It's been a month since I last posted

Man, I am such a great procrastinator! hahahahaha

Seriously though, a whole month. ooops.

As my mother, and countless others, can attest, I've always been particularly good at putting things off. It's a testament to my ability to pull things together at the last minute that I ever made it through high school, college, and graduate school :D

My current procrastination projects include (but are not limited to):

cleaning my apartment (been putting that one off successfully for weeks!)
packing things up to ship back to Colorado
laundry
looking for a job post-JET (aka after July)
packing for India
...and this blog

My preferred methods of procrastination usually entail books, tv, and internet, in addition to just plain removing myself from the situation entirely by doing something like going in to town ^_^

I don't really have a coherent story to put together for you of recent events, other than to say the school year concluded and started again, I went to Thailand for spring break, went to my last Takayama festival, and today is my birthday :)

In celebration of the successful completion of my third decade, here are some pictures of recent happenings. Time, it would seem, is something you just can't avoid, no matter how good of a procrastinator you are ;)

Part of the book I received from the kids graduating from Kuguno. I had them for all 3 of their junior high years! Amazing doesn't even begin to describe them :)


Archery in Takayama


Noto Coast


The longest bench in the world ^_^


Wat Traimit in Bangkok


Thai Tuk Tuk


Beach on Koh Samui


The lucky roof tile I donated to the Big Buddha temple on Koh Samui


At the Full Moon Party on Koh Phangnan


Which is by FAR the largest party I've ever been to in my life. Probably close to 20,000 people, all along the beach.


Where people do crazy stuff like jumping ropes. That are on fire


Protesters in Bangkok, a few days before things got ugly. They were actually quite friendly when we were there!






Takayama Festival


Furukawa Festival


Sakura at night


Kind of cool to represent Takayama at the Takayama-Denver Sister City party ^_^


Birthday shenanigans


My Colorado birthday cake!!!


Thanks for stopping by! And don't forget to Donate to my project in India!

Help me build houses in INDIA!!!

I've signed up to spend my Golden Week vacation this year volunteering in India. I'll be going with an organization called Longitude, a non-profit who "facilitates volunteer opportunities in conjunction with our foreign partners, raises funds for project growth and improvement, and provides material and programmatic support for the foreign NGOs with whom we collaborate". The specific NGO I will be working with is called the Association of Relief Volunteers, "an Indian non-profit working on issues of human rights and caste discrimination in rural Indian villages."


photo from golongitude.org

In particular, I will be helping to build houses in Chevuru Village. The following information is taken from the May 2010 trip page:

Chevuru Village Background

A total of 459 Dalits (formerly known as Untouchables), including 70 widows, live in thatched mud huts in Chevuru. Most of the adults in the village are unskilled agricultural laborers and are unable to find work outside the 3-month growing season each year. Because they earn barely enough wages to support their families, missing even one day of work to repair their fragile huts after heavy rain or floods can affect their ability to feed their children. Acquiring permanent housing will not The only allow these Dalit villagers to work more days of the year but will also raise their social status, giving them the confidence they need in order to stand up for their rights.


Fifty-one families in Chevuru were able to begin building permanent houses under a state government scheme that provides housing grants to people living below the poverty line. However, these grants are not enough to cover the remaining costs of the houses. These families have requested Longitude and ARV’s financial assistance to complete their homes, which have been sitting unfinished since last year. In order to put a roof on every home, we must raise US $1500 per house.


How You Can Help

Our group’s fundraising goal of $15,000 will subsidize the completion of 10 houses in Chevuru. Please help us meet this goal by either fully or partially sponsoring one family’s home. A contribution of any amount will bring piece of mind and security to a very deserving Dalit family!

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If you are interested in helping out, please visit the group page at

http://www.golongitude.org/www/JET_May_2010.html

You can donate online through the group webpage, or they have an option for if you prefer to donate by check ^_^

The start of the goodbyes...

Today was junior high school graduation day. It's my third one now, so instead of writing about the ceremony (which I did my first year) or my attire (last year), this time I'm going to write a top ten of what I've learned in 3 years of ceremonies in Japan, should you ever find yourself at one ^_^

1) Graduation ceremonies are extremely formal, solemn events, ridden with tradition and ceremony.

2) As such, there is no cheering, and only occasional clapping. Everyone does everything, and I do mean everything, as a group. Also, you will bow, in unison, many, MANY times.

3) In a shrewd display of planning, the ceremony is held mid-week, making it easy for parents to attend.
...Also, no friends or siblings will be there; for the most part it's the students, teachers, parents, and various "important" members of the community (PTA, police, mayor, etc).

4) Graduation is a white-tie affair. Occasionally, women will wear kimono.

5) Against all their effort to remain stoic, SOMEONE always ends up crying.

6) If you live in the mountains, be prepared for snow. Heavy, wet, spring snow. And yes, it's snowing here today :/

7) Be sure to bring a change of clothes for after the ceremony - nobody wants to be "that guy" stuck in a suit all day. Especially when the kids all go home at noon! And keep in mind you're going to have absolutely nothing to do afterward, you'll have to find something to do to keep yourself busy.

8) No school lunch! Yeay! Bento!

9) The graduation enkai (work party) is the first of the "spring-enkai season". 2 weeks later you'll have the end-of-the-school-year party, followed by the goodbye party for departing teachers, the welcome party for new teachers, and then there's the opening-day party. All within the span of less than a month o_O By the way, I work at 4 schools. They're fun ^_^ But can get quite expensive!

10) Charge your camera battery, clear off your memory-stick, and be prepared for lots and lots of pictures! It's the best (and last, in many cases) chance to get photos with your departing graduates. If you're lucky, you might run into them later on in town, or during the spring or autumn festivals. Sometimes I see them if I have to ride the train, but for the most part, this is kind of the end of your relationship with them, so make the most of it!

Winter Sports

I'm not much of a winter person. In fact, I'd say one of the only redeeming qualities of this season is that it's the only time I get to go snowboarding.



And, occasionally, there are pretty trees.



This year has been pretty snowy here in Japan. Much better for enjoying winter sports than last year, but fairly sucky in terms of everyday living :P

So far this year I've managed 7 trips:

1 time to Mary Jane/ Winter Park (Colorado)
1 time to Arkopia (Kuguno)
2 times to Mont Deus (Miya)
1 time to Goryu/ Hakuba 47 (Hakuba, Nagano)
1 time to Sun Alpina Kashimayari (Hakuba, Nagano)
1 time to Takasu Snow Park (Gujo, Gifu)

Hopefully I can squeeze in a couple more before the season ends. If I have to be cold, I should at least be able to enjoy it! ^_^

TV

I've been terrible about keeping up with the blog recently >.< I know! I know.

This isn't a huge post of interesting craziness of Japan. Well, maybe a little crazy. I've been watching my tv a bit more recently cause of the Olympics. It's kind of interesting, actually, to watch them here, the focus is entirely on the Japanese athletes. Which makes sense, of course, when you think about where I am.

Anyway, with all this extra tv-watching, I've also seen a lot more Japanese commercials, which never fail to amuse me. They're just so different from American ones! One of my favorite recent ones is this ad for Halls cough drops



And while I'm at it, I'll just go ahead and throw this one for the McDonald's Texas Burger in too. It's part of the new "Big America" marketing campaign, supposedly highlighting cuisines from different parts of the US. This one is, obviously, supposed to represent the Lone Star State... what Footloose has to do with that I'm not quite sure... but you can judge for yourself



The Texas Burger is set to be followed by the Hawaiian Burger, the New York Burger, and the California Burger, sometime this year.

And how about this ad for the Toyota Vitz... using the popular character Rilakkuma (relax bear)... O_o I think the concept is that driving this car is supposed to be relaxing for the harried, over-whelmed Japanese woman in her 20's or 30's... but really all I can think of when I watch it is "awwwwwwwwww!"

JLPT 3級

Just a quick shout out to say

I PASSED THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TEST!

Level 3, given December 6, 2009.

My final score was 316/400 for a total of 79% (you need at least 60% to pass).

And I got 100% on the listening section.

Yeay!!! ^_^

Kakizome

My first Japanese class of 2010 wasn't so much about language as it was culture. We did 書き初め kakizome, the first calligraphy of the new year. Traditionally, it's performed on January 2nd, although more and more it's being assigned as winter vacation homework for elementary school students (who all have to study calligraphy in school).

My teacher gave my partner and I the option of several different characters, including 虎 tora (tiger - this year's zodiac animal), 愛 ai (love), a couple I can't remember, and 夢 yume (dream).

This was a tough one. The character you choose kind of says a lot about your hopes for the coming year. I was debating between 愛 and 夢, love or dream. Which is more important?

There are so many reasons I came to Japan, many things I've learned, been disappointed by, been surprised by, enjoyed. The experience can been interpreted in so many ways. But what kind of fortune am I hoping for in the coming year? What do I still want to achieve?

I decided to go with 夢, dream. My partner did as well.


It's actually a lot harder than it looks. My teacher gave us each an example character to practice off, and several sheets of newspaper before we moved on to the rice paper for the real one.

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We each got three attempts. From which we picked what we all thought was the best of the three to keep.



May we all have fortuitous dreams this year ^_^