Life as Usual

Wow, I can't believe it's been two weeks since I posted anything. I've been pretty busy in comparison to the weeks before that. For one thing, I've been in a class that calls itself, "Measurement, Evaluation, and Ethics in Research" for my masters degree. What it really means, as I discovered about a week into it, is Statistics. (Insert scary music here.) The last time I took a math class was in high school (I somehow managed to pass out of the college stuff), and I was not especially excited about doing it now. Several minor panic attacks later, I've survived the class and even have an A, don't ask me how. So hopefully I can say good bye to the scary numbers for another several years.
Also, word has finally gotten out that I teach English, and I'm starting to get regular job offers. I was told before I arrived that I'd be able to find plenty of work, all I had to do was tell everyone that I teach English. I've been doing that, and now I'm finding that I may actually get more work than I know what to do with. I'm still only teaching one class at the junior college, but one of the other teachers there said she took on a class at a high school here and isn't sure she'll be able to keep it, so I may pick that up.
The rest of what I've been doing has been private stuff. Last Monday and Wednesday, I worked with a Japanese woman who gives English lessons to kids around here. Each lesson was a group lesson that lasted about an hour. The kids ranged in age from six to about eleven. The Japanese woman led the class and I would occasionally read a phrase for the students to repeat back and I'd make sure they were pronouncing it right. Then we all played some go fish with their vocabulary. Good fun.
Tuesday was my first ever private lesson. My student is a woman who owns a stationary shop down town. She lives above it, and her house is really pretty cool, let me tell you. Teaching her basically means going to her house and talking to her for an hour, after which she pays me. Sometimes she'll apparently ask questions relating to her shop, but mostly it's just talking to her. Nice deal. And tomorrow, I go meet a group of ladies who is looking for a new teacher to do much the same thing once a week for them. As Navy people move away, all their students are suddenly becoming available, and I'm enjoying the chance to get out and teach.
While I'm out doing all this teaching, Zack is still buried in work. Today he is celebrating labor day by only spending a few hours at work instead of the whole day. I think he's feeling more confident about what he's doing, though, so that's good. Also, he's super excited about Appalachian's defeat of Michigan. Our little alma mater always did have a good football team...
We'll let you know when we get out of Sasebo again for some sightseeing...

Everyone Celebrates on My Birthday...

The middle of August is the Obon Festival here in Japan, and the last day is August 15th, which convienently gave us something to do on my birthday this year. (The general consensus is that I turned 21...) To be honest, I know very little about the background of this festival. I know it's meant to celebrate the ancestors, especially those who have passed on recently, and that's about it. The method of celebration, however, is very pretty.

Last night just outside Nimitz park, people from all over town gathered to purchase little wooden/rice paper lanterns, which they then decorated with markers, lit, and sent out into the river to float away to the ocean and, presumably, the beyond where they would pass on messages to the aforementioned ancestors. The bridge over the river was decorated with lanterns, as was either bank. There were stands selling the usual fair style food: yakitori (meat on a stick), corn on the cob, ice cream, snow cones, and the like. In one tent, a monk chanted prayers, too. Some of the women and most of the little girls dressed in kimonos. It was very pretty to see, but very difficult to catch on film. This picture of the bridge was probably the best one I got.

So Zack and I wandered around the park enjoying the festivities and admiring all the lanterns floating along the river. He had made it a point, apparently, to tell everyone he could find that it was my birthday, including a guy from the AFN station who was trying to get interviews with people about the festival, and therefore insisted on interviewing me. Thank goodness I don't get TV, so I'll never see it (with any luck). We ate from the stands and then wandered up towards the main road where there was a sort of mini parade going on. Aparently, some sort of ceremony goes on at all the local shrines leading up to obon. Then the people who visit that shrine arrange to carry a long, boat-like object filled with lanterns in procession from the shrine to the river. At the beginning of each of these processions were two people who set off firecrackers that echoed all over town for several hours last night. They were followed by someone ringing a gong, followed by the float itself, and then several more people with firecrackers. Sorry, no pictures of this. They just look like glowing blurs in the shots I got. Since we've arrived in Japan, we've learned that Dory is afraid of loud booms (thunder and fireworks, for example), so we were not surprised to find her shaking when we arrived home, but we had a lot of fun watching the festivities. How many people get an all out festival for their birthday?

Hiroado and the Dragon Neck Falls

Zack has been very busy this week. As in, he didn't come home to sleep most nights. Very very busy. Poor guy. So when he arrived home Friday night, we were determined to do something fun on Saturday. I had visited MWR for information on quick and easy day trips from here, and we chose Hirado because to get there we didn't have to use toll roads, so renting a car wouldn't be necessary.
Hirado is an island a little north of Sasebo. It's claim to fame is that it used to be the site of a Dutch warehouse for the East India Trading Company. However, the views from the island, hiking, and castle are far more interesting in my opinion. It took us about an hour to get there, but the drive was quite lovely, too. To get to the island, we crossed this bridge:
Pretty, huh? Upon arrival on the island we got temporarily lost in the void between the big road map and the little tourist map provided by MWR, but this detour lead us straight to the castle so it worked out. The Hirado castle, like most in Japan, is a reconstruction. The original I think was actually destroyed in a battle. The castle walls used to contain what is now a lovely little park on a bluff near the bridge. During Cherry Blossom season, I can imagine it would be really amazing. I'm hoping to go back around that time and check it out. The castle building itself is not enormous, but it is very pretty:

Inside we found various "cultural treasures" including samurai armour, swords, scrolls, and so on. And check out the view from the top:

When we were done checking out the castle, we took a self-guided walking tour through the middle of town to see what's left of the Dutch influence on the town: a bridge and a wall. The warehouse building was destroyed on an order from an emperor because the date on the outside was by Christian reckoning. By that time, lunch seemed like a good idea, so we took a break.

The problem with sightseeing in August is that it's hot. Really hot. Too hot to have fun for very long hot. So after lunch we were getting a bit tired of seeing things and a bit ready to hang out inside near an AC unit. We decided to check out the church before we left. We still aren't sure what makes this particular church special, but it was also a lovely building:

So, considering the day a success, we retreated home to the cool of the indoors. It was quite a fun day, all things considered. We enjoyed being out of the house and doing something fun. May be when it's cooler, we'll go back for some hiking around the island.

Sunday, Zack had duty, so he trudged back into work. I, on the other hand, accepted an invitation to see the Dragon Neck Waterfalls. Rob and Shay, the new CHENG on Zack's ship and his wife, invited a group to come check it out. We were instructed to bring lunch, shoes for hiking, and bathing suits. We drove out of town, south this time, past little towns and rice and tea crops, and an hour later, we were parking on the side of a tiny road up in the mountains a little ways.
Those of you who went to Appalachian, or visited regularly, might have seen Hebron Rock Colony, a favorite hang out of outdoorsy college students. This was something like that, only the water was not rushing so fast. The main waterfall had a pool under it so deep that the divers in our group couldn't find the bottom. There were signs everywhere saying that you shouldn't swim because the water was too cold, but that wasn't stopping any of the Japanese people, so it didn't stop us either. Even though the water really was pretty cold, we swam and took the paths down to see the other waterfalls, and generally had a good afternoon. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Needless to say, I can't wait to take Zack to check it out. What a great weekend!

Creepy Crawlies and Typhoons

Since we arrived in Japan, I've been warned repeatedly about the existance of enormous spiders that like to show up around the rainy season. I was more than relieved when at the end of rainy season I had not spotted any. Sure, I have issues with the cockroaches that seem to think my kitchen should belong to them, but at least they're smaller than my hand and unlikely to be poisonous. The only spiders I'd seen so far had been the little bitty ones that like to hang out on the walls and porches around here. I don't mind them. They're outside.
Then I went to help out with exams over at NJC Monday. The exam was an oral exam in which two students would have a conversation and two teachers would listen and grade them. The first two walked in and one of them immediately made a noise between a scream and a gasp, much like I make when I see a bug. The bug turned out to be a spider on the wall. It's body was the size of a quarter and with it's legs, it wouldn't have fit in my palm, not that I wanted it there anyway. For reasons that are probably very nature-friendly but still beyond my comprehension, the Japanese frown on killing these monsters. Instead, Luc, the other teacher in the room, suggested we ignore it and it would go away. Since this sounded like more fun than trying to catch it, I tried my best to ignore it. During the first group's exam, it crawled at an alarmingly fast pace around the room until it was directly in front of me on the opposite wall near the ceiling. Even Luc gave up after that. He pulled out a broom and dust pan and somehow managed to catch the thing between the two, at which point he hurried outside with it. Super impressive. I intend to make my students do that kind of thing if I see them in class.
The roaches, which I mentioned many times previously, have also finally broken through whatever magical barrier Zack had created under the sink. Two days ago he came upstairs and announced he'd had to kill one. It's the first time either of us have seen one since he cleaned up under the sink. Then last night (he asked me to report this, by the way), he killed no less than four in a row while I stood in the doorway pointing and shouting annoyingly. Clearly it's time to do something extreme again. I'm trying to get up the nerve to look under the sink and see what I can do, but I'm more inclined to wait until Zack has time to do it again. Still, they're way better than that spider.
And of course, another typhoon is working it's way steadily towards us. Usagi (which means Rabbit) seems to want to tour the whole of Japan. The nifty graphics on the base website depict it's path as basically following the island chain. It's going to be centered over southern and eastern Kyushu, and we're northwest Kyushu, so it shouldn't get too close, but we're scheduled for more rain and wind starting tonight and heading into tomorrow. Never a dull moment, right?

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...

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.

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 café. 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.