Evening all...Mr. Crab the crabby crab.

Hello Mr.Grasshopper pretending to be a leaf! It is cunning
Me with my story contest kid and another student and a couple of ex-students.
The happy recipients of Juhi yum dinner.
A mud slug! I found a bunch of these slugs living along side the hermit crabs and mud skippers in the mangrove mud. What a GREAT animal!

What an awesome sky ne! I like clouds in general.
A lizard.
A startled Frog.
A little grasshopper pretending to be a piece of moss, what a life!
Jumping in to water! Enormous fun!

Living as a foreigner in Japan, is for me at least, characterized by constantly swinging from I love living here to I can’t stand it! The past week has been an ‘I love it here’ week. All my classes went well, people where nice to me etc. etc. It is often little things. For example when I went into the lunchroom on Monday a teacher told me ‘go and sit beside kochosensei’ which I did. Then I noticed that I, Kocho and Kyoto sensei (that is the head and vice head) were the only ones with Zansai (which I really like) as desert. Awww I thought how nice! It turned out it was just a shortage of bowls and when more where found everyone got some but still, it was nice. My English conversation class was good. My shodou class was good, I have agreed to cook them cottage pie when my friends come here. I had an amusing glass fight with some elementary kids when I was out running. On the way home from said grass fight I saw some of my junior highschool kids with some kittens. I stopped to chat and while doing so was motioned over by a group men who were drinking in the yard. As far as I can tell, a typical day for an Izena fisher man is as such: wake up early and out to see by 6am to 7am; fish until around 5pm with a bento break for lunch; then gather together in groups of 5 to ten and immediately start drinking; drink until it is time for sleep, rinse and repeat (the rinsing is optional). They do not take weekends off. Before you make a judgment I want to point out that there are many who would think being able to drink every night with ones buddies as the greatest thing. Anyway I joined them but told them I had to go soon as I had a teacher party that night, which was true. I decided that just one beer would be fine and then I would be on my way but as I finished said beer a glass of awamori magically appeared in front of me and so I decided to extend the deadline to after the glass of awamori. Those of you familiar with Japanese drink pouring etiquette will know that an empty glass is a rare thing indeed. My fate was sealed when after noticed some large saizai shells in lying on the ground I asked about them (how deep they could be found etc.) a few minutes later the wife of the host presented me with a cleaned and polished one. I was delighted! I had noticed these giant sazais in restaurants as decoration and secretly coveted them. I was duly thankful and decided that out of politeness I should stay longer, I was already late for the teacher party anyway. So that was my first acquisition of the night. You remember the kittens? Well the host kept offering me one and I cheerfully refused. However by the time came that I decided to leave my judgment may have been impaired. I stood up to leave and make my excuses but make the mistake of looking down. There was a kitten at my feet looking up at me, reason left me and I asked if I could, after all, take it. As I walked home I started to regret that decision not least because I then remembered I am allergic to cats. I was not leaving at this point to go the teacher’s party (long finished) but to meet a friend of mine to get my keyboard back so that I could perhaps sell it at the ALT leaving party that weekend. So sneezing merrily away I got home, deposited the cat in my little front room with some water and shellfish and set out to meet my friend. I walked the long way round to the yagai stage where I thought I was meeting him so as not to walk past the same party but turns out to have been a bad move as that wasn’t the place I was supposed to have met him. The place I was supposed to meet him was at the community centre just a few doors down from the party I had just left, so I trudged back up there. When I got there everyone from the pervious party was now there! Sigh... Well I drank more but didn’t get my keyboard as it was at a local izekaiya which had long closed (it has been used there by some of my students who had made a band). I got even more drunk before making it home, thankfully somebody gave me a lift. I don’t remember anything else that night. As I woke up on Friday morning I became aware of a meowing it took me a few puzzled moments before I remembered the cat. ‘Oh dear’ I though. I gave it more water and food and managed to get ready for school while petting the cat. It was a very friendly little cat! I was still sneezing and my right eye had swollen up a little bit, yes! I was still regretting taking it! It hadn’t pooped yet so I left the outside door open a little so that it would hopefully go out to do its business. It wasn’t a tiny kitten, it was just about the size of its mother but not filled out yet, however still a little lanky and definitely kitten like. So I thought that it would be able to handle itself going outside, especially as it had seemed to be an outdoor cat at its previous home. After school I came back and to my relief the cat was still there, boy was it happy to see me. I had trouble getting ready to catch the ferry as it kept jumping in bag or in my clothes drawers when I was trying to find matching socks and even trying to climb up my t-shirt! I eventually got ready, left it more food and water and snuck out the back door so it wouldn’t follow me. Now I started writing this post ages ago(last week), I think that weekend was the ‘official’ farewell party for the leaving JETs and it was pretty fun. Mainly due to the determined efforts by the 2^nd and 3^rd (and older) year JETs to lower the tone. A job successfully done I feel. I also visited a steller little water fall and pool in the jungle with a big ol’rope swing. Much fun and I was also a happy little muggle snapping pics of the bugs, lizards and amphibians I and Kelly spotted on the trail down to the pool.

Well anyway when I got back to Izena my cat (named Poopee by my Kids) was gone! I felt pretty bad for the following days, I left my door open and would wonder around calling Poopee Poopee, probably to the consternation of my neighbours. It turned out fine as one of the kids of a neighbouring house had taken it in so that made me feel better. I went and petted it to make sure it was Poopee and then left, they will hopefully take better care of it than me! While I was feeling bad I realized that being an atheist robs me off an easy way to assuage my guilt. I had done a thoughtless, callous thing and there was no way to rectify it. If I believed in a God I could repent and pray/beg for forgiveness and hope I get it. At least the repenting to a higher power would ease my conscience. And if I believed in Karma then receiving the bad Karma that would result from my bad deed would sort of balance out the bad deed. At least that is how I see it, the resulting bad Karma is like punishment, so when you have received the punishment you have a moral clean slate again, otherwise what is the point in the punishment? Anyway I was happy that it was taken in. The cat had followed the little girl to school (where I saw it) and the mother came to collect in and took it off in a box. So I think they are a nice family.

So anyway since then I have had another good night on Izena with my rugby loving friend Chuu. We watched New Zealand vs. South Africa and Scotland vs. France. After I told them about my future plans they talked amongst themselves and I was interested to here they thought it a little odd that us westerners go and get education for ourselves. As in we see it as something advantageous for us to get (I think that is what they meant). I think in Japan they just get the minimum education needed to get their desired job. This would make sense in a country were promotions and career advancement is mainly down to seniority and not talent or qualifications. I think anyway. It can’t be the case for all of them?!

I am excited to go see some rugby in Murrayfield (Scottish national stadium), hopefully I can catch the Scotland vs. South Africa game there with Kelly this August! I am a little worried about the future of Scottish rugby, I think the current team has potential but there are only two professional teams in Scotland now and the public support is just not there. It is all those horrible football (soccer) fans corrupting our youth!

I entered a English language story contest with one of my students this Saturday and then afterwards Juhi cooked I and the other story contest ALTs a wunderbar Indian dinner and after that settled in our appreciative stomachs we went off to burn off our calories by singing out little hearts out. Ah Karaoke I shall miss you!

My friends Richard and Gavin arrive in Okinawa this Wednesday and I shall go to meet them on Thursday (I don’t want to miss my 2^nd last day at the Elementary school you see). I am looking forward to a couple of weeks of good natured Scottish fun! Scottish fun is always well intentioned, unfortunately something also inevitable always goes wrong, such if life! You have been warned!