Okay, I'm going to go ahead and say it right now, the title sounds a lot cooler than what you're actually gonna end up reading here. So please, go ahead and let the air out of the balloon right now.
Before coming to Japan, I had heard on the news, from Japanese people, professors, people that have been to Japan before, and so on and so forth, that Japan is an extremely volcanic country (in more ways than one~), and that earthquakes are frequent and sometimes extremely damaging. The news of the 2004 and 2007 Niigata Earthquakes help convince me that yes, Japan does seem to get hit by a lot of earthquakes.
However, I didn't really feel any sense of anxiety or terror about coming here. I actually kind of welcomed it. Earthquakes anyone? Sounds like a free ride at an amusement park. Obviously, I understand that earthquakes are pretty serious, and sometimes lethal, but still, I couldn't help but wonder what it would feel like.
Since we never have earthquakes in Toronto, my curiousity got the better of me, and I was starting to look forward to my first earthquake experience that I would inevitably get while in Japan.
Unfortunately, nothing really happened when I first got here.
After 3 months of little to no activity, I had completely forgotten about earthquakes and that I had been looking forward to experiencing an earthquake. Seriously, I'm in Miyagi prefecture, which isn't too far from Niigata, so I was thinking, maybe I would get hit by an earthquake sooner or later. Unfortunately, after 3 whole months, yes 90 freaking days, not a single earthquake (at least not any I could actually feel). Sometimes, I'd arrive at school, and the teachers would be talking about "yesterday's earthquake". What earthquake? I didn't feel anything. I started to wonder if this was just something Japanese people could sense. Having been living in a volcanic, earthquake ridden area for the past 2000 plus years, they've probably developed some kind of earthquake sensor that I wasn't able to tap into. Or perhaps I was just sleeping when it happened, or too drunk to notice. Still, I was surprised though, that after 3 months, still no earthquake. I had high hopes, and day by day they were being crushed.
Finally, almost exactly 3 months to the day of when I arrived in Japan, something happened!
It was a Wednesday, November 7th to be exact. School had ended, so I had come back to my apartment. A neighbour had also come over, and we probably were going to have dinner somewhere in the town. The weather had begun to get cold, so I had the kotatsu on, and a couple of heaters, and we were both sitting on the floor in the Japanese way (seriously my legs still go haywire when I sit on the floor too long. even Japanese style chairs" are really just cushions that let you sit on the floor more comfortably). As we were talking, suddenly, the ground shoke a little, kind of like a big fat guy running accross the porch. My neighbour suddenly started freaking out, but I had no idea what the big deal was. I asked her "what's wrong?" and she looked at me with fear in her eyes. Then the ground shook again, this time a little bit longer (longer as in 1.5389 miliseconds longer), and it hit me, this must be an "earthquake" that everyone's always talking about. I looked at her and asked her "is this an earthquake?", and she said "yes", and started looking aprehensive and about to go out of control. I tried to hold her down, and told her it was "okay". "It's just a tiny earthquake." But hey, what do I know? They've been experiencing earthquakes for a lot longer than I have. I can't help but wonder if most Japanese people have the same reactions as my neighbour did.
Apparently, there were times when she would run into the rice fields with her kids when there were earthquakes. I'm guessing this is what a lot of Japanese out her in the "jungle" do. I guess rice fields ARE the safest place, since there's no chance of a building falling on you. Living out in the winaka, there really aren't any tall structures around. There are houses with 2 stories and that's it. I live on the second floor though, so maybe it might be difficult for me to get down stairs and into the rice fields. I guess I'll just take the advice other people have given, - sip a cold beer and get under a table. OR, make a run for my school (which doubles as an earthquake shelter).
I'd have to say my first earthquake experience was not what I had expected. The entire ordeal lasted about 5 seconds, and the actual time of the ground shaking was probably closer to 3 or less. At first, it felt different, and even kind of cool, but it was too weak to really be enjoyed properly. It seriously felt like a kids ride at an amusement park that ends too fast. Probably the thing I'll remember most is the reaction I got from my neighbour. If Japanese people have been experiencing earthquakes for 2000 years and have that kind of reaction to a miniscule earthquake, then I can't imagine what's in store for me ahead.
The anticipation is making me drool.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Kannari Junior High School, Cultural Festival - 金成中学校文化祭
I actually planned on writing about this weeks before, when we had the actual school festival, but unfortunately, I didn't have time. I'm actually quite sick right now. Caught my first real cold of the year. Fortunately, today's a holiday for me, because I had to go on a business trip two friday's ago, which included me having to "work" on a saturday. So today, I'm just gonna try and relax at home, and write about as much as I can, before my memory becomes blurred.
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On October 20 and 21, we had the annual school festival. Pretty much all Japanese schools have these cultural festivals, called 文化祭, where the parents get to come into the school and watch their kids perform, and also hear about what they've been doing at school for the past half year. The Bunkasai's usually happen on weekends, so that the parents have a better chance of attending. Sure, coming to school on a weekend certainly feels strange, but since the teachers and students almost always come to school on the weekends anyways, it probably doesn't make a difference at all to them.
The days and weeks leading up to the festival were pretty hectic. I didn't have any designated role, being the ALT, so I was basically able to to continue doing whatever I was doing (which was basically studying kanji and Japanese all day). I could see the teachers around me running around, frantically getting posters and other presentations set up with the students' help. It seemed like a pretty big thing, but unfortunately, my JTE and the other teachers didn't really tell me much about it, other than "there's gonna be a festival next week". Being an ALT in Japan, a foreigner working in a foreign country, does sometimes feel alienating. The teachers were crazy busy, and they don't really have time to tell the ALT what's happening, but at the same time, I think I would feel a lot better if I was better informed about what was going on at the school.
Anyhow, all of that really doesn't matter at this point, since the festival's already over. Fortunately enough for me, one of the assistant teachers at my school, has a deep interest in English - he likes watching horror and b movies, and he loves american and british rock and roll, and heavy metal music. It's really funny though, because he's such a nice guy, with a shaved head, but extremely polite, and always helping the students and talking to the other teachers. I would never have been able to guess he likes to rock it with guns and roses, and the sex pistols, while watching zombies getting blown to pieces by machine gun fire.
The really cool thing, is that when I first came to Kannari Junior High School, I took a walk around the school, and bumped into him as well as the female gym teacher, at the pool area. At first they had no idea who I was (again, the gaijin in disguise factor at play here). When I walked up to them, and started speaking English, he was like "whoaaaaa your the new ALT?? nice to meet you!" that was the beginning of a great friendship here at Kannari Junior High~ We started talking about music, and then about movies, particularly the newest big movie at the time "Transfomers". (I'm a big-time Transformers fan, so I think I'll save that topic for another post.) The next few days and weeks at the end of August and beginning of September, I found at that he also liked playing the guitar. Afterschool, while the 1st and 2nd graders would be doing their bukatsu activities, he would be jamming around a group of sannensei. Then, for some reason or another, he found out that I also play the guitar, and he started talking to me about an upcoming "school festival". Apparently, he would be playing electric guitar with some of the sannensei - they would be performing a song called "大切なもの". Then he asked me I wanted to play at the festival as well? At first, I wasn't too sure. I had self-taught myself how to play the guitar back when I was in the 6th grade, but I hadn't played for the last 4 years since entering university. And at the same time, at my high point, I wouldn't really say I was the greatest. I could play songs that I liked, because I had practised a lot, but the chances of him knowing the same songs that I do were slim.
Or so I thought. It turns out that he was a big Oasis fan. not as big as me, but pretty big anyways. He suggestted we play an Oasis song on acoustic guitar. Fortunately, before I came to japan, I bought an acoustic guitar off my predecessor, so when I arrived at my new home for the first time, the guitar was already sitting on the little guitar stand in my room. For the next few weeks, I'd bring my guitar to school, and we'd practise between classes and after school. i also visited his home several times. He lives in a huge house, that his sister had designed! Apparently, she's at a design school in Tokyo right now. The house is amazing, and his mom's food is amazingly delicious. They make their own rice and vegetables in the fields around their house. His father used to be a principal, now retired, and his mother works at an elementary school. A family of teachers - amazing. When I walked into his room for the first time, my jaw litterally dropped. Spread our across shelves built into the walls of his room were piles upon piles of CDs DVDs, and music/movie booklets. This guy was a collector. He had every Oasis album, and that was nothing at all compared to the other stuff he had. he had limited edition pirates of the caribbean memorobilia. Japan really gets it good, when it comes to consumer culture. They always have special limited editions items that you can get if you're the first few people to buy a movie ticket for an upcoming movie, and so on. I can't remember the last time I got anything for lining up for an hour to see the newest movie on opening day. Japan is really the country of collector's items. Unfortunately, (or fortunately), I've lost basically any collector's spirit I may have once had, so I don't really feel anything, but it was quite amazing seeing all the stuff in his room.
He also took out some more precious stuff out of his desk. A few weeks before, at school, he had brought a stub of tickets, and handed them to me, telling me, those were his "most cherished items". I took a look, and holy moly, they were concert tickets for American, and British rock and heavy metal bands. There were at least 50 or so tickets. Frickin crazy! The stuff he took out of his desk, blew my mind as well. Apparently, he had been to sex pistols, rancid, and various other concerts. What he took out of his desk, were guitar picks and even a drum stick! You guessed it, he had gotten these at the concerts! You know, when the guitarist or drummer throws his picks and what not into the crowd of rabid, screaming fans? Almost impossible right? You'd never be that lucky right? Well this guy was, and he didn't get lucky just one time, he had gotten lucky 3-4-5-6 times. Amazing. What else can I possibly say?
Getting back to the actual point of this post - we started practising at his home. At first, we wanted to do "Wonderwall" by Oasis, by his was having trouble with the strumming. Wonderall if actually one of the easiest songs to play (it was the first song I taught myself), I would have to say, but the strumming is sometimes a bit tricky. Apparently, when he was a high school student, etc, and had played guitar like a maniac, that was all using an electric guitar. Playing an electric guitar is a lot different than playing an acoustic. I've used both before, but I'd have to say an electric is a lot easier to cover up mistakes, because anything you play on an electric just sounds cool and sexy. but, at the same time, if you just play chords (like i usually do on an acoustic) it sounds a bit boring after a while. solos, and guitar picking is much better with an electric, because the sound is amplified so much and you can make crazy effects using pedals, and all sorts of other machines. He had his friend come over with an electric guitar (his electric had broken somehow, probably out of exreme usage), and I heard him play a few parts of a few songs, and it sounded pretty impressive. I'm sure I wouldn't be able to play like him on an electric.
However, when it comes to the acoustic guitar, he had only started picking it up this year, and so although he was good at picking, he wasn't very good at basic strumming. Eventually, it looked like wonderwall would be too difficult for him. One day at school, he brought in sheet music for the Beatles's song "Let it Be". I had liked this song for a long time, and so we tried it out. We were able to get it down without many mistakes (it's a pretty simple song). Now we had to figure out who was going to sing. At first, I recommended both of us singing, but he said he was not good at singing, and a bit embarassed about singing in front of the whole school, so he recommended that I be the singer. I didn't mind, since I do enjoy singing songs that I can sing (with notes that I can actually hit). My voice usually starts breaking mid way through a song though, and it starts sounding raspy, kind of like how Liam Gallagher's voice now sounds after his billionth beer and cigarette. He liked the raspiness a lot, and said it sounded like cool like real rock. Maybe he was just flattering me, but it worked as I agreed to be the singer.
As the days leading up the festival passed by, we decided that maybe we would have time for two songs. Now, since Wonderwall was too difficult. We decided to go with "Stand By Me". This was one of his favourite oasis songs, and a song that I like as well. Also, it's not ridiculously difficult to sing, and pretty managable for me. So we decided to open with Let it Be and then do Stand by Me as an encore.
On October 4th, everyone had to audtion in front of the school council so that the teachers and some of the students could see what we had planned. The minutes leading up to the audition was probably the first time I actually felt a sense of nervousness since I came to Japan. For some reason, since coming to Japan, I've lost basically all sense of nervousness or apprehension. It's strange, but I feel a lot more confident here. (Maybe it's because the people aren't towering over me in height and body mass. Or maybe it's because everything looks and feels so familiar, even though I've never actually been here before, who knows?) Anyways, I found my throat drying up, so I drank some water from the water taps. Then it was time for the show. We performed Let it Be only. As we started the performance the room fell into dead silence. It seemed like everyone was really paying attention (although I couldn't tell for sure, since my eyes were glued to the sheet of paper in front of my with the lyrics). Unlike Stand By Me, I can't remember all the lyrics to Let It Be. And actually, Let it Be has a few high notes that are hard for me to hit. But all in all, it was a success, and the students seemed to really enjoy it. The teachers on the council on the other hand, didn't really give much of an impression. I guess they're not really into rock. They probably like classical music much better, and were wondering why they were gonna allow these renegades of rock perform at the school festival haha. The other teachers in the staff room however were excited and kept talking about the Beatles, and that they wanted to hear more songs from us at the festival. It gave us a lot more energy and confidence to go all out.
The day before the performance (the first day of the festival, October 20), we were supposed to have a trial run, where we could play on the stage for the first time, and check the position of the speakers and mics, etc. Finally, when it was our turn to go on the stage, the teacher in charge told us that we didn't have time to play the songs. Instead, she just asked us check the position of the chairs mics, etc, so we did that. The teachers on the council also told us, we wouldn't have time for 2 songs, so they told us to just play one. The funny thing is that the other teachers in the staff office were encouraging us to play more and more songs. What gives? Anyways, we decided it would be best not to offend the school council, so we went with just one song. But we decided to change it to Stand By Me by Oasis, cuz it just rocks so much better.
On the day of the performance, we shocked everyone by telling everyone we had changed the song to "Stand By Me" by Oasis. This was real drama at work here. The funniest part was, for our opening speeches, we decided to have it so that I would speak in Japanese, and that he would speak in English. It was hilarious, eveyrone got a kick out of watching the ALT speak Japanese, and watching the Japanese assistant teacher speak English. We also, had a lot of parents and towns people in the stands. It was an awesome feeling to be out there performing a kick ass song by Oasis. during the performance, I foudn that the mic really was positioned a little too far from my mouth, so I had to move closer to the mic while performing the song. It was a bit difficult and straning, and I couldn't help but smile and laugh. The kids and teachers were impressed with my singing so that was definitely cool. When the song was over, we gave our bows and thank yous, and walked off the stage. Again, another rock star feeling. Awesomeness.
The coolest thing was that in my subsequent visits to the various Elementary schools around my town, a few of the kids told me they had seen me before. I asked them "where??" and they told me "we saw you at the Kannari Junior High Festival, you were playing guitar and singing!", damn. I felt like a rock star again! Because the town is so small, the festival is not just for the school, but for the townspeople, and anyone is actually welcome to attend. These elementary school students also had brothers and sisters at the Junior High, or they would be attending the Junior High when they graduated from elementary (since there's only one junior high in the town). It definitely felt good to have that rock star feeling again! Also, a few of the elementary school parents were in the stands as well, watching my performance. It was definitely cool being able to do that.
As for "Let It Be", I think we'll save that for the next festival. And maybe, we'll even add a few more songs. Nirvana, anyone?
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On October 20 and 21, we had the annual school festival. Pretty much all Japanese schools have these cultural festivals, called 文化祭, where the parents get to come into the school and watch their kids perform, and also hear about what they've been doing at school for the past half year. The Bunkasai's usually happen on weekends, so that the parents have a better chance of attending. Sure, coming to school on a weekend certainly feels strange, but since the teachers and students almost always come to school on the weekends anyways, it probably doesn't make a difference at all to them.
The days and weeks leading up to the festival were pretty hectic. I didn't have any designated role, being the ALT, so I was basically able to to continue doing whatever I was doing (which was basically studying kanji and Japanese all day). I could see the teachers around me running around, frantically getting posters and other presentations set up with the students' help. It seemed like a pretty big thing, but unfortunately, my JTE and the other teachers didn't really tell me much about it, other than "there's gonna be a festival next week". Being an ALT in Japan, a foreigner working in a foreign country, does sometimes feel alienating. The teachers were crazy busy, and they don't really have time to tell the ALT what's happening, but at the same time, I think I would feel a lot better if I was better informed about what was going on at the school.
Anyhow, all of that really doesn't matter at this point, since the festival's already over. Fortunately enough for me, one of the assistant teachers at my school, has a deep interest in English - he likes watching horror and b movies, and he loves american and british rock and roll, and heavy metal music. It's really funny though, because he's such a nice guy, with a shaved head, but extremely polite, and always helping the students and talking to the other teachers. I would never have been able to guess he likes to rock it with guns and roses, and the sex pistols, while watching zombies getting blown to pieces by machine gun fire.
The really cool thing, is that when I first came to Kannari Junior High School, I took a walk around the school, and bumped into him as well as the female gym teacher, at the pool area. At first they had no idea who I was (again, the gaijin in disguise factor at play here). When I walked up to them, and started speaking English, he was like "whoaaaaa your the new ALT?? nice to meet you!" that was the beginning of a great friendship here at Kannari Junior High~ We started talking about music, and then about movies, particularly the newest big movie at the time "Transfomers". (I'm a big-time Transformers fan, so I think I'll save that topic for another post.) The next few days and weeks at the end of August and beginning of September, I found at that he also liked playing the guitar. Afterschool, while the 1st and 2nd graders would be doing their bukatsu activities, he would be jamming around a group of sannensei. Then, for some reason or another, he found out that I also play the guitar, and he started talking to me about an upcoming "school festival". Apparently, he would be playing electric guitar with some of the sannensei - they would be performing a song called "大切なもの". Then he asked me I wanted to play at the festival as well? At first, I wasn't too sure. I had self-taught myself how to play the guitar back when I was in the 6th grade, but I hadn't played for the last 4 years since entering university. And at the same time, at my high point, I wouldn't really say I was the greatest. I could play songs that I liked, because I had practised a lot, but the chances of him knowing the same songs that I do were slim.
Or so I thought. It turns out that he was a big Oasis fan. not as big as me, but pretty big anyways. He suggestted we play an Oasis song on acoustic guitar. Fortunately, before I came to japan, I bought an acoustic guitar off my predecessor, so when I arrived at my new home for the first time, the guitar was already sitting on the little guitar stand in my room. For the next few weeks, I'd bring my guitar to school, and we'd practise between classes and after school. i also visited his home several times. He lives in a huge house, that his sister had designed! Apparently, she's at a design school in Tokyo right now. The house is amazing, and his mom's food is amazingly delicious. They make their own rice and vegetables in the fields around their house. His father used to be a principal, now retired, and his mother works at an elementary school. A family of teachers - amazing. When I walked into his room for the first time, my jaw litterally dropped. Spread our across shelves built into the walls of his room were piles upon piles of CDs DVDs, and music/movie booklets. This guy was a collector. He had every Oasis album, and that was nothing at all compared to the other stuff he had. he had limited edition pirates of the caribbean memorobilia. Japan really gets it good, when it comes to consumer culture. They always have special limited editions items that you can get if you're the first few people to buy a movie ticket for an upcoming movie, and so on. I can't remember the last time I got anything for lining up for an hour to see the newest movie on opening day. Japan is really the country of collector's items. Unfortunately, (or fortunately), I've lost basically any collector's spirit I may have once had, so I don't really feel anything, but it was quite amazing seeing all the stuff in his room.
He also took out some more precious stuff out of his desk. A few weeks before, at school, he had brought a stub of tickets, and handed them to me, telling me, those were his "most cherished items". I took a look, and holy moly, they were concert tickets for American, and British rock and heavy metal bands. There were at least 50 or so tickets. Frickin crazy! The stuff he took out of his desk, blew my mind as well. Apparently, he had been to sex pistols, rancid, and various other concerts. What he took out of his desk, were guitar picks and even a drum stick! You guessed it, he had gotten these at the concerts! You know, when the guitarist or drummer throws his picks and what not into the crowd of rabid, screaming fans? Almost impossible right? You'd never be that lucky right? Well this guy was, and he didn't get lucky just one time, he had gotten lucky 3-4-5-6 times. Amazing. What else can I possibly say?
Getting back to the actual point of this post - we started practising at his home. At first, we wanted to do "Wonderwall" by Oasis, by his was having trouble with the strumming. Wonderall if actually one of the easiest songs to play (it was the first song I taught myself), I would have to say, but the strumming is sometimes a bit tricky. Apparently, when he was a high school student, etc, and had played guitar like a maniac, that was all using an electric guitar. Playing an electric guitar is a lot different than playing an acoustic. I've used both before, but I'd have to say an electric is a lot easier to cover up mistakes, because anything you play on an electric just sounds cool and sexy. but, at the same time, if you just play chords (like i usually do on an acoustic) it sounds a bit boring after a while. solos, and guitar picking is much better with an electric, because the sound is amplified so much and you can make crazy effects using pedals, and all sorts of other machines. He had his friend come over with an electric guitar (his electric had broken somehow, probably out of exreme usage), and I heard him play a few parts of a few songs, and it sounded pretty impressive. I'm sure I wouldn't be able to play like him on an electric.
However, when it comes to the acoustic guitar, he had only started picking it up this year, and so although he was good at picking, he wasn't very good at basic strumming. Eventually, it looked like wonderwall would be too difficult for him. One day at school, he brought in sheet music for the Beatles's song "Let it Be". I had liked this song for a long time, and so we tried it out. We were able to get it down without many mistakes (it's a pretty simple song). Now we had to figure out who was going to sing. At first, I recommended both of us singing, but he said he was not good at singing, and a bit embarassed about singing in front of the whole school, so he recommended that I be the singer. I didn't mind, since I do enjoy singing songs that I can sing (with notes that I can actually hit). My voice usually starts breaking mid way through a song though, and it starts sounding raspy, kind of like how Liam Gallagher's voice now sounds after his billionth beer and cigarette. He liked the raspiness a lot, and said it sounded like cool like real rock. Maybe he was just flattering me, but it worked as I agreed to be the singer.
As the days leading up the festival passed by, we decided that maybe we would have time for two songs. Now, since Wonderwall was too difficult. We decided to go with "Stand By Me". This was one of his favourite oasis songs, and a song that I like as well. Also, it's not ridiculously difficult to sing, and pretty managable for me. So we decided to open with Let it Be and then do Stand by Me as an encore.
On October 4th, everyone had to audtion in front of the school council so that the teachers and some of the students could see what we had planned. The minutes leading up to the audition was probably the first time I actually felt a sense of nervousness since I came to Japan. For some reason, since coming to Japan, I've lost basically all sense of nervousness or apprehension. It's strange, but I feel a lot more confident here. (Maybe it's because the people aren't towering over me in height and body mass. Or maybe it's because everything looks and feels so familiar, even though I've never actually been here before, who knows?) Anyways, I found my throat drying up, so I drank some water from the water taps. Then it was time for the show. We performed Let it Be only. As we started the performance the room fell into dead silence. It seemed like everyone was really paying attention (although I couldn't tell for sure, since my eyes were glued to the sheet of paper in front of my with the lyrics). Unlike Stand By Me, I can't remember all the lyrics to Let It Be. And actually, Let it Be has a few high notes that are hard for me to hit. But all in all, it was a success, and the students seemed to really enjoy it. The teachers on the council on the other hand, didn't really give much of an impression. I guess they're not really into rock. They probably like classical music much better, and were wondering why they were gonna allow these renegades of rock perform at the school festival haha. The other teachers in the staff room however were excited and kept talking about the Beatles, and that they wanted to hear more songs from us at the festival. It gave us a lot more energy and confidence to go all out.
The day before the performance (the first day of the festival, October 20), we were supposed to have a trial run, where we could play on the stage for the first time, and check the position of the speakers and mics, etc. Finally, when it was our turn to go on the stage, the teacher in charge told us that we didn't have time to play the songs. Instead, she just asked us check the position of the chairs mics, etc, so we did that. The teachers on the council also told us, we wouldn't have time for 2 songs, so they told us to just play one. The funny thing is that the other teachers in the staff office were encouraging us to play more and more songs. What gives? Anyways, we decided it would be best not to offend the school council, so we went with just one song. But we decided to change it to Stand By Me by Oasis, cuz it just rocks so much better.
On the day of the performance, we shocked everyone by telling everyone we had changed the song to "Stand By Me" by Oasis. This was real drama at work here. The funniest part was, for our opening speeches, we decided to have it so that I would speak in Japanese, and that he would speak in English. It was hilarious, eveyrone got a kick out of watching the ALT speak Japanese, and watching the Japanese assistant teacher speak English. We also, had a lot of parents and towns people in the stands. It was an awesome feeling to be out there performing a kick ass song by Oasis. during the performance, I foudn that the mic really was positioned a little too far from my mouth, so I had to move closer to the mic while performing the song. It was a bit difficult and straning, and I couldn't help but smile and laugh. The kids and teachers were impressed with my singing so that was definitely cool. When the song was over, we gave our bows and thank yous, and walked off the stage. Again, another rock star feeling. Awesomeness.
The coolest thing was that in my subsequent visits to the various Elementary schools around my town, a few of the kids told me they had seen me before. I asked them "where??" and they told me "we saw you at the Kannari Junior High Festival, you were playing guitar and singing!", damn. I felt like a rock star again! Because the town is so small, the festival is not just for the school, but for the townspeople, and anyone is actually welcome to attend. These elementary school students also had brothers and sisters at the Junior High, or they would be attending the Junior High when they graduated from elementary (since there's only one junior high in the town). It definitely felt good to have that rock star feeling again! Also, a few of the elementary school parents were in the stands as well, watching my performance. It was definitely cool being able to do that.
As for "Let It Be", I think we'll save that for the next festival. And maybe, we'll even add a few more songs. Nirvana, anyone?
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Ridiculously Busy Month
It's been a long time since I've had the time or energy to post anything new, but I have a lot of stuff I want to write about, so here we go.
First off, this past October has been insanely tiring, but also extremely fun. Hopefully things will calm down a bit so I can actually get some rest and clean up the mess I've made in my apartment.
About four to five weeks ago (I can't really remember anymore, and I don't have the energy to look up the exact date), the Kannari Junior High School girl's softball team had a tournament. This was the first time seeing my own students in playoff atmosphere action. In some respects I was actually blown away. These girls meant business. Everyday, I see them practising afterschool for hours on end. They come in on the weekends and and holidays to practise, it's ridiculous really how hard to prepare. Of course it's also mandatory for them to do this, but most of them look like they really enjoy being there and practising hard with their friends.
On the day of the tournament, which I think happened to be on a Saturday, all the teachers had to come to school (and for doing this, I think we got a weekday off, but really it was too long ago for me to remember). I was looking forward to this, because even though it was a "work day", I knew I wouldn't actually be doing any "work". It turns out I was right. I got a sweet seat right beside my kouchou sensei (school principal) and we talked about various things. I had just come back from Sendai, so we talked about kokubuncho and other stuff, it was great. Baseball/softball are the only main sports where you can actually afford to just sit back, relax and enjoy the weather. Don't get me wrong, baseball can be a pretty intense sport at times, but all in all, it's pretty slow, and you can afford to take your eyes off of the match without missing much.
The softball team was again, as I said before, a girls team, but damn they looked pretty strong and athletic. I had never really seen them outside of school, and when they're at school, or in class, they're very timid and shy and easily embarrassed. But on the field, they were intense, serious, yelling out "さあ、来い！" and cheering each other on. Really it was an eye opener for me. I didn't really think I was going to be too in to a softball much between Junior High School teams but when the game started, my eyes were glued.
There was this one girl who I had helped practise for the past month for the annual English speech contest. She was a very shy and timid girl in class, but she was very talented and smart. She ended up getting second prize in my city, and apparently she's one of the top students at my school. However, I had no idea she was also athletic. Batting lead-off and playing shortstop, the way she moved reminded me of Ichiro. Japanese people are really crazy about baseball, and if you didn't know before, baseball is pretty much the most popular sport in Japan (go Daisuke). Another thing that surprised me was the speed and power with which the pitchers threw the ball. Again, these were 14-15 year old girls, yet they were playing at such a high level. My school ended up playing 2 games and winning both easily by over 5 runs. They won the city tournament and were crowned the 栗原優勝チーム. Pretty awesome, because I had no idea they were a powerhouse in these parts. Right after the final game ended, it started raining heavily, so we were all pretty lucky to get the game finished. All in all, I took a few pictures, but not too many, because I was too interested in watching the games with my own eyes. Unfortunately, for another girl team, they didn't have enough players so they couldn't enter the tournament. Those poor girls were instead, given the task of score keeping, and cleaning up the field and transporting equipment, etc. - ouch. Since I was sitting next to the score keeping table, I struck up a conversation with them in Japanese. It was interesting talking to kids from another school.
A couple of weeks later, the teachers had another one of their 飲み会s which are basically drinking parties. For us, it's usually at an izakaya. We usually pay 4000 yen, and we can basically eat and drink all we want. It's pretty cool. I'd have to say that izakaya's are one of my favourite parts of living in Japan (although I'm still not used to sitting on the floor for extended periods of time - my legs usually die on me, and I have to walk awkwardly behind everyone else, when we leave~) The unfortunate thing is that the teachers usually want to leave pretty fast and move on to the next party, so we don't really get our money's worth (at least if it was me, I'd stay longer and drink more, and just head back and save cash, but that's just not how they do it around here.)
All in all, after the izakaya, i had a pretty crazy night. We went to a karaoke bar after the izakaya, then me and an older teacher were supposed to take a taxi back home together, but he ended up giving the driver different instructions. We ended up at another bar/restaurant, met up with the same teachers from before who were having their own little reunion party with other ex-co-workers. The funniest part of it all is that after they were done here, they all headed back to the same karaoke bar, we had just come from. All in all, I got pretty wasted and my wallet took about a 一万円 hit - ouch.
The taxi ride home cost me another 2000 yen (taxis are ridiculously expensive in Japan, so be CAREFUL if you ever come here and wanna hitch a ride on a taxi thinking it's just gonna cost you a few bucks). the last time I was in a taxi, it was around a 40 minute drive, and it ended up costing 8000 yen (80 freaking dollars!). Fortunately, I only had to pay 3000, cuz my friend paid 5000. But still! I've made a promise to myself never to ride in a taxi again unless it's absolutely an emergency and there's nothing else I can do!
I think it's safe to say that I can't trust my teachers anymore. I've never spent money so recklessly in my life. The next time they have one of these crazy nomikai's, I'm definitely gonna keep a better tab on what I'm paying for. damn! japanese teachers work pretty hard staying late everyday and working on weekends/holidays etc., but when they party, they go all out. the strangest thing is the monday after the party (which is usually on a friday), they all show up at school, and it's like nothing ever happened. it's like the nomikai never existed. it's like everyone forgot about it. or maybe they were so wasted, they really dont remember anything that happened (who knows?). there's a pretty big divide with being in the classroom and outside of work. at least it seems that way!
anyways, I think i got a little bit off track there. to get back to the point of why i even introduced the izakaya story, is that since I don't drive, I had to hitch a ride to the nomikai 場所. since my town is, again, the COUNTRYSIDE, and there really ins't much here, all the nomikai's are in neighbouring towns (for example a 30 or so minute drive). so I ended up getting a ride from one of the teachers, who just happened to be the coach of the girl's softball team. in the car, we were talking about stuff. apparently, 20 or so years ago, for his honeymoon, he went with his wife to TORONTO! It looks like he visited Toronto before I did! But it looks like he doesn't remember much, other than the CN Tower revolving restaurant and Niagara Falls. Anyways, to get to the point, he asked me what I was doing over the long weekend
(3 day weekend), and he ended up inviting me to come play softball with the girl's 2007 Kurihara champion baseball team. I knew I had to take him up on the offer. Those girls were intense, and it was gonna be a great opportunity to interact with my kids on a different level. Also, he tempted me with free food - apparently, the girl's parents were gonna be there too, and they were going to make food! Since I can't turn down free food, there was absolutely no chance that I wouldn't be there! The coolest thing was that the 9th graders 中学校三年生 girls who had won the championship also the year before, we were gonna be there too, and they were gonna have a match with the new championship team made up of girls in the 7th and 8th grades (9th graders aren't allowed to compete, and are officially "retired" - interesting system, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the 9th graders needing to prepare for High School entrance exams. So instead of letting them compete in their club activities and sports, they advised to spend all their free time preparing and studying for the entrance exams). The softball coach told me there were a few players on the 9th graders team that couldn't make it, so he would love to have me play in their place on the 9th graders team. This was too cool.
On the day of the softball "party", i showed up in shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt. it was actually pretty chilly out. when i arrived, the girls were already practicing with some of their fathers. the softball coach introduced me to some of the parents. it was nice meeting the kids parents for the first time. they were all really nice and relaxed people. then as the game was between the ninth graders and the championship team was about to begin, the coach told me that i'd have to wait until later to get playing time, as most of the ninth graders actually did show up. watching the 9th graders play against the 7th and 8th graders was pretty interesting. apparently, the year before, they had won the kurihara championship and finished 2nd in miyagi prefecture. this was gonna be a sweet battle. when the 7th and 8th graders won the tournament, the 9th graders were always there cheering them on. 先輩、後輩 relationship. now thye were going to play against each other. i got a front row seat, and walked around taking pictures. the game started out pretty good, but the 7th and 8th graders jumped to a big early lead. the 9th graders looked a bit rusty. i guess they hadn't played in a while, so it figures they wouldn't be able to play as well as they had in the past. 9th graders haven't had bukatsu for a long time. the final score ended up being something like 10-7, and the 9th graders almost never threatened all game long. I found out that mitsuki, a 9th grade girl who I met on the very first day (and who gave me a tour of the school), was the former captain of the softball team. that was pretty cool. I enjoyed watching her play. she reminded me even more of ichiro.
after the game was finished, they had their usual formal game ending ceremonies, and it was time for lunch. the mothers had cooked some delicious tonjiru soup with potatos and all kinds of other delicous vegetables, etc. it was nice and hot as well, since it was such a cold day. i talked to the parents more, and passed around photos of toronto etc. the dads and moms were all pretty nice, cool people. during lunch, the coach told me that I'd get my chance to play now - as part of the "papa team". Japanese people often refer to their fathers as "papa". Sounds kind of strange for us English speakers (sounds like a child's word), but everybody uses the word "papa". I was pretty excited to be joining the "papa team". The afternoon game would be a match between the 7th and 8th grade championship team, and the "papa's plus one ALT". Sweet! He told me to take second base, so I went out there and started practicing with the other "papas." When I was in Toronto, I used to play softball with a church team. It wasn't really competitive or anything like that, but it turned out to be worthwhile practice, because it didn't take long for me to get aqcuainted to my new position at second. we tossed the ball around, I fielded some grounders, threw the ball around the bases and caught some pop flies. It was time to start the game!
in the beginning, the papas took a pretty big lead. soon it was 4-0 with a big inning. I had my first at bat. boy oh boy was it embarrassing! it's true that I had played softball before, but that softball included pitching to your own team.....UNDERHANDED. looking back now, I probably showed have been able to play a lot better before, when the pitches were thrown underhanded, by YOUR OWN teammates! When I went up to bat, against my own student, who yes, happened to be an 8th grade girl!, I thought....yea they're the champions, but she's in the 8th grade, she's 14 for goodness sakes, and I'm a 22 year old guy who's played softball before, I can handle this. I was in for it. The first pitch blew by so fast, it made my head spin. I swung feebly at the ball, probably missing it by a mile. I smiled and laughed, and everyone else did too. This was embarrassing but fun! I took a couple more silly looking swings before hitting a grounder to the shortstop. fortunately enough for me, i was able to beat out the throw, as the first basemen dropped the ball. I ended up coming around to score after the papas hit a few deep balls.
soon, we took an 8-2 lead, and it looked like we had this game in the bag. for softball, we only play 5 innings, and we were in the third inning already. this included a half inning, where all the balls were hit to me, making me involved in all 3 outs. the girls were happy and smiling, saying stuff like "wow, he's great!". i definitely felt cool, even though again, this was SOFTBALL, and I was playing with a bunch of 14 year olds~
as the game dragged on though, the papas began to tire. the girls kept getting hits, while we kept making mistakes! finally we went into the bottom half of the final inning up 10-8. the girls were at bat, and this was their chance to either tie the game by scoring 2, or winning it with 3 runs. we got a couple of quick outs, but suddenly, before we knew it, there 2 girls on base. I was still playing second, but for reason, they subbed in a different papa for right field. this papa, is a really nice guy, and really funny, but he's got to be the most sports-illiterate person around, and he knows it and isn't ashamed of it (which just makes everyone else love him even more, he's just cool, short, stocky, glasses, and really old style clothes). anyways, he was in right field. I guess maybe the regular right fielder had to leave early or they just wanted to give him a chance to play. the next girl smacked the ball over the head of the firstbasemen into right field. this was gonna be trouble. especially with that papa playing right field this inning. the ball bounced right by him, and he ran after it, but when he runs, he seriously looks like a penguin. its so funny, and maybe even kind of cute. I was at second, so i sprinted after the ball, running past the right field papa. i picked up the ball and nailed a throw back to the 3b basemen, who then fired a throw home, nailing the last girl at home for the third out. we had preserved the game, and prevented ourselves from the embarassment of losing to a junior high girl's softball team! the final score was 10-10. after making that play, the papas and mamas were all jumping, and happy, and complimenting me. I seriously felt like a rock star haha. the girls didn't look as happy though.
I'd have to say, since coming to Kannari, this has been one of the best experiences so far - being able to mingle with parents, play some "non"-competitive sports with my own students, and getting to eat tonjiru soup and udon for FREE~
I definitely can't wait until the next softball gathering.
First off, this past October has been insanely tiring, but also extremely fun. Hopefully things will calm down a bit so I can actually get some rest and clean up the mess I've made in my apartment.
About four to five weeks ago (I can't really remember anymore, and I don't have the energy to look up the exact date), the Kannari Junior High School girl's softball team had a tournament. This was the first time seeing my own students in playoff atmosphere action. In some respects I was actually blown away. These girls meant business. Everyday, I see them practising afterschool for hours on end. They come in on the weekends and and holidays to practise, it's ridiculous really how hard to prepare. Of course it's also mandatory for them to do this, but most of them look like they really enjoy being there and practising hard with their friends.
On the day of the tournament, which I think happened to be on a Saturday, all the teachers had to come to school (and for doing this, I think we got a weekday off, but really it was too long ago for me to remember). I was looking forward to this, because even though it was a "work day", I knew I wouldn't actually be doing any "work". It turns out I was right. I got a sweet seat right beside my kouchou sensei (school principal) and we talked about various things. I had just come back from Sendai, so we talked about kokubuncho and other stuff, it was great. Baseball/softball are the only main sports where you can actually afford to just sit back, relax and enjoy the weather. Don't get me wrong, baseball can be a pretty intense sport at times, but all in all, it's pretty slow, and you can afford to take your eyes off of the match without missing much.
The softball team was again, as I said before, a girls team, but damn they looked pretty strong and athletic. I had never really seen them outside of school, and when they're at school, or in class, they're very timid and shy and easily embarrassed. But on the field, they were intense, serious, yelling out "さあ、来い！" and cheering each other on. Really it was an eye opener for me. I didn't really think I was going to be too in to a softball much between Junior High School teams but when the game started, my eyes were glued.
There was this one girl who I had helped practise for the past month for the annual English speech contest. She was a very shy and timid girl in class, but she was very talented and smart. She ended up getting second prize in my city, and apparently she's one of the top students at my school. However, I had no idea she was also athletic. Batting lead-off and playing shortstop, the way she moved reminded me of Ichiro. Japanese people are really crazy about baseball, and if you didn't know before, baseball is pretty much the most popular sport in Japan (go Daisuke). Another thing that surprised me was the speed and power with which the pitchers threw the ball. Again, these were 14-15 year old girls, yet they were playing at such a high level. My school ended up playing 2 games and winning both easily by over 5 runs. They won the city tournament and were crowned the 栗原優勝チーム. Pretty awesome, because I had no idea they were a powerhouse in these parts. Right after the final game ended, it started raining heavily, so we were all pretty lucky to get the game finished. All in all, I took a few pictures, but not too many, because I was too interested in watching the games with my own eyes. Unfortunately, for another girl team, they didn't have enough players so they couldn't enter the tournament. Those poor girls were instead, given the task of score keeping, and cleaning up the field and transporting equipment, etc. - ouch. Since I was sitting next to the score keeping table, I struck up a conversation with them in Japanese. It was interesting talking to kids from another school.
A couple of weeks later, the teachers had another one of their 飲み会s which are basically drinking parties. For us, it's usually at an izakaya. We usually pay 4000 yen, and we can basically eat and drink all we want. It's pretty cool. I'd have to say that izakaya's are one of my favourite parts of living in Japan (although I'm still not used to sitting on the floor for extended periods of time - my legs usually die on me, and I have to walk awkwardly behind everyone else, when we leave~) The unfortunate thing is that the teachers usually want to leave pretty fast and move on to the next party, so we don't really get our money's worth (at least if it was me, I'd stay longer and drink more, and just head back and save cash, but that's just not how they do it around here.)
All in all, after the izakaya, i had a pretty crazy night. We went to a karaoke bar after the izakaya, then me and an older teacher were supposed to take a taxi back home together, but he ended up giving the driver different instructions. We ended up at another bar/restaurant, met up with the same teachers from before who were having their own little reunion party with other ex-co-workers. The funniest part of it all is that after they were done here, they all headed back to the same karaoke bar, we had just come from. All in all, I got pretty wasted and my wallet took about a 一万円 hit - ouch.
The taxi ride home cost me another 2000 yen (taxis are ridiculously expensive in Japan, so be CAREFUL if you ever come here and wanna hitch a ride on a taxi thinking it's just gonna cost you a few bucks). the last time I was in a taxi, it was around a 40 minute drive, and it ended up costing 8000 yen (80 freaking dollars!). Fortunately, I only had to pay 3000, cuz my friend paid 5000. But still! I've made a promise to myself never to ride in a taxi again unless it's absolutely an emergency and there's nothing else I can do!
I think it's safe to say that I can't trust my teachers anymore. I've never spent money so recklessly in my life. The next time they have one of these crazy nomikai's, I'm definitely gonna keep a better tab on what I'm paying for. damn! japanese teachers work pretty hard staying late everyday and working on weekends/holidays etc., but when they party, they go all out. the strangest thing is the monday after the party (which is usually on a friday), they all show up at school, and it's like nothing ever happened. it's like the nomikai never existed. it's like everyone forgot about it. or maybe they were so wasted, they really dont remember anything that happened (who knows?). there's a pretty big divide with being in the classroom and outside of work. at least it seems that way!
anyways, I think i got a little bit off track there. to get back to the point of why i even introduced the izakaya story, is that since I don't drive, I had to hitch a ride to the nomikai 場所. since my town is, again, the COUNTRYSIDE, and there really ins't much here, all the nomikai's are in neighbouring towns (for example a 30 or so minute drive). so I ended up getting a ride from one of the teachers, who just happened to be the coach of the girl's softball team. in the car, we were talking about stuff. apparently, 20 or so years ago, for his honeymoon, he went with his wife to TORONTO! It looks like he visited Toronto before I did! But it looks like he doesn't remember much, other than the CN Tower revolving restaurant and Niagara Falls. Anyways, to get to the point, he asked me what I was doing over the long weekend
(3 day weekend), and he ended up inviting me to come play softball with the girl's 2007 Kurihara champion baseball team. I knew I had to take him up on the offer. Those girls were intense, and it was gonna be a great opportunity to interact with my kids on a different level. Also, he tempted me with free food - apparently, the girl's parents were gonna be there too, and they were going to make food! Since I can't turn down free food, there was absolutely no chance that I wouldn't be there! The coolest thing was that the 9th graders 中学校三年生 girls who had won the championship also the year before, we were gonna be there too, and they were gonna have a match with the new championship team made up of girls in the 7th and 8th grades (9th graders aren't allowed to compete, and are officially "retired" - interesting system, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the 9th graders needing to prepare for High School entrance exams. So instead of letting them compete in their club activities and sports, they advised to spend all their free time preparing and studying for the entrance exams). The softball coach told me there were a few players on the 9th graders team that couldn't make it, so he would love to have me play in their place on the 9th graders team. This was too cool.
On the day of the softball "party", i showed up in shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt. it was actually pretty chilly out. when i arrived, the girls were already practicing with some of their fathers. the softball coach introduced me to some of the parents. it was nice meeting the kids parents for the first time. they were all really nice and relaxed people. then as the game was between the ninth graders and the championship team was about to begin, the coach told me that i'd have to wait until later to get playing time, as most of the ninth graders actually did show up. watching the 9th graders play against the 7th and 8th graders was pretty interesting. apparently, the year before, they had won the kurihara championship and finished 2nd in miyagi prefecture. this was gonna be a sweet battle. when the 7th and 8th graders won the tournament, the 9th graders were always there cheering them on. 先輩、後輩 relationship. now thye were going to play against each other. i got a front row seat, and walked around taking pictures. the game started out pretty good, but the 7th and 8th graders jumped to a big early lead. the 9th graders looked a bit rusty. i guess they hadn't played in a while, so it figures they wouldn't be able to play as well as they had in the past. 9th graders haven't had bukatsu for a long time. the final score ended up being something like 10-7, and the 9th graders almost never threatened all game long. I found out that mitsuki, a 9th grade girl who I met on the very first day (and who gave me a tour of the school), was the former captain of the softball team. that was pretty cool. I enjoyed watching her play. she reminded me even more of ichiro.
after the game was finished, they had their usual formal game ending ceremonies, and it was time for lunch. the mothers had cooked some delicious tonjiru soup with potatos and all kinds of other delicous vegetables, etc. it was nice and hot as well, since it was such a cold day. i talked to the parents more, and passed around photos of toronto etc. the dads and moms were all pretty nice, cool people. during lunch, the coach told me that I'd get my chance to play now - as part of the "papa team". Japanese people often refer to their fathers as "papa". Sounds kind of strange for us English speakers (sounds like a child's word), but everybody uses the word "papa". I was pretty excited to be joining the "papa team". The afternoon game would be a match between the 7th and 8th grade championship team, and the "papa's plus one ALT". Sweet! He told me to take second base, so I went out there and started practicing with the other "papas." When I was in Toronto, I used to play softball with a church team. It wasn't really competitive or anything like that, but it turned out to be worthwhile practice, because it didn't take long for me to get aqcuainted to my new position at second. we tossed the ball around, I fielded some grounders, threw the ball around the bases and caught some pop flies. It was time to start the game!
in the beginning, the papas took a pretty big lead. soon it was 4-0 with a big inning. I had my first at bat. boy oh boy was it embarrassing! it's true that I had played softball before, but that softball included pitching to your own team.....UNDERHANDED. looking back now, I probably showed have been able to play a lot better before, when the pitches were thrown underhanded, by YOUR OWN teammates! When I went up to bat, against my own student, who yes, happened to be an 8th grade girl!, I thought....yea they're the champions, but she's in the 8th grade, she's 14 for goodness sakes, and I'm a 22 year old guy who's played softball before, I can handle this. I was in for it. The first pitch blew by so fast, it made my head spin. I swung feebly at the ball, probably missing it by a mile. I smiled and laughed, and everyone else did too. This was embarrassing but fun! I took a couple more silly looking swings before hitting a grounder to the shortstop. fortunately enough for me, i was able to beat out the throw, as the first basemen dropped the ball. I ended up coming around to score after the papas hit a few deep balls.
soon, we took an 8-2 lead, and it looked like we had this game in the bag. for softball, we only play 5 innings, and we were in the third inning already. this included a half inning, where all the balls were hit to me, making me involved in all 3 outs. the girls were happy and smiling, saying stuff like "wow, he's great!". i definitely felt cool, even though again, this was SOFTBALL, and I was playing with a bunch of 14 year olds~
as the game dragged on though, the papas began to tire. the girls kept getting hits, while we kept making mistakes! finally we went into the bottom half of the final inning up 10-8. the girls were at bat, and this was their chance to either tie the game by scoring 2, or winning it with 3 runs. we got a couple of quick outs, but suddenly, before we knew it, there 2 girls on base. I was still playing second, but for reason, they subbed in a different papa for right field. this papa, is a really nice guy, and really funny, but he's got to be the most sports-illiterate person around, and he knows it and isn't ashamed of it (which just makes everyone else love him even more, he's just cool, short, stocky, glasses, and really old style clothes). anyways, he was in right field. I guess maybe the regular right fielder had to leave early or they just wanted to give him a chance to play. the next girl smacked the ball over the head of the firstbasemen into right field. this was gonna be trouble. especially with that papa playing right field this inning. the ball bounced right by him, and he ran after it, but when he runs, he seriously looks like a penguin. its so funny, and maybe even kind of cute. I was at second, so i sprinted after the ball, running past the right field papa. i picked up the ball and nailed a throw back to the 3b basemen, who then fired a throw home, nailing the last girl at home for the third out. we had preserved the game, and prevented ourselves from the embarassment of losing to a junior high girl's softball team! the final score was 10-10. after making that play, the papas and mamas were all jumping, and happy, and complimenting me. I seriously felt like a rock star haha. the girls didn't look as happy though.
I'd have to say, since coming to Kannari, this has been one of the best experiences so far - being able to mingle with parents, play some "non"-competitive sports with my own students, and getting to eat tonjiru soup and udon for FREE~
I definitely can't wait until the next softball gathering.
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