kanuu

It's easy for me to tell you that I'm living in Okinawa. It's going to be harder for me to tell you what a day is like, for many reasons. Ask yourself, when was the last time you had identical days? You see the problem; it's impossible. So I'm going to tell you about one day, this day, today, okay?

Well, let's start with last night. I was sitting in the Board of Education's (BoE) office when I realized, around 5:00, that the weather was beautiful. I sent a note to Cliff (fellow ALT) asking what his plans were for dinner, if he'd be interested in something. He was, so I traveled to Ogimi bearing gifts of gyoza, broccoli, and Orion (Okinawa's beer). Cliff did a stellar job preparing everything, including the vegetable-heavy miso shiru; unfortunately, he burned his inner-index finger and palm on the poorly designed saucepan. I wrapped up the serving work, which was not hard, and we had a great meal.

Dinner taken care of, we watched a very random show highlighting the past decade of musical hits and Olympic/World Championship track and field accomplishments. The show perplexed us, though we found the Japanese subtitles useful in expanding our vocabulary slightly. And speaking of words, there are a few of us signing up to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test this December 2. It should be another great reason to get together with some cool people. I'm confident in my ability to pass 4-kyu (the easiest level), but 3-kyu may be a better challenge and a chance to accelerate my learning. Still have a few days to decide.

To close the night, Elina (also an Ogimi ALT) came over and we played Trivial Pursuit Millennium Edition. That was a blast, as most things are with those two. Hmm, perfect segue into today.

I went in early, though really normal time, at 8:30. Began the never-ending study and wondered how I was going to ask Chinen-sensei (my supervisor) about my desire to attend the kayaking event that Cliff and Elina had mentioned the night before. As I'm sitting there looking up a few key words (kayak, want to go, nothing to do but study), he comes up to me and says we're going kayaking after lunch. Woot! It must have been my mental signals at work. How they transmitted in Japanese I'll never know.

Noon rolled around, I dashed home and had a quick lunch, pulled on the board shorts and smeared on the sunscreen. Though we didn't start kayaking right away (we toured the Higashi Village 博物館 (hakubutsukan, museum), when we did arrive we paired up, listened to a few key instructions, and then embarked on our leisurely journey through the mangrove of Gesashi, a southern portion of Higashi V. My partner was Tomomi-san, a kind lady with a decent grasp of key English words for which I didn't know the Japanese. We spoke mostly Japanese, and it felt good! "I can communicate," I exclaimed in my own mind...I have no idea what communicate is in Japanese.

A good day indeed, followed up by zenzai - an Okinawan treat of shaved ice, syrup, beans, and mochi - perfect for a hot day and a tired mood. I hitched a ride back with Tsurumi-san in the back of one of the museum trucks and enjoyed the warm enveloping air as we passed the ocean on our way back into Kawata, my portion of Higashi V. Tonight will probably be an early night - I'm kind of dirty, pretty tired, and ready for a good weekend with visits from peeps from Naha. Waisu desu.