ketchup

it seems that i'm always apologizing for not posting enough. i feel as if my avid readership (hi, mom) wants me to post more than i have been, and i probably should. every day something remarkable happens!

example: on december 6th, st. nicholas day, i decided to give my essay class a little lesson about the holiday. i ducked out at lunch to buy bags of chocolate, and during class told them about our tradition of putting candy in shoes. i then had a hilariously staged/awkward conversation with my sensei, saying things like "toooooooo baaad people in japan don't celebrate it. maybe st. nick stopped off, though!" it was so painfully obvious and funny!

oh, i should have mentioned: this class is held in a carpeted classroom, which means that everyone must take off their slippers before entering. there are shelves outside for the slippers, so before i headed into class (i always come after their quiz), i found 40 pairs of shoes innoculously waiting for me. i stuffed a chocolate in each shoe, and saw a rogue student wandering in the hallway. she saw me, looked puzzled, and i hissed, HIMITSU! (secret). she looked scared and scampered away. oh well!

anyways, after class, the students slid open the door to put their shoes back on. i was packing up my stuff, and almost dropped my computer due to the bloodcurdling screams from the hallway! the students went completely bonkers and just kept screaming and screaming and clutching their chocolates like they were winning lottery tickets. amidst tearful shrieks of "SANK YOU, SANK YOU, RIRIII!!!" i made my way back to the teacher's room with a very happy (and bemused) heart!

the next day, i was really dragging in the morning. i slogged into school, and opened up my slipper cubby, only to find this:

my shoes, filled with candies, and a note that says "4 U from St. Nick." i die.

that week was the week of my epic haircut, as well as a fun christmas party in miyazaki city culture plaza with a bunch of fellow jetters and japanesers. the next day, some fellow jetlings were kind enough to host a christmas luncheon at their home, which featured turkey, stuffing, irish stew (mm, wonder who made that?), pizza, and pecan pie, among other deliciosities.

last week was largely colored by my rehearsals with tanaka sensei, the music teacher, for the bonnenkai (year-forgetting drinking party). we were to sing "amazing grace," and "rudolph the red-nosed reindeer"....in japanese. i was slightly worried about this, then really worried when i found out that i would have to wear a "seckusi santa kurasu" outfit.

but last tuesday, i forgot my troubles by dancing the night away with tracey at the infamous hip-hop class. besides looking totally goofy in my bootleg dance gear, it was a blast! a butt blast. i was sore for days after!

and on wednesday, i was lucky enough to go to a christmas party at japanese mama's house, complete with a way-too-civilized japanese gift exchange, some bomb tomato soup packed with sausage, seafood, veggies, and various grains, and a round of karaoke. since there were only four of us (all women), it was super laid-back and pleasant!

thursday was a nobeoka international christmas party at the community center, which meant tons of homemade food, christmas games, lots of broken japanglish, and me waltzing out with some new friends and a box of heating pads. yippy-eye-oh-kai-ay!

friday, it was time for the bonnenkai. it was at a toity-toity joint down the road from me, and featured some very fancy food! unfortunately, i hadn't drunk enough beer by the time tanaka sensei and i performed, so i was pretty nervous. however, the "seckusi" outfit ended up going down to my knees, and i sang decently enough, despite voice shakes. it was an early night that night, seeing as i got home at 9pm, but the next day i hit the train tracks and got into saito!

stay tuned for details on sunday's airshow. for now, i must be off to maintain a facade of productivity at work, and to leave you with these touching and hilarious messages first year students wrote on their worksheets.

sorry that it's sideways! "Thank you for your teaching! You are a distinguished teacher." O RLY?

totoro. saying "I love Lili teacher." however, my favorite is the bottom: "I can't good at use English sorry."

and who could forget the memorable worksheets in which students said they wanted to go see the movie "Hally Pooter"? i don't think i'll ever forget.

stuffed full of bento and holiday cheer,
lilly

and a little bit of regret

today, students had to practice reading about saturn and its rings during one of my classes. it's a blurb in the textbook.

i walked around, listening to them practice. i stood by a pair that wasn't practicing, and asked them to read. one of them whipped out his dictionary, and found the word "relationship." he struggled, but said, "if...we read...this...no...life...relationship."

it made me sad because it was true. saturn's rings, described in english, have nothing to do with anything in the normal japanese person's life. i wanted to tell him that practicing reading english in any form was probably useful, but i knew he wouldn't understand.

when i was in high school, i remember staunchly hating the subjects i thought were irrelevant to me (chemistry, geometry, very poorly taught AP spanish), the ones i predicted i would never think about or use after i had finished the course. i resented being forced to learn something that i would later purposefully forget.

as much as it might contradict my position here, i don't think students should have to learn subjects they really don't want to learn and don't need in order to function as adults. call me a dreamer, but ideally, students should be given a language choice. i think it's wrong that students must learn english, and that they have zero alternatives. if i had to learn japanese for six years, as an inescapable part of my curriculum, i would hate it. i am amazed by the students who love english and say that they want to learn more! i just hope that for some, my ridonkulous, smiling gai-jin mug will make them a tiny bit interested in learning how to communicate with an english speaker.

at least i know they know how to say the necessary things, demonstrated today:
random boy in the hallway, to me: "hi riri. i am gay. he is my boyfriend" (points to another boy)

me: "what is a good thing about nobeoka?"
male student: "many cool boy."

me: "who brought Jesus presents?"
multiple students: "SANTA!"

me, after making a mistake: "oops, sorry!!"
entire class: "CUTE-O CUTE-O!"

me, jokingly, to a student who went on a class trip: "where's my omiyage?" (present)
student: "no."

giggly,
liliy (students' spelling)

a smattering of engrish for your pleasure!

it speaks for itself:

"I will only smile, loaf, eat, and sleep."

"I want to live in the 1980s. There were many girl huntings after disco."

"I think that friendlyship is the most important life lesson I have learned in high school."

"I thought that to wash clothes is always necessary. If I could not everyday use washing machine, I would be dead. Moreover, when I start to live alone, if I have no money, thus I have no food to eat, I would drink a lot of water to relieve my hunger. I can do because I was be strong when I live in Australia. "

"I am thankful for friends because they are foolish and interesting."

"I am thankful for cloud because he is strong."

"I am thankful for my family because I was boned by my family." (i think he meant born. at least i hope so)

"I want to go to France. Because food is delicoius. I want to go by death."

"I will tell you about a animated cartoon I like. It is Tom & Jerry. Tom is a cat, Jerry is a mouth."

"I like song by Bump of Chicken" (N.B. - after a little wikipedia research, i was shocked to find out that "bump of chicken" is actually a real japanese band.)

and of course, the stuff that melts my heart:
"I'm really sorry that I was late x( Lily <3 Thank you for checking our essay every week. I think it's too hard to read x( I respect you! I love you! Talk again."

"I like Chopin's "With Love in My Heart." It is healed when listening to this music."

but, i have to save the best for last. the crowning jewel! and i'm sorry for the inappropriateness. it's just too good.

"I am good at blowing the flute.
Because I enjoy blowing it.
I began blowing it when I was a junior high school student.
At first, I could not blow it well, and I didn't like it.
But I practiced it every day.
One day, my junior high school music teacher said "You are good at blowing." I was glad.
Now, I like it."

the teacher part though.

jokes,
lilly

isogashiiiii, ne?

(busy, right?)

yes, i am! but in the best possible ways. my days at work are jampacked with hilarious engrish and students so cute that my heart liquifies. oh, and teachers that provide endless amusement!

so i should have blawbbed about this weeks ago, when it happened, but here's a condensed version. three weeks ago, the students were taking exams, and the teachers didn't have much to do. therefore, one afternoon that week, my supervisor informed me that the sensei would be convening in the gym for "sports activities." i immediately felt as if a lead ball had been dropped into my stomach. as you probably already know, for me, sports = suicide.

i changed into my bootleg athletic gear (black sweats circa 2005, crumbling helenes shirt), and warmed up with my fellow sensei in the gym. they all were wearing adidas/nike/puma/tracksuits that probably cost a few days' pay. hopefully they found my shabbiness endearing, and not disgusting!

as we stretched, i asked my supa what the sport would be. she answered, "volleyball!" and the lead ball in my stomach tripled in size. i've literally never successfully hit a volleyball in my life. it always feels like my wrist bones are shattering!

i decided to give it my best, however...and incidentally, i had nothing to worry about. rather than using a standard volleyball, one of the sensei emerged from the equipment room with a soft, squishy ball approximately the size of a beach ball. i had to choke down my relieved laughs! it was nearly impossible to not hit the ball, yet many of the sensei made absolute lovable fools of themselves (myself included). we played for a few hours, and it was some of the best fun i've ever had at work.

after we finished with volleyball, i teamed up with the principal, of all people, to play badminton doubles with two other sensei. awesomely, one of our opponents (who doesn't speak english) scored, and then taunted me, going, "cummon cummon cummon!" while wiggling his hands around. i then scored, and smirked, "come on come on come on!" right back, causing uproarious laughter all around.

despite the footloose feel of the afternoon, of course there had to be some formality, as well. after each finished game, we all bowed to each other. then, before leaving, the principal gave a five minute speech to all of us, presumably about the importance of teamwork and sportsmanship. sidenote: in any given event, there are always very serious speeches to be made. i've had to give some on the fly, too!

alright, now that i've properly blogged about that milestone (the milestone being me enjoying sports and feeling a sense of belonging at school!), back to blog catch up. last tuesday was quite a day. i had to teach the first-year international humanities class, as usual, but the normal JTE wasn't there.

i figured it would be fine, and since the lesson was very easy (shopping/bargaining), i decided to have the students make little skits in groups. the lesson started off well, with review and dialogue practice, but once the kiddles split into groups, it all went to crap.

they wouldn't do the work, despite the JTE and me asking about their progress, telling them to properly prepare, etc. then, when i selected what i thought was the most prepared group to demonstrate, they stood in front and laughed and refused to speak, because they hadn't done the work. at the point, i was really frustrated, and sad, and angry, because it should have been a fun and easy lesson, but had bombed.

so, without smiling (i literally am ALWAYS smiling and laughing at school, cause i want the kids to feel encouraged and not be scared of making mistakes), i rather sternly told the students that they had to silently study the rest of the period (15 minutes).

they looked like i had just killed their parents. it was like some sort of misery grenade had just detonated in the classroom. it was deathly silent, and as i walked around the room as they pretended to study (i could tell they were just tensely anticipating that i would scream at them), i struggled to not let the tears welling up in my eyes to fall. one of my favorite students beckoned me over, and wrote in his notebook, "lily why this activity? why quiet?" since we're always playing speaking games in that class.

in retrospect, i'm shocked i didn't burst out crying right then and there! the bell rang, and the students still looked so ashamed, that i felt i had to tell them what was up. i said, "i want english to be fun! but we have to work together. i don't like silent studying." they all looked blank, and then i said, "don't be sad! i'm not angry! okay?" and they said, "okay!" and seemed happier.

i, however, felt more terrible than i ever had in japan. it was definitely an overreaction, but it had to come at some point: the "what am i doing here, i'm a fraud and not a real teacher, i'm too young for this and no one at school can see or understand how foreign i feel" bathroom freakout sesh. i highly doubt that i'm the only JET who has ever experienced this, and i'll probably go through it again.

it's okay though...it passed! i knew when i agreed to come that sometimes the going would get rough (and honestly, a lesson mishap is not that rough, it was more of an accumulation of dormant doubts i'd been having that happened to be awakened and unleashed by the classroom disaster). by that evening, i was feeling massively better--and for good reason!

my dear japanese friend satomi had invited me for dinner that night, and she and her friend yuri came to pick me up. they're both around 30, but look and seem my age. i enjoyed being able to relax and soak up their kawaii-ness on the way to satomi's.

her parents had prepared us an amazing feast of sushi, fried chicken, and nabe (stew) made with korean duk, supremely soft and chewy rice cakes. it was like chewing on the fattest, doughiest, most comforting noodle you could ever imagine. divine!

for dessert, we had dried persimmons and remarkably good supermarket panna cotta. even though we were stuffed, yuri (who happens to be a yoga teacher) insisted we do some stretching on the tatami. we stretched for about a half hour or so, then the gals drove me home. i was laden with gifts from satomi's family. they had recently come back from a trip to korea, so i got a bookmark, cosmetics, korean cakes, as well as a huge bag of oranges from their backyard tree. i was so glad i'd brought a little gift of hershey's for them, but it still wasn't enough. it's never enough!

so, here's the deal: i'm going to skip describing a few days, which i'll come back to later, to tell you about the haircut experience i had last night.

i was pretty nervous about getting a haircut, mostly because i knew that there would be a lot of japanese involved and that i wouldn't be able to communicate through anything but janky pictures on my dejikame (dig camera). true enough. but tracey was there, and the whole thing was so funny and overall pleasant that i can't wait to go back!

we went to one of nobeoka's most popular salons. a very kakui (cool) guy greeted us, took down our info, and then whisked us away to get shampooed. he offered me various oil head massages, but i declined (hopefully politely enough!). then, after very carefully wrapping a towel and cape around my neck, he pressed a button and my chair began to gracefully tilt backwards towards the sink, until i was lying almost flat.

simultaneously, as he held my head up, a platform projected into the sink, so that my head had a rest. dude. ultimate comfort. normally at the hairdresser's, i hate the shampoo bit because my neck cramps up so much. this was pure luxury! to top it all off, hilariously, the dude softly placed a tissue over my entire face (so i didn't have to look at him? so shampoo bubbles wouldn't float into my eyes? who knows?!) before commencing the wash.

he sweetly murmured all of his actions right before doing them. it was in japanese, so i'm assuming that's what was going on. maybe he confessing his undying love! all i know is that i heard "murmur murmur japanese," then he rinsed my hair with water. "blah blah japanese," and he was shampooing me, etc.

he shampooed the crap out of me. he shampooed me for probably five full minutes. i could tell the shampoo was turning into that frothy, soft, thick foam that you have to squeeze out of your hair in giant glops. sure enough, he said something in japanese, then wrangled all of the froth out of my hair. more japanese, and he rinsed, and conditioned. more japanese, and he put my seat back up, tied up my hair, and ushered me over to a styling chair. he then combed my hair like no one has ever combed my hair before. it was strangely full of tenderness. i loved it!

another guy actually did the cut for me. i showed him what i wanted, we exchanged some very confused japanese, and i resolved to just be happy with whatever i got. 45 minutes later, as he took a razor to my locks and i saw heaps of my hair falling around me like molting feathers, i was thrilled and terrified. who knew what the outcome would be??

...as it turns out, the outcome was bomb. i love it! it's a very japanesey cut, and i have about half the thickness of hair i had before, which i really like. to top it all off, the shebang only cost 3000 yen. steal!

feels a bit narcissistic, but i'm excited about it!

ehhhhhhh???

i almost look authentically japanese in this! look at that expert lip pouting and puppy-dog eyeballing!

wondering how japanesey i'll be by the time i leave,
riri

it's crunch time

it's been two weeks since i've regaled you with my wildly exciting life (jokes)...all i can say is GOMENNASAI!

i'm gonna hop, skip, and jump all around for this blobbin, so please bear with me!

two weeks ago, november 25, thursday (aka thanksgiving): i had much to be thankful for. since i had a meeting for the omiya high school english camp in miyazaki city at 2pm, i got the whole day off of work for my "business trip." i slept in, made my usual scrumptious pot-o-kohii (coffee), and hit the train tracks midday with tracey. we got much accomplished, sorting out our re-entry permits in the city (6,000 yen, EHHHH?!) before attending the meeting. the meeting was business as usual, though perhaps a bit derailed to to our good-spirited ALT shenanigans. i came home to enjoy the delightfully massive box of see's candy my lovely parents had sent me, play some piano, and feel only a slight twinge of sadness to not be at home.

the next day was by far the busiest day i've ever had at school. i was running on a nonstop rush of adrenaline, hyperactive homesickness, panic at the amount of work left to do, and excitement at being able to skype with my family during their thanksgiving dinner. my work day began with a short conversation with them, then i woefully had to turn down the volume on my computer so that i could attempt to finish correcting the essays i was supposed to have done for 6th period (usually i have a week to correct that class's essays. that week, i only had had three days due to the holiday and my business trip).

in addition to frantically trying to finish the essays while sneaking jealous peeks at my family's festivities, i also had 5 classes that day. normally, on any given day i have between 1-3 classes. in the morning, in between classes, students came to wave hello to the craig/insalata crew, but unfortunately the video quality was really bad. also, when i came back from my second period class, i was floored to discover multiple teachers half-yelling through my computer to my family.

and i had thought i was too old to be embarrassed by my parents. nevertheless, i think participants on both sides of the world enjoyed it. i did, too, though i caught myself trying to quell rising tears throughout the day. no need to pretend i'm stronger than i am!

all of the excitement went straight to my head, and destroyed any focus i might have normally had. during my 1-5 class, where we were practicing restaurant dialogue, i saw one of my favorite (shhh! shouldn't have faves!) students in the back wiggling his arm around to the amusement of another of my faves in the back. senbo, the first kid, saw me looking at him. i made a "wtf are you doing" face at him from the front, and proceeded to continue my tape-recorder-esque duties. the next time i looked up, he was flailing his arm back at forth at me, his hand flopping about crazily, with a huge grin on his face.

it was so uncontrollably funny to me. i choked down a laugh, and continued reading aloud in a very small, strained, hilarious-sounding voice. i was dying as i tried to conceal my laughter, and he and his friend knew it. they both continued to flail at me, as i turned redder and redder and my voice became more and more high-pitched. finally, i let out a pathetic titter. by now, the class (and my fellow sensei) had caught on that i was totally losing it. after letting out my little burst of giggles, i apologized profusely to my JTE. she smiled good-naturedly, and asked that i tell her who was making me laugh. i didn't want to rat, so i just said it was my fault and apologized again. she correctly guessed, though, and asked the boys in japanese if they "liked" me. they both got super sheepish and didn't wave at me for the rest of class, but after class, when i laughingly scolded them, they looked very pleased.

(sidenote: today, senbo tried doing it again, but i maintained and shook my head at him with a "that's a no no" smile. i didn't want to, but i knew that i had to nip that in the bud before i laughed my way out of my job, lolz!)

after school, there was still no rest for my near-vibrating limbs; i tore up the road on my jitensha (bike) so that i could hastily shower, pack, and catch a 6:14 express train to miyazaki city. i made it without any scuffles, and collapsed into the train seat with a still-palpitating heart and shallow breaths. i tried to relax during the ride, but could not help feeling an unending sense of exhilaration from the day's craziness. some one-sided nostril breathing helped (thanks for that tip, high school drama teacher!), and i eventually managed to calm down enough to feel only mildly ecstastic (oxy moron alert) about the night's promises.

i was picked up by mashuu and crew (tristan and steph) at the station, and we went to aeon mall for dinner at "baqet" (all you can eat bread bar...money) with micah, another ALT. after gorging on some nourishing, buttery, warm bread rolls, we hit the cinema for none other than HARRY POTTER.

i was not only excited to see the movie, but also interested in seeing how japanese theater-goers differed from american audiences. overall, there weren't many differences to speak of, other than a pleasant lack of audience noise during the movie (other than crying at the end. my gosh, everyone around us was sniffling like it was going out of style!).

mashuu and i crashed at micah's for the night, because the next morning we had to hit the bus station at the buttcrack of dawn to catch our bus to FUKUOKA!

slept and played iphone scrabble with mashuu on the bus. was exactly on time getting back to the bus at the second rest stop, only to have the driver angrily jab at his watch as he ushered us back on. hung my head in shame, and discreetly noshed on a hot, dripping, pork-wrapped rice ball in my seat. felt better.

got into fukuoka at noonish, and met up with some other JETs before tracey and mr. scott macklin of USC arrived. it was so good, and strange, to see a face from back home. i feel like i have an utterly separate life here--a mundo falso, as jennifer and i call it! so it was a bit surreal to be hanging out with scott, but in the best way!

he and tracey and i hit up canal city, a huge shopping center in fukuoka, then got some delicious tonkatsu (pork cutlet) ramen, and frolicked about in tenjin, a bustling part of fukuoka. please see for yourself!

the katakana says "chikin ramen," aka chicken ramen. the bus chicks look quite happy to be eaten!

i wonder if the kfc chicks are as happy! here's colonel. he's in a santa costume because its japanese tradition to get fried chicken, particularly kfc, on christmas day. i do not know why.

fukuoka ladies!

that night, after checking into our hostel, our huge group of jetlings went to a yakiniku dinner, aka where you cook your own (limitless) meats at your table and drink limitless drinks. excellent craic, to steal the irish word! afterwords, buzzing quite a bit (elbow nudge), we headed to "the dark room," a rock n' rollish bar. we got a little bit lost along the way, but stumbled upon a pretty little winter wonderland.

japan does lights like we do back home...every time i see them, it cheers my heart! what i'd give for a walk-through of vatican gulch right about now...

anyways, it ended up being a late night, but the next morning i was pumped like a bike tire for SUMO! it was one of the things i wanted to see most in japan, and it did not disappoint. not only could we bring our own food and drink into the stadium, but we had little boxes to sit/lie in instead of seats. i moved boxes a couple of times to socialize with different jets, and was just tickled pink by the whole day. we were there for about five hours.

i'll spare you the whole history of sumo, and just let the pictures/brief movie speak for themselves. main points: yes, their ample buttcheeks hang out. the opponents squat and eye each other before attacking, but usually get up mid-stare and go to their respective corners to stretch, wipe down, smack themselves, and throw salt around. they attack each other when they mutually feel the time is right. women aren't allowed in the ring (must bite my tongue). some guy sweeps the ring between matches. the matches last less than a minute, usually. look!

so that was sumo, in a nutshell. the next day (monday), mashuu and i tramped around, and found some beautiful city sights. temples (my favorite!) abounded.

we saw some nuns at this temple. i really wanted to talk to them, but my shyness got the best of me.

another temple, with buddhas.

autumn in japan is beautiful.

so contemplative. so corny.

while walking through one of the three temples we saw that day, i mused aloud to mashuu that i really like the open spaces of temples. it seems that a lot of emphasis is put on nature and outdoor beauty, with gardens, foliage, fountains and rock gardens. of course, i like western churches as well, but the atmosphere feels so much more open and free.

after seeing three temples, we wandered over to a large park and lake on a quieter side of the city. it was a tad chilly outside, but the sun was peeking through the clouds and the scenery was quite pleasant!

we had wanted to go to the museum by the park, but it was closed on mondays. instead, we subwayed to canal city for some yakisoba/takoyaki lunch (greasy, scrumptious soba noodles with a side of batter-covered, grilled octopus balls) and some shopping. i ended up only getting a pair of earrings, but it was fun to look!


even made some creepy mannequin friends. after a quick gelato pitstop, we bused it back to miyazaki city, and i took a train home to nobeoka, clocking in around midnight, fully spent and craving my big fat western bed like i never had before. had such a nice sleep that night.

the next morning, i felt refreshed and ready to jump back into school. stay tuned for next time, when i will tell you about my nuclear meltdown at school, english camp, more engrish boo boos, and christmas joy!

blogged out, and wishing dear mama a happy tanjoubi from nihon,
riri

red letter day!

as usual, there's too much to tell, and i've been a royal slug and haven't written enough! so let's do a drive-thru of the past two weekends!

the weekend of november 13th&14th, tracey and i took a wee road trip down to kobayashi, where a small flock of jetlings were gathering for the night. we picked up irish john in takanabe along the way, and before reaching kobayashi, managed to meet up with the lovely auzzies lachlan and emma. they took us to a fertility shrine, then along a pretty river.

perhaps you can guess why this is a fertility shrine. note the shape of the rock formation behind me!

once we were done frolicking in nature (and giggling at the rock hard phallus), we picked up some much-needed booze and proceeded to party it up at kiwi jonno's abode before hitting the town. several jets were celebrating their birthdays that weekend, so we made sure to make a night of it! a giant, tangled, collective sleep among sushi scraps and potato stew dregs ensued. all in all, a wonderful time!

the next day, tracey & irish john & kiwi tiff & i stopped off in miyazaki city for a much-needed and much-appreciated coffee break and chat, then tracey and i got back to nobeokely dokely, where i proceed to pass out from pure exhaustion (standard).

to be honest, not much to say of last week...there were probably innumerable funny little details that i'm currently not clever enough to remember!

last weekend, however, was joyous! irish matt returned from his sojourn home, resplendent with priceless gifts like M&S percy pigs, crunchies, and cadbury dairy milk. oh, the treasures! saturday, after a botched attempt at scoring a mcdonald's breakfast (the mcdonald's in jusco doesn't "do" breakfast...EEEEHHHHH?), we watched my lovely seiun boys basketball team defeat a team from saito (yee-haw!). then, after a quick lunch and shop, we watched matt's boys unfortunately get beaten by a rather boorish team from takachiho. as my students would say, flatly, "that's too bad."

saturday night featured a night of boozing festivities for a small group of jetlings here in nobeoka, and i'm proud to say that i didn't even make it past 11:30 pm. lightweight for the win!

sunday--oh, sunday. about six of us attempted to find the kitagawa river, where tracey and i had ridden bikes a few months ago. this time we were in cars, however, and after a few wrong turns, multiple flipped u-eys, and limey sam telling tracey in a reassuring voice: "you're not a failure. you're very successful...at being a dickhead," we finally found a spot under a bridge. a few of the boys braved the cold waters, throwing rocks at each other and shrieking (naturally...), while we girls stood around and had uncivilized chat.

after the boys were sufficiently freezing and tired of tossing boulders around, we bid adieu to half the group, and john/tiff/tracey/me went to find lunch at a jidori (blackened chicken) place nearby. we pulled up, and immediately calls of "gai-jin!" trailed over to us. we were enthusiastically beckoned over to an area outside the (empty) restaurant, where a crowd of people were having a picnic. smiling, saying things in japanese, they sat us down at the picnic table and presented us with platters of food. of course.

they seemed to be having some sort of party, and we were just instantly overwhelmed by the generosity. beers were poured, hashi was distributed, and they urged us to eat. we ended up staying for about three hours. throughout the course of the afternoon, the following happened:

-we watched one of the ladies feed chicken to swooping falcons
-a man missing a front tooth punched me repeatedly in the arm to get my attention
-a woman told me her "fat son" was in my class at seiun
-all of us spoke in english to some poor, confused japanese person on the phone, as the person's friends cracked up
-many photos were taken with disposable cameras
-one of the ladies, who had a cackling laugh, pretended to pour shochu (whiskey) from her chest, prompting a rousing chorus of "BOOB SHOCHU!" among all present
-the party obsessed over all of our blue/green eyes
-a man told me that my sunglasses were like "ah-du-ree hepu-ban!"
-...we discovered we were in fact crashing the jidori lady's husband's death's anniversary party. a class act, we are.

the whole experience was very strange. the people were so kind, but also quite a bit rougher than those i've encountered so far. i could tell their humor was bawdier, their language less intelligible and more folksy, and their contact with foreigners practically nonexistent. it was good to see a little bit of variance from the usual reserve!

on monday, i honestly don't know what happened, other than the fact that i rode my bike in the rain to school. haha, oh yeah, and i called one of my very rowdy students a tensai (genius) after he spelled something correctly, which caused the whole class to erupt in cheers and screams.

yesterday was a holiday (hip hip hooray!), so irish matt and i sojourned up to oita prefecture to watch a kyushu soccer tournament in a big old stadium. it was awesome, and hilariously different from sporting events back home. the jumbo-tron would pick people in the crowd, and underneath say things like "good family!" there wasn't any trash anywhere, and there was zero heckling. alongside booths selling hot dogs and fries, there were yakisoba and ramen stands. i saw some man skillfully walking around while slurping his ramen, and it made me laugh!

the game itself was really fun. the teams weren't the most advanced in the world, and ended up tying, but there was a lot of cheering from both ends, and many cries of "SHOOT-O, SHOOT-O!" and "HAI, DOZO! GANBARRE!"

after the game, despite the crowd of 14,000 people, we had exited the stadium in 5 minutes. it was the most organized, civilized sporting event exodus either of us had ever witnessed. yet again, kudos, japan!

and as for today: it started off on the right foot, seeing as i got to school and saw a neat little stack of completed "i am thankful for..." slips on my desk. one of the students had written, "i am thankful for lilly, because i enjoy your classes."

my heart exploded!

then, a sensei who is married to an american lady asked me timidly if i would like some thanksgiving food. my eyes got humongous, and i burst out, "YES!" he scuttled away, and came back with a bag filled with turkey, potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. i didn't even know what to say. the generosity here astounds me daily.

during cleaning time, a gaggle of boys breezed past me. one called, "hey, ho!" incredulously, half-laughing, i yelped, "WHAT?!" they all ran away tittering.

tonight, my box from home arrived, packed to the brim with clothes, food, presents, and unadulterated joy. life here is too good, sometimes.

with a squealing percy pig in my mouf,
lilly

japanese flower arranging & a short quip about being a spectacle

last thursday, yet again i was invited to join the 2-5 class in some cultural activities. i was only too happy to do so! this time, rather than cooking, our group embarked on a flower arranging adventure. we all bustled into "conference room A," and lollygagged before getting seated. i ended up with a very adorable, smiling, shy boy who seemed both reluctant and excited to share a table with me. i'm like some sort of friendly beast...like a ginger gentle ben!

anyways, we each had a thin bundle of flowers in front of us. an absolutely darling grandmother-esque lady was introduced to the class, then she instructed us on how to use the tools, clip the stems, and do countless other things that i could not catch. throughout the steps, as we worked, i kept looking at my table buddy and watching what he was doing. he tried to help me, using a few english words here and there, but largely just showed me. eventually, after finishing the arragnements' centerpieces (mine was a bird of paradise), we were free to arrange the other flowers how we wanted.

ah, but "free" is a funny word! i arranged my flowers how i wanted--poorly--(never have been and never will be good at crafty things!), and sat back to admire my quick, slipshod handiwork while everyone else toiled away. the sweet grandmother lady made her way around the room, helping the students, then arrived at my two-minute masterpiece (monstrosity). she said a lot of things in japanese (i think explaining why it was all wrong!), then took out almost all my flowers and rearranged them beautifully. i thanked her profusely, and she seemed pleased.

after everyone finished fussing about, we all got up and walked around the room to examine each other's arrangements. there were some truly lovely ones! the and kyoto sensei and kocho sensei (vice principal and principal) were there, too, along with some other teachers, so it was an important affair! throughout the "admiring" time, i noticed that the sensei were all hustled together, conspiring over a clipboard. you guessed it--there were awards to be had!

...so imagine my surprise (and guilty horror) when my name was called along with several students'! i made a "wtf" face, but smiled as the students good-naturedly applauded my (the sweet old lady's) creation.

we six winners got to proudly display our works in the school's entryway, where they still are now! evidence below.

mine's the one on the right!

so this morning, on my crisp bike ride to work, i laughed to myself as i pedaled down the street, thinking about how funny i must look to japanese people, what with wearing sunglasses at 8am. most japanese people don't wear sunglasses at all, seeing as they don't need to, and i was wearing a needlessly humongous pair. i also had on my dusty, puffy blue jansport backpack, had my bangs pinned back (every girl here has bangs, no exceptions), and was wearing my "professional" clothes.

as i rounded the corner and came onto seiun's street, i noticed a small gaggle of teachers perched at the crosswalk ahead. once in a while, a teacher will be posted there to stop traffic and let students ride across the street. today, randomly, there were five teachers there. and as i cruised up on my bike, with my giant sunglasses unsuccessfully hiding a suppressed peal of laughter, i bid them a giggle-choked "OHAYO GOZAIMASU!!!" as one of them held up a flag to stop the non-existent traffic as i blew past. i just knew that i must have looked so incredibly foreign at that moment, with my ridiculous sunnies, pinned hair, childish backpack, and status as the only teacher at seiun who rides a bike to school.

i must seem like an over sized foreign kid. i don't mind a bit!

clownishly,
lilly

pyromania

japanese people love fire. and i love fire. and i love them for loving fire.

last weekend, tracey and i roadtripped down to saito for its annual festival. perhaps you've noticed that i've attended many festivals since coming here...it's very easy to do so! different towns throughout the prefecture have multiple festivals per year, so there's always one to go to. many of them are similar, with taiko performances, music, food booths with yakisoba, jidori, takoyaki, and other festival treats, and lots of families. some of the jetlings have commented on festival burnout, citing the repetitiveness of many of the events.

however, saito's festival was anything but commonplace. i'll let the video speak for itself. peeps set a little house on fire and danced around it. there was also an impressive samurai dance, in which two of our beloved jetlings partook! enjoy.




also, yesterday at school we had a fire drill. i expected it to be similar to american fire drills, and for the most part, it was--other than the fact that the students had to run to their safe zone (our american teachers forbade us from running...which totally makes sense. jokes.)

the students and teachers stood/squatted out in the baseball field, while a fire marshall spoke at length about safety...pretty standard. however, two teachers and two students then came to the front.

this is where japanese fire drills really differ from american drills...and in the absolute best way possible. there was a flat box (maybe 3 feet long, 3 feet wide, 6 inches tall) next to a propane tank. the fire marshall then poured some sort of flammable liquid into the box, added propane, and lit it on fire. a HUGE, billowing flame (over 10 feet high) resulted, and one of the teachers rushed forward with a fire extinguisher to put it out. this was repeated three more times, to the kinesthetic learning benefit of the other teacher and two students, and to the great entertainment of everyone else. it was truly hands-on learning, and the whole experience was more awesome than i could have ever dared hope fire drills could be.

with fire in my heart,
lilly

cooking crass

titular pun intended! you will see...

today, i somewhat randomly partook in the 2-5's home economics class. we made an excellent seaweed soup, the name of which i think is wakame. all i know is that i was under the (glaringly false) impression we'd be making burritos.

before even stepping into the spotless, laboratory-esque classroom, the students and i donned aprons, tied our hair back with kerchiefs, changed slippers, and had to have our hands inspected for cleanliness by the teacher. well...i guess i didn't have to do it. i stupidly jammed my hands out with a big, childish grin on my face, internally congratulating myself for removing all of my chipped nail polish last night. however, the sensei looked a bit sheepish and said, "errr...daijoubou." oops. i often forget that i'm a (cough) respectable teacher here, and not one of the students!

a little pink, i was ushered over to table nana (7), and was joined by three rather humorless students. i don't know why they were so serious...i would've been stoked to have a home ec class in high school! while we watched a girl at our table wash the rice, i tried to get them excited. "i've never made rice," i announced. they nodded somberly. fail.

but anyways, we soon abandoned our station to crowd around the front table with everyone else. the class commenced with the usual bowing (i don't know if i've mentioned this before. each class begins with the students bowing in unison while saying onegaishimasu, and the teacher bowing and responding in turn. the classes also end like this, but instead "gozaimashita" is used. it's quite formal! so we bowed and stuff, then the sensei showed us how to do everything...and of course i understood nothing, other than the fact that we weren't making burritos.

my group hustled back to our table, and began preparing the food. i was meant to cube the tofu, which should have been easy enough. i would say i'm a decent cuber. however, i decided to get all fancy-pants on the kiddles, and try out a trick my japanese mama showed me. well, as they say, pride goeth before a fall.

i cut the block horizontally, from top to bottom, rather than vertically, showing off my wannabe sushi-chef skills. the students, much to my satisfaction, said, "Fight, fight!" while i successfully created four semi-equal cross sections. i then sliced the block into four vertical pieces, thinking i was done. i went to pull off a cube, and came up with a dangler. i quickly realized i'd have to cut the blob across four more times, but by then the whole thing had basically crumbled and i was left hacking haphazardly at the tofu logs. ah, well.

my next task was simply slicing string beans, which went smoothly enough. for the most part, i let the students take charge, and waited until someone gave me something to do. watching the students cook was really interesting. they were so precise, so delicate, with measurements and stirring and slicing. everything was done slowly and methodically. this is not the cooking i'm used to! i'm used to the comparatively wild kitchen of my beloved extended famiglia, which usually is peppered with cursing, shouts, running, and directions like "eyeball it."

not so much in japan.

rather than ever winging it, every time the students had a question, they beckoned the teacher over to show them exactly how to do it. it was so different from what i remember of high school. whenever my classmates and i were unsure, a lot of the times we'd do whatever and hope for the best. there was a lot of emphasis on figuring things out for ourselves, which i don't think is valued here as much.

another interesting point: the extreme cleanliness of it all. before we even started cooking, we rinsed off all of the utensils, dishes, and pots that were brought out of (very clean) cabinets. i saw them, they weren't dirty! but we rinsed anyways. chopping boards were rinsed after every use, even if there was no residue left on them. when we brought out the multiple plates and dishes we'd be eating on from spotless, doored cabinets, those were washed with soap and water. after we ate, everything--EVERYTHING was cleaned. we took apart the stoves (on which nothing had spilled, btw), scrubbed the griddles, washed the grills. it all seemed so unnecessary to me, though, admittedly, i'm a scab.

at one point, the towel i was using to dry things was pretty much saturated. i went to grab another from our table's towel rack, but the other towels were differently colored. i had a feeling there was a reason for that, and i asked a student if it was okay for me to use the blue towel to dry. she tilted her head, sucked in air in a "sssss" noise while grimacing slightly, and i knew it was a no go. i found out later that the blue towel is for wiping off the (already clean) eating table. no cross-contamination, onegaishimasu!

while we cleaned, the fella in our group was looking for something to do. he clearly wanted to put away the dishes, but didn't know which drawers in our counter they were meant to go in. rather than opening the drawers, looking at what was inside, and going from there, he waited patiently until the sensei came round, then had her show him where to put the spoons (with the other spoons), the bowls (with the bowls), and the pans (...you already know!). it was so interesting and frustrating to see. there is a pervasive fear among students of taking initiative, and of being wrong. even though i would love for them to be willing to step out a bit more, i don't really see it as my place to subvert what their culture has ingrained in them. imagine what american students would do if a japanese teacher told them to never speak their minds! JOKES!

alright, that turned into a way bigger blog than it was supposed to be! but in case you didn't pick up on the punnage of my title, the joke is that "crass" is "class" in engrish. also, i am the one who is cooking crass(ly). my cooking is messy, multitasked, loud, chock full of swears, and imprecise. coupled with my japanese students, though, we managed to pull off a dang tasty seawood soup and rice bowl.

before we left, and once all of the cleaning was finally done, we washed and dried our table's kitchen sink. one more time: we dried the inside of a sink.

bewitched, bothered, and bewildered (in the best way!),
riri-sensei

"engrish," as it's called

sometimes, broken and slightly wonky english is endlessly amusing to me. sometimes, despite its strangeness, it sounds like the most beautifully strung-together words i've ever heard. it just depends! for example, last week the students had a little comic strip which showed a girl named miki choosing a dog, then taking care of her dog. she fed the dog, and cleaned the dirty dog's house for it. here are some primo sentences:

"miki chose a drown puppy."

"she noticed blemish on the doghouse."

"she cleaned the hut."

"she thinks, my dog will pleasure the beautiful house." (ummmm JOKES!)

"she thought her puppy is pathetic. GOOD LUCK, MIKI!!" < my favorite

so, obviously, those are all hilarious. however, during friday's cleaning time, one of the boys i always clean with came up to me with a very stoic face. he asked, "riri-sensei...do you have a dream?" as seems to be my habit, i inexplicably almost burst into tears!

also, in my beloved essay class, one of my students wrote a few weeks ago that he wants to be an illustrator. i wrote in his notebook that i wanted to see one of his drawings. he drew me this two weeks later:


oh, these kids. they will do me in.

mushily,
lilly

i'm a snotty girl

there's nothing like the excitement of getting sick in a foreign country! last year, in london, i had the hilarious and awful experience of contracting the worst case of pinkeye the world has ever seen. luckily, one of my darling flatmates went out to buy medicine for me, and the rest lifted my spirits by constantly pointing and laughing at my goo-and-crust-coated eyeballs. all in all, though, it wasn't a big deal.

"here in japan" (quotation marks because my students always use that phrase, haha), it's easy to feel helpless. i don't like asking people for help, and i especially don't like taking sick days! so when i woke up on thursday with no voice, an aching bod, and a sore throat, my first thought was "EFF. WHAT AM I GONNA DO?!"

everything seems exaggerated in importance and direness, at least for me, over here. at home, i'd think, "awwww, i have a sore throat! better get some 'throat coat' and spend the weekend at mama and papa's."

but here, i don't know what the hiragana/katakana/kanji are for lozenge, cough medicine, or anything else. i don't even know how to ask for them in japanese! so, with these thoughts tumbling around in my noggin, i decided to do things the japanese way--don a surgical mask and get to work.

in LA, whenever i saw someone wearing a surgical mask, i rather unfairly and derisively chuckled to myself, "SARS is over! get that mask off, fooligan!"

japan has changed me forever--the masks are a really good idea! besides looking funny, i don't know why they haven't caught on in the states. there's none of that "OMG KEEP AWAY I'M SICK DON'T TOUCH ME!" you can go about your daily life without worrying that you're contaminating everything and everyone in sight. however, despite my attitude change, i don't think i'll be carrying the custom back to the states...i'll just yearn for it.

my sexy surgical mask. so japanese! (wow, i could carry groceries in those bags under my eyes! attractive.)

so on thursday (rambling!), i staggered into the teachers' office, croaked out "ohayo gozaimasu," and everyone sort of let out this pitying "ahhhh!"

throughout the day, i felt babied by my co-workers' concern, and i LOVED it! hahaha! highlight: one guy came up to me with a little cake treat from kagoshima, and said, "be...powerful."

luckily, yesterday i felt a bit better, and today i'm a little more improved--just a mildly sore throat, run-of-the-mill malaise and endless snot. i researched some homeopathic japanese methods for helping colds, and learned that hot ginger tea is popular. so, yesterday i bought a giant, cheap ginger root (78 yen ~$1...is it that cheap in the U.S.?). i've been fine chopping it, boiling it, and then drinking it with green tea and honey. it feels oh-so-right! but i do keep yearning for chicken soup...and my pop's special honey-lemon drink.

but anyways, that's enough of that sick talk! oh wait, except for these laughable tidbits: once, jennifer said to me, "lilly, you're hilarious when you don't feel well!" apparently my students agree. when they heard my weakened voice in the hallway, and in class, they all started cracking up! what the heck? but their reaction made me laugh, too!

also, my friend carmen gave me some golden advice: "when you have a cold, you have to consume as many calories as you can so that your body has the strength to fight it." i'm pretty sure that's not true, but i've taken it to heart, anyways!

okay, so: mah life. i'll fill you in on last weekend, aka the weekend i had been looking forward to for weeks--HALLOWEEN! the fun commenced on friday night, when a group of us went out in miyazaki city for carmen's birthday. nomihodai (aka all you can drink) was of course the protocol, so needless to say we had a lovely night!

the next day, carmen went off to hyuga, so i was left to explore the city by myself until it was time to go to miyakonojo. i began by (somewhat nervously) taking a bus by myself....successfully! it was such a simple task, but i still felt very accomplished when i disembarked. i like doing things by myself, but navigating a city--and really, traveling in general--without a partner in crime isn't as good as having someone to experience everything with. i still had a good time, though!

i headed into a tsutaya (chain store of music, books, etc) to find an english book. i spent a good amount of time in there, carefully combing the english section, and happily walked away with on the road. then, i window shopped for a bit in bon belta, an epically huge department store. everything was so nice and so expensive, i felt like a total imposter in my raggedy, stinking clothes and dirty backpack.

so, after bon belta, i headed to starbucks to get a sandwich and sit outside to read and people-watch. there were a ton of folks out and about since there was a parade to start at 2pm. after i polished off my sandwich and read a bit of kerouac, i walked about 30 feet and arrived at the parade. pictures!

i like his hat.

sweet dragon thing scaring children

papered tree, the symbolism of which i do not know. sawree!

kiddles! KAWAAAIIIII

after watching the parade for some time, i caught a train to miyakonojo, where i met up with melissa, keith, and jacks for some scrumdidilyumptious tomato ramen. it was basically soul-warming tomato soup with homemade ramen in it. sooo good!

we then began to get ready for the epic halloween party, and i apprehensively donned my ginger spice costume. it ended up being alright though, thanks to my handy-dandy opaque tights, and the party itself was everything i thought it could be-- nomihodai, dancing, and fabulous jetlings!

the next day, a group of us (some still in costume...i was wearing my friend chris's jacket over mine, which probably just made things worse) went to the mall for some eats. then, after a stop-off in saito, i came back to good ol' nobeoka. it's a hard life, all right.

snuffling contentedly,
lilly

everyone loves a holiday!

especially me, and especially when they come on a wednesday! this will be a short little blobby, because i must do a bit of work before bed, but let me just say that today was a lovely little yasumi (holiday).

i was somewhat productive, and did a giant batch of laundry in the morning, as well as cleaned most of my (formerly pigsty-ish) apartment. then, i bicycled to right-on, a cute clothing store, with tracey, and bought a warm shawl, gloves, socks, and totally unnecessary high heeled sandals. they were on sale, though! and i have to start assimilating...gotta fit in with the japanese fashions, yo!

after that, i ate a scrumptious noodle lunch and went for a run. the weather has turned borderline frigid (i wear leggings, a jacket, and slippers in my apartment at all times, and am still freezing), but this afternoon was perfect running weather.

along the way, TWO people bid me "ganbatte" (literally "fight," but is the equivalent of "c'mon, go!"). i felt so honored!

i had tracey over for some pesto pasta tonight (prepackaged japanese pesto = not bad!), tickled the fake ivories on my beloved piano, and now must get down to some work. catch ya later, gai-jinators!

love,
lilly

rewards

i'm pretty sure i reached the pinnacle of my teaching and artistic career today.

after slapping together 4 halloween skit scripts last week, i finally got to reap the fruits of my labor today when i helped the students of 2-6 rehearse and perform the dramatic masterpieces (aka the ridiculously corny, cliched one-pagers)!

the highlight? seeing my dear japanese students on stage, waltzing around as zombies, yelling "WE WANT BRAINS! BRAIN WANT. WE WANT BRAIN! BRAINS!"

it's the most rewarding job in the world.

also, my keyboard arrived today!

flying high,
lilly

the bane of my existence

look out, cheerful chelsea! here comes negative nancy!

has it happened? have i finally exhausted all of my happy "stage one culture shock" emotions, and haplessly landed into "stage two," aka the stage of bitterness, disappointment, isolation and unwarranted rage?

no, luckily i haven't! but there is one thing, one horrible, soul-sucking, spirit-crushing, heart-stomping thing that essentially ruins my life several times per week.

the copier.

copy machines are dakota pieces of crap to begin with. they make no sense in any language. they are temperamental and fussy, get constipated, whine, cry, break for no reason, and commit general crimes against humanity.

and when the screen's in japanese, things just get worse.

i have no idea what the heck i'm doing when i go into the infernal copy room. every time, i cross my fingers that no on else is in there, so that they won't see that i have to do at least three or four "do-overs" before i get it right.

but, unfortunately, there's always this one lady who's in there, just waiting for me to fudge it. at first, she watches me out of the corners of her eyes, then shifts to blatantly staring at me in silence while i inevitably break the machine. i never know what i do wrong. i'll have printed 20 copies, when in the middle of it, the damn thing stops and makes retching noises. i'll then sneak a glance at her. she's always just gazing at me with unmasked contempt!

then, i gather my breath and courage, and squeak in my pitiful japanese: "sumimasen. gomennasai. misete, kudasai" (excuse me. i'm sorry. show me, please.) she'll then press a dizzying series of buttons, replace the paper, jostle the ink, and do a number of other tasks i would never think to do. i thank her profusely, and she gives a little half-smile. it's effing killer! and it's happened FOUR TIMES already!

however, that is really the only thing i have to complain about...so i'm sorry for the downer-ness of it all!

in other news, i had a lovely weekend in miyazaki city. on friday, i stayed at darling carmen's after demolishing an epic izakaya dinner with her, and on saturday i judged the debate contest with about 15 other JETs. sunday, irish matt and i malled it, and i finally picked out an electric piano for my apartment! cleverly, he suggested that i order one online since i found the perfect model at the mall. i did so this afternoon!

i cannot effing wait for it to arrive this week. i feel like i'm going to grow exponentially as a pianist this year, since i have little else to do after work (when it rains i can't run, and i can only read so much poetry every day). and i have lots of room to grow, obviously, so that's all gravy!

this afternoon, after trying in vain to pick myself up with a few cups of tea post-work (i was dragging hardcore today), i rallied by trying on my old ginger spice costume and figuring out my outfit for saturday's halloween party. many inappropriate pictures to come!

i've started to create a pros and cons list for staying on another year. among the pros are "enjoyable work," "travel opportunities," "learning more japanese," and among the cons are "body deteriorating due to lack of nutrition and overconsumption of white rice and milk tea," "no one to braid my hair (jencat...where are you?)," and "delaying real life." topping the list, of course, is "missing...everyone."

and it's true. i am still very happy, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed here, and many things continue to seem fresh and new. but now the homesickness is hunkering down, too. please know that you are missed, and loved, immensely, way over here on the other side of the world.

yearning for real halloween, getting ready with the cats, yogurtland, sunsets, english-filled libraries, downtown LA, forever 21, and a more reasonable time difference,
lilly

a doozy of a blob

i suck. i realize this. i will now attempt to make up for all my suckage of the past two weeks, and will act as a narrative trash compactor, smushing together my life into one long japanesequence! prepare for the onslaught, lovedoves! and kindly excuse the lack of detail :)

so, as i recall, when i last really left you i had filled you in on my rice paddy wanders and my first weekend in october. a few days after that post, on october 8, i and some other jets convened in miyazaki city for a debate contest meeting. many of us ALTs will be judging the debate contest this saturday, and the meeting was meant to fill us in on rules, regulations, etc. it also provided a full day off from work, which i appreciated!

after the meeting, tristan & kahn & irish matt & i went to good ole conveyor belt sushi, where we stuffed our gaping gai jin faces! then, in matthew's trusty scooby-doo van, we braved yet another storm as we dropped off kahn and headed into takanabe, a nearby town, for a poker night with some other JETs.

it was good fun! and, surprise of the century, i came in third place overall! can't read my p-p-p-poker face. aka i don't have one, and am haphazard and unpredictable and don't know what i'm doing, which probably throws people off ma scent just as effectively.

the next day, i had to high-tail it back to nobeoka with carmen, since the two of us and nick, another ALT, were the counselors for a kumon english camp. a bus jammed to the ceiling with flailing kids picked us up from the station, and i was happy to say "HELLO!" to the kidlings' chipper faces as i boarded.

the camp itself was really fun, but draining. we started the day with songs and dances (i taught everyone "soulja boy," but with instructive, clean lyrics. carmen got a hilarious video of it, but we unfortunately can't put in on das internet because the kidders are minors. take my word for it: seeing a bunch of japanese children awkwardly bounce around and mirror me was a sight to behold!

we also played a few rounds of duck, duck goose, painted little shrinky miniature plastic squares (i traced hello kitty on mine! KAWAAAIIIIIIIII), and toasted marshmallows on slimy, wet sticks collected from the nearby forest. it was awesome, and terrifying. the kids, unaware of the fine art of marshmallow toasting (which i happen to take extremely seriously, by the way), simply let theirs catch on fire and turn into molten fireballs, which they then flung. i had horrible premonitions of someone getting a flaming, flying goober smacked on their face, but luckily, no mishaps ensued. VERY luckily.

the next day was the takanabe lantern festival, in--you guessed it!--takanabe. i road tripped down with tracey and dyl (her bf), and met up with a lovely group of other jetlings at the festival. we arrived while it was still light outside, so we enjoyed some music performances (taiko drumming, random songs, the usual) and perused the booths. takanabe also happens to have a little art museum, and i ravenously seized the opportunity to look inside. it had been way too long since i'd been in a museum, so i gorged myself on the paintings for a little while. it made me miss london, sharply.

but there was plenty to relieve me of my nostalgia--after we left the museum, it was beginning to get dark. after enjoying some more performances (which included fire dancers!), we headed off to see the famed lanterns. there were thousands upon thousands of them. it was, in a word, beautiful. there were lanterns spread over fields, in arrangements, in rows, creating sculptures, the works. i loved it. i tried taking photos, but they turned out very poorly, as you will see below:






the next day was a national holiday, so i got to enjoy the sights and sounds of saito baru, the museum of japanese cro-magnon remains, with mashiu. it was really interesting! i love early human hooha. unfortunately, everything was in japanese, so i didn't really understand anything besides the rather obvious fact that the artifacts were really old. it was still awesome, though!

last week, as maybe you gathered by my laconic blogging, i was really busy with school. i had to crunch to grade a giant batch of essays, plan a few full lessons, make power points, etc. it was busy, but a really fun week! i had my halloween lesson, which included a clip from "the nightmare before christmas," toilet paper mummification contests, boatloads of candy chucked at the students, and me pretending to be a zombie. i absolutely loved it.

over the weekend, got to unwind a bit with tracey, dyl, and mashiu by going to takachiho gorge, which is about an hour and half's drive away from nobeoka. it was a perfect day--sunny, clear, and full of foliage! and, of course, the gorge was stunning.

engrish. "island created by the cods," deffo not the "gods."

having a wee rinse!

wuts dis? i have to row?

purikura face!! if you put your hands out, it makes your face appear "smaller," which apparently is ideal. i don't know why.

one bit of the takachiho shrine. takachiho is a really special place; legend has it that it was the first place the gods landed on earth.

the weekends are just too good! if only my JET experience could be one long weekend...

jokes! i love school, too. i love the days when i teach a ton of classes. i would be happiest teaching 4 classes every day, but i don't think that'll ever happen. if it did, i might lose my voice...forever!

that's all the updating i care to do for today, except for one last thing, which actually makes me quite sad. one of my favorite students (i know i shouldn't have favorites..but i do), a first year boy i'm pretty sure is gay (i mistook him for a girl the first time i spoke with him, he loves adam lambert, etc.) got into a fight with another boy. i felt sick when i heard about it. i'm pretty sure the other kid was picking on my fave (i've seen the other students be mean to him before). today, my guy was looking a little bit worse for the wear, with a few bruises and scratches on his face, so i made sure to be extra friendly to him. he looked a smidgen happier, and i just wanted to gather him up and give him a huge hug and tell him it would be okay. alas...boundaries.

oh, i can't end on a sad note like that! i'll include some funny excerpts from my students' journals. the topic was "the strength of japanese children has been declining recently. why?"

best titles:
"all people are olympic athlet"
"My Pretty Baby."
"I Am Victim."
"Someday, We may Become Cannot Walk People."

best thesis:
"If children continue eating mistake amount of food, children become fatness."

best conclusion:
"In conclusion, you need to check what physical education is for, and make my day." (is that a threat?!)

hoping that i never become a "cannot walk person,"
lilly

p.s. - a hodgepodge bootleg video of takachiho festivities, for your amusement: