urged to try the climb now that nobody else was around.

James went first. Then, it was my turn. Within seconds I was scaling the rock with a yellow rope in my grip and my legs perpendicular to the wall. I was standing at the top in no time. The third tier was absolutely beautiful and going down the waterfall was an absolute rush. When the others had seen how easy it was to climb, they followed suit. When all of us had moved to the next tier, we followed the water trail a bit up the mountain to where we saw some peaceful butterfly migrations and some fierce rapids (like the ones I almost killed myself in across from the Tarumizu ferry port). We spent some time up there and then rode the waterfall back down.

Swimming in the lagoon, we noticed there were some new people there. One of which was a foreigner. He was a German professor that split his time between teaching in an Okinawa university and relaxing in his Koyama home. We had a good conversation about surrounding beaches and then he asked us if we had gone down the right side of the waterfall. We had told him no, only the left. He urged us to accompany him to which James and I agreed. That side had some faster waters and a bit that leaves you tossed in the air, but other than that, it’s just like the other one (maybe a little more dangerous). With that under a belt, we decided to call it a day and go home. The group reconvened again at Cristina’s where we enjoyed a chicken fajita dinner with some Banana’s Fosters for dessert.

That brings me to this uneventful week where I spend my days in the office obsessing over a trip to Bali that may never happen. Oh, and today is Laura’s birthday so we are going out and celebrating! Happy Birthday Laura!

Sand Craft

2005-08-04T09:33:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, I notice three bus loads of kids show up at Ginga Arena. They are all wearing mesh hats in the five Olympic colors with a logo that looks like it was copied off a $5 Olympic t-shirt from the 1980s. In any case, someone in my office proceeds to ask me if I am feeling genki. Already, I approach the question cautiously for fear of what I may be committing myself to. I answer that I am feeling good and they tell me that today they will host a “sandokurafuto (sandcraft) workshop” on the Uchinoura beach. I am immediately reminded of the time that I was 8 years old and won third-place in the South Florida Tri-County Sand Castle Building contest. Since I always tell them I am horrible at sports, I decide to inform them of this and they take me a bit too seriously. Within minutes, I am given 5 different mesh hats to choose from with the Ginga Renpo 2005 logo. I choose green. One of the men look at me and tell me that it’s an “ugly” color. I ask him why. He tells me “it’s agriculture.”

In the time that the children are doing something somewhere in Ginga Arena, I am told that they come from different prefectures and are participating in a type of summer camp. Not counting the adults, there were nearly 60 children. Hours pass, bento-boxed lunches arrive and the children eat. Another hour passes, and they are taken downstairs in front of the galactic carpet wall hanging we have in Ginga Arena. I begin to understand some of the things they are being told like making sure to wear their caps at all times and drink some wheat tea or Pocari Sweat regularly. After they hear all the rules, it’s off to the beach we go.

We arrive at the beach and the children line up in their respective groups (surprisingly not color coded). The sandcraft presentation begins. Some people from my office spearhead the talks. It is an art and taken extremely seriously. It is quite different from the sand castle building that I am accustomed to. Rather than it being an actual sand castle with a wide array of towers and bridges, sandcraft to them is building a concrete-like cylinder of sand that can be sculpted into different things, like the arena or an anime character. The children are asked if they understand and are told to begin working in groups. (As a side note, all the supplies for this sandcraft class was lent to us by Higashi-Kushira, Cristina’s town, that I didn’t even think had a beach.)

The first step to the art of sand-crafting is to get a large garbage bin or something cylindrical with a hole at either end and put it on flat area of sand. You then add sand and an equal part of water. Then, you grab your bamboo sticks and poke holes in the sand so that the water can go down. Once, the water goes down and the sand is concrete-like in texture, you do it again until the cylinder is full to the level that you desire.

The next step is to gently tap the cylinder on all sides and then try to slowly raise it up. Originally, my group was working on making a rocket but it turns out that it was too great an endeavor. At the time we began to remove the cylinder, the tower came crumbling down. The tall slim cylinders are too difficult to work with. Thus, our group fell far behind. We doubled the pace and decided to work on making a Doraemon (a popular anime character) with a garbage bin instead of the tall cylinder. Once we finished this step, it was time to sculpt it.

Obviously, not all the kids can sculpt the thing at once, so I began to build an American-style sand castle in front of the character. However, the tide was coming in and nearly washing away what we were doing. In that instant, someone shouted “BARRICADE-O” and all the other groups began to imitate us. Apparently, they interpreted my art as an attempt to block the waves from wrecking the precious sandcraft character. In any case, when all was said and done, I think our group did a marvelous job. And, for what it’s worth, I think we also had the best sandcraft character AND ‘barricade’.

Later that night, we had a barbecue on Mt. Kano with the view of Uchinoura beneath. It was a nice place to be and at a nice time of day. It was fun to be considered essential to the event rather than a wallflower or entertainer like I feel many other times. They had me at a grill cooking meat and fish for two hours. Unfortunately, all the smoke (and staring at all those dead fish) gave me a huge headache. However, once we were finally inside, some of it went away. When it was our turn to finally eat, however, I could not even look at the fish nor the meat. I ended up eating only vegetables and some sashimi. The night ended with me bidding all the adults goodbye and telling them to "Please enjoy Uchinoura." I felt like the token beauty-queen hostess or a geisha. I suddenly fell into my role of entertainer once more and shook someone's hand before saying goodbye. Suddenly, the crowd was in an uproar and everyone wanted to shake my hand. And on that note, I ended my evening. Despite the shouts of "Encore" I knew it was time to retire to bed.

License to Kill, I mean, Drive

2005-08-03T11:11:00.000+09:00

Getting a driver’s license in Japan is torturous, tormenting, disturbing and gut-wrenching. I have been struggling through the process for the past week in what has been one of the most dreadful weeks of my life. I can slightly compare it to the editing and evaluation process of my thesis, but with the added stress of doing everything in a week's time and in a country where I hardly know the language and rarely understand the culture. I have had to jump through countless hoops and walk through fiery pits of hell. While there, I came extremely close to selling my soul to the devil in exchange for a small rectangular piece of laminated cardboard with my picture on it. In any case, I survived and now live to tell the tale.

Months before, my office notified me that I would have to take the driving test in order to get a Japanese-issued driver’s license. Just a little background information: Some nations have a treaty with Japan allowing their citizens to just file some paperwork and get a Japanese driver’s license. However, due to insufficient data meeting the requirements set forth by Japan’s DMV, the United States does not qualify for this. Therefore, Americans in Japan have to go through the complete process if they plan to stay more than one year in Japan and drive here. Thus, my office informed me that they would help me through the process in the summer when things quiet down. I informed them that my mother would come to Japan the last two weeks of July and they knew that my permit expired August 1st. They told me to just relax and we would worry about it after my mother finished her trip.

Flash forward. My mother finishes her trip (July 26). I take the day after she has left (July 27) to lounge in the office and read the new Harry Potter book which I had been dying to read ever since we got it weeks before. I inform my office that I need to start the Japan licensing process as soon as possible. They told me that my mom just left and that I should take it easy for now.

Thursday (July 28), my office asks me what I was doing to get my license. I informed them that I was waiting for a copy of my driving record from Florida’s DMV. They act surprised and proceed to make tons of phone calls in the period of one hour. I understand hardly anything except for my name being said in stressed tone in Japanese (Jieshi). One of my supervisor’s inform me that I don’t need a copy of my driving record, but I do need an official translation of my Florida driver’s license that I have to get from an office in Kagoshima City (for the bargain price of 3,000 yen). They continue and say that I had to leave at that moment. So, I depart the office at 11:30AM and proceed on the two-hour journey that I was originally planning to take the following Monday. On the ferry, I meet up with Mike from Kanoya who had taken the test two years prior and passed on hos first attempt. He more thoroughly informed me of what I have to do and suggested that I take a 2-hour driving course in Kanoya that he, Laura and other ALTs had taken. At that moment, on the ferry, I call the driving school and schedule an appointment for the following day at 8:30 AM. I get to Kagoshima and the taxi driver finds the right building after being lost for a good 10 minutes. It turns out that the taxi does not have any change, but neither does the office that I had arrived at. The taxi was eventually settled and the translation had begun. It turns out that the official translation is just all the stuff from my license placed in a table with some Japanese on it. I think that everything on the license is very logical and does not need official translation. Or at least someone in the actual DMV could do it. Anyway, 20 minutes later, I was back on the ferry to begin my 2 hour journey back to Uchinoura.

Friday (July 29), 8:30AM, I begin my driving course. Kotobuki in Kanoya is an actual school dedicated to teaching the art of passing a driving test in Japan. Other than the three or so truck drivers, I was definitely the oldest person there. There, they taught me what I needed to know in order to pass the test. You may be thinking that it can’t possibly be that hard. Well, just to give you a feeling about what specific things they are looking for, let me run by you everything you have to do before you even turn the car on. Before you enter the car, you have to look behind the car and in front of the car. This is to make sure that there’s no stupid kid lying down in front of the car waiting for you to turn it on and run him over. Then, as you have your hand on the handle, you have to look back to make sure there are no cars or mopeds coming too close to you at the time you are opening it. Then, you sit inside and look back at where the door closes to make sure that your seat belt is not caught in it. Then, you pull your seat up and buckle up. Adjust your mirrors. Look at your rear view, your left mirror, your left window, your rear view again, your right mirror, your right window. Turn on the car and tell the instructor that you are ready. All actions must be at least 3 seconds long and in the correct order (to be honest I don’t even remember if that was the order). Then, class began. Kotobuki's instructor taught me things like speeding up to 50kph when on the short straight away (the 50KPH sign means that you need to reach that speed not that it’s a maximum… at least for the test). Go exactly between 20 and 25kph when you are on a turn. Cross all intersections extremely cautiously and slowly, stopping at times when there are no stop signs. Changing lanes in the middle of an intersection with a signal is a must for the test. As you turn right (like turning left in the States), you turn into the far lane rather than the closer lane. Before making a turn, you must look through the rearview mirror, turn on your indicator, break, look right and left and over the shoulder of where you’re turning, then move close to that side of the lane before making the turn. All of that must also be done in the correct order and 30 meters before the turn. Class alone was challenging and seriously freaking me out.

The weekend came and along with it heavy rain. As if all the horror stories weren’t enough, the entire weekend and Monday morning seemed rather omenous. I can probably count the waking hours it wasn’t raining with one hand, which is more than I can say for the countless lightning strikes that shook our houses.

It was Monday, August 1st, the day my International Driving Permit expired. The man I knew least in my office was elected or assigned to take me on the 2.5 hour journey to the main Kagoshima DMV office where all foreigners must go to get their license. We left at 9:15 AM, and arrived at quarter till noon. We were instructed to come back at 1:00. So, we went to McDonald’s for lunch (not my choice as my stomach will tell you). After lunch, we went back to the DMV. Upon arrival, I was escorted by 2 Kagoshima Police officers and the man from my office to a room in the back. I was asked for the 18 papers (or so it seems) that I had been preparing for days before, along with two 2.5 x 3 cm photos. After some more bits of paperwork, I was finally ready for the eye test. I was to first take off my glasses. As I expected, I failed the eye test. I was then allowed to take the test again with my glasses. I passed. It was time for the paper test. I was escorted to the second floor to an incredibly long and empty room that had about 100 desks meticulously lined on a concrete floor marked with masking tape to make sure they are always correctly filed. I was given the English translation to one of the paper tests. It seemed to have been translated by a machine or someone that had not yet mastered the English language. However, in combination with the pictures, the questions were not that difficult to understand. I was never given a score, but I was told that I passed. I was now informed that I could proceed to take the practical driving test.

To be brief, I failed. The instructor took me on a sample ride before showing me how I was supposed to do everything, but I just didn’t meet his expectations. Reasons being: I looked forward too much, I was not aware enough of my surroundings. I nearly missed the first turn. I didn’t turn on the indicator 30 meters before the turn. Coming out of a ridiculously tight “S-curve” and “crank curve” the edge of my car was sticking over the imaginary line. I proceeded through an intersection with no lights or stop signs at normal speed rather than slowly and cautiously. He began to add up the points deducted and stopped counting when he got to 90 and realized it was going to go into negative numbers. I asked him what time I could come back the following day and he said 8:30 AM.

I got home that evening a bit depressed and gloomy. To be frank, I didn’t expect to pass the test on the first try, but I didn’t expect to do so poorly (according to them) either. I had lost faith in the Japanese system (understatement) and was questioning why I signed on for a second year knowing I had to endure this. Later that night, Laura called me and went over the driving course that was going to most probably be used the following day. You see, there are only two set course routes they use for foreigners, and we were given them beforehand. We went through meter by meter what I was supposed to do on the course. I marked and wrote notes on the course map in red. I fell asleep that night with that looming over my head. My International Driver’s Permit had expired.

Tuesday, August 2nd, the same man that took me on the long car ride the day before had to take me again. Today it was much worse, because we began the day early. He picked me at 6:15 AM. I was so embarassed. We got to the test center at 8:25. I was treated just like everyone else that was waiting to take the test. I had to file some more paper work and pay some more money. Then, I went with Maeda-san to walk the course like so many other people there were doing. We did it. And we did it again. It was now 9:40 and all I had to do was wait till 10:00 when the driving tests would begin. At 10:00, I was the second car to go out. Unlike the day before, the tester did not speak any English, but was extremely kind and made a lot of small talk. He took me on a sample drive of the route. Then, it was my turn. I proceeded a lot more cautiously than the day before. The biggest mistake I made was not turning on the indicator when I switched lanes in the middle of the intersection. I did hear him slash points off on his paper many times, but still managed to remain calm. The tester was kind and often warned me of likely mistakes at moments right before I would be most likely make them. The test was finally over. I walked around the car to hear his comments and the results of the test just like the day before. And then, a wonderful thing happened…. I passed. He didn’t inform me of my mistakes. He just told me to be careful, to pick up my license at 1:00 and sent me on my merry way. Maeda-san and I were ecstatic. We both called many people and informed them of the great news. It was now 10:30. We waited at the DMV till 11:30 and then went for lunch. We had a great lunch (that I was finally able to keep down) .

At 1:00, we were back at the DMV. I began to pay some more things, take a picture and fill out some more forms. One week and 17,650 yen (approximately $176) later, I was handed my Japanese license at 2:43 on Tuesday, July 2nd, 2005.

Last night, Laura, Cristina and I celebrated by watching the last 10 episodes of 24 which we have been meaning to watch for the past month and finally all had a free night to do.

So Long! Farewell! Auf Wiedersehen! A dieu!

2005-08-01T09:04:00.000+09:00

Just a quick update before I begin what will most likely be one of the most stressful times here in Japan. Let’s begin with Monday of last week. Well, after work we met at Jill’s house to take her to the City where we would bid her farewell. We ended up going to a nice dinner at an izakaya where everything was 500 yen (from the sodas to the beers). Alex also accompanied us which was nice since it was probably the last time we would see him in Japan also. After dinner, we spent the rest of our time at Starbucks where the girls flirt with the Starbucks staff to get free cheese soufflé samples. It was nearing 10:30 and we decided to leave since I still had to drive all the way to Uchinoura to drop off my mother at the airport early (EARLY) the next morning. We said our goodbyes and were in a taxi within minutes.

At 10:30 we arrived at the Sakurajima Ferry Port. We heard the fog horn announcing the ferry’s departure, but did not think anything of it because ferries cross the bay every 15 minutes. Little did we know that this stopped at 10:30. From 10:30 to 6:00, the ferry only crossed the Bay once every hour. So, we just lounged about and took a walk down Dolphin Port (the new bayside shopping complex). At 11:30, I began my journey back to Uchinoura.

I got to Uchinoura at about 1:30. I was in bed and asleep by 2:00. At 4:30, the alarm rang and it was off to take my mother to the airport. We were at the airport by 7:05 at which time I dropped her and her 4 BAGS! We said a quick goodbye because I was illegally parked. Thanks for coming Mom. I miss you (a little).

Later that afternoon, I had to go to Kishira Elementary to hold an English workshop for the teachers. At first I was afraid, I was petrified. I didn’t know what I was going to do. But, then I get there and they handed me the lesson plan and told me what I was to say and it was great. I complemented the plan with a few answers and explanations to their questions and topped it off with a demonstration of some games they had not thought of before.

The following day was spent reading Harry Potter shamelessly at work. In the evening, we met Adam, Kaz’s successor. Kaz brought him over to Cristina’s where she was staying and from there we all went to Kabochate. It was sort of a goodbye for Kaz and a welcome for Adam. Later in the evening, some cool folks from Kaz’s eikaiwa met up with us and we headed out for some karaoke. The night probably ended at about 2 AM, when Kaz finally passed out.

The next day would be the beginning of my most torturous week here in Japan. It was filled with unspeakable things that I don’t know if I could translate into words. (I realize that sounds really harsh and in light of all the atrocities that have happened in this world, it really wasn’t that bad. I’m just a whiny person that needs to vent about it… and will do, in the next blog entry!)

Conquering Fuji

2005-07-26T12:21:00.000+09:00

Mt. Fuji, Japan’s most familiar symbol, dominates the region southwest of Tokyo. It is Japan’s highest mountain at 3,776 meters high…over 11,328 feet. On an exceptional clear day, you are able to see Mt. Fuji from Tokyo -- 100 km away. But most days, you are lucky if you see it from only 100 meters away. Fuji-san, as the Japanese call it, last erupted in 1707, covering the streets of Tokyo with volcanic ash. Fortunately for present-day hikers, it now lays dormant. Since I was not able to climb the beast myself, I cannot write more about it. However, I will give you the next best thing. The following are first-hand accounts of five brave young women – Cristina, Laura, Jill, Osa and Shana – as they take this volcano head on. This is what they had to say.

We have been looking forward to this since we booked our tickets in May. We were confident in our ability to conquer this mountain. – Laura

I had read somewhere prior to the trip how climbing wasn’t that difficult, a mere relaxed hike up to the summit. With that mental picture in mind, I was fearless about the task at hand, and at the same time clueless, ill-prepared, naïve and in fact in the perfect state of mind to attempt the hike since if I did know what would be to come I would be less inclined to continue through with it. – Shana

I couldn’t have guessed the strenuous adventure which lay before me. – Shana

We went on a series of trains south (from Tokyo) to get to our hotel in the five lakes region of Mt. Fuji. The combined train rides were rather long, so we got to the hotel around 7:00pm. We then rushed to change, buy food for the hike from a nearby convenience store, and get the next bus (8:15pm) to the 5th station of our designated hiking route. Armed with glowsticks, headlamps, lots of water/sports drinks, and bags bursting with more clothes than you can imagine, our group energetically began our hike around 9:45pm. To the north were bursts of heat lightening, but the mountain’s immediate vicinity was merely overcast. The clouds and haze were so thick, Fuji was completely shrouded our entire trip from Tokyo and in the darkness, its looming presence could only be vaguely detected through sensory perception. -- Jill

I felt slightly over prepared when looking around and seeing most hikers with much smaller day packs, less than adequate shoes in my opinion, and surely not enough water. It became a joke amongst our group how thirsty we all are because of the large amount of water we brought; in fact our water consumption led us to every toilet on the trail. The only thing we didn’t have were walking sticks, an assumed necessary accessory for many people to attempt hiking Mt. Fuji. The walking stick was one of many ritualistic behaviors in which I observed by Fuji-goers. I wonder now if having the stick would have made any difference. – Shana

It was warm where we began our climb. We all had on capris and t-shirts or long-sleeved shirts. It was cloudy and although we could not quite see the whole mountain, we could see lights from the different stations that are on the mountain. Along with the line of lights from the hikers that have already begun their climb. It looked like a glow worm zigzagging up the mountain. As we continued to climb, the air gradually got more and more frigid. At the first station we came to, we all added our warm layer of clothes, pants and fleeces. At the second station we came to, we added hats, gloves and scarves. Before we even reached the third station, the rain began. So we added our rain gear and covered our packs with large plastic bags. The wind was terribly strong. You had to concentrate to keep your balance. – Laura

In starting out, we were already a bit fatigued from the travel to the base of the mountain but tired or not, we were about to embark upon an adventure not soon to be forgotten. As a side note and point of advice, it is generally a bad strategy to begin an extensive hike when tired; we later experienced the strange effects of extreme exhaustion. – Shana

At the levels that we were climbing to, the oxygen levels continuously got lower and lower. Some of us were nauseous. Others were light-headed and dizzy. We could not excel at a fast pass due to these symptoms. – Laura

No one was an experienced hiker. – Shana

Sometimes I didn’t think id make it up the mountain having had to catch my breath often because of the altitude situation. Other negative factors... we were tired, it was cold, it was raining, it was really windy...but, thankfully we all kept each other going... Laura, Osa, Shana, Jill and I pushed each other to finish. – Cristina

What killed me the most was the ‘take two steps and stop and wait for the person ahead’ routine for several straight hours. – Shana

There were so many people that we would literally take two steps then stop for 5 seconds. Take three more, then stop for 8 seconds, etc, etc. It was like that for a good two hours. I was falling asleep as I was walking. When the line in front of me would stop, I would dose off until I heard it move again. – Laura

I couldn’t help but feel this was more than just a hike up Japan’s tallest mountain. It was a reflective and spiritual journey. This feeling seemed to be shared by fellow climbers around me during the trek; there was an aura of calm throughout the climb. – Shana

Random thoughts that went through my head after 6 hours of hiking and just after having eaten MSG infused shrimp ramen soup as I continued to take slow baby steps up the mountain in the rain and fierce wind...Oh somebody kill me please, somebody kill me plee-ase, I'm on my knees, pretty pretty please, kill me. I want to die. Put a bullet in my head. (Song from The Wedding Singer sung by Adam Sandler), Filipino-Japanese Death March in WWII, concentration camps, soldiers putting guns to workers heads and telling them to move faster - work harder or I will kill you...Adam Sandler singing "Kill me." – Osa

It was tough. Seems like a dream now...with featured quotes..."just keep swimming, just keep swimming," -finding nemo… and songs..."somebody kill me please," -adam sandler. – Cristina

Around 3:30am or so, Shana and I crouched against a hut to try to block the wind, rest, and wait for the others to catch up. When they did, we woodenly walked to the next station, and stopped inside for some hot ramen to try to warm up. At this point, I couldn`t stop shaking, my lips had turned purple, and I was wet and numb. I had stopped feeling my feet hours before, and the frozen feeling had apparently spread to encompass the rest of my body. At that point, I had a small breakdown, and a few tears escaped. Outside, the sky began to lighten though, and we emerged to see a rolling, white cloud cover below us, with dark blue mountain peaks piercing through. In small breaks, the five placid lakes could be seen. – Jill

I cannot even begin to explain the scenery. It seemed as if we were miles above the clouds. It was almost surreal. Like someone had painted this beautiful landscape in front of us. – Laura

This ‘out of body’ experience had no time or place. Reality seemed irrelevant and I look back on the experience as surreal, not sure whether I can give an adequate account of the sensation with words. – Shana

I went to the bathroom (a whole in the ground where the smell made me almost throw up). I came out and the group had decided not to go the last leg. We were in too much pain, too tired to even keep our eyes opened. It was almost like we were having an out-of-body experience, like we weren’t really where we were. I wanted to make it to the top, but with everyone else agreeing to just go down, that seemed to be the best option at the moment. – Laura

We had to continue up a short ways to meet the path of people that were going down. Where we stopped, something changed. It was as if something in the cold breeze that stung our faces, awakened something inside of us. Shana, Cristina and I looked at each other and knew what each other were thinking. Shana said “Let’s go to the top!” Cristina agreed and I said it would be foolish to come all this way and not finish. That was it! -- Laura

Let's go to the top! -- Shana (according to Laura)

I was convinced we had all just thrown in the towel when an amazing thing happened. A second wind hit us, or at least a few of us. It didn’t take much convincing to get everyone on the trail again heading up. After all we were so close and had come so far. Even if it killed us (which we knew it wouldn’t) we were going to finish Mt. Fuji damn it! – Shana

Osa and I searched for the trail down the mountain, while the other three decided to reverse the decision to quit. I protested. I whined. I pleaded. But, they wouldn`t let me quit or stay behind. They wrapped me up in a ridiculous fashion to try to allow my body to retain body heat, and we started the last 300-odd meters to the summit. – Jill

People all around me were dropping like flies. – Shana

It was no longer a hike or a climb, or even a trudge: I stumbled and dragged myself up the mountain, dizzily catching myself after losing my balance on numb feet. The final 300 meters took forever, but we finally passed through the torii gate at 8:30am and reached the top. – Jill

We finally reached the top at 7:45 am, Sunday morning. It was amazing. There were food and souvenir shops up top! I could not believe it. The people that run the stores live up there for the two months of the hiking season. There is even a post office up there for climbers to mail post cards! -- Laura

And then we made it to the top, it was as if a weight were lifted when we looked back at what we had just climbed. The view and our feeling about the whole experience seemed instantly improved from the last station. It was success after all. The climb from the 5th station took us ten hours, usually estimated at six to eight hours. It was a long night for everyone on the mountain. We arrived at the summit around 8:00 in the morning. – Shana

Getting to the top really was surreal...What a view...Clouds, mountains, and lakes miles under us... oh, and that massive crater. – Cristina

Looking out over the mountains and clouds below us was a sight to see. We drank hot chocolate to warm us up and then we walked to see the crater of Mt. Fuji. It was beautiful. The pictures, again, do not do it justice. It was breathtaking. The crater itself was not as deep as I thought it would be. The colors along the ridge were beautiful- so rich and deep. The wind picked up and we could not bear the cold any longer. After an hour and a half at the top, we decided to begin our descent down the mountain. It was a complete zigzagging trail down the mountain. It did some number on my knees, let me tell you. It took Jill and Cristina 3 hours to climb down. Shana, Osa and I took 4 hours. The blisters on my feet were raw and painful. – Laura

Getting down was much easier...practically skied... (and sometimes fell.) It just took forever. Well, it was much shorter than up and maybe only felt like forever since I hadn’t slept in over a day (unless you count the few times I fell asleep while climbing). Reached the bottom and Jill and I took a nap on the ground while waiting for the rest of our crew. Once I awoke, the only reason I believed I had actually succeeded and not imagined it was the incredibly sore legs I had. – Cristina

Just as climbing Mt. Fuji has been one of the most rewarding experiences had in Japan, coming to Japan in the first place has been one of the most rewarding experiences had in my life. – Shana

[Climbing Fuji] made me more miserable than I have ever felt in my life.　　The weekend was extremely surreal. Looking back, I still can’t quite believe I climbed the highest mountain in Japan and spent a few hours above the clouds. But, at least I have the pictures and the sore legs to prove it.　　– Jill

It was physically the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. – Laura

Good times, girls, good times! – Cristina

View Album

Mom: Still in Japan!

2005-07-25T15:20:00.000+09:00

I last left you with a picture of my mother belting Springsteen’s Born to Run. So much more has happened since then. For starters, we did end up heading to Koyama’s Todoroki Waterfalls. It was really nice and we contemplated jumping in, but decided against it. We chose to just sit amongst the rocks and dip our feet. We did finally get to see some young hooligan-wannabes jumping in and sliding down the rocks. My mother enjoyed it tremendously. She kept mentioning how she felt as though she had been here before because of all the pictures I’ve sent. She also did say that it’s incredible that we have this great lagoon so close to us that we would pay so much at home to visit in a Disney theme park.

Before we knew it, it was already 6:30 PM and we had to head home to change and get ready for dinner at the Katos’. Upon arriving at the Katos’, I was excited to see that they had prepared a sushi buffet. That is, they had everything on the table needed to make sushi, and then we made it ourselves. My mom was craving sushi and wanted to eat it everyday and learn how to make it. Therefore, this definitely satisfied both requirements. The kids warmed up to my mom and showed her some pictures of Nozomi in her kimono. They were so excited by her reaction, that Nozomi tried on her other kimono so that my mom could take pictures with her. After she was done, little Yume wanted to try on Nozomi’s kimono also. So, she put it on the whole outfit too. It was really funny to see this little 1-year-old girl looking at herself in this oversized kimono. You wonder what she’s thinking. At the end of all the picture taking, Yume didn’t want to take the kimono off, so Tomomi told her there were bugs on the kimono. Everyone was pretending that bugs were swarming the room and coming from the kimono. My mom was especially taking her acting role a bit too seriously. Looking back on it, I am surprised that Yume wasn’t scared by how everyone was screaming. Instead, she simply let Tomomi remove the kimono. Perhaps, she understood what was really going on and simply wanted us to quiet down.

Friday, my mom went to Uchinoura’s beach. She originally only planned on collecting some sand and shells, but upon arriving her plans changed. The low tide was accompanied by great weather and mild waves. This was too much to bear for my mother, so she dived in clothes and all to enjoy the water. My mom had a grand ol’ time. After work, she dragged me back and we had some more fun in the water. We also got a chance to hang out with many of my students and one of my student’s fathers. He seemed like a very interesting person. He knew a bit of English, Spanish and French because he works for long periods of time on an oil tanker that traverses the world making deliveries and pick ups. He apparently was starting his 5-monh vacation after being at sea for nearly one year.

Later that night, we picked up Cristina and took my mother to Furusato Onsen, the outdoor onsen on Sakurajima volcano that looks over Kinko Bay. It was nice because we arrived just as the sun finished setting and we had the entire onsen to ourselves. The night was cool and accompanied by breezes coming from the bay. In the distance, there was a red moon rising. It was truly enjoyable and I think the best way to experience this onsen. After onsen, we headed back to Kanoya to enjoy a greasy Gusto dinner at 10 PM. Gusto is about half a step up from Denny’s, but with some Japanese food tossed in the mix and a mild American West theme to its décor. I have to admit, my stomach did suffer the wrath of the greasy spoon gods on the way home. Gusto is definitely not the best thing to eat before going to bed.

Saturday morning, mom and I had a lazy start. I surprised her with a selection of breads from my favorite bakery, the Ai Shop. After we were done eating, we met with Cristina and the others at Laura’s house to drop off some stuff for the Summer Bash Laura was throwing that evening. After doing that, mother and I continued up the coast to visit Udo Shrine in Miyazaki. On the way there, we stopped do some shopping and to buy the best shrimp roll I have tasted to date. My mouth still waters at the thought of it. This is the second time I visit the shrine. The first time I threw the clay pebbles that you buy (5 for 100 yen), I made one in. However, after I finished, I discovered that boys are supposed to do it with their left hand. So, I guess my throw didn’t count. This time around, however, I threw them with the correct hand and managed to get my last pebble to stay within the sacred circle. My mother did not fair as well. Though, she did enjoy the rest of temple and the coastal view.

Saturday evening, we had the Osaki Farewell-Good Luck-Happy Birthday-Summer cloud watching-etc. etc. Party. It was great. We had the best food. Brownies, bratwurst and raw human just to name a few. (Raw carrots can be easily confused with raw humans if said incorrectly.) My mom managed to also make the best margaritas, just as she always did when I was younger (not that I ever drank any). Laura made mudslides. I made handicap urinals (as requested). Other people made other things. Oh, and everyone managed to get lei-ed upon arrival.

The following day, the Katos were throwing a summer party of their own to say goodbye to Kaz. It was in an Uchinoura beach I had never been to before. We began by driving there and setting up the tarp and barbecue. We put the watermelon, beer and ice in the river to keep it cool. Upon arriving, my mom asked someone with a snorkel and mask if she could borrow his equipment. She enjoyed snorkeling for a bit and apparently spotted tons of urchins and other interesting life in the rocks. Otoo-san then called Alex and me over to go fetch the boat. We drove to the harbor and jumped on his 15-foot fishing boat. While doing that, we spotted a blowfish near the surface. We then sped through Uchinoura Bay to the site of the picnic. We parked it at another harbor. Alex managed to pull himself up to the dock, but I was a bit more frightened. So, I just jumped in the water and swam to the shore. For lunch, we had shish kebabs and yakisoba. We also managed to swim in the water, make sand pies, play a bit of Frisbee, and get bitten by a crab. I think the highlight of the day, however, was the suika wari. Basically, it’s when you blindfold someone and they try to bash open a watermelon using a bamboo stick. You start off with the youngest and work your way to the adults. I am happy to say, that I am the one who was finally able to bash it open (with help of some informative voices).

Later that night, we went to Jill’s house where her neighbors were throwing her a goodbye party. They had set up a bamboo chute for somen and prepared some dishes and a barbecue. They also had some summer games and set off some fireworks. One of the games was suika wari, but I did not fair as well as the last time. Laura, however, did manage to put a big gash into it. However, she wasn’t the one to finish it off. The other game, however, I did win. It’s a type of drinking game for the entire family. Everyone gets a cider bottle that is sealed with a crystal ball. At the time that one person says go, everyone pushes their crystal ball into the bottle and chugs the cider. The person that finishes their bottle full of cider first wins. At the end of the night, we all made a tunnel with our hands that Jill went through as a final good bye.

Today, we’re picking Jill up after school and driving her to Kagoshima City where we will have one final dinner and Starbucks session together before we are all in the States again. From there she will board the bus to Fukuoka where she will catch a plane to the land we all dream of, where the streets are paved with gold and lined with great Mexican restaurants. We’ll miss you Jill! Don’t forget about us.

Suzaku

2005-07-22T15:02:00.000+09:00

For those of you interested in finding out a little bit more about the recent rocket launch in Uchinoura, this is a link to a journal by NASA (written in perfect English) in the perspective of the rocket . After some time in orbit, the rocket was given the name Suzaku, a mythological phoenix-like creature. The site also includes a clip of the launch and some pictures of the rocket's journey. Check it out.

X-ray Microcalorimeter's journal of its trip from NASA to Japan and into Space!

Mom in Japan!

2005-07-21T14:40:00.000+09:00

Short of killing each other, I think my mother is having a good time. I should have known from the ominous beginning that it was going to be stormy. I was waiting in Kagoshima Airport to take my flight to meet with my mother in the Nagoya Airport, when suddenly a thunderstorm rolled in. There was actually a temporary power outage in the airport and it had to run on generator power for about 15 minutes. Anyway, my flight was an hour late, but I did manage to make it. Both my mom and I were excited to see each other in the airport, but were very tired and ready to go to the hotel. She told me about her impressions of Japan so far and her adventures flying coach on NWA (not that she’s ever flown first class).

In Nagoya, we stayed at the City Hotel. Since there is no ‘ci’ sound in Japanese, it’s actually pronounce Shiti Hotel (which sounds an awful lot like Shitty Hotel). However, I could asure that the hotel was anything but. They were very accommodating a friendly to us tourists, despite it being a business hotel that usually caters to Japanese salary men.

We stayed in Nagoya for two days to go to Expo. I was glad that the weather was good (despite it being incredibly hot and the weather reports that announced 50% chance of rain). My mother was just as amazed as I was from the number of umbrellas and hats present at the Expo. Some of the highlights of our visits was attending the Mammoth exhibit donated by the Russians. You need a reservation in order to see it, and I got one over 1 month ago. Those with a reservation still pushed a shoved for their 60 seconds on the moving walkway that passed in front of a frozen mammoth skull and leg bone. Lucky for those of you who don’t have a reservation, I don’t understand Japanese and took a picture of the skull despite outcries by the volunteers warning you not too. (I’m such a rebel.) The other highlight was visiting all the countries. Mom and I were particularly impressed with Poland that had a replica salt mine you can walk through, and a really nice store and restaurant.

One of the more interesting experiences in Nagoya, was going to a restaurant next to the hotel. It was called Bistro something or another. As soon as we walked in, we were a bit frightened by the glass block windows in the shape of crosses and the dim lighting. The place looked smi-goth complete with dark gray walls and blood red drapes to match. We asked if it was indeed a restaurant, because there were only two tables on the ground floor. The woman informed us that indeed it was and we would have to go to the third floor to be seated at a table. So, we collected the tarot card she gave us and proceeded to the elevator. The elevator ride itself was an experience. The elevator’s landing was half-way between the first and second floors and we could tell that the second floor was used for weddings. We hesitated when the elevator doors opened. The elevator was small and completely covered in faux fauna to give it a small jungle closet feel. After checking for animals, we proceeded inside and rode it to the third floor. We got off and it was a PRISON! I KID YOU NOT! We have the pictures to prove it. If it weren’t for how hungry or tired we were we would have walked out and found a different place. However, we were immediately escorted by the warden (waitress) to the nearest available prison cell and closed inside. We ordered food and were served through a hole in the door. We were in complete shock by this point. Of course, we couldn’t resist taking pictures and making fools of ourselves. When we left, we commented on the place and were shown a more detailed brochure that explained how each floor was themed. The second floor was the “chapel floor” and the fourth floor was the “church floor”. I guess we were lucky.

Saturday morning we departed the Shiti Hotel and made our way on the shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. In Kyoto, we stayed in a small inn that was the first floor of someone’s large house near one of the more famous temples. After settling in, we walked half of Kyoto to go to the shopping district. On the way there, we stopped at Yasaka Shrine near Gion that was bustling with excitement because of the upcoming Gion Matsuri. My mom loved it and told me how mush she looked forward to visiting the other shrines. We randomly ran into a Mexican family there which made for some cool conversation. Later that evening on the way back to the inn, we stopped by the river to soak our feet like so many other Japanese people were doing. We sat by two of many kimono-clad men and women. We spoke to them awhile about our trip so far. After crossing the river, we took a stroll down Gion to sneak a peek at some geisha and maiko. We concluded the evening with a feast at home from food purchased from several combini.

Sunday, we took advantage of my mother’s jet lag and got up at 5:30 to make it to Kiyomizu Temple by opening time at 6:00. We actually got there at 6:10 and were happy to see that we had most of the temple to ourselves. We were able to sit for a while, snap some pictures, drink and collect some holy water, and walk blinded between the love stones. During our time at the shrine, I continued to get phone calls from Cristina. She, along with Jill, Laura, Osa and Shana, had reached the summit of Mt. Fuji, the tallest and most beautiful mountain in Japan. I have to admit I am half glad my mom was here during their trip. I can't say that I could have made it all the way to the top. Apparently some of them felt the same way. However, despite the near brushes with death and bouts of hypothermia, they all did it. Congrats! Hopefully, I'll get some pictures soon and post them!

At 9:00, my mother and Iwalked over to where we were the day before to witness the Gion Matsuri parade. Huge, old carts were pushed through the streets of Kyoto as is done every 17th of July. The streets were packed. Where we were standing was especially packed because it was on a turn. Since the carts are pushed by men, and not pulled by machine, the turns are the most interesting parts of the parade. In any case, after the turn of the first two carts, the crowds began to die down. My mom, being the adventurous person that she is, conga-ed down the street to where all the photographers had set up their step ladders and proceeded to ask one of them if she could go up to snap some pictures. She did, but soon realized that she didn’t know how to operate my camera, so I ended up going up to snap some pictures. It was probably one of my favorite moments of the trip (one I’ll never forget).

In the afternoon, we decided that we would walk opposite the festival and have a lunch before taking the philosopher’s walk to the Silver Pavilion. We did. It was a nice place away from the tourist center who seemed happy to see us there. After we finished eating, we were not sure of the direction to go in next, so they escorted us down a block until our path was easy and straightforward. Before going to the Silver Temple, we stumbled into some other temples, one which had someone doing some chanting. I think that this was my mom’s favorite and where she felt ‘most at peace’. Then, we walked on for about 35 minutes to the Silver Temple. My mom was not a happy camper and did not find it worth the walk late in the day.

Monday was Marine Day here in Japan. Mom and I decided to celebrate it by going to Nara, the ancient capital of Japan before Kyoto and Tokyo. I had mentioned to my mom briefly how there were deer roaming freely on the Nara Park grounds, but it was nothing like she or I imagined. Within a block of the train station, we were walking along side parks where deer would come up to us. They were expecting food because so many tourists buy deer biscuits at stalls and feed them. We decided against this since they attack you for the food, and we felt it was so much nicer to just pet them and be with them without them chasing you and trying to eat your hand. In Nara, we also visited the world’s largest wooden structure with one of the largest Buddha and a couple of other temples.

Instead of staying in the stale heat of the Kyoto valley, we (read my mother) decided to head to Kagoshima on the earliest flight rather than the planned late flight. We ended up getting it on standby with the original low ticket prices that I had purchased. I was surprised that we did not have to pay anything extra. So, we landed in Kagoshima at about 10:30 and headed to Higashi-Kushira to meet Cristina for lunch at 100 yen conveyor belt sushi. After lunch, I took my mom to my house, where she settled in and spent the day unwinding. Later that afternoon, I took her to the Katos’ and the beach. The Katos were excited to meet her. Well, the young girls were a bit shy at first, but they quickly warmed up to us in no time. By the end of the visit, they were saying my mom’s name and blowing her kisses. (Both things they learned from her.) As for the beach, my mom was surprised to see it deserted. Later that evening we met up with Cristina at Tomo-chan’s in Osaki my mom had a hoot. Tomo-chan made some of his great yaki-soba and treated her to some fine extras along with some beer and shochu.

Yesterday, my mom spent the day lazying about. I went home to take her some sushi lunch. Then, after work, we picked Cristina up and went 100-yen shopping. My mom absolutely went crazy. She would have liked to have bought more, but alas, you only have so much luggage allowance (of which she has already exceeded). We continued to some must-do Kabochate followed by mandatory karaoke. Some of my mom’s hits included Springsteen’s Born to Run and Shakira’s Estoy Aqui.

Today, we’re taking her to the Koyama Waterfalls and going to the Katos’ for dinner.

Missions Accomplished!

2005-07-11T14:19:00.000+09:00

It’s hot! I am trying to think of my next sentence, but all I can think of is ‘It’s hot.’ It’s hot. It’s hot. OK, now I’m done. Some things have managed come to my mind besides how hot, humid, sticky, rainy and sweaty it is. So, I guess I will begin.

Mission 1: Create an amazing homecoming for Laura.
Last Friday, Laura got back from her 3 week vacation in the States. We were really excited to see her again. So excited were we, that we slaved over a stove all evening preparing her the perfect dinner. Well, I guess in retrospect it wasn’t me doing the cooking, though I did manage to trim some of her grass with some clippers. I figured it’s the least I can do for her. I wouldn’t want any snakes to hide in the grass and leap out and bite her at the ankles. She seemed to be glad to be back, though if she had to choose between staying here and having a blast with us or going back and living a mundane life in the States where her entire family, haridresser and everything she will ever need is, I think she would choose to go back. In any case, we are glad to hear she had a great time and even happier that she brought me Reese’s Pieces (and socks and band-aids, you’d understand if you knew me, like Laura).

Mission 2: See Star Wars: Episode III.
Saturday, Jill, Cristina and I were on a mission. We were not to return to Osumi Peninsula until we had seen Star Wars: Episode III. Being opening day in Japan and adhering to some warnings of crowds by people in my office, we woke up at 6:00 AM and headed to the City. We assumed that even though Amu Plaza did not open till 10:00, we could cue outside the mall doors until the theater opened. As it turned out, we got there at 9:07 AM and discovered that the theater opened independently of the mall at 9:00 AM. Panic ensued. I began to run ahead of Cristina and Jill to get to the elevator. The elevator was not crowded. We assumed they had already let in the hoards. We got to the 6th floor and circled the hall to the cinema. It was empty. We walked directly to the first cashier and bought tickets for ourselves and Kaz and Alex in the center of the large theater for a 12:35 showing. We found it so funny that we had been so worried that the seats were going to sell out, that we forgot to realize that Star Wars may actually not be that popular in Japan. Regardless, I enjoyed myself and the movie. I cannot say that Jill and Cristina were too impressed with it.

Mission 3: Buy a ukulele.
Once in Amu, we did our mandatory Starbucks and such. In addition, I finally bought my ukulele. Many people (including my mother) cannot stop laughing at the prospect of me playing a ukulele. I really think that it’s a great idea and am seriously committed to learning how to play it. At the moment, I am having a bit of a tough time with tuning, but I will shortly get the hang of it. Cristina also decided to get some new strings for her guitar.

Mission 4: Survive Freshman year in College (all over again).
Mission 5: Survive being held captive in a room with 1,738,934 mosquitos.
After returning back to our side of Kagoshima, we got a second wind and decided to join Laura for Nick’s Dance Revolution Party. Besides being hot and full of mosquitos, it was fun.

Mission 6: Experience an Uchinoura Rocket Launch.
Yesterday was the infamous Uchinoura Rocket Launch – the one that the have been talking about for months. Laura, Jill, Heather, Cristina and I crowded into a car and began to head to the launch site at around noon. Unfortunately, they had closed down the roads because there were too many cars out at the launch site already. So, in a scurry we proceeded to go to Mt. Kano to see if we could find a place there. As we got there, we asked a car (actually, the people in the car) coming down if it was already full. It was. In a last minute chance to see the rocket, we parked the car at my house and ran to the beach to see it from there. The beach looked so calm and beautiful that we all stood in the water while waiting for the rocket to launch. It was then that I saw a starfish in the water. I pointed it out and everyone looked. It was at that moment that I looked up and saw the rocket shot up in the air. We didn’t hear the thunderous roar till about 20 seconds later. It was crazy. You could feel it on the ground (and in your soul). It was a great moment of pride for me and all Uchinourans. Although I think that some of us were a bit bummed we didn’t get to film it or photograph it, it was still well worth it. As for the starfish, we got a great photograph of that and then released it back into the ocean.

Upcoming Missions.
At the moment, I am excited about all the upcoming events. I am heading to Nagoya to meet up with my mother on Wednesday. Harry Potter gets delivered to our door on Saturday. My mom and I are going to Gion Matsuri, the biggest festival in Japan, on Sunday. And, Cristina, Shana, Laura, Jill and Osa are climbing Mt. Fuji Sunday night to watch the sun rise over Japan from the pinnacle. Can’t wait to fill you in on all the happenings, but it’s going to have to wait till next week.

2005-07-07T12:51:00.000+09:00

Aichi EXPO. A picture of Cristina and Elena outside of the Cuba Pavilion. We were not allowed inside due to strict embargo regulations. Just kidding. We went inside and had a chat with Fidel who was on a visit. Just kidding. It was via internet. Just kidding. There's no internet in Cuba. Just kidding. There is. The other picture is of Cristina getting some henna done on her hand in the Morrocco Pavilion.

2005-07-07T12:48:00.000+09:00

Cristina's uncle, Juanpi, singing for us some "?" and Cristina finding it incredibly amusing.

2005-07-07T12:40:00.000+09:00

Golden Week Pics. One picture is of when they dragged me up on stage and I "danced" in front of the Okinawan Band. Okinawa music is very distinct from the rest of Japan. They have a special snake skin-covered stringed instrument that I like to call the Japanese Banjo. In the other picture, Cristina and I are standing in front of America-ya (America Store) which sells everything from Abercrombie and Fitch to used American parachutes for thousands of dollars. It was so ridiculous. Americans are not well received by the Okinawans always because of the number of concentrated American bases on such a relatively small island.

2005-07-07T12:35:00.000+09:00

Yu-chan's cousin's son. As you can tell, he was caught with his hand, spoon and chop stick in the chocolate pot. This has to be one of my favorite memories of being a kid.

2005-07-07T12:30:00.000+09:00

Satsuma Weekender. A bunch of us taking a funny picture in front of Lake Ikeda and Mt. Kaimon.

Tanabata

2005-07-07T09:48:00.000+09:00

If you didn’t know already, Uchinoura is the first Rocket Launching site in Japan and currently one of the three. Therefore, everything in this town seems to have a space/astronaut/rocket theme. The elementary school has a mural. All the bridges have satellite or rocket bookends. The town’s bar is called the New Roketo. The town’s ‘posh’ hotel/onsen is Cosmo Pier. Anyway, you get the idea.

Well, for many months they have been talking about their next launch. It was supposed to be yesterday, but was postponed due to rain. Apparently it’s a big deal because it is the biggest rocket that Uchinoura will have ever launched (and to be honest, Uchinoura doesn’t have the best record of launches). However, this isn’t why I mention the launch in particular, though I would hope that you find it interesting.

For the past month, Uchinoura has been relatively full or people. Not full like a city is full, but full like a small town is full with an extra 100 people that no one has seen before. I look around and notice that none of the faces that I see mirror any child in Uchinoura’s schools. Furthermore, every morning there are people standing at the side of the road waiting for rides from JAXA (Japan’s NASA) cars or taxis that spend their mornings and afternoons just shuttling them back and forth. I hear that Cosmo Pier is completely full as is all the small, family-run inns.

Yesterday, as I was studying kanji for the Japanese Proficiency Test in the library, several men were roaming about checking the reading material. In any case, that is not what struck me, though the library is usually not nearly that full (with grown ups). What struck me was that some of these men were in their yukatas (thin, flimsy, cotton robes) strolling about like it was their personal house. I have heard of people doing this in small towns that have several onsen. I guess it wouldn’t make sense to put on all your clothes for a 5-minute walk if you are simply going to take them off and bathe again. However, Uchinoura is not really an onsen town. And, they are just all over the place. They are sitting in a library with nothing but their robes on. I just don’t get it. You could have put your clothes on for that. It’s not like you’re going to bathe in the library.

I mentioned the Japanese Language Proficiency Test previously. Cristina and I will take Level 3 in December. There are four levels in case you are wondering. Level 4 being the lowest and Level 1 being the highest. Cristina and I were not able to take the Level 4 last year because they only sell a limited amount of applications and they were sold out at the time we decided to take it. However, it is easy and I imagine that we would have passed had we taken it. Therefore, we are “doing level up” as they say in my office and schools. I have already begun studying the kanji needed for the test. You need to know about 300 and all their readings and meanings. I would go as far as to say that I know nearly that many, but not necessarily the ones that are on the test. For a Japanese person to read a newspaper, they have to know about 2,000 kanji.

As for the instrument playing, Cristina and I have hit a wall. We cannot find a way to tune the guitar. All we do know is that it is extremely out of tune. We bought a guitar tuner and have tried to tighten and loosen the strings, but no luck (not even close). I think I may just stick to my ukulele (though I have not bought it yet).

Finally, I will conclude today’s entry with a Japanese story.
A long time ago there was a princess who loved this boy. Everything in the world seemed to pale in comparison to the thought of
the other. They were so in love that they ignored everything
else. Like Narcissus imprisoned by his own affection for himself, the
couple was imprisoned by their own affections for each other. So much so,
that they ceased to do their duties to the gods and their country. Like
every bad deed, this one too had to be punished. So, they were
banished to stars in the Milky Way distant from each other. One to Altair
and the other to Vega. There they would stay for all eternity.
However, even the gods recognized that their love was too strong.
Therefore, they were granted one wish. The lovers’ stars would be allowed
to come closest to each other one day every year – on the seventh day of the
seventh month. And thus it will be for all eternity.

Henceforth, the Japanese have celebrated Tanabata on the seventh day of the seventh month by hanging their elaborately folded paper wishes on a bamboo branch hoping that their wishes too will be granted by the gods like the princess and the boy.

Happy Birthday Damian!

2005-07-05T08:21:00.000+09:00

Just wanted to wish you a happy 20th. Hope you're having a great time. Wish I could be there to spend it with you. Let me know what you think of the gifts I got you. I know they were probably not what you wanted, but I thought you would get a kick out of them anyway. Cheers!

By the way, what's up with your name. Are you finally spelling it with an 'e' or an 'a'.

With a Ukulele in my Hand

2005-07-04T16:50:00.000+09:00

Forgive me if some of this doesn’t make sense, but it’s actually the second time I write this. I am a bit upset at the fact that I had written 3 pages worth of stuff that I simply forgot to post and then erased unknowingly. In any case, here it goes…AGAIN.

Cristina and I have discovered the wonderful world of Books Misumi. You may be asking yourself, ‘what would Jesse and Cristina want in a book shop that has 0 foreign books (not counting Korean)?’ Well, it’s also a video/dvd/cd rental store. And on every Friday, you can rent 5 videos or dvds for 1000 yen. So, Cristina and I have rented Season 2 and half of Season 3 of Roswell. We have been watching it non-stop for about 2 weeks along with episodes of Lost which we just got. In case you are wondering what I think about them, Season 2 of Roswell was good (better than Season 3 so far). I am finding Lost also very interesting. I have only seen half of it, but I am surprised with what they have done with it.

The last weekend of June, Cristina and I just stayed home and relaxed. We actually got Yahoo BB back, so we had to set it up and get it working. That Saturday night, we went bowling in Kanoya with Jill and Heather. It was surprisingly fun and a good chance for some people watching. Things that surprised me were: how nice and new the shoes were, relatively little smoke compared to American alleys, and the weirdest videos. As for our bowling skills, none of us faired too well. Heather came the closest to clearing 100 both times. Jill and I traded off both times for last. But, we tied for last once you add up our scores from both games. Cristina, as always, is simply getting better at everything she does.

I do have to mention that I did kick everyone’s a#$ at table tennis. Lately, I have been playing with many of my students during recess or a bit after school. They are really good, but I guess so am I. They keep on trying to teach me the ‘proper’ way to hold the paddle. I didn’t even know there was a proper way. In any case, the point is that I beat all the girls. Some of them, even twice. I do have to admit that some of the games were close.

The following Sunday, Cristina, Jill, Heather and I decided to venture to Miyazaki’s new mall, the one that I had gone too when Cristina was in Kyoto with Juanpi and Elena. If I had not mentioned it earlier, it is the biggest mall in Kyushu, though it will certainly not seem so (from an American perspective anyway). Cristina and Jill bought their head lamps for their climb up Fuji on the weekend of July 18. Other than that, nothing too exciting. I guess the highlight of our trip was dinner with Osa in one of her favorite restaurants.

Like usual, we had trouble deciding what restaurants to go to. The two we decided on were closed. Then, in a sheer moment of clarity, Osa remembered Akabei. Within 12minutes, we called to reserve a table and were there ready to sit at it. It is a Japanese style pub (maybe a little bit bigger) with amazing food. Among my favorite things to eat were the pumpkin mousse, the cheese and prawn spring roll and the chicken nanban. My absolute favorite was the pumpkin mousse. Imagine something like a sweet potato casserole with cheese instead of marshmallow on top. Mmmm… Simply delicious. In any case, we ate, drank and were merry and then we went home. Big KUDOS to Osa for remembering the place and taking us there. Now, if she only picked up the tab. (Just kidding Lady Bear!)

During the week, I had two demonstration classes. Basically what this entails is the JTE planning a class and incorporating the children and me in it somehow. You may not think so, but it’s really one of Japan’s favorite spectator sports. About 25 people come from the board of education and other schools for the sheer pleasure of making kids stay after school and watching the teachers get really nervous. After they observe us demonstrating how a great class should go, you walk out to the school courtyard for some tea and biscuits to listen to halfhearted comments about how well you did. Soon after, you’re taken like cattle to a meeting room where you spend the next 100 minutes listening to brainless questions from people who are simply asking questions to look like they are efficiently doing their job. It was great. All I had to do was smile and look foreign. Not so difficult, huh? Actually, it is a bit more involved and interactive than that.

Besides that, this week has been pretty uneventful. Well, there was the night that I went on a bayside cliff to eat Sri Lankan Curry in a restaurant that you have to honk a horn to call your waitress. Oh, and that time that I went to that party on top of the mountain for a girl from my office who is leaving to Kagoshima City for a 2-month study program. And, that day when my boss flipped because he didn’t have a tax form that my supervisor should have given me to fill out back in October. But, hey, that’s life of an ALT. Smooth sailing.

As for this past weekend, Cristina and I volunteered to teach in a One Day International College event. It is meant for people planning on going to an international college to study to see how it is like. However, what it ends up being is a group of women that probably studied English in college and end up using it for nothing else, so they go to events like this to meet people like us and them that they can speak English to. I was surprised that they were so enthusiastic about English, that they actually spoke in English to each other. As for what we taught, I had originally planned on speaking about U.S. Hispanics and teaching some Spanish. But then, I decided to stick with the basics and teach them what countries speak Spanish and some Spanish. Some things that surprised me were what countries they thought spoke Spanish, what countries they didn’t know spoke Spanish, and how good their accents were when they spoke Spanish. I actually think that it is easier for the Japanese to speak Spanish than English. The sounds that you have to make with your mouth are more similar to Spanish than English. Overall, I would say that the lesson was a big success. Cristina and I enjoyed it so much that we are thinking about volunteering to do the same thing in our towns.

Later that night, we went to the rooftop beer garden of the Mitsukoshi Department Store. It was the big Leaver’s Farewell Party. It was a lot of fun and all you can eat and drink which was nice after the crap lunch we had at the College event. It was great to see so many people and be able to have one final bash before they went back to their respective countries. They also gave out some funny (and some mean) awards like high school superlatives. Jill won Karaoke Master of the Universe. After the beer garden, we headed over to On the Table for the after party that was also a lot of fun. Since we couldn’t crash at Alex’s flat, we ended up crashing in a surprisingly spacious Single-room in a business hotel with Jill and Shana.

The following day was declared an AMU day complete with the KFC Dragon Twister and some Starbucks. We just spent the day lounging about. Like June, July seems to be just as rainy and a little bit warmer, so we decided it would be nice to go to the movies. We saw War of the Worlds, which I was pleasantly surprised with and highly recommend if you are looking for a loud, summer blockbuster. My favorite part of the day, however, was not the movie (which should be surprising if you know me). It was the musical instrument store. Cristina tried to teach me some stuff on the piano, which I am determined to learn. She also decided to get a guitar tuner to tune and learn a guitar that Kaz gave to her that was just sitting at her house gathering dust. I have also gotten on the kick and am thinking of learning the guitar, or possibly the ukulele. Yes, you read correctly, the ukulele. I figure it may be easier to learn and a bit more interesting. I have not bought it yet, but I think I will when I go back to AMU on Saturday to see Star Wars. And with that thought, I will leave you – imagining me strumming a ukulele on a street somewhere in this world wearing a brightly-colored Hawaiian shirt and possibly sporting a straw, cowboy-shaped hat.

2005-07-04T11:54:00.000+09:00

Hey everyone, Blogger.com has made it even easier to post pictures. So, here I have posted some that I had with me in my desk drawer. I will post more as soon as I get home. To the left is a picture of Alex, Kaz, Me and Cristina and the Wild Irish Party for St. Patrick's Day. To the right is a picture of Cristina with some of her favorite graduating 3rd Graders at Higashi-Kushira Junior High.

Ni-Ju-Yon! 24!

2005-06-23T15:19:00.000+09:00

So for those of you who don’t know yet, I’m another year older. The big 2-4 is upon me and my quarter-life crisis is now awaiting me around the corner. I foresee it getting really bad when I try to figure out what I will do after the Jet Program. In any case, my birthday was this past Monday, so we decided to celebrate by heading to the City for a CD release party for one of Kaz and Alex’s friends. Originally, we were going to take Laura to the airport; however, Jill gave her a ride so we just said bye to her from Osaki. She seemed excited to be going home and was carrying back 2 huge suitcases each with 70 lbs. worth of gifts. After saying goodbye, Cristina and I headed to Uniqlo where Cristina bought me this cool Japanese-style summer pajama that I wanted for my birthday. Then, we were off to Kagoshima to meet up with Kaz and Alex.

On the way there, we decided to visit the new Dolphin Port. It is a seaside, 2-story shopping plaza with a boardwalk that reminded all of us of Bayside in Miami, except there were no bars and it seemed that the second floor was devoted to fancy restaurants and wedding locales. They were actually setting up for a wedding when we went and we both thought what a crap place it was to get married – with other people walking along holding their shopping bags and stopping and staring. While there, we went to a Starbucks-wannabe green tea place where we had some green tea drinks with tapioca pearls. It was OK except for the fact that a very rude woman skipped us in the line and Cristina and I were both very upset. After Dolphin Port, we walked past Tenmonkan to Amu Plaza to buy some stuff to make fajitas. Since we had not gotten Alex anything for his birthday on June 2nd (or 3rd) we decided to make him fajitas and get him an ice cream cake. On the way to his house, we were greeted by Kaz and Alex leaning out of his 6th floor apartment window reciting some Romeo and Juliet.

Before going to the CD release party, we went to a pre-party party at Nick’s place, complete with treats and sangria. I do not know him particularly well, but I kept on hearing that people were pleasantly surprised. Then after spending some time there, we headed to Bang On’s CD release party. It was in a closet of a space, but Richard (a guy from the band who lives next door to Alex) said he wanted the space to be intimate. That it was. It was like two 10x10 rooms with about 80 people and a bar. I really don’t know what I would classify their music as other than a blend of electronic mixing, guitar and vocals. I forgot to mention that I learned a trick with a string from Kaz during the pre-party that I kept on performing during the party. It was quite the hit there and quite the hit with all of my students for the past week. Although to be quite honest, I have jazzed it up a bit just to make a bit more dramatic and exciting.

The next day I woke up before the others a bit hung over. I walked from Alex’s to Amu Plaza to enjoy a nice cool cup of Starbucks. It really hit the spot considering how hot it was the night before and that morning. Then, I walked around Amu Plaza to pass the time before getting Cristina’s call. She let me know that everyone was awake and were formulating a plan for lunch. I returned to Alex’s to wait for everyone to shower and get ready and then we headed back to Amu to eat at an all-you-can-eat buffet place. It was OK – all Japanese stuff. After we headed to the movie theater to see Batman Begins. What an experience! I did not enjoy the movie’s plot as much as the others, but I did enjoy the huge theater we saw it in and with the great sound effects. It was the first time that we saw a movie in one of the big theaters at that Cineplex. After the movie, we returned to Alex’s flat to enjoy some of the ice cream cake we had bought at Baskin Robbins.

At around 4:00, we left Alex’s and walked back to Amu. I know what you’re thinking, my day sounds really repetitive – IT WAS! We returned to Amu so Cristina could have some Starbucks. We also split a “dragon twister” from KFC which we have come to love so much (fried chicken in a flour tortilla with some sauce, tomato and lettuce). Then, it was time to go back home.

Monday, June 20th was my birthday. It started out with me going to Uchinoura Elementary School where I was going to spend the day with the 2nd graders. Actually, I lie. Before that, at the office they sang Happy Birthday to me after the Monday morning meetings. Then, I went to meet with the second graders and they sang Happy Birthday to me. They also handed me 22 laminated birthday cards. The ones with their sketches of me were my favorite. It was great to also see them really trying to write in the Roman alphabet. The class was a lot of fun, but not one of my best like today when I come up with brilliant games on the spot that seem to save the day (sorta).

After school, I headed to Cristina’s where she had tried to hide from me the fact that she was baking a cake. It was really funny to see her get upset at me for not being dumb as a doornail. I was really excited because she managed to make my favorite cake – pea-picking cake – without the usual materials she uses to make it. Then, she took me to Tomo-chan’s in Osaki where Jill and Osa (all the way from Nichinan) surprised me. We, of course, had a great meal and enjoyed our time with Tomo-chan. Kaz also arrived after her eikaiwa class later in the evening. Oh, and I forgot to mention, Cristina pre-ordered the new Harry Potter book to my house along with two other books that I wanted. I am really excited about the new Harry Potter book coming out. On another HP sidenote, we were able to see the preview for the new Harry Potter film coming out in Japan on November something.

Anyway, today I went to elementary school again. It has been pouring and storming all day (as it usually does every June day in Japan or so I am hearing). So, for recess we had to play inside. The kids were trying to show me a game that reminded of me of duck, duck goose. Therefore, I decided to show it to them and they decided to play it. Unfortunately, it was over 30 kids and a space of 10x15 which means that it was a bit dangerous. Well, one kid did end up hitting his head against the wall which meant that it was time to stop. We ended up playing the Down by the lake hand slapping game but with the ABC song instead. It was quite the hit as well.

Tonight, Yu-chan invited us out to Kabochate, the all-you-can-eat-and-drink Japanese pub. I think we’re all looking forward to it. It should be fun and a great way to unwind from our busy weeks.

Umbrellaphobia

2005-06-17T09:19:00.000+09:00

We’ve been back from Nagoya since Sunday. The Aichi EXPO was great except for the fact that it was a bit crowded and rained for half of the day. Actually, it probably seemed more crowded than it was because EVERY living soul in the park was holding a huge umbrella (including Elena and Cristina) except me. It was killing me because I had no umbrella of my own to battle off the other umbrella-holding monsters. They just zipped by poking an eye out here and an eye out there. I never realized how tall I was compared to many Japanese people until they almost tore me into bits with their colorful weapons. Needless to say, I will buy an umbrella, it being the rainy season and all, but I will not like it. I have grown deathly afraid.

As for the EXPO itself, we were not able to go to any of the huge corporate pavilions with rides. We got there when the park opened and all of the same-day reservations sold out immediately. However, we decided to make the best of it and go around the different country pavilions. Some of them were quite good at informing you about the culture and what the country can do to be environmentally friendly. Other country pavilions were just simply too abstract or just simply plain. Elena, Cristina and I discussed it and we think that the winners are probably India and Mexico. We thought the loser by far was Singapore. Just to give you an idea of why Singapore was so bad, let me paint you a picture: You are standing outside for over 20 minutes in the rain waiting anxiously to enter this very interesting looking pavilion with rubber duckies and pink flamingos on the outside. Then, as soon as you get into the dry space, they hand you an UMBRELLA! Suddenly, you are crowded into this room where everyone has to have an umbrella and it begins to storm and pour. Naturally, many people looked up which meant that the water just splashed off their umbrella and hit everyone else. We ended up being soaked. Then, the water ceded to fall and we continued to a gift shop. Yeah, we didn’t get it either.

Sunday, we went to Nagoya’s main shopping district, Sakae, where we had a mission: Find one of the three Outback Steakhouses in Japan and eat Aussie cheese fries and have a dessert. Before we could do that, we walked what seemed like the entire city looking for a free locker. It was really frustrating for all of us since we hadn’t eaten yet and were lugging around Elena’s big bags. We finally gave up and just took it with us. We found Outback pretty quickly, but had to wait an hour till it opened. So we walked for a bit and stumbled into a foreign food store. It was nice and we got ourselves a few things. Then, it was time to go to Outback. IT WAS FANTASTIC – a real nice piece of home! After Outback, we headed back to the airport to say goodbye to Elena who would continue to the States while we returned to Kagoshima. Nagoya’s Central Japan Airport is new. It opened in February. It’s great, except it also doubles as a shopping mall. It has a sky terrace that overlooks the runways, so there were tons of people there that didn’t have any flights with the sole purpose of perusing and shopping. It was crazy to see all those people walking back and forth. It was literally a highway with no automobiles. From there, we said our tearful goodbyes and everyone went on their way. (By the way, Juanpi had left on Friday from Kagoshima airport to Osaka, where he would go on to Miami.)

This week has been rally busy. I have booked schools for everyday. I don’t mind though, because that just means I have elementary school twice a week. This week I also read Memoirs of a Geisha. I enjoyed it since I had just been in Kyoto and will be going back there with my mom.

Last night I went to dinner at the Katos. It was so much fun. There were two little boys aged 2 that were playing guns for like 3 hours straight NONSTOP. This was so tiring, but a lot of fun at the same time. There was also the cutest 10-month old, Ui-chan. They are all the kids of the Katos’ cousins.

Around the World (EXPO)

2005-06-10T15:43:00.000+09:00

Just a quick update for everyone. Cristina, Elena and I will be leaving for Nagoya today and will be at the World Expo tomorrow. Elena will leave from there on Sunday to return to the States. Juanpi is leaving today also, but heading for Osaka. He will leave from Kansai tomorrow. I will write more on Monday or Tuesday. My schedule is pretty packed all of next week.

AAARRGGHH!

2005-06-09T09:02:00.000+09:00

One of the joys of living in Japan are the day to day frustrations. Yesterday there were quite a few things that added up to make me explode. However, I would have to say that what put me over the edge was when my supervisor told me that I could not take the free Japanese mail course entitled to all JETs. His excuse was that there was no money in the budget for it. He just kept on talking rather than listening to what I had to say. If he would have taken the time to even read the information that was given to him, this could have all been avoided. I ended up just leaving yesterday and thanking him and his superior in an overly polite and sarcastic way (like people usually do here). This morning when I was a bit more calm, I took the time to explain to him that the course is no cost whatsoever to the board of education. I think they understood, but as usual it is hard to say. Let’s hope they did.

As for Juanpi and Elena, they went to Miyazaki yesterday to visit the city and Udo Jingu. They really enjoyed it, but were a bit taken aback by the driving. Luckily, they made it back in time and we took them to yakiniku (where you grill your own beef). We had a nice big group of us as Kaz, Laura and Jill joined us. After dinner, we returned home and looked at the pictures of the last two weeks along with the video that we have taken. I think some of it is just too funny. Let’s see what the other think. Juanpi is getting really into it and wants to edit it all together to make a short film.

Sleepless Nights

2005-06-08T09:09:00.000+09:00

It has been non-stop since Juanpi and Elena have arrived. I feel like the days are very long, but the good thing is that I am enjoying them. I tend to feel it more in the mornings or when I am just sitting about. In the evenings though, I am so excited to have something to do and at having a piece of home here. Speaking of which, thank you so much Lourdes and company, for all the other things you sent with Juanpi. We both appreciate it very much. Cristina especially appreciates the bookmarks with the pictures of the family.

Monday evening, we went to Kanoya. We visited the travel agency to book a ferry to Yakushima, the island world heritage site off of Kagoshima. However, Juanpi and Elena decided against it for fear that it was going to be too complicated for the relatively short amount of time they were going to spend on the island. After leaving the travel agency, we did some quick 100-yen shopping before heading to Kabochate.

Kabochate is an izakaya that we go to on occasion. You pay about $30 for men and $25 for women and it’s all you can eat and drink! We drank, we ate, we drank some more, we ate some more. It was a lot of fun except for the group sitting behind us that kept on pointing at the girls and signing ‘oh my, what big breasts they have.’ It’s ok because Cristina handled it very maturely by looking back and signing to them that they had nasty teeth. Just kidding. She really wanted to though. Who could blame her?

After Kabochate, we walked over to karaoke. It was Juanpi and Elena’s first time doing karaoke Japan-style. It was the four of us in a booth plus Jill, Laura and Fumiko (who had also accompanied us to dinner). It was good fun also except I was denied the opportunity to perform my favorite song, Karma Chameleon. After two hours of singing at the top of our lungs (again all you can drink), we went to pay. We were surprised that it came to $42 total! Well, I found that incredibly cheap. I also heard some of our friends doing the same thing in Kobe from midnight till 5 a.m. for about the same price (about $5 a head). I had no idea karaoke could be so cheap. Most of us were ready to leave by 12:30, so we took some daiko cabs home.

The next morning was not a pleasant experience. Cristina was luckier than me. She only had one class. I, on the other had, had two classes and the junior high and English club at the elementary school. There is nothing worse than going to an elementary school one-hour before you punch out and knowing that you have to be as fun as Barney. Let me tell you, my rendition of the Bingo song could have been much better.

While we were at work, Elena and Juanpi took my car to Kagoshima City. They walked around and explored the City. I think that they both really liked it. I kept on mentioning how it was nothing like Osaka and had more of a Miami feel to it. After work, Cristina and I drove to the Sakurajima Volcano ferry port to meet up with them to take them to the famous Furusato Onsen. This hot spring is the one that is mixed bathing outdoors overlooking Kinko Bay. It was a very nice way to spend the evening. We arrived after dark. The other time Cristina and I went was during the day. This had a totally different feel to it because there were lit torches and lots of dramatic lighting around the ancient tree and shrine. We actually went at the perfect time because we had the whole thing to ourselves! After onsen, we ate dinner at Gusto, a Denny’s-like diner that’s open late.

Today, Elena and Juanpi are taking my car while we are at work and going to Miyazaki. They want to drive the Nichinan Coast and visit Udo Jingu, the seaside shrine.

Kyoto, Lady Bear and the Volcano

2005-06-06T14:30:00.000+09:00

Kyoto will leave you in awe. I think I can speak for all of us and admit that Kyoto did live up to its expectations. For a while, I thought it wasn’t going to be able to, but it proved me wrong.

We arrived on Saturday, May 28. We began by checking into our hostel, J-Hoppers, which I highly recommend to anyone visiting Kyoto that is reading this entry. We bought some bus day passes there and went on our way. The bus system in Kyoto is extremely efficient and easy to use. Buses can take you just about anywhere. There also really frequent which means that you never really get impatient waiting for one. However, in case you are person like me that cannot stand not knowing if the bus will arrive on time, there is a type of flip-board at most stops that alert you when the bus is over 3 minutes away and then counts down from there. Anyway, the first thing we went to see was Northwest Kyoto where the famous Golden Temple is. This was probably one building that was nice but perhaps did not really exceed expectations like all the other sights. Then, we went to a Zen rock garden which I have yet to understand. I definitely must read more about Zen Buddhism to get a better viewpoint. And then we went to one of my favorites, Ninna-ji, which had a pagoda which I really wanted to see.

We met up with Osa late in the afternoon. We returned to the hostel for a quick nap and then left for the Gion District. Gion is where all the high-end tea houses are situated. Thus, if you want to catch a glimpse of one of the infamous geishas or maiko (geisha apprentices), you have to basically just hang out at this street and try to catch a glimpse of one walking by. Well, we were lucky because we got there at around 9:00 and that’s when all the geisha were arriving via cab. It was amazing to see them fully dressed and scurrying off to the different tea houses to entertain wealthy men. Unfortunately, while we were there, there was a big group of about 7 or 8 foreigners (who I like to call geisha hunters) that were taking pictures like they were paparazzi and shouting tasteless remarks like ‘GOTCHA’. We wanted to turn the table and begin taking pictures of them.

Sunday we visited more sights. Among them was Kiyomizudera. This temple is probably one of the more famous ones. It’s huge and on stilts. It definitely has a commanding view of Kyoto. The only drawback is that it is one of the more crowded ones. The highlight of my day, however, was calling Osa “Lady Bear” (Osa is Spanish for female bear.) and letting our a growl with both of my “paws” up. I was quite amused by it. I can definitely say that Cristina was too. Wish I could say the same about Osa. Later that evening, we took a train to Kobe where we our Recontractor’s conference was being held.

The conference was at the Portopia Hotel on an offshore man-made island. Cristina and I were placed together and were given a great room on the 20th floor that overlooked Kobe Bay and City. It was amazing. Definitely beats the time where we had a view of the top of the Eiffel Tower looking sideways out of the fire escape in our Paris hotel.

The Monday after we checked in, we were free until 2:00, so we went to Himeji Castle which is the biggest most intact castle in Japan. I think it was built in the 13th or 14th Century. It is nicknamed the “White Egret” because of its wing-like roof and white walls. We were also really excited to go to Himeji because we heard that there was a Subway Sandwich Shop nearby. It was OISHII!

In any case, our seminar was somewhat informative, but really more of a chance to gather with other foreigners and have fun. I think that the JET Program knows this too and uses it as an incentive to get people to re-contract. The highlight of this trip was eating at an all you can eat and drink Brazilian beef restaurant and going out every night. My time ended on Wednesday though, when I returned to Osaka to return back home with Laura and Osa. Cristina and Elena went back to Kyoto to meet up with their uncle Juanpi who was arriving that evening.

The next 3 days, Cristina, Elena and Juanpi would run rampant around the streets of Kyoto. They apparently had a lot of fun, but that’s something that you will have to ask them. They stayed at a real traditional ryokan which looked really neat from the pictures.

On Saturday, I got a phone call from Cristina saying that they had boarded the ferry and were on their way to Shibushi (a town close to us) where I was supposed to pick them up the following day. Ten minutes pass and I get another call from Cristina. They had boarded the wrong ferry and were on their way to Beppu, a city in Northeast Kyushu. Cristina was freaking out about it, but I guess that Juanpi and Elena managed to keep her calm since they really didn’t mind. From Beppu, they just took the train down to Miyakonojo where Jill, Laura and I picked them up to take them hiking in Kirishima.

We arrived at Kirishima at 2:15 and were hiking by 2:30. We went up the tallest volcano. As we passed all the people on their way down saying their Konnichiwas, they also mentioned it was a little late to begin the hike. They also stared at us a bit from our lack of preparedness (and the fact that we were foreign too probably). I think that we were all a bit surprised by all the loose gravel (or volcanic rock). Juanpi was a but shaky for a time there after slipping, but managed to make it up another 15 steps to see the inside of the crater. From there, Juanpi and I returned to the bottom while the girls pushed on.

After eating lunch at the foot of the volcano, Juanpi went to get some things from the car to wash up his cuts. I noticed that some people were speaking to him, so I went to go see if he needed any help with Japanese. It turns out that the woman spoke perfect English. She wanted to know if we could give two people from their group a ride to their cars so they could return and pick the rest of them up. We decided to do our good deed for the day and took them. Thirty-five minutes later!!! We get to the parking lot in the middle of nowhere. Lucky for us, we still had to wait for the girls to come back down. So we followed the 2 cars back to the foot of the volcano to wait for the girls. While speaking to the large group of people who were thanking us for taking them, we discovered that one of the guys knew Spanish. Both Juanpi and I were surprised by his accent. I was also surprised by the amount he knew. Ten minutes later, the girls made it with daylight to spare. (We were a bit worried that night was going to catch them on the way down.)

After hiking, we went to eat at a conveyor belt sushi place in Miyakonojo before introducing Juanpi to Cristina’s humble town. Today, we will take them to play in Kanoya. Hopefully, they will enjoy 100-yen shopping and the rose ice cream. We will also take them to an izakaya (a Japanese pub) and to do some karaoke afterward! Let’s see how good their vocal talents are.

Off to Kyoto

2005-05-27T13:30:00.000+09:00

From what I can tell, Elena seems to be enjoying herself. Most people here are surprised at how much she likes the food. She seems to like anything they ask her to try which always seems to put a smile on their faces.

Wednesday after school, we went to Todoroki Waterfalls in Koyama. This is probably one of my favorite places here in Japan only because it is something I have definitely never done before and live so close to. Unfortunately, it is still a bit too cold to really appreciate taking a dip in the cool (read freezing) mountain water. However, being the daredevil I am, I jumped in a couple of times only to come out extremely quickly because of how cold it was. Perhaps when Cristina's uncle JuanP comes he will join me for a dip and we will stay for longer. We were also going to try to climb to some other tiers but quickly realized that it would be a bit too scary to absail down or slide down. Later that night, we introduced Elena to Tomo-chan and his wife Yoko in Osaki. It was fun to catch up with him. I cannot remember the last time we spoke.

Yesterday, we had the Katos over for dinner. Cristina cooked some really good Arroz con Pollo. I would almost go as far as saying it is as good as my grandmother's but everyone would think (know?) I was lying. Point is, it was excellent and I wish I knew how to make it so well. She also made a huge flan which was a bit of trouble to make because of the lack of large convection ovens. Here they have an all in one microwave/toaster/oven-type thingy. She figured out how to use it though and it came out AMAZING! It was truly a hit and she gave the Katos the recipe so they could attempt to make it on their own. If you are wondering what my contribution was, I made the salad and the salad dressing. You may laugh, but my dressing was a great concoction of garlic, olive oil, vinegar, lemon, salt and pepper. I also began to take some video. Hopefully I'll have some interesting stuff to send home soon.

Today Elena came to Uchinoura and lounged around exploring the surroundings. It is a bit more scenic than Higashi-Kushira. I haven't spoken to her so much since I last saw her, but it seems to be going ok. Well, she did tell me that she refused to climb the mountain because of the huge birds hanging around. Tonight we are going to dinner with Cristina's mechanic and Jill and Laura. His name is Ono-san and he is apparently quite the character. I look forward to meeting him, but I am a bit tired and am feeling a bit unsocial. Let's see how it fairs.

In any case, tomorrow we leave bright and early to go to Kyoto. We will spend a couple of days there sightseeing before going to Kobe for our Recontractor's Conference. It should be fun, but the weather is expected to be horrible. Obviously, Cristina, Elena and I are going. Laura and Osa are also coming too. I can't wait. It really just suddenly creeped upon us. I am not the least bit prepared. I usually obsessively plan trips. I guess we'll just have to wing it! (I just taught that to my Japanese teacher -- wing it.)

As a side note, today I got served tomatoes and raw onions with coffee at tea time -- 10:40 AM. I take pleasure in the little things.

Elena Meets Japan

2005-05-24T09:05:00.000+09:00

Last Wednesday we picked up Elena from the airport. It was funny to see someone we know from the States all the way over here. It was really unexpected in a way. Cristina and I were waiting for her in the airport and I was the one that spotted her first. She has cut her hair and dyed it red. It really suits her. Actually, now she looks even more like her mom in this picture that they have in their house. The resemblance is truly uncanny (except for the height). We picked her up and were surprised to see her with two 70 pound bags. She kept on telling us that one was just full of stuff for us, but somehow I found that hard to believe. In any case, we lugged her luggage into my funny looking Kei-car and took her to the restaurant I was taken to when I first arrived. It is really traditional and specializes in noodles like udon and soba.

After being lost for a while on the way back from the restaurant, we finally made it home. Elena was charmed by Cristina’s humble abode and quickly settled in. She opened her bags and indeed one had been completely full of things for us. It seems that we have the Cuban supermarket of Sedano’s in our kitchen now. We will use some of it to introduce the Katos on this Saturday to the tantalizing and exotic taste (at least for them) of Cuban cooking.

On Thursday, we took Elena to meet the Katos. They were excited to see, meet her and introduce her to some Japanese culture and food. As always, their cooking and hospitality was amazing. We also got to play with 1-year-old Yume before she returned to Okinawa with Kokoro. Although Yume was hit like always, I believe the true hit of the night was Elena’s frequent tastings of the squid caught in the Uchinoura Bay. Since foreigners in the past have not liked squid, they assumed that she wouldn’t either. They were also surprised that she likes mochi (sticky rice thing) just like her older sister.

Friday I was in a bit of a panic. I had spent the past two weeks planning for this bonfire party in the secluded beach of Hetsuka. My main concern was actually that there was not going to be enough wood to last the entire night. In any case, I went there after school to mark the hard to find roads with inflated rubber animals and some cones. After arriving on the beach, I set up our tent and began to gather some more drift wood and dig a pit for the bonfire. Jill arrived early with a back seat and trunk full of wood that we had spent gathering the entire week prior. As we were lugging that down, Cristina arrived with Elena and some more supplies and helped gather some more wood. Before we know it, the beach is filled with over 20 more guests that are setting up their tents. As darkness began to fall, we lit the fire. At that moment, I felt proud. Those two years in the Cub Scouts had really paid off. I had made shelter and fire for me, my woman and countless others…. GRUNT, GRUNT, GRUNT. Everybody had a great time and kept on thanking me. People had their laughs, kebabs and plenty of marshmallow s’mores. I, on the other hand, had too much beer and passed out just a little past midnight. Apparently, on the way back from putting me in my tent, that’s when it happened. Heather saw a someone passed out a bit further up on the beach. Alarmed, some people went a bit closer to it. Was it a dead body? Someone who we missed? IT was a sea turtle. Bona fide ginormous, barnacle-backed loggerhead sea turtle. I got to see the pictures and I guess that I can go back to the beach to see it again if I want. However, I was really bummed and had to settle for seeing the tracks the next day. The turtle had dug a pit, but did not lay any eggs. According to Fergus who knows about these things, it was a practice round. They do not begin to lay eggs until next month. I have to remember to tell my elementary schools that I want to go with them to collect them and help them tend to their hatchery. I also want to be part of the release in mid-August.

Saturday morning was pretty much spent sunbathing. Some people played by the shore, but the waves were very dangerous. At about noon, we packed up camp and I am proud to say that we left it cleaner than how we found it. Later that afternoon, we went to Tarumizu for a gallery opening of one of the ALT’s husband who had been to the bonfire the previous night. If you want to check it out, his site is www.scrapingby.com.

Sunday, we took Elena to Kanoya to introduce her to 100 yen shopping, purikura (print club) and the Blue Bird Tea Room.

Zip Line Relays and Wet Pexiglass Doughnut

2005-05-16T14:40:00.000+09:00

As it turned out, it was very cloudy with a big chance of rain on Saturday, so we didn’t end up climbing Mt. Kaimon. However, we still did wake up very early that morning to catch the first ferry to the Satsuma peninsula. Cristina, Laura, Jill and I loaded up in my Daihatsu Move and boarded on the voyage across Kinko Bay at 9:00 AM. It was the first time I took my car on the ferry, and I was very excited. Thirty-five minutes later, we got to the other side and we met up with Jolene and other ALTs. We headed over to her house to pick up the others and then went to Chiran to do some touristy stuff. Unfortunately, I was not that impressed by the Samurai houses of Chiran, one of approximately four things listed in almost all Japan tour books under Kagoshima prefecture. Luckily, most of the people accompanying us, felt the same way. So we settled for embarrassing ourselves in front of Japanese tourists and taking funny pictures in the different house gardens.

After the Samurai houses, we headed to Lake Ikeda. Ikeda is known for its monstrous eels. Although you cannot see from the shore, you can see them in a tourist center where they are kept in tanks. Strangely enough there is also an ostrich farm in the back of the complex. Those are some crazy birds. The best part about Lake Ikeda was the playground. Just to paint a picture: There were eight of us adult foreigners, two Japanese girls, and only two zip lines. These Japanese girls casually left the zip lines to allow us to use them. I don’t know, but I think it was the staring that intimidated them to leave. Later they would return with who appeared to be their mother to tell her something and point at us. Other than that, they don’t play any more parts in our story. Once the zip lines were ours, w had a few practice runs before coordinating a relay race. The race was by far probably the most exciting thing I have done this past week. I would highly recommend that this gets added as an Olympic sport. In any case, we have video and pictures that we can share as soon as we get home Internet access again.

After the zip lines, we went to a Somen restaurant. Somen is a type of angel hair noodle that is only eaten in the summer. Thus, the restaurants are seasonal. This restaurant was I believe the first or on of the first of its kind built. It was down a valley under a huge wooden canopy. There was a water garden throughout the place that was used to keep the koi they killed for their meals. The tables are not ordinary. They have something that appears like a pexiglass doughnut with water constantly swirling around it. When you get the somen noodles, you dump them little by little into the pexiglass river to cool them down and separate them. Then, you pick them out with your chopsticks and dip them in a bowl full of sauce. It was such a neat place, that now I really want to check out the one in the town to the south of Uchinoura.

After somen, we drove around for a bit and then proceeded to get drinks and snacks to take to Jolene’s for the night. At this point, I was getting tired. So, I suggested that we do a Chinese fire drill for a second wind. Surprisingly, the girls complied and we did one. I felt like a kid again as we waved at the Japanese people in the restaurant and other cars after finishing.

The next day, we were all very tired from the previous long day that finished in drinks. However, we were determined to take the first ferry back to make it to the Kanoya Air Memorial Show. It was so early, that we realized we still had time to actually catch some McDonald’s breakfast in Kanoya. So, we did. After waiting in sitting traffic for about 20 minutes, we finally made it to the check point. They stopped our car to check the contents. When the air base people opened the trunk, it was apparent that lots of stuff was going to fall out, so they closed it quickly and waved us through. The air show was definitely not as great as we thought it was going to be. It was really hot and I was really tired. We ended up leaving by 1PM. The highlight of our visit was me getting a huge inflatable sword for under $3.

This weekend I have organized a big bonfire party at Hetsuka Beach in Uchinoura. Let’s see how it goes. Hopefully we don’t have to postpone it due to bad weather. All the Kagoshima ALTs were invited and many have already said they are coming. It should be an all-night affair so people are bringing tents and we are camping out.

Cristina and I are also really excited about her sister Elena coming over. She will get to Kagoshima on Wednesday and will stay for almost a month. So, look forward to hearing about her in the upcoming entries.

Golden Week!

2005-05-12T09:57:00.000+09:00

I meant to write Monday after our arrival back from Yoron, but surprisingly enough it wasn’t an office day. I had to go to Kishira Elementary School, which I didn’t mind since it is my favorite school. As for our long vacation, we were celebrating Golden Week. Golden week falls on the first week in May and it is called that because there are so many days off. Friday, April 29 (Green Day); Tuesday, May 3 (Constitution Day); Wednesday, May 4 (National Holiday); and Thursday, May 5 (Children's Day) were all national holidays. So, Cristina and I only had to take two days off from work in order to have such a long holiday. Friday, April 29th, we left from Kagoshima City to Yoron. Yoron is the southernmost island in Kagoshima Prefecture just north of Okinawa. It took us 20 hours by ferry to get there.

The ferry was cheap, but we can see why. It wasn’t that bad, but we did have to sleep in a big, full room on tightly crammed futons. Knowing our luck, Cristina and I got placed next to the two loudest snoring people in the room keeping over half of the others in the room awake. The other negative about the ferry was that I got a real bad cramp or ache above my stomach, which scared me a bit especially after the ferry employees informed me that nothing can be done until we reach the next port 3-hours away. Luckily, it passed.

The positives about the ferry was that we had plenty of time to read and watch for sea life. I finished reading three books after all the ferry rides we took: Carlos Eire’s Waiting for Snow in Havana, Doug Coupland’s Life After God and Sara Backer’s American Fuji. All were extremely interesting and easy to relate to in some way. As for the sea life, we saw tons of flying fish, a couple pods of dolphins, a couple sea turtles and a whole mess of man-o-wars. Cristina was definitely not as keen as I was about all the sightings.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by David, the Yoron ALT, who offered his services as host during our stay. We were able to sleep over his place and get the first-hand tour of Yoron. The second night we were there, David threw us a welcome party with many of his friends and people from his office to introduce us to Yoron kempo. Yoron’s main crop in sugarcane; thus, they use sugarcane to make their scent-free liquor called Yu-sen. Kempo involves the host pouring himself yu-sen in a bowl and tasting it after saying a short speech. Originally, this practice evolved from the host tasting it to ensure his guests that the yu-sen is not poisoned. However, since it is no longer made at home, that is not the case. Now it is simply for fun and to get drunk. After the host finishes drinking, he pours it for the honored guest. He then makes a speech and drinks from the bowl. The bowl is then given back to the host who pours for the next person. Once all have drunk from the bowl, the bottle is passed to someone else to play the role of host. There are other rules involved as well to make this game a bit more fun.

Yoron was absolutely breath taking. It was just like the picture on the cover of a magazine that sits on a rack outside my office. The island is about 20 km in circumference and is surrounded by coral except in the parts they blasted to make room for a port. Thus, the beaches are usually calm and crystal clear. You can see the fish, rocks and your feet with your head above the water. We went swimming most days we were on the island and exploring its different coves.

Besides going to the beach, we went to a couple museums showing the history of Yoron. It wasn’t ruled by the Satsuma Clan like the rest of Kagoshima, but it wasn’t part of the Ryuku Kingdom (Okinawa) either. Yoron had its own language, but has obviously adopted Japanese. It was really interesting to learn all of this. We also visited a cave embedded on a cliff-side where many people on Yoron died. About 100 years ago, Yoron had some type of disease or plague that claimed the lives of many people. Since they did not recognize what it was or how to cure it, the people inflicted with it went to this cave to live out the remainder of their days. Today, the cave is full of bones and human skulls.

As for food, we were happy to discover that Yoron had an Ai-Shop with a bakery just like mine in Uchinoura. I was ecstatic about this and we ate there almost everyday for lunch. For dinner, we usually ate at a very cool restaurant called Seaside Avenue, which had lots of beach/ocean type things to build an ambience and, of course, a view of the shore. On our last night there, we also went to an izakaya (a Japanese pub) to eat some of the local specialties and do some more kempo. After, we went to see a local band play some Okinawa music in a small bar. It was really nice and I would have bought the CD if it weren’t about $30. Cristina and I were taken up to the front of the stage more than once.

The middle three days, we went with David to Okinawa for a bit of American food and city life.　Naha, the capital of Okinawa, is a 5-hour ferry ride from Yoron. Technically, because two of the days were spent traveling, we really only spent one full day there. Anyway, we stayed of the main strip, Kokusai Dori. It was full of restaurants and shops. The first night, we ate at Sam’s Maui Steakhouse, which is a lot like Beni-Hana’s where they cook steak in front of you. The restaurant was Hawaii-Tiki themed that really made us want to go to Hawaii too. The second day, we went to the Okinawa castle, Shuri-jo, that was a lot better and bigger than I expected. I had always seen pictures of it and thought it was a temple. I was surprised to find out it was a full blown castle complex. In the afternoon, we ventured to American Village to see what we could find that would remind us of home. Surprisingly enough, not much. Besides the Tony Roma’s we ate at and an A & W that’s all over Okinawa there wasn’t anything else that we saw. We did visit America-ya (American Store) that included lots of army surplus stuff including ejection seats and used parachutes for about $25,000. After walking into a few shops and along a beach boardwalk, we went to the movies and Baskin Robbins.

This week has been full of school visits until today. This is my first day in the office where I get more that 20 minutes to myself. I never thought I would actually look forward to these. Tomorrow is likely to be the same since all the kids are going on a school picnic which I can’t go to because of “insurance”.

This weekend Cristina and I are going to climb Mt. Kaimon, which is the miniature Fuji of Kagoshima. We also plan to go in the famous sand baths nearby in Ibusuki. On Sunday, we are coming back to watch an air show at the (Japanese) Kanoya Air Force Base.

Frisbee Frenzy

2005-04-25T14:15:00.000+09:00

It seems that the breaks between my journal entries are getting longer and longer. However, to be quite fair, things have been pretty mellow over here. The days have been slow and waiver between what’s left of winter and the beginnings of spring. It is nice to be in a place where I can actually take note of the change of weather. It seems that every time I look around there is some new seasonal flower or tree in bloom. The mountains (which are green over here from the lush foliage) seem to be blotched with tons of light green from new foliage. Although this past weekend was a bit nippy, the weekend before that, it was quite nice out.

The Friday of the 15th, I attended Uchinoura Junior High’s Welcome Party. I thought it was a bit expensive for the food that we got, but I had fun just the same. They had a competition between the new teachers to see who could do things like draw a zebra in less than a minute. After the dinner, we went to Uchinoura’s New Roketo – a great small karaoke bar that looks like it’s taken out of a 1970s discotheque. Here I had the opportunity to learn lots of new Japanese curse words and sing Rick Springfield’s Jessie’s Girl with one of the History teacher.

The following morning I woke up pretty early. I decided to fetch some breakfast at the Ai Shop bakery and then eat it at the beach in front of my house. As I was sitting on the sand eating my pastries and drinking my 2-liter bottle of water, some of my students were running on the beach and called me over. It was the kendo club which met and practiced on Saturdays. I told them that I had never seen kendo and asked them if I could watch. They responded excitedly and asked me to partake in the class. I was too hung over to do anything, so I politely declined to participate and just watched. They were really excited that I could spend the morning with them and even formally addressed me as a “sensei” in their exercises. Also, after they finished battling in a match, they came up to me and the supervising teacher (separately) to ask for advice or comments on their match. I addressed them all in Japlish explaining to them that I don’t understand the rules of kendo, but I could tell they practiced very hard. After kendo, I met up with Laura, Jill, Cristina and Heather at Osaki Beach.

Last week was not marked by anything particularly special. I did go to school for the first time in the new school year, but it was only for one period each day because the teachers have to visit the students’ homes in the afternoon. On Tuesday, Cristina and I met up with Kanae, the English teacher at Kishira (that is no longer teaching there anymore). She made us quite a feast. It was definitely a nice way to spend the evening and catch up.

On Thursday, someone knocked on my front door. There were two curious 6-year-old boys that wanted to say hello and come inside. They kind of invited themselves in. In any case, Kazunari and Daisuke made themselves at home playing on my laptop and jumping on my bed. I ushered them outside so we could play soccer and they invited me to go feed the cows in the barn across from me. I finally solved the mystery of the occasional mooing. The cows were much closer than I thought – a mere 30 feet away from my front door, if that. There were about 5 older cows and three baby calfs – one of which is less than a month old.

On Friday, I was greeted upon arrival by four 6-year-olds – Kazunari once again, accompanied by Anri and twins Shiho and Naho. They let themselves inside of my house before I did. The only thing worse than two 6-year-olds wreaking havoc is four. Luckily, I found a Frisbee which I used to lure them outside. I taught them how to throw it and we had fun for some while.

Saturday we went to the nearby city of Miyakonojo with the intention of seeing a movie. Since at least one person had seen all the movies being shown, we decided to go to a “mall/department store –type thing” called Jusco. Before going there however, we did have pizza from Pizza Hut. It was expensive, but it was nice and reminded us of home. At Jusco, we bought some stuff. Since the days have been getting warmer, we bought some stuff for the summer. Laura bought a cooler, beach chair and small barbeque. Cristina and I each bought matching beach chairs to match Laura’s and some other beach favors like badminton sets and a beach ball.

Sunday (yesterday), we went to Osaki Beach. It was a bunch of us. We used our new beach chairs and played some Frisbee. It was truly lots of fun, and our beach chairs and Laura’s cooler were hits. In the evening, Cristina and I went to the Katos’ to welcome them back from Tokyo Disneyland. They came back with Kokoro and Yume who flew to Tokyo from Okinawa. Dinner was great like always. I did, however, wake up with some intense pain in my upper abdominal area. I was awake from 5:00 AM to 7:30 AM and thought I was going to die, but it passed.

Today is a Monday. A usual office Monday. Only this time, I’m really sleepy. Lucky for Cristina and I, this week is short and before we know it we will be on a ferry to Yoron to spend the next week.

Two Things

2005-04-13T08:48:00.000+09:00

Just two quick comments... Thought 1: I am no longer in the mildly obese category (3 out of 4 with 1 being the best). I am now in the handsomely husky (overweight) category (2 out of 4). Just thought I would let all of you know since it’s such a huge achievement. Thought 2: I just sat on the toilet closest to me which I usually never do. I usually always go all the way to the other side of the arena for privacy. However, I may just deal with the spies and go from now on there. Its heated toilet seats are like a gift sent from God or like sitting on a just-made, still warm doughnut – a true blessing on a cold day like today. (Just when Cristina and I thought it was getting warm, days like today keep on coming… with mukade* I might add.)

*Note: Mukade are the most ferocious looking centipedes you will ever see. They can grow to the length of your hand and the thickness of chubby pen. They usually travel in pairs because they mate for life. Oh, and I almost forgot, they are known to kill infants and small children. The worst they can do to an adult is probably just paralyze the bitten limb for a few hours (if treated quickly).

G'day Mate!

2005-04-12T14:42:00.000+09:00

So I have been pulling my hair for the past 2 weeks with nothing to do. I sit at my desk all day looking for anything and everything. I give myself assignments like learning about the life expectancy of ants or when turtles tend to lay their eggs. I have also begun planning my mother’s trip who will be coming the last 2 weeks in July. Cristina’s sister whose flights have already been booked is coming from mid-May to mid-June.

The only really notable thing I have done since last Sunday is beginning to train early in the mornings with the baseball team. On certain days I run the 5K with them or run to the Uchinoura mountain and climb up its 555 steps. I can definitely run the 5K faster, but I choose to stay behind with the slowest kid because I think it makes him feel better to have company now. As for the 555 steps, I stay behind with him but not by choice. I really just cant go any faster.

Friday night, Uchinoura welcomed its new teachers with a Welcome Party. For this welcome party, all the new teachers and myself were taught how to make sashimi out of a freshly caught fish. It was exciting and fun to do, but I really didn’t enjoy eating it afterward. Don’t get me wrong. I love sashimi; however, it grosses me out to know that I just got that sashimi from skinning and gutting a once living animal. The Welcome Party was fun. I was able to socialize with my two new English teachers. They seem nice and I am sure they are. I also met all the other new teachers which made for interesting conversation. The good thing about these parties is that when everyone gets drunk, everyone usually wants to converse with the foreigner and try to remember all the English they learned in school. I don’t mind because it is usually somewhat interesting. And, if I am ever in an uncomfortable situation, there is usually someone else waiting to speak with me that usually just butts in.

Saturday, Cristina made some hummus sandwiches and we headed to the cherry blossom park for some ‘hanami’ (cherry blossom watching). Hanami in Japan is very important. Everyday leading up to Hanami, the weather forecasters attempt to determine the first day of blooming. Then, once the blossoms are out, people usually go to a park and picnic, barbecue and drink while watching the blossoms with friends. Apparently however, these blossom watching picnics can get extremely out of hand. I just saw a TV show yesterday which was like ‘Cops’ where people were getting out of hand because of drinking and had to be rough-housed by police men. Lucky for us, that was not the case in Kushira. After an hour there, we were attacked by a spider and decided to leave. We then went to Kirishima Gaoka in Kanoya (the rose park) to stroll and to have some of Cristina’s favorite rose ice cream.

Sunday, we opted out of doing the 7K race because it was so far away. We went to the Osaki beach for a short while instead. Unfortunately, the day was not as beautiful as the day before. However, we enjoyed it with some combini food on a blanket in front of the crashing waves. After a couple hours there, we headed back to Cristina’s with Laura and Jill to watch 7 or 8 episodes of Desperate Housewives.

Now, what I have found to occupy my days, is planning a 8-day holiday Cristina and I want to take in September. Originally we were thinking Korea, but I don’t think that Korea merits that many days. The only place I am really interested in visiting is Seoul, and that’s probably only worth a long weekend. So, now we are thinking of Australia. We know we definitely want to do Sydney. We are still deciding between Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane for our second choice. So, if you have any suggestions, let us know.

Resurrection, Dinner and a 10K Race

2005-04-04T14:22:00.000+09:00

Some time has passed since the last update (more than 7 days). I will try to be as concise as possible without leaving out any of the interesting details.

Saturday, March 26th, Cristina and I headed to Osa’s house where we had a great chicken fajita dinner. However, I think that the highlight of the evening was getting to dye Easter eggs…something I was never able to do during my deprived childhood (MOM!!!, just kidding, I love you). Anyway, you will be happy to know that we dyed about 40 Easter eggs after a scary spill of the hot pink dye on Osa’s white kitchen table. It entertained us into the wee hours of the night (read 1 AM). We had to get up the following morning bright and early in order to go to Easter mass.

7:00 AM Easter Sunday – I am awoken by the shrill sounds of over-excited Osa, “Peter Cottontail was here. He left his tail… He hid all the eggs. Come find all the eggs. Look! I see my Easter balloon.” Apparently while we were sleeping, Peter Cottontail (read Osa) hid all the eggs and “Easter balloons” for each of us. Have you not heard of Easter balloons? Easter balloons are what “Peter Cottontail” uses to store candy in Japan (since there are no plastic Easter eggs). Cristina and I did not want to get up, but couldn’t help it from everyone’s excitement. My Easter balloon was blue and had quite a few treats including a pack of my favorite M&M’s. By 8:20, were out the door to catch the closest Easter mass.

Easter mass was interesting to say the least. It was in Japanese, but the priest was Italian. There was a Philippine baptism. Most women were wearing white lace head covers. I missed the Our Father because no one holds hands. During Peace, every one bows as they turn 360 degrees. The Virgin Mary was usually referred to as Jesus’s ‘mama’. I know this all probably sounds a bit choppy to you, but that was exactly the impression I got from the mass.

That evening, we returned to Uchinoura for dinner at the Katos. Nozomi was there (Yu-chan’s 3-year old niece), so we hid some Easter eggs and had her find them. We (read Cristina) made them Banana’s Fosters for dessert. I am still unsure of whether or not they liked it.

Monday, I went to the Katos’ again for dinner. I played with Nozomi some more. In the afternoon, Cristina, Laura, Osa and I went to Kushira to practice on the 10K course.

Tuesday, was the same. Since I did not go to school, I spent half of the day in Kishira looking for the guy that I had to pay for the Farewell Dinner.

Wednesday, nothing happened in the office. In the evening, Cristina and I went to the gym, while Kaz and Alex swam at the gym pool. Cristina and I are really enjoying going to the gym. It is a really nice experience. I think we both feel a lot better now being so active. We hardly watch TV anymore (with the exception of 50 First Dates that Cristina has borrowed from Osa and has been obsessed with ever since). After the gym, we went over to Kaz’s for a late dinner prepared by Alex. We also enjoyed a bit of Trivial Pursuit. Since it was from Britain, some of the questions (particularly the Entertainment ones) were very difficult to answer.

Since Alex was over and had asked the previous night about Arroz con Pollo (the Cuban rice and chicken dish), Cristina decided to make it the next day. So, she spent her lunch break getting the needed ingredients. When she and I got home, we chopped up some fruits for sangria. Cristina then began to cook while I tidied up and got some flowers. We really got into it before long and made it whole Cuban night complete with music and guayaberas (traditional Cuban shirts). Laura, Kaz and Alex came over. We ate tons and had some Banana’s Fosters for dessert. After dessert we played some Trivial Pursuit again. The girls won.

Friday was April Fool’s Day. Cristina got a few people pretty bad (notably Osa and her cousin Glenn). I got some people in my office but not with anything like she was being deported from the country. I told some of my teachers that I had to leave the Jet Program for not paying my taxes. They seemed surprised and then realized it was April Fool’s. Later that evening, we went to dinner at Tomo-chan’s.

Saturday, I woke up with the mission of buying a pair of gym/basketball shorts I could use for running since mine have the tendency to slip off. Unfortunately, I only found one store with brand names like Nike and they all cost about $45. I had no idea they were so expensive. I refused to pay that much money for something I am going to sweat and workout in. So, the day of the race I ended up just pinning my old shorts to my underwear. Later that night, we invited Cristina’s tea lady and one of her English teachers over for a chicken fajita and taco dinner. It was lots of fun. The tea lady did not speak a word of English, but it was a good way to practice our Japanese.

Yesterday was the big race. Cristina and I woke up early to go register. Kaz met us at Cristina’s house before going over to Kushira. She even made some “training bands” for all of us to wear as good luck. At Kushira, we met up with Laura who was also running the race. The others were coming later since they were simply going to watch us run. Many people from my town were also there. One of my office mates’ daughter ran the 2.5K race and won the junior high school division. She was 2nd among all women. I finished the 10K in less than an hour. I am not sure of the specific time but I am hoping somewhere between 57 and 58 minutes. I was 109th. Kaz finished just over an hour and Laura came shortly after her. Cristina finished 125 in 1 hour 13 minutes. In total there were 126 people in the 10K. Kushira was hosting this as part of their cherry-blossom-watching festival. So, we celebrated our ‘victories’ by watching some cherry blossoms and enjoying a nice refreshing sno-cone. Mine was cora-flavored (read cola), Cristina’s was mango. At the festival, I also got the chance to see a miniature pony from Scotland. They are the size of large dogs. I thought it was incredible, the others were not too impressed. While I was busy gawking at the ponies, Kaz and Cristina were asked to be part of a mukade race because the rest of their team had not shown. Shana, the Osumi ALT, also joined the team. While they were busy preparing for the race, I was looking for the stand where you get to catch river eels with your bare hands. (River eels are Kushira’s thing. In Uchinoura it’s rockets and lobsters. In Higashi-Kushira, it’s poo and Lupin flowers.) Lucky for me and everyone at the stand, it was closed because all of the eels were caught. I did however see a little boy walking away with a trash bag with 3 or 4 live eels. I settled for trying to catch a fish in a dissolving wafer. However, I was crap at it. After pouting for a few seconds, the man grabbed a fish with his hands and put it in a bag and gave it to me. Bryant, the Sueyoshi ALT, did catch a fish fair and square (although mine was much better looking). We both gave our fish to Kaz who had a big tank with only one fish. She named the fish Jesse and Bryant respectively. The Uchinoura Junior High mukade teams were amazing and swept the race 1 and 2. Cristina’s impromptu team did not fair as well and were dead last. However, they had fun and that’s the important thing.

Well, that’s pretty much it for now.

Happy Birthday Alison!

2005-03-27T08:49:00.000+09:00

Alison,

Omedetou Gozaimasu! I hope that you are having a great "tanjobi" (birthday). I miss you very much. I would have called you but Cristina has temporarily lost the service that allows us to make calls to the U.S. How is the end of 8th grade going? I can't believe that you are already graduating! Congratualtions once more about LaSalle. I love you alotta.

Love, Your big brother (aka Mom's Favorite)

Bottomless 4 oz. Glasses of Beer

2005-03-25T09:47:00.000+09:00

Wednesday was when the personnel changes were announced. An official looking person came with the envelope from Kagoshima City to announce who would be promoted or relocated. I am not quite sure why the Japanese do this, but it seems that those who work for the Board of Education only have temporary contracts. So, usually after 3 years, they are transferred somewhere else with their children and spouse. It’s the same case for teachers. Because of the municipal merger between my town and Kaz’s, we lost our superintendent of schools. He will now be a school headmaster in Kagoshima City (not so bad if you ask me). However, he is a bit frightened about the idea of not being able to smoke. Although I don’t see why the headmasters are not allowed to smoke yet the teachers who interact with the students on a much closer level are allowed to do so with them. In any case, he is quite the character and I cannot see him in that role. Perhaps, it’s because all the principals I know are constantly gardening, visiting the children during lunch or hosting tea parties for visiting guests and unwanted salesmen.

During lunch at the Katos, Yu-chan received a phone call from an organic farmer that I had met during the Korean dancers’ homestay party. Yoshi-san is now hosting an American ALT from one of the prefectures near Tokyo. She is doing this as part of a non-profit organization type-thing where she works on his farm in exchange for a hospitable weekend in a different place. I met her yesterday during lunch. She seemed nice.

Wednesday afternoon, Cristina and I went to the Kanoya gym for our introduction to weight training safety. It went well except I still got the intimidating feeling every time I used a machine that faced the free weights. There are actually some Japanese people that are really muscular. Many of you wouldn’t believe it, but it’s true. However, I did not let it get the best of me. After Cristina and I took showers (separately), we had 100-yen sushi on the way home.

Thursday I had to go to Uchinoura Elementary School for their graduation. I really wanted to go to Kishira, but they made me go here because no other ALT has done so. (Do you see pushover written on my forehead too?) I had only met the 6th graders that were graduating once. Also, it was not as sad as the junior high ones because everyone will be moving together next year to junior high. My favorite part of the ceremony was when the graduates said their last words to the school. They shouted a long message bit by bit in small groups of 3 or 4. Then in the really heartfelt parts (i.e. sayonara = goodbye, sensei arigato gozaimashita = thank you teachers, tanoshikatta = I enjoyed my time here), they all repeated it together in unison. That really did almost make me break, but I held it together. The really cool part about this one, was that I sat at the very front of a very official looking table with a some labels and everything. I have never felt so important (that’s a lie, but you get the idea).

After the graduation, I had to change and run to Uchinoura Junior High for Shiraishi-sensei’s last class ever. She is retiring and moving up to Kumamoto to spend time with her new husband. Since it was her last class and it was with the first graders, we played basketball, volleyball and dodgeball in the school gym. Unfortunately, I didn’t score any points. After basketball, I was told that there would be a drinking party at 6PM for the superintendent’s farewell.

The enkai (drinking party) was interesting. Like most of these, everyone sat along long tables and drank out of small 4 oz. glasses and spoke Japanese. I was not very social this evening, so I just kept on sipping on my 4 oz. glass. In true Japanese fashion, it was refilled nearly after each sip by a willing neighbor at my table. I think without these 4 oz. glasses people may freak out that there will be nothing to do at the party and they may be forced to relax. Because I was a bit out of it, I was not as attentive as I should have been about refilling my neighbor's glasses. And may God help you if you try to refill your own. I livened up a bit after the party moved to the superintendent’s house. It ended at about 10:45. I managed to escape this one without being asked any rude questions. However, people did comment on my short sleeves on such a windy day. I explained that I was cold outside, but since we were inside during the party, I was not cold. So, I took off my jacket. They didn't seem to understand because they just kept on asking if I was cold. Who knows? Perhaps that was there way of telling me my nipples were showing, but I doubt it.

Today is the last day of school. However, I am not scheduled to teach so I am only sitting in my office typing away and surfing the net. Tonight I am driving to Kishira for their farewell enkai starting at 6 PM and then driving to Kanoya for Uchinoura Junior High’s farewell after-party (karaoke) at 9 PM. Cristina’s school’s farewell party will be in Kanoya tonight as well, so perhaps we will be able to meet up and take a daiko (taxi driver that takes you back in YOUR car for very little money) back to her house.

Saturday, we are heading to Osa’s house in Miyazaki for a secret mission (and so that Cristina can see a dentist). Easter Sunday we are going to have dinner at the Katos.

Happy Birthday Jackie!

2005-03-23T15:23:00.000+09:00

Tia Jackie,

You are my favorite aunt by far. I am sorry that I am not able to call you on your birthday. I hope you are having a great time. How old are you turning again? Maybe it's a good thing I no longer remember.

Cristina was talking about renting wet bikes for Golden Week vacation and I am still traumatized by the only time I rode one with you in Sanibel. Do you remember? If not, I'm sure you'll jog your memory with the video. I miss you.

Best wishes. Omedeto Gozaimasu!

Love, Jesse

Fight-o!

2005-03-23T09:49:00.000+09:00

I admit I have not written for a long time, and for that I apologize (but only if it actually offends you, which it probably doesn’t). I have been busy since I wrote last, it has simply not been a case of the lazies.

After writing in the blog last Monday, March 14th, I made reservations. This may not seem like a feat by any means; however, I ask you this: How many of you non-Japanese speakers have tried to make a reservation with a non-English speaker? I felt very accomplished and am scratching it off my list of things to do while in Japan. The reservation is for a ferry down to a small island 20 hours south of us by ferry (4 hours north of Okinawa). Cristina and I just wanted to relax this Golden Week and have chosen to go to this island famous for its resorts and crystal clear waters. Every year Yoron Island has a marathon. Since the island is so small, you have to run around it twice. Rather than spending the money on an expensive resort, we are staying with the local ALT, David, who has offered us some tatami space. I am extremely excited. We may also make it down to Okinawa for a couple of days since it is only a 4 hour ferry ride. As for the reservations, they were a bit confusing to make, so I think I may have a Japanese person double check that we have indeed reserved our spaces. (Would that still count?)

Tuesday, I went to Kishira Junior High for their graduation. The six 3rd graders were graduating and moving on their respective ways to high schools in different cities or becoming a fisherman. I dressed up in a suit this day and really got everyone’s attention. Everyone couldn’t believe it. They were scared I was going to show up in my usual pair of jeans, so they had made sure to tell me the day before to wear a tie (at least). I exceeded expectations to say the least. It was really sad seeing them leave. I had to walk in the procession with the Board of Education, but then returned to the gym 10 minutes later to take pictures with everyone. One boy was particularly happy to see me because his father refused to take any pictures with him because his mother (they’re divorced) had come to see her son graduate. I didn’t find this out till later that week.

Wednesday, I went to Uchinoura Elementary School. I also went jogging on the Kushira Marathon course that we will run in less than two weeks.

Thursday, St. Patrick’s Day, I went to the Uchinoura Ginga Arena Training Room (literally in the room above the one I work in). It was really cool because the trainer was there from Kagoshima City and helped me out since no one was there to give a test too. He has become somewhat of a friend and has promised to help me out when he comes on Thursdays. I was also invited by the kid about my age that works at the training room to visit his father’s shop for some sashimi. He randomly comes to wherever I am and usually tells me ‘Gambare, Fight-o’ and then does something like increasing the elevation of the treadmill. It’s great. Since the beginning of this week, I have been keeping an activity log to help me stay on track with exercising and training for all these races. It has really been helping me and motivating me to ‘fight-o’.

Friday, I went to Kishira Junior High. It was the same as always except the 3rd graders were no longer there and it was the last English class of the term. For a bit of fun, I played ping pong for one of the classes. It was great and I happened to surprise everyone (including myself). After getting home, I ran almost 11k in about 63 minutes. Woo hoo!

Saturday, we had to go to Kanoya for the gym test at the Wellness Plaza. It was completely ridiculous. I felt like if I was on an episode of Double Dare. They had everything from a reaction test with red lights flashing in your face to a shuttle run to the tune of do re mi fa so la ti do. The people were very nice and patient with us and did not treat us differently because we’re foreigners. As for our score on the test, both Cristina and I failed in comparison to people ages 20-64. I failed in comparison to people my own age. Cristina scored a D in comparison to people her own age (only because she scored so well on the flexibility test). After the gym, we went for a hearty lunch at the KFC not too far from the gym. Chicken in a flour tortilla…. Mmm… mmm… good.

Sunday we went to Kagoshima City. The following Monday was a holiday so we could stay over at Alex’s after the big St. Patrick’s Day party. It was great. We saw lots of people we had not seen for a while and met lots of new people. We also drank some Guiness (from a can, not the same). As you could imagine, we wore green and danced an Irish jig. We ended the night with a trip to MOS Burger (the Japanese McDonalds). Between you and me, it wasn’t my first trip to MOS Burger that night.

Monday it was Vernal Equinox. So, we enjoyed the day by going to the new Tex-Mex restaurant, Green Bay, opened by an American in Kagoshima City. It was good. I had the Mexican Plate that had an incredible chicken enchilada. After that, we tried some Baskin Robbins. A scoop of Jamocha Amond Fudge and Strawberry Cheesecake later, we went on the big Ferris Wheel atop of Amu Plaza. It was a beautiful day to ride it. You could see all the way to Kirishima and Sakurajima. We actually ended up riding on one of the two completely clear cars. It takes 15 minutes to get all the way around. After that, we went to the movie theater for the first time to see Bridget Jones 2. The theater was nice but there was no air circulating which made it the right temperature for winter, but extremely stuffy. They are assigned stadium seats like in Europe. Afterward, we stopped to get some international foods at the grocery store in the basement before heading home.

Tuesday, yesterday, I went to Uchinoura Junior High. The highlight of my day was playing basketball with the 2nd graders during recess. I have done this for 2 weeks now. I have been much happier now that I have bought my indoor sneakers. I think some of the kids are a bit afraid of me however, since I have tripped quite a few of them and hit them in the nose or some other embarrassing part (not private!). After school, we went with Kaz to the Kushira course to run the full 10K. We ended up taking a few detours, but still figuring out the course. Kaz and I ran over 10K in about 63 minutes and Cristina came in 10 minutes after us. Cristina was extremely excited since it was the first time that she ran the entire 10K without stopping.

That brings me to today. I am stressing about filing taxes. I also have to go to the post office to deposit the $2,500 that has been in my backpack for the past 5 days (something you would never do in the States). I also have to send out a few post cards and pay a few bills, all of which is done at the post office. Later today, we are going to the Kanoya Wellness Plaza for our first introduction to the weight machines and safety and all that stuff.

By the way, as of Monday Cristina no longer has Yahoo BB. Therefore, please do not expect a phone call or pictures from us for some time (until she gets it back). This also means that we only have internet access at work.

Kirishima Pictures

2005-03-14T22:06:00.000+09:00

Here are the pictures from this past weekend in Kirishima National Park hiking up Nakano-dake. We also went to Kirishima Shrine and some waterfalls on the Miyazaki-Kagoshima border.

View Album

2005-03-14T21:59:00.000+09:00

In front of the falls on the Miyazaki-Kagoshima border.

2005-03-14T21:57:00.000+09:00

Here we are in front of the Kirishima Shrine with the "characters" from the ceremony.

2005-03-14T21:54:00.000+09:00

Cristina in front of a volcanic crater that smelled of sulfur.

2005-03-14T21:52:00.000+09:00

This is me once we got to the rough part. Don't worry, it was only like this for a while.

2005-03-14T21:48:00.000+09:00

Some of us in front of Takachiho, the mountain where the gods descended onto Japan.

Kirishima Hiking

2005-03-14T10:33:00.000+09:00

In the days following the Sakurajima Marathon, my nasal cavity lived up to its legendary fame. IT truly is endless. In the past week, I cannot recall an hour when I wasn’t blowing my nose. Furthermore, since it is somewhat taboo to do in public, I found myself hiding from my office in order to do it. At times, I even had to evade the occasional spy sent to check up on my doings in the restroom (or anywhere out of the office). Between you and me, I think they are on to me. I tried to hide the fact that I am an individual living with a common cold (or INFLUENZA in Japanese), but I will not hide any longer. This week has been particularly slow because I have been in the office three out of the five days. You would think that at least one of my schools would want to use me. No, that is not that case.

On Thursday, I decided to take the gym test here in Ginga Arena. I have not been able to take the test because of my adult conversation classes on the same evening. However, since they have been canceled for the past 2 weeks, I was able to do so. As it turns out, I am considered obese (still). You would think that after losing 100 pounds in high school I would put a dent on the obesity thing. Oh well, I have written out a workout plan, let’s see how it goes. Hopefully I lose 7 percent of my body fat to be considered healthily overweight. I was actually surprised by some of the equipment they have up there (right above my office). It is about $2 every time you use it, but you can get a year membership for $120. So, I was considering that until they told me that I may be commuting to Koyama starting in July to clock in, get my company car and then come back to Uchinoura to teach. Then, I would go back to Koyama to clock out, drop off the company car, pick up my car and go home. Koyama is the town where Kaz lives now that is in between my town and Cristina’s town. They will merge starting July 1st.

Friday was Heather’s birthday. Heather is a Kanoya ALT from Canada. We decided to go to this “American” restaurant in Kanoya. To find the restaurant, you follow a set of American flag billboards that lead you to a scary secluded mountain road. Five minutes later and a couple hundred feet higher, you see a small cabin – the restaurant. It was decorated with Native American paraphernalia and a map of the United States. They had many dishes that were (something)-doria. Do you know what doria is, because I don’t. In any case, I ordered the hamburger. However, I forgot that when you order a hamburger here you only get the patty (no bun) served on a plate served with a green garnish just like a steak in America. In addition to the patty, you get some fries, green beans, miso soup, rice and I forget what else. Needless to say, it was certainly interesting and far from American. At least we all had fun and so did Heather. Oh, I also found out from some Japanese men from Tarumizu that the waterfalls I almost died in have an average of 3 deaths a year. They said I was very lucky. (Things that make you go hmmm...)

Saturday we woke up ridiculously early – 6:30 AM. Jill, Cristina and I met up at Laura’s house. From there, we all boarded Jill’s car to head to Kirishima National Park (on the Kagoshima-Miyazaki border) where the gods are said to have descended to Japan. Before getting there, we met up with Osa and Florian in Miyakonojo. (Florian is a German student that did a homestay in Osa’s house while they were in high school.) Meeting up with them was not as easy as I thought it was going to be. We decided on an intersection to meet at, but Osa and Florian could not find it. They were at the intersection of the 7-11. (If you don’t know what intersection that is, don’t worry, neither did we nor they.) After 30 minutes of waiting, we met up and were on our way.

The Kirishima CIR (coordinator of international relations) had coordinated some sort of event where we would be led by high school students up a 1421 meter mountain. The day was beautiful, unlike the days prior that had been gray and rainy. The only negative was that it was extremely cold and windy, but that just made it all the more adventurous. We hiked to the top of Nakano-dake where we had lunch and a great view of Takachiho (the mountain where the gods descended and where we are going in May with Elena, Cristina’s sister). After lunch, we decided to go a little bit further and hike to a volcanic crater that had a sulfur lake at the bottom. It was extremely impressive and I would have stayed longer to admire it if it weren’t for the extreme winds. On our hike back to the bottom, Osa’s knee was in extreme pain, so we walked at a slower pace as she used my shoulders for support. I was such the hero. You should have seen me mom!

Upon arriving back at the campsite where our cabins were, we were fed an obscene amount of yaki niku (grilled/barbecued beef). We also had a surprise S’mores dessert that was a result of the collaboration of our group bringing “ship” biscuits (chocolate-covered graham crackers with a ship on it) and a random pack of marshmallows in another person’s car. After dinner, we went to onsen to warm up. Then, a quick run to a combini to grab some more drinks and snacks.

After onsen, I did not feel well. Perhaps, it was something I ate or going to onsen after I ate. After arriving back to the cabins, I had to lie down. Five minutes later, I felt extremely ill and I had to get up for some fresh air or to throw up. I made it three steps outside of the cabin before throwing up. Let me tell you, that it was a lot. And, I felt great afterward.

Sunday morning came and we were awoken by the sound of kids training nearby. They were chanting something that made them sound like a little Samurais in training and made the brass band practice outside of Cristina’s house at 8 AM sound pleasant. We went to the Kirishima shrine where we arrived at the last 2 minutes of some sort of harvest ceremony. Priests were throwing branches and seeds to the ground as Japanese people dived for as many as they could get.

Upon our return home we stopped at some waterfalls. They were really nice and had a trail to walk by the river and up around the waterfall. There was also a cool suspension bridge from which you could see the waterfall.

Cristina and I returned home and took a brief nap before meeting back at Laura’s for dinner. Dinner was at 6 PM and Cristina and I woke up at 5:50 PM. Cristina and I were in charge of bringing the main dish. We scurried out of the house and rushed to the supermarket to pick up stuff to make sushi. We got to Laura’s house with everything and set up everything within 30 minutes. We and the others were pleasantly surprised by the outcome of our hurriedness. The platters looked amazing. Cristina even made eggplant.

Today, March 14, is White Day in Japan. This is when the men give the women chocolates and gifts. Typically, it is when the man chooses a woman from all of the women that gave him chocolates on Valentine’s Day by giving only her chocolates and a gift. However, I gave both of the women in the office chocolates.

This week is graduation at the Junior High Schools. I say goodbye to the 3rd graders as they go on to high school or their chosen career. It should be sad. However, I am excited to dress up in a suit and shave. I think I will shock my office.

2005-03-07T18:43:00.000+09:00

Enjoy the pictures of Sakurajima Marathon. I wish I also had pictures of the onsen, but I will get those next time we go.

View Album

2005-03-07T18:42:00.000+09:00

Running toward the ever present snow-covered volcano. Note: This picture cost me the victory, so you better appreciate it.

2005-03-07T18:40:00.000+09:00

Cristina and Osa at the start line of the 5K race.

2005-03-07T18:39:00.000+09:00

Osa and her giant piece of foam board to prove that she got the 6 day trip to Hawaii. It was cute at first, but then we had to fit it in a ful 4-person vehicle with 5 people. Way to go Osa.

2005-03-07T18:37:00.000+09:00

A hurried picture of Osa on the Megatron... "What is going on?" I wondered as I dashed back to the stage.

Gambarimashita! Sakurajima Marathon

2005-03-07T11:16:00.000+09:00

Our week has not been full, but definitely eventful (if that makes any sense). On Tuesday, Cristina and I went with Kaz to the Kanoya Wellness Plaza. It is like Ginga Arena (where I work) but on a much larger scale. In order to use the training rooms and equipment, you need to take some sort of exam so that they can gage your abilities and your proper weights. Then, every time you come in they give you a clipboard with your sheet on it and what you need to do to work on your “problem areas”. That way they can keep track of your progress and help you with your fitness needs. So, we are taking the exam on March 19th. Both Cristina and I are really excited about it. You don’t have to pay a membership, you only pay per visit. Since we cannot use the training rooms until after the 19th, we just used the pool facilities. Basically, it has several pools, much like an onsen, but on a larger scale. Since it’s a gym and both women and men use it, you can (have to) keep your bathing suit on. This is neat because then Cristina and I can go to pseudo-onsen together. Then, in the locker rooms they have a proper bathing area with a proper onsen, but I have yet to check that out. However, doesn’t it sound like a nice way to spend the evening? I was telling Cristina that it sounds really pleasant to be able to go workout and then go to the pool or onsen. It beats just staying home and watching TV or just simply going to a restaurant and eating.

On Wednesday, we took some more pictures with Flat Stanley before sending him back to Cristina’s cousin. We made a picture book on www.shutterfly.com that the teacher can show the class. Then, we are sending him back with lots of Japanese goodies. It was a lot of fun working on the project and I think that I will do a similar one to this with my students at the beginning of the school year in April.

On Thursday, March 3rd, it was Hina Matsuri or Doll’s Festival or Girl’s Day. We were invited to Cristina’s neighbor’s house to celebrate. Cristina’s neighbor is her vice principal. He has a lovely wife and a daughter that will be 2-years-old in July. Basically, families with daughters usually celebrate Hina Matsuri by inviting friends and family over for a nice dinner. It is like wishing together for their daughter to marry in the future. In the host’s house, there is usually a very elaborate display set up with 10 porcelain dolls. They are seated at three different levels. At the highest level, there is the king and queen dressed in their elaborate kimonos. Then, there are the three ladies in waiting in elaborate kimonos as well (but not as many layers as the queen). Then, there are five entertainers in kimonos as well holding instruments and sporting funny expressions. The highlight of the evening was when we were teaching Rena, the little girl, ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes.’ One time Cristina was sitting on her knees when she was teaching her which meant she had to point behind her when she pointed to he toes. Since then, Rena pointed to her butt every time she was supposed to point to her toes.

To say that we have had a full weekend would be an understatement. In all actuality, we have did not do much on the weekend, but Sunday was definitely a full day. Friday night Cristina signed up for the Kushira 10K race with Kaz. Since was to have her 5K run on Sunday, she really wanted to try to do the 10K. While Cristina was signing up for the race, I went on a 7K run. After that, the night was relatively quiet. If I remember correctly, we stayed in and watched the movie I am Sam.

Saturday, I had a list of errands I wanted to do. I was determined to buy indoor sneakers after getting really bad blisters from playing basketball in my socks during recess on Tuesday. It was a little more difficult than I thought it was going to be. I finally found a pair of black and orange New Balance shoes that I would be able to use as my indoor sneakers. It pained me to spend about $90 on them, but I figured I could use them when I play in the gym at schools and when I go to the Arena in Kanoya or Uchinoura. Later that night, we went to Laura’s house for a pre-race pasta party. We ate tons. At least, I ate tons. I would go as far as to say that I ate too much, but when don’t I say that. In any case, while the girls watched the movie Shall We Dance?, I went to the Osaki onsen to relax and warm my muscles the night before the race. It was nice except for I shaved with a disposable razor that left me bleeding and looking really weird after the race on Sunday. That night we slept at Laura’s. We were in bed by 11:00.

The alarm went off at 6:15. It was already Sunday morning and we needed to head off to the Sakurajima ferry port – the start/finish line of the race. We all ate our oatmeal and then packed into my new car. I drove as all the girls French-braided their hair. We arrived at the snow-covered volcano, Sakurajima, at about 8:15 AM and registered. We said hello to those we knew that were there also running the race. Then, we began to stretch with everyone and listen to the opening ceremonies. During the ceremonies, Jill and Laura were going to stretch (for real, not the Japanese version) at the back of the grounds. I decided to go with them in case I get lost and don’t know where to find the 10K start line. So, as we are done stretching, we see Osa (the Nichinan ALT who had cut my hair and come with us to the race) on the jumbo screen TV. I quickly shouted to the others and began to shoot photos of the jumbo screen. I saw that they were handing her something that looked like a giant check. I ran over there to take pictures of her. It turned out that she won an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii for 6 days in December to run a marathon there. It was so exciting. Her picture even came out in today’s newspaper. Apparently, they called out her number from a raffle but she did not know it was her. Suddenly, everybody began to stare at her and a man pulled her toward the front stage. She is extremely lucky. Congrats Osa! After the excitement of that, Cristina and Osa had to head off to the start line because the 5K was about to begin. Before I knew it, they were off. Then, it was our turn to begin. We went n the opposite direction. We don’t know the times yet, but they will be mailed to us soon. What killed me was going to fast in the beginning and then trying to tackle those uphill roads.

After the race, we went to the famous Furusato Onsen. It is a co-ed, outdoor onsen on Sakurajima. It’s famous because it has a small shrine at the spring pool built into the intricate root structure of a tree that looks to be a few hundred years old. The outdoor springs are right on the water, so you get an amazing view of Kinko Bay and Satsuma peninsula while you soak. It was the perfect thing right after the strenuous race.

After the onsen, we went back to the ferry port to spend the day in Kagoshima City. Specifically, we spent the rest of the day in Amu Plaza. We enjoyed some Starbucks upon arrival and some KFC upon departure. The hours in between we spent people watching and window shopping. Some of us did buy a few trinkets here and there. I bought a pack of peanut butter M&Ms. The day ended with a long journey home.

Cristina and I are getting really into this race thing. Already we are going to do races the first 2 weekends of April – one in Kushira (10K) and one on the other peninsula in Fukiage (7K, shorter but part of it is on the beach).

2005-02-28T17:33:00.000+09:00

Cristina . . . at dawn . . . before she knew she would have to perform the dance over 1,000 times (ok ok 170). Gambatte!

2005-02-28T17:31:00.000+09:00

Cristina and one of her partners during one of the many times she performed this dance. On the warehouse in the background you can see the kanji for Cristina's town -- Higashi-Kushi-Ra-Cho (town).

Shoot! Yum! Snip! Dance!

2005-02-28T10:03:00.000+09:00

Like most of the other weekends this winter, this one has been pretty low-key. First, let me begin by sharing with you my time in Kishira Junior High on Friday. Usually a few times a year, a group of students prepare some kind of original game for the students and teachers to play. Last time it was a combination of arm wrestling and some kind of cap and chair game. This time it was paper-plane football. You are probably wondering what the heck is paper-plane football. (Actually, you’re probably not but I am going to pretend you are and tell you anyway.)

Basically, there are 4 teams. The teams face each other two at a time with the victor going on to the next round. One member of the offensive team has to make a paper plane and throw it into the gym. The other members of the offensive team have to catch the plane with a large piece of bamboo with a garbage bag stretched out like a basket at its end. The entire defensive team runs around with fans trying to blow the plane in the wrong direction. It was actually quite fun and humorous. Our team was definitely not the favorite because our plane didn’t exactly go very far like the others. However, it was our team – kira kira -- that won with good strategy. I was really excited and I got some highlighters and a Mickey box out of it. I have some pictures that will hopefully help you imagine it. No teams actually ever made it to the goal, but our team made it closest and made the most baskets (or downs).

Friday night I met with Cristina at her neighborhood’s recreation center/meeting room to watch some of her practice and meet with the men (who had apparently been asking for me). It was really funny because after practice ended all the women and children left and it was only me and about 20 Japanese men and Cristina. I told Cristina that it was weird how they regarded her more different than the Japanese women because she was foreign. It was almost like if she was there for their entertainment like a geisha of sorts. I would be more worried if there weren’t men from her office there that were so protective of her, not that these men were not respectful. I think they just wanted to treat the foreigner to some snacks and shochu. However, since we do not drink shochu, they actually ran (since they could not drive) to a store or vending machine to buy some beer for us. By the time Cristina and I made it home, we literally passed out because of how drunk we were off of only 2.5 beers. Cristina says it’s because we’re turning Japanese (she really thinks so).

Saturday all we did was relax and do some shopping in Kanoya. Cristina also made some Tiramisu for that night’s dinner at Jill’s. She figured out how to use the microwave/oven/toaster apparatus as an oven and made some lady fingers for the Tiramisu. She experimented with a different recipe than she usually used. I liked this one better than the other because of the sweetness factor.

Anyway, at Jill’s we ate some great lasagna. Osa and Laura were also there. We watched some Family Guy, which I had never seen before. However, the highlight of the evening was probably when I got a haircut from Osa. I had mentioned how I had wanted one and asked Osa if she could do it. She said sure and that she had brought her scissors with her. So, we decided not to prolong it any longer and do it right in Jill’s bathroom. Needless to say, I have short hair now. I actually surprised my office by coming in today clean shaven and with short hair. They taught me like 8 different words for handsome and kept on saying good boy and nice guy. I think I got the hint.

Sunday, Cristina woke up at 7:00 AM and went to the Kawanishi Rec Center to get dressed for her dance. I woke up at 10:00 AM and tried to contact her to meet her but she didn’t take her phone. I drove around trying to look for big groups of people dancing, but I couldn’t. This surprised me especially because Higashi-Kushira is not that big. However, around 4:00 PM I heard chanting outside the house and looked outside the window. It was the troop dancing at the neighbor’s house. I hurried outside and then they stopped outside Cristina’s house and did it for me. All the people were in order of height but the men moved Cristina and her group up to the front so that I could see her well (I presume). She says she messed up in front of me but I could not tell. When she finished, she said she was really tired and kept on moving to the next house. At the end of the whole thing, Cristina got $100 and explained to me the gist of the thing. She said that people split up into groups and do it for the whole day in front of several hundred houses and a main shrine. In exchange they get treats and shochu and money for their efforts. It is a cross between Christmas caroling and Trick or Treat-ing. They asked her if she would do it again next year. She said yes.

Sunday night, we made some mimosas and watched some 24. Kaz came over and we just relaxed and spoke about each other’s weekends. She had gone to a hike in Kirishima organized by Miyazaki Jets that we were told was too full to get into. Kaz told us that not enough people went and they even had to cancel a room. Oh well, we are going to go the weekend after next with other Kagoshima Jets. It doesn’t seem as well organized as this past trip, but it will probably be just as fun.

Oh, by the way, the work was completed in my house. It looks great and where there is rotten wood there is now formica type stuff. It may have just covered the rotten wood, but hey, at least I don't have to look at it and see it rotting underneath masking tape. Now, for some lunch at the Katos'...

MOVE

2005-02-24T09:13:00.000+09:00

The moment that you all have been waiting for has finally arrived. I received my new car yesterday. But before, I go too much into it, let me recount the events of the past 2 days. When I say it like that it almost sounds exciting. It wasn’t. Monday was payday. So, I picked up my stipend from the town hall and walked it over to the post office across the street to deposit it.

Tuesday, I went to Uchinoura Junior High like I usually do. Some of the students are already finished with their term-end exams. Therefore, they are split into classes that can review (a.k.a. play games) and classes that still have to cram. I participated in the class that can play games. I tried to introduce a new one that Cristina told me worked very well in her class – Pictionary. I cannot say that it went down the same way in my classroom. First, I had 4 different categories with different point values – person, place, thing, challenge. The kids didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves because many just picked up the piece of chalk and stared at the blackboard for the minute. It was very frustrating. I even showed them an example. It didn’t seem to work. Finally, some of them got into it. This one girl who is really good at English, but never speaks to me really got into it. I guess it was her moment to shine because all she had to do was say the answer. But still, she was the only one who could think of the answer in English. Still, her team lost.

Tuesday night, we saw the new episodes of 24 and Alias.

Wednesday, I went to Kishira Elementary. It was fun as always, and I enjoy being able to play with them. It is always so great to go there because they make the time there so enjoyable for me (and I know ALL their names!). During recess, we all went to the reflection pool. They were excited to show me the tadpoles and all the frog eggs that were in there. They saw how curious I was when I saw them in one of their observatory tanks in the lab. I had never seen a frog egg before and had no idea that you could actually see the stage of the tadpole in the egg. In any case, it grossed me out to see all of them handling big sticky groups of eggs with their hands. My favorite part was when they would fish out tadpoles with their hands and say ‘KAWAI’ (cute) as the water on their hands drained and the tadpole fell in the grass or on a rock and died. I guess the trick is to not be a cute tadpole. Perhaps that’s why frogs don’t evolve into cuter animals, because all the cute tadpoles are killed by ‘innocent’ children who like to play God during recess.

Wednesday afternoon, I picked up my new car. It’s not new, it’s used. However, I am very happy with it. It’s a Daihatsu Move. It’s a K-Car, so it’s cheaper and more environmentally-friendly than other vehicles in Japan. It’s white. It’s also pretty tall. Probably the best vehicle I have ever owned. I am so excited to be driving it. It’s really appropriately named. Every time I turn it on and step on the accelerator, it decides to MOVE.

Wednesday night, Cristina went to her dance practice. She has been going to it every night this week. On Sunday, she will perform Higashi-Kushira’s ‘stick’ dance that has been performed for hundreds of years in the town festival. Apparently she will be doing this continuously from 7 AM to 4 PM. Gambatte! She’s really excited about it. It should look great. Obviously I will be there for support and picture taking and for the drinking party afterward. After her practice, I picked her up with my Move and we went to the Katos’ for dinner. Tomomi, the middle daughter, is here from Nagasaki with her 3-year-old daughter Nozomi. Nozomi is very cute and knows some English.

Today, it’s off to Uchinoura Junior High for some more Pictionary and fun. The days are wet and cold. However, I do sense Spring lurking around the corner. We have been seeing the arrival of different and new animals like tadpoles and Tanukis. Tanukis are a cross between a badger and a raccoon with the coloring of a Siamese cat (perhaps a bit darker). We have already seen two -- one on the road to Uchinoura last night, and the other outside of Cristina’s house.

Pictures of Nagasaki, etc.

2005-02-21T21:14:00.000+09:00

Here you can see some pictures since we have been back from Winter Break. The first few pictures pf Cirstina are of her relay Marathon race. Then, there is a picture of her car covered in snow. There are also a few sets of photographs of some outings we have had with friends. The bulk of the pictures are from our weekend trip to Nagasaki. Enjoy.

View Album

2005-02-21T20:49:00.000+09:00

At the Lantern Festival.

2005-02-21T20:46:00.000+09:00

This is the statue erected in the Nagasaki Peace Park. The hand pointing to the sky is a warning of nuclear warfare. The hand pointing to the horizon is signaling a need for peace.

2005-02-21T20:43:00.000+09:00

This is the A-Bomb Memorial. What you see is the column holding the names of every victim of the A-Bomb. The altar in front holds paper cranes made by Japanese school students as a wish for peace.

Road Trip! (Nagasaki Weekender)

2005-02-21T10:29:00.000+09:00

On Friday, I finally got the adapter I needed to install my iPod. However, I only partially installed it and was not able to use it until I got home Sunday night. It was actually pretty funny because I began to install it while I was at work in the library and my office kept on sending spies to check on me. They kept on asking me if I was seeing a movie. Seriously, what kind of employee do they think I am? In any case, let me tell you about the events of this weekend’s road trip.

Both Kaz and I arrived at Cristina’s house at exactly 5:00 PM. I quickly packed and we were on our way to the airport where we would pick up Alex who was taking a bus there from the City so that neither he nor we would have to go out of the way. Our journey was slow at first because it was raining so hard. Alex ended up getting there maybe 10 minutes before us. Then, we accidentally went toward Kagoshima City (where Alex came from) – the opposite way we wanted to go. I don’t want to point any fingers, but it was Kaz’s fault. Finally at around 8:00 PM we were on our way fully stocked with junk food in Cristina’s borrowed car. I have not even mentioned the car that Cristina had borrowed for this road trip. She took her car for a check up, and her mechanic said that she should take his brand new huge peach car on the road trip (for absolutely no money) because it was safer and more comfortable. Cristina had a love affair with this car. Lord help you if you come between it and her.

We arrived to Nagasaki in good spirits a bit after midnight. We stayed in a ryokan, which is a Japanese inn where you get a Japanese tatami room with a couple of very comfortable futons and yakata (Japanese cotton robes). It was simple and nice. It had a public bath/onsen-type place too which was cool.

On Saturday, we woke up and had ourselves a long walk all the way up to the A-Bomb Peace Memorial. It was a very solemn building that really did make you feel at peace. People here (as with every other place) were extremely nice and actually guided us personally through the memorial. You would be amazed at how modern it is compared to the other stuff I have seen in Japan. It basically comprised of clean lines of concrete, wood, glass and black marble involving a artistic use of light and water. It is really difficult to put in words. At the end of the memorial, they have a couple of computer centers with archives of the survivors’ stories. It is very scary, touching and moving all at the same time. I really wish I could buy some kind of DVD or computer program that I could donate to some of my former schools because I think it is something that is very tastefully done and that every person should hear and see.

After the memorial, we went to the museum that was also very well done. I think that the museum really succeeded in informing the public about the effect of the Atomic bomb on Nagasaki and on the world. I could sit here and type everything I saw, and tell you how the city was destroyed within the first 3 seconds of impact killing over 70,000 people instantly and another 70,000 people as a result and still be leaving out what a truly horrible war crime it was.

Once we left the museum, we walked a bit and stumbled across the Peace Park that was opened 10 years after the A-Bomb was dropped. We were all not as impressed by the park as we thought we would be, but then again we figured that’s why they made the Memorial. The Peace Park’s main focus is a 10-meter tall green statue of an overly muscular man with one hand pointing to the sky in threat of nuclear warfare, and one hand extended toward the horizon representing the need for peace. The park also included a water fountain and statues donated from countries all over the world. Both memorials to the victims of this crime include water because after the bomb hit, it left Nagasaki at 3,000 degrees Celsius instantly vaporizing lots of the victims’ internal fluid and leaving all of the survivors’ in need of water.

After the Peace Park, we went to a temple shaped like a giant turtle with a woman standing on top of it. Didn’t quite get it, I hope you see why. However, I think I found it more interesting than the others. Primarily because of its randomness.

After the “Turtle Temple,” we went to a monument that was dedicated to 26 Catholic martyrs of Japan that were canonized saints by Pope Pius something. A nearby building that looked like a church is what drew our attention because its spires looked Gaudi-esque.

Evening came and we stumbled into China Town. This was the last weekend of Nagasaki’s famous Chinese Lantern festival where the streets of China Town are crowded with people and extremely beautiful lanterns. The ones hanging over the streets are usually the red oval ones we are all use to seeing in movies. Then, at certain centers there were these amazing and huge lanterns shaped like animals or gods. It was truly a sight to see. I am very glad we got to experience Nagasaki’s China Town during this time. Hopefully, you get a better idea of what I mean by the pictures I will post. There was also a temple filled with freshly severed pig heads with a bone (or something) sticking out of their foreheads.

After enjoying the exotic lights of the lantern festival, we headed back to the ryokan for an onsen (bath) to get ready for dinner. We were not able to find the restaurants we were looking for, but we stumbled across this small Indian restaurant with amazing curry and nan. I had the Chicken Bharta. After dinner, we headed back for the ryokan with a bottle of wine to sip before bed.

Sunday morning we got off to a later start. We started off by checking out of the hotel and heading over to a Starbucks. (Surely you didn’t think that we were going to leave Nagasaki without visiting one?) We had a pleasant breakfast and then went across the bay to a look out point on a mountain we had to take a cable car to reach. I figured if there was a time to be attacked by King Kong or Godzilla, now would be it. We reached the summit safely, and got a good eagle-eye view of this huge city.

After the lookout, we went to the oldest building in Nagasaki which happens to be this temple that was built in China, then disassembled and brought to Japan in the 1600s. It was of course very interesting and beautiful to see. It was also somewhat different from the Japanese temples I have visited before.

Then, instead of going to more temples (like we planned), we felt that it would be more fun to go to the city aquarium famous for its penguins. It was a really neat aquarium. They are not like the ones in the States with shows and stuff. They are just observation tanks. They had some great specimens though. We also got to touch some penguins. It was a really goofy time.

We then left Nagasaki via expressway again. We got near the airport where we went to this all-you-can-eat buffet place where you can grill your own vegetables and meat at your table. We also got to pour our own soft-serve ice cream, get cotton candy and popcorn and I can’t remember what else. Our trip ended at exactly midnight upon arriving back at Cristina’s house.

This was a great trip. I usually get tired of a certain type of sight when I go sightseeing, but I think that we got a healthy dose of various things that made this trip really fun. It was a very good balance. I really wish I could go into more detail about certain things, but chances are you are just going to skip through it anyway. If you have any questions about a particular aspect of the trip, let me know. Happy Monday!

Short Update

2005-02-18T09:11:00.000+09:00

Well, everything is pretty fine here. It still has not stopped raining. I think it is quite ridiculous how much it is raining. It is beginning to get me depressed. Anyway, I really have nothing new to go into detail about other than I still have not received the adapter from Apple for my iPod. Therefore, I have still not been able to install it into my computer. I ordered some accessories and had my mom send them over here, and they already got here. However, it looks like I wont be able to use them till next week.

As for this weekend, Kaz, Alex, Cristina and I are going to Nagasaki. For those of you who don’t know, Nagasaki was one of the two cities that were dropped an A-bomb by the United States. I am curious to see the historical sites and how we will be received. I have heard mixed reactions from all who have visited there so far. We also have the pleasure of going on the last weekend of the Lantern Festival which is supposed to be really nice also. I have no idea what happens during it. All I know is that it’s the last weekend.

Oh, and as a side note, Laura, Cristina and I are completely up to date on the most recent season of Alias and 24.

Misfortunate Adventures

2005-02-17T09:08:00.000+09:00

As I guess somewhat of a relief to me, I have been kept busy and earning the money that is given to me each month. I have had quite an interesting week so far, particularly Valentine’s Day, that I will share with you. Monday (V-Day), I went to the Katos’ as I usually do for lunch. It was a delicious and very big curry and rice dish. As usual, it was too good to describe. I had mentioned in passing that we did not do anything for the long weekend because I was so tired and then Cristina became sick. They responded to me by telling me to pass by after work to take some food to Cristina.

After leaving work, I arrive at the Katos’ where I have a big vat of curry waiting for me to take to Cristina. Let me explain what I mean by a vat – a 12in.x12in.x6in. Tupperware. I was one happy camper. In addition, as I was walking out, they managed to get in the bag 10 cucumbers, 7 oranges, 2 plum soda cans, chocolates, a small fruit cake and a biscuit. Mind you, I may have forgotten something. I left there excited to show Cristina what I was bringing and to install my iPod.

As I got home, Cristina had some hot rice waiting in anticipation of the curry. However, my iPod had to wait because Cristina had just begin to watch a 2.5 hour movie that she had seen a 1,000 times before – Love Actually. Since she has to see it through my laptop’s DVD (region 1), I have to wait to install my iPod another 2 hours. I went from happy camper to angry gnome.

Two hours passed. It was now 7pm and I began to install my iPod. It said that my laptop will have to be formatted, so I plugged it in and it began to show something on the screen saying “Do Not Disconnect”. Well, a couple hours passed and it was still showing the sign. I did not think that it should have taken this long. So, I began to research on the internet some of the possible reasons why and I think it has to do with the fact I had a USB 1.1 connection instead of a US 2.0 connection (which is 40 times faster). I had tried to install a USB 2.0 card, but my laptop still read it as a USB 1.1 card. So, I decided at 9:05 that I would go to Kanoya to try to find a 6-pin adapter for my 4-pin Firewire port – the other way of connecting your iPod. Well, I get to Kanoya at 9:20, and just as Cristina and I thought, all the electronic stores are closed. I actually did get to a big one that was still open, but they freaked out when I asked them if they were still open and closed the doors. I forgot to mention that during all of this, there were torrential rains as far as the eye can see. As a matter of fact, it has been like this the entire week.

On my way back to Cristina’s house, I got into a car accident. Let me begin by saying that if you are concerned about my safety, don’t be. I am completely fine, but you should see the other guy – JUST KIDDING (about the other guy, not the wreck). As I was driving, I came across a yellow light that I foresaw becoming red soon, so I did what we are supposed to do – STOP. The man behind me in the small pick-up truck did what most people do in Japan – SPEED UP. Therefore, I when he realized that I had stopped, he swirved and turned about 90 degrees. However, during his turn (or slip) to avoid my car, he hit with one of his back corners my tail lamp. We were both fine, but I had no idea what the proper protocol was. Therefore, I called Yu-chan and asked her to speak to the guy on my behalf. Point of the story is that the guy felt really sorry and said that he would stop by the Katos’ the next day and pay for the damages (as he did).

The next morning, I had to leave my rental car at the Katos’ for repairs and had to exchange it for another rental car. I felt really bad and embarrassed. They were amazing though, as always.

In my school, the 3rd graders (the oldest classmen, 15-year-olds) came up to me and asked me how I was. Apparently, I called Yu in the middle of her Juku session (cram school/tutoring) of 10 students. This made me feel bad, but at the same time it was very funny.

Yesterday, I went to Uchinoura Elementary. I had to do 2 double periods in a row about the numbers 1-20 and then 30, 40, 50…100. It was so boring, but in some ways fun. The 2nd graders were much better than the 3rd graders so we had time to sing lots of children songs. Then we had a dodgeball showdown that was probably the best one yet. I really want to show them the Dodgeball movie and get some type of tournament going on.

This brings me to today, when I will hopefully be receiving my Firewire adapter to finally connect my laptop and upload my 1,750 songs. I am really excited, but have to expect the worst. I also have to pack for a trip we are taking with Alex and Kaz this weekend to Nagasaki for the Lantern Festival.

Spoke Too Soon

2005-02-14T10:11:00.000+09:00

Remember how I said that my office did not believe in giving us chocolates. . . yeah, well I lied. We got these delicious fudge squares. They're simply delightful. I definitely spoke too soon and have to get them something equally as good. You should see the wrapping too.

All You Need is Love (and an iPod to remind you of it!)

2005-02-14T09:35:00.000+09:00

Luckily, last weekend was a long weekend. I think that I was definitely in need of it because of how tiring the weekend before was. I felt like I was so overworked (compared to how I usually work – a definite overstatement compared to how I worked in Gainesville). In any case, on Thursday evening we were invited to a taco dinner at Laura’s house that was extremely well received. She has become an expert with the seven-layer dip. This was to be the precursor to our weekend of cherry tomato tossing, meticulous gift wrapping, and downloading.

Friday was to be the beginning of our long weekend. We were planning on traveling up the Pacific coast of Kyushu all the way up to Beppu (a city in North Kyushu known for its hot springs). However, we woke up so tired and late on Friday that we ended up just staying home and catching up on stuff. Later that night, we ended up meeting lots of ALTs in Tomo-chan’s in Osaki for some laughs, great food and drinks. We met Laura’s predecessor, Dave, who was in town and Nick from Shibushi who we had never met before and who we joked didn’t really exist. After some time at Tomo-chan’s, we went to a really nice karaoke place where I have had the best French fries of my life. I am thinking of returning back and just ordering the fries, but I am not really sure if you can do this without going into a karaoke booth. Besides the occasional cherry tomato thrown by Laura, it was your normal 2-hour all you can drink karaoke session. At the end of the night, we crashed back at Laura’s.

Saturday, we woke up and had a slow morning at Laura’s. Once everyone left, it took Cristina a while to find her clothes (It’s not what you are thinking, she changed and decided to put them in a closet no one ever looks in.). Once she put on her clothes (she was wearing some of Laura’s pajamas before that), we went to Kanoya for the perfect hangover remedy – McDonald’s. Then, we roamed Kanoya. We went to an electronic store to get a computer part that I thought would help, but didn’t (so we are returning it tomorrow). We also went to Daiwa (a cross between a pseudo- large department store/pseudo-small mall) where I got a gift for my grandmother for her birthday and Cristina got her office some chocolates for her office mates. Well, buying the gift for my grandmother was some kind of adventure. One of the things is an ornament to which I asked them to take off the metal wire at the end of the string to keep it from being scratched. They reacted with a puzzled look and just stared at me. I started to gesture and they just stared at each other and then looked back at me. After quite a bit of staring, one said that if they take off the wire, how am I going to hang it. So, I gave up and told them to leave it on. Then, they asked me if I wanted it gift wrapped. Since I saw the person before me get hers gift wrapped, I asked for mine gift wrapped just so Cristina could see this. It was hilarious. I felt like if I was in the scene in Love Actually where Mr. Bean is gift wrapping the cheating husband’s gift for his secretary when he does it ever so meticulously and slow. First, they took the three small items I bought and placed them in a clear bag. They rearranged it a couple of times. Mind you, the bag is lying flat and the items will surely shift once the bag is lifted. Then, they ever so slightly fan-fold the top of the bag. Then, they take two matching ribbons to tie a bow around the top. Here comes my favorite part…. Then, the woman has to find the curling scissors, which are different from the cutting scissors (they look exactly the same). She begins to curl the ribbons. Then she stops and tries to control how the curls fall on the package and tries to make the curls fall within each other (the most anal retentive thing I have ever seen a person do). Then they place the package, in a paper gift bag. They seal the bag. They put a sticker and ribbons on the bag. Then they take out a plastic shopping bag. Reinforce the bottom of the plastic shopping bag with tape (mind you, what I bout my grandmother weighs absolutely nothing). Then, they place the wrapped gift inside the plastic shopping bag and tape the top of the shopping bag shut. All that was missing was some lavender and a couple cinnamon sticks. Cristina broke into a fit of laughter at the very end as the woman was getting ready to hand me the bag. The three gifts total barely added up to $10.

Sunday, we spent in hibernation. Cristina felt sick so we just lounged about. I got her some Gatorade from the one store that carries it here in Japan (or the only one that I have found anyway).

Today is Valentine’s Day. Happy Valentine’s Day to all, especially those who I know are not as lucky as I am. Today, when I got to the office, I was expecting chocolates from all the women (because that is what Valentine’s Day is in Japan). Then, on White Day, March 14th, the men are supposed to give the women chocolates (good marketing since they don’t have a St. Patrick’s Day). However, my office is not like Cristina’s, so the only chocolates I got were from my Kacho as standard omiyage from his trip this past weekend to Singapore. I will tell you what I did get today – an iPOD. I have been downloading and organizing my music nonstop for the past week. I have about 1,000 sings already. I am dying to go home and set it all up. Maybe by tomorrow, I can tell you how that is going. Love you all. Happy Valentine’s once more.

new tech junkie

2005-02-09T10:06:00.000+09:00

As of yesterday, plans are “definitely” in effect to refurbish my house. Since it is winter, I cannot say that we have been doing anything too exciting or interesting. I did order an iPod through the Apple store in Japan yesterday, but that is proving to be a bigger mission than they made it out to be. They have told me twice they would send me confirmation emails and I have yet to get one. First, it was set to arrive on Thursday, and now they say Monday. At least it is being shipped to my door and I got a 10% discount for being a teacher (Education Discount). I have been downloading music nonstop after deciding this was what I was going to buy. I am now very anxious to receive it. Let’s see how it goes. In addition, I bought an external hard drive so I can store backup of all the media and other files that I have without clogging my laptop’s foreboding memory. I was surprised that I was able to buy a hell of an external hard drive (160 GB – my laptop is only 20 GB) for less that $150.

If any of you out there have any suggestions for downloads, let me know. I am also hoping to get a boost in my music supply from our neighboring ALTs (Laura and Jill, specifically Jill) who have a big music supply.

As an addendum to my entry, I would like to mention that we saw Gone with the Wind last nite. Let me tell you that we did not even start watching it till like 80 minutes into it and it still seemed like the longest movie ever. Furthermore, I did not find it that interesting. Now that I have that off my chest, I think it is safe to end this entry.

Truly ShIT (Shakespeare In Training)

2005-02-07T09:55:00.000+09:00

So as you know, I have been rehearsing English plays with my kids non-stop for about one week straight. Well, I will have you know that despite the complications, they did great. I seemed to be the only person to really screw up. I will begin by telling you that I had to be at work on a Sunday at 9:00 AM. I felt like if I had been run over by a truck for some reason. I am guessing it is because I did not sleep that well. When we arrived, I was welcomed by very nervous Japanese men informing me that 4 of the Kishira Elementary school students were deathly ill with the Influenza (this is what they call even the slightest of colds). One of these students just happened to be the student that was set to do the “self-introduction” a large feat by any means for Japanese speakers of their age. Luckily, one of the boys (who had learned lots of English from the time that he lived in Okinawa) was still coming so I coached him upon arrival. He did great. I am excited that he will be in Junior High next year. However, at the time of the performance, I got really nervous because they kept on telling me to speed it up and “do overaction”. So, I began to speak a bit quickly and do obscenely big gestures. This resulted in me going on with my part and speaking over two tiny speeches by two 3rd grade girls. I felt really bad and could not stop apologizing. As for “Let’s Go To Florida” performed by the Junior High students and myself, it was a success until I messed up a Japanese word during my monologue at the end. The students kept on telling me “Come on, don’t feel bad” – a line from their English textbooks – which made me think that the word that I said instead meant something bad. So, I panicked a bit but they reassured me that it wasn’t anything bad.

Some other highlights of the weekend include going to Kaz’s house for some dining and drinking on Friday evening. It was lots of fun and we stayed up till about 5 AM. Kaz actually missed the ping pong tournament she had to go to at one of her schools the following day. Who schedules Ping Pong tournaments to begin on a Saturday at 8:30 AM anyway? On Saturday, I recuperated for a bit before going to my eikawa’s welcome party for me. It was hosted by my Kacho’s brother. His Uchinoura house is amazing. He had it built 10 year ago and it is a full-fledged Western 2-story house with a huge 3rd floor attic. The dinner was really nice and I tried some sushi that I had not tried before like sea urchin and some salmon eggs. It was a bit difficult for me to do the salmon eggs because they are actually orange, see-through, little sacks of unborn fish that pop in your mouth as you eat it.

The Combini Chronicles

2005-02-02T09:54:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I was surprised by the blizzard that engulfed Uchinoura. As I was sitting at my desk staring into the computer, I was alarmed by the gasps coming from the office lady. Suddenly, everyone was off their seat and staring at the window. Feeling a bit left out, I did the same and uttered a hearty “su goi” (meaning awesome or wow). You could hardly see out of the window because of the snow that was blowing about. At times, the wind would stop and snow would just simply fall (like it does in all the Christmas movies). I journeyed to my school by car, it being my first time driving in the snow. From school, I continuously looked out the window to see the snow fall and cap the mountains that surround Uchinoura. Apparently, it only happens about once a year here in Uchinoura, but I can say that I have had my fill.

Yesterday I rehearsed “Let’s Go To Florida” with the Uchinoura Junior High School students. They aren’t amazing, but then again I am only amazing some of the time. Therefore, I think it is quite forgivable, don’t you? In any case, I think it will be somewhat interesting for the Uchinourans to watch on Sunday.

For the following portion, I will relate to you the first (of probably many soon to come) account of the Combini Chronicles. I guess it won’t be so much as a chronicle but more of a descriptive study of the joy and strangeness of Combini Culture. For those of you who don’t know, combini is the Japanese word for convenience store. Yesterday, probably for the second time, I found myself leaving my car running as I went inside to get my morning coffee and pastry. Here, EVERYONE leaves their car on (with no one inside) as they go into the convenience store (or grocery store). It usually takes more than 5 minutes, so I really don’t understand why they don’t just turn it off. And, when I said I got my morning coffee, it is not what you think. It is a small 6 oz. can of sweetened and “milked” coffee that is usually kept in something that looks like a cooler but is really a heating device. So, these (metal) cans of coffee work as good makeshift hand warmers for the minute before you drink it – enough for you to get blood running through your finger tips again. There are over 20 brands or kinds of coffee – THEY ALL TASTE THE SAME. On occasion, I get the Georgia or Harvest coffee. If ever I feel the need to be more manly, I drink the “Men’s” coffee. As a side note, there are tons of things that are labeled “Men’s” because it seems that Japanese men are not allowed to like anything that is slightly sweet or tastes good.

Well, I gotta go. I have to write an article for a PTA newsletter that the parents should be getting before the end of the school year (March?).

Let It Snow

2005-02-01T08:34:00.000+09:00

Today it is snowing. As I was driving through the mountain passages on my way to work, visibilty was low due to the snow that would continuously splatter on my windshield. People have been announcing this for about a week now, so I am glad it finally happened. Perhaps now, everyone can begin agreeing with me saying that it is cold rather than how warm the day is. If they tell any of you this, don't believe it. It is and will still be cold.

As for yesterday, I was a bit disappointed in myself that I could not run. My head was hurting. I cannot pinpoint the pain. It is more of a general pressure. It comes and goes and has been doing so for the last couple of days. However, today I will jump right back on the wagon. You should see Cristina. She is doing great. She is already doing around 6K.

As for yesterday, I went to my more distant, smaller elementary school, Kishira Shogakko, to rehearse the play we have to do rehearse in front of the big wigs on Friday and perform on Sunday. Let me tell you that the teachers are getting a real kick out of giving me many Japanese lines that I find really hard to remember. Then again, I really have not given it much effort. I will do my best and will probably shine when the time comes. (Don't I always?) Besides rehearsing at this school with 3rd - 6th grade (~10 students), I did a quick lesson with 1st and 2nd grade (~10 students) and played with them some dodgeball. It is getting really funny because I am teaching them little moves that are supposed to strike fear but usually only result in hilarity. My favorite is when they have just dodged a fast ball from the opponent and they have to get up, grab the ball, and then point to the opponent that threw the ball and glare at him or her and say, "Be careful." Anyway, I have to get going. I am still rehearsing my lines.

Staying Another Year

2005-01-31T08:32:00.000+09:00

I know that I have been slacking as far as updating you of our whereabouts. We have been hibernating since the days have been getting colder and colder. I will have you know that I ran 10.35K (~6 miles) in 67 minutes and Cristina ran 5.6K (~3 miles) on Friday. We were both very excited. On Saturday, Osa came from Miyazaki and we went to a yakiniku restaurant in Kanoya we had coupons for. Yaki niku restaurants are those where you grill the meat and vegetables at your table. On Sunday, we pretty much just ate and watched movies. Osa gave Cristina a haircut which looks really good. It is just like her old haircut only shorter. She has almost gotten rid of all the bad color jobs she had put in her hair.

Today, I officially gave my form stating that I will recontract and stay until July 2006. I know it is a long time, but I have lots of plans. My office was elated, however, not elated enough to give me a new place to live. On Thursday, I told them that I would recontract but that I would really appreciate it of I could move (since I know that there will be several open spaces in designated teacher housing). They responded that this would be impossible because the crap house I live in is the designated ALT house. I don’t necessarily buy that excuse because they offered a few ALTs ago the opportunity to move to a new apartment. So, on Friday they reacted by getting a handy man to look at my house and see what he can do. They keep on suggesting for me to get a cat for the mice, but I keep telling them that I am allergic. They still insist on the cat on occasion. Apparently on Tuesday, they will begin by giving the house a proper pipe and gutter that can get the feces and run off water away from the house and onto the town’s drainage pipe. Then, they will supposedly replace the rotten wood in my bathroom, then the bit in my kitchen. I have also asked them to seal all the wholes. Let’s see what actually gets accomplished.

ShIT -- Shakespeare In Training

2005-01-25T09:49:00.000+09:00

So my knee is beginning to hurt. Not the knee that I have screwed up twice either. This time it’s the left one. I am afraid that this is going to tamper with my training. Either way, I am not going to let it get to me until it is probably too late. As of yesterday, I can run about 8.5 K in 55 minutes. It is good, but I have yet to hit the mark. Hopefully by the end of the week I will be able to run 10 K effortlessly (or if not effortlessly, at least making it through the final 1.5 K). After I master the 10K this week, I think I will begin doing some “stadiums” on the steps leading to the top of the main mountain in Uchinoura, or running up hills or lifting weights.

Besides this bit of news, Monday was pretty much the same. I spent most of the day in the office. I had lunch with the Katos. It was amazing. Oh, my car situation. Mr. Kato thought that he would be able to “update” my car at a better cost than buying a new one. He still has not found any cars that are really worth buying. They are all either very expensive or very cheap and not worth buying. However, upon taking a second look at my car, he thinks that it would still cost too much money for my current car that I will have to pay to get rid of when I leave Japan. Therefore, they lent me a loaner car (so I don’t drive illegally without insurance) until they find me a good car worth buying. I feel so grateful, but at the same time really bad because they really do go beyond the call of duty.

If you are wondering how my play script is coming along, well . . . it’s coming. It is difficult to write something semi-interesting in very basic English for an audience that will most definitely not understand. But, hey, that’s what a challenge is all about. If you're curious, you can read the first bit. Although I warn you that it may put you to sleep like a canary in a covered bird cage. Continue at your own risk . . .

"LET’S GO TO FLORIDA!"

Hmmm… I really want to go to America. You do? Where do you want to go? I don’t know. America is so big. It is difficult to choose. Well, let’s look at a map. Wow! It’s so big. Maybe we should go to California. California is very popular because there are many famous people. I have an idea. Let’s go to Las Vegas because they have big beautiful Casinos. I hear it’s better than Pachinko. Let’s go to New York! No, I don’t want to go to New York. It’s too cold in New York. I want to go to a hot place. Hmmm . . . . a hot place. Do you want to go to a nice beach? Yes, I love going to the beach. What else do you want to see or do? I want to meet nice people. I want to go to Disney World. I want to eat oranges. I KNOW! Let’s go to Florida.

(Pretend I wrote an interesting yet corny title here)

2005-01-24T09:28:00.000+09:00

More running, more 24, more fun… Cristina and I have been very good about our running. On Friday, I did a bit over 6K in 42 minutes. Hopefully I can keep it up and improve my endurance and time in the next few jogs. Cristina has also improved considerably. I think that she is regretting doing the 5K rather than the 10K because she is now seeing how doable it really is. I also feel a bit better because I realize how attainable a goal it really is. Cristina and I are already talking about possibly running a half-marathon next year because here a town seems to be having one every other week. I guess they are really big fundraisers over here.

Today I am driving a rental car as my car cannot be driven anymore because my insurance inspired. Therefore, I will be getting a new car in the upcoming week. The car that I am driving now is automatic and it is really difficult to get use to doing nothing with your left foot and hand again. It is also difficult to be driving such a nice car.

As for our weekend, it was great. On Friday, after the 6K run, Cristina went to Kaz’s for Girl’s night and I took the boys from the City for a Boy’s night. Jiro made some of his great burgers. We also drank a lot and then basically passed out when we started to see a movie. The next day, we met up with the girls and had some breakfast. The day was spent relaxing and watching TV. Later that night, we went to this great izakaya (this is the Japanese version of a pub) where we ate and drank some more. It was a big group of about 18 of us. After we went for some karaoke which I actually had missed not doing for some time. Then we stood in the rain looking for daikos to drive us back to Kaz’s house where we all just camped out. The next day, we woke up and had breakfast. Cristina and I returned home, took naps and watched 24.

We have also been doing some educating about Cuban culture while we have been here. We have been speaking a lot about Cuban politics and the situation in Cuba in general to all who are interested in hearing about it. Also, many are curious about the food and culture which we have also been informing everyone about. As for the planned espresso party on Friday, the Japanese people invited stood us up. It is really unlikely that they all had the same emergency, so we thought it was really rude that they did not even call. It is very un-Japanese. However, we did get to share our Cuban coffee with pretty much all the ALTs we encountered this week.

Now in school, I am organizing an English play in one of my Elementary schools and one of my Junior highs that they will perform on February 6. I am excited about the new challenge and am curious of how it will be performed, received, etc. For those of you from Miami, I think my script will be somewhat like a Que Pasa USA? in Japan where I have people speaking in both Japanese and English so that way the audience can still follow it along. I think the play will be at least a bit enjoyable. Picture this… A group of Japanese tourists visiting Florida! It’s going to be great. I know it!

Taiko Workout (Not to be confused with Taebo)

2005-01-19T15:43:00.000+09:00

Yesterday we went to Kanoya to watch a Taiko performance. Let me tell you that it was some performance. I never knew that taiko drummers can be so fit. There was actually one number in particular that this guy took off his shirt and started to play a big drum on a tall stand with his back facing the audience and I could swear that this guy had ripped abs even on his back! I was a bit inclined to buy a DVD to send home so that I can show you all what taiko is all about because a CD will not do it justice. Taiko is as much about the visual as it is the audio. Unfortunately, they do not have any region 1 DVDs.

Today I received my package with gifts from my mother and grandmother. I am really excited to open it. I am halfway inclined to open it in the office but don’t want people snooping about. Whatever my mom put in there, it certainly got the Japanese Customs officials’ attention who opened up the box. Hopefully there is nothing too dodgy in there.

Well, that is it for now. I am excited to have the time again today to run. Hopefully I get to do at least 5 kilometers today without running.

Surprise! You're getting a new car!

2005-01-18T09:09:00.000+09:00

As usual, Mondays are my office days. I use them to fulfill assignments I give myself and to study Japanese. On this Monday, like I do with many other Mondays, I ate a delicious lunch in the company of the Katos at their home. Yesterday, lunch happened to be curry. We were exchanging stories of what we did over winter break and New Year’s. Then, Yu mentioned that my shaken, a sort of rigorous inspection that every car has to get every two years, was coming up. Whatever the car does not pass, it must be fixed. The cost of everything that must be fixed in addition to the cost of the shaken is as much as buying a new car, which I could then sell to my successor. So, my best bet is to buy a new car, which I should do by the end of the week. Papa Kato said that he would call around the used car places to see what my best deal would be. I am so very grateful to them for doing so much of this for me. I am really lucky to have such nice people watching out for me. I really trust them. Therefore, I am buying a car by the end of the week that I really will not “meet” until the time of purchase. So jokingly, I mentioned yesterday to Cristina, that I wonder what kind of car I will be driving this time next week – something I would have never wondered about in the United States.

After work, Cristina and I began training for our respective races; I am doing a 10K and she is doing a 5K. Yesterday we ran 3.6K in about 25 minutes. I realize that I have some way to go, but I feel so good to get back to running and I see my goal as very achievable.

After running, Cristina and I met up with Laura, Jill and Eric at Tomo-chan’s, where I had some not so healthy yakisoba. It was well worth it though. It was sooo good. Like usual, it was nice to go to Osaki and visit Tomo and Yoko.

Upon returning home, Cristina and I were inclined to begin watching Season 3 of 24. I have to say that as of now, I do not like it very much. I hope that it gets better. Perhaps because it seems so scary to me and also there is just some underlying thing about it that I do not like as much.

The next morning, I woke up and freaked out. There was frost all over outside. The fields glistened with ice, as did all the windows. Once I arrived to my car, I saw that it was covered with a substantially thick frost. It was not like the other days where it could easily be wiped off the window. So, I left my car running (something I would never do in the States, and heated some water to throw on the windows. After I did, my front window was fine, but then as I began driving, I noticed I had forgotten about my back window. Needless to say, now I know for next time.

Later today, I am going to see a Taiko (Japanese drums) show/concert of what is said to be one of if not the best Taiko group in Japan – Tao. Several people have told me about it and I hestitated at first at it costing $35, but then I realized that I may never get a chance to see them again. And if I find local groups to be really good, I am curious to see what makes this group so amazing. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Hibernation

2005-01-17T10:21:00.000+09:00

I have spent the past three days hibernating in the mouse-free house of Cristina in Higashi-Kushira. I have probably only been outdoors for a collective 30 minutes, let’s make that 20 if you count all the times I walked to or from my car. Friday night, we saw countless episodes of Season 2 of 24. I would say if I had to count, maybe 6. Saturday, we woke up and watched some more 24. Later in the evening, Cristina and I invited Jill and Laura over to watch a movie. We ended up viewing Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. It was OK but I have to admit that I was a bigger fan of the Royal Tenebaums by the same director and actors. In the hours after Jill and Laura left, we stayed up to the wee hours of the morning to watch the about 6 episodes of Season 2 of 24.

The next day, I woke up and Cristina was getting ready for her big race. She was to run and 800 meter-leg of a Marathon relay race. She was representing one of the nine sections of her town. I was standing at the corner of the last 100 meters of Cristina’s leg as she ran. She looked tired and cold, but determined. It was funny because there were so many locals by me (since she was running the leg that was actually in her section of town) that were cheering her on, most of them calling her Christian, but they were cheering her on nonetheless. When I began to yell at the top of my lungs, “Go, go, go, faster, faster, faster, you’re almost there!” Everyone began to try to yell what I was saying although it didn’t quite so much sound like that. Her team ended up in 3rd Place and she has the cool bronze medal to prove it. She said that her part was also very difficult because a chunk of it was uphill. I have to say that the runners that passed a minute before her seemed just as tired as she did. I will try to post a picture shortly where you can see her running in her hooded sweatshirt showing nothing but her nose. Apparently the wind was killing her (don’t worry, not literally). Later that night we were invited to a party for her section of the town where we enjoyed beer and lots of beef. It was much fun and very entertaining. However, Cristina somehow got herself entangled into hosting an espresso party in her house Friday after work. Don’t ask me how, but she seems to be regretting it. Afterward, you should guess what we did. Rather than going to the second party (singing karaoke), we opted to go home to see the last 6 episodes of 24. Let me tell you, I can’t wait to start on Season 3. I think I might though just so that I stay somewhat active and healthy. Sunlight and movement are always good things for your body. Well, maybe not always, but you get the drift. Besides, I think it’s best to ration the dosage evenly throughout the weeks.

I am excited about starting my training tonight. Cristina and I are going to go running to start training for the Sakurajima Marathon. After that, we will visit Tomo-chan who I have not seen since last year.

Mickey Resurrected

2005-01-14T15:32:00.000+09:00

It seems to me that I have more mice than a Disney store. Last night as I was taking out the hot carpet from the box in the closet where my predecessor left it, a whole mess of mouse droppings fell out. I would say that it could amount to an entire cupful. Then to matters even worse, I began to see mice scurrying about. In total, Cristina and I counted 4, all of which we were able to successfully chase outside. However, don’t think it was that easy. It took a bowl, a broom and few good screams before we could chase them out. They had gnawed the hot carpet and made this giant nest (by the giant heap of droppings). I took the hot carpet outside, but I think that they may end up coming back inside. This will lead me to simply talk to my office and see if I can get relocated to a new place. There is a “town apartment building” that all the single teachers live in that I am going to ask to be switched to. I am almost sure that there will be room as of March or April because two of the teachers that live there now are leaving to other schools because we have too many teachers. Perhaps with a little persuasion (or an ultimatum at the time of re-contracting) I can move in there. I will bring it up to my office on Monday.

P.S. My office wants to measure my body fat on a cool machine they got for the gym. Welcome to my world.
P.S.S. I saw Dodgeball last night and almost died laughing. Consider it highly recommended (as Finding Neverland, if I had not mentioned already).
P.S.S.S. I signed up for the Sakurajima “Marathon” today – 10K. Wish me luck.

Please Help Me Pee

2005-01-12T11:04:00.000+09:00

As I began to ponder on what I should write about today, I realized that I have not informed you of some of the differences between the States and Japan. Granted that some of them seem to be implicit with the recounting of my days, but there is still so much more to truly inform you about. For this reason, I will share with you today one puzzling difference I had noticed as an oddity only 1 month ago. For a bit of a prologue, I will like to inform you that Japan is really not that wheelchair friendly. I hope that this is only the case because it is a bit more old than the rest of Japan. However, every public building in Japan (this includes transportation hubs) has bright yellow grooves or bumps on the floor to lead the blind from certain entrances to the places they need to go in the building. There is no Braille signage indicating where it is that they are going to or supposed to be going to, but the grooves are still there. Perhaps, the blind are genetically encoded or something to know these things inherently. I obviously do not know or understand. However, I found this puzzling considering I have yet to see one single blind person in Japan, but I have seen so many wheelchair-bound people struggling to get somewhere (particularly when they are passing over the bright yellow grooves on the floor). I hope that you do not find this distressing or rude. You will be happy to know that although the Japanese do not have a handicap stall in the restroom, they do provide a handicapped equipped urinal. Now, thankfully, I have never had to help a disabled person to the handrails that protrude about 2 feet from the wall about 4 feet from the ground to assist them in urinating in what would probably be the most difficult place to do it considering their condition, but I guess the Japanese just enjoy a challenge.

Since coming home, nothing too exciting has happened. I am simply watching movies that I bought while traveling and complaining at how cold it is. Cristina and I did see The Incredibles which I will have to say is a great film. I think it is definitely one step above the other Pixar films in originality. Last night, we went over to Kaz’s where we enjoyed a very hearty meal accompanied by Laura, Jill and Dan (ALT from Kihoku) and Mike (from Aira, where Cristina and I went to the tea ceremony). It turned out to be a very interesting and funny evening. Later that night, Cristina and I watched Super Size Me, the documentary about a man who chose to go on a 30-day McDonald’s-only diet. It was also very good and is recommended by me. Speaking of being super-sized, in case you were wondering, I have yet to begin my “marathon training”. Something tells me I may have to bump down to a 5K. By the way, I have come to realize I am a Nutella junkie.

A More Thorough Description of Our Winter Holiday

2005-01-11T14:25:00.000+09:00

OK, I don’t mean to sound a bit repetitive or dwell in the past, but for my first official blog of the year (meaning from my desk at Uchinoura’s infamous Ginga Arena facilities) I will recount some of the highlights of Cristina and my winter holiday. But before I begin, I would like to force myself to share with you what I have done to welcome the new year here in Southern rural Japan. As a must, I have forced myself to vow to eat healthier and begin running again with the ultimate goal of completing a 10K around the Sakurajima volcano this March 6th. In addition to that, I will continue to be giving and kind as many have informed me I already am (not that I needed their opinions to begin with), and I will try to improve my self-esteem since I don’t seem to be as confident as I once was. Maybe I should cancel everything up top and just promise not to be a liar. In all reality, I do want to train for the 10K and continue my independent-study of the Japanese language. I also decided to live on the edge (with permission of my office superiors) and take the plastic cover off the keyboard to the laptop I have been typing on since moving to Ginga Arena. Groovy, eh? Perhaps for next year, I will take the plastic off the screen. Anyway, back to our adventure. . .

After our 1 hour drive, 40-minute ferry ride, overnight bus, airbus to Hong Kong, 8 hour layover involving a trek through the Asian oxymoron, and a 12 hour plane ride to Europe, and a 30 minute train ride… we had reached the Eternal City – Rome. We checked into our hotel, showered for the first time in days, and headed to the train station to meet up with our friend Ashley. As it turns out, she missed her train and was delayed a few hours, which Cristina and I were to tired to do anything during, so we ended up riding the up and down escalators about 50 times (at the time it sounded like something interesting that 2 extremely jet-lagged people could do). After our reunion with our dear friend, our Roman Holiday had begun. During our trek, I had read Angels & Demons by Dan Brown as my travel companions had done some time before. So, I was eager to retrace the steps of the characters in the book which I will now recommend to all of you, especially if you had been to Rome before or are familiar with several of its Renaissance and Baroque sites. I am sad to say that the Romans were not as kind to us as they had been in the past and I found it unfortunate to think that was to be our reintroduction to Italy. Luckily, our encounters became much friendlier rather quickly. Following Rome, we spent a day in Siena where we had an excellent pesto picnic and slept in a convent with a rank smelling bathroom. Although the place was clean, my guess in that someone peed in the bidet which was later (or is always) overlooked by the cleaning people.

After Siena, we spent 3 marvelous days and nights (including Christmas) in Florence where Cristina and I had lived a couple years ago. I was happy to see that the city had truly decked the halls with the holiday spirit complete with Christmas trimmings on each and every street. Here we enjoyed the Uffizi gallery, which houses the famous Botticellis (among other works), and the Accademia, home to Michelangelo’s David. Somewhere in between we managed to nestle a “few” bottles of wine and one truly remarkable Christmas Eve dinner.

After Florence, we met up with Ashley’s brother who is stationed in Northern Italy on an air force base. We stayed with him for 4 days and did some laundry, bought some stuff that we really needed, watched tons of DVDs (he has like 400 to choose from) and visited Padua, Piancavallo and Slovenia. Padua was great. My absolute favorite part about it was going to its Cathedral with the tomb of St. Anthony and seeing such devotion from Catholics from what seemed every corner of the world (if you count Cristina and me as Asia). Piancavallo is a small mountain town filled with small ski chalets and cheap rental places and lifts on the mountain peak overlooking the town where Andrew lives. Slovenia which Andrew drove us to for one day was a truly surprising highlight of the trip. I was not familiar with Slovenian culture at all and was only briefly introduced to it, but I can see myself returning some day. The country seems very interesting and rich in culture despite its small size (smaller than Switzerland). The people were very friendly and really like dancing to some great polka tunes. The Slovenian language sounded surprisingly Scandinavian (I expected something a bit more Germanic). While there, we visited some cool looking caves which we had to take a train ride to really get into them.

From Northern Italy, we took an overnight train to Vienna, where we picked up Lukasz and spent New Year’s Eve. For New Years, the Viennese and people from all over thr world crowd the historic streets and drink beer and champagne. In the main plaza outside the old church, they throw their glasses, champagne bottles and fireworks for good luck. If it sounds scary, it is in some parts. However, in most places it is safer and lots of fun. However, because of an unfortunate series of events in Vienna, I was not able to ring in the New Year with my fiancée and friends. When we were returning to the hotel to get someone’s gloves at 10:30 after having been out for a couple of hours and having drunk a few beers, I guess I lost my balancing while sitting down in the Metro and seemed to have torn or strained my meniscus in my knee pretty badly. So, I just passed out in the hotel to rest my leg with some ice, and sent my fiancée out to celebrate it with her best friend. After spending a few days roaming in Vienna, catching operas, eating sausages and kebabs, and quite a bit of walking, we went to Salzburg.

The first day in Salzburg we just toured the old city and had what I would say was my favorite meal on our trip comprising of Wiener schnitzel, goulash, and apfel strudel. After a bit more of drifting in the old town, we went to a bier garten run by Augustinian monks. The second day, we took a trip out to a small town to take a tour of the salt mines on the Austrian-German border from which Slazburg gets its name. They were really cool and a lot more informative than the tour in the cave in Slovenia. You also got to ride a small train, a boat across and underground lake, walk through some small mines, cross the national border and ride an escalator all in an informative and entertaining hour and a half long tour. Later that night, we parted ways with Ashley and Lukasz and took an overnight train to Frankfurt, where our plane to Hong Kong was departing from.

Our train arrived to Frankfurt at 6 a.m. when the city (think New York) was completely deserted, dark and extremely windy and cold. Although the old market square was great, we were cold and frankly I was a bit tired of Cristina’s groaning about the weather. After a few hours I realized that she was cold because she did not even where long johns, only wore a light sweater and a rain coat, knowing how cold it was . . . frankly a person that dumb deserves to be cold. Just kidding. It eventually got better as the sun began to come out, the streets became busier and shops began to open.

Our 2.5 days in Hong Kong were great. Besides the food, everything else looked really cool to me. We went through the business district, Victoria Peak, Nathan Road and all the market districts. It was truly an experience. I was most amazed by their capacity to withstand some of the smells and the degree of crowdedness and their incredible public transportation system. Everything ran incredibly smoothly and very easy to understand as an English-speaking foreigner. While their Cristina and I made some amazing purchases, ate a few times at McDonald’s, ate at the poshest of posh hotels – The Peninsula – and managed to sleep from 10 PM one night to 2:15 PM the next day because we were so jet lagged.

After arriving back to Fukuoka, we took the overnight bus to Kagoshima which I could not sleep on because I was so jet lagged. Once in Kagoshima, we relaxed in the City for a bit and slept at Alex’s flat to hear about other people’s outrageous holidays. As a side note, I am relieved to announce that I heard from one of the JET Coordinators in Kagoshima Ken that all the Kagoshima ALTs have been accounted for after the tsunami devastation. However, we still do not know about other JETs in other Kens.

Well, I guess that this is definitely more than enough for today. I look forward to hearing from all of you and knowing how you spent your holiday.

Our Eurochina holiday in pictures

2005-01-11T02:18:00.000+09:00

View Album Part One

View Album Part Two

We're back!

2005-01-11T01:35:00.000+09:00

So, we are back in Japan in our towns. I have not yet gone to work, and it's about 1 a.m. so I am not going to sit here and tell you much about our trip. I am trying to upload all the pictures tonight so they will be up shortly. I'll write some more tomorrow in work.

Hong Kong Mayhem!

2005-01-06T16:52:00.000+09:00

Well, our trip is quickly coming to a close. We just made it it to Hong Kong today and we are extremely jet-lagged. I fell asleep for about 30 minutes while we checked into this hotel that rented us a room the size of a walk-in closet (no joke). Cristina on the other hand is not fairing so well and has crashed into her pillow in the middle of the day which leads me to believe that her sleep pattern will not be catching up with her.

Well, I have tons of stories to share but I will probably post them later when I have time to type many of them out. Hope to hear from you all soon. Cheers.

Happy New Year!

2004-12-31T19:01:00.000+09:00

Well, we arrived safely in Vienna via overnight train from Venice. As it turns out we did not go to Venice during the day. We ended up going skiing on this peak near Andrew's house in a place called Piancavallo. It was lots of fun although I did not go skiing but rather took pictures from the sidelines. After the fiasco where I was not able to clear the bunny slope once, I thought it would be best for my limbs that I sit this one out. However, I was glad Cristina had a chance to go with the others since I will probably not go with her for quite some time.

Anyway, I guess this new year's eve will definitely not be as happy considering the tsunamis that have devistated India and Indonesia. In this B&B we are staying at in Vienna is the first time that we have been able to really see coverage on it. We are actually fearful of some friends that have visited the area for winter holiday. We have already heard from one of them in Malaysia and he is ok. We have another friend in Sri Lanka that we traveled all the way up to Hong Kong with that we hope is ok as well.

In any case, I hope everything finds you well this new year. Looking forward to hearing from all of you soon. We are on our way to pick up Lukasz (Ashley's boyfriend) from the airport. Bye.

Merrjy Chrjistmas and Happjy New Yjear!

2004-12-29T19:00:00.000+09:00

Hey guys, just a quick update to let you know how we are doing... everything is fine. For the past few days we have been having tons of fun in Northeastern Italy where we are staying with Ashley's older brother. We came here after spending a great time in Florence over Christmas. It was great to see the city we lived in and loved decked out in its Christmas best. Surprisingly, Rome nor the Vatican were that decorated for Christmas.

You will never guess where we went yesterday -- SLOVENIA (I even got a stamp on my passport to prove it). Ashley's brother really wanted to go and I thought it sounded exciting, so we went. It was great to be able to cross a new border and see what its like. Obviously, several parts looked like Italy, but it reminded us a bit of Austria as well. The people look surprisingly very Scandinavian and even sound Swedish. We really did not know what to do, so after crossing the border, we went to something like the shops off the toll plaza and got a few pamphlets. We ended up going to some nearby "world famous" caves called the Postjana caves. (I am not too sure where the j goes because there is usually a random j and way to many consonants in every Slovenian word.) Anyway, the cave guided tour began at 4:00 and we arrived there at 3:00, so we stood by the fire and chalet outside to listen to the polka dance complete with kid dancers. It was great. I felt like it was truly a cultural experience.

As for the cave, first we had to board a small train to take us into the heart of the cave. I was surprised they didn't allow pictures so I tried taking some anyway. I soon found out that the reason they don't want you taking pictures is because even though the there are parts of the cave that are only carved out for the train itself and not the loud American tourist waving his head and arms outside of the train with his camera. Lucky for me, my friends were able to scream out watch out before I was decapitated with my camera in hand by a huge overhanging boulder or stalactite.

The cave itself was beautiful and wonderous. We listened to a couple groups of Christmas carolers that were part of the tour that sounded beautifully with the echo of the caves. We also got to see a Christmas show that involved watching the re-enactment of the birth of Christ in the cave while watching an angel dressed in white singing far up in the cave Silent Night.

Tomorrow it is off to Venice and then a night train to Vienna where we will spend New Years and meet up with Lukasz. I'll try to write another update soon.

Love you all. Happy Holidays. Hope your Christmases were merry and your New Year will be happy.

Adventures Could Begin Here

2004-12-19T21:23:00.000+09:00

Well, we made it to Italy safely and are already enjoying ourselves in Rome. We also have already been to Hong Kong for 8 hours. It was great and everything is really cheap. You should see all the stuff they had. I was also surprised at all the different types of people that live there. It also surprised to see how crumbly and old lots of parts look. I expected everything to be super new and modern. However, we have still not gone to the core of Hong Kong yet. Rather, we stayed in Kowloon which is across the bay and has all the markets and overlooks the Hong Kong skyline that you have probably seen in pictures. Right now I am waiting for Ashley. She was going to get here on a 1:00 o'clock train, but it turns out she went to the wrong train station in her town so she had to take the one that arrives here at 3:00. Luckily, she had bought or rented a cell phone so we were able to call her and figure out why she had not been on the 1:00 train.

That's pretty much it for now, but stay tuned for some more updates.

Buon Viaggio!

2004-12-16T09:00:00.000+09:00

So it may seem that I am neglecting this blog. In reality, I am simply a bit busy with school stuff and preparing to embark on my journey. If you have not been keeping up to date with it, it's tomorrow. Anyway, yesterday was a bit out of the ordinary. It al began about a couple months ago when I was asked to judge a speech contest in Koyama with Kaz. It was in a small rural school (I say that because Koyama actually has a big school). So, yesterday I headed to Kaz's after my lunch break. We had lunch together in her apartment, where we feasted on pumpkin soup and tuna sandwiches. After catching up for a bit and our afternoon tea, we headed to the school.

Kaz and I sat at a table in the back of the school gym waiting to hear the students give the same memorized speech. Kaz had written it, so at least it was a bit interesting. She included some sounds for them to do as well as lots of things that could be accompanied by gestures. Each student went one by one. First the first graders, then the second graders, then the third graders. There were 5 contestants in each category and a clear winner among the first and second graders. With the third graders it was a bit more difficult as three of them were extremely good at one facet of their speech. In the end, it was the girl that did the funny voices for the two characters that won. What can I say, I am a sucker for entertainers. At the end, Kaz and I had to give our concluding remarks. I gave mine in English and Kaz gave hers in Japanese.

Yesterday evening, I prepared most of what will go in my bag during our upcoming adventure. I have to say that I am finally taking my own advice and packing light -- extremely light. As a matter fo fact, I could probably pack even lighter, but don't for fear that Cristina may think I am weird. In any case, I am extremely proud of how light my bag weighs as of now. It is about half empty. It only gets about 3/4 full when I put my day pack in there which I will probably do for the air journey itself.

For those of you who don't know, our schedule is as follows:
(Please note that all times are local times to the visiting country.)

Dec. 17- depart Kagoshima for Fukuoka by means of an overnight bus
18- depart Fukuoka airport 10:35, arrive Hong Kong 15:05, depart HK 23:55
19- arrive in Rome 7:05
20- Rome
21- Rome
22- Siena
23- Firenze
24- Firenze
25- Firenze
26-28- Northern Italian Hill towns
29-30- Venice
31- Jan. 2- Vienna
3- Salzburg
4- Frankfurt
5- depart Frankfurt 14:00
6- arrive Hong Kong 8:00
7- Hong Kong
8- depart Hong Kong 15:15, arrive Fukuoka 20:55, take overnight bus to Kagoshima
9- arrive Kagoshima City 6:00

Wish us good journey. I love you and miss you all. May your Christmas be merry (and non-commmercialized) and your New Year be happy (and debt-free).

Twelve Montano

2004-12-13T15:55:00.000+09:00

Another weekend has come and gone as has another adventure. Friday night I cannot remember what we did, only that Cristina was deathly ill and very naggy (just kidding). Saturday brought us some great weather so Cristina and I had decided to do something outdoorsy. At first we were going to go to the Rose park in Kanoya again. Then, we were going to visit the Uchinoura rivers and beaches. Finally, we had decided on going to visit Cape Sata, the Southernmost point of mainland Japan that happens to be a couple hours drive South of us. The drive was absolutely beautiful (like usual). We ran into this center or museum-type place that had several larger than life Buddha, one which was over 33 meters long lying down on top of a building. We also saw three monkeys. Before I could point them out to Cristina, one was beside the car door. The other two were a baby on top of its mother’s back. We continued down and finally made it to the Southern tip. I cannot say that I was that impressed with the hike or the park. However, it was a nice way to spend the day nonetheless. On our way back, we passed a breathtaking sunset over Kinko Bay next to Kaimon-dake (the “Mt. Fuji of Satsuma peninsula”). After taking some pictures of the sunset, I took what I thought was the right road that ended up being an hour detour back to where we were 15 minutes before stopping to see the sunset. Cristina and I were so delusional because of how dark and absolutely lost we were in these mountain roads that we began discussing the possibility of naming our children after numbers. We decided we like the names Twelve (for a boy) and Nine or Eleven (for a girl).

After we finally made it home, it was time to pack up and head to Osaki for Tomo-chan’s Christmas party. He was making Sukiyake which basically entails the cooking of vegetables with beef, thin noodles, soy sauce and water on a frying pan at your table. It was so much fun. There were lots of us and with Tomo-chan there, it promises to be an interesting conversation. I really like hanging out with Tomo-chan. I am looking forward to asking him after we come back from winter holiday if he can take me fishing in Uchinoura some time.

After sukiyaki and lots of beer, we went to Tomo-chan’s friend’s karaoke bar. It just so happens that this bar is a private, small karaoke bar that I guess they open for private parties or only on certain nights of the week. I was impressed by how posh the place looked. Most if not all the seats were covered in red velvet and the rest of the bar was black. Our bar hostess was also very funny. I never heard her speak, but she joined us for some pictures and was extremely funny to watch. This poor newlywed couple also joined us after Laura shoveled them in after they opened the door to see what was going on. They seemed a bit frightened by all the foreigners, but quickly warmed up to us and sang a few songs.

Sunday, we were all extremely hung over. It seemed the only thing that could satisfy our appetites was some greasy burger from McDonald’s. So, after dillydallying around for a couple hours in Laura’s house, we finally mustered the strength to get into the car and head over to Kanoya for a very satisfying Big Mac, large fries and medium Coke.

This brings me to this week when Cristina and I are preparing to leave to Chino-European adventure. Admittedly, it is probably not as exciting as the true eco-adventure Alex and Kaz are having in New Zealand, but we are excited to return to Italy, welcome the New Year in Vienna and explore for the first time Hong Kong.

GREAT Pictures!

2004-12-12T18:28:00.000+09:00

As usual, here are some great pictures. There are some of me participating in the mukade relay with the Uchinoura Junior High students on the beach. Following that are the pictures of our Saturday outing to Cape Sata at the bottom of our peninsula. I will tell you more in a more detailed posting. Saturday night, we went to Tomo-chan's for some sukiyake. After, we went for some karaaoke. Enjoy the pictures.

View Album

2004-12-12T17:36:00.000+09:00

Cristina and I sing Madonna"s "La Isla Bonita".

2004-12-12T17:35:00.000+09:00

Having some great Sukiyake at Tomo-Chan's. In the picture are Heather, a Kanoya ALT, and Yoko, Tomo's wife.

2004-12-12T17:33:00.000+09:00

On the way home, we ran into this amazing sunset that casted the most beautiful purple haze over Kinko Bay and Kaimon-Dake.

2004-12-12T17:31:00.000+09:00

Cape Sata is the lowest point of mainland Japan. In the background, you can see the lighthouse.

2004-12-11T00:55:00.000+09:00

My team representative collecting the certificate. (On the other side of the fence on top of those rocks is the school.)

2004-12-11T00:53:00.000+09:00

Here is the last leg of my team falling just 10 feet shy of the finish line.

2004-12-11T00:51:00.000+09:00

And they're off. (I'm the big guy in the back not wearing the school PE uniform.)

2004-12-11T00:49:00.000+09:00

Uchinoura Junior High all excited before the big relay race.

Are you feeling GENKI?

2004-12-10T09:11:00.000+09:00

Whoa, it’s been a while, I know. However, I have been very sick and very “busy”. After I helped my office move on Monday, I became inflicted with a cold that kept my nasal cavity filled at all times which complimented my raspy voice due to the irritation in my throat. However, as usual, I manage to survive and make it through. Now, I feel very “genki”. Genki is the word they use in Japan to describe healthy, lively and energetic. So, instead of asking how you are after greeting someone, they ask you, “Genki des ka?” meaning “Are you feeling genki today?” I wish the same could be said of Cristina. The day I got better, she seemed to have started having what I had had. Now, she has a bad cough. However, with the help of the oranges that it is customary to eat by the dozen every evening in Japan, she will get better.

I have been feeling extremely productive in the office. For the past few days, I have studying Japanese from the book that the JET program sends you every 2 months. I completed this second book and took the test that is due January 28. I figure I might as well complete it now since I will most likely forget or have other things on my mind after we come back from winter holiday.

Speaking of holiday, Cristina and I embark on our Chino-European adventure next Friday. As you might imagine, I am excited but worried that I will not have everything ready in time.

Yesterday at Uchi JH, I partook in the greatest of events. As you may have already known, the school’s backyard is the beach. Every year, schools all over Japan have a relay that symbolizes or re-enacts the delivering of a message over a very long distance by Japanese Post a long time ago. Since one of the kids in 2-2 broke his leg, I was asked to take his spot. I was in the second mukade (I will explain in a second.). The relay begins with a long distance runner that runs almost the length of the beach and back (maybe 500m) who then passes the message (in the form of a sash that you wear) to the next leg which is a mukade (or centipede). A mukade consists of 5 people standing in a line with all their left ankles bound together and all their right ankles bound together. So, you all have to take small steps in unison, but try to be fast at the same time. My team was in the lead until my mukade was near the hand off when we fell and 3-1 took the lead for the remainder of the race. It was tons of fun and I hope I get to participate in it again next year. At the end, everyone stands together and does stretches then faces the ocean and scream. It was quite the moment.

In the evening was my eikawa. The conversation group ran much smoother than last time. Perhaps it was because I had stuff planned. What they were most surprised about was the pronunciation exercise that I had prepared for them since no other ALT had done that with them. I had them say “Red leather, yellow leather.” The Rs, Ls and THs are very difficult for them so it was quite the challenge.

Today, I am at work and stuck with nothing to do. I find myself with so much free time that I have begun to plan my other vacations during the remainder of my time. I am thinking that for next Winter holiday, I want to go to Thailand and Cambodia. We also have some other week-long break periods that we are trying to plan for. If any of you have any ideas of where we should visit while over here, let me know. As of now, I think we are considering the Philippines, Sydney, and other places throughout Japan.

Uchinoura Tatami Funhouse

2004-12-06T17:59:00.000+09:00

Here it is; what you all have been waiting for . . . some pictures of my house (and of the Christmas party). I did not get a chance to take some more pictures of my house or of Cristina's because the batteries ran out. Anyway, enjoy.

View Album

2004-12-06T17:41:00.000+09:00

Christmas Party 2004 attendees (minus Cristina).

2004-12-06T17:39:00.000+09:00

Looks a bit like Christmas at home because of all the wrapping paper all over the place.

How to Torture a Japanese Person

2004-12-06T13:09:00.000+09:00

Friday I was victim of the same old, same old. Nothing new and exciting except a few trips to the post office. Saturday on the other hand was completely different story. The day began early with a call to the family at 7 a.m. Following the phone calls, we got ready to go to Uchinoura where we would begin cleaning in preparation for the Christmas party at my house. While driving to my house, it was hard to miss the violent winds and rains. I then remembered how my office had mentioned that there was to be a typhoon passing by that day, a rarity in December. In any case, we did arrive to my house and unloaded the car that was full of Christmas decorations I had borrowed from Laura and other accessories, props for the party. Cristina and I got to cleaning and were barely finishing cleaning and setting up as the first guests were arriving at 12:30. I had also gift wrapped some items for the guests to open and set up a few games. I was also lucky to have found a stash of Christmas decorations hidden away in one of the cabinets in the front room in my house. Therefore, my halls were decked much more than I had expected.

There were 9 junior high school students in attendance, plus my teacher, her 2-year old daughter, Cristina and myself. We began by simply talking, watching some of the Grinch and eating snacks. We made some hot cinnamon apple cider that proved to be delicious (for one girl). The first game we played was a Christmas card toss where we tossed Christmas cards from some distance into a shopping bag. The first person to make 3 Christmas cards received this huge gift bag from an electronic store. However, the box inside the gift bag instructed the winner to give it to the tallest person in the room. Once he opened it, there was another wrapped box that had another instruction. And so on and so on until the box ended in the hands of the 2 year old with a knit-Christmas stocking inside. The next game was one in which everyone had to line up whereupon the first person would have to roll a die. When the first person in line had rolled the number 2 three time, they had to get up, put on a coat, scarf, Santa hat or reindeer antlers, and oven mitts on each hand. After, they would have to try to open a box that they had helped wrap difficultly at the start of the party. While one person was trying to open the present, the next person was rolling the die. The first person to be able to completely open the box would be the first person to pick out their gift in the gift game. The gift game was one in which you were able to steal a gift that someone else had opened but that not too many people were keen on doing. It is not the Japanese way.

The Rice Pudding Incident. Cristina has found the perfect way to torture innocent Japanese people. She makes rice pudding which seems interesting enough to try. Once the people try it, they hate it (because it is sweet rice) but still eat in and say they like even though their facial expressions scream otherwise. In any case, since it is not Japanese to not eat what is given to you, the children looked like they were eating rice pudding at gun point. I told them that they did not have to eat it at all. However, it was not until the teacher said that they did not have to eat it that they stopped. I felt so bad. But then again it was a bit neat to see the tables turn.

After the Christmas party was over, Cristina and I gave the place a thorough cleaning only to have to go to my teacher’s house in Kanoya to have dinner with her father and friends. I was so tired that this was about the last thing that I wanted to do. However, I am extremely glad that I did because I met some really cool people. I would not mind seeing them again.

On Sunday, Cristina and I spent the whole day doing nothing. Well, we did get up, eat lunch, drop the Christmas decorations off at Laura’s and pick up some dessert, but other than that we stayed in the whole time watching movies until 5:00 when we had to get ready for a dinner at Keiko Kato’s house, Yu’s aunt, who I helped with a translation some time ago. Dinner was great and so much fun. Keiko’s English is by far the best I have heard here in Japan (minus the ALTs). She lived a year in Arkansas and some time in Tokyo as well. Even her demeanor is very progressive and Western. I would like to note that I do not think that she is very progressive because she seems very Westernized because I think the two are very independent of each other. Perhaps I find her more progressive because of her experiences in urban centers. Either way, I just wanted to make the point clear. The food was great. The conversation was very interesting. And the time flew. We spent over 5 hours there talking about anything and everything. I definitely want to hang out with her again and hope that she will make time in her busy schedule for us as well.

That brings me to today when my office had neglected to tell me that today was a moving day and I have been lugging around crates of files and papers that have not been opened in year and probably never will be again with my button down shirt, nice pants and jacket. And life goes on.