Join Groups

It got to that point where I intended to start looking into joining 'things'.
I realized that I'm now comfortable, the house is set up, haven't made any contacts through work, and while I am perfectly happy entertaining myself during my spare time, it would be nice to balance it out a bit.

Almost by chance, it seemed as if the universe heard me.  I got a colleague to look into a futsal team for me, there is a potential Jodo martial arts hall nearby which I could join, and by a stroke of luck I met a fellow foreigner nearby.

I was walking to the train station when this car pulls over and asks if I was lost.  When I explained that I actually live here he exclaimed that he too lives here.  An ALT and his wife from Czech and Brazil with a nice house just down the road that have lived here for 15 years.

Had a bit of a chat and today they suggested I join them to a dance performance event at the city hall.  A few dance clubs from around the area all did a performance and some of his Japanese friend's daughters were in it.

The dances were a mix of groups from Ballet, to Hip hop, to micronesian featuring pupils of all ages.  Some were very cute and clumsy 4 year olds who couldn't pirouet without the crowd laughing endearingly, and some of the older ones moved as gracefully and elegantly as a professional production.  A great performance and free too!

Hopefully I can get in on more of these local secrets!

Sports Day

I already attended a sports carnival at my other school, but seeing this one was surprisingly quite different.  My main school is the biggest Junior High School in the area so I think there is a much higher importance placed on strictness.  The training regimen these kids go through to learn several songs, dances and the whole even was pretty intensive.  No mucking around it was like a military camp haha.

But the day itself paid off, was a blast and successful.

Pretty much the day starts with an opening ceremony.  Lighting of a olympic torch, and some speeches and bows and chants to the PTA and the staff.  Then a hybrid stretch/dance.  Followed by various races of the grades, relays, whole-class skipping competitions, whole class bamboo course challenges, followed by a ceremonial dance and more speeches and finally clean up.

Got some more pics and a bit more of a video to check out too if you're so inclined.

A Little Observation of Language

I try and study every day.  At the very least I get some flash cards going for some vocab rote-learning.

One thing I notice by comparison, is how largely inflated, redundant and complicated the English language can be.  But at the same time, how this affords the ability to express yourself in many ways.

One example word which highlights what I mean is the word "Taikai" 大会.  This literally means "Big meet".  The Japanese use this for everything from a school sports carnival, to a concert, to a convention, festival.  All the same word.

But what happens if you want to specifically indicate that it is a convention or a festival for something.  You end up requiring a bunch of words to support it.  "You know, the big meet with the stage up the front some musicians and the crowd often dancing or listening".

This kind of communication is I think what makes Japanese quite difficult for foreigners too.  You can't just learn a vocabulary and exchange it, you have to use a set-phrase of speech which gets the same message across.

On the flip side of the coin, is that if you have one word like 'Daijoubu" or "It's OK" that gets used everwhere and for everything, you can simply express your 'OKness' with something.  You don't need to explain why.  If a salesman comes trying to sell you a book you already own, in English you'd say "No thanks, I already own one." Just saying "No thanks" is possibly even a bit blunt.  But in Japanese all you gotta do is state the "I'm ok" and thats that.

I remember one of the Japanese bilinguals I met during my travels and he said as he was gaining fluency in English there became times when he found it really easy to express himself in English.  The vocabulary offers ways to say things that are impossible in Japanese.  But at the same time there were moments where Japanese was better to express yourself.  With less vocabulary required you can simply state your feeling and nothing more is necessary, providing a bit of freedom with having to give specifics or correctly articulating yourself.

Almost 7 months here learning the language and I'm still thoroughly enjoying it.  While it may have a simpler vocabulary, and often simple grammatical structures, the combination of components that are required to form a more complicated thought are often completely unique in structure compared to English.  There is only more to learn.

Jogasaki Coast

During my trip to Ito on the Izu peninsula I took a trip to the Jogasaki coastline.  Basically a shelf of all the slow moving volcanic lava meets the sea and created a spectactular shelf coastline.




























Also not far from Ito was a small standalone volcano which had a chairlift to the top for some nice views.  Completely grass covered it was pretty cool.

Ito, Atami, and the Isu Peninsula

JHS students have a huge focus on tests in order to get them into a High School of their choice.  It's still very important which school you get into as it holds high reference for your first employer so it's important.  So several times throughout the year the poor students study for every subject and do a day full of exams.  Poor kids.

Anyways, it meant I didn't have classes so I made a long weekend out of it and went and visited the Izu/Isu peninsula south of here.  Pretty much the entire coastline formed by ancient slow-flowing volcanos making the area pretty spectacular, plenty of volcanic activity, onsen, seafood and beautiful coastline as well.

Here are some pictures of Atami and Ito, the two main cities I visited.


Lots of fresh seafood around here.  This was some delicious sashimi and cold soba noodles



Lots of seafood - some drying in the sun











These are actually lanterns.  Lots of dried things in this shop - there's even a turtle in the background!


A geyser outside the train station








Along the coast of Atami







Stumbled across this beautiful old building in Atami











Ito.  Lots of character



Atami (and less so, Ito) both have a feel of yesterday about them.  Many many resorts and hotels most of which are cracking, paint peeling and obviously vacant.  I guess during the bubble economy in the 90's this kind of place would have been super popular being so close to Tokyo but now it just doesn't see the same traffic.







National heritage old listed building.  There was this famous one, and an older one next door which got converted into a hostel (very beautiful!)



Some beautiful timber work

Sports Carnival - Japanese Style

This post is a little overdue but I figured I'd share it still anyways.

On my birthday I went to watch the School sports carnival on a Saturday.

It's a really interesting thing, to see a sports carnival in Japan, as it distinguishes the differences in culture in so many ways between the West, and Japan.

For example. The sports are all team or group based. I don't think there were any individual events. There is also school dances and traditional chants that the entire school learns. All schools in Japan learn a dance or song like this. There were more but I can't remember now. There will be another sports day coming soon for my other school I'll see if I can document some more haha.























A concept of 3 legged race, Starts off with 3, that run half way and join another 3, who run halfway and join another 6, until the entire grade is joined.  HILARIOUS, falls are inevitable and painful and often half the group falls with one mistake haha.



Jump rope competition to get the most.  Record is 54.



Traditional Soran dance







Represents fishing, pulling in the nets and tilling the fields for a productive year...or something.