Grape Picking

The other day Marisa and I went to this place where you can pay a set price and then pick and eat all the grapes that you want. The ride was a bit far and it was up and down this big hill, but it was sugoku kirei. Really pretty. The colors of all the fields and flowers were really bright and vivid so all in all it was a nice bike ride.

At the actual place of picking grapes it wasn't exactly what we expected in that we each only cut one bunch of grapes down and then just sat and ate grapes for a while while they brought us more of different kinds instead of us actually getting the grapes for ourselves, but they were really good. Japanese grapes are a lot bigger than the grapes you normally eat in America and the skin is a lot thicker. Most people don't eat the skin here because its thick and dries your mouth out leaving a kind of bitter taste, but luckily the skin separates from the grape easily.

Here are some pictures of all the scenery on the way too and from the grape place and then a couple in the grape place. The white bags hanging around me are the grapes. I don't know why exactly they have the bags over the grapes, but there it is. The picture of the frog is because there were like 6 of those little guys hopping all around me the whole time. They never actually came into contact with me, but they were everywhere! Lol, cute, but I wasn't about to let one of them land on me. I had to be ready to move at any second.

Anyway, this is what it looks like where I live right now for the most part. Country with nothing to do really yes, but really really pretty.

Temple in my Town

One of the things Shikoku is famous for is the 88 temple pilgrimage. People from all over come to Shikoku and make the trek around to all 88 temples wearing white outifts with hats and sticks. You can see them all over. A lot of these people come through Kubokawa here because we actually have one of the 88 temples. Here are some pictures of it that I took.

Discovery

I just discovered that if you click on the pictures in the blog they get enlarged. Lol. Everyone probably already knew that, and I'm just late in finding this out, but on the off chance that there was someone out there who didn't know, and was thinking, I wish I could see it bigger, now you know you can click on it and see it. Lol.

Yosakoi Extras

Hey there everyone. So I just got pictures from Yosakoi that were taken by other people of Marisa and I actually dancing in it, lol. So I will post them here. You can see how ridiculous we looked, but it was still way fun. These pictures are mostly from the first street we did which was also the least crowded (thankfully).

Welcome Party/Karaoke

Apparently one welcome party at the beginning of my stay here wasn't enough because they went ahead and scheduled another one. Lol. This one was going to be with the people in Taisho (town next to us) as well, but they didn't end up coming so it was just our Board of Education again. Anyway, at the beginning Marisa and I had to make a speech (in Japanese of course) and I was so nervous. I was like shaking and it was kind of ridiculous, lol. I said, "Because of my love for stories, I studied English literature at college. But because I thought Japanese food, culture, and language were interesting, I also studied Japanese. The time i spent studying Japanese was really fun, so I wanted to come to Japan and let the students here have fun learning English. So when I heard I was coming to Shimanto Town I was really happy. Thank you for taking care of me until now and please continue to take care of me." It is kind of a literal translation so it might sound a bit weird in English but you get the jist. Anyway, there was lots of food but Marisa and I got whisked away to go greet the head honchos and we had to pour them all sake so we didn't get to eat a lot. It was kind of weird to be pouring drinks for other people when I don't drink, but it's a show of respect and culture here I guess. Anyway, toward the end I had had some conversations with people, and then a group of office workers were asking me questions about being Mormon (as they always do in a drinking setting becuase I don't drink) and what I can and can't do/eat/drink. I had actually found out that one of the girls from the ward I go to knows one of the girls in the office. They went to high school together, so that was pretty cool because she already knew a Mormon, and a Japanese one at that. Then, a few of us went out for karaoke after. Lol. I didn't want to sing by myself at first, but after a while we were all just choosing songs and singing whatever we wanted. All the songs I sang were in English (got some Boston, Mama's & Papa's, Disney, Backstreet Boys, and Queen in) and then the last song I sang was in Japanese. My voice was a little shakey and I couldn't catch all the words because it was hard to read it (it was going too fast), but I got through it with applause at the end, lol. Fun times.

Welcome Camp

I have been remiss in posting in my blog, but am determined to make up for it now with a bunch of entries about the past month. To start, like a month ago I went to a camp with a bunch of the kids from around Shimanto. We went swimming in the shimanto river and jumped off a bridge and a dam into it as well. We stayed in cabins and Marisa and I were even in charge of one of the cabins of girls (although there was another supervisor who did most of the work).

The night we slept in the cabins they had a haunted walk around the camp grounds where the leaders dressed up in scary things and popped out to scare the kids, lol. Marisa and I went with different groups and the little girls were clinging to us. There was this one girl in a pink outfit (you can see her in the picture of me with the group of girls with the guy in an eyeball costume behind us) that was holding onto me for most of the time screaming "kowai!!" "mou yada!!" which pretty much means I'm scared! I've had enough!

Or something similar, lol. It was really funny and cute. The only frustrating thing about the camp was that I couldn't really talk to the kids at all. I had no idea what they were saying becuase they talk to fast and short and kind of slurred. But I guess that is ok. When you can talk with kids then you are fluent I hear, and fluent I am not, so I shouldn't expect to be able to. Also, I keep seeing the kids that went to the camp in my classes that I go to and I feel bad because I don't remember their names. There are too many of them. Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Haircut

So I got a haircut a while ago. I told them that I wanted my bangs, and to keep it relatively the same length, but other than that they could give me a haircut that suited me. So, as I suspected, the guy thinned my hair out like crazy. It is the same length, but the amount of hair that is actually the full length has drastically been reduced. It's still the thickness on top though. When I put it into a ponytail though it's like there is nothing there but a few wisps. It's really weird. It reminds me of a mullet in a way, but it doesn't look like it. Or at least I hope it doesn't anyway, lol. I actually quite like it. It's really nice in the heat because there isn't that much hair around my neck anymore. Also, it works really well with my hair when I don't do anything to it. Before when I just let it air dry it was a mess all flat against my head and then waving in ways that weren't at all a pretty site but now when it starts to wave or curl it kind of works with the haircut and doesn't look so bad. Anyway, a picture that I took the same day with my webcam.

Ayu Matsuri & the 24 Hour Charity

Well, it's been like 2 weeks since I actually went to the Ayu Matsuri (festival) but I guess it's better late than never. This was an exciting festival for a few reasons. It was small, but unique. At night, the men from the near-by towns went out into the river on small boats and demonstrated how fishermen used to catch fish with fire. So they floated around with lanterns waving huge burning sticks over the water. It was pretty cool looking. Here are some pictures. They are kind of dark because it was after all at night, and they were a little ways out in the water, but I think you can make out some people. Another reason it was a cool festival was because we dressed up in our yukata to go. It wasn't really a festival where you dress up in yukata, like the Nakamura one would be the following week, but Nare (from Korea) was finishing up her year here in Shimanto-cho and was leaving before that next festival, and Marisa and I had volunteered to help run a booth at the 24 hour Charity the same night as the Nakamura festival, so we made the most of it. Luckily there were a few others there that were dressed up, so it wasn't like we were completely out of place (excepting the fact that it's impossible to completely blend in as well because of the tall, white skin, blonde hair factor). Anyway, we ate shaved ice, watched the fishermen on the river with the fire and then the fireworks.






The next week was the 24 Hour Charity event. There was a 24 Hour Television Charity going on where there were celebrities doing stuff like one lady was running some marathon, or something and different celebrities did a drama to show, and in our town, they hosted what seemed to be almost a carnival.

It seemed like a matsuri (festival) because of the food stands and games set up, but then there was entertainment as well. There were clowns, hula dancers, people dressed as turtles dancing, the kid's taiko (Japanese drums) group, kindergarten classes (which I got video of but it turned out sideways for some reason), etc all performing. Oh yes, at the end of the night there was a group of 3 guys who did a little break dance thing and said they were always looking for new members. I got some video of that (sorry it's a little blurred - I took it on my cell phone). I'll try and post that here and hopefully it isn't all out of sync like the Yosakoi videos were. Anyway, our dart blowing stand was pretty fun, and this one guy even got Marisa and I some yakitori (teriyaki chicken on a stick essentially) which was soooo good, and then some curry, which, of course, was also delicious. We also got some cream soda, which contrary to what you might think, ended up just being a float (like a melon soda float, or coca-cola float). Anyway, enjoy the pictures!!!

Firtst Week of School

It's been a while. Things have been really busy. My first week of school is now past. While I say first week, it's actually just 2 days with classes and 1 where I introduced myself to the school. On Tuesday I went to my junior high and introduced myself to the whole school. Now, I say whole school, but really there are only like 33 kids in the entire junior high. There is 1 class per grade and each class only has like 8-12 students. So I did that in English with a little bit of Japanese like they said and then got a tour of the school. The next day I went back and I had all 3 classes. I pretty much did my self introduction in detail that time and then had question and answer time with the students. I was asked some pretty strange questions like `does Palmdale have camels?` (because it's a desert), `you have good taste, why?` and `were you in Harry Potter?` (because I showed them a picture of me dressed like Hermione). Sadly when I answered the kid I said yes joking around and he started telling all his friends. Then he found out it wasn't true, lol. Poor guy. My second years were the most responsive and thought my brothers in my family picture were very `kakkoi` (cool) and that my niece and nephew were so `kawaii` (cute) and everyone was surprised that Jonathon was like the same age as the teacher I team teach with. Anyway, the next day I went to an elementary school and did grades 1-5 all at once seeing as there were only 11 students. They were really cute. When I was leaving, one of the funny boys was like `come back because I love you` lol (in Japanese of course). Marisa came and watched me do that and then did the head, shoulders, knees and toes song with me and the kids. This afternoon I go to watch another ALT teach and then Tuesday I go with Marisa to a kindergarten in the morning and meet up with the junior high teacher to talk about what to do for Wednesday's classes. We'll see how it all goes!

A Good Day

Today was a good day. (This was actually written a few days ago, just not posted). Not that anything especially exciting happened, just some small things. I got to work and then went with a co-worker to a bunch of the schools I'll be going to. He speaks relatively good English, but still quite a bit in Japanese. So we had kind of a mixed conversation for the 3 hours we were gone from the office and I actually managed to put together what I considered a complex sentence. I felt all proud of myself, lol. Most of the time I get by with simple statements or questions and lots of gestures. So it was raining, and I was driving (uwaa!!), and all these cars were driving all fast and going into the oncoming traffic's lane to pass me when I was already going 10 over the speed limit. So I told him that in America, if it's raining when people are driving, they usually slep down, becuase it's dangerous, but in Japan, it's different and people are still driving so fast. Maybe it still sounds simple, but I was all proud of myself, lol. Also, I met my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) for the junior high I'll be teaching at and had already met him. We'd danced at Yosakoi together, lol. He was on the team. He had told Marisa and me that this one kind of tree that lined the roads smelled really bad or something and then before we actually went up to the tree and started sniffing it we found out that he was joking. Anyway, while I was there I talked to some students and then introduced myself to some kindergardeners. So nothing big, but I drove for hours on narrow roads that the car barely fir on with a vertical drop into water on one side and a wall of overgrown bushes on another and didn't die, and made a small step towards better Japanese fluency. And I found out that my co-workers are amazed at how much I eat because I don't look it. I didn't think I ate a particularly large amount of food, but I guess they only see me when really good food is around and I'm stuffing my face. Oh, and another good thing that's small but still good, is my last 2 meals have been curry. It took a couple hours and a couple phone calls to figure out how to get my rice cooker to work (all the buttons are in Japanese) but I finally ended up with some rice and could have curry. Gotta love the curry.

My Town

So I just discovered that this never actually got posted. SORRY!!! But here is some stuff on my apartment and town that I put together in the first month I was here. So my apartment has some additions like a couch, but it's essentially the same. I’m on the bottom right when looking at the place. You can see my sliding door there. And my laundry hanging out to dry, lol. Also, there is one road that’ll get you there. It’s a 2 way road even though 2 cars definitely can’t fit side by side. As you can probably tell in this picture here. The walk outside my place has a lot of frogs at night so in the morning you can see some of the frogs smashed from the cars on the ground. There's a picture. It's really sad. Then there is a video of my apartment above. I was going to include a video of the walk from my apartment to work (which is kind of long - 7mins) but the video doesn't seem to load. Anyway, towards the end of the walk there is this path that has plants and trees all around where cicadas are always screeching non-stop and I always have a fear that a cicada will leap out and cling to me with its little claws, screeching all the while.
Cicadas can be heard all over the town. I’ve seen a few live ones, and some dead ones on the ground (as seen in the picture), but for the most part they are hidden in the greenery constantly making noise. And they are loud. Outside my back window too where there's the river that runs right behind the bamboo trees. Here’s a video I took of outside my back window while recording the song that plays over the speakers throughout town everyday at 5pm. In the old days, they would have a siren go off at 6am, noon, and 5pm to let the farmers know what time it was. These days they have thankfully foregone the 6am siren. Nowthey only have the siren at noon and have changed the 5pm one to a song. Have a listen.

Now here are some pictures of the different places around town. These first ones are the train station. I go here at least once a week for the 2 hour trip to church every sunday.

This next is Miyata, the supermarket closest to my house that I go to usually for my food.
And last are a couple pictures. The big brick one is the bank next to my work and the other building is my work. Then there is the main road by my house. If you see the orange sign on the left I live like right behind the store that that sign belongs to.