Dartboard

17 new emails in my inbox last night. If half of them weren’t misdirected (junk mail or a list serve) I would be elated. Actually, I was elated anyway. I love emails.

So Dawn thinks my boyfriend looks like to Elvis Presley. And after looking at a picture, I think she’s kinda right…

Vicky calls me “Smelly.” At first I thought it was just a spur of the moment name, but she’s used it more recently. She also emailed me and said my boyfriend couldn’t come to dinner because “he smells.”

Yuki convinced me buy this new leg shaver/hair-puller machine and I just adore it!!! Most of you know that I don’t shave my legs. And I still don’t, but thanks to this machine I have very* smooth legs now!

Actually, I’ve known about these handy little tools since I was in junior high or so. A friend of my mother’s was visiting from California and wooed all us country bumpkins with her new fangled hair-pulling apparatus. (At that time we were still using razors!!!) The shiny device whirred and buzzed—it was like getting a wax, but A LOT more painful! It’s also a lot cheaper in the long run and has other noteworthy benefits. Eventually the hair gets thinner and finer and you only need to use it occasionally. Perfect for the amount of attention I dedicate to “hair removal.”

My karate test is tonight. I’m going for the second level brown belt. I’ve only practiced about 3 times this year and the sensei is still letting me take the test. I sense favoritism, but I fear his wrath if I refuse to take it. Is this a healthy relationship?

Speaking of healthy, I’ve joined a new club on this island to start being healthier. Some of the island girls started a club called SFS (Sexy for Summer) and I’m the secretary. We had our first meeting last night and we’re encouraging each other to eat better and work-out more. We’ve made dates to go to the gym and take a group hike. I’m really looking forward to having others hold me accountable and giving/receiving support. Since the first of March I’ve been giving up sweets for Lent. Success so far, but it’s only been three days.

Besides Lent, I’m also on the “I am Happy” Diet, which means since meeting Yuki I’ve lost weight. I’m not consciously dieting, but I’m happier and that just makes everything easier. My mom just sent me two pairs of jeans from America and I can’t believe it, but I actually fit into them. I asked her to send me 12s, but she said they looked too big for me and I was getting 10s instead. So she sent 10s and they fit like a dream! My Personal Aim in SFS is to keep fitting into them!!

It’s almost cleaning time at the school. Happy Girls Day! (hina matsuri)
Sierra

*In this sentence “very” is merely a comparative statement. Compared to a fresh shave my legs aren’t actually smooth, but compared to my legs the last few years, they are in fact very smooth.

The exchange rate is down to 115 yen to the dollar!!!! That makes my wallet smile!!! Do I change now or wait to see if it goes down further?!? This is always the question…

I think February is a funny month—finishing on the 28th and all. I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical reason why this month is stunted. I probably even learned that reason sometime during my seventeen years of schooling, but I can’t remember it now and instead it just feels funny.

I’m having a taco party this weekend. On Saturday I think four other ALTs will come and a bunch of Japanese friends and co-workers. I don’t have a ton of taco supplies, but I’m making chili and some other things too. I haven’t had everyone over to my house in a long time so I’m really looking forward to it. A good reason to deep clean the place! Even Dawn will be making her way over to Kamigoto for the weekend—it’ll be a wonderful slumber party!

This week I’ve got very few lessons. Three, to be exact. That’s three for the WHOLE WEEK! Monday and Tuesday we’re preparing for graduation (i.e. sit at my desk all day) Wednesday is graduation (i.e. sit at my desk all day except for the two hours when I watch the ceremony) and Thursday and Friday I have classes for the 1st and 2nd years.

I’ve applied to be a presenter at the re-contracting conference in Kobe in June. I’m doing it for a couple reasons, but the main one is that I’m going to miss Yuki so much when he goes to Tokyo so I want to make opportunities to see him. Kobe is a lot closer than Goto and we could spend a couple days together. I also know that giving these presentations at conferences is good experience for me. Something I can put on the resume.

Yuki will be leaving around March 31 to go to back to school in Tokyo. He’s promised to come to Fukuoka at least once a month to visit me, but I can only stay for a weekend because of work. I’ve used up (or planned for) all my paid vacation so I can’t even make a long weekend out of it. Yuki can also come out to Goto occasionally for a few days or a week but mostly we’ll just be separated for four months. That’s longer than we’ve been together. I wonder how that’ll work out.

He hates it (but secretly loves it) when I put pictures of him on my blog so this one is just for my Yukinator.

...oh, it's not working--he wins again. check back later... it's not over yet!

BUT before I even need to think about Yuki leaving, I get to think about our vacation together! I think I’m finally going to get to go to Korea! Yuki and I are planning a trip over spring break—March 18th-26th. We might go over to Mt. Aso in Kumamoto-ken first as there’s a Fire Festival going on, but then we’ll still have plenty of days left over to explore Pusan and Seoul. I’ve got a friend in Seoul who’s already agreed to share her 4x4 meter apartment with us, even give us her spare key so we can come and go as we please.

My last bit of news is about this year’s triathlon in Goto. Again, I’ve agreed to participate in the entire race, but I feel better about it because it’s a bit shorter this year. Instead of a half Ironman, the bike has been shortened from 71 km to around 45 km and the run is 3 km shorter than last year at 15 km. The swim is the same at 2 km, but I did the swim last year and I know I can do it again. Assuming the ocean waves and current aren’t too strong the morning of the race, the swim is the least worrisome part.

There is a big difference in the bike route, however. Last year there were only two loops around Komeyama (the huge mountain next to my house—those of you who’ve been here know it) and this year there will be FOUR!!! I’m worried about my knee (the right femur that I broke in HS) because if I push it too hard I’m done for. I guess I just need to train a lot for it and see how it goes.

I’ll have to start training soon, though. The weather is getting nicer and I should start riding my bike to work. It means earlier mornings, but also feeling better, more accomplished by 8 o'clock in the morning!

Love, Sierra

Vicky just annouced today is Pancake Day! Looking forward to celebrating that tonight!!!

What causes weak nails that break easily? Recently mine have been splitting and I can’t remember from all those years of reading girl’s beauty magazines what causes it. A deficiency in some vitamin I assume.
Help me!

P.S. You better reply, “Dear Help me!”

During cleaning time Friday I nonchalantly asked Yukimi in the hallway what her plans for the weekend were. Expecting her to, like most students at this school, not be able to respond to my question, when she said she had a concert in Arikawa, my ears perked up. She said she’d be playing an instrument of some sort and I asked if I could come watch. She seemed so excited that I gave her my phone number and asked her to confirm the time and place with me that evening.

I expected it to be a school event and pretty small at that, but when I arrived I found out it was a huge concert with numerous bands and lasting several hours. Yuki and I had hoped to be in and out within 30 minutes, but we ended up staying almost two hours. There were a couple rock bands with Kamigoto High School students, and an awesome guitar player (who was at Lori’s birthday party) and then Yukimi’s hand-bell group.
The high school band.

The hand bell group.

The contrast between the two high school rock bands and then the hand bell group was huge. One so wild and the other so desolate. We felt like we were in a different place all together. The bands had crowds of Japanese boys jumping up and down at the front of the stage and then every one was silent in their seats for the hand bells. What could have brought these two groups together? And why were those hand bell children so mournful? Not one of them was smiling!

After looking through some of the brochures handed to us when we arrived, we realized this was a charity concert for a Catholic orphanage here on my island. And the members of the hand bell group were all orphans. That explained why they all looked so sad. I immediately felt my heart go out to Yukimi. I know of one guy at my school who is an orphan, but I didn’t realize there were so many all around me. Apparently because of the numerous Catholic churches many people who can’t take care of their children for one reason or another send them to the Gotos. Their life in the orphanage must be so contrary to my understanding of what childhood is. Afterall, what is a childhood without parents?

After the hand bell choir finished, Yukimi came to sit next to me and Yuki and watch the next group perform. We chatted quietly together until finally Yuki and I had to leave—then she walked me all the out the door and thanked me for coming. It made me think long and hard about what it’s like to be without parents. Of all the children in the hand bell choir, how many of them had someone special watching them that day? Someone to take pictures of them? I was just randomly asking a student about her plans for the weekend and as it turned out spent a couple hours of my Sunday watching the concert, but I can’t help thinking that maybe for Yukimi, having someone come to watch her—and only her—was a very rare and special occurrence.

She was waiting for me at the entrance when I arrived and sat next to me after her performance and walked me out when I was leaving. That’s what I might do for my parents if they had come to my basketball game or musical performance. I don’t want to imply that I was some surrogate mother for Yukimi, but it makes me especially thankful that I had such a loving family when I was growing up. I also want to do more for the kids in the orphanages here—even if it’s just taking better notice of the orphans in my school and giving them a bit more special attention.

The next day at school Yukimi brought me two muffins and thanked me again for coming to her concert. I’d like to print out some of the concert pictures and give them to her soon, but I hardly feel like it’s enough. I wonder if there’s something more I can do.

Yukimi in the middle. She looks really sad, but she was probably the happiest in the group. She's got a great personality in class and a good brain for English. I can't wait to get to know her better.

After the concert Yuki and I went out for lunch with Carrie.

My group of college friends have this stuffed bunny that has traveled the world with us. Nast O. Bunny has been every where from the Ukraine to Spain, and now he visiting me for the first time in Japan. After his last appearance in August at my friend Jayme’s wedding, he now travels with his own photo album and diary. (And some white handkerchief-like cloth wrapped around his body—I don’t know the story behind that!)

The last couple months I’ve been faithfully showing Nast O. Bunny around my little island, taking pictures and collecting stories to write in his diary before I send him off to his next home—he’s got another wedding to attend in Washington this June! I’m just thinking about what special Japanese souvenir I should send him off with…