More Photos from Ikata Summer Festival

The festivities began at 9am (I was at work by 8am) with the traditional Japanese "opening ceremony" (that is, laboriously long speeches by delivered by psuedo-important people from the town office). When everyone's eyes were appropriately glazed over, the ceremony concluded and then the real fun began. Here are some pics:




Children from the 5 Ikata elementary schools competed in sumo while a professional sumo wrestler (from the lower ranks) moderated.

The head of Josh's department with his daughter.

There was lots of dancing...

Group photo of the international exchange students.

Sister-City Delegation in town this week, Today was the Ikata Summer Festival

Help! I haven't slept well in days and I've been drinking far too much!!! The past week has been intense. In fact, every day I've had the opportunity to spend lots of time sight-seeing with the delegates from our sister-city. And today was an extra-special day...Ikata Natsu Matsuri (summer festival). So right now its 1am and I should be asleep but instead I will give you a thirty-second update on whats been going on around town:

(1)The day before our sister-city delegates arrived the CIR (professional Japanese translator/international coordinator) had a medical emergency and went to the hospital. The herniated disc in his back unexpectedly caused mental delusions and hallucinations in his co-workers because they actually thought I could fill in for him. Umm, well at least its an awesome opportunity to practice those five words in Japanese I do know...

(2)I got drunk by 11am today. Thats a new record for me.

(3)I've only been home for 6 hours in the past 48.

(4)The strangest thing I had to translate this week was "The bedroom is kind of musty. Would you like me to put your futon in this room and remove the windows?"

(5)My cousin asked me to be the maid of honor in her wedding. I am sooooo excited!!!

(6) I saw Matsumoto-san (a FAMOUS kabuki performer) outside the ANA hotel in Matsuyama on Friday. We were entering for an event as he was leaving.

(7) I learned half of the sukiyaki song in karaoke.

Thats more or less it. I'm sleepy. O-yasumi nasai!

You gotta check out this blog!

This is too funny! If you have a spare moment please check it out. Its a forum maintained by Russian illustrators/designers. The premise is [imaginary] sponsor -unfriendly advertisements that probably wouldn't make it in the real world...

http://community.livejournal.com/ad_fake/

You can see things like this:

"Everything will be Coca-cola"

By the way, the Carlsbad beer ad (visit website, scroll down) reads: "Brilliant sponsor of the Moscow Gay Parade"

The Americans are coming!

The delegation from our sister city (Red Wing, MN) has arrived in Ikata. Its going to be very busy this week.

A great observation about history:

"...it is a sobering corrective to realize that in one sense history consistently uses small truths to build large untruths."

Source: http://zhgun.livejournal.com/322879.html

Unbelievable

Most of you know that I've been desperately trying to organize a trip to Russia for the past few months. Unfortunately, the airfare from Tokyo has been prohibitively expensive. Just when I accepted that the trip is not meant to be this year, I saw this outrageous fare on Aeroflot's website:

Moscow-Paris-Mosow for USD $209.00
http://www.aeroflot.ru/eng/info.asp?ob_no=4713

I damned near choked! If I can find a discounted airfare from Japan to France (not impossible) then its also feasible I could go there a gazillion times cheaper by flying to Moscow via Paris.

If not, I'm going back to China!

In an effort to re-ignite the part of my mind responsible for complex thought, and to prevent my already-dwindling English vocabulary from diminishing any further, I spent last night in bed with a famous French philosopher...well, his book anyway. I randomly selected an essay in the middle of the book and, I kid you not, this was the opening sentence:

"That philosophy died yesterday, since Marx or Hegel, Nietzsche, or Heidegger - and philosophy should still wander toward the meaning of its death - or that it has always lived knowing itself to be dying (as silently confessed in the shadow of the very discourse which declared philosophia perennis); that philosophy died one day, within history, or that it has always fed on its own agony, on the violent way it opens history by opposing itself to nonphilosophy, which is its past and its concern, its death and wellspring; that beyond the death, or dying nature, of philosophy, perhaps even because of it, thought still has a future, or even, as is said today, is still entirely to come because of what philosophy has held in store; or, more strangely still, that the future itself has a future - all these are unanswerable questions."

I was immediately struck by the realization that you'd either have to be Frenchman, or a philosopher, but preferably both, to have the chutzpah to pull off a sentence like that. I, on the other hand, would just come off like a pompous twit. Now why is that?

I forgot to add this photograph

This should've been added to the post below. I like this picture. But for some strange reason, the theme music from the movie "Jaws" comes to mind...

First shrine-festival in over 30 years

I was on my way to a party in Misaki-Town when a co-worker informed me of a festival occuring in Ikata. Strange, I thought, to have a festival on a Wednesday. A little probing uncovered the reason for this event - it was the annual festival day for a particular shrine in Kucho. What is really noteworthy, however, is that this festival hasn't been celebrated in Kucho for over 30 years (probably due to a number of factors including general wanning interest in these kinds of traditional customs, decreasing population in the countryside coupled with increased migration of young people from rural to urban communities, etc.). I'd like to think that this festival is perhaps indicative of some small-scale renewal our declining countryside but I know that's probably a premature conclusion. Still, it was nice to see mixed generations get together for the evening...and an even rarer sight around here - young children!

Here are some images from the evening:

Eww! Eww! EEEEEEWWWWWWW!!!!!

This is so gross!

After arriving at home yesterday I turned on the light in my apartment only to encounter the largest, nastiest cockroach I've ever seen in my life.

And you know how I am about bugs.

It came in through the window, actually muscling its way through the tear in the screen. We stared at each other in frozen shock for a moment before I gathered my wits and grabbed the bug spray. I sprayed it once and it flew into the air. I nearly passed out. Then it began running around my floor in deranged, circular paths. So I sprayed it again. It slowed down, limping and crawling and kicking, dying. Oh my god, it was terrible...I think I could actually hear its little roach screams.

Next, I turned around for what I swear was only a second to get some newspaper to pick it up and discard of it. But when I returned, it was gone. I mean, I can't find it anywhere. I'm completely baffled.

But now I realize that the only thing worse than a live roach scurrying around the apartment is a dead one you can't find. I have a hardcore bug phobia AND an active imagination...a very bad combination. Last night I had a nightmare that it was nesting in some far-flung niche in my apartment, recovering from the toxic spray I shot at it, and will come back as an improved- and angry! - radioactive "super bug" looking for revenge...

Ugh, I get nauseous everytime I think about it. For those of you not living in Japan, please don't jump to the conclusion that my apartment is dirty. The wildlife, in all its forms, is a reality of Japanese countrylife. During this time of year, even the most immaculate of housekeepers find him/her self in a constant battle against insects. I knew I was in trouble when I found out that the town office actually delivers two large bottles of bug spray (for free) to every resident during July.

I'm really freaked out...help!!!

Shorinji Kempo Tournament

How cute is the little photo-ham on the left???

I think I'm addicted to Japanese martial arts. Why else would I spend twelve hours of a warm, sunny, lovely summer day inside an unairconditioned, smelly budokan?

Yes, I watched yet another all-day Shorinji tournament. This one took place last Sunday in Nomura-cho. I cheered the Ikata children's team as they went on to victory (they made it to the final rounds). Although we were out-sized and under-manned (you should've seen how big the kids on that other team were!) the children showed tremendous fighting spirit. In the final sparring match the 6th grader injured his foot while executing a rear-leg kick and had to limp off the floor after which he was promptly bandaged and splinted. The 4th grader got a bloody lip and nose. Just when things seemed like they couldn't get any worse a 1st grader was paired up to fight a 4th grader (I couldn't believe it). The little girl got wholloped in the face before our sensei finally ceded the match to the other team. It was the right thing to do, for sure. I'm proud to report that almost every member of our team went on to win a medal during the awards ceremny.

Hurray for team Ikata!!!

Can you see how much bigger the other kids are?

My New Favorite Reading Spot...

...is here.
The sunsets are pretty.

HISTORY GEEKS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!!!

Umm, or at least check out this pretty cool website: http://www.historyebook.org/

Its history e-books. Online. 'nuff said.

最近 忙しい です ね！

I’m sorry! I’ve been terribly busy for the last two weeks and extremely neglectful of this blog. I feel that I owe my faithful readership of, oh, approximately 20 loyal fans (I mean you 20+ people who read my blog on a consistent weekly basis), a big explanation about why I’ve been so remiss to regale you with the most excruciatingly detailed minutia of my life. So here it goes:

I simply crawled out from under the rock that is Ikata Town and re-joined the rest of the JET community! Yes, hurray for me!!! It all began two and a half weeks ago. There were birthday parties, dinner celebrations, coffee clutches, weekend guests, and house parties. Then there was the planning and execution of the Ehime AJET sayonara party, a two-day beach party/camping extravaganza. That’s right, Chicago - I said camping. And yes, I actually slept in a tent on the beach.
Peppered throughout this flurry of JET-related social activity I managed to do some pretty cool Japanese-y things too. I passed the third-level Shorinji Kempo Karate test. I think the next belt I wear will be in the brown color family, but I’m not sure. I also finally received the certification for the Kendo 一級　試験　(first-level examination). So now I am officially ranked in two Japanese martial arts.

I discovered a cute izakaya (居酒屋 - pub, bar) in Yawatahama. The place itself was not very special but the proprietors were awesome. Local ALTs, let me know if you’d like to check it out sometime! The JHS had an enkai there last Friday. Actually, Friday was noteworthy as I feel I was unusually productive and did lots of things that are typically outside of my comfort zone. In the morning I went to school and taught some classes, as usual. But in the afternoon I got in a car alone with a map (gasp! I know, I know, I am notoriously bad with maps…and driving!) and drove out to the Futami Town office, met with the folks there to discuss tent/cooler/table and chair rental and garbage removal for our party - in Japanese (well, in my case it was Japanese For Dummies, but at least it worked). Once that was complete I drove back towards the peninsula, stopping in Yawatahama for a few hours to meet my coworkers for an enkai. Then I went home and cooked about 5 kg of vegetable pasta salad for the following day. I retired for the evening feeling strangely smug that I was able to have produced something - anything! - in a day (as that is a rare feat for me indeed).

But the most awesome thing to happen recently was to receive lots of emails from friends I haven't heard from in a while. Don't you just love catching up with old friends?

All in all, very good stuff. I really hope things continue along this vein, I could get used to this!