Grits In The Land Of Rice: August 2004

Today I went to Joetsu City with Chuyo-san and Keiko-san to meet the Joetsu City Board of Education. There was a typhoon blowing through.

Look everyone is driving on the left side of the road. It`s really not that hard to get used to, cause the steering wheel is different too.

Storm over a rice field.

Typhoon is blowing in over Joetsu.

The wind is blowing the rice and grass really hard....hmm, flat rice....ah rice paper.

Photo taken a month ago by our waitress at the italian restaurant in Tokyo.

Thanks to Robert for this picture of Nicole and me and Mary back in Tokyo....good times, good times.

Sashimi dish with a locally caught fish called Aji.

Yummy sushi at my welcome party in Oshima.

This is a party I got invited to as I was riding by on my bike in Oshima-mura. It was delicious...certainly better than what I was planning for dinner (at the time I only had spaghetti and peanut butter in my fridge).

These kids are all around 4 years old...and they had the best time at the party!

A Japanese residence with garden as viewed from the old elementary school.

Ya know this just makes me hungry, I was waiting to have dinner until after I ran...but now....

Yumiko-san and her grandbaby.

Mmm..bowl of pumpkin and leaves..

Kids at the bar-b-que party.

A door handle at the old elementary school.

A Letter to my Dog

Dear Jesse,
As I take up exercising in the land of rice (about time), I realize how much I miss our walks together...checking out unknown paths and stopping to smell the roses (among other things). Often you`d scout ahead, visiting other dogs, protecting your woman, displaying your squirrel chasing skills, and most of all enjoying the sheer fun of running that neither of us would enjoy so much without the other. My goldfish do nothing to replace you. They are simple beings that know nothing of listening to the breeze as it cuts through a field, smelling the growth of summer, splashing through fresh puddles, or running all out, forgetting what it`s like to be constrained by gravity. Best of all is the feeling of having a friend by my side through all the adventure up to the doorstep returning home. And no one else knows about all the adventures we just shared, nor could either of us ever explain them.
Now when I go running in the big empty gymnasium, I imagine you are by my side, as if we are taking part in the most important thing in the world...nah, the only thing in the world that matters... and so I keep running. I hope you keep running too.

Love,
-Brooke

My favorite food. Thanx to Seranian for reminding me what it looks like. Wahhhh I want mint chocolate chip ice cream now now now!

A Day in the Life of a Fish.

O..

OooO

????

munch!

Tasty.

meow.

Nyaaa!

O*

o!

Bow wow!

This cartoon is dedicated to the fact that Japanese dogs are small.

My sasa-bune with a flower.

A miniature forest with a mountain side cave. Oh yeah, and a cardboard star.

A beautiful view over the mountains.

Hana on Shobu Kogen.

The teachers split into groups of about 4 people each and made viewfinders and placed them out in interesting views in nature....We liked the pond, and added a sasa-bune...or bamboo leaf boat.

Kyo-chan! She is the Jr. High school nurse. I believe that is her husband in the background as well. He is an elementary school teacher I will be working with.

Chiko-chan! She takes a cute picture!

There are many beautiful flowers on Shobu Kogen. They stay fresh and green in the slightly cooler mountain air.

A row of faucets in a open building up on Shobu Kogen.

It`s me in the Oshima-mura newsletter with my welcome message... the hiragana says "hajimemashite" which means nice to meet you in this context.. the word hajime means the beginning...and this is my beginning as a teacher!

Blog browsing

So maybe you`ve noticed the little toolbar at the top of the web page here, where you can get your own blog (I strongly recommend it) or you can view the next person`s blog. So I decided to see what the next blogs were about. You get just a bit of everything, though I`d have to say I saw the most angry people b*tching blogs, which was a little disappointing. But it is a web diary of sorts, and sometimes you just need to complain and talk about the stuff that is just wrong about the world and how you feel to be able to move on and deal.

Some blogs were by college students, by arabs, about car wrecks, about suicidal tendancies, about politics, by german speakers, by teenagers, by 20-agers, by 30-agers, by moms, by people who are abroad, by people who have never left their home town, by people who really like chocolate, by people who are depressed and lonely, by people who are conducting science experiments, by writers.... well there are all types.....the ones with photos are best.

I went to the kindergarten today for greetings and was immediately swarmed by little girls grabbing my hands and pulling me to every which way, asking me questions in Japanese, and introducing themselves in English. They asked me where I came from and if I took an airplane or train, and kindly pointed out that I have a big nose, well at least big compared to the Japanese, who have such cute noses. But I don`t mind, besides Ako says long noses are kakko ii (cool looking). So I feel like I have a dozen new friends who like hugs and holding hands and sitting on your lap and have an infinite store of questions (if only I knew enough Japanese to understand all of them!) Boy they sure are genki!

I didn`t have any coffee last night so I couldn`t sleep, I know I`m backwards! So I stayed up and made a lovely bento with omelet sushi but I didn`t even get to eat it cause there was a tasty lunch of country kinda food (like rice and meat wrapped in leaves, and bamboo shoot, fish, and egg stew). It sounds weird but of course, it tastes alright, at least to me it does.

Yesterday I went running for the first time since I moved here, and realized how out of shape I am. I still made it almost 2 miles I think (we figured it out in km) anyway I ran around the gym for 30min determined that I would not stop even if I was barely running at that pace anyway. I figured that if I`m going to keep having snacks all day (and I really really can`t turn down anko those sweet beans in lots of Japanese desserts.. I like em like chocolate!) at work, then I`m just going to have to get more excercise cause it`s gonna be hard to find another size if I can`t fit into my pants here! Must think on the side of caution here. I`m munching on some sort of rice, fish, sesame walnut cracker right now, yes it does taste a bit different. And I`m having my coffee now, so I wanna go take a nap! Maybe I`ll have those omelett sushi for dinner.

Tomorow there`s some sort of event and party at Shobu Kogen (way up in the mountains), so I`ll try and get some photos from that.

Look it`s me at a KODO concert! Thanx Chris for the pic!

ooh, umi....

!

?

.

Good fortune

My horoscope today told me I`m going to be the star of the show for at least a month. Since I start teaching soon, and I`m the only foreigner around, that`s almost to be expected. I really can`t wait to start teaching!

So when I got off the train and got back to my apato, Kyo-chan gave me a call (she`s the health teacher at the Jr. High school) and said she would come over and help me put on my yukata and we`d go to the Continue Art Project closing party together. Yes, I was the only one wearing a yukata, but I think I got good results! I tried my first fish head. Not bad really, it just looks scary. The best part of all was when Chizuru told me who had painted the picture I love and I told the painter that I loved her painting of fish, and she said she is giving it to me as a present! How cool. Life is sooo good. It`s well, never, that I find a painting that I drool over that I can afford to buy (though I was going to ask anyway), then she just gives me this awesome painting! Believe me it will be well appreciated forever and ever and ever! You can see the photo of the picture down the page... the blue green one with the horizon line and the orange goldfish.

Yesterday I decided to try my hand at driving by myself to Joetsu city. I only had to turn around twice on the way there. You know how you see a place you want to go off the side of the highway, but you don`t know which road to take to get there? yeah....

I was searching hard for a camera case for the BOE`s digital camera... which I er, managed to lose in the ocean. It`s probly in China by now. Luckily, Ishizuka-san just laughed and said it`s okay, while I`ve been losing hair over this!

I got a basket for my bike, but after trying to figure out how to attach it for 5 or 10 minutes, I looked at another bike and realized I need a bit more hardware. Then my bike will be accesorized to the max and I can carry a bag, or groceries without losing my balance!

Well it`s about lunch time so "ciao down!"