These entries are becoming few and far between, but I'm just going to blame that on Greenwich Mean time, the International Dateline, Daylights savings, and other unlikely sources. What can I say? It's June, its getting muggy outside, typhoon season here, earthquake season here, rainy season here, apparently there are five seasons in Miyakonojo. After the initial euphoria of Springtime and the arrival of Cherry Blossoms, there is a long, dreary, muggy, rainy season, of which I was totally unaware. This has inflicted a bit of depression on me, keeping me bound in my aparto (Japanese for apartment) and kept begrudgingly watching internet TV for 48 hour intervals at a time coupled with a bit of Shojou and a lot of Skyping. The good news is that I started private Japanese Lessons finally, twice a week, and I am already feeling more confident about my communication skills. Yesterday my teacher gave me a Japanese cooking lesson in which we made tofu steak and rice balls. Apart from that, today I purchased a ticket to Tokyo for my break in August because: I AM CLIMBING MT. FUJI! Yes it is true, I am climbing the highest mountain in Japan, AND, there is a post office at the top, so if you would like a postcard, send me your address. So I'm rolling in to Tokyo for a few days, going to Fuji San, then going to the Headquaters of Japanese Buddism: Mt. Koya. Here I will stay in a temple and wake early morning to meditate with the monks, eat vegetarian fare (as usual), and discover the secrets of life. After my enlightenment, I will be going back to Kyoto, a place for which I feel my visit was cut too short last time, relax for a few days and then fly back to Miyazaki. Ohhh yes, and also, Mt. Koya is part of the 88 Temple Pilgrimage on the island of Shikoku which I am thinking about doing before I leave Japan. Check out the link: Click Me.
Other then this, I am starting to save for my around the world trip for when I retire from Universe Academy. Known locations so far are The Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Taiwan, Thailand, and possibly Indonesia, ,Nepal, Bhutan, and India. I would like to fit New Zealand in too but I don't know if finances will permit. I need some gas money for when I move back to the US. I can't think of much else to say. I went to Fukuoka a month or so ago and fell in love with it. I stayed with a fellow Californian who showed me as well a another Californian living in the Tokyo area around town. We got massages, went to a Latin dance and Hip Hop club, ate good Indian food, and I saw Fukuoka's largest festival. Thousands of people banging rice scoopers together. Very Japanese yeah? It was a marvelous time. Last weekend I went out in Miyakonojo to a rooftop beergarden on top of this hotel nearby my house for a b-day party of antoher English teacher in town. Good times. I was supposed to wake up the next day at 8 am to go hike up to one of the tallest shrines (takes about 3 hours) in Kumamoto but forgot to set my alarm. Gomen nasai Yasue San. In other news, this month I hurt my knee running too much outside. Ever since I found the bike path that treks out through the middle of the agriculture fields away from civilization I have been going a little overboard and really did myself in so I haven't been able to get out much but I started my re-training for the Fuji climb today by running 8 kilometers. I need to capable of a lot more. In other news: I got a webcam, my mom sent me an awesome package (love you mom) and my boss got my sock out of my vacuum. Hope to hear from you soon. Ohhh one last thing, my co-worker who is eight months pregnant, brought me watermelon tsukemono today with soy sauce to go on top. Watermelon and soy are not two things I would normally think of to go together but I ate it up anyhow.
She is bringing me a large container on Monday, if you know ANYBODY who can help me eat all this pickled watermelon shell, help. Here are a few clips of one of my best pals Riko, the next genius of the world.

Above: Shoe swaping at school. It is almost Golden Week (the one week where people are excused from work in Japan) and I am making plans to travel to Fukuoka, the biggest city in Kyushu. This time, there will be nobody involved but me and probably about 2 million other people on vacation. I am booking my hotel today (yes unbelievable but I am not staying at a hostel) and everything is nearly full. The reason behind this is not only Golden Week itself, but I have just learned today that there is also a huge festival in the city during this very weekend. Here is WikiTravel's description of it:

Hakata Dontaku (博多どんたく) is held in Fukuoka City on May 3 and 4. Boasting over 800 years of history, Dontaku is attended by more than 2 million people, making it the Japanese festival with the highest attendance during Japan's Golden Week holidays. During the festival, stages are erected throughout downtown for traditional performances and a parade of floats is held.

Festivals are always fun alcohol infused events for the locals (and me often enough) that make for an interesting weekend rather then my run of the mill routine of going to the 7-11, getting stared at, me waving, and then going home for three hours to think about it. I'm excited to see Fukuoka, I've heard nothing but good things about it and heard that there is a lot of good people watching to do. The excitement of people watching may seem unfathomable to those of you with busy productive lives, but I assure you that it us even more enjoyable when experienced in a country with different customs and human interactions. I'm not dead set on what else I will do in Fukuoka for five days but I have a Lonely Planet travelbook to help me navigate all the museums, parks, and undoubtedly vending machines. By the way I saw a gum vending machine in Miyakonojo yesterday and was impressed. This was of course a mere precursor to what I was to later on in the day see in the same downtown area. I will later post a picture of this rare find but I believe that I have stumbled upon the first vending machine ever invented right here in Miyakonojo. I was riding my bike by this filthy rust covered, prehistoric looking contraption that seemed to have some sort of old fashioned beverage in it and it all made sense that if the oldest man in the world lived here, the first vending machine was probably invented here too. Speaking of old things in the area, I may have mentioned before that Kyushu is interesting for a number of reasons, all of which I am sure I have only convinced myself are true because I am on contract to live here for a minimum of five more months, ANYHOW these reasons are: In Kagoshima, the prefecture directly adjacent to Miyazaki prefecture, only about a thirty minute drive away from where I live is home to a 10,000 year old site where the oldest human remains in Japan have been founding, suggesting that people initially immigrated from the south and first settled around here. This was discovered when a construction crew was digging up some dirt to create a hotel and undoubtedly a pachinko parlor or two. Reason number two, Kagoshima, is also, where Matthew Perry, first came to Japan when it was a closed society and said "Knock, knock", and Japan was like " Dare desu ka? ((who is there?))", and Matthew Perry was like "Its the rest of the world, now open up so we can trade with you". Ok ok, but Kyushu is also cool because it is infamous for beautiful landscape, forests, volcanoes, open space that is usually not associated with living in Japan, and its crazy out of control male chauvinism that according to my friend Kumiko can only be rivaled the the equally backwood mentality of Yokohama. Maybe that is not cool but it is funny in its own right at times, and Kyushu is also renowned for its heavy drinking of Shoujou which is making a big comeback and is preferred over sake to most in the reason. So to not go on and on, I am excited to see more of Kyushu. Fukuoka has a ferry that can take you to Korea or China in a few hours, and is the area of Japan that is closest to these now bustling markets. What does this mean? Cheap shopping. Something new. I will post some pictures when I get back from my trip. For now, here are a few random school pictures and a photo from last night when my friend Tomoko's German boyfriend came all the way to Japan to see her. We went out for sushi and a few drinks. Here are the results. Ohh yeah, and last weekend I biked out to Nagata Gorge. It was nice but I won't do it again because there was no real bike lane on the road. Also above a photo of the appropriately named graveyard park.

I think we both forgot that I have a blog. If I haven't spoken to you lately I have created a representation of the events that have transpired in word/picture form and put it on this new thing called the internet. My Skype microphone has been on the fritz and I have been out of touch with reality more then normal, which can be a somewhat refreshing experience to be disconnected from happenings (not people). The new school year started for me and my students and in typical Japanese form there was an elaborate entrance ceremony for our new students to induct them into the world of school. I feel sad for them because most of them are letting go of their childhood at this point and will never get it back. From now until they are finished with college, grad school, whatever, they will go to school, then go to cram school after school, go to some more school on the weekend, get a side helping of school, and maybe squeeze in a piano lesson or something if possible. I still think it is strange when I see kids riding their bikes in their school uniforms late Sunday night. Prior to this extravaganza, my brother Ryan flew all the way from Seattle (and wasn't even jet lagged((so tough))!) and we saw enough temples and shrines to make our heads spin. Being the resourceful young man that he is, my dear brother picked up many tongue twisting words that even the Japanese find difficult to pronounce after a few Saporro's in the very brief 11 days or so he was on this volcanic island with me such as: "beeru", "sumimasen" ((which was my first word)) and other classics such as "Can I have the check please((the Japanese language often borrows heavily from English))". I'm not going to stop with these parenthesis just to give you fair warning. So as I was saying, my brother flew all the way from a small city full of hippies who are so close to Canada they act like it and I picked him up from the train station. That night I introduced him to his first all you can drink at a local favorite hangout simplistically called "Darts and Bar". My brother's visit coincided with Cherry Blossoms blooming so we biked the next day to Mochio Park to do some Sakura viewing, then we took a taxi to Sekino Waterfall. It was a pretty lovely day. My brother ate a corndog that he almost exploded in the microwave at the grocery store. I thought you should know. While in Miyakonojo we also went to Kirishima brewery, went to Miyakonojo's best and loudest rotating sushi bar, and attempted to buy a 2 liter beer out of a vending machine. Not wanting to develop a solid reputation in the city I choose to reside in, we decided to move on the day after. We headed to Kagoshima and I took Ryan to the areas only clothed outdoor volcanic hotspring (cause its part of a shrine). From Kagoshima we took a plane up to Osaka and stayed in a commendably small business hotel and walked around . There wasn't that much in Osaka that was that interesting, but then again I was exhausted and I didn't even make it to see their giant statue of liberty. It was kind of rainy and cold that day so we just relaxed. The next day we took the Shinkansen to Kyoto which is totally amazing. Kyoto is old school Japan minus all the excess hustle and bustle. Things are very metropolitan there and certainly in specific areas, but Kyoto retains the old feel of Japan and there is something to see on just about every corner. We ended up staying at this really relaxing guesthouse right by Gion (the area where all the geishas in Japan kick it). We went and some some famous sights like the Imperial Palace, Fushimi Inari, Toji Temple, and I even saw some Geishas scurrying to thier appointments in Gion late at night. There was a temple right by our hostel that was having its cherry blossom festival so that was really nice. Festivals are kind of like the fair but without the rides, no animal smells, and a lot of people in kimonos. Ryan and I even met a nice girl whose boyfriend is from Bakersfield and we dined at a Mexican Food place together and then had some after dinner refreshments at "Sheepz". After Kyoto we went to Nara to get an eyeful of the thousands of wild deer that are constantly pestering sightseers for cookies. Nara is pretty small and quiet so it was a nice change of pace. Ryan, if you are reading this, I'm not going to even tell the Shabu-Shabu story. After Nara we headed to Tokyo. All I can say about Tokyo is that if you try and walk from one subway stop to another it might take you close to an hour, the city is so spread out it is unbelievable. In Tokyo we did some more sightseeing, did a lot of eating, a little shopping and experienced a pretty scary earthquake. The highlight of Tokyo was having brunch at the Park Hyatt (the hotel where they filmed "Lost in Translation"). It was probably one of the coolest things I've ever done on the 52nd floor of a building. Anyway, I'm not going to get into crazy detail. We had a great time, I was sad to see him go back home but I am normally ready to return to work after a few weeks off. I have quite a few more days off at the beginning of May coming up so another vacation is just around the corner. I'm trying to figure out a time to visit California right now, I'll let you know when I have it figured out. I am possibly thinking of going to teach in Tokyo or Kyoto for awhile after my contract is up but am still undecided at this point. Lately I have been running outside a lot due to the amazing weather, studying Japanese rarely but enough to mention, going to yoga a little, and just trying to be a good teacher. My co-worker Sarah returned to the US and I really miss her but I think that I can stay sane without her as long as I have some books to read and the internet to keep in contact with everyone.Anyhow, bye.

Forgot to publish this when I wrote it some time ago...

The end of another week, this one better then the last. Tonight I had Japanese lessons with my coworkers while we all tried to figure out how to make bread with my coworkers new bread machine. Exciting Friday night! I did have some really good ume shou (a shou jou and plum and sugar liquor) that was home made and it inspired me to try and pull off a little DIY. That will be my up and coming project next time I am avoiding learning Japanese which will probably be in about five minutes. Other possible procrastination tactics for learning better Japanese include: buying a keyboard, making some home cooked okonomiyaki, or buying a really cool Japanese to English translator that reads Kanji and can translate a real voice. The only reason I may use the aforementioned tactics rather then making ume shou is because you have to wait one year to drink the ume shou after you soak it. I feel as making the liquor would be more meaningful then signing another year long contract.
Something funny happened the other day, well... most of my students have chicken pox or the flu right now- we had about 9 kids absent everyday this week. Wait it gets better. There is this lil' guy in my class named Yoshitaka and he is so crazy small he can hardly walk. He just barely had his second birthday and he was deathly afraid of me for a really long time, but anyhow the other day he kept putting his hand on his forehead and saying he was sick. This little guy is always missing his mom and crying and gets really mad when he can't go home right after school and even his mom said he can cry on cue. She told me last week not to worry when he cries because he is a faker. There are many fakers in my class, those fake crying kids drive me crazy. I just laugh at them and tell them I know whats up. Anyhow, Yoshitaka was telling all the teachers he was sick and I was thinking yeah right he's just trying to pull this so he can go home. He often tries to escape from class and has made it pretty far out the side door a few times but, ACTUALLY he didn't say he was sick he said he had a fever. An hour passed and he was still saying he had a fever so we finally took his temperature and he was right! He did have a fever. Ohhh Yoshi.
Last weekend Tomoko and her friend Kumiko took Sarah and I out to Takichiho farm to see some real farm animals and to possibly milk a cow and try some fresh ice cream. It was an unusually sunny day-We went to the Kirishima shrine afterward which is one of the prettiest shrines I've seen so far and then ... she took us to this really cool sushi restaurant called Happy Fish. Sarah and I felt that we were ready to move on to the real deal after eating kaiten sushi (conveyor belt) every night for the past month or so. We have slowly acquired a working vocabulary of how to order various sushi dishes from chef behind the counter so Tomoko and Kumiko took us to do the real deal. Unfortunately the counter was reserved (or possibly they didn't want us to sit there because we were not Japanese) so we were unable to yell our requests for kappomaki (cucumber roll) or inari (tofu pouch with rice) to the sushi chef, but we got a really pretty private room instead. Tomoko and Kumiko were both really sweet because they wanted to show us a really good time and they let us stop at all the stores and pottery shops on the way out and at dinner they made sure we drank good Japanese Sake. It is really nice to be driven around in a car and see the forest area around Miyakonojo. In a few weeks there is a big St.Patrick's day party in town thrown by the local JETs (other English teachers) and the four of us are going to go to a flower festival in Miyazaki city and then go the the St. P's day party later that night. Ohh right, this week I also went to a yoga class. It wasn't too hard to figure out what to do or what was going on. Well I've written more then is bearable. Gotta go.

It has been a trying few weeks at work but I am still standing despite a bunch of bull!@#$. I was about to lose my mind because I had to participate in work related activities three weekends in a row and never really had a chance to get any proper rest, but last night I stayed in and ate a lot of fruit and watched online movies and I feel like a real person again. I can't imagine how exhausting it might be to actually be Japanese. They are building some new apartments next door to my house and I swear it was just a dirt field a week ago, but everyday from sun up to about 9:00 pm there are about 50 construction workers building the quickest apartment in the history of mankind. Japanese efficiency is kind of overwhelming sometimes. I'm afraid it doesnt' result in happiness a lot of the time though, utilitarianism at its best/worst. It is about one thirty, the sun is finally shinning outside after what seemed like one of the coldest winters I've ever experienced (only because I can't sleep with my heater on), the cherry blossoms are going to start to bloom in a about a month- and half of my contract will be up. It feels good to be somewhat rooted where I am but not obligated to stay forever. This weekend has been pretty good but not long enough. On Friday my coworker and I went to the infamous yaki-niku (cooked meat translated literally) but it is more of a salad bar and cook your own meat and seafood restaurant. On Saturday the office manager at my school, Akemi, had me and my other coworker attend an International Game day at this community center/shrine out in the middle of the country where we had to entertain a bunch of Japanese kids that spoke no English for a good part of the day. I typically get pissed off at this kind of weekend event because I normally get there and find out that I am supposed to come up with some sort of speech or self introduction and that I should try and speak English as much as possible even though nobody understands it and it is the weekend and I am sick of talking. This event was okay though, my bosses daughter and son are really cute, the people at the event were really nice, and all the men cooked a big dinner in women's aprons for everyone that we ate on the floor Japanese style - my feet fell asleep as usual. They even gave me ten dollars (1,000 yen) for showing up. On the way home my coworker accidentally ran a red light over some train tracks (they don't have bars that come down here when a train comes) and almost got us both killed by a couple of seconds. Maybe he felt bad for almost ending my life but he took me to a really cool outdoor market where I got a bunch of fruit for practically no money and then we went to a cake shop and had some sweets. Because Japan is a country all about tradition and detail, getting cake can be a really cool experience. My little piece of cake was wrapped up in about three different containers, had a cold pack in it to keep it chilled, and then I was given a spoon about the size of a needle so that it took me about a half hour to eat it. I also went and got a new headset so I can make skype phone calls because I thought my mic was busted, but it still isn't working. That makes me sad. I think there are many things wrong with my computer. I think I'll have it looked at when I am in Tokyo next month. Other then this, last weekend, we took all of our kids to the zoo about an hour and a half away where we had to entertain the kids and their parents all the way there. It was not very fun and the zoo is often depressing, especially in Japan. The people hardly have any room so you can imagine the animals don't either. One thing that was interesting though, they let the really wild animals like mountain lions out almost in the open with just a few bars separating you from them. A kid could easily stick their hand in the cage and get eaten for lunch.
I guess people don't really do stupid stuff like that here like they would in the US. The weekend before that I had to MC and English speaking contest but the upside is that we met a really nice Australian guy that has been living in Miyakonojo for about three years. Afterward we all went out to a super cool Izakaya ( traditional Japanese restaurant where you order bbq scewers of veggies and meat and drink shoujou or beer). The weekend before that I went to Nagasaki for the lantern festival which was crazy crowded, we had to look for parking for about an hour, but definitely worth it. We stayed in the center of the city with my co-workers friends mother in this awesome house. We woke up and they cooked us a traditional Japanese breakfast and then we went to the peace park, the epicenter of where we dropped the A-bomb. I didn't have a change to go the actual museum but I heard the one in Hiroshima is better anyhow. On our way back we stopped in Fukuoka and went shopping at Costco where I spent a lot of money and horrified all the Japanese shoppers with how much I was purchasing. In Japan people normally only go shop for that nights groceries so it is weird to go to Costco and see most people only have one thing in their basket. I was able to get a lot of things that are impossible to get in Miyakonojo, although it is not necessarily healthy stuff. Ohh yeah, and on the way to Nagasaki we stopped in Kurume where they have this huge shrine where people go to heal if they are sick. You can climb up this shrine and see the city and hear a recording of monks chanting. It was pretty cool. I guess that about sums it up. We had picture day the other day, I put one of the pictures up above. One of the pictures and below is a sideways(couldn't figure how to turn it) video of one of my students crying and another of the view of Miyakonojo from Mochio Park.

Far and few between

If anybody is reading this, sorry for taking so long to post anything new. I am still mentally recovering from my visit to Seoul and Okinawa and have been relaxing every weekend- reading a lot but obviously not writing so much. A short version of what happened from then until now: my brother bought a plane ticket to come visit for the end of March. He will fly into Miyazaki city, spend one day here, we will go to Kagoshima, catch a plane to Osaka, take a train to Kyoto, maybe Nara, and end up in Tokyo. He will bring a suitcase full of goods not available in Japan and I may die of happiness, we will eat sushi, and inevitably karaoke. This is definitely something for me to look forward to because it is my last week off until August, my brother is a lot of fun, and I STILL haven't been to Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka. in other breaking news, my bike was stolen this weekend, but the thief was kind enough to hang up my umbrella that was in the basket. In other words, they had a lot of integrity to only steal a little bit from me, they didn't get greedy and take it all. I was a bit surprised this happened, but well.... it gave me the excuse I needed to buy my new bike I bought today. There are some really nice parks and waterfalls around the area that will be good to bike to when it warms up a bit. My new bikes has six speeds so that I can take it up in the mountains. Last week the school I work at took our kids to go pick strawberries. I ate a lot of them because they are normally too expensive for to afford. We have a lot of events like this that occur frequently and sometimes on the weekend. This weekend I have to go be the MC to this English speaking contest, the week after that there is some international game day I have to attend on a Saturday, and the weekend after that is our goodbye picnic for our graduating students. Sometimes I get the following Monday off. This weekend my coworker and I went to Beppu, check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ the hotspring capital of the world and took a mud bath, a sand bath, and toured the Jinkoku or "Hells" Beppu has to offer. These are really cool geothermal hotsprings that are the most incredible colors and are too hot to get into. They made each one a theme, one even has alligators in it, one had an elephant, one cooked eggs, you name it....This picture is at a Jingoku onsen as well.Beppu is a city worth going back to because hotsprings are always nice-and the ones here are really extensive. I finally made it to the one a few blocks away from my house and that one is worth the four dollars as well. In Beppu they even have hikes out in the mountains where you can find hidden hotsprings, AND they have a Hello Kitty Land I didn't have a chance to go to yet, they have a cable car that takes you into the mountains so you can get a view of the whole steamy city, a park full of wild monkeys, and a lot of nice people. I think the people are so relaxed because there is a hotspring on every corner for when the Japanese way of life proves to be too stressful. The highlight of the trip may have been getting into the mens only hotspring on accident and getting yelled at by the attendent, or it could have been going to Hit Parade, a sixties style club where you can request whatever songs you want with all you can eat and drink, which- turns out to be alot. Other news since the last post, my coworkers Sarah has put in her notice to quit so it looks like I may be a little more alone in Miyakonojo for the duration of my contract, however, I went to a gathering of most English teachers in the area and met some other really cool girls that live only a few blocks away. This weekend, my coworker Kerry, Sarah, and I are going to Nagasaki for Chinese New Year. I'm not really sure what to expect but we are stopping by Costco in Fukuoka on the way back so that will be about the most American thing that will have happened to me since my departure. What else what else, or as they say in Japanese, etto.....etto..........Sarah and I tried out Sushi Tora, a rotating sushi restaurant in Miyakonojo. Picture c/o Sarah. It was excellent and it helps alleviate the task of figuring out how to read the menu which can be painstaking and often doesn't happen. We also found this all you can eat pizza and pasta place for about 13 dollars that is pretty good, without too many weird varieties of pizza. Japanese pizza can get really weird, there is almost always corn and mayonnaise on it and sometimes mochi. What else...Oh yeah. They have this holiday here called Setsubun where a monster scares the bejeezus out of the kids and they retaliate by throwing peanuts at him.
My coworker dressed up like a monster to scare the kids and they freaked. It was hilarious. Here are some pictures.

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.