I think we've skipped a season

After living here a year, I am calm with the fact that there are few surprises in Japan now. I know when the Yakitori car goes in front of our supermarket (tuesdays). I know when tofu goes on sale (wednesdays) and I can plan our travels knowing when I can and can't take off work. Although I enjoy the surprises in life, there is something safe knowing that where you live, you know some secrets.

However in good ol' humorous form, the world throws us for a loop. After a sweltering summer that took a little long to come and left all too shortly. Now, I wake up in the morning and a see my breath. I leave to work wearing a scarf and mittens. At night, Ron and I bundle in our warmest clothes and thickest blanket. The heater and the electric blanket are already out. Did I mention this is September and last year we didn't feel this cold until November?

I was told that last year was a very mild winter. Apparently -15 degrees C is mild. I guess this year will be a bit rougher, starting with the short, near skipped altogether autumn.

I miss T-shirts.

Finding my name- Day 1 (Nikko)

This past weekend, I had a four day weekend, which in Japanese terms is HUGE! The only other time something like this happens is in May for Golden Week, and that is a National Festival. So anyway, to commemorate this extended weekend, Ron and I decided to make a driving trip to Nikko, the place where apparently the name "Jun Niko" was created. Finally, I could visit it. So Ron and I made the 5 hour drive and the $85 toll road to get to Utsunomiya where we met our friends Shizuka and Kunino who came from Tokyo.
Utsunomiya is famous for their gyoza, something I could not understand because of my cold, which led to no taste for the entire trip. A little bit of hell for me. But with the look on Ron's face, I knew that it must have been tasty. Utsunomiya is only a small drive to Nikko so soon we were at the Welcome gates of Nikko deciding where to sleep. We ended up parking in an empty parking lot across from a brightly lit convenience store. Kunino and Shizuka slept in the car, Ron and I slept in a tent next to the car... in the parking lot.

NIKKO







The next day we started our trip making it to the brightly colored temples of Tosho-gu. There we saw the famous monkeys, sleeping cat, and crying dragon. Each temple was astonishing and completely detailed with paintings popping out of their canvas and mutiple colors lined with gold in the temple walls. Nikko had a Chinese feel to it, but was definately a great representation of Japanese culture. My favorite was the Crying Dragon Temple. On the ceiling is a large painting of a dragon. When two sticks are hit together, there is a chilling echo sound that sounds like the cry of a ?dragon? I guess. Either way, the sound was very cool. Then, our group went to Chusenji-ko, the nearby lake. Along the way, we saw monkeys on the road, super windy roads up the mountain and at the end, a beautiful waterfall. We went to an onsen to clean up and made our way back down to sleep, yet again in the same parking lot. Trips are cheap when it's McCormick-style.

CHUSENJI-KO and KEGON FALLS

Finding my Name- Day 2 (Aizu- Wakamatsu)

After dropping off Kunino and Shizuka at the Train Station, Ron and I drove directly north, 100 kilometers to Aizu Wakamatsu, a town with a fully reconstructed castle. There aren't many in Japan. Morioka had a castle, but after if was destroyed by the war, I guess no one wanted to rebuild it. This is the case for most castles. Sometimes you'll find the ruins of a castle, but a real castle (even reconstructed) is nicer than authentic rubble. So we took a small break looking at their museum and the different parts of the castle. Then we drove 115 kilometers to Nigata City, ate their coastal sushi, and slept a wonderful sleep.

Finding my Name- Day 3 (Sado Island)

To get off our island of Japan, Ron and I took a 2 1/2 hour ferry to the smaller island of Sado. It was a bit empty when we were there, but it could be the fact that we traveled on a work day (most people didn't get the holiday that we did, LuckY!) We then took a two hour bus to Oga, the other side of the island to see their wash boat tubs, たらい舟. It was a cute ride, Ron and I got to even try steering it, with not much success. We then made our way back, stopping at Sawata to try their sushi, and then back to our drop off point of Ryotsu. All in all 9 hours of travel on this teeny island, but the wash boats and the relaxing atmosphere of the island, made it a restful part of our busy trip. This island truly has not been touch by the modernity of Japan, which was refreshing to see.

Finding my Name- Day 4 (Returning Home)

Finally, after 3 days we could say we are done with Tohoku (Northern Japan). We have passed through 6 prefectures and driven over 700 kilometers, but of course, we still need to drive the 300 kilometers back. The morning started out as a bust. We woke up on the sleepy coastal town of Sakata. Saw these interesting storehouses and drove to Tsuruoka. Didn't spend much time there in order to get a much needed bath at Yunosawa Onsen. But when we got there, we found out this onsen village had no onsen, which is just mind-boggling. There was one foot onsen in the middle of town, but besides that, there were only rickety hotels with an ocean view. Still needing a bath, we went to the temple nearby which slightly redeemed our onsen shock. From there we started our coastal drive and along the way, we did manage to find an onsen that was on the fourth floor overlooking the beach below. Beautiful sight!

After we finished our bath and started again, we came across the most amazing thing. We found OKEYA MACHI (Okeya Town). This block of 6 houses was all that was there of Okeya Town. Our trip came full circle. We found the place where my name came from and then finished the trip to find the town with my name on it. I thought that maybe the Japanese characters of my name was wrong because my students made fun of my name, but now I had proof that the characters exist. Ron's super Japanese led us to the nearby temple where we talk to the temple's monk about possibly finding my family crest. She said that the name Okeya died out in Edo period. How cool that I am what's left of the Edo period. According to her, if I want to find my Kamon (Crest), I need to find the hometown of my family. I'm a bit closer to finding it. I just need to go to Hiroshima. But this surprise was the best way to complete our long trip.

My School Festival

My school has just finished their school festival, one of the best parts of a school year. Last year, I experienced the school festival, but since I was only at the school for a month and had not started teaching, I knew none of the students. It was a lot of wandering around, not knowing where to go, and all these faces that knew me, but who I didn't know. This year was much better. Not only did I know what a school festival actually was, but I was constantly pulled into different rooms and booths since my students wanted my attention and to see their handiwork. They probably wanted me to spend money on their booth, but in my eyes, they really wanted my attention.

A Blind Mistake! Part II

The week following last at Mougakkou (School for the Blind).

There is a service for all the students and some teachers called "Teishoku", which is going to the students' dormitories and eating lunch there. For a well-prepared lunch for ￥300, I couldn't refuse. So today, I started eating lunch with the students. First, I had to wait with my supervisor teacher for the senior high students so we can walk them to the dormitories. I introduced myself to all the students that I haven't met and gave them some English practice. Then Junior high started to make their way out. There was one girl who seemed shy at first, but slowly made her way over to me. It was obvious that she was fully blind so I came up to her and offered my hand. She took both my hands and started to grip really tight.

No problem.

Then she started scratching my palms while she was holding my hand.

No big deal, I thought it was to feel the lines in my hands or something.

Then... too quickly, she lets go of my hands, grabs the bottom of my shirt, and tugged down...really hard. So hard it left my pink bra exposed in front of the students and my fully-seeing male supervisor.

I was later told that this student suffers from a disability where she can't control her movements of her feelings. I soon saw her in the cafeteria subdued by three teachers as she grabbed a handful of rice and started to shake the rice everywhere. Hopefully this was just a bad day for her. I couldn't imagine her going through this everyday. Needless to say, however shocking that experience was, it didn't feel that embarrasing. Maybe I'm getting used to embarrasing things happening to me at my school.

A Blind Mistake!

During my 25 years of life I have taught a number of different people; from toddlers, elementary age, high school, to adults and the elderly. I've worked with the very sick, and those that are physically, mentally, and emotionally disabled. I feel that I have a pretty good range so far. However now, every Wednesday, I work at the School for the Blind. It's a whole new experience for　me. I don't think that I've ever really met blind people. But I looked forward to the experience, knowing that the best I could do was treat them as if nothing is different.

My class at the end of the day was a class of 6 of adult students learning acupuncture (isn't that cool?!) I gave my introduction and the team teacher asked if I could ask each person a different question to get to know them. As I was trying to think of questions, my mind was racing as to find good, personal questions that did not deal with seeing, fashion, movies, and vacations. Since I am not a person who can multi-task, I ended us asking one student the worse possible question I could ever imagine to ask.

...What is your favorite color?...

By the time this processed as completely wrong, my teacher already hesitantly translated it in Japanese. It got quiet for a little while and then the student graciously answered,

"My favoite color is black and white."

I could not feel more of a horrible person. In my defense, there are various levels of seers. Some of them are completely blind, some need technical resources, others are legally blind, but can see colors. Since this girls looked like there was nothing to really aide her, I made the mistake of assuming she could at least see color. Rookie mistake! Never again. At least I can look back at that moment after I'm done with this school and hopefully see how much more sensitive and understanding I have become.

I hope, I hope, I hope.

A Whole New Start

As of the first of September (unintentionally, it just worked out this great) 3 major things have started that give Ron and I all new things to work hard for together.

1. Ron's New Job- Ron has taken out his last bag of garbage, and mopped his last floor. He has left his Senior Center job, due to the work constantly changing his schedule without talking to him about it. Luckily we were able to find another job... Teaching, yet again. However, Ron gets to work a third of the hours he did at Kurumi and more the same amount of money. He now works for the Morioka School of Business, a trade school where various college-aged students learn beauty, hotel or restaurant management. So far, Ron works three days a week for 2-4 hours a day. We are hoping for additional hours as time progresses.

2. P90X- Thanks to our Choseph, Ron and I are in possession of a butt-kicking workout video. This has made us feel so sore this week, but it's a sore, we haven't felt in a long time, and we are enjoying it. We have also been currently enjoying Vegetable Sandwiches for dinner, and Chicken Soup for dinner. Nabe (soup) season is coming, and Ron and I are more than excited.

3. 勉強- Since my family was here and left and right I was being pummeled with having to translate and explain things that I should know, but couldn't say, I've started to feel a little more motivated for Japanese. Luckily, I have a great motivation coach, and we are trying to spend more time studying. Since Ron has his time freed up, he also gets more time with his studying.

Lots of goals for us.