mother do not read this post!

whoa! kochi made the news . . . international news none the less!

** japan plane in emergency landing **
a japanese plane completes a dramatic emergency landing, sliding along kochi runway on its nose.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6444819.stm
here's the story from the national news. . .
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20070314a2.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070314a4.html

(if you ignored the title and read the post anyway, please note that it made a perfect emergency landing and no one was injured)

まだ？いやだろ！

i’m going to save myself some time . . .

go to stephen's blog (stephen is the alt in the town next to me . . . which is technically part of my town since we all merged last year):
http://www.golly-in-inaka.blogspot.com/
find the post called ‘pissed off’ written on march 8th . . . remove / read past the bad language, and you have our current situation. . . the two of us are not too happy about it. . . especially since we already signed the papers to stay a third year. . .

while you are on his blog, take a look at the cherry blossoms. . . i like the last one with the river and mountains in the background. . .

february showers bring march flowers?

this weather is insane. . . the lady on the radio this morning was talking about the cute cherry blossoms that were already coming out in parts of kochi. . . we never even had winter (aside from a thin layer of snow one morning that melted by noon). . .

guess it is only appropriate that i went to see 'an inconvenient truth' (al gore's documentary on global warming) last weekend. . . i thought he did a pretty good job of presenting the facts on a level that everyone could understand and clearly see what was happening. . .

i didn't actually realize there were so many people out there who still thought this whole thing was a myth. . . and then there are all the people who have the knowledge and can see what is happening but just don't change their ways (i'm guessing we all fall into this category). . .

living in japan has made me more aware of my actions. . . i'm sure i have mentioned how insanely hot the classrooms are in the summer and how insanely cold they are in the winter. . . while i still don't fully agree with making my students suffer like that, i have learned to adjust my clothing before adjusting the thermostat. . .

it is also mandatory that people sort their garbage (and therefore recycle). . . t/th/s are for burnable garbage, every sat for plastics, 1st and 3rd thurs for PET bottles, other days for metals and old appliances. . . the list goes on (i was so confused when i first got to japan that i couldn't throw my garbage out for over a week). . .

i am required to walk or ride my bike to work every day, as are all city employees who live within one kilometer of the office. . . many areas of japan have excellent public transportation (somehow kahoku got left out of that system. . . guess it's too rural??). . .

my house has no dishwasher and no drier (this is common to most houses in japan). . . the dishes are washed by hand and the clothes are hung outside. . . takes a bit more time, but it's the japanese way. . .

so, yeah. . .these people have some good ideas. . . they still have their downfalls (like tons of excess packaging on everything), but they are way ahead of americans. . .

anyway, if you haven't yet, go see 'an inconvenient truth' . . . here's the website: climatecrisis.net . . .

don't just watch it and then forget about it the next morning. . . do something about it. . . oh, and look for the line during the credits that includes 'tell your parents to stop ruining the world you live in' as one of the solutions (i found that to be rather amusing wording) . . .　じゃね

the LONG overdue post

tsuyoshi and i went back to america for the holidays. . . yes, i’m talking about christmas and new years. . . i said long overdue. . . anyway, everyone seems to want to know how it went and what i thought and how the reverse culture shock was and yada yada yada. . .

basically, i didn’t really feel much reverse culture shock. . . just like culture shock didn’t really hit me when i came to japan. . . yeah, there were things that i forgot about (like how large meals are at restaurants). . . but for the most part it just felt like my other home that i hadn’t seen for a while. . .

i think having tsuyoshi around may have actually made the return easier at times because, as someone said along the way, i “brought a piece of japan home with me”. . . with all the time i spent trying to teach him about the way things worked in america and all the japanese i had to use in the process, i didn’t really have a chance to miss japan. . . and i enjoyed being able to teach someone about my country as we experienced things as opposed to my million visual aides and oversimplified english descriptions in the classrooms of japan. . .

so. . . christmas. . .

in japan, christmas (and most holidays as far as i can tell) are not a very big deal. . . apparently children receive one present (while they are still young. . .which i am not). . . otherwise, christmas in japan seems similar to valentine’s day in america. . . i.e. for “lovers” (that’s the most popular engrish term for the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing). . . for tsuyoshi, christmas in america was huge. . . i think he got at least six or seven presents. . . and a stocking. . . that’s pretty much unheard of for someone his age in japan. . .

hmmm. . . instead of narrating the entire trip home, i’ll just post a few pictures . . .

we attempted to bring some japanese culture back with us. . . but seemed to fail slightly with the origami. . .
calligraphy was a bit better. . . i love calligraphy, but it’s so difficult when you are a perfectionist. . . kids in japan start learning this stuff when they are in elementary school. . .

as for american culture. . . there is ben. . . my kids are stunned by the fact that i have a friend who is two meters tall. . . who i saw on new year's eve (hence the second pic). . .

and there were snow angels. . . actually the snow in general was a pretty big jump from our 60degree winter weather in kochi. . .

tsuyoshi was obsessed with squirrels. . . if we were talking and he spotted one, the conversation went on hold for a full two minutes. . . they are pretty cute. . . and we really don’t have them in kochi. . . we do, however, have poisonous centipedes and spiders as large as my head (or at least as large as my hand. . . but much juicier). . .

which brings me back to cross-cultural communication. . . once we returned to japan, i listened to tsuyoshi’s retelling of our time in america many times. . .

i used to get rather annoyed when people constantly told me how large everything american is. . . when i returned for the holidays, i realized that they do have a point. . . we spent hours and hours driving only to cover a small stretch of the midwest. . . we spent ten dollars on a meal in a restaurant and ended up with leftovers for the next two days. . . we sat for fifteen minutes in front of the orange juice display at the supermarket trying to decide whether we wanted a gallon or half gallon, pulp or no pulp, straight orange juice or cranberry orange juice, tropicana or the cheap store brand. . . these are things that are really just not so much of an issue in japan. . . if you drive for twenty hours in japan, you can probably cover most of the country. . . if you go to the restaurant, there are no leftovers or doggy-bags. . . if you want orange juice, you choice from medium or small. . . so, yes, people in japan do have a point. . .

BUT. . .it is a bit of a pain in the rear to sit and listen to people over-exaggerate things again and again and again. . . every time tsuyoshi told his story, his gestures of a large pizza doubled in size. . . as did the size of the cars. . . the warmth of the houses. . . the size of the people. . . yeah. . .

anyway, here are a few final random pictures from our trip to the states. . .

before i end this blog entry, i suppose there is one more thing you all want to know. . . what i decided about next year. . .

to stay or not to stay?

apparently the answer is. . .

to stay. . .

that means one more year with. . .

the adorable kids i played dodge ball with today. . .

the ocean! it’s still so new and beautiful every time i go. . .

my insane (yet amazing) dance instructor. . . have i mentioned all my upcoming performances? the next few months will be quite busy. . .

spring, which seems to be coming soon this year. . . while i will be sad to see my 3年生students graduate, it will be nice to relax under the cherry blossoms (which are absolutely beautiful) . . .

so, yeah. . . come visit! (no excuses now that i'm giving you all an extra year). . .

lots to look forward to. . .

どうしょうかな？

my board of education gave me my recontracting papers last september. . . knowing that the deadline was not until february, i immediately shoved them in my desk. . .now i have just under two weeks to make my decision. . .

since i originally planned on doing two years, i have been trying to kick myself in the butt to stick with that and say 'no, i will not recontract'. . . however, i have no idea what i want to do next. . . and i have a great life here. . .

anyway, i asked my dance teacher what it was like for him coming back to japan after living and dancing in canada and the u.s. for a couple years. . . here is his response. . .

Oh?! You can extend to stay in Kochi?
That's wonderful!!!
There was nothing difficult things after I came back to Japan except facing a real life you know?
My life was so hard in Canada. Because of no money! But it was limited time. I thought so, I could bearable it. I was happy being in different world . Staying in Japan, everything is real for me !
But, your situation is different from me . You have regular job, boyfriend, car, many friends, understand Japanese(!).......
You are really surviving in Kochi as us!
Stay! Stay! Stay!

the last part is what is making my decision so difficult. . . so many foreigners in japan talk about how they feel like they never fully fit in or are accepted in japan despite the fact that they have lived here for five or more years. . . but like taka just said 'you are really surviving in kochi as us'. . . all of my friends and especially all of the people i dance with have accepted me completely. . . they joke that some of my behaviors are more japanese than a few of the other actually japanese members of our group. . .

i never thought this decision was going to be this difficult. . . february 2nd is the deadline. . . wish me luck. . .

hmmm. . . dance. . . what else?

i think i posted this link once before, but 小倉先生 (ogura-sensei, a.k.a. taka, a.k.a. my dance teacher) has updated the website quite a bit. . . new pictures and even some videos. . . first go to. . . http://www.geocities.jp/dancecream2/index2.htm

since it is all in japanese, look for the link on the side bar that says 'movie&photo' in english . . .click on it (obviously? do i need to go into all these details?). . . anyway, once you are on that page, look for my name (again essentially the only english). . . it should be in the box on the bottom left side. . . click the play button (it says 'go' in english underneath). . . hopefully it will play for you. . . i can't watch it from the computer i am on now for some reason. . . maybe they block video programs from office computers? . . . seeing as how i cannot watch it first, i suppose it is dangerous to tell everyone i know how to view it. . . (update: i just watched this video. . . he really edited it down - as in an hour and a half of dance was squashed into about a four minute clip. . . and you'll want to know the background because it makes no sense without it. . . we were dancing in an art exhibit at the paper museum in ino. . . my dance teacher, his wife, and me. . . okay, so that still may not explain much. . . just watch it and think what you will of it)

after that, you can check out the rest of the site by just clicking on random buttons i suppose. . . i'm in a few pictures, but they are pretty small. . . maybe he'll post videos of yosakoi later??? maybe not. . . anyway, just thought i'd let you know it's there. . .

oh, one las thing while i'm on the topic of dance cream (my studio). . . these are some of the quotes i've collected over the past year. . .

"you are too beautiful for me" ~ taka (ogura-sensei) singing to me when i was obviously not doing the movement properly

"it's like you're walking down the street and see a baby falling from a building, so you're like WAH! . . . aww" ~ taka describing a movement to the class

after my haircut:
miyuki (female) "i wish i had her hair"
taka (male) "i wish i had her legs"

"アメリカ人ちゃんどこですか。"　"where is america-jin-chan?" ~ na-chan (sakura's six year old sister) at soji early this year (obviously before she knew my name)

"erinn is the blue-eyed samurai" ~ sakura's dad (our announcer) after yosakoi

oh, look. . . i just found this video of one of our dances. . . only it's at a previous yosakoi, so i'm not in it. . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTWavZ4Wa6w

okay, that's all for now. . . じゃね。

英語クラブ

this is old news now, but. . .

my 一年生 (first year girls) got first place in the ken (prefecture) speech contest. . . that's the contest that was the same weekend as yosakoi in osaka. . . i felt so bad that i could be there. . . but they did a great job! (and if you can't tell by the picture, these two could have cared less if they got first or last place. . . they're hilarious!)

also, one of my 三年生 (third year) girls got fourth place in a different speech contest held the week before. . . she should have placed higher, but her speech was on the serious side while the judges seemed to prefer comedy. . . here is her speech. . . and unlike many of the other students who wrote their speeches in japanese and had their teachers translate them into english. . . yes, i'm bitter about that. . . kanako wrote her entire speech in english. . .i only edited it. . . (did i also mention that kanako passed level 2 1/2 of the eiken - english proficiency test? not very many junior high school students make it to that level. . . i don't think i'm allowed to have favorites as a teacher, but i will really miss this girl when she graduates in march). . . anyway, here is her speech. . .

Having a Broad View of the World

I’m interested in English and learning about foreign countries. I want to learn about other countries and be able to communicate more, so I study English hard. If we can speak English, we will be able to talk to more people and learn more about the world because English is used by many people in many countries. Then we can cooperate with people in the world for peace.

In my life, I have many chances to communicate with people from other countries. I’ll tell you about the two biggest chances.

First, three students from Mongolia studied at my school first term. They studied all subjects in Japanese. Sometimes, they couldn't understand Japanese, so we taught them in English. Then, I thought, English is useful when we communicate with people from other countries.

Second, I lived in Indonesia for a year when I was little. While I can’t remember everything, I can remember the beautiful nature and friendly people. I like Indonesia very much. My mother also likes Indonesia.

There were some big earthquakes on Java Island in May. I was very surprised and sad to hear this news. The earthquakes did great damage to the center of Java Island. About six thousand people were killed. Nine hundred schools and two hundred thirty thousand houses were destroyed. So, the people there haven’t been able to live normal lives.

Many volunteers have been working hard and doing their best for Indonesia. My mother started doing volunteer work too. She sold bags and hats made in Indonesia at Sunday Market. Many people in Kochi joined the volunteer work. My mother looked very busy, but she said, “This work is not a hardship. I don’t feel tired from it.”

I also joined the fund raising campaign at Hirome Market. I wanted to help, so I worked hard. I called, “Please help the people of Indonesia.” Then, many people came and donated money. Sometimes a little child came. I was very happy, and I said, “Thank you.” The child was smiling. I learned many things and found something warm in my heart.

I believe only learning to understand other countries is not good enough. Our actions are also important. When we are able to communicate and interact with people from different countries, little by little the world becomes more peaceful. This is why I want to have a broad view of the world.