A new school year beckons

School hall

The Japanese school year closes at the end of March. This is when the 3rd years 'graduate' and move onto the High School that they've qualified for and a new bunch of munchkin 1st years appear out of a cabbage patch.
The graduation was a real bubble (crying) fest for the students and even some of the teachers. The 3rd year homeroom teachers are like parents to some of these kids and they can get pretty attached. Everyone's all smartly dressed up too and even the hall gets a bit of decoration.
This is also the time of year that the teachers can get moved from one school to the next. Unlike the UK, where teachers move on their own accord, or if they are fired, or snuff it, the Japanese teachers are rotated by the prefecture/municipal board of education that they work for. For new teachers, this can happen every 3 years, and it occurs less as the teachers get older, I think. In some respects it's a nice idea to keep them on their toes though I'd be happier with the UK way, it puts you in the driving seat.



Singing good bye


Both of the English teachers that I worked with moved back to the mainland, from whence they came, and I now have only one English teacher at my base school. As the teachers were moving on they got a really fancy enkai (Japanese style party which most notably starts and finishes at predefined times) involving all teachers, the PTA, a large feast, muchos boozos, obligatory speeches and the odd greet (cry).


See if you can find me in this teachers' party picture...


Sometimes they chuck the leavers up in the air for a laugh too. Not sure if they'll be able to do that with me.

All good fun.

I liked the idea of the graduation ceremony and the formal leaving party. It puts an actual end to things. We just king of left school one day and I've never been back since.

And now for somewhere completely different

Take a squint at how these long brushes have been comically piled up outside the men's toilet at my base school. I couldn't resist taking a picture, before using one of course. When in Rome, up Pompei, or something.



Long grow the bog brushes oh!


Check out the best bag of Doritos that I've seen in a while (I'm always on the lookout for a well designed bag of Doritos). These Doritos were actually black and weren't that hot that you can be used as a garden fork. Check out the back for a chuckle, it would appear that these Doritos are popular with hobos too. I'm glad I didn't get caught scanning this stuff in at school.



Man turns into garden fork hot.



Back



Last but not least, this actually says Okesa in Japanese, which is the name of a local dance I think.



British Home Stores always goes where Markies won't.


Email in any captions and I'll post the best.

Saturday Night Fever Part II

Yuuki, courtesy of Thea Bracewell


After just surviving the first round in the summer at the cabin, we all thought at the time that it might be fun to return in the middle of winter. I pictured being snug and warm around a blazing fire, toasting the odd marshmallow and sharing some good food, booze and conversation with friends... That was the plan anyway.



Before



After

We went back to the cabin on the 4th of February when there was still plenty of snow around. There were only 6 ALT's brave enough for the challenge and we were joined by the intrepid Johnny (who's beard makes him look like he'd fit into any 19th century polar exploration photographs) and Yuki, one of our Japanese chums.



Johnny and Thea



Polly, Matt and Johnny, courtesy of Thea Bracewell


We all met up at Matt's and made a convoy to get up to the cabin. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in my last blurb about the cabin but it's situated way up in the mountains. It's very remote and a good drive from nearest civilisation, well the nearest place on Sado. I was surprised that we all made it up the mountain ok, the snow was getting deep, though I think the studless snow tires make a big difference. Next we had to unpack all of our goodies and start getting things ready for the evening. The owner of the cabin had kindly opened the place up and started a fire though at this point we realised that we'd left a couple of crucial ingrediants so I accompanied Matt back to the nearest shop. During this time the owner gave his very captive audience a redition of something on his violin, which by all accounts was mince and almost embarrassing enough to laugh. So Matt and I didn't miss much. Upon our arrival, things were shaping up for the night. The food and booze was almost ready to be tackled and the fires were blazing away. The heating of the cabin came in the form of a stove wood burner type thing and a Japanese traditional open fire (that you can sit around) which was burning smokeless fuel. All of our bedding, which was a large amount due to the weather, was setup to save us having a krypton factor type task when inebriated.



Matt, round house 1



Thea, round house 2


The night unfolded and we all tucked into various grub including a tasty chilli concoction that Johnny had prepared. Beer and wine was steadily flowing and we started to play a fun game called 'Scruples' or something, around the open fire. Not long into the night, Thea was the first person to say that she wasn't feeling great. I thought that she might have eaten too much chocolate or 'candy' (Caroline's folks had sent over a ton of Percy Pigs) as she's partial to the odd sweetie. Then we all started to realise that we weren't feeling hunky dory. We hadn't drank that much booze yet but we all felt nausious and had a sore head. Caroline was even lying down next to the fire... The penny dropped. There wasn't much ventilation in the room we were in and we were burning smokeless fuel like Billy O. We concluded that we were feeling the early stages of carbon monoxide posioning! Yahoo! Everyone, decided the best idea was to go outside to try to clear our heads and let the fire burn out. This helped a bit but we were all still feeling rotten. That was the baw burst for the night really, but we continued to talk and drink mostly water around the wood burning stove (which had a chimney:) until we all sloped of to kip.



Yuuki and Caroline


An experience that made us think and which we'll not forget (unless our brians (new name for my brain) have permanent damage).
It's 2 and 2 for the cabin, the bases are loaded so the next visit has to be a home run.


We so crazy, we went to the beach



Lora at the beach



Exit beach

A good Yosh! and a cauldron of stovies to chase away the winter blues

Way back on the 18th of February (this year...), Caroline and I organised a Ceilidh on Sado. As the winter is cold and dark we thought that the Sado islanders needed a bit of warming up on a Saturday night to the tune of bag pipes and the shout of a big tuchter in a kilt.

That weekend I was playing in the Ryotsu futesal competition on both the Saturday and the Sunday which meant a very busy weekend. The futesal was good fun. I was playing with some of the lads from Ryotsu High School though we were playing against men and the old saying 'men against boys' rang true. I was the biggest punter at the tournament but that didn't stop the little Japanese dudes from getting stuck into me. The footballing level was higher than I thought that it was going to be and the Japanese guys proved to be well suited with their quick feet and never say die attitude. Our team lost all of our games apart from one which we drew 3-3. This team were probably the best team we played against though I helped matters by accidentally landing on their best players foot halfway through the game. It was good fun but I ended up getting a bit of a black eye from a strae elbow, so by the time I got to the ceilidh I looked bona fide Scottish.

Caroline and I had been planning the ceilidh for a month or so before. Our Japanese tutor, Yuki, helped us enormously by organsing the hall (which included a kitchen, dining facilities and a sound system) and translating our flyer. Yuki also managed to get in a local 'Harigoma' performance group who would perform for part of the evening. The aim was to make it a Scottish night with ceilidh dancing and some traditional Scottish food and drink. The number of people that we planned for was about 40ish but we estimated that between 20 and 30 of our friends and colleague would make it to the night. I had decided to make cock-a-leekie soup and stovies (easyish to make and serve to the masses) to eat and buy in a load of ale and whiskey to drink. On the week prior to the dance we were really busy trying to source all of the ingrediants and booze that we hoped to prepare for the evening. I scoured the Island for a decent sausage, only a worthy man can take on such a task, and eventually hit the jackpot in a little shop that specialises in German sausages. Whiskey wasn't too much of a problem but the closest we could get to ale was Guinness. I didn't mind chorin' the tattie howkers' heritage as I'm sure they've half inched ours more than once. Once we had all of the stuff, I spent most of the Friday working out proportions for the recipes and making chicken stock and beef stock for the stovies and then finished the soup. I also attempted to make tablet as a sweet for after the meal. This turned out to be too sticky however and we ended up reheating it and making millionaires shortbread with it post ceilidh. The next day (the day of the ceilidh) Caroline, Lora and Thea spent the day peeling potatoes and getting the hall ready for the big night. This was no mean feet and it took them most of the day. Once I had finished at the footy I had to bomb it back to the apartment, get washed and changed, grab the rest of the stuff and raz down to the hall to get the stovies on the go. Fortunately, we got a lot of help from the other ALTs: Thea and Lora were still going strong and Polly, Daniel, Matt and Naoko (honorary ALT) all rolled up their sleeves and pitched in. Johnny and Chibo, who are a couple who have lived on Sado for a while now also turned up, in kilts (Johnny has some Scottish blood in his veins), and mucked in with the rest of the crew. Caroline and I were thankful of the help as there was plenty to do.









The night went exceptionally well and surprisingly over 50 people showed up. Caroline gave a welcome speech which was kindly translated by Johnny and from there we demonstrated a couple of dances. The Japanese were smart when it came to the dancing and soon learned the steps which they appeared to enjoy. It was great to see a busy hall of Japanese and non Scots happiluy bopping around to a bit of diddly dee. After the first session we had a performance from the local 'Harigoma' group. This is a traditional Japanese performance that is from Sado and involves costumes, crazy looking masks, singing and some drummming. I have to admit I didn't see much as I was trying to sale the good ship stovies through some stormy water. I had a moment of panic when I came back from the dancing to find that the stovies were heading in the overdone mushy stage. I salvaged them though and it worked out well. Not an easy job, I was basically making a cauldron of the stuff. After the Japanese performance we sat everyone, tried to make sure they had a drink, then we served the soup and then the stovies. Luckily we had estimated the food for a maximum of 40 but we had just enough to go round. Both cauldron's were emptied. Also, some of the local fisherman had dropped off tonnes of oysters and shell fish which were knocked into shape by Lora, Chibo and co. and then served up. This bolstered the dwindling Scottish tucker handsomely. After the grub was served and the guests were allowed to have a bit of a yarn and an ale or so, we had the second session of the Scottish dancing. I couldn't be humped personally as I was cream crackered after the soccer and then all of the running around and cooking. Still we had a job to do. During both sessions of the dancing, Caroline and I, the ALTs and Johnny and Chibo demonstrated and explained the dancing to the Japanese. Then we all tried and then had a second go for good luck. The nature of ceilidh dancing is great and it's good for mixing up a crowd and meeting people. My favourite job during this was shouting 'Yosh!' as loudly as possibly to tell them when to start. Everyone laughed everytime.



And so the night ended and we were thanked fully by the ever grateful and polite Japanese guests. By all accounts it was a success and many asked when the next one would be (at the time I thought no chance matey). Everyone helped to tidy up which displayed the 'many hands make light work' theory. Next, I invited all of the inner sanctum to our joint for an impromptu party and some free beers (a few anyway...) to say thank you for all their kind efforts. The biggest laugh was going into the local convenience store. Johnny, Chibo and I got more than a couple double takes when we took the beer up to the counter all dressed in kilts. I think we could have stopped traffic, though I'm sure the same would happen if a clan of Japanese in kimonos made a stop late at night into the spar on Sauchiehall street.

Summer of war

Here's a scan of a reduced version of a famous Japanese screen depicting the 'Summer war in Osaka' many moons ago.

Check out the guide below: