Enough, already

I have been feeling unwell for several weeks now, off and on. It's an on-going cold that just won't go away. Yesterday was bad and today is possibly worse. Of course I have to work today; it's PTA day. Can't have a cold on a Saturday without also being busy at the same time, now can I? The good news is that I look so damned wretched that all the staff noticed and started giving me various medicines. This alerted the Principal to my woes, and I will be able to go home after lunch even though I was supposed to have a class this afternoon. Yay for bloodshot eyes and sheet-white complexions!

It is hard for me to keep my head up as I type. It keeps sagging like a windsock in summer.

I got to go home early on Wednesday too. I looked wretched that day, and since there was a big meeting for all teachers that afternoon and no one would even be at the elementary but the cleaner, the elementary Principal said "Go home and get some rest."

I really must look as bad as I feel. Usually when I am sick no one notices unless I sneeze, but not this time.

Photo Treasure Hunt

Here are the photos I entered into the photo treasure hunt competition.

1. Most Classic Gaijin Moment
This is me doing one of the early steps of the tea ceremony. I am cleaning the spoon with a ceremonial cloth. The first year ALT who held the competition introduced this photo as "Someone sitting on tatami reading a book." I had to yell out and correct him, first time of many.

2. Oldest Fruit And Vegetable Vendor

Unfortunately the ancient old woman who usually works here was on holiday, and her daughter (?) was on duty.

3. Most Beautiful Japanese Panorama

4. Most Shocking Fashion Statement

This time the guy doing the competition only showed the top half of the photo and said "It's . . . a girl in a kimono . . ." and I had to yell out "Show the legs, that's the whole point!" Because that is the point: every Japanese person who has seen this photo has gasped and said "I can see her legs!" in a scandaled voice. But I suppose I shouldn't have expected ALTs to understand that.

5. Biggest Beer Container

Everyone seemed to miss the point that in this photo the 'beer container' was Toshi, not the cans. I feel so misunderstood, just like a real artist. When I asked Toshi to pose for this photo, he said "Wait," and put his sunglasses on first. I don't know why.

6. Least Appetising Item In The Grocery Store

7. Most Appetising Item In The Grocery Store

8. Best 'Engrish' T-shirt

I won this category.

9. Most Classic Japanese House

This picture was taken at Atsuko's house because it was after Toshi had abandoned us there with no car so that he could go and get his hair cut.

10. A Picture Of A Buddhist Monk

I won this category too. Because everyone else did the competition only with ALTs, no one else had a friend with them who knew the family of a buddhist monk well enough to ask one to dress up and pose even though the temple was officially closed and the monk in question was just about to go and play golf in a purple paisley shirt.

11. Most Creative Use Of A Daikon

This is the Shirase Memorial Museum in Konoura. And a daikon (Japanese radish).

12. Most Shocked Bystander

Yes, it's posed. You try getting a photo of a shocked bystander when you have to wear an armband saying 'photographer' on it.

13. Biggest Item You Can Pick Up Using Chopsticks

This apple clock used to be famous among ALTs as being the strange clock in the legendary Amanda's apartment. But no one seemed to remember it.

14. Funkiest Keicar (small car with a yellow numberplate saying it has different insurance because it is so light and would get creamed in any accident)

There were no funky keicars, so I just entered a picture of a normal keicar to fill in the blank. People booed this picture. Gaijin are so rude.

15. Most Interesting Rice Field

This picture got lost and didn't even end up in the competition.

Bonus: Most Delicious Thing You Ate For Lunch

Gusto soup (not that good, but better than the rest of the 'meal.' This picture got lost too, and I got made out to look like an idiot because I 'neglected' to send a picture of food.

I guess you can tell I still feel very bitter about the competition. Getting booed and having no one cheer for you in a cheering competition does that to people.

One conclusion I came to during the conference last week is that gaijin really are very rude. Not just the competition, but during the lectures and speeches and such. Half the ALTs there were so disrespectful, it made me so stressed to witness it. There, I've said it. Japanese = polite. Foreigners = rude. And yet I still hear so many complaints about Japanese 'stereotyping' of foreiners as having no manners.

Tired . . .

I am feeling so tired at the moment, so I am not sure if I will even be able to remember everything that happened to me over the last week or so.

Last Tuesday I felt unwell. I held out until I had made and eaten dinner, but then at 7 o'clock I fell asleep on top of my bed. I woke up at about midnight to change into my pyjamas and have a cup of tea before going to sleep again. Despite sleeping nearly twelve hours, I had trouble getting up on Wednesday morning. I had a headache, but I had to go teach English at the primary school. I also had my English conversation class that evening.

On Thursday and Friday I was at the prefectural education centre for a conference. It was the same conference as last year and the year before. How boring. On the Thursday evening at the ALT party, the previous weeks photo competition was judged. (Speaking of which, I haven't yet uploaded the photos I took that day . . .) Anyway, there were only four teams competing but I only won two of the fifteen categories. I am bitter about that, but not because I didn't get many prizes. That doesn't bother me. I am bitter because I lost many categories due to my being unpopular. Pictures were judged on the volume of the applause they received, and team members were allowed to cheer for their own pictures. The other teams were made up of 3, 4, or 5 members who all cheered for themselves, and they all had friends who cheered for them. I was there by myself, so often after a thunderous applause for another team's photo, mine would be shown and the only people cheering were myself and a few people who felt sorry for me. It was so harsh.

On Saturday I still felt unwell, so I stayed home. The Sandman graphic novels I ordered from the US (because supplies in Japan ran out indefinately and now even dog-eared copies are going for several hundred dollars on the amazon.co.jp marketplace) finally arrived in the mail. Yay! I now have the whole series. Because the end had already been spoiled for me (by an internet review which lacked a spoiler warning) I risked skipping forward and reading sections of the last volume. The artwork in the last book is absolutely beautiful, and the story so touching. If the story had not been spoilt for me and I had read everything in order I am sure I would have been bawling my eyes out and smiling at the same time.

On Sunday I performed yosakoi (again . . .) at Akita University. In the evening I met with Saya, Miwa and Saya's Canadian boyfriend Gary who is in the country for two weeks. We went to an okonomiyaki restaurant and then to Gusto for cake and the drink bar. I spent most of the time at Gusto translating the instructions for the stone spa at which Miwa works into English, so that she can make an English version for the foreign customers who visit. (Because of the close proximity of TDK, many foreigners visit the stone spa.) Apparently, you have to have a shower after you get home from the stone spa because the far-infrared energy from the rocks remains in your body for five hours. "Heat?" I asked. "Your body remains warm for five hours?"
"No, it's special far-infrared energy that is good for your health."
"But that's just heat, right? Can't we just say heat?"
"No, it's special energy."
"Okay . . ." *translates the misleading pseudo-scientific jargon into English to trick all the foreign TDK employees out of their money*

Today it is Monday and I already want it to be the weekend again so I can rest. But of course, come the weekend I will be doing something that doesn't involve resting, like every week.

1.5

Today I have about a week and a half to summarize, so this post is probably going to be long.

On Saturday 7th, Konoura Jr. High had its school festival. I went in to school shortly before 8.30am like on any workday and ended up judging posters before the festival started at 9am. For most of the day I was in the nearly pitch-black hall watching many performances. There were speeches and presentations, and I actually managed to understand some of them this year. I had to judge the class chorus competition, which was difficult. There was a play about chickens (?) and of course the cross-dressing fashion show. What’s really funny is that because the girls mostly have short hair, they just look like normal boys, and because the boys are so young when wearing ribbons in their hair they just look like normal girls. Anyway, the festival finished and I helped clean up the school before heading home to get an early night.

On Sunday 8th I got up shortly after 4am in the morning, got picked up just before five, went to Kisakata and got on a charter bus to Sendai. My yosakoi team performed at a big festival there, but because staying in Sendai costs quite a bit in hotel money, my team decided to go and come back on the same day. We got to Sendai about 9am, left our stuff on the bus and set out in our costumes with only a small purse each. We performed in various parks around the city, using the subway to travel between them. The weather was very strange: sunny and showery, at the same time so there were a lot of rainbows all day. It was also very windy. We did four stage performances (one of which was right in front of Sendai Station) before heading to the centre of the shopping district to do two parade dances. We didn’t dance on Oomachi, but the next biggest pedestrian road, the one that is still under cover. I can never remember its name, but it is the street with the expensive shops on it. We started from outside the Louis Vuitton store. We finished dancing shortly before 6pm, and by 7.05 we were back in the bus on our way home. I got home at 11.30pm and crashed.

The next day was a public holiday. Miwa picked me up from Konoura Max Valu (supermarket) and took Saya and myself to Akita International University to look at a Halloween festival. Miwa and I went in costume, and we constructed a partial costume for Saya out of a pair of devil horns and a Korean toy that was in Miwa’s car. When we got there we found that the only people who were in costumes were the university students who were running the stalls. Oh well. First we went to look at the food stalls. They had all sorts of food there. Saya wanted to see the Indian curry store because the posters had taken her fancy. She took a picture of the guy who drew the posters, and asked for a signed copy. So embarrassing. Saya told them she was Canadian. Miwa was wearing a traditional Korean costume, so she was telling people she was Korean. And because it is an International University, everyone believed them.

I ate a Korean something and some little pancake things called dorayaki. Then we went inside to look at some more stalls. We found a fair trade coffee shop. I had a chamomile tea that, because it was fresh actually worked and I started to go to sleep right there. Then we found a massage parlor where students were giving hand, face and shoulder massages. I had a shoulder massage for only 150 yen, and I got a free cup of tea too. Saya told the girls giving the massages that she is Canadian, and they believed her too. “Wow, your Japanese is so good!” they said.

Because so few people were wearing costumes, the newspaper journalist covering the event was hunting us. Or rather Miwa. It was hot so I took off my cape-thingie and didn’t look like I was wearing a costume. Miwa’s costume was eye-catching and even though she ducked and dodged the camera whenever she saw it, a picture of Miwa and Saya ended up in the paper the next day. I was behind Saya so only my arm was visible.

When we got bored of the festival, we went to Aeon Plaza which is not far from the University campus. We had an early dinner and then I went to Kaldi Coffee, which is a shop that sells coffee beans and lots of foreign food. I bought my standard feta, blue cheese and edam, and two bags of muesli. We also got puri kura taken, although now I think about it, I can’t remember where I put mine . . .

Last Tuesday I went to Kamagadai like normal, but in the afternoon I went to Kamihama Elementary to watch and English class performed by John (the Kisakata ALT) and then to participate in a lengthy and boring meeting about English in Elementary schools. Yay.

On Thursday I had a day off because everyone at Konoura Jr High had a day in lieu off last Tuesday when I went to Kamagadai. The reason for the day off was the school festival on the previous Saturday. Anyway, I went nowhere on Thursday but Max Valu. I cleaned, I uploaded stock photos to DeviantART and I read an entire Discworld book.

On Saturday I traveled all over Nikaho City taking pictures for an ALT photo treasure hunt competition that I entered. I had from between 8.30am and 5.30pm to take as many pictures of the list I was e-mailed that morning, and then send them to the person running the competition. Toshi picked me up at 9.30 and we went to Nikaho Max Valu to take pictures there. I had to wear an arm band showing everyone I had permission to take the pictures. We picked up Atsuko and ran around taking the rest of the pictures. I might post them here separately later, with explanations.

After I had finished sending the pictures, we three made dinner at Atsuko’s house. We do that from time to time because it is better to eat with company. Toshi spent all night until 5am on Atsuko’s Playstation, so it was as if he wasn’t there. If we talked to him, he wouldn’t answer. I slept on a futon in Atsuko’s living room. In the morning Toshi played the Playstation again, so I had to wait for him to finish before he would take me home. I got home at 1.30, had a shower and a nap before going back to Atsuko’s house again for dinner. We ate shabu-shabu, and then Miwa came over with a home-made pizza. I got home last night after 11.30. I feel very tired today, and it is only Monday.

I Love Sleep

This is my answer to a question I, amongst other people, was asked: What do you love?

I love the smell of rain on concrete, the smell of storms, and the smell of dettol. I love being inside when it is stormy out, warm drink in my hands and a blanket on my knees. I love wearing my skirts long, as well as my hair. I love reading. I love creating; pictures, stories, whatever. I love onions, cheese, and chocolate (but not together). I love tea; I drink it every day. I love going to the beach on cool stormy days more than on sunny days. I love snow and rain when they fall without a breeze. I love strong wind right before the rain arrives. I love plants even though I kill them. I love ginko trees and ferns, because they remind me of the distant past. I love Orion: he is the first constellation I search for when I look at the night sky. I love the first day in spring when it is warm enough to go to bed without socks on, and the first day in autumn when it is cool enough to go to bed with them. I love vegetables more than fruit. I love things that are decorated with leaves. I love money spiders, even though I like no other types of spiders. I love frogs more than humans usually do. I love mountains although I don't climb them. I love thinking, I love dreaming, I love sleep.

Kanmanji part 1

(I actually wanted this post and the one below it to be in the same post, but I had too many pictures and it didn't fit. Please keep reading down as if it were one post.)

Yesterday both Atsuko and I were bored, so we decided to do painting. First we had lunch in Kisakata. On the way back, as we were passing the turn off for Kanman Temple, Atsuko said "Do you want to see the temple?" I said I did, so we turned around and went back.

Here is a statue of Basho, a famous poet (artist?) who came to Kanmanji however many hundreds of years ago.
Before I show you the rest of the photos, I should tell you a little bit about the history of this area so you know what you are looking at. In the past, both Kisakata and Konoura were actually the sea. About 2500 years ago, a large eruption of Mt. Chokai blew a large hole in the side of the mountain. The rock that was blown off the mountain fell down in large island-sized boulders into the nearby ocean, creating the famous '99 islands of the north' (of which there were actually 103. They were named after the 'real' 99 islands, which are somewhere near Nagasaki I believe.) The density of these islands caused the water between them to be more like a lagoon than the open sea.

A long time ago, I heard 1200 years, the original Kanman Temple (Kanmanji) was built on the largest of the islands. The road to the front gate ran along a beach. Waves lapped at the feet of the graveyard. Since the island was made out of one giant rock, the ground was solid and dry enough for such things.

A couple of hundred years ago, a large earthquake raised this whole area up. The lagoon drained, creating the land that Konoura and Kisakata sit on today. But that left the islands stranded on dry land. You can still see them today. They still look very definitely like islands. Islands sitting amidst a sea of rice.

This stone bench at the side of the old road used to be on the shore. People could sit here and look out over the sea, and the 99 islands.

Here are a few islands. You can see that they are certainly islands and not hills.

Here is the old road up to the front gate. Now the road approaches from another angle. I am not to sure why there was an old road. I mean, who needed to use it when everyone approached the island from the other side by boat? I guess it's just traditional for a temple to have one of these.

Japanese people are so hospitable they even give clothes to their statues.
Continued below . . .

Kanmanji Part 2

This plant took my fancy. I asked Atsuko to pose with it so you can see just how big it is.

I like this picture.

This is a bell tower.

This post used to be what visiting boats were tied to, back when this was a beach.
This tree is 1000 years old.

I thought this building looked delightfully shabby. It looks haunted.

But a good angle makes the other half of the building look rather nice.

The 1000 year old tree from a distance.
Kanmanji is painted in an archaic colour scheme. The purpose of the red paint is to scare demons away.

This appears to be a family memorial. The jars on the side are urns for ashes.
I have known for a long time about the geological history of the area, but I have never seen it so clearly as I did yesterday. I could almost see the sea that had once been there.

After Kanmanji, Atsuko and I went back to Atsuko's house and did some painting. Then we decided to buy gyoza from Nikaho Max Valu for dinner. Just as we got to the car park, a call came from Toshi. He said he had just bought a shabu-shabu pot, so the three of us ended up eating dinner together. We had shabu-shabu and gyoza.

Autumn rice fields

Akita means 'autumn rice field.' Since I am living in Akita, I decided that it was very important of me to take photos of rice fields in autumn. So that is what I did on Saturday.

Not far into my walk, I ran accross this guy - Peter the Suicidal Mantis.

Peter was an old senile mantis, who was wandering around in the middle of the road oblivious to the danger. He was having trouble walking, and looked rather like he was boogie-woogying. I was concerned for his health, and after taking his picture I was standing there trying to decide whether I would intervene and usher him to the side of the road when I saw something out the corner of my eye. My head whipped around in time to see a snake snaking its way up out of the gutter a few metres away, it's eyes on me. We stared at each other for a few seconds before he (who I have decided to name Snape) retreated.

In short I didn't save Peter because I was too busy putting distance between Snape and myself.

Encounters with scary creatures could not dampen my resolve to take pictures of the fields. I quite like this picture - it's nice and orderly.


Taking this picture involve contorting myself into an awkward position, and stopping my breathing. And then waiting for the wind to quit being a pest.

The owners of this field dry their rice naturally. This the traditional rice-drying method used in this area. Further inland they use another method.

Three wise men.

I like this field. So far I have taken pictures of it in spring, summer and autumn, and said pictures are always picturesque (that statement is entirely redundant, isn't it?).

After taking a few more pictures on the way back home, I looked to the left and saw this: That time I did not jump, because in truth I was kind of expecting to encounter Snape again. He did not jump either, and I managed to take a few pictures (with zoom). But then a car went by and he did get spooked, so my snake-picture-taking was cut short.

I looked further up the road and saw a non-moving blob, and knew that the worst had happened. Peter the Suicidal Mantis had achieved his goal - he had been hit by a car. He was in a different part of the road to where I had seen him earlier, so he must have continued boogie-woogying up the road, you know, just to make sure he got hit.

As a tribute to the poor soul of Peter, here is a beautiful picture of some dead trees.

Now all I need to do is go for a walk amongst the fields in winter too, and my '4 seasons' collection will be complete.