Have you visited Ono, Japan?

Last weekend I went to Ono City! It's about an hour from my place in Awara and was a nice break from the routine of my little town. The JETs there are a wonderfully welcoming and fun bunch. I might just have to return sometime soon.

Highlights:

• 1. Swimming in the coldest water I have ever felt.
• 2. An early morning adventure walk in a completely foreign city.
• 3. Telephone pictionary into early hours of the morning
• 4. Skyping my sister with Nicole at 4am to watch her try on wedding dresses.
• 5. Rainy day ramen.
• 6. And... the friendly people living in Ono. of course.

Hideaki and Christine's drawings of Kyle. impressive.

I was drawing some random portrait of a girl and then we decided to turn it into Brett in a tiara.

Secretly,  Brett LOVES that this rock is in the shape of Texas. Texas in Japan y'all.

...and a video for your enjoyment.

Sports Day

Imagine field day for high school kids. In Japan it is called tai iku sai. 

“Sports Day” is probably one of the most impressive events I have been to since moving to Japan. There were four teams and each team had a team captain. The captain coordinates everything and is usually a 3^rd year boy student. Each team also has a giant sculpture mascot and a 5 minute long choreographed dance/cheer in costumes handmade by the students themselves. The events the students competed in would be considered dangerous in American schools. They never would have been allowed. Many of them just involved the students being in pain. Please look at these photos.

pain

more pain.

This year was also unusually hot and humid, even for Japan. There were many kids passing out from heat stroke. The first few kids who passed out were terrifying to me. The teachers ran over with a stretcher loaded up the large high school student and carried him off to air conditioning. The student sat inside and drank water for about a half an hour and then hobbled back onto the field like nothing happened. Over 30 kids passed out from heat stroke sometime during the day. After the first 5 I wasn't too concerned anymore. In fact, I actually found the way that the students and teachers handled the matter kinda funny. In a Texas high school there would have been EMT’s and ambulances, but in Japan after 30 minutes you send them back out into the heat. Practical.

At the closing ceremony there was a choreographed folk dance all the students, and some teachers, participated in. It was adorable. There was also a large sculpture.

Here is a bunch of the video that I took of the day! enjoy!

https://vimeo.com/50464069

JANKEN

Janken is the equivalent to rock paper scissors in the United States.

In Japan, janken is everything and everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if students made life and death decisions based on the outcome of janken. It is serious business. You never dispute or argue the results of janken. Here is series of pictures of 2 of my third year students competing in janken to settle a tie on sports day. These might be my favorite pictures that I have taken in Japan so far.

Gold.

I will write more about sports day in the next post.

Kanazawa

Before leaving for Japan I spent a few days hanging out with the some of the other new JETS departing from Houston. I have grown to love my fellow Texomians, Texas/Oklahoma and plan to visit many of them in their various placements around Japan. One of them was conveniently placed for visiting, Carolyn. She lives only a few train stops away from Kanazawa.

Kanazawa is the capital city of Ishikawa prefecture directly north of Fukui. Because Awara is on the northern border of Fukui, I am conveniently located almost directly between the two largest cities in the area, Fukui City and Kanazawa. Kanazawa is significantly larger than Fukui City. For Example in all of Fukui prefecture there are 1 and half starbucks but there are at least 3 in Kanazawa alone. (Yes, I measure the size of the city by how many foreign food items are available).

Before school started and schedules became busy, Carolyn and I made a plan to meet up in the Kanazawa and hang out for a few days. We had a blast. There are some amazingly beautiful gardens in Kanazawa, a castle, fantastic art museums, and some great shopping.

Here are some pictures from the trip into the city.

Below is a tea ceremony where we had two random people snap candid photo’s of us on their phones. Awkward…

Hopefully when school settles down into more of a routine we can meet up again. We talked about traveling to Kyoto, Nagano, going back to Kanazawa, and even chilling in Fukui. Either way, it’s nice to have a Houstonian friend nearby.

Uzbekistan

Have you ever been confused for a native of Uzbekistan? I have. Only in Japan ya’ll.

Check out what it says under nationality.

U-Zu-Be-Ki-Su-Ta-N

I was supposed to get this card the day I landed in Japan at the airport. One month later, it comes in the mail… and I am from Uzbekistan. Oh goodness.

FUJI-EXTRA

Imagine you are climbing Fuji in the middle of the night. Your exhausted and only about halfway up the mountain. You’re unsure if you will ever make it to the top. You stop at a shelter and buy a can of oxygen because the air is getting thin and the exercise is leaving you breathless. You take a few deep breaths of oxygen.

Then you light a cigarette and have a smoke break.

WHAT???

Who would think that is a good idea? Middle aged Japanese Men. That’s who.

Every time I think about it I am still in disbelief by how many people I saw smoking cigarettes on the mountain. Some, its true, were workers at the rest station. However, I did see more than a few hikers on a smoke break.

It just doesn’t make any sense.

Also, have a video of the sunrise taken and narrated beautifully by Sophie.

fuji video on Facebook!