On a slightly related note, my hard drive is completely full, which means I can't import anymore of my photos until I do a little computer spring-cleaning. So the stories you get tonight are a bit old. Oldies but goodies!
Saturday, September 16th was a really fun day. I got to leave work early (yes, I was working on a Saturday because of Sports Day, which is addressed below) to go to the Okamachi Community Center for a welcome party. People here are so amazingly kind; they seem genuinely happy to have foreigners in their midst and to share their time and their culture. Volunteer work is a huge part of the culture here, especially among the retired.
The first item on the itinerary at the welcome part was a geisha dance! Several older women performed three traditional dances, and they were so cute! They were dressed in traditional garb, and they twirled umbrellas and flipped fans and everything. It was definitely a treat.
And THEN, we all got free kimonos! I chose a yukata instead, which is a summer kimono. I loved the pattern, but I was dismayed when I put it on because it was too large in every direction and it dragged on the floor. But it turned out that there were women in attendance who were expert kimono dressers! Before I could bat an eye, they had chosen an obi (belt) to complement my yukata, and they had me all wrapped up. I loved it so much, I wanted to bike home in it! We were all so sad to take them off at the end of the party!
Me with Taube.
Me with Lexy.
My summer knot!
The group!
While we were still in our kimonos, we went to a koto performance. The koto is a traditional, twangy Japanese instrument...but these ladies were totally hooked up because they were playing electric koto! The music was so beautiful, but the highlight of the event was when they let US try it out! All you have to do is pluck a string and hit some numbered keys, and the numbering makes the sheet music really easy to read. But the absolutely ancient lady whose koto I was playing kept telling me what a natural I was! Afterwards, she gave me her pick. I'm considering taking koto classes at Okamachi just because she is so cute.
On Sunday, September 17th most of the junior high schools in Himeji held their annual Sports Day Festival. That Sunday was the culmination of a seven-day work week for me! It's not like field day at home, where all the kids basically get a free day to run around and do high jumps and discus throwing. Nope, it's all rehearsed. The kids were outside all day, every day the week prior (even Saturday). Since there was no regular class schedule that week, guess what I got to do? That's right, pull weeds! In Japan, people do so many things themselves that we regularly hire people to do at home.
So by the time Sports Day finally rolled around, the kids were pros. And of course, a lot of the day was filled with speeches. This is the principal (he is a very quiet and gracious man):
The kids marched around the track to the center of the field, grouped by class (each grade level has five homerooms), and each class displayed the flag they had painted.
Then they all performed the "Radio Exercise," which is a nationally broadcast stretching exercise.
Then they did what seemed like 500 relay races...I even got to run with the teachers! Finally, after almost two hours, each grade level participated in its own contest. The first graders' was the best: each homeroom had to hurl practically weightless bean-bag balls into a basket ten feet above their heads, and the winner was the group with the most after two minutes. It was hilarious! The third graders' mukade (poisonous centipede) race was also hysterical; with all their right feet bound and all their left feet bound, some groups couldn't jog ten feet without toppling! (Speaking of mukade, I've had one in my room. It's always something.)
Afterwards, about 75 to 100 kids performed the Soran dance, which is a traditional Japanese dance about fishermen, and it's quite a workout. It culminates with a human pyramid!
We got rained off the field in the last hour, so we had to skip the closing ceremony (e.g. more speeches). Darn! But it was a really fun day, and I got Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off because of the long week prior!
I've been spending a lot of my free time getting moved in. The second law of thermodynamics definitely holds true when you're living in confined quarters: entropy of an isolated system always increases! It's hard to find out exactly where everything should go, and I have to spend so much time cleaning. With wood flooring and no dishwasher, the work just piles up! But I love having my own space. Soon I will post pictures. It's finally starting to feel more homey, and I think I'm starting to realize that I actually live here now...
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