Video

Here's a video I made for Sports Day:



The song is "Orpheus In the Underworld". They played it constantly

Undokai

This weekend I went to two more sports festivals for my elementary schools. As soon as I figure a couple things out I'll put up some videos. Until then, here's some pictures:



The students march around the field during the opening ceremony. Then several people give short speeches as everyone stands in the hot sun. The whole thing takes 30 minutes to an hour and at the end, at least four kids had so lie down because of the heat.



At most schools, each grade (or two grades combined) do their own performance. Here the 5th and 6th graders practiced stacking themselves on top of each other. When I saw them practicing this, the pyramid fell apart (though I don't think anyone was hurt).



More stackables.

Kyoto

I went to Kyoto today. Here's some pictures:



Don't let this gate fool you, you have to walk about 3/4ths of a mile more to get inside of this castle (it's Nijo castle, or in Japanese Nijojo, which I think is kind of repetitive)



I got pretty bored of taking pictures of things so I started taking pictures of people instead. Here some girls are feeding turtles and giant carp.



Outside of Kinkakuji, literally the 'golden pavillion'. It would be a pretty cool picture but for the fact that the actually building was burned down by a crazy monk in the 1950s and the recreation was mostly rotted in the 1980s. The building is still pretty cool, but this woman had her picture taken about five times while I was standing there, so I couldn't resist a third.



Went to a temple that had a flea market today. There was some pretty cool stuff there, but a lot of people.

Hiking at the Hiyoshi Dam

Yesterday (Sunday) I went hiking with a couple friends. It was pretty nice, though really steep.



Also, there were huge spiders that somehow made webs between trees that were 6-7 feet apart.

Turns out I'm big in Japan

There was from someone from the Kyoto Newspaper at the field trip I went on last Sunday. Apparently, being one of three non-Asian people on the trip, I was in a photo in today's paper. A teacher at one of my schools gave me a copy. You can see it here:



You can (probably be unable to) read the story here:

http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/article.php?mid=P2009091500092&genre=E1&area=K40

Nantan Field Trip

On the way to one of the schools I go to is the Hiyoshi Dam. There's one large dam that creates a resevoir and several smaller dams along the route. There's all kind of recreational stuff to do there and today I went to a park within the Hiyoshi Dam area.

About half the people there were from Kyoto city proper, including several international students. Some of my middle school students came too. We had a barbeque, scavenger hunt/nature hike, and a tea ceremony with very bitter tea. It was a pretty good day.

Sports festival

Sometime in the next week or two, my schools will have 'Sports festival'. It's a little different at each school, but basically they divide into several different teams and have competitions. My main school, Tonoda Middle School, has two teams. Every day since I've been there they have practiced some kind of performance. It's not exactly a chant and it's not exactly cheerleading, but chanting and pom-poms are involved. Think opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, but significantly scaled down.

At Tonoda Middle School when the students practice their routine the teachers weed the 'field'. I used 'field' only because I don't know how else to describe it. It's more described as a fine gravel courtyard, or hard dirt arena. The students play soccer, baseball, volleyball and other things on these fields which has to be hard because a fall at any speed would surely cause bleeding. Every afternoon I go out with the other teachers to tear out any signs of life that manage to grow in the desolate landscape that is Tonoda's field. And I thought I would be done gardening when I left MInnesota...

I haven't taken any new pictures to put up, but here's something similar to what I've had for lunch (at least sometimes):

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/dining/09bento.html

My Mattress

After school today I went to get a mattress Kameoka, a medium size city between here and Kyoto. Up to now, I have been sleeping on a very thing futon on top of a flat wooden board. I first saw it on Sunday when I went shopping with some friends. It was in a ‘recycle shop’ that carries all kind of used things for pretty cheap prices. My mattress (smaller than a single or twin) was only about $45. To put that in context, to get something like the thin futon I had used up to now would be upwards of $100 and probably not all too comfortable on something other than tatami floors. Here’s a picture of my lofted bed and mattress:



Underneath the bed is a storage space, or as I call it, “Ben and Claire’s room should they decide to visit”

Kamiyoshi Elementary School

On Friday afternoon I went to Kamiyoshi elementary school. There are only 13 students in the entire school, about 2 per grade from 1st to 6th grade. In most schools students eat lunch at their desk, but here everyone eats together in a lunch room. On Fridays I'll eat lunch here and, since I'm not supposed to speak any Japanese with the students, it makes lunch pretty awkward. The fifth and sixth grade classes are combined for English with a total of three students.

One nice thing about this school is that once a month I meet with the 1st-4th graders. They can't speak much English, but they're very enthusiastic. They ask questions like 'what's your favorite animal', 'what kind of bugs do you like', or, after hearing that people in the US don't take off their shoes when they enter their homes, they invariably ask 'do you wear shoes in bed?'

I'm still trying to get some stuff for my apartment. I have a futon but it's so thin that it feels like I'm sleeping on the floor. I'll probably get another one today or tomorrow. Here's a picture of a praying mantis that was hanging out on my door:

School lunch

On Tuesday, I had my first day of classes and my first day at an elementary school. It was all very confusing because I had not met with the teachers beforehand. I later realized that my schedule indicated which textbook and lesson I was supposed to help with, but I have received so many textbooks that they all blurred together. Anyway, after two classes, I went back to the main office and tried to look busy. Suddenly, there was a flurry of activity as teachers came in to grab some kind of clothing. The students were doing the same in the hallway. Within a minute the varied and colorful clothing had turned into sterile white lab coats, white masks, and white gloves. They were preparing lunch.

The lunch itself came in three or four metal pans. We had curry rice, miso soup, and some kind of weird dairy drink. It was somehow both sweet and sour at the same time and completely incomprehensible to me until someone explained it was 'yogurt'.

Anyway, that's enough of that, here's a picture of my daily commute: