Raspberry Clouds

It has become a bi or if I am lucky, tri-weekly experience for me to go jogging outside these days. If you know me at all you know that I am by no means a runner and if I had to run (just because I was sick of swimming) then the treadmill has always been my choice of exercise (mostly because it is much easier than running outside). Since I was not sure of the gym or pool situation at first, I decided to get a membership to the great outdoors and since then my running days will never be the same.

Providing that the oxygen enters my lungs without a terrible burning sensation, I think I will start running outside more often. Here it is much easier to breathe and I am not gasping for air like I am in 5280 feet above sea level. The point to my whole running spiel is that I was graced with the beauty of nature last night, something that cannot come about on a treadmill. Aside from dodging, running straight into or swallowing bugs, I was rewarded at the end of my hardships with a the view of a thin layer of cotton candy clouds that settled softly behind the blue mountain peak. As I continued in the direction of my house the initial heaviness of my legs was forgotten as I took in the scenery around me. The color of the clouds darkened into a beauty that is impossible to describe. I had the urge to reach up and pluck the soft clouds out of the sky--they looked so good you just wanted to eat them, letting the rich raspberry color soak into your skin. This beauty fills me every time I see it. For those few moments nothing else seems to matter.

I sprinted the rest of the way home as the sky melted into a deep fushsia pink just so I could get a decent picture, but by the time I got my camera the color was rapidly fading; it was nothing in comparison to the sunset that just mere minutes ago had simply taken my breath away. There was another one the other week that spread across the entire sky after a storm, and I actually managed to get pictures. Although they don`t even begin to show the true beauty of the scene, they show some of what I could not believe. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Even if I had not taken pictures, it is a sight that I will never forget as long as I live.

Aside from sunset watching, I have had my fair share of sports festival practice watching. Whew, that is a mouth full. I am pretty sure I have watched enough kids climb on top of each other and then fall down to last me for a good while. I might even say that I would be ok if I went my whole life without seeing another frightening 50 man pyramid again--especially when the 50 men are rambunctious 16 year old boys. The past two days at my technical school have been all practice, so I have hard a hard schedule of watching, reading, writing and sitting. I know, rough life. To make things even rougher, I don't have to teach any classes next Tuesday or Wednesday, so I will be running some errands providing that the school is ok with it (which I think they are), and being glad that I don't have to let my blood boil in anger as the apathy of the students and, in some cases, my cooperating teachers, sucks the life out of me. If it is not already apparent, I am extremely frustrated with classes in general. I have decided though, I will not crumple in defeat, but go back to the drawing board, start from square one and re-evaluate my lessons. I have already started changing things around to make things easier for them (and for me hopefully, too). So we shall see if my new plan works.

Other than school life, I have been trucking along, doing my best to roll with the punches in my everyday experiences. I have had quite a few interesting ones lately and I will enlighten my readers on them! Of course I will, when have I ever kept you in the dark? So if you are planning on ever venturing the the grand land of Japan there are a few things that you should keep in mind:

1.Riding a bike with an umbrella is illegal (or as my JTE put it 'forbidden'). In situations like this I have found that learning by doing has several different meanings.

2. For my females readers: Don't be alarmed when a student inquires about your bra size. I was just waiting for it to happen and when it did I was at a loss for words.

3. Bowing is a frequent action. They do it before and after EVERYTHING including swim lessons. So practice up before you come, perhaps in front of a mirror. But don't catch yourself looking at yourself--eye contact is considered a bit shady in the bowing realm.

4. Although it is a widely known fact that UV rays are dangerous, apparently, in Japan, UV rays are all that is evil. So the sunnier it is outside the more clothing you need to put on. Make sure not an inch of your skin is showing. If there is little shade around, don't be a dummy, bring the shade with you! Your nice, black umbrella should provide for that glow-in-the-dark white skin you were dreaming of.

5. Falling asleep at your desk during work seems to be a daily ritual. I am not sure if this is written into their contracts, but I am sure it is written into mine (most likely in katakana, so I can just assume), so I might start participating in this ritual.

6. Please bring multiple pairs of shoes with you to your work place. Or the gym. Or where ever you feel you will have to change shoes for utterly unnecessary and ridiculous reasons. You don`t want to bring any of that outdoor dirt within one inch of the indoor dust. They do not mix well.

7. If you are going to speak (providing you can speak Japanese) make sure that you have a purpose to your conversation. Especially when you are at work. Please don't just talk about your sore leg or your brother's friend's sister's taxi driver's roommate. We would rather you just keep quiet. Some days the office should be so silent you could hear a chopstick drop.

8. If you plan on participating in or watching a sports festival please keep in mind that although you may want to, and every American (or western maybe) bone in your body tells you that you should start a law suit and win millions of dollars, know that will not work here. It is not customary to sue for dangerous, unsafe reasons. Why would you want to do a thing like that? I was amazed to find out that not everyone would want to sue for things like spilling hot drinks in their lap and slipping on wet floors when there is no sign.

9. There is no designated spot to ride your bike on the road. Either side you ride on is the wrong side. Or the right side, I guess it depends on which way you look at it. Just make sure that you are ready to dodge other bikers/old people/young children/flying bugs/dangling bugs/loose bricks in the sidewalk/cars/cars/cars.

10. While we are on the subject of cars you need to remember drivers here have probably never heard the phrase 'yield to pedestrians', so you should probably make it your personal motto to 'yield drivers'. Seriously, yield.

11. The people here are so nice (when they are not driving like bats out of hell) that if you cannot speak a wink of their language, even though YOU are in THEIR country they will call their English speaking friends to talk to you about when you can and cannot swim in their pool. They will even show you what to do before swimming, tell you which lanes to get in and let you play with their kids.

12. Remember if you are in a small town everyone will see you doing your outside activities and then tell you they saw you later. Luckily, since they are so nice, they don't mention that you looked like you were about do drop dead while you were jogging. At least I don't think they do...

13. The word "maybe" in the US usually means, "probably not", but here it means "yes". As in "Maybe I saw her yesterday" or "maybe you should not ride your bike with an umbrella" in other words, "You should, indeed, surely, in fact, no doubt about it NOT ride your bike with an umbrella".

Well fellow humans, there is my list as of now. Of course there are more, but I have already enlightened you about most of them. I have to go clean my apartment since there are dust tumbleweeds rolling by as I type. The weekend plans are as follows:

-Movie with some peeps tonight?
-Amaksa for the infamous "waterwheel" camping/cabin/BBQ excursion trip near big waterfalls!!
-Another sports festival
-Dinner with the teachers after the sports festival

Well that be all mateys! Please enjoy the videos below of my sports festival last weekend. If you watch all of them, it will almost feel like you were there :) Enjoy.