Last Days

It's been a whirlwind here the past few days. Crazy enough to keep me on my toes and keep me from getting to nostalgic or weepy. Saturday we went to Osaka where we hit several neighborhoods on our own and met up with Iwa High School staff for an amazing goodbye dinner. It was one of the best carefree days I've ever had. That's us color coordinating with a giant ferris wheel up there, by the way.

Sunday turned out to be the complete opposite with almost every stupid thing that could possibly go wrong doing so. Just lots of small foolish things on our part which culminated in Colleen reversing the car into a steel pole and shattering its back window. We walked away fine and the car only had a small dent and the loss of a lot of glass to show for it, but it really topped off one the most downright crappy days I've ever had.

Yesterday I spent most of the morning fretting about the weight of my luggage which teetering right around the 70 lb. 'must be counted as cargo' point. (I know I'm paying a heavy baggage fee, but we really can't afford the cargo shipment fee.) Then my afternoon was spent tendign to car repair. Or lack thereof. We decided the car is officially scrap metal after we leave so Colleen will just be driving around with a sheet of plastic in the back for the next couple weeks. A 1998 Daihatsu is the equivalent of a 1973 Ford Pinto in a country where people buy a new car at least once every two years, so this really just dots the "i" on that point.

After that, we went to a final BBQ dinner at Albero. Good time all around: mellow, not too sentimental, good food. And tonight I'm going to a final dinner with my English Conversation class. At least the quality of my meals has been consistent the past few days. Nothing else has.

Sumo Snacks

Almost as cute as the real potbellies. Undoubedly more delicious.

Culture

This year Colleen's school moved its Culture Day from Fall to Summer so we got to experience a third dose of culture via teen eyes. Colleen & "five pretty girls" (actual program description) made chocolate pudding that was a smashing success. I helped out a little, but mostly only in the providing jokes department.

"Are all Americans handsome?"
"No. Only me."

That one literally had the girl on the floor. I didn't even think it was that funny. I wasn't the only one making bad jokes though. Two teachers did a stand-up routine that had the kids laughing both with and at them. There was a band, some intense hip-hop (complete with English swearing - and i mean a lot of it - that apparently none of the higher-ups recognized) and the usual Culture items: model castle made of beer cans, giant Ultraman diorama.

The highlight for me had to be when one of the girls introduced herself as Kumi Shiflet, saying it was her real Japanese name. I was so shocked I didn't know how to respond. One half of my brain knew that was completely impossible, but she nailed the pronunciation so perfectly (not a Japanized Shi-fu-re-to) I almost believed her. Apparently the joke had been worked out the night before while making pudding. They really got me. I wish I could have seen the look on my face.


Putting the cream on the pudding, strawberries to follow


Mosaic of Japanese boxing celeb (and fraudulent champ) Koki Kameda


Just like "8 Mile"

Oh, Cleveland Sports

Watching the Cavs lose quite miserably this week didn't stir up quite the reaction I thought it would. Coming home to so many things that have changed over the past two years, it's comforting to know some things will always be the same. Returning to an NBA title in Cleveland would be on par with walking directly in to the Twilight Zone, inducing a level of reverse culture shock the likes of which have never been seen. Crisis averted.

Mike Vs. Octopus

Today I attempted to go octopus fishing in the Inland Sea with Testsuya and Maii. Attempted because we came back empty-handed save for two tiny fish that Maii caught. Today just wasn't a good day for the freakishly simple octopus catching technique. The way one fishes for octopus is to simply throw a weighted hook into the water and drag it across the ocean floor. Unfortunately today was windier than expected so we were dragging too quickly and in unexpected directions. I was looking forward to freakishly fresh tako yaki but I'll survive. Despite having no luck with the hooks, it was still a nice day at sea. Maii's boat is great and we had fun both speeding across and lingering on the water. I also didn't use any suntan lotion on my lower half so I have a nice tap upper body and burnt-to-a-crisp knees and calves.



Jellyfish. I can't believe how many of these I saw today. Every shape and size, even the neon glowing ones.


They put their lives in my hands. The fools.


One of the many tiny islands we lingered near.

in the rice paddy puddles

Our friend Tamako says, "in May, EVERYONE in Ichinomiya plants rice."

Well, we were included in that tradition this year. I couldn't miss out on the chance to take a dip in calf-deep mud! So after begging her to talk with her friend, who is an organic farmer, we arranged to meet him and his father. We did our part to make sure all the baby rice plants found their spot in the mud along with the frogs, snakes, prehistoric-looking shrimp-fish creatures, and who knows what else.

Most rice farmers, including Tamako's friend, use machines like this to speed the process along;



But we rolled up our pants to try out the traditional method









I felt all kinds of things on my feet, but luckily mud isn't clear, so I could just ignore it, thinking it's just a cute little frog. It's pretty fun, and easy. If you ever get the chance to plant rice, just make sure you use this method: hold the plant in your hand, and when you plop it down in the mud, your hand should look like a chicken pecking at the ground for feed.

Speaking of chickens, we visited the farmer's chicken coop. These little ladies provide Mike & I with with a never-ending supply of organic eggs each week. It was cool to see how happy and cute they are. Tamako and I went inside to collect eggs while Mike made friends...

ATM Rage

For a long time I've been meaning to do a post about Japanese ATMs. I guess if you don't know any better they are okay, but coming from the land of the 24 hour walk up, they are really hard to handle. As you may have guessed from that last sentence they are not available all day, every day. They work banker's hours. They are actually treated better than bank employees. On top of limited access, they charge fees for going in the evening or on the weekend.

My disdain of them has been building for quite some time, but today I was set off when, after dropping Colleen off for work, I found out they also charge you for showing up TOO EARLY to the ATM. They open at eight o'clock, but free access doesn't start until nine. I guess what I'm trying to say is they take the TELLER part of ATM way too seriously and I hate them.