Kumamoto

So last Sunday, I joined an MWR trip to Kumamoto. Kumamoto is just far enough away from Sasebo that it's kind of expensive to drive because of the tolls. So taking the MWR trip is the most reasonable way to get there. Plus, then you get a tour guide who will explain all the stuff that isn't translated, and if you're lucky (like I was) you get Eriko:

who doesn't know how to be anything but enthusiastic. She drew the poster she's pointing to, which is her brief history of the end of the age of Samurais. On the two hour drive, she explained how what we were about to see fits into history. As a direct result of this lecture, I can't remember the names of any of the important people, I simply know them as "horse family, monkey guy, and tiger guy." I apologize if anyone reading this has a better grip on their history.

At any rate, our first stop in Kumamoto was a park created by the horse family. The whole family was involved because it took like twenty years to get it looking right. The park site was chosen because there is a stream there that has super pure water: good for tea ceremony. At the time, a truely cultured man knew how to make really good tea (I like this culture), and so horse man number one decided to create a park in which he could practice. The park is also home to several shrines. The reason the park took so long to design was because the designer wanted to depict all the most scenic spots in Japan in one central location. I'm told that now I don't have to leave Kyushu, I've seen the rest of Japan. Here's what it looks like:

Honestly, the only part I recognized was the imitation Mt. Fuji, so may be I should do some traveling anyway. The park really was lovely, though. There were walking paths and bridges, and the biggest koi I've ever seen:
Eriko bought some fish food and insisted we all feed them, hence the crowd. And of course there was a shrine centered around the super-pure stream water. Eriko said, "If you drink one sip, you'll live one day longer. Two sips, and you'll live two days longer. If you drink a whole cup, you'll live until you die." That's just her sense of humor.

And since there were two shrines on site, I got the extended version of Eriko's patented shrine lecture. I learned about years that are considered unlucky for men and women (based on the average ages that they lost parents or children hundreds of years ago), and I also learned that shrines with a line of gates like this: are meant for business purposes. Hence, for those of you who saw Memoirs of a Geisha, when the girl runs through all those gates and drops her money in and makes her wish, she's wishing for good business. (Sorry, I haven't seen the movie, but I know some of you have, so hopefully that will make more sense to you.)

The final stop on the park tour was a 400 year old tea house built by one of the horse family members. It commands the best view of the park. Tea is no longer served there, much to my dismay. Mostly it serves as a historic monument.

In the vertical picture you can sort of see on the wall two tiny squares, one dark brown, the other tan above the rock on the ground. If you look closely, there's a stone path leading to that spot on the wall. That, according to Eriko, is how visitors who intended to be a part of the tea ceremony had to enter the building. The theory was that during the tea ceremony ritual, everyone was equal, and if you had to come through that tiny door, it meant you had to take off any weapons or armor and crawl, so it equalized everyone. I found it interesting that honored guests would be expected to crawl into a space to take part in a tea ceremony.

Our next stop was Kumamoto Castle. It is the third largest castle in Japan. If you've seen The Last Samurai (another of Eriko's favorite movies), the events described in that movie took place at Kumamoto Castle, more or less. There was no Tom Cruise, Eriko says, but I saw a real picture of the Japanese last samurai, and let me tell you, the one in the movie was way cuter. Anyway, that guy wanted to keep the shogun in power, and the emperor didn't want a shogun anymore, so the last samurai and a bunch of samurais retreated to Kumamoto Castle where they stayed, living relatively comfortably until the army that was seiging the castle gave up and blew it to pieces. Like every castle I've seen so far, it's not the original, but a replica. However, this castle does have one tower still standing that is over 400 years old. Here it is:




Kumamoto Castle is also home to the longest stone wall in Japan due to the fact that it's one of only a few castles built on a plane instead on a high bluff or peninsula that has natural defenses. Instead, it has this nice long wall and what used to be a deep moat:























The reason for the exceptionally long history lesson was that it tied nicely into the building of Kumamoto Castle. It was built by Tiger Guy, who was a fierce fighter with unfortunate family ties. He got a great reputation when his cousin was shogun (Monkey Guy) by killing a tiger with his bare hands in Korea, but then when monkey guy died the guy who promised to take care of his son and help him become shogun killed said son instead (surprise surprise) and became shogun himself. Tiger guy, as a result, was sent to a different prefecture, someplace quiet and out of the way where he couldn't cause too much trouble, and Horse guy number one got promoted basically and took over the castle and finished building it. As a result, the family crests of both families are strategically built into various aspects of the castle. We had the option of climbing one of two towers: the 400 year old one or the rebuilt one here:

We were warned that climbing the 400 year old one involved taking off shoes, going through narrow stairs, and climbing ladders. Naturally, I chose the modern one. The castle is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year, so they have a few people wandering around in character:
And as usual, the view from the top was fantastic: From the castle, we made our way to a nearby samurai mansion. The mansion was home to a member of the horse family who was also a judge. Here, we all had to take off our shoes to tour the place. We saw, among other things, the room where honored guests were entertained:
The judge's study:

The judge's personal bathroom (reserved for him and his wife):
And the stairway to the where the female servants slept: By this time it was late in the afternoon, so we all piled back on the bus. But it was a very good trip. We saw a lot and got a lot of history too.

Camera Eye's View

I finally got around to uploading pictures from my super cool brand new camera today and I realized I had pictures of several things that I never mentioned in writing. So here's what the camera says I've done:



This is the hotel that is located near Hario housing where Zack and I went to get this lovely foot massage.

ILC had it's first meeting of this year. ILC stands for International Ladies Club, or may be International Lady's Club, either way I'm officially a member now. It consists of five other clubs: four Japanese groups and Officer's Spouse's Club, to which I also belong. Each club hosts two meetings a year and then they take two months off. This meeting was hosted by one of the Japanese groups, who taught us to tie furoshiki (pronounced fu-row-shkey), which are basically decorative scarves. They can be made into hats or bags, as modeled by the lovely woman in the picture, and are also often used as wrapping when Japanese people give gifts, and to wrap up lunch to take to work or school. I got one as a door prize, so I'll have to practice.

Then there are a few shots of Dory destroying a toy I bought her. The only toy she still owns is the first one I ever got her. She's destroyed everything else I've bought her, and monkey ball is also loosing all resemblance to either a monkey or a ball lately. So I bought her a new one hoping to replace the old guy, but it wasn't constructed like the old one, and in literally an hour (I timed her), it looked like this: There's a reason Zack calls her Ripper. The thing in front is the rattle that used to be in the toy's head. By the end of that day, she had pulled out all of the legs and unraveled them and even gone so far as to attempt to take the fuzz off the tenis ball part. I guess the toy hunt is still on. At least she liked it, right?

Anyway, the rest of the pictures are of a trip to Kumamoto I took which deserves it's own post, so there will be more coming soon, I promise.

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...