Feverish Holt (but he's still cheery)

Ridge Helps with the Dishes

The Cootie Game and Michelle's Musings

Lately, I’ve been pondering why I haven’t written much on the blog for the past several weeks. Though I’d love to let people think that it’s just because I’m busy, that’s not really the case. The more I think about it, the more I suspect it’s something else; I’m becoming accustomed to Japan. Now, this doesn’t mean I know everything there is to know, or that nothing is new and exciting to me. It’s just that so many of the things I wrote about over our first year have become common, everyday things. Sure, I still shudder a bit when I see octopus arms in the seafood section. However, instead of grimacing at the still-live sea snails in the same section, I just find myself chastising Ridge for poking them so he can watch them move. It’s not until I re-read that sentence that I find myself laughing at the things I’ve become accustomed to. Who would have thought I would ever have to rebuke my six-year old for toying with the live food in the grocery store? Not I, that’s for certain!

Regardless of how you look at it, this second year is more mellow, and I sometimes find it hard to write about things. It bugs me a little bit. I don’t want to stop seeing the little things around me. Looking at the world around me through new eyes has been one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about our stay here. So, I’ll make a promise to you and to me that I will absolutely try to find more of the “little things” to write about. To make up for my hiatus, I’ll relate a few things of interest.

Small item one: Ridge has a loose tooth! When he first showed me last weekend, I thought he was going to cry. It completely freaked him out to have one of his teeth wiggling about in his mouth. After some explanation, convincing, and the promise of the tooth fairy, he settled down. Now, everyday, we look at it and he tells me to wiggle it. Everyday I promise him it will fall out when it’s ready and I’m not going to insist on pulling it out. I’m still young enough to remember how terrifying it was to think someone might pull my tooth for me. I didn’t want anyone to touch my teeth! At least, that’s my memory of it. Maybe Mom and Dad have a different one.

Small item number two: Weight Loss in Japan (a.k.a. How to Get Yourself Stared at Repeatedly During School Lunch). Since early January, Aaron and I have been working hard to loose the weight we gained after we arrived. I hesitate to say we are dieting, because our goal is to keep eating pretty much the same way forever. We started by following the South Beach Diet and exercising every day. Fortunately, I brought some Yoga videos with us that have been working well. Long story short (the long story part will come in a blog entry all it’s own), we are doing great and love it. I’ve lost about ten pounds, and Aaron has lost even more than me. Oddly enough, the most difficult aspect of losing weight here hasn’t been avoiding fattening foods, but the social repercussions. As I mentioned before, my story of Weight Loss in Japan really requires it’s own entry.

Small item number three, and the last for today: The Cootie Game. Maybe some of you remember the Cootie Game; it’s a game for non-readers, good for very young kids. The object is to be the first to build your Cootie – a small plastic bug with funny features and a variety of leg-types. Well, Mom gave this game to Ridge for Christmas (and he loves it, thank you!) and I couldn’t help but commandeer it. We use it in my English classes as sort of a score keeping system. The funny thing is, the kids go completely nuts over it. The first, second, and third graders go bonkers when I bring it, like I did today! I divide them into four teams, three students each. One student from each group comes close to me, and I call out a verb. Today we worked on verbs like: run, jump, hop, eat, drink, sleep, read, etc. The person who does the action first gets to choose a piece for their Cootie. They LOVE this game, and for some reason I just think it’s really funny. They think the Cooties are the cutest things they’ve ever seen!

I’ll try and get some photos to post today or tomorrow. I know I’ve been remiss in that duty as well. Perhaps I’ll get some more snow photos in order to garner your sympathies.

The Price is Right!

Late last year, my Uncle Geno was asked to, “Come on down,” and be the “next contestant on the Price is Right!” After a couple of rounds of bidding, the lucky guy made it up on stage and actually won a car! Mom and Dad copied the show when it came on television, and just recently sent me a copy. I had told my adult English class that my uncle had won a car on a TV. game show, but they couldn’t quite wrap their brains around it. So, tonight, I showed the DVD to my advanced class, and what a blast we had!

Everything was interesting to them. I spent about ten minutes just giving background information about the show and how it worked, etc. Then, as we watched, I stopped periodically to make sure they understood what was happening. The English on the show is much, much too fast for them. However, with a bit of help, they had no trouble following the show. We even watched some of the commercials and talked about them a bit. One lady decided that the cat in the American Iams commercial (a pet food brand) was the same as in the Japanese commercials.

It’s so much fun for me to look at American things (T.V., customs, etc.) through the eyes of non-Americans. Of course, it was a bit odd for me to watch American television, also, since it’s been a year and a half since we’ve been in the U.S. Even before that, we didn’t have cable in Juneau, so it was a strange experience.

Uncle Geno and Aunt Betty’s Good Sam group all wore matching shirts which read, “I wanna come on down!” on the front, and on the back they said, “Please spay or neuter your pet.” Those, of course, are both famous words which come from Bob Barker. Nao noticed the spay/neuter thing, so that spawned a brief side conversation that was interesting. Spay/neuter is not a common practice in Japan at all.

Here are some very late photos for you. They are from the Setsubun celebration held at the pre-school about three weeks ago.

Everyone working on their oni
This is our group, working
Holt standing in his classroom
More creative juices flowing
Holt with an oni mask on, Ridge is in the background
The worlds's biggest pot of rice
After the peanut throwing, the kids all played with the oni costumes. This is the head of the yellow oni
Oni parts, scattered about
Ridge is making loud noises as he hops about in an oni body, chasing Ryuuya.

Setsubun

Setsubun is a traditional Japanese holiday, which celebrates the coming of spring. Timed with the lunar New Year, it is characterized by throwing beans at evil spirits (“oni”). The beans, usually soybeans, are thought to purify the house, and people chant, “Bad spirits out! Luck come in!” as they pelt helpless oni. The pre-school has an annual event to celebrate this special day, and it’s a blast.

One of my favorite things about the pre-school Setsubun celebration is the fact that it is primarily for fathers and kids. Moms can come, but they aren’t expected to do any work. What a great idea!

About nine o’clock, the dads began to show up at the preschool (this was Saturday the 27th). After the opening comments typical of any Japanese gathering, the kids and dads were divided into four groups. Each group then spent the next hour creating their oni. Using everything from cardboard boxes to construction paper, giant oni costumes were built, complete with clubs. Once the creative hour was finished, one dad from each group was selected to be the oni. Next, the students were given bags and sat around the room. The oni/dads lumbered into a circle on the floor, outlined by tape. The teachers then dimed the lights and blew a whistle to signify it’s time to pelt the oni/dads. Some children become very frightened of the large, strangely dressed men, but most kids happily chunk peanuts at the men as they yell, “Oni out!”

This peanut pelting continued for about ten minutes, creating an enormous mess. However, this is not a concern, since it was cleaned up in about five minutes as everyone present pitched in with a broom. They’re so efficient it’s scary! After the peanut mess was cleaned up, the fathers arranged themselves around the tape circle with trays of peanuts and candy. At the sound of the whistle, the oldest group of children took their turn collecting the thrown loot. Wearing their homemade oni masks, the kids now assumed the role of the “other world” demons. Each age group of kids had a turn and the dads obviously had fun throwing the treats up into the air. Many of the adults remarked that several of the kids were completely ignoring the peanuts and totally zoning in on the candy instead. Of course, Holt was one of these picky little oni.

Once all the food throwing was finished, the dads then broke up into groups to prepare lunch. The children ran around like crazy, playing with the now discarded oni costumes, while some fathers set up tables and others cooked. As usual, the meal was a common kid-friendly food: Japanese curry and rice with hamburger patties. There was fruit for dessert, and various juices and teas to drink. When the meal was finished, the fathers all cleaned up the mess while the children played a bit more. The entire event was completed around 1:30 or so. I think it was much easier on all the males in my family this year, since they knew what to expect, and everyone had a lovely time.

English Lock-In

While Aaron and the boys were chunking peanuts and candy, I was preparing for my first English Lock-In. Way back in July, Aaron and I had come up with the idea of doing a lock-in at the Komu. On this particular night in July, the Komu was open late, until about seven o’clock. The village children really seemed to enjoy the unique opportunity to stay at the Komu so late, as it usually closes at 4:30. I know that I enjoyed lock-ins during my childhood; it’s so much fun to transgress the rules and sleep in a place that is normally off limits at night. So, I thought, what better place to stay all night than the Komu? It’s already a totally cool place during the day; imagine it at night!

The process of getting permission for my idea was slow, but having become accustomed to the way Japanese do things I was not surprised. Throw on top of their characteristic slowness the fact that I don’t speak Japanese well, and the end result was that it took about six months to bring my idea to fruition. It was well worth the wait, though.

We got things started at 7:00 p.m. Colin had agreed to help me, thank goodness. I’m not sure they would have allowed me to do this by myself due to my lack of Japanese. I had been hoping for the entire evening to be just the kids, Colin, and me, but we apparently attracted a crowd. Mr. Kamaya had invited a man from a regional education newspaper, so he hung out for a while. Both Mr. Kamaya and Mr. Tasaki (the assistant superintendent) stayed for some time, as did two men from the local T.V. station (one of whom was our friend Nao), the 3/4th grade teacher, and the elementary vice principal. They stayed for about the first hour, which was when Colin and I were teaching the kids some new Alaska-related vocabulary and playing games. For me, it was actually kind of nice to have all these folks watching me teach, because some of them had never seen me teach before. They’ve been paying more for nearly a year and a half, but have never seen me conduct a lesson. Go figure.

The games were a hit, and we stopped around 8:30 for a very American snack of peanuts, pretzels, and chocolate covered raisins. I had ordered everything but the peanuts from the Internet. At 9:00, we played a group game and then tried to play hide and seek. I had dimmed some of the lights to make things a little more exciting, but that was a mistake! Nearly all five of the 4th grade girls burst into tears and completely freaked out. They were absolutely convinced that they had seen a ghost. So, I turned on the lights again, but the mood was pretty much blown. I scrapped that plan and we let them play for a while on their own.

Now, previously, during the planning stages, Mr. Kamaya had communicated to me that Japanese elementary children are supposed to go to bed at 10:00, so that’s what the published schedule said. I, of course, had no intention of going to be so early. So, at 10:00, I turned on the giant T.V. screen and told everyone to get ready for bed. By 11:00, they were ready for me to start the movie, “Brother Bear”. Most of the older kids hung out in another room and did their own thing, but generally I think it worked out well. The 4th grade girls got scared again around 1:00 a.m. when the light from the vending machine turned off and left us in the dark, so they asked to move to another room so they could leave the light on. Colin and I dozed off and on, and I noticed that at 4 a.m. two of the 4th graders were still awake! I bet they slept well on Sunday night!

The kids pretty much woke themselves up the next morning, and I then tried to teach everyone about instant oatmeal. Unfortunately, they were pretty turned off by it and I certainly won’t be doing it again. Oh well, live and learn, right? We then spent a bit of the morning making totem poles out of paper and toilet paper tubes. Right about in the middle of our art project, Mr. Kamaya and Mr. Tasaki showed up. I think they were impressed, because the kids were really a pretty picture of productivity. Everyone was engaged and enjoying themselves (even the girls who were still awake at 4 o’clock). By 9:30, it was time to clean up and get ready to go home.

Before going home, Colin and I had a brief meeting with Mr. Kamaya and Mr. Tasaki to talk about how things went. All through this process, the Japanese have been really interested in the concept of a “lock in”. They have never seen anything like it, I think. Originally, I had told Mr. Kamaya that one of the reasons I wanted to do it was that even just having a lock in, even if we didn’t teach any English, would have been a very American thing to do. Anyway, they were pleased enough with things that they asked me if I’d be interested in doing it one more time before I leave. When they asked, I mumbled quickly to Colin, who was translating for me, to make sure he would be okay helping me. He’s so laid back, he never says no, so I assured Mr. Kamaya that we would be happy to do one more. So, maybe June will see me planning one more “English Lock-in”. At least this time, I won’t try and play hide and seek in the dark!

Quick Photo of the Day

Here are Ridge and Holt posing in their new suits. We bought them in preparation for Ridge's graduation from pre-school and entrance into elementary school. Both pre-school graduation and the first grade entrance ceremony are formal occasions, and pretty much all the kids will be wearing a suit. Ridge also has on his new backpack, a gift from Mr. Kamaya. It's the backpack all elementary age children in Japan use. I'll take a better picture of it later. Of course, not wanting Holt to feel left out, we bought him a suit, too. He'll be able to wear it to the pre-school graduation ceremony and to the entrance ceremony for the new pre-schoolers in April. Though he isn't going to be one of the new pre-schoolers, it's still a nice chance to wear a suit.