Sushi in Zushi and other marvolous things

Yesterday I went with Jenn and Ivan to watch a beach concert in Zushi, one stop away from Kamakura. One of my students is a FANTASTIC musician (T-cophony) and he was performing, so I wanted to see him play his guitar. Unfortunately, the map he sent me was kind of terrible and the beach was farther away than we'd anticipated so we got there late. My student was opening for the other bands so I was freaking out that we'd miss his performance, luckily we made it in time to see him do his last few songs so I was very relieved. The rest of the bands were really talented and all of us had a wonderful time. This was my first time going to a beach in Japan and the one in Zushi was lovely. It was lined with rolling green mountains and the water was absolutely perfect. None of us brought our bathing suits but we waded a bit and decided to come back on a Monday sometime in August. The beach was very crowded and while the majority of beach goers were Japanese there were also a lot of guys from the U.S. military soaking up the sun. I think that there's a military base not too far from that area so I wasn't too surprised to see them there. The beach is lined with little open air bars and restaurants and at one point when we stopped to look at a menu, a big military guy noticed us gawking at the words (we were trying to make out the katakana) and helped us out by calling the owner over and asking in Japanese what food was available. The military guy's Japanese was very good so we were pretty impressed, especially since members of the military have a somewhat negative reputation for not taking much interest in learning the language despite being stationed in Japan.

(this is Zushi Beach - I took the pic from someone else's blog)

On the subject of learning Japanese, I was somewhat unhappy to learn that last Friday was my last Japanese lesson since I only get six months worth. I will do my best to practice what I've already been taught and build up my vocabulary. I'm still pretty terrible about speaking and I get really nervous whenever I try to communicate in Japanese, but I have started being able to sometimes pick out bits and pieces of conversations that I hear, so that's kind of cool. When the military guy asked what there was to eat at the restaurant I realized that I actually understood what he asked, in fact, I probably could have asked it myself. The problem a lot of the time is that I forget the words when I actually need them and also understanding whatever the answer is, but I actually understood most of what the restaurant owner said on this particular occasion.

This week will mark 8 months that I've been living in Japan. I am required to send a letter by Thursday informing my company of whether I plan to renew or resign at the end of my contract in November. While I do plan on going home to America at the end of this year, it was a much more difficult decision than I had thought it would be. For some reason it hadn't occurred to me that I might actually make friends in Japan who would be difficult to leave at the end of the year, turns out, I have. The thing I keep reminding myself of is that there are plans I have for when I come home and while I am so extraordinarily glad to be here in Japan, I am not so passionate about teaching and I know that there are other jobs that I am better suited for. Still, as a guy I met recently phrased it "I've caught the travel bug" and knowing that I have to eventually come home and quit exploring new places is not an easy thing. I have hopes for more travel and eventually a job that incorporate traveling into my duties, however, so I should survive. For now, I still have 4 months left to see new things and visit new places. I want to go to Hiroshima to see the Peace Park and Miyojima to see the floating torii gate and all the little deer (shika). I also plan to visit Nikko and possibly Okinawa, and eventually, once my contract ends, THAILAND! I am very excited about Thailand, I am quite sure it will be amazing.