a shot of towadako, making some candles with the chillunz, more fireworks, a huge taiko at the tree planting ceremony, and the guy that works at aoi tori, back in the little kitchen area.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Me ga Mabushi Sugiru
the attendees at the little dinner out by the damn mall, the birthday girl mei-ping shooting off some fireworks, a couple of the creepy cracks and tunnels in the copper mine, and a feller painting the creek near aomori.
Ketsumakuen Yabe!
well, shoooo... many things have gone down and transpired and happened over the last few weeks. among the things that happened was a morning when the entire damn earth wobbled and rocked like jeebus hisself was dribbling the globe like a big ass basketball. i scrambled out of my bed and ran out into the lobby in my unnerwears, and everyone was just strolling to breakfast like that kind of thing happened every day, gawking at my disshevled arse until i woke up enough to realize i should probably go get some pants on. the earthquake wasn't so severe here in akita, but in the next prefecture to the east, there were some roads and bridges destroyed, and a few landslides. so that was my first earthquake...
other happenings...went to a friend's apartment out in a neighborhood not too far away from the damn mall, and she cooked a whole bunch of food for us three visitors. just sat out there jabbering, eating, playing her piano, talking to her mom on the phone, making cookies and lounging about for a few hours, a lovely time. this friend talks to me alot about how living out there away from the school feels really strange, and i think i end up talking alot about how being stuck in the school sometimes feels really odd, so we whipped up this little plan to hang out and make some food. delightful, no?
a few days later was the birthday party for a friend from singapore, a lovely affair with snackie-poos, drinklie-winkies, and a jaunt over to the park to shoot off some fireworks. well, not really 'shoot off', i guess, japanese fireworks basically fizzle for a while and then shrivel up and blow away, but they're still friggin fireworks, so i shant cry foul.
nearly burnt eachother to a crisp for a while out there at the park, then went to bed relatively early, because the next day, there was a school trip out to an old copper mine, lake towado (not to be confused with tazawako), and a long, rushing stream right on the border of the next prefecture to the north, aomori. we spent almost 3 hours getting up there, and first crawled off the bus into the copper mine, a dank labyrinth of tunnels and creepy lights running throught the center of a mountain. there was a small shrine in there, a stock of sake and wine, and some of the tunnels were lined with flashing christmas lights for some reason, like a cockamamie science fiction movie. crammed ourselves back on the bus for a few more hours and drove up to the stream, slowly passing by plenty of interesting spots with rushing rapids or quiet walking paths, and stopped at a relatively uneventful little shallow spot to walk around for about 20 minutes. saw a feller painting a big canvas, and trotted along smelling the mossy rocks for as long as i could before i had to turn around and get back on the bus so we could go to towado lake. the lake was cold and choppy when we got there, a few tour boats winding around out there on the waves. the lake is pretty big, much larger than tazawako. we were just on a little bay with big green bluffs holding it in. tottered around there for a while, and sauntered back to the bus again to come home.
the next day, i joined a volunteer thing in the wada neighborhood to make candles and play english games with a bunch of kids from the area, most of whom were reluctant to talk to me, because at the time i had a big red eyeball on account of the trees blooming and whatnot. at least i learned the japanese word for 'conjunctivitis'. we sang songs, melted some crayons and stirred 'em up for the candles, and one kid taught me some kanji for a while. i walked back to school with a few people, taking the long way through some rice paddies and a shrine, working up a beastly sweat. later that day, had a picnic out in a little patio area, and lit off some more fireworks. this time some of them whistled, spun, and bounced around.
the next event of note was a trip out to a tree planting ceremony somewhere out in the middle of the prefecture, a big deal whith the emperor attending and everything. we all had to wear our ridiculous official event baseball caps, badges, and prove to security guards that our cameras were not in actuality secret spy bomb devices. so sat there in the damned sun for several hours while people danced around or sang and whatnot, all of which i could not see behind the thousands of people wearing the ridiculous official hats. then the emperor came out for a while, and we all went bananas, waving around little paper japanese flags. after that, we were ushered over to the tree planting area to spread some dirt around, and filed back on the bus for home. when we got back to school, i had exactly 9 minutes to get ready and run back out to the bus bound for the station for some plans i made with 3 japanese ladies (yeah, thats right, me and three lovely japanese ladies, people). we went out to a really great little cafe/bar/restaurant place called "aoi tori", or "bluebird". it was a quiet old place with scuffed up wooden furniture, book cases and plants along the walls, and a strong smell of chocolate wafting out from the little kitchen area in the corner. we had a big, multi-course dinner of italian-ish stuff (pasta and pizza, but with japanese ingredients, like full wasabi leaves in the salad) and just relaxed and talked about general whatnot for a while - studying abroad, differences between japanese and american people, and my abiding little crush on the country as a whole, and most of its people individually.
some other stuff what happened was yet another birthday party for a taiwanese friend, a surprise deal with a treasure hunt and everything, followed by about ten plates of appetizers, strange card games, and some running around out in the dark playing some half assed tag. also, recently, because it's getting so damned hot here, i went off to the local river to wade around in the water for a little while, sliding around on the rocky riverbed, and finally getting a little use out of the snazzy swimming trunks i brought with me.
coming up soon, what the hell.... erm... party tonight for someone from fall semester who's here for a few days visiting, and also, there is a little clump of 'summer program' people who have dropped in for 6 weeks of japanese study, mostly from singapore, so maybe i'll get to talk to a few of them. kind of a wierd time for a new group to be coming in, right when most people are thinking about the end of the semester, which is coming way too fast.
other happenings...went to a friend's apartment out in a neighborhood not too far away from the damn mall, and she cooked a whole bunch of food for us three visitors. just sat out there jabbering, eating, playing her piano, talking to her mom on the phone, making cookies and lounging about for a few hours, a lovely time. this friend talks to me alot about how living out there away from the school feels really strange, and i think i end up talking alot about how being stuck in the school sometimes feels really odd, so we whipped up this little plan to hang out and make some food. delightful, no?
a few days later was the birthday party for a friend from singapore, a lovely affair with snackie-poos, drinklie-winkies, and a jaunt over to the park to shoot off some fireworks. well, not really 'shoot off', i guess, japanese fireworks basically fizzle for a while and then shrivel up and blow away, but they're still friggin fireworks, so i shant cry foul.
nearly burnt eachother to a crisp for a while out there at the park, then went to bed relatively early, because the next day, there was a school trip out to an old copper mine, lake towado (not to be confused with tazawako), and a long, rushing stream right on the border of the next prefecture to the north, aomori. we spent almost 3 hours getting up there, and first crawled off the bus into the copper mine, a dank labyrinth of tunnels and creepy lights running throught the center of a mountain. there was a small shrine in there, a stock of sake and wine, and some of the tunnels were lined with flashing christmas lights for some reason, like a cockamamie science fiction movie. crammed ourselves back on the bus for a few more hours and drove up to the stream, slowly passing by plenty of interesting spots with rushing rapids or quiet walking paths, and stopped at a relatively uneventful little shallow spot to walk around for about 20 minutes. saw a feller painting a big canvas, and trotted along smelling the mossy rocks for as long as i could before i had to turn around and get back on the bus so we could go to towado lake. the lake was cold and choppy when we got there, a few tour boats winding around out there on the waves. the lake is pretty big, much larger than tazawako. we were just on a little bay with big green bluffs holding it in. tottered around there for a while, and sauntered back to the bus again to come home.
the next day, i joined a volunteer thing in the wada neighborhood to make candles and play english games with a bunch of kids from the area, most of whom were reluctant to talk to me, because at the time i had a big red eyeball on account of the trees blooming and whatnot. at least i learned the japanese word for 'conjunctivitis'. we sang songs, melted some crayons and stirred 'em up for the candles, and one kid taught me some kanji for a while. i walked back to school with a few people, taking the long way through some rice paddies and a shrine, working up a beastly sweat. later that day, had a picnic out in a little patio area, and lit off some more fireworks. this time some of them whistled, spun, and bounced around.
the next event of note was a trip out to a tree planting ceremony somewhere out in the middle of the prefecture, a big deal whith the emperor attending and everything. we all had to wear our ridiculous official event baseball caps, badges, and prove to security guards that our cameras were not in actuality secret spy bomb devices. so sat there in the damned sun for several hours while people danced around or sang and whatnot, all of which i could not see behind the thousands of people wearing the ridiculous official hats. then the emperor came out for a while, and we all went bananas, waving around little paper japanese flags. after that, we were ushered over to the tree planting area to spread some dirt around, and filed back on the bus for home. when we got back to school, i had exactly 9 minutes to get ready and run back out to the bus bound for the station for some plans i made with 3 japanese ladies (yeah, thats right, me and three lovely japanese ladies, people). we went out to a really great little cafe/bar/restaurant place called "aoi tori", or "bluebird". it was a quiet old place with scuffed up wooden furniture, book cases and plants along the walls, and a strong smell of chocolate wafting out from the little kitchen area in the corner. we had a big, multi-course dinner of italian-ish stuff (pasta and pizza, but with japanese ingredients, like full wasabi leaves in the salad) and just relaxed and talked about general whatnot for a while - studying abroad, differences between japanese and american people, and my abiding little crush on the country as a whole, and most of its people individually.
some other stuff what happened was yet another birthday party for a taiwanese friend, a surprise deal with a treasure hunt and everything, followed by about ten plates of appetizers, strange card games, and some running around out in the dark playing some half assed tag. also, recently, because it's getting so damned hot here, i went off to the local river to wade around in the water for a little while, sliding around on the rocky riverbed, and finally getting a little use out of the snazzy swimming trunks i brought with me.
coming up soon, what the hell.... erm... party tonight for someone from fall semester who's here for a few days visiting, and also, there is a little clump of 'summer program' people who have dropped in for 6 weeks of japanese study, mostly from singapore, so maybe i'll get to talk to a few of them. kind of a wierd time for a new group to be coming in, right when most people are thinking about the end of the semester, which is coming way too fast.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Shabilly-shabi-shashin
these pictures: indoor picnic party in the cafeteria for one of my taiwainese friends, party in the little student lounge for a mongolian friend's birthday, the monkeys lounging about on monkey mountain (or "saruyama" in japanese), another party (one of maybe three or four) for the mongolian guy, and the middle school kids welcoming us.
Sugoku Taisetsu da kara Yoku Oboite
well, yes... it's time to try and figure out where i've been for the last few weeks. no big trips or special school events or anything, but they've been pretty dang decent, making little spur of the moment plans and hanging out in various rooms with various peoples.
took another short trip to a middle school in the area which had a total of around thirty students. played some english games and ate lunch with them. asked some of the simple questions i can manage about their families and the things that they like or have done recently. there was also a middle school that came here for a tour and some group english discussion. one of my groups was lagging a little, so i spiced it up by asking if they new any bad words in english, and about four 12 year olds excitedly yelled "fuck!", but i don't think anyone else heard.
a few days later, a japanese friend who is in the middle of her study abroad year in america came back for a visit during her summer break, so folks that know her here spent a few nights going out on the town or hanging out in dorm rooms drinking and talking 'till we couldn't manage to stay awake anymore.
there have also been a rash of birthday parties lately, so i've been out to an all you can eat itallian place, had an indoor picnic, and ingested more cake and plum sake than my bowels can contend with. for some reason, all you can eat places are called "viking" here. did vikings eat more than any group in the history of the world? really, though, like five or six birthdays in 3 weeks.
one of the study abroad students has gotten his hands on a car, so we can do things like decide we want to go get chocolate and donuts after dinner, and then just head off to the damn mall and stock up on junk, and last week, because of the depressing cafeteria food, a group went out to ichi no tori, the really great yakitori place in the cramped, cool area of akita city, for piles of the most wonderful damn chicken i've ever gnawed off the end of a stick, and a big, hot bowl of confoundingly satisfying nabe.
also went to the zoo for a little while somewhere in there. we got there pretty late, so we had to rush through a little bit, guided by scent to the monkey mountain section, where we watched the pissed off, bored chimps lay around and half heartedly groom eachother. we were also grunted at by a giant, frothing, horned thing from africa and stared at by some prarie dogs, turtles and lions. i likes me some aminils, but zoos can be pretty solemn places sometimes.
yup. so i guess that's where i've been... eating pasta and sitting crosslegged on people's floors. i'll scrape together some decent pictures from the last few weeks.
took another short trip to a middle school in the area which had a total of around thirty students. played some english games and ate lunch with them. asked some of the simple questions i can manage about their families and the things that they like or have done recently. there was also a middle school that came here for a tour and some group english discussion. one of my groups was lagging a little, so i spiced it up by asking if they new any bad words in english, and about four 12 year olds excitedly yelled "fuck!", but i don't think anyone else heard.
a few days later, a japanese friend who is in the middle of her study abroad year in america came back for a visit during her summer break, so folks that know her here spent a few nights going out on the town or hanging out in dorm rooms drinking and talking 'till we couldn't manage to stay awake anymore.
there have also been a rash of birthday parties lately, so i've been out to an all you can eat itallian place, had an indoor picnic, and ingested more cake and plum sake than my bowels can contend with. for some reason, all you can eat places are called "viking" here. did vikings eat more than any group in the history of the world? really, though, like five or six birthdays in 3 weeks.
one of the study abroad students has gotten his hands on a car, so we can do things like decide we want to go get chocolate and donuts after dinner, and then just head off to the damn mall and stock up on junk, and last week, because of the depressing cafeteria food, a group went out to ichi no tori, the really great yakitori place in the cramped, cool area of akita city, for piles of the most wonderful damn chicken i've ever gnawed off the end of a stick, and a big, hot bowl of confoundingly satisfying nabe.
also went to the zoo for a little while somewhere in there. we got there pretty late, so we had to rush through a little bit, guided by scent to the monkey mountain section, where we watched the pissed off, bored chimps lay around and half heartedly groom eachother. we were also grunted at by a giant, frothing, horned thing from africa and stared at by some prarie dogs, turtles and lions. i likes me some aminils, but zoos can be pretty solemn places sometimes.
yup. so i guess that's where i've been... eating pasta and sitting crosslegged on people's floors. i'll scrape together some decent pictures from the last few weeks.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Bunpo wa Tadashi demo Yoku Tsukawanai
dutdutdutdutdut...the last couple weeks...golden week came and went pretty quickly. most people took off for travels, and a lot of the japanese students went home to work or be with families, so the population was a little sparse here for a while. took the bus trip to kakunodate and tazawako on a cold, windy, rainy day, were shepherded through some buildings with crafts and whatnot, took a tour of a samurai house which for some reason has displays of grammaphones, cameras, and medical textbook drawings in part of it, and then set off in different directions to wander around the town. i met the bad ass ojisan with the giant beard for the third time. this time around he was out in front of the udon shop he is always sitting in and he was selling big bins full of his detailed little paintings of kakunodate, organized by season. he seemed like he had a fever, hangover, empty stomach, and a broken heart all falling in on him, so i didn't talk to him much. took off for tazawako where it was too cold and rainy to stand around by the lake for too long, and trudged up a nearby hilllside to catch a little bit of a view through some trees. came back down, bought something hot to drink next to the little tourist complex of food stands and souvenir shops, got back on the bus, and headed back to school.
later that week, i walked to a local shrine with a first year student, and the next day or thereabouts, went into the city to show her and a friend of hers some of my favorite spots in akita city, wandering, eating and suchlike out over the river, through the crowded night life area and looping around back to the station. there was also a takoyaki party in there somewhere. a big group of the first year students got together in the kitchen with a few takoyaki grills, little square things with 20 or so half spheres for the batter, and proceded to cook maybe four or five hundred takoyaki balls over the course of a few hours. i ate maybe 498 of the 500, so my stomach was straight jacked for the rest of the evening, which of course didn't stop me from joining the nabe party, which began about an hour after the takoyaki party ended, and slurping up a few bowls of that.
the weekend after golden week, i went with a group to happocho for an overnight english teaching/ hiking trip. we stayed in a training facility with bedrooms and a gymnasium right on the coast of the sea of japan, got fed dinner and the next morning's breakfast, and then headed out pretty early to a tiny elementary school with only 38 students from 1st to 6th grade. played some english games, sang songs, practiced greetings, introduced our home towns, and they played a big marching band song for us on drums, accordians and recorders. they also made sketches of our faces and showed us a little practice run of their upcoming sports matsuri, running a relay race and dancing around with giant, bright flags. after the school, we drove up the side of a mountain to a trail head and were guided through the woods by a guy wearing full fatigues and a big, thick survival vest with about 12 pockets for knives an who knows what the hell else, and he told us about the things growing on the mountain, and how they're used by people and animals. i saw a big pile of salamander eggs sitting just under the surface of a little swamp and bear claw marks on half the trees, some of which are around 400 years old. came back from all that stuff, exhausted from the hike, and went up to the auditorium to watch another super rock fest blowout which lasted for four hours, left early to hang out in a norwegian's room, and then wandered through the lobby at around 4am talking to some pretty spectacularly drunk folks, which always warms the heart, does it not?
the next day, had a party in the tatami house across the street for the voleyball club. more beverages, blathering, popcorn throwing, and consoling of first year students who went a little too fast with the hooch.
and now it's now and i am without obligation for the time being, until this evening, when i have to sit around and work on a group presentation about the definition of happiness. i will throw chocolate at people during the presentation.
later that week, i walked to a local shrine with a first year student, and the next day or thereabouts, went into the city to show her and a friend of hers some of my favorite spots in akita city, wandering, eating and suchlike out over the river, through the crowded night life area and looping around back to the station. there was also a takoyaki party in there somewhere. a big group of the first year students got together in the kitchen with a few takoyaki grills, little square things with 20 or so half spheres for the batter, and proceded to cook maybe four or five hundred takoyaki balls over the course of a few hours. i ate maybe 498 of the 500, so my stomach was straight jacked for the rest of the evening, which of course didn't stop me from joining the nabe party, which began about an hour after the takoyaki party ended, and slurping up a few bowls of that.
the weekend after golden week, i went with a group to happocho for an overnight english teaching/ hiking trip. we stayed in a training facility with bedrooms and a gymnasium right on the coast of the sea of japan, got fed dinner and the next morning's breakfast, and then headed out pretty early to a tiny elementary school with only 38 students from 1st to 6th grade. played some english games, sang songs, practiced greetings, introduced our home towns, and they played a big marching band song for us on drums, accordians and recorders. they also made sketches of our faces and showed us a little practice run of their upcoming sports matsuri, running a relay race and dancing around with giant, bright flags. after the school, we drove up the side of a mountain to a trail head and were guided through the woods by a guy wearing full fatigues and a big, thick survival vest with about 12 pockets for knives an who knows what the hell else, and he told us about the things growing on the mountain, and how they're used by people and animals. i saw a big pile of salamander eggs sitting just under the surface of a little swamp and bear claw marks on half the trees, some of which are around 400 years old. came back from all that stuff, exhausted from the hike, and went up to the auditorium to watch another super rock fest blowout which lasted for four hours, left early to hang out in a norwegian's room, and then wandered through the lobby at around 4am talking to some pretty spectacularly drunk folks, which always warms the heart, does it not?
the next day, had a party in the tatami house across the street for the voleyball club. more beverages, blathering, popcorn throwing, and consoling of first year students who went a little too fast with the hooch.
and now it's now and i am without obligation for the time being, until this evening, when i have to sit around and work on a group presentation about the definition of happiness. i will throw chocolate at people during the presentation.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Cow Island
these are: the people at the welcome party, and several shots from the cherry blossom viewing in senshu koen.
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