The Festival

The Shizuoka festival was last month, and I promised to show you my costume. I dressed up as カオナシ or "no face" from the movie 千と千尋の神隠し or "Spirited Away". The character is a well known cultural icon which meant two things: I was super popular with the ladies!! and children under the age of 6 would run away from me scared... He is a ghost spirit thingy after all...

See. Spoooookkkkyyyy!

Also the character doesn't speak beyond an "aah... aah...", which was great for me, because staying in character meant not talking, which meant that no one, except for BEST club members knew I was a foreigner! People could come up to me and ask me questions, or say something, and I would just stare at them and offer them soup! Hilarious! IN YOUR FACE, language barrier!!


Speaking of soup, that is what we were selling at the festival. Above is a picture of our booth. See the character on the left? Look familiar? Anyway, as you can see by reading the sign, we had 4 kinds of soups; onion, corn, minestrone, and chige (pronounced, chee-gay) which is a Korean soup. They all tasted really good, and they students put a lot of time and energy into making them.

The festival is a big event for all the students, and everyone works really hard to prepare and sell whatever it is they are selling. So to have a foreigner dress up and make a fool of himself for the sake of the group, apparently, is quite memorable. And I helped sell a lot of soup too! Probably, mostly due to the fact that everyone was too afraid to not take the soup that I was offering to them... (if you've seen the movie, you know what I mean)

Hello, I'm back! A lot of people are pretty excited about the elections results around here. Especially Obama city Japan. I mentioned them before.

So, I recently sent out a newsletter the oldskool way (mail). Sorry if you were expecting a Japan postmark, but the company that mails them is located in America. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed making it. Perhaps some of you reading found out about my blog from my newsletter. If this is your first time, make sure you check out some of the older entries too. They're fun!


Recently, it was Halloween. Unfortunately, Japan doesn't know what Halloween is nor does Japan celebrate Halloween. But that doesn't mean we still can't enjoy it! Also unfortunately, neither of the three men in that photo are me. Especially not bumblebee man! So, maybe this begs the question, "what were you for Halloween, Elbert?" Well, to not fully answer your question, I was a famous Japanese cartoon character from a movie...

Any guesses?

To be honest, I don't have a photo, but I will be wearing my costume again next week, and I'll be sure to take a photo, and tell you who I am. But this brings me to my next event...


...That's another Halloween picture.

Next weekend is the Shizuoka University festival. Festivals are big! As in a big deal! And they are rather large in size too. This one will be no exception. Each club or group usually sells something, and people from all over come to have fun. This year we are selling soup. The menu is Corn, french onion, and a Korean soup that you wouldn't understand even if I wrote the name. This is an important event for all the students, and we will be working hard together this weekend. (A recent e-mail said our goal is to sell 800 bowls...!!!) Our stand's theme is from the movie that my costume's character is from, which is why I will be wearing it at the festival. So, i hope to document the event, and try to give you the festival experience next week. Until then!

And here I go again!

Yes! It's been a year. It's hard to say whether it has been fast or slow. I'm sure for some of the people that wish I was back home, perhaps it seems like it's been a while.

Many of the yearly events are happening again. So whereas last year, I was doing almost everything for the first time, now I will have some familiarity with many of the things going on. Not to mention having deeper relationships, being more confident in Japanese, and hopefully less general frustration.

So, the semester has started again, and I can already say that things are looking really great. I now have an English class with a lot of my close friends. This semester, we will be reading, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". This, of course leaves, room for lots of discussion, and the students are looking forward to it. There are also a lot of students in this years freshman Bible discussion too. So, it's quite an exciting start to this year, and there is a lot to look forward to.

In the near future there is the Young Laborers conference, which is a conference for the Japanese Christians in the various BEST clubs. It's a good chance for them to meet and build community and grow together.

As for me, I actually hurt my ankle two weeks ago. I couldn't walk for a day, but it didn't seem so serious, and seemed to be better a few days later. So if you had asked me last week, I would have told you it was ok. However, this week, after playing soccer, something happened and my ankle got all swollen. I think I got bitten by a buy on top of my already swollen ankle, but I don't really know. It was strange because it did not hurt at all. Soooo, now my foot seems to be better again, but I think I'm going to avoid sports for a while and make sure.

As for everything else, I am fine. The temperature is lowering, which means were headed back for the cold winters again. I'm sure some of you remember me complaining about that last year. And if it wasn't for the economy, I'd have no problems; perhaps the only bad change from last year. The exchange rate is now 100 yen to the dollar, which is down from the comfortable 110 it's been at for a while, which is down from the 120 it was at when I first got here. It feels like a 10% salary decrease... Oh well, I suppose I can't complain too much. I guess we all have our economical problems.

Speaking of economy, which is now related to politics, which is now related to the presidential election, a lot of people really like Obama here in Japan. Some not for any real informed reason. Mostly, because there is a citiy in Japan called Obama city. Everyone in that city loves him. I think it's funny.

I haven't taken any pictures recently, so my apologies for a text wall.

My parents

Well, a lot has happened since August. Actually, a lot has happened since June! In some ways I felt like I had reached my limit on what I was able to do. Having three months of nonstop activities without break is quite taxing. However, I've been able to persevere and now I have some time off to get myself recovered before the semester starts again in October.

I was in Hokkaido for over a week and a half, which I will talk about later, but before that, let me tell you that my parents came to Japan!

Perhaps many of you already know, because you have probably talked to them since they have been back, but my parents came to Japan to visit me here in Shizuoka.

I had a very good time together with them. After almost a year away, I think it was good for the both of us to see each other again. Also, I think it gave them a good idea of what it is like here, and some of the things I do and people I live with. I hope they are now able to see why God chose me to be here, and why I love it here so much.

So, if you see my parents, I'm sure they have some great stories to tell you about their experience here.

Hidatakayama Part 2

The second day we went to Shirakawago. It's a preserved old Japanese village. It was quite fun. It's fun to imagine what life would have been like it a village like that. Here is a quite long video that you can watch to see some of the things that were there. If you can get over the motion sickness my shakey-cam will induce, you may find some interesting things there.



In retrospect, I think we may have just walked in the tool shed in the beginning. We couldn't really tell if it was part the the village, or where the hedge trimmer keeps his stuff. However, the bell was authentic, and sounded really cool. And I hope Gabi's wish comes true!

The whole trip was a very fun time with the summer team. There was more, but I'll spare you the pictures of old houses and buildings. Instead here is a completely unrelated video from the trip!

The greatest Engrish poster ever!

This picture speaks for itself...



Want to buy some ice cream and any?

Hidatakayama Part 1

The past few weeks have been jam packed, as it was the end of the summer workers time here in Japan, and the arrival of my parents. There is a lot of stuff to talk about, but I'll tackle them one at a time.

Hidatakayama was a very fun trip with the summer team. Nagaisan has dubbed it "little Kyoto" as it has that traditional Japanese feeling without having to travel forever to actual Kyoto. It was the first time since I have been in Japan (since October 2007) that I actually did something touristy. I had only been in Shizuoka (the opposite of touristy) and perhaps some trips with students, but never to famous places or somewhere you would see in tour guide. Hidatakayama is just that, and was very fun. I recommend it if you come to Japan, although you'd probably just go to Kyoto... Anyway, I could talk about it, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.


And I discovered the Triforce! Now I can save Princess Zelda!

Going away

I'm about to leave for Hidatakayama. So, I'll be away for three days. The next two weeks is booked solid starting now, so let's hope I can keep it together. I'll tell you all about it when I get back!

The summer workers have arrived!

"Summer workers" refers to the team of people that come and help BEST club each summer. Why that is the name, I don't know, but they do work hard. I was a summer worker in 2005, and is the experience that launched my decision to return to Japan. Maybe some of the smiling faces in that photo will make the same decision?

They have actually been here since June, and account for most of my time spent recently. Summer workers are the nucleus of summertime events, and it's been great to have other Americans around for fellowship. To be honest, I had forgotten what it was like to actually be around many native speakers. In a world where I am slowly becoming more Japanese, it is nice to be pulled back to the American side of things.


Going places with 10 other Americans can easily become a circus here in Japan, especially when we are all riding bikes in a line down the street, but, there are no complaints here. I've had nothing but a great time hanging out with the summer workers and students. Going places with them has even encouraged my Japanese, as usually I am the one that has to talk to someone wherever we go, since they can not speak Japanese. Well, neither can I, but I guess it's good enough... ^_^

They will be here until August 7th. That time is approaching soon, so I hope to enjoy the time we have left together.

Freshman camp

There have been quite a few things that I haven't been able to talk about recently, so I'm going to play catch up.


Freshman camp is one of the bigger events this summer. This is the first large event for freshman, and it is a bonding experience for both students to students, but also students to BEST club. This is one the first times where freshman get to be involved in activities with upper classmen and get to really meet all the members of BEST.

It was quite fun, and it marks a great milestone in my relationships with students. In BEST club, it has become a tradition for the each grade class to have matching sports jerseys with their names on the back. This way when everyone plays sports, you can see who is in what class. Well, in the middle of the camp, both Mandy and I were both surprised by the sophomore class with matching sophomore class jerseys! It's hard to express the meaning that is behind a gift like that, but it's quite incredible. The current sophomore class is who we are the closest with, and I almost cried at the thought that they wanted to include us as a sophomore! It's a big deal! Anyway, enough sappynesss, here are some pictures.

Argentina colors. And I think they picked number 6, because that is the month of my birthday.

In some ways, I feel like "belonging" is one of the highest values in Japanese culture, (where as in America "independence" is higher) so to be invited to 'belong' is a very, very strong sentiment.

...ok, ok, I'm going to stop, or I may cry again...

I'm still here ^_^

Well, vacation is coming up in a few weeks, which will be great, because I've been working really hard recently. Maybe too hard. I've been having trouble getting some personal time into my schedule.

I know it's been a while, but my schedule has been overflowing with stuffs. Just as a quick rundown, the summer team has been here since August, Aileen has finished her mid-term and has returned to America, Brian VanZante and his family has returned to America to visit family, among other things, my junior highschool classes are coming to an end, I have my final BEST club English class this week, I have taken and failed my Japanese drivers test three times, and my parents are visiting Japan next month.

Yikes!

Yay! More people!

Good news! Two new freshman girls have joined my English class, so now there are five freshman and one sophomore. It's very fun. Every week we read the Bible, and practice English conversation, among other things. Last week, we discussed how talking in English is like a game of tennis, where the conversation goes back and forth, as opposed to Japanese, where conversation can be more like bowling at times. So we had various converstations while throwing tennis balls back and forth to help visualize the nature of the conversation. It went really well.

The summer workers are coming in about two weeks. There will be lots of stuff going on then too. ...like my schedule isn't full enough as is! ^_^

Just a normal update this time

Well sorry, no new pictures. I haven't taken any recently. The semester has begun, and now there seems to something always happening. Between working part time, and BEST club activities, my schedule is pretty full, if not overloaded. On Wednesdays, I have an English discussion class for interested BEST club underclassmen. Right now, there are three freshmen guys, and a sophomore. They all have a desire to speak English, and we are quickly seeming to become good friends. There is also a girl who may be coming next week. She is a new freshman, and I don't think I have met her before. Anyway, I really like the class, and the people in it. It would be perfect if I wasn't always about to die from having taught at the Junior High School earlier in the day. Wednesdays are essentially a 7am-10pm day... Yuck! Hey, that's like a normal Japanese workday for most people!

Now is "Golden Week". It's a period of time during the year where there are 5 Japanese holidays that line up in a row. So, it a big vacation for Japan. There are a lot of people who have left. Golden week doesn't mean anything to me, just as much as probably Spring Break means to a Japanese person. But, I do get a break from teaching, which means I can finally catch up on all the "loose ends" that have been accumulating for a while.

I wish I had a secretary. ^_^

A new semester

Tomorrow is the first day of the new semester! This is really exciting, because we will finally be able to begin the regular activities of BEST club again. Recently, there have really only been vacationy, "touristy" trips and activities, because it's been, well.... vacation. For the students, that is. We will start BEST club recruiting next week, which is to invite new freshman to join BEST. It's an all club event, and it will be my first time to experience it. I'll let you know how it goes later.

It's cherry blossom season now. Cherry blossoms are called "Sakura" in Japanese. They are only in bloom for about two weeks, so I took some pictures before they are all gone. It's quite a short window of opportunity every year, and many Japanese people take time off to travel to sakura gardens, as it is quite beautiful. This tree happens to be at the bottom of the hill in our neighborhood. Sakura trees are all over Japan, but I didn't really notice until now. The White House has Cherry Blossoms, I think. I wonder why?


I think soccer is the most popular sport in the world. Probably the only place it is not popular is in America, I imagine. I could be wrong, but nevertheless it is very popular in Japan. So my roommates planned a trip to a soccer game. S-Pulse is the name of the team for Shimizu, which is like an area of the Shizuoka prefecture, or something like that.

It was really fun. The biggest difference in spectation is the cheering. Fans for each team have a series of cheers that they preform during the game in unison. There is even a cheer leader that stands in the bleachers and leads the cheers. (not to be confused with the cheerleaders, who were the women on the field). If there is any testament to the state of Japanese group oriented society it has to be their cheering. I took a video. This is only one of maybe 10 or so cheers that we did. ....everyone knows them all!?

Taking the "major" out of "major holiday"

Well, Easter has come and gone. I don't know if it really need to be said, but Easter is not a Japanese holiday. So where as in America, at the very least, you are constantly reminded by bunnies and eggs everywhere, I kinda forgot that Easter was this month, because there are none of those typical reminders that we are so used to. I didn't miss Easter. I just said, "oh! tomorrow is Easter, right?" So, we had an Easter message at church. That's about all the Easter there was. I had to chuckle at the thought of how I am in the habit of doing so much (the church service on Friday before, on Sunday, and Easter dinner with family. chocolate too, I guess) and how here there wasn't really anything. I don't know if I'd call it culture shock, but it's definitely another reminder that I am not home... and I'm not in short supply of those at all ^_^

The new semester starts in a week or so, which means there is going to be a lot going on in April. I'm looking forward to it.

update-mini

Well, it's a little long delayed, but I've been meaning to get some pictures from some friends, since I haven't taken many of my own. There have been a lot of random happenings recently. Here are a quick few...



Yep, I learned to snowboard. I'll have to say it's probably my new favorite hobby. There were actually a lot of new learners this time, so it was good that I was not alone. Nothing brings people together quite like falling on your butt a million times in front of others. But as you can see, it's quite a popular trip.

This is the group photo from that all Japan staff conference. For reasons unknown, this photo was taken when not all of the group was around... But anyway, Jerry Bridges was the speaker, and you can see him in the photo. He's like 76 or something! I'm sure there are some of you that have read his books. He could very well be the most famous Navigator!

More to come soon! ^_^

Goodbye Seniors!

Recently, we had the Senior farewell party. It was a time to honor and remember the time that they had in BEST club. Not all of them are in fact graduating, but they are all in the same class, which is what is important. The event was actually quite a tear-jerker. Not only have these people had a big influence on the underclassmen in BEST, but met all of them when I was a summer worker two years ago, so I know them quite well. Also, 4 of them studied at Penn State, which means that out of all the students in BEST, they are the closest to me.

I think this is the first step out of many changes that will be happening to BEST club. Not only is there a very influential class graduating, but the O'Donnells have arrived in Japan (more on that later) and later this year there will be quite a few international students returning to Japan from their studies abroad. I'll be keeping you updated on how things proceed, especially when the club recruiting process starts in April, which I am looking forward to.

So anyway, I haven't uploaded a movie in a while, so I thought I'd leave you with that. Here you have the senior farewell grand finale. We all sung a song by Kobukuro (コブクロ) earlier in the honoring (well, me, specifically), but this was the encore, goodbye presentation by the seniors. I hope you enjoy. The person in the middle is my roommate Daichan. The video speaks for itself in regard to him. ^_^ Karaoke anyone?

The flu strikes, and I need to buy kerosene

There aren't a lot of events going on at the moment, because it's finals time, and all the students are studying or finishing their thesis'. But here is perhaps some insight into life and my experience of winter in Japan.

For being what seems like one of the most advanced countries in terms of technology and medicine, it seems strange to me that there seems to be some sort of flu epidemic in this country. For the past month, I've seen people left and right getting sick with the flu, and/or other sickness. For now, it's a blessing that my house seems to be immune to the effects, but recently it has not been uncommon to hear about schools closing due to 25-35% of the school population being home sick with the flu! I remember that happening once in middle school, and it was a big deal. I get the feeling this isn't a rare occurrence around this time of year in Japan.

I'm not trying to sound dramatic, nor do I want you to feel like a quarter of the population of Japan is bedridden. That's not true at all. My house has been blessed with what seems to be an immunity for the time being, as not one has gotten sick here as of yet, but it's still winter and still cold.

Something that can not be truly articulated in a blog, or letter is how it is cold here. Not "how cold it is", but "how it is cold". I'm not going to say it's cold here, because compared to home in Pennsylvania it's nothing. Let's see... I'm checking the weather... and in Philadelphia it is between 10-30 degrees (wow...) Here it is between 30-50 degrees. So, it would seem like your high temperature is our low temperature. BUT! the difference is my house is not heated... Well, that's not entirely true. But, our fireplace is mainly for when guests are over, and the kerosene heaters can only effectively heat one room, and it's not cost effective (at all) nor Japanese (at all) to just turn them all on to heat the house. Tack on the fact that this house, and any typical Japanese home is not well insulated (for good reason, but I don't need to get into that), and you have a cold environment outside, a cold environment inside that heats slowly, and does not retain heat for periods of time. And right now we are out of kerosene, so there is no escape from the cold. (I think I've been using too much, which is why we are out, but I'm not sure) So, I am telling you this not for sympathy, but to demonstrate my hunch as to why so many people are sick. If I can see my breath indoors, that can't be good for health!

On the more positive end of this, having it being cold all the time forces us into the same room to conserve energy when heating a room. So I've been able to spend some good time with my roommates as we are all sitting, huddled underneath Daichan's kotatsu, which is essentially a heated table (*see here). If we're going to be cold, at least we can all be cold together, right!?

The M.A.D. Show

So, what is the M.A.D. Show? Don't quote me on it, but I think it stands for Music Acting and Dance. ...maybe that's totally wrong, but nevertheless it is a talent show of sorts. This annual event showcases the talent of BEST club students in whatever form they want to show. For example, I took part in a skit (that included a dance number), and there were comedy routines, dancing, piano, a magic performance, singing, and rap.

My groups skit was entitled "Modern Cinderella", and included elements of the Cinderella story but in a modern Japanese setting. I had the role of a fortune teller, who was to give advice to Cinderella. At the end, when Cinderella was reunited with the prince, who was just a cool guy, we all "celebrated their reunion" with the show stopping, final dance number from High school Musical! It was kinda bizarre and made sense all at the same time. And as it turned out, we all got first place!

Here is a picture of me and Sekki, who was the MC, and dressed up as Mickey as he can do a really good Mickey impression. Mind you, it's an impression of the Japanese voice of Mickey. And finally, I'd like the thank the internet for it's turban tying lessons.

A dilema settled the Japanese way

So, in this situation, all of us decided to have sushi for dinner. It is a lot cheaper to get a large amount, but the issue came up of dividing all the good sushi with the 10 people. Well, like all problems in Japan, the only fair solution is to play "Jan-Ken", which is the Japanese version of Rock-Paper-Scissors. I'm not joking in any way when I say almost every problem is solved by this method!

So, in this video someone nominates a sushi, and then the people that want to eat it play Jan-Ken to see who can eat the available 4. It was a hilarious meal! Also, here is your chance to experience the dynamic of a Japaneses gathering of friends. It's also worth pointing out that having bi-lingual conversation is quite normal with upperclassmen. We can all understand each other in our own language (for the most part ^_^)


For those that are curious, what they are saying is "Seishyo wa gu. Janken poi!" to start. At a draw, you say "Aiko desho!" and play another hand until a winner is decided. You'll notice it gets shortened to "desho, desho, desho" because there was no winner for a while. Being able to judge a game is very difficult, but I'm getting better at being able to keep up with the speed they play the game. I play this game, at a minimum, once a week, so it doesn't take long before you get used to it.

And sorry Mandy, I'd explain how I got the video from you, but it would take more than 10 minutes! ^_^ I'll give you a hint: HTML source! HAHAHAHA!

Mega New Years Update Part Three

Christmas has now become New Years, which is a much more important holiday here in Japan. This is the time of vacation. Not only in the sense the the students are on break for the semester, but also this is the time that we get to take a break from our BEST club duties and ministry.

So what do you do when you have to spend your first Christmas away from home in 23 years? Spend it with the other people that are away from home! There is certainly no time like Christmas that puts the "foreign" in foreign country. So for Christmas, coming from our respective prefectures, we all traveled to Karuizawa to create 'Little America', and celebrate Christmas together, the way we know and love. It was a fun time, and that may be the last time that all of us will be together, as some of the people you see in the picture will be returning to America.

Happy New Years! And what better way to bring in the New Year by taking a large hammer, and hitting a big pile of rice! No, I'm not joking... In this picture, I am helping to make mochi; a traditional Japanese New Years food. It's essentially hammered rice, until it turns into a dough-like paste. It's rolled into balls, and usually eaten with kinako powder, which I don't know how to explain, or anko, which is a sweet red bean. It's much more delicious than I'm aware it sounds when I describe it. We also made a soup-thing, which I too don't really know how to describe. It's kind of like Japanese nabe, but that doesn't help either, does it... That's why I took video! So, maybe just watch it and then you can see. The people in the video are upperclassmen, and/or BEST alumni.

Here is a video of me making mochi. It may look easy, but you have to be very careful not to hit the wooden rim of the bowl, or you could crack the bowl (which is very expensive) or the hammer (probably expensive too)



Here is a video of my good friend Shige making mochi also. The people in the background are not really saying anything, but they were trying to start a rhythm that just became funny.



This is the soup being made. It tasted very good despite the fact that it contained vegetables that I didn't even know existed...