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Woah. I just looked at my watch and saw “24” and I thought, “Christmas is TOMORROW!”

Just a little early there.

Thanksgiving dinner last night was a blast!!! All day yesterday was great. I did four loads of laundry, aired my futon and kotatsubuton, cleaned my apartment, met----

----I just found my cell phone charger!!! I’ve been missing it since last Saturday. I had to keep my phone turned off all the time except a couple times a day when I turned it on to check my mail. Sorry to those of you who tried calling/mailing me and never got a response. I’m back up again!

The charger was in my iPod case with my earbuds. I took them on my trip to Fukuoka last weekend, but never actually used my the earphones to listen to my iPod—just show people pictures on it!! (I wasn’t kidding when I said I like my iPod more for the photos than for the music! Hee hee!) Well, I’m so happy I found the charger. I was going to go buy a new one today after school. This saves me 50 bucks!

Anyway, after cleaning my place I met some Kamiko students. We had lunch together at my okonomiyaki place. I convinced the girls to cook their own on the table grill and they really enjoyed it. They thought it’d be difficult, but were proud when they flipped their first okonomiyaki!

Mana and Kyoko (I called her Keiko several times before she corrected me).

Then we did purikura together. All the purikura machines on the island are being exterminated. I don’t understand why, but even the one at Aqua Blue is gone. “Be Shock2” is gone! I heard another rumor that the gym and pool will be closing in March next year. It may just be another rumor, but this time it’s from a more creditable source. I’m obviously very unhappy that my sole source of exercise in the winter will be closing, but at least by April it will be starting to be warm again and I can ride my bike and go running. But this will make triathlon training very difficult. If the pool closes I may not even try.

What’s wrong with this island? The only gym and pool open year round is being threatened, the purikura machines are being taken from us, even my school isn’t rumored to stay open for very many more years and yet they keep on widening the roads!

I go through spurts where I don’t write any emails. And then one day, usually when I’ve reached 100 emails in my inbox I decide to clean it out, and I write everyone in one day and then I stop again for a couple of weeks…sometimes months. So, if you haven’t gotten a reply, my inbox is nearing 100 and I’ll probably get back to you soon.

Anyway, pictures from Thanksgiving Dinner. We prepared the food at Mizorogi’s house in Aokata, then ate in her husband’s company’s dining room. In the blue shirt is Sanae, a recent college grad living and working on the island.

Sanae and I were introduced this spring by Peter, but we’ve gotten to be good friends at eikaiwa. She studied in New Zealand and is fluent in English and incredibly cool. She really hates her job and is tired of living on this small island without any friends. She is planning to go abroad to work next April, but until then she’s really bored. We got lots of opportunities to talk together (she’s interested in the philosophy of health and nutrition and studying different religions). We were planning on having a slumber party this Friday, but I had to cancel because I’m still sick.

I’m glad Melissa loves cooking because I wanted to stay away from food prep as much as possible.

Mizorogi gave me a present! A black leather “lady’s business bag.” Very stylish!

The table—we got to sit on tables and chairs this year!! Although I really wanted to have everyone to my place in Narao, this was a nice set up. We had plenty of kitchen and table space and enough dishware.

The turkey is a funny story. With the basting bag, the turkey was too big for anyone’s microwave oven and at the last minute we had to call around to find a restaurant that could “lend” us their oven. Luckily Sanae’s friend’s parents own a nearby restaurant and the head chef cooked it for us. He even made us sweet potato chips, put it on a beautiful a tray and gave us the drippings to make gravy. He had to cut the turkey in half because the leg was done, but the thermostat in the middle hadn’t popped up yet. He was so great we were pretty lucky to have a cooked turkey this year!!

My traditional Thanksgiving dinner! Nothing’s missing, huh?!?

Enjoying dinner!! They liked everything except we got some funny faces while eating the pumpkin pie!!

That’s Thanksgiving #1 this year! I’m going to Ojika this weekend to have Thanksgiving #2 with Dawn and friends. Thanksgiving #3 is in early December with my school’s principal and wife, my scuba diving instructor and wife and a few teachers. My principal is really looking forward to it—he’s asked me about it twice since I invited him!!

Love,
Sierra

I love to get days off in the middle of the week. It’s the perfect excuse to get a million things done that I’ve been putting off. Today I’m cleaning and doing laundry.

Later I’ve got a date with some camp students who I met this summer, Mana and Keiko. They attend the bigger high school on the island so they’re close but I don’t see them often. We’re going to have lunch and do purikura.

Then I’m making Thanksgiving dinner!! I’ve been too busy recently to really think about what’s happening today. THANKSGIVING!!! I love this holiday and I get to have it again this year! I bought a real turkey too. It was kind of an accident because I bought it really quickly and I didn’t know what I was ordering. I thought it was the same small pre-cooked bird I got last year, but nope—this is the real thing! Damn! I’ve never cooked a REAL turkey before!

Luckily, I think it’s a turkey for dummies. The bag says just stick it in the oven for 2.5 to 3 hours and wait. It’s doesn’t require any thawing or stuffing or basting or whatever else you have to do to turkeys. Our only problem is an oven (it won’t fit in my microwave oven like last year) but I think we can borrow one from the town’s rent-a-kitchen this afternoon.

So yeah, dinner will include a turkey, gravy (if I can figure out how to make it from the turkey drippings), mashed potatoes, salad, stuffing, cranberries (from the can), pumpkin pie and Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider. Yeah! I even got the cider!! Writing about all this—I feel I need to get up and make my grocery list!!

Loving my iPod as much for the photos as for the music. Look at that nice big screen so I can watch my episodes of Lost!

When on its side it almost disappears!

I gave my old iPod to Masaharu. It's a horrible gift, but he loves it. It's got all kinds of issues. Its battery lasts about 5 minutes, I can't sync it to my computer to erase my information or change the songs, and it uses firewire which his computer doesn't support. He still loves it and got up at 7 this morning to start listening to it. It's great when someone really appreciates even an old hand-me-down.

Wish my Thanksgiving Dinner luck!
Love, Sierra

I got a theory while I was at the elementary school today. Let’s just say I’ve been getting sick more often (or continuously) since about October. And I had just started working at elementary schools in September. Since then have been exposed to around 70 additional kids every week—in total 350 or so every month. I shake/hold their hands, hold and play with all the same classroom supplies and gym equipment every week. Because the kids serve the school lunch, my food gets passed through God-knows-how-many hands before it reaches my desk. It’s really no surprise that I’m sick all the time.

A few teachers today tried to tell me it’s because I drink “raw” tap water, but I’ve been drinking this water for a year and a half and I really doubt, all of a sudden, it’s a problem for me. It’s gotta be the exposure to more children. We all know schools are breeding grounds for germs and I have four of them.

And next week because of testing at the high school I’ve got four consecutive elementary school visits. I love ‘em, but they’re taihen!

So, I slept 11 hours yesterday and I’m feeling okay. Good enough to post some pictures from the weekend.

Sumo wrestlers entering the building.

The omiyage shops in the sumo venue.

The ONLY picture I got of the actual ring! Did you know women are not allowed to set foot in the sumo ring?

The flags outside the sumo building. I think each major wrestler has his own flag, but I’m just speculating.

Dawn and me outside the building waiting for Taka to pick us up.

Cruising around in Fukuoka.

Tomoko and me drinking Starbucks at Canal City. My new favorite drink: warm soymilk!

Eating dinner at “Chanto,” an izakaiya in Canal City.

This was a very fun meal.

The next day Tomoko and Sumi took me around their area of Fukuoka. This is at the closest beach to their home. I think I look hilarious in this picture so I’m swallowing my pride to post it—it was just a little bright that morning and you can see my World’s Biggest Squint!

Sumi and me—not facing the sun!!

Jack and Rose.

A windsurfer.

Comet. Can you guess who he’s named after? I know you know this dog—he’s world famous and looks just like this one.

Me standing next to Shingo’s sculpture.

I had a good day at elementary school today. I taught them about Thanksgiving (the Pilgrims and the Native Americans and everything!!) by giving a puppet show and then asking them what they were thankful for. I got some really good responses, even from third graders. Family, grandparents, friends, pets, school, teachers, food, water, games, etc. Afterwards we did a craft. They traced their hands, made turkeys and wrote what they were thankful for in English.

I think they enjoyed a change in English lesson as well. We usually follow a “listen to Sierra and repeat after her” format, but I wanted to try something different today. The teachers were a little hesitant so it was difficult explain my ideas to them, but it turned out really well in three of four classes. Some teachers just “get it” and teaching anything with them is fun, others are more challenging. All the kids liked coloring, cutting, pasting and even writing in English!! I got lots of “Yatta!” and “Sugoi!” in my class.

Here’s the poster we made with the 4th grade students. Now they have something from English class to hang on their walls!

Love, Sierra

I’m sick again. I wasn’t ever completely over my bronchitis (which lasted a full month), but now I have a cold, too. My nose is blocked, my head is pounding and it hurts my chest to breathe. What happened to The Immune System of Steel that I use to boast about?

I haven’t written much recently because I’ve been away on the weekends and the weeks have been both shorter and busier. Some of you probably enjoy it when I have less to say. I’m trying to please the masses… =)

I just got back from a wonderful weekend in Fukuoka. I traveled over with Lori on Saturday morning. Because of overbooked ferries to Sasebo we had to take the roundabout ferry to Nagasaki and then a train up to Fukuoka. It cost $100 (one way) and took about a million hours. I just seem to have bad luck on this sumo weekend. Last year Kerry and I missed our boat twice and arrived at the basho for the last (albeit the most important) 20 matches.

After sumo I hung out with Dawn, Taka and Tomoko in Fukuoka. Taka cruised around the city while Dawn and I “karaoked” out the car windows to classics by the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. That is still fun to do at 23—and I was the youngest in the car! It’s extremely convenient (and FUN!) having a car in the city so I really soaked it up. We all had dinner together at an izakaya in Canal City. The Christmas lights are up already and it was really beautiful. I have pictures, but I’m too lazy to download them and upload them now. I’ll get around to it eventually.

I stayed the night at Tomoko (and sister Sumi’s) house, just on the outskirts of Fukuoka. I was planning on leaving Sunday afternoon from Sasebo, but the last ferry was still too early to allow me any real time with Tomoko and Sumi. I decided to take the midnight/overnight ferry back instead—a decision made easily enough when surrounded by fun city activities and friends and later regretted when I have to wake up at 6 a.m. after being on a ferry all night and then put in a full day’s work.

I’m glad I did it, though. We went to a Handel concert in Kitakyushu with the girls’ mother. Beautiful music, but 3 hours of gospel music is about my breaking point. I was pretty happy when it was over. We also tried going to their neighborhood fortune teller, but he wasn’t home. I was really looking forward to my first fortune, too!! Apparently he sells your fortune for a hot dog. I didn’t work out if he has a hot dog stand as a side-business and you must buy a hot dog from him before he’ll give you the fortune, or if you must bring him a hot dog because he really likes dogs and figures that’s a fair trade for your future. It would have been interesting to see this guy.

Wednesday is a holiday and I’ve got the day off. I’m cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my Aokata ekaiwa students and the turkey was just delivered today. I wasn’t going to do a turkey this year, but they had never tasted the bird and were willing to pay for it—internet turkey shopping isn’t cheap!! I’m looking forward to teaching them how to cook all our Thanksgiving favorites and sitting around with my Japanese family for the holidays. I sure hope I’m feeling better by then.

Well, I wanted to be back in bed by 10 and it’s already twenty past so I’m going to shut down. I’ve been looking through my gjestebok that everyone wrote in before I left Oregon last summer and I love reading all your messages and looking at the pictures. I’ve found it to be the best way to “see” all of you when I’m missing you.

Take care as it gets colder this year. Don’t be an old sicko like me!

All my love,
Sierra