A trip to a Temple

Every year the wives of the Japanese officers invite OSC to do something fun, then we invite them to do something fun later. I've never been able to attend one of these outings, but this year I made it. The Japanese ladies took us to a Buddhist temple in downtown Sasebo. I actually had found this temple by accident on another occasion, but never been inside.

At the temple, we were told that Buddhists practice calligraphy, writing out sutras, as a way of meditating. We were given a sutra to trace out. The monk in charge of the temple suggested wishing blessings on our families as we wrote. It was very peaceful to sit there and hold Ela (who wanted to eat the paper), while everyone quietly concentrated on writing. It reminded me a little of monitoring tests when I was teaching.

Then one of the ladies finished and took Ela so I could write...

Finally, we were given a lesson in making balloon animals. One of the ladies is apparently very good at it and volunteered to teach us to make a Halloween wreath. It was a lot of fun. Ela fell asleep and not even the popping balloons (and believe me we popped a lot of them) could wake her up.

In case you're wondering, "What's with the rush of posts?" Ela is have a nice nap, so I'm trying to catch up on what has been a very busy month. In less than a week, I'll be on a plane back to the US, so I'm trying to get caught up before I go into total travel mode... Stay tuned!

Nakaoyama

A few weeks ago, I took my last OSC trip. The group went to Nakaoyama, a small pottery town near Arita. OSC had gone there before, years ago. It is very pretty, and there are lots of pretty things to buy. So we strolled down the streets a bit and took in some of the pottery that lines them.

Then we got to see an artist at work in his shop...

Here's a view of the whole city. The chimneys mark where kilns are. Some of them are several hundred years old!

For lunch we went to this lovely little pizza place. The owners converted their kiln into a pizza oven. They cook 3-4 pizzas at a time. It's quite fun to watch.

It was a lovely trip. I'm glad I got to go back before we leave.

I don't think she likes it...

..but it was a cute face all the same.

Moving Part I

On Monday, the movers came to gather up part I of our move: the household goods. This was the bulk of the move. It's all the furniture and everything except what we'll take in our suitcases and some basic necessities that will get us through. The weekend before, Zack and I spent a LOT of time sorting out the things that either a) couldn't go or b) we wanted to keep and putting them away in safe areas so they wouldn't accidentally get packed. We set aside clothes and dishes (and the computers) and we pulled food out of shelves and things like that. We were still finishing up our sorting process as the movers pulled in around 8:30 Monday morning.

The movers were three Japanese guys. I walked one of them through the house pointing out the things that should not get packed. He marked each thing or area with a piece of blue tape and then the guys got to work. Our house was filled with packing materials. One of them took the kitchen, and the other two started upstairs. By 10:30 the upstairs was packed and the kitchen was mostly done. They took a quick break and then finished boxing up the downstairs before taking a lunch break. Ela discovered that she HATES the sound of the packing tape coming off the roll, and Zack and I spent our day with her mostly just trying to stay out of the way.

After their lunch break, the movers called in a few more guys to help out with the removal of everything. Rather than hauling all the stuff down two flights of stairs (one in the house, one that leads to the street level), they decided to lower everything off our balconies into the parking garage. It was cool to watch.

Finally, everything was inventoried, out and ready to go. Zack was signing the papers that said they'd done a good job when the people from housing came with our rental furniture.

One of the amenities offered by the housing on base here is rental furniture for when a family's household goods is not here (either because it's on the way to Japan or on the way back to the States). We got a bed, a crib, two dressers, a table, four dining chairs, two arm chairs, a sofa and a coffee table. Once that was in, we got to work pulling all our stuff out of hiding places and reorganizing it in our new space. I miss having more table space, but we're making it work. We'll stay in this situation for two more weeks, then we'll pack out the rest and move to the hotel before heading back to the States. Now that this first step is done, I feel a lot better. It seems like all the rest should go smoothly, too.

Back to Beppu

A week or so after my first trip to Beppu, I went back. Why? Mostly, because of these lovely ladies:

They wanted to go, and I wanted to hang out with them. Plus there was the Safari Park that I hadn't seen yet. So the three of them, plus Ela and I rented a van and headed out. It was a Japanese Holiday, so things were super crowded, but we had a good time at the aquarium again, and we visited a few of the hells as well. That's where we met this guy, who apparently only comes out on special occasions.

We spent the night at a lovely hotel, and then stopped at the Safari Park on the way home. At this zoo, the animals run free and the humans are in cages. They split the park into various areas so that they don't eat each other, and people can either take a bus or drive through and look at them all.

We were planning to take the bus, but they were all sold out, so we took our rental van through. It was quite fun to see all the animals walking around free (and being fed by the people in the buses). It was also a little scary because of all the warnings to not open any doors or windows (after all, the lions are wild).

So it was a fun little trip. Things are getting super busy here. More to come later...

Ela Goes to the Fair

The base hosted a "county fair" for us a few weekends ago and Ela and I made a quick visit to check it out. I was glad I went because I ran into two of my former students checking it out, too, and they are so darn cute!

They had a good bit of fair food (we decided against eating fried twinkies, but had a coke float), and some Native American stuff. So here's Ela in front of the tee pee...

And here's one of the traditional dancers who performed.

To Hells and Back

In a few months, Zack and I will be moving back to the States, and I still have a few places on my "to see" list. In an effort to see some of those places, I signed up for a trip to Beppu with MWR for last weekend. It was my first trip with Ela, and as such, it was super ambitious. The bus left at 6:45 in the morning and didn't get back until 9:45 according to the schedule. It probably would have been smarter to start with something shorter, but this was the only Beppu trip before we leave, and I knew I wouldn't do it alone, so I packed double what I really thought I would need in the diaper bag and figured we'd survive.

Ela did really really really well. As if she knew exactly what she should do, she slept the full 3 hour ride from Sasebo to Beppu. When we arrived there, she woke up and was ready to smile and charm everyone on the tour. Our first stop was the Umitamago Aquarium. Umi means Ocean. Tamago means Egg. This aquarium is much bigger than the one in Sasebo and was very nice, too. We arrived just on time to catch a show featuring a walrus doing some tricks including "conversing" with it's trainer, rolling over, balancing treats on its nose, and so on. It was quite cute. Then we wandered through the various regions, checking out fish of all shapes and sizes, as well as the dolphins, seals, and otters featured.

When we were done checking out the aquarium, I had a nice Japanese lunch at the food court there. Ela had some lunch, too. Mostly she had milk, but she also indulged in a little bit of rice from my meal. She tried to talk me into giving her some of the other things on the plate, but to no avail...

Next on the agenda was Monkey Mountain. This is a mountain near the town where 1200-1600 wild monkies live. They apparently were taking over the town before they were enclosed on this mountain, and now they make a lovely tourist attraction. The experience was a strange combination of adorable and unnerving. There were guards standing at the gates checking to make sure that no one had any plastic bags or bottles out (the monkies think there's food in there and will steal them). They advise against opening any backpacks, either, while you're on the mountain, and also tell tourists not to make eye contact with the monkies, as this is a sign of aggression. I intended to make Ela wear her sunglasses, just to be on the safe side, but she has learned to take them off, so that didn't work. Rather than walking up a steep path carrying a 20lb baby, I took a monorail train to the top, where I was greeted by lots and lots of monkies.

We had a look at them all, then took the train back down to the bottom again. Ela was completely uninterested in the monkies, but a nice couple from our tour were happy to make faces at her, and that was enough to keep her happy for this portion of the tour.

Next on the agenda was a whirlwind tour of the various hotsprings in the Beppu area. Those springs are called "hells" in Japanese, hence the title of this post. Each one had some gimmic, invented or natural, to encourage tourists to come see it. We visited eight. First up was the "blood hell" which is naturally red.

Then the "spout hell," which is a gyser that goes off every 45-60 minutes for 6-10 minutes at a time.

After that we saw the "ocean hell" which is a lovely shade of blue. Then there was "mountain hell", so named for the mountain of silt that had formed around it, "monk hell" named for the bubbles in it that look like the bald top of a buddist monk's head, and "oven hell" which has mud build up that looks like little old-fashioned Japanese clay ovens. One of the hells had several exotic animals living near it (presumably to display the heat) and another was it's own little crocodile farm (using the hot water from the spring to keep them warm). At several you could buy hard-boiled eggs, sweet potatoes, or corn that had been cooked in the steam from the springs.


Others had foot spas where you could soak your feet in water that originated in the springs but had been cooled down to a better temperature.

We had a lot of fun walking from spring to spring, chatting with people (I'm a little starved for adult interaction, apparently) and enjoying the various sights, but Ela was hot, tired and hungry by the time we got back on the bus and just about ready to throw a tantrum. She ate immediately, then slept until about half an hour before we were scheduled for dinner, at which point she blew out a diaper in her car seat and began to fuss about having to sit in it. Luckily the Japanese are a bit lax on the car seat laws, and we were actually 10 minutes from dinner, running a bit early. So I cleaned her up a bit to calm her down, then pulled her out of the seat to keep her from driving anyone nuts with crying. At dinner, I changed her and cleaned out the seat, then got some things from a bakery to eat in the bus. The rest of the ride home was uneventful.

So the trip was a great success, and I'm planning to sign up for a few more before we leave Japan. This also is good considering the looooong trip home we'll have in a few months. A little practice is just what we need.