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".
------------------------
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.

Joe Carter and Tom Cheek

If you were a Canadian alive in 1992 and 1993, you will remember that the Toronto Blue Jays was the best team in major league baseball. The following year, to protest a Canadian team winning the World Series (twice), everyone went on strike and baseball sucked until recent years.

This was the call by Blue Jays' voice Tom Cheek when Joe Carter hit his famous walk-off homerun in the bottom of the ninth with two out, two strikes on him. I swear, I tear up every time I hear this.

Twisted.

This is a picture I should've posted a long time ago, multiple times. He is Hasegawa and works next to me at the Board of Education.

Waitin For a Train - Chris Smither

This guy is amazing. The video is crap, but you stop caring after about 30 seconds of watching and listening to him...

GRADUATION 2007
Two weeks ago my junior high 3rd years graduated (the school year in Japan ends in March and starts again in April). It's a happy occasion for the most part, but I was kind of sad. The sad part wasn't so much that I would probably never see most of them again (although that is sad), but that most of them will probably forget me shortly. This is kind of an egocentric concern, I admit, but the truth is that I really like some of these kids and I wish I could get to know them better. But these kids aren't going to drop everything and come running to me every time they see me. I've only been around for 6 months, I've only taught some of these kids maybe 2 or 3 times in class...
I read somewhere recently that we humans like to consider ourselves to be the stars of the show but the truth is that we are mere extras in relation to most people we interact with. And much as I would like to think I am a significant presence in some of these kids lives (because they are special to me), I have to accept the fact that I am only an extra, a brief walk-on presence. Having come to terms with this, I've decided that the most I can do is act my part as well as I can.

Still, I will miss them.

OK, enough emoting. Below are some pictures of graduation day at my three schools.

Kubo Jr. High had a cool arrangement where all the 1st and 2nd years lined up along the driveway and gave gifts to their "sempai" (elder/mentor) as they filed through.




Members of the Kudamatsu Jr. High Brass Band, before playing out the graduates.


The famous Mizuki two-time English speech contest champion.

Hiroshima San Fecce soccer fans. Mark, Brett, Ross (fellow JET lads) went to Hiroshima for the day on Wednesday (national holiday: Vernal Equinox Day) and took in this game. Hiroshima got their butt kicked by Osaka but it was fun to watch. There was one leather-lunged young woman (late teens? Early twenties?) beside us who, when I first heard her shouting, I thought it was one of the teenaged boys behind us. She was a real hardcore fan and didn't hesitate to cuss out a player if he messed up. All four of us kept peeking glances at her, in awe and admiration.




We went to Freshness Burger for lunch - delish! Mark ordered a mini salsa burger for dessert.


This picture was taken way back in October, I think, but I don't think I posted it. It's Hiroshima Castle. And that's me in front.


Brett drinks a lot of Coke. He is, in fact, a Pepsi man at heart but Pepsi is hard to find in Japan.

Student Art.


Amazing. I don't know who drew it, but it was on display at Suetake Jr. High in the art wing.


Also in the art wing. Wooden carvings which were painted... by students, presumably.


A poster for a candidate running for student council at Suetake.

MIYAZAKI HAYAO - genius.

For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of watching this man's films, well, please do. My memories of Miyazaki's works of art goes back to when i was a wee child of 7 or so and I saw "My Neighbour Totoro". I think one of the first movies our family owned. Anyways, the characters are so alive, and the stories so great. I've only seen a few of them, but the ones I have see are great for kids as well as adults. Please watch them. Below is a poster for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

The Day American Journalism Died.

The other day, Brett (who is a journalism major) and I were checking out the news on CNN. The site is broken down into several categories: Art, Science, World, etc. That day, the top three stories in the "World" section were (something like) "Eight Shiites Killed In Iraq Bombing", "Three Britons Kidnapped In Afghanistan" and "Earthquake Kills Seventy In Indonesia".

The top three stories in the "US" section were: "420-pound Woman Gives Birth Without Knowing She Was Pregnant", "Lawyer: Police Chief, Dog Have Diplomas From Same School", and "Teen Defends Giving Kids Pot".

Brett said, with great feeling and sadness, "Today, this day, is the day journalism died in America. What is wrong with you, Americaaaa??" He loves America, though. But the comparison of those headlines was pretty hilarious.

RANDOM


This was from Christmas.

DAZAIFU - Kyushu Island.

Shoko, Jennifer, Brett, and Ken. We (Shoko, that is) drove 3 hours south to the main southern island of Kyushu to see an exhibition of an artist that Shoko loves that was showing at the Kyushu National Museum, which is, by the way, an amazing building. Brand new last year and just acres of space inside the large dome-like interior. The featured artist's name is Itoh Jakuchu (1716-1800) and the man could paint. Unfortunately I couldn't get an original otherwise I would've scanned it and posted it. Incredibly vivid and confident paintings of nature, mainly.... tigers, cranes, and roosters being his specialty.

After the museum, we went wandering about in Dazaifu which has a nice big shrine with tons of people. As I watched all the people bustling about the ancient temple grounds, I remarked wistfully to Brett, "Imagine what this place would've been like a thousand years ago..." And Brett said, "yeah... all trees". Smartass.




The fattest plum blossoms I'd ever seen. I was one of the millions under that tree taking photos.








This very energetic 65-year-old man and his monkey act. When he took his hat off to bow to the crowd we could see he had bright green hair. His shirt said in big letters across the front: "Every day is hell".

Oh yeah, I'm staying another year here! I don't know if I've told anybody that yet.

Shamisen Awesomeness - YOSHIDA BROTHERS -- Tsugaru Jongara 2007.1.1

Shamisen is a traditional Japanese stringed instrument. It's fretless, has three strings and the strings are plucked with a flat, car-window-ice-scraper-like thing that you will see if you watch this. Please enjoy these brothers rocking out.

RANDOM8



Little Kanji, from the taiko group, flings a ball down the alley. Me, Yoshie + Kanji (big sis, little bro), Chika + Suguru (same) and Nagisa, all went bowling a week ago. We had the gutter-guards put in for Suguru and Kanji which meant those who would've done terribly normally did better than those who would've done alright without them. It was fun times!


Shoko's big dog, Daikichi (or Dai-chan). Shoko took me to her absolute favourite place in the ken (more favourite than the previous places that we saw in the autumn)...it's a gorgeous hike through bamboo and other trees unknown to me to the top of this huge hill from which you can see Kudamatsu on one side and neighbouring Tokuyama on the other. About halfway up the hill Shoko let Dai-chan loose and man that can dog run. Energy for daaays. Just tore all over the forest without missing a step.


Angela Aki - the only taste of "J-Pop" that I've really taken to. She writes her own songs, plays her own piano, and sings with her own voice. A rarity in pop these days, I think. She's half American, went to uni there, and is fluent in English. She also has a lovely down-to-earthness which I judge from her appearences on TV. One time she was playing one of her songs with a full orchestra at this beautiful concert hall and she walked out in jeans, t-shirt (not a tight sexy one, but a regular, kind of baggy t-shirt) and a zip-up hoody sweater. Awesome.

Below are two pictures (in a series of 5) that Mike or Anna took while I was napping in their apartment over winter holidays. I discovered them by accident later when I was previewing that pics on my camera.

Better late than never: My Grandma plays the electric organ. [Originally shot in August of 2006]

She didn't know I was taping....the room is what the call the "store"; lots of random craft-like things my grandpa makes, as well as an enormous collection of jazz and old rock albums that my great-grandmother accumulated.

Kids Say The Darndest Things.

One of the games I play with the kids as a warmup is the ol' "Who/What Am I?" game. It's basically a riddle game; I describe myself and the kids have to guess "Are you ----?". The following are two episodes of this game that actually happened this week. *Note. most of the kids, as you might very well do when listening to a language you are just beginning to learn, pick out certain key words they know and skip over the words they don't know. Which explains what happened.

"What am I? I can be short, I can be long.
I can be small, I can be big!
I am in every school and house.
I know everything! There are many of me in the library" [answer: a book]

One 7th grade girl, Reina: "Are you poo?"

Mr. Tadachi, who I was teaching with that day, thought of this one:
"Who am I? I was the president of South Africa.
I fought for freedom and equality. I was in prison for 26 years.
I am over 80 years old. I am a black man. Who am I?"

Mischevious boy: "Michael Jackson!" and then did a little dance.