School Festival

School Festival (Thursday):

Last Thursday was the culmination of all the students' determination to avoid home, the School Festival. The students, teachers, and staff have been working on School Festival preparations for months now, many students foregoing their summer vacation to come in and work. Seriously, do students ever go home? Even now, some stay at school longer than I do, and I get paid! Anyway, the festival started with an assembly in the gym where the students showed me that they can be talented and creative. The theme of this year's festival is "Colors." The stage was decorated with rainbows, there were streamers everywhere, and various paints on the walls. The gym looked like a pride parade in San Francisco.

The assembly began with a few boring speeches by the Kocho-sensei and other staff. Then the brass band performed. They were awesome! They played big band songs that made me miss swing dancing and even performed a song from the show "One Piece." It was a great time. I got permission from the band teacher to record their next practice session tomorrow. He was flattered I even asked. The rest of the morning was filled with dance routines, small plays, and other bits of semi-entertaining morsels.



I then set up my booth in the English Club classroom. We had lots of snacks, cold tea, and games like scrabble set up. People mostly visited our room for the snacks and tea. It was a hot day after all. I had my Desoto activity book, map of America notepad, 50 states word search, snooty plush, and some fact sheets about Florida set up at my booth. The kids loved the word search. Word got out many visited my booth just to grab a word search. By the end of the day, only 4 students finished it. Most gave up. So much for Japan's Fighting Spirit.

After watching my booth for about 2 hours, I decided to explore the rest of the festival. There were many themed rooms. Most were set up with walls of Japanese text probably about history or interesting facts about Nara. Wasted on me. I did visit a room modeled after that children's book with the caterpillar. See Below:



As I entered another room to check out the commotion, I-Sensei ran up to me and yelled, "Joshua, please make a wish to the Pooh God." WTF? There it was, a giant effigy of Winnie the Pooh, also known as Pooh-San here in Japan. I guess there is a tradition at some Temples in Japan to write down a wish and pray to God it comes true. I wrote a wish, taped it to the bulletin board and hoped that prick, Christopher Robin, wouldn't curse me. Don't believe me? Here is Pooh-san:



After my run-in with the stuff of nightmares, I attended the traditional tea ceremony. This is a highly ritualized, traditional art that one must be certified to teach. I ate sweets (getting sick of sweet bean paste) and drank green tea.

Some students even drew a picture of me on a balloon. For your enjoyment:



School Festival Day 2:

I went to my booth early on Friday. It was a mostly empty day for the English Club Room because there were snack booths set up outside for all (who bought a ticket) to enjoy. I was unaware of this ticket system. I went hungry for hours until a couple of student found me lifeless and lean in a ditch begging for food. I got a hotdog and some shimichi (noodle thing). Yum!



After the morning, there was the big acapella contest. I thought someone invited a teams of feral cats to compete, but it turns out they were teams of students. They tried their best, but even I have my tolerance for humoring children. I ended up retreating into the teacher's office (several others had the same idea) where my ears could rest. I don't know who won, but I don't care either.




I'm guessing my school spent a good part of their budget on the last performance of the festival. We invited a professional accapella to perform in the gym. They were AMAZING. Cheers, Horyuji, cheers. I will leave this post with one more picture: the opening gate of the festival:

The students should fear me...

Get Your Cyborg Name

Good week....so far...

Last weekend was the M's party! It is an overnight party down in the south of Nara...where civilization becomes difficult to find. It is also called, Yoshino-gun, or, The Goon for short. It took roughly 2 1/2 hours to get to Marty Party from my town. Japan doesn't really have highways (when they do, they are fucking expensive to use) and the trains can become scarce the farther south one goes. I rode in a car with 3 other JETs. Yes, we traversed mountain passes (constant state of almost-death), and flew through mountain tunnels, but we finally reached the party around 3:00PM. I chipped in for the keg and the party began. We played Ultimate Frisbee first. It was fun. Really exhausting, but fun. Probably wasn't a good idea to play an intense sport with beer in my stomach. Lesson learned.

After Ultimate, we went for a dip in the nearby Yoshino River. It was cold, but after playing around, it felt nice. It was very shallow (probably 3 ft where we were) so my groin found several rocks as I floated along the river. Following the river portion of the party, was the BBQ portion. We all brought various meats and veges for the 4 grills that were set up by M's school. Oh ya, did I mention this party took place at his school? Amazing no? (Don't worry, we had permission) We grilled, ate, talked, and drank. It was a good time.

Someone even opened up the gym for us to use. I played volleyball and basketball until 11PM when my batteries began to run out. At midnight, the JETs sang me the "Happy Birthday" song. It was sweet. We all passed (SLEPT for the slang-impaired) in the gym on the judo mats. I got up at 6:30 for the early bus because my TV was being delivered that day and I would not miss it. The TV came in, it works, and life is now wonderful.

At school, I've given my self-intro probably 9 times to different classes. I am all self-intro'ed out. Today, C and I watched commercials the Seniors made over summer vacation. The acting was terrible, the camera work was atrocious, and the English unclear. I held back from laughing my ass off the whole time. I guess Japanese students aren't known for artistic creativity. I am hoping to score a copy of the videos so I can show family and friends what I'm talking about.

Today, I watched more commercials with the Seniors. After that class, we have spent the rest of the day preparing for the school festival taking place 9/9 and 9/10. Th festival is a BIG DEAL. The students have been preparing for this event for months. I set my little booth in the English Club's room. I printed out a 50 states word search, pictures of flags, fun Florida facts, etc. I also signed up for a 15 minute massage with the student massage club. For those of you asking, yes, I am weirded out by the idea of being massaged by a teenage boy, but I was asked by their teacher so I couldn't really say no.

A's bday on Friday, movie night on Saturday, and Touch Rugby practice on Sunday. I will be busy again! More updates to come!

First day of school

Yesterday was the first day of real school, not just an opening ceremony. I did my self-introduction for 4 classes.

1st Class: The first period was dead tired. Just like in America, students in first period are useless. I couldn't get any participation. Most did the turtle (heads shrink low, possibly into their shirt) when I asked them a question. The question game that followed the powerpoint worked...but was still not very fun considering how tired the students were.

2nd Class: This class has 2 specific students that are "too cool for school." I actually don't mind their class clown antics because it made the class more lively. Other students felt more comfortable answering questions apparently when these two were being asshole. It's a win and lose, I suppose.

3rd Class: I liked this class. They laughed at all the right points, participated in the game, and asked relevant questions.

4th Class: Same as the third. This class is cool.

One of students asked me how much I weigh. Haha, I did tell them they could ask me anything...

Opening Ceremony

Today is the first day of school. Today is the opening ceremony! All the students are gathered in the sauna..err..I mean gym, and forced to listen to many speeches, including mine. C and I were herded onto the stage, and one at a time, we each gave a small introduction to the students. When we finished, a student representative made a small speech welcoming us to the school. The students were then told to stand up...and BOW TO US! Yes, 1000 students bowed to me. Only in Japan. Because the rest of the ceremony is in Japanese, my supervisor told me I didn't have to stay...so here I am typing typing about what just happened.

Last Weekend

I just had an amazing weekend. All my weekends have been busy and fun, but this one was special.

Saturday:

MY IKEA stuff was delivered! I spent about 2 hours building the couch/bed, and haven't mustered the nerve to build the small dresser, tv stand, and chair. I will, but courage take time people. In the afternoon, one of the current JETs who is moving in with her boyfriend dumped a ton of crap at my apartment. It is mostly kitchen-related crap (which I need), but she also dropped off a small, gaming chair, and some nice plastic drawers for more random crap.

Saturday night, I traveled to Osaka to offer a foreign perspective to a youth theater production. This particular theater was doing a play in English and they offered JETs free tickets. About 5 of us went to witness the adorable horror. The play they chose to show was "High School Musical Jr." The play was simply hilarious. There were two kids that I just couldn't understand regardless of their English ability. The stars were cute, but couldn't sing and dance. Afterward, we got a couple beers at a "Hawaiian" bar nearby. I then proceded to head back to Nara City for another JET's birthday party. Enough said.

Sunday:

Sunday morning was the Basara Matsuri, which I had agreed to dance in. We met at the Kintetsu station to receive our aprons and naruko (clackers).



Then we went to the Kencho courtyard to practice again for the event. It was fucking hot. Everyone was sweating away their souls. We all drank our weight in water. When the event was finally ready to begin, we headed for the starting line at the JR Station. We (about 15 of us) got in formation behind our awesome music truck and began to dance our little hearts out. Each dance is about 4 minutes of exhausting cardio. We did 4 in a row before taking a small break. At the end of the fourth dance, I saw a gray haze over my eyes. No matter how much water or Pocari Sweat (gatorade-like drink), we just could not hydrate properly. Luckily, we got to stop for 5 minutes before the next set of dances. Yes, folks, there was more dancing. The crowds along the street loved out group and took lots and lots of pictures. One of the Nara JETs took pictures and video of the event, so when I get a hold of him, I'll ask him for them. After the break, we danced an additional 4 times for a total of 8 in the sweltering Nara heat. By the end, we were exhausted, hot, and dehydrated. You welcome, Japan.

After the Basara Matsuri, 5 of us had to shower and change for a cultural dinner we signed up for that night. It turns out, the dinner was a really big deal. The governor of Nara and the mayor of Nara City were both present. The event coordinators gave the JETs a table in the front, right next to the governor (a very nice man, BTW) and the Sento-kun (Nara's gross mascot) Fan Club. On the stage, important people from all around the prefecture reenacted important cultural events including using small hammers to break open a couple barrels of sake. The food was simply amazing. I had steak for the first time since coming to Japan. I ate until my stomach rebelled, then ate some more.

All of this pales in comparison to the highlight of the culture dinner, the song and dance portion. During a really catchy song about Nara (complete with Sentokun on the stage), some important g-man asked the JETs to join them on stage and dance. Do you remember that scene of "My Fellow Americans" when the president dances with a panda? It was kind of like that. Shortly after we went on stage to clap and join in, the governor joined us, then other g-men, then the Sentokun fan club. I even managed to pick up some of the lyrics and dance moves so I didn't have to look totally absurd. Again, another JET is the one who took pictures, so I will try to score some from her. At the end of the night, I managed to jack a bunch of commemorative sake cups from the table and bring them home with me. All in all, a good night.

Nara Orientation

August 22nd and 23rd was Nara Orientation in Nara City. Being a new prefectural ALT, I had to arrive the earliest for contract signing at the Pref. Office (kencho). All of us sat down in the Pref. Head of Education's office and began the "ceremony." Ceremonies are BIG here. There is a ritual and ceremony to everything, no matter how small. H-Sensei even declared herself the master of ceremonies for the "event." The event being 8 ALT's sitting around a large table with the Nara Supervisor of Education. We had to do typical self-introductions in Japanese (of which I've done MANY), then we signed the terms and conditions of our contract.

A couple hours later, we began ACTUAL orientation. Current JETs each prepared a small lecture for everyone else. I forgot to mention that EVERY Nara JET was in attendance at Nara Orientation. We had seminars about safety (the MUKADE! YUK!), where to travel around Nara, and even a nice lecture about linguistics.

One of the highlights of the orientation was T's (a Canadian CIR) presentation. He obviously procrastinated and couldn't come up with anything "real" for his presentation. Instead, he took a treasured childhood show of his called "The Littlest Hobo" and edited the material to include text commentary. We watch a children's show "through the lens of the JET program." T's commentary was hysterical. By the way, "The Littlest Hobo" is about a German Shepherd that goes around towns solving crimes, all without talking. The best part? It is not a cartoon.

The night of the first day of orientation, Nara JETs enjoyed a Beer Garden on the roof of a nearby hotel. All-you-can-eat and drink, for a low, flat rate. Unfortunately, I was really sick that night so I ended up leaving early to get some rest. God bless dayquil/nyquil, but SHHHHHHH....they are illegal in this country.

As orientation came to an end, I made some connections for possible future hobbies including taiko drumming, the shamisen (love it!), and the Nara JET Touch Rugby team.