dog days

hello from the hottest place on earth. though i'm currently sitting in a nicely airconditioned staff room, outside it is like a gigantic sweaty armpit. however, i must say that i think it's a bit cooler than last summer! thank goodness!

weather talk aside, life has slowed considerably since my last post. my school is on summer holiday, which means that most teachers are on vacation. aka i'm often jibun de (alone) in the staff room with absolutely nada to do. i know i'm supposed to be studying japanese, but really? for 8 hours a day? NOAP

so now i'm discreetly updating da blob. you're welcome! i think that it's safe to say that the hong kong blob will never come--sorrrrrry. suffice to say that it was awesome. for now, i'll recap the past few weeks!

i tried to cram in as much time with mashuu as i could before he departed for the emerald isle he calls home. the week before he left, we and some other JETlings got together in hyuga (city a half hour south of nobeoka) for a beach bbq. MASH made amazing kebabs for grillin', we played soccer in the sand (i say 'we' loosely; i quit after 10 minutes), and waded up to our knees in the ocean. it was a perfect saturday summer afternoon!

then, much to matt's chagrin, two kiddles started chasing him with water guns

he tried to tackle them, failed. they schooled him!

some of the bbq tomodachi

frolicking in the sand

that night, we headed south to miyakonojo, where some jets were gathering for a night out. ended up staying out until 5am, oops! mcdonald's later in the morning cured all. it's the breakfast of hungover champions!

the following week, matt was evicted from his apa-to (aka his lease was over), so he came to stay in nobeoka for a few days before his friday departure. it was really lovely having him around!

the night before he left, we went back to the little indian restaurant in nobeoka where we ate on christmas eve last year. it was dang good.

e-e-e-e ecstasyyyy

anywho, the next day i left work at noon to accompany matt to drive to takanabe, where he finally relinquished the mystery machine to tristan (who looks way more like shaggy than matt does, so it's fitting), say goodbye to tristan and claire, and then head on the train to the miyazaki airport to say goodbye.

a few airport beers later, we said adieu (for now!) and i headed over to carmen's. she and tracey and i got a delightful conveyor belt sushi din! ooo, and we got to meet some of the new JETs! they're so fresh and full of questions. just wait until they're disillusioned and bitter, like me. JOKES!

the next day, it was the erekoccha festival in miyazaki city. aka the opportunity for us gai-jin freaks to dance in the streets. before practice, though, we walked around, i ate a delicious jersey milk soft-serve, and we watched other performances.

like these kawaii girlios from omiya high school (i did their english camp last year!). cuteo cuteo! lol they danced to "under the sea" as we screamed from the sidelines

we bustled over to the city hall to re-learn the same dances we performed last year. the most adorable japanese granny EVER teaches it. i was so happy to see her again!

whereas other groups form organized, rigid lines for the parade of dancing, our group was a formless, shouting blob of excitement and missteps. everyone loved us.

but they loved the cross-dressing group of perverts behind us even more. these fellas were complete with fake boobs and drunken, suggestive dancing.

and yes. they shamefully even had a guy in blackface. oh, japan!

our haphazard dancing troupe of fools

the festival also had lots of pretty girls in old-fashioned-type dresses and hats. i thought these chicas were really cute in their yellow! and the dresses remind me of charlie brown's shirt.

after the dance, i had to get a pic with my wannabe japanese granny! SO CUTE. SO TINY.

it was literally a festival extravaganza that weekend. the next day was the nobeoka hanabi (fireworks; lit. flower fire) festival, which could only mean one thing--tracey's and my friend abe-chan would dress us up!

summer kimonos are called yukata, and while tracey had bought hers at jusco, the local department store, abe-chan was kind enough to lend me one of hers. she was also kind enough to give us a sushi and donut dinner prior to dressing us! she's a total sweetheart!

it doesn't look like it, but these bad boys are extremely tight around your middle. various ropes are cinched at your waist, i guess to prevent breathing.

once finished, obvio we had to have a little photo shoot outside!

me and abe-chan

the fireworks themselves were amazing, as usual. japan seriously has the best fireworks shows i've ever seen. they last for about 40 minutes, and set off hundreds upon hundreds! the riverbanks were crowded with people when we showed up, including some of our students (embarrassing), but we had a grand time.

honestly, nothing much happened last week. i had zero to do at school, though i did get a health check (healthy as a hog, go fig) at the hospital. ooo, and on friday, nico+keith+tracey+junko+new JET gerhard+me went to pian piano, a bootleg pizza place in nobeoka. yum!

then, on saturday, we headed to hyuga for their matsuri. it's famous for being a fertility-themed festival, so we got to watch different groups of masked japanese people grinding their loins onstage. it was highly entertaining! basically, first a person in a fox mask comes out, then a person in a lady mask, then a bunch of dudes. if you watch this wee video carefully, you'll see that the leader of this group (far right) is an adorable tot in the fox mask! cuteo cuteo!



after the festival, of course we went to mackers (south african nickname for mickey d's), then to keiths for some drank. sufficiently tanked, we got our paws on some fireworks and went up to the rather seclusive kadogawa lookout point to set them off. hooray!

and as for this past week, though it was largely uneventful, we did have a welcome party for new nobeoka neko tierra (from washington, dc) at a local izakaya. and THEN, on wednesday, all hell broke loose at school...

JOKES. but it was cake day!! my muzza (how they pronounce mother here, haha) had sent me a box of yellow cake mix and funfetti frosting last year, and they sat sadly in my kitchen for months, since i have no oven. but since my supervisor and i had nothing to do at school, she suggested we have a cooking day! i told her i'd bring "trashy cake."

with the help of mimura sensei, the home ec teacher, we made trashy cake and my supervisor made absolutely drool-worthy yakisoba (MY FAVORITE) and wakame soup. we had a humongous lunch, then i frosted and sprinkled the two cakes (they were too lumpy to stack on each other to make one double-layered cake).

i sprinkled the funfetti on one, and let mimura sensei sprinkle the other. obviously, i totally covered mine--but she only used a little bit, which completely cracked me up. although i wanted to use all the funfetti, i decided to let it go.

we were joined by several other teachers, who all oohed and aahed over the cake, commenting on how very "american" it looked (why?!). we noshed on the cake and some coffee, and everyone seemed to like it just fine! yay!

we still had another cake left, though, so we brought it to the ladies who work in the office downstairs. they similarly were excited by the "american colors" and "cuteo"-ness of it, and yesterday each lady came to personally thank me, awww! so sweet!

anyways, it's just about lunch time here, and i wanna get ma grub on. this weekend i'm off to fukuoka for some shopping with da peepz, so perhaps next time i'll be bloggin' about that. sorry for the reticence on my part, i never learn!

hungry mungry,
riri