Anko 餡子

Anko- Red Bean Paste. It is used in a bunch of sweet foods/snacks here. All around Asia I think. Vietnamese moon cakes have Anko inside. It is very sweet and distinctive. I don't like it very much. Sometimes, I can enjoy a red bean confection if I have a steaming cup of coffee in front of me.

Speaking of steaming...

Unko- Watch this if you want. Its pretty gross. Its a short video about Unko-san (the character in the picture above.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4KRQHvGUb0

But yes, Unko is poop.

So Anko, and Unko. Anko, Unko. Anko, Unko. Red Bean paste, poop, red bean paste, poop.

It was a Wednesday morning. A 42 student class. We were talking about food. In front of my 42 students. I said "I don't much like to eat Unko, its okay, but not great."

I said it in all seriousness, but the entire class couldn't stop laughing at me. They didn't know where that came from either, because, of course, to them Anko and Unko are two completely separate words. I tried to explain myself when I realized what I did. But the damage was done.

:)

Japanese Class

Here is my Japanese class. I go to Japanese class for free every Tuesday night. Its basically the beginner's class, but you have to know Hiragana at least, for it. Fujimoto Sensei, in the middle speaks some English, which helps me out a lot, and I can speak some Vietnamese which helps Ri-san out a lot (2nd to the right), and the 2 other girls can help each other out in Chinese.

Haha, yes! Its a very interesting class. Trying to chit chat before and after class is fun! I don't know what they are saying, and they don't know what I'm saying! But eventually we'll get there. We just need to learn a bit more Japanese to be able to communicate. I've always found that interesting...., 2 people communicating with each-other in their second languages.

I have some married friends...who both have mad sexy accents. Her first language is Brazilian, and his is Hebrew. Yet of course they communicate in English! So I guess now all thats left for me is to find a mad sexy Russian who can not speak English, and communicate with him in Japanese only. Yep, I can see it now. ;)
Here is our Christmas party, back in December. Someone ordered a pizza from Pizza-LA which made it all worth it!

Food

I have gotten more use to the food here. A little. This was my lunch a little while ago. I wanted to take a picture of today's lunch, because it was so incredibly bad...but I didn't have an opportunity.

This is a pretty standard lunch. The cold calamari rings with no breading. The sour pear salad with raisins. Some Japanese curry. I don't know what's hiding under that package. The rice tasted like the calamari. And the yummy thing was the chicken, which is why there is only one small piece. :)

Today though, was my worst kind of terror---Oden. Here, check out the horror, and make sure you look at the delicious pictures on the right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oden .

There. Now you know all you need to know about Japanese food. Its not all sushi and ramen. :) Anyways, I said I was getting more use to it now, so I'm not so much complaining. Besides, I have a years supply of "Del Scorcho" (thank you mom and dad!) and I always keep some in my purse for emergency. Today was an emergency. Having not eaten for 24 hours, I had to eat my Oden, spiced up with Scorching goodness.

And lastly, check out below what was in that mysterious package with my lunch last week:

Life doesn't get much better than this!

マイマイ新子。。。Hofu anime!

Mai Mai Shinko and the Thousand Year Old Magic.....thats the name of this anime. Mai Mai is the Japanese word for cowlick. And Shinko is a girl that...you guessed it, has a big cowlick on her head.

Plot Summary from animenewsnetwork.com:

" Ten years after the end of the Second World War, in a backwater rural town which used to be a major regional capital in Feudal Japan, Shinko, a girl with an active imagination who daydreams about the town as it appeared a millennium prior, befriends Nagiko, a shy girl from Tokyo whose father relocated to the town to become a doctor for a factory. The film follows their day to day lives as they take care of a goldfish in a makeshift pond, fantasize about a cloistered and lonely young princess who moved to the town in the Feudal Era, and help a boy cope with a family tragedy. "

So guess what? The "backwater rural town" is HOFU! It was really exciting for me to find out about this movie, because it is a major anime, in wide release in Japan, and probably all my anime freak friends at home know about it too. hehe. Maybe--Jen (sis!)--do you know about this movie?

Anyways, I went and saw the movie on Wednesday...even though it was all in Japanese. I couldn't pass up the chance to see a movie set in Hofu. I will admit, only because someone (Christina!) may call me on it...that I fell asleep for at least a 1/3 of the movie. But its still exciting that its my home, and I recognized the mountains right from the opening scene.

If you have a few minutes, please watch the opening scene...this is where I live!

--> http://www.mai-mai.jp/movie08.html

Of course its a little more built up now. One last really exciting thing to me is that the high school that I teach at got a shout out in the movie's credits. I still haven't figured out why yet. But perhaps one of the teachers at my school gave some interviews for the movie or something. But it was cool to see my school's name up on the big screen.

This is the most exciting thing for me since I found out that Next Friday was set in my real hometown of Rancho Cucamonga, CA! haha.

Have a wonderful day everyone.

GO HOFU! Or as they call it here. Ho-who.

The Hike

On Sunday I really felt like going on a hike. No, thats a lie. I didn't feel like doing anything! But I couldn't in good conscience just sit on my bum another second! So I got off my bum up and went on a hike. And when I say hike, I mean casual walk. And when I say walk, I mean more of a hobble at some points....because I realized that I left all my tennis shoes at home in California! When it got to the really uphill rocky parts, these shoes turned into a bit of a hazard.

It was really good day to climb that mountain. At the base of the mountain is a famous shrine~Tenmangu. I have another post or two that takes place there. Unforeseen by me, there were festivities going on there. I'm pretty sure the festivities were related to the holiday on the following day--Seji no hi. 成人の日 is always the 2nd Monday of January. Its for "Coming of Age". Its a day devoted to celebrating the arrival of a new group of people into adulthood. Adulthood in Japan is 20.

Anyways, it was either a Seji no hi thing, or some kind of late new years celebration, but there were loads of people at the shrine, and many girls wearing kimono. I should have asked. I am getting better at Japanese, but still don't have the balls to simply find a friendly face and ask "What's going on?" grrrrrrr. The fact that I can't tell with with assurity what was going on really bothers me. New leaf. now. (wow, assurity is not a real word, I just figured out!)

My view from the not quite top. This picture is just prettier than the one from the actual top. This is my city!!!! There is a fable... of water. Somewhere. :) Behind those mountains in the back of the pic.

The Beauty! The Beauty!

There are so many terrible things in the world. So so so many terrible things. But all my emotion over tragic events (Haiti) can not do much. I don't even have $10 to give to relief efforts right now. If you are reading this, and you can, please do.

All I can do is testify to you that THERE IS beauty all around. I'm sorry to any of you who had had to listen to me complain and cry and be bitter about this situation, or that. Because we all have it good. Anyone reading this has it good.

I was so amazed when I saw this branch. I'm sure some of my students snickered when they walked past me pulling out my camera. But I don't care if I saw this every day....I would still be amazed.

Above: Wednesday morning seemed especially cold, even with my heaters blaring. I swung the curtains back and pulled the sliding door open, to reveal this scene.

"You're not ordinary. You're not small. You're not anything normal at all. You're exquisitely extraordinary,... you're fabulously fine... mine. You're not overly serious. You're not cold... You're exquisitely extraordinary,.. you're fabulously fine. Mine. You're so real.

-- All India Radio's "Morning Drops" off their album Fall.

Fight to find the beauty. Don't let one second of life point you towards breathing Kurtz's last words, in the end.

お笑い講 ---or for most of you: Laughing Festival

The real problem with me writing this post, is that I'm still pretty clueless on "what just happened?"

I'll just do my best. I'd say around late November, a man walks into my teachers room and starts talking with one of my coworkers (Japanese Teacher of English Co-worker). Mr. Akimoto, the JTE then approaches me and asks me "Would you like to participate in a laughing contest?"

Ok. Hold up. Yeah. No holding up. Thats all the information I got. You do not decline things in Japan, if you can help it at all. Its just not polite. Plus...the one thing he did tell me is that there would be cash prizes! So... more info please? The info never came. :)

I was told to assemble an American team. My original team was me, Brooke from Iwakuni and Cyndi from Hikari. Due to many circumstances, the team ended up being me and 2 completely different girls (Callie from Shimonoseki, and Whitney from Oshima did awesome!). But we won, so thats good. Oh crap. I just spoiled the whole surprise! hehe

So since Akimoto Sensei is always busy, and the guy that came in and recruited me...I had never seen before in my life.... yeah, since those things... I just sort of waited and waited and waited for information. I wouldn't be hung out to dry right?

I really didn't know if a "laughing competition" entailed laughing the longest, the loudest, or heck if it meant NOT laughing while people are doing funny things.

Then one day, Mr. I still don't know his name recruiter-came and told me to be ready for an interview the next week. An interview? A news interview. Or some kind of special program.

Here is a screen shot that a friend of mine took real fast when I was on the news. He didn't even know I would be on, he was just watching TV somewhere over yonder across the prefecture, and then all of a sudden "Wait, I know that crazy white woman!"

That whole interview was so strange. Above, is me practicing for the laughing competition that would at this point be 5 days later (oh, laughing competition was December 19th, 2009). So finally...with cameras rolling, I get my first taste of what I am suppose to be doing.

You laugh to please the gods. You get three laughs, each laugh lasting as long as you can hold out one breath. The first laugh for the god of the past, and the second for the present, and the third, for the future.

There is an actual laughing festival at a shrine that is taken very seriously on December 1st. This competition is more new, nodding at the religious festival, but really just for fun. Which country has the best laugh in the world kind of thing. Oh yeah, Which country. This was an "International Laughing Competition"...they were able to get away with claiming that because there was a team from Malaysia, China, Korea, Japan and the U. S. of A. There may have been others. 8 teams.

I'm getting a second ahead of myself, because I want to express my exasperation at the whole TV interview thing. The interview woman spoke English. She had been speaking English to me!! But as soon as the cameras were rolling she starting asking me all these things in Japanese. I don't get it! My supervisor happened to be walking by at the time, and jumped in and saved me acting as a translator. Uuuuummmm... what did they expect would happen if my supervisor didn't walk by? Weird. :)

So here's two other teams during the actual competition. You can see that there are three team members, and you go against the person sitting across from you on the other team. I'm not sure who the judges were, but they just decide who's laugh would be more pleasing to the gods.

Okay, so our team got 3 rounds. The first and third round, we were facing this window, which gave us an unfair advantage. Unfair advantage you ask?

There is a man dressed up as a reindeer pacing around outside, staring at us, making funny movements. I used him. I used him up. I pretended that somehow this whole night was an episode of Arrested Development, and I just belted out the most crowd-pleasing laugh that you can imagine! I mean, this whole experience. Actually better than Arrested Development. I can't tell you how weird/silly everything was. ;)

Here is us being interviewed by the news after, since we were the champions of the night. We won 200 bucks, a certificate... but best of all, whenever I meet someone new in town.. I get to tell them that I am a laughing champion. Heheh. Most people around here know about おわらいこう。So I'm just slowly getting more and more famous. Heehe anyone remember me being on TV during the shrimp catching festival?

Anyways, I can't upload videos that are too long on this blogspot site. It never works. So if you missed the video on facebook, you can just go to my page, and keep clicking "Older Posts" until you get to December 2oth, and you should be able to watch feed from this spectacularly spectacular event. :)

Here are a couple of websites that are in Japanese, but you can see a little bit of the kind of coverage we got... hehehe.

http://www.oidemase.or.jp/jiblog/index.php?itemid=1599

and

http://yamaguchi.keizai.biz/headline/753/

We got a blurb in the national newspaper too, but they took down the page. :(

Sumo

I went to a Sumo Wrestling Tournament way back on November 28th, in Fukuoka, Japan. The trip was set up by the Hiroshima JETS, so I got to make some new friends. :) It was a great experience albeit, one that is fine as a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I mean, I would go again, but only if it was a cheap overall, and I could again sneak drinks inside.

"According to Japanese legend the very origin of the Japanese race depended on the outcome of a sumo match. The supremacy of the Japanese people on the islands of Japan was supposedly established when the god, Takemikazuchi, won a sumo bout with the leader of a rival tribe. Apart from legend, however, sumo is an ancient sport dating back some 1500 years." -Nihon-Sumo-Kyokai (Sumo handbook).

The one thing about it that makes me okay with not seeing it again, is that it goes so fast. There is all this buildup, and most of the matches last less than 5 seconds.~! The video that I posted on the bottom was one of the more exciting matches, because it wasn't immediately over. :) Sorry that the video isn't clear. We got the cheapest seats there were, at about 22 bucks.

What was more exciting to me was what came before the actual match. When the contestants first enter the "dohyo", they first must purify their fighting area. So they ceremoniously grab some salt and throw it into the ring. But during this part of the competition, they can she their colorful side. Some of the wrestlers just threw the salt, no big deal. And some made a show out of it, stomping around, trying to intimidate their contender, and trying to get cheers from the audience... all during the salt throwing.

There were a lot of people there. Apparently the competition I went to was a big deal. Too bad I wasn't the best person around to appreciate it all. All I wanted to do was take pictures with the card-board cutouts of the hot wrestlers. hehe.

One upsetting thing to my American sensibilities--they only get one chance. I mean, these wrestlers train train train train train. They put their lives into this one competition. And like I said. 5 seconds. 90% of the matches were 5 seconds long. And once you are out, you are out. No rematch. No taking on another wrestler. Their time in the competition is done.

I can't imagine a baseball players life all revolving around hitting one pitch.

Christmas at Home

My vacation home to California for Christmas break was truly amazing. Amazing amazing. I could easily make a blog about each and every separate day, but instead, I'm just going to give a happy nod to my time at home. I was at home in Southern California from December 22 through January 5th. And I wish I would have stayed an extra week. It wasn't long enough.

From the 22nd through the 27th, was mostly family time for me. My parents left on a cruise on the 27th, so I had to milk every last drop out of the time before they left. The first thing that I did upon being picked up at the airport was go through the Del Taco drive-thru and then make a stop at my grandmas house (dad's side). That was cool because my grandma's house was the last place I stopped before leaving for the JET program.

Del Taco was not good for my stomach. At all. But mmmmmm.

Day 1- Watched the latest (at the time) episode of Doctor Who with my dad. Saw Avatar. Spend time with family.

Day 2- Did last minute Christmas shopping with my mom. Spent most of my "fun money" at Costco to bring back stuff for my Japanese co-workers and students. Went to my best friend's husband's birthday party.

Day 3-Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is held for my dad's side of the family at our house.

Day 4- Christmas Day. Christmas Day is held at my grandma's house for my mom's side of the family. The picture below is from Christmas day.

Day 5- Saw the Blind Side with my mom. More Shopping. Caught up with my Vietnam buddies during the night. Love you Diane, Kristy, Noah!

Day 6- ... okay. I really could go through every day. I remember everything clearly.

But lets just say every single day was full of excitement for me. I spent a lot of time with my sister because I was her babysitter while my parents were on the cruise. She's 15 so not really a babysitter. But an eye-keeper person. So I dragged her wherever I could so she wouldn't get into trouble.

It was really really nice to see my best friend's new baby, and hold Leena in my arms. Baby Leena is amazing and sooooo little. How are babies so little?

It was really nice to spend New Year's Eve Night with Jamie. I had a wonderful time being at a church on that night, not drinking or being crazy. Just pure fun the way fun is meant to be had.

I'm happy that I got to spend a lot of time with Julie, the most rad gal L.A. has ever known!!

I'm really happy that we had a Young Democrats reunion, and ate Vietnamese food in Little Saigon. Oh, how I miss little Saigon, and its inhabitants like Jamison. :)

This is much more than a nod. But I gotta thank everyone. Everyone! It was nice seeing you Will and Garrett even though I thought Sherlock Holmes sucked.

Thank you to everyone who came to my New Year's Day party! You are all very talented people, I found out. Still can't beat my sister playing the Piano backwards. hehe.

Some people I wish I got to see an extra time... Like Diana and Devina.

And some people I missed completely and I'm sad, but we'll see each-other next time, like Steph. Other people I couldn't see because they moved out of SoCal. Poo on that.

It was great to go visit my old store. I miss my store! But it seems like its in very capable hands...thanks Jim and Carlos!

Wow I could definitely go on for a long long while. Thanks for all the memories guys. Home is where the heart is...and that is in Sunny California. :)

Here are my lovely parents, the night before their cruise. I was to reiterate that I have the most amazing parents in the whole of the world.
Tamales!!! Will I ever see a tamale in Japan? Noooope. But I only need my grandma's tamales once a year to stay happy.

Now, back in Japan...so I must catch up on some of my Japan Time posts! :) Allons-y!