Sports Festival and Inkai

I haven't written in a while for two main reasons: 1) nothing terribly different has happened and 2) I have been worn out at night and gone to bed. I went to school all this week and sat in the office mostly while the students and teachers rehersed the sports festival activities. On Wednesday I got some nice color from staying outside all day. I'm not too badly burned, and it saves me from having to wear make-up. In the office I usually focus on trying to stay awake, making pictures for my self-introduction lesson, and play on the internet when no one is watching. :) And of course watch the students. School lunches have been interesting, because of both the food and the company. I eat with a different English teacher's home room everyday. I end up not getting to eat much, because you will remember that they eat super fast and most of the classes are required to introduce themselves to me. So yesterday, for example, I didn't get to eat much because all of the 35 students had a 15 minute time period to come up to me, introduce themselves, tell me what like and don't like, what sports they play, and how old they are. :) It's too cute, but I had to respond to 35 different kids! :) And of course there is the food aspect, but that has been do-able. Even the natto wasn't as bad as I expected. I could eat it if I haaaaad to. But the kids love to see my funny face when I smell or taste it. Denver left a legacy of *hating* natto. :) Everyone mentions it. Glad to follow in those footsteps!
Last night Peter and Jessica came to Hitachi to visit me! It was so sweet of them to make the trek, although they couldn't stay too long. The only time I've really felt completely at ease in Japan is when I am with those guys. I got to pretend to be an expert on Hitachi City and give them a brief tour. We had to laugh because it just seems so odd that the three of us would end up in Japan together. I was supposed to go to Brazil, Jess was supposed to go to Mexico, and Peter was supposed to go to grad school. How did we end up here? The Lord has his plan. We're just waiting to find out what it is! :) I appreciate so much those guys making the effort to come out here, and anyone else who wants to come is very welcome as often as they want. :)
Today was a big day. This morning/afternoon was the aforementioned sports festival. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but I had a great time. The weather was perfect, there was a huge crowd to cheer on the kids, and everyone just had a goofy good time cheering for each other and encouraging the kiddos. What I found fascinating about this is that most events require teamwork, as in being tied to another person or having to hold someone's hand or a relay or something. I never saw any of the students get angry at a person who was slower and causing the team to lose-- instead they just kept right on supporting each other and encouraging each other til the end. Also, the teachers were amazingly supportive. They compete in homerooms, and the teachers were the best cheerleaders I've ever seen. The would run alongside their kids and yell for them the whole way. So sweet. I hope to be a teacher like that. I'll post pictures ASAP.
After the sports festival all of the teachers were going to have a big inkai (someone correct my spelling if you know) to celebrate the sports festival and my arrival. An inkai is translated as a drinking party. I had heard of these, and pretty much everyone I know in Japan has been to at least one. What happens is a group of people get together to eat and drink for hours on end. When I had just heard about these, I was a little wary of it, but I knew that I *had* to go. It was in my honor! But as a person who had no plans to get drunk, I was unsure as to how much fun I'd have. But it turned out to be not what I had envisioned. It kind of reminded me of an old timey feast. There was so much food, and yes so much liquor, but I didn't really notice that many people were just wasted beyond comprehension by the end of the night. They just loosened up some. I got to give a short speech (a very popular thing in Japan), and I had some interesting food. I made sure to eat something before I went, because I had a feeling there'd be some crazy stuff. Well the first dish was an entire fish just sitting on a plate in front of us. Luckily my Honduras adventure prepared me for this, so I could handle that. Although it's tricky working that whole fish with chopsticks. So that was odd but manageable. The next dish was not so manageable. We each had little burners in front of us, and the waitresses came and put these covered dishes on top of the burners. I opened mine to find a live mussle (is that how you spell it?)!!!!!!!! It was squirming and being killed right before my eyes! It even had a pat of butter on top-- isn't that just adding insult to injury for the poor creature? I tried a bite of it, but gagged and couldn't do the whole thing. Japanese people love watching gaijin reactions to food. And one thing I have learned in Japan is that food is never what you think it is. I thought there were some potatos on a dish in front of me, but they weren't potatos. I don't know what they were, but I couldn't be too afraid of a vegetable at that point after the mussle. There was a huge plate of sashimi (raw fish) in front of me, but the cuts were so big that I knew I couldn't handle that. Especially straight without any rice or anything to buffer the blow. So my co-workers were merciful and allowed me to pass. I think they felt bad about the mussle. Then we had some noddles which were fine, some fried oyster and fried chicken (yes! something familiar!), and a big plate of nashi (asian pear) and grapes. By the way, I learned today that they peel their grapes before they eat them. Crazy, ay? But good. I drank sooo much oolan tea tonight. It is some kind of honor to have someone pour your drink for you, so tonight me and all the PE teachers were being honored so everyone wanted to pour us a drink. I drank lots o' tea. I'm sure I'll be regretting that during my 32 bathroom trip tonight. Overall, my first inkai was a great experience. I got to meet a lot of the teachers and bond with them. Plus I had a great hair night. My hair is straight for the first time since I've been here-- thank you humidity and typhoon season. I'll take a picture so you can see my straight hair and my tan.
In other random matters, today is September 11th. That is so strange-- it's been three years. In one sense, three whole years, in another, it's just been 3 years. Although I know all our lives were changed on that day, some were effected far more than mine. The children without parents, the people who lost spouses... and million other relationships were severed that day. God bless the survivors of that attack and all those who have been victims since.
Right now I'm reading Phillip Yancey's, "The Jesus I Never Knew." It's pretty good. I need something to keep my spiritual/intellectual side going.
Song of the moment is "Never There" by Cake. I don't know why... I just like it. :) Maybe I'll get a chance to karaoke it soon!
That's all. I'll be better about writing next week. :)