Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Idioms

Monday, I again led the class I'm subbing for another Navy wife who took a vacation. Our official topic of the day was idioms, but we spent the first hour or so just chatting. Since they know I'm new to Japan, the first questions related to driving and then they commented that it's my first summer in Japan. One of them announced that the rainy season is over, so now it really is summer. All further rain will be categorized as just a summer shower. I find these proclaimations highly amusing. It's not the rainy season, even if it's raining, until someone says so, and it's not over until someone announces it. The weather agrees with this assessment, though. It's been sunny and HOT. While I am too lazy to mess with converting Celcius to Fahrenheit, I will say that 30 Celcius in the house (according to the AC units) is too hot for me to be comfortable. I usually set them to 27ish. Yesterday, I know it got to 34 outside, and this morning at 9:00 it was already 30 in the house and almost too hot to walk to the store to get dinner. Bleh. I'll be spending a lot of time inside for awhile.
Also, another round of elections are coming up. This time, I recognize the headquarters of various canditates going up in various places, and the posters are also obvious now that I've seen them before. I even know enough kanji to read a few of the names. I think these are national because someone told me the others were city elections. I'm dreading the return of the loudspeaker vans, but hoping I'll understand a little more this time.
Tuesday, I went to Japanese as usual, and my tutor had a few questions about the English language from her studying. I jumped at the chance to help her out, as usual. As it turned out, she had been reading an English newspaper. She had four questions. The first three were idioms. First, she wanted to know what hokey pokey meant. This was fun to explain. I think, though, I left her with the impression that children in America dance the hokey pokey in playgrounds. I was trying to get the idea across that it was silly. Oh well. The next idiom was brown nose. She understood what it meant, but she wanted to know the source of the idiom. "Why brown nose?" she asked. I considered making something up, but honesty won. Instead, I tried to explain it without using any offensive words. My first problem was that she didn't know what a butt was, so it was hard to explain about kissing it. I used a little sign language, though, and she caught on and we both had a good laugh. Then we moved on to apple polishing. The Japanese version is sesame grinding. Never in my wildest dreams, though, did I imagine myself trying to explain something like that to a Japanese person.
My tutor's final question was why anyone would bother to publish an article she had read. The article announced Tony Blair's conversion to Roman Catholicism. She wondered why anyone would care what religion Blair followed. She said that in Japan, the religious background of political figures was irrelevant. I really couldn't argue with the idea that it shouldn't matter too much.
Zack's been working hard as usual. The stress is still high. I know he's having a rough time because he's not talking long term Navy. I've gotten used to the fact that good weeks lead to talk of staying in twenty years and bad ones lead to the insistance that he'll get out at the first chance, so I don't take the planning part of it too seriously. Instead, I let him hog the wii when he's home. That thing is too fun. Dory's a little scared of it because I accidentally clocked her with the controler when I was playing tennis. She keeps her distance now.
Sorry there's not much news lately, but we'll keep you posted. Who knows, I might actually take a few pictures sometime soon. There are some fun festivals coming up in the next few weeks, so we'll see...

Monday, July 16, 2007

The Weather

Well, we've officially survived our first typhoon! It came through this weekend and was actually a pleasant change from all the rain we've had. The center of the storm hit southern Kyushyu and we're in northern Kyushu, so what we got was just the tip of the thing, but the base did put up some warnings about wind. Friday, the day before the storm hit, it was sunny for the first time in months. Saturday, as the storm passed through, it was so windy the sliding screen doors on our house were moving of their own accord. It rained less than normal. That was it. Sunday we were granted another sunny day in the wake of the storm. Now it's raining again. All in all, not a bad deal for us. I also learned how to use the weather forcast one the base website. I got to see satelite of the storm, so that was cool. From what we've been told, typhoons are generally not as bad as huricanes, at least around here. So far, that's held true.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Summer Cruise 2007


Summer Cruise 2007

My journey began this past spring on the island of Okinawa. Just getting to Okinawa was an adventure itself. There are strong currents that flow south and west from mainland Japan that mix with equally strong currents flowing north and west from the Philippine Islands. The result is one heck of a choppy ride. On my very first Bridge Watch, we’re riding 8 foot waves with white caps all around. The bow of the ship is rising and falling almost to the waterline in sync with the waves. It is 2:30am and my job is to keep a sharp lookout ahead of us to watch for other ships, buoys, or any other hazards to steer around. I last all of five minutes before passing out from nausea. The Chief Engineer catches me as I fall and I come to laying on the deck, green as a toad. To this day, that is the worst sea sickness I have experienced.

We arrive in Okinawa and I instantly perk up. The water is light blue, like the Caribbean, and I am happy to get off the ship. Kadena Air Force base is located in Okinawa. I was able to stock up on bottled water, peanuts, gum, and other nice things to have on long trips. Dinner at Chilli’s that night on the base was a nice treat too. The next day, I went jogging on the beach and found this neat cave up on a cliff.



Our next port visit was to the muslim country of Brunei. They are one of the world’s leading producers of oil in this part of the world. We were dodging their oil platforms left and right on the day before pulling into port. I counted no less than 40 oil platforms before giving up. One of the platforms was burning natural gas. There was a solid fountain of fire spitting vertically into the air. On top of that was a bright pillar of light beginning from the flames and towering straight up into the heavens. This pillar of light could be seen from miles away. It was an awesome sight to see.

Due to the great amount of oil exports, the Sultan of Brunei is one of the riches men alive today. He rules his country guided by strict social law. There is no legal alcohol consumption and we were also told not even to make eye contact with the local women. Seriously, it is considered a crime for an outsider to look directly at the local women of Brunei. It was definitely a culture shock.


If Brunei was the strictest country I have ever been to, then it was definitely followed by the most liberal country I have been to: Thailand! Thailand is a gorgeous country of smiling faces and beautiful places. Pattaya Beach is a tourist port of shopping, kickboxing, drinking, and female companionship. Thailand is also home to the trans-gendered “lady boys.” There are hundreds of them out there; men that dress up and act like women. Some were so well dolled-up that you couldn’t even tell the difference. I didn’t care too much for this port because I’m not much of a drinker and even less of a womanizer. You can’t even walk down the street without the go-go girls coming out the bars to try and tempt you to come in. One grabbed me by the arm and said, “big sexy man, you come home with me tonight.” No thank you. One of my buddies told me the girl dancing on the bar in the background of this picture might have been a lady boy, but I couldn't tell. The ladies in this picture were nice. I spent a couple hours at their bar drinking beer, playing Connect-4 and also playing Jenga. Good times were had by all.





My general distaste for the lack of morals in Pattaya Beach kept me on the ship most days. I would go to this one rice shack right off the pier to get food on almost a daily basis. The owner of the shack was a kindly old lady we nicknamed “Sugarfoot.” Her cooking was phenomenal. She made this one dish of spicy octopus and rice that was out of this world. By the time we left, Sugarfoot had taken quite a liking to me. I gave her my ship’s hat and told her she was my number one girl, in Thailand. As you can see, that made her day.



Thailand was also the first time I played 18-holes of golf. I played this one luxury course with rented clubs, a cart, and caddy for a very reasonable price. Admittedly, I was pretty bad. My golf swing was more of a hockey swing. My caddy didn’t speak English very well, but she did manage to communicate I hit the ball better when I was smiling. There were two mountains in the distance. One had a giant Buddhist Temple on the peak facing the second mountain. The second mountain had an image of the Buddha laser-carved into the very rock. When I got frustrated with the game, I looked up and realized learning to play golf under the palm trees in Thailand was still very much an easy day. I think the next time I play golf will be back in North Carolina with my father. I owe him that for waiting so long to finally pick up the clubs.


After Thailand, my next destination was the island nation of Singapore. Singapore is an autonomous city state on a small island just south of mainland Malaysia. It is an island of Eurasians (transplanted Europeans), Chinese, Malaya, and Indians (from India) all living together in peace and harmony. English is the official language so it is very easy to communicate and get around the city. I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End on opening night in Singapore. I thought it was pretty neat considering the second scene of that movie began in Singapore, and there I was in a Singapore theater watching the premier.



I especially liked Singapore because I ran in to two shipmates from both Officer Candidate School and the Navy Supply Corps School whom I had not seen in over a year. The first is Renee. Her ship arrived shortly after mine and we were both very surprised to see each other so far from home. The second shipmate I saw was an old friend named Gina. Gina was on a training assignment at the base there in Singapore and I actually met her at the bar. We had a few drinks, caught up on old times, and marveled at how old friends could find each other on the other side of the world.



The British guns of Sentosa military base still stand to this day as a silent monument to the men who fought and died there. Sentosa guards the entrance to Singapore harbor and was one of the first British forts to fall after the Japanese attacked Hawaii in 1941. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, three divisions of Japanese troops marched over a thousand miles across mainland Malaysia and crossed over to Singapore island in the night. All of Sentosa’s guns were facing the sea to defend against a naval invasion. When the Japanese attacked from the mainland, the British had to turn what guns they could to the mainland to defend against the mainland invasion, but it was too little, too late. Along with naval air support from their fleet, the Japanese conquered Singapore in five days and took Sentosa.


We had an Officer’s dinner in Singapore at the Hard Rock cafĂ©. Steve, one of the other Junior Officers played a joke on me there. He told the waitress it was my 21st birthday. They announced it over the loud speaker and sang Happy Birthday to me. The bad news is I had to stand on my chair with all eyes in the house on me. The good news is that I got a free sundae. I did end up getting my buddy back. I got a picture of him at Disneyland Hong Kong hugging Winny the Pooh. His exact words were, “Hey Isaac, take a picture of me hugging Winny the Pooh so I can make my little sister jealous with it.” Instead of giving the picture to his little sister, I gave it to the Executive Officer who put it in a Navigation Brief for the whole crew to see. When that picture came up on the screen, the whole crowd erupted in laughter and Steve knew I had got him back.




Speaking of Hong Kong, that was our next port of call. We pulled in to Hong Kong on an overcast morning. Skyscrapers of varying scope and size line the very waterways coming in to the harbor. They were everywhere! Hong Kong is like the New York City of the East. We moored to a buoy right there in the middle of the harbor and rode a liberty boat from our ship to the shore to go out in town. On the first night, the Officers were invited to the American Club of Hong Kong. It is an exclusive members only club for expatriated Americans living in Hong Kong. They treated us to dinner and drinks that night as a special thanks for all the hard work and sacrifices we have made and continue to make for our country. From their 47th floor balcony I was able to get this beautiful photo of the harbor. My ship is so far away that you can't even see it in this picture. It's out there though, moored to a buoy close to the large wide building with the flat roof.






I took a day and went to Disneyland with two other junior officers. It reminded me of the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. There was the Mainstreet USA, Adventure land, Fantasy land, and Tomorrow land. Many of the Disney characters were dressed up like pirates to promote the new Pirates movie. Others remained in their traditional outfits. Taking pictures with the Disney characters was a chance to feel young and goofy again.

After Hong Kong, I went to a few other places, but those were mainly for ship’s business and exercises. I have purposefully left out stories about the ship and our exercises due to the unclassified nature of this blog. There is more to tell, but it will have to wait for another place and another time. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Therefore, I will leave you with a few more of my favorite pictures from the cruise.






Sunday, July 8, 2007

Tanabata

Yesterday was Tanabata. Tanabata is a Japanese star festival... okay, actually they borrowed it from the Chinese several thousand years ago. The story behind the festival goes something like this (and varies slightly depending on who you ask): The star Altair is a herdsman prince. Vega is a weaver princess. The two fell in love, but they spent so much time together they weren't getting their work done. (No, really, this is what someone told me.) So the star king separated them, putting each on opposite sides of the milky way. Once a year, they get to meet up again, and that day is July 7th. Unfortunately, they only get to meet if the sky is clear that night. I guess the star king is pretty severe about his punishments for not doing your job.
Anyway, every year, Japanese people decorate for this festival by making origami and writing wishes on colorful pieces of paper. They tie all this beautiful paper work to branches of bamboo, which hang at the front of the house, just outside the door, and also all over the arcade here. Traditionally, the wishes relate to work or weaving, but apparently you can choose to wish for anything. If the sky is clear on tanabata, your wish comes true. The problem is, it's the rainy season. The sky hasn't been clear since early June, and it wasn't last night either, so I guess the odds are not in anyone's favor with these wishes. No one seems to mind, though.
To celebrate, or rather just to get out of the house, Zack and I went to a cultural festival at Nagasaki Junior College. Naturally, we forgot our camera. I got to introduce Zack to the teachers there and a few friends who showed up for the fun of it, and the festival was a lot of fun. The students ran it. They come from Japan, Korea and China, and many were dressed in traditional clothes, so just looking around was fun.
The event was started off with the sharing of a traditional Japanese noodle dish for summer. Basically, each of us was given a bowl, which we filled with soy sauce, ginger, wasabi and onions as we saw fit and chopsticks. Then, we were directed to a makeshift pipe made out of bamboo sliced vertically. Water was rushing down this pipe, and the students would occasionally add thin, white noodles. As the noodles passed by, it was our job to scoop them up with our chopsticks. Keep in mind the noodles are thin and slippery and the water is going fast. It was a lot of work, but much fun.
After that, two Mexican exchange students performed a traditional Mexican dance (How cool is it that two 16 year olds from Mexico are hanging out at a Junior College in Japan?), followed by a traditional Chinese dance, and some Korean singing. There was a martial arts demo, and then we were all left to our own devices to participate in various activities around the room.
Zack and I produced a flower arrangement in the traditional Japanese style, called Ikebana. We required a lot of help from the girl running this stand. It's a very exact art. There was also a caligraphy table and a place to make your wishes for Tanabata. Several students took turns performing the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, so I even got a glass of matcha before we took off. All in all, it was a good time.
Zack spent the afternoon busily typing away his blog entry for his recent trip. It's almost done, he swears, then we'll post it here, but today he's on duty, so it will be a few more days before he can finish it. But rest assured, details are soon to follow...

Monday, July 2, 2007

Zack is Back!

Just thought you all should know that Zack is back from deployment. He had duty on his first day home, which meant staying on the ship, but he got to spend the next two days home... mostly... He spent them unpacking and organizing the house. He likes things more organized than I do. I like that he organizes it himself. Everyone's happy. :-)
Dory thinks she's won the lottery.
Also, we bought a wii. I will probably be writing less often as I am now addicted to boxing. Way too cool.
So today Zack went back to work and so did I. I'm going to be subbing for a class that another friend of mine usually teaches once a week. It's 14 adults, mostly women, who basically want a chance to practice their English. They choose a topic to discuss, or I offer one up, and they talk for two hours. I help them when they need it and explain the occasional English phrase. Then they pay me for my help. It's a great job, so I'm very happy to be subbing. I can also guess that Karla (the normal teacher) will be leaving before me, so it may be an in road to teaching it permanently later.
Not much else going on here, but I think that's enough. :-)