Nagoya Festival 2008

Nagoya Festival

We spent four hours watching the Nagoya Festival Parade! The first 1 1/2 hours weren't so hot, kind of boring, parade of temples and young children and their "floats". The remainder was just great! Very beautiful, authentic, colorful costumes. Many of them were so excited to wave to the Americans. One man walked over to us and asked where we came from, and proceeded to try and play an American song on his conch shell! Everyone stopped and listened and cheered when he was done, then they all waved good-bye to us.

Halloween in Japan! A neighbor had a party to show some Japanese children what we do in America. It was mostly small children but my big kids helped out. We trick-or-treated to seven houses around our block (prearranged of course) and they had a treasure hunt and various costume and jack-o-lantern contests. Now for the irony. We dressed Erika up as a Japanese girl! Straightened her hair and spray painted her hair black. Well, it didn't wash out! No kidding, she cannot get the black out! So I don't know how long she will be a brunette!

Halloween Party

Halloween Party

MAIL

For some reason we were having difficulty with the Post Office. Some stuff they delivered, but much was returned. Then they put a form in my mailbox (in Japanese of course) that Eric took to the translators. They said "Where did you get this form?" He told them it was delivered in our mailbox. It was a form for permission to deliver mail to those in our house. The ironic thing is that they addressed it to Eric Patton. The translators thought this very weird. So we filled it out and turned it in. Still no mail. Then Eric's translator called the post office. They said they needed to send someone out to see if we were really who we said we were. The translators said they'd never seen this happen before. Well, after two more phone calls the post office decided they didn't need to do this. So long story short is we are supposed to be getting mail now. To be safe though, I would mail any envelopes to our house in Marysville, Boeing will forward them to us (letters/cards only). Takes a bit longer (1 week-10days) but is much cheaper and guaranteed to get to us. Sorry for the trouble. Any packages must be mailed to our Japanese address: Greenfield B, 2-801 Kifune, Meito-Ku Nagoya, 465-0058

My apologies to those who mailed stuff to us and had it returned.

House

I'm going to work!

Yeah! I've got a job! Of course it's teaching! I sent in my resume and applied to substitute teach and tutor at the kids' school, Nagoya International School. I have been accepted and I have my first day on Friday. Teaching P.E. no less! What is really ironic is that they just started Presidential Physical Fitness! No, I am not kidding. For those of you who are wondering what's the big deal, I have taught Pres. Physical Fitness with our co-op for two years. The p.e. teacher was shocked to say the least that I had any idea what it was, cool for me! I have also been asked to tutor a 9th grader in math 1-2x/week. The sub-teaching pays 8000yen/day and the tutoring is 4000yen/hour! That is equivilant to about $80/day and $40/hour! I already have it spent, I will go have my hair done I think! Hee Hee! The biggest blessing is I will have a purpose once again and feel useful. I am so excited!

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle!

Recycling in Japan is quite an undertaking. I thought Washington was big into recycling; they can't come anywhere near Japan! You won't believe this, but I have 9 different bags to sort my garbage into. Mother, you never liked it when I had my ONE recycle box in my kitchen, you cannot imagine now! My bag of actual waste (they call this "burnables") is so tiny it's unbelievable. If they had garbage disposals here it would be even smaller. I have a bag for anything plastic (which seems to be 90% of my garbage every week, everything in Japan is wrapped in plastic of some sort!), a bag for anything paper, a bag for cans, a bag for plastic bottles (they call them PET bottles), a bag for anything not burnable (ceramic bowl, broken umbrella, etc), I also have to separate all glass bottles, corrugated cardboard, and milk/juice containers, and newspapers, all of which must be taken down the street weekly to a designated drop-off. Now I know you are thinking, why bother? If you don't sort your garbage correctly they give you a warning, then they will fine you! If you continue, they will refuse to pick up your garbage anymore! I think the Japanese are serious about their recycling! I appreciate the philosophy to take care of the environment and the results are clearly worth. Japan is the cleanest place I've ever seen. They don't have the land for huge landfills like the US does. So, we recycle! It is really crazy though, our first few weeks here, we were so stressed out about which bag a piece of garbage goes into! You say, "It can't be that difficult Shawn." NOT! You would not believe how confusing it can become. I think we've got it down now, but we do have our moments. More later!