Dartboard

Sunday we finally got to rest. We didn’t do anything all morning and I think finally Mama was getting anxious to do something. So we painted the kitchen.

In the end, we didn’t travel off the island on our free weekends. We stayed on Shinkamigoto Island for almost three straight weeks. Which is fine. Mama wanted to know what everyday life is like for me.

And this is what it’s like here.

Sometimes it’s exciting. Sometimes it’s boring.

Today is exciting for two reasons.

1.) I found the entrance to 山王山.

2.) We painted the kitchen!!!

I’ve been searching for this road for months now. Determined to find way to the top of this island, I’ve been looking for it every time I drive the highway. I finally found it on Sunday. I was so excited, I stopped in the middle of the road.

In a tunnel.

Mom said, “You can’t stop in a tunnel.”

I said, “But I just found the entrance to 山王山.”

“But you still can’t stop in a tunnel.”

So, we went through the tunnel and turned around and drove up the road to the top of the island. It was a really foggy day, so we decided not to make the 20 minute hike to the park and observation deck. We got some interesting pictures from the car park, and then we went back down.

I can’t wait to hike it from the bottom though. That’ll be quite a day!

Okay, and all the pictures from today.

I started to teach Mama hiragana today. We went through the whole “alphabet” and now she’s practicing.

Fog and grey days creates some beautiful pictures.

Some stones along the highway.

I love the oranges on the trees. (I took this one—and am quite proud of it.)

The map at the top of the mountain. ...It means nothing to you, does it? Sierra, why are you posting a picture of a map? Nobody cares! But I'm posting it because I'm SO EXCITED to have found this hike!!

But this sign. You gotta love this sign!

Mama and the eerie woods behind…

There’s a bad case of red tide here at the moment. Well, it seems bad to me anyway. You can just make out the reddish color of the beach and shallow waters.

A big yacht chillin’

And finally, we got home and painted the kitchen. It’s white with blue trim. It matches my refrigerator and new curtains.

The bathroom’s next. I’m thinking… pink with white trim!

Love, Sierra

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I’ve gotta get caught up. Mom’s taking pictures and pictures and pictures and I can’t post them fast enough. So, here are the pictures from our fishing trip with kocho-sensei and the Norimuras. Kocho-sensei picked us up at the apartment at 6 a.m. (God, that’s too early for a Saturday.) and bought us a Hokka Hokka Tei (Japanese fast food) breakfast. We went out on Yoshikatsu’s boat (my English teacher’s husband). It was really sweet of him to take us out—he’s running for town council and he needs to spend his weekends campaigning for the elections which are being held in the end of April. Despite his busy schedule he took us out fishing, out to lunch AND drove us home afterwards! I’d vote for him if I could!

On to fishing…
First there’s a lot of waiting around. (Fishing can be really boring.) My principal told me to be patient. I said I needed a beer.

Here’s my school principal with the first catch of the day. A tiny little thing, but it was beautiful… and taaasty!

First catch of the day.

I caught the next fish. I didn’t know I had a bite until kocho-sensei comes over and says, “Start reeling it in!” It was much harder to pull it up than I expected! This was essentially my first time fishing—definitely my first time to catch anything.

Giving thanks to the fish.

Almost immediately after I caught my fish my mom caught the same type. She didn’t know she had a bite either—kocho-sensei just came over and said, “Bring it up!” How does he do that?!? We thought maybe it was rigged…

We fished with poles and also just lines. Here Mama’s “line fishing” and it doesn’t seem to be as much fun.

Satomi’s mother-in-law fed us seaweed after we got back from fishing. I can’t believe I can eat seaweed. I’m eating whole fish now too. I’m really becoming more adventuresome and open-minded in my eating of seafood.

Then we taught a couple classes at Satomi’s English school. There was just one little boy for an hour, then three girls for another hour. We just played games and talked informally. It was fun and interesting. Here’s we are all together.

In the evening we had a Hanami party with kocho-sensei, kyoto-sensei and jimucho-sensei and their wives (The three most important people at the school: principal, vice-principal, and head office manager.). I felt like I had to be all formal and stuff, then I realized—they all just wanted to get drunk and I could relax and translate loosely for my mom.

It was really sweet of them to want to get to know her better. It also gave my mom and opportunity to see what an enkai was like. It was smaller, but just as wild with these three men love to drink! I think the whole experience really shocked her—jimucho-sensei was absolutely trashed and spent the evening blubbering on about something-excuse me-blubbering on about EVERYTHING just 6 inches from my face. I tried to be polite and interested, but his Japanese is just impossible to understand and I don't know what to say to him. Mama got to see it all and I feel like now she just… understands. What a cultural experience!

Here are the wives of kocho-sensei and jimucho-sensei. The one of the right offered to be my "Japanese mother" and is always bringing me food and teaching me how to knit! She's awesome (even if she's not smiling).

Here's kocho-sensei and his wife.

Here I am with jimucho-sensei who's trying to pour me more wine! I'm wearing a sweater that his wife knit for me. It's an awful color (did I mention this before?) but I thought if I'm ever going to wear it--in front of her would be a good time to do so.

Mama and I. Can you see how round my face is getting? I'm getting fat!

Oh! And we got to eat our fish for dinner too!

More to come,
Sierra

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Mom and I have been to two karate practices together now. I took Mama to karate first last Friday. I know where I get my strength from! Even in her 50s, Mama was impressing the guys with her kicks! Maybe I love karate so much because I love hanging out with men, and karate is ALL TESTOSTERONE. I’m often the only woman there anymore. Sometimes I am accompanied by a five-year-old or a junior high school girl, but more often than not, it’s just me and the boys. And I love it.

Oh, did I mention yet? I passed the test and am now a purple belt!! This is going to be the last “easy” belt. Not that it was easy to get, but it only took me about seven months to get here. I’ll probably have this purple belt for a much longer time. The next tests are in June and September, and I’m not sure I’ll be ready this June. Matsuzono-sensei will tell me when I’m ready.

This is the cute little five-year old girl. She is TINY and such a doll! Despite her size and age, she takes karate very seriously! It’s enough to make my ovaries quiver.

Chatting it up with the boys. The guy on the far right is Naoya, a high school student that is too adorable for words. He’s got dimples... Sooo handsome! And the boy in the middle, from Wakamatsu Junior High School, always makes me laugh. He’s a cutie too!

I sparred a bunch with Koichiro tonight. (I guess he didn’t remember how I crippled Use-sensei a couple weeks ago by kicking him in the balls.) It’s a lot of fun to spar, but I’m still a little shy about it. If I knew that I could NOT hurt someone by kicking them my hardest, I would really kick my hardest, but because I know I have a strong kick, (and that it can land in unwanted places) I hold back. Like Daniel told me when he watched me spar in November, if I hold back, I’m only slowing myself down. When I go full speed I can get solid hits—which is the goal, of course.

I did get some solid punches against Koichiro too, but man—He is fast! Here’s us sparring.

After sparring I get to kick with this man. Every practice, without fail. He’s awesome for holding the bag for me all the time.

This is Kyohei and Koichiro sparring. Kyohei is one of my junior high school boys, and I didn’t quite realize just how strong he is until tonight. You know how you can tell how big a puppy is going to be by the size of his paws? Well, if this guys feet is any indication of future growth, he’s going to be huge!

Matsuzono-sensei teaching Mama the correct posture.

A close-up on my purple belt.

There was more discussion regarding my weight today. They called me overweight again. They say only a little, and I should loose a few kilos. It’s just so shocking to have a bunch of men sitting around discussing my weight WHEN I’M PRESENT! I know it’s true, I could loose a few kilos, but… really, do THEY need to tell me about it?

Matsuzono-sensei gestures, “Sierra’s thiiiiiiis big!

After karate practice we stopped by a park with some lanterns and saw some people having a hanami party. We were asked to stay and drink with the strangers, but we were all sweaty from practice so we just got some pictures and left.

Beautiful picture Mama!

Pictures from fishing on Saturday coming soon!
Love, Sierra

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So, I start popping the keys of my keyboard ‘cause I’ve got some hair and dust underneath them. A real quick fix for something that can be really annoying. I’ve done it a couple times before, but never in front of my mother.

Now I remember why.

‘Cause she goes, “Oh! I wanna do that too!”

And she starts popping her keys off and she’s real excited cause you get to get ALL that dirt and grit that gets stuck down there over the months.

And she’s like, “Do you have tweezers? Then I can REALLY get in there good.”

Then I don’t know how it happens, but each of her keys are in three different parts and she can’t put them back together and each time she tries to fix it, she breaks another one.

…sigh

I’m not an engineer.

But I am the one who has to study the mechanics of an Apple keyboard for the next 30 minutes and put it back together for her.

It took me a while, but I fixed her keyboard.

“Now, Mother! Don’t touch!”

Tonight we also ran into Catherine in the gym and went out for ramen together.

Also, I like this website on how to blog.

Love, Sierra

P.S. I know that I make spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes and typos on my blog and... Well. It happens. Sometimes I see it and I don’t even go back to change it because, it’s just like, you can only spend SO much time on your computer everyday. And some things you just gotta let go.

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I’ve got loads of pictures to post. While the weather’s been so nice, Mama has been taking the camera for a walk and getting some gorgeous shots of my island. There are so many but you can browse through them quickly. Please let me know if you download them so I can flatter my mother. And credit her too—Maidie Kenney.

No better place to start then with my favorite. It was hard to choose a favorite, but this uses fore- middle- and back-ground.

Many pictures of the cherry blossoms. The are in full bloom this week.

I’ve seen lots of hawks recently. Here’s one perched on a telephone pole.

Goto hills.

I dedicate this one to greyarea. I think he’ll like it.

Kuro kuma-kun.

These lights strung up in boats for squid fishing. The light attracts the plankton and the plankton attract small fish. Then the squid come to eat the small fish and the humans are ready to catch and eat the squid! Clever!

Fishing nets.

Some shots inside the water.

This is Wakamatsu bridge.

And in the distance.

*sigh*

A park on Wakamatsu hung lanterns for nighttime Hanami Parties (hana= flower, mi= watch, hanami = flower watching/viewing).

This is Narao's port.

That’s my school—the two buildings connected by bridge.

Some terraced fields.

Walking though the streets in Narao, you’ll often see something like this:

This picture is a close second favorite.

Here’s Takaitabi Beach. Can you find the surfer?

The cherry trees by the tunnel in Narao.

I think this is a temple somewhere near my grocery store. I don't know for sure if it’s the one I’m thinking of as my mom took it.

With love,
Sierra

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