Any way...to add a couple things from my last email
that I forgot. One was
that my landlord showed me his place...and the most
interesting room was
what I call the "Shrine room"...since it was just
that. For those who
don't know Buddhist keep shrines to dead relatives
and in this room the
ashes of his relatives date back to his great great
grandmother and were in
a case next to a statue of Buddha. The second
thing was that last Saturday
I went to Nakanojo's festival. That was a great
experience. This festival
has a history of 400yrs and the main attraction is
the dueling
"wagons"...about 7 in all that go head to head "battling"
by drums and loud
cries. Of course I didn't have my video camera
Any way.
This past
weekend was another fun time. The best students of the
school district here are chosen to participate in
the annual exchange with
the students of a town in the Chiba Prefecture.
The location alternates
and this year we were off to Chiba. At 5:30am
we left and it took 6hrs to
get there. The city is located on the beach
so that was cool. Some
interesting experiences there were bringing in the
fish net...quite a
process since the rope is so long...I had blisters
(white American boy's
hands aren't used to that kind of work)and we only
caught 4 little fish
>from this huge net...caught a bottle and can though.
We had a cookout on
the beach...for the first time I had octopus but it
didn't look like
one..which I had seen on a stick last week...it wasn't
too bad...I had
another piece...and then we watched fireworks that
night. Once again I
"connected" with the students with that silly hand
whistle (see they were
different kids so I thought "hey why not try?"), and
this time the kids
were so amused by it they took my picture. On
the bus on the way to the
fireworks my superintendent asked me to do the scale
for all the people of
both boards of education who were on this special
bus. After the
accomplishment I got a round of applause...I love
this place..haha.
A couple
of observations. The rice here is extremely sticky. I
found that the hard way. On friday night at
dinner (this was my first time
eating with these strangers) some rice fell from my
chopsticks and landed
on the floor. Not wanting the evidence of my
lack of chopstick expertise
to be seen I used my barefoot (you can't wear shoes
while eating) to kick
the evidence away. Well it didn't go to far...just
onto my toes.
Frantically I kept kicking...trying every which way
to get free of the
rice...it would not let go. Not wanting to cause
to much attention to be
drawn towards me I just sat there with rice drying
in between my
toes...that stuff can really harden let me reassure
you. Luckily I made it
through and took a bath (that is a whole different
story for another day)
and was able to chisel the white cement from my sore
feet.
Another
thing was the snacks we got on the bus. One bag in
particular comes to mind. It was a perfectly
great variety of nuts and
crackers until I saw a little dried fish in it...well
actually there was
more than one...what's up with that?
I think
this week should be a little slower. I have a few days off
since I "worked" two weekends in a row so I think
I will work on my
Japanese and travel to see some friends. Plus
my car insurance will be all
set and I can actually drive with this maniacs...they
have a history of bad
driving I'm told. Well I have driven in Missouri...and
NYC..so I should be
just fine. Not only that but today I have a mandatory
driving lesson with
my direct supervisor because "driving in Japan isn't
like America". I
tried to tell them that I drove in Great Britain for
a month...where they
drive on the other side of the car and road but I
don't think they got
that...oh well.