Monday, October 19, 2009-

Eleven Simple Pleasures In My Day (I first wrote ten but then remembered another one, so I just made it eleven):

1) I woke up early and the family and I Skyped for a bit because we hadn’t talked in quite a while

2) I found a bunch of music on iTunes that I had forgotten about and enjoyed listening to the whole playlist on my way to and from school

3) I read a book in Spanish and realized both how much I miss it and also how far I have to go in Japanese before I reach the point I’m at in Spanish. But I’m okay with it

4) I had a stick of ‘Zebra Gum’ that my family had sent over to me (of course I used the blue tattoos, Maria, duh!)

5) I explained the concept of “the day before yesterday” to someone in my homeroom class. He couldn’t believe we don’t have just one word for it like the Japanese do: Ototoi 一昨日

6) In my fishery course today we canned trout. It was my first experience of the sort, and I laughed as I filled can after can with tiny pinches of salt because I felt like we were working in some sort of Japanese fish-school factory…oh wait, we kind of were!

7) I taught Oshima-Sensei (the librarian) all about Christianity, Judaism, and Islam and what on earth a “Methodist” was. It was funny plus I used only Japanese so she was proud of me = )

8) At school my friend Rie (aka the hottest girl in school) told me that my Japanese was coming along well, score!

9) After school instead of going home I biked the opposite direction for a kilometer or two because for weeks now I’ve seen this tower overlooking the town of Bato (the larger of the two villages that joined to make Nakagawa – it’s confusing.) Anyway, I’d really wanted to go see the view from the top and it was well worth the hike. No seriously I had to get off my bike and hike up a mountainside with carved steps and everything just to get to the top. I’ve posted pictures below

10) I made it 24 pedals going “no hands” on my bike. I’m trying to teach myself how to steer with no hands. I’m not so good…

11) When I got home my 43 year-old host brother and I talked for a while because he still hadn’t left for home yet. He said he felt so bad for me because there’s nothing to do in Nakagawa and that I was surrounded by old people…In a small way this made me feel better = )

The salt cans

Over these hills and across the river lies the sleepy little town of Ogawa

The larger town Bato, it is about 20-30 minutes bike ride from my house. If you look closely you can see my school on top of the tiny hill in the middle