Sayonara, Sakura…

Enjoy the pics and see you this summer!

Some “early” sakura, in March!

O-hanami with my Yaizu students last weekend.

At the dojo!

Around town…

What’s going on in Fujieda? Many things! The cherry blossoms have been blooming, and longer than usual because of the extended cold (but sunny) weather!! The kids have started their new school year… people have started new jobs… everything begins in April.

I have been working at organizing all my stuff in the apartment, and updating the teacher manual for the next teacher! I have just under 3 weeks to work hard at everything, and then my father is coming back to Japan for Golden Week, so I will take a final tour! After that I will have 2 weeks left for final tasks, goodbye visits, etc.

My emotions are very mixed, and I know it’ll be worse in May, but I am doing my best to deal with it. I’ve made a home here… but I know home is Canada. I miss my Canadian folks, but it will be so strange not to see my Japanese friends anymore. My last visit home in January, I felt so excited to be there… then I came back to Japan and it felt right to be here, too. Anyway, I know I’ll see everyone again… I have to come back! And I’m really, really grateful for all the time I have had here… it just went so fast! Too fast.

There is a provincial tournament next weekend, which I will attend. My last chance to observe a karate event here! Next month, we’ll have a dojo bbq, and Sakurai Sensei is planning a sayonara party on my last weekend. I already know I’m going to cry, so I have massive quantities of tissue ready. I apologize to the trees…

It’s been amazing here. Best life decision I ever made. Arigatou gozaimashita Sensei, and arigatou gozaimashita Nippon.

Here are some pictures from Rengejiike, and random spots around Fujieda! I will share more photos with many of you in person very soon! Ahh Sakura, such a fitting metaphor. Make the most of each day… they will be gone before you know it.

Take care & see you soon! Osu!

Rather, the return of… Canadian Cooking. The Otomi Community Centre has booked me for another public cooking lesson this month, and of course the Otomi folks couldn’t wait to get into it, so we had a practice class. The menu: French-Canadian Shepherd’s Pie (with ground beef and creamed corn) and Beaver Tails.

Mmm… sugar-coated, deep-fried goodness. At least they were whole wheat.

Japanese ovens are so small and cute! Mine sings to me when it’s finished. Seriously. I’m going to miss the adorability of everyday life here so much!

Some patriotic drink picks to top it off! In true Japanese style, the students made their lunch a piece of art. There is a cat face engraved in the mashed potatoes.

Mr. Sakurai (no relation) challenged the soft and crumbly pie with chopsticks, and succeeded.

Everyone seemed to find the food oishii, thankfully!!! As earlier mentioned, I really enjoy the chance to share some of our culture in return. It’s something I hope to do even back in Canada… I’ve already offered up my extra bedroom for a home stay. Japan is a huge part of my life now and always will be, so I have to keep my connections strong.

Kiotsukete! Mata ne! Osu!

Something unique happened for our dojo in January! A TV crew visited for a short segment on a TV show local to our prefecture, called “Michibura Shizuoka Ohako”.  I have to admit, before this happened, I hadn’t heard of this show, or the famous comedy team Pakkun Makkun, who host it with Tomoko Shigenaga. My bad! They’re a lot of fun, and I hope to see more of their work! “Pakkun” Patrick is from the USA, and he speaks perfect Japanese!! The above picture is Sensei with Pakkun, Tomoko, and Makkun (they are not actually black belts, by the way).

Heh, Rintaro (the hand growing out of Patrick’s shoulder).

The segment will air this Saturday! It should be cute… Patrick completely took a beating from Shiina, one of our teen Nidans. We performed kata, and tried to teach them a few things! Tomoko practiced self-defense with me before she took a black belt down, and I attempted to speak Japanese on-air. I’m definitely braver now… Sugoku tanoshikatta!!! I can’t wait to see which parts they actually used!!!

It was a very casual set-up, and only 2 cameras. No rehearsals, but we rehearsed our kata many times before the day of the shoot though! It was over in a couple of hours, and then all the kids got autographs and photos. Everyone’s really looking forward to this Saturday, of course. When I have a DVD copy I will post still pictures from it. Ahh Japan… there’s really no end to the awesome experiences you can have here!

Instead of a Bonenkai (Forget-the-year Party), the dojo had a Shinenkai this holiday season. Shinenkai is a New Year’s Party, but the same idea as Bonenkai… get together, eat, and drink a lot. We all gave mini-speeches… I tried only Japanese, quite loudly, after some liquid courage. It went something like “Happy New Year!! I’m sorry my Japanese is bad! I’m happy!! I love everybody!! Japan is #1! Cheers!!” Everyone cheered back, so I think I was understood.

It’s nice to see the ever-so-busy Sensei relaxing for a bit. This restaurant is Dai Dai, owned by the Sugiyamas, and its very close to the station. Osusume desu! I recommend it!

Just a couple leftover pictures from Christmas… the light display outside Fujieda Station, and the goody bags I made for all the dojo folks. Candy canes aren’t available around here, so I love introducing Western goodies to everyone!! I already have something planned for Valentine’s Day… and I can’t say, because I know some of my students read this!

Speaking of students, the Otomi group loves parties, and arranged a traditional New Year’s gathering, in which I was introduced to both grown-up and children’s activities! First was the tea ceremony (chado).

The sweets are eaten before the tea to enhance the flavour. It’s rather strong stuff!!

Try practice sitting in seiza for about 15-20 minutes nonstop before going to a tea ceremony, if you want to do it correctly! This still kills my legs!! Thankfully I have been in casual settings, so sitting with the legs to the side is fine.

A very, very expensive tea bowl (chawan). Really. I can’t even say how much. The traditional tea ceremony (chado) is an appreciation of many fine arts, not just the art of drinking tea, which is very ritualized… the desserts, the tools, the kimonos, and sometimes a showcase calligraphy piece, which becomes the theme of the ceremony. An essential Japanese experience, I hope to participate in another, more… elegantly… than I have before.

Hanetsuki, or Japanese badminton. The wooden rackets are beautifully decorated, or feature anime characters for the kids. A bit more challenging than our rackets, though!

Karuta, a card game in which the first 3 lines of tanka poems are read, and a player must find the card with the last 2 lines. Tanka is a 31-syllable poem. It’s similar to Haiku, which has lines of 5-7-5 syllables. Tanka is 5-7-5-7-7. This is the kids’ version. It is based on fables and fairy tales, including Western!

The grown-up version of Karuta.

My favourite… Furuwarai. Like pin the tail on the donkey. Put the face on the woman or man!

Hanetsuki challenge!!! Fighto fighto! Mrs. Ito smoked Mr. Tsutui.

Ahhh Japanese Christmas. Commercialized, but not to the extent of North America, I find. Just enough. I love the KFC Christmas dinner promotion… I went there for lunch Christmas Day; I had to!

A tasty spicy chicken strip set, with fried potato and kohii!

Dinner orders waiting to be picked up… Of course Colonel Sanders is Santa Claus.

Heh, kawaii.

I’ve been out a lot this month and it’s been so much fun!!! Here are some random pictures and thoughts:

Bonnenkai (Forget-The-Year party) with the Otomi class at a beautiful restaurant in Yaizu!

My first time trying shark. (I can still hear my Mom’s “What???”… I went through various stages of vegetarianism in my young adulthood and now I’ll try almost anything once.. she still can’t get used to it) It’s not bad! It was buried in a tasty sauce-encoated potato cake.

Karaoke ensued… favorite part: the seemingly shy lady second from the right got up and got her groove on when I sang “Like A Virgin”.

Some pictures from my trip with Kyoko to  the tea museum in Shimada, then the new Shizuoka Airport!

Making matcha tea!

Pretending to be a tea ceremony expert. Heh I wish I could move that elegantly. We did have a tea ceremony though, and I challenged a 15-minute seiza again. I couldn’t get up, again. The boys nearby had a giggle at my mutterings of “Chotto matte kudasai… ashi itai! ashi itai!!” (Just a moment please… my legs hurt!!!) Seriously, how do they do it??

Little karate cookies… I picked these up at a tournament earlier this year… endearing, edible and educational!

Fuji-san! Along the way to Gotemba Premium Outlets, the largest outlet mall in Japan, with Kyoko and her husband a week later. I never tire of seeing Fuji-san… and winter is the best time, lots of snow on the peak and the sky is clear.

Let’s take a look at her again:

Ahh Fuji-san… mere pictures (especially by myself) don’t do her justice, though.

Gotemba caters to everyone. There are places with rather affordable clothing, familiar stores such as The Body Shop, and then there are the big designer names: Prada, Jimmy Choo, Dolce & Gabbana, etc. Mmm $600 gloves! Yeah… it’s fun to look, anyway. Sensei understands my feeling, I’m sure.

Okay!!! It’s midnight! I need to sleep well! See you in Canada, and if not, akemashite omedeto gozaimasu!!! Happy New Year!! Osu!

On November 15, we traveled to Shizuoka Sengen Jinja (shrine) to observe Shichi-Go-San (7-5-3) which is an annual rite of passage festival for 7, 5, and 3-year-olds (these are lucky numbers!). A long time ago, children of these ages could change certain elements of their style, for example 7 year olds could wear a traditional obi with their kimono instead of a cord. Now, for the festival, all children are dressed up in kimonos or other formal wear and families go to shrines to pray for good health.

As you can see, many people were in attendance, and we all participated in the shrine rituals: cleansed our hands, threw coins in the prayer box, bowed and prayed. The kids were so cute! There were many toys and special candy available in the stalls nearby.

Kawaii desu ne!!!

A wedding procession was taking place at the same time!

Next, we were off to Nihondaira… along the way, we saw part of a very old wall in Shizuoka City that collapsed during the August 11th earthquake.

The view from the top of Mt. Nihondaira! This was the place I was fortunate enough to spend a night at during my father’s visit. We were also lucky to have clear skies!

Oh my god!!! Nani kore?? This was a praying mantis (kamakiri) just passing by as we took pictures of Fuji-san. Large insects usually really frighten me, but I was excited to meet it! It’s strange in a kinda cute way… still a little scary though… especially the females.

Next we took a ropeway down to Mt. Kunou, which had a beautiful view of Suruga Bay.

We stopped for lunch and wandered another beautiful Shinto shrine. I purchased a fortune and couldn’t believe I got the best one again!! Japan is very good to me.

The place where all bad fortunes go… tie them to the cord and you’ll be fine!

It was time to go down Mt. Kunou… what better way to do it than…

1100 stairs!!! Another unique experience from the land of never-ending wonders! The folks weren’t too certain about the history of these stairs, but they were a lot of fun to wander down whilst enjoying the view.

Step number 872…

1085…

Owari! End!

December is exciting! People are preparing for kyu exams, Christmas parties are coming up… and I get to visit home December 27 – January 3! I was debating touring around by myself this time or visiting my family & friends, and as much as I love it here… I really miss them sometimes. Skype is wonderful, but it’s never the same as in-person contact. That is the only occasional downside of being here, but another week of seeing everyone will cure that until next summer I’m sure! I plan to take more day trips in my final 6 months, and take advantage of Golden Week next spring for final sightseeing. I have to plan well! Time is going so fast!

On that note, see ya soon!

Instead of arriving in a costume, the kids choose from a big box of costumes and change several times during the party!

For 210 yen, I was a champion black belt for one night. Thank you Daiso 100 yen store!!!

Devil Naoko loves Halloween! Everyone brought some food, potluck style, and I couldn’t pass up the chance to share some more Western goodies.

Meringue ghosts and sweet potato pie.

Eggnog and Captain Morgan’s! The nog confused everyone, especially when I tried to explain what it was exactly, but was generally enjoyed!

Tabemono to nomimono! (food & drink)

I suggested the idea of “Human Tetris” or “Brain Wall”. For those of you who haven’t seen this before, please check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG0guVq_0uo  or just search YouTube for Human Tetris!! I was in tears laughing the first time I saw these… it wasn’t quite the same without the wetsuits and water, but the kids lined up and made “Clear” every time (note to self: smaller cutouts next time)!