A weekend of fun in the snow! I have just come back from an awesome three-day weekend, the sort of weekend that makes me wonder if I shouldn't do a fourth year out here (chill, Family, it won't happen).
On Saturday, I was picked up by shiny, happy Teralynn in her kocho-sensei car, and headed for the slopes of Kainayama for a spot of boarding. We had a grand old time, chatting away, comparing snow stories, shooting down the tiny gelendes, and marvelling at how warm it was. At about 4pm, we called it a day, and prepared to embark on the long drive to Higashiiya, where we were spending the night before the frolicks of Sunday. Saturday night was a good time: about 11 people eventually turned up at Nate's, and we chatted until the wee small hours, making ourselves a team flag, and generally chilling out proper.
Team flag? That's right, Sunday was the Yukigassen, which you may recall I wrote about a couple of weeks back. The All-Shikoku Snowball Fight Tournament was a total ball. We did much better than we thought we would, and were knocked out only after a desperate tie-break. We went down in a blaze of glory. If I write about all the details of the tourny, it'll be boring, so I'll just say that I haven't had that much good clean fun for a long time. We were a team, we did our best, we didn't quite conquer, but we had a damn good try. After the tourny, we ate, onsenned, drove down to Mikamo, ate some more. Then Nate came back to mine, we had a beer, watched a Buffy, then became unconscious as the fatigue of the day caught up with us. Nate especially: he was our team captain, and it had been a very physical and mental day for him. I think 'happily frazzled' is how I'd describe his demenour at 11pm on Sunday.
We both had the day off on Monday, and had decided to use it to go boarding. Being so drained, it was late morning before we finally got on the road. The snow was pretty rubbish, and the weather left a lot to be desired as well. Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun hanging out. We called it a day about 3pm, heading back to mine to sleep some more, before Nate headed to Ikeda to meet a friend for dinner, and I got down to some laundry and lesson planning.
The weekend relaxed me so much, and I had such a lot of fun. I wish this was life, but it isn't. My one low point was when some people were talking about what they'd do about "next year's tournament", and I had one of those horrible little lurches in my stomach because I know I won't be here.
AJET mad season is upon us. I have an inbox full of correspondence, and a forum full of new posts to digest. I love all this craziness. It feels like I'm doing something, and I'm part of something. Life's pretty damn good.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Infruenza
The Japanese and flu. It's a love/hate relationship, for sure. One that annoys the hell out of me more than Jordan cracking his knuckles.
Japanese people think that sickness is a direct result of cold weather. And while I am not for a moment suggesting that ill health has NOTHING to do with the winter, winter is certainly not a prime cause.
Every winter, usually in the 6 weeks or so after the holiday, kids and teachers can be seen wearing surgical masks. Many kid will be off school with 'infruenza'. Let's explore these two very Japanese phenomena...
MASKS: People wear surgical masks in the belief that it will protect them, to some degree, from flu bugs floating around in the air. Perhaps these would do SOME good if they were used at all consistently. But you regularly see noses poking over the tops of masks (NEWSFLASH: your nasal passage leads to your oral passage that leads to your lungs!!), teachers take masks off to explain things in class, and people put masks on half way through the day when SURELY, if they were going to catch something, they'd already be doomed? Silly.
INFLUENZA: If you've ever had flu, then you'll know how debilitating it is. You are bedridden. You hurt. You wheeze. You live for the next dose of whatever drugs you're on. You are off work for two weeks. You don't get it every year. Proper flu happens only every few years, if you're that unlucky. In Japan, what they call influenza is more like a heavy dose of the common cold. Kids stay off school for a week or less. Maybe they have a slight temperature. And they get it year after year. This is NOT the flu, or at least no full-blown flu! It's a bad cold. It's not something you need to go to hospital to diagnose. You need a Lemsip and a day in bed to sweat it out.
And then I asked one of my friends if she's play tennis on Thursday. And her answer was that if she wasn't sick, then maybe she would. But tennis is dangerous in winter, because of the cold. WTF?! Sorry, but that is pure tattle.
I love this country, but sometimes their reasoning is just so wrong! Especially in health matters.
The pictures are: what Joe looks like with a flu-like illness called Between Party and Hangover, and Jane, cause she's cute, she's dressed in winter clothes, and I don't have a picture of a good-looking, fluey girl. Sorry Giuseppe. I did look.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Gie her a haggis!!
What a busy week it was! Just the way I like it. On Thursday and Friday, we had the mid-year seminar in the city, which was a nice change of scenery from school, and it was good to see everyone in the same place, but it was a bit yawnsome. Spent Thursday night at Dave's, eating Italian food, and watching some film called 'Sahara', which is a Boys Own Adventure, brought into the 21st Century. Very watchable fluff.
Saturday afternoon was spent mostly at the Woody Rest, talking to owners Setsuko and Nobu, and in the Marunaka, shopping for Burns. It's a big job, getting ready to throw a party for 45 people, so I enlisted the help of Dave and his car, and I simply couldn't have done it without that help!
Everything was finally ready, and I had wrestled the haggis from it's tin, all ready to zap in the 'wave, but NO-ONE was there! I had about eight of my expected 45 revellers at 6.30pm, half an hour after the party was scheduled to start. Eek. By 7.30, most people had arrived, so we FINALLY got the show on the road.
As is tradition, we kicked of proceedings with a rendition of 'Address to a Haggis' by Burns. I am the only Scot in the ken this year, and I didn't much relish the thought of having to hack my way through eight stanzas of Broad Scots on my own. So Chris and Dave (American and Australian repectively), two mates with a healthy dose of Scottishness coarsing through their veins, stepped up to the challenge, and we read the poem between us. The boys' effort was great, and I think it may possibly have been the best reading of the poem in my time here.
After that, it was down to eating (excellent food, hardly any sushi or deli food in sight!), and sharing more poems, and songs. Highlights included Katie doing the opener to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' with a torch under her chin, Joe in his Utilikilt doing some horribly verbose nonsense he found on the net (and hamming it up to perfection), Dan doing 'Yellow Submarine' in Spanish, Nate doing 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' in it's entirety, Dave's funny, smarmy definitive limericks, and all the Miyoshi-gunners doing another round of '500 Miles' a la the Xmas Carol Tour. There wasn't much Burns going round (maybe another one or two after our Haggis effort), but that was ok, as Burns is pretty hard to understand, and hard to read as well.
The haggis itself went down immensly well. People actually really liked the stuff, and my worries of having to throw most of it away went unfounded. I don't think the tradition of eating it with Ritz crackers will catch on, but I think I've done well to promote Scotland's national dish in the foreign market! :)
It was a pretty early night for me: I'd had a long day, the beer was affecting me quite fast, and since I had to be the first up the following morning, I called it a night around midnight. The party went on til 5am, I'm told.
Everything was cleared up on Sunday without much hassle, and then people wound their way to the onsen to soak away hangovers. I was told from some folks that it was the best JET event they'd ever been to, so that made me happy. Personally, I think I hit a peak with it last year. It went perfectly last year, and had very definable stages of eating, poetry, drinking, then bed. This year, it was sort of jumbled up, and it was certainly more drunken than it's been before, but that's not neccesarily a bad thing. The main thing was that people had fun, and they certainly seemed to.
Sunday was beginning to look anticlimatic, which I was dreading, but a few emails saw me eating lunch in a nice restaurant with Nate and a very sleepy Joe. Joe and I then drove to his place (going to Iya was NOT in the plan this weekend, but however...) curled up under the kotatsu, ate a lot of chocolate, watched a lot of Azumanga ("Nani......... kore?"), and slept a little. Joined by Nate a few hours later, we played a geeky board game of some sort, before Joe gallantly drove me home, a round trip of about 2 and a bit hours for him.
So here we are at Monday again, and I have things to do. Have a good week, hope you are all well!
Saturday afternoon was spent mostly at the Woody Rest, talking to owners Setsuko and Nobu, and in the Marunaka, shopping for Burns. It's a big job, getting ready to throw a party for 45 people, so I enlisted the help of Dave and his car, and I simply couldn't have done it without that help!
Everything was finally ready, and I had wrestled the haggis from it's tin, all ready to zap in the 'wave, but NO-ONE was there! I had about eight of my expected 45 revellers at 6.30pm, half an hour after the party was scheduled to start. Eek. By 7.30, most people had arrived, so we FINALLY got the show on the road.
As is tradition, we kicked of proceedings with a rendition of 'Address to a Haggis' by Burns. I am the only Scot in the ken this year, and I didn't much relish the thought of having to hack my way through eight stanzas of Broad Scots on my own. So Chris and Dave (American and Australian repectively), two mates with a healthy dose of Scottishness coarsing through their veins, stepped up to the challenge, and we read the poem between us. The boys' effort was great, and I think it may possibly have been the best reading of the poem in my time here.
After that, it was down to eating (excellent food, hardly any sushi or deli food in sight!), and sharing more poems, and songs. Highlights included Katie doing the opener to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' with a torch under her chin, Joe in his Utilikilt doing some horribly verbose nonsense he found on the net (and hamming it up to perfection), Dan doing 'Yellow Submarine' in Spanish, Nate doing 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' in it's entirety, Dave's funny, smarmy definitive limericks, and all the Miyoshi-gunners doing another round of '500 Miles' a la the Xmas Carol Tour. There wasn't much Burns going round (maybe another one or two after our Haggis effort), but that was ok, as Burns is pretty hard to understand, and hard to read as well.
The haggis itself went down immensly well. People actually really liked the stuff, and my worries of having to throw most of it away went unfounded. I don't think the tradition of eating it with Ritz crackers will catch on, but I think I've done well to promote Scotland's national dish in the foreign market! :)
It was a pretty early night for me: I'd had a long day, the beer was affecting me quite fast, and since I had to be the first up the following morning, I called it a night around midnight. The party went on til 5am, I'm told.
Everything was cleared up on Sunday without much hassle, and then people wound their way to the onsen to soak away hangovers. I was told from some folks that it was the best JET event they'd ever been to, so that made me happy. Personally, I think I hit a peak with it last year. It went perfectly last year, and had very definable stages of eating, poetry, drinking, then bed. This year, it was sort of jumbled up, and it was certainly more drunken than it's been before, but that's not neccesarily a bad thing. The main thing was that people had fun, and they certainly seemed to.
Sunday was beginning to look anticlimatic, which I was dreading, but a few emails saw me eating lunch in a nice restaurant with Nate and a very sleepy Joe. Joe and I then drove to his place (going to Iya was NOT in the plan this weekend, but however...) curled up under the kotatsu, ate a lot of chocolate, watched a lot of Azumanga ("Nani......... kore?"), and slept a little. Joined by Nate a few hours later, we played a geeky board game of some sort, before Joe gallantly drove me home, a round trip of about 2 and a bit hours for him.
So here we are at Monday again, and I have things to do. Have a good week, hope you are all well!
Sunday, January 15, 2006
雪合戦の練習
The title reads 'Yukigassen no renshuu', which means 'Snowball fighting practice'. That's right, on Sunday, the かっちんこっちんイングリシュティーチャーズ (Kacchin-kocchin Ingurishu Teechaz, or Frozen Solid English Teachers), had their (our) first practice at this surprisingly complex sport.
When you think of snowball fighting, you think of powdery fields of white stuff, people with rosy cheeks, woollen hats and scarves, and innocent giggles, throwing handfulls of soft snow at each other. Not so in Japan. This competitive game has been refined here into a game of strategy, strength, accuracy and team work. Snowballs are shaped using regulation moulds, so that each ball is near-perfectly spherical, and all the same size. And they're bloody hard, being the sort of consistency that would land you in the head teacher's office at home if you were caught throwing one at someone. To minimise death and other nasty injuries, helmets are provided (since heads are fair game), but it can still hurt if you get sconed on an unprotected area! Since this was our first practice, we got a royal ass-kicking from the kids and teachers of one little Higashiiya elementary school, but a lot was learned and a lot of fun was had. I can't throw for beans, but I intend on doing some target practice this week!
After that, I went to hang out at Hannah's with Joe and Nate, and we watched a film called 'The Island'. Surprisingly good, and people like Ian Wilmut would do well to watch it before they start mucking around with human nucleai and rabbit eggs.
Nate and I had a good conversation over dinner: it's surprising how voicing one's thoughts to another actually reinforces them in one's own mind. He spoke about how, growing up in the church, certain things were simply off limits, no questions asked. Then, when he got to forming his own opinions, he did a lot that went against all that teaching, and how now, he is sort of coming back to something of a happy medium (but really, is there such a thing?). And it sort of made me realise that for the longest time, I have followed a very normal path. I went to school, got good marks, had a slightly weird episode involving a love of scissors and Nine Inch Nails, went to a world-class Uni, did some experimentation (but nothing that could really be called hedonistic), graduated, left the country for a few years... None of that is in any way special, or extraordinary. Not that I want to be special. But neither do I want to be sucked into a life where things are a given. I think Mum and Dad expect that this stint in Japan will get the travel bug out of my system: that I'll have had my three years of fun after Uni, and that when I finish in August, I'll be ready to go home, get a career job, and 'settle down'.
And it's just not the way I'm thinking at the moment. It sort of scares me: part of me, I think, would like to be the sort of person who has a very ordinary 9-5 life, with a couple of weeks somewhere sunny in the summer. Another part of me, which is bigger and louder, wants something a bit more than that. Looking round my dinner table last night, I was sitting with Americans, Canadians and New Zealanders. I love my community. I love the way it allows us to learn from eachother, and swap stories. It's hard for me to say all these things without sounding obnoxious, but I really feel that this three years has thrown my mind wide open in a way that simply wouldn't happen at home. Edinburgh is a great, cosmopolitan, international city. But I never felt part of an international community the way I do here.
That's not to say that I wish this was a permanent set-up. It simply can't be, not for me anyway, if I want to do anything else apart from this job. Which I do. Some people have made it their life. And that's great, if that's what you see yourself as. But not me. I DO want to have a career. I think what I'm trying to say is that I want to do things in my own sweet way, in my own sweet time. At the moment, I simply don't see myself living in Edinburgh, with the job, and the flat and the endless days. I am enjoying life too much. Perhaps living here has given me a skewed perspective of reality: people who come here are generally the kind of people who like to get things DONE. We are organisers, debaters, idealisers, thinkers. We are, I guess, over-achievers, and our way of life here nurtures that. Is it like that elsewhere? Or is this some sort of utopian society, where the lawyers, economists, teachers and politicians of tomorrow come to stew in the juices of other cultures, to learn, expand and bulk up their CVs, before heading back to the real world, to try their best to influence their own societies?
Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Maybe The Zutons have it right.
When you think of snowball fighting, you think of powdery fields of white stuff, people with rosy cheeks, woollen hats and scarves, and innocent giggles, throwing handfulls of soft snow at each other. Not so in Japan. This competitive game has been refined here into a game of strategy, strength, accuracy and team work. Snowballs are shaped using regulation moulds, so that each ball is near-perfectly spherical, and all the same size. And they're bloody hard, being the sort of consistency that would land you in the head teacher's office at home if you were caught throwing one at someone. To minimise death and other nasty injuries, helmets are provided (since heads are fair game), but it can still hurt if you get sconed on an unprotected area! Since this was our first practice, we got a royal ass-kicking from the kids and teachers of one little Higashiiya elementary school, but a lot was learned and a lot of fun was had. I can't throw for beans, but I intend on doing some target practice this week!
After that, I went to hang out at Hannah's with Joe and Nate, and we watched a film called 'The Island'. Surprisingly good, and people like Ian Wilmut would do well to watch it before they start mucking around with human nucleai and rabbit eggs.
Nate and I had a good conversation over dinner: it's surprising how voicing one's thoughts to another actually reinforces them in one's own mind. He spoke about how, growing up in the church, certain things were simply off limits, no questions asked. Then, when he got to forming his own opinions, he did a lot that went against all that teaching, and how now, he is sort of coming back to something of a happy medium (but really, is there such a thing?). And it sort of made me realise that for the longest time, I have followed a very normal path. I went to school, got good marks, had a slightly weird episode involving a love of scissors and Nine Inch Nails, went to a world-class Uni, did some experimentation (but nothing that could really be called hedonistic), graduated, left the country for a few years... None of that is in any way special, or extraordinary. Not that I want to be special. But neither do I want to be sucked into a life where things are a given. I think Mum and Dad expect that this stint in Japan will get the travel bug out of my system: that I'll have had my three years of fun after Uni, and that when I finish in August, I'll be ready to go home, get a career job, and 'settle down'.
And it's just not the way I'm thinking at the moment. It sort of scares me: part of me, I think, would like to be the sort of person who has a very ordinary 9-5 life, with a couple of weeks somewhere sunny in the summer. Another part of me, which is bigger and louder, wants something a bit more than that. Looking round my dinner table last night, I was sitting with Americans, Canadians and New Zealanders. I love my community. I love the way it allows us to learn from eachother, and swap stories. It's hard for me to say all these things without sounding obnoxious, but I really feel that this three years has thrown my mind wide open in a way that simply wouldn't happen at home. Edinburgh is a great, cosmopolitan, international city. But I never felt part of an international community the way I do here.
That's not to say that I wish this was a permanent set-up. It simply can't be, not for me anyway, if I want to do anything else apart from this job. Which I do. Some people have made it their life. And that's great, if that's what you see yourself as. But not me. I DO want to have a career. I think what I'm trying to say is that I want to do things in my own sweet way, in my own sweet time. At the moment, I simply don't see myself living in Edinburgh, with the job, and the flat and the endless days. I am enjoying life too much. Perhaps living here has given me a skewed perspective of reality: people who come here are generally the kind of people who like to get things DONE. We are organisers, debaters, idealisers, thinkers. We are, I guess, over-achievers, and our way of life here nurtures that. Is it like that elsewhere? Or is this some sort of utopian society, where the lawyers, economists, teachers and politicians of tomorrow come to stew in the juices of other cultures, to learn, expand and bulk up their CVs, before heading back to the real world, to try their best to influence their own societies?
Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Maybe The Zutons have it right.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
BUFFY!
So Joe, kind soul that he is, lent me his entire collection of 'Buffy' at the end of last year. He had seasns three to seven on DVD. I got into Buffy as a result of being forced to watch it in my first student flat. But I sort of got out of it again when I came here. I missed a lot.
Joe warned me that Buffy would start to rule my life. I laughed. He was right. I am now hooked on Buffy til I can get all the DVDs finished. A sad state of affairs indeed.
In other news... it's a beautiful day here in Miyoshi. The sun is shining, it's brass monkeys, kids are happy, teachers are overworked... aah! At the moment, I am enjoying listening to The Go! Team's 'Thunder, Lightning, Strike' album, which I just know Nate and Joe will love. I got some news from Dave the other day which made me really happy and excited (more later). People are looking forward to the Burns' night, and I simply can't wait. I hope it snows for it! Rinjii, bless her cotton tabi, got a job with the Peace Corps in Togo in Africa, and will be leaving our fair gun come June, I believe. Will miss her heaps. But a girl that works with Dad is interested in the job, so fingers crossed there.
This year is all about change, and while I normally abhorr change, cause it's not so often you're a huge part of it, I have no choice this year but to embrace it. I've no doubt that it will be bittersweet, but hopefully with more emphasis on the sweet.
Life is good, and it's so nice to sit down and write that.
Joe warned me that Buffy would start to rule my life. I laughed. He was right. I am now hooked on Buffy til I can get all the DVDs finished. A sad state of affairs indeed.
In other news... it's a beautiful day here in Miyoshi. The sun is shining, it's brass monkeys, kids are happy, teachers are overworked... aah! At the moment, I am enjoying listening to The Go! Team's 'Thunder, Lightning, Strike' album, which I just know Nate and Joe will love. I got some news from Dave the other day which made me really happy and excited (more later). People are looking forward to the Burns' night, and I simply can't wait. I hope it snows for it! Rinjii, bless her cotton tabi, got a job with the Peace Corps in Togo in Africa, and will be leaving our fair gun come June, I believe. Will miss her heaps. But a girl that works with Dad is interested in the job, so fingers crossed there.
This year is all about change, and while I normally abhorr change, cause it's not so often you're a huge part of it, I have no choice this year but to embrace it. I've no doubt that it will be bittersweet, but hopefully with more emphasis on the sweet.
Life is good, and it's so nice to sit down and write that.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
There and Back Again
Have been home, and since returned. And it was good, mostly. My perspective of home has changed. I'm not sure in what way, except that it has. I caught up with a good load of people, and got a good load off my troubled mind. With the result that I have returned to this home feeling more or less relaxed, happy, and optimistic. Hmm, except some major life-changing decisions are in the works, and I'm pretty sure it'll be a fraught time, the next few months or so.
Nothing huge to write about, except that I love my friends and family to bits, and wish they were slightly smaller so that they could accompany me in my suitcase wherever I may go. But that might be preceived as a wee bit selfish.
2006 will be huge. No two ways about it. I am ready. Bring it on!
PS> Especially for Joe, who complaineth that my entry is too small: a picture of a beautiful Northern Irish lass cavorting on the rocks at the Giant's Causeway.
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