April 12- 18, 2010
Eric and I shared this as a mid day snack this weekend... it's a mix of cucumber rolls and a variety roll (no fish) and the pouches are made from tofu and filled with sesame rice! Guess how much this cost!! I'll tell you when someone guesses close to the right amount!
Monday April 12th was the start of the new school year! Schools/Companies in Japan hold ceremonies for... well everything! There is even a little ceremony when the mall opens each morning! So needless to say Eric spent the majority of the day in welcome ceremonies! On Eric's walk to school he crosses through 1 small intersection and this morning there were 4 police officers, one on each corner! I can't figure out why they needed 1/3 of the on-duty police force to manage such a small intersection but apparently they felt it necessary. Now that I think about it, they were probably at the elementary and middle school cross walks as well... if they had one on each corner there as well then all of the normal police officers were guarding crosswalks. I wonder if they had extra officers on duty just for this today! If you saw the crosswalk, you too would find it rather humorous! I just might have to take a photo for you.
From now until August the majority of our Tuesday nights will be filled with loud drums, flutes, and cymbal playing. Eric and I joined a Japanese Drum corps in which we play the Taiko drums! We are practicing now for the festival in August called Techi Neputa! It is the festival I attended my very first night in Japan, and this year Eric's parents will be here to see us perform live! I'm very very excited about it and I'm so happy it is something that Eric and I can do with each other and with our friends! This is the "music sheet" we practice from:
At the top of the board below the frame number it is divided into Left and Right (written in Kanji) and the solid black dots are played the loudest, then the open white circles are played at a more normal volume, and the circles with a black dot in them are played much quicker, more like a tap. The red number at the bottom is the number of repetitions. We will play this song over and over and over for about 2 hours while we march around the city. The festival runs for 5 nights but the group is large enough that not everyone has to play all 5 nights, thank goodness because as much as I like to pretend that I am the Energizer Bunny... it's just a fallacy and I dont think I'm up for it 5 nights in a row. As for now, 2 hours of practice (that equates to about 40 minutes of playing time) is tiring enough!
Some people walk in front of the drum float and pull it along because the drums are much too large to carry. This is the group we will be playing with this year, it's the only group in the area that has foreigners playing with them, thanks to the convincing nature of our friend Allison.
Doesn't it look like fun!!!!!!!! 
There are a few rock stars in the parade who feel the need to carry their own drum... I won't be one of them :) 
I would however LOVE to play this gigantic drum, notice the people riding on top! It's not from our group though... I just saw it last year and think it's pretty great!
This Wednesday we had lots and lots of storms! We were told that it would snow, and we were not too excited! We had A LOT of rain yesterday so I was kind of hoping that it would be too warm for snow and we would just get more rain, and I was right. Lots and Lots of rain. . . apparently Japan needed a bath! We had our Eikaiwa English club this week and it was a pretty small class, probably because of the weather. During our class I was talking about Taiko Practice and Tachi Neputa which I am SO excited about and that got us talking about other Japanese activities and Eric mentioned that he is really interested in Kendo, which is Japanese Samurai Sword fighting. One of our class members, who I might add has an amazing memory of dates and times, told Eric that there is a Kendo club in our town and they practice on Wednesday nights at 7 at the town gymnasium. He then told us that we should end class and go watch, so we did. After we watched them practice for about half an hour, we were introduced to the instructor and invited to join them in practice, they told us to come in our own exercise clothes and we can borrow all of their padding and equipment. This was yet another fine example of, "be careful what you ask for" or in Japan, "be careful when you say you like something, because the owner will likely give it to you". I wish I knew how true the latter statement was when I read it in my Japan travel book while sitting at the airport in LA waiting to board my flight. I didn't have much time to read the advice books on Japan, that I was given for Christmas from a fantastic co-worker and friend, much in advance before moving. I was a little busy with my last semester of school, working oh and planning our wedding, honeymoon and move to Japan. Gee I dont know where my reading time got lost in there! So then, my brilliant plan was to read them on my 12 hour flight from LA to Tokyo, but I managed to sleep the ENTIRE flight here... so I read them while waiting at the airports along the way an the first week I was here. They have been so helpful! Thanks again Jenny! So anyway, now we're pretty much roped into learning Kendo from the towns instructor, who speaks ZERO English. While our Japanese is improving... I'm not sure we know the right terms to learn Samurai Sword Fighting, I guess for now I'll just be thankful that they practice with sticks and a lot of padding!
This is what Kendo looks like:
And this is a great video about traditional Kendo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1VPZnIufY0
As the week continued, so did the storms! On Friday morning the town siren went off to let the fisherman know that the boats could not go out today. That's usually a sign that the waves are pretty intense! I checked the weather report and nothing was mentioned about official tropical storms so I figured it was safe enough to be near the water, and definitely interesting enough to check it out, so I took a little drive down to the ocean to check it out and this is what I saw!
The break wall that the waves are crashing over is around 10 feet in height! That is one impressive wave in my book! After my quick trip down to the water I went by the grocery store to pick up some things for lunch. When I got there the wind was still bustling strong as could be so after I parked I waited a minute to get out, hoping for a more calm moment. A women pulled in next to me, parked her car and got out right away, apparently without thinking much about it. Immediately after she opened her car door the gust of wind ripped it right off! I could not believe it, and trust me, neither could she. . . or anyone else around for that matter! Her car door was tumbling around the parking lot in the gusts of wind. She and a few helpful and courageous Japanese men chased the door down, and placed it inside her now one-of-a-kind 3 door car. They then proceeded to call a tow-truck and her day was pretty well ruined. I hope car insurance includes wind damage ;) I for one, was pretty thankful I had waited a minute, and that when I did get out of the car, I did it slowly while holding onto the door!
* Remember the police officers being on every corner of the intersection in front of the school on Monday? They were there every day this week! I think they are being a little over-protective!
I had to post our weather report because I figured otherwise no one would believe me! It's been snowing at night recently, but only little flurries... apparently we're back to daytime snow though :/
Friday night we had another "Family Dinner" with some of our friends! We took the fully translated menu to the restaurant down the street earlier this week, so tonight we tested out the food with our friends! I had Mexican Pilaf, and it was absolutely delicious! It was basically just rice cooked with Mexican spices, it had one ingredient I was floored to see. . . fresh jalapenos! Now I know that they do grow here so now I just have to find some seeds and get to planting!! Eric had "Eggplant and Cheese on a skillet" and he was pretty happy with it. A few of our friends ordered Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers and they looked oh-so-good. I'll be back for one of them! They were even served in a little wax paper 'envelope' type thing to catch the juice from the meat! We had a great time with our friends and after dinner we came back to our house and made a little ice cream bar! It was a great night :) I think Hal & Katie agree! 
The weekend was pretty quiet other than family dinner. I spent the weekend studying for my 3rd exam, thank goodness there is only one more left! On Saturday we made a quick trip to Aomori City to see our friend Shu's pottery exhibition in the mall.
He makes mostly functional pieces and we really enjoy his work! We also made a quick stop at the driving course so that Eric could walk it one last time before his exam next week. Unfortunately the course was closed because they were training some police officers so we stood on the hill overlooking the course and Eric recited the course while I double checked his directions! Hopefully it helped :) We'll know next week after he takes the test.
Eric set up our TV so that we can connect our laptops, for watching shows from the Internet, but we also discovered that it's a lot of fun with Skype! It's great to see our parents on the big screen, it makes it feel even more like they are here! If you look in the bottom corner of the picture you can see us sitting on our lovely green couch talking to them! When I posted this picture on facebook my Dad got a lot of crap from people about making the typical Asian peace symbol, but I kind of appreciate it. I see it all the time and when I see my Dad doing it I know he understands what bits and pieces of my life are like here, so thanks Dad for taking one for the team!
On Sunday I tried to make a quick trip to the grocery store, I needed a study break and some fresh air; however, when I got to the store I realized that someone else had other plans for me today! I was walking down the spices isle and minding my own business when I heard someone running behind me so I turned to look, one of the store employees was running straight towards me. She got to me and stopped and said "Shosho omachi kudasai" and looked at me to make sure I understood and then she was off again. I think this was the most confused I've been in a long time! I knew exactly what she said, it means "wait a minute please" but what the heck did she need me to wait for, and why was she running everywhere? All I could think was, "what on earth did I do now"?? A minute later she came up to me with someone who I presume to be the store manager. He started rambling off in Japanese and I replied in Japanese and said "I'm sorry, I don't speak much Japanese". I understood some of what he said and from what I gathered he wanted me to translate something from English to Japanese for him... and now all I could think was "how did IIIII get into this one". So, lo and behold he took me to the beverage section, specifically to the soda, to show me the new soda they are importing. . . Shasta Pop. What?!?! I know, why are they importing Shasta pop of all of the things to import?? Who knows! It's not even a foreign foods store, it's Asahi Drug (like the beer). The can is entirely in English so they had no idea what the flavors were. The can's have pictures though, I think they were just a little confused. I didn't know the Japanese words for some of the fruit so we went to the produce section and I picked out the fruits and explained the flavors. The kiwi-strawberry was definitely the easy one! I didn't think Pineapple would be too hard, but he recognized "apple" and kept asking me if there was apple flavoring in it and I then had to explain that it was a 'pineapple' not a 'pine', we eventually got through it. The one that really confused them was the "Tiki Punch" I did my best.
After we got through the flavors he rambled off in Japanese again and I apologized and said I didn't understand everything. He then went back to the beverage section and brought back Cola and Soda Water and was asking me which one it was... at that point I realized he was probably asking if it had a dark cola or a clear soda base and I explained that it was like a clear soda with fruit flavors. They were so excited when we got through it and they thanked me a million times over. I thought the whole thing was pretty funny and I just had to laugh it off on the car ride home. Sometimes it's really fun to be a foreigner in a small town, sometimes it's frustrating, and on days like this. . . it's just a little strange!
And this week I'd like to leave you with this:
This little fish is all over town, on our signs and the sewer covers, it is an Aji, and it's what the town is named after. It's pretty appropriate that a fishing town would be named after a fish! Eric was teaching his students recently about school mascots in America and he told them that if their school had a mascot, this would be it!
From now until August the majority of our Tuesday nights will be filled with loud drums, flutes, and cymbal playing. Eric and I joined a Japanese Drum corps in which we play the Taiko drums! We are practicing now for the festival in August called Techi Neputa! It is the festival I attended my very first night in Japan, and this year Eric's parents will be here to see us perform live! I'm very very excited about it and I'm so happy it is something that Eric and I can do with each other and with our friends! This is the "music sheet" we practice from:
At the top of the board below the frame number it is divided into Left and Right (written in Kanji) and the solid black dots are played the loudest, then the open white circles are played at a more normal volume, and the circles with a black dot in them are played much quicker, more like a tap. The red number at the bottom is the number of repetitions. We will play this song over and over and over for about 2 hours while we march around the city. The festival runs for 5 nights but the group is large enough that not everyone has to play all 5 nights, thank goodness because as much as I like to pretend that I am the Energizer Bunny... it's just a fallacy and I dont think I'm up for it 5 nights in a row. As for now, 2 hours of practice (that equates to about 40 minutes of playing time) is tiring enough!
Some people walk in front of the drum float and pull it along because the drums are much too large to carry. This is the group we will be playing with this year, it's the only group in the area that has foreigners playing with them, thanks to the convincing nature of our friend Allison.
Doesn't it look like fun!!!!!!!! 
There are a few rock stars in the parade who feel the need to carry their own drum... I won't be one of them :) 
I would however LOVE to play this gigantic drum, notice the people riding on top! It's not from our group though... I just saw it last year and think it's pretty great!This Wednesday we had lots and lots of storms! We were told that it would snow, and we were not too excited! We had A LOT of rain yesterday so I was kind of hoping that it would be too warm for snow and we would just get more rain, and I was right. Lots and Lots of rain. . . apparently Japan needed a bath! We had our Eikaiwa English club this week and it was a pretty small class, probably because of the weather. During our class I was talking about Taiko Practice and Tachi Neputa which I am SO excited about and that got us talking about other Japanese activities and Eric mentioned that he is really interested in Kendo, which is Japanese Samurai Sword fighting. One of our class members, who I might add has an amazing memory of dates and times, told Eric that there is a Kendo club in our town and they practice on Wednesday nights at 7 at the town gymnasium. He then told us that we should end class and go watch, so we did. After we watched them practice for about half an hour, we were introduced to the instructor and invited to join them in practice, they told us to come in our own exercise clothes and we can borrow all of their padding and equipment. This was yet another fine example of, "be careful what you ask for" or in Japan, "be careful when you say you like something, because the owner will likely give it to you". I wish I knew how true the latter statement was when I read it in my Japan travel book while sitting at the airport in LA waiting to board my flight. I didn't have much time to read the advice books on Japan, that I was given for Christmas from a fantastic co-worker and friend, much in advance before moving. I was a little busy with my last semester of school, working oh and planning our wedding, honeymoon and move to Japan. Gee I dont know where my reading time got lost in there! So then, my brilliant plan was to read them on my 12 hour flight from LA to Tokyo, but I managed to sleep the ENTIRE flight here... so I read them while waiting at the airports along the way an the first week I was here. They have been so helpful! Thanks again Jenny! So anyway, now we're pretty much roped into learning Kendo from the towns instructor, who speaks ZERO English. While our Japanese is improving... I'm not sure we know the right terms to learn Samurai Sword Fighting, I guess for now I'll just be thankful that they practice with sticks and a lot of padding!
This is what Kendo looks like:
And this is a great video about traditional Kendo:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1VPZnIufY0
As the week continued, so did the storms! On Friday morning the town siren went off to let the fisherman know that the boats could not go out today. That's usually a sign that the waves are pretty intense! I checked the weather report and nothing was mentioned about official tropical storms so I figured it was safe enough to be near the water, and definitely interesting enough to check it out, so I took a little drive down to the ocean to check it out and this is what I saw!
The break wall that the waves are crashing over is around 10 feet in height! That is one impressive wave in my book! After my quick trip down to the water I went by the grocery store to pick up some things for lunch. When I got there the wind was still bustling strong as could be so after I parked I waited a minute to get out, hoping for a more calm moment. A women pulled in next to me, parked her car and got out right away, apparently without thinking much about it. Immediately after she opened her car door the gust of wind ripped it right off! I could not believe it, and trust me, neither could she. . . or anyone else around for that matter! Her car door was tumbling around the parking lot in the gusts of wind. She and a few helpful and courageous Japanese men chased the door down, and placed it inside her now one-of-a-kind 3 door car. They then proceeded to call a tow-truck and her day was pretty well ruined. I hope car insurance includes wind damage ;) I for one, was pretty thankful I had waited a minute, and that when I did get out of the car, I did it slowly while holding onto the door!* Remember the police officers being on every corner of the intersection in front of the school on Monday? They were there every day this week! I think they are being a little over-protective!
I had to post our weather report because I figured otherwise no one would believe me! It's been snowing at night recently, but only little flurries... apparently we're back to daytime snow though :/
Friday night we had another "Family Dinner" with some of our friends! We took the fully translated menu to the restaurant down the street earlier this week, so tonight we tested out the food with our friends! I had Mexican Pilaf, and it was absolutely delicious! It was basically just rice cooked with Mexican spices, it had one ingredient I was floored to see. . . fresh jalapenos! Now I know that they do grow here so now I just have to find some seeds and get to planting!! Eric had "Eggplant and Cheese on a skillet" and he was pretty happy with it. A few of our friends ordered Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers and they looked oh-so-good. I'll be back for one of them! They were even served in a little wax paper 'envelope' type thing to catch the juice from the meat! We had a great time with our friends and after dinner we came back to our house and made a little ice cream bar! It was a great night :) I think Hal & Katie agree! 
The weekend was pretty quiet other than family dinner. I spent the weekend studying for my 3rd exam, thank goodness there is only one more left! On Saturday we made a quick trip to Aomori City to see our friend Shu's pottery exhibition in the mall.
He makes mostly functional pieces and we really enjoy his work! We also made a quick stop at the driving course so that Eric could walk it one last time before his exam next week. Unfortunately the course was closed because they were training some police officers so we stood on the hill overlooking the course and Eric recited the course while I double checked his directions! Hopefully it helped :) We'll know next week after he takes the test.
Eric set up our TV so that we can connect our laptops, for watching shows from the Internet, but we also discovered that it's a lot of fun with Skype! It's great to see our parents on the big screen, it makes it feel even more like they are here! If you look in the bottom corner of the picture you can see us sitting on our lovely green couch talking to them! When I posted this picture on facebook my Dad got a lot of crap from people about making the typical Asian peace symbol, but I kind of appreciate it. I see it all the time and when I see my Dad doing it I know he understands what bits and pieces of my life are like here, so thanks Dad for taking one for the team!
On Sunday I tried to make a quick trip to the grocery store, I needed a study break and some fresh air; however, when I got to the store I realized that someone else had other plans for me today! I was walking down the spices isle and minding my own business when I heard someone running behind me so I turned to look, one of the store employees was running straight towards me. She got to me and stopped and said "Shosho omachi kudasai" and looked at me to make sure I understood and then she was off again. I think this was the most confused I've been in a long time! I knew exactly what she said, it means "wait a minute please" but what the heck did she need me to wait for, and why was she running everywhere? All I could think was, "what on earth did I do now"?? A minute later she came up to me with someone who I presume to be the store manager. He started rambling off in Japanese and I replied in Japanese and said "I'm sorry, I don't speak much Japanese". I understood some of what he said and from what I gathered he wanted me to translate something from English to Japanese for him... and now all I could think was "how did IIIII get into this one". So, lo and behold he took me to the beverage section, specifically to the soda, to show me the new soda they are importing. . . Shasta Pop. What?!?! I know, why are they importing Shasta pop of all of the things to import?? Who knows! It's not even a foreign foods store, it's Asahi Drug (like the beer). The can is entirely in English so they had no idea what the flavors were. The can's have pictures though, I think they were just a little confused. I didn't know the Japanese words for some of the fruit so we went to the produce section and I picked out the fruits and explained the flavors. The kiwi-strawberry was definitely the easy one! I didn't think Pineapple would be too hard, but he recognized "apple" and kept asking me if there was apple flavoring in it and I then had to explain that it was a 'pineapple' not a 'pine', we eventually got through it. The one that really confused them was the "Tiki Punch" I did my best.
After we got through the flavors he rambled off in Japanese again and I apologized and said I didn't understand everything. He then went back to the beverage section and brought back Cola and Soda Water and was asking me which one it was... at that point I realized he was probably asking if it had a dark cola or a clear soda base and I explained that it was like a clear soda with fruit flavors. They were so excited when we got through it and they thanked me a million times over. I thought the whole thing was pretty funny and I just had to laugh it off on the car ride home. Sometimes it's really fun to be a foreigner in a small town, sometimes it's frustrating, and on days like this. . . it's just a little strange!And this week I'd like to leave you with this:
This little fish is all over town, on our signs and the sewer covers, it is an Aji, and it's what the town is named after. It's pretty appropriate that a fishing town would be named after a fish! Eric was teaching his students recently about school mascots in America and he told them that if their school had a mascot, this would be it!
5 bucks
ReplyDeleteAmanda you are pretty close!! About $3.50! Sushi is fantastically cheap in Japan :)
ReplyDelete