The things I remember...

Back when we were little, my sister Emily and I took Suzuki Piano Lessons. I could spend days talking about the many and conflicted feelings I have about piano and suzuki, but we'll skip that part, and get to the point. Suzuki is a method by which kids learn songs by hearing them over and over and over rather than by reading music. It's designed for kids too young to read music. As a result, Emily and I listened to a TON of classical music as kids. Either to make the music more memorable or more interesting for small children, a lot of the songs had words attached to the melodies that were of interest to small children. For example, there was a song about pizza, one about a horse named Flicka, one about a goose that was dead and going to be made into a feather pillow, you get the idea.
So the other day I was hanging out in my classroom with Tomoko (the woman who helps run JAFCO) and she was going through some of her English supplies and we were discussing what was and wasn't usable at this point. She had a CD of music with kids words that she was going through and she asked me if I knew a song. She said the melody was German, but there were English and Japanese words to it, but she only had the Japanese. She hummed a bar. Instantly the words came to my head "Buzz Buzz Buzz, goes the bumblebee. Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz Buzz. Buzz Buzz Buzz goes the bumblebee." It was a Suzuki song sure enough. The Japanese words as it turns out, translate "Buzz Buzz Buzz. The Bee flies." followed by more buzzing. Only for them, Bon is the sound of a bee flying instead of Buzz.
I was amused that I could still remember the melody and words to a song that I listened to when I was all of four years old (may be five?), so I went back through my memory looking for other songs that came up. Emily is much better at this than I am, but I was amazed at how many I could still bring up. There were the ones from the first paragraph as well as several others. I think it's weird the things we remember.

Fan Dance

After our college friends left, we had exactly three days to clean up and reset before Zack's bestest friends since forever arrived. During their stay, I had the chance to go to another International Ladies Club event. The cultural show for the event was a fan dance, and the guys kindly agreed to find their own lunch one day so I could go and check it out.
The fan dance turned out to be three fan dances, all performed by foreigners who are taking classes while they're here in Japan. The first dance was for men and performed by a guy from Norway. He was very nervous, but very good. In addition to twirling fans, he had a staff that he twirled around, and his was probably the most energic of the dances.

Then came a young American girl who performed a dance that I presume is in a style meant for women. She also did very well. Her dance was much more subdued, but very pretty.

Finally, two girls from... okay yeah I forgot where they're from, but they performed another version of a fan dance which was more playful in tone. These two girls seemed the least nervous and they were also very fun to watch.

So a good time was had by all, and I'm glad I went. The guys used their free time to discover a wonderful restaurant that used to be called Hokka Hokka Tei, but for legal reasons is now called Hotto Motto. It's their new favorite, so I would say it was a good day for all of us.

BioPark

Ever since I began substitute teaching, I've been hearing about the biopark. All the elementary classes take field trips to see it. The BioPark is a zoo, but all the animals are in relatively natural habitats, and many of them can be fed/touched. With our college friends, I had a chance to go and check it out first hand. Here's a sampling of what we saw:




There was a green house FULL of orchids, butterflies and...





... other interesting animals.... Bats are much nicer when they're not in my house.





There was a lovely habitat for prarie dogs in the BioPark, and after we had admired them and taken a few pictures, we walked on from it. Not long after we ran into this guy:





He was also spotted by one of the park employees, who rolled her eyes and got on her radio when she saw him. Soon she and another employee were herding him safely back into his habitat. It appeared that this was a somewhat regular occurance. Interesting stuff...

Not long after we saw the runaway, we stumbled upon the racoon enclosure. The biopark does not, apparently, take any chances at the racoons running away. Their space was enclosed entirely in glass. However, there was a space where two overlapping pieces of glass were left with a gap so that visitors could feed the racoons. When we walked by, all the little buggers crowded up to the glass, anxiously watching for food to drop through this gap, so we decided to feed them. They were so determined to get food that some of them have learned to do this:

Apparently they figure they've got better odds of getting the food as it drops if their paws are actually in the shoot. It almost never worked out for them, but I have to give them credit for trying.

My personal favorite part of the BioPark is the monkey enclosure. Some of the monkeys live on islands, like in zoos in the states, and there are slingshots visitors can use to feed them, but there is also a section where visitors can walk right through a monkey habitat and feed the monkeys right out of their hands. That's where this guy lives:

The monkeys followed us, watching intently to see if we'd go get them some food from the machine, but I have a friend who was recently bit by a monkey there (she's fine, and the doctor says she has nothing to worry about), and I didn't really feel like taking any chances, so we just took our pictures and went on our merry way.
So the BioPark turned out to be everything the kindergarteners claimed it was. There were lots of cool animals, you could feed and touch them, and they were ever so much fun to watch. I'm glad I got a chance to check it out.

99 Islands

In May, we had a visit from a few good college friends. I spent the better part of two weeks wandering around showing them everything I'd done since we got here. In addition to that which I had seen before, I did a few new things with them. One of those new things was a boat ride around the 99 Islands, a scenic area in Sasebo. here's some of what we saw:


Also on the ship were some of my lovely students from the junior college. :-)


It was an hour long trip and we enjoyed it immensely. More pictures to come shortly...

May in Review Part 1

So this month has flown by what with visitors and work and more visitors and more work and school. Here's a quick review of some of the more interesting bits.


In the time between when my parents left and our next group of visitors came by, I went to an ILC (Interenational Lady's Club) event where we visited a shrine in Sasebo that is drowning in Wisteria:



Then it was Golden Week (a series of Japanese Holidays that lead the natives to take a week off and have major sales), so Zack and I went to Arita for China shopping. This year we brought a camera, so imagine miles and miles of this:



Golden Week includes a day called either Boy's Day or Children's Day depending on how politically correct the speaker is. The park by our house had a little party in honor of kids that day:



Then there was the change of command ceremony for the ship...

Followed immediately by a renewal of vows ceremony for the new CO, which meant even more men in choker white uniforms...

And that was all before the second week of May was over! After that our friends Emily and Michael arrived, and we did a bunch of sight seeing... more pictures to follow...

Life as Usual (for now)

Now that the blog is (more or less) caught up with recent events, I thought I'd give you all a post about exactly what it is I do all day when I'm NOT sightseeing. I promise I'll go back to the more diverse posts after this one. My work week begins on Tuesday because JAFCO classes tend to meet outside of normal working hours, so my bosses decided that Monday would be their one day off a week. Also, University of Phoenix starts all their classes on Tuesdays, so Monday is the last day of the week there, too. As a result, Tuesday is the new Monday. So that's where I'll start.
On Tuesdays, I try to get up early enough to do some exercise at home before my first class of the week. Since class begins at 10:30, this means waking up by about 7:30. (For me, that's on the early side.) After exercise (if I get up), I get showered and dressed and then open up our kitchen table and add the leaves so that it will hold six or seven people. My Tuesday morning class is a private class consisting of six women who have been taking English together for probably about as long as I've been alive. They come over, I give them tea and they talk. I help with vocabulary and grammar issues. After an hour, they pay me. It's a nice gig. :-)
After class, I generally eat lunch, then head over to base to run errands. Tuesday is a good day for grocery shopping because the store on base is closed on Wednesday, so if you need something, you better get it ahead of time. My next appointment is 2:30 to 3:30 at the JAFCO central classroom where I teach a (much more intense) adult class. JAFCO's curriculum focuses on basics in pronunciation and vocabulary, so teaching these classes involves a lot of repeating words that start with F, L, R, Th, V or W with extremely exagerated pronunciation. Then I go home and try to get some University work done. Since Tuesday is the first day of the school week, I try to do the reading for the week, so I can be prepared to discuss for the rest of the week. Depending on the length of the chapters, I generally get through most of it. Tuesday evenings, I go to Japanese class from 6:00-7:30. As a result, I tend to make and eat dinner early. I generally come home from that wiped out, and if Zack is home we watch some TV until it's bedtime.
Wednesday morning is much less rushed, so I get up and generally try to go to the gym. (It's free on base, so why not?) When I get home, I go straight into school work. Usually Wednesday I write up my required discussion responses so that I don't have to worry about them later. My first actual appointment for the day is at 4:00 when I teach another JAFCO class at the central classroom. This one's a family class which means more children's songs and moving around, but the curriculum is essentially the same. Then I'm home again for dinner time and at 8:00, I go back to the classroom for an adult class.
Thursdays depend on the week. Twice a month I have the option of going to an event for either ILC or OSC. The rest of the time, I go to yoga at 11:00, so I spend the morning on school work, which at this point in the week generally consists of reading what other students have posted, responding, and researching whatever project will be due on Monday. At 3:00, I have a JAFCO adult class at my house. To get ready for that, I have to put a plastic green cover over my carpet (my bosses think it makes the room more cheerful) and get out little tables and the various visual aids that live at my house. I also have to get a CD ready to play the songs we listen to. After that class, I've got two hours to make and eat dinner before my 6:00 choir practice which runs either until 7:00 or 7:30 depending on how many people show up (usually, it's just me and may be one other person, so we finish quickly). When that's done, I head back to the JAFCO central classroom for another adult class at 8:00.
Friday morning I'm up bright an early to go to Nagasaki Junior College to teach my childcare English class from 9:00-10:30. This class is conversation based, so we do a lot of practicing using vocabulary that might come in handy when the students become preschool teachers or day care helpers. I always leave that place with a smile on my face. It's a great job. After that, the day is mine. I run errands on base or go home and work on school stuff. It's a very easy day for me. I like it when Zack's home these evenings because we generally have some time to play video games.
Saturday, on the other hand, is non-stop. I have my first JAFCO family class at my house at 11:00. After that, I get an hour to eat some lunch and make it to the central classroom for my 1:00 family class. I come home, try to spend some time with Zack (if he's around), and then head back to the central class at 6:00 for another class. When it's over, it makes sense to just hang around because my next adult class starts there at 8:00.
Sunday morning is church and then I get the day to finish up my University assignments. My only class for the day is at 8:00 pm. Then Monday is my day off. I got to the gym for a total body workout class and then yoga. Then I finish whatever didn't get done over the course of the week. And before I know it, it's Tuesday again!
Of course, Zack's schedule changes every day and every week and sometimes he's not home for months, but that's my general routine. JAFCO is still recruiting new students, so the goal is to have me working 40 hours a week for them by the end of July, but I have trouble imagining that. We'll see what happens.

The Golden Temple

So after Gion Cho, we got into a taxi that took us to the other side of town, to the Golden Temple. I don't have my nifty historical information in front of me (sorry), but short version of the story is that a very important guy in Japanese history came here to retire, and buit this place and then covered it in gold as a retirement home of sorts. Since then, it's been repainted to make it five times shinier than when it was originally built. Here it is:

The Golden Temple was probably the most crowded place we visited in Kyoto. It certainly felt like there were more people there than elsewhere. The result is pictures like this:

Visitors aren't actually allowed inside the building (and why would you want to go in anyway? The pretty part is outside), but the grounds around the temple are quite lovely as well.

The grounds of the temple are also home to a very old tea house. It's not currently in use, but it is very pretty, too:

By the time we finished at the Golden Temple, it was getting to be mid-afternoon and we were a little tired of sight seeing, so we went on back to the hotel for a quick rest before dinner. We spent the evening looking through a Japanese department store and finding dinner. My big accomplishment for this trip: the guy at the restaurant we ate at for dinner that night assumed we wouldn't need English menus based on my Japanese. I'm terribly proud!

The next morning, we took our time getting up and to the train station, and by the next afternoon we were back in Sasebo. It was a quick trip, but a good one.