Spring It On!!

[Although I hardly think that my blog has the power to change the weather, I am a bit afraid to announce that spring has arrived for fear that the mere mention of it might make it change back to winter. At least now it's officially "spring" on the calendar, no matter what the weather says. I guess I can proceed]

Last Sunday, the ladies of the Wednesday night shodo lesson spent the day in Yame, doing a variety of activities in honor of spring. Our first stop was a "craft center" for the lack of a better description where we got to try our hands at making our own washi, or Japanese paper. The first step was to pick the size paper you wanted to make (postcard, business card, tall and skinny etc) and dip the appropriate frame into the bath of pulp. Once your screens are adequately covered, you can use tweezers and a small stryofoam tray to pick dried flowers/leaves to add to your paper.

Kendra, Allison and Jamie getting ready to decorate.

Carefully so as not to spill your tray of very light petals (as I did...whoops. Thankfully it wasn't a major crisis and I was able to pick everything up using the handy tweezers), you arrange the petals artfully on your wet paper. Then you pour some thinner pulp on top to seal them in. So far, everything was done quite traditionally, apart from the collecting and mashing of the pulp which was kindly done for us. The next step, which was to run your screen over a vacuum to suck out the extra moisture, did not exactly follow the "traditional" trend. But with several other activities on the agenda, who has time for "traditional" anyway?

My postcards, pre vacuum.

After the vaccum, we handed our pulpy squares over to the paper master, who put them on a hot metal wall to set. He carefully rolled out any lumpy patches and peeled our paper off the metal when it was done.

After we finished trying our hand at paper making, we browsed the other goods for sale, and while rest of the party had some tea upstairs, Jamie and I were lured outside by the sun and food tent. We ate some sweets besides the world's largest stone lantern. Sitting below it, it was quite big, but it grew by at least a 1/3 when I went to stand by it for a picture. Holy cow.

ランチ タイム Logically, after all the snacks, it was time for lunch. Naoko-sensei took us to a buffet where everything was made from local, organic ingredients. I can't say it tasted any different from the other buffet lunches I have had in Japan, although there were slighly more vegetables perhaps. It was quite a deal for 1260 yen though. And it had great plates with 9 little spaces for you food, allowing you to try almost everything without it touching!

After lunch we spent nearly two hours getting a very thurough tour of a sake brewery. Unfortunately for me and the other non-native Japanese speakers, the whole thing was in Japanese, but our tour guide was a very happy chap who made it quite entertaining. We started by watching a video about the sake making process. This too had Japanese subtitles, but all of the numbers were numerals, so at least I could understand the quantities, grades of rice, temperatures and times. From what I can remember almost a week later, the rice is delivered and then washed and boiled in the tanks below. There are different grades of rice, but even after looking at the grains through the magnifying glass, I couldn't tell the difference.

Next the rice is "massaged" in a very hot room. This is when they add the malt, which makes the rice start to ferment and turn into alcohol. Then the rice and the malt is stewed in more large tanks.

And that's about all I got. Clearly, since our tour lasted 2 hours, there is a lot more involved. After the alcohol is drained from the tank above, the remaining rice mush is crushed to extract every last drop of alcohol. Then the solid part is saved...もったない...and bagged and given away at the end of the tour as a snack? My bag is sitting in the kitchen, unopened. I have no idea what to do with it.

The end of the process. After starting out really really hot, the sake has to cool down. By this point, its nice and clear, and smells like, well alcohol.



The pine ball below is the traditional sign of a sake brewery. The one we visited had several different ones hanging around.

The collection of fashionable rubber slippers we wore inside. They came in both M and L sizes, and several faux textures, the moccasin, quilted and woven.

After the sake, we did our own soaking in an onsen before grabbing the last snack of the day, macha soft cream and getting back in the car for the journey back to Kurume. We got stuck in some traffic and saw some of my students on their bikes, and it took me about 3 minutes to actually recognize them without their uniforms on. :-/

Since Sunday, the weather has been mostly good, with a few cold, rainy days. And some insane wind. I had to peddle my bike downhill to actually get anywhere. What?!?! The next day, Allison's glass bathroom door shattered in the gale force winds. I hope mine isn't next.

Strange weather aside, it is now officially spring break!!! No more school until April 8th!!

卒業 おめでとう

[Happy Graduation]

At 10 AM, Saturday, March 15th, the 61st class of 3 年生 [nensei, or 9th graders] graduated from 荒木中学校[Araki Junior High School]. The ceremony was very Japanese, minus the outpouring of tears from the students (boys and girls alike) and some of the teachers. So much emotion!!!

Being highly efficient, the Japanese start their ceremony by handing out the diplomas. The students went onto the stage by homeroom, were called by name by their homeroom teacher, responded with a はい, or yes, and then walked up to the principal for their special piece of paper. After all the students recieved their diplomas, there were speeches, songs and presentation of gifts. The student body president passed the torch onto the class president of the 2年生. Many important old men and a few women came to graduation and were each asked to say a few words, mostly to honor their presence I presume. They all had to stand up, and said pretty much the same thing; "sotsugyou omedetto" or happy graduation. You may work hard to become an important person in Japan, but once you get there, it seems like a piece of cake to me.



While I helped the 2 年生 clean up the gym and stack the folding chairs, the 3 年生 returned to their homerooms to give their teachers presents and do some last minute bonding. All the parents stood in the hallway watching through the classroom windows.

When that was over, everyone gathered outside for many, many photos. One of the English teachers described the ordeal as "endless" and the no longer crying (thank goodness) graduates had to be shoo-ed off campus so the teachers could go eat lunch. The photo shoot was much happier than the actual ceremony and more closely resembled the graduations I am accustomed to.

3の2, probably my favorite class. Shhhhhh don't tell.

Happy students. We are all looking fabulous in our navy blue blazers. Graduation was pretty formal. The principal, one of the English teachers and several mothers were wearing special graduation kimonos. The VP was wearing a suit and jogging shoes as usual.



Some of the boys and the math teacher (right side of the picture.) Many of the girls wanted pictures with their favorite boys, who would sort of stand off to the side while all the girls would huddle together in the middle. For the picture below, one of the boys wanted his bicycle included, front and center, but the teachers and some parents objected, so it was put off to the side instead. This is much more the kind of behavior I would expect from them, none of the crying stuff I witnessed inside.


At the teacher's party later that night, there was a lot of reminiscing. Many of the teachers were sad to see this class go, but apparently it hadn't always been that way. As 7th graders, this class was sort of a hassle, but it's a testament to the teachers at my junior high how well they turned out. I am too a bit sad to see them go, but I am excited for the 2 年生 to move up. I have taught them the most, and feel like I know them better than I knew any of this year's graduates. I didn't cry this time, but might next year.

Mission hilarious

Watch this video. Laugh and be glad it wasn't you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0TshnSDADo

The Japanese are crazy.

T.G.I.F.

I've been waiting for what seems like forever for Friday. It's rather inconvenient that they only come once a week.

I don't even have anything particularly exciting to look forward to this weekend, aside from the absense of teaching elementary school. Today was the 10th consecutive work day I have spent at elementary school, and it was a doozie. While elementary school has its perks, like shorter hours and the ego boost from having an entire classroom crowd around asking for your autograph, they kids are walking germ dispensers and it is incredibly exhausting to keep coming up with new and exciting games utilizing English. I don't know how the full time teachers do it.

Aside from getting my ass kicked by elementary school, what have I been up to recently? The weekends since the Snow Festival have been full; celebrating Jamie's birthday, hunting for ume blossoms/any signs of spring, and experiencing some "firsts" in Japan--like my first Japanese haircut, my first Japanese movie theater experience on my first Japanese date, my first Japanese lesson and first "Japanese" cooking class.



Jamie's birthday was good fun, celebrated in the typical Jamie/Allison/Wendy fashion with lots of food and equal amounts of gossip. We lunched at the local Pietro's (Japan's Olive Garden, more or less) and Allison made an amazing chocolate moose cake in her microwave oven. I helped stick candles in it. We went over to deliver the delectable dessert and rang Jamie's doorbell hoping to surprise her, but alas, her music was up too loud and the great doorway unveiling was thwarted after about 5 minutes of ringing the doorbell and banging on the door went unanswered. The door was unlocked, so we just let ourselves in, but the great cake reveal wasn't nearly as dramatic as we were hoping it to be.

I had to leave the movie watching/cake eating celebration a bit early so I could get my beauty sleep for my hot date the next afternoon. The day dawned bright and sunny, which I took as a good sign, and proceeded to get dressed as if if was going to be a balmy 65 degrees out. Alas it was not; it snowed while I was on my way to catch the train, and again while I was on the train. I was mildly consoled however, when I arrived to find my date wearing a similar "date but not exactly weather appropriate" outfit. We even coordinated...black and tan on top, jeans and brown shoes. Another good if not slightly weird sign? But the very best sign in my opinion was that in the middle of dessert, he said he was still hungry and the only thing that would fill the void in his stomach was two large size scoops of ice cream. A very excellent sign indeed.



The date was good (and since, there has been a second, and potentially a third, if I actually manage to get myself out of bed at some point tomorrow). We ate lunch, ice cream and browsed the foreign music section at Tower Records before catching a showing of "American Gangster" at the movie theater. It was my first Japanese movie theater experience, and it was a tad different from the ones I am used to in the U.S. In Japan, you pick your seat when you buy your overpriced ticket (around $18), so even though there were probably only 20 other people in the theater with us, we were all concentrated in the same middle area. Hmmmmm. No Japanese person would ever think about sitting in an empty seat to which they had not been assigned. Second difference was that the floor of the theater was amazingly non-sticky. I guess Japanese people don't spill things either. Other than the Japanese subtitles at the bottom of the screen, the rest of the experience was pretty much the same. No moveable arm rests though.
:-/

The next weekend was haircuts and ume blossom hunting. My hair desperately needed a trim, since it hadn't seen scissors since before I left the good ole U.S. of A. in the end of July 2007. I paid a visit to Yasu, hair artist/antiques dealer who cut some much needed layers and made it amazingly curly using just his fingers and a blow dryer. You can check it out on his blog: http://blog.nakamura-biyoushitu.com/?day=20080223 or in the picture below. It's not really noticeable, but a few people, including a very observant 2nd grader I last saw in October or November, have noticed.



Allison and I eating some ume soft cream from the place with 25 flavors at Dazaifu (see earlier post.) The actual ume blossoms were not quite out in full force. It's been pretty cold (snow on dates, and then this week it actually rained and snowed at the same time, gross) so only about 2/3 of the blossoms had opened. There was a nice variety in the color though. Some blossoms were white, and others ranged from pale pink to dark magenta. Mostly, the ume has just made me even more excited for the sakura or cherry blossoms that come out in April and inspire entire hanami, or flower viewing parties.

Hot pink ume bonsai tree!

Maybe the first week in March is still a bit early to wish for full-fledged "spring," especially since Puxcatawney Phil did see his own shadow when he crawled out of his hole thousands of miles away from here. But there are a few signs that winter might actually come to an end within the foreseeable future such as the ume blossoms, daffodils and later sunsets.

My favorite place to observe these changes is the forest-y area just behind our apartment. Allison introduced me to various pathways through the trees just after we returned from winter vacation, and I have since taken several walks back there, enjoying the quietude, especially after elementary school.


And while ume soft cream is delicious, strawberries are by far the most delicious harbinger of the change in seasons. I swear the strawberries I have eaten in the last few weeks have been some of the most delicious strawberries I have ever eaten. Most of this is probably due to the fact that I am really sick of mikan, or the small oranges that are about the only fruit available from October onward until the strawberries hit the shelves in late February. I am not entirely sure why strawberries are a late winter/spring crop in Japan, but I don't really care. All I know is that they are delicious!


What better way to eat them than on a puff of cream on top of a golden-y delicious sugar cookie? Combining our love of eating sweets with a need to get out of our cold apartments on weekends, Allison and Jamie signed all of us up for a cooking class at the local mall. It was hardly cooking, and more just mixing all of the pre-portioned ingredients in a bowl and then listening to the sales pitch while we waited for the cookie part to bake. Whatever, it only cost $10 and was a very enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. Not so enjoyable that we signed up for one of the expensive course options that would require us to spend every weekend for next few months at the mall, but good times nonetheless. Here we are with our creations, which sadly collapsed on the bike ride home.


The cooking school required you to bring your own apron. I bought mine from the amazing West Coast. Now that I have one, its a great excuse to go back for another class. I mean, I really do need to get my $2 worth out of it, and then some.


Now it is time to feed my bad television addiction with an episode of The Hills, another reason Fridays don't come nearly often enough.