seasons

In Japan, everything seems to have a season. Now we are in rainy season, azalea and hydrangea season, tealeaf season, and firefly season is just finishing up. One of my adult students, Sachiko, and her husband were kind enough to take me to see the last few fireflies of the season. They picked me up on Saturday night and we drove for about an hour to a small river called Makunigawa, which is located at the bottom of the Koyasan Mountain. The first few places we stopped had only a few fireflies, but the last place had so many that it looked like someone had strung Christmas lights across all the trees lining the river. There were also many frogs and crickets, and they sang quite loudly. It reminded me of the beginning of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. I can’t remember ever seeing real fireflies before, so I was very excited. They were very beautiful and none of them landed on me, so I was happy. As you can see, they were difficult to photograph. And these were the good shots! If you zoom in on the second black one, you can see some faint fuzzy lights, which should be fireflies, or maybe dust. Probably dust.




I also went to dinner with my friend Scott, at one of my favorite restaurants (they have pretty good Mexican-type food). The owner is really nice, and gave me a Japanese lesson. He put it up on the tv screen. Great way to use media in a bar!

































So because I couldn’t get any good shots of the fireflies, I thought I would include more of Sumi! He is doing great. He stays at home by himself during the day now. I put him in my bedroom with plenty of food, water, toys, and kitty litter. I think he has had fun exploring the closet. I have left the window open because it has been so hot, so hopefully he isn’t chatting with the neighbors and giving himself away. Included in the pictures is a new sleeping spot balanced on top of a pillow, he and I watching my hula (he also enjoys So You Think You Can Dance), Sumi checking himself out in the mirror, Sumi with a tiny shower cap on (mimi cap actually), Sumi and giant onions, scary Sumi, relaxed Sumi, and Sumi with only his chin on the computer – because he knows he’s not allowed to touch it.

oh god the humidity!

The rainy season has officially begun in Japan. Right now, at 11pm, it is 72 degrees and 100% humidity. School has been absolutely miserable. Since most people make assumptions about a culture based on whom they meet, sorry, but now they all think Americans sweat profusely.
I also got my hair straightened last Sat, and it hasn’t gotten frizzy at all! I love it!
I decided to take the day off on Friday. It is most likely going to rain again, and I have no classes scheduled, so I am staying home to enjoy my air conditioning and to play with Sumi. I also can’t stand the English teachers at this school, so I am looking for any excuse to avoid being around them. The students have been pretty good, but I have not been happy with the teachers. I have to endure it for another two weeks.

すみ

　
So there has been much debate over whether or not Sumi is actually a cat. When I first got him, people thought he looked like these various animals: a bear, bat, mongoose, panda, rat, panther, leopard, hamster, or Maori warrior. Well, hopefully he is starting to look more cat-like, although a panther would be really cool, just a bit large, and perhaps a tad dangerous.

Whenever I get up from the couch to go to another room, I come back to find a small black fur ball has taken my seat.
Yesterday, I went to buy baby shampoo for Sumi to give him a bath. I saw two bottles of Johnson & Johnson, so I chose the clear one because I figured that it would be gentler. So after a small accident, or puddle I should say, he needed a bath. So I opened up the bottle, and squirted some in the water. I don’t want to scare Sumi with the water, so I dipped his feet in lowered him in slowly and started to rub the soap on him. Then I started to notice that Sumi was getting very slippery. His belly was very soft and slick, but not soapy. I realized then that I had bought baby oil, and was stupidly trying to bathe my cat in it. I apologized profusely and quickly gave him a real soaping up with dish soap. So much for a gentle bath. I am pretty sure I got all the soap off, and he doesn’t really lick his fur, so I don’t think he’ll get sick or anything. I feel really bad. But the label was in Japanese! Although I did look at it again and I could read the Katakana, I just didn’t. So he is taking a long nap, or he is ignoring me. I wouldn’t be surprised at either.
This is why I don’t want children!!

If you look really closely, you can see a wet puddle under Sumi, next to the littler box. Well, at least that is closer than the couch, my bed, and the book shelf. By the way he is giving me dirty look because he's still mad about the baby oil bath. His fur is really soft though!

By the way, I promise this won’t turn into a cat blog, at least not until I have 10 more cats and am old and single. Uh oh.
In the meantime, I am enjoying having a baby kitten. He is way more work than I imagined, but totally worth it, at least it is until he eats my face.

Hula Show

This past Sunday I performed in my first hula show here in Japan. My hula group, Keola, has both Friday and Saturday classes. I am in the Saturday class with about 15 other women. The Friday class has about 25. The show lasted about one and a half hours and we danced 18 songs. I danced in 5, including my first ever solo. Most of the dances went pretty well, there was only one song that none of us knew very well, so we all looked horrible. As nervous as I was to do my solo, in a way it was a little easier because no one knew if I made a mistake. Of course I’ll be able to tell how I did once I see the DVD. As you know, smiling is probably the most important thing you need to do while dancing, and it is also very difficult for me to do on stage. I tried my best to keep a natural smile on my face, but it really helped to see friendly faces in the audience. A few of my friends came to support me, and I really appreciated that. It really means a lot to me that they took the time to come out and watch me dance for the first time in a foreign country! I was so nervous, but each time I saw one of my friends smiling back at me, it made me smile even wider and helped me relax a little. I also invited some of my adult students, so a few of them were there to support me as well. And of course Sumi was there too. Rose was kind enough to feed and watch over him while I got ready and danced. He slept through the entire performance. I am so thankful Rose was there to take care of him. And thanks to Scott, who was my official photographer.
Rose and I spoke afterwards about how kind everyone in the group is. They did a good job making everyone feel welcome. They show was well organized, and I think the audience enjoyed themselves. My friend Akemi, who danced too, always helps me out with translating. This was her first show ever, and she did a great job. Our friend Chieko gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
Overall, it was a successful show, and I appreciate all my friends who came out to support me. And for those of you in the States, I’ll bring the DVD if you want to see me dance!
I think the picture of Sumi and me is my favorite because he is sticking his tongue out, but couldn’t someone have told me I had lipstick on my teeth! Thanks. Maybe that’s why everyone was staring at me on stage!
For those of you who were there and took pictures, send them to me! I’d love to see and share them.

Go Giants!!

The last blog I will write for my Tokyo trip will be about the baseball game we went to. Both Craig and I enjoy going to baseball games, so we headed to the Tokyo Dome to see our first Japanese Major League game! Even though we bought our tickets a few days in advance, it was almost sold out, and the only available seats were in the visitor’s section. So we took those. The Tokyo Dome is home to the Tokyo Giants, and the visitors were the Yakult Swallows, who are also from Tokyo. I of course, was rooting for the Giants.
At first, the stadium and atmosphere seemed quite similar to that in America, but there tuned out to be some interesting differences. Let me also say that at that time, the Giants were in 1st place in their division, and the Swallows were last. And a Swallow?! Come on. Perhaps if they were a more menacing bird like a hawk or eagle they would be more intimidating, but a swallow! I guess I shouldn’t talk though because pretty much all birds scare the crap out of me. So anywayS, the game starts with a first pitch thrown out by a young little league group. There are the mascots running around on the field, and girls with pony kegs strapped to their backs selling beer. So far pretty normal. There was a security guard asking the Giants fans to take off their hats, bandanas and such – a little odd. Then, 1st inning, the Giants hit a home run. Of course people in our section are cheering and clapping and a few stand up. Suddenly, 3 security guards come running down and tell everyone to sit down and be quiet. I was very surprised because the rest of the stadium was cheering loudly and jumping around. I realized that since we were technically in the “visitors” section, it must be considered rude or disrespectful to cheer for the opposing team in their own section. Or maybe they thought a huge fight might break out and fans would begin wildly beating each other over the head with inflatable mallets and oversized Hello Kitty dolls. So we clapped like we were dressed to the nines watching an opera, while the Swallows fans around us attempted to burst our eardrums by slapping pieces of plastic clappy-things together and shouting out their synchronized cheers. And when I say they were in sync, not just the words, but their gestures as well. They had a small band, consisting of trumpets, horns, and drums, along with 2 large flags they waved, and all wer being conducted in the front by a man with a whistle. But then the Giants fans broke out the banner. It was huge, covering at least 20 rows, and they unfurled it in about 10 sec. The Giants fans had their synchronized cheers as well, but we couldn’t understand them, just saw all the movements that each fan performed perfectly. The funny thing was when the Swallows finally did score a run, and all the fans in the section each opened up a small umbrella that looked like it was a give-away from one of their home games. Little do they know how much bad luck they brought upon themselves in that moment!
The stadium food was typically Japanese, like takoyaki, soba, ramen, okonomiyaki, and such. There were a few American foods like hotdogs and pizza, but as you can see in the picture, the “Kono Pizza” is a little different. We stopped at an “American baseball restaurant afterwards where the food was horrible, and the poor waiters danced little routines on the tables. They looked thrilled.
The game was lots of fun. I hope to attend another one soon nearby here in Osaka to see the Hanshin Tigers.

Hakone

Back to my Tokyo trip! The next place we visited was Hakone, a city located a couple hours away from Tokyo by train. I really enjoyed this city, and I would definitely like to return there. It is known as a mountainous area with hiking, a gorgeous lake, onsens, and excellent views of Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately the day we went, it was quite cloudy, so you can’t quite make out the image of Mt Fuji in the background. We could just barely see its outline through the clouds.
The lake is called Lake Ashi. The ships to sail across the lake were all different, so we were lucky to be able to ride the cool looking pirate ship across the water. We also accidentally broke into the samurai exhibit. I thought we only had to pay to go into the museum, so we walked through the side entrance to just see the outer part, but I guess that was included too. Then we took a picture with one of the samurai before escorting ourselves out before getting caught.
Another famous thing in Hakone is the ropeway car, but they were undergoing repairs, so they were closed. We took an exciting bus up the mountain instead. We visited a beautiful garden that had some amazing flowers and plants. Then we took a small train down the mountain. It would have been a relaxing and beautiful ride if I wasn’t sharing it with 8 million other tourists packed into the tiny train. I realize now that it’s the end of Golden Week that is the busiest.
Even though we just spent the day there, I really enjoyed the “mountain feel” of Hakone, and I would like to visit there again.








I am also including a few random pictures in this blog. The one with the fish socks is in Asakusa on Children’s Day. After that is a wrestling match that we happened to stumble upon. It was quite entertaining, and you can see there were a variety of different wrestlers. And the last picture was of a funny building I saw.