Weirdness

Check out my "Just Plain Wacky" gallery:

Car-less and coughing

So another Saturday has arrived, which means I am alone and carless, trying to cough the remnants of a cold out of my system. I kind of promised some people I would go to the town culture festival today, which sounds like fun if this weren't Japan. Being the only foreigner in this town, it means that I will be gawked at and put on display. I know that's what I signed up for, but it still feels like being naked in public. Some days I just don't want to do it, you know?

How I wish I was an exhibitionist who loved talking about myself...but I'm not.

Okay, time to face my fears...see you later.

*edit*
Amidst the cultural chaos, I somehow agreed to learn tea ceremony every Saturday at 1:30. How I understood that is a mystery...but how could it not be fun when the children are this adorable?


Could it be...a picture of Japanese people without the peace sign?

It's so funny...the minute I took out my camera it became like the paparazzi in there...cameras flashing everywhere. I just wish I had put on some makeup today...

Every time I get so fed-up with being here to the point that I just want to curl up in a ball and stay at home, something happens to snap me out of it.

In my least favorite san-nensei (third year) class, they had to pair up and do an activity. So my favorite student (I wrote about her a few weeks ago; she's the one with the limp) paired up with another student clear across the room. Over the course of my time here, I've noticed that the girl she paired up must have some kind of learning disability. Throughout the activity, the girl with the limp helped the other girl, even writing down the dialogue for her. In America, she would be scolded for doing the assignment for her, but in Japan, it is a necessity for the good students to help their peers.

When they performed their dialogue in front of the class, I gave her the biggest sticker I had.

Oh Happy Day!

I went for a bike ride up to Kuchinotsu, which has a lot of cute little shops and ran across this natural foods store. The place was about the size of my bedroom, so I didn't have high expectations. Well it turns out that the lady who owns it is really sweet - I was browsing ramen looking for a vegetarian version, and she was kind enough to tell me about this brand, Ohsawa, that makes meat-free products. She also gave me some free samples. It's little things like this woman's kindness that make me happy...and sesame-flavored ramen is the shiznit!

Getting my craft on

Tamago


Fish eggs...I'd rather knit'em than eat'em!

Yeah, I know it's stupid, but I can't help it...I just keep making more and more! The problem is finding a use for them. I originally intended to use them in lessons, because the kids about died when I brought in fake hamburgers, chicken, etc. So my question is, what should I do with them? Here's one idea:


Sushi!

Any ideas?

I don't think I can tolerate the food in Japan for more than one year.

Just went up to Unzen to take an onsen with Suzie and her family, and that was fabulous but the meal we got afterwards was not. I was told that my dish had no "niku" (meat). Then to clarify, I asked if there was pork, beef, or chicken. She said no, and went on to list the ingredients. Suzie thought she heard her say ham, but I shrugged it off because she said no pork. Needless to say, I was wrong. The waitress ended up bringing me something else, but it was only tolerably good.

*eats bag of potato chips*
Can I just put my stomach on "standby" for a year?

The most distressful thing about being in a foreign environment is when someone is friendly enough to strike up a conversation, and no matter how hard I try to understand, I just can't. That just happened five minutes ago.

But that's just a minor confidence blow to my otherwise great weekend: Erich's enkai, volleyball practice, Kunchi festival in Nagasaki city. We finally got to explore Nagasaki for the first time, and aside from a few missteps (there are always some when I'm involved) we had a great time.

I've been to two enkais since I've been in Japan. So far, the only good enkai I've been to was not my own. Maybe I had such a good time Friday night because Erich's company is an eikaiwa (English conversation school), or maybe it's because the focus was not on me. These people actually want to and like speaking English, and I had some of the nicest conversations with Japanese people that I've had yet. There were these two sweet ladies who just showered me with compliments, and kept ordering me more vegetarian food. Erich got an enormous bouquet of flowers from his students. Our Japanese teacher (Erich and I take Japanese classes every Tuesday night at his school) got a little tipsy and introduced us to a wonderful service: daiko. I don't know if it actually exists in America under a different name, but if not it NEEDS TO. Basically, if you get too drunk to drive home, you call this service and a person will come to drive you home in your own car. Brilliant!

Speaking of brilliant, I busted my ankle AND my knee at volleyball practice Saturday night. Yes folks, I have started playing volleyball again for the first time in 10 years. I was invited by a lady who works at my Town Hall, and even though the practices are on Saturday nights, I couldn't exactly say no. Aside from the fact that some of those women could be in the Olympics and I'm just a shadow of my former athletic self, I am actually looking forward to Saturday nights now. Hell, it's not like I actually have a social life to miss out on!


Okunchi festival in Nagasaki city

Even though we missed the main part of the festival, it was still quite a sight: colorful costumes, endless food stalls, crowds. We got to Suwa shrine just after the main festivities ended, unfortunately. But climbing up all those stairs to the shrine actually gave me a fleeting moment of clarity and peace. The twisted trees, sculpted gardens, and artificial ponds of the shrine led me to ponder the true meaning of Shintoism: is it a religion that worships nature, or the re-creation thereof? I will continue to ponder.

Then I saw God in an Indian lunch the next day. Heavenly!

While in the touristy shops of Glover Garden, I had yet another moment of inner peace which came in the form of a cruise ship docked at Nagasaki port. All I can say is this: thank God for other foreigners who make my poor Japanese skills look good. The store clerk who smiled at my use of arigato gozaimasu made my weekend.

I'm think I'm going to listen to some apocalyptic space rock now.

My ice cream is sad!

They actually put happy faces in ice cream here - unfortunately, the machine wasn't very genki that day. ;)

I promise a better post soon...feeling much like that ice cream right now in this land of endless summer. :( And I know that I need to step away from the keyboard when I start typing :( and ;) into my journal. ;)

My Students

I helped a student dispose of a roach the other day. It's funny, I would never do that at home; I always make Erich do it. But when you are a teacher, it's different. I actually care about my students and want to protect them.

I'm starting to really see who my students are. There's this one girl who had an operation recently because one of her legs is longer than the other, but you would never know. At the cookout, she was raking the leaves much harder than anyone else. She's always the first to jump up and erase the blackboard. But she does all of this with incredible modesty, like she doesn't want to be noticed. Being a person who always blended in and never stuck out, I always wanted to be noticed. I wonder if she feels the same way...I just want to tell her, I notice you!

Then there is the friendliest boy in the school. He came up to me after the first class and pointed to a lyrics sheet with "Paul McCartney" in the credits. Then he pulled out an empty bag of macaroni that he had ready for this occasion, and yelled, "See? Paul Maaaccarrronnnii!" Today, he "taught" me some Japanese after class (I pretended I didn't know what "konnichiwa" meant, haha!).

Interestingly, I haven't encountered any bad students yet. The worst ones aren't bad; they just don't study. But they are cute as all hell, so that makes it so hard to be mad. :) I love my students!