The time has come. Amber is finishing up her last couple days at the school and we’re both getting ready to head back to America. But first let’s rewind a couple months. This post will cover a little of this and that, everything we’ve been up to lately.

This is Saito, our quaint little town.

We were invited by some members in our branch to come to their BBQ under the Miyazaki bridge. It’s one of their regular hangout spots. Pretty cool.

We tried some crazy things like pork tongue, intestine, and soft chicken bone. For an American, it’s difficult to eat but worth trying I suppose. The chicken bone was the most bizarre but they love it. Not sure why. Fortunately there was some excellent beef too.

Even had some fireworks. I think it was some Japanese holiday but can’t remember which.

This is Tristan, our good neighbor. He’s been teaching at his schools here for 2 years and is heading home as well.

Having some fun at our weekly Eikawa (English class).

We heard about a surf competition down south in Nichinan so we made the trip. It was a little disappointing since the surf was so small. On the bright side, this was the day that Dennis loaned me his board to keep and use for a couple months. Thank you Dennis!

Local girls at Nichinan.

Dennis helped us with our insurance and also hooked us up with some kumquats. Happiest guy you’ll ever meet.

Our last time at the Takachiho farm ice cream shop in downtown Miyazaki. It closed down just after this. We’ll miss these perfect cones.

And thus begins surf season. CheehoO!

Big swell at Takanabe. So fun.

So this was an awesome day. We stopped by to admire the $50-$80 dollar boxes of mangos and as we’re standing there, this guy that is always so nice to us begins answering my questions about why on earth they’re so expensive. He then says wait here then comes back with a set that he hands to us, for free! We were totally blown away. It comes with this little booklet that tells you how to cut them and how they’re grown like little babies in precious little nets in a green house etc. Anyway, the bottom line is they are out of this world! You cube them up and then flip it inside out giving you those bite size pieces which wouldn’t work on a hawaiian mango since there’s too much fiber. We had one each day. We figured they’re at least $15 each. That’s about a dollar for every bite. Thanks cool store guy!

This day I took a surf tour up the coast and discovered some interesting spots. This old man and woman had a nice garden right by the ocean.

Some of the beaches are a bit strange like this. Huge concrete barricades and cement slopes to protect against a tsunami. There are countless of these barricades along the east coast, however, they obviously weren’t enough for the massive tsunami last year.

I’ve been keeping track of the rice growth here. This is almost full grown.

In Japan, we use an “Inkan” stamp instead of a signature. I never got one so Amber must think she’s pretty cool.

This was our last district conference in Kagoshima. 3 hour bus ride all for a conference in Japanese we can’t understand. haha. Still worth it though I guess.

So I finally made it. The Ocean Dome. I had dreams of how awesome it would be to experience the world’s greatest artificial wave pool. After arriving to Japan we were informed that it had been permanently shut down. I still wanted to see it just for kicks and it was clear why it was closed, old and falling apart. When it was in operation, that roof up there would open up like a stadium and they had an artificial beach with an amazing wave pool. Oh well. I shed a tear. These images give you an idea of what I missed out on.

This is the beach right behind the ocean dome. Who needs the ocean dome when you got real waves right! It was another beach with a concrete slope and it goes for miles. So. much. concrete.

Downtown Miyazaki. We discovered this is probably the red light district. Scantily clad girls everywhere.

Sunday afternoon at the Petersens. Their daughter Aileen and son-in-law Peter (and new baby Ethan) were there as well as their daughters Julie and Heidi that were home for the summer. Such a fun family.

Baby Ethan.

This is Noel who I teach the Eikawa class with. Really cool guy.

Other branch members hanging out.

Heidi doing her ASL story telling. Funny stuff.

My favorite kakigori here.

I felt like this puts the Japanese people’s ability to speak English into perspective.

This was our 4th of July beach BBQ with the Petersens. Good time.

Amber heading to the prefectural office to receive her certificate from the governor of Miyazaki.

All the departing JET teachers.

The after party. Unfortunately not as good as the JET welcome party.

We had to get back home early since we were leaving in the morning to a wedding in Fukuoka. This is my favorite guy. He’s always super nice and when I asked how much to check the air in our tires, he just laughed and did it for free.

We took off super early and headed straight into a vicious lightning & thunder storm. Thankfully it finally cleared and we made it to Fukuoka in a record 3 hours! We attended the temple sealing of Kiyomi & Yuki, fellow alumni from BYU Hawaii. The sealing was nice. Kiyomi is an only member so unfortunately her family couldn’t be inside but still a special experience for the two of them.

They were married in the Fukuoka temple and had their luncheon and reception in Iizuka, Kiyomi’s hometown.

They transitioned into different attire based on the part of the reception. When we were with them in Iizuka a couple months ago she was deciding between western or traditional. Turns out she decided to do it all, including some hawaiian in there too. haha. Funny girl.

Glad we could be there on their special day. Thanks for inviting us!

Amber at the Junior High.

One of Amber’s Junior high classes. Notice the 2 boys hiding on the left. They think they’re pretty funny.

This is a normal occurrence. When they see me outside to pick up Amber, they all gather at the windows and shout whatever English they know. When I shout something back they get all excited and don’t know what to say next. haha. A funny site to see. Sometimes the attention can be a bit overwhelming.

Some students feeding a baby bird one of the girls brought to school.

One of Amber’s displays in the hallway.

Full grown rice. Don’t know why I was so curious about it.

This was our anniversary dinner. 3 years!

Peter and I heading to Kisakihama beach.

Best sign ever.

Biggest horsefly I’ve seen in my life. It was like over an inch long!

Once I told Peter they bite and it flew over by him, he jumped out of the car like bat out of hades. hahaha. So funny.

Good clean break. Kisakihama has an all-sand bottom.

Local boys.

My favorite drink in Japan.

Peter and baby Ethan.

This was Amber’s goodbye Enkai with the JTEs from her school. It was my first.

The most amazing raw salmon and sashimi.

We both tried the snails. Amber accidentally ate the hard part and almost gagged. They got a kick out of that.

This is the famous Zushi sensei. Coolest guy in whole world but man does he like to drink! Such a crack up. He’s a big golfer. When I asked him what he loved more, golfing or drinking he paused a long time and said, I can’t answer that question. haha.

After Amber gave a speech thanking everyone they asked Zushi to say something and he had already drank so much he could barely remember his English. lol

They thanked Amber for all she’s done and gave her a bouquet of flowers with some goodbye gifts. It was really nice of them.

Yuiko Kawano from the branch heard that I liked udon and kakigori so she invited us to a unique shop in Miyazaki. Behold the biggest kakigori you have ever seen. Took 5 of us to finish it. So awesome.

Heading to the beach with the Petersens.

Heidi the merman king.

Afterwards we headed over to the Petersens old home in Miyazaki that they were demolishing the next day. Their kids lived there most of their childhood.

Dennis always smiling.

Hanging out on the roof.

Afterward we headed to Sushido. Good times.

Such a fun family. We’ve really enjoyed having them around.

Amber and I tried the fish eggs. Very different.

Check out that stack. We did pretty well.

Hitting up the video store. Lots of familiar titles. They make old movies look like new releases. I get the feeling Japanese people don’t care as long as it’s good.

Amber invited her Junior high teacher she works with to come to the Eikawa at the branch. Nice lady.

Eikawa games.

Grabbed some ice cream at Mickey D’s afterwards with the Petersen crew.

There was also a festival going on outside. Aileen wanted to grab some squid so we both tried it. Let’s just say they like it alot more than we do.

The Tsuma high school girls basketball team. Only one of their players has some height. Good enough I guess.

Making some friends.

So this hotdog creation was just a little too bizarre to pass up. It tasted better than it looked. What cracks me up is the fancy packaging.

Here they are. The bane of my existence here. These bags are only a portion of the trash sorting that’s required. Can’t WAIT for that to be over.

Saturday, hanging out and watching some old home videos with the Petersens. That’s Aileen as a baby smearing lipstick all over her crib.

We had actually planned to have a surf day with Dennis and the family but it was stormy most the day. Finally it started to clear in the late afternoon and Peter and I decided to still head out at Kisakihama.

Ended up being the most epic surf ever. Also my last time surfing in Japan. Great day. Great memories.

The Petersen kids had to get to a BBQ in Nichinan so Amber and I headed to Aoshima island aftwards for a sunset walk.

The island’s shores were all shells. And I was barefoot the whole way. Ouch. Picked some up for the wifey.

Our last sunday with the branch. Amber and I were asked to speak on the 4th article of faith. Julie and Heidi translated for us. It’s so impressive that they have such a solid comprehension of 2 languages and cultures. Very unique.

The branch moved the potluck a week early so we could have a goodbye kind of thing. They had members ask us questions like how we met and what our future plans were. Thanks Miyazaki branch. You’ve been great to us!

We swung by our Saito udon & kakigori shop one last time. A bunch of Amber’s students were eating inside and when they saw Amber walk in they all flipped out screaming ANBA!!!! They all huddled around and demanded PIKCHA PIKCHA!

They have my favorite udon with shrimp tempura.

And the highlight of course, kakigori with miruku (shave ice with sweetened condensed milk).

So here it is. The closing event. This is basically going to be a repeat of the email so feel free to scroll through.

Amber was asked to give a goodbye speech in japanese and was so nervous. She did so great and everyone was impressed. After her speech, they said alot of nice things about the work she’s done and how great she’s been at the school.

They then brought her up a huge bouquet of flowers and the band unexpectedly started to play the American national anthem. That got Amber really emotional up there. I felt so proud of her and even got a little choked up too. Amber described her emotions as bittersweet. We can’t help but love and miss our home country, now appreciated more than ever. But the japanese people have been so great. After the anthem, the students parted in the middle as if they were making way for royalty.

They all clapped and reached out to touch her hand. I thought to myself, wow, American schools would never do this for a foreign teacher. They are a great people.

It’s been a journey for us both but I feel so much pride in my wife for the courage it has taken to step a thousand miles out of her comfort zone and come here to teach a foreign people in a foreign land. We’ve had our struggles but I know that we’ll look back and be thankful we were given this opportunity. We’re so grateful for everyone’s support and are so excited to see you all in a few days! Thanks and love to everyone in Japan that has made this year a special experience. ありがとうございます ! ! !

Here we go. Our final road trip. We’d been planning to take a vacation during golden week for some time, so we tried to make it a good one. I’ll just say now that some plans were thrown out the window and some were added in. We had to play each day by ear and it made the trip more fun but in some ways more stressful. Overall, it was a success. I know these updates are kinda long and I don’t actually expect anyone to read them ha! But if you’re interested, read on.

First we stopped in Kumamoto. It’s right in the middle of Kyushu and roughly halfway to Fukuoka. Our primary destination.. Kumamoto Castle.

It is as big as it looks. One of the largest castles in Japan.

Without the plastic sword and armor this could be intimidating.

We couldn’t figure out what these rows of wooden pieces were. Names perhaps?

These are what you typically see on the top of ancient buildings in Japan. Significance? No idea. Google it.

Samurai uniforms. The real deal.

You occasionally see women in a Kimono like this. Special occasions usually.

From the top of the castle.

These are reproductions of what certain rooms would have looked like. This was the food preparation room. See the pot in the row of ashes. The display below is what a typical meal would have looked like for residents of the castle.

A meeting room. Gold on the walls and ceiling. This image will give you a better view. http://bit.ly/LiPxVE

In Japan, you sometimes see things like this. I think it’s something about spirits and shinto beliefs. Japan’s mixed buddhist/shinto concepts are pretty confusing so I won’t even try.

Amber and I stayed at a hotel in Yatsushiro outside the city and they provided breakfast. This may look like a simple meal (and the fish ‘n soup a little odd) but it was really good. That milk is thick Jersey milk that clings to the glass. I drank.. alot. Until you try it, you just can’t understand. I’ve talked about my Jersey dairy and ice cream obsession before. What they make with that stuff is golden.

Amber spotted a bakery on the way out.

We were on the expressway the whole trip and arrived to Fukuoka in half the time of our Christmas trip. Worth the $80 there and back.

Stayed at the green hotel. The rooms are sooo tiny! Over-priced and they charged extra for parking. Most things in the city are a rip off.

Headed to Hakata station to get some information about what to do in Fukuoka. We were clueless. Oh and the city bus/train stations in Japan are huge, as in, the size of some airports. Come to think of it, they’re almost just like airports but with more shops.

Skimming all the brochures.

Bread shop. Yes, in the station.

This is our friend Kiyomi. Let me explain. Kiyomi is a fellow BYU Hawaii alumni and we had been planning to get together somehow. She’s from Iizuka, about an hour east of Fukuoka. Plans were a little up in the air but we finally got a hold off her and she was like, hey I’m getting of work at the hospital. So we went and picked her up and there ya go. Ended up hanging out in her hometown for a couple days. Kiyomi’s a very very high energy girl! Always happy, always excited about life.

She took us to their very nice branch in Iizuka. Puts the Miyazaki chapel to shame.. maybe I shouldn’t say that.

This is Kiyomi’s home. Her dad was having a little meeting with a business partner so we had to chill for a bit.

Ended up going ice-skating with Kiyomi’s friends. Weren’t planning on it but it was definitely a highlight of the trip.

The place was filled with little professionals.

Some of the guys were clearly new to the sport.

These girls wanted to ask Amber some questions.

Afterwards we all walked to Coco Curry House. Best japanese curry, bar none.

The crew.

That night we basically had no place to stay in Iizuka. So Kiyomi called up another JET she knew in town and the girl was super nice and said she had an extra room and a some futons that someone gave her. There was only one requirement. Chocolate. Chocolate with nuts. So we stopped by the konbini, showed up with the goods and we had a place to stay! Ended up chatting until midnight about the JET program & Japan and almost forgot we needed to get Kiyomi back home. Turns out this girl had a french couch surfer in her ‘other’ extra room (Amber thought he was a creeper) and so he joined in and it was just one big crashing party. And just for the record, our first experience on a futon.. not good. I still can’t believe that’s what most Japanese people prefer to sleep on!

We headed over to Kiyomi’s house the next morning. Kiyomi has just recently gotten engaged to Yuki, another BYUH graduate from Tokyo and he arrived that same morning on an overnight bus. He was tired but was there to meet Kiyomi’s parents for the first time. So we hung out for a few hours until her dad came home and Amber helped her with some wedding ideas. She wanted to know how things were done in an American wedding and was trying to decided between some things like whether to wear a white dress or a traditional kimono. We said, go traditional!

She wanted us to join them on their 3-day young single adults conference they were leaving to later that day but we didn’t think that would really work out, being married and all. haha  Anyway, we eventually said our goodbyes, thanked Kiyomi and wished them the best with their wedding and future plans. Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll be able to attend their reception in July.

Before leaving Iizuka, Kiyomi told us to stop at her favorite udon restaurant. We did and it was amazing.

This guy was stoked to have a couple foreigners there. He was super helpful and had all kinds of questions like what the heck we were doing in their town.

Well here it is. It looks like simple udon. But the chef makes the noodles by hand everyday and prepares them to perfection. You pull the noodles out and dip them in the amazing broth there on the side, probably another trade secret. I almost messed up and dumped the broth in the noodles. Both the waiter and the chef caught me and ran over shouting, “NO NO NO” and while laughing signaled for me to lift the noodes out and dip them. Ahhh okay okay. Got it. haha Anyway, we both loved it. The texture and flavor was out of this world!

Headed back to Fukuoka for the rest of the trip.

Breakfast the next day at 7/11. This is called a Chou roll and is just another one of those things. Looks simple, tastes incredible.

Heading to the Fukuoka zoo. Parked in this neighborhood.

Japan always has unique homes.

The temple happens to be right across the street from the zoo. Fortunately for us, we were able to stop in and schedule a session for the next morning. The man at the front door that helped us knew English and happened to be the temple president! Really nice guy.

The.. not so new.. zoo.

This guy growled at us. Probably didn’t like my face.

This was a funny giraffe. He would reach over the fence as faaaar as he could to barely reach these little leaves. He’d curl his tongue and strip the branches.

The funniest little creature we saw all day. He just turned around let us have it.

This was way out of the city but we made it! Our card was expired but got us through the door. All we wanted was some dang CostCo Pizza! haha

90% of the products were American, just shipped straight over. And if you think your CostCo gets busy, trust me, it doesn’t. This place was PACKED!!!

And finally, the glorious glistening slab of artery clotting cheese. The taste? Identical. And what’s this? A pineapple smoothie? Made from 100% pressed pineapple juice. Holy DELICIOUS! And then, the best part, Hokkaido Jersey ice cream. As good as Takachiho farm’s ice cream? Yes. Yes indeed.

And what the? The line outside went from 0 to 300 in like 45 minutes. Americans, count your blessings.

Next stop, Fukuoka tower. Tallest building in Fukuoka.

Great view of the city. It’s not an office building, it’s just.. a tower.

A nice ferry port.

It’s right on the coast. And that tall building is the Hilton. Remember that.

Went down to the port and artificial beach.

Some nice restaurants by the shore.

It’s real sand, but it’s a man-made beach.

Death awaits you husband.

Just kidding.

The tongue. Always the tongue. I don’t get it.

So, here we were. At this point we’d been searching for a hotel all day and everything was booked so we thought hey, just out of curiosity, let’s check the Hilton out. hahaha. well, it’s funny now.

We pull up and they want to open our doors for us, the first sign we’re out of our league. Then we walk in and the place is just off the charts. Nicest hotel I’ve seen in my life. The interior was absolutely gigantic! People were dressed nice, like, really nice. Women in obviously expensive kimonos and dresses. There was a wedding reception going on. The vibe was, if you’re not wealthy, you probably shouldn’t be here. I just had to ask, so I walked to the fancy sandbar front desk, asked for their cheapest room, the nice girl gave me a price, I turned around, walked right back out. But hey, it was fun to look at. You can dream right?

Swung by Canal City, a cool mall with a stream running through it.

This is the best example of a Japanese plastic food display for a restaurant. Forget the menu, just observe the plastic.

We still didn’t a have a place to stay and we finally figured out why everything was full in the entire city! The next day was a huge festival in Fukuoka called “Hakata Dontaku”. Every hotel and hostel was completely booked. We gave up and finally said forget it, let’s get some sushi.

We had heard all about Sushiro and were excited to try it. It was really fun. That little conveyer belt goes around all the tables with every variety of sushi you can imagine. You just grab what you want or custom order something from the touch screen. They make it, put it on a reserved plate, and your table chimes when it comes around. How awesome is that!

You can order drinks and desserts and the waitresses will zip it over to your table.

This was my favorite. Smoked creamy pesto, cheese and shrimp. SO good.

Someone else’s ice cream they ordered zooming over to their table. I should’ve taken it. hehe

When you’re done they count your stack and ring you up. About a dollar a plate. A group of guys next to us had several towering stacks. Super fun. Now just bring it to America.

So what did we end up doing for the night? We walked out of sushiro at 11:30 and decided we’d have to sleep in the car. But then, after a little prayer, something happened, we found a place! I can’t say where it was cuz it’s a bit culturally taboo here. But it was actually pretty awesome and easily the nicest place we stayed at the whole trip. It’s kind of a funny story. If you wanna know just ask us.

So we had a good night’s rest, surprisingly, and we made it to the temple on schedule. Had a good experience. Our first time in a foreign temple and of course all in a foreign language so we used headsets. It was nice. Glad we went.

So, we headed back to the city for the day and walked around downtown Fukuoka a while. The first day the sun decided to come out.

Amber loves checking out the bakeries.

Fancy chou rolls?

Oh I didn’t mention, I shattered the back of my iPhone a while back so I wanted to stop by the Apple store. Also my first foreign Apple store experience. Everything was identical of course, just in Japanese.

Picked up some local produce. She always has these sexy faces. One more time babe.

We ended up running right into the big Dontaku festival that the city was so packed for. Miyazaki festivals pale in comparison.

Tons of people, tons of food stands.

The big Dontaku parade. Every city high school performed with their dancers and marching band. Got a little repetitive.

Grabbed some katsu on the way out. They give you sesame seeds and special bowls w/surikogi sticks so you can grind the seeds and mix it with sauces. Pretty good.

We were finally ready to head home. We passed through a small town to fill up and these local boys were the best. Total crack ups.

We made it home alive. And if anyone’s lost track of time, we have about 2 months left in Japan. Maybe another post or two and I’ll wrap this blog up. And then, best of all, we’ll be back in America! Can’t wait to see everyone!!

We’re back! Wow, that was quite the break. Amber and I haven’t had alot going on this year, just work and the usual things. This update will cover what we’ve been up to the last 3 or 4 months. Before we get caught up, I need to rewind a little. Let’s jump back to January. January was cold ..The End. No but seriously, the first several months of the year were a blur. Cold and blurry, yeah that about sums it up.

This is the scene out our front door. On this particular day several months ago, hard and frozen. Any precipitation and it would’ve snowed. You’ll notice they cover many of their crops and grow things all year round, it’s quite impressive.

Amber all bundled up after a long day at work. She kept that attire on in the school as there’s no central heating. One day while teaching in a freezing classroom, her assistant teacher told her she should remove her gloves while teaching the students, she was not happy about that.

This was a neat event for Amber. She was invited to come and help at an elementary in Takanabe during their activity day. She had to give a speech in Japanese and was dreading even going but when she came home she couldn’t stop talking about how much fun she had. She just kept going on about how much she loved the kids and how much she loves being around them. Here she is in their local newspaper. Hopefully she’ll get to teach kids again someday. They put a smile on her face.

Amber at Tsuma Koko (Saito high school).

Amber at the gym with some of her students.

So March 1st was graduation. Amber attended and sat through the ceremony. In contrast to American commencements, she described it as rather boring. They wear their school uniforms and one person per row stands and goes up to receive the certificates for that row, takes them from the principal and bows as you can vaguely see above. There’s no clapping or cheering of any kind. Not many family members come. Not even all the parents come either. A bit strange.

When it’s over, the students walk out single file through the crowd in the back and then the audience and teachers clap for them. A few of them will go to college, most will work in local jobs, agriculture, or other trades. It’s all kind of predetermined before they graduate. Many of them don’t aspire and kind of accept their set path so to speak. It’s very strange to us and you’d think they’d make career changes either now or leave possibilites open for the future, but most of them don’t, it’s just not how they think. This makes for a good debate. I don’t agree with many of the structures of Japanese society. The best term I’ve been able to come up with to describe how I perceive Japanese culture & society is the word “rigid”. So many things in Japan fit that description, rigid rigid rigid. If you ask me, this is why Japanese innovation is lacking in a lot of areas, just too dang RIGID. So many people here could be better.. greater thinkers and creators but the educational system thwarts that in so many ways. I asked some graduates here how much time they were given in school for creative thinking and they replied, “almost none”. Having said that, there are equally as many positives that balance the scales. Japan has alot of balance and I guess they know what they’re doing!

This girl wanted a picture with Amber holding these dolls. Umm, sure why not.

This was the next event, a ceremony for the departing teachers after the school year ended. All of Amber’s archenemies were miraculously transferred including the Kyoto sensei (vice-principal holding the flowers above), her supervisor Sato sensei, and the tea-sipping cracker-crunching lady. She probably wouldn’t admit it but it was the happiest day of her life. She now has new teachers, a new supervisor, VP, and all new students whom she all likes and claims are so much better to teach. A lesson in gratitude I suppose.

Amber’s favorite konbini food (convenience store, 7/11 etc). The pizza-man (pronounced pizza mawn). She obsesses over them and will cry when we leave, only for these.

In Japan, valentines day is for the boys and Amber spoiled me, a once in a lifetime event. So on white day (the equivalent of valentine’s day in Japan), exactly one month later, I reversed the favor for my loved one with a mega burger. Egg avocado cheeseburger extraordinaire. Don’t worry, that wasn’t all I did.

Amber makes me the most epic breakfast sometimes, sunny eggs with hashbrowns and bacon. If I’m lucky, strawberry biscuits too.

Our neighbor Tristan invited us bouldering. We had a fun time but man, our hands and arms were dead!

This is Takeshi and Toshiya. We’ve been friends ever since the Fire Festival. They’re great guys.

Amber turned 23!

My first ever home-made cake. It melted into a puddle, haha. At least I tried. Hope she loves me anyway.

Went to one of Amber’s favorite restaurants. Indian food!

Had a green little friend come inside. I set him loose the next day but there were some fierce winds. RIP little guy.

These are the special pastries Amber gets at the school sometimes as gifts. 90% of the time they’re red bean eggy smelling scary creatures.

Blueberry filled marshmallows. Surprisingly good.

Still doing our Eikaiwa (English class at the branch) every wednesday with the missionaries. Always fun.

Every fast sunday we have our potluck with the branch.

This was shortly before the Petersen’s daughter-in-law and her cute kids left back to the states.

Japan really knows how to do strawberry treats. I was a little obsessed with them (and I’ve taken a break lately). Here’s an array of items. The strawberry chocolate is made with 70% strawberries and it tastes like it, really really delicious. $2 a bar though, yikes! The package was for um.. Amber. Okay okay, it may or may not have been Amber’s girly valentine’s gift to me. Big woop. My manliness is intact.

So here it is. The anticipated April Sakura blossoms at Saitobaru. It was everything we imagined. I picked up Amber from school and we both just had a strange urge to go up the hill. We didn’t even know it would be the absolute best day to go. I can’t quite describe how peaceful it felt up there.

The air was crisp and cool, a light breeze carried these petals all over, the air was saturated with the smell of flowers and we just soaked it all in. Some things in life just have to be experienced.

There were nice paths cutting through the flower fields. 4 times a year they remove all the flowers and plant a new variety across this entire area! Sunflowers in the summer, tulips in the fall, these yellow ones during winter, and then some other pink ones I think.

They have the most sophisticated growing techniques, ever since gardening in Hawaii I’ve become curious about various methods of growing food.

The whole community comes out and enjoys the blossoms for a week or two. This was like the old men’s club or something, haha.

They bring out the festival booths and the works. The blossom season is a big deal in Japan.

First time trying japanese crepes.

The next big thing in Japan is the rice planting. All the farmers come out with their boots on and their tractors and fill up their fields with water and then plant. The rice fields are literally everywhere, every country-side and available space, even between homes and lots. Tons and tons of rice. These have grown to about a foot now. I’m guessing they’ll just replant after harvesting and keep repeating as long as the weather allows.

So we decided to make a trip back up to Saitobaru for a picnic. This lady wanted our photo. Gaijin!

First we stopped at one of the largest burial mounds at Saitobaru. Went inside to check it out.

The blossoms weren’t as full but the weather was still perfect. So relaxing.

Anciently, many people were buried near the surface of these mounds. Perhaps one per family? I really have no idea. There are countless mounds of all different sizes.

Bike ride around the paths. Saitobaru covers a large area and is well maintained. Undoubtedly Saito’s protected treasure.

Heading back home. This is just up the road from our apartment. We spotted some paddle boats at the dock. We should rent one.

Amber heading to work. I felt like taking a ride too.

We were invited to a member’s home with the missionaries one Sunday. Had a good time.

Their grandpa came to pay us a visit. In Japan, the elderly receive a great deal of respect. We all stood one by one and introduced ourselves and then bowed. Then he proceeded to just shoot the breeze and tell jokes. All attention is turned to him, no matter how dry the jokes are.

Game time at eikaiwa.

This is our good friend Kobayashi Shimai (above). She had been serving in the Miyazaki area since we came to Japan over 9 months ago. She went home the next day. She’s from Hokkaido up north, the snow island. To me it’s the land of the greatest thing on earth, Hokkaido Jersey cow ice cream. I’ll save that for another post. And Amber’s new friend Watanabe Shimai from Utah (below) unexpectedly got transferred too. Amber was really sad.

Here we all are. Our branch eikaiwa class and our 5 missionaries.

Things are turning green and blossoming.

Remember that frozen field? Not so frozen anymore and what was being protected under that cover.. corn! It’s twice that height now. I don’t know how they do it through the cold months but it’s some of the healthiest corn I’ve ever seen. Just look at that rich soil! That’s what I want someday. A huge plot just like this.

Amber went on a field trip to Saitobaru with her high school students.

It ended up being hours of walking in the sun. She wasn’t quite prepared and got roasted.

There is an airbase close to us and we have to listen to these super loud jets always flying around. Gets pretty annoying.

Ice cream cheese stick. Look weird? Well it’s delicious.

Having dinner with our friends Takeshi and Toshiya. They took us to their favorite restaurant and they didn’t know anything on the menu cuz they’ve been ordering only one thing there since they were teenagers, chicken nanban.

We’ve been planning one last road trip to Fukuoka so we got the car checked up.

This house was just built next to us. It’s super nice. When they finish construction of a home, community members come and receive tossed mochi as a blessing. A guy came, knocked on our door and was rambling something in Japanese pointing to the house and gesturing a throwing motion with his arm. I thought he needed something from me and I told him I couldn’t understand or help him. Woops.

We decided to go on another bike ride and picnic. We can’t pass up this great spring weather. I made Amber pump her tire herself. I’m so mean.

We didn’t know it but this beautiful shrine area is right next to our apartment! We were both like, man what’ve we been missing! There’s a big stream and a nice grass area to come and relax.

This is a massive tree that was destroyed in a fire a long time ago.

This guy was hanging from the trees and latched on to me.

We were debating where to have our picnic but decided on Saitobaru again. One last time. This hill is a blast flying back down.

We found it. The perfect spot.

So calm, so relaxing.

I realized there’s no pictures of me in these posts (probably a good thing). So here you go. I grew a mustache for you.

Before I get into our Christmas trip, I wanted to mention our branch party. It was a little unique. The missionaries handed out lots of invitations while proselyting and the turn out was surprising with nearly 50% non-member attendance. Having a lack of Christian understanding, the presentation and Christmas devotional video of Monson must have been a little confusing. But I’m sure they enjoyed the food, the common bond of all mankind.

So here we go. Forgoing the usual Christmas festivities, we took off on our Christmas vacation to Hirado Island & Nagasaki. We were off to a good start, made it through Miyazaki City, got a little confused reading a sign for an exit, and then BAM, we bumped into this lady. I won’t get into the details but let’s just say, this wasn’t what we had in mind. But no worries, we took care of the situation and our car suffered almost zero damage, so, we continued on.

It was a 10 hour drive up through Kyushu. To cheer us up after the mishap we put on the Christmas tunes and enjoyed the beautiful drive. All the rivers and mountains along the way were really amazing. At one point, the highway cut through the mountains and something started falling in the air. It was too light to be rain and then we realized, it was snowing! Here is photo proof of our unexpected white Christmas.

We finally arrived to Hirado Island, about 2 hours north of Nagasaki. What a beautiful town. Their bridge is a mini Golden Gate. This was taken later. We actually came in at night and this is what we saw, this awesome castle was lit up on the hill.

All the meals were included at our ocean-side ryokan (japanese inn). The food was very unique. Cooked over flame burners and they just keep bringing it out. The variety of sashimi was a-mazing! So tender. Best raw fish we’ve had in Japan.

After showing us the first room, we requested something different and ended up here, It was really nice. Western/Japanese hybrid. We had to ask how to use the robes.

We opened up our window the next morning, this is what we saw. Stunning!

I laugh every time I see this. Amber was a little confused about breakfast. She was thinking since when do people eat seaweed and grilled fish for breakfast. I didn’t mind it so much. She cheered right up when we opened our lids, eggs and bacon!

After seeing everyone in robes, we finally caught on. When you’re at the ryokan, you wear the robes! This couple was thinking, what are these Americans doing here. haha

We went down for a nap and there was a knock on the door. They handed me a translated note and apologetically said, “there’s a problem with the water boiler, we’re very sorry, we’re moving you to a suite.” Oh please don’t make us! In the meantime they asked us to hangout in this western room.

Then they moved our things to the upgrade. Stoked!

Amber was bouncing around like a rabbit.

Coolest shower room ever.

I normally wouldn’t talk about toilets but the remote control spray functions and warmed seats are nothing short of spectacular. And as always, cleaned and labeled “Sanitarized” on the lid. Yeah you read that right.

The devoted fishermen below, weathering the cold.

We were on the furthest wing of the ryokan. A great feeling of solitude.

We headed out into the cold to finally visit the Hirado castle.

The castle was pretty neat. It was built about 300 years ago.

We were invited inside the castle to warm up by this little stove. This old lady rubbed Amber’s shoulders for a bit, how kind.

By this point, Amber was going numb from the cold. It really was freezing so we picked up some hot chocolate. Yeah, it comes out hot.

She savored it til the last drop and then hypothermia set in. She’s so funny. I just held on to mine for warmth.

That’s the coldest little nose you will ever see.

Hirado Bay. You can barely see our ryokan on the far right with the orange roof.

These narrow streets were a trip. We set out to find food and Amber somehow managed to spot the words “Pizza and Coffee” in tiny print on that door from a moving vehicle. Her American instincts are still there.

The pizza was pretty legit. Cozy little place owned by a nice lady.

And now, time for the Hot Baths.

They have real Hot Springs in Japan called Onsens. These were outdoor man-made versions. Still super nice. And of course, like all onsens in Japan, no clothes allowed. They had big public ones but I guess our public nude confidence isn’t quite there yet.

Then on to dinner.

The size of this dinner trumped anything I’ve ever had in my life. The food just kept coming and coming. Over flames as usual

Since Hirado is a coastal town, the specialty is fish. Steamed fish, raw fish, boiled fish, fish heads, fish eggs. I even ate a fish eyeball. And yes, it was all really really good. I think my dad would’ve enjoyed it. This is the disaster we left behind.

Our last breakfast. I had to try the Nato or fermented beans. With the sesame oil, it was.. tolerable.

We saw a few sights before leaving Hirado.

Hirado was the first place in all of Japan to fully accept Christianity. It was introduced to Hirado by the spaniard St. Francis Xavier. He tried bringing the gospel first to Kagoshima but failed and eventually ended up in Hirado. This is the cathedral named after him.

Overlooking Hirado from the Cathedral and Buddhist temple.

This is a Zen garden. And my beautiful wife.

This is a unique combination that co-exists in Hirado. Two religions, side by side.

We set out to find a pagoda in Hirado but ended up walking through this mysterious smokey cemetery.

But we found it.

We finally left Hirado and headed out to Nagasaki. It was a beautiful drive.

The dutch have settled in a lot of areas in this part of Japan including Sasebo and Nagasaki. Here was a little taste of that.

A massive Torii we drove past.

We finally arrived in Nagasaki. A much larger city. Nagasaki is a port city that sits in a valley.

Here was the big mall with a ferris wheel on top. How creative. We assumed not many are riding it this time of year.

Nagasaki is quite hilly, kinda like San Francisco.

We eventually found our hostel, Kagamiya, the cheapest one we found online, but it was really nice. Located right next to this shrine.

There’s our room on the right. Bathrooms upstairs, lobby down the hallway, shower on the left. Very cozy. There were a number of people staying in other rooms. I can see how these are the way to go if you like to travel.

After a good nap, we headed out. Downtown Nagasaki is fun. We did quite a bit of walking. So cold!

We headed to that big Cocowalk mall to find dinner. Amber spotted this great Indian restaurant called Bishnu.

It was so good. Butter chicken curry and Naan.

We set out to find ice cream. Couldn’t find anything better so we settled on 31, known in America as Baskin Robbins.

Lots of trains in Nagasaki. These are the same tracks that were built before the war. That train in the back is the same WWII era train that they still use. They’re all over the city. Very cool.

Back to the hostel. We were so happy we had a good heater. It was freeezing and Amber’s poor toe wasn’t doing so well.

Visited Dejima Wharf and the old dutch settlement. It was the only place Christians were allowed in Japan for 200 years.

We headed up to Inasadake, a peak that overlooks all of Nagasaki and the bay.

Right there in the middle of the city is where the atomic bomb was dropped, annihilating this entire valley in 1945. When they wouldn’t surrender after hiroshima, this is where they dropped a 2nd atomic bomb. Nagasaki is where WWII ended.

Our last stop, Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.

There it is, that is what was dropped from a B-52 on August 6th. For the tens of thousands below, it was just another day.

This clock was damaged on impact, marking the exact time, 11:02.

The injuries suffered during and after from burns and radiation were extraordinary. Little was known about radiation at the time and the effects would continue for decades. If you want to see an incredible video of exactly what happened and educate youselft, watch the video I will link at the bottom of this post.

This is what a modern nuclear weapon looks like. America has over 8,000, Russia over 11,000, and the rest of the world, hardly any.

Of all the stories we read, this photo and story was the most touching. I’ll attach the text from the plaque that was below this photograph.

“A Boy Standing at a Crematory in Nagasaki, 1945″

WWII photographer Joe O’Donnell:

When I arrived at Nagasaki from Sasebo, I looked down at the city from the top of a low hill, I saw some men wearing a white mask. They were working near a ditch full of burning coal.

I noticed a boy about ten years old walking by. He was carrying a baby slung on his back. In those days, in Japan, it was common to see children playing in vacant lots with their little brothers or sisters on their backs, but this boy was clearly different. I could see that he had come to this burning ground for a serious purpose. He was barefoot. When he reached the edge of the crematory, het stopped and peered ahead with a fixed expression. The infant’s head was tipped back as if the baby were fast asleep.

The boy stood there next to the area for about ten minutes. The men in white masks walked over to him and gently began undoing his cords that were holding the baby. Then I first realized that the baby was already dead. The men held the body by the hands and feet and placed it gently on the hot coals.

The infant’s body made a hissing sound as it was placed in the fire. Then it lit up in brilliant flames like a deep red of the setting sun. The boy stood there erect and motionless with his innocent cheeks shining scarlet. I noticed that the lips of the boy were also streaked with red as he watched the flames. He was biting his lower lip so hard that it shone with blood. The flames burned low like the sun going down, and the boy turned around and walked silently away from the burning pit.

Heading home. We decided to save time and jump on the expressway. It was amazing, after driving on so many slow roads our whole trip, we felt like we were going 100 miles an hour! Worth every penny! Our engine was topping out and everyone was passing us in the fast lane. I kept saying, man I wish this car had another gear! Then Amber said, what does this button do? She pressed the overdrive button on the shifter and we shifted to a 5th gear!!! I was like, WHOA, AMESOME! Then we really started flying. Stayed on the expressway all the way through Kumamoto and almost to Miyazaki. Made it home in 8 hours!

On the way back we ran into this strange Christmas light town. The huge hill and every house were covered in lights! Not a bad way to end our Christmas vacation.

Our last event was the Christmas/New Years get together with the Petersen family and many of their friends. We had a great time.

Afterwards, Emi invited us upstairs to relax.

Their grandkids are so cute. This is Mae Grace or Mae-G. She’s a doll.

Emi and Mae-G watching cartoons.

Don’t mind if I do, courtesy of CostCo.

Just when we were getting ready to leave, Emi says hey let’s order Pizza! To our surpise, Miyazaki has a Pizza-Hut take out. Crazy! The seafood pizza with shrimp was definitely different but still good.

Thanks to the Petersens for being so great to us and for showing us such a good time with their family when we couldn’t be with ours.

This is the video I highly recommend taking the time to watch. It had more facts than the entire museum.

I promised we’d get caught up on our blog so here it is, the last post of the year. These pictures are at the Branch President’s house. We were invited to have dinner at their nice home and had finger sushi (roughly translated). Amber and I loved it. Lot’s of things to make your own little sushi then you roll it up and dip it in shoyu and of course the optional wasabi, no thank you.

Some branch members were doing a little photo shoot for an upcoming Christmas party presentation. Yes the man is wearing a wig.

Played some card-version monopoly to burn some time.

The wonderful Yamaguchi Family. Thanks for all the laughs.

This was interesting. Big hot plates of noodles & what not with paper siding so you could stir it all up, fresh off the grill. Kids must like it.

The most GIGANTIC APPLES we’ve ever seen!

One of my favorite dishes at CoCo. Japanese curry with quail eggs.

Fish on a stick anyone?

These are pig intestines. We tried ‘em. Yup, they’re extra nasty. Tastes like.. well there’s just no other words.. kinda like poop.

The masks are more of a common gesture than a prevention. Poor Amber had a little cold.

A delicious white-chocolate dessert with haagen-dazs. Courtesy of the wife.

Amber and I were invited on a tour to a shrine a couple hours south called Udo Jingu. Here’s our awesome tour group!

This is Janette from Germany. She was great and hung out with us the whole trip. Her japanese is really good. I told her I was mostly german. Her reaction was kinda like, meh, big woop. haha She was pretty funny.

This is the Phoenix Resort restaurant we stopped at while on our way down the scenic coast.

The others sitting with us were in the tour group. The man and his son were from the Philippines, staying in Japan for work.

I accidentally ordered a what? A kid’s meal? woops. It wasn’t that bad actually. Better than Amber’s fishy noodles.

They had Shrimp flavored Ice Cream. We stuck with vanilla and mango.

Those rock formations go all up this coast. They’re pretty awesome. Never seen anything like it.

Janette loves photography, constantly snapping shots on her DSLR and iPhone as well.

That’s the restaurant.

We headed down this path to get a closer look at the coast. Couldn’t quite get down to the beach though.

So here it is, Udo Jingu shrine. Most definitely one of the nicest coastal shrines in our region.

Purify yourself by pouring this water on your hands.

The shrine located underneath this cave facing the ocean. Not sure how long it’s been there. Probably hundreds of years. Pretty awesome.

You get these clay rocks and then see if you can throw them into that little water pool way down there. If you make it in you get to make a wish. Amber made it in the first throw! My last one got in. Close call.

The water was a crisp aqua. Beautiful area. There were definitely a few good surf spots down the coast. I even spotted a couple surfers paddling out.

This is a HUGE worm we spotted. At least 10 inches long! If you touched it, it would wriggle and bounce around on the ground as a defense. Very strange indeed.

This was some type of crazy shrimp-face stick bug thing.

And lastly this neat colorful spider. I’m assuming more colors means more poisonous.

Finally back to Miyazaki. Thanks to everyone in our fun group!

This was a downtown festival going on in Miyazaki. Anyone up for some sunny-side up eggs on ketchup crepes with mayonnaise?

Beautiful sunset and some live bands on stage.

This is Heiwadai Park. An ancient peace tower in Miyazaki City. At the top of the steps was the starting point for the 1964 Olympics torch relay that finished in Tokyo. If you stand on that little platform and clap your hands loudly, what returns back to your ears is some kind of crazy audio effect. When you clap, the structure somehow echoes a high-pitched shrieking sound back to you ears. It’s super weird and I was baffled how the structure could send the noise back like that, not your clap echoing, a totally different, almost digital sounding noise.

Unfortunately, you can’t go inside. We could barely peek in through the front doors. Looked ancient.

A glimpse into old Japan.

The colors are a changin’. Amber loooves the colors.

The coolest non-snow sledding hill you’ve ever seen.

The park shouldered next to a kids park/sports fields/walking paths. There were some baseball games going on and these folks lost their soccer ball. Thanks gaijin!

This was the post-Fire Festival dinner party.

We all went up on stage to be thanked for participating.

The boys.

Our delicious indian curry, naan bread, and my personal favorite, coconut ice cream.

This is our monthly break-the-fast with the branch.

Uh oh, someone got a mixer!

This is some crazy japanese cauliflower we spotted at the store and had to try. It tasted similar but was definitely unique.

Amber and I have been called as branch missionaries to help with the weekly English class at the church. We enjoy it.

We always have an English game after the lessons.

Our 4 Miyazaki missionaries just before transfers. The smiling Elder Swasey moved to Jordan, Utah from Japan to attend his sophomore through senior years and then was called to the Fukuoka mission. He’s a greeny and was transferred right after this.

What’s this? Big Macs on sale for $2? uh oh.

For having a gluten free, dairy free & sugar free diet, this broke every rule in the book. Was it worth it? no.. no not really. 1 hr later, It never is.

Amber had never had a whole Big Mac. There’s a first for everything.

And finally, It’s Christmas Time!!! Christmas trees, Christmas lights (illumination they call it), and cold weather. Japanese people may not understand the real meaning of christmas but they don’t mind showing their Christmas spirit.. commercially anyway. It’s not really a big thing, uh.. in homes I guess. On Christmas day they have Christmas cake. Their big holiday is New Years. They LOVE New Years.

Thank you Mom and Grandma Karen for the Christmas packages!

We found a tree at the 2nd hand store. Woo hooo! Christmas lights are hard to find and expensive. So, our short string of lights and modest decorations could only decorate the front half. Good enough. A charlie brown tree never looked so good!

Well if you haven’t heard, Amber and I are taking off to Nagasaki for a Christmas getaway at an ocean-side Japanese Ryokan, hot springs & meals included. We needed something to take the edge off our holiday home sickness. Hope to talk to all of you on Christmas Day. Have a Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy 2012 New Year!

So we’re back. Our posts are still a little behind but we should be caught up soon. The main topic of this post is the Fire Festival or Kofun Matsuri that we’ve been practicing for several months. This actually happened back in November before it got so cold. So here is one of our last practices in the gym.

Before we get into the Festival, we need to catch up on some holidays. Halloween was fun with the branch. The Elders and Sisters put it on and paid for most the event themselves! They even had big bags of American candy sent from home for game prizes. Amber spotted the Reeses and was loving life.

Some of the costumes were good. The girl in the middle won the contest with her elaborate “Nato” costume. For those of you who don’t know, nato is fermented beans that you eat with rice or sushi and what not. It’s kinda gooey, smells bad, and tastes.. well, pretty bad. But Japanese people like it. The Elders spent months making that giant pumpkin out of paper mache!

Amber fixing costumes. The kids loved the pinata.

We had dinner with one of the counselors and his wife’s family. We picked up the Sisters from the chapel and they came too. It was really fun.

We were served, no I’m not making this up.. Raw Chicken Gizzard and Raw Chicken. Yes we ate it, yes it was cold and gooey, yes we tried to talk our way out of it, and yes it tasted like you would imagine.. very unpleasant. Reminded me of the raw Elk liver my brothers made me eat after a fresh kill while hunting one year. Said I wasn’t a man until I did. After explaining to them the concept of raw chicken in America and salmonella they simply told us that the chicken was killed that morning, so therefore, it was perfectly okay. Well why didn’t you just say so! Dig in.

And then thanksgiving. We drove 30 minutes out to Akemi’s apartment (another JET) in Shintomi. We got together with other JETs and a couple Japanese invitees. We had a good time. Lots of traditional and not so traditional items but we did our best. The big chicken you see there is actually the turkey, shipped from Tokyo.

And to top it off, Amber made some home-made pumpkin Cheesecake. It was divine.

And now, our first peforming event. We all drove out to the huge Miyazaki Shrine for a big annual parade. First we paid our respects to the shrine and did our claps and bows as a group. Then it was off to the big Miyazaki main street to perform for publicity.

Here were some of the local kids from another town also getting ready to perform in the parade.

We talked and joked around with them for a while, laughing and trying to communicate with each other. They always have funny questions about Americans. Always smiling, always happy.

We took part in the parade to advertise the upcoming Fire Festival in Saito. We danced 5 or 6 times in front of big crowds along the street, walked several miles and were drained by the time it was over. We’d all wave and say onegaishimasu!

So then it came. The big day. Kofun Matsuri at Saitobaru. Here is probably the biggest burial mound of the 50+ mounds at Saitobaru. It’s unknown how many were anciently buried in each mound. Saitobaru is sacred. This large area of land is where the Fire Festival has taken place every year for the past 600 years!

The festival grounds.

Our camp and tents where we would work and prepare the entire day. We arose at 6:30am and were there until midnight.

I helped prep these torch cans with kerosene soaked rope. These went in the bamboo torches for the walkways.

The girls making bamboo & paper decorations. The other girls were amazed at how fast Amber could split the bamboo with the wedge and hammer.

A festival tradition, pounding the purple steamed rice into mochi. They use an extremely heavy stone cauldron and pound it with traditional wooden hammers. Even I got a turn pounding the rice. The crowd would watch and cheer as we’d pound faster and faster.

The old women of Saito, rolling the mochi in flour.

The girls handing out free mochi. It tasted like ..hot pounded rice. Nuff said.

The stars of the festival, the King and Princess. The one chosen to play the King must be from Saito and must work in Saito. It’s a great honor to be selected.

Ah, rock cleaning duty.. someone’s gotta do it.

All the girls took off to a lady’s house to get their hair done. Pretty woman!

Setting up the performance grounds. It was a little rainy. The blue tarp covered the wood house that would be lit on fire. I helped fill it with tons of scrap wood. We needed massive flames.

Hanging out in the break room while it rained. Free coffee and tea. We found some mormon-approved tea, strawberry and pumpkin.

That meat he’s cooking is uzura, which took me the longest time to figure out was quail. It kinda looked like cooked frogs but we tried it. It was pretty gross.

Getting ready for the big performance.

All geared up and ready to go.

Pretty red shoes. She probably would’ve liked to have kept them.

Nervous?

And so the line-up begins marching to the drums. I’m walking the other way.

Still just a little rain.

Here come the girls.

Amber on the left. I’m sitting down. The men were told to keep stern faces.

I tried so hard to get video of the performance but I couldn’t find anyone that had recorded the event. The live music and drums were pretty neat.

Amber was a natural.

The girls would simultaneously sound off those split red wood blocks in their hands clacking with the steps and rhythm. This was the 2nd movement of the dance.

Then the King and Princess lit the house on fire.

Turning their arms as the Princess walks by.

This was a great shot that our neighbor Tristan got of Amber dancing past the flames.

The men begin. Drawing our swords at the King’s signal.

Spinning our swords and shouting SE! as loud as possible.

The King.

And then the torch dance.

Lighting the torches at the burning house. I can’t tell you how hot those flames were. I thought it would singe my eyebrows off.

My partner Atoshi and I.

The final torch swinging around the court.

Ending strong shouting SE! SE! SE! SE! SE!

And then the shirtless bad boys with the huge torches.

These huge bamboo polls were spun hard. It takes some serious strength.

This guy was the man!

We did it! At the end the performers all came out casually dancing around the fire and pulled people from the audience to join in and dance to the flutes and drums.

Our friend Mayuko who we carpooled with to many of the practices. She’s been doing this for many years and now helps train the girls. She works at city hall and helps us with things at times.

Anime Amber at center left.

The final gathering around the fire. We don’t know what they said but it was probably something like ‘good job everyone!’.

Kofun Matsuri 2011!

This post is going to be primarily photos with a little commentary. We’re a month or two behind so by the next post we should be caught up. We went to see the American Kindergarten in Miyazaki run by the Petersens (if you forgot, Bro. Petersen is in the District Presidency, is originally from Idaho, and has lived in Japan with his Japanese wife and together they’ve run this kindergarten for nearly 25 years). The kids were so fun. The bottom floor of their 3-story house is the school and we played with them for a few hours outside. This girl was so cute, see her Elmo shoes? Her little toes are Elmo’s teeth. Adorable.

You will occasionally see people wearing these masks and a few parents insist on having their kids wear them as well. We used to think it was just radiation paranoia or something but it is actually not terribly uncommon to see people wearing these either to protect themselves from getting sick or as a courtesy to avoid spreading their own cold. A little excessive?… perhaps. This girl had some cute & piercing eyes.

These girls were trouble but cute.

Most of the Kindergarten’s 50-60 kids.

This was their dance practice.

This girl was so hilarious. She wanted to be front and center and really had those moves down! We were crackin up!

Amber, always a natural with children.

Spinning the kids around in my robot ride after they put an imaginary coin in my ear. I about passed out after every kid wanted a turn.

This was our District Conference to Kagoshima. We all got on a bus at 6am for the 2-3 hour trip. The invited speaker was Elder Stephenson from the Seventy. He was a missionary in Japan.

This was our lunch at the branch afterwards. We met the Mission President and his wife. They were really great.

Our Bento boxes. These would be better hot but they’re always cold for some reason. It makes the meat uh… questionable.

Amber picked out what she liked.

The Kagoshima branch building where we had Conference.

This is the big Kagoshima Volcano which if you look closely is separated by water in the bay. Kagoshima is a beautiful city! More scenic than Saito or Miyazaki and is hilly like San Francisco. We’ll have to come back to do some site seeing.

This is our local Saito Museum. We couldn’t read anything but it had some awesome artifacts and artistic depictions of ancient Saito culture.

Ancient inhabitants were farmers, gatherers and hunters. They even used arrow heads like the American Indians.

This is the front of the Museum.

Here is a crazy item that was left in our apartment by our predecessor. It is a bottle of alcohol with, get ready for it, an entire 2-3 foot snake! I guess it’s some kind of twisted manliness to down a glass of this stuff! And I guess that makes me.. very un-manly.

Want to learn how to cook. Come to the mall and they will teach you. It’s ideas like these that eventually end up in America.

My favorite japanese energy drink. Mel-Up.

Here is some serious Irony. As we Americans sat down to eat our Japanese meal, we look over and what do we see? (next photo)

… some Japanese neighbors eating McDonalds, the great American tradition. Although, many Japanese believe that they invented McDonalds!

And Ice Cream. Baskin Robbins is significantly better in Japan but they don’t call it that, they call it 31.

Now, we’re on our way to Takachiho Farm, 2 1/2 hours driving through very very scenic mountain roads. We knew we were getting close as we approached the Takachiho Volcano.

We pulled over and were amazed to discover this gorgeous lake just below the Volcano. We would return a couple weeks later to take a paddle boat ride on that serene water. It was something out of a movie. Believe it or not, a volcano right behind this one erupted just this year! It was the biggest eruption in Japan in the last 50 years! It spewed inches of ash over every neighboring town and city.

Here’s a great video of that eruption:

We finally arrived at Takachiho Farm but we ran into a Farmer’s Market at the gate. Cheap Produce! You can’t pass that up.

TAKACHIHO FARM!

Alot of families and people playing on the Farm’s big field. You can see the Dairy Farm up above.

A great view of Takachiho Volcano. It was truly the most beautiful day and majestic weather we have experienced in Japan. A little sunny with a calm cool breeze. Very high above sea level. You can sit on those brown floor seats and dip your feet in a tiny stream of water.

Time to bring the cows in!

Milk em’ good.

Scooping the fresh cream to sell.

These kids were fearless.

So we walked all the way up to this plateau overlooking the farm where we could just sit and relax. The breeze was so cool and pleasant. Completely serene. There were some young families playing with their kids, some couples sitting under an umbrella in the background. It was a half hour of relaxation bliss. We didn’t want to leave.

Kids sledding down the grass hill. Hey, whatever floats your boat.

And finally, the Dairy Store!!! The farm is famous for THE WORLDS BEST ICE CREAM! Okay maybe not the world’s but it’s the best we’ve found in Japan so far.

It’s made with fresh milk and cream which comes out SO strong in the flavor. Soft serve in America is total crap but here, it has been redefined. I admit, I’m obsessed. Last weekend I had 3 cones at a local shop. I just can’t help myself!

This was cone number 2!

More people relaxing on the Farm’s big hill.

And more dairy for the Road! Fresh dairy ice cream, pudding, yogurt, candied cheese, and yogurt milk! I won’t get into what happened to my stomach after this.

A beautiful area of tiered rice fields on the way home. The lighting, fields and stream made for such an amazing scene.

The famous, Mos burger!

They really are as they say, fine burgers. Well prepared, great flavor. Hopefully these cows weren’t grazing northern radiation territories.

The Japanese family zen style gravestones can be very pretty. I want to be buried in one of these.. no, seriously.

And finally, we GOT A CAR! It’s a little Suzuki SUV. Great gas mileage and a killer deal, 100,000 yen. Around a thousand dollars so hey, it’s paid off!

More practice for the Saito Fire Festival. Amber has the whole dance down!

Getting to know the other girls.

This is the Takanabe Surf shop near the coast. I finally rented a board and paddled out. The swell was good size, water was super warm and it was SOOO fun.

Here’s some of the coastal roads leading to the beach, a little treacherous for our car.

Decided to ditch the above beach and finally made it to this great spot by a train station. Here’s a local heading out. whoa, wet suit! Hmm, must be cold! NOT. I had to paddle back in and take my top off. I was burning up!

Some great head high sets and the locals ripping! All sand bottom, clean faces, super long rights and lefts. Stoked!

Great beach front parking and restrooms, and a hose shower to boot! We should trade this guy for that VW!

Pretty grove road on the way out.

Here’s a great little Mom & Pops dessert shop off the main road we stopped at. Turns out the owner lived in Hawaii so he knew decent English.

More ICE CREAM!

Husband, I’m waiting!

A nice Farmer’s Market we found.

Coco’s Curry. Our favorite Japanese curry house, bar none! Thanks for the tip Farnsworths!

That chicken was so so tender.

The popular Mister Donut. Don’t be deceived, their donuts suck!

Yes, they look delicious but they taste like crap! Very little sugar, even less flavor.

A school’s art exhibit we ran into, they asked us to vote on one.

This was a super fun Takanabe Festival we went to. Alot of the food is scary but we can always depend on shaved ice and… ICE CREAM.

Mmm, who’s down for some full size squid on a stick! No? Well it’s got sauce on it!

Candied Apples. I should’ve tried one but they were pricey.

The school by the festival put out all these stars made with candles on the field. Pretty cool.

We walked up to the Shinto shrine and first had to put our prayer sticks in the fire, clap twice, bow and pray to.. err, someone. I decided to pray to my God instead.

After walking up many candle-lit stairs, we arrived here. Young kids made these candle boxes.

Then you finally arrive at the end. The flowing river of bamboo candles.

Then back down the stairs and back to the Festival grounds. Fun!

They had live performances and a ventriloquist, nice.

No squid for us but these I like, Udon noodles with some green onion, hot spices, and fish cake. Love it.

Here is a great couple we met from Takanabe. They approached us and were so nice. Kazuo & Noriko Kobayashi. Their kids have all grown up and left home and they like to play tennis

The Petersens invited us over for dinner after church. They’re such a fun couple. Their 5 kids have all gone off to college, missions, or gotten married. This is Bro. Petersen and Amber getting an electric foot massage.

And Sister Petersen. She’s adorable.

Brother petersen out back grilling up dinner. Sausages, beef, and vegetables.

The Elders and some family friends from the branch came as well.

Amber made some fresh pumpkin cheese-cake frosting cookies.

They insisted the Americans sit on their kindergarten chairs even though we have no problem sitting on the floor, which I eventually did.

And finally, we made the drive back to Takachiho Lake for the paddle boat ride.

The water was so mysteriously glassy. Something out of a dream. The lake felt so.. asian. And yes, the boat is, uh.. a pink loch ness monster?

A nice camp on the other side of the Lake. We were counting on the volcano not erupting again.

Perfectly glassy water = perfect reflections.

Wifey, isn’t this romantic!

So it’s been cooling down lately. This is both good and bad. Good for relief from the hot weather but bad for the surf and warm summer ocean. We made it to the beach in Takanabe but I still don’t have a board. Yes, it’s painful. I was very surprised to find the water was as warm as Hawaii, maybe warmer. This won’t last though and it saddens me. Wet suit perhaps? At the beach we found a few locals hanging out. Some fishing, some surfing. There were even a few life guards! haha They have these concrete barricades made from hundreds of these molded blocks. They’re supposed to help block tsunamis I guess. Between the barricade and the beach is the designated swimming area so I guess that’s what the lifeguards were there for.

A while back we were on our way home from our bus ride and we ran right into a local festival. I guess it’s a monthly thing. Our timing was perfect and we stopped by on our bikes to check it out. Anyway there was lots of food and booths and people from the community. We were an oddity. Some offered us free food and others just wanted to talk to us. They had shaved ice and skewered BBQ, and of course, french fries. The booths had random food items, some quite scary looking. We tried some of them anyway. Octopus filled cream puffs and seaweed water that tasted like urine. They did some traditional dances dressed in kimonos. We’ve actually since been to a smaller festival for something else. It was very similar with the exception of some hula performances and a goldfish scooping game called Kingyo-Sukui. We both caught 6 fish before the rice-paper scooper tore. We didn’t have a home for them and felt bad so we threw them back in the river later that night.

The last time we were in Miyazaki, we were able to visit the big “Aeon” Mall. It was quite impressive. Very clean and alot of stores, even a surf shop and a piano/music store. Blended in with their Japanese fast-food there were some American restaurants like subway and KFC but the menu is completely different of course.. and expensive. They also have one of these common 100-yen stores. The equivalent to a dollar store. We stopped at Nitori, their big furniture store to look for a much needed couch and bed. We were able to find some good deals but had to wait for delayed deliveries. Our bed has already come and our new couch will finally be here soon. We were happy to retire the twin bed. That makes twice in our marriage that we’ve had to share a twin for a short while. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

One of the stores in the mall was a kids store with games and random things to buy. Among these things and on front display was a strange arrangement of.. how can I describe this… huge killer insects. You see, it’s some kind of crazy hobby for kids to buy these evil bugs and then put them in a cage for battle. I guess the goal is to get the best bug so you can kill your friend’s bugs. Here’s some of the mean looking ones. I feel sorry for the kid that gets his lost in the house.

That same day in Miyazaki on Amber’s last day of orientation, we went to lunch with some of the other Miyazaki JETs. They were from the UK, South Africa, Whales, and.. Florida I believe. Nice people. Anyway, we were able to try Miyazaki’s famous Chicken Nan-Ban as well as some Japanese curry. The Nan-Ban lived up to it’s reputation and can I just say, Japanese curry is exceptional. I would probably take it over Thai curry any day of the week. Japanese don’t like spicy food and are bigger on flavor so it’s rrright down my alley. We’ve been eating it alot at home now. You just buy these cubes to make an instant sauce. We have this honey-apple one… oh man..  K I’ll stop now.

That last night in Miyazaki we had the big Miyazaki JETs dinner. It was pricey but all you can eat and the food was great. They had this amazing Grade A tender beef. Not an ounce of fat, cooked rare, thin sliced, and just pure flavor. I can’t count how many pieces I ate. They had Nan-Ban there as well, couldn’t get enough. The best dessert was these soft mango bowls that you could just slurp down. They couldn’t bring them out fast enough! Anyway, we were able to get to know quite a few other teachers. Well, Amber already knew many of them but It was nice for me to be able to interact with English speakers. After that they all headed to the Karaoke (popular here) but we didn’t go because of the drinking. I believe you get these smaller private rooms, maybe a dozen in a room, and then everyone just goes at it. Better hope your friends can sing or it could be a painful couple of hours. Instead of joining the herd we went down these infinite store alleys and eventually found some ice cream, an absolute luxury in Japan. We found a half gallon while grocery shopping one day, $13.

Alright, I’m just gonna throw out some random things as they come to mind. Spiders.. stupid freaky spiders. There are countless of them outside. They are usually small and like the other weird insects don’t get in the apartment. But one day, I reached in the closet and BAM! A 4-inch BEAST of a spider! Being the great husband that I am, I killed it and set it up around the bedroom corner ready to pounce on Amber once she got home. Spoiler Alert.. it didn’t work. You see I had come in the night before and Amber had scared the living baJeepers out of me when she looked at my head and starting pointing and screaming. Naturally, I started freaking out like a crazed schizophrenic and was dying to return the favor. It should have worked since I was the one with the real spider! but alas, sometimes vengeance doesn’t pan out. Her time will come.

We’ve been taking turns making meals at home and Amber has come up with some creative things with the toaster oven like these exquisite whole grain pizzas she makes. I stick to the simpler things like gyoza, noodles, tempura and tofu.

Amber’s been memorizing her Japanese characters. I try as well but haven’t been putting in as much study time I guess. We’re still working on memorizing Katakana and Hiragana. There are three forms of writing:
Kanji, traditional complex characters, Example: 宮崎,日本. Kanji characters are largely unchanged from ancient Chinese characters but pronounced differently than Chinese.
Hiragana, characters to phonetically write Japanese words, Example: べました.
Katakana, characters to phonetically write out English or foreign words such as pasta or bacon. Pa-su-ta: パスタ. Be-ko-n: ベーコン.

We’ve been able to go to church in Miyazaki twice now. Until we get a car we can only attend when our neighbor let’s us borrow his uh.. I will call it a micro-van. He’s actually leaving to Tokyo for 9 days this weekend and in exchange for taking him to the Airport he’s letting us use his vehicle while he’s away. We’ll be able to attend church and maybe do a little site seeing. The branch is great. Only a few members speak English but they are all so polite and helpful. There is one family that is half American, the Peterson family. Brother Peterson is from Idaho and married a Japanese woman. They have around 5 kids I think and all have left home, served missions, attended BYU, BYUH etc. They were so nice to us and helped translate the lessons. Brother and Sister Peterson run a Kindergarten in Miyazaki and asked me if I was interested in a teaching position. I told him I’d love to do something like that but don’t have transportation. We are meeting with them at their private school next wednesday and want me to do a short lesson with the kids. They teach everything in English and considering how much I already love these adorable children here It would be hard to turn it down. They seemed adamant about getting us to come check out their school so hey, why not. I’m currently trying to focus on this web project but If we had a car, I suppose I could do something part-time. We’ll see.

Well Amber’s high school recently had 2 big events. First they had a back to school musical performance at the local concert hall. Their bands and choirs performed and I was able to come and watch that. I arrived at their lunch break and all the students were in their uniforms in the lobby area. I walked in and felt hundreds of eyes on me. The girls would whisper to each other and giggle and some came up to me, “Anba husband?”. Other students would come up and tell Amber, “Yo husbund vedy naice boy”. Then they’d giggle and run off. You could say the high school students are probably at a similar mindset of American junior high students, somewhat immature but funny to be around regardless. They often come up to Amber and say, “Anba sensei, I Love You!” She just smiles and responds back, “love you too!” Then they laugh and run away. It’s pretty hilarious actually. She has funny encounters like this on a regular basis, sometimes they just want to ask some simple funny question like one girl in class who asked, “how much do you love your husband?” Amber stretched out her arms, “this much!” All the students thought her response was hilarious.  Even some of the boys can show similar behavior. One boy in particular professes his love to Amber in class everyday, “I love you Anba sensei, I LOVE YOU!” This is the same boy that before meeting Amber was one day walking around the school shouting things in English, “hello, hello” to everyone he passed, not knowing that Amber was there. Amber turned around and said, “Oh, hi!” He was so caught of guard he jumped back, “Oohh! You.. YOU! So Beautiful!” Amber later met him in her after school recycling group. He wanted to know if she was married. She showed him her ring. He shouts, “Noo! Yo husband here, Saito?” Yes she told him. “Noo!… you So Beautiful!” So he hasn’t let up on that notion since.

An older teacher in charge of the recycling group is Zushi sensei. He is such a character. Always making Amber and I laugh. He loves golfing, is gray-haired & thin, and has been teaching mathematics at the school for many many years. His English is pretty good but his communication attempts can be hilarious. He is just a super smiley and happy person, always laughing and joking around. He lets the kids during recycling after school ask Amber new questions each day. And yes, if you don’t know, the kids clean the school everyday.

The 2nd back to school event was the high school’s Sports Day. This is a really big deal for the students. I’m glad I was able to attend. It was super sunny and hot with spectators wearing towels around their necks. Some of the sports were so unique and I was fascinated at how competitive all the kids were. There were three teams and among the events were relay races, bamboo pulling, cheer competitions, tug of war, mass shoulder wars (chicken fighting), and my favorite, Bo-Taoshi.

Bo-Taoshi is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. There are two teams, all shirtless. Each team has a defensive and an offensive line. The offensive team runs across the field and attemps to take down the defending team’s pole. They jump, punch, kick, anything they can to get past the defense holding up the big pole so they can climb it and pull it down. First to take down the opposing team’s pole wins. Super entertaining and everyone really gets in to it. I’ve attached this video so you don’t have to use your imaginations.

Some other funny things were the team relay races where the sports and clubs of the school all competed and wore their sport/club uniform and instead of a baton, some runners used a sport related item like a tennis racket, an arrow, a plastic keyboard, etc. I think one racer was wearing a pokemon costume. There were quite a few face-plants and wipe outs throughout the day, always hilarious. The day ended with an awards ceremony where I saw some severely hurt egos. One team captain was even wiping away tears of disappointment. Like I said, it’s a big deal.

The last thing going on that I didn’t want to forget was something we’ve been involved with that started a few weeks ago. Amber and I have been training for an upcoming Fire Festival here in Saito that will take place at Saitobaru, the ancient burial mounds. We’ve been practicing twice a week for 2 hours a night. Amber is training with a large group of women for a traditional graceful dance, dressed as princesses. It’s quite a complex and long dance so she’s been really trying to memorize all the moves and get it down. I’ve been training with the men for the re-enactment of an ancient battle with swords, dressed as warriors. At the Fire Festival in November we will dance around a burning house. It’s been rigorous and isn’t really something we would typically do but we figured it’s important to get involved with things in the community and also allows us to meet new people and learn Japanese. The Fire Festival is an astounding 600 years old. The fire dance we’re doing was created 25 years ago by a group of young men and they’ve preserved the tradition ever since. The festival is based on an ancient legend of a Prince and a Princess that fell in love and got married. The now King had to go to battle to defend the kingdom and after the war, returned home but discovered the now Queen was expecting a child. Having only been with her on their wedding night, he accused her of betraying him. She swore she was faithful and told him she would prove it. Since the King was a descendant of a God of Fire, she said her child within would be protected from the flames and commanded them to light the house on fire with her inside. The house went up in flames and not only did she live but gave birth to not one, but three babies. They all walked out alive and the King embraced her knowing she had been faithful and they lived happily ever after. So there you have it, the story behind the Fire Festival. So I will be acting out the battle and Amber will be acting out the princess dance also with traditional attire and princess crowns.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of some new foods we’ve tried. The plate of meat is Sashimi or raw fish. We’re used to this from the raw Ahi Poke in Hawaii (which tastes better due to the Hawaiian marinade).

And I want to thank my family for getting my new Mac forwarded to me which I’m now writing this on. Thanks so much for everyone’s help and support.

We Love you all!

Amber arrived in big Tokyo the beginning of August. Three days of orientation in a 5-star hotel with all the accommodations she could want. She had lots of classes and didn’t get to go out much. But her and Emily (Hawaii friend that we’ve gone through this whole process with) finally found each other and had someone to hang out with those last couple days there.

Emily and Amber hit the Tokyo streets one night and set out to find some popular fast-food noodle restaurant together. I hear the streets of Tokyo are insanely busy with cars and hordes of people. They finally located the place and felt pretty proud of themselves. Amber shared a room with another JET. She said her toilet had one of those bum sprayers but she was too afraid to use it.

After the last day of orientation, Amber was finally flown South to Miyazaki, a 2 hour flight, and then a 45 minute car ride to our town, Saito-Shi, or Saito City. So, we are in Southern Japan, South-Eastern Kyushu, located between some mountains and the Pacific ocean. Also not too far away is a volcano that just recently erupted. On her first day, Amber was introduced to some of the senseis (teachers), members of the school board, and eventually to our apartment. Her early days were a little rough. Thrown into a new and completely foreign place, no friends, no family. It was very hot and humid and the school wasn’t using the AC during their summer break. She immediately started working and on top of the language barrier and feeling overwhelmed, she would just sit at her desk and bake. After many days of that she was invited by a lady to come and work in the front office until school starts, air-conditioned and comfortable. So things began to improve but it looked grim for her at first especially with the strange surroundings and being unable to communicate well with anyone. The weather was often overcast, hot and/or rainy. As you can imagine, it was depressing. I’m glad she made it through, until I arrived.

The day I flew in, the sun came out, the clouds parted, and angelic voices were heard from the heavens. Well at least I’d like to think so. I guess you could say I had a different initial impression. Things looked green and pleasant with the sun out. My ride from the airport was with a nice female sensei that didn’t smell like body odor like Amber’s supervisor did, as she described it. Her supervisor, Sato sensei, is apparently a weird smelly dude, I haven’t met him yet. Anyway, Amber had been cleaning so rigorously in the days before my arrival so things looked great. It wasn’t quite as hot that day but I’ve experienced the inferno since then. We’ve had a couple of significantly cooler days but mostly just hot hot hot. 90+ degrees with insane humidity. Reminds me of Houston. How did I survive it! Well, not to worry, we have a great Japanese AC unit in our place, the kind with the remote and silent cold air. So yeah, we’re okay indoors. All the stores and city buildings are air-conditioned as well so the experience would be quite different without that luxury. We’re told that it gets crazy cold in the winter months so Amber is shipping out all her boots and coats!

Well, we’ve essentially been doing a little of this and that each day. Amber is at the school from 8:30 to 4:30 and I’m the house husband. I do the chores and then study and work from home or the local library. We spend our evenings together making dinner and doing what we can for entertainment. Never too difficult when we have each other.

We have some great japanese restaurants nearby. Our 2nd day here together we went to a little place at the bottom of our street on the corner called something like “ ラーメン  福 太 ”, which I believe translated is “Ramen: Plump blessing”. In simple terms, it’s a “Ramen” restaurant. Big bowls of noodles and other things like gyoza, fried rice etc.

You take off your shoes at this strange sliding door and then walk up a little wood level and sit cross-legged at a floor table. It was awesome. We loved the food and the family owners were very kind, Kuniko and Shinkun and their young kids, they knew a little English and gave us half off! I guess because we told them Amber is a new English teacher at the high school.

So Amber and I both picked up some bikes! They’re used but great though. Japanese style with baskets and bells and everything! It’s not femmy to have a basket on your bike here. How useful. Groceries, tying stuff down on the back. Half the people here ride bikes so it’s not strange and there is always a side-walk to ride on. Everyone from young kids, teenagers, and old ladies. There are alot of people on bikes but I would say just as many or more in cars. Ohh the japanese cars, haha.

So let’s get into some of the crazy stuff. Japan is just.. wow.. so so different. We encounter new and strange things everyday. First of all, in Japan, everything is small. Smaller and thinner and more compact. Buildings, cars, appliances, food, living spaces, everything! When you go to the grocery store, you get a little cart. Like, imagine a hand basket, but on wheels. Then you go down the aisles. Think your going to find anything in large sizes or bulk, forget about it. Small and compact. That’s the Japan way. Now things can often be very nice, the stores can be super clean and tidy. It’s just a different experience. The bread you see there. It’s a bag of 3 slices. You typically can’t get more than 5.

There’s some interesting food items, but most of it is exceptional in taste. For example, their apple juice, wow. Anyway, speaking of small, things can also be short or low as well. Some things in our apartment are shorter. Shorter counters, shorter ceilings, shorter furniture etc. We eat on a floor table and sit on cushions. We usually eat with chop sticks. Heck, we’re pros. We can pick up a single noodle! Soon I’ll be catching flies. I do enjoy all that for some reason though, shoes always off in the house, weaved tatami mat floors, and eating cross-legged near the ground. There’s something about it.

Thanks to the decline in the value of the American dollar, the japanese Yen is worth more here. This means the money we exchange from USD is worth less, the money we make in Yen is the same, and the money we exchange back into USD is worth more. In the end, we check out with more but it hurts a little to spend our earned money we brought with us.

For the sake of time, allow me to throw out some thoughts I’ve had in my first week. This is anything from my travels to everyday things to the bizarre:

The flight to Japan was a killer. Good thing the seat next to me was open. I laid down and slept through most of it, wake me up for the food. The airports were super spacious and clean. Japan has good taste in design. I went through customs and they hand check your bags. Everyone was so polite. They also knew just a little English. Not uncommon in Tokyo I guess.

As I flew from Tokyo to Miyazaki, the ocean was very blue, however, it got murky near the city’s coast. Fortunately, the ocean near us is clean and blue. Just as we touched down, I saw a group of surfers catching some at a break right by the airstrip. Stoked! Oh and I almost forgot. I flew right over Mt. Fuji. That thing is HUGE.

The 45 minute drive from Miyazaki airport to our area was pretty. Very green, flat areas as well as hills and mountains, open land spotted with japanese style homes with those signature roofs, and tons and tons of crops. After getting out of Miyazaki city (below), it quickly cuts to country and crops. I never knew Japan was so big on agriculture. The variety of fields never ends.

Even our backyard is partially farm land:

The teacher that picked me up, Takayama sensei, stopped by Amber’s school. It’s pretty nice by japanese standards. Don’t compare them to US schools though. But they seem to have decent facilities including that gym in the back. It’s a nice area above the town.

Takayama sensei then took us to a neat place here in Saito called Saitobaru which means Saito burial mounds. It’s kind of a local sanctuary with paths and trees and over 50 of these ancient burial mounds, most have a burial stone on the top.

The hundreds of trees surrounding Saitobaru are the famous cherry blossom trees or Sakura trees. There are huge festivals all over Japan celebrating the cherry blossom season in April. Saito doesn’t have the biggest festival but we are told that it does have the best display of these trees in all of Japan. Here’s some images I found. We won’t see this until next year.

So, our apartment. It is older but definitely sufficient and best of all, cheap. 15,000 yen/month or $195. Other than the many spiders near our front door, I actually think it’s pretty nice. Hard wood floors, tatami mats and some nice appliances. Things like the washer and shower are funny though. There is no shower curtain because it’s a shower room, or a tub in a bathing ‘room’. So you can splash and spray all you want and it just goes down the same drain. I love it. It’s all digital so if you want hotter water, just press a button. How do they come up with this stuff? And oh yes, we have a western toilet, not a floor-hole toilet like this one I saw at the airport.. didn’t bother using it. Can you imagine grandparents squattin’ on those things?

I’m so grateful I don’t have to use one of those. Here’s a few shots of our place. Oh and don’t miss the toilet’s faucet that kicks on when you flush. A genius invention for a quick rinse. And yes, the bathroom and shower room are separate rooms. Don’t ask me why:

The Japanese drive on the left side of the road here so look out. I’ve almost gotten ran over.. several times!
I met a super nice guy named Kazu. He owns the local bike shop “Cycland”. He knows a little English and has been to Hawaii, “Two Time!” as he put it. Every time we say we came from Hawaii, their eyes light up. Hawaeee! Oh the japanese love Hawaii. Of course they do, they now populate half of oahu! No wonder we’ve gotten used to Japanese food. I didn’t know half the things we were eating in Hawaii were Japanese in origin. Chicken Katsu. Musubi. I found the roots of Musubi! Here at one of the many japanese 7/11 stores. we spotted rice with a slice of sausage all wrapped in a strip of seaweed. Call me crazy but Hawaii’s spam version looks better.

The cars in Japan are all very familiar companies. Nissan, Honda, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, etc. They are neat cars but have completely different designs and sizes, mostly all smaller and thinner. They have a special low-power class of cars called K-cars. Insane gas mileage and much cheaper to buy. The speed limits are very low here so you rarely see anyone going over 30.
We took a bus to a neighboring town only 20 minutes away but it was over 2,500 yen, about 30 bucks just to get there and back. It’s a whopping $50 just to take the bus to church in Miyazaki. ouch. Perhaps we should get a car!

Anyway, in this other area, coast town Takanabe, we found a McDonalds! I’ll never forgive myself for doing this but they just built it so we had to try it. Very fancy inside actually w/two floors. We absolutely cannot read a single thing in any store or restaurant so we just point on the menu and take a guess at images. We thought we were ordering a fruit pie but instead it was a pie filled with bacon and potatoes. eh, we tried. they just sell some weird things here. Oh and they have some sort of obsession with french fries. Amber’s breakfast at Tokyo orientation.. that’s right, french fries.

I came across something so neat yesterday. I was in a mobile store getting some questions answered and afterwards on my way out I noticed a drink machine. They literally have these things on every street corner with some strange varieties of drinks and sodas. Anyway, this machine was different. First you select your drink amount, the mix amount, and then the ice amount. Then you choose your drink and the process begins. It drops a paper cup into a mixing area and then drops the ice in, then the liquid and drink mix. When it’s all done, it blinks it’s lights and you open a little door and grab your drink. They had this one that was a bizarre hot and cold strawberry chocolate drink. It was a little crazy in the mouth but holy crap was it good. And the best part, it was all Free! The store blocked the coin slot and made all 2 dozen drinks in the machine dispense at no limit. I must’ve had a half a dozen, haha. Highlight of my day.

Anyways, everything is just new and different. The buildings, streets, cars, and stores are all different, the customs are very different, the people are very different. No hand-shaking, just nod or bow. Although some think it’s kinda cool when you reach for their hand. Some just don’t know what to do and/or feel embarrassed. The japanese people are all extraordinarily polite and overly accommodating though. It’s crazy. They’ll do anything to help. We missed a package. They say, “when do you want us to come?” and we’re thinking um, your 20 minutes away and it’s our fault we weren’t home. But oh no, they just say, what time?! Um.. 5 oclock? Okay! we come, 5 Ocrock! (japanese can’t say say L’s). When you fill up for gas, they hand you a wet towel to wipe down your dashboard, then they wash your windshield and fill you up. Japan is a non-tipping country so you they never get tips, no pats on the back. They just do the craziest things to accommodate or help you. It never ceases to amaze me.

We still don’t really understand much japanese except the common stuff like sumimasen, arigato gozaimas, and other repetitive simple phrases. We’re studying characters and words and are trying our best. Amber has now implemented flash cards with characters on them. It’s a struggle. I thought there would for sure be people here that knew basic English. But we’ve discovered that here in a country town, people don’t care as much. They don’t speak it, understand it, nothin. It’s absolutely brutal. I’ve just had so many frustrating moments. In stores, public buildings, getting my legal documents etc. I just wanna poke my eyeballs out half the time. I’ve literally just given up sometimes, said thank you, and walked out. They get some English in middle and high school but it’s probably quickly forgotten. I use all the hand gestures I can conjure up but not even those work sometimes because they have their own style for gestures too! It’s quite overwhelming.

I can honestly say I’ve never experienced real culture shock. Furthermore, as we bike around and walk around town, everyone is always staring at us. We are the only white people in this town, literally. There’s essentially no tourism in our location so there’s no pressure for the people to learn English I guess. There are some occasional locals that will surprise and can communicate somewhat. They are very rare. Then there are some that will just go for it, sloppy grammar and all. Those are also rare but I appreciate them all the more these days. I heard there are a select few that have solid English. I have yet to meet these individuals.

Anyway, having said all that, we are really enjoying it here regardless. The good far outweighs the bad and we couldn’t be happier with this opportunity to learn about these people and this part of the world. I truly believe this kind of treatment out of the comfort zone would be good for alot of people, especially for alot of, cough, spoiled Americans. We have it good in the US, probably too good. I think we somehow have developed a heightened sense of entitlement. I myself am guilty of this. We don’t have an oven or a dryer here. No one does. When we arrived I thought, what? where’s our dryer?! You mean my royal hiney has to hang them up or take them on my bike down the street to a laundromat. Preposterous!

If there’s anything that stands out here, it’s that we are required to get by with less. Less luxury, less food, less easy entertainment. I suppose those are the same things that we have in excess that gradually corrupt us.

Of course, this is just the beginning. We’re still just getting our feet wet. Hard to believe we’re gonna be here for an entire year. It’s still a big adjustment but we’re happy. Things get easier to handle each day. We’ve always wanted an opportunity like this so we can never complain too much. I speak for both of us when I say, we’re grateful to be here.