Hello everyone!
What are you interested in hearing about from me? Is there some detail I've completely failed to mention in this blog? Is there something about Japan that you're just dying to know about? Here, let me throw you some topics. Give me some feedback. This blog is just as much for you as it is for me.
- convenience stores and their convenience
- school systems
- transportation
- food and drink
- my house and its lack of insulation
- internationalism in Japan
- bowing, shoes, toilets, chopsticks, etc.
- daily schedule
Have at it!
Monday, November 17, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Fauna of Aogaki
What I love most about Aogaki is the Kakogawa River. While much of it is dried up it's still a haven for all sorts of animals and plants. My favorite thing to do is bike along it. It never fails to offer up something new and exciting. I cross it everyday on the way to work and ocassionally I break the rules and ignore the school-prescribed route back home so I can see what's going on in the river bed.
Today on the way to Kogenji Temple I forgot to cross a bridge that would let me hug the banks of the river, but I was still rewarded with plenty of opportunities to catch some local fauna on camera.
I really need a guide to birds and trees in Japan. I wish I could tell you what these are.
Neither Wikipedia nor Google will tell me what kind of dove this is.
I think these are black kites, but can't be certain. Where there is one there is certainly another nearby. Same goes with the crows that are on the next telephone pole. The crows are really amazingly intelligent and affectionate. I've seen pairs feed each other. They really love the cherry tomatoes in the garden next door (birds in general are pretty attracted to red).
The same pair again. I chased them between phone poles for a while until I could get a good shot of them. Sorry for being so annoying!
This is not the best picture. I can only zoom so far and I only have so many pixels, but you see that blue/green smudge in the center there? It's some sort of kingfisher. I've seen one once before near the high school.
A heron! These guys are all over the place and are really skittish. I had to hide behind a traffic sign just to get a picture. Half the time I stop along the river to look at something I end up scaring one of these guys up without having previously known they were there.
There was also a beautiful pheasant that landed right in front of me, but I couldn't get it on camera. Oh well! Next time.
Enough of the birds. Here's a weasel of some sort by the river. This guy came really close and wasn't afraid of me at all; just curious. Half the time I see these they have some juicy prize in their jaws. I've seen a larger mustelid of some sort romping through my backyard (I was eating toast and staring out the kitchen window when he entered stage left). It was twice the size and had a darker, redder coat without a mask. A sable or marten? ::shrugs::
This little frog was hanging out in this faux bamboo rail for a few days. I guess he was down. It's not easy being green.
Today on the way to Kogenji Temple I forgot to cross a bridge that would let me hug the banks of the river, but I was still rewarded with plenty of opportunities to catch some local fauna on camera.
I really need a guide to birds and trees in Japan. I wish I could tell you what these are.
Neither Wikipedia nor Google will tell me what kind of dove this is.
I think these are black kites, but can't be certain. Where there is one there is certainly another nearby. Same goes with the crows that are on the next telephone pole. The crows are really amazingly intelligent and affectionate. I've seen pairs feed each other. They really love the cherry tomatoes in the garden next door (birds in general are pretty attracted to red).
The same pair again. I chased them between phone poles for a while until I could get a good shot of them. Sorry for being so annoying!
This is not the best picture. I can only zoom so far and I only have so many pixels, but you see that blue/green smudge in the center there? It's some sort of kingfisher. I've seen one once before near the high school.
A heron! These guys are all over the place and are really skittish. I had to hide behind a traffic sign just to get a picture. Half the time I stop along the river to look at something I end up scaring one of these guys up without having previously known they were there.
There was also a beautiful pheasant that landed right in front of me, but I couldn't get it on camera. Oh well! Next time.
Enough of the birds. Here's a weasel of some sort by the river. This guy came really close and wasn't afraid of me at all; just curious. Half the time I see these they have some juicy prize in their jaws. I've seen a larger mustelid of some sort romping through my backyard (I was eating toast and staring out the kitchen window when he entered stage left). It was twice the size and had a darker, redder coat without a mask. A sable or marten? ::shrugs::
This little frog was hanging out in this faux bamboo rail for a few days. I guess he was down. It's not easy being green.
Kogenji Temple 高原時
Another post? There are more to come today! I've got a lot of catching up to do.
It is fall and the leaves finally changed about a week or two ago. The ginkgos are all brilliant and have been for a while. The maples (momiji) just turned red this week. Persimmons hang in naked trees and from drying racks throwing a bit of orange into the mix.
There's still a fair bit of green out there, though. Mornings are a little overcast, but the days have been sunny and surprisingly warm.
Today I biked to Kogenji Temple, which is a popular place to view autumn leaves for 300yen.
The three-story temple there is quite old (about a thousand years old, I think).
I'd been to the temple grounds before (though never all the way up to the pagoda). It's nice in the fall, but I much prefer it during the summer when everything is rich and green. I'll have to visit in the winter, too.
It is fall and the leaves finally changed about a week or two ago. The ginkgos are all brilliant and have been for a while. The maples (momiji) just turned red this week. Persimmons hang in naked trees and from drying racks throwing a bit of orange into the mix.
There's still a fair bit of green out there, though. Mornings are a little overcast, but the days have been sunny and surprisingly warm.
Today I biked to Kogenji Temple, which is a popular place to view autumn leaves for 300yen.
The three-story temple there is quite old (about a thousand years old, I think).
I'd been to the temple grounds before (though never all the way up to the pagoda). It's nice in the fall, but I much prefer it during the summer when everything is rich and green. I'll have to visit in the winter, too.
Friday, November 14, 2008
文化祭、 発表会 Culture Festival and Recital
Friday was the bunkasai or culture festival at my base school in Aogaki. Whereas American schools usually have cultural events after school or only for part of the day (the only exception I can think of was the IA Olympics), a culture festival here can span from one to two days depending on the size of the school. Students put on a variety of acts, some of their own volition and others not. The PTA and school staff also join in the festivities by overseeing events or performing.
The taiko club invited me to play with them for the festival about two weeks ago, so I took up the offer. I played two of the simpler songs with them for the opening ceremony. Some of the kids are half asleep in class sometimes, but they're really energetic when they're doing what they love. I got to wear a happi coat and braided headband and the kids got me to put some styling wax in my hair (and then the second conversation of the week about the differentness of my hair ensued. The day before some first years were surprised to see that I had blonde eyelashes and eyebrows.)
There was also a rock band, a tea ceremony, lots of food, mothers who wanted their middle schoolers to speak a bit of English with me, calligraphy and arts and crafts displays, and conversation with people here and there. I also got roped into judging the choruses, which gave me the opportunity to talk with the principal and vice principal (two new words : seikatsu 生活 （daily life) and shi 詩 poetry).
Then today there was a recital at the elementary school down the street. About a week and a half ago the little girl next door ran over with a letter in an envelop inviting me to the happyoukai or recital.
So, today, early on a Saturday morning I went over to the school. The gym was full of parents and grandparents and the usual line of video cameras lined up in the back. There were art displays on the walls and reports about animal and plant life in the river (I was pretty geeked about all the plants). The principal came over and introduced himself (of course he knew who I was). Elementary goes from first to sixth grade here and each class did their own presentation, usually of a musical nature, though the older kids did reports about the history of the town and history of animal and plant life in the river. The staff and PTA also had their own performances and used the chance to give the kids (and audience) some good laughs. Parents dressed up at Anpanman or in drag and danced to the theme from Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. One staff member even acted drunk of stage (while holding an Asahi beer can as a prop). Definitely not the type of humor you'd see in an American elementary school, but good times were had by all.
At the end there was a performance by a musical group that the school had invited. They had some African percussion, a pianist, and two singers do a musical version of a children's book called Tomodachiya, which is about a fox who goes around selling one hour of friendship for 100yen (so far as I could understand). But the best part was when they brought out the Austrian they had been hiding behind stage and he played several pieces on accordian, which the kids got a real kick out of.
Afterwards I got to flex my German muscles (my brain cannot handle two languages at once and I kept saying little filler words in Japanese). Turns out one of the Japanese members of the troupe had studied in the Netherlands and had met the accordianist in Vienna and each year he returns to Japan to play in Tamba City and other places in Japan. It was great to be able to speak a language that I am almost fluent in, be understood, and understand those talking to me! And who would have thought I'd be able to that in little Aogaki? Of course, if this were a bigger city I wouldn't have great neighbors to invite me to different events and I'd never get to speak in person with all these interesting people. The accordianist, whose name is Alexander Chevchenko (as translated from the katakana flier), has a concert in Osaka, but I sadly cannot make it, as it is on Wednesday.
What a great day! :)
The taiko club invited me to play with them for the festival about two weeks ago, so I took up the offer. I played two of the simpler songs with them for the opening ceremony. Some of the kids are half asleep in class sometimes, but they're really energetic when they're doing what they love. I got to wear a happi coat and braided headband and the kids got me to put some styling wax in my hair (and then the second conversation of the week about the differentness of my hair ensued. The day before some first years were surprised to see that I had blonde eyelashes and eyebrows.)
There was also a rock band, a tea ceremony, lots of food, mothers who wanted their middle schoolers to speak a bit of English with me, calligraphy and arts and crafts displays, and conversation with people here and there. I also got roped into judging the choruses, which gave me the opportunity to talk with the principal and vice principal (two new words : seikatsu 生活 （daily life) and shi 詩 poetry).
Then today there was a recital at the elementary school down the street. About a week and a half ago the little girl next door ran over with a letter in an envelop inviting me to the happyoukai or recital.
So, today, early on a Saturday morning I went over to the school. The gym was full of parents and grandparents and the usual line of video cameras lined up in the back. There were art displays on the walls and reports about animal and plant life in the river (I was pretty geeked about all the plants). The principal came over and introduced himself (of course he knew who I was). Elementary goes from first to sixth grade here and each class did their own presentation, usually of a musical nature, though the older kids did reports about the history of the town and history of animal and plant life in the river. The staff and PTA also had their own performances and used the chance to give the kids (and audience) some good laughs. Parents dressed up at Anpanman or in drag and danced to the theme from Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. One staff member even acted drunk of stage (while holding an Asahi beer can as a prop). Definitely not the type of humor you'd see in an American elementary school, but good times were had by all.
At the end there was a performance by a musical group that the school had invited. They had some African percussion, a pianist, and two singers do a musical version of a children's book called Tomodachiya, which is about a fox who goes around selling one hour of friendship for 100yen (so far as I could understand). But the best part was when they brought out the Austrian they had been hiding behind stage and he played several pieces on accordian, which the kids got a real kick out of.
Afterwards I got to flex my German muscles (my brain cannot handle two languages at once and I kept saying little filler words in Japanese). Turns out one of the Japanese members of the troupe had studied in the Netherlands and had met the accordianist in Vienna and each year he returns to Japan to play in Tamba City and other places in Japan. It was great to be able to speak a language that I am almost fluent in, be understood, and understand those talking to me! And who would have thought I'd be able to that in little Aogaki? Of course, if this were a bigger city I wouldn't have great neighbors to invite me to different events and I'd never get to speak in person with all these interesting people. The accordianist, whose name is Alexander Chevchenko (as translated from the katakana flier), has a concert in Osaka, but I sadly cannot make it, as it is on Wednesday.
What a great day! :)
Monday, November 3, 2008
Himeji 姫路
This Monday was Culture Day, a national holiday in Japan, so I had the day off. A few weeks ago I had signed up to participate in a budo festival at the budokan in Himeji on Culture Day and invited some fellow ALTs to go with.
The day started off on the right foot when I woke up late and ran out of the door. I drove down to Himeji with some Sasayama ALTs and we only managed to get lost for 20 minutes. Thankfully we only missed the opening ceremony at the beginning and I was on time for a free lesson in wushu tai chi chaun.
Afterwards there was a demonstration of various martials arts.
Taekwondo team breaking some boards. It was set to a music track.
Karate. Those little kids were spot-on and kept up with the older kids.
Pretty sure this was shorinji kempo.
Taiko half-time show.
Naginata, taught to upper-class women back in the day, as far as I know.
Judo. Some sort of a stretching exercise...?
Kyudo, Japanese archery.
After the demonstrations we walked around the Himeji Castle grounds and took some pictures, had dinner and dessert, and then headed back home. It was quite a long day, but well spent.
The day started off on the right foot when I woke up late and ran out of the door. I drove down to Himeji with some Sasayama ALTs and we only managed to get lost for 20 minutes. Thankfully we only missed the opening ceremony at the beginning and I was on time for a free lesson in wushu tai chi chaun.
Afterwards there was a demonstration of various martials arts.
Taekwondo team breaking some boards. It was set to a music track.
Karate. Those little kids were spot-on and kept up with the older kids.
Pretty sure this was shorinji kempo.
Taiko half-time show.
Naginata, taught to upper-class women back in the day, as far as I know.
Judo. Some sort of a stretching exercise...?
Kyudo, Japanese archery.
After the demonstrations we walked around the Himeji Castle grounds and took some pictures, had dinner and dessert, and then headed back home. It was quite a long day, but well spent.
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