A Monday and a Sunday

Monday was a really busy day for me.

The first thing I did was take the hour-long train ride to Fukuoka (the big city north of my little town that is the local center of commerce and partying). I rode the subway to the airport, which is closer to the center of town than Salt Lake`s airport is (there are no really tall buildings in Fukuoka due to the closeness of the airport; that closeness is one of the town`s selling points). There I got my multiple re-entry visa. The visa allows me to leave and enter Japan as many times as I like in the next three years. Before I had the visa, I did not have permission to leave and re-enter Japan!

One great thing is how nice people are. In getting my visa, I did not fill out the form right and I did not go buy the stamp (I`ll explain in a minute) before turning in my document. Add to those that my Japanese is so bad it is not even atrocious yet, and you could imagine a nightmare situation--if I were in the States. I actually cringed a little when the gentleman behind the counter started to point out that I did something wrong. In the states, we all have had experiences with the person behind the counter who is exasperated with our ineptness. Here, he just smiled and I said, `Sumimasen,` (excuse me) and bowed my head a lot. It worked, he was nice and I got what I needed.

The stamp is a common way to pay for things officially around the world. It looks like a postage stamp. Sometimes here in Japan they have machines that sells the stamps, but at the airport Office of Justice for Immigration I had to go out to the combini (convenience store) in the main hall and buy one. It works easily enough; the people behind the counter do not have to worry about money in addition to looking at all the weird passports!

After that I got my visa, I rode the subway back to the big Japan Railroad (JR) station in Fukuoka. Here I purchased a discount ticket for the Shinkansen--the bullet train. I`ll be riding it this Saturday to go to Osaka.

Then I hopped back on my local train (not JR, an independent transit company in my area: Nishitetsu) and rode back to my little town. There, I bugged my supervisor to help me with the paperwork for my car. Even he had a little trouble with it and he is Japanese; I am glad I did not try to do any of it! We took a short ride to the DMV (that is not what they call it, but that is OK) to turn in the paperwork. The car is now officially mine. (An amusing anecdote: In most places my name is written as Bramble Chad William because, as you might now, family names go first here. Twice at the DMV, different people called William-san to get my attention. And both times my supervisor and I sat there unknowingly waiting for the papers. When they said it the second time, it clicked that they were talking about me...)

Following this was a short nap...very important!

Then, Morgan and Maggie (my two locals) headed north to Costco. We missed our exit on the expressway (a big deal here!) but that just gave my my appetite more time to grow for the churos and pizza when we go there.

Yes, the Costco looks like a Costco anywhere (that is Maggie on the left; please call her Margaret when you meet her though). Sure some of the products are different, but it is still a giant, cavernous warehouse of a store. Meat and produce in the back, electronics near the front. And pizza, hot dogs (my mom will be happy to hear that!) and churos all can be enjoyed with unlimited drink refills.

Here is my list of what I bought:

Giant jar of pickles

Giant jar of salsa

4 giant bags of tortilla chips (one lime flavored)

2 giant jars of peanut butter (Skippy, one crunchy, one creamy)

2 giant jars of strawberry jelly (not as necessary as the peanut butter, but still...)

1 brick of Colby/jack cheese

1 box of 10 cans of refried beans

20 tortillas

asparagus (YUM!)

celery (which I amusingly shared with my teachers at school--with peanut butter!)

1 box of 28 packages of microwave popcorn.

Maggie gave me half a dozen bagels.

I feel like I am forgetting something...

Don`t you just love Costco?

Yeah, it was a busy Monday.

Why did I have Monday off? Because Sunday was the sports day at the elementary school that I go to on Mondays. Everybody works really hard for a sports day and then they get the next Monday off. Sound fair?

The sports days are long, elaborately planned events where the teachers have charts of how the field is supposed to look for every event and they, with the help of a few of the older students, run out in between events and quickly (in less than five minutes) set up everything for the next event. They did, 5 hours of events, what would have taken the average American school two days to do. There was little sitting around being bored for the students--all 400 of them. If the students were not participating in a particular event, they were cheering for the current participants and/or lining up for the next event.

The school was evenly divided into four teams: Red, Blue, Yellow and Green. They all wore their regular sports uniforms, with their cute hats that have a chin strap and the foldy bit in back to protect their necks (like a Legionaires cap). Attached to the front of their hats, above the brim, was a colored piece of cloth that said their number (for competitions) and their grade. This cute toothless wonder is on the blue team. (You can click on the picture to see it bigger.)

To start all the teams congregated on the center of the field which was surrounded by tents. The tents were good because we had a little rain in the morning (which in turn was good because it kept the dust down).

After listening to some speeches (including a cute one by the first graders), the day began. Most of the activities were races--regular relay races, silly relay races (one involved costumes and pulling people from the audience, one involved running while holding a ball between two bodies (or two balls between three bodies, or four balls between five bodies!) without using hands, and the funnies one involved a pole that the kids had to use to circle a cone with--the inside person was desperately trying to swing the pole around while the outside person was running as fast as they could in a huge circle trying to hang on to the pole!)

There was also a cheer competition where 12 boys and girls, led by a drummer, led the rest of the team in cheers. I slept through the dancing section that was after lunch though!

I wore my red Bronx Arts T-shirt. I don`t have many Salt Lake shirts (the SL,UT one only actually) while I have a few NYC. But not to worry! I found someone who was happy to represent for me!

The elementary teachers had an inkai (remember what that is?) but I was not invited. That is OK, though, I could not have imagined going drinking the night before my big day (Visa, Shinkansen tickets, car paperwork, and Costco). I`m sure they will invite me next year.

Finally, fruit news: I had my first green tangerine (yes, Beatles buffs, it does exist!) and a persimmon (a date-plum, known to the Greeks as the fruit of the gods).