Time Warp- Sports Day

I had a great, great time in Tokyo and Toyama last week, and I fully intend to write a dazzling, breathtaking blog about my adventures. In fact, specifically for this purpose I bought a cable that can connect my phone to my computer and get all the fabulous pictures I took off my camera. After an entire week of work, I finally was able to successfully download the driver for this cable. Now my computer recognizes there is a phone connected to my computer . . . but that's it. I have no idea how to get my pictures. CURSE YOU, TECHNOLOGY!!!!!!!!!

Anyway until I can get that going, I decided to write a blog that I skipped from when I was just a newbie here. In Japan, every school has a phenomena known as Sports Day. Sports day involves the entire school participating in various athletic events that range from the usual to the extreme. Here at Nita Middle School, the students divided into three groups- blue, red, and yellow. I was officially a member of the red group, although I didn't get to participate in any events and spent most of the day knitting a pumpkin. Our Sports Day was in the beginning of September and we were blessed with some sunshine and only slighly nippy weather. All the events took place on the track behind the school- complete with gratuitous mountain vista in the back.

As I mentioned, events varied from normal to wayyyyy out there. There were relay races-駅伝 or ekiden. And when I mean there were relay races, I mean THERE WERE RELAY RACES. A lot of them. I counted, and without overestimating there were approximately 1,128 different ekiden, with every possible combination of students. (Ok, it might have only felt like 1,128. Still.) But we all know you don't wanna read about relay races. You want to know about the odd events. And oh boy, can I accomodate you.

One event was called むかでが多い！or Too Many Mukade! Remember the blog post about that horrifying insect known as the Mukade? It's like a centipede on steriods. With poison. In this race, the boys got their feet tied together to look like this monster in a kind of ten person three-legged race. (How many legs does that make? Eight?) After that it was pretty straightforward- the team who can run around the track the fastest wins. Of course, hilarity ensued as half the teams toppled over in piles of wiggling limbs. I thought the gloves on the head boy were a nice touch.


Another great even was a kind of capture the flag. But in this capture the flag, five boys held up a pole with a flag on the top, and three boys from another team have to climb on top of the other boys to capture the flag. Imagine lots of smelly feet in faces, stepping on heads, and the like. Excellent.





This last even was probably the most extreme. Did you notice all the students were wearing headbands marking the color of their team? Well, in this even on boy sat on the shoulders of two teammates, and tried to attack his rivals and rip the headbands off their noggins. Extreme, right? In fact this even boasted the greatest injury- one boy got scratched in the eye and fell off his teammate brethren and bumped his head. He was carried off the track in the arms of the principal, bleeding on Mr. Fukuda-san's nice suit. I asked Mr. Fukuda-san about the boy later. "Oh, he's fine" he said. "Just a scratch."

It's not that the girls didn't have interesting events too, they just weren't as intense as the boy's competition. I found one even particularly sexist however, as it was called 掃除 souji or "Cleaning" and involved the girls using huge brooms to sweep soccer balls through an obstacle course. Hmmmm.

A major part of the points was divvied out to the team who won the cheerleading competition. I'm posting the Blue Team's video below for your watching pleasure. In the beginning of this video, the four boys in drag are supposed to be coming over from America. What do are they dressed as? A nerd, a cowboy, a school girl, and a chesty blonde.
God Bless America.

May I just add that there was no adult supervision or choreographing in these cheers. Teams of third years took over the entire thing, practicing every day for a month during lunch break and for hours after school. Now that's dedication. Lafayette Jeff Students, wanna have a cheerleading competition too?

Although the yellow team won the cheerleading competition- guess who took home the gold!!! YAY RED TEAM!

Sports Day is one of the most important days of the year in Japanese schools. Every school has their own sports day, from kindergartens to high schools. I actually got to go to a kindergarted sports day- it was one of the most fun and adorable things ever. I didn't take any pictures because the cuteness was overwhelming.

Someday, someday I will figure out my phone, and you all will get caught up on March. Until then, hope you enjoyed this time warp!

For your entertainment

It's been a busy couple weeks. They've been using me more in the schools (yay!) and fun things have been going on during the weekend. This Saturday and Sunday my Hiroshima host family picked me up and took me to their house. It was weird to step into a house I hadn't been in for ten years and thought I would never be again. We looked at all our old pictures and it was funny to see how we've all changed. Sena is a handsome almost high school graduate instead of a cute little middle school boy. Risa is a beautiful lady, now almost fluent in English but actually majoring in Chinese at her university in Kobe. When I visited in High School I was a red headed bean pole. We had a great time- Host Mom made oden, we watched the Olympics on TV (curling is just as funny in Japanese as in English- especially since we watched the women's match vs. Britain so it was British English). They took me shopping, and well. Wow. It's amazing the ties people form sometimes. I really have done nothing for them, and they've done so much for me.


On Wednesday I'm going to Tokyo to visit the fabulous Megumi. We will then venture to Toyama, her hometown, to see what kind of trouble we can stir up there. I'm taking the night bus to Tokyo from Shinji, which should prove to be interesting in many respects. Anyway I won't be writing anything substantial for a while, so please be entertained by the following DDR dog.

MARVELOUS!!!

Ten things you never knew you didn't know about Japan

I've been trying to write this post for a week, but each time I tried writing it came out much too cynical. It's impossible to write about strange things in Japan from an unbiased perspective- the whole point of these strange things is that I am inherently biased and thus they are strange to me. But I am trying not to appear too much a misanthrope in reporting about this foreign land, so I've had to reign in the sarcasm.
Anyway, this time for sure.

Here are ten things I find most interestingly odd about Japan

1. When you hear Japanese eat a lot of fish, it's no exaggeration. Not only that, but they eat the whole fish- skin, bones if they're soft enough to eat, and even the head and the tale. Plus they still sometimes eat whale, although there's speculation as to whether's it's really whale or actually dolphin. Woah.

2. Japan's broadcasting system is called NHK, and rather than pay for cable directly, NHK men come to your door and ask for cash moneys. There are four main genres of TV shows: Game shows, Dramas, Anime, and Food shows. Food shows consist of panels eating food and commenting on how great it is. This being said, I never watch my TV and when the NHK man came around I pretended I didn't speak Japanese until he went away in disgust. Heh heh heh.

3. The Japanese really like food, and to my eye actually eat a lot. The difference is they pride themselves in eating good an healthy food, not whatever crap is most convenient. A traditional Japanese meal consists of many many small and delicious dishes. So they eat a lot, but in a decidedly healthier manner than we do back home.

4. They always, always back into parking spots in parking lots. I'm assuming this is so they can get out of the spaces more easily, but it's still kind of interesting. It's hard to back into a space, but it makes it easy to get out. Going straight into a space is easy, but then it's harder to back out. Isn't there kind of an equilibrium there?
I'm going to have to ask about this one. And going along with this, in snowy weather everyone pulls out their windshield wipers so the blades aren't touching the glass. This is a great idea, because then the wipers don't freeze and get stuck, but it does make the cars look like so many beetles at attention.

5. I've already complained about the heating, but I feel it merits reiteration. Japan is one of the world's leading economical powers, yet they don't do central heating. Nor do they do insulation or double paned glass. They rely on kerosene heaters. So only the main room in my apartment is heated. In the morning when I take a shower, I literally swear all the the way through the tiny hallway from my shower room to the main room. It's a good thing the neighbors don't speak English. Also, in the schools the classrooms are heated but not the hallways or bathrooms. So my kidneys are suffering as I try to avoid peeing at all costs.

6. The ATM's have hours of operation. That's right. You heard me. The ATM's here are only open from about 9 am to 5 pm. I'm assuming this is due to the fact that Japanese ATM's are run by gnomes who have organized themselves into unions with labor laws. Also, you don't accrue interest on savings accounts, and there is no online banking. Oh dear.

7. Gas stations also have hours of operation. The most flexible gas station I've seen is open from 7 am to 9pm. I wonder what truckers do when they have to drive all night. Or do trucks not drive at night here? Anyway more than once when driving late at night I've prayed, prayed prayed that my car doesn't die out in the mountains somewhere as my the meter tips lower than empty . . .

8. Japan is a cash based society. That means that no places around here take credit card. Last Japan trip when I was in Tokyo, there were some stores that took card, but nowhere in Shimane does. It also means I often walk around with the equivalent of hundreds of dollars in my wallet. A slight change for the girl who, in the States, NEVER carried cash.

9. In Japanese schools, there are no janitors. Why? Because the students have to clean the schools. Every day. On one hand, this is a great idea because it cuts down on costs and it teaches the students responsibility. On the other hand, I have to question how clean anything actually gets as most students mostly just go through the motions of cleaning rather than worrying about the finished result. Also, they just clean everything with water. I don't know about you, but I like my public bathrooms Lysoled, thanks.

10. The Japanese language has many loan words called gairaigo 外来語 that are taken from other languages and transliterated to suit the Japanese phonetics. Some of these words retain the same meaning as the language they came from, like aisu kuriimu means exactly ice cream, but some (known as false cognates for you linguists out there) have different meanings from the native language. One of the more interesting examples is baikingu バイキング from the english word Viking. But in Japanese バイキング actually means an all you can eat buffet. So the first time it was suggested to me we go to a "viking", my trepidation was understandable. Also, although many natives assume most of the loan words come from English, many come from other languages such as French, German, and Portuguese, and the pronunciation mirrors that of the language from whence the word came. So it all can get very confusing for a non-native speaker.

And these are just the things that stand out. Every day I am surprised by many nuances. Some days I am enchanted by all the new things I am experiencing, and some days all I want in the world is to withdraw money at 8 pm. Either way, it's a great journey.

Sushi Roulette

One of my faithful readers (or very unfaithful readers, as I doubt he ever actually reads this blog) has informed me that my posts of late have become a bit . . . dry. No one wants to read heartwarming tales of home, or about amazing fantastic opportunities to experience traditional culture. No Natalie. The people just want to hear about you eating weird crap.

Well, I'm here to please, so here goes.

One of my favorite kinds of Japanese food (although admittedly stereotypical) is sushi. But not just any sushi, dear readers. Oh, no. It's 回転寿司＝kaitensushi.

Kaitensushi, or conveyor belt sushi, is the most magical thing in the world. Plates of sushi are carted around the restaurant on a moving belt. Each plate is its own tantalizing, delicious, or just plain unusual kind of sushi. You just take whatever you want, and then when you finish eating they count up your plates and tell you the damage. Each plate ranges around 105 to 200 yen- that's a little over one or two dollars each. Practically highway robbery. Mmmm, Delicious.

My favorite kinds of sushi include:

salmon nigiri natto maki

negi toro gunkan maki　and tekka maki　

So when I kaitensushi I tend to pick these guys a lot. But along with traditional favorites, there are many wacky kinds of sushi such as corn sushi or hot dog sushi. There are also weird and sometimes delicious deserts that come down the belt. When I got back from the States this winter, attempting to get out of my sushi rut, I declared that I was going to try a new dish I had never eaten before. Unfortunately that's when my friend stepped in. He chose one for me. In fact, he chose the grossest looking dessert on the belt.


<--- Taiyaki Jello. Taiyaki, the name of that fish looking thing swallowed by the whipped cream, is a pretty popular treat in Japan. It's actually a pancake type thing baked in the shape of a fish filled with adzuki bean paste. Now, even at the best of times, when the taiyaki is warm and fresh and golden brown: I'm not a fan.




This taiyaki, however, was kind of stale and very cold. The jello he was stuck in was the strangest flavor ever. Ian though it was kind of coconut-ty in an unpleasant way, but I thought it tasted like jellified cough medicine. Not to mention the thought of all the cow bones that went into the making of that jello . . . brrr. No thank you. But I did say I would try something new, so I persevered. Here is me not enjoying my dessert-------->



I tried to give him a taste of his own medicine, but he would have none of it. "No Natalie! Eat all of your fish cake or you'll go to bed without any more sushi!" Jerk. On an interesting note, in Japan they call "jello" "zerry" which is kind of like their pronunciation of "jelly". And our concept of jelly is a mystery to them. They know jam, but not jelly. Isn't language interesting?

I suppose I should have specified that I wanted to try something new and tasty, not new and gross. In the end all I was left with a half eaten fish cake and 105 yen for my troubles. I guess that's the way the sushi roulette rolls.

The Service Pack 2 Incident

This Sunday the unimaginable happened.

My computer died.

Before I went to sleep Saturday night, I began installing an update for Windows Vista. Service Pack 2. If it's from Windows I can trust it, right?
Wrong.
Blearily waking up Sunday morning, I found my poor little laptop blinking between its start-up screen and the ominous blue screen of death. Not a good sign. I did everything I knew possible to fix it, all to no avail.

Needless to say I freaked out a little bit, as this laptop is really my only means of communication with the outside world. And by "freaked out" I really mean taking turns between hysterical bawling and hurling curse words and lude gestures at Microsoft. Who in the heck could I find in Okuizumo that knows enough both enough English and enough about computers to help me? How could I afford a new laptop? What would happen to the years and years of carefully accumulated crap on my old hard drive? It was not a pretty prospect.

Luckily, there was just the person. The only foreigner in this town besides us three JETS happens to be a nice Canadian guy who has lived here for the last 12 or so years. And not only that, as it happens he is a computer engineer. Ridiculously lucky? That's me.

So now I sit- typing on my newly restored computer, trying to remember how to make it compatible with Asian Language fonts, and thinking how sometimes fortune can be found in an unfortunate situation. The moral of the story, kids, is back up your hard drive, don't trust Microsoft, and make as many friends as possible. You never know when their secret talents might be your lifeline.

Without his help I would still be wandering the streets, clutching my computer to my chest and howling unintelligible pleas to uncomprehending ears.

Tatara: Part Two (The Real Thing!)

So I left you on the edge of your seats in Tatara: Part One wondering "Were they able to produce good iron? How many swords did Natalie make? Will her nose be forever full of charcoal?". These answers and more will soon be illuminated.

On November 27th all elementary students from Nita area came to make tatara. I arrived at nine that morning, but the men actually running the gig had been there since around five; making preparations, stoking the fire, and generally being excited. You can see Kihara-murage-san standing in the background looking pensive.


This day the students were divided into four stations: Charcoal duty, temperature duty, bellows duty, and Satetsu duty. Students rotated around in the groups so that everyone got to do each job at least once.

First in the circle of duties was charcoal duty. From the group of kids on charcoal duty, one was selected/volunteered to be mini-murage. This kid (when given the OK by Kihara-murage-san) called out for the charcoal to be poured in, or for the satetsu to be sprinkled in, or for the group working the bellows to be less vigorous because the fire was getting too hot according to the students on temp. duty. The other students in Charcoal group measured out two kilo portions of the charcoal we had chopped yesterday and were in charge of dumping it . . . ever so gently . . . into the furnace. You don't want to pour it in too quickly or the impact would cause a huge blast of heat and sparks to shoot out and burn your hands (not that such a thing happened to me when I tried or anything).


Next in the rotation is Temperature duty (the most boring of duties if you ask me, as it does not involve the potential for burning your hands off). In this station the students took two readings of the furnace fire- the lower temperature and the upper temperature. To accomplish this they poked a long thermometer into pre-made holes on the east wall and then recorded the readings on a huge chart. This was done to assure that the fire would be hot enough to melt the iron sand, but not so hot as to get out of hand. Our furnace's lower temperature remained around 900 degrees Celsius, and the upper reached over 1000 degrees Celsius. That, friends, is over 1600 and 1800 degrees Fahrenheit respectively. On the left you can see Kanestuki-sensei, the English teacher at Takao Elementary. He is on of my favorite teachers- crazy and fun.


Bellows duty was a blast (hah hah). We worked a large wooden bellows which felt kind of like using a rowing machine. You push in the lever and hot air blasts out the other side through tubes connected to the furnace.I couldn't get a still picture of these students because they were bellowing their little hearts out. Good for them.








On satetsu duty, two one kilo piles of statetsu were weighed out into a small wooden boxlike structure. They carried this over to the tataradou and, when the time was right, used a small metal shovel to sprinkle the iron sand over the fire. One half was sprinkled facing west, and one half was sprinkled facing east. I assume this was done logically for even distribution, but subconsciously for their love of ceremony and doing things in meaningful ways. It was actually the students' job to take care of the satetsu, but in the picture on the left you can see Mr. Fukuda-san showing 'em how it's done. As I wrote previously, this fire is flippin' hot. It is very difficult to hold your hand steady and evenly sprinkle iron sand over a flame. The kids were troopers and did their work well.

Satetsu and charcoal were the two main jobs. These ingredients had to be added gradually over the course of the day to achieve a nice even melting. One exciting feature of the tatara furnace was that sometimes it would crack a little bit and flames would shoot out. I freaked out the first time this happened, but everyone else was nonplussed. They just took a huge brush made out of rice straw and dipped it into a bucket of clay slip, then slapped that slip onto the crack. I got to do it once. It was fun.

There were two small mouse holes in the furnace on the north and south walls. Generally the temperature around these holes was cool enough so that the molten iron hardened and didn't pour out. But periodically the workers would break open the hardened iron and allowed some molten iron (called Noro, as is my favorite kind of yarn) to flood out. Apparently they did this so they could check the consistency and purity of the noro. Below you can see the specimens displayed along with the time they were gathered.

Around four thirty all work stopped. The iron stewed and simmered in the furnace, allowing the heavy molten iron to sink to the bottom of the furnace. We had about a half hour break, during which I played tag with the girls of Ai Elementary. Kids here love tag, and I like to play too except they are fast as rabbits and I am not built for speed.

Anyway. At five we all gathered and had a small ceremony for the tatara finale.
I'm not sure how I thought we would get the steel out of that furnace. Perhaps I thought that we would let it all run out of those little mouse holes, which retrospectively is more than a little ludicrous. But the reality was more crazy than I ever could have expected. The students literally dismantled the furnace, tearing down the walls with pickaxes and poles and brute strength. This process took over an hour, and if you want to watch the relative mayhem I will try to post the video below. I couldnt get it to work yet.







Unfortunately my camera ran out of memory and I didn't get to film the end, which was of course the most exciting part. After finally demolishing the structure we so toiled to make the day before, a huge pile of angry, steaming steel was left naked on the earthen floor. As you can see, the outside surface was "cool" enough to be grey, but the inside was still a scorching red hue. It was hissing and steaming with all its might. The students used tongs to drag it over to a large bucket of cold water. Everyone together lifted the steel chunk with shovels and tongs into the bucket to quench it. The monster sat boiling for quite some time. This was one hot chunk of steel. "Looks like the Iron God is angry" noted Kamedake's principal of the spectacle. I would have to agree.

出来竹ら
tada!!

The finished product was a monstrous thirty kilos. Isn't she beautiful? Unfortunately, although it's very nice steel I'm sure, as far as tatara goes this stuff is not good enough quality to ACTUALLY make a sword with. So my total sword production amounted to zero. All this steel is to be used for is being displayed around Okuizumo's eleven illustrious elementary schools as a testament to the awesomeness of the students and everyone involved.

Which isn't such a bad use after all, if you ask me.

for another good but very dry Tatara explanation, click here!

Home

I came home for Christmas.

This is both more and less complicated than it sounds. Booking both an international and domestic flight, taking the necessary planes, buses, trains and cars to get to my destination, and negotiating visits with the necessary fabulous people can almost be more complicated than heart surgery. Coming home was process that started as soon as I came to Japan: the promise of a meeting with my loved ones carried me through some hard times here in the sticks. But at the same time I have to marvel at how, if necessary, I can leave the mountains of Okuizumo in the heart of Japan and fly halfway across the world home to the cornfields of Indiana in the span of twenty-four hours. It's a pretty great age we live in.

Being home was weird and wonderful. My visit was just a drop of time- singular and self-contained. I hugged people I hadn't hugged in six months and it almost felt like only days had passed since we parted. Being home, Okuizumo seemed like a strange dream. Now I'm back, and it's almost like my time in Indiana was a dream as well. But without being too cheesy I'd like to say that the warmth of my friends and family will carry me through the cold days of winter we all have to survive these next few months.

Just some highlights:

Hanging with the fabulous Megumi in Tokyo

Ministry of Silly Walks with my best man, best friend, and best older sister (well, I had to follow the pattern Cassie)cookie time

the family
my tokyo host family with Mami-san sitting next to me, Kazuki-kun on her lap, and Yuusuke-kun on mine (Mami-san was pregnant with him last time I saw them! Oh my!)

Happy New Year, guys :)