Voyage Junkie

Matt as the hungry crocodile. On October 16th, Matt and I worked our second English Concert.  It was great fun, and yet another opportunity for us to engage with the community in a meaningful way.  I was asked to choreograph another ballet, this time to "Think of Me," as part of the "Phantom of the Opera" skit.  I also played Tinkerbell in "Peter Pan," which involved a lot of flitting around and setting off the magic wand at opportune (and inopportune) times.  Matt made a star turn as the crocodile, then came back to play Monsieur Armand in "Phantom." Here I am, pointing out Peter Pan's hideout to Captain Hook (who also played Peter Pan's shadow) and Smee.  The wand, which I borrowed from one of the girls in the ballet, made a ridiculous musical sound when turned on.  I made sure to flip it on whenever I wanted to motion with it, so it rang out with each move of my hand.  Annoying?  Potentially.  Luckily, the skit (and my...

  Last year Matt and I spent some time watching these dancers, and I was lucky enough to see them this year, back on the same street!  They are called Awa Odori  dancers, and while I can't find much information in English that makes sense, there is a lot on various Japanese pages.  From what I can garner, there's a big festival each August in Tokushima.  It's 400 years old, and the dances celebrate the famous Awaodori forest.  Luckily for me, they bring the show on the road to Gifu every year, too.  For each group there's a video, as well as a picture, if you don't have a lot of time.  First up, subtle dancers in blue/green, that appear to be the trees as they wave in the wind. Next, here are some absolutely adorable men, mostly older, dancing a ridiculous-looking dance.  We saw the same men last year, which is where this picture came from.  I can see the growth of the forest as they move from crouching to standing,  an...

Matt and I attended our second annual Nobunaga Festival, or matsuri , on October 2nd.  Rather,  I attended and Matt performed!  He was approached by one of our friends who works at City Hall about taking the role of Luis Frois, a Portuguese missionary who befriended Nobunaga in 1569.  He wrote histories of Japan while he was traveling and meeting with various Shoguns.  Matt jumped at the chance to be a part of the community in such a meaningful way, and he got to ride a horse! To the left is a wonderful picture of Matt with two of his new friends.  On the right is this year's Nobunaga, and on the left is the right-hand military man. Below is a video of Matt riding a horse that's pretty entertaining.  Evidently all the little old Japanese ladies positively fainted over him throughout the parade as he waved and smiled at little kids, waved to everyone, tipped his hat, and overall was the perfect (Jewish) Catholic. Pretty soon af...

We had a three-day weekend, so one of Matt's teachers took us "hiking" on a "mountain" on Sunday.  It's lucky we chose Sunday so we could rest on Monday, because I'm currently nursing the worst sunburn I've had since childhood, and Matt torqued up his knees pretty badly.  Maybe in another few days I won't be such a lobster, and Matt will be able to walk normally again.  Are we old?  At 28, I don't think so... especially since we lift weights, run, dance, walk and ride bikes all over Japan.  Before moving out of Colorado, we routinely went for weekend hikes all over the Rockies without much trouble.  Okay, first trouble: we didn't have good hiking shoes.  The whole indoor/outdoor only shoe thing here makes it impossible to wear shoes for various purposes, so we couldn't wear our sneakers with much better treads, we had to wear our outdoor pumas.  Those are slippery!  Second trouble: the sun is so strong here!  Even with 50 spf, I bur...

Approaching Aikawa Higashi Junior High School from the south, as I have done every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday since April, one must round several mountains until one finds the right hill, ringed with perfectly spaced cherry blossom trees and comfortable homes.  Behind that hill sits the school, with stairways down to its dusty grand field.  The students are among the most well-behaved in the city of Gifu, and the athletics are fairly successful -- it produced an Olympic Gold Medalist.  So, as you may imagine, Sports Day for them is a day-long Leni Riefenstahl film. Abigail's post below should give you a good sense of the setup of a grand on Sports Day, and the general shape of the events.  My aim is just to supplement her post with the flourishes Aikawa Higashi put on the day.  These start with the special guest appearance by Minamo, the mascot of Gifu City.  If you've seen Hikonyan on a previous post, you know that each town in Japan has a character...

This month marks the anniversary of my first year living in Japan.  Now I've started to teach lessons for the second time, and I recently attended my second sports day.  This year, I'm known by the students, well-liked by the faculty, I know a bit more Japanese, and I'm generally a lot more comfortable here than I was last year.  It's noticeable, too - several teachers commented that I seemed "healthier" than last year - and I'm glad.  There were exciting relays and  kibasen  fights just like last year, which Matt can describe more in full in the next post - at my school, the best part this year had to do with the adults. First up: the principal and I dressed in the same color!  As he put it: "Red plus blue plus white is purple."  We were representing all three teams and the message of school-wide teamwork that dominated his speeches before and after the games.  Love that man! Second: one of the teachers had a broken hand due to a...

Yesterday I had the pleasure of performing in a Full Moon Festival in Hashima, a small town just outside of Gifu.  Modern Dance You Co. performed a small, relaxed dance that featured a kid's number to a song about onigiri (rice balls), Sachiko as the princess from the moon, and the rest of us as kunoichi , or female ninjas.  This is the year of the rabbit by the Chinese zodiac, so the two little girls were dressed as rabbits, and had a very important role in taking the princess back to her home on the moon.  It was adorable, and quite a lot of fun. Rie teaches me how to take tea. We spent the day at the cultural center getting ready for the performance.  We were able to take a break before the show started, and we went upstairs to take part in the tea ceremony.  There were manju  decorated like rabbits and delicious bowls of macha , otherwise known as green tea.  I couldn't eat the manju , because although some people will swear it contains no wh...