As they say here in the land of the rising sun, “ohisashiburi”.  In English it translates as approximately, “long time no see”.  I have no good reason for not blogging for so long.  Yes, I’m busy but not too busy to type out a line or two on occasion.  In my mind I have written many blog posts as I pick box after box of oranges but somehow they never make it into written form. In short, things are good. We’ve picked lots of mandarin oranges.  I’ve taught a lot of English conversation classes and yoga classes and enjoyed almost every minute of them. Famish is getting more playful with each passing day.  No complaints.

I thought I would pass on a bit of wisdom that struck me a while back.  It is by no means profound but it definitely applies to the life of an orange farmer.

“When you have your head buried in an orange tree, a branch sticking into your ribs and mosquitoes biting your face as you stretch for the last orange on the tree, remember to listen for the singing birds and the sound of the wind.  Maybe the sun is even shining on your back and taking away some of the autumn chill.  Putting a little more focus in those places is well worth the effort.”

That’s all I’ve got today.  More pictures are coming soon!

-The Green Team Dreamer

On wednesday mornings I teach English at a pre-school for one hour.  Actually, I teach four year olds for thirty minutes and then five year olds for thirty minutes.   It is a pretty sweet gig.  When I was hired, I was basically told that, “we don’t care if the kids learn English we just want them to get used to hearing English and be comfortable with it.”  What it amounts to is that I play with the kids and use a lot of English and a lot of songs.  Being completely unable to carry a tune on my own I rely on songs made just for teaching English to kids.  These days the kids can’t get enough of the song “I am a Robot.”  I admit that it is pretty addictive.  The only lyrics are, “I am a robot,” “switch on,” and “switch off.”  The kids and I to a lot of dancing and walking like a robot and have a blast.  They love the song so much that they beg for the song as soon as I walk in the door.  I have a new policy that I must keep them occupied with something other than the robot song for 15 minutes before I give into their requests.  In case you were wondering, yes, they do request the song in English.  They have actually become amazingly good at requesting things, answering questions about themselves and talking about the weather. Next, we do the robot song.  Sometimes we follow that up with their previous favorite song “I’m a Super Hero.”

Today we talked about UFOs, green space-men with three eyes, and rockets to the moon before the Robot song.  We even fit in some practice counting down (by 10s from 100) to blast off for a rocket.  Last week I tried to mix things up a little bit by having them sing and act out “I am Monkey Robot.”  It was fairly successful.  One of my many favorite students, Kouki, requested that we do “I am a frog Robot” but we were nearly out of time and I hadn’t bribed them with their stickers yet.  The previous teacher always gave the kids a sticker at the end of the English lesson and she requested that I do the same thing.  It is a true bribe.  If I stopped giving them they would probably go on strike. Truthfully, I like giving the stickers.  I have the kids line up and they choose what sticker they want and I get to talk to each of them.  Another bonus is that the five or ten minutes that it takes to hand them out lets the kids mellow out before I hand them back over to the regular teacher.  I know that she appreciates that because I get them too hyped up for anyone’s good.

Alas, I digress.  Back to the story.  So today the kids requested the Robot song.  I said “let’s do frog robot today!”  They were ecstatic.  We started.  The song is relatively short, about 2minutes and 45 seconds.  We were all hopping up and down like frogs from a low crouch.  The song is high-paced and after about a minute I was out of breath and dripping sweat from hopping while singing.  I’ve had a cold lately so I briefly thought that was it and then quickly decided I was out of shape and possibly getting old.  I don’t think about getting older very often but it is a natural progression, I think, when you realize that you are hopping around on the floor in a Japanese preschool with five year olds while pretending to be a robot-frog. If I thought about it too much it could probably be the precursor to more dire ponderings about the twists and turns of my life. I buckled down and kept going determined not to show my age.

By that point we were into the last third of the song and there is a lot of starting and stopping as the kids “switch on’ and “switch off”.  An unexpected thing started happening.  With each successive on/off, fewer kids “switched on”.  They were more exhausted than I was.  By the end of the song all but three kids were sprawled motionless on the floor.  For the first time nobody requested a second playing of the song.  I know that they had fun but for next week they have requested “robot monkey”.  They said that one is better.  As a bonus, I can say that I have defied the forces of aging for yet another week.

–The Green Tea Dreamer

We have a new kitten…temporarily…I hope.  It’s not that he isn’t a sweet kitten, it’s just that we have Famish and that’s enough for me.  Famish kind of started the whole ordeal.  There was a homeless kitten meowing away across the street, behind the Buddhist temple.   Famish replied and the kitten moved into our front garden.  Eventually, we fed it because it was so miserable and now it has totally moved in.  We are such softies that the kitten is sitting in Satomi’s lap, now, as she reads a book.

We saw a whole new side of Famish (that seems to be disappearing).  Famish was so worried about this kitten that he watched it non stop from the screen door.  Whenever the kitten would be in the slightest danger, Famish would go crazy and come get me.  One time it was that a tom cat was prowling the yard.  Another time, the kitten had climbed all the way up the screen door and was stuck on a half-inch ledge above the door just seconds away from falling to certain injury.  Even at night, Famish kept checking on him.  They would hang out for hours just inches away with only the screen door separating him.  Satomi was pretty sure that Famish wanted to keep the kitten.  I was pretty sure that Famish would prefer to stay an only cat.

It turns out that we were both right.  We brought the cat in during a thunderstorm yesterday.  I had him in a cardboard box but Famish jumped on top of the box and his heft collapsed the top.  Suddenly, the two of them were together in the same box.  Neither on seemed to mind.  Eventually, they were having a ball chasing each other around.  Famish was unbelievably gentle…at first.  Famish is a little starved for play.  I try to give him twenty minutes or so of quality play a day but it is never enough.  After ten minutes or so, Famish forgot that he is a giant compared to the kitten and started playing too rough and the kitten got scared and put his hackles up.  Something in Famishes brain switched and he became mentally unstable.  He didn’t know if he was playing or fighting for his life.  It scared him and the kitten and me.  They played again a little this morning but the same thing happened.  I think play time is a thing of the past for them.

Famish has lost interest too.  Having the kitten in the house a few times seems to bum him out.  Kittens have no respect for the possessions of their elders.  That includes using their litter boxes.  While it’s great that a 2 1/2 month old cat can use the litter box without training, Famish would prefer that the kitten ask permission.  That’s never going to happen.

Famish, Satomi and I don’t want to keep him even though he is really sweet and pretty cute.  Instead, we are trying to find a new home for him.  I tried to bring him to she “no-kill” shelter but they already had ten kittens and no more room.   On Friday, a few of Satomi’s coworkers met the kitten.  Her coworker’s son really wanted the kitten but his mother said no.  Another coworker would have liked it but she lives with her in-laws.  The father-in-law has a pet bird.  Another no-go there.  At the top of this post you can see the flyer I made.  The first one is going up as I write this blog.  It will be on the bulletin board in front of our neighborhood hall.  We are going to hang them in some coin laundries as well.  On Monday, I’ll try to rustle up some other places as well.  There have been many stresses here in Japan but finding this kitten a home is maybe the most taxing so far.  I want him to have a home and I want that home to be separate from my home.  That last part probably sounds horrible but over the years I have learned that I am a lover of elderly cats.  Even Famish, at three years-old, is a bit young for me but he has won me over.

That’s the news for today.  Take care.

-The Green Tea Dreamer

A lot of Green Tea has passed my lips since I last posted.  Thank you to everyone who checked in to see if I was still Green Tea Dreaming.  Indeed I have been dreaming.  I have no excuse for not blogging for the past six weeks or so, unless laziness is a valid excuse (and I know it isn’t).  Also, some folks have emailed to see if we are okay with all of the rains and flooding in Kyushu.  We are among the lucky.  Our area is one of the very few that was out of the danger zone.  We had heavy rains but nothing like the 30 plus inches some areas had in just a few days.  The storms was devastating and even deadly for many.  More than 20 people were killed by mudslides and flooding and more than 200,000 people were forced to evacuate there homes.  Our schedules and lives were barely affected but our umbrellas got abundant use.

Before I get back into the swing of blogging about just one topic again, I thought I would bore you some of the highlights of what I have been up to.

•  I had an insert, advertising a few English classes I wanted to teach for kids, placed in the newspaper.  It worked.  I now have a full slate of work.  The ads landed me not only some kids English classes but two adult classes as well.  A big bonus was that a few friends from my previous stay in Japan tracked me down after seeing the flyer as well.
• In addition, I now have two Yoga classes each week at Buddhist Temples.  They average about 10 people.  I loved it and I think it is forcing my Japanese to improve as well.
• Satomi and I went to see fireflies just before the rainy season started.  We went to a park just outside of our town that is along a river.  It has a quarter mile long concrete path so it is easy walking even in the dark.  We were the only ones there and were treated to an awesome display of natural light.  The river is lined with tall trees and the fireflies looked like eyes peeking out from the dark.  If I had forgotten the magic of nature I have been set straight.
• I planted one tomato plant and one cucumber plant and we have too many of each.  Our bounty is multiplied by the vegetables that are given to us by Satomi’s mom, our neighbors and sometimes even my students.  Last week we even received a watermelon from one of my student’s families.  No to be outdone, somebody gave us a  big bag of green tea as well.  Life is good!
• We’ve been enduring the rainy season but it hasn’t been nearly as brutal as I remembered.  So far, only one night that I had trouble sleeping because of the heat and humidity.  That’s probably about to change but we’ll survive.
• The mosquitoes have been feasting on Satomi. For the first time in Japan they are making a meal out of me as well.  Maybe I’ve eaten enough brown rice and miso to taste Japanese.
• I now know what is meant by the saying “grows like a bamboo shoot.”  The stuff can grow many feet in one day.  You cut it and the next day it has sprouted up in a dozen more places.  Japanese farmers have it rough keeping pace with it.
• Satomi’s parents still have me banned from the weed eater.  Even though I grew up using one, they say it’s too dangerous.  I gave up trying to change them and bought a long handled sickle for twenty bucks.  It works pretty well and without an engine the work is peaceful and perfect for contemplation.  People do stare a lot though.  I saw one elderly woman who had it worse than me though.  She was cutting the grass on the berm around a rice field with pruning shears.  It took her all day. I guess her family doesn’t trust her with power tools either.
• The frogs in the rice fields and the cicadas in the trees make for pleasantly noisy nights.  Sometimes they are louder than the train that passes less than 100 yards from our house.
•  I was asked to sing BINGO and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with my preschool students at their school festival.  Despite my singing prowess I did it and it was fun but they would have been a lot cuter without me.  They did a great job, by the way.

So much more has happened as well but I’ll leave those tales for another day or maybe I just won’t burden you with them at all.  More blogs soon. I promise.  I’ll also put a gallery of pictures up in the next few days.  And, not to be overshadowed, Famish the cat will be guest blogging about whatever he feels like form time to time.

Take care.  I’ll be thinking of you all and wishing you the best.

-The Green Tea Dreamer

One of our neighbors died last night.  It’s a bummer but he was well past 90 and went from good health to the great beyond in the blink of an eye.  I think that is a very good thing. We’ve been in this house for about five months and I often saw the neighbor that died but I never was able to converse with him.  He was the grandfather of the family who help us rent the house we live in.  Almost everyday I would see the grandfather making the trek form the front door, around the corner of the house and to a chair strategically placed in the shade.  It was there that he waited for the van to the day center to pick him up.  On quite a few occasions I said “good morning” but didn’t get a reply.  At first, I thought that possibly he was ignoring me.  It happens sometimes.  If that was the case I wasn’t going to take it personally.  Turns out I was flat out wrong.  Eventually, I realized that he was hard of hearing and that the walk to his chair was a struggle and that every time he made the journey he had one of the days milestones checked off the list. The focus and determination he put into his walk became a little more evident every day that I met him on his walk.  Watching him taught me a few lessons, I believe.  I’ll miss him as my silent teacher. Otsukaresamadeshita (Japanese for “thank you for your hard work”).

Tonight is the wake and tomorrow is the funeral.  Two of the neighborhood elders knocked on out door this morning to let us know about his passing and asking us to attend the ceremonies.  I don’t (didn’t)  own a black tie so I headed off to by one this morning.  Solid black ties are a necessity here in Japan and my wardrobe was incomplete with out one.  In the US we have the dollar store.  I don’t know if they sell black ties there but the do at the Japanese 100 yen store.  I bought a “black funeral tie” (it says so in English!) for just over a buck.  What a bargain!  Or, is it bad form to skimp on a tie for a funeral?

While I was looking for the tie I stumbled upon a few fun items.

How about some “Taping Tape.”  Is there another kind?  As an added bonus, it is the “fixing” type.  I suppose that’s in relation to the “breaking” type.  Or, maybe the “it doesn’t help but it shows that I am  injured ( so please have sympathy for me)tape.”

And, how about these panties!  They are disposable…and for men!

I’ll leave you to let you use your imagination as to how the English on the package is supposed to motivate us men to buy these “panties”.

-The Green Tea Dreamer

The Green Tea Dreamer wants to let you all know that he is sleepy today and can’t muster the energy to write things to distract you from important things you could be doing with your life. Possibly he is suffering from bad karma.  He has, after all, been and active participant a plot to rid Japanese orange groves of buggy critters who just do what they do because of their true nature Despite their pure intentions he has been helping to spray nasty chemicals on them. He apologizes wholeheartedly to the buggy critters and his loyal readers.  In the very near future (possibly even tomorrow) he will be recharged and ready to give you an excuse to shirk your responsibilities for a few minutes.  He has many trivial tales to tell.

The Green Tea Dreamer thanks you for your understanding

I scored some part time work that will not only pay some bills but erase an interior decorating travesty, in my eyes.  One day at 7/11, I met a really nice guy who just bought a house about fifteen minutes from where I live.  He bought it from a British guy who has the misfortune to be going through a divorce from his Japanese wife.  Like the British guy’s marriage, the house was in pretty bad shape and had termites too (I don’t know if a marriage can actually have termites but I like the visual).  Fixing things up was a pretty big job for one person so I have been helping out a little bit.  The new family hasn’t moved in yet but they have started moving their stuff in  as you can see from the picture.  The new owner is traveling until Friday and hired me to rid the house of the pink paint.  It is a job I am taking great joy in.  The new owner’s theory is that the pink was the previous owner’s daughter’s favorite color.  Maybe their are no limits to what we will do for our children.  The pink drives me crazy though.  It gives the whole house an uncomfortable and creepy light.  I’m about two-thirds of the way through making the walls a nice sterile white.  Usually, I’m not a big fan of white walls but in this case I couldn’t be happier.

On an almost related note, when Satomi and I rented our house the owner told me I could paint the walls “American colors.”  I’m thinking that she didn’t mean red, white and blue but I didn’t really have a clue about what she meant.  Maybe I have seen what she meant.  For the record, I painted our walls a nice off white.

-The Green Tea Dreamer

For about twenty years I have been carrying around a copy of The Narrow Road to the Interior by Matsuo Basho (translated by Sam Hamill).  I bought it when I was but a young impressionable undergrad at the urging of Gary Holthaus, probably by my all time favorite college professor.  Professor Holthaus ran The Center for the American West at the University of Colorado at that time.  In those days I was obsessed with the literature of the American West and Gary Holthaus seemed to know everyone involved with that scene. On top of being a soft-spoken man of unbelievable depth, conscience, and humility he is an accomplished writer and poet himself.  Professor Holthaus is worth a read if you are into the the American West. He’s one of those people who is perpetually on a quest to make the world a better place.  There have been many successes on that front.  One of those successes was making my world a better place now and then.  His classes and knowing him in general fundamentally changed the way I look at the world. He also gave me a chance to be graced by the presence quite a few amazing authors, poets and thinkers including my favorite poet-philosopher-essayist-environmentalist, Gary Snyder.  Wow!

Anyway, he suggested this book because the introduction was “superb”, in his words.  If I still revisit the book regularly even after twenty years there must be truth in what he said.  It is a pretty good intro and a great book overall if you like 17th century Japanese travelogue interspersed with haiku.  It’s a niche market, I know, but I am in that niche.  My favorite part of the book is the first four lines.  The rest of the book has been an acquired taste.  But, the first four lines got me from the get go. They capture the feeling I have every spring (and regularly in any season, for that matter) perfectly.  Those lines epitomize the way I look at life.  On the off chance that the lines might spark something in you as well, I offer them to you:

The moon and sun are eternal travelers. 

Even the years wander on.

Years adrift in a boat, or in old age leading a tired horse into the years,

every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

From the earliest times there have always been some who perished along the road.

Still, I have always been drawn by windblown clouds into a life of wandering.

I love that.  I wish I could read Japanese well enough to feel the nuances it has in it’s original form.  Still, Hamill’s translation gets me every time. Sometimes I wonder if it’s possible that he improved on the original.  I hope Basho’s sentiment strikes a chord with you too.

Thank you Gary Holthaus…wherever you are!!!!!!  And, thank you Matsuo Basho.  This year I get to enjoy your little book in you home country and that has made it even better.

– The Green Tea Dreamer