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The girl that has been in Aso for 5 years, Xina, invited me out the other day to take part in some food steaming up in Oguni (a nearby town.) One of her Japanese friends had a sister in town from Kyoto who is a writer for a major Japanese newspaper. About five women came and brought all these raw foods for our lunch. We made different types of dumplings and steamed them by directing a metal pipe with the natural steam towards our food. One of the women had twin sons that I officially want to adopt, so Xina and I had a blast playing with the kids. While the women fussed about making their dumplings perfect, Xina, the kids and I were more interested in making dough moustaches and drumming with our chopsticks. I think (or hope) the old ladies got a kick out of us though! Then, to top it off, our picture was put in the newspaper! Here is the link –Asahi article I’m famous!
After we made the food, we walked around the town, went to an onsen and just had a nice, relaxing Sunday! I hope to do more stuff like this in the future! Here are some pictures of the day:
I had an enkai the other night at the Principal of my Junior High School’s house. An enkai is basically a drinking party. Usually enkai’s are held at an izzakiah, which is a restaurant that does all you can eat/drink for a couple of hours. The principal (or kocho sensei) had an unbelievable house though, so it was fun to go there, and to top it off, he rented a karaoke machine for the evening! There was lots of food and drinking, and they even made me sing some karaoke (the chorus of a Japanese song, that repeats the same word over and over again.) Enkai’s have been known to get pretty crazy, with multiple parties continuing on after the first dinner party, but this one was pretty tame.
The next day my friend Naoko took me on one of her day trips! I never know where she is taking me, but it always turns out to be somewhere fun! A couple weeks ago she took me to a ‘Make your own soba’ place, where we made soba noodles from scratch and cooked them up for lunch! She also took me to some local farms and a park. But this time we went to Saga prefecture to the Tosu outlets! We went to the Gap and found some clothes in my size! That day I taught Naoko the phrase, “I’m like a kid in a candy store.”
It’s getting cold! Japan has no central heat. None. Everyone asks me which is colder – Boston or Aso? Well Boston might be colder, but inside is at least comfortable! I’ve started going to the Onsen all the time and I layer up for school! I’m sure it’s going to get worse too, especially when it snows, but for now all I can do is go by some kerosene and wear A LOT of clothes!
Well the swine flu made it’s rounds out in Aso! My favorite teacher got it and a couple of days later our school was shut down! Of course, the teachers still had to go to school and hang out in our masks. But it was actually quite fun. I gave them all little Halloween goody bags I had made with some American candy from Costco, studied some more Japanese, and just chatted about the many differences in Japan and America. Here’s a lovely mask photo for you all…
My junior high school had the annual English speech contest and annual culture festival in these past couple of weeks! 2-4 students from each grade in every junior high school in Japan, practice an English passage from their textbook and present it in front of local judges. If they place in the local competition, they go to the prefectural level and then the national. Some schools take this very seriously, practicing months in advance. My school, well, not so much. We started a couple weeks before, played some basketball, worked on some English pronounciation, and just went for the ‘let’s have fun with English’ approach. And it was fun! We made up some over the top gestures when ordering fast food and asking ‘large or small?’ ‘for here or to go?’ The kids all had a great time, and since I knew they probably wouldn’t place, I made them American-style certificates - which I’m not gonna lie, the other students were jealous of ;)
The students also got to present their English speeches at the culture festival. The culture festival is an annual fall event done by every school in Japan. Students display artwork, class projects, perform dances, plays, and finish with each class competing in a singing compition. It was lots of fun to watch and really refreshing to see my students displaying their talents outside of the English classroom! The culture festival ended with me and the principle having an entire conversation in Japanese! I was so excited and he told me I must be studying, to which I replied – every day! Ah slowly but surely I’m able to communicate!
