Tsuwano horse archery!

Hi guys!
So today I am again making good on my promise of `Things to look forward to` and posting about my visit to Tsuwano and watching traditional Japanese やぶさめ or horseback archery. Before I write about my adventures in Tsuwano I figured I should first dedicate some time to posting a little bit about the background of Yabusame.!

Yabusame is a form of ritualized mounted archery that arose as a form of offering to the gods of Japan, who in turn would grant prosperity and victory to the Japanese people. Zen Buddhism was a major factor in refining and evolving the form of mounted archery used in battle into the more spiritually based form of Yabusame. As a form of martial art, Yabusame helped warriors learn concentration and discipline. The addition of Zen taught breathing techniques taught one to stabilize the mind and body which provided the archer with clarity and focus. This combination enabled practitioners to calmly draw ones bow, aim and shoot accurately in the heat of battle. To do this successfully was considered to be the mark of a true samurai who had mastered his training and fear. 

Ready you are. 

Because of the spiritual nature of Yabusame, most matches are held at Shinto shrines. At the beginning of every match a ceremony is performed, in which the priest blesses both horses and riders. In the match,the archer gallops down a 250-meter long track, using his or her knees to control the horse while drawing the bow, which measures about the same height as the rider. When reaching the target the archer then aims, and with a deep chant of In-Yo-In-Yo (darkness and light), fires. The sound made by the arrow hitting the target is almost as important as the the riders` accuracy. The explosion created in the strike is traditionally believed to transfer the archers` courage to the spectators.

(This is just a brief summarization, if you want to learn more about Yabusame click here, or visit your local library)

So, on April 8th, fellow Yamaguchi ALT`s Brad and Jessica decided that we would drive from Yamaguchi City to Tsuwano (in Shimane prefecture) to see the annual Yabusame ceremony which is held on the 2nd Sunday of April. So we piled into my car and made the slow long trek. Due to a bit of a late start we ended up missing the first Yabusame match that was held at 11a.m., but thankfully there was a second match that would begin at 2pm. So we used that time to explore the grounds, nom on some nomz, and run into other fellow Yamaguchi ALT`s! 

Look! We found Wayne, Sarah, and Matt!

And Brad nomming on some chicken on a stick.

I used this time to stalk and photograph the really awesome yabusame archers!

Just before 2pm we decided to line up near the track so we could get a decent spot, near the third andfinal target, to photograph and watch all the action. We ended up standing near an older Japanese couple who were pretty adept at understanding English and chuckled at the odd conversation that we crazy foreigners were having behind them. 

And then began the really long wait. We knew that there would be some sort of opening ceremony but we weren`t aware of just how long and elaborate it would be. For the most part we couldn`t see the blessing ritual and so we were a little confused about what was taking so long for the ceremony to start. Eventually, when our patience was wearing a little thin, as we were short on time, the judges, horses, and archers walked down along the length of the track in a parade (subdued) like manner, and then the matches began!

We didn`t get to watch the entire match because we needed to start heading home. But we did manage to snap a few successful photos (those horses are really fast!), and see a few successful strikes of the target. Before leaving Tsuwano we decided to wander a little bit around the center of Tsuwano to admire the cherry blossoms, the huge koi and the generally nice weather.

Koi swimming around along the avenues of Tsuwano.

The Tsuwano and the horse archery were really cool to see, I think I`ll go again next year. Also there is a steam train that runs from Yamaguchi city to Tsuwano during the more pleasant weathered months, I`m thinking maybe I will ride it sometime, I`ve heard that it is supposed to be really scenic. So we`ll see!
Until next time!!!

New Horizons

April and Spring have arrived and with it the beloved Japanese cherry blossoms!
As much as I and the rest of the citizens of Japan love the cherry blossoms and Hanami, the coming of Spring also signifies the start of a new school year in Japan. Unlike American schools (and I am assuming schools in most other Western societies) which end around anywhere in June/July and resume in late August or early September, the Japanese school schedule begins from April and runs through until about mid- March. In a way it kind of seems to match having the new school year parallel with the coming of Spring and `re-birth`. (Note: I`m sure there is actually a different reason, but this is just a nice coincidence that I happen to really like).



(Photo Courtesy of Awesome Yamaguchi ALT Brad)


Like I have mentioned, for the past week I haven`t been very busy since classes have been out, my BOE on the other hand has been bustling with energy as people buzz in and out of the office making last minute preparations to ensure a smooth and successful new school year. One of the most prominent shifts that the new academic year presents that directly affects me is what I like to refer to as, `Musical Chairs: Sensei Edition`. So, at the set of the new school year not only are 1st year ES students being initiated into Elementary schools, ES students transferring up to JHS, JHS students transitioning into HS students and HS students preparing to begin University, but behind the scenes there is also a transferring of teachers and other positions related to the education system.

My BOE has had a few transfers, namely a large number of the staff who had worked on the national games have been transferred to different positions around Oshima. Within my office I was a little sad to learn that our department head was transferred, he had a really sexy deep low voice that I liked to listen to while preparing my lessons or typing up these blogs. Our new department head is really nice, so I really can`t complain too much. Thankfully both of my supervisors are still here, both of them have been really helpful with getting me adjusted to life in Oshima and I would`ve been a little torn to discover that I would be getting a new supervisor in charge of governing my professional life here.

The most significant changes of course are the ones within my individual schools. During the first week of April, amongst all the bustling going on around our office, the ones that I paid direct attention to was when my school principals` would enter to introduce the new staff. Unfortunately not all of my schools had the time to be able to stop by, I think I have gotten to meet the `new` staff from about 6 of my 14 schools. In most cases when the staff would enter I was relieved to see that for the most part my teachers have only been shuffled from different schools within Oshima`s school districts. But there were a few teachers that came in who will be completely new faces that I can expect to be teaching with in the upcoming weeks. This is a little bit of a nerve wracking experience for me, seeing as the past 7 months I have adjusted to the different teaching techniques of my schools individual teachers. And now I am getting thrown a curve ball of wild card teachers that I am unsure of how well we will work together in a classroom. Basically, I get sent back to square one of learning how to adjust to individual teaching styles.

There were only a few changes that really sparked my interests. The first being, that my absolutely favorite JTE was no longer the English teacher at Nasake Jima ES&JHS. He was so much fun to work with because he was really young and had a lot of creative ideas for engaging students with English language. Not to mention he was also the most receptive to ideas I had for English lessons and activities. But beyond just myself, I was also a little disappointed to learn that he was leaving (potentially out of Oshima) because I felt that the way he presented English lessons were really accessible and enjoyable for students. Simply put, I felt that he was the most qualified teacher for making a significant impact on English acquisition in Oshima. Thankfully, I later found out that he will still be working as an English teacher in Oshima and that he will actually be visiting all of the JHS. From what I could gather from talking to my new Department head was that my favorite teacher would kind of serve the same job as me, team teaching English at the different JHS on Oshima. So, I`m sad that I likely wont be working with him again, but I`m really glad that he`ll still be about and teaching practical English to the students of Oshima.

The only other major upset so far came when I discovered another one of my JHS teacher switches. This switch was really probably the worst possible switch that I could have ever expected. So there is only one JHS that I very much despise going to, and the reason primarily being was that the JTE was awful. I didn`t so much mind that all he made me do was read out a few sentences and otherwise stand in front of the class, because hey, if he was doing a great job of teaching and wanted me out of the way, no problem. BUT the problem is he doesn`t do a particularly great job. In fact 90% of the English class period is given in Japanese. And the strategies employed are extremely traditional. I had personally been hoping that he would retire, or else transfer off of Oshima. Unfortunately that wasn`t the case. And what did happen was that he was transferred to one of my favorite JHSs. And it`s further disheartening because a lot of the students there are really eager and dedicated to learning English, but their previous teacher`s strategies really facilitated and encouraged them to improve. So I`m really not excited to see how the new school year will be with him at that school. The only potentially bright side to this situation is that the teacher he is replacing will be going to his old school. So I`m hoping that I will no longer despise visiting that school and I know that she will do a really good job of providing the students with the proper English lessons they have been missing. It also means that I will no longer be used solely as a prop at that school! Yay!

The final change that April has brought that directly impacts me is a change in English textbooks. I`ll no longer be teaching from New Horizons but from Sunshine (does Japan have a sense of humour or is this also just coincidence?). Unfortunately the basic lesson structures and strategies are the same (see not practical/useful English) and implemented in the least sensical kind of way. But on the bright side I`m not familiar with the different speaking,reading, writing activities so I`ll have fun doing new lessons.

To sum it up there are a lot of changes on the horizon. Hopefully they will all prove to be for the better.

Things to look forward to: Tsuwano Yabusame (horse back archery). I`ve already posted some photos on Facebook but I will post more and likely some commentary soon!

The fish sprang from the spring like a spring that has sprung in Spring.

(Name check to Jessica Maple for the blog title)


In Seattle: Sorry, but we`re related, cant`cha tell.

Hello family, friends, stalkers, and random readers of my blog!

The other day one of my friends spied me on Skype and stated, `You haven`t updated your dating blog lately, so I`m assuming things are going well.`

Out of this statement I took two things, 1) I should update my blog soon, because it has been awhile and 2) To re-establish my legitimacy as a non-dating blog I shall make sure my post does not go into that direction.
If I was trying to be Carrie Bradshaw 2.0, I would re-locate to Manhattan.


(We share a name, but that is nearly as far as the similarities run, sex/dating columnist/blogger I am not!)

Anyway, I`ve been a really busy bee since the last time I`ve posted, here are some of the things I have been up to:

-Last classes of the school year
-Tokyo Marathon
-Seattle
-Prefectural Meeting
-Osaka/Kobe
-Hiroshima for my B-day
-Hanging around Yamaguchi/Mine
-Seeing my ALT friend Jasmine!
-Attempting to keep myself busy for the past week and a half of no classes. (and the next two coming as well)

For the most part this blog post will focus on the bolded topics. Some of them may get bumped into a later post (I have dayz to fill, so expect a number of blog posts to be coming in the next 2 weeks) depending on how much I devote to writing about each.


As much as I love March, symbolizing the coming of Spring and my birthday, this year it loomed upon me like a big grey cloud. Am I trying to be all metaphorical?, No, I felt that way because quite literally it was extremely grey and cloudy nearly all month. On top of the grey misery, March in Japan is still pretty chilly, many of my Japanese friends told me that I should expect to wait until around Mid-April for the weather to really begin to warm up (>_<). Having spent a large part of my life living in Hawaii, I tend to get at least slightly affected by extended periods of lousy weather. So my main goal for the month was to be as active and busy as possible to keep the March Blues (I never have March Blues, what is this blasphemy! [note: I may have just made up the concept of March Blues]) from setting in.

So below I have listed a a handful of many useful ways of keeping your future March Blues at bay. Enjoying!

Keeping away the March Blues Step 1: Take a festive trip to a city and celebrate

Anyway, so after our big prefectural meeting in Yamaguchi City, my friends Ciaran, Anneli, and I decided to go to the Kansai region for a bit of a St. Patricks day adventure.Although I was disappointed to discover that there was no green beer nor did the local Mcdonald`s have any shamrock shakes, I was pleased to find that the festivities did include Guinness (doesn`t get more Irish than that), plentiful Irish folk, Potatoes, Magners (legit Irish Cider), kilts, bagpipes, food, and shamrocks for dayz!

Look at all those foreigners.

During the festive events I was educated by my Irish friend Ciaran, that kilts and Haggis, which I`ve typically associated with Scotland, actually originated in Ireland. I`ve also deduced that in typical Japanese fashion, adorable children are also a crucial part of celebrating St. Patrick`s day in Japan.


It had also been brought to my attention, as the token American amongst our motley crew of festive revelers, that the Irish are completely baffled by this celebration we call St. Patty`s. ` What is St. Patty`s day? It`s St. Paddy`s day (ye crazy Americans spelling all things wrong)!` Likewise, I`ve also been thoroughly educated on the famine, as the opening line used throughout the day began something like this, `So, have you ever heard about the famine...` (tell me more, tell me more) And in typical St. Paddy`s tradition, the majority of our day and evening was spent in a lovely Irish Pub in the middle of Osaka.

Keeping Away the March Blues Step 2: Go on an adventure to the most desolate part of your prefecture with amazing company and soundtrackz
There is no better way to prevent yourself from hitting March Madness (and not the basketball variety and more like the [mad] March hare in Alice in Wonderland) than a jaunt out in the wide open blustery cold country side.

`Careful, she's stark ravin' mad!`

So a few weeks back, Jessica, Jesse, Laura, and I all crammed into Laura`s little car and took a trip out to Mine! What is in Mine? Well Akiyoshidai and Akiyoshido, the Mine cave and Mine Karst landscape. Since many of us had already been to the caves, and they are a bit of a (un)pretty price to pay to see again we opted to checking out the free Akiyoshido instead. And on the car ride, for some odd reason we decided to listen to my first childhood cd (Winnie the Pooh and his woodland friends: Songs from the 100 acre woods) Click the video below to have a listen and reminisce on your childhood.

Anyway, here are the two photos I took, it was really windy and extremely cold, and I hadn`t thought of putting on mittens or gloves. (Excuses)




Keeping Away the March Blues Step 3: Go Sightseeing with a friend visiting from out of town.

Sight seeing is a really great way to get your mind off of how cold, miserable, and ever dragging out the month of March may be. But a way to keep it fresh and funky is by going sight seeing with a friend who is coming to visit from out of town. Reason being is that not only do you get to go out and stretch your legs, but you also have a great companion to enjoy the sights with. The best part is that you can also use the time to catch each other up on what you`ve been up to since the last time you`ve talked.

And luckily for me, my fellow ALT and friend, Jasmine had the time and will to come visit me in little Oshima. Last time I had seen her was back near the end of January, I think. So we had a whole month and a few weeks of catching up to do. Since Oshima doesn`t have some of the most amazing sights in Japan, (though we did later discover some cool things about the island) I decided to take Jasmine to Miyajima and Hiroshima. Since I forgot my digital camera when we went to Hiroshima this blog post will really only cover our Miyajima adventure.

I really love traveling with Jasmine. I don`t know exactly what it is, but everytime we go sightseeing together we happen to meet the greatest people and have a really great time (the latter can of course be explained by how awesome we are).

Anyway, our adventure around Miyajima included meeting some really awesome people that worked on Miyajima in the ferry station(?). They were really excited to meet us, talk to us, and take photos of us (which were later made up into these really cute gifts that they gave to us as souvenir`s. We also later met an older Japanese couple over lunch who enjoyed talking to us and repeatedly kept inviting us to come to their home in Osaka to eat, drink, talk, sight see, and stay. How friendly. Maybe that will be our next travel destination together!

As for the rest, here are some pictures:


Cute little bambi who later tried eating our lunch and our handbags. Crazy babsie.


We decided to rent bicycles to putz around the island on. Here Jasmine is having a bit of a Marilyn moment, it was so windy!



The genki tourists strike again!

And with that, the end of March arrived and the potential prospects of Spring. April 1st was a lovely day but today the weather is looking extremely foreboding.

Okay, that`s enough for one blog post. Expect another one soon.
Next blog topic is likely to be about the Japanese school system: featuring crazy school schedule, and heart wrenching teacher transfers.

Until then!
Keri