Movin on in

Today I am meeting with the owners of the house I am moving into. The school approved the move, so I'll be able to bring over the things that the school owns too. It is actually very good timing I think, because the new teachers will be coming in and looking for apartments to move into on April 1st.

So now begins the task of moving everything from the apartment to the house and changing over the utilities. I'm going to have to rely on Naoko and others to help me, because I have no way of getting the big stuff over there by myself. It would be a long bike ride with a refrigerator strapped to my back...and then a washing machine...then a TV...you get the idea.

The owners are going to share the cost of putting new tatami mats in the house. They will be swapped out when we get a nice day or two in a row. They are made from rush and rice stalks, and when new they are still slightly green. That means that they need to be installed on a dry day, and I'll have to keep wiping them down as the moisture escapes from them. Eventually they will turn from green to a tan color.

Other than the tatami mats there are a few other things I want to fix up around the place, but nothing too major as far as I can tell. The main task will be the garden outside. There is a very nice space for it, and it obviously has been used in the past, but it will need some work to get it into shape.
These little projects will be nice to have, it will help to make me feel more at home I think.

So, I look forward to getting comfortable in my new place over the next few weeks. I'll post pictures and video when I get a chance. I took some pictures of it a week or two back, but I havent uploaded them yet. I'll get on it!

春一番 (First Winds of Spring)

Today Haru-Ichiban, the first winds of spring, seem to have arrived. The temperature is in the mid 60's and the wind is blowing fiercly. We have had some days with strong winds like this throughout the "winter", but up until now they had arrived accompanying a cold front, usually marking the coldest days. This is the first warm wind that has swept through.

It's quite a different feeling from Minnesota in February. While Northlanders are still in prime blizzard season, Ojika's plum trees are breaking in to bloom. The daffodils have been up for a month now, filling the open areas with a wonderful fragrance. Even a few of the early blooming cherry trees are showing flowers, although I'm told the majority wait until April.

As far as I am concerned, Ojika had one day of winter this year. Snow fell and stayed on the ground for that one day, and to me, that marks the sole appearance of old man Frost.

I am looking forward now to planting a garden and hopefully moving into a small, more traditional style house instead of my concrete and plastic apartment. I'm just waiting on the OK from the school. More on that soon. And hopefully pictures of the place as well.

Re-contracting

So I have decided to re-contract here on Ojika. That means I`ll now be here until July 27th, 2010. It has taken a lot of thought to come to that decision, and honestly, it's not something I imagined myself doing. Unfortunately, the program makes us decide at the halfway point in the year. That makes it tough to picture how you will feel about your choice 6 months from now.

I guess there are several reasons why I chose to stay. The first is that I dont feel like I will have accomplished everything that I wanted when I came here. One year is just not enough time for me. I feel like I am just getting settled in to things here, and probably have more settling yet to do. I am also working on the language, and the more I understand, the more opportunities can come my way. Being on the island here, my ability to visit some of the places I want to see is also hindered. It takes some time, effort, and money to get places from here, and pretty much requires taking a vacation day or two. That means I have to spread those things out a bit. The positive aspect of that is making strong connections with the people on the island, which leads me to the next reason for staying....

Ojika has been getting a fair amount of attention lately for it's eco/cultural tourism efforts. The island is in the midst of making this type of tourism an important part of the economy. Recently, visiting American high school students voted Ojika the number 1 destination in Japan for the second year in a row. The Asahi beer corporation is also recognizing it as a leading eco-destination, and donated money to the island from beer sold in Kyushu during January. There is also the restoration of an old, traditional style home to be used for long-stay tourists. This project is being supported by Ojika's Island Tourism and author Alex Kerr and his Iori Co. which currently restores and operates traditional style homes for stays in Kyoto.
I feel as though there is a possibility for me to get involved in some of these changes on Ojika, and I want to stick around and see if it is something I am interested in.

There are also any number of volunteer opportunities I'd like to do in nearby countries. Building homes with dalit in India, raising money and helping with community projects while cycling across Cambodia, reading books with children in Nepal... I'd like to do some of these before I leave, and it can be relatively easy to do while in the JET program.

And a final reason, although least important in my eyes, is that I am making pretty good money over here with a very low cost of living. I could return and go to grad school without worrying about loans or trying to scrape by while working myself ragged.

It has been a difficult time weighing these things and considering back and forth, but I think I am making the right decision for myself.

Japanese Techno-Craziness even on Ojika

So Ojika has avoided most of the wierd gadgetry and flashing neon lights that has overwhelmed the more populated areas of Japan. That is why I was so astonished when an office worker from the school here handed me a can of warm soup that he had just bought for me from the entryway vending machine! I mean, I have bought a drink or two from that machine, but its usually an orange juice or some tea. I had no idea it would spit out hot cans of soup or coffee. Maybe this isn't so crazy as it seems to me, but I have never seen such a thing.



Unfortunately the vending machine is coca-cola, so everything in there is coke products. They seem to have just as tight a grip on asia as they do on North America (if not more so). So yes, this was indeed a can of coca-cola corn soup(refer to my last post on the quality of bread and apply it to seemingly just about any other food you dont make or grow yourself). I am astounded by the amounts of preserved and refined foods people eat over here. I would not be surprised to see life expectancies decrease in Japan over the coming years, It just doesnt seem that people are getting good nutrition from this stuff.

Bad Bread

So I have had an ongoing cold for close to two weeks now, and it is really starting to get old. Every time I think it is getting better, it comes right back. Im quite tired of it.

On another note, I made sugar cookies the other day. I wanted some sort of christmas cookie, and sugar cookies are about the only thing that I can easily find the ingredients for. Gingerbread cookies seems to be well know around here, but the food shop didnt have molasses or cinnamon. I guess people just eat the factory baked ones, especially since most folks dont have an oven to bake things.

I cant believe what passes for "bread" over here. It is disgusting stuff. Everything comes individually wrapped, is loaded with processed sugars, fats, creams, artificial flavors...basically the least healthy and nutritious baked goods you could imagine.
It seems like people would buy real bread if it was available, in fact, a woman from my conversation class used to sell it. Unfortunately, she was baking it in her kitchen and the health department shut her down when some shop owners complained about it. They complained because she was selling so much bread, she was taking the sales of their crappy "bread" away from them. I think she said she was baking something like a hundred loaves a week, which I think is pretty incredible for a small island like this. Especially when you are operating out of your household kitchen and have a small child to raise!
What I am getting at is this island needs a bakery in a serious way. Especially if they are wanting tourists to come to town... there needs to be a good place to get tasty baked goods for breakfast. A shrink wrapped weiner roll(a hotdog buried inside something that is supposed to be a roll) just wont cut it.

Long time, no see.

Long time since my last post. The time has been flying by in the last month. I'm not even sure exactly what I have done.
I made a trip to Nagasaki about a week ago, and although being in the city can be fun for a while, It always feels good to come back out to the island. It is much quieter and peaceful here. The people are so much more friendly and personal too.

The latest project I have started on is developing an English website for the students on Ojika. I've got some test posts up at ojikaenglish.blogspot.com
I havent let any of the students know the address yet, I'm hoping to get it a little bit more polished up first. I would really like to get a real domain and webhosting for it, because it would let me do so much more with it, including expanding it as a tourism resource for english speakers visiting the island. I dont really want to spend the money for that myself though, so I am hoping that the school will chip in for it.


It has actually been very cold on the island. Definately not as cold as back in Minnesota, but unfortunately the buildings here are not insulated. That makes for a very cold day when it is 48 degrees outside and there is no heat and no insulation inside. Most teachers sit in the staff room with insulated coats on and maybe 4 layers of clothes. As I type the vice principal is continuously blowing on his hands to keep them warm! It has been very windy too, and raining now and then. Im sure its really not so bad, I'm just losing my Minnesota thick skin too quickly.