A small gap in time

I suspect that at this time of year many people who have enjoyed the quietness of the winter months once again become busy. Spring has finally arrived. Here in the Kumamoto area it's hard to tell, however. It's been cold and windy, like winter, and it was overcast and rainy today.
Today is 'Midori no Hi,' a.k.a 'Green Day' here in Japan. I don't know it's significance(please comment if you happen to know), but there was no school today.
I just returned from a full day's outing in Fukuoka, at the 20th Annual Shohei Juku Aikido Public Demonstrations. It was an early morning, taking a bus down to Kumamoto to meet the gang, and all the way back passed Tamana to Fukuoka in the north, to arrive at the sizeable Fukuoka Sun Palace International Center. The demostrations started at 11:30 and continued until 4pm. My group, the Kumamoto dojo went on to perform at 3pm. For the second year in a row, I was also a part of the demonstration. It wasn't much to brag about though--we only got one minute per pair to demonstrate in front of the audience of around 400 people. In that time, my partner and I could do eight techniques. I was nage(throwing). It took some time to choreograph and memorize the pattern, but after it was memorized, it was kind of fun to practice. My partner is Japanese, but he lived in Hawaii for a while, so he spoke English. It helped a lot to be able to communicate to each other how we wanted to present ourselves.
After the demonstration[sorry I didn't say much about the rest of the demo, but it was pretty much the same as last year's(--see blog archives from March '05)] we had a big, goofy party, where most of the 400 people in attendance drank a lot of beer. They had lots of speeches, some silly presentations by graduating students, and a prize give-away. I didn't win anything, but a guy from a visiting dojo in Hawaii won a sketch of Bodhidharma done by Suganuma Shihan(the head of Aikido on Kyushu Island). Some people from the Kumamoto dojo are hosting some of the Hawaiians, so it was nice for all of us that they had something meaningful to take back with them from the demos.

In other news, I also participated in an orchestra concert on Sunday. We had an insane number of rehearsals last week(five??), and I wasn't able to blog recently for lack of time. The concert went well. Lots of excerpts. I did happen to notice that of the chorus of maybe 150 people, the soloists, the university students, and the regular orchestra members, I was the only non-Japanese person, as far as I could tell. There was a moment at the beginning of the concert when I realized this, and I'm sure my face turned bright red to think I would probably attract attention for it, but after that I barely gave it anymore thought. I'm so used to being a minority, it almost doesn't faze me at this point.
My stand partner, from Kumamoto University, was one of the graduating seniors in the group. At graduation time, seniors seem to be granted full pardons for any insane behavior they demonstrate. During one of our rehearsals, seven graduating university seniors hijacked the symphony for a good ten minutes to give their own mock concert, complete with dancing, gestures, and sound effects. It was so out-there, and actually had nothing to do with the non-student members of the group,(i.e., the volunteer symphony which sponsors the concerts) but no one cared.

Anyway, hope to get back to more regular posting now that... strike that. Next week, on the 29th, I'm going to Okinawa for five days. I can't say if I'll be able to blog at that time, but as always, I'll do my best to post regularly!!

Right now, it's been a long week, so I'm hitting the sack early! Tomorrow's my last class to teach before Spring Break!!

New Feature!!

Japanese stationery often makes me chuckle, and I started collecting Japanese stationery when I first came here more than a year and a half ago. Now I'd like to share some of the giggles in this new feature, "Happy Stationery of Japan."

As an added bonus, if I know you and you would like to request a letter on a particular stationery you see, leave a comment or send me an email. I enjoy writing to friends, and I relieve you of any pressure to write back!

If you already received a letter on the particular stationery, nice!!--leave your impression in the comments field!

The Wonders of Nuclear Power

Today, the ninth graders, teachers, and I went on a field trip to Kyushu's very own nuclear power plant, Genkai Nuclear Power Station. It was a three-hour bus drive to get there, in Saga Prefecture. Several of the teachers asked me along the way, 'Oh Julie, have you been to the nuclear power plant?' I wondered why they thought I might have taken the three-hour trip to visit a nuclear power plant in my free time. So I admitted no, that it was actually my first time.
The bus ride was relatively uneventful. In Japan, they have these women that are hired to talk the whole time on your ride. They are there to make the ride pleasant and enjoyable for everyone, and we had one in a cute orange and black uniform, with an adorable orange hat with a black bow straight from an '80s MTV video. She talked about the weather, her high school, Kumamoto, the Kumamoto dialect(which was interesting for me), and on and on about anything. She was so cheerful and I wished she would stop talking, but that's her job, so she didn't stop. Finally, everyone was falling asleep, so she put on a movie, Disney's 'Stitch,' in Japanese.
When we got to the site, we drove around and got to look at the reactor 'containment vessels' and other big-word things in Japanese.
Inside, we saw the inside of an actual training room used to teach people to operate and maintain the reactors and the power system. I'd printed an explanation of nuclear power and the different kind of reactors to try to aquaint myself before the trip, but the info I printed used a lot of technical terms I didn't know. So I just enjoyed looking at pipes and tubes and pools of eerie blue water, until I finally got a teacher to explain a little. She did the best she could, and I did my best to understand, but it wasn't until we got to the end of the tour that I found a pamphlet in English illustrating the various rooms in detail.
(I took this pic thinking of Homer Simpson with his coffee and doughnut:)
Afterwards, we headed out for lunch. Us teachers, and about 170 ninth graders ate squid for lunch. Big squid cut up into small pieces, small squid cut up into smaller pieces, deep fried squid, fermented natto(soybean)-like substance and squid, and pickles. As you might've guessed, the area special catch is squid. I've gotten used to most Japanese foods, but somehow squid can leave my stomach churning in strange ways. I think I'll be okay.
All in all, an interesting day. The high point for me was when the students would walk around with me, or we'd have fun taking pictures together. Interaction with the students remains one of the highlights of my work. Fun or interesting interaction with the other teachers is very rare at my job, so I try to soak up all the joy in my work from the kids.
When we got back home, we had a formal 'good job, thank you, we're finished' meeting with the students, and everyone started on home. I got in my car and was pulling out, saying goodbyes, and in some sort of dazed tone, like he'd just now realized I'd been on the trip all day, my supervisor(-esque person) shouted towards my car, 'We're finished, you may go now!' I sensed his confusion even as he said it--had he just realized I'd been on the trip all day??

Questions please

Hey, as long as I'm here, anyone have any questions, or something they want to hear about Japan or Kyushu, or culture, etc. etc.?

A bath and Mahler's 4th--not a bad combination.

I moved the speakers into the kitchen so I can listen to music while I cook and eat, and now they are also next to the bathroom.

I can't remember the time before classical music was included in my life. I know there was a time when my palette was empty, and before music's many colors were shared with me. My parents were playing music in our house since before I was born. Many of my comforting childhood memories involve hearing classical music while falling asleep or listening to my parents' brass quintet playing in the living room downstairs, or running around an empty auditorium while my parents were in the middle of an orchestra rehearsal.
My mother devoted so much energy to my own music studies. She sat by my side while I practiced, took me to music camps, and listened to recording with me. I also remember when my dad would come to the lessons. He liked to play Richard Strauss recordings, sometimes at dinner time, even when I was little. I remember playing 'family concerts,' and I remember the sound of the old wooden metronome very clearly. Music seemed endless, like life, at that time.

Somewhere along the way, I gave up wanting to be or thinking I could be a professional. I think it was in high school, but I can't be sure. So now I'm slowly understanding music's place in my life, if not 'center stage.' My palette was empty way back and can still be now. Listening to or playing music is becoming a practice for me. A training, something which helps me to come closer to that person I'd like to become. Until the point at which it ceases to teach me, I consider it a welcome and loving accompaniment to get where I'm going.

Sorry, not Japan related, but I'll get back to that next time.

Finally, we had a warm day today.
Along with the warmer weather, the Aikido mat was packed tonight.
There seemed to be a positive energy in the air, and I noticed right off that I was able to stretch much further during warm-ups, with what seemed to be to be less effort. I think the coldness has a strong effect on our bodies during practice, and that's why (I think) warm-ups in the winter ought to be long and vigorous. About a month ago, during our 'ki' generating drills, I started to imagine dousing myself with buckets of cold water when we pull our arms down from over our heads. I think that 'visualization' of sorts helps to deal with training in cold weather, but I personally still have a lot of work to do to overcome the effects of cold weather on my training.
Today, I noticed many connections between posture and technique, and posture and ukemi(falling). In keeping my posture aligned, the techniques became almost secondary to the awareness and sense of being balanced that were generated as a result. (My idea of 'posture' is a feeling of keeping my lower back and abdomen in a vertical line with my upper chest, and also keeping my neck and head on the same line. In this way, I feel that my body is moving as one connected unit, rather than separate parts)
Currently, I'm working on engaging the inital connection in ikkyo(first technique) omote(to the front) from the nage(thrower) side, and kotegaishi(wrist twist) rotating on a central/spiraling axis. The kotegaishi stuff is fascinating to me, because it joins together so many other Aikido techniques: shihonage(4-directional throw), kaitennage(revolving throw), and even ikkyo, because they all work with rotating around a center point. There's a few people at the dojo who will work ultra-slow with me while I figure it out more and solidify it. I'm so into it, and I feel that I'll be able to progress very quickly when this becomes second nature. For now, very slow practice.

The ikkyo thing is something that's always been there, like an abstract math problem to be worked through to a reasonable solution, only to be disproven time and time again. Ikkyo is also a constant source of fascination in my practice. Working with that initial point of intention really seems to be the basis of ikkyo. Recognizing and responding to that intention takes awareness at the moment it arises. Therefore, the key to ikkyo seems to be constant awareness, so as to appropriately translate the intentions of oneself and others. That is how it seems.(results from tonight's shomenuchi(front strike) ikkyo practice---->)

If someone knows how to create separate folders in blogger, would you send me an email or a comment?
This kind of blog should go into some sort of 'Aikido Chatter' folder or something.

Princess Kiko's pregnancy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4688056.stm

The Japanese Royal Family's tradition is that only a male succeed the throne, and until recently, it looked as if that requirement would have to be reassessed. With the announcement of Princess Kiko's pregnancy last week, conservatives and believers in the 'male-only lineage' of monarchs may have one more shot for peaceful male inheritance threatened now by the current all-female line-up.

The conflict over the issue surrounding male-only succession is one that I doubt I can and will ever fully understand.
I suppose just having it as a tradition itself gives it meaning. For example, we don't go switching around the king and queen's roles on a chessboard every other game. We keep queen as the piece as the queen, a very powerful piece, and king as the king, the most valuable piece for capture. We don't change these rules because times have changed--we keep them the same. For that reason, I can understand the desire to keep a male-only rule.
But what is royal blood to begin with? Royal blood probably began with someone or something great that continued to pass those qualities of greatness through from one generation to the next. In the case of the Japanese Royal Family, it supposedly originated from deities themselves. But I wonder what is considered different about a man's ability to pass down royal blood, and a woman's ability? Or is it something about having a woman in power? I suppose a lack of convincing answers to these questions keep me from understanding the issue.
I don't want to have a discussion about feminism, but it is quite interesting to look at the ferocious energy that issues like this can gather.

Sweeping our troubles away...

It got colder and windy recently. Today at school, when we opened the windows and doors at cleaning time, the dust bunnies scurried to the far walls and fresh, chilly air swept itself up and down the hallways and through the classrooms.
Cleaning time is one of my favorite parts of the work day. Unlike the janitorial system we have in many schools in the West, whereby one person or a team of people get paid to keep the school tidied, the school's students and teachers here have a designated 'cleaning time.' Each school has their own system: some clean after lunch and some clean before school, but all of the schools I've worked for have had cleaning time.
At the school I work for, we clean after the last class period of the day. Typical responsibilities taken on by both teachers and students include: sweeping the floors, wiping them down with wet rags, wiping the blackboards, vacuuming rugs, clapping erasers, and so on. A particular cleaning method used at this school, which is quite unique, uses tea leaves as a freshener. A student or teacher tosses chopped, wet leaves on the floor in the teacher's room. The leaves are spread with brooms, and the smell of green tea fills the room. Then, the leaves are carefully swept back up and discarded. I used to think the method was crazy; now I just think it is nice. I usually sweep one of the classrooms up on the third floor with the freshman students. When I come back to the teacher's room, it smells fresh and clean.
Sometimes, I would be surprised to see even the vice-principal or principal wiping down the floors, but everyone participates equally, even the head faculty. Hard to imagine such a scene at my old high school!!

Just outside Kumamoto City

Michael Jackson can't sing

These are words you won't hear coming from my mouth, not after my own unconvincing rendition of "Billie Jean" tonight at Paradise Karaoke. It takes some true skill to perform that song, especially with all the 'woo!'s and 'A hey!'s, let me tell you.

Now, you could be wondering what on earth got me back into a karaoke room--you know, one of those private rooms where you've got complete freedom and they serve you coffee and ice cream. No, it wasn't the ice cream, but nice try. It was Etsuko.
We had a nice dinner tonight of nori-maki, sushi rolls that we made by hand. Due to the Bean-Throwing Festival tomorrow, we followed the ancient tradition of the north, made popular across Japan by Daiei Supermarket(which recently went bankrupt). We ate our nori-maki facing south-south-east, this year's 'lucky direction,' in complete silence. I AM NOT KIDDING. We made bets on how long it would take to eat them. I said 12 minutes, she said ten. Exactly ten minutes of silence later, we both finished the last bite.

At the end of the meal, Etsuko looked me directly in the eyes and said, "I have an idea." Another ten minutes later, we found ourselves walking down the silent halls of a karaoke joint which vaguely reminded me of a casino. I took comfort in the fact that I couldn't hear any music from the rooms as we passed by them one by one. The staff woman stopped at number 19. We went in, took off our shoes, and gave it a mighty go!
Can you guess which song I chose to sing first? I'll give a couple of hints: it's by The Beatles, and it's words are simple enough that I once taught it to a class of Japanese fourth graders. Also, I became familiar with it only after coming to Japan.

Ode to Morning Stretches

Morning stretches are such a pleasure, if you can manage to rise early enough to do them. I'm talking about group morning stretches, of course. In my experience, group morning stretches are a universal phenomenon here in Japan. Every morning, from certain public offices and schools, music plays through speakers, transmitted, I believe, from the City Hall or Town Office. The music is always the same, a simple and leisurely classical piece on a piano that reminds me of finger exercises a child might play as a warm-up piece before practicing. And then, in a prescribed sequence, which is taught to elementary school students, and done by old folks all the same, people stretch--in time AND in sync--to the music.

"Ode to Morning Stretches"

Arms up high, Way down low!

Breathe in, Breathe out!

Run in place, Run in place!

Twist your neck, Turn your face!

Never mind your skirt or tie, Or your uniform,

Stretch your body, mind and soul,

Rejoice as you conform!

It's been hard for me to blog in the past few days... I guess things have been going on in my world and through my mind, but I don't especially want to write them down. It's difficult to write any really personal thoughts or issues on a public blog.

Anyway, did you see this news?! It's surreal, yet not altogether unexpected:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4660938.stm
It seems the environment will become the biggest issue whether it is acknowledged by us or not. When will the environment matter enough to start taking care of it? Let's do our best to start now.

Something different altogether

The feeling which comes after inadvertently deleting one's work is difficult to describe. First, I think, comes a wave of disappointment over the time spent and the effort, depending on the quality of what was written. Following, comes a desperate attempt to retrieve the material, even as it is obviously gone. Then there is an assessment of whether to write the entire thing over again or just a synopsis, or perhaps something different altogether.

Did you hear that they are going to start using 'sea-power' to generate electricity in London?
see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4645452.stm

Maybe some day we could generate electricity from all sorts of things.
What if we could generate the electricity in a gym by using 'treadmill-power,' energy taken from the work done by the gym members? I mean, there's got to be a lot of energy generated there, right? I don't know how charging batteries works, what if you could do it just by walking? Self-charge your own iPod? I have no idea how those things could possibly work. But wouldn't the world be a nicer place to live if we didn't have to bear the stress of looming 'environmental concerns' that seem to be getting bigger every day?

Assumptions

So often are my assumptions blown to bits. I'm growing accustomed to this. So, when I arrive at school on days like today to find dozens of cars parked in the playing field and bewildered middle school students clustered about, while adults I've never seen before direct them this way and that, it doesn't bother me much anymore. I just continue on my way up to my desk where I can sit down and my mind can sort out what I just witnessed.

TICK,TOCK,
TICK,TOCK.

Ah, now, I understand: the entrance exams.
I had assumed that when I was told that the entrance exams were being held at our school today, it meant that the girls from our school would be taking exams to get into college, similar to our SATs.
But that's not actually how it's done here. Here, each school administers its own exam to attempt to match potential incoming students to its standard.
Instead of our students testing today, students from other schools will be taking the exam to get into our school. I had no idea what was going on, but since this seems to be common practice here, no one thought to explain anything to me beforehand, and of course, I didn't know to ask.

Something resembling this sort of information gap seems to occur for me nearly everyday in some form or another. People just don't know what I know and what I don't. I can't blame them for that, so I find that I just have to exhibit some patience.

Actually, because of the tests, I have no classes today. I've armed myself with an arsenal of books to ward off boredom. I brought 'To Learn With Love,' a book about teaching music to children. Also, I made a great investment the other day when I purchased a study guide to the 3rd level of the Japanese Proficiency Test, a sort of degree/ranking you can get in Japanese which is recognized throughout Japan. That plus my 'Let's Learn Kanji' book should round out my Japanese education for today. The final book I brought is a book on meditation by Eric Harrison that I've been rereading lately.

Since my lesson plans for next week are finished, I figure 8 hours, 4 books, lunch, a walk, and a brief nap should be just about right.

Enjoy your day!!

Post-holiday catch-up

Please pardon my long absence over the winter holidays. Things are settling back in again over here, and so I expect to be blogging again regularly.

Orchestra rehearsal started up again last night. I'm glad to say that the group is quite relaxed, and this rehearsal was very fun, as opposed to some frightening first rehearsals I've attended in the past. The theme for this concert is "I look at Nature, Nature looks at me." We're doing excerpts, which I kind of don't like doing. I hold a more traditional view that, for the most part, pieces are meant to be listened to as the full work, not just as a movement or an excerpt. That being said, playing and listening to excerpts can be enjoyable in itself, so I shouldn't be too harsh. After all, there were a lot of excerpts at the band concert the other day, and I enjoyed that.
We rehearsed: 'Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity' from 'The Planets,' the last part of 'Carmina Burana', and 'The Blue Danube Waltz'. I believe there are about 6 or 7 other pieces in the lineup, so we may have started with the easier ones.
As for Carmina Burana, I always wondered when I would get the chance to play that work. Seriously, I've actually wondered where I would be when I got that chance. I think the first time I heard it was when I watched 'Young Sherlock Holmes'(the movie) when I was very young, had developed a small crush on 'young Sherlock,' and felt very enthralled by the music at that time. It has to be one of the most immediately moving and over-played works of our time, aside from Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons.' Doesn't mean just because it's overused that isn't a treat to play, though!!

I've been commuting a lot ever since I joined the orchestra. With Aikido, it makes four trips to the city per week, coming out to 8 hours in the car. Now I adore driving my little car through the windy streets, weaving 'round other cars and dodging obstacles like an itty-bitty Frogger, but it is more driving than I've ever done. So I started doing audiobooks in November. I'm almost finished a fourth book,'The Lexus and the Olive Tree,' by Friedman, an informative, well-formulated, and important book about globalization. It's good to get caught up on my understanding of globalization, yet I find the book is bit persuasively presented for my taste(however, some bits are brilliant, like the chapter called 'Just Too Dehumanizing').

Aikido continues to go well. I'm going to start supplementing practice with visits to a gym again. Practice is excellent for focusing on solidfying basic techniques and clarifying principles, but it doesn't provide the kind of physical workout that Boulder Aikikai's training often did. So although my technique may be improving slightly, my physical strength and endurance have slowly decreased.

In other news, the weather's been mild recently. I've been thinking of getting a fish, but I'm afraid it might freeze to death when it gets colder again. I don't think that would be fair to the fish. Hmm...

The olive oil in my house froze right before Christmas. I'm wondering at what temperature does olive oil freeze?

We are the Champions

I know why the Tamana Girl's High School Brass Band is the best in Japan. Their performance is absolutely stunning. I saw their New Year Concert yesterday afternoon. The event not only featured the flawless performances of dozens of members of the symphonic and marching bands, but also included narration, a storyline, dance sequences, light shows, various costumes, a flag squad, and of course, beautifully arranged music, from the 20th Century Fox opening theme to Disney to Star Wars to Titantic to Princess Mononoke to you name it(and not just movie music), but they even memorized the entire second act--it was enough to make any grown woman cry. This being the New Year Concert, it also meant it was the last public performance for the group before the seniors will graduate in April.
At the very last part of the concert the band director announced that this band, the champion of high school brass bands in Japan had to dismember in part. As he spoke, one by one, the seniors put down their instruments and came to the front of the stage, until the front of the stage was filled with girls, holding hands and singing a song in unison to the accompaniment of their younger peers in the background. The director called each girl's name, and the line slowly diminished as each girl ran over to bid farewell to their friends in the band, as the band continued to play. Everyone seemed so moved, many of the students were crying, but there was one girl who didn't look upset at all. She was glowing with joy; her smile was shining, and there was something magical about seeing that among all the tears and sadness. I do believe seeing that girl's joy has made a lasting impression on me.
The seniors left the stage, and walked through the audience finding their family or friends. It felt like a rite of passage, this final performance. The baton was handed from the senior leader to the junior one, and the finale had all of the seniors gather at the back of the auditorium to hold up a banner of well-wishes to the band for the coming year.
When it was all over, it overwhelmed me how they could put it all off. But can you imagine, on my way home from work be it 5:15 or 8:15, as I walk past the school, that I can hear them practicing? When I leave my house on Saturday afternoon for Aikido, I can hear 'Candide' faintly in the distance, and on Sunday, when everyone deserves a break, I can hear trumpets playing passages by Paganini while standing on my back porch. For this kind of devotion, they deserve more than a break, they deserve to be champions. They practice every single day, and devote so much of their time to doing this one thing very well. The band directors must work so hard. How do they do it all??

Coming soon: the other All-Japan Champs--the softball team

How to Peel an Orange

Start from one end, and peel up towards the other end. That way most of the white, sour-tasting stringeys come off with the peel.

Although I found this discovery to be exciting and practical, many people, I'm willing to bet, will find it merely interesting or possibly only moderately amusing. Others still, may have no interest or may have become bored with the subject long ago. I'm not here to judge. Happy peeling!

Coming Down from Winter Vacation

Took the overnight train from Tokyo to arrive in Kumamoto last Tuesday. Monday was a day at the spa. A theme park spa, if you will. There were over 2000 people walking around in robes and bare feet at the Odaiba Oedo Hot Springs. Check it out:
http://www.ooedoonsen.jp/index.html

Went to DisneySea sea last weekend with Hiro, which restored my faith in the Disney machine's ability to spread happiness to the world while making gobs of money. It was inspiring to the imagination, and I hardly felt the lightening of my wallet.

PA was wonderful--lots of family time, which really does make the traveling worthwhile. Mom did a lot of cooking, which is rare, but she seemed actually happy to be doing it. It was good to spend time at Mom's and Dad's. One of the best parts of the trip was when cousin Rebecca appeared out of nowhere, having been given a ticket to come home as a last minute present from her fiance. And seeing my best friend's baby again made me want to see them even more.
All in all, one of the kinds of trips I'd pay money to do again.

It's been taking me all this week to find myself again back here. The trip home and the trip to Tokyo were filled with activity. Coming out of warp speed is taking me some time.

This is a pot of 'oden' sitting on a kerosene heater in the staff kitchen. A lot of the teachers ate this for lunch on Tuesday, including me.






Today's atypically wintery scene.

Very atypical of Kyushu weather, we had somewhat of a blizzard hit the area tonight. Snow's been just streaming down, and the wind is blowing furiously. Driving was awful; visibility was very low and the roads were icy. Tomorrow is the 'closing ceremony' of the second term, so I know school won't be cancelled, but I'll instead be looking forward to a chilly, wintery white walk down the windy lanes to the school grounds.

I've been driving a tiny little thing--the engine that could, if you will. Here's a photo:

I'd like to get a photo with something next to it, like a small child, so it can be witnessed that they are nearly the same size.
Or a walnut.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am quite fond of this car!

I thought of myself for the first time tonight as an actual alien, speaking a strange language, among many other strange and unfathomable beings and existences. It happened when I was watching a preview for a movie that was in Spanish, a language which I haven't heard for a long time. It's kind of silly, but that was my thought.

Life keeps getting stranger and stranger, and the stranger and more expansive my view of the world becomes, the more things make sense. It feels like knowing that instead of frantically flailing my arms and legs in the middle of a huge blue ocean, I could use my body to swim. My experience has now gone beyond my imagination. Does everyone hit this thought at some point past their childhood?

Well, looking forward to the sushi dinner at Hide's tomorrow night. He's got a real nice group of people joining him, all foreign English teachers, I think.

Then, on Friday, it's back home to Philadelphia, for a week. A whoosh back over to another world. Looking forward to it


Here's a look at Saturday's Aikido practice. It was a large class this time, because we celebrated the bonnenkai, year-end party, afterwards.

I've been taking ikebana classes once every two weeks at school. Here's my third attempt--well, my third attempt after the teacher came along, took half of the stuff out and put it back again in quite a more aesthetically pleasing manner!
The arrangement had a winter theme:



And this is a sign I saw yesterday in the mall:

Currently, in Japan, it is 8 degrees celsius in my bed room, which is 46 degrees fahrenheit, and I can't seem to get the ac/heater working. All right, got the spare kerosene heater going, so it's up to 9 degrees now. Soon, I'll be toasty.

Well, I mentioned some time ago that I'd felt some sort of edge with one of the teachers here, Si Sensei. We couldn't seem to communicate, and I couldn't follow the logic of his English class curiculum. Also, something I may not have mentioned was that we might spend an entire class making corrections to a worksheet he'd made, or have a class conducted entirely in Japanese because the students couldn't understand their assignment. I sometimes had the feeling that he might faint in the middle of class and that he seemed a little 'off'.
To follow up on that subject, my relationship with said teacher has improved in that I now understand his situation. He's wanted to retire for a few years but he is continually asked to stay and he does. He is in poor health, and, he visits the hospital for treatment once a week. Since it is actually more important to support him and his relationship to the students and school than worry about how much English his classes are speaking, our classes together have relaxed and become a strange kind of enjoyable, where not much is expected out of anyone, but it's okay for now.

Last time, Si Sensei had to be about 20 minutes late, so we all sang Silent Night in English(yeah, they sing it in Japanese here). When Sensei did finally make it, he surprised us all with his beautiful karaoke-esque rendition of the song. It was quite lovely, and the students cheered at the end.

In other news, bonnenkais are starting again. Those are year-end parties. There is a bonnenkai for every group a person belongs to. This year I've had one so far, with a possible four total by next week.
Last Saturday's bonnenkai 'quote-of-the-party', by a somewhat intoxicated Mr. Naka, 'Julie, you must play your violin for me before you go back to the U.F.O.', produced fits of laughter by all guests present.

Here's a photo of (part of) the Tamana Girl's High School Marching Band. They are the All-Japan Champions! Woo-hoo!!





This fruit is very common down here. We see them growing on trees all over Kumamoto. You can probably guess what it is?

At long last, internet at home. I can post photos! The blog commands are all in English! Rejoice!

Here, have some nabe:
















Help me identify this spider










Here's my garden, before...



and after :)



more photos to come!

response to Jay

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10312475/site/newsweek/page/1/

Thanks for the story Jay.
I think all my friends who are Japanese here have traveled to English-speaking foreign countries before. If people haven't traveled, they just seem to be kind of close-minded to foreigners. It would be like sending a Japanese person who doesn't speak much English to live in the rural American south or in the countryside in the midwest. I think they'd feel the same kind of isolation as foreigners here. I don't think it's all that different from how any race isolates any other race that is in the minority. But the isolation is really real. I experience it every single day at school, where many of the teachers ignore me because I think I make them uncomfortable. It's not my fault, it's a combination of my not speaking Japanese really well, and them not having the patience, self-confidence or the interest to connect with me. I can see how hate could arise from being isolated. That's when I remember that it's just this teacher's community that I am in, and this kind of isolation doesn't happen at Aikido or when I'm with Etsuko or Hiro. When I keep that kind of perspective, it's not so bad.

Aikido stuff

Aikido last night was good. Honda Sensei was in an energetic mood, and he led regular warm-ups. It was the first time I heard him talk about rowing exercise, tenkan undo, and ikkyo undo in detail. Recently, I've been working with a discrepancy between the way we regularly practice the rowing exercise and the way a senior student practices it. Rather than moving his arms and hips forward at the same time, and heaving back, he extends his arms and keeps his hips back, and brings them together for the heaving part. I decided to begin practicing in this way because watching him from the side he seemed to look as if he were actually in a boat, rowing naturally. But when Honda Sensei demonstrated it tonight, he was clearly doing it the first way I mentioned.

I've been focusing on partnered tenkan practice all year. The way we practice here, the grabbed wrist is palm-down, and it curves into uke's center and turns palm-up when uke turns. The angle in the back for the tenkan step emphasizes the angle at which nage can most easily be off-balanced. Ideally, and often occurring in this dojo, there is little stress felt by nage in the wrist in tenkan. The response of nage is based more on the angle of uke's tenkan and the connection maintained through sensitivity in the uke's wrist than by cranking the angle of nage's wrist or tricking or forcing nage to move. It seems like I forget and relearn this every time.

Mostly my concentration has been on increasing the amount of sensitivity I have to my partner's movements, and looking for the 'open spaces' where nage doesn't want to resist and I feel no temptation to force or trick.

We did an interesting variation on kotegaeshi last night that starts out like shihonage and changes to the kotegaeshi movement. The technique ends with nage's face down on the mat, uke's hand pinning the nage's elbow the floor, and uke's elbow pinning nage's neck. Nage's hand is pulled back like kotegaeshi pin to finish.

Maybe I can show some Aikidoka people next time I see you(at summer camp in August?). Of course, all this stuff is hard to describe in words, which is why I've mostly left it out of my blog. I'm thinking about Aikido a lot more than I write about it.

Last night on my way home from Aikido I encountered a road block with four police cars stopped, red lights flashing. I thought it was some kind of accident, but when my car was in line to pass by, four police officers simultaneously approached the windows of the four cars waiting. My car was last in the line, and I wondered what was going on. I rolled down my window and the cop rambled off an official sounding command, holding some sort of flashlight up for me to approve of. I thought he wanted to look in my car, and then I realized the flashlight was a microphone. Maybe he wanted me to speak... I replied to his order with 'Uhh,...' and after some seconds, he said to me, his face almost breaking into a smile, 'Drink alchohol?' His flashlight/microphone was a breathalyzer. Accidentally laughing, I said 'no' and he let me go on my way. I'd never experienced four-car four-cop simultaneous breathalyzer before.

This week is second-term testing week in school. The teachers have been very busy recently making all their last minute print-outs and the students aren't allowed to enter the teacher's room for the entire week.
I was also a little busy. I created the oral component of the exams for six classes. What that means is that I made up dialogues followed by questions. Rather than testing all the classes on the same material, I tried to focus the regular track classes on conversational English, and the nursing track classes on English they might encounter if they had an English-speaking patient in a medical situation. Finally, the seniors will give short speeches in place of their test tomorrow for a term grade.
This is the culmination of what the Japanese English teachers and I have done this term. I found I had to very quickly get with the program to keep my head above water in the past few months.

I noticed that the incredibly lonely feelings I experienced last year have occurred much less since I came back to Japan in August. I'm sure it's helped to keep up the habit of visiting Etsuko once a week or so. We also go out to various events together frequently. Hiro and I keep each other company regularly too, and I often find a lot of joy in our meals and conversation together.

Since I won't be playing in the Kumamoto volunteer orchestra's Beethoven's 9th('Daiku') Christmas concert, I've had my Tuesdays and Fridays free again. Wednesday and Saturday nights are still Aikido nights, and I'm highly looking forward to our year-end bash(that's 'party,' not 'bash each other') coming soon.

I'm sending out Christmas/holiday cards now, and realizing how much I enjoy doing it. Sending out jolly and warm messages to friends.

Yesterday was the school's 'cultural festival.' We held the show at the Performing Art's Center in Tamana. The students danced and sang, and from what I saw of it, it was quite nice.
I was asked to play violin for about 10 minutes, so I played three pieces with piano accompaniment. The first was the theme from the movie, 'Princess Mononoke.' We played the theme while three students sang as a sort of backup. It was a short piece, and I think the audience recognized the theme and enjoyed it. The second was 'Salut D'Amour' by Elgar, which also came off well, I think. Last was a piece that is very popular for violin currently in Japan. It's by Taro Hakase, and the title is something like 'Passionate Song for the Violin.' Taro Hakase composes music and plays it on the violin on a Japanese talk show. Etsuko suggested it might be good to play, and the pianist had the music. It's a kind of cabaret piece, originally played by violin, accordian, electric guitar, and percussion. So we recruited three teachers to play percussion: bongos, maracas, and tambourine. They came up with a name for the band, and the last piece was announced as Julie Sensei, Tanoue Sensei, and the Three Amigos. They didn't really have much experience with percussion, so that piece was more fun than musically precise. I didn't get to see too much of the students' dancing and singing, but I've been told they're producing a video of the entire day's performances, so it'll be a trip to watch it later.

warm thanks from cold hands

Cold cold cold cold. November's brought some below freezing weather already. The school has no heating. The windows are left open much of the time. Emphasis is placed on resiliance and endurance, and no one complains. It's motivating, but at the same time nuts. I'm cold all the time, except when I'm near a heater. Anyone have have any insights on that Tibetan meditative practice of developing inner heat? ;) (actually, I'm okay)

I've been using the school computers since August to post blogs. I'd love to snazz up this blog some and also post more pictures. It's just that all the blogger controls are in Japanese... it seems that the broadband providers I've been speaking with can't locate my phone line at home, they've called me a couple of times, but I always have to have someone who speaks better than I can to call them back. Maybe I'll be able to post pictures again by Christmastime. But thanks for staying tuned regularly or periodically as the case may be.

I called my family this morning at 7:30am to be with them in spirit for Thanksgiving dinner. Cultural things are starting to take on a strange new meaning to me. I can't explain now because I'm too cold, but suffice to say it's interesting to be in a place where Thanksgiving goes largely uncelebrated.

A different kind of thanks comes to mind this year. My goal in Japan has been to become more giving. I never imagined I could become more giving by receiving kindness from others. So I feel thankful for the kindness the Japanese people I've met have shown me this year, and how I've been pushed to become more resilient and persistent. Lastly, I'm thankful when my family and friends support me and when they also allow me to support them. Those are wonderful things.

Who's that girl in the suit?

Having not had much exposure to business attire in the past, it's taken some time to understand what is best to wear to school as a teacher. When I started this job last year, I wore a lot of bright-colored shirts and casual pants. As time has gone on, it's more often that I wear a dark suit jacket or skirt to school, with a pastel top. I understand now that if you're going to see the same people every day, wearing subdued colors calls less attention to you, and they can also see that you care about your job. While elementary school kids don't seem to care, high school kids, in their own uniforms, also seem to appreciate if I also dress professionally. Initially, I really resisted the idea of wearing business attire for my job, but over time I could see that what I wear at work affects other people besides just me.

I'm still filling in the gaps of my professional wardrobe. (Shoes are especially hard because I can rarely find them in size 9) It takes time, but it's become fun. I feel comfortable when I wear appropriate clothing to school and attractive if I can find beautiful but subdued combinations.

Two Stories

I went to a cultural performance on Culture Day last Thursday. I didn't realize it was going to be a sort of 'matured person's' event. I went with Etsuko, who is getting to be matured, I guess, and we were late because her group of friends was performing last. She's been introducing me as her 'daughter,' which is awfully confusing for some people, but quite entertaining for the two of us.
Anyway, I was surprised when we went in she went all the way to the front of the auditorium in the middle of some lady doing a fan dance and sat down. She beckoned me then to follow her. So I went down in the middle of this performance, and a few minutes later Etsuko told me she had to go, to give her group some last words of encouragement before the performance. As soon as she left the auditorium, these two extremely old ladies sitting at the end of the row stood up, shuffled over and sat down next to me. One turned to me(and now there are three shamisen(Japanese stringed-instrument) players playing) and in a very loud voice said, 'Are you a Tai Chi teacher?' I looked at her and said, 'Uh, no. Not at all.' She says, 'Your mother said you were a Tai Chi teacher.' Now, everyone in the audience including those without hearing aids could probably hear her over the performance on stage. No one seemed to mind. I said, 'Oh, that's interesting, but she's not really my mother.' The ladies both looked at me like I was crazy.

I was on the train last night, returning from an Aikido seminar in Kumamoto. An old man sat down next to and started talking to me. From my experience, I know that if an old Japanese man starts talking to me out of the blue, the chances are good that he is drunk or he wants to talk about The Second World War. In this case, it was both. He asked me where I was from, but after about one minute into the conversation, I was somehow from Florida. I told him I was from Colorado, but he thought it was nice that I was from Florida, and what nice weather they have there. Not like when the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor. Actually, I'll just stop there. Suffice to say, he was a nice man who was a little sad to talk to. I've had maybe three experiences like that now...

The Hash

Every year, foreign English teachers(usually JETs) come together to run a kind of marathon. They call the marathon a 'Hash.' Two weekends ago there was a Hash in my town, Tamana City.
Two teachers in charge, called the 'hares', create a course and lay out checkpoints around the town for the runners. The poor runners, though, have no idea where the checkpoints are. That's the idea of the 'Hash,' to take a place on a map and have people discover the unique and interesting parts of that particular place. Not that I knew any of this before we started. I just knew to bring some 'running shoes and an open mind.'
The hares painted dots on the city's streets to show possible routes the runners could follow. When we saw the dots, we knew we were on a certain route. Their were true routes and dead-end routes. And there was food placed in coolers hidden strategically along the way. Eventually, the larger group of about twenty split into several small groups of people running and walking, searching for the finish all over town. That's how I made a new friend, 'Hide'. We ended up running most of the marathon as partners. We ran through a school, over top of a museum, passed famous hot springs, through endless twists and turns, and finally up a mountain and down a hunormous slide where the hares were waiting to take our pictures. So it was great fun, the kind of fun I didn't know people were still having. And making friends with Hide and the other teachers made it that much more enjoyable.

Music: Oldies but Goodies

I went to a concert the other day in Arao--it was the 'Ensemble Crane,' a string group playing chamber works.
When I walked in, about 150 eyes were staring right at me! Turned out that Arao #3 Junior High School's eighth graders were taking a field trip to the hall for a classical music experience, and they all saw me at once. We exchanged silly Jap-english greetings and basked in our mutual memory of Ms. Fukunaga's Team-Teaching English classes.
Luckily, the students stopped focusing on me once the concert started though because it had lots of easily accessible pieces like Eine Kleine Nacht Musik, Vivaldi's Fall, and baroque and show pieces. Good deal--easy listening.

Next month I'll see the Czech Symphony Orchestra play the New World Symphony, Ma Vlast and other things. Should be excellent(cost an arm and a leg though!).

And the orchestra I joined rehearses again tonight. The group is Kumamoto's Volunteer Symphony Orchestra, called 'Kuma-Kyo' in Japanese, and is comprised of about 100 members. It rehearses twice a week, and performs about once every two months in the largest hall in Kumamoto City, called Kenritsu Gekijo. Upon attending my first rehearsal the other week, it surprised me to hear that the group was so easy to become a member of because they sounded professional.

The program for November 13th's concert is Brahm's Symphony No.1, and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.5. I get the feeling we will be playing mostly standard orchestral repetoire, which is okay with me. I think I missed a lot of standard repetoire growing up.

In my experience, however, good, steady habits are built up from practicing the standard repetoire. Playing non-standard repetoire consistently could lead to players without solid roots in basic technique or knowledge of music history or literature. So even though I'm almost grown, I want to go back and play those pieces that I didn't get a chance to in the first place. Turns out Brahm's No.1 somehow reminds me of Strauss' Metamorphosen. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

... and pleasant news

I joined a symphony, finally. More on that next time.

Pleasant news and...pleasant news

During cleaning time after sixth period, Da Sensei told me that there would be an assembly in the gym when we were finished.
So, after cleaning time, I headed through the courtyard into the gym where the students and teachers were beginning to settle down on the floor.
The meeting opened and we all sat in the formal seiza style (i.e., sitting on our heels) and bowed to the principal, who proceeded to make two announcements. The first announcement was that the softball team had successfully gained the title of All-Kyushu Champions this Sunday. The second was that the marching band became the All-Kyushu Champions last week. Therefore, they were both going on to the All-Japan Competitions later in the year.

As a side note, lately, I’ve been working again with my posture. When I am standing, I try to stand with my hips slightly more forward. It gives me a feeling of elongating my torso and quads, and that somehow seems to make my body feel lighter, especially when I’m doing Aikido.
I’ve also been working with ways to lessen the burden on my knees when I sit in seiza, formal sitting posture. From watching others, I’ve started to practice sitting a bit further back on my heels, which relaxes my legs, shortens my upper half just a little, and seems to release some of the pressure on my knees.

When I heard the announcements, I was somewhat subconsciously practicing this adjusted way of sitting. My thoughts, however, were preoccupied with the news that those students had put their best foot forward and come out ahead. I was taken by surprise, therefore, afterward, to receive compliments from two different teachers on my sitting posture.

Anyway, my silly sitting story aside, perhaps someday students at this school will be receiving the news that they have made it to the All-Japan English Recitation Competitions. Wouldn’t that be something?

The violin is back.

I started a practice regimen again finally. The school has 6 beautiful practice rooms, used by the members of the famous Tamana Girl's High School Brass Band. The band has traveled all over the world. They are awesome. And they have provided me with the space, the opportunity and the motivation to play again. I think things are going to take off from here.

By the way, among the ups and downs, life here is very good. My Japanese, somehow, seems to be coming along, and my job is making me use my head. Aikido training is good.

It's funny--many, many topics go through my mind when I think about writing, but when I actually sit down, only the bare bones of my thoughts actually come out.

Oh, well.

And you win... another bag of rice!

Spent most of the day with Hiro and his father in the rice fields yesterday. I was told that my clothes 'may become dirty,' so I wore an old shirt and some beat up jeans. When I arrived, I was changed into a really old shirt and some old plaid pants you might've been able to spot me in in my middle school days. And like Hiro and his father, I wore a button-down over top.


What's the deal? Why, it's rice-harvesting season! And an Indian summer, meaning it's hot, hot, hot outside.

The three of us spent the better part of the day cutting rice with a rice-cutting machine and a hand-held saw. We loaded filled sacks of rice onto a truck and took them to the dryer where we poured the cut, uncooked, unsheathed rice into a large holding machine to dry. After a few days, the rice will go into another machine to get the outer coverings taken off. We unloaded 45 sacks, weighing just a bit more than I could lift by myself.
Hard work, but satisfying.

After all was done, we went back to Hiro's house where I was granted the first to shower and bathe. I took my shower and then sat in the bath, which is traditional style bathing, and then sat down for dinner. It was a potage, eggplant and shrimp stirfry, some pickled items, a bitter veggie called goya and tofu.

Then, Hiro and I went to Sega Game World and played the new and improved Taiko game, with extra bonus songs and graphics.

I went home with another bag of Hiro's father's rice, which makes three. Big score!

ADS FOR FREE!

Seems some advertiser got ahold of my blog address. They keep posting ads as comments. The only way I know to stop this from happening is to resrict who can post comments. Any comments?(No ads please :) )

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. :)

can i get some more flowers down here?

I got twelve mosquito bites moving furniture from the old teacher`s apartment to my new apartment today. The story is that I visited the old place and it was really messy and dirty, pretty disgusting really(sorry P, but wasn`t it?). The old teacher(Paul ;) ) said it was drafty, had bugs, and that two surrounding houses got robbed recently. So, I asked the teachers at the new high school, who are in charge of my housing, if could switch to a different place. They showed me the place next door and said I could move there if I liked. That place has shiny new tatami mats and sparkles from floor to ceiling. I liked it much better right away; it`s clean and free from years of old sponges and jars of kimchee from English teachers past. As far as safety, well, it *seems* safe enough. I told them I`d take it.
It`s got three rooms, so I`m pleased to say once again, there`s plenty of room, please come visit!

Watching tea ceremony the other day was really nice. First, Etsuko taught the woman Sa Sensei and her husband To an English lesson. Then, we went into her tea room and sat seiza while she prepared tea for us. She offered us some tasty treats from Tokyo that she called 'Tokyo Eggs.' They looked like eggs but they were sugar-coated sesame paste cakes--tasty! We watched as she performed the ceremony. It was easy to watch. She lifted this, poured that, turned this, moved that--gracefully and in a relaxed manner. I was scarcely aware that she was doing something so precise and choreographed. She simply looked as if she was enjoying herself, and she explained what she was doing from time to time.
Then she served the tea. She showed me how to view the tea bowl, and how to drink the tea, turning the bowl clockwise twice gently in my hand and then sipping. The tea was soft, fluffy and only slightly bitter. It was grassy green, something like the color of wheatgrass juice. The bowl had little blue cherry blossoms on the front.
I had had the idea that tea ceremony was something a little boring and maybe even stuffy. Sa Sensei has been practicing tea ceremony for over 40 years, but it seemed a fresh and lively experience for her.
Beforehand, we meditated a bit on the month's theme, written on a scroll in the corner of the house reserved for such things. The story on the scroll read,
"A great old wizard decided to visit inside a flower vase. He sat in the vase for what he thought to be one week, but after emerging, he realized he'd been in the vase for a thousand years."
She explained the meaning. Even if something seems huge for us, it is only a tiny thing in the scheme of the universe. Don't worry about tiny things in daily life.

I don`t know if I want to study tea ceremony, but it was a very positive experience for me, and especially nice to be around such a jovial woman.

back

I`m back in Japan, baby!

Etsuko has invited me to stay in her guest room until I begin living in a new apartment. Today, she is taking me to her tea ceremony lesson. It will be my first time ever to see tea ceremony and its components. She tells me the instructor is 77 years old.

It`s good to be home(home #3, after Boulder and Philly--thanks to my wonderful hosts in homes #1 and #2!!)

More to come.

Testing... testing

help, my blog grew a big, empty space!!

The Japanese Story

This is a story about a Japanese man and an Australian woman who get stranded together in the middle of the dessert. She is outspoken and aggressive, and he is taciturn and unconcerned. They unexpectedly discover each other in the wilderness and across cultural barriers. Their story plays like an endless wind pulling slowly across a crystal chime--gently, like spring rain falling.
And in a flash, it's over.

Why was it a 'Japanese Story?' It could've been an 'Australian Story' or even a 'Love Story.'
What does this story have to do with me?
just some late night ponderings.

(P.S. it's not an errror; if you see the movie, you'll understand! ;) )

more at: http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/j/japanese_story.html

What's for dinner?

What food would you most want to eat upon returning to your country after eight months abroad?

Home

In Philadelphia, finally. My big, navy blue duffel bag got lost somewhere in transit, but I've been assured it will be delivered to my mother's doorstep before tomorrow afternoon.

In the baggage claim department line, there was a short man with a dark mustache and a bald head in front of me, and a tall man with crisp good looks behind me. The short man was flirting with the woman behind the counter. The tall man was fuming impatiently, spouting his disapproval in a thick German accent.
When he finally got to the desk, the woman ignored him and called the man standing in the next line over to her counter.

It was the worst customer service I've seen since the last time I was in the airport. Takes a little readjusting coming from the most service-oriented place I've ever known.

Anyway, it'd been eight months since I'd seen mom, dad, and brother Zach. We had a nice homecoming tonight. By the way, home is now my childhood bed with a fluffy white comforter on top. Everything seems a little different...

Summer Camp in the Rockies, July 24th - August 1st: Some Reflections

Reflections on Teachers and others

Doran Sensei has a gift for relating empty-hand techniques to weapon-wielding techniques of Aikido. He demonstrated many techniques firstly with a weapon, secondly empty-handed, and lastly empty-handed facing an oncoming attack. He easily demonstrates the origins of the familiar but often times baffling empty-handed techniques. Using his skill, he painted Aikido as a matured weapons-art. Using his words, it appeared a fully relevant spiritual art.

Several assistants followed him to camp from Redwood City, CA. I got to share room space with one of them, Karl, and as well as being a fantastic uke, he surprised me with his endless well of energy.

Ikeda Sensei seemed to be inspired in his own way this year, mostly due to, it would seem, Ushiro Sensei. Ikeda Sensei has an innate sense of human physiology and especially how timing and movement effect the body. Participating in some of Ushiro Sensei's classes and talking to him throughout the week, however, Ikeda Sensei admitted to experiencing a shift in his view on these things. It is wonderful and scary to witness one's own teacher grow. This past week, he came off as warm-hearted, humble, skilled, and still willing to open his heart and change for the benefit of the future of his art.

Ikeda Sensei used a wide variety of assistants to demonstrate in his classes. It gave many people the opportunity to directly experience his subtle touch and ability to off-balance his attacker.

Ushiro Sensei was this year's guest instructor, flown in from Osaka, Japan. His classes were composed of two main types of practices: basic forms and ki/kokyu. The forms were classical Okinawan Karate forms, as I understand it, the most basic of which was something called Sanjin. From Sanjin, he showed us various ways to test the ki(energy/breath/???) and kokyu(perhaps the movement of ki) which could be generated from each step. The ki/kokyu exercises were fascinating to some, confusing to others, and irrelevant to a few. I found myself confused and delighted most of the time.

There is another person who should be mentioned along with Ushiro Sensei--his translator Jun. Jun was able to relate Sensei's spoken words as well as a sense of his unspoken words. The interpretation was seemless enough that most people probably forgot there was a translator present. I found myself listening to Ushiro Sensei's Japanese, and upon hearing the words in English afterwards, gained an entirely different appreciation for the richness and subtlety of the Japanese language. Ushiro Sensei communicated freely and meaningfully all week long due to Jun's skill. I think he deserves praise for doing a wonderful job.

Saotome Sensei and Ushiro Sensei looked as if they were old friends how they chatted away excitedly during the week. I noticed Saotome Sensei showing Ushiro Sensei one of his books, and they seemed quite energized while discussing it.
Saotome Sensei often talked about peace in the classes I attended. I experienced his classes as something resembling theme and variations, the numerous variations being complex and original. I want to attend many more of his classes.

I'm interested to hear what your impressions were of Ushiro Sensei and the other teachers. What were your training partners like at camp?
I worked with many wonderful people: Jae-Sang(the other person I shared room space with--lucky me!--another great uke, generous and warm-hearted person, and completely passionate about Aikido), Neville, Don, Dan, Noa, Julian, Josh, (There were about 100 others, but I wanted to mention a few!!) and all those regulars from Boulder Aikikai. I learned so much from my partners--THANK YOU!!!

Please send corrections, additions and comments!

First Year, Part II: First Weeks

The first weeks were spent adjusting. I was confused, excited, tired, and nervous. Now I think that was all part of culture shock, and that my shock lasted quite a long time.
I was bewildered by my new job, which required me to sit at a desk for 7 hours daily with no particular job to do. I was told to 'make some lesson plans.' Having never taught before, possessing no curriculum, and being denied access to the teachers or classrooms, I did my best to arrange the teaching props and plans left by my predecessors into something I could make sense of. Otherwise, I read the stuff given to us JETs at orientation, studied Japanese, poked around on the internet when the community computer was free, and--took naps. I discovered my coworkers napping at their desks after lunch, I came to recognize it as a common, if not secretly accepted part of work. I can't imagine how else I spent the time--there was so much of it. I had a difficult time communicating and everyone always seemed busy, although there was one 'office lady' who worked in my branch who spoke decent English. She wanted to be friends very much. I was happy to know her.

My first year in Japan, Part I

My town was in Kumamoto Prefecture, which is in the center of Kyushu, the southwesternmost of the four main islands of Japan. My job was to teach as an assistant English teacher in the elementary and junior high schools of Arao City(pop. 58,000). There are five junior high schools and twelve elementary schools in Arao. Many teachers I worked with did not speak English. I did not speak Japanese.

When I arrived in Arao, I was taken to my new employer's office where I introduced myself. Then, I met the town mayor. I talked to my predecessors for about an hour. Then, I was dropped off at my homestay family's house. I stayed with them for one week.

After my homestay finished, my supervisor and I sorted through furniture from my two predecessors' apartments.
Arao City has been having major financial struggles over the past several years, and cutting the budget for education was a result. The drawback was that I took over two peoples' jobs and responsibilities. The benefit was that I got consolidate the nicest furniture from their two apartments into one, which made my apartment rather nice.

I found a small photocopy of a map of Arao in a folder(in Japanese with English scrawled all over it) left for me, and was told by my supervisor to come to the Board of Education in the morning at 8:20. I sat down on my new bed. I was, well, home.

Return from camp

Arrival back in Boulder today. Happily exhausted, like everyone, I think.
Ushiro Sensei's going to be around til about Wednesday, and I heard he's going to teach a class or two at the dojo here. That's great, because several people are looking forward to picking his brain, including me.
I'm falling asleep as I write, so forgive me for cutting short...zzz
There is much I'd like to say

We're taking all the mats down. The last training was today. I didn't have any time to write this week. It was a wonderful Aikido seminar. Maybe I can write about it soon.

Merging

At camp here, an Okinawan/Kyushu karate teacher is the special guest instructor. He was asked to come because his art uses similar principles to Aikido principles to make it effective.
Today I went to my third class with him. We've been doing what are sometimes called 'ki exercises.' These kinds of exercises are not a part of the regular training that I do. They are something of a practice to control your focus, attention, and own sense of quiet confidence. I can't define it exactly.

At one point, the teacher, Ushiro Sensei, mentioned that one of his students also plays the violin. He explained how the basis for a very fundamental technique is very similar to raising an imaginary violin to one's shoulder, while drawing the bow with the other hand. Of course, this was easy for me because I've played violin for a long time but actually doing the technique in this way looked exactly like something else that inspired me when I was a child.
Ha ha, it was only after I purchased my own copy of the Karate Kid that I realized how much the movie had influenced me when I was a child. I was six when it came out. It was possibly my first introduction to the martial arts, and probably when my curiousity started. I was captivated by the story and believed in the transformations of the characters. Today, the raising the violin and pulling the bow looked so much like 'wax-on wax-off' from that movie, but it was real and I understood it.

When I pulled the imaginary bow across the imaginary strings today, I felt the connection between my musical art and the martial arts. I've been looking for this for a long time.

By the way, I forgot to mention that my birthday was on Monday. It was good to be around friends, although I feel strange that I didn't get to talk to some of my family members, including my dad.

Looking forward to next week when I will stay with a wonderful friend.
Really liking where I am now too.

Camp will last until Sunday afternoon.

full speed ahead

Should be sleeping, probably will be soon, but first...

The past two and a half days have been a blur. On the first night, my friend picked me up from the bus station and took me directly to the Aikido dojo. The classes, totaling about 50 people, were just finishing as we arrived.
As we stepped inside and removed our shoes, I reflected on how oddly similar I'd felt at the start of an elementary school class in my old teaching days in Japan. Soon, we were all going to be shaking each other's hands and inquiring about the general state of each other's being. 'How are you's would be passed about and when we finished, we would all smile and feel just fine.
This, combined with hug after hug left me feeling joyously remembered and appreciated. I also remembered the feeling of belonging to a community. This was possibly something I'd missed above all else. I was immediately accepted, after a year of struggling to be accepted and finally giving up. It was something valuable to be experienced, then and now.

Tonight, while shopping out on the Pearl Street Mall, I kept thinking of lesson plan ideas to try when I got back to Japan. I'm happy to be here, and happy to think about being there.

My friends have been really loving hosts and I wanna say thanks to them here, although they seem like family anyway...

Oh, it's way passed bedtime now. Phooey. Tomorrow's a big day: the start of a weeklong Aikido camp in the Rockies. Read more at:
I gotta get to sleep! G'night!!

Colors

Puddles of clustered houses scattered among fields of glistening emerald

transformed to

patchwork quilt lands of battered tans and smoke-stained yellows.

in an instant, I'm home.

Currently in Japan...

...but not for long. A month in the good ol' US of A ought to do me good.

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for supporting my me in my choices. We shall see where the future takes us.

See you on the other side.

Good news and good news

Got the news on Friday mid-morning. The girl's high school wanted to hire me. From within me, I said 'Yes.'

I'm going home for a month, then I'm staying another year. Go go gadget me.

We enjoyinged together

About a year ago, I stumbled upon a tiny okonomiyaki shop when I was wandering around the city before Aikido. I like to go to this place for a few reasons. First, they have tasty, economical okonomiyaki(egg, cabbage, etc. pancake) made while you wait. Second, the place doubles as an art studio. The wife runs the restaurant part and the husband sells his paintings. Lastly, the place always seems to be filled with good company when I stop in.
Last night was no exception. I pushed the door open and before me appeared a woman in her late 40s/early 50s, surrounded by six high school boys. They were playing hearts with giant-sized playing cards. One yelled out to me, "Speak Japanese??!"
Turned out the boys were 10th graders in a local boarding school, apparently run by the woman, who drew me a detailed map of how to find the place in case I decided to visit. Then she showed me several pictures of her cats, past and present.
The boys took a liking to me right away. One boy in particular, Kazu, was so happy to try his English, while the other boys showed me pictures of themselves and their friends. Ken, after informing me that his name was just like the English name Ken, expertly moon-walked for us all, while at the same time shyly covering his face. Another boy found an English phrase book(English as spoken by Doraemon, a cartoon robot-cat) in the restaurant's bookshelf and proceeded to ask me questions from it.
They were such a cheerful bunch; we talked for nearly an hour until I looked at my watch and realized I would be late for Aikido if I stayed any longer.
As I left, they bid me well in chorus, singing, "See you again!!"
Perhaps.

Yoossshhhh!

It finally happened. I finally threw one of the Judo kids in a practice match.
With what, a week left at school and almost two months of practice under my belt... I thought this day would never come.

I found out by accident that the junior high has a video camera. We were doing Unit 2 in the ninth grade classes, learning different usages of the verb 'have' plus the past particle, for example: "Have you had that sweater for a long time," "They have been here since early this morning," and "Have you ever been to Bangladesh," you know, stuff like that.
This particular chapter illustrates a news reporter interviewing shoppers at the new Recycling Market in 'Heiwa City.' So, the teacher decided to dust off the video camera and let the students have a go at interviewing each other while actually being filmed.

Afterwards, I rewatched the tapes and graded the students. Then, after that, I 'discovered' that there were boxes of blank video tapes in the teacher's supply lobby.

After asking nicely, the teachers gave me permission to make a video. So I'm making my very first video--complete with conveyor belt sushi, elementary school take-outs, monotonous narration by yours truly, and a variety of other fascinating renderings. Today I interviewed some of the Judo kids. (Golly gee, they crack me up.) I wanted to film practice too, but we ran out of tape just as I threw that kid. Ahh, c'est la vie.
Anyway, I'm having fun with it, and having spent almost three months now at the same junior high, I finally feel some of the satisfaction of that comes from bonding with students. It seems too early to say goodbye--things have just gotten started.

P.S. The job interview was delayed til this Wednesday. Still don't know.

On the phone, part II

Well, it looks like I didn't have to do anything after all. Hiro's mom called back this morning and confirmed dinner tonight at seven. The first thing I said after greeting her was, 'Please speak very slowly!!' : )

On the phone

Students have often asked me what the hardest part is about being a foreigner in Japan. I tend to give two answers. The first answer is being away from friends and family, and the second is talking on the phone in Japanese.

Hiro's mom just called me, exactly six minutes before my alarm went off this morning. Hiro's away this week on a so-called 'business trip' to Las Vegas, and he said that while he was gone, his family would welcome me to stop by anytime. So, I think that's what just happened.
It was all a blur. I tried to get her slow down, but she was using so many words I couldn't understand that it was hopeless. I *think* she invited me over for dinner tomorrow night?? There was one point in the conversation that I said 'uuuuhhh... I don't get what you're saying, Would you please speak a little more...' and she was off, quickly repeating her point using different words that I didn't understand. All in all, she seemed to prefer a smooth conversation to her actually being comprehended. And I suppose I was too embarrased to stop her after every single sentence and have her repeat it ad nauseum. I somehow gave the impression that I understood, while meanwhile thinking I was giving the impression that I didn't understand. Besides that, anyone who knows me knows that the first ten minutes of my waking up are not such good ones to be communicating information to me. But now that I'm up, I'll go fix myself a glass of aloe yogurt drink and contemplate the wonder of my silly new dilemma.

That being said, she thinks she communicated something, and I know she didn't. Hiro's not around to help me understand, so I guess I'll have to call her back, apologize profusely, and try to pinpoint what she actually asked me. Sigh...

"Knocked-out, unable to move arm, broken collar bone, but we're okay!"

On Saturday I went to a school Judo match--which reminds me of something I've wanted to write about for some time: the Japanese medical system.

Injuries and illnesses in Japan are viewed very differently from the way I grew up viewing them in the west. I believe that the Japanese medical system treats injuries and illnesses not soley as physical ailments to be medicated or 'fixed,' but also as personal challenges to be mentally overcome.

Here's what I mean:

A boy got knocked out during his match Saturday morning. He was carried off the mat, and he awoke with an ice pack on his head. This was the only medical treatment he got. Within a half an hour, he was back in the ring fighting another match.

A second boy, the solidly built captain of Arao #4's team, got painfully and forcefully pinned during his match. He yelped, and as he and his opponent untangled, one of his arms dangled awkwardly at his side. He slumped and fell back on the mat, in a daze. Lifted and set aside, he cradled the appendage softly as the nurse rushed off for ice. The other boys tried to create a makeshift sling from his belt; they wrapped it around and around his back and and arm in a mind-bogglingly yo-yo-like fashion, creating something, sadly, not resembling a sling.
About a half an hour later, one of the other boys, with the approval of the nurse, helped the boy put his dogi top back on, and lined him up for his next fight. The boy fought using one arm, and lost.

And finally, the long-foreheaded boy, Mi-kun, was wrestling with a bum knee to start with. He was still using a crutch that morning.
His accident was the most disturbing. While being pinned, his legs began to shake violently. He tapped the mat, exclaiming, "Excuse me!! Excuse me!! Please stop!!!" His opponent didn't hear, and a second later his legs shot up again like they'd been plugged into a socket. Seeing this, his opponent quickly released his hold, and Mi-kun lay flat. Carried from the mat, as he passed by me, I think he said, "I heard it break."
Did someone call an ambulance? Give the boy a pain-killer?
No. He got up, crying, and, aided by the nurse, walked(limping, without his crutch)to the lobby, where he waited for someone to give him a ride to the hospital.
I saw him today. Three months in a cast. Broken collar bone. Surgery. That being all it was, I'm surprised they didn't make him fight his final match.

The mental endurance I've witnessed here in the face of pain and fear has astonished me in so many ways. I heard(although I don't know if it's true) that the three monkeys representing 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' originated from this area. It certainly seems to be a way of life on this side of reality.


(By the way, I still go to Aikido twice a week, in case you thought my Judo craze-faze had somehow taken over.
And... still waiting to find out about the job. I'll have an interview this week and then they'll let me know.)

Post-practice uniforms

Post-practice uniforms
Originally uploaded by jetblossom.

Several women and one rock hard center

Thursday night, I joined several bubbly middle-aged woman and one quiet man for a drinking party in my honor. The party was being hosted by the Ariake International Society, the group that had supported my stay here by giving me free tickets to many cultural events, including Taiko, a philharmony concert, a Kabuki performance, and other events. The head of this group is, of course, my good friend, Etsuko.

The last time I'd visited this particular izakaya(small tavern, usually specializing in raw and cooked fish) was with the teachers from Arao #2 Junior High. If you remember, the teachers of #2 and I got along particularly well. I think this is due to the fact that the izakaya's beers were bigger than any I remember in Japan. Needless to say, the ladies and man of the International Society and I also got along splendidly.

The highlight of the evening was the arrival of a giant Tai fish cooked in soy, mirin, sugar, salt and sake. The head came to me, complete with eye. I knew that as the guest of honor, I was supposed to eat and enjoy that eyeball.

I waited until the rest of the fish had been picked away, my stomach and mind making inner preparations. The eyeball itself was glazed over, and the cushioning surrounding it had taken on a grapefruit Jello-esque appearance. Finally, Etsuko and I made a deal. If I ate the eyeball, she would eat the eyeball gook. She didn't seemed thrilled, but seemed to understand.

The conversation had turned to 'beach volleyball'. It seemed that beach volleyball in America was played on actual beaches, whereas in Japan the term 'beach' didn't really imply a beach. They all whole-heartedly agreed that a better term for 'beach volleyball' in Japan is 'beach ball volley,' to my utter delight.

The eyeball was very hard and crunchy. It had a chalky consistency, and overall, a mildy pleasant aroma and after taste. I tried to chew the core and finally gave up and spit it out. It was hard as a rock.

That night, under the influence of fish eyeballs and Japanese whiskey, I had a chance to reflect on Wednesday's visit and job application to the girl's high school. My reflections were overwhelmingly positive.
Today still, under the influence of heavy rain, my reflections remain the same. They will give their decision this coming week.

international society goodbye dinner

international society goodbye dinner
Originally uploaded by jetblossom.

note the tai's eyeball