Sumo-masen

Forgive me for my bad pun of a blog title. If you are not familiar with Japanese you may not get it, and if you are familiar with Japanese you still may not get it because it is a pretty far stretch of a pun. Anyway here is a brief explanation: The word I am trying to play off of is sumimasen, which translates into a kind of catch all word that roughly means excuse me, or thank you, or even kind of sorry. But I suppose this title could also be interpreted in another way because in Japanese masen is used to negate something. ex: arimasen - it isn`t there or tabemasen- didn`t eat.

Anyway, brief Japanese lesson aside I guess this post is going to be dedicated to things that could be related to a sumo wrestler. Namely: Thanksgiving Dinner (looks small when compared to a sumo`s daily diet) and naturally, a sumo match (after all, nothing gets more sumo than a sumo match).

*Note: this blog post will be photo heavy (heavy, you know, like a sumo....lolz)
Oh and as per usual, click to enlarge photos.
Ready, Set, Sumo!

So, as can be expected, Thanksgiving in Japan is non-existent. The day after Halloween the one hundred yen shops ($1 stores) swap out their Halloween decorations for Christmas decorations. Likewise, traditional Thanksgiving foods such as Turkeys, and pumpkin pies are things Japanese people would gawk at should they randomly/magically appear in their supermarket. So, in order for this American tradition to be carried out on the little island of Oshima, Matthew and I decided to have a vegetarian Thanksgiving get together with one of our other American ALT`s, Jessica.
Seeing as Matthew and I both have special diets, me being a pescatarian and Matthew a once vegan turned vegetarian (Japan will do it to you) opted out of the standard Turkey fair, and due to lack of access to other traditional Turkey day foods we improvised to make our own hybrid Japanese/American vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner.

On the menu we had a delicious tofu scramble (Matthew makes this really really well, so delicious), faux meat burritos with salsa, lettuce, and cheese, some homemade sweet potato chips, and a all veggie Japanese nabe stew. Oh and for dessert, my favorite, MOCHI!


check it out:


Our Thanksgiving Feast!


Really delicious sweet potato chips

And to round out the Thanksgiving experience we even had Turkey napkins, and watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. (The previous evening we watched The Land Before Time 7, Thanks Mom.)


After stuffing our bellies fit to burst, the following Saturday we were all set to watch the National Sumo Finals in Fukuoka (Kyushu). Unfortunately, I left my sumo pamphlet in Fukuoka (staying out all night will do that to you) so I cant tell you all the awesome things that I had learned about sumo (drinking at the sumo event and after to celebrate a friends birthday will cause you to forget all the fascinating things you read about sumo). So you will have to rely mostly on the photos I managed to take and whatever brief commentary I can muster up to accompany them.



Ciaran (my Irish friend who lives across the bridge) and me enjoying some prime sumo. Thanks Brad for the kawaii bunny ears.




The Upper level sumo's doing their entrance ceremony before their matches begin. These guys are HUGE! Ciaran had the honor of bumping into one in the bathroom.


In between each match these guys came out marching some banners around the sumo ring. Do you know why?
They are advertisements. Pretty cool ne?


Two Sumo getting ready to take one another down. This match was actually pretty exciting because both of them fell out of the ring at what looked like the same time. And I was betting 100yen on the match.



And so, these guys had to come up into the ring and deliberate to decide who the winner was. Lets just say I was 100yen richer after their decision. #win

Anyway, the matches seemed to get more exciting as they went, but it might of had something to also do with me drinking more as the day went on. Also, I started to enjoy placing bets on each game, turns out I am pretty good at predicting the winner as I made about 800yen over 6 matches.

One of the best matches of the day also happened to be the shortest. After doing the leg lifts and belly pats that are typically portrayed in sumo matches the two guys crouched down. After a very brief stare down one of the sumo rushed to charge down the other, and what did that other sumo do? He simply stepped aside and the charging sumo went tumbling out of the ring. Simply ingenious. Easily everyones favorite match as well as the most memorable.

Other best part of the day. Seeing a real life Geisha at the sumo match. So poised, so elegant. Keri is so Jealous.

I am going to try to post more often. Hope you enjoyed the photos in this blog since the past few have been kind of lacking.

P.S.
check out the pineapple's blog too!
http://pineappledesu.blogspot.com/

Japanese Culture

About a month ago while at a dinner party hosted by an older Japanese man, some of my 2nd year ALT friends had been chatting about something called Kancho. Being the newbie, I had no idea what they were talking about and so naturally I asked them what this mystery topic was. Instead of giving me an answer themselves, they told me to ask Taisho (our host). So I turn to our host and ask in English, `What is kancho`? He smiles and chuckles a bit and pauses before giving me his answer in English, `Japanese culture desu`, laughs a bit more and leaves it at that. My friends explain that I will more than likely find out sooner than later (it being usually rather prominent in Elementary school age students) and gave me a bit of a run down on this odd bit of Japanese culture.


At Breakfast Taisho showing us some more traditional and appropriate Japanese culture.

Today, Novemver 8th (the day I began this post, not the day I will eventually post it) marks the day that I have officially visited all of my 17 schools (both elementary and JHS) at least once, some I have already visited multiple times. This last school was Migama, one of my 12 elementary schools. As mentioned before in an earlier post elementary schools are both the reason and bane of my existence here in Japan. And this day was no exception, my elementary school children were suuuuper super cute and as per usual, super genki and excited to see me. Which of course leads to a happy but exhausted Keri. At this point, having visited all of my schools at least once I was beginning to think that maybe Oshima was too out in the sticks for my kids to know and engage in the odd kancho-ing activity, since I hadn`t seen any such activity or attempts in my over 3 months of being here. It certainly seemed that way to begin with seeing as the most exciting thing that occurred while teaching both the first and second graders was to watch a Japanese girl with a cold poke her finger into her nose, pull out a dribbling jem, examine it, and of course conclude by sticking it into her mouth and nom away (gaaahhh! I had to turn away as to not show my ultimate revulsion). Booger eating: one of those things that transcends cultural boundaries...
I can see it now, two little kids one from America and one from Japan bonding over the mutual experience of loving to eat their snot. (bleh)

Anyway, that small diversion/revulsion aside my classes had been going extremely smoothly. Playing games and singing songs with the kids. But then it came time for the 3rd and 4th graders. And now dear reader, you will get to hear what exactly this odd kancho thing is. As usual, I needed to first introduce myself and then one by one my students would stand up and do their own small self-introduction. The first 3 students were giggly third grade girls and that went smoothly enough. My next student was a third grade boy, (whom I suspect the giggly girls had a crush on) anyway when he stood up to introduce himself the girls attempted to do an odd -kancho-inspired prank. So what they did was that once their boy crush stood up, the girl sitting closest to him put her cupped hand down onto the seat of the boys chair fingers sticking up. And next thing you know the boy is done giving his self-intro and sits back down and....well thankfully it was a rather slow movement and his bum felt those little pointed fingers before anything too invasive happened.
And there I stood completely appalled and surprised at this kind of kancho like behavior and, my JTE not concerned in the least while the boy stood up again protected his bum and watched to make sure that the girls did not try to re-attempt their trick as he sat back down. Spurred on by this small success and maybe by my queer reaction the girls continued to attempt to do this to each boy who had yet to do introduce himself to me. Thankfully the boys picked up on this and kept an attentive eye on their seats.


Anyway, like I have said, what I experienced was not the traditional kancho method, or whatever you would call it. Thank goodness my kids have not tried to pull a full on legitimate kancho in front of me (or worse, to me!) because I would probably be even more mortified than when I saw the little girl digesting her snotty booger (well maybe the snot is more disgusting). So, I will briefly explain what kancho is. Simply put it is a kind of game or prank that young Japanese kids play (usually aged from preschool to maybe 2nd/3rd grade). And basically all this entails is clasping your two hands together with your pointer fingers sticking out (as if you were pretending to wield a gun) and then take those fingers and do your best to ram them up your friend or teachers butt. A lot of the 2nd year + JETs have witnessed this in action, and some of them have even fallen victim to this `harmless` prank. Yes, this game/prank/thing is not only popular, but this behavior is also tolerated....geeze louise Japan, you are an odd country indeed. Thankfully, this behavior seems to last only up until about 2nd or 3rd grade.
The best way to prevent a Japanese kid ramming their digits up your bum: keep your back to the wall our your hands clasped behind your back. I`ve also heard that taking a kid hostage is also a suitable prevention method.



Oddity Commodity

Check this link to see some good ol` Santa Kancho
poor guy, didnt even know what he was in store for.
http://youtu.be/GDbA9E6Blbo

Check the wiki page for a little more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kancho

And anytime you ask about Kancho to a Japanese person. Their response, you guessed it, `Japanese culture (desu)`.

There was something else I think I had wanted to write about odd or interesting Japanese culture, but I have since forgotten about it, so for a later post maybe!

Today (the day I am concluding and posting this blog) 11/11 is a rather special day for two reasons. Reason 1) Today is Pocky day in Japan, kind of like 7/11 in America. So today you go into the 7-11, Lawsons, Family Mart, etc. convenience store and say `Today is Pocky day` and they will give you some free Pocky, awesome! Reason 2) Today is my good (new) friend Ciaran`s birthday and so to ring it in with honor a group of us will be going out for Mexican (as close as you can get to it in Japan anyway) and drinks!
Until Next Time!

Keri

Punctuality

Hey all!

I haven`t got really much to post because I haven`t been to a school all week... :(
But I have got a small but long something to post because I haven`t been to school all week, and so here it is:

On Tuesday (11/1) I was scheduled to go to Ukashima elementary school, one of my two off island schools. But due to a series of unfortunate events, I never made it. It all started in the morning after breakfast. On a regular day I wake up around 7:25 eat breakfast, mozzy around, get dressed, and roll out of the apartment at 8:25 and get to work at just about 8:30. Which is perfectly on time. And normally there is no reason why I should worry about leaving the apartment before 8:25 because I know that without fail I will get to work at the latest, 2 minutes late. Well, it seemed that on this particular morning Murphy was trying to give me a fair warning by giving me a small taste of his infamous law.
So, what happened?
At 8:20 I am all dressed with my lunch packed, my school supply bag packed and ready to walk out the door when I reach to grab my keys off of the key hook. And lo and behold. When I drew my hand back there were no keys dangling from my unfortunately empty palm. Shit.
On a regular day without fail I always remember to place my keys onto the key hook to avoid one of these exact situations. So I try to maintain my cool and think for a few seconds....`aha! yesterday was not a perfectly normal day. It was actually a really exciting day because my large box of winter goods and oatmeal had arrived from my dad, which I had unpacked right beneath my beloved key hook!` So, with that burst of inspiration I begin to grope around within and around my box hoping that in all of my excitement of unpacking I had knocked the keys off the hook. But blasted, things are rarely ever that simple. Keys were nowhere to be found. Commence low-medium level freak out. I rush over to my little dining table scan about lift up a neatly folded sweater that had been lying there. nope not under that. Lift up my Japanese language notebook. Nope not under that. What the hell, might as well check under my laptop. Nope, not there either. And now it is 8:25. Double Shit. I look on my desk, dont see it there. Hurry and check the pockets of all the clothes I wore the previous day. Not there either. At this point I am freaking out. No keys, I`m going to be late, and although I can easily walk to work, there is no way I could walk to the ferry to catch the boat to my school at 11:30. Major freak out session ensues. I quickly double check everywhere I had already looked. not on my bed, not in my pockets, not on my table, not in or near my box. It`s 8:30 and I am screwed. Well, I figure I may as well walk to school and hope that my supervisor will drive me to the ferry and pray no one will decide to see if the foreigner remembered to lock her door (because yes, my car keys and apartment key are on the same chain).

So I begin the short trek to work, call my supervisor and tell him in the best Japanese I can muster: Hello! I am coming. Excuse me, I am sorry for being late!
Once at work, I figure it is best to bite the bullet and get the unfortunate car situation aired at the start. So again I try to think of the best way to tell them about what happened with the limited Japanese I have. And this is generally how it went.
`Good Morning...` (not as chipper as my usual good morning greeting) shuffle over to my supervisor....`....uhhhh excuse me, sorry, uhhh excuse me, today my car is not here`. (pause) I see the fear begin to creep into my supervisors eyes and I realize a moment too late that this statement was probably not the best way to open my conversation with my supervisor since he is quite aware of my track record in regards to my car (car in a ditch ring any bells?)...and so I quickly jabber out that: `ohh ohh ohhh my car is fine. it is fine. it is at home but...` and here begins the charades act because my Japanese is not good enough to string this into a proper sentence. I tell him I am ready to leave my apartment, and I begin to act out grabbing my keys off the hook and my astonishment at coming up empty handed and begin to say `not there, notthere....hmmm where where where where?!?!?!?` And pantomime a rabid search that turns up with nothing. At which I say: where?!? I dont know. lost (it). But In my apartment. My supervisor asks/pantomimes if I checked if I left my keys in the car Which then begins a conversation about my apartment being unlocked because the keys are together.

And needless to say, everyone in my office was at that point watching the spectacle that is me making little to no sense. Thankfully, the main guy in our office tells me (in all Japanese) Keri, you do not have school until 11:30, how about you go home with Mrs. Yanagihara and the both of you look for your keys. And so that is what we do. We get to my apartment and look through the box, and around the box. Check my pockets, my laundry basket. And Mrs. Yanagihara is checking under my sofa when I lift up my sweater off the table and my keys come tumbling out from one of the folds. AHA! and embarrassment all at once. Here are my keys!!!! What the heck are they doing folded in my sweater???? Who knows. But hooray, success, thank goodness! And we drive back to the office I show everyone my keys and hold a small slightly subdued (due to embarrassment) celebration of finding my keys.

But the unfortunate events sadly do not end here. Due to my fiasco of the morning you would think I would`ve gotten Murphy`s message (Primarily being that today was the day he was out to wreck havoc on my life) i get ready to leave for the ferry to go to school at 11:10. I figure it is more than enough time to do the 10 minute drive park and get on the ferry. FALSE, well partially.
I did get to the ferry in plenty of time. I was there at 11:20. but naturally (anything that can go wrong....) the parking lot was full. Shit. I recall that my supervisor told me it was ok to park at the elementary school nearby. So I drive over there. And ahaha, the usually 2 empty parking lots are chock full of cars (....will go wrong). Double Shit. I call my supervisor explain in the best Japanese I can muster which roughly translates to this. `Now I am at Shimanaka elementary school, but there are lots of cars. ` Thankfully he takes this to mean that there is no parking and he tells me that he will call the school and see if a teacher can help me out. Ok, well that is nice, except by the time the teacher rolls out it is 11:26. She tells me (in Japanese naturally, thank goodness I understood) That I could park at the closed down middle school, she points me into the direction. I drive over, park, shout my thanks, and break out into a run to catch the ferry because it is now 11:28 and this is Japan, if the ferry is supposed to leave at 11:30, it leaves exactly at 11:30.
And so I tear around the final corner of the ferry port, I am so close that I can see the ferry and the captain. I take a quick peek at my watch. Shit. it is 11:30. So I throw my hands up in mad desperation and begin waving away like a woman gone mad and shouting in Japanese (wait! Please Wait!) and in English (I`m coming! Dont Leave, please!) And what does that good ol ferry captain do? Give me the finger, rev that engine and tear out of the port like the rude fella that he is laughing hysterically. Well almost. Maybe there was no finger. And there might have been laughing, but it could`ve been a normal laugh at something the toll collector had said (maybe/probably about the psycho foreigner [me]). And needless to say I was left standing at the gangplank watching the ferry recede at a snail pass (having half the mind to jump into the water and go swimming after it it was moving so slow.) and hoping just maybe the captain was going to pull a U-turn because yes, I was still waving my arms in the air like a crazy woman. After a few moments I realize, no they are not going to turn around. I am screwed and I better call my supervisor.
After about 7 minutes of a mixture of Japanese and English I manage to tell my supervisor that I am fine. but I am not going to Ukashima elementary because...begin english...the ship left me. confusion ensues because he thinks i am saying that I am fine, I am on the way to ukashima on the ship. Anyway, after getting all of it sorted I was told, dont worry keri, come back to the office.
And so in a pissy defeated mood I hop into the car and drive at a snail pass back to work.

And that was my Tuesday.
I was rescheduled to go to Ukashima today since I missed Tuesday, and what does my supervisor say after our ritual morning greeting. Keri-san, please ferry Ukashima...Japanese Japanese.
hang my head and say: today I will leave at 11:00.
Now not only will I always be reminded of being a safety driver, but it looks like I will also always be reminded of my need to leave extra early to make the ferry.

Japan.

Hopefully not missing the boat (Modest Mouse reference?!)
Keri

http://youtu.be/YSfTdzoO4ic