Good byes!

It has been a busy two weeks of goodbyes and farewells, both at school and outside of school. Last week I gave my goodbye speech in front of 1000 students in Japanese! It was a little daunting but I think I did well. We have also had goodbye lessons in all of our classes. I taught my last lesson yesterday. The kids here are so good at English, so sweet and smart- I am really going to miss them and this school.


After I gave my goodbye speech, the school gave me the largest bouquet of roses that I have ever seen in my life. I did not have a vase big enough for them so I made to put them in my hot water maker and cover it with a table clothe. They were beautiful.

Class 15 was by far my favorite class. The students were always excited and eager to participate and they loved me and the JTE that I taught with. It was Kitagawa Sensei's birthday on our last class so they made us a big drawing to say happy birthday to him and goodbye to me.

This is apparently what I look like. Not bad!

One of Zach's students wrote him a note and drew a picture of him. It might be time for a haircut :)

The view from the window of Class 12.

Enkai, continued

After dinner, we went to karaoke.

Mifuji Sensei (my supervisor) and me

Lots of Singing!!

Farewell Enkai

Since I am leaving Japan in a few weeks and Zach is leaving next week, the teachers at my school had a goodbye party for us on Wednesday. It was at a German restaurant in Kanazawa (we still ate our sausages with chopsticks) and it was a lot of fun. I really like the teachers at my school so I will be very sad to leave them.


Koikeda Sensei (we like to call him the Koikedanator because he is the disciplinarian of the school), Shimamura Sensei and Sugaya Sensei

Azuma Sensei, Me and Yamagishi Sensei

Nakagawa Sensei and Zach

Koshikawa Sensei (the Vice Principal!), Me and Miura Sensei

Koikedanator, Hori Sensei, Me and Tabata Sensei

Earthquake!

Japan is the most earthquake prone country in the world and it has been trying to prove it this year. I felt another earthquake this morning at about 10:15 AM. It was just a little one where I was but it was a 6.8 in Niigata prefecture (2 prefectures over). Five people died which makes it the most deathly earthquake since the one in Kobe which killed thousands. Anyway, I am fine.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070716/ap_on_re_as/japan_quake_32;_ylt=Av3GejmxerwSBiYOS6xNhK5kMfQI

Ballet

One of my good friends here, Fiona, is a ballerina and has been practicing with a school in Kanazawa for many months. Today was her performance and it was beautiful!

Japanese night out

I thought I would highlight some of the finer points of Japanese culture with examples from last night's outing.

JANKEN

This is what is know as "rock paper scissors" in the US. In Japan it is called Janken and it is law. Everything from where to go to dinner to who the winner of a game is is decided by this game and everyone knows that what janken decides go. I am pretty sure that Abe sometimes uses it to make policy decisions.

THE PEACE SIGN

I do not know why Japanese people make the peace sign in every single photo but they do. I suppose Japan is a fairly peaceful country.

MEAT ON A STICK

Various meat on a stick is popular in Japan (and delicious, I might add). But one must be careful for one does not always know what one is getting. I have made the mistake more than once of just pointing to the menu and hoping for the best and that resulted in me eating chicken heart, pig cheek and cow tongue. Mmmmm.... last night was just chicken though.

THE FOREIGNER BAR

This is perhaps not part of Japanese culture but rather, part of MY Japanese culture. No good night out would be complete without a trip to Apre, the foreigner bar. However, since they have recently changed locations, I am not sure that that tradition will continue. The western style toilets in the new place are not nearly as nice as the ones in the old place and, let's face it, that was a big draw for me.

Abare, Part 2

Well this festival was so cool that it deserved a second post........


Drunk half dressed men flinging a large wooden thingamabobber end over end- this did look quite dangerous.

View from above

They parade the lanterns through the streets and to various temples where they burn them up and destroy them. More than a few people were seen burned and a bit bloody.

Fiona, me and Marie

Lots of girls wear yukata (light robe like a kimono) to summer festivals. This is me with Mayumi.

Abare Matsuri

This weekend I went to the Abare Festival in the Noto (about 2 hours from Kanazawa).

Also known as Brave Sea Festival, 'Abare Matsuri' (Fire and Violence Festival) was originally held some 330 years ago to counteract a violent epidemic then raging in the area. It is reputed the most 'fierce' festivals in all of Japan. Featured are some 50 'kiriko' (mikoshi lantern) as tall as 7 meters (approx. 20 ft) and built of plain wood and two 'mikoshi' (miniature shrine) with participants ultimately going on a frenetic rampage of destruction and a climatic fiery destruction of the 'mikoshis'.


No festival is complete without an enormous hotdog. Gosh, I love festival food!

Kiriko Lantern

People load their children into these enormous lanterns and allow them to be dragged around all night by drunk people. It seemed like a bad idea to me but who am I to judge?

Amanda's shoe broke so this grandmother runs out of her house and gives Amanda a pair of her shoes! This, my friends, is one of the wonders of Japan!

People parade through the streets of the town, chanting, cheering and drinking. They sell things like the Lovely "FUKU Cup" right on the street. And Fiona said it was mighty tasty!

Happy Fourth of July!

It was Grant's birthday on July 4 so a bunch of us went to shabu shabu to celebrate him and the Fourth of July! Dinner was delicious and then we headed down to the river to light off some fireworks (which are totally legal in Japan- you can buy them in any convenience store). However, this being the middle of rainy season, it was pouring down rain. That, however, did not stop us as we huddled under the bridge and made our own little display.

PS. All of the cool fireworks pictures are from Grant. I am definitely not that skilled as a photographer!

Fireworks!!!

On Sunday night, Grant, Dan, Michael and I headed down to the Sai River to light off fireworks so that Grant could take pictures of them. I think they look really cool :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!

It is Matthew's 25th birthday today (July 2)! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Goodbye Party!

Alex, Me, Jon and Sharon

The Uchinada power team- Fiona and Bart

"The Cool Table"- I felt very popular when I got to sit at the table with the most people (8 people squished around this little table) until I looked over at Zach and Jane's table to see that they had 9 people! Well, that just meant that they got less food.

Me, Amanda, Caroline and Fiona

At one point I sat on this wooden box. Fiona exclaimed, "Be careful when sitting on hat. It is an antique." "Random antique wooden box sitting on the floor???" I thought to myself. I opened it up to find Caroline's various items and realized it was her purse! Only Caroline would have a wooden box with a strap attached to it and call it a purse. Oh jeeze.... the characters that I have met in my year here :)

Saturday night was the JET Goodbye party. I do not leave Japan until August but some people's contracts end in July and in a few weeks people will start to leave Ishikawa and head for home or some other adventure. There was a dinner at a local restaurant and then a party at Apre. Apre is also closing and Saturday was its last night open. As such, it was ridiculously packed so I spent much of the night sitting outside and chatting with people.