Life this past week, etc, usual update type stuff

First of all, this Saturday we observed Earth Day with a
Beach clean up
This was organized by the "Earthmen Club" in Oita City, which I have been attending occasionally on Thursdays. Last year for Earth Day we did a clean up on a park in Mount Kuju. This year it was at a beach on the Kunisaki peninsula. The event consists of picking up garbage in the morning, and then picnicking and play in the afternoon.

As with last year, I overslept and arrived after the clean up portion of the day was concluded, but just in time for the picnic. It was a pleasant day at the beach though. The Kunisaki peninsula is really beautiful in the Spring. And Greg and I went for the first swim of the year in the Ocean.

It was still a bit cold out for the natives. Our Japanese friends thought we were crazy, but Greg was saying that if the weather had been the same in England, everyone would have been swimming. I think the same would have been true in Michigan. Kyushu natives just have a different standard of what constitutes swimming weather.

Weeding day
Friday was weeding day at Fukami Junior High school. The schools don't employ janitors or ground maintenance personal, everything is done by the students. And Friday was "Go out and weed the baseball field day."

The students asked me to participate with them. Although the thought crossed my mind that they were just trying to get me to share the work burden, I like to think that they were motivated by the genuine desire to spend time with me.

Weeding occurred 6th period. I'm usually back to the Board of Education by that time, but it is somewhat flexible. After all I really don't do anything at the BOE, just show up at the end of the day to let them know I'm still alive. So I could have stayed later at the school if I wanted to.

It was a bit of a moral dilemma. Instinctively I told the students no at first, then felt bad about it afterwards because it would have been a good opportunity for interaction. And most of the promotional material for JET emphasizes things like becoming involved in the school's routine and interacting with students in their daily lives.

But then I thought to myself, "that's just the bullshit they put on the brochures." Any of my JET friends in the area, given the opportunity, would do the exact same thing as me and try to avoid weeding detail as well. I didn't feel so bad about it after that.

More Birthday stuff
Since my Birthday had been on a Wednesday last week, celebrations were muted, and I didn't really see most of my friends (although I had a nice party with my English class, see previous post).

This weekend I was given gifts and wished well by several people. (It made me feel a little bad because I haven't really given many of these people anything for their respective birthdays).

Eion treated me to a dinner and a video rental on Friday night. We saw "American Psycho", which I believe came out after I had left for Japan, but has become a bit of a cult classic among the JET crowd in this area. I was one of the few who hadn't seen it yet, so the gang agreed to watch it again for my sake. I'm curious as to how popular has this movie been back home, and if it has developed the same kind of following among any of your circles.

In other gifts:
Greg gave me a couple T-shirts, commenting that he was sick and tired of me always wearing the same "Christian Track" shirt. (In reality I have plenty of shirts over here, but I guess I have a tendency to just keep grabbing the shirts at the top of the pile).

Another friend gave me a dart board, which I hope to be able to use. And yet another friend gave me a cleaning set, with the hope that I would use it to get my apartment in order. (I'm developing a reputation over here).