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.