Sakura!

April is cherry blossom season in Japan, and up here in Takayama ours bloom near the end of the month. The peak was actually during last week, and with the rain we had over the weekend most of the petals are gone now. But lucky for you I had my camera out last week!

This beauty is in Kuguno, near the top of the enormous hill I have to climb twice a week to get to the junior high school

I saw this one in Furukawa, the town just north of Takayama, taken during the taiko festival I went to the weekend before last

Same tree after dark

This one is across the street from my apartment


And the rest are of Garyuzakura, the Sleeping Dragon Cherry Tree, in Miya. It's quite famous and very close to my apartment. So my usually very quiet neighborhood has been full of buses and tourists whom I love to surprise by getting off the train in Miya and walking home. Anyway, the tree is 1,100 years old, enormous, and supported by several wooden beams. Apparently it doesn't matter if you're a tree or a human; once you pass that millennial mark everybody needs a cane ^o^

I spent last Tuesday at MJH with the ichi and ni nen sei (7th and 8th grade in the US) painting pictures of the tree. Mother Nature was in a good mood and provided plenty of sunshine.... I actually came away from the experience slightly pinker than when I began ^_^




Several of the classes from Miya elementary also came on that day for hanami (flower-watching). This is the 5th grade

And a mix of JHS and elem


I got in on the flower-painting action as well

my painting half finished (and what the tree looks like in winter, ha ha)


and the finished product

Maybe not gallery-quality, but not bad for somebody who hasn't painted in like, 15 years, neh?

So that's how I spent a day of work. Out in the sunshine, painting a tree.

Yeay

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Spent my birthday at Miya elementary today. I can't imagine a better place to celebrate (or try to forget, ha ha) the day of your birth, away from home ^_^ I decided to spice up the regular stuff I had planned for English class, so we learned the birthday song (which surprisingly many of my students already knew) and Happy Birthday! And just before I left for the day, my kyoto sensei gave me omiyage as a present. Some kind of cracker with raisins (^_^)v

For the linguistically curious among you, in Japanese happy birthday is 誕生日おめぢとう！ (tanjoubi omeditou!)

And this is the present I got from the band of students I walked home with, in the rain, today



Hooray for 28

Takayama Spring Festival

Apologies on the lateness of this post. I had actually written up most of it the night of the festival but was literally falling asleep at my computer as I was typing, which I interpreted as a good sign I should go to bed. And then, well, you know me. I put it off ^_^ heh heh heh. eh?

So, last Monday and Tuesday was the Spring Festival here in Takayama, one of two annual events that draw a massive amount of people to our, relatively, sleepy town. I've gotten so used to being one of only a few foreigners in this area that it is quite a strange experience to be surrounded by so many non-Japanese people, ha ha ha

Mom and Fritz were both in town and had been doing plenty of sight seeing, with me that weekend and then on their own during the day that day while I was at work. They managed to cover quite a lot of ground during the day and were pretty beat by the time I met up with them (and Fritz has the pictures to prove it!), and we were all famished so our first priority was... festival food!

Fritz with okonomiyaki and Mom with one of those fabulous baked potatoes

mmmm... tako yaki

Sandi with frozen pineapple


I also ran into some of my former 3 nen sei (9th graders) from KJH at the festival, which was such an awesome surprise! They all go to school in Takayama so I never get to see them anymore (we never ride the same train), but one enterprising young lass convinced me to swap phone emails with her, then promptly informed me she would kindly share my address with the rest of them so we could all keep in touch. Hahahahahaha.....um... actually I am happy to keep in touch with them so it's all good ^_^ I've actually seen several of my students, both from Miya and Kuguno, at the recent festivals (this one in Takayama and another one I just went to this weekend in Furukawa). But I digress. On with the pictures!

We wandered the festival stalls for a while, saw some fabulously-clad shop keepers

and would you believe right before I wanted to take this picture there was hardly anybody walking that part of the sidewalk and the second I took the camera out *woosh!* this enormous crowd comes barrelling through. Ha ha ha, we had to wait for at least a couple minutes to get a break big enough, and when it finally happened the guy on the left was waving me to "hurry up!" and take it :D

Turtles!!!! How often do you see baby turtles swimming around in tanks at festivals in the US? hmmmm?!

They were so cute! I really wanted one. And they sold out FAST too! I saw them at the festival in Furukawa yesterday too and had to really restrain myself not to go home with one.


The main attraction of the Takayama Festival, both in fall and spring, are the floats that they have. They actually have different floats for both festivals, but the basic design of them is the same. One of my English teachers told me he thought the spring floats actually have nicer woodwork than the fall ones do. To me, they all look the same

You can compare this with the floats in this post from last fall.

This was with my friends Dominique and Sandi; Mom and Fritz had both called it a night at this point ^_^

Not long after this photo was taken Sandi and I decided we'd had enough of being squashed in the herd of people watching the floats and decided to head back to the stalls where we met up with most of the other ALTs in Takayama. And I saw more of my students ^_^

The last local train leaves Takayama at 930, and since Sandi had parked her car at my apartment we both took it back to Miya. We secured some good seats up near the front of the first car, since Miya is the first stop from Takayama, and I spotted some of my 2 and 3 nen sei boys from Kuguno (8th and 9th grade) looking a bit lost trying to find a place to sit or stand and waved them over. These are some of my favorite students, a bit rowdy and actually fairly disruptive in class but they do it in English so I don't scold them too much. They're a riot to hang out with and they're on the baseball team so I see them on a fairly regular basis actually. Though it's rare for me to see them in their street clothes... they all look like little hoodlums! ha ha ha ha ha ha. But they're all really good kids and I adore them immensely. And yes, they bought an air rifle at the festival and were waving it around on the train and nobody but Sandi and I seemed to find this odd...

Ah, Japan.

I love you, Mom ^_^

Saying Goodbye, Round 2: JHS and ES Graduations

I got a nudge from my friend Tim that I needed to update the blog more, and in the hopes that I might be able to pursuade him to go to Tokyo next weekend I'm going to comply ;)

Like I said before in an earlier post, graduation in Japan takes place in March. The high school graduations were about a week and a half before the junior high school ones, which were followed a week later by elementary school. I was lucky enough to go to all 3.

All JHS in Takayama had their graduations on March 11 this year. This meant that I was only able to attend the ceremony for one of my schools. this year it was Miya. I was really sad I didn't get to see Kuguno's ceremony, although I did get to participate in the rehersal at the school on the Friday prior.

The week leading up to graduation I spent making farewell cards and playing games in my last English classes at both schools. At Miya we played "hot potato" for our last class, using a small stuffed Oscar the Grouch, courtesey of a cereal box at home (thanks Dave!), and music from my iPod. I told them if they answered a question correctly they could choose a prize from my stash of Colorado schwag; a rigged bribe - I had planned to give them all stuff anyway ^_^

At Kuguno I had my 3rd grade conversation class (which I run almost exclusively by myself) making farewell cards that spilled into 2 classes, so we ran out of time to play the game. But I was impressed by their creativity and we all ended up with a fabulous book of memories, all in English. Even my sleepy-grouchy kid participated, heh heh

During their final regular English class we combined the basic and advanced classes and watched a making-of video of the "We are the World" song from the 1980's. My JTE was asking me I'd seen that video before in America and I had to reply "well maybe when I was little, that song is really old..." ha ha ha

In the afternoon that day we had rehersal for the ceremony, in the gym. Which was freezing. I think I've mentioned this before but there is no central heating here, and insulation is a joke. Those enormous gyms are heated in the winter using space heaters (if we're lucky). Some of them are quite large, but most of them are like this

This is actually from the graduation at Miya elem but they're all the same

At any rate, you have to have a lot of them on for a long time to make any kind of impact and it seems nobody thinks of this fact ahead of time. At least at KJH. I swear, I thought I was going to die when we had the 2nd term closing ceremony back in December. Anyway, we all sat together, bundled up in our winter coats, practicing. Actually, I didn't have a chair so I got to stand, lol


So we practiced how they, one by one, get called and walk to the center of the stage to receive their certificates

and we practiced singing and speeches and then it was over.

I'm sad I missed the real ceremony. I heard that grouchy-kid and the bad-ass girl both cried during the real one, heh heh heh.... *sniff*

I made a point of spending as much time with my 3rd graders at MJH in the days leading to their graduation as well. This included lunchtime, which I had been having with the 2nd grade since January.

They all got inkan stamps this day as gifts - inkan are used here to sign for stuff instead of signatures. I have one too - it says "jenifaa".

The day of the ceremony, March 11 (a Tuesday), one ingenious teacher came early and lit all the stoves, plus the weather was really nice that day, so it was actually quite comfortable in the gym.


All of the parents, staff, and the rest of the students file in and sit together in the gym and then the graduating class, led by their homeroom teachers, parade in. They have a tradition here where the graduating class homeroom teachers wear traditional clothing - kimono and hakama. Isn't that just awesome? What would we do in the US if we tried to have a custom like that? Leather chaps, cowboy boots and dresses with corsets? ha ha ha

Although there were only 22 graduates at MJH this year, the ceremony was still just as long as at even the biggest schools in Takayama. Which just meant we got more speeches and songs, I think.


these things are boring no matter where you are - US or Japan. ha ha

Each graduate walked on stage and received their ceritficate. You might notice they're all wearing their uniforms and not graduation cap and gowns. That's more of a western custom.

After they received their diplomas they turned to the audience and said a few words about their dreams for the future.

And of course there was singing. And speeches.

After the ceremony they had their final homeroom meeting, which I invited myself to... all their parents were there too so it wasn't that strange (I hope!)

I don't know about other schools, but at MJH they have a tradition of taking a picture of the graduating class with all the staff. You can see more than 60 years worth of pictures hanging in the downstairs hallway. I think it's really cool, to see how the school and the students have changed over the years. You can see in the early pictures, the effects of the devastation from the war (no cohesive uniforms, the school still being constructed, etc), gradually changing to the modern society of today. Plus, it's nice to be able to see the ALTs who have been here before me, and to know that one day my sucessor will be able to see me too ^_^
So, after the homeroom meeting we all made our way to the gym to take the picture

And this is what it looks like. Can you find me? I do tend to stick out here a little ^_^

After that we all lined the hall to send the graduates and their families off in style

And then, as the other teachers went back to the office or with their homeroom classes, I ran outside to take pictures with the 3rd grade.

And then they were gone! *cries*

Elementary school graduation was a week later, on March 21 (a Friday). This year I went to Miya elementary. This ceremony, although heartbreaking I'm sure for those who had been together for 6 years, wasn't that sad for me - since both Miya and Kuguno are so small and each only have 1 ES and 1 JHS, I'll get all the 6th graders next year in JHS ^_^

"arigatou roku nen sei" (thank you 6th grade)

On ceremony day, since the elementary school is bigger than the junior high (6 grades vs 3) we packed the gym a bit more

we still froze though -_^


Interestingly enough, they wore their new JHS uniforms for the ceremony

I guess to symbolize moving on to the new school. After their final homeroom meeting we all lined up outside to send them off, same as at JHS. Except it was really cold that day. And outside (>.<)

And that was it! I spent the rest of the day there planning lessons for next year's English classes. I'm glad my last ceremony was the only one where I'm not actually saying goodbye to anyone. Cause April 7, when they come to JHS, I'll get to say "hello!"

It's not just a comic strip

Peanut Butter is expensive here. And somewhat difficult to find. It's not carried by the little grocery store in Miya, I have to go to Takayama to find it. And when I do, it's in a teeny-tiny jar that costs about 5 bucks. Heh heh, not that that's saying much these days, hu? (-_^)

Anyway, I've been experimenting with different spreads that I find at the store and yesterday my friend Maki pointed out "peanut cream", sitting by the peanut butter.

Yep. Peanut cream.

"pi-nattsu kuri-mu"

Ever the scientist, I figured I'd try it out. You know, as an "experiment". Upon opening the container, you find a creamy, carmel-like substance that smells like peanuts.

The creamy-texture makes it spread nice and smooth, and goes fabulously with apples

mmmmmmmmm. peanuts. what will they think of next?