Undokai (Sports Day)

This past Sunday was my junior high school’s Undokai (sports day). It’s not really something that they have in America so I will explain. It’s like a big sports competition between the school. The school is divided into groups (mine was in 2 groups – red and white – because there aren’t that many students) that compete against each other. With each event the winners get a certain amount of points and whichever team ends up with the most points at the end wins. Actually, because there aren’t that many students and the elementary school is right next door it was a combined thing with the elementary school. So they compete, but not in the traditional sense. The track events were pretty standard, but then there were weird activities and relays that were pretty funny to watch. Oh, and all the parents and people come to this event as well to watch. So, I guess I’ll go through the activities and post pictures about them.
First here is a picture of just a regular race being ran and then after that is a picture of a relay the elementary students did where they had to climb a bamboo pole and grab a paper banana hanging from the top, then run back to the line for the next person to go.


After that there is a picture where the students each got a corner of a circle of rope and then tried to grab the flag that was sitting just out of reach in a cone. Lol.

This next event was really funny. It was with the junior high students and it was a sort of obstacle course. They first had to run to an area with a bunch of baseball bats and then with the bottom of the bat touching the ground, put their heads to the top of the bat and spin around like 10-15 times. Then they had to walk across a balance beam, and then crawl under a stretch of net. After that they had to run over to a huge pad (like the pad you land on after high jumping) and blow up a balloon enough to pop it when you sit on it. Then they of course had to sit on it and pop it and run over some hurdles to the next phase. At this next place they had to splash water on their faces, and then dig something out of a box full of wheat powder with their mouths and eat it. Then, with the white wheat powder all on their face, they have to read this statement into the microphone and then run through the finish line. Lol. The statement was usually some weird embarrassing statement. I could only catch what a few of them meant but the kids always laughed and looked embarrassed or something, lol. Here’s pictures of that one.





Next was the course for the elementary school students. They were so cute. They were all wearing blue plastic capes and rain boots. First they had to race their scooters down a stretch, then throw a ball to hit a target, and then climb up on a platform and jump onto the high jump pad to pop a balloon, then run to the finish line. Lol. It was funny because the balloons were being held the the pad by tape at first but the kids were getting tangled up in the tape so they stopped using tape and then the balloons kept drifting in the wind every time a kid tried to jump on it, lol. But they were able to do it after some time.




The next event was a junior high one where there was a person from each team (red and white) who had a basket on their back and they ran around trying to avoid getting bean bags thrown in the basket by the other team.

The junior high also put on some uniforms and did a cool cheer thing before that.

Then the elementary students lined up and as a teacher beat a huge drum he would stop and call out different poses, and the students would do the poses (like v, airplane, tokyo tower, etc)






Then there were some relay races where they students competed against their parents or siblings, and there was an race where the the different teams would launch bottles into their air and another student after students would have to catch the bottles, and there were some dances done as well.





The dance above in the middle picture was the elementary school dance. Then I posted the junior high dance. The junior high also did a dance competition between the teams, which was really funny because some of the guy students on the team that won were dressed up as rocker chicks and playing air guitar right in front of the judges, but I couldn’t get pictures because I was actually a judge for that event. Then my camera ran out of battery before I could get pictures of the really cute grandma and grandpa relay that the elementary students did. They put on little vests that old people wear here and had a cane and then slippers that were tied together so they had to shuffle their feet. Then they had to race all hunched over with the cane on the ground, one hand behind their backs, shuffling their feet. It was the cutest thing ever and they really did look like little grandmas and grandpas, lol. I got to participate in this event called Dragonball. It was all the teachers split into 2 teams partnered up, where one person stomps on one end of a small teeter-totter thing making a ball that was on the other end fly up and the partner has to catch it, then run back to the line where the next pair would go. I was the stomper. Anyway, this was a long post so I will go ahead and end it there, but it was tons of fun to watch. I’ll post some videos throughout the blog of some of the stuff too.

Grape Picking

The other day Marisa and I went to this place where you can pay a set price and then pick and eat all the grapes that you want. The ride was a bit far and it was up and down this big hill, but it was sugoku kirei. Really pretty. The colors of all the fields and flowers were really bright and vivid so all in all it was a nice bike ride.

At the actual place of picking grapes it wasn't exactly what we expected in that we each only cut one bunch of grapes down and then just sat and ate grapes for a while while they brought us more of different kinds instead of us actually getting the grapes for ourselves, but they were really good. Japanese grapes are a lot bigger than the grapes you normally eat in America and the skin is a lot thicker. Most people don't eat the skin here because its thick and dries your mouth out leaving a kind of bitter taste, but luckily the skin separates from the grape easily.

Here are some pictures of all the scenery on the way too and from the grape place and then a couple in the grape place. The white bags hanging around me are the grapes. I don't know why exactly they have the bags over the grapes, but there it is. The picture of the frog is because there were like 6 of those little guys hopping all around me the whole time. They never actually came into contact with me, but they were everywhere! Lol, cute, but I wasn't about to let one of them land on me. I had to be ready to move at any second.

Anyway, this is what it looks like where I live right now for the most part. Country with nothing to do really yes, but really really pretty.

Temple in my Town

One of the things Shikoku is famous for is the 88 temple pilgrimage. People from all over come to Shikoku and make the trek around to all 88 temples wearing white outifts with hats and sticks. You can see them all over. A lot of these people come through Kubokawa here because we actually have one of the 88 temples. Here are some pictures of it that I took.

Discovery

I just discovered that if you click on the pictures in the blog they get enlarged. Lol. Everyone probably already knew that, and I'm just late in finding this out, but on the off chance that there was someone out there who didn't know, and was thinking, I wish I could see it bigger, now you know you can click on it and see it. Lol.

Yosakoi Extras

Hey there everyone. So I just got pictures from Yosakoi that were taken by other people of Marisa and I actually dancing in it, lol. So I will post them here. You can see how ridiculous we looked, but it was still way fun. These pictures are mostly from the first street we did which was also the least crowded (thankfully).

Welcome Party/Karaoke

Apparently one welcome party at the beginning of my stay here wasn't enough because they went ahead and scheduled another one. Lol. This one was going to be with the people in Taisho (town next to us) as well, but they didn't end up coming so it was just our Board of Education again. Anyway, at the beginning Marisa and I had to make a speech (in Japanese of course) and I was so nervous. I was like shaking and it was kind of ridiculous, lol. I said, "Because of my love for stories, I studied English literature at college. But because I thought Japanese food, culture, and language were interesting, I also studied Japanese. The time i spent studying Japanese was really fun, so I wanted to come to Japan and let the students here have fun learning English. So when I heard I was coming to Shimanto Town I was really happy. Thank you for taking care of me until now and please continue to take care of me." It is kind of a literal translation so it might sound a bit weird in English but you get the jist. Anyway, there was lots of food but Marisa and I got whisked away to go greet the head honchos and we had to pour them all sake so we didn't get to eat a lot. It was kind of weird to be pouring drinks for other people when I don't drink, but it's a show of respect and culture here I guess. Anyway, toward the end I had had some conversations with people, and then a group of office workers were asking me questions about being Mormon (as they always do in a drinking setting becuase I don't drink) and what I can and can't do/eat/drink. I had actually found out that one of the girls from the ward I go to knows one of the girls in the office. They went to high school together, so that was pretty cool because she already knew a Mormon, and a Japanese one at that. Then, a few of us went out for karaoke after. Lol. I didn't want to sing by myself at first, but after a while we were all just choosing songs and singing whatever we wanted. All the songs I sang were in English (got some Boston, Mama's & Papa's, Disney, Backstreet Boys, and Queen in) and then the last song I sang was in Japanese. My voice was a little shakey and I couldn't catch all the words because it was hard to read it (it was going too fast), but I got through it with applause at the end, lol. Fun times.

Welcome Camp

I have been remiss in posting in my blog, but am determined to make up for it now with a bunch of entries about the past month. To start, like a month ago I went to a camp with a bunch of the kids from around Shimanto. We went swimming in the shimanto river and jumped off a bridge and a dam into it as well. We stayed in cabins and Marisa and I were even in charge of one of the cabins of girls (although there was another supervisor who did most of the work).

The night we slept in the cabins they had a haunted walk around the camp grounds where the leaders dressed up in scary things and popped out to scare the kids, lol. Marisa and I went with different groups and the little girls were clinging to us. There was this one girl in a pink outfit (you can see her in the picture of me with the group of girls with the guy in an eyeball costume behind us) that was holding onto me for most of the time screaming "kowai!!" "mou yada!!" which pretty much means I'm scared! I've had enough!

Or something similar, lol. It was really funny and cute. The only frustrating thing about the camp was that I couldn't really talk to the kids at all. I had no idea what they were saying becuase they talk to fast and short and kind of slurred. But I guess that is ok. When you can talk with kids then you are fluent I hear, and fluent I am not, so I shouldn't expect to be able to. Also, I keep seeing the kids that went to the camp in my classes that I go to and I feel bad because I don't remember their names. There are too many of them. Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Haircut

So I got a haircut a while ago. I told them that I wanted my bangs, and to keep it relatively the same length, but other than that they could give me a haircut that suited me. So, as I suspected, the guy thinned my hair out like crazy. It is the same length, but the amount of hair that is actually the full length has drastically been reduced. It's still the thickness on top though. When I put it into a ponytail though it's like there is nothing there but a few wisps. It's really weird. It reminds me of a mullet in a way, but it doesn't look like it. Or at least I hope it doesn't anyway, lol. I actually quite like it. It's really nice in the heat because there isn't that much hair around my neck anymore. Also, it works really well with my hair when I don't do anything to it. Before when I just let it air dry it was a mess all flat against my head and then waving in ways that weren't at all a pretty site but now when it starts to wave or curl it kind of works with the haircut and doesn't look so bad. Anyway, a picture that I took the same day with my webcam.

Ayu Matsuri & the 24 Hour Charity

Well, it's been like 2 weeks since I actually went to the Ayu Matsuri (festival) but I guess it's better late than never. This was an exciting festival for a few reasons. It was small, but unique. At night, the men from the near-by towns went out into the river on small boats and demonstrated how fishermen used to catch fish with fire. So they floated around with lanterns waving huge burning sticks over the water. It was pretty cool looking. Here are some pictures. They are kind of dark because it was after all at night, and they were a little ways out in the water, but I think you can make out some people. Another reason it was a cool festival was because we dressed up in our yukata to go. It wasn't really a festival where you dress up in yukata, like the Nakamura one would be the following week, but Nare (from Korea) was finishing up her year here in Shimanto-cho and was leaving before that next festival, and Marisa and I had volunteered to help run a booth at the 24 hour Charity the same night as the Nakamura festival, so we made the most of it. Luckily there were a few others there that were dressed up, so it wasn't like we were completely out of place (excepting the fact that it's impossible to completely blend in as well because of the tall, white skin, blonde hair factor). Anyway, we ate shaved ice, watched the fishermen on the river with the fire and then the fireworks.






The next week was the 24 Hour Charity event. There was a 24 Hour Television Charity going on where there were celebrities doing stuff like one lady was running some marathon, or something and different celebrities did a drama to show, and in our town, they hosted what seemed to be almost a carnival.

It seemed like a matsuri (festival) because of the food stands and games set up, but then there was entertainment as well. There were clowns, hula dancers, people dressed as turtles dancing, the kid's taiko (Japanese drums) group, kindergarten classes (which I got video of but it turned out sideways for some reason), etc all performing. Oh yes, at the end of the night there was a group of 3 guys who did a little break dance thing and said they were always looking for new members. I got some video of that (sorry it's a little blurred - I took it on my cell phone). I'll try and post that here and hopefully it isn't all out of sync like the Yosakoi videos were. Anyway, our dart blowing stand was pretty fun, and this one guy even got Marisa and I some yakitori (teriyaki chicken on a stick essentially) which was soooo good, and then some curry, which, of course, was also delicious. We also got some cream soda, which contrary to what you might think, ended up just being a float (like a melon soda float, or coca-cola float). Anyway, enjoy the pictures!!!

Firtst Week of School

It's been a while. Things have been really busy. My first week of school is now past. While I say first week, it's actually just 2 days with classes and 1 where I introduced myself to the school. On Tuesday I went to my junior high and introduced myself to the whole school. Now, I say whole school, but really there are only like 33 kids in the entire junior high. There is 1 class per grade and each class only has like 8-12 students. So I did that in English with a little bit of Japanese like they said and then got a tour of the school. The next day I went back and I had all 3 classes. I pretty much did my self introduction in detail that time and then had question and answer time with the students. I was asked some pretty strange questions like `does Palmdale have camels?` (because it's a desert), `you have good taste, why?` and `were you in Harry Potter?` (because I showed them a picture of me dressed like Hermione). Sadly when I answered the kid I said yes joking around and he started telling all his friends. Then he found out it wasn't true, lol. Poor guy. My second years were the most responsive and thought my brothers in my family picture were very `kakkoi` (cool) and that my niece and nephew were so `kawaii` (cute) and everyone was surprised that Jonathon was like the same age as the teacher I team teach with. Anyway, the next day I went to an elementary school and did grades 1-5 all at once seeing as there were only 11 students. They were really cute. When I was leaving, one of the funny boys was like `come back because I love you` lol (in Japanese of course). Marisa came and watched me do that and then did the head, shoulders, knees and toes song with me and the kids. This afternoon I go to watch another ALT teach and then Tuesday I go with Marisa to a kindergarten in the morning and meet up with the junior high teacher to talk about what to do for Wednesday's classes. We'll see how it all goes!