直島

On Friday night, I had what may have been one of the best karaoke sessions ever! We'd gone to the Miyoshi-gun English teacher's enkai, which in itself was a blast. When that finished, the ALTs decided to head to local karaoke house, Chantez, for some crooning. Oh my, we had such a laugh. We went mad, and by the end of it, my voice had really gone. Check out Tamezane-sensei's face in the corner of the picture of Nate and me (we're singing 'Perfect Drug' by Nine Inch Nails, a song I wouldn't recommend for karaoke!)

Saturday was a musical rehearsal, and it's good to see it all being pulled together like this! It was a long day, though, lots of standing around waiting for things to happen. That night Noam came back to mine to crash. We had a blast, drinking a LOT and talking a LOT. The musical is great in that way, because it allows you to meet a lot of people who you might not otherwise see so often, as they live miles from you. Noam is a great guy, and if we lived closer together, I'm sure we'd hang out a lot. But he lives in the south, me in the west. Such is life.

However, I somewhat regretted the late night (actually, early morning 2.30am), when at 6am my alarm went off! I was picked up at 7am by my friends Hanna and Kunihiro, as we were taking a day trip to Naoshima. Naoshima is an island off the northern coast of Shikoku, and takes about an hour to get to on the ferry from Takamatsu city. I tried to keep my eyes open, but I simply couldn't and ended up fast asleep on the ferry. Guilty feelings for the lovely people I was supposed to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for. However, on arriving at our destination, I soon perked up.

Naoshima is famous for its art galleries. It has three of them, and we were heading to two on Sunday. The first was called Bennesse House, and it is a contemporary art museum, with exhibitions that change every so often. I was excited to be in an art gallery again, it feels like a long time! Some of the exhibits totally blew me away. I won't even try to describe them, I won't do them justice, and taking pictures was a big no-no. But suffice to say that I was very content indeed to be wandering around in such a great space, appreciating all that I saw.

The second gallery of the day has a name that I forget. I was a bit reluctant to head here, as it had an admission charge of Y2000 (about £10), which I thought a bit steep. Well... I have never been as retrospectively happy to part with a tenner. This place was unreal. I think it might be one of the best galleries I have ever been to. Again, some of it is simply inexplicable. But there was the Monet room that I'll tell you about.

You leave your shoes outside, and step into an unlit, white room. The floor is laid with unpolished marble cubes, with rounded corners. It's a beautiful floor, and I just wanted to lie on it and float away. On the walls are three Monet originals, all coming from his work at Giverny. The thing with this room is that it is lit only with natural light from above, so that you can appreciate the paintings in something like the sort of light that Monet painted them in in the first place. The soft white of the room, the floor, these amazing pictures, the quiet... I felt an ambience in the atmosphere that made me never want to leave. What an experience.

We caught the ferry back to Takamatsu about 2.30pm (and this time we all dozed, tired bunnies we were). On the way home, we stopped off at the Shinto shrine where Hanna and Kuni got married. I'll admit, I was less than eager to do this. It had been a long day, communicating in broken English and Japanese, and I was more than ready to call time, and head home. But once again, I was really glad we stopped.

神谷神社 (Kamidani Shrine) is the oldest Shinto shrine on record in Japan. It's a beautifully serene place, set back from the road, surrounded by forest. The priest is a personal friend of Hanna and Kuni's, and so gave us a guided tour of the place. It was really interesting, and I felt honoured to have been given such treatment. I also found out the answer to a question that has been on my brain for some time now: the little pebbles that people throw on top of torii gates at Shinto shrines mean NOTHING. There is no religious significance in doing this whatsoever. What a stupid practice, then. Cause it's damn near impossible to get them up there, and you can spend hours trying.

So that was the weekend. And it was good. I have very good friends, I am a lucky person.

This week is one full of changes. Firstly, yesterday I had my last lesson with my third-graders. These are the special kids: the ones who have been with me since the beginning of my time in Japan. They gave me a lovely send off that had me bubbling at the front of class. I am going to miss these kids something chronic.

Also, yesterday was Miyoshi-cho's last day on Earth. Today, we merged with Mikamo-cho across the river to become Higashi-Miyoshi-Cho. What a mouthful! Changes indeed.

Sake and Naked Men

Yosh! What a crazy, almost-brilliant weekend that was.

Friday: Joe, Amber and Teralynn came over to my place for some pizza, films and serious snuggling. Just take a look at the snuggling! Piles and piles of futons and blankets… aaaah! Hard to believe, but Amber and Teralynn had never seen The Goonies before, so we gave them something of an education, as well as watching a crazy-fun looking snowboard race on the Olympics, and apparently annoying my neighbour with lots of noise. Oh dear.

Saturday: Up at the very respectable hour of 10am, and then off to Ikeda for the annual sake festival. For the humble sum of Y1000, you get to go around all the breweries in Ikeda, and sample all the sake they have on offer. For the sake-lover, it’s a treat. For someone like me who likes the stuff, but not enough to drink it regularly, it’s a good chance to go and get very sociable with the locals, who are all drunk, and think you are wonderful. I came away with a small bottle of what they called ‘champagne sake’, which is a young sake, slightly sparkly, and nice and sweet. Something happened to my bottle over the rest of the weekend, though, and I think that most of the fizz may have gone out of it. Hmm.

After the sake festival, a bunch of us jumped on a train to go to Okayama’s annual Naked Man festival. It’s an ancient festival, to do with machoism, masochism (takes place in mid-February, in the middle of the night, and involves cold water, and pain) and virility. For the girls and wimpier guys, it’s an excuse to appreciate the true value of clothes, and their cold-repelling properties. Actually, we just stand around watching the guys run around nearly-naked, getting progressively colder, until midnight, when there’s a brief tussle for a couple of sacred sticks thrown into the crowd by the temple priests, and then it’s all over. It’s a pretty violent affair: two thousand men scrabbling over two little sticks of wood, and not surprisingly, there are some quite serious injuries that occur every year. Thankfully, our boys returned to us more or less in tact, if somewhat dazed and amazed at what they had just put themselves through. Nate flopped down beside me on the bus after the festival, looking drunk and tired, and declared it had been the most harrowing experience he’d ever been through, and that his life had flashed before his eyes. He’s going to get quoted in Ehime’s ‘Mikan’ newspaper for that!

After the nakedness, we trooped back to Okayama proper for the after-party thrown by Okayama AJET. And I ran smack into Stu. Someone had told him I was in town, and we met up at the party. It was… interesting. I had actually been hoping to see him, but it made me a bit sad, really. We didn’t get to talk properly, the place was mobbed and noisy. But he looks great, and still makes me laugh. Man. Trying not to dwell, but it actually put a dampener on the whole weekend… Not cause it was BAD to see him, you understand. Just cause.

Sunday was spent in a couple of cafes, eating great bagels, drinking buckets of coffee, and just shooting the crap for a while. Back in Miyoshi by 3pm. There was a house fire here yesterday, and a man died, so that was a pretty sobering end to the weekend.

Mind is pretty busy now, digesting and thinking about a lot of things. Also reading a book called ‘Naked Economics’. It’s a very interesting read, and really puts the world into perspective. Currently listening to a bunch of new music procured from the likes of Amber and Nate. Highlights include Neutral Milk Hotel, Loop and ‘Fevers and Mirrors’ by Bright Eyes.

Ouch!

I had my first glimpse of the upcoming AJET Musical (Peter Pan) on Saturday there. It looks great! For all the stressing he's done over it, Joe is really bringing this thing together. it's mosr of a true musical than in previous years, with the actors actually bursting into song on occasion. I'm involved as the props manager, so it's important for me to get along to a few rehearsals to see how it's all fitting together. Nice work, crew!

Saturday night saw the first Minoda-ren practice of the new season. Predictably, hardly anyone showed up, but I really enjoyed myself. It feels like it's been ages since I last danced, and watching Dave at the kaikan last week (which was great!) really gave me a shot of enthusiasm to get stuck into it again. I hope Mum and Dad get to see a show when they come, though I'm not sure we'll be performing that early in the year...

On Sunday, me, Dave, and fellow Brit Nick all piled into Teralynn's car to make the drive to Ehime's Ishizuchi-san ski slope. It was an early rise, we were anticipating about 2.5 hours on the road, but it ended up being much quicker than that. Ishizuchi is Shikoku's highest mountain, but the ski gelende is still pretty short. Granted, it's bigger than the local slope at Kainayama, but still, but the end of the day, I felt like a yo-yo. That's not to say I didn't have a good time! On the contrary. The snow was in nice condition, the weather was pretty damn good, and the slopes, although short, were steep and fast, and of sufficient difficulty to make me think that I may have improved just a little when the day was over. And since I hadn't really seen Dave properly in a few weeks, it was nice to have a good chat. At one point, Dave got a bit over-excited about getting up the slope as quickly as possible, and took on the characteristics of a dog chasing a car as he tried to catch a ride on the chairlift. Nuff said, you had to be there!

Home in the early evening, with a splitting headache due to hitting my head on a fall. Didn't feel much like dinner , or moving, or breathing (it was that sore), so I curled up on my bed. Nate came by briefly to drop off some stuff I'd left at his, and tell me about what sounded like a great weekend at Daisen, and then I had a shower, and went to bed by 9pm. Slept like a log. And hurt all over today. Sure sign of good times!

Want to write more, but have a class to prepare (a Monday class, people!!). Will write more later in the week. Oh, check out the Lost Kids in rehearsal, and Dave on the slopes.

Winter's not over yet....

No indeed. After a week of unseasonably warm weather, we have been thrust back into the snowy depths of winter proper. Chitter. But it feels better somehow. Warm weather in winter is a bit strange. I prefer snow and snuggling.

I had a really nice weekend. It didn't involve as much sleep as I'd hoped, but who needs sleep when you have good company?

-Friday: top day at work. Clever kids, happy teachers, good atmosphere in staffroom (not always the case). Got home. Put on some music very loud, and danced around my room. Nate came and picked me up, drove to Kitamjima singing a song about broccoli. Played poker. Bad cards. Counted out before I lost too much. Sit and watch the others play, feeling pretty choked with the cold. Down to Amber's to crash. Love Actually. Massages. Cool music. Tracy and Brittany. Scary looking humanoid rabbits (or rabbitoid humans?). 4am bed.

-Saturday: haircut. Love Keiji! Caught the eye of his Beautiful Assistant, and thought about asking his name, but chickened out. He has a nice smile, and hair to make you weep. Walked for an hour in search of Cafe Bugaku. Walked passed it. Twice. Finally arrived. Nate studied. I read the Economist. Mango latte, huge doorstop piece of cheesecake. Up to Dave's Taco Stand. Actually had a taco. Back in car. Drive back west. Snow falling. Want to drink wine. Feel crap with the cold. Pop into Minoda-ren enkai, make my apologies, chat to Shige. Up to Higashiiya. Scary roads, drove slowly. Had wine.

-Sunday: took Sean and Aki to Ikeda station (Sean's jaw is getting unscrewed today in a Tokushima Hospital). Breakfast at Autobahn. Bad hot beverages and music, but nice staff, and free ocha. Home. Shower. Hoover. Buffy. Sleep. Kick-ass dinner of salmon, hijiki, and fried peppers, leeks and mushies. Feel a bit better. More Buffy. More sleep.

Sean is an artist living and working with his girlfriend in Higashiiya. He is a very gifted lampmaker, and his work is amazing. He just finished a piece that Nate commissioned from him, and I'm thinking of asking him to do one for me, as it's a wonderful thing to be able to take home. Mum would love these lamps, I think. A couple of the lamps that Nate has are pictured. The tall rectangular one is the commissioned piece.

This week looks set to be busy. Dinner tonight with Hanna and Kuni. Eikawia tomorrow. Possible free night on Wednesday, but could possibly see some mates. Off to the city on Thursday to watch Dave dance at the Awa Odori Kaikan (museum). He's dancing as one of the leaders, so I want to see him do his thing. In April, he's moving back west to become a rafting guide for Happy Raft. No more JET. No more Tensui-ren. He'll still be a ways away from me, and it'll probably be even harder to see him at weekends, given that's when he'll have most work to do. But I am psyched that he's coming back. He seems to be too, and that's the most important thing. :)

AJET also has cranked into high gear, what with meetings, reports and elections. Nate (that's local Nate) has decided to run for my job, along with a couple of others from other prefectures, while our very own Christian is going for Chair. GO CHRISTIAN! I hope he gets it. He'd make a great chair, he'll just charm everyone to get what he wants. ;)