Golden Week greatness part III: Nagasaki

I suck, suck, suckity, suck at blogging these days!  The month is already halfway over, and I haven’t even written about what I did the first weekend!  Ugh…here goes!

The second weekend of Golden Week was spent in beautiful Nagasaki City.  Both Nagasaki and Hiroshima were at the top of my list of the places I want to visit in Japan when I first came here.  Originally we were going to visit Hiroshima during Golden Week, but it was going to be too expensive, so we decided to go to Nagasaki, which is MUCH closer to us, and we were able to invite our friends.  That Friday morning, Ian and I woke up at 6AM in order to leave by 6:20AM so that we could meet at Mary’s house by 7:30AM.  We meant to get gas the night before (and were dangerously close to empty), but that Thursday was the day that we rode bikes to Hitoyoshi.  By the time we got home that night, all of the gas stations were closed in town.  Luckily, we found a gas station that was just opening for business.  The guy seemed surprised to see a car of foreigners out so early on a national holiday, lol. 

Whenever we were almost to Mary’s house, poor Melissa called and said that her car had a flat.  She was parked at a conbini about a mile from Mary’s house and requested Mr. Ian’s help.  I’ve described the “specialness” of our car, so if you can imagine, Melissa’s car is actually MORE special than ours.  When she got here in July, her BOE told her that if she stayed a second year, she’d HAVE to get a new car because that one just wouldn’t make it.  While Ian put the flimsy donut tire on, Melissa said that a new tire would probably cost more than her car is worth.  She decided to tell her BOE about it first thing on Monday and request a new car.

We left Melissa B’s car there and left right at 7:30AM from Mary’s house to race to the Kumamoto port for our 9:30 ferry.  Mary’s boyfriend, Hiro, was supposed to meet us there, but he overslept.  The look of anger in Mary’s eyes pretty much said it all, but fortunately he made it in time, and we all got on the same ferry.  Our next stop was the Shimabara Peninsula, just across the bay from the Kumamoto port.  We could see the peninsula from the port, but it’s still quite a distance away and took us about an hour to cross it.  Since it was Golden Week and everyone and their mother was traveling, the ferry was ridiculously crowded, so we stood outside the whole time.  It was actually probably better that way so that the loud foreigners didn’t have to be trapped inside! 

The Shimabara Peninsula is famous for its volcano, Mt. Unzen, which erupted in the early 90s and destroyed a couple of the towns.  However, since Japan is always ready for whatever mother nature hurls at it, only a few people died.  The rest were safely evacuated.  We spent the day on the peninsula before heading to Nagasaki that night.  Our first stop was Shimabara castle.  I honestly wasn’t too impressed with the castle, but one good thing about it was that at the entrance, they had all kinds of samurai and ninja costumes to dress up in.  Heck yes we took advantage of that!  I’m pretty sure that everyone got a kick out of the foreigners in Japanese garb.  

 

Our next stop was the reconstructed samurai houses, houses where samurai actually lived way back when.  It was basically a couple of large tatami rooms with a few “wax statues” of samurai.  The houses might have been cooler if there was more reconstructed stuff, but it was basically just wide open rooms with nothing in them….so we made our own entertainment by pretending to have a tea party with the wax statues.

 

Shimabara City was actually really cool because there was plenty to do in not a very big town.  Our next stop was the irrigation ditches of this one street, which are filled with koi.  Not only are the koi HUGE, but you can reach into the ditches and pick up the fish.  The trick is that they are really slippery and slimy, so they’re very difficult to grab.  Plus, they don’t really like to be held, so they try to swim away.  Mary was the first to pick one up, and like five-year-olds, the rest of us saw and said, “I WANT TO DO THAT!”  After several attempts, I finally snatched one and pulled it up, screaming at Ian the whole time to hurry up and take the picture before it slipped away (below, left).  I think it’s funny how the fish and I basically have the same facial expression.

 

We grabbed lunch after that and then headed to the buried houses.  Like I said before, when Unzen erupted in the 90s, it destroyed some towns, including anything and everything in the way.  Scientists have excavated some of the buried houses and turned it into an open air museum.  Some of the houses are outside, so as you’re walking along the sidewalk, you’ll step right next to a house roof (below, left).  There were also houses that were halfway buried (below, right).  In these, we could see posters still hung on the wall and tattered curtains fluttering in the breeze.  Remember that not many people died in the blast, so chances are that the original owners of these houses are probably still alive.  How weird would it be to know that your home is actually a museum now? 

 

That was the last stop on our whirlwind tour of Shimabara City.  Next we were off to the other side of the peninsula and then straight on to Nagasaki.  Mary, Hiro, and Ian rode in the first car, and Melissa, Justine, and I were in the second.  Mary told us that Hiro wanted to stop at one of the onsen on the other side of the peninsula.  I drove this leg of the trip, and even though it was a gorgeous drive across Unzen, the road was curvy, twisted, and difficult to navigate.  We kept seeing signs for the town of Obama and secretly hoped that we would stop there just so that we could say that we’ve been to Obama!    (Obama in Japanese means “little seashore”.) As luck would have it that’s where the onsen was!  HURRAY!  Obama is apparently known for its onsens. Since it is so close to Unzen, it has a surplus of scaling hot water just below the surface, and as we walked through town, we saw steam rising up through vents along the sidewalks. I jokingly stood on one and said that I was getting a free onsen. However, I stood on it for too long, and the steam actually burned my foot!   Hiro and Justine were the only two to actually go in the onsen, and the rest of us spent the time strolling along the boardwalk and watching the sun set.  One of my favorite things about Obama was the Obama statue.  Yes, I’m talking about President Obama.  While the town had its name long before our president came into power, that doesn’t stop the Japanese from LOVING our president and even giving him a statue in that town.  Japan tries so hard sometimes, but it’s still pretty backward when it comes to issues of race.  Case in point: we could tell that the statue was originally white and had been given a black face because the hands were still white.  Good try, Japan!  

  

It was another hour to Nagasaki.  Technically we were homeless that night.  Since it was Golden Week, and everyone and their mother was traveling, I couldn’t find a hostel to book.  We packed pillows and a blanket or two and just said that we’d either find a cheap love hotel to cram into or sleep in the car.  I thought that all of us were okay with this option, but Hiro had found a love hotel for us.  The only downside was that it was $100 a night!  I was so upset about this!  Hiro and Mary were able to split the price of their room, Melissa and Justine could as well, but Ian and I couldn’t do that since our money comes from the same account.  I was so frustrated and angry about paying so much for one night!  Ian and I have to be careful about our money as is, and to throw away $100 on housing for one night was ridiculous in my book!!

I think I’m going to break this Nagasaki blog into two.  I still have another full day of activities to write about, so this seems like an appropriate time to stop.

I heart elementary days!

For whatever reason, elementary days inspire me to write.  Maybe it’s because I’m in a perpetual happy mood at the ES, because the kids actually like me and fight over who gets to play with me, or because the kids are so cute that even whenever they mess up, it’s difficult to be mad at them.  Regardless of what it is, I love ES days and want to write about them. 

This morning I had 6th grade for first period, 3rd for second, and 5th for third period.  In 6th grade, we reviewed the months, and they learned the question: “When is your birthday?” and how to properly respond to it.  The 3rd grade teacher had a hoarse voice, so I tried to speak as much as possible so that he wouldn’t have to.  For the second lesson in a row, the kids were learning days of the week.  Japanese doesn’t have the “th” sound in it, so the kids REALLY struggled with Thursday.  They also kept getting Tuesday and Thursday mixed up.  We practiced, practiced, and practiced, sung a song to learn the days, and when the 3rd grade teacher was reviewing with the kids, they still didn’t know the days.  He got super angry at them and went into a ten minute rant (with his hoarse voice) about how they should know these days by now since we spent half the class reviewing.  I felt sorry for the next kid that he called upon.  The kid didn’t know “Tuesday,” so the teacher smacked him with the card and yanked him up from the group.  Don’t be alarmed.  That’s fairly common in Japan.  It’s not necessarily the punishment that is the bad thing but rather the shame that comes along with it.  NO ONE wants to shame themselves or their family.  That poor kid didn’t get to play the last game in class, karuta, a game that ALL Japanese students LOVE to play.

In between the periods, I went back to the teacher’s room, and one of the teacher’s was handing out printed information about the solar eclipse next week.  In not sure if it’s going to happen in the States as well, but in Japan, it will be visible on Monday morning.  Japan is really good about warning people to not look directly at it and to use proper precautions.  I’ve seen posters, commercials, flyers, and even the print out today demonstrated how to properly look at it.

In 5th grade we reviewed how to introduce ourselves and played the interview game.  Music played, and whenever the music stopped, whoever was in front of you was who you had to talk to.  I don’t know if it was because they were intimidated by me or what exactly, but when the music stopped and kids were in front of me, they scattered quickly.  It was only a few students who did that, but I literally had to chase them down to introduce themselves to me.  Silly kids!  My 5th grade kids are a little high-spirited, and by the end of class they had done something to piss off the 5th grade teacher.  She yelled at them for a good ten minutes, and we were actually late getting out of class because she had to scold them.  After class she was back to her sunny disposition and told me sorry about that but everyday it’s something with those kids!    Believe me, lady, I understand!

I had lunch with my 1st graders.  While I can detect the students with attitudes from the upper classes and determine who doesn’t like me or care about English, it’s MUCH harder to tell from the younger kids.  They love me just for being here!  As soon as I walked in, there was a communal “YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!”    I had to sit at a desk in front of the classroom facing them, and before lunch started, I was playing janken (rock, paper, scissors) with them.  It was me against twenty other kids, and each time some of the kids beat me, they would shout out “YAAAY!”  It was too precious!  After lunch, I hung around in the classroom for a little while, and a couple of girls came up to me.  I’m not sure what they were saying, but they were being absolutely adorable and hugging me.    All was good and great in the world until they realized that my blouse could open.  Then they started to pull on it, trying to open it.  I had to swat their little hands away more than once! 

At recess, my normal girls weren’t outside for whatever reason, so I found a group of 1st and 2nd graders to be a part of and realized that it is MUCH easier to play tag with them.  Not only do their short legs not carry them as far, but they tire much sooner.    Plus, we had bases, and it was in an enclosed area of the playground, so none of that running all over the place craziness!  When we got tired of playing that, the girls started making clover chains.  I got several gifts of clover rings, bracelets, and flowers placed in my hair.    All of the girls wanted me to make them a bracelet even though they could do it themselves.  In return I got little bouquets of clover and other flowers tied together delicately.  Precious!  Two girls even found me a couple of four leaf clovers!!  I have never in my life found (or even seen!) a four leaf clover.  How sweet of them to find those for me! 

This afternoon I didn’t have any classes, but I had to choose one club activity to go to.  I had already decided this morning that I’d go to cooking class.  You can’t go wrong there!  Once the project is finished, you get to eat it.  Best.  Club.  Ever.    However, there was no one in the kitchen classroom, so I continued to wander down the hallway and poked my head into a different classroom and asked what club it was.  The seven girls in the class said it was dance.  Heck yeah!  I thought dance club would be pretty cool to watch, so I sat down at one of the tiny desks and got ready to watch kids busting moves.  However, it was the most boring club ever.  They spent the entire time selecting songs to dance to and in what order they would learn each dance.  Disappointment doesn’t even begin to describe my emotion. 

Also this afternoon I was afforded the opportunity to try some delicious ice straight from the South Pole.  No joke.  I have NO IDEA how Yunomae ES got ice from the South Pole, but it was setting in a cooler in the teacher’s room.  The groundskeeper (who has a thick, THICK country accent) was carrying around the cooler and tried to explain to me what it was, but I didn’t understand, so the principal and vice principal pieced together the story for me through gestures and drawings.  For whatever reason the ice came from the South Pole.  The principal chopped off a chunk, put it into a glass of water, and gave it to me to try.  Just in case you’re curious….. South Pole ice tastes like ice! 

I know that I need to catch up about Nagasaki and Aoshima Island, and I promise, promise, PROMISE that it’s coming soon!  I feel like I haven’t had as much free time at school, and that’s where I do the majority of my blogging.

Random ramblings from Melissa

I realize that I am very behind in this blog, and I think part of it is because I get so far behind and then dread writing it, so I make up tasks for myself to do until I don’t have any time left to blog.    Instead of continuing to do that, I wanted to make some time to just write about how I’m feeling and things from this week.

Lately I’ve been really, really homesick.  Before the naysayers come out of the woodwork, I want to say that I don’t regret my decision to come here or my other decision to stay for a second year.  Yet, there’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about coming home in July.  I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to it!  My life here in Japan is great, but I just want to be home around family and friends in a familiar setting where I don’t feel awkward and don’t have cultural misunderstandings.  For those of you that have been away from home for a while, you understand.  I thought that I was homesick when I spent three months in Spain, but three months is NOTHING now.  Even though this is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, it’s also one of the most rewarding.

The good thing about being here is that whenever you have a low moment, it’s usually followed by something amazing.  Tuesday was one of those low moments when I felt like nothing I did was good enough, totally inadequate, and in general down-and-out.  However, on Thursday I had several great connections with my students.  I ate lunch with the first graders at the JHS.  The table that I was placed at had four boys, two of which were real troublemakers last year, so I didn’t have high hopes for a good lunch, but they totally surprised me!  I made quiche for dinner on Wednesday night and brought the leftovers for lunch.  They were very curious about what Melissa-sensei was eating, so I let them each try a bite.  We were having a pretty good Japanese/English conversation, so I told them that my mother was coming to visit in August.  They were all surprised and excited and started shouting to their friends at other tables, telling them that Melissa-sensei’s mom was coming in August! 

During break that day, I went to the library to study Japanese.  Usually I sit at a table by myself, and if students want to talk to me, they shout something across the room or approach me.  Instead, as soon as I walked in the room one of my third graders motioned for me to come over to her table.    This made me feel so super special!!!  I showed her my book and what I was studying.  It was difficult for her to read the romanji (Romanization of Japanese words), and she didn’t understand at first how I could be studying Japanese when it was printed in Roman letters.    We ended up having a pretty good conversation in Japanese/English and looked at a Guinness Book of World Records that the library had, grimacing together at the disgusting stuff and smiling at the cute things.

Thursday night was my night class, and I have adults.  Yay!  Now I will alternate weeks between adults and children.  The adults last night were really sweet.  All three of them are older—63, 65, and 71.  One lady is a breathing instructor and showed us just how flexible she was by standing on one leg and bringing the other straight up to her head and then doing the splits.  I told her that I’m twenty-five, and I can’t even bend that way!!    Although their English isn’t that great, they are a nice break from the kids, and I’ll be able to have more serious conversations instead of “Hello.  My name is Melissa.  I like strawberries.  I can play volleyball.  Nice to meet you.”   

It’s ups and downs here.  Just when I think I can’t take anymore, some kid makes me feel special, and I remember why I’m here! 

Golden Week greatness part II: cycling trail

I won’t bother with writing about details of last work week.  Just know that it was two days long, and I feel like every week should be that short!    Thursday was the first day of the weekend, and Melissa B, Ian, and I planned to bike the entire distance of the Kumagawa cycling road, which I’ve mentioned once or twice before.  It extends from Yunomae all the way to Hitoyoshi, a good twenty miles away.  Wednesday night we went to Rachel’s house to pick up her bike for Ian.  Her bike is so freaking sweet, and she doesn’t even use it!!  That’s right!  She has an electric bike…..which is a normal bike until you turn the key, and the e-assist comes on.  It’s really nice for hills or whenever you don’t want to have to work.  Since it didn’t fit in our car, I had to ride it home.  I loved it!  I left the e-assist on, and it seemed so much lighter and faster than my own bike!    However, once the uncharged battery wore down, it became a much, much HEAVIER bike.  The battery, heavy metal, and thick plastic basket all made it extremely more difficult to ride.

Thursday morning, we woke up around 9AM.  Melissa was at our house by 9:45AM, and we were on the trail by 10AM.  We stopped at the conbini for snacks and a pack lunch.  The trail was nice—flat, paved, and followed the beautiful scenery of the Kumagawa.  Ian started off on Rachel’s bike, and I was on mine, but he said that the seat was hurting his butt.  I have NO idea how this was possible because Rachel’s bike has one of those wonderful thick cushy seats like bicycles USED to have, and my seat barely has padding and rides up my butt.  However, Ian preferred my bike, so for the rest of the day I had Rachel’s.  When Melissa and Ian started to complain about their butts hurting, I didn’t feel a thing!    It actually wasn’t until the end of the trek when my butt started to feel it.  The huge basket on the front was perfect for storage.  We were able to fit all of our stuff, including Melissa’s backpack in it, but when I went over bumps, stuff would rattle around in the basket or go flying in the air, and I’d have to catch it.   

 

The trail passes through Taragi, Asagiri, and Nishiki before it hits Hitoyoshi.  There are several little parks and rest stops along the way that we could break at.  Even though the weather was absolutely perfect (it had rained ALL DAY the day before), we did have a pretty strong head wind, and we enjoyed the breaks.  Somewhere between Taragi and Asagiri, Melissa and Ian saw a snake along the path while I shuddered and silently thanked God that I didn’t see it.  Then not too far down the road when I was leading, a big, fat, black snake slithered off the path in front of me.  I screamed and slammed on my brakes.  I’m pretty sure that the snake was more scared of me than I of him, but that didn’t stop me from having a little freak out.    Ian said that since I slammed on my brakes so quickly, he almost rammed into my back tire.  I HATE snakes.  *shudder*

In Nishiki the trail led us straight to the 219, the main road from Yunomae to Hitoyoshi, so we had to ride on the sidewalk for a little while.  Although traffic was heavier, our slower pace allowed us to notice little things that we never see while driving the 219.  For example, we stopped at a farmer’s market shop and browsed through the fruit.  We learned that the hill leaving Nishiki is massive.  We also learned that while coasting the downside, you can get a ridiculous amount of speed.

 

Each of us was starting to get a little tired and hungry, so we decided to stop at the Hitoyoshi Craft Park outside of Nishiki for lunch.  Although we pass by it every time we go to Hitoyoshi, none of us has actually gone there, and Thursday was the perfect day for that!  Children’s Day is one of the holidays during Golden Week, and huge koi kites are hung up from poles (above, left).  I’m not sure of the connection or relevance of koi to children, but each kite is a different color, and it’s gorgeous to see them whipping around in the wind.  It was a good day to explore the craft park because several vendors were set up and demonstrating how to make things.  We saw vendors making shochu, chopsticks, pottery, glassware, woodwork, and blades.  Melissa had a fairly in depth conversation with the guy making blades and his wife.  They were super nice to us and seemed genuinely excited to have foreigners in their shop.  As we were eating lunch, we noticed parents pulling their kids around on these huge wooden wagons shaped like animals, so we agreed that even though we are grown adults, we should probably give the Japanese something to point and laugh at (above, right).  Yes, we each took turns riding and pulling one another on the toys.    I felt kind of bad making a spectacle of ourselves, but if you can’t laugh at yourself, your life is sad.

Whenever we got back on the trail, we had a decision to make.  We were close enough to Hitoyoshi that we could say we technically rode there.  However, the trail doesn’t end until the Hitoyoshi train station, and I really wanted to say that we rode the whole thing.  Ian suggested that we ride to Hitoyoshi and take the train back to Yunomae.  No fair!  No cheating!    Melissa said that since she lives so close to Hitoyoshi, she might just ride home and then let us go back by ourselves.  However, consensually we agreed to go big or go home and ride the WHOLE thing.  Even though we had just rested, we stopped beside the river to cool off and take pictures (below).  The closer we got to Hitoyoshi, the more hills we encountered, and since my bike weighed so much more, I had to get off and push it up the hill a couple of times (going down was nice—since I weighed more, I would ZOOM by Ian and Melissa).  Ian had the idea to grab supper in Hitoyoshi, so we called Mary and told her to meet us at Everest in twenty minutes.  Sadly when we arrived there, it was closed for whatever reason, so we decided to uphold the stereotype that all Americans go to McDonald’s and ate there.  Nothing replenishes you more than a big, fat burger after a long day of exercise (actually, I felt worse after it ). 

 

Since we went out to eat, we knew that we’d be riding back at least part of the trail in the dark.  I’m pretty sure we counted down EACH kilometer.  While the day was fun, we were starting to get worn out.  Case in point: we were riding over a bridge, and I was looking out over the river, not paying attention at all to the road.  Therefore, I ran into a road sign.    I didn’t even notice it until it smacked me in the face.  Luckily the bike basket absorbed most of the blow, and I only got a few scratches on my hand and shoulder.  Instead of road rash, I got sign rash!    (The next day, Justine said “It looks like you got burned on your hand.”    I had to explain what ACTUALLY happened.)  Since it didn’t really hurt and it was pretty funny, we laughed about it the whole way home, and Melissa and Ian were so nice to warn me of EACH approaching sign and tell me to not run into it. 

We had to take the most breaks on that very last leg.  Since we were riding along the river, there were bugs everywhere—flying onto our face, hair, eyes, and arms as darkness approached.  By the time we reached Taragi, it was completely dark.  Luckily it was a full moon, and that really helped us see.  We finally, FINALLY reached home at 8:30.  Poor Melissa had to drive all the way back to her house, but Ian and I finished up the night by jumping in the shower and packing up for our third and final Golden Week adventure, Nagasaki.

Keep reading!  Nagasaki was one of my favorite places we’ve been so far, and Ian got GREAT pictures of the city!