If Nose Picking Were An Olympic Sport...

...my class would get the gold medal

I don't know if it's because, prior to February I was around middle schoolers way more than elementary school kids, so I'm not used to their nasal cavity fixation, but i can't believe how much my kids pick their noses! Not all of my kids are like this, but those that do go at it with the intensity of an Olympic trainee. It's not the occasional slide up-the-nose-to-get-that-stubborn-booger pick, but more like a ferocious public display of affection for the nasal cavity.

If nose picking were to become an Olympic sport, I've come up with a few categories in which my students would participate.  I've come up with these categories by (grossly) watching their nose-picking skills.

A. The Constant Picker
     This category is for the student who picks his/her nose constantly.  I don't mean it happens occasionally throughout the coarse of the day; no, this student is the one who will go at it for 20 minutes straight while they are looking at me during carpet time, despite the "mean teacher looks" I throw in his direction.  Kid, what are you you expecting to find in there?  You've picked every booger you have or would have had within the next 48 hours????  I promise you that not matter how much longer you go at it, your finger search party will not find gold or a new Pokemon card!

B. The Multiple Finger Picker
     Often, the Multiple Finger Picker (MFP) is often also a constant picker.  But instead of letting the pointer finger hog all the enjoyment, the MFP likes to share the glory with the other digits on his hand.  Maybe he is expecting that Pinkie Finger will find something good that Pointer Finger and Ring Finger missed???

C. The Oblivious Picker
     This type of nose picker is so engrossed (pun intended!) in his task that he doesn't even notice he's doing it.  After watching a constant, multiple-finger picker go at it for several minutes during station time, I quietly told him to stop.  "Stop?" He asked, "Mrs. Lauren stop what? What stop?"
     "Stop picking your nose!" I said, exasperated. "Please use a tissue."
     He looked at me confused for a moment and then looked at his finger.  "Ohhhhh," he said, finally getting the idea of what he was doing wrong.

D. Foreign Objects Picker
     For the Foreign Objects Picker, using fingers is not enough.  This type of nose picker finds it necessary to use SHARED classroom objects for their nose picking.  Pencil from community pencil holder? Yes!  Large eraser shared with other students at the table? YES! Dry erase marker? Why not?! Large pointer I use for shared readings in front of the whole class? That's fair game too! (Whenever possible, I throw away said objects being used for grossness).

E. The Creative Cook
     This category is rather impressive and tough to master.  It requires the student to pick both nostrils at the same time and then quickly flip the fingers into her mouth.  It is like making a claw-like motion from the nose to the mouth.  So disgusting it makes me want to vomit...yet I can't help being a little impressed.

If any of you teachers out there have ideas on how to stop my Olympic hopefuls from training in class, I would very much appreciate the advice!

Even Grocery Shopping Is Exciting In Japan

When you don't speak the language and the characters used in the stores are not even the roman letters, shopping can be quite the experience.  When we first got to Japan, we must have looked so funny to the Japanese people, as we walked around the grocery store with big eyes, yelling across the aisles to each other, and taking pictures of everything. 
 

This is some of our group on taking a tour of the grocery store during training week.  Look at all those cameras snapping pictures of fish!



The  shelves on the left are stocked entirely with ramen noodles all the way down the aisle to where Kris is standing.  The Japanese love them some Cup Noodles!

This vending machine sells hot and cold drinks.  the cold ones have blue below them; the hot ones have red below them.  Grocery stores will also sell hot and cold bottled drinks the same way -- one case will have hot beverages and be heated while the cold case sells cold drinks.

While shopping , we see some pretty interesting things that must be popular here, but I find pretty strange.

These radishes are as tall as my torso (no joke).  By themselves, they don't have much flavor but they're not bad when mixed into stews.

Not exactly the most appetizing name for a sports drink mix.

Who doesn't need some dehydrated whole fish for snacking on?

Mayonaisse sold in tubes on shelves, not refrigerated

Nose Ball Roller...what?????

Some things we find in while shopping are pretty awesome, though.

You know those pens in America that have 3 ink colors in one pen?  Well here they have those...AND they have empty pens and sell tons of ink colors.  So you can pick which colors you want in your pen and change the colors whenever you want!  I LOOOOOOOVE it!



The way Japan does refills is brilliant.  An original bottle of shampoo (pictured above on the left) comes in a normal plastic bottle.  When you run out of that shampoo, instead of buying another plastic bottle, you buy a refill in a plastic bag (above to the right).  It saves you money AND saves another bottle from going to a landfill (and the plastic refill bag is recycled here).  This system is SO brilliant!

Kris would put this in the absurd category, but as a child who suffered many uncomfortable-shampoo-in-the-eyes hairwashings, I think this is brilliant!  you put this on the child's head to keep shampoo and water from going in his or her eyes.  Wish they'd had this when i was a kid!

Akiu (otherwise known as Gorges, Otaki and Onsen - oh my!)

This week the people of Japan celebrated Golden Week (which consists of 4 holidays within 1 week, 3 of which are consecutive).  That means we had last Friday and this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off.  Since we were limited in time and since I hurt my knee at the staff cookout on Friday, we didn't do too much on Tuesday and Thursday, just relaxed, enjoyed game nights with friends, and I baked. 


But on Wednesday, we took a trip with 6 other friends to Akiu to see the waterfall, gorge, and go to an onsen (hot springs bath).  Akiu is normally about an hour from where we live in Sendai.  It is still technically part of Sendai, but it is way out of the city, so the scenery is incredible.  It was really nice to get out of Izumi ward and explore another part of the prefecture.


Getting to the waterfall was not easy!  Luckily I had done my research (since I like to be well-prepared and well-planned for trips) and had located the address of the Akiu Hot Springs welcome center.  It's a good thing I did because that place was not easy to find.  I'm sure the signs worked well if you spoke Japanese, but we did not, so we had to trust the GPS navigation on our iPhone (which, btw, having the iPhone for the GPS navigation, free text app, and skype app alone makes it way more than worth it!).

After trying to get onto the highway at the wrong place (since we didn't have their version of the E-Z Pass, we had to drive to another location to get on the highway) and sitting in Golden Week traffic, we finally found the visitor's center.  Of course there were no signs or maps in English, but luckily the maps had pictures.  We were able to them and our iPhone to find our way the the waterfalls.

The first "waterfall" we wound up at ended up being a few tiny rapids in a gorge in a camping area.  It was a beautiful spot to eat lunch and skip stones.  A Japanese couple cooking lunch on a grill offered us some of their smoked cheese and told us about all the American shows they like (including 24 and Glee).  We offered them some Pineapple drop cookies in exchange.  One thing I've noticed about being in Japan (a country where racial diversity appears almost non-existent) is that when you are out and about people will often come up to you to practice their English or just find out if you are from America.  It's kind of fun like that.



Picnic at the gorge



After lunch we decided to try the other waterfall spot, which we were hoping was "the waterfall" that websites for Akiu advertise.  Though the map was not spatially accurate, there were luckily a few signs in English for the Akiu Falls, so we were able to find it.  I can see how it would be able to miss because you can't see the falls from the road and actually before you can even get to the falls you must walk around a temple.

The Akiu Otaki Fudoson is a Buddhist temple.  Outside the temple people light incense and wrote prayers on paper or wooden tablets (called ema) and tied them to trees or hung them on posts.  Some people stood in front of the temple, rang a gong (to get the gods' attention), and prayed or made a wish.  People also stuck coins in this tree.  In Japan sacred trees have thick ropes around their trunks. This sacred tree has a special wishing wall surrounding its trunk.


Someone burning incense in front of the temple



These people rang the bell (to get the gods' attention) and then bow in front of the temple to pray)

Written prayers hung around and near the temple. Some even hung on trees.

The Japanese people are, for the most part, not very religious.  They practice rituals and traditions of Buddhism and Shintoism (ancestral worship).  But we've learned that they "go through the motions" with the rituals of these faiths and are more correctly identified as agnostic than Buddhist or Shinto.  But more people participate in worship and traditions and rituals at shrines because of the earthquake and tsunami.  I wish and pray that they would turn to the one true God and that their faith would be placed in the reality of who He is, and not in superstition.

After walking past the temple, we made it to the falls.  At 55 meters high and 6 meters wide, it was very pretty and rather impressive.  Kris and I wanted to drive to another parking lot where you could hike a short distance to get a better, closer view of the falls, but the others were ready to hit up the onsen.

Akiu Otaki

We went to the onsen inside the Ryokusuitei.  It was only 1000 yen (about $12) and well worth the money for being so relaxing and beautiful.  Going to an onsen in Japan is a bit awkward your first few times, as these public hot spring baths require that you bathe nude.  Yes, completely in the buff.  Thankfully there are separate bathing areas for men and women!  Adding the the awkwardness is the lack of diversity in Japan.  We get stared at enough in the grocery store or on the street from being white -- so you can imagine how much worse it is when you are naked!  Luckily there were 3 larger African women there to take most of the stares.  It is also awkward because you are supposed to keep your eyes averted from everyone's naked body, but as a foreigner who has never been to an onsen before, I am looking around to try to figure out what I am supposed to be doing and what I am not supposed to be doing and where the door is to the outdoor bath and if any showers are open, etc, etc.  And while it was awkward at times, the water and outdoor bath were so relaxing.  I will definitely go to onsens again!  (Besides, those that know me well know that I fully embrace public nudity in situations where it is socially acceptable and people of the other gender aren't around).



Picture of the Onsen from the Ryokusuitei website

(PS Thanks to Barbara for these pictures!)

Michinoku Park

As part of the school's program, students from each grade have a "special day" where they get to on a field trip to different, fun places.  It gives teachers the opportunity to build relationships with students through fun activities and it also provides students with a natural environment to use their English skills.  Before we take students on these trips, we get to visit the places ahead of time so that will be familiar with it when we have students with us.  And we get to have fun with the other teachers.

Two weeks ago some of us new teachers got to visit Michinoku Park (Mee chee no koo).  It is a really awesome park located east of Sendai (about 45 minutes away) that has all kinds of neat things.  There is a flower garden, large bouncy balls covered in rope to jump on, a giant jumping donut (kind of like a moon bounce), ball pit, bouncy swings, bike go-carts, a field with giant balls (the size of children), a lake with motorboats, and an area similar to Old Economy (in Pennsylvania) with "old time" Japanese homes where students can see and participate in life as it used to be.  We had a great time exploring the park and running around like big kids.

Flower Garden

  

Kris and I on the jumping donut



It was so much fun!

 



Giant Bouncy-Balls covered in nets for jumping on 

Kris on the roller slide

Rope swing races -- Kris won!

You could swing on these bouncy-ball swings or bounce up and down on them.

On the way home we stopped for ice cream.  Ice cream here isn't cheap and the portions are certainly not American-sized.  But there are a variety of flavors.  In addition to the usual chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, coffee, etc you can also get your ice cream in flavors such as black sesame, grape, milk, green tea, rose,  EDAMAME, SOY, YAM, CORN SOUP, and more.  I stuck with sakura (cherry blossom-flavored), which is sweet and delicious).

Can you tell that my face looks a little grossed out?  That's because in attempting to get this shot, I accidentally DID lick that big plastic ice cream cone and it was NARSTY!

Kris also got to go to Manyo Park (since one of his grades will go there). It was a free park with an obstical course, playground equipment, and lawn slides.  He made a video of the lawn slides for you to enjoy.

Sakura

It's April in Japan and that means something beautiful comes to life: sakura (sah-koo-rah), otherwise known as Cherry Blossoms.  I knew that Sakura were pretty and came from Japan, but I didn't realize how big of a deal they are to people in Japan until two weeks ago, when they began to bloom. The trees are gorgeous, but I still don't quite understand the huge celebration made about them, especially since EVERYTHING in Japan blooms and it is all pretty.  Perhaps part of it has to do with the brevity of the blossoms' appearance.  Since the blossoms only last for one week, they are often associated with the fragility of life.

Sakura up close

Sakura

People celebrate the arrival of the sakura with hanami (hah-nah-me), the centuries-old practice of picnicking under the trees.  People will sit under these trees, relaxing, eating, and drinking sake.  Lanterns are hung on the trees so people can enjoy their beauty at night while drinking sake.  The parks are usually packed with people who make it a point to visit the sakura in bloom. Vendors sell food and bar owners bring their bars out to the parks.



Hanami, the tradition of picnicking under cherry blossom trees in the park downtown



Chocolate-dipped bananas sold by one food vendor

But even though I don't fully understand the tradition, I fully enjoyed it.  Kris and I went with several other teachers to a park in Ogawara that has over 1000 sakura trees!  We also got to participate in hanami on Easter Sunday at a park in downtown Sendai with people from our church, Praise Community Church.  Teachers who have lived here longer say that this year's Sakura celebrations have been much different: out of solidarity for the earthquake and tsunami victims, lanterns were not hung on trees, bartenders did not bring out their goods, game booths were absent, and food vendors were limited.  But we still really enjoyed it; even if it was different for them, it was still new and fun to us newbies.

We enjoyed strolling under the trees, taking pictures, relaxing, and enjoying treats like crepes and sakura-flavored ice cream. While we were at the park in downtown Sendai, we got to see a mini-parade with traditional Japanese fan dances and music.  Check it out. 

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Sakura at Ogawara

This tree is a shidarezakura, a type of sakura tree that looks like a weeping willow.

Kris with Sakura at Ogawara

Strolling through the park at Ogawara

Look at this beautiful view at Ogawara