Snow

The Weather Outside is Frightful

It snowed today, and hailed, and rained. It was waves of wintery mix, though it never came down all at once. It refused to stick to the ground, but was really coming down for a while.

So much for Fall.

Happy Halloween

After the movie and lunch Jessi returned to her costume making and I to my room. I desperately needed a shave and had forgotten to get to it before going to see the elementary school children. Though where I had thought facial hair would frighten then a little, they actually seem fascinated by it. My beard has received a fair share of tugs since coming to Japan.

I may not have mentioned this, but there is no electrical outlet in my bathroom, and I use an electric razor, shaving therefore is a task for a hand mirror and a plastic bag while on the floor. Still it is a simple pleasure I enjoy.

I dawdled in my room until dinner time where everyone was to meet, and after dinner ducked into an empty room to change into my Halloween outfit. A super hero costume of my own design, complete with a 80's sentai scarf seeing as it is Japan. I hid a small speaker up my sleeve and hid the control for it in my glove, and thus had my own theme music which was on a loop of "I Need a Hero", "Kryptonite", and "Thriller".



As I waited for Jessi, I noticed a damsel in distress, a girl was frustrated at a dull eyeliner pencil. "If only someone had a pencil sharpener". Being a writer major, I natuarally had one in my bag and was able to save the day. It wasn't long before Jessi arrived, and her Can Can girl outfits really knocked everyone's socks off.


Truly outstanding costumes, complete with garters.



The entirety of the campus seemed done up in awesome costumes, which you'll see next time on . . . my blog.

-Mack

Happy Halloween

Halloween descended upon AIU on October 30th this year. My roomate left on a trip to Tokyo, and my beautiful girlfriend had class Friday morning, and I was left alone in my room to sleep in, as I have Friday's off. Alone in my thoughts I pondered how the day would proceed, how the following days would proceed. I had no engagements untill noon, where Jessi, myself, and a group of exchange students would go to a local elementary school to explain Halloween to the little kids. We'd return in time to watch Porco Rosso in my Manga Mania class, one of my favorite Miyazaki films. Later, there was a Halloween Party to attend followed by a wishy-washy conglomeration of plans.

It was going to be a good weekend. The 31st is my Birthday, and Halloween. Jessi was up to something so I decided to go with the flow. Whatever was going to happen would be a suprise though, I felt a little left in the dark, but trusted to let things play out according to other people's plans.

As I got into my costume perhaps I overly brooded on this feeling that thing might collapse without my intervention, but going to the elementary school melted those brooding feelings away.

The group was given bags of candy and we followed the Principal around the school. Our leision from AIU would explain some parts of Halloween to the kids. Mostly that you go up to strangers, say "Trick or Treat" and they will give you candy. So we each had some candy and would go up to the kids. Some would yell "Trick or Treat", while others were so afraid they barely murmoured. It was adorable. I was dress as a super hero, and Jessi was in her witches outfit. I had also brought my juggling balls, and when our liason would prompt me I would put on a little show for the kids. There were 6 grades in all. After we had gone to every classroom and given out candy, the principle gave us each two huge Akita apples. Honestly given a choice between the apples and candy I'd go with the apples, I made apple fritters a while ago and they were delicious. I have delicious plans for those apples. As we waved good bye to the kids they leapt onto their unicycles and showed off in the gym, because the Japanese government says that every elementary school child should be able to ride a unicycle, apparently.

We returned to AIU in plenty of time for the movie, however Jessi had work to do, work that I needn't necessarily worry about she told me. I watched the first hour of Miyazaki's sea plane story piece and marvalled at it potency. Jessi came to my side as we watched the daring escape of Porco through canals in Milan, I could tell that she had been hard at work, I was curious, and I would continue to be curious for the rest of the weekend.

You'll see why soon.

Note Pad

To ensure I don't forget anything I need to make a few notes. A lot has been going on these past couple of days and I just need to free form the ideas. This will be coming up later. Also looking at the number this should by blog entry #68 not bad for 65 days in Japan, definately not a post a day, nor consistant length, but Jessi and I both are pretty proud of what we've been able to share with you guys. Thanks for reading!


Coming Soon
host family, road trip, plane otaku, homemade sushi, so much mochi flour, vegetables, a mountain of vegetables, people just handing them to me, ranch near chokai, fresh milk, ice cream, CHEESE SUKIYAKI, full kitchen, Halloween coming up, halloween costumes, sharing customs, little children, trick or treater's, Japanese conversation friend, Chess rules, zazen? no wait did that, new chair, new pillow, halloween party, arcade trick, manga soko, new clothes, did I mention costuming, roomate is going away for the weekend, bills to be made, plans to be made, a good book, tests and mid terms, Porko Rosso, procrastination and Miyazaki movies. All this and more, on upcoming blog posts, plus pictures and videos.


-Mack

Adventure to the "Other" (University)

Alert the authorities, Jessi is making a blog post.  But please, don't panic.  Mack is still alive, I swear.

Today I had one of my longest adventures "sans Mack".  While he was off doing who-knows-what with his host family (I don't know because he's not back yet), I travelled to Akita City for Akita University's school festival.

AU (not AIU) is the regular, Japanese university for Akita.  I don't even know if they have international students, but it would not surprise me if the number is few to none.  For those Ithacan readers out there, the comparison between AIU and Akita University is like that of Ithaca College and Cornell.  Bigger campus, developed campus, more crowded, better funding.

Anyways, I was to perform with my choir, as well as AIU's Yatose club.  So 10:00AM on this Sunday morning, I packed up my tambourine, saw Mack off to his own adventure, and hopped on the bus to the train station with my fellow choir members.

When we got to the station, we still had about 30 minutes until the train came.  I passed the time running through our songs in my head, while occasionally helping out some of the Japanese girls with reading English.  Apparently a group of them had a major test coming up based on a reading comprehension book, not unlike one we used in AP English classes.  As the single non-Japanese member of choir, I become the go-to person for English pronunciation and definitions.

One train ride to Akita city later, and the group splits up for lunch and shopping before we head to the festival.  After much deliberation (partially caused by my limited cash on hand), I am lead by a group into an alleyway and to an off-the-beaten-path restaurant.  I'm learning that in Japan, these are the best kinds...

In the resturaunt the six of us sit down (on the floor!) at a table and we get right down to ordering (by we, I of course mean them.  I merely supplied helpful phrases like "I don't eat fish." and "Yes, I like shrimp/cheese/etc" when asked).  

What we got was a bowl of stuff: cabbages, meats, veggies, and an egg.  Time to make okonomiyaki!!!  

Okonomiyaki is a food from Osaka (!!!!!) sometimes known as Japanese pizza.  But really it's nothing like pizza.  I'd actually say it's closer to a latke, but anyways...  I saw it on "No Reservations" once (Thank you Mom and Dad...), so I was really excited to try it!

As it was my first time, I was given the "honor" of mixing the ingredients, then dumping the resulting goop onto a hot iron grill built into the center of our table.  After a while, the other girls again gave me the honor of "flipping" the pizza, like a pancake.  They got a kick out of it when it preceded to fall apart on landing impact.

Anyways, what resulted was a horrifying looking, absolutely delicious fried mash-up of goodness, not unlike what you see below.  

We had a total of 4: regular(?), tofu, cheese, and shrimp, between the six of us.  I will definitely have to go to this place again, with someone who can read the menu...

Finally, the festival.

The choir performance went well.  The stage and the crowd were small.  We weren't on the main stage (if there was one, I'm not sure) like at the AIU festival.  But we got through all our songs and the crowd seemed to enjoy it.  I didn't screw up too bad on the tambourine, or my solo for that matter.  Yup, I had a solo.  (Apparently I had to leave the country to get one, but it was bound to happen if you sing long enough.)  I was very nervous, but it was short and I knew it well.  So all was well.

Sadly, I didn't realize the choir performance and Yatose performance overlapped in times until I got to the festival.  So I didn't get to perform with our Yatose group.  But there was a "free dance" period later on, where all the Yatose groups danced together.

This was likely the highlight of my day.  Over a hundred people of all ages, little girls to obaa-sans (grandmothers), men and women, a rainbow of colored costumes.  All dancing the same dance, for the pure joy and energy of dancing.  I was really excited when the first "free dance" was the same dance our group usually performs, so I was able to join right in.  The second dance, called "Power dance!" I didn't know, but I did my best to keep up.  Then, everyone was having so much fun, we did the first dance again!  I may have been the only foreigner in the dance, but I think I held my own. :)

All in all, an awesome day.  It was long, and terrifying being without Mack or someone to translate for me all the time.  But I think I will sleep well tonight and dream of dancing.  Dokai dokai dokaisho!

ZaZen

Darkness Falls
This evening I participated in a ZaZen meditation workshop. Before getting to the workshop I slowly discovered that there would be no transportation to this place. I knew where it was, about a 30 minute walk from campus. Normally this would not be so bad, but by 5:30 it was as dark as Midnight out. Jessi went out to dinner with her Tea Ceremony group, so I was a little apprehensive about walking 30 minutes in the dark without street lights to a place I kinda knew about alone.

I was considering not going, when I met an equally confused student, and as a team we decided to forge through the dark wildernesse, just for the heck of it.

I'm late for a very important date

We ended up getting to the workshop about 20 minutes late, so we missed pretty much all of the explanation of what the significance of ZaZen is, how ZaZen is different from normal Zen, and good practices for meditation. The two of us came in, pretty much when the master was saying "Let's begin".

So we went from being lost and confused, and not at all sure if we were in the right place, to sitting in a tatami mat room staying perfectly still and meditating. We followed everyone else movements. I managed to hold a basic lotus position for 20 minutes, which felt kind of good. As we meditated the sensei paced around the room with a stick. The stick's purpose was not menacing I found out. After about 15 minutes I began to slouch a little, and I suddenly found that stick against my back, with friendly hands pulling my shoulders upwards, thus aiding my posture.

Afterwards there was tea, sweets, and some arts and crafts. It actually felt very much like a church in atmosphere simply with different traditions and teachings, but it was still a community. I was glad I managed to go, and passing through the shadow of night was quite worth it.

Happo Cho

Last Weekend I visited the city of Happo Cho, AIU has set up a program to go an visit schools in the area to introduce their students to foreign visitors. I went with 6 others to visit an elementary school. The program only accepted a certain number of students into the program, and I got in but Jessi did not. On the way back to her though I bought cake, and all was well.

In this program, the students came to us. There were 6 of us foreign students and we sat in chairs inside this gym, and the Japanese elementary students came to us.



There were three "classes", where 1-2 students came, then 3-4, and finally 5-6. The all lined up in front of us, and they all brought their own chairs from classrooms. We introduced ourselves and the teachers led us on towards repeating some english phrases for the students. Which was followed by a kind of game.




We played Fruits Basket which is kind of like musical chairs. Everyone gets assigned a word of some sort, and is gathered 'round in a circle with chairs. There's enough chairs for everyone except for one person, who has to go into the center. That person calls out a word, and everyone who has that word has to move to a different seat. If you call "Fruits Basket" everyone has to change.


Also they had unicycles . . .



At lunch time us college students were seperated and had lunch with the kids. This was a great experiance. I had some conversations with the kids, and they dragged me all over the school to show me stuff. I couldn't always understand them but they were very talkative.

As the dragged me around, they showed me their stilts. . .


The group of girls who were using the stilts, gathered altogether and as I was trying to figure out how to use the stilts they would ask me a question every now and again. The asked me if I had a girlfriend, and when I said yes, they applauded. Wasn't quite sure how to take that . . .


These kids I spend some time with after lunch, during "reading time". Instead of reading I taught them basic juggling. I had brought my balls with me, and when I had made my self introduction I did a bit of juggling for the class. The kids really got into it, and many got the basic concept, pretty good but one kid nearly had it in under 15 minutes. I love teaching kids how to juggle.


It was sad to leave them, but on the way back to the university there was a beautiful sunset. I hope that I will have a chance to see those kids again, but even if I don't I hope I was able to have a positive impact on their lives.