Halloween in Japan

What did we do for Halloween? Well, we had to work at a Halloween party for Gem School. It was actually pretty fun! Robert dressed as a pirate and Lois went as a soccer player. At the party we were assigned specific stations at a certain time and would entertain the children and their parents. At first all we did was just go around mingling with the people and showing and checking out costumes. There was also some Halloween music playing in the background, the CD was created mostly for young children. Thankfully there were a ton of people. But it was great to see many of our students and their costumes and also meet the parents. Some costumes were really good and it reminded us of home and others really sucked and still reminded us of home!!

Before Halloween Robert was disappointed because he didn't get to dress up as anything scary and didn't think he was going to be able to scare anyone this year, but he did get some in. Now, Japan does not celebrate Halloween so the people here are naturally jumpy and afraid of things that are dead or spooky or what have you. At least that is what was said by a student. For example, there was another teacher there dressed as a mummy with an afro sandals, and very little blood coming from his mouth and some kids practically wet themselves! So, a guy gave Robert this box that said "trick- or- treat" on the front of it and had two doors that opened as well. The back had a hole where one could fit there arm inside and get a piece of candy and reach through another whole where the door opens and scare the poop out of any unsuspecting person. So, Robert found many different ways to scare children and even their parents. (even though they kinda knew what was going on or even witnessed the person before them getting scared) He was satisfied because he got his scares!

After mingling we had our stations. Lois was in charge of a craft station where they made trick or treat cans. The people were told to bring a soup can and then they would decorate it. Robert was in charge of working the pumpkin carving. Go figure. Let's just say that even though he likes to play with knives he's not the best at carving pumpkins. We believe he was chosen because the giant pumpkin they got was rotting and very stinky. He did the carving as people watched. It was kinda cool...yeah...but anyway. As you can see there isn't much to write about the pumpkin carving other than it was like playing in a large pile of hot garbage and corpses on the hottest day of the year with over 100% humidity in Death Valley, California!! Or pretty close to it. But he made the best of it and actually enjoyed it!

Following the stations was the "Dance Party". Now the idea was great, but one of the songs chosen was pretty lame. We did the Macarena, the Chicken dance, and the Hoky Poky. The Hoky Poky and chicken dance were ok considering our main objective was to teach kids how to do these dances, but the Macarena was Ridiculous! (That's right you see a capital 'R' on that). Who in there right mind wants to teach a bunch of little kids to do the Macarena. We sure as heck didn't, but we had to anyway. It was pretty tough to teach upward of an estimated 500 or so people, young and old, to do something as stupid as the Macarena. Robert thinks he saw a kid with a toy sword or light saber perform a ceremonial suicide on himself--Rightfully so!! Robert thinks the kid should have just destroyed the cd player or even taken out the teachers doing the dance. Robert would have joined the darkside and slain anyone attempting to do the wannabe Latin Sobriety Test. Some of Robert's students and a few other kids tried to do it, but their parents were saying it was too hard. The other songs worked out way better.

Just before the end of the party we did a judging for the best costume and and then awarded them with gift bags. The winners were nothing impressive because they were chosen with time constraint so that's all there is to say about that! After that we did a massive trick or treat session and ended our fiasco. Thus concludes our Halloween night in the Land of the Rising Sun!

Lois's Birthday

Monday, was Lois's birthday and it started off slow. We were able to sleep in and then take our time getting ready. Right as we were getting ready to get into the shower Kira, Jessica and Pat arrived at our house. While I was showering Robert and the girls were setting up a party in the other tatami room (living room with woven bamboo carpet). So when I was ready for the day I came into a party. That was really nice and thoughtful. I opened some gifts and then we were all really hungry so we went out to lunch. I wanted to go to a buffet because those are my favorite and so we went on a hunt to try and find it. Well, we drove around about one hour looking for the "better one" and then gave up and went to the place that we already knew. This buffet was called the Yakiniku Viking and we had been to it once before. It is way yummy! You chose your our raw meat and then cook it at your table. There is a grill that is in the center of the table that you cook your meat or vegitables on. It was sooo good! They also have a bunch of fried foods, soups, rice and curry that are all all-you-can-eat. It is a great way to try a lot of differnt Japanese foods without wasting the food or a lot of extra money.
After that a bunch of our friends had all put money into a envelope and gave it to me so that I would be able to buy myself an iPod because that is was I was wanting. So, we went to the PCDepot (computer store) and we were looking at them awhile. I finally decided to buy one and when I went to pay for it they said that they could not oder the instructions in English and so I just went without and thought that I will just get one when we get to the USA. So, that didn't work out and we went home. When we got home a friend from work came over and we had cake and ice cream.
After that party we went to karaoke. That was quite fun. It is a little weird it is just a bunch of tables and chairs with really no room to dance. And it made me sick because the smoke in the room. It was REALLY bad! After the two hours of singing I thought that ice cream might be nice and so we went to the mall (YouMe Town) and had good old Baskin Robins. Yummy! I was a great birthday! Thank you everyone! Then it was time to go home and Robert and I watched Newies and went to bed. That was my (Lois's) 22nd birthday!

Nothing much going on here.

Well, we have been up to nothing but work. Today is Lois's Birthday! Happy Birthday!
Nothing cool going on here. We have a Halloween party this weekend to go to and hopefully that will be eventful. Maybe we will write more later today and tell ya'll how Lois's birthday went. There was a small little party last night where she had a carmel popcorn cake. It was delicious, real American sweets. The treats here aren't so sweet and so Kira made it for me. And she has REAL AMERICAN brown sugar that we can't seem to find anywhere in Japan. Talk to you all later.

Another Festival

Well, on Monday night we went to another festival. This one was in a town called Kotohira at a shrine called Konpirasan that we have been to before. It is the shrine with all the stairs, 1368 stairs to be exact, that we climbed all the way to the top before. However, this time it was the God that was coming down and we were not allowed up the stairs and so we were at the street below and there was this really big parade. Well, maybe it wasn't all that big. It was the slowest moving parade that I have ever seen! And because it was so slow it seems soooooo long. Really it was long, but it seemed ten times longer than it was. The parade started at nine o'clock and it finished just before midnight. It was similar to the chosa festival in that each town was able to have a group of their dances to represent them in the parade. It was cool to look at all of the different ways they dresses, but after about the forth SLOW moving town it got old. What each town did is most of had a man who was twirling this stick about 3 feet long all over the place. He was twirling it on his back, around his head, with an open palm, and any other interesting way that he could. That was cool to watch, like I said for the first three or four times. Then in after that guy they would have four guys carrying two huge wood boxes that were filled with something really heacvy on a six foot wood pole. They would carry these and then shake them so they would rattle and make noise. Robert got the chance to try and shake it to make noise and was able to go so a little bit. Some of the towns had a couple of guys that were carrying poles that were at least thirty feet in length and they would swing them from at their waste and come just close enough to your head to scare you and swing them away. It was really cool and amazing how much control they had over these things. After these guys, then came about eight to ten other men who would throw these enormously long poles with something on the end to each other and catch them. Out of about 100 total people throwing I never saw on fall. There were several that might have gotten close, but never did fall. These poles were probably twenty to twenty-five feet long. The poles varied in length a little bit with each town and the weight thing on the top was a different design on each towns poles. After all of the towns there was a couple young girls who were being carried and young boys riding horses. I asked the Japanese lady we went with, Chitomi, and she that they parents just pay for their children to ride in those and there was nothing to special about them. Funny though when I asked her she did not know and had to ask around herself. (Just as a little side note, the people here don't know much about the temples and shrines around here. It seems that only a few people and the monks know even what they are for and which shrine has which God in them. It is a little weird, I think, but it just seems that their religion is not practice so much anymore and so they don't learn it really ever unless the seek it themselves.) After the rich childern there was a long line of priests and monks and I think just other people who were involved with the shrine. There was a group who were playing bamboo instruments kind of like flutes and other variations of wind instruments. That was really cool to see and hear! Then finally came the shrine or God. Everyone told us that it was the God that they were bringing down, but when it came by it looked more like a shrine. It was PURE gold. I don't even remember another color being on there. Many monks were carrying it. It looked like there were more people carrying it then the chosas and I know that it was a LOT smaller and lighter. It was cool to see. We asked why there preformed that way in the parade and they said that it had been that way for centuries. This was a really old tradition and people seem to all know about the event, but not anything behind why they do it and what it is all about. I bet if I could talk to the monks they would know but not the average person on the streets. It was another great experience that allowed us to see old Japan and yet see the culture that they have now. It was fun!

Our first Japanese festival

We went to Toyohama on Saturday night when we got off of work to go to the Chosas festival because we were told that it was huge and that it was really cool. It turns out that they were done by the time that we got there that night and so Kira made us Amercan hambugers and french fries. It was good! We then went to ice cream and played the Totally Insane Card Game for a while. It was fun. Then the next day we got up late heard drums outside. She ran out to the street where they were and that was our first look at the Chosas. They were huge and cool looking. Jessica (Kira's housemate) and I ran back inside to get our cameras. While we were gone Robert had a nice encounter with quite a few drunk guys. When we returned they were all over him and tried to speak the little English that they knew to all of us. Robert then told me this story of what happened to him while we were gone. They were all trying to shake his hand or even give him a handshake and one guy was asked him where he was from and Robert told him America, and then Oregon State. His guy then grabbed Robert's chest and said BIG. Robert wasn't quite sure what to do and then the Japanese guy reached down and grabbed his package and said big too. Robert quicky slaped the guys hand away and said "No man I don't hang on that side of the stree!" Japanese people have no concept of a personal bubble or personal boundries. Thankfully I have never been touched or grabbed! I hope it stays that way for a whole year!
We went to a Chosas festival yesterday and it was great! Chosas (I think that that might be how you spell it) are these giantic things that look like something that carry Gods in or royal people inside of a large carriage and you carry it on your shoulders. HOwever, there were more than 50 people carrying these things and they weighted over 2 tons! They all had REAL gold tassels on them and they were mostly red and gold. They all had ornate wood work and dragons and other very Japanesey looking decorations! They looked very cool but I would describe them as gaudy as well. They would usually have 2 or 3 people standing in this little box type thing on top that had no covering and then there would be like 2 or 3 people inside under that open box playing drums. Then there would be about 4 people who were standing on the wood poles that were used for carrying who were leading chants and directing those holding it what to do. I guess that we found out that they were on wheels as they more of drug them through town, but still those things are like 2 tons! Jessica found one of her former students from GEM school and she took us around and got us a great view of the thing as well as had us get pictures ON the Chosa. She told us alittle bit about what was going on and that made it so much cooler. She is the one who told us that it was all real gold. Also so told us a little about what it was for. Basically all of the neighborhoods in Toyohama have a Chosa and yesterday was the day that they all came together and celebrated for the rice harvest. So, they walk they the streets of the town and then meet at this big dirt area and there are 25 of them. We followed Akio around (Jessica's student) to her neighborhood and hung out there. All of the Chosas took turns going into the center of the area and then showing off what they could do. There was an old lady who passed out at one time. But what they would do is they would hoist it onto their shoulders and then hold it up with nothing but there hand fully extended. It was way cool!! They would rock it like a ship on the waves would rock and then maybe throw conffetti or balloons. It was awesome!!
It was a bit weird though because I felt like I was a this centry old festival and then I would see the guys there up on top on their cell phones. Stange. There was a childerns Chosa there as well and we took picture with them. One kid pointed to Robert large bicep like he was afraid to give him five because it was big, I got a kick out of that. Yeah, my husband still got great muscles!!! :)
When they were done preforming they all were putting paper lanterns on to the Chosas. It was so cool to see them lit up at night. Then they carried/polled/pushed them back to the main shrine in town and did something there. We didnt go to the shrine because all of us Amercicans/Canadians got to talking and then were pooped and had already seen them lit up that we decided we wanted to get something to eat at Kira's house so we did. We then saw them at about 10:00 PM take the Chosas from the shrine back to there keeping place, so we saw them one last time. It was so cool to see that festival!!!
The first few weeks that we were here in Japan we weren't able to do much because there wasn't much going on and we were busy teaching and training so it didn't really feel like we were in Japan. However as we started to go to the shrines and temples it is beginning to feel like we are in another country! HEE HEE!!!! :) Well I guess that that is it for now. Talk to you all later. Till next time.