Dartboard

Today I received my winter box—a much anticipated package of clothes, foods, and goodies from home. Some of it I had set aside before I left for Japan, but most of it was random goodies complied by my wonderful and loving sister, Joelle. Of course, she’ll never know just how wonderful and loving I think she is because she hasn’t ever been to my website before (shame on you, Joelle!) but now you all know! She’s a great sis!

The poor delivery man! He carried all 60+ pounds of the box up to my second floor door and looked absolutely exhausted, but I’ve spent the morning opening the biggest Christmas present ever! My kitchen is full of western food, my closets are full of warm winter clothing, and my medicine cabinet is full of fluoride toothpaste and illegal drugs (we’re just talking Sudafed here, but it’s illegal in Japan). There were even some extra surprises: DVDs and movies, books, magazines, blankets (that I’m used to cuddling up with at her house), a blow-dryer clothes dryer, an “I love you” Teddy bear and more!

When it didn’t all fit on my kitchen table I moved it to the living room floor!

Okay, and now my stomach hurts so I’m going to post these other pictures and cuddle up with the movie "Pretty Woman." I still have to pack for the JET Mid-Year Conference which is this Monday and Tuesday and tonight I’ve agreed to playing basketball with Satomi again… if I’m feeling okay.

So, I had dinner with Catherine and Shingo on Thursday night. Pictures from that event:

The flowers Shingo gave Catherine as her “Welcome Home (out of the hospital)” gift.

We had spaghetti bolognaise, garlic buns, salad and lots of fruit.

And last night I spend the evening with my neighbor Koichiro. We went to Aqua Blue to go swimming, but he forgot his swim suit in his car and so we did purikura and ran some errands instead.

On this one Koichiro wrote “It’s hot” in Japanese (and I started to in English but ran out of time) because he was wearing this huge swimming jacket in my car and kept taking it off and putting it on everytime we got in and out of the car. It was kind of the theme for the night. Atsui ne?

And this one has Koichiro bundled up like it’s below freezing outside, but it’s actually been in the 70s all week. In Japan, if it’s the winter season then it doesn’t matter what the temperature actually is, you should be wearing long sleeves and a jacket. I got many comments on my short sleeves this week at school—but it’s 70ºF, I insisted!

And recently I have been chatting with a Linfield friend, Josh, who gave me some pictures of what he’s been up to since starting graduate school in Michigan this fall.

Playing with puppies.

Making elaborate lego boats.

And a little gardening on the side. Isn’t he a cutie? Sorry, he's taken!

That’s all from me for a while. I’ll be gone until next Wednesday, but hopefully I’ll have pictures to share from the conference!

Love, Sierra

So, lots of catching up to do since last week. Last Thursday I had my two Wakamatsu Junior High School teachers come over for dinner. It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. They are so cool to hang out with. I felt completely comfortable being myself and relaxing with them here. Usually, because I’m the host, I’m trying to be polite and make conversation even when it’s a bit awkward, but there were no awkward moments with Chikako and Kyoko. We laughed and teased each other about boyfriends and boyfriend-related rules in Japan. I haven’t done that much giggling in a long time! =)

So anyway, it started the beginning of my banana bread week. Kyoko arrived a bit early and I was just starting banana bread. She rolled up her sleeves and helped from the mashing to mixing. I think that’s what really made me so comfortable—that she just jumped in and started helping me like a friend rather than a guest. When Chikako arrived we had tacos and all the fixin’s. They loved the Mexican meal and we’ve decided to do enchiladas next time. (…Help!)

When the banana bread came out of the oven we were just starting a video-chat with Daniel. Of course, they got to meet DT when he came in October so it was really fun for them to chat with him now that he’s back in Oregon. Now it was their turn to get giggly! Everyone said, “Daniel wa hansom desu ne?” (“Daniel’s handsome, isn’t he?”) when he was here, but I didn’t really realize how crazy there were for him! They went uncontrollable with laughter and said tall, thin and blonde is very handsome in Japan. There was lots of screaming, hiding from the camera and shouting going on for the next few minutes. I’m sure a real ego booster for my DT!

Here are the three of us crowding around to see that handsome face! Hi Daniru!!!

And DT sent me this picture of us! Chikako on the left, Kyoko in the middle and I on the right. And can you see our slice of banana bread in the picture??

Then on Friday I had karate and I received my official certificate of achievement and the green belt.

The official certificate!! Can you find my name? (シエラ　ケニー)

Also on Friday I was shocked to receive a postcard in the mail from someone by the name of James! I read the postcard, but the name at the bottom was covered by a post office stamp so I couldn't really see the name. Squinting I thought I saw “James” but… who’s James? Maybe my Irish friend from Linfield? Does he even have my address…?

Glancing to the return address I see “James Kenney” and I go, “Ohhh! That James!” Yeah, that’s how often I get letters from my little brother in Utah!! I couldn't recognize the handwriting and the message was too generic for me to get from the context. But once I realized it was James Kenney, my brother, I starting jumping for joy! He’s alive and well and may even get a visit from me at Christmas if he (and I) are lucky!

James' postcard from the canyons of Utah.

Now you understand—that stamp is in the way and the penciling is so light!

I had a very relaxing weekend at home. Okay, not really. I tried to start working out again because I’ve been feeling really lazy lately and that Monster Man Triathlon is only 8 months away! I went running (about 5 km and nearly killed myself) and played basketball with Satomi and some friends at Kamigoto Junior High Saturday night. Basketball is really exhausting, I forgot. Laura came too, but her ankle started acting up after shooting around so she decided to take it easy for the night. Basketball was really fun and I plan on participating as much as I can. Saturday night I stayed at Kerry’s apartment and Sunday used the pool before heading back down to Narao. I swam for about 45 minutes and any muscle that wasn’t sore from Saturday was definitely sore after Sunday.

But that didn’t stop me from running a loop around Narao Monday after work and going to tennis practice as usual. And it didn’t stop me from playing soccer with some high school boys for an hour after work Tuesday and then going to karate practice as usual. But it did stop me from doing anything but getting into some PJs tonight and lounging in my apartment!

Got to video chat with my friend Alex at Linfield for a while Sunday. I loved showing him the apartment and watching his reactions to all my stories even if the audio wasn’t perfect!

What’s that face for?

I started another new project at the high school. It’s called “Sierra’s Spot” and is my English bulletin board. I saw this idea in a JET activity book and thought it’d be a pretty simple way to reach more students at the high school. I only teach one class of seniors and there are a couple upper-level freshman and junior classes that are too “advanced” to have me in their class. Yeah, ironically the kids with the highest language ability don’t need to be speaking with a native, they need to study more grammar for the college entrance exams! But I’m slowly reaching them with the radio broadcasts, class notebooks, joining sports clubs and now this bulletin board.

What do you think? Does it catch your eye?

Oh, I also made it in the front page of the Wakamatsu school newspaper (on the left there)! When they asked me to write an introduction, they were so excited that I wrote it in hiragana that they printed exactly what I wrote instead of typing it up!!

My kocho-sensei also gave me a bunch of postcards with my picture printed on the front! I love my co-workers.

And finally tonight at 7:30 p.m. I had my second Children’s English Night for the children of Nakagoto teachers. I only had three kids come tonight (my next door neighbor Mami, 11, and Takeshima’s two children, Sota, 11, and Haruna, 8) but honestly it was much more manageable and hopefully quieter for my downstairs neighbors! First we made banana bread together and they just loved it! I was able to let go of some OCD behaviors …flour, sugar, baking soda all over the table… No probrem! Whoops! And all over the floor! Egg whites dripping on the way to the garbage…easy to clean up! (Deep breath…) Mashing the bananas by hand—six unwashed hands diving into the bowl!! Germs won’t survive the oven…right? And actually the only thing that couldn’t be fixed was my own fault. I let them choose to cook it at 180ºC instead of 170ºC (the conversion is 176º but my microwave used 10º increments) and the banana bread burnt a little on top.

The recipe.

Hands INTO the banana bowl!!

Everyone gets a turn at michingu (mixing).

It took an hour to cook and we played bingo, “slap the word”, drank oolong tea and ate cookies (compliments of the Takeshima kids) sang songs, read bedtime stories and said a lot in Japanese that I didn’t understand! I’m really looking forward to this bi-weekly English night with my neighbors’ kids. I hope I can get to know Mami better and have her over for company on a lonely weekend. She’s an only child (I think) and seems to be really eager to know me and speak English. We played a smiling game on our balcony this weekend. We share a balcony, but there’s a divider between us so we would lean out and look at each other and smile. We both stood there enjoying the sun, airing the futons over the railing, and smiling in silence. It was cute. I remember when I was her age I used to go have breakfast with my neighbor in California every Sunday morning after church and I just loved it. Maybe I could make her the pineapple turnover pancakes and ice cream milkshake breakfast I used to enjoy with Jean Fauquet.

I love life!

Sierra

P.S. Ah! Just two more things.

Sunday I also stopped by Shinji’s house (the sailor’s) and visited with him and his wife for a while. I told them I’d come by with—you guessed it—banana bread!! They sent me off with persimmons and smiles and I figure it’s the best way to repay them. Shinji’s wife (don’t know her name yet) and I are going to go swimming together soon and then all three of us are going to go on a hike near their house. I’m really exciting about the prospect of using the hiking boots I brought with me!

Second of all, on my run Monday, a driver started waving at my and then stopped and rolled down her window to talk. She introduced herself as my neighbor and asked if she could come running with me sometime?!? She’s a 40ish motherly-type that speaks fluent English and lives just outside my back door. Where’s she been all this time? She’s from the Philippines and is married to a Japanese man and seems really friendly. I gave her my number and can’t wait to hear from her! A possible running partner??? Whoo hoo!