Shopping and Photos of the Day

What a beautiful day it was today, made all the more lovely thanks to my day off. The sun was shining, the sky was a wonderful shade of blue and the breeze was just a little cool. Now that I have to line-dry the laundry, I recognized today as a great laundry day, too!

The boys went outside to play, Ridge, of course, riding on his bike. I was hanging up wet clothes when I realized it was a bit too quiet. Poking my head around the bushes separating us from Ryuya's house, I saw my children gleefully helping Grandma Otasaka (Ryuya's grandmother - they live in a mult-generational house) shell soybeans. The past few days have been clear and dry, so many people are harvesting thier gardens. As you can see in the picture, she has a pile of beans she spread out to dry. The boys seemed to be having fun and she looked happy enough, so I left then alone. I went into the house, grabbed a pile of unintelligible bills, and darted across the street to seek some translation help from my friend Fusae. Whenever we get mail, I take it to her so she can tell me what it is. Turns out, Aaron had paid the water and sewer bill (someone showed up yesterday and wanted money, so Aaron just paid and figured he would sort it out later), we had a couple of things informing us of when a certain bill would be paid, etc., and that we did not owe an electric bill just yet. I also had to show her my bank book. Several of our bills are automatically deducted, but - Duh! - I can't read the printout in my bank book to know what bill was paid. Oh, I should back up a second. When we take money out (everything here is totally cash - no debit cards, no checks), we insert our bankbook and it is automatically updated in the ATM machine. So, I saw a withdrawal that I did not make, and wanted Fusae to tell me which bill had been paid. Fun, huh?

Anyway, to make a short story longer than necessary, when I went back across the street, there were Ridge and Holt, decked out with hats and playing next to Grandma Otasaka in a box of dirt she put out for them. They must have played like that for an hour or so. Then, when she was done, she nudged them up and out of the yard, saying, "bye bye!"

After nap, we ran into Monbetsu (an hour away, remember) so I could get some things for work. We needed to go to the toy store, and Aaron amused himself by taking pictures. Later, at the grocery store, he did the same thing. So, here is the explanation for the pictures. Click on each link to see the photo.

Toy store: just a shot of a typical Japanese toy store - Hello Kitty, Lego, and that's "Anpanman" off to the upper left. I don't know what he is, just that he is some sort of baked good. His arch enemy is a chartoon character with Sushi on top of his head. Go figure.
Toy Store

This toy store has a big section of food "goodies". These pictures are a couple of "yummies" that kids can whine and beg their parents for. Ours didn't, though. Wonder why? Hmmm....could it be that our children don't seem to crave dried squid or shrimp cakes? Sorry for the fuzzy closeup, but if you look closely, you can see the shape of a dried squid. A whole, dried, squid. As a treat. I don't care how long we live here, that will never seem like a treat to me.
Squid Treat
Shrimp Treat

Here is an impressive assortment of Thomas the Tank Engine die cast toys. He's a popular character here. Not as popular, though, as Anpanman. Anpanman has a television show.
Thomas Toys

If you have seen the wonderful Japanese animated movie called "My Neighbor Totoro", you'll appreciate these fuzzy characters. We watched it in Juneau, dubbed, of course. It's a very cute movie. All these little guys are different kinds of spirits.
Cuddly Spirits

The grocery store has a little dinning area where we ate dinner. Every Japanese resteraunt has a display of fake food so guest can really see what they will be getting. That is what this first shot is a picture of - the menu. The second is a poster advertising one of the snack foods they serve. Yes - that is a tentacle with suckers on it. Did you ever wake up one morning and say to yourself, "gee, I sure would like some octopus fried up in a little ball,"? Me neither.
Menu
Yummy, Yummy Octopus

Streaming Video of Boys

By the way, if you see green text within what I have written, that means it is a link to a picture or streaming video.

Here are two videos for you.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star as sung by Ridge and Holt
An incomplete reading of Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you Hear

Songs

In case you are inclined, you can listen to the two songs the middle schoolers sang on Sunday. Now that I know how to put things on my father's server, I'm going a little wacky and trying out everything. If enough people let me know that viewing the mpg file in the post below this one worked for them, I'll post some of Ridge and Holt.

Kokoro no Hitomi
Cosmos

Again, I'll warn you that these may take a few minutes to download, and again, please give me feedback on how they worked for you.

Middle School Culture Festival

Thursday will be a day off for me, thanks to the Middle School Culture Festival. The middle school teachers and students have actually had today and yesterday off, to compensate them for all the work they put in this past weekend. Try to imagine a school music concert, a sixth-grade play, a seventh-grade play, an eighth-grade play, and an oral recitation all performed in one day instead of spread out over several evenings. If you can do that without getting exhausted, then you might have a slight understanding of what the middle school culture festival entailed.

I have been watching the middle school students prepare for this event for several weeks, now. In fact, for about a week, my English classes were cancelled to free up more prep time for the students. These guys are not kidding around at all. This culture festival stuff is serious business, and not just here in Nishiokoppe. Colin, the teacher from Australia who filled in for a year, came up from the town he is currently teaching in to help "judge" the English Recitation contest. He told me that this was his third Sunday in a row to spend at a school culture festival. The one he attended previously was "really professional," he said. Each year, this other school hires a choreographer from Tokyo to come up for three weeks (seriously!) and teach all the students a dance. Anyway, the kids have been working their hearts out, nearly non-stop. I arrived at the school at a little before 9:00 on Sunday. I don't know how long the kids and staff had been there, but I know it had to be a while. The program that was distributed said (I only know this thanks to Colin) that the event would take place from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., with a one-hour lunch break at noon. Families traipsed in with their bento boxes (Japanese picnic food) and the blankets and cushions they always bring to sit on. The lights went out, and the room was lit by the soft glow of camcorder after camcorder. Those without camcorders were content to take pictures with their phones. I still can't get used to that.

What followed were about three plays (here's the second grader's play - they only have one girl, so the boys had to dress up), a couple of musical numbers where students dressed in silly costumes and sang karaoke-style to a popular song, the English recitation, two choral songs, 10 minutes of the brass band (I love that baritone sax! It's nearly as big as she is), and a song done with taeko drums (sorry for the fuzzy picture). Each "act" in the festival began and ended with the same buzzer used during sporting events. I'm not sure I understand why. Most things here in Japan that make noise, usually make a lovely little song. For example, our doorbell sings a song, as does the microwave, and the washer announces that it is finished with a pleasant little beeping. So, why did they choice an obnoxious buzzer to signal the beginning and ending of a performance? I guess I will never know.

The amount of work that was put into this production was amazing. Still, the students seemed to have fun. I think the teachers' favorite part was the party they threw themselves Sunday evening. We had dinner at the hotel - a fancy dinner, too. We sat on traditional tatami floors with cushions. The meal was complicated and consisted of small portions of many different foods, most of them being seafood. One cup held something white and slimy, accented by little red lines. Colin and I, after close examination, decided we would not be eating it. The P.E. teacher, across from us, in conversation, mentioned that it was raw shrimp. I said, "That’s bait!" and mimed casting out a fishing line. He laughed, and said, "I am a fish!" After the meal, we moved across the hall to the bar and, yes, you guessed it, busted out the karaoke machine. Of course. After all, what kind of work party would it be without karaoke? The music teacher, Ayaka, tried to get me to sing Amazing Grace with her, but I begged off. The Japanese language teacher tried to get me to explain the meaning of the word, "grace" in the context of the song. Colin had me get up and sing various tunes by the Beatles and Credence Clearwater Revival. When "Hotel California" by the Eagles came up, everyone cheered and shoved a mike in my hand. Fortunately, I know that song very well. Try imagining, as well, "YMCA" sung in Japanese. It was hysterical. They really are a fun group and I had a great time. I think they kept partying at an after-the-after-dinner party, but I had to go to work, so when we left the bar at 11:30, I went home.

I guess it's a good thing I've had my first real work party with a group I am comfortable with. This Friday, the current superintendent, Mr. Kanou, is retiring and Mr. Kamaya will step up to take his place. So, of course, there must be a party. With singing. For which I get to pay 6,000 yen. The middle school party cost me 5,500 yen. That's just how they do it, though. Everybody just pays a portion of the total cost. I'm not too sure about this upcoming party, but I will try to remain optimistic. Nothin' like having a few beers (I HATE beer) and singing Village People tunes with the board of education (hmmm....that's almost a pun, don't you think? Village People...we live in a village....).

This is about thirty seconds of streaming video. The kids are singing one of the two songs they learned for the festival. It is called Kokoro no Hitomi. I have no idea what that means. When I tested the link, it took about five minutes to download, so be patient. I would love people to post comments to let me know whether or not it worked for them. In fact, I would love people to post comments whenever they like what they read. I have gotten comments from my mom and others, but it is always nice to read what people think about what I am writing.

A Quick Word on Viewing Photos

I recently discovered that Blogger has a 300MB limit on photos. Since I refuse to make my photos smaller when I take them, I will run into that limit within a few months at the rate I am posting pictures. So, to save space, I am going to begin posting links to most of the pictures I have for viewing. In the text of the post, you will now see links to various photos. When you click on the link, it should take you to that particular picture. To return to the blog, simply click your "back" button on your browser. If you close the window, you will not return to the blog. My photos are large, so they may take a bit of time to load, but this way I can have as many as I want on my dad's sever. Please post a comment if you have any questions or problems viewing the pictures.

Komu

Nishiokoppe is home to a fabulous "entertainment" center. One large building houses the Komu, Kamu, and IT (information technology) center. The Kamu is a wonderful forest-like playland. You can find pictures of it on the Nishiokoppe website. It is nearly all wooden, with a very high ceiling which is painted black. The walls are mirrored, and the whole area has fake trees all around. The overall effect is one of a magical sort of forest. Within this forest, there are wooden play toys, structures, a small play house (with no roof, which gives it an interesting feel), and a handful of video games. My favorite parts are the large play areas filled, not with the colorful plastic balls you find in the U.S., but with smaller wooden balls instead. Children are provided with several kinds of scooping and shoveling toys with which to play with the wooden balls. One photo shows Holt sliding down a wooden slide into a ball pit. It's simply fantastic.
Kamu 1
Kamu 2
Slide
Boys on a Double Scooter

The Komu is another wooden playground. Words really cannot do it justice. There are several rooms. One is the puzzle room, filled with wonderful wooden puzzles of all shapes and sizes. There is even one in the floor that is about 5 feet square. The largest room is the main playroom, the "wooden tree room". Here, there is an enourmous, intricate play structures with many hiding and climbing places. From the very top, you can slide down the beautiful wooden slide into a pit of wooden balls. The photos you see here are taken on another structure. In one shot, you can see a huge wooden "Trojan" horse that children can climb in and on. There are large and small riding toys, as well. Some are even big enough for adults to zoom around on, and beleive me, they do! The parents have just as much fun here as the kids! In the center of the room is a merry-go-round powered by two wooden bicyles. They are positioned across from one another on the merry-go-round, and through the magic of gears, anyone can pedal enough to make the whole thing go around. I think I really will have to go back and take more photos! Our boys both spent a total of about five hours here over a two-day period. They had not been for a few weeks and just couldn't get enough.

Tomorrow I'll try and post about the middle school culture festival, so stay tuned!

Strange Error

When you look at this front page of the blog, you should see links and information on the right side. For some reason, some computers are not loading it properly and I don't know why. If you need to see an archived post or my links, you should be able to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and see the information. I don't know why it is down at the bottom instead of the top, but I thought I'd pass along the info just in case it is happening to you. It seems that at work, I load the page just fine, but not at home. If you can't load the links at all, please let me know via email or post a comment.

Ridge's New Bike

Well, here it is - Ridge's first bicycle. He's pretty happy with it. It's hard to see, but it you look closely at the frame, part of it says, "Rasing Bike". That's "rasing" with an "s". You see that kind of thing all over the place here. By that I am referring to shirts and other items with odd English on them.

Back to the bike.... We had been looking for two weekends, now, trying to find a bike for Ridge that wasn't just junk. Since most stores get new bikes in stock only in the spring time, out selection was limited. On Monday, we went to Nayoro to see what we could find. After searching two stores, we decided to just wait until spring, unfortunately. We did some grocery shopping, ate at "Mos Burger", and headed out of town at about five thirty. On our way out, I spied a bike shop that seemed to still be open. Aaron turned the car around and went in to check things out. Not only were they open for another hour, they had just what we were looking for. While Holt and I waited in the car, father and son practically dashed inside to pick out the long awaited bicycle. It's hard to say who was more excited!

Ridge picked out this silver one right away. The old man who owned the store carefully got it down and thoroughly cleaned it off. He then topped off the tires with some air, adjusted the seat, and checked to make sure it fit Ridge just right. As they left the store, Aaron allowed Ridge to ride it down the street to where the car was parked. The man and his wife (?) cheered Ridge on as he pedaled his little heart out down the dark road. Thank goodness he only had to go about 30 yards. Aaron manuvered it into the trunk and the shop owner sauntered down the sidewalk to make sure we got it in okay. We all waved good-bye to each other as Aaron pulled out of the parking space and pointed us home. All in all, it was a much more pleasant experience, I think, than you might have buying a bike at a large chain retail store.

He's so excited now, 'cause he can ride his bike to Seicomart when we go to buy milk. Of course, we will have to put the milk into his basket! What a happy guy!

Interesting Link with More Photos

Ridge took this picture of Holt at the festival Sunday.

Here's a good link if you want to see more photos. Your computer will likely refuse to load the Japanese kanji and hirigana, but you should be able to see the pictures anyway. Mr. Kamaya sent this to me today. It is an online newsletter. There are a very large number of photos. Unfortunately, they cannot be enlarged.

I'll give a brief explanation of some of the photos, but there are too many to explain them all.

The first section (you should see that they are numbered by section) includes shots taked at the village hotel during a free movie that was shown. We didn't go.

The second section is the shrine festival in Kamiokoppe. They had a kid version of sumo, too, but inside due to the rain.

The third section is the longest. Here you can see more pictures of Nishiokoppe's shrine festival. The shrine is taken all over town, blessings are made, and at the end, everyone has a sip of sake. If you look, there are two pictures of us drinking sake, with Ryuya ducking behind Aaron's leg. There are also shots of the Tangu (the spirit who abducts children) and the lion dancers. All of those boys go to the middle school. There are pictures from the sumo (can you find the one with Aaron?), the Park Golf game (again, can you find Aaron?), and the party held on Monday night. By the way, the mushrooms shown in one of the pictures at the golf game are very popular, and VERY expensive. They were given as a prize during the golf game.

If you are really curious about a picture, feel free to respond to this post with a comment, and I'll do my best.

The link is:
Nishiokoppe Newsletter

again, if your computer insists on telling you that you need to install a language pack, you should be able to tell it "cancel" and just ignore all the squares and symbols that show up.

Another Festival

They say September is "festival" season in Japan, and it is easy to see why. This month has played host to a shrine festival, a village (fun) festival, and three holidays: Respect for the Aged Day, Autumn Equinox, and one whose name escapes me at this time.

The festival this past Sunday was simply for fun - no religious purpose whatsoever. Vendors from all over Hokkaido came and hawked their wares from booths set up outside the Community Sports Center. The festival was planned for the village park, but the weather was uncooperative. Never daunted by rain, though, the festival was simply moved to the Sports Center. The Sports Center is a very large building which houses both an indoor pool (unheated, unfortunately) and an indoor baseball field. This group has obviously been through this routine many times before. The floor of the baseball field had been covered amazingly well with many, many blue tarps, all of which had been taped together with duct tape. Along each side ranged boothes operated by local organizations selling various food items or gifts. There was even a booth whose sole purpose was to engage people in a simple game of chance which would result in a prize of candy or gift coupon for shaved ice, cotton candy or other small gift.

The events opened with several presentations, which I cannot, unfortunately explain because my Japanese still stinks. Afterwards, a very sharp-looking band from Sapporo performed. Seems they are the Sapporo Police version of a Navy Band. They travel from place to place playing and performing dance routines. None of the musicians are actually active duty police. They put on quite a show, including "Chatanooga Choo-Choo".

The young girls you see here are all but two of every single girl that attends Nishiokoppe Middle School. Don't be misled by the absence of boys. This is not an all-girl band on purpose. For some odd reason, no boys are in the brass band. So, instead, the band is composed of six of the eight female students. The attractive woman acting as thier conductor is the middle school's music/art teacher. She is very kind. This coming Sunday will be the middle school's culture festival. This is a BIG deal, with a huge amount of preparation. In fact, I have no English classes at the middle school this week so they can focus all their energies on getting ready. Students and staff alike will practice on Saturday, and spend the whole day on Sunday performing music, plays, and more. In return, the middle school has no classes on Monday or Tuesday next week. Can you imagine that? Comp. time for students and staff at just the middle school? Wow! That would never fly in America, eh?

The final "event" before lunch was our introduction. I'm not sure why we needed to be introduced. Again. But..okay. I made Kurata translate for me this time, so it was not very stressful. As lunch began, the large room undertook a transformation. People began to move the long pieces of styrofoam used for seating around and forming square sitting areas. Earlier, dozens of hibachi grills had been started using blow torches. As they were now buring quite well, the "grill crew" began to bring them in, placing them in the center of each newly formed seating area. Everyone then opened what food they had brought or puchased and slapped it on the grill. Most people bought packages of prepared food sold at the entrance to the festival. You can see in the photos that the food included a fish, a scallop in the shell, several shrimp, various kinds of chicken, and a bit of thinly sliced beef. It was really quite the feast, especially when you add in all the extras that were for sale. In the photo, you can see Mr. Kanou's head (down in the left corner). He bought lunch for all of us, and his wife took charge and cooked all the food. She also filled us up with bowls of soup that she purchased, azuki bean filled pancakes (small - about 1.5 in. across), and a gift of sashimi from one of my students. I'm afraid I just couldn't bring myself to eat it, though. For those of you who don't know, sashimi is raw fish. No thanks. I shared mine and Aaron loved his.

At the end, I was asked to don one of the festival coats worn by the village assembly and other head village employees. Each village organization has a coat they wear for festivals and such. The one the village assembly wears is green and white, with a salmon and a Holstein cow on the back. I have no idea why. Anyway, I got to go up with the men and throw mochi to the crowd. Mochi is, basically, a lump of very glutinous rice with little taste and a texture reminiscent of playdoh. People here love it though, and grown men and women were yelling at us, trying to get more. What a riot!

Check back tommorrow for the scoop and photo of Ridge's new bike!

Address and Contact Information

We have had several requests for our physical address. I keep forgetting to respond to people's email, so it seemed to make the most sense to post it here.

If you don't get the address in exactly the right order, don't worry. So far, everything sent to us has made it's way to the house. Japanese addresses are in a bit of a backwards order from ours.

Aaron and Michelle Felker
098-1501
Monbetsu-gun, Hokkaido
Nishiokoppe-mura
Aza-Nishiokoppe 69
JAPAN


The top number is the postal code. Monbetsu-gun is the prefecture, similar to a county. Hokkaido is the island. Aza-Nishiokoppe is the street, 69 the house number.

If you don't have our email address, you can either post a comment to the blog (it is then emailed to us), or contact us at michelle@garisfamily.com


One last comment before I go to bed: how do you like Ridge's face in the photo attached to the next post?

Kareoke

I have to say, this town knows how to throw a party. As part of the village shrine festival held on Sunday, there was a party/talent show on Monday evening. I'm not exactly sure what to call it, really. The event was held in the same room as the concert we attended during our first week in town. In the back of the large room, several food vendors sold fried potatoes (what we might term "home fries"), fried balls containing octopus, cotton candy, shaved ice, and various meats-on-a-stick. No festive occasion would be complete without beer and other alcoholic beverages, too. Most of the floor had been covered with green "turf" - the kind you find on a miniature golf course. This indicated to partygoers that shoes were to be removed.

Fortunately, we were able to sit on the floor near Kurata (the English teacher). He was able to do some interpreting for us, but most of what was happening remained a bit of a mystery. As the curtain lifted, a band composed of locals began to play. Most typical instruments were represented. There were several keyboards, a drum set, saxaphone, clarinet, and a couple of bass guitars, to name a few. I recognized several of the musicians from the various schools at which I spend my time.

In order to kill time, there was then a party game while the set was changed. Upon entering the room, each person was given a numbered program. The numbers were used to assist in aquiring "volunteers" for the various silly games that were played. For the first game, a couple of men wheeled a table out in front of the crowd. Taped to the table and extending out from either side about four feet were two broomsticks. I watched, confused, as a toilet paper roll was placed on each. As soon as the two victims were chosen (a couple of grandmother-looking ladies), I could see a menthod to the madness. At the signal, the women then raced to unroll thier toilet paper as fast as they could. It was hysterical. The crowd cheered and toilet paper flew.

Following the toilet paper game came a series of "acts" performed by locals which defy description. I'm kicking myself for not bringing the camera. There was singing and dancing, outrageous costumes, and more silly games. One act was really a riot. A man came out on stage and began to lip synch to "La Vida Loca". Again, I have to confess I just can't describe the whole act, but a number of very unsually dressed people pranced out as backup signers. One group was a few adult men, a fourth-grader, and a third-grader. They were all dressed in short, skin tight black shorts. With dark sunglasses, black biker hats, and (for some) small, drawn on goatees, the group looked like Village People wannabees. The audience just died with laughter as the "back up" singers pranced and gyrated to the music.

After all the "acts", the kareoke contest began. The first two singers were serious productions performed by elementary school children complete with costumes. Aaron, Kurata, and I were really grateful that we didn't have to follow them! Our bit was uneventful, and quite painless. We managed to sing "I'm a Believer" without messing up. In fact, we scored 94 out of 100...not too shabby, if I do say so myself. While others were singing, many of thier friends would "rush" the stage throwing coins, candy (in the case of the two kid acts), flowers, and even beer. Aaron's sumo parter from the previous day was a popular guy. During his song, he was given a couple of beers, one of which he (of course) had to guzzle before leaving the stage.

One of the neatest things was how well the boys did. The entire event had the atmosphere of a small town outdoor concert-in-the-park. Kids were hanging out with each other, moving around, playing with toys, and eating too much sugar. Ridge and Holt wandered a bit, but mostly stayed close playing with the kids around us. A few adoring women sat near, and Ridge got totally hooked on one woman. We had met her earlier as she was following around an adorable little boy. She stopped to talk, explaining that her daughter was Ridge's age and that the boy was not hers. Pointing to herself (by the way, Japanese people point to thier nose, not thier chest, when gesturing to themselves), she said, "babysitter". From that moment on, she was christened "The Babysitter" by Ridge. The end result is that when we went up on stage, the boys were perfectly happy to sit and watch us while being watched over by the surrounding adults. What a relief!

When we came home, Ridge kept talking about The Babysitter. He told Aaron he really liked her because she was "fun to play with" and "really cracked him up. Like, not just a little laugh, not just like, 'heh heh heh', but like really, really laughing!" He drew her a picture today to take to her at work (she works at the Seicomart - a convinence store around the corner).

So - no pictures of the party, I'm afraid. This picture, though, is from the Kamiokoppe festival held last Wednesday. We are posing in front of the village shrine with the Shinto priests.

Festival Day!

What a day! There are so many pictures to post that I decided to break today's post up into several smaller ones. I'm posting this one last, so you should be seeing it first. It doesn't really matter if you read them out of order, but if you want to read them in the order the events described occured, then start here.

Today was a festival day for Nishiokoppe. Kamiokoppe held a similar one on Wednesday (the middle school kids did not have classes on that day), but it was on a smaller scale. Kamiokoppe is much smaller than Nishiokoppe. The purpose of these festivals is still a little bit unclear to me, but they seem to be related to the time of year. I don't believe they are fall harvest festivals, but something along those lines.

So, our day began with breakfast and a little housework, as usual. I had been told that the procession would pass our house around 12:25. Since the procession was scheduled to begin at 10:00, I was curious to see why it would take so long to reach us. Around ten-ish, Ridge called me outside with an almost hysterical level of excitement. "The parade is coming, look, it's here!!!" he screamed. Looking down the street, I could see that, indeed, the processional was down there, but they had just come from the temple. Before reaching us the shrine would travel to most of the other neighborhoods in the village first. Ridge didn't really understand that this was not to be a parade like any he had seen before. In the picture of him, you can see that he dashed out with his stool and sat on the edge of the street as though waiting for a marching band and floats. He and Holt are waiting anxiously (well, Ridge is, Holt is just lounging) while munching on some graham crackers we ordered from Flying Pig (mail order CostCo, basically. It took a week for our order to arrive. It's not cheap, but we ordered our region free DVD player from them, so splurged on some treats. More about Flying Pig on another post). The women you see in the background are Ruya's grandmother and another grandma who lives in our neighborhood. They are standing next to the offering table. Finally, around 12:20, just as we had been told, the procession turns a corner and heads our way.

It seems most of the school age children (but not all) have some role to play. Many of the smaller ones are carrying flags, while middle school kids help with the shrine. The procession is led by Nishiokoppe's one police officer, and the whole group is accompanied by the sound of drums and flutes being played. The flags and costumes are a bright splash against the street as they slowly move our way.

The offering table is loaded with food, much of which was grown in a huge garden right behind our backyard. Watermelon is an extravagance here, often selling for as much as 1320 yen (about $12) for the size you see in the photo. The apple-like fruit are actually pears, another pricey item. Wrapped in special "gift-giving" paper (there are envelopes and packages of items traditionally given as gifts all marked with the markings you see here) are two bottles of saki. All this food will be taken by the truck following the portable shrine and placed at the village shrine as an offering to the village gods. As for the pile of dirt, well, we are still not exactly certain as to it's exact significance. I suspect it is a symbolic representation of our neighborhood. By the way, when I say neighborhood, our neighborhood consists of the (about) twelve houses around us. The marker in the dirt, with white lightening bold, signifies the presence of spirits. If you look back at the post with pictures of the village shrine, you will see similar symbols hanging from ropes.

Ritual and Shrine

As the shrine approached, children who live in our neighborhood left their places in the procession and gathered around the offering table. Everyone was excited and happy. I suspect the good weather must have added to the feeling of celebration. Kamiokoppe's festival had been a little bit marred by heavy rain.

The Shinto priest approached the table and began to say some prayers. A wooden box was set on the ground and gift envelopes were stuffed into it. Ruya's grandmother had told us earlier that we did not need to worry about giving a monetary offering. As the rest of the processional came close, a man dressed in a distinctive costume appeared, creating no small amount of unease in our little friend Ruya. Aaron explained to me later that this figure represented "Tengu", a spirit who kidnaps children. At first, Ruya sought sanctuary behind Aaron's leg, but later, after seeing the man remove his mask in the heat, he relaxed and was able to laugh at him. While praying, the shrine was lifted from the truck and then into the air three times while chanting something. After saying the prayers, we bowed twice - the priest said something else - we clapped twice - more Japanese - and bowed once (Aaron said just now, "That’s classic Shinto praying). Then what looked like village elders circulated among us and poured small amounts of saki into little dishes that had been distributed. As people dispersed, women threw bags with mochi (glutinous rice mushed into a ball and sweetened. It tastes a lot like nothing, but the Japanese love it) and other candies into the air for children and adults alike to scoop up. Next thing I knew, people were handing our boys candy and food like crazy. One bag contained some corn dogs dipped in sugar. I don't know what was inside those dogs, but it sure as heck wasn't pork! Ick! Bags of chocolate and other Japanese treats appeared out of nowhere. With my help, Holt began to load his loot into his had, with the words, "I can't wear my hat. It's too full!"

The shrine then made it's way to the next neighborhood and we got ready for the dragon dancers. Our neighbor and local internet/computer "dude" Usui-san (he's the guy in many of the pictures holding a professional quality video camera) gave us a little heads up. The dancers, a group of middle school boys, dance from house to house. I asked if they were to be given money, and he just told me not to worry about it. He warned us, though, about a Japanese tradition. The group of boys, three of whom were the actually dancers, two of whom banged on a drum, would come to our door and dance. The head of the dragon is like many depicted in movies - a wooden head with a mouth the opens and closes with a clack. After dancing, the dragon would place it's open mouth on the heads of the children of the house, pretending to eat them. This would bring good luck to the children. AH! Can those of you who know Ridge just IMAGINE what he would think of this? I laughed when Usui-san said this. "They'll cry, you know." He replied, "Oh...all children cry when this. It's okay...for good luck". We watched as Ruya screamed while being "eaten", all the while his mother and grandmother are laughing. Of course, the minute it's over, all is well. By this time, Ridge (NO big surprise) has decided he wants absolutely NO part of this and runs into the house. I chase him inside (*GASP* I wore my shoes on the tatami!) and grab my poor victim. Outside, the dancers begin their little dance and our children cry. I, too, have tears streaming down my face, but with laughter. The boys stop for a moment as the dance ends and I can see the looks on their faces, "Do we do the eating thing?" I know that is what they were thinking. By the way, this was all being video taped by Usui-san, so I'm sure that sometime next week we will show up on the local television station. So, Aaron moves forward with Holt, and the boys take his cue to "eat" Holt. I follow suit with Ridge. The only thing I can do is laugh. Thanks to the HUGE amount of candy the boys have been giving, they make a very quick recovery. Unfortunately, I was so caught up in dealing with my traumatized children that I did not take any pictures of the dragon dancers.

Oh, one more word about the photos. Standing next to the child abducting spirit dude is Kurata, the English teacher at the middle school and my cohort. In one of the pictures with the priest, you'll see three men all next to each other wearing suit pants and white shirts. One has a camera and the other looks like he is doing a secret service impersonation. The man in the middle is the mayor of the village.

Sumo!

After hiding the rest of the candy from the kids, we grabbed the camera and headed towards the park, located at the foot of the village shrine. Several food vendors and a toy booth were set up and folks were eating, drinking, and visiting with friends and neighbors. As we turned the corner, a table full of men shouted out "Michelle! Aaron!" Who were these men?? Oh well, in this place, everyone knows us. Aaron walked over while I followed the boys around and tried to keep them out of trouble. Apparently, one of the men is on the assembly and remembered Aaron from the after-party-party when the men went out drinking and I remained at home (like the good little wife that I am, right?). Conscious of the social nuances, I opted to let Aaron hang out with the men while I took care of the boys. No sooner had he sat than a beer was plopped into his hand. He made the mistake of finishing it, and then had to drink another. I don't know exactly what the conversation was about, but they were having a good time. Next think I know (about half an hour later), the table is being cleared and a couple of the men are challenging Aaron to some arm-wrestling. He only won one out of four, but he sure was becoming popular. After munching on some squid on a stick - yes, that's squid on a stick (chew, chew - crunch -oops, I guess that was the beak), Aaron heard the word, "SUMO!"

One of the day's events included a children's pseudo sumo contest. Kids took turns pushing each other around a sawdust filled ring. As you can see from the pictures, the contestants were of all ages. It was a blast to watch! So, Aaron's new found friend was challenging him to some "sumo"! Never one to pass down a challenge, Aaron cheerfully complied. Maybe this was a decision made easier by the third beer shoved into his hand (those of you who know Aaron, he's kind of like a two-beer kind of guy), who knows. The first match was kind of a draw (though I thought Aaron lost by stepping out of the ring before managing to throw down his opponent). With cries of "one more, one more" issuing from his partner, Aaron and the other man faced off once more. Within seconds, Aaron had reached down, grabbed the other man's pants leg, picked him completely off the ground, and tossed him down, winning the match and earning many cheers from the audience. It was awesome!

We watched the wrestling a bit longer, then headed over to the "par golf" golf course, to which Aaron had been invited earlier in the week. We arrived late (too much sumo), and the game was already in play. As we sauntered leisurely by, saying hello and greeting people, we decided to go home. For some reason, one of the organizers decided to give me one of the packages used for prizes (turned out it was dashi -used for making miso soup-, a bowl of quick cooking noodles, some dry noodles, and a plastic organizer). As we went up the street, Aaron and I decided it would be best if he hung out for a while, so I took the boys home.

Another beer. Poor Aaron - I can't believe he was able to have another one, though it had been a while. It's just so hard to tell them no. Seriously...not the kind of "it's hard" that you say when you are at some college party...but it's really awkward. Its another reason why I didn't sit with Aaron at the table with the men - I didn't want to have to refuse a beer. Anyway, he hung out, eventually played a game, and had a blast. Many of the guys (no women were there) were pretty drunk and spent inordinate amounts of time looking for their golf balls. After the first round, everyone got more relaxed with Aaron and started to tease him. Whenever he would try to swing, someone would yell, "Aaron-san!" He would turn, and be given a thumbs up accompanied by a wide grin. They really loved trying to mess him up. He said the golf clubs were soooo short for him that he had to step off the tee-off board to swing properly. The group decided after the first round he couldn't do that anymore, so he played very badly next go round. At least he was sober!

All in all, it was quite the adventurous day. While Aaron golfed, I returned home with the boys, only to have them invited over to Ruya's house. I actually had some time alone! It was weird, though, to think about my kids being next door in a house where there is almost no English. It's amazing how well people can get along even when they don't speak the same language!

Map and News about Japan

Just for fun, I added two new links to our menu on the right. One will take you to a page full of different maps of Japan. Nishiokoppe is too small to warrant placement on most maps. Asahikawa is on most, and Nishiokoppe is located about two hours north of here. If you happen across a more detailed map, Okoppe is thirty minutes north of us, and Monbetsu is about fifty minutes north. By the way, my times are based on an average driving time of about 60 to 80 Km per hour (sorry, I'm not going to do the math for you) . The other link will take you to a Japanese news website. Don't worry, it's in English. Most of what is happening in the rest of Japan doesn't really seem to matter here, but I thought some might get a kick out of it. Also, this way my mom can track the typhoon (love ya mom!).

Pictures for today

I thought I would post a few miscellaneous photos for today. Here you can see the boys with their new haircuts. For Ridge, I threw in a "before" picture. They are holding cards that Grandma sent. Ridge likes his so much he won't let me hang it up. Instead, he insists on keeping it where he can reach it to play with. The drawing is one Ridge did today for Holt. At the top you can see where he "wrote" Holt's name, and below is a picture of a grill, a cup of coffee, and a kayak with a flag. The poster, which nobody (including us) can read, is the explanation of how to separate your garbage. Y'all thought I was exaggerating in my earlier post, didn't ya? Ha ha! Here's proof. We have another version of this poster, one that has been photocopied, with explanations written on it. Although, really, to say that it has an "explanation" is really a bit of an overstatement.

After a week of reading about Katrina, Aaron and I have switched to reading about the Typhoon on our side of the world. No need to worry, though. If you look at a picture of Japan, Hokkaido is the northernmost island. Nishiokoppe is very near the top and a little to the right. We are 30 miles from the coast. There is no real danger for us, only some very rainy weather on the way. Mr. Kamaya, always looking out for us, handed me a note today. Whenever it is very important for him that I understand what he is trying to communicate, he writes it down. I think it is so he can properly translate it. Here is what his note said:
(at first I thought I would simply tell you what it said, but why - when I have a camera so readily available??)

Haircutting Day at the Felkers

As you can see, today the boys both had haircuts, courtesy of their father. Yesterday we explored Monbetsu (about an hour away in other other direction from Nayoro). While shopping, we found a great pair of cordless clippers. Aaron and I had been wondering what we would do when the time came for Ridge and Holt to get a haircut. It is hard enough getting them to sit for an English-speaking person, I have been a little anxious at the prospect of having to undertake this task in another country. So, Aaron solved the problem by doing it himself. Unfortunately, neither of the boys would keep still long enough for me to take an "after" picture, so check back tomorrow and I'll try again.

Holt, as always, has his groupies watching the drama unfolding in our driveway. That's our car behind Aaron. The empty car shed is normally where it is parked. It also seems to be filled with a wide selection of differently sized skis. Too bad I don't know how to ski. Anyway, the younger girl is Nana. She is a second-grader. The older girl is in the fifth grade and is Nana sister. I haven't learned her name yet, but on Friday I will finally have a lesson with the Nishiokoppe Elementary fifth and sixth-graders, so I'll learn it then. She is a bug-catcher extrordinaire. Last week she came traipsing up to the house with a small frog that just sent Ridge into a tizzy with excitement. Today, while Ridge was getting his hair cut, I saw her sitting at the end of our driveway showing Holt how to hold dragonflies by their wings without hurting them. She's a great kid. I made brownies again today, and we shared them with the kids. Aaron gave the fifth-grade girl one. She bowed deeply (she always does that - she seems to be very respectful), took it, and walked away. We were inside (Ridge was being punished - we have sinced learned the word in Japanese for "punish" so we can explain to the kids why Ridge can't come out and play), and so she ducked around the corner somewhat out of sight. She gave it a discreet sniff and then ventured into taking a bite. She must have liked it because it disappeared pretty fast!

The next seven days should have plenty of photo opportunities, and I'll try to continue posting as much as I can. Being Fall, now, both Nishiokoppe and Kamiokoppe will be having Shinto festivals this week. Kamiokoppe's is on Tuesday and Nishiokoppe's is on Sunday next. The following Monday is a more fun-like festival, at which I have been informed I will be expected to sing Kareoke with the middle school English teacher. Oh well, at least he let me pick the song.

Holt on the Phone

Here's Holt, chit-chatin' with Grandma on the phone this morning. Aaron tried to get him to say some words in Japanese, but he was a little reluctant. However, after turning the phone over to me he began singing a little song using the word, "konichiwa". Then he hung up the phone on me, the little turkey!

Recycling

Japan is the emperor of recycling, in my opinion. Let me tell you why. On our first night, our kind welcoming party very thoughtfully tried to explain "trash" to us. You might ask yourself, "What is there to explain about trash, Michelle?" I might then respond, "Oh you naive Americans. You have no idea."

We have been here a little less than three weeks (only three weeks? Wow!), and I am just now 90% sure I know what to do with our garbage. Upon our arrival, we were shown a large poster, full of colorful pictures of different kinds of garbage. Someone had taken the time to attempt a translation of the instructions regarding said garbage. Unfortunately, the translations were along the lines of "rest garbage", "rest paper", "burn garbage", and "rest plastic". Aaron and I still joke about whether or not something is "rest paper" or "rest plastic".

Well, here's how it works. We have six trash cans. We actually need one more, but we will manage since we don't use much PET (recyclable) plastic. Each can is for something different. (1) Refuse: food garbage. Only food.
(2) Aluminum and tin: No problem. That's a familiar recyclable category.
(3) PET plastic: The kind with the little triangular recycle symbol. Okay, still makes sense.
(4) "Rest plastic": Huh? This is apparently all the plastic and plastic-like trash. After about a week, I figured out what the symbol on this looked like (square). You can see it on the bag of Japanese pancake mix I posted a picture of.
(5) "rest paper": This seems to be paper that is not cardboard and not writing paper. I think this category confuses me the most. Fortunately, most items have a symbol, so we just look for that. This one is kind of oval shaped.
(6) Burnable: This is paper that doesn't go in "rest paper" and other items that are burned, like diapers.
(7) Non-burnable, non-recyclable: this stuff even has a different color of trash bag to go in - blue. It is for anything else, as long as it is not hazardous, very large (as in an appliance).
You must also separate out and bind: newspaper, books, and milk cartons - yes, milk cartons are in their own category. You rinse them and tear them apart until they are flat. We keep ours in a cabinet until it is time to put them out.

If you don't have a headache yet, just wait, there's more. Refuse is picked up every Tuesday. Burnable trash is every Wednesday. All the other recyclable products are picked up on the first and third Thursday. I still don't know what to do with the "blue bag" stuff, hazardous items (for us, mainly old batteries), but I'm sure we will get it figured out.

People take trash separation seriously around here. They have a wide selection of bins you can buy (which we finally acquired, so we could get rid of our multiple plastic bags laying around the kitchen). Here's an example. At school, I eat lunch with the students. When we finish eating, this is what everyone does (the whole school, including staff, eat together).

1. Dump any left over food into one of the food containers the food arrived in (it is prepared in one location). Don't leave any food in your dishes. Stack the dishes in the appropriate stack.
2. If something was wrapped in foil, put it in the bag for foil.
3. If you left your chopsticks at home and used disposable wooden ones, put the wrapper and hashi (remember that word?) in the burnable trashcan.
4. Put the wrapper from your straw in the "plastic" trashcan
5. Tear apart your milk carton by looking for the seam and pull it apart, all the way down to the bottom (I swear to you, everyone does this the same exact way). Rinse it and stack it with the others.
6. Rinse your straw and put it in the bin with the other straws.
7. Rinse and stack your tray.

This is all set up in something resembling an assembly line. On my first day eating lunch, a very nice teacher/school nurse walked me through it - literally, as she speaks less English than I do Japanese.

So, next time you think recycling in America is too much work.... think twice!


The pictures are from this evening. Holt and Ruya are watching "I Dig Dirt". I thought Ruya's eyes were going to pop out when he saw it on the computer. Aaron and Ridge are making PANCAKES! Note the Japanese pancake mix.

One more thing - translation problems to the max: while working today with Mr. Kamaya and the Health Insurance rep, I had to answer some health related questions to complete my application for National Health Insurance. It took about an hour, since language was a big issue. First question: Mr. Kamaya pops out his handy-dandy translator/computer and shows me a long list of kanji and English, with words like "medicine," "drugs", etc. Thinking they needed to know if I was on any medication, I said yes. Ooooh, you should have seen their faces! Thinking quickly, it occurred to me that wasn't what they wanted to know. I said, "drugs OR medicine?" He nodded. I said, "As in illegal drugs?" He nodded again. No wonder they looked like I had grown two heads...they had asked if I had done illegal drugs any time in the past three months. Oops!

Food, food, food

Okay, so this photo has nothing to do with food, but it's cute, don't you think? I snapped this when I came home briefly after teaching at the local elementary school. After I finish there, I usually come home, park the car, and walk across the street to my desk at the board of education for some prep-work. Aaron and they boys were apparently napping in the mid-day heat. It's been humid here. I'm not going to complain, though. We have been keeping up as much as possible with the events related to Katrina (online video and news stories). I'm so grateful that everyone near and dear to us is safe and nowhere in harm's way.


So - food. Well, we have more zucchini. I'm telling you, we are getting desperate. This makes the fourth enormous green squash we have been given since arriving! I don't know what kind of zucchini they grow here, but it's all huge! We had given the neighbors some cookies (my first attempt at baking in our microwave), and then they returned the favor (even though we were actually trying to even things up, since they have already given us so much produce from their garden). Ruya's mom (Ridge's little friend) came over today to return our plate. She brought with her a club-like zucchini, a head of cabbage, and three eggplants! Of course, they were all freshly picked.

Two days ago, while walking in the street, Aaron and I were admiring a huge Daikon radish that a woman had in her bicycle basket. Her grandson was with her, helping to carry a huge armload of corn. We wondered to ourselves where she had gone to get the produce (I had just seen her ride by a few minutes ago with an empty basket). Next thing I know, she was loading us up with fresh corn. When we got home and took stock of what we had, we counted nine ears! She's on my brownie list for sure. I've been baking a little, trying to repay some of the gifts of food that people have given us. Wednesday I took some with me to the Junior High. Even bringing brownies to work is different and has its own nuances. I came in with my plate and sat at my desk. Seconds later, the morning meeting began (I don't really know what they talk about every morning since it's all in Japanese. I think they talk about schedule changes a lot, since schedules seem to change daily here). After the meeting, I went around to everyone's desk and offered them a brownie, sometimes explaining what it was, and introducing the word "gooey". By the way, "gooey" doesn't wasn't in any Japanese/English dictionary we could find. They seemed to go over pretty well. It doesn't seem to be the thing to do to just set your plate out with a "help yourself" attitude. Everything here always seems to be more formal than that.

Last night we made a spur of the moment trip to Nayoro. We have been VERY short of cash, having neglected to bring enough with us to tide us over until my first paycheck (a tough lesson to learn). Mr. Kamaya, bless his heart, pushed some paperwork through pretty quickly, once he realized that we were nearly out of money, and got us our reimbursement for our plane tickets (he got brownies, too). So, within 24 hours of giving him my receipts, we found we had a huge chunk of money placed directly into our bank account. All on our own, we figured out the ATM (It was in English, I confess), drove to Nayoro (an hour away) and went SHOPPING! This was the first time we had done anything like this all on our own. We went to Nayoro last weekend, but with a friend who is Australian, so he showed us around. This time, we shopped at two stores and ate out all by ourselves. We were so pleased with ourselves. Talk about compulsive shopping! It was fun, and worth it, so it's okay. We had burgers at "Mos Burger", a burger joint with wonderfully gourmet burgers about the size of a McDonald's children's burger. No matter, the food tasted great, the fries were salty, and everyone was happy.

Here's a picture of Holt "swimming" on the floor while wearing some goggles left over from Aaron's eye surgery. They've become a popular toy.