Final Post Sayoonara

I can't believe tomorrow morning I will be packing my bags one last time and heading home! This has been the experience of a lifetime, I will be returning a changed person. As I strolled through the Japanese gardens one last time, comtemplating the thousand-year-old stone pillars standing in stark contrast to the high rise buildings, and the moat separating the hotel from the highway, which once surrounded the Edo castle that stood on these grounds, I realized that this is a metaphor for Japan itself.

This is a country known both for it's rich history and traditions, and for it's technological advances. These are a people at once deeply entrenched in their Shinto and Buddist beliefs and yet fully embracing the future in commerce, educational trends, and politics.

This morning, as the sun burned off the early mists, Mount Fuji appeared outside my hotel window. Just now, the sun set directly behind it, perhaps the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed. I will be happy to get home, but Japan will always live on in my heart.

To Hell and Back--Written Oct 26

Our last night in Unzen was spent in "Hell" at Kyushu Hotel, a traditional ryokan at a sulfur spring. The hotel was shrouded in a sulfur mist, which was beautiful and romantic, but stunk like rotten eggs! They call it hell because the sulfur boils out of the ground in pools and is very hot. As soon as we got there, several of us dropped our bags and went to a pottery store down the street, but it looked closed. There was no one in the shop and the lights were turned down. We walked back to the hotel, dejected, but Jill was determined, and asked to front desk to call and ask the shop to open for us! Turns out they were open after all, so the hotel piled us in a van and drove us back. We made it worth the shop’s time! The pottery was beautiful, and we kind of cleaned them out!
We were supposed to be back for dinner at 6:30, but it was more like 6:50 by the time we made it. Everyone was waiting for us in their yukata! That’s ok, we plopped down anyway. This was a traditional Japanese dinner, with special dishes from the area. The first course was a delicious salad with tuna sashimi and squid. Then we had some raw food on a fondue type of thing with a leaf for cooking on. The food cooked by the time the candle burned out, then we were supposed to eat it, but it all tasted like leaf to me. The next courses consisted of various fish and rice products, but my stomach is still not up to snuff, so I kind of picked at them. Some were good, some slimy, salty or crunchy, and all very different from American food.
The highlight of the evening was a karaoke machine! Someone needed to be the brave first singer, so I let my vast Rock Band experience lead the way. I got up and sang "I Will Survive" in honor of surviving my sick week in Unzen. After my icebreaker, others got up and sang, too, and I joined a few friends in singing an old Madonna song towards to end.
As I write this, I am at the airport waiting for the plane back to Tokyo.

Soccer at last!! Written Oct 26

Just when I was thinking soccer was going to be out of the question, I got to see a game afterall! It turns out the the mom in my host family teaches at the school that is the high school national champions, and they had a game the morning that I was leaving Unzen. We went to the game, in the rain, before they had to return me to city hall.

Although it was a high school game, the level of play was impressive--Kunimi High School had some great moves! They have had players go straight from their team to the pros in the past, and I can see why.

It was really interesting to listen to the cheers-they even had their own drum-and also to be the only non-Japanese person there. I got to talk to some of the team members at half-time...unfortunately the only MLS team they could name was the Galaxy. There's no accounting for taste!

Home Sweet Home--written Oct. 25

I left with my home-stay family at ten o’clock this morning. Ke, the father, Muchiko, the mother, Toshiko, the grandmother, and two kids, Ryu, their son and Naogo, Muchi’s niece. We set out to go to Kumimoto, the neighboring prefecture, to see a park and a castle. We drove for about 45 minutes, stopping for lunch at a noodle place where I had fried chicken, a delicious coleslaw sort of thing, and some of Toshi’s ramen. It was all good, although the chicken is not breast meat and kind of gristly, and best of all, I was able to eat one piece of chicken and quite a bit of the salad and a few bites of noodles! I was hardly even in pain afterwards. We had to take a ferry, a new experience for me, to Kumimoto, then drive another 45 minutes or so.
The park, Suizenji Jojuen Garden, was gorgeous, very scenic, and we took lots of pictures. Ryu warmed up to me after lunch and was pretty silly, but Nao stayed quiet. Toshi is a bit of an Americanophile, and speaks pretty good English. She was really excited to have a chance to talk to an American!
From there, Toshi and I took the kids on a street car to Kumamoto Castle, and Ke and Muchi took the car and met us there. The castle was huge and very traditional. I have not read the info about it yet, but I have it, so I will. A funny thing there was that a bunch of Chinese and Korean boys asked me to take a picture with them! What a weird world! Of course, I didn’t see a ninja until I was right upon him, but I managed to subdue him, anyway.
From there, we finally went to their house. Several of the male teachers from Obama High School joined us for dinner, which was take out sushi. Luckily, one of them was an English teacher! They left at about 9:00, I took a bath, and went to bed on the futon that they provided for me upstairs.

In the morning, I helped Toshi make miso soup and fix several other small dishes for breakfast. I really learned a lot about Japanese cooking. After that, we set out for a museum and then to city hall to take a bus to the next stop.

Having a family for a night was nice, but I really miss my real one!

Kunimi Junior High School--Oct. 23

Today was the big day--visiting middle schoolers! This school is actually 7th through 9th grade, but the feel is the same is Warner in a lot of ways. We started out the day with a school assembly to introduce us and for the kids to show off their talents. Schools in Japan have lots of afterschool clubs, so we got to see three of them perform. The first was the Kendo club, which is a form of martial arts. One of the girls who demonstrated is the national champion for her age group. It was really impressive.

Next was...the soccer team! Kunimi Middle and High Schools are both national champions in soccer, kids come from all over to attend here just to play soccer. My kind of school! After the soccer demo, the drum club, on kunimi drums played for us. It was fantastic; the drums are large and loud and really moving.

After that, we observed classes, and I got to do calligraphy again; I also got to teach the English class a new word. I was just standing in the back observing, and the teacher went to use a thumbtack, but she didn't know the English word, so I told her and wrote it on the board. Always a teacher, I guess!

I ate lunch with a 7th grade class, and talked to a couple of boys. By talked, I mean we tried to find a few things that we could each say to each other. They were both really nice boys, though. I felt bad that I couldn't really eat anything; every bite of food causes pretty severe stomach cramps. I think a burger would help!

Once again, we watched the students clean the school, then later, after we talked to the teachers for a while, we watched the club activities after school. I was feeling pretty lousy by this time, but I went and watched the English class practice a play they were going to perform, called "Peach Boy". I think this is a Japanese folk tale.

Hospital-ity--Written Oct. 23

So today I got more than your normal experience in Japan. I finally had to go to the hospital and figure out what was wrong with me. As soon as we got back from the junior high, Harumi (our guide and interpreter) and I set off for the ER. She had called ahead and explained the situation, so they were ready for a non-Japanese speaking patient. The nurse first commented on my height, then asked Harumi a bunch of questions and Harumi asked me. Some of them were fairly personal and embarrassing (Ronnie, think of your favorite Scrubs song) , then she played a game of which pokes hurt worst. It turned out the pokes in my lower right side abdomen won the contest, so they all thought it might be my appendix! Yikes! Major surgery in a foreign country!
They did a CT scan, which involved a lot of pantomime on everyone’s part, and it turned out that they were wrong. Whew!! They said that my intestines were not working well, due to stress.
Really?
What stress have I been under lately??
And they gave me a powder to "balance out my intestines." I’m sure something was lost in the translation there. They told me to try to eat something with the powder, so I came back to the hotel and got a tiny carton of Hagen Daz out of the vending machine for dinner. I only ate about a third of it, but I downed the powder with a glass of water, then finally got to try the baths! But that’s another story…
I think I might just live through this experience, after all!

On Wednesday, we visited Aino Elementary School in Unzen. We got there early and watched the students arrive at school. There were no busses and no parents dropped their kids off. The students all walk to school for the surrounding area or take the city bus. Most of the kids played on the playground before school began.

In many places in Japan, instead of the students moving from one room to another, the students stay put and the teachers move. The students even eat lunch in their rooms, and the lunches are prepared for them; they do not go to a cafeteria or bring a lunch from home. Everyone eats the same lunch.

We visited classes for a while, and we watched the 5th graders harvest rice that they had planted earlier this school year, then we were each assigned a classroom to eat lunch with. I had lunch with a second grade class. They were very cute and very kind to me, they made me some beautiful origami pictures. After that, we watched as the kids cleaned the school...you heard me right! Then, at the end of the day, there was an assembly where the kids showed off some of their skills in dance and drumming.

All in all, it was an adorable day. Unfortunately, I was feeling pretty sick still. You can see that I had a mask on in some of the pictures, because I wasn't sure what was wrong with me, and that's what people do here to make sure they don't sread illness.

After school, I went back to the hotel and slept most of the afternoon and all of the night. No hot springs for me again today!