hip-hopapotamus

last night, i had the supreme pleasure of going with tracey to a hip-hop/jazz dance class in a local studio. i had high hopes that it would be a guffaw-suppressing experience, and it did not fall short! we showed up a little before the class started, and smiled vaguely at the japanese girls we'd be joining. though they varied a bit in age (the youngest was maybe 9, the older girls in their early 20s), they all wore very baggy hip-hop clothes (some of which, awesomely, had incorrect engrish on it. ex: "your heart want love me to").

our teacher, the first genuinely feisty japanese girl we've encountered so far, was a very genki and spritely 28-year-old named yuka. she was wearing a very full face of makeup, fake eyelashes included, and she seemed very excited that we were taking her class. tracey and i headed towards the back of the room so that we could be slightly less conspicuous (didn't work), and exchanged grins as we began the warm-ups.

the class was pretty much identical to all of the jazz/hip-hop classes i had taken back home. we warmed up to music for the first 40 minutes or so, with yuka cheerfully barking instructions in janglish/dance lingo: PIDEE-AY (plié)! STU-RAY-CHU (stretch)! ROAD AAAAAP (roll up)! WAN, TOO, TREE, FO, FYE, SEECKS, SEBEN, EIGHT!

after sufficiently stretching our gai-jin muscles, we shuffled into our kicks and lined up in the back of the room. speaking of kicks: i felt slightly ashamed of my beat-up chucks. everyone else (including tracey!) had spanking-new, brightly colored, marshmallowy hiphop sneaks. ima have to go get me some air force ones!

anyways, we lined up, and began practicing chaînés (basically, quick three-point turns), hip-hop style. all i can say is, thank goodness i took dance classes when i was younger, or else i would've fallen on my face. luckily, i already knew how to do the ballet/jazz verison of chaînés, so learning the hip-hop stompy version wasn't too bad. highlight: watching tracey accidentally mess up her chaînés, then extend her arms like a ballerina and take a bow in front of the whole class while making a face like a constipated turtle. i love you, boo.

after mastering our turns (not really), we learned a little routine for about fifteen minutes, then busted outta there like gangsters. it was a really fun class, and yuka was charmingly gregarious, so we've decided to make it a regular thang. too bad the classes are so expensive--1200 yen a pop! mawm, dad: thank you for paying for my lessons all those years. it sucks now that i hafta pay!

and in other news, work is very good--apart from tiredness. yesterday, not only did i fall asleep at my desk for a few moments, but i also fell asleep in the bathroom...while peeing. every morning, i drink an entire pot of coffee (japanese pot...so it's only about three mugs' worth), but i still sometimes can't manage to keep my eyes open. could someone ship me some crack, please?

joyously, though, yesterday i also got to read more hilarious essays. they make me LOL to the max. the most pristine examples:

my favorite title: "Even if I Was Eaten by Shakes" (sharks)

my favorite reason for wanting to study abroad in murica: "America is the liberty country. Secondly, I love McDonald's hamburger. I want to eat foreign hamburger and I want to work at McDonald's shop in America some day." (live the dream, kiddo!)

my favorite life dream: "I want to build chocolate house. If I try to make chocolate house in japan, this will melt because Japan hot, and there will be earthquakes, so I can't make in Japan. But Belgium has snappy climate, so chocolate don't melt. This is childish dream, but imagine you are living chocolate house, imagine people make happy by your chocolate."

i, too, want to build chocolate house. more than anything!

dreaming fondly of chocolate house,
lilly

too cool for school (today, anyhow)

it's a dark, rainy, beautiful day in nobeoka today. it has finally cooled down outside, which means that my morning bike ride to school is invigorating and cleansing instead of sweat-inducing! it also means that i am in (is it possible?) even better spirits than usual! get ready for some gag-worthily cheerful blobbing!

mah life: well, today, i was one of three judges at a regional english speech contest. the middle school where it was held was about a 45-minute drive kita (north), and one of my fellow teachers/judges kindly took me along with him for the trip.

predictably, the drive was incredible. i will never cease to be amazed at the mind-boggling foliage in miyazaki. the road was framed by veritable forests, lush gorges, and clear, churning rivers. puffs of clouds were drifting alongside us, too, melting over the bridge and slowly billowing into the sides of the overgrown mountainsides. the beauty here makes my heart feel like it's going to explode! i promise, i will take more pictures very soon. i didn't bring my camera today because i didn't think that the drive would be so fabulous. sawreee. i'll be better! i do realize that my blog is nothing without pictures.

anyways, the speech contest itself was great! it lasted all day, but there were so many breaks (that featured coffee and biscuits) that it flew by. the kids were great, too. they were only in junior high, but some of them were incredible speakers.

there was one little thing that confused me: at the end of the day, when the winners were announced, the awardees did not crack smiles. they received their awards with very serious faces, and much bowing ensued. i later asked my fellow teacher why that was. he said that perhaps they were told not to show joy, so as not to rub it in the others' faces. i guess that makes sense; one of the students wept in disappointment when she didn't place. i felt really badly about that, and i think the winners were sensitive as well. so considerate!

and to fill you in on last week, nothing too out of the ordinary happened. students yelled "heddo!" to me, i very unhappily caught dozens of them staring at my boobs and/or butt, and i finally found the music room at my school! it felt so good to be able to whale on the piano for a little bit, especially since no one was around to hear! i think i'll be making that a semi-regular after-work activity!

on saturday, kiwi tiffany, jordy, and irish matt came up to visit tracey and me in nobey town. we spent an awesome night chowing down at a local restaurant, then hitting up a hawaiian bar in town that's owned by a really nice hawaiian dude. at the bar, we befriended a russian (possible prostitute) that lives in nobeoka, and spent a couple hours eating her pizza and chatting to her in japanese, english, and i think spanish, too. it was confusing!

yesterday, after being joined by even more JETS and watching a whole lot of inbetweeners, we ate a delicious thai curry dinner cooked by chef trotts-a-lot (tracey), and had an early night. i know i sound like a broken record, talking about the same things over and over, but i suppose my life is repetitive. so here goes, yet again: i am in a state of constant exhaustion...but very contently so!

shock of the century, i think that's all the posting i have in me for today. if you wanna watch a hilarious video that shows you, literally, exactly how japanese people talk, please watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_RM8To5mjU

no joke, when he goes "EHHHHHHH," that's precisely how it sounds. now you'll know what i've been yakking about this whole time!

and with that, i leave you for today. EHHHHHHHHHHH?

my heart to yours (i miss pillsbury...),
lilly

udo jingu, pig shiz, tonbo

yee-haw! gomen that it's been over a week since my last update...won't happen again! or will it...

so here's the DL: this past weekend, we JETs had the supreme pleasure of indulging in a three-day weekend due to monday's public holiday. we took full advantage of it by having a beach barbecue on saturday in aoshima, a little island close to miyazaki city. tracey-san and i drove down that afternoon, passing through takanabe to pick up dearest irish john. we arrived in the early evening, and tracey and i set up our tent with the help of irish matt. aka tracey and matt set it up while i stood around and uselessly held poles and pegs. some things never change (like my rather unfortunate lack of practicality)!

camping that night was a bit comfier than the night in cape toi. for one thing, there were bathrooms, lights, and barbecues. even better, there was a beer festival only a short jaunt away! we explored the festival a little bit before returning to grill our meats and imbibe our drinks, then spent the night enjoying the warm weather and each other's company.

even though i love my students, and really enjoy teaching, i intensely look forward to the weekends. all of the gatherings of jetlings are guaranteed to be hilarious, raucous, drunken, and boundlessly fun. i especially love the fact that at every shindig there are at least five or six different countries reppin'. the tangle of accents, strangely, makes me feel at home. the mishmash also provides endless opportunities for mocking fellow jetters!

but anywho, after camping, i had an excellent day of sightseeing with irish matt. we went to udo jingo, a shrine dedicated to emperor jinmu and located on the miyazaki coast.

the weather was unfathomably hot. it had rained in the morning, but the sun reappeared and proceeded to make huge clouds of steam rise from the ground as the rainwater evaporated. nevertheless, mashiu and i managed to take lots of touristy photos of the beautiful buildings and coastline. enjoy!

the water was positively crystalline. gorgeous!

the ladles were for splashing (holy?) water on your feet. it felt so refreshing!

attempting (and failing) to throw a clay stone into the ropey target. if you make it, it's good luck!

other peeps giving it a go

a belle bell

barf

i love this sculpture!

one thing i will surely miss upon leaving japan: the stunning colors!

still reeling from my jam-packed weekend, i spent this week teaching a few lessons, learning a couple of new kanji, and continuing my running streak! last night, after doing 5 miles in the evening (and being repeatedly mortified upon seeing my students gawking at me along the way), i reflected yet again on the difference between running here, and running at home.

here, the routes are so much more motivating and invigorating! instead of leering sidewalk sketchballs, there are happy, neighborly faces bidding you "konnichiwa!" instead of looming buildings and broken sidewalks, there are rolling hills and bright rice paddies. i used to dodge bikes and people; now, i dodge darting swarms of tonbo (dragonflies) and scuttling crabs. before, i sometimes choked from particularly pernicious pockets of pollution. now, i breathe freely--when not ambushed by the smell of pig feces.

it's true. nobeoka sometimes smells like the inside of a dead pig's colon. there are pig farms nearby, and the paralyzing scent can waft its way into town in truly inescapable clouds. it doesn't happen too often, but when it does, there's nowhere to hide. the stench gets into your nostrils, your mouth, your throat, your eyes. you don't want to breathe. YOU WANT TO DIE!

haha, okay, so that's an exaggeration. but for reals, it smells really bad.

anyways, guy told tracey and me a few weeks back that during the winter, the winds shift and the eau de pig shiz wafts away from nobeoka. believe me, with the promise of dry armpits and no whiffs of pork anus, winter cannot come fast enough!

with happy legs and wary nostrils,
lilly

turning japanese

it's official. i'm assimilating! also, i couldn't resist having one unoriginal blob title (that song always seems to come to mind when people think of living in japan!)

but, alack/hooray, it's true! i am adopting many of the beautiful, different, somewhat wacky customs here. here's how!

- i use a sweat towel. almost everyone here carries a towel with them at all times to be used as a giant handkerchief or as a legit towel in the bathroom. many bathrooms here do not offer paper towels or hand dryers, because it's assumed you've brought your own.
- i use chopsticks almost every day. my hashi skills have gotten exponentially better since coming here, but i still have a lot of room for improvement. at least i'm not dropping things left and right anymore!
- i eat white rice almost every day. i don't even own a rice cooker! when i'm out of food at home, i get a bento at work, which obviously always comes with rice. on the days that i don't get a bento, i usually buy a discounted onigiri at the konbini for a post-work snack, or cheap sushi for dinner. rice is sneaky here. you end up eating it all the time, without meaning to.
-i bow while talking on the phone. enough said.
- i don't wear shoes in my apartment, ever
- i pay my bills at the konbini. so konbini-ent!
- i smile so much that my cheeks frequently turn into painful little rocks under my eyes. i'm afraid that one day the muscles will spasm and i will be stuck looking like a gai-jin clown forever.
- i don't put soy sauce on my rice at work, even though i really, really want to. i'm too embarrassed, because it's unheard of to do that here. my fellow teachers were shocked when i told them that's how many people eat rice in Murica.
- i'm obsessed with several japanese snacks. these include: calbee saya chips (fried edamame), strawberry meiji chocolates, and kirin afternoon milk tea. i try to refrain from buying saya and meiji (rare treats!) since i demolish them in ungodly amounts of time, but i drink milk tea every afternoon (how appropriate!) after coming home from work. it's cold, sweet, and totally irresistible. sometimes, when i feel exceptionally tired or famished at work, i'll buy a milk tea box from our cafeteria. it's the best pick-me-up, especially since there's a kawaii zo (cute elephant) pictured on the cardboard. it makes me happy!

partial adjustments:
- sometimes i wear socks with my shoes at work (everyone else ALWAYS wears socks. i don't like the sock aesthetic, but i'm afraid that i'm disgusting everyone when i don't wear socks, so some days i suck it up and don them).
- sometimes i wash my hands before lunch, if i want to appear cleanly and mature like everyone else. everyone else washes up, but most days i can't be bothered. i figure...if i'm using chopsticks, i'm not touching the food, so why wash? (i'm a dirtclod.)
- most days i wear my hair in a ponytail or bun, but once in a while i'll let my sexy freak flag fly, and wear my hair down. none of the teachers or students with hair longer than shoulder-length wears it undone, but some days this girl's just gotta be free!
- occasionally, if i go into the bathroom while someone else is inside, i'll flush before i pee. all japanese women do this if someone else is present. apparently, hearing the actual noise of someone peeing is distasteful. who woulda thought? jokes! haha, every time someone does it when i walk into a bathroom, i have to suppress a whole lotta giggling.

ways in which i refuse to change:
- i don't sit properly. women are meant to kneel when they sit on the floor, but i insist on sitting like a man (cross-legged/indian style). wuz gud feminizm
- i don't brush my teeth after lunch in the office sink. my houbai (coworkers) brush and gargle loudly in the middle of the office post-eating. for some unfounded reason, it kind of grosses me out.
- i will not shave my eyebrows. not now, not ever. that's how they groom the good ol' forehead caterpillars in Nihon. two weeks ago, when i told my supervisor that i get my eyebrows waxed at home, she almost crashed the car.
- i will never, under any circumstances, wear a scrunchie. nor a romper.

i'm sure that there are many more little oddities to add to the list, but for now that's all i got! now, i'm off to learn more karada (body) vocabulary. ja neeeee (byeeee)!

sockless (for today, anyways),
riri-sensei

"my life would suck without english"

-the concluding sentence to an essay i graded today. i commented, "i love this! unfortunately, you can't use a word like "suck" in a formal essay. i wish we could!"

japan is a hotbed of nonstop hilarity. every day, there's something that's bound to crack me up. for instance, yesterday, as tracey and i drove home from miyazaki city (don't worry, will explain!), we stopped off for some gas. at the gas stations here, the attendants flock to your car to wash your windshield and windows, gussy up your rearview mirror charms, fluff your pillows, the works. and you don't even tip them! you don't even have to get out of the car! EHHHH?

so anyways, we paid our lovely helper, then moseyed our way to the station exit. we noticed that our attendant had followed our car, and was standing on the side of the road, diligently watching the cars go by.

"oh my gosh, tracey. i think he's going to tell us when we should pull out."
-"i think you're right."

sure enough, when the coast was clear, he gave a fancy wave of his hand, a gigantic smile, and bowed us out of the station. it was the funniest freaking thing i've ever seen!

the people here are just so nice, and so courteous, that it feels totally absurd. while driving, or on your bike, people in other cars bow to you, and you do the same. i always want to laugh!

more jokes to the jokes: every day, during the school's cleaning time, i sweep the hallway floors just outside the teachers' office. the same three boys always clean there, too, so i've struck up some japanglish conversations with them. today, one of them wanted to show off his mad skills, so he loudly announced, "THE BABY STOPPED CRYING." i said, "good!" and he continued, "I FINISHED THAT NOVEL LAST WEEK. I AM HUNGRY. THAT WAS A JOKE. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. THAT WAS A JOKE. I LOVE YOU, GOODBYE."

and more: today, i made a cameo appearance in a first-year class for my american-idol-esque moment of singing green day's "wake me up when september ends" for the students. for some ungodly reason, they go ballistic when i sing, and i turn beet red and am super awkward, which they love even more. today i was meant to sing and peace out, since they had other stuff to do. so, after singing practice was done, i packed up my stuff. my JTE (japanese teacher of english) said, "okay, say goodbye to riri-sensei...."

...which caused a boy sitting towards the back to jump out of his chair and indignantly scream, "EHHHHHH?!?!" (i am trying to figure out how to translate the interjection "EHHHHHH" into english. so far, i have equated it with "wow," "OH MY GOSH," "really?" "no way," and "huh?" i have no idea if any of these are correct).

long story short, i was terribly flattered that he was so upset i was leaving! however, i was also a little...suspicious.

much to my chagrin (and extreme discomfort), i have caught, literally, dozens of students staring at my butt! i don't know why they find it so interesting. it's an effing wasteland (haha, no pun intended!). but(t) for reals, i don't have a whole lot going on back there...why are they so intrigued?? i will get to the bottom(!) of this. in the meantime, i'm not quite sure what to do. constantly stand against a wall?

anyway, all random hilariousness aside, you might be wondering what i've been doing with my life. well, this past weekend, tracey and i hopped in her car to go to miyazaki city for its matsuri (festival). we stayed with lovely carmen on friday night, and dined at a cute little italian place fo dinna. saturday, we donned some bright green robes for the matsuri, and danced in the parade for over an hour! our jetling group had its own special choreography, so it was really fun (though extremely tiring in the crippling heat).

afterward, we had a sponsored after-party (thank you, japanese taxpayers) at a local izakaya, and lovely irish john and irish matt played some sweet irish melodies on their guitars. they also happened to sing a rather salty ditty about a loose japanese mother, which luckily seemed to zoom over the heads of most of the japanese guests present!

later that night, our group headed off to a bar for some drinking and socializing, which of course was superbly fun! i feel so lucky to be in such a social prefecture...if it weren't for the other jets, i wouldn't be having nearly as much of a good time. hooray for friends!

and on that happy note, i should be off...tracey's cooking up a storm over at her place, and i've gotta get me summa dat. i'll leave you with this essay gem:

"when I was first in high school, i really hated math as same as shitake mushrooms. now I like math as same as cheese cakes."

cheesecakily,
lilly

running

oh, what a mistake to make!

yesterday, wanting to wait until the unforgiving sun went down a bit, i decided to go for a little run at dusk. things started out fine; it felt good to really use my legs again (hadn't in about two months), and the path was so scenic. with the rolling hills and vibrantly green rice paddies whizzing by, i felt energized and happy--until i began to sweat.

back home, i sweat a little bit when i run. here, i become a human waterfall. my loose shirt was completely stuck to me, sweat rolled down my arms and face and legs, and i had a face redder than a tomato.

i didn't mind too much, other than having to bid people "konnichiwa" while looking like a freak. however, about halfway through my rice paddy jaunt, brown clouds of mosquitos appeared out of nowhere. they began hitting my face and arms as i went, sticking to my sweat. then, as my mouth was open and panting, a poor bugger flew in.

he was flying around in my throat, and i tried to spit him out, but he was stuck....so i ate him. it was an awful decision to have to make, but it was the only one possible.

i'm not quite sure if i want to run again anytime soon. maybe i'll find a more civilized route...one not plagued with bloodsuckers. wish me luck!

also, sidenote: after singing at the culture festival, the english teachers have decided to use me as a human jukebox during class. this week, i've sung green day's "wake me up when september ends" to four classes. i didn't really mind, but when i sang this morning, the kids shrieked for me to keep going. i turned really red, said i was embarrassed, and they all lost their heads and began clapping and screaming. what have i done?!

with a stomach full of mosquito larvae,
lilly

culture, sports, another welcome enkai, and conveyor belt sushi

greetings, chaps! i'm currently sweating it out in my neat-as-a-pin apartment, which i spent all day today cleaning! i had yesterday and today off of school, because this weekend was seiun's culture festival and sports day.

let me tell you...a long, seven-day workweek is hard to hack. i shouldn't be complaining, because out of all the teachers at my school i definitely work the least amount of hours and have the easiest time of it, but the long days at the office definitely take some getting used to. this past week, a few of the days i was working for twelve hours! the teachers in japan are really, really pushed to the limit. some of my colleagues arrive at school before 7am, and leave as late as eleven at night. it's mind-boggling!

a few other tidbits about japanese working life: everyone is very polite and very serious in the office, or at least in mine. when first entering the teacher's room in the morning, everyone announces "ohayo gozaiiiimasuu," (good morning) with a bow, and the rest of the people in the room respond in kind. when leaving, you announce "otsukare samadeshita" (kind of means "good job, you must be tired") with a bow, and the others respond in turn. i always feel really awkward and guilty whenever i leave, because i'm almost always the first one to go (even if i'm staying an hour or two past my agreed working hours!). also, at lunch, people don't talk. everyone eats their bento boxes silently at their desks. i'm slowly starting to get used to it, but i also wish i could be a little bit more social at work.

however, this seriousness of day-to-day school life was interrupted on friday, when the cultural festival kicked off in nobeoka's community center. i was so excited to see what the students had prepared, and was not disappointed! there was dancing, taiko (drums), singing, skits, and a whole bunch more!

the next day, in the school's gym, i participated in the opening ceremonies by singing "for the beauty of the earth" with three of the students. right before we sang, i recited the lyrics of the song, and then we jammed! the teachers were really sweet about it the rest of the day, telling me that they enjoyed it, so it was a nice feeling to be able to contribute something to the festivities. after that, there was a speech contest; i was really excited to watch, because i had helped a few of the girls with their practice. they did a great job!

next, i got to participate in tea ceremony with a bunch of other teachers. it was a really beautiful event. we all sat in a square on tatami mats, and the student members of the tea ceremony club served us a soft, delicious sweet bean cake and some very strong green tea. the ceremony had a lot of steps (turning the cups, lots of bowing, and specific ladling), so everyone was watching with interest. i could also tell that a lot of the participants were discreetly staring at me, and seeing how i ate and drank. honestly, i was really nervous, and tried to be as graceful as possible! lucily, i didn't make any gigantic goofs. the only downside was that we had to kneel for the entire time. when i got up, i almost collapsed because i couldn't feel my legs. oops!

the day ended with prizes awarded to the best class chorus, the best skits, etc. i didn't take a video of that, but i DID shoot some reel of the performances. click here to have a look! it's well worth it...the kids are awesome!

the next day was sports day, and i was really keen on seeing what sorts of relays the student would do. no disappointments there! well, the day started with marching and salutations (little intimidating and unfamiliar to this gai jin, but no worries!), then launched into running races. it soon began to pour rain, but eventually it cleared up before the relays. japanese relays are awesome! they do stuff with poles, scoot around on sticks, combat in really epic tug-of-wars, and overall are really entertaining! click here to see some of the action!

the students take this all extremely seriously. while they have fun, they also scream "ganbarre, ganbarre!" (fight, fight!) to their teammates, and try desperately to win. there are three teams: white, red, and blue, and they earn points throughout the day. when the blue team won at the end of the day, the winners broke down sobbing. boys, girls, everyone, wept. i think they were all so exhausted and emotionally drained from playing their hardest in the scorching heat, that all they could do was cry! okay, so maybe i teared up a little, too!

i was absolutely shattered after sports day. the long week, coupled with a day spent in the outdoor sauna that is nobeoka, made me dead to the world. i came home, showered, and tried to rally for my second welcome enkai (drinking party), which was later that night. tracey basically saved my life, and really kindly offered to drive me to the location, pep talking me along the way. by the time i got there, i was a lot happier--and continued to enjoy myself throughout the night. predictably, the enkai was hilarious.

there were two long tables in the restaurant, and because i arrived early, they were almost empty. my supervisor told me to sit next to a young male teacher at one of the tables, i think as a joke. when i approached him and asked, "ogenki desu ga?" (how are you?), he started cracking up, giggling like a kid! i then figured out that i was sitting at the men's table, but i didn't move. a few more female teachers ended up sitting at the table later, but overall it was pretty gender-segregated. i really enjoyed chatting it up with the teachers, though! we talked about all sorts of things: music, food, and the fact that in japan, short skirts don't matter, but sleeveless tops garner lots of attention (i was totally right about this, by the way!).

i then made a little speech in japanese (courtesy of google translate and one of the english teachers), much to the thrill of the other teachers. they were whooping and cheering the whole time! the contrast between how everyone acts at work, and outside of of work, is extremely stark. i had a little "question time" following my speech, and was asked which of male teachers i would want to..."take" if the world was going to blow up tomorrow. i answered, "kocho-sensei," the principal, because "he is very kind and respectable." they liked my answer! there were some other hilarious questions, too, as everyone got drunker and drunker...at the after-party, at a local bar, about five of the male teachesr had a little competition to see which of them could give me the best offer as a boyfriend. i don't remember all of the responses, but one of them was like, "i would travel around japan with you," and another was "i would give you lots of money."

i picked the teacher with the travel proposal, explaining that i like to be equal with my boyfriends, and don't want them giving me anything...especially money! the other teachers found that quite amusing and interesting.

anywho, all in all, the night was really excellent! i've said it before, and i'll say it again: i'm so lucky to be at seiun!

yesterday, i took full advantage of my day off, and spent a fun-filled day with fellow jetter matt. he introduced me to conveyor belt sushi, which is everything a glutton like me could want! i have become such a seafood convert since coming here (are you rejoicing, helen, mom, and dad?), and am now determined to eat as much cheap sushi as i can. sidenote: i also told my supervisor about my goal to try every japanese snack food there is, and she flatly said, "maybe you will become fat." hahaha, gotta love it!

i think that's about all i have in me at the moment...must skedaddle to bed before too long! oh, and apply my bug bite ointment...they have exploded into tumors. i look diseased!

spotted,
lilly

too much!

too much kindness, too much unfamiliarity, too much fun, too much school, too much fire, too much heat, too much hilarity, too much itchiness, too much wildlife, and way, way, WAY too much slacking on the blog!

i hope you can forgive me!

i haven't posted fo reals in a week, and i'm really sorry! once you hear about all the mischief i've been getting into, perhaps you'll understand my cyberspace reticence.

in my last real post, i left off by telling you about japanese yoga class last tuesday. the next night, i again had the pleasure of spending the evening with real, live japanese people! who would've thought?!

my kyoto-sensei (vice principal) invited me to his friends' house for dinner, and i was thrilled to oblige. the family, which was of course the nicest group of people ever, consisted of a mom, dad, and daughter named yuriko. i thought yuriko was maybe twelve or thirteen...so imagine my surprise when i found out we're the same age! i thought it was a cruel joke at first, trying to trick the gai jin. but no--she's in college! what the heck?

the dinner was, naturally, amazing. there was salad, chicken nanban (yessssss), six types of sushi, fried fish, you name it. and on top of it all, the family made me this gorgeous wall decoration with shodo (calligraphy) on it that means "always smile, lillian." i teared up so badly when they gave it to me! i'm still constantly overwhelmed by how generous and kind japanese people are to me. as cheesy as it sounds, they make me want to be a better person!

but you've already heard that a million times from me, so let's press on with the recap. last week, i also started coaching a really sweet second year who is participating in an english speech contest. helping her has actually benefited me as well; now i know the main pronunciation problems japanese people have. their struggles with "L"s are already well known and (rather unfairly) mocked, but "th"s, "v"s, "pr"s, and "f"s are probably even more difficult for them. i really admire any japanese person who is serious about learning english...it must be so frustrating trying to pronounce those seemingly impossible sounds!

anyways, aside from doing that little private tutoring, i was kept isogashii (busy) with classes! i finished up with my introduction lesson, and was able to plan and execute two relatively successful lessons for my students! i was happy to get started, but it's challenging. the students are either dog-tired, or they're bouncing off the walls and pummeling each other. i kind of like when they're crazy!

i taught the 1-2 class (first years) one morning, and began with a warm-up game of telephone. for the row with all the wild, out-of-control boys, i whispered, "please introduce me to her." when the last kid came to the board to write the sentence, he giggled, and egged on by his mates, wrote: "Baby, please stay." i laughed hysterically, yelled "NO," which made the boys bust up laughing, and corrected it amidst whoops and hollers. gotta love the cheekiness!

on friday, classes were replaced with practice for "sports day," which will be this upcoming sunday. unlike any "sports day" or "spirit day" i've experienced in school, this is actually a serious commitment to physical activity.

oh, but i almost forgot; before the practice began, i gave my speech in front of the whole school. it went well, though i was doki-doki (nervous). when i first walked onstage with the principal, i followed suit when he bowed towards the big japanese flag. i feel so awkward when i bow. i do it all the time, and actually kinda hate it! i like the thought behind it, and what it signifies, but it still makes me uneasy!

anywhooo, back to the story. sports practice began with all of the students sitting in perfect rows and columns on the gym floor. someone said something in japanese, like a call to prayer, and everyone put their heads down in perfect silence. it lasted a minute or two. i have no idea what this was, but i've never seen so many people be silent all at once. it was eerie!

the noise level rose drastically a few minutes later. practice began with marching...military style, in place. the kids call out ichi, ni! ichi, ni! (one, two!) as they go. no one messes up. then, icing on the cake, they all salute...in the "sieg, heil!" style. when they first did it, my mouth involuntarily dropped open. one of the english teachers, who has an american wife, came over to me and told me that it has nothing to do with nazism, and that his wife had been similarly surprised upon first seeing it. i'm taking a video of it this sunday, so don't be shocked!

right after school on friday, i zipped home lickety-split so that tracey and i could hustle to the train station. we took two trains down to miyakonojo, where we'd be spending the night with JETlings melissa and carmen. wonderfully, we were also joined by some other JET peeps, and hit the hard streets of miyakonojo for a girls' night out! we ended up going to a delightful little burger place for dinner, and our tatted up (rare!) waiter kindly took this picture of us.

the place was vaguely 50s style, but had concrete-looking walls. i surmised that maybe it was modeled after a bomb shelter!

after some good post-dinner chillaxing with the gang, we hit the hay so that we'd be ready for the next day's festivities! saturday, we met up with even more JETs at jusco (kind of a department store, but also with food!). we bought supplies for our imminent beach camping, which of course included lots of food and beer.

i snacked on this salad in the car. those little white things are fish...with eyeballs! they're the salad's seasoning

finally stocked up with the essentials, we embarked on our journey to nichinan, a beach on the southernmost part of kyushu. the drive there was unbelievably gorgeous, marked by deep, forest-filled gorges, overhanging foliage, and an azure coast. i heartily wished i could've taken pictures from the car, but we were going too fast!

we arrived at the beach in the afternoon, and set up camp. the beach was very pretty, but unfortunately had a lot of trash. the water was still crystalline, though!

atsui desu ne?! (isn't it hot?) it was. it was freaking miserably hot!

but tracey and i managed to set up our wee tent just fine :)

jetlings frolicking post-rainfall. we all swam in the warm, salty ocean until it began to rain, then toweled off and continued the revelry!

post-swim, and too zoomed in.

after our frolicking was finished, we hopped back into our cars to high-tail it to the cape toi fire festival. there were about thirty JETs there, so it was extra fun! getting to see all the peeps, plus watching japanese guys fling balls of fire into the air, plus seeing a giant pole catch on fire, plus spectacular fireworks, all made the evening extra special! click here for my super bootleg mishmash video of the festivities! and enjoy the screaming!

that night, we returned to the beach to crack open our brewskies and enjoy one another's company. it was the perfect end to a perfect day! some of us even jumped into the ocean again..a decision later regretted, when our tents were full of sand and we were itching everywhere.

in fact, i am still itchy from the weekend. i don't know if it was mosquitos, or sand fleas, or what, but i got ripped apart by insects. i got dozens of bites. here are a few pictures of the heinousness:

gross! now that i've applied applied salve to them, they're scabby, gristly nubbins. i went on an emergency run to the drugstore with yuka, because i woke up on monday morning in a scratching frenzy. the bites were absolutely maddening! i seriously considered trying to slice off the tops with a razor, then rubbing salt in them. yikes!

i had always thought that it would be impossible for me to live in a tropical climate, but honestly, besides the bites and heat i really like it. biking to school this morning, i had to swerve three different times to avoid running over crabs the size of my hand. and during choir practice, the windows were open, and five different gigantic butterflies invaded the classroom. there's just always somethin'.

anyways, i think that that's quite enough for tonight. i've been totally wiped out, so i'm sorry again for the lazy postings. i'll try to be better! coming soon: seiun's cultural festival, sports day, ANOTHER welcome enkai (dinner/drinking party) for me on sunday night with all the teachers, and surefire hilarity. much love from me to you!

beri beri cute-u (according to students),
lilly

way too exhausted to do anything...

...besides give you a link to my video tour of my apartment. it's very silly!

i just built a spacemaker pantry thing. i've never been more proud in my entire life! i did it all maself...with japanese instructions. woohoo!

but now i need to wash up and go to bed. so tired. cannot think.

enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wqJO4q4JYk