It's so bloody hot and humid in Japan right now!

The students are melting in the classrooms. Seriously, Japan has to either put A/C in the classrooms or start summer break in early June - the way it should be.

Thankfully I do have air conditioning in my apt, but only in the living room, and it's not even that powerful. In the winter my apt was FREEZING because of lack of proper insulation and heating in Japanese homes (and schools) and now I'm melting! Japan really has to get with the times. It's ridiculous.

Lately, when I get back from work, poor Miko is stretched out on the couch or floor, lethargic, hot and clammy. Today I rubbed her down with a cool wet cloth and an ice cube and she loooved it. My poor baby!

27 days..

Packing is coming along. But I have a hell of a lot more stuff than I thought I did! Why did I bring so much to Japan?! I could have lived with half of it just fine. And to make matters worse I went shopping last weekend! I must be stopped!! I discovered vacuum pack bags which are very cool. And found out where to donate my unwanted clothes. I put a few bags together, which is good. I wish I could toss more, but I have a tendency to hold onto my things. Which is bad. Well, only bad when faced with moving overseas I guess.

My boss (who works at the Board of Education and I haven't actually seen in 6 months) stopped by my school to give me details about my departure, closing my bank account etc. So I feel better about all that knowing that they're actually going to help me with it. Ooo, and they're giving me July 25th off to "clean" so my last day of work is actually July 22nd. Sweet.

I think this is so cool

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

I had ice-cream with my Japanese friend who used to work at my school and speaks really good English.

This picture is the navigation system on the dashboard of her fancy new car. It's awesome! And when you're backing into a parking spot, it shows a video of the space behind you. Ooooo.

Over ice-cream she told me that she's 4 months pregnant! (She's 32 and married, so this is a good thing). She said that she'll probably go to live with her mother for a few months before and after the baby is born, and her husband will just come by to visit. Apparently this is common in Japan. A little different from America, where most people value father-child bonding as much as mother-child bonding...

29 days!!

The end of this past weekend felt like a real milestone. It was the last weekend in June and the countdown is now in the 20s. 4 weeks seems SO much shorter than 5 weeks. I suddenly felt motivated to clear out all the crap in the back of my closet that I haven't seen in months, and managed to fill up 6 garbage bags. Nice.

I've been hanging out with random Japanese boys lately. Spent a couple hours, in my local bar, flirting with a HOT, but hick, carpenter with a mullet. It's amazing how much lower my standards are in Japan. haha. He spoke in Saga-dialect Japanese and I had no clue what he was saying, but I giggled and blushed anyways. It was the bar where Takashi works and he was teasing me the whole time - saying he can tell I "love" the boy because I'm all red, and making kissing noises. Very mature, Takashi. The whole thing was kinda awkward actually. I really have no clue if Takashi still likes me or if he was just teasing me like a brother. He seemed a bit jealous, which was interesting...

And yesterday I went with a group of people to an American style outlet mall - that looked exactly like Old Orchard! trippy. And we found an ACTUAL Indian curry place. Not Japanese style "curry rice". Right in the middle of a random town in Saga. Who knew? The whole point was sorta to set me up with this boy, who I once said was cute. I'm not sure I'm really interested, but we all had fun, and the boy is actually moving to CA in August, so we may exchange e-mails and I'll be happy to help him with his English or answer questions about living in the US.

my Hello Kitty cell phone dangle collection is now complete!

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

I now have one for all 5 major islands of Japan AND Korea. Such an adorable waste of money...

From left to right they are:
1) kitty soaking in an outdoor onsen bath (represnting Kyushu. I live in an onsen, aka hot spring, town)
2) kitty as a Buddhist pilgrim (from Shikoku, which has an 88 temple pilgrimage)
3) kitty as an apprentice geisha from Kyoto (representing the main island of Honshu)
4) kitty as a cow (from Hokkaido. they make a lot of dairy there)
5) kitty in a traditional Korean costume
6) kitty dancing and playing an Okinawan festival drum.

vote for your favorite!

Okinawa

I took myself to Okinawa (the Hawaii of Japan) for the weekend. Friday night was actually really depressing. I arrived in Naha (Okinawa's capital) to a rainy night and a sad, empty hotel room. What is it about being lonely on your birthday that feels so much worse than being lonely on any other day? From now on I vow to never be alone on my birthday EVER AGAIN!

Saturday I took a ferry out to Tokashiki island, even though it wasn't exactly beach weather - cloudy, windy, and drizzling on and off. But thankfully it was a warm rain and it made me feel a lot better to see the ocean and walk on the beach. It's a really beautiful island.

Okinawa is home to the largest number of US armed forces in Japan. So one of my goals for the weekend was, of course, to meet them! It wasn't hard - after dealing with elusive Japanese men for so long, I forgot how easy it is to talk to American men - they're not shy and they actually speak English! I met two on the street in Naha on Saturday night who invited me along to a Marines' bar. I got a few free drinks and a few hours of English conversation with cute soldiers. Good times.

I'll finish with a happy picture:

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

pretty fishies in a tank at the airport, to promote Okinawa's new aquarium. The aquarium looks cool, but it's 3 hours from Naha, so I didn't go.

I probably would have seen something like this off of Tokashiki island if the water had been calm and clear enough for snorkeling that day.

the sign reads: "wall riddled with a hand-grenade when committed suicide"

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

thousands of members of the Japanese Navy killed themselves down in the tunnels after they realized they were losing the battle.

Traditionally in Japan, suicide is considered an honorable way to die.

Japanese Underground Naval Headquarters

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

the creepiest place I've ever been! (after Dachau concentration camp in Germany I guess)

on the castle grounds

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

Shuri castle in Naha, Okinawa

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

which is a reproduction because the original was destroyed in the war (along with almost the entire city of Naha)

I have a weakness for feeding stray cats

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

this is a colony of strays on Tokashiki island who devoured the saltines I dropped for them.

so sad....

another view of Tokashiki from the lookout

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

I think American troops landed on this island in The Battle of Okinawa. (which was the final, and fiercest, major battle of WWII)

more Aharen beach

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

pretty purple tropical flowers

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

I had the whole beach to myself!

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

one of the (few) benefits of going to the beach on a cloudy and slightly rainy day.

cool rock tunnel on Tokashiki island

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

Aharen beach on Tokashiki island, Okinawa

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Originally uploaded by abnihon.

so beautiful!

and on a clear day it's supposed to be even more amazing, with turquoise water and the reef visable underneath.
click HERE for better pics of Tokashiki.

miss koco's questions

1) What do you plan to do, once you return to NYC, with the next year of your life? As far as a job, I'm trying for Christies art auction house at the moment. We'll see how that turns out. Other than that, I'd like to (finally) get my driver's license. And I just want to BE for awhile - Enjoy NY, spend time with family, make new friends and connect with old ones. Maybe travel a bit around the US visiting people. I would also like to do something intellectual for a bit (I feel like my brain is mush after this mind-numbing job). Like maybe a night class in Italian language or European art. It'd be nice to study something completely different from Japan for awhile.

2) Of all the places you've visited in Japan which would you recommend the most? For a one-stop visit to Japan, it'd have to be Kyoto. Without a doubt. Miyajima and Nikko are also really beautiful (I did those on study-abroad though; not this year)

3) What part of the city are you from anyway? Upper East Side

4) What do you want to be when you grow up? Honestly, I have no idea. It changes constantly. Art specialist? (but I'm not even sure what kind of art). Teacher? (mostly for the vacation time) Poet? Japan scholar? (what does that even mean?) Travel book writer (or something else that pays me to travel) Mother? All of the above? But it doesn't really bother me that I don't know; I'll figure it out. I guess most importantly I just want to be happy. So I want to do what makes me happy. (whatever that is...)

5) Lastly, now that you're closing in on a year, compare the things you came to understand at 6 months to what you know now. The last 6 months have basically just reinforced what I learned in the first 6. That being alone all the time is really not fun or healthy and that I don't really fit in in Japan. The only really new thing is that since about February I started dating (or attempting to date) Japanese men. And what I've learned there is that they may be hot (in my opinion at least), but I just don't think it'd be possible for me to have a significant relationship with a Japanese man. The language and cultural barriers are too high. Relationships are hard enough without adding more complications to them.

it's test grading time again

For one question the students had to write a sentence describing a picture of a boy studying hard while his mother is offering him cake.

One student's sentence: "The cake made me hard."

That sounds like some goooood cake.

42 days till I'm outta here

Is it just me, or does that still seem like a REALLY long time. I wish I could just be transported home without having to deal with all the packing and paperwork and whatever else is required to actually move. (see I don't even know! this is bad... I'm sensing stress coming on in about mid-July.)

Last Friday Samara and I had a double date with our two boys from the bowling alley. Dinner and karaoke. It was fun. But I'm not sure anything else will happen there. And Katsuya has been MIA for about 2 weeks. eh, oh well. I've pretty much given up on J-boys. From now on I will only put in MINIMAL effort to see them (or none at all.) I leave in 6 weeks, what's the point? (Besides sheer boredom and intense loneliness I suppose. hmmmm.)

On Saturday Sarah and I went to Sasebo to eat, shop, and check out members of the US Navy on base. hehe. Oh how I've missed men who aren't afraid to make eye contact and smile at strange girls..... God bless America. (can you name that Sex and the City reference?)

culture gap? or child abuse?

today in elementary school we were having a little "rock, paper, scissors" tournament. The teacher told me that the losers would come up to the front of the room at the end and I would have to "punish" them by giving them a slap on the arm in the 1st round and a flick on the forehead in the 2nd round. I just stared at him in shock, not believing what he was saying. He was asking me to HIT my students. Not hard, but STILL. Is it EVER appropriate for a teacher to hit a student? Not in America, that's for sure! The teacher was like, "It's a Japanese game. It won't hurt them that much. They're Japanese. Go on". I gave the kids a light tap to satisfy the teacher, but the whole thing made me feel REALLY uncomfortable and turned off by Japanese culture. What the hell is wrong with this country?! Get me out of here before they warp my mind!

at the bowling alley on Saturday night

bowling
Originally uploaded by abnihon.

I didn't end up leaving town last weekend. But I actually did social things in Takeo (!) which was really what I needed more than mindless solo sightseeing.

On Friday I joined Sarah, the other Sarah, and her husband Nick for a nightime picnic and viewing of the fireflies. pretty! Apparently firefly viewing is a big activity in the summertime in the boonies of Japan - like maple leaves in the fall and cherry blossoms in the spring. In the winter do they all gather outside to watch ice form?? It wouldn't surprise me....

Then on Saturday Samara (girl in bottom of picture. She's a JET in a nearby town) invited me to come along with her Japanese friend, and two random Japanese boys, to dinner and the bowling alley. It was really fun and the boys were pretty cute. hehe. The one on the left was very cool and is now my new J-boy crush who I'm going to attempt to go on a date with before I leave Japan. He speaks some English cause he did a homestay in Australia in high school. (what is it with me and these boys who lived in Australia??)

But I have noticed that I just connect better with Japanese boys who've spent a significant amount of time in an English-speaking country. (that counts for Japanese girls too I guess). Not only is their English better, but they don't seem as intimidated by my foreigness and treat me like a real person. The boys who've been abroad also seem more confident and laid-back and "American" which makes them more attractive to me.

I made my flight reservation for me and Miko to go home on July 26th. yay!

10 days till my birthday! Which means....10 days till OKINAWA. woohoo!!

feeling a little blah

Yesterday I realized that it had been about 5 days since I'd had an actual conversation with another human being. (sorry Miko, cats don't count). (And IM conversations don't count either. It's just not the same.) I was traveling alone in Korea over the weekend, and then there's really no one to talk to at work. (Sarah was out of town this week at a conference for returning JETs) When you live alone in a foreign country, there's a very real possibility of going insane from lack of human contact.

But I tried to solve that problem by calling my Mom today. (I miss my Mommy!) And last night I invited Katsuya over to watch TV with me, which makes it a lot less lonely in my apt. I guess we're sorta dating now, but in a casual way. Which is just fine with me. I don't want anything serious right now that would cause emotional messiness when I leave in 2 months. It's just nice to have some companionship for now. And he actually does speak pretty good English. On our 3rd date he all of a sudden starting speaking English. Maybe he just started to feel more comfortable. Which is great because ever since I got back from my trip to the US I've sorta stopped speaking Japanese. I just don't really care anymore about improving in Japanese and it can be so frustrating that I've given up trying for now. I just speak enough to survive here.

I've been craving something holy lately. I have this urge to go to a dark Gothic cathedral or a mountain temple with monks chanting. I meditated the other day, which is something I don't do enough (or at all really). I used to meditate once a week with my favorite English teacher in high school (random, I know, but we were both into Buddhism and started this club that really only had us as regular members) and it's sad how I just don't do it anymore. Especially considering how much free time I have here. And how I know about how meditation is good for depression etc. As a quick fix I bought two books by the Dalai Lama, while I was at the Seoul airport. I know it wasn't logical since they were expensive and now I have to ship them home, but I just felt that I NEEDED them. I bought "The Art of Happiness" and "The Path to Tranquility". Both are great so far. When I finish maybe I'll write a more thorough analysis.

I feel like I should go somewhere this weekend, but I'm feeling a bit apathetic. It's expensive, rainy season is about to start, and I'm just TIRED of traveling alone. It gets so lonely staying in crappy hotel rooms by myself. Plus there's nowhere I'm DYING to go to that could be done in a weekend. The places I really want to go to right now are a little farther away. New York. France. Italy. Switzerland. Greece. I'm just so bored of Asia! All these cities are beginning to seem the same. So I'm starting to daydream about my next trip to Europe. Or more importantly, moving HOME.

My new happy thing for this week is peanut butter in ice-cream. With some chocolate sauce and sprinkles. Mmmmmm. I recommend it.