Last May I ventured out solo on a 5 day cycling tour across Kagoshima Prefecture and into Oita Prefecture where I traveled the following route: Nagashima - Izumi - Kirishima- Myazaki City- Aoa Shima - Kanoya - Tarumizu - Kajiki - Satsuma Sendai -Akune - Nagashima.
With an open mind and an adventurous spirit I hit the road and started to pedal. Deciding only the direction I would be traveling I allowed everything else to unravel on its own. Each day of my tour was unique from the day before and every day was challenging in its own way. Some days were hot and humid while other days were windy and rainy.
Carrying all my supplies with me on my bike I was free to set up camp anywhere. I chose to stay in places like parks, alongside rivers, under bridges, and other various locations that didn't require any money. For breakfast and lunch I ate fruit, made sandwiches, and drank lots and lots of water. For dinner, I ate like a king in the vicinity of where I would be camping. It's a fantastic feeling of accomplishment to cycle 100 kilometers a day. The sights and the smells and the sounds that are happening all around us every single day jump out and reveal themselves when one slows down enough to experience them. Being on the saddle of a bike is an entirely different world from being behind the wheel of a car. Sometimes it's nice not having anywhere to be.
Some days are certainly better than others and there were times when I questioned my intentions. It's easy to forget how much I enjoy cycling, for example, when climbing the same mountain for 2 hours, falling and breaking my camera, and running out of water in the middle of nowhere. I curse myself in these moments.
One of the best parts of touring is having the opportunity to meet and interact with new people. Every day I made new friends. On the road it's just you. You are all alone, in your own head with your own thoughts. However, as soon as you stop, for a rest or for a meal, people want to talk with you. Everyone has a story and if you're on the saddle of a bike alone in the countryside of Japan people want to hear what you have to say.
One night I played with fireworks on the beach until early in the morning with a group of college students. Another night I sipped whiskey and talked about John Wayne with a homeless man. Experiences like these can't be bought. They are special and spontaneous and the reason I will always be looking forward to my next adventure.
I spent some time in my garden this morning picking some vegetables for breakfast. After quite a few days without rain we finally had some much needed precipitation. This year I am growing green peppers,cucumbers, okra, cherry tomatoes, azuki beans and egg plant in the garden in front of my house. Okay, enough talking about my veggies I'm going to make an omelet!
Thanks dad, mom, Greg, April, Logan and Clara for talking with my students this week on Skype! For most of them, it was their first time to ever speak with someone besides their English teacher in English. The best part of this project was seeing my students feel like they had accomplished something huge, talking to a real native speaker in English. Some students were trembling with fear and others laughing with glee during their conversations with you guys and when it was all over everyone was talking about how much fun they had in class. Also, because my students weren't talking to me they actually put fourth a little effort, which is rare for some of them.
A special thanks to Logan too for setting up the webcam! Logan and Clara, you stole the show with you good looks! Everyone everyone said that you were really pretty mom! Sorry dad, you didn't really receive any complements. I wouldn't take it personal though and surly mom still thinks you are good looking.
Mr. Nakamura, the English teacher at Nagashima JHS, took some pictures of our class so I wanted to upload them for you and for everyone else to enjoy. Thanks again!!
Today my friend Fukui Kun's father taught me how to make Japanese soba, noodles made from buckwheat flower. I really enjoyed myself and took lots of pictures along the way so now I can you explain to you just how it is done.
In Japan everything tends to have some sort of meaning, especially food. There are special foods that people eat when they celebrate, when they mourn, when they have a baby, and even when they move. Because Japanese soba represents longevity many Japanese eat something called "toshikoshi soba" on New Years to ensure a long and healthy new year. However, it isn't just New Year's when soba noodles are enjoyed as they can be served hot and cold and eaten all year round. Today I enjoyed cold soba noodles and might I add that they were delicious.
The first picture above is of a young soba flower, the next picture shows several pods taken from an adult flower, and the last picture shows what the powder inside the pods that will be used for making the noodles.
Before getting started we watched Mr. Fukui demonstrate how to make the perfect noodles. He explained in great detail everything along the way too making it really easy to understand.
The first step in the process is to measure 50 ML of water which will be used along with one small sized egg to add with the powder. Mr. Fukui noted that today because we were working outside amidst the heat and humidity that we should use slightly less water than we would use should we be working indoors. I thought this was quite interesting.
Next, mix and keep mixing and mix some more until the powder hardens just enough so that you can roll it into a ball of dough. Once you've made it into a ball then kneed the dough for 20 minutes until you hands hurt.
There's always time to pose for a picture! Here is a picture of Mr. me and another man learning the art of making soba with our teacher Mr. Fukui.
And then you take the dough and you roll it, you roll it! It needs to be flat and thin.
And then you roll up the dough and you cut it. Everyone laughed at my noodles and said I cut them too thick. I thought they were just fine!
Next you boil the noodles for about 3 minutes. We boiled our soba noodles over an open flame inside of an homemade dirt oven. I'd like to try and make one myself!
Once you take the noodles out from the boiling water you immediately run them through cold water to take out the heart.
And then finally, eat and enjoy!
Last weekend I dusted off the old djembe, tuned the guitar and made my way to Sendai City, about an hour from Nagashima, to participate in an Open Mic event sponsored by Kagoshima JET. It was great fun too and also my first time to ever play the guitar before an audience. Curtis, Yuri, and I performed a song by The Weepies and then Curtis and I covered a Bright Eyes song.
Later on in the evening I had the privilege to play alongside Uto Sensei, a Japanese national championship winner on the samisen. Uto Senesi, our friend Annette, and I played a traditional Scottish song together. Also, Uto Sensei's buddy, who just happens to be the number one samisen player in Japan (I'm not kidding. He actually holds the title for the best samisen player in Japan) came along to perform. Both were incredible and inspiring!
Once everyone had finished their acts we all got together and jammed until one o'clock in the morning playing long renditions of songs like Stand By Me. There were guitars, a piano, samisens, maracas, egg shakers, my djembe, and also various other instruments in the mix.
On the way home I stopped at McDonald's for a cup of hot coffee and made the long commute back to Nagashima for a proper night's sleep.
Koko and I pulled our tent for 2 out of the closet and made our way up north about 3 hours to Kirishima for a weekend camping and hot springs getaway. With Koko in town for a few days I finally had a chance to try out my new Double Nest Hammock made by Eagles' Nest Outfitters and I wasn't disappointed. It's one cool piece of gear!
The weather for the weekend couldn't have been better and as always the hot springs were relaxing and the scenery was beautiful. For dinner Koko and I indulged ourselves with cup ramen and a few cold beers, the perfect combination. Waking up early with the sunrise we packed our gear and made a stop at the beach before returning home for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Waking up at 5:30 AM I threw on something to wear and drove to the sea port to catch a lift with Mr. Hashimoto and 20 of his men on their fishing boat so I could witness "buri dashi" where they would be taking yellowtail from their fish farms in the ocean, killing them, and packaging them to be shipped all over Japan for consumption. Watching these men work was like watching a machine in motion for within less than an hour they extracted somewhere around 1,000 yellowtail fish from the sea.
Using a large net attached to a crane lift the men scooped yellowtail from the ocean in bundles of about 25 fish at a time and then released them onto a large metal table so that they could be counted and killed before they were thrown into ice water under the boat. Once the men finished their work out at sea we made our way back to the shore to weigh the fish, sort them by size, ice them, and the place them onto large trucks for delivery.
While it was far from pleasant to experience such a site, the opportunity to witness "buri dashi" is one for which I am grateful. I was reminded of how easy it is to forget that each piece of meat and every single fish packaged so perfectly in the supermarket also goes through a similar process. Witnessing such an event was quite an eye opening experience.
I'm the little gardener that could and this year I'm out to leave my legacy. Perhaps you may remember that last year's attempt to be known as Nagashima's most famous pumpkin farmer didn't exactly go as planned. Surly, many must have thought that after such an unfortunate experience I would have turned in my overalls and moved on to something new, but that's no way to leave a legacy.
This year I've moved beyond Halloween pumpkins and I've raised the bar for I am out to grow the biggest and baddest Atlantic Giant Pumpkins you have ever placed your eyes on. How can I be so sure that this year is going to be huge? I'll tell you why. Because I've done my research, met with experienced farmers, and I have the secret weapon, 5 pumpkin seedlings from last year's 400 pound jumbo pumpkin contest championship winner in Akune, a nearby town to Nagashima.
When Koko came to visit a few weeks ago we met with our friend Mr. Honda and went out into the fields to plant our 5 pumpkins. Everyday since I have been out to care for them and so far so good.
This year there will be pumpkins.
Yesterday I went to the ocean with my friend Kojo San to help him dive for sea snails and sea urchin and while I was expecting to have a leisurely summer swim with colorful fish and beautiful sea coral I quickly found out that it wasn't going to be just quite like I imagined.
First of all, have you ever seen a sea urchin? They are scary and spiky and venomous and EVERYWHERE! There were literally hundreds of sea urchins on every single rock leading out from the shore into the sea. Once you've finally made it deep enough into the ocean it's really no problem at all, it's just getting to the sea without injuring yourself on the sea urchin landmine zone that is a problem. Before Kojo San swam off into the ocean leaving me stranded alone on a rock surrounded by danger he left me with these words of advice, "Don't touch the sea urchin because they're poisonous."
Oh great! So how does he figure I am not supposed to touch the sea urchin when the only things I see are zillions of scary POISINOUS SEA URCHIN! Repeating over and over to myself, "I can do this, I can do this, I can do this" I mentally prepared myself for battle! Fifteen minutes later I hadn't moved a single step. I am now scared and I want to go home and now I have officially determined that I hate Kojo San.
This happens to be just about the same time he swims back to where I have been standing. He lifts up his net showing me that he gotten about 20 sea snails. I politely ask him to explain a little more clearly exactly how I am supposed to get out into the sea without touching a sea urchin and that's when he pulls out a long metal rod with a hook on the end of it and tells me to use it. What?! Why didn't I ever get a rod with a hook on the end of it? Perhaps, had I been given the proper tools from the start of our dive I would have already been in the sea by now instead of being scared to death for my life!
Kojo San swims off again and this time tells that he will take care of diving for the sea snails and that I should use the tool to collect the sea urchin. Still a little bit worried for my safety, but much less scared than before I bite my lip and start collecting sea urchin one by one. Slowly I began to fill my net and by the end of the day I collected somewhere around 50.
Diving for sea urchin was definitely an experience I will never forget. On a good day I might even contemplate giving it a second try, but not anytime soon. Enjoy these pictures below and if you want to see how to eat a sea urchin then take a look at the video clip.
Last week Koko visited Nagashima and on Saturday we spent a day of fishing together in the East China Sea. We didn't brave the sea alone though as we were joined by Hashimoto San, our experienced fisherman friend. We were in good hands too for Mr. Hashimoto is the boss of a very successful yellowtail company in Nagashima and he certainly knows what he's doing.
We met Mr. Hashimto at a nearby sea port early in the morning. After quickly boarding his boat we zipped out into the deep blue cruising towards where we would begin fishing for the day.
The first fish we were after was the Sea Bream. This is a very famous fish in Japan and it's usually enjoyed at weddings, coming of age days, and other congratulatory occasions. The reason is because the name of this fish in Japanese is "tai" which sounds similar to the Japanese word, "medetai" which means auspicious. Hence, when people are happy they eat this fish.
The Sea Bream can be caught when using worms as bait and fishing at 10 meters. With a little help from Hashimoto San, I was able to reel a 3 kilogram Sea Bream into the boat. It was really exciting and also a lot harder than I imagined it would be. Once we finally had the fish safely in our fishing net I posed for a few pictures with my first big catch. Later that day we mailed the fish to Koko's family in Yamansahi so we could surprise them with a little taste of Nagashima.
Koko was the next one to show off her fishing skills as she consecutively caught 3 good looking Black Porgy. So what if she caught the fish out of Mr. Hashimoto's giant fish farm nets in the sea. That'll just be our little secret, okay? The point is that she caught them, and besides no one ever asks how the fish were caught, instead they only want to know how big the fish were and trust me, they were THIS BIG! (imagine my hands)
After breaking for lunch we went back out into the sea and began fishing for Marbled Fish. This fish happens to be our town's mascot and drawings of it can be seen all over the place on everything from signboards to t-shirts.
These little guys are great fun to fish and really easy to catch too. To catch Marbled Fish we used pieces smaller fish as our bait and cast our line out into the ocean letting it sink to the very bottom of the sea. Once the line hit bottom we brought it up just a few centimeters, plenty enough for these scavengers to get to good look at our bait. Within a little over an hour we caught somewhere around 20 of these.
Believe it or not, this fishing excursion was my first time ever to go fishing since coming to Nagashima. I had such an enjoyable time I've decided to get out fishing every free weekend I have available from now until my teaching contract ends. Perhaps I've found my calling.
Please allow me to introduce to you the friendliest dog in all of Japan and maybe even the world. He is a gigantic Golden Retriever and the poster-pup for what it means to be man's best friend. Not to mention that his wagging tail and wet kisses are enough to convert even the most genuine cat lovers into hound dog enthusiasts. A great dog indeed, without further ado may I present to you the dog who thinks he is a human, Mr. Simba.
Yesterday, a handful of ALT English teachers along with several Japanese friends biked 40 kilometers around Sakurajima, an active volcano island, to raise money for PEPY an organization dedicated to aiding rural communities in Cambodia by improving standards of living. This NPO is devoted to increasing access to quality education for children in rural Siem Reap. With the help of PEPY over 1,700 families in 12 villages and 6 schools have all received financial aid and support.
Our event here in Kagoshima was a great success! Curtis put forth a great deal of effort behind the scenes working closely with PEPY taking care of all the logistics. He also made reservations for those without bicycles and went above and beyond making sure everyone had a safe tour. Thanks to all his hard work everyone on the ride really enjoyed themselves! Also, thanks to Cecily for taking and uploading photos of this event.
This Wednesday I will embark upon a solo tour of Kyushu traveling farther than I have ever traveled on my bike. I will be doing it all alone too! I am looking forward to this experience as I know that a week alone on the saddle will be more than enough time for me to clear my mind and refresh my focus.
Katie Smith, one of my best friends in the entire world, lives in beautiful American Samoa, Pago Pago where she has been teaching at Samoa Baptist Academy for the last 3 years. If you don’t already know Katie then I recommend you add her blog to your bookmarks list and keep tabs on all of her adventures.
Recently, Katie and I have been working on pen pal project with our students. We created booklets introducing our school, where we live, and how we live our daily lives.
Because this was the first chance for most students in Nagashima to ever communicate with students their same age who are not Japanese they were all very excited about our project. A number of my students even went above and beyond my expectations of them! It was great to see everyone work so hard.
The toughest part of this project for us in Japan was writing in English. However, with lots of editing and lots of looking up words in our dictionaries slowly buy surly we began to make progress.
We mailed our project to American Samoa last week and are looking forward to hearing from our new friends soon . Thanks again Katie for working with me on this project and hopefully our students inspire one another.
I scanned the entire project so if you’re interested have a look. Because it’s 50 something pages I also chose a few random pages to give you a taste of our work without having to wait for a 13 mb PDF file to load in your browser. Click the photos below to see them in their full size or click the link to see our entire project.
Once upon a time...
in the land of the rising sun Curtis and I had a friend. That friend had a friend too. That friend, the friend of our friend, had a wife. And that wife had a brother who happened to be getting married.
On one eventful night full of shochu and laughter our friend, Mr. Aoki, asked Curtis and I if we would be interested in giving a wedding speech at his friend's wife's brothers wedding in a town 5 hours away from Nagashima. Thinking that surly he couldn't possibly be serious Curtis and I accepted his offer without hardly any thought whatsoever. Besides, we agreed, it was the shochu speaking and there was no way he would remember ever even suggesting such an idea in the morning.
What business would Curtis and I have giving a wedding speech on such a special day for a bride and groom we had never even met anyways? The thought alone was simply outrageous!
Days and then weeks passed without a word ever being spoken about weddings or wedding speeches. Busy with life on the island Curtis and I quickly forgot about our promise that evening. That's when the phone rang (ring-a-ring ~ ring-a-ring).
Immediately getting right down to business it was Mr. Aoki who asked, "Did you write your speech yet? The wedding planner needs to know how long the speech is going to be so they can fit you into the program."
He had to be kidding, right? Did our friend really think it was a good idea for Curtis and I to be giving a speech at a complete strangers wedding? It just didn't make any sense.
What about his friend, or his friend's wife, or the groom, or the bride, or the families of the broom and bride? Did everyone really agree that we should follow through this?
The answer was yes.
There were over 200 guests at the wedding reception. Ｗe were all served a full course meal and presented with gifts. The bride and the groom sat together on a raised platform on one side of the room adjacent to the stage where close friends, family members, and Curtis and I would be delivering speeches.
During about the 5th course of dinner the wedding announcer began calling speakers one by one to the stage. Trying to stay calm and collected Curtis and I gave each other a fist pump and took a few more drinks of Asahi Super Dry. There were only 3 more speeches before show time. The audience cheered and the next speaker moved to the stage. Now there were just 2 speeches before ours. As long as we could deliver our speech like we did in the car or like we did in the hotel just hours before arriving then everything would be just fine.
"And now please welcome to the stage Mr. Curtis and Mr. Spencer," shouted the announcer into the microphone. Everyone cheered.
Moving from our chairs to the stage we could feel everyone's eyes gawking at us in anticipation. Curtis and I had everything planned out to the last detail. We spoke in both Japanese and English, inserted jokes to lighten the atmosphere, and closed with a powerful message on the symbol of love. Simultaneously, I pulled a balloon from my pocket and began twisting 2 lovebirds kissing inside a heart. We then closed with a bow and finally presented our balloon animal gift to the newlyweds. Here is a transcript of our speech :
***************************************
S: Hello, Everyone!
C: こんにちは、皆さん。
S: We are really happy to be here.
C: この結婚式にお招きいただきありがとうございます。
S: My name is Spencer, and this is Curtis.
C: 私はカーティスで、こちらはスペンサー。
S: We are both from America.
C: 私たちは二人ともアメリカの出身です。
S: I am from Tennessee, and he is from Ohio.
C: 彼はテネシー州からで、私はオハイオ州から来ました。
S: But we have been living in Kagoshima Prefecture for over two years.
C: けれども、私たちは２年以上鹿児島県に住んでいます。
S: We are excited to have a chance to come to Saga Prefecture today.
C: 今日、佐賀県に来る機会ができて、うれしいです。
S: Saga is a very beautiful place, but...
C: 佐賀はすごく美しいところだと思いますが...
S: ...not as beautiful as Takahiro's bride, Keiko.
C: ...たかひろさんの新婦ほどではありません。 Today is a very special day.
S: 今日は特別な日です。なんと カーティスの誕生日です！
C: ...It's my birthday!
S: (blow little horn)
BOTH: "Happy Birthday to you..."
(laugh heartily) チガウッカ！？
S: 今のは，American Jokeです。
C: But really, we want to congratulate Takahiro and Keiko on their wedding.
S: と言うのは冗談で、僕たちはたかひろさんとけいこさんの結婚を心からお祝いします。
C: Takahiro, Keiko...
BOTH: おめでとうございます！
C: But we're a little jealous.
S: でも、僕たちは少ししっとしています。
C: While in Japan, we too are looking for true love.
S: 日本にいる間僕たちもしんじつの愛を探しています。
C: Takahiro and Keiko have found it.
S: たかひろさんとけいこさんはそれを見つけたのです。
C: ぼくたちはまだまだです。なかなか合コンに誘われてないナー。
S: マー、ぼくは見つけたけどね。
Don't mind. Fight-O! (pat Curtis on back)
We have a gift for the bride and groom.
C: 私たちは新婚の夫婦に贈り物があります。
S: This is a simple balloon.
C: これはたんなる風船です。
S: But...
C: しかし...
S: ...if I fill it up with air...
C: ...空気でふくらませて...
S: ...and bend it in the right places...
C: ...そして正確なところでねじれば...
S: ...it becomes a symbol of love.
C: ...この風船は愛のシンボルになります。
S: And that's not all.
C: それだけではありません。
S: If we take one more balloon...
C: もし、もう一つの風船をとって...
S: ...blow it up...
C: ...ふくらませて...
S: ...bend it in the right places...
C: ...正確にねじて...
S: ...and put them together...
C: ...合体させると...
S: ...it becomes a symbol of Takahiro and Keiko on this happy day.
C: ...たかひろさんとけいこさんのこのよき日のシンボルになります。
BOTH: おめでとうございます！
***************************************
Everyone at the wedding party received our speech really well and we were back to our seats before we realized it. Later that night we continued with the festivities and then went to the after party to celebrate with the family of the bride and groom. We all had a great time!
The next day Curtis and I woke up early to do some sightseeing before returning back to the island. In the car as we reminisced about the night before and laughed about our bizarre experience I thought to myself, I love Japan.
