Actually, not really. But as this has become the only place where I consistently write in, I will now produce a short form, maybe list, of the activities I have done since this new year:
l I saw horses! Wild horses! And monkeys! On a monkey island! A few weekends ago, I went to Miyazaki with some friends. We went to Cape Toi, which is home of the wild horses, who are, much as most things claimed to be famous by the Japanese, not actually wild. Well, they let us touch them. And don’t do much. And have really fat stomachs but really skinny legs. I don’t remember the name of the monkey island, but I think the monkeys on it are supposed to be very smart as they wash their potatoes before eating them. However, the dude that drove the boat that took us to Monkey Island said that they just did it once, and it was in front of a television camera. Nevertheless, we saw a bunch of monkeys, who immediately swarmed us as we stepped onto Monkey Island. There was a mother monkey nursing her young! There was an adolescent monkey sucking on clams! I took a bunch of photos with my cell phone, but I don’t know nor do I plan on learning how to upload pictures here. So you will just have to imagine the awesomeness of Monkey Island.
l On the same trip, we also went to a cool shrine that’s built partially into a cave/mountain, and we ate in both a Rastafarian and a Middle Eastern restaurant. And this is why Miyazaki may be the most awesome place in all of Japan. It’s gorgeous, has a beautiful coastline that attracts surfers from all over the world, which is probably why people there seem more laidback and able to break free from the required norm unlike in other places, has delicious food, is warmer than Chiran in the winter, has at least one Israeli living in the city (shakshuka! Shwarma! ), plus the aforementioned wild horses and Monkey Island. Oh! I forgot to say that we also saw monkeys all along the road as we were driving. So not only is there a monkey island, there are monkeys just hanging everywhere! I kind of dislike monkeys as they’re pretty creepy and capable of terrible evils, but I think we can all agree that seeing random monkeys whose habitat in every other place I’ve been has been zoos just chilling is pretty awesome.
l This weekend I went ice skating! We went to an ice skating rink in Ebino Plateau (or Ebino Tableland, as the signs read) which is also technically (maybe) in Miyazaki. It was in Kirishima National Park, which is in both prefectures. At first it was very very cold, and I could see dustings of snow on the mountains in the distance. But then we started skating, and it was the perfect temperature. I forgot how much I used to love ice skating. I think it was the first time I skated without having my toes feel like they would fall off. I also managed to do some crossovers (or “Leg-Over-Leg”s, which is a much better name in my opinion), which I don’t think I ever could despite the skating lessons I used to take. It also snowed a little while on ice, which made me nostalgic for the winters of home and the beauty of the first snowfall before everything becomes grey and a nuisance. It was a very nice day, in a very nice weekend.
l Today I was at one of my favourite elementary schools and after one of the best school lunches ever I was treated to a concert by the 3rd and 4th graders with whom I had been eating. They played a song called the Bumblebee Something on these little handheld keyboards that have tube attached that they breathe into. I have no idea what it’s actually called, but it’s awesome. Then they played another song with some of the kids now on recorders and one on an actual electric piano. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen, and I really wish I could have recorded it. It is things like this that make me love my job.
l I have decided to recontract. Last week I signed the papers, and today it was made official. I am staying in Chiran for another year!
Now I am off to a late dinner.
2 comments:
I had one of those keyboard-with-a-mouthpiece instruments when I was a kid in Japan.
You're adorable.
You are staying another year? Whaaaaaa?!!??!? Does the Hawk, Uncle Jesse and the Morgatron have to come and rescue you from the evil monkey island? Don't think we won't. And don't think we won't find a train that goes all the way back to Canada.
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