March Madness

Already, its been almost a month since my last blog so this will be a lengthy post. Its been about 4.5 months since I have been in Japan. A ton has been going on so weekends fly by. Work is work. While its sometimes enjoyable, its frustrating other times. One of the funniest moments I've had so far is one of my 4 year olds complaining he was hot so he decided to pants himself... although, that was a little weird but hes my favorite kid and just the cutest/smartest little boy. Good thing my manager happened to be watching the class and wasnt going to think I was crazy when I spoke to her about it. Anyway, onto the busy month of March...

First weekend of March, I went to Ghibli Museum with some Eric, Justin, Jasmine and Junko. Although I never watched a Ghibli movie before going (i still have yet to finish an entire movie), it was still a lot of fun and interesting. These movies are called Ghibli movies because they are created by the animation artist, Hayao Miyazaki in Studio Ghibli. If you remember Kiki's Delivery Service, that was a Ghibli Movie. The museum shows the tidbits of all the animation and how it started. Totoro is one of the more famous movies and there was a huge Nekko (Cat) bus for the little kiddies to play on. I just want one as my bed!
After the musuem, we walked through Inokashira Park to Kichijoji where we saw some plum blossoms and ate Indian for lunch!
A few weekends later, I took a weekend trip to Nikko. Nikko is a beautiful little town however, it was unfortunate that we were too constrained by train and bus schedules to see any of it. Nikko (日光) is a world heritage site in Japan registered with UNESCO in 1999. The most famous shrine in Nikko would be Toshogu Shrine but there are three shrines in the Nikko World Heritage Park. Toshogu is known for the three monkeys: "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil"
The entrance fee included all the temples and shrines and hiking ground in the park but it costs 1,300 yen. Nice little place. Before the entrance to the park lies Shinkyo Bridge (Sacred Bridge). Legend has it that the hermit who settled Nikko was carried across the river here by two serpents. In feudal times, the sacred bridge could be used only by the emperor. The Shinkyo has long been considered one of the most beautiful structures in Japan, its simple elegance contrasting with the wildness of the river gorge (Daiya River), the green hills, and the tumbling waters. From here, a road leads into the park, threading through 16,000 towering cedar trees.

From Japan - March 2009

After strolling in central Nikko, we headed up north to OkuNikko a place known for the hotsprings as well as skiing/snowboarding. The local bus ride up to Okunikko took an hour and 30 minutes. Along the way, we saw some wild monkeys and Lake Chuzenji. Our hotel was called OkuNikko Konishi Hotel. It was a western/japanese hotel. There was some cool igloo in front of the hotel so thats me \/(. .) \/ Inside the hotel were public onsens and private onsens. The picture is of the private onsen and it connects to the outside which was really nice. For dinner, we had Kaiseki cuisine. Kaiseki cuisine is a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner. We chose 11 courses instead of 12 or 13. For food pictures, see my picasa.

From Japan - March 2009

The next morning, we enjoyed a fusion buffet style breakfast and headed to Lake Chuzenji and Kegon Waterfall. Unfortunately the weather was real shitty and rainy and cold. On a sunny day, people would rent kayaks and pedal boats on the lake. Real pretty.

From Japan - March 2009

One of my students who is about 70+ years old keeps herself real busy and invited me to watch her blowdarts class. I went and tried it and agreed to sign up for some classes. Classes are about 1,000 yen a class for an hour (equals about $10). It supposedly helps you control your breathing and strenthens your lungs and increases your lung capacity. Haha, hopefully I'll get better!

From Japan - March 2009

Cherry Blossoms began to bloom March 21 so I decided to go to Kudanshita (Kitanomaru Park) for to see them. They were only about 1/4 blossomed but they were still very nice and crowded. If you have allergies, take your allergy meds before you go! Down the street was a Sakura festival with games and food! People were at the fairgrounds pretty early to reserve a spot and have a Hanami party! (people basically just sit in the park with food and alcohol and get drunk, good times)

From Japan - March 2009

Lastly, I will leave you with this :)

Random stuff

This post wont be worth much but why is it that the Japanese have a lot of skin issues? I am just really curious, do they not use lotion or something? I would say 3/5 kids have eczema. Women's and kids, even 4-5 year olds have really dry skin and its just not baby smooth like it should be!

Why do all Japanese babies (infants, toddlers, elementary school kids) have rosy cheeks?! They're way cute. :)

Also, Japanese households are so different. Husbands prefer their wives not to work even if they dont make a whole lot of money. They believe happy wife = happy home and vice versa. They dont want to come home to btchin' wives if the wives work, which I can see but at the same time, I consider it to be open lines of communication. Japanese husbands also do not like to do chores, help children with homework (most), and take care of any housework. I have a friend who is Taiwanese but is married to a Japanese guy and they have a 4 year old daughter. Her husband said it was okay for her not to work since she used to complain about her job. He would just rather her be in a good mood when he comes home. So in order for that to happen and not risk her being upset, she takes baking classes, cooking classes, Japanese classes and really fills up her sched with hobbies. I mean, she bakes bread for him every morning, dough rolling and everything! I think that is pretty awesome that she gets to do whatever she wants and spend time with her family on weekends but at the same time, people that she interacts with are limited (mostly, other housewives). If you are a female, would you want to be a Japanese housewife? If you are male, would you work extra hard so your wife can be a housewife and spend your money on hobbies? What do you think?

Taiko Drum Performance in Chiba

Nothing New

Just a video of sumo when we went (taken by Ricky). Not great quality but you can make out the important parts of it. Enjoy!

104 degrees and some rumblin'

There were some crazyyyyy wild winds last Friday. Oddly, the winds were warm. Supposedly, its called "spring winds". The reason for the strongwinds was because the winter winds and spring winds were passing each other and created this typhoon like wind. Many people started to get Hayfever, which is odd since hayfever/allergies start around April in NY. Friday morning, I was up at 7 with a bunch of other teachers for a PR event. Cute kids and all just way too early. I went to work after and worked a nutty schedule with 4 10 min breaks for 8 classes. That night, I was headed on a night bus to Nango in Fukushima to snowboard. The mountains a little smaller but I have to admit, even though it was drizzling, the snow was still pretty great.

From Japan - February 2009

From Japan - February 2009

Unfortunately, half way through the day, I started to burn up and was not feeling alll that great. I decided not to go back out and went back to the minshyuku (almost like a family owned bed and breakfast except japanese style) Males and females are split up and are in separate rooms. This was the womens room.. there were probably 9 of us though this was during the day before bed time.

From Japan - February 2009

After I woke up from a three hour nap, I was just burning. I took my temperature and had a fever of 39.8 celsius - 104 Fahrenheit. I was taken to the hospital and the ride seemed like forever. I felt so delirious and just sick. The hospital was so dark and dingy, it did not look like a hospital. There were no lights on except for one room. They gave me the flu test, whcih is a long long thin cotton swab up your nose. I swear the doctor was scared of me bc he was scared of the flu. I sneezed bc he had a cotton swab up my nose (really far back) and he jumped a mile! Then he gave me some TamiFlu which is are th meds they gave for the bird flu years ago! Then the doctor went on telling my friend that everyone was going to be infected, etc, etc and was very negative about the whole situation. When i got back to the minshyuku, the owners were very hospitable and offered for me to sleep in their daughters room who doesnt live at home anymore. They brought me dinner and breakfast and were really awesome. This was dinner:

From Japan - February 2009

and this was breakfast:

From Japan - February 2009

Never ceases to amaze me how much they eat. Everything looks like small portions but it adds up!

Last night, I woke up to some rumbling. Usually I just sleep through the trains, doesnt really phase me anymore. However when I woke up, it was 4:55am. Trains dont start running until 530-6am so I knew it wasnt a train... not to mention my entire apartment was shaking left and right. Yup, it was an earthquake!! My second one here that I've noticed so far. Guess these mini earthquakes dont phase anyone here.

I went to the supermarket today and I bought some of these:

From Japan - February 2009

Mangosteens!!! they're imported from Thailand. EVen though they were imported, they're cheaper than oranges! for the two mangosteens, it was 158 yen (about 1.60 USD) and for one orange it was 98 yen (about a dollar USD). They werent the best ones i've had but they were still delish!

Setsubun (節分)

Japans got all these festivals and cultural stuff, its hard to keep track of when is what. Today was Setsubun. It basically means the day before the beginning of each season (celebrated yearly on Feb 3). The name literally means "seasonal division" but usually refers to the Spring. The special ritual that is associated with this day is called mamemaki (豆撒き aka bean scattering).The reason for this is to cleanse away all the evil from the past year and drive away all evil spirits in the coming year.

With that said, this morning a few people and I went to Narita Temple (成田山) to witness this insane event. My students have warned me about all the craziness that goes on. Last year 4.3 million people were recorded visiting Narita Temple on this day. We arrived a bit after 9am. We had no idea the bean throwing started at 1130... When we got there, we started to get barricaded in by security.We were basically barricaded in for 2.5 hours.

From Japan - February 2009

From Japan - February 2009

From Japan - February 2009

From Japan - February 2009

We just had to create our own fun while waiting but it really wasnt so bad. The nice old man in the picture above was a origami teacher so he made us all these cool paper cranes and things like that. But the crowd was insane, we were at the very front but people from the back kept pushing adn the ppl in front (though we were second "row") kept pushing back. These old women were just way too genki (げんき). Since you are supposed to catch and eat the beans that famous actors/actresses/sumo wrestlers throw, everyone was scrambling for them and it was every man for himself. Some of the famous people that went were the sumo champs (highest and second highest ranked sumos)

From Japan - February 2009

You can see the sumos in the back and all the others in front are famous people of some sort or another. Maybe politicians, actors, actresses, etc. We also saw the ex prime minister's son (Kotaro Koizumi) and he is a looker, one handsome man.

From Japan - February 2009

All the girls, well even grandmas were going nuts over him. People actually paid over $100USD to take a picture with him! It was a good experience though and today was an amazing day for the event. There was a ton of food and souveniers, I just wish I had more time to explore before work... damn work.

Anyway, heres a picture of the group minus Fab who was taking it and my lucky beans, which are just toasted soy beans. (more pix to be found on Picasa including the last of January)

From Japan - February 2009

From Japan - February 2009

きもち - kimochii

So in my stay so far in Japan, I've come to the conclusion that Japanese kids, especially little boys are totally odd. My first interaction with elementary school kids was at a PR event at a public elementary school in Narita. The event itself was awesome, but these little boys (5-8 year olds) were like grabbing each others crotches! They were tickling them and laughing and having a blast... is that normal with little boys or is that Japan? I havent personally been around too many children so I cant be one to say. Although my students dont grab their crotches or anything but I have had one class of five 5 year olds, playfully hug each other and grab each others arms and stuff.. but if you ask me, they knew what they were doing and boys were hugging the girls, in a weird intimate way... unless thats just me, could be. However, I've spoken to other teachers and they all have stories about little boys that grab their crotch and other boys' crotches as well.

But anyway, what really sparked this blog was a trial students little brother. The trial student was the cutest little five year old girl, very shy and quiet. Almost cried becuase she was too nervous and ended up watching the class through a window. So mother, who was about 6-7 months pregnant walks in with the five year old girl and her brother, who was about three. You can tell right off the bat that he was the devil child. He just had this look in his eyes, he was insane. He runs right into my classroom, and starts throwing things around, launching the hoola hoop across the room, took out all the plastic balls and the bucket it was in. That is not a normal Japanese kid. This boy was worse than a boy with A.D. D. at that age. Class started a bit late because of all the commotion with the trial student and another make up student. The boy runs up to me, smacks me in the butt, runs away and comes back and forth to hit me a few times. The first few times, I let it go becuase he is only three. After class, they're the last ones around and the boy runs back and forth between me and the door and continually hits me with both fists and tries to dig his hands into my legs. I got real fed up and his mom wasnt watching, so I grabbed his hands and threw them back at him. He did a few more times and I just pushed him off me. Finally, the last time, he ran over with his two little fists and LICKED MY PANTS.... wtf was that!!! You can say, he's just a kid... but these Japanese boys are screwed in the head or something.. why do you think they have such crazy porn?

Perhaps, its because its kimochii (きもち) - "it feels good".

Or... shogunai - "such is life"