School daze…

The post all my friends have been waiting for:  elementary school adventures.  The moment people found out I was teaching elementary school – hilaried emails, jocular chats, and chuckled phone calls were my gifts.  Today, you get one story:

Between classes there is a 10 minute break in which children run while, chasing each other and playing games.  Often, this is unsupervised by any teacher.  Typically, I am ignored or greeting with fly-by ‘hellos.’  Today, I began to write on the board [every class begins with the date, day, and weather in English].  I feel a bump against my buttocks.  Not unusual, kids run into me all the time.  I feel it again with a definite smack feeling.  I peer over my shoulder to find a little child, complete with glasses, smacking my bottom.  I continue to look at him and he says something in Japanese.  I say, ‘What?’ To which he looks at me, shouts ‘OH MY GOD’ and smacks my bottom with the fervor of a fat man eating pie.  One final smack with a karate-like battle cry and the little one was off on a new adventure.

Oh…there is more to com, just you wait…

Stamps: A contest of a man-child

At Shuri’s Castle, you can collect stamps at various locations of the grounds.  If you are in elementary school or in junior-secondary, a successful collection results in some type of prize.  As a grown man, I am understandably exempt from this prize – though not to my sadness.  Undeterred, I still resolved to collect every stamp.  This often resulted in my competition and waiting in line with individuals who barely rose above my knee.   Despite my fervor, I still managed to miss two locations.  For your humor:

Sunrises

A view from our apartment in the early morn.

Danger Zone

One thing that always amazes me overseas is the lack of any fencing, barriers, or blockers at historical sites. This is at Katsuren Castle, which overlooks a near 100 foot drop to dense foliage and rocky crevices.  While I enjoy being able to actually see things, I do occasionally worry about the rambunctious child sprinting through the site in a game of tag.

Castles…

Originally, I wrote a long post on castles of Okinawa.  Mildly boring, so here are castle pictures of Katsuren Castle [Uruma City] and Shuri Castle [Naha].  Shuri is a lot more developed and reconstructed; so, I enjoyed Katsuren a lot more.  Enjoy:

Abandonment issues…

The preview you saw below is outside this abandoned hotel.  I don’t know the full story, but apparently someone thought it would be a grand idea to build a hotel right next to the castle.  Great vistas, world heritage site, island paradise – what’s the problem?  OH, there are hundreds of graves and tombs surrounding the castle.

Que the creepy music.  This is exactly how 90% of cheap, B movie horrors start.  An abandoned hotel at a exotic locale with restless souls.  Of course, the minute I found out the sign was merely a suggestion, I bounded on in.  This place is fascinating.  Shattered glass and torn carpet, dismantled beds, half constructed rooms.   The story is that construction was continually plagued with problems, both accidents and financial.  Eventually, the project was abandoned.

The site is obviously the squatting grounds of gangs, hooligans, and hobos.  But, beyond this, the layout is simply bizarre.  It seems like it was constructed to be a grand hotel, but you can’t really figure out what the architect and designers were thinking. Carpet was laid, cooking implements [refrigerators, hoods, etc] and other hotel components were brought in and just left.  The entire hotel is like an abandoned MC Escher dream.  You can even get up onto the roof easily and survey the entire site.

While we were exploring, we did run into a few other people also checking out the ruins.  Beyond that, though, the only permanent residents seem to be these freakishly large black spiders.  And by large, I mean like the size of your head.  There are tombs really close to the hotel, occasionally even jutted up against construction [picture one below].  The entire ground has a surreal and creepy feeling.  Pics of graffiti to follow, but for now the grounds:

Obon

Today is the end of Obon in Okinawa, a sort of Japanese ‘Day of the Dead’ festival that lasts about 3 days [mainland Japan finished theirs a while back, but Okinawa runs on the Lunar calendar].  The festival, like many around the world, has come to center primarily on the gathering of family.  The ancestors are suppose to come and visit, which is why you aren’t allowed to swim in the ocean on this day [the dead apparently come from the sea].  Families put out food and lanterns to greet their dead relatives.

This isn’t a massive festival event but it got me thinking about my ancestors and how lonely they probably get.  The origin of Obon, according to the ever correct wikipedia, comes from a Buddhist disciple named Mokuren.  Using his awesome meditation powers, he looked in on his dead mother in the afterlife.  Seeing she was in the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Mokuren was understandably upset.  He made sacrifices and his ghost mom’s situation got better.  Then, he did a happy dance.

Never have I done a happy dance for my dead relatives.  I don’t set food out for them, offer burnings, or even really acknowledge they exist.  I feel like we talk a lot about our dead loved ones watching from above, but never do we seem do anything to honor them or have celebrations for them.  I have a feeling when I get to the great beyond, I’m going to be met by some unhappy elders.

In Okinawa, the end of the festivities is marked with an Eisa dance.  Dressed traditionally, bands travel around side streets dancing and banging drums.  You can hear them from blocks away.  Here are some pics:

Picashiki Toka

As promised [though late], here are pictures of our weekend in Tokashiki:

Tokashiki Beachariki

Last weekend, the lady and I traveled with several JETs to a nearby island, Tokashiki.  Constantly, I’m amazed by the ridiculous beauty of these islands.  Seriously, it’s disgusting to wake up in such paradises constantly.

I have discovered a new love of snorkeling.  Though I am mildly terrified of everything in the sea [if a camera watched me swimming, my jolts and scrambles would likely make it to the finals of American's Funniest], I am also amazed and just enjoy floating above the underwater world. We recently invested in some masks, as our previous ones attempted to drown you as soon as you were out beyond standing depth.  Of course, this purchase resulted in me wearing the mas and talking through the tube during the entire drive home, much to the chagrin of Shu Lan.

This Tokashiki beach trip was filled with a major victory – no sunburn.  Reapplications and a rockin hat resulted in my actual gaining of color other than lobster red.  The beach trip, however, had a minor defeat.  I apparently touched something in the sea that resulted in my left ring and middle finger sending excruciating waves of pain toward my wrist.  No marks, no swelling, nothing except flaming joints and pain tingling flesh for a day.  Thankfully, it only lasted about a day and a half.

Shu Lan, however, suffered a minor larger defeat – that of a molesting voyeuristic snorkeling teenage gang.  When our rather large group started swimming, the beach staff asked if we would swim in the ropes.  Here, each female member [and one male] had their legs groped, fingers ran along their bodies, and a solid oogling.  I only suffered from the inconsiderate barreling past of horny teenagers with fins as they worked their way toward my special lady.

We camped out at Tokashiki, where I met some Japanese shamisen players and tried out some traditional dancing.  Fun times.  Pics to follow.

A view of home