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

あけましておめでとうございます！

happy new year!

okay. . . i have a lot to say so no intro babbling today. . .

thursday, december 29th i went to usj (universal studios japan) in osaka with some of my community class students. . . they wanted to show me other parts of japan, so we went to america (usj = america in japan). . . when you walk in, it smells like america (well, caramel popcorn maybe. . . but still different from japan). . . the streets are wide. . . the music is in english. . . and very loud. . . i really wanted pepperoni pizza for dinner, but the shop closed before we got there. . . all the other foods (chocolate malt, popcorn, etc.) tasted american. . . and not the japanese version of american. . . i thought it was funny that they even had an american style japanese restaurant. . . seriously. . . it said so in the pamphlet. . ."located in the new york art district. enjoy a variety of traditional and new japanese cuisine in this western style japanese restaurant." . . (oh, before all that, we also went to china town in kobe. . . it's funny how different chinese food is here from american chinese food. . . wonder what chinese food is in china??) . . . anyway, i would normally be very opposed to the whole touristy american attraction in japan, but it was kind of a welcome change for a day. . . it really is amazing how well they do. . . it can't be easy to recreate all the senses of a foreign country. . .e.t. was my favorite by far. . . and it was probably the simplest of the rides. . . you hold bicycle handles as you fly over the lights of a 'city' and past the moon. . . then into et's homeland with all these baby extraterrestrials and et humming the theme song. . . かわいいね。 i was a pretty good day to go too. . . there were lines, but the waits could have been much, much worse. . .

along the lines of traffic, i should mention the following. . .everyone does kind of this mass exodus from the cities for the new year holiday. . . they all go back home (where their parents are). . . which means that all the people that have moved from the rural areas to the big cities (tokyo, osaka, etc.) travel home (which was nice for us driving to osaka since everyone was going the opposite way). . . of course this all reversed at the end of the holidays. . . they even broadcast the flights on tv showing which ones were full and which ones still had space. . . every flight into tokyo was booked all day monday (january 2nd) and tuesday (january 3rd). . .

in preparation for the holidays, the entire country does this massive cleaning (like spring cleaning in america maybe). . . my kids at the nursery schools were scrubbing the floors and windows when i arrived to teach on the 28th. . . some people were outside spraying down city hall most of the day. . . i already mentioned my mochi making experience at work before the holidays. . . people do the same at home. . . only i think they have more modern ways of making mochi . . . anyway. . .

i went home with my friend for new years to experience things in the traditional japanese way. . . it most definitely made up for the duller than america christmas festivities. . .

to begin with, i have to tell you about this house. . . it was amazing! . . .in so many ways, it was your average middle class american house. . . like the family room . . .only the table was near the floor, meaning you do not sit in chairs when you eat. . . and instead of having central heating, the floor was heated. . . oh, the japanese have this cool thing called kotatsu (i think that's right) where tables act as little heaters. . . the table is covered by a kind of comforter, which traps the hot air underneath. . . since you spend most of your time sitting on the floor in japan anyway, it's quite relaxing to stick your feet under the table and finally find some heat. . .

anyway, i was telling you how amazing this house was. . . at the moment, you have no idea why. . . as for other cool little quirks. . . they (thankfully) had western style toilets. . . far more advanced than the one in my house. . . the seat is heated (my friend's dad shuddered at the thought of a cold american-style toilet seat in the winter). . . this next part is my favorite. . . next to the downstairs toilet, they had a second room. . . with a urinal. . . do people typically have urinals in their house??? i thought it was rather funny. . .

okay, those are still just little things . . . finally to the amazing part. . . which really requires pictures. . . but i forgot to run around snapping pictures before i left. . . sorry. . . they had these two rooms off to the side of the family room that had tatami floors (which evidently almost every house in japan has). . . separating the two rooms were paper like sliding doors (i'm sure there is a more technical japanese name for these) with beautiful cherry blossom images. . . above the doors was a strip of wood intricately carved with a typical japanese scenery (japanese shrine and cherry blossoms). . . i really should have taken that art history class at olaf. . . i never do these things justice. . . i was amazed that anyone would have something like this in their house!

the best part came on january 1st (i'm jumping ahead a bit. . . i'll return to new year's eve in a second). . . after breakfast, the family gathered in the second tatami room in front of a little buddhist altar(?) . . . i don't know the proper terminology for this stuff. . . but i was shocked to see something so ornate in a normal house. . . it was a good four feet tall and maybe two and a half feet wide with all kinds of gold inside. . . and a little gold buddha in the center. . . pictures of the family's relatives (aunts, uncles, grandparents) who had passed away were hanging on the wall next to the altar. . . anyway, at this little service, they placed fruit and mochi on the altar, lit incense, and began a series of chants led by the father. . . i just kind of stared in disbelief from the couch. . . it was like a full service at home. . . ending with a hymn the kids chose (ha, the 'kids' are 31 and 34 years old). . .

okay, rewinding a bit. . . saturday (december 31st), we visited the graves of the family's relatives. . they placed some rice on each stone and said a little prayer? wish? i don't know. . . that night, we went to a shrine in kagawa-ken. . .

we had to climb 1,000 steps (no elevators) to get to the shrine (so i was told. . . i think it was maybe 500 up and 500 down because i counted for a bit and ten steps is a pretty long way in itself). . . i loved watching all the people. . . there were literally people of all ages (maybe age 2 or 3 to ninety some) . . . it was pretty cute to see the little kids struggling up the steps at 11pm with legs that were barely as high as the steps themselves. . . we went a little early to miss the really insane crowds and reached the top of the mountain (not really top, but close enough) around 10:30pm . . . along the way we passed at least a hundred vendors selling snacks (coca cola didn't miss out on this opportunity) and souvenirs . . . people offering to read your palm and sell you walking sticks. . . guards for crowd control and one with a megaphone warning that there were no more toilets after his level on the trek to the top. . . definitely a memorable experience. . . anyway, at the top, we through some money into the shrine and clapped our hands twice and made a wish. . . technically, i think it was supposed to be a prayer and not a wish, but i really wasn't sure who i was supposed to be praying to, so i made it a wish. . . on our way down around 11:30, things were really getting crazy. . . i've never seen such a random mix of people from punks with chains and crazy hair to 'average' families in jeans to girls (and sometimes boys) in traditional dress (i could have worn a kimono but thought it might get a bit chilly) to dogs wearing little sweaters (many people brought their dogs, as next year is the year of the dog). . .since we were driving home at 12:00, we listened to the countdown on the radio. . . guess they don't usually countdown, so that was just for me. . . and saw some fireworks at a ski resort near the top of the mountain. . .

whoa. . . that was a lot. . . just a few more days to go. . . i'll make it quick. . .

january 1st we did the little buddhist ceremony and a lot of eating. . . as january 1st evidently sets your schedule for the entire year, we did a lot of sitting and eating and watching strange television shows and movies. . . we were supposed to do calligraphy, but put it off until the 2nd . . . i was impressed with the patience my friend had in teaching me calligraphy. . . i was even more impressed with the fact that pretty much everyone in japan has the ability to do this art (or so it seems). . . the way the strokes are made are quite specific. . . where to stop and where to continue and how to apply the proper amount of pressure. . . i really enjoyed it. . .

january 3rd, we flew a kite (a 23 yr old, a 31 yr old, and a family with three little boys ages 1 1/2 to 9 were the only people at the park). . . seeing as how i had never really flown a kite. .. i sunk it in the man made pond and got it caught in a tree. . . after about an hour and a half or so, it broke. . . i think from me crashing it into the ground one too many times. . . still, i had fun. . .

so, that was my new year holiday week. . . if i ever see another piece of mochi, i will die. . . no offense to those who made it. . . i just don't understand why people feel the need to stock up on seasonal foods. . .

anyway, that brings me to today. . . my first day back at work. . .we had an opening ceremony for all the city workers (city hall, board of education, etc), including a speech by the mayor, a toast with apple juice or tea, and a memorial photograph. . . so many traditions!! classes start again next tuesday. . . along with dance. . . three weeks off is a long time. . . oops. . .

one last thing before i end this blog. . . i’m finally looking into grad schools. . . any suggestions as to what i should do with my life??? i like teaching (especially teaching esl), but i think even traveling the world teaching esl may possibly get a bit monotonous after awhile. . . ha, how ridiculous does that sound? i’m just not a fan of having the same job for eternity. . . anyway, i am open to any and all suggestions (the more ridiculous, the better!). . . also suggestions for specific grad schools (i’m currently looking at teaching esl or something related to linguistics. . . probably language acquisition). . .seriously. . . give me some creative ideas here. . . ありがとうございます！

pictures. . .

i finally managed to go back and add some pictures to my blogs. . . i have about three hundred more pictures (literally) but do not have the time to post them all. . . enjoy!

mochi, usw. . .

hmm. . . i just spent most of my morning making mochi the old-fashioned way. . . which i suppose is a good thing since i have absolutely nothing to do at the board of education but sit at my desk and at least look busy. . . and making mochi is much more interesting than cutting the hair of one hundred plus dolls and tying ribbons around their necks, which i somehow ended up doing last thursday afternoon. . . lesson number one. . . if someone asks you if you are busy, always say "yes!". . . once you offer your services (for the first basket of ten dolls in this case), it is difficult to wiggle your way out. . .anyway, mochi is rice pounded down into a massive sticky blob and then rolled into smaller balls (sometimes filled with sweet beans). . . when i arrived at work at 8:25 this morning, the process was well underway. . . one of my girls handed me a pounding tool (like a ginormous hammer), and i went at it. . . one minute later an old guy took over and showed me up. . .i then moved inside with the old ladies and shaped the mochi for a good hour. . . now i have a nice stock of mochi on my desk. . . p.s. this was all preparation for new years. . . everyone in japan eats mochi on new years. . .

oh, speaking of holidays. . . merry christmas!!! i had a rather interesting christmas weekend. . . unusual anyway. . . i went to a christmas mass at a "catholic" church. . . my friend and i were the only ones there until exactly 5p.m. (when the service was supposed to begin). . . suddenly, the doors opened and about nine couples walked in. . . no families. . . no children. . . no parents. . . only couples in their twenties. . . it was quite odd. . . i have no idea what the pastor said (well, i received a rough translation, but it really made no sense). . . after the service, we headed off to dinner, where i ate blowfish for the first time. . . i guess blowfish has some kind of poison in its blood, so only a chef with a special license can prepare it. . . the blowfish was prepared in more ways than i knew existed. . . in the salad, as sashimi, in nabe, etc. . . it was good, but i think i have had my fill of both blowfish and nabe for a good week or year or so. . . christmas day involved opening presents under my handmade tree (i got an amazing video camera, a ballistic chicken, and some long underwear for those oh so cold days at school). . . and later shopping and watching さゆり: memoirs of a geisha. . . the movie was okay, but the book was better (when is it not?). . . and they used chinese actors! why, when the book was so beautifully written (by an american), did the (american) producers have to go and cast chinese actors as the leads? all of my japanese friends agree that the author did an amazing job with the book. . .oh, if you have not heard of memoirs of a geisha, it is a book about a geisha in japan in the 1900s, before and after the war, revealing much about the arts and traditions of japan through the story of her life. . . hmmm, i was never much for book reviews. . . don't know how well that sums it up. . . just go read the book. . .

anyway, i guess i am meeting some guy's daughter in a minute. . . she is back from texas state university for the holidays. . . that's about all i know. . . her father is really funny. . .he always addresses me as 'miss erinn' . . . 'miss erinn, are you healthy?' 'miss erinn, are you free now?' 'how do you like kahoku, miss erinn?' . . .

i may or may not manage another entry before new years. . . i should, however, have much to report afterwards, as new years is the biggest holiday in japan . . .

a must read ;) . . .

Why good dancers are attractive
Why being a good mover on the dance-floor means you will be a good catch for a mate.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/health/4550000.stm