Traditional Japanese Dance
Mood:  bright
Fujima style Japanese dance.

One of the ladies at the Sogo Center, our main office, gives me free tickets every once in awhile. These tickets were too good to pass up. They were 5,000 yen each so I asked my friend Miki if she wanted to go. She was thinking of having her husband come and so called the number on the ticket to try to purchase an extra one for him. Miki told the woman that she had never been to a traditional Japanese dance like this. The woman was so impressed that she sent Miki two more free tickets! So I invited another teacher friend, Reiko. Atsuo, Miki's husband, couldn't make it so it was just we 3 girls. The theatre is in Osaka and is a Bunraku Theatre, a form of puppet theatre but this was a special performance of students of the Fujima style of dancing. I have to describe just a bit of the dancing but you really had to be there. One of the dances was a Spring Blossom dance. Paper petals floated down from the ceiling onto the stage. The little girl appeared to be about 12 years old to me. I was told later that this was a woman dancing this role. She sure fooled me! Traditional Japanese instruments accompanied the dancers. Sometimes I really enjoyed the music and sometimes it was very foreign to me - almost Tibetan or Chinese. One of my favorite dances was a story about a husband and wife quarreling. The baby is upset that they are angry and the grandmother tries to intervene. Now, realize that I'm just guessing on all this because even Miki and Reiko who are native speakers couldn't understand the words! Anyway, the husband and wife, we think were supposed to represent thunder and lightning - a very stormy dance. There were another few dances that involved what is called "hyagawari" a man slips in backstage of a dancer and pulls some strings on her kimono and with one swift jerk, voila, her kimono is ripped off to reveal a second colorful kimono underneath. Now that was impressive! One kimono would be hot. I can't imagine dancing in two layers of all that material on stage. Plus the material around her waist never moves. There was a dance involving a sake god, I think, and a lion with red, yellow and white streamers that reminded me of a Chinese dance. There were two spectacular dancers in orange costumes with flowing red wigs. Not sure who they were supposed to be but wow were they colorful! I just kept thinking about all my dancing buddies who would have loved this performance. Lucky me.


Saturday, March 20th
Lasagne for my Japanese friends

I got brave and made lasagna for two of my favorite Japanese families today. Sasaki sensei is one of my all-time favorite English teachers. He is also the coach of the Hamakoshien baseball team that I've written so much about. He has two young boys and it was a pleasure to have him and his wife and kids to dinner. Also, I've written about the Osawa's in the past. They have three boys; two are twins, and a girl as well - big family. Taku was at English camp this summer, and we hit it off from the start. He is a very determined boy who really loves speaking English. Taku and his twin brother, Shin, are in baseball club, so I watched them play many games last year. Mr. Osawa is a baseball fanatic and every game that I went to I was happy to visit with Tamie, his wife and him. I was a bit nervous fixing a dinner for 5 adults and 5 kids but I think that everyone enjoyed themselves. Tamie brought some wonderful hors d'oeuvres so I didn't have to worry about that. There weren't many leftovers and I ended up with a bottle of sake so that ain't bad, eh?

Bangladesh food in Japan
Mood:  hungry
Sunday is a "light jacket" day! Yahoo. It feels a little warm in the sunshine and that is wonderful. I went to a cooking class today with my friend, Didik. Our friend, Siddique-san was the teacher. He taught us to make two different types of curries from Bangladesh. Also a red lentil dish that consists of mashed red lentils mixed with shredded cabbage, spices and a bit of flour. Then this thick mixture is spooned into hot oil and deep-fried. Wow, what a taste sensation! We had 6 cooking stations of about 5-6 people at each station. We cooked all our own food. What fun. My group had two women who spoke very good English. One is in a "language club" and she has studied a little of 10 different languages. The other woman is an English teacher at both elementary and junior high levels. We had much in common, and i hope to see them again. I gave out all my name cards again. It's a bit overwhelming having so many people wanting to have dinner or lunch with me to practice their English. I give them my card and encourage them to email me. If they email, then i put them on my email list and will invite them to a party at my apartment. I can't possibly go to all the dinners that I'm invited to. I'd weigh 200 pounds before i leave Japan!

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.