Things

To answer your question MoJo, I live quite literally on the ocean, so no, I am not higher that in Minnesota. So I live a lot closer to sea level and a lot closer to the sea! I like to walk out to the sea wall and just sit there for a while watching the waves. It really scares the crap out of me. I think it's mostly the enormous jacks thingys on the beach.

Here are a bunch of my anecdotal photos:

Pics that got lost in the mix:
http://uwec.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097072&l=cf9f9&id=59501063
English camp/random:
http://uwec.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097078&l=cdfe6&id=59501063
Climbing Mt. Fuji:
http://uwec.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097083&l=dd9a7&id=59501063
Climbing Mt. Fuji pt. 2:
http://uwec.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2097087&l=cc100&id=59501063


I climbed Fuji-san on Saturday/Sunday!

Crazy story- so I got to the place where the bus was picking us up pretty early and decided to go into the grocery store a block away to buy eye drops and some snacks for the climb. As I was about to enter the store this guy walks up to me and says, "Excuse me, do you speak English?" I said yes, and he apologized for his poor English (which turned out to be quite good) and then said this: "I'm want to climb Mt. Fuji tonight, do you know how to get to the mountain?" And I said, "Well ACtually, I'm waiting for a bus to take me there right now!" The AJET chapter in Shizuoka had planned the whole trip out and was coming with a bus for the 25 ALTs who had signed up for the trip. I figured it would be totally cool to add on one more guy, especially a Brazilian named Fernando! So when the bus came he paid his non-membership price of 5500 yen (it was 5000 for the rest of us) and hopped on the bus. We ended up talking for a good part of the ride- he lives in Sao Paulo and is here on a 10 day business trip. He works for Toyota as a customer service engineer. After the trip he thanked me very much for the offer up to Fujisan and gave me his business card. He said if I'm ever back in Brazil to please look him up. I didn't expect to be making international connections while in Japan- funny, but I probably should have. I'm American, he's Brazilian and we're in Japan. I think this is how one makes most business contacts. Or maybe how one should make good business contacts. Just be willing to approach people and then also be helpful and kind.

We climbed at night in order to see the sunrise. I left from station 5 at 11pm and got to the top at 4:45 am. The sunrise was absolutely incredible. There was cloud cover down below with the tops of a few hills emerging above. I have never seen a sunrise over a cloud horizon before- truly a beautiful experience. Here I am watching the sunrise from the highest point in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Total change of subject...I really want to buy a dryer. I didn't at first because they are $400, but... There are these cicada bugs here in Kambara that are not only super loud at 6 am but are super huge as well. And they live in the tree next to my veranda. I can see them crawling around in it from my kitchen table. Several nights ago I was sitting in my living room and I heard someone knocking on the sliding door out to the veranda. I was kind of spooked because you can't easily get to the veranda from the ground, but I went and looked and there was this cicada pounding its body against the glass. The thing was enormous! Then it just sat on the screen for a while. The veranda is where I hang my laundry, therefore this was unacceptable. Unfortunately, him being the monstrous animal that he was, had the upperhand. The next day I went out to claim my clothing. As soon as I slid the door he flew up and started pounding against it again. I quickly hopped back inside while he just sat there. The damn guy was holding my clothes hostage. And it's a $400 ransom.

Speaking of money, this brings me to my next story. The a/c guy came to my house yesterday right after work. I actually left a little early to meet him in time. Ueda sensei also met me there to translate. He tinkered around for a bit, then said it was going to be about $200 to put more gas in it so it would work, I asked how much longer it would work for, and wondered if I should just buy a brand new one for $550 that I knew would last. He ended up saying pretty much, so should I go ahead and do it? And I reluctantly shook my head back and forth. I would sweat it out for another month and think about it when next summer's heat hit hard. But then something happened, he started saying something and Ueda sensei looked really surprised and was covering her mouth and was bowing and apologizing (the Japanese thank you, basically? or being polite?). Apparently he said that he would just do it all right then for free. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't tell if this was really happening or if I just didn't understand. But afterwards I thanked him and bowed. Ueda sensei told me he thought I was in trouble, being a gaijin (foreigner) living in Japan. She said I was lucky. I felt very blessed. Japanese people truly are very kind. I have been helped so much by all kinds of people, and helped greatly by a few.

One last thing I want to do is try and dispel a common belief about Japanese people. I have found that contrary to common stereotype, Japanese people are not that short. Everyday I run into many men who are taller than me, and in the last month I've also seen several women taller than I am. Maybe the national average is smaller than the U.S.'s average, but that doesn't mean EVERYone is shorter. In my everyday life I am never struck by a difference in height. By using facilities, however, one may feel like Japanese people are smaller, but it's really just the facilities. There are a lot of people in a small amount of space, so for that practical reason, as well as efficiency, many things are built smaller or lower to the ground.

Well, I did my duty to make the world a better place, and as the Boy Scouts say, "Do a good turn daily." And I'm flipped upside down.