Randomness...

First random thing...Google maps showed me how to get from Okinawa to Los Angeles by doing the following:

Full-screen

Kayak across the Pacific Ocean Entering United States (Hawaii) for 6,243 miles!!!

(I would eventually proceed to take the 5 south to the 210). LOL, that made my day.

Okinawa Beach

I went to the "big" 100 yen store last week. 100 yen stores are very popular here and they are everywhere. There aren't any malls here, just big stores that have everything in them, kinda like Super Wal Marts with food, clothes, electronics, etc inside. The "big" 100 yen store is supposedly one of the biggest around here, it is huge with a great variety of items. It's a great place to buy cleaning and school supplies.

Japanese LOVE fake eyelashes!

It's been about a week since my last update and I have a lot to blog about! Everyone has been asking about how the rest of my school week went so I'll start there.

My first full week was very tiring but by the end of the week, I really felt like my students were getting into a good routine and that things were starting to settle down a bit. It's still very hot and HUMID and I still sweat while eating lunch without the AC on and during recess watching the kids play on the blacktop (they have no grass to play in, very sad!).
The burning question... YES, my "difficult" student came back to class! Tuesday he sat by the principal's office up until lunch time, then decided to come to class and just sit at his desk...not doing a thing. Wednesday he came to class the whole day but again, didn't do any work, just sat there. By Friday he was doing most of his work and even raising his hand to answer questions. He made the class put their heads down 3 times on Friday for speaking Japanese. He is coming around, slowly. I decided that I was being a little too strict with my students and that in order to keep sane I needed to ease up a bit. I am trying to be more open with my students and realize that they are 6, 7 and 8 year olds. I was able to have some fun with them on Friday and laugh a lot more. I am confident that I will be able to be myself and have fun with them as time goes on. I stayed at school until 5-6pm almost everyday last week. By the time I got home I would spend a few hours online (Skype, email, facebook), cook dinner, shower and it would be bed time already! The week flew by because of how busy I was. Once I get into the routine I don't think I'll have to stay at school as long to do my lesson plans.
Oh, I can't forget, I got my daily hug from my student that loves hugging me after school everyday. I'm going to try to get a picture of her hugging me...words can't describe her chubby little face as she wraps her arms around me and looks up at me with a grin so big her eyes are closed =)

Just some random notes of observation on daily life in Japan that I thought you'd be interested in:

I ate at Mc Donald's here for the first time, actually pretty good! Not as greasy but an interesting menu selection! I stuck with the big mac!!

Politics: Last week before the elections ended there were cars and vans driving around playing recorded speeches of people who were running for office. They had really loud speakers which you could clearly hear from any building you were inside of. Kinda weird.
I saw some silent protesters in front of one of the military bases. There were about 5 of them standing with signs in Japanese, protesting the American military presence here in Okinawa. I was told many of the protesters come from mainland Japan and are people that aren't actually Okinawa residents. Most Okinawan people seem to like the American military and even say that without American military their economy would crash. When you see how big the bases are and how little the island is, it makes you think that residents here would not like the bases. The bases are huge with big roads and lots of green, open fields. Everything on base makes you feel like you are in the United States, the food, people, culture, everything except the fact that you still drive on the left side of the road and your wheel is on the right. Today when I was on base I accidentally drove on the right side of the road for a second because it felt so much like home!

I live in Okinawa City, right next to Kadena Air Base.

Trash: trash is very much organized here. We have to get our trash bags from the store in back of our apartment complex. The trash bags are different depending on what type of trash goes into them. You separate trash depending on if it's burnable or recyclable, . We have a poster showing what types of trash go into the different trash bags, which all go out on different days of the week. So, you can't just throw your trash away, it takes some getting used to. I'm very impressed by students, even the young ones know how to separate their trash and throw it into the correct trash bins!

Poster above our trashcan

Cars: there are countless scooter's here. Most cars and scooters go through red lights and squeeze in between spaces you didn't think would be possible. Making a U-turn in our car feels like we are going to flip over. Our car is so small, it truly feels like we are driving a bumper car at times. I've seen a few nice cars but it's not the Japan car scene I expected, I think I'll see more of that in Tokyo.
I definitely did not leave being directionally challenged in the states (everyone calls the U.S.A. the states here). Jessica and I switch off driving to and from school but I always seem to take us on an adventure, luckily Jessica isn't directionally challenged like me so we always find our way.

Streets: The streets and buildings here look VERY similar to the streets and buildings in downtown L.A., minus the trash and homeless people. Although the buildings are very old and rugged, it's rare to see trash and I've only seen one homeless person.

Food: I quickly learned that a bento is a boxed lunch similar to a home-packed or take out meal. It usually contains rice and some sort of meat. Japanese parents pack way healthier lunches for their kids compared to American parents. My Japanese students bring bentos with rice, meat and veggies for lunch everyday, while my American students bring...you guessed it, sandwiches and chips!
Japanese rice is delicious! Waiters in restaurants bring us forks within the first few minutes of eating with chopsticks. I guess we are just that obvious. I have been eating all my rice and salads with chop sticks and am not having trouble with them at all. All that practice eating sushi over the last few years has paid off!
Taco rice is a popular dish here. They say it's "everything in a taco on top of rice." In reality, it's lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and meat on top of rice. It's very yummy and filling. Soba is another popular dish here which is delicious as well. Soba is Japanese noodles made of buckwheat flour, served chilled with dipping sauce or in a hot broth as soup. I cooked rice in our rice cooker the whole week! It's a small rice cooker but it gets the job done. I ate rice at least once a day the whole week (the carbs helped me get through the day!). I usually just added sweet & sour sauce to the rice and ate it that way. One day I cooked broccoli to eat with it and another day I had chicken with it. I'm still eating Ritz crackers and Skippy peanut butter as my staple snack =)
I found 2 boxes of granola bars in my classroom last week. I asked my students if they knew who it belonged to and they all said no. I later found out the kindergarten teacher who lives on base bought them for me. She remembered that I asked where I could get some and then bought them for me on base. It was a thoughtful treat!
Yen: I got paid on Friday and it was weird getting paid in yen. I have the basic rule down though, you just move the decimal place over 2 to the left and you get what your yen is worth in dollars (ex: 1000 yen= $10.00). I had to wait a few hours after work to get my paycheck because the office lady was in a meeting and I guess didn't have our paychecks ready, I was able to finally get it though. I always pay with dollars on base or at other places that accept dollars. I haven't spent that much money. Most of my money is spent on food.

Rice and beer, yum! The green things on top are goya, a Japanese fruit which is a bitter melon. It is the most bitter thing I have EVER tasted..it's supposedly good for you. I could only eat one bite of the goya.

Gas: I got gas for the first time at a self serve station (which is rare here). I couldn't figure out the machine so I asked another lady and she just pointed in the direction inside the gas station. I went in and explained that it was my first time getting gas and asked how to do it. The Japanese attendant didn't speak English but came outside with me and pointed at all the buttons I needed to press. They only have diesel or regular so I just looked at what other cars were pumping to see what I needed. It worked out fine =)

American Village: The American Village is an outdoor and indoor shopping center with restaurants, shops and a feriss wheel which are all supposed to be American like. While eating dinner there last week, a little boy about 4 years old came up to my roommate, her friend and I and asked if he could take a picture with us. His mom had broken English but she did manage to say "he wants pictures with you individually." LOL, it was so cute, we each took a picture with the little boy. We saw him a few more times throughout the night and he looked so happy waving at us with a huge smile.

Jessica, her friend Danielle and I eating Soba at American Village. We had to pay at a machine in front of the store, then you sit and they serve you your order. We had yogurt at Yogurt Land after!

I braved the washing machine last week by pressing all the buttons until the water came on, haha. It seemed to work okay. Since I don't have a dryer, I left my clothes out hanging to dry overnight and had to run out there in the morning to take them down when it started raining!

View from my back balcony while it was raining, luckily I didn't have laundry out drying =)

Drums: The last few weeks there has been groups of people walking around playing drums together. The Japanese teacher at school told me that each city has their own group of people that will be competing in the Eisa festival, which is an Okinawan ceremonial dance using drums. Last week, a group came down the street right in from of my apartment, I was able to get a short video. You can't see anything but you can hear the drums, it was very cool! The actual competition is next weekend, I'm looking forward to going!

I'll update again soon, love to you all!!