Holiday (Part 1)

We had a wonderful holiday time! Christmas and New Years were lonely yet amazing!

December was filled with many events! The first of which was a party thrown by the Japanese Class we go to. Many came and we filled the place with food and laughter. We performed a few songs for the group: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Santa Baby, Silent Night, and Baby It's Cold Outside. We had a huge Bingo game where literally everyone won something! Twice! :)



Later in the month we had a large group of the JET's at our house having a decorating party. We made oragami, cards, and Erika taught everyone how to make Norwegian heart baskets.
There was lots of food and fun!



Thayne got to be Santa for some type of charity work for Filipino's. I don't really know much about it. I just got a call from a friend and asked if I wanted to be Santa and pass out gifts at this big party. I said sure!

At school, Erika started her holiday lessons at school. She taught about the traditions, celebrations, and songs that are experienced in America and Norway. During these lessons, her students had the opportunity to earn (fake) american money for participating, answering questions right, etc...
This money could then be used to buy items at her Christmas Shop at the end of December. While searching around through old boxes and debris in a side room, Erika and O'Hara (the other teacher) found a bunch of Christmas decorations and a few Mr. and Mrs. Clause suits.

No one had decorated or been festive for about 7 years so, it was time to change that. Erika, with the help of her English Club, decorated the classroom with trees, garland, presents, etc.. When it came time for the Christmas Shop, Erika and Thayne dressed up as Mr. and Mrs. Santa Clause and O'Hara dressed up as a Christmas Tree. For sale at the shop, there was candy, chips, decorations, and more. The HOT items were the pictures, O'Hara-Sensei had taken some pictures of Erika, from the wedding\engagement, and printed them. These were easily the first to go. After the shop, it was time for OUR Christmas planning.


We had all of Erika's fellow English teachers (not JET's but Japanese teachers at her school that teach English with her) over for a small Christmas party. We ate and played a few games. The favorite was a game we learned at Uncle David's house. You roll 2 dice(die). If you get doubles then you have to put on gloves, sunglasses, and a hat. Once all 3 items are on, you start opening a gift. Once you tear into it, you realize that there is MORE to open.



The gift is wrapped with many layers that are NOT EASY to get into! While you are busy ripping through layers, the other players are still rolling the dice. Once another player gets doubles then you have to give them all the items and it's their turn. The game continues until some finally gets the gift. The Japanese tend to be very shy and calm natured. It took a lot of coaxing from the hosts to get them to put on the items faster than you would if your were casually going outside, and to RIP into the presents.. not just unwrap them without tearing the paper. After a while, they got into it!

Christmas day this year was spent a bit different then normal. Erika still had school to go to and Thayne went to his Japanese class, just like any other Friday. That evening we cooked a HUGE dinner. For an appetizer, we had some fun chips along with some great bruscetta that Erika made.


We fried a whole chicken in a frying pan (it was our 3 try at cooking it - but no other option). It actually worked GREAT! We also had (top left): Butternut Squash, homemade creamed-corm, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing (bot left:) cranberry sauce, green beans, and red cabbage with soy sauce. We had also made a broccoli\rasin salad but we forgot about that and had it with the leftovers the next few days. We were very full and happy! We opened presents and played some games. We definitely missed being with family but it was still a wonderful quiet Christmas!

Let's Sumo!

The day started with a nice 2.5 hour drive to Fukuoka. A friend Dustin drove us, along with Rhianna and her friend Mike. When we got there we finally found some parking and made our way to the arena. When we first got there there was a (lower class) sumo wrestler there. We got a picture with him. When we went to our seats we were surprised to see how empty the place was. We found our seats with our group. There were probably about 30-40 JETS in our section. We were, as many younger adults are, rather noisy. There was a Japanese man in front of us. He kept turning around and looking at us like we were doing something wrong. We (Erika and I) were not loud at all but because we were speaking English plus 30 other English speakers chatting at the same time, Im sure it SEEMED a lot louder than it actually was. Half way through, the crowds grew until the arena was packed! Everyone one else was just as noisy as us. (for the most part). Eventually our lil Japanese friend in front of us went and got a worker. The worker came to us and wrote a txt and showed it to us that said something to the effect of "It would be good to keep more quiet". So we tried.
Sumo is quite an interesting sport. We learned quite a bit about it. The basic is this: Get your opponent either on the ground or out of the ring. This is actually not as hard as it sounds. If ANY part, other than feet, of your opponent touches the ground - you win. If they step out - you win. Obviously there is skill involved but one slip or trip and you're out.
It starts with about 15 Sumo's coming out and "presenting" themselves. The all come out around the ring, do a little hand jig and then leave. The first two come out, battle then the next two, etc... You only get ONE chance to defeat an opponent. When the two get to the ring, there is a ritual that is completed first. A man comes to the center and sings their names. They enter and stomp a couple times (traditionally to get rid of evil spirits), then throw salt into the ring for good luck. They face each other, stomp again, bend down and intimidate each other facially. Then one stands up, goes back to the side of the stage, the other returns to his side. They repeat the process, stomp, salt, face, stomp, bend over, then back to the corners. This happens about 3-5 times. Finally when they are both ready they run at each other. The match is over within 5-30sec. Preparation usually took about 5 minuets, if not more. To rise in the ranks you have to win. The more matches you win the higher in rank you become.


We had a LOT of fun! There are, surprisingly, very few Japanese sumo wrestlers. Most are from Mongolia, America, Hawaiian, Samoan, and other nationalities. One wrestler told a friend that his breakfast typically consisted of 1 whole chicken, 2 bowels of rice, and 6 eggs. Many eat stews. Their days are long with much training and preparation for their matches. Many begin around 5am and last until 10:30. They typically only eat 2 times a day and often sleep after their meals to gain more weight. Surprisingly, many of the Sumo's, even though EXTREMELY LARGE, are quite strong. They can pick each other up!
The winner (of the top 2 ranking) does a "victory dance" at the end. It was a type of Karate staff routine.

Hong Kong

So this past weekend (Oct. 31 - Nov. 4) we traveled to Hong Kong. For those of you that don't know your history - Hong Kong was under British rule during the mid-1800's. Then occupied by Japan during WWII. In 1983, Britain regained it's control of Hong Kong. In 1997, Britain gave Hong Kong back to the PRC (People's Republic of China). As of now, HK is part of China, but not under control of the Chinese communist gov't. - Just a brief history of HK!

Back in the states, we attended North Blvd Church of Christ. There we had a friend named Stacy Kile. Her parents have lived in Hong Kong for about 3 years now, transferred by her dad's work. We have met them a few times and this last time we mentioned to Stacy's mom, Sandy, that we were moving to Japan. They told us to let them know if we wanted to come to HK and that we would have a place to stay. So, that's what we did.

We flew from Fukuoka, Japan to Taipei, Taiwan (hour lay-over) then to Hong Kong. Sandy met us at the airport and took us home. Their apartment was beautiful! Joy, their domestic helper from the Philippians, had made spaghetti for us! That night we went across the river to Kowloon and watched the light show. Many buildings have laser lights or some other light that creates a symphony of lights coordinated to music. It was quite impressive. We then walked down Tsim Tsa Tsui "Avenue of Stars". There, we saw Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan's hand prints.

The next morning we went to The Peak, the top of the mountain that over looks Hong Kong. From there we could see SO much, it was beautiful. We walked around the path that circles the top part of the mountains. The weather was wonderful. Nice cool breeze and warm sun.



We headed back to the apartment to get ready for church. The church there in Hong Kong is about 95% Filipino women. There are 2 or 3 men there. They asked me to lead a few songs, which I was thrilled to do! It was great to be able to worship with a congregation again!


That evening we took a walk through the park, right in the heart of HK. Bob and Sandy treated us to a very filling 'Western Meal' at Dan Ryans. After that we went to the Temple St. Night Market. We found many things we had been looking for, almost got squished by the crowds, and saw many interesting and useless items for sale :)


The next morning we went on the Longest Escalator in the world. It's actually a series of escalators but it was still very neat. It spans a distance of 2,600 feet (790 m). In the morning it travels DOWN (for residence getting down to the city) then it stops and goes UP for the rest of the day. If you go up and want to come back down it will be around 600+ steps. We stopped by a temple where they were having some special ceremony. The red carpet was laid and police were standing by. We got to go in for a bit but the smell of incense got too strong and we decided to head out. After lunch we visited Tian Tan, the world's largest sitting Buddha at Lantau Island. To get there you take the Ngong Ping Skyrail for about 20 min. It's a beautiful ride. It just so happened that we decided to go on an extremely windy day. lol. We were a bit scared a few times hanging over mountains, rocks, trees, and large bodies of water. Once you make the breath-taking skyrail, you walk about 15 min to the actual Buddha, then up 268 steps. The Buddha sits 34 metres (110 ft) tall and weighs 250 metric tons.



The next day we went to the Stanley Market, Jade Market, and the Ladies Market. It was basically a day of walking around, exploring and shopping. Wednesday morning we explored around the Escalator again. We had a wonderful time. Sandy got to come most places with us. She was a great guide! Bob and Sandy just found out they will be moving back to the states in a week. We JUST made it - if we came any later the Kile's would not have been there. So it was nice for her to be able to go do all the touristy things one last time.

It was very interesting. When doing any type of construction the Hong Kongese would use bamboo scaffolding. Quite scary looking but I guess it works!

We took the same route back home. We got home to Oita City around 12:30am Thursday Morning. We went to go get our bikes where we had left them.... They were NOT where we left them. We were so tired and now we don't have bikes. After searching around a bit we found them. People often move bikes because they need to get to theirs and can't but normally they'll move it over... not 15 feet away! We were very relieved! We went home, ate, and went to bed!


(Market stuff)
(5ooth Step)
(rawr!)
(goose, chicken, etc...)
(Bamboo scaffolding)