Life in Seika, Japan

新しい　サイト　A New Site

2010-09-07T16:31:00.003+09:00

Howdy everyone!

As some of you may have noticed, this blog hasn't been updated in two years. If you've stumbled accross this blog, and are interested in Seika Town, or being a Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) with the JET program, I invite to come over to our new site.

皆さん、こんにちは！
もう、気がついたはずだと思うけど、このブログは2年ぶりアップデートがなかった。このブログを偶然に見つかったら､そして精華町や国際交流員のことに興味があったら、新しいサイトを見てください～

http://www.seikalife.blogspot.com/

光陰矢のごとし Time Flies

2008-07-24T14:22:00.002+09:00

Time sure does fly by quickly! This month marks two years of me living and working here in Seika Town as the Coordinator for International Relations. This is also my final entry into this blog as two years is the length of my job contract. When I think back over my time in Seika it is hard to believe that two years could fly by so fast, but at the same time I have experienced so much, and met so many people that its hard to believe that its only been two years.

One of my favorite parts of my job here has been going out into the community and interacting with people of all walks of life. For example, I think that from my visits to all five elementary schools in Seika I know every single young child living in Seika. Also, my visits to the Kashinokien Day Service Center gave me a great chance to meet and talk with some of Seika’s more experienced citizens. Then of course all of the people I was able to meet at all of the international exchange events and festivals that I have taken part in. Everyone in Seika has been so kind to me in my time here and because of the warmth of the people here I have been able to have many amazing experiences.

My only other experience living in Japan was during a year of university in Tokyo. Tokyo is a fun and exciting place, but I am very happy to be able to have had the opportunity to live in a more traditional town like Seika where the people are friendly, the air and water are clean, and I was able to experience things like rice planting/harvesting, the Igomori Festival, and my favorite of all; eating school lunches with the kids at elementary schools.

I honestly had no idea what to expect before I came to Seika, but my time here has allowed me to meet interesting people, and take part in experiences I would not have been able to imagine before coming here. But of course my job wasn’t all about what I could learn, rather what I was able to contribute to Seika. So I truly hope that in my time writing the newsletter column, teaching at schools, giving presentations in the community, and helping out at various festivals that I was able to have an effect on the lives of Seika’s residents. I would be happy if something I did or said changed people’s impressions of Americans and foreigners for the better, broke down a long held stereotype, or helped to aid international understanding. My biggest hope is that I was able to encourage the younger children to think of the world beyond Japan, and hopefully to inspire some of them to learn more about foreign cultures, peoples and languages.

I want to thank all the people who have been reading this blog and for helping to make my time here a wonderful and rewarding experience. I know that no matter where I end up in life I will always consider Seika as a second home.

　時間がたつのは何て早いのでしょう！精華町で国際交流員として働くのが今月でちょうど２年となりました。そして、仕事の契約は２年間ですので、今月のコラムは最後となります。私が精華町に暮している時を振り返ると、２年間がそんなに早く過ぎ去るとは信じられませんが、一方で色々なことを体験し、多くの優しい人々と出会ったので、もう２年たったのかあと言う感じがします。

　精華町のコミュニティで様々な住民の方とふれあうことは仕事の業務の中で一番好きな役割でした。例えば、町内５小学校全ての学校訪問のおかげで、精華町の小学生は全員知っていると思います。また、かしのき苑への訪問では、お年寄りの方と出会え、素晴らしい話し合う機会がありました。そして、たくさんの国際交流イベントと祭りなどで多くの人々と出会うこともできました。精華町に暮していた間に、みなさまが非常に親切で、心の温く接してくださったおかげで、大変素晴らしい経験になりました。

　日本に住む経験の中では大学の時、東京に一年住んだことがあります。東京は面白くて、楽しいところですが、精華町では人々が優しくて、空気と水がきれいで、田植えと収穫を体験でき、いごもり祭りを見られ、小学生と一緒に給食を食べることができ、これらの伝統的で文化がある精華町に住むことができて、大変嬉しく思っています。

　精華町に来る前は、どんなことをするのか、正直全く知りませんでしたが、ここでは予想できないことを体験しましたし、面白い人と出会うことが実現しました。しかし、私の仕事は、自分自身が何かを学ぶことだけではなく、むしろ精華町に貢献することですので、このコラムを書いたり、学校を訪問したり、地域の講座に行ったり、祭りに参加する時間の中で、精華町民のみなさまの暮らしの中で何か影響を与えることができたらと思っていました。私の発信や行動によって、アメリカ人や外国人の印象を変えたり、ステレオタイプを打破したり、国際理解を深めたり、することができたのでしたら嬉しいです。子どもたちの世界観を広げて、将来に外国の文化や人類や言語などに興味を持ってもらえることは私の一番希の望していることです。

このコラムを読んでくださったみなさま、そして全ての方々に、大変素晴らしくて、価値のある経験をさせていただいたことを感謝しています。私の人生の旅は、どこまで歩んでも、第２の故郷は精華町であると思います。

京都市でのお花見 Flower Viewing in Kyoto

2008-04-07T10:23:00.006+09:00

そして、大阪城公園に行った翌日に伝統的な京都市でお花見をしに行きました。祗園で舞妓さんを見かけて、桜もきれいだったし、とても楽しかったです。丸山公園の桜も満開で、人がいっぱいでした。

Then the day after I went to Osaka Castle Park I went to traditional Kyoto City to do some more flower viewing. In Gion I saw some Maiko, and the cherry blossoms there were also very beautiful. In Maruyama Park, the flowers were also in full bloom so there were a lot of people.

大阪城でのお花見 Flower Viewing at Osaka Castle

2008-04-07T10:08:00.005+09:00

先週末の良い天気のかげで、今年初花見ができました。土曜日の昼頃友達と一緒に大阪城公園に行きました。もちろん、お花見をする人々が多かったが、その上、公園の中コンサートもあったので、すごい人いっぱいでした。でも、桜が満開だったし、温かかったし、完璧でした。お花見の楽しい雰囲気があるので、一年中この季節が一番いいと思います。

Thanks to the nice weather of this past weekend I was able to go for my first flower viewing party of the year. On Saturday afternoon I went with my friends to Osaka Castle Park. Of course there were a lot of people there to enjoy the cherry blossoms, but there was also a concert in the park too so it was so crowded. But the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and the weather was warm so it was perfect. Because of fun atmosphere of flower viewing I think this is the best time of year.

梅のお花見 Plum Blossom Viewing

2008-03-28T14:09:00.006+09:00

日本では春になるとお花見が大人気の遊びです。多くの人がお花見を考えたら、桜と想像するでしょう。今京都府では桜がまだまだ咲いていないので、先週末に京都市内の植物園へ梅を見に行きました。そのときに、梅が満開だったので、とてもきれいでした。桜より梅はもっと深いピンクと紫色だし、白もあるので、すごくきれいな景色でした。

In Japan once it turns to spring during hanami (flower viewing) is a very popular activity. For most people, thinking about hanami conjures images of cherry blossom trees. Right now the cherry blossoms have yet to bloom in Kyoto Prefecture so last weekend I went to the Kyoto City Botanical Gardens to see the plum blossoms. At that time the plum blossoms were in full bloom so it was very beautiful. Compared to the cherry blossoms the plum blooms in deeper pinks and purples, along with white so it creates a really gorgeous scenery.

(下の写真は早めに咲いていた桜です。 The picture below is a early blooming cherry blossom tree.)

冬の気分 It Feels Like Winter

2008-02-04T11:51:00.000+09:00

土曜日の夜雨が降っていたので、日曜日の朝に起きたとき、窓から外へ見て、雪が積もっていたのはすごくびっくりしました。今まで精華町に住んで、２年目の冬ですのに、初めて雪が積もることでした。約５ｃｍしか積もってなかったが、すごいけれいと思っていました。

そして、その冬の気分で、友達と一緒に京都市の西京極にあるアイススケート場に行きました。なんとか、今までの人生は一回もアイススケートをしたことがありませんでした。だから、初めてでした。一発目は怖いと思っていたが、頑張って三時間をスケートしたら滑れるようになりました。勿論、倒りましたが、楽しい経験でした。

This past Saturday night it was raining all night long so when I woke up and looked out the window to see snow covering everything on Sunday morning I was really surprised. This is the second winter that I have lived in Seika Town but this was the first time I have seen snow covering the ground. There was only about 5cm of snow covering cars and in the rice fields, but I thought it looked really beautiful.

So with that feeling of winter, my friends and I went to the ice skating rink in Nishi Kyogoku, Kyoto City. Somehow I have made it this far in my life without ever once having ice skated, so this was my first time. When I first stepped onto the ice it was really scary and I didn’t even see how I would start. But we were there for about 3 hours so by the end I was able to skate fairly well. Of course I fell down, but all in all it was a fun experience.

スノボード Snowboarding

2008-02-01T16:12:00.001+09:00

Even though I have lived in Japan for a total of two and a half years now I had never gone skiing or snowboarding until recently. I used to snowboard a lot when I was a teenager and then less frequently when I got into college so I am decent at snowboarding and I do really like it. I guess the reason why I had never gone until now was mostly due to the fact that I wear size 31cm shoe (US 13) and I just assumed they would never have my size boots for rental at the ski shops since I can never find my shoe size at any shoe store in Japan. That and the fact that I don’t have a board or any other gear of my own with me here in Japan so I knew it would be expensive to rent everything and pay for the lift ticket and transportation.

Well, it turns out I was wrong about the first assumption but dead on with the second. They do have size 31 cm boots for rental at Takasu Snow Park where I went, and yes it was really expensive for everything. Three friends and I rented a car and drove about 5 hours to Gifu Prefecture in the middle of the night to get there the next day and start boarding at 9am. I guess its been about 2 years since the last time I boarded so it was really fun to feel the sensation of gliding down a snowy mountain again. But by the end of the day my legs and knees were so sore from the unfamiliar exercise.

I don’t know if all Japanese ski slopes are the same but the one I went to was really different from ones I’m used to back home in one particular way: At home my favorite part of boarding is to leave the groomed course and weave in and out of the trees on the relatively untouched and softer snow. The trees on the mountain here were much denser and had a lot more low branches so it wasn’t really possible to cut a path through them. Plus the rules seemed a lot more strict here as there was almost always fencing put up right on the side of the groomed slopes so that you couldn’t go off the beaten path. That was a let down, but all in all it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately it was really pricey for one day of fun so it doesn’t look like I will be going too often.

I only got these two pictures of the mountains from the parking lot in the morning because I didn’t want to risk breaking my camera when I took an inevitable crash on the slopes.

（日本語版はちょっと遅れますので、すみません。）

いごもり祭 Igomori Festival

2008-02-01T15:31:00.000+09:00

For those of you who are faithful readers of this blog you will remember my post from last year about the Igomori Festival (see January 2007 archive). Well, this year I went again to the festival and it was just as firey as last year. This is the festival that began more than 1,000 years ago to scare off an evil spirit that was haunting the local Hahasono woods.

What they do is light a huge bamboo torch on fire and haul it around the neighborhood to scare off the spirit and thus insure a good crop for the year. The torch is about 3-4 meters (12 ft) in height, really big in girth and weighs a lot. They light a big fire inside of the shrine building with flames licking the ceiling yet somehow not burning down the whole thing. Then they stick the torch on the fire and get one end burning real good. After it is sufficiently on fire about 6 men haul the torch about 3 km around the neighborhood in the dark.

It is pretty amazing to watch. This year I followed the torch around the neighborhood for a while. It was pretty funny because they would get to a stop light and wait for it to turn green. Since the festival isn’t very well known I can only image the shock of the people in cars that happened to see 6 men in all white robes carrying a humongous burning torch down the street in the middle of winter. This year I just brought my little digital camera so the photos I got might not be such great quality. I don’t like to use the flash as it just ruins the night time eerie feel, but no flash often comes out blurry. Here are the best photos I could get.

（日本語版はちょっと遅れますので、すみません。）

弓始式 Gentlemen, start your bows!

2008-02-01T14:59:00.000+09:00

I’ve been pretty busy doing elementary school visits for work lately so its been a while since I had a chance to update the blog. I do however have some things to write about so here I go with the catch-up posts.

A couple weeks ago I went to a secluded Shinto shrine for a small traditional festival. I don’t think there is a good way to translate the name of the ceremony into English so here is the Japanese; 弓始式 (bow as in bow and arrow, start, ceremony). Anyways, name aside it was a curious little ceremony where the Shinto priests dressed all in white and shot arrows at a target in this year’s lucky direction. I assume that the lucky direction is determined in some ancient book of Chinese mysticism, or some other such almanac.

Apparently the ceremony is supposed to insure good crops for the year. They also cooked a fish over a little fire. I am not sure if that was part of the ceremony or if one of the old men in attendance just had a fish that needed cooking. Anyways, I got some nice photos of the bow and arrow shooting so I thought I would post them.

（日本語版がちょっと遅れますので、すみません。）

せいか祭り２００７　 The 2007 Seika Festival

2007-12-07T10:05:00.000+09:00

去年と同じように僕と同僚のクリスさんがせいかグローバルネットのブースでせいか祭りを過ごしました。ニコニコ笑顔で子どもたちとふれあったり、風船を渡したり、していたので、とても楽しかったです。せいかグローバルネットの４人のメンバーとクリスが１２月に精華町の姉妹都市ノーマン市に訪問するので、子どもたちがノーマン市の人々への一言メッセジーを書いてもらいました。

This year my coworker Chris and I spent the day of the Seika Festival helping out at the Seika Global Network booth. It was fun because we got to interact with the kids and give out balloons. In December, four members of the Seika Global Network and Chris are going to be taking a trip to Seika’s sister city of Norman, Oklahoma, so at the festival we asked the kids of Seika to write short messages which would be presented to the people of Norman.

そして、去年雨のせいで中止になったパレードが今年予定どおりに行いました。僕らもせいかグローバルネットのパレード団体と一緒に参加しました。ショッキングピンクの布に飾られたり、多彩な風船を運んだり、Bee Geesの”Dancing Queen”という曲が流れながら行進しました。その姿はちょっと恥かしかったが、皆さんのあたたかい挨拶のおかげで、結局面白かったです。

Last year due to the rain the parade was unfortunately canceled, but this year it was carried out on schedule. So we were able to join in the Seika Global Network’s parade troupe this year. It was a little embarrassing to be draped in flowing robes of shocking pink, carrying colorful balloons while they blared the Bee Gees “Dancing Queen” out of a loud speaker, but thanks to the warm greetings of all the people watching it turned out to be an interesting experience.
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夢のように　　A Dream Come True

2007-12-05T16:17:00.001+09:00

たくさんの日本人とアメリカ人の男子の夢は野球選手になるということでしょうね。僕もその夢がありましたが、中学校の頃に野球を辞めました。僕はアメリカで少年野球やっていたが、その頃からあまり野球していません。今年は友達との草野球チームに入りました。平均月一・ニ回週末に試合しています。あまり上手じゃないですが、プレイするだけで楽しいことだと思います。

Many Japanese and American boys dream of being baseball players when they grow up. I had the same dream when I was younger, but I quit playing when I was in middle school. I played little league baseball in America, but since then I haven’t really played at all. This year I joined an informal baseball team with some of my friends. Usually we play about one or two games a month on the weekends. I am not very good, but for me it is just fun to be out there playing.

それで、うちのチームが年一回大阪京セラドームを借りて、試合します。今年の１１月末に僕が初めて参加しました。プロ野球スタジアムで試合するのは二時間僕の少年の夢が現実になったようなことでした。スタジアムに入ったら感動しました。または、試合には僕がファーストを守っていたので、やりながら「このスタジアムでこの位置は阪神のシーツ選手と一緒やなぁ」と思い込んでいました。そして、安打一本できて、二塁を盗塁したから嬉しかったです。僕は野球そんなに上手じゃないし、今は年取りすぎて、プロ野球選手の夢がもう散てしまいましたが、二時間だけで夢を試すのは気持ちよかったです。

Once a year my team rents out the Kyocera Dome, a professional baseball stadium in Osaka, to play a game. This year at the end of November I played there for the first time. To be able to play in a professional baseball stadium for two hours was like my childhood dream had come true. When I first walked onto the field I felt a chill down my spine. Also, in the game I was playing first base so when I stood out there I realized, “Wow, this is the same place where the Hanshin Tigers’ first baseman Andy Sheets stands!”* Then, I was able to get a nice clean hit into center field during the game and then steal second base so I was happy. I am not that good at baseball and by now I am too old to break into professional baseball anyways, so my dream of being a professional baseball player is far gone. But for two hours I was able to pretend like I was a pro baseball player and get a taste for what my dream would have been like. It felt good.

*Andy Sheets is an American who plays firstbase for the local favorite professional baseball team the Hanshin Tigers. The Tigers play some of their home games at the Osaka Dome when their primary stadium (Koshien) is being used for the National High School Baseball Championships in the summer.

サンクスギヴィングデー Thanksgiving Day

2007-12-05T14:53:00.000+09:00

アメリカではサンクスギヴィングデー（感謝祭）という特別な行事を知っていますか？１１月の第４木曜日にあり、家族と過ごし、七面鳥などを食べる祝日です。今年僕は日本にいるので、この日は家族と過ごすことができなくて寂しいです。でも、偶然に東京に出張された間に素晴らしいサンクスギヴィングディナーを食べられました。

As I am living in Japan this year I was sad that I wasn’t able to spend Thanksgiving Day with my whole family. But luckily I was able to eat a wonderful Thanksgiving Day dinner in Tokyo while I was there for a work trip.

東京都にある米軍隊に限定されるThe New Sanno Hotelでは大きなサンクスギヴィングデー・バイキングがあります。このホテルはとても大きくて、きれいですが、非常に珍しいところです。米軍隊か米軍隊の家族じゃなかったら、そこに泊まることが禁止されています。バイキングでも米軍隊か米軍隊の家族と一緒に行かないなら入られません。アメリカ人の僕でも普通に入られませんよ。

In Tokyo there is a hotel called The New Sanno which is specifically reserved for American military and their families which holds a huge Thanksgiving Day buffet every year. The hotel is big and luxurious, but it is such an oddity in Japan. If you are not a US military service member or a card carrying family member of one you are not allowed to stay in the hotel. Even as an American I cannot go into the hotel by myself. For the buffet dinner you must be invited and accompanied by a US military service member or a card carrying family member of one.

そして、「バイキングはどうだったの？」と聞きたいでしょう。本当に最高でしたよ！米軍隊のホテルだから、食べ物は完璧に伝統的な味でした。または、何でもありました。僕はいっぱい食べて、満腹になったのに、「まだ全部味わってないから、もっと食べたいなぁ！」と思っていました。サンクスギヴィングデーは家族と一緒に過ごせなくて、残念ですが、美味しくて、懐かしいアメリカ料理を食べられて十分嬉しかったですよ！

So you are probably wondering how was the food right? It was truly the best! It’s an American military hotel so the food is really traditional. What’s more they had just about anything you could have wished for. I ate so much and was so full but I still thought, “I want to eat more, I still haven’t tried everything.” It was a shame that I couldn’t spend Thanksgiving Day with the whole family, but I was plenty happy to be able to eat real American food.

Old MacDonald マクドナルド祖父ちゃん

2007-11-08T10:55:00.000+09:00

This week I went to one of the local elementary schools where I was asked to talk to the kids about American nursery rhymes and songs. Since its been affirmed by almost all of my friends that I have a terrible singing voice I made the easy choice to just bring a CD of children’s songs with me. I was able to find a great website that has free downloads of most of the traditional songs I used to sing as a child (www.freekidsmusic.com). I went around to all of the four 4th grade classes at the school and I played songs like; Wheels on the Bus, If You’re Happy and You Know It, and Old MacDonald, etc. They have a Japanese version of If You’re Happy and You Know It so the kids were already familiar with that one. They liked Wheels on the Bus because I had them act out all of the actions that are sung about in the song. But the funniest thing was when I played Old MacDonald. I explained that it was a song about a farmer with lots of animals. Most Japanese kids are also familiar with this song too but the only part that they actually know the words is the ‘ee I eei oh’ part from “Old MacDonald had a farm, Ee i ee i oh!” That’s because it sounds almost exactly like saying, “iya iya yo” in Japanese, which basically translates as “that’s disgusting!” Like if you were disgusted with something someone said and you wanted to completely deny it by saying “that’s disgusting!” So when we were singing the song the kids got really into that one part of the song and a few kids started squeezing their noses with one hand while waving the other and singing “iya iya yo.” When I asked them what was so offensive they said that they were saying “that’s disgusting!” because it was so stinky from all of the animals. I thought it was so funny and I was totally cracking up every time we sang it and all 30 of the kids starting holding their noses and waving their hands while singing “that’s disgusting!” Ah, the surprises of cross cultural exchange!

Also, Old MacDonald turned out to be a good little English lesson because of all the animal noises. In Japanese the onomatopoeia for animals is totally from what we use in American English. For instance in Japanese; cows don’t ‘muu’ they ‘moo’ (pronounced like mow in mowing the lawn), and dogs don’t go ‘arrff-arrff’ they “wan-wan”. They thought it was crazy that American pigs sound like ‘oink-oink’ because Japanese pigs sound like ‘bu-bu’. All in all it was really a really funny day and pretty productive as far as international exchange goes.

今週、僕が地域小学校で子供達にアメリカの童謡を教えることになりました。僕は下手糞な歌手ということが殆どの友達に確認されたので、童謡のCDを持って行くことにしました。あるインターネットサイトでたくさんの懐かしい童謡を無料にダウンロードできました(www.freekidsmusic.com)。小学校四年生の４つの教室に回って、色んな曲（Wheels on the Bus, If You’re Happy and You Know It, Old MacDonald等）を聞かせました。If You’re Happy and You Know Itという曲が日本語では「しあわせなら」があるので、子供達もう知っていました。そして、Wheels on the Busはバスのアクションと乗客の運動の真似をさせたので、子供は好きでした。でも、Old MacDonaldを聞かせるのが一番面白かったです。音楽を流す前にマクドナルド祖父ちゃんがたくさんの動物を持っている農業者の話を説明しました。日本人もこの曲が知っているらしいが、歌詞は一つの部分しか知らなかったです。それは“Old MacDonald had a farm, Ee i ee i oh!”の中の“Ee i ee i oh!”です。なぜなら“Ee i ee i oh!”と日本語で言うと「いやいやよ」と聞こえます。この歌詞だけですごく盛り上がり、一緒に歌いながら、２，３人が手で鼻を詰めて、他の手を振っていました。僕が「何がいやだの？」と聞いたときに、子供が「いっぱい動物がいるから臭くて、いやいやよ！」　それは非常に面白くて、３０人の生徒が手で鼻を詰めて、他の手を振って、「いやいやよ」を歌っている姿を見たら大笑いしていました。国際交流が面白いなと思っていました。

そして、Old MacDonaldという曲が動物の鳴き声があるので、いい英語の勉強になりました。アメリカの英語と日本語の動物の鳴き声の擬声語が違います。例えば、牛が日本語で「モウ」だけど、英語で「ムウ」で、犬は「ワンワン」じゃなくて、「アルフアルフ」を鳴きます。豚の鳴き声が英語で「オインクオインク」と教えたときに子供達が「ありえない」と言っていました。結局面白い一日で、かなりいい国際交流ができました。

精華中学校発表会　Middle School English Recital and Musical Concert

2007-10-24T16:04:00.001+09:00

今日、私と精華町の姉妹都市交流員のクリスさんで精華中学校の発表会を見に行きました。生徒の英語暗唱コンクールを審判するために学校に誘われました。去年も同じ発表会に行って、面白かったので楽しみにしていました。中学生として、発表者はかなり英語が上手で、びっくりしました。学校全員の前で発表するのが大変で、皆が一生懸命練習したそうで、よく頑張ったなと思いました。各学年一人の優勝者しか選べなかったので、審判するのが難しかったです。

そして、吹奏楽部発表もありました。去年も同じことを考えていたが、今年も中学生として、すごく上手です。吹奏楽部がパイレーツ・オブ・カリビアンの作曲を出演し、それが一番好きでした。僕は中学校で楽器を練習すればよかったなと思っていました。

Today Chris, Seika’s Coordinator for Sister City Relations, and I went to Seika Middle School to watch the English Recital and Musical Concert. We were invited to come and judge the student’s English speech contest. Last year we did the same thing which was really interesting so I was looking forward to doing it again this year. I am always surprised by how good the student’s English is for only being middle school students. I know it’s hard to do any presentation in front of the whole school, but the students seem to have practiced hard and really were able to do their best. We were only aloud to pick one winner from each of the three grade levels so it was pretty hard to pick the best, since everyone was so good.

Aside from the English speech contest the school’s brass band also performed. I thought the same thing as I did last year; these kids are really good for their age! I was most impressed when they played the theme song from the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean.” After seeing the band all I could think was, “man, I wish I would have learned to play an instrument when I was in school.”

２００７年度精華町こども祭り　 2007 Seika Town Children’s Festival

2007-10-22T14:10:00.000+09:00

１０月２０日（土）毎年行っているこども祭りがむくのきセンターでありました。子供のためのイベントで、色々な楽しみがありました。保育所・小学校・中学校の音楽団体がそれぞれ開会式で発表したし、料理教室やブーメラン作りなどがあったし、精華町の子供はすごく楽しい一日を過ごせました。僕はせいかグロバールネットと一緒にスタッフとして参加しました。外国の習慣と遊びを体験させたかったからハロウィーン・マスク（仮面）の製作と”Pin the Tail on the Donkey” （ロバに尻尾をつけよう！）というゲームなどをしました。仮面作りが一番人気な行動で、子供達はすごく面白い仮面が出来ました。今年僕はこども祭り二回目で、去年から殆どの小学校に行っているから、子供達が僕のことを知っているので、挨拶しにきてくれて、楽しかったです。

On Saturday October 20th the annual Seika Town Children’s Festival was held at Mukunoki Center. The event is for children so there was lots of fun activities. Musical groups from local nursery schools, elementary and junior high schools performed at the opening ceremony, there was a cooking class, boomerang making and other activities so the children had a really fun day. I also participated as a staff member with the Seika Global Network. We wanted to show the kids foreign customs and games so we set up a corner where the kids could make Halloween masks and play ‘pin the tail on the donkey’. The mask making was the most popular and the kids made some really great masks. This was the second year that I helped out at the Children’s Festival and since I have been going to the elementary schools in town it was more fun this year because I knew a lot of the kids and they all came and said hi to me.

ベランダの田んぼが出来上がった！　My Own Private Rice Harvest

2007-10-22T14:02:00.000+09:00

６月に「楽農体験ツアー」の田植え活動と同時に僕が稲を貰って、アパートのベランダのプランタで稲を育て始めました（当ブログに写真が載せられた）。４ヶ月大事にしていて、やっと収穫しました。量が少ないけど、自分が育てた米を食べるのを非常に楽しみにしています。今ベランダで乾かしているから、まだ一週間くらい待たないといけません。結局どのくらいの米をとれるのかなって楽しみです。たぶんお握り一個だけのかな？でも自分が育てた米だから今までの人生の一番美味しいお握りと期待しています！

As I have posted previously on this blog I started growing my own private rice field on the balcony of my apartment back in June when I received some rice sprouts after taking part in the Agricultural Experience Tour. After looking after them for four months I was finally able to harvest. The volume of rice is pretty low, but I am really looking forward to eating rice that I grew myself. I cut the rice and now it is drying out on my balcony so I will have to wait about a week before I can actually eat it. I am wondering exactly how much actual rice I will get once I finish. Maybe only enough for one rice ball? But because it was rice I grew I expect it to be the best rice ball I have ever eaten in my life!

楽農体験ツアー　（稲刈り）　Agricultural Experience Tour (Rice Harvesting)

2007-10-18T13:32:00.000+09:00

平成１９年６月９日（土）に僕が初めて参加した「楽農体験ツアー」の話をこのブログに載せました。その時は精華町乾谷区内水田ほ場で田植えを活動しました。農業体験のない僕はかなり興味深くて裸足で田んぼに入って、昔のように手で田植えしてみました。そして、先週末その同じ田んぼに収穫しに行きました。山田荘地域農場づくり協議会事務局及び精華町役場事業部産業振興課が主催される毎年のイベントで、今年は約４０人が参加しました。若い子からお年寄りの方も来て、楽しい経験になりました。
On June 9th, 2007 I participated in the Agricultural Experience Tour which I have written about in this blog. At that time we planted rice at the Inuidani Farm. Having never had any agricultural experience I was pretty interested in trying it out, so I jumped in the muddy field barefoot and planted rice by hand like in the old days. Then last weekend I went back to the same field to harvest the rice that I helped plant. The Agricultural Experience Tour is organized by the Yamadasho Regional Agriculture Association and the Seika Town Industry Promotion Division and is held every year. This year there were about 40 participants ranging from young children to senior citizens. It was a fun experience for everyone.

今回も昔のように手で稲刈りをしました。以外としんどかったです。稲刈りしてから、コンバインに入れて、米が自動に袋に集まっていきました。終わった時に収穫出来た量にびっくりしました。その面積の田んぼで最もいっぱいとれると思いました。約９つの３０キログラムの袋が収穫できました。大体４人の家族の一年分と聞きました。そして、稲刈りをしながら木村町長が偶然にいらっしゃって頂いて、素敵なスーツの格好で思い切って田んぼに入って、皆さんと握手なさいました。
This time we harvest the rice by hand like they did in the old days. It was much more tiring than I would have thought. After cutting the rice plants by hand we fed the plants into a combine machine and the rice grains were automatically separated from the reeds and neatly sifted into bags. When we finished I was surprised by the amount of rice we were able to harvest. I thought that for a rice field of that size we would get a lot more rice. We ended up getting about nine 30kg bags of rice. I was told that that would be enough to fed a family of four for one year. Also while we were harvesting the rice Mayor Kimura unexpectedly showed up and daringly jumped into the muddy rice field in his nice business suit to shake hands with everyone who was working.

収穫がおわってから、乾谷ファミリに炊き込み御飯と漬物をいただきました。田んぼで苦労をしたから食べ物がとても美味しかったです。今年楽農体験ツアーに参加してよかったなと思います。来年皆さん参加いかがですか！
After we finished all the work the Inuidani Family treated us to takikomi rice (rice steamed with vegetables) and tsukemono (pickled vegetables). After laboring in the fields the food tasted really good. I am really glad that I participated in the Agricultural Experience Tour this year. Next year why don’t you join in too!

天神祭り　　Tenjin Festival

2007-07-27T14:00:00.000+09:00

On Wednesday July 25th the Tenjin Festival took place in Osaka City. The summer festival is one of the biggest in Japan and there were roughly 500,000 people there for the festival. The festival takes place along the river near Sakuranomiya. There are all the usual food stalls and game booths and an hour long aerial fireworks display like many other festivals have. The thing that is unique to this festival is the parade of boats along the river. It is much like a normal parade with decorated floats, music and celebrities but this one is all on boats floating up and down the river.

The other thing that is really cool about this festival is that lots of people wear a yukata, which is a light cotton version of the traditional kimono worn in summer time. Probably about half of the women were wearing yukata and a decent amount of men as well. The yukata have really beautiful designs and colors and makes the whole festival feel much more traditional. For this festival I even decided to wear a yukata!

I felt a little odd being a foreigner wearing traditional Japanese clothes but it was really fun and I overheard lots of people commenting that I looked cool. The yukata is like a bath robe so its really comfortable and there are pockets in the underhand of the sleaves which are convenient for carrying things. The only problem was that I have really big feet (31cm) and the biggest geta slippers that I could find were only 28cm so my feet were hanging off the back. After walking around all night my feet were really sore by the end of the night.

I ate lots of good food and had a really good time walking around the festival in my yukata getting looks from everyone. Even though the Tenjin Festival is not all that much different from other festivals in Japan the huge number of people and the warm weather created a wonderful atmosphere and was a lot of fun.

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(From this point on I am going to start writing this blog in both English and Japanese.)

7月２５日（水）に大阪市の天神祭りがありました。天神祭りは全国でトップ３の最大祭りの中に入っています。桜ノ宮の川岸の周りに約５百万人がこの祭りに来たらしいです。祭りの食べ物やゲームや花火などがもちろんありました。でも天神祭りの特徴は船パレートです。

僕は天神祭りの好きなことは沢山の人々がゆかたを着ます。約女の人の半分がゆかたを着て、男の人も少なくないです。ゆかたはきれいな色とデザインがあって、伝統的な感じがします。今回ぼくもゆかたを着ました！

外国人としてゆかたを着るのがちょっと恥かしかったが、「かっこいいな」という声を聞こえました。ゆかたは涼しくて楽ですが、一つの問題がありました。僕は足が３１cmで一番大きなげたが２８cmですから、足は出ていました。ずっと歩いていたので、おわりに足が痛くなりました。

色々な食べ物を食べたり、ゆかたの姿で皆に見られたり、するのが本当に楽しかったです。他の祭りとあまり違わないが、大勢な人々と温かい温度が素晴らしい雰囲気で面白い祭りだと思います。

Rhinoceros Beetles

2007-07-24T13:13:00.000+09:00

This week was the start of summer vacation for children in Japan. With all the free time and the nice weather what will the kids do with themselves? One thing that kids in Japan love to do is to play with bugs, especially kabutomushi (rhinoceros beetles). So the Seika Town Elderly Talent Association put together an event for the kids to teach them about the beetles, let them play with them, and then the kids got to take them home in little plastic cages at the end of the event.

I went along for the ride to take some pictures and see what all the fuss is about, even though I really don’t like bugs and didn’t want to touch them. As you can see from the pictures the beetles are pretty big and have large horns coming off their heads like a rhinoceros. These beetles have a horn in the center of their heads (hence the name rhinoceros beetle) but the horn often bifurcates making it look like a deer’s antlers.

After the bug hunt the kids also tried out another traditional Japanese game takeuma. Takeuma literally translates to “bamboo horse.” You cut up short sections of bamboo and tie strings around them so that you can hold them in place while you walk around on it. It really does sound like horse hoofs clomping around. Some of the kids made tall ones so it almost looked more like stilts, but obviously made it much harder to walk. There was also a nice little pond in the park where we were that had these beautiful white flowers growing out of the lily pads. For me it was nice to get out of the office on such a nice day and it was fun because some of the kids remembered me from when I go to the elementary schools so they were excited to see me again.

Dragon Boat Race

2007-07-23T10:02:00.001+09:00

Two weeks ago I was invited by a friend to take part in an annual dragon boat competition on the river in Osaka City. The competition is pretty big and teams come from around the world to compete in it. Almost all of the teams are serious about the sport and the competition, but the team that I was a part of just does it for fun and doesn’t do any practice. I got the feeling that most of the other teams probably practice all year long and the race is a big deal to them. For us it was just a reason to get together do something fun and then have a BBQ party in the park after the race was over.

A dragon boat is like a really long skinny canoe with two rows of 9 people paddling plus a leader in the front with a big drum to establish the paddling rhythm and a person in the back to steer the rudder (20 people total). The hardest part about it is making sure that everyone is rowing together in the same rhythm. Our team had a lot of big strong people but since we never practiced our stride was off and we couldn’t do very well. The really good teams looked like a many armed beast rowing in perfect unison. Even though we came in last in our heat the race was a really cool experience and the BBQ in the park after was tons of fun.

If you are wondering why they are called dragon boats you can see in the picture below that there is a dragon head at the front of the boat and a tail on the back.

My Own Private Rice Field Pt.II

2007-07-20T09:10:00.000+09:00

It's been almost exactly one month since I first planted my veranda rice field and put up pictures of the little sprouts on this blog. I am really surprised to see how much the rice has grown in only one month. At first I was worried that they wouldn't have enought sunlight being on my veranda, or that I didn't get the right kind of soil for rice. But now that they are growing tall and strong I am actually thinking that everything will be fine.

When I got the rice sprouts from a colleague they were in a bucket with mud from a real rice field. That wasn't nearly enough mud for the planters I bought so I had to get a bag of soil from the store. As an experiment I decided to use the original mud in a separate plastic drink bottle and plant the left over sprouts to see if one or the other would do better. Of course there are lots of variables in this experiment but I am noticing that the original mud and rice in the plastic bottle (see the picture) isn't growing as nicely as the ones I planted in the store bought soil. They are still growing but the color isn't as healthy green as the rice in the bigger planters. Maybe thats because they don't have enough room to spread roots but I wonder if its because the soil is different. Only time will tell.

Summer in Japan

2007-07-19T13:08:00.000+09:00

Being that it's the middle of July and super hot here in Kyoto it would seem obvious that it's already summer, but to me I only really know its summer in Japan when the festivals start. Recently I went to the Tanabata Festival in neighboring Kizugawa City.

To me it really feels like summer when I can go to a festival where the streets are lined with vendors selling all sorts of typical Japanese foods like, okonomiyaki, yakisoba, karage and other such treats. The day of the festival was pretty hot and humid and with so many people packed into the streets it only increased the heat. But its so nice to walk down the rows of food vendors smelling the different foods and maybe drinking a cold beer. The best part of the whole thing is that most of the young children were dressed up in colorful yukata (a light summer version of the traditional kimono). At the festival there were large decorations were people had written down their wishes for the future (see above picture), one such wish was for world peace.

With the smell of grilled foods and tons of people out creating a lively atmosphere it really made me realize how much fun summer in Japan can be despite the oppresive humidity.

Climbing Mt. Fuji

2007-07-02T14:12:00.000+09:00

This past weekend I did one of the most challenging and foolish things I have done since I got to Japan; I climbed Mt. Fuji! I say foolish because who in their right mind would subject themselves to climbing a snow covered volcano in the pitch-black of night, in the rain for 15 hours straight?! I am not a hiking or mountain climbing enthusiast, but it seems like for foreigners who live in Japan climbing Mt. Fuji is just one of those things that you have to do.

I am not quite sure who decided this practice, but the most common way to climb Mt. Fuji is to start at 6pm and climb all night long so that you can arrive at the top in time for sunrise at 4:30am. While it is great to see the sunrise from the top of Mt. Fuji I don’t see how climbing the mountain in the middle of the night is seen as a good idea.

Before making the trek I had minimal knowledge of the climb and just figured that since so many people make the climb each year, and since this is practical Japan, that it would pretty much just be a paved staircase with lights for most of the hike. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The trail is far more treacherous than I expected which is further complicated by the changing elements.

I went because a friend of mine wanted to go and as I said before I had always thought that I should do it once while I am here in Japan. We went with a tour group that left by bus from Kyoto. I have to say that a 7 hour bus ride is not the best thing for body and mind before a long trek. So we arrived about half way up the mountain where the paved roads end at 2,305 meters (7,562 feet). At this elevation the clouds and mist are so thick that you can barely see 10 ft in front of you. The hike starts from this point up to the peak of Mt. Fuji at 3,776 m (12,388 ft).

One of the great things about going with the tour group was that they had lined up a hearty dinner for us before the start of the hike. After dinner and final preparations we set off with our guide who must have been at least 60 years old. He took us on a slow pace and thankfully stopped to let us rest frequently. The first 2 hours of the climb weren’t so bad as it was slowing inclining gravel and dirt paths. It was still light out at this point, but the fog, clouds and or mist made visibility pretty minimal and the condensation was high. So even though it wasn’t raining it was wet and slippery everywhere.

(Don't I look like a certain Hobbit on his way to Mordor?!)

I thought the path on Mt. Fuji would be like paved steps but it turned out to be a variety of treacherously steep and narrow paths, and climbing slippery rocks all in the dark with occasional rain and strong winds. Taking into account the 5-10 minute breaks we took along the way the first stage of the hike took us 5 hours up to about 3,200 m. We arrived at the lodge at 11 pm where we would get a bowl of rice and two hours of sleep in a large bunk-bed filled cabin. I slept like a rock in that cabin and awoke at 1 am for the remaining 3 hours of climbing to the top.

Towards the top it starting getting really windy and cold even though it’s the middle of the summer. The terrain wasn’t so scary but with all the large volcanic rocks and dirt it was still rough climbing. At this point we were far above the cloud line and once the sun starting rising the view was amazing. During the hike I thought it was madness to take a bunch of amateurs on a night climb over such difficult paths, but seeing the sun rise over the clouds from the top of a volcano made it all seem worth it.

Sitting on the top of Mt. Fuji after an 11 hour hike (minus 2 hours of sleep) I was surprised that my legs didn’t feel that tired and that the climb wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. After a victorious rest at the top we set off for the return hike down. After about 30 minutes of climbing down the steep and gravely paths my legs and knees started to burn. This is when I realized that the total hike would indeed turn out to be hard. For some reason climbing or hiking uphill isn’t so hard on my body, but hiking down is tough on my knees. The trip back was made torturously hard by the guide would told us it shouldn’t take more than about 2 hours when in reality it ended up taking 4 hours. It seems to be a rule on the mountain to lie and tell people half the actual time whenever asked how long it would take to reach a certain point. I admit that on the way up this was encouraging, but on the way down it really sucked. I just kept thinking, “He said 1 more hour but its already been 2 and we don’t even seem close yet.”

We finally made it back to the original starting point 15 hours after we set off. We had climbed 2,471 m (8,106 ft.) overnight with only 2 hours of sleep as rest. By the time we got back my legs and back were so tired, and while I really enjoyed the hike up and the challenge the return hike back down was harsh and I vowed that climbing Mt. Fuji once is quite enough. There is an old saying that roughly says, “To not climb Mt. Fuji is foolish, and to climb twice is foolish.”

All in all I did have a fun time climbing and the challenge of the terrain and the elements made for an exciting trek. The view from the top and the feeling of overcoming the difficult task was great. The climb up was not nearly as tiring as I thought it would be, but after the hike down I was just as tired as I imagined beforehand. If you have the desire to climb Mt. Fuji I would say it’s a great experience and that you should definitely do it! But if you asked me to go a second time I would say NO!

Knee Deep in the Mud

2007-06-14T13:41:00.000+09:00

For some people living in Japan means doing really traditional Japanese cultural activities like karate, judo, or learning how to properly dress in a kimono. Me, I basically live a very modern lifestyle here in Japan. I ride the bullet train, hang out in the downtown areas of the big cities like Osaka and Kyoto, and haven’t really learned any traditional arts. On my free time I usually play baseball, basketball and mini-soccer and go out to restaurants with my friends.

So last weekend when I was invited to go out into the fields and experience traditional rice field planting I thought it would be a good chance for me to experience some traditional Japanese culture. Every year the town teams up with a local farm to do an Agricultural Experience Tour. Its primarily aimed at families who have recently relocated from the big cities to live a more peaceful life in Seika. For most of these families who didn’t grow up in the country side it’s an opportunity for the parents and kids to experience traditional Japanese agriculture.

Seika Town was and still is a pretty traditional farming community. Even though there are now a lot of modern research facilities and tech companies in town there are still agricultural fields almost everywhere you look. During the winter all the rice fields were just left barren and dry, but starting last month they were all irrigated with water in preparation for rice planting. It’s a little strange to wake up one day and all the dirt fields are all of a sudden swamps. The cool thing is that frogs love the swampy rice fields so at night its really calming to listen to the croaking of the frogs outside of the window.

Being a city-boy I had no idea how rice planting works and I just figured that they throw out a lot of seeds into the freshly irrigated fields. But that’s not the way its done. First they germinate and grow the rice seeds in hot houses until the sprouts are about 8 inches tall. These days they have a handy tractor-like machine that takes a bed of rice sprouts and automatically distributes them evenly into the muddy fields. Since we went out to learn the traditional way of rice planting we didn’t use the machine and we all did it by hand. As I said before the once dry fields are flooded with water so that the dirt turns to mud and there is about 4 inches of water above ground level. We all went in barefoot and instantly sunk almost knee deep in the mud. It was a pretty weird feeling to be sunk in mud, especially since there are all sorts of unidentifiable clumps and odd textured things in the mud that you keep stepping on. I was just thankful that there didn’t seem to be any leeches in the water despite the swampy feel of it. From there you take about 3 rice sprouts and with your thumb and forefinger plunge them into the mud. You need to space them about 6 inches apart in a straight line so that once they are ready for harvest the harvesting machine can properly cut and collect the now 3 foot (1m) high rice plants.

There was about 50 people doing the tour, parents with their young children making up the majority of participants. It was funny because the kids were so typical, saying things like, “Eeeww, the mud is gross!” or “This is so boring.” So as you might expect after about 10 minutes of planting the rice most of the kids quit, wandered off, or starting looking for frogs to catch. This left the parents and me to finish up the job. With about 25 grown-ups it took us about an hour to plant the whole field.

I thought it was a cool experience and I filled my quota for traditional activities for the time being. I also got a bunch of the rice sprouts which I am taking home and I am going to try to grow them on my veranda in buckets. I wonder if it will actually work!?

Hometown Tour

2007-05-21T11:05:00.001+09:00

Recently I was introduced to a Mr. Shinohara who is part of the Seika Elderly Talent Association and who has been organizing tours of some of the historical sites and local facilities of Seika Town. Mr. Shinohara was kind enough to invite me along for the practice run of their next tour which will take place in Fall.

The idea is to do a practice run of the tour to gauge how long it will take, which route to walk and more importantly to study the sites and local areas beforehand so that the tour guides and volunteers will be able to field questions during the real tour.

So last Friday I met up with a group from the Seika Elderly Talent Association and we took a walking tour of some of the old shrines, neighborhoods and new facilities in Seika Town. Our first stop was Kasuga Shrine in the north part of Seika. This is one of the oldest shrines in the area which has a long and interesting history, and beautiful architecture. The shrine was once designated as local park so the surrounding area has rest areas and the feel of a recreational spot. The shrine has a few separated buildings so we walked through the old neighborhood and looked at the main shrines and small prayer offering locations.

Next we walked around the local agricultural fields to the Kizu River Water Purification Treatment Center for a tour of the facilities. The center is located right next to the local Community Recreation Center which I often play basketball at, but until the tour had no idea exactly what purpose it served. It turns out that it is a highly developed water treatment center which is the first of its kind in Japan that purifies sewage and house water waste so that it can be returned to the Kizu River without causing any pollution. I have to admit that I didn’t really understand the technology behind the process but they assured us that by the time the sewage leaves the plant it is so clean that fish and other wildlife can live in the treated water alone.

The facilities just look like a few normal buildings but the real equipment is underground. We took a tour of the underground tunnels with pipes and machinery everywhere processing and filtering the sewage over and over until it is clean enough to be released in the river. The plant is quite impressive and even separates the sediment from the water which is in turn recycled and turned into cement and other building materials.

After the water treatment facility tour we walked over to Hosono Shrine which was the site of the famed Igomori Festival which I wrote about back in January in this blog. While I had been there before this was my first time to see it in the day time and with the benefit of Mr. Shinohara’s knowledge I gained a new understanding of the history of the shrine and the ceremonies that are traditionally carried out there.

After the tour we all went back to the Seika Elderly Talent Association Center and had a nice bento lunch and talked about plans for the day of the real tour, and everyone’s impressions of the sites. Then Mr. Asada who is the director of the center and an experienced Japanese tea ceremony presenter explained proper tea preparation while he served us traditional Japanese green tea.

For me it was really interesting to be a part of the tour with the local people and to learn more about the traditional and modern aspects of the place where I live and work. I have to thank everyone from the Seika Elderly Talent Association, especially Mr. Shinohara for inviting me to take part and for explaining everything for me.

Community Baseball Tournament

2007-05-17T09:23:00.000+09:00

This past weekend there was a baseball tournament held in Seika for some of the teams from different towns in the area. The level of play is not that high and its mostly just for fun. Our team was comprised of government workers from the town of Seika. One of the other teams was the Farmers Association of Yamashiro town.

It was really nice weather that weekend so a lot of the player’s wives and kids all came out to watch and cheer on their fathers. The Seika Town team played on Saturday and Sunday. I played in the game on Sunday but missed the one on Saturday. One of the firemen from Seika almost made it into professional ball with the Hiroshima Carps so he is a really good pitcher. I heard that he throws between 130-140km/h which is way above the standard for the level of play in this tournament. I didn’t get the chance to see him pitch but I heard that he struck out almost every batter and only a couple people were even able to hit the ball. Also I heard that the day he pitched a lot of people came out just to watch since they all knew he almost went pro.

Unfortunately on the day I played we lost by one run, but it was still really fun to go out in the sun and play with my coworkers and see everyone having a good time.

Monkey Park

2007-04-27T13:27:00.000+09:00

CAUTION

Don’t stare at the monkeys in the eye
Don’t touch the monkeys
Don’t feed them outside

That was the warning that they gave us before entering the Monkey Park in Arashiyama (Western Kyoto City). Monkey Park is also referred to as Monkey Mountain and is perhaps my favorite place in Kyoto. It is a wildlife preserve of sorts. Or maybe it would be better described as a small mountain on the outskirts of Kyoto City were over a 150 Japanese Monkeys live freely and humans are allowed to go see them.

What ever it is it is definitely not a zoo. The monkeys are free to roam around and do what they want. There are no cages, and I doubt that the fences they have up would stop them from leaving if they wanted to. But why would they want to?! It seems like a scene from the Twighlight Zone; at this park the humans are inside a cage and the monkeys get to look at us from the outside! Well, that’s not entirely true either. Humans are free to wander amongst the primates as well but if you want to feed them you have to go inside a caged area where you can buy fruits and vegetables to give them through the fence. This is probably a good idea since those little hairy people get kinda vicious once they see food. And where I realized why you don’t stare them in the eye. I tried that from within the safety of the cage. The rather large male’s eyebrows slowly raised, his eyes got big and he started screaming and rattling the fence. I guess its that whole sign of confrontation in the wild idea.

Upon entering the park you have to climb about 20 min before you start seeing the monkeys but then all of a sudden you realize they are everywhere and could ambush you if they felt like it. But mostly they don’t care too much about people, that is unless you get to close or break one of the 3 rules laid out before.

There are old monkeys, baby monkeys, big monkeys, little monkeys, ugly monkeys and cute monkeys and they are everywhere. One monkey looked just like my friends Sef. Another one was just licking everything in sight. One baby was racing around with his hand over his eyes tripping on everything. One bared his teeth at me and menacingly followed me for a couple minutes after I got too close taking a picture. All sorts of monkeys for all sorts of people, and all of them are funny.

I love Monkey Park and I highly recommend it to anyone who is in Kyoto! Here is the website link: http://www.kmpi.co.jp/

The Big Buddha & Deer

2007-04-27T13:05:00.000+09:00

Last week my friend Kris was visiting me from California so while he was out here I wanted to show him some of the cultural sights. After experiencing the packed and hectic streets of Tokyo he was ready to see some more peaceful and slow-paced places in Kansai.

One of the places that I really wanted to show him was the Big Buddha (Daibutsu) at Todaiji in Nara City. Of course I have been there before but I wanted it to be a sort of surprise so I just told him that we were going to see a big statue of the Buddha. The surprise was going to be the size of the Buddha, and the hoards of deer roaming freely around Nara.

No matter how you try to describe the Daibutsu you can never really prepare anyone for the actual size of the statue. Its really huge and housed in an even larger temple. No matter how many times I have been there it is always a sight to see the humongous statue sitting so peacefully in that building which is roughly 1200 years old.

The day we went was also really sunny and warm and even though the cherry blossoms were long gone everywhere else there was still a few around Todaiji that were almost in full bloom. The other great thing is the hundreds of deer that hang out around the parks waiting for people to feed them deer crackers. If you hold the cracker out for them they will bow their heads until you give it to them. But they aren’t as well behaved as you might think. They chase little kids, sometimes bite, and will come up behind you and tug on your coat until you feed them. All in all they are really cute and its cool to see so many just hanging around.

Cherry Blossom Viewing (Ohanami) Part II

2007-04-03T09:53:00.000+09:00

While this past Saturday I had the chance to see some beautiful cherry blossoms in Kyoto it wasn’t a real ohanami party. But on Sunday I meet up with a bunch of friends at the Osaka Castle Park for a full fledged ohanami party. Sunday was also overcast and it threatened to rain a few times, but it was really warm and the sakura were really going in the park which surrounds the Osaka Castle.

We had BBQs going, and a really talented musician friend brought his guitar so there was lots of fun to be had. We stayed until dusk when it finally started raining but the flowers were so beautiful and we were having so much fun that nobody seemed to mind the rain that much.

Cherry Blossom Viewing (Ohanami) Part I

2007-04-03T09:31:00.000+09:00

The highly anticipated cherry blossom viewing season is finally upon us! In just the last week the weather has made a dramatic shift from cold and bitter winter to warm and sunny spring. Ushering in spring is my favorite part of living in Japan; cherry blossom viewing which is called ohanami in Japanese. Almost everywhere you look you can see beautiful white and pink sakura (cherry blossoms). Parks, streets, rivers, and temples are usually lined with sakura trees so for the short lived two weeks or so that they are blossoming everything looks even more gorgeous. But as much as I love the beauty of it all the real reason why I love this time of year is for the ohanami parties.

Most often held in parks, a ohanami party involves food, friends, drinks, nice weather, beautiful scenery and lots of fun. Everyone brings out a big blue tarp and lays it out on the grass underneath the cherry blossom trees with BBQ, snacks and drinks. Its totally acceptable to drink beer or anything else in the park and people often bring music and games as well. For the next couple of weeks I will be trying to enjoy the sakura and ohanami parties as much as possible and I will surely end up with hundreds of photos of the flowers and fun which I will post here for all to see!

My first opportunity came this past Saturday when I went with a friend to Maruyama Park in Kyoto City. It was a really warm day even though it was cloudy. The sakura were not in full bloom yet but there were still plenty of blossoms to see. Also just walking around Kawaramachi and Gion in Kyoto there were plenty of beautiful sites and photos to be taken everywhere you look.

Japanese Baseball

2007-03-27T15:29:00.000+09:00

This past Sunday I went to go see a professional baseball game at the Osaka Dome. The regional favorite team, the Hanshin Tigers (Osaka) were playing the Yakult Swallows (Tokyo). I personally love baseball so I can be totally happy watching any game, but in America I have many friends who think that baseball is so boring. American baseball games are boring compared to watching a professional game here in Japan.

Here the fans are almost constantly cheering and chanting support for their favorite team. The first time I went to a game my hands were so sore from clapping and cheering the whole time that I quickly realized why fans here all bring an assortment of plastic bats and other noise makers for cheering. The other interesting thing is that some teams have particular customs for celebrating; even though the Swallows fans were not at their home stadium there was a large section for them. Every time their team scored they all lifted up these miniature blue plastic umbrellas. When I saw that I thought it was strange but immediately remembered having gone to a Swallows home game in Tokyo about 5 years ago and thinking it looked so cool to see the whole stadium raising up little blue umbrellas after their team scored.

Some things are definitely the same at games here and back home; the beer and food is still almost 4 times the normal price, and they do check your bags to make sure you don’t bring in outside drinks. All in all the Japanese games are much more lively than games back home and it seems like they attract lots of people who might not be typical baseball fans just because the atmosphere is so fun.

Irrational Fear?

2007-03-20T10:37:00.000+09:00

A large majority of Japanese people that I know have a dislike of crows. This can range from a slight distaste to hatred all the way to a seemingly irrational deep down fear of the beady eyed dark creatures. This is understandable as well as unfortunate as there are crows everywhere in Japan. They congregate in parks, lurk in alleyways and feed out of trash cans. I personally never had anything against them and while there is something distinctly ominous about crows I never feared or hated them. But all that changed just the other day.

On Sunday I was in Kyoto City sitting by the Kamo River in Sanjyo just enjoying the scenery and watching the people. I was waiting for a friend and had some time to kill before we went out to eat so I got a rice-ball snack (onigiri) from the convenience store. On occasion I eat onigiri but I am not a huge fan of them, but this onigiri was by far the best one I have ever had. It was a fried rice onigiri with shrimp, egg and pork on the inside. I had taken only two bites and was commenting to myself how unusually good this particular onigiri was when all of a sudden there was a loud noise and the onigiri disappeared from my hand! I was essentially looking in the same direction as my lovely rice ball but I had seen nothing. The noise was like a whoosh-smack and was accompanied by a slight pain in my now onigiri-less hand.

The shock, fear and pain momentarily confused me but I soon realized what happened when I saw the ruthless gang of crows having a bird feeding frenzy with my onigiri only 10 feet in front of me. If you haven’t deciphered the story by now, one of those little ruffians swooped out of the air and snatched my onigiri right out of my upraised hand, nearly taking my finger with it. After the shock subsided I was full of rage at the conniving feathered thieves for having committed beaked-robbery of the best onigiri I had ever had (and had only taken two bites of). But as I was surrounded by passers-by who probably didn’t even notice the brutal rice-ball snatching I figured I would be the one that looked like a lunatic if I tried to exact my revenge upon them there. So I sat with my pain and anger which eventually lead me from thoughts of murderous revenge to a slight respect for the cunning, precision heist that they had pulled off. I mean that crow swooped out of the sky right in front of my face and skillfully ripped the rice-ball out of my hand without me even seeing anything. And while there was some pain in the finger no blood was drawn and no evidence to show of the attack. While I still can't forgive them their trespass I have to admit a certain amount of awe at their artful larceny.

So now I join the Japanese in their dislike of the dark angels of theft. For now I will never be able to enjoy my onigiri in peace whilst those hooligans are about.

Lunch Time Dodgeball: Survival of the Fitest

2007-02-16T16:28:00.000+09:00

All this week I have been going to Seika-dai Elementary School to visit and teach the 2nd graders. There are 5 second grade classes at this school and I visited each one twice this week. The first time around I talked about myself and my country, told silly jokes, made the kids laugh, and then played “Heads Up 7 Up.” The kids love that game and they are so funny when they play it. Then the second time I visited I was asked to talk about animals as that is what they are studying right now. So I decided to talk about some animals that are unique to America and some that I just think are funny. I talked about; bald eagles, raccoons, skunks (they don’t have them in Japan), wolves, moose, buffalos, and grizzly bears. Of course 2nd graders love animals so they enjoyed my lessons, especially when I talked about wolf packs eating humans and attacking bears.

As much fun as the classes were and also eating lunch with the kids by far the funniest part of the week was playing dodgeball with the kids during lunch break. Dodgeball is so popular with kids in Japan, so during breaks all the kids run outside and play dodgeball with their individual classmates. Since Seika-dai Elementary is 1st~6th grade and there are roughly 4 classes per grade there are about 24 classes which means 24 games of dodgeball going on simultaneously. The schoolyard is about the size of a football fields but with 24 dodgeball games going on it turns into a battlefield! All the dodgeball courts are right next to each other so stray balls are flying everywhere and random kids are getting hit left and right.

Plus the kids are fervent about dodgeball. Whenever someone is hit and sent out a cry of joy arises. Kids are diving onto the dirt ground to be the first one to recover the loose ball and then jump up to get a running start to throw the ball. Then to top it all off this week the games were divided boys against girls. So the boys take no mercy and the girls are bent on revenge and evening the score. The first day that I played with the 2nd graders no less than 3 or 4 kids in 15 minutes got tagged in the head and ended up crying, one of those was a boy that got hit by his female teacher. Then today despite my effort to not throw as hard as I can I accidentally hit a girl in the head because she tried to duck my throw. She started balling tears and snot and fell to the ground. I felt horrible and picked her up and apologized profusely. All the other girls said not to worry as she apparently cries over everything but I still felt horrible. But then again its all part of the game.

Lunch time dodgeball at Japanese elementary schools is chaos. Its like a battlefield with rubber balls instead of bullets. The scene reminds me of a something from “Lord of the Flies.” But it is also so much fun and the kids know better than anyone else that its kill or be killed in the dodgeball arena! Actually I used to play dodgeball everyday when I was in elementary school too and I can remember the savagery, bloody noses, fear and thrill of the sport. I guess the saying is true no matter where you are, “kids will be kids” and kids love dodgeball!

Agricultural Research Team from Tanzania

2007-02-02T14:01:00.000+09:00

As part of a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) month long government research project in Japan roughly 20 government officials from the United Republic of Tanzania came to Seika Town this week for a two day long agricultural study program. On the day of arrival the delegation was met by Seika Town Mayor Kaname Kimura, the director of the Industry Promotion Division, my colleague Chris and myself.

At first the Mayor introduced Seika Town and gave an explanation of the agricultural sector, society and town policy. Then the Mayor fielded questions from the delegates about various economic, social, and agricultural issues that both Seika and Tanzania share in common. Some examples were; how to deal with exporting agricultural products in a competitive world market, how to cope with the declining population of young people in the agricultural sector, and how to create new products and marketability of excess agricultural goods.

Chris and myself accompanied the delegation on a tour of Seika and some of the local farms and hot houses to assist with interpreting and explaining Seika Town. Although Kiswahili (Swahili) is the national language of Tanzania, English has become the official language for business and government so all of the Tanzanian representatives could speak perfect English. My colleague and I were along to help translate from Japanese into English. At every stop that we made the Tanzanian delegates had a gift from Tanzania for their hosts and left a warm and lively impression.

Before the delegation came I was doing a lot of research into Tanzania so that I could try to understand better what issues face the nation and why they are interested in learning about Japanese agricultural practices. From what I read Tanzania is a beautiful country with many natural blessings such as large wildlife preserves on the Serengeti, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and Zanzibar island. However while Tanzania has many natural treasures it is faced with a struggling economy due in part to unpredictable climates for the agricultural industry which makes up nearly half of the GDP and employees roughly 80% of the national workforce. It seems like one of the main issues is how to properly irrigate the varied regions from the many lakes, rivers and water sources in the country so that the agricultural sector will not be at the mercy of irregular rainfall. As Japan has an extensive irrigation system I hope that the Tanzanians were able to get some good ideas to take home.

It was a true pleasure and an honor for me to be able to meet all of the delegates and to do my best to help them while they were here in Seika. I sincerely hope that their time here in Japan was informative and fruitful and that they will be able to take some ideas back to Tanzania with them to help improve the country. Yet while they came here to study from Japan I know that they will also leave their mark on this country with their friendliness and generosity.

Back to School

2007-01-29T15:32:00.000+09:00

So all of last week I was once again back at elementary school doing my thing for the young generation. Basically what happens is that I get called in to do a tour of duty of all the 1st - 6th grade classes at one of the local elementary schools. Last time I did it at Seikadai Elementary but this time I went to Kawanishi Elementary.

Its actually really fun for me to go to the schools as I am asked to do a “International Understanding” lesson for the kids. What this entails is me giving a self introduction about myself and where I come from. Then depending on the age of the kids I will talk about different themes. For instance with the 1st and 2nd graders I just talk to them about the difference between American and Japanese elementary schools. But with the 5th and 6th graders I usually try to give them a little inspiration about the importance of learning a foreign language. The older students are a pretty tough crowd but the young ones (up through 4th grade) are all pretty excited to talk to me and usually have a million questions. I also try to play different games with them like “Heads Up 7 Up”, or “Simon Says.”

This time on Friday which was my last day at the school I came dressed casually so that I could join the kids for games during recess. Japanese kids love dodgeball and since I used to play almost everyday when I was in elementary I was really excited to play again. Of course I was playing with 3rd graders so I had to ease off on the speed of my throws but actually some of the kids were throwing harder than I was. The funniest thing was when I pegged one kid with the ball and he screamed out, “Arigatou!!!” (Thank You!) I guess it was like an honor or a merit badge to get hit by the foreign teacher during dodgeball!? Anyways, while its tons of fun to hang out with the kids, I can’t even begin to imagine how tiring it would be to be a full time teacher and have to deal with the kids all day everyday. You really have to respect a public school teacher for what they deal with on a daily basis.

Spreading the Word

2007-01-24T15:03:00.000+09:00

Well I am back in the newspaper again! But don’t worry its all good news. Last week I was interviewed by Mr. Ryota Oshima of the Asahi Shimbun (“Japan’s Leading Newspaper”) about this blog site that I am writing as the Coordinator for International Relations in Seika Town.

We talked about how I got interested in Japan and how long I have been studying Japanese. Mr. Oshima also asked me what are my goals for writing this blog. Since my main goal is to publicize the attributes and qualities of Seika Town and to try to raise awareness about the events and programs that are happening in Seika getting an interview with a large and widely read newspaper like the Asahi Shimbun is a great help.

I hope that people living in Japan will read this article and check out the blog and then come down to Seika and see our beautiful town for themselves. Even better would be if people living around the world can read this blog and gain interest in Japan and Seika Town.

Thanks again to Mr. Oshima from the Asahi Shimbun for the interview and helping the spread the word about Seika Town.

Igomori Festival

2007-01-16T09:40:00.000+09:00

The Igomori Festival is an ancient ritual in Seika Town which started as a means of driving off evil spirits which haunted the residents of an old local village. The festival lasts three days but the highlight is on the second night when a huge torch made of young bamboo trees roughly 15 feet long and weighing about 150 pounds is set ablaze in the shrine and carried through the streets. To add to the festivities food stalls and games are set up in front of the shrine and local residents come out to watch the event and enjoy the atmosphere.

As the torch is first lit inside of the shrine in a small building with a low ceiling I was pretty nervous that the whole place was going to catch on fire. Everyone assured me that it would be fine and since they have been doing this festival for a long time in the same place I figured it must be tried and true. In the end everything was fine but when the bonfire was set to light the torch the flames were reaching about 8 feet high and virtually licking the ceiling of the small structure. This is one thing that I love about Japan; often festivals such as this one are technically quite dangerous but since its tradition they carry on regardless of the apparent danger. I think if it was America festivals like this would be shut down by a flock of frantic lawyers and safety officials. After all, a little danger makes for excitement and fun right?!

Teacher for a Day

2006-12-21T13:26:00.000+09:00

This Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I went to teach classes at Seikadai Elementary School. Since elementary school children in Japan haven’t formally begun to learn English it is luckily not my job to go and teach English. Rather I go to the school and give classes in Japanese with the title of “International Understanding.” Basically I introduce myself and talk about my country and my own experience growing up in America. I also told the kids about the similarities and differences between Japanese and American elementary schools. Rather than trying to teach the kids English I think it is great for me as a foreigner to just talk to them in their language and let them know that foreign people aren't that much different and to let them see a different perspective.

The first day I went around to all four of the 6th grade classes at Seikadai Elementary. This proved the toughest as I was reminded that 6th graders are right at the cusp of becoming teenagers and therefore are worrying about self-image and being cool. The kids didn’t seem too excited that I was there and even less interested in what I had to say. Or at least this is the attitude they portrayed. I am hoping that they actually liked it but just didn’t want their classmates to think so. Usually when I do this sort of thing I give my self introduction and then let the audience ask questions to fill up some time. When I asked them if they had any questions the whole room was silent and I was just thinking, “Oh boy, this is going to be a long day.”

Then on Tuesday I went around to all the 3rd grade classrooms. The third graders were so cute and so full of questions and excitement. I was so happy that they were so excited about me being there and what I had to say. I played all sorts of games with them including; Simon Says, Heads Up 7-Up, and a game where a group of kids get in a circle and randomly join hands so that they are all knotted up and then see if they can undo the knot by squirming around. One of the classes was so happy that after I finished all the kids wanted me to give them my autograph! I was totally shocked but happy to do it for them.

Then I went back on Wednesday to see the same 3rd graders for the second time. They were even more excited to see me again and had thought of a million random questions for me the second time around. Some of the kids even gave me origami presents that they had made.

The cutest thing about Japanese elementary is that at lunch time they bring up a big pot of what ever that days lunch is and a few of the kids put on hairnets, masks, aprons, and gloves and serve all the other kids lunch. Plus all the kids have their own individual lunch kits that they bring from home with includes a cloth placemat, plastic chopsticks and toothbrush. All the kids sit down in their class and eat lunch together with the teacher, since I was a guest teacher I got to eat lunch with the kids who all fought over who got to sit next to me. Then after lunch a song comes on over the loudspeaker singing in a jingle about how great it is to brush your teeth after a meal.

The whole experience was so much fun and the kids were so cute and so funny. I really do have an odd job were I get to do all sorts of things from hanging out with kids, senior citizens, translating and who knows what else!

2006-12-13T10:03:00.000+09:00

Recently my supervisor came back from her honeymoon in Europe. Her husband is quite a good photographer and took some beautiful pictures of Germany and Switzerland. I liked some of the photos so much I asked her if I could post some of them here for all to see. While sitting at my desk at work sometimes I dream of taking trips to places like this!

Hanging with the Seniors

2006-12-07T09:46:00.000+09:00

Everyday this week I have been going to the Kashinokien Senior Citizens Day Service Center to talk and hang out with the silver members of Seika’s population. At first I was kind of nervous and unsure of what I should talk about or how I would be received. I had planned a few games and activities to do with the elderly folks just in case me talking bored them. But after the first day I ended up scrapping the games and just talking with them and telling them stories about my life.

I suppose that not many of the older folks have really had a chance to talk with a foreigner or have more than a basic interaction with one. I was happy and relieved that they all seemed pleased with my visit and where interested in what I had to say. I also got a lot of tough questions from some of the feisty ones. I was asked questions like; what I like and don’t like about Japan, why do I think they need to teach English in Japanese elementary schools, and why America seems to have more national pride than Japan? I was kind of caught off guard by a lot of these questions and had to improve appropriate yet polite responses.

The other thing that I like is that all the ladies all swoon over me and tell me how handsome and manly I am! I get a little ego boost every time I go from getting so many compliments and smiles. I know that it has been interesting for me to get some perspective on what older Japanese folks who have been around for a long time are thinking about the modern world. I just hope that the folks at the center appreciate my visits and get something out of them too.

Autumn in Kyoto

2006-11-30T10:55:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I decided to take a half day off work and go to see the beautiful scenery of Kyoto while the leaves are still in the midst of the Fall color change. It seems that I picked the perfect day to do so because yesterday was an unusually warm and sunny day. I first took the train up to Arashiyama which is in western Kyoto City. Arashiyama is full of gorgeous parks, temples, shrines and has a beautiful river that flowers right through. I thought I could avoid the crowds of people by going on a Wednesday afternoon, but it was still jam packed even on a weekday! I shudder to think how crowded it must be on the weekends. Around Arashiyama the colors where amazing; the reds, yellows and oranges of the tree leaves were so vibrant that I felt as if I was in a dream or possibly that I had died and gone to heaven.

Later in the evening I took the train back towards eastern Kyoto City to see the “light-up” at Kiomizudera temple. I have been there before in the day time but it is so much different to be there at night with all the fall colors illuminated by lights. It is such a peaceful and ethereal experience to see the fall colors lite-up to a stark black night backdrop. One of the things that I love must about Japan is the sharp contrast of the 4 seasons. Coming from California where the weather is pretty moderate year round it is great to experience a real Fall with all its glorious colors.

Whether Rain or Snow the 2006 Seika Town Festival Proceeds

2006-11-28T13:15:00.000+09:00

Despite the rain, wind and cold many people still showed up for the Seika Town Festival on Sunday November 19th. With all the hard work and preparation that so many people put into the festival nobody was going to let a little rain stop the fun. But while all the booths were able to endure the rain, unfortunately the parade and most of the concerts had to be canceled due to the heavy rain that began to fall right around noon.

As volunteers with Seika Global Network my workmate Chris and I helped out at the children’s face painting booth. At first the kids were hesitant to have us paint their faces but once a few brave souls took the plunge it snowballed into dozens of children lined up to get their faces painted. The majority of kids wanted Pikachu, Anpan-man, flowers, stars and mushrooms painted on their cheeks, but there were also a few other random requests that we tried our best to accommodate with our limited artistic skills.

Of course Chris, I and the other volunteers did our best to show the kids how much fun it was so I had a big yellow Pikachu on my cheek and Chris had an American flag on top of his head and a Japanese flag on his cheek to symbolize the importance of international exchange. Once the line started getting pretty long we were really painting a lot of faces and having a lot of fun. It was nice to have a chance to chat with each child for a couple minutes while we painted their faces and then send them off with a heart shaped balloon. The kids seemed to really enjoy it as well as they would often come running back later with a new friend to have them get their face painted too. So despite the rain on the day of the festival I think that the TV spot and the face painting were successes for our grassroots internationalization project in Seika Town.

Live on TV!

2006-11-28T13:12:00.000+09:00

On Saturday November 18th my workmate Chris and I got our 5 minutes of fame on TV! The funny thing is that it was literally 5 minutes, no more no less. What happened was that in preparation for the Seika Town Festival a TV crew from KBS Kyoto Television came down to Seika to do a short spot on some of the local groups, people and products that were going to be featured at the festival.

The TV crew interviewed Seika Town Mayor Kimura, a group of high school kids, a local strawberry grower, the local pastry chef, and Chris and I. We did a quick rehearsal but the TV spot was actually done live so there was no room for mistakes or blunders. Personally I have never been on TV so that alone was kind of scary to me, but to be interviewed live in Japanese on TV just made it even more scary. But even though I was nervous I was also excited about being on TV and getting the chance to promote Seika and the festival.

When it came around for our turn on the broadcast the reporters asked Chris and I about how we liked Seika, what we do at work, and what we would be doing at the festival the following day. Since we were going to be doing face painting at the festival Chris was asked to give a quick demonstration by painting the cheek of one of the reporters during the live interview. Chris and I were both nervous and excited and then it was over so quick. We were both happy and relieved that it went off without a hitch and now we can say that we were on TV and had our 5 minutes of fame!

16th Annual Seika Town Relay Race

2006-11-13T15:35:00.000+09:00

This past Sunday morning Seika Town held the annual Relay Race around Higashi Hikari Elementary School. Despite the harsh weather including chilly winter breezes, spurts of rain, and cloudy skies many people of all ages came out to run or to cheer on the runners.

Recently it has felt like Fall has been skipped and that we’ve gone straight into Winter. Sunday was really cold and there was a strong wind and dark ominous clouds in the sky the morning of the Relay Race. But regardless of the weather everyone still came out and gave their best effort in the race.

The race was broken up into two parts with the elementary school teams running first. After the young children finished their race the second part began which included everyone from junior high and high school age kids, and all ages of adults.

Each leg of the relay was only a little more than 2km so I didn’t figure it would be that difficult when I signed up for the race. Little did I know that the course was in the hilly region of town and that the last stretch of the course took us straight up a steep hill. Due to the cold and early sunset I have been a little lax on my jogging schedule so I felt out of shape for this race. All the factors including the weather, hills and the early start combined for a straining race for me. But in general the race was a lot of fun, and once we finished everyone was treated to a steaming hot bowl of udon noodles.

5th Annual Baroque Music Delight

2006-11-09T14:56:00.000+09:00

On Wednesday November 8th, Seika Town held the 5th Annual Baroque Music Delight Concert at the Town Office Exchange Hall. Seven students from the Doshisha University music department were invited to play for a crowd of over 100 people. The concert is organized for classical music lovers but also to display the beautiful pipe organ that Seika Town has in the Government Office.

There was solo pipe organ performances, a flute trio, and two vocalists. The young women played various Handel classics and mixed solo performances with combos of vocalist and singer as well as a full group of flutes, vocalists and organ. The performance was beautiful and having taken a look at the questionnaires concerning the concert it was obvious that the audience was quite moved by the performance.

It was pretty fun for me because I got to usher in the people when they arrived for the concert. The look of surprise on some people's face when they entered and had a foreigner greet them in polite Japanese and ask them, "Please kindly take a seat towards the front of the Hall" was unforgettable. It is always nice for me to be able to participate in community events because I get to meet the local people and more people see that there is an American working at the town office who actually participates in local events.

Seika Town offers a number of concerts and events of this type for the residents of Seika Town to enjoy. The next concert will be the “Fureai Concert” at the Keihanna Plaza on January 13th, 2007. If you live in or near Seika you should really take advantage of this upcoming show!

Seika Elementary/Junior High School Culture Exchange Concert

2006-11-08T15:21:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, at the concert hall at the Keihanna Plaza local elementary and junior high school children showed off their musical talent and hard work. Various school’s bands paired together to perform songs and become better acquainted. There were hundreds of children from various schools and they all got a chance to perform for each other.

The hard work and practice that the kids put into the music was evident as the performances were near perfect and the smiles on the kids faces afterwards were beaming. Much like my visit to Seika Junior High when I was surprised by the skill level and talent of the kids I was again blown away at how talented even the elementary school bands in Seika are. The event was a lot of fun and the kids all seemed to be happy to have been able to perform in front of their peers.

Seika Hits the Press!

2006-11-03T11:02:00.000+09:00

Wow! Today there is an article in the Mainichi Shinbun (newspaper) about the "Life in Seika, Japan" blog. Just a few days ago Mr. Shingu from the Mainichi Newspaper came to the Seika Municipal Office to have an interview with me about the blog, my work in Seika, and my experiences in Japan. I knew that he was interviewing me for an article for the paper but to actually go to the store this morning open up the paper and see a big picture of myself and an article about this blog was quite a shock.

The main purpose of this blog is to expose more people to the great qualities of Seika Town and to develop more interest and participation in the great events that are going on in Seika. So, to have the honor of being featured in such a widely distributed newspaper like the Mainichi Shinbun is not only exciting but will hopefully introduce this blog, and more importantly Seika Town, to a larger group of people. I hope that those of you who read the article in the Mainichi Shinbun and checked out this page enjoy the articles here and I want to thank you for visiting this site. I also want to thank Mr. Shingu for coming all the way to Seika to interview me and feature Seika Town and this blog in his article. What a great honor, this really made my day!

Seika Junior High School Student Presentation Assembly

2006-10-31T16:22:00.000+09:00

On Friday October 27th Joel, Chris and I were invited to judge the Seika Junior High School English Speech Contest. We went to Seika Junior High and were able to watch the students perform a variety of presentations for their fellow students, teachers and parents.

The main reason we went was to judge the English Speech Contest but we were also treated to a performance by the school orchestra, class choirs and student dance groups. I was extremely surprised by the skill level of the student’s English as well as their musical talent. The school is comprised of 3 grades and each grade choose about 6 of their best students to compete in the English Speech Contest. It fell on our shoulders to judge and choose one winner from each grade. As all of the students were quite good it was a very hard choice to make and we struggled over our decision. After we finally came to a decision we presented the winners with certificates, congratulating them in front of the students and parents. In America students don’t typically start learning a foreign language until high school so I was amazed that the students here are already speaking impressive English and taking part in English speech contests at such a young age.

The school orchestra played a number of difficult songs and I was shocked at how talented the group of junior high musicians are. Each class also has their own choir which performed 2 songs each accompanied by piano and conducted by members of their own class. As my junior high school in America had neither choirs nor an orchestra I was amazed at the skill and organization of the young Japanese students. It was a really fun day and a great experience for me to be able to watch and judge the student performances. I was very impressed by all of the performances and hope that I will be invited back for future events!

Children’s Festival

2006-10-23T09:34:00.000+09:00

On Saturday October 14th the Seika Town Education Committee held the annual Children’s Festival at Mukunoki Center. Hundreds of kids showed up and were treated to a wide variety of games, crafts, activities and entertainment. For a young child this must have been the most enjoyable day of the year! All the children were laughing and playing, happily enjoying all the different booths and events set up just for them. After opening remarks from Mayor Kimura a children’s orchestra played the theme song to Star Wars, and there were even robots in attendance.

As volunteers with Seika Global Network, my colleague Chris Bagwell (Coordinator for Sister City Relations) and I set up games and activities for the children to enjoy while trying to sneak in a quick English lesson. We taught the kids how to play a favorite American game, Twister, and read the children English language picture books. Seika Global Network also had a corner set up for the kids to draw pictures of dinosaurs in preparation for the “Dinosaur Art Contest” set up with Seika’s sister city Norman, Oklahoma.

The Children’s Festival was great fun for the children and also for all of us who worked as staff for the event. The children were so cute and seeing their smiling faces and watching them play Twister was so much fun for me. At lunch the children were treated to free curry and rice for lunch and the whole day was a great success. If the Children’s Festival was any indication of how much fun Seika Town Festival will be next month then I am really looking forward to it.

Agricultural Experience with the Home-stay Participants

2006-10-17T09:53:00.000+09:00

Seika Global Network and the Planning and Coordinating Division of Seika Town work together to bring foreigners to Seika for weekend home-stays with local Japanese families. These home-stays are planned during times when there are significant local events going on so that the home-stay participants can take part in local festivals and community events. Last Friday the participants for the Seika Children’s Festival Home-stay period arrived in town for their weekend home-stay.

After picking up the participants and giving them a tour of Seika by bus we went to a local farm for an agricultural experience. We all went to Hanayagi Farms for picking sweet potatoes and black edamame. I have to admit that I am a city boy and so this was the first time in my life that I have actually gone out into the fields and done real farm work. First we went in and got our hands dirty while rooting around in the soil for sweet potatoes. It was really fun to just stick your hands in the earth and feel around until you got hold of the purple sweet potatoes. It was really exciting to grab hold of something unseen and then yank out a really big sweet potato!

Next we went over to where the black edamame were growing to harvest the beans. The farm guide brought a large pair of clippers to cut the base of the edamame stocks, but I thought that was no fun so I asked if I could just yank it out of the ground by hand. At first he looked at me like I was crazy, but said it was fine if I wanted to. Rather than just cutting the stock and walking away it felt like real work to have to rip the roots out of the ground by hand using raw strength. Of course we only pulled one plant each so if we were doing it all day I’m sure I would want to use the clippers.

After we finished our harvests we were surprised to find that we got to take home the sweet potatoes and edamame that we picked! Having a huge bag of sweet potatoes that I doubt I could eat on my own I gave some to neighbors and coworkers. The next day I boiled the edamame and put a little salt on them and they were delicious! My neighbor and her little daughter who I gave sweet potatoes came by my apartment the following day and gave me a dish of the sweet potatoes she cooked up and they too were amazing.

That day that we went out to the farms was a beautiful Autumn day with clear sunny skies and a cool breeze. Right next to the potato fields were rice fields that were also being harvested. All the home-stay participants really enjoyed the agricultural experience and we all had a lot of fun out in the fields picking potatoes and edamame. The participants then went home with their home-stay families and we all parted for the night, but would meet again the next day as we were all going to help out at the Children’s Festival the next day.

To be continued…

Culture Day

2006-10-12T14:07:00.000+09:00

As part of Seika Junior High’s Culture Day some of the students learned about the local Yamashiro history from local author and historian Yoshihisa Azuma. Then after the lesson the students took a trip to one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Seika Town. Takenouchi Shrine is one of the oldest shrines in town which has several old buildings and gorgeous surroundings. The resident Shinto Priest, Mr. Tanaka, gave them a brief background lesson about the shrine’s history, showed them some artifacts that date back to the 14th Century and gave them a tour of the grounds.

Even though Seika is a relatively small town it was a long history and due to its rural location the shrines and temples have withstood the years. Seika is located right in between Kyoto and Nara and was part of the ancient roads linking the two important capitals. Therefore Shines like Takenouchi and others were able to flourish during those periods and are now considered invaluable local cultural assets.

It is said that this shrine once sat side by side with Inayazuma Castle, the last remaining fort of the Yamashiro Region Riots which began in the fuedal times of the Middle Ages (17th year of the Bunmei Era-1485) when the citizens demanded peace and a self-government. Some wooden planks on this shrine that date from the Kamakura Period (1318), together with some of the shrine's ornately designed roof ornaments, are designated ‘Important Cultural Properties’ of Kyoto.

Seika Global Network Japanese Cooking Class

2006-10-11T16:22:00.000+09:00

Due to the various international research facilities that compromise the Kansai Science City there are about 200 foreign residents living and working in Seika Town. A local NPO called Seika Global Network offers various programs to help support and integrate the foreign population of the area. Not too long ago I was invited by Seika Global Network to come to their weekly Japanese language class that they offer free of charge for the foreign population of Seika. Normally this is a classroom environment where Japanese tutors help the foreigners with their Japanese and also teach some key cultural lessons. The week that I went was a special day and instead of having the normal class we went to the local community center (Mukunoki Center) for a Japanese cooking class!

Mukunoki Center is a new and really big community center that has everything from cooking rooms, music practice rooms, judo and kendo practice areas, basketball courts to an exercise gym. On this day about 40 of us gathered in the immaculately clean and spacious cooking room to make vegetable tempura, sushi and various other dishes. I think for most of us it was the first time we had a chance to make traditional Japanese cuisine and all the Seika Global Network volunteers were extremely helpful and nice in instructing us on the proper way to prepare the dishes.

The foreign population is quite diverse here in Seika and there were people from China, Korea, Peru, Eastern Europe and India. So it was really interesting to meet the people who live in town that I do various things for at work but rarely have a chance to meet face to face.

It was really fun to make the food but as it started piling up and looking more and more delicious it became harder and harder to hold myself back from eating the tempura right out of the fryer. But once everything was done we all sat down and had a big (40 people) group dinner and ate all the great food that we had just made. Everything was good and Nishi Sensei gave us some essential pointers on Japanese table manors.

After the meal everyone pitched in and we washed all the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. It was funny as having so many people from different cultures together there were a few people that seemed surprised to see men cooking and cleaning! All in all it was a fun night and I think everyone did learn a lot about Japanese cuisine, language and of course about each other.

Sports Day at Seika Junior High School

2006-10-11T14:48:00.000+09:00

Children at Seika Junior High are pretty lucky kids! The school semester started about a month ago and already the school has a week long Fall break. Wow, we never had a Fall break where I went to school in the US. Even better than that, they had Sports Day at the school, where the kids can play all sorts of different sports. Unfortunately it was pouring rain today so all the outdoor sports activities including kickball and tennis had to be canceled. But there was no lack of fun to be had inside. When I first showed up the kids were playing Ping-Pong and badminton. I myself play a little Ping-Pong, but these kids were way better than me. Maybe that’s because they are shorter and therefore closer to the table with a better eye on the ball?! No, these kids are just well practiced and intense.

Then they took down all the Ping-Pong tables and badminton nets and set up a soft volleyball tournament. You may be wondering what “soft” volleyball is right? I was wondering too, basically it is exactly the same as regular volleyball except the ball is bigger and softer. Its almost like a beach ball made of soft rubber. It is easier to hit and seems to float more than a regular ball. Along with the kids a lot of the teachers and some parents had come to play and they set up teams to play against the kids.

On a dark rainy day like today having a sports day at the school seemed like the perfect thing to do. It seemed like a lot of fun for the kids and the grown-ups as well. No doubt this was not just set up for the kids to play and have fun. Sports of all types are very popular in Japan and seem to play an important function in society teaching kids teamwork, the value of practice, and the ever present importance of hard work and perseverance. There is a very pervasive phrase in Japanese, “Ganbatte!” It roughly translates as “Do your best!” or “Give it your all!” If you ever go to any sporting event you will hear “Ganbatte” or some of its other forms as reminders for everyone to do their best, and to encourage everyone. But this doesn’t apply to just sports, at work or even when out with friends Japanese people are constantly encouraging others to do their best and persevere. Sports Day at Seika Junior High was great fun for everyone but also a good lesson in the value of perseverance for the kids.

First Impressions of Seika

2006-09-27T14:03:00.000+09:00

I’ve been in Seika for about 3 weeks now and I’ve been pretty preoccupied by setting up my apartment and getting accustomed to my new job. So far I really haven’t had much time to explore the town or meet that many people, but it seems that everywhere I go people seem to know exactly who I am! The first few projects that I did as the new Coordinator for International Relations was to write an introductory article about myself for the town newsletter, get interviewed by a local newspaper, and give a short speech in front of the town council meeting that was apparently televised. So even though I don’t know many people around town lots of people have read all about me and recognize my face from the pictures in the papers. Wow, this is a completely new experience for me!

Having lived in big cities like San Francisco and Tokyo and never having had even one minute of fame, I am used to a life of complete anonymity. I don’t know if any of you have ever had this experience but it is strange to be recognized by people I have never even met before. In a small town like Seika I feel like a celebrity. At first it was alarming to hear that people actually read the articles I wrote and saw my pictures in the paper, but now I am starting to see how close of a community I live in and that I actually have a position that people take notice of.

So this is the Japan I always heard of: Not the glitzy buzzing frenzy that is Tokyo, but the small town where people know each other and actually say hi on the streets when they pass. Everywhere I go people are friendly and are happy to help if I have what seems like a random and possibly stupid question. For example, I actually stopped a women in the market to ask which was the best type of rice to buy. She seemed pleased to take 5 minutes to explain to me all the different types of rice and how to prepare them. Also it seems like it may be impossible to actually pay for a meal when I go out as I always end up having a lively conversation with an unknown person sitting close by who ends up treating me to my meal. These are things that I heard happened in Japan but never actually experienced having lived in Tokyo for a year.

Seika Town seems to represent the essence of small town Japanese life and is truly a great place to live. Now I am really starting to see why my predecessor said that I was lucky to have gotten a job in this town.