Happy Halloween!

*Sound the trumpets!*Here it is!* The best day of the year!*

Happy Halloween!

Now get out there and assume an alternative personality (legitimately) for a few hours. That and eat candy corn!

The Statue of Liberty wishes you a sweet, sweet Halloween!

Biting My Lip

I've been put to work "grading" students' compositions today. Actually, today is no different from any other day at the salt mine, but the sodium I'm digging holes in is of an interesting theme this Monday.

My seniors have to finish this sentence:

I am FOR/AGAINST having "women-only" cars on late-night trains because...

One boy wrote:

I am FOR having "women-only" cars on late-night trains because I want to make "men-only" cars too because women's perfume makes me uncomfortable because it is too strong. I hate their clothes which tempt men and their loud voices. So, I don't want to take the tube with women.

Ahhh... a little misogynist in the making.

Another student wrote:

I am AGAINST having "women-only" cars because other cars will be crowded. I think there are few women who go home after 11pm. Therefore, I suggest we should make a car which is reserved for drunken people instead.

Gotta love the logic.

Here's one more:

I am AGAINST having "women-only" cars because if women don't want to be involved in danger, they should go home before 11pm. And, I suggest that the train companies should be more careful about crime on trains.

Like I said, I'm biting my lip.

Basically the debate breaks down to this: Women are being molested on crowded subway trains, so companies have started running "women-only" cars at peak hours. This writing exercise exists to help them practice essay writing.

You'd be surprised how many of my students wrote that because of equality, we shouldn't have segregated cars for men and women. I'm having a hard time not adding that this society OBVIOUSLY isn't equal when women (more often than men, but it does happen to men too) are being targeted by perverts on trains to the bottom of their papers in red, red (a.k.a. meaning WRONG) pen.

And I'll leave you with a composition that gets a big, fat gold star from Dawn-sensei:

I am FOR having "women-only" cars on late-night trains because many women have been touched inappropriately on crowded trains. I think having "women-only" cars is an effective idea. We can save many women. People who touch women's bodies are men. So, men will have few chanced to touch women's bodies by separating women and men. However, I think that it is better to have "women-only" cars not only after 11pm, but also during rush hour and in the day time.

Kitsune Dance

Last night I went to Wakamiya Inari Shrine for a festival. It was one of the most magical, amazing things I have seen in Japan. A few sixth grade boys and two men donned in fox costumes took turns climbing bamboo poles (which were about thirty feet high), did acrobats and tossed goodies to the audience cheering them from below.

The photos are poor because flashes were prohibited so as not to blind the already visually crippled foxes during their stunts.

The last fox to dole out his gifts ended by pulling a live chicken out of his shirt and threw it to the crowd below. He had a live chicken stuffed in his shirt the entire time he was swinging around up there. Amazing!

Okunchi

Nagasaki was host to the Okunchi festival this past weekend. During Okunchi six towns around Nagasaki are chosen to practice and perform a dance, but these aren't just any old dances; and this isn't just any old festival. Most of the dances and displays are practiced for six months or more and involved elaborate floats (which are usually ridden by children, and pushed around by men) and story-telling. The towns chosen to participate are very honored and must wait a cycle of seven years to be involved.

There are four or five venues around Nagasaki where over a three day period these dances are performed, and judged, in front of an audience. Tickets are usually quite hard to come by, but I was lucky enough to get some for the Sunday morning performance.

These kids performed a dance as two Dutch comedians. Apparently, long ago when Nagasaki was the only port in Japan opened for outside trading, there was actually a duo of Dutch dudes who went door to door performing a comedy routine. These little versions were followed up by their adult counterparts.

Every town invited to participate, started their performance with the display, spinning and twirling of this large, round curtain-like floats. One man carried the beastly thing around and showed off their balance. I thought I overheard that they weighed close to 170kilos, but I'm not sure. They're heavy anyway.

Here men push and pull on one of the many boat floats involved in the festival. It's hard to see here, but there are about ten children riding in the float, all playing drums. The floats were loaded onto some kind of wheels, but when demanded to, the men would push the float into every which direction. (The wheels weren't rotating so they left deep scratches in the cement when the float was rotated 360 degrees.)

The last, and most impressive, float was a whale which spouted water. I heard from teachers at school after the festival that someone was actually riding inside the whale using some kind of pumping mechanism to send water 30 feet in the air. It was amazing.

And, as with any festival in Japan, Okunchi came all jumbled up with food stalls and vendors pushing trinkets. Families could feed their faces with festival food like yakitori and okonomiyaki and kids could walk home with baby chicks, goldfish, water filled balloon yo-yos on rubber bands, or their favorite anime character's mask.

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival

I happened to notice this offering to the Gods in Chinatown yesterday. I stopped to take a few photos and ask what the celebration was for. I found out that this display was laid out in honor of Autumn. People were walking by, lighting incense and saying little prayers in front of the table.
I didn't notice right away that these pigs had their tails cut off and stuck though the cooked skin of their foreheads. When I did, I thought how unpleasant that would be, even after being boiled. It makes an awesome photo, though. In a way, it's kind of beautiful. Maybe I think that just because it's done as an offering. If I found a poor beast like this on the side of the road, I'd think long and hard about the weird and sick world we live in. It always comes down to perspective, doesn't it?
Later that night, walking back through Chinatown I found this crew of people waiting for a traditional lion dance. These lions limbs were the legs of some pretty energetic elementary school kids. The larger, and quite a bit older, lions made an appearance as well. Along with throwing candy to the crowd, they got up on their "hind legs" (by one man riding on another's shoulders) and wooed the crowd with some acrobatics.

It was one of the moments, which are rare these days, that I found myself saying, "Wow! I live in JAPAN!"

Isahaya Eki Mae

Here I am in front of Isahaya Station. What on Earth did I do in Isahaya? Well...

...I ate tempura and soba and...

... I went bowling with...

...this crew.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

What Could be Better than...

...Kiten-zushi...

... and, "ANGRY GUY" Karaoke?

Nishi High's "Culture Day"

Last month my students prepared and performed various exhibits/displays for their annual culture day. Here are some photos of the day....
Here the tea club performs a Japanese tea ceremony.

I try my hand at calligraphy. This is supposed to be the kanji character for "love."

Here we are showing off our washi (Japanese paper) making skills. We got MAD skills, yo!

Ikebana! (flower arranging)

Here a handful of seniors pose for PRESS pictures after their play. The theme of this year's culture day was: Ecology! So, the boys acted out a super-hero display of ways which we could all save Earth from evil polluters with gloves taped to their chests. Strange.

Shianbashi

This sign reads: Shianbashi. It hovers above the seedy section of Nagasaki. If you're looking for a snack bar, or better yet, a snack girl, you should most positively come to Shianbashi. I have yet to delve into the underbelly, but I'm itching a the knuckles to understand exactly what goes on behind the 'Bashi's closed doors.

Ni Ji Kai

If I knew Mr. Eguchi (the one holding my electronic dictionary) was going to tell all of his students (as well as anyone else who'd listen) that my middle name is: CHERRIE, I would have told him I was middle nameless. -- Mr. E. Pronounces it "Cherry," by the way, so now I have a good portion of my students calling me Cherry. Not cool. These are the things that come out at apres party parties. Damn.

Big Toast

A country that has given us Godzilla, sake and salary man porn, now presents us with:
BIG TOAST! What else could one want?