Naha Marathon

While I know people who have run marathons and I've thought about running one myself, I'd never actually seen one in person...until now, and I'm glad it was the marathon here in Okinawa that I got to see. I love anime. I love cosplaying (dressing up in costumes as anime characters). I'm inspired by runners. But to see a person running in the Okinawan sun in costume...it's really awesome. Such varying degrees of awesomeness and madness, but I guess in a crowd of 30,000 people, there are going to be a few mad people who think they won't get heat exhaustion running in paper mache and nylon. But let me start from the beginning.

I woke up early and met my friends at my base school. The runners were starting off in Naha but would be running right on front of our school pretty quickly after the marathon started, so we all assembled and broke out the red scarves from Sports Day and went to wait across the street from the school. While waiting the teachers decided to relive some moments from Sports Day using the red scarves to do the choreographed movement...in the street. Now this is before they blocked off traffic.

There were kids there, but we didn't have to tell them not to try what we were doing. Odd, but nice. There were also two ambulances tucked away behind the shrubs as though to say, "nothing's going to happen, but just in case..."

Finally the race started. Everyone was yelling "gam

barre!" and "fight-o!"The first group of runners were your stereotypical looking runner. Oddly thin but muscular kind of wearing professional type of gear. The the next group appeared and then a few stragglers to the first group and that's when I saw the first one: a runner in a wig.

Then a monkey. 

Then more in all kinds of costumes:

Cranes and cows (for the new year), the salaryman, Christmas elves, Christmas trees, Frosty, Pikachu, goya (Bitter melon, I think is what it's called in English. Goya is an Okinawan word.) and others. My 

favorite was when the Asahi beer woman ran by because the teachers saw her and started yelling, "gambarre biru!" which essentially means, "yea, Beer! Go, fight!" Then came the craziest one. I like to call him The Heatstroke Zealot. 

It was fun, but by the end I had little desire to run a marathon, which was further weakened by people who had run the race swearing they would never do it again. I just don't think it's for everyone and probably not for me. I guess I'll see how I feel after doing a 5K or something.

Taco Rice

Yes, more on food. I'm not a connoisseur or anything. Food's just a daily part of life and that makes my daily life different here. Let's take, for example, taco rice. Now, I love Tex-Mex food. Really. I told my supervisor the other day on the way home that if Mexican food were a person I would marry it. If it were a child, I would adopt it. Yes, in case you hadn't realized this yet, I can be quite silly, but I digress. When I arrived here in Okinawa, I wasn't really expecting to find much in the way of Mexican food, so when I heard about a dish called taco rice, I had to investigate. 

Taco rice is just that. Think of a taco, but instead of a taco shell, it all sits on top of a bed of rice. It's not too bad and it's cheap. It costs 150 yen at school, which about $1.50. Maybe a little less. And it somewhat satisfies my cravings for Tex-Mex, but I really miss the chips and the crunchiness of taco shells. If I really needed a chip fix, I could go all the way to Okinawa City to get them at the import store, or I could go all the way to Chataan to the somewhat decent Mexican food restaurant there, but I can't, so for now I will just count the days until I return home for Christmas break where I will probably gain ten pounds eating all the Tex-Mex food I can. Good thing I have to do so much walking here, ne?

Snack Food

I have traveled to several countries with a friend, and when we travel we do something like a snack food marathon trying as many new foods (mainly snacks) as we can. France had great ice cream and cheese (of course). Spain had awesome hot chocolate (not the kind you drink). When we were on mainland Japan earlier this year we discovered the awesome variety of snack foods flavored with green tea. I have to say green tea Kit Kats were the very best. Unfortunately I have yet to find them here in Okinawa along with green tea Pocky.  

Next year this friend is coming to visit me here in Okinawa and I have been hard at work trying all the new snack foods available. I know, I know. I am such a good friend to be working so arduously to discover new gastronomical delights to introduce to my friend when she arrives next year.

Discoveries:

Pringles come in some unusual flavors here ranging from mild salt to french consomme to smoked salami, chicken teriyaki, and more.

Pan is Japanese for bread. For you speakers of Latin languages, you already know this. (I'll go into Latin based words borrowed by the Japanese, including the names of cars in a later blog entry.) However, bread for the Japanese, I think is like a hobby, a national past time of sorts. They have done some very interesting and quite tasty things with bread. A favored flavor is melon bread. Melon bread comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes, with and without chocolate chips, covering a croissant (one of my favorites), and on and on. They also have curry bread, which I finally tried for the first time this week. I waited so long out of fear, but it is really tasty. I think the weirdest thing I've seen and have yet to try is something that looks like a squished grilled hot dog, chili and all. I think I may be too timid for that. I love hot dogs and I would hate for that to change because of a bad experience here.

By far, my favorite snack food here is the goma stick. Goma is Japanese for sesame, and let me tell you, it is chou-oishiiiii!!!! (Super delicious) The creators of the goma stick have achieved the perfect balance of sweet and salty.  It's sad that I can't bring more home because the packages I do bring home never last very long. They are so tasty. If you come to Japan, be sure to track these things down, which you should be able to find in any convenience store or grocery store. I would even suggest checking out your local asian foods store for these things. It's totally worth it.

Internet Companies Are the Same the World Over

I was without Internet for the first two months that I was here in Okinawa. My neighbor, another JET, and I decided we would get WiFi and split the cost of the Internet, so, with the help of our supervisor he was able to make the call and get an appointment for them to come set up the Internet--a month later. Okay. Fine. I would live. Probably. Then I discovered that the manga house down the street had Internet, but I couldn't use my own computer. (In fact, I have yet to find an Internet cafe or any place with wireless so I can use my own computer, and if you're wondering what the big deal is, try learning how to use a Japanese keyboard on your own while trying to read Japanese web pages.)

A month passes. We wait with much anticipation for the delivery date of our connection to the world, and by world, of course I do mean America (says Anne). They don't come. My neighbor calls to find out why and is told that he didn't send in the required forms. My neighbor, very calmly, asks, "what forms?!?" To which the Internet company responds, "the forms we sent you." Again, "what forms?!?!?!?!" So, they tell him they will send the forms.  A week goes by without any forms arriving, so he calls again. Finally he gets the forms, sends them in, and waits for a phone call when they will ask when he wants them to come out. "As soon as possible! Are you kidding?!?!?! I am an American used to such necessities as Internet connection in my own home!!!! What is wrong with you people!?!?!?!" (No, he really didn't say all that...to the Internet people.) He finally gets a date for another month later, and it arrives. Yea! 

And there was much rejoicing...until the service becomes intermittent. WHAT?!? ARGH! (with much pulling and tearing of hair) he calmly calls the Internet company to say, "Dude!" To which the Internet company responds with, "dude. We'll get you a new modem in a week." So he sets the date to wait for the modem. They said they'd be there between six and nine on Tuesday, so he waits and waits and waits until...they don't show. Great. The next day we're both at our base school until late doing English conversation clubs. When we arrive home we see it. A notice in his mailbox saying, "dude, we were here. Where were you?" Really? Really.

Then, miraculously (his words) the Internet is working again. Yea! There is much rejoicing and the playing of Word Twist and anxiously typing this blog hoping it doesn't go out before I get a chance to post this explanation of why it has taken me so long to post new blogs: I haven't had Internet. However, I have been keeping a journal, so this blog might look a little funny for the next couple of weeks while I try to backtrack and enter all the stuff that happened between my last post and today. I will try to put dates in the titles to help or date the post itself. Does it really matter, though? I hope not as I tend to be forgetful. After all this, though, I will remember that all Internet companies are the same the world over.

Yes, I Still Love the Rain

I love the rain, so I was very happy when it rained all day and I got to sit inside the teacher's office at my school with not much better to do than turn and look out the window at the rain falling while the little sparrows hopped around looking for sustenance or shelter. The weather continued to cool, so I was feeling pretty genki all around. When it came time to leave I grabbed my pink umbrella and set off in the light shower toward home praying I wouldn't come across any habu sneaking out of the fields as I walked past. Then the rain started falling a little harder, but I was still happy it was raining. Then a car drove by splashing the water out of a pothole and soaking me with cold dirty water just as I had been looking at the little rivulets running under my feet and wondering what was mixed in with the rain water run-off as I walked by the livestock yards I pass on my way to and from school everyday I go to my visiting school. 

So now I was walking through the rain, soaked with rainwater and who knows what, but I was still happy, not as happy as I was before I was drenched by the car driving through the pothole, but happy nonetheless. Then I started wondering  why I had to get drenched by that car driving through the pothole. (I guess that comes from watching too much My Name Is Earl and thinking about karma.) As I reached the top of the hill I was able to see out over the valley and the river and saw heavier rain...heavier rain headed straight for me. Perhaps that was why I had to be drenched so I wouldn't be

 unhappy with the rain. (I know. I'm weird.) So I continue walking and the rain falls harder and then I feel a drop of rain on my back, so I look up at my umbrella to find a leak in my favorite pink umbrella.

Now I'm getting drenched because the rain is falling harder and it's coming in sideways with every huge gust of wind that's also trying to rip my favorite umbrella out of my hands. My shoes are soaked because there are invisible puddles everywhere. I'm getting drips of cold water down my back from my leaky umbrella, and the only part of me that isn't soaked with rainwater is my head, which is soaked with sweat because I'm walking as fast as I can uphill and down to try to hurry and get home faster realizing that I need to go to the grocery store because I have no food at home.

Then I get to the 11, which is the street I live on. The 11. My 11. My street riddled with potholes that haven't been filled because they're doing construction to widen the road. I want to take off running to try to get to the part of the sidewalk further away from the street not that I really think it'll do much good seeing as there are A LOT of potholes on the 11 with lots of water to splash far as the drivers forget they're driving on roads made with coral making them extra slick in the rain so they're ignoring whatever the speed limit is and driving really fast giving the water in the pothole the extra energy needed to reach me way over on the other side of the sidewalk. So, back to the running part where I think about running home to avoid being splashed any further and I realize that's not going to happen since I live at the top of a hill. 

But yes, I do still love the rain.

(By the way, genki means fine or healthy and energetic. The habu is a poisonous snake here in Okinawa. There is an alcoholic drink here called awamori and one version of it is made with the habu. It's quite nice and spicy.)

Cooler Temperatures (11/10)

It's finally cooler here in Okinawa. I can't say what a relief it is. Truly. The months leading up to the rainstorm preceding the cold front were sweltering. I keep saying the weather here is the same as Houston, hot and humid, but it seems so much more so here. I think that's really the lack of air conditioning. It is amazing to see the people here, though, living their lives without air conditioning, without sweating so profusely that their clothes do not show salt residue after the sweat has dried--even when they're wearing a shirt, running pants, a jacket, and gloves, as so many of the women here do even when they plan to be out in the sun--more so, in fact, as it seems they do not want to tan or burn, which I understand having been sunburned here just walking from my apartment to my school and back again.

No, I'm not exaggerating any of it. In fact, at school today it seemed so cool (temperature-wise) to the students that they had donned their winter uniforms, which consists of a long sleeve shirt and blazer. Meanwhile, I'm standing at the front of the classroom wearing a thin short sleeve shirt and a little open weave short sleeve summer sweater. Not even a whole sweater. It was one of those half sweaters (I'll have to look up the name. I'm so bad at keeping up with fashion and the names of different styles of clothing.) and I'm sweating. Although, that could have something to do with the fact that I had to walk to my visiting school today.

Usually I get a ride to my visiting school by my supervisor, but today she called to say she couldn't pick me up since she wasn't going to work. I told her I'd be fine and take a cab to which she replied, "It's raining." I said it wouldn't be a problem and that I'd see her tomorrow. Then I went downstairs and looked for a cab but couldn't find an unoccupied one. On the long half-hour walk to school I thought about what she had said. I learned in my JET training that Japanese do not typically directly say much. While studying Japanese I learned a useful phrase. When asked to do something you can't or don't want to do, all you have to say is "saa, chotto..." which essentially means, "hmm, it's a little..." I mean, you don't even have to say what it is. You could mean  "I'm really busy right now" or you could mean "heck no! There's no way I'd have anything to do with you!" So, back to the "it's raining" statement. I think what she meant was "It's raining so you're going to have a hard time finding a cab. Good luck and I'm sorry you're being so inconvenienced by my absence due to illness" or something very humble Japanese like that. But truly, it was actually nice to be able to walk in the light rain on the first really cool (again, temperature-wise) day in Okinawa--all uphill, of course, which brings me to another thing about Okinawa.

I live a the top of a hill on the top floor of my building, and from my balcony I can see the houses across the river set into tall hills, and, as I am driven to my visiting school twice a week, I see other parts of the city rising up in other hills, but it isn't until I'm walking that I realize, oh, wow. Okinawa is really hilly. This is a new experience for me, a native Houstonian. Houston, for those of you who don't know, is very, very flat. I think I lived in the only hill in Houston, although I'm not sure if it qualifies as a a hill or just a slight inclination in elevation. Still, it's new to me, not having lived around hills sine the ten months I spent in Raleigh about fourteen years ago, and the only memory I have of hills there was slipping down a pine coated one after a rainstorm and busting my tailbone.

Returning to the topic of this article, the temperature drop, I'm reminded of something that happened this weekend. I had dinner with three other JETs, and the one who was here last year tried to convince me that it does get really cold here to which I replied that I'd believe it when I felt it. Okay, I believe it.

Starting All Over Again

Earlier this month there was a death in my family. I was able to go home because my employers are awesome. I was allowed to go home for two weeks, which was necessary because of the circumstances at home, but I won't go into all that here. What I wanted to talk about was my return to Okinawa. I don't think I realized just how much I went through in adjusting when I first arrived here. I guess that's because it was all new, but upon my return this time, I've had to make all those same adjustments all over again. I'm having to try to relearn all the new Japanese I had picked up. I have to get used to seeing everything written in kanji and not being able to understand it. I have to try to get back into my routine, which seems to be really hard as I didn't realize just how long it took me to do the first time. Hopefully, it'll return quickly.

Hurricane Ike

I had to come home for an emergency this month. I left Okinawa just before a typhoon was scheduled to hit and landed in Houston just in time for Hurricane Ike. Yea. It was nice being home again even though the circumstances were far from ideal. 

I stayed the first two nights at my parents' house in Cypress. The hurricane hit and we lost power some time in the morning. My sister's power came on first so we went over there where several of my relatives also came to stay. The next night the power was back on at my parents' house so we went back over there. Unfortunately power didn't come back on at my place until Wednesday. Fortunately, the water that overflowed the bayou and filled Memorial under Shepherd didn't reach my place. Close, but not quite, which was wonderful. We were so worried that we would be flooded that we spent a couple of hours putting everything up before the hurricane hit. Unfortunately we forgot to get rid of everything in the freezer so when we returned home on Wednesday, the whole place reeked of rancid chicken. I hope the smell dissipates by the time I return home for Christmas.

My parents' home didn't suffer much damage. A baby fig tree was uprooted and a small citrus tree fell over, but other than that, they were fine. My sister's house had a little more damage. A part of her fence fell over and the baby gate around the pool came loose. My dad and grandfather were easily able to fix the fence and I think the baby gate was okay after all. We were lucky. 

(By the way, I was told the typhoon in Okinawa was uneventful.)

Welcome Party

My base school's welcome party last night. The invitation should have been my warning.

14:30-16:30 Yakiniku (BBQ) There are restaurants here where you pay one price and it's all you can eat all you can drink (yes, alcoholic beverages as well). the party was seated at a long row of picnic tables at the head of which was a barbecue pit, and next to that was a tub of raw meat. The obligatory cabbage salad was nearby. (Cabbage takes the place of lettuce here.) There was also miso soup, and, of course, rice.

All you can eat means just that. They keep bringing you raw meat until you say stop. The all you can drink is a self-serve bar--not bottles of alcohol, mind you, but a beer keg and a chu hai machine (think margarita machine, only it's filled with a different kind of fruity alcoholic drink). There's also a soda dispenser, tea, and water. Did I mention the great thing about yakiniku? (I mean besides the all you can drink aspect.) Women pay less than men--by three to five dollars depending on the restaurant. It's pretty cool. 

18:30-20:30 Bowling

Apparently bowling is bowling no matter where you  go. Well, except for the Hello Kitty lanes--ostensibly for little kids (but I really wanted to play on those lanes). 

(Here's where it got scary on the invitation.)

21:00-??? Karaoke (That's exactly what the invitation said.)

No, Karaoke is not the scary part. The scary part is that whoever made the invitation knew most of us would be plastered by then as they had put a little drunk smiley face in the bottom corner next to this third section. I didn't even know drunk smiley face clip art existed. It was true, though. Everyone was drunk. Start at 1 p.m. at an all you can drink, move on to a bowling alley with beer vending machines and from there move on to karaoke where all you have to do is pick up the phone to place your next drink order. Yeah, everyone was feeling pretty good as they passed out. (Karaoke rooms are pretty comfy.)

The Madanbashi Matchbox

Before I left Houston I made a few new friends, and one of them was a JET about ten years ago. She warned me that the apartments would be small. I had been informed of this while doing research before I applied for JET. I knew what I was getting into--or so I thought. My new apartment is small. Really small. Think of a dorm room and then shrink it by about ten percent. 

If I walk the apartment heel to toe I can take about twenty steps from the front door to the back patio door. Across it's about eleven steps. It has a teensy tiny washer. There's no dryer, but I can hang my clothes on the clothesline outside like everyone else does (except during rainy days when I can walk across the street to the coin laundry). 

In the kitchen area there is one burner (induction heat type) and one sink. I read a comment, more of a complaint, asking why the Japanese haven't gotten onto the garbage disposal bandwagon and I completely agree. There's a lot to clean in these sinks in a place where mold grows very quickly. I have a little dorm refrigerator. I'm told I'm lucky because I have what passes for a tub in my bathroom, but that's only if you go by a strict definition of a tub being a receptacle for holding water. I've used it once and it wasn't very relaxing. It is deep, though, which is nice. The toilet has an interesting how to sticker:

Really, though I think my apartment will be perfect for me--and me alone. 

Imminent Departure

Less than twenty-four hours to go and I think I might be ready--almost. I don't think I'll ever be ready to leave certain people behind. However, just knowing that they'll be here when I return makes my life easier. I don't know about theirs, but I do hope their friends will take good care of them while I'm gone. The other thing that's odd is I think I've gotten a sliver of a glimpse of what it's like to know that one will die soon. I go to movies and watch previews for movies that open after my departure and I think, "oh, I won't be here for that. I'll. Be. Gone." A bit morbid, I know, but that's kind of how it feels. I'll leave behind the friends who watched it with me and they'll still be here and they'll probably go to see it without me, carrying on their own lives without me. Wow, I'm getting kind of selfish. I own that. I've even made up songs about it.

And one note to anyone thinking about applying to JET:

START SAVING YOUR MONEY NOW. It's incredibly expensive to move. I've spent a lot in the past few weeks and that's not over yet. Next week I'll probably spend another $2000-3000 just getting set up in Okinawa. Ah...my island paradise. I can't wait.

The Maiden Blog

Here it is: My first blog. I've often thought about creating a blog, but I never did as I felt it would be too time-consuming to do properly--until now. My thoughts about the amount of time this blog will need to be done properly haven't changed. What's changed is my situation. In 97 days I leave for Japan to start my job as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) for the Japan Exchange Teaching Program (JET).

This is the second year I've applied for this program. The first time I applied was two years ago. I was an alternate that year. Apparently not enough people said, "no, I certainly do not want to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. Let an alternate candidate go in my place." So I did not get to go. This year, however, I made it onto the short list. As such, several people have asked if I would keep a blog about my experiences so they could live vicariously through me. The answer, quite obviously, sits in front of you now. I hope you enjoy it.