雨! ame! rain!

this was the flight of stairs that i had to climb this morning on my way to work.  no, it is not a pretty waterfall that is nearby, it is stairs. 

i woke up this morning (for the second time) at about 5am to the wonderful sounds of rain (HARD rain) intermixed with thundering booms and flashes of lightning.  it was fantastic as i have missed the good old midwest storms with these elements since i have been living in the NW.  naru has given me one of the best storms of my life today.  thunder has sounded for most of the day and it has rained more here in the last 12 hours than i have ever seen it rain in my life.  the streets this morning were like rivers, and as you can see from this keitai snap shot, water was flowing everywhere.  i rather liked it, but the islanders didnt so much and started elementary/jr high an hour late due to the excessive downpour. 

fingers crossed that it does not interfere with my travels back to the states that start tomorrow.  look out america, here i come!!

reaquainted with summer

i'm going to say this before i post this so those who need to know, know.  if you are either one of my sisters and you are reading this, it is in your best interest to just skip this post.  you won't be missing out on anything i promise and you'll sleep better tonight anyhow.  okay, and now that i have said that, i will go ahead and add that if you don't like spiders, no really really really don't like spiders you too can go ahead and quit reading now and i promise that it won't hurt my feelings.

so today is spider day here it seems, or at least my getting reacquainted with them day.  you'd have to be an idiot to think that you can live in a place like this with this much lushness and greenery all around you and not be prone to having a run in or ten with "wild life" everyday.  it just happens and i happen to love it, though i know there are people on the island that aren't that thrilled with it.  one of the most predominant species of "wild life" in naru is the spider.  my old friend and i happen to be very facinated with them and how many shapes, sizes and colors they come in and how cool their webs are ect.  so i welcome their presence, but today i was reminded that they are back in a few interesting ways.

first encounter:  i was almost through my bento today.  the regular saba bento that i usually have and i went to take a chopstick full of rice and realized there was something moving in the tray.  well, it was a spider of course.  not a big spider, but one of the jumping ones that we have here.  they run across my desk from time to time so it wasn't a huge surprise, but in my lunchbox!  this was a new one.  i carefully picked up my tray and walked it outside and deposited said spider back into it's home.  i was now finished with lunch it seemed.

second encounter:  simple and honest.  spider web removal from both the basket of my bike and the laundry lines on my porch.  no big deals here.  doing my best to keep spiders safe while i did it and make sure that they get somewhere without me trampling on them.  easy.

third encounter:  folding laundry on the couch and see something moving.  a spider about the size of a tennis ball (pretty average size for this species here) moves from beneath my underwear.  we can't have that now can we!  so i fetch a soup bowl from the kitchen and make haste to get it back to its home.  mission accomplished with some coaxing and directional talk after he dropped out of the bowl on our way to the door.

this spider stuff is taking some time today.  i think i am meant to be paying attention to what is surrounding me and being more careful about what i am doing and observing things a bit closer perhaps.  either way, spiders are here to stay and so am i...for awhile longer at least.  i'm glad that we get along so well.  thanks for having me on your island spiders, trees, hawks, crows and everything else that makes up this beautiful place.  well done.

doctor woes

so, though i have tried as earnestly as i can to avoid seeing any and all doctors while i am here in japan, (much like i do back in the states.  sorry i know you hate to hear that mom.)  i have ended up seeing quite a few in the last few months.  i have shared my great success in seeing two eye doctors and as thrilling as that was, i knew that my luck would run out at some point, and last week it did indeed.

after my longest day of teaching two weeks ago (13 hours and seven classes) i came home as usual and just wanted to sit down and have a relaxing moment with a nice biru.  i cracked open the can and took a hefty slurp and OOOOOWWWWWWWWWWCHHHH! that not good wonderful feeling of a raw nerve being dipped into beer-y coldness happened.  many expletives went through my mind at that point, as i have had a root canal before and remember that this was the feeling of where that fun time originated.  i thought maybe it was a fluke feeling though and stupidly tried for another drink, smaller this time, but alas, the same pain.  so i one-side chewed my way through some room temperature noodles and vegetables, left the beer on the table and tried to sleep.

the next day i knew that i had to do something about all of this and so i got the ball rolling by asking my jr high JTE (japanese teacher of english) if she knew if naru even had a dentist.  she said that in fact we did (HUGE surprise to me, HUGE!) but that i should ask nohara sensei (a goto island native and has been in naru for a few years now) more about it.  so i went to ask her and she said that yes we did have a dentist here, but she said it in the unique japanese way that means yes but no.  i pried a bit more as politely as i could and tried to tell her about the pain i was in and that eating and drinking anything at this point was kind of hard and so the quicker the better on the fix sort of deal, but she then dared to tell me NOT to see the dentist here.  in case you are not aware, any japanese person telling you anything definitely is kind of a big deal.  they will usually politely dance around a no as long as they can and then just leave you with a smile about whatever you were asking their opinion of.  she gave me her no but then, in perfect japanese fashion, passed the buck onto an authority, the school nurse.  she said that before i decide that i should go talk to yoshihara sensei about it and get her opinion on the dentist here.  i didnt have time to see her just then and had to run back to the high school so i told her i would return and we could get her opinion together.  no problem she assured me.

so back to the high school teaching with a different teacher who is married to a naru native and had been here awhile.  nakagawa sensei (i believe that you got a blurry shot of him sleeping in the karaoke bar awhile back here?!...) said that he has seen the dentist here and that he had done a nice job with his teeth and was no worse for the wear after seeing him.  his smile is good and his teeth are not bad looking, so now i have his opinion to take into consideration also.  okay okay...

back to the jr high for another class and a talk with the nurse.  nohara sensei accompanies me and as soon as she asks the nurse, yoshihara sensei, about the dentist i know the answer.  she advises me that i should just work on getting an appointment with a dentist on fukue and that it would be a much better idea to avoid seeing the dentist here.  technically she says that the dentists in fukue are very good and that the dentist here is okay.  i get the message and i start to get a little nervous.  i need the dentist NOW and an appointment in fukue will take at least three or four days to arrange, maybe longer.  i ask nohara sensei to see if she can set up the appointment with the very good doctor for me on the following tuesday, four days from then.

back to the high school and word has gotten around that i need a dentist.  my all too eager friend and tea lady is on the case and tells me that she has already gotten me an appointment with the dentist here and that i can go with one of the office guys who is going anyway this afternoon.  now i am nervous, but willing to go as she tells me that the woman who was here last year doing my job went and all was well.  okay, that is two people that say he is okay and who i trust and two people who say he's "okay".  im in pain, i am going to take a chance.

so that afternoon i walk down the street to the dentists office.  i have passed this building hundreds of times by now but have never known what it was exactly.  just a tiny little place that felt a lot like a trailer, but no wheels.  breathe beth, breathe.  the woman behind the counter was friendly enough and the waiting room chairs were comfortable enough to doze a little in as i waited.  okay, maybe this will be alright i thought.  finally after all of the other folks had gone i was called back to wait in a dentist chair for the doctor.  i was feeling really nervous now at seeing the "doctors rooms" and realizing they were pretty dusty and old.  there were two chairs in the room separated only by a partition so i could hear everything that was going on with the office guy's visit, though i did my best to ignore the drilling i was hearing with some nice reading material i found on a chair beside me.  it was a nice little magazine with a picture of a japanese golfer on the cover.  a sports magazine i thought, this will be fine.  well the first half of the magazine had a bunch of various articles in it; cooking and home wares, beauty and sports, and even a few short comic stories.  as i turned casually to the back of the magazine though something happened in it, all of  a sudden there were naked japanese women on the pages.  not just a little naked, fully naked women in the strangest naked-woman poses i have ever witnessed.  i laughed out loud, maybe due to surprise and put it down and took up another issue to see if it was a fluke.  strolling through a new issue i found that the first half was again very family, casual home maker oriented and then it happened again...but this time it was a comic strip of a woman demonstrating how to um, how do i say this nicely, servicing a man.  yes a comic strip.  and of course then after the comic strip there were more awkward naked lady photos.  i was laughing out of amusement now and put it back on the chair for fear that the doctor would walk in a see me checking out nihonjin boobies.  oh japan, you are always full of surprises.

so now i was in a little bit of a lighter mood and feeling better despite becoming more and more aware of how old all of the equipment and tools were that surrounded me, including the ones which he would be putting in my mouth.  so for a few more slightly tense moments i sat and waited and then heard the dentist approach.  i did my best to tell him in japanese what was going on with my tooth and he did his best in english to try and help.  he poked around in my mouth and then told me that my problem was not with my teeth at all.  i politely explained that there was a sharp pain in my tooth and that there must be something wrong with it.  he then instructed his nurse to give me an x-ray while he sat in his office and smoked and found that my tooth was in fine shape and told me again that my problem was not with my teeth at all but rather with my bite.  with choppy english, crazy japanese and some help from some dentist props he told me that i was a grinder and that was my issue.  nothing with my teeth, i was grinding my teeth and that was why ONE of my teeth hurt so acutely.  he sent me home with some ibuprofen and told me to come back next week.  needless to say i walked out of there feeling very frustrated and freaked out. 

luckily i had already started plan B into action and nohara sensei had set up an appointment for me on the following tuesday.  she said i needed to take someone with me to help translate and my supervisor at the high school agreed with strange enthusiasm.  so the wait began for the good dentist...

tuesday finally came and we left early to get there in plenty of time to sit outside the office for an hour before it opened.  upon walking through the doors i already felt better about this dentist as nurses flew around the office in clean uniforms and were doing a meticulous job of cleaning the entire office.  there was hope...

i got back to the chair and must say that i was surprised at how wonderful the whole experience was.  my nurse was kind and gentle and tried very hard to speak english with me that she knew even though she knew i had an interpreter.  while she was in my mouth though it was really nice to have someone speak for me when she was asking a question, as i had given my supervisor the full run down of what was wrong with my teeth and any other health information that i thought would be helpful.  the just exchanged the information that was needed and he let me know what was going on.  none of that awkward trying to talk while there are dental tools in your mouth.  i now feel strongly that everyone should take someone with them to the dentist, as it is a much nicer process all together.

the dentist finally came in and did a great job of speaking his little english with me as well.  he was a kind and gentle man also and after only a few moments of poking around in my mouth he came out with the news that i had not one, not two but THREE cavities and not to worry that he could fill them painlessly.  relief.  i finally knew that i was not crazy for feeling this tiny, sharp pain and that i could rest assured that i really was not a grinder as the other doctor had said.  (WHATTT!!!!????  i have never ground my teeth.)  he fixed me right up with some Novocaine and had me out of there in under an hour.  it was not without its laughs though as i think that the whole office at some point stopped by to take a look at my teeth (kirei! honto! aaaaaa!) and at one point my supervisor, the dentist and two nurses hovered over my face with their eyes in my mouth.  my supervisor even hit his head on the dentists light as he tried to move back, that is how close they all were!  it was interesting to hear the dentist talk about how different my teeth were from the japanese teeth he is used to treating and that it must have to do with the anthropological differences in our origins.  he was interested in asking about the permanent wires in my mouth that my orthodontist put there years ago after my braces were removed.  he thinks highly of my american teeth doctors i can tell you that much.

and so in the end i am pain free and have been reassured that my teeth will be fine.  oh and i have insurance to cover it all and so getting 3 cavities filled, having a full on inspection and cleaning cost me about 30$ US.  hell of a deal.

let's biking goto!

these beautiful ladies accompanied me to kamigoto for the weekend along with about 30 other English teachers from our prefecture (state in japanese terms) last weekend.  we biked the island and had a super party afterwords.  what a wonderful way to spend a weekend; island hopping on a bike!

this is kamigoto and some smaller islands surrounding it.  kamigoto is about an hour ferry ride from naru.  as the crow flys though, it really cant be more than half a mile away.  the ferry just has to cruise through a lot of other islands to get there and that takes time i guess.  a beautiful boat ride anyhow.

more kamigoto

kamigoto flowers (we have the same ones in naru of course)

i slept on the beach after the party.  it was glorious to wake up to the sound of the sea and the bright sunshine.  oh and there was that fisherman that was pretty much standing over me when i woke up and proceeded to talk to me for about ten minutes right after i woke up.  nothing like practicing your japanese first thing in the morning!

hope life is warm and sunny where you all are living.  inside and out i am feeling love and warmth here in japan.  golden week coming soon and i can't wait!!!! 

Naru Apato-Mogie!

As I recently have promised my dear aunt Mogie that I would upload some pictures of my humble abode in Japan I felt it necessary to follow through...and so here is the grand tour for all of you who are curious as to what my apato in Japan looks like!  And yes, it is much bigger than I thought that it would be, but it is not BIG by any means.

This is what I would see if you were knocking on my front door before I opened it to (maybe???) let you in.  The entryway I guess some folks would call it.  I call it the place where I leave my shoes, coats and umbrellas.

And this is what you would see when (if???) I let you in.  The toilet room is the door on the left there and the bath/washing machine room is just off to the right there.  Straight ahead is the kitchen/eating space and then the room with the yoga mat on the floor and the couch is my bedroom/yoga space/movie viewing room.  The nasty reflection back there is coming off of my back door which opens to the art studio.  Oh, I will mention here that the floors in the entryway/kitchen are wood and the floors in the bed/yoga space are tatami (woven bamboo) mats.  You NEVER wear shoes on tatami, believe me, Japanese people will really freak out.  Really.

Okay, I know I said I wouldn't talk about potties anymore, but just one more time cause this is cool.  This is the toilet room off to the left in the last photo and my, well (western, obviously) toilet!  It is the only thing in the room and as you will notice there is a faucet and a basin on top of the commode in lieu of having a whole separate sink in the room.  Saves time and water like this: When you flush the toilet the faucet on top starts running and you can wash your hands with that water and as you wash your hands that water then runs into the bowl of the toilet filling it for next time you need to use the toilet with your soapy water.  Genius I tell you.  Why don't we do this in America?  This is a standard toilet in most homes and restaurants and the like.  Seriously genius.  Don't even get me started on the TP roll dispenser.  It is amazing too.

And if you peered into the room across from the toilet room you would find this; my washing/bathroom.  There is a standard sink in here with a mirror and the washing machine you see here and a door that opens into the shower/bathroom.  The shower room is quite large and you can sit or stand or whatever in there really as the shower head is adjustable/movable and the tub is quite a bit deeper than the standard American tub.  When I sit in it it covers my shoulders.  Those flat plastic things you see there in between the tub and the washer are to cover the tub so you can reuse the water.  Japanese people don't get into the tub when they are dirty, they use it after they have bathed in the shower and just use it to soak, so when they are done they can cover the water and use it again the next day or hours later or whatever.  Another good idea, but I never do it and use the tub as I was trained to do back home; to take a bath in.  For shame!

Here is a better shot of the tub.  See, it's deeper!  Deeper is better I can assure you...

Okay, so we have arrived in the kitchen!  This is the cooking/washing area, the same side of the apato as the wash/bath room for reference.  Featured here is from right to left; my refrigerator/freezer (Japanese size!) with my microwave/oven on top of it and my toaster oven on top of that, my sink, dish drying/dinner preparing area, my stove top i.e. glorified camping stove.  Behind the sink is where I keep many dry foods and dishes (European style which is a little weird considering where I am, but whatever) and in the foreground there is my moving island which stores food and serves as a floating eating/preparation space.

This is the opposite side of the kitchen.  The table with my exercise ball which I often just use as a chair, bamboo shelving above it and the bookcase in the corner.  Loads of art on the wall there and heaps of stuff in the corner on the wall are my home phone, (yes I have one!  How about that!?) the island intercom system (announces important things to all of us at its discretion like when the dentist is coming over and if a ferry is canceled or delayed.  So helpful when I can understand it I'm sure.) and a phone that allows me to talk to whomever may be at my door when they ring.  The doors separating the rooms are sliding of course and can be opened wide or totally closed leaving the spaces separate.  I love the sliding doors in my house and there is also one that separates the kitchen and the entry way.  Really does wonders for heating/cooling quickly.

Now into the bed/yoga/whatever room.  My bed is there folded up on the right side.  I left it out so you could see it, but it can be put away in a jiff and the room becomes a bit more spacious.  There is a table over in the corner which serves as a night stand/dinner table/computer workspace and myriad other purposes.  Nothing too exciting here.

And here it all is from the back door.  Oh and yes, all of the lighting is FLORESCENT! and I LOVE it!  (sarcasm does not usually work via written communication, sorry.)

Here is the room from the kitchen.  You can see the AC/heater on the wall above the couch and no, I never sit on the couch.  It folds out into a futon (American idea of futon) style sleeper, but it is not that comfortable.  The floor is better in my opinion. 

Okay and finally the art studio.  A wonderful space to get lost in on any night that allows me a little time to escape.  Directly above this space are the lines that I hang my laundry on to dry and opposite this side of the porch is where I store my recycling ect.  Not a ton of space but I'm makin' it work.

That's it for me.  Off to the studio for awhile before I have to climb back onto the floor for bed and work again tomorrow.  Life is flowing full throttle here in Naru!

Be well tomodachis!

feeling good

went to fukue for the day to see mates there and enjoy being away from everyone i know here.  had the most delicious vegetarian lunch at the local co-op and got a massage there as well.  the massage was 90 minutes long and cost about $35.  the only draw back was that i had to leave all of my clothes on.  yes, it was weird, but i guess that is the japanese way and i'm not too keen on it, but it still felt nice to be massaged.  when i come home this summer i want mama mel's hands on bare skin.  is that too much for a girl to ask?

ends and beginnings

along with every other thing that they do differently here the japanese have graduation for students at all levels in the spring.  my high school kids graduated two weeks ago and today my jr high and 6th grade students graduated as well.  it is a VERY different ceremony than what i am used to experiencing in the states and totally formal and pretty rigid if you ask me.  loads of standing up and bowing and sitting down and standing up and on and on.  loads of speeches from people who the students may or may not recognize and a few somber little songs thrown in for fun.  all of the students are required to participate as graduation falls on a school day.  the most touching part of the ceremony was when a few representatives of each graduating class gave short inspriational messages to the other classes.  in return a few representatives from those classes stood and gave glad parting and congratulatory words to them.  most teachers were crying but i have to be honest, i didnt really try that hard to understand what they were saying like i did during the high school ceremony (tear jerker!) because i was facing a huge window that had the most wonderful view of outside and i was totally daydreaming about laying on the beach here really soon.  hey, you would probably have been drawn to do the same thing if you were in my place.  we were able to clap at the end as the students who were graduating were leaving, that was my favorite part because i could move again without being the fidgety gaijin.  and so the school year wraps up here in naru and it feels, well, really weird.  it could have to do with the fact that i walked past of few of my graduating students on the way to school this morning as they were packing their bags and noticed that they were including a straightening iron in their things; it was two of my 9th grade boys.   oh japan you just always throw a curve ball dont you?

happy spring to all of you and happy birthday to my beautiful momma.  her birthday is tomorrow and it is an epic one.  im so glad that i got to see her last week along with all of the rest of my family and hold them each for a moment and catch up on life.  though we gathered under very sad circumstances we all managed to speak of and share in the joy that our beloved KC had shared with each of us in her life.  what a wonderful thing to have such beautiful people inside and out in my life. 

im blessed beyond belief