God I'm Lame
Ohai internet. Usually LJ silence means one of three things: a) either I'm crazy busy and don't have time to update, b) there's nothing to write about, or c) I'm battling ennui. This entry is an attempt to fight off reasons a and b.
July 20th was a holiday in Japan; so-called Marine Day. As many nonsensical Japanese holidays, it falls on a Monday, which gave me a 3-day weekend. Dr. Hayashi suggested a trip to Hirosaki to see Real Live Shamisen and I agreed. So up we flew and soaked up the Tsugaru culture. Both nights we were there we ate at the well-known Shamisen Live House, Yamauta. All of the performers doubled as waitstaff, which was neat until you needed your food and everyone was on stage. The people at Yamauta were absolutely incredible musicians. I snuck a lot of recordings, which were very inspiring. I loved that the people there were creating and performing folk music as a way of life, instead of just a cool thing to do on the weekends. We also took a trip down to Goshogawara, where the Tsugaru-Jamisen Museum is located. It was a very quaint, sleepy little town. (I applied for a job in Goshogawara last winter and just missed getting it. I'm now pretty relieved that it didn't work out, considering just how small the place really is.)
A performance at Yamauta. (Click to hear.)
After spending two days eating, living, and breathing shamisen, we drove over to Tono, a town in Iwaki Prefecture. Though the population is pretty sparse, it is rich in folklore. There are enough legends circulating there to warrant an entire tome, dubbed 遠野物語 ("The Legends of Tono"). One of the more vibrant legends in Tono is that of the kappa, the ubiquitous river imp who enjoys luring horses, children, and the elderly to a watery grave. Kappa are rather infamous aquatic vampires, sucking blood out of their victims anuses. In an attempt to appease the kappa, people will carve the names of the weak (such as their children) onto cucumbers, which the kappa enjoy, and throw them into the infested rivers and lakes. (This is where the kappa maki, cucumber roll, gets its name.) Tono is seriously kappa crazy. There were kappa on every sign and in every shop. We ended up at river named after the kappa, which was the site of a kappa event over 600 years ago. The river is now straddled by a Shinto shrine on one bank, and a Buddhist temple on the other, both dedicated to the imps.
A kappa mother nurses her young.
I had a few precious days to recover from the Tusgaru trip before departing for my next little adventure, of a much different nature. I agreed to accompany an overnight field trip through my work, since two of my own students wanted to go. My girls are both 12, but they were some of the oldest kids on the trip. There were children as young as 5 there, which was pretty shocking to me. Oh well!
We had to meet bright and early on Monday morning at Yokohama station and pick up 45 kids. We then bussed 4 hours north to a "farm." This was seriously one of the strangest places I've seen. You see, back in the 70s, there was an anime called "Heidi, Girl of the Alps," based on the famous novel by Johanna Spyri written in 1880. This was basically a Heidi theme park, complete with Swiss-style buildings and even a mini-Swiss dairy (with Swiss cows, natch). I of course had no idea we were headed there, and the first thing I said when we stepped off of the bus was, "why is there demented Swiss music playing?" That pretty much describes this place. There was a really awful petting zoo (where most of the animals looked sick and/or angry) and it was just really creepy all around. The best part of the place was getting to make hand-made butter, which was really delicious. The kids also got to milk the cows, which they thought was pretty neat.
The next stop was the real attraction of the trip: Mongolian Village. (Don't ask me what any of this has to do with learning English cuz I don't have a clue.) We got to see a live performance of the horse-head fiddle and the Mongolian koto. (I took an illicit recording of this as well, obviously.) Then we had Mongolian BBQ, had a nice onsen bath, and slept in our yurts. (Don't worry, these yurts were carpeted and air-conditioned!)
My yurt.
As soon as I turned out the lights in Yurt #12, where I was stationed, my girls got out a flashlight and asked if they could make "かみほしい." I was totally bewildered by this until they took out a large piece of paper that they had poked holes in. They were asking to make "paper stars" with the flashlight, so of course I obliged. After that we made shadow animals out of our hands and laughed and gossiped until a few of them nodded off. Though my girls actually slept from 1 until 7, I didn't fall asleep until 5 thanks to my lovely insomnia. Tis life. The next day moved swiftly and before I knew it I was back in Yokohama and collapsing on my futon.
お疲れさまです！
July 20th was a holiday in Japan; so-called Marine Day. As many nonsensical Japanese holidays, it falls on a Monday, which gave me a 3-day weekend. Dr. Hayashi suggested a trip to Hirosaki to see Real Live Shamisen and I agreed. So up we flew and soaked up the Tsugaru culture. Both nights we were there we ate at the well-known Shamisen Live House, Yamauta. All of the performers doubled as waitstaff, which was neat until you needed your food and everyone was on stage. The people at Yamauta were absolutely incredible musicians. I snuck a lot of recordings, which were very inspiring. I loved that the people there were creating and performing folk music as a way of life, instead of just a cool thing to do on the weekends. We also took a trip down to Goshogawara, where the Tsugaru-Jamisen Museum is located. It was a very quaint, sleepy little town. (I applied for a job in Goshogawara last winter and just missed getting it. I'm now pretty relieved that it didn't work out, considering just how small the place really is.)
A performance at Yamauta. (Click to hear.)
After spending two days eating, living, and breathing shamisen, we drove over to Tono, a town in Iwaki Prefecture. Though the population is pretty sparse, it is rich in folklore. There are enough legends circulating there to warrant an entire tome, dubbed 遠野物語 ("The Legends of Tono"). One of the more vibrant legends in Tono is that of the kappa, the ubiquitous river imp who enjoys luring horses, children, and the elderly to a watery grave. Kappa are rather infamous aquatic vampires, sucking blood out of their victims anuses. In an attempt to appease the kappa, people will carve the names of the weak (such as their children) onto cucumbers, which the kappa enjoy, and throw them into the infested rivers and lakes. (This is where the kappa maki, cucumber roll, gets its name.) Tono is seriously kappa crazy. There were kappa on every sign and in every shop. We ended up at river named after the kappa, which was the site of a kappa event over 600 years ago. The river is now straddled by a Shinto shrine on one bank, and a Buddhist temple on the other, both dedicated to the imps.
A kappa mother nurses her young.
I had a few precious days to recover from the Tusgaru trip before departing for my next little adventure, of a much different nature. I agreed to accompany an overnight field trip through my work, since two of my own students wanted to go. My girls are both 12, but they were some of the oldest kids on the trip. There were children as young as 5 there, which was pretty shocking to me. Oh well!
We had to meet bright and early on Monday morning at Yokohama station and pick up 45 kids. We then bussed 4 hours north to a "farm." This was seriously one of the strangest places I've seen. You see, back in the 70s, there was an anime called "Heidi, Girl of the Alps," based on the famous novel by Johanna Spyri written in 1880. This was basically a Heidi theme park, complete with Swiss-style buildings and even a mini-Swiss dairy (with Swiss cows, natch). I of course had no idea we were headed there, and the first thing I said when we stepped off of the bus was, "why is there demented Swiss music playing?" That pretty much describes this place. There was a really awful petting zoo (where most of the animals looked sick and/or angry) and it was just really creepy all around. The best part of the place was getting to make hand-made butter, which was really delicious. The kids also got to milk the cows, which they thought was pretty neat.
The next stop was the real attraction of the trip: Mongolian Village. (Don't ask me what any of this has to do with learning English cuz I don't have a clue.) We got to see a live performance of the horse-head fiddle and the Mongolian koto. (I took an illicit recording of this as well, obviously.) Then we had Mongolian BBQ, had a nice onsen bath, and slept in our yurts. (Don't worry, these yurts were carpeted and air-conditioned!)
My yurt.
As soon as I turned out the lights in Yurt #12, where I was stationed, my girls got out a flashlight and asked if they could make "かみほしい." I was totally bewildered by this until they took out a large piece of paper that they had poked holes in. They were asking to make "paper stars" with the flashlight, so of course I obliged. After that we made shadow animals out of our hands and laughed and gossiped until a few of them nodded off. Though my girls actually slept from 1 until 7, I didn't fall asleep until 5 thanks to my lovely insomnia. Tis life. The next day moved swiftly and before I knew it I was back in Yokohama and collapsing on my futon.
お疲れさまです！