Christmas in Nippon

Some sweet children singing in a nursing home:

My friend Jinno dancing as Santa:



Japanese Christmas Carol:

Memoirs of a Geisha

One of the oldest and most respected Japanese arts is that of the tea ceremony. The spirit of the tea ceremony is 'ichigo-ichie' or once-in-a-lifetime encounter. It means that the chance to serve a guest at a tea ceremony happens only once and that person must be treated with respect. In my city there is a group of volunteer Japanese women who give tours to foreigners. On the 24th of November, they hosted a kimono party and tea ceremony.

The director of the program chose the red kimono just for me. Apparently it's highly coveted and I felt special that the kimono was set aside with my name on it. There were several ladies there to help with the dressing. I got a lady who was very skilled in her movements and didn't need to undress me and start again like others. After getting dressed came hair. The hair dresser was delighted that my hair could achieve such volume with a little teasing. I was just delighted.

Juliana and I took many photographs with the girls before the ceremony began:Sitting the traditional Japanese way while receiving tea and eating sweets (feet tucked under the bottom) nearly killed me, but each time I would shift to the side the front of my kimono would split open and I would go from elegant maiko (apprentice geisha) to wonton brothel maiden)...you know me...

Then some of the ladies taught tea ceremony. I wanted to join but some of the Japanese women asked to take pictures with me so I showed up late as usual.

As the event came to a close and the kimono were returned, the girls felt a pang of sadness at becoming uncouth foreigners once again and so struck a compromise: return the clothes, keep the hairstyle. Me...not so much. I preferred a Japanese gangster chick look:











Afterward, we trekked to an Italian restaurant/pizzeria and ate delicious food.

Epic Birthday Party

It started out as a simple invitation.

Allee dearest was turning 22, a fine age for a young woman coming into her own in Japan.

She wished to host a birthday party for herself, so she decided to invite all of her friends to her house for a modest celebration.

The only problem...she lives on an island in the middle of NO WHERE.

...

I mean it. Her assigned city is made up of four islands. Hers, which manages to host the only high school, has only one main road which circumnavigates the entire island. There are no bridges, just ferries by the hour.

I know I would never visit such a crazy place.
So I R.S.V.P.ed "yes".

The party was potluck, with Allee providing the main course of "NABE", a Japanese stew in a cloudy broth. It's popular in winter to host NABE parties where friends/family gather around the nabe pot and drink alcohol and chat it up.

I decided to bake cookies (from scratch!).

As I was baking, minding the time since I had to bike to the train station to take a train to catch a taxi to a ferry port in which to catch the ferry to her hidden island to walk to her house (PHEW!), I received a txt message from a JET I had met in NYC. He was in the neighboring prefecture but since my city was on the way to the ferry port, Would I like a ride?

Of course I did. That's when the trouble began...

He showed up and I was ready (of course). We got in the car and began our cross-island journey with me navigating with my poor Japanese since his is non-existent.

Really, we only got off-track once before we ended up in the proper city. Once there, we had no idea where the port was so I asked for directions at the convenience store. The brilliant part is that the last ferry for Allee's island was at 6:30PM and we were counting seconds as we managed to hit EVERY RED LIGHT. We got to the ferry port just in time to realize that we had not a minute to spare. Stephen threw me out of the car with the intention of me stopping the ferry while he parked. I bolted in time to watch the ferry pull out of the dock I screamed in frustration, promptly scaring a young Japanese couple making out.

I called Allee to tell her the news and she said that we could start crossing the Great Seto Bridge (瀬戸大橋, ), or Seto-Ohashi Bridge. At 13.1 km long, it ranks as the world's longest two-tiered bridge system, going from Shikoku to the main island of Honshuu, and from there catch a different ferry. We had three hour before the last ferry.

NOW GO.



we just sound lost...

Safe to say we made it safely with only a few distractions...(Stephen needing to go to the bathroom...directions...and dinner - we were running a few hours late by that point). We caught a ferry where we met another foreigner on his way to the party. Once on the island of obscurity, Allee's directions were, "turn left. Stop when you see the foreigners in the road."

Of course we drove "too fast" for them to get to the road and ended up half way up the island's mountain before we decided to call and scream at her. We could only image how the guy following behind up felt.

After turning and finding her, we were escorted to her rather spacious apartment where I met the other foreigners from the neighboring islands that made up her city. By then I was hungry again and excited for my first NABE pot.

...Allee, bless her heart, can't cook.


What we got was sludge. No really...it's not suppose to be yellow. Or look alive.


I was scared. Stephen politely refused to eat.

And then the toilet broke just when everyone needed it.

Giving Thanks the Canadian Way

Even in college, I have never met such a diverse group of people than on this island full of Japanese people. Though the least changed of the four islands, I have come in contact with people from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, South Africa, Jamaica, Germany, and Romania to name a few. And I am being introduced to new holidays and traditions such as Canadian Thanksgiving.

And here I was worried I would miss a home-cooked meal.

There was no turkey (trying to find one is nearly impossible with these supermarkets) but the roast chicken was quite tasty. Sadly, no stuffing or Spanish rice (I miss my grandma's rice) but I managed to make mashed potatoes from scratch. Trying to eat Japanese food everyday inspires me to learn to cook from scratch since instant Hamburger Helper is lacking.

Anyway, there were some surprising dishes such as salad with hidden pilaf and broccoli/cauliflower cheese casserole. Dessert was an amazing angel food cake purchased from a bakery and pumpkin tarts I dared not touch.


Then we played a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit and as the only American, I did our country poorly. Seriously, every other question was about baseball. I did manage to shine in the pop culture/history/science categories.

I was thankful to be invited. :)

Fright Night: Halloween in Japan

Okay.

Japan does not go Trick-or-Treating.

In fact, my students tended to be surprised when I described this Celtic born holiday and its American ways. However, they did understand the concept of Jack-o-lanterns, witches, and candy.

I volunteered to work at a neighboring (by that I mean 3hrs. by train) city's elementary students Halloween Party on the 18th. I dressed as a school girl, borrowing the junior high school uniform from a high school girl I befriended. The party was super cute, with around 500 kids in two shifts of 1.5 hours. They came in various degrees of holiday dress. I first helped out at the bean-bag toss but got bored after an hour and went outside for a break. There I discovered other kids waiting to attend the later half of the party. I ended up playing "Simon Says" with them and they called me "Sailor Moon", a popular anime/manga in Japan.


Though wearing a girl's uniform was fun, my friend Dansby and I really wanted to have a gender-bender JHS partner costume. Wearing the male uniform was hilarious and since he has long hair, Dansby made a pretty good Japanese school girl. A;; I did was darken my eyebrows and gel my bangs but I really looked like a boy:

Girls kept approaching me and asking me to pose with them. We went to a lounge bar that was hosting a party and won best couple costume. Afterward, we headed to the biggest city in our prefecture and danced all night. The ride home at 6 in the morning was something else. I was completely sober (as usual) but everyone else (driver excluded of course) was drunk/tired and completely ridiculous.

Me and my prize:Too bad I didn't drink it :P

TAIKO: It's a man's world

Japan has many festivals such as HANAMI (cherry blossom viewing) in the spring; TSUKIMI (moon viewing) in September; OBON (respect for the dead) during the late summer; and OSHOUGATSU (New Year's day). The region I live in is famous for another festival known as TAIKO, held during the middle of every October. My city is especially famous for this event in which men carry large MIKOSHI (portable shrine)

on their shoulders and there is a TAIKO drummer inside. They do this in celebration of the rice harvest. The MIKOSHI is said to weigh over two tons and only men are allowed to carry it. Smaller MIKOSHI are made for children and women to carry. Whenever I ask people what their favorite festival is, they reply "Taiko". Everyone gets really into the spirit of things and dress up.
Neighboring cities have DANJIRI (portable shrine on wheels):
Men and women are allowed to pull these shrines. Following the DANJIRI are carts of sake (alcohol) and everyone chants and drinks while the crowd follows them around. On the first night they trekked from the center of the city up into the mountains.

Each city in my area has their own version of the festival that lasts for 3 days, including activities that carry on throughout the night. I was given Friday off in order to enjoy the holiday. I ended up going to this huge park with other foreign English teachers from around the local cities. What was funny was realizing just how many students I teach as every 5 minutes I heard my name being shouted and cameras flashing. I felt like a celebrity.

Autographs - OK!

We Speak Good English

Since I have arrived to Japan, I spent my evenings sharping my biking skills in order to prepare myself for traveling to work. As noted in my first post - I suck.

However, though I have dutifully reported on my nightly happenings, I realize that I never mentioned that my days were also filled with work. Unlike my fellow JETs in neighboring towns, I was put to work right away visiting different schools and giving guidance for the upcoming speech contests.

That's right kids! My "city" and prefecture both have English speech contests held annually in the Fall to stimulate an interest in English and help students improve their personal skills.

>insert smiley face here<

It was actually fun to go around to all the junior high schools and meet the teachers and some students. When I started teaching, I could find them in the class and be like, "BUDDY!"

The topics were usually club activities or a grandparent's death. There were occasional ones that were self-reflection and even fewer that included personal interests or opinions.

So the first half of the month of August was spent in this fashion: speech contest, lunch, speech contest, biking. My RA and fellow JET David would join me and slowly convinced me to bike to these schools where I would have mini-heart attacks trying to avoid students spending their summer days at school for club activities. The second half of the month was switched up since David went back to the States and I began Japanese lessons: Japanese lessons, lunch, speech contest, biking. It was during this time I got sick for the first time. It was not pretty...

Once school started, I would teach (OR give self-introductions and play games) during the day and assist the English teachers after school with the speech contest participant(s). It sometimes got repetitive but I did see improvement and that was cool.

The hard part was when I went to the actual contest and watched them perform. I felt like a mother watching her baby on stage and was so nervous. Plus, how does one determine who wins? I watched these kids struggle to memorize difficult English translated from a Japanese speech and spoken effectively with a strict time limit. I felt that there should have been more prizes because the crestfallen look on some of the kids faces was like,"AH!"

The city contest had an added bonus in that for the 15 minutes the judges were in the back room making decisions, David and I were asked to perform at the contest. Now, I refused to give another speech, although David spent his time talking about his paintings. I decided for mine to give a short skit on SOMETHING. I managed to recruit David and Juliana, a JET in a neighboring town that I met in New York, and we reenacted how students play tricks on new teachers: KICK ME! sign (and yes, Juliana actually kicked me and I face-planted), wet willie, wedges, noogies, spit balls, etc. It ended with me (as the poor unfortunate teacher) assigning detention and laughing evilly. Scarily enough, my laughter echoed off the wall. Two of my students won prizes and one of David's. All girls though.

Afterward, there was a party for the teachers (enkai) and some of the judges and other persons of important stature who attended. One man kept putting kick me signs on everyone. I expected this from the kids...but the adults were really into it too. Haha.

The prefectural speech contest was uneventful with a surprising win from a student in our city.

Sports Day (運動会) is not for the Weak

Japan is known for many things.

Cars.

SEGA. (Nintendo).

Electronics in general.

Kimonos. (Geisha).

Rice. Sushi!

Anime. (Manga).

Movies. (Godzilla, The Ring, etc.)

Karate.

Skinny people.

Old people.

Sumo. (People).

Mt. Fuji!

Sakura (Cherry blossoms).

Sailor Uniforms.

運動会

...say what?

Yes, it's that time of year again where an event so purely Japanese that it makes you laugh (or possibly cry in pain) is held rain or shine. Undoukai (運動会), or Sports Day, is a school wide event that happens in elementary, junior high, and senior high school. It puts classrooms against each other as they compete in traditional (relay races) and non-traditional (have you ever seen kids run with a bamboo pole while another is willingly hanging from it only to set the pole down and have that kids climb up the pole and place a flag at the top only to have the next kid climb up just to take down the flag?) as classmates unite and display Japan's infamous ability to maintain a uniform society. For instance, the ability to stretch on command at the exact same time. This are the same stretches that were recorded by Ansel Adams in his Manzanar Collection from over fifty years ago that I used for my thesis project. Though I somehow doubt Enya was playing in the background in an internment camp...



School's start training up to a month in advance and even cut regular classes short (or skip periods all together) in order to train for the glorious event. It's an all-day affair that was suppose to be held on a Sunday (but due to a typhoon was rescheduled for a Tuesday holiday) and is amazing to watch as the entire school shows amazing acrobatic abilities.


There are even events for teachers to compete, but since I visit so many different junior high schools they didn't ask me to participate. However, I was encouraged to join the training for undoukai while sporting a lovely skirt.

...yay...

At least the kids got a kick out of me tripping and falling everywhere. There was an event in which the entire class jumps rope together. At first I kept tripping and making everyone laugh. But once I got the hang of it, I began jumping circles around them - literally! USA represent yo.

Anyways, I was in shock and awe as I watched some of the most complicated relays I have ever seen. We definitely need to take note and practice this for the next family reunion:

大阪に行きましょう! (Let's go to Osaka!)

Alright. So I'm in Japan - living on Shikoku to be more exact. That doesn't seem to mean a lot to many people and I understand. After all, no one says to themselves,

"I want to go to Japan. Hmmm, it's made up of four main islands. Let's pick the most obscure, least visited one!"

It's understandable. When I think of Japanese cities off of the top of my head I come up with:

Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Hiroshima, Sapporo, Nagasaki, Kobe

These span three of the four main islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, and Kyushu.

Eh...Shikoku not so much.

Don't get me wrong, Shikoku is gorgeous with untouched beauty and spiritual landmarks. It's nice to live in a peaceful manner after battling University for four years. However, there are times when a big city is appreciated, or a city in general. That is where traveling comes in. Last weekend, I ventured to the main island of Honshu and stayed in Osaka for the weekend with four (charming) lads: Alan, Derry, and Louis of Dublin, Ireland and Tom of London, England. Here they are drinking energy drinks to prepare for the Osaka nightlife

The girls all had school obligations and it's always good to travel with men in foreign countries for safety purposes. We stayed in a capsule hotel (think a classy version of the morgue) where the men and women were divided into different wings. This is true Japanese style.











On the first day of my trip, Tom and I hit two major sites: the Osaka Aquarium KAIYUKAN, which is one of the largest in the world and manages to include monkeys; and the Osaka Museum of History, which (surprise!) gave a Japanese rendition of the history of Osaka. The aquarium was amazing, though so crowded I could hardly breathe. I was ready to go foreigner on them and smash my way through but as an "ambassador" of America, I just grinned like an idiot while thinking bad thoughts.



We also went on one of the "largest" Ferris wheel's in the the world. I was excited until I discovered that it took 15 minutes to complete one rotation, that we only got to ride for one rotation, and the point of the ride was to enjoy the view - which on a cloudy day in an industrial city like Osaka - wasn't much. YAY!

That night we met up with the Irish boys and enjoyed a night of dinner and dancing which ended with me trying to drag them back to the hotel in the wee hours of the morning as the only sober and coherent person left in the group.
Later that day we said goodbye to one member of our group as he returned home to Ireland and then headed off to the famous Osaka Castle were I was attack by mosquitoes yet again. The site itself was impressive though. However, only two of our four remaining members went inside. The idea was to take turns, but the boys were so enamored that they took over an hour until the castle was closed for the evening! Grrr.

The evening was spent at a game arcade before catching the night ferry home.

So ends my first traveling experience in Japan.

I'm still exhausted thinking about it.

THE apartment

I live in an apartment (you can tell this is going to be good).

Two floors above me is the regional adviser David so fear not.

Two blocks away is the main street in my city.

Three blocks away is a giant supermarket all-in-one is it Fred Meyers? type of building.

Nine blocks away is City Hall.

Eleven blocks away is the main post office.

15 minutes bike ride away is the mall (that's right, BIKE RIDE).

OMG there is a Seattle's Best Coffee but no Starbucks- heresy.

The schools I teach at are too far away.

The End.

PS. Pictures of my apartment:

My "bedroom" complete with tatami floors and and futon for a bed.














The living room, and the kitchen. There is no oven. Just like the good o'le days in college. Any furniture you see was provided for me as I am too lazy to go shopping. However, the white bookshelf next to the TV houses my DVDs complete with my Astaire and Rogers collection. (cheers!)

Jikoshokaijyanai!

It is sufficient to say that orientation emphasized 3 things.
1) JET is a wonderful experience
2) There is a huge network for JETs- don't worry!
3) Jikoshokai or self-introduction

The first two were boring and repetitive - of course I am honored to be accepted and if I need something I will know to ask for help. The third was more useful since I was brainwashed into believing that for the first month or so of teaching, all I would have to do is talk about myself and could I please bring pictures? However, upon my first day, I realized that someone lied to me. It was already time for teach-teaching!

Orientation should have covered this topic more.

I was given a lesson plan that day and it stated that before my first class of second years (translation: 8th graders) my duties were: To make a worksheet, check an English speech, decorate an English room, record a model English speech and so one. Then, during fourth period please follow the attached Team-Teaching plan details below:

There was dead silence during my warm-up introduction. The best part was I got to use the new posters I had made during my free period:After my stunning debut, I acted out various emotions and asked questions. During pair work I walked around and helped different groups. Afterward there was JEOPARDY on the chalkboard with questions in regards to my speech (shows just how much they were paying attention) and the new grammar points. My favorite: emotions category. I would say "What am I?" before constructing my face in some ridiculous manner, waiting for a student to raise his or her hand and say "You look..."

Awesome.

The highlight was lunch and recess. No contest. The students took turns serving food in the classrooms and I swear, when I saw what they had to wear, I nearly lost it. Gillian had warned us at orientation that this might happen but nothing compares to the real deal. Long white coats, masks, and matching hats, it was a science in the making. It was GOLD.

I ordered a bento since I wasn't a regular teacher and when I opened it, it was filled with Japanese goodness:

Delicious, no?

I tried to "share" with my students, but they politely declined. Afterward I went to the English room, not realizing there was recess. Out of no where a flock of girls ran toward me, grilling me in Japanese. I tried to get them to speak in English and was asked the usual questions: "How old are you?" "Do you have a boyfriend?" "Do you have someone you like?" (the next day I was asked "Do you like to eat bananas?") and so on. The highlight was when one girl said she had a boyfriend and I was like DARE?! (who) over and over and chased her across the 2nd year floor.

Later, I was asked to correct the English homework from summer break. That took time right into clean-up period. When I announced my victory over homework, I was rewarded with a rag and asked to clean off the desktops. As I did, students helped and asked me if this was my natural hair color. Why yes, it is. Thanks.

I relaxed in the computer lab for the following hour, before my speech contest students arrived. The next two hours were spent on voice training and pronunciation.

So concludes my first day on the job. Shall we repeat tomorrow at a new school?

A bug's life...

If there is one thing that I have noticed since my time in Japan, it's that there is a plethora of natural beauty and wildlife - especially on an off-the-shore island such as Shikoku. Unfortunately, the wildlife I have seen thus far has consisted of cats, dogs, and insects.

Japanese dogs and cats are a bit smaller than I am use to.

The insects...are larger.

And many.

No wonder Godzilla was able to be born in such a country.

Now, I've gotten use to the cicada, which just might make the most annoying sound on Earth. Ever seen the movie Dumb and Dumber? In it, Jim Carrey's character attempts to replicate the most annoying sound in the world. Well, while nails grating on a chalkboard does have its unpleasantness, being stalked by a bug you can't see but hear in surround sound is definitely worse. And even more unattractive! It's like a giant moth with the tenacity of a cockroach (we have those here too). They tend to live in every single tree in existence and when they die, they fall onto the sidewalk where I run over them with my bike.

Satisfying.

Second, there are a variety of dragonflies and butterflies that come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. It's amazing and beautiful and when a butterfly the size of a bird jumps out at you from the bushes, a little scary (I'm not going to lie).


Third, are the spiders.

I hate spiders.

Yes, they're wonderful and support the eco-system and if I ever saw a cockroach caught in a spider's web, I would silently cheer.

However, that is no excuse for how big they are here and how everyone seems to not care that they're EVERYWHERE! On the roof, in my house, even in the schools! I was visiting one of my junior high schools with David (my RA and fellow apartment resident and co-worker) when one of the teachers came up to us trembling and pointed under the desk. Of course I looked, there's a language barrier that seperates me from common sense. Underneathe was the biggest spider that I had ever seen that wasn't a tarantula. I bolted in the other direction and David took a cup to capture it. I caught it on film. Watch the legs:



Fourth are the fruit flies that seem to live in my apartment. I went to a mandatory seminar in a neighboring city for work that lasted two days. When I returned to my house I noticed an increase in the number of said bugs flying around my aparentment. Annoyed and more than slightly tired, I took a shower. Upon my exit into the kitchen, I glanced at the garabage and sighed at the sight of sesame seeds everywhere. I looked closer and noticed they were covered in sauce and pondered what I could have possibly eaten that would have caused such a mess.

Then I remembered: I don't have sesame seeds in my current diet.

I grabbed my glasses to make a final decision on what the hell was going on and it hit me. These weren't sesame seeds: they were eggs. And upon closer inspection - larvae moving around. I nearly vomited everywhere. I prompty ran to the store with my wet hair and purchased cleaning products and poisions. I still have nightmares.

So in conclusion: there are bugs. Everywhere. All the time. Big ones. And sometimes, when you least expect it, they will fall on your head in the middle of a phone conversation, scare you into screaming bloody murder until you realize it's not another spider but a praying mantis, and make for a good story.

It's just like riding a bike kids...

Before I came to Japan, I did not know how to ride a bike. That is not to say that no one ever took the time show me - quite the opposite really. When I was in primary school, my family would take me down to my grandparents quiet neighborhood and attempt to get me onto a bike. I even had training wheels on the bike at my home. However, I never quite mastered the concept of balance and when my grandfather finally let go of the bike and I was on my own...I ran into a parked car.

That officially ended my biking career. Sorry Lance Armstrong.

However, the move to Japan has brought up an exciting new challenge: learn to ride a bike to school or leave the house at 0630 hours in order to get there on time. Realizing it is more likely for me to oversleep than get into a biking accident, I was tutored by a very lovely couple who were visiting my RA (who is conveniently located two floors above me). They took the t me to teach me how to balance and by the end of the first day I could wobbly get 2-3 meters. However, as I decided to practice on my own later that evening, I realized that I did not now how to actually stop the bike. Since the wall was fast approaching (since when do parking lots have walls, honestly?) I used the only available resource at hand - my leg. Details below:


It was pretty intense. Anywho. So now it's about building endurance and getting to a comfortable speed that doesn't allow matronly women to pass me by on the sidewalk.

...

The latest biking accident(s) happened two days ago. I arrive in a neighboring town after spending the evening with friends and I was returning to one of their houses to sleep. There were four of us, two men who were both 6'5"+ and two girls who were 5'6"- and only three bikes. I did not have a bike but since I didn't know where I was going and was obviously female (and therefore weaker?!) it was decided that one of the men would give up his bike. Now, just try to imagine getting onto a bike that is adjusted for a man at least a foot taller than you. That's 12 inches or 30cm!!

Since I couldn't readjust the seat, just getting on proved to be a challenge. I teetered after my two biking companions while the other guy just started walking. I was slowly coming into my own when a sharp turn across the street had the bike skid out from under me and I flew sideways screaming (sorry family), "Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"

My male biking companion turned around and steadied me back up so I could literally get back on the bike and we started out again. Things were running smoothly (well, I had yet to die) when we came alongside a road that had a very narrow bike path before dropping off into a rice field. A hugh truck was coming and I, being the nervous girl who sometimes leans the wrong way, decided to brake and wait it out. Unfortunately, since I forgot just how high the seat was, I went to put my leg down and it kept going, along with the rest of my body and the bike, straight into the rice patty.

Delicious.