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Tawara, Tamana, and several colors of loincloth

Last weekend, I went to the Tawara Matsuri, a festival held once a year in Tamana, my new city. Tamana has a population of 45,000, slightly smaller than Arao's, the city I lived in last year, and about 400 of them came out for this bizzarre festival held under the Takase Bridge.
Twenty-seven teams compete for approximately $5000 in cash and prizes(including a year's supply of freshly harvested rice) from morning til afternoon. What are they doing? They're bursting balloons using 800-kilo straw barrels.
The teams have to work together, pulling ropes that extend from the hay barrel, manuevering it through a parking lot and bulldozing balloons set in various places. There are prizes not only for the fastest teams, but also for the teams with the best outfits. Two of the men's teams caught my and my camera's eye. One had colorful robes, with painted samurai on the back, reminiscent of the ones I fell in love with at the Tamana Iris Festival last year and the one I brought back for Boulder Aikikai. The other were men dressed in loincloths of various colors.

The painted samurai costumes won first place.

I don't know about the loinclothed men. Ran a pretty good race though.

Getting used to being alone, or perhaps I'm just not as alone anymore. School is going very well; I can't stress how much of a relief that is to me. In fact, I feel very free.
The high school is preparing for their annual Sport's Day Festival, which means classes are practicing in the gym for much of the regular class time. They take Sport's Day so seriously here--but it's good because everyone is really focused around this time. The only way it affects me is that I have less classes this week, so I've been going down to the gym to watch.

Have also felt a opening into understanding the Japanese mindset(which I actually think is just a mindset, and not specifically Japanese). It's because of the books I found in the cubby(Thanks P). They are incredible and have been blowing my mind as to insights into the language and culture. I've been learning how important it is to say the appropriate 'set phrases' at the appropriate times. It's revealing a different way of operating to me.

Been taking a breather from blogging, but it hasn't quite been a voluntary breather.
To make a long story short, I had to reapply for broadband and send back my old modem so YahooBB can send me a new one. Until I get the modem, I won't have internet at home, which also means I don't have a long-distance plan set up for outgoing calls. I'll be able to write a little more and call a little more after that.
That being said, I've got a ninth-grade class in ten minutes, so I'll make this brief.

Aikido's started to take off. I went on a weekend trip with some members to Okayama, near Hiroshima, last weekend and we had training and went sight-seeing, had general fun, etc. Two days a week of consistent training has finally become the right amount for me. I'm beginning to see the level of skill in the dojo, and within the past month have felt another 'opening' to what I have to learn here. Felt like a release--being open to this different way of doing Aikido.

School is getting better. Day to day is a little difficult, because I've been thrust into curriculum development and grade assessment and all that. Like becoming a teacher without any training. Anyway, gambarimasu(doing my best).

Weather's finally started to cool off. It's been really pleasant the past few nights, and the days are breezy.

Went to Kagoshima yesterday(actually a town called Kuchikino, sounds like 'yesterday's mouth,' but I know my translation's wrong) to go to a temple, Jikokuji, and meet a monk who's originally from Belgium. Have to write about that later, I guess.

Miss talking to friends from home.

Time to go read 'Anne of Green Gables.' How lucky am I?

Intellectually, one step closer to the inside

I've been feeling a real edge with one of the English teachers here, Si Sensei. It seems we just can't communicate very effectively. For example, yesterday he asked if I would prepare something to discuss with the students for the first ten minutes of our class together today. I told him I could think up something or other.

So, I thought up an idea to talk about onomatopoeia and mimesis words, words that sound like the sound or action they are describing. I thought I could write several onomatopoeia on the board and we could try to guess the meanings in Japanese by the sounds of the words. We briefly confirmed my idea in the morning. When I got to class, the teacher started to pass out paper, saying, "Julie will now speak on a topic for about ten minutes. You must write down your understanding of her speech on this paper." I hadn't prepared a speech, and the students didn't know whether to participate or listen, so my activity flopped. I felt badly, but there was nothing I could do at the time.

After class I wrote a speech on my topic so I would be more prepared for the next time, if there is one.
I feel some kind of irritation whenever we have to talk, and it seems as if he feels burdened every time we talk too.

Now, actually, I like Si Sensei, and I know that we can teach together effectively. It was during this train of thought that I picked up a dingy book sitting in a cubby in my desk with all the other dingy books. It's simply called, "Speaking and Living in Japan." I thought it'd be similar to many other books I've read with a similar title, but it wasn't. It tells stories from the point of view of a man living in Japan, learning Japanese. He goes through his daily life, and his mood is affected by the various things he says and the responses he gets throughout his day. It describes why at times, foreigners might feel frustrated with Japanese natives and vice versa. One thing, for example, that it points out, is a frustration I've experienced several times. In Japanese culture, it is considered polite to interject frequently while a speaker is talking to confirm that they are listening. In the place where I come from, it's considered rude. It makes me want to stop talking because I think that the person is placating me and isn't really interested. It's just not that way here, in reality. It's almost unbelievable, how something that feels offensive to me is just my point of view. It's hard to not feel offended by something so ingrained in me!!

Anyway, I think these kinds of misunderstandings are causing my tension with Si Sensei. Unfortunately, neither of us fully understands what the other is considering offensive. It's bewildering. I hope as I read more of this book, I'll begin to understand more of what I can do to keep our misunderstandings and mutual offenses at bay.

Another thing I learned is why I get such a strangely quiet response from the staff when I greet them with "konnichiwa,"(good afternoon) but "ohiou gozaimasu"(good morning) seems to be fine. I learned that "konnichiwa" is usually only used for people outside of your "group," and that it sounds odd to be used when you are on a somewhat familiar basis with someone like a coworker. It's so subtle, but every bit helps me gain some understanding of how to become more accepted here.

Sorry, still no internet at home, thus the long hiatus. I would've liked to be in touch will more people back at home by now, but getting internet and long-distance hooked up has been taking me a while...

I started at Tamana Girl's School on September 1st. Today I'll give my last self-introduction class. There are 21 classes in total, and I team-teach about 13 of them. I see some twice or three times a week, therefore my total number of classes is 17. That's about four a day, which is reasonable.

Class is surprisingly similar to the middle school classes I team-taught before, down to the textbook itself. The three grades(1,2, and 3, equivalent to our 10th, 11th, and 12th grades) all use the same English textbook. I don't really understand why that is yet. The book's really only about 70 pages long.

I teach with four very different teachers. More on that to come.

So far, this job is much more reasonable and satifying than the one I had last year. I'm very happy to have arrived in such a place.

My house is turning out to be nice! It's pretty stinking hot and humid here, but I like to curl up on my couch and watch movies, or play violin with the cool air from my air conditioner blowing on my face. I've read a lot recently too. It's still incredibly lonely sometimes, you know, but that's part of the challenge of being here.

I stayed at my landlord's house for the day and night of the big typhoon that hit us last Tuesday. He's got these cool soundproof walls and windows that don't let in the wind or cold. His family, including his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and two grandkids had a welcome party for me at their house last Friday night. Since I'm so hesitant with my Japanese, I became very shy when I was first around them. By the end of the evening, they were showing me the family scrolls, paper dolls made by the landlord's wife, and the new wooden nameplate the landlord had carved for me in characters. I left with a paper doll, two wrapping clothes, a new summer kimono, and the next morning, the landlord attached the nameplate to my door. So I guess I've made a few new friends. :)