Dartboard

Is it Friday already? Where did the week go? We’ve been keeping busy here in Narao, but I should at least let you in on some of the fun. My day off this week was Monday and after a wonderful breakfast of French toast, DT and I did the walking tour of Narao. We walked for hours in the beautiful weather, while I pointed out the landmarks: NiceDay, our one grocery store, the tiny police station, the ferry port, the tunnel with the huge spiders and Catherine’s apartment, the post office, the library and shrine, the gym, the onsen and more. I actually got to explore some of the places I’ve been wanting to see since I arrived. We found an amazing staircase just near the tunnel that piqued our curiosity and about 100 feet later (those are vertical feet) we arrived at this outdoor garden and pond that’s just near the onsen. I had no idea that this little passageway existed. It was great fun.

Monday nights are tennis nights and so after some dinner (homemade curry by Daniel—yum!) we went back to the gym to meet Catherine and the gang. Tennis is so much fun; it’s totally Catherine’s and my designated gossip/catch up time!! I think Daniel had fun getting out and involved in something rather than just following me around like he did all weekend at the school. That’s what’s so great about doing sports in Japan, it requires very little verbal communication, but you still get maximum interaction! Anyway, our coach, also the town dentist, Asagami, really liked Daniel. He kept saying, “Ohh! He’s better than you, Sierra!” which isn’t surprising as I’m a mess on the tennis court. I still get screwed up with the whole love, 15, 40 deuce-thing. What’s with love-love? Afterwards, Dan got invited onto the town volleyball team and we were invited out to dinner—and drinking beer—for Wednesday night!!

Tuesday I spent all day at Wakamatsu Junior High School at usual. I’m finally beginning to sustain the full day of classes and maintain my energy through the end of the school day. Last week Kondo-sensei gave me some chocolate between third and fourth period and then I had all this energy again. So this week she brought me buckets of chocolate bars, cookies, and sweets and put them on my desk after third period. I can’t believe this reputation I’m getting here! =) Keep the chocolate coming!! At lunch time I even got to play 10 minutes of soccer with some boys. I taught them MUFF and then we all took shots at the kid that lost. I worried a bit about whether the teachers would frown on my encouraging students to aim soccer balls at their peers’ backs (and also participating in the kicking), but I was the only one to hit the kid…it was just his ankle…and it wasn’t hard at all. Okay, I’m going to stop here…

Catherine came over for dinner Tuesday night and we got to experience more of DT’s cooking! I had karate at 7 p.m. and went with Hatakeyama and Koichiro (my neighbor upstairs). I was pretty tired and kept dazing off during the evening. Master Matsuzono was worried about me (apparently it got around to him that I was at the hospital last week) but I assured him I was just tired.

Wednesday was my first normal day at Nakagoto in what seemed like forever. I enjoyed the low key day at my desk, catching up on lesson plans and getting back into a routine. It was peaceful. I did my radio show broadcast with Kuwahara-sensei (a recent bride so it was all wedding and honeymoon talk!) and made a special announcement for my sister as October 6th was her birthday. I only had one class to teach and it all went pretty well.

Now I'm getting technical (only because Daniel's here)! Here's a sound file of the radio broadcast I do. It's actually only the introduction by the Japanese students, my camera stopped recording before I started my show. But this music is so cool I have to share it with you! Don't bother waiting for the whole thing to download, there's nothing significant at the end...


Ahh! The joys of lesson planning! Here is a state of Oregon listening activity that I've used in a few classes. This is dedication: I color every sheet before it goes out to the students!

I'm also doing this license plate activity. It's mostly just for fun, but I explain the differences between driving laws, procedures and license plates in Japan and America and then the students get to make their own plates. Customizing plates in Japan in unheard of so it's fun for them. Here's my plate.

That evening Asagami called to cancel our “nomikai” (drinking party) but I was relieved. DT and I had dinner and watched a movie together before I conked out early. Also tonight, I made my first cake in Japan! I thought it wasn’t possible without an oven, but I was so wrong! DT brought a ready-mix confetti cake—the just add water, oil and eggs kind. I whipped it up and put half of it in my rice cooker for 40 minutes and voila, we had a cake! We cooked the second half (significantly less now that I’d been eating the batter out of the bowl), stacked them and frosted them. We also had ready-to-eat confetti frosting from America!

Thursday at school. I was getting anxious for the weekend—not sure if I wanted it to be the weekend already or if I didn’t want the weekend to come at all. Daniel and I have been planning on going to Nagasaki City for this big festival going on this weekend. I was smart to get our JET Foil and ferry tickets reserved early, but waited really long to think about hotels. Well, I was thinking about it, but I wasn’t being very successful about booking one. I had tried and tried earlier in the week with Fukuda-sensei at Wakamatsu, but everything in my price range was taken. Then Dan found something online that seemed okay, but fell through Thursday morning. I was in a panic, I’ll admit. I had Rie working diligently at my computer to find hotels, but I was hesitant to book anything because a typhoon was supposedly coming our way this weekend. If the ferries were canceled I’d still have to pay 100% of the hotel cost—$300 just for canceling our reservation. Wasn’t looking good.

In a panic I emailed the Block Reps in Nagasaki with a desperate plea for housing for the weekend. Understanding how awkward it might make people feel to host a couple, I wasn’t expecting to be successful in my endeavor. Before I left school Thursday all I’d heard was two out of three “we’re sorry, buts” and I was feeling really down.

Catherine and Daniel came to pick me up from school at 4:15 p.m. because we were all heading up to Kamigoto for an all-island gathering at Laura’s. I wanted them to listen to a speech that one of my students has been working on for a speech contest this weekend. Her name is Shiho and I’ve been training her for weeks. We’ve worked on pronunciation, articulation, emotion, gestures, and inflection. I’ve practically got this speech memorized too, which I thought could be a reason to have some other English speakers hear it. I was hardly capable of reacting like a first-time listener. Shiho was really brave and gave her little speech to the three of us. I was so proud of her I wanted to cry! Catherine and Daniel gave just the right amount of criticism and encouragement and sent her off! Good luck Shiho!!

In the North we went to Aqua Blue, the gym and what’s becoming the Kamigoto JET hangout spot. We met Kerry there (apparently Yuka was just upstairs using the pool too) and worked out before dinner. Oh! I didn’t even mention—Catherine got a car! She got it…it’s proper name: “The Terminator” on Wednesday after school and so she made her first trip up to the North tonight with us. I’m not sure whether to say it’s a good thing we were in the car or if I wished we hadn’t been. Well, Catherine can only become a better driver with practice, right? (Good luck, Terminator!)

Dinner with the gang was great as usual. The theme was “Italian” so we had pasta and pizza AND CAKE! Yes, I brought my cake for dessert and I think it was a hit! I was quite proud of my rice-cooker cake! I’m officially in charge of making all birthday cakes on the island now! Blaine and his wife, Sachio, and daughter, Gwen, 16 months, were there also. Families always add a new element and it was very enjoyable. Thanks Laura for providing these photos!!

Me and the guest of honor!!!

Yuka and Kerry are smily!

Catherine's not happy about something!! I don't know what!!

Here's Blaine and his daughter Gwen.

Friday morning I woke up and had Grapenuts for breakfast(!), thanks to a wonderful package that arrived from Decatur last night! My college friends Nina and Katie (absolute saints!!) sent me a huge birthday/care package with tons of comfort food and reading material! I couldn’t believe this package—it was enormous and very heavy too! Not a cheap care package to send! I have been begging Daniel to let me eat Grapenuts for every meal since it’s arrived! Thank you so much girls!! You treat me too well!

Sierra's in love...with her Grapenuts too!

The amazing package from Nina and Katie in Georgia! I like the way that Southern hospitality is catching on!

I suppose this is where my luck began to turn. Another kind and generous person came into my life! A lifesaver came along! An Irish ALT, Noelle, emailed and offered us her place in Nagasaki for the weekend. She isn’t just letting us stay with her, she’s leaving for the weekend and is giving us the key to apartment! I can’t believe our good fortune. It’s really kind for someone to offer a bed to complete strangers but to entrust us with her home for an entire weekend while she’s away. I couldn’t believe it! But it’s like a huge weight as been lifted off my shoulders! I don’t have to worry about the cost or finding a hotel. We just get to enjoy the city and come and go as we please. I need to think of something to leave for Noelle as a thank you.

As school I had only one class again today. It was Tomonaga-sensei and the subject was fat Americans. Why are we so overweight? Well, I had a hard time with this because I don’t feel many west coasters, especially Oregonians, are overweight, but I know that’s not so for the rest of America. I said if there was a way to break up America into regions it would be the Midwesterners fault. But anyway, we had a good discussion about bread vs. rice and what I eat at home. The students in this class are third years so have pretty good level of English.

Oh! And several students came to tell me that they passed their exams and have jobs after graduation. The really brave students will tell me where they are working, for what company and what they manufacture. I can’t believe these little 17- and 18-year-olds are going off into the world to start their lives. They seem too small.

Also today I had an excellent Japanese-language crash course with Yamanaka-san in the career center. She’s not busy during classes and speaks perfect English so she’s a great tutor. We practiced some verbs and colors today. I feel like with some structure—going to visit her for an hour everyday—I will be able to make more progress in my Japanese study.

I had karate tonight and Daniel came to watch and take pictures. Master Matsuzono wasn’t there, which was too bad, but there will be other opportunities for us to meet him. I didn’t practice very well tonight—I think I was nervous having someone observe me. But when Daniel ran to a vending machine to get me some water, I had to perform in front of the entire school and I did much better than I was doing in practice. I do my best when you’re not looking!

This is a jodan, an upper block!

Punching!

Standing broad!

Tonight, we have to pack up and prepare for our weekend on the mainland. We leave tomorrow at 8:30 a.m.! Oh! And by the way, you have to check out this website. I haven’t laughed so hard in a really, really long time!

Love, Sierra

P.S Have a to share a photo of Rora's true love in Japan. He will be forever remembered as SSB. He's the one in blue stripes. Girl, I know you read this: Get talking to him!!!

Today was culture day and the BIG DAY of my taiko performance. To be honest, I'm glad it's finally over. Practice was really stressful and time consuming and I just want to spend every second with Daniel now. I'm really happy that I got to take part in this cultural event, and I might even be interested in doing it again next year, but as for now, I'm relieved.

So, as I said before, now that DT's here I won't be writing as much, but I'll still try to post pictures regularly...

Love, Sierra

The opening performance. This is the best picture Daniel could get because it was so dark, but hopefully there will be others soon. I am on the far left--the tall one!

There were a series of speeches, plays, music performances, movies and dances after our drumming. Some pictures from those...

Here is the band, a small, but enthusiastic group.

Here's a student pretending to be drunk in a play about baseball. I didn't really understand much of it, but I thought this was amusing.

A group of students singing karaoke and dancing. This guy's wearing a horse-head?!?! I didn't know what to think of that!

Then there was a modern day rendition of Romeo and Juliet. I hope it was modern day because there were cell phones involved.

Juliet from her balcony.

The group that won the dance competition at the Sports Fiesta yesterday got to perform again today in the gym. I must say they looked much better today.

Yes, those guys have pompoms.

The crowd watching the dancers...

After lunch I got changed into the yukata that Rie gave me for my birthday. She is on my right, Satomi on my left.

Daniel and me in my yukata (summer kimono).

Walking down the hallway (and showing off my bow in the back).

We got to participate in a tea ceremony too. It killed Daniel's and my legs (sitting with them tucked under us) but the ceremony was beautiful. Here are a couple men who went after us.

There was also a bunch of student artwork on display in the gym. Here are some of my favorite pieces.

These two pieces are pencil drawings and they are so good. I can recognize the students in the drawings from classes--it is amazing.

I also liked this display from the home ec class. All the sugar that is in the soft drinks, sports drinks, coffees and juices here!

Then I ran around and got pictures with some of my favorite people...
Here's Hatakeyama and me.

And the school nurse...I can't remember her name right now, but she is really sweet.

One of my favorite students, Maya. She is the captain of the volleyball team and helped me tremendously when I was playing with them this summer. She is also in my homeroom class and was subleader at the Sports Fiesta yesterday.

Here are the girls who played taiko with me. They were on the same type of drum as I was and helped me so much when I was having trouble.

My friends the Yamanakas, who I had over for dinner the night I forgot about them. Aren't they the cutest couple ever?? I just found out that they will be trying for their first baby this spring!!