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.