Rocking in Hakata

Oh boy. Something is happening to me here. Slowly but surely, I find myself changing. I am unsure about how I feel about it, but I have definitely taken notice. I think I am going through a growth spurt. Not in height, for, sad as I am that I shall never join James in the 6 feet tall and over club, I am no longer growing taller. No, I am talking about weird little changes in myself that are likely occurring because I live alone now and I work full time. So, you ask, how does this manifest itself? I would call parts of it maturity, but I dunno where the rest comes from.

Organization is becoming increasingly necessitated by my schedule. This plays out in a few ways. I am no longer the guy who goes to change the calendar on December 1st to find that it still reads August 26th. I sure used to be. Where has that guy gone? Dunno, but he’s been replaced by or grown into the guy who changes his calendar a week in advance and has markups in the mini calendars for the last and next month just to ensure continuity. What gives?

I am becoming a crazy person. (Ha - I know 80% of you, from those who know me in person, just thought “too late!”) It’s true, though. I have recently discovered that I talk to myself. Not just in the self-assuring / self-comforting way that my little cousin is known for, but in other ways too. (Don’t misunderstand - I also tell myself that everything’s ok, etc, etc. Ha ha.) I talk to the TV now…and I chat with myself while cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, or even biking around to Hakata Bus Stop. Why? Am I that in need of hearing English once in a while? Or is it because I spend all of my time taking care of things alone? It’s good to know that I’m not really going crazy. Ha ha.

I am also, quite disturbingly, becoming an old man. Huh? Well, I have caught myself 3 or 4 times having “I can fix that myself” thoughts or going out of my way to jerry-rig something to work to my preferences. Where is the Deas that just went with the cards dealt him? Why do I feel compelled to take on home improvement projects? To fill time? Because now I understand the difference that little things can make when leveraged against your average weekly grind? Got me. But I sure figured out a McGuyver style solution to the “uneven-balcony-causes-the-dryer-to-spin-off-balance-and-try-to-kill-itself” problem I’d been having. Used a bottlecap, 4 used cassette tapes, a cardboard box, and a length of rubber hose. But why did I go after it? Because I am losing my mind…

So, in fairness, some of my changes are behaviors that are required. If I do nothing about some things, it screws my life up. (Buying wooden chopsticks / disposable eating utensils instead of using silverware I’d have to clean later, for instance, used to get me around such issues in school.) Oh well. At least the maturity is kicking in in some ways too. I tell you what, though. The whole process is pretty dadgum interesting.

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Got finished at Iwagi Branch early today, so, partially to get out of the rain, and partially to not have to clean dishes, I ducked into the famous restaurant near Kinoura Port. It’s called Sanwa. Sanwa is where tourists (and Hakatans - ha ha sounds like High Cottons) come to dine on the indigenous delicacy known as Salt Ramen. Mmmm. Salt Ramen. It’s basically a whopping standard bowl of ramen noodles, complete with some nice nori, bamboo shoots, slices of pork, and little patches of oil slicking their way about atop the surface tension. Just add more salt than normal. What do you get? Salt Ramen! It’s famous because…it is salty…and available only on Hakata. Now, I am really not trying to poke too much fun at the folks on Hakata for being proud of their salt. Truth be told, most of my friends on the JET program see my town’s salt in their stores on each trip. My host mother in Tokyo knew of Hakata Salt before I told her. It’s actually pretty famous.

What I am a bit skeptical of, however, is the number of cottage industries that have popped up as a result of the fame of our salt. For instance, salt candy. It is sold in the Ai-Mart 3 minutes’ walk from my apartment building. Tastes like…you guessed it, salt! (Reminds me of adventures with dundersalts in Norway, but that is another tale for another time.) It is labeled on the front “Made with Hakata Salt!” and uses the appropriate font and everything. On the back, however, one discovers (if one is bored and attempts to read labels on food in mom and pop shops) that the candy is actually a product of Tokushima Prefecture. That’s on the other side of Shikoku. What gives? They buy our salt, make candy in Tokushima with it, and then sell it back to us? Ha ha. Hey, fair is fair. Just thought I would point it out.

Anyhoo, I have been in this restaurant about 7 times now. I have had the Hakata Salt Ramen 5 of these times. I once ventured to try the Hakata Salt Tonkotsu Ramen, which was good, but…dare I say it?…slightly salty. This time I decided to get something different. I am a huge fan of breaded pork cutlets in curry on rice, and to my knowledge, I haven’t had the dish since returning to Japan, so I placed my order for Tonkatsu Curry. They paused for a second, as if they wanted to ask if I was sure I wanted that and not some extra-salty version, but decided not to, and left me alone. I like the island people. They pretty much rule. They are slow to make a spectacle of you in certain circumstances, which is nice. (Not true 100% of the time, though, obviously.) Well, long story short, the curry was good, but I make it better at home.

In other news, completely and totally unrelated to salt, I also ducked into the miniature Deo Deo electronics boutique on our island. (In honesty, it is a store for light bulbs and CDRs, and that is about it.) I bought an SD card reader for the iMac, so now I can pull photos off my camera. Thank GOODNESS. Expect an increase in interesting things once I get some nice photo opportunities. I thanked the lady, who promptly asked me which way I normally travel home. I was confused. I bought an SD card reader…which way do I go home? I pointed towards the restaurant, the way I always go, and she said…you know, there is a faster way. I told her I didn’t, and she whipped out a book of city street maps, and showed me. I promised to try it the next time I head to Kinoura Port. She was happy about it, I think. She likes that I shop there.

Also, I put up my first podcast. It is a rambling talk about various things that are going on. Soon, though, I will have reasons for doing podcasts. Reasons like video features. Or special events. Or perhaps trips to recall. We shall see. In the meantime, I wanted to test the waters and see what making one was like. I hope it isn’t too terribly lame. Ha ha. Just listen to me on there, and you will know without a doubt that this one and all subsequent podcasts will be lamer than Hakata Salt Candy made in Tokushima-ken. Oh yeah, I really should say, by the way, that Sanwa’s food is actually pretty darn good. Salty, sure, but that is what it is famous for!

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These are cards I received from students at Oshima. They are priceless. It is, like all of the other 6 schools where I teach, a high school. I found it funny that one teacher’s surprise that these were my first welcome cards was met with the unsurprise of another teacher who said “yeah….well, it is pretty childish.” Diss….hahaha. But I really appreciate these cards, so I thought I would put them up to show you. Enjoy. And in case you missed it before, there are links to every school I visit on the front page of this site, and the two Japanese strings across the set of three pictures are also clickable. They say “Hakata island” and “Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture” and they take you to Google Earth hybrid map & satellite images of the appropriate locations. Have fun.

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Ok, so no “Big Russian” yet, but I forgot that I had already purchased a culinary curiousity earlier this week. It is pictured above, and let me tell you, it looks worse in real life. It has a flat black matte finish, and the texture is uncannily similar to engine grease. (As is the appearance, come to think of it.) So what is it? In the U.S.A. we have followed the example of George Washington Carver, the brilliant man whose mind first grasped the enormous potential of the peanut in the foodstuffs (and non-foodstuffs) industry.***

So what is this stuff in the picture? This is a Japanese spread made from black sesame seeds. I supposed we could refer to it as “Black Sesame Butter.” The taste is really pretty good, but the texture and visuals leave something to be desired. I picked it up in my local grocery store for almost 1.5 times the price of “Peanut Soft,” which is a peanut spread, but most certainly NOT peanut butter.

Given the fact that it is pasty, almost gunky, and ridiculously thick, I think of it as being more closely akin to shoe polish than to peanut butter. Lucky for me I have other things to put on my toast, besides BSB. My other favorites include butter and marmalade. Speaking of marmalade, as I told my friends via videochat yesterday, I found a jar of marmalade nearly twice the size for almost half the price. Um…why? The store has them both sitting in the same section. I hadn’t bothered price checking it before because I thought that more marmalade than I want. Then again, if it is such a deal, why not buy it? I don’t get it. They do this in vending machines, too. There will be a 500 mL Coke and a 250 mL Coke and they will both cost ¥120. Why? Is it because nearly everything in a vending machine costs ¥120? Or is it because quantity is too cumbersome at times, so the luxury of buying a smaller item is enough to bump its price up to match its big brother? I don’t know. But I do know that I enjoy marmalade. At least, more than BSB. Mmmmmmmm. Good stuff.

Might as well tell you about my adventures with breakfast / snack beverages this weekend as well. We have no Starbucksian coffee places on my island. Actually, let me rephrase that. We have no coffee places PERIOD on my island. Ha ha. I found these little mini cups in the store that I like. They come with tiny stirring sticks, and 3 tubes per cup - one each for instant coffee granules, nondairy creamer, and sugar. I like the laziness that this affords me. I can basically just heat some water and pour, and I have a cup of coffee. It isn’t particularly fantastic, but hey, it wakes me up. One thing that I discovered is that hot cocoa powder makes a wonderful substitute creamer. (I don’t mind black coffee, either, though. I amn’t picky when it comes to coffee.) Therefore, my fall back when I run out of preportioned mini cups is some Nescafe instant coffee and some Morinaga Milk Cocoa powder. These are my dear friends. They have made this weekend lovely. The weather has been nasty, so it’s a nice change. The new kerosene fan heater that I bought also helps quite a bit. Anyhoo, that is about it for now.

Ha ha ha - I said “amn’t,” and that isn’t a word.

***In America, anyway. Asian and African countries have peanut based sauces and whatnot going back many centuries. Anyway, George Washington Carver and George A. Bayle, Jr. are both considered to be fathers of the peanut industries in America.

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Ok, so before you jump all over me about the fact that I appear in nearly every blog entry’s main photo so far, you should know that I need to purchase an SD card reader for my iMac before I can start using photos that I have. Therefore, it is recycled sunsets, older school pictures, and iSight captures until I get one. Once I have one, I will probably shy away from being the main photo. Then again, I am fantastically alluring, so maybe I should reconsider. (**Chokes on fake hubris.**) Seriously, though, I hope to get a card reader soon. Then you can have some actually interesting photos.

Now, onto the entry for today. I used a generic fill-in-the-blank worksheet for my self-introduction lessons at all 7 schools, and still use it when I have a new class. I laminated 22 photos of my family, friends, college, etc., and use them as visual aids during these lessons. At the bottom of the sheet, I deviate from the parrot-provoking questions and ask the kids to write in Japanese one thing that they learned about me and one thing that they didn’t understand. I have gotten some interesting answers, and I thought I would post a few for you to enjoy. (I will post the funny ones as I come across them throughout my time here, I think.)

Anonymous, 1st year - “I learned that Deas has 2 friends.”
I’d like to think I had more than that…

Anonymous, 1st year - “Are you identical twins?”
I USED VISUAL AIDS. AIDS of a VISUAL nature. Sheesh.

Chizura, 1st year - “Do you have a girlfriend? Akari wants to know…”
Does she, now? Riiiight.

Anonymous, 1st year - “Deas is high-tension.”
This is a good thing here. It means animated, not high strung.

Akari, 1st year - “Do you have a girlfriend? Chizura wants to know…”
Ah HA! The truth comes out! I didn’t make this up. Ridiculous.

Chiko, 2nd year - “Deas has a very famous friend.”
Yes, she is talking about you, Seth. She is not alone in this thought.

Genki, 2nd year - “I understood all about his pet.”
Really? From 1 photo? I taught you his name…that’s all…?

Kinji, 2nd year - “Deas is the best!”
He learned this today. I am so proud. Swear I didn’t teach that, though.

Anonymous, 2nd year - “I learned that his twin is 1 minute younger.”
Bonus points for the difficult sentence! (During the lesson, not the answer.)

Anonymous, 2nd year - “Deas was once a twin.”
Um….did I miss something? Emily? What happened?

Riko, 2nd year - “Deas is a twin.”
That is much better. Phew.

Anonymous, 2nd year - “Deas seems smart, which surprises me.”
Ha ha…ouch?

Anonymous, 1st year - “He is 22. His glasses are Dolce & Gabbana.”
I am 23 now, but was 22 then. But they got the Dolce & Gabbana thing solely from observing the tiny logo on the earpieces of my glasses…sheesh, and I live in rural Japan, too. Brand loyalty? Exists in fishing villages. Also, for those who are interested, Dolce & Gabbana is called “Doru-gaba” in Japanese slang.

Anonymous, 1st year - “I don’t know where South Carolina is.”
Ha ha, that’s ok. I assure you many people don’t. Even in the States.

Anonymous, 1st year - “I didn’t understand many many things, X2!!”
Many many things times two? That’s a lot of misunderstood things…

Yuma, 2nd year - “Deas is 22 years old. Deas is very very fun. Deas is verry verry cool!!!” (Original spelling intact.)
Sweet! I asked for Japanese, but will take English any day. Ha ha.

Anonymous, 2nd year - “Does looks nothing like his twin.”
Yeah? Go talk to the kid who asked if we are identical. After the photo.

Chigusa, 2nd year - “Why are Deas’ eyelashes so long? They’re looong!”
They’re nooooormal. And why are you looking at my eyelashes??

Ai, 2nd year - “Do you curl your eyelashes yourself?”
Um…what? NO! I don’t do anything to them. Do you sit by Chigusa? Also, what the heck is an eyelash-perm? (That is the transliteration of the word used.)

Anonymous, 2nd year - “Is Deas married?”
You’d think you’d show pictures of your spouse if you were. I am still young, kiddo. Got time on my side. I hope. Are you married? There, we’re even in the asking odd/personal/counterintuitive questions department.


I pondered these things as I walked back to the ferry through the covered mall area. It’s basically a street lined with shops, all connected under one big awning. I love the area, actually, despite the fact that it is becoming unpopular. (A big mall called Fuji Grand just opened down the way.) But it’s a nice walk. Wouldn’t shop there. Anyway, hope you liked these quotes. I’ll post more if I get more.

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