Lanterns Lanterns Lanterns

I met my friend, Kyoko, the other night for dinner. We used to work together on Ojika. Now she's teaching biology at a high school in Isahaya, which is about 20-40 minutes from Nagasaki depending on your means of transportation. Before we ate, she wanted to check out Shokufuji Temple. I'm so glad she took me there. The place was quiet and peaceful, which was a stark contrast to the rest of the festival spots.

During the week, I've also been able to see each the Dragon Dance and the Lion Dance preformed. Here are some photos of those.

And here's the Lion Dance.

Nagasaki City's Lantern Festival

Happy New Year, China!

Every February Nagasaki hosts the Lantern Festival. The matsuri is tied to the Chinese New Year which is currently being celebrated by our neighbors to the West. Nagasaki history boasts close ties to China, and the city itself is said to have one of the biggest China Towns in all of Japan. Lucky me. I live right next door. This means I am a hop, skip and jump away from all of the lanterns -- and action.

Here are the lanterns.

And here is some of the action.

I haven't seen the Dragon Dance, nor the Lion Dance, which I want to, but there are performances all this weekend and next. Also, there's a pretty radical shrine set up with lots of pigs heads and such that I hope to get a photo of. I'll post it when I do.

If You Could Invent Something New...

What would your invention be?

My students have had to answer this question in English, and I've had to correct their answers. Usually the responses are run-of-the-mill. Many people want a time machine, or some robot to do their housework for them. One of my students even said that she'd like to have a machine that hung her clothes out to dry for her because in winter her hands get too cold when she does that chore. She went as far as to say that she's well aware that there are clothes dryers, but she didn't want one of those. She wants one that will hang her clothes on the line for her. (Clothes dryers in Japan are probably most widely used in Hokkaido. Most everyone down here hangs their laundry out to dry on lines.)

Here's one essay that I found to be particularly amusing. Perhaps it's the wording that tickled me, or perhaps it's the glimpse into a part of one of my student's lives that I hadn't expected. It's just so simple and honest and good. Anyway, here it is in all of its uncorrected glory.

"I want to invent a machine which we can make a tea without fail to if I could. First, I sometimes get sad felling when I fail to make a tea. I love tea time. So, I love cup of a tea and pieces of cookies make me happy. But a tea with failed to make smells bad or nothing. So, I get unhappy feeling. Second, it would give me a lot of benefit. It is because there are a lot of people like me. So such a people should buy my machine. So, I want to invent such a machine."

I thought all teenagers would invent a robot to do their homework or chores. Not this kid, they just want a nice tea time.

Awesome.

Hot Springs

Last weekend Tiddy and I took a trip. We went to see some of Kyushu's bubbling, hot pools of naturally occurring mineral water. The large groups of them made purely for looking at, not dipping in, are known as "jigoku" in Japanese, which translates to hell. There are lots of different adjectives that people have tacked onto individual pools to make them sound exciting. The red one pictured above was called "chi jigoku" or Blood Hell.

This one was called "tatsumaki jigoku" or Tornado Hell. That's actually a bit misleading seeing as how it was a geyser, and just shot up into the air with no twisting wind or houses landing on witches or anything like that. Tiddy and I couldn't help but comment on how much more impressive it would have been if those in charge hadn't built a rock facade to block its full force or the building standing directly beside it.

We also spent an afternoon in Kurokawa. Kurokawa is famous for its onsens which people can bathe in. The town has come up with a pass that you can buy for around ten dollars which allows you entrance into three onsens. We took advantage where we could. It felt like the grater majority of Japan had the same travel plans as we did over the long weekend. It was packed!

After spending the one afternoon battling the naked crowds in Kurokawa, our arrival in Amagase was all the better. Tiddy and I were the only two foreigners (that we saw anyway) in a tiny little onsen town cut down the middle by a river. A teacher at school helped me book the inn and when we checked in, the hotel receptionists said how nervous they were about the possibility of having to speak English. My Japanese isn't great, but it's passable, and I think our hotel friends quickly became relaxed when they found out I could string a sentence or two together. (My name is the lower left on the welcome board.)

The hotel itself seemed to be a bit of a relic left over from the days when Amagase was as popular as our previous onsen fun. But, what it lacked in newness, it made up for in style. We had a beautiful view of the river and the surrounding mountains from our room and the place had a bouncing people bridge! Imagine my shock (not so difficulty if you peeped the photo above) when I got on it and it started to wax and wane with my weight. I had two seconds of feeling like Indiana Jones.

As is typical when staying in a ryokan, we were treated to a very traditional Japanese feast.

Along with the wonderful food, natural atmosphere and being on a three-day weekend, it all got better when we found some courage at the bottom of a sake bottle and hopped into the free hot springs scattered along the river. That's the first time in my life I've ever been naked in public. It's no coincidence that we went in the cover of night. Perhaps a strange lady walking her dog at an obscene hour that night got a little more Americana than she had bargained for. Overall, the escapade went over problem-free.

Before heading out of town the next day, we took a five minute walk to find one of the waterfalls in the area. Amagase pulled through for us again. It was killer.