One Half Ninja Turtle

Not quite six months ago, Cliff and I started practicing bo. I still remember the excitement of being told by Taira-sensei that if we bought our own, he would teach us. And so for the past few months we have been practicing, smoothing our movements and thickening our calluses. While far from proficient, we feel capable. We have also memorized our first kata, 徳嶺のこん, Tokumine no kon.

Some weeks ago, sensei informed us that he'd be willing to expand our abilities in 古武道, kobudo, or Okinawan weapons fighting. Taira-sensei told us that if we brought these to practice, he would teach us.

Sai. Not at all like I imagined, these are used much more for deflecting attacks than actually penetrating an opponent, though that possibility still exists.

I was practicing a very basic move at home last week, when one of the sai slipped out of my hands and fell to the floor. It left a very noticable wound in the tatami, one that I'm going to do my best not to show off when it's time for me to leave Higashi.

A (Last) Day at School

Several weeks ago, after an elementary school lesson, one of the teachers at my small school told me that two of the boys were leaving Higashi. Their father was getting transferred for a work assignment and they would be gone by September 18th. As luck would have it, I was scheduled to be at that school during the boys' last week, so I would have plenty of time to say my goodbyes.

The thing about these two boys is that their father is American, so they're English comprehension is well above that of the other students. They didn't speak much or any English to me, but when I talked in class, they often understood what I was saying and would help the other students out. I will miss their funny Japanese interpretations of English...and of my "accent".

For their last week, there were a few special events to bid them farewell. We played basketball and kickball. After the kickball game, the brothers were presented with hand-made mementos, to remember their friends at the school. The boys even made short speeches, and both of them teared up. It was touching to see that their short time at the school had been so good for them.

I made sure to have my camera with me, and took pictures whenever I could. I thought five days would be a long time, but it was over before I knew it.

Post Rally Syndrome

My dad sent me a few DVDs of photographs, ones left on my computer in the US and a bunch that he found and scanned in my grandmother's house. While I plan to put up a few of those old photos (you'll even get to see me when I was only a few years old), here's one that I made after getting back from the Mongol Rally. I sent it to one of my new international friends about a week before I had to go back to work.

Go Cubs!

It turns out, even the Cubs have fans in Okinawa.

I'll buy a can of beer for anyone (in Okinawa) who can guess what player's name was listed on the back. Two beers if you get the number correct, too.

himawari: sunflower

While different eye color is not at all uncommon in the US, it's quite rare in Japan. People will often refer to the color of their eyes as "black." It's pretty accurate. There are some people, however, whose eye color more closely resembles a brown (and in cases where this brown is light, it's really shocking).

Lately, the younger kids of my elementary schools have taken a liking to my eye color. Brown? Green? Hazel? A little bit of everything, they've decided to call it something new entirely.

Himawari, or sunflower.

It's not an exact representation, but I like it. There's brown, there's green, and there's even a little something between where the brown and green blend together.

It's kind of nice, especially on those feeling-down days, to have a kid ask me to see my eyes, then to have her utter, 「お～、向日葵（ひまわり）だ。」(Ooh, sunflowers!)

Photo sourced from 花の壁紙写真ブログ.