Sorry my camera is still broken so just phone pics. The above picture is very Okinawa to me, traditional Okinawan dance to honour the ancestors with the sea in the background, and a coral stone wall to boot. Sigh.....
Today the Shimi ceremony took place. I think that is what it is called. It was a ceremony to honour Shoen (king sho-en). I am sure you know he was an important Ryukyu (Okinawan) king who founded the longest running ryukyu dynasty and he came from Izena! Apparently, according to one of the other teachers, Izena has to do this Shimi to honour Shoen before they can do the same ceremony on Okinawa honto (the main island). I expect perhaps all the old Okinawan kings have to be honoured each year. It will appear in the Okinawa times, the local newspaper and last year it was televised as well. I didn't really appreciate it last year but I got to sit with all the old and important people in their black suit on the raised platform in from of the tomb.....wearing red trackies and a blue T-shirt - woops. I just copied everyone else, blowing, praying etc. In the picture of last years ceremony in the paper you can see my blonde hair poking up behind the black suited, black haired masses. This year I lurked in the background. Unlike last year there were also a few performances of traditional music and dance, I have posted a couple of pics for you viewing pleasure.

It was love at first sight!
I finally ate at the pizza place in Motobu, lovely view to eat pizza by!

Well I haven’t blogged in a while but my camera is broken! How can I post without pictures! Pictures from my phone will have to suffice. I don’t think (hope) my camera is badly broken, I think it is just the door to the battery sd card compartment. First when it wouldn’t turn on I just need to open and close it a few times but now it won’t go on at all. Pretty sure the warrantee is over but I will take it to a shop here. See if they can work some magic.

I spent a long weekend on the mainland. Didn’t accomplish much but I enjoyed it which is the main thing right? I and Kelly did do our theory test for the PADI open water scuba license we are going to get. Pretty excited about that, no diving next weekend but we will do our diving over the following two weekends and then be licensed open water divers! Sweet! Don’t expect any wonderful underwater pictures as there is no way I can afford a underwater camera housing right now, assuming my camera gets fixed. I am trying to save for after Japan, plus paying for the course I am studying plus a trip to the states, not really rolling in the dough at the moment.

I pretty much have to spend all my free time studying these days, I am still enjoying it but only just, perhaps it is more that I am used to it. It will feel odd not to get home and immediately settle down with my books and plan out my evenings study.

I and Kelly played some good April Fools jokes on Sunday, I got Andy well and good. We are still awaiting the results of one joke.

My school is awash with new teachers. I am a little sad that the old teachers whom I had grown fond of are gone, I doubt I will get to know these teachers very well before I leave. Perhaps that kind of thinking leads to a self-forfilling prophesy?

When not studying I am thinking about the future, what am I going to do! And what is this thing we call ‘the future’? Why do we fear it so much, why do we spend all our time preparing for it? Will it actually ever come? And when not preparing for it we are trying to delay and postpone it, is that really possible? Depends on your definition of future of course; ah... the inaccuracy of human language. One can certainly delay future events and that is mostly what we try and do.

Rational thoughts aside from my perspective my future is hurtling towards me at an alarming pace. There is bound to be a collision with the little life I have build up here, I suppose it will happen on the 24^th of July. To be honest I am rather excited by it, plans are slowly developing.

The initial plan is travel and fun! Not so scary! I and Kelly will see Europe and then toddle over to Scotland. Hopefully Kelly will like the wee lochs and glens of my home.

Then after Christmas is done, I missed the last two at home so looking forward to this year (wow, its only april I am looking forward to Christmas already….scary), it is time to volunteer! Time to do my little bit and make the world a better place. And perhaps do some nice things to write on my CV (resume for Americans). I have been trawling the web looking for the perfect place to volunteer for quite some time now. I thought I had found it in Guatemala. They offered a variety of projects including environmental ones (for me) and were low cost, however after reading the foreign office travel guide to Guatemala I was shaking in the boots! It seems like if you go there you will be robbed, raped and murdered within minutes. Public transport was particularly dangerous, fair enough, but private cars were stopped at gunpoint too! Mmmm not so good. I know that the foreign office always writes fairly scary descriptions of any poorish country but it seemed rather scarier than most. What tipped it was the list of crimes committed against foreigners in Guatemala in the last 11 months (supplied by the US embassy there) and the various reports of armed muggings on all the tourist sites I went to. So sorry Guatemala! Ecuador was a little better but not by much. After some looking I ‘discovered’ Bolivia! It seems relatively safe and is the poorest country in south America, who more deserving of my altruism! So it seems likely that is where we shall go! Next steps plan what I will do there and fundraise! The fun never ends!

After that…….actually I do at least know what I want to do! It has taken me a long time with many wrong turns and ventures up dead ends but I now have a pretty good idea of what I want to do. Do you want to know? Possible, it is rather hard to tell from where I am sitting. Ah well, I wish to study environmental science (masters) and pursue a career in that field. Most likely with an environmental consultancy firm but perhaps with government or a firm large enough not to need outside consultants for it environmental planning etc. And before you ask NO! I did not get this idea after watching ‘an inconvenient truth’. It has been bubbling away for a while. The next question is where and by what means of funding. I had long thought (since I spend a year on exchange at UCSD) about studying in the states and it is still an option albeit an expensive one. There are many sources of financial aid for grad students in America but as an international student I will face a higher bar to get them. It is still on the cards, however I probably shouldn’t completely overlook British universities either, we do have some pretty good ones (including the number 2 and 3 in the world). Oxford have a number of interesting environmental masters programs however I shan’t hold my breath about getting in there! Sigh…it would be nice though. For the moment I can dream!

Here’s to dreaming!

As it is in keeping with my previous post check out what the Honda F1 (Formula one) racing team have done. Instead of having corporate sponsors all over their car as other teams ubiquitously have they have done something a little bit special.
http://www.myearthdream.com
They have a map of the world painted on the car made up of tiny pixels. Each pixel is in fact someone's name. You can get your name on the car of you go the the above website and make a pledge and donate some money to the myearthdream trust. It is at least worth looking at the pledges to see what one can do to reduce ones carbon footprint. Also there is a neat map thing on the site where you can see which pledges people have chosen from which countries.

Aye
waaatsu iiii kuraku?

I do not have an awful lot to share but I am a generous soul and I will share what I have. Well if you must know I imbibed biru last nite and watched rugby. No I didn't go back to Scotland but my friend finally got around to inviting me to watch rugby. He has sky perfect and could watch all the 6 nations games which he kindly recorded for me! Unfortunately he has been awffie busy with work recently (as is the norm in this country - even on my island people regularly work 60 hours plus a week and don't take many holidays). I was settling down to some study but I could not pass up the chance and I had managed 3 hour of study at that point which is better than a kick in the derrière. Well to cut a long story short it was a fun night and now I am paying for it. I really didn't want to get up this morning. But I have a sadistic gregorian imp who will pinch me if I don't get up early. If you also have a sadistic gregorian imp please let me know and we can form an informal support group. If you (a sadisitic gergorian imp owner) exist YOU ARE NOT ALONE! If you don't exist I AM ALONE! WAaaaah!
Sadistic gregorian imps aside.
I went to the mainland this weekend as is my wont. I often want to do my wont. I also had deep and incisefuly insightful thoughts on decision making. You may not think that is very interesting however I beg that you reconsider your rash judgement! Your ability to decision make will directly affect your life what you do and how happy you will be/are! We are constantly making decisions in limited time and with imperfect information, no wonder we get it wrong so often! Decision making is also done at a cultural level, and although we have made many brilliant decisions as a culture we are not getting them all right. I plan to post my thoughts later (actually I am not sure what they were, I was falling asleep when stuck by them so I jumped up, jotted them down in my rather handsome black leather bound journal and promptly resumed falling asleep and forgot all about my great thoughts - they may well be, in fact, a small pile of poo) but speaking of bad decisions we have taken as a society/culture - GLOBAL WARMING. Yes it is old news for many of us, but that doesn't mean it has gone away and that doesn't mean it is not getting worse and worse AND WORSE! For those of you for whom it is new news.......no comment. I admit with much guilt it had been pushed to the recesses of my mind too. Although my conscience is comforted by the knowledge I have a pretty small carbon footprint...relatively speaking of course. I don't drive a car, I don't leave electric appliances on standby, I take my own bag grocery shopping, I.......try not to use disposable chopsticks.....I.......yeah so I am not doing very much actually. I feel a bit bad. This was all brought on by watching 'An inconvenient truth' with Kelly. Thanks for suggesting we watch it Darling! I advise you all to watch it. It is very relevant and timely. I suppose it applys more to Americans than anyone. The Chinese too. Please guys stop using massively outdated and dirty coal burning power plants. Australia too, highest per capita CO2 emissions tut tut! So well yes go watch the movie. Then reduce your own carbon emissions and elect responsible politicians. The alternative is simply not acceptable and if there is anything you hold dear in the world we need to change before it all gets mucked up. It really is a moral decision (as Mr.Gore quite rightly says). I was impressed how fuel efficient Japanese cars were (very!) and amused that Chinese cars are more fuel efficient than American ones! America cannot sell many cars to China because they are not fuel efficient enough! I was also heartened to see that being a little environmentalism is in fact good for business at least not too bad and at least in one industry. Fuel efficient Japanese car makers (toyota, nissan etc.) are growing strongly while makers of fuel guzzling car makers (ie. ford, GM etc) are in fact in pretty serious economic trouble! Get rich and save the world! Actually from an environmental point of view I don't think this whole thing is amazingly bad. Life has survived super volcanoes and giant meteor strikes. Mass extinctions have been regular and arguably have played an important and essential role in the development of life (at least for life as we know it). Life has happily lived through periods much hotter than now and much colder than now. Life will survive. Global warming will mainly hurt us. People. It is already hurting us but we are to busy acquiring stuff to notice. Stuff is nice but there are many, many other wonderful aspects to life. Oh where am I going with this rant! Just go watch the movie, it is nothing new, nothing we havn't known for years and years, but it calls for what is needed and what is needed is something new; a responsible human race....is that possible? Individually people are great, I quite like many people, in fact many of my best friends are people. But as a whole (me very much included) we make some stinkers of decisions. So meh. Oh yah, also I have finally got around to trying Shodou (Japanese brush caligraphy). Yes yes, I am about to leave Japan and I finally get interested in learning about the culture. Whatever. Better late than never! I bought all the equipment and a book on how to do it and have been using it as my study break activity. I was also excited to find out there is a shodou class every thursday on my island! For kids but that is perfect for me! I wish I had found out about this sooner! Perhaps I shall post some of my shodou attempts later!

Take care
Barnabas Primbottom

Ps. If you thought my opening sentence is in Japanese think again.

pps. A story from last nite. Apparently Britain's unenviable reputation for awful food has got as far as Japan. My friend asked me about it and I tried to explain. I explained how traditional British food is yummy but that now people are so busy, lifestyles have changed and how big supermarkets have taken over and fresh local produce is hard to find. He accepted this but when I told him that it was also because British women also want jobs, so as neither men nor women cook the food is bad! This stuck a cord and he enthusiastically agreed telling me it was the same in Japan...while his wife was busy cooking away in the kitchen. His wife asked him how she was and he graciously told her she was a good cook. I was a little surprised as on Izena at least women stay in the kitchen and cook and serve beer to the men who sit and eat and drink. If I am invited around to someone's house to dinner the wife stays in the kitchen, if another husband and wife come to the dinner the wife goes to the kitchen to help, the man sits down and tucks in. It may be different in the rest of Japan. Anyway he told me how food was very important and how it was important to get a girl who can cook. I agreed with him whole heartedly on the food thing and told him that was why I myself try to learn to cook. They both both this was hilarious and I don't think they quite believed me. Japanese men probably feel rather sorry for us westerners. He also thought it was very funny I was trying shodou asking me if I didn't think it was boring. Silly western men who don't have women to cook and serve them, who do silly boring things like shodou when they should be busy being served things like beer and sake and making great big sucking noises with their mouths. Silly western men! Hah! Whatever I like shodou and Kelly, although you have cooked me some delish things it is not a factor in determining whether I like you or not.

The girls
The boys
I and Kaho, goodluck getting into Nago highscool! Watch out for her Big Ben!

Good day.

I shall now BLOG about the Junior High school graduation just past before I forget what happened! The same disclaimer counts for this blog, it may only be interesting if you are not a teaching in Japan too.
The thing about the junior high graduation on Izena is that these kids will have to go to the main-island for senior high school. The poor mites have to leave home at 15! All the ones I have spoken to will stay with Older siblings or other relatives on the main-island. However due to the logistics it will not be practical for them to even come home on weekends and they will only come back to Izena during holidays. So perhaps the students are a little excited about it but it is very sad for the parents I am sure! Island life huh!
So the official graduation in the morning was fairly standard fair. The headmaster and deputy head made speeches as did various importants from around the village and some of the students. The 2nd year boy who gave the fairwell speach on behalf of he fellow kohai (junoirs) to the departing senpais (senoirs) surprised me by struggling to hold back his tears and having to leave the hall after his speech was done. The senpai, kohai relationship is quite important in Japan, actually probably hugely important, yes thinking about it, it permeates all of Japanese society, especially if viewed generally in terms on ones status relative to others. Anyway he cried, how touching. There were also a few songs, those I enjoy although the rest was fairly tedious. After wards the graduating students walked down a flower lined avenue out of the school while being showered by confetti. At the school gate there was a veritable frenzy of photo taking and I have included a couple of them to sate your voracious curiously. I attempted to try and have students do something other than the peace sign in photos, pretty much hit a brick wall there. If you ain't making the peace sign its not a photo! Apparently....
After that the students helped plant a couple of trees but the excitement was fading and people wondered off to do...things. The graduating students and parents went to the games hall to plan the afternoons activities. I had been told it was going to be a volleyball match but I was pleasantly surprised. When the teachers were summoned to the hall we found tables set out with food and drinks. Whoopiee I thought as my stomach had been slowly digesting me from the inside. There was even chira sushi which is my favourite (more rice). Then....bear with me while I gather my addled wits about me. Ah yes, the parents performed a dance, a dance with fans none the less. Okinawn dances (and this applys to most of what I have seen of Japanese dances too) are rather slow, yet graceful and precise. As beautiful as they may be with the best of will they would not be described as exciting. Although this is only from my limited experience. I am probably wrong but at least a substantial proportion are slow moving. I hope I am not insulting anyone, taiko involves dancing and taiko certainly isn't boring! I wish I could have done more of that....
Alright back to my tale. After that there were some speeches. Then each parent(s) presented each child with a card (just like the one I got from the yochien). As I mentioned before it can't be easy for parents to say goodbye to their children at 15! Although they probably have 3 or 4 younger ones at home. Unlike mainland Japan Izena people procreate. A combination of island life bereft of entertainment (cinemas etc) and neither shop on the island selling condoms. I wonder if declining birth rates in developed countries are more to do with the many distractions provided by modern life than anything else. Too many people watching movies, playing computer games, indulging in various pastimes etc. to get on with that important task of procreation. Sometimes we are so busy we pay other people to have our baby's and then pay someone to look after it! So if you are a developed country here is how to increase your birthrate; increase tax 1000% on all entertainment; reduce working hours and ban condoms. That last one is a bit risky I admit, perhaps the boredom induced copulation alone will be sufficient.
Back to the graduation. Next the pupils all came and sat in a long line and one by one read out a small thank you to their parents before presenting their parents with a rose each, it was very touching. Thennnn the students sang some songs including the school song for the last time. Now comes the best bit, 4 of the girl students had been secretly practising in a band! So secretly that for the past few months I hadn't known that they have been using MY keyboard. I though the keyboard they were using looked familiar and after they had performed I went and checked and sure enough it was mine! They weren't quite on par with Queen or some-other great band they couldn't possible be as good as but it was entertaining none the less.
So that was my Saturday, after graduation was over I escaped to study and that is what I did for the rest of the weekend and Monday (which was a school hol). Exciting I know, but know I can confidently calculate cashflows (as opposed to accountants and their profits which don't mean much), NPV and even calculate an equivalent annual annuity. You have permission to slap me when you see me next for being such a nerd. There were two notable breaks from study. The first one came on Saturday. I essentially got kidnapped by yoshiakisan and taken to an otskaresama (well done) party for the kids in the band. I got a free feed and was treated to another performance however my inner nerd was threatening to kick me in the goodies if I didn't go study some more so I left. Just as I was leaving they were starting to do some karaoke and I admit I was sorely tempted. On Monday I took a break for a run, just 10k but it felt good to get moving again. This is my first run since the marathon and I had definitely started to feel 'unhealthy', its kind of a gross feeling. Unfortunately it is evident my foot is not yet healed. No problem I just just ride my bicycle instead! I want to ride my Bicycle.
The only other note able thing I have been doing is worrying about the future. I am certain I don't want to do anything (especially a job) because it is convenient (in terms of location or money) or I am obligated to and I am certain I should do the things I want to do! You only get ONE shot at life so make it a good one! However I am hamstrung by not knowing what I want to do. Bit of a pickle really. So here I am studying something that doesn't hugely apply to what I want to do any more. Shutup. Yes you! Sniggering there in the back, quiet! I am pretty sure what I am learning will be generally useful as well (someday I will have money to invest) and besides it won't hurt my CV (resume for Americans). The current idea is do a masters in environmental science/management and then work for an environmental consultancy or maybe government. You know save the world just a little bit (or in the eventuality I need to order a Mafia hit on someone take huge bribes from Shell to OK their dodgy oil drilling plans). I have probably written enough. Goodbye.

Going over a new game I tried with the 6th years, OK but needs tinkering.
A couple of my students were having dinner at the same place as us.
Me about to get my lovely card from the yochien (kindergarten).

It has been an good past few days although a little sad. For you other ALTs who read my BLOG this may be a little boring seeing as you probably just went through a similar experience but for my readers not in Japan it may be interesting.
On Thursday I was visited on my little island by Kelly and her friend Amy. As they were visiting on a Thursday, being my day at the elementry school, I invited them to join me for some lessons. The ferry only comes in at 11.30 so the only had time to have lunch with my yochien and then do my afternoon lesson (6th years). But what a lunch it was! My yochien are a riot and were not shy of Kelly and Amy in the slightest. They even made Kelly and amy say; 'rice please,' 'soup please,' 'orange please,' for each item of the school lunch as it was dished out. I had tought them please-thankyou-your welcome a while back. They were soon busy molesting kelly and amy as they are wont to do. The girl I sat next to was particularly genki that day. I got her (and some other kids) several times with 'oh whats that!' or 'Look over there!' and then saying 'haha you looked' when she did. She never got me once! Hah! They tried really hard telling me various people were behind me but I was far too cunning. I also got her with the tapping shoulder thing. I rock. She got me back though. She had a big milk mustashe so I said 'haha you have a milk beard,' she only shrugged and went 'unnnnn' -japanese for yes/uhuuh-. So I told her 'ewww dirty,' she just laughed and wiped her milk covered hands all over my sweater. Fair enough. Then after lunch is over a pupil comes to the front and the teacher motions for me to go to the front too, apparently the lesson that morning had been my last lesson with them as yochien! I hadn't known! They presented me with a lovely card thing (more a board) with pictures of me and the yochien stuck on it and messages and things, very cute! As it was the last lesson I gave the boys (and tough girls) last boosts up, I literaly throw them up and give them air time. At the teachers request we then played one last animal evolution game and then it was time for me to go as the after lunch class was starting shortly. I will have the yochien as 1st year elementry school but I only have them once a month, currently I have the yochien everyweek! I upped the classes from once a month to everyweek at the teachers request. I hope they get a good teacher as that really effects the classes personality. The class with the 6th years turned out to be the last one too, luckily I had my guests to make it a special lesson. It had been scheduled for next week but I guess the schedule changed so I didn't have a special lesson planned. I am looking forward to seeing the 6th years as junior high kids, hopefully alot of them sign up for my english conversation classes. I will have them for the period before the hormones kick in. Kelly and Amy really enjoyed my yochien although Kelly was a little grossed out by the boy who was doing something vigous with his hands in his pants for quite some time, hands not down his pants but all the way up the legs. They both of them got out the ethanol hand sanitising gel immediately after wards. I really enjoyed your visit Kelly and Amy sorry the weather was a bit poo! It was worth cleaning my house up for!

Today was graduation at the Junoir High school but that BLOG will have to wait until tommorrow or later.

Take care

Craig

This will be a post mostly of pictures;

And just to make things interesting the pictures are not in chronological order...sorry it will be a tad disjointed.

In Brief, this saturday I went to my first Okinawan wedding, much fun. I also failed in my endeavour get much study done due to one thing or another! Oh yes, I also had my last english conversation club lesson...sniff :(.
Me in my wedding get-up.

The Bride and Groom in their final costumes. The Bride, Arisa Teachaa is from my school.

So here I am with my English conversation club kids. I decided to fast forward Easter and have an Easter lesson, mainly because I though it would be fun and I had some rather delish Easter eggs I had bought on base I wanted to use. We painted eggs, had an egg hunt outside and rolled eggs. Much fun was had by one and all.



Yeah, looking good! I had plans of getting a sly one hour of study in on the ferry back to Izena but this cool cat had other ideas.

He had accomplices too, I didn't stand a chance, look at the evil intent on their faces! They had been to run some race on the main island and decided I was going to be their antidote to the boredom of the ferry ride.

Moshi moshi! This kid really liked to pretend to talk on my phone.
I and my fellow teachers after the wedding and before heading to the nijikanme (2nd party). As you can see we are all clutching identical bags, an unlikely accessory matching disaster!? No, at Japanese weddings guests pay the Bride and Groom ichi man (50 quid) and then recieve a present of about equal value! Wicked! I got two for some reason, I didn't take two! I was GIVEN two! But then I went ahead and thought I would just leave them BOTH in the pub....luckily Big Ben (whose house I stayed at) was a wee darlin' and popped down and picked them up for me.
Rocking out to the music on my shuffle. Yeah baby!
The eggs my kids painted, pretty good ne!

So yah, the wedding eh. An Okinawan wedding is a little more fun and lavish then a mainland wedding I am told. At an okinawan wedding approx. 400 people come while the best the mainland Japanese can do is a meagre 100. There are also many performances by friends, family and work colleagues of the Bride and Groom. As a work colleague of the Bride (Arisa 先生) I and the other teachers performed a silly dance dressed up as construction workers. We wore white helmets, long-johns and painted out faces in the most ridiculous manner conceivable! The Bride and Groom wore three different costumes the finest of which was the first; splendiferous white wedding kimonos but I was too excited and forgot to take a picture. There was also a professional announcer/singer (yes one person did both)! It was Nancy in case any of you know her, does radio I believe. One assumes she must REALLY like the sound of her own voice. So the wedding was fun, highlights were doing my first BANZAI! Very excited I got to do that, I will cherish the memory along with when I got my first GOKOROSAMA. Another personal highlight was getting a string of paper flags. Allow me to elaborate, after we banzai-ed the happy couple (after they came and lit a candle on our table) we were wildly out of control and let of party crackers willy-nilly. One cracker emitted a coloured string of paper flags, all the flags of the world! For some reason it stuck me that I should very much like to have those flags but I dismissed the thought as silly. About ten minutes later I hear genki 'KUREIGU SENSEI' (Craig teacher in japanese) down to my side, I look down and there is the little daughter of the cleaning lady presenting those very flags to me! I was touched! 'Oh thankyou, Arigato!' I cried, (cried as in said it loudly, not cried tears! Suggest otherwise and I will punch you). I had just had a conversation with her and asked her to kindly look forward to studying english with me when he becomes a yochien (kindergarten-er) later this year. Must have made an impression or just got plain lucky, that or she is a very perceptive and cunning child, her or her mother. Anyway I was happy. After the wedding we went to J's bar and much fun was had. My teachers all left earlyish but a bunch of mainland Japanese came to keep me company. They were very nice and good company. It was after 2am before I left! My impressions of mainland Japanese are that they have been very nice and friendly. Although it is oft said how much warmer the okinawans are. This is the conventional knowledge but I am not convinced, not that okinawans are unfriendly, far from it! However all the Japanese I have met have been extraordinarily nice. I had not yet met as many friendly and helpful people as I did in Nara. I felt like saying well if Okinawans are so much friendlier how comes it's your guys who are here talking with me (and extolling the virtues of the Okinawans none the less). They did tell me that in mainland Japan the Groom cannot invite ANY females to his wedding, not even work colleagues as a relationship would be suspected! The same applies to the Bride. That is a bit crazy. I pursued the point a little and got the impression that perhaps if you are really in culture then the okinawan culture is kinder but for someone who is still a guest in this country it doesn't make a huge difference. It is a commonly noted aspect of general Japanese culture that they are very welcoming and accommodating toward guests. On Sunday I met some friends of BBs from mainland Japan who were visiting him. The family of a previous student of his. They were also nice and funny and didn't mind at all that a random (me) accompanied them to the pineapple park. Ah ok that's all, oh no, Takeru is back. One of the first friends I made on the island. He left to get a job on the mainland ages ago but he is back for a few months, nice. Those who came to my island all those moons ago he was the guy with the afro (sadly lacking now).

Some traditional Okinawan/Japanese food

Cutting up a fish for sashimi
Kelly and I before the marathon
Kelly and I after the marathon!
Kelly, her Grandparents and I at the Tropical Dream Centre
The orchids drawing in their unsuspecting victims
A vine growing across a concrete roof

Goodmorning!

This weekend was a good one. Two main causal agents were running the Okinawa marathon and meeting Kelly’s grandparents. I met the Grandparents first so let’s start there. They arrived in Okinawa about a week ago to visit Kelly and have been experiencing one of Kelly’s world renowned tours of Okinawa. Kelly and her grandparents came to meet me at the port on Friday and I came off the ferry to meet them with armed with a haircut, trimmed beard and a bag of several large and heavy books. Large and heavy books can be useful in a number of diverse situations.

They were very friendly and I liked them immediately, one naturally hopes their impression was similar, then off we all went to gather to the pineapple park. As a side note I share the opinion that Americans are generally very friendly, open and polite, that is to say easy to become congenially acquainted with. They don’t tend to stand on ceremony or be stand-offish. I really like this however I am a cynical and grouchy Brit and sometimes the over the top (subjective I know) exuberance of Americans makes me feel uncomfortable. Not uncomfortable in that I don’t like it, it is great to be optimistic and enthusiastic about everything (within reason of course) but I am uncomfortable acting that way myself. I tend to communicate my positive emotions in devious and subtle ways, so pay attention! I wonder if you can take it as a rule of thumb that when Americans say something one aught to take into account probable overstatement and factor down greatness/awesomeness accordingly. And also when a Brit says something one must factor in understatement and scale up the greatness/wonderfulness.

American English : British English

Awesome = not bad

Well anyway I am going off on a wild tangent and I am not sure I really believe what I just wrote, it was just a thought.

So on with my tale. On Saturday we spent most of the day in America! Technically at least, we were on Kadena airbase. It did feel like we had left Japan, the roads suddenly became about 5 times wider, the buildings more spaced with swathes of immaculately cut lawn in between, men carrying guns. Kelly’s grandparents were extremely generous and paid for everything, Thankyou! They had also brought me a nifty LED headlamp gizmo from the states, much appreciated! Kelly was in heaven shopping at the commissary, mountains of all the food from home she had been missing! She did however show considerable restraint and didn’t buy too much at all. I was half tempted and half sort of disgusted. After Japanese food this just seemed to be endless HUGE portions of fatty, sugary death to your body. You get a lot of that in Japan now, but not on my island and certainly not in the school lunches that I get. This said when I spent a year in America I actually lost weight, although I was in southern California and surfing everyday that I could, but I was eating burgers and Doritos almost everyday too. Scottish food is at least as bad if not worse, although like everywhere there is good food if you look hard enough (ie. generally NOT in supermarkets). Argh I have digressed again. So it was a tip-top day and ended with a pleasant meal at the NCO club again courtesy of the ever generous Grandparents of Kelly.

SUNDAY: RACE DAY

Oh boy. The Okinawa marathon is a hilly little blighter to say the least. We knew that and were somewhat prepared. However several things which we weren’t prepared for tested us even more. At around 10km into the race Kelly got a neck crick. You know when you can’t move your neck cos it bloody hurts to do so! It hasn’t happened while running before and goodness knows why it happened then but it did. I could tell the poor girl was in a lot of pain. She was a real trooper and battled on though! I tried to be motivational and cheer her on as much I could, I again drew on the inspiration of John and told her to run with a smile and wave at the supporters. This she did very bravely but the smile came out more as a little scary grimace. But she did it! I am immensely proud of my gal, she showed she had guts and kicked that marathon right in the goodies. Despite evil towering hills (down-hills are probably worse than up towards the end of the race as they hurt your knees much more) and neck pains she finished this marathon a little faster than the last one! We finished in 4 hours and 24 minutes and some seconds. This time Kelly was one second faster than me and she deserved every nanosecond of it ;)! Way to go Kelly!

As for me the arch of my left foot is bothering me but it is not so bad now, my toes also took a bit of a beating. But that was the last endurance event for a little while. I have been in constant training for over a year now and it is time to let me knees and other connective tissue a chance to heal. Not that I am stopping, are you crazy! But I will switch to bike and swim training for a while. Hopefully I can do some 10Km or 20Km races in the near future and build up some speed.

Well done to Josh, Fidi, Charolette and Helen for also running the marathon and to Perry for rocking the ten Km race that day and for getting a PB at the Tokyo Marathon the week before. Good luck for Miako you crazy buggers! Also thank you to Kelly’s grandparents and Yasmine for cheering us on during the race.

After the marathon we had a slap up meal at macaroni grill (camp foster) where we were joined by the ever genki Ryoko. After facing the ordeal of the steps up to Kelly’s apartment again we iced aching limbs again before collapsing to bed.

Monday we went to the Tropical Dream Centre where we were treated to an amazing display of orchids. An old plant science professor of mine once described them as the Brazen Hussies of the plant world. However that think that is a little unfair and I am quite fond of them. A little gaudy and over the top at times but beautiful none the less.

This week I will have my last English conversation class. I am sad as I have grown quite fond of my class. The ‘thank you for being our teacher’ card they gave me on valentines day I will treasure. They are a good bunch of girls and I don’t think I will have time to get to know the new lot quite so well. I am working on giving them a lesson to remember and so far it involves chocolate so I think I am on the right track.

After doing my night time English conversation class on Monday (I have three such classes) I was invited by a teacher to some shindig so off I went. There were quite a lot of people there and lots of good okinawan/Japanese food. Incase you are curious as to food here I posted some pics. On the table you can see pigs tongue and in the bowl; diakon (like a white turnip), pigs ankle, tofu, seaweed, hotdog sausage and a boiled egg. The pigs ankle is pretty yum, its really soft and you just suck the skin, fat, tendons right off the bone. Yes yes, I know, I eat everything. The other picture if off a chap preparing the sashimi (sliced, raw fish). I have another party to go to tonight, there must be something going on, but as usual I am clueless! Probably to do with the up coming gradations and completion of a school year?

KABUTOMUSHI!

I spent the weekend studying and precious little else. Well quite allot of study anyway. What was going to be a start break to the school on Saturday to check my emails turned into a 3 hour study holiday; I first chatted to my mum then it started raining (heavily) and then Kelly came on line and I talked to her. I ended up getting very wet on the way home, I had to strip off in the doorway. Sunday I had a 30k run scheduled and I managed that and about 6 and half hours of study, not bad. The big news was I acquired a pet on my run. I got my self my very own Kabutomushi (helmetbug) which is the vulgar Japanese name for stag beatles. Most of the native Japanese species are of the genus Dorcus. Unfortunate name really. Having looked at a few pictures I would guess that is it Dorcus Rectus (doubly unfortunate name) or Dorcus Platymelus, given that Dorcus Rectus is much common I would hazzard a guess that is it. However to be honest they all look very similar. My chap (it is a male) is about 40mm long although I haven't measured him yet. As a side note these beetles are very popular in Japan. Some species selling for huge amounts (circa. 100 dollars) and are popular amungst adults and children alike. It seems to me that children here are crazy about any and all bugs, during the summer one often sees primary school kids wondering around with bug net and regulation bug box (I have one ;)). The Katbutomushi is undisputed king of all bugs in Japan and therefore highly sought after. I think this is mostly due to its pretty fearsome appearance and the fact that they fight! Put two stags on a branch and they will lock horns and spar until one falls off! Monsters fighting is a pretty popular theme in Japan (my reference for this is almost ALL anime and manga -you at least know about pokemon- and a good proportion of TV and movies) also the beetles are generally unhurt which of course makes it all the more suitable for kids. There are popular kabutomushi card games and an arcade game that I often see kids playing called MushiKing where children fight beetles against each other. Anyway I have one now so HAH! I came across him about 24km into a 30k run just sitting right there in the road! I couldn't pass up the chance so I decided to carry him back the remainder of the run. A couple of Km later his squirming was bothering me so I broke off a branch and put him on it, he clung there happily until I was home. I was passed by one or two cars, I wonder what they though about me running while holding a stick with a large beetle on it? Whatever, I can be as eccentric as I please, humph!
I had an unexpected blast of Britishness just before bed last night. I finished the last financial management chapter on my to-do list and turned on the TV while I munched some supper (oatcakes and smelly Danish blue). What was on? The bleeding last night of the proms that's what! If you do not know what that is, well, it is like a musical festival but with classical music, kind of, held in Britain. The BBC philharmonic was playing a rather racy piece (complete with the slightly passée attractive lead violinist) moreover who was commentating but none other than Ground forces finest Alan Titchmarsh! I would have preferred Charlie Dimmock but that's by the by. He is quite a ridiculous fellow, well he is definitely English at least. It really could not have been more British if it tried (and it appeared they tried very hard), within moments there was a sea of Union Jacks waving to Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance, not once but twice (following tradition) and accompanied by a video clips of the 80 year reign of the Queen! Land of Hope and Glory........... followed by a series of naval bugal calls which were answered by the other wings of the proms in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland (each waving appropriate flags). That was something to do with the Battle of Trafalgar. It was almost a bit too much for me, I saw some other famous Brits in the audience but I couldn't place their names. Been away for a while I suppose! I missed what came between Danny Boy and Rule Britannia because I was trimming my beard and as it was getting late with a final Pum Pum Puddle-iddly-um I had to go to bed. Just for the record in theory I despise nationalism and even the idea of nations. As to nationalism my opinion is that if you need nationalism to give you some identity then you are solely lacking in that department. I consider myself to have quite enough identity without having to resort of nationalism or nationalistic labels.....generally. Although in practice nationalism (of ones own country and tending to view foreigners in terms of the nation they are from) is.....easy, I hesitate to say natural as it is probably a result of social/cultural influences.

Pictures of Whales , Flowers and a Fair Maiden and a post about something else entirely.....

That's a Whale of a tail!......yeah yeah, I'll get my coat.

Sakura! That is cherry blossoms for those of you out of the loop (shame on you). These ones are to be found at Nakijin-castle.
Who is that hiding umungst the Sakura? It was a lovely day btw.
Eating bento (boxed lunch) under the sakura, how Japanese!

Well, what up?
My hat is set at a jaunty angle because my dear friends and family my jib is a well cut one and in addition to that, and I include my Mysticete friends in this, I have been disposing myself adroitly, it has also come to my attention that none are quite as apt in the art of brevity as I.

Sorry folks but you may need some insider information to understand the above sentence. If you weren't with me on Saturday morning (the 10th Feb) you can happily ignore the reference to the Cetaceans.

I spent a wonderful long weekend with Kelly. Don't run away! I shan't bore you with tales of our canoodles I promise! Instead I will inform you of things last week what made me laugh.

THINGS LAST WEEK WHAT MADE ME LAUGH

I got assaulted by my kindergarten kids; they rubbed my beard and hair, stuck their fingers in my ears and held my nose so I sounded funny. I did the only thing I could and responded in kind with an emphasis on the ear poking.

I (unintentionally) assisted a kid give another kid a kancho.

The 4th grade (primary school) kids told me I should dye my hair black. WHY?! You little conformists!

My favourite 4th grader has a new catch phrase to do with me (she made it up), instead of saying 'see you next time,' she says 'see you neck tie!!!!!'. Oh the Hilarity, it is actually quite funny when we do it in unison with the neck-tie (tie) motion.

A first year held onto a karuta card so hard I had to hold him upside down by his ankle and pull the card down with my other hand. He held on for quite a while and perhaps stretched an inch or two.

I was running when three little elementary kids (1st year and yochien) decided to come running with me. They weren't even wearing shoes! They however assured me their feet didn't hurt and even told me they would do the triathlon next year;). After coming about 400m with me and going up a nasty hill they showed no signs of slowing down so I had to stop and tell them to go back (telling them how awfully well they had done of course). It was getting dark and I didn't want to be responsible for them!

After the school relay race (ekiden), while eating zanzai (sweet red bean soup and mochi) a student told a teacher she looked like she was taking a shit (in Japanese). I was much amused. It happened thus: I am talking to said student (female), a teacher near by (female) squats down to eat her zanzai. At this point I should mention squatting is the perfered way to sit down in japan, especially in rural areas and places with a lack of chairs (ALOT of places). It's a similar action to squatting down to answer a call of nature while you are actually in nature. Anyway said student decided said teacher looked to much like she was doing something...else...and cries out
'UNKO!'
which means 'SHIT!' (as in faeces).
Said teacher hurriedly brings her knees together and in the ensuing (friendly) conversation decides it would be best to actually sit with her bottom on the ground as to avoid any more misunderstandings. The teacher wasn't annoyed by this in the slightest.

This is a manner of talking which would never be acceptable in a British school, at least I can't imagine it!

Take care Y'all

Craig

I will miss Japan. A kind of mild panic constricted my chest when I thought about leaving. I have just been reading through a short illustrated book (provided to me by the British Council as part of an free educational pack) detailing the relationship between Britain and Japan from it's earliest beginnings to the present. Of particular note is William Adams the first recorded Briton to come to Japan and the first foreigner to achieve samurai status. He gave great service to the Tokugawa shogunate and married a Japanese woman. He never returned to Britain. I think Japan is a very Charismatic country. By this what do I mean? Allow me to explain. Charisma of a person is viewed quite rightly as an intangeble and difficult to define characteristic. A person's Charisma however clearly stems from one or more extraordinary and unusually powerful personality traits. A countries personality can be said to be its culture. Japan has a unique and very strong culture, pervading all facets of life in Japan. I think a culture of this sort can hold influence over individuals much like a charismatic person can.
Or maybe I am afraid that my ego won't be able to take it when children no longer shout 'KUREIGU' or 'HAROO' when they see me. I am like royality smiling and waving as I ride my bike to school or if I pop back during lunch. Some kindergarten children go home around lunch time and I often pass them. They have now aquired the habit of demanding 'touchie touchie' before I can continue on my way. 'Touchie' is japanese for a high-5.
Or maaaaaaaaaybe I miss the wonderful food! They really are fearless about trying crazy combinations of food here. Only a few days ago they hit me with a double wammy in one meal (school lunch). The first wammy (?) was a salad. A typical Japanese salad heavy on the sea weed and heavy on the vinegar. In fact the dressing might have been only strong vinegar, strong tasting stuff! Anyway for some reason they added diced orange to it. Curious. The second wammy was cold mashed potato with raisins as a desert!
Today we had chicken, pork and squid in the same dish. Not that I minded the more meat the better I think.
Then there is always the classic (had it 3 or 4 times now) dessert comprising of nuts, dried fish mixed together and glazed with sugar. Yummsters!
I have so far eating everything put in front of me at school lunch and only refused one things outside of school (horse meat) and in the main it has all be yum except for some of the salads.
Oh yes and they always try and sneak fish into everything, tiny little transparent fish hiding in the salads or sometimes the rice! One can spot them by their eyes.
I will really really miss the food here though, I say that in utter and complete sincerity.

THIS POST IS NOT ABOUT THAILAND BUT THE PICTURES ADMITTEDLY ARE!
Playing mit baby elephanten.
Big tree in Tomb Raider temple
Kelly inside Angkor Wat

Lalala so what is up?! I have meant to write a post for a while but never seem to have time. The big news is that I am leaving Japan this year! It came as a little shock, having been told (informally) I had got the transfer to the main-island (my condition on staying). So as a result Kelly had already signed her recontracting papers for another year when I was told the transfer process had fallen at the last hurdle (the part which has supposedly been a mere formality). After a moments pause to collect my thoughts I began to come to the realisation this was probably for the best. Anyway Kelly changed her recontracting answer to no, and so we are leaving together, and that is all that really matters. Also it is probably time to leave, I have achieved all I can on Izena, I came up with some more things I would have like to have done on the main island but they were never long held and cherished goals of mine. Also for the best part of this second year I have not been planning on recontracting, it was just the easy option. Also having had no special interest in Japan or Japanese (and still not being amoured with it all except the food) it might look bad on the CV. BUT NO! No easy option for me, I must venture forth and face the unknown with my meagre funds. And hopefully have a wizzo time too! So far the plans are travel then volunteer then..............grad school. Goodness there were a few things I wanted to say, oh yes I had a good moment at the elementary school. I have these special needs kids who join my 6th grade class. I have struggled to integrate them. Outside the class room they are umungst the friendliest kids and one in particular always tries to speak to me. However in the class they are a bit unresponsive, I think because of being in a different group (class) and being Japanese they are all about the group right, they probably also feel dumb compared to the other kids. Anyway I was playing a review game, making giant faces on the board and I get one of the special needs kids, so I choose an easy flashcard and pop it up so he sees it first, he gets it and there is a surprised murmur around the class. When he came up again I repeated the same trick and he got it again and the whole class erupted into cheers for him. Quite a moment. Anyway. Also I almost got sucked into acting in a Japanese play. Well my neighbour recruited me and I attended one rehearsal where I played 'man 4' and had one line. However with marathon training (2ish hours a night including shower etc.) and having to study for the distance course I am enrolled in I have no time. I need to devote more time to study I have already fallen behind my own schedule! Drat! Mmmm what else...oh I have been randomly dropped what I am doing and thinking recently. Not even sure what I am thinking about. While working out (outside) I randomly stopped and stared at the moon for almost an hour. I had thoughts on nature and love in case you were wondering. I thought that there is so much inherent beauty in the world why do we try so hard to create our own, why not appreciate nature? And even more tragically by our actions we are destroying natures beauty. I wished humans would just bugger off and leave the world alone! Humans I think are incomplete on their own and try to fill this void with anything and everything. When all you need is love (SHUTUP!) and once you have love you can calmly appreciate nature. I admit this is a similar sentiment expressed by Serganov through his character Pavol in 'on the eve'. However it is different when one reads something and realises it for oneself. Also later after reading a book on the Crimean war (composed of accounts and recollection of the soldiers who served) I pondered the love of ones country. First the book made me wonder if I hated or loved Britain. Then I realised how foolish it was to love a country, one should love a woman (or man - despite our increased hairyness and smellyness) or even a puppy, something that can love you back. But not a country which can never love you back and all to often proves a harsh mistress, generously spending the blood of her subjects in her own interest. Anyway sorry, enough of that nonsense. Back to work!
Craig

I had a break from the 'routine' yesterday. My neighbour came around and told me about a music event happening in the hotel near my house. I wasn't sure if I was going to go (I may have been watching a movie at the time) but my neighbours wife emailed me telling me to come quickly so I came. It was quite good, a chap from mainland Japan (a tokyoite) played the pan pipes and a sort of bamboo recorder. I gather he had spent some time in Bolivia. He was corpulent and amusing and got suitable engrossed/animated by the music he was playing. There were also coffee and cakes supplied, how civilised ;). Mostly teachers came, and with other civilised members of Izenean society (dentists wife etc.) sat near the musician. Other Izeneans of a more countrified nature sat at the far end of the long room and proceeded to talk in above acceptable levels and most horridly laugh mid-performance at private jokes! When they decided to clap to the music (without the musicians accent) the upper table resisted their oafish attempt to make amends (they tend to clap to sanshin music -and talk loudly during it- at their own social gatherings) and they were cowed into silence by our disapproving countenance. Jolly good evening and I even managed a good conversation with the chap afterwards, he is very well travelled. E's even gone and went to Zimbabwe (country of me birth don'tchaknow)! Mainland Japanese are so much easier to talk to, being that they speak the language I am trying to learn, Japanese. Izenians speak something else. Even okinawa honto (main island okinawa) people can't understand them when they are drinking etc. Okinawa honto people are also easy to talk to. It is nice sometimes to make use of the Japanese I have learned.

So I have left it far too long, and you have already lost interest in the hols but here are a few pics and a terribly short account of what we did. Actually I shall split up the post, I realise the pictures would make it far too long a post. Don't want to scare you off.
So here are TEMPLES (we saw many more but these are the most noteworthy ones, acutally I think we lost count of the number of temples -Wats- we saw, and that's not counting Angkor....).


This is apparently the finest example of a northern style Wat (temple). It was called Wat Chaing man and was in the city of Chaing mai.
This is another northern style Wat (also in Chaing mai). They seem to be mostly constucted of wood (Teak) and while coloured in gold paint much less shiny than the Wats in Bangkok. There were many Wats in Chaing mai but I don't really want to post 100 odd pictures of Wats, really there are that many! Perhaps we have around 2000 pictures between us. I am not even sure if these are the best ones because I haven't taken the time to look through them all in any great detail yet! These first two pictures are out of sequence however I am not about to start this whole post again so you will just have to bear in mind went to Chaing mai (a small city in the north of Thailand) in the last 5 days of our trip.
The grand palace, former residence of the King of Thailand (In Bangkok). And let me tell you they LOVE the king, pictures and paintings of him adorn buildings everywhere, EVERYWHERE! Any street will have 2,3,4 pictures of him or shrines devoted to him. Big pictures too, covering the sides of sky scrapers in Bangkok. We noticed that many people seemed to be wearing yellow polo shirts. We later learned this was to show devotion to the King, yellow is his colour.


Wat Pho, the oldest Wat in Thailand (or just Bangkok, either way, old).
Chedi at Wat Pho, these are essentially tombs.
The Emerald Buddha Wat and surrounding shiny buildings, they really were very shiny, quite spectacular.

Short and skirts and other immodest clothing are not allowed in this temple area (around the royal palace), bit of a pain in the heat!
Kelly posing with some colourful chaps. We saw these two temples on our first day in Thailand, and then in the evening of the same day we caught a Konn performance. Konn is the traditional Thai dance and we were lucky enough to see an extra special piece which had been recently commissioned for the Kings birthday, yes the King again.

Here are a couple of my favourite pics from the floating Market we visited. We had a lovely 'driver' for our boat who after asking if we were interested in visiting the many tourist nicknak stalls and recieved a resounding no took us on a tour of the residential waterways of his town. He told us that most of the people there did not own a car but everyone owned a boat, nice. For an account of our trip upto Cambodia and Angkor Wat I would refer you too Kelly's BLOG. The link is on the side bar (right hand side) of my BLOG. Her latest two blogs cover the first half of our trip. I will get round to writing but to be honest I haven't even finished my journal writing on the trip!
Just as a side note: the floating (and terrestrial) markets still serve a functional role in traditional Thai society however they are also becoming increasingly affected by tourism. If we had more time we could have sought out a wholly traditional market (catering only to Thais) however time was off the essence (these markets happen according to a lunar calender) and we had to go to a well known market in close proximity to Bangkok. We avoided the touristic side of things as much as possible by not taking a tour. We took a local bus to the town nearby where we stayed in that town sole hotel (a bit of a cold dreary hotel but clean and functional) before getting up early the following day to see the market. The town is about 2 hours from Bangkok and the tours leaving that morning arrive en mass at 9am, and from then on tourists outnumber Thais. We managed to have a couple of hours of peace before the hoards descended, upon which time we made our leave. I believe later that day we chose a tailor, got fitted for suits and then saw Thai Boxing in the evening. I will write up a full and comprehensive account later...sometime....

Happy new year (MY year -year of the boar-). Well I am back from the most amazing holiday I have ever had, to say it went far and beyond my expectations is an understatement. I am still marvelling at the good fortune (in placement and timing and serendipitous plan changing) we were on the receiving end off. I can think of nothing that would have made the trip any better. However it is going to take sometime for me to put together a blog of the trip, I think I will have to do it in several instalments. I am also hindered by a respectably sized mountain of photographs, I and Kelly filled our memory cards about 5 times each so I have a small stack of cds with pics from the trip. Kelly estimates she took around 1000 pictures, goodness knows how many I took. So I shall start by posting some pictures of the sunrise at Angkor Wat. It was the most beautiful thing we saw on the trip and the 4.30am wake up and freezing tuktuk drive were well worth it (we were lucky to get a perfect spot right next to the reflecting pool). I filled a whole memory card just that day (of Angkor Wat and 4 other Wats we saw) but I will just post pics of the sunrise just now.

Here is the actual sunrise (using my sunglasses as a filter)



Here is one of Kelly's pics I really like.

And it was pretty before the sun came up as well! All blues and purples.



Here comes the sun (this time using Kelly's brown sunglasses as a filter).

I will return to inflict more of my holiday snaps upon the world; until then rest your retinas.