Birthdays do not go unnoticed here on the team. We try and cater to individual tastes and preferences here…if you read my birthday weekend blog from April you’ll understand.

Bryan is the newest member of the team having arrived on August 20th, but no exceptions we did the best we could to celebrate his birth and life.

Wednesday we had cake and a hand-drawn awesome card by Dan. We sang happy birthday.

Friday night we took him out to dinner at a yakiniku place (grill your own meat right in front of yourself) at a place called “Brian’s” nonetheless. It was late at night and we were in Koriyama so we left in time to make the very last train home at 10:56.

Or was it 10:54?

No, it was 10:46.

No, it was 10:43.

There was lots of discussion of the actual train time on our long walk back to the train station until Rachel finally took the effort to pull out her train schedule and look at the departure.

10:43.

Current time: 10:44.

We missed the train! We all started freaking out since taking a taxi would be very expensive and we hadn’t planned on staying in Koriyama all night.

Or had we?

Surprise!

We stopped on the bridge right before the fun center complex “Round One” and broke the news: Happy Birthday! We’re going to be locked in Round One from 11-6am. All you can play games, complete with ultimate Frisbee in the soccer area and 3-floor sardines! They admitted us into the center and gave us each a complimentary bag of popcorn. Let the festivities begin! I was pleasantly surprised to find free lockers in the ladies spa area…and a waterbed that doubled as a massage bed with jet massagers. Awesome.

We played Frisbee, sardines as a group and then I did my own thing…mostly comprised of the large massage chairs, hot stone spa table, water jets, round of billiards, and the odd shooting arcade game thrown in the mix.

Come 6am we sleepily wandered downtown to the station and passed the time waiting for the train. I slept until 1:30 and made myself get up. The rest of the afternoon was  lubricating my bicycle, watching episodes of “Chuck,” and attending Ashley’s impromptu “Wine and Cheese” night. I love that girl.

Back to sleep I go at 10:30 and sleep like a stone until this morning, waking up to the rain and cool air.

Fall is here!!!

Rachel and I had a little church service in my apartment before going into Koriyama to have coffee and write blogs. We’re pretty sure the guy sitting at the window is an undercover agent waiting for his contact to arrive and make the drop.

I suppose you all deserve an update to my current situation in life. I mean, I’ve been posting something at least each month and my time is quickly running out for September’s deadline.

I can’t believe it’s the last week of September already. Where has the time gone?! After my summer adventures I returned to sleepy Funehiki for a few days of rest before returning to work. Truthfully, I knew what the new term had in store so I can’t complain about being busy.

The new term is a perfect time to restructure a class: the dictatorship reigns supreme. Miss Susie took the 6th grade class by storm and issued an ultimatum of “study or leave.” It’s mostly working.

All classes started a 5 minute writing workout at the beginning of each class. Before I even start the class I write some words on the board and how many times they are to copy it in their notebooks (months, days of the week, weather vocabulary, etc.). It gets them to turn off their personal playstation consoles and get to writing. I’m a genius.

The other change is the loss of my 6th graders. No, I didn’t misplace them and they didn’t die. One of the Japanese teachers takes one day a week and goes through the STEP test curriculum with them. Complete with dry grammar instruction, memorizing written tables, and spelling tests, it’s the epitome of Japanese English education. All the work we do here trying to get the kids to speak English and internalize it through oral methods morphs into the robotic language production for which Japan is renowned. I have two classes of 6th graders: one is a mixed class on Tuesdays and Fridays, the other is only girls on Wednesday nights. Now I only teach the mixed class on Fridays and I never see my girls (but they are taught by Celeste on Mondays). Workwise it lessens the load of teaching, but I cringe knowing they’re studying for a test. You know, the whole standardized testing battle that everyone is against but no one knows how to fight. I’ll just keep on teaching my younger kids and have hope for the next generation.

Let’s catch up on the more exciting parts of my life.

Weekend of awesomeness: Celeste and Rachel are my homegirls who work with me at the English School. We also live next to each other on the top floor. Needless to say we are up in each other’s grills 24/7. Why then would we choose to spend a 3-day weekend with each other? Because they’re awesome, that’s why.

Last year we trekked to Goshikinuma, the 5 colored lakes, and spent the night at a hostel almost by ourselves and enjoyed a nice adventure to a blueberry patch (Check out my other blog for the story).

After looking into other options we decided on the same location but came better prepared.

For the bus schedule I looked it up on the internet. I now know all the kanji for this trip. No surprises.

For the lakes we were sure to arrive with plenty of time to take a rowboat out…and plenty of time to row back in since Celeste is a beginner rower.

For the onsen we were sure to bring our own towels.

For the evening’s entertainment we were sure to walk up the road to the convenience store to buy our snacks instead of dropping a wad of cash at the omiyage shop in the hotel.

We also brought some of our own…snacks and stuff.

For the following day we were sure to have a good map of our hiking course.

The other thing that set this weekend apart was our pact to each other: As of the moment we crossed the threshold of the train car, any mention of work or teaching was strictly prohibited, punishable by instant crunches. Happy thoughts only. Thankfulness was encouraged.

It seemed that nothing could go wrong on our trip. 

It started off perfectly with a train ride into Koriyama and transfer to the local west-bound. We got off at Joko and walked to Lake Inawashiro. Perfectly beautiful and sunny we set our towels on the sand and scanning the beach found only two other beach-goers at either end. The entire middle section became a playground for the Wakakusa Ladies Retreat. I brought a beach ball that was determined to run away from us, frolicking down the beach by himself with every gentle breeze that came along. After a time of admiring the puffy white clouds and panoramic view of the shimmering water encapsulated by misty mountains we packed up and took the train to Inawashiro. Boarding the bus on schedule it dropped us off near the hostel and we walked to our little summer home. There were many people there this year, not only hostel guests but a herd of nomadic bikers and tents of barbecuing families. Perhaps we should curb the nighttime excitement this year. We reclaimed the large end room and set out our futons side-by-side. Running off to the lake we arrived in time for a half-hour rowing session. The handsome young boat-keeper gently pushed us from the dock and we roamed the crystal clear waters. 

I peered from the bow to watch little fishies darting to and fro among the swampy underwater forest fronds. Rounding a bend the trees encircling the pond found a clearing and the majestic and fractured Mt. Bandai peered out to expose its red crater to the setting sun. Taking pictures we didn't forget to capture the glassy lake surface that perfectly reflected the clouds and trees overhead. Docking the boat we stayed by the lakeside to watch the giant koi beg for food, opening their gaping mouths and passing back and forth like ugly impatient trolls. Koi are kind of ugly, especially the ones with weird mustache-looking appendages, brown and gold scales looking as if they were pasted together like some cruel fashion joke from 1973.

Suddenly a man appeared, kneeling by the waters edge and smiling kindly…and a little creepily. A woman later joined him and we learned it was his wife. He became less creepy. We had a small “where are you from” chat and learned that he comes here often to look for “the heart fish.” Surprised at our ignorance he pulled out his cellphone to show us a picture he drew of this fish, flawlessly white except for an obvious perfectly shaped red heart naturally appearing on its side. He reached in his bag and said, “I want to give you a gift because we are from the same area” (he had taught in a school in our town some years before). Giving us three postcards of his artwork he autographed them and went on his way.

Turned out this guy was a published local artist. They were selling his postcards in the gift shop!  That’s a win for being a foreigner and having random people approach you just to meet you.

The night was no less enjoyable as we made friends at the dinner table with some bikers at the hostel. We gave them a little concert at the old upright piano after the meal. I had thought ahead and brought a selection of worship music for us to sing though. All the occupants, plus a few campers from the grounds who heard the sounds gathered around and listened to us sing and play. Of course they couldn’t understand the lyrics but it was a very pleasant atmosphere. A family with two kids joined the audience and we obliged them by singing a few Disney selections. The little girl played piano and picked out a tune from the movie Totoro. With our social obligations fulfilled we headed out to the onsen for some relaxation and pampering in the outdoor bath. Rose soap…mmmm…

Back in our room we played cards and ate chocolate until we were shaking the wrappers out of our sheets.

In the morning we ate breakfast with our new friends and changed into some girly dresses and skirts for hiking. Yes, hiking in a dress happened, though with a pair of shorts underneath. We started along the lake trail and passed many curious people who were not sly giving us “American’s are crazy” looks. Hey, I wasn’t the one walking down the rocky and rooted path in a pair of heels, okay. Save your criticism for your broken ankle, crazy Japanese ladies…

Then we missed the bus. Don’t ask me how it happened because I had it all planned out perfectly. We just missed it, and watched it pull out down the highway in front of us…

So we walked.

We walked happily, whistling and singing.

We walked precariously, looking at the sides of the road in case the wild monkeys returned. Yes, we saw wild monkeys, looking like wild bearded mountain men in the front and mooning us with bare pink butts in the back.

We walked until we reached the trailhead and met a nice lady at a peach stand. Oh by the way, peaches can be bought for a mere $2.50 apiece. Sad days. 

Only a few minutes into our jungle hike we waded through a patch of sticky weed and our cute outfits were plagued with green balls of annoyance for the rest of the trip. We jumped a few creeks, limboed under a fallen tree, and carefully negotiated a slippery narrow ravine trail before ending up at a waterfall to end the nature-section of our retreat.

Determined not to miss the bus we stood at the bus stop with 15 minutes to spare. I deployed my umbrella to block the heat of the sun and we stood by the roadside between someone’s house and a kind of public bath house, the only two structures in sight. The time for the bus came….and went. No bus. I checked and rechecked the schedule but everything said that the bus should have come. These buses are seldom, if ever, late even in the snowy winter season. After ten minutes we began to make alternate plans. We couldn’t walk because of the significant distance into town. While there were plenty of passing cars this holiday weekend we were just past a curve in the road…a little dangerous. The next bus wasn’t for an hour and a half…but if this one hadn’t come, will the next one ever get here? Maybe it was the wrong schedule after all.

We kept looking down the road and decided to hitch a ride. I was the only one in the party who had ever done such a thing. My thumb was out for about 15 seconds as one car passed by and I came up with another idea: send up a prayer.

It went like this: “God, please send a bus. But even if you don’t we’ll choose to be happy about our situation.” The end.

Happy thoughts, remember?

Turning our eyes back on the road we spotted 3 people instantly come out of the bath house. The crossed to our side of the street and said hi. They walked past us and opened up their 7 passenger van parked right behind us in the gravel.

“Are you hitchhiking?”

Well, yes, actually.

“Where are you going?”

Into town. Our bus is very late and we don’t know if it’s coming.

“We don’t know where Inawashiro is but we’ll take you there. Jump in!”

Okay.

No sooner had we got our packs in the car when our very late bus went barreling down the road. Since we weren’t dutifully  standing by the bus stop and awkwardly placed after the curve on a hill it didn’t even slow down. Guess we’re taking the van!

Our new out of town friends put our destination in the GPS and got us there with a few minutes to spare before the train left.

Essentially we saved a whole ten bucks on the bus fare that day plus our faith-meters rose a couple of inches. God is always faithful!

Returning to Koriyama we scoped out a restaurant to have a mojito and Asian fusion… being only 2:30 in the afternoon it wasn’t even open yet so we settled on Japanese Italian. What’s the difference? Garlic bread lacking in garlic and butter, spaghetti lacking in flavor, calzone lacking in filling, and bring your own Ziploc bag for leftovers. Oh well.

The Wakakusa Ladies Retreat ended successfully Sunday afternoon and we still had another whole day to relax before work started again…the term of English Camp is approaching…