A dancer I am not...

...but I feel that I at least carried myself credibly at the Towada Culture Festival this past Sunday (November 2nd).

Even though my (Japanese) dance performance lasted only 8 minutes, I spent pretty much the whole day at the Towada Bunka (Culture) Center in preparation. I arrived a little before 10:30am to get my hair done by a mother of one of the elementary students performing. It took 1.5 hrs, 2 elastics, 5 small rubber bands, 1 U-pin, 55 bobby pins and a lot of hairspray/mousse to get my hair done up properly for Japanese dance.

Then I had to get my make-up done (they whitened my face, neck, and arms). After the make-up, I had a short time to eat a bit (they ordered trays of maki rolls, mini croissants, fried chicken, etc. for everyone) before we all had to put on our rental kimonos.

I really learned from this experience how amazing and tireless Japanese mothers (okaasan) are. For the weeks leading up to the festival, the mothers were always at our rehearsals, often working on things (hair ornaments for the kids, flower bunches for their dance, etc.) for the performance.

The Saturday before the performance, the okaasan who was going to do my hair did a practice run that took an hour to do! Then, of course, she tirelessly worked on my hair for an hour and a half on the day of (she couldn't get it to stay the way she hoped/wanted it to, so she ended up changing the style a little from the practice run--hence the extra half an hour). While she was working on my hair, the other mothers were helping the kids get their make-up on and doing their hair. They set up and distributed all the food. They helped all the children get into their kimonos, etc. and made sure they were ready and in their proper places for their curtain calls. And of course they helped with the clean-up. Really, they were amazing and I only wish I could've expressed my admiration to them more fully on the day of!!

But back to my preparations...

There were seven of us wearing the rental kimonos, and it took about 20-30 minutes to put on each kimono, so we had to around 1pm to make our 3:45pm curtain call. Since my sensei (very thoughtfully) wanted me to be able to take pictures/have pictures taken of me in the kimono, Maki (my dance partner and I) were the first ones dressed.

Once I had the kimono on and was finished taking photos, it was just a matter of sitting around and waiting for our curtain call. Maki and I practiced a little, but we got a little hot/flushed, so we figured it was best to just sit and wait patiently.

When the time came for us to go on, I was super nervous. I was so nervous, I actually felt slightly nauseated; I always used to get that feeling before major tests/exams during high school and university, or before doing any sort of public speaking/performance, but it had been a long time since I’d last felt so nervous. Still, when the music started and we made our entrance, I slapped on a smile and tried to stay focused.

Luckily it was really dark in the theatre and the spotlights were really bright, so even if I’d wanted to look for familiar faces in the audience, I probably wouldn’t have been able to spot any. It wasn’t my best performance (I think that happened at our final rehearsal on the Wednesday before), but at least I didn’t make any major mistakes. ^_^

After the performance everyone (there were some 40-odd dancers for about 7 or 8 different pieces) took pictures before changing and cleaning up. Thankfully it didn’t take quite as long to get out of the kimono as it did to put it on, but still, getting everything put away/cleaned up took a fair bit of time.

Before I left, I was given the flowers my supervisor had thoughtfully sent for my performance. Given that she had been in Canada for almost a week before my performance, this was no small consideration on her part! Unfortunately I wasn't able to take a picture of myself in the kimono with the flowers, but I still had all the make-up on and my hair up when I got home, so I took a self-shot of just my face/head and the flowers to send to her in my thank you email.

After taking the photo, I had just enough time to get all the make-up off and to change to go to the Hanasuzukai (the dance group's name) enkai. I didn't have enough time to take out my hair (they'd put so much stuff into it, I would've needed to wash my hair as well as taking out all the pins, etc.), but that was OK.

I walked to the enkai since it was pretty close and it was an unusually warm night. I was expecting the enkai to last about two hours (the usual length), but it ended up going for five! They even had a nijikai (and I later heard about a sanjikai), but I skipped out on that and went home.

It was fun and there was quite a lot to eat. My conversational Japanese is still pretty horrendous, but there were a couple of people who had pretty good English, so that made things easier.

All in all, it was a good experience. Even though I was rather ambivalent at first, I'm glad now that I started taking the lessons. Next I just have to take the initiative to ask about joining taiko (which I've been wanting to do since last year's Aki Matsuri)!

(For more photos, see my Culture Festival Dance Performance Facebook album! I've also added an album with pictures from the 2008 Kirita Halloween Party.)

Question of the Day

So the sannensei are currently studying the relative pronouns "who," "which" and "that." The example sentence that T-sensei wrote on the blackboard was: "This is the best book I've ever read." She then asked for a volunteer to read the sentence and to translate it.

No one volunteered, but one student raised her hand to ask a question (in Japanese): "Is "I've" a contraction for "I love" or "I have?"

As soon as she asked the question, she realized how absurd it was, but it was too late: the entire class burst into laughter. =P

On the topic of amusing questions students ask, I was at Towada JHS on Monday and it was my first time teaching the ninensei there, so we had the requisite self-intro "speech" followed by a Q&A time. Of course one of the students came up with "What do you think about him (points to a student named Miura)?" (he asked in Japanese and I translated for him). My answer: "He's probably a nice guy." The funny part was that when I was eating lunch with them, the teacher (not a JTE) asked students (by student number) to stand up and ask me a question. I got a lot of the usual--"Do you like Japanese food? What colour do you like?" etc.--but one of the last guys to go asked: "Do you love Miura?" The students found my answer of "Sorry, I don't know him well enough" extremely amusing; I suspect they only listened to the "Sorry, I don't" part. =P

Honoured guest

As much as I love being considered "part of the family" at Kirita, sometimes it's nice to get "honoured guest" treatment. This Monday I happened to be teaching at Ofukanai (it's been about a year since my last visit!). I thought it was strange that they would want an ALT after the big JHS bunka sai (culture festival) weekend, but it turned out that they hadn't actually had their culture day yet.

Anyway, one of the activities for the ninensei to practice "if" clauses was to write the ALT (me) a fax to tell me about some news and to solicit a response of some sort (e.g. "Kumi broke her arm. If you are free, please come to the hospital with me."). It was good timing for such an activity since most students were able to tell me about the school festival and invite me to come. Even though they didn't actually give me the faxes (they handed them in to their teacher, of course), since I was duly informed about it, I decided I'd try to go if I could.

I found out from the JTE that the school festival would start at 9am. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of thinking the schedule would be similar to Kirita's (starting at 9am, but nothing really happening until the food things opened at 10am and performances, etc. going on in the afternoon), so I planned to go around 10am. Due to a very slow start to the morning, however, I ended up arriving around 10:45am.

As it turned out, I missed English speech recitations (well, I'd already heard them anyway!), sharing from the sannensei about the homestay in Canada (from when they were ninensei), and a music presentation by the sannensei. ^^;; Luckily I was in time to catch a good portion of the koma odori (horse dance).

At any rate, I got a very warm welcome when I entered the school. They gave me free food tickets (tempura udon and umeboshi onigiri) and when I went into the gym for the performance, they asked me to sit up front next to kocho-sensei! After the performance, kocho-sensei thanked me for coming and told me (all in impecable English) to please enjoy the festival.

I got quite a number of cheerful "hello's" from students and teachers. While I was looking at the stuff in the ichinensei classroom, I got...I guess you could say "accosted" by several (Horanai) elementary school students whom I'd taught a few times recently. They pretty much took (dragged =P) me around the rest of the day.

One girl, Miki, gave me one of her takoyaki. I shared my udon with the boy, Sho (?) since he didn't have any food tickets on him. Miki's father bought all of us frankfurters (on sticks!).

Apart from having more fun seeing the festival with people, it worked out well that I ended up hanging out with the Horanai students since they really enjoyed playing with my camera. As a result, I ended up actually getting photos of myself at the festival!

Originally I was planning on just dropping by for an hour or so, but I saw on the program that there'd be a choral competition in the afternoon (starting at 2pm) so I ended up staying until the end of the festival. All in all, I had a good time. If the festival turns out to be a different day from Kirita's again next year (assuming I'm still here), I think I'll try to visit again (making sure to come right from the start, though)!

For more pictures of the festival, see my Facebook album.

I've also updated/added some other photo albums:
Updated: Random Food (1 photo)
Updated: Japanese Kit Kat (1 photo)
New: Just Desserts

Eventful Weekend

My weekend started off well with dinner with Bryan and Juliet and Julie and Taylor (ALTs living in Noheji). Even though my throat was still pretty bad at that time, it was nice to get out, eat a real meal, and talk with fellow English speakers. =P

The next day I was at Kirita before 8am to help prepare for the school Culture Festival. I helped make a heck load of tissue paper flowers to use for decorating the cafe (in the library). I also made random origami things (cranes, turtles, lilies) for the ninensei classroom.

It was funny watching the ninensei set-up the classroom because a number of students forgot to hand in the assignments that we were displaying: their English "My Summer Vacation" piece (5 sentences and a picture), and their baby photo with comments from themselves, their friends, and parents. For those students, Tomabechi-sensei made a sheet of paper that said "Tadaima shucchou chuu. Shousai wa kochira made (student's name)," basically "Currently away on business. The only details so far are: (student's name)." The students were embarrassed enough thinking their parents would see that sign that they actually handed in their assignments without further prompting. =P

I left school around 6pm and went home, ate dinner and relaxed. A friend had heard from Aaron that I was sick so she messaged me to ask if I was OK. I guess I wasn't convincing in my reply (that I was fine), so she very kindly made me a tofu/carrot/meat dish and brought it over for me. I'd already eaten, but I was able to have it for dinner the next night.

Sunday, of course, was the big day: the Kirita Junior High School Culture Festival. Again I was at school before 8am. We did cleaning and final preparations until about 9am. Then I had some time to walk around and look at all the classrooms before the cafe opened at 10am. Once the cafe opened, it was just work work work for me.

Maybe it's the Chinese/Protestant work ethic instilled in me, but I actually enjoyed working during the culture festival this year more than just walking around the culture festival last year. And it's not like the cafe was particularly hard work: taking drink orders, bringing drinks to people (apple juice or coffee), clearing/wiping tables and bringing dishes to the students washing them.

After all the food places (cafe upstairs, hot foods--udon/soba--downstairs) closed, we had the play (each grade performed one) and song presentations. Maybe it's because they found pre-made skits rather than writing their own, but I thought the plays were a lot better this year than last. The song performances, though...

Their singing was pretty decent, but watching their faces somewhat soured the performance. Most of them looked SO serious, and they were mostly looking up or to the sides--anywhere but the audience. Moreover, among the boys especially there were a couple of students who looked downright sullen! Well, I guess it didn't harm the performance that much for me because I chose to be amused at their expressions, but really, they didn't look like they were having fun at all! I know that when I was in choir, our conductor always insisted that we look at the audience and smile while singing, but maybe Japan doesn't have that culture for performances? Or maybe it has to do with the fact that my school choirs were voluntary (so presumably the people in them actually enjoyed singing) whereas singing for events is compulsary for my students. *shrug*

That was pretty much the end of the Culture Festival. After that, though, was the touyasai (like an after party--literally, "that night's festival"). I missed a bit of the beginning because I was still cleaning up a bit in the library, but it was pretty similar to last year in terms of types of performances--songs, song & dance, skits, quiz game--so I didn't miss much. Somehow, though, last year it seemed like the students enjoyed the touyasai more. Maybe it's just in my mind, but it felt like last year there were more performances, more students involved, and generally more energy from the students. But maybe part of that is because this year we didn't really have that much time to prepare for the festival, so the students were more tired this year than last. Then too, Eiken (the standardized English test) was right before the festival (the Friday before), so it was really stressful for the students taking the test--having to stay late to prepare for the festival but also having to make time to study for Eiken on top of their regular homework load.

But yeah, overall I had a good time at the Kirita School Festival and it was worth all the work/time I put in! Check out my Facebook album for pictures of the Festival: Part 1 & Part 2.

There was another event that occurred after I got home, however. When I pulled into my parking spot, I noticed that a light was on in the apartment next to me. I guess I was pretty brain dead from the festival, since my first thought was: "it's rather late for someone to be doing repairs, isn't it?" To be fair, though, there weren't any cars in the parking spaces next to mine, so I had reason to think that it wasn't a case of someone moving in.

But of course, it was indeed someone moving in. A short time after I came home, while I was sitting at the computer uploading pictures of the festival, my doorbell rang. It was my new neighbour, coming to greet me! He even gave me a small box of cakes!! (Have I mentioned before that this is (more traditional/older) Japanese culture? When you move into a house/apartment, you go to greet your neighbours and, particularly in apartments, bring a small (food) gift for them?)

Anyway, I was far more surprised than I should've been, so I really didn't know what to say. Plus I was really tired, so I couldn't think to do more than nod and say "yoroshiku onegaishimasu." Once he'd left and I'd sat back down, though, I felt like a complete idiot since I realized I hadn't even told him my own name in return!! @_@ I also looked into the box and saw that it wasn't just one piece of cake I'd received, but THREE! (Given that I'd received the giant cream puff and other assorted sweets from the festival, plus I'd bought some cakes for myself, I found myself with an excessive number of desserts! =P)

I was really happy and appreciative that my new neighbour had come to greet me, particularly since none of my previous neighbours had bothered with the courtesy! And I wanted to convey my thanks (not to mention tell my name) to my neighbour somehow. I asked my friend (the one who made me the tofu/carrot/meat dish) what would be appropriate, and she said it'd be fine if I just rang his doorbell and said "Thanks for the cake. My name is ~. I can't speak Japanese very well, but if we meet, I'd be happy if you greeted me (ohayo, konnichiwa, etc.)."

But I felt it'd be weird to ring his doorbell just to say that, so Monday I decided to bake cookies and bring some over. (No worries, I'd pretty much recovered from my sore throat/cold by this time, so I wasn't passing along anything extra with them. =P) Well, he wasn't actually at home when I tried ringing his doorbell that night, but I saw the light on in his apartment when I came home from dance practice on Tuesday night, so I screwed up my courage and rang his doorbell.

Even though I stuttered and left sentences incomplete a lot, I think I managed to convey my neighbourly good will well enough. We chatted a bit--he asked if I was a student; I told him I was an English teacher; he told me he was working at the Univers grocery store--and that was that. The only thing is that I had wanted to ask him his name again (since I was too surprised/tired to catch it when he'd introduced himself on Sunday night), but I was so nervous during my conversation that I completely forgot to ask. ^^;; Oh well, I doubt that we'll meet/see each other very often, so it probably won't be a problem that I don't know his name. If we ever get friendly enough that I feel I really need to know it, I can always use the trick of asking him to write the kanji for me. =P

So that was my eventful weekend!