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...