Delays Due To Relays

     The currently planned episode of the podcast is being postponed until all schedules lighten up.

Here's what's been going in the meantime:

The shirts will also have this slogan

     Of the peaks and valleys in a Japanese school system with respect to workload we're certainly at a peak. As of this writing, most schools are either preparing for their Undoukai (Sports Festival) or have had them last weekend. Mitsuko's was the latter and I'm still the former.

     Speaking of Mitsuko, she has since returned back home to Ebi and (as of the second semester) has started working once more. It's a bit sad that we have to live apart again. It was a good run while we had it - even if for horrible reasons, but hopefully work will keep us busy enough to avoid becoming too lonesome. She was elated to be back in action though and there was much rejoicing by everyone in her town - especially the students. There were no mistakes about being back to work as soon as she returned; speech contest practice started right away.
     While there are currently no classes for me, there's still much work to be done in the speech contest realm. Since about the end of July I've been more or less 'coaching' four of my students - three third years and a second year - alongside a JTE or two. Occasionally I'll be left alone to work with them and I quite like those sessions. I'm know I'm not good enough to communicate all of my ideas entirely in Japanese but there's also no need for that. Some of the best moments I've had working on the speech contest have come from the times when it was just the group of us - allowing for more breathing room and a less tense environment overall, which I believe to be essential for this kind of practice.
     I remember a recent time when I was practicing with a couple of students who I'll refer to as A and K here. K had been making great leaps in his pronunciation. I chose him in fact because he's quite good at mimicking me. Though he first did it in jest during class time I later told him what a useful skill it would be for learning a language. For practice on emphasis I had encouraged him to copy my pseudo karate chopping motions so he could remember how the cadence rose and fell. We joked about how he would scare people randomly speaking English and chopping away. Next up was A. I enjoy working with her because of how inquisitive she is. She'll be the first one to recognize that she misspoke and she'll always ask how she can improve her pronunciation. I try to avoid terms such as "right" and "wrong" when it comes to how one speaks so I always remind her (and the rest of them) that outside the world of speech contests pronunciation is really a bottom tier quality. During the course of our practice we were working on a rather difficult word to pronounce and I had thought up a new way for her to think about it. That clicked and she managed to say it perfectly. The look on her face after she had just blown her own mind was fantastic.

A picture from Isai Kindergarten looking out at the now defunct Isai Elementary

     If there's one thing that makes this job really worth it, it's the kids. They're just the best. I have the good fortune of seeing a lot of kids by way of elementary school and kindergartens, which does add to the workload but gives me a chance to have more fun as well. The downside is that outside of my junior high school, I have very scattered visits so I don't see each individual school as frequently as I probably should. My base school (junior high) is fun precisely because of how much contact I have with the students and how very unique and quirky they all are.
     Perhaps it was that way when I was a junior high school student as well but then again, I wasn't in the position to have everyone instantly know who I was, or like me for that matter. Even thinking about the teacher's perspective (back home) reaffirms that we never felt that way towards them, which isn't to say we didn't respect our teachers, it just didn't feel as automatic.
     I've heard from friends who teach/ have taught at high schools that they don't necessarily run into every student all the time, which is a shame. For people that do see (and frequently) all kids in the student body I feel as though one becomes nearly paternal in nature. It seems almost inescapable considering how much becoming a teacher feels like being sworn into a society which grants implicit trust and respect - something I don't take lightly as it seems easy to abuse. This serves to increase the value of my work all the more. Above all else, I just don't want to let my kids down.

-J



     

Exclamation Marks!

Episode 08 - Natchan!

Summer is just about over and it's time to talk about the best part of it! Festivals! Festivals are the main attraction during summer in Japan. I imagine most people would leave or travel during this extremely hot and humid time of the year. This week Mitsuko and I try to define what it is to be a festival in Japan, and why that doesn't quite add up to our definition in America. Along the way we discuss some of our favorite moments from festivals we've attended!

Show Notes 

-The drink for this week:

It's excited about being Natchan!

Niku Maki Cheese (Translation: Deliciousness)

Beef stick (Delicious)

Karaage (Friend Chicken)

Yakisoba! It's soba, but yaki'd!

That's yakitori in the background.

Taiyaki! The fish pancakes.

-Gaina lantern balancing:

-Yamakasa Dontakasu:

This is the festival that I never actually saw because I left the day before it was set to happen! You can read Wikipedia's very short entry on it, or just check out the picture below to get an idea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakata_Gion_Yamakasa

-Here's a link to Kotoura-cho's Hakuhousai laser/fireworks show:

Youtube blocked the sound. But you can still enjoy the video. Thank you Youtube.

-This week's musical recommendation:

http://fortune500.bandcamp.com/album/sailorwave

https://soundcloud.com/macross-82-99

 

This is the cover art.

You've probably noticed from the link about that we're not putting these up via Youtube anymore. I host them through Soundcloud and.... *drumroll* we're on iTunes now!

Make sure to subscribe!

As always if you have thoughts, comments, suggestions,

critiques, or maybe you want to find out how to be a guest on the show, send us an email at:

culturecafecast@gmail.com

-J

Winding Down Summer

Hey all,

     It's been a pretty busy week or so, which means that I haven't been able to put up a new episode of the show in quite some time. On the other hand it also means that there's been much to talk about. One of the festivals I was waiting for in order to do a "festivals" themed episode has since passed and I'd like to spoil the show only a bit (we'll talk about festivals in general, not just this one) by talking about it here.

Juushichiya (十七夜)

     This is the big one for us and ironically it's the smallest festival we attend. The history of Juuschiya changes up a bit depending on who we ask in the town but most people agree that at least 400 years ago there was a lord who lived in Kofu-cho's Ebi ward. He was a good man and the people of Ebi really loved him. Then one day, as is common amongst lords it would seem, he was killed by the people of a neighboring area called Muko (武庫), which still exists today. Muko, incidentally, means "armory," so it's probably not too hard to imagine they were a bit Spartan-like in their time, but that's just speculation on my part, plus the fact that they killed Ebi's lord. In any case, the former subjects decided that they would honor their felled lord by having a festival in which they would remember what a just and kind person he was. So that's the history of it. But what of the modern day? How do they actually celebrate it? Like so:

A view from our ryokan-turned house

A really bad shot of the townspeople carrying a palanquin of sorts to the sort where it will be danced around

Mitsuko in her yukata looking fabulous

Traditional Japanese clothing + greasy fried chicken = festival

I am a major supporter of the fried noodle cause

The width of the street becomes increasingly small when you have vendors on either side

This might not have any relation to the history, but it's still cool!

This kid might as well have just poked the boxes over.

Eventually it's a shoulder to shoulder affair

I don't really know what this is about but here you go!

 More pictures of these dudes.

This is the traditional dance done for the long gone lord

やっぱり麻雀が出た！

     Some of the things I didn't get a picture of though were the taiko, sumo, and burning of the hill. The taiko and sumo probably don't need much explanation. They're demonstrations of those events, but the hill fire is one that's particularly unique and very much a reason why one would want to go to Juushichiya. The Japanese kanji for the event is 十　七　夜 which quite literally says, "17th night". The more poetic way to interpret it might be something like, "The Night of the 17th". In any case, it's held on August 17th, and they take those kanji and spell it out with fire up on the hill behind Ebi station. It's a really spectacular thing to see and I wish they'd been able to do it this year, but the festival was mostly rained out. Many of the vendors appeared to have canceled, and though it cleared up during the middle of the day, it picked up around 8:30 or so, and really spoiled the evening. We asked Mitsuko's students about whether or not they were still going to do the fire and they told us that it was likely not going to happen because they couldn't do the preparations earlier in the day when it was simply down pouring.

Oh well. Still a pretty good time.

Stay tuned for a podcast all about festivals in Japan coming very soon!

-J

 

Here Comes The Nighttime

I had a festival this weekend so we're delaying the licenses episode until next week. Sorry!

     I probably haven't mentioned it but I write articles periodically for my school's website - and town newsletter for that matter. They dubbed it "Joshua's Corner" and this week I wanted to share what I wrote. I'll also throw in some pictures!

Note: I write these in English and they're later translated into Japanese.

     The festival season is here! Summer festivals are one of the best - and most unique - parts of Japanese life. Every now and again this time of the year can become too hot to want to do much but it’s never so bad that I would skip out on these celebrations; they’re one of the things I look forward to the most here. These events touch upon so many of my senses that they’re instantly memorable no matter where I am. The cry of the cicada provides a wonderful soundtrack to accompany vendors selling their wares both of which become lost in the laughter and joy of children who run about. Seeing people walk among the crowds in their colorful Yukata creates a fantastic backdrop against the illuminated night. The smell of the foods lures one from stall to stall, filling up on delicious treats. Above all else, nothing beats watching fireworks at night with friends, when the sky comes alive. This is summer in Japan.

You want it, they'll fry it.

It's going to get a lot more crowded soon.

Me watching everyone watch the dance performances.

I think that lady is taking a picture of me.

Starting to pick up a little bit more now.

Nowhere other than a festival would I pay 500 yen for that.

Plenty Of Message

Niku Maki Cheese. Amazing.

Mitsuko's go to favorite: Bucket o' fried chicken.

Stacked and ready to serve.

Awaiting the next performance.

Seriously, this is the best food.

Starting to fill up now.

Not pictured: Anyone's face.

I think that lady in the middle looked at just the right time.

Waiting for fireworks off to the side.

Taiyaki after the fireworks were over.

Really wanted to try that lemonade, but we were out of money.

I really want a professional camera now.

 So that was it for the Hatano Matsuri. Still not sure if it was Hatano, or Hata No... Anyway, it was a good time and I was able to see a lot of my kids all throughout the day. A few of them even sat with us so we could watch the fireworks together. It was a great night, and not even that hot at all, which made it all the better. The humidity was also extremely tolerable, neither of us were muggy the entire night.

Next weekend there are more events but I do promise to get an episode of the podcast up by then. We'll talk about festivals most likely after licenses are done.

See you,

Joshua

Joshua In Japan Episode 2!

Okay okay, I realize that I'm a little bit behind on the posting. I haven't even written about Tokyo Orientation or even those first few nights in my own place yet! It probably seems like I'm jumping the gun. . . but I couldn't resist the opportunity to get the second episode of my show out there!

Here's some show notes for you:

We open at first by returning from a weekend in Kofu-cho where I was able to say hi to many of the people I met while I was volunteering. Now that I've become a "sensei" by way of the JET programme I was met with congratulatory remarks which I humbly cast aside. In all honesty I was just happy to be back in Japan, a place that had already made a huge impact on my life more than once.

I made sure to come back to Akasaki this past sunday though because I was told there would be a summer festival that included: food, song, dance, an eating contest, and of course fireworks.

In the video I called it the Hakuhou Matsuri, but that's a slight mistake. It's actually known as the Hakuhousai. It's the same kanji, but I got the reading wrong. I apologize for that.

In any case, a literal translation of the event boiled down to: The White Phoenix Festival. Which is absurdly cool.

I captured a few things here and there, but the highlight of the evening was certainly the fireworks display. I managed to record the entire thing! So sit back relax and enjoy the long overdue second episode of Joshua In Japan!

I'll also throw in some pictures of the food I ate as a bonus for you out there.

Steak Stick: I wanted another one so bad

Churro: That cost me 350 yen. It wasn't bad but I could've paid for another steak stick

Takoyaki: I love takoyaki. Mitsuko and I shared this one

Squid: I'm always up for fried squid. A guy I met at the town office worked a booth that sold this one

Melon Shaved Ice: With two pocky! This was a lot better than I thought it was going to be

  -J