last blog of the year!

As I’m sitting at my desk watching the minutes tick by s-l-o-w-l-y, I thought I could pass the time by writing my blog. As perhaps you could tell from my title, I’m fairly certain that this will be my last blog of the year. I’m sure tomorrow morning will be spent packing, and then tomorrow night we’ll hop on a night bus bound for Osaka! We don’t really have definite plans for what we want to see or do, but I’m sure we’ll manage.

Last night, we went out to eat in Hitoyoshi with a few friends. Justine’s mom came to visit her for Christmas, and she wanted us to meet her. I was really excited! It’s always fun to have a new face in the gun, and it was almost like we had our own little family sitting around the table enjoying one another. It’s lonely over here sometimes, and you forget what it’s like to have a normal family. Skype helps a lot, but being physically present is different than an image on the screen. Justine’s mom being here made me very excited for two things: 1) going home in July and seeing everyone. I can’t wait! 2) my own family coming to visit me!

I guess Christmas/New Year’s is the time to give your co-workers gifts. Yesterday before I left work, one of my co-workers gave me a Christmas present. It was not only very sweet but absolutely precious as well. It was half of a cardboard egg carton. It was decorated very fancy. She had cracked the tops of the shells and removed the egg. Inside each egg, she had put moss and a sprig of a plant. There were instructions in Japanese, but she explained to me that I should water each egg for the next two weeks, and then I could plant them. It was too cute! Today, the principal at my elementary school personally came over to thank me for the cookies I made last week. He gave me a sack and told me that the “cookie box” was inside. When I lifted it up, I realized that the bag was way too heavy for just one Tupperware container. Inside he had all kinds of little sweet treats. My container was full of them, and there was another small bag of treats. Also, this morning some guy came to the elementary school and brought all of the teachers sweet potatoes. They were already cooked and warm and delicious!

That’s really all I have to say for now. It’s crazy to think that 2011 is coming to a close. I stop and think where I was a year ago and how much different my life is now. A year really does make a difference! Here’s to the future and whatever might come in 2012. Happy New Year, everyone!

Nothing says Christmas like skype and kangaroo!

Santa did NOT come visit us this year. Perhaps it’s because he couldn’t find our house. Perhaps it’s because we’ve somehow been naughty. Perhaps it’s because we don’t have a chimney and forgot to leave our milk and cookies. However, I firmly blame Ian. I went to bed around midnight on Christmas Eve, and little Ian didn’t crawl into bed until around 2AM. I’m sure Santa saw that Ian was still awake, and he passed right by our house. Actually, Ian and I didn’t get each other anything for Christmas. We said that it’s a little difficult to shop for one another over here, so we mutually decided on no presents this year. We did mutually splurge on something, though, and considered it a gift to one another. We bought a fondue pot. The Japanese fondue pots are nothing like our fondue pot at home. It’s a simple tiny ceramic bowl hovering above a candle. We’ve have fondue at our friend’s house, though, and it still tastes excellent!

My family is somewhat fractured this Christmas. Normally, Christmas is the holiday that everyone comes home for. My older sisters usually go to their in-laws’ houses for Thanksgiving, so Christmas is at the Wurth house. However, this year Christina and Amanda spent Thanksgiving at home and Christmas with the in-laws. I’m over here, so that meant that the only family left was my younger brother, Aaron, and my parents at home. This is the first year ever it was going to be this way, and my mom was really upset about it. She said she didn’t want to stay in Paducah, so my parents escaped to Florida for Christmas. Therefore, instead of one skype call in which I talk to everyone, I called each individual family member. I set my alarm on Christmas morning for 9AM to make SURE that I was awake to call Grandmother. My brother, Aaron, and I arranged to skype right after Christmas dinner at my aunt’s house. He used his iphone and told Grandmother that someone wanted to talk to her. When he passed the phone to her, and she saw my face, the look on her face was the best. She was too excited. She couldn’t hear very well and was afraid that we were going to use all of Aaron’s “minutes,” so she didn’t stay on the line for very long. However, I got to talk to Aunt Pat, Uncle Gerald, Kelly, and Lisa (cousins) for a bit, and I haven’t talked to them since I left in July. Aaron and I talked even longer. He JUST got skype so that we could surprise Grandmother with a Christmas skype, so I don’t really talk to him that often, and it was great to catch up. We had a long list of people to skype, so once we finished that call, we continued on to Ian’s dad, aunt, and grandfather, my sisters, and a couple of friends.

Christmas day didn’t really seem like Christmas at all. It just seemed like another day. We sat around the house all day staying snuggled up. We can always tell that it’s colder than crap outside when we can hear the wind whistling around the side of the house. Whenever we pulled back the curtains, we realized that it was SNOWING!! Don’t get too excited. It was certainly nothing to brag about. It was barely even snowing and certainly didn’t stick. I wanted to take a picture of our Christmas snow, but two things happened to hinder this: a) I didn’t think that the snow would even register in the photo, and b) it was really freaking cold. I didn’t want to stand outside.

Christmas dinner was a special affair. Ian ordered kangaroo (yes, like the Australian animal) online a few weeks ago just to try it. We agreed to wait for Christmas to eat it. Why not? David and Mary were the only other ALTs in the area that hadn’t gone anywhere, so we invited them over for Christmas dinner. In addition to the kangaroo steaks, we had biscuits, veggies, and mashed potatoes. Several people have asked me what kangaroo tastes like. It’s like a really lean and tasty steak. We’ll definitely have it again! The only downside is that it was an extremely bloody meat. There was blood on the sink, cutting board, knife, and floor. It really looked like Ian had murdered someone in our kitchen.

Mary’s boyfriend, Hiro, brought us an omiyage box of treats and a Christmas cake. Mary told us that they were at the store before they came over, and he asked her if we had a Christmas cake. She said probably not since we’re American and despite the Japanese theory that Americans eat Christmas cake, we don’t. It was really sweet of him to think of us and get it! The cake was beautiful, too! The Japanese always are incredibly meticulous when it comes to food. If you see a picture of an item in a menu, that item is going to look as beautiful and mouth watering in real life as it does in the picture. The cake had sugar stars, a Santa, and a Christmas tree in addition to the chocolate bars. After we had our fill of dinner and dessert, we moved onto games. Mary had brought her play station, so the three boys played that while Mary and I gabbed and gossiped. It was just like Christmas at home!

Monday:

I had a nice alarm clock on Monday morning. Ian forgot to turn off his computer, so I woke up to someone calling on skype. I stumbled over to the computer and saw that it was one of our closest friends, Brittany Fiscus. She is the one that actually inspired me to join the JET Program, and she visited us in October before she left Japan on her two month world travel home. Brittany just got home late last week, and I tried to call her once or twice on skype, but she didn’t answer, so I was just going to allow her to call us. I was sure that she was busy reconnecting with family and friends, so I didn’t want to butt in. So as the computer was ringing, I definitely wanted to answer it! She could tell that I was groggy, and she immediately apologized. I glanced down at the clock and realized that my alarm would have gone off in five minutes anyway, so it was no big deal. We skyped for a little while as I got ready for work, and it was so good to talk to her! She knows EXACTLY what I’m going through over here.

I had to go to work the day after Christmas. Ugh! To make matters worse, there were no students at school, but the teachers still had to come. Therefore, I had to look busy when I had nothing to do. It’s weird because when I first got to school, time was crawling. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it through the day! (I console myself by knowing that I’m getting paid a lot to basically do nothing. ) I started my day blogging, then reading, then facebooking, and one thing led to another. Before I knew it, time was actually getting away from me! I spent the afternoon skype chatting people, which took up A LOT of time. At one point, I had four different conversations open on skype and facebook. It felt like high school again when IM’ing was popular. Switching back and forth between windows and watching the icon light up when people messaged gave me the same feeling as back in the day.

Tuesday:

Wow. I haven’t actually written about the present in a while. It seems like I’m constantly playing catch-up, so this is weird. There’s not much to mention today. It’s been another boring day at work. This morning was difficult to get out of bed. It must have been very cold last night because I woke up a couple of times with not enough blankets to keep me warm. I thought about riding my bike to the BOE but quickly decided against it.

I spent the morning at the BOE since I didn’t have my nursery schools this morning. Yesterday in the mail, we got a suspicious looking bill. We weren’t sure what it was for, but the yen amount was for about 8,000. That’s nearly $100! We didn’t know what it could be for and were hoping that we didn’t have to pay it. I took it to Sawada this morning and asked her about it. As soon as I gave it to her, she looked at it like what-the-heck-is-this and asked other co-workers questions about it. She finally said that it was TV chargers, and it could be paid at the convenience store. I was frustrated to pay that much for something that I don’t even use. I stood by her desk waiting for her to give the bill back to me. When she didn’t, I asked if I pay her for it. She said no…at the convenience store. I asked if I needed the bill back to pay for it, and then she gave me good news. We didn’t have to pay for it! The BOE would! Since it was a name change from from my predecessor to me, it wasn’t my responsibility to pay. Yay! I could tell that there was this “crap! We forgot about that and now have to pay for that!” attitude amongst my co-workers.

I’m anxiously awaiting Thursday. I have one more day to work this week, and then Thursday night we will catch a night bus to Osaka! Despite the fact that our neighboring state of Miyazaki is about ten minutes down the road from us, I haven’t left Kumamoto since August, so it will be great to get out of the area and go to a larger city where we’ll blend in a little better.

Twas the week before Christmas and all through Japan…part IV

Friday:

Friday morning we skyped home a bit before rolling out of bed. We had to prepare for our party, and by doing so we needed to go to the 100 yen store to get a few things. It’s in Taragi, which is too far to walk, but I wanted to see how long it would take by bike. It felt so good to be back on a bicycle. I haven’t ridden a bike since July, and it was great! The bike is built for a Japanese person, so it’s a little too small for me, and I kind of feel like an ape on a tricycle, but I’m happy to have a bike! I rode to the store, and it only took me about fifteen minutes to get there. Granted, my butt hurt once I dismounted, and my hands were frozen but bottom line: I have a bike, and I love it!!! I got paper cups and plates at the store, but for the life of me I couldn’t find paper towels, so I rode back to Yunomae and stopped at the super market for some.

Our party was fabulous! I was a bit concerned that we wouldn’t be able to cram ten people into our tiny little house, but we did! Everyone got very close and cozy. We already had pizza toppings cut and dough prepared, so when friends arrived with cheese, we made some and threw them in the oven. A sad thing about Japanese houses is that they are wired very differently than American houses. For example, we have only a few plug ins and many appliances, so generally we have a power strip feeding off a power strip feeding off a power strip plugged into the wall. Fire hazard?….nah! We also only have one breaker box, so if we have too many appliances on at one time, that thing is going to go. It went three different times. Our little breaker just couldn’t take the pressure of our heater, oven, and two lights on. We had to make priorities. The oven continued. We turned off the heater and turned on the kotatsu, (a traditional Japanese heater. It looks like a coffee table, but the underneath side is a heater. The top of the table comes off, and you drape a fire-proof blanket over it and place the top back on. By sticking your legs under it, you give your body the illusion of being warm.) and turned off the light in the kitchen. That’s right, we used the dim light from the living room to make pizzas in the kitchen. Oh, Japan!

Everyone said that they had a great time. We ate, drank, and were merry! When we finally had our fill of pizza, we moved onto dessert. Amanda had made chocolate mousse and blueberry muffins, and they were fantastic! Once the oven was off, we were able to turn the heater on again and became very cozy. Unfortunately, the party ended a little early since Mary’s boyfriend wasn’t feeling well. I didn’t realize it, but it was the 2^nd annual Reed Christmas party! We also had one last year, and I think it’s a tradition that we will continue to keep.

Saturday

I wanted to make Christmas Eve breakfast, so I used the leftover ingredients from the pizza toppings to make omelettes. We spent the morning lying around and the afternoon cleaning up after the party. Despite the fact that we used paper plates and cups, we still had an entire sink full of dirty dishes, and since we made pizzas in the dark, the kitchen floor was covered in dropped pizza toppings, so I had to sweep. I thought about going for another bike ride, but it was just way too cold outside, and it’s just too easy to stay snuggled under the kotatsu. I want to live under there! (Once again, I’ll say how much I can NOT wait for spring!)

We drove to Hitoyoshi that night for Christmas Eve Mass. It started snowing on our way there, which was special since it was Christmas. Don’t get too excited. It didn’t stick or anything. It was just enough that we could see it in the headlights. We actually have a funny story about Mass. We live in Japan, meaning that we always take our shoes off and put on slippers before entering a building. It’s a routine that we have gotten accustomed to. When we went to church on Saturday night, we did just that. When we went inside, of course we stuck out like sore thumbs. One of the church ladies that speaks English gave us a print out that had the readings and some of the Mass parts in English so that we could follow along. I guess it’s universal no matter where you go that Christmas Mass will be packed. That was the most people I’ve seen in that church. When Mass was over, we were invited no less than five times to a little reception in the monastery. Since everyone basically leaves at the same time, there’s always a little crowding in the foyer to put shoes on and get out. I quickly went to my shoes and stood outside waiting on Ian. It was taking longer than normal, so I peeked my head around the doorway and asked him what the deal was. He said, “Melissa, I can’t find my shoes.” I asked, “What do you mean you can’t find your shoes?” He said, “They’re not here.” I thought it was funny, so I laughed. Apparently that was NOT the reaction I should have given. He didn’t find it so funny. I told him to get out of the way of the others, let them find their shoes, and then I’d help him. I thought that maybe someone accidentally moved them. Once most of the people cleared, I went back inside confident that Ian had just overlooked them. We looked in all of the shoe cubbies, under the steps, and even went to the second entrance of church just IN CASE someone for some reason moved them there. There was a slight oh-my-gosh-what-are-we-going-to-do moment of panic. We honestly didn’t understand how someone had taken Ian’s shoes. Asian feet are tiny! How would some guy have mixed that up? I asked a passing woman about it. While my Japanese skills aren’t THAT great, I was able to point at Ian’s socked feet and explain that the shoes weren’t there. She immediately went around the church yard asking other Japanese men if they accidentally took the foreigner’s shoes. A few guys returned showing us the shoes that they had on their feet. Clearly they were their own. (Ian doesn’t exactly wear a size 4.) At about this time, Fr. Mike (who is from Ireland) rounded the corner and said “I think I grabbed the wrong shoes” as he carried in Ian’s. We all had a good laugh about that.

After Mass, we went to the reception. It was basically a bunch of older people laughing and talking. We got a bag of goodies and two oranges. Everyone wanted to talk to us, but our language skills just aren’t up to par, especially for old man slur. We stayed for about thirty minutes before leaving. Both of us were hungry, so we called David, who lives in Hitoyoshi, to see if he wanted to eat with us. We went to a café that is more like a classy diner and has great hamburgers. Our Christmas Eve meal was a burger and fries! Yay for new traditions! After dinner, David invited us back to his apartment. He is also going to Osaka for New Year’s, so he helped us book an overnight bus. We’re all going on the same bus. I feel MUCH more secure about that. I’m sure Ian and I would have been able to fumble our way around and eventually find the right bus, but it’ll be 1,000 times easier with someone who can read and understand Japanese! I was telling Ian that I’m a little nervous about traveling alone in Japan. I’ve been to places like Portugal, Italy, and France where I didn’t understand the language, but I could always manage because (for the most part) they use the same alphabet as English, and those languages are all somewhat similar to Spanish. Japanese is COMPLETLEY different, and we’re both COMPLETELY illiterate in it.

I’m going to stop here to avoid making this blog so long, but the next one will be about Christmas, so continue reading!

Twas the week before Christmas and all through Japan…part III

Okay, guys. This is a short three day work week for me, and I don’t really have a lot to do. There are no classes, but I still have to be at work. Half of the teachers aren’t here. I’m sure they took vacation and are spending time at home, and I’m very jealous. Since I don’t have any real work to do, I have to make myself look busy this week. I’ve prepared some tasks: first and foremost…blog! I have to catch up on all of the wonderful things that happened last week and about our Christmas over here. Then, I could study Japanese, read, clean my desk, work on my January English board, cut more construction paper strips for class, etc. It’s not hard to look busy, but I would just prefer to be at home since I don’t really have a lot going on. Anyway, on to catching up:

Wednesday:

At the elementary school, I finished up my Christmas lessons. My poor broken reindeer antlers saw their last lesson. One antler still faithfully stood straight, but the other one was as flat as could be…broken completely from kids pulling on it. I had two classes of second graders that morning, and we made a Christmas tree. Each student traced his or her hand on green paper and cut it out. The teacher arranged the hands into the shape of a Christmas tree on a giant piece of white paper. Then the kids got colored origami paper and made decorations for the tree. Kids made Santas, reindeers, bells, stockings, presents, and basically anything Christmas related to cut and paste on that tree. I was really impressed by some of their drawings!

I ate lunch with the fifth graders, and a lot of boys in that class are little punks, but I like them. They like to ask me “Do you like…?” questions. At any given time, there are at least three kids hovering near me asking “Do you like Harry Potter? Do you like Japan? Do you like bananas?” They really liked my answer to the question “Do you like natto?” (Natto is fermented soy beans. It’s beyond disgusting.) I made a gagging sound and feverishly said no. The questions were getting weirder and weirder as lunch progressed. They asked me if I liked Kim Jong Il (the North Korean dictator who just died). I said no, and then they asked me if I liked Kim Jong Il bacon. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!?! Ha, ha, ha!! I wasn’t exactly sure how to answer, so I laughed and said no.

That night our friend, Melissa, came over. She said that she would make us a pumpkin cheesecake since she couldn’t come to our Christmas party since she was going home. We were a bit confused as to why she was making US a cheesecake since SHE couldn’t come to the party, but we graciously accepted. Ian made dinner, and it was great fun had by all. The cheesecake was delicious, and between the three of us we ate half of it in one sitting. 

Thursday:

Thursday was the last day of class before winter break. Since Friday was a national holiday here, (Emperor’s birthday) there were no classes on Friday. I didn’t really think about it, and no one said anything to me about it until the day of, but there was a closing ceremony. I probably should have dressed up for it. I didn’t feel as bad about dressing up since a few other teachers didn’t have on dressy clothes, but I felt worse about something else. My English teacher told me that during the break period all of the teachers would be taking a picture for something. We had to go outside in the cold, and guess who was the only one in a sweater and khakis? THIS GIRL! Everyone else had on a suit, blazer, tie, the whole nine yards. The picture reminded me of a game Ian, Kim, Brittany, Jessica, and I played when we studied abroad in Bregenz. When we visited museums, we would play “find the Turk” by looking at the paintings and finding the black person in a sea of white faces. They were always painted to be a stereotypical character, so they stood out like sore thumb. That’s EXACTLY how I felt. I know that when those pictures are developed, it won’t be difficult to play “find the foreigner.” She’s the only one wearing bright clothes in a sea of business suits.

I’ve been trying a new strategy in class. I can always tell that students are bored to DEATH in class. Usually, when my teacher and I use example sentences in class, I’ll print out a picture for a visual reference. For example, if the sentence is “This is the bicycle that I bought yesterday” I would print out a picture of a bicycle. Instead of doing that, I started bringing personal items from around the house. On Thursday, I brought a picture of Grandmother, Christmas card, calendar I made for Ian, etc. I can tell that they are much more engaged in the lesson when they see things that are mine instead of some silly meaningless print out. They were really blown away by the calendar with our pictures on it. They don’t do things like that here, and even my teacher asked about it after class.

Usually, cleaning time is only ten or fifteen minutes, but since the students won’t be around to clean during winter break, there was a forty-five minute cleaning period on Thursday. Basically, we had to get ALL of the cobwebs and dust bunnies cleaned away. I swept for about twenty-five minutes before being forced outside to wash windows. I’m usually the person who can’t wash windows. Laugh about it all you want to, but I will streak any window I clean. However, I was very meticulous about my windows, and once we went back inside to admire our work, I had the cleanest windows of all! Those other kids couldn’t clean windows worth a darn. I’m looking through the window now, and all I see are streaks. My dad was always a perfectionist about cleaning windows, and my, oh my, he would be going CRAZY if he saw these!

Thursday night we had our night class. I had planned on making a Christmas tree from hand shapes like the second graders did and then going around the room and asking what present everyone wanted. That kind of worked. However, my grand scheme plan was to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas movie, and I thought they would really enjoy that. Ian had a really difficult time connecting the computer to the projector and sound system, and in the end, it wasn’t even worth it. Those kids could have cared less. They were talking obnoxiously the whole time and even started a pillow fight. GRRRRR!

I have much more to talk about, but to avoid making this too long, I’ll end this blog here.

Twas the week before Christmas, and all through Japan…..part II

Tuesday:

I got a WONDERFUL Christmas present on Tuesday morning. I didn’t tell anyone, but silently I harbored the wish that Santa would bring me a bicycle. It wasn’t exactly Santa, but I did get a bicycle. My supervisor emailed me and told me that someone offered to lend me a bicycle for my stay here. Ian and I have been wanting a bike for a while, but they’re a little expensive here. I don’t mind walking places, but it would be nice to have a bike to get around a little quicker. Anyway, my supervisor showed me a nice bike. I couldn’t put it in my car at the time, so I decided to come back after school.

After school was very busy. As soon as I got off of work, (despite the fact that it was freaking cold) I walked to the BOE for the bicycle. When I hopped on, the pedals went around without taking me anywhere because the chain was off of its track. I know how to fix that….I’m not that dumb, but for the life of me I could NOT get it back on. The chain was lodged at an angle that I could not reach. My fingers were black from the grease from trying. Instead of riding it home, I had to walk it back. I had to be very careful because I wore my white coat, and I didn’t want any of the grease to get on it. I’m sure people were wondering why I was walking a bike when I could have rode it. Oh well! When I got home, we had to jump in the car and go over to Krista’s. She’s going to Thailand over winter break, and we’re supposed to watch her turtles for her, so she had to show us how and what to feed them and clean their tanks (and by tanks I mean giant plastic bins full of water).

After she showed us that, we had to go to an enkai (drinking party) for the BOE. I never really want to go to them, but I always have a good time. Tuesday night’s enkai was a little different because it was a New Year’s enkai, so instead of just eating and drinking, we played games. There were masks at certain seats, and people sitting at those seats had to wear the masks. As luck would have it, Ian sat at one of the seats with a mask, so for the first ten minutes, he had to wear a scream mask. We had nabe and snacks for food. Nabe is a traditional Japanese dish that cooks like a crock pot. You heat the broth of the soup and add whatever you want: veggies, meat, tofu, whatever, and it is so warm and so good!! After eating, we played bingo for prizes. There were prizes for all twenty-five of us. I won a little heating pad thing that you put hot water in. Poor Ian was the very last one to bingo, but he won a lint roller. I know that sounds crappy, but it’s a re-useable roller that can be rinsed and used again. Japanese technology! The grand prize was a bicycle. I thought it would be super lucky if we won that and got two bikes in one day, but it didn’t happen. The winner had a little sticker on her place card.

Enkais are always a great way to see your co-workers relaxed. Of course alcohol helps, but even the co-workers who don’t drink really open up. I had a really good conversation with my supervisor, Sawada, and I found out things about her that I wouldn’t have on a day-to-day basis because the Japanese don’t really open up about their personal life.  I feel like if we could communicate, we would be best buds  because I feel like our personalities are very similar.  Someone even told us that we look alike!  She doesn’t know a lot of English, but if I speak in very simple English, or she speaks in very simple Japanese, (and lots of gestures) we can communicate. Plus, our iphones help a lot! Being there and talking to people, I feel like I know more Japanese than I thought. Don’t get too excited. I really, really, really don’t understand Japanese, but if I can interpret one or two words in a sentence, I can get a gist of what the sentence is about. Maybe it’s just that if I give a non-committal head bob, smile, and utter a sound, it looks like I know what’s going on. Lol. It really doesn’t take too much to get a Japanese person drunk, so there were several people there that were wasted. However, one guy stood out. He was creepily stumbling around and getting very close to the ladies. He tried to ride the bike, and before stumbling into it and making it crash to the floor, he broke off something on the handle bars. Oh, Japan and your low alcohol tolerance levels!

Twas the week before Christmas and all through Japan… part I

Saturday:

I cannot describe the love I have for mornings that I don’t have to wake up and get out of my warm bed. I hate more than anything the cold. I enjoy staying snuggled under the covers as long as possible. On Saturday, I stayed there until about 10AM when I ventured to the kitchen for breakfast. I made pancakes while skyping back home. My mother was very surprised to see that I could see my breath in my kitchen. Yeah, it’s THAT cold here. Do you understand now why it’s so hard to get out of bed? It’s so cold that we have started leaving our facets dripping at night for fear of our pipes freezing. When we skyped David and Lucy, they joked that they were enjoying a nice centrally heated house. Not cool, guys. Not cool. How long is winter, and when exactly is the first day of spring??

Ian BBQ’d on Saturday, and we took the meat to a party on Saturday night at Brian’s house. Ian and I picked up Rachel on our way, but none of us were exactly sure where Brian’s house was, so we met Melissa and Asigiri and all piled into one car. We attempted very diligently to find his house, but we got lost….several times. Lol. In our defense, Brian’s house sits far back off any main roads. We thought we were going the right way one time, but the road led us down this one lane dark back road. Ian said, “I think this is right. Brian lives up the side of a mountain.” The three ladies in the car agreed that no it wasn’t right, and besides there are mountains ALL around.  When we finally made it there, we had a good time. Brian had invited some of his neighbors over, and we introduced them to beer pong. I don’t drink, but it’s ALWAYS fun to watch Japanese people get drunk because they have such low alcohol tolerances. I don’t know how or why, but Ian always seems to be the life of the party, and the other Japanese guys just flock to him. They were doing goofy dances, arm wrestling, and just flat out being boys. The neighbors had also brought their kids….something that I found was a bit strange but whatever. While the adults played beer pong in the kitchen, the kids played juice pong in the bedroom. One of the kids had a little plastic samurai sword that lit up when he touched anything, so he went around smacking people with it. He hit one of the drunk Japanese guys right on the forehead, and I don’t think the guy even noticed. Ha! We didn’t stay very late because Justine was exhausted and wanted a ride home, so we all crammed into our tiny little car and went home.

Sunday:

Sunday morning we slept in. Mr. Ian had a bit of a rough night, so I left him alone for a little while and made breakfast. I made biscuits and gravy….except the gravy was too salty. That’s always disappointing. We were shocked whenever we heard a knock on the door around 11:30AM. I answered it, and it was a delivery guy. David and Lucy had sent us a Christmas package. Woo-hoo! We have AWESOME friends back home! I wanted to set it beside our tiny Christmas tree and open it on Christmas morning, but Ian refused. I told him I was going to hide it, but two things posed a problem with that: a) There are very few places in our house that I could hide it and he wouldn’t find it. He’s home all day every day, so he’d have PLENTY of time to look for it. I joked and told him that I’d hide it in the washing machine (since he NEVER washes clothes), and b) he tackled me to the ground before I could hide it. He said this was the first year that we didn’t really have to wait until Christmas to open Christmas presents, so (being the five-year-old he is ) he wanted to open it NOW. They mailed us a sweet card, cherry cordial M&Ms, candy canes, ordering information for Ian’s tux for their wedding, and the best of all was a pound of Reece’s.  There are two half pound bricks of Reece’s. We both agreed that we could wait for Christmas to open that.

Sunday afternoon and evening I spent in the kitchen. I made a triple batch of sugar cookies to give to my co-workers on Monday. Since we have a tiny little oven, I could only make a few at a time, so it took several hours. I had a cookie cutter that my predecessor left behind, and I was looking forward to making gingerbread man shaped sugar cookies, but the dough just wasn’t right. It was too sticky to even think about rolling out. Melissa B. said that when she made cookies, the same thing happened to her. She wanted to roll out the dough and use cookie cutters, but it just didn’t work. Instead, I dropped them into little balls on the cookie sheet and baked them. They tasted great! They were a little cakey, but the taste was more than good. I had a couple of funny stories about baking. First, I tripped the breaker. Japanese houses aren’t wired like American houses. If we have several appliances on at once, there’s a chance all the power will go out. That happened. We had the heater, two lights, computer, and tiny oven on when the house went dark. It’s happened once or twice before, and it’s always a creepy feeling. Once Ian fixed it, we had to turn the light in our living room/bed room off for fear that it would trip the breaker again. Oh, Japan! 

The second story was that it was so cold on Sunday night. Since I was out of our heated room, it was especially colder. While the oven was good for some heat, I still had to double layer socks and wear a hat and robe over my clothes just to be warm in the kitchen. Despite the fact that we sleep with our heater on, it’s still ridiculously cold. I went to bed that night with two layers of clothes, two robes, and two thick blankets on top of that. I was still cold. How long until spring?

Monday:

I took my cookies to school on Monday morning. I had one for breakfast and was unpleasantly surprised that somehow over night, they basically turned to cake. They still tasted good but were more cake than cookie. When I passed them out at school, everyone was really excited. I got several compliments, and one teacher even asked for the recipe. I also took cookies to the BOE after school. My supervisor had emailed me and asked me to come to the BOE after school, so I dropped off some cookies as well. The next morning when I went to the BOE, a couple of people told me how delicious they were. Yay for winning over my co-workers with American cookies!

We went to Hitoyoshi on Monday night to see Mary again. Before we went to the hospital, we met up with a few friends for dinner. I sent out a mass email to see if anyone was interested in going, and a few people responded. As we were driving through Taragi, we decided to swing by Rachel’s apartment to see if she wanted to go since she hadn’t responded yet. She did. We went to the same Indian restaurant that we always go to. It’s funny because since we go there so often, they basically don’t have to take our order, but they do just to keep appearances.

Mary was able to start eating again on Monday, and Ian had promised to bring her a BBQ sandwich, but he forgot. Instead we took her some sugar cookies and honey candy that my parents had sent me for Christmas. When we pulled up in the parking lot, we noticed David’s motorcycle. Ian had the idea that we should move it, so whenever he leaves, he thinks someone stole it. As I’m writing this now, I realize how mean that seems, but it was meant to be a joke. We couldn’t do it because he had locked it, so our plan backfired regardless. Honestly, it’s a little strange to lock a vehicle here because it’s not like anyone is going to steal it……unless the people stealing it are foreigners. Melissa, Rachel, Ian, and I tucked our tails between our legs with great defeat and went up to Mary’s room. We told David our evil plan for his bike, and he laughed. We stayed for a long time talking and laughing. While the Japanese are very non-confrontational, they did politely kick us out. I guess we were being loud (which isn’t hard to believe since we’re Americans), so the patient in the room next to Mary’s started beating on the wall. David said all he heard was “_____ kudasi.” It was probably something like “Shut the heck up…please.” Ah, the Japanese are sooooooo polite!!

Grand Island, Nebraska and Friday night formals

Wednesday:

Wednesday was my elementary day. I learned a new word that day. I took oatmeal for lunch, and everyone was wondering what it was. They wrinkled up their noses at it. They will eat some of the grossest things here, (Natto is fermented soy beans. It’s gooey, stinks, and smells horrid.) so I wasn’t about to let them wrinkle their noses at oatmeal. I looked it up on my phone and was able to tell them that it was mugi which is oats in Japanese.

It’s always fun to read some of the Engrish shirts that the students wear. Some of them are downright hilarious. Either they don’t make sense, are absolutely weird English, or are inappropriate. One shirt that one of the elementary kids had on said “Grand Island, Nebraska.” I’m no rocket scientist, but this shirt made me turn my head. I’ve been out of the States for a few months now, but I’m pretty sure that there are no islands in Nebraska. Nebraska is pretty much as far inland as you can go. I actually googled it, and as it turns out, there is a Grand Island, Nebraska. Just in case you were wondering, it’s a town of 48,000 and is the county seat of Hall County.

That afternoon, I got to sit in the second graders’ Japanese class. On my schedule, it said that I was supposed to attend their PE class. I confirmed with the teacher before class, and she said that (oops!) that wasn’t right. Instead, they had a test during that class period. She said sorry. I wasn’t worried about it. That meant a free class period for me! I went down to the teacher’s room and was on my computer. A little while later, a couple of second graders came to get me. I was a bit confused why, but when I got to the classroom, the teacher said it was Japanese class, and I could sit in. I guess she felt bad about changing the schedule on me, so she wanted to include me in the class. I kind of felt like the dunce in the back of class because I couldn’t exactly understand what was going on. I know it was about the calendar, (The Japanese calendar is like the Chinese calendar. This year is the year of the rabbit. Next year is the dragon.) but I’m not exactly sure what about. I heard Christmas and New Year’s in her conversation, so I think it was about holidays. The girls in front of me were sweet and occasionally turned around to attempt to explain what was going on. It was definitely an experience!

In one of the last blogs, I told about Ian’s food creation. He made it on Monday and put it in the refrigerator. We didn’t eat it on Tuesday since we went to Hitoyoshi, so he cooked it on Wednesday. I’m not sure what to call it, so I’ll describe it. It started with a mush of rice, carrots, and pineapple. He wrapped that in beef and wrapped the beef in dumpling wrappers. I jokingly told him that since he put so much time and effort into it, it probably won’t be any good. Sadly, I was actually right. I felt so bad for him! It really wasn’t THAT bad, but he was so down on himself about how horrible it was. It wasn’t as bad as he made it out to be, but it definitely wasn’t good either.

Thursday:

Thursday at school the schedule was different. That afternoon, there was a long distance race at the school. I was very uncertain of what was actually going on, and I should have asked someone about it. The lunch period was an hour earlier, and I didn’t realize that, so I ended up eating lunch by myself. After lunch, everyone went outside. There were four different races: A, B, C, and D. A was the shortest at just under two kilometers, and D was the longest at just over four. I felt really awkward because I wasn’t sure were to stand or what to do. I talked to a few of the students and wished them good luck. Everyone watched race A take off. It didn’t take long to complete since it was so short. It was really fun to cheer on the students as they crossed the finish line. I felt bad for the last girl. You could tell she was hurting. The principal had joined her somewhere along the course, and together they crossed the finish line.

Since race D was much longer and went around town, teachers had to be stationed at certain points to make sure that the runners went the right way. One of my English teachers asked if I wanted to come with her to her station, and I said yes. It was actually right behind my house. She asked if I wanted to call Ian so he could cheer on the students as well. He walked over to us and waited with us. It was a great opportunity to talk with my English teacher. I often feel like she’s too busy to talk, so I don’t bother her at school unless it’s work related. We talked about anything….our dislike for running, Christmas, vegetables in Japan and how they differ from America, my plans to stay a second year, etc. We were there for at least an hour, and once the runners passed, we went back to school. Once again, the schedule was off, and I really didn’t know what to do. There was the closing ceremony and announcement of who won, but I after that, the teachers seemed to be in a big hurry. I found out it was because they had a meeting with the PTA.

Thursday night class was another lesson about Christmas. We made snowflakes this time, and it was amazing! Those kids are phenomenal with anything that has to do with folding paper. At first some of the kids didn’t fold the paper right, so their snowflakes became squares or fell apart, but once they got the hang of it, they did a great job. I thought that I had brought more than enough paper, but once they finished one, they asked for another and another and another sheet. We had so many snowflakes!

Friday:

I played spoons with some of my girls at school on Friday. They really enjoy it as do I. Every time I play it reminds me of mini-block in high school and how we would play, have tournaments, and take cards games waaaaaaay too seriously. My students are always amazed when I shuffled my cards. I do the bridge, and despite multiple attempts, they haven’t quite mastered it.

Friday night was the Kumamoto Winter Formal in the city, but Ian and I didn’t go. We would have liked to, but we didn’t feel like we could afford it. Tickets were about $50 each, and once we added in the cost of a room, gas, parking, etc, we felt like it would be better if we stayed at home. We have two big trips to save for, Osaka and Okinawa. Instead of going, we visited Mary in the hospital again. She had planned on going, but since that didn’t happen, we decided to take the formal to her. We got dressed up in our finest formal. Melissa and David also came with us. Melissa had made Mary a paper flower corsage, and it was simply adorable! We stayed and talked for a really long time. Visiting hours officially ended at 8PM, but we played the dumb foreigner card and stayed until 9PM. Ian and I hadn’t eaten supper yet, so we were starving when we left. We stopped at a conbini (convenience store) on the way home for food. I got this delicious steamed dumpling and a chocolate chip scone. I’m not sure why, but I’ve been craving scones. I don’t see them often in Japan, so I had to jump on the opportunity.

I’m going to end here for now, but I still have the weekend to go! Stay tuned!

the power of the antlers

It’s been a fairly busy week this week. I’ve had several tasks at the office, so that makes me happy that I’m being put to use!

Monday:

I dread Monday. I hate Monday with the passion of 1,000,000 burning flames. It’s not like I hate my job, but just knowing that it’s the beginning of the week after having the wonderful, wonderful weekend to do whatever I want, really stinks. Plus, the fact that it’s colder in the mornings now does NOT help. We don’t have central heating, so we only warm one room in our house. It’s our bed/living/family/office room. (It’s always a wreck in there because we do EVERYTHING in there. We moved our computers in there, the TV is there, we dress and undress in there, we eat in there, we work on projects in there, etc, etc, etc.) I usually wake up, put in my contacts, fix my hair and makeup, grab breakfast, and curl up beneath the covers again to enjoy facebook and breakfast time.

Monday night, Ian experimented with dinner. He is such a good cook, but sometimes when he tries new things, not only does it make a HUGE mess, but it takes a while to make. He started dinner a little before 6, but we didn’t eat until 8:30. We were both getting incredibly hungry, so he made a cheese toast as an appetizer before realizing that his creation needed to be frozen for a while to set up. So……he made a quick and easy meal for us to eat, and we had his creation on Tuesday night. While he did that, I made snowflakes for decorations while watching the last season of Top Model. That show hurts my soul, but it’s like a train wreck that you can’t quite look away from. Ian even started watching it with me. Lol. I feel sorry for Ian sometimes and the shows I subject him to watch with me…16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, Top Model, The View, etc. Sometimes he really gets into the shows, too, which makes it even funnier. He’ll yell at the TV when one of the teen moms is being stupid or agree with Whoopi’s opinion on The View.

Tuesday:

Tuesday morning, I went to my nursery schools. I taught them about Christmas, and I had simple Christmas vocab words that we played games with. I was so impressed with one of my nursery school classes. The kids in there are pre-school age, but they were able to pick up on the English vocabulary INCREDIBLY quickly. We played “What’s missing?” I put all of the vocab words and pictures on the board and make them close their eyes while I remove one. Then, I ask “What’s missing?” One girl, she was probably four, impressed me the most. She remembered each word…even the tough ones like “reindeer” and “holly.” It was amazing!

I ate lunch with the second graders (really 8^th grade) on Tuesday. I actually had a fairly good conversation with them, and I was happy about that! It’s so hard to get them to talk to me. I can’t say that I blame them. A lot of them don’t have the language skills, and most of them just don’t want to speak English…let alone to a native speaker! During the break time, I carried my photo album that I brought as a prop in class with me. A couple of girls asked what it was, so I showed them my pictures. I think they were really interested with a couple of the wedding pictures. They especially liked the picture of my car wrapped in toilet paper and saran wrap because they didn’t quite understand it. I tried to explain why my family and friends did it, and they laughed. I also had my letter from President Obama in the back of the album. When I told them it was from Obama, they got wide-eyed and dropped their jaws. Obama is ridiculously popular over here. All of the kids know his catch phrase “Yes, we can,” so when I said I had something from him, they went wild!

I had another demonstration at school on Tuesday. I’ve had two before, and basically other teachers watch while my two English teachers and I conduct class. Demonstrations vary. Sometimes, members of the BOE will come, sometimes it’s just the JHS teachers watching, sometimes people from other towns come, so it all depends on what the higher-ups decide. Tuesday’s demonstration was just the JHS teachers watching, which was less stressful, but it’s still definitely NOT my favorite thing to do.

Ian mailed off our Christmas gifts to our family. Mostly, our family insisted that we didn’t have to get them anything, but I wanted to get them a little something for being so great to us. We didn’t go all out for gifts, but rather went to the grocery and bought crazy, fun, or yummy Japanese candies and foods. After I wrote Christmas letters and boxed it all up, we put it under our tiny little tree. The six packages that we mailed off basically swallowed up our tree. It was funny! Last year we had a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, this year we barely have a tree, (next year it’ll be the same), but maybe just maybe we’ll have a decent tree for Christmas 2013!!

I’m not sure how they’ve done it, but KFC has marketed the idea in Japan that all Americans eat KFC on Christmas. When I tell people that I don’t eat chicken on Christmas, (that I eat ham instead) they get an “oh really??” face. It’s like they don’t believe me! Christmas is KFC’s busiest time of the year, and if you want to eat at KFC the week before Christmas, you have to have a reservation. Weird, right? Ian and I went to KFC on Tuesday night just to say that we had our fill of Christmas KFC. Outside the store was Colonel Sanders dressed as Santa. We ordered our food and sat down to eat. We were the only people in there. Despite a steady flow of people coming and going, they did one of two things: 1) got food to-go, or 2) only came in to get reservations for their Christmas KFC. Ha!

After we ate dinner, we went to see our friend, Mary, in the hospital. I wore my reindeer antlers in there just because I wanted to. When I walked in, the security guard did a double take before laughing at me. On the third floor, a nurse walked right in front of me and turned around to say sorry but instead laughed. When we left, another nurse saw me and said “oooooooooh!” Ah, the power of the antlers!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…kinda

Saturday:

Saturday was a busy day for us. Amanda invited us to a play her students were in, and Ian and I planned for a date night in Hitoyoshi on Saturday night. We woke up late since we were up so late on Friday night. I got a shower and immediately started getting ready. The play was in Asagiri, which is halfway to Hitoyoshi, so instead of driving halfway there, back to Yunomae, back to Hitoyoshi, went got ready for date night that morning. We decided to dress up and go out to eat (just the two of us) because we never do that. I wore my black dress that I wore for my sister’s wedding, and Ian was looking spiffy in his suit.

The play actually turned into a four hour affair. We got there at 12:30, but it didn’t start until 1:00. There were seven ALTs there: me, Ian, Krista, Justine, Melissa B, Amanda, and Shara, and I think that they were absolutely tickled pink that we all came. It turned into a bit more than a play. There was a slide show, introductions, two breaks, and an English recital before the play. It was cute, but I was getting sleepy and antsy. The play was adorable, though. They told the nativity story very briefly and concisely, interrupting at moments to sing a Christmas carol. Hearing those songs really made me think that I was at a Christmas party. I know it sounds weird because if I was at home, I would be complaining about 24/7 Christmas music. After the nativity play, the seven of us got called up to stage to dress in Santa hats and sing a final Christmas carol with the kids. Ha, ha! Never a dull moment in Japan.  When the play was over, they gave us gifts for coming.  We each got balloons, a small poinsettia, and a handbag that one of the student’s mother made for us. 

We stayed after to help clean up and take down all of the decorations, and by that time most of us were STARVING. Ian and I hadn’t eaten lunch because we didn’t think it would last so long. It was almost 4, so it was too early to eat dinner but too late to eat lunch. We walked to a nearby grocery store for a snack. I bought what I thought was a delicious bean paste sandwich. I hate when Japan tricks me. I love the sweet bean paste, and a sandwich of it is fabulous, but this particular sandwich also had mayo on it. Gross. I ate it because I was hungry, but I did not like it. We carpooled to Hitoyoshi and all went to see Mary in the hospital.  Since Ian and I had two poinsettias, we gave one to Mary and all signed one of the balloons.  All of us crowded into her tiny room. I felt like we were being the loud, obnoxious foreigners, but darn it if we didn’t have a good time standing around talking and laughing. I love my friends.

One by one, we left the hospital, but Ian and I didn’t leave until around 7:30. We had planned on going somewhere nice for date night, but we ended up at the 100 yen store shopping for a few things before going to the same restaurant we always eat at, Everest. Date night didn’t go exactly as we planned, but it was okay. On the way home, we had to pull over and get pictures of Christmas lights. The Japanese are crazy about their Christmas decorations. They have the tackiest light displays (think half blinking, half not, a dancing Santa on the rood, cascading red, green, and blue lights dangling from the roof, giant blow-up snowman, obnoxious plastic light up reindeer, etc….trust me, it’s horrid!), but they are so proud of them! Lol.

Sunday:

Sunday was another do nothing day. We originally had planned to go to Amakusa with Krista for another hike, but after the last hike wiped Ian out, we didn’t go to this one. It was a good thing, too! We knew that the hike was about twelve hours long. However, when we talked to Krista, she said that they got started around 10AM and didn’t finish until (get ready for it) 2AM!!! Luckily, she had the day off on Monday, so she stayed the night in Amakusa. My gosh, I couldn’t imagine how bad that would have been if we would have gone! I’m so happy we didn’t!! Instead, we spent the day laying around like the fat Americans we are. It was a good day.

Being a foreigner in Japan is always a hoot!

I really apologize for constantly being behind. I don’t mean to do this, but it always happens. Blogging started off as a cathartic way to spend time writing about Japan, but now I struggle to actually sit down and write it. 

Tuesday:

My nursery school classes were canceled on Tuesday, so I had to spend the whole morning at the BOE. Tuesday was an amazing, wonderful, incredible day. I had given up hope on getting to go home for the wedding of my friends David and Lucy in July. Their wedding it July 14^th, and school doesn’t dismiss for the summer until July 20^th. I asked my supervisor back in September after I first found out, but the Japanese don’t generally take vacation time during the work year. They wait until the very few weeks out of the year that school is on break. However, on Tuesday my supervisor called me to her desk and started asking about my vacation time in July. She wanted to know if I would shorten it. When I go home, I want it to be for more than a week, you know? After beating around the bush for a while, she finally told me that I could have that time off. I was so excited!!! Therefore, the official days of my American vacation this summer are July 13th-28^th. Since Ian is in the wedding, he’s going home at the beginning of July, but we’ll return the same day. Get ready, people…we’re coming home! Hopefully, we’ll get to work it out so that my mom can fly back with us a stay a few weeks here. Her biggest qualm with visiting us in Japan was navigating airports and not being able to speak the language. If she flies back with us, that problem is eliminated.

Wednesday and Thursday were just two regular days. During our Thursday night class, we did a Christmas lesson. We taught the kids Christmas vocabulary and played a couple of games with it. After a short break, we spent the rest of the time making Christmas cards. They usually do things like that either really well or….. One girl had pop-ups and everything in her card. It was amazing. Some of the boys were drawing Pokemon next to Santa.

Another interesting thing that happened that night was that one kid’s tooth fell out.  We were having break time and eating coconut crackers and oranges when all of the sudden the kids called over Hiromi (the one adult in my class).  She works at a dentist’s office, and she looked at the kid’s mouth.  Luckily, it was just a baby tooth, so she gave him a tissue to stop the bleeding and on with class we went.  It was completely random.

Friday:

Friday at work was whatever, but Friday after work was busy, busy, busy! As soon as I got off of work, I had to race home so that we could go to the bank to withdraw money and to the BOE so I could pay a car bill. We had plans to go to Hitoyoshi that night since we had a party to attend. Our friends, Michael and Ana, are getting married on the 28^th, and their bachelor/ette parties were on Friday. We drove to Hitoyoshi a little earlier to eat dinner and go to the hospital. Another one of our friends, Mary, has Crohn’s Disease and had a flare up last week. Ian, Justine, and I found the hospital in Hitoyoshi thanks to Google maps, but then we had no idea where to go.

We walked into the first door we found and got on the first elevator we saw. We knew she was in room 325. When we tried to hit the 3^rd floor button, we realized that there wasn’t a 3^rd floor button….just 1, 2, and R. We decided to go up to the 2^nd floor and get off and find stairs to continue our journey. However, when the doors opened on the 2^nd floor, it was completely dark. We realized that we weren’t where we needed to be. Luckily, there was a staircase beside the elevator. We tried to go up a floor, but that just led us to the roof. Oh, being a foreigner in Japan is always a hoot! Finally, we got to the right spot, found Mary’s room, and got to visit her for a while. She shared a room with three other people, and I kind of felt like we were being obnoxious foreigners. Visiting hours ended at 8PM, so we had to leave.

Next in line for the night was bachelor/ette parties. I’m not biased at all, but I believe that the bachelorette party definitely trumped the bachelor party. We all promised that what was said and what happened at the party stayed at the party, so sorry fellow blog readers, but I can’t share details. I will say that we paired up and played the Newlywed Game, had fondue, and gabbed the night away. Melissa B. found party supplies, so everyone got to wear a tiara, and Ana had this hideous swan tulle thing that she wore. It was a good night. We didn’t get home until 2AM and didn’t go to sleep until 3AM because Ian had to call Murray and register for a class he’s taking next semester.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more.

catching up part II

Last Monday:

Usually, I go to the elementary school on Wednesdays, but I had to go last Monday instead because there was a demonstration. I think I’ve explained it before, but a demonstration is when people higher up in the educational system sit in on your classes and give feedback. My demonstration was the last class period of the day. My English teacher seemed very anxious about it. Normally, lesson plans come straight from the book and are in half Japanese/half English. When I got to school, there was a lesson plan written entirely in English sitting on my desk. I’m guessing she didn’t want any slip-ups. Also, I had to go to her classroom and practice with the students the class period before the demonstration. We went over EVERYTHING down to the last detail. I’m pretty sure that even who was going to “volunteer” to answer questions when asked was planned. The demonstration lesson was about countries, so each student had print outs of what country they wanted to go to, its flag, what they wanted to see there, what they wanted to eat there, etc. Since I’m the only foreigner here, apparently I’m the EXPERT on ALL things international. One kid selected India. He had a picture of some questionable looking rice and noodle dish swimming in an orange-red sauce. He asked me what it was called in English. I said “ummmmmmm……….currry?” I had no idea what that was! Another kid wanted to go to Thailand and had a picture of ancient ruins resembling Angkor Wat. He asked me what the name was in English. I said Angkor Wat at first, but then I remembered that that is in Cambodia. Once again, I said “uuummmmmmmm……temple?” Yep, apparently I’m supposed to know everything about everything outside of Japan, lol.

I felt a little bad on Monday, and after a whole day of shouting at kids and trying to be as excited as possible, I was drained by the end of the day. I could tell that I was losing my voice. I tried to prevent it—Ian made hot soup for supper, and I drank tea, but nothing could have prevented Tuesday morning.

Last Tuesday:

As soon as I woke up, I knew I couldn’t go to work. I didn’t have a voice at all, and I was very congested. Since the main part of my job is to SPEAK and PRONOUNCE, it wasn’t possible. I text my supervisor to ask if she would take me to the hospital. She picked me up, and we went to the “hospital” in Yunomae (which is nothing more than a walk-in clinic). I saw the doctor, walked across the street to the pharmacy, and got multiple medicines for only about $25. I love universal health care! The Japanese treat each symptom instead of having an all-in-one pill or cough syrup, so I had five different medicines. My supervisor translated how I needed to take each medicine, and when I got home, Ian looked up online what each medicine did. One of them was a strong antibiotic. I’m not sure why I got that (maybe they were scared of their token foreigner being sick ). One was for cough, one was for the throat, one was to loosen the mucus, and one was like a candy that I needed to suck on to kill germs in the mouth.

Regardless of feeling like an old person and taking six different pills each time I ate, I had the rest of the day off. When I got back from the doctor, I took a nap, and the rest of the day was spent lazily in bed.

Wednesday:

I kind of knew on Tuesday night that I couldn’t go to work on Wednesday, but I waited until Wednesday morning to give it a fair shot. I felt like crap when I woke up, so I text my supervisor and told her that I couldn’t go to work. She told me to go back to the doctor. In Japan, you can’t just “call in” sick. The Japanese way of thinking is that if you’re sick enough to stay home, you’re sick enough to go to the doctor. In order to take a sick day, I HAVE to go to the doctor. She asked me to get a medical certificate. It’s basically a note from the doctor that cost 2,000 yen and states: yep, she’s sick.

Ian drove me to the hospital, and it was interesting to try to explain to the receptionist that I needed a medical certificate. Finally, she gave up and called the BOE to see what the crazy foreigner was wanting. The doctor checked me out again and gave me the medical certificate. I couldn’t read it since it was all in kanji, but when I took it to my supervisor and she read it, she cringed away from me. It said that I needed to stay at home and rest for the next five days. That made things difficult because I was supposed to go to a JET conference on Thursday and Friday in Kumamoto. She told me to not go and stay at home.

People have been asking me what I had. I have absolutely no idea. They could have told me that I have AIDS, and I wouldn’t have understood. It seemed like a bad cold, but since I was on the antibiotic and I got the medical certificate to stay home, I’m not sure what it was. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were wonderful. Despite the fact that I didn’t feel so great, I didn’t have to do anything except take medicine, so Ian and I got caught up on TV shows and started movie marathons. I basically had a six day weekend! I called it my sick-cation. I can’t even count how many movies we watched. We never picked up our futon, and for that full time, I never left the house. If we needed something at the grocery, Ian would get it. It was fabulous.

I’m not sure if it was the sickness, medicine, or just me being me, but Ian said I talked in my sleep on Friday night. He stayed up later than I did, so when he crawled into bed, he thought I was still awake. He said that I mumbled something, but he couldn’t understand, so he asked me to repeat it. I did but mumbled again. He asked me to repeat it again. I said, “The Crisco is on the counter under the eggs” or something like that. He realized what was going on and said, “You’re talking in your sleep. You’re being ridiculous.” I then sat upright and said, “Your mom’s ridiculous.” Ah yes, the “your mom” come back. Very original. I have ABSOLUTELY no recollection of this happening, which makes this story that much better!

Sunday:

I finally went outside on Sunday. After being inside for so long, it was really nice to just be out in public. We met some friends in Hitoyoshi for lunch at the same delicious Indian restaurant that we always go to, did a little Christmas shopping, and went to a discount grocery store. I know this is very silly to blog about, but I found bread there for 60 yen!! Considering that I usually pay 138-168 for bread, that was a great deal, and I was happy!! That night, I dreaded going back to work on Monday. After my long sick-cation and spending all day every day in bed watching movies, it wasn’t going to be fun going back to work.

Monday:

I expected that students would have been much more curious about where I had been. Plus, I know that people saw me at the hospital, and I assumed that word would have spread about the foreigner being sick. However, not one student asked. A lot of the teachers asked if I was okay.

Since I was sick last week, I didn’t get to get together with my friends to check answers for our mail in Japanese test that had to be in the mail this week. I found a perfect solution to this. I took it to some of my students during break time and asked them to look over it. They were very helpful. While they couldn’t explain WHY I got something wrong, they could at least tell me that I had gotten something wrong. I think it helped that they saw that I was trying to learn Japanese and struggling just like they’re trying to learn English and struggling. It put me more on their playing field.

catching up

Hey, y’all. Sorry I haven’t written in forever!!  I had a wonderful, wonderful last weekend, but then I got sick and spent the rest of the week in bed. So here’s a catch-up of last week:

Last Friday:

I ended the last blog with how we celebrated Thanksgiving. After having such a great time eating and celebrating on Wednesday with our friends, I thought that missing out on the holidays was no big deal. I arranged with my family to call them at my 7:30AM, 4:30PM central. That was when my family was eating Thanksgiving dinner. I thought it would make being away from them easier, but it was the complete opposite. I guess physically seeing everyone gathered around the table and knowing that I couldn’t be there was too much. I got really, really sad. It was hard to know that everyone was at home together while I’m on the other side of the world. It made me feel like I don’t belong here. I shouldn’t be here. No fears, though. Before you start thinking that I’m slipping into depression and rethinking my decision to stay for a second year, know that that feeling subsided once I got to school.  Once I got back into the normal routine of the school day, I didn’t feel sad anymore.

I always find it very strange how everyone here knows about Christmas. I can’t compare it to anything in the States. What holiday do we as Americans NOT celebrate yet know all about and decorate for? Friday afternoon during the break time, I was wandering around the halls and saw that some students were making Christmas posters. They had Santa, the reindeer, gingerbread, Christmas trees, etc. all over it. I was asking them questions about Christmas, and they knew everything. (I didn’t ask about the religious meaning of Christmas. I tend to not bring up religion at school. While some Japanese are Christians, the vast majorly are not.) When I came home that afternoon and told Ian about the students’ posters and how I’m always amazed at how much they know about Christmas, he finally gave me the answer I was looking for. It makes sense for huge manufacturing nations like Japan, China, Thailand, etc to know about Christmas. While they don’t celebrate it as a holiday, it is the biggest shopping season of the year. Consumerism is at its finest during the Christmas season. Therefore, manufacturing nations like the above mentioned gear up toward the Christmas season so that they can sell more clothes, plastic toys, technological gear, etc. It makes perfect sense!

Last Saturday:

Last Saturday, we started off the day with Skype calls like normal. However, Krista picked us up at 1PM and drove us to Amakusa to have second Thanksgiving and hike on Sunday. Amakusa is a collection of islands off the mainland north of us in Kumamoto. It boasts scenic views and beautiful sunsets. In the day and a half we were there, it didn’t disappoint! We stayed at Ian’s house. (Not my Ian, but a different Ian.) He took us to a lookout point on the top of a mountain where we could see the island chain, mainland, and vast blue of the ocean. It was at sunset, so the lighting couldn’t have been better!

We then made our way across the island to the Amakusa-gun Thanksgiving dinner. It took us about forty-five minutes to drive to our host, Cody’s, house. He has an amazingly large house. The teeny tiny Reed house would fit into it about two or three times. They didn’t have turkey, but it was still a wonderful feast, and it was great to meet some of the Amakusa ALTs. I feel like us Kuma-gun ALTs are very isolated down here at the southern end of Kumamoto, and we don’t often get to see other people. There are tons of ALTs in Kumamoto that I’ve never even met! We played a card game called “Mafia.” I’ve never played it before, but it was ridiculously fun. The rules are difficult to explain, so I won’t go into detail, but perhaps someday I can teach it to some of you.

Sunday:

We stayed the night at Ian’s house and hiked on Sunday. Krista told us it would be a six hour hike. There were a few other Amakusa ALTs that joined us on the hike. One of Ian’s former JET friends that still lives in Amakusa loves to hike and served as our guide. Carl said he’d been up the mountain twenty-five times.

I made the mistake of wearing too many layers. I was used to Yunomae weather, but on the islands it was much warmer and nicer. I left my hoodie in the car, and my long sleeve shirt quickly found its way in my backpack. After working up a decent sweat, I let everyone march up the trail a bit from me and took off my cuddle duds under my T-shirt and jeans. The first mountain wasn’t too bad. We hiked each of its peaks, and the views were amazing. I wish I lived in Amakusa (that is, until typhoons blow through). At part of the trail, it was like being in a fern forest. The ferns were thick and green and brushed up against our legs as we walked through. Ian told me that if Mommy was there, she’d be in fern Heaven. I have no doubt about that! The second mountain’s trail was a little steeper and required more of an effort. When we got to the top, we had lunch on a rock stab with an incredible view of the island and ocean beyond. I haven’t posted pictures yet, but please look at them when I do. They’re phenomenal! The third mountain was the death of some of us. It seemed like we really picked up the pace on it, and I was exhausted. I really thought I was going to die at the beginning of that mountain. I was bringing up the rear (very slowly mind you), and it was all I could do to continue putting one foot in front of the other. Finally, we took a good long break, and that was all I needed. I was tired but much more energized. I can’t say that about everyone. Poor Ian and Cody were jokingly contemplating suicide by jumping off the trail just to make it stop. We were walking too slowly and got separated from everyone else. While I was okay, I stayed with them to avoid any potential mountain-jumping suicide attempts.

At the top of the third mountain was the best view. It was nearing sunset, and the sun absolutely melted over the ocean. Gorgeous! A short walk from the top was a camp site, so we walked there for vending machine refreshments. It was getting dark, so we had to call a taxi to bring us back to our cars. We were all ravenous after a whole day of hiking, so we went out to eat and then to the onsen (hot spring). The onsen ALWAYS feels better after a long day of hiking. It was weird because Kuma-gun is mostly girls, but Amakusa-gun is mostly guys. So, it was only Krista and I on the women’s side, and a whole pack of boys on the guy’s side. Usually it’s the complete opposite. We had a good girl’s time talking. We didn’t leave Amakusa until very, very late, and we didn’t get back until after midnight. I made Krista’s back seat my own personal couch, and despite Ian and Krista’s front seat dance party music, I accidentally fell asleep.

I’m going to stop here, but please know that I have plenty more to catch up on. Stay tuned!