I love the art of James Jean and have a soft spot for Fables covers.

Check out more of James Jean's work at www.processrecess.com.

On Sunday, Paul, Amy and Juhi--ALTs from the mainland--were over here on Ie, so I joined them on a tour. We climbed Mt. Gusuku and hiked around the island to the lily field, where Paul and I right down to the bottom of the northern cliffs. The tide was just high enough where the water would crash into the cliffs and wash over our legs. It was a little foolish of us--one misstep could have meant severe lacerations, a broken leg or possibly even death if we happened to fall into the water. The waves on the northern side of the island are especially strong, and you wouldn't stand much of a chance against the sharp rocks. I nicked my hand just leaning against one.

We trekked up to higher ground after that and enjoyed some ice cream as we took in the view of the open ocean. Paul and I did some more hiking down to the shore--about a twenty minute walk--and took in the view from a lower vantage point.





All in all, a pretty decent Sunday.

A Detour

I went out for a walk today, headed for the activity center on the other side of the island. About halfway there, I ran into an older man getting into his truck. He says hello and I, of course, reply. We strike up a conversation, since I'm want for English conversation anyway and he appears as if he wants to sharpen his speaking skills.

We talk about his grandkids and how long he's lived on the island. He was born around 1935 and was alive when the Americans invaded the island. He reaches into his pickup and pulls out a folder. He hands it to me and I tentatively look inside to find photos of the island from 1945. There are pictures of scared looking children, an American G.I. holding a canteen to a little girl's mouth as she drinks greedily and a photo of the junior high school, decimated from canon shells from minna-shima, the island a few kilometers away.

"Wow, these are amazing," I say. Suddenly I feel very small and guilty.

"Would you like to see some more?"

"Sure."

We jump in his truck and he takes me to his house. He leads me inside and begins pulling out photo albums and pointing to pictures. "Here's Ernie Pyle the day before he died." He pulls out a map and points to the southwest shore of the island. "Here's where the American ships came to shore," pointing at the map and again to another picture, this time of an entrenched shoreline. "And here," he said, pulling out another album and flipping to the middle, "Is a paper dropped a month before the Americans came."

The 60-some year-old paper, pressed between the album pages, had Japanese writing on one side and a drawing of the Pacific theater on the other. Moving toward Japan were simply drawn American ships and planes, filling up the entire Pacific ocean.

"The Americans dropped it?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes."

"Wow." I said this a lot. I can be quite the conversationalist.

"Come on, I'll show you something else."

We got up and jumped in his truck again. We didn't drive very far before he pulled into a yard. He pointed at a large gajumaru tree between two houses.

"Two Japanese soldiers lived in that tree when the Americans came. They hid during the day and looked for food at night. Americans never saw them."

I'd heard this story before; the elementary school students perform a play for the surviving Japanese soldier every year. I had been slightly incredulous, but seeing the tree, massive and overgrown, I could believe it.

"Was it the same size in the 1940s?"

"Yes. About the same."

We admired it for a moment before we jumped back into the truck. He took me past a cave, where 20,000 year-old fossils from an extinct deer had been found and where people hid during WWII. Then he took me past a large airstrip.

"The bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. It refueled here before heading back to the U.S." He said this nonchalantly, more interested in the history. A tingle zigged-zagged down my spine.

Satisfied he'd shown me enough, he took me to the activity center and we exchanged phone numbers.

"Next week, you can come to dinner. I'll give my grandson a note to give you at school."

"That sounds great," I said. We shook hands and he got in his truck and drove off.

I went inside for a swim.

Not-So Busy

Students are busy preparing for midterms, which largely cuts me out of this week's schedule. My time has been mostly mine to fill. I fill the time with Japanese studying and focusing on working my speech students.

I usually meet them at the end of the day and I am currently drilling them, trying to make sure their speeches are memorized. This has been an arduous process; I can't imagine how difficult it is to memorize a speech in a foreign language, but my students have plowed right ahead, and though they're both still a little rocky, we've started to work on gestures and some actual acting.

Sometimes the process is frustrating. I want them to just "get it," but I can't expect them to. It's difficult for me to ask them to take it slowly because I want to get to the next part of the of the process and it's obvious they want as well. But taking it slowly is the way to go, and I admire their determination.

Lunch with the 9th Graders

"You have tests next week? What tests?"

"English. Math. Social studies. Science. Japanese."

"I see. It sucks to be you."

"Yes."

"Do you understand what that means?"

"No."

"Well, 'it sucks' means it's bad. Kinda. 'It sucks. 'The movie sucks.' 'To be you' is like, anatani natteiru. Being you, it sucks. Understand?"

"Yes, I do."

"Well, sucks to be you."

"Yes."

ikitaina

Let's Get Together!

World of Warcraft has fallen to the wayside as I'm playing through Zelda and Paper Mario. WoW has a level cap of 70 and I am currently 48, but I'd like to attain that goal to experience some of what WoW endgame has to offer. I was clipping along at leveling at a decent pace, but between three games, I only have so much time, and since I plan to reactivate my FFXI account come June to experience some of the new content, I've stepped away from one time-consuming massive since I know I'll be busy with another in a few weeks.

But, wonder of wonders, I've been talking with Jeremy and Nolan back in the states and it's possible that we'll be playing WoW together on the weekends when I have some free time. I'm hoping to get a hold of Trevor to see if he would care to join us.

Red Night

Book club was good. David picked me up and we had a decent discussion of Cities of the Red Night in the car--which was more interesting than the discussion at the book club. That turned into more of a social gathering after the book conversation deteriorated. The general consensus was that no one understood the point and the rampant homosexual sex was distracting. About 1/3 of our number didn't finish the book, citing the graphic sex as the major deterrent. Sex is everywhere, the logic revolves around it ("How do we solve this problem?" "Sodomy?" *insert sodomy act here* "Wow, I have a great idea that totally solves everything!") and except for one or two occasions, there's few instances of heterosexual sex. The novel is tied primarily to masculine experience, and I think it says a lot that the majority of the club's female readers didn't finish it.

I was pleased when I got to defend Equus when Jen expressed some outrage about Daniel Radcliffe's role as Alan Strang in the recent London production. I secretly coveted that role when I first read Equus. It's a perfect role for a young male actor. Equus also happens to be my favorite play, but despite that I've never seen a production. The London production also has Richard Giffiths in the Martin Dysart role. The Alan Strang role for the middle-aged man.

After book club it was back to David's apartment for some Seinfeld and to peruse his Flight graphic novels.

Also: an idea for after JET begins to percolate.

Not a bad night, all-in-all.

If I was into Splurging:

This Month in Reading

I'm looking forward to getting off-island tomorrow for the monthly book club meeting. This month's choice is Cities of the Red Night. I'm annoyed with the choice. As the first in a trilogy of books, I am now beginning to realize, with some 30 pages left, that there will be no conclusion and I will be inclined to read the sequels. A good book, as far as I can understand it. There's a lot of skipping back and forth through time and Burroughs doesn't bother to explain any of it. Instead you're just caught up in the flow of time travel, viral infections and sodomy. In any case, Burroughs can't be accused of talking down to his audience and he rather expects me to put it together myself.

I should also note that Cities has given me a few ideas for what I'm currently working on. The shifting narrative is something I'd like to better integrate, and Burroughs does it almost flawlessly. I think mostly because he does it with such confidence.

I forget what next month's book is, or if we'll meet again before the start of the new JET year (August). Either way, it's probably time to head back into the list of books I want to read and doing some light prep reading for July's little book event.

Funny Animals

I love animation but am tired of "funny animal" movies and would like to see something that is a step up from Shrek and The Incredibles. I was disappointed when it seemed that Brad Bird was taking what I thought was a step back with Ratatouille.

Well, watch this.

Edit: Above link appears to be dead, so here's a page compilation of all Ratatouille trailers and previews.

I bought a Wii this past weekend, and true to sites I've seen before, the safety manual is a little whacked.

But now, me and my Wii:



(Sorry, my digital camera broke recently and only have my phone's camera)

I'm working my way through Zelda and Super Paper Mario. Both of which I have little understanding of story-wise, though both seem to have a theme of demonic squares/pixels.