well well

Hello friends and readers!

I realize it has been ages since I posted a blog.  But I actually have a legitimate excuse, I crashed my hard drive.  I did just get my computer back(thank you Dustin), but it is still in question whether or not my files from my old hard drive are lost or not .  SO without my files it makes it quite difficult to write new blog posts.  Not to mention my friend Rebel is currently staying with me and I want to enjoy my time with him, while getting ready for Christmas and my trip home.  So should there be more blog posts, they will come in January.  But to be perfectly honest I can’t decide if I will continue this blog the way it started.  It takes a lot of time to keep up with this blog, and I on many days I choose to spend my time on studying Japanese, making art, meditating, writing letters, or practicing music.  So I am looking into to other ways of keeping up with people.  I was thinking  maybe I will write a zine about what’s going on here and post the pages on this blog, or maybe I will do podcasts of me talking about my experience.  If anyone has any ideas for me please email me and tell me what you think!

Everyone at home is tucked safely into a pocket in my heart always!

A Christmas Hug,

Lindsey/Pineapple

Amazing Skit

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Suitopia and Back Again

I should have posted this sooner, but I forgot, so here it is!  Before I started teaching I had to go to this 2 day junior high school event in downtown Ogaki. I had never taken an Ogaki bus and I got off WAY too early and got very lost.  I knew how to ask how to get to Suitopia center (which was where I needed to be).  But I didn’t understand the directions that people give to me.  So I had to rely on their hand gestures.  I tried to guess what directions to go in based on how they pointed.  Can you believe I did in fact find the place?  I was late – but oh well – I didn’t even think I’d get there.  I was so overwhelmed because we had to no idea what I was getting into. We had to work with these junior high students, judging their speeches and doing activities with them.  The first day went ok.  But the second day went REALLY well, mostly because I figured out how to get there by bus!  I was so excited, (laugh) so proud of myself.  Then that day we worked with the students to create funny skits about the Olympics.  My team’s skit was sumo wrestlers do track and field!  I got to know some other JETS that I hadn’t met before, and I got some great practice in for teaching at my school. Also I got to interact with these wonderful and brave students!  The next post is a clip of one of the AMAZING SKITS!

Authentic Japan

I am trying really hard to learn Japanese, but most of the time I feel like I am going no where.  For some reason it seems like I am learning Japanese at a snails pace.  So when I’m at school I just try to practice my listening because most of my day is in Japanese.  Sometimes I feel really bad about not being able to answer the phone (there is a phone in the teachers room and all the teachers take turn answering).  But a couple times a week I can look forward to having very pleasant English conversations with the principal or Kocho Sensei of my school.  He is fluent in English and very interesting to talk to.  He and his wife have been VERY kind to me, coming up with many authentic and amazing Japanese experiences for me to have here.

Obon week in Japan is from what I understand is a similar concept to Halloween or All Saints Day.  In Japan Obon week is a time to observe, reflect on, and pay respects to people who have passed away.  Some Japanese people even told me that during Obon week the dead visit you.  So it is very common for Japanese people to visit there families at this time and pay respects to family members who have passed away.
My principal invited me to visit his mother-in-law with his wife in Shiga prefecture.  It was almost a 2 hour drive.  But on the way they told me about a great civil war that happened in  Japan in the area we were driving through, it was so interesting.  On the way to his mother-in-law’s house we stopped to eat really delicious ramen! Here are some pictures of the beautiful drive:

His mother-in-law’s house was a very beautiful and traditional Japanese house.  She had a really big garden which she loved to tend to.  She was such a wonderfully happy woman.  She gave me a pumpkin from her garden, which I later painted.

While we were in Shiga prefecture, my principal and his wife took me to a museum of a castle in the area that had burnt down.  There I saw these really amazing letters that people would write to each other on broken pieces of wood (some of them weren’t letters they were official documents).  They were probably broken from age.  But there was something so beautiful about these detailed writings in calligraphy on broken pieces of wood.  Also there were many artifacts that were in this museum that had been I think figurative at one point, but through time they had become these really organic abstract shapes.  I was actually really interested in them even though they weren’t what they had originally been.

Also that day we went to the Japanese cemetery where my principal’s father-in-law is buried to pay our respects.  It was very interesting.  They poured water all over the grave, and lit incense, and then they lit a cigarette to put with the incense because they said he used to love to smoke.  I thought it was a very beautiful tribute to him.  I took some pictures of the cemetery to show everyone how it is a little different from a Western cemetery. I am really excited for my grandpa Bill to see these, because he has strong knowledge and interests in cemeteries since he used to make head stones.

After the cemetery and the museum, my principal, his wife, and her mother and I went to eat kaiten sushi because I had mentioned it was my favorite.  It was so nice of them to make sure I had a good time by eating something I enjoy.  It was such an amazing and peaceful day!

A few weeks later my principal invited me over for a Japanese style barbeque with his wife and his friend.  It was sooo delicious.  It was a little different from American style barbeque.  You don’t just grill a cheeseburger and put it on a bun with a side of beans and potato salad.  In Japanese style barbeque you grill little pieces of meat and vegetables and as they cook you put it on someone’s plate and they eat it. So you cook a little, eat a little, cook a little, eat a little. Its really fun.  I also got to help my principals wife make rice balls and sushi.  That was so neat because I am very interested in learning how to cook.  After dinner we listened to jazz music.  It was a very peaceful and nice time. My principals friend had also been a principal at one time and was now retired.  Earlier in the day I had the privilege of visiting this man’s garden.  It was enchanting!  He knew so much about plants, and had many different kidns of cacti.  I am very blessed to have met so many people that really care that I have a good time in Japan.

Here are some images from the barbeque:

How Yumi!

I think most of you who know me know who Yumi is.  But just in case I will tell you!  After my friend Hiromi, who was a Japanese exchange student at my high school, left Kentucky I really wanted to learn Japanese.  Through a friend of my mom’s friend I got in touch with Yumi who was willing to teach me Japanese once a week.  Yumi had been living in the U.S. for a while in both California and Kentucky with her husband Masaru.  They were in the U.S. for Masaru’s job, but Yumi was studying to get her bachelors and later masters in psychology.  Yumi is extremely intelligent, an AMAZING cook, and fluent in English.  It didn’t take long after she started teaching me for us to become good friends.  I am so grateful to Hiromi for giving me the desire to learn Japanese and meet Yumi.
When I visited Japan 2 years ago.  I visited both Hiromi and Yumi who gave me such a wonderful experiences of Japan.  I obviously decided to come back ☺.  Two years ago Yumi and I had adventures like: art museums, Kyoto, fabric dying, delicious eating, hot springs, shopping, maiko pictures, movies and more!
Last year I was devastated when Yumi and Masaru had to move back to Japan for Masaru’s job.  But then I was so excited when I found out I was placed in Japan  just 45 min from Yumi.
Yumi and Masaru have been SO kind to me since I have been here.  They have been like my family to me.  The first weekend I was in Gifu they drove down to where I live (a little over an hour drive) to help me get big things that I needed (things I couldn’t get on my bike).  We went out to a kaiten sushi restaurant (I love kaiten or conveyer belt sushi), and they just helped me settle in.  I love hanging out with Yumi AND Masaru because I think they are such an amazing married couple.  They are like best friends and they are so considerate of each other.
Then I was supposed to visit Yumi on a different weekend, but there was a situation where some of my money disappeared.  I was pretty upset, and I had to call Yumi to tell her I could not come to visit her.  Again she drove all the way from her city just outside of Nagoya with Masaru to take care of me.  She brought me a bentou diner, a 30 pack of my favorite snack, and many little gifts of things she knew I would love.  Then she took me to go get coffee with her and Masaru.  She basically drove all that way to make sure I was ok and make me smile ☺.  Yumi really understands my situation, because when she first moved to the U.S. she didn’t speak any English and had a hard time at first.  I am so lucky to have such a caring friend!
The next time I got to see Yumi she helped me go to the chiropractor.  I’m sure most of you know my neck was injured at birth and it locks up a couple of times a year.  It is very painful and usually the only thing that helps is a chiropractor.  But not all chiropractors here have to have a license or education to practice.  So my mom called my chiropractor (in Kentucky)’s college to see if any of their  graduates were practicing in Japan.  It would just so have it that 2 were practicing in Nagoya.  So Yumi made an appointment, and her and Masaru showed me how to get there.  You won’t believe this but not only did the chiropractor speak fluent English, HE USED TO PRACTICE IN FLORENCE KENTUCKY!!! What a small world!
After the Chiropractor Yumi and Masaru took me to lunch and then the Boston/ Nagoya Art Museum.  There was a Monet show there.  It was so interesting because the works were not his usually famous works that I have seen in museums like his lily pad paintings.  So I had not seen most of the work.  The show also compared his work to many other artists working at the same time.  I was really impressed with how the impressionists manipulated color sometimes to cerate space and illusions.  But also I was very taken with how bright they could make some of their colors.  Then at the end of the show it showed how Monet and other impressionists were inspired and influenced by Japan. Being an artist in Japan and inspired by Japan, I was glad to be in the company of such artists!
After the art museum the 3 of us went to Nagoya station to go to a bookstore and then we later got coffee at DEAN AND DELUCA!!! I couldn’t believe it a Dean and Deluca in Japan!
Here are some pictures from that day:

A couple weeks later, Yumi invited me to stay at her house.  I met Yumi at the station and we went to her house for dinner and relaxing.  That weekend was a little strange because a famous psychic had predicted an earthquake for that weekend for the area where Yumi lived.  So the whole weekend in the back of our minds we were wondering “Is there really going to be an earthquake?”  I have never been in an earthquake so the idea of one really freaks me out. I am happy to say no there wasn’t one (laugh).  Yumi cooked DELICIOUS curry for me!  She knows I love curry. After dinner Yumi and I ate cake with her parents. (Yumi’s house is connected with her parents house it’s really neat) Then in the morning I went with Yumi, Masaru, and Yumi’s parents for chestnut picking.  It reminded me of the U.S. in October when you go to pumpkin patches to pick pumpkins.  It was so fun and relaxing.  We walked all around these mountains in the woods picking chestnuts, while the farm owners played gentle traditional Japanese music over loud speakers.  At one point Yumi’s dad even climbed a tree to try and get chestnuts!
Here is a picture of him in the tree, and other pictures of that day!

After picking chestnuts we went to a park to enjoy a chestnut bentou and some more of Yumi’s delicious cooking!  Then we walked around the park looking at animals and scenery!  So much fun!  On the way home from the park and chestnut picking we stopped to eat peach parfait ice cream! YUM!  Peaches are much sweeter here – they are very good!
Later that day Yumi had a barbeque for her parents and myself on her deck.  At one point she openly proclaimed that she, “LOVED BEEF.”  It was so funny!  I love Yumi!  Here are some pictures of the barbeque, and Yumi’s apartment.  I love her apartment.  It is a perfect combination of East and West.  It is so hip and colorful.  Also her toilet is amazing.  It opens the toilet seat when you walk into the bathroom by itself!

I left Yumi’s on  Sunday morning and went to church in Gifu city.  After mass I walked back to the station observing the city and eating some of the delicious chestnut cakes that Yumi and her parents made after we picked the chestnuts.  It was a wonderful weekend!

By the way if I ever post something about anyone that they don’t want on my blog – please let me know I will take it off I write this blog to share with people all of my exciting adventures, but I never want to offend anyone.

Do You Speak English?

I’d like to talk a little bit about my English club.  I feel like I had a pretty unique situation as a JET when I got here because my predecessor was still here for a week when I arrived. So all of her good-bye parties became my welcome parties also!  One of those parties was a goodbye/welcome party with the English club.  The English club is a group of adults in or around the Sunomata area who are interested in improving or practicing their English.  But everyone in the club in my opinion has really wonderful command of the English language.  I have come to really cherish my time with these people.  All of them are VERY caring, and interesting people.  I love to talk with them in English once a week about any topic we feel like discussing for the night.  We often compare the similarities and differences between America and Japan.
From English club I have begun to develop friends from the club.  All of them genuinely seem to care that I have a good and authentic experience in Japan.
For example last weekend I went to a movie with Yuko, who is one of my friends from English club.  It was SO MUCH FUN!  I hadn’t seen a movie in the movie theaters since I saw X-files 2 with my mom in Chicago, and I’m pretty sure everyone knows how much I LOVE to go see a movie.  Yuko and I went out to dinner, and saw Nim’s Island.  It was a girls night out and the first time I have really dressed to go out since I’ve been here.  At dinner we ate Japanese style pasta and it was delicious, and then the movie was soo good.  I mean come on an action adventure for kids – SO up my alley!  Yuko loves movies like me so it was fun comparing the different movies we like to watch. The interesting thing for me was that I had a similar experience with the movie theater as I did with the Catholic Church ☺.  The movie theater experience was so similar to an American movie experience in many ways I felt so comfortable I felt like I was home.  I was at peace (laugh) enjoying a good movie with a great new friend. (I meant to get a picture with Yuko but I forgot.
Another friend from English club I have made is Kazue.  Kazue is a very kind person who is an amazing calligraphy artist.  Kazue has had me over for dinner, just relaxing, and she helps me with things like the post office, and finding a sewing machine.  (I will post about our ‘fabric day’ at a later time ☺). Kazue drives me to English club every week.  She never seems to mind helping me with any thing I am having trouble with.  I just really love talking with Kazue she has very interesting stories.
I am very blessed that Becky (my predecessor) got me involved with English club, and I am very blessed to have made friends with people like Yuko and Kazue!
I will try and take some pictures to post sometime.

Where I be a Teachin part 2

Just a little bit more information about my daily life at school and my first lessons!  I am the Assistant Language Teacher or ALT.  That means that I co-teach.  I have JTEs or Japanese Teachers of English who teach with me.  My JTEs have the students  all to themselves for one class where they teach the students grammar etc in Japanese.  Then the students also have a class with the JTE and myself. That class is primarily in English and I try to plan fun activities.  I teach with 3 different teachers, which as proven to be an interesting challenge because each teacher has different expectations and goals for the classes.  But all three of them are very kind, compassionate and hard working people.  I feel like I am learning a lot just on being organized, as well as being beyond prepared for a class.

I have really loved teaching high school.  All of my students have so much energy, and they are so much more aware of reality than my preschool students last year were.  Don’t get me wrong I loved working with preschoolers but high school has been an ‘excellent adventure’ ☺.  I scanned some images from the brochure my school gives out to try and convey just how amazing my school is.  I wish I had gone to a. high school like this.

My first lesson was an introductory lesson.  So I had to come up with interactive lessons where I introduce myself to the students and they introduce themselves to me.  I decided to do a power point (which I later turned into a PDF due to Mac vs. windows problems).  But my strategy with my power point was to show my students things they could relate to.  So I made sure to include my interests in fashion, comics, movies, costumes, reading, hospice, people, because I felt like they hit on the 4 different chapters of the school as well as some of the students interests.  My goal was to motivate my students towards trying in my class through my enthusiasm and my interests.  But boy did I have trouble putting that together because my Mac and the school windows did not get a long, and I did not have the internet at my apartment yet so I had to be really creative on how I put images into my presentation. I am going to load the PDF onto this blog.  But if your picture is not in the ‘people’ section, please DO NOT be offended, like I said I did not have the Internet yet so I could not access the majority of my photos from home.  I promise I love you, even if you don’ t see your face : )
backup

After my presentation we played a game. I started by giving them a paper of questions about themselves and gave them a little bit of time to answer them.  I used that time to walk around and talk to my students one on one.  Then I altered a game I learned at my orientation in Gifu called ‘Box and Ball.’  Many of you are probably not surprised that I brought many AWESOME accessories like a pirate hat, chef hat, silver bow tie, superhero mask etc with me.  I brought in about 6 or 7 accessories and then played popular ‘American music’ while the students passed the accessories (like hot potato).  When the music stopped the students had to wear the accessory and read one of their questions.  I definitely forgot how shy high school students can be.  But when we played it a couple of times the students got the hang of it.  It was really funny when one student would end up with many accessories.  They laughed real hard!
So that was my 1rst year classes.  I have 5, 1rst year classes of 40 students, and 2, 3rd year classes of 12 students.  So the 3rd year classes are much more intimate, which is great to have a lot more 1 on 1 time with each student.  So for that class I played the true or false game.  I came up with 5 groups of 4 sentences.  In each group of 4 sentences 2 of them were true and 2 of them were false.  Then I brought in artifacts to pass around to prove the truths.  I brought in a copy of the letter Mother Teresa wrote me when I was a child.  Some of the sketches I have of David Mack’s from conventions (like the AWESOME squirrel drawing Dustin got for me!), images of the Shapeshifters at the Cincinnati Art museum, and art from home (I asked my artist friends to make some art representing Cincinnati artists). The statements had to be kind of extreme for the game to work.  Then I asked the students to come up with a group of English statements, same as me, to try and trick me.  It ended up being a lot of fun, and they really enjoyed the artifacts.

I was so stressed and nervous about those first couple of classes. I think it was the pressure that I had to blow there minds with my mad skills in the first class.  Now I just try and embrace each class one at a time, and  try to learn from my mistakes.   I really enjoy working with the students.  Teaching high school is like being a performer.  You put on performances to get your students excited about what they are going to learn, and that is right up my alley!  It’s funny when I was in high school I always thought most of my teachers were out to get me.  But I am rooting for ALL of my students.
On a side note for my first class, because it was a power point/ PDF we had it in the special media room.  You are not allowed to wear shoes in the media room.  So I got to teach my very first high school class in my socks!

SQUIRREL VILLAGE

I have been so excited to put this together to share with everyone because I had SO much fun at squirrel village. It may be my favorite thing about my area so far! Be warned this video is very long (maybe 20 min) and yes it is set to the soundtrack of Speed Racer the other great love of my life right now. Enjoy!!

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My Friend Steve’s Performance at Murmur 9/24/08 (OH, USA)

I know this isn’t related to Japan. But I think this video is great, I wish I was there to see it live. Steve (the performer) is a very talented creator/artist. Also the people sitting in front of the camera are 2 more of my good friends, so I wanted to share my joy of watching this video and thinking of these people with you!

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Just Get Me to the Church on Time!

I have been Catholic my whole life, and as long as I can remember I have gone to church every Sunday.  I love being Catholic it is a major source of my strength and joy in life.  Also one of the most interesting things for me about being Catholic is that Sunday mass is worldwide.  I know when I go to church in Kentucky; someone in Germany will experience the same mass that day. So when I got to Japan finding a Catholic church was a big priority for me.  I found addresses for churches right away.  But I couldn’t read the maps I had of my local cities because they are in Kanji (I found some maps with Roman letters later).
Yumi helped me to find the general area of Gifu City where the church was located, but it took me about 3 Sundays of walking around that area before I actually found the church.  Adjusting to Japan and missing my loved ones was hard as enough, I had never missed a month of masses before.  The reason I couldn’t find the church is it doesn’t really look like a church from Western standards.  It looks closer to a house than a church.  So I every Sunday for 3 Sundays I would take 2 different buses (about 45 min) to this area of town, only to leave after hours of walking and searching feeling defeated.  I can only imagine how much I must have confused the people who live there (laugh).
But the 4th Sunday I was about to give up again when I heard singing!  As a matter of fact I was hearing the Ave Maria in Japanese – pretty amazing!  When I finally found the church it was the end of mass, but I didn’t care.  Finding a church was like going home.  I totally started crying, and must have seemed like a crazy person. But again I didn’t care; I could now go to the same masses I knew my family at home were going to.  I knew that for 1 hr a week I was directly connected to my loved ones.  It was as if my heart was home.  I sat in the church for a long time thinking and praying in total gratitude.
I have met some wonderful parishioners since then.  I met one woman for example who paints water color, and her son is a sculptor.  She said she learned English from listening to an English radio station for 20 years.  I couldn’t believe it.  She always wears really bright colors of green.  I look forward to seeing her every Sunday.  She said she would show me around Gifu city some time after mass.
This parish also has an Australian priest who I was able to ask if the parish had adoration or not.  Before that I had been drawing pictures of a monstrance trying to ask people if the parish had adoration. They don’t have adoration at my church, but the priest did say that the church was open ANY time and I was welcome to sit with the tabernacle and pray.  I thought that was nice.
My church is very reverent.  It’s almost like a Pre-Vatican II mass.  The women still wear veils, and you sing to just organ music.  Here is an interesting tid bit – at the sing of peace everyone bows to each other and not shake hands.  I found that fascinating.
At my first mass in this church I witnessed some women who threw themselves on the floor in front of the tabernacle, and a statue of Mary.  They were praying, crying and kissing the statue. I thought maybe they were going through a dark struggle in their lives, but I really admired their bravery to express so openly in prayer what they were going through.
Over all it is a really quaint and welcoming church.   Many people introduce themselves to me despite the obvious fact that I do not have a very good command of their language.
Here are some images of the church.  I hope to eventually have some pictures of the church with some of the parishioners.
This is the chapel where the tabernacle is.

This is the church where the parishioners sit.

And this is the alter.

Lastly I want to tell a story about the title of this post that isn’t really related to the topic   The story just makes me smile and think of my Grandpa Bill.

During the summer of 2007 most of my mom’s side of the family went to Florida to go to our cousins wedding.  But first you need to know that anytime I travel ANYwhere with my dad we have to do two things.  After we have unpacked and we are settled first we have to locate the nearest Catholic church so that we know how to get there on time for Sunday mass, then we locate the nearest Starbucks for a morning coffee, muffin for shay, and a New York Times.  I love this about my dad I find it adorable.  But so the Sunday before my cousin got married we had a really lovely breakfast as a family at the hotel my cousin was staying at.  My mom wasn’t feeling good so my dad had to drive back to our hotel (which was about 30 min away) to get my mom.  So it was decided I would ride with my grandparents to church because I already knew how to get there since my dad and I had found it a few days prior.  On our way to church my grandma had asked me where the location of my cousins wedding was and I told her I would show her.  So we were driving towards the church (I was navigating) and I saw the place where my cousin was to get married and I said, “there it is grandma,” since I had told her I would show her.  This confused my grandpa since he was trying to find the church, and he thought I was saying there the church is. So he stopped the car in the middle of the highway and started to turn towards this restaurant and reception hall on the beach.  I said, “no grandpa this isn’t where the church is, this is where Robin and Ben are getting married.”  He turned around and looked at me and said, “Lindsey I don’t care where they are getting married, just get me to the church on time.” I laughed so hard it totally caught me off guard.