What was I thinking?!

If you happen to know me well, you already know that I "occasionally" make rash decisions out of the blue. I happened to read an article today about President Bush planning to cut back on Army Reserve spending, and it made me recall one of those rash decisions that I ALMOST followed through with.

When was that? I was about a year away from finishing college, was working on an art degree, but didn't know what exactly I wanted to do with that. I never had intended just the art to be what I ended up with, and was in the midst of contemplating what else I wanted to stick my foot into.

I had several options. One was accounting, since I figured that was as practical as I could get. I thought that'd let me do art on the side but also help me get by financially. So I started taking accounting classes and found it pretty interesting...but the moment I took an economics class, it TOTALLY went over my head and I knew there was no way I could make myself get interested in that stuff. So, I threw that idea waay out the window.

Another option was special education. I've always had a soft spot for people with disabilities, especially those with developmental disabilities. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I've been repeatedly told from my parents that the doctors had told my parents, that even if I happen to survive as a premature baby, I'd definitely have severe disabilities, including blindness and mental retardation. Well, God must've pulled lots of strings for me, because as far as I'm concerned, I'm pretty sure I'm clear of both.

I went to get my transcript evaluated to see what classes I would need to add that on, and it turned out I'd basically have to redo college, so I didn't think that was worth it. I'd taken a lot of science classes though, so I was told I'd only need a few more classes if I wanted to get a secondary teaching degree in science, but I wanted to do elementary education, so that didn't work out. I did pass some sort of basic test for being a substitute teacher, so if ever wanted to be a sub in California, I could do it...but of course, I don't plan on doing that.

This is the point where my crazy idea came to mind and I suddenly acted on it without much thought. I figured I had tons of students loans from having gone to a private college the first two years and thought "now wouldn't it be great to gain a skill AND have the army pay my loans back for me!" SO, I got sucked into the whole army reserve recruiting process. I went and got my physical with a bunch of other recruits, took some sort of skills test, passed both, waited around to pick an occupation that would allow me to do the "one weekend a month, 2 weeks a year" thing, and couldn't decide between something like "generator mechanic, fast boat operator, and blood bank technician, etc.".....then the computers froze, so I was asked to return the next day to pick and sign papers.

THAT night, I had major second thoughts about the whole thing, since it meant a 6 year commitment. I decided I didn't want to sign on for 6 years and become government property. It's hard to imagine that I'd be in the army reserves now, probably in Iraq, if the computers hadn't crashed that one night. Whew, that sure was a close call. I really don't know what I was thinking. Maybe I wanted to really cut away from my past and totally build a new life. I don't know. I sure am glad I didn't take that route.

Instead, I went up to Portland and got my master's in art therapy. I'm something like 70,000 dollars in debt because of that and college, but it was well worth it. I get to pay student loans every month for the next 25 years....yippee?!

Why all the food?

The significance food carries must heavily be influenced by the country's history. I've definitely noticed that food here carries more meaning than in the States.

I might have commented on this before, but people here send fresh vegetables, seafood, and anything else that's edible through the mail to their friends and relatives. For instance, my relative who lives in Kyushuu, sends my mom a box of potatoes and other vegetables from time to time. I look at that, and although I think it's really nice of my aunt to send them, a part of me wonders what the point is. I mean, you can BUY vegetables at the local grocery store. Why do people send food back and forth, when you can buy the same thing at a store? It seems odd.

Another custom over here is, when you go visit someone at their home, you're supposed to bring some sort of food as a gift. There must be some kind of rule about the whole thing, but for someone ignorant like me, it seems like we're just bringing food back and forth to each others homes. I keep forgetting about this food exchange practice, so people here probably think I'm so rude! Maybe this food exchange thing is to keep people from visiting each other. Maybe people think "oh, I haven't bought any food to take over, so I can't go visit so and so."

Food is almost like money here I think. Exchanging food as a gift is involved with everything that goes on. During the summer, people give food gift boxes as a "summer greeting." In the winter, they give "winter greeting" packages of food. I'm pretty sure there are other times that you give and receive food as a gift, but since I'm not accustomed to it, it feels like people are randomly giving me food left and right, all year round. I can't figure out the WHY of it, so when it happens, my eyes get big andI think to myself "ok, let me think, what's this for again? What am I supposed to do? Give something in return? Just say thank you? Uh oh, what am I supposed to do?"

Since food is so important here and it's used as a gift all year round, stores sell a lot of VERY neatly packaged food. YOU WOULD BE AMAZED. You'd think stores were selling gold from the looks of the packaging. Oh yeah, train stations always sell a variety of food gift packages, because god forbid, you'd show up at someone's house without a gift!

One of these days, I'll write about fruit in Japan.

But I don't know you....

Often when I answer the phone either at home or at work, the person on the phone says "Itsumo osewa ni natte imasu." This roughly translates into "Thank you for your continued support."

Now, if someone I actually know said that to me, I wouldn't feel weird. BUT, these telemarketers, I've NEVER once before talked to them or even heard of them. So whenever someone I haven't talked to before calls and says this to me, I immediately start wondering "Why is this person saying this to me? I don't even know this person. Why do you say that to someone you've never met before? Why? Why? Why?" and I miss most of what the caller has just said and only catch the last part, which usually is some sort of sales pitch. So I just say, "sorry, I'm not interested" and hang-up. I keep wondering though, why people say that over here.

There's a lot of other things people say over here purely from custom or out of habit, that I don't know why they say because it totally doesn't make sense to me. I keep wondering why people say certain things over here, when from my perspective, it doesn't seem to be serving any purpose. If I could see the point of the greetings being used, I'd be able to make sense of things, but for now, I'm just confused. There's lots of words being spoken, but I don't understand what it's supposed to communicate.

I thought words were supposed to communicate SOMETHING....I guess sometimes it doesn't work that way.

Interesting Flower? Plant?

I don't know what this plant is called, but whenever I see it, I want to stop and just gaze at it. It's so cute.

This one happened to be blooming in our neighbor's concrete yard, so I snuck a picture.

The plant has a bright orange balloon-like hollow ball hanging from it. I took this picture in the fall or sometime before that, so it's no longer in our neighbor's yard. I think they must have pulled it out.

Ebeye in May!!!

I went to Ebeye, Marshall Islands as a volunteer for a year and taught 4th grade back in '97-'98. Myla, you remember how crazy that year was! Anyways, I just made a reservation today to head over there in May for my students' senior graduation! It's hard to believe...I didn't think it would really come true, but as long as the travel agent doesn't call me back and tell me I can't use my mileage points to go to Ebeye, then the itinerary says I'm heading over there. I'm REALLY going to head over there! Wow. I think I'll be checking my reservaton every day to make sure it's still there!

Although my students drove me nuts back then, I know I LOVE them! If I can see even ONE of them go on and hopefully go to college and make something of themselves, I'd be SO happy. I wish I were doing better financially so that I could sponsor one of my former students and get them through college...unfortunately, I haven't reached that point in my life yet so that little dream of mine will have to wait until who knows when. One of these days though, it's going to happen. I know it. My dream to attend their grad is about to come true, so my dream to see one of them graduate from college might come true too, with enough time and patience.

Beginner and Seasoned Drivers

They have an interesting driver skill system over here. If you're a beginner driver, you put the green and yellow "leaf" on your car. If you're a "seasoned" driver, you put an orange and yellow "autumn leaf" on your car.

The purpose of these stickers is to let other drivers know that you might make unexpected turns, swerves, drive slow, or suddenly stop....in other words, you BETTER WATCH OUT!

These stickers aren't required by law, so people put them on their cars at their own discretion. I think the benefit of having these on your car is that everyone passes you or avoids you on the road from the start, so no one has to bother with tailgaters getting road rage...they already know better not to follow you.

Now, I wonder, if someone had BOTH of these stickers on their car...what would that mean? You're a senior citizen AND a beginner driver so...better be extra careful?!

New Year's Decoration

Every year around New Year's, I see odd decorations being sold at the grocery stores. Here's one of them.

It's called a "kagami-mochi." In my head, the translation comes out to "mirror-rice-cake." That sure doesn't make any sense, so my brain is most likely misunderstanding something. But every year, instead of bothering to find out the meaning behind these decorations, I keep wondering what meaning they must hold.

So this kagami-mochi, it has two layers of rice cake, with an orange on top. Sometimes, I think it also has dried persimmons on the top too. There's a ribbon in the shape of a crane around the rice cake.

This one is a bit fancy I guess, because it has a fan at the very top, leaves and paper hanging in front.

So what's my guess as to what this means? Hmm. I think I once heard someone explaining that you to let the rice cake dry out and crack, then put it into a special New Year's soup to drink and it's supposed to bring good luck for the year. If the rice cake doesn't dry out and crack and you use a knife to cut the rice cake, then it's bad luck or something.

New Year's Holidays.

New Year's in Japan feels like Christmas in the States. Over here, Christmas is only a day to eat a special Christmas cake and if you're of dating age, it's a day you're supposed to go on a date with whoever you are in a relationship with.

So Christmas doesn't have that special feel to it like it does in the States. But New Year's, wow, it's a major major holiday here! Just about EVERYONE in Japan celebrates new years from Dec. 31 to Jan. 3. They eat special meals, put up special decorations, and spend time with family. It's pretty nice.

I got to spend time with my family this New Year's too. We went to Sasayama, which is about 45 minutes or so from our place. Sasayama is a really old town and has a lot of traditional things.

I found the dried persimmons hanging at the storefront interesting, so I took a picture. They were selling steamed red bean paste buns fresh off the steamer here, so my parents bought two. I'm not that big of a fan of red bean paste, so I passed. It looked good though.

After we looked around at several stores, we stopped by a shrine. The Noh stage was open since they had done a play at midnight the night before to celebrate the New Year. It was neat to be able to see the stage so up close. Usually, we can only peek at it through a tiny tiny opening since the stage is normally closed.

Although Japanese people aren't religious for the most part, regardless of beliefs, most people seem to go to shrines or temples for special occasions, such as the New Year's holidays. They make wishes and pray for a good year.

I found a dagashi store (kind of like an old-fashioned candy store) and thought it was cute, so I got a picture of it. All round things hanging in front are paper balloons.

While I was looking through the dagashi store, my parents found a booth selling takoyaki, so they were both eating that when I turned to see what they were up to.

Judging from the way my mom was going at the little takoyakis, I think she was secretly trying to eat more than my dad.

It sure was a good holiday.

Sudden Ski Trip on the 31st

It's been at least 10 years since I last skiied. After seeing all the snow the previous week, I had a strong urge to go skiing again, so I called my friend up to see if his family had any plans of going. I think they were planning on going in February, but since I had asked, they suddenly decided to go on the 31st of December, which is a special day in Japan.

It was SO fun! It was basically the first time for me to go skiing in Japan, so I was surprised that the ski resort was pretty big. The slopes were mostly beginner level, but I still had fun. I did find one slope that was a little steeper than the rest, and had a blast screaming my way down.

The scenery while on the slopes was amazing. I wanted to capture it on camera, but the only "camera" I had with me was the one on my cell phone, so I couldn't quite capture what I wanted.

My friend was a snowboarder, so I got to try a little of that too. I went down the slope twice, but I ended up tumbling most of the way down since I don't know a thing about snowboarding. Next time I go, I think I want to try snowboarding so that I don't have to land on my butt every time.

I sure did have a good time skiing. I hope I can go again.

Record Snow

It normally doesn't snow much where I'm at, but the week I got back from Hawaii, the town had record snow. It was really pretty. Decided not to step out though, since it was way too cold for me, especially after my week away in Hawaii basking in the sun.

We had a christmas party planned for the children's classes the day it snowed in, but since most of the moms don't drive in the snow here, we canceled the party and decided to have a new year's party instead.

I had to go drop something off at the post office and on the way, I saw some of my students trying to make a snowman, so I watched for a while.