Japanese Taiko and Golf

It’s been another busy two weeks, as there always seems to be some kind of event or activity happening lately. Last weekend, I had a Taiko (Japanese drum) performance at my favourite elementary school, Noro-Higashi. (Picture below: Two of my Grade 3 girls)

I went early Sunday morning and my old English teacher Ms. Murayama was nice enough to give me a ride to the school, as it is in the mountains. The first block had a demonstration class for the parents and it was fun sitting in the class and being a spectator instead of a teacher for once. (Picture below: Hamada sensei teaching his first demonstration class- he's only 22!)

After the demonstration class, we all went to the gym and watched the first Taiko performance by the grade 5’s and 6’s. They did a superb job and had some pretty cool robes on- even though the boys had to wear spandex. (Picture below: Grade 6's on the left and Grade 5's on the right)

After the elementary school kids performance we saw a professional Taiko group from Hiroshima perform. I was surprised as this was the same group I saw during my mid-year JET Conference earlier this year. They were wonderful again and it’s neat because when they are playing, you can actually feel the inside of your body shake. They played for about an hour, and I was really impressed with their athleticism and enjoyed listening to their performanceg.

The Taiko performance ended around 12 and Ms. Murayama and her family picked me up from the school. I had 5 hours to kill before I had to meet back up with my teachers for an enkai (dinner) at night. So I ended up spending the time fishing with Sougo at a nearby dam. It was a blast as Sougo was a lot of fun to play with and I even managed to catch a few fish with Shinji’s fishing pole too. After fishing, we just relaxed at their house and then they drove me to dinner.

The restaurant was a station away from Yasuura and it had the nicest view of the inland sea. The food was great and since the school is so small, I’ve really gotten to know the teachers and had a great time chatting. All the teachers had the next day off, but I had elementary school the next morning, so I was trying not to drink too much- but that thought quickly faded and before I knew it, I had a few beers and 5 glasses of Shochu (very potent distilled liquor).

Needless to say-when I walked through the door at home-I could barely walk and all Asuka did was shake her head as I proceeded to pass out on the floor. The next morning I had a wicked hangover and managed to somehow make it through teaching 3 classes of elementary school. The hardest part was the loud “Good Morning” at the beginning of the 1^st graders class, which almost split my head open.

This weekend I had a dinner Friday night with the PTA and all my teachers at a gigantic hall in Yassura. It was fun seeing the parents and trying to figure if the parents look anything like their kids. Some of the parents are really young looking and I had an interesting time talking to them. We had a game of Bingo for prizes and as per Japanese tradition, we ended with a few celebration/thank you chants. (Picture below: The golf course in Kurose Town)

The next morning I woke up at 6:30am and my English teacher Mr. Okamoto picked me and we went to a local golf course. The forecast called for heavy rain all week, but we were lucky enough to have a gorgeous sunny day. We meet up with the Japanese language teacher, Ms. Nishikuni and her husband and got in a wonderful round of golf. The course was really nice and wide- so forgiving for any hooks and slices you make. I played pretty well the front 9, but had a few disaster holes on the back. Okamoto sensei and I got to the course 3 hours before our tee time and hit some practice balls at the driving range. So when it was all finished, we were at the course for almost 12 hours. (Picture below: Me and Ms. Mr Nishikuni)

It was fun though, even though golf is damn expensive in Japan. The round cost me about 150 dollars, so I don’t think I can afford to go very often. But it was a nice bonding experience and just a damn fun day. (Picture below: Ms. Nishikuni, Mr. Okamoto and myself)

This upcoming weekend, I am making my way to Yamaguchi-Ken, the prefecture beside Hiroshima where my friend Tammy lives, for Canada day. A bunch of my friends from Oita are heading up to, so it should be a lot of fun as she has a beach house.

I’m also starting to prepare and pack for my trip back home. I’ll be back from July 14^th to July 31^st, so I hope to see as many of you as I can when I get back. Really looking forward to heading home and just being back.

Japanese factoid # 26: This topic can be quite lengthy, but let me just focus on types of Japanese rice wine. In the west we call Japanese rice wine- “Sake”. But in Japan the word Sake(酒) encompasses all alcohol, including beer, western wince, liquor, etc. (Picture below: Nihonshu on the right and Chochu on the left) Japanese Sake as we know it, is actually called “Nihonshu” literally Japanese alcchol. One step above Japanese Nihonshu, is Shochu. Shochu is the stronger brother of Nihonshu and is often distilled in many different flavours, like barely, sugar cane (in Okinawa) and “imo” or Sweet Potato. Shochu varies from 25%-43% in alcoholic content and is distilled, while Nihonshu is not.

Takehara and Earthquake in Kawajiri

I’ve just had a pretty interesting week. I met up with my old English teacher’s family in a town called Takehara and the next day I was awaken by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake.

On Monday morning around 5am, I was woken up by a strong shake. For the next 20 seconds, the apartment shook, stopped for a few seconds and then shook for another 20-30 seconds. It was surprising as this was the first time that I really experienced a “real” earthquake. I’ve felt a few minor shakes and tremors back home but nothing where you hear and feel the house shaking. Luckily, nothing was broken at home as the buildings are really made to sustain minor earthquakes as they occur here so often. The Hiroshima area doesn’t actually get earthquakes as frequently as other areas of Japan. The earthquake was a minor 5 in the Japanese scale and a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in the western system.

It was pretty amazing that almost no one was hurt and there was very little property damage. I think if a 6.1 earthquake hit Vancouver there will be a lot more damage. The one really hassle because of the earthquakes was that the trains were late and delayed for almost the whole day as all the rail lines had to be checked for any breaks or cracks. Therefore, I needed my Vice-Principal from elementary school to pick me up from my town, as I couldn’t get to school otherwise.

On Sunday I met up with Murayama sensei and we went to a town two train stops away from Yasuura, called Takehara. It had a really nice old district and we spent a good 2 hours walking around the old buildings and visiting a few temples. (Picture below: Shinji and I taking in the free Sake samples)

Murayama sensei’s baby is due two weeks from now and I’m really excited for her family as they will be welcoming a baby girl. With how cute Sougo is, I’m sure the new baby will be adorable.

I spent a great day walking around and just enjoying the good weather. I played with Sougo a lot and being three years old, he is definitely adventurous and wants to see and touch everything. For lunch , we went to a famous Oknomiyaki (Japanese ) resturaunt that has been around for ages.

While walking around Sougo saw a bulldozer and his eyes lit up. The owner was nearby and was nice enough to let Sougo play around with the controls. It took awhile to fetch him away from the bulldozer, but he did try to lift up his dad.

After lunch we made our way to a local beach and watched Sougo dunk himself in the water repeatedly while ripping algae and seaweed from the sea. The water was still a tad cold but it was fun walking around and enjoying the scenery. To finish off the day we went to a seaside café and just chatted while having coffee and eating desserts.

Japanese factoid # 26: A lot of local temples in different regions in Japan have their own superstitions or customs. In Takehara, there is this one little temple with a Jizo (statue). The superstition goes; first you make a wish and then when you lift up the Jizo, if it “feels” light then your wish will come true, but if it feels heavy then it won’t. The thing is solid rock, so needless to say it felt pretty damn heavy- but lets hope my wish still comes true…

A Weekend in Oita-Ken, Kyushu

The past weekend I took trip down to Kyushu and into Oita-Ken. I originally didn’t plan on going, but since it was Andy’s birthday and there was a concert on, I decided I would make my way down for the weekend. The trip down to Oita-ken and Hita city, where my friend Jeffery lives was really easy as it only took one train change and about 2 hours. I arrived around 5 and went straight to Jeffery’s apartment. Well he was kind enough to spend two hours the night before cleaning the washroom, bathroom and my bedroom so all 3 were spotless. As for his living room and kitchen, that was entirely a different story. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this in my life, take a look for yourself…pictures say a 1000 words as they say. I can honestly say it looks worse in real life then in this picture. The pile of garbage actually extends well into the living room.

So I toured around his town, called “Yamakuni” literally Mountain country and this place is gorgeous. One of the prettiest places I have ever been in Japan as it has sprawling hills cut with rivers. I really enjoyed the scenery and also just cruising around in his car, as I haven’t really sat in a car for almost a year. Making me really wanting to get a car to just do road trips in. (Picture below: Tammy, Jeffery and Kiyoko)

That night we met up with Kiyoko, Andy and a bunch of other JET’s at a local lounge in town. I really like the foreigner community in Oita, since it’s a sort of countryside so the JETs are all really close and pretty tight knit, as opposed to Hiroshima where there is alot of people spread out over a large area. After the lounge bar we went to a dart bar and we spent a good few hours playing darts and taking advantage of an all you can drink. I managed to squeak out a last shot victory at darts and celebrated it with another JET named Phil. Overall, it was a lot of fun seeing Andy again and celebrating his birthday.

We got home around 5ish and I managed to crash out pretty much when we got home. I was awaken by Jeffery cleaning as another friend of ours, Tammy (who I met in Tokyo from Calgary) made her way down from Yamaguchi, the prefecture between Hiroshima and Kyushu island. We picked up Kiyoko in town and then Tammy from the station and made our way to the venue.

The concert was held halfway up Mt. Hachizen and it had a nice built in stage and a great view of the surrounding area. It wasn’t packed with people, but the music was pretty good and had a few good bands. There was some pretty funny musicians with some pretty intresting indie stuff. A highlight was this Japanese band that played Irish folk music. All in all the weather was great and we spent the day just chatting and chilling in the mountains.

There were also a bunch of flea market venders there used clothing and handmade crafts. The picture above is when I was joking around with one of the venders and asked if I could try on this bra and somehow it snowballed and before i knew it I was wearing neon green fishnet stockings, a boiler hat and a corset. The Japanese dude was kind enough to feel my breasts while Kiyoko also lent a hand.

At night, Jeffery, Tammy and I made our way to an “onsen” or hotspring by the mountain- as Oita is famous for its onsens. The Onsen was the nicest one I have ever been in and had a huge outdoor area with 5 diffrent pools. We had a good soak then met up with a friend of Jeffery and sang karaoke for the rest of the night. We got home around 2ish and spent a short time looking a fireflies behind his house. Since we don’t have them back home, I’ve never seen them so it was really cool seeing fireflies for the first time.

Sunday was my last day in Oita and after the week in Kobe and the last two in Oita, we all wanted to take it easy, so we went sightseeing. We saw a really nice gorge and visited this mountain temple full of 500 hand carved buddahs. The area definitely has some breathtaking views and Tammy and I really enjoyed traveling around and just seeing some of the sights.

It was a great trip and I’m really glad I made my way down. Jeffery has a pretty nice set up as it schools aren’t packed of students and his area is just breathtaking. One other thing that makes me so envious is that he has an ice rink beside his house. He lives beside one of his schools and this massive town hall and there is actually a skating rink there. How unfair is that, they put an American beside an ice rink.

Well I’m definitely gonna head back down a few more times before I leave and the three of us also made plans to meet next month in Yamaguchi, as Tammy lives 3 minutes from the beach and she pretty much lives in a beach house.

Japanese factoid#25: Kaiten Sushi or also known as revolving sushi. We have a few of these in Richmond, but it’s basically a conveyor belt that has different types of sushi dishes on it. All you do is grab the plate of sushi you want to eat and each plate has a corresponding price to it. At the end, the waitress just counts the number of plates you have and you pay your bill. Jeffery, Tammy and had Kaiten right before we hoped on the train and it was really really affordable and damn good.