長崎Nagasaki vs. 福岡Fukuoka

I was lucky enough to score a ticket to the game, but Fukuoka can't seem to score much at all...
I'm amused by the song they're using - sounds just like "Dinah (won't you blow your horn?)"

a little sideways...

(not as in the movie!)

For some reason, my keitai (phone) is now saving my photos in a way that doesn't let me edit/rotate them. I have no idea why this was saved sideways, but, oh, well!

This is from the baseball game the other day. Unfortunately, our team lost, but we all were quite impressed with the solar eclipse that coincided with the game. It made things a bit cooler in the stadium. :) On the way to the stadium, I was teaching kids the "Take me out to the ball game" song, but we didn't have a chance to use it during the game, since they had so many other cheers! These kids do an aMAZing job of cheering for each other! Every time our team was up, so was the entire school - on their feet, doing some kind of cheer. It was pretty exhausting, but so much fun!

YES we CAN (and did!)!

Well, although I thought I was going to DIE running in the school marathon today (my first race ever), I MIRACULOUSLY not only FINISHED, but I also wasn't last! In fact, I placed 1st among the female teachers who ran!

To be fair, though, I was also the only female teacher to run, but...details, details.

Here I am with some of the ichinensei girls (~10th graders) after our race. When we were finished running, we cheered the boys on as they ran their race.

(look - I'm even vertical and not some shade of green!)

Towards the end of the boys' race, I got the ninensei here to do an impromptu "Yes, we can!" cheer. It took a few tries, but I finally got a pic with the girls in the back jumping up yelling "can!"

I never thought I could take up running, and I'm by no means good at it, BUT it amazes me what one can accomplish by just continuing to put one foot in front of the other.

It was really nice to have people cheering me on along the way, too :) Thanks!

my fans

One of these days I may, just may, begin to like running...but for now, I really count on my smiling supporters I see every morning at the sports park. I've been dragging myself out there most mornings before school to run, and afterwards I try to practice my Japanese with the otoshiyori ("elderly people") who gather at the park every morning to do rajio taiso (an exercise routine set to music that is broadcast every morning). I happened to see these extra fans on my run this morning ;)

The Wall

Did I mention this before?
I've taken up climbing. Well, I've only been able to 'take it up' about half way on this wall, but I'm giving it a go. It's much more difficult than I expected. I kind of feel like there's no way to practice or train, I just have to DO IT. I'd really like a vertical wall for warm up, but, I guess I just have to grit my teeth and just push myself on this one. The guy at the bottom there on belay keeps egging me on - telling me that it's so easy to make excuses to not come and climb, but he's doing a good job of ticking me off enough to make sure I keep coming back and challenging the wall :)

One of the great things about being here in Japan is that I never quite know what to expect. That can certainly work for or against me. But this time I lucked out. I ended up finding this wall when I was at our sports festival at the gym here in Nagasaki city. I was curious, so I wandered over to see what this was all about. I think I still prefer rapelling, but this will do for now.

would you believe...

...these girls are actually competing against each

other to win an unagi dinner.
What?
The contestants are paired up, and at the signal,
they both try to catch one of the unagi (eels) swimming
around in the little pool here. The first one to catch and throw
one out of the pool (yes, onto the ground for it to start
wriggling in the direction of onlookers!) wins the unagi dinner.
I'm sure that the nearby unagi restaurant sponsored
this event, which was one of the many activities that
was going on during the Kawamatsuri (River Festival).

Can you believe that my town is famous for these things? I mean - as in when you come to Isahaya, you need to eat their trademark dish, unagi. It is usually grilled with a sweet(ish) sauce and served over hot, white rice. It's also popular served as sushi (still grilled).

Go, Japan!

So I walked into the staff room last week and saw the volleyball coach crouching on a Japanese flag on top of the table....?
Turns out he was writing (in Japanese with a brush) some words of encouragement to a former Isahaya High School student who is going to be in this year's Olympics! Many other people signed the flag, and the school had a big ceremony to present this alumnus with the flag and this "senbatsuru" (1000 cranes) made by the students. Some of you may know that the making of 1,000 paper origami cranes is a kind of good luck charm. Unfortunately, I had a business trip and couldn't go to the ceremony (and so I'm fuzzy on the details of all of this). I even heard about this athlete at my Japanese brush painting class, since this guy was from that little neighborhood, and while I was having class, many of the neighbors were having an enkai (dinner party) in his honor.
The link here takes you to our school's webpage, and if you click on the upper left photo, it will give you a pdf to open so you can read all about the event. Well, that is, if you can read Japanese - but there are a few photos, too :)

Class Match - Day 2

10:17am
87F/29C & counting...
As you know, my kids at school here are always CRAzY busy with classes, extra classes, tons of homework, coming to school on Saturdays and during their 'vacations'...BUT yesterday and today they've been able to let loose a little at the "Class Match" sports competitions. I took these photos from the top of the gym as I looked down on the school grounds at the volleyball and soccer matches.

Each class has teams for volleyball, soccer, badminton, basketball, & dodgeball. As I sit up here in the air conditioned haven of the teacher's room, I can hear their continuous cheers of encouragement, and intermittent frenetic coaxing to help their team get that extra push they need at that moment. Have I mentioned that I adore my students here? Days like today it's so refreshing to see the pure joy and determination in what they're doing.

Yesterday I stayed outside most of the day playing with the kids as they practiced for their volleyball games (I kept trying to get on a team, but wasn't successful). However, one of my classes was short a basketball player, and so - how much do I love my kids? Apparently A LOT...cause even though the game was only 10 minutes long, I swear I almost DIED. Why do people play that game on purpose for FUN? It's sadIStic, is what it is - all that running around back and forth, stopping, running, stopping, jumping...lunacy it is, yo! Somebody get me a yoga class...
Well, I should quit procrastinating and get out there and start sweating with the students -

The Sensei-tions! Play Place VBall Champs

Well, we placed 3rd, anyway. Even won some money (which couldn't easily be divided, so we just gave it to our local charity). I'm not exactly sure what "Play Place" is, but Jared (the guy with glasses on my right) rounded up some of us Isahaya ALTs (including Colin 'the Tall' and Dean - the Aussie) to participate in a "barebaru" tournament with this social group of young Japanese people. They were all very genki, but man it was painful to watch - I don't even think if there were refs that they would have had a clue as to how to call the game. So we just had fun. At least no one was too competitive. Though the game should have been easy (considering our height and the net's lack thereof!), we used a ball normally reserved for kickball tourneys and if there were lines on the court, I couldn't see 'em. But like I said it was still fun. It just ended up being about 4 hours long, and without having had dinner, we were all a little whipped by the time they snapped this pic. Of course, the night before I did my best to be social (despite the rumors, it really is a stretch for me much of the time) at "Body to Soul" in Nagasaki, so that could also account for the fact I was running on near empty.

Ahosannninngumi! (crazy girls!)

Here are a couple of hams at the school marathon we had last week at the big Isahaya athletic park. Ichinensei and ninensei (10th & 11th graders) participated. Girls ran a 3K, and the boys a 10K.

I didn't participate officially, but I did run for a bit with groups of students to cheer them on as they passed my station. These girls here are sannensei, and were helping to manage the event (when they weren't clowning around!).