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Muro Taicho strikes again!!!

Due to many personal requests, I have decided to start back up my blog. Aside from pleasing a few close friends and family, I think this decision is for the wiser. Without a blog, I won't be able to catalogue the nearly daily insanity of Kita Daito. Stories that 13 months ago would have wracked my brain with their incomprehensible insanity, no longer phase me. I have become either acclimated to them, or comfortably numb to them; however, you choose to describe it, I have been missing stories like this:

Today was the school clean up. In a very Japanese way, we are all assigned to teams with an area to "sogi" or clean-up. Now, my Japanese still isn't the best, but when you are handed a large hand saw and told to go over to a tree and wait, you have a sinking sensation something "interesting" is about to happen. When about 30 of the parents come over with similar saws to the same tree, you know something is about to happen. I was told in a few words, we were going to, "cut down the trees." At this point, I am thinking, "No, way, there is literally no way they are expecting us to chop down this entire tree or the 5 or so trees around it with merely handsaws..." Luckily for me, I was right. They just wanted to chop down all of the the branches hanging over the street!

So, I am staring at these branches and wondering when the cherry picker is going to roll up with the heavy duty machinery when Okinawan-PTA Member #1, throws a rickity tin ladder against one of the trees and scurries up. Within a minute, branches are raining down around me. NOT the little branches that birds make nests in, but rather the branches kids build tree houses in. While I am dodging the falling logs, my art teacher sees me and decides that I need something to do. He points me to a rather large weed (small tree) that was growing out of some shrubbery. This, I thought, I can handle.

I get down and visit my prey eye-to-eye, much akin to a lion stalking his prey. With a few quick pulls of the saw, that meddlesome weed was no more. I held this vile monster over my head with pride, and then tossed it into the growing log pile. But destroying that weed was not enough, I was blood, err vine-thirsty for more. The remaining two trunks of this weed had to go. I saw furiously away and after a good 10 minutes; I cut through the last two trunks. I reach in for my prize and pull. It occurs to me, when I have both trunks almost out of the row of bushs, that I had in my hands what they call in the gardening business, "collateral damage." In my frenzied state of mind, I had totally cut down two of the bushs I was trying to protect! But no matter, I was quick to come up with a remedy. I stealthily made haste to the teacher's lounge where I found the one cure-all for everything: duct tape. With near-ninja like dexterity, I was able to quickly duct the bushs back to their roots. Hey, I know their going to die, but at least this gives them a fighting chance, no? Moreover, the duct tape proved useful in yet another function: deftly hiding any damage I had done until, an unknowning gardener stumbles upon the dead bush weeks from now, and sees the call sign of the "duct-tape bandit."

This is one such story that would be totally lost without a blog system. Three hours later I had practically forgot about it... But in other news, here are some updates of the last week:

1) Today, I saw quite possibly the grossiest thing I have ever seen in Japan. The Japanese use basically an over-grown weedwacker to cut their lawns (think weedwacker plus serrated circular saw), possibly the most dangerous, non-essential, irrational thing ever invented. As, A) the lawn never looks even when your done, and B) you are wielding and open circular saw with little to no safety acutriments --enough said. And yet, I have seen countless Okinawans listlessly swining away at entire fields... Well the lawns are pretty thick around here --and as we are living on a small, sub-tropical island in the pacific-- they are usually flush with all sorts of life (snails, toads, kittens, etc.). I have always wondered what would happen if a critter in said lawn got hit by one of these death-mowers... As I walk home from the aforementioned log-fest, I look down and notice the biggest toad I have ever seen on KD. It is hunched over and walking slowly in the same direction I am. The hunch was suspicious, but then I realized, "Wow, this must be a mother toad and she is carrying her eggs on her back; just as I had read in countless Zoo Babies books! What an awesome natural experience to witness first-hand! Let's get a closer look..." Upon closer examination, the toad was not carrying its young at all, but rather its guts as they hung from a clean, wide death-mower strike. I will never use a weedwacker again.

2) Some of my teachers have conned me into training for the Naha marathon. Training has been tedious at best... I have trained for a marathon before, but never in the tropics. The only realistic time to train is either late at night or early in the morning-- the heat and humidity is THAT BAD. I have been pretty religious about my training, but the heat has kept me from completing most of my scheduled runs. I am only 2 weeks into my 16 week training scheme; so much can and will change. But, I will keep you posted on the "shinkasen's" (bullet train) progress.

3) Ahhh, and here's a supremely good omen. With the fishermen on the island, I was giving the nickname, "Muro-Taicho," or "Captain Muro." Now, I am fairly certain this nickname was given in jest, but I don't think it is offensive at all, as Muro (a type of fish; pictured above) are prized for their sashimi (raw meat). Although there are many theories of the reasoning/origin of "Muro-Taicho," I think the nickname has more to do with Muro being the first fish I ever caught on the Kita Daito. Well, I went fishing last yesterday with my boss, the first time of the new year, and I nabbed three Muro in a row. Coincidence? Good Omen? Just Lucky? That is for the higher powers to decide...

-Andy