The Seiler Piano Duo

Yesterday I went to a piano concert in the nearby town of Goma. One of the teachers I work with at the middle school invited me to see her neighbors, who are apparently world famous pianists. Every year they do a show in a an old Buddhist temple near their house that is over 300 years old (it's been heavily renovated). The concert was pretty good. Here's the Duo:



I don't have picture of the building, but I can probably get them later from my friend. I met a few other interesting people. First was Oto, another neighbor who spoke really good English. He's in his 20s and a carpenter. Apparently he renovated the roof of the concert hall. Anyway, I was confused when my friend introduced me to him because she called him "Otosan". "Otousan" is the Japanese word for father, so when she kept calling "father, father" through a window and all I saw was a guy about the same age as her, I was very confused.

Second were two Japanese women who sat next to me at the concert. They were sisters and very friendly. One kept giving me small snacks and a juice box. I'm not quite sure exactly what she said, but I think she was trying to set me up with a homestay (she works or volunteers at some kind of international center). It was a pretty good time.

Ty-inphluenza

...the pun works better in Japanese (really it doesn't work at all). It refers to H1N1, swine flu, or "Influenza" as the Japanese call it, unaware that in English this is the generic term for a type of virus, and a Typhoon currently making its way across Japan. Both topics were discussed in my schools today.

Sometime this morning one of the teachers I work with asked me if I knew what a typhoon was (in Japanese: taifuu), or if there were typhoons in America. I said yes and explained that we called them hurricanes, that 'typhoons' were only in the Pacific, and did not affect the West Coast of the US. Assuming she was just making conversation I didn't think much of it. After another teacher mentioned 'taifuu' and I noticed the light but steady rain throughout the day, I realized there was indeed a reason for mentioning this.

Right now, basically the entire nation of Japan is covered by a typhoon. This consists of high winds and heavy rain, but the area I live doesn't seem too affected, probably because of the mountains. Nevertheless, it is possible that the city will decide it unsafe for children to go to school tomorrow (many of whom walk) and cancel classes. Teachers will still have to go, but whether or not I will is still up in the air. In any case, I'm bringing a book.

In addition to extreme weather there is a pending viral plague. Last week three students in my junior high had confirmed cases of H1N1, or 'influenza' as the Japanese call it. They were all in the same class so the school all the students in that class home for two days. This can be fairly effective at my school because junior high students have all their courses with the same class and there isn't a lot of mixing between them (except for after school activities and clubs). This week there are at least three more confirmed cases of influenza, each in three separate classes (each different from the class that was already sent home). This represents half the students at my school and I'm not sure exactly what the threshold is for sending everyone home.

The combination of a typhoon and influenza has had two noticeable results: 1. I can no longer distinguish between my junior high students because most of them are wearing (oversized) uniform jackets and masks and; 2. The school may have to postpone its culture festival.

The culture festival (or 'bunkasai') is supposed to be this Friday. Every class has a few students performing short 30-60 minute plays with a brass band performance at the end. During their free time on Thursday, students will make final preparations and rehearse for the last time before performing. Or at least they would if they had school. Currently there is no clear plan for what to do if the typhoon delays rehearsals or if influenza forces whole classes to stay home from school. There's also a holiday on Monday, further complicating things.

We'll see what happens. I wouldn't mind staying home tomorrow instead of going to an empty school and trying to look busy for eight hours.

Random pictures

Last weekend I went to Kyoto again. I went to an area called Sanjo, the main shopping district in Kyoto (or so I'm told). A few blocks from the subway station is a web of streets covered with roofs and lined with shops. It wasn't particularly crowded when I arrived, but was thick with people by the time I left. Most of the shops had hallways so narrow that barely more than one person (or 2/3s of an American) could fit through. Anyway, there was some interesting stuff that I might get later and some cheap tourist stuff that I will get many of the people reading this for Christmas.

Here's a picture of Kyoto tower, which I did not take on this particular trip to Kyoto:



One of the first friends I made in Sonobe:



I have plans to visit this friend soon.

The Hungry Lion

Actual story from my 7th grade text book:

"One day a hungry lion slowly came out of the forest. He wanted some food.

He sat on the grass and looked around. He waited for a long time.

The lion saw a rabbit under a tree. He ran after the rabbit.

Just then, a deer ran in front of the lion. The lion wanted a big dinner, so he ran after the deer.

The deer ran away very quickly. The rabbit ran away too. So the hungry lion got nothing."

The best part of this story is it's denouement:



So in addition to teaching English, apparently I also teach philosophy and moral lessons. Indeed, hasn't there been a time in your life when you gave up chasing your own rabbit to go after a deer, but ended up with nothing? Maybe we should just be content with our rabbits instead of risking a deer and ending up with nothing.

I'm not really sure how these stories help teach English. When I try to explain to my coworkers that these stories are kind of awkward, they never understand why. This story is just the tip of the iceberg and others are much more odd.

I have a lot of free time at work...

One funny thing did happen today. I made a worksheet to teach the phrases "must", "must not", "may", and "may not". The worksheet had some differences between America and Japan such as:
In America - you must drive on the right side of the road, but
In Japan - you must not drive on the right side of the road.

In Japan all middle school and high school kids wear uniforms. So I tried:
In America - at school, you may wear anything
Thinking that students would write:
In Japan - at school, you must wear a uniform.
Instead most students wrote:
In Japan - at school, you may not wear anything.

That's pretty much my day. Lions figuratively biting off more than they can chew and students who think they should come to school naked.

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.