Tempura ayu

I am waiting for pictures from my friend who went with me to Nagoya before I post about it. So, in the meantime, I give you:

My lunch, today. At KJH. We had, fish.


you may notice, that's a whole fish. A WHOLE FISH.


I have dreaded this day. I had a feeling it was coming, what with their love of skewering fish and roasting them whole and all, but I just hoped it might work out that I would somehow miss it. Look - you can even see his little mouth there, all glued shut with batter.

Nope. I waited until the kids started eating to find out how, exactly, one eats a whole fish, until I saw that you just pick it up with your hashi (chopsticks) and dig in. "oishi desu ka" (is it good?) I asked to the boy next to me. He grinned back with a mouthfull and said "hai" (yes). Not to be outdone by a 12 year old, I picked up my hashi. From the smiles on their faces as they watched, I could tell my students got a kick out of my expression as I raised the little guy to my mouth, gazed into his vacant eyes, and took a bite...

It's actually not that bad, if you don't think about the fact that you are eating a head while you chew.

So I ate it. Head, eyes, tail. Fins.

Yep.

Holiday Weekend #2

For this holiday weekend (in honor of the autumnal equinox), I managed to squeeze in a night out in Takayama, watching almost an entire Japanese tv-series, watching Miya 1-2 nen sei baseball team make it through the semi-finals of the tournament (woo hoo!!!), and a 2 day trip to Nagoya.

It's been a buys weekend!

I'm exhausted, it's 1045pm and I have elementary school and an English Shower tomorrow. Therefore, I shall not be posting pictures tonight. Should get to that in the next couple of days though.

I can tell you that in Nagoya I found 8 books to purchase (2 are gifts), plus an array of "foreign" foods, including.... tortillas, cheddar cheese, and... DR. PEPPER. Yes!!!!!

Anyway, time for bed ^_^

American Football, Japanese-style

Last night I saw something on Japanese television I thought I would never see. Here in the land of baseball fanatics, kendo masters, and karate enthusiests, I saw...

American Football. On tv. Broadcast Japanese tv. One of my 5 channels. I kid you not.



Got all the highlights including scores and upcoming games. Thankfully, Mom has been keeping me updated on the Broncos nerve-wracking wins so far this season as although I can read katakana, I'm really slow and am barely able to make out team names before they switch to the next set.


... pakka-su to jyaiantsu (Packers and Giants - bottom set)

The strangest thing was hearing the football music with Japanese announcing. And THEN, following the game coverage, we were treated to a special on....

Peyton Manning >.<


No sign of college football yet.

Also, since I'm talking about football, I would just like to take this opportunity to mourne the performace of my beloved Buffaloes; 2 sorry sorry losses following that spectacular defeat of CSU. Well, at least we beat the Rams, heh heh. I would have LOVED to have seen that game.

The power of toast

I've eaten a lot of strange things since I got here. Many times I have no idea what it even is, but I have yet to turn my nose up at anything, except the minnows they serve with lunch >.< I'm not kidding - it may not really be a minnow, but where I come from those things are called bait, not food. I usually end up offering them up to my students, who are hit or miss in the bait-eating department.

Anyway, I often find it a challenge to procure familiar food here as things like cheddar cheese and Cap'n Crunch are virtually non-existent (I've yet to see them at least). However, Japan has one thing going for it in the breakfast department that America just can't compete with.

The bread here is perfect for making French toast. As evidence, I give you my breakfast this morning:



Thick, square, comes in packages of 8 (honestly, who can eat an entire loaf of bread on their own before it goes bad?) When paired with some honey, bananas, and cinnamon, there really is no beating it ^_^

Taiko

In an attempt to further integrate myself with the local culture, and because it's so damn cool, I've joined a kumi-daiko (taiko) group in Takayama. Taiko are Japanese drums, kumi-daiko is a taiko ensemble (literally). So I am basically studying Japanese drumming. It's one of the coolest things you'll ever see.



I found this group via my JTE at MJH, who knows someone who trains with them. She also happens to speak fantastic English ^_^ So, she let me tag along last week to see if I liked it, and this week I officially joined. We meet Tuedays at 730ish, practice until 930ish, then sit around and chat until 10ish. This particular group consists only of women; though I was told that there was a guy in it at one time, the last man to be the ALT in Miya (3 years ago). The women are awesome, even though it's difficult for the majority of them to communicate with me, they are still kind and helpful and really accomodating. Since I don't have a car, someone has to come pick me up at the train station, then drive me back after practice (the place we rehearse is west of town in the countryside where people won't be annoyed by loud drums late at night).



Last week I mostly just watched them play, but this week I got to try my hand at it - and I suck, lol It's really hard! But I will get better with time ^_^

The view from where I drummed




They also do dancing, which I will learn at some point...


This week we had the added bonus of two adorable kids, who were really shy for like, 5 minutes. And then they were all over me ^_^ Eigo no sensei (English teacher)!!! Being elementary age kids, all English teachers do with them is play. So while the adults were chatting, in Japanese, we played. A lot. And it was fun. ^_^




The best thing about playing with kids at this age is that it doesn't matter what language you speak. Play is play! It's universal ^__^

Sunday Baseball

Today I decided to go watch the MJH baseball team take on the boys from Hie JH and Kofuku JH. It was, conviniently, at MJH. I made it there midway through game 1, MJH vs HJH.



I sat with the Miya mom's, who graciously called me over and gave me a little stool to sit on


I guess I'm good luck, as MJH defeated HJH 3-1. Which is quite an accomplishment, considering HJH is about 4 times the size of Miya - they have a much larger pool of players to draw from.


I have my crazy "humidity" hair. *sigh* Also, if you look closely, you can spy an imposter sneaking into the picture, heh heh

There was a break between Miya's two games when the teams from Hie and Kofuku played, during which the Miya parents shared mochi and tea with me (so generous!) and I congratulated the team on their win. I also managed to get an onigiri from my awesome awesome JTE who is a coach on the team. He SO ROCKS.

I also taught one of my student's from MES (their to watch her brother) how to play tic-tac-toe while we waited for game 2.

which she proceeded to teach to her friend

and we all played


Game 2 for MJH was with KJH (Kofuku, not to be confused with my other school Kuguno).

which didn't go as well as the game with Hie. We lost >.<

As the game ended, I was dragged off to the community center by my elementary school students to see their summer projects and didn't get to say goodbye to the team, so I made a point to go back. My JTE had already left, but most of the team was still there, along with a couple of the coaches and dads. And they are a riot and we had fun with my terrible Japanese and their broken English

You're from America or Canada? (my predecessor was from Canada) How old are you? (you look 21!) Are you married? heh heh heh

This dad was really funny and kept calling me the "beautiful teacher", and has therefore immediately become one of my favorite people in Miya ^_^


And this coach's English was actually quite good, despite his claims that he can't speak much.


And I got invited to the next game

Score!

I will convert you. All of you!

Found a fantastic summary of episode 1 of My Boss My Hero, with pictures, on livejournal.

-->here.<--

Also, I spied a dessert that looks suspiciously like Agnes Pudding at asumo today. It got jumbled up during the walk from the grocery store to the bus station though, so no picture this time. But oh, there will be more.

Obsessed? nah.