My Brother is A Funny Guy
Mood:  silly
Here is my brother's reply to a birthday present that I sent him recently:

Mary: "Did you get my package?"
Brother: "Yes indeed I did! The little toys are cute And the whistle candies are a hoot! The kamikaze cigarets are weird. I tried to eat one with the paper on. I guess that's not right... Then I came to the little girl with the foil pouches. First I thought it was some sort of pez thing that I couldn't work so I was going to eat the candies in the foil pouches. After a closer examination of the box I discovered that there was a picture of a toy similar to the little girl. In the picture the toy was jumping up and down and waving its hands. Well that's weird... Pez dispensers don't wave their hands or jump up and down! What the heck is going on here??? Maybe I'd better not eat it! Well I finally got the little girl to come apart and then it became apparent that you are to trap the little pill from the foil pouch into the little girls head. Then I guessed you dipped her in water because it just sat on the table and looked at me. After dipping her in a glass of water she did indeed jump up and down but I never saw her raise her hands. Then there's the little bottle of beads..... What to do..... Should I eat them? I'm not sure. Ok the label has a picture of an almost naked girl with clam shells on her boobs. The label says, "Enjoy Your Life," and P?agra. What does that mean??? I also saw bubbles around the girl so I thought maybe it's bubble bath... I dropped some in the water glass left over from the little girl experiment and they just faded the color off and sat there. I wasn't sure where to go from there. I'm still not. Am I supposed to eat the darn things or take a bath in them? Or do they have some other purpose I haven't even guessed yet?"

So maybe this gives you a bit of an idea what my day to day life is in Japan!

Friday, March 12th
Graduation Day for san nenseis
More later.

A Kick in the Pants, NOT!
Mood:  irritated
I don't know the whole story, but from what i gather there was a crowd of boys outside one of the bathrooms this morning. One of my favorite men teachers probably got in some kind of discussion with them. One of the boys came up from behind and kicked him in the pants! It doesn't appear to have injured more than his pride if that. There doesn't seem to be any consequences although I just heard that the teacher is reporting the incident to the police. The boy doesn't have a mother it seems and his father "is not such a good father." Later in the day this same boy did a jump kick right at a woman teacher's face. Wow, I can't help but think about what the repercusions would have been in the states.....While in Japan....don't pass judgements. It's difficult sometimes.

Another First
Mood:  cool
Monday morning I discovered to my suprise a 1/2 inch of frozen snow on my bicycle seat at 7:30am. I found myself cheerily scraping ice off the seat before I headed for work. I suddenly realized that it was very similar to scraping my windshield in Spokane, but this is a much smaller area! hah.

It's Snowing!
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Is it spring yet?
What a great weekend to have food poisoning! As i look out the window it looks like i'm in one of those glass balls that you shake up and the snow just whirls around inside. It's been snowing off and on all day and i'm as cozy as a bug in a rug. This is the second case of food poisoning since I've been in Japan. I guess that's not too bad since I'll try anything once and there's so much to try.

I've learned to lay low and drink lots of fluids. Chicken broth and yogurt and ginger work wonders and time is the best healer. It's actually so relaxing to have nothing to do except look out the window and watch nature do her thing. I'm reading many different books. "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword" is an interesting study of Japanese culture done in the mid 40's. It's giving me fascinating insights into the traditions that i'm experiencing here. It has helped put a few pieces of the puzzle together. Just finished Ursula LeGuinn's "The Telling" which is great sci fi about book burning in the future (always a good thought provoking theme). I'm reading Pat McManus for a few healthy, healing laughs. Then there's a book on Shin Buddhism that is a bit meaty, and I take it up only when i can digest it. Genji is a "manga" (comic book style) of an ancient Japanese love story. I'm so happy to have discovered kid's comics written in English. This gives me a chance to peer into a bit of the fantasy world of the kids here.
So it's time for chicken soup and i've rented "The Two Towers" to veg out on tonight. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Is it spring yet?

CHECK OUT PHOTOS
Mood:  cool
JUST A REMINDER THAT YOU CAN SEE LOTS OF PHOTOS ON MY WEBPAGE. JUST CLICK ON THE LINK AND TO GET BACK TO THE JOURNAL USE YOUR "BACK" ARROW AT THE TOP OF THE SCREEN.
Mary's Webpage

Broken Mirror
Now Playing: Unlucky
I'm walking down the hall talking to about four 3rd grade boys. Light, funny, laughing. When out flys a foot and there goes the hall mirror. It's about 4-5 feet tall. I'm guessing, at least, a $100 mirror. Not excusing him, but I think that he was just kicking randomly at the wall. He sure looked surprised to see the mirror crack in half. I think this is the same kid that came in yesterday with bloodied knuckles. Interesting to watch these kids.

Doll Festival/Girl's Day
Now Playing: Hina Matsuri
A doll festival held every year on March 3, has its origins in a Chinese purification rite in which known or unknown evils were transferred to doll surrogates (katashiro), which were then cast into a river. However, since the modern equivalent of these dolls are now very costly, exquisitely-made works of art in themselves, no one would dream of even playing with them, let alone throwing them in the river.
A girl usually receives a set of hina dolls from her parents or grandparents at birth or on her first birthday, and these traditionally become a part of the bridal trousseau. The dolls are displayed on a five or seven-tiered shelf (hina-dan), with the place of honor going to the highly-valued emperor (odairi-sama) and empress (ohina-sama) dressed in ancient court costumes. In attendance on lower shelves are ministers and other dignitaries, court ladies and musicians. Miniature lacquered dinner sets, tea ceremony utensils, musical instruments, palanquins and other furnishings of court life are also displayed, and with a folding screen in place behind the emperor and empress and two lanterns on either side, the hina dolls are indeed a sight to behold.
However, as mentioned before, the dolls are now for viewing only and the day is celebrated in front of the display with white sake (shirozake) and rice cakes called hishimochi. A type of sushi without raw fish (chirashi-zushi) and shellfish soup are also traditionally eaten on this day. As leaving the dolls out after Mach 3rd is considered unlucky and might delay a girl's marriage, they are packed away immediately following the festival, not to be seen until the next Hina Matsuri.
Maybe we should have such a tradition with Christmas trees!

Put on Your Rose Colored Glasses
"I always hated the first day of school when I was a kid. The transition to first grade was the worst. I was petrified of "not knowing." Not knowing if I would fit in or if my yellow submarine lunch box would be considered cool or dorky. Not knowing where I would sit or who would talk to me. I wanted to be back in the familiar surroundings of Mrs. Hathaway's kindergarten class.
But after a few days (and a new lunch box), first grade was ever-so-much cooler than kindergarten and I relaxed into my second-row seat behind my new friend, Jorgen.
That same fear visited me when we crossed the border from Romania to Bulgaria. I crossed from a country where after a month of cycling, I felt very comfortable, to a country as daunting as Mrs. Burger's first-grade classroom.
In Bulgaria, I was demoted to the "slow learners" group. I didn't know my numbers. I didn't know how to ask for bread or properly say "hello." (I thought I knew how to say "thank you," but blank stares of incomprehension were the only response I got.) Hell, I didn't even know how to read, as Bulgarian is written in Cyrillic script. It was back to phonics lessons.
Bulgaria was hot, brown and dirty. I saw fields of dying sunflowers, trash on the side of the road, homes without flower gardens. Little kids and old women peered suspiciously from behind doors. The August heat beat down and reflected off the pavement and the communist-era concrete block apartment buildings.
I wanted to be back in the green hills of Transylvania where I knew how to ask for directions and order coffee (with milk). Where I knew my numbers well enough to haggle the price if need be, and where I could at least pronounce the road signs.
Then yesterday, after my twenty-third attempt at saying "thank you" in Bulgarian, the merchant grinned, almost smiled, as he handed back my change, and a family waved when I said "good day." I had been understood.
Soon thereafter I began to notice the beautiful groves of oak trees in between the brown fields. I enjoyed the unique sound the wooden cartwheels made as they wobbled down the rutted pavement. Looks of suspicion I now viewed as curiosity and flowers appeared where none had been before.
Just as in first grade, REALITY HADN'T CHANGED, ONLY THE WAY I LOOKED AT IT.
Today it is back to school. We are learning how to count. Our teachers are a group of Bulgarian school kids who laugh with us at our mistakes. Today we will learn to count to ten, and Bulgaria will be a cooler, greener, more friendly country for it."
From a book: "Spokesongs" by Willie Weir.

I hope this gives you an idea what it's like to live in a foreign country. Willie says it so much better than I ever could.

Kocho-sensei
Mood:  blue
Kocho-sensei is our principal at Masago. He is such a wonderful person. Always cheerful and happy with a joke to tell, and a kind word for everyone, staff or student. We had an assembly this afternoon for the whole school and he sang two songs to the san-nenseis (third graders). It was a touching way to say "goodbye." (They are graduating next week!)
How sad to go back to the office and find out that all four tires on his car were slashed today. I don't get it. He does absolutely no discipline that I know of so I can't understand why anyone would want to do harm to him. The U.S. does not have a corner on the market for stupid, insane acts.

Buddhism in Japan
Mood:  special
Sunday afternoon on a lazy day in Japan. It's been raining all morning. This afternoon, Yokoyama-sensei was so gracious to drive down the mountain and pick me up. She took me to her home and newly built Tendai temple just above my apartment. She is a true inspiration and we got to pray together in her temple and then sit and drink tea and converse. I got just a taste of her truly remarkable life. First as a married woman with children teaching Japanese to foreigners with the YWCA. She amazingly found Buddhism by studying the Bible. It's a long story but she is now a married woman, Buddhist monk, with her own temple (the only Tendai temple in Nishinomiya). The temple which she built herself just two years ago sits next to a wonderful old 3-story home that houses her sister and husband, herself and her parents. I feel so honored and lucky to be able to talk with someone who is living the Buddhist tradition so thoroughly. I hope to attend some services at her temple in the future. They are on the 1st and 18th of every month, so I must watch for when these dates fall on a weekend so that I can go. wow.