a quick update

hello!

things have been super hectic here recently: friends leaving, parties, new friends arriving and most importantly, my sister is visiting! she leaves tomorrow though... =(

i will get a real update out soon, before i go to hiroshima next week to check things out!

until then, some photos from the past wee while...

peace.

pilgrimage

i survived the weekend. i had no doubt about it. it's just difficult sometimes.

i was productive and today i had fun and continued the exploration, continued the pilgrimage.

let's all find ourselves, ok?

peace.

lazy

i'm feeling particularly lazy this weekend. no inclination whatsoever to do anything...

maybe it's the heat, maybe work has finally made me realise how unfit and tired i am?

whatever it is, i plan on doing very little this weekend, even though it's a long one... (gotta love japan's massive amount of national holidays, especially a week before breaking off for summer vacation!)

we'll see though, i'm pretty famous for big sweepy statements that don't get followed...

asides for the tired feeling it's an anniversary this weekend and it's the first time i've had it and not been in a place i really "know"... i'll survive though, we're built tough enough in my family.

yesterday saw the first of the alts in my area leave which was a little sad. sad because he was a genuinely nice guy and also because he's the first: he marks the beginning of the end for the rest of them...

there'll be a new batch flocking in soon enough but the folk i've met here are pretty amazing so it'll be tough to see them go...

we went out for dinner and then ice cream. there was beer too. =) a good wee send off i think!

i've collected eight mosquito bites in the last few days: one of the little buggers has managed to get into my apartment which isn't fun.

i smooshed a whopper of one last night so hopefully that was the chap using me as an all you can eat buffet... there's one on the sole of my foot (a bite that is, not a mosquito) which is particularly annoying... oh well.

i really should be cleaning my apartment because it's a bit of a tip: this last week has been pretty hectic and when i've not been bopping about town or working i've been waging war on the heat. my strategy is: if i'm asleep i don't feel the heat...

there have been more than a fair few naps this week...

i got a wee care package from my best friend this week which was ace: chewy sweeties from home, a gossip magazine because the confessional misery of "real life stories" makes me smile and cringe simultaneously, the local paper from my uni town ('mon the Tele) and a lovely paperchase card. fair made me smile so it did.

i'm saving the sweets for as long as possible but I've got a feeling i may be indulging over the weekend!


anyways: my apartment calls... more when i'm not being oppressed by the heat.

peace.

ps. happy birthday to my best friend (see "care package" above) hope you have a great day today Amy! =) x

tanabata

this weekend was the tanabata festival: you make wish trees and then tie your wishes to them in the hope that they'll be granted! the trees are super pretty. =)

i'd write more but this is the first hot sunny, not humid, day that we've had in forever. i'm going to go enjoy it. once i've done the laundry...


peace.

i am too hot to blog...

let a summer of moaning about the heat commence.

it's hot.

today there was no rain. which was nice. i got laundry done. go me.


but it was hot. and teaching in the heat isn't fun.

the classes were of the friday standard i've come to expect.

i was sweaty.

i played a colour touch game with a couple of the classes. they insisted on clinging to me when it was time to touch blue.

i sweated even more (but not enough to become child-repellent)


yeah. today was hot.

i want to go to bed because i'm tired. but it's too hot.


crap.

peace.

cheery.

hello.

i'm cheery today, not entirely sure why. i'm enjoying it.

today i had some really good classes, ate lunch with what i can only think to describe as an exchange student who spoke practically perfect english. he's half chinese, half japanese and speaks english with an american accent - this kid is either gonna be super messed up or could possibly take over the world. that decision is up to him... he has promised to write me a letter (very cool) and i asked him to take questions from the class - he was a little embarrassed to translate some of them, i think they were asking naughty questions... i told him not to worry. cool kid.

one of my teachers gave me kanji worksheets today - i was amazed that i actually knew a couple! so was he... he tried to hide his utter disbelief but i caught him... it's really sweet and kind of the teachers i work with to take such an active interest in my progress. i have to up my game and work harder, so as not to disappoint them! they're appreciating the fact that i'm gently rambling away in the background and they are very graciously humouring me when it comes to me occasionally just blurting something out in japanese and then smiling excitedly. i am five years old.

yesterday, one of my mountain school teachers told me that the whole school (five of them) look forward to me coming because i "make english time fun time!" i'm glad. because i love going there. we had typhoon-type weather at the start of this week but thankfully after a rocky night nothing really came of it: i was told to wait for a phone call before going to school... i was so glad that the schools here weren't closed: tuesday is my favourite day of the week and i would've been quite disappointed if i didn't get to go...

also, last night, i went to the adult eikaiwa (english conversation class) for the first time last night and met the folks there. they were all really nice and enthusiastic and welcoming. looking forward to hopefully taking over the class in the summer. it'd be nice and hopefully it'll help with my japanese...

i feel like i'm rambling a little here, just wandering from thought to thought. but you can't stop me, so i'll continue.

today i had an electrician come over and check the apartment. he also fixed my bathroom fan which hasn't worked since i got here. to be honest, i've just tested it and it seems to be pretty redundant... it barely does anything. still, it'll hopefully help in the constant war i'm waging on damp and mould. =) any ally is welcome. i made the electrician a coffee (the universal way of making friends) and we had a stilted japanese/english conversation. i love the look on peoples faces when i tell them i'm not from america. we talked about the weather, about schools and i think he talked about electricity for a bit (i picked out the word for electricity amongst the rapid-fire japanese) i smiled and nodded a lot. it was lovely. i think i made a friend.

anyways, i think i've recapped enough for now. gotta go get bits and pieces sorted now. might buy a fan today. starting to wilt a little in the heat now...

peace.

ps. my friend Mune made a rather awesome video of the rice planting i went to a couple of weeks ago. here's a link to it: linkety-link-link. even if you've already watched it, you should watch it again. it's very good. =)

pps. i've been playing about with the layout of the blog. expect it to change a lot until i find something i like. apologies.

rainy day...

hello.

just a short update today. no reason really.

i'm on a fidgety mood today, maybe because the weather is pretty rubbish and i can't do too much. i'm a trapped animal right now. my house is clean and most of my prep-work and paperwork is done for next week. so, what to do now?

last night i went to a friends for home-made sushi which was pretty cool. i tried goya for the first time (it's an okinawan vegetable, translated as bitter melon) and it was ok: looked like a knobbly cucumber and tasted the way a hedgerow smells after you've cut it. doesn't sound to appetising but i promised to try everything that i could so i went for it. not as bad as expected but not something i could eat huge amounts of...

i had a board of education observation randomly sprung on me during the week and it went well! when i say sprung on me, i really mean it. i was about halfway through my lesson (it was at one of my mountain schools where i'm pretty much told "the topic today is X. go get em tiger!") and these official looking folk wandered into the class. rather proud of the fact i took it in my stride and just went with it. the BOE officials looked happy enough and one of the teachers told me they enjoyed the lesson so all is good in the mountains it would seem.

i don't know if i'd have preferred a little notice or if this way was better? this way, i didn't have the time to get nervous and really, until it was over, i didn't have much of a clue what was actually happening. i guess that made it easier just to get on with my lesson as usual, not having to worry about what was happening or how i was being evaluated/judged. i just hope the positive, enthusiastic comments were genuine and that the BOE folk were indeed happy with me...

on friday one of my usual teachers was absent and i taught that class under the supervision of the head teacher.

in the schools here the "management structure" is: principal, vice-principal and head-teacher. my understanding of their roles is: principal deals with visitors to the school, vice-principal deals with the managerial running of the school and head teacher deals with kids and classes. only the head teacher teaches classes (at least at the schools i work in) while the other two are purely administrators.

the head teacher at this school is a good guy, he always has time for a quick chat with me which is nice because i still sometimes feel slightly displaced at that school. anyways, he was super impressed with the lesson i gave, he remarked that the kids at this particular school aren't as enthusiastic as some others (which is totally true) so he was impressed at the level of engagement and involvement that i managed to create. i didn't tell him that today was the first day that the classes at his school seemed to pay even the slightest bit of interest in what i was doing. i was too busy enjoying it and praying that it continues...

he was also curious about the nicknames i've given some of the kids. i explained that if a particular kid gets particularly involved in an activity, i tend to nickname them after that activity to (hopefully) inspire a little bit of camaraderie. in this class there was green! and monkey girl. not as mean as they sound, trust me. the kids who have nicknames respond well to them and i would certainly stop if they didn't seem to enjoy it...

at another of my schools, one of the kids couldn't quite grasp where i'm from and kept shouting "america!" when asked which country i come from. so now, when i teach his class, he is known as "americaaaa!" and he loves it. so does the teacher. i had lunch with his sister last week and she sidled up to me and elbowed me in the knee (she's a teeny tiny second grader) and in a really low voice said "americaaaa!" made me smile so it did.

so yeah, i really have nothing much else to say. guess i should go figure out how to waste the rest of today...

peace.

the day where i planted rice yo!

hello!

i did promise i'd be back with something resembling a post, rather than just the dirty cop-out that was the last one... i mean, seriously, i know that no-one was satisfied... least of all me. i've been trying to establish a routine and a factor of that routine is regular blog updates. i'm getting there, slowly it would seem. i'm ok with that.

life is for living, right?

well... today, i went rice planting! the event was arranged by the lovely mamy (i'm not sure if she runs the kobayashi international centre or if she's just heavily involved?) and hosted by the extremely welcoming and hospitable tommy (think "really difficult japanese name" say "tommy")

i picked up miki at 8am (on a sunday!) and we headed off to kobayashi to meet up with mamy and a couple of the alts who work there (jono and ellen).

we headed off into the countryside (of which there is an abundance around these parts) to meet up with everyone else. i estimate there was about 20 of us? anyways. a fun day was planned for us and thankfully, a fun day was had by all!

we started off with some cold ocha and then had a welcome circle (apparently these are wicked popular here) where we each introduced ourselves and said a little something about our hopes or expectations for today! i managed to butcher the japanese language sufficiently for everyone to smile (i think i introduced myself informally, which seemed to go over ok. when theres like 213489 different levels of formality based on the person you're talking to, you can expect to miss the mark now and then) gave the circle a hearty "ganbatte!" and we were on our way to the rice field.

it was big. like. a big rice field. with no rice in it. and a group of really clean people standing at the edge. nervously.

however, it should be noted that our field wasn't as big as the field next to it which had already been planted... small mercies, eh?

now, i think a few folk know this about me, maybe not... i'm slightly mysophobic and fairly OCD when it comes to my hands and their state of cleanliness... today was a challenge. asides from the massive cultural exchange and immersion, today was about facing a fear. i mean, c'mon, i've emigrated 5000 miles out of my comfort zone... what's a little dirt? O_o

the first plunge was the hardest. let me tell you that much.

we were all lined up in the field, pretty much knee high in muck and dirty brown water. there were twigs that felt like snakes. i hope they were twigs. there were these white spiders skating on the water. to be honest, i have no idea how i enjoyed myself so much today - i've just described what hell will be like for me...

we were given a planting demonstration and set to task. off we went, this little row of muddy workers, shoving three stems of rice into the murky water. it was systematic and routine and uniform which is probably what kept me sane through the most of it.

i was working between two older japanese people - i don't speak japanese and they don't speak english. we got on like a house on fire. my towel kept dunking into the water, i almost lost my balance (a lot) and i smiled through the whole thing. they became my friends. i know this because they made sure i got plenty of melon to munch on after lunch. there were knowing nods, we were rice field comrades and even though we couldn't tell each other, we really loved each other. i'd take a rice bomb for those folk.

after we were hosed down (i'm not kidding, two of the little kids who were there decided that rice planting was for losers, old folk and stupid foreigners who don't know better decided to frolic in the field, head to toe mud. it was awesome if you can stomach that sort of thing)  we headed back for entertainment and hard-earned food!

there was traditional samurai dancing (very cool) and we made mochi from scratch which was ace - you pound rice with hammers until it turns into a rubbery jelly, you wrap it around red bean paste and eat! delicious! i helped pound the rice for a bit (after tommy cautiously asked me not to hit him with the mallet - he was responsible for turning the rice as it gets mashed up)

we then had a massive lunch, like seriously these japanese folk can eat. there was easily enough food for three times the amount of people. we ate and we ate. and we ate. then, it was dessert. we had ice cream with home made mulberry preserve, ice cream with green plum jam and two different kinds of melon.

melons, as i've told a few folk, are super expensive here so i was a bit shocked to see so much melon offered up to us. i was plied with the stuff by my comrades and forced, yes forced, to eat three slices. i asked a few of my friends and we think there was about £100 worth of melon on the table. easily.

so, full and tired and still a little muddy round the edges, we headed for home (after the goodbye circle - see "welcome circle" above and do it in reverse. i may have butchered the japanese language earlier but this time i gutted it and made sure it was dead. they still smiled. my work there was done)

we were treated to some omiyage (gifts/souvenirs) of the day: rice which had been harvested from the field we'd just re-planted, some flower bulbs (which i gave to miki to give to her father as i don't have a garden), mochi we had made and a map/pamphlet thing of the local area which is now proudly on my wall. i feel very lucky. very lucky indeed.

now, i'm tired and sunburnt (i covered everywhere but my legs in sunblock... i'm from scotland, we share a latitude with russia, this sunshine all the time thing is new to me but i'm learning) and ready for bed.

a good day.

peace.

photos of the day.

proof that i got my hands dirty.

i helped make that happen.

obasan (old lady) hands. they're mine, but its amazing what hard work will do.

samurai dancing. our host, tommy, is on the right.

so cool.

mochi making. the photographer guy lived in nyc for years and was really lovely.

mochi all stuffed with bean paste and ready for us to devour.

miki-chan pounding the mochi into submission.

enjoying the rice violence a little too much...

mamy-san turning her hands to rice violence.

pretty flowers.

lunch. oishii ne?

close-up lunch.

two different kinds of melon. talk about feasting like kings. tasted so good.

my spoils: a bag of rice which came from the field we just replanted, some of the mochi i made and a map of the area. i'm a very lucky boy.