Halloween Party

So as many of you know, I had been planning on throwing a huge Halloween event in my town ever since I got here. Once I broached the topic to Local Nate and his two co-workers in the International Relations group at the City Hall, they were really excited and were able to do a lot of the planning and budgeting for the event, since putting on such a cultural shindig is totally within the scope of their job. With the help of the Shikokuchuo International Friendship Association (SIFA), members of my book club and an awesome group of middle and high school girls, we put on a Halloween Party to which over 130 people came!

Games included:
Kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin) Bowling, with kabocha and water bottles filled with orange water
Pin the Tail on the Black Cat
Halloween Twister (yes, it exists!)
Can Toss, with Halloween-decorated cans

Crafts included:
Halloween mask-making
Halloween coloring pages
Halloween bracelet making (basically harvest-colored beads)
Halloween origami

Other attractions:
Halloween TV Specials: Charlie Brown, Spongebob, etc.
Picture Station with Halloween Cut-Outs (made by the art club at the high school)
Caramel Apples (which Nate, Beth & I made that morning: over 60 of them!)
S'mores (we had leftover materials from another event)

Main Events:
Magic Show
Costume Contest
Thriller Performance (sung by me!)





Since Halloween conveniently fell on a Saturday, we had the event right on Halloween, from 6:30-9. Nate, Beth and I were there all day; we had help in the afternoon from a ton of nice people! A lot of members of the book club I'm currently running came, as did some of the high school students who made the picture cut-outs. A great group of middle school girls who had participated in Nate's English Camp earlier in October came in the early afternoon, and when asked how long they could stay, one of them replied, "Forever!" These wonderful people helped us put up tons of decorations, make signs for each game and station, and get all the games ready.



My friends Aya and Asagi showed up a little early so that we girls, including Beth, could put on make up together. Aya and Asagi dressed up as pirates, Beth was Dorothy, and I was a Sexy Witch, mostly because the only black skirt I could find that fit me was a knee-lenth one with ties and ruffles that surely no proper witch would wear. When people asked about my costume, I said I was a Fashionable Witch, not knowing how well the sexy part would go over, but I did tell the actual name to Reiko-san, who referred to me as Sexy Witch for the rest of the night :-)



People started coming even before 6:30, and we were fortunate that so many of our friends and volunteers from earlier wanted to help out during the event as well. Nate, as Master of Ceremonies, was busy making sure everything was in order for our different events, so I walked around to make sure everything was going smoothly. In the course of this, I met some of my junior high school students and even more elementary school students from the schools I had visited. Some kids did come in costume, and many more made masks or won hats as game prizes. One of the elementary school girls made me a bracelet, and many kids asked to take pictures with me. I'm quite a celebrity, you see! The picture below is me with Reiko-san's grandsons, Yojiro and Ryotaro:


One of Aya's friends, Onishi-kun, performed an awesome 30-minute magi show in which both of Reiko-san's grandsons got to participate. During the costume contest, I dragged every child wearing a costume, most of them unwillingly, onto the stage, and then did a little catwalk myself. Lastly, near the end of the night, I got on stage with Nate, Beth, Aya and Asagi at my back, to sing Thriller. I was a bit under the weather at the time, but I was determined to do it! I did manage a bit of the Thriller dance at the end, but for most of the song I mimed the lyrics as much as possible, since most Japanese people are familiar with the song but don't really know what it means. We got a resounding applause and I received many compliments afterward.



I thought cleaning up would take forever, but we had a lot of help with that, too, so it didn't take more than 20 minutes. I was so impressed with how many people volunteered their time for this event, even some who couldn't make the actual thing but wanted to help decorate! They helped the event look fantastic and run smoothly, and it was so successful that it might become an annual event here in Shikokuchuo. And all because of me! Muwahaha! Excuse a little pride on my part, but I really had been thinking of this and dreaming of it for months, so I'm really glad it went well.


Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Taiko Matsuri

Early autumn is the time of the Taiko Matsuri in northern Shikoku. Matsuri means festival and there are all kinds of festivals throughout Japan. I've been to a few and they are always huge parades, full of people and really fun. Matsuri are very popular throughout Japan, from local matsuri that take over an entire town to famous matsuri that people will travel from all over Japan to attend.

All the matsuri I have been to involve taiko. Taiko are large drums used in many Japanese events and performances. As Jason and I can attest from our visit to the Nebuta Matsuri in Aomori two years ago, they can get quite huge. The Nebuta Matsuri was a night festival with giant floats made almost entirely of paper and lit up from the inside, interspersed with giant taiko like the one below:


Taiko matsuri take place all over the northern coast of Shikoku. They start in the east and gradually make their way west town by town, but they only occur in towns that border the Seto Inland Sea, and they don't take place on Honshu, either. Taiko matsuri do involve moderately large drums, but rather than display these instruments in their full magnificence, they are placed inside giant floats. These floats are made of wood and decorated with an assortment of embroided gold dragons, lacquer, and a sort of carriage at the top, where 4 fine local fellows get to sit. 4 more fine fellows get to stand on wooden poles joined to the base of the float and egg on the scores of men who carry these floats, all a little drunk but admirably shouldering the weight of a float, a drum and drummer, and 8 guys. Since this is probably difficult to imagine, here's a picture:


My first Taiko Matsuri experience was on 10/18 in Niihama, a larger town about 30 minutes away. Niihama's matsuri is known for being a good deal rowdier than most. After parading around as usual, the floats actually fight each other. In past years these fights were so severe that someone died every few years, but now the police are involved, so people only get injured. We didn't get to see much of the fighting, which may have been just as well, but we did get to see the heart of the event, which is each group's attempt to hold the float up in their hands for a certain amount of time, or to make the float "jump" by lifting it up and down repeatedly. This is all done to the tune of of the leaders (standing on the wooden poles) shouting "so...rya eiya eiya yoisa!!!" which doesn't mean anything but sounds really good! Each float represents a section of town, so there's a lot of neighborhood pride and encouragement from different factions within the crowd.


My Japanese teacher, Reiko Kaji, her husband Nobuhiko Kaji, and their 9-year-old grandson Ryotaro took me and my friend Safiyya to the Niihama Taiko Matsuri. Reiko-san, looking dignified as always, was delighted to meet Safiyya and practice her English while learning about Safiyya's background. Nobuhiko-san, born and bred in the area, was ecstatic to see the matsuri itself, and he wasn't the only one. Apparently the people of Niihama are so obsessed with their matsuri that folks who have moved to other parts of Japan will come back for the taiko matsuri even if they don't come back for New Years or Obon, which is when most Japanese people return to their hometowns.


The same sort of festival occurs in both Kawanoe and Mishima, the two parts of my town in which I live and teach. Some people get a day off of work to attend one of the matsuri, and the schools usually get a day or two off as well. I didn't get to see much of the Kawanoe Matsuri due to my schedule that week and a nasty cold, but I heard drumming and the sounds of joy from my apartment. However, I was able to watch the Mishima Matsuri two days in a row thanks to Reiko-san, who lives near the center of Mishima. We were able to watch from an elevated view on the second and third floor of a shop right on the main street! On Thursday, 10/22, we watched the floats go by and the guys do their best to hold the floats up for as long as possible in front of the mayor's pavilion. Many of my students from Higashi-chu were in attendence, so I waved at them and received enthusiastic waves in return (girls), quick nods (boys), and confused stares followed by eventual recognition (well, you can't win them all, eh?).


On Friday, 10/23, Mishima holds their festival a second time, and at night. The parade of floats was much the same as before, but the floats themselves were all lit up in one way or another and look gorgeous. There's even more of a festival feel to the night parade, and I wouldn't be surprised if the fellows straining under the floats had fortified themselves was some extra drinks! The spectators, while also drinking, indulged themselves with greater sustenance, and the food stands were doing brisk business. The Kaji family and I enjoyed hotcakes, French fries and candy covered strawberries and grapes. Local Nate and his sister Beth joined us as well, so it was quite a party at the second floor viewpoint!

An Awesome Letter

I have a mailbox at each of the three junior high schools where I teach. This mailbox project was started by my predecessor, Erin, who wisely concluded that with a total of over 1,300 students combined, it would be difficult to connect with students individually. Erin set up a mailbox at each school and asked the English teachers to mention it in class. In addition, she promised that as long as the students wrote their name, grade and class number, she would write a reply.

I liked the idea so much that I decided to continue it. Hey, the mailboxes were already there, right? Not only is it a great way to get to know some of the kids personally, but it also provides a nice opportunity for shy kids to communicate with me in some way. Since a lot of my kids are rather shy, and Japanese students tend to be much better at writing English than speaking it, the idea of writing a letter definitely has its appeal. Writing replies also gives me something to do on days when I don't teach many classes, and there seem to be a lot of those recently.

This week I'm at Kita-chu, and I received a second letter each from two third-year students who wrote to me earlier this month. These two girls are good friends and often say hi to me in the halls or wave at me from the window into the teacher's room, and I go out and speak with them for a few minutes. One girl, Chihori, is extremely shy but very sweet; she also has an October birthday, so we exchanged small presents. The other girl, Saori, is outgoing, loves English, and wrote me an absolutely fantastic letter. I'd like to share an excerpt with you:

(In her first letter, Saori wrote that English is hard for her sometimes. I replied that Japanese is hard for me, and I make many mistakes when speaking and when writing kanji, or characters.)

"To tell the truth, it is difficult for me to understand all Japanese too. I don't know all kanji. I often make a mistake Japanese too, I'm not good at Japanese. I'll study Japanese very hard! English too. English conversation is very important to me. Because, I want to travel around the world and become a member of the Diet! And few days later, I want to be first president in our country!

If I can be the president, I'd like to save of all the world people lives! I hope to be happy many people. I'll move the world! I want to be like president Obama.

I love happiness and peace. You and I cannot buy veritable happiness. I think so.

I hope you be happy. Have a nice day!"

Saori is fourteen years old. Many of her classmates would not be able to read most of this letter. Some of her classmates won't go to high school, since education is only mandatory through junior high school. I doubt any of her classmates aspire to be members of the Diet, let alone Prime Minister. I was so impressed!

I wrote her a very encouraging reply and told her that she inspired me, and she really has. I've read her letter many times since I received it on Monday, and each time I feel a renewed desire to be a great teacher, pursue my dreams and change the world in some small way at least. I distinctly remember the last time I felt that same energy and inspiration, because it was this summer when I was driving on the Garden State Parkway, stuck in traffic, and happened upon President Obama's speech to the NAACP on the radio. So if inspiring me counts for anything, Saori has already followed in Obama's footsteps once, and even if she doesn't enter politics in the end, I'm sure it won't be the only time!

Sports Festivals

Eek! It's been quite some time since I've written. Many apologies; I've had a busy spate of things, but I hope to get back into a fairly regular schedule of reporting!

The afore-mentioned Sports Festival was held on 9/20, at least for the junior high schools. I went to two of my three schools: Mishima Higashi and Kawanoe Kita. The elementary schools held their sports festivals on 9/26, and though I didn't actively participate, I went around to four of the elementary schools I visit during the course of the year with my supervisor and another representative of the Board of Education. I just learned this past weekend that nursery schools also have sports festivals. Nursery schools! Group exercise is certainly taken seriously here.

Though I had spent the previous week at Kita-chu and had seen them practicing a multitude of times for the Sports Festival, I change schools each week, and since Sunday technically begins the week, off I went to Higashi-chu for the actual event. Soon after I arrived, the principal asked if I wanted to join the teacher's team for PTA tug-of-war, and of course I said yes. He also mentioned that, since I had just been at Kita-chu and had probably gotten friendly with the students there, I was welcome to go to Kita-chu as well rather than spend the whole day at Higashi-chu. I gratefully took him up on this kind offer.

The Sports Festival starts out with a grand Opening Ceremony. A few select students carry the flags of Japan, Shikokuchuo and the school to the flagpoles, and one student bears the sign for the festival itself, which reads "43rd Annual Sports Festival" or something similar. The rest of the students, who are seated according to their class and homerooms and wearing colored bandanas to show which team they're on, march in single file lines into a grid in the middle of the field facing the principal. The principal makes a bit of a speech, and then the stretching song begins and everyone streches accordingly. Then, as they say, the games begin.


The activities ranged from 50, 100-meter races and relay races to three-legged races and obstacle courses, to the afore-mentioned mukase kyoso (caterpillar race, aka chain gang) to tug of war and beyond. I participated in the PTA tug of war at Higashi-chu, where the team of teachers dominated and won all four competitions! Yes, we did!

They also had a special tug of war with long bamboo sticks for one grade of girls, in which two girls of differing bandana colors fought over said bamboo sticks, and after the winner dragged the stick over to her respective side, would help others on her team until at last, over 20 girls would be centered on one meter-long bamboo stick. There was also a bamboo pole climbing challenge for the boys, where groups of 5 would dash over to a bamboo pole and hold it up as one boy climbed and either added or removed a flag from the top of the pole, depending on the turn, until they had gotten through their whole class year.

Even for the individual races, points are earned for the team and not the individual, which I think is a nice way of encouraging cooperation and avoiding too much embarassment for those students not particularly stellar at sports. In fact, my favorite part of the whole thing was watching and listening to people cheering on the last person in a given race. This person had the misfortune to be the only person being watched by a vast audience of fellow students, parents and teachers, but s/he also received the most cheering of anyone else. Repeated shouts of "ganbare!" and clapping accompanied the last struggling person in any race. During one of the races in the morning, one boy fell and hurt himself, and as he tried to limp and finish the race, two teachers ran over to grab his shoulders and walk him the rest of the way. When it became evident that he was really in a lot of pain, one teacher took the boy on his back and they finished the race to postive din of cheering, and then the boy was swiftly carried off to be examined. You see that the sports day is not without its casualities.


Though I make fun of the mukade kyoso/caterpiller race/chain gang, it's probably my favorite thing to watch, and having given it a few tries, I can attest to how difficult it is to walk, let alone run, when you're tied at the legs with 20 other people. As such, the joy of watching a happy line of caterpillar boys of girls pass you by, chanting the mundane "ichi, ni!" (1,2!) or a more creative "yoshie tomato, yoshie happy"?, is only surpassed by the dismayed cries and hilarious spectacle of 20 boys or girls falling down like dominoes. Seeing 5 groups in action at the same time in the actual race was quite something compared to the several practices I had seen, and some teams really excelled at it.

My favorite memory of the entire day, perhaps, is that of one boys team really struggling, falling down, squaring their shoulders and restarting several times and thus falling behind by a lot. Though they were doing there best, what really touched me was that the four other boys teams, as they crossed the finish lines, immediately untied themselves and ran over to the struggling team and ran next to them, chanting "ichi, ni!" and encouraging them all the way. By the last 50 meters there was a swarm of at least 60 boys surrounding the last team, shouting their hearts out and cheering them on. These were 15-year-old boys, who I have trouble getting more than a few words out of during class sometimes, but seeing my students help each other out and cheer each other on...I admit, I fought back some tears!

That night, the teachers had a well-deserved drinking party, followed by some rather roudy karaoke. The next weekend I watched the elementary school sports festivals, which were absolutely adorable, but I admit I enjoyed the junior high ones more, if only because I was really a part of them, and they're my students. I have so many kids that I'm really having trouble remembering their names, but they're my students, and most of them are excited to see me, and I think they were glad to have me there, cheering them on as well.