If I’m studying for the JLPT then watching Japanese TV while I put in my electronic flashcards counts as language exposure, doesn’t it?

Tonight I watched “Run for Money”, which is a real-time show where contestants run around a landmark location for 60 minutes, completing tasks and being “hunted” by Hunters (who look like agents from The Matrix). Tonight they were in an Edo-era town, and as the time wound down, a bunch of guys dressed as Oni came out of the woods and joined the hunt. If they saw you, they’d bang on gongs and alert the Hunters as to your location.

Pretty much the best game of Cops and Robbers tag EVER. The SciFi channel apparently picked it up 2 years ago. Sorry, but nobody makes wacky game shows like the Japanese. NOBODY.

And now that it’s over just crap music shows and baseball are on, so I had better return to my studying with a new strength.

There is a new pain in my teeth, and I have to go to the dentist. I went today but they were closed because of the holiday. Waste of a train ticket! Honestly, this is such a pain. It’s not like I take bad care of my teeth, or eat sweets all day every day. FRUSTRATION.

I had a crazy weekend, which I’ll write about later.

Suffice it to say it was very physically demanding, and I am tired.

Last night I went out to DEAR for some Italian food. I try not to order the same thing every time, so I chose the smoked salmon and broccoli pasta. UGH. It was so BORING. And that is just wrong.

Pasta should never be a yawn-fest. It shouldn’t look and taste like nothing. It shouldn’t be lacking in both flavor and texture. You FAIL, DEAR. Solid F on that pasta.

Tonight I’ll be sewing beads onto my Glinda skirt, and watching Ugly Betty or the X Factor. Hmm, actually, as I recall, there was some weird fashion show drama on TV last week that I got really into. My costume, at any rate, is going to be awesome! I’ve got the skirt and top and shoes all sorted, I just need Glinda’s wand and crown and I’m all set!

For your amusement:

I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can’t really put a book on the Internet. Three companies have offered to put books by me on the Net, and I said, ‘If you can make something that has a nice jacket, nice paper with that nice smell, then we’ll talk.’ All the computer can give you is a manuscript. People don’t want to read manuscripts. They want to read books. Books smell good. They look good. You can press it to your bosom. You can carry it in your pocket.

-Ray Bradbury

Amen

Tonight I bought a cool shirt that says “FISH AND CHIP”, with a heart with the American flag in it. HA! It’s got long sleeves so it’s perfect for the weather. I wore it, and took some of the most hilarious purikura I’ve ever taken.

Purikura is short for Purinto Kurabu (Print Club). It’s a magical photobooth where you choose from a zillion different frames and styles, take about 8 photos, pick the best ones, and then step into another little booth to decorate them with doodles and stamps and backgrounds and all sorts of crazy things. Then you print them out and cut them up and stick them on things!!

Check out this crazy page for one girl’s example of her purikura.

If you ever visit me in Japan (I’m looking at YOU, family!) we will take purikura.

Purikura is super fun, and I don’t know why I don’t do it more often. OH WAIT YES I DO. It’s because I never think to, and when I do, I’m usually by myself. There is a kind of idea… that doing purikura by yourself, and having a picture album full of pictures of yourself alone is kind of a sad thing. Well yeah, but it’s also good to just take a photo by yourself… I get to take excellent series photos, and can make all the decisions about poses and decoration.

And then I get to keep all the photos, too (except for the ones I give away). I thought it would be funny recently to “attack” someone with purikura, and so I took a series by myself and then left them for this person to find (Ok, it’s my gentleman friend. HA! I love saying that). The first set I took was a little disjointed, but the ones I took tonight tell a funny story. I can’t wait to use them.

Now, I have a lot of funny ideas for purikura photo series. I need to get a stuffed dog for the next one, and write a little story line that can be done in 4-6 photos.

Hurr hurr hurr.

Let’s see. Today, I taught at Rogakko, and it was awesome. I did arts and crafts all day, with the 2-3 nensei in Jr. High (8th/9th graders), and the 5/6 nensei in elementary school. We made paper pumpkins and talked about Halloween and decorated a Christmas tree with Halloween cutouts. HAHA! I also had kids finish up their Halloween mobiles and paper maché pumpkins.

Lunch was a delicious piece of fish with skin on. At first it looked dry, but when you bit in, it was sweet and fishy and just the right amount of juicy. MMMMM. Couple that with a bowl of rice, miso soup, and a carton of milk, and you have a perfect lunch. WAY TO GO, JAPAN.

Seriously, I love the food here so much. I can’t believe the things I eat, but it’s soooo good.

The rest of the day I spent studying and preparing for classes. Tomorrow and Thursday, I have no class because of exams. Study party! If I was really smart, I’d take a day off and clean or go get my re-entry permit, or do something productive. But actually, I think that I have a day off coming up soon… a substitute holiday for a weekend I’ll be “working” (going to the school festival. Heck yeah!).

My English club is having a Halloween party on Friday, and on Friday night, I’m heading out west. Saturday morning, we’ll drive even more west, rent bikes, and bike for something like 70 kilometers across the bridge/island system that gets you from Shikoku to Hiroshima prefecture. Oh my yes. They say it’s a 4-7 hour trip one way. I’m super excited, despite having no “serious” bike experience.

I mean, I ride a mamachari. It only has one gear. A mamachari is a “Mama Chariot”, the bike with the big honkin’ basket in the front, and the really 1950’s design. It is the bicycle version of a people carrier, because you can put at least 2 kid seats on it, or put your friend on the back shelf bit (if you are lucky enough to have a shelf on the back). I feel like I should be wearing penny loafers and a pleated skirt when I ride mine. OH WAIT. That is what all students wear every day (and they ride mamacharis). Yup, pretty perfect, Japan.

That’s my days lately. And now, to the store to get potatoes for potato soup!!!

This weekend, Ada and I went down to a giant recycle shop in Anan. Actually, to tell the truth, it’s more of a jumble shop than a recycle shop — or maybe, a crazy bazaar. Every kind of Japanese culture or paraphernalia that you could want is in this shop. Katanas, tea sets, crazy masks, kimono, musical instruments, insane porcelain statues (giant Labrador or Betty Boop, anyone?) and so on.

In the back of the purse shelf, we found treasure:

Ada scored the red one, and I bought the black one. Awesome!

These backpacks are hugely iconic, all elementary students carry one. Red is for girls, black is for boys (though I think boys carry red as well). The students near my school have an add-on reflective flap with Sudachi-kun (our prefectural mascot), presumably so the students can be seen in the dark.

Because of all of this, there is pretty much no way that either of us would be able to use the backpack here in Japan. So we will wait. Right now, I’m using mine to store my journals and various art books. It’s incredibly functional and well-designed as a pack, and I can’t wait until I can start using it to cart my gear around.

Though, now that I think about it, I won’t be doing the same activity (biking to work with a sack full of materials) back in the states every day. So while it’s a great bag, it might not get the same amount of use when I am in a place where I can use it.

Ah well.

I also bought Kanji Sono Mama for my DS. It’s great because
a. It’s cheaper than an electronic dictionary
b. I can write kanji into the screen and it looks them up for me, simple as pie!
c. I bought it at Book Off, so it was maybe 1000 yen less than brand new. ROCK!!
So far, it’s pretty great. I just draw in the kanji or the furigana, and then choose my word. LOVE!!

Today was Heath and Sports Day, so I had off. I went to a traditional music concert affiliated with my school. However, because I had done the same thing the day before for 3 HOURS, we only stayed for 4 performances, and then snuck out. There is only so much Japanese music I can take.

Yesterday’s concert was quite good, don’t get me wrong. It was 3 hours of sword dances, Awa Odori, traditional singing by pensioners, new instruments I had never seen before, and finally, a giant group playing and singing this song:

Hanami Odori. This is part one of three, if you’re really into it, here are the other two parts:

We just finished up the piece in my lessons 2 weeks ago. I can play the whole thing, and sing most of it (though not at the same time). My singing is really crap, but it gets better… I can’t believe that I’ve been learning shamisen for a year now! Crazy. Sorry I don’t have a video of myself doing it… but you wouldn’t hear the singing in that case.

At any rate.. that is that lately! The end!

Today is the first non-rainy day this week! (what the heck am I doing online?!)

Oh yeah, I’m listening to Mumford and Sons!!!

(contains a four-letter word, you are warned, darlings)

“Little Lion Man”

“White Blank Page” (Live)

Oh my goodness yes!!

Anyway…

Last week was Silver Week, a big chunk of holidays, all lined up in a row! In the middle of that five-day weekend, my dear friends Dianne and Adrianne joined me in a trip to Osaka and Wakayama prefecture. The main aim of our destination was Koya-san, the big holy mountain in the middle of Wakayama prefecture.

See their Official Website for comprehensive information!

The basic thing to know is that Koya-san has over 200 temples crammed in a tiny space, and is absolutely oozing with religious history, as it is the home/holy place for a sect of Japanese Buddhism.

For us, that meant staying in a temple with very friendly monks, enjoying the peaceful scenery (and the huge crowds) and taking long walks through the woods, surrounded by graves and giant trees and beautiful buildings.

Amusing was the company graves, decorated with giant stone carvings (UCC Coffee had a giant coffee cup. We were disappointed that Sony and Panasonic didn’t have a giant stone television or camera). We were reverent of course at the monuments to the 47 samurai, but it’s difficult to maintain that sort of spirit when you’re participating in this giant zen tourism, and children are pointing at you and saying (with great surprise) “Oh, gaijin!”

But Dianne-gaijin-san and Adrianne-gaijin-san and I did manage to find and appreciate genuine moments. Maybe I’m not Buddhist, but I prayed none the less. And listened to the old women chanting with their prayer books in front of the sand-bowls of billowing incense. Admired the ancient paintings and the zen stone garden, and just let my thoughts wander.

That, I think, is the best that you can and should do.

And now, pictures.

Our first temple

Don’t worry, I was appropriately reverent inside, but you have to start any trip off properly. With jumping.

On the way to Kobo Daishi’s mausoleum. I managed to pick up the giant magic rock by using the basic principles of physics. The deal is, you reach in with one arm into this wooden cage, and try and pick up this rock that’s about the size of half a loaf of bread. It’s amazingly heavy, and while it has grippy bits in its shape, the only way to actually pick it up (that I managed) was to lean over, wedge in my arm, and pick it up like a baby or a set of weights. Ha! I guess I’m lucky now.

And there was a field. A proper one, with real grasses. It was amazing.

And a huge stupa! This is in the “middle” of the mountain top. Koya-san has 8 peaks in its range that surround a central point (where the stupa is) in such a way that it looks like the stupa is in the middle of a (holy) lotus flower. You can’t see the mountain “petals” because of the trees and all, but that’s what they say anyway. It was an amazing building. Going inside reminded me a lot of a temple I visited in Kanchipuram: a giant Buddha and four (compartively) smaller onces, surrounded by pillars with fabulous paintings.

By the end, we were completely Buddha’d-out.

Today at Rogakko, I taught the students the story of Dreamcatchers, and we did arts and crafts. Later, we had a Ballet workshop with the entire school.

Lieutenant, please file today under “Super Special Awesome”.

Other great stuff:

I climbed the Bizan in the dark, and was not eaten by wild dogs.

I learned how to play a song from “The Little Mermaid” on the ukulele.

The weekly home-cooked meals and ladies-only movie nights have begun again at the Shogakko Queen’s house. Viva! The Queen, the Fashionista, the Kiwi, and myself gather for delightful evenings. Ho har har.

Daniel Radcliffe is apparently going to star as Dan Eldon in the movie about Dan Eldon’s life.

The Wizard of New Zealand has a great wikipedia page.

I get enough sleep every night despite crazy dreams, because I am not up till all hours of the night worrying about things.

In a sudden burst of creativity, I started scrapbooking and making collages again (see: Dan Eldon).

The new JETs came, I realized how much more capable I’ve become as a person, and, aspiring after the archetypal French Girl, to realize that I can only improve and grow.

In other words, it can only get more fabulous!

Oh my God oh my Gawwwwwwd, Awa Odori starts this Wednesday!! I’m so nervous!!!

o________O;;;;;

Our last practice was tonight.
I’ve been practicing really really hard!
So hard, that I pulled something… my right leg is all screwed up, as is my lower back. I have to stretch really well every day just to be able to do normal stuff. Ow ow ow. いたいいいい

But oh my goodness is it ever exciting! I can’t wait to wear my purple kimono and my giant taco-shaped hat and dance like nuts! Every day now I wear geta when I’m not at school.

And speaking of not being at school…
Today I woke up, and it was typhooning. We were getting hit by the edge of tropical storm Etau, and it was amazing!!! So much rain, so much lightening and thunder!!! Nature is really really powerful!

I thought to myself, “Oh, I can’t be bothered to go through this storm just to sit pointlessly at my desk”. So I mailed my supervisor to ask for holiday leave. Stupid! I should have said “Oh no, a typhoon! Abunai!”

But now I have to take one of my holiday days. Mottainai! What a waste!!

Although, it did clear up and I could have gone in for half a day, but I am a lazy bum and couldn’t be bothered.

Yesterday I saw an amazing musical play put on by a local musical theater group. One of my students was in it, surprisingly.

The (original) story was about three girls who meet two girls who may or may not be magical, and for some reason, they decide to go back in time on a flying broom (one of the girls is a janitor, one is a makeup artist, and one just likes history for some reason?). So they go back and meet somebody who may or may not be Genghis Khan, and help some people get a scroll and a princess, and then there was a huge song and dance number.

Then, they went to America to try and stop Kennedy from being assassinated. For this half the play, almost everyone spoke a ton of English, and they were all pretty dang good with their accents and so on. The girls made a jazz group, and performed for Jackie O, and tried to warn her. Jackie O said she would tell Kennedy, but she lied! (for some reason, she was a complete bitch, and she couldn’t see the two magical girls. Who knew?)

Undaunted, the girls use their showbiz connections (3 more extremely tall girls in sparkly Supreme’s style dresses) to get an audience with Kennedy. They warn him about getting shot, but he says that danger is part of being President, and the people of Texas are his people too, so he can’t avoid the trip. Realizing they can’t stop him from taking his path, the cast sings “Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory” in a very moving style, giving Kennedy one last performance.

In the audience, we had already looked at each other several times to say “No way”

But wait, there was more to come. John and Jackie got on their car and were on the motorcade, and the girls came and stopped time, to try and save him again. They told JFK that they were from the future, and that we had a black President, and that there was a bullet in his future. But JFK said that he was the President of the United States of America, and he was going to do his job.

Then he was shot. (In the audience, we looked at each other and said “No Way” again).

Then the janitor girl held up a flag in a spotlight against the curtain, and the Supremes stood in the balcony and sang something along the lines of “Where have you gone, JFK”. (I’ve been unable to figure out what song they actually sang).

Then they went back to the present time, accidentally inspiring young Steven Spielberg to invent E.T. THE END.

Like I said. It was amaaaaaaazing. Not often am I really weirded out and very moved at the same time.

File that under “Oh, Japan”.

I am, indeed a dancing fool.

It’s ok. I can live with that!

So, as I said, I went to Komatsushima Matsuri. At first I was in a bit of a mood because it was very hot, and humid, and the people I was to meet didn’t show for an hour. I don’t like being made to wait, and once I DO start waiting, I don’t like to break my solitude when everyone else shows up! It’s a silly cycle.

My friends appeared and we got down to the business of watching the thing that were going on. I had already seen 40 minutes of hula dancing, so while we listened to a bunch of speeches from dignitaries and navy guys, my friend (The Fashionista) and her Japanese guy friend (City Boy) went to look at some of the booths. I stayed in the shade and waited for the next attraction, which was going to be the gaijin (foreigner) Awa Odori dance competition.

I knew there was trouble when I saw the Fashionista talking and gesturing with some guy wearing a fair badge. City Boy walked back and told me that the Fashionista was now entered in the contest. Then they all started gesturing at me, and suddenly I realized that I was entered in the contest too.

Oh boy.

Only for a minute did I think “Oh heck no”.

Then I thought “Oh heck yes, I am going to kick ass and dance hard. And I am all out of ass. Let’s do this!”

We danced round and round a stage, lots of college students from China, Mongolia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Colombia. And two chicks from America. We danced Otoko Odori (men’s dance) which was newish to me, and what the heck, I danced HARD CORE.

And I won the whole dang thing!! 7 prizes, and I got the top one!!! Which was an ice-cream maker / blender. HECK YEAH!!

The trick to winning? Putting all your gumption into it, grinning like a dancing fool, and just being totally willing to dance in front of an entire town / video cameras. Hopefully it will end up on the news or something har har har.

My only regret is not shoving my camera in someone’s hands before I climbed up on the stage. Boo!

Chalk it up to another “Oh Japan, you so awesome” moments.
(I love dancing Awa Odori!)

Man oh man, it’s all new kinds of hot now.

I did turn on my air-con because I’ve been at home during the day and really do need it. Ah well. It had to happen sometime.

Today is a matsuri down in Komatsushima, “Harbor Festival”. I don’t know if I want to go, but I think I’m gonna anyway… the issue is the heat, and the fact that I’m not so excited to be around a bunch of people. I’m not even that excited to be around my friends, to tell God’s honest truth.

The other night I went with the Kiwi to a charity music concert at P’s (a bar). We were two of maybe 6 foreigners there, and we wound up sitting and chatting up this Japanese woman for over 2 hours. It’s fun, and really cool to be able to sit and chat in another language but oh my gosh is it exhausting after a while!!

…and I’m starting to feel that exhaustion around people who speak English. Sometimes, when people just aren’t traveling down the same mental or linguistic or intellectual or emotional line that you are, it’s very tiring to hang out with them, and to keep things going.

Maybe I’ve mentioned this before, maybe not, but the thing they really don’t explain here is the loneliness that comes about. Sure, I have a good number of friends, and even more acquaintances, but… there is such a loneliness none the less. It’s more base, and can be covered up with activity, parties, coffee dates, and so on.

Note that I say “covered up”, not “dealt with”.

I mean, it’s fine. It’s all totally fine, and I’m not going to crash and burn, but going along like that is like running and engine, eventually it’ll run down and can’t go anymore until it gets a tune-up and the (immediate) issue is addressed (or at least the fan belt is replaced, or the gas replenished) and then it goes again.

Like I said, I’m fine.

And I’m going to the festival, I’m not wussing out and staying inside all day (much as that is sort of appealing, it’s also a completely revolting idea).