pilgrims chanting

dude, i totally caught them! here's a taste of their prayer session


Meisekiji from Kim on Vimeo.

Meisekiji (明石寺)

thanksgiving morning, before heading to a bloated english teaching conference, chris and i killed some time stopping at the Meiseki Temple. this temple is one of the 88 famous temples of the shikoku pilgramage. meiseikiji happens to be number 43. we arrived around 9 in the morning and we were just in time to see bus loads of pilgrims starting off their day. take a minute to see what we saw!

this is traditional pilgrimage attire. typically they are dressed in white from head to toe, donning the traditional straw hat. pilgrims who make the entire journey on foot usually take about 2 months to circle the entire island. they will also ask for donations to continue the pilgrimage. they usually do this by silently standing holding out a donation cup.

many travelers are surprisingly old and carry all their belonging in a pack. they travel a light as possible to be able to endure the trek. it is said that even if a foreigner decides to take up the pilgrimage, if they also wear the hallmark wardrobe, they (like all others on the journey) will be treated with more respect and kindness. many shikokuins (?) support these pilgrims and will gladly give donations to help with food expenses. the pilgrims typically stay in the temples to rest at night, and will visit as many as 5 or 6 in a day. to commemorate the trek, pilgrims will have their book stamped with the unique seal of each temple visited.

giving thanks

yesterday was my first international thanksgiving. seven of us celebrated in yawatahama at veroncia's place. i brought the corn, mashed potatoes and the rolls. we feasted despite the fact there are no turkeys in japan. even have enough apple pie to go around! things were nearly the same as home, but, my lunch of sushi kept the reminder i will spend this thanksgiving day in japan.

secret's out

i just finished season one of lost and am addicted! eep, be kind!

nomura

last week with james, we had the opportunity to explore my town a little more fully. i don't have too much of an adventurous side by myself. to quote: "an unshared happiness is not happiness."

recent happenings or holy shit finally have the internet at home

two days ago, james and i parted ways, for what will hopefully be for the last time in a long, long time. here is some of what we did in our crazy 2 weeks together.

flew up to the northern most island of japan, hokkaido, to see a WRC rally. while there, we traipsed through the woods and followed rally drivers on the highways, getting lost and loving every minute!

in this video you can hear the rally cars, but unfortunately we couldn't scale the mountain to see them (although we did cross the river!)

the next week we traveled to hiroshima for our final adventures together in japan. we rented bikes and rode around the city, saw the a-bomb dome and visited the hiroshima museum. the a-bomb dome was pretty unreal to see. the structure is preserved in its original state of destruction immediately after the bombing. the bomb was detonated directly above the structure. because of this and the fact its entirety was primarily constructed of concrete and brick helped it to withstand the intense heat and explosion. (being detonated directly above resulted in less destruction due to shock waves). this marks the seventh world heritage site i've been to in the world.

thank you for everything!

futami toge

Futami Toge from Kim on Vimeo.

Nomura Middle Koto session

my girls from nomura practicing the koto.

list time. list time for buddy.

i want to be evaluated! and here's how:

one. GRE general examination
two. GRE math subject examination
three. JLPT

no explosions and no surprises

november in ehime is warm and the air feels very crisp. the mornings and nights get chilly, but the daytime heat invites you to shed your scarves and jackets and enjoy the japanese sun. i do like it here. nomura is comfortable and peaceful. i have grown to love driving the winding (single lane) roads of ehime. they might be slow as hell, but the are interesting. there is a bakery down the street that serves the best pumpkin rolls ever! going to the post office can be an adventure in itself - last week i met with some mom of one of my 3rd graders (9th grader) from nomura middle, who professed her daughter's love of my english class to me -- much to her daughter's shagrin.

i like it here, but i don't like to be alone. i also don't like that i don't teach english. i teach the "ALT english class" i.e. the "fun english" class i.e. the "joke english" class. i have been recruited to play games with kids all day that may or may not reinforce english ability. i conduct my classes almost exclusively in japanese. this is very good for my japanese. this is not so good for their english. when i speak in english no one understands basic vocabulary/structures, which has led to my increased japanese classroom vocab. my kids still treat me well and love to interact with me, but the staff do treat me like a temp. as they should, i am a temp afterall. but sometimes it hurts when i'm the ONLY one in the staff room and no one informed me there is an all-important meeting happening somewhere in the school.

all of this is weighing on my mind as i'm debating on leaving early. being in my (forced) isolation from the rest of the world/english speakers, has allowed me to do a lot of thinking. i realize that coming here on a free ticket and taking a leisurely year off is just my way of delaying making bigger decisions. in a way it was easy to quit nursing knowing i has some plan. I was going to Japan. solid plan, ne? i didn't think past that, really.

now that i'm here i can see really, it is a house of cards. its not really providing me with real direction. its just me being randomly in japan (alone). i don't think that i want to keep putting off the rest of my life. it was fun being here, and it definitely satiated my desire to live in a foreign counrty, but when is enough enough?

at the moment i am expecting to break early and come home after christmas sometime in early january. i still have to cement my decision but as of tomorrow, james will be taking some of my excessive stuff back to the 'burgh with him to help with shipping costs.

when i come home, if i come home, i will be taking time off to work on myself. much like what james just finsihed doing before i came to japan. right now my eye is on comp ling, and if i have aspirations of getting into a program, say, at CMU, i have much work ahead of me. much more serious stuff than playing variations of snakes and ladders and modified rock-paper-scissors games.

Halloween Lessons!

this week i finished up my halloween lessons with middle and elementary. the elementary school kids decorated the room with bats (こうもり) and pumpkins (かぼちゃ). the middle schoolers got to carve a real jack-o-lantern! no small task for rural japan. i found real (orange) pumpkins on some farm in my town and had each class design their own - they loved it! for most people here, this is the first and last time they will most likely ever do this "traditional" american custom.

here's how it turned out:Shirokawa Middle grades 1, 2, 3


Nomura Middle grade 1 class 1, robo-chan


Nomura Middle grade 1 class 2, mock james pumpkin


Nomura Middle grade 1 class 3, scar face


Uonashi Elementary's Bats:
left: zelda triforce bat, right: america bat