Driving and singing--but not teaching--with Billy Joel

I made a discovery earlier this week.

I was playing with my car radio on Monday, trying to find a song with English lyrics. It didn't happen.

But what I did find were some cassette tapes on the floor of my car. So I picked up the handful of tapes and browsed through them: Beethoven...Mozart...more classical music...this is likely to put me to sleep if I try driving while listening to it...and then, Billy Joel Greatest Hits.

Hmmm. I popped the tape into my car's cassette player and started driving. I quickly discovered that I'm a Billy Joel fan! Many of the songs I already knew, I just didn't know who sang them. And I'd definitely heard of Billy Joel before Monday, I just didn't know what he sang. So now I've put the pieces together. :)

Billy Joel and I have driven to three schools this week. (Actually, to clarify -- I'm the one who drives; Billy just serenades me.) On Tuesday morning, we went to Okawame Junior High School. All of the students were taking a test, so there was no teaching for me to do. But I got a tour of the school and met the teachers, which was productive. I spent the afternoon in the office.

On Wednesday, it was a different school, but the same story. It took me 30 minutes to drive to Yamane Jr. High School. I was excited to finally get to teach English, but was told when I got there that the students (all 9 of them in the entire school!!) were testing. No classes. But again, I met the teachers and got acquainted with the school. Yamane had a welcome ceremony for me, where the principal gave me a speech about how I'm to join the "Yamane family." And the students did a cheer of my name ("Daay-na, "Daay-na"), complete with hand motions! It was very thoughful and made me feel welcomed.

Oh, and I have to add that all of the teachers laughed at me as I was leaving the school because I got into the passenger's side of my car (which is the driver's side in America.) When will I get used to that? I also frequently turn on my windshield wipers instead of the turn signal, since that's also on the opposide side of what I'm used to. HA!

Today, I drove up to Mugyo Junior High School, located on a mountain. Believe it or not, it's smaller than Yamane since there are only four students! It's actually going to close soon. But anyway, I finally got to help teach the students English! They are preparing to give speeches for an English-speaking contest next week, and I helped them practice. I was there all morning, and then drove 20 minutes back down the mountain (singing with Billy, of course).

Although I am quite happy right with Billy's company as I drive ALL OVER Kuji, listening to "Piano Man" and "Only the Good Die Young" over an over, I can see this getting old in the near future. (He keeps singing me the same songs! haha).

So this leads me to an announcement/request....
If you have any old cassette tapes that you don't listen to anymore and don't know what to do with, you could consider mailing them to me. :) I would greatly appreciate it! I know that sending things internationally isn't exactly cheap, but in case you feel compelled to send me tapes, here's my address:

Poetori Potto18 No.103
2-5 Jyuhachinichimachi
Kuji City, Iwate Ken, JP 028-0065

I'm not very picky when it comes to music. After all, anything is better than incomprehensible Japanese songs on the radio! And I'd love to have a "variety of company" during my drives. :)

A lovely weekend outdoors

This was the view from the cabin where Liz, Mayla, Jemma and I stayed Friday night through Sunday morning.

The scenery was fantastic and the weather was wonderful. The month of August in northern Japan feels more like June in Indiana -- it's warm, but not hot. The campsite we went to was about two hours northwest of Kuji, located on Lake Towada.

Our cabin (and Jemma's car). Sorry about the overexposure!

When we got to our cabin on Friday night, it was so dark that we couldn't tell how close we were to the lake. So on Saturday morning, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that not only did we have a spectacular view of the water and mountains from our cabin, but it was also a beautiful day to enjoy it. (The weather forecast has predicted rain. It did sprinkle a little bit in the afternoon.)

I walked down to the lake with Jemma and just admired God's beautiful creation. Liz joined us, then Mayla, and it was a group consensus to go for a morning swim. The water was warmer than I thought it would be, and the swim was so invigorating! We had a breakfast picnic by the lake with the foods we bought the night before.

The swim was followed by a hike along the lake, which is when Liz took these pictures:


And the pleasant hike along the flat area by the lake led into climbing in the woods! I'm smiling in the picture below, but at this point I didn't really feel like smiling. I'm not used to so much uphill/downhill walking, and my legs felt it afterward.


Looking back at what we just climbed.

After the hike, Jemma, Liz and I went for a refreshing swim in the lake. (which I had been daydreaming about nearly the whole time hiking uphill!) We spent the late afternoon and evening in a nearby, touristy town. The four of us went inside the shops, ate dinner at a nice restaurant and then went to a natural hot springs bath! Lovely. When we got back the cabin, we went outside and played with sparklers like kids. So much fun!

Isn't Liz such an artistic photographer? I think this picture is so cool!

Sunday morning was spent taking a walk along a gorge, where there were several little waterfalls. Again, the scenery was beautiful, and I was inwardly praising God for His magnificent work. On the drive back to Kuji, we stopped at a mall and ate at an Italian buffet for lunch -- a nice ending to a great weekend trip.

I thought this man was doing a great job of capturing what we were seeing in nature.

One of the small waterfalls we saw while hiking along the gorge.

Peanut butter for slippers: The story of my flight

It's been a week already since I made the 16-hour flight to Tokyo, and I never wrote about it. Because I feel like it's a story worth sharing, I'm going to share it....

I thought nothing of packing my jar of peanut butter into my carry-on. This wasn't just any kind of peanut butter, mind you, but my new favorite--white chocolate peanut butter. Delicious stuff. Although the peanut butter made it just fine through security in the Indy airport, I wasn't so lucky in Chicago. The somewhat sympathetic security lady threw it away, even though I told her that I might cry (I was just kidding) if she did. Since when did peanut butter become dangerous? That's what I want to know. And besides, it was sealed! Sigh.

Anyway, I had packed a peanut butter jelly sandwich to eat at some point during my jouney. So since I was getting hungry and since I was already missing my brand-new, unopened jar of peanut butter, I decided to mourn the loss over a PB&J sandwich. Oh, the irony.

Once on the airplane, I found my seat next to two non-English-speaking people. The man on my left was Japanese, and the woman on my right had to be Vietnamese because just about the only word I understood from her was "Vietnam," and the Japanese flight attendant didn't understand her either.

Despite our lack of conversation, the Vietnamese lady was very nice. She had a big smile the whole time, and she kept offering me some little fruits that must have been from Vietnam. (I want to know how she got those on the plane!) I had no idea what they were, so I tried asking her. She said what sounded like, "lo mein," which I'm pretty sure is a noodle, not a fruit, so okay whatever. :)

Meanwhile, the Japanese guy didn't even look at me. That changed when he accidentally spilled his wine on my sock!! I had just taken my shoes off, in an attempt to get comfortable--which is an almost impossible task on a 16-hour flight! He felt SO bad for spilling wine on me, and I tried telling him that it was really okay. I was just happy it was my sock and not my laptop or laptop bag, which was at my feet.

He had me take off my sock, and then he held it (!!) while he waited for the flight attendant to come over. Apparently he asked her if she could wash my sock for me because she came back with a plastic bag to put my sock in, as well as a pair of slippers for my feet! So that's how I got a pair of new, Japanese Airline slippers. But I had to give up a jar of peanut butter. (I'm really not bitter about it or mean to sound like I'm complaining, I promise. It's just kind of funny to me now.) I think of it as a peanut butter/slippers exchange.

The Japanese guy kept apologizing to me and was always more than happy to let me out of my seat. The Vietnamese lady continued to give me her "lo mein" fruits. I passed the time by watching the movies Iron Man and Kung Fu Panda and taking little naps. Overall, a long--but not a bad--flight!

Sushi and Octopus

Sounds delicious, huh? That's what I ate for lunch today!! Needless to say, I'm adventurous when it comes to trying new foods.

This morning Mayla, Liz and I went to the neighboring town, Noda, to pick up Jemma, another ALT.(again, that stands for assistant language teacher. I'll be using that abbreviation a lot) The four of us went to a little shop to buy food for lunch. I wasn't sure what I wanted to eat, but decided on the sushi since it was relatively cheap, and I haven't had sushi in Japan yet. At the counter of hot foods, Mayla was looking at what appeared to be balls of fried dough. She told me they had octopus meat inside them, that they're supposedly pretty tasty and that she's always wanted to try them. Good enough for me. So for 190 yen (which is roughly $1.90) for six, I bought them for all of us to sample.

We took the food back to Jemma's place, and ate while watching the Olympics. I picked up the "ball of octopus" (called takoyaki in Japanese) dipped it in the sauce that came with it and put it in my mouth. Mmmm...pretty good!

The sushi and octopus were not the only "firsts" of the day. Today is the first time it's rained since I've been here. And it was also my first day to drive in Japan--on the opposite side of the road! It was only sprinkling rain when I drove though, don't worry.

I drove to the schools where I'll be teaching on Tuesday and Wednesday, to make sure that I know the routes. Honestly, I was nervous for my first time driving in Kuji. But it's really not that bad driving on the "wrong side," although it does feel...well, wrong. I just think to myself, "Left, left, left" when I turn, as a reminder to stay on the left side, and then I'm fine. For the most part, the driving rules are the same as in America. An exception is that pedestrians don't have the right of way. I found that out when I walked around Kuji the other day.

I felt so proud this evening when I drove myself to go shopping! It's so funny because that's no big deal for me at home. But here, it's a major accomplishment! It's major because I found the store without any problems (and there are several twists and turns), and I drove in a way that's not natural for me, without having any difficulties. I wanted to go the 100 yen store because I hadn't been there yet and heard it was cool. Picture a dollar store that's about 10 times the normal size, full of things that look like they should cost more that one dollar. :) My kind of place! I stayed in there for a while and then went next door to the big Universe, not because I really needed to, but just because I enjoy walking the aisles and looking at the different foods.

Yesterday, I did something that was another "first" for me -- I went to a sumo wrestling match! It took place in the really nice gym I wrote briefly about a few days ago. There were a lot more sumo wrestlers than I thought there would be, and the majority of them weren't as huge as I'd expected. Don't get me wrong though...they were big guys. They would slam up against each other, creating a thud noice that made the audience gasp. At one point, they brought out little boys in "sumo training" to wrestle with the big guys. It was cute to watch--like dads playing with their sons--and actually reminded me of the times my dad would wrestle with us on the floor when we were young. Watching the sumo match was one of those things I'm glad I did so I can say I did it. I have a lot more pictures of it than the two below. In fact, there are too many to post here, so I think I'll make some kind of album on a Web site for photos and link it to this blog. (Wow, I sound so technologically savvy. Really I'm not.) I'll be sure to tell you when that's ready.

Just as I had predicted, my experiences in just two days have been interesting, in all senses of the word -- the sumo wrestling, eating octopus, driving on the opposite side of the road...the list will keep growing as time goes on, I'm sure!

Liz and me with the sumo wrestler who looks oh-so-happy to be in this picture with us, haha.

This little girl was so cute! I had to take a picture of her taking a picture of the sumo wrestlers. I admit I watched her about as much as I watched the wrestling!

This is not octopus or sushi. It's actually a picture of yesterday's lunch--chicken curry and rice--that I got at a restaurant with Liz and Mayla.

My first day of "work"

Kuji City Hall -- the Board of Education Office is on the third floor.

Yamadate at my desk. This picture was actually taken on Saturday, when we went to the office to get my apartment keys. Liz--the other FC grad here--sits directly across from me.

I arrived at the office in City Hall yesterday morning, not exactly sure what to expect.

I knew that I was going to meet the mayor of Kuji and have some sort of interview, and I knew there was going to be a gift exchange.

As it turned out, I was the star of a Welcome Ceremony. What an appropriate name since I felt extremely welcomed. In fact, I felt like a celebrity!

It started when Yamadate took me away from the Board of Education office at 10:45. We got in his car. This is strange, I thought to myself. Why do we need to leave the building? Afterall, the mayor works in City Hall, too. He drove me around the building and stopped at the front entrance. I was still confused.

Then, the mayor's lovely secretary came to the car to meet me and said that she'd be translating my speech. Speech? It's best to just go with the flow. "Ok, great!" Maybe she means my talk with the mayor? Her English is by far the best I've heard from a Japanese person since I've been here.

I think I was driven to the front so I could make a grand entrance. Because as soon as I stepped into the lobby, I was greeted with tremendous applause. I looked around at all the people surrounding me, noticing the broad smiles plastered on their faces. I think every worker in the building came down to greet me. I was not expecting that many people! Is this what it's like in Hollywood? The mayor stepped out from the crowd, as did about six or so cameramen. Paparazzi? (Apparently my arrival in Kuji is big news that attracted all the local media.) Good grief, the only thing missing is the red carpet!

The mayor presented me with the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers I think I've ever received in my life. Then I was given the microphone. "Introduce yourself," I was told. The crowd hushed.

Through the translator, I said something like, "Thank you very much for the flowers. They are beautiful. My name is Dana Sease. I am from the state of Indiana in America. I went to school at Franklin College in Franklin, the sister city of Kuji. I am excited to be in Kuji to teach. I really like it here so far."

Enthusiastic clapping ensued from my "adoring fans." I couldn't help but smile real big. This is crazy. I was escorted up the stairs to the mayor's office. Important people were bowing to me. Gosh, I'm not only famous, I'm like a queen now! I bowed to them, too, as Yamadate told me to do.
I took a seat and was given a small box wrapped in beautiful paper. Oh wow. It was a beautiful brooch -- a flower made of amber. (Kuji is well-known for its amber.) Then I was given a longer box that contained a fan. I opened the fan and struck a pose for the cameras. Everyone in the room laughed, and I was called an American comedian.

My beautiful gifts: flowers, an amber brooch and a fan.

As I expected, the mayor asked me questions. Yamadate had prepared me for the type of questions to expect. I told him about my major in college, about how I don't play sports but I'll watch them, and about my family. The mayor got a big kick our of the fact that everyone in my family has a name that begins with the letter "D." That's funny. Yamadate laughed hysterically about the very same thing!

When I was dismissed, I went back to the Board of Education office (walking instead of riding this time) to get my gifts to hand out. I went to five different offices to present gifts individually. I gave the mayor a Franklin College picture frame, as well as the superintendent. The superintendent said, "From such a beautiful human!" Haha. Sometimes the attempts at speaking English make me inwardly chuckle. In Japanese, he said that we should get a picture taken together to put in the frame. I gave the other city officials very nice Franklin College keychains.

During the afternoon, Liz drove me around the area so I could find the schools where I'll be teaching next week. Kuji is very spread out, so it took almost the whole afternoon to find all the schools. I wish I had brought my camera for the drive! It was such a gorgeous day and we saw some amazing views. (I'll take pictures next week, on my way to the schools. I promise.) We had the windows down and music up while admiring the ocean and mountains. Life seemed perfect.

After "work" (I have to put the quotations around the word because I really didn't do any work at all) I went on a walk by the river and then went back to my apartment and cooked for the first time -- rosemary chicken (Callie left me rosemary, so I thought I'd better use it) steamed vegetables and bread with olive oil. I was proud of myself for fixing a satisfying dinner. I ended the wonderful day by watching a movie with Mayla and Liz in Liz's apartment.

So yesterday was definitely one of the best Mondays I've ever had. Ever. I don't expect every day to be that great, but it sure would be nice!!

A better shot of the flower bouquet, which is beside two cards I've already received! :)

I took these on my walk:

I observed a baseball game at one of the junior high schools where I'll be teaching. This is the closest school to my apartment.

Indy!? Aww...it's like a little piece of home.

So far, so good!

I alreadly love this place! Beautiful scenery, nice people...and yummy ice cream!

The title is appropriate since I'm so far away from home, but I've been doing fine since my arrival in Japan.

I landed in Tokyo on Friday afternoon at 3, which was 3 a.m. Indiana time -- also the time my body was on. The jet lag hasn't been too bad though; I think I've been running on adrenaline since I've just been too excited to sleep much!

Last night was my first night in the apartment, and I kept waking up thinking, "Wow, I'm really here. This is home now." And the night before that, I stayed in a tiny hotel room in Tokyo and woke up more than once thinking, "Wow, I'm in Japan. Unreal." I'll probably take a nap pretty soon, even though I still feel like I'll miss something if I sleep. But I wanted to write a blog post first, since I promised that I'd update at the first opportunity.

I have the internet in my apartment set up now, so I'm sitting on my loveseat, typing away. I just ate a ham and cheese sandwhich (normally I'd have turkey, but there isn't turkey in Kuji!) for lunch, since it's Sunday afternoon. (I know that it says I wrote this post on Saturday, Aug. 9 for some reason. Well, it lies.) I went to a church service at the local Baptist church this morning with Mayla, one of the other English teachers in Kuji. The service was entirely in Japanese, so of course I was lost the whole time, but I enjoyed observing. I learned that every third Sunday the service is in English, so I'll definitely have to go next week!

Mayla showed me around Kuji yesterday afternoon, and I was happy to see that my apartment is in a good location, just off the main street. We went into some of the shops -- including the cake shop, (the desserts look amazing, hooray!) which is just down the street from my apartment-- and also went into the very nice gym. Mayla asked me if I would use the gym much, and I told her that I'm allergic to running and athletically-challenged! It will be nice in the winter though, to walk somewhere warm and in such a nice facility. I just realized that I wrote about loving dessert and hating to run in the same paragraph! Hmmm...maybe I do need to frequent the gym!

While walking around Kuji I took these pictures...

The main street of Kuji. My apartmnent is a little bit off this street, to the left.

Getting ready to cross a bridge over Kuji River. Isn't it pretty?

Inside the home store. Look at all the Japanese products! There's some random English in there, too.

Mayla has a car, and she was nice enough to drive me to a restaurant named Gusto, where we had dinner. I ordered pizza with corn on it, which was delicious, and I also got the "drink bar" so I could try all of the different soda flavors to figure out which ones I like. (Dad, I thought of you when I tried all of the juices, too!)

After dinner, we went grocery shopping at the "big Universe," haha. There are two Universe grocery stores in Kuji -- a big one and a small one. Although everything is labeled in Japanese, the pictures make it fairly easy to identify the food. Some of my purchases include: bananas, an assortment of frozen vegetables, chicken nuggets, hashbrowns, yogurt, lunchmeat, buns and salmon. While I'm on the subject of food, I have great news: There's ice cream here, and it's delicious!!!! Yamadate (my boss, who picked me up from the airport and brought be to Kuji) bought me some grape ice cream, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Some of the foods I bought at the "big Universe."

I've never really had to cook for myself before, so this should be....interesting! Callie, the ALT (assistant language teacher) who lived in this apartment before me, left me a Japanese cookbook, so that's pretty exciting, along with lots of other books. She also sold me all of the furniture and left several miscellaneous things for me. So it was like Christmas yesterday -- opening up all the drawers and closets, finding "gifts." :)

I feel like I'm writing a novel, but there's just so much to say! I haven't even written about the flight yet -- I'll do that later. There's definitely a lot to get used to, and SO much to learn! I want to start learning Japanese immediately because I wish could communicate with everyone. Just as I was told, the people here are very friendly and welcoming. The boy I'm going to start tutoring in English soon, named Tomoki, was nice enough to bring me milk and cereal with a note that said:

"To Dana, Did you eat breakfast? I think you don't have foods. I bought your breakfast. Please eat. Maybe you're tired. But if you don't eat breakfast, you're very very tired. I hope you're well. " ~Tokomi *with smiley faces*

I'm impressed by his English! And I'm proud of him for writing "you're" instead of "your." haha.
I was told that he often stops by the apartment to visit, which is fine by me.

So that's the brief (believe it or not!) update of how life in Kuji is so far. I could go on, but I'm getting tired and don't want to be too long. Thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts, and rest assured that all is well! Sayonara for now.

A look at my new apartment...

Welcome to my humble home! It's very lovely, especially by Japanese standards.

The view right outside my door. The main street is at the end of the line of pink lanterns. :)

Once you enter the front door, the toilet is to the right, the laundry room and shower are ahead.

Washer and sink in the laundry room. Clothes are hung up to dry.

My living room -- with the loveseat where I'm sitting right now.

The kitchen where I will *attempt* to prepare Japanese cuisine.

The picture of my bedroom won't load and I don't know why, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I have a bed! I was prepared to sleep on a mat.

"Fair"well, Indiana

It's my last day in the U.S. (for a while, anyway.)

I just woke up with that sudden realization, which was followed by another shocking thought -- I'm really moving to Japan...tomorrow!!

I can't think of a better way to spend my final day (goodness, it sounds like I'm dying!) than at the Indiana State Fair with family and friends. Afterall, I love the fair. I love the sights, the smells, the tastes and the fun atmosphere.

It's fun for me to show off the fair to friends who have never been there before (gasp!), which I'm going to do today. Of course, it's also fun to hang out with friends who have been there several times, like Adrienne, who I will miss seeing this year.

I'm proud of our state fair. I've been to every single day of the fair for the last four years because I've worked there doing different jobs, including a publicity internship last year. I feel like I'm still doing publicity work for the fair with this blog post, haha. What can I say? It just comes naturally!

But anyway, I'm excited that I didn't have to completely miss the fair this year. And I'm still excited about going to Japan, but of course there are lots of other emotions about the big move, especially since it's so close! It just seems surreal that I'm moving to Japan tomorrow because it's come so quickly. I guess time flies when you're having fun!

It's been a fun summer, and I believe I'm as ready as I'm going to get for the next (hopefully fun!) phase of my life. Thank you so much for your prayers, and I'll update you as soon as I'm able to in Kuji. God bless.