Baka Inaka version 2.0

So, for some reason I was having alot of trouble publishing new posts on this blog. I got all frustrated and made a new blog. Well it turns out that there was just a massive delay or maintance going on on the blogger site-- and now everything works fine. Either way- I already created another blog-- so check out the baka inaka version 2.o

Oshima- the haunted island

Oshima is a small island just off the Fukui coast. The island has been home to Ominato Shrine for 3oo hundred years. Fisherman would often go and pray at the shrine for a safe trip and a great catch. A bit south of Oshima is Tojimbo, the famous Fukui cliffs infamous for suicides. Over the years, the bodies of suicide victims have plagued Oshima, washing up on its coast after currents carried the bodies from the Tojimbo cliffs, altering the island’s once peaceful persona into a morbid one. Oshima has come to be known as a haunted island and one of the scariest places in our prefecture, making it the perfect destination for a bunch of drunken JETs in the middle of the night!

It must have been about 3:30 in the morning by the time we reached the coast just opposite the island. I parked my car and five of us got out ready to cross over to the haunted island. The red bridge was only visible for a few feet and then everything dissolved into darkness. I couldn’t even see the island, but I could hear the waves crashing against the rocks. It really did look eerie. If it had been just me I might have had second thoughts, but I didn’t.

We began to cross the bridge. It really did feel like the beginnings of a horror movie. A group of twenty-year-olds going off to a known haunted place in the middle of the night, drinking their liquor—in this case a sake bottle that got passed around—and laughing at the ghost stories. And then, Joe started bleeding. His arm was dripping blood staining his shirt. Ok, so I left out the part where Joe and Colin decided to race across the bridge. It was pitch black ahead so I couldn’t see when Joe fell, but I think Colin went down first and Joe stumbled on the Scotsmen. However it happened, there was blood—just not blood caused by a paranormal force. It was only gravity.

We reached the tori on the island, “the gateway to hell” as Joe called it. There is a special direction you’re supposed to walk around Oshima. Japanese people believed that the bodies of suicide victims washed up on the island because they were drawn to the shrine. The spirits of the dead are stuck, left to roam around the island in a counterclockwise path for eternity. If that’s true, I guess that’s why we walked to the right, so that we’d be going counterclockwise as well, and avoid running into the ghosts. For a more interesting story perhaps we should have headed left instead, but I hadn’t been on the island before so I just followed Joe towards the right.

We walked deeper into the woods of the dark island. The path took us toward a long stairway up, but Joe advised us not to follow them up. It would bring us directly to the shrine on the island, and we wanted to walk around. The path around, brought us close to the coast of the island, and as I listened to the crashing waves I thought of what it would be like to see a corpse washing up on the coast. The waves seemed a bit rough so I’m sure seeing a body being thrashed onto the island would not be a pleasant sight. I admit, although I wasn’t worried about seeing a ghost, seeing a dead body wash up was a concern and not an experience I hope to leave Japan with.

As we continued the walk it was pretty obvious we wouldn’t see anything spooky, well except for one tree that was along the path. When we were down below the lighthouse, the boys quickly darted up the hilly terrain. We went up to follow but one of my flip flops fell off, for like the tenth time, which slowed us down. The boys got a good lead on us, so it was hard to find them in the dark. The only fright of the night was when the boys surprised us by jumping out of the tall grass and bushes that they hid in.

We reached the shrine, and took a picture before heading on. Colin took the lead and we followed. We reached a fork. One path had a long stairway leading down. It sounded like more waves down at the bottom so we figured it was a way down to the edge. The other path continued through the woods. Since we had just reached the shrine at the back of the island, I figured we needed to head around the other side of the island. We had only walked around the edge on the right, not yet on the left. Colin felt we should keep going down the path rather than going down the stairs to the edge. It seemed logical, so we began to follow him when Joe, who was now at the end of the line, stopped us and said we needed to take the stairs. Although, it looked like the stairs seemed like the wrong way, Joe has been out in Mikuni two years if anyone knew the way, he did. So we followed Joe. I figured if he’s wrong we’ll just head back up the stairs and then continue on the path.

At the bottom of the stairs it was clear that he lead us the right way. Ahead of us was the tori and in the distance we could see part of the red bridge. Had we followed Colin we would have walked around in circles on the dark island. Something, I’m sure lots of people do. So if you go to Oshima, remember to head right and at the fork past the shrine take the stairs.

We crossed back over the bridge, letting the island fade into the darkness behind us. Kathy found her beer, that she had lost, on the bridge, and we returned to find Kat safely sleeping in the car- as we had left her. We returned safely, without ever seeing any ghosts. It was a fun drunken night nonetheless, and one of the more memorable nights in Fukui.

Closing Ceremony

At the end of every term here in Japan, the school has a closing ceremony. And as you may have guessed there are also openning ceremonies for every term. The ceremony consists of the Kocho Sensei (or Principal) giving a speech. Usually it's not too long, say 15 minutes. I usually tone it out, it's easy enough since Japanese is not my native language- although every now and then I get thrown off when I hear some English. Like today, Kocho sensei was well into the speech when I the words "plan, do,see" snuck in my ear and disrupted my daydreaming. Had I heard correctly? Did Kocho sensei actually say those three English words? Well, it's not all that suprising. He had been an English teacher, back when he still taught, pre-promotion. If he did, then why? Well, I listened in to the speech for a bit to find out. "Plan,do,see" or "PDS" as Kocho sensei had said, was to be the motto of the students' summer vacation. They were to "plan" not just their summer, but their year ahead after the break, then "do" as they have planned so that they can "see" the results. Kind-of-a plan the seeds and see what grows lecture. Kocho sensei finished, everyone bowed. This is the norm. I know bow unconciously where once it felt odd.

The usual follow-up to Kocho sensei's speech was the singing of the school song. We do this every ceremony, with 6(3 terms so an opening closing ceremony for each) a year- you'd think I'd remember the damn song already. I still don't. I do remember parts, so I sing what I know and pause in places that I don't know. Today's song was probably one of the worst, when we hit the middle almost no one was singing and those that were mummbled through it. Hey don't look at me, I'm just the foreigner-- if they don't know it-- why should I?

Anyway, the ceremony is officially concluded at that-- but there's usually more. I mean, while everyone is in the gym (there's no separte auditorium-- it's an all-in-one) why not get some other shit out of the way. Today the ceremony was followed by a mini award ceremony. Students and teams that placed at the recently held tournaments for school (club) sports teams recieved "awards." Usually it's just an award letter written in calligraphy. If a school team came in on top they get a ribbon of where the game/match was held and the place the team finished in. The ribbon is not given to the students. Instead, it gets tied to a flag. Each sports club at the school has it's own banner. It's kind-of-a neat custom except that I don't think they every wash the banners so their all dusty and old. So the kids that won or the captains of the teams are called. They line up on the side, and then march onto the stage or just in front of it. Ina supper formal version of this ceremony, Kocho sensei hands out the awards on stage, while another teacher calls out the students' names from off-stage. Today, it was less formal, so the students recieved their awards on the sides and then just lined up in front of the stage. A teacher from off on the side called the names out and the students, one at a time, stepped forward and bowed. No one clapped, well.. not until everyone's name was called and then there was clapping that the end. I think they do this so that no one person gets singled out by getting more applause than the others. I don't mind so much, because it cuts out all the extra time and energy for applause, but it's really weird at graduation when you can't applaud anyone until everyone recieves their diploma.

Concluding any ceremony, whether it's opening, closing, sports, whatever-- a teacher comes forward down infront of the stage and lectures the students. This is the lecture/disaplin/ nag the students time. Today's topic-- the school song. The boys volleyball club coach/social studies teacher jogged, (not he jogged-- they never walk out-- well rarely) out to the center down below the stage. He's one of the stricter teachers and often delivers these speeches. He started by calling all the boys from the team he coached to stand and... sing. They did, but it was pitiful so he had them do it a few more times. After that he called the 3rd years (the oldest in the school) then the 2nd and 3rd anf finally the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years to sing. By the end the song sounded better but it still wasn't right. The teacher "incouraged them" to "practice during the summer."

So how do you follow that? Well, for the last speech- the Head Teacher, kind of like the 3rd in comand (following the Principal and Vice) came forward. If the previous speech was delived by the "bad cop" this one was by the "good cop." It was just a congrats on finishing up the 1st term and all the hard work, enjoy the summer, and look towards what lies ahead. It was a nice speech and a good way to finish. He was about to walk off and then he added, some comments of making sure everyone thanks their mothers this summer and help "her with the housework," spend some time studying, and "Don't do drugs."

So there you have it- your typical closing ceremony. Fun times, ha?

Mikropodium, what's that?

On Saturday July 9th, I helped out at
the "I love Harue Project" Kids International Festival in my town. I was asked to run a"corner". At my corner, kids tried singing Polish songs with me. I picked two easy songs and incorportated gestures. it worked out ok, except many of the kids were shy about singing. There was an "Alice's tea party" corner were kids and parents could have tea and cake with Alice and the Queen from "Alice in Wonderland." Other corners had games, balloon animal making, salsa dancing, and a corner about Jordan. There were also two clowns that juggles, walked on stilts, and entertained the crowd. The Kids International Festival was tied into the Mikropodium puppet performance at Heartopia Harue, which was the main event.

I hadn't heard of Mikropodium puppet theatre before, so I was happy when I was offered a ticket to the show. Mikropodium is a type of Hungarian puppetry. The puppets themselves look as if they are made of wood. They are painted and dressed, and the puppetier manipulates the figure using a number of metal wires that are attached to the puppet. The puppets are rather small, and most can fit in the palm of a hand. The puppetier wears all black and stands at a podium that is also sent in black. On top of the podium a small Mikropodium stage is placed, that is the stage that the puppets use. However, the puppetier also moves the puppets in the air for flips and jumps. The show is set to music and the movements of the puppets are co-ordinated to the musical scores that are played, so the puppets do not speak. I'm happy I went to see the performance. I didn't plan on it because I thought it would be too childish, but actually it's very artsy.

The performance wasn't very long, maybe about 30 minutes. It consisted of four or five scenes. There were two scenes about a clown, one about two fish, and two about a ballorina. After the Mikropodium there was another puppet show. The second one was performed by a puppetier from Japan. It was more of the kind of puppet shows I remember as a kid. Well, it was except for the story. The story was about rats and sumo. It was actually really cute, and I was suprised that I could follow all of the Japanese that was spoken. I think both performaces were great, and although it was a day of kiddie events-- I had fun.

Today's the 4th of July-- and unlike last year-- I remembered. It's easy to forget, because in Japan there are no BBQs, no swimming, no drinking, no fireworks, and most importantly no days off from work/school. It sucks to have a work day and miss out an all the patriotic fun. Actually, I usually don't go all out on Independence Day, but it's just the fact that here-- I can't.

I wanted to do something special today, other than setting off fireworks down by the river in Fukui city-- which some of us are gonna do anyway. So I dressed up in red,white, and blue--- and I prepared a fun quiz game about the USA for one of my classes. Most classes have a busy schedule and no free time for any holiday/cultural lessons- except for in one class. The JTE put aside 10 minutes to do any activity. Cool- 10 whole minutes to do something-- that beats not doing anything. I ended out using the whole lesson time for the activity and my JTE didn't mind. So yea, my 4th of July was kinda festive... that is till:

Class 3-6. There's a section in the 3rd year student's books on Hiroshima and the atomic bomb. Well would ya guess, today is when we covered that lesson. During the class the JTE talked about the flood that hit Fukui 2 years ago (cause the anniversary is coming up), next I talked about 9-11, and we followed up with "Mother's Lullaby," the story of a little girl and boy that die under a tree in Hiroshima after the bomb fell. If there's anything to put you n a less patriotic and festive mood-- it's talking about floods, terrorist attacks, and the atomic bomb-- which as we all know America dropped on Japan. It's kinda hard to turn around and be all "Yeay America. Woohoo the 4th of July." So there you have it my 4th of July.

A tie in baseball?

On June 27th, the Hiroshima Carp played against the Hanshin Tigers at Undo koen (park) in Fukui city. I don't like baseball-- hell, I barely know the rules. Until I came to Japan I couldn't tell you how many innings were in a game. Japan ,however, loves baseball. Most of the time when turn on my TV (which I rarely do, except if it's to watch a DVD/video) something baseball related is on. It's either a game, news about the game results, or a TV drama were the ators are watching or playing baseball. I just can't escape it. So, I figured- I might as well see the baseball game. I probably wouldn't bother going to a major stadium to see a game-- but since the teams were coming to the inaka, why not!
It was the first time I ever watched a live baseball game and a first time to watch an entire game. I've caught glimpses on TV, in Japan as well as NJ, but never actually watched an entire game. It was kinda fun, although there was little action. Most of the players struck out at bat- and there were a grand total of 4 runs, two per team. The fun part was not so much watching the game, but being at a live event at an outdoor event, drinking beer, and chatting with friends.
It reminded me alot of WSOU's 15th anniversery, when the college radio station had a massive concert at the Newark stadium where the semi-pro Bear's play. That was the only other time I was inside a baseball stadium, and although there was also drinking and talkin with friend and other WSOU staff (I worked at the station a year) there was no baseball-- instead there were about 20 or 30 bands playing. Damn, that was an awesome day-- Anyway....
Baseball. The highlight of the night was after the 7th inning when tons of Hanshin Tiger fans blew up these long ballons and then let them go. It was pretty cool, but getting hit by a falling balloon would not be. The thought of a slobbery tip were someone had their mouth to fill the balloon with air was pretty gross. Luckly, none of the balloons fell on me. =) So that was good.
At the end of the 9th inning, it was a tie so the game went into the 10th inning. And then into the 11th, followed by a 12th inning-- dragging the game out. At the end of the 12th inning the game was still tied at 2-2. I figured the 13th inning would start-- but no. Instead the teams started to pack up, and the workers went out to clean up the field. What the?? Why bother having three more innings after the 9th- just to end on a tie? If the game was gonna end this way-- they should have stopped it at after the 9th. Whatever-- I don't know baseball, but if you ask me, it was a crappy way to finish the game.

HAMOKON

Each year, the junior high that I work at has a singing contest. Each hoomroom picks a song, that they practice for weeks, and then perform in front of all the students. It's actually graded by the music teachers, and perhaps it's their mid-term. I don't know if all schools do this, but my school does it annually.

All three grade levels have to sing at the harmoney concert. My school has 796 students, so the 3rd and 2nd years sang on Thursday. Friday the 1st years sang and then the best classes (3-3 and 3-4) came back to sing for the 1st years-- who were not at Thursday's concert. The teachers, including me, also sang a song. The teacher's song is always in Japanese- so sometimes I struggle with it. This year,however, I kept up with the teachers.

My first year the Harmony Concert was in the fall, but the following year the school held it in the spring. That worked out well, so this year our Hamokon (as the students call it) was on June 15th and 16th.
Those are girls from homeroom 3-2. That means they are third year (9th grade) students in JHS and they are homeroom #2. Did you notice the sailor outfit? That's what the girl's uniforms look like. I never realized the uniforms really look like that. After I came to Japan, the outfits in the anime Sailor Moon made a lot more sence to me.

Those are a few of the boys from homeroom 3-6. The one on the left is one of my favorite students. He's not really into English but he aways talks to me in Japanese and the few sentences he knows in English, like: "Good Morning, How are you?"

The one new place I went in Tokyo

When I was in Tokyo 5 years ago, there was no Roppongi Hills. Sure Roppongi was there but not the shopping area or the Mori building. Since then I have been there but it wasn't till this last trip to Tokyo that I went up to the observation deck in the Mori Building. The view is really sweet-- and actually i like it more than the view from Tokyo Tower.



The Mori building also has an art muesum on the 52nd floor. I went to check out their exhibit of African arts. It was all contemporary art, or at least I believe that it all was, and many of the pieces were political. I love art, however my knowledge of contemparay art is scarce and I knew nothing of African arts. So I was pleasently suprized by the exhibit at the Mori building.

* Harajuku *

My all time favorite area of Tokyo is Harajuku. That's were all the goths and punks hang out. It's also were you can find shops that sell goth, punk, lolita, and cyber style clothes- as well as music, accessories, and other cool stuff.

That's a pic from a street over pass of the bridge towards Meiji Shrine. That bridge is were all the "freaks" hang out. You can see them there from early in the mornings till the afternoons. Sundays are the best days to go, but you could usually spot some gothy kids on any day. The Japanese goth style is a bit different that of back home, but it's still cool. I love Harajuku!
Some of the Harajuku goths. Bronwen and I asked them for info about a goth club but they didn't seem to know any. Looks like their goth outings are limited to hanging on the bridge. Rather sad if you ask me. Oh well, they were really sweet- so it's all good.
I thought these three chicks looked cute in their traditional Japanese outfits turned goth.
As for shops, there's tons in the area, for lots of great buys-- unfortunantly at high prices. The shop workers are really cool,too-- and if you're interested in goth clubs, ask in the shops. We had no luck getting info on the bridge, but a cool chick at Stigmata gave us info about an event and she even drew us a map. Too bad, Bronwen and I still didn't find the club. Oh well-- maybe next time.

Yasakuni Shrine

I visited Yasakuni Shrine back in 1999, when I first visited Tokyo. At the time, I didn't know much about Japanese WWII history. So this time, I was very eager to go back. The shrine is where the souls of those that fought and died for Japan are enshrined.

There is a big controversy over the shrine, since some of the enshrined souls are recognized war criminals that took part in the atrocities that Japan commited during the war years. Countries that suffered at the hand of the Japanese army or navy (such as China and Korea) are greatly troubled by the Japanese ignorance of what really happened during the war years, the lack of an apology and remorse from the Japanese for what was done, and mostly for the honor and praise to those enshrined war criminals enshrined at Yasakuni shrine and the Prime Ministers repeated visits to the shrine.

People paying their respects to the souls at Yasakuni.

The main building of Yasakuni shrine.

This is called an Uma. People write their prayers or wishes on the board and then they hand it in the designated area of the shrine. This is not unique to Yasakuni Shine, most shrines in Japan sell umas. Sometimes you can stumble across an uma filled out in English. I once read one that prayed for the Yankees to win the next word series.

That's me in front of Yasakuni shrine

After studying about Japan's WWII history in grad school, I found my second visit to Yasakuni much more interesting. It's true that each country writes history in their perspective, so there will aways be differences between what one side and another said had happened. The muesum at Yasakuni shrine does it's best to twist the truth without making blunt lies. There is definantly room for interpritation.

Since I've been there last the muesum has been renovated and there are new wings that are entirely new. Over they years, I think Yasakuni shrine toned down their version of history. There remains lots of information that is not mentioned or down played at the muesum. I also found it interesting that 3 paragraphes of Japanese text were reflected in only about 2 sentences of English. I wish I could read Japanese better so that I can see if the translations match up. I'm sure there's some information that was not translated into English- and it makes me wonder why?

Shibuya

One of my favorite areas in Tokyo is Shibuya. Shibuya has lots of cool shops and tons of people. Actually it's got the most populated intersection in Japan, and possibly the world. The intersection in front of Shibuya station (if you take the Hachiko exit) is a six (?) way intersection. If you ever watched Lost in Translation you saw the intersection in the movie.

Anyway, besides loads of people, big city lites, lots of night clubs, love hotels, shops, and atmophere- Shibuya is home of my favorite resturant in all of Japan, the Christon Cafe.The Christon Cafe is theme resturant, with lots of christian paintings and statues but done in a gothy way. They have awesome food and for Tokyo the prices are rather good. There's actually a few of the resturants, one in Osaka city, one in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, and then there's the one in Shibuya. As far as I know the one in Shibuya is the biggest and in my opinion the best of the three. Check it out if you can.http://http://www.ug-gu.co.jp/restaurant/shop/christon-tokyo.htm



You might wonder why there's a statue and even an exit of Shibuya station named after a dog, Hachiko. So here it is the story of Hachiko. Years ago, Mr. Ueno, a university professor, got a puppy that he named Hachiko. Hachiko would walk with his master to Shibuya station daily, to see his owner off on his morning commute to the university. The walk became routine and

Hachiko would always walk to the station in the morning and then meet his master in the evening when he returned from work. When the professor died, Hachiko did not break the routine. Everyday he would walk to the station in the morning and from the station in the evening. Perhaps he was waiting for his master's return. The other commuters would see Hachiko daily and they began to feed him after the dog's owner died. The community in Shibuya was so touched by Hachiko's loyaltity. After the dog died, a statue of the dog was erected in front of Shibuya station so he could be remembered always.That's me next to the statue of the famous dog.

Tokyo!

In June each year the 1st year JETs that will be re-contracting have a big confrence. Although I'm not a 1st year JET, I still went up the weekend before with some other Fukui JETs. Since I've been to Tokyo numberous times, I decided tohit my favorite spots in Tokyo, and if there was time one place that I hadn't been before
That's me, Tina, and her friend, sorry I forgot his name.. again, at Bar Fur in Roppongi. At this point it was really late, or early- depending on how you look at it.

There's Colin with his champagne in one hand and showing off the time on his other hand. The time-- 4:42 AM.
We had gone out on our first night back in Tokyo. Rather than calling it an early night we stayed all night. This was the tail end of the night as we waited for the subways to start running again.
Our first night started with our check in at the new K's House in the Asakusa area of the city. I always stayed at K's in Kyoto so I was super excited when they openned on in Tokyo. The backpackers place had only opened the night before we arrived. Everything there is brand new and the staff are super friendly-- just like the other K's. I know where I'll be staying every time I visit Tokyo from now on. =)


We had a group of Fukui JETs so we booked a 6 person dorm room. There's Bronwen in her bottom bunk.



After we were all checked in, we had a hard time deciding what to do next. We settled on going to a beer garden in Asakusa. Unfortunantly, it wasn't open or there, or something. I don't really remember what the problem was, but Asakusa was lame (it's actually not bad- if you go in the day time. Check out Sennoji Temple and all the shops along the way between the temple gate and temple itself. Asakusa's other attraction-- the golden flame, although everyone just thinks it's a golden poo onto of a weird black building. So we headed over to Roppongi instead. Roppongi is full of bars, clubs, karaoke bars, and arcades. It's were lots of foreigners (non-Japanese peps) hang out. So our first night was spend walking around and hitting a few bars. I spent the rest of my time in Shibuya, Harajuku, and Shinjuku. I also made a trip out to Yasukuni Shrine and to Roppongi Hills so I could check out the Mori building and the view from the top.

FJET Play!

After lots anf lots of practice we performed the "Mega Monogatari Mix-up" at the FIA on the last weekend in May. We had two show times, one on Saturday night and the other on Sunday afternoon. There was a good turn out and everyone loved the play. Personally, I was really worried about the play till about a day beforehand. I really didn't think we'd pull off a good job like last year. As it turned out, this year was better than the last. Everyone raved about how wonderful the play was, how great the story was, how well everyone acted, how colorful and nice the set and costumes were-- and everyone understood the story. No they didn't all understand the English, but everyone was able to follow the story. The best part however, was that we raised a lot of money for an orphange/school in Thailand.
I couldn't wait for the play to be over, but I have to say that that Sunday after the show I was a bit sad it was all over. I'm still not definant if I'll do the play next year-- but knowing myself-- I'm sure I will-- when have I ever passed up on theatre stuff?

Each year in May, Harue JHS students go on a school trip. The 3 nen sei students (equivalent to American high school freshmen) go to Tokyo. They go away for about three days, stay in a nice hotel, go signtseeing around the city, and of course visit Tokyo Disneyland. The 1 and 2 nen sei (American 7th/ 8th graders) also get to go on a school trip, but only for one day.

In Japanese schools the staff is also divided into 1, 2, and 3 nen sei teachers. This does not reflect at all how many years they have been at the school. The teachers are assigned a grade each year at the start of the year. Homeroom teachers are obviously placed in the same grade as their homeroom's year. During assemblies, enkais (work parties), and school trips the teachers sit in their grade group. For whatever reason, the ALT at my school is always assigned to the 1 nen sei group. So each year I go on the school trip with the 7th graders, and never with the 9th graders that go to Tokyo.

This May, the 3 nen sei teachers and students went to Tokyo as always. The 2 nen sei group went someplace (I don't even know where) and had a BBQ. While the 1 nen seis and I went to a park in Ishikawa (ken) Prefecture.

Ishikawa ken is just north of Fukui ken, and since I live in the north of Fukui it's not a very far. For our trip we went up to Matto Coast Seaside Park just outside of Kanazawa City. The drive was about an hour long, but the students entertained themselves on the buses. They sing songs, play cards, read books, talk to their friend, or sleep. Each homeroom had a separate bus. In my school there are 273 1 nen sei students, that brakes down into 9 homerooms- each with about 30 students. The homeroom teachers ride with on the bus with their class and the other teachers get assigned a class. I was placed with homeroom 1-2, definantly because the homeroom teacher is an English teacher.

Some 1 nen sei students eatting their bentos (box lunches).

After lunch, we played a few group games. The first game was a bit strange, so I'll do my best to explain. Everyone (students and teachers) recieved colored (different color per class) strips of plastic that they tucked in their pants to look like tails. 3 teams (classes) would spread out at different parts of the park. When a whisle was blown the teams out on the field had to get the tails of other players (students/teachers) and they had to try to keep theirs. After another whistle, the 3 teams returned and counted how many tails they had. Then the next 3 teams went out. After that there were finals for the the worst three teams, then those that came in 2nd in their group, and then the finals to determine the 1st,2nd, and 3rd place teams. My team didn't do so hot and we finished 8th (only one away from last place).

After this we played soccer, although again it was in groups of three teams. There were three goals on each field and a number of balls in play. I had alot more fun playing soccer cause I knew the rules and what to do-- although only the kids that liked soccer ran around the rest huddled in front of their goal to defend it.After the soccer game the students were free to run around and play, while the teachers just sat around and talked-- or snuck off to the beach for a smoke. I wandered around, talked with some students, played frisbee with one lonely student, and then volleyball with a few girls. I also wandered around a bit and took some pictures of the beach area.

As you can see the students have to wear a school uniform on the trip. They don't wear their regular uniforms. They were their gym uniforms. These are the same uniforms they were in Phys. Ed class and for cleaning time. Yes, everyday the students have "cleaning time," and they have to clean the school-- or pretend that they're cleaning.

Some of my 1 nen sei girls posing for a pic. =)

You probably also noticed that almost every kid or teacher in every picture is holdin up a peace sign. This is the "in thing" in Japan, and everyone does it in pics. I don't know why, nor do I know why I find myself doing it.

Students from class 1-2 on the bus.

The park we spent the entire school trip at had this big windmill (just for show, it doesn't work). Anyway, each class posed for a pic in front of it. That's homeroom 1-3 with their teacher, Mr. Kondo.

All the kids packed small tarps to sit on, a lunch, some snacks, and stuff to do.

Back at the school, after the trip we had to have a "closing the school trip ceremony." We also had one of these at the start of the day. The Japanese are very big on formal beginings of all non-daily events. We have an opening and closing cermony for the start and end of each semester, school trips, work parties, sports day, culture day, and everything else that you can think of. It was a bit strange at first, but I got used to it.

This year's school trip wasn't so interesting. Last year in May, we also went up to Ishikawa-ken but we went bowling and competed against each other and then we drove over to a big park for lunch and free time. Well, there will be another school trip in October-- maybe that one will be more interesting.