Okinawa

Wednesday, three English teachers from Kumamoto(Kara, Dave and John) and I caught an early bus to the airport and took the short 1 1/2 hour plane trip down to Naha, the biggest city on the culturally conflicted tropical paradise island of Okinawa. We found our rental car, a black Japanese model that looks like an SUV from the front and a k-car from the back, and navigated our way through the complex signage(lack of signage?) of the city. Our first stop was A&W, the rootbeer restaurant. My friends ingested gloppy burgers and big mugs of rootbeer and I did my pectotarian, low-sugar best with a fish burger and an oolong tea. I've come to know that my emerging dietary habits are not usually shared by my fellow Americans, which is okay as long as we all get to eat.
After lunch we found our place, 'The Kariyushi Ocean Spa Hotel Resort,' an 80-acre layout with activity space for golfing, hiking, swimming, and so on. The view from the room is beautiful, facing the ocean.
On the way there we'd passed a Mexican joint, and, never being ones to pass up a rare 'authenic' Mexican meal(of which there are none in Kumamoto--only Mexican-Japanese flavored ones), we went back for dinner. (We did want to make sure to try some Okinawan foods too.)
Yesterday, we got up early and enjoyed a plentiful European-style buffet in the crowded indoor/outdoor banquet area, and headed out to the glass boat. There was all kinds of colorful underwater life to take in. I was amazed at how clear the water was and how easily you could see deep down to the ocean floor. It made me want to try scuba.
After that, we piled into the car, and drove north to the upper tip of the island. As we drove further out, traffic became less and less. We got to the cliffs after about an hour and a half. Personally, this is my first experience with scenery of this sort, I all I wanted to do was sit and watch the waves hit the cliffs. I did spot a turtle swimming away down there, a big brown and white turtle diving down and coming back up, and that made me feel as if I had arrived just in time.
We curved back down the other side of the coast and cut through the middle of the island. On that trip, we got to see regular, sleepy Okinawan towns. They were mostly concrete and uninteresting to look at, but there were a few traditional red-roofed houses, and I saw two thatched-roofed houses.
On the way back, we stopped for dinner at 'Okinawan Slow Foods' Restaurant. My friends ate pig ears, and cherry blossom soba noodles, while I had a salted 'gurokun' fish and two styles of goya, a bitter, green, warty-looking vegetable. After that, I felt very happy. I went to bed thinking about my happy tummy.
Today, we are supposed to go snorkeling. Again, something I have experience with only through things like TV. I have to remember that I don't actually have any skill with this stuff and to be patient if I can't do it all right away! I'm happy to have a new challenge, and an experience to look forward to.
See you on the other side ;)

5 things and happy cupcakes

1. The plum blossoms have opened and they are beautiful.

2. We had our first earthquake of the year yesterday, a small one.

3. I'm going to Okinawa tomorrow.

4. I'm staying in Japan another year.

5. This stationery could be my favorite yet:









Oh,
the thrill of it all

My Dream Toilet

My home just wouldn't be complete without my own Japanese-style toilet. Set on top of the good old-fashioned squat-hole by my handy landlord when I was moving in, only now, after several months, have I had the bravery to use its all its features.

My toilet has an automatically heated seat, controls to automatically adjust the direction of the water from bidet, a 'bidet' for the other hole with controls, 'massage' settings for the bidet stream, 'big' flush and 'small' flush, and, of course, the standard upside-down handle and built-in mini wash sink.

With all the satisfaction the toilet brings me and my guests, I find myself questioning why certain features were not included. I wondered why my toilet lacked the wonders of such toilets as: the one at the public reststops or the one at the train station.

Here are some of those features included in my 'dream toilet(an * indicates a feature I've found or used in a public restroom):'

a blow dryer for after-bidet use*
an automatically cooled seat for those hot summer months
a 'flushing sound' noise-maker, when mother nature's call is just too embarrasingly loud*
motion-activated flush, a.k.a 'wait, I'm not...'*
automated tp dispenser
toilet paper always folded in a pleasing v-shape*
lady's voice thanking me for using the toilet*(I suppose it would be a man's voice on my dream toilet)

the controls on my current toilet

From the 'Happy Stationery' collection

Happy Pudding Stationery


(Be the first to get a handwritten letter on this stationery!
See blog titled 'New Feature!' for rules. Limit one entry per person per stationery; sorry, offer not valid in Chile and Mozambique(exceptions apply).)

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