Politics and “What if….?”

You want to know what my favorite thing about living abroad is right now?  NO POLITICAL ADS.    You all should indeed be very jealous of me!    Anytime we watch TV it’s on Hulu, and very, very rarely will there be a political ad.  If it does pop up, it’s for some random Proposition from the state of California.  Prop 37 and 39 seem to be the hotly debated ones…..  I do NOT miss all of the negative ads, signs, commercials, and mud-slinging that CONSTANTLY is part of each American’s life this time of year.  Yep, sure don’t miss that!!

It’s not that there aren’t any politics in Japan……it’s just that Ian and I can tune it out much easier.  We don’t watch TV, so we don’t see commercials.  When politicians run for office here, they rent vehicles with loudspeakers on them and roam up and down the streets of their voting area shouting to anyone who will listen their plans.  Occasionally we’ll get stuck behind one of these vehicles, and it’s utterly annoying.  There’s nothing worse than being behind a car that’s going 40 KPH (about 25 MPH) down the road blasting political info.  Plus, we’re not exactly the target demographic that politicians look at.  Since we can’t even vote in this country, politicians are wasting their time on us.  We’ve actually had a few who go from neighborhood to neighborhood knocking on doors and giving pamphlets to everyone.  The politicians who come to our door always have a big cheesy grin on their face when we open our door, and then they realize that we’re foreigners and that their time is being wasted on us.    Instead of giving us the speech that they give everyone else, they simply give us their business card and move on to the next house.  Ha!  Ha!

This past weekend was fabulously lazy.  The weather wasn’t that great….kind of gray and draggy all weekend, so it was the perfect weather to lay around and be lazy!    Ian and I skyped a few people on Saturday morning and then were lazy for the rest of the day.  He had to go to work that afternoon, so once he left I got up and started to be slightly productive.  I cleaned the house, washed a load of clothes, and tackled the dirty dishes. 

We spent the night at Melissa’s house.  We planned on going to church on Sunday morning, and instead of waking up early and making the forty-five minute commute to Hitoyoshi that morning, we stayed with Melissa, who lives on the outskirts of Hitoyoshi.  Everyone else in Kuma-gun went to the Tamana Halloween party, a big Halloween party for all ALTs and friends in Kumamoto.  Ian and I went last year, but this year instead of going we wanted to save money for Australia.  Since it was only Ian, Melissa, and I left in Kuma-gun, we thought that we might as well enjoy the night together.  Melissa made dinner, we brought a movie, and together we enjoyed our night.  Ian and I slept on her spare twin-sized futon.  Even though we generally share the twin bed in our house instead of pulling out our full-size futon everyday, Mr. Ian was hogging the entire thing!  I basically spent the whole night on the edge of the futon or on the floor. 

We went to church on Sunday morning and then to McDonald’s for breakfast afterwards.  There’s something familiar and comforting about going to McDonald’s after church.  Having American things like McGriddles after Mass gives our lives a sense of normalcy.    After McDonald’s, we headed back to Melissa’s.  Even though we had no intention of staying the whole day over there, we did.  I can’t even really tell you one thing that we did.  Basically it was a lazy day of nothing.  It was great.   

When we finally rolled back into Yunomae at 5PM that night, I started making cookies to take to school.  Since it’s Halloween this week, I’m making cookies for all of the teachers at my schools.  I also started reading a book that I borrowed from Melissa.  I saw it sitting on her bookshelf and asked to borrow it.  It’s A Sense of Hope by Barrack Obama.  Before anyone brings out the political banter, it was a New York Times bestseller, and I’ve heard a lot of good reviews about it.  He wrote it even before becoming the president, and I really enjoy it.  It’s not too terribly political but does explain why some of the things are the way they are in our country today.  There are places when it gets a little too political and I have to skim the page until the next subject is brought up, but all-in-all, I think it’s a great book!

I hate Sunday nights.  There’s always that thought in the back of my mind that says “CRAP!  IT’S SUNDAY NIGHT!!”  Knowing that the weekend has passed by all too quickly and that there are five work days in front of me is not a happy feeling.  However, to combat this feeling we spoke to our friends Jessica and Warren late last night.  They are having a baby!    Ian and I thought that something fishy was up because Jessica actually asked ME if WE could skype this weekend.  Usually  it’s the other way around, and I’m the one who initiates skype times.  Whenever we talked to them at home this summer, they seemed like they were ready for the next step, so it wasn’t too big of a surprise to find out this news.  Hurray!  She said that she’s due in May and that they’ll find out the sex in December. 

It’s weird that our friends are starting to reproduce.  At first it was weird that everyone was getting married.  Then everyone started buying houses.  Now everyone is having kids.  IS THIS WHAT IT’S LIKE TO GROW UP?!?!  Neither Ian nor I are ready for kids.  We’re still trying to decide if we should stay for a third year in Japan or not!  However, at the same time both of us are thinking……should we be settling down???  It’s such a strange feeling!  Even though we know that we want to wait, we wonder about the what ifs: What if we never feel ready?  What if we never feel “financially secure” enough to take care of a child?  What if our relationship changes after having a kid?  What if once we start trying, we find out that we’re infertile?  WHAT IF….???  I’m starting to feel very pressured and stressed about the next step in our lives……whatever that might be! 

Step one: decide if we’re going to stay a third year. 

Step two: decide everything else! 

So that’s that………….. 

A day without classes

Once again I’m going to complain about the Japanese work ethic.  I’m at work today with absolutely nothing to do.  Literally.  There are no English classes today because Mr. Fujiwara is at a conference in Yokohama, yet here I sit at my desk at school, “working.”  I actually have gotten a few things that needed to be done completed today, but still.  *sigh* It’s a gray and dreary day, and I’d much rather be at home snuggled up with a book and cup of tea instead of sitting here pretending to work. 

So what went on in Japan-land this week, you ask?  After the hustle and bustle of last weekend, we played it pretty low key this week.  The winter weather is starting to creep in on us (unfortunately ).  While it’s still not cold yet, it’s getting there.  It’s still warm enough to wear short sleeves during the day for the most part, but I don’t dare to bare that skin at night.  We pulled out and started using one of our winter blankets.  Ian put the panels separating our rooms back up so that we can close off rooms and conserve heat.  We’ve been drinking hot tea and making soup more often.  It’s much more difficult to push back the covers in the morning.  All of these things make me really sad.    I hate, hate, HATE winter here and don’t wish for it to rear its ugly head. 

A funny story to blog about for this week is our unexpected nightly guests.  When I got home from work on Monday, I went outside to hang up some Halloween decorations that we used at the festival.  A couple of the neighborhood kids saw me and asked if it was for Halloween.  I said yes.  They seemed very excited.  Fast forward to about 7PM that night.  There was a knock at the door.  Neither Ian nor I enjoy answering the door here.  We never know what’s on the other side of the door, and answering it often opens a Pandora’s box.  I asked Ian if he wanted to get it, and he said, “I think it’s your turn.”  I stumbled to the door, opened it, and was utterly surprised to see about ten of my neighborhood kids in costume shouting, “TRICK-OR-TREAT!!!” at me.  Whaaaaaaaaat???  I don’t know if they got the days mixed up, assumed that since I was hanging decorations it meant that it was the magical trick-or-treating day, or if they assume that they can just show up to the foreigner’s house any day of the week in costume and expect to get candy.  Since we had so much candy left over and the kids went to the trouble of dressing up, I gave them some candy.  For the rest of the week, Ian and I lived in fear that we’d have kids knocking on our door screaming “TRICK-OR-TREAT!!”  It didn’t happen again until Thursday night.  It was only two kids, but I simply opened the door and said, “No Halloween.  Sorry.”  I’m really, really, really hoping that I didn’t dig myself into a hole!

Last night at my eikaiwa class, I decided to continue on with Halloween lessons and American traditions.  I had the bright idea to do face painting and painting pumpkins.  For anyone out there thinking that this sounds like a good idea, just know that it wasn’t.  I failed.  I used the leftover paint from the Halloween festival, and thought that it would be a fun idea.  However, the kids were kind of babies about it.  Once the paint dried, it did kind of pull on your skin, but it wasn’t any big deal.  It wasn’t the best smelling paint, either, but once again…no big deal.  However, the kids didn’t like it.  Pretty much as soon as we were finished with face painting, they went to wash it off.  Ugh!  What a waste.  After our break, we painted pumpkins, and that also didn’t go so well.  I honestly should have printed off some examples for them, but I didn’t think about it.  Even though we know the types of things that should be painted on pumpkins, that’s not typical to these kids, so they didn’t paint scary faces, characters, or anything like that.  Instead the painted Japanese words on the pumpkins. 

Since I didn’t have any classes today, I’ve been tooling around the office trying to look busy.  My only task today was to help the 1st and 3rd graders prepare for their speeches since the speech contest is next week.  I’m impressed with the improvement my 3rd grade girls have shown, and I make sure to compliment them on this.  Japanese students are so used to being beaten down and told that they’re doing things wrong that I want to compliment them on things they do well!  Once we were finished, one of the girl told me in half-English, half-Japanese thank you for helping her with the speech and that the reason she was so good at it was because I had helped her.    Kid, you seriously just made my day!  That was the sweetest compliment ever! 

In other news, the new ALT in Taragi is finally here!  After Rachel’s abrupt leave in August, Taragi was without an ALT until now.  It’s always exciting to get new people in the gun!    Her name is Devin, and she’s from Georgia.  Hurray for another southerner!  We’re all a little anxious to meet her to see what she’s like.  We’re going to meet her this weekend, and while I can’t speak for everyone, I’m excited!!

Yunomae Halloween festival

Yuck.  It’s already Friday of this week, and I HATE the fact that I have yet to post one blog!!    Anyway, the first and foremost blog of the week needs to be about my Halloween party last weekend. 

As most of you probably know, Ian and I planned a Halloween festival for the kids of Yunomae. Since they don’t celebrate Halloween over here, Ian and I wanted to bring our American Halloween traditions to them!    After a little last minute planning and hemming up Ian’s costume on Friday night, we had to wake up EARLY on Saturday morning for a full day of activities.  Our 5:30AM wake up call was Margaret.  We had to take her to Yatsushiro to catch the Shinkansen to Osaka so that she could catch her flight.  Margaret’s a morning person, but Ian and I groggily stumbled out the door and took the long way Yatsushiro so that Margaret could see the beauty along the 219.  To the right are gorgeous green mountains, and to the left is the Kuma River valley.  Beautiful! 

We got to Yatsushiro, bought her ticket, and dropped Margaret off at the platform.  Ian and I both agreed that the longer we stay here, the easier it is to say goodbye to people.  The first time I left Paducah was excruciating.  The second time felt less like I was LEAVING home and more like I was GOING home.  When Mommy left after her vacation here in August, I cried a little, but it wasn’t any big deal.  Then when Margaret left, it was also more like a “see you!” instead of a “good bye.”  In fact, we told her that we’d see her in August.  Margaret, who is a champion of us staying one more year, winked and said, “I’ll see you when you get home” (meaning….whenever that may be) . 

Ian and I grabbed breakfast and got back on the road to Yunomae.  We were actually very surprised with the traffic in Yatsushiro.  That night, Yatsushiro was hosting its annual fireworks festival, which is one of the biggest in all of Japan.  We went last year, and it was indeed spectacular!  Even though we were in town at 8:30AM, a good twelve-ish hours before the fireworks even began, traffic was ALREADY crazy.  There were already street vendors setting up, people carting their blankets to the park, parking attendants directing traffic, and stupidly horrible drivers making poor choices to be on the road.  Ian and I were glad to leave Yatsushiro behind us and get back on the 219!! 

We actually had a pretty interesting thing happen to us on the way back.  Ian likes to drive with the window down and the heat on.  He said that he heard a tink but didn’t think about it until he happened to look down and see a dazed suzumebachi (poisonous hornet) whipping its stinger around in his lap.      The suzumebachi are the largest hornets in the world and can kill a human with just one sting.  Normally, people don’t die from one sting, but if you do get stung, you have to get to the hospital…..VERY QUICKLY. I didn’t see any of this, but I heard his freak out.  Ian smacked the hornet to the ground and stomped on it several times.  He pulled the car to the side of the the road.  I had no idea what was going on and thought that it was a spider in the car.  As soon as he pointed at it and I realized what it actually was, I screamed “GET IT OUT!  GET IT OUT!!!!”  We had a pair of chopsticks left over from breakfast, and I tossed those to Ian so he could throw the (STILL ALIVE) hornet onto the road without touching it.  A nursery school van ran over it, but the DAMN.  THING.  STILL.  LIVED.  We got the heck out of there ASAP…..keeping our windows rolled UP after that. 

We got back to Yunomae a little after 10AM and started setting up the town gym with Krista, Joe, David, Mollee, Katakin, Margo, Shara, Melissa, and Sara.  It didn’t take as long as I thought it would with all of us working together.  There were six booths in total: haunted flash light tag, mask making, bobbing for apples, face painting, decorating trick-or-treat bags, and a ghost and pumpkin toss (like a clown mouth).  We pulled out all of the tables and chairs that we needed, hung up our decorations, and then were finished.  It strangely reminded me of setting up for Prom…….  Something that turned out quite wonderfully was the guys’ booth, haunted flash light tag.  I was a little miffed at the guys for not planning it out a little earlier, but I thought that it was awesome the way it worked out.  They used the stage and closed the curtains to make it completely dark, put some tables up for obstacles, and went to the 100 yen shop to buy a few glow sticks.  It was pretty amazing and by far the most popular booth.

Once we finished, we walked over to the restaurant in town and had lunch, arriving back slightly after 1PM.  Everyone put the last minute touches to their booths and dressed in their costumes.  Kids were so excited that they even started arriving at 1:25PM.  We expected them to be early, but not that early!!   Ian and I quickly got out to the registration booth and started the whole process.  Ian was the money taker, and I assigned kids group numbers and handed out trick-or-treat bags.  One by one as the kids came in, they looked absolutely adorable in their costumes.  The most popular costumes by far were witches and pumpkins (because these costumes can be easily bought at the 100 yen shop).  One kid showed up shirtless with his chest painted.  Someone asked him what he was, and he said a pumpkin.  When they questioned why he didn’t have a shirt on, he said that pumpkins don’t wear shirts.  I see your point, kid!  Everyone’s favorite costume for the day was Obama.  President Obama is very popular over here, so it’s no surprise that a kid had a mask of him.  What WAS surprising and funny were the elements that went with the costume.  The kid had on normal clothes and was carrying a toy gun and a stuffed lion (picture below).  It was the most random and hilarious costume I’ve seen!! 

 

The entire Halloween festival went really, really well, and there were only a few hiccups.  My supervisor showed up to help, the town newspaper guy was interviewing kids and taking pictures, and I know that the kids enjoyed it.  I was too busy running around making sure that everything was running smoothly, re-filling trick-or-treat buckets, announcing that it was time to change booths, and other administrative things to talk to the kids too much, but Sara and Margo told me later that all of the kids were saying things like “Melissa-sensei is the best!  This is so much fun!!”    Awwwwwww!!  Things like that just warm my heart! 

I was afraid that someone was going to get injured in the flash light tag game, but Ian reported back that there was only one elbow to the face, and the kid was quickly comforted by a piece of candy.  I also used candy to comfort kids.  I found one girl bawling her eyes out beside the haunted flash light tag booth and REFUSING to go back in because she was scared.  Poor thing!  I simply sat her down, gave her a candy, and let her play on my phone until the time was over and it was time for her group to move onto the next thing.

I was soooooooooooo utterly happy with the way things turned out, and I KNOW that the kids had a great time!    Throughout the whole thing, a couple of parents trickled in to watch their kids or see how the Halloween party was going.  Everyone was snapping pictures of kids running around and having fun.  One of my biggest regrets, though, was that we didn’t take very many pictures.    Both of us were just too busy to do that.  I managed to walk around and snap a few quick pictures, but all-in-all I wish we could have gotten more! 

After the kids went home (loaded with sugar….I’m sure the parents just LOVED us ) and we cleaned up, I felt drained.  It had been a looooooooong day, and it honestly felt like a burden had been lifted from my shoulders.  After the clean up, we sat around and talked a bit in the gym while Ian and I divided up the money.  Everyone was able to get paid for their supplies, and we even had a surplus, so we refunded everyone for their lunch.  Hurray!  After that, everyone went their separate ways.  Melissa came back to our house to help us unload all of the stuff and ate dinner with us.  Ian and I curled up into bed and were probably sound asleep by 10:30.  That’s the earliest either of us has been to bed in who knows when!! 

In the week since, I’ve been asked if I’ll have the party again next year.  I didn’t have the heart to tell the person that I might not be here next year, but if I do stay, I’ll definitely have the party again.  It was just too much fun for the kids to not do it again!!   

Best lunch ever!

I had the best lunch that I’ve had in a while today!!  I ate with my 3rd graders, something that I’ve been putting off for the past two weeks.  I usually DREAD eating with my 3rd graders because I’m not a fan of that class.  There are a few kids in there who are just little brats, and they ruin the WHOLE class for me.  Anyway, I ate with the 3rd graders today…..because I had to.  However, it ended up being the BEST time I’ve had in a while!!

The kids are always curious to see what I bring for lunch.  Ian made kangaroo last night, so I brought the leftover kangaroo and mashed potatoes for lunch.  When I told the kids that it was kangaroo, all of them said, “EEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHH?????” In unison.    I offered to let them try some, but none of them would take any and instead shook there heads and said, “Muri, muri, muri!” (meaning: HECK NO!/IMPOSSIBLE!/NO WAY, JOSE!  From my viewpoint, I was thinking that they’ll eat whole fish—bones, eyes, guts, and all, but they look at me funny for eating a kangaroo steak…..what’s wrong with this picture?!  )  I told them that in December, I was going to Australia for two weeks.  Woo-hoo!  Everyone at my end of the table said the Japanese equivalent to things like “Wow!” “Really?”  “Cool!”

Mr. Fujiwara was sitting at the table beside me.  From the corner of my eye, I could tell that he was pointing at me.  I glanced over and he gestured to the boy at his right and said, “He wants to practice English with you.”  (Background on this kid: He’s a good boy, but I think he’s narcoleptic.  Honestly.  This kid can fall over asleep in a matter of a few seconds.  I could literally stand next to and shake him, but he would still fall asleep.  Due to this fact, he spends most of class either asleep or nodding off and isn’t that great in English.)  I said, “OK!  Please practice!”  The kid immediately looked terrified and concentrated whole-heartedly on shoveling as much rice as possible into his mouth.  Mr. Fujiwara told him (in Japanese) to speak to me.  When the kid didn’t, Mr. Fujiwara started pulling his chair away from the table and turning it toward me.  The kid tried to resist, but Mr. Fujiwara was stronger.  The kid was forced to look right at me.  This scene (of course) drew the attention of other students, and the kid looked absolutely mortified to say anything.  I’m not sure what Mr. Fujiwara told him, but I’m sure it was something like, “Come on.  Just freaking say it!  Don’t be a baby!”  The kid stood up and said, “You are pretty girl,” and then immediately pulled his chair back to the table and filling his mouth with rice again.    Wow, kid!  You really know how to make a grown woman blush!   I giggled….which probably didn’t help since his cheeks got bright red after that. 

Mr. Fujiwara later on leaned over and asked me if I spoke French.  I told him no, but I speak Spanish and German.  Then I started to teach the kids some Spanish by translating simple sentences:  Me llamo Melissa.  My name is Melissa.  Soy de America.  I’m from America.  Me gustan fresas.  I like strawberries.  A couple of the girls who I like started repeating the Spanish sentences after me.  It was so cute!  I was EXCITED to teach them Spanish!!    One of the brats had to ruin it though.  He said, “I….Chinese….speak.”  I said, “Really?  OK!  Speak, please.”  He looked back over at his friend who was gesturing him to go on.  Below his breath, the kid muttered a few Chinese sounding syllables “Ching.  Chong.  Ming.  Mao.” and then laughed uncontrollably.  Way to ruin a nice moment, you racist jerk!  I shot back at him by saying, “Not nice!  Bad boy!”    

Lunch wrapped up by two girls coming up to me.  Both are really nice and take English seriously.  They asked me if I liked One Direction (the boy band).  The truth is that I’m slightly obsessed with them.  I’m a grown woman, but dang it if my heart doesn’t just melt when I hear their music!    I told them that YES!  I LOVE ONE DIRECTION and started singing one of their songs.  The girls squealed in delight, and together we enjoyed our obsessiveness.

As you can see, even though I don’t particularly like my 3rd grade class as a whole, I love the individuals.  Most of them are great, and today was one of the BEST times I’ve had with them! 

Nagasaki weekend trip

Ian had been tossing around the notion of taking Margaret to Nagasaki all week.  We never made firm plans, though.  I wasn’t too keen on the idea since Nagasaki is a five hour drive from us, and that’s quite a way to go for just a two day weekend.  Anyway, we woke up on Saturday morning, and I asked Ian where he wanted to take Margaret.  He said, “Nagasaki.”  After trying to convince him otherwise and to go to Kagoshima or some place closer to us, I finally gave in.  We packed up and left pretty quickly so that we could make our 1PM ferry to Nagasaki Prefecture. 

Nagasaki Prefecture is kind of the dingle berry for the island of Kyushu.  It’s the far most western prefecture and is basically a jagged peninsula and collection of islands jutting into the sea.  It’s a beautiful prefecture, but it’s pretty far away from us.  Once our ferry landed on the Shimabara Peninsula of Nagasaki Prefecture, we had a great view of Mt. Unzen, an active volcano.  While there was fun stuff in Shimabara that we wanted to take Margaret to, (ie, the buried houses that were destroyed by the last volcanic eruption in the 90s, the model samurai houses, the streams in which you can pick up koi from the water, the “hells” of Unzen [steaming pits of sulfur in which they threw the Christians into way back when…], the town of Obama [complete with its own statue of President Obama!]) we drove straight to Nagasaki to maximize our time there.  The drive was gorgeous!  The first part was straight uphill as we crossed over Mt. Unzen, and then a mix of hills as we made our way around the peninsula, following the bay (below, right).

 

And now…..time for a stupid story from the Reeds.  We grabbed sandwiches for lunch at the port.  Mine had American cheese on it, (which I HATE) so I asked Ian if he wanted the cheese slices.  When he said no, I smacked the triangle of cheese onto his windshield.  He scraped it off the windshield and tried to throw it at me, but I rolled up my window just in time.  I didn’t want to scrape it off, so I called it my pet (above, left).  It stayed on until we got to Shimabara and stopped for gas.  The gas station attendants were washing our windows and laughing as they scraped yellow cheese from the window.  Lol.    We’re both idiots, but that’s why we work so well together.   

We arrived in Nagasaki around 4 PM.  Our first order of business was acquiring housing for the night.  Ian had looked online for a hotel that morning, found one, but when we got there, they were completely full.  He was able to find a nice hostel close by…..which just so happened to be rated Japan’s best hostel in 2008 and 2009.  Even though Margaret wasn’t too keen on the idea of staying in a hostel, it was REALLY nice.  She got her own room, and we had a room to ourselves.  The rooms were just so-so, but the staff was really what made the place.  They were EXTREMELY NICE and gave us maps, discount passes for touristy stuff, and all kinds of information about what to do in Nagasaki.  In addition, there was all kinds of information and brochures hanging on the walls of the hostel about the specialties and fun off-the-beaten-track places to go to in Nagasaki.

Our first touristy stop that night was to the ropeway leading to the view.  The nighttime view of Nagasaki is supposed to be the 3rd best in all of Japan.  The last time we were in Nagasaki, we went there, but it was completely overcrowded, and we could barely even get a decent picture.  (Actually, the last time we went to Nagasaki was a holiday weekend, and EVERYTHING was crowded.  The trip last weekend was MUCH more enjoyable because each place we went was MUCH less crowded!)  We were even able to get a great group shot (after several bad attempts due to people walking in the shot and not realizing what we were doing….)  I’m not sure how long we stayed up on the mountain, but as we took the ropeway down, there were fireworks going off in the bay.  It was gorgeous!  As we walked back, we could see the fireworks reflecting off the glass buildings.  We stopped along a bridge to watch them, and I noticed some movement in the water.  It was flying fish!  It was too dark (or maybe they were too quick!) to see the actual fish jumping, but we heard the gentle splashes and could see the entire schools of fish beneath the water.  It was almost like looking at a brain teaser because we could see the movement, but it took our eyes a minute to focus and realize that it was indeed schools of fish! 

That night we went to Dejima Wharf for dinner.  That area of Nagasaki is a very touristy part, so we thought that we could find great seafood there.  We stopped at one restaurant, and despite the forty-five minute wait that the menu said it would take, Ian was excited about paella being on the menu and ordered that.  I had a delicious eggplant pasta, but for whatever reason, poor Margaret’s order never came.    We told her that that was the first time anything that like had happened to us at a restaurant!  She was fine with it and shared some of Ian’s giant paella dish.  By the time we had finished dinner, the tram line had stopped working, so we had to catch a taxi back to our hostel. 

After a good night’s sleep, we woke up for another day’s adventure.  Our first stop was the Spectacles Bridge.  This bridge is named so due to the fact that it’s made from two arches.  The arches reflect on the water below, making it look like a pair of glasses (aka spectacles).  The legend is that if you are searching for your love, you will find him/her there.  If you already have a significant other, if you find the heart shaped stone in the bridge and touch it together, you will have eternal love.  You better believe that Ian and I were looking high and low for that heart shaped stone!!    I think we got to the point where we were just looking at heart-ish shaped stones.  Ian “found” the heart stone, and we both touched it together, but who really knows if it was THE STONE.  lol.  We just wanted to make sure to have the eternal love that some random bridge in Japan was willing to grant us. 

After a brief visit to a Starbucks for Ian and Margaret’s coffee fix, we went to the monument for the twenty-six martyred saints.  Way back when, the Buddhist and Shinto officials weren’t too fond of the Christians coming in a converting everyone, so they crucified twenty-six of them on a hill in Nagasaki, and upon that hill today is the monument.  There was also a museum behind the monument which we went to.  It was weird to see so much Catholicism in one place!!  I jokingly asked Ian if this counted as going to church for the day.  After all….the museum was in an old church.    The museum was actually pretty cool and had a ton of history.  However, one thing that really weirds me out about the reverence of saints is relics.  I understand the meaning behind them and why they are sacred, but to see bones of the saints on display is just…..weird. 

Our final Nagasaki stop was the Peace Park and Atomic Museum.  This is the one place that Margaret absolutely, positively wanted to go in Nagasaki.  It took us about three hours to cover everything.  I can safely once again say that I enjoyed the park and museum MUCH more this time due to the lack of crowds.  Last time, the museum was wall-to-wall people, so it was difficult to take your time and read/see everything.  One interesting thing is that I didn’t have the American guilt that I had the last time we were there.  In case you don’t remember my blog from our last visit to Nagasaki, I was overcome with guilt.  I felt like I shouldn’t be there and how could my great nation have done this…??  I felt like people were staring and KNEW that I was American and judging me for it.  (I know that all of these things are irrational.  I had as much right to be there as the next person, so I’m no more guilty of bombing Nagasaki than any of my co-workers are guilty of destroying Pearl Harbor.)  Anyway, this trip to the Atomic Museum was MUCH more enjoyable. 

 

(Above right: It is Japanese tradition to make 1,000 paper cranes for a wish to come true.  Around the monuments at Peace Park, there are literally hundreds of thousands of beautiful multi-colored chains of origami cranes in remembrance of the bomb victims.

Above left: This is the hypocenter—the exact spot where the Nagasaki A-bomb blew up.  In 1945 when the bomb dropped, there were absolutely no survivors in this immediate area.  Today there are thriving neighborhoods literally within 500 meters of this spot.)

Once we finished there, we grabbed lunch, headed back to our car, and got on the road.  Since Ian drove the whole way to Nagasaki, I drove the whole way back.  I was getting very sleepy about an hour and a half into the drive, so we pulled over for a sugar fix.  Nothing like a 500 mL Coke to wake you up!!    We finally arrived back at our house around 8PM.  After unpacking and washing a load of clothes, it was time for bed! 

Another wonderful weekend…..ENJOYED!