Summer`s Over

Funny that the last weekend of summer is the same as in the States. School started again on Monday and Saturday and Sunday were devoted to people doing one last thing.

Ok, you are thinking, that makes sense; but if I haven`t been teaching, what exactly have I been doing?

A whole lot of nothing is the fairly honest answer. Let me explain.

The Japanese school year starts in April. They have three breaks, including August. Most of the people in the program cannot come in April, so they send them in August. This give us a month to get up to speed and familiarize ourselves with our new lives.

I live in town called Mizuma. Two 1/2 years ago, it was swallowed up by a larger nearby city (Kurume). However, the town retains some of its independence. It has a town council of sorts and its own library. For the past month I have been going into the community center which shares space with the library. My supervisor works here. The community center used to have total control of the schools in the town, but now has to listen to the city. My supervisor (technically I have two at the community center--but I`ll try and talk about the other one another day) is the person I go to for all my problems first. If have trouble at the jr. high school (Mizuma Chugako, where I have an on site supervisor, the vice-principal) or at the elementary school that I go to on Mondays (Araki Shugako) that I cannot solve at the school, I am supposed to go to him. This is a good thing, because he is a really good person.

His name is Tanaka. That is his family name; I just call him Tanaka-san. His first name is Mitusmi (I think); they do not use first names here very often. He signed me up on his family plan so I could have a cell phone (81-9079206531, emperorchadeus@docomo.ne.jp) without waiting for an Japanese ID card (our `gaijin` card). Waiting is what I had to do for Internet at home (which I only got last week). He even came over and fiddled with things when I couldn`t get the Internet to work (it worked, too--fiddling with the cords did the trick!). He has done even more than that, too...

Knowing there is no way I could ever really pay this kind man back, I paid for him and his daughter, Chikako (who speaks some English; Tanaka-san does not), to go on an excursion with me: our last summer thing.


We took a 3 hour bus ride south. There we had a 2 hour boat ride through some minor rapids (the long boat just cuts through the rapids) and then lunch. Lunch was in the restaurant above the shops of a tourist spot--a cave. We even walked thorough the cave. All this was only US$8 so it wasn`t like I was going way out of my way to pay; I was just being nice. Of course, to pay me back, we went out for sushi with his wife and Chikako`s grandmother Sunday evening when we returned.

Yeah that is the kind of guy Tanaka-san is. I`ll never be able to pay him back.

(If I can get the technology to work, I will put a movie of the boat ride we took. It is only a minute long and it is from my phone, but you can see how beautiful and green it is here. Please check back.)

Tonight is Judo. He is the head teacher of 5 teachers with about 45 students of varying ages, 5 to 15. If I get a gei--which are expensive, like US$100 for the cheap ones!--and yes, they have my size--I might be able to participate. I think my going makes him happy, even if I just sit for now.



Finally, I have Skype. It is an Internet service that allows you to call using your computer instead of a phone. If you have Skype, which requires a faster Internet line and a headset, my ID is chad.bramble (I know, I know, real imaginative!). If you don`t have Skype, I also signed up for a Utah number: You can call me there anytime. If am not online at home, you can leave a message on my voice mail and I will get it later. What will this cost you? Well, how much does a call to an 801 area code number cost you now? That much.