Dartboard

Time has flown so quickly! I have so many stories and pictures to share, but no time to post. Sorry this is late!

Dan and I are participating in a Narao volleyball tournament. I was asked to be on the Nakagoto teacher’s team, but it must also be a dentist team because Asagami and others are on it. Asagami is our Monday night tennis coach, Narao’s dentist and unofficial Monster Man Triathlon recruiter. He really likes Americans and so invited Dan to be on our volleyball team too. Wednesday was our first game and the opening ceremony. I’m not sure how it happened, but I also had to give a short speech in the ceremony. I raised my right hand and yelled, “Sensei, katemo, moketemo, volleyball o, something-something-shitsureishimasu. 13th of October, Sierra Kenney.” I was really embarrassed and had to use a cheat sheet to memorize it. Asagami only told me 30 minutes before what I had to say. Needless to say, we won our first game (against Catherine’s team, although she wasn’t there and I didn’t know it at the time) and Asagami invited us out to have some drinks. It was great fun.

Tonight (Friday), I had karate to go to while DT opted for another volleyball game with Asagami!! Koichiro, my neighbor and I drove together and practiced our English/Japanese. He was really shy speaking English before Dan came, but something about DT makes him more comfortable and we are finally getting to know each other. Anyway—K arate: I take my next belt test next Friday. Hopefully I’ll be a green belt soon! That only puts purple and brown between me and a black belt! Well, that’s at least a couple years down the road, but they say I’m a natural! I love karate! I was also suppose to …………. tonight, but instead we worked on my kicking and punching technique. I can kick hard, but kicking accurately is a lot harder. Poor Koichiro had to hold the bag for my while I had three master surrounding me and showing me how to aggressively step forward as I punch.

“No—it's not a leap forward,” they show me through hand motions and demonstrating. “You must step forward.”

More demonstrations: “Turn your foot in and down when you kick.”

“Don’t forget to swing your leg back in after the blow.”

They hand me some gloves. “But they’re wet inside,” I start. They wave my comment away. “Punch straight, leading with your first two knuckles.”

So, I could go on forever, but the night went on and so will I. I got home at 10:30 and DT wasn’t back from his 7:30 volleyball game yet, so I was suspicious. I got a phone call from him a few minutes later and he was calling from a restaurant with Asagami and some volleyball friends. He invited me to come down and experience “Friday Night Feber” with them. (There’s no “v” sound in Japanese!! It’s so cute!) I grabbed Koichiro and we went down together. Dan was biting off fish heads and drinking shoshu so I knew they had converted him. I ordered my usual cocktail (bright green this time!) and indulged in a fillet of white fish.

Dan about to eat an entire fish. Asagami simling proudly in the background. How he does it, I don’t know. I think the shochu has something to do with it.

From left to right: Daniel, Asagami, (I don’t know his name, but he plays volleyball with us), and Koichiro.

As the evening wore on, I inevitably had to arm wrestle a man or two. It wouldn’t be a real party if I didn’t roll of my sleeves at least once. I arm wrestled Dan, one of our volleyball players—don’t know his name and Koichiro. Both Japanese guys beat me. I think they’ve had enough of this being beaten by a n American. I must say I put up quite a fight with Koichiro though. I think he was surprised because we went back and forth a few seconds.

The winners of my matches also battled it out.

Asagami kept yelling “It’s Friday Night Feber!” and telling me it was my duty to 1. drink more 2. bite off fish heads 3. this, that, whatever he deemed appropriate. I gave Asagami a shot glass from Oregon for him to pour his shochu in. It’s the least I can do after he gave Daniel a fifth of Hennessy after Wednesday and pays for all these outings!

Later, the vollyball man’s daughter came also. She graduated from Nakagoto High School a couple years ago and works in the kitchen at Nice Day in Narao. Her name is Ai and what impresses me most about her is that she’s not too shy. A lot of Japanese people my age are too shy to even look at me, much less try talking to me, but Ai communicated with us even if only a little. It was fun!

We had the laughing owner take this picture of all of us. From left to right. Sierra, Ai, Daniel, Asagami, volleyball man, Koichiro (and he wasn't even drinking!).

I'll try to post more soon!
Love, Sierra

I know I keep being a few days (or several days) late on these entries, but we’ve been really busy lately. (So is the story of my life…) On Tuesday I didn’t have to go into work until 1:30! I didn’t have any classes to teach in the morning so my teachers told me to come in late. I was really excited—that’d never happen at the high school! So, Daniel and I decided to teach the two classes in the afternoon together, since it was just a partial day. We split the classes into teams, DT was captain of the boys team and I the captain of the girls. We played English games and ended with musical chairs. The kids were so excited to have Dan there—they were jumping, screaming, running, hiding, shaking his hand, and basically freaking out. I really adore these kids—especially the first years. They’re so small!

Here are some pictures and movies from the day.

Dan got in on the musical chairs too. They students didn’t dare take a chair from him though, so he had a hard time getting “out” in the second game. He didn’t want to be the winner, but they students wouldn’t let him loose either.

A movie of musical chairs.

The kids gathering in the hallway outside the classrooms. This is right after they did the cleaning.

A poster in the hallway. I just love it!

A movie of some third years singing this year’s Olympic theme song. I’ve heard this song non-stop since I arrived.

And tonight Daniel made dinner…again! He’s been so great about cooking every night!

That’s all for this posting.
Love, Sierra

Some pictures from friends back home. This is Anna and some friends at her birthday party a few weeks ago.

This is Casey with some friends in Las Vegas. Casey is the hot one in the stripes on the left!!

A birthday card and stickers from my Aunt Lynne in Oregon!

Monday evening before dinner and tennis I decided to take Daniel up to Narao’s Observation Tower (and I brought my camera this time). Here are the pictures from that trip.

The sun setting over the islands just southwest.

Thinking, “This is my home!”

DT peering out into the sunset.

This is the JET Foil pulling out of Narao Port. I think it was bound for Fukue.

The sunshine makes us laugh.

Then we moved down to the car park and took more pictures.

This weekend Daniel and I went to the mainland!! Nagasaki’s biggest festival of the year (Kunchi Festival) was this weekend, but mostly we just wanted to get off the island and let Dan see a bigger Japanese city. It’s about the size of Portland—400,000 people—but it seems pretty small because we kept running into each people we know.

We left on the 9:30 a.m. ferry Saturday and arrived in Nagasaki around 12:15 p.m. We were suppose to take the JET Foil (a faster ferry) but I forgot to get money out for our tickets on Friday, and ATMs don’t open until 9 a.m. Saturdays (yeah, ATMs have hours here and they’re terribly inconvenient too). So, at 9 a.m. I raced to get money for the ferry and we left at 9:30 a.m. We ended up saving about ¥7200 ($70) because of my little mistake though, so we were quite happy.

Dan marveling at the beer vending machine on the ferry!

When we arrived in Nagasaki, we met Noelle—Oh, the wonderful Noelle!—for the house keys and directions. We saw a little of a Kunchi parade, but most importantly learned Thursday, Friday and Saturday are when the real activities occur. Oh well! There’s always next year!

Noelle and me! I was so happy to see her!

The part of a parade we did get to see.

We had a wonderful Indian lunch with Noelle and the Kamigoto girls. I just can’t get enough foreign food when I go into the city! Well, of course, the nan is what draws me to the Indian places.

Kerry, Sierra and Daniel enjoying our meals.

Our HOT food. DT likes it HOT! Photo from Laura, thank you!

From left to right: Yuka, Laura, Noelle, Daniel, Sierra, Kerry.

Afterwards DT and I set off to find our way to Noelle’s apartment in Ishigami-machi. On the way we saw Catherine, Peter, and some Nagasaki JETs hanging out at the food stands. That's when I had to indulge in a strawberry and chocolate crepe, but was a bit disappointed by the frozen strawberries… =(

The food stands and people…oh, the people. It was great to be in a crowded place.

Care for some squid on a stick?

Despite good directions we hastily took the wrong bus and had to do a bit of walking and searching and wondering. I’ve honed my “…doka desu ka?” (“Where is…?”) skills and with the help of three or four Japanese senior citizens we found our way. Noelle’s apartment is really cute. It’s the perfect one-person loft apartment with nice hardwood floors and a balcony. It’s pretty small compared to our places on the island, but I bet for most of Japan it’s average. We really enjoyed our stay here!

Noelle’s cute apartment.

DT took a picture of me from the loft.

Later that night Dan and I were walking down the street trying to find a place to eat and a car pulled up beside us and someone yelled my name! A teacher from Wakamatsu Jr. High, Kyoko Fukuda, who is from Nagasaki, saw the two of us and pulled over. It was so cool! We got in her car and we mentioned that we were going out to eat some dinner. She had already eaten, but she dropped us off at Jolly Pasta and gave us her phone number for later that evening. We had a fondue appetizer, a pizza dinner—spotted some other gaijin (foreigners) in the restaurant—and for an unbeatable price we fixed our cheese cravings.

A picture of Nagasaki city. DT just thought this was beautiful. I agree!

We decided to walk back to the apartment from Jolly Pasta because it was such a nice night and on the way we saw this playground with a really fun swing. Daniel and I, of course, had to go down and take a ride on it. (This is a picture of the park I took later in Sunday. You can’t quite see, but the swing is one of those ones that uses gravity to pull you around in a loop.)

On Sunday Daniel and I did the tourist-thing in Nagasaki. All morning we walked around the Peace Park and memorial sites for the Atomic Bomb that was dropped August 9th. We visited Urikami Church and saw a small brick wall and two columns—all that was left of the original church after the bombing. Noelle lives not to far from the original church bell that was blown off the church and has been left where it landed as it’s own small memorial. We saw the hypocenter where the bomb was dropped. We spent time in the museum gift shop looking at books, pictures and postcards. It was a quiet and humbling morning—I felt guilty just being an American in Nagasaki, looking at all the horrible effects of nuclear weapons.

What was left of Urikami Church: a small brick wall and two columns.

The church bell in it’s landing place after the atomic bomb leveled the church killing 8-9 parisioners.

The hypocenter. A very simple, yet powerful, memorial.

Dan and I walking up to the Peace Park.

Me standing in front of a fountain in the park.

A memorial statue built in 1955 by Seibo Kitamura. The right hand points to the Atomic Bomb, the left hand to peace, and the face “prays deeply for the victims of war.”

Paper cranes are a symbol of peace in Japan. To the left and right of the statue and fountain there are these small structures which hold thousands—maybe millions—of paper cranes brought by people all over Japan.

Me walking around the fountain around the statue.

Daniel at the fountain.

Finally, the last picture from the Peace Park. This park used to be the location for the Nagasaki jail and Justice Department. (Not entirely sure of the Justice Department, but I think I read that somewhere.) The jail was completely leveled in the bombing killing at 300+ prisoners and guards. All that remained was the brick foundation in the ground.

In the afternoon we decided to go to Amu Plaza (also Nagasaki Station where the JR trains comes in) to check out the shopping and get some lunch. We saw Catherine and her supervisor, Eiko, getting a make-over together in the beauty department. We had ramen for lunch and considered seeing a movie, but at $18 a pop, quickly ruled that out. It was fun to go window shopping and see what is available in my closest city—in case I do ever need to come shopping for something particular here.

Sunday evening we decided to go downtown for dinner. We hopped a bus from Noelle’s apartment and waited just one stop too many to get off. We thought we knew where we were and we tried walking in the direction we thought downtown was, but we just ended up getting further and further away from anything that looked like it might be serving dinner. We stopped into a few places to have a look at the menu, but I couldn’t do my usual deciphering through katakana and hiragana.

Along the way, we met Erin, a SEA (Sports Education-something-or-other, also a JET participant, but not the usual ALT, English teacher-type) who teaches basketball. We had seen her in Jolly Pasta last night with some other gaijin. Erin just arrived in Nagasaki, was also lost, and was trying to do the orientation thing on her own. In retrospect I wish he had gotten her email address or something and I would have invited her out to the island sometime.

So, after what felt like hours of walking, we were getting hungry and tired. We agreed to walk one more block, just up to the tram stop were we’d attempt to take a trolley back to something familiar when what to our wondering eyes appeared: A Royal Host!! It’s like a Japanese Denny’s. I’d never heard of it before, but just looking inside the window told me all I needed to know. Picture menus, Western food, and breakfast for dinner! I ordered an interesting mix of foods, but it was what I was craving so it worked for me!

Sierra eating pancakes and tacos for dinner at Royal Host!

After dinner we realized we were at the end of the tram line—up in the south or east hills of Nagasaki. We took a trolley back down to Amu Plaza, but weren’t quite ready to head home so we continued to walk around and stopped outside “The Crazy Horse.” What I noticed first, besides the English name, was “live music” posted on the door. It looked interesting so we popped quickly just to see what it was about. It was a small place and beside the four German-speaking men in the corner we were the only people there. We ordered some drinks and started some broken half-English, half-Japanese conversation with the owner. He said in just a few minutes they would play some music. It turned out to be a wonderful evening with musicians coming in and out the door with their guitars and taking their turns playing songs. After the Germans left we appeared to be the only paying customers. Everyone else there was somehow participating in this spontaneous open-mic event. We heard the Beatles’ “Let It Be”, “Mr. Bojangles,” James Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend,” John Denver’s “Country Road” and many more great sing-alongs from my parent’s era. We had a great time.

This guy had a great voice and sang some of the best songs.

We thought the guy with the glasses might have been blind, but later we thought we saw him riding a bike, so maybe not…?

On the way home we ran into Fukuda-sensei again. She was out drinking with four young guys and seemed to be really embarrassed that I’d see her out having fun. One of the guys she was with was drunk enough to speak (or yell) English with us and it made us laugh a lot. Fukuda did all she could to keep the guys away from us, but we just thought it was funny.

On Monday we got up, packed up and straightened up Noelle’s apartment as best we could. Headed to Amu Plaza for Japanese pastries for breakfast (they really do know how to make delicious pastries in Japan, but unfortunately—or thankfully—I haven’t found where they do it on my island. I guess I still need to get to that cake shop Catherine raves about in Narao, maybe they have breads there too.

We spent the morning shopping for foreign groceries in You Me Saito, a department store near the port. DT’s been craving beans for Mexican and I’ve got many comfort foods on my wish-list. I bought Nutella, Quaker oatmeal, wheat flour, cheddar cheese, hot chocolate mix, among other things. We met the Kamigoto girls again—also doing some shopping before the trip home—and again at the McDonald’s at lunchtime. Really, fast food isn’t that appealing at home (although my sister would dispute this based on how I got into the habit of asking, “Aren’t you hungry?” and singing “Burgerville, Burgerville” enticingly after yoga class every week) but there’s something about French fries, chicken nuggets and barbecue sauce that’s so familiar and comforting after weeks of Japanese and Japanized-western foods. I think even Daniel’s beginning to realize that sometimes you just want sour cream, cheese and shells with your tacos. We boarded the ferry at 12:10 and enjoyed a long catching up with Kerry on the way home.

Our last meal at Makudonurudo! Photo by Laura-thanks!!

Love,
Sierra (and Daniel)