"objects in mirror are BRIGHTER than they appear"

The good news: I found a hair salon - that was even close to my house. The other good news: I think the cut looks pretty good - especially considering they've probably never cut a gaijin's hair before. And now the really good news: if I don't light up a room with my smile, well, at least I can with my hair now. Dear, lord. I think it's orange. Obviously my concept of "streaks and highlighting" did not translate well into Japanese. I should have just stopped with the cut, but nooooo - had to try to get that grey outta my hair. Everytime I've looked in my mirror (which of course, if I stand up straight, only shows me my chin down to the top of my chest!) I just tell myself it's ok - it's like another one of Jennifer Garner's new Alias looks (only without her killer abs, etc.). Anyway. It'll grow. And I have hats.

Get a piece of this -

Man I miss making mosaics...K-san, look at these tiles...you would have a field day in this place - look how they put tiles on top of other tiles. Our bike ride this week took us to Hasami and Arita, known for their pottery. Absolutely awesome.

Test Ride

I never explained why, back in August, one Sunday I found myself standing in front of granny-underwear at the Hyaku yen (100 yen) shop after bike riding all day. Well, the short story is that I got involved with a bike touring group here, went biking with them in the rain, then, since we were going to an onsen afterwards, I needed clean, dry clothes. Ahhh...that's why I was lingerie shopping at the ultimate discount store. After the onsen these folks even treated me to a welcome dinner. They are totally amazing. Of course their English is about as good as my Japanese, so it's always interesting - I never quite know what's going to happen. But - it's basically like this - they pick me up, we drive to some cool location in Nagasakiken or Sagaken, ride our bikes for several hours, go to an onsen to clean up and relax, and then dinner. The link to the bike shop page is above (click on the title), and Taniguchi san, the owner, usually posts pics from the ride. If you scroll down to a page from August, you'll see a picture of me with Sam out in front of his shop. Oh - and yes, you'll notice they drive on the wrong side of the road here :)

Dogs Days of December

How cute is this? Okay, granted, he's not actually a real dog (that status is reserved for a dog weighing more than a cat!), but how cute is he? I will say one thing for him (it is a he? didn't really check) - he guarded the back of that car like a fierce beast! I saw this little guy when we stopped the other day along our bike ride.
And I thought I wouldn't see dogs here. The Japanese would give the French a run for their money.

Huis Ten Bosch

It's pronounced "House Ten Boss-u" according to a nice Dutch man working there. I decided needed a little Christmas, so I headed to HTB this past weekend (after I finished Book 1 of my Japanese language course, of course!). Weather was awful (thought of putting in another word, but don't know how young my reading audience is-), and I got reeeeeeally sick on some food I ate there. I SWEAR I'm not taking anymore nenkyu (I only get 20 days "off" a year - no summer, winter, or spring break - just those 20 days + a sprinkling of a few national holidays) - because the last time I did it was for a funeral, and now I was violently ill. Better for me just to be at work! Yikes! Well, anyway, the lights and decorations were pretty, but HTB is definitely lacking a key element...let me see...it's missing....oh yeah - that's it - it's missing a lot of Dutch people! But at least the place looked as lovely as it could in the London weather we were having (the photo in the post is the ONLY moment of sunshine I saw). OK, maybe I'm a little crabby now - hungry for lunch - let's see what Hokka Hokka Tei delivered today. I'll write more about HTB and it's alleged loveliness when I go back and see it -

Trimming the tree

I bet you thought I meant decorating a Christmas tree. Right. (Do they even grow here?) My "tree" this year is going to be - ahh - interesting to say the least. It may likely involve something I stole from the side of the road (is that still stealing?) under the cover of pre-dawn darkness...I'll post pics when it's done and "installed" in the apato. THIS tree trimming, however, I thought Papa san (and other bonsai gardeners - yes - sai - "sigh" NOT "zie" - I was sternly corrected on this when I first arrived. "Banzai" means "hurrah!") might enjoy the care taken to keep our school courtyard looking tip top (omigosh - did I just say "tip top"??? geez...I'll have the word police after me - ). Actually, I wonder what our gardener would say if I brought out some ornaments and began my own "trimming"...hmmm....

Shiitake surprise

So today when I walked by my little tatami shop friends, I said hello and offered them some of the omiyage I had gotten at the sumo tournament (these happened to be little cookies in the shape of sumo wrestlers - you'll have to take my word for it - they were cute. The cookies, I mean). I REALLY don't expect these lovely people to be giving me free stuff every time I turn around, but the lady just wouldn't let me go without several shittake mushrooms in my sack. Dinner was "oishiikatta" (delicious) tonight!

Tatami wa utsukushii desu!

As I walk to Yue train station each Thursday afternoon after a day at Takaki Bunko (my other school), I pass by these genki peeps making tatami mats. I'm really lucky to have a flat that has three tatami rooms - I love the stuff! Click on this post's title if you don't know what tatami is.
So one day I stopped and bravely tried out my Japanese, "Anata no tatami wa utsukushii desu", which - I hope - means, "Your tatami is beautiful." Whatever I said apparently pleased the lady and she came out and filled my hands with mikans - the local oranges. Yum. I just can't get over how cute they are - that guy there smiles with his whole body! :)

**** It Feels Good to be a Gaijin

That title is for those of you who've seen (or live) the movie "Office Space" - just sub out the guys in the field swinging the hammer and instead picture me - with bag of pastries swinging on my handlebars as I cruise through Isahaya on the Wahoo (that's my bike for those of you who didn't know). Yep. Certainly good to be the gaijin (foreigner). I go into a pastry shop and having only ordered - and paid for - ONE of these (the one with the strawberries) I come home to find that the nice man stuffed the rest of this nonesense in the box, too. And I thought the Japanese weren't into sweets and pastries...baka baka baka Tracey! (OK...going out for a run, now...)

Kamome

This is the inside of a passage way on the Kamome train, one of the Japan Railway (JR) lines that runs between big cities here in Kyushu. I've been told the Japanese on the signs says something about Holland, as the Dutch were the first foreigners here back when Japan closed itself off from the world. Directly on the left (it's too dark to see) is a little booth where you go to talk on your keitai (cell phone). How nice, eh? Come to think of it, I rarely hear people babbling on their phones anywhere (maybe that's because you only get 62 minutes for 5,000 yen/month!). PS - click on the title, "Kamome" and it will take you to the JR Kyushu link - the English one :)

Have a seat...

This is the interior of one of the cars on the Kamome line - the JR line that runs from Nagasaki to Fukuoka. It's not "first class" but it sure feels like it. (So, what do ya think, Berns? Personally, I like it even better than the Shinkansen. Just tell your mom that you need to come over here and check it out for yourself :) )

Happy Thanksgiving!

No, I did not have to have sushi for Thanksgiving this year! Thanks to the splendid hospitality of Tim and Machiko Huggins, whom I met through my bike touring friend, Taniguchi san, I was able to enjoy a delicious "American Thanksgiving" today. It was at the Huggins' chapel/home up on a hill in a town north of Nagasaki. Absolutely beautiful view down into the mountains and sea, and absolutely delightful food and company! I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to share this time with such warm-hearted people. After dinner we went upstairs into the living quarters and it was Christmas! It really felt like home. I think that Mom and Machiko san (she's the one in the photo with me here) would have gotten along really well. Well, I hope all of you share a wonderful day of food, friends, family, and football!

Grand Sumo Tournament in Fukuoka

So many choices...so little time and little mawashi! (the silken loincloth).
Hey - I also heard that women are not even allowed on the "dohyo" (the platform thingy where they wrestle). So I guess Title 9 is not an issue here. One interesting point is that the mayor presents the winner with the prize. In Osaka, the mayor is a woman - hmmm...

A lotta love...

Just wanted to introduce you all to the new guy in my life. Met him at the sumo tournament - he's absolutely perfect - big and strong, quiet - a good listener, looks good with his shirt (and pants???) off, rich, has a WHOLE lotta love to give...so what's if he's a cheeky sort and a bit one-dimensional?

Lunch of Champonians

Ugh...I've definitely got a right proppa cold...but I guess it serves me right for staying out till all hours after the sumo tournament in Fukuoka this weekend. So...lots of tea for me and this wonderful stuff from Nagasaki called "champon". It's the closest I can come to getting chicken noodle soup around here...and for the record, I liked it much better before I looked it up and found out how it's made...

"orange you glad you checked the blog today?"

(groan)
SO I guess you can take the gator out of Florida, but just can't take the Florida out of the gator...
(alright, I'm going to bed now! Promise!)
See ya later arrigator!
(well - you HAD to see THAT coming!)

Aren't you the sweetest?

Ikiriki Shogakko (primary school) invited us (several local ALTs) to participate in their annual Orange Day celebration. Basically, it was like a massive field day at this park atop a hill overlooking Omura Bay. Each ALT was assigned to a group of students, and our only job was to play with the kids! How fab, eh? They were quite adorable with their random questions they bravely spoke in carefully rehearsed English (evidence of Graham's excellent teaching, no doubt!). Sorry I can't show pictures with faces (the kids couldn't read my photo release forms :) ), but here I am hoisting up someone who just KNEW that THIS was the sweetest orange on the tree. In this unique "field day" event the object here was to pick the sweetest orange - since this area is known for their oranges - the owner of the grove let us in for this activity. And how sweet the taste of victory - we scored 5 out of a possible 5.

Did Sam get trashed?

Well, I'm feeling under the weather (I think I'm allergic to school), but Sam's getting out at least. Here he is checking up on the nensei (students) who are currently engaged in picking up trash along the lovely Isahaya river. Faces have intentionally been fuzzed out to protect the innocents :) (um- yeah - it was just really cold out and I didn't take time to focus!). Sam wandered down to help with the clean up, but some of the nensei almost mistook him for garbage (sorry, UF mates!). By the way, I didn't hear anyone complaining about picking up trash, but that's maybe because they got out of 6th & 7th period and got to play in the water.

Happy Harroween!

Trick..or Treat? I'll let you decide! Well, it seems this holiday isn't totally lost on the Japanese! I happened upon what appears to have been a pumpkin carving contest at Dejima Wharf in Nagasaki City, or is that really my date for the weekend...hmm...so what's the REAL story here??? I'll let you use your imagination, since I'm not one to kiss 'n' tell :)

Amazing Grace

Well, there's no easier way for me to say this then to just say it. After battling (and I mean battling) cancer for about a year and a half, my Mom finally closed her eyes one last time and "went home" on October 3. During those last difficult days before her passing I had been working on getting myself out of Japan and back to South Florida, and although I was not able to be physically there with her then, I know she felt the love of all the people who were able to be there. Thank you if you were one of them. Knowing that you were there, holding her hand, telling her stories, smuggling in chocolate, bringing her flowers, (even taking care of the wildly spirited Gretchen for Dad!) knowing that you were simply THERE was a great comfort to me, half a world away. As most of you know, I was home for a little while, and during that time I tried to collect as many hugs as possible, since the Japanese are pretty "hands off." If anyone can figure out how to email or snail mail hugs to me here in Japan, please do! At both the visitation and the funeral I was so touched by how many people from so many different aspects of our lives were there to show their support. Thank you if you were there - there's something to be said about "strength in numbers" I think...And, speaking of the funeral, I don't know if I'll ever be able to hear "Amazing Grace" again without a stash of tissues close at hand.
So here I sit, halfway around the world again, surrounded by a people, a landscape, a culture still so foreign to me, yet, on the edges of my horizon, I feel Mom's strength, the warmth of her pride and love for me, and I know, somehow, we're all going to make it through this...
I hope you smile at the photo I chose - it's one of my favorites. I believe (and Papa san will correct me if I'm wrong) that it is at Chapman Falls, where he proposed to her once back in (well, whenever you proposed the first time) and then again - with a huge, gaudy ring from consignment shop - when we took our last family trip during the summer of 2004. I'm really glad she said "yes"...
t
xo