Friday: I went to school as normal, but because of yet another undokai practice my last class with the 6-3 class was canceled, but I'm still not sure if I have to make it up next time I go to Heiichi, which would mean I would have 5 classes that day, but whatever. So I get a call from Taira-san (my supervisor) asking me to come to the iinkai and seeing how my english coordinator at that school had left to deal with other buisness (probably undokai related) so I asked my Kyoto-sensei if I could leave early, and he said since I don't have any classes, and yeah, go.
On my way to the iinkai (I'd walked to Heiichi that morning, 10 minutes, and the iinkai is a 10 min walk from my apartment in the other direction, so why not right?) I ran into the Miyako High School parade advertising for their high school festival which would be the next day. They were dressed up in all kinds of crazy ways. Dragon Ball Z, cross dressers, gangsters, lolli, everything. It was awesome. I stayed there just watching for a few minutes, expecting it to eventually end, but it didn't, so I crossed the street during a little break and went to the BOE.
When I get there, I laugh with the office workers a bit about the parade, and then Taira-san tells me that, you know how I took that buisness trip to Naha last month for the New Jet Conference? Well, apparently I won a free airline ticket from it.
. . .
Yeah. So I'm thinking I might be able to afford that trip to Wakayama-ken in November after the mid year conference after all (because I'll already be in Naha with a return ticket). I just need to talk to Marnie. I can't use it on any holiday weekends, or the last half of December. And it's no good after January, so.
After finding out the good news, I was told to just go home (a little early) and then I bummed around for a bit until Pizza. Apparently stuff happened after pizza, but I was tired, so I missed it :*(
Saturday we got up and went to Kirsty's Miyako High School Festival. And it was everything I've read about. There were stalls selling Okonomikayi, takoyaki, yakisoba, shaved ice (that I don't remember it's name), classes hosting games and movies, class 1-3 actually did massages (it was nice, kinda weak, but free and nice), and a haunted house.
Let me tell you about this haunted house. The wait was over an hour, and I told people that I didn't mind waiting if they wanted to go off and do other things, but they hung around, and then one by one dropped out of the line, so that by the end of the hour long wait, I was left alone in line. Luckily, some of my Heiichi kids were right behind us (they made the wait go quicker because we chatted about stuff) and when we got all the way to the front, I turned to them and said, I'm scared to go by my self, does anyone want to go with me? And they did. Originally, 3 were suppose to go, but one chickened out right at the last minute as they opened the door into the Pitch Black Narrow Corridor. They gave us a teeny, tiny lantern to light our way, which didn't really. The corridor was maybe, Maybe 2 feet wide. And at the end of the first bend there was this guy just laying there on the ground, and he didn't do a boo kind of thing, he did a Tortured Soul Trapped in the Material World, Japanese Ghost kind of thing. It was great. They didn't have creepy music or anything, it was sooooo quiet, just occasional scratching on the walls, and rustling of the newspaper on the floor, and sometimes they'd just be next to you in the dark and you wouldn't know it until they came into the light, sometimes they'd jump out from behind the black garbage bags that they used to line the entire room in. And the kids had thrust me to the front, clung onto my hand, and were screaming or saying "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry" the whole time. It was Great. And you wouldn't believe how much corridor they crammed in that tiny little classroom. It took us about 10 minutes to go through it.
After the festival, we went to the beach. Weee beach. Then Koja Soba (really good soba) on the way home before getting ready to go to Bar Isla for the Carribean Salsa party. Fun fun.
Sunday I got up and went to Heiichi's Undokai. Heiichi is under construction right now, so they don't really have a field (there's a crane where the field should be) so they rented out the Hirara Field, like the big official city one. It was huge, and nice. And really fit the 500 families very well (Heiichi is my biggest school). And it was fun, but I could only stay about 1/2 the time because I had toooooooo
Go to Shimoji’s Undoukai (I just looked up the actual spelling :P ). Now, to conserve gas, I went on my scooter, and for the first time, I ran out of gas. I thought I had another 20 km before I would do that. So I, the smart person that I am, move my gas intake from regular to reserve, and drove my scooter to the Eneos. My reserve ran out literally as I was pulling up to the pump. Yay. So, since I was in town anyway, I stopped and had lunch at a cheaper place in town before heading back towards Shimoji.
Shimoji’s Undoukai was much much smaller than Heiichi’s, but was still fun. And it was small enough that they asked me to join in the Tug of War and the dancing that followed the Tug of War. You ready to learn the dance? Step back with your right foot and sway both hands to the right. Bring your left foot back too. Now quickly jump forward landing first on your right foot followed by your left bringing both hands down and back to your sides. Then clap. And repeat. After a while do a kick out while waving your hands side to side. Then back to the first bit. I was told I did very well. Weeee.
After Undoukai, I went to Maehama, again, and actually played some beach volleyball instead of just playing in the water. They keep giving me tips on how I can hit the balls with both arms and not smack the bejeezus out of my right or left arm. I told them that I tried to do that, but I’m slow. My breasts get in the way. They laughed. And then Aya said “Me too,” although Aya is probably an A cup. It was funny.
We stayed at the beach for a good bit, then went home and showered quickly to go to the Nariyama Ayagu Taikai (Taikai means Festival), which is where they play this famous song (called Nariyama Ayagu, go figure) over and over and prizes are given to the person who plays and sings it the best. Now I thought that sounded like the not so fun so I arranged to go later so I wouldn’t hear all of the songs over and over and over again, but apparently, even though they were still playing until like 11 last year, this year they finished before 8. So I missed it, but we saw the performances that they did while the judges decided. And ate the good festival food. And ran into about 50 of my kids (the festival was in Gusukube, which is where Sunagawa and Seijou are, Gusukube is Big). It was awesome. We also ran into (Kei and Hiroko, who are cool people. And Mike (ALT) and Miyuki (his girlfriend) who are also cool people. And Teresa (ALT), Janine (ALT), and Stu (Janine’s husband), even more cool people) Naoki, who works with us at the iinkai, who performed, although we missed it. And apparently he won one of the sections (I’m not sure yet which part he won, but still, go him!) and so he won a sanshin ($300 and up), a visit at the Tokyu Resort ($500 and up), free airline tickets, and a Big bottle of Awamori (sake, alcohol) that was made locally in Gusukube, and was the “special” variety. Good for him.
Then bed, because I was tired and didn’t feel like going out some more.
And Today, Monday. Was a holiday. Because of the Autumn Equinox (substitute holiday from yesterday). So I celebrated the holiday by (doing laundry, Cleaning the kitchen sink, writing a really long post) going snorkeling. We got our gear and met up at Maehama, then drove across the bridge (that I ran across in the triathlon) and went snorkeling right off the pier. It was not bad, the waves were really weak and the water was really clear, but there wasn’t a whole lot of reef, so we didn’t see a Whole lot of stuff. Some pretty fish, a school of trumpet fish. Some rainbow something or anothers. And on our way back in we came over some old fishing ropes. And while I was swimming over one of the ropes I realized that part of it wasn’t actually a rope. Instead it was a 30 lb fish. It was green with white spots (brown rings on the spots), with a small tail like a parrot fish. It was just chilling. Sam (who studied marine biology at uni) said it belonged to the puffer fish family. It scared the begeezus out of me, mostly because I didn’t realize that it was there. And it was neat.
Then we drove to the other side of Kurima Island (same island, the one on the south west corner of Miyako) to Nagamahama Beach, which is really pretty (I’ll have to go back some time with my camera) and went diving there too. There there was reef. The water was a bit more murky, but we saw, maybe 800-900 fish? Tons. And all colorful and pretty, some with the hard beaks that eat coral, I swam into a school of trumpet fish and didn’t realize it until I was in the middle of it. We saw Nemo-like fish, but with only one white stripe, that lived in the anemones (they would stop and look at me, because it wasn’t scared of me, and actually Look at me, it was so neat!). And there was one kind of fish that Sam said was the Hawaii state fish, although I forget its name, that was REALLY aggressive and drove me away. I think it didn’t like me, and I wasn’t about to argue with it. On my way back from the dive I think the same one saw me and drove me off again. Here we saw more off the really big fish, not the same kind, but some that were at lest 15-20 lbs. Big. And nothing that would eat me, yay. Really fun.
On the way home we tried to go to two different restaurants that I didn’t know of before, but both were closed because of the holiday, but at least I know where they are now, and know the streets well enough to get back to them. We ended up going to Lilian’s, again, but it’s just so tasty I don’t really mind. Although I am craving ice cream now. I figure (they’re open til 10) if I still want it in a bit, after I was ocean out of my hair, if I walk to Baskin Robbins then it’s worth the calories. Because I went swimming for about 2 hours today. And walking on top of that would be nice.
Tomorrow I’m off as well, because Shimoji is my Tuesday school, and Shimoji had it’s Undoukai, which is basically a day of school for the kids and teachers, so they close the school for the next day. Weeee another 4 day vacation and 3 day work week. My goals tomorrow include: buying a rashguard so that I don’t have to worry about burning so much when I go snorkeling or play beach volley ball. Buying surf shorts, so that I don't have to worry about burning when see above, and when I play volley ball inevitably sand gets between my thighs, and that just hurts. I think shorts will help. Buying a mirror of a decent size, because I’ve complained about it since I got here, although I still don’t know where I’d put it. Look at prices for SD chips so I can get the bloody pictures off of my keitai (cell phone). It’s such a good camera, I think it would be worth it. And clean my kitchen. Dishes and whatnot. And sit on tush. I think at least I’ll be able to manage that last one. Oh, and I guess I have to actually make my lessons for Wednesday. I’ve had them planned for about 2 weeks, I just need to make the activities. Ooo, and I guess that necessitates going to the hyaku en shop and finding some cheap playing cards. Yay. What better way to practice numbers, right?
Anyway, peace out.
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