Saturday was a beach party in town and I was up and out early in the morning to help prep and get people from the station to the beach. Well there ended up being a ton of people and a ton of food and the weather was perfect!! Everyone was really nice and we all just relaxed, grilled, ate... I tried surfing for the first time, only for a very few minutes, and I decided that it could be fun. Hmm... too bad I'm moving... There were plenty of nice chats, good laughs and it was all rounded out by a campfire and some fireworks. The stars were beautiful, the waves were pounding, and a big happy group of gaijin [foreigners] thoroughly enjoyed each other's company!

It has been a great week! Monday night I had a long talk and tasty dinner with a good friend, and was reminded of the importance of close friendship, and openness. I am very grateful to all of my wonderful friends! I hope to see you again soon!!

Tuesday night I went to a fellow teacher's home. We first walked around the neighborhood, past the family garden, the family rice paddy, and the neighborhood playground. This area was Noda, which is part of Tahara but has a very different feel from where I live. There are rice fields everywhere, and the houses are larger and somewhat more spread out. I don't think there are any apartments in Noda. It looks much more like traditional Japan, and I suppose it feels that way too. I certainly felt like I had travelled a lot further than 15 minutes away! The house was very traditional, and beautiful! There were intricate wood carvings and beautifully painted sliding doors. The youngest son, a 5th grader, came home from school. He did his homework while we prepared for dinner. We washed and sliced vegetables for tempura. The grandmother came in and showed us her hands... her fingertips were purply red from the leaves that she had been chopping to preserve plums as umeboshi. She was so sweet and cute and friendly and had been working hard in the garden and preparing foods. It reminded me of my own grandmother and that made me very happy! Later she took me and showed me the amazingly ornate family shrine in the tatami room. Each morning she puts silver goblets of rice and a cup of water there for the ancestors. Each night she takes them up. The pictures of her own grandmother and grandfather were hanging on the wall above. It seems that she draws a lot of strength and happiness from this commemoration of her ancestors, and she sees it as her duty, since the younger generation is busy working and running the household. I can't help wondering if this tradition will persist... I also could not help wondering how my life would be impacted if I set aside time to commemorate and honor my ancestors every morning and night. I sometimes think about my heritage, but perhaps not enough. It is perhaps a bigger influence on me than I generally realize/ acknowledge... Anyway, we eventually ate dinner together, and it was so nice, eating vegetables from their garden, sitting across from the little boy, relaxing and eating together. I realized again the importance of family. Closeness. Consistency. I realized how much that is something that I have been missing sometimes. I am really looking forward to my sisters' visit! :)
The final event for the evening was calligraphy, taught by the little boy. He decided to teach me "ai" -love. It is a beautiful but complex character. He wrote it beautifully. Then he told me what to do, step by step. It was really fun, and we traded. Nice souvenir of a great night! What a nice experience with a very kind and fun Japanese family!

Really good weekend! :) Friday night biked with a friend to MOS Burger, passing some beautiful and peaceful rice-fields along the way. The cool night air and the sound of the frogs with just a bit of fog made the atmosphere so beautiful and relaxing! It was a great time with a dear friend and a nice memory of Japan! I would not have wanted to bike there alone though. Very dark and isolated. Sat morning got up and did some laundry/ cleaning and then caught a train to Okazaki for ultimate frisbee. That was really fun, nice game with great people, except it was marred by a pretty substantial [and prolonged] rainfall. It didn't stop us from playing, but it made for a pretty cold and damp ride home. Oh well!

I had time to shower and change before going to a fellow-teacher's house for dinner. It was really nice and fun! The family has recently returned from Belgium, and we had lots of interesting things to talk about. It is funny how I can relate so well to them even though our "home cultures" are so different. There is something about having common experiences that brings people together... I hope that their readjustment to Japan is enjoyable! :) They are great people!

Sunday held less "excitement" but was a thoroughly enjoyable day. In addition to laundry and cleaning and other less-than-exciting chores, I did some activities for inspiration/ relaxation and clearing my head. First I tried a bit of yoga but realized I am still nowhere near an expert. I hope to learn more. Then I listened to a Bible study CD. It was interesting with some new [to me] insights... I talked to my sister as well, and that was great! It's been a long time!! Finally, I spent a few hours doing calligraphy and just letting my mind totally engage in the activity. Since I did that I have felt much happier and more relaxed about everything in my life! I think I have an artist hiding inside... or at least a wannabe artist. If I end up spending more time in Japan, I would definitely like to invest some of my energy in developing my interests in pottery, calligraphy and flower-arranging.

...flower arranging... Monday at school I was privileged to join the flower-arranging club after school. We had a good time placing flowers and comparing arrangements. Another thoroughly enjoyable activity for me. :) I love flowers. Working with them makes me happy. I particularly love taking a random bunch of flowers and arranging them to make something even more beautiful. That is what ikebana is! I think I am part Japanese!!

Today [Tuesday] was another great day. School was fun [again!] although it got REALLY hot [it has begun. :( ]. After school I tried to catch up on emails, and then I got picked up for dinner. I went to a very sweet lady's house and had a great time with her and her family! They live out in the countryside, with fields and rice paddies all around... It was such a peaceful and beautiful place! We took a walk and she took some fruits to her son's calligraphy teacher to share [someone had given her 2 bags full!]. She also pulled some carrots, picked a cucumber and 2 green peppers and many "shiso" leaves. Then we went back to the house and started preparing dinner. We made "tempura." It was my first time, and it was not as difficult as I thought it would be! It actually just takes patience. The process is rather simple. Well she prepared a huge feast! It was fun working together [until the grandmother pulled me aside to show me the family shrine, and then to show me the gardens and eventually she even sent me climbing up a spider-webby orange tree after some oranges to take home. What a cute and sweet lady! The son was really cute too! He had written out a "schedule" of events to take place around dinner, beginning with his own opening remarks, followed by a greeting by me, the polite beginning of dinner "itadakimasu", the polite ending of dinner "gochisosamadeshita," and a calligraphy lesson taught by Keisuke sensei. That was fun! He decided to teach me a very difficult kanji. "ai" = love. It is beautiful though! :) We had a good time painting together, and he was really good! :) We traded calligraphy as presents. It was so nice to be in a family atmosphere, to eat fresh foods, and to see/ experience a different side of Japan [although it was only about 15 minutes from where I live!]. I like the "inaka" [country] life! ...at least for one evening...

On Sunday I went to glaze the pottery that I made with the Volunteer Interpreters group. I was excited to see how my pieces turned out! When I arrived at the shop I was happy to see my friends and surprised to see... a photographer. It turns out that foreigners making pottery in Tahara is a newsworthy event! Since that time MANY people have commented on the news article, asking me questions about what I made, the fact that I might give it to my grandmother, clarifying confusion about my name [the article listed me as "Brandon san" and everybody knows me as Keely], etc. It's been interesting. Apparently a lot of pepole really read the paper cover to cover!

It has been an interesting week! Monday to Wednesday I went to Akabane Elementary school. At Akabane they now have the system of doing the same lesson plan for every class. That's fine, but I definitely have to tweak it to make it fun and appropriate for 1st through 6th graders! This week they wanted ABC song, a color dice game and color "karuta." Instead of the "traditional" ABC song, for instance, I did the march version with the older kids. I had them marching around the room and chanting after me... lots of fun. Lots of smiles. Much better than the sense of dread that filled their eyes when they first heard that we were going to sing an ABC song. Karuta, although simple, seems to be a favorite for many of the kids. Basically they listen to me and hit the card that I say. The fastest one wins or they do "jan-ken" (rock, paper, scissors) to break ties. It would be too boring not to play little tricks, so I'd throw in random words like "hippopotamus" or "banana" to throw them off. With the older kids I had them say something that is the appropriate color before they could hit the card. Very funny to watch. My favorite Karuta moment has to be from the 1st grade class. One little boy was so elated when he finally won a card [white] that he suddenly had to pee. He ran out of the room, card in tow, and the teacher ran after him to rescue it... When she came back the card was wet [with water, she assured us]. I love second graders! Another interesting moment was with the dice game. There was a huge colorful die made from a box, and I rolled it and had the kids cheer for a color. If they guessed it they got to sit down. Well all week it had landed disproportionately on the brown side. The teacher assigned each row in this class to a particular color. One little boy in "the brown row" was really not happy with his assignment and kept complaining and frowning. I thought "Well, soon enough he'll see that he's lucky." However, apparently his gloom was powerful, and the other kids' cheers and ostensibly prayers even more so. Roll after roll, the other colors came up, even colors that almost NEVER were rolled in all the other classes. I was stupified. Finally there was only the brown row still standing, and still it took a few rolls before brown came up. I wish I had a picture of the kids cheering and praying for their colors to come up. SO CUTE! But most of all it was a reminder to me that attitude really does have power to affect a situation. Maybe that was a lesson that I needed to be reminded of, albeit in a silly way. Two more exceptional things took place at Akabane this week. Now for the most bizarre/ surprising thing of the week... At lunch we all got slices of melon. Granted in the US this would not be so exceptional, but here, where melons regularly cost at LEAST $10 [much much higher in big cities]. Well we all ate our melon slices happily. This particular type was a honeydew with a thin yellow skin. I had just finished mine when I noticed that one little boy at our table seemed to be chewing much harder than should be necessary to chew the soft melon that we had been eating. Then I noticed that a chunk of the rind was missing. Yes, he was eating the WHOLE slice of melon. Some others followed along, and talked about how delicious it was. Others looked at them like they were crazy, and still others gave it a try and made horrible faces before spitting it back out. In what other job can you have working lunches like this?? I will miss these schools, the teachers, the kids, the crazy/ fun experiences that I have day by day. I feel blessed to have been an ALT in Tahara for almost 3 years! So unforgettable!

The first time that I ever deeply questioned the quality of my own educational background, I was in the 5th grade. My family had moved to France, and the school was very different from Sonora Elementary back in Kentucky! Before I go any further I want to clarify that I received a wonderful basic education at Sonora, and I am extremely grateful to all of the teachers and faculty and my friends there who contributed greatly to my life. Because of them [and my loving, supportive and encouraging family environment] I enjoyed school and learning from the very beginning.
Regardless of the merits of my previous academic environment, I quickly realized some of its faults when I arrived at Morier, my school in Joue-les-Tours, France. First of all, there were some great perks in this French school that had been missing in the US. The most noticeable was "recres" or recess. We had plenty of time for freedom and playing throughout a day. As far as I remember there was a short maybe 15 minute break in the middle of the morning. At this time we would all run to the playground for games of tag, marbles, "elastique" [Chinese jumprope?], and chas-bisou [boys and girls chase each other and kiss the captor(s)]... In case of rain we would crowd into the ground-floor open area and watch the boys play round-the-world ping pong, talk and sing French dirty little kids songs. "Au claire de la lune, j'ai pete dans l'eau. Ca faisait des boules, c'etait rigolot. Ma grand-mere arrivait avec un couteau. Elle coupait mes fesses en million morceaux." [Please forgive the lack of correct accents and any improper grammar/ spelling]. I had always read about recess in children's books and thought that it was just another part of the fantasy world that often was represented in kid lit. Now in France I realized that it truly did exist, and perhaps had truly existed in the US in some place and time. I was sad to have missed out on it for so many years!! I did get to play catch-up though. In addition to the morning recess there was about 2 1/2 hours more of break time around lunch!!
Lunch. That was another perk at Morier. There were 2 lunch groups. The first lunch group would go straight to lunch and then have an hour and a half of recess. The second lunch group would play for an hour, have lunch and then have another half hour to play. Either way, you couldn't go wrong! Lunch itself was very different from the US. Cafeterias as well. We went in and sat at our assigned lunch table, with the same group every day. There was a rotation of who would perform "service." Those individuals would go to the kitchen staff and get bowls of food and table settings and bring them to the table. After cleaning and setting the table, they were responsible for serving the food in roughly equal portions to each person at the table. After eating they would scrape and stack the plates and take them back to the kitchen, and wipe down the table. Most days the food was very tasty, and even if it was not my preferred dishes, it was well-balanced and of high quality. My favorite was turkey cutlet with mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. Truly delicious! There was also an amazing tomato salad with a lemon/ mustard vinaigrette that I have never been able to replicate or find elsewhere... I am making myself hungry!! Did I mention we also ate in courses? There was also always french bread to go with every meal and a pitcher of water. There was no slopping different foods into the appropriate holes of a cafeteria tray. I learned a lot about French manners and cuisine from those school lunches. I would love to go back there for a meal!! :) Needless to say, there was more learning involved in these rituals than in those of the average school cafeteria in the US. I also developed a great affinity for the French diet and eating customs.
Well aside from these perks there was also some academic excellence. It is very difficult to compare, but I am pretty sure that the level of math was higher in France. I left French school after CM2 [5th year] and was reviewing math instead of learning until at least 7th grade of my US-based home school curriculum. They also managed to teach me to do multiplication and long division of multiple-digit numbers in my head... I wonder if I can still do it... I wonder if everybody can do it... Anyway, I was impressed with myself at the time, haha!
Of course there were drawbacks too. Like the bathroom. There was a girls' side and a boys' side, but the wall down the middle stopped below shoulder-level, just above the row of sinks down the center of the room. I was too embarrassed to go to the bathroom at school for awhile. Nobody else seemed to think it was a big deal.
In spite of some major culture shock and missing many people and things from home, I had a great experience in French school! I am grateful for the brief part of my education that was French!

It's been a very interesting week! At school meeting one morning the teachers spent about ten minutes discussing whether or not the kids should be allowed to wear their inside shoes into the gym for a typhoon/ typhoon drill, or if they should take the shoes off in the classroom and go to the gym in their socks, or if they should follow normal procedure and change shoes outside the gym and put their inside shoes in their personal cubbies... It's amazing how differences in culture create such different debates! I think it is safe to say that such a debate is not likely to take place in the Western world. It is perhaps important to note that the teacher who brought up the topic is married to a British man. Without such a cross-cultural perspective it's doubtful that anyone would have thought to question the normal procedure at all...

Thursday was an interesting day, deserving of its own entry. Oh well! I left Tahara before 6 am and in spite of grogginess I was looking forward to the day. Instead of going to school I took a holiday and went to Tokyo to the United Nations University [UNU] for an Africa Day Symposium. Nothing too eventful until I got to Tokyo and changed trains to go to Shibuya. There I experienced the most intense shoving and cramming of people in my life with the possible exception of a train to the Aichi World Expo last year. Unfortunately this time I was surrounded by strangers instead of being pressed against my boyfriend... It was incredible... people can really compress if they have to... Just when you think you could not possibly get any closer to the person in front of you another wave of hurried passengers push, push, push their way on and suddenly you feel that you are not as big as you thought you were... Soon afterwards I felt another first... The train left a station and just as it had picked up a bit of speed it slammed on the brakes. Well I really thought we were packed in as tightly as possible... but that jolt proved otherwise... I think we were tight enough that no-one actually hit the ground, but there was definitely a domino effect down the center of the train. I felt particularly bad for all the young ladies in heelstrying to keep their balance. From that point onwards I decided that maybe it was a good idea to hold on to a handle no matter what. After a few stops the train cleared out a lot and I actually even got a seat! Well I think I got to experience Tokyo rush hour. It was an interesting experience, but not one that I would want to repeat every day.
Well I made it to the UNU and settled in for the symposium. I met several professors from different universities and found out about some interesting programs! I also met a woman who is managing a JICA [Japan International Cooperation Agency] project in Tanzania! She was particularly nice! I think there is something about Africa that does something to a person's aura... I could feel that something in her... Well the symposium itself was interesting. A lot of ideas were exchanged. For being Africa Day, however, it was very... Western. The format was very typical with speeches, a panel discussion and time for questions. Some of the speakers had very insightful things to say, others provided less food for thought. Perhaps the best speaker was the president of Botswana. I appreciated his straightforward honesty and openness. If you are interested, check out the broadcast... http://c3.unu.edu/unuvideo/index.cfm?fuseaction=event.home&EventID=86
Well it was a great event, particularly for mixing with a diverse group of people interested in Africa, trade and development... I enjoyed hearing African perspectives on things, but I am curious how truly representative the opinions of leaders and ambassadors are of the people as a whole. I suppose it is normal, but it seemed that most of the questions remained unanswered... Possibly because they are some of the most difficult of our time... I think I definitely want to invest myself in some way in Africa. Creating jobs, community forums, improving the quality of life in some way. I see so much magic and potential and vitality there. There is so much to be learned and explored in the world. I hope I can be active in bringing people and ideas together to synergize!

Before leaving Tokyo I found a bookstore with an English section and bought a new collection of books. I read "Tuesdays With Morrie" on the way home. Good book. Interesting thoughts and some very concise wisdom. I hope to incorporate some of its lessons into my life. For instance, daeling with feelings by acknowledging them, experiencing them deeply and then letting them go, instead of repressing them. I liked the way that it showed the importance of love, and its primacy in life. Perhaps my favorite piece of wisdom was the importance of redifining for oneself what is most important, rather than simply buying into the culture and succumbing to the pressure to follow the "normal" or expected path.

Every event that I participate in and every new skill that I learn is one step forward in my growth and life path. I hope that I can make a difference in the lives of people around me, and through the ripple effect impact the world for good. I think every day I learn, every time I make someone smile, every time my mind is opened, I come closer to the life I am meant to live. Life is made of moments, and I should just live my best in each moment and make a difference in the lives I touch day by day.