Chapter 7 Travel and Trivia

10/1/98 Thursday – This morning, I showed Mary the video of Jack and the Beanstalk by the Pikkoro Players. I translated for her, as the story went along. Although I didn’t look up nearly as many words for this year’s play as I did for A Little Princess, I think I understand nearly as well. I hope that’s because I’m better at Japanese now.

After lunch, Mary, Ronnie, and I got busy “cutting an innocent fish,” as Ronnie put it. The fish was the last specimen in the kit. We not only watched the video of “Dr. Scientist” dissecting his fish, but we also used the camcorder to record ourselves dissecting “Maverick” much more messily. 

We did our best to make the dissection process as silly as possible. Our attitude was summed up in Ronnie’s closing remark: “I don’t know, but I’d throw it away!”

Mr. Ron & Miss Sherry (Mary's parents) went out to eat this evening. Mary & I made taco salad and ate it. While we were washing the dishes, Mary told me some more about her life in Arkansas in 1997. I was interested, but somehow, neither of us think we would have been comfortable if I had showed up on the scene in Arkansas. People can play quite different parts when they have different backdrops and props. It’s strange to think that Mary & I have never met on American soil. By this time, I often want to be in America once again, but I hate to think of deserting Mary.

10/2/98 Friday – Let it suffice to say that Mama & Papa are also at the Hudsons’ this day. I was going to leave with them right away, but Miss Sherry persuaded Mama to stay overnight so she could speak at the ladies’ meeting this evening. (Wasn’t it good of Miss Sherry?) 

There’s nothing to be said about this morning, because Mary & I stayed up so late last night, we didn’t wake up till 10am. As for this afternoon, we spent most of it exploring on bicycles. It was reminiscent of when I used to visit Mary at her house in Ota. We always rode bikes around there. In fact, it was there that Mary finally convinced me that bike-riding could be fun. (When, at age 8, I received a bicycle from Mimi, my first thought was, “Oh, dear. Now I’ll HAVE to learn to ride it.”) 

Anyway, back to the present – the best thing we saw on our bike ride was a pen full of pigs. A more pleasant thing to SMELL was our banana ice cream cones from 7-Eleven. That is, I had a cone, and Mary had a cup. She complains that with a cone, she has to worry about the ice cream melting and falling off. I noticed printed on the paper wrapper of my cone, “Everyone loves cones.”
“If everyone loves cones,” I said, “why do they offer a cup?”

Mary continued to spoon ice cream into her mouth. She replied, “Because some people are rebellious, like me, and don’t want to follow the set menu.”

“I knew you’d come up with some silly excuse like that,” I laughed. “Every time I criticize something, you have to give me a reason for why things are that way.”

“If you didn’t act like Miss Critical, I wouldn’t have to,” said Mary, getting in the last word.

10/5/98 Monday – My family is staying at the Bible camp by ourselves for a vacation. Today, we went to a nearby drive-thru safari park. I had fun being so close to the animals. I hadn’t even been to a zoo in years, so it was a real treat.

The most exciting part was having our car surrounded by different kinds of deer and sheep, zebras, llamas, and camels. The one llama was super curious about us. When Papa rolled the window down an inch, the llama stuck its upper lip through the crack. Then when Papa held up a few cheese curls, the llama reached out with its cloven lip and grabbed the snack! Some of the animals were confused about what was edible and tried to eat parts of our car!

This animal park specializes in albino animals. We saw three white lion cubs with their mom, two white porcupines, and some cute white “miniature kangaroos” called wallabies.

I liked watching the wallabies and llamas best, although the zebras were beautiful too. When we saw white tigers and white zebras, we noticed that their striped markings were still visible, but the stripes were gray instead of black.

10/6/98 Tuesday – On this day, we went to see the chrysanthemum doll displays of mannequin figures with kimonos fashioned out of live chrysanthemums. They represented scenes from Japan’s history. I don’t know much of Japanese history, but I did figure out the scene with the Japanese looking out to sea while Admiral Matthew Perry’s ships sailed in. Matthew Perry was responsible for opening trade between Japan and the United States in the 19^th century.

Inside a building, we viewed plastic figures designed as 3-D pictures of Japanese folk tales. I knew about half of the stories, and Papa and I attempted to read the signs telling the stories that we hadn’t heard before.

10/11/98 Sunday – At Sunday school this morning, instead of our usual lesson, we took a quiz. Mari-san has been teaching the story of Abraham since September. The school children are all in one class now, rather than elementary separate from high school. The reason is that I’m the only high school student who comes! 

Anyway, for the quiz, we went looking for the questions, which were hidden in envelopes around the room. Then we wrote the answers down. Everyone got most of their answers right.

10/14/98 Wednesday – This day was a family day off. In the morning, we went and played bound tennis. I think I’m finally getting the hang of it. The coach emphasized keeping your wrist straight and moving your whole body when you swing your arm. Two or three times, when I hit the ball back correctly, he said, "Jozu, jozu." ("You’re good at this!")

Mama’s face was red and sweaty enough by noon, so we went home. While we ate lunch with Papa, we took turns reading The Bronze Bow. The book is Biblical fiction, from the New Testament period.

In the late afternoon, we drove to Hawaiians. Papa blew up our raft, and we floated around in the pool. One time, Papa sat up on the raft, but when he scooted back, he fell over backwards with a big splash! 

The hot springs area at Hawaiians has been slightly remodeled. The improvements are: four more showers for soaping up, comfortable chairs in the mist room, signs describing the various features, etc.

10/17/98 Saturday – On this day, Pikkoro Club held our second performance of Jack and the Beanstalk at a local elementary school. This time Wendy Buchanan and her kids were able to attend the play with Mama. We actresses had a little difficulty with going from the Cultural Center stage to a narrower stage, but we did all right.

In the evening, after the show, the club members had a party. The food was simply various meats, candy, cake, and juice.

10/23/98 Friday – This was the big day of the Fall Thrift Shop at CAJ (Christian Academy in Japan)! The early days of the week were spent trying on potentially small clothes and tagging various items to sell. 

Then on Wednesday, Mama and I set off with Andrew Buchanan (age 11) in tow, for the Mitas’ home. I feel bad that Papa couldn’t come – or the rest of the Buchanan family either. But we three had a jolly time in the car, what with Patch the Pirate tapes to listen to and Rummikub, the travel version, to play. 

We spent the night at the Mitas’, and yesterday, we rode with Mrs. Mita to Christian Academy in Japan to drop off our pre-used merchandise. I got to buy four shirts, some flannel PJ’s, and several books. Mama, as a volunteer organizer, got that first chance at finding the best stuff, and I bought my items on her account. Actually, I did attempt to help arrange the items, but the whole gym seemed to be in chaos, and I was so afraid of putting things in the wrong place that I gave up. 

OK, after all that preliminary information, let’s get to Thrift Shop Day itself! Mama and I rode to CAJ on the train early this morning, so I could go to the School Support Services activity for homeschoolers. I met up with two girls and five guys in my age group. Most of them I had never even met before. Mrs. Epley gave us some tips for doing a research paper. We spent a little time in the computer room on the Internet, too, but it wasn’t long enough. My family has only a dial-up connection for sending and receiving emails, so we don't know much about all that goes on in the World Wide Web.

When SSS class had ended, around 11:00am, I went to the cafeteria and had a donut with Mama, Mrs. Mita, and her daughter Elisa. Then I quickly entered the gym, where Thrift Shop was in progress. Right inside the door, I encountered Mary and the three Roberts girls, Hannah (age 16), Megan (age 14), and Bethany (age 12). From then on, we five buzzed all around the campus together, often finding ourselves in the book room. 

I had gotten the things I wanted the day before, so I just enjoyed the company of my friends without a care in the world. It sure wasn’t long enough for seeing them though. As I wailed when I found out that I had to leave, “At this rate, I’ll only see you guys [the Roberts girls] eight hours a year!”

But when I left with Mama and Andrew, it was to chat with a 6th-grade girl on the train (in English!) The first thing she asked me was, “Is your little brother 6 or 8?”

I denied ownership of Andrew as my brother, and explained that we lived in the same hometown and he had come along with us to go to the Thrift Shop. Then I threw the bomb: “He’s 11.” Her eyebrows went up and she nodded.

Watching Andrew shinny up the poles in the train that were meant for people to hold onto while standing, I could understand that girl’s assumption. He sure wasn’t tall enough to be 11, but comparing him in my mind with Paul Yoshida, Paul at age 11 had been just as crazy, just as short, and apparently, as immature as Andrew is now. 

Anyway, coming up, I anticipated some fun with Nadia Ronan, another MK, on the outskirts of Tokyo. So I couldn’t feel lonely. After we had been at the Ronans’ for a while, Mama and Mrs. Ronan left to pick up Nadia from her after-school studies. 

Before long, two hooligans named Andrew and Stephen (age 10) had me handcuffed to a bedpost and were firing Styrofoam arrows at me with their plastic pistols. I could have resisted and fled the room, but I suppose I just wondered what it’s like to be abused by two “little brothers.” Besides, I knew the ladies would come back and rescue me sometime. I simply couldn’t get away once I was handcuffed, but I did distract the boys from their incessant shooting by putting my feet over the arrows and making them come after them. After this harrowing experience, I concluded that I wouldn’t mind one little brother, but wouldn’t survive two.

Nadia and I had a fine time asking each other Bible Trivia questions. I’m probably her best competition, since her parents would find the questions too easy, and Nadia’s school friends, who are Japanese, know so little about the Bible AND the language the questions were written in.

10/31/98 Saturday – Finally, I got some new schoolbooks for this year (11th grade). I started in on History and Chemistry this Thursday. It’s American History this year, rather than World History. I’m glad the USA is a relatively new nation. Think of all the history Japanese kids have to study to learn about THEIR country!

As for Chemistry, the very name of it sounds ominous. The first chapter is similar to every first chapter in every science book, so nothing’s difficult yet.

One problem with studying this year is that we don’t have any prepared tests. I’ll have to write my own tests, or have Mama quiz me on the boldface words orally.

This day, I studied some more of the last half of my Geometry book. I’ll take the final exam on Monday, and then I’ll be through with it (preferably forever!) On to Algebra 2, which is, in comparison to Geometry, the lesser of the two evils.