volcanoes, bunnies, giant ice creams, and more! part III

I should have explained earlier that Kagoshima prefecture is shaped like a “n”, and Kagoshima Bay fills the middle of the “n”.  Kagoshima City and Sakurajima are at the top of the “n”, and Ibusuki is at the bottom of the left leg of the “n”.  Kagoshima is BEAUTIFUL, and we really enjoyed the drive down to Ibusuki since most of the road paralleled the coast.  Plus, Kagoshima was already much warmer than Kumamoto.  The weather was fabulously warm, and we wore T-shirts for most of the time.  It almost seemed like we were on a tropical island instead of just an hour south of where we live. 

Okay, so Sunday…..It was Easter, but it sure didn’t feel like it.  I had brought my bunny ears and duck necklaces to wear, and sure enough, I wore them ALL.  DAY.  LONG.  I got several double takes and giggles from people, but in a country that doesn’t celebrate holidays you’ve celebrated your whole life, you have to figure out some way to recognize the day!    Melissa B. was cool enough to wear my duck necklace while I sported the ears (below, right).  Our first stop of the day was to pick up breakfast at a conbini.  Mary and I gave up Coke during Lent, so we toasted the day with a little breakfast Coke (below, left).   

 

We met back up with Ana, Michael, Amanda, and Brian at the hotel so that we could caravan over to the sand onsen.  The sand onsen is a little different than a regular onsen because instead of soaking in hot water, you get covered in hot volcanic sand.    (It’s supposed to be very good for your skin.  Whenever I got out, my skin felt silky smooth!)  None of us had done it before, and it was indeed quite the experience!!  We all wore long robes, and they had us lay down in half dug out trenches.  They wrapped a towel around our head to prevent sand getting in our hair and neck and then covered us with the sand.  I know how heavy sand can be when you get buried at the beach, but this wasn’t so bad since it was just enough to cover the body.  It felt like being wrapped in a warm hug.    I’ve never had an electric blanket, but that’s what I imagine it to feel like.  Some people in our group started to complain about how hot it was, but I loved it.  Most people in our group could only stand the heat for about ten minutes, but I’m proud to say that I was under the sand for about twenty.  I was happy in my little cocoon.    Whenever I got out, though, I didn’t realize just how sweaty I was!  The air temperature was actually cold compared to the snuggly warmth I experienced under the sand!       

  

Although we were buried in sand, the robes prevented it from getting EVERYWHERE.  We had to rinse off and then were able to soak in a normal onsen.  Once everyone got out of the regular onsen, we parted ways.  Michael, Ana, Amanda, and Brian headed back to Hitoyoshi, but the rest of us drove into Kagoshima City to eat Shirokuma.  What’s that, you say?  Shirokuma, literally translated, means “white bear.”  It’s a giant ice cream/shaved ice dessert.  They take a cantaloupe sized amount of shaved ice, pour this sweet milk stuff all over it, and decorate it with fruits and jellies.  It’s YUMMY!  Mary told us that we HAD to try it since it a) is a Kagoshima specialty, and b) was Easter.  The closer we got to the city, the better views we got of the volcano.  Don’t be alarmed at the cloud rising out of it because it’s quite normal (below, left).  Sakurajima erupted (like full on ERUPTED) in the early 90s, and not on person was hurt.  They know how to deal with it!) 

 

As we walked to get Shirokuma, we noticed a couple of girls in front of us keep turning around and staring.  It’s not that big of a deal, and we’re all used to this kind of thing, but just the vibe these girls had was definitely different.  It was like they were amazed by something.  When they kept turning around, I thought it might be because of my bunny ears, so I smiled.  Melissa B. thought they were looking at her, so she waved.  They were polite and smiled back at us, but when Justine waved, they ALL squealed.  Justine has a gift and a curse of having beautiful blonde hair, and here people are absolutely amazed by it!  (She’s had her fair share of both good and bad people drawn to it.)  The girls wouldn’t stop smiling, and one even asked if they could get a picture with her (above, right).  I know that by Justine taking that picture she definitely made those girls incredibly happy.  They’ll probably go home, to school, etc and show all of their friends the picture of them and the beautiful blonde foreigner. 

We finally found a Shirokuma place, and it was well worth it.  This dessert was HUGE, and my, my, my was it delicious!  Happy Easter to us all!  Ian and I decided to split one, and thank goodness we did!  There’s NO WAY we would have been able to each eat one of those!

 

Once our bellies were stuffed full of Shirokuma deliciousness, we headed on back to Hitoyoshi. Mary, Justine, Melissa, and I rode in Mary’s car, and we totally had a dance party.  We enjoyed sitting in traffic and making it as awkward as possible for all of the cars around us.    There were people staring, laughing, and noticeably ignoring us.  To those people, we threw our hands in the air even more obnoxiously and sang the lyrics.    Mary has a white plate car, meaning that it’s an actual car and has a decent engine.  Rebeca has a yellow plate car, meaning that its engine is tiny and wishes it could be as powerful as a white plate.  Anyway, Rebeca thought she would be cute, sped up, and passed us on the expressway.  We showed her.  It wasn’t but a few minutes before Mary’s stronger car overtook Rebeca’s and we slid into first place again.  I laughed and said that it was like Fast and the Furious: Kagoshima Drift.  Hahaha! 

……and that was the extent of our Easter weekend.  I hope everyone else had as good of a weekend as us!  Happy (belated) Easter to everyone!

volcanoes, bunnies, giant ice creams, and more! part II

Melissa B. and Justine met us at Mary’s house on Saturday morning, and we left from there around 10AM.  To balance our cars a little better, Ian rode with Rebeca and Yuusuke.  It was actually probably a good thing because Mary, Justine, Melissa, and I all rocked out to pop music.  We enjoyed dancing from our seats and throwing our hands in the air, driving by other Japanese drivers, only to see them laughing hysterically at the crazy foreigners.  Kagoshima is only a little over an hour away.  Mary has been there before, but the rest of us were surprised at how easy it was to get there.  Instead of driving up to Kumamoto when we want to go to a city, we should go south to Kagoshima every once in a while.

I used Google maps on my phone as the navigator, and it worked pretty well.  Every once in a while, it spaced out, and we had to turn around, but all-in-all, it worked out well.  Our first stop of the day was the “island” of Sakurajima (I say “island” because technically it’s connected to the mainland under the surface of the water, but you most definitely CANNOT drive there).  Kagoshima is known for its active volcanoes, and Sakurajima is one of the most active volcanoes in the world.  It erupted in the early 1900s and has been slowly erupting ever since.  It’s so active that people aren’t allowed to go to the top of it.  In fact, when we went, we saw a huge cloud coming from the top.  Mary said that the area around Sakurajima has an ash report everyday during the weather report…..as in “Don’t hang out your clothes or wash your car today because there’s too much ash in the air.”    The city of Kagoshima, with some 650,000 people sits RIGHT across the bay from this monster volcanic island, but people just deal with it.  There are even several towns on the island!  Since people live there, and the volcano continuously erupts, the Japanese have built incredible ways to control the eruptions as much as possible.  For example, they have these huge concrete trenches so that the lava will direct into there and flow out to sea instead of down Main Street.  There are also concrete “damns” for the lava flows so that it won’t go out of the concrete trenches.  Genius, I’m telling you, genius! 

We had to take a ferry from Kagoshima City to Sakurajima.  We were able to drive our car right onto it, and went to the top for pictures and to watch the island get closer.  It was only a short twenty minute ferry ride, and our first stop on the island was a dinosaur/adventure park that is probably only meant for children, but…….  Of course the foreigners are going to play on the huge dinosaur statues!  You’re fooling yourself if you think we wouldn’t!  There were also jungle gyms, a giant slide, a small zip line, balance beams, and plenty of trees to climb.  As soon as we saw all of those, we reverted back to five-year-olds and went crazy, running around enjoying one thing after another.  We had a ball!!

   

We stopped for a quick lunch at a roadside café.  Another thing that Kagoshima is famous for is its giant daikon (a big radish).  Daikon aren’t really radishes, but I don’t really know what other vegetable to compare them to.  In the States, I’m not a big fan of radishes, but here, I like daikon.  Outside the restaurant, there was a daikon patch with some of the biggest darn radishes I’ve ever seen!!  It’s funny because in the sixth grade textbook that we use, there’s a silly story about a grandfather, grandmother, and all the barnyard animals pulling up a giant turnip.  Therefore, we had to make fun of that story and recreate it with the giant daikon. 

 

Our next stop on the tour of Sakurajima was a beautiful seaside onsen (hot spring).  Normally at the onsen, the guys go one way, and the girls go the other.  You shower and then sit in the communal hot spring water together naked.  However, since this was a coed onsen, we all had robes to wear and went into the water with those on.  It was a little tricky keeping the robe positioned like you wanted it, making sure that the top half wasn’t sliding open or that the water didn’t make the bottom half float into an inconvenient position.  Despite that, it was probably the best onsen I’ve been to.  The view was amazing.  Literally a few steps from the onsen pool was the ocean.  It had a very natural look to it by being surrounded with trees, rocks, and even cute little shrines.  Plus, we could all sit and enjoy it instead of ladies on one side, guys on the other.      

   

We took the ferry back to the city and continued out journey to Ibusuki, where we met up with the rest of our group: Amanda, Brian, Michael, and Ana.  We all had dinner together at their hotel and then went back to our hostel.  Mary, Justine, Melissa, Ian, and I were too cheap to pay the expensive price of the hotel, but our hostel was nice.  We had an entire tatami room to ourselves.  The futons were pretty flat and uncomfortable, but there were enough in the closet that we could double up for extra cushion.  After a long day of playing on dinosaurs and soaking in hot water, we were all exhausted and fell asleep rather quickly.

volcanoes, bunnies, giant ice creams, and more!

Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to catch up from the weekend, so this will probably be a multi-blog post.  School started back this week, so I’ve actually had to do work.   

My mom and I used to have a game in which whenever we saw an airplane way up in the sky, we’d try to guess to where it was flying.  It started one summer day when we were laying in the pool, and I asked Mommy where she thought that airplane waaaaaaaaay up in the sky was going.  She said San Francisco, but the plane was flying east.  We laughed and laughed and laughed about that, and thus our guessing game was born.  On Friday evening, I saw an airplane and asked Ian to guess where it was going, thinking to myself Korea.  When he said “Korea,” I nearly jumped out of my seat!  Out of all of the answers possible, we both came up with the same thing!  We have the ability to read each other’s mind!  

Friday night we had an enkai (drinking party) to welcome the new JHS teachers.  I’m not a big fan of enkais, but this one was actually fun.  It started off awkward like normal, but after my co-workers downed a few beers, people started talking to us.  It was at a yakinuki (Japanese BBQ) place, so the majority of the meal was meat.  Since it was Good Friday, I couldn’t eat it.  Luckily, they had some vegetables and salad, so I was able to make a meal off of that.  When people asked if I wanted meat, I was able to put together a very basic Japanese sentence explaining that I was Catholic and couldn’t eat meat that day.  I said that Sunday was a very big holiday, Easter, and was able to convey some of the traditions that we have, such as the Easter Bunny leaving candy and dyeing eggs.  Thank God for iPhones!  I don’t know what we would have done had we not been able to pull up pictures from the internet to explain some of the things.  (Think about it.  If you had never heard of a giant white mysterious rabbit leaving candy for your children, wouldn’t you be confused?)  I had my bunny ears in the car and brought those in.  Each and every one of my co-workers enjoyed trying those on (below, left).  Some embraced the ears on their head and made faces, others awkwardly sat for a moment and pulled them off, and still others just laughed. 

I stand by my claim that Ian is the Asian whisperer.  The Japanese LOVE Ian.  They wanted to sit next to him, talk to him, drink with him, etc.  The art teacher sitting next to Ian challenged him to see who could drink the most, which is a really, really bad idea.  Ian can hold his liquor, but the Japanese lack enzymes that break down alcohol, so many are seriously one beer drunks.  Beer for beer, they kept up the ruse until beer number six.  In the middle of that one, the art teacher left the room (to presumably throw up in the bathroom) and returned to gather his things and stagger out the door.  I learned that one of the math teachers is ridiculously good at English.  Get a little alcohol into the Japanese, and you never know what’ll come out!    Although he’s always nice to me, he hasn’t said two words in English to me since I got here. 

After the enkai, we drove to Mary’s to spend the night.  Since we were leaving on Saturday morning for Kagoshima, she said that we could stay with her.  I kind of felt bad for her because we were so engrossed in our Hunger Games books that she started playing Play Station by herself.    Sorry, Mary, but we HAD to finish those books!!  Rebeca and Yuusuke drove in to spend the night at Mary’s as well, but I fell asleep long before they got there.

When I woke up on Saturday morning, I had a dream fresh on my mind.  I dreamed that I was still working at the Parlor (the restaurant where I worked for 7.5 years).  For whatever reason, I was there working, but I didn’t have to.  Everyone kept asking if I knew that I wasn’t going to get paid for my work, and I kept saying yes, but that it was fine.  I didn’t even have the right uniform on, but dang it, I felt happy to be there!  Ah, silly, silly dreams!

Arg!  I haven’t even begun the story about our trip, and I know that if I keep going, this blog will become too long.    Stay tuned for more!

Japanese story time!

For whatever reason, the Japanese textbook stories all have a common theme…death.  Some of the stories from them are disturbing and awkward.  Here are two of the best/craziest/most depressing.

A Mother’s Lullaby:

A big, old tree stands by a road near the city of Hiroshima.  Through the years, it has seen many things.  One summer night the tree heard a lullaby.  A mother was singing to her little girl under the tree.  They looked happy, and the song sounded sweet.  But the tree remembered something sad. 
“Yes, it was some sixty years ago.  I heard a lullaby that night, too.”

On the morning of that day, a big bomb fell on the city of Hiroshima.  Many people lost their lives, and many others were injured.  They had burns all over their bodies.  I was very sad when I saw those people.

It was a very hot day.  Some of the people fell down near me.  I said to them, “Come and rest in my shade.  You’ll be all right soon.” 

Night came.  Some people were already dead.  I heard a weak voice.  It was a lullaby.  A young girl was singing to a little boy. 

“Mommy!  Mommy!” the boy cried.

“Don’t cry,” the girl said.  “Mommy is here.”  Then she began to sing again.

She was very weak, but she tried to be a mother to there poor little boy.  She held him in her arms like a real mother.

“Mommy,” the boy was still crying.

“Be a good boy,” said the girl.  “You’ll be all right.”  She held the boy more tightly and began to sing again.

After a while the boy stopped crying and quietly died.  But the little mother did not stop singing.  It was a sad lullaby.  The girl’s voice became weaker and weaker.

Morning came, and the sun rose, but the girl never moved again.

************************************************************************************

Sad enough yet?  If not, here’s another one for you!

The Fall of Freddie the Leaf:

Spring came.  Freddie, the leaf, was born on a branch of a tall tree.

Hundreds of leaves were born on the tree.  They were all friends.  Together they danced in the breeze and played in the sun.

Daniel was the largest leaf and Freddie’s best friend.  He knew  many things.  He explained that they were part of a tree in a park.  He also explained about the birds, the sun, and the moon.  Freddie loved being a leaf.  Summer was especially nice.  Many people came to the park. 

“Let’s get together and give them some shade,” said Daniel.  “Giving shade is part of our purpose in life.  Making people happy is a good reason for living.”

Old people sat under the tree and talked of old times.  Children ran around and laughed.  It was fun to watch those children. 

Summer passed, and fall came.  Soon the leaves changed their colors.  Some turned red, and others turned yellow.  Freddie turned purple.  They were all very beautiful. 

One day a strange thing happened.  Some of the leaves were blown off by a strong cold wind.  The leaves became frightened.  “What’s happening?” they said.

“It’s the time for leaves to change their home,” Daniel said.  “Some people call it dying.”

“Will we all die?” Freddie asked.

“Yes,” Daniel answered.  “Everything dies.”

“I won’t die!” said Freddie.

But his friends started to fall one after another.  Soon the tree was almost bare.

“I’m afraid of dying,” Freddie told Daniel.

“We’re all afraid of things we don’t know,” Daniel said.  “But you were not afraid when spring became summer, or when summer became fall.  Changes are natural.”

“Will we return in spring?” Freddie asked.

“I don’t know, but Life will.  Life lasts forever, and we’re part of it,” answered Daniel.

“We only fall and die.  Why are we here?”  Freddie asked again.

Daniel said, “For the friends, the sun, and the shade.  Remember the breeze, the people, and the colors in fall.  Isn’t that enough?”

That afternoon, Daniel fell with a smile.  Freddie was the only leaf left on his branch.

The first snow fell the next morning.  The wind came and took Freddie from his branch.  It did not hurt at all.  As he fell, he saw the whole tree for the first time.  He remembered Daniel’s words, “Life lasts forever.”

Freddie landed on the soft snow.  He closed his eyes and went to sleep.  He did not know this.  But, in the tree and the ground, there were already plans for new leaves in spring.

***********************************************************************************

Yay depressing Japanese stories!  Both of these came out of the third grade (really ninth by our standards).

the difference a day can make

Yesterday I was definitely down in the dumps, but just as soon as it seemed like everything was becoming too much, it all turned around.  My sweet friend, Ana, emailed me saying that she had read the last blog and wanted to offer her boss’s official translating services.  Also, the Prefectural Advisor emailed me back saying that one of his co-workers called the JAF office, and JAF would indeed translate both my driver’s license AND driving record for the same price.  Yay! 

When I got home that afternoon, things were definitely better.  There was a letter from Grandmother in our slot.  That was exactly what I needed!  She even included a couple of articles from the local newspaper, and it was just so nice to read about happenings in and around Paducah.    After a tea break with Ian, I changed clothes and went outside to sift more dirt.  One of the neighborhood girls came by and saw me working outside.  She went back to get her friend, and both of them sat and talked with me.  At first, they wanted to play in the dirt.  I showed them how I sifted it and that I plan to plant flowers.  They picked a few big rocks out for me, but then they stepped into the flower bed.  Immediately I thought of how much this flower bed is making me become my mother.  She doesn’t let ANYONE step foot in her flower beds for fear of that person accidentally crushing something.  I don’t have anything planted yet, but they weren’t really paying attention to the difference between the nice sifted and rocky dirt, so I directed their attention elsewhere.  We were playing tic-tac-toe on the concrete with rocks, but when that got too boring, I called for Ian to come out and play.  He brought us the box of Easter goodies that Kim sent us earlier in the week.  I shared a box of Peeps with them, and they immediately reached for the chocolate bunny and other box of Peeps, begging me to let them take it home.  Come on, girls!  I don’t care how cute you are……NO ONE is taking MY chocolate bunny!!    I opened the box of egg dye and explained the process of dyeing Easter eggs in my broken Japanese/English.  Before they left, I gave them each some Easter stickers to take home.   

Ian and I are pretty boring…and this is why.  After I finished the first Hunger Games book on Wednesday night, I left it for Ian.  He DEVOURED it last night.  When I got home, he was reading and pretty much didn’t stop until he finished shortly before midnight.  After I made dinner and dishes were done, I curled up next to him and read the second book.  Ian is a ridiculously fast reader, so when I went to bed around midnight, he stayed up ALL night to finish the second book.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he has the third book finished by the time I get home today. 

It’s Friday!  YAY!  I’m especially looking forward to this weekend because we’re spending Easter in Kagoshima!  Kagoshima is the prefecture south of us.  Mary, Melissa, Justine, Ian, and I are loading into the car and heading to Sakurajima, one of the most active volcanoes on Kyushu.  We’re going to a dinosaur park, village that was buried by the last blast (think Pompeii), and an onsen that is right on the ocean.  Later we’re going to meet up with other friends and go to a sand onsen in which they dig a hole for you and bury you in the sand.  We’ve never done that, but it’s supposed to be really relaxing and good for the skin.

So…..Happy Easter to all!  Please eat plenty of Easter ham, coconut cake, colorful hard boiled eggs, Cadbury eggs, and all of the other goodness that comes from Easter!

bad day

Just to let everyone know that it’s not all sunshine, unicorns, and rainbows over here today is one of those days in which I want to go home, put on sweat pants, curl up in bed, eat chocolate, watch TV, and have a good cry for the rest of the night.  You could say it’s been a bad day.  In hind sight, I know that all of my issues are stupid and petty, but they are still things that bother me and bring me down.

1) Good Friday enkai.  Last week when I agreed to go to an enkai with the JHS teachers this Friday, I didn’t realize that it was GOOD FRIDAY.  I don’t drink, so I usually have Coke at these things, but since it’s still Lent, that won’t be possible.  Good Friday is one of the two days out of the whole year that Catholics are required to fast.  Therefore, I won’t be gorging myself on food.  However, the real kicker is that Catholics aren’t allowed to eat meat on Fridays during Lent.  Since there is generally A LOT of meat served at these events (dare I even say most of it is meat?), I will have to explain why I can’t eat the meat.  To top it off, the cost is 4,000 yen (about $50).  I’m going to spend that much to probably eat cabbage and beans. 

2) I’m a big ball of awkwardness.  Seriously.  Today is one of those days in which I feel completely out of place.  I think it first started when I walked in the teacher’s room and realized that all of the teachers had changed desks….all except for me.  I’m okay with that, but it just seems weird having the teacher that I sat next to all the way across the room now.  About mid-morning, all of the teachers got up and told me to come with them.  I had no idea what was going on.  It turns out that we were cleaning out a room and had to move all of the chairs and desks out of it.  I don’t know why.  Then we went upstairs to one of the classrooms.  All of the teachers were talking back and forth, back and forth.  I was told that it was “finished” and was dismissed while all of the other teachers stayed.  I was the only one sitting in the teacher’s room while they did whatever. 

3) Obtaining my driver’s license.  I’ve been reading about it and trying to study car vocabulary today.  You’ve heard me rant about what a process it is, and I’m still on the EASY part of it.  The HARD part doesn’t come until the test.  Since I renewed my license shortly before coming to Japan, the date of issue is one month before I left, which makes it seem like I’ve only had my license for a month.  In order to convert your license, you have to have had it for at LEAST three months before coming to Japan.  To combat this, I had to get my driving record from the McCracken County Court House.  I recapped the difficulty of this process in March.  I finally got it mailed to me.  I know that my KYDL has to be translated to Japanese, and the Japanese Automobile Federation (JAF) will do that.  I emailed the Prefectural Advisor to confirm this process, but he said that he wasn’t sure if they would do driving records as well, which I NEED to have translated if I want a license.  He told me to see if my supervisor would call JAF and confirm that they would and if it would be the same price as just translating the KYDL.  I translated a few basic sentences of what I needed and emailed her those.  She didn’t understand my message, so she called Mr. Fujiwara to see if he would get a better idea of what I wanted and translate from me to her.  As I tried to explain all of this technical stuff to him, I could tell that he had NO idea what I was talking about.  I think the conclusion that he came to was that I wanted to know about the process of obtaining a Japanese license.  UUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!  FRUSTRATION!!! 

Right now I just feel sad/angry/frustrated/ready to give up/awkward/anti-social/desperate/lost.  I HATE days like today.  I just want to run away from it all and come back to the States where I’m NORMAL and speak the native tongue.  I don’t stick out like a sore thumb and can understand everyone.  Days like today remind me how much I miss my family and friends, English, American food, my normal size car, insulated houses, forks, my little apartment with the squeaky floors, American holidays, sweet tea, and any and every thing else that reminds me of home.  These days have a way of sneaking up on me.  It’s as if all of these feelings and emotions stay inside until I’m down, and THEN they present their big, ugly heads.

I know that I’ll probably go home and cry today.  As down as I am now, I know to keep a positive outlook.  Things tend to turn around really easily here, and just as soon as something bad happens, something good will happen.  Maybe tomorrow will be a really nice day!  It’ll be Friday, so at least I have that going for me!  …..but if it insists on being another bad day, tomorrow is exactly three months and one week from the date that I’m going home, and I will hold onto that thought and cherish it. 

hungry for HUNGER GAMES!

I’m catching up on my blog today, Wednesday, since I’m at the BOE where I don’t have internet and distractions are by far fewer.  Even though I’m writing this today, I know that it won’t be published until Thursday, so those of you wondering why I posted three blogs back-to-back-to-back, that’s why.  BOE day= no internet= lots of time to write and then wait for a connection to the internet so that I can post.   

This week is the second and final week of spring break.  Once again, I come to school and do nothing.  I blog, email, catch up with friends via Skype or Google chat, plan my next weekend getaway, and any variety of busy work activities.  One thing that is different this week are some of the teachers.  Yunomae JHS has a new vice principal and school nurse.  Both seem very nice, pleasant, and a welcomed addition.

Monday morning proved to me why we should have gone to the onsen (hot springs) after our hike.  Every time I rolled over during the night, I woke up in pain.  My body hated me from the waist down.  I felt like an old person waking up on Monday because it was seriously a struggle for me to get up and down.  EVERYTHING from the waist down hurt.  Sitting down to put my tights on hurt.  Bending over to pick up my backpack hurt.  Stepping down to the genkan (entryway) hurt.  I literally limped to school.  I had told a few teachers about my weekend plans to hike Ichifusa, and when they saw me limp into the building they all asked how it was.  All I had to do was point at my legs and say “ITAI!” (PAIN!)  Ha, ha.  I’m pretty sure everyone had a good laugh at the foreigner that day as I hobbled back and forth like an old person.    I don’t think I’ve ever been so sore!

That afternoon, the brass band kids came up to me as a group to say thanks for coming to their concert.  I’m not sure if the teacher told them to, if it’s a polite Japanese custom, or if they did it out of the goodness of their hearts, but regardless, it was absolutely precious!  They had difficulty getting the words out, but I was sooooooo happy because it was just too sweet!! “Melissa-sensei…..concert…….Saturday…….coming……thank you.”

Ian and I planned to go to Hitoyoshi after school, but he had another dentist appointment at 4PM, so I told him to take the car, and I’d meet him there.  It would normally take about fifteen minutes, but in my weeble-wobble state, it took longer.  At one side street, I crossed in front of a car.  We gave each other head bows, and I continued my walk.  However, I could hear the low purr of a car inching along behind me.  I turned around to see the same woman trailing to my side with her window rolled down.  She offered me a ride!  How sweet was that?    I don’t know her, and she doesn’t know me, but she offered.  I declined and thanked her.  In the States, I absolutely, positively WOULD NOT get into a stranger’s car, but here, if I didn’t feel like it was such an imposition, of course I would have!  You can TRUST people here!

Whenever I met Ian, he laughed at me and said that it looked like I was walking with a stick up my butt.  Sweet, huh?    I asked him how the appointment went, and he sang the praises of the Japanese dentist.  Not only was it a quick process to fill his cavity, but they actually REPAIRED the work that our former dentist did a so-so job of.  Ian said that in addition to that, there were two rough spots on his teeth that have bothered him for a while, and they smoothed those off.  Anyone want to guess how much all of this dental work cost?  About ten dollars!  Although I had to go back twice, Ian three times, our total cost of the dentist was a little less than $100.  Last year we spent nearly $1,000 in dental bills!  (Granted, Ian had twelve cavities, and little did we know that we were actually using an out of network dentist.)  The difference was amazing!  Plus, here they tell you to raise your hand if your feel the slightest bit of pain.  At home, the dentist could literally be drilling into your gums and continue on without batting an eye.  The entire way to Hitoyoshi Ian went on and on about how great the Japanese system was. 

Sometime in the dark hours of Tuesday morning I heard thunder.  It was such a foreign sound that I almost didn’t recognize it.  It’s not that thunderstorms don’t happen here, but rather that they aren’t as common.  Tuesday morning had that great spring storm feel to it.  While I didn’t hear anymore thunder, it was dark with clouds hanging low over the mountains and incredibly windy.  I opened a few windows in the house to let the breeze pass through (not the bathroom window—I learned my lesson).  It rained off and on, but the wind persisted, reminding me of spring storms at home.  I do miss a good thunderstorm!  There’s not as many April showers here as there are at home.  It might rain, but the majority of the rain pounds the area during the entire month of June—rainy season.

I woke up with a pretty good/crazy dream.  I dreamed that it was the zombie apocalypse, and we went to my home parish, St. John, to wait it out there.  St. John is a big, old church with strong walls and thick doors and sits on a hill….the perfect place to hide out against mindless flesh-eating monsters!  Hahaha!

One of my nursery schools closed, but I have new students in both of the other nursery schools, so I gave a mini-self-introduction lesson for them, showing them pictures of family and friends and maps of where I’m from.  There was a little time leftover, so I played duck, duck, goose.  The kids didn’t quite get the hang of it, so the teacher and I had to nudge the kids to run whenever they were “goose” or point at their spot in the circle to run to.  I’ll have to work on that, along with all of the other games I have up my sleeves!

I have a new voracious appetite. The other day I asked if anyone in the gun had the Hunger Games books.  Justine said that she did, so I asked if I could borrow them.  It’s all anyone is talking about now!  Hunger Games this and Hunger Games that.  Generally I resist these bandwagon books—Harry Potter, Twilight, but eventually I give into them and devour them once I start.  The same is true here.  Even my sister, Christina, is reading the series.  She has three young children and about five minutes of free time per day, yet she’s reading them to the point that she CAN’T put them down.  If she reads a book, you KNOW it’s good!  I started the first book yesterday after school and am already over halfway through.  The wind yesterday made it quite chilly, so I decided to curl up into bed with a cup of tea and book after school.  The only downside was that I didn’t want to get up to do anything.  Ian had run to Hitoyoshi to help Melissa buy a lawn mower, which provided me with plenty of alone time.  I told him that I’d have dinner ready at 7PM and to be home by then, but I ended up cooking it later because I was so enamored with the books.  After dinner, I dove right back into the book, and other than stopping to Skype Mommy, I read the entire night.  MUST.  FINISH.  BOOK. 

As I said, Ian helped Melissa buy a lawnmower.  He brought it back to our house to assemble it and was completely and utterly pleased with himself.    He calls it the “Flintstone” lawnmower since it doesn’t have a motor.  Instead it mows with the spinning blades.  Since it was too dark to go outside and use it, he wheeled it up and down our hallway.  It reminded me of my brother when he was younger.  He would wheel his tractors back and forth over the living room carpet pretending to plow the fields.  Ian did the same thing with the lawnmower.  

Like I said previously, I’m at the BOE today.  I’m always fascinated with how my co-workers conduct lunch time here.  At the JHS when class isn’t in session, sometimes we eat lunch at 12:15, sometimes 12:30.  Sometimes it’s okay to eat at your desk, but if people are gathering at the table, it’s better to eat there.  However, at the BOE, you could set your clock by what happens.  Once the noon bells go off, the lights dim, TV goes on, and everyone relaxes to eat lunch at his/her desk until 1PM.  Then the TV turns off, lights come back on, and everyone scoots in close to their desks to return to work.  I was looking forward to this hour long break all morning since it afforded me an entire hour of un-interrupted reading. 

…..and done!  I’m completely caught up and could probably ramble on about something else, but I’ll stop here for now.