Hatsumode

Gomennasi - I brilliantly hid my photo memory card reader from myself for a while, but here are some new pics. On New Year's Eve, the girls took me up to Hirado - about an hour north of Sasebo. Here we are up on a hill overlooking the harbor in town. (gotta love those self portraits done at arm's length, yo) I think I need to work on my 'purikura' faces - Japanese people are capable of hilarious faces, since one of the big pastimes here is doing 'purikura', or their version of photo booths. Ah, well, at least I'm good advertising for my orthodonist :)


"Hatsumode" is the first temple visit of the year, and people use this time to pray for special blessings and favors for the year ahead. Last year I went to a temple in Fukuoka after midnight, and I felt like it was the Japanese version of Times Square. This New Year's Eve, because of the rain and snow, we decided to go during the day. To pay respects to the Gods you:
1 - purify your hands in the stone basin at the entrance
2 - pull the rope to ring the bell - to wake the gods, maybe? (this is what I'm doing here)
3 - make an offering (toss coins into the bin in front of the temple)
4 - bow twice
5 - clap twice
6 - bow once more

...and they told me prayers receive special attention when you act like one of the temple guard lions...


(make sure to click on this pic to enlarge - I think my crazy purikura facial expressions are definitely improving)

sometimes life just is

a merry-go-round
a blur
the vague shapes and shadows of people going by

and sometimes
it is
a thrilling ride through a fairy tale
that you never want to leave

Party shots

The kids weren't the only ones to enjoy themselves at my Christmas party. Later in the evening some of the girls from my eikaiwa class showed up, and we watched some of "White Christmas."

Since this movie didn't have Japanese subtitles, I explained upcoming bits, we watched scenes, and then discussed them afterwards. It was pretty funny trying to explain the idea of "working an angle," especially when they kept thinking it had something to do with triangles ("try - angle"). Once the guys left, we kinda skipped to the end, sang "White Christmas" together with the grand finale number, and then just talked about how one of the girls こんやくしました - got engaged - yokatta (yea)!



The other girls (this WAS a co-ed party - though it seems that the guys were the ones who took the photos!) came earlier, and appeared to make fast friends with each other.

A Japanese-Dutch Christmas Gospel Style

What? Yes, that's indeed what I had. Or maybe it was a little Christmas Dutch Gospel Japanese-style. Anyway, that is what one gets when one is in Nagasaki for Christmas. Since all my other Christmas-observing mates were away, after school on Christmas I hopped a train up to Huis Ten Bosch, the Dutch village up the shore.
HTB was all decorated nicely, and there were lots of festive activities, but something was still lacking (maybe a date for Tracey??? or was it that it was a DUTCH place that had no Dutch people?). But, speaking of decorating, the blueish tree on the left side of the photo there was made up of white ceramic ornaments that people bought and decorated, and then all were hung and illuminated by black (?) lights.

I made the best of it, though, and thoroughly enjoyed the performance by this gospel group from New York. I even was able to get the people around me singing and clapping hands when they did "O, Happy Day!"

Merry Christmas from the kids

So. While all of you were enjoying your Christmas Eve services and dinners, it was already Christmas Day here in Japan. And where was I? At school, of course! Even though these two weeks are technically "winter vacation", the students and teachers are still in school. (they ALWAYS seem to be in school! "Vacation" seems to have a different meaning in Japanese) Though, this week, I only had to come to school on Friday due to Oshougatsu - somebody must have made a scheduling mistake, yo!

So, since it was a little depressing having to go to school ON CHRISTMAS, I decided to do something Christmas-y and fun with the classes I taught that day. One class traced their hands on green paper and wrote their names and a Christmas wish on them. We put them all together on the "Espace" English board to make the Christmas tree you see in the top photo.


In another class I played the "Right-Left Present" game and "Pass the Parcel." In the first game, I read a story and every time I said "right" or "left" the students had to pass the presents they had in the correct direction. It was pretty funny to watch! In "Pass the Parcel" - a kind of a variation of "hot potato" - students passed a present around, and the student holding the package when the music stopped had to open one layer and do whatever the paper inside instructed. The last student had it easy - all she had to do was wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and she got a hyaku-en shop Christmas CD and chocolate snowman surprise.

Hatsuri and Yumi hara

And all this time here I thought that Japanese people missed out since they don't have a "Black Friday" and after-Thanksgiving sales. Apparently they do - it just happens to fall on January 2. I guess technically it's January 2 - it just starts in some places at 4:30 am! Sasebo - where I was for Oshougatsu this year - is famous for its "hatsuri" - the first sale of the year. Not being much of a shopper myself, I only went along to see what it was all about. I'm not entirely convinced it was worth it for me to get up at 4:45am, but at least Mama-chan got a really good deal on a Yuri-chan's things for "Hina Matsuri" (Doll Festival - you'll read about that in March). Most stores also had "lucky bags" which were full of stuff for a set price. I guess they were good deals, because they went fast! We were home again by 8am, and after taking a nap, I joined the family for lunch and a trip up to the top of Yumihara, where we got a spectacular view of the city and the 99 Islands. Unfortunately the light wasn't cooperating, so the photos of us ended up being more interesting than the scenery.
You can check out Sasebo online at http://www.sasebo99.com/english/99shima/index.html or by clicking on this post's title.

Happy New Year!

Here we all are at our

New Year's Eve

dinner last night!
I came up to Sasebo to spend Oshougatsu with a really nice family (though Masa-chan, who's looking over my shoulder now, says that I should write a "really crazy family") that adopted me at the Saga Balloon festival. Yoko-san prepared an amazing dinner last night and a wonderful breakfast this morning.

The food that is prepared for the New Year's holiday is called "osechi-ryouri"

On the table here you see several dishes. We started with a soba noodle soup, and then helped ourselves to samples from all the dishes you see there. It's almost like being at a tapas restaurant. Besides the soba, there was also a type of fried chicken in garlic/vinegar/sugar sauce, pickled radishes, cabbage salad with sesame dressing, sashimi (tai, hirasu, & tako - octopus), veggies, and kamaboko (that best translates to fish paste cakes, but they taste much better than they sound)

Here is a closeup of the soba and kamaboko. In the soup there are homemade soba noodles (buckwheat, I think), grilled meat, mushrooms, and pink kamaboko & green scallions for color. The pink and white kamaboko on the plate has a kanji in it that says "kotobuki" which roughly translates to celebration.

Next to the kamaboko you see some lemon (that was for the oysters from the neighbors), and on the other side is the sashimi and daikon. The boiled vegetables on the plate were healthy and edible "good luck charms" of sorts for the new year include carrot, gobo (long veggie for long life), konyaku, renkon (has holes so that you can "see" well), konbu, and mushrooms.

Silent Night

On Christmas Eve I was able to go to Mass at the cathedral in Fukuoka with my Aussie friend and her Japanese mother, pictured here. Though the Mass was all in Japanese, some things still translate.




It was so beautiful at the end of Mass, when we all held candles and sung "Silent Night" (once again in Japanese, of course). Notice the lady in the veil there - it's common for the Japanese women to wear veils at Mass here. Of course I really missed being with Dad and Chris, and seeing/hearing Dad and the music group play, but, I managed to make it through. Maybe they can join me here next year :)


And, ahh, yes - the new traditional Christmas Eve dinner - yakiniku (grilled meat).

Merry Christmas!

Not only do people's hearts grow at Christmas, but so do Japanese apartments...well, mine must have, anyway! Yokatta! I was delightfully surprised to have so many people show up for my Christmas party on Sunday. The bus station manager, the man who runs the Hokka Hokka Tei shop, my eikaiwa students, my adopted Japanese moms, my crazy inakajin friend...even a handful of neighborhood kids showed up! In the top photo they're holding up the Christmas trees they colored, and then you can see them drawing AmpanMan, Santa and Christmas dinosaurs on my windows (with dry erase markers - thanks for that idea, Chris and Stacey - BRILLIANT).
I thought this shot was so cute. I was showing the kids how to trace a star - and they were just so eager. They made these really cool 3-D stars, which you see hanging from the curtain rod in the last photo. They reeeally liked decorating the stars with glitter glue....


Here's the whole gang! We ended with Christmas crackers, so I made the kids don the crowns and grabbed a picture of them in front of all their little Christmas projects that we did. If you look closely, you see a pink paper on the left - apparently they were excited about coming to my party, and they made this for me. It's a picture of me (with Japanese hair) and they wrote about how much fun they were going to have and they hoped I'd like their dance. Haven't yet seen the dance, but I'll let you know how that goes...

a Kanji a day...

I've tried something new at the bottom of the blog: a kanji learning tool.
For those of you who don't know, there are several components to the written Japanese language.
"Romaji" is romanized ("English") characters for the Japanese words.
The "kana" include 2 syllabic alphabets:
"Katakana" for words from other languages, especially English
"Hiragana" for words that come from Japanese or Chinese
"Kanji" characters are ideograms originally from the Chinese, many of which have multiple meanings and/or represent general ideas.

Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to see a kanji character, the "readings" (how to pronounce it - but you need to know how to read the kana - sorry!), and some of the major meanings of the kanji. It'll be different each time you visit the page, so, enjoy! 頑張って、下さいGanbatte, kudasai!
(remember, you might have to set something in your alphabet settings on your computer if you see gibberish rather than really cool Japanese characters!)

At the 水族館("Suizokukan")

Hisashiburi desu! ("Long time no see!") I've finally returned from my trip to the States for Thanksgiving, etc. I was actually physically back last week, but I managed to limp through the whole week on auto pilot, and now I think I'm finally over the fog of all the traveling. I had to deal with a lot when I went "home", but I'm glad I went. I got to spend a lot of quality time with Dad, and on one of our outings he took me to the Georgia Aquarium ("suizokukan") in Atlanta. Subarashii desu, yo! I can't think of any better company for that little field trip; he's probably the reason for my affinity for sea creatures. Dad knows just about everything about all the stuff that lives there, so it was nice to have a personal tour guide. :)

All Aboard!

Wow I'm realizing how much I have to do before I leave on Friday. At least I've started packing already. Here's a quick pic of me from my trip to Yufuin this past weekend. I'm so glad I went (too bad none of my real cameras made the trip, though) - the fall colors there were amazing, and the town tucked in the mountains was sleepy enough not to wear me out, but it had so many little shops/rivers/trees/cute kids to keep me interested. The train ride was even really interesting - especially with the photo op - I felt like I was (already) at Disney World. :)

Let's go to Goto!

Right, so it's really corny...but I've a cold and the medicine is making me "happy" (or I'm lacking oxygen?). I just wanted to throw some quick pics up - here's one of me and Jared on Takahama beach in the Goto Islands. We went there on a slow ferry, and later some other mates joined us at a bungalow I found for us on the beach. It seemed like we had the island to ourselves, though, as the Japanese don't seem big on beaches after Obon (Aug 15). Right - so I have more photos, but blogger is not cooperating - gomen ne -
I planned to go to Kyoto this weekend, but I came down with this cold, and apparently it's cold and rainy in Kyoto. So if I make the 6:08 bus tomorrow morning, I'm off to Yufuin, a little onsen town in the mountains in Oita prefecture on the other side of Kyushu. OK - bedtime - oyasumi nasai :)

Yosakoi performance

Here's more from the Yosakoi Dance Festival that I saw in Sasebo. It's only a short clip, but I thought this group had the most creative little side band. Look closely - those ojiisans are 'playing' garden tools...

Happy Hallow-een!

OK - so it's a little late, but I was busy with the conference, so I didn't have time to post the pics before now. I was one of the "chosen" to be on the working committee for both the new ALT Orientation and our JET Mid-Year Conferences. The team grudgingly obliged our Prefectural Advisor, but to be honest, at the end of the day, it was a lot of fun working together. I gave a workshop on lesson planning that seemed to be very well received (or at least many people wanted to buy me "otsukaresamadeshita" drinks at the after party).

But enough about me - look how cute my students are! I was really missing the Halloween/Fall spirit, so I decided to take my lunch on the verandah outside of the library (yes - that really IS all school property there!) and tried to sprinkle about some Halloween cheer. Some students joined me in trying to carve the kabocha (Japanese pumpkin), we sang the "Monster Mash" and had fun with random trick 'r treaters that happened by. Unfortunately, "kabocha" are not pumpkins - they're green (OK), small (OK), and reeeeeeally reeeally thick skinned and HARD (NOT ok!). So here's as far as I got carving the pumpkin...I gave up and ended up with a fabulously delicious soup instead :)

stunt double Halloween aisu kurimu

Here's a quick pic to remind ya'll what I look like. I went up to Sasebo this weekend for the huge Yosakoi dance festival. Very cool costumes, very cool music, very cool moves. Think: Japanese samurai + The PropellerHeads dipped in the Fifth Element.
I have a short video that I'll post once my workshop presentation is done - I've got to present at the mid-year conference for the JETs this week...so I'm a little busy.
Happy Halloween to you - I'm going to try to carve a Japanese pumpkin with my kids at lunch tomorrow - but the best I could find (and I looked ALL over) is a green lumpy thing that doesn't really stand up very well. We'll see. We're going to sing "The Monster Mash" too - can't wait.

OH - and if you haven't gotten the memo - I'm coming to the US - Arriving in ATL Nov. 17, leaving from there Dec. 5. We'll be in Disney for Thanksgiving, and South Florida from the 24-28ish. If anyone wants to see me - let me know asap! :)

Irasshai!

Welcome to my little apato! Here is the "genkan" or front entry way where you take off your shoes (they go on a shelf on the left). To the left is a hall that leads to the sink and toilet, to the right is the office/wardrobe, ahead and to the right is the kitchen, straight ahead is the lounge, and just before that on the left is my bath. The little red curtain thingys are called "noren" - you can see them at the entry way to many restaurants, too.


Here's the room where I keep my clothes (on the rack on the right) and have an "office" of sorts. When I'm wildly motivated, I even use that exercise ball for more than just a computer chair.



Here's another look at the wall behind the desk - picture of Mom, bus & train schedules, picture of my former school in Takaki, poster Chris sent me from Switzerland, necklaces, headphones, picture of Gabby Reece to encourage wild motivation to exercise (maybe it would work better if I'd printed it in color)...

"the bath"

Japanese "bathrooms" are generally different than the ones in the US. If you need to go to the bathroom, you say "Toire wa doko desu ka" because the toilet is usually in a little room by itself. Notice the little sink on top of the tank - many places use this as the sink (but I like to wash my hands in the one that's outside in the hall). On the toilet you'll also find that you have a choice between a　大 "big" and　小 "small" flush - just another indication of Japanese environmental awareness. (did you see the birthday dragonfly Dad made me? on the right are my pics of Paris buildings on the Seine)


When I first got to my apato last year (before the renovations, so I still had an old toilet), the river rocks in the top sink part above the toilet tank threw me, but I was so relieved to not have a "squatty potty"!


The actual bath area is much better than it was - now the washing machine has its own drain, and I don't have to dodge the tube in the shower. The only thing that's tricky is figuring out how to heat the water with the gas heater. Though the room is spacious, it's FREEZING in the winter! I now understand this concept of "taking a bath" - you shower off quickly to get clean, then soak in a hot tub to get warm. Sounds good on paper (so to speak), but for those of you who know how tall I am, you can imagine how that tub there is not the picture of relaxation for me. This is why I go to the onsens (hot springs) as often as possible. You'll also notice that I have a DRYER - the other reason why the other JETs are jealous - I usually just hang my clothes out on the verandah to dry, but on cold mornings, it's REALLY nice to pop my clothes in the dryer for a quick spin.

...my spacious and modern kitchen...

Have I mentioned that my apato is the envy of most of the other JETs around here? It's huge by comparison - I think the boys' apts could probably fit in my kitchen. It will be really strange going back to the States where everything is so BIG. But such as it is - here it is. This is the view from the door separating the kitchen and living room. On the right side you see sliding doors - the one good thing about my place is that I can open up or close off rooms, depending on the desired temperature. A student made the basket thing on the wall, and underneath it is the rice cooker that I never use. I bet I can use it for more than rice, but I honestly keep forgetting I have it! On the floor next to the fridge is my shopping bag. I live near the grocery store, and to help save the environment (and 'cuz I get to collect these little green stamps that are undoubtedly good for SOMEthing), I just use that when I go shopping (which is almost everyday). Assorted photos, cards, etc. posted on the fridge, next to that the sink, and "burnable" garbage can. But don't get me started on all the ways we have to separate garbage - we have to buy special bags and have different disposal days for each type. It's really easy once you can FIND a schedule and then READ the schedule. Everyone jokes about the hassle, but at the end of the day it's really not all that difficult.



Here is my china cabinet (don't laugh, Papasan), and next to it my microwave oven/oven. Notice my pet fish, "Men" (that's Japanese for "pasta/noodles") on top of the cabinet in one of the pasta jars. He recently won the lottery, sold the jar, and moved to a huge place on the verandah - pics of his new digs later.




Here's my gas stove. For several months I lived in the fear that I would set my place on fire. But now I rather enjoy having electric bills that hardly ever go above about 2000 yen.






And at last - my Japanese microwave "renji" ("range"?). It only took me 4 months to figure out how to use it. I was ecstatic when I figured out it was also a toaster and an oven. As long as I don't need to cook more than one piece of fish at a time, it's brilliant :)

Any questions?

...and the living room/lounge...

At long last! I finally got my art up and remembered to take photos of my little Japanese apato. This is my "living room/lounge" and frequently where I sleep. I either throw my futon on the tatami floor in one of these rooms or fold the couch down and sleep on it.


When they were renovating my house last year I came in to find a huge hole in my floor - the workers had taken a section of the tatami out, and were underneath my house fixing pipes...well, no WONDER I froze last year...underneath the straw tatami mat is maybe a 1/4" piece of plywood, and then 3 feet of AIR and then soil! BUT I LOVE the tatami anyway. You can see I have a TV set, but since NHK charges you for just HAVING one, I disconnected the cable and never watch Japanese TV. Not that I watched much in the US anyway - the TV is now mostly just a stand for my year-round Christmas tree. On the right side of the top photo is a sliding glass door to a verandah, and out the window in the back is a hill up to an elementary school playground.

One piece of furniture of interest is that square table in the middle of the back room. It's a "kotatsu" and it's your best friend in winter! Underneath is a framework holding a heater, and you put a blanket between that and the top of the table (it really IS safe-). Many a night I sat and read there - getting as much of my body underneath it as possible! Please post questions - I'm beginning to forget what's "foreign" about my place!

acess denied :(

Of course now that I FINALLY got my act together and finished "fixing up" my apato, photographed it, and downloaded pics, Blogger seems to be having technical difficulties...hopefully it will be resolved soon... gomenasai :(

Deodeo darling?

So since Dad isn't here with his shotgun and I'm having a hard time getting the Surinak filter to work overseas, I wonder if you all could tell me what you think about this nice fella I met on the bike ride from Hiroshima to Miyajima last week. Certainly the tallest guy I've seen, he's a snappy dresser, and oh, what a nice smile, desho?
(This one is definitely a candidate for the BG All Stars Roadside Attractions rag, eh, T?)

...where the tide ebbs and flows...

Just letting you all know that I'm back home safe from my "pilgrimage" to Hiroshima. I actually spent more time on Miyajima (island), home of this famous gate, because I found it to be a much more peaceful place than Hiroshima City.
I'm told the torii (gate) and shrine are "floating" because the island itself was (is?) considered sacred ground, and so people couldn't set foot on land.
Somehow I don't think Mom would have ever chosen to come here, but I somehow felt a bit of peace as I sat on the stones here watching the tide come in...and go out again...

一周忌- "Isshuuki" - the first anniversary

The first anniversary of someone's death is called いっしゅうき.
Today is my mom's.
(I can't believe it's been a year, either)
Since I can't be with my family, I've taken off of work and am making a pilgrimage of sorts to Hiroshima. I'm taking my bike and tent with me and my goal today is to camp out on Miyajima - the island that has the famous "floating" red torii. Where these's a torii, there's a shrine, so I'm taking this photo with me and some chocolate that I got for Mom in Korea. In the Japanese homes I've visited, they've set up little shrines in their homes dedicated to loved ones lost, and they frequently place food and drink (sake, beer) in front of them.
Well, with a heavy heart, I'm off. Mom always did say that 'that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger' -