Christmas Card Lesson

Kitty-chan wishes you a Merry Christmas!

You know, the students really crack me up. Today I did a lesson on Christmas and the meaning of it and blah blah blah, and for our activity we did home-made Christmas cards. There were some really funny ones!

The boys usually drew really screwed up pictures, like an anorexic Santa with crazy eyeballs and face saying "Do you want Present?! How about wakame and meron pan (seaweed and mellon flavored bread)?!?!" Then you open the card and it says in big letters "ARE YOU HAPPY!?" Weird and totaly non-sequitor. But funny.

One of the most popular questions from my students is, "Do you have a girlfriend?" and when I answer, "yes, I do," the usual reaction from the boys is to start airhumping (see previous entry, Haado-Gei), and the girls usually start squealing and run away. So anyway, after class today, a couple of the girls came up to me and gave me Christmas cards, to give to Nikki for Christmas. Cute, huh?

That's me on the left, Nikster on the right. Supposedly.

This one is my favorite. Open up and...

Funny, huh?! The mustache would be more realistic if it only grew on the sides and not in the middle. The buck teeth have got to go. Clever kids...

Aki-Matsuri... Autumn Festival

Fall is a really awesome time in Japan. The weather cools down and it's a comfortable autumn temperature, great for doing just about anything (so sayeth the Japanese). The leaves start to change, and being in the countryside there are a whole lotta trees, so it's very scenic and beautiful.

The coolest events in the fall are the Aki-matsuri's (lit. Autum Festival). This year I had the chance to attend two very different events - one, a serene, traditional religious ceremony, and the other a raucous drunken melee.

I was invited by the Vice Principal of my school to the religious one - in addition to being the VP of my school, his weekend job is farming - his family owns a large area of land that he "cultivates." Cool, huh?

("Oh Kyoto-sensei, how was your weekend? Ah, it was no good Michael, I had to cultivate my land this weekend.")

It turns out that his cousin is the local head priest of the area and so he invited me (and Markane and Nancy, two other JETs in this area) to get the VIP experience. It was cool! The ceremony we went was meant to welcome the local god to come out of his shrine and survey the ripening rice, and give the farmers a blessing for a good crop.


Under the full moon, and we marched with a big group of farmers (wielding big huge cool lanterns) to the temple.

At the temple (we got to sit inside, right next to the actual ceremony area), the priest sang songs and recited prayers to move the "essence" of the god from the temple into a "portable shrine," which was to be carried out around the area's farms and land in the next few days.

It was a really great opportunity to witness the development of culture - that a traditionally agraian society still carries on the ritual of times past (I mean, you can buy the stuff in huge bags anytime at the store, and ironically, this year's rice crop was early so it had already been harvested before the festival). That's such an indicative example of the duality of Japan - beautifully traditional while at the same time ultra modern.

SO... a couple of days later I attended another "Aki-Matsuri" in Mitsu-cho, which is a small seaside fishing village where my friend Zainabu teaches. The festival was also at night, and it was pretty much a bunch of really wasted Japanese dudes (it seems like everyone in town had been drinking all day), wearing hapi coats (those little jackets), and thongs made of thick white rope. They were carrying huge bamboo poles and smashing the shit out of these enormous lanterns in front of the local temple. It was crazy!

(October's cover of Kansai Time out, a local English magazine. These guys are carrying a portable shrine, which is a really popular thing to do at this time of year. Man I bet the rope burn really sucks!!)

Literally called the "lantern beating festival," they would hoist a gigantic lantern up and run laps around it, and then all of a sudden they would all come together and start beating the hell out of the lantern. Some of the dudes even set fire to them, lit fireworks, and stomp them into little bits and pieces. Very different from the previous Aki-matsuri, huh?



The meaning of this festival was to scare away evil spirits, and I'm sure it worked. When I was shooting the photos that night, there was a ton of dust flying around in the air from the dudes kicking up the dirt.

Initially I had written it off as just dust, but Nikki pointed out that sometimes these random orbs pop up in pictures because they are spirits that the camera catches... cool, huh.

Elementary School

Elementary school students love horsing around, especially when there is a camera involved. I brought mine with me on Friday to show a fellow teacher my pictures from my recent Taiwan trip (blog entry coming soon...), and the kids were all like "picture please!" So we had a little photo session...


The view from above...
...and below
... and up the nose.

This is a mentally handicapped girl named Kana, who can't really speak that well. She's also physically challenged and has a hard time walking, so I give her extra high-fives and piggyback rides whenever I go to her school. Now every time she sees me, she comes sprinting and gives me a big bear hug. She was a little too over enthusiastic on Friday, the little f'er headbutted me in the nuts 'cause she was running out of control. Thanks a bunch, Kana!!

Maikeru sensei, the human jungle gym.

Making a difference, one Shu at a time...

Hey Y’all,

This Christmas holiday, I’m volunteering to go work on a volunteer project in Andhra Pradesh, India for 10 days. The area I’ll be going to is very poor and depressed, and also was heavily affected by last year’s Tsunami. That said, the Indian government doesn’t give a lot of priority to helping these folks who are viewed in a lower social caste, so there is a lot of work to be done.

While in India, the main goals are to teach and work with the villagers on creating better living conditions. I’ll also be teaching English and working in medical camp, providing free healthcare to the needy.

Here’s the website for more info: http://www.go-mad.org/projindiarelief.php

Cool, huh!?

So the group I’m a part of (Go M.A.D. “Make a Difference, mostly comprised of teachers from my program) is fundraising so that we can make a donation to the village at the end of our period of volunteer work.

SO… I’m hitting you guys up to help me out with this – “anything helps” (I feel like I should be on Market St. in SF with a cardboard sign), so break off whatever you can and if I can smuggle some cool souvenirs out of India, you’ll be first on the list.

You can either donate through PayPal – send to my email address, shu.mike@gmail.com, or email me and I’ll give you deposit instructions to an account that I’ve set up with Wells Fargo. Make sure to leave your name and address and all that good stuff too.

Thanks in advance, it’s people like you that make the world a better place
(Aw I think I just shed a tear).

Love you guys!!
-SHU.

Awaji Soccer Tournament

(My JET Intramural team)

So in the spirit of trying new things, I joined the JET Intramural soccer team of my prefecture, and have been practicing with my team and also with my students. It's cool because the worst students in my class are usually soccer players (they are the dumb jock equivalent), and they really get all jacked up and happy when I come out to practice with them (and they get a chance to try out all of the dirty words they know in English). I've even noticed that some of them are behaving better in class and actually trying harder!

This weekend was the Western Japan Intramural Tournament. It was located on Awaji Island (a small island, in between Honshu (entry city is Kobe) and the next island to the south, Shikoku), on the training fields that were built for England's team during the World Cup. JET/Intramural teams come from all over Western Japan, and the winner of the tournament (not us), goes to the spring Championship in Saitama (and they get to play in the Japanese National team's superdome, cool huh).

(This is the grounds that we played on - mountains in the background, nice manicured grass, and ocean views on the other side. Niiiiice.)

My team was "AC Hyogo," which was the social/"B" team of our prefecture, made up of mostly the beginner players (our "A" team, was mostly big, fast, experienced Brits). We actually never played together as a team before, and it really showed in this tournament!

Overall, our tournament record was 1-3 in round robin play, and we lost the first game of actual seeded play (we won the first game but never succeeded in scoring a goal the rest of the weekend). BUT, it was awesome fun and I managed to score a goal in overtime in our winning game (sweet), got rugby tackled by a big Aussie dude (it sucked, I was seeing stars for 2 minutes), managed to dish out my share of punishment, and came home with lots of bruises and a twisted up knee (sucked walking up the stairs when I got home).

Soccer is fun! I wish I had played in High school! I'm going to keep practicing with the students and JET team and hopefully go out for the A team next year, but for now I gotta ice down my knee, it looks like a big grapefruit. Yikes.

Oh PS, DJ Jeno started his own radio show and is archiving his stuff: http://www.djjeno.com/noisefromthevoid.html it's freakin' awesome music, very ecclectic and cool stuff.

Okay, that's it for tonight. Peace, -m.

Arima Spa and Japanese Bath Houses

(The ubiquitous Japanese "in-come" cat.)

So one of the favorite Japanese past-times is getting completely butt naked in front of a bunch of strangers and soaking in hot baths to relax (sorry ladies, it's men's and women's separate).

Usually you enter these things, put your stuff in a locker and swap out for a tiny towel and some slippers, and then you go into a shower area for the scrub down (Japanese folks get totally clean BEFORE getting into the bath - it's only for soaking). After that you usually have your choice of different tubs, baths, saunas, steam rooms, etc.

Since I've been here I have been to a variety of them, from crappy capsule hotel and backpacker hostel ones, to really sweet set-in-nature, zen garden, healing water types.

One of the best ones I've been to (and one of the most famous in Japan) is at Arima Spa, which is a suburb of Kobe, about 40 minutes from where I live. There is some sort of natural hot spring that runs through the ground there, and there are even little baths that just pop out of the sidewalk - literally you can be walking down the street, stop, take off your shoes, have a seat, and start soaking! Cool, huh.

(Walking is tough! Ayame and I decide to have a soak in the middle of the street.)

The water there is well known because it's got lots of iron in it, which apparently is good for the skin and muscles if you soak in it. It turns the water an opaque, rusty red, and you smell like a rusty pirate sword after you get out. Also at the same spa they had a bathtub that was full of tea water! You soak yourself in this scented tea water and it kinda gives you a buzz. They also have all of these crazy waterfalls that you can stand underneath and the water pressure falling gives you a massage. Rad huh?

So afterwards they have these lounges for you to relax and chill out in. Usually they have massage chairs and you can even hire on a masseuse right there on the spot! They also have all of these beverages you can have - the traditional post-onsen drink of choice is this really awesome coffee drink that comes in these minature milk bottles - and I guess they used to have this old school commerical, so now you're supposed to drink the coffee in the special pose:

(Me and Masa strike a pose.)

Anyway, they're loads of fun until the old dudes start lettin' 'em rip in the water, then the writing's on the wall that it's time to go. Yokorassho!

Fish Fry

I had a cool day at school today! During my free period, I made a guest appearance in the home-ec class and they had a bunch of oba-chan's (old ladies, grandmas) in as guests to teach the students how to tempura fry sardines. Here's how you do it:

1. Take the sardine in one hand and with the other hand, snap the head off, just below the gills. Pull down toward the stomach and the guts and stuff should follow as the head comes off.

2. Stick your finger down new orafice that you've made and "open" the fish via the belly. Like a reverse zipper. Spread the fish open so it's like a fillet. Rinse the fish so the guts and stuff are outta there.

3. Massage the spine and bones so that they start to separate from the meat. Gently pull the spine out, and set aside (you will fry it later too, and it's crunchy, like a skinny french-fry at McDonald's).

4. You should have a nice looking fish fillet now, which you dip into tempura batter. Also sprinkle tempura batter over the fish spines.

5. Deep fry to desired cholesterol level. Remove, and enjoy!

I have to say, it was a pretty cool experience. Unfortunately, my hands were too covered in fish guts to take any pictures but I will try again at home and make sure to document the experience. I was a little apprehensive about eating the spines but man they are pretty damn tasty (and crunchy, in a nice deep fried fish bone kinda way).

YUM!

Remind me someday to write about the time I visited Dan on the cattle ranch and we slaughtered a cow. Talk about gross (but damn those were some niiiiice T-bones)!

Halloween

I had my first English club today. A whole 3 students showed up. Nice to see that English is so popular at school. Usually I only get the office ladies who hit me up for the free English lessons.

In the spirit of Halloween I taught the kids about Jack-o-lanterns and we carved a pumpkin. That's Ohashi-kun, Mimura-chan, and Uguchi-chan.

I got a love letter from one of my students today! I am always teasing them about writing love letters to each other during class, and so after class today I was accosted by a gaggle of 13 year old girls. It's funny because the English that is really popular is mostly from pop songs, so the kids all end up sounding like they are on soap operas. "Are you free this afternoon?"

Engrish

Love Hotel in Osaka.

"...like a Japanese cowboy, like a brother on skates, like a blizzard in Georgia, or a train running late..."

I bet Hera and Cass are dying for a pair of these jeans. Ha! Note that they are nearly $170 too. Free pair with purchase of a souped up Honda Civic.

Ge-re-pi

So I was teaching The Beatles to my 7th Graders this week, and we were using "Let it Be" for a listening comprehension exercise (nice, slow song, not too offensive, right), and boy did they comprehened.

There is this one class in particular, who has three of the most mischevious boys in the 7th grade, and when we got to the chorus, they started singing along with the recording! Now picture me, standing up at the front of the classroom, pleased as hell that I'm finally getting these naughty boys to really participate, and I start singing really loudly with them too - "LET IT BE, LET IT BE, OH, LET IT BE" and they start laughing, and singing even louder! Now the class is having such a great time, that EVERYBODY in the class is belting out the lyrics, and I turn, with a big huge grin on my face, and catch the eye of my Japanese English Teacher, who has turned bright red and looks like she wants hide behind a desk.

I walk over to her and she says, "Maikeru, they are singing "Ge-Re-Pi," which means "I have diahrrea, in Japanese!"

Fuckin' kids. So damn clever.

"Picture words of Wisdom, Ge-re-pi!"

Bab Mah-ri

A funny thing I saw when I first came to Japan was a whole lot of Bob Marley T-shirts, ie: "Listen to Bob Marley" BUT what I saw even more of, was pot-leaf and cannibus apparel and accessories. A really popular one with my students is the pot-leaf pencil case, with the Jamaican flag's colors for the background.

What's even funnier, it turns out that a lot of these kids don't know the "imi" (meaning) of the symbol!! It's a pop-culture symbol and a lot like when you see Americans running around with Chinese/Japanese writing on their clothing/possessions/tattoos without reaaaally knowing the meaning.

Anyway, of course, me being me, I had to school them and set them straight. So I decided on an introduction to Reggae, Jamaica, Rastafarianism, and what better to do than a listening exercise to some Bob Marley songs. Cool, right?!

What's even cooler is that in each of my classes, I offered to swap music with my students - if the liked the Reggae (and it turns out that Reggae/Dancehall/Reggaeton is really popular with the students), I would burn them a CD in trade for some fresh Japanese tunes. So now, I've got a huge stack of CDs to listen to and have been having some pretty cool discussions on the real meaning of some of the Bob Marley tunes (love that Mellow Mood, daaaarling).

Teaching is COOL!

(Now I just gotta figure out how to see a man about a horse in these parts. Sheesh!)

The Basics

Ye Olde Mansion


So I was writing an update email to my friend the other night and realized that I've never given the basic lowdown about life in the Inaka (country). I know, it's a cheap one-off for a blog post but hey, you're still reading aren't you?

>So here's the scoop (copied from email):

Yeah I have 18 classes a weed (~Ha! Freudian slip~) at my main chu-gakko (TatsunoHigashi-chu), and 5 classes (+1 lunch) at shogakko (elementary school) every friday (rotating b/w 3 schools). It's a buttload, but luckily I'm making lesson plans at chugakko (JHS) that I use for all the grades (this week is do and don't pictionary). I get a lot of autonomy for lesson plans, so that's cool, and the JTEs (Japanese Teacher of English) I work with are all very good.

The kids in chugakko are good - ichi nen sei (1st year) are genki, while san nen sei (3rd year) is like a graveyard. Ni nen sei are about 80% genki (lively), 20% tombstones. It's funny because it's the san nensei that love to talk outside of class (mostly about sex and sports and music - both guys and chicks). I'm still figuring the whole teaching thing out, but I do enjoy it when it goes well and am not taking it so badly when it crashes and burns. live and learn.

Housing situation is great! FREE rent, and it's probably the nicest JET apartment in the area (so I hear from the senpai JETs and my pred) - 2 tatami rooms (6 tatami each), a big kitchen (with a computer desk, small table), big bathtub/shower room, western toilet (heated seat....yesssssss), and two decks (i live on the 4th/top floor of an apartment building - "mansion"). I bought everything from my pred so when I got here I had satellite TV/dvd/vcr, every kitchen appliance imaginable, a double bed, 3 futons, pullout couch, etc. I'd hardly say i'm roughing it. The nearest train is 10 minute bikeride, and then it's a 25 min local train to Himeji.

So Tatsuno is 30km west of Himeji, in Hyogo prefecture. So that means I'm 40 minutes from Kobe, 1 hour from Osaka, and 1.5 from Kyoto (all by shinkaisoku (rapid express) train). It's about 40,000 people, and has some minor towns around it (as of Oct 1st, we just merged with 4 other towns to form a larger Tatsuno-shi, so it's even bigger now). The claim to fame here is the soy sauce factory (tatsuno famous light colored soy sauce for somen noodles), the akatombo song was written here, there is a leather factory, and a big samurai castle/merchant village/samurai village. Soccer is really popular, my boys team won the all-japan championship this year for JHS. It's like living in a suburb, but with rice fields sprinkled here and there (and here, and here, and there). It's a beautiful town, the Ibogawa river runs through the middle and the town is circled by small mountains all around. Makes for some awesome sunsets (and sunrise - when all the fishermen are in the river it's pretty cool to see).

The JETs I've met here are really cool - there's a handful of locals and then the Hyogo JETs all hang out. I've joined the JET Ultimate Frisbee team and the social-soccer team. The prefecture has sister-city/states with Perth in Australia (lots of crazy Aussies here), and Seattle in the US. As for Japanese people, they have been super kind and really cool! I hand out with a variety of local people - an old women, young people, ex-teachers, recent college grads, my hair-stylist, people from the gym, etc. Lanuage ability varies but we usually find a way to communicate.

I'm keeping busy. I've got calligraphy club on Monday and Wed, Karate on Tuesday, English Club Thursday, and Japanese tutor on Wed night. Weekends are left open for travelling and frisbee team practice, and I'm debating about adding Kendo to the mix or waiting until next term. I'm teaching yoga on occasion, and when snowboard season starts up I'll be on the slopes as much as possible (my board is shipping out at the end of this month).

I've got a momma-cherry (as the 3rd year JET in my town calls them) bike - 3 gears, big basket, a bell and a luggage rack. Pretty sweet if you ask me. I'm getting around alright without a car for now, but ask me again during the winter and my answer will probably be different then!

> So that's the basics. More funny stuff to come. Gotta hit the hay now, big day of raaaaku, paapa, shissas tomorrow. Oyasumi nasai (goodnight!).

Japanese Comedians

So the area of Japan that I'm in is called the "Kansai" area. Amongst other things, it has three awesome major cities (Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto), and is home to the Hanshin Tigers (Japanese League Champs of 2005), wicked tasty and interesting food, and a special dialect of Japanese, called "Kansai-ben." So far, I've figured this out about Kansai-ben:

1. It has different ways of saying the same thing in standard Japanese, and it has a lot of funny sounds in the lexicon, giving the speaker the ability to really express the tone and rhythm in their language.
2. It gives the listener a more interesting listening experience because of all the slang and percussive words.

A lot of times, just sitting in the teacher's room, I'll listen to one of them telling a funny story and although I can't understand a word I'll still laugh as hard as the Japanese people because the delivery alone is so damn funny.

So anyway. The Kansai area, and especially Osaka, produces a lot of Japanese comedy and entertainers that are quite popular in Japan. I found out about some of the most popular ones because my students (all grades, all schools), and a lot of my friends will imitate and parody the comic behavior (kinda like how we quoted Chappelle all the time last year).

One of the most popular is this dude, Haado Gei (aka "H.G." or "Hard Gay"). It's a double entendre - as a loanword (borrowed from another language) it may be interpreted as "hardcore gay," but "gei" actually means "art" in Japanese (therefore, hard/extreme 'art'). His main schtick is:

1. Dressing up like a 2005 member of the Village People - all black leather - vest, studded cap, supertight hotpants, and big motorcycle boots, elvis sunglasses.
2. Acts of random "social improvement" where he helps (wanted or unwanted) people on the street.
3. Outbursts of "whooooo" and mid-air pevlic thrusting.
4. Ironically, he is totally straight and his gay-parody is benign and not meant as slanderous toward leather and S&M dudes.

I think it's hilarious (my students certainly think so) and really random. The video (link below) is a must see. WHOOOOOOO!

Here's some good links for further exploration:
To see him in action - http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2676613?showw=no&refsite=6721&htv=12

You can find a bittorrent link for a better quality version and an explanation of the video here: http://blog.kung-foo.tv/archives/001535.php

WHOOOOOOO! (next time: "JUNGA-JUNGA!")

Lesson Plan Suggestions...?

My whimsical witnesses and creative comrades. Looking for some suggestions from the best of the best so I thought that I'd turn to you...

You probably won't be surprised, but I taught Bob Marley as a lesson this week. I did a short intro about Jamaica, Rastafarian-ism, the Cannibus symbol (it's prolific with the kids in Japan, albeit the meaning is lost in translation) and Reggae.

Then we listened to a few choice Bob Marley cuts (No Woman No Cry, Mellow Mood, Small Axe, Redemption Song), and then did a worksheet to fill in the blanks of a song... and then I told the students if they liked the music, to come see me after class and I would burn them a Bob Marley CD, as long as they bring me some cool (Japanese) music they like. Not to shabby, so far I've had 6 hits (I'll post the music reviews later... some good, some trash)!

Anyway, the teacher liked it and told me that for the rest of the year I can plan whatever I want to teach, and I don't need to follow the textbook. Hell yeah! Open license on the curriculum. Niiiiiice.

So, I wanted to see if you guys had any suggestions? Be creative. Use your Imagination. The goal is to get them excited and have fun. We're talking 13-15 year old here.

Thanks!
-shu.

Kids say the darn'dest things

In the spirit of trying to update more often, here's a quickie...

Things the kids say the most:

- Do you have a girlfriend?
- That is Mistah No-Hair (referring to a balding teacher walking by)
- Do you play sex?
- Ha-ow ah you? (In response me saying:"Hello, how are you?" A: "Ha-ow ah, you?")
- Why are American girls so tall? Do they eat a lot of Hamburgers?
- Do American girls have "Boin?" (Onomonopia for "boing" - supposedly the sound big boobs make when they bounce)
- Maikeru, sticker please. (I give you stickers in class for good performance. Now they hound me for them 24/7)
- Do you like to drink? Are you an alcoholer?
- What's your size? (as they point to my crotch)
- "Aium dis bigu (about 1/2 inch)" (is what they say, when I return the question and point at THEIR crotch).
- Do you know "HG?" (HG is a Japanese comedian that is dressed up as a leather daddy with short pants and a studded vest. He air-humps profusely. HG stands for "Hard Gay"). The question is always followed by a happliy humping student and his cheering companions.

Kids... gotta love 'em.

Engrish

There is an anti smoking camaign out right now that has these really funny anecdotes. This is a new one I saw on the train the other day.

Sex Machine Korean BBQ. What else do you need to know?

Tatsuno East Junior High School Sports Festival

Here's something that would never happen in the US - the first two weeks of classes were cancelled so that the kids could practice for this thing called Sports Festival. Sports festival is something that every school in Japan has, and is a big community event - the parents come out for the whole day and the kids reherse forver for it. It was started about 100 years ago in schools, and was adapted from military training. I gotta admit, the kids are really tough and take a beating - both during practice and the actual event. I saw so many broken arms, wrists, ankles, legs, by the time of the actual event, it totally looked liked the aftermath a big battleground.

The students made posters for the event and hung them up around the school for the parents and townspeople to check out before the event started.

This one was my favorite. Note that in Japan, the sun is red, not yellow.

The students form 6 teams - Pink, White, Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. Each team has a mix of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year students and a guy and a girl captain from the 3rd year. It's a very competetive event and the student leaders and council plan all summer for it, and then the students practice the entire two weeks for it.

Cardboard Races - The first event was a cardboard relay race:

Put four in a box, two backwards, running fast as possible.

One sitting on the cardboard, two pulling.

Mucade Races - Mucade is Japanese for "Centipede." For this event, the students for teams of 8-10 and all tie their legs together, and all attempt synchronized running:
When it works, it looks really impressive and the students really haul ass.

But... if they are slightly out of synch, which often happens when the students are hauling ass at top running speed:

... you end up with a pretty bad trainwreck (the guy in front usually gets it the worst).

Next event was the Tug of War. All teams at once, with multiple ropes, so you either get some very fast finish mismatches, or...
...some really big battles with students pullin' tough.



Mounted Horse event:
This was a crazy event! It's supposed to simulate on horse hand-to-hand combat. Three kids make the horse, and the rider is on top, wearing a hat of their team's color. The object of the game is to knock off as many of the other team's hat without getting yours knocked off.

The girls all had to wear gloves to protect their nails and keep from gouging each other's eyes out.
Yusuke, my supervisor's son. His team (pink) ended up winning the entire Sports Festival.
With the boys, as soon as the whistle blows it's a totall melee. The teachers have to get into the mix and we "spot" the kids, as usually a few of them get decked so hard they fall off their horses. The girls, however, is the complete opposite - as soon as the whistle blows, the majority of them scramble to run away from each other, resulting in the few aggressive girl-horses picking off hats if they can catch the others.
I heard of one year during this event, one of the kids fell so hard that he got knocked out cold with a concussion. With as rough as this event is (as well as the Mucade Race) it's just a total lawsuit waiting to happen, you'd think, right?! Wrong. Not in Japan. As for the kid who got knocked out, his parents came to the school and made a formal APOLOGY for their kid not being tough enough to fight in the crazy hand-to-hand combat!? Talk about absurd! My guess is that since Sports Festival is viewed as such a pastime that they saw it as totally normal for their kid to be clocked so hard.

Team Spirit Routines:
The final event of the day was a team-spirit routine, where each team came up with their own performance and unveiled it to the school. There are certain rules (can't purchase anything, but you can make things - usually drums, flags, costumes, etc), and it's a big deal because this event scores the most points and so the students have spent the most time rehearsing in secret. They even have a panel of judges to score the event!



After the sports day, the teachers had a huge party called an "enkai." Man these Japanese teachers know how to party. We went to this awesome restaurant with gorgeous food and man these teachers drank like fish. During the enkai, you get these really small drinking glasses, and you're not supposed to pour your own drink - you are supposed to pour for other people while saying "otsukara sama desu," which means, "thanks for your hard work." Then you pour them a drink. This all starts of relatively tame but you end up drinking a lot really fast because of these small cups and everybody is going around thanking each other (with the intention of getting each other bombed).

Since I'm the new teacher, everybody was out to get me wasted - we had to do skits after the dinner and I was supposed to be giving an English lesson (boy what a trainwreck that turned out to be).

Man these teachers are wild! In addition to the human trampoline, the teachers had rolling somersault competition, and TONS of karaoke. Can you imagine this happening at a work party back home?

More Engrish...

I bet the line is out the door.

It tastes better than it sounds. Like chocolate covered popcorn bars.

Dude Sapporo was running a promo advertising "Chicken and Beer" and it actually had a picture of the chicken on the can!! I couldn't resist.