The world is on sale!

And I want it.

Paris or Rome? Madrid or London? Let's go go go!

Travel goals for the future.

Trip to New York/the eastern seaboard by the winter of 2010.
Trip to France by 2011.
Return to Japan by 2012.
Trip to Alaska someday.
Trip to somewhere in Africa someday.
Trip to Oregon and Washington state someday.
Trip to Australia and New Zealand someday.

That list makes me feel good.

Four months later...

And I'm still thinking about Japan. I haven't even finished blogging about the rest of the trip. I think I will, just for the sake of the memories. I'll do that this week. Yes. Mm hmm.

In the meantime, I'll also be looking forward to future travel goals. Life is too short and there are too many places I want to see and too many things I want to do. I've been thinking this a lot lately.

Karaoke nights.

We had too much fun doing karaoke in Yoron. Toooo much fun. Here are snippets from karaoke night #1, which was preceded by a sunset party with our students from city hall (NOT the preschool kids) and the board of education. The people of Yoron know how to party. And when I say party, I mean partaaay.

Many of these photos come from Javier's camera, but were taken by me. Because Javier was slightly incapacitated.








Uhm. I was not passed out right there. I was laughing really, really hard.

Karaoke night #2 had fewer alcohol-induced moments, but it was fun nonetheless.

The badass on the left is Yogi. He is an excellent karaoke singer.

"YOU WA SHOCK!!!"

Sexy.

Random moments of sexiness:

Making silly faces for preschool kids.


Temaki-zushi party for Sho, by Sho. Because sushi = sexy.


"EVERYONE just ahhshhhhhhhht."


Derreck being "Mike Jack."


Javier being... Javier.


Getting a mosquito bite on your eyebrow, and consequently, a lopsided eyebrow furrow.

Kimono kids.

The preschool dressed us in kimono:

Sure, it looks elegant now, but at the time my breathing was much constricted. Perhaps Japanese women are not as, ahem, top heavy as I.



This obi was free-form. The ladies who dressed me just whipped it up out of nowhere! Amazing.

Kimono is wearable art.

And because it's freakin' hilarious.

This photo cracks me up. No need to fret -- my swollen sausages of feet had gone back to normal after about a day (NO, my feet are not usually that fat). I don't really know how this happened. I think it was a result of probably about a billion bug bites from the night previous. That's what I get for not wearing socks/shoes and walking around in ant-infested sand and dirt underneath a mosquito and spider forest.

FULL day.

They fed us. A lot. There was one day where all we did was eat. And hopped on a bus. And ate some more. And went on a tour. And ate and ate. We ate too much that day. And it's rude to not finish everything on your plate, you know.

But. I enjoyed every minute of it.

After our first visit to the preschool we were invited for lunch at Sharon Fruit and Herb Garden Restaurant. The food was so simple and so delicious, it was just absolutely ridiculous. I can't rave about it enough.

(Oh, I guess I did have that picture of the fresh lemongrass tea.)



Javier and I, we take pictures of food. And of things that amuse us. *


And we are easily amused:


After lunch, we got to take a tour around the gardens, where our scrumptious lunch came from.


They have programs for kids to teach them about plants and gardening. I loved that about this place.




After lunch, we took a cultural tour of sorts around the island, guided by our kind hosts, Mr. Noda and Ikeda Sensei.

We visited a spot where they hold an annual (?) festival in Yoron.


Ooh, a sumo mat!


And a beautiful view:


Way off in the distance, we could spot our hotel. So cool.


And THEN, we went to another cultural center where they hosted us with green tea and snacks. Mind you, this is barely an hour after we stuffed ourselves at lunch.


Sweet rice flour pancakes made from sugar cane grown in Yoron.

Fresh papaya.


And (hot) green tea. How do you drink green tea in hot humid weather?


You chase it with cool watermelon. Which there is no photo of because we gobbled that down really fast.

Sensei introduced us to a sweet old couple who just surpassed their 50th year anniversary. (The adorable bald man and the woman behind Ikeda sensei.)


And the day was far from complete. Ikeda sensei invited us over to her house where she hosted more tea (this time, iced) and snacks. *


Donuts, papaya, tomatoes and this rice flour cake that reminded me of the Indonesian kue lapis. *


That day was fun. Looking back on these photos and memories makes me miss it all.

I can't believe I'm still not done with these posts. Come back for more if you still have the patience.

* An asterisk means the below photo was taken by Sho (far left). He is a much better photographer than I.

Students and friends.

At a preschool in Yoron, we were "sensei" to the most adorable 3- to 5-year-olds. We taught there for about an hour each day to help enhance their English lessons. They are so sharp. And well-behaved.


And did I mention adorable?


We got to participate in playtime, too. Apparently kids luh-huvv playing London Bridge:



They got so excited, they started jumping up and down, screaming for more. It became exhausting. But I simply loved it.

We also gave English lessons daily at city hall. At the same time, we got to practice our Japanese. Too bad my Japanese is still terrible! But, I tried.


Junko and her four kids befriended us. Her eldest daughter Aoi is missing from the picture (in case you thought I was pretending to be one of her kids). They even joined us for our last karaoke hurrah (photos of that at another time).


Here are Izumi-sensei, Mr. Noda and Ikeda-sensei -- Izumi-sensei's 1st grade teacher!


And Namiko-san -- she worked at Pricia Hotel, where we stayed. I helped her with the English version of Pricia's brochure, and she helped me with my Japanese. And said funny things. And laughed at me when I freaked out when a gigantor spider was discovered in the Internet lab. I'll miss her!


Finally, this is the best restaurant in Yoron. We became regulars. I'll blog about the actual stuff I ate there on Food Blahg at a later time. Please trust that it was delicious. Update: here it is, in all its delicious glory.

Creatures.

Cats roamed the hotel grounds.


Every morning, I would take a couple extra pieces of fish from our breakfast buffet and feed a cute momma cat and her two kittens:



This pair made an abandoned store in town their home.


But other creatures were not so cuddly:





Except that little crab. It was kind of cute.