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...