blogger has failed me

Well I have been attempting to upload pictures for a week or two, during the limited time I have with the internet, and for some stupid reason blogger has been incapable. Thus I have not blogged for a while. Fall is here again in all its glory and the weather is getting cooler. This year is much cooler than last and apparently we are in for a lot of snow because there have been many bodies of a particular insect running around. The musical has begun again and I have decided to join. I was planning on being head of tech but now it seems I am acting. School is running smoothly and I am definitely kept busy on most days. I almost lost my voice yesterday from yelling at a bunch of rambunctious pre-school and elementary school kids but it is often fun. So since this blog is so enthralling I am going to cut off and keep you wanting more ;)........

japanese comedian superstars

Japanese comedy is often a physical comedy that can sometimes seem a bit childish. When I first came to Japan the HG or Hard Gay era was coming to an end. Hard Gay was a comedian who dressed in a leather gay fetish outfit and went around performing acts of charity (yonaoshi, “social improvement”) for unsuspecting bystanders while performing trademark pelvic thrusts and vocalisations, often accompanied by “Livin’ la Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin. Evan was quite the pro at HG imitations, I have been told. Every single Japanese person knows who he is and almost everyone thought he was hilarious. I have posted an example below.

Now is the era of Kojima Yoshio and OPAPI. OPAPI stands for Ocean Pacific Peace... ask any Japanese person what this is and they have no idea I have got answers from a baseball team to a NPO. Anyhow, Kojima does this trademark move that resembles starting up a chainsaw and dances around in a little speedo while saying "sonna no kankei nee" (What does that matter?) and OPAPI is said to a ballet type move. I realize now that my students were constantly doing the action and saying the phrase but I simply thought they were being idiots like normal. The light clicked on that it was more than simply a stupid kid thing when I went to a Japanese Reggae party (which is really just badly mixed hip hop songs) and the so called rappers were yelling out OPAPI and then everyone in the audience would do the action. Now, I see it everywhere. It is kind of scary how oblivious you can be when you don't understand the language. I really don't find this type of comedy amusing but the Japanese seem to eat it up.
I have added the video below but I can't find one with subtitles, sorry.

Kojima Yoshio

Hard Gay and Fathers Day

paragliding is what again?

A while ago I ventured down to Joetsu and went paragliding with the crew down there. As my mother can ascertain I have loved heights since I was in diapers and I could not let this opportunity pass. I though paragliding and hangliding were the same thing but I was corrected from this misconception and informed it was with a parachute. I then had the image of plummeting at extreme speeds but I should have listened to the name one more time. Gliding... a gentle and slow descend to the ground. So there was not much of an adrenalin rush or an " I'm going to die moment" but it was incredibly beautiful and completely surreal. The glide down seemed to take 10 minutes or more but I am not sure of the real time. The mountain we jumped off of is situated near the sea so we had a beautiful view of the terraced rice fields and the sea. I am glad that I did it but next will be something with a bit more speed...

View from the top



It was a tandem jump with a weasel looking Japanese man. Good all the same though.

muramatsu matsuri

We threw Jim out of Aga and he landed in Muramatsu, the next town over, and since the people are so nice they invited him to be part of the town's festival (no I haven't been asked to join any...grrr). Anyhow, a few of us went to watch him in his big debut. The festival was a Shinto festival where the gods leave the town's shrines and enter mini portable shrines. The mini portable shrine with the gods are then bounced around for three days on the shoulders of sweating citizens to the shouts of WASHOI, WASHOI. After the three days they are dramatically returned to the shrine amidst a blackout and some eerie chanting by the priests. Many people were showing there strength by walking around barefoot and let me tell you with the amount of bugs scrambling around on the ground I would not enter that competition.

This is one of the town elders who had the priviledge of witnessing the return of the gods from within the shrine. He also walked us ten minutes out of his way to guide us to a restaurant.

One of the mini shrines absent of the gods.

Jimbo in his fancy costume. On the back of his happi is the kanji for his area which is "shindo" or new road.

new schools interesting questions

Since September I have acquired two new elementary schools and two pre-schools though I think I only visit the pre-schools once. I really enjoy my new schools, there are some really great teachers and cute kids. I think my kids have gotten use to me at Mikawa and the novelty has worn off so it is nice going to a school where the kids follow me wherever I go if I leave the teacher's room. My self intro is pretty good at this point though Jim seems to think his is the best ( I only did mine 12 times and he has many more schools than I). I always have a question session after my self intro and I have been asked some pretty interesting or ridiculous questions. Here are some of my favourites.

How many schools are in Canada?
Have you ever seen a UFO?
What is your cat's favourite food?
What is your favourite accessory? (from a second grade boy)
Have you ever been attacked by a bear?
What is your favourite gemstone?

One class was particularly obsessed with my father.
How old is your father?
When is his birthday?
How tall is he?
What is his favourite food?
What is his favourite colour?

They didn't even ask any of these questions about me :(

They always get a kick out of the fact that my mother is a principal because most mothers around these parts are homemakers and I think in the whole of my prefecture there are three female principals.

Samurai Festival

Anna and I took a trip over to the Samurai festival in Aizuwakamatsu. I was really looking forward to it because beyond a few sword in the National Museum the Samurai culture is not very evident in every day Japan. It was a great parade with great weather and apparently some famous Japanese people. No idea who they are but people were following them along the whole parade route with their cellphone cameras in hand.