Okie JET

11.19.2006

Undokai Festival at Tadotsu Jr. High - Dance

This dance is probably one of the most famous in Japan.

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BIG UPDATE

So I'm really only getting updates out once a month. Not exactly what I wanted to do, but it seems the only way I get it done. So here goes, get ready for a big update.

November 15th - Gaijin Hunted
Funny story. So I'm walking the a local supermarket perusing the fruits and produce for any good buys, when an old man catches looks up and becomes fixed on me. I'm used to people by now getting quite obnoxious with their staring. I can't help that I'm beautiful...or truthfully, that I'm white and big. So I basically flash a smile and walk by him. Then a tug at my arm unnerves me. I turn around to him holding onto my shirt sleeve. He then asks me in English if he can talk to me. Again, this is something that I've grown quite accustomed to. It happens about once a month. So I indulged him. He explained that he's 84 and self taught. After some general questions about where I'm from and what I'm doing here, he starts on a story about when he met a French woman on the train. I mustered as much interest as I could to tolerate this quite uneventful encounter. But then it took a hugely unexpected turn. He related to me about how he told this woman that he was a "check for dementia." I didn't think I heard him right, but he asked for conformation. As the conversation rolled on, it was apparent that he suffered from dementia and not any other derivation of that phrase. Gratefully, he ended the conversation after a short while. I was wandering around the store for the next ten minutes not sure of what had really just happened. Could a person with dementia realize it? And then why would he offer that information so readily? So maybe he was. I just tacked it up to another day in Japan.

October 31st - Of all days for strange happenings
While they short of celebrate Halloween here, Halloween is not the strangest order of the day here. On this particular day, I was downstairs waving the kids goodbye (a daily activity of the teachers). But this day was different. I was talking to another one of the teachers, who knows an incredible amount of English words but doesn't speak English. While chatting it up and occasionally saying saionara to the kids, one girl came up behind this teacher like a flash and reached up and grabbed his chest. She's a student. He's a teacher. I was shocked too say the least. It seemed inappropriate by everyone's reactions, but it also didn't seem like this was uncommon either. I've been a bit more observant of kids since then.
This incident also triggered a story from weeks ago. We went to a teachers meeting in Zentsuji. After the presentation while we were walking out --
***I have to insert this point into the story. Men here in Japan often have purses. While I would admit that they look a little more masculine than women's purses and are distinguishable from them, they are definitely purses. It's commonly accepted. (tear). ***
-- while we were walking out, two male teachers were comparing purses. They were asking where they bought them and how it's fulfilling their purse needs. As it had already been one of "those" days, this was was just the completion. I was finished. I even said, though under my breath, "I'm finished."

October 29th - Halloween Party
One of the teachers that I work with at the elementary school also teaches English one-on-one to many students. Every year she organizes a Halloween Party for them. So I was invited to help. It was a blast. The kids were all dressed up and not really sure of what to do. But we trick-or-treated, sort of. They bobbed for apples. They told ghost stories and stuck their hands in bowls of noodles, etc. It was really fun.

October 27th - JETs laid siege to Takamatsu to enjoy Halloween

My prefecture's, Kagawa, JETs all got together to throw a good old costume party. Amazingly, all of the JETs dressed up to the nines. Some Japanese people came too but only a few of them actually dressed up. What a shame.
The night was a lot of fun though. There was every kind of costume imaginable. One guy even wore a fish costume that covered his head with just the mouth as the opening for his face. A wild night to say the least.

October 21st - Festivals with Miki and Friends
A while back, Miki and some of his friends at dinner had told me about a festival in the mountains. They told me that I could participate in it. There were even comments about me banging a drum. So I was excited about the prospect. I agreed and nothing more was said until a day before. On Saturday morning we head out for the hills. While most of the day was just traveling around and seeing some of the sights, we finally ended up at the festival. These huge carts they carry and even toss in the air. While I didn't do much more than pose for pictures, I'm told that basically the people can't walk the next day from all of the pain. So it's only a once a year festival. I was just glad that I got to see it. I was set pretty far back into the mountains. We were the only people who weren't actual residents at the festival. So that made me doubly out of place. I did get plenty of people asking about me and talking to me. It was fun, and these mountain people were quite generous feeding us and giving us beer from the worker's stock. I tried to refuse, but it didn't work so well.

October 15th - Udon Man
The plan was for a bunch of Kagawa JETS and Kochi (a prefecture to the south) JETs to meet in Kotohira City, very arguably the capital of Udon, to make some of these famous Japanese noodles. About 6 of them showed up greeted by 2 of us. It was fun none the less. We went to one of the most famous udon places in Kotohira. There we took a class from some really cool people on how to make the noodles. We had to end up leaving the dough for an hour to set. So we headed up and saw the really famous mountain temple, Konpira. The temple is pretty cool, but it's quite a hike to get all the way up there. When we came back, we fixed the noodles up and posed for a few pictures. It was a ton of fun. But then we cooked the noodles, not so bad but we cooked all of the noodles. We were far to full to finish all of them. But full- bellied, we left thanking our teachers now armed with a Japanese secret.

That's all for this mega-update. But if you all want to see plenty more pictures, just follow this link to my online picture folders. I should at least be posting new pictures there faster than I blog. So enjoy. http://picasaweb.google.com/christopher.brashears/