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
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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 :)/

I go into work a little late but it doesn't matter, none of the other teachers seem to be in. I can't remember if I said but it is the summer holidays so there is little work to do, the teachers who do come in to work only do so to run sports clubs. I meet Natsu-sensei (english teacher), her english is very good, she runs the tennis club so I go and play with the kids, we chat a bit. So I meet a guy at the school, he's some sort of secretary, anyway he surfs and I mention I want to surf. Monday is a half day, normally I would then have a conversation class from 6 to 9 but it is the holidays. Anyway I get back to my house and have a nap and am woken up by the surfing dude at about 4pm, he's like lets surf now! So off we go and surf. It was a loooooooooooong paddle out to the waves (at the edge of the reef) but totally worth it. The waves are pretty small but that’s ok, I caught a couple although I was a little nervous of the coral. It was shallow enough i could stand on the coral, which isn't a good idea becasue it's pretty sharp and very hard there are also spiky sea urchins etc. After surfing we paddle back as it is getting dark and I then go and watch the Teiko drummers. These dudes are awesome, they are practicing for the festivals this weekend and also for a competition. They are seriously good, hopefully I will get to try it out at some point. The picture shows the elementry school, it's about twice as large as they need. The island used to have a population of around 6000 in the 50's but this has slowly declined to the present 2000.

Well it’s Sunday. I have another sleep in, much needed. Today I go snorkling with Kumiama-san and Yoshiaki-san again but this time it’s serious! Haha well we have diving knives and hooky things and a spear thing, it’s shell fish hunting time! We paddle out in a kayak and then off we go. I guess we are out there for several hours but I don’t actually know, it’s so fascinating time just slips by. I get a few shell fish including one of the clam like things, called shokuguy here, we only get three of those in total so I reckon that’s good. I had fun following some colourful fish around, they didn’t seem too bothered. I really need to get the all weather case for my camera so I can take some underwater shots. Tonight there was another festival, although this one was at the old folks home and therefore more sedate. Okinawans (and probably Japanese in general) revere their seniors. One okinwan chap explained that the festival banner had been written in gold because their old people were precious like gold, nice. There were food stalls (lots of nice freshly cooked food), drinks and traditional Okinawan dances performed, oh and there were fireworks (hanabi in Japanese – literally meaning flowerfire). We then had a barby with all the shell fish we had gathered and drank and chatted (well attempted to talk) until some silly late time.

Woo Saturday already. Had a bit of a sleep in which was much needed. I guess I had lunch but I can’t remember but later on Yoshihama-san took me snorkling. Oh boy I’ll never forget that. I haven’t been snorkelling in a real coral reef before, it knocked me for six. Just the brightest colours and most bizarre creatures, I recognised a few, a scorpion fish (the one with the long feather like fins which are venomous) and a Fugu (puffer fish) , it was just awesome. My neighbour Kamiama-san joined me and we found a few shell fish, one clam like thing which took us ages to get out and which I cut my hand on. I was sort of worried that I might attract a shark or something, but Kamiama-san assured me it was fine, I guess I am a reef newbie. We had swum out quite far to I got a ride back on Kamiama-sans son’s kayak. I was stoked after that experience, I think I will be in the sea a lot! At night there was a festival which started by walking around the village and banging these metal barrels and drinking a lot, singing this song. I got given a banging thing so had immense fun, partly due to being continually forced to drink by old ladies. Then we had a sort of face off with the other half of the village, it was north vs south I think. There was a line on the road and we would advance and then retreat upto this line while banging our drums, a couple of old men had goes at each other, trying to hit each other with the metal things! Then we had a tug of war between the two side with the huge rope we had made the day before, our side won, one nil to the south (at least I think we were south). The we had another fighty thing, each side held up a wooden platform on which two guys stood and had to try and knock the other sides two guys off their platform. I helped carry our platform and I think we eventually won, it was pretty intense though, no holds barred! Then there was some dancing and more drinking, I was dragged into the middle of the dancing ring and at one point was the only one dancing, interesting. And then the finale, sumu! Anyone could enter and challenge, first the kids then women went. So I watched a couple of the mens fights and then had a go myself, I beat three dudes and then no-one would challenge me, so I guess I won. I won myself four bags of Izena rice for that. We then drank into the wee hours at some blokes house.

More pictures of the Festival!
A bit blurred but thats what you get with action shots at night

Here are some new pictures I got from Nick of the Sumu at the festival on saturday. Thats me in the white shorts and T with the red waist band.

My first day at work! Well not so much, Okuma-sensei just took me on a tour of the island and then Friday is a half day. I was again impressed by how much the island has. They produce their own rice and sugar (which is also their main export) and also produce some beef. So that combined with the sea, which is very bountiful pretty much provides their food. The Local government and board of education are also a bit overly big, both places had about 50+ staff, perhaps more, in large nice buildings, it's partly the governments way of dealing with unemployment. Japanese work etiquette it somewhat different from the UK, the most important thing is attendance following by everything else. It is not unknown for people to sleep at work, it doesn't seem to be frowned on. So the island is really pretty as the pictures show. The statue shows Shoen, Izena’s most famous son. He left Izena and became King of the Ryuku kingdom about 600 years ago. Not bad for a island boy. The picture of me playing with hay is helping to make a massive rope for the tug of war at the festival tomorrow night. We climbed one of the smaller hills on Izena to get that view of the bay on front of Izena village, there are 4 villages on the island, although I forget their names.

After a few hours drive up to Nago and an hours ferry ride I arrive at Izena island, my home for at least a year! I am exited, it looks alot bigger than I imagined, and for only having 2000 people it has alot of stuff! I go straight to the Board of Education were I introduce myself. I am then taken to my house where I can dump my bags, the house is sooo Japanese. It is an old house they have been doing up for me until Nick leaves and I move into the house he stays in. It is all wood, with sliding door/wall things and tatami mat floors, I am loving it, except there is not aircon. but Nicks house has aircon. so I will be fine once I am there. It is soooo hot in okinawa and sooo humid, even the locals sweat. I hope I get used to the heat, although I can always just jump in the sea. So back at the board of Ed. they have a welcome party for me, with some Izena specific food and Okinawan beer. They are all super nice and friendly, I think I will like it here. After we go out to a restuarant so eat more! these people eat and drink so much! There they serve me steak and chips, proudly pronouncing it 'Engirish Food', cute. Again the food just kept on coming, and I impress them by making some sushi at the table. At a stupid late time AGAIN I got to bed, mmm first day of work tommorrow.

Ok so I finally get to Okinawa! It was a 3 hour flight from Tokyo to Naha in Okinawa, we flew in a 747 which I thought was a bit much for a wee island but we got to sit up the upper deck so that was quite exiting. Oh and the plain had a camera at the front so they played live footage form the front of the plane throughout the flight, very cool. Mmmm yes so being a Municipal JET I was due to meet my supervisor as soon as I arrived. He didn't speak any English! luckily Nick my predecessor was there two and he’s become pretty good at Japanese. Because Izena is quite far from Naha we stayed the night in Naha. I went out to another Izekia with my supervisor ( Okuma-sensei) and Nick, it was very nice, Ukuma-sensei kept ordering food though, I don’t think iv ever eaten so much, I think he wanted me to try all Japanese food that night, anyway he seemed like a really nice bloke. We then met up with some of the other Jets, old and new at a gaijin bar (non Japanese persons bar) and had a blast, there sure are some crazy people on JET! But I figure I won't see them an awful lot, what with being on a small island, although I am only one hour ferry from Nago and half an hours flight by TINY aeroplane from Naha. Andrew, another new JET and awesome guy from Ohio, is going to an even smaller island (900 people) which is 3 hours from the mainland! I hope he has an amazing time. So just for the record, since Friday night (22 or 21 st or july) I had had no more than a few hours sleep a night, my eyes are burning. Oh Okuma-sensei took me to see the castle the Ryuku kings lived in (Okinawa was the Ryuku kingdom before Japan took it about 600 yrs ago). You may notice it looks similar to the forbidden palace in China. Okinawan architecture is a mix of Japanese and Chinese styles.

Well alot of workshops and such like today on teaching and life in Japan. Might have been good but I was so so tired. I did discover I could see Mount Fuji from my Hotel window which was nice. A typhoon hit tokyo at about 9pm but it wasn't that bad, I did get very wet though as I was caught outside without a brolly. Had food in a Japanese restaurant which we were bullied into by a crazy Japanese women. The ten of us Edinburgh Jets didn't spk Japanese and she didn't speak english and the Menu was all in Kanji, we didn't get anywhere for a while until she found one of the chefs who spoke a little english. The food was interesting..... I loved it except what seemed to be chicken knees on a stick, I kids you not, skin and grissle, nothing else. The food wasn't to everyones taste, generally I liked it all execpt for what I think where chickens knees on a stick, no really! I have decided I will eat everything they throw at me here except whale, at least once.

Today we had the welcome cermemony which being in Japan involved lots of speeches by JET people and people from the various involved government ministries. The one highlight was that seating was arranged by the Prefecture we were going to so I finally got to meet the other Okinawan Jets. The seemed a fine bunch of folk so that was all good. That night I went out to an Izekia with the okinwan JETs, an all you can eat/drink japanese restaurant. Had a blast there, we then headed on to a karaoke joint which was even more fun. I remember belting out 'we are the champions' and thats about it, good times. Oh wait! the Izekai place had the wierdest toilet, no really, it was a big mouth with a many armed person behind it, one hand holding a camera. And when you used it, it played music and took pictures of you with the camera, or at least the camera flashed, wierd. I hope I don't appear on some japanese website.

The Tokyo orientation was basically a lesson in sleep deprevation. We arrived after an 11 hour flight at Nara airport at 11.15am (japanese time) and were then ushered by countless recontracting JETs in bright orange t-shirts to waiting buses which devilered us to our hotel in Tokyo. The hotel was no less than the Keio Plaza (5stars and right in the centre of Tokyo) so that was quite nice. We then had the rest of the day to wonder around shinjitsu in Tokyo. To say there were alot of bright lights would be an understatement. It was sensory overload and we loved it, there was so much going on, punk bands playing on the street, street performers, countless japanese people in wierd super trendy japanese cloths, it was awsome. We got dinner at a random ramen place by pointing at the picture of the dish we wanted, the food was amazing, practiced my slurping. We did plan to go out and karaoke but by about 11 we were so tired it was all we could do to find our way back to the hotel and try and get some sleep for our welcome ceremony in the morning.