hmmm. . . dance. . . what else?

i think i posted this link once before, but 小倉先生 (ogura-sensei, a.k.a. taka, a.k.a. my dance teacher) has updated the website quite a bit. . . new pictures and even some videos. . . first go to. . . http://www.geocities.jp/dancecream2/index2.htm

since it is all in japanese, look for the link on the side bar that says 'movie&photo' in english . . .click on it (obviously? do i need to go into all these details?). . . anyway, once you are on that page, look for my name (again essentially the only english). . . it should be in the box on the bottom left side. . . click the play button (it says 'go' in english underneath). . . hopefully it will play for you. . . i can't watch it from the computer i am on now for some reason. . . maybe they block video programs from office computers? . . . seeing as how i cannot watch it first, i suppose it is dangerous to tell everyone i know how to view it. . . (update: i just watched this video. . . he really edited it down - as in an hour and a half of dance was squashed into about a four minute clip. . . and you'll want to know the background because it makes no sense without it. . . we were dancing in an art exhibit at the paper museum in ino. . . my dance teacher, his wife, and me. . . okay, so that still may not explain much. . . just watch it and think what you will of it)

after that, you can check out the rest of the site by just clicking on random buttons i suppose. . . i'm in a few pictures, but they are pretty small. . . maybe he'll post videos of yosakoi later??? maybe not. . . anyway, just thought i'd let you know it's there. . .

oh, one las thing while i'm on the topic of dance cream (my studio). . . these are some of the quotes i've collected over the past year. . .

"you are too beautiful for me" ~ taka (ogura-sensei) singing to me when i was obviously not doing the movement properly

"it's like you're walking down the street and see a baby falling from a building, so you're like WAH! . . . aww" ~ taka describing a movement to the class

after my haircut:
miyuki (female) "i wish i had her hair"
taka (male) "i wish i had her legs"

"アメリカ人ちゃんどこですか。"　"where is america-jin-chan?" ~ na-chan (sakura's six year old sister) at soji early this year (obviously before she knew my name)

"erinn is the blue-eyed samurai" ~ sakura's dad (our announcer) after yosakoi

oh, look. . . i just found this video of one of our dances. . . only it's at a previous yosakoi, so i'm not in it. . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTWavZ4Wa6w

okay, that's all for now. . . じゃね。

英語クラブ

this is old news now, but. . .

my 一年生 (first year girls) got first place in the ken (prefecture) speech contest. . . that's the contest that was the same weekend as yosakoi in osaka. . . i felt so bad that i could be there. . . but they did a great job! (and if you can't tell by the picture, these two could have cared less if they got first or last place. . . they're hilarious!)

also, one of my 三年生 (third year) girls got fourth place in a different speech contest held the week before. . . she should have placed higher, but her speech was on the serious side while the judges seemed to prefer comedy. . . here is her speech. . . and unlike many of the other students who wrote their speeches in japanese and had their teachers translate them into english. . . yes, i'm bitter about that. . . kanako wrote her entire speech in english. . .i only edited it. . . (did i also mention that kanako passed level 2 1/2 of the eiken - english proficiency test? not very many junior high school students make it to that level. . . i don't think i'm allowed to have favorites as a teacher, but i will really miss this girl when she graduates in march). . . anyway, here is her speech. . .

Having a Broad View of the World

I’m interested in English and learning about foreign countries. I want to learn about other countries and be able to communicate more, so I study English hard. If we can speak English, we will be able to talk to more people and learn more about the world because English is used by many people in many countries. Then we can cooperate with people in the world for peace.

In my life, I have many chances to communicate with people from other countries. I’ll tell you about the two biggest chances.

First, three students from Mongolia studied at my school first term. They studied all subjects in Japanese. Sometimes, they couldn't understand Japanese, so we taught them in English. Then, I thought, English is useful when we communicate with people from other countries.

Second, I lived in Indonesia for a year when I was little. While I can’t remember everything, I can remember the beautiful nature and friendly people. I like Indonesia very much. My mother also likes Indonesia.

There were some big earthquakes on Java Island in May. I was very surprised and sad to hear this news. The earthquakes did great damage to the center of Java Island. About six thousand people were killed. Nine hundred schools and two hundred thirty thousand houses were destroyed. So, the people there haven’t been able to live normal lives.

Many volunteers have been working hard and doing their best for Indonesia. My mother started doing volunteer work too. She sold bags and hats made in Indonesia at Sunday Market. Many people in Kochi joined the volunteer work. My mother looked very busy, but she said, “This work is not a hardship. I don’t feel tired from it.”

I also joined the fund raising campaign at Hirome Market. I wanted to help, so I worked hard. I called, “Please help the people of Indonesia.” Then, many people came and donated money. Sometimes a little child came. I was very happy, and I said, “Thank you.” The child was smiling. I learned many things and found something warm in my heart.

I believe only learning to understand other countries is not good enough. Our actions are also important. When we are able to communicate and interact with people from different countries, little by little the world becomes more peaceful. This is why I want to have a broad view of the world.

よさこい と 誕生日２４

the following is a report of my weekend trip to osaka for よさこい (a.k.a. YOSAKOI! or 4351) . . . yosakoi is a japanese dance festival that began in kochi-ken (where i live) and has now spread across japan with the largest festival held each year in hokkaido. . . dance cream (my studio/ team) was the guest team. . . it was an amazing weekend with an amazing group of people (if not for their dancing skills, most definitely for their personalities). . .

friday night, we left dance cream at midnight. i was quite surprised to get on the bus and find that at least five people had bought beer for the ride. . . considering we were leaving on a five hour trip at midnight of essentially the same day we had to dance, i don’t know how their bodies had the energy to consume alcohol. . . i was one of the first people to fall asleep (although 小倉先生had put on the video of our dance performance at the ino paper art museum for me to watch). . . supposedly most others were out by about 3a.m. . . we arrived at the hotel in osaka around 4:15a.m. where gien, one of the team members, was delighted to discover a vending machine with haagen-dazs ice cream and could not be stopped in his purchase despite the time of day/night . . .we were soon led to our room (yes, the entire team slept in one room). . . the first night we had no futons, no pillows, no covers. . . just the tatami floor to sleep on and our bags and coats as pillows and blankets. . . i can’t say that i wasn’t annoyed. . . if someone expects me to perform (especially to perform almost non-stop for a twelve hour period of time), they better let me sleep properly the night before. . . but seeing as how we all have jobs (and could, therefore, not leave earlier) and how the studio has little money (and we, the dancers, didn’t have to pay for anything the entire trip), the first night was spent on a bus and tatami floor. . . thankfully, no one in the group snores. . . anyway. . .

our excellent night of rest finished around 6a.m. when people started getting into costume number one and doing their makeup and scarfing down a bit of breakfast. . . around 8a.m. we went began rehearsal on the indoor stage, by 9:30a.m. we were rehearsing on our outdoor stages, and a little after 10:00 the opening ceremonies began. . . the whole day was really quite a blur to me. . . not long after the opening ceremonies, we had our first performance . . . this was followed by a second and third performance with rehearsals and costume changes in between. . . by 1:40, i was famished and grouchy (from lack of sleep and food and breaks. . . seriously not even time for a bathroom run between 8:00 and 1:40). . . we all gobbled up as much of our おベンと (lunch boxes) as we could before our performance at 2p.m. . . . our last outdoor performance was, thankfully, around 3:30, as it was beginning to drizzle (the day had already been cold and dreary enough since we were running around in costumes designed for dance during the hottest part of summer in kochi). . . all the performances, sprints from stage to stage, and overly speedy costume changes ended around 4:20p.m. . . at this time, we were able to return to the indoor stage for one last cram rehearsal before the dinner show (at which we were the main event, being the guest team and all). . . the final rehearsal ended at 5:00, giving us a one hour break (the first of the day). . . unfortunately, half way through our haagen-dazs ice cream bars, we discovered that the one hour break had turned into a thirty minute break because we needed to be at the opening ceremonies of the dinner show. . . sorry this is getting lengthy. . .

once at the dinner show, we sat through a full hour of torture, watching everyone chow down on the banquet food and gulp down their beers. . . our team sat taking minute sips of water in order to avoid any last minute toilet runs while in costume. . .and then we were somehow getting our last minute pep talks backstage. . . and then there was dancing. . . and suddenly it was all over. . . and all that was left of the banquet was a meatball dish and a few pieces of rolled sushi. . . not the most rejuvenating meal after the day we had, but we were really just too exhausted to care. . .

anyway, regressing a bit. . . the dances themselves were quite an experience. . . i’m not used to dancing outside (especially in the rain. . . it reminded me somewhat of my high school cross county meets . . . i swear it always rained for regionals or state). . . anyway. . . i am also not used to being a very outward performer (modern dance tends to have a more internal focus). . .yosakoi is all about the crowd. . . our team had four dances. . . i was the only person who had to learn all four of them from scratch. . . did i mention that i was the only foreigner on my team? i tend to forget that because they treat me the same as everyone else, but everyone that talked to me in osaka seemed to point that out. . . the girl that dances next to me got upset because some guy in the audience apparently had his eye on me during one dance. . . after the show, she said all she had been thinking was ‘look at me! i’m dancing too!’. . . it was pretty funny. . . anyway. . . i was terrified for the first performance or two despite the fact that we had been rehearsing like crazy since june. . .by the final outdoor performance, i had relaxed a bit and was having a lot of fun. . . of course that all changed for our evening performance. . . the two dances that my teacher put me in the front row for were the two that i had the least amount of confidence in. . . for whatever reason (nerves, lack of sleep, lack of food, etc.), i was on auto-pilot for every single dance on Saturday. . . i.e. if i didn’t know the dance well enough before saturday, i was screwed on stage. . . the first dance went well enough, i suppose. . . since i was on auto-pilot, i can’t even remember what mistakes i might have made. . . the middle two dances (my front row dances) felt wretched (more than felt. . . i completely blanked out halfway through one dance). . . but the last dance. . .

the last dance was the most amazing dance i have ever performed. . . granted i have absolutely no idea how it looked. . . it was simply FUN. . . as much as i love dance (and obviously cannot survive without it), i rarely have loads of fun on stage. . . but this dance was amazing. . . i was center stage in the second row behind my teacher, who always makes mistakes (a fact that makes me feel quite a bit better b/c i’m always so hard on myself when i mess up). . . anyway, every bit of his energy was in that performance. . . the crowd was cheering like crazy. . . it was impossible to be outside of the moment. . . there was never a point at which i was thinking at all or even wondering what was happening around me. . . i never knew you could get so completely lost in a dance like that. . . at the end, 小倉先生 and i cross paths. . . the energy in his face was great (i think he looks like a madman when he dances all out). . . it was AMAZING. . .

and on that note, my first yosakoi was over. . . five and a half months of rehearsals for one twelve hour day. . . the most stress i have probably ever had to put on my body (thus far that is, as i hope to do it again in the near future). . . the most amazing day. . .

after dinner, we all had our baths (japanese style, of course. . . shower first, followed by a dip in the public bath/hot tub. . .along with a sauna. . . not to mention the tokyo team members that gave massages later in the evening. . . can’t think of a better way to relax on a cold, rainy day). . .

the team even remembered that sunday was my birthday and surprised me (really surprised me b/c i didn’t know that i had told anyone about my birthday) with a delicious strawberry cake. . . and a really cute card that almost everyone tried to write in english. . . lots of phrases like “may all your dreams come true,” “i love you,” “i wish you many happiness”. . . and then one from a japanese tv commercial “”my house is a daiwa house! oh!” . . . they are all so amazing! i could not think of a better way to celebrate my birthday (well, the day before my birthday). . .

sunday was a bit sad because we had to leave the tokyo members behind and start heading home to kochi. . . however, we decided to hang out in kobe for most of the day. . . starting with a trip to an aquarium (including a dolphin show, sea otters, penguins, and nemo). . . everyone let me choose the restaurant for lunch, so we went to an indian restaurant called ‘gay lords’ (sometimes japanese people seem a bit behind the times. . . i felt like i was with a group of elementary kids as they all giggled at the name. . . but the food was good). . . finally, we went shopping at an outlet mall. . . if there is one thing i have learned over the past year, it is that one cannot take a trip with japanese people without taking time to shop (i cannot tell you how much time we spent shopping during our free time in korea). . . anyway. . .

sunday was probably the first time i have been with everyone outside of dance class, workshops, concerts, studio parties and performances. . . everyone’s personality really came out. . . ban-chan headed to all the frilly, girly shops, miki to the sports shops, gien to the kobe pudding specialty shop, etc, etc. . . good bonding experience. . .

on the way home, we started discussing our next show(s). . . i think a small studio performance in march . . . and then the kochi-wide dance collaboration in may(?). . . lots to look forward to. . . but still sad to have yosakoi behind us. . .

whew. . . sorry that got a bit lengthy. . . just wanted to report while the experience was fresh in my mind (for once. . . how many other events do i still need to go back and report on?). . . if you don’t already know, i will be returning to the states from december 22nd to january 7th . . .let me know what you are all up to (especially if you plan to be in the chicago area at that time). . . じゃ、またね！

竹馬. . .bamboo horse

this summer at dance cream (my main dance studio) i tried to learn how to use 竹馬 (kind of japanese stilts made of bamboo – hence 竹~bamboo and 馬~horse). . . anyway. . . i failed to succeed. . . both of the little kids (sakura’s sister who is a first grader in elementary school and another dancer’s daughter who is a third grader) can hobble around the studio on them. . . many of the adults can even do low arabesques and work their way up to a slow jog. . . i eventually managed to stand for two seconds and a few times succeeded in taking one and a half steps before falling off. . .i just can’t seem to make the same arm work with the same leg. . .

earlier this month, i attended the nursery school 運動会 (sports festival) to discover that my problem may not be due purely to lack of coordination. . . maybe more a lack of training from the time i was in diapers. . . see for yourself. . . my kids are the coolest. . .

this is what i call the pre-takeuma stage. . . the three year olds start on these little can like things, as you can see. . .

these are the five year olds. . . they can go a full 50 meters or so on those things. . . and, as you can see, some of them are set at a level as high as the kids themselves. . . すごいですよ！

just for fun. . .

around may or june the old gymnasium was torn down in order to build a new, earthquake safe elementary school . . . which naturally makes me feel safe to be teaching in the old one ;)

anyway, the construction guys have pretty much taken over the parking area in front of my place . . .the dormitory i live in is literally right next to the elementary school. . . as in i have to make all my curtains are closed when i’m getting ready in the mornings. . .

today was one of the rare days that i was able to go home to eat lunch and relax a few minutes away from students (and away from soji). . . as i left to return to work, this is what i found. . .

i found it amusing to see all the construction workers sprawled out on the parking lot and in their trucks. . . there were at least six or seven more of them, but this was the only picture i could risk without fear of being caught. おもしろいね.

quirks

japan is an odd place sometimes. . . they believe strongly in this appearance over reality concept. . . this leads to me sitting at work for hours or days at a time having to appear busy even though i really have nothing to do . . .

although i personally am not having problems with the appearance vs. reality thing at the moment (teaching at seven schools and dancing every night keep me busy enough), but i just left the junior high school where a staff meeting was in progress (i am so grateful that i am one of the alts that gets out of those things). . . most of the teachers are sleeping, making midterm tests, or grading papers. . . no one actually listens to a word being said. . . why bother talking if no one is going to listen? the training starts early on (as i mentioned in the blog about my over-worked students). . .

more quirks in the system. . .i recently had the choice of staying at work for an extra hour and a half to eat school lunch. . . or returning to my office early and grabbing my own lunch along the way. . . apparently my decision to cancel one day of school lunch caused my supervisor an extra hour of work. . . he had to call to cancel the lunch, make a second call to cancel the charges to my account, and was apparently rather distressed with the fact that my one little bottle of milk could not be cancelled. . . i.e. i will be charged possibly thirty cents for a bottle that someone else will probably drink anyway. . .

that’s all i have time for at the moment. . . still so much more to say. . .and so many pictures i need to post! for now, here is one of a fisherman at the beach last saturday (no, i don't actually know who he is). . .

小さいブログ. . .ゴメンね！

i know, i know. . . it's time for me to write a real blog reporting on all my amazing experiences in japan. . . and although it is my now my second year here (and i therefore have a much better understanding of my surroundings and the events taking place), i do still have exciting new experiences to report. . . the problem is in the fact that i have no time to report them . . .

i suppose the place to start is dance. . . as i believe you know, i will be dancing as part of the guest team at yosakoi in osaka this november (my birthday weekend to be exact). . . if you can read japanese, here's the info (dance cream is the name of the studio i dance at) . . .
http://sasso-japan.org/expo-vol2.html
http://park.expo70.or.jp/facil/facil_04.html#yosakoi
i'm not really clear on all the details. . . all i know is that we have numerous street performances and a couple of stage performances. . . i think we only dance on saturday (the 18th). . . we are leaving kochi around midnight on friday night. . . taking a bus to osaka (3+hours?) . . . and then dancing all day staturday. . . i believe relaxing a bit/ sightseeing on sunday. . . and returning. . . while i am obviously extremely excited, i am also getting pretty stressed out. . . as the only person on the team who has never participated in yosakoi, i have no idea how to use narko or maneuver my happi or scream random words in japanese (it's like trying to learning things like woohoo in english. . . よちょれ　and わしょい are not particularly useful for daily communication). . . aside from those challenges, my teacher put me in all four of the dances both in the street version (which everyone does) as well as on stage. . . since we started learning the first dance in june or july, two of the dances have been pretty well drilled into my body (including the chants and narko and happi). . . a third dance is coming along (although we spend very little time on it in rehearsals. . . as in running it once maybe every week? if that). . . the fourth, however, is my biggest source of stress. . . apparently my teacher has decided not to actually teach it to me. . .i finally asked him for a video of it (but have no time to watch the video). . . we NEVER practice it in rehearsal. . . i have no idea how he expects me to be in this dance. . . learning combinations is my biggest weakness in dance. . . so, yeah, that should be interesting. . .

okay, i know that's just a start, but i really need to go home and go to bed now. . .

out of curiosity, who still checks my blog? is it down to just my mother? i know i've been neglecting my readers lately. . . sorry about that! i have so much to say. . . it's getting harder and harder to know where to start. . . anyway. . . hopefully more to come in the NEAR future. . . for now. . .おやすみなさい！





"well, art is art, isn't it? still, on the other hand, water is water. and east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. now you tell me what you know." ~ groucho marx




"every child is an artist. the problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." ~ pablo picasso

overworked

**tired staff costing japan $30bn**
a survey suggests tired workers are now costing the japanese economy $30bn a year in lost productivity.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/business/5063670.stm

having worked in japan for a year, this article is not at all surprising. . . although i have to disagree with the guy who said it’s a “global problem”. . . i know that work hours have become ridiculous in many parts of the world, but i swear it’s not the same as japan. . . especially at a young age. . .

most recently, my junior high students have been falling asleep in class. . . not just drowsy, daydream sleeps but really deep sleeps. . . it’s really frustrating. . . when i first came to japan, i would get kind of angry. . . after working so hard to make these materials or plan this lesson, the students are just going to ignore us? and why don’t the teachers do something about it? . . . but after a year, you begin to see just what is expected of the students . . .and begin to feel sorry for them instead. . .

many of my students start their day around 5:30 or 6:00a.m. . . . some ride their bikes over 10km from their houses in the mountains to school. . . others take public transportation transferring from bus to train to bicycle. . . others are lucky enough to live in town . . . and a few (very few) are lucky enough to have parents who drive them to school. . . (this one rather chubby boy in the junior high school always conveniently ‘forgets’ his bicycle. . . don’t know how anyone can forget a bicycle, but that’s how it was described to me. . . so he calls his dad to pick him up every day. . .pretty funny kid). . .

anyway, at certain times of the year (late spring through fall), the sports clubs meet for practice at 7:00a.m. . . .classes start at 8:25 and run until 3:00 or 4:00. . . classes are sometimes followed by committee meetings (e.g. library, student council). . . or they may be followed by practice for extra-curricular activities outside of club (e.g. swim team, track and field, undokai/ sports day, kanji or english proficiency tests). . . finally, following all of this, the students attend their real clubs (english, art, soccer, volleyball, kendo, etc.). . . at the latest, i believe the students are supposed to leave school around 7:00or 7:30. . .

while that concludes the daily life of a junior high school student at school, their days are far from over . . . what do they do after school? some of my students take piano lessons. . . everyone has their school homework. . . and finally, most of them attend juku (cram schools). . . some begin attending in elementary school, and almost all students attend by their third year of junior high because they have to prepare for their high school entrance exams . . . at juku they study all of their main subjects (again) in smaller groups or private lessons (with teachers outside of the school system). . . correct me if i’m wrong since i’ve never actually attended a juku class. . .when i was asking about my students' plans for christmas day last year, one girl replied, ‘i have to go to juku. . . all day’. . . granted christmas is not a widely celebrated holiday in japan. . . but it was even on a weekend last year. . .

which reminds me, the students also have to attend club activities on saturday and sunday (every weekend, all year). . . as well as all through the summer. . .

so. . .what would you do in a classroom with a schedule like that (not to mention the whole no air conditioner issue with temperatures around 30degrees celsius). . . i would most definitely sleep. . . or drink tons of caffeine (which is not permitted at school anyway). . .

on top of all that, there are perfectionists or overachievers. . . one day at sports day practice i noticed a huge red, cross shaped scab down one girl’s forearm. . . when i asked her what happened, she seemed surprised and said, ‘you’ve never seen it before? we do it when we have stress’. . . she had scratched it into her own arm. . . i am no longer surprised to see junior high students developing grey hair. . . or hear stories about high school students whose hair is falling out. . . it’s so sad. . .

finally, here is a poem one of my english club girls wrote the other day. . .

study
let's start
sleep, sleep, sleep
it's already morning
cry

by kanako


to end on a happy note, here is a poem by another girl . . .

cows
clear eyes
catching, roasting, eating
how poor they are
delicious

by natsumi

thunder stealing

note from my boss concerning the day's thunderstorms. . .

there is a japanese old tale to be careful not to have a navel stolen when thunder sounds. please be careful.

brief update. . . more later. . .

i have been insanely bored at work since my return from korea almost two weeks ago (yes, i plan to post a blog about that in the near future. . . just haven't been in much of a blog-writing mood). . . anyway. . . random stuff. . .

i've been here (in japan. . .kahoku) for over a year now, and these messages from my supervisor still crack me up. . .

it is cut off a dormitory from 1:00p.m. of august 30 to 5:00p.m. please be careful about the contents of a refrigerator. ice cream melts.

translation, i will not have electricity for four hours next wednesday. . . the part i love is that my supervisor still types his messages into the online yahoo translator (which comes up with translations like the one above) and prints them out on little half pieces of paper. . . and then stands next to my desk as i attempt to translate it into real english. . . i also love that he always includes the oh so caring details like. . . "ice cream melts" . . .

in other news, i recently paid for my shakken (car inspection) and next year’s insurance. . . the guy came to pick up the money (really nice guy and he did give me a slight discount on everything but still). . . i just glared at him the entire time i was handing over the money. . . it makes it worse that they do everything in cash here. . . i had to stand there and count out all 148,000 yen. . . and i was doing so well saving my money. . . :(

hmmm. . .it's 3:10 and my iced coffee and two little pieces of chocolate have not yet arrived at my desk. . . not sure where the office lady responsible for that went (yes, it is always a lady. . .). . . anyway, i feel a bit lost without my 3:00 snack time. . . kind of like a kindergartner entering the realities of first grade. . . is that when you lose nap time??

oh, found this in the news the other day. . . always nice to see my home state in the news. . . a little piece of kansas culture to share with my community in japan. . .

** u.s. police chase naked man **
a burglary suspect in kansas tried to evade capture by jumping in a river and taking his clothes off.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi?redirect=st.stm&news=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&nol_storyid=4797803

driving, dance, and my second pet cockroach. . .

i got my japanese driver’s license on monday!!! you have no idea how exciting that is. . . my international license was only valid for one year (as is everyone else’s from every country in the world). . . however, while australians, brits, canadians, etc. are only required to take the eye test (maybe written test?) and sit through a thirty minute lecture (all thirty minutes were translated to me as “drive safely”), americans are required to take a driving test as well. . . from all prior reports, the driving test is hell. . . only one person had passed it on her first try. . . i know of one who passed on her second try (mainly because she knew some retired cop who put in a good word for her). . . and everyone else i know passed somewhere between their sixth and tenth attempt. . .

monday, i went to the driving center (without sayaka, my trusty translator, as i had a theory that the foreigners who wowed the guys with their japanese would pass more quickly). . . they have you do a written test (so easy. . . six minutes, ten questions, true or false, yes they had an english translation) and an eye test before you have the honor of trying the road test. . .the eye test is where i managed to charm the guys ;) . . . i was trying to do everything in japanese, but with the color blindness test, i was afraid that if i didn’t respond quickly, they would fail me, so. . . my responses came out as follows: yellow, blue, 赤 (aka=red). . . the two guys in the testing room apparently found this english/japanese mix hilarious. . . brownie points always help. . .

hell began after the two initial exams. . . at eleven o’clock, i entered a classroom with eight other people (six japanese guys, one vietnamese guy, one indonesian girl – who has been trying, and failing, to get her license for six months but comes back and tries again almost every day –, and me). . . we had to draw for the courses (A,B, or C), all three of which i had memorized the night before (along with three hours of studying and a practice run on the miniature streets of japan in tsuyoshi’s monster car – which is actually just an suv type vehicle. . . but compared to my minica, well. . .) . . .anyway, the vietnamese guy drew courses for the foreigners. . . he somehow managed to draw course A, the most difficult of the three. . .

when the officers came out at one o’clock, guess who i got. . . one of the officers from my eye test earlier in the day. . . a definite miracle. . .

quite honestly, my driving on the test was wretched. . . you have to do a million head checks and say “よし” every time you look anywhere. . . seeing as how my high school drivers ed instructor yelled at me for not doing enough head checks, i was certain i would fail on at least that one point (therefore i was looking everywhere. . . but not actually seeing a thing due to nerves). . . if you look at the following website http://www.geocities.com/fbgrable/driving.html you will have a better idea of what i was going through. . . the head checks, s curves, crank turns, lane changes, etc. etc. . . . all basics of driving, but japanese people have these systems and like things to be precise. . . that and, if you read the site, the driving test is more about taking the japanese system seriously. . . respect for people, details, perfection, the system itself. . .if you are ten centimeters too far left in your lane, you can fail. . . same goes for the right. . . if you turn your blinker on 25 meters before the turn and not 30, you can fail. . . it’s crazy and terrifying. . .to me anyway. . .

but. . . the point is, i drive better daily on real roads. . . my head checks were late, my turns were too wide, i even took both hands off the wheel at one point (when i stopped to wait for another car – not while moving), which is an automatic fail in most cases. . . on real roads, i would have killed four or five old people on motorbikes because my head checks were late, as in i was mid-turn when i remembered to check my blind spots. . . on most days for most people, i would have failed for all the mistakes listed above. . .but somehow, miraculously, i passed, on my first try. . . the officer actually thought i was a good driver (despite the flaws listed above which he did point out). . . i was in shock. . . i maybe still am in shock. . . i literally checked my wallet on tuesday morning to make sure that it wasn’t a dream and the license was really there. . . it was. . . it is. . .with the 2 points against me for my speeding ticket back in april. . . another reason i thought they would never give me my license. . . as long as i don’t continue speeding, hit a pedestrian, or run into the japanese mafia, i can drive in japan until december 2008. . .yay. . .

so. . .that was a bit lengthy. . . in other news. . . i will be leaving for the korean dance festival this friday, july 28th and will return to japan on saturday, august 12th. . . while i have a lot to report about dance, i will wait until after my trip. . . i can’t believe i am finally, actually going to korea. . . i’m guessing sangmee can’t believe it either :) i’ve been talking about it for such a long time. . . anyway, here’s the link to the festival website if you are interested. . . http://moderndance.co.kr/

finally, my second pet cockroach. . . i found him in my bathroom after dance one evening and screamed (probably waking everyone in the dormitory). . . he was fairly small and still kind of a brownish color (the big, old, scary ones are black. . .you may ask how i survive in rural japan. . . most days, i do not know). . . anyway, he was too fast for me to kill. . . after a night of bug nightmares and a few too many jokes from the teachers about how cockroaches like to creep around the house at night, i bought some little sticky traps (like the ones for mice only smaller –cockroach sized). . . almost every home in japan (or at least kochi) has cockroaches in the summer. . . the tv commercials show these adorable little cartoon cockroaches eating poison and taking it back to share with their families and then all dying together in their little home (which of course is somewhere within your home). . . my traps were really just about as sad. . . the glue traps are not simply sticky glue with food in the center but carefully designed cockroach houses. . . white house, red roof, shutter entrances, mats on each end for the poor thing to wipe its feet on (so it has nice clean feet when it touches the glue). . . no joke. . . it looks like a little play house for bugs. . . it kind of makes me want to cry – like the time i wouldn’t eat my mickey mouse pancake (only then i was like three years old). . . but really, why do they have to make things so cute? it feels ten times more cruel than just putting out an ugly patch of glue. . . at least from my end. . . suppose the cockroach doesn’t really know the difference as he dies either way. . .

anyway. . . that’s all i have to report for now. . . i still have pictures from kyoto and kobe and random events around kochi that i need to post. . . if i haven’t already forgotten the details (although it may be lucky for you if i have). . . how do these blogs get so long?

one last thing. . . my supervisor is currently reviewing the japanese procedure for cpr on an imaginary person in the boe office. . . he’s worried that his wording will be off. . . suppose he will fail his test for the emergency response team or whatever they are if he changes a word . . .personally, i could care less if he says ‘please call an ambulance’ vs. ‘call 119 now’. . . i imagine most unconscious people feel the same. . . my point is, the japanese start training people on how to memorize precise procedures at the age of zero and it just gets worse from there. . .面白いですよ。 じゃあね。

BBC made a mistake and interviewed the wrong guy
**click this link for the story. . .
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/16/bbc.interview/index.html
**then click this link for the actual interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOnm9jZK1dU&search=bbc%20interview%20gomahttp://portal/portal/mypage/mypage.asp?UserID=10496
**don't cheat.....if you don't read the story, the video won't have any meaning

update 3: nature and me

japan is currently in its fifth season . . . rainy season. . . quite honestly, it hasn't been what i expected. . . everyone kept preparing me for downpours every single day for a full month. . . maybe kochi just lucked out this year (so far), but, as it is almost july ( i.e. approx. the half way point of rainy season), we have only had one really heavy day of rain and several days of sprinkles. . .a normal summer in america. . . still in preparation for the season, i bought some cool golashes. . . i got them for less than $10. . . at the store, they looked like a kind of burgundy/wine color. . . once i wore them, i discovered that they were, in fact, dark pink. . . i'm pretty sure my elementary students have the same golashes. . . actually, i almost bought kid's golashes for $20 with red polka dots, but my 'pink' ones were taller i.e. more splash protection. . .anyway, i was pretty excited to try them out. however, on the first day of rainy season (the one downpour) i forgot to tuck my jeans into the top of the golashes on my walk to work (i.e. i still ended up drenched.) . . . puddle jumping was quite fun. . . sitting soaked at work was not. . . but i figure if an umbrella and golashes won't keep me dry, i may as well have some fun.

anyway. . . it is finally summer in japan. unfortunately, my air conditioner is broken. . . i informed my supervisor of this a week and a half ago, two people came to check it at the end of last week, another guy came yesterday (i thought he came to fix it, but he really just did another more thorough inspection). . . guess it is going to be really expensive to fix as there is a hole in he 'gas pipe' (don't know if that's really what it is or the best english translation they could figure out). . . my supervisor said that the board of education would pay for it. . . the only catch is that they don't have much money now. . . so, in the hottest part of the year, i am stuck in my house (which is a good five degrees above the outdoor temp) without air conditioning for another one to two weeks. . . i am not at all happy. . . it is so flipping hot. . . every time i use the fan i start sneezing like crazy. . . i have to keep the windows/doors open at night (and even that doesn't cool the place down for too long). . . the worst consequence of all this is that all these bugs are sneaking into my room. . . have i ever mentioned that kochi has poisonous centipedes? i think even my fear of spiders is lower than my fear of centipedes. . . i don't know what the bugs are that i have found so far, but i do not like them. . . i am not that much of a nature girl. . . especially not when i am in my house (camping, hiking, etc. are a bit of a different story). . . so between the heat, the allergies, and the bugs, i have literally not been able to sleep for the past week. . . i am miserable. . .on top of that, they never use the air conditioner at the schools or the board of education. . . the one day they did have it on in the b.o.e. was monday. . . the coolest day we have had in the past month. . . what kind of logic do these people use???? (quick update here. . . i decided it was getting a bit too hot in the office when i was sweating just from sitting at my desk, so i removed my little jacket. . . leaving me in only a tank top, which appears to be against the dress code although i have never been given any verbal instructions in that area. . . anyway, after approx. 45 seconds two of the ladies in the office closed all the windows and turned on the air con! guess that's one way to fix things. ;)

next. . .earthquakes. . .feeling your house shake and having your friend call and speak japanese is not an easy way to wake up at 5a.m. that, however, is exactly how i experienced my first earthquake. . . technically, i think there was a small one once before while i was on tour with genki. . . they tend to happen at night, so i just don't wake up. . . the one a few weeks ago was a level 3 in kochi (level 5 at its center in oita), which you would think would be strong enough to wake me. . . i am not a heavy sleeper when it comes to sound and light (in fact, i think i'm usually the first one up then). . . but i guess i've slept in too many bunk beds with roommates who toss and turn or something because my house shaking (without the phone call) would not have been enough to wake me up. if you want to know more, here is the article from the bbc. . .

*quake strikes south-western japan *
a strong earthquake hits south-western japan, shaking the city of hiroshima and injuring five people.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/5070390.stm

finally. . . returning to the issue of bugs and outdoor things. . . i keep seeing snakes on the road between the junior high and b.o.e. one was really scary. . . it was almost white, fat, and at least 180cm long. . . that's longer than i am tall! i was terrified. . .tsuyoshi said that they sometimes eat small babies (he was joking, but i did not find it amusing). . . anyway, that one was, thankfully, just off the road in someone's driveway. . . the other one i saw was quite a bit smaller (maybe 80cm) and crawling out of a rice field. . . it had crossed the street half way when it saw me and stopped. . . i had a bit more courage because i had my golashes on ( i.e. ankle protection). . . that and it was pretty afraid of me as well. . . it was kind enough to let me pass in peace, after which it was also able to cross in peace. apparently, the smaller snakes are sometimes poisonous. . . the big ones just eat babies. . . yuck.

i really do think japanese people (or at least those that live in the inaka) have a different take on nature. . . tsuyoshi once stopped me from destroying a spider web because he (the spider) had his own spider life in his own spider world and was not a part of my world and not causing any immediate danger to me. . . my elementary school kids have over ten cages with bugs and whatnots as pets ranging from beetles to frogs to crabs to slugs to numerous bugs, amphibians, etc, etc that i could not even begin to name. . . they keep pulling them out of their cages and trying to hand them to me. . . the frogs are okay. . . the rest are a bit sketchy. . . anyway, i suppose that concludes my update on the wonderful outdoors in kochi that have a tendency to make their way indoors just a bit too often. . .if the weather is nice on saturday, i am going hiking/camping with the entire junior high school (over 100 students plus staff). . . should be an adventure.

じゃあ、おわり。

update 2: GENKI 青年会

if you read my previous entries, you heard about genki seinenkai, a group of jets who put on a musical combining japanese history with western culture (history, disney stories, etc. . . changes year by year) in the local dialect of japanese. . . this year was a combination of the story of lord yamauchi of tosa (which is now kochi-ken) with the story of anthony and cleopatra and finally the addition of the seven dwarfs (a.k.a. seven samurai) . . . title: yamauchi antony and chiyopatora. . .clever, eh?. . . anyway, we had two full weekends of performances in april. . . approx. three performances a day. . . chiyo (the lead female) lost her voice right around the end of our final show. . . it was pretty taxing for us all, but we had a blast. . . we raised something like 500,000 yen in donations. . . all that goes towards scholarships to help students in kochi study abroad. . . pretty neat, huh?

anyway, i think you may enjoy pictures of the show more than my babbling. . . let’s enjoying. . .

we were the three choreographers/dancing girls. . . the first and only time i will wear a cheerleading uniform

samurai soul with doc (先生) and dopey

grumpy choking on mochi at sunday market

lord nagabana (long nose) and yamauchi with his newly purchased camel. . . the formation of the 内密特別駱駝騎兵隊 (super secret camel calvary division)

one of our dances was called 'my humps'. . . absolutely wretched song. . . but it worked well with the egyptian camel theme. . . did i mention the other two choreographers are hip hop dancers?

and the finale. . . with cheese smiles and jazz hands

update 1: dance

よし, my last full blog mentioned my numerous dance opportunities. . . all of which were amazing. . .except maybe my life/death solos, which i never felt i fully understood. . .

first, afro-fusion with vincent. . . i have a sort of love/ hate thing for african dance classes, the music and movements are always absolutely gorgeous. . . unfortunately for me, i have rather limited torso movement as well as limited abilities when it comes to keeping five rhythms at the same time on different body parts. . . vincent’s class was the first african dance class that i have taken over a period of several days, which made a huge difference. . . by the last day, i felt like i was actually starting to catch some of the rhythms and loosen up a bit. . . we’ll see how i do a year from now when he returns. :)

vincent was also the first person who made me realize how at home i have become in japan. . . i realized this at the party the studio had right before his workshop began. . . it was the first time i had been with a foreigner in japan who was not in my position (completely immersed in the culture for an extended period of time). . . i found myself translating comments for him as well as for the japanese speakers. . . i was also able to explain certain foods and traditions . . . most days i feel like i’m not learning enough and definitely not learning it fast enough to keep up with daily life. . . but this experience made a huge difference. . . to realize just how much i really do understand . . . the translating was the fun part for me, as i am rarely in a position to do that . . (a lot of the other alts speak japanese. . . especially the ones from australia). . .right. . . so, dance experience number one was great. . . onto the next. . .

over golden week (beginning of may), i attended a series of workshops in kyoto. . . in general, i wasn’t that impressed. . . the dancers were so-so, as well as some of the instructors. . .thankfully, my teacher in kochi filled me in on some of the classes in advance, so i did end up taking from two pretty amazing people. . . one was keith thompson, who ironically enough was one of the founding members of zennon dance company in minneapolis (about forty-five minutes from st. olaf). he later moved on to dance with the trisha brown dance company and now teaches at temple university, has his own dance company that is to premier in nyc in the near future, and travels the world doing workshops. . . we got along quite well. . . if i can actually manage to write consistent emails, he will be an excellent contact for the future. . . the other teacher that i really enjoyed was jung young-doo from korea. whenever i get going and get over to seoul to visit sangmee, i hope to meet up with jung young-doo again and do a bit of dancing. . . while keith’s style was kind of the current style of american modern dance that i had experienced in college, jung’s style was very different. we rarely used music. . . he was the calmest dancer i have ever met. . . and he was always very clear with his direction and focus. it brought back a lot of memories from susan’s classes at olaf, experimenting with weight and focus and direction. . . maybe that’s why i did so well. . . whatever it was, i really felt my confidence grow at the workshops. . .

two kind of sidenotes. . .

first, a conversation with jung after class:
j: “what are you doing in japan?”
e: “i’m teaching english.”
j: “really, i think you are dancer.”
e: “no, i really want to be, but i’m not.”
j: “how old are you?”
e: “twenty-three.”
j: “oh, you have no problem. you are young. i do not think you are english teacher. i think you are dancer.”
so, that was the first time a professional dancer had ever called me a dancer. . . pretty exciting i thought.

second, my conversation with the professional clown who was staying at the same backpackers hotel as me:
e: “i’d like to be a professional dancer, but i’m not.”
c: “why not? just quit your job. . . then you’ll be a professional dancer.”
i found that rather amusing. . . he was a cool guy. . . originally from australia, now living in south africa. . . but mostly just traveling the world being a clown (more of a street performer than a clown. . . no makeup. . . lots of acrobatic tricks). . . he also told me how he took ballet classes for one or two years in college(?) but got kicked out of class everyday. . . miraculously, the teacher let him back in every morning. . . guess he got bored with the structure involved in ballet. . . too monotonous for him.

okay, moving on. . . if my mental calendar of events is correct, my next dance report is uchiyama tokei’s dance theatre. . . a.k.a. martha graham and my life/death solos. . . which someone later translated for me as sky or earth, which is insanely different from life and death. . . not much to say here. . . it went well. . . no major mistakes. . . people said i was beautiful, captivating (think they used the thesaurus for that one), etc. . . tsuyoshi’s comment was simply that i was almost naked (if your not used to dance, i suppose a leotard with a see through shirt and skirt is the equivalent of almost naked. . .after the nude unitards we had to wear for waterstudy, nothing seems to bother me too much). . . it just wasn’t really my style of dance. . . i couldn’t really feel the movements, and the music always felt too overpowering for the dance. . . anyway, that is over. . . i am supposed to be in another performance in november (as a queen of something. . . wish i understood more japanese at times), but i think i may have another dance performance with my other studio that weekend. . . yikes. . .

ahhh. . .almost done with the dance update. . . finally, christopher (the former ailey soloist) returned to teach four days of workshops (one of which i had to miss to teach my community class. . . so, so, so, so sad). . . not much to say here other than christopher is amazing. . . that and the comment that came out of it from my japanese instructor. . . he injured his calf on the last day and had to sit out and watch the last part of the workshop. . . afterwards he came up to me. . . “i was watching you. you know you have improved so much. . .especially learning movements. i remember when you first came into my class. it was always like ‘ahhh’.” a few days later, he asked me to join his yosakoi team, which has been invited to perform as special guests at the yosakoi festival in osaka my birthday weekend (mid-november). . . travel/hotel expenses paid. . . sounds like the ideal birthday celebration to me. . . we’ll do four or five dances, ranging from more traditional to somewhat jazzy. . . rehearsals start this friday. . . exciting, huh?

so, i guess i’ll stop there with the dance events. . . the amount of dance opportunities and connections i have made here is really miraculous. . . i really do not think i would have survived more than two months without dance. . . my jazz teacher has been the most amazing person. he’s the one with all the connections (afro-fusion, christopher, noism, etc.). . . he said that the studio goes into the red every time they bring in a guest instructor, but he wants people to have the experience of working with professional dancers. . . so amazing.

okay, dinner time. . . this may be the only blog i get out today. . . i'll keep working on my other reports. . . soon, i hope. . .ごめんね

fyi. . .

part 1. . .
i am not dead (although i may be close at times). . .
nor have i fallen off the face of the earth (although –depending on your current location - i may be on the other side of it). . .

part 2. . .
things i love about life. . .
dance
children
spontaneity

things i do not love about life. . .
systems
control
people in the systems who control me by way of my schedule

luckily, the things i love typically weigh at least ten kilograms more than the things that i do not love. . . quite often more than ten. . .

more to come later. . . yes, i promise. . . possibly this saturday or sunday (my time). . .

in case you have forgotten who this blog belongs to, please view the following picture. . .

it was taken over a month ago in kyoto at kiyomizu temple. . . i have since gotten a haircut. . . oh, i would be the アメリカ人 (american).

videos!

whoa! i just learned how to add (short) videos to my blog. . .sorry if they are a bit bumpy. . .がんばりました(i did my best) with my digital camera. . . better than nothing, right?

these are my five year olds at kahoku culture day (oct. 30). . . i’m sure you are all thrilled that i have audio on this one. . . please notice the girl on the far right with her head between the cymbals :) . . .

how could it not be a ‘happy day’ with these kids as entertainment?

i personally think my preschoolers are better performers. . .

as are my first graders. . .

setsubun (feb. 3) and the two year olds throwin’ out the devil. . . if you listen closely, you can hear the cries of the children who are being traumatized for life. . .

that’s all i have for you at the moment. . . now that i know how to post videos, i will try to tape more interesting events (i.e. not children’s musical performances). . . ;)

さくら and spring!

i just learned how to properly drink liquids out of those little juice boxes. . . if you pull the tabs out on the top and bottom, it removes the corners and sort of flattens out . . .you can then properly suck out every last drop (as opposed to searching around the bottom with your straw). . .good to know, huh? it also saves space in your trash can. . .

anyway, lots to report. . .

pippi and fuzz (or jeff and gilda if you prefer non-camp names) came to visit two weeks ago. . . we were able to see a few sites of kochi along with some of japan’s first cherry blossoms! (everything in japan is always famous for one reason or another. . . kochi was evidently famous this year for having the ‘first’ cherry blossoms of the year. . . were they really the first?? i think that may be debatable) . . .it was nice to finally have visitors. . .

march 21st was vernal equinox day, which evidently merits a day off work in this country. . .i went fishing with tsuyoshi from 9am to 5pm and caught nothing. . . i did, however, get my first sunburn of 2006. . . who knew spring came so early?? someone should notify the minnesotans. . .

so, spring is here, life is busy, etc.

before spring break, i had the pleasure(?) of attending four graduation ceremonies (jr. high, elementary, and two nursery schools). . . ceremonies in japan are the longest, quietest, most boring events. . .it would help if japanese was my native language. . .especially at the elementary and preschool ceremonies where they read a little blurb about the students interests and accomplishments as they received their diplomas. . . really though, these things were crazy! one word to sum them all up: silence. . .literally dead silence. . . there were no children crying or students coughing or audience members shifting in their seats. . .or even people clapping. . . no one moved for an hour and a half. . . at the sound of a chord, we stood, the next chord we bowed, the next we sat. . . every 'important person’ in the city gave a speech (principal, mayor, superintendent, pta, underclassmen, graduates). . . the girl that gave the main speech for the graduating class at the junior high school started crying on the second page and continued through the eighth page almost completely inaudible (not that i understood her japanese before she started crying. . . but after, i was really at a loss). . .even the preschool students sat silently through their hour long ceremonies with five or six speeches. . . these kids develop patience at a very, very early age. . . they’re way ahead of me. . . all in all, it was a good experience, but it is definitely not something i could handle more than once a year. . .

oh, at the elementary school graduation, i accidentally got in the wrong entrance line (i.e. the humble alt entered the gym with the city’s most ‘important people’ and had to be hurried off to the other side of the gymnasium where the teachers sat). . .oops. . .

anyway, the jr. high school after party provided some nice bonding time with parents. . . i taught the teachers a dance to the ozone ‘dragostea din ti’ song (a.k.a. 'the numa numa song' or 'mariahi'). . . it was a big hit at the students' concert last month and again with the parents at the graduation party. . . the pta had some quality performances as well. . . after party number one, we went to party number two at the local karaoke bar. . . here i scored more brownie points by singing a japanese song (one which i thankfully learned in my japanese class at olaf). . . the party also helped me meet a local mechanic (i teach all three of his sons from primary school 1年生 to junior high school 3 年生). . .

which brings me to my next story. . . my minica stopped on me twice this month (once in the middle of the mountains with virtually no cell phone reception!). . . thankfully, it started up again right away both times . . . anyway, japan has some amazing customer service. . .when your car goes into the shop, they give you a loaner car! my students’ dad gave me a 2005 suzuki while he fixed my 1995(?) mitsubishi minica. . . on top of that, he fixed my car for free! crazy, huh?

okay, i’m almost finished. . .

i mentioned viewing the sakura (cherry blossoms) when jeff and gilda came to visit. . . since that time i have had a million more opportunities to check out this japanese wonder :) . . . on monday, i went to a nearby park with the 3年生 teachers and had a picnic under the cherry blossoms. . . in japanese, this is called ‘hanami’ ~ flower / cherry blossom viewing . . . everyone - literally everyone- in japan is doing the same thing this season. . . asahi beer is sponsoring a hanami party for genki senenkai (the mini-theatre group i am in) this saturday. . . they will be filming our rehearsal as well as the party for a local program called ‘we love kochi’ . . . nhk international came to our rehearsal two weeks ago. . . i’m on my way to stardom in japan. ;)

anyway. . . i will be taking afro-fusion dance classes with vincent mantsoe next week http://www.sekwaman.co.za/ . . . the new school year starts on april 10th . . . we have 2-3 genki performances a day the weekends of april 15-16 and 22-23 http://www.sanyo.oni.co.jp/newspack/20060318/20060318010000961.html . . . the kyoto international dance workshop festival runs through golden week (april 28th-may 7th) http://www1.neweb.ne.jp/wb/hot-summer/h_s/h_s_e_index.html . . .my life/death (still not sure which is which) solos will be performed sometime in mid-may . . . then my life should dull down a bit as summer approaches and as i begin preparing for the famous yosakoi dance festival in august http://www.yosakoi.com/en/index.html (still not sure which team to join) . . . you now know the next five months of my life. . . although i still want to squeeze some trips in there somewhere (places to visit: seoul, nagoya, tokyo. . . so many more). . .the reason i don’t like to plan is that planning tends to show me just how quickly everything is coming at me. . . hmm. . .

fyi. . .

playing on slides, merry-go-rounds, balance beams, and monkey bars every thursday for the past seven months has shown me how true this article is. . .granted i’m not yet elderly. . . i have lost a lot of the skills i had as a child (monkey bars are rough!). . .
finns open playgrounds to adults
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4691088.stm

way to go missouri. . .
to ease traffic, mo may drive on left
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1784498

the long awaited post. . .

wow! i just looked at my blog to see what i have and have not reported. . . it’s been a long, long time!!!. . . ごめんなさい！ほんとに！. . .as you may have guessed, i have been insanely busy the past month or so. . .in fact, i haven’t even managed to buy a new light bulb for my shower. . . the old one went out maybe three weeks ago. . . makes my mornings interesting. . .

as usual, i will begin with dance. . . i had a workshop with the japanese NOISM dance company from february 22nd to the 25th. . . two girls from the company came to teach the class and then teach us part of a dance that the company performed the week before. . . it was so nice to do modern dance again! i didn’t realize how long it had been since i was able to roll around freely and just have fun with dance (i never get as much of that in ballet and jazz. . . even though my jazz here is quite modern). . . only ten or twelve people took the workshop, which was held in this huge theatre. . . so nice to have personal attention and a large space to move in. . . the girls were only two or three years older than me. . . i.e. the first time i have ever been taught by my peers. . . it’s very different to take a class from someone your age who is a professional dance. . . different in a good way. . . i think it was easier to communicate with them somehow. . . (oh, they both spoke perfect english. i imagine they had to use it with their companies in Europe). . . but i don’t just mean it was easy because they spoke english. . . we just had a lot of fun dancing together. . . as opposed to the teacher student dynamic that i am used to. . . only they were professionals. . . and had been since the age of sixteen. . .but i never felt like they were above me (obviously their technique was impeccable. . . and therefore they were above me. . . but the way they worked with us just felt normal). . .

kind of on the same note. . . i think that dance teachers in japan are different in general. . . especially in the way they give corrections. . . when christopher came (the ailey soloist), he yelled at us when we got things wrong and sometimes gave lectures. . . most of my teachers in america had their emotional moments. . . but japanese teachers (or the four or five i have had thus far) always stay calm. . . i’ve never seen them get angry. . . i screw up a lot of patterns. . . and my martha graham teacher gets frustrated (i can tell), but she still explains them calm as can be week after week. . . in fact, i don’t think i have ever seen an angry japanese person. . . oh, not true. . . school teachers can be pretty harsh. . .that’s another story. . .

anyway, my next exciting dance news is that there is an international dance conference in kyoto over golden week. . . it’s a bit expensive but looks worth it! . . .one of the instructors that i want to take class from used to dance with zennon dance company in minneapolis and now dances with the trisha brown company. . . a bit ironic that i will be taking his classes in japan when he was forty-five minutes away in america. . . the teachers at the conference come from all over the world. . . i really cannot believe that i have been able to dance this much in japan when i was certain that i would have to give up dancing in order to travel. . . i would most certainly have gone crazy living in a foreign country (as well as america) without dance. . . anyway, i am insanely greatful that i am able to work with so many amazing people here!!

one more blurb on the topic of dance. . .i am now one of three choreographers for genki senenkai. . . a group of foreigners (mostly other ALTs) who write and perform a musical in tosaben (the local dialect). . . this year’s production is cleverly called “yamauchi antony and chiyopatra” (combining the story of anthony and cleopatra with that of kochi’s historical figures ‘yamauchi’ and ‘chiho’). . . anyway, i am helping with the choreography on weekends and will be performing in april . . . the group does this every year to raise money to help send students abroad. . . we are evidently the only prefecture that has something like this and therefore recently won a large sum of money from the government. . . oh, i get to wear a cheerleading costume for one song. . . (this may be the worst costume i have ever had to wear. . . next to that pink gown back in november for the ballroom dance competition). . . while it’s not my kind of dance, it’s a fun change from everything else. . .

i often write blogs in my mind on my way to and from school or in my frantic rush to get out the door in the mornings. . . but that doesn’t help much when my computer is at work. . . now i can’t remember what i wanted to talk about. . .

there were the olympics. . . which consisted primarily of 11pm curling and 5am figure skating on my end. . . italy is eight hours behind japan and therefore presents a bit of a problem for the NHK (japan’s broadcasting station) which evidently doesn’t believe in airing programs unless they are live. . . japan got one gold medal (technically only one medal of any color) this winter. . . the surprise win of shizuka arakawa. . . anyway, it was quite a different olympic experience than what i was used to. . . much more emphasis on japan (obviously . . . but even more so than u.s. stations put on american athletes. . . and japan only got one medal!). . . and much less emphasis on the events as a whole. . . and i still can’t understand why they were all so excited about curling. . . to me, it’s just chasing a stone down the ice with little scrubbers. . .

moving on. . . i recently taught english to a class of two year olds. . . nothing special happened. . . but it’s great because they really don’t even speak japanese yet. . . i only had them for about ten minutes. . . but no one told me i was going to be teaching two year olds. . . i was waiting for my five year olds when a long line of toddlers entered the classroom. . . we managed to do ‘good morning,’ introductions, HSKT (head, shoulders, knees, and toes), and ‘bye,bye’. . . before you get all impressed by the introductions, they were basically done in japanese and went like this. . . ‘my name is erinn. what’s your name?’ ‘ゆかです’ . . . yup, quite amusing. . . but i have found that is sometimes more important that they are able to look at me (the stranger with blue eyes and brown hair) and say something (either language is okay). . . they get really shy. . . the alt that was here before me was from canada, but was asian (i.e. black hair, brown eyes). . . some students cry when they have to talk to people like me. . . i have been pretty lucky in this area. . . i think only two students have cried . . . and they were in elementary school. . . hmmm. . . anyway. . . the two year olds were really cute! one of the city workers has a boy in that class who came home and shouted ‘good morning!’. . . she was in shock. . .

ugh, this is what i get for not updating my blog more frequently. . .

the only thing i have left to report is that my adorable little anpanman town has merged with tosayamada and monobe (the town on either side) to form kami-city . . . i now work for the entire district, which means my job may be changing slightly (i.e. teaching in tosaymada as well as kahoku). . . junior high school graduation is this wednesday. . . this school year ends in about two weeks. . . then spring break . . . then off to who knows where in april. . . all i know is that i will be terribly upset if anyone takes away my nursery school classes. . . and my community class will have a fit if they take me away from them (i have really come to enjoy that class). . . for now i just have to wait because ‘they haven’t figure out all of the details yet’. . . grrrr. . .

to end on a good note. . . fuzz and pippi (friends from concordia language villages) are coming to visit the weekend after next. . . my first visitors! . . .also, spring is here (earliest spring i have had in four years!). . . the cherry blossoms should be out soon. . my kids are currently running all over the place on these cans . . . it’s nice to get some fresh air again. . . i saw an ant today. . . and a spider yesterday. . . spring is the only time of year when i can be excited about those things. . .

okay, i’m off to dinner. . . i may make a trip back to the states before fall. . . nothing certain yet. . . i’ll try to keep you posted. . .よし、おわります。