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。