Taikusai - The amazingness which is...

Well, the Junten Taikusai (sports festival) was today, and it was amazing. Nothing like sports day back in St.Aidans. It was held almost like an olympic event with speeches, tons of ceremonial activities, fanfare (supplied by the band) while the Japanese and Junten flags were raised, handing over of team flags, some crazy jogging military march (ichi, ni, shichi, SO-RE - or some such) by the student judges, and, ending the longest sentence ever written, even student 'staff' who took their jobs ridiculously seriously.

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All formality was soon dropped, although dropped doesn't really cover it... maybe dropped, spat on, set alight and then thrown down the well of informality and unadulterated crazy only to slowly die a painful death at the jaws of insanity. Or something like that. Merging that with the fact that this is Japan can only mean one thing - the opening event was a dancing show meant to warm the audience up, featuring crossdressing male maids, schoolgirls with horses heads and pikachu. The most awesome opening to a sporting event ever.

I essentially spent the entire day lazing around, talking to students, getting people to sign my 1-6 class t-shirt with crazy messages and watching kids (in official sporting events) beat each other over poles and hats. Class, pure class.

Here's a few descriptions of events to give you an idea of how a typical Taikusai might go:

Kibasen - Piggyback 'horse riding' event. Teams ride fellow classmates into battle to steal someone's hat. Basically, 3 people carry you, the hat wearer. Now go and steal the enemies hat, use fists if you have to. Some pics:

Tower-defence - Two teams. Two giant poles. Twenty students defending each pole. Twenty students attacking each pole. Simultaneously. Flying kicks allowed... no, mandatory. Oh and helmets also mandatory. Why allow needless injuries in mindless bloodsport? It's immoral.

Club races - Practice your sport with a partner for a minute. Now run to the starting line, carry your partner in your arms for 50 metres. Carry them on your back for 50 metres. Now switch to wheelbarrow mode. Now go for some good old 3 legged racing. Baseball and basketball teams seemed to win every time. Shorinji? Last. Good old Shorinji.

Yokasoi - Traditional Japanese dancing. Unless you're a third year senior in which case you dance to some crazy club remix of a traditional Japanese song.

Team skipping - 26 people on one skipping rope. Awesome madness.

Tug of war - not so interesting really.

Relay - ditto.

Martial Arts, Musical Instruments and Taikusai

A picture taken a little while back, just after my Sakura post maybe, when a few of us travelled to Gunma prefecture to catch some Sakura after they'd finished blooming in Tokyo. Could've blogged on that in the last post, never mind.

Part two of the June catchup. Just a little (a little... haha) on how its going over here in rainy Tokyo. Rainy season's started recently and we have the Junten Taikusai (sports festival) tomorrow. Why they couldn't have planned it, say, last month when it wasn't rainy season I will never know, but it should be good fun. We've been setting it up and rehearsing at Shinden campus today and yesterday, which for me consisted of doing nothing but chat to students (and some fun fights involving bandanas and me getting lashed in the eye might have taken place). Sadly the teams seem a little unfair - the entire school gets put onto either the red team or the white team. All of the english orientated classes (my favourite students by far), most of the english teachers and Erling have been put on the white team while, as you might have guessed from the build up, I'm on the red team. Should be good fun anyway, I'll just have to destroy Erling and Barney in the tug of war and the other teacher events.

I've finally got into gear and sorted out a martial art, although it isn't quite a traditional Japanese art. I've started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, so if you go back 100 years ago it has its roots in Japan but as the name pretty much tells it isn't a Japanese martial art at all. Its quite expensive so I might be living on rice until pay day next month but it'll definitely keep me busy (and hopefully be worth the cash, although since I just got £100 from the Japanese government due to the recession its not so bad) since they have atleast 2 hours of classes I can attend a day - even more when I'm on holiday next month. After 4 training sessions my blue gi finally arrived today so I'll get to try it out on Sunday - I wanted the black one but decided that beginners in black gi's will just look like wannabe ninjas. Atleast now one of the three gi's I own isn't white! I'm really enjoying doing it but hopefully in a few more training sessions I'll be used to being choked every few minutes - I certainly wasn't the other night, and the armbars weren't so easy going either! Definitely alot of fun though, and the members are so welcoming, trying their hearts out to speak English and show me the ropes - even if the 'ropes' do involve being unable to move with someones legs in a triangle choke hold around my neck squeezing every last breath out of me. It's not dangerous, honest!

Another thing I haven't mentioned yet is that I have also been getting into the traditional Japanese side of things by learning to play the shamisen. It's a traditional Japanese string instrument - youtube it, especially the yoshida brothers for some contemporary shamisen music - and its so hard to play, despite there being so few strings. Rather than the plectrum you might use with a guitar, you use a hand-sized bachi and its not an easy case of strumming or plucking either. You have to use the bachi with the same motions you might use with a fan, you have to lift it back up after every note and hold it down on the skin of the guitar until the next note so that you get the full sound that you want. Great fun, I might not be able to keep it going when I get back but it's definitely worth it while I'm here.

Well that's what's going on in the life of me at the moment - I'll try to blog more before I leave, I'll have to see.

Sayonara

Wow I'm getting lazy with this...

Seems like its fairly difficult for me to be motivated to keeping this thing up to date. Anyway, my first update in a long time - and with less than a month and a half left in Japan! And only 3 weeks left teaching at Junten! Wow how time flies. It feels like it was only weeks ago I was in England soaking up the sun... no wait... and only days ago I was writing the exact same "it feels like" comment here at the 6 months in mark. I can't believe it's so close to being over - I know I'm definitely coming back for uni in a few years but it's devastating to think about this year, probably the best of my life so far, coming to a finish in a matter of weeks. So much I still want to do, and so much I'm just starting and won't get to properly finish here.

Anyway, to try to keep fairly up to date I'll quickly go over some things I've done in the past few months (as much as I can remember anyway) and then finish with a bit more detail on current happenings in the next post.

So, where do I start - I've done so much but when I try to think about what I've done to pen it all down its gone from my mind. Let's see:

The thai students - don't think I blogged about this. In April (I think, I really can't remember) 20 thai students came over to Junten for about a week. I did TONS in the week with them. Pretty much every activity they did, even. Disneyland - awesome, not as good as Paris due to the Frenchies having a much better Space Mountain; Flower arrangement - mine was ace; Tea ceremony - nice and sour tea; Kimono wearing - it's not a dress, no really; Goodbye party - thai curry is lush. Too bad i couldn't have blogged on this properly after I did, would've made for a good post.

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Mid year course - we had the 2-day mid year course in Ome which I don't think I've mentioned, maybe I have. We stayed in a really old Japanese house, maybe 300 years old, with paper walls, tatami floors, old Japanese armour and ceiling beams lower than the top of my head. Nice! We had a great time, 6 Japanese uni students, the 4 of us, Steve and Miss Nakaie. We cooked all the food (or I did my bit to help them cook the meals), had a good laugh, visited a disability care home, went for a nature walk and then finished up with an onsen trip (ergh onsen - far too hot for any longer than 5 minutes).

Enoshima - really nice place. Visited it with a few people - birds of prey, thousands of cats, pretty nice shrines, caves and jellyfish aswell as lots of nature. And then we went to the beach in Kamakura in the rain. Good fun - although I didn't get to see any of the shrines there which are supposed to be pretty amazing.

Thai festival - crazy festival in Yoyogi park. Curry, thai beer, muay thai fights, thai music, thai football (think volleyball/futsal but with only two people) and probably more that I've forgot.

Meal at Ten-Ichi - ridiculously expensive meal in a world famous tempura restaurant in Ginza. All paid for by a teacher from school, I swear I work with such nice people. Followed by a trip to a spanish bar and then an all night camping session outside of Hokutopia so that Yumi could get some comedian tickets - even though no one else was queueing, we had a good laugh watching breakdancers, drinking on the streets of Tokyo and heading to an empty mid-night Asukayama park for a go on the kids play area. Class.

Riverside drinks - really nice couple of drinks in a riverside cafe, literally on level with the river in Itabashi, as the sun sets. Followed by the necessary trip to a cheap Izakaya.

Barbecue - me and some people had a barbecue under a giant highway bridge by a riverside. There must've been hundreds of uni students doing the same thing and it was ace. Even when it started absolutely pouring down. Having 4 people hold up a blue mat to use as a rain shield has never been so fun. One lesson to be learned: only buy pre-prepared squid. When you buy a squid to barbecue (i.e. a fresh, full squid), when you cut it up brown ink will go everywhere. Not a nice sight and not a delicacy I intend to try again.

Dancing show - Kiyoka, one of my 2-7 students that I've taught since my first week at Junten was in a hip hop/house dancing show. Went along with some other students and despite the fact that I'm not into hip hop at all it was really spectacular, amazing show - and if she ever reads this, thanks for inviting me! It was really good!

Alot of karaoke.

Playing on my PS3 on a giant hi-def TV at Leon and Saori's house while Moro (the dog) tries to tear me to shreds, and nearly succeeded.

I'm running out of ideas now, but I've done ALOT! The most interesting few things will come in the next post though.

Laters.

Sakura

I forgot to post anything during the Sakura blooming season, and since its a few weeks gone now its a perfect time to look back and post some pics!

A cherry blossom is the name for the flower of cherry trees, also known as Sakura (Japanese kanji : 桜 or 櫻; hiragana: さくら) in Japanese. In English, the word "sakura" is equivalent to the Japanese flowering cherry.[1] Cherry fruit (known in Japanese as sakuranbo) comes from another species of tree.

Long Time No Post

Well, it's been a long time since I posted last. It's not that I've lost interest in the blog or anything, it's just that most of the time I can't be bothered to post, even when I want to. Anyway, due to actually wanting to post something that isn't going to take my three months left to read, I'm going to have to miss out on quite a few details.

Anyway, on with the blog. So, the new term started with the beginning of April and that means replacing most of my students with new ones, and of course the dreaded self introductions. With every new class (and most old ones) we all had to do a lesson of self introductions... when you consider we teach 13 different classes of students, thats alot of self introducing. But despite being one of the most boring and annoying things ever, it did highlight one thing for me. How much I'd changed since I came here last September.

Last September, I stood in front of the same amount of new students and introduced myself while my heart wanted to beat its way through my rib cage, while my legs were shaking at the sight of 40 students all watching my every move, and while paranoia sunk in with every whisper or giggle they exchange with each other. This time, things were different. I'm so used to being at the front of the class, nerves weren't an issue, the only issue was trying to talk about myself for a decent few minutes, which although it sounds like something I'd be able to manage, after "I'm Mike, I'm 18 and from England" you start to run out of ideas.

Anyway, introductions aside, I love my new students. The new senior high school English orientated class arrived at Junten with a higher level of English than the current second year or third year English orientated classes put together. Or thats the impression I've got from the ones who've chatted to me outside of lessons. Another group who are quickly becoming some of my favourite students are the 6 returnees in the first year juniors. They're only about 11 or 12 years old and yet, ignoring two of the new first year senior students and one of the teachers, they're the best Japanese English speakers in the school. They all lived abroad for between 2 and 6 years and their English is spectacular, and unlike most other first year juniors, they're the friendliest bunch of kids I may have ever met. Sadly, the only downside to them is that Barney managed to let them in on the nickname some of last year's 1-7 class had for me last September... that's right, I'm getting called Buzz Lightyear again. Infact here's a picture of 3 of them and a bunch of other students shouting Buzz and making superman poses... weird kids.

About nicknames, the 'other one' (anyone with a good memory will remember which one i mean) seems to have died down, although theres still a few 3rd year juniors who like to call me 'Machine-sensei'.

Quick last mention: a few weeks ago aload of teachers and the first year juniors did a two hour walk to Todai (Tokyo University, top picture). It was a really nice day, so much so that one of the office staff made me put on a Junten cap (I'm glad there was no patrolling fashion police, that thing made me look like a 7 year old american kid playing baseball). We walked from Asukayama park in Oji, down a long road, through another two parks (one of which was really nice, have to go back some time for pictures) and through more roads and finally arriving at the Akamon (red gate) of Todai. Then after stopping for lunch in the cafeteria there, we went to another park inside the Todai grounds. This one was based around a large pond (if you can call that bit of water next to the ski slope in Sunderland a lake, then this is probably one too), and it was somehow historic, but I've forgot and didn't really care so much. The more interesting thing about it is that this is the pond/lake/thing where one of those 6 returnee kids I mentioned fell into the water while trying to recreate the titanic pose (you know the one) on a rock a little way out. So funny, a few of the teachers were rushing to help and there was me laughing my head off. Good times.

Concering Mountains

This time it wasn't so hard to decide on pictures, the one above is one of my favourite pictures of this gap year. Project Trust photo competition winner, anyone? Anyway, last week, the day after Hakone, I climbed Mount Takao. Takao-san is another popular visit for people looking for a day escape from the big city, and I was up for conquering a mountain in the name of Britain. I climbed from the very bottom to the very top, and felt only slightly idiotic because of it - there was a cablecar to about a third of the way up but I decided the entire climb would ensure better photos. Not only was the first third the most painful climb ever, so steep, but there was also nothing at all to see. Never mind, I guess it added to the sense of achievement.


As you can see from the pictures the weather wasn't so great. But this wasn't a bad thing because it made for some great misty pictures in the temples at the top. It was a really cool temple aswell, and I managed to arrive when a Buddhist ceremony was starting. I heard drums as I entered the temple complex and ran up some stairs but just missed them - I could still hear the ceremony going on inside but didn't want to intrude. A little while later I managed to see a procession of monks chanting, but I didn't want to take a photo - I'm sure they wouldn't have minded, but it just didn't quite feel right. So instead I bought a Buddhist wallhanging from the temple to commemorate the climb. The way back down was so much better than the way up, aswell. I took a less walked route (theres 7 routes up and down) that went alongside a river, from where it more or less first forms up the mountain. It was a really picturesque and scenic walk, and well worth the long time it took to walk back down. It's sometimes nice to steer clear of the beaten path, even if it was blatantly a used route I didn't see a single person all the way down which added so much to the journey.

This is one of those "what you can see in the distance" view points. I tell you now, I saw nothing of the sort in the distance. Being able to see Tokyo from here my eye. Damn mist.

Well, after going on a pirate ship the day before the trip, in Hakone - I needed to find something utterly and spectacularly cool to beat it. Monkeys! The monkey park was ace! I even saw a monkey do a backflip. Almost forgot to say, the monkey park was the main reason I decided to climb the mountain, because how cool are monkeys?

Concerning Volcanoes

Choosing pictures from my facebook albums to use on here is always a tough choice - mostly because I take so many and try not to put more than 4 on. Anyway, heres my favourite pics from my trip to Hakone last week. Hakone is a hugely popular retreat for Japanese and tourists alike wanting a few days out of Tokyo. It's nearly 2 hours from Tokyo, if I remember correctly anyhow, and its in the thick of Japanese nature. Lake Ashi, Mount Hakone (a volcano) and the historical Tokaido road are just a few of the tourist destinations in the area. Naturally I was there for the active volcano. And the pirate ship, of course.


After a long train journey and a decent length bus ride, I was ready for some good old sightseeing. Little did I know that Hakone Shrine was currently being invaded by a good three busloads of noisy Chinese tourists who set out to ruin every picture of the shrine I took - but I soldiered on and visited the old Tokaido road Hakone Checkpoint. The Tokaido road was one of the old paths between Kyoto and Tokyo, but not much of it is left - a few stone pavements here and there - but the Tokaido train line travels more or less the same route as the old road (I think).

So yeah, the Volcano. After taking a pirate ship across the lake (a pirate ship!) and then a ropeway up the mountain, I arrived. I kind of had the image of Mount Doom in my head before I got to Hakone. However, it turned out that I was a little bit wrong. No giant fiery crater, no lava - however the volcanic crater of Owakudani was still quite impressive. The crater was created during an eruption a long time ago and is still a hugely volcanic zone, so much so that half of the mountain side was steaming. Quite a sight, especially when it sinks in that the sulphuric steam and boiling hot springs are coming from the volcano directly beneath your feet. Theres a place you can buy eggs that have been cooked in the hot springs, they're black and smell of sulphur... and don't taste so great, but on the plus side it's said to add 7 years to your life. Not bad.

Oh yeah, the Pirate ship. *thumbs up*. Round 2 of the Great March Blog Catchup coming soon!