Just in time

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So much has happened this last month or two. I’ll try to keep short and sweet, but you know how that goes.

June, The Visits

I had three wonderful visitors since my last blog...my awesome cousin from Toronto and then my parents. With my cousin, Moira, we kept busy the whole weekend—attending my students’ sports competition, hanging out in Ishinomaki, going to Sendai and Matsushima, eating fabulous food, and drinking lots of wine. At first we thought we hadn't seen each other in 8 years, but then realized it'd been only 3. Ha. A day after Moi left, my parents arrived—after already being in Japan for more than two weeks! I had their 5-day schedule planned to the minute...Wednesday, my Japanese mamas were picking them up and taking them somewhere into the mountains for a hike and then on to the big welcome party in the evening; Thursday, I put them work at school with three classes and we had so much fun; Friday was Sendai and the 100Yen store and such; Saturday, Matsushima sights and a professional Japanese soccer game; Sunday, head back to the shinkansen for the trek back to California. We had a great time, saw all the sights, and spent some good ole fashion family time together. Thanks for coming out Mommy and Daddy!!

Saturday, July 1st, The Fourth of July Ho-down

I hosted the July 4th festivities here, in Wakuya, today. For the pre-party party, I rented out a local field for a fabulous game of Sloshball. No one here had heard of the game, so I felt obliged to share this tidbit of the California college experience—the East Coasters here hadn't heard of it either! So I got about 16 others, a bunch of beer, some cardboard bases, a basket of mitts and balls and bats, bought some peanuts and craaaackerjacks and we went out to start the ball game. After the rules were laid out (no leading, must finish the entire 8 ounces on first base, and the super-soaker on third base is for free use) and the coin was tossed, we played for about 2 hours. Everyone had a blast and didn't get too wasted (as this was only the pre-party).

The party itself, hosted by yours truly, was themed "Famous Americans." Everyone was there--Paris Hilton/Christina Aguilera/I Dream of Genie (no one could tell), Gilligan, Lucy Liu, Pocahontas, Minnie Mouse, Hunter Thompson, The Dukes of Hazard, Christy Yamaguchi, Steve Nash, Bruce Lee & Linda Lee, Benedict Arnold, a cowboy, and many many others. With some delicious food in our stomachs (beef burritos with homemade tortillas, tofu burritos for the vegetarians in the house, and yes I cooked beef!!) and some top-shelf margaritas in our hands, we were ready to celebrate the Fourth of July--aptly, California style! We even had fireworks, too! At the 100Yen store you can buy hanabi, so of course we did, and we also managed to get the Wakuya firemen to the party (who promptly told us to stop with the fireworks). But they were very nice and let us have our fun. Anyways, from what I hear, everyone had a fantastic time.

Saturday, July 8th, Cooking with my kids

Today two of my ni-nensei students (8th grade) came over to my apartment for some good cooking and good times with their favorite teacher, Ms. Mimi (that’s me). It all started because they came to talk to me in the staff room one day at school and saw me checking out recipes on VegWeb. The next day they came to talk again and said, “Let’s cooking at Miss Mimi’s apato Saturday!” I was quite surprised by the unusually unabashed suggestion. I looked at the other English teacher and she just smiled and shrugged, so I said, “Alrighty.” I drew them a map to my “apato,” emphasizing that it’s a “secret map”—I could just see it, all my kids showing up at my door!
Everything turned out wonderful. We made falafel balls and whole wheat tortillas all from scratch. I put those girls to work, too! They kneaded the dough, rolled the torts, mashed all the chickpeas, measured the ingredients, and flipped the falafels. I had pre-made a spicy creamy vegan yogurt sauce and cut up cucumber, onion, tomato, and raw spinach. We had an incredible time together; despite their mere two years of studying English, the banter was great and the food was fabulous! I wish I had done this every weekend with my students!

Sunday, July 9th, Hiking in Iwate and Akita

Today I went hiking. One of my Eikaiwa students Yoriko-san, picked me up at 5:30am sharp. We drove to Furukawa and boarded a bus loaded with 25 people, all over the age of 57, and headed out to the boarder between Iwate and Akita prefectures, to Yakeishii Mountain. We got there at 8:30am sharp, filed out, strapped on our boots, packed our sacks, had a short morning aisatsu (greetings) and headed for the hills. The weather was pretty good, about 87 degrees and 99% humidity—at least it wasn’t raining. After about 4 hours of hiking straight up, I was quite winded. We had taken only two (2) five-minute breaks, but at this four-hour mark, we bargained for 10. As I looked around, Yoriko-san pointed out at this peak that seemed to be 20 miles away and said, “That is the first peak.” I looked at her and, “First?” She just smiled and said, “Ikimashoooo!” I shook my head, smiling, and said, “Ok, let’s gooooo!” We took a 30 minute break for some onigiri (rice balls) and hot miso soup—that’s right, these people were loaded with thermoses, bowls, and instant miso! The troop leader was also handing out shots of some awesome boxed white wine. You can always count on the J people to have these two things covered: food and booze. Aren’t these people wonderful? It’s no wonder they have the longest lifespan in the world!
So, we hiked, and hiked, and hiked. 1, 300 meters up. I think. This area is knows for its flowers during this rainy rainy season, so we would often stop for a few seconds to admire our natural surroundings. One time we even stopped to find takenoko (bamboo shoot) to snack on later! Once at the top of the first and highest peak, we climbed down the other side and found ourselves hiking through snow! The temp dropped to about 50, but it felt great! An hour or so later, we were back in lush jungle. The foliage was so dense and encompassing, I felt like I was walking through the Amazon. We spotted wild orchids, heard some lovely songs in the distance, and trekked through rivers, rocks, and mud. Finally at 5:30pm we spotted the bus down the hill. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so elated at the sight of a bus as I did then.
After a quick group stretching session and a change of shoes, we piled back in the bus and headed straight to the nearest onsen. The sauna, hot shower, and relaxing [community] pool was, needless to say, much much needed. After 55 minutes, I was ready for another 10 kilometer hike! All in all, a wonderful day ending with a wonderful sleep!

Saturday, July 15, Oshima Leaver’s Party

I spent this night on an island about a 2 hour’s drive northeast and another 20 minute ferry ride off the coast, to the island called Oshima (literally translates to honorable/big island). There were maybe 70 other JETs there. We ate burgers (and veggie ones, too) and had a fabulous time, recounting all the great memories and “best ofs” for the year (and years). Some people have been here four years and are finally heading home or onto to another adventure, teaching in another country. In the morning, some people left and the rest of us headed for the beach. It was a lovely beach, my first in Japan, and the water was clear but freeeezing. The boys immediately started up a game of tag football while the girls laid down to get some sun, collected sea shells, and made fun of the boys. We all caught the 12:35 ferry out of there, and the best part about that Sunday was that Monday was a holiday! Ocean Day! Nice.

It was very strange saying goodbye to these people, knowing that I probably won’t see some of them ever again. I think we all have built a uniquely strong connection because of our situation as well as our similar personality traits: we all want (or wanted) to be teachers in a very foreign country and we were placed out here in the countryside. We were forced to reach out and meet each other…and get along. We had to make the commitments to see each other, and we had to follow through. We had to motivate each other and be good listeners. We had to give each other hugs and make one another laugh. We had to do all this because, well, this is all we had in terms of quality human contact—something to remotely remind us of “home” and “family” and “love,” because those three terms are defined so completely different here.


And now that it’s July 20th, it’s time to get ready to go home. It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year. Although I feel ready to come home, I also feel like my time here isn’t done. This past month, my kids have really started to open up to me, to not be afraid to talk to me during lunch and after school, and have even asked me to hang out on the weekends—it’s like they are finally comfortable with me, just in time for me leave. I also feel my comprehension of the language has improved a lot recently as has my understanding of the culture; I have come to understand and appreciate how things work here. With 12 days left, everything is finally coming together.

Just in time.

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