赤鼻のとなかい "Akahana no Tonakai"

While the big kids were making cookies, the little ones were tracing their feet and hands to make tonakai (reindeer). The Rudolf nose looks a little funny in the photo, but the glittery red pom poms were really cute.

Click on the (post title) link to hear Akahana no Tonakai (Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer) in Japanese. It's even got the lyrics in romaji, so you can sing along!

Music survey

***
On a sad note, I just found out my supervisor
(26 year old Japanese Teacher of English who sits next to me)
lost his father last night. Prayers, onegai shimasu.
***
When I was in Sapporo studying Japanese, one of the things I did for homework was a music survey of the locals. Whereas my classmates primarily hit the beer gardens for their research, I tried to find other colorful subjects as well. Here are some of the ones who weren't too shy to have their photo taken.

These students were just hanging out after class one night, so we had a nice little chat about music and their graphic arts studies.










These cats cracked me up. It seemed like these two men had been friends forever with the rapport they had with each other. The one gesturing really likes Elvis.






This was a really cool little store run by a lady who'd been to Egypt. I was lured here by the sale on skirts...I bought that maroon one I'm wearing in the photo of me with the girls in yukata.










Meet Faye-Faye. S/he performs almost every night in a little restaurant/bar in the arcade. His/her favorite music is old Chinese and, of course, his/her own. :)








Here are the 'yukata girls' I met in the park at the beer garden. They were having a party for all of their nursing colleagues.






I walked up to these guys and told them they were the coolest looking guys I'd seen that night, so I figured they'd be interesting blokes. They were just some students out enjoying themselves. Too bad you can't read the shirt on the guy in the middle. Claaaasic English, but not quite appropriate for my (mostly) "G" rated site here :)

YMC Yea!

Hmmm...can't seem to upload photos at the moment. But I hope you enjoy this very short clip from one of the most amusing performances at our culture festival! This teacher must be the KING at karaoke!

Yea! It works again...Here's a shot of the teacher, now donning a red bow, joined by a few energetic cheerleaders.

Taiko drum

Kore wa ouendan no taiko desu, yo! Sugoi, ne! I keep trying to convince the guys to let me "play" it, but the boys on the team get very serious and try to explain that it's sacred; unless you are the "drummer" you can't touch it. (no MC Hammer jokes, please.) Even the other guys on the Ouendan team aren't allowed! Hopefully by the beginning of next week I'll have another short video clip of them performing. Right now the kids are all taking their final exams, sannensei graduate Thursday & Saturday (2 different campuses), and with my birthday also scheduled this week, it's a little busy.

Shamisen Serenade

As promised - I hope you enjoy! The music and instument (and man???) are from Okinawa. This music is fundamentally different than what our Western ears are accustomed to, but the it is growing on me...
(ps - wait for the whole video to load first - when the red line gets all the way to the right of the bottom of the screen, then push 'play')
And a big "shout out" of thanks to my Aunt Barbara and all the Theresians who've been sending postcards! They're great! The kids (and teachers!) are so excited!