Gone Fishing

So today I showed up at my school bright and early. The teacher looks at me and says, "Today, fishing okay?" I didn't really know how to respond, so I just said, "Uhh okay." I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into. They asked if I had a change of clothes with me (I didn't and I was wearing my new track suit) and waders and a pole. I told them no, and then there was lots of chatting going on in the office, someone ran out, and came back with some rain boots.

And off we went...across a harvested corn field and through a crazy forest of skinny trees that kept whacking us in the face with their branches.

And we magically appeared here...

Everyone got their poles set up (aka fishing pole rod with fishing line tied to the end with a tiny weight and hook) and jumped right into the river for a couple hours of fishing.

My student decided it was a good idea to document me attempting to fish. And we trudged through the "shallow" parts of the river that were deeper than the boots they gave me. Needless to say my socks were a little wet and my toes were a little numb.

I don't think I've been fishing in a river before. It was pretty relaxing. Even though I couldn't feel my toes for about 4 hours and I didn't catch anything, it was relaxing to just be outside--breathing fresh air, listening to the river, feeling the frigid breeze mixed with perfect sunshine. I think if someone asks me to go fishing again, I'll probably say yes...as long as I remember to bring my waders!

A Homey Home

Today I went to town to buy a few home furnishings. My coworkers suggested a large home furnishing store, so I went there this afternoon. I ended up spending much more than I needed to, but now I have a much more organized living area...and much warmer too!

I needed a kotatsu futon (check it out on google). I forgot to take a picture, but it's brown and fuzzy and quite warm.

I bought (and built) a new rack on the side of my fridge to hold food. Before all those boxes on the bottom two shelves were just lying on my floor. Obviously, I should buy some food this weekend since that top shelf is looking a little sparse.

I also bought (and built) a new laundry rack. Since I can't hang my laundry over my heater while in use, I bought a rack so I could use my heater. Probably one of the more difficult things to build...and it's currently tilting a little funny. I would've taken a picture of the actual laundry rack but I already hung up my laundry on it...and that would be weird/awkward. Anyways, that's the picture from the box, so you know what it looks like.

It's a hot water bottle for my bed. I just filled it with boiling water and it's under the covers heating it up for me. Hopefully it helps and works well. I wasn't expecting to buy one, but it was cheap and I remembered a coworker mentioning it being helpful. I guess we'll find out!

It's super late and I got to get up in 4 hours to catch the USC game. FIGHT ON TROJANS! BEAT THE COUGARS!

Random pictures

The sunset over Kushiro...yeah, it looked like the end of the world was happening. ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!

Driving back to the office after a day of teaching.

I found the TANCHO!

Brr...It's cold in here!

It’s definitely cold…and getting colder. I drove to town last night to buy a thick blanket for my bed. It was a good idea. A bunch of us have been complaining about how crazy cold it got this week. The weather drastically went from HOT to pleasant to FREEZING in two weeks. Apparently, there’s usually a gradual change from summer to (a short-lived) autumn to winter. But there’s no autumn this year. I’m waiting for the snow to start falling (there should at least be a reason for it to be this cold). The forecasted highs have not even come close to 20C the past week and I’m guessing it’ll stay like that until next June (One of the teachers just checked the outside temp…its 14C at 9:30am). It is so cold I even considered buying the Hello Kitty snuggie I saw at the store last night. So long summer!

Today I woke up at 5:30 and the sun was already up. I’ve been waking up earlier and earlier due to the fact that I have to be at different schools earlier and earlier. It’s not a bad deal, except that it’s freezing early in the morning and I still finish work at the same time. So I start earlier and end at the same time/later. Oh well. It keeps me busy. And there’s nothing like splashing freezing cold water on your face to wake you up early in the morning.

I’ve had a difficult (by difficult, I mean, nearly impossible) time explaining to all my teachers and schools that I am by no means musically talented/inclined. There is a reason why in my self-introduction I merely talk about how much I love sports. They’re usually quite accommodating and the students will play basketball with me at lunch. But this is my usual “music” conversation.

Teacher: “Do you play instruments?”
Me: “I played piano when I was a child. I haven’t played in 10 years.”
Teacher: “Oh okay good. You will play piano for school festival.”
Me: “I can’t read music. And I can’t play very well…at all.”
Teacher: “Oh okay you play piano for school festival. You sing?”
Me: “No.”
Teacher: “Okay you sing for school festival too! You play guitar?”
Me: “I have a guitar. I’m learning. It’s very bad.”
Teacher: “Please practice hard every day. You will play piano and guitar for music lesson next time.”

I’m not quite sure where things got lost in translation…especially because the whole conversation is in Japanese. But luckily, these school festivals really only attract the students’ families. And, like I told them in my self-intro, I like sports, not playing music.

Ekidentaikai

It means like train station race. The race started at 10, but Japanese people like having these crazy long formal ceremonies for everything. I had to get to the train station at 8:10.

It was FREEZING! I checked the weather and it said it was only 6C when I left. The high was only 15C for the day, and I doubt if it even got there. But I figured I would be running, and so I just threw on a long sleeve shirt and grabbed a pair of gloves and walked to the train station like a popsicle. I get there and all my JH students are like "You're only wearing 1 shirt and shorts?!" They all had 3 pairs of shorts under long pants and 3 shirts and jackets. Little did I know that we would have bag holding stations at each relay exchange point. Fail. So I basically froze all day.

We got on a bus and they drove us to our spot. Also didn't know that I was the leg with a turnaround. I'm guessing at least half the village was out there cheering. We had 40 teams of 7 and then people cheering for us all along the way. Needless to say it was the most people I've seen in this village...ever. I was running down the street and my students would be like "OH KARI-SENSEI! GAMBARE!" and then there were the older people looking at the newspaper as I ran by "Oh...that's the new English teacher..." It was pretty fun. But it was so cold, my chest was burning afterwards. Then we rode the bus back to the townhall where they did the awards ceremony.

I ran on the local JH teachers' team. Of 40 teams, I think we came in like 30th? I ran 2,700m in 13:43 which was like 23rd. I was just trying not to be last. I definitely pulled an almost-jerk move but still totally long-distance race-esque. I was following this lady the entire race and then in the last 100m I gunned it and blew past her. I felt kind of bad, but she was twice my age and beating me for a good majority of our leg.

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I had been training for this. I hate running, especially long distance. I'm a basketball player--I like short sprints, not this long distance junk. So it was quite the challenge to train. But I only trained the minimum. I ran/walked 3km almost everyday, but my race was 2,700m. So realistically, I should've been running like 5km to train. But I ran the bare minimum and today my body paid for it. I was not prepared for those painful 2,700m in freezing cold temperatures. I was used to leisurely running with my iPod and stopping to catch the sunset and stretch along the way. I don't think I ever ran the entire 3km without stopping. So running, at full speed, in cold weather, without stopping, almost killed me. My chest burned like no tomorrow. Like most things in life, when we don't have adequate preparation (or trick ourselves into thinking we're adequately prepared), it has painful consequences.

So next year, I will start training earlier and farther. Or maybe I'll just tell them I'll be a cheerleader.

The Big Race!

The Big Race is tomorrow! It's 21km, but split into 7 relays. I have the 4th leg and it's also the second shortest (2700m). I'll be running on the local JH's teacher's team, so hopefully I won't be the slowest. I've been running almost everyday (like 5 of 7 days a week) for the last 4 weeks (not everyday since yesterday). I run from my house, over the bridge, along the river, over another bridge, and back home. They told me it's about 3km, so hopefully it'll do me good tomorrow. However, I am already getting sick (that tingle in the back of my throat is lingering) and the weather forecast for tomorrow morning is in the single digits (Celsius). I'm sure not sleeping has something to do with it, but I'm going to blame it on the weather. It's LA January weather in September. That's just ridiculous.

I'll update tomorrow after I finish (Lord willing) the race tomorrow! WOOT!

Q&A

Every time I visit a school for the first time, I always do a self-introduction. At the end, I let them ask me questions. I tell them they can ask me anything they want. I even let them ask me in Japanese.

• What fruit do you like?
• What food do you like?
• What animal do you like?
• Do you like Japan or America better?
• Why did you come to Japan?
• What car do you like?
• What movies do you like?
• What TV shows do you like?
• What music do you like?
• Is Japan different than America?
• ...etc

And they seem pretty normal. Until today when a 1st grader asked me,

What tractor do you like?

I asked him to repeat the question. The teacher looked at me like "I don't know what he's asking." I told him (and the other 4 of his classmates) that I didn't know tractors and never had one. They were quite shocked. I was quite shocked. Also a 6th grader told me she had a pet cow today. That should be a good indicator that I live in the middle of nowhere. I haven't really noticed that I live in the countryside, but today was a reminder.

Visitor

My uncle came in to visit this weekend! Oh man, it was so nice to have another person around the house. And just to have someone to talk to. And an excuse to eat at restaurants. We did lots of sightseeing...mostly nature because that's all there really is out here.

But just being able to share my experience with someone else was awesome. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love blogging and skyping and emailing and whatnot, but there's nothing like taking someone to the top of the mountain and just standing in awe together of just how beautiful this place really is.

It wasn't the best weather and the fog was coming down and eating the edge of the crater. We were blessed to not be in the rain every time we got out of the car to take pictures.

But I still can't really believe I live here...

Sunset over a lake on my drive back from a school

Sunset caught on my walk home from the office

Numbers

I'm an accountant (according to my degree), so I should like numbers. Here's some numbers for the week.

• Schools visited: 10
• Schools I taught at: 5
• Most schools visited in one day: 3
• Total number of students taught: 12+9+11+12+12 = 56
• Total number of classes taught: 2+3+3+1+3 = 12
• Average number of students per class: 4.67
• Self-introduction presentations: 3+3+3+1+1 = 11
• Farthest drive between schools: 70km

So basically, I teach in the mornings and then I have a meeting at another school in the afternoon. Like today, I was at a school teaching from 8:30-2:00, drove for 40 minutes to my 3:00 meeting on the other side of town at another school, and then got back to the office around 5:00. Sometimes, I get lucky and I only teach one period and it's at 10:30 or something. I can get to the office at my normal 8:45 and prep and then leisurely head over to school. But sometimes, I have to be at school by 8:00, so I have to get to the office, get my stuff, and drive to school. Today I left my house a little after 7:30. It makes for a long day.

Don't get me wrong, I love my job. Even though there are days when I hit the snooze 3 times before I roll out of bed, I love my job. It's hard to put that happy face on sometimes, but as soon as I see those kids, I can't help but just smile. I absolutely love my job.

Country Line Dancing

Today I went to the village festival.

I was going because I had to do country line dancing. I was not looking forward to it because 1) I was missing church and 2) I was missing the USC football game. But I went. And I actually had a decent time. It was a gorgeous day to be outside.

One of the teachers I work with was there and she had no idea how to dance either. We had a good time laughing at each other. And surprisingly like 20 of my junior high students were also learning how to line dance just an hour before our performance in front of the entire village. There was lots of laughing and yelling and confused looks. I wish I had a chance to take a picture but alas I was too busy trying to figure out how to do the electric slide and some other "reggae cowboy" dance.

We also had a live country band singing for us while we danced! They sang a bunch of songs I couldn't understand, but they started singing "Rolling on the River" by Creedence Clearwater, and they sounded pretty good except it sounded like "Lollin, Lollin, Lollin on the liver" and I couldn't help but laugh while electric sliding in front of the whole village. Then they sang "Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison, and again, it sounded pretty good except it was "Prerry uman walkin down za street." It was pretty fantastic. Actually if you watch the Youtube video for "Pretty Woman" you'll hear the "prerry uman" pronunciation.

Then I watched this dance called Yosakoi. I had never heard of it or seen it before, so I stuck around to watch it. I caught 5 different groups. It reminded me of the step aerobics class I took with some of my pledgesisters at SC (who could forget that?).

Their leader was rocking a fierce mullet.

Definitely did some "Thriller" moves in their robes.

They started their dance with "Eye of the Tiger"...it was an epic start.

It was the only all-womens group...and it was like watching a Jazzercise class. But they were wearing Naruto headbands and they started with like "The Circle of Life" from Lion King.

They had happy faces on their fans...and they did the running man multiple times.

It was a fantastic day to be outside, get a free hamburger, see some of my students, and learn some country line dancing. And I even made it back in time to catch the 4th quarter of the game. Not a bad day after all.

ENGLISH FAIL FOR THE DAY:

Enjoy eating milk? I usually throw it out when it becomes edible.

Game Day!

It's GAME DAY!

I celebrated with a good ol' hamburger, garlic fries, and a Pepsi while wearing my #18 jersey! I forgot to take a picture of my fantastically American dinner that I made until more than halfway through. I promise you I'm eating! It wasn't quite a death dog, but it'll have to do until I can find bacon and hotdogs.

FIGHT ON! BEAT THE CAVALIERS!

Alone time

Just got back from a day of Kari. It was nice. To have the whole day to myself and no one to really bother me. I stayed up til 2:30 talking to Mom via Skype and decided to sleep in. I was going to go for my run when I woke up, but I was hungry so I made french toast instead (much better choice). Charged up my iPod and headed out for a day in the town.

It was nice. Just listened to some jams with no agenda except to come and make hamburgers and fries for dinner. I stopped at Posful and just wandered around. Bought a few things, grabbed a snack, and then headed over to Jusco. Then I got excited.

Each Japanese region has certain...specialty food items. More like snack items you give as gifts. So in Hokkaido they have these little square cookies with white chocolate in between. You can only buy them in Hokkaido. Which makes them special. So usually when you go on a trip, you bring back a box of the "regional snack" to share with everyone. So at Jusco today, they had KYOTO food! I LOVE KYOTO FOOD! Mostly because they have chocolate manju. Manju is like mochi, but softer and sweeter. But these are filled with like a chocolate truffle on the inside. Since it was a day for Kari, I splurged and bought a box. It was pretty much the highlight of my day.

Last night I got really frustrated. It was Friday night after my first week of teaching. I was exhausted, I still had work I wanted to get done before the weekend, and I was looking forward to making my hamburgers and fries and just listening to country music and relaxing for the evening. But I live in a small village and everyone knows where I live. I literally walked in the door from my run and this lady was like "Please come my house now! (there was more said but I couldn't understand it)". I was like "I just came home from running. I'm sweaty." She replied, "Okay, shower and eat dinner and I'll come back in an hour." So I close the door, try to figure out what's going on, and then someone else rings my doorbell. This guy is like "Please come my house now! (there was more said but I couldn't understand it)". I was like "I just came back from running. I'm sweaty. And this other lady already said she's coming to get me in an hour." He replied, "Okay, shower and eat dinner and go see her and then come my house afterwards." My restful evening at home ended up being a night spent at some lady's house talking about the Japanese economic situation and various Japanese alcohols with her husband and then hanging out with the mountain climbing club in someone's garage. But it ended with talking to Mom for 2 hours on Skype, so I can't really complain all that much. But sometimes, I just need alone time.

We all need a little love

Today I wore a sweater. It was a good call. So long are the days of wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt to bed. I definitely need to wear socks to sleep now. It isn’t super cold. It’s like LA-November weather—the brisk wind. Good sweatshirt weather.

School is going well. I’m at the local junior high school. I totally botched my self-introduction to the teachers on my first day. No one told me it was going to be in Japanese. It wasn’t botched language-wise; it just sounded like a whole bunch of random facts about myself. At least I was somewhat prepared to give my self-introduction in front of the entire school body in Japanese and English. This is the largest school I will be working at with about 150 students. I am having a blast. I’ve been eating lunch everyday with the 1^st grade class and today I got invited to come to their basketball practice after I get off work.

School lunches aren’t as bad as everyone said they were. They’re definitely better than American school lunches. Today I had chicken katsu (fried chicken cutlet) with rice and veggies and soup. Yesterday we had meat sauce spaghetti with bread and clam chowder (questionable) and fruit. It’s not bad for like $3. It’s definitely better than what I’ve been making myself at home for lunch everyday—Top Ramen.

Most of my classes are around 12 students. It’s a good size to have. I had the opportunity to have two classes with a special education student. It was such a good experience. I learned he liked cars, so we spent our two classes learning the colors of different cars. I stayed up late to draw a bunch of different cars that he told me he liked. I let him keep them once we were done with class. I didn't get work with him today, but when I walked by his classroom, he smiled and waved at me. I think he just needed a little love.

Bullets

I realized I haven't actually told you what's been going on in my life...so here's the bullet form update of my life in Japan:

• I got my "new" car today! Woohoo!
• It's harvest season, so I've gotten lots of free veggies.
• I've now been to both churches at least once.
• I'm running everyday. I don't even like running, but it's good to get me out of the house and I sort of have to run everyday. My boss signed me up for the long distance relay race team. I don't know how long, but it's definitely further than I can run now!
• I got sucked into a country dance festival this weekend. Complete with "hamburgers" and "cowboy hats". Please wear "western cowboy man boots". I don't really know what I've gotten myself into.
• I ran in a typhoon...when else was I going to get the chance to say I ran in a typhoon?
• Milk theory has proven true...I'm cured! I've eaten ice cream every night for 5 days. I'm on my way to that extra 10lbs before the first snow fall.

But most exciting of all...*drumroll please*

I STARTED TEACHING!

It's fantastic. I absolutely love it. This week I'm at the local junior high school, which is awesome because it's between my house and the office. So I'll see the kids all the time, even when I'm not teaching at their school. I was invited by the 1st grade class to eat lunch with them the last two days, and it's by far the highlight of my day. I'm having such a good time! Woot! Praise the Lord! Friday, I'll be on a hike with 45 little four- and five-year olds. I was like "I'm an English teacher, not a forest excursion leader," but I'm excited to hangout with some cute little kids in the wilderness.

Hopefully next time, I'll post a coherent post, but I'm pooped and I still need to get some Bible time in before I hit the sack for the night.

Dragonfly stuck in the screen

It's hot. I don't know how hot it is (because it's really all quite relative), but it's uncomfortable. We have all the windows open at the office, but there's no breeze. It's just hot and humid. Considering it's September 1, we already set a record high temperature for the month (I'm not exactly sure how that works, but that's what they said).

Some windows in our office have screens, but most of them don't. We get dragonflies to visit our office. These dragonflies are the size of my hand. They're big and nasty. Sometimes when I'm driving around, I'll just drive into a whole swarm of them and it's way nasty. Anyhow, they're big bugs. They come in through the open windows and then fly around and eventually get stuck on one of the screened windows on their attempt to get out of the hot and boring office. They flap their giant wings and make ridiculous noises as they bounce back and forth between the blinds and the screen. The other day we had five dragonflies stuck on one screen--it set a new office record.

After a while, the dragonflies will calm down and just sit on the screen. Occasionally one of them will try to bash its way out, but eventually, it too will just sit and rest on the screen. And it's when they've all stopped acting ridiculous that my brave coworkers will gently pick them up by the wings and fling them out the open window, back outside into nature where they belong and have been trying to get for the last two hours.

I've watched this phenomenon for days--crazy big dragonflies desperately pushing against the seemingly invisible screen to get outside where they belong. And then once they stop and rest, someone bigger (a.k.a. super brave coworker) will gently pick them up and fling them outside where the poor dragonfly was desperate to get to all along.

Sometimes I think that's how it is with God...at least for me. How I desperately longed to be in Japan. And I tried so hard on my own to get here. Over and over again, I smashed into a giant screen. And I could see it--I could see Japan...but I just couldn't get there. And then I rested. Part of it exhaustion, the other part frustration. But I rested. And it was then that God could pick me up and fling me to Japan, to my heart's desire. Only when I rested and was still did I let Him have the opportunity to help me get to where I wanted to be.

But maybe, we sit there and look out the window and see joy and peace and all the things we think could never be ours. And we're trapped between the screen and the blinds, and we're kind of resolved to just stay there til we die. That being outside, having joy and peace and freedom, are for the other dragonflies, not us. Because now I'm just stuck and I can't get out and I'm just going to die here. And I've been there. It's easy to get stuck there. We tried to get out there on our own and just repeatedly hit that screen, that depression, that wall you can't jump over. I think Satan wants to keep us there--looking at all the other dragonflies but reminding us over and over again that we're stuck between the screen and the blinds.

Until we rest and be still, God can't throw us out the window into the place we so long desire to be, whether that's Japan or a joyful and peaceful state of heart. And in our attempts to fly out through the screen, we get so frustrated and tired, and some of us die there trapped between the blinds and the screen without ever really experiencing what we've always longed for...freedom.

I will be the first to admit that I lived most of my life stuck between the screen and the blinds. And I was bitter. I so desperately longed to enjoy life as I watched everyone else around me...and I couldn't. I couldn't get out there because I got trapped and I blamed God. It wasn't until I realized I couldn't get out there on my own that God reached down and threw me out the window (in the best possible way you could throw someone out a window). And over and over and over again, I have been reminded that I am (and you are) to live a life of freedom. That Christ died so that I wouldn't have to be trapped in my sin, in my flesh, in my past, in my addictions.

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1
"For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." Galatians 5:13
"Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God." 1 Peter 2:16

Will we be still long enough for God to throw us out the window? Will we take the time to realize that we can't get there on our own? Will we understand that our past isn't fixable but forgiven, and we can live a life of freedom in Christ? Will we remember that we were meant to live a life of freedom in Christ because of Christ and for Christ?