Moved to Blogworld!

So while facebook works good for notes and such I think it might actually be easier to just create this blog and keep writing, let everyone visit at their leisure. I'll still probably upload most of my photos on facebook so keep checking it out there.

So! Events of the last couple weeks or so: (I know, it's been a little while)

So I've been settling in well, the house is great. While I haven't started really making it my own just yet with wall decorations and such, it is still starting to feel like home. I still need to do some housewarming hopefully with some of the other JETs but I'm still waiting on the car to be able to get people here from the station! Last night I got a ride home with a couple Takeo (somewhat nearby town) JETs and they were boggled wondering where the hell I was taking them as we drove through field after field. I'm pretty sure I'm in one of the most Inaka areas of all of us, and Saga has alot of those areas. And there's your Japanese vocab for this blogg post too! (there might even be a quiz later...) The word of the day: Inaka - the opposite of urban meaning countryside, the boonies, the stix or middle of nowhere. Since my town is mostly a farming community it's a bit like living in Iowa and there isn't much to do, with quite a older population all around as well. But they all seem quite friendly so far, despite the occasional shocked stare (especially when I'm taking my run without a shirt on).

Let's see, the week of the 10th I was finally hanging out at my school and it was nice to meet all my teachers. One of them really loves hiking and camping, so we spent some time comparing topographic maps of areas in Japan he likes, he showed me pictures of the mountains he climbed and I showed him some of the flatirons and fourteeners from Colorado. Through the gaps in my Japanese I believe I came to understand that we're to go up sometime together and do some hiking, which is confusing because the verb in Japanese encompasses both rock climbing and hiking. Either way should be fun, but I think he's gonna kick my butt; this dude has calves more beastly than mine and is at least twice my age I'd have to say! But about halfway through the week it got pretty boring as most of the teachers took their time off for the Obon holiday to honor their ancestors with their families at home, so I was left alone with my vice principal. Except on Thursday when we had district orientation which was nice and informal with local JETs telling us the hot spots to hang out and the easiest ways to travel and such. They also blindfolded us and fed us random Japanese foods which was good with the one exception of the Natto they fed us. Fermented soybeans with the consistency of raw wiggling worms just didn't have the satisfaction that the squid jerky offered. But then we got to feed the returning JETs some stuff as well, of which there's a pic. There was a BBQ after with some cake throwing in the end. I tried to be an innocent and just take pictures and witness, but no, Josh hit me with a fistful. He'll get what's coming to him! We also went to a fireworks festival on Tuesday and got some fun shots of exploding rockets, and yes, I bought green glowing horns to wear.

That weekend I had my second bike incident where I was biking at night and hit a curb, going over the handlebars and scraping up my arm a bit. This also caused the front tire to go flat, but was an easy repair to have done. Then on Sunday at the local festival for my town the taiko group let me play one of their songs with them even though I had only had 3 practices. This was a blast and an honor, even playing next to the elementary school students. Josh came down from Takeo (another JET who flew in with me) and took pictures it was lots of fun and everyone was really welcoming, and the 'coach' even invited Josh and I out for drinks after which proved to be another fun, linguistically challenging, but quite hilarious adventure.

Then this past week I've been having to commute up to Saga city for my Japanese language course. This was fun and exciting at first because I could learn to use the trains better and get the lay of the land of one of the bigger cities around me. It's about the equivalent of going from Boulder to Denver, but I have to do about 20 mins of it by bike, 15 mins by train, and then once I'm there it's about another 30 mins walk from the station. So doing all that in the humid heat in my "cool business" where was not fun with the sweat factor. But I learned a good amount I think and had fun. Unfortunately my bike has decided it doesn't like me much anymore I think, as twice this last week I've approached it only to find out that the rear tire was flat. This is infuriating, especially after I already replaced it once, and caused me to get to know where other places to get repairs done in Kohoku are. I think the bike wheel or frame are doing something to the tube so I might have to get involved in more complex repairs now. On the flipside however, I hadn't heard anything about my title change for my car for quite some time, but then got an email last night telling me it's pretty much set, and that my supervisor would bring me the stuff to get it insured on Monday!! So the wheels might finally be ready to roll sometime this coming week, which is a huge relief since I have to go back to Saga twice next week for Prefectoral Orientation.

And now it's Saturday so I get to relax a bit for the day, catch up on visiting with my people back home and maybe do some reading or such. Then tomorrow I'm off on an adventure to Nagasaki I think so I can go to a big concert/summer thing. Then I'm gonna try to make it back to Fukudomi in time for Taiko, which might prove a bit of a challenge. Then this coming week I'll be at my school for half of the days and then at Saga-ken's orientation for the other half. If you got any other stuff you'd like to know, post it up either on my facebook or here. I'm happy to visit more!

And here's an attempt to upload a video of the Taiko that Josh took with my phone (this is the one that they let me play with them though you can't see me because I'm up front on one of the smaller drums, there are also some cooler ones with the big drums involved in you want to see them):