September 30th, 2007 Scott
We finally had our first home football game that the band could play at on Friday night. There is only one other school on the island that plays football, Kubasaki HS. That’s the school on Foster Base, a Marine base. So, to ‘create’ a schedule that divide the varsity football team into two squads and the play two varsity games back to back on a scheduled evening (they do the same for JV games). So, I scheduled the band to show up for the pre-game time of the first game and to play through halftime of the second game. The first game started at 5:00, so we showed up at 4:30 and I found out the bleachers for the home team face into the setting sun. And it was hot; very hot. Also, there was no scoreboard, no cheerleaders, no clock, no electricity (for my bass player), and virtually no audience. This didn’t feel much like a typical high school football game, which I had been warned that it would be like that. We looked for a cue from someone as to when to play the national anthems and we didn’t get to because a recording of both anthems is played on base everyday at 5:00 PM and they just used that broadcast for the anthems. Very disappointing for the band.
My students were hot and they couldn’t see the music because of the sun, but we played some tunes reasonably well. The big shock was the second game. First of all, there was no pre-game warm up. The first game ended, and the color gaurd hit the field to display the flags. We got to play this time. As I looked around, I saw the bleachers were packed, little kids were playing their own game of football behind the stands, and our HUGE cheerleading squad appeared from nowhere. Now we had a football game. Unfortunately, my kids were tired and some had to leave (based on my original schedule) so the quality of the band’s sound fell a bit, but the enthusiasm was still there and most students wanted to stay and continue to play. That’s very promising.
Unfortunately, there is only one more game to play for; homecoming. However, this year, the league championship is on Okinawa so if we could play a couple of more games at that time. The championship moves from year to year between Gaum and mainland Japan.
I had two great bike rides this weekend. I hit 40 miles with four guys on Saturday that was a nice easy ride, and then hit 60 miles today of a bit more intensity with four marines today. One of them is 60, but he has medalled at Kona (World Championships for Ironman Triathlon). Most of these guys are entered in the Tour of Okinawa coming up and we are going up to the race course next weekend to pre-ride it.
We get Columbus Day off next Monday! I forgot that was even a holiday since I’ve always worked on that day back at home in the states.
I’ll be thinking of you during my ride that day…(but at least you all get to watch live football if you want to…)
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September 21st, 2007 Scott
Grocery Store Items
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Cheetos
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Top Ramen Forever
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Seaweed Selection
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Dried minnows
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September 21st, 2007 Scott
It’s still weird to be one day ahead of the states. Whenever Gina and I talk on Skype, it’s always yesterday compared to me. If I stay up to 10:00 PM on a Friday night, then I can call her as she’s getting up at 6:00 AM to start her Friday. That’s the only time we are on the same day.
The week went by quickly which must mean that school went well. My jazz band will be perform on Tuesday for something called "Educator Day" where all the teachers in the district get together for a day of meetings and such. They aren’t ready, but they want to play so it should be fun.
I ventured out for dinner tonight. I’ve done that before, but this time I went off base to a place called "Mos Burger". The subtitle is "Gourmet Japanese Burgers & Coffee". It sort of a cross between McDonald’s, Red Robin, and Starbucks. The food wasn’t bad and the burgers are small; just right for my appetite. After dinner, I went to a Japanese grocery store for the first time. Check out the pictures; one whole aisle for top ramen, a seaweed section, and a dried fish section. Pretty interesting experience.
One of the more fascinating things about Japanese cars is the model names they are given. I’m going to get a picture collection of names to show you because wouldn’t believe me if I just told you some of the English words that become the names of cars here. Needless to say, I don’t think an off-road SUV type van called a "Delica" would sell very well in the states.
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September 21st, 2007 Scott
Apartment Hunting
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Cool View
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Cool Sink
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Another City View
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Urban View
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September 21st, 2007 Scott
Blog Images
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September 16th, 2007 Scott
I got 50 miles in on Saturday and 35 miles in today; both excellent rides. Yesterday, I found a couple of beaches good for kiting on the Pacific Ocean side of the island (that’s the East coast). The government just put these beaches in as recreational areas and they are way under utilized. That’s good for kiting; no crowds to worry about. I wouldn’t mind living in the area as there is an exit for the expressway nearby which could wisk me to work in 5 – 10 minutes. The beaches are in Kin and Yaka. Later in the ride, I found true rural Okinawa when I rode through Onna village. This is a small farmers village complete with vegetable stands on the roadside. It was a refreshing change from the hub bub of the urban life. Most of where I go is like trying to drive on the surface streets of downtown Seattle, except imagine doing that from U of W down to the Seatac Airport. It’s very frustrating to get around.
Today we road in wind and sometimes hard rain to Big Time Resort at the tip of Ikei Island. We had to cross two bridges to get there; one was easily 1 – 2 miles long. The wind and rain made for epic riding conditions, but the road was like a roller coaster on the last island. Very fun. Check out the pictures of Terry in front of the pounding surf (there’s another typhoon on it’s way).
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September 13th, 2007 Scott
This Friday was supposed to be our first home football game. They decided on Wednesday to move it to the opponent’s field. That means we only have two home football games now, unless they move another one. You see, there is only one other high school football team on the island and that is Kubasaki HS on Camp Foster. Every Friday during football season, we play them. The only variables are where, when and which squad goes first (there are two JV squads and two varsity squads). Makes for a rather boring football season. At the end of the season, there is a Far East Championship that is hosted somewhere in the Pacific Region and they do a weekend championship play off for the league. Hosting isn’t necessarily a priviledge because then you don’t get to fly somewhere else to play.
There is a Far East Music Festival in the Spring in Tokyo. It is an honor band and honor choir. Typical there are 60 – 80 students involved in both groups from high schools throughout the region. The individual teachers do their own sectionals and conducting of music. Occasionally they bring in a conductor of one of the arm services bands if scheduling permits it. I’d like to see us start working with the Japanese music teachers. They have amazing programs here and we could learn a lot from them.
Took a ride out to Cape Zampa this week. Here’s a picture of the lighthouse there. The cliffs are about 40 feet tall here and apparently the waves can crash over the top here after a typhoon passes. Americans (Okinawans are too smart to go there) have been known to be swept out to sea from a wave sweeping up over the cliffs.
The choir had their Patriot Day Concert on September 11th after only four rehearsals. They did very well. Tim has a very strong program here. Even though radio, television, newspaper, and Internet had the market satuarated for coverage of this concert, there weren’t very many people there. It’s too bad because it is a very, very high quality program. I think musicals here could be very good with the right technical aspects fixed up in our auditorium
Remember the cool apartment from a few blog entries ago? I had to give it up because Graycie needs to stay on base in quarantine until late February. Initially, I thought that’d be okay, but the facilities at the kennel are not good for that long term of stay. So, I gave up the apartment and lost $750 deposit in the process. Fortunately, I was able to talk them into calling it a deposit for when we come back to get a place after the quarantine is up. I didn’t make it back the next day with the cash so I called to let them know. Today, I came in to pay it and they all were shocked that I showed up. I think they thought I was going to blow them off and leave them hanging. I’m pretty sure my agent had already been paid a commission and they thought they were out for it. After I paid, they encouraged me to stop by anytime before Febrary when we start house hunting again for a cup of coffee. Nice folks indeed!
I continue to work on my Japanese lessons at japanesepod101.com. They are very well done and very inexpensive. The language is very logical, but it’s starting from scratch to learn it. At least english/french/german/italian share similar grammer structure and some words are borrowed from each language so some of them can be recognized. Thank goodness for Styx and Mr. Roboto so I know how to say thank you!
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September 6th, 2007 Scott
It’s been a while, but I’ve been working at school and catching up on my latest round of paperwork for the DoD. Every 10 days while I am in temporary housing, I have submit all the reciepts for all my expenses to get reimbursed. Unfortunately, the web system for that doesn’t ever seem to be up and running at home, but it always works at school. I guess I’ll bring my receipts to school tomorrow and do it there. It’s always an adventure, especially when you spend an hour filling out a form only to find out you did it wrong and have to start over. They tell me it gets easier. We’ll see.
I saw a couple of eisa groups performing on the street on Labor Day during my ride. I’m not sure of the particulars, but they ones I’ve seen are teenage boys performing using hand drums and an intricate dance routine that goes with it. there is usually someone chanting something to a drone like instrument in the back of a pickup with a loudspeaker. The video here shows the group right after they finished and are walking down the sidewalk. You can see the uniform and the drums that they carry. It’s very interesting choreography to watch while they perforn. Another group performed on the street just outside my hotel a few days later after dark. It wasn’t a special location, but cars would stop to watch for a few minutes.
Later that day, I went to ‘Gate 2 Street’. It’s actually Route 20, but the section from Gate #2 of Kadena Air Base, down to Route 330 (about 8 blocks) is nicknamed ‘Gate 2 Street’. This is the street where young marines and airmen get in trouble on the weekends. It is mostly bars and clubs with a few clothing stores and tattoo parlours thrown in for flavor. If one were to go down this street in the eveing, I suspect it would be highly likely you could find many dates for hire. At any rate, toward the far end of the street is a music store and that was why I went there. I needed some drum heads and some other equipment for my drum set at school. It was a nicely stocked store with every bit of Japanese electronic music equipement you could imagine. It also had a great selection of Yamaha and Yanagisawa band instruments. Some things were very reasonably priced, while others were very expensive. I bought a condutor’s baton. In my 14 years of teaching, this is the first school I’ve been at that didn’t already have a baton in a drawer somewhere. Of course the only baton that felt right in my hands was carbon fiber and stupidly expensive (what don’t they make from carbon anymore?)
The best part of the trip was the walk back to the car. I found a fresh food market in the alleys of the area. They’ve covered a network of alleys and made it a sort of market mall if you will. Check out the pictures. You don’t see chunks of tuna like that back at Safeway…
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September 1st, 2007 Scott
Yesterday, I went on my first major bike ride. Terry, the middle school band teacher, took me on a 52 mile ride that went up the east coast of the island and returned down the west coast. We ended up doing about 2000 feet of climbing, even though it didn’t feel like we did any really long hills, but there were a number of smaller ones along the way. The shoulders of the roads are about the width of a bike lane, so riding two abreast is not possible most of the time, but there usually is a good shoulder to work with. It gets fairly rural quickly after you get out of the city, but riding in the city is dangerous. It’s no different than riding a bike in downtown Seattle; you have to keep your wits about you and pay attention! I was well cooked by the end of the ride, but did fairly well considering that it’s been two weeks since I’ve had a ride of any magnitude. Interestingly, I sun burn far easier here than at home. I burned badly in a spot that I missed sunscreen on. At home, it would’ve been fine. Also, even though it was 85 – 90 degrees and I was sweating before we ever started riding, I never really felt hotter. Unlike the heat at home, I didn’t seem to get hotter during the ride. Maybe the humidity and my sweating before starting helps to keep the temperature under control. Over all, the heat didn’t seem to effect me. Breathing feels a little trickier. The term I’ve heard used here is that you have to ‘get used to chewing your air’. That’s a very accurate description of what it feel like when you start sucking wind.
I read a little detail online last night that made me worry that the street by my new apartment might be used for cruising at night. I went out to it during prime cruising hours to check and it was dead quiet. The post referred to the Sunabe Seawall, which is a couple of miles south of the seawall my apartment is near. I did discover a large flat open area on the ocean side of the sea wall that’s about the size of half a football field that would be great place to play fetch with our dog, Graycie. It’s concrete and certainly has waves that crash over it during typhoons, but very usable otherwise.
On TV right now, is continuous live coverage of the women’s marathon at the World Championships for Track & Field. They’ve been doing hours of coverage of all the events all week long. They are being held somewhere in Japan. I think it’s in Osaka. When was the last time you saw hours of coverage of such an event held in the US? It just doesn’t happen there. I think it’s very interesting that they take the time to show so many of the events; even more than I’m used to seeing on TV in an Olympic year (although they are showing the Japanese athletes 90% of the time).
I went shopping at the Camp Foster PX today instead of going to the Kadena AB BX. A BX is a Base Exchange and a PX is a Post Exchange. Those are the same thing named differently because of the type of installation they are located on. However, the PX on Foster is the largest one in the Pacific region apparently. So, going there is like going to a Mega-Wal Mart or the Costco in Kirkland that sells furniture. They have a much larger selection of products there than on Kadena. I went right when it opened which also helped to make it more pleasant. The BX/PX and the Commissaries are only open from 0900 – 2100 which means they are PACKED all the time.
After shopping, I decided to drive to a local kite-surfing beach to see how it looks and learn how to get there. I don’t have my kite gear yet, but I will soon enough. It took 30 minutes to get there in light traffic. No wind today, but I got my feet wet. The ocean is the temperature of bath water and beautiful light blue. I can’t wait to go kiting in it. Check out the picture:
Beautiful for sure, but check out the rain cloud that was coming from the other direction:
That actually only shows the right hand quarter of it. It was huge! As point of reference, the small white rectangle near the right in the background is a large industrial building. As I drove home, I ended up going through the heart of it. It was raining so hard that there was literally 1 – 4 inches of water on the roadway in about a 10 block section with spots so deep that the cars were barely moving through them. There was a guy riding his bike (a Calfee no less [that's a $3000 - $6000 hand made bicycle]) in it and he didn’t look like he was having much fun. Then within 500 yards, it was bone dry and sunny. No rain had even fallen there.
Here are some random rainbow pictures from the week:
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