Kamakura

A few weekends ago I finally made my way to Kamakura (a small city that may technically be inside Tokyo, but takes about an hour of train travel each way). Kamakura has an amazing number of temples and shrines in a very small area, and almost all of them come up one after another as you walk the along the roads to Daibustu (the Great Buddha). We spent the day walking around and hit a handful of different places, including one with "the biggest bell in Kamakura." We weren't sure how that sized up to other big bells, but ended up climbing several flights of stone steps carved into a mountain in order to visit it anyway. The Daibutsu is indeed a very large Buddha and I'm glad that I got to see it. Neither of us saw the shrine or temple that interested us most from the guidebooks, so maybe that will be a good reason to go back again in the spring.

I think the pictures will tell a more interesting story...

the gate from the first temple that we visited

a beautiful temple garden with a hint of fall colors
some truly amazing woodcarving at the temple
this way (right) to the big bell
we took the path and this was the first bell we saw... after walking around the temple grounds behind lots of Japanese people who also seemed to have trouble finding the famous bell (we heard lots of "no, not in there...where is it?!") we were a little bit disheartened... this couldn't be the "biggest bell in Kamakura," could it??
..then we found it.
our next stop had been a famous refuge for abused women before divorce was common or women had rights within their marriage...it was a beautiful place, set in the forest and filled with beautiful gardens, cemeteries and caves dug into the mountainside

these pictures are from one of the bigger shrines in Kamakura......our visit coincided with the Japanese tradition of bringing 3, 5 and 7 year old children to the shrine, so it was very busy and we were able to see hundreds of little kids dressed in the most beautiful kimono
a wish for safe travel...
we were so happy to see the daibustu that I gave him a kiss!

randomness... and my feet

In looking through my pictures tonight I realized that I've taken several pictures of my feet over the past 3 months. They're kind of funny really... and I've decided that in a poetic/artistic way, I'd like to pretend that I planned to keep a photo diary of my feet all along--to tell the story of my travels...or something. I've also decided that I'm going to continue taking pictures of my feet and present them here in occasional installments (I'll try to come up with a cheesy name for this project as well).

my feet in yukata (and wooden geta sandals) for the Kiryu Yagibushi Matsuri
my feet, lakeside at the top of Mt. Akagi in Gunma
my feet on the train to Tokyo (I think this was to meet up with friends for the end of the 57th JASC in August)
my feet in funny Japanese bowling shoes
my feet (with friends) at the apple orchard in Numata
my feet in weird Japanese toe socks on my living room tatami

kouyou

...I'm pretty sure that's the Japanese word for "autumn colors."

It's been my impression so far that the changing of the leaves is cause for a special type of excitement here in Japan. I live relatively close to a famous mountain village, well known for its spectacular scenery year-round, but especially during autumn color viewing. The hours of traffic and jam-packed mountain trains are unreal as people from every corner of the universe try to get into Nikko during their days off. I've been advised by Kiryu locals that I would be insane to attempt the pilgrimage to Nikko and guaranteed that I won't be missing anything...they'll be plenty of beautiful scenery in my own backyard.

And they were right! I've been waiting for it to happen, to see what the fuss is all about, and overnight the leaves around Kiryu started to change. It really struck me on Tuesday afternoon when I rode through a little park on my way to the library. Though its not really any different from autumn on Long Island or in Ithaca, its still pretty and makes me forgive a little bit of the awful weather we've been having lately.




Hopefully the sunshine will hold out through this weekend and I can finally enjoy a Sunday in Kamakura (third time's a charm?)

Shougakkou!

My junior high school students are great, but it's my visits to kindergarten and elementary school that light up each week. All of the kids are so excited about English, and me, and everything that I say that its incredibly easy for me to lose myself and get really really excited about them in return. They're not preparing for tests or getting hours of boring homework, so English lessons are just tons of fun...almost entirely pictures, games and songs. I don't work with a JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) at the shougakkou (elementary school), so I get free reign to plan whatever I want for each class...which is a lot more work, but also something that I really enjoy doing.

The weather was beautiful on Tuesday, so I took all of my classes outside for our lesson, running around playing a Harry Potter game and some spirited rounds of Simon Says "Please" (Simon is very polite in my world). I also take any opportunity I can to play kickball, so recess is always a great time to drown in nostalgia and the sea of adorable Japanese kids (I've got a group who went from calling me onechan--older sister, to just "sister" in an attempt to use their English... melts me like butter). They play "kick baseball," dodgeball, tag and climb all over the swings and jungle gym equipment with limitless energy... its my official theory that spending time with excited little kids will keep anyone feeling young forever.

jumping rope!
kickball... or "kikku yakyu" (kick baseabll) as the kids call it here
"cheeeeezu!" ...seriously though, how cute are these little girls?

RINGO stars!

(haha.. okay, this is so cheesy that it hurts. You see, ringo is the Japanese word for apple and this post is about my apple picking trip last Sunday... and ringo always makes me think of Ringo Starr...soooo...yeah.)

After an interesting Saturday, I thought that a bit of fresh air and BBQ in the mountains of Numata would do me some good. So I went along with some JET friends to pick one apple and take many pictures of it, then sit as close to the warm BBQ as I physically could until we piled back into the car for home. The weather was a bit iffy so it some of the people that were supposed to come didn't, making it a quiet afternoon. There's not much to say about apple picking in Japan that makes it any different from America, so I'll just share some photos and leave it at that.
oooooooh...its really high!
...but I got it! yay!! ..see how happy apple picking can make a person?
apple treasures too delicious to keep for oneself... sharing is vital to the Japanese apple picking experience!

You should know that no one filled their basket with apples to bring home, it was basically pick what you can eat...and what you can't eat, cut into pieces and distribute to innocent passers by (this is easy to do because apple picking also involves carrying a big knife. Japanese people don't eat apple skin, so even spur of the moment eating requires kitchen utensils and a trash bucket).

apple orchard fashion?
we went into the restricted area of the orchard to take pictures of the prettier trees... golden delicious (?) and fuji apples in this shot
an underutilized talent for balancing an apple on my head? (this is still the one apple that I picked and took 10,000 pictures with before eating)
pre-picked apples for sale at the orchard shop
this picture is for those of you imagining hot dogs and hamburgers when I mentioned BBQ earlier... there was also some meat and chicken going around, but this picture is from the prawn/squid phase of the feast

Minami Chorus Contest

Minami junior high school (like every other Japanese junior high school that I know of) has two major events each fall: the sports festival and the chorus contest. Basically, they both serve as excuses for the students to be painfully distracted in class for the first half of the fall term...but I'm sure that they are intended to instill upon the youth of Japan an appreciation of the arts, physical activity and teamwork. Inevitably, the older students who are overwhelmed with the stress of "cram school" and the million tests required to enter high school (as well as the fact that they will be saying goodbye to many of their childhood friends when high school begins) are MUCH more into the competitive spirit than the first or second year students. I'm talking about hysterical tears from winners, losers and kids who can't bear the suspense of waiting to hear if their team won or lost.

All of the school's post-sports-festival energy has been channeled into this competition. Each class chooses two different conductors and pianists to lead their songs (let me just say how impressed I was that this system is even possible... 12 year olds conducting and accompanying chorus ensembles!), they come in early before school to practice... then again during homeroom, lunchtime, music class and after school. They self-regulate these rehearsals and motivate each other with a sense of team spirit and class unity that continues to blow my mind. And their singing is actually very good!

Minami had 6 classes competing in the chorus contest--two from each academic year. Each class sang two songs, one of their choosing and one that is sung by both classes within a grade. There were also performances by the teachers/PTA (which included me!) and by the elective music classes from the second and third years. Every teacher and a representative from each class score the event, grading the performance of each group and choosing one pianist and one conductor as 'the best' overall.

I suppressed giggles through both of the first year ensembles, not because their performance was especially comical, but because these kids are so unbelievably cute that I can't help but to laugh at them sometimes. Some of them were really singing their hearts out--eyes closed, leaning forward a little bit in their attempts to project their voices... and the little tone deaf boys with the changing voices were always the ones belting it out to the rafters. The quality of the performances seemed to increase with every successive group, culminating with the third year elective music group. Man those kids were good!

In the end, class 3-2 destroyed the competition, winning best ensemble, pianist and conductor... and leaving the kids from class 3-1 crying in disbelief. Its really heartbreaking to see so many kids upset at one time like that.

Class 3-1 giving their pre-performance speech... every group said almost the same thing: we had some difficult times but we worked very hard, so please enjoy our singing.
Some of my more outgoing boys at Minami...mostly first years with a few second years mixed in. Really awesome kids.
Some third year girls right before the judges' announcement
The winning class! (many of the strong personalities in this group were also on the winning sports day team... just something that I noticed)