Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
My bike is just as good! 
What a fun weekend! This weekend was the Izena 88 triathlon and 5 ALTs took part. It was my job to look after the ALTs and also do the international friendship meeting. I and the students had been practicing the welcome songs for the friendship meeting all week, I played the piano and they sang. So the ALTs arrived, John, Andrew and Pat were to be staying at my house, while the three girls, Kori, Wendy and Karen opted to stay at a hotel. So once the JETs had arrived and had all registered and had their bikes checked I took the three boys on a tour of the bike course as they could not attend the actual orientation because of the friendship meeting. I dare say it looked quite amusing, me on my Japanese bike, basket and all, and the three of them on nice racing bikes. There were lots of Japanese athletes going round the course as well, and I got a few amused looks and giggles. We barely made it back in time for the friendship meeting at four, I had to stuff the keyboard in my backpack and race off down to the gym on my bike, and again I got some amused looks and giggles when I stormed in all sweaty with a huge keyboard on my back. I also had to MC the friendship meeting, which was all fine and good, except no-one had told me the schedule or even what we were doing, but I bumbled my way through more or less! The songs went well I only made one or two minimal mistakes, I don’t think anyone noticed, woohoo! The rest of the friendship meeting went very well and included a game of charades which was pretty funny! On Sunday, the day of the race I was up at 6am to take John and Andrew to the start of the race, Pat had come to cheer so he followed on later. The was a wonderful atmosphere and I was wishing I was racing too (I had arrived in Japan too late to register) although I know I would have died shortly after starting. So I and Pat became the official photographers and rushed about trying to get the best photos as the ALTs came in and out of the water and then transitioned to the Bikes. While they were riding the bikes we found time to do a little snorkeling, didn’t see anything much except a crown of thorns star fish, horrid thing! With the help of Kori (from Hawaii) we made Lays from hibiscus flowers for the three ALTs who would be finishing the run. John finished in five hours 3 minutes! A truly awesome achievement! The time limit for the whole Race was seven hours, so at 6 hours and 45 minutes and no sign of Andrew we were worried. But he made it! With 6 minutes to spare, happiness all round! And then unbeknown to me, the English teacher from the elementary school here was also running, and he finished with 4 seconds to spare, it was pretty amazing, all the kids ran the last bit with him. After the race we had an hour to chill before the closing ceremony and party. It was pretty fun, lots of free food and drink! The shoen taiko group preformed the piece they will be playing next week in Tokyo and it was sounding good! A group of elementary school kids decided they wanted to play with me, oh boy, of course if you play with them they just get more and more energetic! Lol it got pretty crazy, luckily Pat joined in too and we did some weird dance/sumo thing with kids on our shoulders. Then some Japanese dude, apparently from a famous Japanese 70’s rock group started playing this ENOURMOUS drum set. I was walking around with a kids on my shoulders and I spied a couple of athletes dancing with their tops off to the drumming, so I joined in with the kid on my shoulders, we moved onto the stage and my t-shirt came off as well. And then all of a sudden the stage was packed with half naked athletes all bouncing to the music, a lot of them with kids on the shoulders as well. I remember just picking up some kids and giving them to people to put on their shoulders. We must have danced for hours! It was a bit nuts, my neck is very, very sore from having a child sitting on it all night! Everyone had a good time though including the kids! Amazingly it was only 11pm when we got back to my house and passed out; it had been a long and exiting day. Monday was a holiday so after the ALTs had left, although not before I had time to do some diving off the pier with John and some elementary school kids, I decided I need a relaxing day. I went back to the beach I had found with David and Ben a few weeks ago. The one which you have to go down some random little paths in the jungle to find. It was beautiful, even more so in the sunlight. So I spent my day lying in the sun, reading, dozing and climbing the various rocks there, I had my lunch on the big one I, Ben and David had climbed that night. I had planned to go hang with the taiko group and Nick afterwards, but in the end I just chilled out in my house, read a little more, had dinner and then slept at about 10pm. It was a very nice and peaceful day, just what I had needed.
What a fun weekend! This weekend was the Izena 88 triathlon and 5 ALTs took part. It was my job to look after the ALTs and also do the international friendship meeting. I and the students had been practicing the welcome songs for the friendship meeting all week, I played the piano and they sang. So the ALTs arrived, John, Andrew and Pat were to be staying at my house, while the three girls, Kori, Wendy and Karen opted to stay at a hotel. So once the JETs had arrived and had all registered and had their bikes checked I took the three boys on a tour of the bike course as they could not attend the actual orientation because of the friendship meeting. I dare say it looked quite amusing, me on my Japanese bike, basket and all, and the three of them on nice racing bikes. There were lots of Japanese athletes going round the course as well, and I got a few amused looks and giggles. We barely made it back in time for the friendship meeting at four, I had to stuff the keyboard in my backpack and race off down to the gym on my bike, and again I got some amused looks and giggles when I stormed in all sweaty with a huge keyboard on my back. I also had to MC the friendship meeting, which was all fine and good, except no-one had told me the schedule or even what we were doing, but I bumbled my way through more or less! The songs went well I only made one or two minimal mistakes, I don’t think anyone noticed, woohoo! The rest of the friendship meeting went very well and included a game of charades which was pretty funny! On Sunday, the day of the race I was up at 6am to take John and Andrew to the start of the race, Pat had come to cheer so he followed on later. The was a wonderful atmosphere and I was wishing I was racing too (I had arrived in Japan too late to register) although I know I would have died shortly after starting. So I and Pat became the official photographers and rushed about trying to get the best photos as the ALTs came in and out of the water and then transitioned to the Bikes. While they were riding the bikes we found time to do a little snorkeling, didn’t see anything much except a crown of thorns star fish, horrid thing! With the help of Kori (from Hawaii) we made Lays from hibiscus flowers for the three ALTs who would be finishing the run. John finished in five hours 3 minutes! A truly awesome achievement! The time limit for the whole Race was seven hours, so at 6 hours and 45 minutes and no sign of Andrew we were worried. But he made it! With 6 minutes to spare, happiness all round! And then unbeknown to me, the English teacher from the elementary school here was also running, and he finished with 4 seconds to spare, it was pretty amazing, all the kids ran the last bit with him. After the race we had an hour to chill before the closing ceremony and party. It was pretty fun, lots of free food and drink! The shoen taiko group preformed the piece they will be playing next week in Tokyo and it was sounding good! A group of elementary school kids decided they wanted to play with me, oh boy, of course if you play with them they just get more and more energetic! Lol it got pretty crazy, luckily Pat joined in too and we did some weird dance/sumo thing with kids on our shoulders. Then some Japanese dude, apparently from a famous Japanese 70’s rock group started playing this ENOURMOUS drum set. I was walking around with a kids on my shoulders and I spied a couple of athletes dancing with their tops off to the drumming, so I joined in with the kid on my shoulders, we moved onto the stage and my t-shirt came off as well. And then all of a sudden the stage was packed with half naked athletes all bouncing to the music, a lot of them with kids on the shoulders as well. I remember just picking up some kids and giving them to people to put on their shoulders. We must have danced for hours! It was a bit nuts, my neck is very, very sore from having a child sitting on it all night! Everyone had a good time though including the kids! Amazingly it was only 11pm when we got back to my house and passed out; it had been a long and exiting day. Monday was a holiday so after the ALTs had left, although not before I had time to do some diving off the pier with John and some elementary school kids, I decided I need a relaxing day. I went back to the beach I had found with David and Ben a few weeks ago. The one which you have to go down some random little paths in the jungle to find. It was beautiful, even more so in the sunlight. So I spent my day lying in the sun, reading, dozing and climbing the various rocks there, I had my lunch on the big one I, Ben and David had climbed that night. I had planned to go hang with the taiko group and Nick afterwards, but in the end I just chilled out in my house, read a little more, had dinner and then slept at about 10pm. It was a very nice and peaceful day, just what I had needed.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Beach clean-up!
Taking a well earned tea break with some of the kids.
Well today the islanders slightly redeemed themselves, the students from both the junior high and elementary school did beach clean-ups this afternoon. Those beaches were so dirty! Of course it would be better if they weren’t to callous with dropping the litter but there yah go! Also I spend about 3 periods doing gardening with the head master, I planted tons of plants, you can see a picture of the plants I planted on my flickr site. So I think iv managed to work on my tan a lot today if nothing else!
Taking a well earned tea break with some of the kids.
Well today the islanders slightly redeemed themselves, the students from both the junior high and elementary school did beach clean-ups this afternoon. Those beaches were so dirty! Of course it would be better if they weren’t to callous with dropping the litter but there yah go! Also I spend about 3 periods doing gardening with the head master, I planted tons of plants, you can see a picture of the plants I planted on my flickr site. So I think iv managed to work on my tan a lot today if nothing else!
Monday, October 03, 2005
Bald Spot!!
I have a bald spot! But we will get to that later. I have had quite a pleasant weekend, seems like sometime since I have had a ‘normal’ weekend on Izena. I spent Saturday relaxing on the beach with a book and doing a spot of swimming. I amused myself chasing a puffer fish around. Later that evening I went to a mini festival/ birthday party, similar to the one several weeks ago but this time it was for a 97th birthday. I met Yoshiaki-san there who I had not seen in a while so we shared a few beers and he invited me back to his house once the festival was done. The eisa group from uchihana village were performing and I chatted with them, and from what I gather I will practice with them for three performances they will do in November. I am looking forward to that, they eisa I did a few weeks back was with students and teachers who had not done eisa much or at all. This eisa group is a bit more serious, some of the things they did looks quite demanding. Anyway I went and had some food and drink with them before heading off with Yoshiaki-san to his house. It was huge! I am curious as to what his job is now, definitely one of the nicer bigger houses on the island. I played with his two children for a while, they would give me an animal name in English and I would act like that animal, it was then I learnt the word for turtle (which is kame). So later we were joined by a couple of the taiko members and Yoshiaki-san put on a Maria Carey Christmas cd, which completely wierded me out, I think I started trying to tell them about Jesus and things, I may or may not have got belligerent. Apparently I also taught them Scottish slang as the next day they were calling each other Dafties. So I had a pleasant sleep in and large breakfast on Sunday and also started to learn the Izena triathlon songs on my keyboard. Later I went down and helped Kamiyama-san, Nagi and Takeru put together the flags for the triathlon. As with anything else on this island Kamiyama-san is behind it and the Shoen taiko members are his loyal foot soldiers. Afterwards we all went swimming; I did a spot of snorkelling first and saw a big old sea turtle which was very cool as if you remember I learn the word for turtle the previous night. So I could now swim back and tell them all what I had seen. We then frolicked in the sea for a while before I was a little reckless. Kamiyama-sans little boy (I can’t remember his name) wanted to dive off some rocks, so I joined him. I was very shallow, just up to my chest and the rocks were another few feet above the surface. I was being sensible and half belly flopping half diving so make sure I didn’t hit the rocks. That was the other thing the sea bed was rocks, not sand. Well it was all going fine and dandy until Kamiyama-san lifted his arms above his head, arms straight and hands clasped together. Indicating us to dive like this, I unthinkingly did so; I went straight down without bending my back at all and walloped my noggin off a rock. It was a good solid impact so I heading back to the sore, but every time I checked my head for blood my hand came back covered in hair, handfuls of hair each time. Bizarrely I didn’t cut myself, there was minimal bleeding but somehow I had ripped out the hairs from a patch about an inch in diameter. It wasn’t that sore and it’s more or less fine today although my neck does hurt. So we sat on the beach and had some beer and cake while laughing about me going bald, all good fun, but then when they all left they took everything with them except the beer cans! People here seem to have no concept of littering, they seems to think it is fine to leave litter on beaches! Their cars were parked not more than a few meters away and they picked everything else up, except the litter. The mind boggles sometimes.
I have a bald spot! But we will get to that later. I have had quite a pleasant weekend, seems like sometime since I have had a ‘normal’ weekend on Izena. I spent Saturday relaxing on the beach with a book and doing a spot of swimming. I amused myself chasing a puffer fish around. Later that evening I went to a mini festival/ birthday party, similar to the one several weeks ago but this time it was for a 97th birthday. I met Yoshiaki-san there who I had not seen in a while so we shared a few beers and he invited me back to his house once the festival was done. The eisa group from uchihana village were performing and I chatted with them, and from what I gather I will practice with them for three performances they will do in November. I am looking forward to that, they eisa I did a few weeks back was with students and teachers who had not done eisa much or at all. This eisa group is a bit more serious, some of the things they did looks quite demanding. Anyway I went and had some food and drink with them before heading off with Yoshiaki-san to his house. It was huge! I am curious as to what his job is now, definitely one of the nicer bigger houses on the island. I played with his two children for a while, they would give me an animal name in English and I would act like that animal, it was then I learnt the word for turtle (which is kame). So later we were joined by a couple of the taiko members and Yoshiaki-san put on a Maria Carey Christmas cd, which completely wierded me out, I think I started trying to tell them about Jesus and things, I may or may not have got belligerent. Apparently I also taught them Scottish slang as the next day they were calling each other Dafties. So I had a pleasant sleep in and large breakfast on Sunday and also started to learn the Izena triathlon songs on my keyboard. Later I went down and helped Kamiyama-san, Nagi and Takeru put together the flags for the triathlon. As with anything else on this island Kamiyama-san is behind it and the Shoen taiko members are his loyal foot soldiers. Afterwards we all went swimming; I did a spot of snorkelling first and saw a big old sea turtle which was very cool as if you remember I learn the word for turtle the previous night. So I could now swim back and tell them all what I had seen. We then frolicked in the sea for a while before I was a little reckless. Kamiyama-sans little boy (I can’t remember his name) wanted to dive off some rocks, so I joined him. I was very shallow, just up to my chest and the rocks were another few feet above the surface. I was being sensible and half belly flopping half diving so make sure I didn’t hit the rocks. That was the other thing the sea bed was rocks, not sand. Well it was all going fine and dandy until Kamiyama-san lifted his arms above his head, arms straight and hands clasped together. Indicating us to dive like this, I unthinkingly did so; I went straight down without bending my back at all and walloped my noggin off a rock. It was a good solid impact so I heading back to the sore, but every time I checked my head for blood my hand came back covered in hair, handfuls of hair each time. Bizarrely I didn’t cut myself, there was minimal bleeding but somehow I had ripped out the hairs from a patch about an inch in diameter. It wasn’t that sore and it’s more or less fine today although my neck does hurt. So we sat on the beach and had some beer and cake while laughing about me going bald, all good fun, but then when they all left they took everything with them except the beer cans! People here seem to have no concept of littering, they seems to think it is fine to leave litter on beaches! Their cars were parked not more than a few meters away and they picked everything else up, except the litter. The mind boggles sometimes.
Friday, September 30, 2005
I arrived at work today to find a note on my desk from Natsu sensei (the English teacher at my school) telling me she had to rush to the mainland with the students for a athletics meet because of the typhoon so I would be taking the classes today by myself! Wooohoo! I took the 2nd and 3rd years (chugako) and it was super fun. Natsu sensei had left me a bunch of work sheets for me to have the students do I guess, but that would have been waaaaaaaaay to boring. So I put together a couple of games instead. I managed to stop having fun and have the 2nd years start one worksheet ten minutes before the end of class but I didn't even have time to hand out the worksheets for the 3rd years. So I guess they had a really fun lesson although they didn't learn much. I am probably an awful teacher, basically I still think like a student, so I want to do fun stuff that they will find fun too. I am so tired right now, I just fell asleep at my desk :(. Which made me think should I be staying up so late doing stuff after school if it makes me really tired in school? I wake up fine for the actual lesson, but in-between lessons I am too tired to think of stuff for lessons or study Japanese. I suppose I will just have to find a balance. Anyways it is the weekend now, and I pray that the sea won't be too rough for me to go swimming. Silly typhoon!
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Wow, so I am at the elementary school again. It�s nuts, I have been playing the Harry Potter game with the kids, it involved tons of running around so I get to use the games hall for my classes. LoL the kids go crazy! They are all dripping in sweat after the class, as am I and the teacher actually. I am not sure how into it the teachers are, maybe they would like a more controlled lesson involving more learning, but that would be boooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrring. I think it helps I am a big(ish) kid myself, after the 4th yrs class I had then chanting �again, again!� So they could play one more game, and the teacher relented! Yeah, kids 1 nil teacher 0! During our bonus game one kid kept chasing me with the most intent face, it was hilarious, I let him catch me a few times. He turned out to also be the kid who eats everything! There is always one huh? I had lunch that that same class after our game, and he ate everything other kids didn�t, it seemed like a game the kids played, trying to make this kid eat everything. He wasn�t fat either, I am sure he will grow up big and strong, or get fat. Man my magic wands take a beating each class, I am doing running repairs with black parcel tape, I think they will be more tape than coloured paper soon. The hats are also soaked in sweat after the lesson, icky! The gym was busy for the last class I had so I got to go outside with the 3rd year, they are the ones who almost killed me in the tickle right last week. The lived up to their fearsome reputation this week, whenever I was Harry Potter I got relentlessly hunted down (my sandals are rubbish to run in) but then equally as fast a crowd of kids would descend yelling �what are you doing?� and I would be free again, only to get caught again! It was tiring but fun! Oh yeah the teacher spelled Harry Potter as Holly Potter on the board, I didn�t say anything, they all know Harry Potter anyway. So yeah anyways that was my day at the elementary school, I shall follow it up with my typical evening which is go run/workout and have dinner and then go hang out with the taiko group down at the stagee. Oh maybe there will be basketball tonight too. I should be cleaning my apartment but bla, I�ll wait until the typhoon hits and I�m house bound.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
This is just a random post, as I have some time to burn before my next class and there isn't enough interesting new to read about in the world. So after a couple of weekends spent with fellow gaijin it is time to get back into the rhythm of life on Izena, which has taken a bit of a battering due to the aforementioned gaijin and illness. I managed to get an ear and throat infection, all my fault, I went swimming and then played basket ball with a cold and then went to the mainland and drank lots, but anyway I got antibiotics last week and it's all good now. So anyway because of this I haven't been able to train with the students after school or go swimming much, even taiko practice has taken a beating. So last night I went to train with the kids for the first time in two weeks, ouch! Yeah maybe I shouldn't have chosen to practice the 100m, especially as the fast boys (and they are fast) like to race me. I definitely pulled something in my back, but it's all good. I need to get back to running etc. definitely been letting my body go to waste recently. So aside from that for the last two days we have had lovely dinners after school, the 1st for a teachers having been teaching for ten years and the other for our intern who has finished his spell here. I had to give a speech for him, caught me unawares so I just gave it in English, and even then I didn't know what to say, I think I talked about how he dressed well for a while. Regardless, it went down well. So at these dinners I have been helping to tidy up afterwards and today I helped set the places and put out the food, helped with the salad etc. The idea is to defy their gender rolls, i.e. women always serving the men. Also at school lunches I always help tidy it away (although the male teachers sometimes help with this). Anyway today I noticed I had been sat on the table with all the women, mmmm so maybe my plan is not quite working. Maybe they have just decided I am a woman. Oh well! I will still beat them all at arm wrestles, yeah I still get those. I actually have a busy day today, four classes! And then I have to go to the shogakko and discuss tomorrow's lesson plans. So I just had my english conversation class and I had the students translate english Haiku into japanese, probably as far removed from conversation as you can get but they were pretty into it. It was harder than I thought because in order for them to understand the english I had to tell them the meaning, and it was not always obvious. Anyways it went well, oh yeah and this one kid, whos very cool and all that, surprised me. He is always asleap in class and appears to know no english, asked me, with perfect enlgish, 'may I borrow your sunglasses please?'. So the little blighter does know english! ah well, one more class to go!
Monday, September 26, 2005
This weekend Izena played host to nine new gaijin! On Friday nine other ALTs came across to spend the weekend on my island. So that meant I spend Thursday night and Friday morning desperately cleaning my house, it was gross! My plans were slightly hampered by having a welcome party on Thursday. I am sure the Shogakko (elementary school) has had one for me before but they threw another one, I was all set to leave work when they said no-no stay have some drink, and all this beer and sushi appeared. I had to do a speech and all that jazz but it was fun, although I was itching to leave as I had to speak to Kamiyama-san (my awesome neighbour) and then start tidying. I think I managed to acquire Kamiyama-san's help for the barbeque and sea kayak with my limited Japanese, it turned out we had his help and then some! I managed to get my house quite clean, if not entirely tidy, in my defense I don't have much storage space, and also I'm a messy boy. Ben was the first to arrive, coming on the morning ferry and lo and behold my predecessor was also on the ferry, Nick had come through to practice taiko at Kamiyama-sans request, a nice surprise! I and Ben had a nice cycle around my island, I tried to go to the fishing equipment store but it was closed, apparently it is open from 8am to 10am only, weird. So the rest of the ALTs (8 of em') arrived on the afternoon ferry, at about half past 4 and we all went to rent bicycles. I must say it looks hilarious, ten gaijin biking around on Japanese style bikes, baskets and all! We then went to the stage to see the taiko people and meet up with Kamiyama-san so we could go and set up the barby. I had planned with kamiyama-san to get the barby set up at 5, and I though in my head perhaps we could be down at Izena beach barbequing by about 6pm. HAH! On the way to my house, I managed to loose the two New Zealand girls, my fault really; I had something of a race with Ben and David and forgot to let the others know where my house was. Anyway it was a while until we found them, in which time we broke into next door to get more sleeping space. That's right we really broke in, with Kamiyama-sans help we bust out a couple of the security bars and Ben climbed in and unlatched the door from the inside, awesome, only on Izena! Before we got to the beach a couple more people got lost and I managed to spend 2man on food, but this was to feed the taiko members as well, anyways it was looking to be something of a feast. It must have been 8pm before we got to the beach (which is only a couple of miles away). Kamiyama-san excelled himself at the barby, lots and lots of good okinawan barby food, much enjoyed by all. We then commenced drinking and fun making, it was awesome to see the taiko members and the ALTs partying together. We had a mini game of rugger, which the Izenan team won, woot! The night continued until late, involving drinking and swimming, swimming and drinking. Highlights included my kiddies inflatable boat, which had an awesome tooty horn and a failed skinny dipping. Four naked guys in the water and everyone else on the beach waiting for them to come out, with a flash light ain't quite what I had in mind, oh well! All the ALTs bar I, Ben and David got lifts back to my house, but we were hard core and decide to take our destiny into our own hand and cycle back. We could not have made a better decision, for we had an awesome adventure! On the way back we a little drive around in the sea weed plant and then we spied a small path leading to the jungle. Well! Being boys we took it and as you might expect it lead to some tombs (most paths lead to tombs here), but then we saw another path, which also lead to some tombs deeper in the jungle. We spent some time at the second tomb before we spotted a tiny over-grown path, so we left our bikes and explored it. It took us to a beach (also not unexpected on my island), but just offshore of the beach were some massive rocks. So being boys we decide to climb them, and climb them we did. The climb wasn't bad; the bad bit was the bramble. The lower half of the rock was covered in razor sharp bramble which cut us all up pretty bad. But we made it to the top and it was amazing, sitting there with the waves breaking at the base of the rock down below our feet. We stayed for sometime before coming down, which was also pretty hair raising. We later viewed the rock during the day, and it was pretty impressive, probably would not have climbed it in the light of day. On the way back we couldn't find the path up from the beach (oh we also had a sea cucumber fight) but we found another one. This did link in with the paths leading to the two sets of tombs we found, but we did stumble around the jungle lost of quite a while, it got a little spooky to say the least! But we found our bikes and cycled home at breakneck speed. Once back be found everyone to be asleep, but being the lovely lot they are they had left enough mats and pillows for us boys, awesome. The next morning I woke up early (8am) so I could go and buy stuff from the fishing shop, I got some good fins, some booties, gloves and a diving knife, I was ready to hunt shellfish or fight of any sea creature in general!
So after my early morning shopping trip I had a few more hours sleep before people started waking up and demanding food, so I took them to the super market and we bought tour various breakfast foods. By about midday we were ready to go and off we went to the beach next to the port, which I had been told last week had load of fish and shellfish, unfortunately when we got there it was too rough, there was a typhoon west of Okinawa throwing up some waves. Kamiyama-san arrived with a sea-kayak in a truck so we all loading our bikes on it and hopped on the back, well actually I got to ride in the front. Matera beach (my fav. Beach) was also too rough so we went to a little beach near Izena beach. That side of the island wasn�t rough, but unfortunately the diving isn�t that awesome. But the scenery and beaches are stunning so it wasn�t all bad. We spent the day relaxing on the beach, swimming, snorkelling and toddling around on the sea-kayak. The rest of the Jets went off to get food at maybe 4pm leaving me and Kelly, so we took the sea kayak to a little rock just off the coast, it had the craziest rock formation, unfortunately I didn�t had my digital camera so you will just have to take my word for it. Once we were also hungry Kamiyama -san came and picked us up; he really is an awesome guy. We then all went out to dinner at the new restaurant at the port before going to lie down on the grass and watch the taiko group practice. We did that for sometime, although I was a little pooped for one reason or another, so when someone suggested getting drink I was all for it. So we cycled off to the little convenience store and for some reason decided to buy wine and not beer. MMmmm it was awful stuff so we decided to drink it all in 5 minutes, which we did, although it wasn�t pleasant. The rest of the evening was spend trying to make fire with two sticks, dashing off to get ice-cream three minutes before the shop closed and having the best night time swim of my life. All in all a crazy weekend and well worth it! On the Sunday morning Kamiyama-san came and woke me up, and with Bens Japanese skills we were told there would only be one ferry today and it would be at 9am! This was because of the bad weather, so all the ALTs had to get up nice and early and packed for the ferry. They just made it, which minutes to spare. But alls well that ends well, so thanks to all the wonderful people who came to my island, good times, very good times.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Wow! I just had a tickle fight with a whole class of 3rd year elementry school kids. I barely escaped with my life, they show no mercy. LOL, it was awsome though. Kids ARE crazy and they have soo much energy, I wanna be a kid again. OK time to go and try and sort stuff out for the weekend, dam not being able to speak Japanese!
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Well I am back on my island now. I just spent a crazy 5 days on the mainland. Let me give you the details. I arrived in Naha on Thursday late afternoon and met up with Andy and Brett, the two other islanders who I had planned this trip with. We went to the Ryokan which we were staying at, just off Kokusidori (the main street in Naha). It was very nice and the women at reception had my key ready and waiting, I didn’t have to tell her I had a reservation or anything, I guess it was obvious that I was the third gaijin staying. The room was nice and large, and had a bed, awesome. I then went to take a shower and woah! It was a real Japanese shower room, with the little stools and the bath etc. So we all took a lovely communal shower and I won’t lie, there was a little bit of a towel/water fight. We then went out to hit the town, just us three islanders. After some HUGE and juicy steaks (don’t get them on my island) we tried to find some bars. The first bar we went to had a Japanese only sign on the door, grrrrrrrrrrrrr, that made us feel angry, but then the next bar (club really) we hit made up for that. We got given a free bottle of bourbon just because we were gaijin, well I assume that’s the reason, maybe they just liked us, but we were the only gaijin there and no-one else got free drink and I don’t think our dancing was that good. It is somewhat true that Japanese either love or hate gaijin/Americans. Oh yes we also played on arcade machines for sometime, as again they don’t exist on our island, until some very drunk and noisy marines came in, at which point we left.
During Friday we managed to get re-entry permits in our passports so that’s out of the way now. We also went to hand out with Eleanor at her school and she showed us a cool little cigar shop. And now onto Friday night. Things got a little bit crazy. We bought a bottle of habushu and brought that to Paul and mikes with us, were we met up with many other ALTs. Habushu is a drink made of oikamore which has a live Habu snake put in before the bottle is sealed up. The Habu snake is quite poisonous and of course its poison gets into the drink, giving that extra kick. Well not that I remember much of the night but it was certainly crazy and very fun, well I am assuming so by the pictures I took. We all woke up still slightly drunk and after taking our communal shower we went to visit the golden arches, mmmmmmmmmmmm that was the best breakfast ever. We each had two burgers and that first big mac I had tasted of heaven. I normally despise MacDonald’s but right then and there it was perfect.
We spent the rest of Saturday in our Ryokan mostly, although we did venture out and have ourselves some massages, very nice indeed. That night we went to Kerry’s house but unfortunately we missed Elvira’s Mexican food, we were messing about in a Mall, everybody said it was awesome, maybe some other time! We played some drinking games at Kerry’s before heading onto karaoke. We extended out time three times, so there was much singing and fun had. We three islanders decided to head home after karaoke as Brett had to catch his ferry at 9am the following morning. So we set off along the 330, I think, and none of the taxis would stop! They all had their lights out and were finishing work, but then one awesome dude stopped for us and saved out lives (or saved us from a very, very long walk) and he gained a bottle of oiwqmori for his efforts. We got ourselves some curry before heading back to the ryokan for all of 2 hours sleep before we got up and had breakfast together at the golden arches. So then Brett left, me and Andy then hung out until he had to leave for his flight at midday.
That afternoon I went down to Itoman with Chris, Kelly, Julie and Jashimin (I know I spelled that wrong) to see the festival there. We missed the festival but we had a good time and even went skinny dipping, although that was the worst skinny dipping I’ve ever done. The tide was way out and we had to walk for ages before the water was deep enough to swim in and to make it worse we chose a bit were the sea bed was sharp rocks and seaweed not nice soft sand. Regardless, good times!
I spend Sunday mostly on buses, although I did have the company of Kelly for part of my journey so that was nice. I managed to miss my ferry by about 5 minutes, OMG! I should really should stop doing that. Anyway I stayed in Nakijin, the little town right next too Unten port so I could get there for the early morning ferry. The taxi driver was really cool, he found the place for me to stay and sorted out booking the room and even got the owner to drive me to the port in the morning. Luckily I had no English classes that day and none of the teachers seemed bothered I was late.
I found I had more positive energy once I got back to the island; the trip to the main land had re-energised me. I also had forgotten some of the Japanese I had managed to learn so I guess it swung both ways, and for the first time in a while I was frustrated in not being able to talk to people, I guess I used again to being able to talk properly. Ah well, I’ll get round to studying Japanese.
During Friday we managed to get re-entry permits in our passports so that’s out of the way now. We also went to hand out with Eleanor at her school and she showed us a cool little cigar shop. And now onto Friday night. Things got a little bit crazy. We bought a bottle of habushu and brought that to Paul and mikes with us, were we met up with many other ALTs. Habushu is a drink made of oikamore which has a live Habu snake put in before the bottle is sealed up. The Habu snake is quite poisonous and of course its poison gets into the drink, giving that extra kick. Well not that I remember much of the night but it was certainly crazy and very fun, well I am assuming so by the pictures I took. We all woke up still slightly drunk and after taking our communal shower we went to visit the golden arches, mmmmmmmmmmmm that was the best breakfast ever. We each had two burgers and that first big mac I had tasted of heaven. I normally despise MacDonald’s but right then and there it was perfect.
We spent the rest of Saturday in our Ryokan mostly, although we did venture out and have ourselves some massages, very nice indeed. That night we went to Kerry’s house but unfortunately we missed Elvira’s Mexican food, we were messing about in a Mall, everybody said it was awesome, maybe some other time! We played some drinking games at Kerry’s before heading onto karaoke. We extended out time three times, so there was much singing and fun had. We three islanders decided to head home after karaoke as Brett had to catch his ferry at 9am the following morning. So we set off along the 330, I think, and none of the taxis would stop! They all had their lights out and were finishing work, but then one awesome dude stopped for us and saved out lives (or saved us from a very, very long walk) and he gained a bottle of oiwqmori for his efforts. We got ourselves some curry before heading back to the ryokan for all of 2 hours sleep before we got up and had breakfast together at the golden arches. So then Brett left, me and Andy then hung out until he had to leave for his flight at midday.
That afternoon I went down to Itoman with Chris, Kelly, Julie and Jashimin (I know I spelled that wrong) to see the festival there. We missed the festival but we had a good time and even went skinny dipping, although that was the worst skinny dipping I’ve ever done. The tide was way out and we had to walk for ages before the water was deep enough to swim in and to make it worse we chose a bit were the sea bed was sharp rocks and seaweed not nice soft sand. Regardless, good times!
I spend Sunday mostly on buses, although I did have the company of Kelly for part of my journey so that was nice. I managed to miss my ferry by about 5 minutes, OMG! I should really should stop doing that. Anyway I stayed in Nakijin, the little town right next too Unten port so I could get there for the early morning ferry. The taxi driver was really cool, he found the place for me to stay and sorted out booking the room and even got the owner to drive me to the port in the morning. Luckily I had no English classes that day and none of the teachers seemed bothered I was late.
I found I had more positive energy once I got back to the island; the trip to the main land had re-energised me. I also had forgotten some of the Japanese I had managed to learn so I guess it swung both ways, and for the first time in a while I was frustrated in not being able to talk to people, I guess I used again to being able to talk properly. Ah well, I’ll get round to studying Japanese.
Monday, September 12, 2005
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