National Living Treasure

Yesterday Jamie and I met one of the "National Living Treasures" of Japan! His name is Manji Inoue, and he is a porcelain master. His larger pieces sell for just under $20,000!

You can look at some of his masterpieces here.

We met him at his studio/showroom in Arita, Saga-ken while we were out with Naoko sensei and Nakano san for a long over due "Girls Day." He was standing out front when we approached and asked me where I was from. When I said "Arizona," he commented on the hot weather and the large size of the airport in Phoenix. He then told us he has made some 18 trips to New Mexico to give special lectures, and often has to change planes in Los Angeles and Phoenix. Just as he was about to disappear into the backroom, we snagged him for a photo.

As Naoko sensei would say, it was "amazing" that we got a chance to meet him!

Matzoh ballin' aka My First Passover Seder

I forget exactly how he brought it up, but around the end of April, Dave asked me if I wanted to come over on a Saturday night and help him make matzoh balls to feed 16 people. After the fun we had making strawberry jam (speaking in hick accents, pretending like we lived in a "little house on the prarrie," see photo below) I decided this offer was too good to pass up.


And true enough, stirring together chicken fat, matzoh ball mix and water was outrageous fun. This time, the hick accents were replaced by a plethora of "ball" themed jokes. Apparently, we are no more mature than the junior high school students we teach. The best and worst part of the evening was "quality control." I think the best part is fairly self explanitory, the worst part was limiting the quality control to only one or two matzoh balls each. Patience, patience!

The following night was the actual Seder dinner at the lovely Naoko sensei's house. When I arrived, the table was set beautifully and I couldn't wait to eat! Dinner could wait however, as we had an hour of history, symbolic nibbling and badly pronounced prayer to get through first. If you want to learn more about what we said or munched on, I suggest speaking to your closest Jewish friend or a Google search, since it can't really be summed up in a just a few sentences.

Washing our hands like one big happy family. It really was nice to be surrounded by gaijin and Nihonjin alike to take part in an ancient non-Japanese ritual.

And finally the feast!!

I was literally full for about 2 days after we had the Seder. I am sad I won't be around for next year's.

Spring Break '09

Spring Break 2009---Cherry Blossoms and English Camp. I am sure I had interesting things to write about both of these things, but since it's now December 2009, less is more.

Cherry blossoms in Kurume were amazing this year. I sort of saw what all the fuss was about.

English Camp with high school students who actually enjoy and study English. What fun!

The High School Musical Skit. I was the teacher---shocker!

Haikingu!

Hawaiian culture!

Arizona culture aka Line dancing!

Group Jump shot!

2nd Annual Ichigo Gorging

It seems only fitting that a post about strawberries should be short and sweet. This one will certainly fit the first description, and you the reader can decide whether or not it fulfills the second.

The Sunday after graduation, Jamie, Vanessa and I left the jutaku at the seemingly un-godly hour of 10 AM to catch the bus south to Hirokawa Town. Shortly getting off, we saw this descriptive man hole cover. We were in the right place.

The all you can pick/eat in 60 minutes strawberry "patch" was a decent 30 minute walk on some narrow streets from the bus stop, but aside from the cars coming within inches of us, it was rather pleasant and the appetite we worked up came in handy among the rows and rows of fruit.

After we paid our 1200 yen, we were outfitted with small baskets, a small pair of scissors and the all important VIP "Hungry Strawberry Eater" badge. We were then let loose in the greenhouse where the temperature was around 26 C. Heaven!!

Jamie and Vanessa show off the all access passes.

Rows and rows of strawberries, some not quite ripe like the neato "ha-fu" ones below, but we had no trouble eating ourselves almost sick in just under an hour.

The aftermath.

The long walk back to the bus aided in the digestion process, allowing Jamie and me to jugde this year's fest as a big improvement over the coma of last year. "Berry" nice work!!

Tears of Joy?

Alarmingly fast, mid-March rolled around for the second time, which means it was time for the 9th (and 6th) graders to graduate. The ceremony was similar to last year's, so it included a copious amount of tears and sobbing, but I think (and most of the teacher's agreed with me) that the speeches were better, and this year's class would be sorely missed.

Following the ceremony, everyone gathers in the courtyard in the front of school for final goodbyes, yearbook signing and a marathon of picture taking. This year happened to be freezing, overcast, and windy with a small bit of stinging precipitation, but luckily this didn't seem to put a damper on the more festive part of graduation.

Below are some of the kids I miss already:

Without Kosei, who will inspire the soccer team to ask me all the inappropriate, yet grammatically correct questions?

Teeny Anna and taller Mako were not afraid to speak to me in English.

The class president, Yuki. His speech left all the girls and many of the boys sobbing into their hand towels. Most of the these kids have been together since 1st grade and are parting for the first time. Awwwwww.

Some of the "high tension" girls.

I thought that I might be among the crying masses this year, but the only thing that almost made me cry was when the 9th grade homeroom teachers said that I couldn't pass out the candy grams I made for all 150 students since they broke the "no candy at school" rule. I was not a happy camper, which I guess showed, since one of them did appologize and said it would be okay after the ceremony (I had no intention of giving them something to suck on/litter on the ground before the ceremony. I may be young and foreign, but I have common sense!!) but it hurt that they were so adamant about adhering to stupid rules on a once a year special occasion. I really wanted to pack up and leave Japan right then and there. Attending graduation for the second time definitely made it feel like I have been here a long time.

Before graduation, there was some uncertainty about whether I would be returning to one of my favorite elementary schools in the new school year. It turns out I will go back, but it won't be the same without the 6th graders. I really appreciated their enthusiasm for English class!

Thank you and good luck in junior high!