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。

雪が太っています. . . ;)

japan is really quite a funny place. . .

today is a snow day . . . despite the fact that, in town, the snow never stuck to the road and has now melted off every other surface. . . guess the students who live in the mountains are like the students in highland, kansas stuck out on the gravel roads. . .anyway, as always, i still have to show up at work for my eight hours and pretend to be busy. . . you can only study japanese for so long. . . i'm trying to plan a trip for spring break. . . maybe one for golden week as well. . .aside from that, i just stare at my co-workers blankly (and now at this random guy that is sorting papers faster than any machine could do. . . really, it's quite intriguing). . .

three of my friends sent me text messages last night, telling me that today was going to be cold and that i should wear lots of clothes so i don't get sick again. . . for once, i listened to them. . . i have on a tank top, a fleece turtleneck, a nice warm jacket, topped by another fleece jacket, and finally my trusty clv rain jacket (because the snow often turns into rain by the afternoon). . . oh, and of course my stylish leg warmers! . . .unfortunately, school was cancelled. . . i.e. i actually get to spend the entire day in a heated office. . . all but the tank top and fleece turtleneck were promptly removed when i arrived at work. . .

last week, another alt was being proactive and wore so many layers to school that she cut off the circulation in her toes and got frostbite. . . most people get frostbite on their way to school or playing in the snow after school, but in japan, alts evidently get frostbite teaching in school. . . crazy place. . .

whoa!!! that guy that i mentioned is almost finished sorting his papers. . . in the five or so minutes it took me to type one blog, he sorted over one thousand pieces of paper. . . talk about efficiency. . .

せつぶん

today is せつぶん (setsubun). . . a little celebration where everyone throws まめ (beans) outside while shouting “おにはそと” (“devil get out”) . . . i was trying to post a little video clip of the two year olds at the nursery school crying as the “devils” (two of the comedians who work in the board of education) came after them. . .most of the five year olds were pretty excited to nail the devils with their basket of beans. . .

wake up, teach, dance, sleep. . . repeat

i know it has been ages since i have updated this blog. . . my most sincere apologies to all of you who are persistent enough to check this thing daily (if you only check once a year, you are in luck). . .anyway, i obviously have a lot to report and a lot i will forget to report. . . here it goes. . .

guess i will have to start with the most current topics because i am on a bit of a high at the moment. . .

i just finished teaching at the nursery school where the one and two year olds decided to join my class of three to five year olds again today. . . so cute!!! last week, i read a book called "where's the fish," which really is that simple. . . "where's fishy? [turn page] there's fishy! [repeat ten times]". . . and yet is the most brilliant book! they all own it in japanese and got really worked up to see an english version that they could read along with. . . afterwards we played hide and seek with this little brown bear that i bought at the dollar store that they are in love with! this week, we played hot/cold (but used "happy/sad") to continue with our "where's the bear?" theme. . . they were so excited that they begged me (in tosaben . . . the local dialect) to play again next week. . . in reality, this is a fairly normal wednesday for me, but. . . today is a nasty, dull, rainy day. . . the kind that makes you drag yourself out of bed and through breakfast and then the first hour of work sitting at a desk, falling asleep. . . all of a sudden, you walk into a room of bouncing japanese kids screaming "good morning エリン先生!" and singing "hello teacher" and "wheels on the bus" and making cute faces with the new complex :) vocabulary of "happy" and "sad". . . it really spices up the day. . .

i've also been on another high since monday at about 10:30p.m. when i discovered that a contemporary dance company called Noism is doing a workshop in kochi at the end of the month!!! i am registered for all four days, which means that i get to be in a mini-concert on the last day of the workshop. . . while i have never actually seen the company, i have seen pictures and read a bit about them. . . it should be absolutely amazing!! one of my dance teachers said that they were the "only professional contemporary dance company in japan". . . the artistic director, jo kanamori, danced with several european companies (nederlands dans theater, l'opera national de lyon ballet, the gothenburg ballet, etc.) but decided he wanted more opportunities to choreograph. . . so he returned to japan and started Noism. . .between the pictures and the bios of the dancers and artistic director and praise from other dancers in kochi, i have gotten pretty wound up about the opportunity! . . .oh, one of the company members is originally from kochi. . . which i am guessing is the connection to rural japan :) . . .if you want more information. . .

Noism: http://www.ryutopia.or.jp/noism/top.html
jo kanamori: http://www.jokanamori.com/
interview with jo kanamori http://www.performingarts.jp/E/art_interview/0411/1.html

okay. . . those are my highs. . . time to backtrack a bit. . . excuses for not updating my blog. . . ;)

i was sick for the entire first week back to school in the new year but managed to go to my junior high school's staff new year's party on friday and eat whale nabe. . . in america, i believe it would be frowned upon to attend a party after missing work for a week (and still having a bit of a fever). . . somehow that rule doesn't transfer to kochi, japan (i say kochi specifically because they are big on the parties). . .

the second week back to school consisted of a jet conference. . . in my opinion, boring and for the most part pointless. . . except for the closing speaker on friday, whose lecture gave me some great ideas for my adult class. . . but he had something against linguists. . . thought they were rather dull. . . odd for an english teacher whose lecture contained a million references to linguistics :) . . . anyway, i don't particularly enjoy spending three days with loud foreigners who only care about the drinking parties that follow and then show up hungover to all the seminars. . .i missed my students . . . and i missed dance!!! . . .

i finally returned to dance last week (after a month off. . .ugh!!!!) and have been getting back into my normal schedule. . .wake up, teach, dance, sleep. . . if you ever need to know my schedule, that's it. . . almost everyday. . . a few things in between. . . maybe shopping, eating, going to dance or music concerts, visiting one of my few friends outside the world of school and dance. . . but really just teaching and dancing. . . it's a good life. . . it's nice to know that you can, in fact, get paid to live your dream life. :)

oh! i have finally started learning how to cook real meals! i cook maybe once a week and then the other teacher in the dorm cooks once a week. . . we are both single and not fans of cooking, but this way he gets to introduce me to japanese meals and i get to introduce him to somewhat american meals. . . my mom and grandparents sent some great stuff to help in this area (mac&cheese, soup mixes. . . all the great packaged stuff with instructions such as "add one cup of water, boil, serves 4"). . . i do introduce him to other more sophisticated (?) foods as well. . . but my favorites are still soups and salads. . . oh! he really enjoyed playing with jello :) . . .

what else can i share??? i have a nice long story involving a ninety year old japanese doctor who did not speak english and me with a fever of almost 104F and limited illness related japanese and literally five trips to the doctor in two days. . .

i also have a story about making sugar cookies with my jr high school english club using an american recipe (i.e. cups, teaspoons, tablespoons, degrees fahrenheit. . . none of which are used in japan) and searching ten stores to find cream of tartar. . . p.s. gma, your recipe was delicious even with the conversion confusions. . .

there is also the story of me waking up at 3a.m. (and thereby waking my neighbor up) to the town siren, which i swore was an atomic bomb alert but turned out to be kahoku's way of notifying the entire city of a fire somewhere in the city limits (which is quite an area with all the mountains). . . seriously, this scared me to death. . . my neighbor thought i was crazy :) . . .

anyway, it's lunchtime now. . . then dance. . . maybe two classes tonight? . . . finally sleep. . .

more quality inventions from this part of the world. . . :)




















before the jet programme and any thoughts of working in japan, i promised to buy one of these if i ever made it to tokyo (or japan in general). . . now where to find one???

finally for those of you who hate a cold seat in the winter. . . japan forges US toilet revolution

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/business/4662086.stm