Dartboard

Hey, do you like my new look? I was needing change!

This weekend has been wonderful. As much fun as we had last weekend in Nagasaki, I was looking forward to a quiet couple of days at home, recovering from this cold I seem to have caught.

Oh! I forget to mention that I’ve officially started studying Japanese. Formally. I am leaving my desk for a designated hour (and sometimes two) to study Japanese with Yamanaki-san, in the Career Center everyday. She’s pretty excited about teaching me and so has made up all these flashcards. So far we’ve studied colors, time-phrases (this month, day after tomorrow, next year) verb conjugation, and some basic nouns. We get so excited sitting there together and watching how much progress I make. I often feel like blurting something out in Spanish because I already know how to say it. The foreign language part of my brain says, “Can’t do it in Japanese, how ‘bout Spanish?” But I feel like I could really learn a lot from her if I take advantage of this opportunity. I already can say short phrases more easily and understand a lot more of what’s going on around me.

So Saturday Dan and I had to wait for a food order from Alishan (an organic food store) that was supposed to arrive before noon. (It was a refrigerated order and of course needed a person to sign for it.) But noon came and went and the food didn’t arrive. We watched the VP debate and contemplated what we’d do once the food arrived. But the food didn’t arrive, and didn’t arrive, and by 4 p.m. we decided one of us’d better go get groceries for dinner. We had invited Rie and Koichiro over for Mexican at 6:30 p.m. and were hoping the real –unprocessed, extra sharp cheese and tortillas would arrive for them to experience. I went to the grocery store at bought the nasty processed cheese they have available here and some other supplies. We started cooking and cleaning and at 6:15 the doorbell rang. It was our food! I was so happy—we quickly unpacked and stuffed our fridge full of all the goodies.

We had tacos, refried beans and Spanish rice and our guests just loved it. It was their first time eating tacos and refried beans—what an international experience! They were pretty awkward eating the tacos and I said that’s what using chopsticks is like for the first time! Koichiro went to the sink to wash his hands after every taco because they were full of hamburger grease and Tabasco sauce. We finished our tacos, but they wanted to try burritos too! I don’t know where Koichiro packs it away—he’s shorter than me and very thin. I made Koichiro a double taco (yeah! I’ve got refried beans from a food order too!) and instructed Rie to fold up a burrito. I tried to explain that burritos are often overstuffed and it’s okay for stuff to fall out the end and onto your plate. She tried hard to roll it though and it just ended up tearing! But I think they had a good time and maybe are brave enough to come again another time.

DT and I watched “The Sweet Hereafter” Saturday night, but I didn’t enjoy it much. I wasn’t in the mood for a movie about death and I didn’t feel like it had any closure. It made me cry and then I realized how much I love having DT here. He’s makes things make sense and he’s a part of home and normalcy. I’m going to miss having someone to hug when I’m sad and crying, someone to share the dishes, cooking and laundry, someone to wake up next to on my futon every morning. So I got all my tears out and promised myself not to take his long stay for granted. It’s gunna be tough when we goes…

Sunday we were planning on biking to the north with Asagami and going to the pool for a swim. We’ve decided at Friday Night Feber that I’m going to do the whole Triathlon. I must be crazy. At the end of my half marathon (just over 13 miles) I was totally dead and I have to do 10 miles of running AFTER swimming and biking. We’ll see how long it takes me to chicken out! =) This was going to be the beginning of our training—biking and swimming, but we didn’t have enough bikes and my cold was getting worse.

What we ended up doing, however was just as fun! Catherine and Peter invited us and Midori-chan for a drive. We didn’t really have much idea where we were going—well, maybe Peter did, but I was just up for exploring the island. We found this random park on one of the highest points on (we think) the entire island. I read the sign, but all I remember is some stuff about this being a lookout for a military base because you can see mainland China on clear days. That seems pretty incredible though—maybe I misremembered. We also found this obstacle course thing and were like children jumping and playing on everything. The weather was warm and the view beautiful.

The playground.

The view.

Catherine playing on the slide which looked like it had been roped off for a reason!

You can see the oil reserve in the haze. Have I told you? The largest oil reserve in the world is right here in Aokata? It’d serve Japan for four years if it was their only source of oil. (And I thought I’d be safe on a remote island in Japan!)

Playing on the swings and obstacle courses.

The four of us. Peter, Catherine, Dan and Sierra.

Then, there was another set of stairs leading further up, toward the radio tower. Dan decided to sprint up them for some exercise. Bad idea. The pathway was covered in spider-webs. And not small little webs either. These are the strongest webs, built by the largest spiders that all four of us had ever seen. They were so disgusting. Catherine lead the way and we all ducked and dodged the spiders and their webs. Peter accidentally ran into one and it didn’t even break! It was amazing how strong they are! Apparently these spiders like to fight too. I think they’re harmless to people, but they don’t mess with each other! We made it to the top and enjoyed more views and fresh air. Today was such a beautiful day.

The car park and the spider-web stairs (on the left) leading up to the highest point.

DT and me.

The four of us again.

Another view of Arikawa or Urakura.

After that, we drove on to another town and another small lookout, but this one had access to a beach. It was so much fun. The tall, golden grass growing in the sand reminded Daniel and I of Oregon’s beautiful coast. We climbed on rocks, watched boats and tugs coming in from sea, and enjoyed the salty breeze. Daniel collected shells and now they grace my toilet sink. What a wonderful idea, DT! I laid on a huge rock in the sunshine, feet dangling to the ocean, and thought about how lucky I am to be here.

Love and Fond Memories,
Sierra