Week 9: I'm going to too many festivals!

I have a new pet!

He's so cute!

His name is Albert, and he is a rosemary. (purebred) 

I haven't re-potted him yet because I've been too BUSY.  And when I'm not too busy, I'm too forgetful. Gonna try to fix that this week.

I went to two festivals this week! We didn't have school Monday, so after a lazy morning, I figured I'd go to the Indian festival in Kobe!  After all that dancing, I felt an easy walk around would be a good thing.  And you know? It was!

They had dancing!

And yoga!

I didn't get to participate, it was already too crowded.

And people in cool outfits!

dancers, waiting to go on.

And so much food!

yes, those are rain clouds in the distance. on and off all day.

I have never seen naan baked before, but they literally stick it to the wall of the oven.

 I'll admit, mostly went for the food.  As shown by the fact that they had cool market stalls, but all I got were curry mixes. :) 

I think they've got the wrong "Indian" here....

So, I got some tandoori chicken, and all the sudden, my stomach was complaining. "we're smelling all this wonderful food and you got ONE thing?!"  So I went back and got the "special plate" that had rice and naan and two kinds of curry and tandoori chicken.

Now, apparently Japan doesn't like things particularly spicy, because it was all VERY mild. (I have yet to try anything too spicy for me here) I mentioned to the shop owner (who spoke English) that I would like things hotter, and his eyes lit up and I'm like "I just asked an Indian for spicier food. Did I make a mistake?"  His assistant brought out a cup of red...stuff.  And put a dollop in each portion of my food.  Thankfully, it was JUST enough heat.  SO GOOD.

So there I was, watching the dancing, enjoying the nice day. Lingering over the last bits of my curry when the plate shakes! Something has dropped onto it! I think it's rain, because it's been threatening all day, but when I look down, I see a BIRD has POOPED in the rest of my green curry!!

The GALL!

I mean, I had eaten most of the food before this TRAVESTY happened, but STILL!

What's worse, because it fell in the green curry, it splashed green all over my shirt and my shorts!

And then a guy came and hit on me!  I'm like "dude, I'm tired, I'm sore, I just got denied the last of my curry, and now I have green on my shirt and shorts. There's nothing really you can do to make me feel attractive at this point.  Just...move on."



School has been pretty normal. Halloween is, of course, coming up.  My Friday school even bought orange pumpkins! (they're hard to find here)

The principal approached me "do you know how to carve a pumpkin?"
 "Oh, yes, I've done it many times."
"Oh good, can you carve ours?"
"...sure!  Love to!  Do you have a knife?"
"Let me check."

Later, she approaches me again.
"Can you draw on them instead?"
"Drawing doesn't really work. I've got a better idea."

The short one would have been great for a glower, but this principal wants a cheerful Halloween.

We stuck them in the windows, and of course, the kids loved them, and were always patting the pumpkins and saying "Bye Mr. Pumpkin!" (in Japanese.)

This weekend, my travel friend and I decided to go down to Wakayama to see the Lion dancing festival!  Which we never made it to.  Darnit. Still, it was a fun Saturday!  Wakayama is MUCH more rural than where I am, so it was NICE and they were near mountains! (and ocean!)  We saw a mountain shrine

and went to the beach!

She showed me how to hold hermit crabs, and there were a BUNCH of them!

so cute/hideous!

And it was JUST so PRETTY

And we went to a bath house with an outdoor bath!

Been a while, but still great!

When night fell, we met up with Charles and checked out the lantern festival! 

it was an igloo of flame!

you could tell kids had decorated the paper cups for the lanterns

bamboo with tea lights in the everywhere

one section had carved bamboo

there were performers around! and the castle is nice at night!

we even got to go up and see the city view at night!

They had a big red button and I DIDN'T push it!  At first.

It was lovely, and that's why we ended up not going to the Lion Dance festival.  By the time I noticed we had to go, we would have had to have sprinted to the train station, and we probably would have still missed it.  So we enjoyed ourselves anyhow.

There were some traditional musicians playing in one area, and I loved listening to it.  It sounded calm and mournful.  It sounded like mournful kazoos. 

And then we all went to our respective sleeping locations, because it had been a long day! :)

Next week is going to be a boring post, because I'm staying IN.

Doing laundry.

Sleeping.

Might even clean my room.

I'm having a blast! Really I am, but I think I need a short break before running back out there.  (and coincidentally, there are no nearby festivals next weekend.) 

Week 8: Swing time!

Ok, first of all, wasn't Conference GREAT?  LOVED it.

Onwards!

Well, the week itself isn't much to talk about.

I started biking to school (and back, of course) and I was jogging as well!  I think that's pretty cool!

They don't let me buy lunch at school (for whatever reason) so I always make enough dinner for lunch the next day. 

Or...the next FEW days apparently.

I didn't jog Thursday, but that wasn't JUST laziness.  It was PLANNING.  See, I knew I had a GREAT deal of exercise coming up that weekend.

Swing exchange!

Welcome to a corner of my heaven.

I haven't actually swung dance (swing danced? Done swing dancing? swung danced?)  for a couple YEARS now, so I got out there, and I knew I'd be rusty.  And I was! Charles was nice and said he couldn't tell.  I knew I WAS though, because I had to THINK about what I was doing!  It was hard!  After a few dances I loosened up and was able to relax.  A few MORE songs and I had it back again.  Guess it's muscle memory anymore. :)

Charles (guy from my swing club in Arizona) came in from the States and we went out to dinner before hand.

 And an interesting thing, I got some bacon.  For dinner.  It was thick cut bacon.  Like...two inches thick.  NO, seriously, it was like a little steak of bacon meat.  They cooked it on a grill nice and gentle and put pepper on it and then you squeeze fresh lemon over it. And I gotta say, it was GOOD.  Think of that, next time.

So, then dancing!  There were people with interesting clothes.

and I guess my living healthy has been helping, because I managed to swing for the whole three hours without too much trouble!  I won't say I got tired.  By the end of the night, I was making silly mistakes and when I finally staggered home at about 12:30, I DIED.

Saturday, I woke up sore, but well rested.  I got to talk to family and go shopping before taking off for...MORE DANCING!!

This was a contest. I didn't get pictures of most of the night because I was busy. Dancing.

I had a blast! I even got asked to dance several times!  Those who know me, know I'm REALLY subtle, and shy and retiring when it comes to asking people to dance.

Really.

(does anyone actually believe that?)

I, for some reason, don't get asked to dance very often, and since I REALLY like to dance, I just got used to asking others instead of sitting around and waiting.

This dance ended around 8:40, which is a little early for a dance, but then it started at 5:30, so it was still 3 solid hours of dancing.   They did have more dancing. Something called the "late night" but was actually an "early morning". It went from Midnight until 5:00 AM, and...again, I'm not really a late night person.  (My brain shuts down around 11:00) 

When I got home, I died again.

Sunday morning, I woke up SORE and TIRED and just laid about in bed. I was really glad this was the week for Asia to watch General Conference, because I did NOT want to leave the house before noon!

This week I am thankful for pain killer.

Then I went back to dancing.  Guess I'm a glutton for punishment. :)

Outside dancing!  I was really feeling the effects of a long weekend by this point and when dancing would feel interesting muscles pull.  They called a break, so I walked around Osaka castle park with Charles for a little to loosen up more.

There were adorable children

ACCEPT MY RETURNING OF THE BALL!!

And a raptor club!

I stare at you!

And there were kids practicing traditional dancing

And a street preformer

Then I went back to dancing! 

Because of course I did!

As I left, I was debating whether or not I was going to make it to the evening dancing. (It's an exchange. It just keeps going.)  And I finally decided my body had enough. I was done.  Three hours of dancing for three days straight, and apparently I'm not QUITE as in shape as the last time I went to an exchange. Either that or I'm more aware of consequences, because I DO have to survive enough to go to school.  I still did better than I thought I would.

Unfortunately, there WAS a casualty.

Alas poor fan, you served me well.  Go in peace.

Still, what a GREAT weekend!

Week 7: Sports festival!

Ok, so you know, no names will be mentioned, you will not know where they are, and I'm going to be referring to this obliquely, because we were WARNED.

So! Sports festival! I remember there was one in Korea, and I was actually a little disappointed, because it wasn't a big thing like I thought it would be.

Well, turns out that's because it was Korea and not Japan.  I'm teaching Elementary, but it was BIG. They were EXCITED. They prepared for WEEKS.

They practice Everything.  (yes, it is capitalized on purpose.)  Over the last four weeks, I have seen them practice the marching, the lining up,

look at those rows!

the games

it was a beautiful example of how to approach practicing something possibly dangerous.

The cheers

Japanese Hakka, didn't I say?!

The dances and presentations

now imagine trying to pitch this to an American Elementary school

Just...the amount of practice gone into this. I cannot describe.  It was GREAT though!

It was Saturday school, so it made it a long week. Getting myself to wake up early on a Saturday was not easy.  Still, it was nice because I didn't have to wear school clothes.  And I got to bike there!  I wanted to wait for a weekend to to see if the distance was do-able, and if the weather is nice (especially since it has cooled down some) I actually take less time getting there than if I take the train!  And I get some exercise in. :)

Anyhow! The kids seemed a little surprised to see me that morning! Or maybe they were surprised to see my incandescent orange shirt I wore... I changed into a sports day polo when I got there, didn't want to distract from the kids. :)

I got there a good hour before it started, and guess what!

it starts.

They were already gathering.
 Those white tents in the distance were for the students to sit under, which makes sense.

They came, they saw, they enjoyed.

Everything was done with great decorum and order. They lined up, the principal talked to them (I'm going to guess about fair play and honor and stuff.) and we had some morning warm up exercises.  (I participated, so I don't have pictures.)

Then the kids sat down.

apparently, making those sitting mats was another school preparation

All neat and orderly.

This is something that continually throws me about Japanese schools. As far as I can tell, a lot of it is culture, but also...they have these expectations for the kids. So they fulfill it.  I gotta say, having a set order makes sense.  No "I wanna sit next to!" because it's already been dealt with.

They mostly had relay races, I'll be honest. 

I cheered for everyone in turn. it was fun. "C'mon orange, pick it up! Yellow, he's catching you!"

As an educator/organizer, I can really appreciate the practice they put into EVERYTHING, because I'll tell you, these races went like CLOCKWORK. there was no downtime, no "do I go next?" Nothing.  The kids who ran sat in one spot, the ones who were yet to go were in another, they were all in order, it was stunning.

In between races, each grade level would do a presentation dance.  Not class. Somehow, they choreographed dances that included the whole grade.

it helps that there weren't any solo performances.

a traditional fishing song, apparently.

great noise-makers from water bottles.

What really surprised me was that for everything, they used musical cues to tell the kids what to do. They'd line up, a song would start, they get in position, THAT bit of song would end, THEN their performance song would start.  Time to start a race? Play a song. Changing out teams? Song.  It seemed to really help.

They had modified relay for the littler kids, and I won't go into it, but I got some great ideas for chaos control for when I have my own class again!

My favorite thing was, I was sitting near a poor kid who had broken his leg. Couldn't participate.
Right?

Right?

nope.

He didn't have to roll as far as the others, but he went, and it was under his own power.
My co-teacher is partner to an Autistic child, and she ran too.

They also had a fun version of tug-of-war.  The kids would race to their stick and pull as fast as possible.

you'll notice each stick had its own referee

IF they made it to their side within time, they stopped. otherwise, the stick lay where it stopped.

They did horse-fighting (as far as I can tell, that's what it's called)

the goal is to snatch the hat off the opposing rider.

We had lunch

tell me it doesn't look like that black thing is going to try and eat me.

 And I realized I was getting a bit red. One of the girls had pity on me and let me use her sunscreen.

Then it was back to the action!  They kicked off the afternoon by having the parents get up and move!

Well, they moved a few feet at least.

That flag is tied to the rope, and when it falls over, it decides the winner. Good idea, I think!

And there was the BEST game EVER for the little kids. BEST GAME.

 I could not stop GRINNING

It was the cutest thing EVER. Each group only got 55 seconds, but they had a blast for every single one of them.
Speaking of, I was thinking of trying to do this in the US, and I couldn't help but think you'd get people saying 'you can't expect kids to sit for that long!"

While Japan seems to say "well, of course we can."

They'll get up for their performance and for their games. 

We'll have them cheer,

The older ones will help lead the younger ones.

We'll make sure they're hydrated

these kids do NOT fool around when it comes to water bottles.

And it's not like we're asking them to stay STILL and pay attention ALL the time.

"They'll be fine"

And they were.

White team won, by the way, but only by about 30 points.  :)  Awarding of the trophy was done, again, with all decorum, and they had a farewell speech.  During which, one of the kids keeled over. I'm guessing he locked his knees.  He seemed more embarrassed than anything, but they walked him off to recover.

The weather was perfect, too. Nice and clear.

Unfortunately, there was a lovely breeze cooling everything down. I say UN fortunately, because it fooled me into thinking I wasn't as exposed as I was and I ended up with some LOVELY red all over my neck.

My tan lines are stronger too.

I look like a cat!

I helped clean up and put stuff away, and then biked home and collapsed in an overheated mess on my bed.  So, that was sports day! It was fun, and the best part is, because of it, I don't have school Monday! 

ta-da!