2009 Year In Pictures

My ten favorite pictures from this past year:

[Whale shark]

[Palau's Seventy Islands]

[Humpback whale at close range]

[Palau's Natural Arch]

[Hibiscus flower, Geruma Island]

[Young Palauans at a first-born ceremony]

[Palau's Rock Islands]

[Palauan first-born ceremony]

[Hermit crab at sunrise, Zamami Island]

[Kindergarten students, Zamami Island]

Poultry Surprise

So I was making dinner for Mariko a few days ago and thought it would be a good time to introduce her to pheasant. I had thawed out some of the meat I'd brought from America, so I breaded it in flour/seasonings and fried it up. The thing with pheasant meat, though, is that it was killed with a shotgun. Which leads to a term that, as far as I'm concerned, my cousin Jason coined back when I was a kid: poultry surprise.


I got the first surprise. I was carefully chewing, aware I might win, when I bit down on something hard. I fished the lead pellet out of my mouth and put it on the table. Mariko was surprised, but not disgusted. A promising sign. I carefully sorted through the remaining pieces and succeeded in giving her what I thought would be pellet-free. But I ate the remainder and ended up spitting out nine pellets.

Christmas Lesson

My Christmas lessons this year consisted of making Christmas trees, snowflakes, and/or cards depending on the grade level. Here are some pictures from my 1/2 elementary class (my biggest!) at Zamami this year:

Christmas In Japan

For the third year in a row I had to work on Christmas. It's only a novelty here pushed by retailers, and presumably missionaries. Most of my students did wake up to a small present (ranging from a CD to $50) from Santa this morning, but then they had to get ready for school.

The annual Zamami Christmas party fell apart in the planning stages this year so it was supplanted by a smaller party at a local restaurant. I was instructed to wear a costume, but told it couldn't be big like last year. I did have a stellar [big] costume planned for this year, but opted for a smaller version of last year's idea instead:

Considering I was wrapped at the last minute (by my friend, Mariko) I think it turned out pretty well.

This is the Japanese sailing national team, avoiding the alcohol but doing a good job of covering the 2500 yen entrance fee by eating. They practice on Zamami every winter because we have strong winds. That tall guy in the middle was here last year and competed in the Olympics this year. I am incredibly envious of them. I would give up everything I have right now if I thought I could be supported full-time to making my body really, really fast at something.

[Mariko and me]

December 22nd

Happy Winter Solstice!

My friend Gordon claims that this is the best day of the year. And since the amount of daylight will be increasing each day for the next six months, an optimistic person should be excited about what today brings.

During my junior high class introductions, we always cover the day, date, weather, temperature, season, and time. But the students figure all of that out quickly so it's nice to add other elements. One such bit I have added is teaching them about the solstices and equinoxes and how they mark the changing of the seasons (even though one of my English teachers claims that in Japan winter begins on December 1st (she's wrong)). So I really enjoy the glow in the eyes of the kid whom I ask 'what season is it?' and then he/she realizes that today is the 21st/22nd.

I ran from 5:15-6:30am today and it was all in the dark. As per solstice tradition, I'll try to catch the sunset tonight and undoubtedly get some star watching in as I return to make dinner. Here in Okinawa the sun rises at 7:12am and sets at 5:42pm. The weather page says tomorrow will be 2 seconds longer. Hurray!

More Thoughts On America

(I wasn't satisfied with the initial post on my America trip, so I've been writing and rewriting a follow-up for weeks. I hope I've finally settled on something here that is more coherent.)

My trip home wasn't a disappointment. I spent a lot of quality time with my aging uncles and my dad. I had a nice lunch with my mom and was able to see a few other important people. The hunting wasn't great, but that's the nature of hunting. I didn't mean to imply that the reasons for the trip - hunting and seeing family - fell short in any way.

Instead it was the larger picture - the United States and how I fit into it. I didn't fit. There was a disconnect between the Me who grew up in America - and envisioned my whole life there - and the Now Me.

I've adjusted well to living abroad, to the point that it's not a novelty anymore. I have been overseas long enough (four years) to make an argument that this lifestyle best defines my adulthood. Previously, traveling to America was still 'returning home'; this year I felt like a visitor.

The "America" part of my trip was lackluster. I know the language, the cities all look the same to me, and the culture feels 'excessive'. I am looking for my life to be a challenge every day and that challenge here is taking the form of language acquisition and learning a new culture. Daily life in Japan has a constant element of 'do I know what's going on?', which makes it exciting and unpredictable.

Have you ever visited a foreign country or another state and left with a mediocre impression of it? Afterwards you think 'well that was nice (or maybe not), but I've seen enough.' That is how I felt after this trip. America still offers me family and friends, whom I want to see, and hunting, which I want to do, but I don't feel impelled to visit for travel or cultural reasons. I feel like my dad when he goes to a Seattle Mariners' game: he wants to see the game, but he hates dealing with the traffic.

How Much for a Free Drink?