I had my last introduction class Today and I kind of ended on a high. The others had gone pretty well, round of applause when I take of the mask and the questions didn’t require too much prompting. The last class I introduced myself too were the second years at the junior high, and I had been warned that they were very shy, so I was expecting silent stares, sleeping and stubborn refusal to answer questions but they were awesome, the most animated of all the years I think. I had much laughter and pointing when I came in with the mask on, and they launched into asking the question with much more gusto than any of the other years, I had a small forest of hand wanting to ask questions. The rest of the lesson went well and quickly, so far they are my favorite class. Here is one amusing story from the class; there were two boys who decided to take a nap, I have to admit the girls of the class were by far the more enthusiastic, and the girls at that lunch table kept hitting them and saying ‘excuse me’ and ‘hurry up!’ (with Japanese accents of course). It amused me anyway ;). The JTE afterwards told me she was surprised the kids weren’t shy, well she didn’t figure on Scottish charm that’s what! Yeah Scotland! In general I find the students here much more relaxed and enthusiastic in class than I remember Scottish students as being. Although the class room is a more relaxed place in general here it seems, sleeping in class and refusal to answer questions are perfectly acceptable here. Anyway I am feeling very good about that class so I thought I would post my thought about it. I also had an english conversation class today and that was awsome too, I guess its going to be kids who like enligsh anyways but at the end a boy came up and thanked me for a fun lesson, that made me feel good. Ok I realise I may be gushing a little bit, but I kinda expected to kids to be like scottish kids and not very interested in class so I am kinda stoked at how cool they are. I have no picture of the class so I shall include one of when I was snooping around the coral rock when the tide was out, in the picture the tide is coming in and rushing between the gaps in the old coral rock. That’s Nagi, one of my taiko friends in the distance. Oh and the big pyramidal rock is called ‘Izena castle’, although I have no idea of the Japanese name.

The mask I wore for my first lessons, the pupils had to ask me question to fill in a sheet before I would take off the mask. 

Pictures of the sea as the typhoon aproached 

I had my first class last Friday. It was my introduction lesson, so basically lots of pictures of me and Scotland and me talking about myself. It went pretty well, I think, I came in with a paper mask over my head and they had to ask me some questions before I would reveal myself, I totally stole the idea from the Naha orientation but hey. They all had already seen me, but I think it's good to start of a little crazy/weird. It was the 3rd year class at the junior high school, so they were interesting in and pretty good at English; I suspect the younger years will be a bit more reluctant to speak out in class. So at this moment we are in the middle of a typhoon, luckily though it veered north at the last minute and so Izena was spared the worst of it. The waves around Izena were pretty impressive yesterday, it is windier today but its also raining allot, so no pictures. I didn't manage to go swimming as I had planned on Saturday as it was a bit too rough out at sea. It was also low tide so I and Nagi had a wonder around the exposed coral/rock and had a gander at all the things trapped in little pools. I am amazed at the amount of stuff living in the sea here. I also had my welcome party for the junior high school on Friday night, so food, drink and lots of speeches! I had Natsu-sensei help me make a longer speak which I read off a piece of paper, but it went down very well indeed. It is true that some Japanese will only become your friend after you have been drunk with them I think. There are two teachers in the school that rarely talk, one I think hadn't talked to me at all, but once they had drunk a little, wow, different story. I and the two previously tight lipped teachers stayed up the longest drinking, talking etc. good fun! I then got together with them and a few others for a game of touch rugby the next day also very good fun! I managed to put on a reasonably dazzling display of quick feet and speed, one of the teachers seems keen to organise some touch rugger for the junior high school kids, definitely looking forward to doing that. Sunday was mostly spent indoors due to the typhoon, although I did pop out to take the pictures of the sea. I also managed to practice a little on my keyboard which was good as I haven’t had enough free time to do that yet. A couple of my Taiko friends are keen to play some music with me so I must dust of my ancient and dilapidated piano skills soon! Well take care y'all, I have TWO classes today! Busy Busy Busy ;)

Me in front of whale shark 

So I escaped my island again this weekend, naughty me! There was an Orion beer and Eisa festival in Okinawa city so I though I would go through and hang out with other JETs for that. I took the ferry through on Friday and stayed with David, an awesome guy from Colorado, which is an awesome state too. On Friday night we went to an Izekia for some JETs birthday, I sat down next to some US Marines and I pretty much talked to them all night. They were pretty cool guys and I had a good time talking to them, they seemed pretty decent sorts. We hit an arcade after that and me and David owned the taiko drumming game. On the Saturday we met up with Rodger and went to the Ocean expo. Park in Motobu (David�s home town) which boats the worlds second biggest aquarium! It was amazing, huge whale sharks and manta rays, although I think my favourite was the manatees, they are so slow and serene, I liked 'em. Later that afternoon we started off towards Okinawa city, and boy was that an adventure. We got so lost numerous times, we were literally bouncing from one site of the island to the other, it's only a few miles wide at some points. Eventually we got to Okinawa city where we were supposed to meet up with Kelly and Kerry but even that was hard, it took us three hours +. They were next to a Family Mart and Hot Spar, so four Family Marts and three Hot Spars later we finally find them, that was a good feeling. So we basically missed the festival but no worries, we had a wonderful drunken night with a bunch of other Jets. I had to then wake up horrible early on Sunday to get back unto Nago to catch the last ferry at 3.30 or so I thought. I managed to get back up, using public transport in about an hour! So I then had several hours in Nago to burn, no worries, I had recently got paid and there is nothing to spend money on in Izena so time to shop! I bought much randomness and had a darn good time doing it :). Time to relax on my little island and dust of my piano playing on the keyboard I bought. Oh I have also started playing basketball on my island, it's tiring! But fun, even though I suck not really having done it before.

 

I love how random things are here. I had just gone upto the board of education to give my supervisor a form I had filled in and as I was about to leave the head of the BOE asked me if I was free, so I said 'sure' and he whisked me off to the Tomb of King Shoen's family (mother, father and brother). King Shoen was perhaps the most imporant Ryuku King, he united the three kingdoms and founded the longest Ryuku dynasty. And he was born on Izena! Bit of a local hero, his image is everywhere. We go up to the tomb with a bunch of non-islanders armed with many cameras etc. I assume they are tourists. So anyway they pray and offer sake and I kneel and try to appear respectful. And then alll of a sudden a chap takes out a couple of small rock hammers and starts chipping away at the mortor! I have no idea whats going on. It turns out to be an archeological dig, the first time the tomb has been opened, ever. Quite exiting! They only opened the East tomb, tommorrow they will open the West tomb which contains the remains of King Shoens family. I unfortunately only had my phone with me so apologies for the tiny pics.

Naha too 

MY EYE! 

Tokashiki  

Naha 

I am finally back on Izena after a bit of an adventure on Okinawa Honto (the main Okinawa Island). I left Izena on Wednesday to attend an orientation in Naha (capital of Okinawa) for new JETs. I used Wednesday to get myself a keiti! It is awesome, its 3G (as all phones here are) so I can browse a lot of the internet and watch TV, it can email (much better than txting), it has GPS and an electronic compass, an LED light, a 1.3 mega pixel camera (the most I saw was 3.2 in a camera here) and what sold it to me was that it is shock and water proof, awesome. Oh it also has some thing called live world which can show u maps and times and star maps etc. of anywhere in the world, random but cool. Anyway suffice to say, I like my phone! Ok so back to Naha and the orientation, well the orientation was fairly boring, it applies more to mainland JETs than islanders like me, but it was very nice to hang out with all the other JETs and speak lots of English! I had a particularly good, long, drunken night out on Friday with Brett and Andy, they are both islanders too and we were making the most of a night in the town! So after the orientation I went on a camping trip to Tokashiki, Brett’s island. I guess about 30 JETs went and it was amazing. The coral was much more colorful than on Izena, the northern island were hit much harder by the el-Nino a few years back. I got a disposable underwater camera so hopefully I can scan the pics once I develop them and show you the wonderfulness. I fell asleep at about 11pm on the Saturday, lame I know but I was sooo sooo tired from the night before and I hadn’t managed to have a nap during the day, for too exited too nap ;). So during the night a mosquito must have bitten me on the eye lid or near by, as when I woke up my right eye was swollen shut, it didn’t hurt but I looked hella-stupid J. I took the early ferry back on Sunday and the bus up to Naha to take the 3.30 ferry back to Izena, but the traffic was so bad I missed it. So I spent the night with Ben in Nago which was very cool as I had only met him briefly on Tokashiki, he is an awesome guy. We went to see a movie on the American military base in Nago with a couple of other JETs, slightly weird, one moment we are in Japan and the next America. Had to stand for the national anthem while the screen showed images of the American military blowing stuff up superimposed on a waving stars and stripes, interesting. The movie was the Ring 2, not quite as good as the Ring 1 but still nice to see an English Movie! I then managed to miss the morning ferry back to Izena on the next day (Monday)! We went to the wrong port and Bens car was having some issues with overheating, anyway it was all good I got to hang out with Roger (another new JET from San Francisco) in Nakijin (where my ferry leaves from) which was very cool. He is also a very cool guy. Members of his BOE took him and I around Nakijin castle, from which we could see Izena, and we also got taken on a tour of some Holy sites during which I got eaten alive my mosquitoes. I really don’t care much for mosquitoes. And then I finally made it back to Izena, met a New Zealand girl on the ferry, she was coming to site-see on Izena, so later that evening I took her swimming with me and some of the locals. Well that’s about it, back to work now, oh I also got my first pay check, so now more being frugal! Sweet. Take care y’all. First pic is of a cool shrine near my hotel in Naha, second is my eye all huge and swollen! Third is the beach on Tokashiki which we camped near by, viewed from the top of a rock I climbed and lastly a pic from Friday night in Naha.

So I finally have a livable in house. Up until now I have had no fridge or gas to cook with or working air con. But today Nick left so the head masters of both the Elementary and Junior high school, head of the board of education, my supervisor and the head of English at the elementary school came and help me move all the stuff from nicks house to mine and got people to come and do my gas, TV and air con. Wooohooo! I have a real house now J. I went to another barbeque at a beach tonight and went skinny dipping in the dark. It is really quite an experience, floating in the water sparkling in the moon light with the wonderful star filled sky of Izena above me…. and a beer in hand. Very fun indeed. I am sure that would not be deemed safe by western standards but its something the locals enjoy (well the younger ones) quite regularly and like I have to keep reminding myself, Okinawans are the longest lived people in the world. Anyway it was a most fun evening. Oh the Shoen Taiko group also brought their drums and played a little bit for the benefit of some tourists from Tokyo. It was interesting to see the Tokyo tourists were as clueless as me about okinwan songs/customs and dances, in fact I knew some more than them. So tomorrow I leave for Naha, I have a JET orientation Thursday/Friday and then some island/beach party for Jets thing on Saturday and then back to Izena on Sunday. So I will post some new pics then. Take care y’all. Peace
?

My favourite beach (also where I saw the shark)

Searangers! 

Awsome Nun chuck master 

The main summer festival of the year was this weekend, and boy was it fun! Lots of amazing performances of traditional Okinawan Dance, music and martial arts. I got drafted by the Taiko team to hold their big flag while they performed so I got to wear their costume which was nice. It meant I didn't get any pictures of their performance but it was worth it. They were super impressive, a very energetic performance, I can't wait to learn how to do taiko drumming. So as always there was lots of eating and drinking afterwards until the wee hours. The festival was over both Saturday and Sunday and as the Taiko group weren't performing on the Sunday I got to relax and watch all the other performances. There was this one chap who did a variety of performance, a dance with a fan and one with a flower which were nice, but he also did some martial arts. Wow, they were just breath-taking, the one that most impressed me involved him using two razor sharp (he demonstrated this by slicing some bamboo) nun chucks and breakneck speed, I have no idea how he didn't cut off his own head or at least remove an ear. He also turned out to be a very happy friendly drunk too. During the daytime on both days I chilled out at the beach, oh I finally got snorkelling equipment! Ah yes, I saw a shark! Yup that’s right, I was snorkelling on Saturday just scooting along the edge of the reef and I saw a shark, I am guessing it was about four feet long, but very slender so it wasn't that scary. It was so beautiful! I wish Id been able to follow it more but it disappeared into the blue and I didn't feel like following it away from the reef. This is after Nick telling me people never, ever saw sharks here! Harrumph.

Yeah! so I got to do taiko last night. I was passing the taiko stage after having worked out and got grabbed and taiko sticks thrust into my hands. So I tried to play along with the rest of them and I think I did pretty well for having no explanation or practice, it was pretty fun too. I am looking forward to seeing the taiko group perform at the festival tomorrow and hopefully they will keep up the practice afterwards so I can learn. Oh also I finally got a bank account today so I finally have everything I need to get a Keiti (Japanese mobile phone), definitely looking forward to that, they are amazingly advanced. Check up on the blog after the weekend for pictures of the festivals, I plan to take lots. The picture is of me with a taiko drum.

So today I did the two things I most enjoy in Japan, somoguri and karaoke. Somoguri is what they call diving to get fish and shellfish. This time I went with a champion fisher, well that’s what they called him. It was a bit more serious than last time, wetsuits and spear-guns and various other bits and bobs. I didn’t use a spear gun, I thought he was asking me if I had used one before so I said no, but in hindsight I think he was offering it to me to use. Perhaps a good thing as it looked pretty lethal but also fun, so next time I shall say yes, gonna shoot me some fishes! So anyways I look a bag and knife and went on a shellfish hunt while he (Nakada-san) shot fishes. I did a bit better than last time got quite a few shell fish, ten sazae, which are the best ones, although they are surprisingly hard to spot even when Nakada-san pointed a couple out it took me a while to see them. I can’t wait until I get my own snorkeling/somoguri kit, I wish that darned shop would be open sometime! Well and then we of course ate what we had caught, Nakada-sans wife cooked it all very nicely and we even had enough to invite about 5/6 people over. In case you didn’t know the gender roles are rather traditional here, so the men sit, eat and drink while the women cook and serve. And then on the way back (around 1am, so much for getting an early night as I had planned) we randomly did karaoke. I am pleased to announce there is a karaoke establishment about 30 seconds walk from my house, quite pleased about that! So we ate more and drank more, lots of eating and drinking here, and sang! Oh what fun! I loooove karaoke, they were all very good and sang sounds really nicely while as I made up for lack of singing talent with volume and enthusiasm. I think that counts for something….maybe. I did Bruce Springsteen’s’ Born in the USA, kinda forgot about the ‘sent to kill the yellow man’ but I think it passed un-noticed. I am sorry about the lack of picture but things happen randomly, I usually find out I am doing something when some Japanese person excitedly beckons me into their car or something. Anyway I took a pic of the selection of shells I collected. I should carry it around the whole time I guess, it is small enough. I plan to lie low until the weekend now, if that’s possible, and avoid drinking until the festivals this weekend; we will see how that goes.
Peace

So I have worked my first full week! It wasn't to bad at all. There hasn't been much activity in the sea due to a typhoon. It pretty much missed Izena but it has still been windy from about Tuesday to Saturday so the sea was quite rough. I keep trying to go and buy my own snorkel etc. but the fishing shop never seems to be open, maybe fourth time lucky. Apparently Nick had the same problem. It has become apparent that people drink quite allot here, they seem to take some pride in drinking more than main land Japanese. This is compounded for me by pretty much everyone wanting to drink with me, for example I drink after work with the board of education. Five minutes to going home time they suddenly decide to drink, then and there at work, so we did for several hours. Well so as I was saying I drink with the board of education one night and then the following night I am drinking with their sons who are at high school on the main island, it is quite interesting meeting father and then son. Last night I went to a funeral, although I think it was actually more like a wake. I expected a sombre affair but it was quite jovial, lots of people and drinking! It is a bit at odds with me trying to be fit and active, but it is a very good way to bond with the people here as it were. People in Japan are often quite shy to use their English under normal circumstances, so a more relaxed environment does help ;). Having said this I feel I should stress they don’t have a drinking problem like I think the UK does, this isn't binge drinking, it's good ol'social drinking, what we have been doing for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Another thing I have noticed, which I like, is that this is a very relaxed island in terms of authority, in some ways at least. For example seat belts are mandatory and drink driving is a big nono in Japan, zero limit and severe punishments. However both these laws are more relaxed on Izena, well in fact they don't exist. Well I feel I have written quite enough, oh wait one more thing I would like to mention. I am going to be giving English lessons to the nicest/coolest older lady ever. Her name is Keiko-sensei and she is an artist from mainland Japan recently moved to Izena. She is keen to improve her English as she in involved in an artistic exchange with some Australian artists. She is a flower artist, she doesn’t paint flowers or do classical flower arranging...mmm perhaps I could post some examples of her work if that ok with her. So I initially refused payment for the lesson, although she seemed determined to pay, but anyway so instead she offered to show me how to do some of her art, or at least the techniques. So I am really looking forward to that, recently she made some jewellery from things found at the beach, its really very nice. Ok time out! Take care y'all, Cheerio! Ah yes, the picture of the tomb is of a traditinal Okinawan tomb, they are scattered all over Okinawa, people leave offerings of food in them and have 'parties' to celebrate/pay their repects to their ancestors in front of them. The other pictures shows a wall, of which Izena village is full of, you may notice it is not made from stone but coral. Semi-interesting :)/