The Chapman Family Christmas Letter

Usually we send out a family christmas letter per post. This year we decided not to, but I wanted to do the letter in some form or other... so we are giving it a go on the blog! I know many of the family and friends to whom we usually send the letter read the blog, and if they dont, please go ahead and forward this entry to them. Sorry, for those of who know nothing of the Chapman Family. Either skip or learn.

YONNI
Friends and Family,

Three events of note this past year were trips I made with Joyce and Sandi. Joyce and I went to visit our step-family (left): Naimah, her son
Michael, Leticia, her daughter Malaya, and Bev Grant in New York before Joyce left for Japan. Sandi and I went on two trips. We visited our good friend Alfredo in Woods Hole, and visited my best friend from high school, Fitz, and his
family in Chicago over Thanksgiving.

The BIG EVENT in my life during the past year was finishing my dissertationand getting my Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina. I had to puteverything else on hold to make it to the finish line before the Graduate School deadline. It was definitely one of the biggest challenges of my life. Glad to say, though, perseverence paid off. Sandi provided tremendous practical and emotional support through the hard times,especially at the end. My graduation in August (I actually marched across the stage and shook Chancellor Moeser's hand this past Sunday) brought to conclusion an effort I began in 1990.
Committee members, from left to right, were James Leloudis (advisor), Jerma Jackson, Tim Tyson, Reginald Hildebrand, and Gerald Horne.

Graduate school, for me, was a sustained effort to combine academics and social justice organizing. My dissertation research for "Black Freedom andthe University of North Carolina, 1793-1960" (link is for download, 1.3MB) provided the foundation for building a movement at UNC for honest history and commemoration. Through CHAT (Campaign for Historical Accuracy and Truth) we demanded that the university honestly acknowledge its pivotal role in the promotion of slavery and white supremacy while, at the same time, appropriately honoring the freedom struggle of black workers and others who have been censored from the institution's official history. In 2004 we forced the retirement of the Bell Award, named in honor of 19th century white supremacist Cornelia Phillips Spencer. The next year, UNC erected an "Unsung Founders Memorial" to honor the black workers, slave and free, who built the university. In 2005 the Manuscripts Department of the university library sponsored an exhibit onUNC's role during slavery. This past October, the university launched a "Virtual Museum" to tell the honest history of the institution, "warts and all." The chancellor noted that this initiative was motivated by the Bell Award controversy. In February, the Manuscripts Department will sponsor an exhibit on "Protest Movements in Chapel Hill During the 1960s." This will include the Chapel Hill Civil Rights Movement of 1963-64 and the cafeteria workers' strikes in 1969 against continued Jim Crow abuses of human rights. I am proud of completing my dissertation, but I feel even better about the fact that I was able to contribute to these significant gains in social justice.

Next, I want to build on these foundations, as well as the work others have done in North Carolina, to advance the movement for "Truth, Justice, and Community Reconciliation" in Chapel Hill and throughout the state. I'm looking for funding--any ideas?

JEAN

Greetings from Evergreen, Alabama, where I've been based for the past few weeks. While it's true that "we are always in transition", this has been a special year of change: I left pediatrics and medicine after 40 years and began my 7th decade (i.e. turned 60). I came here to Alabama at the end of November to spend extended time digging about the roots of the family trees (both my father and my mother's families having been rooted in rural agricultural Alabama for many generations), and be-ing with my sisters and other living family.

Back home in Bear Creek, NC (left), my semi-hermit life carries on in my beloved 12' x 12' off the grid little-cabin-in-the-woods. I continue joying in silence, solitude, the natural world, working in the gardens. I am surrounded by rich circles of communities committed to peace, racial and economic justice, nonviolence, inclusivity, and loving and preserving the Earth. Never has the work of those communities been more critical: there is no need to enumerate the current horrors of torture, war, injustice, and racism in the world.

One of the great gifts of this year has been walking for peace. It was wonderful putting one foot in front of another during Holy Week in NC with the Pilgrimage for Peace and Justice, and again in November with Nipponzan Myohoji and the Peace Walk from Atlanta to the School of Americas gathering. I hope to do more walking for peace in 2007.

After taking Joyce to DC and seeing her off to Japan in August, the road led on to Jonah House, where I joined the Atlantic Life Community folk in vigil at the Enola Gay on Aug 6th. The end of August brought farewell to Chatham Pediatrics and travel to Kentucky (by way of Homecoming at the Highlander Center) to spend 5 weeks renewing deep connections with the Sisters of Loretto at the Motherhouse. I was an all-purpose volunteer once again... yes, weeding, power-washing, and wondrous relation-ing!

Oh, I forgot to honor Juanita, my "new" 21-year-old bio-diesel Jetta. Juanita was clearly the next step for me in trying to walk softly on the Earth, as we are blessed in NC with a growing Bio-diesel community (someday I'll get to "straight veggie oil", or better yet, no car at all). "Ruby Pearl the Faithful Toyota" (above) is now working hard as an organizer with FLOC, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, in NC and Mexico!

What a blessing it was to be together with Sandi and Joyce in NC the first half of this year. They are now 24 and 26, and will weave their own stories.

Life grows deeper, richer, more contemplative and more active at the same time. I celebrate Mystery, aspire to integrity, kindness, open-ness, good humor, nonviolence, generosity of spirit and substance, gratitude for this precious human life.

SANDI
I (Joyce) have been given the authority to say a few quick words in Sandi`s name. Several large changes have taken place in Sandi`s life this year. Last August, Sandi turned down a scholarship at Northwestern for a PhD program in political science. It would have been too cold up there anyway, in my opinion.

Instead, she and Sol Oster-Katz moved into a new house together in Durham, and Sandi is reapplying to graduate school locally for next year. Last summer, Sandi also took an awesome backpacking trip around Bolivia and Argentina (the first one to follow in mum`s footsteps and make it to South America!) Currently, she is busy investing time with family and missing me and mother terribly. I will also take this opportunity to praise Sandi for being about the only person who ever calls me here (dad comes in second! Mom doesnt have a phone so I suppose we cant blame her.) What an excellent sister.

JOYCE
Well, everyone has been getting my updates since August on this here blog. I spose I'll say a short word about the first half of the year, though nothing much happened. After returning from 1.5 years in Germany, the 2005-2006 saw me a Senior at UNC-CH. I continued working at my beloved Spotted Dog Restaurant and Bar (if you're in the Carrboro area, please go have some Fido's Fries, they are miraculous. Ask to see Joyce's poem about Fido's Fries:-)

I had a great year living in a house in Carrboro with Spanish friends (left, our housemates), studying linguistics and German, finally being able to bike everywhere I wanted to go (having escaped life at the bottom of the Chapel's Hill;-) and having the whole family in the same country at one time for once!



I graduated in May (left!) and flew off to Russia the next day. After spending several splendid weeks with Ainsley in her apartment in St. Petersburg/Moscow (below), I relocated to Paris, where I spent a month with Maren, my wondrous roommate from my Tulane days (below). Then a quick stop-over in Germany to see my Stuttgart family and Tübingen friends. This accidentally occured during the Soccer World Cup... yikes! Didn't plan for that but it sure was fun. The next week, I packed my bags for Japan, and bid America goodbye once again.













(Left: me and Alexander Prodehl, my future husband, in Stuttgart)

The only exciting current piece of news that I have is that I have re-contracted here with the JET Programme. I'll be living in Japan until August 2008.

That's it from the Chapman Family for this year!

Sometimes Kids are Cute

Though my students are rebellious balls of havock-wreaking energy 99% of the time, occasionally I am reminded that they're really my favorite peeps around. Today we spent 50 minutes making Christmas cards in one of my classes. The kids were allowed to make their card for anyone they wanted. But a good many of them picked... ME! That's right: Ms. Joyce. We gave them a sheet with a lot of christmas phrases translated into English/Japanese that they could pick from to write on their cards.
My favorite card that I received came from a 15 year old boy, whose name I don't even know:

After blinking at it for a moment, I gently pointed out that I'm not a man, and he needed to add "wo-". Unfortunately, he thought I was telling him to call me a Wo, without the Man. Oh well. I'm still flattered. A Wo is as good a thing to be as any, indeed.

Here's a few more cards that I received. I have to say, I was dissapointed that I didn't get any cards from the girls. Take what you can get though (once again, for the low-tech folk: click on a picture to see a bigger version of it).












Some of my girls are really amazing artists. In only about 45 minutes, they produced some mighty fine works of art. Ah, I mustn't forget the boys. Here is a sampling, the last one is by a boy (he drew himself, his best friend, and his favorite cartoon. They all look very true to like, it's uncanny):













My favorite card all in all, however, was not one given to me. Take a look at Chikayo's fine artwork, and clever English phrases (she dared to wander off into the realm of non-Christmas-worksheet English):

A brief chat with Chikayo lead me to the surprising discovery that she does not, in fact, own a dog. Nor does she know anyone who owns a dog. But she does wish that she had one. And that's what counts on Christmas.

How many languages do YOU speak?

I had one of those life-reaffirming experiences last week at dinner. These come along every so often and remind me that maybe I havent been wasting my time for the last 9 years, since I took up the hobby of language collecting... why it may actually have been useful for me to have squandered away so much time in foreign countries, muddling my brain with too many Tongues. They are constantly warring away in my head for a higher foothold. I can hear them now:

Oye cabron, estas en medio! Yo llegue primero!
Es ist mir Wurst, sie kann viel besser Deutsch, lass mich durch!
Hey, Im her mother tongue, doesnt that count for something?
J`en ai marre... moi, je suis FRANCAIS!!!! Vous ecoutez? FRANCAIS, j`ai dit!!!!!
静かに！日本にすんでいる。日本語をしゃべて！！！

Anyway. This dinner was organized by my good friend Kohinor, who is an exchange student here from Mexico. Present were myself, Kohinor, a Frenchman, a Japanese woman, and a Hungarian couple. Here was the language break-down:

Kohinor speaks Spanish and very good Japanese and some English. We talk in Spanish (he talked to the Japanese girl in Japanese and to the French guy in English or Japanese). Rachid spoke French, Arabic (of no use here), some Japanese, some English. We spoke in Japanese or English until he wanted to explain something complex, and then he reverted to French. The Japanese girl spoke elementary Spanish. We spoke mostly in Japanese. The Hungarian woman spoke Hungarian with her husband, but also excellent English, Spanish, and Japanese. We spoke in Spanish. Her poor husband just sat there and ate in silence, as she had apologized and explained at the beginning of the meal that he spoke neither Spanish nor Japanese. Halfway through the meal, however, it came up in conversation that he did, infact, speak German. Oh joyous day. He was promptly reseated to be next to me.

Though this evening did leave my brain in a complete linguistic muddle, it also left my belly full and my mind at ease. It hasnt been in vain! The languages cried in unison in my head.

Five languages DO come in handy sometimes. And I didnt even have to test my shaky Italian.

Alone, we are all lonely.

My students have surprised me once again. Today in class I lead a `Dear Santa-san` lesson. Each student had to answer the question posed by me (Mr. Santa) `What do you want for Christmas and why?` Here are two of the more interesting answers I got from students:

For Christmas, I want a girlfriend. Because I am alone. And it is lonely.

For Christmas, I want love. Because I want to know the feeling of being loved.

!!??!!

First of all, these are 16 year old boys. Second of all, they are answering in front of 40 other students of mixed gender. And most importantly, nobody laughed at these guys. People nodded understandingly, in fact. Their little faces were serious and thoughtful.

Yes, of course. Their nods seemed to say. Alone, we are all lonely. For Christmas, we all want love.

Is this normal? I mean, it IS a good point. Dont we all just want to be loved? But, then again, do we all just say it outloud like that? Not in America you dont. You would be massacred in high school if you did something like this! Its social suicide, in fact. Your reputation could never recover from such a blow. But not here in Japan. It must have something to do with the mentality of the communal culture. Being alone is not something that anyone wants here. Its just not cool to be alone.

Sniff. Now I sit at my desk and in my mind I keep seeing their cute little heads bobbing up and down, and I keep thinking of their lonely little hearts saying,

Alone, we are all lonely. For Christmas, we all want love.

I wish I had a big bag of girlfriends and another one of love that I could bring for them all on Christmas, bless their souls.

Breaking News: Panda Sighting

SPOTTED! Last night, a rare species of Okinawan satoukibi panda (left) was spotted in Nishihara. These sugarcane pandas have long been thought extinct. Said panda was found in a local gaijin's living room at 9pm Friday night. It seems that Ms. Holbrow (the gaijin in question) has been obsessed with the sugarcane panda for several years now. Last week she hired Mr. Jeff, an American environmentalist and Fulbright scholar (hands below), to help her lure one of the rare species into her home.

The panda entered the house through the front door, allegedly drawn to the combined scent of popcorn, vanilla-honey-apple cider, and freshly cut raw sugarcane that Mr. Jeff had prepared as bate. The Okinawan police arrived minutes later and attempted to appropriate the panda, planning for immediate release back into the sugarcane fields. Unfortunately, in their few short minutes together, Ms. Holbrow and Panda Gabe (who was making eyes at her through out the night) had fallen madly in love. Ms. Holbrow was no longer to be reasoned with, seeming to have lost all capacity for human speech. Her only response to reporters' questions was to suck merrily away on her sugarcane and shout repeatedly, "i wish i had a million dollars, ホットドグ (hotdog)!" (the mating cry of the satoukibi panda).

Police, working together with local environmental groups, have developed a plan for the pair. Ms. Holbrow and Panda Gabe will be relocated to the local 動物園 (zoo), where since they are considered a non-aggressive species, the two will be kept in a walk-through petting exhibit that will attempt to reduplicate a combination of their natural habitats (tatami floors and sugarcane). Local officials admit that when alls said and done, Ms. Holbrow and Panda Gabe make an awfully cute couple. When asked whether he minded that the last surviving sugarcane panda was planning to mate with a gaijin, he replied that half of Okinawa had already chosen to do so, and he didn't see why the panda ought not to have his fair go at it as well.

Jesus was a Socialist

Since my job here is to expose Japanese children to American culture, I spend one week of almost every month giving classes on whatever American holiday is going on. There was... my birthday, then Halloween, then Thanksgiving, now Christmas. There will most likely be Valentines Day, Mardi Gras, Saint Patricks Day, Groundhogs Day, and Easter. I plan to consume as much time as possible with holiday cheer, in fact. Saves me from boring book lessons.

Anywho. For us, it is difficult to imagine a world with no Christmas... or a world without Christianity. Even if we aren't Christians, we know what Christians are. We know what the Bible is, heaven and hell,　the Garden of Eden, Satan, the Virgin Mary, sin, salvation, etc. This all has a certain rhyme and reason, even if we disagree with it.

Yeaaaaaah.
Kids here don't know about that. They know that Christmas means presents, xmas trees, Santa-san (Mr. Santa), and most important, that Christmas is the #1 day to go out on a date with your girlfriend in Japan. Yea! Christmas is big time Date Day here. The busiest restaurant day of the year. Disconnected from that, they know that white people like to talk about a dude named Kurisuto (Christ). People in Japan are all either Buddhist or Shinto, with something like 1% being Christian (in Okinawa they traditionally practice animism, but Im not sure how widespread this is anymore).

So this week is my Christmas lesson. I sat there and thought, what on Earth am I going to talk about? I don't just want to talk about Santa Claus and stockings, cuz they know that already. Am I going to tell them the Christmas story, about Jesus` birth? No Im not... my teachers all negged on the idea of me explaining the Virgin Mary. The children will want know, how have baby no sex, they say. Well, right, that's the POINT of the story... oh forget it.

Am I going to explain what Christianity is? Hm. Its a major world religious that for once, someone doesn't know anything about. But... I envisioned myself telling my kids that a large percentage of the worlds inhabitants believe that this guy with a long white beard who lives in the sky made the world in 7 days, then made a person out of clay, then of all things, a girl got made out of a bone, and there was an apple tree, and a snake, and poof! Original Sin...and Im fuzzy on what happened then in the middle... and here we are today! Nope. Wasn't gonna fly. I could see their confused faces before me. The questions that would be asked:

- But why couldn't eat apples? Confirming to students on either side, apples healthy, ne.
- Was it habu snake in apple tree?

I wouldnt be able to answer these questions, and then that round-faced kid in the front row of 1-5 would jump out of his seat, throw his arms wide and boom (as always), I...LIKE...FISHING!!!!!
I shudder at the thought of yet another conversation with this kid about various types of Okinawan fish. It always ends with me not understanding what he is trying to say, he looks frustrated, then bounces back, brandishing an imaginary sword and shouting, Japanese... SAMURAI, YEA!!!! This is his way of reproducing the lost connection with me. Im not sure why.

Back to explaining Christianity: the entire Christian concept of Sin and Salvation is foreign to these kids. Its a very big topic and I certainly am not the one who should explain it to them. But I'm what they got.

Ok, make it simple, Joyce. I think. The big JC's b-day. Give 'em the facts. Who was Jesus? Now, I'm definitely not an expert on Christianity. My facts could be rusty. But I went ahead and thought it over to myself, as it seemed like a good thing to do. who the hell IS Jesus?

Below is the what is written on the board after I'm done with my short but sweet history lesson, word for word:

Dec. 25
deeto する、だめ!
religious holiday, Christians

JESUS AND CHRISTIANITY:
Son of God
sent to earth as human to save us from our sins
'savior'
what is 'SIN'?
(die, heaven, hell)

JESUS AS HISTORICAL FIGURE:
Jesus - Jew
pretty cool dude
- social justice and social equality
- redistribution of wealth
- `love your enemies`
- non-violence
- subversive
-arrested, executed, martyr

I give my head a scratch and take a look at what the board boils down to.

"Ehhh, basically kids, Jesus was a socialist."

I sum it up, and leave it for my JTE to translate however they see fit.

Pause. Those few students who remain awake consider the information I've given them with what seems to be a careful eye. What are they thinking, I wonder. Have I made any sense at all? Is the question about the habu snake in the apple tree coming?

Finally, one kid in the front row nods approvingly. 「ジザス、すげ 」 he says.

Jesus is cool, indeed.
And my work is done for the day.

Make Cookies of your Enemies

...and there were cookies, cookies, cookies! My determination to bring my bit of Christmas cheer to this land has gone from dream to reality.
Today, there were cookies. And, oh, such cookies there were: chocolate-coconut cream cheese pinwheels, cappuccino crinkles, gingerbread, sugar. Yuki, Yvonne, and Rachel came over at 5pm to participate in a veritable orgy of cookie baking joy with me. By 9.30, Yvonne was sick from too much cookie dough and Yuki's hands could no longer close properly due to her over-zealous work with the Cake Mate squeeze tips. You can see more of our fabulous creations to the left.

What will become of these cookies? Well, some of us hope to spread holiday cheer to the 98% of our co-workers who have contracted the flu simultaneously. We also hope, perhaps, to buy friends or good-will at our places of employment tomorrow morning. We shall prance in, bearing trays of delicious treats to lay at the feet of our kochos, kyotos, and fellow sensei. A cookie can say 1,000 words, as the saying goes. "I'm sorry, I don't speak your language and you don't speak mine... lets be friends anyway. Have a cookie. Douzo." Or perhaps, "I'm sorry I'm paid just as much as you are, yet do 1/10 the work. Complain to your Board of Education about it, but in the mean time, love me. Have a cookie." Things like that. Other people plan on eating these cookies themselves. Still others plan on giving them to their husbands. You can muddle out amongst yourselves who is going to do which.

Speaking of cookies. You may be wondering where the title of this entry came from. I will meander that way forthwith. While sipping some coffee and surfing the internet today (on the subject of the Japanese + cookies), I came upon some startling and intriguing information. The article began so:

"As part of an ongoing battle against invading swarms of giant jellyfish in local waters, some residents of Fukui prefecture have developed a method for converting the jellyfish into powder, which is used to make souvenir cookies...the result is a cookie with a superbly textured sweetness nicely complemented by the bitter, salty flavor of jellyfish."

So! I think. The naicha have stooped to such under-the-belt tactics as powdering their enemies and making cookies of them. I shake my head to myself and slurp my coffee. Typical Japanese. They'll make omiyage out of anything. These jellyfish, btw, can grow up to 6ft wide and weigh 450lbs. Imagine how many cookies you could get out of just one.

Heh! I immediately slip into a daydream, in which I am Tom Cruise. Beneath the cherry tree, or possibly in a small picturesque shrine, I ask the samurai warrior, How you do you plan to fight off the evil invading forces who come to desecrate your village's ancient ways? He morphs into Harold Perrineau as Marcutio and shouts, We shall make cookies of them! And then a 450lb giant jellyfish seizes him in its tentacles and eats him. This is funny for a few seconds (funny enough to make me snort some coffee up my nose anyway... hey, at work anything can be entertaining), til I remember that whatever movie line I'd made that pun off of actually wasnt said by Marcutio, and... yeah, not actually from that movie. Huh.

Gingerbread or jellyfish... despite our cultural differences, it warms my heart to know that both the Japanese and Joyce are happily making cookies this holiday season.

Okinawa Christmas

I am determined for Christmas to come visit me at my house this year in Okinawa. Though, I may not be as determined as these naicha from the snowy reaches of northern mainland Japan, who were playing some really bad tunes (couldn't tell if they were supposed to be xmas tunes, or whether the costumes and music were unrelated... typical Japanese) on kokusaidori in front of the 7/11 Friday evening.

As I was saying, I am determined for Christmas to come to Okinawa. Forget that the weather refuses to comply (it's in the seventies), and that no one on this island has ever seen snow. Despite everything working against the Okinawans, they have embraced all the trim and trappings of Christmas (though none of the rest) with great communal enthusiasm. Plastic trees covered in bobbles are to be found in every shop's windows. Businesses have painted their panes with Santas and sleighs and very large HO HO HOs. And I have already sited at least 3 Okinawans wearing Santa hats as they drive along in their cars. Best of all (Hilary will be happy to hear this) my local grocery store has packed up the deadly Grocery Store theme song that is blasted at top volume on loop 24/7, and broken out the Christmas tunes. Joy to the world, indeed.

With that thought in mind, I set out to purchase my tree.


It's a bit smaller than what I'm used to in America, but hey, you take what you can get. 6 inches, 3$, not a bad deal. Plus, I found a candy cane, which is no mean feat.

The thing that is really bringing cheer to the holiday season was my recent visit to the American grocery store on base. This might not sound like much to you (unless you're a JET, and in that case you are probably agog), but believe me, it's BIG news! I clearly remember some 2nd year JET telling me that was in fact impossible to get into the grocery stores on base. You can get a base pass from a military friend and go on: see movies, eat, whatever. But you have to present a military ID to get into the grocery store, and show it again at the checkout line. Basically a high-security vault. My Japanese friend Yuki is married to a marine and was determined to get me into the store (mostly so that I could show her what all the mysterious American food items are used for, and then teach her how to make christmas cookies.) After many whispered inquiries Yuki was informed that one particular base might not check each person's ID entering the store and then she could just pay at the checkout line (so they would check just her ID). Saturday was our day of glory! We succeeded! I was giddy with excitment as we walked the aisles. I ran back and forth, pointing and babbling like the crazy gaijin that I am. "Canned pumpkin mush! Look Yuki it's canned pumpkin mush!" Joyce stacks her arms full of giant cans of pumpkin mush and staggers towards the cart. Yuki: "Joyce-san," somewhat hesitantly, "you sure you need so many pumpkin mush? We come back whenever you want." "Yes yes, you're right of course" in her haste Joyce drops half the pumpkin mush cans on the floor, agrees to return 3 to the shelf, refuses to part with the remaining 2. Repeat scenario with every food item in the entire store. Yuki probably thinks I'm crazy.

Below, you can see the array of wonder that I purchased. Items included sour cream, sharp cheddar cheese, black beans, whole wheat pasta, applesauce, and Wheat Thins. These may sound like nothing special but I assure you, they are what life is all about.

Yay for Christmas and yay for base grocery stores!

宮古島 (Miyako Island)

This article will be of special interest to my viewers in Deutschland.
Leute, ihr wollt das hier durchlesen!

There was a vacation I forgot to tell you about. On a recent 5-day weekend, I journeyed to 宮古島, Miyako Island, which is about 300 miles southwest of my island. A bit east of Taiwan, in other words. It's Okinawa's 4th biggest island (mine is the first). In reality, "Miyako" is not just one island, but one of the 3 main island groups of Okinawa prefecture, consisting of about 8 islands. Me and 6 friends stayed for free at the very spacious and luxurious abode of a Miyako-JET who happened to be on vacation. My companions were Robyn, Deej, Tim, Michael, Yvonne, Jaimee, and Nancy.
That's right, the Canadians were in the lead with 3, Americans and Brits tied for second but only if Michael feels like counting his Scottish blood the same as Yvonne's English… which I have a feeling he doesn't. And Jaimee came in last place with 1 for Oceania. Go team OkiJET!

Miyako is flat, covered in sugarcane plantations and picture-perfect beaches good for diving, snorkeling, and chillin'. Though it was almost December, we frolicked in bathing suits and tshirts to our hearts' content.

There are about 40.000 inhabitants on the island, and the most interesting fact related to the population is that the capital city of Hirara reportedly has a higher ratio of bars to people than any other city in Japan. If Robyn hadn't spread her deadly flu-virus to the rest of us, the whole trip would have been a success.
Luckily, we all had our Nancy, so it was a-ok.
There is something really weird about Miyako. We first became aware of the weirdness when we drove up to our new home, late Wednesday night after arriving on the plane. It was a dark and stormy night. Rain lashed the windows, etc. Berit (our local JET) announced to us that we had arrived. We peer into the darkness ahead and in a flash of lightning (or was it simply the headlight beams?) are startled to see this castle rising out of the night before us.

"Uh, dude, someone let us off the plane in Germany." Tim comments. And so right he was. We awoke the next morning and took a look out the window. Besides the castles, we saw this excellent view of a very European looking church tower to our right. Then we went downstairs and took a look at our surroundings. It turned out that we were living in a place called the German Village. Here is the house we lived in.

Apparently, in 1873 a typhoon wrecked a German merchant ship upon Miyako's shores. The citizens of Miyako saved the lives of the people aboard. And for that reason, Miyako feels a deep and eternal bond with Germany… I know, I get a bit fuzzy on the whys and hows at this point in the story too. Suffice to say, there is a Gerhard Schröder road that runs the length of the island amidst the tropical sugarcane fields and then there's crap like this (below) dotting the landscape. Just goes to show you what a small world it is. I move away from Germany to the opposite end of the universe, take a trip to an island that isn't even on the map, am Arsch der Welt in the East China Sea, and what do you know, there's Deutschland smiling right back at me!













We played the shanshin at the seashore (say that 5 times fast)
We watched the sunset with spikey choral poking us in the bum.
We ate the famous Miyako soba (which turned out to be exactly the same as Okinawa soba except that there was some seaweed in it)...


We drove over crazy bridges to tiny islands, where we got lost in the narrow maze of streets, and then decided to just get out and walk around the small-town neighborhood. We saw fishing nets hung out to dry after a hard days labor (I imagine), and boats parked in front of houses.
There were lots of interesting looking houses in Miyako. Since everyone lives in apartments in my town, you don't get to see this kind of stuff. I'm getting tired of posting now, so maybe this will be modified in a bit with more information or interesting fotos.