…over the sound of all the delicious cookies I made today.

The current list (should be updated tomorrow, when I make some more… of course, this depends on how much Mass Effect I play):

1. Peppermint Bark Cheesecake (my own recipe!  Ma!  I’m writing my own recipes now!)
2. Sugar Cookies galore
3. Russian Tea Cakes (though, for some reason, these pooped out on me)
4. Gingersnaps
5. Truffles (of both the Cointreau and Peppermint variety)
6. Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars–take forever, but full of delicious)

Got a lot left on my list to get through.  I really want to get them all done before the big Fri-Christmas-Day, so I can give them to my schools when I go in for work (yes, I work on Christmas–it is Japan), but who knows what I’ll really accomplish?  I better make that Strawberry Pie though.  The strawberries ain’t gonna last long.

Zimtsterne - Except mine don't look nearly that orderly.

Am not dead.

Here’s what I’ve been doing with my time:

• Getting healthy by going to the gym three times a week (cross your fingers for me that I keep this up)
• Taiko, Flamenco, Fan Dancing, as usual
• Had my students translate How the Grinch Stole Christmas (adventure and a half)
• Edited the entirety of my Young Adult novel in a ten-hour bonanza
• Thinking about writing the next romance
• Trying to find a karate dojo to learn karate
• And also, want to surf.
• Socializing
• Making cookies (today: sugar cookies, tomorrow: chocolate truffles)
• Still reading/studying for the foreign service exam (yeah, Africa!)
• Also, so far this month (according to Good Reads) have read two books just for kicks.  This will get up to three soon once I finish my giant Africa book.
• Being cold (gonna reach freezing today, and yes, I’m still living in a house with no insulation and no central heating.  Huzzah!)
• charity: water donations still randomly trickling in even though I’m technically done with my campaign

Once school winds down and I am all alone on Iki, hopefully I won’t just be a lazy bum.  I’d like to add some of the pictures I’ve never posted–i.e., Hiroshima and South Korea–and other random things to explain what it’s like living in the Land of the Rising Sun.

So rock on kids.

Any quick update on your lives?

Well, it’s been awhile since my last post about Yakushima.  I have a super good excuse, too: I’ve been giving thanks.  And by that I mean: to thank all the people on Iki who’ve helped me immensely over the last year (and/or donated to my charity: water campaign), I put together a Thanksgiving dinner of not-so-epic proportions but seemed so at the time.

Here’s all the food I made (keep in mind that it doesn’t include the food the Japanese guests brought):

1) Roast Turkey
2) Maple Roasted Turkey
3) Stuffing/Dressing
4) Broccoli Casserole
5) Green Bean Casserole
6) Roasted Sweet Potatoes stuffed with Pecans and Marshmallows
7) Cranberry Sauce
8 ) Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
9) Pumpkin Pie
10) Pumpkin Cheesecake
11) Apple Pie
12) Caramel Apple Pie

It was a lot of fun to put together, and I really enjoyed the baking (as always).  Most of the Japanese guests seemed to have a good time as well–the cranberry sauce was a particular favorite, closely followed by the Roasted Sweet Potatoes.

I am so grateful for my life, here on Iki, and even the one I left behind in the US.  I have a good job that pays me plenty of money for not doing much.  I’ve got a nice house with cheap rent.  I’m healthy.  I’ve made plenty of fantastic friends.  I’m broadening my horizons by learning how to do flamenco, taiko, and fan dancing.  My parents love me.  I get along with my sisters.  Last time I checked, my brother is doing well.

I am especially grateful for the 70 people who donated to Mizu Nomihodai.  Most of them had no idea who I am beyond one of the five white people who live in this community of 30,000.  They don’t speak or read English well enough to even understand the charity: water homepage.  But they know that, like me, they’re damn lucky to live in Japan.  Iki and I raised $2500 when all is said and done.  I didn’t reach the initial goal of $5000, but I’m okay with that.  After all, I’ll be trying again around my birthday.

And next time I’m widening the net.  A lot.  :)

So here are a few pictures from my wildly successful, second annual Iki Thanksgiving Bonanza!  Be jealous and salivate.

Grandma's dressing with chorizo sausage and apples.

Not quite the final spread, but pretty close.

The deeply delicious stuffed Roasted Sweet Potatoes.

Would anyone like some heart attack to go with their excellently roasted turkey?

I think this picture of Guy and Christine pretty much speaks for itself.

The guests! (Sans two)

And just because I feel like that’s not enough pictures, a few more out takes from my hike through the primordial forests of Yakushima.  They’re prettier than Guy, at least…

(The following pictures were either taken on November 2 or November 3.  I am too lazy to get up from under my kotatsu to double check the exact names of the places they were taken, so if you want to get a better idea… I suggest coming to Japan and checking yourself.  =P)

Can you spot the deer?

Really, where did this giant rock come from?

Very nicely kept-up directional markers they have.

Gah! Beautiful!

SUPER beautiful!

Can you see the monkeys?

There are still more a few photos of Yakushima that I’d like to share, and also several wonderful discoveries from the mid-year conference in Nagasaki city.   So no, I’m not done yet.  I also realized that I haven’t put up pictures from my trip to South Korea nor the long ago (March!) trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima.

I am behind, I guess.

Anyway, I think I’m going to take a nap.  Then I’m making mincemeat pies with Guy.   I hope you fine folks have a wonderful weekend!

If you put it all together, yesterday and today I spent about nine hours preparing for my speech in front of the Iki Central Rotary Club.  The speech (3 pages) took four hours to write and one hour to edit.  The visual aids (5 boards) took three hours to create.  The envelopes for donations took another hour.

But it was SO WORTH IT.

I’ve been a big fan of Rotary International ever since the Gig Harbor Rotary Club started giving me scholarships for college (to a total of $16,000 for four years).  I’m from Gig Harbor, Washington, originally.  Best town in the states!

Well, now I have another awesome-tastic reason for loving the Rotary, and that’s because Iki Central Rotary donated, all together, about $670 for charity: water!!!

That puts my total over $2000!

Which, in case you were wondering, means that Iki and I have given over 100 people clean, safe water for two decades.

Can I get a HELL YEAH?

Hell Yeah!

(Disclaimer: As of today, this amount is not yet reflected on my charity: water campaign page because I don’t have the money available on my credit card.  Yeah, big sweatdrop.  However, I’ll be wiring home everything on Friday, and so I should be able to donate with my debit on Saturday.  Win!)

Only one big speech left–in front of all my students at my largest Middle School.  Here’s hoping they don’t fall asleep!

So continuing with my pictures of my adventures through Kagoshima Prefecture, here are a few of the beautiful island of Yakushima.  As I’ve mentioned before, the primordial forests on this island were used as inspiration for the forest in Princess Mononoke (and in fact I walked through the “Mononoke-hime Forest”).  Some of the trees are over 1500 years old–the oldest top 2000+ years.  Almost all the island is designated as a National Park, and it’s also a UNESCO world heritage site.

It is amazing.  If you ever make it to Japan and you at all enjoy hiking, I would highly recommend it.  I know that part of what made it so gorgeous was my phenomenal weather + the autumn leaves, but I bet it’s pretty knock-your-socks off in the summer, too.  And it’s probably better for camping then.  (Which I did not do, as I had neither the gear nor the money to rent the gear nor the time to do said camping.)

So here you go:

During the Edo period Yakushima was heavily logged. The cedar trees made great roof shingles, apparently.

A short hike for the first half-day I spent there. Oh, Katakana. Why they can't just write "Yakusugi Land" instead of "Yakusugirando..." I will never understand.

The unfortunate fact of traveling alone is that getting people in photos for perspective becomes difficult.

So I used my rental car instead. Yes, the tree behind my car is almost as wide as the car is long.

This tree is... uhm... over 1000 years old... I don't remember, really.

These rocks were actually laid 300-400 years ago by Edo loggers to make the movement of logs easier.

This tree is in Princess Mononoke forest.

I’ll add some more later!  Especially ones that showcase the beautiful autumn foliage.  You also should see “Wilson’s Stump,” as the size is just mind-boggling.

I’d say the closest thing to this forest that I’ve experienced in America would be the Olympic National Forest in Western Washington, but even there I don’t think they have trees this old.  I couldn’t say for sure though.  My memory of when my family visited there is hazy.

Okay, that’s all for now.

I should go to sleep.

Nah.

I had a nice full day at work today.  Five classes (of six total periods), and I spent the first period preparing for the three different lessons I taught.  I scarfed lunch so I could drive to a school 15 minutes away to talk about charity: water.  Not sure how many donations I got as I had to book it out of there so I could teach fifth period.

So in lieu of going to the gym and getting healthy (who needs to be healthy, anyway?  overrated), I thought I’d share some pictures.

So the following are from my third and final day making popcorn balls at my schools.  I halved the recipe that I got from Paula Deen on foodnetwork.com, making about 8-12 balls per batch depending on the size.  Altogether, I supervised the making of 37 batches of popcorn balls, not including the batches I made myself.

Some recipe-age.

An example of the finished product.

Hard at work smooshing the popcorn into balls.

So that happened the week before Halloween.

Starting on Halloween I had my “big trip” to Kagoshima and Yakushima.  Here’s a map for some perspective:

So we have my island (Iki) in the north, the city of Kagoshima and home of the volcano in the pictures to follow, and finally the lovely island of Yakushima.

I enjoyed Kagoshima quite a bit.  The city reminds me a lot of Nagasaki in terms of size, though unlike Nagasaki it’s very flat.  I appreciate that.  Flat cities are easier to walk around in.  However, I have to say that I like the harbor in Nagasaki better than Kagoshima–Dejima Wharf is a wonderful place, and they have a fantastic art museum right next door.  However, the view of Sakurajima, the island that holds Kagoshima’s resident active volcano, is something quite interesting to behold.

The view of Kagoshima and Sakurajima (spewing ash) from the top of a ferris wheel.

Sakurajima at sunset--this was the following day. Less ash. Probably because it'd been raining pretty hard the whole morning.

Kagoshima at night as viewed from Sakurajima.

And just because it’s not a real adventure unless I make a fool of myself at some point, the following:

Wait a second... that's not Santa Claus... someone lied to me!

Luckily, the bear was not hurt during the taking of this photograph.

I plan on going over Yakushima over the next few days with maybe a bit more detail as well.  But we’ll see.  Don’t get greedy.

Thanksgiving soon!  I ordered the turkeys, cranberries, and other foods that I can’t get on Iki.  Here’s hoping nothing goes wrong…

I was going to make a blog about my Kagoshima/Yakushima adventure today.  Then the following happened, and I decided it was much more important and amazing:

Hopefully most of you know that the city of Nagasaki is one of two places in the world that knows what a nuclear weapon attack is like.  The atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, after the United States had waited three days post-Hiroshima to hear whether Japan was willing to unconditionally surrender.  With the government still mum, Truman decided to release the second monster.

Because it was a smaller city than Hiroshima, and because of its scenery (surrounded by mountains), it did not reach the same destructive power as the earlier bomb.  Immediate casualty eatimates range from 45,000 to 70,000.  By the end of the year, that number had reached a fairly agreed-upon 80,000.

Iki, my tiny, beautiful island, is part of Nagasaki Prefecture.  (They gave all the northern Kyushu islands to Nagasaki, pretty much.)  I’ve been to Nagasaki City several times, and it’s a beautiful, fun place.

As many of you know, I’ve been fundraising for my favorite charity ever, charity: water, for the last two months or so.  I’m attempting to raise $5000 raise $2500 (I fail) which is about the amount needed to build one half a well.  That well serves approximately 250 people and lasts for 20 years, which if you do the math means one person’s water for twenty years costs a measly $20.  After feverous writing and editing, I’ve appeared in the Iki Newspaper, Iki magazine, and the Nagasaki Daily Newspaper. Despite the language and cultural barrier, I’ve raised (to date) about $1350.

This is a lot of introduction for the main event ahead.

On Monday I got a call at school from what I could tell was a very old man.  I could tell because 1) he sounded old, and 2) I really did NOT understand his Japanese.  At all.  I ran the phone over to one of my English teachers, and once they hung up she told me that we were going to visit him on Wednesday to pick up a donation.  She didn’t say so, but I realized we needed to go pick it up because he can’t move very easily.

Great! I thought. I love getting donations, and it’s always wonderful to meet new people.

Today dawned windy and rainy.  It is the most blustery day I’ve had on Iki even counting our “typhoon.”  At roughly 4:45pm, Nice-sensei and I braved the elements and the winding, confusing Iki roads to make it to this man’s house.  He gave me an envelope with his donation, said something in Japanese that took a bit to process in my brain, and then sent us on our way.

As Nice-sensei and I drove away, my jaw dropped as comprehension finally dawned.

Here’s what he said:

I came to Iki after the war, you know.  I’m originally from Nagasaki city.  I lived in the city during the war, an dI survived the atomic bombing.  I remember the heat from the bomb.  I remember walking for hours each day to get water afterward.  When I heard about the charity, I decided to donate.

And that was it.  No self-righteousness.  No self-pity.  Just the cold hard facts from a man who has more kindness than I know what to do with.

Seriously, I’m close to tears right now.  Japan: I love you.

Here’s my favorite photo from the Yakushima part of my adventure.  More to come if I quit being so lazy about it.  It was absolutely gorgeous–I was really lucky to arrive at the perfect time for fall colors without the higher altitudes being too cold to handle.  Plus, the weather on Tuesday the 3rd was unbelievably good.  At one point I even took off my outer sweatshirt.

Now if only I had a tripod that didn’t weigh 7lbs.  Need to get one of those titanium buggers.  Or what have you.  Something that can hold a 4-5lb camera, depending on the lens I’ve got on that sucker.

Right!  Point: here’s the picture.

See? Perfect sky, perfect trees. Amazing.

I’m so glad I’m not doing NaNoWriMo now, by the way.  I’m slower than a friggin’ turtle here.  Did 1000 words today, and it was like pulling teeth.  I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it.

Back on Iki after:

2 days in Kagoshima City

2 1/2 days on Yakushima Island

3 1/2 days in Nagasaki City.

Great vacation, but super glad to be back.  Iki, I missed you!  And I’ve fallen back into the right direction: currently eating some frosting for dinner.  Except BOO for me, as I forgot to take out the garbage before I left.  Groooooooosssssssss.

During most western holidays in Japan, I’m supposed to teach about them an their history and do something “cultural” to make English fun. Thus I started brainstorming for Halloween in September, and nothing clever came to mind.  I usually like to give a bit of candy, too. Then my mother had the brilliant (I’m not being sarcastic here) idea to make popcorn balls with my students for Halloween.

Sticky, gooey, sweet goodness that they can’t really make by themselves.  ”I’ll see what I can do!” I told my mother, and then went off to ask my teachers.

Well, the teachers were all for it.  This is good news.  So I bought an 8lb container of popcorn kernels from costco, looked up a Popcorn Ball Recipe online, and figured out what “hard-ball stage” entailed.  (I’ve now seen it so many times that I can usually tell by just eye-balling the syrup whether it’s reached the stage.)

I first taught the popcorn ball fun times to Hatsuyama, my smallest school (with 30 students over three years) and that went okay.  Worked on how to teach it.  Didn’t go too crazy.

Then today I made it with three classes.  Of thirty students each.  For a total of 27 batches of popcorn balls (I halved the recipe) including the demonstration batches.

Here was my schedule today:

7:00 – Snooze Button

7:20 – Drag self out of bed, prepare for day.

7:55 – Having finished preparing self, run back into house for forgotten item #1 (water).

7:57 – Reverse into parking place and run back into house for forgotten item #2 (info on charity: water for the speeches I gave today).

8:01 – Arrive at school one minute late.  AGH!

8:05 – Unlock school kitchens and begin setting up.

8:30 – Give the mid-trimester listening test to second year students.

8:35 – Search gigantic kitchen-like environment for bowls, spoons, measuring implements, etc.

8:50 – Begin popping popcorn for first class.

9:30 – Give mid-trimester listening test to third year students.

9:35 – Pop more popcorn.  (This is all I did, seriously.  I’m no good at popping it in larger pots, so I used 4-quart pots 9 times for each class.  It takes between 5-10 minutes to make popcorn depending on how hot the pot is when you start, so 9 takes a long time.  And, since I had back-to-back classes, I needed to prepare enough popcorn for third and fourth period so we could start making the syrup right away.  Which pretty much means about 180 minutes of making popcorn.)

10:30 – Third period begins.  The following ensues (roughly copy this for the following two classes):

Call class to order.  Greetings.  Talk about popcorn balls and how awesome they all.

Bring students to front of class to watch me mix together the syrup.  Tell them to go do it.  Glare at the students who try to take more M&Ms (saving them for future classes).

Call back students to the front to show them what the syrup should look like when it reaches “hard-ball stage.”  (This is when it holds its shape–but soft-like–when you put a bit into some water.  Don’t cook it long enough and the syrup won’t stick enough to the popcorn.  Cook it too long and it’ll turn into caramel candy.)

Wash off hands.  Run around madly as students call and ask me to double check their syrup to see if it’s reached “hardball” stage.

Search for parchment paper.

Make more popcorn.

Make popcorn balls for the teachers with demonstration batch.Clean off demonstration bowls.

Make more popcorn.

Hand students saran wrap for wrapping their popcorn balls.

Wave them goodbye. (at, say, 11:25.)

11:30 – Call 3B class to order.  Repeat above, except worse because I have to make more popcorn in a shorter amount of time.  (I was supposed to be busy during lunch recess, so I was afraid I wouldn’t have any time to prepare for the third class of the day.)

12:20 – Quick clean.  As quick as slightly-hardened syrup can be.

12:35 – Shovel school lunch in my mouth.  Part of it tasted like mold.  Not delicious.  But I was the only teacher who thought so.

12:45 – Rush to desk.  Check cell phone (thank goodness I did).  Note that the speech I was supposed to give at other school (fifteen minutes away) has been postponed.

12:48 – Collapse at desk for three minutes.

12:50 – Go to grocery store to get more M&Ms/nuts/coconut for the students to mix with their popcorn balls.  Forgot to get extra corn syrup.  This leads to problems later.

1:05 – Collapse at desk.  Read a bit of Dinner with Mugabe.

1:30 – Go back to kitchen area.  Pop more popcorn.

1:45 – Third time teaching how to make popcorn balls.  Only disaster!  Not enough corn syrup!  Consider rushing to grocery store again for fifteen seconds, dismiss it.  Give one group the demonstration batch.  Tell other group to disperse and join their friends.  One lucky group gets lots of M&Ms.  Coconut with them = DELICIOUS.

2:35 – Heavy clean after students have done most of their cleaning.  Suffice to say that popcorn and corn syrup and sugar had gone everywhere.

3:10 – Finish cleaning.  Go back to desk and prepare for charity: water speech at 3:40.

3:20 – Read more Dinner with Mugabe.

3:40 – Give speech on charity: water in really bad Japanese.  Somehow get point across.  Collapse after finished, embarrassed.

3:50 – Zone out but make effort to pay attention to the remainder of the teacher’s meeting.

4:40 – Get six donations!  yay! ($165 worth, huzzah!)

4:45 – Double check kitchen area for cleanliness and items.  Lock up.

5:00 – Chat with teacher about fundraising.

5:15 – Go home.

I honestly think that this is the busiest day I’ve had.  Thank goodness the first speech about charity: water was rescheduled!  I don’t know how I would have handled it if I hadn’t had that sort-of mid-day break.

Despite my insanity, I think the students had a really good time.  They were always hilariously impressed whenever I pulled the cover off a pot of freshly popped popcorn, made appropriately amused yelps when I told them, yes, you do form the popcorn ball with your hands and yes, it is sticky.  One of my students wandered around eating everyone’s leftovers.  I had no idea she had such a sweet tooth.  Others kept trying to sneak tastes even though I didn’t care whether they ate it right away.  We got to laugh uproariously when one group really did cook their syrup for too long and it turned into caramel.  (It was still tasty.)  It was satisfying to see all the students have smiles on their faces at the end of the class.  Probably should have used more English, though.  (I gave all the instructions in English, at least!)

If you made it this far, good job.  I’ll see what I can do about getting some pictures from the day, but I’m iffy about it.  I don’t like showing pictures of the students because of privacy issues but… we’ll see how it goes.  I’ve shown some before I guess.

I wanna go to sleep.  Still a bit too early though.  Might do it anyway.

You asked me to update you if any of the books I’m reading “for the foreign service” struck me as particularly interesting.  And I’m telling you to go buy this book or make your book club read it because it was phenomenal.  Because it’s true, I’d even recommend it before Harry Potter and the Hunger Games.  And that says a lot, coming from me.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Holy guacamole, this book is amazing. Not only was I, understandably, astounded by William Kamkwamba’s ingenious techniques, capability for understanding what to me is complete science mumbo-jumbo, and his creativity, but I was constantly impressed by his humor and outlook. This is a man who’s separate from me in age by maybe a few months–a year at most. While I was studying in high school and surfing the internet, he was starving in Malawi. Literally. Starving. His story is a triumph and I just can’t recommend it enough.

I was also deeply impressed by his voice and humor. Yes, the book was cowritten, but the turns of phrase and the way he describes everything… well, I was just amazed. Hilarity sits side by side with serious, often heart-wrenching, discussion and flows perfectly. There were several times I laughed out loud. During a memoir! I couldn’t believe it.

His story also highlights several of the problems confronting Africans today: their lack of support from their leaders and rampant corruption; the persistence of superstition and belief in magic; the lack of access to clean and fresh water; etc. In environments such as that, even the littlest innovation–if it’s not barred or squandered by the government–can make such a great difference, as Mr. Kamkwamba’s 12 volt windmill proved.

Inspiring. I can’t think of enough words to describe how much you need to read this right now.  Well written, and a breeze to read. I would recommend it in a heartbeat. Go check it out and buy it–support Mr. Kamkwamba and his ventures.

View all my reviews >>

Check out his blog, here.  (Oh, this is also the first book I read on my kindle and it was wonderful.  Yes, dad, you can change the text size to SUPER BIG.)