myoko english camp

Worked an Enlgish camp in the mountains of Niigata last weekend and it was an enjoyable way to make money. It was hot but the kids were cute, the area beautiful and the food free!

My group the "PINK HEARTS".

A group of great girls!

My student leader who acted all tough throughout the whole camp then cryed her eyes out at the end!

some going away parties

Pics from Scott's and Luke's going away parties. As a last hurrah to school girls Tomomi and I dressed up for Scott. He received the ? from Tsubo and Noriko and decided to try it on. Ironically Luke also received a ? at his going away party. I did not consciously decide to take a picture with all of the boys but it happened that way. I was quite a mess of tears at the end.

undokai

Blogger is being stupid and I have limited opportunity to post anything so these two posts may be strange. It has been a while, ne! Ne is my new eh. The Japanese use it at the end of the sentence like eh or hey. Had my second sports festival two weekends ago and it was hot. I had the privileged position of firing the starting gun but basically it was given to me because it required no preparing and also no thinking. It was better than simply sitting and watching while all the other teachers were working their butts off, though. My head teacher, who is the closest thing to a modern day samurai, and I, had a who can wear the most red clothing competition. We decided it was a tie because although I was wearing black pants I had on red shoes. I should have won though because at the end of the day my scalp was red as well. It was much more interesting this year because I understood more and was present at the preparations for everything. I posted alot of pictures of the bean bag toss game because I though they looked interesting. For those who didn't know I have weird double jointed arms which is evident in my action shot! My team unfortunately lost the day but we won the dancing competition!

After was the obligatory nomikai and many of the parents and teachers proceeded to drink their brains out. After the first party I ended up carrying my elementary vice-principal to his car because he was completely incapacitated and his wife is quite small. The second party had karaoke and we were subjected to two hours of a horrible genre of Japanese music called enka.

Modern enka came into being in the postwar years of the Showa period. It was the first style to synthesize the Japanese pentatonic scale with Western harmonies. Enka lyrics, as in Portuguese Fado, usually are about the themes of love and loss, loneliness, enduring hardships, and persevering in the face of difficulties, even suicide or death. Enka suggests a more traditional, idealized, or romanticized aspect of Japanese culture and attitudes, comparable to American country and western music.

Perhaps the content of the lyrics are similar to country music but the sound is not and it was a rough two hours. After sang the normal "country road" with my jhs vice-principal and was glad to go home and crash.

sports festival

sado

It has been a while since Sado but I have actually been busy at school and my access to the Internet has become more restricted. Sado was a great time and the weather was perfect not as hot as last year but with sunny days and clear nights. It was funny because everyone was commenting on how bright the stars were and how they could actually see the milky way. We are lucky in Saskatchewan that way and though it was beautiful it was like any clear night in the prairies.

Kodo is the taiko group that sponsors the Sado Earth Celebration and they are a small but famous commune of taiko drummers. They constructed their own town where they live, eat, train and sleep together. Their concert was absolutely amazing though and put my taiko group not only to shame but out in the gutter. It was really quite beautiful set outside and everyone sat and watched or stood on the sides dancing. I had an annoying encounter with an older European man. He was invading my personal space a bit much (as in arm rubbing against me) and there was plenty of room. I had politely requested he move over to which he basically ignored, then Evan asked him to move which he said something like I am just trying to enjoy the concert. I ignored it for a bit but he was continually pushing me over and it got to the point where I was standing in front of people who were sitting. I got fed up and asked him to act like an adult and realize we were obscuring people's views, to no response so I finally shoved him pretty hard and he got the message. Still it was a great concert.

The members of Kodo were some of the fittest Japanese people I have seen!

We camped on a beach with a nice view though the water this year was pretty gross. There was a big group of Irish engineers amassed on the beach and I spent much of the beach parties chatting with them. I have never met a more entertaining group of people than the Irish. With Pamela and Deccy gone (Irish ALTs from last year) I am glad that the equally funny Richie (also Irish) has arrived. Never dare an Irishman though! Conversation somehow turned to some other people who had been skinny dipping the night before and a couple of the guys were laughing about it. I said something to the effect of why weren't you out there last night with them; didn't happen to be self-conscious? With not a second though two guys stood up and stripped completely naked (in a fully lit room) and proceeded to run pell mell to the beach. After which the owner of the shop said he was going to call the police. Oops!!!

There were some great smaller performances as well ...belly dancers, African drummers and fire dancers. It was quite a hippy crowd.

I am trying to upload some video of the fire dancers but I not quite sure how it will work so...