Overcharge

On Friday, I went to the local post office just up the street. And when I say local, I MEAN local. It's basically a small, orange box, and the staff have to refer to laminated sheets of paper for postage fees.

While they were working out my postage fees for the day, one of the staff (with whom I go skiing every year on the town ski trips, random side note) said something to the lady working my window, and they both did an "Oh, yeah!" thing, then started turning the back room upside-down looking for something. The skiing guy came up to the window and said to me, "Return, return." I'd been in a few days before as well, and I thought whatever it was I had tried to send a few days ago had been returned, which put me in a bit of a panic, because what I had mailed earlier in the week had to do with my soon-to-be-due tax return.

Skiing guy found what they were looking for and came over to the window to hand it over to me. You know what it ended up being? A little plastic bag labeled with my name, containing 130yen (about $1.30) that they had overcharged me on my prior letters. They had overcharged me, and put aside the money to give back to me the next time I came in.

How cute is this town?!

Stuff like this has happened pretty often recently. The day before, I had been walking around my neighborhood taking pictures of the flowering trees, and an elderly man I'd never seen before came out of his house to offer to cut a small branch off one of the flowering trees so I could take it home! I declined his offer, but he went ahead and walked with me a little ways, chatting the whole time. Another man who lives in the area was out walking his dog, and when he reached us, he went ahead and stopped to chat for a few minutes too!

A week or two ago, I was walking home from my far junior high school, and one of my 5th grade elementary students drove by with her grandmother. They stopped the car, the student introduced her grandmother to me, and they chatted with me for a few seconds. They drove on ahead, but stopped the car again. When I reached them, the grandmother reached through the open car window and handed me some candies and a pack of gum she'd had sitting in one of the cupholders, apologizing that she didn't have more to give me, but hoped that the candies and gum would give me a little energy to climb the hill I was coming to!

How cute is that?!

This was the same elementary student that I ran into in a local store just a few days before, and while her mom shopped, she stopped and talked to me for a full 10-minutes (in Japanese, of course, so I should probably say, talked AT me)! She wouldn't let her mother leave the store before she introduced us, because she was worried we hadn't met each other yet.

The same day I met the elementary school student and her grandmother, not 5 minutes earlier further back on the same road, I had heard someone yelling my name. I looked around and saw a mini-van coming up behind me. One of my 1st year junior high boys was hanging out of the window calling my name and waving. His mom pulled the car over to say hi. She said she heard I was leaving Japan and asked when. I said in a few months, and she said, "Oh, well, we'll definitely see you before then, so see you later!" She and her husband own and operate a local restaurant that I LOVE, so her statement was true enough! Her son continued to wave at me from his open window as they drove away.

Another day recently, I was on my bike at the 4-way stoplight near my house and heard a small child's voice yelling, "Mandy-sensei, Mandy-sensei!" I looked behind me, and driving towards me was the wife of a local Buddhist monk with whom I'm good friends, and her 8-year old son, hanging almost half-way out of the car window, the way dogs do, waving frantically, with the biggest, goofiest grin on his face. Unfortunately their light turned green, so they had to keep driving, but as they drove around the corner, the wife shouted, "I'll call you later!" in English as the son continued to shout good-bye.

Seriously, how cute is this town?!

March Madness, Japanese style

This post has nothing to do with basketball.

My winter fun did not end with the month of February. (^_^) \/

First March activity, the annual pilgrimage to Tokyo Disneyland with the Horii Family. This year we hit up Tokyo's unique "DisneySea" park....along with at least 1/3rd of the population of Japan.

If there is one thing Japan is good at, it's experimenting with different flavors for everything. The Disney parks are no exception! The different flavors for popcorn they come up with are astounding. The newest flavor...."Milk Tea."

The Horii Family! Tomoko, Laksmi, Thaisuke, Hide and Eugene. Both Tomoko and Hide lived in the States for many years, and they were very liberal with names for their boys! I think all the boys are named after people Tomoko has known from India, Thailand and the U.S.

Ride #1: "Bumper Boats" (but not really because they were on tracks). Laksmi & Hide.

Me & Thai.

Science Fiction World....I don't know what it's really called. ;-)

View of the DisneySea park, looking towards the most beloved of rides, the Tower of Terror.

DisneySea's 360-degree roller coaster. Thai, Hide & I took the challenge. :-)

It had some cool architecture!

We've all seen postings for minimal height requirements before, but I've never seen a posting for a maximum height allowance!!!

Thai & Hide post fabulous-ride-experience.

The boys being boys at my pre-departure lunch the next day. :-)

Brotherly love. :-) I really like this photo of the boys!

March activity #2: Visiting my island-dwelling, Iowan ALT friend, Rob, with my former Tokigawa neighbor, Futaba. There was a 3-day weekend in the middle of March, which was perfect, because it's a LOOONG trip!

There's a string of small islands reachable by boat from Tokyo called the Izu Islands (off the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture [where Mt. Fuji is located]). There are a few ALTs stationed on these islands! I met one of them a few years ago, and upon learning he was from Iowa, well, surrogate family, right?!

Reaching the islands takes about 9 hours by 'slow boat.' During high-peak seasons, there is a Jetfoil that makes the trip in about 3-4 hours. There are sometimes opportunities to fly out to the islands, but the one-way price of a plane ticket is the same as a round-trip boat ticket, so there you go.

Anyway, Futaba and I left on the overnight ferry on Friday night at 10pm.

Departing Tokyo Harbor, sailing towards "The Rainbow Bridge." The popular hang-out area, Odaiba, is in the background.

Looking back at Tokyo Harbor and Tokyo Tower.

We arrived on Niijima about 8:30am Saturday morning. The ship sails from Niijima to the next & last island on the route, Kojima, then turns around to make the journey back to Tokyo. Ironically, there was a group of teachers that Rob works with leaving for Tokyo for the weekend on that return route ferry, so we saw them off!

There were 3 women on the ferry who were apparently leaving the island for good. When someone moves off the islands, strings of colored paper are draped between those leaving on the ship, and those standing onshore. As the ship sails away, the strings of paper stretch until they break. It's a symbol of the departees severing ties with the islands and being able to move on with their lives wherever it is they are going.

I thought that was a very touching and poetic tradition.

Reminds me of Munson-gathering good-byes. ;-D

We have reached the far shore. :-)

Rob and his friend, Town Hall worker, Sugi (whom I had met on my last trip to Niijima), both came to the dock to pick us up. After breakfast, they were kind enough to drive Futaba and I around the island for a bit of a tour. This was my 2nd trip to Niijima, 3rd to the islands altogether, but Futaba's first visit ever!

I think the lady walking down the middle of the picture is doing so in a wetsuit. You know you're on the islands when.... :-)

Taking in the views.

Rob, Futaba and Sugi. Don't worry, the group photos get more ridiculous as this blog goes on. ;-)

Up at the very top of Niijima.

It's a wee bit windy up there!

Oh what a feeling,...Toyota!

Wind-blown. This was pretty much the theme of our weekend there.

Let's call it "Wind-blown in Salmon."

Look-out point. Look-out indeed!

Empty picture frame...what're ya gonna do?! Perhaps I missed my calling as a mime.

Niijima Village from the look-out point.

Quite a lovely park!

The statue in the foreground is made from glass made on the island. It's made from a special mineral found only two places in the world- on Niijima and somewhere in Italy!

Tiny shrine!

A trip to Niijima is not complete unless you try your hand at making Niijima glass!

One of my favorite photos! :-D

The glass factory owner is on the left. He and his wife lived and trained in glass-work in the States for something like 4-years!

We returned the next day to pick up our finished products.

Post-glass-blowing activity: Hiking! I really have a thing for the trees on Niijima. They're great! So expressive, interesting shapes. :-)

Up a tree.

I don't take my photo poses very seriously, if you hadn't noticed...

Apparently neither do Rob or Futaba! We call it "Monkeys In A Tree."

Rob does a very good running ape impersonation.

I like this photo because of the details behind it. Rob said to us, "Look like you're swimming in the flowers." So we followed his instructions. When I looked up after he took the photo, he was laughing so hard he was barely breathing. I asked, "Do we look like we're swimming?" He said, "NO! You just look really stupid!" Cheers Rob. :-) And to top it off, I just realized it looks like one of the flowers is going up my nose.

The hiking trail emptied out near the coast, so we made our way towards the hot spring to soak away a long boat trip and full day of activities. I had yet to do a ballerina pose that day, so....

We ended up timing the end of our hike perfectly with the end of the day (completely by coincidence). You can see on the right a large monolith sticking out of the water just off shore. The perfect place to watch the sun set!

Don't know what it is, but it's pretty! ;-)

Climbing the monolith.

A little cave dwelling, because it's just wrong to pass a cave on a monolith and not play around inside it!

Self-portraits on the edge of the monolith. I don't get to say monolith very often, so I'm going to say it as often as possible in this series.

Sunset from the monolith. Last the last time I get to use monolith. Bummer.

See the thing on the top of the rocks that makes you think you're in Greece? That's Niijima's free, 24-hour, open-air, sea-side hot spring. What a great thing!

Day 2

Overnight the winds came in...typhoon-force winds. I woke around 7:00 in the morning and witnessed the rain coming in as well, rain that was being blown horizontal, matching the lean of the palm trees as they succumbed to the gales. I'd seen such scenes on the news, in movies, but never before in person. It looked like the entire world outside the window was going to blow away on the back of the rain sheets.

Not 2 hours later, the rain had cleared, but the winds had stayed. I was really excited for some reason about the effect of the winds on the sea, so first order of business for the day was to hit the seashore on "the other side of the island" to see the waves. 2 seconds out of the car my hat blew over a dune, which forced us to run further down the shore than we were initially inclined, but we had a good time with it. And luckily the sand was so wet from rain and blowing mist that my hat stuck where it landed and wasn't difficult to retrieve at all. :-) Thank goodness. I love that hat!

Group wind-blown-look shots: ME!, Sugi, Futaba

Surfing the wind: Rob, me, Sugi

Futaba being pushed out of the shot by,...Rob looking innocent, and...um...

I was enraptured. What can I say...I grew up in Iowa...

Back on "the near side" of the island...surprise, surprise, the same thing was happening over there too! ;-)

Oh, look! It's the monolith again! ;-)

Really, it wasn't that windy at all...

In the afternoon, we headed to the island museum, which was born from a high school project, including bilingual labels on the displays! Not bad for a middle-of-nowhere island with about 4,000 inhabitants! The second floor was dedicated to the history of island home-made surfboards, which was surprisingly intriguing.

The first floor housed geological, historical and cultural displays. I've never seen a traditional carrying apparatus like this...specific to this particular island. I was impressed!

Naturally fishing is a large industry for the island. In the off chance that the display behind them wasn't obvious enough, I made Sugi, Futaba and Rob role-play a fishing scene. :-)And then Sugi made Rob BE the fish.

A lovely ramen lunch.

And then a hot sand bath! First time I've done one of those! First shot, the Iowans.

And, Futaba.

And the boys you can't take anywhere. :-)

And just because driving around the island chasing wind and waves, enriching our minds at the museum, slurping down ramen, and partaking in a hot sand bath just wasn't quite enough activity for one day, we took in two games of bowling at the island community center as well!

And all that was before the party Rob threw for Futaba and I in the evening. At lunch, he decided it would be a taco party. At bowling, he decided it would be a costume party. Oddly enough, between he and Sugi, they had enough costumes for everyone who came to the party that night. Okay, well, Futaba ended up wearing a bedsheet, and I had to improvise a costume with bunny ears only. But all in all, all 9 people in attendance were in costume at an impromptu party on a small island with no costume shops, and that's no small feat!

Toga maiden, Pink Panther and Snowgirl.

Michael Jackson, Island Girl and Reindeer.

Another reason to always carry eyeliner...instant costume. Sugi lost the bowling game bet he had going with Rob and had to wear Rob's "maid" costume from Halloween. Ken's snorkler outfit came complete with flippers. Watching him walk around the house was entertainment enough in and of itself.

Just playing my part!. Actually, the happy look is real...Mexican food is a rarity in Japan!

Makes up for 4-years worth of missed Halloweens. :-)

My first experience with "Guitar Hero." It was surprisingly enjoyable!

And the best part of any trip to the islands is Rob's ukulele-playing! He learned how to play a little when he first came to the islands as a joke for a performance at school...and he's been playing ever since! I love the irony of an Iowan playing the ukulele on a random island in Japan.

Day 3: Finale

Our boat left at 11:50am on Monday morning. As our last hurrah, we went to another part of the island to see what the sea washed in on the big waves the day before.

Now here's something really interesting about Niijima. The island sits on two separate faults, which emit different kinds of magma. So, the beaches in the southern part of the island have light-colored sand, and the beaches on the northern part of the island have dark-colored sand!

You have no idea how excited I was to find these gems within a minute of stepping foot on the beach. Well, if you know me well and how much of a dork I am, then you would have some idea of how excited I was. We took this photo just before throwing the sand dollars back into the water, because they looked like they might still be alive.

I have NO idea what this was, but it was incredibly interesting! I've never seen anything like it on a beach before.

It was moving in an oozing kind of way, so we tried to give it a second chance, too.

Sugi's attempt didn't do much for the blob, so we put it on a log, and Rob played catapult. Hopefully it's the first and last time the blob flies.

Last memory from Niijima. :-)