YABUSAME (Horseback archery) (So so awesome).


This festival takes place every year in Tsuwano, which is a town in Shimane district about an hour and a half from Kudamatsu. There is a great deal of ceremony and beautiful traditional clothing. But the real show is the archery. There is a long narrow stretch of grass about 300 meters long. Within that stretch there is a lane of sand that is roped off - the lane is only about five feet wide . There are three targets set up at the beginning, middle and end of the run and these horseback archers gallop down this strip and try to hit all three targets. It is absolutely incredible. Brett, Shoko, and I were watching right near the middle target, so we couldn't see the beginning very well (lots of spectators) but it was a thrill to hear the horse thundering into view and blasting past. One archer - who was a junior highschool girl! - was especially impressive as she let out a long yell as she was coming up on the target: "yyyyeeeeeeeaaaaaAAAHHHHHHHHHAAA *CRACK as she hits the target* AAAeeee.....".

If you've ever ridden a horse, or practiced kyuudo (Japanese archery) (as Brett and Shoko do) you might appreciate how insanely difficult it is to combine the the two.



Setting up the target.


Above is the top archer of this festival. His name, to my neverending joy, is Ogasawara Ryo. Ogasawara. Ogasawara. And he was the only person to hit all three targets - I was so proud. He was on a JET calender last year and Shoko cut out the picture and has it posted on her wall. "That's my man! He's sooo hot!". This is one of the archers preparing for battle. Please note the length of the bow. It is enormous...probably about as tall as the shooter.







There is Ogasawara. Perfect form. Perfect name.

SAKURA: This national obsession brought to you by spring.

Sakura (cherry blossoms), in the words of Wikipedia, have "always been a symbol of ephemeral beauty in Japan and closely associated with samurai or bushi. Life was considered brief and beautiful, much like a cherry blossom." Every populated riverbank and park in Japan ornamented with sakura trees and every spring millions and billions of Japanese people eat and drink under these trees with family and friends to celebrate spring, family and friends, and good beer and bbq. This is called "hanami" which is derived from the characters 花見. Flower + to see = 花見。

Unfortunately, sakura season only last about two weeks, if that, so the merry-making and relaxation is short-lived and we're back to the daily 12-hour grind and lunches are once again reduced to 5 minute speed-eating contests. Not me, of course.

Anyways, here are some pics of the Kirito River which runs beside my apartment.



Funny story about this guy. I was biking home one day and saw this grandpa throwing bread to the carp in the river. I thought to myself, what a great picture, too bad I don't have my camera with me. The next day I was biking home at the usual time and lo! and behold, the same grandpa wearing the same clothes, doing the same thing at the same time. And I had my camera with me so I took his picture.


Not very many people on this side, but on the other side of the bridge there were tons of people. I didn't take pictures because I was on this side of the road and who wants to cross a road just to take a picture?



At night, the trees were lit up. Personally I preferred to see them at night, especially if you walk underneath them and just look up and see the fullest bloom possible contrasted against the black sky above... it's really really beautiful.

Introducing K'naan

In The Beginning by K'naan

Great song by a great musician. This is just the song, no video, but the song is what I want you to hear. Check out his first full-length album Dusty Foot Philosopher.

Shout out to Rob Bickford who introduced it to Ben who introduced it to me.

English and Japanese.

Good morning. It's April now. April marks the 8-month... mark ... of my stay in Japan. After 8 months, my language skills have improved to the point where I can speak perfectly mediocre Japanese and can read and write at a grade 1 level. A corresponding development is that my English proficiency has also declined such that I can say with confidence that my Japanese is almost as good as my English. To prove this, I will re-write the above paragraph in Japanese.

おはようございます。ゆうびんきょくは　どこですか。

This is an example of how a few simple characters can express a lot of stuff.

RE: declining English skills, a short little anecdote will help illustrate this phenomenon. About a month ago, Marko, Louise and Emily (fellow aliens teaching English) came over to stay at my place for a night just to chill in Kudamatsu with me and Brett. We were on our way to rent a movie but Marko wanted to first stop in at an electronics store on the way to check out a computer. He said, and I am quoting, "Will you guys - I forget the proper word for it - be nice to me and come look at this computer with me?"

The word he was looking for was "indulge".

Please bear in mind that Marko is an Englishman. Moreover, a graduate of the hallowed halls of OXFORD UNIVERSITY, with a major in history. After a year and a half in Japan, this is what his English has deteriorated to: "Be nice to me".
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OK the original reason for this post was to list some English words that have been adopted into the non-English-speaking Japanese vocabulary. Why? Because I think it's innerestin.

Some of these words are just really random...like why adopt THIS word or THAT word? Some examples:

- VIVID
- RELAX (often combined with "time"; i.e. "relax time")
- SAFE (used KIND of in the same context as baseball; e.g. "Hey Ken, you don't have to collate that mountain of paper after all!" "ohhh! safe!". Can be used to express relief in certain contexts)
- CHALLENGE (verb form; i.e. to challenge.)
- TENSION - this is a strange one. I've heard it used most often in the context of "gathering energy" or "pumping one's self up" for something. I'm still not entirely certain of it's meaning but it doesn't really have the same meaning as I'm used to.
- HARD - i.e. "hard schedule"; difficult, hassle.
- REASONABLE - i.e. reasonable price; affordable.
- MOOD-MAKER - seriously. This is someone who is the sparkplug, the catalyst of a group of people; ususally in the context of a team sport.
- NO GUFF - not really, but it'd be sweet.

There are lots more but I can't think of any write now. I mean right now. Wow, I didn't even mean to do that.