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).