日食 part 2

When I woke up on July 22, 2009 the sky was full of heavy, low, dark clouds. I thought for sure they'd never clear up in time to see any part of the total solar eclipse. I quickly got dressed and biked to work so I could be outside if it did clear up. On the way downtown I saw lots of people just standing on the street looking up. I guess everyone really want to get a glimpse of the eclipse!

According the Japan-guide website we were supposed to see most of the eclipse between 11:10 and 11:13. As I ran into my building the sky looked like it was thinning out. I did some lesson planning for 30 minutes while keeping an eye on the weather. Around 11 there were some blue patches, so I grabbed 2 white sheets of paper, a pencil, and my camera. I read that if I put a pen sized hole in one paper and held it over another piece of paper, I'd be able to trace the shape of the eclipse. That was a total bust, but not because it was too cloudy. There were times when the sky was completely clear, and if someone had been there with me I'd have been able to trace it. But holding a paper and tracing doesn't work so well. However, when the sky was totally clear, the sun was still to bright to look at.

There was a breeze that would blow thin sheets of clouds across the sky, and during these times I was able to look directly at the sun and see the eclipse. I even got some pictures! A couple people stopped to ask me what I was doing. I didn't understand most of what they were asking, but I showed them the tracing I did have and my photos, and they said it was good. My favorite random stranger was an older woman walking by in her kimono with a parasol. She stopped, looked at me, then up. It was cloudy at this point, so she said (I can't remember the exact words, but the meaning is ...) "It's too bad, you can't see anything!" Then she kept walking.

Look at my pictures on Picasa!

Total Solar Eclipse

日食

Tomorrow is 日食, or nissyoku (it might also be kaikinishyoku)- the total solar eclipse! (I'm not going to try to pronounce this one because I found it online and haven't asked anyone yet.) The total part will be viewable very far South of me on the Tokara Islands, and then the percentage of visual obscurity decreases from there. About 4 hours (by bus) South of me in Tokyo the sun will be 70% blocked at 11:13AM, while about 3 hours (by bus) North of me in Sendai the sun will be 40% blocked at 11:10AM. So based my scientific calculations of guesstimation, Koriyama will be 52.5% blocked at 11:11 and 32 seconds AM.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2266.html

I was so excited when I found out I would be in the right part of the world for a total solar eclipse (you poor suckers will be shrouded by the night time sky, getting ready for bed). You may not know it, but seeing a total solar eclipse - the actual total part- is a huge dream of mine. One of those must-do before I die things. Unfortunately because of work and the remoteness of the place from which to see the total part, I can't see it this year. I almost considered quiting my job to go see it because I thought it only happened once every 75 years or something, and I don't know if I'll be around for my 100th birthday. I might skydiving or something.

But then I discovered that Solar Eclipses happen all the time! Total solar eclipse are still rare, but not 75 years rare. The eclipse on July 22, 2009 is special because it will be the longest one in the 21st Century, but by a minute or so. But considering that the total solar eclipse doesn't always make landfall, I still feel bad that I am here and will only see part of it. I'd have to travel to Easter Island on July 11, 2010 for the next one.
http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/SEnext.html

Of course, tomorrow's forecast for almost all of Japan is rain.

Classroom story

Some of my friends are in public schools all day, and therefore get tons of cute and funny stories to tell everyone. Working at an Eikaiwa, a private English conversation school (sounds like Eh-ee-kI-wa), means I spend my time in various businesses, culture centers, and in the office. All of my students are adults, except for the 3 10-year old girls I teach each Friday. And my classes are always subject to change. I might get more students, someone might cancel a lesson, or might lose a class altogether. The closest I get to teaching in a school now days is each Wednesday when I go to Tekikyo Asaka High School.

As I've been told, Tekikyo has never had a foreign English teacher before. They wanted their students to practice hearing and repeating English with a native accent. Tekikyo is a private school, which most of the time in Japan means that students are receiving less than great education. It's totally backwards from schools in America. Students have to pay lots of money no matter where they go for high school, but they also have to pass an entrance examination. If a student doesn't pass the test for their choice school, they have to go to a private school. Tekikyo is a fairly large school- 10 first year classes with about 40 students each. It also has the lowest English test rate in all of Koriyama. I'm happy anytime the students are speaking English, even if it's mocking me through repetition.

Here's my 'funny story', though it's the kind of funny you can never admit to in front of the students.
In my 1-4 class (class 4 of the first year students) there is a block of particularly noisy, rowdy boys. A couple of them are genuine trouble makers, a couple are just wisecracks showing off for their friends. They were supposed to be working in groups to complete an exercise in the book, but of course they were just talking and goofing off. As I came to their side of the room one of the wisecracks (one I generally like because he's willing to talk and answer questions) called me over to his desk.
As I approached to answer a question, he pulls out 1,000 yen bill (about $10) and holds it toward me as if I should take it. Before I can ask Wisecrack what his question is, his backstreet boy(because this other wisecrack sings in class sometimes) friend taps him on the shoulder and says, "No, no." Then, Backstreet boy pulls out an American dollar bill (I have no idea where he got this or why he happened to have it on him), hands it to Wisecrack saying, "This." Wisecrack giggles, exchanges the bills and pushes the $1 toward me. I'm still confused until he says "Cheap, cheap," still gesturing I should take the money. A number of responses ran through my head, but I settled for swiftly tapping him on the head with my book and told him to stop watching bad movies. Isn't great that my students are properly using adjectives I haven't taught them yet?

Uneme Dance

About 2 weeks ago, Misty (the new teacher at Amity) and I went to the "Wear Yukata and Practice the Uneme Dance" event. The women taught us how to put on Yukata (see earlier blogs for what this is) and properly tie the obi.
Many people see the obi as a belt or sash, but it's really the Japanese corset. You can't move too much in it, you have a hard time standing and sitting, breathing is a task, and yet they still expect you to dance. On top of that, there was no AC in the room and it quickly got hot with so many people!
My new favorite word is gyu which means "tight" (pronounced gyew- rhymes with few). Every time we'd pull tighter on the obi, they'd say GYU! So I kept saying, and the Japanese women just thought that was a riot. Gyu! Gyu! Gyu!

Here's Misty and I all dressed up and ready to dance :) She hasn't bought a yukata yet, so I lent her mine for the dance practice.
The group was mostly women. The obaa-san (grandma/ respectful old woman) next to Misty is the woman who was the main organizer. She's president of one of the culture clubs, I think, and we met her on a bus tour. After dancing she was trying to give us tips for wearing yukata. She pointed directly at me and said "For slim waist, put some towels under obi to keep beautiful shape." How nice, rig..
STOP!
I haven't had a slim, slender, or anything in between waist since ... never. Unless you want to say that 5 year old can have a waist. This requires some intense reinterpretation.

This, I'm pretty sure, is what she meant to say, "For squishy waist, put towels under the obi to keep the straight, flat body line we find so beautiful in Japanese traditional dress."
It's quite fair to say that I'm not built for the Japanese traditional dress, unless you want to talk about those creepy men who do nothing but watch anime in their free time. (Sorry otakus! I know you aren't all bad, or perverted, or men!--> Otaku has come to mean something different in our time. Today it's more acceptable for any person who has a strong liking for anime or manga.)


Some words for the video:
hidari= left, sounds like hee-da-rlee
migi= right, sounds like mee-gee
ton ton (I think)= the sound or drums or clapping for keeping rhythm

Creepy Crawlers

After much begging I'm going to do a brief update. I obviously could never be a journalist as I can't even keep personal deadlines.

Part 2 of Parents in Japan is still coming, as is Cami, Sarah, and Steph's Golden Week adventures. In the mean time, check out photos from the Golden Week trip here:

Cami and Sarah in Japan

Cami and Sarah came to visit, and while we took a similar track as I did with my parents, we saw all different kinds of things!

Since April I've also be working at Teikyo Asaka High School. It's a contract under James, but I go all day Wednesday and have 5 classes. Kids seem to be kids everywhere. I've got some good classes, and some extremely active classes. The big differences ( off the top of my head) are
1. Teachers change classrooms, not students. This is actually irritating as it cuts into my lesson time.
2. The boys and girls are super shy and rarely talk to each other, let alone me. And they are separated on different sides of the classroom
3. The teachers are more willing to say "The students can't do that" than help them.., say, sound out a word.
4. The boys fix their pants right in the middle of the classroom! I don't mean they drop their draws to the floor, but they unbelt and unzip and fix their shirts right in front of all the girls and teachers! Maybe this comes from the comfort of changing in the classroom. While boys and girls change separately, there aren't any locker rooms so they change for PE in classrooms.

As for outside the classroom, well now that it's warming up to summer again there are bugs EVERYWHERE. I don't know if you know, but I DON'T like bugs. I loved girl scouts and garden camp, and I still love camping, but bugs beware! I'll take you down! Except for when I freak out and run away. Do you know that at Garden camp I got the "Bug Freak Out" award?

Currently there are spiders all over the apartment building (Aida, don't look!). They aren't your run-of-the-mill black or brown spiders. Oh no, they are evil creatures that could only be sent out by some dark demon from the underworld. These spiders have round dark speckled bodies, and eight nail-pointed legs that are black and red. I'm sure one of them is just waiting to jump in my hair so it can crawl down and chop into my carotid artery and effectively kill me.

The other quite nasty bug is the bee. There are normal bees in Japan, but then there are the super sized monstrosities that clearly waltzed through some TMNT Ooze. The one that attacked us today may have actually been a wasp, but I wasn't going to get close enough to find out. Either way, it had been to McDonald's one too many time as it had become super size.

Mom and Dad in Japan part 1

My parents came to Japan and we had an AWESOME time! It was a true whirlwind travel vacation, as we got up early each day and usually didn't get to the hotel until late. But we got lots of rest on the Shinkansen (=bullet train; sounds like shin (part of your lower leg) kan (England's can) and (beginning of cents)).(though the above picture is actually on a subway)

There is so much that I'd love to talk about, but there isn't enough room, so I'll do some of the bigger highlights.
Mom and Dad arrived Sunday evening at Narita airports. We hugged, I cried, mom dropped her suitcase on some older Japanese guy who gave her a dirty look. After getting the 'rents JR Rail Passes (quite possibly one of the best passes for tourists anywhere). We took the Narita express into Tokyo. We had to take a subway and walk a bit to Homeikan, out first hotel, so or course we got lost! Luckily the staff at this ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel- futons in a big tatami room, public baths) were sweet, and had lost guest before. When we showed at the wrong ryokan, they drove us to the right one.
We put our stuff down, and got right back to Tokyo Station to meet Anzai-san, who was our Jazz Taxi tour driver. He drove us around Tokyo, showing us all the beautiful city scenes matched to themed Jazz music. At the end he even brought out a little welcome bottle of champagne. I had him drop us off near the illuminated sakura (cherry blossom trees) in Roppongi, and we walked to T.G.I.Fridays for some food (cuz it's the only time I can get authentic American food).
Most hotel-like places in Japan have a lock out time, and ours was at 10pm in Tokyo. However, we didn't get back until around midnight. Luckily, they leave a side door unlocked for night owls like us!Monday we got up early and headed back into town to search for some sakura. We found a bunch at Ueno park. We followed the crowd down a sakura lined path, taking pictures, talking to other tourists, and staring at the Japanese having hanami under the trees. Hanami is an important part of Japanese culture in the spring. A group gets together- work, school, family, or friends- and you grab food, drinks, and a blanket and go have a picnic under the cherry blossoms. It gets really crowded, so you have to get there early to get a good spot, and since sakura only last a week or 2 at best everyone goes. Even though we have picnics, it's not really quite the same as the whole city showing up at the same place to do the same thing on the same weekend. The only thing I can liken it to is going to the beach on a hot summer weekend.
After we got some good pictures we headed to Asakusa temple. It's a huge temple with and even larger shopping area, and a famous big red lantern. I actually went here when I came to Japan 7 years ago, so I was really excited to go back. Lots of nostalgic memories! We took more pictures, and I bought a special tourist kimono and some sugar star candy.
We grabbed our bags from the ryokan, and took the train straight out to Kawaguchiko (Lake Kawaguchi) to see everyone's favorite volcanic landmass- Mount Fuji! It was a little hazy on the way in, but we were able to see Fujisan ( always Fujisan or Mt Fuji, but never Mt Fujisan). I'm glad we took some pictures from the train, cuz when we got up the next morning it was cloudy and looked like it might rain! We didn't see it at all on the way back to Tokyo (Fujisan is about 3 hours, give or take depending on your transportation mode, from Tokyo)!!
Tuesday was pretty much a travel day. We had to get back to Tokyo station from Fujisan, and then jump on the Shinkansen so we could get to Miyajima before nightfall. Miyajima is an island right of the coast of Hiroshima. If you've ever seen the picture of the red gate in the water, that's it! I think Miyajima was a favorite spot for all of us. The deer on the island are just like dogs! You can walk right up and pet them, or feed them (even though there are signs everywhere that say don't touch/feed!), and they will just follow you around.
We arrived to late to get a taxi, but luck was just on our side this trip. One of the drivers for the fancy hotel said our little "hole in the wall" ryokan was on the way, and drove is. Our place was actually past his hotel, but he wouldn't take any money. Instead we went for a night walk and stopped by that fancy hotel for some yummy Japanese dinner.
In the morning we got up early, again, and walked up part of the mountain to the cable car. The cable car took us to the top of Mt. Misen, and back down again when we were done. On top of the mountain you could see forever. A Buddhist monk climbed it countless years ago, and founded some temples to help find enlightenment. It's a really long hike, even from the cable car drop off. My mom said there should have been warning signs! I think he must have just felt very important being the first man on top of the mountain. Maybe as he looked across the blue water dotted with emerald islands to the mainland shore he thought he'd serendipitously found God's abandoned thrown.

Sadly, we did have to leave mystic Miyajima, so took the ferry back to the mainland and made a beeline for the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, where you can find the A-Bomb Dome, the Peace Memorial Museum, and the Arch tomb dedicated to the victims. Needless to say, especially if you've been to a Holocaust museums, it is sad and impacting. There are tons of items that give personal witness to the devastation of the atom bomb.
The worst part was that Wednesday morning we actually spent too much time on Miyajima, so our time at Peace Memorial Park was cut short. When we were kicked out at closing time, it had started to rain, so we took a (normal) taxi to the station and caught the next train to Kyoto, where we spent Thursday and Friday.

In Kyoto we saw some other famous sites- Kinkakuji ( the golden pavilion) where we had green tea and a sugar anko (sweet red bean paste) cake in a tea house, Inari Shrine (the fox shrine with hundreds of red torii), and Gion (Geisha district plus shopping). We also took a tour of the old Imperial Palace. Kyoto was the capital of Japan until 1868 when the emperor moved his residence to Tokyo. No one lives in the palace now, but sometimes has been used for ceremonies, and one of the rooms can be opened to show visiting heads of state. The outer walls of the inner building are painted with the red-orange color you see on all the torii gates. We learned that this color, in the good old days, was thought to ward of evil spirits and ghosts. Something else interesting is that the word Geisha isn't really used. In Kyoto, Miako ( the girls you see really dressed up with flowers and red ribbon in their hair, and painted faces) are girls training to be Geiko (Kyoto's Geisha). At night we went to Nijo Palace and one of the parks to see sakura illuminated at night. Friday before we left, my mom and I found an antique and new kimono store and we each got some good deals! Friday evening (after running back to Inari shrine for last minute gifts) we took the train and made it home sweet home Koriyama!

Kinkakuji (the Golden pavilion)
Mom and Dad with some normal girls out in their kimono for a hanami
A girl dressed up as a Maiko. Probably a tourist makeover, cuz the white paint is very expensive so real Miako only use it at night when they are working.

February and March

Obviously I've been fairly unmotivated for the past month and a half as far as blogging goes. After getting a number of requests, and the fact that my rents will be here in a week, I thought better write something.
Quick run down of events- 80's themed V-day party, weekend trip in Aizu, all-nighter after meeting random cute boys from Canada, sick day, bowling, bought a new camera, Sophea's bday.

While every weekend has the potential for awesome fun, the best weekend recently was the trip to Aizu. It was nice to get out of Koriyama again and see some traditional Japanese stuff. My friend, Dave, used to live there so he showed me around his old haunts. We ate the cafe of Dr. Hideyo Noguchi. He's famous, even on the 1,000 yen. His hand fused together after being burned, but after an operation he got most function ability back. He traveled to Africa doing research for vaccines.
Aizu is also the resting place of the Byakkotai - a group of young men in samurai training who committed traditional suicide after they saw smoke coming from close to the castle. Unfortunately, the smoke wasn't the castle under attack, but from cooking fires. In the castle (a reconstruction turned into a museum) you can see portraits of each of the men. Only one survived, Iinuma Sadakichi, and he wrote about the tale so everyone else would know.
The castle itself is cool on the outside, but inside it's just a standard museum. Though the top floor view over Aizu is pretty impressive. My desire for experiencing more authentic historical things was completely satisfied by the Samurai Mansion. You can explore each room and area of the house as it was during the Edo Period (1603-1867).

Sadly, my camera was already broken at this point. We used Dave's camera, but he has a film camera so I don't have those pics yet. My new camera is a Cannon IXY 920 IS. It's a really popular model, and there's no question why. There are so many different functions! I can't wait to get some of those pics up here so you'll really understand. Luckily, on small/common digital cameras English is available. The staff at the store had no problem changing the menu to English. Who knows how long it'd take to figure out the directions in Japanese!

One last note before I head off to bed, I really enjoy shopping in Japan. Don't let me fool you, there isn't a huge variety in styles, and I rarely can find anything that fits well. Shopping though is always an adventure because of all the ridiculous things you see from Engrish shirts to neon pumps or french maid outfits. In America it's really easy to tell which years you are looking at by the clothing style. But what becomes of those clothes after they're out of fashion? Some ends up in trash dumps, some get sold at yard sales, while other pieces end up in a thrift store, but can that account for all of that clothing area? I think not, and in truth I believe I've found the rest of your wardrobe from the 70's, 80's, and 90's (possibly a few pieces from even further back). The majority gets sent to Japan! Seriously, if you are missing that glittering sequined shirt, or the drape dress it's in the used store in Japan, and selling for a nifty price. Need a jean vest, or acid wash jeans? You can find here!