Okishima Island

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit one of the smallest schools in Japan. Now this is not a verifiable fact, it is just conjecture but a school with only eight students must come close to being one of the smallest. We live in the prefecture of Shiga, and Shiga is dominated by the largest lake in Japan. This in a way makes Shiga the Japanese "Great Lake State" that is why Shiga and Michigan are sister states. The city of Omihachiman, where we live, lies very close to the shores of Lake Biwa. Not far from the shore is the island of Okishima. The population of the island is not large, just a handful of families live there. The school has a grand total of eight students. Two students in first grade, two second graders, two fourth graders, and two sixth grade students.

I was picked up by someone from the Board of Education office in the morning at my school. We drove for about a half an hour to the ferry dock. We had to wait fifteen minutes for the boat to leave, but soon we were underway. We rode out to the island. The boat was a bit small and cramped. It was nice to feel the waves under us and the boat chopping across the water. the trip to the island took about ten minutes. next we had to walk from the dock to the school. It seemed to be just a hop, skip and a jump to the elementary school. We walked into the school and were immediately escorted to the principals office. We were given a nice cool glass of ice tea to cool us off on such a hot day. I had a chance to meet the principal and exchange pleasantries with him.

After about ten minutes in the presence of the principal, awkward silences and crickets chirping in the background, we headed off to teach my one class for the day. I walked into the multipurpose room and was greeted by about twelve smiling faces. There were eight students in four grades, and four teachers, one for each grade. We had a lot of fun with our lesson for that day. We worked on counting. We played games and sang songs. Yup, believe it or not I sang songs with the kiddies. They went screamin' for the hills, but what could they do? They were stuck on an Island. There was no escape from my English greatness. It was interesting to work with such a wide range of students. They ranged in age from first grade to sixth grade. But the levels of the students were about equal. They all worked and had fun.

The saddest part of the day for me was that I had to leave the school before lunch. The ferry boat left the dock before they ate, so we had to make it back to the mainland before lunch. The positive side to this coin is that I managed to make it home earlier. I was able to eat lunch at my own kitchen table. Before leaving however I was given the gift of a bottle of C.C. Lemon. I drank this beverage which is like drinking bottled sunshine on the nice bike ride home. I felt much better after drinking my lemon soda as there are fifty lemons worth of vitamin C in every bottle. Good stuff.

All in all it was a neat day. I had a great day seeing one of the smallest schools that exists in Japan, and possibly the smallest school I will have the opportunity to teach at. It was neat to spend the morning with the students and teachers there. It was doubly nice when I returned to my desk on Monday and in the middle of the afternoon the secretary dropped a nice big fat envelope on my desk. I opened it and spilled the contents out onto the desk and I found that they had all written me thank you letters. Now all I have to do is get some help reading them. Doesn't really matter if I can read them or not though as I will treasure them forever.

Sports Day

Every year, in America, elementary school students and teachers have a morning of fun near the end of the school year. Field day stands out in the memories of Americans across our great land as a day full of running short races, tug of war, water balloon tosses, and obstacle courses. I remember being in Elementary school and having a great time every year for field day. My favorite memory is the year we had a water relay. Each person was given a bucket and water had to be passed between the buckets, often in creative ways. One way I remember is that the water had to be sluiced down the slide and collected at the bottom. This day was great fun and it was a sad day when I found out that there would be no field day in junior high school. Field day was a fun day that meant, at least, part of a school day off, and usually an ice cream treat at the end of the day. A highlight to any school year.

Here in Japan there is no field day. Instead there is a sports festival. It is field day on a grand and serious scale. There is a sports festival at every school in Japan. They begin having sports festivals at the nursery schools and go all the way through high school. The sports festival at my junior high was held about two weeks ago. It was a great day filled with races, fun and dancing. The day began early. I was stepping onto the athletic field around 8:30 in the morning. I still think that 8:30 is early for a Saturday. Oh, did I forget to mention that the sports festivals are all held on Saturdays? No need to miss out on a precious school day here kids; field day is on a Saturday. That did not stop them from missing class time though, as they canceled afternoon classes all week to allow time to practice for the sports day. When I arrived early in the morning the students were all sitting in their straight rows listening intently to the principal give the welcome speech. Each class was split into two lines that stretched parallel across the gravel field, one for boys and one for girls. Perfectly organized and straight, for my eyes it was a sight to behold and marvel at. Once the welcome speech was concluded the classes split up into their teams. There were six teams and they were color coded: pink, blue, red, green, yellow, and orange.

The morning was spent running races and competing in traditional field events. There were students jumping the high jump. throwing shot put, long jumping, and of course running races. There were many races. Students had their work cut out for them as the day was a very hot one. The sun was very unforgiving that day. I found myself with a sunburn at the end of the day. I had a great time watching and cheering for all of my students that day. They ran and I cheered. I split my time walking from team to team encouraging them to do their best. Jenny and Logan came to watch and Logan and I had a great time rooting for the different teams. The morning seemed to play out like a traditional track and field meet. The only difference was that right before lunch there was jump-rope competition. A class would form a line. Then two students would grab the ends of a giant rope and they would twirl it over the heads of the class and they would jump. It was amazing to see classes of almost forty kids jumping together in unison.

After lunch it was time for dancing. Each team created, choreographed, and danced their own original dance. The teams even chose their own music. I think that this was my favorite part of the day. I have seen kids run races before. I have even run in a few in my time, but the dancing was unique. I thought that it was cool to see close to a hundred kids out on the field all dancing together. Each team took a turn and each one seemed to end with a human pyramid. They all were very similar, but yet it was a truly unique event.

The day ended with the awards ceremony. The winning team was named and trophies and certificates were awarded by the principal. The students once again lined up in their perfectly straight rows of boys and girls for this part of the day. It was an end to the day, I was a bit sad however that there was no ice-cream from the principal. I was certainly glad to make my way home as it was now almost five o'clock in the evening.

But my friends this is not the end of our sports day tale. Last Saturday Logan was invited to the sports festival at the kindergarten that he will begin attending this week. We went for the morning to watch and meet some of the people. Now where the students at my school were very serious the sports festival at the kindergarten was nothing but cute. The students would line up to race. The teacher would say go. The students would run from one side of the playground to the other into the waiting arms of their teacher. Every one is a winner when the race ends with a hug. Logan was even invited to run in one of the races. He and I ran across the playground and were presented with a prize of origami paper. We also got to see the students dance. Logan was very excited because one of the dances was performed to the theme music of our favorite cartoon, Anpanman. The sight of little three and four year old students dancing their little hearts out is one that I will treasure forever. We had a great time and enjoyed our time at the kindergarten sports festival.

Sports festivals are something that are very unique to Japan. I was asked many times if there there are such festivals in America, and each time I would just have to answer, "no." While America does have a field day it is different from what I witnessed here in Omihachiman. A truly unique and truly fun event.

Milestones

Today was a milestone in our life here in Omihachiman. Today marked our one year anniversary here in Japan. It is amazing to think that we have been here in the land of the rising sun for a full year. It is equally amazing to think that in one year we will be winging our way back home to the states. Today being the anniversary of our arrival here, we decided that we would have to do something to celebrate the occasion. We thought long and hard about how to best celebrate the date of our arrival. Usually we get a pizza when we have a reason to celebrate or otherwise mark an occasion, but it just did not seem to be the right way to measure this date.

We decided that we would have to search out and do our best to find and visit the first restaurant that we went to on our first night here in Omihachiman. It was a long night that night, but it is one that I remember well. We stepped off the plane at Kansai International Airport after a long fourteen hour flight. We had to wait in the line for customs with all of worldly belongings strapped together, seven big suitcases, three big backpacks, a laptop computer,a child car seat, and one guitar. We struggled with keeping all of our belongings together and with keeping them from either falling over or falling off the trolley that we used to cart them around. We managed to make it out of customs with almost no hassles. We did have an issue with the paper work that we were supposed to fill out on the plane, but I think that when the customs inspectors saw us with all of our junk falling off our cart they took pity on us and let us through without too much hassle. We made it out of the customs area into the arrivals area looking for whomever would be picking us up and bringing us to Omihachiman, a twoish hour journey from the airport, which is located outside of Osaka. We were not sure what the people who would pick us up would look like. I also did not have any contact information for them other than an email address. It was a nerve-racking fifteen minute wait. Then I heard my name being called out in a very Japanese way, a high pitched, "Kebeen, Kebeen?" I turned and there were three people walking towards us, two women and a man. One of the women was my boss Ms. Morimoto, the other woman was a person who was to become a great friend to our family, Takami Yamanaka, and the man was from the board of Education and he had come to drive the van. They helped us to load all of our things into the back of the van, and we set off for the journey to Omihachiman. they brought us to our apartment where there were more people to welcome us and help us settle in a bit. then it was off again. This time we were off to get some food and other sundries at the super market. We managed to get some cereal, milk and fruit for breakfast in the morning, and some bowls, and cups to eat and drink from. It was then decided that we would go and get some sushi to eat, because we had not eaten in a long time. I think that at this point we would have been fine just going home and crashing, as it was now getting close to ten o'clock in the evening. But out for sushi we went. We seemed to ride in that car for what seemed like another hour going to the sushi restaurant. We got there and found the restaurant packed to the gills with people. I was shocked to see that there was a half hour wait to be seated. We finally were seated and we managed to eat a little bit of the delicious sushi that wandered its way around the restaurant on the conveyor belt. I think that i managed to eat about five plates, at two pieces of sushi per plate, and I left feeling very full. It was then that I was told that the average guy will eat at least ten plates of sushi. I looked over at the other men in the shop and saw the piles of plates stacked up next to them and I felt a little bit whimpy. We finally made it home around midnight and managed to fall asleep with no hesitation.

Today was the one year anniversary of that fateful day. We thought that it would be appropriate to visit that little sushi shop once again. Think needle in a haystack. I saw the restaurant about three months ago when riding on a bus, and we all know how good of a memory I have. I was sure of one thing. The general direction that we would have to walk. We set out around noon in order to find some sushi for lunch. The rain began falling in little sprinkles on our head as we walked out of town. The sprinkles faded as we walked out of town, and by the time we reached the shinkansen tracks the rain was falling in earnest on us. It is a good thing we brought our umbrellas with us. We reached route 8 after walking about a half hour. We had wandered the back country roads, through the rice fields, to avoid traffic on route 8 for most of our journey. I was pretty sure that our destination was located on this road, but which way? Jenny was for going right. I agreed and we started to walk up route 8. We walked a couple of blocks up the street and I began to think that maybe we were going the wrong way. We turned around and walked the other way. It lead to nothing. My hunch was wrong. We headed back in the direction we originally traveled. We walked and walked, I began to think that maybe I wasn't even close in my assumption that the place we were looking for was on this street. We were on the verge of turning around when we saw it up ahead on the other side of the street. We walked over and headed in. It was like a completely different place at two o'clock in the afternoon. There were empty booths, no one waiting on the benches, and we were able to sit down and eat right away. We began to eat. We grabbed plate after plate of our favorite sushi. I am partial to the tuna, Jenny likes the boiled shrimp with avacado, onion and mayonaise, and Logan ate some tuna salad sushi, which is the same kind that we make at home. We ate our fill, and yes this time I managed to eat a full ten plates worth of sushi. I was stuffed full. We then had the long walk home. The rain was gone, but it was replace with muggy heat. We made it home in time to watch one of Jenny's favorite sports on TV. Yes this month is a sumo month and the tournament started yesterday. Later in the evening we headed off to the cake shop to get some anniversary cake.

It is wild to think that we have been here for a year already. It is crazy to think that we will be here for another year. When I think of all the sights that we have seen and the events we have witnessed I am extremely grateful that we have had this opportunity to learn and experience this country and its culture. It is not always easy, at times it is taxing on the soul, simple things like trying to find shoes in your son's size can drive you batty. There are times however when I look out the window and see the mountains all shrouded in mist, or as we wander the streets of the city and see a shrine set along the side of the road that my soul stirs and I am filled with a sense of wonder and amazement. I know that this is an experience that we will never forget, and a journey we will savor in our memories until Alzheimer's claims them from us.

The Rainbow Connection

I know that it might be corny to admit but one of my favorite songs of all time is "The Rainbow Connection." In fact I must admit that it comes from one of my favorite movies of all time, "The Muppet Movie." The movie opens, for those of you who don't remember, with a shot looking down from the sky that slowly moves down to Kermit the Frog playing the banjo and singing. He is singing the song "The Rainbow Connection." Logan and I both love the movie. We enjoy spending lazy Sunday Afternoons whiling away the hours watching the adventures of Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, and Miss. Piggy. We also love singing the songs from the movie. We will listen to songs like Rainbow Connection and Movin' Right Along on the i-pod while we travel on the train. We even like to share our favorite lines from the movie. There was a while where Logan loved to peer over my shoulder while I carried him on my shoulder and whisper in my ear, "Motorcycle cop." Which is what Kermit whispers to Miss Piggy in the movie. We both love the movie. I am not sure about Jenny. I think that she likes the movie, but she is not as fanatical as Logan and me.

Why am I rambling about The Muppet Movie and Kermit the Frog? Well the other night we saw the most beautiful and perfect rainbow that I have ever had the opportunity to witness. We were all sitting at the dinner table enjoying the last few bites of our spaghetti when I happened to look out the back window of our apartment. I had to do a double take because I thought that I saw a rainbow. I got out of my chair and I walked over to the window to peer out at the evening sky. I could see a beautiful rainbow arcing down directly in front of me. I ran to the other side of the apartment, yes I ran the whole twenty feet, to get the camera from the desk where it lay. I came back to the living room and took a step out onto the balcony and tried my best to take a photograph of the magnificent arch that was simply painted across the sky. It was as I was taking a picture that Jenny who was standing directly behind me remarked that if you followed the bow far enough you could see that there were really two complete rainbows across our horizon. By looking off to our left we could see one end of the rainbow and following it right we could see the entire arch. It was truly an amazing sight. We could see the whole thing, from one end to the other. The ends were even shrouded in some clouds. It was the perfect cloud, like a poster on the wall of a sixth grade girl's bedroom. The only difference was that there were no unicorns flying around, and the fact that it was real. Simply stunning.

Momentary Reflections

We have been home from our vacation for almost a week now. It just took some time for me to write up all of the adventures. I spent about an hour and a half to two hours on each entry. Because it took some time to write I would write on a night or so. I thought that tonight I would take a moment to reflect on some of the moments that we want to remember and treasure from the trip. I think that it is only fair that I should be honest with you dear reader that most of these are going to be some of the precious and precocious things that our three year old little boy did. Yes these will be the long awaited "Logan stories".

I have already stated how much logan loved staying in the hotel, and that is true. There were many things about the hotel for Logan to enjoy. One of the procedures of this hotel was that they asked that you check your room key at the front desk when you left the building. This presented Logan with the opportunity to ask for our room key each time we returned to the front desk. The desk clerks all loved it when Logan would walk up to the desk and ask, "Our key please." The clerk would lean out over the desk in order to see the diminutive three year old who would dare and ask for the room key. Then they would hand it over to him. Logan would grasp the key in his hands, holding tightly as not to drop it. He would walk to the elevator and press the up button. When the elevator doors would open we would all file in, Logan first, then Jenny and finally me. Logan must have remembered the incident in Otsu. Each and every time we got into the he would grow very irritated and anxious. He would ask in an urgent and pleading voice, "Is everybody in? Hurry up Daddy! Get in! Get in!!" He was very insistent that we all be in the elevator quickly and in a timely manner.

Riding up the elevator was not a problem, but the exit from the car was the same procedure repeated on the way out. Logan would then carry the key down the corridor to our room. Once at the doorway he would reach the key up to the door and attempt to unlock the door. He never quite managed to unlock the door, or even get the key in the lock for that manner, but still it was cute to see him make the attempt. Once in the room it was a new world of fun for this three year old little monkey. The bed, the lights, the tiny refrigerator, the TV, each and every knob in the room were all things to experiment with and test out. When we entered the room Logan would pull the chains and turn on the lights, on and off, off and on. He found the radio controls that were mounted on the wall and spent some time twisting the dials that control the channel and the volume. Amazingly he then found the on switch. He gave it a quick flip and scared himself to the point of tears when the whine and static of an empty frequency at full volume greeted him. It was the one and only time that he flipped that switch. He became very concerned however when he could not find a remote control for the television. He scoured the room high and low trying to find it.

My favorite story comes from the day before we went to Miyajima Island. Logan and I were talking about how much fun it was going to be to ride a boat. Logan got very excited and began to chant, "We're going on a boat ride!" over and over. As he made his exclamation he began to bounce on the bed. He continued to bounce, I can't say he was jumping on the bed 'cause truth be told the kid can't jump, until he bounced right of the bed. He bounced off the wall and landed on the floor. That scared him quite well and brought his mother running. We had to go and get some ice from the ice machine down the hall to create an ice pack for his head. After that each and every little bump and scrape and Logan wanted to go and get some ice from the machine.

Logan was also very careful with his belongings. Each and every time we entered the room he would remind everyone to take off their shoes. Once we had our shoes off he would then place them in the little coat closet nest to the door. He would also place his bag and some of his toys in the closet too. When we would leave the room Logan would always spend about five minutes of our walk asking, "Where is our luggage?" We would reassure him that the luggage was safe in the hotel room only to have him ask once again, "Where's our luggage?" He was also very concerned about our bags and baggage as we rode on our various forms of transportation. Often as we rode I would have to keep at least one hand on a strap of the backpack. The closer we got to our destination the more insistent he would grow, often placing my hand on the carry strap of the backpack if I tried to place it any where but. On the trip there and back having several bags was almost enough to drive the poor kid nuts.

All in all it was a great time and we enjoyed each others company. We had fun and that is what is the most important. Logan has talked all week about going back to the hotel. Sometimes he refers to it as "the other Omihachiman". Now we will have to start planning for our next big trip. Tokyo here we come. Just, not yet.

On Our Way Home

We didn't even bother to try and wake ourselves early the morning we began the long journey home. It just seemed to be a bit too much to try and wake up just so we could go home. I was afraid however that if I left it in the hand of fate we would sleep beyond our ten o'clock check out time so I set the alarm for somewhere in the neighborhood of eight-thirty. When it began to make its infernal racket we were all well on our way to being awake. We ate a small breakfast of banana and some fruit juice; packed all of our belongings up into our bags and went to check out of the hotel. We checked out and were on our way back to the train station around nine-thirty. Logan was very sad to leave the hotel. He really enjoyed our time staying in a room that was not our home. He took a few minutes to say good-bye to the hotel and all of the people that worked there. Once that was accomplished it was off to the station.

Before embarking on our monumental return journey we stopped at the foreign food market located in the train station. There is one in Kyoto too but the one in Hiroshima seemed bigger and better. We took a few moments to shop for some old favorites from home. Foods that believe it or not are hard to come by here, things like pretzels, gummy bears, and Pepperidge Farms Cookies. For the record Jenny settled on Chessmen Cookies, but I could not choose and ended up with regular pretzels and honey mustard flavored pretzels, you know who chose the gummy bears, he loves those things. We wandered around the station for what seemed like hours in the blistering heat, why they do not aircondition the station I will never figure out, trying to find the store we were looking for, and it caused us to miss the first train available to us. We were bound on the first leg of the trip for the city of Okayama. As a result we meandered around for a while before getting on the next train. We took advantage of the delay to grab a few snacks for the trip. We then stepped onto the next rapid train going to Okayama and we were off.

We made it to Okayama with no difficulty. We ended up on a different route this time. We took a more direct track and it ended up being a little bit faster so that was nice. We also were able to see some different scenery which was a pleasant diversion. Logan spent most of the trip to Okayama putting stickers in his different sticker books, and eating gummy bears. And in a couple of hours we were in the city of Okayama. Okayama is famous in Japan for being the birthplace of the story of Momotaro, Peach Boy. It is a classic Japanese folk tale, and if you have not read it I would suggest that you head on down to the local library and check it out. Out side of the station there is a statue of the Momotaro and his companions that is a nice sculpture. Okayama is also famous in Japan for its fruit, namely peaches. We found the average price of the peaches in the grocery store that we wandered around in to be around ten dollars. There was a woman in line ahead of us who was buying three boxes of peaches. Each box contained five of the biggest, sweetest, juiciest, most perfectest looking peaches I have ever seen in my entire life. The price of each box was fifty bucks.

We headed out of the station in search of an indoor mall type place where we could stretch our legs in air conditioned comfort. On our way we took a moment to admire the statue of Momotaro. Then we headed off in the direction that our guide book said that the shopping center was located. We found the center with little to no problem. We did at one time find ourselves on the wrong side of the street but that was due more to construction than to incompetence. I am not sure how we do it but it never seems to fail. Once again we found ourselves in the dirt mall. The dirt mall is the mall that no one goes to, and is full of the type of store that rarely get business. We had hoped to find a place to eat some lunch and some shops to do some window shopping in while we took a walk. It was not to be, we found a Mister Donut and that was it. Now don't get me wrong I like Mr. Donut and will chose their donuts above any other here in Japan, just not for lunch. The stores were also a great disappointment. They were not the type that you want to see when on vacation. Truth be told it was like walking around a four story K-mart.

We headed back to the station. It was once again too hot to wander around the city and we had had enough of the dreadful heat the day before. The station held one of my favorite Japanese foods and so we stopped for lunch and ate ramen. I never could understand how people could write about the times when they were starving college students and lived off ramen. Those stringy little noodles in a broth I would think to myself, how can that offer up any sustenance to the body? Well after living here I can surely say that is Japan one could almost live off them. The Japanese know how to do it up right. A bowl of ramen at a ramen shop is truly a thing of beauty. Fresh noodles, chunks of pork, veggies like bean sprouts, corn and onion grace a rich homestyle broth. Jenny and I each had our own bowl, Logan just shared with us, and we split an order of gyoza, a steamed pork dumpling. I must admit that I will pick good ramen for lunch most days if given the chance. After eating our soup we headed off to find a cake shop. We found one inside the station basement. We got a couple of pieces of cake and sat on a bench and savored each and ever bite we took.

After we finished our cake we jumped on the next available train headed toward Himeji. This train connected us to a train that was bound to Nagahama. Things went very smooth on the trip home. We would get on this train and we would be able to ride all the way home. Omihachiman is on the way to Nagahama. We would be home in about two hours. The best part was that we would get a seat on the train and not have to worry about standing durring rush hour when there were no seats available. Well it would have been nice if that were the case. We managed to ride the train from Himeji almost all the way to Osaka when tragedy struck. Well not tragedy, but a small bladder. Logan stated that he needed to go to the bathroom. Trains are equipped with a toilet for use in such circumstances, but evidently during rush hour it is just not a reality. Logan a I went off in search of the toilet. We made it through two cars and did not manage to find the toilet. What we did manage to find was ourselves unable to move. We were stuck in the middle of a train car. I don't know that I ever want to be in that situation again. The sound of Logan repeating in my ear that he needed to go while I thought over and over about how I did not want to be wet is not my happy thought. We finally made it back to our seat and decided that our only recourse was to leave the train and use the toilet in the station. We exited the train at the next stop and found ourselves one stop away from Osaka. We all went and took a restroom break and were about to get back on the train when we saw that the next train only went to the city of Yasu. Yasu is two stops away from Omihachiman, but it was two stops in the too short direction. We figured that shy of our destination was better than waiting, we would just have to change trains in Yasu, something we do all the time, it was when the train pulled up to the platform that we changed our minds. The train was packed full. We were not at all interested in standing the hour and half to Yasu. It just was not worth it. We let the train roll on with out us. We would wait for the next one. We were in luck. The next train through the station was headed all the way past Omihachiman; and there were empty seats. We would be able to sit down and ride in comfort. Our patience had been rewarded.

We rode that train all the way back to the "Hatch", as we like to call it. It is a good thing that we were in such good shape from all the walking that we had done over the past few days because we were not done using our feet to locomote ourselves. We still had to walk home from the train station. It was a beautiful evening. We walked home under the star lit skies, feeling the cool evening breeze flow. It was at this time that Logan decided to sum up our vacation. He said, "I don't want to go home! I want to go back to the hotel!"