Next Step

This past week I was offered an 6-month internship position with The PEPY Ride organization, and NGO working in Cambodia. "PEPY is a non-profit organization working to improve educational opportunities in rural Cambodia and offering unique adventures for those looking to give-back while they travel."

I was going to tell you more about the organization, but seeing as how I ripped that last sentence (as well as the PEPY logo/graphic) directly from the website, I will just direct you there: [www.pepyride.org] I encourage you to visit the site and read about this inspiring organization.

After some careful consideration, I have decide to accept the position, which begins mid-September of this year. I will be based at PEPY's office in Phnom Penh and living and working with a number of other interns. I am extremely excited for the opportunity to work for a grass-roots development organization again, especially as I will be involved in both NGO Management and International Education, two fields I am considering for graduate school and my career.

Outside

Had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Woke up at dawn Saturday morning (4a.m.) for golf at my local course with fellow JET Ken and another teacher from my school. After a late Southern breakfast of cheese grits, fried eggs and toast, I met other friends Mike and Iku-chan for an early lunch (perhaps the best "katsu-don", a fried pork cutlet served with onions and egg over rice, in all Japan) and a tour of Yubikan, the site of the former samurai school of the Date Masamune clan. The buildings date back some 350 years, and the grounds/gardens are quite stunning. Unfortunately I was without my camera, so no photos to post.

After the tour, the three of us spent the afternoon playing 54 holes of Park Golf. Park Golf, for the uninitiated, is a game somewhere between golf and putt-putt. It is played on real turf, complete with greens, fairways, rough, and bunkers, but using only one club and a hard ball a little smaller than a tennis ball. The holes are anywhere from 30-100 meters long, with a 9-hole course not exceeding 500 meters. It is not nearly as challenging as golf, and thus much less frustrating and much more relaxing. It is immensely popular with 50 and up crowd in Japan as well as an increasing number of JETs in Miyagi prefecture.

Sunday I was up early again at 4a.m. to meet my Japanese buddy Matsumoto for a morning of fly-fishing, my first time out this year. We had some brilliant weather in the early morning, cool and clear and still, and there were several different insect hatches coming off the water, but I was unable to take any fish. We tried three different spots on the Naruse river, but the fish were seemingly just not hungry. I saw only a handful feeding in 5 hours of fishing, and none of them wanted what I was presenting. Matsumoto caught 3 small char (5 inches?) on spinning tackle, and released them promptly. It was a fantastic morning, despite going fishless...

Three haiku

LOST

On the wooden steps
Of the secret mountain shrine
Forgetting the day

SAD

Before afternoon
Fades into the blue gloaming
Wind waters my eyes

SOLACE

The pole straight cedars
Shoot up through the warbler's song
Scattering the light

Where is the wa?

Less than hour after landing at the Detroit airport on the flight from Tokyo, I was on a domestic flight to Charlotte. While taxi-ing the runway, I was stunned by both the size (height and girth) and the manner of most on board. Of the six people in my row, I was the only person under 200 lbs. I was one of two people who did not use their cell phone immediately before or after take-off/landing. And I was one of only a handful of folks on board who wasn't speaking to their seatmates.

This came to me quickly:

Enormous strangers
Chatting loudly side-by-side
On and on and on


In fact, I had been rather looking forward to being back in a place where folks who don't know eachother converse. In Japan, strangers rarely chat. But, I was struck (put off?) by the air of self-importance with which many Americans carry themselves. No doubt I carry this same air about me in Japan--head always up, daring others do make eye contact, moving most deliberately. But seeing so many people like this in a narrow space, I immediately thought of the ever humble Japanese, ever aware of others' personal space, and ever preserving the "wa" (harmony).

On the way home...

Last week I returned home to the Carolinas for the first time in almost 2 years for the wedding of my good friend.

Two haiku came to me on my journey home, one while on the bullet train to Tokyo, and the other while on the airplane. I am not sure if the Japanese translations are quite right/poetic, but I will include them anyway...

Lingering blossoms
Sprinkled on the green hillside
Gone when I return

ざんかの木
みどりに掛けた
帰るーなし

Zanka no ki
Midori ni kakeru
Kaeru--nashi

and

Cloud sea far below
And home on the horizon
Fuji remembered

雲海や
家近くなる
富士きおく

Unkai ya
Uchi chikaku naru
Fuji kioku