Today all of the elementary schools in Nagashima had their annual sports day! While everyone had a good time, for me, more than sports day itself, I enjoyed watching the friends and families of my students get excited seeing their little ones run around competing against one another. The weather couldn't have been any worse for a sports day, however, as it rained and rained and rained. It was all good though as I think the kids preferred it that way. Enjoy these experimental photos.
Elementary schools in Nagashima competed against one another today in a sumo tournament marking the beginning of the fall season. The event was held at the base of the tallest mountain on the island and despite the rainy weather families and friends were out in full support routing on the little sumo men. Please enjoy these pictures from today!
Last weekend the junior high schools in Nagashima held their annual school sports day festival. Sports day in Japan is a very very important ordeal and hours upon hours of practice and preparations are invested to ensure that the big runs just as planned.
On the morning of sports day friends and relatives gather together at school to watch students compete against one another. Students are split into two teams, red and white, and for each event won points are awarded accordingly. Events including running relays, the tug of war, dancing, and cheering are all part of the students sports day.
There are judges too, a combination of teachers and old men from the school board, who lounge under big tents drinking tea and eating snacks deciding amongst themselves which team has the most fighting spirit. Eventually, the mayor comes by for a visit and at that time the event is put to a halt while the mayor gives a long and drawn out speech about the importance of sports day. The moms of the students run around snapping photos and taking video of their children while the dads sit on the sidelines dinking potato shochu until they can't stand up strait.
Sports day is an all day event. For lunch everyone breaks and all of the student's families spread out tarps and blankets eating picnic style together in the field - called the grand in Japanese -enjoying a leisurely lunch. At about 3:00 when the event is over, several speeches are made, the Japanese flag is lowered from the flag pole, and banzai is yelled loudly - a traditional Japanese explanation meaning, "ten thousand years" - in unison three consecutive times as hands are raised high to the sky.
After everyone cleans up together the families return home together to continue celebrating late into the evening. The teachers too gather together and go out to eat celebrating all the hard work they invested in their school's sports day festival.
The school I went out to dinner with had a charter bus come pick us up and take us to our destination. We had our party at ABC Hotel, a hotel about 40 minutes from Nagashima Island. Those of us who needed to shower went into the hotel bath and bathed together washing up for before dinner. Yup, getting naked with your co-workers, sexes separated of course, is a great way to get to know one another, not to mention totally acceptable in Japan. Finally, once everyone was ready we all gathered together at the hotel and raised our glasses for the first stage of our evening. In the end sports day in Nagashima was a true success.
Recently two good friends of mine were married and last weekend we had a party to celebrate! Because the wedding itself was a small family ordeal the party we threw was for the friends of the bride and groom. As nearly everyone pitched in to help organize and prepare for the event the party turned out to be a great success. I did my part by making balloon animals for the decorations and playing the doumbek, a Middle Eastern drum for the musical entertainment. It was great being able to get back into two old hobbies of mine as both balloon twisting and playing the drum are two pastimes that I haven't touched in quite some time.
I put together a short video of the wedding party using a new video software that I have been trying to figure out in my free time. I'm new to the whole video editing scene so go easy on me! Hopefully, I'll be able to get some more videos up online soon to keep things interesting. Thanks and enjoy!
It doesn’t get much better than a relaxing day at the hot springs and just recently Koko and I drove nearly 5 hours north for the famous Kurokara Onsen, a quaint little onsen village nestled in the mountains of Kumamoto Prefecture. Named after the river that flows nearby, this onsen village must have had at least 50 different baths to choose from, all of which where unique from the others in town.
So what’s the big deal about the onsen anyways? Well, what it comes down to is that onsen waters are loaded with lots of good stuff like Sulphur, Sodium Chloride, Hydrogen Carbonate and Iron to make you feel better and live longer! And because the onsen water comes from the earth naturally the different minerals and amounts of these minerals vary from one place to the next. Thus, because no two onsen are ever alike, Japanese and the occasional white boy like myself enjoy touring Japan and testing the waters.
When in Rome do as the Romans do and when in Osaka eat takoyaki balls nonstop until you are so full of octopus legs that you have to be carried out the door! So, what exactly is takoyaki? Here is what Wikipedia has to say:
Takoyaki (たこ焼き or 蛸焼?) (literally fried or baked octopus) is a popular Japanese dumpling made of batter, diced or whole baby octopus, tempura scraps (tenkasu), pickled ginger, konnyaku, and green onion, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, green laver (aonori), mayonnaise, and katsuobushi (fish shavings).
Although takyoki is sold everywhere in Japan many Japanese agree that it is best when eaten in Osaka, the city where it first originated. Takoyoki can be made at home with a special skillet thus it is common for Japanese, especially those in Osaka, to have takoyaki parties. Takoyaki can also be bought on the streets from venders and from the supermarket in the frozen foods section.
Recently, Koko and I visited Osaka and on the top of our things to do list was to eat lots and lots of delicious Osaka made takoyaki. I’m sure you can imagine how excited we were when, by chance, we stumbled across the Osaka Takoyaki Museum. Of course, we didn’t have any choice but to go and check it out! Inside we found 5 of the more famous takoyaki restaurants in Osaka all selling a unique version of the octopus ball. Not knowing which restaurant to try we decided that we would try them all!
We started off strong and after visiting the first 2 restaurants we had both consumed about 15 balls each. By the 3rd restaurant we had another 6 balls each bringing our total to 21 balls. At the 4th restaurant we each ate another 10 balls bringing the new ball count to 31 balls. By that time we were stuffed!! We thought hard about whether or not we should just suck it up and hit the last restaurant, but in the end we didn’t have it in us. We weren’t too hard on ourselves though, besides 4 out of 5 insn't all that bad. Not to mention we had just eaten 31 octopus balls EACH!
The other day Koko and I visited Osaka city and spent an entire day playing like kids at Universal Studios Japan. Despite the crowds of people and hot and humid weather we still had a great time exploring inside the park. With the average estimated waiting time being between 2 and 3 hours for each attraction we weren’t able to see everything, but by the end of the day I think we both felt good about how much we managed to accomplish.
Our first stop was at Shrek’s 4-D Adventure where we joined Shrek, Donkey, and Princess Fiona on a honeymoon adventure. Next, we went on an E.T. adventure where we sailed across the universe to help E.T. his home planet. We then went on a “Hollywood Dream” where we zipped through the sky overlooking the theme park below. Afterwards, we got up close and personal with all of the park’s characters as we cheered them on during the Happy Harmony Celebration Parade. And finally, the best part of my day, although I think Koko seemed a little jealous, was when Winnie Woodpecker fell in love with me and tried to take me for herself! If you don’t believe me then take a look below!
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Departing from Nashville, Tennessee I sat on the plane next to a man who appeared to be in his mid forties. He had a good ol' boy look to himself and his country twang matched the part. We were both headed for Detroit, Michigan that morning; I was on my way to catch a connecting flight to Narita, Japan and he was on his way to meet a woman whom he had met on an online dating site.
By the time I had found my seat he was already in place and tightly belted down. It was only his only his 2nd time to fly in a plane and he quickly informed me of this. Before having time to even stow my bags he turned to me saying, “Son, flying in airplanes scares the hell out of me.” He continued with, “I’m not scared much anything else. I just don’t like flying.”
He turned out to be very talkative and it wasn’t too long before he began telling me his story. He told me about how he had been once divorced and how he had a good feeling about the lady he would be meeting later that afternoon. Together they planned on crossing into Canada so that they could get better acquainted with one another. He then told me about his Harley and how he contemplated taking his bike to Michigan so he didn’t have to fly.
Married friends of his have matching Harleys, he explained. They bought them at the same time and they never take one out without the other. The only thing different between the two bikes is the one digit difference between the serial numbers. He referred to the bikes as the twins. He told me that when one bike needs to be serviced his friends just go ahead and take them both in for maintenance. I got the impression that he too longed for his own pair of twin bikes. At that moment I hoped that things between him and his Internet girlfriend would work out for the best.
I dozed off at one point during a silent spell in our conversation, but by that time he had softened his grip on the handle of his seat. At times I even noticed him glancing out the window. I awoke when the pilot’s voice came over the intercom to say, “flight attendants please prepare the cabin for landing.”
As our plane began its descent the man continued on as if we had been talking the entire time. He remarked, “I just don’t get how it is that we are moving so fast even though everything looks like it’s passing by so slow.” He continued with, “I think that’s Einstein’s Theory of Relativity or something like that.” I didn’t respond, but instead I slowly bobbed my head up and down several times pushing my lower lip out just slightly as if to relay that I was thinking deep and hard about what he had just said. Once the plane landed he introduced himself to me. I can’t remember his name, but I think it was John or Jim or James or something.
While it wasn’t nearly enough time to spend at home it was definitely great seeing everyone during the short amount of time that I was able to return for a visit.
After being away for a little over a year the first thing I noticed was how big, developed, and foreign everything appeared. It was a funny feeling to drive down very familiar roads only to see very unfamiliar sites. At times I thought to myself that this is what getting old must feel like.
It was comforting, on the other hand, to see friends and family just how I remembered everyone being. And it was cool too being able to pick back up with everyone just as if I had been home the entire time. I was reminded that while all of us may change as we grow, and flutter about through our lives chasing various ambitions, it's the relationships that connect us together as people which generally stay just about the same no matter how much time has passed. I like this about us.
Needless to say it was fantastic spending time with everyone! I didn't know it was possible to squeeze in so many visits with so many people in such a such a short amount of time, but we pulled it off.
I'd like to close this entry by saying thanks to mom for the ice chips while I was sick in bed to dad for a hearty American breakfast on my last morning at home to Logan for accompanying me to Atlanta and for the good talks we had in the car along the way to Clara and Jacob and Kristen for lots of food at Qdoba to Greg and April for grilled pizzas and Guitar Hero to Banner for eating my souvenirs to Katie for picking me up at the airport and playing Speed Scrabble with me at Borders to Jenny and Julie for ice cream at Pied Piper to Sue for falafel and hummus to Georgia for coffee at Fido's and chats to Mr. C for treating me to an Italian dinner to Raleigh for showing me around the Opry gift shop to nanny and poppas and family for Saturday lunch to granddaddy and family for lunch on Sunday to Jason and Kirstin for an evening at Gold Rush, to Carrie and Bethany and French friends for talks on the balcony, to Amy G. for lunch at McAllister’s to Dr. G for a beer at Aubrey’s to Anna for catching up over Mediterranean and to Mr. Duncan for a quick chat at Great Clips. . . and if somehow I managed to leave you out of this inclusive thank you list then please know that I am thankful for you too. Finally, enjoy these pictures of my trip. Cheers!
I recently had the opportunity to try my hand at wakeboarding the other day when a few friends of mine invited me along for a day of fun at the sea. Six of us along with 3 jet skis, 2 wakeboards, a giant inner tube and an inflatable island spent an entire day relaxing under the sun taking turns with the wakeboards. With lots of good advice from my friends it only took me a few lessons before I was able to stand up out of the water. By the end of the day, despite falling a few billion times in the process, I actually even managed to stay standing long enough to try a jump on my last run!
We knew it was time to call it a day when we were all burnt from the sun and battered from our falls. After making our way back to the shore we cleaned off our gear and went out for dinner. With big appetites we ate like kings celebrating our victories and reminiscing about all that had happened during our day at sea. I’ve uploaded a few photos and even a video for your enjoyment so have a look!
