Let's Adventuring!!!

Hello everyone, it's been about a week, or maybe a little over since I last posted. I wanted to let you all know that when classes start, I plan to get into a routine of posting about twice a week (or more when I feel especially inspired).

I have heard a couple mumblings about the fact that there are no dates stamped on the posts, and I'm working on it. I've been looking at the code that makes up the page and haven't figured it out yet, but if I can't, I may change the look of the blog in order to remedy the situation.

There is also an "archive" section on the right side of the page. If you want to look at an older post that I've made, you can look it up by month and the name of the blog.

At the bottom of each post, where it says the time that I posted, there is also a spot that says how many comments have been left. If you click on that, you can leave a comment yourself, if you so choose (and see what interesting things other people have written!).

If you have a google (gmail) or yahoo email service provider, please subscribe to the posts to be sure that you are notified when a new one comes out. You can do this by clicking on the "Posts RSS" tab at the top of the page.

For others that would like to subscribe, I am working on a way to get this to you as well. For now, please make sure that you all put the blog in your "Bookmarks" or "Favorites".

Thank you very much and if you have anymore questions or comments about the workings of the blog, or even about things that you would like me to comment on, please let me know.

Thank you,
Luke

For your viewing pleasure, I have created a gift for all of you to share. Please enjoy.

For those of you who haven't heard, you will be much surprised to learn that I am on the Village Hall Baseball Team. I was practically forced into it. One of the first things that my supervisor asked me when I got to Japan was, "Do you like Baseball?"- this is all in Japanese by the way. My supervisor doesn't speak a word of English.- I just responded... "ummm... I played it sometimes for fun in elementary school..." And then she informed me that I would be part of the team, just give her a few days to get it set up. Ecstatic I was... not.

I admit that being part of the baseball team is a good way to get involved in the community and to get to know people, but me... in sports? The Japanese people are obsessed with hobbies. Everyday someone asks what my hobby is, and usually they want to answer in some form of a sport. I tell them I was in Cross Country in High School, and it usually gets them off my back without needing to participate in another sport.

So, this last Tuesday was supposed to be my first practice. We got rained out... darn. There are also practices on Thursdays, so when nobody said anything all day, I thought maybe they forgot, and I got a little excited. Then I got a phone call that said someone would pick me up soon. My anxiety rose.

I got there and I was lent a glove and we started playing catch and I met a few of them and had the hobby conversation a few times. I caught the first throw. I threw back and the guy caught mine. Not too bad, I thought. Then they told me to go to second base, and my anxiety rose once again... it's showtime.

Then everybody else got in their positions and stood around while the pitcher threw some poorly placed throws to the batter. I realized that there were not enough for two teams, so we just switched out batting. I eventually batted and hit a few. In the field we would just dink around and talk about other stuff, and sometimes hobbies again. And then we were done. And then people asked if I like to drink. They said they like to drink after practice sometimes- not tonight, but probably next time.

Then it dawned on me. It wasn't so bad. I kind of liked being on the team. This wasn't high-school-kill-yourself-and-still-play-the-bench Sports, this was kind of fun! It didn't occur to me that in other countries, people actually have fun during sports instead of killing themselves to be the best. I will continue going to practice.

Changing the subject and moving on, My first day at the Elementary School was on Friday and so I met some of the Teachers and took a tour of the school. Oh, and I've had a request or two to tell more about my experiences teaching the kids, but I just wanted to let everyone know that while the Japanese have year round school, they do have some breaks, and right now is one of them. They will return on the 26th of August to classes, I think.

Continuing with the physical exertion theme, yesterday was quite an accomplishment for me. As it was my day off, I felt I had a few errands to run, and since I only have a bicycle, I readied myself for the task. I needed to buy some track pants and some slacks, both for school. The mall where I wanted to buy them was somewhere around 9.5 miles from where I live, or so I was told. I biked it... and survived! I biked back... and became the king of the world! Look out Japan, if I can bike 19 miles in a day just to get some pants, then I can survive learning your ridiculously difficult language, eat your smelliest "Nato", eat your octopus when served, and fight of a raid of your ninjas all without a tear or stain on my "Yukata." Your samurai are no match for my "Genki."

I'll admit, though, that it was a little difficult trying to figure out my pants-size in centimeters... but I did it! "Yata!!!" Also, I bought my first Manga today (a japanese-type comic book). I am determined to be able to read it from beginning to end. I think- and hope!- that it will help my Japanese ability tremendously.

In conclusion, here is a picture of a silly shirt that I bought by the silly Japanese who don't understand English.



P.S. I've dropped two or three belt-holes since moving to Japan. I'm feeling healthy as an ox... a healthy ox, anyway.

Yesterday I went with two American guys and a Japanese girl to the Sendai Tanabata Festival. Sendai has the most famous Tanabata festival in the country. Last night was only fireworks (hanabi- which means "fire flower"). I say ONLY fireworks like it was no big deal, but the thing is... when the Japanese do fireworks, the DO FIREWORKS! They had about 15,000 fireworks last night and it lasted hours, and they were GOOD! I noticed right in the middle of watching it that their slow-time fireworks were like our finales in the US. Crazy.

Evidently there are many reasons for this festival and many explanations of what it represents. There is one that I find most interesting, though I have no idea if it is most accurate. By the way, the actual festival itself is supposed to be in the 7th day of the 7th month each year, so the festival is still going on for the next few nights in Sendai.

Anyway, the story I like is this... There was once a girl who used to make cloth on the riverbank. Her father loved the cloth and so she kept working hard everyday to make more and more of it. However, she became sad because with all this time spent working on the cloth, she never had the time to meet her true love.

Seeing that she was upset, her father allowed her some extra time and quickly she met a man who raised cows on the other side of the river. They fell in love and got married. Soon, though, the husband stopped taking care of the cows and they wandered all over heaven. The girl lost interest in making the fine cloth. The father became angry. He banished them from seeing each other.

Eventually seeing that this made the girl very upset, the father took mercy on her and allowed the two to meet once a year on the 7th day of the 7th month. However, when the two first tried to meet up, they discovered there was no bridge, so a bunch of magpies created one for them, and they make a new one for them every year.

The river in this story is supposed to be the milky way, and the man and woman are two stars that are only on the same side of it once a year.

On a different note, yesterday one of the Japanese Teachers of English at my school informed me that today is the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. I feel a little awkward today, but I think that she must be the only person in my prefecture who even realizes it. The only reason that she even brought it up was because I was helping a student who was working on a speech for a recitation contest and it related to the bombing... actually she was less informing me about it than the student.

I don't know what I was expecting today... maybe the stink-eye for the whole day and then everyone wake up the next day and forget, or maybe hold a grudge because they realized that they had forgotten to hate Americans or something... In any case, they were just wild day-dreams that things would go awfully awry. People still like me, or at least seem to. It probably helps that I brought a bunch of American candy today- Starburst, Jolly Ranchers, and Red and Black Twizzlers. I heard that the Japanese hate licorice... I brought it as payback for nato, a nasty bean paste for those who are unaware. Anyway, they were all like, WOW, and I could see them wanting to spit it out... but I was able to take advantage of the Japanese sense of manners. They ate not just the first bite, but the whole piece that they had taken.

Oh, and while they liked the Jolly Ranchers and Starburst and gave a nice relief from the taste of licorice... they were practically crying from how sour they were. The Japanese have a hard time with spicy and sour things.

This is fun.

I did my first karaoke in Tokyo. It's a lot of fun. I walked around the entertainment district, Shinjuku. It's bright. I took the bullet train, or shinkansen, to meet my predecessor and supervisor in Sendai. They are great.

I was taken home. I love my home. It is a good size, layout and feel. I don't wear shoes in my apartment. There is a sink on the top of the toilet where the lid usually goes to the back of it. It even has a warmed seat for the winter. I have a Japanese style bathroom and it even has a shower. The apartment has sliding doors to the bedroom, and I even have a real bed. I feel very lucky. Most people don't get a real bed on this program, and I don't think they get a place as big as mine, and definitely not for free, like mine is.

The people of my new home and village are very kind. They are very interested to meet me. I have met the mayor and the heads of the schools and am already into my second day of work at the Junior High, although classes don't start until August 20-something. They have year round school, but there is a short summer break. This is good, because it gives me a short chance to learn a little bit about what I should be doing around here.

I still don't have a phone, but I will get an iphone as soon as a get my alien registration card. I get internet in my apartment tomorrow, which makes me ecstatic. Most of the time it takes about a month, but one of the elementary school teachers worked some magic. Right now I am using my school computer to write this post. There are mountains very near to Ohira village. They are actually in the next town, but considering that I biked two towns over the first night I received my bike (two nights ago), that is not quite so far.

Yesterday they took my photograph so that they could put me in the newspaper, I think. Most people hardly speak any English, but I am discovering that my Japanese is also much better than I previously thought. I understand more than I am able to convey, but I think even that is coming quick. I am trying to remember how to read and especially how to write. The kanji characters are what I have forgotten the most.

People are also very excited to meet Lindsey, my wife, when she arrives on the 18th of August. I guess the Junior High teachers are throwing me/us a welcome party on the 19th of August. I keep having/getting to do all these self introductions that are all in Japanese, and always in my suit, which is ridiculously hot this time of year. Lindsey will be needing to learn to do this same type of thing when she arrives and again, all in Japanese, and also in her suit. I suppose I'll probably have to wear mine as well when I bring her around for this.

Already I've been helping a couple of students with an English recitation contest that they are preparing for. I think they appreciate my comments, but seem very shy... so do all of them. I suppose it is like using Spanish in the States. Practically everyone studies it, but is afraid to use it.

I have a video of my journey and some of the things that I have been seeing and plan to put it up soon, but I must wait until I have the internet in my apartment, and then also edit it before I put it up. So, hopefully before another week has elapsed, you'll be able to experience just a little of what I've been doing.

Take care,
Luke

I arrive and we all make it through customs, get our baggage, walk through lines where we stow it off again for our time in Tokyo and ultimately until we get to our new homes. This we do very quickly even at a leisurely pace. We take about an hour long bus ride from the airport to Shinjuku and check into our hotel rooms. As one person put it, "They're swank!" They really are. I've now utilized my first bellhop and bedet (though I promise, not at the same time!).

I walked to a post office and used an ATM so that I'd have a bit of cash on my person and with one of my roommates decided to get a bite to eat near the hotel and met a couple of guys in our group from Denver in a noodle restaurant. I got a spicy pork noodle bowl of some sort and a hard-boiled-ish type of egg with a brown "white" and a pinkish-orange yolk. They were both great. Outside the lights were great as we walked around. Everything's great.

Except now... it's 3:00 a.m. here and I can't sleep even though I went to sleep at 9:00. Se la vie. I listen to David Bowie sing such songs as "Life on Mars", "Space Oddity" and "Heroes" directly into my psyche which parellels the otherworldy feeling that I- and I'm sure many others- are now beginning to experience as we begin to grasp what we have gotten ourselves into.

In any event, I am here. I am safe. I have taken the first steps in what I can only imagine will be...

I'll let the ellipse do the speaking. Thank you to everyone whose thoughts, words, prayers and deeds got me to this point. I will keep you all updated.

As the months, weeks, and days have ticked down I have had many goodbyes to say to my friends and family before the real adventure begins. Not all parts of the adventure are enjoyable, and the tears of farewell sting the worst. Those are the times where I wonder why I've ever had the dream of seeing the world and maybe it would be better if I just got a job close to family- the kind that just pays the bills, but isn't necessarily very rewarding- but then of course I wake up and realize that it's just a thought in passing.

The adventure is what I have dreamed about for so long, and while I would love to even bring those family and friends along for the trip, I realize even then that it's all part of the journey. The experience requires an unfortunate separation.

This morning is my last one for a while in the US. I have eaten a ceremonial cheeseburger and the next morning some pancakes, which will not be readily available upon my arrival in Japan. I only wish I had thought to bring a bottle of Red Hot so that I could make my own Buffalo Wings while there. I suppose I'll think of more things upon my arrival as well.

After a 13 hour flight, I will arrive in Narita Airport in Tokyo. It may be difficult for at least a week (if not longer) to correspond with anyone in the US, but I'll do what I can. Soon enough I'll have my wireless internet for my Skype and a cell phone that will be easy to use to make calls to the US. Also, I will have a US number that will forward to a local number in Japan to make it easier- and cheaper!- for people back home to call.

Farewell friends and family, I will see you soon enough and talk even sooner.

Luke