Mary Newton

Track and Field

I meant to update about my trip to watch Track and Field at the prefecture-wide sports competition, but I got too wrapped up in making my video. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do! Scroll down a little -- it's there.

I actually got some really cool shots of the kids running. I didn't know any of them and even if I knew my school was running (which they weren't), I wouldn't know what to look for since no schools have school colors and uniforms are pretty much whatever they think looks best.

The track was really nice and surrounded by green trees in the mountains. I really enjoyed being there -- felt like home (with a touch of Japan laying out in the distance).

Taking the leap. I have never seen this race before, but apparently they do it in the Olympics. The 3600m run with 5 of these huge hurdles. One of them has a small water pit...

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't like running with soggy shoes and socks. Look at the poor guy in the back. He fell down in the water! Ganbare!!!

Check out these sweet shots I got of the high jump. They were doing this from 1.8 - 1.9 + meters. Dang!!!

And my favorite shirt of the day:

If there is one thing I am excited about returning home is SPORTS and being around people that get excited about them, too. Most specifically, FOOTBALL! I had football withdraws this past fall, so my enthusiasm will be twofold this season. GO COWBOYS, HORNS, COOGS, and TEXANS!!!!

New Movie Coming!

Actually, maybe more than one.

The Omura team (Meg, Zara, and I) are at it again. You may remember us from the movie Let's Go Shopping. =)  We are in the process of editing our latest video -- "Let's Enjoy Cooking." I'll have it posted by this evening, so please make sure to check it out!

On Monday I went to Isahaya to watch Track and Field. I really enjoyed sitting in a stadium among the mountains and trees and watching all the events. I managed to stay sun burn free (!!!) EXCEPT on my knees. I'm not sure how one manages just to get sunburned on their knees, but I pulled that one off pretty nicely.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a day off. The people that I sent my computer battery through called me to tell me that they are sending my battery BACK TO ME because it's "too dangerous" to ship. This spoiled my mood. I am having the worst luck trying to ship anything home. Luckily, however, things started working in my favor. Dell wants less than half the price of the battery if you can't ship it back to them, which actually turns out being less than shipping it home and then to Dell. Woohoo!!

To cheer myself up, I went to the park to read. I've been doing this a lot lately. I think that the park is my favorite place in Omura, for sure. =)

I'll have pictures and the VIDEO up later today. For now, I have my last class of the day. Time to give a speaking test! Ganbare kiddos!

Basketball!!

Yesterday I went to watch the two basketball games that my basketball girls were playing in. The first one didn't start until 11 am, so I had a laid back Saturday morning, which was nice. I watched the first game and was on my feet the whole time. It was a tight game from beginning to end, but we ended up winning the game! How exciting!

And they are off! We are the ones in the black uniforms (which surprised me because I thought for sure we'd be the white).

The second game didn't start until 3:30, so I had a nice picnic lunch to myself in our lovely park. I read my book, watched the jumping fish jump across the pond, and even saw a beagle that looked and acted just like Mandy! Awww, I miss my dog!! After lunch I still had some time, so I went to Starbucks, enjoyed a Red Bean fappuccino, and read some more. STILL having some time, I went shopping and bought a new top. Finally, time for the next game!

This time we were wearing the white uniforms. We ended up losing this game (pretty badly), but the girls fought all the way to the end. Nagasaki West is a good team.

So yesterday I learned that schools here don't have school colors -- hence the black and red / white and blue uniforms. Each team has at least two different uniforms and they wear them based on what the other team's colors are. Not too different from what we do in the States, expect the colors are so random. What fun is that? Also, they have sweats that are different colors, too. It's so confusing!

Before and after every game, they bow and THEN shake hands. Of course they bow...it's just funny to see it on the court.

After the last game I went home and Meg and I went to our favorite Izakaya up the road. The people there definitely know us and greeted us with a "long time no see!" That's so darling -- we have a regular spot! Nice.

Ok, better get off to the softball cheering! I don't think I will be out there long, which means a longer day for me!

Shipping is not impossible...

...but it IS a huge headache. Zara drove me and my big box of  clothes to the Kuroneko ("Black cat - UPS shipping service) and it turns out that it would be around 20,000 yen to send it sea-mail. No way I'm paying almost 200 dollars for that box. The volume of this box was only a little bit off (for the post-office standards), so my plan is to buy the smaller box, pack what I can, and part with the rest of the stuff. I thought for sure that I would be able to send the same box back home that was sent to me in the first place, but I was wrong.

However, I was able to ship my laptop battery home without a problem. It was expensive, but still cheaper than buying a new battery. Thank goodness. Dell also gave me an extension on the 10 day window to a month. *whew*

On a much happier note, yesterday at school was so much better than I expected it to be. Yesterday was the opening ceremonies for the huge prefecture wide sports competition that is going on this weekend, so we only had 3 shortened classes in the morning. Originally I wasn't supposed to have any classes, but it got changed so that I had 2 (instead of my usual three). Two classes isn't bad, but recently Friday's have been my least favorite days because the students just don't listen to anything and truly disrespect me and the JTE. However, I walked into my classes armed with good lesson plans and an optimistic attitude and both of them turned out to be really good classes. So much relieve on my end. Then, the students that were marching in the opening ceremonies left and the rest of us cleaned the outside of the school. I was actually  sort of dressed up yesterday, so I helped minimally, but ended up having some really good conversations with my third years (who I rarely see anymore). REAL conversations. They all became sad when I told them that I was leaving at the end of next month -- aww! They also wanted to know what Tim was up to. They haven't forgotten you, Tim! :) They were all in shock when I explained to them what you are doing. =D When we finished, I started talking to another group of students about music and movies and tv shows. That was fun, too.

Before I left school, I went up to the men's locker room and, with a lot of other teachers, watched (on the TV) our students march in the opening ceremonies in Sasebo. How exciting!!

So, a little bit about this prefecture-wide sports competition. Basically there are all kinds of sports being played all over the prefecture. If you aren't playing, you go to watch and cheer. Today I am going to the basketball game here in Omura. Tomorrow I am going to watch softball here in Omura and then on Monday I'll be in Isahaya (about 10 minutes from Omura by fast train) to watch Track and Field. I was going to go watch Kendo tomorrow in Isahaya, but the place was too difficult to get to without a car.

The game starts in less than an hour, so I better get moving. I'll take pictures!!! :)

The World Champions Of USA-Style College Football Kick #@%&

According to the Houston Chronicle my alma marter, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, the reigning World champions  (the year I graduated no less) killed The University of North Texas in Denton 56-7.  The statiscits are:  touchdowns on seven of 11 possessions, 410 yards of total offense, 95 yards of offense for North Texas (the second-lowest total for a UT opponent since 1990) and a winning streak that reached 21 games.  Amazingly, 85,123 people crammed themselves into Denton, Texas to watch the game live.  HOOK 'EM HORNS!!!!!  I love Japan, but I am sorry I missed the game.  Thank you Chron.Com my hometown newspaper, online, for keeping me up to date.

And my Houston, Texas reading gets even better.  Again, according to the  Houston Chronicle my school to be, the University of Houston, were I will be starting law school next August, won its season opener as well, besting the Rice Owls 31-30.  GO COUGARS!  That's showing them what a public education is all about!

Have you ever heard of "Kyudo"?

Yesterday I had a very interesting conversation over lunch with Shoji Sensei (a very sweet English teacher) and Honda Sensei (the PE female teacher) about, well, ME. It started out about my family and where I come from, and then they asked about where I wanted to travel while I was here. I told them that I would like to go to places like Italy, Europe, China, etc.,　but because I was trying to save money for law school while I am here, I probably won't be doing any extensive traveling. Anyways, I told them a little bit about what I did in college as far as studying for the LSAT, "passing it," applying for law schools, and getting a deferral. Both of them, especially Honda Sensei, couldn't believe I was only 21, in Japan, and headed for law school in the near future. Lots of, "waaa SUGOI!" everywhere. They were also very impressed with my family -- 4 kids and both of my parents are lawyers. Mom and Dad, you should be VERY proud of yourselves =) These things are funny to think about because in my mind, I don't really feel like I've done AMAZING things. I know that I have worked hard to get where I am, but I feel that I have so much more to do and law school will definitely test my ability to remain such a "hard worker." I was reading in one of my books last night that law school will make you become more mature, think analytically, and will help sharpen your mind. I put a little smiley face by this passage because it said, in plain English, some of the things I hope to achieve through law school. Anyways, I'll get to the point...

...after lunch I was quietly sitting at my desk trying to overcome the dizziness that the break room always seems to plague me with. Maybe it's the lack of air conditioning in the break room, or maybe it's the insane amount of Japanese I have to hear and respond with -- I dunno, but it never seems to fail. As I was sitting there wondering what to do next, the Japanese history teacher tapped me on the shoulder and told me to come with him. He is also the KYUDO teacher -- JAPANESE ARCHERY. He was inviting me to watch his girls practice!! (Keeping in mind that this school is about 80% girls). I was so excited! When I got there, one of the girls quickly got me a chair and a small cup of green tea. (The Japanese are so polite...they always keep in mind their okyakusan, guest) I thanked her, had a seat, sipped my tea, and watched the girls do their drills. I have never seen archery in person, much less Japanese archery, so I was completely amazed at the delicate movements they have to do and positions they have to be in! The practice field is basically split up in three areas: the area that they shoot their arrows from is like a small house, with clean floors (they wear only their socks). The second part is a grass field that is 26 meters long (around 85 feet). The third part is where the targets are. They look something like this. After watching for a while, Tomoko (one of the girls there), got out a practice bow (more like a stick with a thick rubber band on it) and taught me how to aim and shoot. When the arrow (ya) hits the target, everyone yells "SEI." In many ways, the whole process is like dancing...from the way you put your hand around the bow to bringing it down to your face in order to shoot -- it's quite intricate. And I have noticed over the years that many things are like that in Japan. Even walking in a kimono takes skill (I know, I've tried). The teacher said that next time (maybe today?) I can try again, but this time with an actual bow and arrow. Haha, I hope that I can at least get the arrow to travel the whole 85 feet =)

This experience was great because it (1) Got me out of the staff room, (2) Gave me the opportunity to meet some of the students, and (3) Introduced me to something totally new! Afterward I got to talk to some of the girls. A couple of them really loved the TEXAS EX bracelet Mrs. Wingfield gave me as a graduation gift and the necklace Lauren gave me before I left. "Waa! SUTEKI NA!!" (So cool/fashionable!) The bracelet also lead to talking about UT and I sorta taught them the HOOK 'EM sign -- this would be a fun one to have them do -- instead of saying 'HELLO!,' they could say "hook 'em" when they see me in the hallways =) I also got asked (again) if I had a boyfriend. I told them I didn't. I better watch out or I might find myself randomly amongst a lot of single Japanese guys. I asked another JET about this and she said that when she told some of her girls she was single, they started to try to hook her up with older brothers, friends, and joked about her marrying teachers. haha. I think I'm fitting in here just fine -- school starts on the 23rd, so hopefully it lasts =)

Oh, and last night Meghan rode my bike (that I'm borrowing from another JET) to my apartment. It's yellow (which is great because I'll always know which one is mine -- all the bikes usually look the same b/c they're all gray -- how do people tell the difference?!!) with a basket and light in the front. I still prefer to walk for now, but when I'm in a hurry or have a long distance to go and when it gets cold, it will be very handy. :D

Have a great weekend, everyone!!