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Today we went to the Whale and Udon Festival in Arikawa. We got to try whale meat (but all the weirdest parts so it wasn’t very good) and ate udon soup. In fact, I sent a package of udon and it’s flying fish soup home with Daniel so my family will be able to try it soon too!

The festivities!

Making udon by hand!

Whale meat. It’s really expensive.

The highlight of this festival is watching the small kids in the town put on raingear and jump into a large pool of water and try to catch fish with their bare hands. The fish they catch are killed right in front of them and shoved into a plastic bag to be taken home for dinner. There’s some controversy among ALTs (well, mostly Peter, I think) about this festival. I’m not going to get into that because I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it myself, but I thought I should as least mention it unless you’re thinking it’s terribly inhumane or something.

The kids lining up for a chance to catch fish.

Children catching fish in the pool.

The “before” picture. I’ll spare the vegans and vegetarians the “after” picture. But if you’re going to eat meat, you know the animal has to die before you eat it. This is actually a quick death.

Restocking the pool.

We left the festival around 1 p.m. when it was getting quite warm and we felt like we’d seen all we needed to see. The smell of our whale organs (or whatever they were) were kind of getting to us. Yuka, you were a great host—thank you for having us! We carefully got back on our bikes for our trek back to Aokata. Asagami had agreed to meet us at AquaBlue with his van and drive us and our bikes back to Narao. My butt was just in too bad a shape to make the 30 kilometers back. Asagami is a saint for coming to picking us up!!

We also met some students from Wakamatsu Junior High School in AqueBlue and they asked us to do purikura with them. Purikura are those small colorful stickers with your picture and designs on them. I had wanted to do purikura with DT in Nagasaki, but honestly it’s so complicated we couldn’t figure it out! With these girls help we were able to get our stickers after all!

Four different designs.

And, as I said, it was just one party after the next. On Sunday night we invited Asagami, the Hatakeyama’s, and Koichiro over for dinner at our house. It was a small goodbye dinner for Daniel’s last night in Narao. We put together a random bunch of things: pasta, cold corn and bean salad, sopias (those open Spanish tacos with refried beans and cheese), nuts and dried fruit, cake, and edamame of course! Asagami also ordered a platter of sushi and sashimi and so we had plenty of food.

I can’t believe he’s leaving tomorrow! I will miss you so much DT!!!
Love, Sierra

What a weekend! It was quite the farewell weekend for Daniel, we just didn’t stop going to party after party after party. Friday night after karate Asagami called again and asked if we’d go out for drinks. I was really exhausted and even getting up to take a shower made me groan, but while I was up and showering I decided that I should go. (Asagami’s little voice in my head, “It’s your duty.”) We went to a small bar in downtown Narao where there were a few drunk men doing karaoke and having fun. Asagami ordered snacky foods for us and I realized just how hungry I was. I ate lots of edamame, crackers, chocolate, cold pasta, and squid jerky.

After a little while the karaoke-ing patrons asked to join us and we said ok. I scooted over on the bench to make room for them and as I turned my head back to face them there were two puckered lips coming right toward me. I quickly dodged the kiss and almost jumped in Daniel’s lap. The rest of the night I found myself leaning more and more into Dan as this guy kept inching my way on the bench. He was totally harmless, just drunk, but nonetheless I didn’t want him sitting on top of me. He kept ranting about “Japanese heart” and trying to hold Daniel’s hand. I eventually just got too tired to put up with it anymore we decided to call it a night.

I got to sleep in on Saturday and woke up craving a French toast breakfast. We cleaned up the apartment a bit, made a cake for dinner at Laura’s, and packed for our weekend bike ride to the north. We had to go down to Asagami’s office at noon to pick up the bikes. We were a little late so we had to sprint down to Narao and got there in about 10 minutes—luckily it’s all downhill or flat. Asagami adjusted our seats, we figured out the gears and got situated for the ride back to my apartment. With this bike (a real racing bike) I was able to get a fair way up the hill to my apartment before getting off and walking. I was really exhausted and couldn’t stop thinking, “And this is only a tiny part of the entire trip.” We dropped the cake off at Catherine’s who was taking it up north by car for us and left around 2:45 p.m.

The ride was really nice for the first hour, then the aching butt-bones became a reality and my arms were really sore from leaning so far over the handles. My legs were doing great, but I was just so uncomfortable sitting on the narrow men’s seat, but it was a trade-off between that or putting all my weight in my arms. My shoulders were cramping and a head-wind started picking up during the second half the trip. I felt like I was falling apart, but in all the unexpected places. We just took it really slow and coasted whenever possible.

We made it to Aokata and stopped into AquaBlue, the gym, for a break from the cold. Dan spotted soft serve ice cream and so we had to treat ourselves to some! After sitting down, of course, I was not looking forward to the steep climb over to Urakura. We ended up walking most of the way up anyway. In Urakura we met Laura and Kerry coming back from the beach and Kerry offered to pick us up at Yuka’s place before our dinner at Laura’s. Yeah! We didn’t have to bike or walk! God bless you, Kerry!

It was such a happy day when we arrived at Yuka’s place in Arikawa. I wanted to do nothing but sit drinking something warm and that’s exactly what we did. In an attempt to pack light I brought only shorts and a T-shirt, but Yuka lent me some warm clothes—actually, they were Kerry’s predecessor’s clothes, but they were great to climb into.

We all met at Laura’s apartment at 6:30 p.m. and had dinner before our nomihoudai (all-you-can-drink) at George’s bar. We got taxi’s to George’s just before 9 p.m. and then I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. (Actually I toned them down a bit. Peter if you still want that picture you’ll have to get it from me because I can’t post it on my website! My family looks at this!)

Here’s the bar.

And the owner, George.

Peter and Catherine.

Yuka and Miles

Kerry, Catherine, Paul and I. It’s a scandalous pictures, but completely a setup!

Here is George doing a magic trick where we punches a pen though a ¥2000, but then there’s no hole! It’s pretty amazing, huh?

Here are Yuka and Laura at the bar, Yuka was being pimped out by George at this point.

Found this cute picture of DT and I on Laura's website! Thank you!

The crew went out to karaoke afterwards, but DT and I were pretty tired after that bike ride so we walked back to Yuka’s place and went to bed.

Love, Sierra

How nice to have a busy day. I teach three classes and have a radio broadcast on Fridays so the day usually goes by quickly. I didn’t even have time to study Japanese with Yamanaka-san today. I made up fliers for my children’s English Night and passed them out today. I’m going to start an English Night for the children of the teachers at Nakagoto HS. It’ll be every other Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. for just an hour or so. My first “class” will be next week and I'm hoping it stays low key. I have only planned on bingo for the first night and in the future want to sing songs, practice vocabulary and hang out. It’s going to be at my apartment this week, but I would like to change locations each time. Hatakeyama’s going to host next time—he’s really excited about this idea. The parents are going to come too which would just be too much traffic in my apartment every week.

Daniel downloaded the newest episode of Lost and so we settled down to watch it as soon as I got home. We had a quick dinner before going out to meet Asagami and look at our bikes for our weekend ride to Arikawa. I didn’t even tell you—DT and I are going to bike to Arikawa (about 30 kilometers one way) tomorrow and return on Sunday after the Kujiradon Festival. Catherine has lent us her bike and Asagami has gotten a bike from a friend in Wakamatsu for me to use.

And finally, what you’ve all been waiting for… The results of the karate test!

Well, I actually don’t find out until next week, but Hatakeyama unofficially told me that everyone passed the test! I am a karate green belt! I was a little bit nervous during the test because I haven’t been practicing for as long as any of the others, but Matsuzono-sensei wouldn’t have recommended I take the test unless I was ready. I felt like he was watching me the whole time, but I tried to ignore it and do my best. Daniel told me afterward that I was one of the more solid testers (there were six of us in all). Green is the sixth level out of ten (adults get to skip the first five) and it takes about 2 years to complete if I’m diligent and go to practice twice a week.

Hatakeyama got his black belt tonight too. He had to break one tile with his fist and three tiles with the side of his hand as well as do his kata. Of course, once he started punching tiles, everyone wanted to do it so we got to see a couple brave souls damage their hands. That’s when I learned the meaning of “itai” “It hurts!” Then, they pulled out a cinder block and decided Use-sensei, who is in charge of Tuesday night’s dojo, is going to do a “sofu” (side kick) to break it. Well, he didn’t manage, but I think he could have if it had been on something stable rather than in the hand of four grown men which tend to give more easily.

Use-sensei attempting to cut a cinderblock in half with a side kick. That’s Matsuzono-sensei, the most visible guy holding the cinderblock.

Then, after the kids went home I got to spar for the first time. I was really bad at first because I'm hesitant to kick or punch anyone as hard as I actually can. I really don’t want to hurt anyone. But Daniel—and everyone else for that matter—was cheering me on and telling me “daijobu” “It’s okay!” Finally Daniel said I couldn’t win unless I really kicked at my true strength because I was slowing myself down. I started kicking harder and really focusing on punching or kicking where Matsuzono-sensei wasn’t expecting. It was really exciting once I was brave enough to stop pretending. I never did kick really really hard, but I think once I realize that’s the point of sparring I’m sure I will get better. I just wouldn’t want someone to attack me—even if I’m wearing padding—so I don’t want to attack him either.

Love,
Sierra

Wow. Yesterday I really didn’t want to go to work. It looked like the typhoon was coming so I grudgingly got ready for work, hoping for a call saying not to come in. But I never got that call and had to go in. I was a real curmudgeon about it too. Not that I showed it to any of my teachers or staff—they all had to come in too, but I was feeling like a royal grump on the inside.

Then, I was told that I couldn’t wear my scarf inside the building. Japanese custom. I was like, “Huh? Are you kidding me?” This isn’t like a real wintery scarf or anything, it’s a black prashmina scarf that could easily pass as a shawl. I was told the students aren’t allowed to wear scarves (because it’s a deviation from the uniform) and so teachers can’t either. But students can’t wear jewelry, watches, or anything that is not part of the school uniform. And besides, I’m not a student!! I understand and cooperate with many things in the Japanese workplace: not wearing shirts that show my back when I bend down, not revealing too much of my chest/neck, changing my shoes twelve times a day, but not allowing a scarf? Give me a break! I decided not to fight this battle today though. I had bigger fish to fry.

Things looked up a bit when I asked Hatakeyama about Tuesday being a nenkyu/paid vacation day instead of sick day. I was prepared to battle it out with him if need be, but it wasn’t necessary. As soon as I mentioned it he told me that he was starting the paper work for a sick day and could I just inkan here? I felt so much better.

Had some good classes Satomi and Tomonaga. Thought a lot about Daniel being home in this typhoon—wishing I was there snuggled up in the futon, which is exactly what we did when I did get home. We’re both sick now and just needing to rest and watch more American TV. We had hot dogs with sauerkraut for dinner! Yum!

Today (Thursday) I had students begin their letter writing to Hilhi students (my old high school in Oregon). This is class 2-1A, but since it is also my only class for the day I read magazines for the entire morning. Nina and Katie sent me “O” the Oprah magazine and I read it cover to cover today. I also talked with some co-workers that I never speak to: Takeshima-sensei and Yamaguchi-san. We were eating boiled sweet potatoes that Kuwahara-sensei brought in and they started teaching how to say potato and all the different types in Japanese. I also found out that this weekend is the Kujiradon Festival in Arikawa. It is to celebrate whale hunting and udon-noodle making in the community, so I’ve asked the other ALTs if they want to go see it Sunday.

Some students writing their letters to American high school students. This is Keisuke.

Mizuho

Kanako

Tonight we had dinner at Shingo’s apartment. Shingo is Catherine’s kendo teacher and also teaches math at Narao Elementary School. He has a cute little apartment just a 5 minute walk from Catherine’s place, so we walked over together. Shingo is from Fukue, went to school in Fukuoka and studied architecture and design. He showed us pictures of sculptures he’s made and sculptures he likes. He wants to design a children’s park someday. Shingo was very interested in our lives, our schedules, and what we eat. I feel like he’s really interested in getting to know us. It was awesome.

Had to get a picture of the moon over Narao. The moon has been gorgeous lately, but I’m not sure these pictures really demonstrate that.

Here are the four of us: Shingo, Sierra, Daniel and Catherine.

Tempura dinner.

For dinner we had tempura. It was really fun, expect Shingo spent most of the evening preparing food in the kitchen while we battered and boiled our meats and vegetables. He was really generous and we just loved spending the evening with him. I’ve been wanting to learn how to make tempura for a while now so I’m really glad we did this. After dinner as I was admiring and taking pictures of his beautiful paper lanterns/lamp shades that were designed by the famous Japanese-American artist Osamu Noguchi, Shingo opened one of his top shelves and pulled out another paper lantern by the same artist.

The most striking piece of furniture for sure. I want to buy my own lantern like this one!

The ceiling lamp.

‘I present this to you,” he said and gave me a small, rectangle lamp shade for my own apartment. I immediately realized I should have been more careful about my admiring. He insisted that he didn't have room for it in his apartment and so I asked if I should just borrow it for the year, but he wants me to have it—take it back to America and enjoy it forever. This is the first time he’s really met me and he’s giving me a designer lamp shade that I’m guessing is pretty expensive. When I asked him how I could repay him, he surprised me with his answer. Blushing, he asked if he could try some American cereal sometime. I was so excited that he actually answered my question instead of giving me a “no, no, you don’t have to give me anything in return” response. I have a ton of cereal and would love to give him something that he actually wants instead of some cheesy stereotypical gift that wouldn’t have any meaning. I’m really happy to give him the Grape-Nuts experience, but I’ve also got Honey Bunches of Oats as a back up in case.

The lamp he gave me, hanging in my living room.

It was pretty late when we left, but it was a wonderful evening. I only hope that once Daniel leaves we still will be able to hang out with him (as it is inappropriate for young men and women to be alone together). Catherine’s agreed to do dinner at hers next time.

On the walk home we found a froggie in the driveway! Kazuma tells me they are going to get bigger during the rainy season, start hanging out on the highway and I’ll have to hit them when I’m driving.

Also, I’m becoming familiar with some of the alley cats in my neighborhood. This one was meowing at us and begging for food, but I never feed them or they'll never leave me alone.

Tomorrow is my karate green-belt test! Wish me luck!
Love, Sierra

A picture of Harald’s cousins, Aina and Pia in Norway. They are the most adorable girls ever! I’m sure their hats and sweaters were knitted by a family member: Laila, Heidi or Julie. I want to go back to Norway again soon!

A picture of my mom’s pencil art framed. I believe our friend Gavin framed them and gave them to my sister, Joelle, for her birthday, although I could have those facts wrong.

(I've added some more pictures here since posting this. Scroll down to see!)

Today I am taking a “sick day.” I’ve had a cold and cough for a couple of days and this morning when I went into the junior high they took my temp and I also have a fever so they sent me home. I have to take nenkyu (paid vacation days) for this which angered me so much, but at least I also get to spend the day lounging around the apartment with Daniel. We’ve been downloading TV shows from the internet and have been watching American television for the entire morning! =) We’ve watched four episodes of Joey and Lost, one Six Feet Under, and one Sledge Hammer (a horrible show DT used to watch in the 80s) Now I'm downloading Fahrenheit 911 and Whose Line Is It Anyway? to watch later this week!

Dan’s trip here has had an “American” theme! It seems appropriate enough—but two food deliveries have come since his arrival and so I have all the foods I miss: cereals, beans, cheese, whole grain breads, berries (I bought canned Oregon blackberries!) and more! Dan also taught me how to download TV that I’ve been missing, and I get to speak English all day! It’s so great!

Yesterday (Monday) I was really miserable at work so at the Junior High they gave me a project of drawing/coloring a cheesesteak, fries and salad. They asked me to make a complaint dialogue so I said something like, “Excuse me waiter, this is a salad. I ordered a cheesesteak and fries.” Then I paid the consequences of using a word like “cheesesteak” in Japan and had to draw one out for the kids. But, hey, it made the last two hours of work fly by and I really impressed them with my coloring! Maybe they believe my mother is an artist now!

My cheesesteak and fries...

...and a salad.

Monday night I went to a volleyball game alone because Daniel’s getting really sick and someone form America had to represent! We’ve won all three games now! Anna, can I get a whoop, whoop? And the best part of all, was that Ai came to the game. She’s the girl I met at Friday Night Feber last week. It was like being reunited with a best friend! She came right up to me and sat down and started talking! She wasn’t shy at all! I felt like I had a friend—a real Japanese friend! We used both English and Japanese, which made me absolutely glow, and talked for a really long time. I’m so excited I want to invite her over for a slumber party and paint our fingernails and stuff. I even pinned a number on her back so that she could play in the games too. …I’m so excited at the possibility of meeting someone Japanese, outside of school, that’s my age, to hang out with sometime. I didn’t even realize how much I was craving that until I typed it in this silly blog! Interesting what we can learn about ourselves!!

Here are some of my teammates.

I sat out the second game because I was playing poorly. Here’s my team ready to spike!

Our opponents! Their team name is “mousetrap” but we still managed to win!

Catherine’s team was also playing a game on the other court. On the far left, there she is looking prepared!

Getting back to today: In the afternoon I was feeling much better and had to make a trip to the P.O. to pay a bill. Getting out of the apartment felt really great so I decided I needed to buy a blender. DT and I bundled up and made the drive up north to go shopping. We went to the Discount Store, a “Do-It-Yourself” store and Maru, a grocery store that seems to have a good selection of international foods. We ended up buying a lot more than we came for, which usually happens, I guess. I got tons of kitchen stuff: mixing bowls, a new pot and pan, rubber scraper, a spatula, a can opener (my old one was really rusty and I cringed each time I opened a can) a fun blue cover for my couch, potting soil and tulip bulbs for the spring, a fixture for the shower… oh! and a pink blender! Then we went to Maru and got some groceries and realized that right here on my island I can get sauerkraut, pickles, hot chocolate, taco shells, coconut milk, good jams, digestives, and some not-white bread. I am really excited to have really explored this store and made a nenkyu-suppose-to-be-sick-day productive.

Daniel was amazed at this 4 liter bottle of brandy.

Also got this fun picture of a sliver moon as we were coming out of the grocery store. The picture doesn’t really do it justice, but you can see the profund darkness that I am blessed with in my sky. Great for star gazing.

We also stopped by Laura and Kerry’s apartments and chatted. It’s good to see them during the week. We got some much needed chicken bouillon cubes and entertainment. As we drove back to Narao we realized how stormy it’s getting. There’s suppose to be a typhoon tomorrow, but I’m hesitant if it’ll really come. They seem to change direction quite of their own accord and, like most weather, are hard to predict. But if one does come I just may luck out and have another day off tomorrow.

Got to go watch more American TV! I love Six Feet Under!!
Love, Sierra

Daniel put the shells he collected this weekend in my bathroom sink.

I got this picture of my mama. She’s working a registration table somewhere!

Hey, do you like my new look? I was needing change!

This weekend has been wonderful. As much fun as we had last weekend in Nagasaki, I was looking forward to a quiet couple of days at home, recovering from this cold I seem to have caught.

Oh! I forget to mention that I’ve officially started studying Japanese. Formally. I am leaving my desk for a designated hour (and sometimes two) to study Japanese with Yamanaki-san, in the Career Center everyday. She’s pretty excited about teaching me and so has made up all these flashcards. So far we’ve studied colors, time-phrases (this month, day after tomorrow, next year) verb conjugation, and some basic nouns. We get so excited sitting there together and watching how much progress I make. I often feel like blurting something out in Spanish because I already know how to say it. The foreign language part of my brain says, “Can’t do it in Japanese, how ‘bout Spanish?” But I feel like I could really learn a lot from her if I take advantage of this opportunity. I already can say short phrases more easily and understand a lot more of what’s going on around me.

So Saturday Dan and I had to wait for a food order from Alishan (an organic food store) that was supposed to arrive before noon. (It was a refrigerated order and of course needed a person to sign for it.) But noon came and went and the food didn’t arrive. We watched the VP debate and contemplated what we’d do once the food arrived. But the food didn’t arrive, and didn’t arrive, and by 4 p.m. we decided one of us’d better go get groceries for dinner. We had invited Rie and Koichiro over for Mexican at 6:30 p.m. and were hoping the real –unprocessed, extra sharp cheese and tortillas would arrive for them to experience. I went to the grocery store at bought the nasty processed cheese they have available here and some other supplies. We started cooking and cleaning and at 6:15 the doorbell rang. It was our food! I was so happy—we quickly unpacked and stuffed our fridge full of all the goodies.

We had tacos, refried beans and Spanish rice and our guests just loved it. It was their first time eating tacos and refried beans—what an international experience! They were pretty awkward eating the tacos and I said that’s what using chopsticks is like for the first time! Koichiro went to the sink to wash his hands after every taco because they were full of hamburger grease and Tabasco sauce. We finished our tacos, but they wanted to try burritos too! I don’t know where Koichiro packs it away—he’s shorter than me and very thin. I made Koichiro a double taco (yeah! I’ve got refried beans from a food order too!) and instructed Rie to fold up a burrito. I tried to explain that burritos are often overstuffed and it’s okay for stuff to fall out the end and onto your plate. She tried hard to roll it though and it just ended up tearing! But I think they had a good time and maybe are brave enough to come again another time.

DT and I watched “The Sweet Hereafter” Saturday night, but I didn’t enjoy it much. I wasn’t in the mood for a movie about death and I didn’t feel like it had any closure. It made me cry and then I realized how much I love having DT here. He’s makes things make sense and he’s a part of home and normalcy. I’m going to miss having someone to hug when I’m sad and crying, someone to share the dishes, cooking and laundry, someone to wake up next to on my futon every morning. So I got all my tears out and promised myself not to take his long stay for granted. It’s gunna be tough when we goes…

Sunday we were planning on biking to the north with Asagami and going to the pool for a swim. We’ve decided at Friday Night Feber that I’m going to do the whole Triathlon. I must be crazy. At the end of my half marathon (just over 13 miles) I was totally dead and I have to do 10 miles of running AFTER swimming and biking. We’ll see how long it takes me to chicken out! =) This was going to be the beginning of our training—biking and swimming, but we didn’t have enough bikes and my cold was getting worse.

What we ended up doing, however was just as fun! Catherine and Peter invited us and Midori-chan for a drive. We didn’t really have much idea where we were going—well, maybe Peter did, but I was just up for exploring the island. We found this random park on one of the highest points on (we think) the entire island. I read the sign, but all I remember is some stuff about this being a lookout for a military base because you can see mainland China on clear days. That seems pretty incredible though—maybe I misremembered. We also found this obstacle course thing and were like children jumping and playing on everything. The weather was warm and the view beautiful.

The playground.

The view.

Catherine playing on the slide which looked like it had been roped off for a reason!

You can see the oil reserve in the haze. Have I told you? The largest oil reserve in the world is right here in Aokata? It’d serve Japan for four years if it was their only source of oil. (And I thought I’d be safe on a remote island in Japan!)

Playing on the swings and obstacle courses.

The four of us. Peter, Catherine, Dan and Sierra.

Then, there was another set of stairs leading further up, toward the radio tower. Dan decided to sprint up them for some exercise. Bad idea. The pathway was covered in spider-webs. And not small little webs either. These are the strongest webs, built by the largest spiders that all four of us had ever seen. They were so disgusting. Catherine lead the way and we all ducked and dodged the spiders and their webs. Peter accidentally ran into one and it didn’t even break! It was amazing how strong they are! Apparently these spiders like to fight too. I think they’re harmless to people, but they don’t mess with each other! We made it to the top and enjoyed more views and fresh air. Today was such a beautiful day.

The car park and the spider-web stairs (on the left) leading up to the highest point.

DT and me.

The four of us again.

Another view of Arikawa or Urakura.

After that, we drove on to another town and another small lookout, but this one had access to a beach. It was so much fun. The tall, golden grass growing in the sand reminded Daniel and I of Oregon’s beautiful coast. We climbed on rocks, watched boats and tugs coming in from sea, and enjoyed the salty breeze. Daniel collected shells and now they grace my toilet sink. What a wonderful idea, DT! I laid on a huge rock in the sunshine, feet dangling to the ocean, and thought about how lucky I am to be here.

Love and Fond Memories,
Sierra