A bit of an annoying event last Friday has urged me to expand on what I said in my last blog. One of the commonly said phrases, 上手／Jouzu／”You are so great”, is mostly used as a compliment to foreigners, from Japanese people. Sometimes its used as a way to start conversation when they don’t know what to talk about, almost as an introduction, but sometimes people really overdo it.
Basically what happened is…I went over to the shop owned by this nice old lady, “Obachan1“, who invited me over to give me some omiyage from her trip to Osaka. I go over, but she’s currently at home getting the omiyage, so I wait in the shop. There another nice old lady, Obachan2, is sitting. She often works there while Obachan1 is away, so we start talking.
At some point in the conversation, probably after I made three coherent sentences in Japanese, Obachan2 threw out a congratulatory Jouzu to me. Fine, thanks. We keep talking, then Obachan1 got to the shop, along with the omiyage. We talked for a few minutes, which was mostly spent trying to figure out whether I had a microwave in my apartment, or whether she would have to send me to a friend’s place to heat up the omiyage. We finally got on the same page, so I got another Jouzu thrown at me. We talked about Obachan’s daughter for a little bit, and, after overcoming other communication troubles, I got another congratulatory Jouzu. Then Obachan3, a customer at the shop, joined us. Literally as an introduction, she got told how Jouzu I am. The conversation continued for a couple minutes on this topic, with me trying politely to change the subject and, each time, the ladies bringing the subject back. So then I quickly butted out the door, to desperate squeals of “Jouzu! Jouzu” behind me (ok, I made that up…though I probably tuned them out at that point and don’t care what they were saying!)..
But yeah… It’s nice to be appreciated, and I don’t mind it occasionally, but it was overwhelming when Jouzu was the entire conversation…Usually I try to be modest, and do the proper Japanese response of “iie…mada..”, “No I’m not yet…” and that’s worked fine. Next time, if they really want an entire conversation centred on how awesome I am, I’ll definitely give them that. =) I’ll give them a nice hour-long lecture on how awesome I am, force them to listen to every second of it, THEN give them a quiz about it.
(As annoyed as I was…the omiyage – manju – was amazing. I also went to a new restaurant afterwards and was treated to a nice night of food, drinks, and karaoke with some newly-made friends…life is good! I’ve also started a Japanese course, so I’ll be busy studying my butt off…so I can live up to my name!)
There are a bunch of phrases that Japanese people say to me, and probably other JETs/foreigners too, on a regular basis. (I’m sure you can add to the list…so please do!) Some are straighforward, but some are a bit silly. Some examples are:
“Oh, your Japanese is amazing!” (well, 上手！) Once I just said “Good evening!” (今晩は！) to someone and got that response, which shows how sillily it is used.
“Do you know how to use chopsticks?”
“Do you like Japanese food?”/”What do you think of Japan?”/”Are you homesick?” (ok…decent questions..)
“You have a big nose!!” (ok, probably others aren’t told this…)
“Are you used to Japan yet?”
The last question has been pretty tough to answer. I want to say life in Japan is amazing and exciting and I’ll never get used to it…but that’s closer to a preconception I might have had before…since Japan really is not anime land. Not all of it, at least. There are many things that I’m not used to, mainly because I’m living in a different culture and a new city. I’ll never know all the people here, or all the restaurants or places to go, or all the different parts of Japan, but I find out more about these each day. School life is fun and interesting and a bit different from school in Canada, so it definitely takes getting used to. My job as an ALT is an interesting one, one that I’d say is pretty unique, and it’s hard to know what exactly my job entails, especially when I work at different schools and with different people; it takes time to get used to.
Japanese is the language of choice where I am, which I think is the hardest part about living here. I studied Japanese for a year before I came here, and it has helped tremendously, but I’m still far from fluent. I can express myself in simple ways and sometimes have simple conversations with others, but it’s hard to understand what others say. My vocabulary is low, and people tend to talk using rapid fire speed. My hearing has improved quite a bit, though, so that now I can at least distinguish words that people say, even if I don’t know what they mean. Usually. It’s a bit harder with men, because of their gruff voices, but if I listen to someone long enough I can understand their unique style of speech. My big accomplishment lately was having a 30 minute convo with a nice old lady working in a candy shop…we mostly understood each other =)
Not knowing Japanese makes for interesting times, especially when communicating with students, like during recess and after school. Today I tried asking some girls what clubs are at their school, and the convo turned into a series of hand gestures, me trying to repeat their Japanese back to them and completely failing, and everyone laughing at the situation. It’s pretty tough, if not impossible, especially because I’m not the best communicator and I’m not going to speak Japanese if I can help it (I’ll translate anything they say that I understand into English, though!)…but that’s what makes it fun. I guess if you go into a convo with the forewarning that it’s impossible, and just make the most of it, it can be pretty hilarious.
A strange thing: people go walking by my apartment talking/yelling in Japanese and sometimes my mind subconsciously converts the sounds into English, though they’re really not…
Back to getting used to life in Japan…while many things are new, and a bit surprising, I already knew a lot about Japan before I came here. I knew about and appreciated the food, though I didn’t know all the customs about food, or work, or other things. I knew about some TV shows and dramas and music artists, though it seems like most people I talk to have different tastes when it comes to this, just like anywhere else.
For the most part, I just take things as they are, and I don’t tend to make a big deal about many things. C’est moi…
haha I rambled quite a bit, but the basic idea is: I reply to this question by saying that I am getting more used to Japan, bit by bit, every day.
PS-Some parts of Japanese culture I deliberately try to avoid, possibly complicating “getting used to Japan”, like the ridiculously complex (but wonderful) recycling system, the Japanese idea of a toilet (aka hole in the ground), repeatedly saying “thank you” or “excuse me” etc. and etc.
September was a very busy month for me because school started, sports day and speech contests practices were held almost every day, and I traveled almost every weekend. I guess I also spent some time at bars, meeting with new Japanese friends, exploring Usuki and its many fine restaurants, and watching Jdramas and spending time online. But obviously I haven’t been blogging much, soo…
To reflect on school life so far, it’s been pretty decent. I’ve given self-introductions to almost every class in my junior highs and have also helped with some of their English lessons. So far this has consisted of mainly “being the English voice” in the classroom, like repeatedly saying scripts out of textbooks, showing flashcards and getting students to repeat words back to me, and such. I’ve marked some homework and given written feedback to the students, mostly about spelling. I’ve also spent classtime watching the main teacher and getting a feel for how they teach classes. I haven’t really known what’s been going on during many of the days, especially when assemblies pop out of thin air and daily schedules magically shorten without me being told. So I’m getting used to school, and basically going along with everything that happens, because much of it is new to me. As I get more used to it, I will start adding more of my own input for improving classes and such, and probably my teaching will improve a lot more.
One thing I’ve noticed is that many of the classes in Japan’s junior highs are still teacher-centred, despite the shift in Japan’s English curriculum to focus on oral communication and student-centred learning. The thing is that this works because the teachers I work with who use this method are amazing people, filled with charisma. haha I definitely don’t fit this description; I’m a fairly conservative person and not too outgoing when in groups of people. I’ve realized that one thing I can definitely work on is showing more emotions and having more energy in class – if I do, students will pick up on this and hopefully be more energetic and fun in class, too!
During lunchtimes, I’ve visited almost every class in my junior high schools. This has been pretty tough for a number of reasons: I don’t usually talk much when I eat, many of my students aren’t particularly outgoing when it comes to speaking English, and I’ve made it a goal not to speak Japanese to my students, if possible…So I smile and nod my head when the lunch time music plays, and I throw in random questions when I can.
The best time is afterlunch recess (considered part of lunchtime in Japan), when I get to go around and bug random students and ask them what they’re doing. I’ll hang out with whoever wants to hang out, or whoever wants to practice English or ask questions. I’ve played basketball a few times and that’s been fun!
I haven’t had a chance to go to many clubs after school, because I’ve been helping with speech contest. From now on, I’d really like to visit all the clubs I can, and also sneak into a kendo practice at some point and participate (maybe once, just to see what it’s like!). My best afterschool experience lately was when I asked a kid to show me how to play shogi, Japanese chess. Compared to European chess, and even Chinese chess, it’s pretty complicated! So in one sitting, I barely learned the basics, and definitely can now appreciate the game. I’m planning to check out the Go club in Usuki soon, hopefully this weekend.
Oh yeah, elementary schools!! They’re the best!! I have had 3 or 4 visits to elementary schools so far, and each of them has been special. The younger kids have soooo much energy, they go crazy when they see a foreigner, and they are super excited to learn a new language. They are in a great position to learn a new language, but I don’t see them very often… Most of my lessons have been self-introductions; I’ve made a standard self-intro that works fairly well with the 4th-6th graders, but I am not quite sure what to do with the younger ones yet. Other lessons consist of games and activities that the other teachers have planned in advance, and I lead but don’t have to think too hard about. Because I haven’t done a lot of planning, or even thinking about planning, I don’t know a lot about different games and activities to do with different age groups…so it’s something I have to work on.
Oh yeah, when I say that the kids go crazy, that can mean:
-trying to kancho me, repeatedly (surprisingly and happily, this has only happened on one day so far..!!)
-tugging on my arm, and following me everywhere I go
-jumping on my back
-asking for my autograph
etc.
I taught one class today “cute” and after class a couple girls came up to me and said I am cute… awwww =)
The worst things kids do, they do to each other, though. If you leave them alone for like 5 seconds, they will attack each other, pile on each other, etc. without even realizing/caring that they’re hurting each other. I really don’t know how the teachers handle this…usually it doesn’t seem like a big deal to them, until someone gets hurt…
As for other excitement…tomorrow I’m going on a date!! Maybe not an official date, but I’ll call it that. I’ve met the (Japanese) girl a few times, at bars and karaoke and she’s pretty nice. She’s not super cute, but, as I’ve discussed with a couple other guys, I’ve found out that most of the girls in Japan really aren’t that cute! (I totally should have stayed in Canada…what was I thinking?!?!) We have had fun together so far, and she seems to like me (though whether it’s mainly because I’m a foreigner, I don’t know, and whether she realizes it or not, I don’t know)…so we’ll see how that goes =)
I went to one of Usuki’s onsens last night and it was pretty amazing! I went with a Japanese guy who wants to improve his English and who loves onsen. The onsen had the best variety of baths out of all the onsens I’ve been to so far. There were: a hot bath, a bubble bath, a jet stream bath, a warm bath (outside!!), a super hard waterfall bath (outside!), a cold bath, and a sauna. There was also a foot massage walk of death thing.
And the best part was that it was a discount night. On the 26th day of every month, it is cheaper to go to the onsen. The reason for this is because of an awesome Japanese pun: the Japanese word for bath is furo and “fu” is used for “2″ (when counting things…like hitotsu is one thing, futatsu is 2 things…) and “rokku” is the number 6. So “fu” + “rokku” = “furo”. So on October 26th, go to an onsen and celebrate!
September has been a busy month for students as they have been preparing for their junior high school sports day, aka undokai. There have been practices almost every afternoon (meaning no classes!) and even after school. I didn’t get a chance to go to any school’s undokai, because they were held on a very long holiday weekend and I wanted to travel, but I went to a ton of practices and even a dress rehearsal, so I have an idea what it’s about.
The undokai is a huge competition held within each school. It’s almost like the MOGA fun day at my high school, except on steroids – it’s way more serious. Some of the events are so bizarre…so please read on!!! The students are split into two teams, the red and white teams, that compete against each other in various activities and kind of encourage each other to work harder. Here is an idea of what the sports day is like at one of my JHSs:
1. Warm-up
One student leads the others in warm-up stretches. Each stretch lasts about 8 seconds. The leader shouts out “ichi-ni-san-shi” and the others reply “go-rokku-shichi-hachi“; this is basically counting from 1 to 8 in Japanese. The endings of each word sort of get cut off when they say them though. It’s pretty cool to watch and listen to.
2. Soran Bushi dance
The students perform the Soran Bushi dance, which is the coolest dance I’ve ever seen. Its origin has something to do with fishing in the Hokkaido region of Japan, which is up north. Check out this movie that my friend Lester took of his high school’s performance:
At some point there was a really cool cheer that each team did. It consisted of part of each team dancing, one leader on each team shouting out things and the rest of the team screaming and cheering on their team. I really do mean they were screaming! They were so loud…apparently they had practices after school every day to practice getting louder..!! The cheer was really cool because both teams were dancing at the same time, but they were doing different things that sort of flowed into each other. It was almost like a chorus in dance+cheer form.
3. Races
There are a bunch of races like the 100m race and relay race. In the 100m race students ran in groups of 6 or so; in the relay race, it was the red team vs white team. During the dress rehearsal at one JHS, there was a relay race with the fastest students in the school and it was incredibly exciting! At the start of the race one team dropped their baton and was thus about half a lap behind the other team for most of the race. At the end of the race they caught up and, for about the last 4 laps, both teams were neck-to-neck.
4. The Incredible Tire and Pole-dragging Competition
Japan has some pretty bizarre competitions and this is one of them! This one was only for the girls. The red team was at one end of a field and the white team was at the other side. In-between them were about 20 giant car tires and giant poles. The goal of the game was for each team to try and bring the most objects back to their side of the field. Before the whistle was blown, the girls would organize themselves into small groups, each focusing on one object at the start. When the whistle was blown, they all ran towards that object, and started pulling it towards their side of the field.
It got interesting when there were girls on both sides of an object, especially when the number on each side was uneven. The girls on the losing side would try so hard to prevent the other girls from dragging the object to their side, even if it meant getting dragged on the ground along with the object! It was insane! It was almost like a cat-fight, except with a middleman.
5. Capture the Flag
This competition was only for the boys. This was another pretty strange competition; I’ll try my best to explain it… Each team split into two parts: defense and offense. The defense’s job was to defend their flag against the other team’s offense. The flag was a pole about 2 metres high with a flag tied to the top. All the defense stood inside a circular rope, pushing against it to make the inside area as big as possible. One boy was a flag boy, who held the flag inside the area; the area was a safe zone that the enemy could not enter. What the enemy had to do was run up to the circle of boys and press against it, to push them in and make the circle smaller. The flag boy would run around inside the circle. When he got to close to the edge of the circle, the enemy could reach in and grab the flag off the pole.
6. Capture the Flag, Part 2
The boys had yet another flag-defense competition that was pretty strange. In this competition, there was only one flag. I think it was a bit taller than the flag poles from the previous competition. In this game, there was only one defense and one offense. There was no rope this time. The defense would try their best to defend the flag while the offense would run up to the flag, pushing against the defense, and even jumping up onto the pole (that the defense boys were holding up) and climbing it to grab the flag. This definitely took capture the flag to a whole new, pretty violent level.
7. Team Jump Rope Competition
Why? Why not? It’s good excercise…
8. Strength Demo: 組休操 ガッツだぜ?
This was just for the boys. One teacher described it as a sort of “Strength demonstration”. The boys would execute a series of challenging poses that usually involved boys standing on each other in some way. Some poses were familiar, like the ‘pyramid’ (5 boys go on their hands and knees, 4 boys do the same on top of them, etc.). There was also a pose that looked like ‘the wheelbarrow’, where one boy would hold the legs of the other, close to his waist, while the other only had his hands on the ground. Theirs was different because they did this with 3 or 4 boys. I think the third boy had his hands and legs on the others’ shoulders…something like that.
There were also different poses. One pose was similar to the pyramid, except a group of boys would stand in a circle, another group of boys would stand on their shoulders, in a circle, and a third group of boys would stand on top. That was the most impressive one, I think, and also the most dangerous!!! Here is a picture of the most insane pose, that involved all the boys:
I think the name of the event is 組休操 ガッツだぜ. If you know what that is, or if you find any more info about that, pretty please let me know! There are probably better explanations out there for what this is.
9. Kibasen
Kibasen is the final and the most bizarre of the events. This one has its root in samurai fights of the good’ol days. Boys would get together in groups of 4; three boys would act as a horse and carry the 4th boy, the samurai. They would then run around and fight the samurai of the other team. The samurai on top would basically have catfights and try to knock each other off of their horses.
This was totally violent, boys got hurt, two boys had their glasses broken, and so on. This event totally dispelled an idea that I had had of Japan before: I had heard that students getting at hurt was a big deal, and that parents would complain to the schools if their kids even came home with scratches on them. Maybe that was just for elementary schools…JHS is so different!
I actually got to take part in the practices for kibasen. They were a bit different, because the boys weren’t trying to kill each other in the practices. They fought using jankenpon (rock-paper-scissors).
10. Cheer
This really deserves a mention. The girls at each school all got together and did a huge dance, very similar to the cheerleading that takes place at North American sports games. They did their dance/cheer to the tune of a song, though. One school’s song was the (latest?) Avril Lavigne song, “Best Damn Thing”, which was really neat! With the girls wearing different colours of uniforms (first graders wore blue, second graders wore dark blue, third graders wore green) and holding different colours of pom-poms, it was amazing. Plus, it was a bunch of cute girls dancing…
11. Circle Dance
To finish it off, each grade of students got into a circle, and did a circle dance. This was kind of funny because the boys were in an inner circle, the girls were in an outer circle, and, for a big part of the dance, they had to hold hands. This was a huge deal!! All throughout the practices, the teachers had to yell “Hold hands firmly!!” because the kids just didn’t want to hold hands with the opposite sex. Ewww cooties! Some of them really got into it, though. I danced with one of the teachers during the practices, which was fun =) (I didn’t get to stay with her, because partners changed every so often during the dance, though)
Yeah, so that was some pretty exciting times during the past few weeks! I know I’m going to miss these days in a few months…and then I won’t be able to wait till next year’s undokai =)
On Saturday, I went on a road trip out to Kumamoto to see my cousin (Taylor) and another JET (Miyo). At 3.5 hours it was an incredibly long drive, but it was also sooo beautiful. I want to say the scenery en-route was one of the most beautiful ones I’ve seen in Japan so far. The drive to Kumamoto from Usuki was mostly downhill and, closer to Mt. Aso, the road twisted and turned down the side of a mountain. On the way, I could see glimpses of volcanoes/mountains in the distance. In some places, the view opened up so that I could see large open fields down below, that were surrounded by the said volcanoes/mountains.
I actually spent the daytime playing board games with some new-found friends in Kumamoto: an older American couple that teachers English, and a Japanese student studying English. Not only do they love board games, but they are very nice and fun people. In fact, when it comes to board games, they are too nice… or maybe that’s a show they put on when meeting new gamers =) To add to this, the wife made some amazing American food and chocolate+peanut butter+secret ingredient cake.
(If you are around Kumamoto, or anywhere in Kyushu, and you are interested in gaming, let me know! I can pass on contact info for the 3 I met)
As for the board games, we played a game of Settlers, because all of us had played it before. They added some cool variations, like fish ports and random event cards. After that we played a game called Cosmic Encounter. It was my first time playing it and it was really interesting and fun! Each player has a home solar system and the goal of the game is to establish 4 colonies on other players’ planets. You colonize other planets by attacking them (aka “having an encounter”). The neat thing is, for each encounter you can make allies with the other players, or they can choose to ally with the defender. Allies who help win attacks also get to colonize the defending country; allies who help win defences get special bonuses. A lot of the game is about negotiation and trickery, so it’s pretty cool.
That night I met up with my cousin Taylor, after he finished work. We went out for yakitori with a couple of his friends who love soccer, Aya, and another cool girl. After that we split up, with the guys going to a Big Two (the card game) party. It was cool because I got to see a bunch of Taylor’s Japanese guy friends chilling together with him. I didn’t join in because I only sort of knew the game and they were playing for money…maybe next time =) What was crazy was how serious they each were about the game (though money definitely adds another level to the game) and how they usually played all night long…
The next day Taylor and I met up with Miyo, another JET coming from Toronto and working in Kumamoto. She is Japanese but she doesn’t speak the language, so that makes things interesting for her. Plus there are many JETs in Kumamoto, many of which are returning and established JETs, which also makes things interesting for her as a newbie. We went out for some delicious vegitarean food, then we went to Kumamoto castle. It was famous for having a super long castle wall and also sloped walls that were apparently unscalable. I doubt they really are unscalable… I was tempted to try…I always feel tempted to do things like that. I somehow think people would frown on that, though. And I don’t know how far my Gaijin Charisma would go in such a situation…
It was a brutally hot day, so we didn’t spend too much time exploring after that…
I think I continued with self-introductions and also started doing actual classes. I’ll write more about that and more in my next post.
On Friday August 28, Lester, another Toronto JET who is teaching in Miyazaki prefecture, came to visit for the weekend. My first visitor: yay! I took him out to Usuki’s himatsuri, a famous fire festival. It was held at the site of one of Usuki’s claims to fame: the 59 large sekibutsu, or stone Buddhas. The fire aspect of the festival consisted of about 1000 torches and bamboo candles (slices of bamboo trunks filled with flammable liquids and rags*) that lined the paths between different groups of sekibutsu. It was very beautiful! Also, Japanese taiko drums were played for much of the night and, because the area was so open, the drums could be heard almost everywhere on the site. There was even a bon odori dance that everyone could take part in, and plenty of food stands. We met up with a bunch of other JETs that came for the festival, so it was a Gajin-smashing good time!
Beppu’s Monkey Mountain
The next day, we drove down to Beppu, which is about an hour’s drive from Usuki. It was a fun roadtrip and we got to visit two cool attractions in Beppu: Monkey Mountain and Umi Tamago.
We took a train up to the viewing area on Monkey Mountain, but we really didn’t need to: it’s not that high up. On the way up we got our first glimpse of the monkeys: running around forests and climbing up the rocky mountain slopes. When we got to the main area, there were hundreds of monkeys gathered near an outdoor jungle gym. There were monkeys on monkey bars, monkeys walking along tightropes, monkeys preening each other, and even smaller monkeys clinging onto their parents. They would run along the ground and even beside the human guests. We were warned not to look the monkeys in the eye…
Afterward we went to Umi Tamago, a large aquarium with a variety of sea creatures. There were so many different types of fish and even jellyfish, sharks, and a walrus.
OK everyone, class is starting now…Please stand up!
This week I started my scheduled visits to my three Junior High Schools: Higashi, Kita, and Houyou. I go to a single school each day, and sometimes I visit elementary schools instead of these three. Tuesday was the first day of classes, but it only consisted of a huge ceremony in the gym. I think I started at Higashi. I gave a self-introduction to the whole school, which I totally botched up: I assumed the microphone was on, when it wasn’t. I think I was talking loudly, but probably not loud enough.
On the second day, I went to Houyou J.H.S. Again, there were no classes because students had to write a gigantic exam which tested them on all the homework that they did during summer holidays. Yeah, crazy. I gave a self-intro speech in both Japanese and English, which went a lot better than the day before’s.
Spirited Away to Houyou JHS
After having wandered around Houyou before, I knew that there was a music room on the top floor.** So I brought my Spirited Away piano sheet music to Houyou on Wednesday, hoping to get a chance to practice. After school, I snuck up to the top floor to practice. I opened the windows because it was so hot, and started playing… Then, after a few minutes, a swarm of JHS girls invaded the room and started listening. I didn’t know the songs very well, so I gave them a chance to play, too.
Actually, these girls knew Spirited Away so well that one girl had already memorized how to play one of the songs. While she played, the other girls sang from my music book, which also had lyrics. It was sooo beautiful. The music from Spirited Away is amazing. Plus all the girls in Houyou are in a “chorus club” aka school choir, and their voices are wonderful.*** Afterward, the music teacher stumbled into the music room and sight-read the music very well.
This was a truly magical experience.
OK, class is starting now…I mean it…stop talking!
On Thursday I went back to Higashi JHS and I started visiting classes for the first time! Because these were my first visits to the classes, I did self-introductions. I didn’t know what exactly to do, so I tried copying and pasting from all the self-introductions I had seen at orientations. I had brought a ton of pictures of Canada, and I also had some games prepared that we could play. I wanted to try and make the “lesson” fun and keep the class involved…and it didn’t work so well. Afterward, one JTE (Japanese Teacher of English, the teachers who I am assisting in the classrooms) basically told me to scrap the games and focus on the pictures, spending more time to explain the pictures, and compare Canada to Japan. After that the self-intro classes went swimmingly fantastic at both Higashi and, on the next day, at Kita.
I met Tom Cruise! and memorable quotes
After school at Kita, I decided to check out the ping pong club. It was awesome! As soon as I got there, one kid came up to me and said “Hi, I’m Tom Cruise!” Tom Cruise happened to be the best ping pong player in Usuki, and a pretty funny kid. I also met a boy who greeted me with a “I like lettuce body”, which actually meant “I like ladies’ bodies”, because he was definitely checking out the girls playing basketball. Actually, the other 99.9% of the boys thought girls had cooties, so he seemed to have all of Houyou’s desire-for-the-opposite-sex inside him.
Another student who was memorable was a small girl who pointed at me and said “You have such a big nose!!!”
But yeah, ping-pong club was awesome, and the kids really wanted to talk to me during the club, even in English, so it was so cool.
*These fire-filled-bamboos are right on the path where everyone is walking…so in the ideal location for getting kicked over. Directly beside the path is a very large forest. There is also a field filled with the same candles. This set-up isn’t dangerous, not in the slightest!
**Conveniently enough, the music rooms for each JHS seem to be on the top floor… You can hear the band playing after school sometimes, which is really neat, especially if there are kids outside dancing or practicing for Sports Festival, or such.
***Actually, the “chorus club” went to Okinawa last weekend (Sept. 12-13) for a Kyushu-wide competition. I totally should have gone with them!!
