This weekend

Before I get into the weekend, I wanted to catch up on Friday. Friday morning, I had four English classes, so from the time I got to school until lunch time, I had class after class after class. In my 1^st grade class (which would really be 7^th grade in the States) they were practicing cursive. This was a very interesting concept for me. I was taught cursive in elementary school. I remember my teachers saying that we HAD to learn cursive because we’d HAVE to use it in day-to-day life. Once I got to middle and high school, I realized that not many people actually used it. Most people printed instead of using cursive. I asked my English teacher here if it’s normal to teach the kids cursive. She said yes, but it’s not always easy to find time to do it. I told her that in the States almost no one teaches cursive anymore. She asked me why, so I explained how it’s considered “old fashioned,” and most people print. In addition, with word processors and texting, there’s no need to write in cursive.

Friday evening, I had to catch up on my Japanese studying. I didn’t do thirty minutes on Wednesday or Thursday, so when I got home at 4:30, I had to do 1.5 hours of studying, and I did! It didn’t even really seem too bad. I actually continued studying until about 6:30.

Saturday morning, we woke up and skyped people like normal. We made plans to go shopping with Mary in Yatsushiro, so we drove to Kuma-mura, her village, and met up with her. We had never been to her house before, and we weren’t EXACTLY sure where it was, so we had an adventure getting there. First, we went up the wrong road and almost backed over a shrine. That would have been horrible! However, we got back on the right track and met her at her house. There is one main road that runs from Kuma-mura to Yatsushiro, the 219. It only takes about an hour. We’ve been that way before, and it’s an absolutely gorgeous drive. The road follows the Kuma River, so on one side of the road is the beautiful clear-green rolling river, and on the other side is lush green mountain.

Ian and I didn’t have any particular reason to go shopping other than we wanted to get out of Yunomae and hang out with friends. Mary wanted to Christmas shop for her family. When we got to the mall, I was amazed at the amount of Christmas decorations. I thought I was going to be able to escape the whole “let’s put up Christmas decorations right after Halloween” scene that every other mall in the States does, but apparently they do that in Japan as well! They don’t even celebrate Christmas here, but that doesn’t stop them from having fully lit Christmas trees, big blow up snowmen, bells, and Christmas music playing. I was shocked.

That night, we stayed with Mary at her house. We went to Mass in Hitoyoshi on Sunday morning, so instead of driving an hour back to Yunomae only to drive back to Hitoyoshi in the morning, we stayed the night. She had warned us that her house is loud since she lives off of the 219. She wasn’t joking! I don’t know how many times I woke up through the night because I heard a truck or loud car. In addition, Ian didn’t place the valve on our air mattress on correctly. Gradually throughout the night, air leaked, so by the morning, we were slumped together in the middle.

Sunday morning, just like the last time we went to Mass, we were the only foreigners there (other than the Irish priest). We had to stand up and introduce ourselves at the end of Mass again, and everyone was interested to see us again. I think I mentioned it last time, but Mass is a little different in Japan. Instead of shaking hands during peace time, they bow to one another. Also, most of the women still wear the veils on their heads. After Mass, instead of coffee and doughnuts like in the States, they have green tea. I guess it’s a little bit healthier than greasy and sugary doughnuts.  Everyone loitered outside of the entrance and sipped green tea for a bit. We did that as well, and people tried to come up and speak Japanese to us, but we couldn’t understand them and told them sorry.

After Mass, we went to the daiso (basically a dollar store). Surprise, surprise, we found a whole aisle of Christmas decorations! We had plenty of time to kill before meeting up with other friends for lunch, so we sat in the parking lot and skyped a couple of friend back in the States. We ate lunch with Mary, Katakin, and Melissa B. at the Indian restaurant that we love. It has the BEST food, and the owners know us. If there’s a big enough group of us, they usually give us free cheese naan. We stayed there for a long time just talking and laughing and having a good time. After lunch, we went to a hardware store so that Ian could buy stuff for his make-shift BBQ pit. It’s a little bit ghetto, but it’ll work.  He bought a large terra cotta pot, grates, and a small portable burner to act as the heating agent. He’s going to smoke our turkeys for Thanksgiving.  Everyone agreed that smoked turkeys would be better than oven cooked turkeys.  Plus, ovens here are NO WHERE near the size of ovens in the States.  Generally, the largest ovens are the size of toaster ovens, so we had to have a larger space to cook our turkeys.

I think this is a good place to stop. As usual, thanks for reading, and please continue to!