12月 (December)
This past month has been quite memorable. December has always been a month where I've only prepared for Christmas, maybe New Year's, and my mother's birthday. However, this year has definitely been special.
The first thing I should mention about this month is the snow. Previously, I’ve experienced snow exactly 3 times. Those times, however, were for leisure. Currently, I’m dealing with having to live in not just a regular winter season, but a long and harsh winter as the people of this town describe it. The snow is already at roughly 1.7 meters or 5 feet. They say it averages around 1.5 meters. But, this year’s snow came unusually early this year and in large amounts. So who knows what’s coming up this winter.
Here’s my house in the beginning of winter.
So there are quite a few things that we Southern California people don’t experience in a regular winter season. For instance, I was warned about icicles and avalanches during winter. I was like, “What!?” Apparently, the icicles are huge and can cause major damage to your health if not your head. In addition to the killer icicles, snow consistently falls off my roof in large amounts due to buildup which in turn I call mini avalanches. At first experience of it, I thought there was an earthquake happening. To my surprise, it’s just the hundreds of pounds of snow rolling down my roof. Oh yeah, I also shovel everyday, sometimes every morning and night, so that the snow doesn’t build up around my house causing the temperature within my house to drop. Shoveling takes about an hour or two. I have to be cautious of the snow falling off my roof. There was a close call once where I just finished shoveling an area and suddenly a bunch of snow fell around the place that I just was. A good amount of HP would have been taken off of me if I was in that same place just a minute earlier. Oh yeah, I find it quite amusing when I wake up in the morning, go to the bathroom and see my toilet water somewhat frozen too.
It seems like a lot to worry about, but it’s more about adapting to these conditions rather than being shocked and surprised at how much snow there is. There are plenty of nice things about the snow too. For instance, the town has a color of snow white. After seeing so many pictures of places with snow, it’s quite surreal to see it right before your eyes. Looking out the window at the schools, the offices, and my house is like looking at one of those beautiful pictures.
Also, I can’t wait to try out all the winter sports like skiing, snowboarding, and tobagganing. With the winter olympics coming up, it seems like this winter sports season will be quite busy. I also played in the snow for the first time at one of the elementary schools. I’ll mention more on this a little later.
The first weekend of this month, the town Board of Education had their 簿年会 (bonenkai), or “End of the Year Party”. From what I’ve been hearing from other offices and schools, the bonenkai is practically the biggest office party of the year. And, as I’ve been saying all the time, these Japanese people sure know how to party. So, all of us (the B.O.E. and branch office) went to a hotel in 点度 (Tendo) and stayed the night. Upon arrival, I was shown to my room where I had to change into traditional Japanese hotel/inn clothes. Right after I changed, a few of us went to the 温泉 (onsen). For those of you who don’t know, an onsen is a hot spring. And man was it hot. If you ever want to know how boiled vegetables feel like, jump into one of these. The really unique thing about this onsen, is that it was an outdoor one. So, during the time that I was in the onsen, it was snowing too. The view was very nice and I had a wonderful feeling of calmness and relaxation come over me. On a sidenote, the outdoor section of the onsen is unisex.
After changing back, all of us headed into our private party room. The set up was the traditional Japanese style set up as I’ve been consistently seeing at previous parties. After taking my designated seat, the program coordinated by a couple of people went underway. It consisted of top headlines for the year submitted by each person, followed by a random gift exchange, and a quiz like section where people who got the correct answers received gifts while those providing wrong answers were forced to drink a really bad tasting alcoholic drink. Let’s just say I don’t know enough Japanese or the price of women’s underwear, so take my word for it, it tasted pretty bad horrible. Afterwards, we headed out for karaoke at a nearby place and sang our hearts out.
I’ll let you decided on what game we were trying to play here.
The two weeks after our bonenkai, was spent as normal. Working (even though I think it’s too good to be true to call it “Working.”) and teaching. The next big event was definitely big indeed. Our office secretary, Naoki Shitara, had her wedding at Hotel Symphony in 寒河江市(Sagae-shi). I consider myself to be really fortunate in my timing to be able to be invited and attend to such an event. Most of the guests attended the wedding reception while only the immediate family got to witness the actual ceremony. I did get a glimpse of the traditional Japanese wedding dress and it was, to say the least, very beautfiul. At the reception, the bride changed into the traditional kimono while the wedding reception program went underway. It was a very heartfelt reception with slideshows of the married couple from their childhood to adult years. And even more heartfelt were the speeches given by the married coule to the parents. Many people were left wiping tears away at then end. So after a few other things that’ll I’ll update on later when I get pictures, everyone ate and drank like there was no tomorrow. I kind if felt bad for the groom cause EVERYONE was getting in line to pour beer for him. I don’t know how much liquid the human body can take, but he was drinking buckets practically. (That’s why he had actual buckets next to him to poor the beer out of his glass if he couldn’t handle it anymore.) It feels that my journal entries always include Japanese people drinking as if their lives depended on it. Well, maybe it does. Lol. So, afterwards, our town chipped in a built up a nice pool (a large one actually) of money to have a fireworks display at the end. The fireworks was definitely a nice and classy touch especially since there was a good amount of snowfall. After the reception ended, the wedding couple and parents handed out gifts to all the guests. And so the wedding reception ends and the wedding afterparty begins (hahaha). So what did we do? We drank some more and sang karaoke of course. That pretty much concludes my experience of a Japanese wedding. =p
The next day was just as busy as the previous for me. I woke up, got myself ready and took the bus to Kajou Central in Yamagata City where two of my students were performing for a Hip Hop showcase. The bus ride was a good hour and the snowfall was very heavy that day too. Upon arrival, I learned that Kajou Central was the tallest building in Yamagata Prefecture. In terms of height, it is not that tall of a building but contains quite a few things like shops, an arcade, movie theater, and a high school of all things. On reaching the area of the Hip Hop showcase, I was surprised to see many people practicing and grooving for the competitions being held. The lineup contained breakdancing battles and locking battles in addition to the Hip Hop dancing exhibitions. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay long enough to see my students perform since I needed to attend a Christmas party later in the day. I was fortunate enough to get a small preview of them practicing however.
The 3-5 year old Hip Hop class showcase.
After the Hip Hop showcase, I hopped back on the express bus to go back to my town and get picked up by a neighbor to celebrate Christmas a week early. Funny thing about my bus ride was when I got off for my stop, the bus driver was like “Whoa,” in reaction to all the snow. Anyways, I was picked up by my neighbor at the bus stop and we headed out to her younger sister’s house in a nearby city. So to keep it a little short, it was more of a family Christmas party with the excess alcohol of course. Whew! I’m getting tired from recalling all these events where I’ve had to drink. Way too many I tell you.
So my last week of school for the year came. This last week wasn’t really about me teaching actually. Most of the classes I taught during this week at the elementary schools all had some special Christmas party or activity planned for me. I was able to watch my students perform magic tricks, tell simple Japanese jokes that I could even understand, have gift exchanges where I was given plenty of gifts (made by my students themselves of course), and even had the chance to play in the snow and make my snowman for the first time. The one tradition the the Japanese have during Christmas is the eating of Christmas cake. So, in a couple of classes, I had special Christmas cake with the students that they made themselves.
The snowcouple that my students and I made.
I gotta watch out for some of my students. They’re all a tricky bunchy. Telling me 危ない! (“Abunai!”or “Watch out!” ) and at the same time pushing me down into the snow and piling as much snow on me. And I say this again to all of you: “I get paid to do this!”
At the end of this work week (Thursday the 22nd actually), the Board of Education decided to have their annual New Year’s soba at my house. And so, a co-office mate of my, Hachiya-sensei, came over to my house and made the soba from scratch while my office supervisor, Keiko Kudo-Kakaricho, made the tempura and fixings for the soba. It was probably one of the best Japanese meals I’ve had since I’ve been here. Greato!!!
At the end of this work day, we all headed out to Sendai to celebrate the last day of work for the year. So we all hopped into Hachiya-sensei’s van and went to Sendai. It’s only about an hour and a half drive via the highway so we got there in a good amount of time. After checking into our hotel rooms, we went and walked the main street of Sendai.
This street in Sendai is famous for its lights and illuminations.
We arrived at the place where we were gonna eat dinner and to my surprise, it was Chinese food. It was ok, I mean I’m from Rosemead and the San Gabriel Valley and I don’t know if you can get any better Chinese food unless you go to China. We also drank a lot at the restaurant too. Afterwards, we hit up the famous live scene in which endai is especially known for. The Live bar was an oldies bar that played many of the classic golden oldies hits. I wrote a request for “Stop in the Name of Love” and they actually sang it. I was pretty excited since I wrote it in English and not Japanese. The crowd went crazy too when the band played that song. That place was a definite highlight.
Mad props to the oldies band in Sendai.
After the live, and more drinking of course, we all went and sang karaoke and drank some more. At this point, I just pretended to take sips of beer. We sang until a couple of my co-workers couldn’t stay awake anymore and so we dropped one of them off back to at the hotel. After dropping off what was left of my supervisor, we headed out to have Korean BBQ and more drinks. Sigh. I don’t know how one of my other co-workers was able to make it there cause he was already out at the karaoke room. So we ate our fill of Korean BBQ and drank until everyone decided to head back to the hotel. It was about 2:30 a.m. when we arrived at the hotel. Note that we started this whole thing at around 6:30 p.m. so that made it a good 8 hours of eating, drinking, and crazy Japanese fun.
And to conclude this entry, I leave you all with a picture that pretty much sums up my experience in Japan.
They pay me to do this!?
Nothing is more entertaining than drunk Japanese people.
簿年会 Bonenkai December 3, 2005
The first thing I should mention about this month is the snow. Previously, I’ve experienced snow exactly 3 times. Those times, however, were for leisure. Currently, I’m dealing with having to live in not just a regular winter season, but a long and harsh winter as the people of this town describe it. The snow is already at roughly 1.7 meters or 5 feet. They say it averages around 1.5 meters. But, this year’s snow came unusually early this year and in large amounts. So who knows what’s coming up this winter.
Here’s my house in the beginning of winter.
So there are quite a few things that we Southern California people don’t experience in a regular winter season. For instance, I was warned about icicles and avalanches during winter. I was like, “What!?” Apparently, the icicles are huge and can cause major damage to your health if not your head. In addition to the killer icicles, snow consistently falls off my roof in large amounts due to buildup which in turn I call mini avalanches. At first experience of it, I thought there was an earthquake happening. To my surprise, it’s just the hundreds of pounds of snow rolling down my roof. Oh yeah, I also shovel everyday, sometimes every morning and night, so that the snow doesn’t build up around my house causing the temperature within my house to drop. Shoveling takes about an hour or two. I have to be cautious of the snow falling off my roof. There was a close call once where I just finished shoveling an area and suddenly a bunch of snow fell around the place that I just was. A good amount of HP would have been taken off of me if I was in that same place just a minute earlier. Oh yeah, I find it quite amusing when I wake up in the morning, go to the bathroom and see my toilet water somewhat frozen too.
It seems like a lot to worry about, but it’s more about adapting to these conditions rather than being shocked and surprised at how much snow there is. There are plenty of nice things about the snow too. For instance, the town has a color of snow white. After seeing so many pictures of places with snow, it’s quite surreal to see it right before your eyes. Looking out the window at the schools, the offices, and my house is like looking at one of those beautiful pictures.
Also, I can’t wait to try out all the winter sports like skiing, snowboarding, and tobagganing. With the winter olympics coming up, it seems like this winter sports season will be quite busy. I also played in the snow for the first time at one of the elementary schools. I’ll mention more on this a little later.
The first weekend of this month, the town Board of Education had their 簿年会 (bonenkai), or “End of the Year Party”. From what I’ve been hearing from other offices and schools, the bonenkai is practically the biggest office party of the year. And, as I’ve been saying all the time, these Japanese people sure know how to party. So, all of us (the B.O.E. and branch office) went to a hotel in 点度 (Tendo) and stayed the night. Upon arrival, I was shown to my room where I had to change into traditional Japanese hotel/inn clothes. Right after I changed, a few of us went to the 温泉 (onsen). For those of you who don’t know, an onsen is a hot spring. And man was it hot. If you ever want to know how boiled vegetables feel like, jump into one of these. The really unique thing about this onsen, is that it was an outdoor one. So, during the time that I was in the onsen, it was snowing too. The view was very nice and I had a wonderful feeling of calmness and relaxation come over me. On a sidenote, the outdoor section of the onsen is unisex.
After changing back, all of us headed into our private party room. The set up was the traditional Japanese style set up as I’ve been consistently seeing at previous parties. After taking my designated seat, the program coordinated by a couple of people went underway. It consisted of top headlines for the year submitted by each person, followed by a random gift exchange, and a quiz like section where people who got the correct answers received gifts while those providing wrong answers were forced to drink a really bad tasting alcoholic drink. Let’s just say I don’t know enough Japanese or the price of women’s underwear, so take my word for it, it tasted pretty bad horrible. Afterwards, we headed out for karaoke at a nearby place and sang our hearts out.
I’ll let you decided on what game we were trying to play here.
The two weeks after our bonenkai, was spent as normal. Working (even though I think it’s too good to be true to call it “Working.”) and teaching. The next big event was definitely big indeed. Our office secretary, Naoki Shitara, had her wedding at Hotel Symphony in 寒河江市(Sagae-shi). I consider myself to be really fortunate in my timing to be able to be invited and attend to such an event. Most of the guests attended the wedding reception while only the immediate family got to witness the actual ceremony. I did get a glimpse of the traditional Japanese wedding dress and it was, to say the least, very beautfiul. At the reception, the bride changed into the traditional kimono while the wedding reception program went underway. It was a very heartfelt reception with slideshows of the married couple from their childhood to adult years. And even more heartfelt were the speeches given by the married coule to the parents. Many people were left wiping tears away at then end. So after a few other things that’ll I’ll update on later when I get pictures, everyone ate and drank like there was no tomorrow. I kind if felt bad for the groom cause EVERYONE was getting in line to pour beer for him. I don’t know how much liquid the human body can take, but he was drinking buckets practically. (That’s why he had actual buckets next to him to poor the beer out of his glass if he couldn’t handle it anymore.) It feels that my journal entries always include Japanese people drinking as if their lives depended on it. Well, maybe it does. Lol. So, afterwards, our town chipped in a built up a nice pool (a large one actually) of money to have a fireworks display at the end. The fireworks was definitely a nice and classy touch especially since there was a good amount of snowfall. After the reception ended, the wedding couple and parents handed out gifts to all the guests. And so the wedding reception ends and the wedding afterparty begins (hahaha). So what did we do? We drank some more and sang karaoke of course. That pretty much concludes my experience of a Japanese wedding. =p
The next day was just as busy as the previous for me. I woke up, got myself ready and took the bus to Kajou Central in Yamagata City where two of my students were performing for a Hip Hop showcase. The bus ride was a good hour and the snowfall was very heavy that day too. Upon arrival, I learned that Kajou Central was the tallest building in Yamagata Prefecture. In terms of height, it is not that tall of a building but contains quite a few things like shops, an arcade, movie theater, and a high school of all things. On reaching the area of the Hip Hop showcase, I was surprised to see many people practicing and grooving for the competitions being held. The lineup contained breakdancing battles and locking battles in addition to the Hip Hop dancing exhibitions. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay long enough to see my students perform since I needed to attend a Christmas party later in the day. I was fortunate enough to get a small preview of them practicing however.
The 3-5 year old Hip Hop class showcase.
After the Hip Hop showcase, I hopped back on the express bus to go back to my town and get picked up by a neighbor to celebrate Christmas a week early. Funny thing about my bus ride was when I got off for my stop, the bus driver was like “Whoa,” in reaction to all the snow. Anyways, I was picked up by my neighbor at the bus stop and we headed out to her younger sister’s house in a nearby city. So to keep it a little short, it was more of a family Christmas party with the excess alcohol of course. Whew! I’m getting tired from recalling all these events where I’ve had to drink. Way too many I tell you.
So my last week of school for the year came. This last week wasn’t really about me teaching actually. Most of the classes I taught during this week at the elementary schools all had some special Christmas party or activity planned for me. I was able to watch my students perform magic tricks, tell simple Japanese jokes that I could even understand, have gift exchanges where I was given plenty of gifts (made by my students themselves of course), and even had the chance to play in the snow and make my snowman for the first time. The one tradition the the Japanese have during Christmas is the eating of Christmas cake. So, in a couple of classes, I had special Christmas cake with the students that they made themselves.
The snowcouple that my students and I made.
I gotta watch out for some of my students. They’re all a tricky bunchy. Telling me 危ない! (“Abunai!”or “Watch out!” ) and at the same time pushing me down into the snow and piling as much snow on me. And I say this again to all of you: “I get paid to do this!”
At the end of this work week (Thursday the 22nd actually), the Board of Education decided to have their annual New Year’s soba at my house. And so, a co-office mate of my, Hachiya-sensei, came over to my house and made the soba from scratch while my office supervisor, Keiko Kudo-Kakaricho, made the tempura and fixings for the soba. It was probably one of the best Japanese meals I’ve had since I’ve been here. Greato!!!
At the end of this work day, we all headed out to Sendai to celebrate the last day of work for the year. So we all hopped into Hachiya-sensei’s van and went to Sendai. It’s only about an hour and a half drive via the highway so we got there in a good amount of time. After checking into our hotel rooms, we went and walked the main street of Sendai.
This street in Sendai is famous for its lights and illuminations.
We arrived at the place where we were gonna eat dinner and to my surprise, it was Chinese food. It was ok, I mean I’m from Rosemead and the San Gabriel Valley and I don’t know if you can get any better Chinese food unless you go to China. We also drank a lot at the restaurant too. Afterwards, we hit up the famous live scene in which endai is especially known for. The Live bar was an oldies bar that played many of the classic golden oldies hits. I wrote a request for “Stop in the Name of Love” and they actually sang it. I was pretty excited since I wrote it in English and not Japanese. The crowd went crazy too when the band played that song. That place was a definite highlight.
Mad props to the oldies band in Sendai.
After the live, and more drinking of course, we all went and sang karaoke and drank some more. At this point, I just pretended to take sips of beer. We sang until a couple of my co-workers couldn’t stay awake anymore and so we dropped one of them off back to at the hotel. After dropping off what was left of my supervisor, we headed out to have Korean BBQ and more drinks. Sigh. I don’t know how one of my other co-workers was able to make it there cause he was already out at the karaoke room. So we ate our fill of Korean BBQ and drank until everyone decided to head back to the hotel. It was about 2:30 a.m. when we arrived at the hotel. Note that we started this whole thing at around 6:30 p.m. so that made it a good 8 hours of eating, drinking, and crazy Japanese fun.
And to conclude this entry, I leave you all with a picture that pretty much sums up my experience in Japan.
They pay me to do this!?
Nothing is more entertaining than drunk Japanese people.
簿年会 Bonenkai December 3, 2005