Where has the summer gone?
Between a visit from Heather and Sue, adopting a sick kitten, a Fire and Violence festival, Minnesota, and a road trip to Hokkaido, this summer has disappeared with alarming speed. I'm one month into my second (and last) year in Japan and already struggling to silence the parenthetical (and last)'s that my brain is adding on to every moment. My last rice harvest, my last Uchinada beach welcome party, my last "natsu yasumi" spent trying to look busy for days on end. That said, all of this (and last)-ing is giving me the necessary motivation to get out and do things. I'm making my Japan Bucket List, and it's fun.
Last week we checked Hokkaido off the list, and next weekend Katy and Karen and I are planning (well, "planning" may not be the most accurate verb) a trip to Metamorphose, a massive electronic music festival held somewhere near Mt. Fuji... we think.
Before I get caught up in planning future adventures (if I plan them all now, what will I do all day at school tomorrow?), let me try to catch up on the ones that already passed.
So remember the impossibly adorable orphans? Yep? Okay, that was Sunday, June 12th, and on our way home we had a little adventure and found a gorgeous campground nestled in the mountains down south. The photos are from our afternoon.
But to continue on with the epic saga that was June 2010, let's go to Tuesday, June 15th: the arrival of Heather and Suzie. They arrived having traveled more than halfway around the world for no apparent reason except that O'Hare Airport cannot be trusted. After some trouble with their flight from Minnesota to Chicago, they eventually got there on a different flight, only to be sent to LA, then paris, and FINALLY to Tokyo where, having missed their night bus, they had to arrange alternate transportation having just arrived in Japan after, what I can only imagine, was precious little decent sleep.
Oy.
Though they were in remarkably high spirits, after showers and present-giving (Christmas in June, anyone? Thank you, April and Chopper, for raising daughters who were willing to share the crazy-delicious cookies and jerky you sent with them!) they were asleep before their heads hit the pillows.
They spent Wednesday and Thursday exploring the city, and Friday they came to visit my school. And the new reigning champions in the category of "Most Distracting Visitors" are Heather and Suzie!!!! Good Lord, I mean, I thought my family with our combined height and Joe's "kakoi mufura" (cool muffler/scarf) was pretty distracting.
Then Adriana and Evan came to visit. I had clearly underestimated the distraction factor that a real live couple might have.
But that is all a distant memory as, even now, the H&S related shrieks echo in my ears. It was all based on the sheer Kawaiiiiiii Factor... until they asked Suzie if she had a boyfriend. She does. And does she have a picture of said boyfriend on her uber-kawaii cell phone? Yes, of course she does.
I still wince a little remembering how the screams bounced back and forth on the cement walls of the hallway. As we continued to wander the hallways, I heard one girl walk past whining (in Japanese, of course) about how jealous she was of my cute friends. As we rounded a corner a boy threw himself against a wall and exclaimed, "She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!" Suzie is, quite possibly, the picture of perfection in the eyes of Japanese teenagers. Blonde hair, blue eyes, small face (a very good thing in Japan and a category in which I consistly fail to impress), ear piercings, and a cellphone with pictures of her boyfriend. My students were talking about it for the next week.
My apologies to Heather and Sue for 1) not sufficiently warning you about the squeals ad shrieks and pointing, and 2) not sufficiently warning you about the intense awkwardness of standing and waiting for a group of Japanese students to work up the balls to ask you a question. (Dear readers, ask someone to stare silently and intently at your face as though trying to memorize it or convince themself that you aren't a figment of their imagination. Ask them to do this for a minute or more and perhaps you will begin to understand my day to day existence.) That has taken me months to get used to, though I credit Macalester College with giving me the skills to wait out even the most awkward of situations. Bring it on kids.
