howl like the good wolf you are

 I found this somewhere out on the web.  I thought that it was pretty fantastic so i'm puttin it here for you all to enjoy as well.  I'm off to Fukue for a fantastic matsuri today and should be enjoying some sumo and festival food as you all enjoy Saturday night cocktails back in the states.  Be well...



One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson
about a battle that goes on inside all people.


He said, “My son, the battle is between two
wolves that dwell inside each and everyone of us.


“One is Evil.
It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed,
arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority,
lies, false pride, superiority and ego.


The other is Good.
It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility,
kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity,
truth, compassion and faith.”


The grandson thought about it for
a minute, and then asked his grandfather:


“Which wolf will win ?”


The old Cherokee simply replied:
“The one you feed.”

nothing like a big piece of love

i took this photo on my keitai (cell phone) today (and appologies, i cant figure out how to rotate the thing!) of this cake that one of my students created in art class that is being displayed outside of the teacher's room at the jr high/elementary school.  at first it caught me because i thought that my student had flubbed up the english, but then i realized that they really got it right.  there is an intentional play on words happening here and i love that one of them was clever enough to figure that out.  a sweet little piece of art if you ask me...

"If you judge people, you never have time to love them." Mother Teresa

namaste friends,

beth

bring on another round

just to let you all out there reading know.  moments ago i turned in my recontracting papers to my supervisor.  he read it over and when he realized what it was gave me a huge smile.  it meas a LOT less work for him next year, thats why hes excited.  it means another year of crazy japan living for me, thats why im excited.  see you all stateside in august 2011...fingers crossed.

kanpai!

beth

and the winner is...

me!  apparently i am a big winner around here because i have been able to claim a day and a half of the sick days that were allotted to me in my contract this year.  i have a cold.  just your regular run-of-the-mill blowing of the nose every ten minutes and coughing up some gnarly tasting phlegm every few hours.  nothing too life threatening or severe, im sure in fact that many of you back in the states have had these same symptoms this winter season and marched on right through work along with your other cold suffering collegues.  its nothing, right?  just what you expect from winter and how you deal with it.  but it shouldnt surprise you by now to learn that this is soooooo not the way that it is dealt with here.

i came to work on wednesday feeling a bit under the weather as i said.  though i knew that i was not super sick i thought seeing a doctor wouldnt hurt and its super super cheap to do so here, so what the hell, right?  i walked into the main office of the high school and asked my favorite lady on the whole island for a bit of help.  immediately she asked what she could do for me and i simply asked if maybe she could make me an appointment to see the doctor.  whoa...she jumped into action whipping open her filing cabinet and retrieved a mask for me instructing me to put it on while dialing the hospital number with her other hand.  as she waited for the phone to ring she asked the principal if it was okay if she took to the hospital and she granted her the priveldge no problem.  get the sick girl out of here was really the idea.  so moments later i was whisked three blocks away in tanaka-san's little car to the hospital and ushed into a private room with a nurse ready with her thermometer and japanese translation book.  i was asked lots of questions and answered them with broken broken japanese as i could.  the doctor arrived shortly after and asked a few more questions (she speaks okay english, okay) and stuck a dipstick deep into my nose to test me for the dreaded infruenza!!!!, which i knew i didnt have but wanted them to know so i obliged to their test.  it came back negative but at the end of the visit i walked out of the hospital with FOUR different medications and strict instructions to rest and not come back to work.  tanaka-san had been on the phone as asked permission for me to take the rest of the day off and the next and my pricipal okayed this as well.  nice. 
now i have enjoyed a few days at home sleeping off this cold and catching up on the latest american movies and just being able to relax and enjoy in japan for awhile.  when i returned today i knew though that i would need to mask up for the fear was in all of my collegues eyes that i was still infected and might spread the nastiness to them.  my supervisor passed me a sheet handed down to him from my principal and vice principal that was granting me a day and a half of sick leave.  he told me that i was very lucky that they were giving me the sick days and not taking them out of my nenkyuu or days off for the year.  he then told me that he has NEVER been granted a sick day.  jeez, jeez, jeez, whoa, whoa, whoa! 
there is just a certain work ethic that runs deep in this country.  though they are scared to death of being sick, they usually work through it and mask up so that no one will be in danger (this makes me laugh out loud) of catching it.  every collegue that i work with who has been sick this year will show up and perform whatever is necessary to get done for the day and THEN go home and feel better.  they might take another day of nenkyuu if they are really feeling bad, but most times they show up the next morning ready to get back at it.  these people live to work it seems and it makes me feel so bad most days knowing that i am the last to arrive in the mornings (or close to the last) and the first to leave every afternoon.  i work with teachers who leave for school when i get up in the morning and dont return until after i have eaten dinner and been relaxing for hours.  it is really so weird but i am learning that it is just their way. 
so today i tell you i am the big winner around here.  seriously.  i got the magic sick days that no one else seems to be able to use, but i know that they all have.  being gaijin here has its good points sometimes.  *cough, cough*

be well back home, spring is around the corner!
big hugs and warm love to you all,
beth

pictures!

the back side of the tori shinto entrance on new years.  it was an amazing place to be and sooo busy.  

so here is the busy scene that was witnessed on the stairs leading up to the entrance gate.

this was the first buddhist temple that we visited after midnight.  it was much quieter and mellow than the rest of the stops that evening.  very zen.

this is the entrance up to the main gates of the shinto shrine where we threw money and clapped and bowed.  a super hoppin spot and the vendors were there in droves.  it was pretty entertaining.

and here i am ringing the bell at first buddhist temple.  the temple was high above the city and sported an amazing view.

this is spectacles bridge.  the most famous bridge in nagasaki and it is waaaay old and has been rebuilt a few times due to destructive flooding.  right outside and down the street from the hostel where i stay when i'm in town.

this is some signage outside a yakitori restaurant in chinatown district.  these are a fine example of the sort of english that can be seen everywhere in this country.  never fails to bring a good laugh.  nothing like a nice scorch bird.  mmmmm...

some really sweet looking old guys playing chess in the park.  spent plenty of time watching them and shooting the birds and kids that were playing there.  a lovely new year's day in nagasaki.

 the gate of the park entrance.  hey, it's a city park, why not go a little fancy?!

this little girl chased the pigeons for a good hour.  she was sooo excited every time they would gather and she could bum rush them.  i had a blast watching her.

 

here is the park entrance gate from my perch on the other side of the park.  the gates to enter the chinatown district are right behind them.

and here i am.  wearing the lovely house clothes provided by the hotel in ioujima.  people wore these to dinner, to the onsen, to ping pong and to breakfast.  i just wore them in the room, maybe next time i'll suck it up and wear them outside.

just a bit of the buffet spread that was encountered at dinner.  soooo overwhelming and more fresh fish then i have EVER seen in my life.  it was really a wonderful way to start vacation.

and to top it all off...grey jello!  that's right folks.  there are just too many things to even mention that happen here that are so far out of the spectrum of what i am used to.  this is just a fine example.  no i did not try it.  what flavor do you suppose grey is?!  i didn't really want to find out that much and thought that i probably wouldn't be able to identify it anyhow.  i will mention here that grey is the color of most chewing gum here.  it is mint flavor.  yum, grey food!

watch out!

this is what most people look like here when flu season arrived. it doesnt mean you are sick, just being cautious. i think its a little nuts!

the year of the tiger has commenced

happy new year!!!!  okay, so the new year kind of crept up on me, much like a tiger on her prey.  it is indeed the year of the tiger here and i am feeling a renewed sense of wonder with life as new challenges arise.  as i am sure that my holiday time was much different than anyones back in the states i will ramble here about my end of year holiday:

i had the lovelist of holidays over my new year break and spent one night in ioujima (a little island just a 20 minute ferry ride from ohato harbor in nagasaki).  it was beautiful and calming to spend a night right on the sea.  for a quick fix in life nothing beats it.

after one night in ioujima i spent five beautiful, lazy nights with the good folks at the akari hostel near the temple district in nagasaki.  there are always lots of travelers coming and going day in and day out there from all over the world and it is always fun to meet them and share a cup of coffee and a little chat.  so many people dazzled by the culture and life that is japan.  it is great to share common and contrasting experiences with them.

i hadnt really made plans for new years eve when i came and did the whole 'see what life brings' sort of thing.  turns out that one of my gaijin friends who lives the next island over was in nagasaki with her friend from the states and so ben and i met them new years eve at the local gaijin bar for some magic.  its a local hot spot called the 'crazy horse' and there are plenty of crazy things going on in there on any given night.  we had checked it out the night before eve just to make sure that it would be open (many, many things close for new years here and for a few days that follow.  when i got home EVERYTHING in naru was closed.  EVERTHING.) and we happened upon an all japanese beatles cover band.  let me tell you that you have never heard 'hard days night' until you have seen five (yes, five.  i know its not right, but they didnt seem to care) 50-odd something's jamming it like it's going out of style.  i didnt know whether to laugh or sing along and so i did both.  i knew dad would be proud that i knew the lyrics better than the lead singer.  it's true and at one point after singing 'nowhere man' he covered the mic and leaned over to ask me 'what is nowhere man meaning?'.  i translated as well as i could but told him that it wasnt supposed to make perfect sense anyhow.  i asked him 'wakaru?' (do you understand) and he smiled and flashed me a big peace sign.  right on man, right on.  but, new years night there were more and different rock-n-rollers in the house and we were all singing and playing and just having a real dandy time.  midnight came without a countdown or champange toast, but quickly after the bar owner, Yubo, asked us all if we were ready to go.  sure!, where are we going?  without really understanding i hopped into a cab with my two gaijin girls and my new japanese friend Takeshi and whizzed off to a nearby buddhist temple.  turns out once we got there that our cabbie had taken us to the wrong one to meet the rest of the gang from the bar.   it is tradition for japanese people to visit a shrine or a temple in the first hours of the new year, or the first few days of the new year and so the place was packed!  at the buddhist temples there are huge bells outside with huge wooden ringers that you swing back and make the biggest bang (just one) that you can followed by bowing (duh!) and making a wish.  after we realized that indeed we were at the wrong temple and had all had a go at the bell we hopped in another cab and got to the right one where we met the rest of the gang from the bar.  the next was the biggest buddhist temple in the city and there were a huge, elaborate, golden shrines set up inside where monks were chanting and praying.  we silently entered and took seats to observe the chanting and to light some insense offering prayers of our own for new years blessings.  i was not able to take pictures in such a sacred place but let me tell you that what i saw and felt in there i will never forget in my whole life.  it was a truly moving and awakening experience for us all.  after we exited the sanctuary we were usshered into a room where we were given tea and soup by sweet old women in house aprons.  i thought that was were we would end the night, but oh, wrong again.  after moments of savoring the delicious (vegetarian!!!!!, buddhists, right!?) soup our leader and his wife got up and told us we had another stop.  one more cab ride and we were let out into the biggest crowd of the night.  we were at the biggest shinto shrine in nagasaki and it was hoppin!  wide staircases up through tori gates were filled with people, so much so that there were policemen on duty to let just the right amount of people up at a time.  given our chance we climbed the stairs and worked our way to the open shrine where we threw coins and bowed and clapped offering our thanks and recieving the blessings that the new year may bring.  then we were offered small dishes of spiced sake and shown to the reception area.  this was all outside mind you and on the other side of the offering and sake lines there were all kinds of vendors set up ready to please a slightly-buzzed and very cheerful new years crowd.  you could get everything from chocolate covered bananas to takoyaki to cheese on a stick and beers to boot!  what a way to end the night im tellin ya!  we enjoyed all the above for many moments and had a good time sitting around heaters sharing with friends new and old, japanese and american.  it was a really wonderful way to ring in the new year and i feel so blessed to have been a part of it. 

as for resolutions of the new year sort i didnt make any that night.  i didnt even really think about it.  it is just not what they do and so i kind of forget about it.  i have thought about it though now that we are a week into the year and i have decided that i want to be more creative and to be more willing to share my creativity with the world this year.  i want to be not so uptight about sharing my writing (see, yes i have already begun right here!) and paint however i chose and sing when people are listening and speak and listen when the time is right.  these are my resolutions, i hope you are making some of your own that are challenging and fun. 

be well friends and make 2010 great in your own ways.  thanks for staying in touch,
beth

ps-pictures later, im at work now and dont have access to them.  though i am back at school i dont have lessons for another week and that leaves me a lot of time to catch up with all of you.  dont be surprised if i get to a bloggin a few more times this week.