Dartboard

The next series of pictures are…you guessed it—hitchhiking from Nagasaki to Nagoya. I wasn’t sure how hitching with three people would go. Two’s perfect because you can both squeeze into the back seat of any car, but three means you usually need the front seat too. Only single drivers could pick us up and not too surprisingly only men picked us up. But we got from Western Kyushu to Kyoto in only two days and we never waited too long for a ride. It was cheap too!

On the ferry from Narao to Nagasaki. Leaving the islands behind!

Visiting Nagasaki’s Peach Park. This is the epicenter.

The famous statue—I think I’ve posted a picture of him before.

From Nagasaki to Isahaya: Mr. Komeima in a white van picked us up and apologized for the lack of AC, but we were grateful for the ride! It’s not always easy hitching out of a city!

From Isahaya to Fukuoka: Mr. Tomisaki seemed pretty upset when he picked us up and was very excited about having company for his long drive home. A real estate agent who drove around all day looking at five properties in Nagasaki and Sage prefectures, all of which were “unsuccessful.” We cheered him up in the car (hopefully) and then he took us to his favorite Chinese restaurant in Fukuoka for dinner.

We stayed the night with Shimose-san in Fukuoka. Peter was also there, preparing for his bike ride around Asia next month.

Hitching on the highway in Fukuoka. “Please, please, please!”

Fukuoka to Kitakyushu: Hiroki took us from Fukuoka to Mekari, just before the bridge crossing over to Honshu. He was an interior salesman with a 4 month old child. Pretty quiet ‘cause I can’t remember too much about him.

Mekari to Yamaguchi: Yasu, a young college student who drove much too fast for the amount of time his hands were off the wheel, picked us up for a short ride to Mito in Yamaguchi-ken. He was wearing an (oh, so sexy towel) around his head, and seemed really, really nervous to have me sitting in his passenger seat. He loved fishing.

Mito to just outside Kyoto: Ikuo!! He was the greatest! He picked us up (or rather succumbed to our pleas) after we begged him to take us where ever he was going as he was coming out of a rest station store! Hitching was rough that day! The elevator repairman had to shift around everything in his car to accommodate us, but as we got to know each other in the car, we really hit it off! He had two business meetings on his way home (in Okayama) in Hiroshima and …, but he canceled them so we could get home faster! I felt really guilty, but he was so happy to do it for us. Joelle said, “No really, we don’t want elevators to go unrepaired because of us!” But he insisted on rescheduling his appointments for Friday!

Then we relaxed and ate lunch together in Hiroshima at his favorite okonomiyaki place!

Okonomiyaki is so good when there aren’t octopus tentacles in it!

While he was taking care of something in Hiroshima another man from the company took us down to the Atomic Bomb Memorial Peace Park.

Hiroshima is a beautiful city. I could see myself living here.

Then Ikuo wanted to know where we were staying for the night. I told him we didn’t really know yet. We had tents though… Ikuo called his wife and the conversation (the side I heard, anyway) went something like this:

I’m bringin’ home three foreigners tonight!
(pause…)
Foreigners…
(pause…)
Three. One man, two women.
(pause…)
I picked them up. They were hitch-hiking.
(pause…)
Yeah, hitch-hikers. I picked them up.
(pause…)
No, no. They’re gunna stay with us tonight!
(pause…)
Where? In our house!
(pause…)
It’ll be fine. Put the man upstairs and the two women downstairs in the TV room.
(long pause…)
No, no it’s fine. I’ll take them to Osaka in the morning.
(pause…)
It’s okay!
(pause…)
It’ll be fine. See you soon, honey!

The phone rang several more times and he explained how this random-foreigners-staying-in-our-house-thing would work to his wife. When we met her she was very, very sweet though. We all went out to yakiniku together and tried to go to bed early ‘cause we had to leave the house at 5:00 the next morning!

That’s his car—a California Highway Patrol Car! Incredible, isn’t it? He had it shipped over. He explained it to me while we were in his company car, but I thought he meant like he had a model of a HPC car—not a REAL one! I loved his D.A.R.E. shirt too! Steven and I WERE the Drug Free Class of 2000, yo! (No comments on how successful that was!) He got his off E-Bay.

The next morning Ikuo dropped us off at a rest stop somewhere between Osaka and Kyoto before he went on his elevator repair rounds. He was the best hitchee ever! I didn’t even mention how he sang karaoke to us in the car!

Somewhere outside Kyoto to somewhere in Shiga prefecture: Mr. Hashimoto picked us up thanks only to Steven. It was really hot and we were having a hard time getting a ride, Joelle and I took to sitting in the shade in a clump of grass near the rest stop exit, but Steven held the whiteboard pleading “名古屋” and waved cars down like none other! We eventually changed that to “京都” a much closer destination, and it worked! Hashimoto-san was on his way back from taking his Sri Lankan friend to the airport when he picked us up—was obviously still in the “tour guide mode” because he offered to take us to Kyoto’s Golden Pavillion. I’d wanted to see that for a long time!

Have to prove I didn’t just download that picture off the internet and stick it on my blog! We WERE there!

Then we had some lunch together.

And he dropped us off at a rest station somewhere in Shiga prefecture where he assumed we could easily get a car to Nagoya.

Shiga to Nagoya: Asono offered us our second ride in a police car. He picked us up and drove us (very speedily) to Nagoya. The first time I heard his sirens behind us I thought, “Is hitch-hiking illegal?” but it was HIS car. The car we were IN! It really surprised me. We unsuspectingly entered an undercover highway patrol car, and Asono had all the undercover highway patrol officer behaviors to accompany the ride. Although he AND the car retired 10 years ago, it was still pimped out with flashing lights and sirens—and constantly used to pass cars that wouldn’t pull out of the fast lane… or make Joelle scream “whee” in the backseat!

You wouldn’t have known would you? It looks like a normal car to me, but when you look behind the grill there are police lights!

Asono stopped and bought us drinks (okay, I had ice cream, of course!).

I can’t remember what Steven is offering Asono here, but he didn’t want it!

Asono was actually our last driver ‘cause we decided to do mainly public transportation after that. We spent two nights in Nagoya and one day at the World EXPO before heading up to Fuji-san. Pictures from the EXPO next!

Love, Sierra

P.S. If I just spent the last 6 hours writing on my blog and reading can I still call this a successful day at work? … I got through the day—that’s successful enough for me!

It’s 9:03 a.m., I’m at my desk and I think I’ll need to start thinking of my time at work in units. Every 30 minutes makes up a unit and then I can spent 2 units writing on the blog, 3 units reading, 1 unit thinking about my next meal, 2 units emailing people back home. It makes the time go by much faster and I really feel like I’ve accomplished something at the end of the day. (Have you seen that movie? It’s a good one.)

My mom called this morning. It was a pleasant surprise. She’s called about 3 times in the last three weeks—which is about the same number of times she called me in the entire first year I was in Japan—so I’m suspicious! She and George leased a house in Michigan. They’ll be moving in around next month, I think. It’s a cute little place, but I guess it’s even smaller than the apartment they had before. Well, she always wanted to be a minimalist!

Have I raved enough about my dental cleaning? It was my first in about a year and a half and BOY, do I feel clean! I keep rubbing my tongue over my smooth molars!

I remember when I was a kid they used to clean your teeth like this—until they were completely smooth. As I got older I noticed even after the cleaning my teeth felt a little rough. Once I even went back to the dentist and said, “My teeth aren’t clean! They don’t feel smooth!” They hygienist waved me away staying it was the “texture” of my teeth and they were as clean as they needed to be. Texture! Humph! Japanese dentists can remove the “texture” (i.e. PLAQUE!) from my teeth so I’ll be sure to visit him twice this year!! Besides, I never got a gum massage at the office back home!

Masaharu is reading me children’s books in Japanese. I picked three out from the library with him last Saturday. One of the books I choose is about teeth. I’ve learned all sorts of tooth vocabulary such as “cavity,” “molar,” and “Hi, Friend! Please check my mouth for cavities and then I’ll check yours.” It’s a fun book. Another book I got is about a depressed little girl. I thought it was about a little boy and his dog in an earthquake, but apparently that’s just the first page—the catalyst for depression. And we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl—I pictured it as a “him” and Masaharu pictured it as a “her” but the pictures are ambiguous. We’re going through this book really slowly, looking up words or phrases so I can read and understand all of it eventually, but it’s slow going. I want to understand the story!

I mentioned I’m reading HP and the Goblet of Fire. I really like HP books but I’m not all bent out of shape about reading them immediately after they come out. I just want to read them before I see the corresponding movie. I know the Goblet movie is out and will be in Japan soon (if it’s not already) so that’s why I started now. And it may have something to do with all this spare time I’ve recently found myself with.

Today I’m getting a new phone. My apartment phone has been broken for about a month but it didn’t really ring much before that either so I didn’t really notice. (Sorry if you’ve been calling me, I didn’t know!) I make and receive most calls on my cell phone anyway. Masaharu and I are going shopping together after school. We have all sorts of errands to run. I want to look into getting a new keitai (cell phone) too. I want an English-to-Japanese dictionary in my phone! It’s invaluable! Then we want to find him a new pair of glasses.

Tonight we’re going to light fireworks at the beach if the weather’s okay. He found a stash of unused fireworks in his house, although we don’t know how old they are or if they’ll work properly. I haven’t set off fireworks in ages though! It should be fun.

Oh! I mentioned before that I’ve run out of space on my server and have to start removing pictures from old posts. I wanted to keep everything up, but—it’s not as if anyone reads the really old ones anyway. So, there are a scattering of posts with broken links out there. Sorry folks.

Well, more posting of pictures from hitch-hiking and climbing Fuji-san to come!
Love, Sierra

Pictures from our last weekend on Goto before leaving for Fuji-san, when we just ran a bunch of errands around town. Steven wanted to see the fire station as he just passed the test to enter the Portland Fire Academy.

The Good Morning Bakery van.

This is where I bought my dehumidifier (and where I met Masaharu!). He helped me choose the best dehumidifier for my needs! =)

Steven and I made Rice Krispy Treats! Yum—it had been a long time since I had any!

This morning Masaharu asked me, “Do you know what happened today?”

If I weren’t in Nagasaki Prefecture at 11:02 on August 9th I would easily forget what happened in the world on this day. I just got back from the high school’s peace assembly. There were high-pitched sirens (the same sirens used during bomb raids in the war) whirring over the loudspeakers for two minutes to remind us all to stop and think about the victims of the atomic bomb. I thought I heard jets fly over head too, but I it was just my imagination. There we all were, in the gym, hot and sticky and completely silent. Every student, teacher and staff member remembering the tragedies of World War II.

This summer I visited Hiroshima for the first time. We were only there for an hour or so, while hitchhiking towards Tokyo, but we got to walk around the Peace Park and see the sculptures, fountains, and only remaining building. We didn’t have time to go into the museum, but I’ve wanted to see the peace park ever since coming to Japan and seeing Nagasaki’s park. Hiroshima’s park seems much more a part of the city than Nagasaki’s. It seemed many people walk through it—like New York’s Central Park—because it’s within the city blocks and life happens all around it. That’s my only criticism of Nagasaki’s park. You go to the park for the purpose of seeing the park—it’s not in a part of the city that you may happen to walk through while going about your day. Because of that, the park often has spare tourists snapping their cameras at the famous statue but rarely has business people and students hanging out or walking through it. I think that’s really unfortunate, but I was really impressed with Hiroshima’s park.

I haven’t had internet at my school this week, but either I’ll get that figured out today or I’ll just have to write at school and post when I get home. I was planning to post last night but because of the water-on-keyboard incident I had to sit down and get intimate with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire instead. Shucks! It’s a tough life!

Love, Sierra

Buaaah! I spilled water on my keyboard last night and my computer shut down and wasn't restarting!! Yikes! It was about a 1/3 a cup of water and I got most of it out by lifting the keyboard immediately and titling into a towel, but STILL! It was scary. I left it open to dry, confident that my trusty 'puter would start up this morning and--SHE DID! I'm a lucky girl! Let this be a lesson to all of you: No Food or Drinks at the Computer!

Friday night (July 22nd) we had dinner with Asagami in Aokata. The adventurous travelers were offered sazae for the THIRD night in a row! Here Joelle happily receives…

…and she quickly passes it on to Steven (who accepts the Sazae Challenge!).

I love the look on Steven’s face there! “You DO NOT expect me to eat YOUR serving of sazae for the second night in a row! I can barely get MY piece down... boy, this is chewy stuff!”

But he did eat it.

And then politely excused himself to the bathroom.

(And swears he kept it all down.)

Asagami and me.

Nothing like a bottle of shochu to help the sazae go down!

Then we drove down to Narao for a little Ka-Ra-Oke!

And that’s where Steven really let loose! He sang songs he didn’t even know the tune for! A natural-born karaoke singer!

Yes, I make every Japanese person sing “Shima Uta” with me at karaoke. Thanks for being a sport Sensei!

A really fun night!
Love, Sierra

It’s hard to get any rest around here…people taking our picture even while we sleep!

Our first week on Kamigoto was very full! Friday afternoon we met Yuka for some balloon ice cream, melon ice cream and various other freezer delights. Then had lunch with all the (now old) ALTs in Urakuwa. Blaine and Emma were both there as well—nice to have new faces.

Joelle and Laura having a chat.

Blaine and Steven slurping up their noodles the correct way. Steven was so happy to have another man to grunt with—hanging out with the Kenney girl’s isn’t always easy! Blaine told us such a funny story about his recent experience at the Japanese dentist—he had us rolling in laughter! (By the way, I just went to the dentist today and my teeth feel GREEEAT! I got both tops and bottoms cleaned in ONE day!! Blaine, you really need to visit my dentist!)

The last time I saw Laura before she went back home. (Hi Laura! Hope you’re settling in fine and enjoying everything you missed so much while in Japan—and not missing everything you loved about Japan too much either!)

And we saw a CJ-2C jeep this afternoon. My sister’s a car nut—but I’m so glad she’s a car nut because she fixed Kuro kuma-kun one morning he didn’t start just by banging under the hood with a hammer. She’s amazing, that one!

In the afternoon we went to see the waterfall Hifumidaki in Arikawa.

Filling my water bottle—granted this water source is a little sketchy and I don’t recommend you try this!

Steve breaking in his Fuji shoes (on this short paved path). I couldn’t help but laugh.

Joelle and me on the bridge.

Steven and Joelle… on another bridge.

Me at the waterfall.

Joelle at the waterfall.

Steven (dangerously) climbed to get this view above the waterfall.

Joelle and Steven.

Okay, I get to leave school now—this week is torture with 35 hours at my desk on NOT a single work-related thing to do! I’ve been reading Harry Potter for the last two days. This is certainly a shock to my system which has been on vacation for the last 2 weeks plus! It’s days like these that make me think 2 years on the JET program is sufficient—what a waste of time!

Love, Sierra