Last Minute Reflections

I’m leaving.

It has finally set in.  I switch through these intense moments of anxiety in which I think I CAN’T POSSIBLY LEAVE!  I STILL HAVE TO DO _____, ______, AND ______!  THERE’S THE KITCHEN FLOOR THAT STILL NEEDS TO BE MOPPED, THE LAST LOAD OF CLOTHES TO BE WASHED, MY BAGS TO DOUBLE CHECK, AND SO MUCH OTHER STUFF THAT I CAN’T POSSIBLY LEAVE UNTIL IT’S DONE!!

Then I switch to these intense moments of pure excitement.  I’m going home!!!!!!!!!!  As I write this, there’s an intense excited sensation in my belly—kind of like when you are at the apex of a roller coaster and waiting for it to plummet down.  Before I get there, I get to have a few more incredible experiences, including climbing Mt. Fuji, visiting Tokyo, and something that I’ve always wanted to do, go to Hawaii!!

I have successfully completed my bucket list of things that I wanted to do before I leave Japan.  I created a list back in May of last little things that I wanted to do, including camping one more time, taking the 219 to Miyazaki, swim one last time in the Yunomae swimming hole, hike at the Mizukami waterfalls, play at the Taragi rocket ship park, and a few other things.

Ian and I have prepped for this day.  We’ve both found jobs, found an apartment, switched the car insurance for my car back into my name, and are looking at health insurances.  For the past week and a half we have deep cleaned our house (even moving the refrigerator, kitchen cabinets, and washing machine away from the wall so that we could clean behind them!).  When my supervisor came over yesterday to check the house, she basically said, “Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!  I don’t have to clean anything in this house after you leave!”  Ha, ha!  I love my supervisor!

This will probably be my last blog written in Japan.  I may be able to squeeze one more out while in Tokyo, but if history is any indicator, I generally don’t blog well while I’m traveling.  As one last Japanese entry, I wanted to mention some of the things that this wonderful, amazing, incredibly enlightening experience has taught me. 

1) You don’t have to speak the same language to communicate.

This one is sooooooooooooooooooooo true.  Today my supervisor took me to the mayor’s office to say goodbye to the mayor and all of the town officials there.  The last time I sat in the mayor’s office was that first day two years ago.  I was offered hot green tea as sweat rolled off my forehead and people chattered away in conversations that I was unable to contribute to.  Today I was able to ask and answer questions and give a short speech in semi-broken Japanese.  I digress—in the past two years, I’ve used more choppy three-word sentences, wild waving hand gestures, and even pictures to get my point across than I ever have in my life.  Most of the time it works!  If it doesn’t work, a simple smile and nervous giggle at least shows that I’m trying!  Body language is also an important factor, and I’ve learned that here.  I’ve heard that 90% of communication is non-verbal, and I completely believe that.  

2) Kids don’t care if someone is “different.”

Kids understand that I’m “different,” but they don’t see that as a bad thing.  (Racism is a learned behavior that if developed is more prevalent in JHS.)  They are curious about me and want to run their fingers through my hair, touch my freckles, pinch my arm fat, or run their fingers over the hairs on my arm just to see what it feels like.  However, they aren’t racist.  They love me regardless of my inability to speak Japanese to them.  They want to see how I react to situations, what I do, how high I can jump, fast I can run, or how many cartwheels I can do in a row.  They are fascinated by the simplest things that I do, like eating with chop sticks or sticking my tongue out at them.    

3) It’s possible to feel like home is in two different places.

Gack!  So true!  I realized this once we got back from our summer vacation in the States last year.  When we were at “home” in the States, things didn’t seem right.  We missed things about Japan, like gas attendants pumping our gas for us or the mountainous scenery that Yunomae provides.  Once we got back to Japan, our lives seemed more settled, but we missed the States.  We missed the friends and family that we had just visited and being able to speak our native language.  Ian and I both feel torn between Yunomae and Paducah.  In both places we simultaneously feel like it’s where we belong and yet……not.

4) Soup can be eaten with chop sticks.

Ha, ha, ha!  This one is definitely a little less heavy-handed.  My first morning in Yunomae my host family prepared traditional Japanese breakfast for me, miso soup along with a few other things.  My host mother sat the miso soup down in front of me with chopsticks.  I had an instant panic moment as my eyes darted around the table in search of a spoon.  There wasn’t one, but I noticed one of the boys pulling the larger chunks of tofu out of the bowl with his chop sticks and then slurping the broth down straight from the side of the bowl.  Ta-da!  This is how soup is eaten with chop sticks.

5) Feeling like an outcast is a ridiculously humbling experience.

I won’t say that I know what it’s like to be a minority because I’ve only had to be one for the past two years, not my entire life.  However, I definitely have a greater appreciation for what it’s like.  When the store clerk follows me around the store because he/she is afraid I might steal something just because I’m “different,” I understand.  When old people and very young children stare at me because I’m the only “different” person for miles, I understand.  When I don’t do things correctly because I don’t know the social norms, I understand.  It’s been an extremely valuable experience, and I wish that more Americans could have it.  I feel like that would cure some of those race issues that we have…..

6) In the age old nature vs. nurture debate, I’m now leaning toward nurture.

I know this is an ongoing debate of whether certain things in life are what we are born with or learn from our care givers and surroundings.  After living here for two years and seeing the difference between American and Japanese students, I feel like nurture is a stronger component of this debate.  Students here are taught morality from a VERY young age and as a result turn into adults who know right from wrong.  They don’t even contemplate stealing things and are constantly watching out for their neighbors.

These are just a few of the lessons that I’ve learned.  This entire experience has been more rewarding and beneficial than I ever could have imagined.  I will miss Japan and my tiny town of Yunomae.

Until next time, Japan.

Thanks for the memories.

Changing Gears

So here it is…..the final week.  72 hours from now I will no longer be a resident of Yunomae.  72 hours from now I’ll be on my way to Tokyo.  72 hours from now, I will officially begin my journey home!  How strange to think……

Since this will be one of the last blogs I’ll write, I thought it would be fitting to recap some interesting things.  I’ll start off with my supervisor.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever told about my first impression of her.  When I landed at the Kumamoto airport, two people were waiting to pick me up and take me back to Yunomae, Mr. Fujiwara and Sawada-san.  Mr. Fujiwara is a older, stern looking man, whereas Sawada is a cute, bubbly looking girl.  To be quite honest I thought she was Mr. Fujiwara’s granddaughter that he had brought along to meet the cool foreigner.  It wasn’t until we were at lunch after we left the airport that I realized she was my supervisor.  I didn’t think she was old enough to be my supervisor (as it turns out, she is a year older than me)!  Boy was I wrong.  For the past two years she has saved my skin more times than I can count.  She was an absolutely amazing supervisor, and I could not have asked for more!   

 

Changing gears completely, here’s a few things that the Japanese do that I think is rather funny.  Most of you reading this blog are like me and have western mindsets, so when we think of or do things, it’s with that mindset.  For example, whenever we make the gesturing of eating, we hold a pretend fork and bring that to our mouths.  It’s common knowledge that that means eating.  However, in Japan they extend their index and middle fingers to look like chopsticks and bring those to their mouths.  This (in Japan) is the gesture for eating. 

Another thing that I find funny is that on any maps of the world, Japan is always smack dab in the middle.  Even if the kids draw maps of the world on the blackboard, they always start by drawing the four main islands of Japan.  For example, one time when we were playing Pictionary in class, the word was “world,” and the student drew a round circle for the globe, four main islands of Japan, continental Asia, and Australia before the word “world” was guessed.  It blew my mind.  As an American, I’m so used to seeing North and South America in the center of the map.  If I were playing Pictionary and had the word “world,” I wouldn’t think twice about drawing those two continents before anything else.  Both of these examples are fun little differences between eastern and western cultures.

Changing gears completely again, let’s talk about the bugs…..big, giant, nasty, numerous bugs that live here.  I’m not sure if it just didn’t get as cold and kill as many off this winter or what, but the bug population has been out of control this year it seems.  Melissa and I were talking about it a few weeks ago, and both of us agreed that the bugs were waaaaaaaaaaaaay worse this year than last year.  Here are a few examples:

Since it has been so hot, I decided that instead of going for a walk right after work like normal I’d wait until the sun went down and it cooled off a bit.  Seems logical, right?  ….except I forgot that after the sun goes down, the bugs come out.  I’m pretty sure that I ate at least three or four bugs while walking.  I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary…just walking.  Simply inhaling was enough to get me to accidentally eat bugs.  UGH!

The next two stories are even worse.  Since we haven’t turned on our air conditioner this summer yet, we generally leave the windows open.  At night this becomes a double edged sword.  If we close the curtains, the breeze doesn’t pass through.  However if we leave them open, the bugs are attracted to the light and will somehow squeeze through the screens to get inside.  (I think it’s really funny because spiders have learned that if they make webs right outside of our windows, they will collect a bumper crop of bugs.  Thanks, spiders!)  The other night I was in the kitchen making my goodbye gifts of cookie jars, and not only could I see one million bugs crawling on the screen, but I could feel the ones that had gotten in crawling on my legs.  I had to do a little dance every few seconds to get them off of me.  They would fly off and land somewhere else.  I was just praying to the Almighty above that they wouldn’t land in my dang cookie jars!

Ian had the light on by his desk the other night, and (of course) bugs were attracted to that.  Our bed is right next to the desk, and our bed sheet is white.  Before I could crawl into bed that night, I (no joke!) had to scrape a layer of bugs off of it.  UUUUUGGGGGGGHHHH!  Talk about have the willies before going to bed……  Ian and I decided that this is why we’ve gotten into camping while being in Japan.  Staying at our house is basically like camping….except indoors. 

And the final change of gears in this blog is something completely and totally unrelated to any of the above topics.  Since we’ll be home soon and will be riding the motorcycle more, I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and buy a motorcycle jacket to wear while riding.  I got a couple of Amazon gift cards for my birthday, (thanks, Margaret and Bill!!) so together Ian and I picked out a stylish and reasonable jacket.  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!  Time to go ride the motorcycle, including long road trips out West!  Hurray!  Both Ian and I can’t wait to get back on the bike once we get home!

I believe that’s all for today.  The number of entries that I’ll write before this blog comes to a close are rapidly dwindling.  Leaving time is upon us!

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow…Part II

Friday was more goodbye-ing to my classes.  Friday was the last day of school before summer break, and although there were only two class periods, I had English classes during both of them.  We played an English board game of mine in both classes, and afterward both 1-1 and 3-2 gave me more sweet farewell notes.  I was really impressed with some of the 1-1 notes.  They’ve only studied serious English for about three months, yet some of the kids were able to string together more complex sentences.  How sweet!

 

 

After both classes was the hour long cleaning period.  On the first and last day of each trimester, the school has an extended cleaning period in which the students do things that get pushed aside for the trimester: washing windows, intense weeding and gardening, cleaning out the cobwebs from the corners, etc.  I haven’t met anyone who enjoys this extended cleaning period, but it’s just a thing that happens in Japan.

After that was the closing ceremony.  The Vice Principal told me that I would give my speech at the end.  For an hour and a half all of the students and teachers sat in the stifling hot gym sweating as speech after speech was made.  It was over an hour before I was called to the podium to speak.  I gave my speech in both English and Japanese, and (surprise, surprise!) I cried.  While it was a slow, tearful goodbye, I really lost it when two of the best 3rd grade English speakers presented me with a bundle of flowers from the student body and read me the cutest, sweetest, most heart-wrenching message in both English and Japanese.  Then the students lined up shoulder to shoulder and made a tunnel for me to walk through, smiling and clapping as I did.  HOW COULD I NOT BAWL LIKE A BABY AT THAT POINT IN TIME!?!?

I went home that day with a full bag of goodbye gifts.  That night I met back up with the teachers for the farewell party for me.  It was a lot of fun, and I got to talk to the teachers in a way that I rarely get to do on a daily basis.  They presented me with a nice bottle of champagne, a beautiful fancy fan, and a hand made scrap book.  That really got me.  It was such a personalized gift with so many memories and cute pictures of everyone that it (surprise, surprise!) brought tears to my eyes!  The Japanese teacher made it, and I thanked her again and again, telling her what a perfect gift it was!!  The math teacher told me that he could be my Japanese brother, and my VP told me that I was her American daughter.  So much love!!!

Over the weekend we had to say goodbye to Krista and Mollee as they headed home.  Our little Kuma-gun family has officially been fractured.  Sad day.  I already wrote about the BOE farewell party, so I’ll skip to last night’s eikaiwa class.  It was my last class with adults.  They’ve been a great class!  Last class period I told them that we’d be cooking and gave them three options of what to make:

1) cheese fondue

2) southern down home cookin’

3) Mexican food

They went with the down home cookin’ because they thought it sounded good, so we made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, and a veg blend.  As we were prepping things up, one lady started to peel the potatoes.  I told her that she didn’t have to.  I don’t think that the Japanese eat potato skins because she looked at me as if I had told her that I eat babies.  We finally compromised that if she scrubbed the skins hard enough, they would be suitable for eating.  We had two ovens and three burners going, so the kitchen was ridiculously hot.  Ian had beads of sweat on his forehead, and the bottom of my shirt was wet with sweat.  Icky!  However, it was all worth it because the food was great, and I was surprised at how much they put away!!  They were uncertain about the gravy, but after they tried it, they agreed that it was delicious.  Bringing comfort food to Japan….hurray!!

    

After we had stuffed ourselves silly, I gave them their goodbye presents, and they gave me mine.  I gave them cookies in a jar (they were really confused by this) and some spices.  They gave me a bunch of traditional Japanese things like a set of chopsticks, miniature hina (dolls), and a furoshiki (cloth wrap thing that can be tied in different ways to make different things).  The oldest lady in the class, Itsuki, even gave me an additional package and told me that it was money for my trip.  It was 10,000 yen!!!  ($100)  How sweet!!!  As we were leaving, I gave them each a hug, and Itsuki started crying, so I hugged her again and told her that we would see each other again and she should come to America.  It made me realize how much we have affected each other’s lives.  She has always been a motherly figure to me, and I guess she considered me a daughter. 

*sigh* That’s all of the goodbyes for now.  I’m really not looking forward to next week whenever we have to tell those closest to us, our Kuma-gun family, goodbye.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow…Part I

A week from yesterday I will leave Yunomae for good.  While I’m happy to be coming home and seeing everyone, it’s so incredibly tough to say goodbye to everyone here.  Last week was the most emotionally challenging week I’ve had here. 

It started off with saying goodbye to my ES kiddos on Wednesday.  It was my last class day at that school, and I wasn’t exactly sure if I was supposed to write and deliver a speech or not.  (Generally when teachers leave, there’s this big assembly for the teacher, and he/she is expected to make a teary-eyed speech.)  My suspicions were confirmed when I got to school and saw my second period class scratched out of my calendar and replaced with some strange kanji.  I asked my vice principal what that meant, and he confirmed it….an assembly for me.  I needed to give a speech.  Hello, Google translate!  I quickly translated a few sentences before rushing off to my first class of the day, 6th grade.

When I walked in the door, I noticed that the backboard was covered with drawings, decorations, and the message “Thank you, Melissa-sensei!”  My heart melted at that!!  We played fruits basket for the whole class period, alternating between grammatical concepts learned in the past trimester.  At the end of the class, one-by-one the students came up to me and gave me hand written cards to express their gratitude to me.  I couldn’t help it, but my eyes teared up.  Even though I couldn’t read most of them, it was such an amazing, beautiful gesture! 

 

After that class was the assembly.  Ugh!  The entire school, students and teachers, sat down before the podium.  My emotions were already on edge after my sweet 6th grade class.  I had to sit at the edge of the stage and wait for the 6th grade teacher to say a few words about me.  As I glanced out over the crowd, more tears came to my eyes.  All of those cute, smiling faces tore at my heartstrings and reminded me about all the good times we’d had.  I was really afraid that my Japanese grammar and pronunciation were going to be terrible during my speech, but I think that high pitch whiney/wailing sound that comes out when you cry is the same in all languages!  I had to stop and pause a couple of times as I gave it to wipe my eyes because I couldn’t see the paper.  Once I was finished with my speech, all of the students stood up and gave me a deep respectful bow.  Then I had to walk out of the gym by myself as the students and teachers clapped and gave me one last cheer.  Ugh!  I was an emotional wreck!!!  Once I went back to the teacher’s room, the Vice Principal, who claims to be my “Japanese father” gave me a plant and regional famous wooden toy that he had made.  More tears.

My last class of the day was 5th grade.  Like the 6th grade class, they had drawn on the board and made me notes.  It was precious!  Then as I left class, each of them wanted me to sign anything that they had…hats, notebooks, pencil cases, random pieces of paper, English books, etc.  I felt like a celebrity!  Then they wanted me to draw pictures of me and Ian.  No shock here, but I’m not the best artist.  Instead of drawing actual imagines, I drew the silliest and goofy looking couple ever.  I gave Ian spiky hair and made myself cross-eyed.  Ha! Ha! Ha!

At recess all of the kids wanted to play one last game of tag.  It was really too hot, so we wore out quickly.  Instead we decided to sit in the shade and make clover chains.  A couple of the girls started playing with my hair and putting flowers in it.  I didn’t stop them because they were being just too dang cute!

 

On Thursday it was another heaping helping of goodbyes.  My final 3-1 and 2-1 was that afternoon.  Since my favorite class is 3-1, it was especially hard to say goodbye to them.  They are such a smart and well-behaved class!  At the end of class, each one of them came up to give me a goodbye letter and shake my hand.  Their letters instigated more tears.  Some of them were as simple as “Goodbye, Melissa-sensei.  Thanks for teaching us.  Lesson was fun.  Have good life in USA,” but some of them were a page length and went into more detail about what they will specifically miss and told me to return.  Once again, waterworks.

 

I had to brush off those tears quickly because then it was off to 2-1.  While I don’t often enjoy 2-1 as a whole, I do love a lot of the kids from that class.  A lot of kids from that class also wrote really sweet letters, too!  After reading all of these kids notes and seeing their reaction when I say that I’m leaving, I realize that I actually have made a difference here.  This whole time I thought that I was just a walking tape recorder, but it turns out that I have made some pretty darn strong relationships with some of these kids and have affected their lives.

   

Thursday night I had my last eikaiwa with the kids.  It was a cooking class, and we made pizzas!  I first went to the kitchen to set down my things, but I heard movement from the normal classroom.  I figured that the kids forgot about our cooking class, but when I started opening the door to the classroom, they yelled out for me to stop and told me to wait.  They had arrived early to plan a surprise for me!  Awwwwww…..  I went back to the kitchen to prep stuff.  They soon came into the kitchen and said that they would give me the surprise at the end of class.  Hurray!

  

We busily started making pizzas for the class.  I think the girls really enjoyed learning how to knead dough.  I also think that they thought it was amazing that we could make pizza….from scratch.  Even though the kitchen was already sweltering, we had to turn on the ovens to cook the pizza.  However, we wiped the sweat from our brows and got busy rolling out dough.  We ran that like a well-oiled machine.  Three girls, supervised by Ian, separated the dough and rolled it out to acceptable pizza sizes.  Three other girls, supervised by me, put marinara sauce on the pizzas and added toppings.  The last girl, supervised by Hiromi, was in charge of the ovens and slid the pizzas in and out.  We were running a little behind time, so as soon as all of the pizzas were out of the ovens, I basically was like, “EAT!  EAT NOW!”  I was too busy cleaning up the mess that I didn’t get to eat my pizza.  Instead I bagged it up and said I’d eat it at home. 

By the time we were finished picking up, the kids were already five minutes late on getting out of class, but they insisted on giving me my surprise, so they hustled back into the classroom and told me to wait.  When they gave me the OK to come in, they set off party poppers.  There was a huge banner on the wall that said, “Thank you, Melissa-sensei,” and the white board was covered with drawings and little notes.  Each of them gave me a thank you card and even brought little presents for us.  How sweet!!  I gave them my presents that I had made for them as well.  I could not believe how kind and considerate these girls were.  They got to class EARLY and STAYED LATE just to give me the surprise that they had planned all by themselves.  They didn’t have to at all, which makes the gesture that much more sweet!

 

I’ve still got a ton more to write about regarding goodbyes, but I’m going to end this here and separate it into two blogs.  Stay tuned for more! 

The Paradise of Kumamoto

Right off the coast of Kumamoto are the islands of Amakusa.  Although it is quite a drive to get there from our Hitoyoshi area and traffic can be a big issue since they are islands with a limited amount of space for roads, they are by far the most beautiful area of Kumamoto.  I’m not downing Kuma-gun.  I love Kuma-gun and all of my beautiful mountains and clear water streams, but Amakusa has something that we just geographically don’t have here….a gorgeous coastline!  Amakusa is famous for its lookouts and beautiful views.  I’ve never been to California, but I imagine that it’s something like California’s famous Pacific Coast Highway.  At least….that’s what I think…..

 

I promise that there’s a point to this blog and that I’m not just randomly babbling.  A week and a half ago, Ian, Melissa, and I went to Amakusa for the last Kumamoto-ken ALT event of the year, Waterwheel.  We decided to go the last time we were in the city and some of our Amakusa friends persuaded us to do so.  Waterwheel is called such because the event used to be at the sight of Japan’s oldest working waterwheel.  However, the thing was made of duct tape and dreams, so a typhoon a couple of years ago took it out, but the event still carries on its name.  The event now centers around the same area at a gorgeous waterfall and swimming hole area. 

We left for Amakusa around 11:30 that morning but didn’t arrive at the venue until about 3 PM.  It’s not that the area was that far away.  According to Google maps, from Melissa’s house outside of Hitoyoshi to the Waterwheel area was a grand total of 70-ish miles.  UGH!  Traffic was horrible as usual going through the town of Kami-amakusa, and we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for about forty-five minutes.  Then we got lost once.  We started going up this tiny mountain road that eventually turned into a hiking trail.  Lost without cell service, we turned around until we reached the main road and had cell service again so that we could call someone for directions.

Once we got there, we realized how worth the drive was.  The swimming hole was beautiful!  Since we didn’t pay for a cabin, we had to set up our tent before we got in the water.  We knew that we didn’t want to be close to the party area in case things got wild and crazy and we wanted to go to bed early.  We walked to the cabin area to see if there was any place to pitch a tent.  However, the ground was too rocky.  Ian found a set of steps leading up the hill a bit.  It led to a private little area that was perfect for our tent!  We cleared sticks off the ground and set up what we called Ft. Reed. 

After that, we went back down to the waterfall.  After a long and hot day, the water felt so good!  We swam, laughed, and splashed for a while.  Several people were jumping off of the waterfall rocks, and I admired them for their courage.  It was a looooooooooong way down.  Once the initial crowd cleared and the BBQ started, Melissa and I decided to investigate the rocks.  We climbed up a little bit, and behind one of the crevasse’s was the most beautiful little hidden area.  You know those picture perfect places that couples make out in in the movies?  This little cove was exactly like that.  The water was deep, but you could see all the way to the bottom, the water cascaded gently over the rocks, and the entire thing was enclosed in this tiny private area.  We continued to climb up the rocks until we reached the top….as in the area where people jump from.  We glanced over the edge and and realized just how far down it was………..  Melissa was brave and actually did it.  I stood at the edge for a while staring down that drop.  My internal monologue was something like:

Do it.  Do it.  DO IT!  Don’t be a baby.  JUST DO IT.

AHHHHHHHH!  Don’t do it!  You’ll be the ONE person to hit a rock and die.

Everyone is watching.  Don’t wimp out.

Be responsible.  Peer pressure is a bad thing. 

In the end, reason one out.  I couldn’t do it.  I jumped from a lower peak instead.  Gack!

 

Hanging out with everyone that night was a blast.  It was our last time to see everyone who doesn’t live in Kuma-gun, so we talked well up into the night….despite the horrible bugs!  When we went to our tent that night, the three of us crawled in.  Ian fell asleep immediately on his back.  UGH.  Whenever Ian sleeps on his back, he ALWAYS snores.  Melissa and I are both light sleepers, so snoring that could wake the dead just wasn’t going to cut it.  I would pinch his nose shut, but somehow he would still manage to snore through it.  I don’t know how!  It would get him to stop for a bit, but as soon as I was almost asleep, he would start again. 

I’m not exactly sure when I fell asleep, but I remember waking up through the night hearing Melissa getting out of the tent.  I assumed that she was just going to the bathroom.  When I woke up the following morning and didn’t see her laying next to me, I immediately thought Oh shit.  She fell off the mountain!  I got out of the tent, noticed that her stuff was gone, and decided to calm down.  If her stuff was gone, then at least she hadn’t fallen off the mountain!  I found her by the party area cleaning up the huge mess.  She said that she couldn’t sleep with Ian snoring, so she had gone back to the car to sleep for the night.

Once everyone else woke up and got their things together, we all decided to go to the beach.  Hurray!  Amakusa has the most beautiful beaches in Kumamoto (sorry, Ashikita!).  Although I’ve never been to Hawaii, the beach that we went to is what I imagine Hawaii looks like.  It was amazing!  The waves were really nice, too, so we enjoyed playing in them. 

 

After a bit, Ian, Melissa, and I decided that it was time for us to head back in order to return at a decent hour.  We said goodbye to everyone and promised to meet up again in the future somewhere.  Our drive back through Amakusa wasn’t so bad until we got stuck in that infamous Kami-amakusa traffic.  At a standstill in 90 degree heat, we crawled along.  What was even worse was that the three of us got burnt in that time!  We had on sun screen at the beach, but it had worn off long before we got in the car.  The sun beaming through the windshield ended up burning Melissa’s legs, my shoulders, and Ian’s face.  We hadn’t realized what had happened until we got out of Amakusa, and by then it was already too late.  Fail!

Anyway, that was our trip to Amakusa.  I’ve been meaning to write about it for a while, so here it is.  Ta-da!

What to Do With the Blog….?

For the past two years I’ve documented darn near every detail of my life on here.  I’ve written about crazy adventures, times when I was absolutely furious with Japan/Japanese culture, travel stories, amazing cultural experiences, and so much more.  Throughout all of it, you wonderful blog readers have read this, commented on it, and encouraged me to write more….and I thank you for that!  While I’m happy to have this blog as an online journal that I can refer back to my “Japan days” for years to come, half the time I feel like I word vomit all over the screen.  …….but for some reason you all keep coming back for more, so once again, I thank you for continuing to read this!!

Now that we’re getting ready to leave, I’m at a crossroad.  Do I continue to blog or stop once I get home….?  I’ll definitely make a few entries once I get home to get caught up on Hawaii and describe any reserve-culture shock experiences.  But after that……?  To continue or to not……?  That is the question.

I feel like this is special.  It’s something that I did while in Japan.  If I did it at home, it wouldn’t have the same significance.  Plus, my life at home is….normal.  It’s boring.  I understand what everyone is saying, I don’t stick out like a sore thumb, I don’t make silly mistakes because I don’t know the cultural norms, etc.  I don’t feel like I should continue blogging.  HOWEVER, I was talking to friends this past weekend, and they encouraged me to continue it. 

“But what will I write about?” I asked.  “Everything at home is normal.”

“I don’t know.  Just write about something.  I just enjoy reading your blog,” they said.

Clearly I won’t have NEAR as much time at home as I do now.  Working three jobs will keep me too busy to write a lot.  So I’d like to throw out the question to those who enjoy reading my blog:

Would you like me to continue writing, or is enough enough?

A Side of Yunomae I’ve Never Seen

Last night was my farewell party from my BOE.  While it started off a little slower than normal nomikais, the ending made up for it.  Since it was on a Monday night, a lot of people didn’t drink heavily and get crazy like normal.  Instead, they went home at the normal time.  However, the group that Ian and I were chatting with stayed behind and talked for another hour.  It was a lot of fun.  My supervisor and I talked about how we’re basically the same person….just different cultures.  She’s shy and doesn’t feel comfortable speaking English.  I’m shy and don’t feel comfortable speaking Japanese.  Neither of us have super outgoing personalities.  Despite all of this, I could not have had a better supervisor!  What’s even better is that she gave me a yukata (it’s kind of like a kimono).  It’s beautiful!  It was a pink cherry blossom print on it.  She asked me if I knew how to tie it.  I said no and that I’d watch a You Tube video to figure it out.  I asked her if she knew how to tie it, and she said something to the manner of, “Oh no.  I always go to the store and have them do it.”

We also were talking with Mr. Murai, the Buddhist priest in charge of the temple in town, about the differences in religion and why the Japanese do some things some ways.  Something that blew my mind was the mindset.  He said that the Japanese feel that someone is always watching them, whether it literally be someone else or an invisible god.  That’s why they always do the right thing.  He said that school children, from a young age, are taught that if you find 10 yen (worth about a penny) on the ground, you should take it to the police office in case someone tries to reclaim it.  I COULD NOT BELIEVE THIS!!!  I always enjoy finding change on the ground in the States (I’ve never found money on the ground here) because it was like a little present for me!  It has never, EVER occurred to me to pick up that nickel and take it to the police.  I’m pretty sure that if I did take it, I would be laughed out of the police office.

Ian asked Mr. Murai if it would be OK to go and take pictures one morning of him doing his morning Buddhist ritual of ringing the iron bell and saying prayers.  Mr. Murai said, “Why not tomorrow morning?  You can ring the bell.”  Ian, who rarely sees the sun before 10 AM, nodded his head anxiously and agreed.

I set my alarm for 5:30 AM and went to bed around 11:30 last night.  The next thing I know my silly alarm is buzzing at 5:30.  Neither Ian nor I are happy morning people.  Both of us fought tooth and nail waking up.  We were literally sitting up in bed staring at nothing for probably ten minutes before we started getting ready.  Then we made the five minute drive to the temple and staggered out of the car.  Mr. Murai was already dressed in the traditional robes and ready to ring the bell.  While we were both yawning, he said that he wakes up at 4 AM every day.  Ugh!  Since the temple is on the hillside, we could look down and see Yunomae below.  It was a great view!  We waited until the exact moment of 6 AM.  Mr. Murai dinged the bell first and then allowed us both to take turns doing it.  We were Yunomae’s alarm clock this morning!  It was a great cultural experience!!  After that, Mr. Murai had to go say the Buddhist prayers, so Mrs. Murai took us up the hill to the……I’m not sure what it’s called, but it was an area where she lit candles and incense.  We asked what it was for, and she said to clear your mind for prayer.  We returned to the temple and watched Mr. Murai finishing his Buddhist prayers, which included a lot of chanting.  I’ve never really had any experience with non-Christian religions, so it absolutely fascinates me.

    

As we were leaving, Mrs. Murai walked us to our car.  She gave me a birthday/goodbye present of a picture book and Kumamon towels and told me that I would be missed.  The whole family is just the sweetest, and it’s moments like those that I’ll treasure long after we have left! <3 <3 <3

Although it was only 6:30, sleepy little Yunomae was waking up.  Old men were going for their morning strolls, kids were already on their bikes planning today’s big adventure, women hanging out the laundry, men going to work, and even JHS kids riding their bikes to school.  AT 6:30 IN THE MORNING.  At one intersection, I saw one of my eikaiwa kiddos.  I waved and smiled at her, and she genuinely looked surprised to see me.  Remember this….it comes into play later…..

This was a side of Yunomae that neither Ian nor I have ever seen.  We both hate waking up that early, so we never knew that kids still wake up at 6 AM on their days off or that Yunomae starts its day bright and early.  (It kind of reminded me of the opening song of Beauty and the Beast when Belle is walking through town and everything is opening up for the day.  Little town it’s a quiet village.  Everyday like the one before.  Little town full of little people waking up to say Bonjour!  Bonjour!  Bonjour!  Bonjour!  Bonjour!…..)  I felt renewed and thought that I should wake up early more often!  With an extra two hours of free time before I had to get ready for work, Ian and I decided to have a picnic breakfast beside the river.  As we walked down to it, I saw more kids and their parents doing rajio taiso, the morning exercises that the Japanese enjoy.  They smiled and waved as they reached over to touch their toes.  We enjoyed our breakfast down by the river.  However, as the sun rose up, it became too hot to sit in direct sunlight, so we returned home.  I still had about an hour and a half, so I started making marinara sauce for some lunchtime spaghetti.  Then I packed up some more stuff and cleaned out our car.  I don’t want to brag, but I got all of this stuff done before 8:30 AM.  I really do need to wake up early more often……..

Okay, flashing back to the eikaiwa kiddo who saw me.  Her mother works at one of my nursery schools, so today as I was leaving, she said, “Melissa-sensei, Izumi said that she saw you this morning.  Where were you going?”  (Welcome to Yunomae where the fact that the foreigner was up earlier than normal is big news!)  I told her that I went to the temple that morning.  She told me that Izumi really liked me and always enjoyed eikaiwa.  AWWWWWWWWWWW!!  I told her that I also loved Izumi, would miss her, and showed her the pictures of us making pizza last Thursday night.        

I think that’s all for now.  As it’s beginning to hit mid-afternoon, I’m feeling slightly drowsy.  However, it’s nothing that a little caffeine or sugar won’t fix!  Hurray!

You’re Already Dead

Call me crazy, but I have a wild hair.  I thought that next summer Ian and I could take a motorcycle trip out west.  We have all of these friends who live out west now, and it would be great to see them again.  I pitched the idea to Ian, and he immediately agreed.  He started planning our stops in South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore, Seattle, San Fran, Salt Lake City, Tucson, and a few other stops.  We only have about two weeks of wiggle room, so I’m not completely sure how much of that is physically possible, but I think it’s a great idea!  Being on the bike would require us to travel EXTREMELY light, and I think it would be fun to live on the road for a bit.  Plus, neither of us have seen the west (outside of our honeymoon trip to Washington).  While I’m not already planning out our stops like Ian, I am excited for the possibility of this.  It really depends on a couple of factors…….so we’ll see how it goes!

And speaking of Mr. Reed, we’re both excited to announce that he found a full time job!  Woo-hoo!!!  He’ll be going back to the winery in Paducah, which is excellent on all accounts.  Not only is it full time, but he knows the owners.  He loves working for them, and they (for whatever reason, ha, ha, ha!) love him.  They know that he is going back to school, so his working hours can easily incorporate his school hours.  We honestly couldn’t be happier about this situation!!  Woo-hoo!

For me it’s so weird to think how only just a month ago I was hating things here and ready to leave.  I hated going to class, I hated the kids, I hated the racist things kids would say, and I was just ready to go.  I’m not sure if it’s because my time is coming to a close or what, but for the past several weeks, I’ve been loving my kids…..even the ones who I dislike!  It seems like lunch room conversations have been great, at break kids have been coming up to me in the library, and the little meanie-weenie kids haven’t been bothering me as much.  It’s times like these when I wonder why the heck I’m not staying for a third year!!

During break time, I’ve been going up to the library and working on goodbye presents, paper necklaces for my eikaiwa kiddies.  I know it sounds weird, but the way you roll the paper, the necklaces don’t look like paper but rather textured beads.  It’s actually pretty cool.  Everyday kids come over to me and ask what I’m working on.  When I show them, they think it’s the coolest thing that I take paper and make it into necklaces.  When I offer for them to try it, nine times out of ten, they do it.  Since it is a time consuming process, and it takes about forty beads to make one necklace, I don’t mind their help at all!  It’s been pretty funny to see who will help….I’ve had both girls AND boys come over and want to roll up some beads.  They’ll work on them for the entire break time, which leads to great conversations!  Plus, I wore my paper bead necklace the other day.  I didn’t even think about it, but one of my 2-nen boys immediately recognized what it was as soon as I walked in the door and said something like, “You finished it!  That’s so cool!”  For the rest of the class period, I heard whispers about Melissa-sensei’s cool paper necklace.

A few weeks ago, one of my JHS boys asked me, “How are you?”  I told him, “I’m happy!  It’s Friday!”  He said, “No.  You are already dead,” and walked away laughing.  I had to pick my jaw up off the ground after that.  Had I just received a death threat……?  I was confused about where he learned that.  (However, kids learn A LOT from TV and movies and will pick up on these phrases.  For example, Obama’s “Yes, we can!” phrase was all the rage when I first got here.)  It took me a couple of weeks to figure it out.  The same student approached me again in the library one day and asked me the same question.  I had forgotten our previous encounter and fell for the line again.  Once he saw the horrified look on my face, he said, “Joke…..Japanese…..comedian.”  Apparently it is the punch line of some comedian’s joke.  OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH.  That now makes a LOT more sense now…kind of.     

Anyway, that’s all for now.  We had a wonderful, wonderful weekend in beautiful Amakusa (the islands of Kumamoto) this past weekend, so I still need to blog about that.  I’ll write another blog tomorrow!!

Adventure Day

After all of my vacations this year, I had one day of paid vacation left over.  I debated when to take it….in June when there are no national holidays..?  Extend the one three day weekend in July to a four day weekend….?  Take off the very last day of my contract…..?  In the end I decided to attach it onto my birthday weekend.  After a weekend of festivities with the Kuma-gun farewell party, I thought that it would be nice to have some down time after a hectic weekend.

I wanted to go hiking in Ebino, but Ian said he wasn’t feeling up to it, so we compromised: Adventure Day!  We did something that I’ve always wanted to do and that was on my “bucket list” before leaving Japan….taking the Hitoyoshi looped bridge to Ebino.  It’s basically taking the old road to Ebino, and it’s a gorgeous drive.  The day we had made it even better because the sky above was an amazing blue with white puffy clouds above and down below were the constant rolling green mountains.  There were a few times when we had to pull over along the side of the road and take pictures because it was just too beautiful. 

 

It didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would to get to Ebino.  Dare I say that it took the same amount of time that it would have had we taken the tolled IC….?  Once we got to Ebino, neither one of us really had any plans, so we just turned around and came back to Hitoyoshi.  I know it seems like a wasted drive, but I absolutely love mountain drives, and I have to soak up as much mountain lovin’ as I can before heading back to flat Kentucky. 

By the time we got back to Hitoyoshi, it was past lunch, so we stopped at Nishimuta for a bento.  Low and behold, I saw what I’ve wanted to get a picture of for the past two years…..the Kuma-gun BATMOBILE!!!  I have seen this car numerous times and wanted to get a picture of it, but I could never get my camera out quick enough because we were driving.  I have no idea who owns this car or why they created a Batmobile out of their van, but I love them for it!!

We took our lunch to the riverside park in Hitoyoshi and spent the afternoon in/beside the river.  That was another “bucket list” item of mine…..to spend an afternoon relaxing and picnicking by the river.  Since it was such a beautiful day, Ian decided it would be a great time to take pictures.  We waded through the foot deep water to a sand bar and left our stuff there.  Then we walked out as far as we could…..which actually wasn’t very far because the dang current was too strong!!  Both of us sat in the middle of the Kumagawa on rocks and admired exactly what we were doing….enjoying an afternoon in the middle of the river in Japan.  This led into an epic discussion of our time in Japan coming to a close, the next step for us, when we wanted to start have kids, where we thought we’d be in ten years, etc.  What a beautiful day and surroundings for such a heavy discussion!

 

One thing that I want to get before we leave is a Kumamon bumper sticker to put on my car at home.  Therefore, once we finished our river play time, we went to the Hitoyoshi Craft Park to see if the gift shop would have any.  It didn’t, but Ian and I wandered around the park for a bit taking pictures before leaving.  On our way back into town, we pulled over to investigate a coffee shop that we had never been to and heard was great.  It’s right off the 219 and serves fresh roasted coffee.  While I don’t enjoy coffee, I do enjoy the coffee shop feel, so I agreed that we should go.  It was such a cute little bohemian shop!  There were all kinds of trinkets and gifts to buy in there and was just a cool place in general!  The clerk gave us both samples of iced coffee to try.  I didn’t want to be rude, so after Ian had finished his coffee, I switched the glasses when the clerk wasn’t looking.

As we were walking along the sidewalk back to our car, a convoy of Japan’s SDF (Self Defense Force) rolled by.  One of the guys in a Humvee smiled and waved excitedly at us.  Ian didn’t see the guy, so when he looked up and saw me beaming and waving at a mysterious man in uniform, he asked what I was doing.  I told him that the guy waved first, and he said, “Riiiiiiiiiight.”  He thought that I was being a flirt!  As if flirting in gym clothes, tennis shoes, and with sweaty hair is a turn-on………

After that, we drove to Mollee’s house on the other side of Hitoyoshi to surprise her and tell her to come out and play with us.  She did, so we went to Aoiaso Shrine in Hitoyoshi to get some pictures.  We’ve lived here for two years and driven by that place multiple times, yet neither of us have taken pictures of it.  I especially wanted pictures of the entrance.  A red bridge crosses a pond covered with lily pads.  The deep green of the lily pads mixed with the bright red and the clear blue sky is an amazing combination.  It’s a shame that we haven’t been there before!  Mollee, Ian, and I stood on the bridge for a while gazing out over the pond and reflecting on our time here.  It seems so weird that all of this is coming to a close!  Gack!

  

We wrapped up our day with dinner in Hitoyoshi.  Another item on my list was to go to our favorite restaurant, Everest, one more time.  We invited everyone, but only the three of us plus Melissa, David, and Lucas could make it.  We stayed there for a long time enjoying one another’s company and talking.  Yet all good things must come to a close, so as the night wrapped up, Ian and I headed home.  Shortly after we left the city lights of Hitoyoshi, I leaned forward to the dashboard and admired the bounty of stars.  Ian even commented on it and pulled over so that we could star gaze.  Together we sat on the hood of our car watching shooting stars and trying to pick out constellations.  It was late by the time we got home, but I didn’t regret it.  What a wonderful day of adventure!

Kuma-gun Farewell Party

The past couple of days, I’ve been having rather lively and interesting lunches with my kids.  It certainly makes me realize how much I’m going to miss that!  The other day when I was eating lunch with some of my JHS boys, one of them asked me if I was going to have babies in America.  I don’t plan on popping any out any time soon, but I told him yes, and he asked how many.  I shrugged my shoulders and said I didn’t know.  He continued.  1….2…..3….?  How many?  So I told him 100.  Every kid at that table who was listening to our conversation stopped mid-bite and stared at me.  100 babies?????  The kid reconfirmed what I said, and I said yes.  I would have 100 babies.  I asked him how many babies he was going to have.  He told me eleven.  “Soccer team,” he said.  HA! HA! HA!  Go right ahead and repopulate Japan so that you can have a whole personal soccer team, kid. 

When I was eating lunch with my 6th graders last week, I told one of the boys that we could be boyfriend/girlfriend and started blowing kisses at him.  He dodged the imaginary air kisses furiously and rejected my love.  Then he bent over his desk and let out the grossest burp.  Revolted, I wrinkled my nose and had a clear look of disgust on my face.  I immediately stopped blowing kisses and moved onto another boy at the table.  I pointed at the other boy and said, “You.  Me.  Boyfriend.  Girlfriend.” and made a heart with my hand.  The first boy told the second boy to just burp at me, and then he wouldn’t have to be my boyfriend, so boy #2 did that guy thing where he sucked in air and burped on command.  This continued for the rest of the lunch period as boy after boy came up to me and burped so that they wouldn’t have to be my boyfriend.  Awesome.

Last weekend was our Kuma-gun farewell party, and we had it right here in Yunomae.  We decided on a BBQ and booked cabins at Green Palace, the park in town, so that people could enjoy and stay the night.  We had such a great time!  Ian had bought lots of meat at Costco, so we had brats, burgers, and plenty of veggies.  As the night progressed, it kept hitting home that this would be one of the last times that we’d hang out with some of these people.  It was hard to mope and/or be sad with all of the laughter and happiness around, though.

Despite the fact that we were having such a good time, things started to get real as people left.  Mary, Yusuke, and Jen all had to head back home since they live outside of Kuma-gun, but for the most part the rest of us cleaned up our BBQ area and headed back to the cabins for dessert time, drinks, and lots and lots of talking.  The guys got a bit distracted by finding a giant toad along the side of the road.  They captured it, found another one, and (like the five-year-olds they truly are) proceeded to make the toads dance, kiss, and drink alcohol.  Boys!  While they were doing that, some of us girls went back to the cabins and grabbed the water balloons that we had filled up before we walked down to the BBQ area.  There were enough for each of us to have two or three a piece, so we waited for them to come back to the cabins before BAM!!! surprise attacking them!!  HA!!!!

Since it was my birthday, Melissa had made cupcakes, Shara made brownies, Sara a whipped cheesecake, and Margo rice krispies.  Candles were lit on the cupcakes, and everyone sang happy birthday to me.  Surrounded by my best friends, I was elated at that moment.  Thoughts crept into my mind that the end is nearing and this might be one of the last times we enjoy each other’s company, but I refused, REFUSED to think about that as I shoveled dessert after dessert into my face and continued to laugh and talk about the most random stuff for the rest of the night.  I cannot express how much I love these people and how awesome it is that they have become my family over here.

Ian and I left around 1:30, went home, showered, and got in bed.  We invited everyone back over to our house the following morning for pancakes.  Everyone started arriving sooner than expected, so I had to rush a bit in order to get everything finished in time.  There was lots to do!  While last year we crammed a record breaking fifteen people inside our house for morning-after-party pancakes, this year it was a much more manageable nine. 

Mollee, Lucas, Joe, and David stayed for a while, so we decided to walk to the river and go swimming.  It was a ridiculously hot day, so what could be more perfect?  Except as soon as we got ready to go, the heavens opened up.  It had been doing that for the past two days!  It would be bright and sunny outside, and within thirty minutes the clouds would roll in, and the clouds would pour down rain.  Then it would clear off and repeat.  We waited until the downpour stopped, the clouds broke up, and then decided to go.  We were hot and sweaty by the time we got there and ready for a dip……only the river wasn’t.  Since it had rained so much, the river was a raging torrent.  There was NO way any of us were getting in that.  The current would have sucked us downstream in a heartbeat.  We sat at the edge, put our feet in, and talked until we heard the distant rumbles of thunder. 

It wasn’t too soon after that that it started to rain.  At first it was a gentle shower, so we gathered our things and waited under a tree.  However, it soon turned into a torrential downpour, and we faced the inevitable: we were going to get wet.  The river is a thirty minute walk home.  At first it sucked getting soaking wet, but David put it best.  “It’s pretty liberating once you stop caring.”  Liberating indeed.  Since we were already soaking wet, we were acting like five-year-olds and splashing through puddles.  I’m sure the drivers that passed by us were completely shocked at a group of foreigners walking down the sidewalk in the pouring rain.  I saw a car full of my ES kids.  Their faces were plastered to the back window of the van with the most innocent what-is-Melissa-sensei-doing??? look on their faces.  Ha, ha, ha!!!  By the time we got home, the sun had already come out, and we weren’t ENTIRELY soaking wet anymore.  We all dried off before warming up leftovers from the party and eating a late lunch.

That was my weekend.  It was one of the most event-filled, memory-making, fun weekends I’ve had in a while.  I know I keep saying it, but I’m really going to miss all of these crazy kids that I call my friends!!