I realize its been a long time since I've posted anything- but the outraged cyber community has contacted me and I agreed to reconnect with the world wide web. I am in Okinawa now and it is quite incredible. There is something really special about the way the air smells and sun shines. I spent the night in Kagoshima and went out to a really fantastic jazz performance on Friday night and then took a 26 hour ferry to Naha city. If Naha were a recipe it would go like this, one part California, one part Hawaii, and two parts Japan. It is nothing like Kyushu. The locals eat taco rice and glide around a dreamy monorail that plays the most cute-sy music imaginable. I met some other English teachers and yesterday we went to the Peace Memorial about an hour outside of Naha and to some historical caves that some teenage girls used to fix up wounded soldiers in.
We then ate Christmas dinner in a giant tree.
Ohh yeah, and on Christmas eve the hostel I am staying at, which is probably the best hostel I've ever been to, had a Christmas party and we ate fondue, nabe (a traditional Japanese dish) and Christmas cake (Ku-ri-su-ma-su Kee-ki). It was fun.
At the height of the excitement a Japanese man and I tried to figure out who sang this really horrible 90's song for about three hours and then someone randomly tried to teach me how to play Okinawa style drums. After a few beers me and this other Japanese girl who spoke really good English promised to take me to play pachinko the next day but we never got around to it. Luckily. On Christmas night, me and the other two English teachers went to a salsa club and meandered around the brightly lit streets. It was strange because Christmas eve is kind of a big thing here, but nobody cares about Christmas day, everyone goes to work and goes about their typical business. Today I went to the Shuri Castle which I can't really say anything that the pictures can't.

Christmas Break

I finally got around to finalizing my Christmas break plans. I'm taking a ferry to Okinawa from Kagoshima for a week, catching a plane from Okinawa to Seoul S Korea for another week, and then back to Miyazaki where I'll catch a late night train back right before I have to be at work again. It should be nice and warm in Okinawa for Christmas and freezing in Seoul for New Years.

Wouldn't it be phenomenal if I wrote everything I was really thinking? If I just let all the bizarre thoughts I have seep out into the world wide blogosphere? I have been a tad bit reflective today, as living in a foreign country can nudge you to be. I guess I am thinking about this because I have finally come to terms with the fact that I am not Japanese-nor will I ever be. The news hit me hard the day before yesterday as I went to the downtown office to pick up my alien registration card. I was thinking of getting some cigars and getting the phrase "Its a foreigner" written on the cigars to pass out to all of my friends- which totals about two in this neck of the woods. I can afford that. It would definitely NOT be written in Kanji. Thats how non-Japanese I am. I think I am starting to come down from the initial high of being here and living in a foreign country. After discovering that I wasn't Japanese I also came to terms with the fact that my Japanese language speaking ability has become stagnant and is in great need of attention. While I am able to understand for the most part what "real Japanese" people say and are conveying with speaking and non-speaking (Japanese sometimes talk with silence) I have become less effective as a communicator and have nothing to blame but my own laziness and the existence of websites with tv shows on them. There were many other signs that I am in fact NOT Japanese but I was unable to "be a man" and face the situation. Telltale signs include: not understanding how to separate your trash properly and burn it, having the water guy come to your work to collect money for your bill because you didn't know it was a bill, and having a bad case of round eye. That one for sure. Other possible side effects may include nobody wanting to sit by you on the train. Although there is no cure for not being Japanese...... Yes so I am still so happy to be here and I can really give it my all now that my lovely Mother sent me a huge jar of peanut butter (my protein levels are now recharged) but sometimes it is tuff(sic)- not being Japanese.
Anybody else ever had this problem?

Thanksgiving

This weekend was Japanese labor day which means I had an extra day off. My friend Sarah's friend from Nagoya came to visit and we cooked and ate ridiculous amounts of food and caught the train to Miyazaki. We stayed in a hotel with a room the size of a Japanese shoe box, partook in our first yaki-niku (BBQ all you can eat), and enjoyed the beach. Pretty much all we did all weekend was eat. Other notables this weekend, even though we traveled one hour away from Miyakonojo, a small city of about 300,000 people to an even larger city, people still shouted knew us and where we were from. Strange. I feel like an animal at the zoo on display.
Cook your own damn food!

This week has been pretty quiet, I have been at work,running, studying a tiny bit of Japanese, reading, or using toilet cleaners as bath fizz because I am somewhat illiterate. My alien registration card finally came through and I am officially not Japanese. I have made the executive decision to put off visiting Hiroshima this weekend and go to Miyazaki instead with Sarah to meet a friend of hers from Osaka. Her friend was employed with the now defunct NOVA program (huge company that employed many English teachers in Japan) so we are going to show the city folk around Kyushu. There are some really cool shrines to check out in Miyazaki city, some nice beaches, and the remnants of one of the worlds only indoor beaches.

Talking Airplanes

I saw something remarkable today, but before I get to that here is a picture of the kids new Winter uniform.
It is so cute and they have this little navy blue French looking hat they wear with it. I was standing on the playground at school today watching the kids when I heard what sounded like a vehicle talking. I have seen these quite a few times in Japan, street cleaners, ambulance, and also vehicles promoting certain candidates for elections drive around and give a message to the people at a very high volume. Sometimes saying "Caution" or things of that sort but what I was hearing today was not a talking car, but a talking airplane. Yes that right. I couldn't make out what it was saying but I asked quite a few people and I suppose it is pretty standard for planes to advertise sales at department stores or impending festivals. This is one of the many surprises I have encountered in Japan. A few other notables are that every Wednesday the whole country smells weird because it is trash burning day. Also, the Japanese have a bunch of funny noises they make as they engage in particular tasks. For example, when someone is about to fall they say "Otoitoitoi"on thier way down, or when they see somebody else lifting anything they say "yoish" for them as if they are helping them lift the object. There are also a new set of superstitions for me to learn that are indigenous to Japan. It is bad luck to clip your fingernails after nightfall, the number four is very unlucky (because the number four/shi is the same word for death) and is often left out of most buildings, and you are supposed to hide your thumbs if a funeral procession passes me by. I learn new ones everyday. Just yesterday my boss told me that I should be careful to make sure my right shoe is on the right side when I put my shoes on. I had accidentally flopped them down backwards a few times before. It also really bothers Japanese people if you go out side into the rain without an umbrella. Having lived in Seattle for the past year or so I gave up on having to constantly tote around an extra object that I was likely to lose at any given place so this is a hard one for me to accept. I don't like riding a bike with an umbrella but I would rather try then have ten people stop me to offer me their umbrella. More to come. Here is a clip of my apartment.

I went to Kagoshima again this weekend again, this time by myself. Last week a local yet not Japanese dude recommended I come back to check out the Ohara festival. 20,000 people in the streets dressed up in traditional clothing and dancing is definitely worth an hour train ride. I was also able to get an eyeful of the Tsurumaru-jo Castle, see the monument to the loyal Shimazu lords during the Satsuma rebellion, and some other historical stuff. Kagoshima is a very special place because it was one of the first places to have contact with the West and Kyushu area is thought to be home to the first Japanese people. I ducked out of the festival for a bit and took a half hour hike up this path not knowing where it lead but I was happy to find an unbelievable view with an echo of festival noises. At the hostel I stayed at I met a Dutch women who was a banker that quit her job to travel around China and Russia for awhile, we decided to go check out this really famous onsen(hotspring) called Furusato the next day on Sakurajima (home of the feisty volcano). This is probably the coolest thing I've done in Japan so far. This hotspring is part of a shrine so you have to wear a yukatta, a sort of kimono looking thing, when you get into the water. Onsens have varying temperatures, depending on what area of hot water it is pipped into underground. I kept visualizing the volcano heating up and the water boiling with me in it., I visualized it like a cartoon though. Brooke stew. But the great thing about this onsen was that a) there was a sideways elevator to get to it b) It was outside overlooking the ocean c) It is part of a shrine d) There was a really beautiful indoor one as well just for women. Words can't describe this one. Hopefully pictures will do it a little justice. I can't think of anything more relaxing then this hotspring, tucked away on the back a quiet island. Oh yeah, it was strange coincidence the person that recommended I come to the festival happened to be at the onsen as well so I was able to meet his friends- some other Western English teachers. Here is a picture of some women making some fresh soybean treats. They were faster then ninjas. After the hotspring I hadn't eaten anything yet so I was starving and someone told us to go to this sushi place with a conveyer belt. I had the most amazing eggplant sushi. Yum. I laugh a lot at these sashimi boats. A little bit of raw fish venturing out into an unknown world. Good luck dear fish.