Never a dull moment on an ES day!

Greetings all. 

I love ES days for so many reasons….one of them being that there is never a dull moment!  A kid will do something that makes me giggle, my vice principal will strike up a conversation with me, I get to play with kids all day, and in general the mood at my ES is much more happier and fun than at the JHS.  This past Wednesday was an exceptionally good day, and I have plenty of funny stories from it:

In fifth grade, the kids are wrapping up the last lesson in the book, food.  Items like orange juice, milk, green tea, fruits, hamburger steak, rice, sushi, natto, french fries, pizza, spaghetti, bread, salad, miso soup, hot dog, hamburger, cake, parfait, yogurt, cheese, pudding, fried chicken, curry and rice, soup, and ice cream are some of the words from that lesson.  One of the games that we played in class on Wednesday was to make a “healthy lunch”.  Each of the kids has a deck of mini-cards with pictures of the food on it.  They had to say, “_____, ______, _____, and _____.  This is my lunch.  It is healthy.”  My fifth grade teacher did an example to show the kids.  She asked what was healthy to eat for lunch.  No surprise that the first response was RICE.  Then they came up with a few other things.  The kids had five minutes to flip through their cards and choose a couple of things to have for lunch.  As I walked up and down the rows looking to see what the kids selected, I was surprised to see the same few cards for each student’s healthy menu: only Japanese foods.  Almost every kid had some sort of combination of miso soup, rice, sushi, green tea, and natto.  (One girl had ice cream, parfait, and pudding for her healthy menu.  A girl after my own heart!!)  It was as if Japanese food was the only healthy selection.  To be fair, the foreign food in that lesson, things like hamburger, french fries, fried chicken, and spaghetti aren’t exactly the epitome of healthy foreign food……  Even without that, they by-and-large only chose the Japanese foods.  Milk, fruit, yogurt, and salad are international healthy foods, but it was as if ONLY the Japanese foods could be healthy.

Since it had rained all night before, the ground was too slippery and muddy to go outside and play for recess.  Did that stop us from playing?  Heck no!  We just had to do it inside.  I played with my third graders, and they taught me a new game that was kind of like hide-and-go-seek.  Two people had to wait outside of the room while the rest of the participants hid.  I very quickly learned that there are only so many places to hide in a storage room.  There were a few cardboard boxes and paper signs that were big enough for the kids to hide behind, but the big ole foreigner had to get creative.  During the first game, I hid in the locker that has all of the brooms, rags, and dust pans used during cleaning time.  It took them a good minute to find me in there!!  During the second round I laid flat on the ground next to the window and covered myself with a curtain that had fallen down.  All of the other kids called me “Melissa goes-toe.”  When the kid who was it got close to me, I jumped up, and I’m pretty sure that I scared him half to death!  Ha, ha, ha!

After lunch I had my first graders.  Good gosh.  I love my first graders, but sometimes they can be very, very, VERY hyper.  After all….they are only seven years old!  When I have class with them during the morning, it can get a little crazy just because they are so excited to see me.  However, having a class with them right after lunch and recess is RIDICULOUS.  SO.  MUCH.  SCREAMING.  It’s not like they were bad kids or the teacher didn’t care.  They were just wilder than bucks on Wednesday.  We went over body parts, and I was having to literally SCREAM the words to them over the noise they were making.  “EARS!”  “MOUTH!”  “TOES!”  “HEAD!”  We played fruits basket, which turned out to be a very, very wrong thing to do when kids are that hyper.  They ended up piling on top of one another on the floor before both the teacher and I started yelling at them.  Then two of the boys tried to sit down in the same chair.  Instead of solving the problem with a peaceful round of janken (rock, paper, scissors), one of the boys started hitting the other one.  He was throwing decent punches until the teacher yanked the two apart.  While I couldn’t understand exactly what she said, I pretty much knew that she was telling them that they were bad boys and game time was over.  Luckily that was right at the end of class, so we moved the chairs back, reviewed the words once more, and I went back to the teacher’s room to enjoy the quiet.  After that class, my ears were ringing.  No joke!

Both my vice principal and the teacher who sits next to me at the ES are big movie buffs.  I’m not sure what initiated the conversation, but we started talking about movies, the Oscars, our favorite actors/actresses, etc.  It was one of the most enjoyable conversations that I’ve had with teachers!  I asked if they had seen the movies that got a lot of Oscar buzz—movies like Django Unchained or Les Mis.  Neither of them said yes, so I told them that Django Unchained was amazing.  The teacher asked how I saw the movie because it didn’t open in Japan until March 1st.  Ummmmmm…….  I said that I watched it online.  That’s all I had to say, and he pretty much understood.  He was like, “Ah.  I see.”  We both agreed that musicals are dumb, so there was no need for either of us to EVER see Les Mis.  I told them that Jennifer Lawrence was born in Kentucky, and they were amazed.  They asked who else was from Kentucky.  I said George Clooney and Johnny Depp.  They were in awe.  Both started asking more questions about Kentucky and America.  The teacher said that he’d like to go to America, but that it was too dangerous because everyone has guns.  *sigh*  I (once again) had to have the conversation that America is not like Die Hard or Mission Impossible.  Yes, people own guns.  I told him that my brother, husband, and father all own guns.  He said, “See?  It’s dangerous.”  I had to tell him that just because they owned a gun didn’t mean that they were dangerous or bad people.  They just enjoy hunting and ONLY use their weapons for that.  America is NOT like the movies.  There are not random gun fights, explosions, or high speed chases on the expressway every day.  He said, “Yes, but in the movies it is like that, so I think America is like that.  If it is not, why is it like that in the movies?”  ENTERTAINMENT!  Nothing is entertaining about normal people going to their normal jobs on normal days of the week, so Hollywood dresses it up.  I think I FINALLY convinced him that America is not one big gun fight because he said that he’d like to visit one day after he gets his passport.    

The weather the past couple of days has been incredible.  The highs have been in the upper 50s, and the night is only slightly chilly…..a VERY warm (ha….no pun intended) welcome!  I haven’t worn a winter coat to work at all this week, and I’ve stopped wearing my long johns.  Spring is here, y’all!  On Wednesday after work, I went on the most glorious walk around town.  It was just nice to get out and enjoy the beautiful warm weather.  Yesterday when I got off of work, I immediately came home, opened up all of my windows, and aired out the house.  That was the first time this year.  I even washed a load of clothes and allowed the breeze from the window to dry them.  I finally closed the winters last night at around 9 PM. 

It’s no secret that I’m not a good cook.  I try.  I really do, but it just doesn’t happen for me.  Last night I planned out what to have for dinner.  The tofu that we received from the mechanic was still sitting in the refrigerator, and Ian doesn’t like it, so he won’t eat it.  I knew that I’d have to use it on a night when Ian worked.  I also had a pumpkin that was getting ready to go bad and need to be used.  I dumped some rice in the cooker along with a can of tomatoes and fajita seasoning to make Mexican(ish) rice, grilled the pumpkin, and started to sauté the tofu in yakinuki sauce.  I tried a bit of the pumpkin once it cooked.  The skin was very tough and brittle.  I assume that this was because it was old, so I trimmed all of the skin off of the pumpkin.  Once the tofu was finished, I tried a bit of it to see if the taste had gone through.  As soon as the piece went in my mouth, it came out.  I didn’t know it, but it turns out that tofu has a shelf life.  Nothing is worse than bad tofu.  It tastes like bland and bitter disgustingness.  UGH!!!  I automatically threw that in the trash.  So……..my dinner last night consisted of old pumpkin and Mexican rice…..not the best.  :(  I suck at cooking and thank the good Lord above that Ian knows how or else we’d be eating more meals like the one above.  :( 

That’s all for today!  Happy Friday to all!          

Reading minds

On Monday night when I got home from work, Ian was still at home.  Normally he is walking out the door, has just left, or we meet on the road by the time I get off of work.  I asked him what the deal was, and he said he was running a bit late.  I said, “Oh,” and immediately made a split second decision.  “Can I go with you tonight?” I didn’t have any plans for the night and would probably spend it like I spend every Monday night: dinner for one, watching TV, maybe planning a lesson or two.  Ian seemed excited by the idea, so I quickly changed clothes, and we were off!  I love random adventures! 

Kirishima (where Ian works) is in Kagoshima Prefecture, which is about an hour and a half drive from Yunomae.  Although it’s only 100 kilometers (about the distance from Paducah to Murray), it takes that long to get there due to the mountains.  Kirishima is a beautiful mountain city right on the Bay of Kagoshima, and you can even see Kagoshima’s famous constantly erupting volcano, Sakurajima, just across the bay.  Ian drove the whole way and showed me the huge Sony plant where he teaches class.  Seriously—it’s probably seven stories high and takes up the same amount of space as a dozen football fields.  IT’S HUGE.  He parked the car and told me where some good hangout spots near his plant were—if i continued down one road, I’d come to a mall, or if I went another way I’d reach the bay.  I literally had any number of things to do for the next two hours. 

At first I tried to drive to the bay, thinking that maybe there would be some nice parks to go walking in or that I could get pictures of Sakurajima.  However, the streets were very winding, and I didn’t want to get lost in unfamiliar territory.  Plus, it was getting dark, so pictures of Sakurajima just wouldn’t turn out.  Instead, I drove to the mall and walked around in there for a bit.  Although it was bigger and nicer than anything that we have in Kuma-gun, I wasn’t in the mood for shopping, so I went outside and walked along the sidewalk for a while, just drinking in the sights and sounds of Kirishima until it was time to pick up Ian.  Before we left, we stopped for dinner at McDonald’s, where Ian goes for dinner nearly every Monday night.  He said that he enjoys people-watching there and showed me exactly where he sits, with his back against the wall, so that he can watch everyone.  Unfortunately, though, there was no one to watch on Monday night as we were pretty much the only people in that McDonald’s. 

Change of subject and fun update: my Lenten penance of giving up sweets is going really, REALLY well this year.  HURRAY!  I’ve only broken it twice: once on accident (I bit into a delicious looking bread thinking that it was just normal bread whenever it was really a chocolate filled bread) and once on purpose (Milk tea was staring me in the face, and I just couldn’t resist.  Although, I instantly felt guilty about my decision…..but that didn’t stop me from finishing the glass.)  Overall, though, this year has been pretty easy to give up sweets.  Since it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve consumed large amounts of sugar on a regular basis, my body doesn’t crave it.  When I watch Ian drink a Coke or someone nibble on a cookie, I know that the sugary deliciousness would be good to eat/drink, but I don’t have to fight an urge or go into a fit of rage of OMG-GIVE-ME-THE-SUGAR-AND-NO-ONE-GETS-HURT mode.  Will I be happy to see Lent end?  Yes.  Will I be excited to open up my box of assorted candies and chocolates that I have stashed away in my closet on Easter morning?  Yes.  Will I proudly eat donuts and Coke for Easter morning breakfast?  Yes.  In the meantime, though, I am content.  As an added benefit of not eating all the sugar…..I’m losing the winter fluff!  So far I’ve lost about three kilos (about 6 pounds).  I haven’t even been trying to lose weight!  While I have started lifting weights, I haven’t been doing any extra cardio or anything.  This to me proves just how bad all of that sugar is for my body.  It’s amazing how easily eating sugar can pack on the pounds and giving up just that one food group can help me lose that winter fluff!

Next year (2014) will mark ten years that Ian and I have been together: dated for four years, engaged for two years, and will have been married for four years.  I guess after that long, we really, really know each other well……..to the point of even reading each others’ minds.  Wednesday at lunch, I took the leftover alfredo pasta that I made earlier in the week.  My 4th graders were excited to see what the crazy foreigner was having for lunch, so I showed them and said, “pasta.”  They kept calling it “spaghetti,” and I tried to tell them that no, it was pasta.  Eventually I gave up and just accepted the answer of spaghetti.  Anyway….them calling it spaghetti made me realize that it had been a while since Ian and I had spaghetti, and that would be pretty good for dinner.  I made a mental note to call him later that afternoon and ask if he wanted to make his delicious homemade marinara, but I forgot and never did.  However….when I walked in the door after work, I said, “Mmmm….something smells good.  What are you making?”  He said, “Mariana.  I thought we could have spaghetti tonight.”  I literally had to pick my jaw up off the ground. 

Some of you may consider that to be a fluke and occasionally things like that happen in life, but if him reading my mind really was a fluke, would it have happened twice in one day?!?!  Yes, twice.  I know that my birthday isn’t until July, but I had already been thinking about a great gift that Ian could make me.  He loves photography and is really good at taking pictures, so I thought that it would be cool if he could make me a cool photo collage book of our pictures from our time in Japan.  I feel like once we get back, people will ask to see pictures from Japan, and if we have the photo book, we can easily pull that out and show people.  It’s more than just a birthday present for me….it’s something that the both of us can keep and treasure to savor the memories of Japan long after we leave.  Last night I was thinking about that as I got my shower, so after I got out, I pitched the idea to Ian.  His reply was, “Well, it was a good thing that I wasn’t already thinking about doing that for you, huh?”  *gasp* I asked him if he was lying, and he said no….that he’d already looked into prices and formatting.  Wow.  He now has the ability to read my mind.  I guess I should send out more “wash the dishes” vibes, and maybe he will read my mind then, too……..

Anyway, that’s all for this blog.  I had a pretty interesting day at ES on Wednesday in which I played a new game with the kids at recess, had a very interesting conversation about movies, the Oscars, and America with a few teachers, and had one first grade class that was so excited to see me that they could hardly keep from screaming the whole class.  More about these stories in my next blog!   

The "hiking" trail

Last Friday night Ian and I invited friends over for a good old fashioned Lenten fish fry.  I assumed that everyone knew what fish fries were and how they operated because even if you're not Catholic, at home EVERYONE has gone to a fish fry at some point in time.  I sent out an email inviting everyone and saying that we would fry up all the normal fixins': fish, onion rings, homemade french fries, etc.  So when I got responses back from Sara balking at the amount of fried food and asking if there would be any vegetables, I turned my head in confusion.  Normally I would also complain at the amount of fried food.  I don't eat as healthily as I once did, but I still know that consuming the amount of grease at a fish fry is not good.  However, it's a FISH FRY.  People don't normally go to fish fries to count calories.  When everyone arrived last Friday night, we started talking about fish fries back in the States.  As it turns out, Sara, who is from Hawaii, had never been to one and had absolutely NO idea what I was talking about when I was referring to Lenten fish fries!  *gasp*  Melissa B and Margo, both from Washington, said that the northwest doesn't really have fish fries either.  *double gasp*  (Luckily Devin and Mollee are both from the south, so they knew what was going on.)  Therefore, Ian and I had to show them what it was all about.  We fried the fish, onions, and potatoes before throwing in Oreos.  :)  To pacify those who had balked about the amount of fried foods, Ian had prepared coleslaw, and I made fruit salad.  We all ate and enjoyed!

Mollee stayed the night, and the following morning she went hiking with us.  I found this hiking trail while I was riding my bike the other day and asked Mollee, who is an avid hiker, if she'd like to hike it with us.  Ian, Mollee, and I piled into our car and drove the five minutes to the trail head.....or at least what seemed like the trail head.  Okay, so the hiking trail turned out to not be a hiking trail....it was more like a road to no where up the mountain, and the whole day was more like a nature walk than a hike.  We didn't care, though, because the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  It was one of those pre-spring days in which there's still a crispness in the air, but the sunshine and buds on the trees promise that spring is just around the corner!

Shortly into our hike, we reached a fork in the road.  To the right the road was still gravel, but to the left it looked sightly washed away and much less used.  Ian quoted Robert Frost and said that we should "take the road less traveled."  (I told him, "You know that poem is about suicide, right?")  I was glad that we did, though, because it proved to be quite the adventure!!  We think the road once was a logging road, but it's clear that no one had used it in a long, long, LONG time.  In places the road was pretty much washed away.  In other places the mountain was reclaiming it with sprigs of bushes and trees growing through the dirt.  At a couple of spots, the road was deeply cracked and literally falling off the mountain.  (I actually tripped and fell in one of said cracks!  Yikes!)  My favorite spot on the road was the giant log heap we had to cross.  I'm not exactly sure how it got to the middle of the road, but for about the length of a football field, the road was covered with tree debris: sticks, twigs, limbs, and logs all tangled together and presenting a hurdle for us to cross.  We followed the road as far as we could up the mountain, hoping that it would come out at the top, but sadly it did not.  The road eventually just dead ended.  We think that it washed away at some point in time.

.....but did we give up?  NOPE!  We hiked back down to the fork, found a nice sunny spot, and took a break.  The sunshine felt amazing.  While resting, we noticed something pink caught in one of the nearby trees.  At first we thought it was underwear and laughed as we each concocted stories about how said pink underwear would have gotten to the higher branches of the tree.  Ian went to investigate it, but Mollee and I stayed behind.  I found a few round rocks, set them in front of me, broke a stick in two, and began to beat on the rocks, saying "Hey, Mollee, look.  I'm playing Rock Band!"  Ha, ha, ha.  Mollee started gathering rocks and random sticks, piling them into an old tire rim that we found.  She created "modern art."  When Ian returned from his pink-underwear-seeking adventure, he saw Mollee constructing her creation and me deeply concentrating on Rock Band and made fun of us.  (side note: The "pink underwear" turned out to be an old birthday balloon.)

On the second leg of our adventure, we continued up the original gravel road.  I was thinking that it would eventually become a hiking trail, but it never did.  I was also hoping that eventually it would lead to the top of the mountain, but that also didn't happen.  That road reached a dead end as well.  However, we did make friends at the top!  Shortly before we reached the dead end, we stumbled upon an older couple cutting greenery....off of some random mountain road.....at the top of some random mountain.  I think they were as shocked to see us as we were to see them!  As weird as it was for us to see the couple sitting at the side of their van cutting leaves off of some plant, I'm sure it was even stranger for them to see the foreigners in the middle of nowhere!  They asked what we were doing, and we said hiking and continued on our merry little way.

That night we made cheese fondue.  Someone had mentioned Switzerland earlier in the day, which made me think of fondue, which made me think of cheese fondue, which made me think that it had been a LONG time since we'd eaten any.  I was suddenly craving fondue, and I didn't care what meal options were proposed for that night.  I. WAS.  GOING.  TO.  MAKE.  CHEESE.  FONDUE.  It was worth it!  Even though good cheese is hard to find in Japan, I found a recipe online that only required cream cheese and Parmesan, which can easily be found at the grocery store.  Add homemade Irish soda bread, chicken breast, fish to dip into the fondue, and we had a FUN-due party!

......and that was all for our weekend adventure time.  Now that the days are getting longer and warmer, I'm hoping that we'll get to have more weekends outside.  Ian and I were just talking about all of the mountains we want to climb before we leave: Kirishima, Nakadake (the tallest mountain on Kyushu), Ichifusa one more time, and the 3,333 stone steps of Misato.  All of these hikes will most certainly whip us into shape and give us good practice for the ultimate goal.....FUJI!!!

Random musings for a Monday

What could make your day any better than finding money on the ground?    No matter what the amount, I always get SUPER excited about finding money on the ground.  I don’t care if it’s a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, or (if I get lucky) dollar bills, if I see it shining on the ground, I’m going to go for it!  Hello, FREE MONEY!!  Ian has always made fun of me for this.  In truth, I have picked up nasty stuff off of the ground before thinking that it was money only to have it pinched between my fingers and realize that it’s NOT someone’s change.  I’m not sure of the reason, but it was always so much easier to find change on the ground in the States.  It doesn’t really make sense because Japan is a cash based society (therefore people carry around only cash) whereas in the States people mostly just have credit on them.  Anyway, I found my first change on the ground last Friday.     Ian and I stopped at the grocery store, and on our way out, I found a one yen coin (fondly nicknamed the “yenny”) on the ground.  I know it’s silly because one yen=about a penny, but it still made my day to find that silver coin on the ground!

Last week for my eikaiwa class, I decided to have a lesson about Mardi Gras.  I showed the kiddos a short PowerPoint presentation about Mardi Gras and how it was an American holiday (I know it’s really not, but believe me it’s much easier to just call it an American holiday instead of going into the REAL story of Mardi Gras) celebrated mostly in New Orleans.  I showed them pictures of parades, beads, parade floats, and all the glitz and glamour of Mardi Gras.  After that, I had two projects for them to do: make beads and masks.  I found a simple, easy, and cute way to make beads from construction paper and had tried it out on Tuesday night.  I was actually REALLY pleased w/the result, and you can’t even tell that the beads are made from construction paper!!  Literally…I would wear these construction paper beads out in public (picture below).  However, it’s a REALLY time consuming process to make them.  The construction paper has to be cut into tiny strips of papers and then rolled up tightly.  The beads turn out really well, but if you don’t have the patience for it, it can be frustrating!  Where I failed in my class was not realizing this.  The poor kids got tired of it pretty quickly.  They worked and worked and worked but had almost no beads finished and got a little frustrated.  Plus, there was glue EVERYWHERE.  I had three half full jars of glue, and they used ALL OF IT.  Glue was on the table, paper, themselves, scissors, EVERYTHING.    It was so time consuming and such a mess to clean up that we didn’t even have time to make masks.    Fail, Melissa…FAIL.

Have you ever been bullied?  I can’t say that I have……until now.  To make matters worse….I’m being bullied by a 3rd grade girl.  I joke and say that I’m being bullied, but actually she’s just a very assertive young girl who lives in my neighborhood and wants to be my friend.  However, it’s almost in a way that’s like “Melissa-sensei: you WILL be my friend.  You WILL enjoy it.  You WILL play with me, and it WILL be fun.”  She’s so assertive, and I’m so passive that normally my reaction is, “Yes, ma’am.”    Sometimes when I ride my bike home from school, she’ll be walking home and say “MELISSA-SENSEI, STOP!” and stand in the middle of the road so that I have to get off of my bike and walk home with her.  I like her, but she’s also just a little aggressive.  I told the story about kissing Ian the other day in the last blog.  She was one of the elementary school girls who saw me.  While Ian easily drove off, I had to deal with the repercussions of that kiss.  They teased, giggled, and harassed me about it the whole way home.  Once I got home, I told them goodbye and went inside.  About two minutes later there was a knock on the door.  I heard giggling from the other side, so I knew it was the girls.  I opened the door, and of course the ring leader is THAT girl.  She barged right into my house (the foyer of anyone’s home is considered to be public space, so that wasn’t technically bad).  I shoved her out, told the girls goodbye, and then closed the door.  Before I could even get back to the living room, there was another knock on the door.  It didn’t take a rocket scienctist to figure out who was at the front door.  Before I could reach the door, that girl opened it and stood in my foyer saying “MELISSA-SENSEI!!”    I shoved her back outside, locking the door behind her, and retreated inside.  The kid just didn’t stop, though.  She walked around to my back yard, pulled open my screen doors and tried to get inside through my back doors.  LUCKILY I had those locked.  I like the kid, and even though she’s only in 3rd grade she scares me sometimes. 

I’m going to stop here.  I was going to continue writing and include what happened over the weekend, but I think I’ll make that into a separate blog.

Random things the Japanese do that I find interesting…

As promised, this blog is about some of the things that make us (as westerners) scratch our heads in befuddlement regarding the Japanese.  Some of these things I’ve learned, some of them I experienced, and some of them I’m just as confused as you about them!  Anyway….enjoy!  They are in no particular order….

#1: One thing that I never understood about my schools is that they keep the pool water in the pool all year long.  That’s right.  They don’t cover it in winter.  Right now the water is a nice green slimy color that looks more akin to a farm pond instead of a school swimming pool.  It gets pretty gross…  Come June the water is crystal clear and beautiful, but wait a few months for swimming season to end, and that water is disgusting!  This is totally surprising because the Japanese are ridiculously and diligently clean.  One of my friends explained to me why it is this way.  None of the school have fire hydrants.  (In fact, I don’t remember seeing fire hydrants anywhere in Japan.  Maybe I’m just not looking…..)  Therefore, the schools save the pool water as a reserve just in case of a fire.  I’m assuming that the fire fighters have pumps and such to get the water out.  It definitely explains why they would let the water get in that condition!

#2: Since I was sick last Wednesday, I didn’t get to have my Valentine’s Day lesson for my 4th graders.  However, the schedule was changed, and I taught the lesson this week at school.  It might have been a week late, but it all went well.  My 4th grade teacher is a delightful man who speaks English pretty well.  As the kids were busy making Valentine cards, he said, “Melissa-sensei, I am surprised that you celebrate Valentine’s Day.”  This perked my interest, so I asked him what he meant.  He said, “Valentine’s Day is a Japanese holiday.”  ………….what???  This guy is a very smart and well-traveled man, but I had to explain to him that no, Valentine’s Day is NOT a Japanese holiday and is celebrated all over the world.  He was surprised that it was celebrated outside of Japan.  While I didn’t go into the history of Valentine’s Day originating with St. Valentine way back when, I was completely blown away that he thought that Valentine’s Day was a Japanese holiday. 

#3: All members of a Japanese family sleep in the same room.  Unless the children are above a certain age (the grown-and-gone age), children sleep in the same room as their parents.  Everyone has his/her own futon and put them side-by-side in the same room.  This kind of makes sense in a way.  Since Japanese homes lack central heating and air, everyone crowds into that one room so that only one room has to be heated/cooled.  On the other hand, questions arise about privacy.  What if the baby starts crying?  Does everyone wake up?  What if someone gets up to use the bathroom?  Does it wake everyone?  When do the mommy and daddy get to have “alone time”?  Does everyone wake up when the first alarm goes off?  All good questions……

#4: Japan does NOT like PDAs.  Husbands and wives or boyfriends and girlfriends will rarely hold hands, hug, love on each other, or even (gasp!) kiss in public.  Especially out here in the countryside where people are VERY conservative you don’t see that type of thing.  PDAs might be SLIGHTLY more common in the city, but in general PDAs just don’t happen here.  Yesterday as I was coming home, Ian was leaving for work.  We met on the street, and I kissed him goodbye.  Some elementary school girls saw us, and they absolutely FREAKED OUT.  They squealed, giggled, and harassed me about it like there was no tomorrow.  Spoiler alert, Japan: I kiss my husband.  Shocking, I know!  In America, I know that elementary kids have seen people kiss.  It’s no big deal.  However, I might as well have striped off all of my clothes and ran around the neighborhood naked because that one little kiss made about the same amount of pandemonium that a naked run would have.

#5: Kids do not understand “nah-nah-nah-boo-boo.”  While we were playing tag, I tried to show the kids how to affectively use nah-nah-nah-boo-boo by sticking my butt out and shaking it to taunt whoever was “it”.  The kids copied me, thinking that it was hilarious.  However, they took it a little too far.  Instead of doing just what I taught them, some of the boys started pulling their pants down (revealing their naked backsides) and shaking their butts.    My immediate thought was PLEASE DEAR GOD DON’T LET ANY OF THE OTHER TEACHERS SEE THIS.  Needless to say, I put a stop to the nah-nah-nah-boo-boo-ing. 

#6: If there is Japanese right beside English, Japanese students will automatically read the Japanese without regarding the English.  For example, the one grocery store in town is called Sun Road.  It’s written out both in romanji, aka the English alphabet, and in katakana, the Japanese alphabet that is used for foreign words.  (I can’t say that I completely begrudge my students on this one because I do the say thing.  If I see “juice” printed next to the Japanese word “ジュース" (ju-su), my mind automatically focuses on the English text.)  I played a game in class the other day called “sentence scramble”.  I gave each group sentences with the words all scrambled up.  It was their task to rearrange the words into a correct order to make a sentence.  The corrected sentence was “Did you see Melissa at Sun Road yesterday?”  I gave this sentence to my second graders at the JHS.  They are completely capable of reading each and every word in that sentence, yet I was blown away by their confusion.  They had no idea what “Sun Road” was, so I’d get sentences like “Did Sun you see Melissa Road at yesterday?” or “Did Melissa at Road yesterday Sun?”  Whenever I said “Sun Road” out loud, I could see the light bulbs going on over their heads.  Since they read the katakana of Sun Road their whole lives, it never occurred to them that the romanji of their grocery would look like: Sun Road.

#7: The nape of the neck is considering sexy.   Watch out ladies and gents, I’m not wearing a turtleneck today, and my hair’s in a ponytail.  Yep, I’m showing off my sexy spot.  I don’t know why, but that area of the body along with the shoulders are considering sexy.  That’s why sleeveless tops (no matter how conservative they might be) are NOT appropriate for the work place.  It makes a lot of sense because most of my female teachers who have long hair never pull it back.  IF they do, it’s in a simple low ponytail, still covering their neck.  I only recently found this out, so I guess I’m considered to be the office skank since I wear my hair up a lot.  For me a medium to high ponytail or bun is a quick-and-easy hairdo for those days that my hair is too………”lively” to wear down.  Little did I know that I was showing off my sexy neck……    On the other hand, legs, considered to be sexy in the western world, aren’t here.  That also makes total sense considering that I’ll see girls wearing impossibly short skirts with tights underneath….yes….those tights totally make wearing a skirt that short okay.    Also, I see a lot of women wearing deadly hooker heels.  Wearing 6-inch heels in the western world would definitely draw attention to a woman’s legs, (and therefore her sexuality) but here it just doesn’t have the same connotation.  Interesting!

#8: The Japanese use kerosene heaters like it’s no one’s business.  In the winter, kerosene heaters are one of the main ways to heat a house.  Before coming to Japan, I don’t know that I could have even picked a kerosene heater out of a manly-looking-tools lineup.  However, now I know how to use one, how to refill one, and can even operate one that has zero English on it.    Ian and I both love our kerosene heater because it makes our house toasty warm.  I enjoy curling up in front of it because it reminds me of laying in front of the fireplace on those winter afternoons at my grandmother’s house.  Ahhh, nostalgia!

#9 This one doesn’t really have anything to do with things that the Japanese do, but I still found it quite funny.  The other day I was playing tag with my kids at the elementary school.  There are some great bushes near the teacher’s room windows that are carved in a certain way that make excellent hiding spots.  Some of my kids were hiding in the bushes, and I thought that they had such great ideas to hide there!  So I also hid.  It wasn’t two minutes later that the vice principal opened the window and started yelling the kids to get out of the bushes and that they knew they weren’t supposed to be in there.    You better believe that I was plastered to the ground to avoid being seen by anyone as the kids accepted the shame speech and yelling from the vice principal.  After the window was shut, I quietly slid out of the bushes to avoid being caught and echoed the VP’s sentiments, “……yeah, kids……so…….don’t hide in the bushes…….yeah……it’s bad……yeah.” 

In other news this week…..we had shaken preformed on our car.  Shaken is a mandatory check-up that car owners have to have every other year.  You have to take your car to the mechanic, who checks it, and then charges you an arm and a leg for it.  I believe that I wrote about this previously and said that the guy quoted us a price of 100,000 (about $1,000).  When you live in Japan, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet……    When Ian went to pick up the car yesterday, the guy said the only thing that was wrong with our car was the brakes, and he changed those.  The total price for our shaken was 62,000 (about $650).  Although we basically paid that much for new brakes and a car wash, it was a LOT better than the 100,000 we thought we were going to pay! 

Alright.  That’s all I’ve got for now.  Enjoy the weekend, y’all!             

Unintentional scare

I left off the last blog with us heading to Costco in Fukuoka.  Ah, Costco…..the magical fun land of American consumerism!    The first time I went to Costco was in December.  That first experience was an enchanting trip, but this second time the magic of Costco seemed to be lost just a bit.  I knew what to expect, so it didn’t surprise me as much.  We still had a great time and ate lunch/dinner at the food court.  Ian and I both got HUGE slices of pizza and drinks for only 600 yen TOTAL.  Gah….I miss cheap food prices!!    While we got the things that we came for, the biggest (literally) and best item we bought at Costco was a 54 inch giant stuffed panda.  Yes, you read that right.  The panda was literally the size of an adult.  Melissa B’s birthday is just around the corner, and Ian and I wanted to get her something nice since she’s always so good to us.  She LOVES pandas…..maybe even more than her own life.  Her dream job is to be a panda ambassador.  As soon as we saw the giant stuffed panda, we knew that was it!!  Game over on any other gift ideas!    We loaded the giant stuffed panda into our cart and laughed until we were blue in the face.  The thing literally TOWERED over our cart!  Everyone stared at us, and kids pointed and smiled.  We seriously had the BEST time pushing our cart with the giant panda around the store.  The cashiers giggled as they scanned the big behemoth, and even getting it into our car was a hoot.  We literally had to buckle it done as if it was another passenger.

 

On our way home from Fukuoka, the three of us decided that we couldn’t wait until her birthday to give it to her.  We decided that she should have it ASAP.    Our scheme was simple: get to her house and see if she was home.  If she was, we would put it in the driver’s seat of her car.  Then Mollee would call Melissa and tell her that she was lost in Hitoyoshi and ask if she could come and find her.  Melissa would say yes (because she’s Melissa) and then go out to her car and see the giant panda.  Plan B was if she wasn’t home.  Generally she leaves her bathroom or shower room window unlocked.  Ian was going to lift me up, I would crawl in and unlock the front door so that they could come in with the big panda, and then we’d leave it in the living room.

 

When we got to her house, she was there, so we went with option A.  Ian tip-toed over to her car, squeezed the giant bear in the driver’s seat, and closed the door without a sound.  I was actually impressed with his stealth!  Mollee tried to call Melissa five different times, but she wouldn’t pick up.  Downtrodden but unwilling to let our surprise be wasted, we tried to call her on Skype.  She still didn’t answer, so we sent her a Skype message saying that Mollee was lost in Hitoyoshi and had no idea where she was at.  Mollee called one more time, and Melissa picked up that time.  We heard movement in the house and knew that Melissa was leaving to “help Mollee.”  Ian and I were waiting at the corner of Melissa’s house to see her come out.  She was on the phone with Mollee, not paying any attention to her surroundings while she opened her car door and sat down.  The soft and squishy panda must have freaked her out because she jumped up and said, “I THINK SOMEONE’S IN MY CAR!!”  Ian and I realized at that point that instead of being surprised she was scared—not our intention—so we rounded the corner of her house while laughing.  I think this scared her even more.    I can’t say that I blame her.  To have two shadowy figures approach me in the darkness of midnight after just thinking that someone was in my car would scare the crap out of me as well.  Oops! 

Once she realized that it was just us and the whole Mollee thing had been a set up (and blood pressures were reduced to normal) we had a good laugh about it!  In fact, Melissa was already talking about how she was going to get the panda home….buy a plane ticket for it?  ….claim it as her carry-on?  …..get some of those vacuum packs and suck all of the air out of it?  We laughed and laughed as we all came up with more obnoxious solutions to this problem. 

Ian and I stayed the night at Mollee’s house so that we could go to church the next morning.  It also just so happened to be the Hitoyoshi Marathon that day.  I knew and thought that we could go watch the runners after Mass.  What I didn’t know was how close the start line would be to our church.  On the way to Mass we saw people congregating and walking to an area a block or so away from the church.  Throughout Mass we heard periodic announcements from the loudspeaker, but it wasn’t until Mass was over that we realized just how close the start line was.  We were blocked in!!  Runners lined the street for about two blocks in either direction.  There was no way we were leaving anytime soon!!    However, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  Ian said he was cold, so he waited in the car, but I watched the start of the race, which was actually pretty fun.  There were people dressed up in costumes, teams of people with their faces painted, and a few teams with the same t-shirts.  Everyone cheered and clapped them on when the race started.  We had to wait about ten minutes after the start for the crowd to clear before we could leave the church’s parking lot.  There were several other cars lined up, and we followed them out. 

Ian and I usually go to McDonald’s for breakfast after church.  However, by the time we got to McDonald’s they were no longer serving breakfast, so we settled for lunch.  On the way home from church we saw the biggest motorcycle gang I’ve ever seen in Japan.  It must have been over twenty motorcycles—some were the larger roadsters, some had side cars, but the entire gang looked pretty professional. I’m pretty sure that motorcycles IS their one and only hobby.  Regardless….it made both Ian and I be ready to get home and ride our motorcycle!!   

…….that’s all of that, folks!  The next blog I’m going to write is about some things that the Japanese do/I’ve learned they do that seem quirky by our western standards, so make sure to stay tuned for that!!

Small town girl in a big ole city

Friday evening Mollee drove me up to Kumamoto City to meet up with Ian.  He had been teaching one of his intensive two day English classes to factory workers, and since we didn’t get to spend Valentine’s Day together, we thought that a little break from Yunomae might be nice.    I always feel like such a country bumpkin going up to the city, but every time I go I’m always overwhelmed.  All of the night lights block the stars, the six lanes of traffic feel like too much, the constant bummer-to-bummer traffic irritates me, and the crowds of people no matter where we go make me feel anxious.  I enjoy going to the city and getting out of sleepy little Kuma-gun, and it’s nice to have a change of scenery, but….the city always overwhelms me with its flashing neon signs, commuter buses that don’t mind getting three inches from the side of my car, lack of mountains and greenery, and numerous cold concrete structures.   I could never, ever live in a big city!  There are some upsides to the city, though.  I feel like I’d never be bored because there is ALWAYS something going on in the city!  Whether it’s a new museum exhibit, foreign food shopping, exploring new sights, or just strolling down the well-lit streets at night there’s ALWAYS something to do in the city!!

We met up with Ian on Friday evening after checking into a hotel and went out to dinner at Las Margaritas, the wonderful Mexican restaurant in the city.  The owner of the restaurant is from Mexico, so the food is authentic and DELICIOUS.  He’s also a really nice guy who enjoys talking to us.  Since it was a meatless Lenten Friday, I had the quesadillas and nachos.  DELICIOUS!  I miss having Mexican food in my life!    After dinner we went and strolled down the city sidewalks for a bit before returning to our hotel for the night.

 

The following morning we went to Starbucks.  I don’t care that much about overpriced coffee, but Mollee and Ian both wanted to go.  Since I don’t like coffee, that eliminates a LOT OF options for me.  I generally get a hot chocolate, but since it’s Lent, I couldn’t do that.  I told Ian to just order me a hot tea, but he asked if I wanted a tea latte.  Thinking that latte=fancy word for some type of coffee, I wrinkled my nose and said no.  However, Mollee explained that “latte” is the Italian word for “milk,” so basically a tea latte is like a tea with milk.  I tried it and found my new favorite Starbucks drink.  Yum!  It might be even better than my normal hot chocolate!  Plus, the caffeine from the tea had me WIRED!  I was bouncing all over the place.  (Why would I ever take drugs whenever I have such a strong response to CAFFIENE????  )

After our morning Starbucks, we headed up to Fukuoka.  Mollee originally was going to spend the day in Kumamoto with some friends, but those plans fell through, so she tagged along with us up to the big city.  I drove to Fukuoka, which allowed me to realize something.  Before coming to Japan, I HATED driving in a big city.  Even going through Nashville or Louisville made me anxious.  I hate the constant weaving in and out of traffic, the people trying in vain to cut around you, the oh-crap-I-need-to-be-two-lanes-over-NOW feeling, etc.  However, after driving in Japan, that city driving anxiety has pretty much disappeared.  I don’t mind driving in the city now.  Kumamoto is slightly bigger than the Metro Nashville area, and I have no problem driving there.  Bummer-to-bummer traffic still annoys me, but who really ENJOYS traffic….?  I guess being forced to do something repeatedly really will help you conquer your fears!    Honestly, I feel like driving in Japan has improved my overall driving skills.  Not only am I better at city driving, but I can drive on tiny little one lane roads meant for one car but somehow two cars can miraculously fit on.  Before coming to Japan, I had absolutely no experience driving on curvy, hilly mountain roads, but now I don’t think twice about it.  I remember the first time I took the 219 from Kuma-mura to Yatsushiro.  I was terrified!  Although the 219 is one of the main roads through Kuma-gun, it cuts through the mountains between Kuma-mura and Yatsushiro.  The road has been carved into the mountain, so one side of the road is sheer mountain rock while the other side is a drop off into the Kuma River.  It’s a beautiful drive, but the road is constantly curving right or left around the mountains, and most of the curves are blind.  So…..if you happen to meet a log truck rounding a curve, the driver might not be able to keep his back tires on his side of the line.    Anyway, the first time was quite the experience for me.  I was nervous, anxious, and couldn’t take my eyes off the road as I super-focused on every detail.  Now driving on the 219 is nothing.  Driving on any mountain road is nothing.  It just comes second nature now. 

Once we got up to Fukuoka, we went to the Pokémon store.  While I don’t give a crap about Pokémon, both Mollee and Ian wanted to go.  I went to a bookstore across the way and browsed the aisles until I found the foreign books section.  I found the February copy of National Geographic (which was selling for slightly over $10) and read that until they were finished with all things Pokémon.  Then we went up to the roof of the 10-story shopping center where there was a nice garden area with a great view of the entire city.  We could see all the way to the ocean in front of the city to the mountains on the backside of the city.  We could even see airplanes taking off and landing at the airport just a few miles away.  Plus….bonus!  The first sakura (cherry blossoms) of the season were in the rooftop garden.  Hurray!  It was a tiny cherry tree but still as beautiful!

 

Even though I’m not quite finished writing about the weekend, I think I’ll stop here so that I can get some actual work done.  Yes, I know it’s hard to believe, but sometimes I do actually have to work at my fluffy Japanese job. 

THE incident at Yunomae JHS

This is a typical winter weekend for the Reeds: Ian and I hide out in our house, cuddled up beneath blankets and sipping hot tea just to keep warm.  However, now that the days reach highs into the 50s, we’ve gradually been venturing out of our house, and I’m really excited about this!  The ume (plum) trees are starting to bloom, I don’t have to wear AS MANY layers to school, and there have even been a few nights when we didn’t have to leave our air-con on overnight.  As I wrote in the last blog, I went for a great bike ride on Sunday, and we had a failed attempt at hiking last Monday.  Well, the weekend before was actually really nice outside.  The weather was much milder, and we planned to go hiking with a few of our friends on Saturday.  However, after it rained ALL day on that Friday I was afraid that the hike might be canceled.  Even whenever I woke up on Saturday morning, it was very gray outside.  We had planned to meet at 12:30, and fortunately the skies cleared for us.    The ten of us piled into two cars and drove the nearly forty-five minutes it took to get to the trail head, which was way up in the mountains.

The hike was nice—not too steep or treacherous.  It was just the perfect amount of workout.  However, the last stretch to the top was fairly steep, and the ground was soggy and muddy, so we had to choose our footing carefully.  Once we made it to the top, we didn’t stay there for very long.  Even though the temperature was nice, and we had worked up a sweat on the way up, it was FREEZING on the top of the mountain.  Without the protection of trees, we felt the wind, and it was NOT a friendly mountain breeze.    Instead of breaking at the top like we normally do, all of us took the pictures that we wanted and then hurried back down the mountain to get back to warmth.

Something else happened last week that is worth writing about, and it was probably the WORST thing that has happened to me at the JHS so far.  A second grade student intentionally threw a book at me because he was angry.  That sounds bad by American standards, but in Japan (where children are taught to RESPECT anyone older than them, ESPECIALLY authority figures) STUFF LIKE THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN.  It just doesn’t!  Students know that if they SAY something wrong to a teacher, not even becoming violentl, they can get smacked across the face.  (Corporal punishment is technically illegal in Japan but…….)  I guarantee that had the kid threw a book at ANY of the other Japanese teachers, the WRATH OF GOD would have been brought down upon him.  The teacher would have smacked him, given him a VERY sternly worded and embarrassing shame speech, and possibly even had a meeting with his parents.  (After which, the kid would go home to his parents, been given a good whipping, and punished for who knows how long.)  STUDENTS KNOW THAT YOU DON’T DISRESPECT A TEACHER.

Anyway….I’m getting ahead of myself by telling this story.  This happened Monday a week ago.  This kid is an absolute JERK.  I never remember noticing it until last semester.  He doesn’t give a CRAP about English.  Every time worksheets are given out in class or the students have to work on their work book, he doesn’t.  He won’t even touch it.  An entire class period will go by, and he won’t have finished one question.  Instead he plays with his pencil, picks his fingers, or whatever to waste time.  I’ve tried to help this kid.  I’ve hovered over him, trying to get him to write down answers, even giving him the answers, but he’ll blatantly ignore me.  If I stand in front of him to help him, he will turn away from me and talk to friends.  He’s always trying to disrupt people around him, and he has a few students who take the bait.  He’ll do anything to get those friends to pay attention to him….throw an eraser at them, steal their pencils, flip his desk chair over so that he’s sitting on it wrong, etc.  Also, anytime I accidentally mispronounce a Japanese word in class, he will laugh out loud.  Other kids might snicker or stifle a laugh, but he has NO qualms about laughing at me.  I’ve tried different approaches with this kid…..helping him, ignoring him, being nice to him, intimidating him, etc, but nothing seems to work.  I’m pretty sure that my JTE could care LESS, so I don’t get any help from that angle.  Final conclusion…..THIS KID IS A JERK.

It was the last few minutes of class, and I was circling around the room helping students with their worksheets.  I noticed that jerk kid was reading a book…..not an English book but a just-for-fun book, so I tried to close it on him.  However, he pulled it away.  I reached out and grabbed it, but he was too strong and tugged it out of my grasp.  I pointed at the (blank) worksheet on his desk (which he had had for over twenty minutes) and told him to work.  As I walked away, I swatted him across the back of the head.  He immediately yanked the book he was reading out of his desk and hurled it at me with as much force as he could gather.  Everyone stopped what they were doing, turned around, and stared.  I SWEAR TIME STOPPED.  There was this huge pause in which no one did anything.  I didn’t move, jerk kid didn’t move, and everyone else in the classroom just watched.  Hindsight is 20/20, and I know now how I should have reacted, but at that time I had NO IDEA how to process that.  Should I yell?  Smack him?  Laugh it off and ask “Was that your best shot”?  Run out of the room crying?  I had absolutely no idea!  Unfortunately, my JTE didn’t see it happen, so he was confused as to why everyone was just staring at the back of the classroom.  He walked to the back of the room and told jerk kid something.  By this time class was over, so we did our goodbyes, and I raced out of class with one destination in mind…..the bathroom. 

I crawled onto the toilet and just released my emotions.  It’s not that I was sad…..but more like angry/embarrassed/shocked/confused/upset.  I’m not sure how long I was in there, but I heard shuffling around in the hallway, and my name being said.  I dried my eyes, and as I left the bathroom I ran right into my JTE.  He seemed a bit confused and asked what happened.  I told him the story, tearing up toward the end.  I’m pretty sure that he had NO IDEA what to do with my emotions because he said, “Um…….sorry.  He….gets angry sometimes.”  I get angry sometimes, too, but I don’t go around throwing books at authority figures.  Then he told me that there was an assembly at that time, and we needed to go to the gym.  I said OK, but my mind was already made up that I was NOT going to that assembly.  I really didn’t care what happened to me if I didn’t go.  I didn’t want to be around anyone at that time, so I went back to the bathroom and just waited it out.  Since the assembly happened, I didn’t get to talk to my JTE about it anymore until the following day.  I asked him if the student received a punishment.  He said, “I talked to him about it.”  THAT’S IT.  Please refer to my above statement as to what would have happened HAD IT BEEN ANY OTHER JAPANESE TEACHER.  I feel like any other teacher would have taken this incident more seriously.  However, my JTE has a pretty good don’t-give-a-crap attitude, so the jerk kid pretty much got away with murder and continues to be a jerk to this day…….  GRRRRRRR!!!!!               

Now on to something a little happier…..I have been trying to lose a little winter weight.  Giving up sweets for Lent will definitely help, but I also want to get a little bit more toned, so I’ve been lifting weights.  ……..and by weights I mean heavy things around the house…..and by heavy things around the house I mean my fabric softener bottle.    Don’t judge!  I weighed the bottle, and it was just shy of five pounds.  I realize that this weight will only go down as I use the bottle, but for right now it works well!  As I watch TV, (or even Skype family back at home!) I can do reps with the five pound weight to get rid of my bingo wings.    Now if only I could lose this muffin top as well……..

Yesterday I ate lunch with my third graders at the JHS.  I was overwhelmingly surprised that I actually had a good conversation.  A couple of the girls who I sat next to are always nice to me.  We talked about Valentine’s Day, and then one of the girls from a neighboring table actually MOVED to my table in order to speak to me.  GASP!!  That never happens!  She asked me what my favorite One Direction song was, and then I asked her the same question.  We started to talk about Taylor Swift, and before I knew it lunch time was over.  Instead of watching the clock and praying for it to speed up so that awkward lunch time could be over, I actually enjoyed that lunch period!! 

After lunch, I went up to the library to read for a bit.  Every time I take my Kindle up there to read, the kids are amazed.  I don’t think Kindles are very popular in Japan because they keep thinking that it’s an iPad and try to touch the screen.  Once I show them that you can’t touch the screen but can control it with the buttons on the right side, they give me a look of “What is this contraption??”  Some of my third grade boys wanted to play around with it, so I let them.  I showed them the categories of books listed: Melissa’s, Ian’s, books about Japan, newspapers, and other.  After I said, “These are Ian’s books,” one of the boys said, “Ian!  Ian my best friend!  Best friend Ian!”    I don’t think that boy has ever talked to Ian, but apparently him and Ian are best friends.  I love the words that come out of my students’ mouths sometimes!  However, then the three of them hovering around me reverted back to their immature selves and started calling one another “gay” while pointing fingers at each other.  “Melissa-sensei, he gay!” (kid being pointed at VEHEMENTLY shakes head)  “No!  No gay!  Him gay!”  (different kid being pointed at shakes head and points back to boy #1)  *sigh* Middle school…….

That’s all the blogging I’ve got for this week.  Happy Friday, y’all!!

The sweetest day of the year

After being at home sick for the past two days with laryngitis, I came back to school today.  Although my voice still cracks more than a pubescent boy and sounds like an eighty-year-old smoker, I decided that it was over the worst and came to school.  As soon as I arrived at school, I was bombarded with the “Are you okay?” questions and “We were worried about you!” statements.  Then, since it’s Valentine’s Day, I also was bombarded with something else…..chocolate!  Upon arriving at school, I had teachers handing me chocolate right and left.  Of course since Valentine’s Day fell ONE DAY after the start of Lent this year, I won’t be enjoying any chocolate since I gave up sweets for Lent.    Which leads me to my next point…..every year I try to give up sweets for Lent, but every year I somehow fail.  I’ve only successfully made it through Lent without sweets once or twice.  However, this year, I’m going to try my hardest and make it all forty day.  I have a plan….for every sweet that I receive during Lent, I’m going to put it in a secret stash pile.  Then once Easter comes…..HELLO pile of sweet treats!  If the sweet is unable to be saved, example: homemade treats, I’ll simply give it away.  Plus, this year I have support.  Ian is also giving up sweets, which will make it A LOT easier.  This way no sweets will be in the house, (except for my hidden secret stash) which will remove the temptation.  Hurray!

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I’m sure that many of you have plans with your sweetie.    Ian and I have the most romantic Valentine’s Day planned…..NOT!  I’m actually not even going to SEE Ian at all today.    He left EARLY this morning to go to Kumamoto City for work.  For the next two days he’s running an extensive two day English class.  We actually said that we’d move our Valentine’s Day celebration to this weekend.  Ian wanted me to drive up to the city on Friday night so that we could have a nice night out.  I said that it was going to be too expensive to take BOTH cars to the city.  However, Mollee said that she was already planning on going to the city on Friday night, so she’s giving me a lift up there.  Then Ian and I can have our romantic night out on the town and stay the night.  I suggested that we get all dressed up and go out to eat.  Ian burst my bubble pretty quickly on that idea.  “So we’re going to get all dressed up and go out for……fish?”  I had forgotten that it would be Friday…..during Lent.  CURSE YOU, LENT!!!! 

Anyway…..let’s take a step back and talk about a few things that happened this past weekend.  Since the girls had ladies night on Friday, the boys had guys night on Saturday.  Ian left the house around 3 PM on Saturday and didn’t come home until about 3 PM the following day.  While all of the details of what happened are a mystery to me, I do know that they played videos games and BBQ’d meat.  On Sunday afternoon when Ian got home, we both laid down to take a nap.  Ian was exhausted from the night before, so he slept longer than me.  I decided to go for a bike ride since the weather was nice.  I took the main road through town, the 219, and rode away from town.  It doesn’t require me to ride very far out of town before the road makes a steep grade up into the mountains and civilization ceases to exist.  It’s a beautiful ride, and I’m sure it’ll be amazing once things start to bloom and bud.  My goal was to ride to the bordering prefecture, Miyazaki.  However, the mountain grade was just too steep, and I was losing sun light, so I decided to turn around.  While going up the mountain proved to be rough, going down the mountain was a different story.  I was going so fast that the wind blowing across my face was actually making it numb!  Good times. 

Last weekend was a three day weekend for us since Monday was National Foundation Day.  Since it was a three day weekend, several of our friends traveled.  Melissa went to Tokyo with some of her co-workers, and Sara, Shara, Devin, and Margo went to Kagoshima.  Originally we were also going to Kagoshima with them, but since we bought the new car, we decided that it wouldn’t go.  Both of us have been to Kagoshima twice, and while it’s a great place to visit, we decided that we’d save the money we would have spent and apply that to the car.  Instead we made other plans. 

Mollee came over and stayed the night on Sunday so that we could go hiking on Monday.  We decided to take a trail that none of us have tried before but have heard that it’s really nice.  It’s deep in the mountains of neighboring Mizukami, so we knew that we’d have to drive a bit.  The drive was gorgeous!  We had to take the road that borders the reservoir and followed the mountains all the way up.  We kept driving and kept driving, knowing that we were getting closer until we saw a mysterious sign.  The road was halfway blocked, and we hesitated for a moment.  None of us could read the kanji on the sign, but Mollee said that it could possibly say something about ice on the road and to be careful because whenever she went skiing a few weeks back, she encountered several signs like that.  We didn’t argue with that rational because we were indeed high enough in elevation for that to make sense.  So we continued on the road, winding back and forth higher up until we were just TWO kilometers from the trail head.  It was there that we ran into construction.    The road was COMPLETELY blocked off, and no way was a car sliding by the behemoth back hoe perched precariously on the tiny mountain road. 

    

Even though our plans for hiking fell through, we still made the most of it.  On our way down the mountain, we stopped at a waterfall and played in it.  The water was ridiculously cold, and my feet were soaking wet by the time we left, but it was well worth it!    Our next stop was at the reservoir.  We found a place to stop and have lunch.  It was right out over the water….literally!  Mizukami has a jet fountain that shoots water hundreds of feet into the air almost every hour on the hour.  Beside the fountain is a floating dock that guests can walk out to, complete with picnic tables.  Although it was a bit cold sitting out on the water, the views were incredible from that angle.

 

And…….that’s all of that!  Happy Valentine’s Day, folks!  Go enjoy some cuddle time with your sweetie or a box of chocolates…..or both.