Merry Kurisumasu!

Happy holidays everyone! It's hard to believe that it's actually Christmas Day. It's been a busy month as I'm sure it has for everyone. The last couple weeks have been a blur, just waiting for a little holiday break. Christmas is not as widely celebrated here so we don't have a holiday on Christmas Day, but some people do buy gifts and toys for their kids and decorate their houses with lights and some even with Christmas trees. New Year's is the big event in Japan and everything shuts down from January 1-3. On New Year's eve, people visit temples to welcome in and literally ring in the new year by praying and ringing the bell at the temple.

In any case, our fellow foreigner neighbors invited us over for a Christmas party this weekend. They managed to buy a turkey (from the US military base in Sasebo) and used the bbq grill to cook it. It was such a treat!



We also got invited to a Christmas party for kids in another friend's town. Anna is also a JET teacher from the US and she organized a party for her schools in her town, Minamibashi. It was crazy to be surrounded by so many excited kids, but it was such a good time. We had a scavenger hunt and other games, and the local mothers made dinner for us. We also dressed up for a traditional Japanese dance, and one of us also dressed up as Santa and got mobbed by all the kids. It was pretty fantastic.





We're excited for the holiday break next week. Although it's winter break for students, us teachers still have to show up in the office this week. I suppose it will give me time to catch up on some things.



Well, happy holidays everyone! I will add more pics and news soon again!

Bright leaves, big city

It's gotten chilly here and the biggest difference is that the houses are not heated and there's much insulation. I miss those old steaming radiators! We're managing to keep warm with our A/C that pumps out hot air and lots of blankets, but I've been told by locals that the best thing is either a dambo (small gas stove heaters) or a kotatsu (a table with a heater inside that you cover with a quilt and cover yourself with). The school offices have dambos and it keeps things pretty toasty with a lingering smell of gas, but most of the classrooms aren't heated and the junior high and high school girls still have to wear skirts through the winter and aren't allowed to wear tights! My buddy working at one of the high schools said that in an assignment he gave out asking students what they'd like to change about their school, the girls answered that they'd like to be able to wear tights or pants!


Despite the chillyness, we've been able to see lots of pretty fall leaves in all kinds of bright colors, red, yellow, green, orange. I really like the Japanese maple tree leaves. While my father was visiting we got to travel around and see new sites. We went to a different part of Kyushu called Saga. It's north of us and it's famous for ceramics art which my dad is involved with.

We stayed overnight in a hostel in the mountains and then head off for the town of Arita. Driving around to new places was a whole other adventure too. None of the highways or roads go straight so there's no north, south, east, west. It's a nightmare! We were all at a loss looking at signs and maps, but we managed to get where we wanted to go.


In Arita, we met this random woman in the ceramics museum who ended up showing us around. She was a volunteer tour guide and had lived in Canada and spoke English. I guess she was excited to practice her English and touring skills with us. She'd grown up in the town and was pretty proud of it so we had a great tour.



We went to this spot where they dug special rocks to make the white ceramic color that Arita invented and is famous for. Their ceramics is a smooth, classic style. We also saw this amazing 1,000 year old tree in the middle of town. They were having a ceramics arts fair that weekend so there were lots of visitors and festivities.


Then we drove up to Karatsu where they have a whole different style of ceramics. It's more earthy and rough and experimental. Though we didn't have too much time to spend there, it was also a beautiful town. We visited the castle there and the view at the top was amazing. Completely surrounded by sea and islands. We watched the sun set and then had a fun dinner with sake in town. The roads back home were once again an adventure, but we got home safe and sound!

Wild turkey

Well, we did it! There wasn't quite a turkey but we had all the fixings. My two fellow American JET teachers and our Brit buddy Alex came over and we had a proper Thanksgiving dinner. The guys drank some Wild Turkey with my dad in honor of the day and we had stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied yams with marshmallows, green beans with bacon, salad, and bbq-ed chicken. Good stuff!

The guys did most of the work which was very impressive! We had a quite a feast and had a good time chatting and playing a few rounds of UNO. I think it was my dad's first time playing and it was pretty funny because we all made our own original cards with various consequences. Hee!

It was nice to have some comfort food and good company. Thanks Greg and Nathan for coming all the way over! Hope everyone had a great holiday.

What's a turkey?

Hope everyone had a lovely thanksgiving! We are delaying ours a bit and having some friends over tomorrow for a dinner. Unfortunately though I've heard there are places to buy a turkey, no one around here (including me) has ovens so it would be way too hard to cook one. Sniff sniff. But we we still have a little dinner with a possible BBQ and my mom sent me Stove Top stuffing (thanks mom)!

Ok, I wrote that and then got busy doing stuff so now I will report that Thanksgiving dinner was a success! My dad came to visit me for the last couple weeks so we've been busy hopping around Kyushu trying to see as much as possible. I will post new pics and bloggies soon...!

Pounding it out

This weekend, the elementary schools celebrated Culture Day (Bunka Sai) by making mochi. Mochi is a rice cake made from soft rice that's pounded down into a sticky cake. Nowadays, people have mochi makers but this was a special occasion so we were able to watch the traditional process. They used wood burning pots to cook the rice and then the soft, hot rice is transferred to a big clay pot where it's pounded with heavy wooden hammers.



The hammering is pretty intense! Parents kept asking Scott and I to try it and I finally nudged Scott into doing it. He had fun but slightly broke one of the hammers! Everyone was breaking them though so it was no biggie.



The kids and their parents made a variety of mochi. Some were unfilled and colored pink and eaten with nori (dried seaweed) and soy sauce, some were filled with sweet red beans, and even filled with chocolate! The chocolate was a new treat and was quite delightful with the warm mochi melting the chocolate in the center. In the end though, the mochi making turned into a flour throwing contest. Kids were covering each other's faces with flour and Scott and I were victims as well. No one was safe! This kid in the photo probably got it the worst though. Ha!

More halloween treats

I did some Halloween games and such with the kids to give them a little taste of what Halloween is like at home. I wish I could've arranged a party or some trick or treating but I did my best. With the younger kids, I gave them their own pumpkins to draw and color. It was neat to see their ideas of spooky or funny faces. Some made pumpkins that were crying or winking or they put faces on the moon. Adorable! I also had them make ghost noises and I guess in Japan, ghosts sound more like old ladies or someone with a bad cold that's lost their voice. Who knew!

Blue skies

Sometimes we have these amazingly beautiful skies I think that the sky must be bigger here in our town. The fall has brought some chilly winds but with it some lovely clear skies and gorgeous clouds. We also have fields of beautiful flowers around. I just had to take a moment to share them.

Happy Halloween!

In the spirit of Halloween, we present to you... (Scott painstakingly made the head out of paper mache himself. Er, this was before he got a job. Thank goodness he got a job!)

Let's go to the movies!

We finally made it out to the city for the movies the other day. We went to a Japanese United Artists theater and saw "Rogue Assassin" with Jet Li and Jason Statham. I think it's called "War" in the U.S. It pretty much had everything actiony packed into one movie... guns, martial arts, fast cars and bikes, scantily-clad women, ninjas, mafia guys... and who knew Devon Aoki spoke Japanese so well. The story was a little weak but we weren't expecting much so the ninjas made up for it.

It was a pretty pricey date, the tickets cost 1800 yen each (about $15) and we got a hot dog and popcorn which was pretty much the same price as at home. The coolest part was that they had free rental blankets! Brilliant!! I didn't see them until after the movie so I'm definitely trying it out next time.

Ethnic spicy

We saw these in our local 7-11 and were mesmerized but not curious enough to actually buy and eat them so instead, we took a picture. Pringles probably couldn’t get away with this flavor in America but it seems to work here. There was also a Tandori chicken flavor. Mmm?

Parading around

This weekend we went to a parade in the nearby town of Shimabara. I didn’t know there was a parade until I went to visit a Shorinji Kempo dojo there. They were practicing for the parade and told me about it. On a side note, I’m hoping to start practicing Shorinji Kempo again and this dojo has several of my students in it. There’s a big group of kids and some high level seniors and women. It seems like a good mix if they’ll have me.




Back to the parade, Scott and I met up with another JET teacher from Obama named Shane. He hails from Ireland and tells lots of great stories from his childhood there. We also bumped into some other JET people along the parade route.



None of us were quite sure what the parade was in celebration of, but we enjoyed it. It was quite a mix. There was traditional dancing by pretty ladies and men dressed in traditional outfits. Big floats that were lifted and twirled around in circles and one of a giant fish with dry ice spewing out.



They were also many costumes, mostly of samurai and people of that period, but also a crossdresser and women with their boobs and bottom stuffed with candy! Occasionally, certain groups would throw candy and mochi into the crowd and everyone would leap for it. One older woman fell trying to grab some candy and Scott tried to help her up but she thought he was trying to grab more candy so she fell again trying to grab it! At one point, Shane said, “It got a little like Somalia there!”



At the end of the parade, these men wearing funny masks started dancing and slightly harassed one of the girls I was with. He just aimed his crotch at her and started gyrating! It was funny, but also disturbing!

I hear that with it being harvest season, more festivals and events are to come. We’re enjoying them so far!

Harvest time

It's that time of year... the rice crops are ready! We've been hearing the plowing machines every morning this week, working hard. I've heard that some people still cut the crops by hand, but the field in front of our house was done by machine. We can't wait to taste the new rice from this crop. I took before and after shots of the field. It's kind of sad to see it empty now but we're also seeing the little frogs more clearly now which is fun. It's also neat to see the soil that is still kind of moist and cracked from being under water. We might be able to help plant the crops for next year. That would be really cool and just to watch will be an experience!

Pet project

So one night we looked up at our light and noticed the little cord moving around on its own. Then we saw that a spider decided to make its home on it. We watched it make a web and nestle into its new home. Then the other night, it caught its first meal. We think it was sucking the life out of a bug but it was hard to tell. Anyway, enjoy this fascinating video of our new pet.

Tears of a clown

Speaking of competitiveness and sportyness, I made some kids cry today! I was having a pretty good day teaching, I even played dodgeball at recess. Then in 3rd grade, we played some games in order to learn the alphabet. The first game was "telephone". I gave each team leader a letter and they would whisper it down the row of their team and the front person would write it on the board. All was well until some of them started yelling at each other when someone got it wrong. One boy started crying from the pressure not knowing what to write. Another girl cried because she got it wrong. It was awful! Luckily they were ok after a few moments and some distraction. Peer pressure is different here but pretty intense. The teacher told me they don't play games well because they all start arguing and yelling at each other. I'll have to keep that in mind for this class.



I also had my first Japanese physical exam last week. Apparently it's mandatory for all teachers. The exam was well organized and efficient with stations for each part. Urine, blood, blood pressure, eye, ear, chest xray, heart rate, etc. At one point I had to lie down and have these clamps on my ankles and wrists and a heart monitor thing on my chest. That felt a little scary. But it was all done in less than an hour.

The doctor at the end of the exam also consulted me in English which was reassuring. He told me all was well. (I still have to fill these bizarre plastic containers with a lovely stool sample though!)

On to more exciting news... Scott got a job! Our neighbor Kevin suggested they go together to this welding shop in our neighborhood and see if they have any jobs. They walked in and talked to the boss who happened to know my supervisor and whose daughter is a teacher and knows many JET teachers. He also said they had two Brazilians working there at one point but he was surprised to meet an American welder in our small town. Scott started today. He's so excited to be working and I'm so proud and happy for him. Apparently they make parts for Mitsubishi and Hyundai tanker ships that get sent to Korea. Maybe we can get discounts for Mitsubishi stuff! Yeh Scott!

And now presenting...

Let's get physical

This weekend my elementary schools had “Sports Day”. They had been rehearsing for it for weeks, marching, learning their town’s traditional dance, practicing cheers, and training for the big relay race. I was invited to 4 schools’ events so Scott and I hopped around to schools all day.



The kids and staff were very welcoming and happy to see us which was nice. Some schools even gave us V.I.P. seats and some tea. We felt like celebs at the Kentucky Derby or something!



On Sports Day, the whole community comes together to celebrate. People set up tatami mats and tents and bring a picnic lunch. Family members are also invited to join in some events. Grandparents joined their grandkids in a game where they toss bean bags into a basket, and parents joined their kids in an obstacle course race. Most of the time, parents have such obligations for work that they don’t get much family time together. On Sports Day though, families get to spend the whole day together playing games and having fun.



I was asked if the U.S. has an equivalent to Sports Day. I don’t think we really do. There are picnics and festivals but not any so organized where the whole community comes together. It’s nice to experience that kind of close knit environment here in Kunimi.



Some of the events that stood out were one where one kid rides on top of 4 others and they fight to take off each other’s hats. It was kind of like that game “chicken” that you play in a pool only this was on solid ground so it was kind of frightening to watch kids teetering off shoulders and almost falling off. It was super fun to watch though! Each school also performed a traditional Japanese dance that was specific to their town. It was cool to see this type of dancing being carried down to a new generation.



The relay races were the big finale. The kids had teams of 1st-6th graders, first all boys, then all girls. Then the PTA and staff member raced against each other. It was pretty funny watching adults racing around a tiny track and running their hearts out. I was just glad they didn’t ask me to run! They also had the PTA relay race while balancing a tennis ball on a racket. That was great. One guy even tripped and fell dramatically into the finish line!

It rained a little in the morning but otherwise it was a nice, cool day. We had a blast at our first Sports Day. Scott also got to see my students and staff which was nice. We got to know more people and Scott even got to practice Spanish with one teacher who lived in Venezuela for 3 years. He was so happy to have someone understand him!

Under a full moon

Last week, the moon was bright and full, so bright it lit up the sky at night. I believe it was a harvest moon and officially marked the beginning of fall. We still had some warm days but it's finally cooling down a bit.

Along with the moon, we had a resurgence of creepy creatures. Spiders, cockroaches, and snakes! Scott bravely caught a baby snake and threw it in our trash bin. That was a lovely surprise when I got home. We ended up going next door to our neighbor, an older gentleman who's lived here most of his life, to ask what we should do. You are all now sworn to secrecy as I reveal how to get "rid" of snakes in our town. Apparently the best thing to do is to toss it in the river and hope it gets whisked away. Of course, this should all be done late at night when no one's watching. I guess it worked for now. Sadly I didn't take a picture of the snake in the trash bin because I was freaked out that it would jump out and wrap around my neck or do something horrible like that.

Random video of the day

Why Scott's back hurt on Tuesday morning... (this is so entertaining to us for some reason!)

Green tea party

We had a pretty busy weekend. On Sunday night, we were invited to a tea ceremony at a tea house one town over in Ariake. Every year they invite English teachers from the area to the ceremony. It was a beautiful garden with sculpted trees and soft, finely cut grass. I went with Scott and two other teachers, Anna from Ohio and our Brit friend Alex. We weren’t quite sure what to expect as it was our first time to a formal tea ceremony.



The women from the tea house were all dressed in beautiful kimonos. They were all so friendly, especially the older ones. One older lady said I was a very pretty person and then slapped Scott on the back and said “Nice job!” in Japanese. It was so funny! We were relieved that we didn’t have to feel so uptight and that they were so welcoming to us. The mayor of Shimabara also attended and was super friendly. He said in English to us, “Good evening. Welcome!” and then in Japanese said, “And that’s all the English I know.” Too funny!



There was a table set up in the front where you sit and are served a Japanese cake (sweet red beans wrapped in mochi) and tea. It was a little nerve wracking being up there and unsure of which way to turn the cup and how many times and all, especially when the local news was filming it all! But it was a great experience and the tea was nice. They whisk it so that the top turns into a soft foam. We also got interviewed by several local newspapers and the TV station. One guy kept trying to get me to say that the tea tasted like medicine! There were a lot of characters there.



After the tea, we headed back to Kunimi. 9/23 is Kunimi Day in the town because the name Kunimi corresponds to the numbers, 9,2, and 3. We got back just in time for the fireworks show and then walked through some booths at the festival. I bumped into a lot of students who greeted me with shock, horror, and giddiness. Some of my junior high students were kind enough to take a pic with me (though I’m not sure if those boys in the back are my students or not. Hooligans!).



The next day I had a holiday so we all ended up riding our bikes around town. We found this cool Samurai house/garden right around the corner from my house. We took the 200 yen tour by this older gentleman who spoke a few words of English. The grounds have been there for over 400 years. The garden was immaculate and had this steps to the top where you can get a clear view of the town, the ocean and the mountains. Those Samurai sure knew how to live. We plan to go back in the spring when the cherry blossoms are in full display.



The rest of the day we spent riding bikes and playing in the school yard behind my house. It was a fun day despite all the darned bug bites! Of course, the next day at school everyone said they saw me riding bikes around town and read in the paper that I went to a tea ceremony. But the day ended well with more autographs!

the perfect (non) storm

Well last week's impending typhoon was a bust. Despite all the warnings (there was even a truck w/ a loud speaker going around town warning about the storm), the storm passed by us and didn't end up hitting. Most people would be relieved but Scott not having seen a typhoon was pretty upset. We did get to see a really cool sunset instead. My mom says it's called "yuuyake" when the sky is stained with the sunset. It really did seem stained or painted. I'd never seen the sky that way before.



Despite the disappointment, Scott was cheered up because he finally got his own bike. We'd been searching around and talking to a lot of older Japanese men with bike shops and couldn't find anything. Finally we went by a shop near our house in the rain and the man said he didn't have anything new to sell but Scott pointed out an old slightly rusted bike and the man said if it worked, we could take it for free! I don't know if I've ever seen Scott so happy. It was adorable. He stopped this week to give the man some cakes and a drawing of the bike with the word "arigato" on it. Happy ending!



After the weekend, I kind of had a rough week of classes. I think I just got a bit tired out. I finally got through my round of introductions to all 6 of my elementary schools though so I'm happy. Hopefully things will start to smooth out now that I kind of know what to expect.

The elementary schools vary in size quite a bit. My smallest school has 28 students total from 1st to 6th grade. The largest has close to 40 students in each class. The lessons therefore have to be flexible even if I'm teaching the same thing at each school. It does make it fun but also requires a lot of energy and planning. I will continue to do my best though! The kids are so cute and energetic that I can't let them down.




The schools are also in various locations. Some are in the mountains, some among fields of rice and corn, others near the ocean. This one school had an amazing view of the ocean and Nagasaki city so I had to take a picture.



My junior high classes are coming along too. It's a totally different environment and I'm not sure what they like yet. This week I tried to make a skit more fun by making "gaijin" masks (the lesson was about giving directions to tourists/foreigners) but I think it might have made them more embarrassed. Most of them weren't too into using them. But it still got a laugh. The teacher liked the idea at least!