Halloween in Japan is merely stolen from the West and the Japanese aren't quite sure what to make of it all. I was doing the same Halloween lesson for about three weeks at all my schools and I discovered that the kids all knew the stereotypes of Halloween, but didn't know why. For example, they know that kids say Trick-or-Treat, but they don't know what it means, because they sell all the candy and costumes here, but they don't go trick-or-treating and use all the stuff they buy! So to illustrate the practice of trick-or-treating, I brought candy to every class and made each student come and trick-or-treat with me and the Japanese teacher. They would have to pretend to knock on the door, and then they had to say the "magic word" and if they couldn't remember, then no candy! Eventually they all remembered, I wasn't actually so cruel as to only give them one chance.
Usually I am not so big on Halloween. I mean when you're an adult it is all about looking like a goof in a costume and usually a drinking party. Now I mean, where did all the candy go and the trick-or-treating?! Halloween used to be a time to compete for the best candy and the best costume. But this year I was convinced to take part in the adult Halloween fun - I bought a costume and everything. I went to Ageha with some of my other JET friends from Ibaraki, so of course Lauren was there!
Ageha is a very, very large night club just outside of Tokyo. It is in Chiba prefecture, but only about a 10 minute train from Tokyo Station. So to prepare for this wild and crazy night out, I went to my friend Chika's house and we got ready. She was a Pirate Queen, and I was the Devil. After we were all dressed, we hopped on the train to make our way into Tokyo. Now, as I said, the Japanese aren't quite sure what to make of Halloween, so Chika and I were the only two dressed up on the train. Naturally that garnered quite a few stares from our companions on the train. It was kind of fun being "the weirdo" all dressed up! When we met up with everyone in Tokyo, we looked like quite the odd bunch; it's helpful to travel in groups of freaks! haha
We stopped in a little place for some ramen and then jumped back on the train to head to the club. Oooh, I have left out a timeline. The club didn't open until 11pm, so we didn't even get on the train until 11pm. By the time we arrived, the line was forever long, so we waited. The cool thing about Ageha is that on Halloween, if you are wearing a costume and they think it is good enough, you don't have to pay the $40 cover charge. So I felt okay about spending $25 on my costume because it was cheaper than if I had just worn regular clothes and had to pay at the club. The club dresses up two of its employees and has them judge each costume as it comes through. If they say you can get in for free, yipee! If they veto - you must pay. I swear, all these people out there thinking they can just play G-d and toy with our emotions that way!
So after I got the clear to get in for free, we had to continue waiting in line. We waited in line for a grand total of two and a half hours! Now this is the first club I have ever been to, and the waiting in line silliness was not my favorite part. So around about 2:30am, we finally got into the club - and the place really was huge. The first place we enter is a large room with a huge bar. At each of the corners of the bar, there are wicked tall poles and every hour, four pole dancers come out for about 20 minutes or so. Now, the whole idea of pole dancers just sounds dirty, but if you actually watch them, they are incredibly strong!! I mean they shimmy up those poles like monkeys and then hold on with just their legs or just one arm. That is some crazy strength, and I mean, they can't wear too many clothes and do that, because it would be too slippery with all those clothes on!
But moving right along, after I had been there for a while, I ventured with some friends into the next room which is where all the loud techno music and dancing was happening. It was soooo crowed ed that we formed a little human train so we wouldn't lose each other twisting our way through all the people. We made our way out to the pool and it was completely insane! We wound our way back into the room with the bar and then found a little lounge just off the room with the bar. It was playing some nice music that you could dance to and had places to sit and chat too. We hung out in the lounge area dancing and being chill for the rest of the night.
Around 5:30am, we left the club and made our way back to the train. After waiting for the train to arrive and riding the train and transferring trains, I made it back to the door of my apartment about 8am. By this time, I had to shower and get ready to leave my house for the school festival at Sakai West. I got myself all ready and then spent the day at Sakai. Around 3:30pm I got home and just completely crashed. I don't know if I have been awake straight for so many hours for a very long time!
Halloween was a lot of fun though. But next time I want to try going to a smaller club with a smaller line in normal clothes. :)
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Traaditioooon, Tradition
I was invited to see one of the women in the Heartful English Club perform in a festival of traditional Japanese dances and songs. The festival lasted all day long; from 9:30am until about 3:30pm. In the span of about six hours they had 66 performances! I was floored at how many dances they were able to pack in there.
Of course the costumes were beautiful kimonos using some gorgeous fabrics. I hope to be able to save up some money and buy myself a kimono while I am here - but that is just a dream at this point. It is amazing to me how graceful they can be in their kimonos - it just seems that they are floating across the stage as they walk. It is so fluid and their movements with fans are so graceful.
There were four solo dances in a row, each depicting one season. The kimonos for each were made of incredible fabrics with intricate scenes woven into each. They began with autumn and the woman came out in rich oranges and golds with a touch of yellow and red. She had autumn leaves tucked into her hair that she later removed and used as part of her dance.
Next was winter and her kimono was bright white with silver shiny thread used to make bare tree branches near the bottom and snow flakes near the top. She used a silver fan with a design in black. Her dance looked as though she were skating on ice. Her geta (the wooden sandals they wear) were platformed; I have no clue how she was able to walk on them!
Then came spring. The kimono was a tender pink and had small white blossoms and flowers on it as though they were falling from a cherry tree. There was nothing shiny, just subtle and beautifully soft and delicate. The music for this dance was exciting and sounded a little like the music from Bambi! haha Clearly it was Japanese music, but it elicited the same feelings of excitement and giddiness that the spring music in Bambi does.
Lastly came summer and the kimono was very green and her fan was decorated like a butterfly. Her dance was the fastest, but in some incredible way she still looked like she was gliding or floating like the others. The music was upbeat and a little jazzy as far as traditional Japanese music goes.
Hiromi, the woman in my class, was in two of the dances during the day, but I was only able to see the first one, which she told me was better anyway! She was one of three dancers in her performance and she played the male role in the dance...haha. Her wig was really cool and was tall on her head and then had a really long ponytail coming out of the top. She was dressed in an old male-style kimono. Hiromi used to be a competitive ballroom dancer with her husband, so of course she was really great at moving on stage. As the male character, she had to do many deep lunges and hold her position for long stretches of time. It was powerful and strong.
The auditorium where the dances were taking place was completely packed. It was fun to see so many people supporting their friends and family in the performance. The whole thing reminded me of the amazingly fun times I have had joining some of the Filipino celebrations at home. Watching the traditional dances in traditional garb is really cool. I am very happy to be American through and through - but we just do line dancing and wear cowboy boots....haha. I guess the performer in me can just really appreciate the beautiful costumes and elaborate dances and songs!
Of course the costumes were beautiful kimonos using some gorgeous fabrics. I hope to be able to save up some money and buy myself a kimono while I am here - but that is just a dream at this point. It is amazing to me how graceful they can be in their kimonos - it just seems that they are floating across the stage as they walk. It is so fluid and their movements with fans are so graceful.
There were four solo dances in a row, each depicting one season. The kimonos for each were made of incredible fabrics with intricate scenes woven into each. They began with autumn and the woman came out in rich oranges and golds with a touch of yellow and red. She had autumn leaves tucked into her hair that she later removed and used as part of her dance.
Next was winter and her kimono was bright white with silver shiny thread used to make bare tree branches near the bottom and snow flakes near the top. She used a silver fan with a design in black. Her dance looked as though she were skating on ice. Her geta (the wooden sandals they wear) were platformed; I have no clue how she was able to walk on them!
Then came spring. The kimono was a tender pink and had small white blossoms and flowers on it as though they were falling from a cherry tree. There was nothing shiny, just subtle and beautifully soft and delicate. The music for this dance was exciting and sounded a little like the music from Bambi! haha Clearly it was Japanese music, but it elicited the same feelings of excitement and giddiness that the spring music in Bambi does.
Lastly came summer and the kimono was very green and her fan was decorated like a butterfly. Her dance was the fastest, but in some incredible way she still looked like she was gliding or floating like the others. The music was upbeat and a little jazzy as far as traditional Japanese music goes.
Hiromi, the woman in my class, was in two of the dances during the day, but I was only able to see the first one, which she told me was better anyway! She was one of three dancers in her performance and she played the male role in the dance...haha. Her wig was really cool and was tall on her head and then had a really long ponytail coming out of the top. She was dressed in an old male-style kimono. Hiromi used to be a competitive ballroom dancer with her husband, so of course she was really great at moving on stage. As the male character, she had to do many deep lunges and hold her position for long stretches of time. It was powerful and strong.
The auditorium where the dances were taking place was completely packed. It was fun to see so many people supporting their friends and family in the performance. The whole thing reminded me of the amazingly fun times I have had joining some of the Filipino celebrations at home. Watching the traditional dances in traditional garb is really cool. I am very happy to be American through and through - but we just do line dancing and wear cowboy boots....haha. I guess the performer in me can just really appreciate the beautiful costumes and elaborate dances and songs!
A weekend in the mountains
So the weekend following the conference, a group of us JETs decided to take some time and run away into the mountains of Ibaraki. There is a little village in the mountains called Daigo and we were able to see some beautiful signs of autumn and relax a bit. Our time spent at that conference was a bit tiring, so this was a much needed weekend.
It began with everyone meeting at Gaijinbucks (this is what we called the Starbucks in Mito - gaijin means foreigner) on Saturday morning. After a long train ride from Mito, we arrived at the teeniest tiniest train station in Daigo. There is definitely something to be said for the public transportation in Japan. As I ride through country towns zipping through rice fields and past open nothingness, I just think, "wouldn't it be funny if there were a train in my back yard?" You can take a train from absolutely anywhere in the country to anywhere else. Sometimes the route is not quite direct and a bit convoluted, but it is completely possible! So anyway, we arrive in Daigo and the first thing we do is start our trek from the station to the acclaimed waterfall.
We walk on little country roads for about half an hour before reaching the base of the waterfall. Once here, we meet up with some JETs that actually live this far north in Ibaraki and have a quick snack of onigiri (rice ball with seaweed). As a group we start through the touristy streets lining the path up to the waterfall observation point. Along the way we pass all the common trinkety, tourist trap items - but there was quite the surprising little toy for sale in one of the shops. I think this says something about Japan and what they find acceptable for public display. While looking through a very normal omiyage shop, we come across this bouncy ball of sorts. The difference with this ball is that it is shaped and colored like a woman's breast, complete with nipple and all. And better yet, when you bounce the ball, there is a sound box inside and the ball starts moaning. Talk about appropriate for the kiddies, right?! It boggles the mind the way things that like are common and not considered shocking or inappropriate for this setting!
After our moment of horror and amusement, we continue up the path and arrive at the entrance of a tunnel. The path that tourists are supposed to take goes directly through the mountain so as to get the best head on view of the waterfall. Again Japan, taking the natural and beautiful and old and turning it into something accessible and modern. The tunnel was cut into the middle of this beautiful mountain and was complete with electric lighting and smoothed concrete with hand rails on either side.
The observation deck had a really nice view and we were able to get some great pictures. The poor waterfall though looked a little dryer than a waterfall should. I was a bit surprised given all the rain we had been getting, but the scene was still nice to look at and be a part of. After this we took the path over a swinging footbridge to a set of stairs. Everyone had the option of climbing the stairs if they wanted to get to the very top of the mountain and look down on the waterfall. At the base of the stairs it said it took about 40 minutes to climb halfway. I decided to opt out, and instead Lauren, Amber, Sam and I went to this little outdoor cafe of sorts and had some lunch.
We got some udon noodles in soup with some hot green tea. Being up in the mountains was a bit chilly, so it was nice to be eating all the hot food. The portions were huge, and I just couldn't finish my whole meal. I have been running into that problem quite a lot lately actually - I just can't seem to finish all my food at any given meal. I guess that is a good sign.
Anyway, after our hike up to check out the waterfall, we ventured back down to hurry and travel to the apple onsen. An onsen is a Japanese public bath house. The bath is created from a natural hot spring and the whole experience is incredibly relaxing. Essentially there are two rooms, one for men and one for women - naturally. The procedure is such that everyone is expected to bathe at the showers provided and just get completely clean and then afterward, there is the large pool filled with extremely hot water and you just soak until you're content. At first thought, I guess it seems a little awkward to be bathing with strangers, naked and whatnot - but it just seems normal and you just don't think about it any more. Or maybe all my modesty has just flown out the window - but it's not like their co-ed!!! The special thing about this particular onsen was that they put apples in the water. I kind of felt like we should be bobbing for apples, or like I was in some kind of soup!
After the onsen, we made the trip back to our hotel in shifts. We all had to drop off our belongings and then run to dinner. But the problem was, there was only one car and about 12 people at the onsen. So we called a taxi, but there was only one taxi for the whole town, so it had to make trips back and forth in order to pick up everyone. The only problem with mountain towns is that nothing seems to be open past 8pm. So by the time we got back to the hotel and dropped our things, it was quite a task to find an open restaurant for dinner. Finally we found one that seemed to be closing, but we bombarded and looked like sad, hungry foreigners that didn't know any better. The nice people took us in and feed us a wonderful hot meal and it was really cheap too! Score!
After dinner we hung out some more at the hotel and just chatted for about 3 hours down in the lobby of the hotel. It was such a great time to just sit around talking to people and making new friends. We talked about all those things you aren't supposed to, but always seem to come up anyway - politics and religion....haha.
The next morning, we got up, checked out of the hotel and made our way to the apple orchard. The only place I have ever picked apples was at my grandparents' house when I was kid. And even then it was mostly picking up the yucky apples from the ground just to bring home and feed to the neighbors pigs. So this was quite the fun time. I only picked about 6 apples though because apples are heavy and they were $5 a kilo. After this we ventured onto the place where we could make our own sweets.
They ushered us into a little room, and gave us all the supplies for each of us to make 5 dumplings. The little lady showed us how to make them. First we had to cover our hands with flour so that the dough wouldn't stick to our hands. We had to take each ball of dough and flatten it out a bit like a pizza crust of sorts. Then we take the filling - either apple or pumpkin - and we put it in the center of our circle of dough. After that we wrap the dough around our filling and smash it a little into a dumpling shape. Then the lady brought out some food coloring paint and we each got to paint our dumplings however we wanted. I am severely lacking in this kind of artistic skill, so I mainly stayed with geometric shapes and patterns! haha Some of the people were just so creative and made some awesome dumplings.
After we were finished painting them, the little lady came back and took them into the next room to be baked. In about 15 minutes, they brought out our hot dumplings. We each tried one and they were delicious! It was so much fun to be able to make something, but to not have to do all the prep work and then clean up!! After our time at the bakery, we went back to the station and headed off in our separate directions for home. My commute back home took me about 4 hours, but it was okay, because I could sleep and read on the train. Once I finally got home though, I completely crashed. My relaxing mountain weekend was fun, but I needed to recoup.
It began with everyone meeting at Gaijinbucks (this is what we called the Starbucks in Mito - gaijin means foreigner) on Saturday morning. After a long train ride from Mito, we arrived at the teeniest tiniest train station in Daigo. There is definitely something to be said for the public transportation in Japan. As I ride through country towns zipping through rice fields and past open nothingness, I just think, "wouldn't it be funny if there were a train in my back yard?" You can take a train from absolutely anywhere in the country to anywhere else. Sometimes the route is not quite direct and a bit convoluted, but it is completely possible! So anyway, we arrive in Daigo and the first thing we do is start our trek from the station to the acclaimed waterfall.
We walk on little country roads for about half an hour before reaching the base of the waterfall. Once here, we meet up with some JETs that actually live this far north in Ibaraki and have a quick snack of onigiri (rice ball with seaweed). As a group we start through the touristy streets lining the path up to the waterfall observation point. Along the way we pass all the common trinkety, tourist trap items - but there was quite the surprising little toy for sale in one of the shops. I think this says something about Japan and what they find acceptable for public display. While looking through a very normal omiyage shop, we come across this bouncy ball of sorts. The difference with this ball is that it is shaped and colored like a woman's breast, complete with nipple and all. And better yet, when you bounce the ball, there is a sound box inside and the ball starts moaning. Talk about appropriate for the kiddies, right?! It boggles the mind the way things that like are common and not considered shocking or inappropriate for this setting!
After our moment of horror and amusement, we continue up the path and arrive at the entrance of a tunnel. The path that tourists are supposed to take goes directly through the mountain so as to get the best head on view of the waterfall. Again Japan, taking the natural and beautiful and old and turning it into something accessible and modern. The tunnel was cut into the middle of this beautiful mountain and was complete with electric lighting and smoothed concrete with hand rails on either side.
The observation deck had a really nice view and we were able to get some great pictures. The poor waterfall though looked a little dryer than a waterfall should. I was a bit surprised given all the rain we had been getting, but the scene was still nice to look at and be a part of. After this we took the path over a swinging footbridge to a set of stairs. Everyone had the option of climbing the stairs if they wanted to get to the very top of the mountain and look down on the waterfall. At the base of the stairs it said it took about 40 minutes to climb halfway. I decided to opt out, and instead Lauren, Amber, Sam and I went to this little outdoor cafe of sorts and had some lunch.
We got some udon noodles in soup with some hot green tea. Being up in the mountains was a bit chilly, so it was nice to be eating all the hot food. The portions were huge, and I just couldn't finish my whole meal. I have been running into that problem quite a lot lately actually - I just can't seem to finish all my food at any given meal. I guess that is a good sign.
Anyway, after our hike up to check out the waterfall, we ventured back down to hurry and travel to the apple onsen. An onsen is a Japanese public bath house. The bath is created from a natural hot spring and the whole experience is incredibly relaxing. Essentially there are two rooms, one for men and one for women - naturally. The procedure is such that everyone is expected to bathe at the showers provided and just get completely clean and then afterward, there is the large pool filled with extremely hot water and you just soak until you're content. At first thought, I guess it seems a little awkward to be bathing with strangers, naked and whatnot - but it just seems normal and you just don't think about it any more. Or maybe all my modesty has just flown out the window - but it's not like their co-ed!!! The special thing about this particular onsen was that they put apples in the water. I kind of felt like we should be bobbing for apples, or like I was in some kind of soup!
After the onsen, we made the trip back to our hotel in shifts. We all had to drop off our belongings and then run to dinner. But the problem was, there was only one car and about 12 people at the onsen. So we called a taxi, but there was only one taxi for the whole town, so it had to make trips back and forth in order to pick up everyone. The only problem with mountain towns is that nothing seems to be open past 8pm. So by the time we got back to the hotel and dropped our things, it was quite a task to find an open restaurant for dinner. Finally we found one that seemed to be closing, but we bombarded and looked like sad, hungry foreigners that didn't know any better. The nice people took us in and feed us a wonderful hot meal and it was really cheap too! Score!
After dinner we hung out some more at the hotel and just chatted for about 3 hours down in the lobby of the hotel. It was such a great time to just sit around talking to people and making new friends. We talked about all those things you aren't supposed to, but always seem to come up anyway - politics and religion....haha.
The next morning, we got up, checked out of the hotel and made our way to the apple orchard. The only place I have ever picked apples was at my grandparents' house when I was kid. And even then it was mostly picking up the yucky apples from the ground just to bring home and feed to the neighbors pigs. So this was quite the fun time. I only picked about 6 apples though because apples are heavy and they were $5 a kilo. After this we ventured onto the place where we could make our own sweets.
They ushered us into a little room, and gave us all the supplies for each of us to make 5 dumplings. The little lady showed us how to make them. First we had to cover our hands with flour so that the dough wouldn't stick to our hands. We had to take each ball of dough and flatten it out a bit like a pizza crust of sorts. Then we take the filling - either apple or pumpkin - and we put it in the center of our circle of dough. After that we wrap the dough around our filling and smash it a little into a dumpling shape. Then the lady brought out some food coloring paint and we each got to paint our dumplings however we wanted. I am severely lacking in this kind of artistic skill, so I mainly stayed with geometric shapes and patterns! haha Some of the people were just so creative and made some awesome dumplings.
After we were finished painting them, the little lady came back and took them into the next room to be baked. In about 15 minutes, they brought out our hot dumplings. We each tried one and they were delicious! It was so much fun to be able to make something, but to not have to do all the prep work and then clean up!! After our time at the bakery, we went back to the station and headed off in our separate directions for home. My commute back home took me about 4 hours, but it was okay, because I could sleep and read on the train. Once I finally got home though, I completely crashed. My relaxing mountain weekend was fun, but I needed to recoup.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Idealism disguised as realism
Every year each prefecture is required to do a seminar with all the JETs in that prefecture along with a JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) with whom they work. Ibaraki always decides to do their seminar very early (mid-October). I honestly think it is a little silly to do the seminar so early because the new JETs, still don’t know a lot about what is going on, and in many cases, such as mine, are still doing their self-introduction. We don’t know anything about teaching lessons or how best to use the textbook. But alas, this kind of thing is required, so we must suffer through and come out on the other side having “learned something” and having engaged in “meaningful discussion.”
If you can’t already tell, I think the seminar is a load and should be wildly revamped. The whole thing is a big idealistic, let’s all feel happy and appreciated conference and frankly, that just isn’t the reality of our jobs. For example – each base school is supposed to send one JTE to this conference. It should be understood that the teacher you send should be someone who team teaches with the JET, yes? No. My base school decided to send a man whose name I still don’t really know, who I had no clue was an English teacher, and with whom I have never done a team teaching lesson.
The beginning of the conference was fine. They had a visiting lecturer from a University in Tokyo. He is an American who has been living here for about 8 years and has been doing research on the “best practices” for teaching English in Japan while utilizing the native speakers who are hired to teach here. His presentation was informative and gave good ideas and suggestions as to how best to conduct an English class in Japan. As I have said before, they speak Japanese in English class. I think English classes are arranged poorly and there is too much emphasis put on the textbook. Japanese teachers rely solely upon the textbook to guide their lessons. Often I find that the vocabulary seems irrelevant and random, and the grammar is often not correct. But as I have also said before, I am not going to change the system here, so I just roll with it. But in the conference, they split us into groups and want us to spend two days discussing better ways to use the JETs and more effective ways of teaching English to our students. They mix people who have high level schools with people who have low level schools. Using the same techniques just isn’t realistic, but that is kind of how the whole two day conference was, a tad unrealistic.
I got some good ideas for games, and I spoke out and asked questions of more experienced JETs. I gave my opinion sometimes too (big surprise, huh?). But all in all, the conference was completely ineffective and was only successful in pulling me out of the classroom for two days. But, I did meet another JTE in my group who knows some of the English teachers who work at Sanwa (my base school). He liked the way I spoke out and thought that I had nice ideas, but that I also relayed them in clear easy English so the Japanese teachers could understand. He appreciated my speaking so much that he wants me to come and participate in a conference he is doing just at his school. He wants me to observe the presentations and then comment on them afterward. It is kind of cool that someone thinks my opinions matter, even though I am new to this whole teaching thing.
If you can’t already tell, I think the seminar is a load and should be wildly revamped. The whole thing is a big idealistic, let’s all feel happy and appreciated conference and frankly, that just isn’t the reality of our jobs. For example – each base school is supposed to send one JTE to this conference. It should be understood that the teacher you send should be someone who team teaches with the JET, yes? No. My base school decided to send a man whose name I still don’t really know, who I had no clue was an English teacher, and with whom I have never done a team teaching lesson.
The beginning of the conference was fine. They had a visiting lecturer from a University in Tokyo. He is an American who has been living here for about 8 years and has been doing research on the “best practices” for teaching English in Japan while utilizing the native speakers who are hired to teach here. His presentation was informative and gave good ideas and suggestions as to how best to conduct an English class in Japan. As I have said before, they speak Japanese in English class. I think English classes are arranged poorly and there is too much emphasis put on the textbook. Japanese teachers rely solely upon the textbook to guide their lessons. Often I find that the vocabulary seems irrelevant and random, and the grammar is often not correct. But as I have also said before, I am not going to change the system here, so I just roll with it. But in the conference, they split us into groups and want us to spend two days discussing better ways to use the JETs and more effective ways of teaching English to our students. They mix people who have high level schools with people who have low level schools. Using the same techniques just isn’t realistic, but that is kind of how the whole two day conference was, a tad unrealistic.
I got some good ideas for games, and I spoke out and asked questions of more experienced JETs. I gave my opinion sometimes too (big surprise, huh?). But all in all, the conference was completely ineffective and was only successful in pulling me out of the classroom for two days. But, I did meet another JTE in my group who knows some of the English teachers who work at Sanwa (my base school). He liked the way I spoke out and thought that I had nice ideas, but that I also relayed them in clear easy English so the Japanese teachers could understand. He appreciated my speaking so much that he wants me to come and participate in a conference he is doing just at his school. He wants me to observe the presentations and then comment on them afterward. It is kind of cool that someone thinks my opinions matter, even though I am new to this whole teaching thing.
Can you eat raw fish and sing The Beatles too?!
I find myself in the perpetual welcome party. I am being welcomed by schools, and welcomed by clubs and welcomed by friends. Everyone wants me to feel welcome in Japan, but haven’t I already been living here for over three months??? Haven’t I learned to drive here, and eat here and go shopping? No matter, the longer I can drag out this welcome party thing, the longer the free food lasts! ;)
This particular entry however, is about my welcome party for Koga First Senior High School. The English teachers wanted to take me out to dinner. So, as I have come to expect, one of the teachers, Kaneko-san, picked me up from my apartment in the evening and took me to the traditional Japanese restaurant they had chosen. When we arrived, they had a little room reserved just for us, and the teachers began, in a bit of a frenzy, to peruse the menu and decided to order the same meal for everyone. This meal had a little bit of everything; as with most of the teachers I meet, they want to see how far they can stretch my stomach and what weird things they can watch me eat/drink.
So, the food came in about 5 courses and to begin, they started me off with a beer. The I was one of three woman at this little get together, and I was the only one drinking with the 3 other men! The conversation surrounded my life in Japan thus far and how I liked my apartment. They asked if I cooked dinner for myself every night and I sheepishly said not every night, but I try sometimes. Then the first course came, it was pickled vegetables of all sorts – the Japanese really like to pickle everything. I don’t mind the pickled veggies at all, so I ate them down. Next came a plate of sashimi and wasabi. Surprisingly one of the Japanese teacher’s just can’t bring herself to eat raw fish, so they slide her plate over to me, and I gladly partook of the raw tuna!
Next we jumped into some fish-like something that was a bit coagulated and cold. It tasted like the ocean and my eating it, got a reaction. After that came fresh tofu with a bit of a ginger sauce to go with it, and then the main course of kameshi came. Kameshi is rice, with vegetables, or meat, or really anything on top. It is brought to the table in an iron pot and you let it sit for about 3 minutes. After that you can open the lid and you stir the whole thing. They even bring hot water, so you can turn it into a soup if you want to. They opted for the seafood kameshi and it was so good! Oh how I love Japanese food!! During the course of the meal, they are asking me about my family and tangenting off to different topics like, “Have you ever had Japanese sake?” or “Do you think Japanese boys are cute?” or “How long will you stay in Japan?” I have had Japanese sake, but I let them buy some for me anyway. They decided on a kind of cold sake call kobota. It was a little sweet and not as strong with the rubbing alcohol flavor as previous cold sakes I had tasted.
One of the Japanese teachers, turns to me once he is about three beers and a sake deep and says, “Do you like karaoke?” I smile and say, “Yes, I love karaoke!” He says, “Then we will do tonight, okay?!” And so it was that the group of us would next head to karaoke after dinner. We had decided during the end of dinner that The Beatles were a nice common ground of music that everyone knew, so that is what we should sing all night long.
We rented a booth at the karaoke place for two hours and then proceeded to order more drinks and food. I had two grapefruit sours in the two hours we were there, and I think everyone else had three – except for Kaneko, who was the driver that night. They have over 200 Beatles songs in the computer for the karaoke machine. We just started going through them, we’d each take a turn singing a song with the microphone, while everyone else would just sing the words in the background. After about an hour and 20 minutes we got tired of The Beatles and started venturing out to other things, like Carole King, and other old songs that the teachers knew, and were surprised when I also knew them! I even sang my standard Japanese song, Sukiyaki.
All in all, they thought I was great and I thought the same about them. We had a good time and I hope they invite me out for karaoke again soon!
This particular entry however, is about my welcome party for Koga First Senior High School. The English teachers wanted to take me out to dinner. So, as I have come to expect, one of the teachers, Kaneko-san, picked me up from my apartment in the evening and took me to the traditional Japanese restaurant they had chosen. When we arrived, they had a little room reserved just for us, and the teachers began, in a bit of a frenzy, to peruse the menu and decided to order the same meal for everyone. This meal had a little bit of everything; as with most of the teachers I meet, they want to see how far they can stretch my stomach and what weird things they can watch me eat/drink.
So, the food came in about 5 courses and to begin, they started me off with a beer. The I was one of three woman at this little get together, and I was the only one drinking with the 3 other men! The conversation surrounded my life in Japan thus far and how I liked my apartment. They asked if I cooked dinner for myself every night and I sheepishly said not every night, but I try sometimes. Then the first course came, it was pickled vegetables of all sorts – the Japanese really like to pickle everything. I don’t mind the pickled veggies at all, so I ate them down. Next came a plate of sashimi and wasabi. Surprisingly one of the Japanese teacher’s just can’t bring herself to eat raw fish, so they slide her plate over to me, and I gladly partook of the raw tuna!
Next we jumped into some fish-like something that was a bit coagulated and cold. It tasted like the ocean and my eating it, got a reaction. After that came fresh tofu with a bit of a ginger sauce to go with it, and then the main course of kameshi came. Kameshi is rice, with vegetables, or meat, or really anything on top. It is brought to the table in an iron pot and you let it sit for about 3 minutes. After that you can open the lid and you stir the whole thing. They even bring hot water, so you can turn it into a soup if you want to. They opted for the seafood kameshi and it was so good! Oh how I love Japanese food!! During the course of the meal, they are asking me about my family and tangenting off to different topics like, “Have you ever had Japanese sake?” or “Do you think Japanese boys are cute?” or “How long will you stay in Japan?” I have had Japanese sake, but I let them buy some for me anyway. They decided on a kind of cold sake call kobota. It was a little sweet and not as strong with the rubbing alcohol flavor as previous cold sakes I had tasted.
One of the Japanese teachers, turns to me once he is about three beers and a sake deep and says, “Do you like karaoke?” I smile and say, “Yes, I love karaoke!” He says, “Then we will do tonight, okay?!” And so it was that the group of us would next head to karaoke after dinner. We had decided during the end of dinner that The Beatles were a nice common ground of music that everyone knew, so that is what we should sing all night long.
We rented a booth at the karaoke place for two hours and then proceeded to order more drinks and food. I had two grapefruit sours in the two hours we were there, and I think everyone else had three – except for Kaneko, who was the driver that night. They have over 200 Beatles songs in the computer for the karaoke machine. We just started going through them, we’d each take a turn singing a song with the microphone, while everyone else would just sing the words in the background. After about an hour and 20 minutes we got tired of The Beatles and started venturing out to other things, like Carole King, and other old songs that the teachers knew, and were surprised when I also knew them! I even sang my standard Japanese song, Sukiyaki.
All in all, they thought I was great and I thought the same about them. We had a good time and I hope they invite me out for karaoke again soon!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Traffic kills all the fun
As I said before, Lauren and I decided to get up very early so we could spend the whole day in Kyoto. We had temples to see and culture to embrace! We hopped on a local train nice and early and got to a station where we could transfer to an express train straight for Kyoto. The ride was only 30 minutes from Osaka to Kyoto station. Once at the station, we bought all day bus passes for $5 and started on our way. It should have been a big fat clue that it was going to be a slow moving day when we saw the line for the bus to kinkaku ji (The Golden Pavilion).
When we arrived at Kinkaku ji, the sun was shining brightly and we had a beautiful view of the temple. This temple is in the traditional pagoda style and sits in the middle of a small lake with a single bridge connecting land to the temple. The reason it is called the Golden Pavilion is because it is actually plated in real gold! It was build during a very economically prosperous time in Japanese ancient history; during the time of the Shoguns.
It was amazing the way the sun glinted off the gold of the temple and reflected beautifully on the water below. The path for visitors around the pavilion is a nice light gravel walkway around the perimeter of the lake. Tourists cannot walk inside the temple because it is still used by the Buddhist priests that maintain the temple and the grounds. As we were walking along the path, I happened to look down into the water, and there were a ton of coy swimming in the lake. They were bright orange and white and clamoring along the bank of lake. The path goes up a small hill and through some nice trees. Lauren and I were there just as the leaves were beginning to change color, so it was quite pretty to see. Kinkaku ji is one of those places that even the most challenged photographer can get a postcard shot every time. I feel like such a professional taking pictures of this place because it is impossible to get a lousy shot!
Next, we walked back down to the bus stop and hopped a bus to Ginkaku ji (The Silver Pavilion). Yes, this is the opposite side of the spectrum from Kinkaku ji. In all my travels to Japan, I have never seen this temple before and it comes very highly recommended from all my Japanese friends. The story with this temple is that it was built to be in competition with Kinkaku ji. Originally the architect wanted to make a beautiful silver structure that could be revered even more than the Golden one. However, it was coming to the end of Japan’s economic high, so the architect did not have enough money to carry out his original idea. He kept the name however, but made the structure an incredible architectural beauty. It showed his talent and skill rather than the amount of money in his purse, and for this reason, Japanese people love and respect this temple more than the one of gold. I was really excited to see Ginkaku ji because of how highly recommended it had come, but when Lauren and I arrived, we discovered that the roof was being repaired and it had been closed to the public since February! Needless to say, we were very disappointed. We were still able to walk around the grounds and take in the natural beauty of autumn, but all in all, it was a bit of a bust.
After taking the path through the woods, we ventured back down to the main road to see where we could grab some lunch. After all the traffic of that morning it was already about 2pm and we were hungry. We weren’t able to find any lunch places, so we settled for a little coffee shop on a side street and each had a café latte and split a banana cake. After this, we shopped around a little on the side streets to look for souvenirs for family and our schools. It is customary in Japan, that if you tell co-workers you are going away on a short trip or vacation, that you should bring something back to share with everyone. I bought a watch for myself because I really love watches. But also, the watch I wear everyday was starting to show some wear in the wristband; I really love that watch, and I want it to stay nice, so I decided that I needed a new everyday watch that I could wear and save the other watch for nicer occasions.
After our shopping excursion, we hopped on a bus for Kiyomizu; it means “pure water.” This was the worst bus ride of the whole day. The others had been long, but this one was ridiculous. Lauren and I waited for about 30 minutes for the bus to arrive in the first place. The traffic had gone from bad to horrendous because street dancers with portable shrines were dancing through the street. I would have expected that if there was a festival or parade of some sort, that roads would have been purposely closed and the people would have been given a proper path to perform, but no, of course that is not the way it went. The dancers would traipse through the street and then the cars would continue to pass by, and then more dancers, and more cars. Once the bus finally got to the stop, it was very crowed, but Lauren and I piled on anyway, along with about 7 other people. At every stop it seemed as though no one was getting off, but 5 to 7 people were getting on. There was need to hold onto anything, because we were crammed in there so tightly that no one could breathe, let alone move or fall down. This bus ride took us just over an hour. Once we finally got off the bus, we were tired, a bit cranky and really hungry because we had only eaten that banana cake.
The first thing we did was search for a place to have a late lunch. We were at the point that we didn’t really care about eating traditional food from Kyoto, so we just stopped in the first place and it happened to be Italian. So we had pasta in Kyoto; traditional, Japanese/Italian pasta with some salad and bread and fish flakes. It was good and helped us to pull it together to make the loooong trek up the hill to Kiyomizu. This temple sits at the top of a big hill and has fresh spring water, which tourists cleanse themselves with by washing their hands and/or drinking it. The hill up to Kiyomizu has been lined with omiyage (souvenir) shops and little places to buy the traditional Kyoto sweet; it is a rice cake wrapped around red bean paste.
Lauren and I hit the shops on the way down, because we wanted to make it to the top by sunset, for the view of Kyoto in the pink and orange hues. We kind of buzzed right through the “temple” part of Kiyomizu, but Lauren really wanted the pictures, and I had been there twice before, so I wasn’t bothered. We were able to get some nice pictures and despite all the people it was kind of peaceful up there. After the pictures, we jaunted back down the hill and did a bit of shopping. We each bought omiyage for our schools, and then went to catch a bus back to the station to head back to the Mansion.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Life in 3-D
Our second day in Osaka began with a trip to the Osaka Castle. It is big and bright white and green with gold trimmings. The grounds of the castle are huge and are a great place just to walk around for the day. When we first arrived we were a little peckish and wanted to grab some quick food before our trek up the stairs to the top of the castle. It wouldn't be Japan if they didn't combine their history with the modern phenomenons commercialism and technology. Just in front of the main gate into the castle there is a bit of an outdoor food court. Lauren and I stopped here to grab some yaki soba (kind of like Chinese lo mien) and apple juice. While we were enjoying our sustenance, a little bird decided to join us. I guess there are just too many people in Japan, but the wild animals don't seem to be bothered by people in the slightest. It makes for some cool close encounters and some good pictures.
Yaki soba having satiated our hunger, we made our way through the main gate of the castle. Just beyond this gate lay a rather large and crowed festival. I am not quite sure the occasion, maybe just the autumn season and the long weekend. But there were people dressed in traditional warrior garb taking pictures with tourists. Just a bit further was a stage with a vivid performance happening. I really didn't understand what they were doing, but there was a woman singing and 4 dancers doing some interpretive dance around her with fans and instruments that looked like horns. I think it was a show depicting a battle of some kind. It was pretty cool to watch for a while.
After the show, Lauren and I ventured up the castle stairs. Again leave it to Japan to completely gut the inside of an ancient castle and make everything inside sleek and modern. We discovered quite quickly that the only reason to go to Osaka Castle is to climb to the top and see the view. I always enjoy a good bird's eye view of a city, so I was not disappointed. The view was nice, and after a once around the top, we made our way down and back to the Mansion to regroup and decide what should be next.
After a quick nap - about 30 minutes - we got up and headed out to the IMAX theater and Suntory Museum. This was a very busy little section of Osaka and we just couldn't do it all. We decided to check out the 3-D IMAX movies, check out the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit, and ride the Ferris Wheel. We began with the museum and the IMAX movies. Now the coolest things are always in 3-D! The first movie we saw was about the ocean and how all the creatures co-exist and are dependent upon one another to survive and keep the ocean in balance. Lauren and I had to wear this awesome, gaudy headphones in order to hear the original English narration by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. You know when you are watching a 3-D movie about the ocean you are guaranteed a shot when it looks like the shark is going to chomp right down on you, and this movie did not disappoint! The next movie was about Mummies and ancient Egypt. It was fascinating and talked about how if scientists can figure out how to successfully extract DNA from Mummies it will help to advance modern medicine. This movie wasn't nearly as 3-D awesome, but it made my inner nerd jump for joy!
After the movies, Lauren and I checked out the museum and gift shop. Just browsing, Lauren happened upon a plastic folder that had my quote on it. The Albert Einstein quote that inspired the new name for my blog. It was actually pretty inexpensive, so I jumped all over that. I even strayed a bit from my usual red and bought the Kelley green one with white lettering. I love when I find/Lauren finds little things that just seem to fit so perfectly into my life. It makes me feel like the world is created just for me and gives me a renewed sense of confidence or excitement or a little boost of whatever I happen to need at the time!
When we finally got out of the museum - we seem to trap ourselves in them :) - the sun was setting and we went to the top of the Suntory building to grab a quick dinner and glass of wine. I was able to capture some nice pictures of the sunset over the water. After our pasta and wine, we headed out to the Ferris Wheel. It was a beautiful evening, not too chilly and the all the lights in the city were about to come on as we got in line for the Ferris Wheel. It was about a 15 minute ride to go once around and there was a nice little English voice over so we knew what we were looking at as we climbed higher and higher. We could see a beautifully lit bridge that connects the islands of Kyushu and Honshu.
After the Ferris Wheel ride, we booked it back to the train station and headed back to the Mansion to change clothes and head back out to the Sky Building observatory. Now this is the for real observatory in the heart of the city of Osaka. When we arrived at the correct train station for this observatory, we could see the building from the station, but we had no clue how to get there walking. There was a ton of construction going on, obstructing the sidewalks, so walking would have been a pain. Instead we hopped in a cab and the nice guy took us to the Sky Building. And he turned off the meter, so that Lauren and I only paid the flat fee - I guess we looked cute!
We found the counter to get our ticket to go to the 40th floor observatory. Once we were one the 38th floor, we got in line to take escalators up to the 40th floor. There is a picture of the escalator as we are ascending - it looks like a never ending tunnel! Once we were on the top of the building, the wind was strong, but the view was gorgeous. I love night time views of cities with bright lights and tall buildings. One thing that made this observation deck so cool was that they had black lights up around the perimeter of the walkway and the floor was specially made so that it glowed in the black lights. Pictures of things that are supposed to be glow in the dark just never work out. So think of going to laser bowling dressed all in white! Pretty soon, Lauren and I started to get a little chilly, so we headed back inside.
By this time we were pretty well starving and began our search for some dinner. We had seen signs for a restaurant at the Sky Building called the Star Cafe. It seemed like a nice choice, but we soon realized that it was closed. Sadly, we hopped over to the Westin Hotel for a drink to regroup and figure out where we should go for dinner. We went to the executive bar in the Westin called, Blue Bar. It was a dimly lit smokey little place where the cocktails were $14, and they sold $500 champagne! BUT, they did make a Black Russian - which I had been craving, so all was happy and well. After sitting for a while, we finished our drinks and headed back out into the world to try our luck and see what was still open at 11pm for dinner. We just started walking around the nearly deserted streets of this section of Osaka looking for a glimpse of an open restaurant. We thought we had totally lucked out when we heard karaoke coming from inside a brightly lit bar. Unfortunately we found out it was a private party and they wouldn't serve us food.
Shortly after that, we happened upon a little French place with blue Christmas lights hanging from the stairway up to the main entrance. We ventured up the stairs and saw the host at the front of the store. It was very quiet inside, but we asked if they were still serving food and the little guy asked us to wait a moment and ran around the corner. Next, a very well dressed man in a formal suit came out and seated us. As we rounded the corner to where the tables were, we saw that the whole place was empty and they were beginning to close. We started to apologize for bothering them at closing time and started to head out, but the suit man stopped us and said, "No, please stay, anything you want." Lauren and I looked at the menu and decided on a salad appetizer with fresh greens and tomatoes. For our main course we ordered a lamb stew and then for dessert we got the creme brulee - my favorite!! We each had a glass of wine with dinner and then when the nice man brought us our dessert, he also brought two glasses of port!
It is not customary to tip in Japan, but had we been in America, that incredibly nice man would have gotten one heck of a nice tip!!! The food was delicious and the atmosphere was just calm and warm. We really lucked out in trying to find a nice place to eat. After dinner we headed back out and hailed a cab to take us back to the Mansion. We basked in the fantastic-ness of our day and our wonderful finale evening and crashed when we hit our beds. However, despite the fact that we had gotten in so late, we both decided we needed to get up bright and early to be ready for Kyoto in the morning!
Yaki soba having satiated our hunger, we made our way through the main gate of the castle. Just beyond this gate lay a rather large and crowed festival. I am not quite sure the occasion, maybe just the autumn season and the long weekend. But there were people dressed in traditional warrior garb taking pictures with tourists. Just a bit further was a stage with a vivid performance happening. I really didn't understand what they were doing, but there was a woman singing and 4 dancers doing some interpretive dance around her with fans and instruments that looked like horns. I think it was a show depicting a battle of some kind. It was pretty cool to watch for a while.
After the show, Lauren and I ventured up the castle stairs. Again leave it to Japan to completely gut the inside of an ancient castle and make everything inside sleek and modern. We discovered quite quickly that the only reason to go to Osaka Castle is to climb to the top and see the view. I always enjoy a good bird's eye view of a city, so I was not disappointed. The view was nice, and after a once around the top, we made our way down and back to the Mansion to regroup and decide what should be next.
After a quick nap - about 30 minutes - we got up and headed out to the IMAX theater and Suntory Museum. This was a very busy little section of Osaka and we just couldn't do it all. We decided to check out the 3-D IMAX movies, check out the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit, and ride the Ferris Wheel. We began with the museum and the IMAX movies. Now the coolest things are always in 3-D! The first movie we saw was about the ocean and how all the creatures co-exist and are dependent upon one another to survive and keep the ocean in balance. Lauren and I had to wear this awesome, gaudy headphones in order to hear the original English narration by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. You know when you are watching a 3-D movie about the ocean you are guaranteed a shot when it looks like the shark is going to chomp right down on you, and this movie did not disappoint! The next movie was about Mummies and ancient Egypt. It was fascinating and talked about how if scientists can figure out how to successfully extract DNA from Mummies it will help to advance modern medicine. This movie wasn't nearly as 3-D awesome, but it made my inner nerd jump for joy!
After the movies, Lauren and I checked out the museum and gift shop. Just browsing, Lauren happened upon a plastic folder that had my quote on it. The Albert Einstein quote that inspired the new name for my blog. It was actually pretty inexpensive, so I jumped all over that. I even strayed a bit from my usual red and bought the Kelley green one with white lettering. I love when I find/Lauren finds little things that just seem to fit so perfectly into my life. It makes me feel like the world is created just for me and gives me a renewed sense of confidence or excitement or a little boost of whatever I happen to need at the time!
When we finally got out of the museum - we seem to trap ourselves in them :) - the sun was setting and we went to the top of the Suntory building to grab a quick dinner and glass of wine. I was able to capture some nice pictures of the sunset over the water. After our pasta and wine, we headed out to the Ferris Wheel. It was a beautiful evening, not too chilly and the all the lights in the city were about to come on as we got in line for the Ferris Wheel. It was about a 15 minute ride to go once around and there was a nice little English voice over so we knew what we were looking at as we climbed higher and higher. We could see a beautifully lit bridge that connects the islands of Kyushu and Honshu.
After the Ferris Wheel ride, we booked it back to the train station and headed back to the Mansion to change clothes and head back out to the Sky Building observatory. Now this is the for real observatory in the heart of the city of Osaka. When we arrived at the correct train station for this observatory, we could see the building from the station, but we had no clue how to get there walking. There was a ton of construction going on, obstructing the sidewalks, so walking would have been a pain. Instead we hopped in a cab and the nice guy took us to the Sky Building. And he turned off the meter, so that Lauren and I only paid the flat fee - I guess we looked cute!
We found the counter to get our ticket to go to the 40th floor observatory. Once we were one the 38th floor, we got in line to take escalators up to the 40th floor. There is a picture of the escalator as we are ascending - it looks like a never ending tunnel! Once we were on the top of the building, the wind was strong, but the view was gorgeous. I love night time views of cities with bright lights and tall buildings. One thing that made this observation deck so cool was that they had black lights up around the perimeter of the walkway and the floor was specially made so that it glowed in the black lights. Pictures of things that are supposed to be glow in the dark just never work out. So think of going to laser bowling dressed all in white! Pretty soon, Lauren and I started to get a little chilly, so we headed back inside.
By this time we were pretty well starving and began our search for some dinner. We had seen signs for a restaurant at the Sky Building called the Star Cafe. It seemed like a nice choice, but we soon realized that it was closed. Sadly, we hopped over to the Westin Hotel for a drink to regroup and figure out where we should go for dinner. We went to the executive bar in the Westin called, Blue Bar. It was a dimly lit smokey little place where the cocktails were $14, and they sold $500 champagne! BUT, they did make a Black Russian - which I had been craving, so all was happy and well. After sitting for a while, we finished our drinks and headed back out into the world to try our luck and see what was still open at 11pm for dinner. We just started walking around the nearly deserted streets of this section of Osaka looking for a glimpse of an open restaurant. We thought we had totally lucked out when we heard karaoke coming from inside a brightly lit bar. Unfortunately we found out it was a private party and they wouldn't serve us food.
Shortly after that, we happened upon a little French place with blue Christmas lights hanging from the stairway up to the main entrance. We ventured up the stairs and saw the host at the front of the store. It was very quiet inside, but we asked if they were still serving food and the little guy asked us to wait a moment and ran around the corner. Next, a very well dressed man in a formal suit came out and seated us. As we rounded the corner to where the tables were, we saw that the whole place was empty and they were beginning to close. We started to apologize for bothering them at closing time and started to head out, but the suit man stopped us and said, "No, please stay, anything you want." Lauren and I looked at the menu and decided on a salad appetizer with fresh greens and tomatoes. For our main course we ordered a lamb stew and then for dessert we got the creme brulee - my favorite!! We each had a glass of wine with dinner and then when the nice man brought us our dessert, he also brought two glasses of port!
It is not customary to tip in Japan, but had we been in America, that incredibly nice man would have gotten one heck of a nice tip!!! The food was delicious and the atmosphere was just calm and warm. We really lucked out in trying to find a nice place to eat. After dinner we headed back out and hailed a cab to take us back to the Mansion. We basked in the fantastic-ness of our day and our wonderful finale evening and crashed when we hit our beds. However, despite the fact that we had gotten in so late, we both decided we needed to get up bright and early to be ready for Kyoto in the morning!
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