An Amalgamation of Thanksgiving Dinner, Riding School Exam, Japanese General Election, and the Raising Value of the Yen

December 13, 2012

---November Cultural Salon---

Turkey, and Cranberry Sauce, and Futomaki!?!?

On the 28^th, we had our second International Society event in Minamiboso. This time we held a Thanksgiving dinner. The best way to teach people about culture is to have them immerse themselves in it, right? We started off by having everyone give thanks in English or Japanese, and then we dug in to some delicious food! I was really excited about this dinner because not only was I able to make traditional Thanksgiving dinner stuff like turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, apple pie, and pumpkin pie, but also it was a potluck! Which means that we had all this traditional American food mixed with traditional Japanese food. It was really great because we had plates full of turkey next to plates full of futomaki. One woman who is in training to be a Shinto priestess baked a traditional German kuchen, which was also really delicious and kind of reminded me of holidays at my grandma's house. Here's a link to my city blog post in English and Japanese: city blog

I made this!

---Orchestra Concert---
On the 2^nd, I attended an orchestra concert at the Nanso Cultural Hall. Most of the songs were entirely orchestral, but the last two were joined in by a choir. Both the orchestra and the choir were fairly decent. The main soloists were, of course, impressive. Apparently the orchestra doesn't play in this area very often, but I look forward to going again the next chance I get.

---End of the Year Party!---
Last Friday, we had a bonenkai, or End of the Year Party for work, and I had my first experience eating shabushabu! Which is actually really sad considering I've lived in Japan for a year and a half now. But there's a bowl of water and vinegar over a flame on the table and you basically boil a bunch of veggies and meat in the bowl and add in some ponzu and devour! Honestly there's not much difference to me between that and yakiniku but I welcome any opportunity to eat meat that isn't fish in this country :)

---Riding School Exam---

This past weekend I had my exam for getting in to the riding school. I was a bit nervous because I had a really terrible ride on a pony the day before (If anyone can tell me why ponies are so evil I would love to know). Then my trainer got on and was like oh no, he's totally being fine for me! Ugh it's so frustrating sometimes when you're totally struggling with something and then another person walks up and has absolutely no problems with it. Granted he is my trainer so of course he's better than me, but still...

Anyway so the exam itself was at 5:15 in the morning so I stayed over in Chiba and had to get up crazy early. Turned out my hotel was in the middle of a district of host clubs. That was...entertaining. It was super sketch outside, but the hotel itself had a women-only floor with pretty good security so it was safe. I did get to over-hear some entertaining conversations from the women who were staying there though. The hotel itself was about 95 degrees, and there was no way to adjust the temperature, so I didn't actually end up sleeping for more than an hour. Next time, I'll just drive home. I'd get more sleep that way.

So I got dressed around four a.m. and headed over to the riding club. The exam was just okay. I came in crooked to the first fence so it could have gone better, but the rest of the course went fine. Hopefully they post the results this weekend. This Sunday is the December circuit so hopefully I place well since it's the last one of the year! I'm seriously looking forward to hanging at the barn all weekend again, and...

---Random Ramblings About Japanese Politics and the Economy---

I also can't believe tomorrow is Friday already! Time has been going so fast ever since the mid-year conference, trying to get caught up on everything. I'm almost there though! Just one thing to translate and a couple things to write and I'll be all caught up!

On a more serious note, the general election is once again taking place here. Stating that there wasn't enough funds to run the government properly, the current prime minister dissolved the lower house of parliament, effectively giving up his title (just making sure but isn't this about the third prime minster we've gone through in the last year and a half?? come on guys, we need someone to run this country...). So anyway the election is taking place right now and everyone in my office has been crazy busy manning the polls and going out to vote themselves. Since the election just ended in the U.S. as well I feel like I've been doing nothing but following politics lately, which is something that I generally try to avoid.

Something that I do enjoy talking about however, is money! And the current low value of the yen makes me sad. Luckily, I still have some time before I have to purchase any dollars, but with all that has been going on lately in world economics, the value of the yen has been fluctuating like crazy. Needless to say, I'm going to have to keep an eye on things. With the euro doing so poorly, people have been buying tons and tons of yen, driving its value higher and higher. Unfortunately, with the economy in Japan being what it is, and the pressure being put on it by the island dispute with China, Japan's economy can't handle a high valued yen that makes its exports more expensive. With no one purchasing Japanese products, the economy will fall into further recession. To counter this, the government is purchasing trillions of U.S. dollars and driving the value of the yen back down. Once the election here ends, they're looking to implement a more cyclical purchasing of dollars on top of printing more yen at the mint. In the twelve hours since I started writing this, the yen has fallen from 82.4 to 83.6 yen to the dollar **sigh**

Clinic with Olympian Yumira Takayuki, my first yoga class, and Minamiboso Industry Festival

November 26, 2012

---Mid-Year Conference---

Last week was the CIR Mid-Year Conference. I got to go to a bunch of interesting presentations on translation, interpretation, taking business phone calls, etc. in addition to a not-so-interesting key-note speech where the speaker spent half of the speech introducing people from her office on slides...

Mid-Year Day 1

---Yumira Takayuki Clinic---

This weekend was, as usual, busy. On Friday, I went to the barn for a clinic with 2012 London Olympian, Yumira Takayuki. We had a meeting in the clubhouse beforehand where we discussed the importance of balance not only for the rider but for balancing your horse as well. Someone else was riding Parco this time so I ended up riding a different horse in the clinic, but it still went well. We did a lot of work on balance, and bringing your horse back in between jumps on course. Since it was after dark and the arena was quite muddy from all the rain we've been having, there were quite a few refusals from horses scared of the reflections off the puddles. (Honestly a little outside rein, outside leg and they would have been fine though...) Anyway this was my third time riding this horse that my trainer wants me to start showing with next year. I like him a lot but he's also quite expensive so we'll see what happens. I also have this younger horse in mind, but it's a matter of whether or not my trainer thinks that horse can do the one meter+ classes or not.

---Yoga Camp---

Saturday, I attended a yoga camp taught by a friend from the International Society in the neighboring town. She taught us about the importance of breathing during yoga exercise, and a few basic moves that left my body hurting the next day (yoga combined with hours of riding the day before (>.<) ). After the class we had tea and a homemade vegetarian lunch.

Edit: I have to say that after doing that yoga class (it has now been almost a month since then), my back pain from years of lifting bales of hay and cleaning stalls is completely gone! I've spent thousands at the chiropractor and the pain just kept coming back, but after one class of yoga the pain is gone! It's insane. Other people should do this.

When the camp ended, I hurriedly drove up to a friend's house near Chiba city for Thanksgiving dinner! Though I arrived quite late, I was glad to be able to meet up with a few of my friends.

Mochinage. See that wooden pavilion? People are throwing rice cakes from there.

---Minamiboso Industry Festival---
 The following morning (functioning on three hours of sleep), I attended the local Industry Festival for work. An industry festival is basically like what you would expect from a community festival in the U.S. There are kiosks selling locally produced goods, and booths advertising things like eco-driving, in addition to performances from local dance and drum groups. Some things that you won't see at a community festival in the U.S. included mochinage where people stand on top of a tall wooden tower and throw rice cakes at the people below who all but fight over the rock hard cakes, and a wooden festival float called a dashi that is donned with local children who play the drums while being drug around the grounds by city employees.

Dashi. You can see the kids sitting on the second level waiting to play the drums.

The other lady in my office and myself (yes there are only two of us!) worked as the “glorified tea ladies” and set up the lunch tables, beer, and tea for the lunch meeting attended by local division and section chiefs and the mayor. It was kind of fun because it was like working at a restaurant, where there's only one table and you have an hour to prepare for it.

I'M ON A BOAT.

During our free time, we wandered around and sampled local cuisine (I managed to avoid eating whale once again). I got to eat some juicy beef skewers, freshly made udon, and sake manjyuu (round, sticky cakes made out of rice and flour with red bean inside). The manjyuu was so delicious! The outer breading actually tasted like sake, it was so yummy! I totally didn't think to take a picture before I devoured it though.

We also got to tour a local fishing boat (I got pictures this time)!

Inside the control room.

Busy-ness at Work (no pun intended)

November 5, 2012

I spent this past weekend at the barn for a show and caught a horrible cold! But then I got second in 90 cm so that was nice. I kind of don't really remember riding though because of my fever ha~.

I also officially located that temple I had been trying to find! I'm going to stop out there soon. Also a new roadside station opened up this week, so I'm looking forward to checking that out as well.

Today we have our block meeting during work so that's...exciting. I'm still slightly sick and its pouring outside so even though I slept 12 hours last night I kind of just want to crawl back in bed. Anyway I'm also working on the Minamiboso Wikipedia page. Before it really only had the history and population written down, so I'm working to make a more complete version. Once that's completed, I'll probably fix the Facebook page too. Right now it's pretty sad and boring looking. I'm also working on an event project for the end of November here (Just waiting on approval. Cross your fingers), and then Friday I'm going to do another interpretation for the Knife Ceremony at Takabe Shrine. I guess France Media is coming to watch or film(?) so that will be pretty cool. (edit: here's the article! http://www.mboso-etoko.jp/top/goodlife/disp_A.asp?id=12710&group=1)

I just got exciting news that the slides I translated for that museum that was destroyed in Tohoku have officially opened in a gallery in Yokohama as of November 3^rd! It's about 1 hour and 45 minutes away though, so I don't know if I'll have a chance to go see it. http://tsunami-311.org/?p=1181

November 13, 2012

So work this week is insane. I have the newsletter and column both due tomorrow, and on top of it the Thanksgiving event is coming up on the 28^th, which I officially only have this week to really prepare for because the CIR mid year conference is next week! The event isn't exactly going smoothly either. I was originally told that the venue would hold forty people, only to go to a second meeting with the owner and be told that we probably couldn't fit more than fifteen! (what!?) As of right now, however, I have convinced him that we can fit at least thirty. But this is getting in to some sketchy territory... we can't just change things a week before the event, so hopefully nothing else goes awry. Anyway, this week I'm pretty grateful for the box of chocolate that hangs out in my desk drawer, but really I just want to escape to the barn. I wish it wasn't so far away! Back at home I could totally just go there and chill out for an entire evening, but now I can only go on the weekend :(

Anyway I'm getting super excited for mid-year conference so I can be in Chiba all week. Not only are most of the lectures going to be about translation and interpretation (=actually of interest), but it will be a nice break from the stress of event planning, and I'll probably pick up some new project ideas from fellow CIRs across the country (across the island?).

November 15, 2012

So the event planning is all settled now, my article is written, the newsletter has been uploaded and I'm pretty much set to go to the conference next week (other than some cost-co shopping on Saturday for event food). But I'm officially exhausted. Yesterday my alarm never went off and I didn't wake up until 7:55! Then today I had to pretty much drag myself out of bed. Granted I love being busy at work, so I'm going to stop complaining now. Still really wanting to go to the barn though. I wish they had little apartments in their facility. I would totally happily live there and commute to work every day. Oh man, it's barely getting cold out and I'm already getting the winter depression that sets in every year. Well not depression so much as I just really don't want to leave my apartment when I could be warm and watching dramas on my lumpy couch. I really should buy a new couch. Maybe that will by my Christmas present to myself.

I've been trying out this new (to me) facial toner that a friend recommended to me, by Albion. So far I love it a lot! I had a crazy breakout the week before I bought it, and it seems like it just draws the impurities right out of my skin!

Some Thoughts on Overtime

October 31, 2012
 
At work today, I received a most interesting e-mail in my notifications box. The e-mail stated that no one is allowed to do overtime today, everyone needs to say good-bye and go home at the city hall's exact closing time.

I find it interesting that while in the U.S. companies struggle with employees who don't show up to work, or who take too many holidays, Japan is facing the opposite problem. Lately I've been receiving notices from the office about “work-life balance.” People are doing so much over time, and not using their holidays to the point that City Hall is keeping track and averaging out the number of days taken per worker. In a given period, workers prefecture-wide are expected to take an average of 12 days off of work. When I look at the data it seems that workers in the prefecture's capital are averaging only slightly under this number. However for my city, we are currently averaging around 4 days.

I can't help but think that this is a condition the country has caused for itself (not saying that this is a bad thing. This is coming from the mouth of a workaholic, mind you). When children are all but required to stay at school until 5:30/6 o'clock at night to do club activities, it only makes sense that leaving work exactly on time as adults would be a little strange for them.

On the other hand we have to consider the irony that Japan is a country that prides itself on kirikae, in other words, making a quick change over between activities. I guess it's a different story when the change is from work to relaxation(?).

Lobster Fishing Part II, and Loquat Flavored Deserts

October 30th,

I didn't really get a whole lot of exploring done this past week due to a bunch of work coming up, but I did make it out for the last jumping lesson of the trainer who is leaving my barn, and also back out to Shirahama Floral Park for the lobster fishing over the weekend.

---The Barn---

This Saturday=me riding like crap. And of course I have to start riding like shit the weekend before the show. My first lesson was fine, and then my second lesson it was like no matter how I changed pace, or adjusted my turn at the corner I couldn't find the spot to the same damn fence. Anyway I was told that me and this other girl in my lesson are perfect examples...of what not to do. So that was great. Anyway I figured I couldn't end on a bad note, plus that one trainer was leaving and I wanted to join his lesson, so I hung out for an hour and chatted with people in the lounge while watching lessons and playing on my cellphone, and then joined the last lesson of the day, which, it turned out, was a double lesson (I can't believe I did four lessons in one day! That's probably my record so far). I got to ride a horse that I hadn't ridden before, and he was actually one of the really expensive ones so that was nice. I was riding a little better by this time, but it was still pretty half-assed compared to how I normally go around :/

Afterward I headed off to a Halloween party where I forewent the costume idea (since I was already an hour and a half late), as well as the drinking (since I was at the barn all day I hadn't eaten yet...). But it was really fun, and I met some new people who live nearby.

---More Lobster Adventures---

Sunday I met up with one of my ALT friends from when I lived in Asahi, and we went to Shirahama Floral Park. Since it was the last day, they served us lobster in our miso! It was a little cloudy outside and drizzled a little so they had the grill/eating area inside this time. I'm so glad the weather wasn't sunny though, because the inside of the building was really awesome! It was like a jungle inside with trees and flowers everywhere and there was even a pool with a water slide! I'm so confused why they don't do the upkeep on this place more! Outside of the building was a hot tub, a foot bath, gardens, another pool, and a patio area. 

Inside the Jungle (Thanks Tiff for the photo :) )

It's so unfortunate that they don't keep the pools cleaned up, because it would be such a great place to have a cook-out during the summer or fall. I can only think that maybe the resort across the street has such great facilities that no one bothers to come use the pool at the Floral Park? I can't say for sure though. Or maybe they just clean it up in the spring when most tourists come to see the flower gardens?

Before returning home, we decided we had to stop in at the Tomiura Biwa Club Roadside Station to get some Biwa flavored ice cream. Biwa, or loquat, is a specialty of the Minamiboso area, and if you haven't tried anything loquat flavored, you should definitely check it out. It kind of tastes like a slightly more sour orange, maybe? But it looks more like an orange colored peach. I got a loquat juice float with milk flavored soft-serve ice cream, and my friend ordered loquat soft-serve with fresh fruit on top. 

Loquat Float

Loquat Soft-Serve

The float was refreshing and I wanted more, but at about 500 yen per glass it wouldn't have been practical. My next goal is to check out their biwa curry!

I've also been in search of this one shrine in my area for a while now. I swear I can only find it whenever I'm not looking for it, or in a hurry to go somewhere. I tried to find it last weekend too, to no avail. Then during the week I was on my way somewhere after dark, and I was like, “My god! There it is! I must take note of what street I'm on!” Which I then did, however when I came back this past Sunday I couldn't find it again! How was I able to find it at night but not during the day?! In any case, this shrine isn't just any ordinary shrine. It is literally built out of the side of a mountain! I'm sure it must look spectacular from up there. Thus I will continue on my quest to locate this place.

Lobster Fishing, Shirahama Beach, and more food in 'Boso

As I'm studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N1 Level (JLPT 1kyuu) next July, I decided it was time to order in some books! I particularly like this series called 実力アップ “Proficiency Up!” Even though it's geared for the old JLPT levels, the books in this series teach you kanji and vocabulary easily in a short period of time through vocab lists followed by copious example sentences. They really drill the information into you without it seeming like they are at all. So I purchased a Level 1/2 grammar/vocabulary book, and a Level 1 kanji book. Stay tuned for more on that I guess.

Also, this week I've begun work on a volunteer translation project for a museum that is trying to save photographs that were almost destroyed in the March 11^th, Tohoku Earthquake. As they photograph their efforts to restore the museum's works, several other translators and myself are translating the captions for the photographs. I'm really excited to put my translation efforts to good use!

This weekend I found out that one of the trainers I've ridden with in the past is being transferred to another barn! :/ He said he's going to be rotating around several barns for a while, so he'll be around a little but not that often. I'm going to try to join one of his lessons next weekend as it will probably be one of my last chances to ride with him.

On Sunday I met with some friends to go “lobster fishing” at Shirahama Floral Hall (ocean side of Minamiboso).

 The lobster were caught in advance and tossed into a little canoe-type boat full of water from which we used a fishing rod and hook to scoop them before tossing them on the grill and having them for brunch. They were delicious and fresh, despite being quite terrifying when alive. 

Though they could have used a little butter after they were cooked up. 

muahahahaha! I ate him!

Since our location was fairly close to Nemoto Camp Ground, where Greenroom Camp was, we decided to play around on the beach afterward and we ended up climbing some giant rocks in the water. Shirahama has to be the most beautiful beach in all of 'Boso. Luckily for travelers there's a huge resort right across the street!

Shirahama Beach. The water is so clear here!

On the work side of things, I finally got another post up on the city blog!

http://civil.mboso-etoko.jp/news/detail.asp?id=1074&group=120

It's just a short post about the September salon, and unfortunately I didn't have any photos! I'll have to remember to take some at the November event. In addition to this, I'm really happy to say that I received some responses to my column in the September newsletter! I hope to be able to communicate with more people in regards to cultural exchange in the future.

A while back I checked out a pizza shop in Chikura called Indies Pizza (also the origin of the $5 non-alcoholic beer in the previous post). Their pizza was relatively cheap for Japan, and quite delicious. Though I have to admit it wasn't very filling. I ordered two large pizzas for two of us, and we were both still hungry afterward. I forgot to specify the crust-type though so maybe if I try the thicker crust next time it will be better. Honestly though I'm just lucky to have a pizza shop in my town at all!

Also, I finally made it to the main branch of the Hananokura Ramen shop in Chikura! It was difficult to get there because they're only open until 2:30 in the afternoon during the week, but I was able to stop in when I was on my way to Chikura for some event planning anyway. I ordered their Curry Ramen, and oh my god it was so delicious.

Curry Ramen

 It was about 1100 yen, but it was totally worth it. Topping-wise it had bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, boiled egg, and several thick slices of pork. The curry broth was perfection. Too bad they only have the Curry Ramen at the main branch since it's so hard to get to during operational hours. Or maybe that's a good thing for my pocket book.

I also stopped out at the roadside station in Chikura. This roadside station focuses on the fishing industry, and was mostly tanks of fresh fish. There was also a claw-machine where you could try to catch a mollusk out of a tank like it were some kind of toy! I'd imagine they were a little too heavy for the plastic claw to drag out of the water...

In addition to all of the marine life, the Chikura roadside station also houses a small shop of works made by local artists. There were paintings and postcards and some stranger things like designer matchboxes. It was cool to see that the roadside stations are not only supporting local farms and fisheries, but other local industries as well.

Postcards designed by local artists

Potluck, Madoka, and Japan

October 16th, 2012
 
---Potluck---

This past Friday, I attended a potluck event held by the Tateyama International Society in order to welcome myself and the new ALTs. However, the most entertaining part of the evening occurred before we arrived at the event. Two of the ALTs and I met up in advance to try to put a dish or something together before the event. However, by the time we got off work and got together we only had about a half hour to make stuff before having to leave for the event, so we decided to melt down some Ghana chocolate into Halloween shapes. I'm pretty sure we broke/ate a fourth of what we made, but we finished on time and ran off to the event. Only to realize that we have no idea where the building is... We met up with another lost ALT on the way, and eventually fell back on calling my supervisor for directions. Though we were told we could park at the shrine, there wasn't actually a parking lot there. Turns out the building was hidden behind a playground across the street from the shrine, and people literally parked in the sand of the playground (is that really okay..?)! Anyway so that was my Friday night.

Saturday I went to the barn and rode awesome on Parco jumping around 1m, and then I got owned by a pony in my second lesson (damn ponies!). 

---Madoka Part II---

Madoka themed scooters in the theatre

kyuubei scooter

Afterward I met up with my friend to watch Part II of the Madoka movie. Embarrassingly, I accidentally bought tickets for Part I again, and didn't realize it until we got into the theatre! (I was wondering why the movie time was different from what I saw online...) But even though they told us there would be no refunds, they were nice enough to change the tickets for us. The second part was really good too, but some of the scenes were spliced together rather oddly. One instance in particular was at the ending of a scene, they randomly added in the animation from the opening/closing (I forget which now) scene of the T.V. series, and then it just randomly jumped back to the story again. That was a little odd. Not sure what they were trying to do there. But other than that it was awesome. At the end there was a trailer for the third movie, and they finally gave us a release date (kind of)! I guess Part III doesn't come out until sometime in 2013. Cross your fingers it isn't the end of the year. I can't imagine them waiting that long though after doing all this promotion for the first two parts, and airing them right in a row like this.

Madoka Surf Board

---Dragnet Fishing...?---

On Sunday we tried to go dragnet fishing, but it got rained out. Instead we held a BBQ at the bed and breakfast in Iwai where I was a few weeks ago for dinner with the delegation of people from Taiwan. Everyone grilled up some steak, chicken, and squid, and ate some fresh sashimi (they literally brought them hopping out of the bucket). Everything was yummy, and I was kind of glad to be able to relax and not have to catch my own food. I would like to actually go dragnet fishing at some point in the future though.

---In Conclusion---

$3 for a can of Dr. P!? Not gonna lie that might be worth it. $5 for a non-alcoholic beer, however....

You don't see prices like these in the U.S. $8.50 for a small bag of granola.

Yaki-Purin is delicious.

Hell McDonalds doesn't show up in photographs.

There are no words for this.

My Birthday Week!

October 3rd, 2012

--- kyuushoku center---

L to R Rice, hijiki, fish, milk, tonjiru

This past Tuesday I made a visit to the School Lunch Center! They were so nice to invite me to come try out the school lunches (even though I think they're technically not allowed to invite people...)! Anyway, I got to see inside the building and test out what the kids in the area are eating. Lunch that day consisted of some fried fish, hijiki (seaweed) with some meat crumbles in it (may have been chicken?), rice, tonjiru (a kind of soup), milk, and acerola jello for desert. The hijiki was particularly delicious. I was told that the whole meal tallies up to a little over 800 calories, but if you don't drink the milk it's only about 600. Um milk is delicious. Totally not skipping that. I'm not aiming for osteoporosis.

Where they make the lunches

---Delegation from Taiwan---

Then on Sunday I met up with a group of teachers from Taiwan who were visiting the Minamiboso area. I met up with them at a local bed and breakfast in Iwai, and we made Boshuu Uchiwa fans, which this area is famous for. After that we had a dinner banquet with fresh local foods, and the spread was incredible.

---My Birthday!!---

This Thursday was my birthday, so yay. Now I'm old. On Wednesday I went out with some people from work to celebrate my birthday and the birthday of one of the guys from a different division who I work with a lot. We went to this super, ritzy french restaurant called Yamaguchi. The food was exquisite, the wine was great, and the service was superb. They even made special birthday deserts for us. 

So fancy!

I have to say that it is what you would expect from an expensive French restaurant, though. There wasn't a whole lot of food, and it was quite pricey. But I recommend it for an expensive date or once a year celebration or something.

On my actual birthday I went to judge the high school English speech contest for the Awa area. Some of the kids were really good, surprisingly, and there was even a half girl who got 4^th at Nationals the year before. Seriously if I had gone against this girl I probably would have lost. She was just plain good at giving speeches-perfect English or no. Afterward, I met up with some of the ALTs for some birthday yakiniku. We went to Gyukaku in Tateyama. It tasted decent and the food was cheap (I ate a ton, and didn't drink and it was about 1700 yen)

Madoka, the main character, and two Homura-chans??

---Madoka---

The art is so awesome and random

On Saturday I had my usual riding lessons, and then I met up with a friend to go see part I of the Madoka movie that just came out! There will be three parts coming out, but the first two are just a re-cap of the series. And, the first two parts of the movie will be coming out to select theatres in the U.S. on October 20^th. So it was a re-cap and I already know what happens, but it was still amazing. My friend who went with me had already read the plot online, but even so she really enjoyed watching the movie. For those of you who don't know anything about the series, it basically is set up as a traditional “magical girl” themed anime, with a pretty much worthless main character who is quite whiny and has pink hair. But then shit goes down. What you expect to be just another pointless show turns out to be quite dark, and you realize that the show is actually poking a bit of fun at the magical girl theme. (My friend noticed a super corny scene where the characters talk about friendship, and the background is literally a bunch of pills floating in the sky). In addition to the show not being what you expect, the art is absolutely superb. I love the slightly sketchy way that the artist drew the characters eyes, and how lines that should have been erased were left in. But, my favorite part is the scenes where the girls have to fight the witches, and the art medium completely changes and the background becomes sickly-cute to the point of sinister, perfectly drawing together the theme of the show. If you are in the U.S. or in Japan definitely check out the movies, and if there isn't a location near you that's screening them, stream the series online for sure.

---Chikura Herb Garden Cello Concert---

On Sunday I went to a cello concert at the Chikura Herb Garden. They venue was really well designed architecturally, and I'm thinking about using it for a Thanksgiving party for the Minamiboso International Society in November. For snacks during the intermission, they offered their own chai as well as herb tea in addition to various breads and cookies made with the herbs grown at the garden. Also, this is the first place I've been to in Japan where smoking is strictly prohibited inside and outside the building, in contrast to being in Columbus where you literally have to be so many feet from a building before you're allowed to smoke. The cellist was a Japanese girl by the name of Sachiho Otsuka, who looked to be only a few years older than myself. Apparently she grew up in the United States, and I was told her English is better than her Japanese. Her playing was really good, and she definitely likes my kind of Classical music. I even found a new song that I'd never heard before as it originated in Japan. It was called Moon Over Ruined Castle by Rentaro Taki. It ended up being my favorite that evening. At the end of the concert everyone sang together, and then we did the Japanese traditional paparazzi-style photo shoot.

---October Horse Show---

On Monday I had a horse show! This time wasn't the usual circuit that I do, but the bigger Chiba-hai show. It started in the morning, but by the time my division started it was already dark, so unfortunately no pictures this month either :( 

I entered in the 70/80cm division and the 90cm division. When the sun went down it got a bit chilly out, so Parco was pretty up, which was good news for me since I'm way better at riding horses that are a bit strong. The first class went decently and almost all of my distances were spot on, but my pace was a bit irregular so I think my time ended up being a bit off. We did a strong gallop to the first diagonal single, and then came to the first line. My distance here was a bit long, so when I asked her to take it she took that as the go-ahead to try to leave out in the line, but I pulled her back for the 5 just fine. We jumped out of it going a bit fast so I settled her pace and we headed to the second line. We jumped in and out fine there and when we came to the last line I knew she was going to be strong as it was headed home, so I came in slow, and it ended up being the perfect distance when she picked up the pace within the line. The 90cm class went really well! By this time she'd settled down a little so when I got on I had to ask her to gallop a little to the first jump. The first line was dead-on, but I accidentally let her slow a little on the turn to the second line so we had a chip :/ fuck. We jumped out of the line with a good distance, and out of the last line with a clear round. The goal was 42 seconds and I got 42.25! Unfortunately (or miraculously) there was a rider who was spot on at 42 seconds, so I came in second place. But I'm still really happy for the second because there were a lot of entries this time around, and this was the first time I've placed since starting Jumpers, and since beginning riding in Japan! Afterward, one of the really good riders, whom I've never met before, came up to me and said that she was going to suggest to the trainers that I enter the riding school. Up to this point I wasn't really sure what that meant, but I guess it's like declaring that you are in training to be a professional, and if you're in the school you're allowed to go to outside shows! So I'm really excited for that. I talked to one of my trainers about it, and it seems that the entry exam isn't until December, so we'll see what happens then!

---Knife Ceremony---

Omiyage booths and the seating for our stage

Lobby from above. The stage is in the top right corner.

On Tuesday, I went with the Tourism Promotion Division to Tokyo to interpret at the IMF for a presentation on the Houchou shiki or, Knife Ceremony, that they hold at Takabe Shrine (see third entry). However, on the way there, there was an accident 1km ahead of us on the aqualine and the freeway was shut down! We ended up just sitting there for about an hour, and even though our presentation was to start at 2 o'clock, we didn't arrive until 1:30! With having to set up, and everyone having to put on their traditional Heian period ceremonial dress, we began the presentation about 10 minutes late. I could see all the Japanese people in the audience checking their watches at 1:54, wondering why it hadn't started yet. (You're still 6 minutes early people!) The presentation took place in Yokohama in the Marunouchi building (the same set of buildings where the art aquarium was! coincidences.) in the main lobby. There was a Japan tourism area set up with booths from various famous areas in Japan where they sold souvenirs and famous foods from each area. Off to the side of this, they set up a stage where various cultural presentations took place, including our Knife Ceremony presentation. So they had me interpret the introduction to the Knife Ceremony which included the history of the ceremony, the history of Takabe Shrine, and even the ancestry of the guys performing the ceremony. It was really interesting to learn that the man performing the ceremony that day is actually the 12^th descendant of the man who invented the ceremony during the Heian period, and who also had connections with three different emperors. The guy who I have pictures of performing the ceremony in September, Yoichi-san, performed the table purification this time around. I also learned some new stuff about the ceremony that's kind of interesting.

First, they place five clam shells on the table that are wrapped in colored paper. These represent the expression “five flavors, five colors,” which is a reference to when Iwamatusukuri brought clams to Emporer Keiko, and the food was highly praised. Next, the table is purified with salt and water. The salt is poured in the four corners of the table and swept across it. Then paper is placed on the table, on top of which water is poured. The paper is then swept across the table in a zig-zag pattern. Then, the fish is “offered” by holding it aloft. Finally, the “presentation of flowers and knife” takes place, where flower petals are shaken over the fish to represent the cleansing of the spirit, and then the blade of the knife is checked before the ceremony begins. The ceremony itself varies based on the type of fish being offered, as there are different methods based on the fish.

After interpreting this information I did notice that the method of cutting the fish was different than the time before.

Tonight I'm headed to this potluck in Tateyama. Let's see how I can get out of cooking...

International Salon and JATA International Tourism Convention

     So lately I keep writing posts and then not actually having time to upload them! So I actually have three posts that are about to go up :o And because of this, I'm going to start dating my posts based on the actual day that I wrote them as opposed to when they actually make it up here. It makes more sense that way.

September 24th, 2012

---September International Salon---

     Last Thursday was the first of a series of International exchange events that I have to organize for work as a CIR. Since I'm new to the position, and there are three new ALTs to Minamiboso city this year, this event focused on information about the new kids! We started with a quiz where the audience had to choose from A, B, C, or D what they thought was correct about me or my home town, and then the new ALTs gave their own self-introductions. After that I taught them to play “Heads up, Seven up” and then we did some international exchange (AKA the ALTs and myself were barraged with questions while everyone else got to eat dinner). I was surprised/really excited that there were 45 people that showed up! It was a lot more than I expected. I'm glad that there's so much interest in international relations in this area.

---JATA International Tourism Convention---

Minamiboso's booth

      The following day, I attended the JATA International Tourism Convention at Tokyo Big Sight to help out with interpretation. Minamiboso city had its own booth in the Japan area where I alternated manning the booth with another interpreter, and some fellow workers from the Tourist Promotion Division of the city hall.

 During my time away from the booth, I visited the booths of countries from around the world, gathered information, chatted with other foreigners living in Japan about their home countries, and ate some foreign food. It was a lot of fun, I learned some stuff about other countries, and now I just really want to go on vacation. Here are some of the highlights...

Free Thai Massages

Really impressive booths!　(Turkey)

The India booth was really awesome too.

Ladies wearing traditional clothing from their various countries (in this case, Malaysia)

Belgian Chocolate soft-serve ice cream. You can't even imagine how delicious it is.

On the way home we stopped in at this chinese-style ramen shop near my apartment. Not impressed. The restaurant owner was terribly confused when I asked for egg in my ramen, to the point where she just blankly stared at me for a minute straight before finally saying “We don't have any eggs...” What kind of restaurant doesn't have eggs! Then there were gnats flying around everywhere, and when my ramen came out there was a dead gnat in the soup. The only toppings on my ramen were bean sprouts and gnat. Seriously not impressed. I'm going to stick to the delicious ramen at Hananokura from now on...