The Temperature Today...

.... in the female teacher's bathroom at school....

2 degrees Celsius

I told you it was cold!

Domestic Violence

I've renamed my "Help Me Help Me" class to the "Domestic Violence" class. I think it's a name I've stolen from Badaunt, sorry Badaunt, but it's a name that fits so well with this group. A lot of punching goes on, but it's all between friends and strangely, they seem to enjoy it, both the hitter and the hit-ee.

I feel like I probably should get mad at them, but I don't feel angry at all. They make me laugh.

A lesson with them can go something like this;

Student, pointing to his friend; "He's M, he's M"

I look at him confused, ""M", what do you mean "M"? I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You know, "M", he's "M"!" The student then punches his friend really hard in the shoulder and explaines, "See, he's "M", I'm "S" and he's "M"".

I just shake my head, laugh and walk away.

Cold

As in, I have a cold and I am cold.

And I'm very grumpy about it.

It seems like I'm on some sort of six-weekly cold cycle. That's how often I've been catching them lately. Other than the obvious I-feel-crappy-so-I'm-grumpy grumpiness, I am grumpy about the fact that I am cold. All day. Every day. Well, at work at least.

The staffroom I sit in all day when I'm not in class is really not comfortable, and most of the time, it's downright freezing. I rug up as much as I can taking into consideration that the classrooms are warm and if I dress too warmly, I'll sweat in class. At my desk, I wrap my bottom half in a blanket, wrap a pashmina around my shoulders, wear disposable toe-warmers in my shoes, drink hot tea and still I get waves of cold shivers running up and down my back. I swear it's because I spend the day feeling so cold that I get sick.

Today is the first time that all of the heaters in the room have been turned on. There have been days when only two of the five heaters are on and we've sat and shivered all day long. I know it's not just me, two of the other foreign teachers I work with feel it too and they are from cold cities.

I wonder, do the Japanese teachers feel cold as well and just not complain? Is it a matter of the Japanese ideals of gaman (perserverence) and shoganai (it can't be helped) being at play here?

I don't think it's a Japanese thing. Wayne has said that the staffrooms of the schools where he teaches are lovely and warm. I don't believe it's even a (my school name...) thing either. The high school teachers rooms are also very cosy. It's this room. There is one person who decides how many heaters can be turned on on a given day and everyone else has to live with his decision.

There are official heater and airconditioning turning on days in the year and that day is abided by regardless of the temperature. Last year, the heating-turning-on-day was December 1st, so when I came to school on the third and fourth, I was dressed expecting the room to be warm. It wasn't. There were no heaters on at all, a day or so later, sure enough, I was sick with a horrible 'flu that included loosing my voice and having to take time off work.

So not only do I get to be uncomfortable all day at work, I then get sick and get to be uncomfortable with those symptoms at home too. And then, top it off with the stress of possibly loosing my voice.

If I wasn't drinking tea in an effort to try to warm myself up, I would not drink at all here. Going to the bathroom is almost like torture. It's outside, freezing and the water to wash hands is so cold it's painful. Sadly no Japanese heated toilet seat for this school. And I won't get started on the lack of availability of anything warming to eat for lunch......

I really enjoy my job, I like teaching, I like my students, I like the teachers and staff I work with. It's just such a bummer that it is such an uncomfortable place to work in for parts of the year.

Burn Daruma Baby Burn

Last weekend was a really busy one for me. Saturday was devoted to sorting kimono fabric for some customers. Sunday I went to watch Wayne in his Iaido grading and I'm proud to say that he got his Sho-dan (first degree black belt). The hall he was grading in was also holding a Coming of Age ceremony. I got so focused on the photos I was taking of all the gorgeous kimonos (sorry about the pun), that I almost missed Wayne's moment of grading (bad wife Melanie, bad wife). After taking Wayne out for a congratulatory dinner, the evening was spent downloading and retouching photos.

But still, I was up for more! On Sunday I headed to Atsuta Shrine to take more Seijin no Hi pics before I rushed over to another festival at Osu Kannon.

This Sagicho festival is held at shrines around the country, on the same day as Seijin no Hi. It's a Shinto rite where the New Year decorations are burnt while priest pray for the health of all. The one at Osu Kannon in Nagoya was tame compared to some others in Japan, but I always enjoy a good fire, especially nice on these cold winter days.

Some of the decorations are set with a Daruma wish doll on top (notice that both eyes have been painted, so this is a used doll). The High Priest begins the chants.

Close up of the chants

Burn baby burn! Another priest sets the whole thing alight.



An ordained pyromaniac


Adding fuel to the fire. Priest throw different wooden prayer/wish tablets on the fire.



Hopes go up in smoke. A friend explained to me that they are prayers are said while they are burnt so that the smoke will take the wishes to the gods.

My lucky mochi. At the end of it all, I was presented with a piece of mochi, a hard rice cake. My mochi says "Good luck". I'm told I can eat it, though I think I'll just keep this one. There is plenty of non-lucky (as opposed to unlucky) mochi in my kitchen.

Another lucky thing of the day was that by pure chance, I met Kikuko. She has a great website with lots of useful and interesting information about Japan, but more importantly, it has a detailed Monthly calendar for events happening around in and around Nagoya. For the last couple of years, her website has been my are-there-any-festivals-on-this-weekend bible. I found this festival in there. You can see her website here.

Coming of Age

Today is Seijin no Hi, Coming of Age Day. In Japan twenty is the age of adulthood and today is the day that anyone turning that age celebrates.

A New Zealander that I ran into today said it so well, "It a lot of young, cute 20 year olds dressed in their finest. Who could ask for more."

I took these at Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya. There are more photos on my Flickr page and I'll continue to add to that page as I get the truckload of images that I took sorted out.

Matsumoto

"Matsumotoooooooooo" was the sound I was lead to believe would great us on our arrival to Matsumoto station. While we didn't here the announcement with the very "oooooooo" until the second day, what we were greeted by was very friendly, smiley, helpful locals.

We went there for my traditional Christmas in Japan trip.

We loved Matsumoto! A leisurely stroll from our hotel near the station, through the pristine streets brought us to one of Matsumoto's most famous attractions, it's castle. The castle is nicknamed the "Crow" as it is predominantly black, in contrast to most white Japanese castles. The castle itself was most impressive and the extremely steep stairs a challenge. You could feel the history in the wood, a long history for Japanese castles, of over 400 years. I sat for a while on my own in the gorgeous moon-viewing room, a room that opens out on three sides to overlook the garden and moat. I closed my eyes and imagined women and their attendants dressed in their finest kimono, lovers looking at the moonlit scene, the ghosts of people passed.

The streets near the castle are wonderful for a stroll. By a stream runs a little street that is reminiscent of the ones going up to Kiyomizudera in Kyoto. There are many little craft and antique shops as well as places to buy the local handicraft, stunning temari balls. If that's not your thing, there are lots of funky modern shops nearby to entice as well.

Eating was a joy in Matsumoto. While we didn't partake in any of the local delicacies; soba, raw horse meat, bee larvae or crickets, we had plenty of different tastes to choose from. We ate Indonesian in a beautiful oasis, Spanish tapas and English pub food in a bar that almost would have made me think I was in England, except for the lack of English anywhere on the menu.

Matsumoto also has a good range of museums. The city museum entry is included in the castle ticket. While small, it had enough to entertain both the boy and I; stuff to kill people with for him, and cultural and handicraft items for me. We had planned to spend Christmas Day museum-hopping, but that was foiled. They were all closed. Not because it was Christmas Day, but because the day before, a Monday, the usual museum-closing day, was a public holiday, so the museum-closing day and was changed for the week to the Tuesday. Mind you, I don't think Wayne was too disappointed on missing out on the City Art Museum or the City Handicrafts Museum.

We did however, make it to the Ukiyo-e Museum, which was a highlight of the trip. Both Wayne and I love the traditional Edo-era woodblock prints. This museum has the largest collection in the world and has been run by the same family for five generations. The collection is housed in a funky modern building 3km outside of the city centre with the Japanese Alps as its backdrop and rice paddies as its neighbours. The current family member running the gallery was a delight to talk to. He had excellent English and joked to us about being both the curator and the janitor. I splurged and bought a print, a reproduction, but done in the traditional manner.

A friend of mine told me that she and her boyfriend are considering moving back to Nagano, his home prefecture. Matsumoto, she said, is where she wants to live. I can know understand why, it's such a beautiful, relaxing, inviting place.

An antique inro, medicine container, out the front of one of the many little quaint antique shops.

Even the manhole covers in Matsumoto are lovely. They are all decorated with temari balls, a famous local handicraft.

A bonsai getting some lovely winter sun.

New Year's Day

Apologies to anyone that also reads my other blog, these are the same images I've just posted there, not something I normally do.

On New Year's Day, braving what began as snow, and soon turned to a very cold rain, Wayne and I went to Atsuta shrine in Nagoya. The complex was filled with people coming to pray for a good year. We never made it to the shrine itself, I don't do well in large crowds and the wait was long and cold, so instead, we just enjoyed the festivities around the area. Many small stalls were set up filled with warming foods and entertaining games with prizes to win.

My personal favourite - Ichigo Ame, toffee strawberries. Yum!

And what would a Japanese festival be without takoyaki, little pieces of octopus in balls of batter.

Japanese (mostly) character masks. Contamination, you'll be happy to see some Oshiri Kashiri Mushi (Bottom Biting Bug) masks in there. I also love how next to Thomas the Tank Engine are some Toast masks, I imagine they are from Ampanman?

Nothing like shooting a rifle with dad while dressed in your finest kimono.

Sheltering from the rain. Large containers of sake.

A sweet girl in front of a sweets stall.

Hoping for Good Luck. New Year's fortunes. Does it say we'll get married..??

The Daruma Man. He should look happier, at lease he has eyes! These are Daruma wish dolls. When you buy them, they have no eyes. You paint one eye in as you make your wish and then paint in the other when either the wish comes true or the year ends. The two-eyed Daruma is then taken back to the shrine to be burnt by priests as they pray to the gods. In Japan, anything with eyes should never be thrown out, but instead disposed of by a priest.

I Hope You Have a Happy!

On our recent trip to Matsumoto (which I'll blog about soon), Wayne and I met some high school students doing a volunteer clean-up of the local train stations. A few of the boys were brave enough to come and talk to us in English. As they were leaving one of them waved good-bye and said with a big smile, "I hope you have a happy!"

We were waiting for the last word, a happy.... new year? A happy.... Christmas? A happy... day? A happy.... life? But nothing else came. Just, "I hope you have a happy!"

We thought it was a great phrase, and so useful, it could be used for any occasion. So everyone, I hope you have a happy!

The History of Christmas in Japan

The comments on my last post, The Christmas That Isn’t, really got me wondering about when and why Japan started "celebrating" Christmas. Wikipedia had this to say;

"Encouraged by the commercial sector, the secular celebration of Christmas is popular in Japan, though Christmas is not a national holiday. The Japanese have adopted the character of Santa Claus in their celebrations. Christmas is not as important to most Japanese as New Year's Day. In contrast to Western customs, Christmas Eve is a day for couples to date and groups to hold parties, while the official New Year's Day holiday is a day of family celebration. Most Christmas decorations come down on the 25th and are replaced by New Year's decorations. A unique feature of Christmas in Japan is the Japanese type of Christmas cake, often a white whipped cream cake with strawberries.

The first recorded Christmas in Japan was celebrated with a mass held by Jesuit missionaries in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1552, although some believe that unrecorded celebrations were held prior to this date, starting in 1549 when Saint Francis Xavier arrived in Japan to begin missionary work. Starting with the expulsion of missionaries in 1587, Christianity was banned throughout Japan beginning in 1612, a few years into the Edo Period, and the public practice of Christmas subsequently ceased. However, a small enclave of Japanese Christians, known as Kakure Kirishitan ("hidden Christians"), continued to practice underground over the next 250 years, and Christianity along with Christmas practices reemerged at the beginning of the Meiji period. Influenced by American customs, Christmas parties were held and presents were exchanged. The practice slowly spread in major cities, but its proximity to the New Year's celebrations makes it a smaller focus of attention. During World War II, all celebrations and customs, especially those from America, were suppressed. From the 1960s, with the aid of a rapidly expanding economy, and influenced by American TV dramas, Christmas became popular, but mostly not as a religious occasion. For many Japanese, celebrating Christmas is similar to participating in a matsuri, where participants often do not consider which kami (god) is being celebrated, but believe that the celebration is a tribute nevertheless. From the 1970s to the 1980s, many songs and TV drama series presented Christmas from a lover's point of view."

The Christmas That Isn't

I remember the Christmasses of 1998 and 2005. They weren't particularly different and it's not that I remember them in any great detail. What I do remember is savouring them. During both, I knew I'd be living in Japan the following years.

Before coming here the first time in 1999, I knew that as Japan isn't a Christian country, not to expect Easter or Christmas. That year, Easter passed without any acknowledgement what-so-ever. I even worked on Easter Sunday.

Imagine my surprise in November when the department stores and shopping centres began selling Christmas decorations, playing Christmas carols and started taking orders for their version of a Christmas cake (a fluffy sponge cake with lots of cream and strawberries).

Over the next couple of months, I was lulled into a false sense of celebration. I bought and sent Christmas cards, helped in numerous Christmas parties for students at the school I worked and was looking forward to the dinner party planned on Christmas night.

Knowing that I'd otherwise be alone on Christmas morning, my friend Jodie invited me to stay with her on Christmas Eve. We could open our presents together she suggested. Her Japanese husband would be working that day, as would most Japanese, as it's just a normal working day. This fact should have clued me in to the real Japanese Christmas spirit, or rather lack there of. I happily accepted, gave her phone number to my family so they could call me on the day and packed the ingredients for the rum balls I was planning on making for the dinner party that night.

The morning started off well with a fellow ex-pat to celebrate with . While rolling the rum balls however, I realised I needed more coconut.

"Just go down to the supermarket," Jodie suggested.

I was shocked. The supermarket was open on Christmas Day? Really, it made sense, it was a normal business day after all and really quite convenient in my current prediciment.

Part of me wishes I never had gone. A tiny piece of my love for Japan died in those very moments.

I arrived at the supermarket. The same carols were playing, the same decorations on sale, though now at 50% off, the same Christmas cakes on display and housewives wandering through the aisles doing their same old grocery shopping.

I was furious, I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, I felt betrayed. It was Christmas Day and this was so not Christmas. For months, there had been a feeling of "Christmas is coming... Christmas is coming.." and now it had come, no-one cared. They had taken everything commercial and cute from the season and none of the spirit. It was a bit like someone continually telling you that they really wanted you to come to a party and then giving you the cold shoulder when you did.

I wanted to grab the grocery-shopping-Christmas-ignoring housewives by the shoulders, shake them and say "This is it! This is Christmas! Don't you understand?!?"

Instead, I quietly bought my shredded coconut, left the centre and cried.

Now every year that I'm living in Japan and November rolls around, I get a mixture of excitement and panic about the approaching Christmas. I don't want to feel that anger and dissapointment again. I don't want the hipocracy that is Christmas in Japan rubbed into my face again.

I can't really plan a Christmas dinner with many people as most of my ex-pat friends return "home" for the holidays, and my Japanese friends are working and don't quite understand. For me, the solution is to travel. I know I'm not going to have the same family and friends with me, I know I'm not going to be eating the same Christmas treats but I do know I'll be doing something special and different. This has become my personal Christmas in Japan tradition.

So far at Christmas, I've been to Singapore, Osaka and Kobe, Hakuba and this year, to Matsumoto. For Christmas meals I've eaten Chinese, Mexican, English Pub food, Indonesian and Spanish, none of them in anyway Christmassy, but all of them special.

As long as my family and friends are in my heart and I keep this one day of the year special, I'll have Christmas no matter where I live.

Blacklisted

Tomorrow morning, Wayne and I are off for a short trip to Matsumoto in Nagano. As it's a short trip, we're lucky that we don't have much luggage and will be able to do the 30 minute walk to the station with our bags (one backpack and my camera bag). You see, I'm pretty sure we've been blacklisted by the cab company in town....

The first time I ordered a taxi to pick us up was a year ago (to the date actually) when we were going to Nagano to go snowboarding. Being a smallish town, I didn't book in advance but thought I would call with plenty of time to spare. I had however forgotten that it is bonenkai (end of year, or as some say.... forget-the-year) parties.

The guy at the taxi dispatch told me the wait would be about 20 minutes. After 40 minutes I was really beginning to worry. I called the company again, and they told me the taxi had come to our place already. I assured him they hadn't so he said they would be there soon. Another five, then ten, then fifteen minutes went by. I had called the company one hour before we needed to leave and now there was five minutes left. We had an expensive overnight bus booked and needed to get the train to get there in time.

Luckily, our neighbour arrived home and offered to take us to the station. I ran up to our apartment and rang the cab company to cancel the cab. The dispatch guy was now surprised that we hadn't been picked up yet, but promised me, a car would be there in ten minutes, I told him that we really had to leave now and insisted on cancelling the order.

Our snowboards and Christmas present laden bag was loaded into our neighbours BMW, we ran up the stairs to the station, just made the train, then ran from the train station and just made it to the bus.

The next time I ordered a cab, it was in the middle of the day with no warning. I was told a taxi would be by in five minutes. After 20 I rang the company. The conversation went something like this (though in Japanese...)

"Hi, I ordered a taxi 20 minutes ago and it hasn't arrived yet. This is Melanie from .. (insert address here...)"

"Ah Melanie-sama. No, you've been picked up already."

"No, I haven't. I'm still waiting."

"No, you were picked up about 15 minutes ago."

"No, I can assure you, I wasn't. I'm still here waiting outside the front of my apartment. A taxi came down the next road about 15 minutes ago and picked someone else up, but it wasn't me."

"No, he picked you up. He said he picked up a foreigner. You've already been picked up."

(Now, I have to say at this point, that the person who was picked up in the next street was Japanese, and that chances of the taxi driver having picked up another foreigner is very slim - there are few of us that live in my town)

"No, honestly, I haven't. That's why I'm calling. Maybe someone else took my taxi. Could you please send another one?"

"No, no-one would have taken your taxi. He picked you up. You don't need another one, you've already been picked up."

"No, really I haven't. I've been waiting out the front the whole time and I'm still here. Could you please send another one?"

"Oh, OK, if you're sure you haven't already been picked up."

Another taxi came around and picked me up five minutes later.

The next time we needed a taxi was when we were going to Vietnam in summer. Early in the evening before, I once again called the company. Again in Japanese, it went something like this...

"Hi, I want to reserve a taxi for tomorrow morning."

"Yes, address? Time?"

"It's (... insert address..) for 6.30am."

"No, we're all booked up." Was the reply barked at me. No apologies. Just a direct "Muri" (impossible).

"Oh, well how about 7am?"

"Muri."

"Umm... how about 6am?"

"Muri."

"5.30?"

"Muri."

Mmmm... Personally, I find it hard to believe that on a normal workday, all the taxis have been booked out between 5.30 to 7am. I was panicked and called a friend who came to our rescue. He very kindly offered to get up at 6am on the first day of his holidays to drive us to the station.

There are two companies in town, so I do have to get the number for the other. In the meantime, I'm glad that we can walk to the station tomorrow!

Yah! Holidays!

I discovered something this month....

the 'flu + weather much colder than this queensland girl is used to + asthma = exhaustion + not much fun

.... hense the lack of blogging....

Anyway, I'm over that now, all good, and just in time for my holidays! Yah!

Yesterday was the first day of my winter vacation break and I made the most of it. The boy and I went into the "big city" - Nagoya. It's only 20 minutes away by train and we really don't do it enough. We drooled over all the English books at Maruzen, ate yummy Indonesian for lunch, I gawked at the designer stores... Camper Shoes and Marimekko being my favourites, arranged for my Birkenstocks to be re-souled, ate more yummy food at Outback, splurged on Aussie chocolate and tried not to stare at the other "round eyes" as my New Zealand friend calls fellow westerners. We don't see many in our town.

I'm now madly trying to catch up on Christmassy stuff. Having been sick means I'm now running very late. A few Christmas cards have been sent, but presents haven't. I still have to design, write and send my nengajo.

On Monday, we'll be leaving for Nagano where we'll spend a few days over Christmas in Matsumoto, a sweet little town famous for its castle. Not sure what our Christmas dinner will be, we probably won't be able to find any roast turkey dinners, but we'll just make sure it's something yummy and special.

Christmas presents are calling out to be wrapped, must dash!

If I don't get a chance to blog before I go, I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Kurisumasu!

Engrish Break

I've been going through old photos tonight and re-discovered my Engrish collection. Sit back and enjoy....

Love Triangle

As we've just finished exams and only have a couple of weeks until holidays, we've been able to do a few fun lessons with the kids. One activity we're doing with the high school students is giving them a sheet of paper with three pictures on it and asking them to write a story. The aim they are told is to write a funny story.

There is one in particular that I love from today's class. Before I get to it, I should explain the characters... Melanie - is obviously me and Sam, Adrianne and Mr K other English teachers at the school. I've left the mistakes in and copied it as is;

Sam said, "She is mine. Her eyes are shining. Her name is Melanie. But she has a husband. She is outgoing to love. She has sexy body. I always fall in love with her. I was wallow in her everyday."

But he kissed with Adrianne. The kisses is very passion. I have never explained such a sexy and pleasure kiss. I am steeped in luxurious pleasure. I can't live without her body. It was true.

Ah..... Which is better, Melanie or Adrianne? Melanie has perfect body. But Adrianne has perfect body too. But it is important to honest to me. I want to the most is Mr K. I was homo.