This One's for the Other Marshall (and everyone else)

Well, I think I’ve held you on the edge of your seats waiting for the next update of my life in Japan about as long as I could (based on one or two comments I may have received), so here goes.

The past month has been a month of firsts for me in Japan. This is not to say that the whole 8 months I have been here (can you believe it has been this long?) has not been a whole 8 months of firsts, because it has, but I am choosing to base this blog entry on firsts from the past month (well, it was within the past month when I actually started writing this). Here is an overview:

In the past month I:

-went camping in Japan for the first time
-went to an genuine onsen for the first time
-finally got to watch The Bourne Ultimatum
-ran a half marathon for the first time
-finally used a squatty potty
-used a bidet for the first time
-had Thanksgiving dinner in Japan for the first time
-accidentally locked my keys under the seat of my scooter for the first time
-learned how to open the locked seat on my scooter without a key
-made my final decision to stay in Japan for at least another year

Now I’ll tell you about all of these interesting things that make up my life in a little more detail.

Living the Good Life

I finally got to go camping in Japan. I went north a couple hours to a place called Inawashiro with Elizabeth, Minako, Julia, Katie, and Lance for two days and one night. We camped at Inawashiroko (Lake Inawashiro). This area was beautiful! The lake is extremely clear and surrounded by mountains. It reminded me of a scaled down version of Lake Tahoe in California. The fall colors were also very nice. We had a nice little campsite and there were no other people there tent camping. Ok, I should say “tent” camping. We had a small, maybe 3 or 4 (Japanese) person, tent. It was pretty cold and the girls all slept in the tent. Girls have this ability, and willingness, to sleep in spaces that are too small to fit in and enjoy it more. Needless to say, Lance slept in the car and I slept outside on a tarp. Other than it being November in mountain territory and a few minutes of light rain, I was perfectly happy outside on the ground in the mummy bag I borrowed from Pat. The first day, I went for a run and discovered a really cool park with an awesome playground while I was at it. When I got done it was dark, but the next day we all went to the park and just played like little kids. It was great. We also had some good food. For dinner we had hot dogs and yakisoba and for breakfast we had pancakes, bacon, and eggs scrambled in bacon grease…oishikatta desuyo. I desperately needed some time out in nature, away from all the normal distractions of life. I only wish it could have lasted a week instead of two days.

Onsen

I went to an true onsen for the first time last month. Onsens are natural hot springs (most of them formed by the many volcanoes in Japan). I went to one called Nozomi. It is an outdoor onsen overlooking the Pacific Ocean. At an onsen you wash yourself in a public shower area and then go sit in one of the many choices of hot pools of water with lots of other men with no clothes on. You also carry a small washcloth around to cover yourself with if you feel the need and while you are in the water, you put in on top of your head. I fell in love…with onsens, not any naked Japanese men. (Sorry, no pics)

Bourne

The Bourne Ultimatum finally came out in Japan last month. I watched it. It was great.

Painfully, but Pleasantly, Surprised

For 4 months before I came to Japan I laid off of running completely to try and get my knees in better shape. When I first got to Japan I injured my ankle and was unable to do anything but limp around very slowly for 2 months. Needless to say, I didn’t run much. After that, I still didn’t run very much. For the next few months I averaged about 0-5 miles of running a week with most of those being on the 0 end. The next few months after that I started averaging about 0-9 miles a week with probably 2 weeks where I actually hit 12 or 14 with my longest long run being about 8.5 miles. This was all in preparation for my first ever half marathon (13.1 miles or about 21 kilometers). It is bad when your weekly mileage is less than the length of your race. I also realized the day of the race that it had been over 11 months since I even ran more than 8.5 miles or any type of speed work. Despite all of this I was ready for the Iwai Masakado Half Marathon! It was a cold, cloudy race day morning. I was on the starting line with Wade, Tom, Minakosan, Hiyamasan, and over 4,000 other runners ready to get this race under way because we were cold. We hear the announcement, “5 minutes till the start” (in Japanese of course). Then, “3 minutes”. Then, 2 minutes before the start of the race it started raining. Tis a pesky thing in Japan (it was probably about 35 degrees when I went to my far away school this morning, and raining. That was a really fun 20 minute ride on my scooter). Anyways, the race starts and the rain starts coming down really hard and continues for about the first 15 minutes or so. It was freeeezing.

Ok, here was my strategy. Since I knew I was out of shape and had no idea what kind of time I could run 13 miles in, my plan was to go out slowly like a training run (about 7 min/mile pace). I was planning on coming through the first 5k in about 21:50 and then, as the race went on, slowly speeding up and just busting out whatever I had left in the last miles of the race. I thought I might be able to finish in 1hr. and 30 minutes. 1^st 5k (planned) 21:50. 1^st 5k (actual time) 19:42. My thoughts: “Oh great, I went out over a minute too fast and this is going to be the most painful run ever. I should slow down a little.” I did a tiny bit. The whole time I knew I was going too fast and by the time the first 5k was passed my legs were feeling heavy already and I was feeling like I was on the verge of my legs cramping up and my stomach throwing up my pb&h (peanut butter and honey) sandwiches and my banana that I had for breakfast. This lasted the rest of the race, but somehow, I have no idea how, those feelings were just “on the verge” the whole time. I kept my pace steady the last 10 miles and was able to finish in 1 hr and 24 minutes! It was a miracle and I was ecstatic to be able to average sub 7 min. miles for 13 miles despite the vast majority of my “training” being about 7:30 to 8:00+ pace. Although in my mind I felt great, the rest of my body was screaming in pain and I limped around for literally the next 3 days at school. I may not be in shape, but I proved to myself that I still had some guts left in my body.

Why Squat When You Can Sit

I used a Japanese “squatty potty” for the first time last month. Some of you who have lived in Japan may ask, “Why?” or “How is this possible?” Well let me explain. Actually first let me describe Japanese toilets to you who have never been here. In Japan, your toilets, other than urinals, are either a fancy throne on which you have a heated seat, bidet, and too many buttons to be able to feel safe pushing for things like fake flush sounds and who knows what else or what looks like a small urinal lying sideways in the floor. The latter is known by many as a squatty potty, because you have to stand over it and squat to do your business, and is the most common toilet in Japan. To foreigners like me it is like, “Why?” To the Japanese it is completely normal and they have probably never questioned it in their lives. I also firmly believe that they probably all have amazingly strong quads.

A squatty potty, fancy toilet, and close up example of the buttons on a fancy toilet (they are not usually this easy to understand).

Okay, back to the “How is it possible for you to go 6 months without using a squatty potty?” Once again, my bum ankle comes into the equation here. Since I tore 2 ligaments in my ankle after being in Japan for barely 9 days, it became impossible to bend my ankle and, therefore, impossible to squat. That knocks out the first two months. After that, my ankle was still sore for a few months and holding a squat position would still cause it quite a bit of pain. Other than that I just didn’t have any desire to use a squatty potty unless I really had to. Also, once it had been 3 or 4 months, I thought, “hmm, maybe if I keep this up I can set some kind of AET record for going the longest time without using a squatty potty…” Sadly, my attempt at a record was stopped dead in its tracks at the half marathon. Getting rid of whatever you have inside of you before a race is very important and especially important in a long race like a half. Before the race, Wade and I went searching for bathrooms. The first problem: there were three bathrooms with only 2 or 3 stalls each and they all had pretty long lines. You would think that in a race with 4,000+ runners there would be more than 7 toilets. Second problem: they were all squatties. Based on many years of race experience (good and bad) how important it is to get rid of that extra bit of “weight” right before the race, I knew I had no choice. For your sake, and my own, I won’t go into any details, but I took care of business using the squatty and that’s that. I still don’t like them.

I’ve Been Bideted

This is another paragraph concerning toilets in Japan, but this one is about the fancy shmancy throne toilets. I used one at the mall in Uchihara a few weeks ago. It was a cold day and as I was sitting there on the wonderful, warm seat in pure bliss I was looking at all of the buttons next to me. I found the one for the bidet and decided it was about time I tried this feature. I pushed the button and the stream of water shot up from somewhere inside the toilet and hit me. That was exactly what it was supposed to do, but I didn’t like it. It ruined my blissful experience I was having thanks to the warm toilet seat on a cold day. On top of that, I tried to turn it off by pushing the same button I used to turn it on, but that didn’t do anything. I thought maybe the shooting stream of water was set on a timer so I let it go for a little while longer, but of course it didn’t stop. I then desperately started pushing lots of buttons and getting fake flush sounds and other things until I finally hit the right button and it stopped. I then decided bidets were not for me.

Thanksgiving

We had a Thanksgiving dinner at church the day after thanksgiving. I really wished I could have been with my family back home and spent the day with them eating tons of delicious food, falling asleep on the couch while watching the Cowboys dominate, and playing nertz after finding my second wind, but it was a good day nonetheless. We had a good group of people at the church, lots of good food (although none of my mom’s famous pies), I baked a rum cake for dessert, and I had a great time cleaning up until 9:00 that night and then topping off the night with a relaxing visit to an onsen.

Locked “Out” of True Blue

My school hosted a Kabocha Matsuri (Pumpkin Festival) for the community one Saturday last month so I decided to go and see what it was all about and see some of my kids and see how surprised they would be to realize that I exist outside of school and that I don’t commute from Oklahoma to Japan everyday for school. I have always had this fear that I would accidentally lock my keys under the seat of my scooter where I store things like gloves, etc. I made it 7 months before it happened. I arrived at the school put my keys in my pocket before closing the seat on my scooter, therefore making it impossible to lock my keys in my scooter, right? Wrong, I put the keys in my coat pocket and then proceeded to put my coat under my seat and shut it. I started walking away then realized what I had done. To make a long story short, after many phone calls and trying to jimmy it open with some tools I finally pushed my scooter to a nearby bicycle shop and asked for help. In the end I learned that all it takes to open my scooter seat without a key is one foot on the scooter to hold it down and four arms with a little muscle to do the rest (don’t tell anyone).

Many More Adventures to Come in Japan

The last, but maybe most important, bit of information I will give you guys is this: Last month I officially decided to stay in Japan for another year once my contract ends at the end of March. That means I will be here at least until April 2009. April 2009 sounds so far away, but after lots of thinking, praying, and listening I think it’s what I’m supposed to do. I also think it will come like a snap of the finger based on how fast time has flown so far. My last thought: COME VISIT ME! You have a free place to stay.

Here you go Katie.

I think I’ll start this post out with a quick short story. Last Sunday I was getting ready to play tennis with two of the Japanese men from church, Hira san and Yamamura san, one of my IC friends, Koichi san, and a friend from OC on the Pac Rim trip, Chace Estes. We met at the church building to ride together and as I was about to get in the car, Hira san decided to start driving off before I was actually in and he ran over my foot with his car! No lie, he actually drove his car over my foot. Luckily, it didn’t hurt at all and I didn’t have to make yet another trip to the hospital/doctor like my first few months here, but I still didn’t tell him that he ran over my foot. Maybe I will someday.

Three Saturdays ago I went to Tsuchiura for a fireworks competition with a group of friends: me, Wade, Elizabeth, Katie, Minako, and another OC friend who is on the Pac Rim trip, Reid Agan. That’s right, this was not a fireworks show, it was a fireworks competition so there were a few people trying to make their fireworks bigger and better than the person before them. It was pretty cool. Some of the fireworks were huge and I saw a lot of things I never saw back in America. Plus, fireworks competitions and shows literally last for hours here in Japan. Another crazy thing about this event is the number of people who attended it. Last year, there were 800,000 people there. I haven’t heard a number on this year’s event, but I’m betting it was just as many people or more. We rode the train to Tsuchiura and it was packed. This is what it looked like:

Also, there were tons of Japanese foods available there, kind of like the fair in America, but I won’t lie; I like American fair food a lot better. I finally was able to try a fish on a stick. This is just a whole fish with a stick shoved through its mouth and cooked (thankfully) and then eaten by a foreigner like me. Of course, Japanese people eat them also. I didn’t like it. It was way too salty.

In my last post, which I guess you could call a “teaser” post, I told you I was going paragliding. I’m a man of my word. Elizabeth, Minako, Joey and I took the train to Ishioka, about 30 minutes from Mito, and went paragliding! For those of you who aren’t exactly sure what paragliding is, I wasn’t at first, it involves you, a parachute, a mountain, and you running off of the mountain. It’s not running off the edge of a cliff, but going to the top of the mountain and running down a steep part of the mountain until your parachute catches and lifts you into the air and then you fly for a while. We did tandem paragliding and our instructor that flew with us just so happened to be a Japanese guy who is the paragliding World Cup champion. It was pretty cool. Each of us was in the air for about 10 minutes and the view was really nice. My favorite part of the day, though, was actually after lunch while I was waiting for some of the others to have their turn. Those of us that weren’t flying at the time got to learn to paraglide on our own on the practice hill at the bottom of the mountain. We started at the very bottom of the hill and each time moved up higher until we got to the top. It was really cool.

Take off point.

I have decided that the last section of this post will be about some of the “delicious” things that I have eaten in the last month or two. Back in September my main school, Ishikawa, had its undoukai (sports festival). This is a huge, annual event for every school in Japan. After the sports festival the teachers all got together for an enkai, literally translated “drinking party.” These involve something like 12 course meals and even more courses of alcohol for a lot of the teachers. At this particular enkai I had an interesting menu of foods, many of which I had never had before. I ate sashimi (raw fish), shark fin, a whole fish head on a plate, eel sushi, and about 8 other plates that I can’t remember at the moment. Surprisingly, it was all pretty good or at least not bad. I actually took home a leftover raw eel, but I never ate it. It just sat in my fridge until it came back to life and I had to re-kill it and dispose of it in the proper Japanese way so I wouldn’t get deported.

Back in October I went to the Oarai Aquarium and had a great time there. One of my favorite things I saw at the aquarium was a giant octopus. Well, after I returned to Mito I went to my Koucho Sensei’s (principal’s) house for dinner and we had octopus salad. It was a little strange after seeing a real, huge, live one a few hours earlier. But I do like octopus a lot better than squid. I’ve had both a number of times in my school lunch since then. Usually my school lunch is not bad, but yesterday I had two whole fish sitting on my lunch tray in front of me. They weren’t staring at me like sometimes, luckily they were breaded and fried so I couldn’t see their eyes, but they were pregnant and tasted very fishy. The eggs weren’t very good. If they hadn’t been breaded and fried I don’t know if I could have finished them. Oh, one last thing that popped into my mind! In another school lunch back in October we had a salad that consisted of, literally, at least 150 tiny fish on a plate. That’s at least 300 tiny eyeballs staring at me. I devoured them. They were pretty good, but I don’t think I would order them at a restaurant if there were other choices.
I am going to the mountains of Fukushima this weekend to do a little camping! Lance Towers is in town visiting and gets to go with us. I’m really excited!

Exciting Times!

I'm going paragliding for the first time tomorrow in Ishioka!!! I'll let you know how it goes sometime soon hopefully.

First Blog Post of My Life

Well, hello there. Welcome to my blog. In case you didn’t know, or just forgot, I am living in Japan right now in a place called Mito, Ibaraki and I am so on top of things here. Evidence of that is it only took me 5 months and 3 weeks to post my first blog. I apologize. I have always believed that once I got this first one out of the way I would keep things updated way more regularly with shorter, interesting posts whenever something happens that I want to tell you about.

Obviously, in my almost 6 months that I have been in Japan for, I have had more than a few exciting experiences, funny stories, made plenty of stupid foreigner mistakes, and dated lots of women (of course I might be kidding, joking, joshing, siking, etc…just pick your favorite word. It’s like a “choose your own adventure” book!) Because of these facts/jokes (choose again) I will not even make an attempt to tell you any small percentage of the things that I would have liked to tell you had I been keeping this up to date all along, only a very, very small percentage. Basically, I will just give you a very brief overview of a few things from my first half a year here and tell you about some of my adventures from the summer. Here we go:

I cannot believe that I have been here in Mito almost six months already. It seriously seems like just yesterday that I left the beautiful state of Oklahoma for a little island with many things that I like, and don’t like, that Oklahoma does not have. One of the first things I noticed here was how low all of the door frames are. I have added many new lumps to my head since my arrival. But I have thought of at least pro to this problem. As I’m sure most of you know, bowing is a very important part of Japanese culture. Well, thanks to this low door frame problem, I don’t even have to think about bowing to the Japanese people when I enter a room because I have to automatically do it anyway or I’ll end up with new lump #327 on my head.

I stay very busy here pretty much all the time and lately it has seemed to just get more and more busy. I am teaching English in two elementary schools and a kindergarten. My main school is Ishikawa Shogakko (Elementary School). It has 561 students and it has a kindergarten also with about 50+ students. My other school which I attend once a week is Yamane Shogakko. It is a tiny little country school and only has 33 students total. The kids and teachers there are great and I love it. I basically work from 8-5 every day and then in the evenings and weekends I do things like go to Japanese class, play basketball, play soccer, play volleyball, try to find time to run, go to church, go to EBC (English Bible Class-I will tell you more about this ministry in other posts I’m sure), and whenever I actually have a small amount of free time I try and cram something fun in there when I really should be sleeping.

OK, I need to cut to the point here so this blog doesn’t require a next page->. Let me tell you a very abbreviated, lacking many details, version of my summer and then I think I’ll be done for now. At the beginning of my summer break-wait hold on a second-first let me explain “summer break” for you. The students get one month off of school for summer, but the teachers still have to go to school all day everyday the whole month except for 5 days special vacation that we can use. We can also use some of our regular, yearly allotted, paid vacation days during this time. OK, back to my abbreviated summer. At the beginning of my summer I did some hiking along a beautiful river in the mountains, called Takigawa Keiko ku, with lots of waterfalls with my friend Patrick and his dog Kandi. Then I went surfing the next two days. One day with Mark Hancock, his sons Christian and Charlie, and also Katie Blake. The next day I went with Wade and Shinobu. Sadly, these are the only days I have been able to go surfing so far. Later that week I left for America to take part in my brother, Travis’s, wedding. I stayed there a week and then made the long trip back to Japan. A couple days after I got back I climbed Mt. Fuji with Wade, Minako, Katie, Kendon, and Julia. We climbed all night and then watched the sunrise from the top. It was beautiful. Less than a week after that I hopped on the night bus with Wade and went to Kyoto (a very beautiful, traditional style Japanese city) and Osaka (third largest city in Japan). In Osaka we got to visit Gavin and Lindsay Dao and then we watched the last day of the Track and Field World Championships. It was really exciting for us track nerds to watch all of those fast people run who we had only heard of before that time. That is the very abbreviated version of my summer. All during that time we had a couple typhoons, lots of earthquakes and other fun things like that. I also hung out with Hitomi almost every day when I was in town until she left for OC.

OK, I’m done. Sorry for the novel. I promise my future posts will not be even anywhere close to this long. I had to get all of this out so that I can write shorter ones from now on. I miss all of you guys and hope you are doing well.

~Austin

P.S. I have lots of pictures from my adventures posted on Facebook. Check ‘em out. For those of you not privileged enough to have that time stealer, A.K.A. Facebook, I am going to try and start posting pics on a public site like Google Picasa. I’ll let you know when I do. Bye bye.