New Glasses

I had been thinking about buying a new pair for a while. I decided to stay away from rimless glasses and go for something a little more substantial. I'm very happy with these.

Poor Me

Literally. I am 16,000 yen short (around $160 US) because I had my wallet stolen on Saturday.

I had been running errands in Nago in the morning: purchasing (what I hope to be) the last installment of toe medication, some groceries, breakfast, and a full tank of gas. On the way home, the weather and the sea were looking so nice, I decided to make a detour and take a look at one of the small islands (accessible by bridge) that I'd never been to before.

The name of the island is Kouri, 8 kilometers from the main highway that leads from Nago to the northern villages. I was enjoying the crystal blue water, the warm breeze, the bright sunshine. I pulled into a sight-seeing parking lot, left things as I normally do, and took a walk.

Now, leaving "things as I normally do," I found out, is a bad idea. Nago is not Higashi. Higashi has a low population with few outside visitors. Nago has many visitors, many of whom aren't even from Okinawa. Add to the mix a failure to lock my doors and completely roll up my windows, and you've got the perfect situation for a stolen wallet.

I came back from my walk, after about 30 minutes, sat down in the driver's seat, and noticed it was missing. I assumed I had dropped it on the floor again or put it somewhere totally random, but after about five minutes of intense searching and sweating, I was pretty sure it was gone. I retraced my steps many times before finally calling my supervisor. He showed up, I told him what was up, and we called the police. The came and filed a report, noted all the missing items (like my alien registration card, insurance card, Illinois driver's license, credits & atm cards, etc.), and took us to the station to wrap up the paperwork. All the waiting and filing took a few hours, so not only had I been robbed, but I got a nice sunburn, too.

Today has been a day off from school, completing paperwork for new IDs, new cards, etc. I'm locking my doors at all times, even the front door to my apartment in case someone decides to make a random visit. I doubt this is likely, as everyone is of the mindset that the thief just took the cash and trashed the wallet. But it makes me feel good to keep it locked, so it's getting locked.

It was a bad day. And I realized the only bad thing about Higashi is that I got so comfortable here, that I forgot to take the same precautions I would have taken anywhere else in the world. Lesson learned, not so bad considering, and it's getting worked out as we speak.

Noticing Things

Update: the elbow that I landed on last week is still soar, but less so, and there's no physiological impairment. Good news.

Recently, I've been taking much greater adventures within my own village that I had over the past several months. I thought knowing about one or two secluded spots made me an expert of the place. I was surprised - and happy! - to find out that there is much more to see.

Today, I spent the last two periods of school with the 3nensei and two teachers as we took a small field trip; literally, we drove to some small fields and other seemingly random areas, looking for old paths in Takae. Some had seen recent use, others apparently not for months, or years.

What is so special about these paths? For one, they're pretty intense. Jungle growth has made walking them pretty difficult, heavy rains sometimes make the paths steps and stones too smooth for a safe step, and of course there is the destination. One path led to the top of a local hilltop, offering a pretty spectacular view of the surrounding Yanbaru jungle. The others went down, rather steeply, to the black sand beaches and coral shelfs of Higashi, to the Pacific Ocean, from a hundred meters high above the water to sea level. I can only imagine what these new environs must look like underwater.

While I wasn't consciously thinking about it, it occurred to me recently that this is exactly the sort of thing I should be doing: taking the time and the energy to find out all I can about a place that still holds so much for me. And while I'm taking the language and the culture and the experience with me, the hikes and the snorkeling and the diving can only happen here.

Here's to not wasting another day.

Do as I say, not...you know

Monday was pool cleaning day at Arume!

We took 5th and 6th period off from classes and spent about three hours scrubbing everything down to the center drain of the 25m, 6-lane pool. It looked (and smelled) like ass when we started, but once everything had been scraped off the sidewalk, walls, and floor, it was looking ready for a filling.

But this post isn't about that. It's about how I fail to take into account the possibility that any stupid stuff is going to happen to me. Take this explanation, for example:

P.E. teacher starts explaining exactly how everything is going to go for the next three hours. Key among his points is making sure to be careful about slipping in the pool on a wet surface coated with a few months of who knows what. This is what he might have said...

P.E. Teacher: "Be careful when entering and exiting the pool. The last thing you want to do is slip and break an arm or crack your head open."
Everyone: "Hai, wakatta (Ok, we understand [including me {I didn't really}])."
I hop off the edge of the wall into the pool, slipping on a wet spot, smacking the hell out of myself on a harder-than-rock, mold-covered surface; right elbow and tail bone really feeling it. I take it easy for a while...

All's fine, nothing broken, but my elbow can't be placed on anything, like a desk. The whole thing led me to realize that even though it feels "old manish" to take things easy instead of jumping right in, maybe it's not always such a bad idea.

Sad News

Written April 23, 2008

Before my first class of this week on Monday, the Japanese teacher of English notified me that one of our students was not going to be in class. She said that his father was in a car accident and was in the hospital. Kyoto-sensei (vice principal in Japan) explained that the accident involved the car leaving the road and entering the sea.

Tuesday morning, the news was not good. Both the JTE and Kyoto-sensei told me that the student’s father had died Monday. He was 51. My student is 14.

The funeral was held Tuesday afternoon and I was not asked to attend. I had no complaints, as I would have understood very little of any proceedings, the atmosphere would have been very heavy, and while I know the kid, I think there are much better ways for me to be involved with him.

All of us in Higashi hope he’s doing as well as he can.