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Yesterday I went to karate for the first time in about a month. It was exhausting, but it felt so good to go. There were only three kids, another man and myself there, besides the four teachers. That’s nearly a 1:1 student teacher ratio, and while I like the individual attention during kata, I also like taking a break to socialize with other students. At least I'm getting to know the three kids really well. They were very shy around me for a long time, but now they constantly play with me. Their favorite question is "How do you say ~ in English?" while swinging from my arms and legs.

There used to be so many people at karate and it seems many of them have either moved away or stopped coming. Now that Hatakeyama-sensei doesn’t come anymore, it’s the one place where no one speaks any English and I feel completely confident using Japanese. I don’t care about making mistakes or fumbling through sentences to get myself understood. Unlike a visit to the post office or grocery store, the conversation lasts for two hours or more and I am invited to talk about my summer vacation, my love life, what I eat for dinner everyday, etc. It’s really good practice.

Recently I’ve really started to like this one teacher in particular. He’s an old fisherman with these great big hands that tell a lifetime of hard labor. He’s really sweet and has big hardy laughs. I like to work with him because he pays great attention to detail. My arms, hands, feet and legs are always repositioned right away so I don’t get in the habit of doing it wrong. I feel like he takes the karate very seriously, but at the same time, doesn’t mind stopping to have a chat about my bicycle riding, or mention that he saw me running in Kiri last week.

That reminds me, I rode my bicycle to school a couple times in the summer and I decided to ride it yesterday too. I arrived at school with a red face and very sweaty, but I cooled off in the teacher’s room as much as possible before changing into my work clothes. I couldn’t ride today because I went to the hospital after the morning meeting—in fact, I'm at the hospital right now, waiting for my number to be called. The doctor started seeing patients at 9:30 and it’s already 11 a.m. but they’re only on number 21 and I’m number 40. I feel I may be here all day.

Okay, I’m posting a few random pictures I still have from the beach, Obon Festival and Dragon Boat Racing in Urakuwa.

Me, Masaharu and Joelle at Takaitabi. We went wave jumping/swimming for as long as I thought my white skin could handle the hot sun. It was very fun!

A bee started chasing us and we could only escape by laying in the water. Steven managed to get a picture of us and we look so silly-everyone watching for the bee!

Their last night in Japan, we had dinner with Asagami-sensei. Dinner's always accompanied by several pints of beer!!

Asagami called me last night and told me he was officially signing me up for the Triathlon in October. I was already asleep when he called though so I can’t remember the date. [October 2nd, I just called him back.] It’s a 700M swim, 20K bike and 5K run, and a relay, but every person does the whole course-probably because everyone wouldn't fit in the pool at the start. Again, I won’t know my team members until the day of the race because Asagami is finding them for me. He's also paying for my hotel in Fukuoka and the before and after parties! He's such a generous man! I’m excited to see my triathlete friends again!!

Me and Asagami-sensei. Asagami is always just getting back from playing tennis when we hang out so he's very sweaty in this picture!

A picture from Narao’s town festival.

Some pictures from Obon in Narao (when the souls of the dead return to their graves and the living offer gifts and food, usually accompanied by lights, lanterns and incense).

The Dragon Boat Racing in Urakuwa.

Masaharu raced with the 浦桑 team, but they came in last.

My friend ちー on my swimming team was there so we watched together. Last week she gave me a friendship anklet and two cell phone straps as well. A very sweet girl who I always look forward to seeing.

What else is new? My burning hatred for my supervisor has died down a bit. I think the summer vacation and not really needing to talk to her for over a month really helped our relationship. I’m taking Michelle’s advice to “kill her with kindness” but it’s really a challenge. She has overactive saliva glands. When she talks the spit will bubble in the corners of her mouth and laughs are a juicy affair. It’s really hard to concentrate on anything but her saliva when she talks. It’d help if she closed her lips every once in a while, but her mouth is always open. “Buuuuuuuu,” is how Koichiro once described her mouth. Someone needs to teach her how to swallow.

I had a headache last night driving home from karate. I mention it because I almost never get headaches—I don’t really know what they feel like, but this one was painful. It hurt to blink and the pain was concentrated in a particular spot in my left brain. Although it was pretty mild, mostly just annoying, I imagine that’s how migraines must feel: concentrated pain where nothing but darkness and silence help. And obviously very painful, not mildy annoying. I don’t know what caused it but when I got home and showered I either forgot about it or it went away.

11:30 and everyone is just staring, facing the hospital window expectantly, and waiting for their numbers to be called. An old man in front of me is discussing how long it took each number to be called and estimating his wait time. He’s number 30 so I have a long way to go still. Appointments would be helpful!!! I would say this is a waste of time, but I’m supposed to be wasting time at work so what’s the difference wasting time in a hospital corridor? I just wish I brought a book…

Alright. I’m going to study Japanese.

Love, Sierra