Farewell, Bike!

I sold my bike! The Yasaka JET, Megan (Leigh's successor) offered to pay me for my lovely, Dr. Pepper can-coloured bicycle! Hooray! So, she drove the long road up to Ine and I introduce her to her new fly ride.

After re-homing a few rogue spiders, we pushed the bike over to her kei-car SUV and tried to put it inside, failing spectacularly! We would need a wrench to take the front tire off the bike... but where could we find one?

A-ha! Surely the gas station would have a wrench. Don't cars have bolts or whathaveyou? So, I valiantly rode the bike one last time in the humidity of this fair seaside village all the way to the gas station.

When I arrived, Megan was standing off to the side while everyone at the gas station (all two people) stared at her unapologetically. We explained what needed to be done, and the trusty gas station attendant, Mr. Mitsuno, went to work and deftly removed the front tire of the trusty mamachari bike. And lo, the bike fit within the confines of her trunk. But what about me? How would I get back home?

Double lo, I also fit within the confines of her trunk!

And so we celebrated with the washing of our dirt-covered hands and the eating of local tempura-don.

Goodbye, bike! You were one of the great ones.

Gaijin muck around, plant rice

I joined Leigh, Ray, Steve, Claire, Ruth and Masami Yoshida for some good old fashioned rice planting this weekend. The steps are simple: roll up pants, put on a ridiculous hat, take off your shoes, stand knee deep in mud/creatures and shove some rice plants in the ground. Masami had already planted about 99% of the rice with a tractor or machine of some sort and the group of us were just filling in the holes that the machine had missed. There isn’t much more to tell, but it was one of those experiences where you stop mid-way between your task to think, “Wow I’m planting rice in Japan – it doesn’t get any zanier than that does it?” I would also stop every few minutes to think about how many tadpoles, swimming centipedes, snails and general creepy crawlies [including spiders that walk on water] were flitting around my ankles. I didn’t like it when I had those thoughts, but they were frequent. The guys got REALLY into it (along with Leigh… and even Claire for that matter!) I, on the other hand, was more of a well-wisher and enjoyed the experience without ever wanting to do it again. We finished off the evening with a feast at the Yoshidas, and I quickly fell into a food coma.
The next morning I met Yuuki and we went to the Sakura Park in Honjo/Tsutsukawa for the sports challenge day. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just a bunch of kids playing baseball (Honjo won because the teams tied so they janken’d for it!), PTA games, and eventually a long walk around the Tsutsukawa area. I think it was about 8km, they said. Yuuki and I put on our number jerseys and set out with the entirety of Honjo Elementary school girls on our walking adventure! It was very very very hot. I blew through two bottles of water within the hour and a half we were outside. We also saw a million rice patties, old houses, birds, bugs, and even a snake in the grass! Eek! Afterwards Yuuki and I went to eat FAMOUS SOBA at the Urashima Shrine Park in Honjo across from my house. Good eatin’. We then were too lazy to do anything else the whole day and went home to nap for all eternity.

Graduation Ceremony Day, Some People Care

Today was White Day. This is the day where girls get chocolate from boys. I didn’t, but I did go to a graduation at Ine JHS. There isn’t much to say about it. Teachers dressed up in suits (which helped me to realize that I need to reintroduce exercise into my daily regiment), students wore their same old school uniforms (with pretty red flowers attached), and parents showed up in suits or kimonos! We also had a group of important looking men show up, as is necessary for most Japanese ceremonies, I feel. One of them was the mayor, as it turns out! La-dee-da!

The ceremony itself was about an hour and a half in length. Speeches, bowing, formalities, and then we got to leave. Short and sweet! It was cute seeing my students with their parents, and cuter still watching them enter the teacher’s room one by one to say, ‘thank you!’ and dash out, embarrassed and a bit teary.

I felt lucky to spend the day at Ine JHS on a Friday instead of my usual schedule of going over to sit around at the BOE and twiddle my thumbs. I was also very fortunate in that I got to take food home from the 3rd year graduation party! I grabbed some sushi and sandwiches before heading down to Scott’s apartment to watch movies with Leigh. A good day by all accounts.

I also managed to take some interesting pictures of my town – proof that the weather is actually getting nicer.

Walkabout

Saturday wasn’t terribly eventful… mostly going to a tavern-type place (izakaya) with some friends after hanging out with Liz at her house for a few hours. She put up some Christmas decorations and I showed her a thing or two about her new macbook laptop!

The next day I joined the townspeople of my area for a walkathon! I wasn’t quite sure why the town was having a walkathon until much later, but the reason for it was that the bridge connecting the main road to itself was completed. Now I am able to take a main road from my house to anyone else’s house, which will be great once it starts to snow. Before I would have to take one of three back roads to get anywhere. This cuts my travel time by about 10 minutes, which is handy!

I suppose the walkathon was in celebration of this bridge, and for the hell of it. As autumn seems to be turning into a strange, moist season (it rains or hails 99% of the time now), I think everyone was keen to walk while the weather was still manageable.

Luckily for the people of Tsutsukawa, Ine and Honjo, the weather was lovely! It was in the 50’s and the day was clear and even a bit warm (or maybe it was all the walking). The walk was divided into three courses, 4 kilometers, 7 kilometers and 10 kilometers. None of them was too long or arduous. I joined the boss of the Board of Education (or rather he sort of made me join him) and some of his family. He had a daughter (in law?) and three grandchildren. Hamano-san is an energetic and kindly old man. I think he likes hanging out with the town gaijin because it makes him look good to the rest of the town and interesting to his colleagues. I would have spent the time with my students, but I suppose the company wasn’t lacking!

There were a lot of children and elderly people joining in the walk (and I am talking ELDERLY, like people in their 80’s and 90’s). Many of them decided on the shorter courses, but I was impressed nonetheless! Many of the children joined the walk as well with their parents and friends. Most of them did the full 10 kilometers. The baseball team ran the whole thing! I was so impressed by that. It wasn’t just 10 kilometers around a track; it was up and down Seaside Mountains and everything! We even saw a miniature dauschund walking the 10 km hike! He seemed pleased. The whole thing took just under three hours with the constant stopping to appease the 3 year old. It’s hard to make a 3-year-old walk five miles without stopping, it really is. He, Harunori, was a pretty awesome kid though, and didn't’ complain once. When he got tired he would simply sit down until his mother came to fetch him and carry him on her back. The walk was beautiful, and because nobody stretched, we were all very sore the next day. My feet hurt quite a bit by the end of it, but instead of falling asleep on the floor of my hallway, I managed to drive South and hang out with some people at a Korean-style restaurant before going to a shopping mall and buying a new watch.

Nothing else remotely interesting happened, which was fine by me! I’ve had enough crazy weekends so this was a nice relaxing one for a change.

First Day of School

The First Day Jitters: Rachel Loses Balance, Dignity

I am having that first day of school experience that I tell myself I won't have, and ALWAYS end up having. Even as a teacher! I am doomed!

On my first day of high school I fell off the school bus! I was wearing platform shoes so I just toppled right off. And everyone was like "ARE YOU OKAAAY????" but I just got up and tried to disappear into the crowd as best I can. I told myself it was not the end of the world and I would live to see another day. Then I fell down in the hallway. And later I fell up some stairs. Apparently, my feet could not get it together that day.

I am kind of reliving that day.
In fact, I tell that story in my introductory speech, which I have written for my intro at the assembly (read: WAS FORCED TO WRITE). I made the mistake of writing it in English and in Japanese..... which I was helped with. But writing something and speaking something are different. And speaking in front of a mass of giggly teenagers who I've never met in my life is terrifying even though I am no longer a teenager. I think there is a part of us that stays a teenager forever. The part of us that dies of embarrassment when we feel like we're being judged.

Yesterday was fine. It was 9am and the students weren't even awake yet. I gave my speech, made no mistakes, and the students seemed to enjoy it and I immediately fell in love with all of them for not giggling through my speech or making me feel like more of an ass. I'm sure I was bright red after it anyway, I always blush when I have to do stuff like that.

Flashback to the first time I had to pitch a film idea in class, freshman year. I stuttered through my written proposal and people started laughing and making joke proposals about where the film could go (which I would later find hilarious as every one recommending things became my best friends not long after). The distractions of the people trying to lighten up my nerves made it worse, and I ended up turning bright red, not being able to say a word and nearly bursting into tears. Ironically it was Randall that came to my aid with constructive criticism and asked if I could show the class my storyboards (as he was the TA at the time). I couldn't get it together that day either.

Nearly four years later, I find myself standing in front of the bigger Ine junior high school class. Already the kids are giggling. It is not helping my nerves. I'm already preoccupied with the fact that I was unable to finish my lunch. Although delicious, it was seriously too much food. Curry, rice, orange pudding atop of weird seaweed (which is good but strange) which is called tokoroten (ところてん）, milk, an apple that I brought from home, and somen or そうめんサラダ, which is cucumber, carrot, noodles, egg and way too much mayonnaise. So everything was edible, and most things were quite delicious. But I really just can't eat that much for lunch!!! I never do! My big meals are breakfast and dinner. Mostly breakfast. Breakfast which I had eaten 3 or 4 hours previous, and I wasn't hungry to begin with. I couldn't finish. And in Japan, EVERYONE finishes their meal. Even these 75 pound women with the 14" waists were wolfing down their school lunch. I felt so embarrassed that I ate way more than I wanted to, and that somen might as well have been live slugs b/c I was not enjoying anything I put in my mouth. I was literally force feeding myself. It was disgusting.

Flashback to my 6th grade play when I forgot every single one of my lines and had to elbow the person next to me so they would go instead.

So after disgracing myself at lunch, not to mention feeling sick from too much mayo-noodle-salad-death™, I had to give my speech. Which brings us back to the gym full of giggling teenagers.

I messed up soooooooo maaaaany words. I kept telling myself "they're not giggling at YOU they're not even paying attention to you! They're giggling because they are 12 year old girls and that is what 12 year old girls DO" but it didn't help. Every giggle made me turn more scarlet, and every messed up word made me want to jump out a window. Finally it was over and I got down.

This is the first time I've wanted to cry since coming to Japan. But at least the speeches are over, and the next time I have to talk in front of the kids it will be in ENGLISH and I will be the one giggling at THEM!!!!! ...in a constructive and nurturing way.

I mean this day can only get worse, so maybe it will be my bad day for the week and I can look forward to fun happy things that make me not feel like a slug.

BBQ and Mukade #2 - Unrelated

BBQ#2 + Mukade #2 - Mostly Unrelated.

Ugh I found another mukade when I woke up this morning. Thankfully it was not in my bed or upstairs, it was downstairs by the shoes. Although I don't feel very happy about poisonous centipedes creeping around my shoes so much, but I'd still rather them there than in my bed. (shudder)

I sprayed it, put it under a piece of paper towel, and put a cloth towel over it. I find this is the most efficient way to kill bugs. Less mess, and less having to look at it. It reacted immediately to the pesticide, writhing and seizing. God it's really hard to do that to an insect, but you can't really release them because they just get bigger and come back into your house and eat you (that's just science). So you have to get rid of them, unfortunately. I didn't want to squish it but I think I gave it a rather agonizing last few moments (more like 35 minutes). It was still alive when I left for work, but just barely. So I swept it out the door. Blech.

I came home to grab my textbooks after a short meeting with Aimi-sensei this morning (truth be told I utilized the "meeting time" I had allotted myself to run errands because I didn't want to go back to the BOE). As I left to go back to work I noted that the mukade was gone. I wonder if a bird had picked him up or if he had crawled into the grass. Either way is pretty terrible, considering I probably poisoned the bird. Ugh. It boils down to the fact that I am a horrible person, I suppose.

Last night I went to a BBQ by the Urashima Shrine with Tsuji-sensei. Of course she had Anyway T-sensei and myself and the PE teacher (Ohada-sensei) who is about our ageish (probably 27?) walked down to the shrine with our CC Lemon (lemon soda with the vitamin C of 70 lemons per serving!) and grapes. There we met a bunch of the neighborhood ladies who are sooooo nice.

It took about 35 minutes for them to get the fire lit since they were using the most burnt looking wood I have ever seen. But they managed! The neighborhood kids all played "ketchi bo-ru" or "catch? baseball?" There was a liiiiiittle kid, about 3 or 4 years old I would guess who was the most adorable person there. She ate more food than anyone, it was incredible. Once they got the fire going, we had yakiniku (grilled beef) yakitori (grilled chicken) yaki yasai (veggies) and one of the ladies had brought home made onigiri (rice balls, soooo good). It was mouthwatering. Much beer was had as well. They have canned screwdrivers here! (for those of you who didn't go to "college", a screwdriver is orange juice and vodka). In a can!!!! Amazing! I mentioned to the women that me and the rest of the folk we call America can't sit like the Japanese do. They just sort of squat. I don't think I can even physically do that, much less hold the position for an hour. I sat American-style instead, on my butt. They were surprised that not everyone can sit that way. Well gee in other countries we have ... chairs... and toilets... and couches. I think that would do it. Anyway it was fun to hang out, but at the same time it was a bit boring for me. I mean aside from the language barrier, its not even interesting to hang out with a bunch of moms in the states if you don't know them and aren't really their age or anything. They chattered on about T-sensei being all married and stuff which was cute. And from there, I have no idea, I zoned out.

The most exciting part of the evening was the fireworks because kids in the inaka are totally allowed to play with fireworks. I think that is awesome. T-sensei made me go light some although the inner American child was screaming " NOOOO YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED! YOU'LL BURN YOUR ARMS OFF!!!!" but I didn't burn my arms off at all, and in fact I had a good time. Even the little baby was walking around with a sparkler. Sparkler is a word Japanese people can't say (in case you ever need one).

Supaaaa...supaaaka....raaa....?
sssspark-lerrr
Spaakurrruuura
NO.

and so on. My feet were destroyed by new bugs, "ka" or to us, MOSQUITOES, my arch nemesis. I have about 8 bites on my feet alone, they are murder. Because bug bites no your feet never just itch, they swell and fester and make you unhappy all night and all day. Good times!

Introducing, Yukiko Tsuji.

Yukiko Tsuji - My ぺらぺら Hero

I JUST met my neighbor who is the English teacher from Honjo Jr. High school (the one closest to me, obviously). She speaks FLUENT English. I know people have told me this loads of times already but seeing it just ... well goodness!

I live in INE... now anywhere else in Kyoto-fu you could run into a person who speaks decent English, but in Ine there are only 2600 people to begin with and I swear to god all of them are crazy obaa-san who dash out in the road with their canes just to mess with you!

So after my way too long nap to open the door and meet Yukiko Tsuji... it was like being in some sort of weirdo dream. She said "Hi I'm your neighbor! My name is Yukiko!"

normally it's like... tons of bowing and nodding and looking awkwardly at me and then pointing to themselves and bowing more and lots of "hai hai hai" and I never remember names. She didn't bow once, she just said "Hey there's a festival going on around 7:30 if you want to go."

Hell yeah I do! I feel like I have found the key to unlocking all of Ine's crazy mysteries, like how to send mail and pay bills and properly sort the garbage. I'm so happy.

The festival was a lot of fun, too! I met some of my neighbors, some of the students I will be teaching, and saw a lot of people in yukata. I also had a delicious strawberry snow cone and watched the gas station guys sing karaoke.

Shiori, Ayumi, Saori and Tsuji-sensei

Weekend/fun had by many

Two Cars, Nine Foreigners, One Beach

This weekend was wonderful! On Saturday I cleaned my entire house... mostly. It was about 96º outside, so I took constant tea and coffee and ice cream breaks, watched a movie in the middle of the day, and spent most of the time reconfiguring the futon business and putting away the leftover blankets in the tatami bedroom closets. So now everything that was out is put away, which is awesome.

I also sorted all my gross trash and I can't wait until Tuesday when I can put out all my old food garbage, ugh its really beginning to smell funky! Blegh.

Sunday was a more eventful day, as I had nine people come over so we could all go to my nearby beach in Honjo, aptly named Honjo Beach. I drove down to Miyazu city, which is about a 50 minute drive, and picked up three ladies at the train station (Marina, Amy and Paulette). Marina is from LA and she is a hilarious tiny tiny Ukranian girl who lives in Fukuchiyama (which is a bit of a hike by train to Miyazu). Amy deLong is from Kentucky hilarious behind her freckled, quiet exterior. And Miss Paulette, who is an awesome theatre junkie from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is very boisterous.

From the train station I drove us to Mipple, which is a big lame department store on the bay in Miyazu. There we met Jarrad, a 31-year old ex lawyer from Tacoma. He looks like he’s about 24 years old. He told us that everyone he meets thinks he is a nice Jewish boy because he has a sweet face and glasses and a beard and he's a soft spoken lawyer. There are worse things to be mistaken as, I guess!

We also met up with Yumi, my favorite Japanese person. She is a 25 year old student who lives in Miyazu and likes to tag along on JET outings. Her English is flawless and she asks great questions, such as "what is crazy sex?" Or "do you think Lucy Liu is beautiful? Japanese people don't." Her mom of all people dropped her off, which I guess isn't extremely embarrassing in Japan (nerdy things tend to not be nerdy here, I have noticed). Grown men in Hello Kitty slippers? HELL yeah.

We then went inside Mipple and grabbed some food, since everyone wanted lunch. I personally was dying to go to a restaurant, but nobody else wanted to. I guess they all have restaurants in their towns so they didn't find the idea nearly as exciting. So we bought bentos and onigiri (the rice balls of deliciousness). The coolest thing I discovered, other than the pikachu ride in the upstairs arcade, was a cooler of green tea cans. I reached in to grab a can of ice cold green tea for the hot day and then realized the can was HOT. It was a cooler of hot drinks! Technology! The rest of the JETs started touching all the cans and yelling "its hot!" I then realized we must have looked insane to everyone else in the store. Stupid gaijins.

In Mipple, we met up with the last three JETs, Desirae (Kentucky fried Sweetheart), Scott (our South African resident/former film student), and new JET from Maryland, Liz! Liz is 100% Maryland. She came in with her dark blue regatta sports t-shirt, jean shorts, flip flops and dark blue visor, complete with freckles and a runner's ponytail. She is also a huge Harry Potter fan, so the conversation flowed like buttah.

The crew drove out to Ine in two cars: my little kei-car and Scott's white plated, normal-sized car. It was a long trek, and very warm, but we finally made it to my house! Everyone oohd and aahd at the size of my "mansion" and we ate snacks and put on sun screen. Then we grabbed the beer and food and went to the beach. The beach by my house is AWESOME. The water is mostly warm (but not too warm), there are no waves, no sticky sand, and no pointy things in the water. It's the perfect relaxation beach. We grabbed some inner tubes and hung out in the ocean for hours. It was delightful. Desirae brought her snorkel mask and kept finding us starfish! A few of us got nibbled on by a curious little crab (I am convinced it was the same crab every time) and we saw quite a few fishes. It was pretty much the best day ever. After we'd had enough swimming, we plastered ourselves on the sand and drank beers and had delicious Japanese snacks, procured by Miss Paulette. Mochi-balls (sticky sweet rice) and shrimp crackers and delicious beeeeer (brought by yours truly and Amy). Then we swapped bad relationship stories (I received much sympathy for the Randall debacle, or as Yumi called it "that horrible bastard boyfriend" because she couldn't say his name.) The best was the few who were admitting to writing or receiving really bad poetry from significant others or people who had crushes on them.

After the beach we had some delicious Nyuu Yooku sutayaru cheezuke-ki (New York style cheesecake) made by Yumi. It was very delicious! People kept telling me they wanted to stay, and I honestly wanted them to stay for more time! But sadly, there were trains to catch. So we began the long trip back to Miyazu, where I dropped everyone off, and turned right around to go home. I think I spent about 4 hours in the car yesterday. Worth it.

It's amazing how many instant friends I seem to have already! I only just made good friends my last few weeks in Los Angeles, so it's incredible to have so much socializing all of a sudden. I am not complaining, mind you.

Anyway, it was a good weekend and I even got a tan (to cover my burn!)