Resolutions

It seems that Time is running out on me... hardly have much time left in Okinawa. Have made some resolutions. Must do these before leaving.....

• Make clay shiisas.
• Visit the Churaumi at least every week.
• Drink one cup green tea (at least) every day while at school
• Take a trip to Ie, Ishigaki, Miyako and Kume-jima.
• Go to as many capes in Okinawa
• Do a scooter diaries all across Okinawa with digicam.
• Camp outdoors for (at least) one night.
• Make an Okinawan glass.
• Be my original weight when I go back to India.
• Skinny dip in the ocean.
• See the sun rising from the Higashi coast near the dam.
• Taste and judge the saltiness of the Shyokawa　or salt river in Motobu - a national heritage site that is famed to be one of the two such rivers in the world (citation required) .

Attention! Dog in Classroom!!

At Kamimotobu J. H. School today, as I walked across the parking lot to the staff room building, behold! what a sight - a stray puppy following one of the teachers. The teacher had no clue as to from where the puppy had suddenly presented itself. No-one knows who belongs to it, but I have a feeling it is going to adopt the school. The students definitely love it, bursting with "kawai" on their lips all girls would rush to pet it at any given moment. And the boys gladly fed it their vegetables from the school lunch, keeping the meat to themselves ( but naturally...).

The interesting part of all this was that when Hiromi sensei and I stepped in the class, the dog was inside prepared to study English. It patiently sat through most of the class, yet at times it couldn't resist the temptation to be petted by the students. The class had been divided into the boys team and the girls team for the lesson on debate. The chief guest and moderator sat in the middle.

Sometime during the class, one of the girls discovered it shivering on the floor . And she benevolently donated her blanket to it. She put it over the animal, to its extreme discomfort. and it circled the class room attempting to shake it off, but unsuccessfully. At the end I felt I must intervene. so I spread the sheet on the ground, and after sniffing it and patting it into shape, the animal sat upon it in peace, grateful for the attention and love it received.

After lunch when I went to speak to the students, I discovered that it was named Gonzales at first, but then it was discovered that its a she, so it was renamed Kaserin. And I knighted her Lady Catherine, Her Majesty Queen of Kamimotobu JHS, served upon by her faithful subjects, the students of Kami Chu. \(^0^)/

On a more nostalgic note:
For those who remember Golden, if you were to see this dog, you will be taken aback at how uncanny the resemblance is... same golden fur, same white diamond on the forehead, same gentle soft eyes, same quiet docile nature. I know it may sound crazy, but I wonder if she has reincarnated... I wish I could adopt Lady C, but there is no way I could separate myself from her when the time comes to leave.

I hope the school takes good care of her.

Girlfriends

Some of the girls I miss the most

(sorted Alphabetically descending order):

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VARSHA:

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PAROMA:

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ISA:

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GAYATRI (with Isa and Poro):

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ADITI and AYUSHMA (from right to left):

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And the other girls whose picture I dont have will have to send me a pic so I can post it along with these....

:)

Sakura Matsuri

The Cherry Blossom season is here!

To celebrate the arrival of the first Sakura in all Japan, my town hosted a small festival on 20th and 21st of January, 2007 on the famous Mt. Yaedake.

Okinawan cherry blossoms boast of being a brighter pink than the faded, subdued one of the mainland. These blossoms first start blooming on Yaedake and then travel south (within Okinawa) and then travel up north on the mainland. NHK cover this movement on national TV and cherry blossom tracking is an extensive affair in Japan.

I, personally, have been waiting since I was first told that Motobu gets the first sakura; keeping my eyes and ears wide open for any hint or talk of sakura. So, when the time finally came, there was no way I would miss out on the festivities. Brave Rachel was kind enough to come to Motobu for this short-lived event, and join the festivities with us, the Motobu ALTs (Paul, David and I).

The weather gave us a respite. it had been rainy the day before and everyone had doomed the event. But my prayers were answered, we had no rain that day, and in fact the sun even showed up for a brief moment to bless the occasion. We were able to enjoy walking around the matsuri grounds and eat sakura ice-cream and sakura mochi! and all of us bagged some goodies at the games.



Here's David and me trying to proudly present our town:

Famous Okinawan band "Afromania" orginally from Motobu, performed. They were quite good. And having not heard a live band in quite some time, I just felt transported to another realm.

Of course I bumped into many of my students. The brass band of Motobu Junior High School opened the festival, and a bunch of badly-behaving boys of the same school displayed some attitude and amateur break dancing. These girls played the sanshin:

As Rachel writes in her blog, there was a sense of lets-do-it-all and enjoy the most as our time here is measured, like the ephemeral sakura...

My Town

Finally PICTURES of my cute lil town. Well, actually its not really so little, but its definitely a very important town. Just imagine, Google Earth has a crystal clear zoom into Motobu and not Nago (the city up north). This is what wikipedia has to say:

Motobu, Okinawa
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The location of Motobu in Okinawa.
Motobu (Kunigami: muᵗuːbu; Japanese: 本部町 -chou) is a town located in Kunigami district, Okinawa, Japan.
As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 14,481 and a density of 266.69 persons per km². The total area is 54.30 km².
Motobu is located between the towns of Nakajin and Nago and can be reached by either route 449 or 82.
Several islands can be accessed from Motobu, namely the small islands of Sesoko (by bridge) and Minna-jima (by ferry). Both islands are incorporated as part of the Motobu township. Ferry service also runs from Motobu Port to Ie-jima.
Despite its modest population, Motobu boasts three large supermarkets and eight individual schools from the elementary to high school levels.
Like many towns in Okinawa, Motobu is composed of what were formerly several smaller and independent villages. In addition to Motobu proper other included districts are Sesoko, Kamimotobu, Sakimotobu and Izumi.
The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium is located in the northern portion this town.
In addition to the aquarium other notable sites include numerous out-of-the-way cafes along the 82 from Nago and a popular pizza restaurant known as Cafe Kajinho on a hill overlooking the town.

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Well, they missed out from mentioning that Motobu is the first town to have sakura - cherry blossoms- in Japan. Sometimes Nago overtakes Motobu, and there is stiff competition between the two. The sakura has started to bloom. I saw some on the way to Nago yesterday. And Liz has already posted a picture of it. Next weekend we will have the sakura matsuri in Motobu. I am looking forward to it and am so excited! My first Cherry Blossom!



Here's a satelite picture of Motobu:




And, here is the Bridge to Sesoko:

This is toguchi port area:



A view of Ie-jima:



And u can see Ie-jima in the background, my house (hidden in the photo) is left of the biggest white building, but see how gorgeous the water is:

That is my favorite spot, by the way. These are the steps where i have seen many knee-weakening sunsets. These are the steps where i enjoy ice-creams from my favorite oba-chan. (sigh!)

Ok. The next pic is the toguchi bay, with the blue bridge as background, and a closer pic of the blue bridge follows next:

Glass Craft

Today I went over to the Nago Glass Factory to do some glass craft. this what i made:

musings...

And then the music stopped. One knew it would. everything must to come to an end sometime. In the silence of the vaccum, one felt the emptiness of a lingering emotion, stil there, but not quite.

Like a longing...

My First Trip to a Japanese Hospital

After not having been able to recover from a cold for over 2 weeks, i finally decided to take the plunge, and submit self to the mercy of Japanese doctors - about whom i had heard horror stories to chill the bones. I anyway dislike doctors - no let me not say that, i should rather say - i dislike visiting them.

so what is it like in a Japanese hospital? well, its pretty much similar... except for the language... you have to register at the main desk; wait for your call; then a nurse takes all the info: whats wrong with u, your temperature, pulse, BP etc. then you wait some more till the doc calls you, you repeat everything again, and in the process some poor old man faints/has a heart attack and there is pandemonium in the ER, you are shooed away to a corner to observe CPR.

Well, i am sure it doesn't always happen like this but this is what happened today. after things calmed down, i was taken to another doc who had Santa-red-jolly-cheeks and spoke some English. i have absolutely no idea what interaction took place between him and my sensei, but i was told to drink lots of water, cough out whenever i felt like-as in not to hold it in, and to rest. i got a powdery medicine from a pharmacy and went to buy my groceries.

the things of interest were the various anti-bacterial liquids keep at the entrance, which had to be used on the following circumstances: dizziness, vomiting, loosies, and cough. my sensei couldn't explain the exact reason for these oddities while we both just de-bacterial-ized our hands. I was left on my own to ponder: was one to spray the fluid on one's arse if they had loosies? or ones head if they felt dizzy? mouth for the other two symptoms? i am sorry but i don't understand why these four conditions were posted. i can understand that when entering a hospital one has to sanitize potential germ-carriers, so why the even mention these four in particular....? Why not just tell people to spray the alcohol as they were entering a sanitized atmosphere? I guess its coz this is Japan... land of the inexplicable situations!!

my new earring

my new earring style had my students in splits of hysteria. i put an earring through both my piercings. it is quite cool and i like it very much! i am rather proud of my inventiveness. it shows how much 'vella' time I have :)

1. vella: a hindi word signifying the happy state of inactivity and uselessness.

bonnenkai

On Wednesday, my BOE (Board of Education) had their bonnenkai (end of year party). It was lots of fun, like most of these wild parties are. you would think that in an office party there would be a sense of decorum, and it would be a dignified affair. WRONG! it is nothing of this sort, nor will it ever be. In this part of the world, parties are what parties are supposed to be: wild, drunken, bacchanalic uninhibited fun and frolic with singing, dancing and great food.
And this time i didn't have to wear a sari!

the evening kicked off with a bento box of food, which of course I couldn't eat. none of the items were safe, for all their beauty they evoked no emotion in me. they were like pretty women. After all the fluttering and clucking by the Mother Hens, meatless, dashi-less oily ramen was brought to me. This ramen lasted me the whole evening.

Once bellies were full, tables cleared of empty bento-boxes, bingo cards were distributed. The 24 numbers were individually circumferenced by slits by which one could push the no. out and fold it. (umm, for those who r wondering why i am describing bingo cards; in India, we all scramble for pens when housie {our bingo} cards are circulated, esp. at kitty parties. and therefore i found the cards quite interesting.)

The bingo game was launched amid much excitement and one by one the winners (the one to get one whole line struck off as the numbers were called) got up to grab a gift from the pool, tearing them open to display what they had chosen. Some gifts were very interesting and I sighed for i couldn't get them. one was a beautiful cubic Okinawan glass that i coveted! but I ended up getting two curry rice bowls which sent the whole BoE in ruptures "Indo curry rice!!!!" it was the most apt gift for me in their eyes. Only when ayumi got exactly the same dishes, did we discover that it was actually a return gift from a wedding that had been recycled. nonetheless, I like it very much. especially the wooden spoons. :)

After the gifts were grabbed, opened, displayed and stashed away, the rest of the fun and games were served.

The hostess performed okinawan dances for our pleasure. she was quite good. altho she did use some artifical flowers as props, the use of which is still not clear in my head. except for jutting out unceremoniously from her obi, they didnt really serve any purpose. even aesthetically, i found it quite an oddity.

First game to be played was the wasabi bombs! four strong muscular(?!?) males were dared to participate. They were each given an onegiri, one of which was packed with wasabi. Only the hostess of the bar knew who got the 'bomb'. They had to eat it at the same time and the rest of the crowd had to discover who got the 'bomb'. One person (the funniest dear old man at the BoE) did his best to jump up and down roll on the floor unable to swallow the onegiri even with the help of 20 glasses of water. None but one person guessed it right. the person who got wasabi one had done a great job hiding it but afterwards his face was pink and eyes red.

Once the wasabi-induced passions were quelled, we moved on to the pass-the-rubber-band. 8 unlucky contestants were chosen, I among them. I was later informed that it was according to the two divisions of the BoE - education and social. I am still unsure where I belong. Anyway, it was 2 teams of 4 pl - 2 men and 2 women each. And we had to pass a rubber band using a toothpick in our mouths. If the band was dropped we had to start from the beginning. It was embarrassing and we were laughing like mad men at the end of it all. Again the funny dear old man (from now referred to as FDOM) put the toothpick as far in in his mouth as he could, leaving only a tiny tip out, to much of Ayumi's distress! well inspite of that her team won, while my team dropped the band twice! dropping our chance of winning.

Then, i also lost a 100yen in the reverse hyakku-en janken. (janken is rock-paper-scissors.) The game was played thus: pairs were made and asked to janken. The loser received the 100yen from the winner. therefore it was reversed. the loser-winners thus jankened until 2 people remained. the last winner won approximately 1500yen! I lost in the first round against FDOM. hmm! the one time i win a janken, i lose! :)

Then there was the toilet paper unwrapping contest. I was made to participate in that. The four contestants competed to be the first one to unwound a whole toilet paper role and wrap it on their hand. My pseudo-supervisor came in first, while i came in second! but it was I who walked away with all the loo-paper!! it is currently safely hidden under my desk at the boe, and will be essential in the construction of an artifact beyond any one's imagination but mine. (who-ho-ha-ha-ha! ) (shhhh- no-one but I knows the secret location of the treasure!)

Well, after the games, we started the karaoke. The karaoke screens cleared up; they had semi-nude women with skimpy clothes earlier.... this had made me wonder whether it was a hostess bar, that had been hired by the BoE. Anyway. to not sing at karaoke at a party is to perform sacrilege towards a holy ritual. therefore, I brought in help in the form of Ayumi, and we chose a song that she could sing - 'eternal flame' by the bangles. it probably turned out solemn. but it was a solemn hymn to the karaoke gods. we were heckled, tho. and therefore we decided a 'peppier' song for the next time - 'top of the world' and we had everyone clapping this time.

David was dearly missed during the party, and especially so during karaoke, as he usually took control over the "lets-get-wild-and crazy" madness :) !! But he was in Denver, enjoying a white christmas at home.

Well that was it for the evening. it was nearly 12. the party had been fun, but it was time to go home now. i hadn't been feeling well for sometime and i just needed to sleep. (future wud show how sick i became afterwards.) so, angel Saori drove me and Ayumi to Motobu, and sleep sweet sleep...