Friday, October 18, 2013
Samurai Festival Pictures
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.524040017632004.1073741829.100000780301857&type=1&l=e231adf5a5
Short Stories
Ok, Short Stories:
1. I was teaching colors at the elementary school, 2nd grade. One boy, who was really excited about English class (especially this time b/c he knew most of his colors), eagerly waited for me to ask him “what color is this?” When it was his turn I held up a yellow card and he happily shouted out “STAR!!!...chigao (means ‘not right’ in Japanese)…Ah! Kiellow!! Chigao….*looks to me for help*”. I say, ‘yellow’. Then he almost face palms himself and says, “Ah! YELLOW!!! Yellow, desu!!” Needles to say, this got the entire class laughing :D.
2. A while ago, I did a Blue’s Clue’s-esque lesson. But with a Moose (named Hughes) who had a Canadian maple leaf mark on his foot. I introduced the moose, Hughes. I said that Hughes loves to play hide and seek (kakurenbo). To demonstrate I put Hughes behind my back and said dramatically ''oh no, where is Hughes?'' and started looking around the classroom, the students kept saying ''there, there behind you *in japanese*'' but I played dumb and kept saying ''what, where *turns around*? I can't see him.'' One student then got up and pointed behind me and tried to grab him from behind me. So, I dramatically went ''Oh!! There his is!!'' and the students were very pleased that they finally helped me realize that Hughes was in my hand behind my back lol.
After that I told them to close their eyes and hid Hughes under the teacher's desk. I told them to open their eyes, and said that Hughes was hiding, but to not look for him. So after getting all of them to stay sitting I said we have to find the Clues and like a puzzle, like detective Conan, we put the clues together to find Hughes.....they didn't fully understand all of this of course since I don’t speak enough Japanese, but they understood enough to know that we weren’t going to search for Hughes yet. To continue on w/ the lesson I read ''Where's Spot?'' and on the second to last hiding spot in the book (under the rug) I put a clue on the word under. When we got to that spot they all shouted ''clue'' and I said ''where?'' and they said ''here *mostly in Japanese*'' and then went ''oh! it's a clue, right here on the word UNDER.....do you know what 'under' means, it means 'Shita下'....All together now: 'UNDER'. Then I finished the book.
Then I played a game where the students hide characters in/under their desks/chairs. I had some characters already printed out and there were American ones and Japanese ones (Spiderman, Doraemon, Pikachu, Mickey Mouse, Ultraman, etc). To play this you select less than half the students to be Team 2 and the rest are Team 1. Team 2 closes their eyes and you hand the characters to people on team one....there won't be enough characters for everyone on team 1 and that's the point. Once the characters are hidden team 2 opens their eyes and start searching for the characters by asking ''Is ___ here?'' and team 1 says ''yes/no'' if ''yes'' then they hand the team 2 person the character who then gives it to me. Once all the characters are found, choose new team 2 and 1 players and repeat. During the 3rd or 4th round I gave the teacher a clue to put on his sleeve...the students were distracted by trying to find characters so it took a while for them to notice. Then I placed a clue on one of their desks....it took another round or so of playing the character game before they spotted the clues.
They saw the clues and shouted 'clue' (well a few said Canada da! lol^^) and brought them too me and I asked ''where was the clue'' and they said ''on the desk/on the teacher *in japanese''. And I said ''very good'' and had them all sit down. Then I asked what Sensei was in English and what つくえ/机 was in English (desk). Then I had them practice saying the three clues ''under, sensei’s/teacher's, desk'' then asked, “So, where is Hughes? Use the clues to help find him'' At first some of them darted toward the sensei lol and he was quick to put up his guard and say ''No, no, no, no, not me, desk, desk''. But most of them put it together and darted for the teacher's desk and found Hughes. Then I had them sit down and asked ''Where was Hughes? Under, teacher's, desk! Very good''. Then there was still time left so I had them close their eyes and hid Hughes in one of their cubbies on top of someone's back pack. Then I put a clue on my bag, the student whose cubby he was in, and on the word 'on' that I wrote on the board. Then I had the students open their eyes and told them to find the Clues, the Canada leaf signs. They found them and sat down and I said ok so the clues are ''on, student's name, bag'' had them repeat it and then asked ''Where's Hughes'' and they all darted to the kid's cubby and found him ^^. And that was the lesson..........In 4th grade I did the same lesson, but they found Hughes in the cubby before they found any of the clues -.-, but that’s ok, they still had a lot of fun ^^.
3. One of the boys at the Junior High….is well a boy at the junior high hahaha, he is one of the rowdy ones and usually speaks bad, but proud, English with me. And in class he really is pretty good at English, and outside of class too when he puts forth the focus and effort; but being a class clown he finds it more fun to loudly speak in bad English because he knows it makes people laugh. Usually, when I pass him in the hallway, it’s just him rambling stuff off “I’m sleepy, and you Oh so great me too!”, and lately it has been gibberish where he makes up words and throws in random English and Japanese words and ends sentences with ‘Oh’ or ‘oh yes, me too’. A while ago he said to me one day, while just passing each other in the hallway “Oh, Mary, I’m happy! Oh no! I’m SEX! Yes, I’m SEX!’’. I shook my head (trying really hard not to laugh) and said “Bad English!” He—being honestly eager to learn—said, “What, why?” So I said, “Cloud…..cloudy….Rain….rainy….sun….sunny.” He quickly caught on and then belted out “I’m SEX….Y. I`m sexy! Oh yeah!!” He tried to keep talking but by that point he was laughing to hard. Granted I shouldn’t probably encourage such things, but I’d rather him learn proper English and have fun with it than be bored and stop trying. Oh, and the other day, while speaking gibberish with me (yes I spoke gibberish back) he randomly said “In the park. Me, and big Tokyo Sky Tree! Oh Yeah” And he motioned to his crotch then burst out laughing and ran off *face palm* —___ —….definitely a rowdy junior high boy. But at least he keeps things interesting ^-^.
1. I was teaching colors at the elementary school, 2nd grade. One boy, who was really excited about English class (especially this time b/c he knew most of his colors), eagerly waited for me to ask him “what color is this?” When it was his turn I held up a yellow card and he happily shouted out “STAR!!!...chigao (means ‘not right’ in Japanese)…Ah! Kiellow!! Chigao….*looks to me for help*”. I say, ‘yellow’. Then he almost face palms himself and says, “Ah! YELLOW!!! Yellow, desu!!” Needles to say, this got the entire class laughing :D.
2. A while ago, I did a Blue’s Clue’s-esque lesson. But with a Moose (named Hughes) who had a Canadian maple leaf mark on his foot. I introduced the moose, Hughes. I said that Hughes loves to play hide and seek (kakurenbo). To demonstrate I put Hughes behind my back and said dramatically ''oh no, where is Hughes?'' and started looking around the classroom, the students kept saying ''there, there behind you *in japanese*'' but I played dumb and kept saying ''what, where *turns around*? I can't see him.'' One student then got up and pointed behind me and tried to grab him from behind me. So, I dramatically went ''Oh!! There his is!!'' and the students were very pleased that they finally helped me realize that Hughes was in my hand behind my back lol.
After that I told them to close their eyes and hid Hughes under the teacher's desk. I told them to open their eyes, and said that Hughes was hiding, but to not look for him. So after getting all of them to stay sitting I said we have to find the Clues and like a puzzle, like detective Conan, we put the clues together to find Hughes.....they didn't fully understand all of this of course since I don’t speak enough Japanese, but they understood enough to know that we weren’t going to search for Hughes yet. To continue on w/ the lesson I read ''Where's Spot?'' and on the second to last hiding spot in the book (under the rug) I put a clue on the word under. When we got to that spot they all shouted ''clue'' and I said ''where?'' and they said ''here *mostly in Japanese*'' and then went ''oh! it's a clue, right here on the word UNDER.....do you know what 'under' means, it means 'Shita下'....All together now: 'UNDER'. Then I finished the book.
Then I played a game where the students hide characters in/under their desks/chairs. I had some characters already printed out and there were American ones and Japanese ones (Spiderman, Doraemon, Pikachu, Mickey Mouse, Ultraman, etc). To play this you select less than half the students to be Team 2 and the rest are Team 1. Team 2 closes their eyes and you hand the characters to people on team one....there won't be enough characters for everyone on team 1 and that's the point. Once the characters are hidden team 2 opens their eyes and start searching for the characters by asking ''Is ___ here?'' and team 1 says ''yes/no'' if ''yes'' then they hand the team 2 person the character who then gives it to me. Once all the characters are found, choose new team 2 and 1 players and repeat. During the 3rd or 4th round I gave the teacher a clue to put on his sleeve...the students were distracted by trying to find characters so it took a while for them to notice. Then I placed a clue on one of their desks....it took another round or so of playing the character game before they spotted the clues.
They saw the clues and shouted 'clue' (well a few said Canada da! lol^^) and brought them too me and I asked ''where was the clue'' and they said ''on the desk/on the teacher *in japanese''. And I said ''very good'' and had them all sit down. Then I asked what Sensei was in English and what つくえ/机 was in English (desk). Then I had them practice saying the three clues ''under, sensei’s/teacher's, desk'' then asked, “So, where is Hughes? Use the clues to help find him'' At first some of them darted toward the sensei lol and he was quick to put up his guard and say ''No, no, no, no, not me, desk, desk''. But most of them put it together and darted for the teacher's desk and found Hughes. Then I had them sit down and asked ''Where was Hughes? Under, teacher's, desk! Very good''. Then there was still time left so I had them close their eyes and hid Hughes in one of their cubbies on top of someone's back pack. Then I put a clue on my bag, the student whose cubby he was in, and on the word 'on' that I wrote on the board. Then I had the students open their eyes and told them to find the Clues, the Canada leaf signs. They found them and sat down and I said ok so the clues are ''on, student's name, bag'' had them repeat it and then asked ''Where's Hughes'' and they all darted to the kid's cubby and found him ^^. And that was the lesson..........In 4th grade I did the same lesson, but they found Hughes in the cubby before they found any of the clues -.-, but that’s ok, they still had a lot of fun ^^.
3. One of the boys at the Junior High….is well a boy at the junior high hahaha, he is one of the rowdy ones and usually speaks bad, but proud, English with me. And in class he really is pretty good at English, and outside of class too when he puts forth the focus and effort; but being a class clown he finds it more fun to loudly speak in bad English because he knows it makes people laugh. Usually, when I pass him in the hallway, it’s just him rambling stuff off “I’m sleepy, and you Oh so great me too!”, and lately it has been gibberish where he makes up words and throws in random English and Japanese words and ends sentences with ‘Oh’ or ‘oh yes, me too’. A while ago he said to me one day, while just passing each other in the hallway “Oh, Mary, I’m happy! Oh no! I’m SEX! Yes, I’m SEX!’’. I shook my head (trying really hard not to laugh) and said “Bad English!” He—being honestly eager to learn—said, “What, why?” So I said, “Cloud…..cloudy….Rain….rainy….sun….sunny.” He quickly caught on and then belted out “I’m SEX….Y. I`m sexy! Oh yeah!!” He tried to keep talking but by that point he was laughing to hard. Granted I shouldn’t probably encourage such things, but I’d rather him learn proper English and have fun with it than be bored and stop trying. Oh, and the other day, while speaking gibberish with me (yes I spoke gibberish back) he randomly said “In the park. Me, and big Tokyo Sky Tree! Oh Yeah” And he motioned to his crotch then burst out laughing and ran off *face palm* —___ —….definitely a rowdy junior high boy. But at least he keeps things interesting ^-^.
4. Ok, so I played ''What time is it Mr. Wolf'' with the
kindergartner. Normally when we play I ask them ''夜ご飯、英語で何ですか。(What
is ‘dinner time’ in English?)'' to get them to reply ''It's dinner
time!!''.....but one time I said ''夜ご飯何ですか。(What’s (for) dinnertime?)'' I left out the 'in English' part. So…. rather
than all of the ‘wolves’ saying ''it's dinner time!'' they all started shouting
out what they were really going to have for dinner tonight XD.
5. That’s all I can think of right now. So I’ll leave you w/ what
the label on my container of dried fruits and nuts says “A heavy and thick taste
graceful seasonings is one of the things we have most treasured.” ....It only
has salt on it, no seasoning...>.>
Long overdue
It has been way too long since my last post, and a lot has happened since then. So let’s get to the updates and catching up.
To start where we left of (in June?!?!): Well, actually rewind just a tad. In May my parents came over for a visit. It was really nice to see them (sadly the dogs couldn’t come too) and we had a lot of fun. They got to eat all sorts of strange dishes, such as slimy seaweed and stuffed squid that was more rare rather than well done. We hiked a mountain, saw evidence of bears and monkeys but didn’t see any. The hike was tiring but mom did a great job, you can tell that her lungs are getting much better…..I was harassed by bugs the entire time -.- friggin’ bugs I don’t know why they love me so much >w<!! They came down at the end of May, just in time for my birthday and returned in the middle of June. We also got to see a great Kite Battle festival. The festival has been an annual event ever since the Edo Period and basically two cities decided to hold friendly kite battles rather than brutal death and stabbing battles. I would like to use this chance to say, how great would it be if all of our battles/wars were fought with kites and not guns/swords/what have you. Anyhoo, they meet at the river that separates the two cities and fly giant kites over the river. And I mean GIANT. The smallest ones take about 10 men to lift and the biggest ones easily take 30-40 or more. The festival lasts a week or two and they have kite battles every day. They hoist these behemoth kites into the air by tossing it up then running as fast as they can, pulling on the giant rope that is attached to the kite. They battle by getting the kites to entangle around one another. It has to be a big kite and a big kite or a small kite and a small kite. Once they crash into each other, then fall into the river, they have a giant tug-of-war match, the teams line up at the center of each side of the river bank. Then, when the signal is given they pull until the rope breaks. The side w/ more rope wins the battle. During the event they have numerous kites in the air at the same time, so the battles happen often and some last longer than others. One battle they had to stop and take 3 breaks during the tug-of-war. Oh, and it is a big community event where a lot of the community helps build, repair, and battle kites (also run food stands, etc etc), so sometimes, for the more heated tug-of-war matches, the team members pulling may grab a bystander (or several) and drag them over to tug too :D! It is a really fun festival, and I’ll be going to it again next year ^^!! Also, keep an eye out for a link that will let you see pictures (p.s. I didn’t sort through the pictures so there are a lot of them and not all are good pictures :p).
Ok, fast forward a bit and July was just school and work and not too much going on. Then in August I went home for summer vacation. I had to use up most of my vacation days, because in Japan the teachers only get a vacation if they use their vacation time. This aspect of their work code really gets to me sometimes. It’s really ridiculous compared to how teachers are given automatic vacation time (school breaks, snow days, etc), but in Japan you are expected to come in even if the students get school canceled. So, for example: there is a really bad typhoon (hurricane) raging outside, and the students get school cancelled because it is too dangerous to go outside and travel to school. Well, the teachers still have to go to school unless they call in and use up their vacation time. And I’m not sure how many days the teachers get but I only have 20 vacation days for the whole year. So, if I were to take vacations for all of the school vacations I would be at negative vacation days. This also means that since I used so many up on August and when my parents visited, I now have to go to work on Christmas because Christmas Day isn’t a national holiday in Japan. -.- It’s really frustrating to still have to go to work during school breaks, especially since I don’t have anything to do but sit at my desk from 8-4….def not great for the waistline to sit all day. Anyway, I went home in August and had a lot of fun seeing people and catching up, but sadly I didn’t get to see everyone on my list and I’m really sorry I couldn’t squeeze everyone in and see people more. Also, I ate soooooo much pizza when I was home lol, the pizza in America tastes better in my opinion and has more variety in flavor and crust styles…..and there is little risk of finding tuna, mayo and corn pizza o_0…..and in case you didn’t know in Japan they have a habit of putting corn and or mayo in/on everything….pizzas, omelets, sandwiches, salads, etc etc. They also like putting really small fish in things….like really tiny anchovy fish that are maybe an inch long, if that. They dry them and serve them as dog and cat treats, put them in soups, stir fry, deep fry, they sneak them into a lot of dishes. And there’s nothing like quickly scarfing down soup only to realize once you drank most of the broth, that you were swallowing tiny whole fish with the veggies in the soup. It’s times like those that make me very glad to have a strong stomach and a tolerance of such surprises. I just see the fish, then shrug and finish the soup. The things you learn about yourself when you travel lol! It really is weird how things like soup full of tiny fish sounds like something you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, but when you are in a country where it’s the norm it doesn’t really bother you when you eat it.
Ok, what else….It’s fall now, and the leaves are changing :D, it’s very very beautiful!!! But anywhere secluded with a lot of trees is bound to be beautiful when the leaves start to change. There are some festivals and stuff coming up too, but also school events so sadly I can’t do both :/. I was really excited about a local festival that is going on this weekend and was invited to it by a lot of locals (some who never talk to me, but took the time to tell me about the festival) and sadly it is the same day as the Culture Festival (similar to Showcase Southwest where students display artwork and choirs sing and such) and I have to work TT~TT. What’s a little frustrating is that I don’t have anything to do at the school event, except roam the halls trying to keep busy, and could easily got to the rice festival and come back in time for the choir concert, but sadly I can’t leave. -.- Oh well, tis a part of the working world eh. (And I’m actually typing all of this up at work, today is the day to prep for the Culture thing tomorrow, and I had to come into work despite having nothing to do, and so I took the chance to finally write a blog entry. Yay for not wasting time.)
Hmmm…..Oh, I recently bought a keyboard and have been practicing the piano when I have time ^-^. It’s a really really nice one, the keys are even weighted so it feels like you’re playing a real piano and has all of the keys!!! >w< It’s such a beautiful day out today!! It’s really rough to be sitting inside on such a nice day, esp when I could go out and take pics of all of the tress!! Anyway….there’s not too much else to update you on, just the same old same old of work. Um, there was a kindergartner running around the other day with his shirt tucked into his underwear lol. Oh, and onetime at the kindergarten, after they got out of the pool and were changing out of their swim suits. One of them changed really quickly, then threw his towel over his head and pretended to be a ghost. So I said “Oh, so scary!!’’, this made him and the others laugh….and the next thing I knew about half of them stopped changing (so they were partly or buck naked) threw towels over their heads and started to act like ghosts and try to scare me….and then the homeroom teacher came in with a really confused look on her face. Needless to say that was an interesting day XD!!
Ok, going to take a short break to stretch my legs, and I’ll try to think up of more fun short stories and then post them. Here are a few links to some pictures:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.601785343190804.1073741838.100000780301857&type=1&l=c634c53ad9
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.541426672560005.1073741831.100000780301857&type=1&l=78f18644c1
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.553020114733994.1073741832.100000780301857&type=1&l=4717a1bebe
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.553020114733994.1073741832.100000780301857&type=1&l=4717a1bebe
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Cherry Blossom Festivals \( ^ 。^ )/ in small towns
So Sanpoku is my tiny little town and so when the cherry blossoms were out there were two little festival things. One wasn't actually in my town but the one just inside the mountains (Nakagatsugi?). And that was a simpler, there are a few booths of the locals selling stuff (mainly mountain veggies, but not many had come up yet b/c of the colder weather in the mountains, and some other handmade stuff) and an area to eat a box lunch. A lot of the people there—as is true w/ the people closer to my house—are the parents/relatives of my students. So they were happy to see me go to their little town, esp since 5+ years ago they used to have an elementary school so the ALT of the area went to their town on a regular basis; but now the schools are grouped into two bigger ones so no more regular visits from an ALT :p. But anyhoo, it was really nice seeing them and it was lovely out, though sadly the blossoms were still just buds—these cherry trees are more like weeping willow trees, very beautiful—esp when in full bloom. But I had a nice lunch w/ Sadae-san and then we walked around town a bit. Oh and one of the guys there was really cute ;)…..but as w/ most of them he couldn't speak the best English in the world.
The second area w/ a festival was literally in my town. There were
booths/stalls/stands all up and down this one side street. Some selling food,
some candy, some goldfish or turtles (the turtles were sooo cute XD) and a few
game stands (ring toss, grab a ticket, and such). The students were really surprised and in
general happy to see me, especially the younger ones and the ones that just
graduated. But sadly I couldn't remember all of the names of the ones that had
just graduated L. Though, in my defense in class they always covered up their
notebooks that had their names on it and they changed seats all the time so the
original seating chart quickly loses its use and there are no sheets w/ their
names and faces together, it’s always just names—in kanji which I can’t
read. So needless to say they didn't make it easy for me to learn their names xp….but I still feel bad that I couldn't recall all of their names. I could
remember the chair they sat at before they graduated, but not their name -.-…. That aside, it was really fun and I got an
interesting finger pointer thing that has proven nice during my lessons^^. Oh,
and the students pulled little shrine floats (little shrines set on these things
to be carried around the town) through the town as a sort of parade thing and
they were really happy to see that I saw them having a blast doing such.
Oh, and
while walking around I got corralled by some of the older town folk (most of
which prob committee members of some sort) to sit under their tent where they
offered me all sorts of things. They gave me like 2 cans of ice coffee to
drink, snack packets, giant swiss-cake-roll thing, tried to give me beer, and
bread and such. They were asking all sorts of questions and taking pictures
with me and it was rather nice, though after a while I wanted to go see the
festival some more to see some more students that just started to arrive.
Luckily one of the older ladies sensed that I wanted to go and swept me away,
she said ‘’oh have you seen this little area in town?’’ and dragged me off to
go see the little cemetery in town that’s tucked away behind all the buildings
so you can’t see if from the main road. It was really pretty up there and I hadn't been there before (always hesitant to walk around the alleyways b/c some
are alleys but some are driveways and they look the same xp). She asked me a
few questions but mainly talked about the area and then took me back down to
the back side of the festival stands and said ‘‘excuse us for taking your time’’—or
something to that affect—and ‘‘thanks for chatting with us, please enjoy the
festival’’. So, yay for old ladies that whisk you away so you can return to the
festivities—not that sitting with them was a lot of fun, but w/ it being a nice
day and a festival I didn't exactly want to be sitting around that much :p.
And, yeah, that was that for the most part^^ just some nice, quieter but still
very enjoyable festivities^^.
0[]o *gasp*...*erhem* The Tale of the Samurai Battle Festival
To
begin w/ I found out about this cool Samurai Festival and that people get to
dress in traditional old armor and fight if they sign up on a list before the
event. But sadly I didn't make the list of people to be samurai in the battle
(they had a long waiting list from last year). Despite that, I decided to be
adventurous and drive the 3 hrs to the battle w/ only directions written on
some scrap paper. I made it there, with some help from signs and out of luck/good
sense of direction b/c some signs said to go one way but then never showed up
again to tell you to turn -.-.....and I found a place to park in a parking lot
of a store. Normally they frown upon parking there for other events, but they
were allowing it since this was such a big event. The old guy who was the
volunteer to help people park in spots that were ok seemed a bit worried about
me being a gaijin girl by myself and when I asked him if it was ok to park and
where the event was at he was very meticulous about giving me details and kept
asking if I understood and was very kind. Then I went to the area and I think I
saw a greatdane off in the distance, and of course I saw lots of people dressed
for the battle. It was really neat to see the foot soldiers, ninjas (yes they
had ninjas :D), archers, leaders and such all decked in traditional-styled
armor/clothes.
While there I found a decent viewing spot (it was already crowded when I arrived). I also so an older woman that was a little peculiarly dressed and was carrying around a doll....but that's beside the point. Anyhoo, I saw a few other foreigners but they walked passed me and didn't really notice. G ranted I didn't say "hey" and wave like a dork, but I did smile and the one that saw me just looked away and started talking with the others in the group. They gathered a bit of a ways away from where I was but I could still see them from my spot. One time while looking around --crowd watching during a break in the battle-- I saw some of them in the group look at me and I smiled and started to wave but they immediately looked away when they saw that I spotted them. Then after the battle I walked around closer to the battle grounds. I saw some of the other foreigners that were fighting (and mind you a lot of them are ALTs like myself) and went up and said "Hello" and they smiled but didn't say anything. Instead they just went on w/ a conversation w/ the person next to them. I saw an older lady (40s or 50s) who was a foreigner and I smiled and said hello to her. She was nice enough to say hello back and smile, but then she looked to the distance and said to herself (but still aloud) "oh the international group seems to be gathering" and then walked off.
While there I found a decent viewing spot (it was already crowded when I arrived). I also so an older woman that was a little peculiarly dressed and was carrying around a doll....but that's beside the point. Anyhoo, I saw a few other foreigners but they walked passed me and didn't really notice. G ranted I didn't say "hey" and wave like a dork, but I did smile and the one that saw me just looked away and started talking with the others in the group. They gathered a bit of a ways away from where I was but I could still see them from my spot. One time while looking around --crowd watching during a break in the battle-- I saw some of them in the group look at me and I smiled and started to wave but they immediately looked away when they saw that I spotted them. Then after the battle I walked around closer to the battle grounds. I saw some of the other foreigners that were fighting (and mind you a lot of them are ALTs like myself) and went up and said "Hello" and they smiled but didn't say anything. Instead they just went on w/ a conversation w/ the person next to them. I saw an older lady (40s or 50s) who was a foreigner and I smiled and said hello to her. She was nice enough to say hello back and smile, but then she looked to the distance and said to herself (but still aloud) "oh the international group seems to be gathering" and then walked off.
So I was a little perturbed that I drove 3
hrs to go to an event that I was told to "by all means come we'd love to
have more foreigners at the event, even if it's just spectating. Can’t wait to
see you there", and then when I go to said event I couldn't get the time
of day from any of the other foreigners. Not that I was expecting the time, but
at least a short: ‘’hello, oh you're from ___, I'm from ___,’’ ‘‘glad you made
it to this event’’, ‘‘this event is a lot of fun isn't it’’, or a ‘‘oh hey
another foreigner that's cool’’....or something. But oh well. I didn't let it dampen my spirits b/c it was a
really neat event and after leaving the other foreigners that didn't want to
chat with me I passed some junior or senior high school boys who---in their
typical rowdy jhs/shs boy manner---said "oh, hello! Nice to meet you. I'm
happy/hungry/hot. Goodbye!" So that was a good laugh to have them randomly
say stuff in English while walking past me. And the view on the way to the
event is absolutely lovely. It's a mountain road that cuts through mountains
and over rivers and dams and small mountain towns and small waterfalls (like
maybe a foot wide if that, but really tall/long) and whatnot. It was gorgeous.
So all in all I’d say that adventure was a victory and it was a nice
festival. Oh, and the guy who
"died" and stuck his sword in a way so that it looked like he was
stabbed and the other one who died but kept kicking their feet around in boredom
where extra amusing to see^^. And a nice---though long-- drive with good music
is always nice^^. But yes, that was that festival. Later will be the kite
battle festival, my parents stay here and some other festival I think? I think
there's another one....oh and the amazing Buddhist Temple and Mountain temple/shrines
that I saw just this weekend
12 o'clock the ghost awakes ( ^ ' ~' )^ and goes to a Cherry Blossom Festival
Once upon a long long long time ago (three or so months ago… to be
more precise-ish kinda) there was this chica named Mary and she has been
spending quite some time in Japan, fought with some Tsukumogami and had tea
with Tengus and such. But this day was special, it was a long journey south to
a city she has often heard of but not yet seen.
She was going there to spend some time with the humans she has met, they
aren't as fun as the spirits and creatures she has encountered, but some of the
people are very enjoyable and fun to be around....unfortunately those said
people weren't there. The ones that were there are nice enough and fun to
watch, but it seems that Mary is a bit too much of a strange wallflower for
their more party hearty-style antics. But, on the way down she gave a ride to
someone that can carry on a very nice conversation and so a lovely conversation
about this and that was had during the very long car ride south. Despite the
lack of gps or knowledge of the area they made it rather easily.
When they arrived the sky was
rather overcast and threatened to bring rain, and after a bit it did. But,
before the rain came they met up with the other people. After sitting awkwardly for a bit just
listening to everyone else converse and only getting in a few words here and
there, she went and bought a rather tasty doner kebab to eat. Upon getting back
and finishing the doner, she was invited to play a game. It is writing and
drawing game where one person writes a sentence and the next person draws a
picture interpretation of the sentence then the next person writes a sentence
based of the picture and so on. It was very fun, but it started to rain just
when everyone started on the second round of the first/original sentence....so
everyone packed up and moved to a shelter area (they were sitting in a field on
a tarp prior to this).
Once under the shelter some
of the group members, including Mary, wanted to continue with the game, but
those who weren't in on the game and some of those that were wanted to call the
picnic quits-- seeing as it was supposed to be a cherry blossom festival and
most of the blossoms were already knocked down from rain the prior week and
that it was now kinda rainy and gross and the sky didn't look like it would
clear up anytime soon. So most of the people left and went to go to a bar and
party, Mary and some of the others decided to stay at the festival just a bit
longer and do something before driving all the way back north. After a rather
tense/not fun debate of what to do (one person in the group was very bummed
that the drawing/writing game stopped and everyone except the small few were
leaving) they finally decided to head over to the small castle in the park
(very small castle).
Upon finding out that it costs $2 to look around the castle some
people decided to just go get food, one decided to sit and watch stuff that
people didn't want to carry around, and some decided to go to the castle. Mary
decided to see the castle, and as nice as it was it was also a bit awkward
seeing as the only other people who went to go see the castle were two
recently-started-to-date love birds that she really hasn't ever talked too. So,
Mary with her already purchased ticket in hand decided to have fun at the
castle anyway, and overall she did. Then they returned to 'home base' where the
person watching the stuff was.....some people had fun putting their faces in
the cut out slots of those tourist picture things where your head replaces the
would be face of the people...in this case a prince and princess. That was rather
amusing to watch and then it was time to split ways and go home. Mary gave a
few people a ride to the train station and then drove all the way back home
(4-ish hr drive) by herself. It was rather pleasant seeing as she was a bit
tired from socializing all day and just wanted to be a dork and sing in the car
and such fun things.....being bold and a bit of a penny pincher she decided to
try to take the back roads most of the way home b/c the highways are toll
roads. She made it quite a distance traveling back routes in a foreign country
at night....stopped for gas and possibly had the guy flirt with her-- he
offered her a rag to wipe down the inside of the car and a cigarette (didn't
accept the cigarette) and kinda hovered a bit and seemed rather happy that she
stopped for gas there and he got to talk with her...could've just been b/c she
is a foreigner but the flying mint bunny seems to think it was more than that.
Anyhoo, she drove a bit over an hour on the back roads but when she
got close to a major city that's two hours south of her house she kept hitting
a plethora of stop lights, so she decided to just get on the high way and pay
the toll b/c it was late and the amount of gas used at all of the stop lights
would probably even out to toll road fees. When she finally made it to the end
of the toll road she had about an hour left in her journey home...the toll road
guy was also rather nice/smiling and cute....anyhoo she made it back and was
glad to have gone back that night rather than stayed at an elementary school
near the festival and slept at the school. Now she had all of Sunday to relax
and do what she wanted rather than worry about driving all the way home and
having that eat up most of the day. And that is the end of the tale of the
cherry blossom festival story, an overall good day, tiring, but good ^^. The
other festival stories will shortly follow (festival in town with the kids,
samurai fest, and maybe another one in there too lol ^^''' )
Monday, March 18, 2013
From where I last left off....snow festival and such
Sorry no pics in this post, I'm typing this up during my break at work. Ok so let's see...I left off somewhere in February....Sadly there wasn't much going around for the setsubun (bean throwing festival) in my town and I wasn't sure where to go to see things, so maybe next year I can see some festival stuff for that holiday. Setsuben, btw, is a festival where they throw beans at people dressed as demons to symbolize driving away demons/evil spirits so the new year is free of bad spirits/luck. The stores around me did carry little paper boxes with beans and a paper demon mask that you could buy, so I got to see some fun/weird cartoon demon masks ^^. Oh, and in winter here (by the coast of the Sea of Japan) it is very very windy, there are signs warning of strong winds causing waves to come up onto the road, and a lot of Nami no hana (波の花), or “wave flowers,”which is where the sea foam forms en mass and blows around like snow/flowers :). It's pretty cool, when I post pics I'll try to find a video of it as well for you to see. And as cool as it is to see, it is freezing out when it happens and the wind is really strong (almost pushed me over a few different days) and if its icy it's especially fun b/c then you get pushed around the ice.
Ok so snow festival. There was a local snow festival/wedding in a small town about 10-15 minutes from me. I knew some of the people setting up (Kamimura-sensei, Chika-sensei, Nakagawa-sensei, and some people from the BOE) so I joined and helped set up. I helped work on the giant snowmen that were at the entrance and stamp down snow to make pathways and so on. In the bigger spots were we had to stamp down the snow I showed the people there a much more fun way to do it. They were just marching around and literally stamping it down, I went and grabbed one of the giant snow shovels...they have really big ones like this:
Ok so snow festival. There was a local snow festival/wedding in a small town about 10-15 minutes from me. I knew some of the people setting up (Kamimura-sensei, Chika-sensei, Nakagawa-sensei, and some people from the BOE) so I joined and helped set up. I helped work on the giant snowmen that were at the entrance and stamp down snow to make pathways and so on. In the bigger spots were we had to stamp down the snow I showed the people there a much more fun way to do it. They were just marching around and literally stamping it down, I went and grabbed one of the giant snow shovels...they have really big ones like this:
And I sat down in the shovel part and had one of the guys pull me around to flatten the snow that way :). Everyone was rather impressed and had fun doing the same ^^. Oh, and people were also very impressed with my Pikachu hat that Donnie sent me for X-mas (thanks Donnie! :) ).
So it was a lot of work and very tiring, but also a lot of fun getting things set up. After stomping down the fresh layer of snow (a good 1-2ft) we shoved a long pole down to where we think it finally hit bottom and we were standing on top of at least 5-6ft of packed snow 0.o. The snow in that town (it's at the bottom of a small mountain) was high enough to cover the entire first floor of a house and start going onto the roof of the 1st floor, there were snow banks taller than me along the roads and sidewalks. I've never seen so much snow before!! Even with us digging out steps and making a giant chapel out of snow I never did see the ground lol. So, to the day of the festival, I worked as the staff and helped man the drink-booth and helped monitor events. I got to wear an armband that said ''snowman staff'' ^-^. A decent amount of kids and parents showed up to build snowmen throughout the day. There was a tent full of oba-chans (old ladies) next to the one I was in, they were rather entertaining to watch ^^. They played American music all day (Lady Ga Ga, Maroon 5, etc.) which I found rather interesting lol. Oh and it snowed aaaallllllllllll day, big snowflakes that at times were a bit blizzard like....I felt kinda bad for the kids/families that showed up early to build their snowmen for the contest because by the time of the contest their snowmen had a good 1/2+ foot of snow on them if they didn't get a chance to brush them off. Luckily it wasn't too freezing out, but at the same time with being warm in you coat the snow melted when it hit you and so by the end of the day everyone was drenched, especially your gloves....so next year I might bring a pancho to wear over my coat and definitely more gloves. Just before it started to get dark we went around and placed tea candles inside little pockets/holes in the snowmen (people dug out the spot where they wanted the candle to go) and we lit them. We also made little snow blocks with a hollow center and put candles inside them to create a lighted pathway for the bride and groom. Once it got dark the bride and groom came and walked down the path (we had spotlights to provide light) and to the chapel's stage. The wedding is a bit different in Japan, rather short, and the bride and groom do a lot of talking rather than repeating after the priest-guy. But it was really cute, they were a bit embarrassed to have that much attention and it took a bit of encouragement to get the groom and bride to do kiss...they just did a really quick peck on the lips and wouldn't really do more than that...they really couldn't do much more b/c they were laughing/giggling too much over the whole thing lol. Then they cut a slice from a very small cake, and kids came on the stage and said stuff to them (idk what happened to the cake :P), and then there were fireworks from behind the chapel and that was that. People would get up and take pictures on the chapel's stage and look around at all of the snowmen. The volunteers sat around for a long time, eating and sitting by the small fire pits and taking pictures and goofing around. Then we cleaned up and took everything down and packed up, and some of them were going off to a bar but Kamimura, Chika, Nakagawa-sensei and myself voted to go home and sleep seeing as we got there around 7:30 and it was 10:30-11 by the time we got things stored away. Overall it was a lot of fun and I look forward to going again next year ^-^.
So that's all for now, lunch time ^^......hmmm, next are pictures and graduation and stuff, and then we'll be all caught up to now ^^.
So it was a lot of work and very tiring, but also a lot of fun getting things set up. After stomping down the fresh layer of snow (a good 1-2ft) we shoved a long pole down to where we think it finally hit bottom and we were standing on top of at least 5-6ft of packed snow 0.o. The snow in that town (it's at the bottom of a small mountain) was high enough to cover the entire first floor of a house and start going onto the roof of the 1st floor, there were snow banks taller than me along the roads and sidewalks. I've never seen so much snow before!! Even with us digging out steps and making a giant chapel out of snow I never did see the ground lol. So, to the day of the festival, I worked as the staff and helped man the drink-booth and helped monitor events. I got to wear an armband that said ''snowman staff'' ^-^. A decent amount of kids and parents showed up to build snowmen throughout the day. There was a tent full of oba-chans (old ladies) next to the one I was in, they were rather entertaining to watch ^^. They played American music all day (Lady Ga Ga, Maroon 5, etc.) which I found rather interesting lol. Oh and it snowed aaaallllllllllll day, big snowflakes that at times were a bit blizzard like....I felt kinda bad for the kids/families that showed up early to build their snowmen for the contest because by the time of the contest their snowmen had a good 1/2+ foot of snow on them if they didn't get a chance to brush them off. Luckily it wasn't too freezing out, but at the same time with being warm in you coat the snow melted when it hit you and so by the end of the day everyone was drenched, especially your gloves....so next year I might bring a pancho to wear over my coat and definitely more gloves. Just before it started to get dark we went around and placed tea candles inside little pockets/holes in the snowmen (people dug out the spot where they wanted the candle to go) and we lit them. We also made little snow blocks with a hollow center and put candles inside them to create a lighted pathway for the bride and groom. Once it got dark the bride and groom came and walked down the path (we had spotlights to provide light) and to the chapel's stage. The wedding is a bit different in Japan, rather short, and the bride and groom do a lot of talking rather than repeating after the priest-guy. But it was really cute, they were a bit embarrassed to have that much attention and it took a bit of encouragement to get the groom and bride to do kiss...they just did a really quick peck on the lips and wouldn't really do more than that...they really couldn't do much more b/c they were laughing/giggling too much over the whole thing lol. Then they cut a slice from a very small cake, and kids came on the stage and said stuff to them (idk what happened to the cake :P), and then there were fireworks from behind the chapel and that was that. People would get up and take pictures on the chapel's stage and look around at all of the snowmen. The volunteers sat around for a long time, eating and sitting by the small fire pits and taking pictures and goofing around. Then we cleaned up and took everything down and packed up, and some of them were going off to a bar but Kamimura, Chika, Nakagawa-sensei and myself voted to go home and sleep seeing as we got there around 7:30 and it was 10:30-11 by the time we got things stored away. Overall it was a lot of fun and I look forward to going again next year ^-^.
So that's all for now, lunch time ^^......hmmm, next are pictures and graduation and stuff, and then we'll be all caught up to now ^^.
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