More Lasts

I feel like I've been mentally saying goodbye for about two months, and now I'm actually saying goodbye.

Monday night Aikido crowd. I had an awesome practice. Beforehand I determined to train with everyone and have as much fun as possible without worrying about getting all the techniques right. I had a blast. After class, my eyes started to tear up when I asked Murayama Sensei if we could take a group picture and he was totally apathetic to my impending absense. I'm going to miss the two girls in the back. Okay, I'm going to miss everyone. They just get extra mention because they gave me goingMonday I said farewell to the of her mother-in-law's old kimono and yukata and we picked out a couple. The other lady in the picture brought me a very nice hand towel that I've been using to wipe away sweat during practice. It's funny, if I were blind, and someone in the picture grabbed my hand, I would know exactly who it was but I'm ashamed to say I don't know everyone's name. 'Cause we neve away presents!!! Ishida-san (back, second from left) brought over a bunchr talk. We just throw each other around and I make inappropriate jokes in such a serious place. I love it. I will write more on the individuals later, so I don't forget them.

Wednesday I said goodbye to the Wednesday crowd. (Same "dojo"- as in same head sensei, but different people). I'm going to miss that group. They seemed a bit sad to see me going.



I'm really going to miss my karate dojo though. Although I've only done karate for 6 months, as opposed to my 2 years at aikido, I feel like I'm part of the group there. Everyone stands around and talks before and after practice, they have barbecues and go out together. It feels like a community. As Kevin once said, the Himeji Aikido people train like they're going to work. The Karate people train because they love it and love to be there with that group of people.

So last night was my last night at karate. In parting, they decided to give me juninkumite, or ten people sparring. One on one for 1 1/2 minutes each separated by 30 seconds. I died. Seriously. In my last match (with kancho Sensei) I got knocked to the ground so much I felt like I was going to either cry or throw up. Maybe both. It was absolutely exhausting. I took so many low kicks to my thighs I can hardly walk today. My right shin protector slipped to the side at some point, so that part of my leg is covered in bruises. I got a very nice email from my sensei afterwards, saying I did really well and he was impressed. I have to sit down and write him a nice letter, but it will take some time to think of what to write and then I'll have to translate it into Japanese 'cause Sensei doesn't really speak English, at all. Well, he says things like "full powaa" and "Allison, rush rush!" I love it. Afterwards they gave me an honorary black belt Although I'm still skill-wise a white belt. I guess I can wear it around my apartment and feel cool in the safety that no one else will see it and challenge me to a fighto fighto.

I was supposed to go out clubbing with Lexi tonight. We had to
modify plans seeing as I can hardly walk, let alone dance. I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through my absolutely last night of Aikido practice tomorrow. I guess I'll Gaman- persevere.

First of my Lasts

Last night marked what will probably be my last matsuri in Japan. I love Japanese festivals- the bizarre food stalls, game booths, costumes, energy and of course people and yesterday's festival was no exception.

This was, of course, the Himeji Yukata Festival which I reported on last year. Himeji was more packed with people than I have ever seen it before. What would normally be a five minute strole along the shopping arcade expanded into a 30 minute exercise in winding through throngs of yukata clad women and men in their jinbe's. The big difference between this year and last was the absense of the bosozoku, or motorcycle gangs. Somebody said they showed up late at night, but I didn't see them at all.

My preparation for the matsuri really started a few weeks ago, when I began browsing through the racks of yukata for one I liked. The start of summer sees shops putting out huge racks of yukata, ranging in price from 2000 yen to 30000 yen or more for a designer one. I must have looked through hundreds of yukatas before I found mine on Thursday, just in time for the weekend! I started to get ready around three, and was fortunate enough to have an entire team of people helping me to get ready. Lexi helped me put on the yukata and tie the obi, or big poofy belt, and this awesome girl Julie (visiting from the inaka of Japan) did my hair. Then later my friends Chiaki and Sue helped me retie my yukata when it started to slip down. (The initial fear for people wearing yukata for the first time is for it to open up. I guess there are things called "yukata slips", but of course I didn't have one. So if my yukata happened to fall apart, I'd be standing in the street in my underwear and a tank top... Not a pleasant experience I'd imagine!) Everyone in the building got ready together, had a few snacks on the deck, and then we all got separated trying to make it downtown.

I wandered around the matsuri at first with Chelsea, Michelle, and Julie. Then we ran into Maya and her boyfriend Ryan. Soon afterwards I found Jon Ho, who is one of my favorite people in Himeji, and we went and saw these cool breakdancers he met last week perform on stage. In short, I just ended up jumping between people to wander around with. Rather than go on at length, I'll just summarize the night with a few pictures.

Right- A variation on the goldfish game. Kids try to catch baby quails. If they win, they get to keep the bird. Unfortunately, I think a lot of baby birds are killed in the process of trying to catch them. And probably many more are killed once the kids get them home. I thought these boys were adorable though. They were so happy with their new chicks!

Running into Karen's students on miyukidori. These girls are wearing jinbe, which are loose top and bottom combinations. I want one! They look so comfortable!

Running into Inaoka Sensei and Iizuka Sensei in front of the station. I worked with Inaoka Sensei at Toyotomi, she's an amazing teacher and person. Iizuka Sensei was the director of English education in Himeji but recently switched positions and is now the vice principal at my school. They were coming back from a seminar on English education when I ran into them.

As the festival started to wind down Lexi and I headed over to Tiger and met up with people. Regrettably, Taube, Julian, and the other Shirasagi people were elsewhere. I think most people were at this ramen shop that I didn't quite know how to get to. I wanted to join them, but I was a little worried about wandering through the "red light" district of Himeji on my own, and my feet were killing me. It's now Sunday morning, there's a steady rainfall softening the sounds of cars passing by and driving people indoors. I imagine it's washing away the remnants of yesterday's matsuri, the empty cups and sticky food trays, from the city streets downtown. The thought of never going to another Japanese matsuri is bringing tears to my eyes. It's going to be hard to leave what has become my home.

Waiting for the bus

Chopsticks. Chop Chop.

Inevitably in teaching English I have to teach the students how to say "hashi" in English. The new word, chopsticks, is always followed by a detailed explanation in Japanese of how upon first contact with hashi, it appeared as if people were stabbing and well, chopping at their food. My junior high school students usually abandon their glazed over, utterly bored demeanor for one of befuddlement at how anyone could think hashi were meant for sawing through bowls of rice or tender fishies. Usually the explanation ends with all the students taking a sidelong glance at the only representative foreigner around (me), wondering how my ancestors could be so obtuse. Now, this phenomenon has always irritated me. In consequence, I recently did some research (translate- googled) the etymology of chopsticks. What I found begins with what might be the coolest phrase in the English language. Let's begin


Chop Chop.

One theory is that "chopsticks" comes from chop chop, meaning fast. Chop chop probably originated in Pidgin English, which was spoken for nearly 300 years as a means of communication between English and Chinese traders. "Chop" alone comes from a derivation of Chinese meaning "fast". Hence "chop chop" equals fast, or in a hurry. From Wikipedia:

The Mandarin Chinese word for chopsticks is kuàizi (筷子) or kuài'er (筷儿/筷兒). The character 筷 is composed of two parts, "快" meaning quick and “竹” meaning bamboo.

In Chinese, the old word for "chopsticks" was zhù. However, zhù became a taboo on ships because it sounded the same as another word meaning "to stop" (住). Consequently, it was replaced by a word of opposite meaning, kuài (fast, quick). This gradually spread until it became the word for "chopsticks" in most varieties of modern Chinese. The character for this new meaning of "chopsticks" (筷) for kuài has the character for bamboo added to the character meaning "fast" kuài (快).

How cool is that? I would say pretty awesome. Now I will end this blog entry chop chop.

MALAYSIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yo! I'm in Malaysia! How crazy is that? Actually, I'm not in Malaysia yet. This is a pre-post. I'll be leaving tomorrow April 26th and will be back in Japan on may 5th. Times!
Bye!

Hanami!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, it looks like I'll never finish up reporting on my Thailand trip... So moving on!

We just finished up Hanami, or Cherry Blossom Viewing, here in Himeji. Japan is covered with cherry trees, which all open up at the same time, blanketing the country in pink and white. This beauty is best appreciated by sitting under the trees eating and drinking for an afternoon or evening. After a few hours of socializing, everyone stops and takes a whole lot of pictures of the trees and friends.








This year I had several Hanami parties. The first was at Himeji castle. Every year on the first Saturday of April, a hundred koto players set up in the park and play together starting at 9. In the afternoon, the koto players are replaced with a string of taiko drummers with groups rotating through for two hours. I slept in through the koto to show up for the taiko and sake drinking- which was excellent. Among the foreigners, I have to believe that the sake is the top attraction to the festival. Every year, Himeji sets up a sake booth. The booth boasts six different sake's from local breweries. For 500 yen, you get a souvenir sake drinking box/cup with the first drink. Each additional drink is only 100yen. When I went for my first drink, I encountered some rather drunk Americans who recommended a rather spicy sake and another dry one. Each turned out to be excellent.

My second Hanami was out with the Aikido dojo. This was an extremely difficult day. We started out with class at 10 out in Aioi- a town outside of Himeji. After a good sweat we moved on to drinking at noon, and continued on until five. At which point we moved on to drinking at a local ramen shop. Monday was very painful.

My last Hanami in Japan I spent with my Shirasagi friends in front of the castle. I couldn't drink much, as I had karate shortly afterwards. But the flowers were beautiful and the park was relatively quiet.

THAILAND!!!!!!

Josh and Al, big idiots around the world.

Grand Palace, Bangkok

Josh and I had a wonderful journey to Thailand, I just woke up from a nap recovering from all of our adventures. We both fell in love with the country, causing us to dread our return to Japan and think of ways to remain in the country. In my case, I think I will have to talk my family into spending Christmas in Thailand.

Day 1
Josh and I flew out of Osaka Sunday afternoon. We made our plans for the week on the flight. We made several goals.
1- ride elephants
2- see kickboxing
3- get massages
Other than this, we had no idea where we were going. We found a bus from the Bangkok airport to Khao San Road, a hippie, ex-pat hangout where my friend Cecy planned to meet us. Thankfully, she was there and had made a hotel reservation for us. Hooray! Together, with her Indian but living in the land of Thai, friend Ronny, we got some dinner and went to a few bars. We ate dinner at a table on the street. Meanwhile, a pair of hippie-looking kids entertained us playing accordion and violin as part of a traveling circus.

Riding Elephants, Chiang Mai
Muay Thai Kickboxing school!

Thai Cooking Class

Wat Doi Suthep, North of Chiang Mai

SUMO!!!

I went to SUMO today!!!!! Yay! Sumo matches occur six times a year, three times in Tokyo, and once in Osaka, Nagoya and Kyushu. Each tournament lasts 15 days. The matches start in the morning around nine with the lower ranked wrestlers and progresses through the ranks until the day's matches finish at six.

I called Cecy just before noon, rallied her out of bed and we took off to Osaka. We didn't know just how much sumo we could watch in one sitting, but estimated it at less than an entire day. We got to the gym around 1:30, just as the higher-ranked rikishi, or wrestlers, were arriving. People lined the streets, creating wall of digital cameras and cell phones to snap photos as the wrestlers stepped out of the taxis. They arrived wearing yukata, or lighter versions of kimono, with their hair pinned neatly atop their heads.

After snapping a few photos, we found the ticket window and were dismayed to learn that all of the cheaper tickets had been already sold. All that were left were the 8500 yen tickets. Figuring that this was my last chance to see sumo in Japan, and that we had already made it to Osaka, we bought our very very expensive tickets. We wandered off, got some lunch, swung by a convenience store for snacks and made it back to the gym.

At the ticket gate, a very energetic woman attached herself to us as a guide to our seats. As Cecy was using the restroom, I confessed that although I like to watch Sumo on TV, this was my first time seeing it live. Upon hearing this, my guide rushed off and came back with some secret presents for us- promotional photos of the yokozune Asashoryu that they had handed out the first day. After stuffing them in our bags- so no one could see them, she excorted us into the sumo hall.

Dohyo-iri or "entering the ring" ceremony. The rikishi, or upper division, wrestlers enter the ring wearing their silk aprons.

Yokozuna Asashoryu, attended by lower ranking rikishi, one holding a sword, performs ritual stomping in the dohyo-iri.

Ozeki Kotooshi (far side) and opponent. A Bulgarian, this is Cecy's favorite wrestler.

I'm not sure who this is. But he is performing the yumitori-shiki, or "swinging around a bow" closing ceremony.

It was soooo awesome! That's all I have to say.
Love, Allison