We Found (or lost) Wisdom in Japan's Dental Services

Christine has been having a toothache for the past week or so and she finally braved going to the dentist to find out what the problem was. It turned out that one of her wisdom teeth was rotten and she needed it pulled. So they numbed her up and did it right there. They didn't tell her to make a second appointment in a week or something, just right there on the spot, which was good because if she had time to think about it she would have chickened out. She is feeling OK just a little sore, she is taking a refreshing bath right now with bath salts she got from a Christmas gift exchange.

She got x-rays (by a machine that played music), the tooth pulled, pain medication and antibiotics handed to her by the dentist (no run to the pharmacy) all for 40 bucks. They have some good dental insurance here. She asked to keep the tooth and you can see that she is still taking good care of it. (my appointment is next week, wish me luck).

It's just a little chilly.

This is just to give you an idea about how cold it has gotten in our house. Don, the human furnace, is under there somewhere. And yes, we really like blue plaid.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Or Antarctica! It's too bad the snow isn't really piling up. That's
probably because 40 mph winds aren't letting it land. Oh yeah, and I
can see my breath in the bathroom. Who wants to place bets on when
the toilet water freezes?

Holiday Time

I love the smell of pine around the holidays, and there's no better
way to experience it than by getting sap all over your hands. I went
hiking with a forest group here and collected some fallen branches and
flowers to make this. Let's see how long it withstands the wind!

Grocery Store!

I snapped some shots at the grocery store tonight. My favorite is the octopus tentacle. If you're wondering what product is on the bottom, maybe you should guess. . .?

Baby Gifts finished!

Please notice that I said baby gift, meaning that this is not for my
baby, because I do not have a baby nor am I expecting to have one any
time soon. Ok, glad we cleared that up!

I knit this combo for the wife of Don's coworker who just gave birth to a boy last week. The new parents were the ones that picked us up from the airport when we first arrived, so I really wanted to make something for the baby.

Lost in Translation

Ok, so basically the entire back of this eraser package was pretty funny. The pic is a little blurry so here are some funny quotes:

"Please roll it lightly on the object willing to be erased."

"Object may not be erased under the following condition: the tool written force was over strong . . . it has passed a while like one whole day since it is written . . . lead that is made in foreign countries."

Lost In Translation

Ok, so I'm starting a new category of posts. Hilarious English found on t-shirts, office supplies, cleaning products, etc.

"BONE COURAGE" - spotted by Don on a t-shirt

An Excellent Excuse to Buy More Knitting Supplies

My stash of knitting needles and other various equipment was getting a little hard to manage in a former cosmetics pouch, so I opted to upgrade. Due to the wide variety of adorable fabrics available here, I decided to make my own. I loosely followed this pattern and ended up with this:

untie and unroll it, and TA-DA!

More Pre-Winter Adventures

So, the following 3 slideshows are from Halloween, a few drives we took when there was nice weather, and our most recent trip to Lake Shikotsu.

Halloween was really fun because we hosted a party at our house. Everyone that came dressed up and we were pretty impressed with the costumes. Don and I were Mickey and Minnie Mouse, with the genders switched (to make it interesting), and I made the costumes. We also went a little nuts decorating the house to give our Japanese friends an authentic Halloween experience. To end the party with a bang, we got our first snow of the season.

Fall Driving was a product of our antsy-ness and was made plausible by our little Honda's excellent gas mileage. Pictures are from a viewpoint in Obira, a road through Mashike, and a strange park/rest-stop near Takikawa. By the time we got the rest stop it was getting dark but we absolutely had to investigate the sprawling playground that would never exist in the lawsuit-happy U.S. of A. It was a little creepy, but really fun, until Don discovered that he could go down the giant hill-slide really fast if he crouched on his feet. Don did go really really fast until he reached the bottom where a not-slippery patch of ground sent him flying face-first onto the concrete. Luckily he put his arm out in front of his face, but this move ended up warranting a shoulder x-ray in the Rumoi ER a few hours later.

Lake Shikotsu is a caldera, a giant hole left after a huge volcanic eruption. The lake is 360 meters deep, crystal clear, and surrounded by mountains and 2 active volcanoes. The volcanic activity also allows for some amazing hot springs and bath houses (onsen). We visited one that had rotemburo or outside baths and it was pretty awesome. You really haven't lived until you try this. We hiked to waterfall in the area, experienced a few amazing rainbows, and climbed one of the volcanoes. Beautiful Beautiful Beautiful, even though it rained most of the time. We ended this last-ditch effort for pre-snow adventure by exploring another wonderful place called Costco. You may have heard of it?

Whaling

So I tried to bring up this very controversial topic with one of my Japanese friends. There is a new documentary out, called The Cove, about dolphin hunters in Japan that is stirring up a lot of controversy here for those who actually know about it. Anyways here was our conversation:

me: "So I wonder if the dolphin hunting is actually bringing their population numbers down. I feel like whales are different because there are so few of them, but I'm not sure about dolphins."

friend: "Yes, whales are . . . eh . . . (looks in dictionary, I'm thinking, for a word like 'endangered' or something along those lines) . . . Whales are a delicious dish."

me: "I see. But isn't whaling illegal because they are so few of them?"

friend: "Yes, Japanese hunt whales for research and when research is finished meat goes to supermarket. In December, near New Year's, you can find whale in our supermarket."

me: "Wow. Many people in America and other countries think that it is very bad that Japanese hunt whales, even for research because they are endangered (I look up the translation for 'endangered' ). They even have a show where animal rights activists go on a boat and attack the Japanese whaling boats."

friend: "Yes I know. But whale meat is very tasty."

me: "Ok, so let's talk about something else!"

Jehovah's Witnesses? Really?

Yes, there are Jehovah's witnesses here in Rumoi. I was suspicious when I heard the doorbell ring this morning, but decided that even though I still had a towel on my wet hair, I should answer the door. It might be a package from the states! Unfortunately I made just enough noise getting to the door for the two ladies outside, who definitely did NOT have a delivery for me, to know that I was home and had to answer it. When I saw the little booklet in their hands, I knew. I invited them into the genkan anyway and told them I didn't speak Japanese. They opened up the little booklet and showed me a page with dozens of languages listed and I pointed to English. I started feeling really bad because these ladies seemed so nice and I didn't know how to very very politely tell them "thanks, but no thanks." They opened up to a page in English that had a very friendly greeting and my eyes flicked down the page until they landed on a few key words like God and Jesus. Suspicions confirmed. As kindly as I could, said "iie, arigatou," literally, "no thanks." Ok, no use lying, I also crossed my arms in an "X" position which is the gesture here for "no way," more out of habit than anything else. The ladies laughed at this and I laughed too. They bowed and nodded in acknowledgment, and also pointed to the towel on my head and laughed. I guess they thought it was fair game now. They smiled and said "Daijobu," which translates to something like "that's ok," and left, still bowing, smiling, and giggling.

I don't mean to offend anyone with strong religious beliefs, or any Jehovah's witnesses reading this. Most of our friends and family probably realize by now that Don and I don't subscribe to any organized religion. What I love about religion in Japan though, is that there is absolutely no intolerance of any kind. Many families comfortably practice both Buddhism and Shinto in their homes. Even the Christians here seem happy to do their thing and if you want to join them, great! If not, that's ok too! No one condemns anyone else to burning in hell and no one's religion is better than anyone else's. It basically comes down to just respecting everyone else and what they want to believe in. Whatever your religion, it should make you feel good and do good things. This seems like a much healthier take on religion than what I have experienced before. But again, it is hard to draw direct comparisons between a country as culturally homogenous as Japan and the US. Seriously though, the Watchtower might want to fly over some sweet elderly Japanese ladies to the US to help them out. It is really hard to tell them no!

Fall

They say that we will get our first snowfall tomorrow so here are some memories of the fall. We tried to get out in nature as much as possible. Some shots are from a get together near an old orchard and abandoned school. One of our friends runs a bed a breakfast there.

Others are from a drive we took south down the coast. We saw some amazing sites from these fantastic observation areas.

A bunch are from our office olympics and a hiking trip we took with Jim and Dave in Obira, the town just north of ours. They office olympics were really fun. We won the championship and had a big party afterwards.

Some of the pictures are from a bike ride we took around our town.

Tomorrow brings the snow and our Halloween party. Chrissy is so nervous I don't think she is going to go to sleep. She made some great pumpkin pies and the house is going to look great with all of the decorations she bought.

You might want to click on the pics and view them on the Picasa site. Some of the captions are long and you can go at your own pace more easily there.

Chrissy vs. Spider

So I'm home alone, baking a pumpkin pie from scratch (like REALLY scratch, we're talking actual pumpkin), and as I close the oven and head to couch to do some knitting, I spot a giant brown blob scurrying across the couch. Ok, a 1-cm spider qualifies as giant in my book. As if it sees or hears me stifle a scream it halts, poised on top of my Mac power cord. I strategize quickly before the spider escapes or attacks me, I grab a hanger first but rethink that decision. I roll up a nearby magazine and gently pull the cord away from the spider (I don't want the cord to get spider guts on it) and take a good swat. The spider doesn't even flinch. I swat again, harder and when I lift the magazine, the spider is GONE! Nowhere to be found! Somehow, I simultaneously look at the magazine in my hand and throw it across the room. I quickly inspect every inch of my person, but still no spider. I'm now flinching at every spot on the wall or floor. Not cool. Why does this stuff happen to me? But the question I really should be asking is how is that a biology teacher is such a baby around bugs. Anyways, I get the vacuum and go to town, but just as I lean in really close to the scene of the crime, the power in the whole house goes. Now I'm standing in complete darkness, sure that the spider is on my face. But since running screaming from the house is out of the question, I find a flashlight and the fuse box and get the lights back on. As I put the vacuum away, I contemplate how long I can go without sitting on the couch, tricky. But then, as I bend down to pick up my knitting I see the carcass on the ground under the table. I blow to see if it moves, and it DOES, so I grab enough tissues to put about 1 inch of it between me and the crunch that's about to happen. Does anyone not shiver at the crunching exoskeleton of a squished bug? Success, finally. Mr. 8-legs is now on his way down the Rumoi sewer system, soon to swim into the Japan Sea, maybe to be eaten by a fish I'll buy at the market next week. Ew, but at least I win. Yes, I just wrote a looooong story about squishing a bug. Pathetic? Maybe.

Happy Birthday to Don!

The candles were so hot they melted the frosting!

Happy Birthday to Don!

A special homemade cake for my husband on his special day. 33 candles
make a pretty big fire ball!

Knitting Project #2

This is a scarf for myself. I actually shouldn't have called the hat
below a "project" because it is finished. (and it actually fits Don's
head!). By the way, wool yarn here is about $1 a ball, maybe $3 for
super fancy stuff. With my yarn collecting tendencies this could be
trouble!

Knitting Project #1

This is a snowboarding hat for Don.

I want to be a farmer. Stop laughing please.

Today we spent the day in Mashike, the town just south of Rumoi. We met up with Jim and Dave, and some people from the chat club, then headed to a nearby orchard. The owner showed us around and had us sample 5 different delicious types of prunes (plums?), several varieties of grapes right off of the vine, and of course, some apples. The grapes especially, put american grocery store varieties to shame. We also talked plant propagation and genetics (so you know I was happy). With gurgly stomachs, Don and I agreed that to have something like this ourselves would be amazing. Then we headed to a winery down the road that made apple wine, or hard cider. The owner of this operation explained the process to us. Also tempting and interesting. Even though both of these ventures clearly require huge amounts of hard work, I'm still fantasizing about my own farm/orchard. I also just finished Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which is inspiring me (as if I needed it) to grow as much of our own produce as possible when Don and I finally settle into a house, in America, don't worry moms. The questions that remain are

1. How much of my time can we afford to devote to this agriculture adventure?

2. Will growing our own food save us enough money to be worth that time? I feel like it's worth it for our health alone, but mama's gotta pay bills. Thanks a lot NYU.

3. Are chickens out of the question? Sheep for wool? What about a horse? Ok, maybe we're not there yet.

Violated On the Soccer Field

Just a quick note of advice. When playing soccer with elementary school students try to stand as straight up as possible. If you lean over even a little you leave yourself vulnerable to a two-handed stab in the ass by any tiny elementary school student looming behind you. What's worse, once they see one kid do it they all want to do it. Its like being surrounded by piranhas. Even though these are some of the cutest kids you will ever see you cannot trust them. They are tricky. It starts out real cute looking too. They put their hands together the way someone would pray, then they angle them towards your ass and stab them in there. It doesn't hurt but it doesn't feel good either. So when you visit Japan, don't play soccer with elementary school kids and thank me when you get back home.

Electric Blankets

Ok, so I when I first saw the electric blanket in the closet here, my response was "Do they really still sell those?" For some reason this product conjures up images of people burning to death in their sleep. Then I remembered that I was in the land of "if our machine kills you, it's definitely your fault and you should be too ashamed to complain or sue."

The first time I thought to use the blanket definitely had something to do with Don leaving town again for a few nights. Anyone that knows him or notices him sweating all the time and never wearing a coat, would know or imply that he is unreasonably hot, all the time. In the winter, this makes sleeping next to him nice (in the summer, not so much). Anyway, I was missing him on a particularly chilly night, so I took out the blanket and inspected the cords. Everything looked kosher, and it didn't look that old so I decided to try it out. It was AMAZING. I blissfully watched a movie in bed snuggled under it, but when it was time to sleep I struggled with the choice of leaving it on or turning it off. Again, images of flaming beds crept into my mind, but I refused to believe this innocuous flowery flannel piece of heaven would hurt me. I asked it, "please don't barbecue me in my sleep" and drifted off to dreamland. After 2 more nights of sleeping in these womb-like conditions and reflecting on the experiences, I have compiled the following list.

Top 10 Reasons Why Electric Blankets Make Good Partner Replacements in Bed:

Disclaimer: Some of these may not apply to you and your partner.

10. The blanket covers most of your body with warmth instead of just the parts it likes.

9. You can adjust how warm the blanket is.

8. When you change positions, you don't accidently dive your limbs into cold spots because there are no cold spots.

7. The blanket doesn't move around or away from your cold hands and feet.

6. The entire blanket can be on top of you without crushing your chest cavity.

5. The blanket doesn't accidently elbow you in the face while sleeping.

4. The blanket doesn't pull the other covers off of you.

3. The blanket doesn't suddenly get sweaty.

2. The blanket doesn't fart or snore.

1. You can throw the blanket out of bed without hurting its feelings.

Now, to be fair, the electric blanket does NOT do a lot of good things, too many to list in fact. And I greatly appreciate my wonderful romantic and caring husband. But I would be lying if I said that the past few nights of sleep haven't been some of the best in my life.

American Stereotypes

So after talking about politically-correctness and derogatory words with the teacher I tutor, I asked him to tell me the stereotypes Japanese have about Americans. Here they are:

1. We eat lots of beef.

2. We drink lots of soda. (or "pop" for most of my family)

3. We talk loudly.

4. We are independent.

5. Women are aggressive. (rawr)

I was kind of hoping for something a little more scandalous, but I think he was being polite.

Silver Week

We had another crazy weekend, followed up by an amazing nature-filled trip so this is going to be a loooooong one. Sorry for saving it all up!

Our weekend-o-adventure: Jim from Obira, and his girlfriend, Emily, came to stay with us on Saturday. We had snacks and some sake and the guys got haircuts. Then we had some curry at one of our favorite restaurants, Zion Curry. This place has some delicious spicy curry and great Rasta-inspired decor, along with a continuously-playing drumming video. Dave joined the four us and so the party began. As we payed for our meal we noticed a poster advertising a Reggae event at All Genres Bar (the one with the trance music). We laughed and asked the waitress more about it and she made a dancing motion. We were sold. Back at our place we did some more damage to the sake and strategized. Ping-pong was first on our list, so we got fired up with a little healthy competition. Once we started hitting each other with the ball more than the table, it was time to move on. Our next stop, before we lost our nerve was All Genre's Bar.

At the bar, we were greeted by half a dozen patrons and some loud reggae/hiphop music. We got our beers and took over the dance floor. Everyone in our group was cutting loose while the japanese patrons stared. A few of them were dancing too, so I took it upon myself to instigate a dance-off. Obviously I won, but it was a good battle that involved a lot of stepping, swaying, gyrating, thrashing, and a LOT of sweating. Since I burned most of the calories I ate that day and then some I called for food as we left the bar. We walked around the bar area looking for something open. A ramen shop looked closed but the lights were on so we stared into the windows until they gave us the OK sign and let us in. I don't really remember what happened after that except for a bowl of delicious pork ramen, a lot of laughing, and Jim falling asleep. Somehow we made it home and Don made us all take 3 Advil with some water before bed. The next day we woke up, made a breakfast feast, and then went to play park golf. Don got a hole-in-one, and Dave got a ball-in-ocean. Don't worry, the ball was saved.

Our nature-trip: So, this week we had a few days off and decided to head over to the largest national park in Japan, Daisetsuzan, and check out the tallest mountain in Hokkaido, Asahidake. Dave came with us and provided the necessary comic relief. We headed out east in our new-old Honda Civic (named Betty), from Rumoi very early Monday morning. After some successful navigating we found ourselves in the middle of beautiful mountains, lakes, and traffic. Evidently, everyone else in Hokkaido had our same idea, but we kept cool and eventually parked, bought gondola tickets, and carbo-loaded for our hike. Despite the number of people, everything ran really smoothly and I kept thinking to myself "if this was happening in New York . . ." So the gondola is is like a giant bubble that holds about 100 people and carries them silently up the beautiful mountain side. During the ride you can see for miles in either direction and the looming Mount Asahidake ahead. On the hillsides the leaves were changing and the bright white birch trunks stood out against the greens, reds, and oranges. Even though we like to be proud and say that we climbed this giant volcanic mountain, the gondola actually did most of the work. We got off, took one look at the giant mountain, and decided that come hell or high water we would make it to the top. The path was rocky and gravelly and there were vents a hundred feet away spewing sulfurous fumes. Somehow Dave was able to gallop upwards while Don and trudged. A few times I thought about abandoning ship, my back hurt, my legs hurt, breathing wasn't as satisfying as it normally is, but Don kept encouraging me and once we were more than halfway, I decided it was best to finish. I also felt like an giant wimp for even considering giving up when I saw 60 and 70-year-olds coming down from the top with smiles on their faces. At the top it was absolutely breathtaking and serene. The Earth actually looked round and the effect of being taller than everything else was dizzying. Mount Asahidake is an active volcano that at 2,300 meters is the tallest peak in all of Hokkaido. It was amazing and humbling and terrifying. Unfortunately we had to go all the way back down so we ate our prize for finishing (some dried fruit) and headed back down. Walking strenuously downhill might not be hard on your muscles but it does a number on your knees and feet. Again Dave, who I'm thinking might be part mountain goat, zoomed and skipped downward and ended up waiting about half an hour for us. I tried his running approach for about 5 seconds until I fell and slid on my butt. I contemplated just sliding the whole way (but there were giant boulders in the way) using Don as a sherpa, or calling for a helicopter. This sounds silly, but anyone who has hiked a steep downhill area for over an hour knows what I'm talking about. Eventually we made it back down and Don rung some bell to announce it and we walked a little trail on our way back to gondola. We spotted some wild foxes, smelled some berries, bought hot tea in a can, used toilets with bacteria that digest the human waste, and headed back down to our car and hopefully a clean warm hotel room. We stayed in a ryokan, a traditional guesthouse, and it was crowded so we didn't get the okay to use the bath and shower until very late but we were already half-asleep in bed. The next day we had to explore Asahikawa, second biggest city in Hokkaido.

The most famous attraction here is the zoo. It was made popular by a Japanese movie, but I don't know the name of it. We got suckered into paying for parking 100 yards away from the free parking lot. Oh well. Since this is the holiday week, there were lines to see certain things. Yes, lines. At the zoo. It was pretty typical as zoos go. A couple of cool things: an all glass tunnel that goes through the penguin pool, a giant outdoor open-air trapeze for an orangutan that ended up throwing a ball into the crowd and hitting a little girl on the head while we watched, a few bubble-dome things that popped up in the polar bear and wolf habitats so that you could get a prey's view of the animal. Many of the large animals seemed sleepy and bored, and I don't want to get into the reason I don't normally ever go to zoos, but a little excitement came when a lion that was chilllaxing in the grass let out a roar that gave me goosebumps and shivers. If I was in the jungle and heard that I would definitely need new underwear.

After the zoo we did some exploring and shopping and commenting on the large number of gambling joints. There were some cool shops and a giant used-goods store with everything from musical instruments to tires to snowboards to clothes. We ended the night with some very-bad-for-you fast food and headed home. Definitely a city we will go back to. As so ends this long post. Hope you enjoyed reading it and hope you enjoy the slideshow. There are some really funny videos. I promise not to write so much next time!

Where did I put my socks?

If you never sock wrestled before here are the rules:
1. unlimited competitors- battle royal style
2. no time limit
3. no weight restrictions
4. objective 1- remove opponents socks- winner is the last one with a sock on
5. objective 2- don't lose to a guy who carries the same purse as your wife
6. objective 3- don't get kicked in the face

We went camping with a bunch of other people in our program who live in our region last weekend. The organizers had a "special olympics" set up for us. Chrissy competed in the marshmallow eating contest and eliminated three men along her way to second place. The big guy in green on the right won, Christine conceded the match after learning he stuffed 39 marshmallows in his mouth the week before.




I competed in the sock wrestling contest described above. I am embarrassed to say, but I failed on all three objectives. I took second place too. My prize was two nice abrasions on my nose, pain in my sinuses and front teeth all week, and a jammed thumb. The video of the wrestling is below. Courtesy of our Canadian buddy Dave. Sorry, its pretty long. If you look closely during round 2 the reason I walk out of the frame is because I just got kicked in the face real hard.

My Daily Schedule . . . prepare to hate me.

So, for those of you who are wondering, "Chrissy, if you aren't working, what do you do all day?" here's your answer:

8:00 i wake up, kind of. stay in bed, thinking about stuff. read a book.

9:00 get out of bed and make myself a beautiful fruit salad (breakfast #1). eat breakfast while i check email, facebook, and the news (perez)

10:00 do approximately 1 hour of yoga or other exercise.

11:00 shower and eat cereal (breakfast #2)

11:30 do various chores in the house like laundry, vacuuming, etc.

1:00 cook myself a delicious lunch and eat it, maybe watch some japanese television and laugh.

2:00 take a nap

3:00 do any chores that involve leaving the house like grocery shopping, mailing things, picking up or dropping off dry cleaning, etc.

4:30 come home and begin making a delicious dinner for me and don.

5:30 eat dinner and discuss my day with Don and listen to funny stuff that happened to him while teaching.

6:30 check email and stuff again while Don washes the dishes. maybe shop online for a while. hopefully practice my japanese (this is very hard to make myself do)

10:00 read my book in bed for about an hour until i get sleepy

Now, this isn't set in stone. Sometimes I have to get up earlier to take out garbage or see Don off if he is going to be gone for a few days. I also have some tutoring that I do, and two chat clubs, one that meets at our house every Wednesday, so that shakes things up a little bit. Once I get more clients I will have to spend more time planning lessons and activities than I do now, and less time thinking and napping. And of course there are also the things that we get invited to every week like volleyball or veggie picking. To bring this post to an end, this is the most relaxed I have ever been in my life, and probably ever will be until retirement. Life is good.

Do Not Go Into Bars Playing Trance Music!

I don't know why we were the least bit surprised about the end of our night on Saturday. We wanted a crazy/fun night out, and we got one. We started the evening off at our house. Dave came over, Don made pizza from scratch, and we all had a few drinks. We then headed out to investigate the bowling alley, which looked like every other bowling alley in American. Dave had the best scores, but Don and I didn't do too badly. Then we played some pretty heated ping pong, Dave again had the best game. This whole time, we were pretty much the only people in the whole place. Wanting more adventure and curious about all of the little bars on the side streets of our town, we jumped on our bikes and road away like maniacs towards the bars. Dave seemed to remember a bar called "All Genres" with a picture of Bob Marley on the sign that he wanted to see. We heard trance music coming down from the 2nd floor bar and against our better judgement, walked up the stairs. (I kind of wanted to laugh at people dancing to this) We had to pay $5 cover, but we got a CD of the horrible music. Don's is already in the garbage. There weren't many people in the bar, but we were immediately accosted by two tiny girls who were screaming broken english at us, telling us that they loved us. After a few drinks, some half-hearted dancing, and some conversation, the girls got a little personal. I'll just say this - to avoid too much embarrassment - there were many questions regarding our bodies, our private parts, and our body odor. There was also some touching and blocked attempts at touching for size comparisons. Instead of becoming more modest in their questions once they found out Don and I were married, it only made the situation worse. The funniest part about this was that all the questions were being shown to us on a cell phone that translated for the girl. In Japanese their version of "it" is used all the time to refer to people, so we were shown questions like "it leaves when it finishes drink?" (silence of the lambs anyone?) My sides hurt from laughing so hard and from constantly deflecting grabs from these girls. Don and I decided it was time to go, before this got any weirder, and bid farewell to Dave and our two new friends. We promised them we would come back on the 19th for some event at the bar, but I don't think we'll make an appearance. At least not without some protective padding.

It's Been a Busy Week!

After traveling all last week, we have finally settled back at home and gone through all the pictures and videos. Here's a run-down of the events.

Last weekend we played park-golf with an international-exchange group. Park golf is somewhere between regular golf and minigolf. There were three Americans (Don, me, and Jim), one Canadian (Dave), one Nepalese man (Raju), three Chinese girls who work at a factory in town, and a bunch of Japanese people. We had a feast afterward and played a game that involved ripping a newspaper. A picture of me golfing ended up in the town newspaper. That night we hung out with 2 coworkers of Don's and went to dinner, then to see some live music. There was an opening funk band whose name sounded like "Brown Panties," but I'm hoping we heard wrong. The main act was Madame Guitar. She was really fun to watch. For both, though, it was better when they were singing in Japanese because when they sang in English their accents were so thick that the funny-sounding lyrics were distracting from the music. It was still a really fun night, and it's always good to hear live music.

Monday night we headed up to Horonobe, about 3 hours north, through hilly farmland. It was a beautiful drive along the coast and through the countryside. Horonobe is a very cute town. It has a nature museum, a reindeer farm, a calligraphy museum, and a nuclear disposal research facility! They're drilling 500 meters into the Earth to see if they can safely dispose of nuclear waste there. Don't worry, we're not growing extra limbs yet. I met a woman here at the park and she took me around town for a little tour and brought me into the elementary school to see an art exhibit. She even came back to the junior high, where I was waiting for Don, to give me a present. I stayed for lunch at the junior high and ate with Don and students in one of the homerooms.

That afternoon we headed south for Teshio. This was a much smaller town with less to do. Luckily the teachers invited me to come for the whole day with Don, and I got to see him teach and arm wrestle. The students were very shy and there was near-constant giggling as we walked through the hallway.

Afterwards we headed further south for Enbetsu, where we stayed at a ryokan, a traditional Japanese guesthouse. We slept in a small tatami room. There was one squat toilet on our floor. The showers and giant bath were on the ground floor. Now, the way the ryokan works is this: you arrive a the hotel and you shower and clean yourself, then you take a dip in the huge scalding-hot bath tub, then throw on your yukata robe and head to a homemade dinner in the giant dining room. Same sexes commonly bathe together, and the water in the bath is only drained at the end of the night. This may sound gross, but you are supposed to clean yourself before going in, and that water was so freaking hot I'd congratulate any microbe that could stay alive in it. Dinner here was amazing - crab, sushi, fish, porkchop, soup, salad, pickles. . . By the way, we are eating meat like it's our job here. #1 it is delicious, #2 it's everywhere, #3 it's hard to explain the vegetarian-but-fish-is-okay thing, #4 it's DELICIOUS! Back to Enbetsu, the high school here is an agricultural highschool so the kids are under less pressure and generally more fun and outgoing. Don played soccer with some boys and did a great job as goalkeeper. He also taught the staff what TGIF meant. The school here was gigantic and new and beautiful.

We headed home that night and collapsed after the long week, that wasn't over yet.

The next day we had a cooking club in the morning with Alaina, a woman from Washington that married a man here and now has 3 kids. She does a lot with the community, including this cooking thing where she connects farmers with people in the town and introduces new foods and recipes. We made tacos from all-fresh ingredients except for the Kraft shredded cheese. They took pictures of my taco and said it would be in the next newsletter. I knew I would be famous in this town! That night we went to a BBQ with the man selling us a car and a younger kid we met at a sushi restaurant. This was a real meat-fest, beer-fest, sake-fest. It was awesome. We had some really great conversations with the people there and then I convinced them all to come to karaoke afterwards. Don must have really had a lot to drink because he sang more than me! And he did a great job! I was very proud. They sent us home with a bag full of vegetables and two watermelons.

Sunday, Don hung out with Dave at a open-air market in town while I hung out with two women from the chat club, Kayoko and Ikuko. We made tempura, ate it, drank coffee and talked. I can't wait to make it again. Our little informal cooking club will meet again in October and I will show them how to make hamburgers.

This week should be a little more relaxing. We don't have to travel anywhere! We'll be far from bored though, with volleyball games, dinner invitiations, dance recitals . . .

I recommend clicking on these and going to website b/c there are quite a few videos and a panoramic picture at the end.

Back from Sapporo

So we just spent the past few days in Sapporo, the fifth biggest city in Japan, and the biggest city in Hokkaido. Don mostly had meetings and I mostly went shopping and sightseeing. We had one late night out on the town that started with all you can drink at a beer garden, led to karaoke, and ended with green ice cream all over my shirt, chocolate ice cream on my pillow, and Don being lost for about 30 minutes. There are a few more galleries to look at. There are some pictures of the city itself, some of the botanic garden. I know, shocking, I went to another garden and took a million pictures.

We also finally finished the gardening in front of our house, so there are some photos of that, some pics of the town, and just a few of the funny small cars we've seen. (I promised my brother). I'll ride around on my bike some time soon and snap a couple pictures of the town. I really want to take a video inside of the grocery store. It's chock full of little old ladies bustling around me, while I hold my basket above their heads, with this crazy spastic techno song playing, always the same song. Luckily you can only hear the radio in the produce section, but I almost always have that song stuck in my head.

$5 Lunch

So today I ran out into the rain to pick up a lunch to bring back to my hotel room. It was 495 yen (about $5) and here's what I found in the box:
1 salmon filet on a bed of rice
1 small portion of fried noodles
1 shrimp tempura
1 octopus and onion tempura
1 side of steamed and seasoned veggies/tofu, and something that looked like jello made from seawater (tasty)
1 small portion of sweet beans

Only $5 spent and I'm stuffed. If I wasn't so hungry and didn't scarf it down I would have taken a picture. By the way, I purchased this little box-of-deliciousness at a 7/11. Forget slurpees, give me seafood!

To call the Police dial 119.

Yesterday: we were at a nursery buying plants for our house and in walk in three undercover police officers completely out of the blue. They ask for our passports and of course I left mine at home. They take down Chrissy's info and ask if they can come to our house to see my passport. We said sure we live almost two miles away and were planning to hire hire a cab to deliver all the plants we bought, "How 'bout you three coppers take the plants to our house and we will meet you there?" "OK." so we helped them put the plants in their cars and hopped on our bikes. They followed behind us the whole way home. The last three blocks are up a steep hill and we jumped of the bikes and walked up with the cops going one mile an hour behind us. What a wird ass scene that was. Long story short: leaving my passport at home saved us a $20 cab fare. I already have this town wired!!

The better half is sleeping.

This is Don this time. i don't think i can do as good of a job as Chrissy (sorry only two pictures) but here it is. Tokyo wasn't so fun a few weeks ago. All I saw was the inside of the hotel. Nice hotel though. I think you already know about the toilet.

Rumoi: we are now in our home in Rumoi and I have been going to the office everyday for the past two weeks. I sit at my desk in the corner of a big office filled with 32 people who don't speak English. It helps that I have absolutely no work to do right now. The students are on summer break so I am not sure what anybody else is actually doing either. I sit at my desk and make flash cards and read a million different Japanese language books for hours on end. NO INTERNET ACCESS. NO EMAIL. Lunch gets my blood going though. We order our food by going to a vending machine and getting a ticket which we hand to the lunch ladies. Since I can't read Japanese I never know what I am getting. Most days I get lucky and the food is really good (except for the bowl of cold noodles soaking in what looked like human spit [not joking]).


This week they threw us a curve and invited us to an "enkai"- or work party. They took Chissy and I out to a what we think is their version of TGI Fridays. It is thier big chain restaurant that is in every town and has a large American style selection on the menu. We had a great time. The men were all trying to drink really fast and commented a lot that gai-jin "are strong for alcohol." I think they wanted to test their metal. They sat us with the bosses and they pounded their first three or four beers before we even had food served. We think they chose the place in honor of us because it had American style food but we ruined their plans and ordered sushi anyway. Next came out a huge bottle of sake for the big boss' birthday (who introduces himself as "boss"). For the first time since we have been here we were really able to communicate because they sat us with a former English teacher who translated for us. It wound up being a lot of fun.

After dinner most of us (including all of the bosses) went to a karaoke place. We sang "We Are The World" as a group!! They sang a lot of Japanese folk songs that put me to shame (Chrissy always holds her own though) and they had bottles of whiskey on the table and a a matron who sat and drank with us that kept filling our glasses. We were fine before we got there but with her filling our glasses everytime we looked away the bike ride home was was dangerous. We made it home OK and our first night out in Rumoi was a success! Next morning, show up to work, me and my 32 new friends go back to ignoring each other for 8 hours like nothing happened. Weird.

Our House

Here is a little tour of our house. when you walk in the front door, you are in the genkan. There is a toilet room to the left and an inside door ahead of you. It opens up the living room with the dining area and two tatami rooms straight ahead, the kitchen to the left, the couch area and patio to the right, and the office area around a corner to the right. Our appliances are pretty funny. We have to use gas heaters for the kitchen sink and in the shower. We don't have an oven under the range, instead our microwave is also an oven. Our washer is also a dryer!

Our house gets lots of light and a nice breeze. We have big closets in the tatami rooms, but they were for futons so Don put a bar in for our clothes. There are tons of cabinets in the kitchen too, but they are overhead so you can't really see them. Once we fix up the front yard a little more I'll take some pictures of it. It's a little sad looking right now.

I'll let Don post about last night's enkai later. Very fun!

Festival

the pics with the little gray "movie" box are videos. click on the slideshow to go to picasa and watch them.

Mashike

Welcome to Rumoi

YAY! We finally have internet, kind of.

So we have the internet working on one computer, the one that isn't a pc and isn't running vista (ahem). So far our two weeks here in Rumoi have been interesting, funny, and at times, a little frustrating, We REALLY need to learn more japanese, ASAP. At least we have the hiragana, one of the 3 syllabaries, memorized. This means we can sound out written words and then look them up. The kanji is impossible though, and on everything. They are borrowed chinese characters and are hard to remember. At least I have figured out how the washer-dryer, microwave-oven, and the rice cooker work. I'll post a slideshow with some pictures of what we have been up to. We have mostly been cleaning and fixing things around the house. Our yard was a jungle, but I convinced Don to buy a little push-mower for the grass.
This past weekend we went to a town a little south of Rumoi called Mashike and saw beautiful orchards and buildings, but did not get to sample their famous salmon sushi - maybe our next visit. We also witnessed our first festival Saturday night. There were tons of huge lit-up floats, dancers, drummers, and fireworks. We even lit off a few of our own to celebrate. My favorite purchase by far is my bicycle. We each bought a used one for 5,000 yen (about $50) and it has come in very very handy (like when I'm lugging a giant bag of groceries up the giant hill we live on the top of). Wheels are good.
I'll get some photos up soon, but I have to get ready for the big enkai tonight - that's a drinking party. This will be Don's official welcome party and from every story we here from fellow gaijin, there's lots of rowdiness and lots of drinking. I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow!

Sorry we haven't posted

We have successfully made it to our house in Rumoi. The town is really cute, like a beach town. We've been cleaning and shopping and running errands, but unfortunately we don't have internet yet and it may be another week or two until we do. As soon as we get that set up, we'll post photos of the house and town.

They know how to garden!

I visited the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. It was amazingly beautiful.

hotel

i feel like i'm on a space ship! as soon as i find our camera cord i can post some pictures. even the light switches and outlets are cool. i still can't get over the toilets. there's a flushing noise with adjustable volume, heated seat, 2 kinds of sprays with warm water and adjustable pressure, and a deodorizer. i wonder if we can get one of these shipped to the states . . .

any guesses as to what a "strawberry dome" is? i'm about to eat it for breakfast.

We have landed!

Just a quick word before we turn in for the night . . . the toilets are amazing!

ONE DAY LEFT!

We are just about done packing our 400 lbs. of luggage. Here are some interesting differences:
underwear: me-25, don-10
socks: me-20, don-10
shoes: me- 12, don-7
coats: me-5, don-2
soap: me-2, don-4
tweezers: me-3, don-0 (that's not even a joke!)

I know, not exactly shocking, but still funny. Well, in about 48 hours, we will set foot in JAPAN! Just 1 million errands, 1 14-hour plane ride, and 1 2-hour bus ride to go until we experience Tokyo!

Getting Ready

We are currently packing.