Buddha's Flower and the Dancing Fish

Well, this weekend was quite the busy weekend! Saturday was a little bit slow and I missed a great formal party that I should've gone to (my apologies!) but, I made it up on Sunday by doing something most people would probably never even consider. But before I get to that..

.. in the morning I headed, bright and early, to Kurume which is a little bit south of Fukuoka City. My friend found an ume blossom flower garden and thought it would be a good chance to take some pictures. Seeing as I'm a budding (no pun intended! haha~) amateur photographer ( very amateur ..) I couldn't pass up the chance. Unfortunately, it rained the night before and a lot of the ume were still wet and sagging; not to mention the weather was kind of cloudy and that ruined a lot of our shots. That being said, I still managed to snag a couple of decent, if I do say so myself, shots. And as I proudly proclaimed to my professional-photographer friend today, "I found the flower button!"


I think one of the best things about living in a foreign country is that everything and everywhere you go seems to be an adventure. I am sure there are tons of things to do in and around Toronto.. but I never really put in the time or effort to go explore. Maybe I should do that when I get back~


Anyhow, after looking at the ume, my friend and I headed to the southern part of Kurume city to check out the Narita Buddha. The statue was _huge_! We climbed the interior of the statue -- almost to the top -- when it hit me: I'm really out of shape. Although the statue was nowhere near as tall as the CN Tower in Toronto (and I've climbed that no problem), I was really struggling to get to the top! I think I need to start exercising some if I wanna climb Mt. Fuji. (笑)


And finally, the part you've all been waiting for! What did I do that most people would never even consider? I ate fish. Raw fish. No, I mean raw fish as in it still being alive. After seeing an article in one of the local newsletters highlighting this particular Japanese delicacy, I decided this was something I had to do. The fish are only in season starting from around Valentines Day to the beginning of the Cherry Blossom season.

Essentially, you go to a restaurant that specializes in this type of meal and you order either the small, medium or large dinner set. Out comes a large bowl (or aquarium for some of you) full of water with these little fish (literally translated as "White Fish" or 白魚). You scoop the fish up, drop them in your soysauce and then try to catch them with your chopstick. It was quite an experience and probably something I will never get the chance to do again. The fish are also called "Dancing Fish" because they literally "dance" in your mouth just before you either chew or swallow them. I found chewing them to be a little bit bitter so I decided to swallow them straight. Needless to say, it was an experience I will never forget!

日本語の塾 。。。マジで？！

.. well, not really. But it feels like it. Every Wednesday night and Saturday morning I go to Japanese language class. It's a pretty good class considering it's one-on-one (well, I'm paired with a friend but most of the class is one-on-one), FREE, and they serve treats during the break. Although the learning isn't at regimented as other programs in which I would have to pay, I still think I am getting a pretty good deal. I'm learning a lot of new vocabulary (today we did a lesson on .. err, hum .. bad words. lol) and my Japanese has improved over the course of the 4-5 months that I've been going. In fact, my friend in the class just passed 3kyu which is amazing (congrats again!). I will definitely write the JLPT next year.

In addition to just language learning, we also do a whole bunch of cultural stuff. The stuff that I posted with the kimono was through the class. I've also done tea ceremony and, next month, I will be part of a discussion panel to talk about Japan and internationalization. I also have to do a ten-minute speech about myself and Japan for the discussion panel. Oh yea, the speech has to be in _Japanese_. ドキドキ~

The photograph pictured above is one of many malls I visited while in Hong Kong. Again, trying to do the concept-shot thing.（笑）

広島 / Hiroshima

Ouch! I'm still in so much pain. This past weekend I went on a weekend ski & snowboarding trip to Hiroshima! We took an overnight bus to the mountain that, although was definitely not the most comfortable way to travel, was very cheap.

I've only ski/snowboarded a few times prior to the trip so, though I was probably one of the more "experienced" ski/snowboarders, I'm not very good. In fact, I stink! But that's okay, I still had a great time. I enjoy snowboarding more than skiing because a) I think there is a higher "thrill" factor to the activity and b) it's so much kooler. Enough said. :)


The first day us snowboarders decided to take a lesson (actually, I was against the idea of doing a beginner-beginner lesson and had to convince the gang to at least do the beginner-intermediate lesson) that turned out to be quite useful. Though the entire lesson was in Japanese, and I wasn't always exactly sure what our instructor wanted us to do, I did manage to pick up a couple of new techniques.

That being said, I still fell down many, many, many, many times.


The second day we went to a different hill and I spent most of the day practicing my carving. Although I still haven't got it down perfectly, by the end of the trip, I was definitely snowboarding the way you see it on TV (well, not exactly ..)! I was pretty psyched during the entire trip and, though my body is in a massive amount of pain, I can't wait to do it all again!

The End.

Today was the last day of elementary school for me. From now on, I will go to my base Junior High School or the office until the end of the school year in March. Though my office mates will be the first to tell you that I would prefer _not_ to go to elementary school at all, that would be a lie (well, sorta..). Basically, I think elementary school is a lot of work. Not only am I planning and running the class by myself (with the occasional on-the-fly translation by the home-room teacher .. if even that), but I'm doing it in a foreign language (to the students). Also, the kids are extremely "energetic" (元気だよ) to have me in the class so, there is usually a lot of shouting. I don't necessarily consider that a bad thing however, it does fray the nerves a little.

On the flip-side, I do enjoy the variety and unpredictability of all the elementary schools I go to. Each class is definitely different; I enjoy the challenge of trying to familiarize elementary school students with English (which is the basic function of my visits). The kids in elementary school are, on the whole, usually a lot more willing to come up to and talk to me than my JHS students (so far .. although that isn't always the case). I will have to see if that changes as I become more familiar with my JHS kids.

Anyways, that's about it. I got a bunch of letters from some of my 5th graders today, here is a sample of what they say:

ジョンソン先生へ：
これまでの間英語の勉強を楽しく教えてくださって、どうもありがとうございました。少しの野間だったきどとてもためになりました。また、この学校に、遊びに来て下さい！

ジョンソンさんへ：
ジョンソンさんは、今までで１番よかったです。今までどうもありがとうございました。僕達が６年生になっても、また来て下さい！できた６でいいです。僕達５年生は、元気です。ジョンソンさんも元気です。できれば、オリンビックとかでにっぽんをおうえんして下さいお願いします。僕達は、ジョンソン先生のおかげでいろいろな英語を覚えることができました。また来年もこれたらもっと英語を教えて下さい。その時は、日本語を覚えてきて下さい

Lastly, the above is a picture of a castella cake I bought in Nagasaki. I have never seen a cake wrapped in so much plastic/paper and decorated so neatly. Oh yea, it was good.

長崎 / Nagasaki

This weekend I had the opportunity to visit the port city of Nagasaki. It was the last day of the Lantern Festival so, although it was probably not in my financial interest to go, I couldn't pass up the chance.

Unfortunately, Nagasaki is probably only famous internationally as the site of the second atomic bomb that officially ended World War II (in the Pacific). However, before all that, Nagasaki was historically a thriving port city that acted as a major gateway between Japan and the rest of Asia. Because of its historic ties with the rest of Asia, there is a sizable Chinese population in Nagasaki and, where there are Chinese people, there always seems to be a Chinatown.


That being said, Nagasaki's Chinatown is a little bit .. how do I say this, peculiar. Maybe it was just the decorations and the overabundance of lanterns but it seemed like the Chinatown in Nagasaki was every [erroneous] concept of Chinese culture but on steroids. To me, everything seemed to be overdone. Mind you, my only point-of-reference is the Chinatown in Toronto so, maybe I'm not being completely objective (heck, Chinatown in Toronto smells really bad). Anyhow, it was interesting to observe how the Japanese see Chinese culture.


We walked around the city a little bit but mostly stayed around the central park area. We followed a small parade around for awhile but got bored quickly because we didn't get any free gifts they were handing out. One of the funniest parts of the trip was when we went to get Chinese food (well, Japanese-Chinese food). We thought we were going into a real Chinese restaurant but our hopes for authentic Chinese food was quickly dashed away as we were requested to take off our shoes. In the end, we ended up ordering 3 egg dishes (I wanted fried-noodle chanpon but my friend accidentally ordered omelet-ramen).


And finally, me being stupid. :)

Gold!

Woo~ Canada won its first medal (gold nonetheless!) for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Women's Moguls! Huzzah~ Read about it here.

Think about it.

Normally I try to stay away from controversial issues on this blog because: a) I don't think people are necessarily interested in them; and b) for personal reasons. While I think it is important to discuss current affairs, I made a decision when I set-up this blog to avoid drawing any negative attention to myself.

That being said, I think sometimes I can bend that rule when something happens in Japan that I feel is important to share. I am not going to rant or make comments that I might regret later so, I will just put a link to the source and let you guys/gals think about it.

In 2004, a black man was denied entry into a store in Kyoto because he was black. He sued the store and, in a recent precedent-setting judgment, he lost the case because, paraphrasing the article and subsequent link, he lacked native-Japanese language ability to properly understand why he was denied entry.

Here is a link to the article in the Japan Times with a more detailed link, including the exact phrasing the judge used (in Japanese and English), at the end of the article. To be fair, the article is an opinion piece (how can it not be?).

週末 / le weekend!

こんにちは！
元気ですか。　今日は、初めて日本語の記事を書きます。　おとといは、節分でした。　学校で子供に英語で大豆の伐わりにピーナツを投げました。　日本の伝統行事を体験しました。　子供に英語で「鬼は外、福は内」と教ました。　楽しかった。　土曜日は、きものを着ました。　そして、私たちは神社に行き、祈願をしてもらいました。でも、きものはとても苦しくて、着心地が悪かったよ！



Well, this weekend was quite interesting! Today I am trying my first bilingual blog post .. of course I had lots of help .. I just hope it makes sense!

Anyhow, on Friday it was the "Changing of the Season" day in Japan. The day is marked by an event in which kids (and adults apparently!) get to throw peanuts/soybeans at a "devil". The devil being a kid that lost a round of janken and has to put on a mask. The kids also chant, "Devil Out, Good Luck In!" The meaning behind the event is pretty obvious. I had a ton of fun throwing peanuts at the kids who played "devils". What a stress-reliever! :)



Then on Saturday I got to wear a kimono for the first time. The whole process of putting it on took about 15 minutes but the girls took almost 2 hours! I have to admit, it was rather uncomfortable but it definitely was an interesting experience. After everybody was ready, we went to a local shrine to partake in a traditional Japanese New Year (perhaps?) prayer. Then we just walked around and took lots of [bad] pictures. Not much else to say except that it was a very kool weekend.

Ahh~ Nuts!

Yeesh! What a busy week/weekend this was! I did a ton of pretty kool and interesting stuff. I'm not going to post anything yet because I am going through my photos to see which ones are the best to post. On another note, I updated my side-bar to include links to my favourite links -- including some blogs that my friends here, and back home, have started. Please enjoy them!

Things that make you go Hmm..

I just finished having a conversation with a friend about re-contracting. As most of you know, I had decided long ago, before I even came to Japan, that if I got into the JET Programme it would be a minimum of 2 years. But talking to my friend, who has decided _not_ to recontract, it got me thinking about what I've accomplished so far and what I hope to accomplish in the next 18 months.

Well, I guess some of the things on the top of my "to do" list is to: travel/see as much of Japan and Asia as possible; vastly improve my Japanese; etc. (etc. being all the other things people write about while in a foreign country). Looking back on the last 6 months, I think I've done a decent job of fulfilling some of those goals. Going to Hong Kong was a big deal for me so, getting that "checked off" was a nice surprise. However, although I think my Japanese has improved a little bit, I am still far from being proficient. I definitely need to spend more time studying (which hasn't been much to be honest..).

Aside from goals, I am really getting used to, and enjoying, my life in Japan. Although there are _many_ aspects of Japanese society, life, culture, attitude, etc., that I dislike or disagree with, there is nothing that is really worth complaining about (not in this post anyways). Work is great (I may gripe about it every Monday but, let's be honest, it isn't that bad); experiencing Japanese traditional culture is great (I'll be participating in some Japanese festival tomorrow at my elementary school; then, on Saturday, I will wear a kimono and go to a shrine to do some traditional prayer'); and my social life is great (5 words: Jamie, next week Saturday, Drunk).

Sure, I think I've done quite a bit here, but over the next year or so I am definitely going to try to do a lot more. And not just the typical Japanese-y stuff, but stuff I wouldn't normally even consider (whatever that means, I'm not sure -- you'll just have to keep checking my blog! haha). Taking a page from Jamie's blog, I will end this post with a cheesy quote by Ursula K. Leguin: "It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end."

Apples and Oranges?

I've decided to start showcasing some of my "concept" shots. They're not that good and I'm not exactly sure the "point" of it .. aside from the fact that they _can_ look really kool and interesting. The apple pictured above cost me 280 yen and it was big enough to feed a family. Most fruits are quite expensive in Japan although they tend to be on the "better quality" side (imho). Also, many fruits are seasonal; for example, winter-time means lots of mikans (tangerine I think) and persimmons. January and February is strawberry season, etc. Melons are special "gift" fruits -- with some costing as much as 10 000 yen each!