In the past month since my last post I've been diligently working away as a teacher, taking 3 day weekends due to national holidays, eating Thanksgiving dinners, baking like a madwoman for Halloween lessons, studying Japanese, and eating bowls of ramen.
Things, although quick, are also starting to become more routine and home is finally seeming to be my little town here ;)
For starters though--
I took part in a festival in my town. Known as the Acki Matsuri (Fall Festival) it's a harvest festival where people carry around huge shrines all day, collect money, and hoist it above their heads ;) Lucky for me, I was fortunateto be included by the wonderful people of a nearby neighborhood, and took part in a full days worth of carrying the shrine, lifting it up when donations were made, and dancing a little back and forth with it on my shoulder. All I can say is, sweet, but "ouch." Although the first day was quite neat, I passed on the second day of strenuous carrying and opted to watch the finale in the Elementary School playing field.
While this was simply really impressive to watch (everyone cheers and the men yell "Yasai!" to attract attention as they hoist this megaheavy shrine above their heads,) it was also really cool to get my whole town together in one area, to do one thing. Reminded me of being home in SD a bit!
However as it's festival season, I also got to a couple of other bigger festivals in the area. For instance, Himeji does a similar fall festival to ours. However, in this festival (the Nada Fighting Festival) men crash the shrines into each other. One of the most dangerous festivals in Japan (one man died last year) it's quite a sight. Lucky for me, when I went, a group of us were invited to sit in the private booth ofthe Kobe Shinbun (Newspaper) andwatch from a very close spot on the field! I got a couple of videos of this as well!
The next day I was off to a MASSIVE Canadian thanksgiving dinner with others from Canada, the US, Australia, Scotland, and New Zealand. The dinner turned into a potluck, with equally matching international dishes. Although when I came, I thought I would be meeting Japanese people, and probably other Americans, I never guessed that I would alsobe meeting people from so many countries! Anyways, my first Canadian thanksgiving experience was great!
For traveling, I've done a bit this month, but not two much! I did however, make two trips to Osaka (one for shopping, one for a concert recently) which introduced me to the big-city life of Japan. Osaka, the second biggest city in Japan, is a bit crazier than my town of Ikuno. Although only two hours away, it's a completely different world. The big city not only has a ton of people, but also has things like live music, major shopping districts, and a few too many Starbucks and McDonalds. I made one trek down to see John Butler Trio play a concert in a small venue.
It's gotten cold! Last week it was down to 6 degrees celsius which makes it freezing in the classroom.
There are bears about. The summer was so hot that many bears are coming down from the mountains surrounding my house. One man was attacked a few weeks ago (eek). Buying a bear bell.
Happy reading ;)
Miriam
This joke was passed to me from my aunt and uncle in alaska via email. I feel it is pertinent.
ReplyDeleteA guy's going on a hiking vacation through the mountains out west. Before
setting off into the boonies, he stops into a small general store to get
some supplies.
After picking out the rest of his provisions, he asks the old store owner,
"Say mister, I'm going hiking up in the mountains, and I was wondering;
do you have any bears around here?"
"Yup," replies the owner.
"What kind?" asks the hiker.
"Well, we got black bears and we got grizzlies," he replies.
"I see," says the hiker. "Do you have any of those bear bells?"
"What do you mean?" asks the store owner.
"You know," replies the hiker, "those little tinkle-bells that people wear
in bear country to warn the bears that they are coming, so they don't
surprise the bears and get attacked."
"Oh yeah," replies the owner. "They're over there," he says, pointing to
a shelf on the other side of the store. The hiker selects a couple of
the bells and and takes them to the counter to pay for them.
"Tell me something, mister," the hiker inquires, "how can you tell when
you're in bear territory, anyway?"
"By the scat," the old fellow replies, ringing up the hiker's purchases.
"Well, um, how can I tell if it's grizzly territory or black bear territory?"
the hiker asks.
"By the scat," the store owner replies.
"Well, what's the difference?" asks the hiker. "I mean, what's different
between grizzly scat and black bear scat?"
"The stuff that's in it," replies the store owner.
Getting a little frustrated, the hiker asks, "OK, so what's in grizzly bear
scat that isn't in black bear scat?" he asks, an impatient tone in his voice.
"Bear bells," replies the old man as he hands the hiker his purchases.