Dartboard

Oh, I’m so pooped. I just got back from karate and it’s 10:30 p.m. I’ve gone to bed at 9 and 9:30 the last two nights in order to get up for work at 6 a.m. I’m looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning, but I’m guessing I won’t really be able to sleep in too late. That’s okay though because I’m planning on going up to Kamigoto to use the gym or pool in the morning, then all the other ALTs and I are probably going to the “secret beach.” For dinner we’ve all been invited to go to Yuka’s place. She’s a second year JET living in Arikawa. We’ll probably crash at Laura’s apartment again Saturday night and I’ll do some more shopping Sunday before I come back down to Narao.

I just found out the name of my karate school and there's an English website. It's not a great website, but it does have some information if you want to check it out: http://www.irf-usa.com/

Midori-chan and I are getting along great. I’ve written a little note to myself on the windshield above the driver’s seat. It says “Stay Left” on a little arrow pointing left. I’m getting used to driving on the wrong side of the street. Staying left after a turn, and looking the correct directions before turning were really the hardest part. Now I’m realizing if I just say, “Left, left, left.” in my head as I turn I don’t freak out. Oh! And the first time I got into the car by myself (without Hatakeyama) I went to the driver’s door, opened it up and sat down, only to realize the steering wheel was not in front of me. Out of habit I went to the left door and sat down in the passenger seat. I was at school and a bunch of kids saw me, but I don’t think they even noticed. I would have felt really embarrassed had they laughed.

Hana kurasu (flower arranging class) was last night. Catherine and I were a little more prepared as we brought better bowls for vases and the little metal stick-pad for the flowers. Here are some pictures of our arrangements. Sensei actually arranged them for us the first time and then we took the flowers out and tried to replicate what she had done. There was also this cute little girl there who could name a bunch of famous places in England: “Big Ben, Changing of the Guards, the Queen, even London Eye!” There are only three more flower arranging classes (every other week) and so we have to soak up as much as possible before it ends.

The cute little girl at Hana Kurasu. She's playing with a minature arrangement I made for fun.

Me with my arrangement. Not bad this time, huh?

Catherine working on her arrangement.

Before flower class yesterday I went on a walk-jog on this road out by my apartment. As I was leaving my apartment I thought, “I should bring my camera,” but I intended on running more than I actually did so I left it behind. I took the road that goes up to the look-out point on the top of the hill in Narao. (Where Catherine and I drove the other day.) I didn’t make it all the way to the top because I didn’t have enough time, but I sure had some beautiful views. The sun was setting over the water and I was high enough to see fishing boats weaving through little Goto island-ettes. It was truly picturesque.

To be honest, at first I was kind of afraid that a wild boar was going to jump out of the forest and chase me or a huge insect was going to fly into me and sting me. I was warned this is was a “snake road” by one person when I first arrived, but then Hatake assured me it was safe to walk on. The crows, which love to sit on top of the power lines, would all of a sudden crow this really loud, creepy song, and it made me nearly jump out of my skin. I think of myself as someone who is so comfortable in nature, but this atmosphere is so different from mine at home. The cicades, boars, crows, snake-threats. I’m just not used to it, but by the end of the jog I was feeling more comfortable and even met another man who works at my school who was taking a walk. I’m going to have to go back!

Some morning glories in my parking lot that are open when I leave for school.

A couple morning glories up close.

Ok, that last paragraph was such a challenge to write. I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. I’m off to bed!

Love,
Sierra

Since I actually didn't get around to posting this until this morning, here are some photos from recent video chats. First ones are from my video chat with Joe, Gavin and Kyuss this morning. Don't they look so interested in what I'm saying? =)

She's got Kyuss in a head lock because he hates to have his picture taken! Stubborn man!

And here's from a video chat with DT a couple days ago.

...Staring into each other's eyes...from thousands of miles away!

Oh, where do I start?? Well, first things first, I suppose. I just got back from teaching my first English class at Nakagoto High School! And I’d call it a success! I am so happy that I don’t even care about the huge pit circles on my blouse. At home, pit circles would be totally unacceptable, I know, but it’s just too hot here! My friend Laura (pronounced Rora in Japan) says that she’s never talked so much about sweat in her life, and I just may have to agree. It does somehow become the topic of many conversations in Japan.

Me with my maps of the United States and Pacific Northwest.

Explaining to the students that I want them to write their names on cards and put them on their desks. I'll do my best to learn them all, but I'll need some assistance!

That's Tomonoga-sensei on the right. I'll be teaching three classes a week with him.

Today has just been a great day. I’ve gotten so much done! I was beginning to worry that I wasn’t doing enough work related stuff while at work. (hee, hee =) No! I really was beginning to worry. At the junior high in Narao they work poor Catherine to the bone. She’s done so much lesson planning, worksheet and poster making, and I’ll I’d done up until today was paste pictures to paper for my self-introduction lesson. But today I was on the ball! I asked about this weekly radio broadcast system that some of my predecessors have done and I’ve already got my first broadcast planned for next Wednesday. Who says I can’t use my Mass Communication major in rural Japan!!

Ah, another distraction. I’m keeping so busy… it’s almost time to go home already! So we’ll see what I can squeeze in in just 15 minutes.

Tuesday night I did indeed get Midori-chan. Hatake and I cleaned her insides out and then I took her for a spin to the grocery store. It was nice to shop without worry about how much I could carry in my backpack and two hands up my very steep hill. The freedoms of a car! I love my independence!

Also on Tuesday night I went to karate with Hatake. There is an optional class on Tuesday nights in a dojo (gym or place of practice) in Arakawa at 7:30 p.m. A student of Matsuzono, our Friday night master, has now also become a master and runs this Tuesday night program. This class was awesome because I was no longer a spectator but a participator! I learned one basic punch and two basic kicks. There are all sorts of minor techniques that I’ve never learned (of course because I’ve never tried a martial art) and it’s really challenging. Of all things, my calves are really sore today. When I stand up and walk after sitting at my desk for a while I limp! I was really expecting my glutes to be sorer than they are—those sidekicks are a killer!

At the end of class we lined up to kick and punch at someone holding a big punching-pad and I really surprised them with my strength! I’m really not any stronger than any other western woman, but in comparison with all my Japanese colleagues I kicked ass! It was fun because the Arakawa master is this young guy who’s really serious and never smiles and when I kicked him—ok, when I kicked the pad he was holding—it blew him away. He made all these noises of surprise and acted like I’d thrown him across the room. It felt good to throw him off for a bit.

Last night Catherine and I went for a drive in Midori-chan and we got this amazing view of the island. We could see most of downtown Narao, including Catherine’s apartment, and Wakamatsu bridge off in the distance. There was even a Jet Foil (fast ferry) coming in from Nagasaki that we watched dock in the port and pull out again for Fukue (the largest island in the chain, furthest south). Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I’ll have to go back and get pictures so I can show you the views.

Afterwards we went for our weekly restaurant trip and finally decided on what we think is “The Expensive Restaurant.” It is a yakiniku restaurant, which means Japanese barbecue, and it has been one of my favorite meals since my arrival. We’ve decided it’s where we’re going to take everyone who comes to visit us in Narao! It’s easy to order, the food is so delicious and actually it’s not that expensive after all, just about ¥1500 per person.

Well, it’s after 4 o’clock and that means I get to go home for the day. I have other stories but I don’t have time to tell them! Tonight is flower-arranging at the town hall and early to bed, early to rise!

Speaking of rise, look how yesterday's sun decided to do it!! This is what this world looks like at 5 a.m.!

"Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight." This statement has some truth in it. It rained all day Wednesday; it was such a nice break from the heat.

Love and first lessons,
Sierra

It’s Tuesday and I’m back at school. Monday school was canceled because of the typhoon and I had a wonderfully lazy day inside my apartment. They typhoon was really mild, not nearly what it was cracked up to be. Don’t get me wrong; I’m really thankful! I’m also thankful it was just bad enough that I got to stay home for the day! I spent most of the day on my computer—completing my two goals of 1. finishing putting up photos on this website and 2. clearing out my email inbox. Despite a very long (and marvelous) interruption with Daniel on video-chat, by the time I went to bed, the website was finished and I had not one email in my inbox. I also took a 3 hour nap and totally caught up on my sleep.

When I woke up from my nap yesterday afternoon, however, I had these horrible cramps. In fact, that’s why I woke up, I’m sure. I don’t have any painkillers with me because I assumed I’d buy some here when I needed them. Of course I don’t think of needing them until I NEED them and I’m in the middle of a typhoon with no access to them. I decided to try Hatakeyama, who lives just upstairs, and what a lifesaver! Naoko gave me something—I’m not sure what it is, but I’ve written down the name so I can buy it later—and it worked miracles! I am eternally indebted to this family. Needless to say I slept peacefully and didn’t even cringe when the alarm went off at 6:30 this morning.

Today is my dad’s birthday. He would be 57 years old today. It’s the first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning. I wish he could see me here, surviving in this tiny town in Japan. I know what everyone says, “But he can see you everywhere now,” but it’s just not the same. I want to say it’s just not true, but I don’t know if it’s true or not. I only know it’s not the same as me seeing him see me here.

In Memory of William Michael Kenney.
Papa at the farm in 2000.

At work today I finished my self-introduction lesson and am completely prepared for my first class on Thursday. I teach an upper level class of sophomores with Tomonaga-sensei during fifth period. It’ll be the trial run for this lesson. Friday I’ve got three classes, two more with Tomonaga and one with Hatakeyama, a mix of upper and lower levels.

This afternoon Hatake took me out to Wakamatsu Junior High and I met the kocho-sensei (principal) and two JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) out there. They are both young, substitute teachers, filling in for the regular teacher who recently had a baby. They will be here until April, so the majority of the year I will spend with them. I’m going to Wakamatsu on Monday afternoons to lesson plan with the teachers (Kondo-sensei and Fukuda-sensei) and then I’ll be there all day Tuesday and teach six classes! I have no idea what the levels of the students are, but I’m guessing pretty low since they only start English instruction in junior high. (I say “only” as if we have such a great system in the U.S. where they start in elementary school like they should.) Hatakeyama assures me they will have plenty of energy, and I’m certainly looking forward to that.

And tonight’s the big night! I get the keys to my new car. Her name is Midori-chan. Midori means green in Japanese, but also has the meaning of “old woman.” When I asked Hatake what her name was he said IT didn’t have one. So I asked if it was a “he” or a “she” and we determined definitely a woman. Then I asked what characteristic about her stood out in the 10 years they known each other. And he said, “She’s old! There’s no airbag and the tape deck is broken.” So after some deliberation we came up with Midori-chan, which I think is a perfect fit! It incorporates both her color and age! Tonight we are going to clean her together and then I get to give Hatake a ride to school tomorrow.

Hatake has been driving me to and from work everyday now. But he has to leave for work at 6:50 a.m. once school starts tomorrow and technically I don’t need to be at work until 8:15 (for the teacher’s meeting). But since Hatake has been so generous by giving me his car even before he has had his second car shipped over from Nagasaki, we are getting up together and leaving at 6:50 a.m. I know I’m leaving over an hour earlier than I’m suppose to but I’m looking forward to having Hatake in the car the first few times I drive. There are probably all sorts of rules I don’t know about here!

Okay, we’re on our way home now so I’ve got to run!
Love,
Sierra and Midori-chan

What a wonderful weekend it’s been. Saturday morning Joelle surprised me at our internet video-date with Daniel! He made a special trip out to Portland just so that I could see him on my screen! Thanks for a wonderful surprise, you two! They were in a café just down the road from Joe’s apartment so I’m hopeful that we will be able to do this often. I was able to persuade DT to let me buy him an iSight, so since then we’ve had a couple internet-dates together too.

On Saturday morning, I gave Joe and DT a “tour” of my apartment, and then we made breakfast “together.” Catherine had spent the night so they got to “meet” her too! It was so wonderful having Joe and DT in my kitchen as I made eggs, bacon and toast. I only wish they could’ve sat down to enjoy it with me too.

...right now I’m getting emails from my sister with pictures of my family holding “We love you” and “We miss you” signs. Thank you Aunt Leta, Aunt Lynne, Joelle and DT! You don’t know how much this means to me! I’m going to print them out at school and hang them in my apartment. I love you and I miss you too!!

Joelle holding up a poster for me!

My Aunt Leta with her poster!

My mom and Aunt Lynne laughing as they make me posters.

The whole crew together!

Satomi came to pick me up for my birthday party at 9 a.m. So, here’s the deal: Satomi works part-time at Nakagoto High School and full-time at an after-school English club in her hometown (somewhere past Arikawa up north). The birthday party was for one of her 10-year-old students at this English club school. The girls were doing a play in English and wanted to perform it for me, which is the main reason I was invited to her party, but I think they also just like having English speakers come and visit occasionally.

The party was from 10:30 a.m. to noon and we did all sorts of English activities. I read an English book Satomi brought back from Seattle, we played games like Go Fish and Memory; we ate snacks from America (including Almond Joy and Mounds so I had to sing the “Almond Joy’s got nuts, Mound’s don’t” song for them). The play they performed for me was The Very Hungry Caterpillar and upon completion I gave them an American flag to hang in the classroom. I had no idea what to expect from this birthday party so it turned out to be a lot of fun.

The birthday girl is in the middle.

The beginning of The Hungry Caterpiller play. "On the second day he ate through two pears."

"On the second day he ate through three plums."

"On the next day he ate through one cupcake, one ice cream, etc." The girls drew all these pictures!

All the girls with the "beautiful butterfly." Satomi is on the far left.

After the girls went home Satomi gave me home-made salt and a sea-salt medicine. Her husband’s family are fisherman and have started making salt and this medicine to sell during the off-season. I’m not exactly sure what the medicine is, but it’s the liquid that’s left over when you are boiling sea water and have extracted most of the dry salt. I am suppose to put a couple drops in my water, tea or soup, a little bit in my bath water for my skin, and can use it as an anti-itch cream when I’ve got bug bites. She said it’s pretty bitter so I have just put one drop in a full glass of water and I can’t even taste it. I’m not really sure what it is, but maybe I’ll do some research when I’ve got some spare time.

Satomi and I went to lunch at an udon shop and I learned how to order udon with a fried egg. I don’t like the typical raw egg on my udon and am so thankful everytime I learn how to order food the way I want it. Then we went to Clark Kent, a video store in Arikawa, and Satomi taught me how to determine which movies are in Japanese and which have Japanese subtitles, how long each rental is and how much it costs, and how to save money by buying a prepaid card. Then she took me to a hyaku-en shop, another video store, a bookstore, a plant shop, a discount store, and another hyaku-en store!! I got so many things that I’ve wanted to get since I arrived, but just didn’t have the time or the means to transport home. To name just a few: two large house plants (from her sister-in-law’s shop), a flower arranging vase (given to me for free by her sister-in-law), an alarm clock, more postcards of Nakadorishima, a full-length mirror, an electric toothbrush, a towel hanger for my bathroom, drinking glasses, bottled water (in case the water gets turned off after the typhoon for a couple days), a laundry basket, clothespins for hanging the laundry, and the list goes on...

Here is the large plant I bought.

And here is the smaller plant.

I am so appreciative of the massive amount of time it took her to truck me around the town, to each store and all the way back home again. She actually lost track of time and told me at 3 p.m. in our last store that she had a tutoring appointment she had to get back for at 4 p.m.! It takes about 30 minutes each way so I’m sure she was a little bit late! Yikes! But I’m glad we were able to get to know one another before classes start next week.

Kerry and Laura also came down for a visit this weekend. Catherine entertained them in the afternoon and then I joined the festivities after my day with Satomi. We hung out at Catherine’s place for the most part—telling stories, watching Reality Bites, and continuing with our random questions game. We also went for dinner in a new restaurant in Narao. We stumbled upon it while I was looking for the okonomiyaki place. We weren’t even sure if it was a restaurant so I kind of knocked on the door for someone to let us in. We called Blue House because we think there’s a sign outside that says Blue something-or-other and the service is wonderful. There were dishes of food sitting out on the bar counter and so all we did was point to what looked good and they dished up a plate. Another customer was so excited about the four foreign girls that just walked in that he bought us all drinks! We had a really nice wine from Germany; I was so surprised I liked it! We lavished them with as many Japanese words we could think of, but definitely used “ooishi” (delicious) the most often. We were given huge slices of home-grown watermelon for dessert and told it was “service” which I think we determined meant free of charge. The whole meal cost us just ¥1000 and we went home very satisfied and happy.

Here are the four of us eating at the "Blue House" restaurant. From left to right: Laura, Sierra, Catherine, Kerry.

Here is the woman who gave us free watermelon!

Today the girls took a bus back to Aokata by noon because this threatening typhoon is suppose to arrive at 3 p.m. When I look outside though, now at 4 p.m. there is no rain and it doesn’t even look windy. Maybe this is the calm before the storm, but I’m doubtful. There was so much build-up to the last typhoon it seems hard to believe this one is just going to appear out of nowhere and be even worse than the last one. Watch, I’m going to be shivering under the covers in just a few hours and wishing I hadn’t posted this! Wish me luck through tonight’s typhoon!

Love and birthday parties,
Sierra