Sweet Potatoes

They're not quite the same here as at home. The flesh is more white, but the skin is still purplish. And they're not as sweet. But they are good and they are especially plentiful in this are. I can't remember what they're called in Japanese, though I've heard it at least a dozen times.

Last weekend, I heard a parade of people walking past my house. Tons of families with their 5-7 year old children in tow were walking toward the fields just down the street from me. Zuma was barking at them, so I went outside to shut him up and ended up waving at the kids that knew me (there are too many of them for me to know all of them yet). A few hours later, I saw them returning with blue drawstring bags full of sweet potatoes. I waved to a few of them again, then went inside. A few minutes later, Zuma started barking. A 6 year old boy was timidly trying to get past Zuma's defenses to deliver me a bag of potatoes. Too cute! I thanked him and his mom and they smiled and went on their way.

I still have about 10 servings of sweet potatoes left. I've boiled them, put them in salads and curries, mashed them and fried them. They're good, but they're a lot for one person. Fortunately, I rather love them as fried wedges with ketchup. Good snack food.

A Few Firsts

My First Japanese Pun! I came up with it completely on my own!

How does Zuma say "Hello"?                    .....Konnichihuahua!

Today marks the inaugural use of my heated table. It is wonderful! I'm sitting in a cold house with warm and toasty legs. It's basically a coffee table with a small heater below, and you can lift the top to put a blanket between the table cover and the heater, so that it keeps the warmth gathered around your legs. It's quite nice.

Someone described the seasons in Nishihara as going from Summer to Winter, and I can understand why. It got cold FAST! One day I'm jogging in my shorts and sweating from the intense humidity, and then two days later I'm pulling out the turtlenecks! I'm told our location next to the mountain makes this village particularly susceptible to cold winds and cold winters. What a bummer. I was rather looking forward to a nice, brisk fall.

And...I lied. There are only two firsts listed here. That's ok. It was mostly the pun that I wanted to brag about. You can be sure I will be listing more as I flex my pun-muscles in this new language.

Oh, Japan!

Even your parking garages blow my mind! When I went to the live music performance last week, I didn't expect the simple act of parking to be part of the entertainment! I can best describe this particular parking garage as a Car Vending Machine Building. You drive your car into this small garage, parking it square in the middle of this circular Metal Grate Thing. You get your ticket from the attendant and your car is literally lifted up into the building above, on this Metal Grate Thing. Then when you come back, you show your ticket, pay the fee, stand back behind the metal bars, and watch as your car is retrieved from one of the ten stories above, placed on on the circular platform, and rotated to face the exit.

I should have expected no less from the Land of Vending Machines. And maybe such garages exist back home, too, but this was the first I'd seen. Tomoko said these garages are common in Japan. I was gawking enough to thoroughly amuse my two Japanese companions. Oh, Japan!

A Birthday in Japan

Monday was a fairly normal day, and I didn't actively seek to do anything special. But a lot of people knew it was my birthday, so I got a few pleasant surprises from Sunday to Tuesday. These included:

• "Happy Birthday" karaoke
• A small cheesecake
• A bag of chocolate candy (advertised as my favorite food for all those Q&A sessions with students)
• Students sang happy birthday to me in class (a cheeky one guessed I was 55 years old)
• 3 gorgeous handmade birthday cards with origami decorations
• Bath salts
• A framed print of the four seasons in Japan
• A last minute invitation to go see a live performance of a band from Okinawa

It was kind of amazing to get all these little surprises. I've felt really happy and cheered by the people around me for the last few days, and I think this is the best way to spend one's birthday. Not to mention the emails, cards, packages, and facebook messages that poured in from home. I feel loved :D

Speech Contest Success!

Woo hoo! My junior high school second graders just took home first prize at the local speech contest! Among all the competitors, they were the only ones that everyone I talked to unanimously agreed should win first place. They blew away the competition! This is an extremely gratifying moment for me as a new teacher. Unfortunately, neither the 3rd or 1st graders placed at the competition, but I do not envy the judges' jobs: lots of groups were good, and after a few minutes, they all start to sound the same. At any rate, they all had fun, and now the 2nd graders will be practicing for the regional contest. Woot!

A Feel Good Moment

One of my elementary school students is hard of hearing, and actually has a translator who helps her in class. The translator speaks some English, and acts almost as a third teacher in that class. While I was reviewing next week's lesson plan with her, she told me that the deaf girl, Marina, is enjoying the class so far. I couldn't understand entirely, but it sounded like Marina was interacting with more girls in the class and generally having a good time. It was a really encouraging thing to hear :)

Rebeca's First Boyfriend

I'll bet that this title caught your attention. I kid you not, this is the title of one of the books in the fourth grade classroom (Rebeka no hajimete boifurendo). I can't read Japanese, though, so I can't tell you any more about the story, except that the few pictures in it all depict someone looking depressed or angry or crying. And the "boifurendo" has a pretty bad white boy's fro going on.

Kids can ask some strange questions. I got the strangest question today. It wasn't translated too clearly, but it amounted to something like, "What is your favorite clothing pattern?" As in stripes, plaid, leopard print or polka dots. Turns out the boy who asked the question is fond of leopard print.

And in an immature twist of Halloween vocabulary, the Haunted House became the Panty House the other night during my hectic kids' evening conversation class. Those kids will always remember the Panty House as part of Halloween tradition. Oh well.

Even more random: Zuma only seems to drink water while he's outside and only eat food when he's inside. Strange dog.

Now some good stuff! Yesterday was a fun and exciting day. In the morning I went to another kendo tournament - this one ended at early 1 pm, so I was back home by 2. I spent a lot of time entertaining a rambunctious and adorable two-year-old named Dai. I found out that his kid has an arm flab fettish. He would come up to me frequently just to pinch my arm fat. Sometimes, after being scolded by his mom  not to do that, he would try kissing the arm flab. Sometimes he grew bored of the arm flab and would shout "oppai!" with a huge smile and, while I was sitting, run at me with his hands out in front of him. "Oppai", by the way, means breasts. His mom then would say things like, "No! Dai, here, come play with Mommy's breasts. Leave Rebeca's alone!"

After the kendo tournament, I decided I had time to give Zuma a bath and maybe head to Yatsushiro city to see the much-talked-about Yatsushiro Fireworks. I thought it would only take about 1.5 hours to get there, and that I had plenty of gas. Turns out I sorely underestimated the number of people who would be at this thing. 1.5 hours turned into 2.5 hours and plenty of gas turned into just enough gas. I had a hard time finding a place to park, and eventually turned into a small lot about a 10 minute walk from the viewing area where it looked like other cars had parked. Completely unsure of myself, I asked if it would be ok for me to park there, how much it cost, and proceeded to take the last parking space.

The lot was for a small mechanics garage. There were people inside it having a small barbecue party. It took three of them to clarify what I was asking ("Where/Whom do I pay?" except I don't know the word for "pay") and after some embarrassment on both sides, the lady who helped translate invited me to come join their party after watching the fireworks. Well, after watching the fireworks, meeting a few other JETs and talking briefly with them, I took the group up on their offer.

The garage was a motorcycle garage, where several members of the group worked. Most of the men had motorcycles, or at least really liked them. They had a small mixed shiba dog named after a famous motorcyclist (I only caught "Roshi", which was her nickname). They were really nice, and offered me some coffee/tea (I got both handed to me) and sushi and mini hotdogs. Two of them spoke really good English. An unlikely pair they were: Ara is a college student who doesn't like English and Toshie is a middle-aged woman who did not study English in college but simply listens to English radio talk shows and reads some English books. Both of them spoke incredibly well considering their experience (neither had traveled to an English-speaking country) and they were much more willing to try to speak English than about 98% of Japanese people. So while I waited for the traffic out of the city to actually start moving before trying to drive, I made some new friends. We exchanged phone numbers and they may invite me to future barbecue events.

And now here are some pictures from yesterday's trip and this morning's walk with Zuma.

I took the scenic route to Yatsushiro. This was probably the most scenic part.

The route I took narrowed at some parts to become a one lane road.

A really pretty house I passed on the way.

A rather pretty sunset, which I took the time to take a picture of while I was stuck in traffic on the bridge.

Fireworks! A sea of people were seated on the grass along the river, many with blankets, shawls, sleeping bags and picnic dinners. There were plenty of food stands, as well.

Beautiful! There were several displays accompanied by music - creating an effect a little like the dancing fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. This one was to the tune of "Under the Sea"

The following pictures were all taken while I took Zuma for a walk. There are some really pretty houses and scenery within a 15 minute walk from my house, so I thought I'd showcase a few.

This is just around the corner from where I live.

Here I turned off the main road and went down a street into a neighborhood that I think has some really pretty houses.

This one seems to have solar panels!

Few houses have garages as we conceive them. This is a more commonly used car covering.

This is another popular garage style.

These are the windmills that are both a great landmark and fairly well-known in these parts.

The post office. Closed because it's Sunday.

The mailbox. Orange is the color of the Japan Post.

This is the main entrance to the "yakuba", or Village Office, where I work when I'm not at school.

The yakuba parking lot.

Another view of the yakuba.

The library/community center building is nearing completion, right next door to the yakuba.

My car, parked in the yakuba parking lot.

The street where I live. On the right is the recreational building where kendo practice takes place. On the left is my house.

The recreational building. On the right are the construction cones from the library building.

My house

Left view from my backyard.

Right view from my backyard, which is my neighbor's house (remember the neighbor who petted me?).

My backyard

Where I hang my clothes to dry. That's Zuma's towel.

My ingenious and resourceful method of keeping Zuma from escaping the backyard.

Zuma looking confused because he can't get out.

My mailbox. It happens to be right next to my front door, which means the mailman would have to go through my obstacle course to get to it. This makes the Zuma solution a temporary one for the weekends mostly.