Okinawa

Okinawa is a small island down the south of Japan  This is were I spent my silver week. The people of Okinawa are quite different in their looks and they have an alternative culture. They call themselves Okinawans as opposed to Japanese. A bit like Hawaii and America I suppose.

A week in paradise with a bunch of the greatest friends.

We all have one thing in common which is JET, we are a group hand picked from a few hundred, therefore we have similar personalities and the same adventurous outlook. I have been lucky enough to be handed a group of instant best friends. My roomies Laura and Ciara from Tokyo are two girls that are extremely entertaining and we believe that fate brought us together, they get the Irish humour and that’s all that mattered last week!

We started in Naha (the capital of Okinawa) rented a car for the first few days and explored the main island. Stumbling across countless stunning beaches and loads of deadly bridges! The Aquarium up North was unbelievable, I’m not a serious aquarium goer but this place was unreal. The main attraction is a bloody huge tank with whale sharks, sting rays, manta rays, sharks, the list goes on, but the sheer size of this thing is really quite something. The beauty of the place was that we were in Japan so everyone is quiet, no screaming or shouting just watching. I could have stayed there for hours watching this world that has always intrigued me.

The last few days we took the boat to Zanami Island and Aka-Jima. These are beautiful tiny remote islands off the coast of Okinawa mainland. They had a little bit of magic hidden in them. We camped in wooden cabins and spent the days exploring beaches, cycling, snorkeling, and ‘just chillin’. The highlight would have to have been swimming with a crazy turtle at sunset on a deserted beach. The peace and quiet in these places reminded me of summers spent on Inis Meain where doing nothing, just watching and enjoying, was all part of the adventure.

XXXxxx Happy Noodles day xxxXXX

From One Side to Another

Shibuya Cross Roads Tokyo

The Japanese are an extremely civilized society, this is a fact I am constantly reminded of everyday of my life here. So many of their daily routines revolve around this civilized attitude, they respect each other with such passion. The bowing may seem funny at times and slightly ridiculous to me but to them it is a way of showing gratitude, of portraying a feeling, an emotion, without breaking a peaceful silence. They refrain from talking on the phone on public transport - this is not a law but they respect it as one. I have yet to see anyone on the phone while on the train or bus. If it’s not a law then why do they bother? Is that what the rest of the world would say? It is amazing to me, this intense restraint and obedience, I find it exciting to discover.


While I was in Tokyo, I was flustered and got lost finding my way from the train station to the airport, when I came across this amazing sight. A famous tourist attraction in the city is the large cross roads known as Shibuya, I’ve seen pictures on the internet but have yet to see it. This was not Shibuya but a similar cross road, a little less busy.

I stood and watched for 30 minutes, it really was quite captivating. The lights are all red and nobody moves, the people and cars are still. A green man flashes and boom the people cross in a fast steady pace, the orange man flashes and the stragglers mid-cross panic to reach the other side. The man goes red, not a soul is left on the road, the people wait. The light goes green and the cars take their turn, the light goes orange and they begin to stop. Red light arrives and everyone is back in their box.

The most amazing thing is that I was there at about 10am which was nowhere near any rush hour, sometimes no cars were on the roads but the people wait they do not disobey. It is the same in Aomori you wait your turn, you obey the crossing. Cycling home at midnight you will see an empty road and a pedestrian waiting 2/3minutes for the green man to give them the blessing.

The Calm





Green man

 





Green man

 






Green man

 






A Straggler







People wait, cars cross

 

Rowing with the Olympian

I eventually rustled up the courage to approach the rowing coach on Tuesday. I wasn’t sure how much of our conversation from the Enkai she would remember. But alas she was delighted I showed interest, it’s always the case so I am getting bolder about asking for stuff every day! The date was set, I would go on Wednesday to watch the rowers, I didn’t want to impose myself on them too much so I just asked to watch. We drove to the river together, which the kids cycle 40 minutes to everyday during the summer (in winter they train on machines in school).  So in my head I imagine kayak style boats, maybe even those wooden clunky boats but oh no when I peeked over the bank into the river I could only laugh. The river was heaving with those skinny slick high speed boats, the ones that topple over with the slightest touch. I was amazed. There were doubles, singles and team boats (4 rowers and 1 coxman).  My boating expert levels are extremely minimum so excuse my lack of rowing vocabulary. Before I knew it I had agreed to give it a shot, after Yoshida (the Olympian) offered I was happy if she had faith in me! Swarmed by tons of students who dressed me in their spare clothes, carried the boat and oars to the river, as well as taking hundreds of photos. The boat club is shared by three high schools, everyone is friends so they all helped me together. The best rower (we nicknamed him Hannah’s partner as his name was seriously tricky) took me under his wing and agreed to take me out in a double boat. I was 100% sure I would end up head first in the water, but what do ya know I stayed above surface the entire time. Getting in and out of the boat was the most nerve racking but with ten arms helping you it would actually have been difficult to fall in. Yoshida Sensei gave me a few basics before I got into the boat and we were off.  It is extremely strange that feeling of learning something totally new, so much concentration, so much excitement. The smile on my face matched those of the kids and teachers watching from the shore line. I gradually got the hang of it while my partner directed me with some very useful tips. Don’t lift your oars too high as it unbalances the boat - I learnt this after a major wobble. Left hand oar on top of your right hand oar, plunging the oar into the river is not cool and will most definitely create another serious wobble. So I rowed for a bit while my partner kept the boat balanced, then I was told to ‘rest relax enjoy beauty’ while he flew us along the surface. While I was at ‘rest and relax’ I was in fact concentrating very hard, I was told to place the oars in ‘arigato position’ which is I think rest position, but this is quite tricky if you have never done it before. You cannot just lift them out of the water and chill out, that as I mentioned would unbalance the wee boat pretty quick. So instead you place your oars on top of the water, but not beneath. Tricky task for a beginner.  I mastered it after a few more serious wobbles and then I actually got to ‘relax rest enjoy beauty’.  It was an amazing experience sitting in that boat, you feel between layers, you are not on land but not in water, you are in between, the sun began to set as we were gliding so peacefully along the surface. My turn came around again and so I began my catch position, drive position, finish position, recovery. The river was very bendy, while I was concentrating hard and having some great chats with ‘my partner’, he would at random say ‘stop please Hannah’ in a very formal voice I would turn around and we would be fast approaching a large concrete block. I had faith in him and he kept us out of any collisions.  An hour passed and darkness forces us ashore but all night in my sleep I was playing catch position, drive position, finish position, recovery...

P.S  Hi Geoffrey Leggett ;)

Always say yes?

Wednesday's coffee, this one is bareable

Monday morning the alarm malfunctioned, luckily I am so terrified of being late I woke up with a sixth sense that something was wrong. I made it to work on time no problem but skipped the breakfast ritual. So a little scattered and really hungry I arrive, but not late, never late. I explained to the teacher beside me about my late wake up dilemma and he says I need some coffee, then I’ll be good to go. So while I am not looking he actually drives to the shop and gets me three cans, his favorites for me to taste. Wow, nice guy, thank you (where is me bread roll though?)


So he presents all three cans and says I should have all of them to find my favorite taste. The cans look small so I agree, I had no choice really the guy just drove out of school to get them for me! All the teachers around watch in anticipation as I try them all. I drink coffee but only sometimes and usually milky so I struggled but managed to drink them all. I make sure to make as many enthusiastic yummmmm sounds as possible, he then tells me it’s the strongest you can get in Japan, I thought so, it was like drinking treacle! Well I was glad and thankful, it should wake me up and get me going after a rough start. Well, oh dear, I am not so glad once I hit my first class. I can barely talk, my hands are shaking like crazy, the kids probably thought I was a nervous wreck. It lasted the entire day and needless to say it exhausted me. So now every morning he presents me with a can of this crazy crazy coffee, I cannot bare to drink it, I cannot bare another day like Monday. How do I make this madness stop without offending the kind donator? Always say yes?

My friend GeorgeHenry

Here is my friend George Henry IV, he reminds me as I walk into my shed to get my bike every morining that his brother or sister could be hidding from me. Always check, double check. He is a beautiful spider. We are frien-emy's ;) 

My first Shake

Just experienced my first earthquake, so bizarre, similar to that feeling when you are so drunk you are about to get sick. Not that I should know that feeling! Thought a fat man was walking behind me when saw all the things on my desk quiver then reminded myself of the chance of a fat person in this office!
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/

The Gaff

As requested here are some snaps of the mini appartment I live in....

Front door and 'Hannah Leggett number 12'

The kitchen

It's really a very low kitchen!

Laundry 'room'

The sitting room

The bedroom!

Work Hard Play Hard

That's me washin'

Friday night was my official welcome enkai, this one was different from the other because it was all the staff as opposed to just the English teachers.

So my orientation was Wednesday, Thursday and Friday which meant I wasn’t in school a lot of the week. I got a call from Noda Sensei on Friday morning to say I needed to make a speech at dinner, shit! So before cycling to town I went to work and printed out my speech I had made before, then Noda rang and said we’d need to tweek it a bit. Time was running tight! After orientation I peddled home as fast as I possibly could manage, showered, changed and zipped back into town to meet Noda. I meet her in a coffee shop but we both forgot a pen so I go off to buy a pen, going from shop to shop thinking each would have one, but no, I’m deliriously tired and starved btw. Eventually after about 15 minutes I run back and poor Noda is jumping around. We need to go, quick! No time for writing! We run up the street while she tries to tell me I’m smart I don’t need a sheet to read from, then she speaks Japanese phrases at me followed by ‘remember?’ Before I've time to answer she says ‘good hannah’.  Dear lord I can barely remember the good evening part! I start to laugh at the two of us running up the street and her attempting to teach me while she has no idea I lost her a good paragraph ago! We arrive both in fits of laughter with me no wiser than I was. We manage to write a tiny speech down while in the bathroom, just smile she says. Well I have had practice in that so I should manage, fingers crossed! They made plenty of speeches about me in Japanese while I sat and nervously awaited my turn, smiling of course. I stood, SMILED, said my bit and I was free. The drinks were poured, the Kampay ‘cheers’ was done then before I finished my first sip the English teacher beside me leaned over and proclaimed he was drunk and so was the principal on my other side! They were overly impressed at my attempts to serve them food and pour them drink before I did my own. With a few drinks on board the teachers loosen up and begin to tell you weird and wonderful things. The vice principal began to apologise for not talking to me enough and claimed it was because he thought I was beautiful and I made his heart bleed when I looked at him. He followed this by saying he and his wife have a bad relationship so I quickly changed the subject! He was very funny though, putting on a big show for everyone proclaiming his love, holding and kissing my hand at every opportunity! I was invited to join the Rowing club whose coach was actually in the Olympics in Syndey and Atlanta, the Art club where the teacher wants me to show her how to wood block, and the handball team (whose coach is the v.principal and whose heart I make bleed!).  Then again come Monday morning there will probably be lots of flies on the wall for them to watch. It is a Japanese trick, work hard play hard, come Monday morning ‘it never happened’ is usually the attitude, very funny! Still I will weasel my way into those offers hopefully! I had such a great night, they are such lovely fun people who I can’t wait to befriend more.

I love you

Some children come from out of the blue and dedicate their love. One girl saw me, I said hello, she said hello, then she said she loved me. How nice.
Others leave secret notes in their home work, pictures or hearts around my name. How can that not bring a smile?

Here is a picture of my dog Ryan!

Here is me, attached was a post-it note saying 'i love hannah, she is happy' but she wouldn't let me keep the note as she said it was private!

A dedication

The glorious twenties have arrived, no doubt I will regret my bashing of the heat when it begins to snow. But for now I welcome this 22 degree day with open arms, I sit with a dry bum and no sweat rag, and it feels great :)

Race the Base

Sunday morning the sun came out after a very rainy saturday, enclosed in the US military base in Misawa I ran my first 10k in Japan. After a difficult few weeks training in the ridiculous heat it all paid off, I was placed 18th in the 10k race with a time of 52minutes 15seconds. The key to it was not knowing where the heck the finish line was and thinking every kilometre was the last, that and the glee soundtrack on my ipod ;) There was also a women who inspired me, she was pushing a 3year old in a pram and her t-shirt said ‘you’ve just been passed by a pregnant woman’ we overtook each other several times but damn I made sure I crossed that line first. No way she was kicking my ass!


Myself and Jackie felt amazing, a big tick on our to-do list for the year was successfully complete!

The Miasawa airforce base is so odd, its more like a village/small town enclosed around a barbed wire fence where thousands of Americans live their American lives. They have wall marts stacked high with reese-buttercups and candy corn. It was so bizarre, everything they need is shipped over to create this American world for them to feel at home in. I excuse myself if I offend anyone but damn they are big people! After being around the tiny Japanese then crossing a gate to see so many XXXXXL, it was hard to keep my mouth closed! The families live here, the kids go to school and some never set foot outside the fence. There was a strange feeling about the place, every building is painted cream and brown, I felt like I was imposing, I did not feel real and I don’t know how they live in this caged enclosure.

Wild goose chasing

First weekend of September was a weekend of welcomes and wonder. The official Aomori welcome party was held in Shichinohe camping mountain cabins, before we got to relax with fellow JET's from around the ken we were sent a running wild! Clues come out online at 8am and you have till 4.30pm.  In teams you decode and get on your way to find & map/photograph each area, it becomes not only a race against time and knowledge but also creative enuthusiasm! Not only are you looking for the famous rice fields, the big buddha, but your on the look out for women in komonos (30points), crazy japanese car dashboards (30 points), playground swing sets, the list is actually endless but you get the idea....the more points you rack up the better chance you have of taking gold!

We did not come first, at all, but it was a deadly day none the less, got to see tons of stuff and had a ball with the team buddies.

Team member swith an 'Obachan' aka a granny!

Most of these photos belong to the lovely Christy Bahr, you can see her blog to, she lives here in Aomori City and she's a great pal :) Thank you Christy Sensei for lending your photos!

http://christyinaomori.wordpress.com/

Various tasks shown are Go-Karting down moya hill (which was fairly lethal), finding 'Enrish', getting Japanese people to hold the sign 'I love JET', the Buddha, an onsen...

A Struggle

Monday was a busy day! The first in a few weeks were I had a constant flow of to do lists, nothing too extreme, it’s good to have a nice busy day. I wore a head scarf in my hair cause I thought it was nice, little did I know what it actually ment. All the teachers were commenting on it all day, most of which don’t have English so I was presuming they were just expressing that they liked it. At the end of the day Yuki Sensei came up to me and asked if I knew what was on my head. Weird question, I was wondering weither he was implying the scarf fell onto my head! Yes I was well aware I had cloth in my hair ;) He then told me that wearing a scarf tied around my head like that symbolized a struggle. I instantly thought ‘oh crap they think I’m moaning?’ but no they had all been talking about what a wonderful message I had been showing the kids. It is a sign of struggle but more a sign that I was trying hard to defeat a struggle. It represented hard work and commitment, the teachers were so delighted the children could see me portraying not only a struggle but also a public attempt to over-come this struggle. It showed bravery. Kudos to the scarf!

You Are Penis

My supervisor just came to me and asked me about some slang phrases she was trying to learn. So one was ‘ you are nuts’ but she had obviously looked it up in the dictionary and was saying ‘ you are peanuts’, saying this with a Japanese accent actually comes out ‘you are penis’.  You can only imagine the strength I had to use to fight back the laughter. Firstly I didn’t want her to be offended so I asked her to repeat it several times, only making it far more humorous. Then I asked her where she had learnt it. From a friend apparently. some friend! At this stage I couldn’t hold it back, I started laughing and said that no you should not say penis to people ‘you are penis’ is not a slang phrase. She started then laughing when she saw me crying with laughter. I was so confused at this that I asked her to write down the word, but she often asks me to ‘draw’ a word when she wants me to write it down, so she repeats ‘you want me to draw penis?’ …oh god no! Eventually I figure out she was trying to say peanuts, so she is now scared to say it because of my uncontrollable laughter but probably for the best I think it’s safer she doesn’t go asking for penis at a bar! I explain that I didn’t hear her properly that she can say ‘you are nuts’ but ‘you are peanuts’ is not very common. She wants to know why I think peanuts are so funny.

Takin' the Train To Namioka

View from my office in Namioka School

Wednesday was my first visit to Namioka School for special needs. Noda Sensei brought me to the train at 7.30am to catch the 7.50am train to the next town over. Before I came to Nishi Koko a new adventure like this would have terrified me, the train on my own to somehwere I'd never been, meeting another group of strangers who would probably speak little English, a day of Japanese introductions to adults and children, the idea of getting lost..but I felt so calm. I was excited more than anything to meet everyone at my second school. There is also the fact that I have yet to meet a rude unwelcoming Japanese person so this might have helped my nerves. The school was huge, absolutely massive, but filled with only 53 students and 60 teachers. It was attached to a hospital so that the children who lived there could walk through an indoor corridor to get to class, this I thought was very impressive. I had 5classes that day, each very different from the last. My first class with senior high school, two students, a girl and a boy, the JET (Japanese English Teacher) and myself made up the rest of the class. The girl was very very sleepy, the JET said it was a mixture of her sickness and the medication she is on, the boy hated school that’s all she said. It was sad, not because they were sick but the classroom was so quiet so empty, they had no friends to chat to before or after, no friends to sit beside, just the two of them and their two desks. Most of the lessons had the same structure, the students introduced themselves reading from sheets, some didn’t actually need the sheets. Then I introduced myself and passed around pictures, a flag, postcards, Euro money, and a teddy bear. They loved the pictures asking questions about every little detail, ‘what her?, her nice? , you live?’. The girl was a fantastic drawer, throughout the whole class she kept showing me her drawings that’s all she wanted to do. The next class was with 7 boys and 3 teachers including me. These guys were hilarious, they loved chatting to each other and showing me around the class, we sat in a circle and talked about ourselves, their English was quite good it was fun being able to interact like that. Then I had elementary, one boy, one desk, one teacher. He was a great kid but how could you not feel like he needed some pals. He is completely on his own, isolated and from what I could see he was pretty bright and he would have managed fine at Nishi KoKo. But then again I don’t know the reasons they are all there. At lunch I ate with two 7year old boys and five other teachers. One boy was deaf and in a wheelchair but could not stop smiling, he was delighted to have new company and seemed very happy with all his mates. After lunch I had another elementary class. One boy, one huge classroom, one teacher and myself. Two teachers and one kid is tricky, you can end up talking to the teacher more than the child if you’re not careful, there is no diversity, a question is asked then answered, the kid hears no stories about his friends, he won’t know what his friends hobbies are or what they like to eat, because it’s just him on his own. It’s also very difficult to ask questions, I stupidly asked him about his family, turns out he has none and lives in the hospital. I don’t know if he lives there because he is sick or because he has no family but either way this kid has the best English I have heard from a school child since I got here, he just has nobody to practice with.

I got off at 3pm and headed back to the train station in the blistering heat, exhausted from a day of classes, the most I have done in Nishi Koko is 2 in one day. So I can barely talk anymore after a solid day of ‘my name is Hannah.’  Namioka is a fantastic school, the teachers are so friendly and nice, the children are very happy as far as I can see but I cannot help but feel they must be lonely. I never knew what was better, to integrate children with special needs into normal schools or to keep them all together, but now I believe that those children need friends, they need interaction. Maybe they separated the classes for my first day and next time they will group them together a bit. I’ll wait and see but at least they seem happy.

What Is Worse Being Late or Naked?

This morning was eventful. Whilst cycling to school in my long skirt (only long because its the Japanese etiquette law) the cloth got stuck in the wheel. I should have known after all the warning I was given as a child, but no there I was going down the hill to the school thinking how nice the breeze was on another 38 degree morning. Luckily I noticed as it was happening so I had time to pull the brakes which avoided a head first tumble over the bars. And instead I just plopped onto the grass. I may have saved my skull but my skirt I did not. The thing was shredded in numerous areas and also filthy, there was also the fact that my knickers were out for show. The question arose, what is worse in Japan, to arrive to work late or naked? I chose naked, I believe I am wise. So I used my hair clips and hair bobbins to try and patch it up. Whilst doing this I created a large crowd of people who in turn began to donate any sort of clipping thing. Some even offered theie socks I am really not sure why, probably as a desperate attempt to help with my kinckers being on show. They then walked me and my bike in a parade to the entrance. I felt like a dirty shredded queen.


I got the stapler to it in work once I safely made it to my desk and it looks lovely now! They would have let me go home to change but I enjoyed them laughing at me histerically.

Late would have been a bad move.

If all else fails I can catch this bus to Ireland it will drop me to Dublin Airport!

I WIN

After four epic failed attempts, during which I made some bread that was so hard it would break your face and some disasterously runny, which ended up all over my tiny weeny kitchen (I'm still finding bits), several painful shopping trips with the dictionary, some late night timing checks….I eventually beat the bread battle and made this beaut. I am really so proud of it, I also did a little bread victory dance!

A big shout out to my mammy who spent hours on skype helping me and Laura Kelly for her entertainment throughout!