November Weather

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And now, for our feature presentation. Please remember to rewind the tape before you return it to your local video store. Thank you for your cooperation.

November in Japan fluctuates between mildly warm and fantastically freezing. Last night was the coolest we've seen yet. I don't know what the temperature was, but it must have been in the upper thirties. Winter in Kagoshima really starts in December and goes into February. I am comforted in the knowledge that the temperature will never go more than a few degrees below freezing. And once late February/early March roll around things apparently get much warmer in a very short amount of time. I like that I'll only have to worry about Winter for three months or so, whereas back in Cleveland Winter generally goes from early November through early April. I'm looking forward to not seeing snow and to it being guaranteeably warm on my birthday instead of the possibility of four feet of snow dropping in a single night.

Photo courtesy

of Ron

Japanese schools seem strange in Winter. There is no central heating, and so far I haven't seen any heaters in any of the classrooms. The doors to the school still stand wide open, as do most of the windows in the hallways, even though the wind is cold, and seeps mercilessly through the buildings. Teachers wear jackets all day long and the students wear warm clothes under their uniforms. They run around the halls during their breaks shouting "Ahhhhhh! Samui!" Samui means "cold." The teachers whisper it to each other in the offices. Nevertheless, nearly all the students seem to be in a perpetual good mood. I don't remember Memorial being like that.

The apartment at night gets really cold. Like most other buildings in Japan there is no central heating, or insulation for that matter. We have a few heaters, but I'm in the process of figuring out the heated table. That will be awesome when it's set up. Showering this morning was pretty bad. There's nothing like getting out of bed in a room where its 65 degrees Fahrenheit and going into a room that's 20 degrees cooler........ naked. It's like someone slapping you in the face to wake up. The shower room takes a little while to warm up too. So the only part of you that's comfortable is whatever the warm water is hitting at that moment.

I'm glad I'm down here and not in that snowball, Hokkaido.

The things I miss right now are as follows:

Valentino's Pizza

Taco Bell

Chicken Strips

Chick-Fil-A

Burger King

Arby's

Wendy's

The Winking Lizard

The Wild West Burger at the Winking Lizard

Amazing Week!!!

Wow this has been one hell of an awesome week! Monday was a national holiday so Eli didn't have work. It was also the Ohara festival here in Kagoshima, and we had an awesome time watching dancers and marching bands and Taiko drum troupes. We ate some of the festival food too. I tried BBQ squid on a stick and these cakes that were sort of like pancake batter cooked in a fish shaped mold and filled with Azuki bean paste (very yummy sweet treat).

I started teaching classes at Elementary schools this week and the kids are so cute and many of them really want to learn. Today's school was especially enthusiastic, and their English was very good. Yesterday was an especially good day. I got up extra early to check to see if any election results were in before I went in to the city to teach. Unfortunately, the polls had only closed in around 6 states and there weren't many precincts reporting yet. School was pretty good, the students were a bit low on energy though.

One of the other AEA English teachers who was there was asking me about myself when we were getting ready to leave. I told her that I had been interested in Japan since I was very young partly because of the wonderful Japanese art at the Cleveland Museum of Art. This made her very excited because she works also at an art gallery. She invited me to come and see the gallery and have lunch with her. Her name, Sanae, means something like "new green rice field." She bought me lunch at the gallery she works at, which also serves good food, and introduced me to some of her artsy friends who were there. I told Sanae that my mom and grandparents were artists and that I would like to show her some prints of my mom's art that I have with me. Sanae was really interested in seeing them and said that I should bring them in to the gallery some day. One of them who is a poet or maybe the brother of a poet, lives on Yakushima, a very nice island south of Kagoshima, and gave me his phone number saying "if you come to Yakushima with your husband call and you can stay with me." Many Japanese people are really warm and welcoming.

Then a book publisher (small press, I think) who mostly does poetry books came in and we talked for a long time, partly using a translation dictionary I had with me. He showed me a book co-written by an American Poet and a Japanese Poet (which I couldn't read because it was all in Japanese), but he told me a bit about the book which seemed to be about the friendship of the poets and the similarities/differences of the natural world where each of them lived. I also talked with the publisher and a friend of his who came in a little later about the wars going on today and how much we all disliked them and hoped that they would end soon. During this time Eli messaged me that victory had been declared for Obama, and I shared the good news with my new Japanese friends. From what I've seen most of the Japanese (and many of the other JETs not from America) believe Obama was better then McCain and that he will be able to create some positive change.

Ecstatic from the good new, good company, and good food I walked to the Kagoshima Board of Education, which was close to the art gallery. I turned in my time card from October and told my supervisor how much I am enjoying teaching. Then I went into the lobby to study some Japanese in order to kill the time until Japanese class started that evening (its at the BOE building). After studying for a little Sanae called my cell phone, she had met a Japanese American who was so happy about Obama winning that he really wanted to speak to another American about it. He told me that he had been in the USA shortly after World War II and remembered the racism that was so strong against Japanese people then. He said it was so amazing to see a person of Color elected to be president.

There was still about 2 hours until the Japanese class and I was feeling restless so I walked to Tenmonkan, the central shopping district of Kagoshima (and the most happening part of the city - also only a few minutes walk away). I went to the dollar store and bought a notebook so that I could take notes in class, and found a really cool wallet (my old one wasn't quite tall enough for Japanese Yen, which are just a bit bigger then American dollars). Then I was walking to meet Eli and passed a sidewalk sale at a clothing store. I found a really nice skirt for only about $3.15! Eli and I met up and he got a quick bite to eat before class because his school lunch wasn't very good yesterday. We went back to the BOE only to find out class was canceled. I was a bit disappointed but not enough to upset me.

Eli and I decided that since we still had a little over an hour before we were supposed to meet Cara we would walk back to Chuo Station. On the way we stopped in a bookstore that also sold video games, Cd's and DVDs. At least some of what they carried was used! Unfortunately we didn't see any English books, but they did have used video game systems (we may end up going back to get one, if we find out that they can play English games). When we got to Chuo we were still early so we ran into Amu Plaza, the mall attached to the train station (its sorta like a Japanese Beachwood place for readers familiar with Cleveland, only its a bit cooler). At one of the stores, where we have been looking recently for a birthday present for one of our friends back home, we were disappointed that the item in question was still not available. Then I spotted said item misplaced near where it was supposed to be! Very Lucky!

We waited for Cara and her boyfriend, Jack, outside Amu where a giant cone (of Styrofoam?) was being decorated like a Christmas tree. Christmas in Japan is strange. They don't really exchange gifts from what I understand. Instead they order really elaborate cakes to eat with their families. Also there is absolutely no religious significance, except for the very small group of the population that has converted to Christianity. Cara and Jack showed up after a few minutes and we all headed to a nearby, very small, artsy restaurant run by a British guy. On the way Eli and I made Cara and Jack honorary Americans for the day because they are both Obama fans. At the restaurant we ran into one of the JETs, Chris from England, who lives in Kagoshima but works for the regional office, instead of Eli's office. Eli and I had met Chris last week when all of the JETs from the prefecture were having a seminar. Chris joined us and another of the regional office JETs, from California, who was a friend of Cara's came a little later. The restaurant has really eclectic foods, from tacos to British style Indian curry. We were all really impressed with the food we got. I'm excited because we're going back there tomorrow for a birthday party for Kym, a 5th year ALT from Eli's office.

After dinner and good conversation Eli and I caught a train home. When we got here we managed to catch Eli's parents on Skype for a quick conversation. We also watch Obama's victory speech on the Internet. I actually had a few tears during part of the speech because I was so happy and impressed with what he was saying. For anyone who hasn't seen the speech I recommend finding it. I was actually reminded a bit of Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you..." speech. I went to bed afterwords feeling like I had just lived one of those rare days where everything just falls into place and you can't help but feel great.

That's all for now, but stay tuned, the week isn't over and tomorrow I am going to one of Eli's schools for their Cultural Festival. :)