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.)

Did Flamenco performance on Sunday!  It went… better than anticipated, though I still made plenty of mistakes.  Still, it was a lot of fun.  I’m so glad I decided to start to learn it–and I look forward to the next couple of years getting better.  I’m never gonna be as good as some of the ladies who are in the advanced class, but I’m not doing this to be perfect.  I’m doing it to have lots of fun.  I’ve spent a lot of money and time on it, though, so maybe I ought to try a little harder.  Then again, I think flamenco suits me better than Japanese fan dancing!  Probably because I have the right body type.  (Uh, not flat.)

I’m also really glad I started learning flamenco because so many of the women have become friends of mine.  It’s really easy to get caught in the English-only trap, even when there are only five foreigners on the island.  With flamenco, even though it’s a Spanish dance, I tend to get a lot more Japanese-time out of it.  Plus, I also get to dance with four of my elementary school students, and they’re adorable.  I get to be plenty wacky with them, which is awesome.

So here are a few pictures from the performance.  I danced the Fandango, which was a simplified version because it takes me ages to learn how to do this jazz.  It’s difficult to explain exactly how flamenco looks, but it’s big, bold, with lots of precise movements.  (By the way, the fandango I did looks nothing like the video, but at least it gives you an idea of the music and movements.)

Okay.  That’s all.  :)

Etsuko practices the Alegria.

She's really good at flamenco. Like REALLY good.

Letting off some steam before we perform.

The group performance of Alegria.

I love flamenco dresses because they're so loud and bright.

Ah, que bonita!

About to do a complicated foot pattern. (Yes, if you were wondering, I made lots of mistakes. Ah well, no one really noticed.)

My favorite part is when I get to swish my skirts around a lot.

With my shoes (7cm) I tower over everyone else in the flamenco classes. It's pretty hilarious, actually.

Ole! I finished. Amazing.

Go read Catching Fire, the sequel to the Hunger Games, right now.  You asked me to give you my recommendation.  There it is.  It’s that good.

And everyone else who wants a friggin’ fantastic social commentary, super real characters with understandable motivations and problems, and even better–tension between them (Gale versus Peeta!  Agh!  I don’t know who I like better!), an amazingly built post-apocalyptic, dystopic world… well, you better as heck pick up the first two books in them, too.

Seriously, I finished Catching Fire and immediately wanted to start over and read the whole thing again.  That good.

The second book of the trilogy.

(I didn’t reread it, because I have six other books in my TBR pile.  Am now reading the Forest of Hands and Teeth.)

FTC Disclosure: First, it’s super lame that I have to do this, but! here we go.  I bought this book of my own volition from Amazon and am reviewing it similarly of my own volition because I thought it was rocking awesome.  I don’t know Suzanne Collins.

…I’m such a tool.

Found this really entertaining java application via Nathan Bransford’s blog, and I thought I’d try it with Sapphire Stars to see whether there were any problem words repeated too often.  So this script, Wordle, takes a chunk of writing (in this case, 83,000 words) and counts them all, then picks out the ones you use most often, then turns it into  a prettified graphic.

Here’s the first, NOT INCLUDING commonly used English words.  Pretty appropriate for a romance novel where the hero’s name is “Jek” (Jeksob) and the heroine is Anynka.  Sorry it’s so small.  Please click to make it bigger.  I don’t know how to do screen captures with macs yet.

Then here’s the one that does include commonly used words. (I was a little amazed, not gonna lie.)

So, when I should be doing a number of different things (reading the newspaper, writing thank-you notes, preparing more charity: water fundraising materials, writing my romance novel, planning lessons, working out, etc.) often times I just read a book or watch how-to videos on You Tube.  Yes, I know this is not a very good idea, but I can’t seem to help myself.  Or that and I know my limits, and I’m generally pretty good at gauging how much to procrastinate.

So for the last, oh, month or so, I’ve been struggling with this hair design:

Victory rolls!

I struggle for a number of reasons.  One: contrary to popular belief, I’m not really that coordinated.  Two: my hair is much longer than most of the people who make victory-roll videos on YouTube.  Thus I had to revise my technique.  Three: I don’t really like using a lot of hairspray and gel.  Victory rolls requires a lot of both.  And Four: it’s really difficult for me to pin bobby pins in correctly.  Seriously.  I don’t know why, I just can’t do it.

Anyway, today after I conquered the sock bun, I decided to try, one more time, to force my hair into victory rolls. And although it’s not the neatest thing in the world, holy guacamole and a bag of parcheesy sticks, I did it!

Now I just need some navy man to approach me on the street at the end of a war and kiss me senseless.

I’m gonna play around with it s’more, but I’m quite pleased overall.  I also need to invest in liquid eyeliner and somehow get my hands on fantastically-red lipstick that will look good on my skin tone (difficult for a number of reasons, not least of which is that I live in Japan, where people have crazy-different skin tones from me).

In other news that’s a bit less vain…

I’ve almost reached the 10% point of my fundraising goal for charity water.  That’s pretty exciting.

I ordered enough unpopped popcorn to fill a bathtub.  When popped, that is.

I’ve read five books in the last two weeks.  Looking to do two more this week.

Pretty sure I’m gonna buy a kindle, despite the fact that I’ll still have to pay more for books.  At least now I’ll get them straightaway instead of twiddling my thumbs for four weeks, like I’m doing now.

Speaking of books, learned of a good one from Jon Stewart: the Boy who Harnessed the Wind.  I’m buying it next time I do an amazon order.

Thanksgiving dinner is coming along.  Have to figure out how to rent a room at culture hall.  Then I need to make sure I can use the high school kitchens–again.  I don’t have a big enough oven for turkeys.

Oh yeah, the flamenco performance is next Sunday.  I should practice.  I’m also wildly in love with my flamenco dress.

Plans are mostly finalized for Yakushima.  I still need to reserve a bus ticket from Fukuoka to Nagasaki for conference, and I should probably reserve a seat for the ferry to Yakushima, but aside from that, I’ve got my travel plans set.  HUZZAH!

You know your Japanese is good when you can function (usually) on a phone for regular things.  Nice progress self.  :: pats back::

Anyway.  I know I should write a blog about South Korea, but I think I’m just gonna stare fondly at my victory rolls s’more.  :D

Usually my time spent on Iki is pretty empty.  Not that much to do on an island where everything closes at 9pm (that’s also when the street lights shut off).  I do a lot of reading.  A solid amount of writing (when my muse cooperates).  I go to Fan Dancing, Flamenco, and Taiko practice (when Taiko is happening).  Sometimes I have school activities or parties.  And then on Friday the ALTs meet for curry.  I’d say overall it’s very satisfying, but there’s often plenty of time for me to sit and twiddle my thumbs.

Not so much this week.

Before I left Iki for Korea, I wrote an article for the Iki newspaper about charity: water.  (I’m trying to get Iki people to donate so we can fund the digging of a well.)  Since I got back I’ve been trying to get the article even more into the spotlight.  This is harder than it sounds.

• TRANSLATING!! It takes a ridiculous amount of time.  I spend hours just figuring out a page, then I have to ask someone to fix it, then I fix it, then I ask them to check it again, and then I fix it again.
• Fliers, cards, posters, etc.  All have to be pulled together.
• One of my teachers wants me to give a speech in front of the school.  That must be written.
• I want to go to the other schools on Iki to talk to the teachers there.  That means I have to write another speech.  (My Japanese on the cuff is understandable, but very clumsy.)

It’s slow going.  I’ve gotten two donations so far (but that’s better than none!).  One of my principals agreed to do the “All You Can Drink: Water” pledge–each time he goes on a drinking party, he’s donating 2000 yen.  I just have to get it out there and try to get past the language barrier.  It takes time.

THEN I have lesson planning.  Not just regular lesson plans, either.  I need to prepare for Halloween, which involves cooking food at very high temperatures with hormonal teenagers.  That’s dangerous.  More time.  More translating.  More hoops to jump through.

I’m planning a trip to Yakushima (a gorgeous island that was the inspiration for Princess Mononoke).  I really need to start making reservations for it.

I’m planning a GIGANTIC Thanksgiving dinner to thank the myriad of Japanese people on Iki who have helped me over the last year.  I’m guessing there’ll be at least 20 guests.  That means I need to

1. Order food (including, probably, two turkeys)
2. Make invitations (which also requires me going back and forth with the other ALTs to be certain the days are okay)
3. Find a venue (my house is not big enough for that many people
4. Figure out logistics of food making (my fridge is not large enough to hold a turkey, nor is my oven big enough to cook one)
5. Make sure I don’t forget anyone.

And I need to make copies and keep my life going in other areas.  I can’t believe I’m so busy.  Today I didn’t stop moving and just sit until about 8:30pm.  At which point I watched Glee.  Best new show on TV!  It’s so good.  Go watch it.  Full of funny.

Then here are the other things I need to do (when I can fit them in):

1. Practice for the Flamenco show — It’s October 18th and that’s coming up fast.  Just two more Tuesdays of practice, then the night-before practice.  And I’m still confused on parts of the routine.
2. VISIT THE FREAKING POST OFFICE.  I have two letters that I really need to send.
3. Eat lunch with Etsuko.
4. Write.  I really want to work on the WIP.
5. Study Chinese.
6. Study Japanese.
7. Study for the Foreign Service Exam.  (This involves buying several books off Amazon, working through them, then writing summaries of them for review later when I take the test in June.)
8. Plan some sort of big informational meeting about charity: water.  I’ve got some half-formed ideas in my mind.
9. Buy my plane tickets back to the states for Sarah’s wedding.  (I should have done it this last week–RT to Seattle was at a low of $819!!! With Taxes!!! And now it’s $1009!  AGH!  Oh well.  I just have to cross my fingers that it goes back under $900 before December.)
10. Relax.  (Okay, I do this already.  I need breaks!)

Hahahaha… Good times.

I have returned from my jaunt through South Korea!  Wahoo!  I’m alive!  I’m connected to the internet!  I’m back on Iki!  My house smells like mold!

Well, that last one isn’t very exciting.  But it’s my fault for not replacing the ghetto dehumidifiers.

Some highlights:

• Okay, this has nothing to do with Korea, but my crit partner landed an agent!  HUZZAH!  Fireworks everywhere!  She totally deserves it.
• The DMZ is surprisingly upbeat in a hilarious, doesn’t-quite-match-the-vibe sort of way.
• Seoul has fantastic greek food.
• Really, Seoul’s selection of foreign food is just amazing overall.
• I am really out of shape.
• I don’t like traveling somewhere where I don’t speak the language.  Still not learning Korean until after I, 1) “perfect” Japanese and Chinese, and 2) get a good conversational start on Farsi, as that’s next on the list.
• The coolest and rudest people in Korea are the “Ajumma,” married women over the age of 40 who wear this outrageous visors and heftily mismatched print clothing (flowers and leopard print?  Awesome).  They pretty much do what they darn well please.
• I have a freaking good deal here on Iki.  My life is amazing.
• Everything in Korea, at some point or another, was destroyed by invading Japanese.
• They use really cool colors in their temples.
• I like Busan better than Seoul.
• You meet the most interesting people by traveling.
• I’m really amped to study for the Foreign Service Exam now.
• While there may be good hiking in Korea, there is not so much good directions (especially in English) on how to accomplish said hiking.

So please tell me your fantastic news!  Or even your not so fantastic antics over the last ten days.

I’m ready to get back in the thick of life on Iki: planning lessons, writing my book, and fundraising for charity: water.  Apparently the article I wrote on that topic hit the newspaper last week.  I’m a little worried because I wasn’t here in case people asked questions, but I’m hoping I got some donations anyway.  I guess I’ll see when I go to school tomorrow.  If not, well, I’ve just gotta keep trying.

Tuesday, August 25th, rolled around bright and early.  And by early, I mean early, as I woke up at five (okay… five thirty) in the morning so-as to catch the action at the famous Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.

Tsukiji is the largest fish market in the entire world, moving over 2000 metric tons of seafood every day, to the tune of over 200 billion dollars a year.  It employs over 14,000 people in an area that, really, is not big enough for that much fish and that many people.  (I was nearly run over about 80 times.)

The foreigners who visit Tsukiji are both a blessing and a curse for those fishermen who work in the market, since we popularize the destination and add fuel to the fire regarding Tokyo’s plan to move the fish market to a somewhat polluted site.  However, we also stop in the middle of crowded, narrow walkways to take pictures and rarely buy anything.

I tried to get out of the way wherever possible.  Only one man yelled at me for stopping.  I consider that a job well done.

(I didn’t buy any fish.  It was six in the morning!  I can’t eat sushi at six in the morning.  Gross.)

Getting ice to keep that fish fresh.

I had no idea shrimp could be so colorful!

These fish were terrifying. Why? BECAUSE THEY WERE STILL BREATHING!

A wide angle of some of the madness.

And, of course, my favorite from the day:

It takes at least three men to cut fresh tuna.

In any case, the moral of the story is that, despite the chaos and my guilt for being nothing more than a camera wielding tourist, I really enjoyed myself at Tsukiji and I’d recommend it.  If you can, go earlier than six, as then you might be able to see the tuna bidding process, which I’ve heard is really interesting.  It’s also shocking to see the men cut frozen tuna–they use a power saw!  !!!  No, I’m not kidding.  It’s insane.

However, when shopping in Tsukiji, please be aware of the problems of overfishing.  Shop for yellow fin tuna, crustaceans like shrimp or scallops, and the like, as, in some point in the future, many of the fish species currently on sale in Tsukiji will be endangered and maybe even gone.  I want to keep eating my sushi, so let’s make it green, folks!

Anyway.

At about nine am, I went back to the hostel to take a nap.  I woke up from said nap at 11:30.  Found a bookstore.  Bought books.  Then I took the train back to Shibuya (time #3!) and… well, did something a little impulsive.

I gots a new tattoo. Sorry, dad:

道可道非常道

名可名非常名

It means, in case you care:

The way that can be known is not the eternal way.

The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

From the first chapter of the chinese philosophical classic, The Way and the Power by Lao Zi, written (supposedly) around 500 BC.  Laozi’s name, actually, is typical Daoist contradiction in that “Lao” is the character for old and “Zi” is the character for child.  Just saying.  It’s an amazing, thought-provoking treatise with lots of good-old-fashioned feminine worship, too.  I’d recommend it.

Anyway, back to Japan.  Right, I’m in Japan, not China.

Because I’m super twitchy, the whole thing took about two hours to complete.  By this time it was 4pm, and I was meeting Tomo-chan for dinner at 7pm.  I sat at a random table between Shibuya and Harajuku, back ramrod straight, for three hours, reading The Mysterious Benedict Society, which was actually quite amusing, if a little predictable.  I’ll probably get the sequels.

I met Tomoko and two of her friends (Yuki and… AHHH I FORGOT THE OTHER GIRL’S NAME) for Vietnamese food, which was delicious.  Especially the Pho.  But then pho is always delicious.  There was lots of giggles, lots of very confusing sentences with both Japanese and English intertwining in no semblance of sense, and finally it was time to go.

I miss Tomo-chan already.  :(

????, Tomo-chan, Me, and Yuki at the Vietnamese restaurant in Yokohama.

And that was pretty much it.  The new tattoo kept me from doing too much active stuff on Wednesday before I caught my plane (and it also made it difficult to carry my camera backpack)… but I made it back home.

Overall, I had a fantastic time in Tokyo.  There’s still plenty of things I’d like to see–more museums, for instance, with Studio Ghibli on the top of the list.  And I of course want to see Tomoko again, though she’s promised to visit Iki next summer.  If I had to do it again, I don’t think I’d change a thing.

Well, I might not have flirted with Edmond so much.  And I probably would have slapped the random Japanese guy who propositioned me on my way back to Shibuya from Harajuku, rather than just ignored him as best I could.

But those aren’t big deals.

 Any questions?

Off to South Korea tomorrow, so there’ll be a blogging blackout for about ten days.  Cross your fingers that there won’t be a typhoon, as apparently one is predicted.