lots of fat men!

I’ve been putting this post off for the last few days (well I’ve been busy) but I wanted to put some pictures up about my past weekend. There was an Ibaraki JETs organized event to go and watch a sumo tournament in Tokyo. And I just have to say it was amazing to see it!

Sumo tournaments occur only 5 times a year in different areas of Japan, and they last for 15 days. The day following our viewing of sumo would have been the last day of this tournament. This meant that it was a big day for people to get their rankings up before the finals.

We arrived in the early afternoon. The tournament lasts all day from 10am-6pm. Arriving about 1:00 allowed us to get in and look around. It also meant that the people who had bought tickets for up close were not yet there (they wouldn't show up until later in the afternoon when the big names would be wrestling). Since all of these seats were open, we were able to wonder around and get up close to the actual center of the arena, where the action was happening (because of course we had the nose bleed seats).

The arena was quite large. In the center, the traditional sumo dohyo (ring) was set up. The dohyo is a circle of rice-straw bales 4.55 meters in diameter, mounted on a square platform of clay 6.7m on a side, and 34 to 60 cm high. The surface is covered by sand. And a roof, that resembles the roof of a Shinto shrine is suspended above the dohyo. The judges are seated around the structure.

Here is a diagram


a few pics of the arena...






Once the sumo wrestling actually happened there were always elaborate rituals that would occur before the actual match began. In reality much more time was doing other things, the sumo wrestling part lasted only a matter of minutes and in some cases only a matter of seconds. Because as soon as once wrestler was pushed out of the circle or fell to the ground, the match was over. Some of the ceremonial things included a parade of all of the wrestlers before different ranks would begin their matches, throwing salt for good luck, ceremonial stretching, drinking some sort of water, and many others im sure I missed. There was also a parade of advertisements on flags that would happen before any of the big matches.

















In addition it was really interesting to watch the spectators. On the ground floor there were little boxes for 4 people, and everyone brought along or bought bentos (boxed lunches) and of course they also brought along their drink of choice Asahi beer, sake, or shochuu (rice wine).

It was a really great experience to see something that was so traditionally Japanese. It was also great to hang out with such a large group of friends that I hadn’t seen for awhile.

After sumo most of us ventured over to a restaurant where we enjoyed Chanko Nabe. the meal of all of the sumo wrestlers. You cook vegetables, tofu and meat in broth at your table. Not really that unhealthy. But the sumo wrestlers eat massive quantities and go straight to bed after eating. And they do this about 3 times a day!!







Tamae and I


Laura, Bethany, Tamae, and I

a few stories...

thought i would share a few stories written by students. these are by far the best i read out of about 60 stories. but it gives you a little bit of an idea of their English level. these stories were written by 3rd year students, all they received was a paper that said long, long ago...

First:

Long, long ago there was a small town. Crab’s family lived in the small town. They were living in peace. One day, Crab’s mother was killed by monkey. That made crab’s children sad. Crab’s children decided to arrange revenge.

After that they asked the bee, the chestnut and the Usu (a wooden bowl) to help. The made a plan. The bee will sting the monkey. The chestnut will jump to attack him. The usu will crush him. The plan was to kill the monkey.

Time was here for them to begin the plan. The chestnut is waiting in the irori (Japanese fire place). Monkey was coming to irori then chestnut attacked the monkey. The mokey was burned so monkey went to the big water pot. But the bee was waiting for him. The bee stung the monkey. The monkey was very surprised. Monkey went outside. But usu also was waiting on the roof. Usu broke the monkey’s body. The monkey died. They were very glad. The small town now became peaceful.

Second:

Long, long ago old parents lived in a small town. The old man went to mountain to work. The old woman was in home. His work was cutting bamboos. One day he found a golden bamboo. He said “oh. What’s that!?” And he cut it and he found a small girl.

She was very beautiful. He said “God gave her to me! Thank you very much!” He was very glad. After that he brought her to his home. The old woman said “Oh, she is very cute. Why do you have her?” He said “Because I found a god bamboo, after I cut it, she was there”. The thing made them happy. And they began to raise her.

After that, she grew big soon and became more beautiful. And they became rich. Why was it? The reason was that she came to their home and she came from the moon. So they became rich. And many kings wanted to marry her. But, she didn't want to marry.

One day she said “I have to go to the moon, sorry”. They said “Please, don’t go!” But she went to the moon. When she said “see you” she was crying. They were very sad, but she left very good medicine. It’s ‘hushinokusuri’.

One of the kings said “we should burn it on the highest mountain in Japan”. We call the highest mountain in Japan “Fujisan”. The sound of “fuji” which is the name of the mountain is close to ‘fushi’ which means that the people never die in Japan.

Third"

Long, long ago there were an old man and old woman. Two people were very good friends. Two people one day traveled all over the world. They enjoyed it very much. It is interesting for them to travel. So they were very happy.

But one morning…the old man died too tired from the trip. And old woman was very sad. Old woman cried forever. At last, old woman had much sorrow so she died. Two people went to heaven. Two people were very surprised in heaven, God cried.

Two people asked “What’s the matter?”
God, “You are very pitiful”.
Two people, “why?”.
God, “ You two were people were very good friends and your dream of a trip came true”. So now you two people live in heaven with young appearances”.
Two people, “Oh…really? Oh…Thank you!”
God disappeared.
Two people talked. We are happy because of young appearance and that we will live in heaven forever. Besides we can travel. So we are very happy. But we were very sad when we died. Now we are very happy. So, it is interesting for us to live in heaven. Because when we died we were sad but now we are very happy.

groceries

A few months back someone (my mom) had asked me to post something about the grocery stores here. And to be honest I haven't really been brave enough to whip out the camera in the midst of a shopping trip. But right before I left to go back for Christmas, I actually snapped a few pictures, and hopefully eventually I'll take some more.

Overall I would say that the grocery stores are not all that different. I suppose they tend to be pretty small, but this is also because I live in the country. The selection of foreign goods is quite limited, but the produce section is pretty nice (therefore I tend to stick to the fresh things). They also always have a wide selection of pre-made food, including sushi, onigiri, various fried items, and many different pickled goods.

seafood


yum! lots of sushi


a bit unusual, a whole aisle for seaweed options


soy sauce and other sauces


pre-made food (note the employee wearing a christmas hat)

brrrrr

I realize that some of you who are reading this live in much colder places than I do, however I believe you have better insulated walls, I would just like to rant a bit about how cold it is. I am eternally cold and have not yet found the key to staying warm. Last night I was sitting IN my apartment wearing a tank top, long sleeved shirt, fleece shirt, and a wool sweater. I know it sounds bit excessive (because really its not that cold, only 48 degrees in the apt), but when you have been chilled all day (school is cold too) its hard to get rid of the feeling.

But the epitome of this cold situation is seen through the process I have to go through to take a shower.
1. Turn on the shower 10 minutes ahead to try and steam up the shower room.
2. put towels in dryer
3. Turn heater on in my room on super high
4. Turn electric blanket on (just in case)
5. Take shower
6. Run into my bedroom through the freezing kitchen.

I hope that you all are very appreciative of your warm showers!

But anyway enough of that, I think I'm going to become numb soon and not feel it anymore (I hope).


Oh and yesterday I was awoke to quite a surprise, snow! everything was covered with about 3 inches of snow. It's not a ton of snow, but I had been told that we might get a few days with flurries but that it rarely ever sticks. All of the kids loved it! Lots of snowballs were being made and thrown around school. It was actually quite beautiful.

alcatraz, church and an ER??

Well its back to work, blah. But actually things have been better already this week than last. No school Monday, yay! And then I had 5 classes both yesterday and today, so the week seems to be moving along at a nice rate.

This weekend, some fellow JETs and myself, braved the artic temperatures that had blasted into Japan on Saturday and headed into Tokyo. We decided that we needed to have a much-needed get together after the holidays, and spend some time in the city. We decided that we were going to visit a few themed restaurants/bars that could only be found in Japan.

First, it had been decided that we would go to Christon Café (CHRISTon, incase you were unclear of the theme). None of us knew what to expect, but after walking around for about 40 minutes in the cold looking for the place we were happy to be indoors, and to our surprise the place was gorgeous. It was a huge place, with incredibly high vaulted ceilings (a bit unexpected considering we were on the 8th floor of a 12 story building. There were gorgeous chandeliers, stained glass, and candles everywhere. It really should have been more characterized as gothic than religious, except for the huge alter and organ that were at one end of the place (oh and the religious music playing in the background). Food wasn’t all that amazing but the setting was quite nice.

Next we moved onto Alcatraz+ER. A prison and hospital themed restaurant, don’t exactly know how the two fit together, but like I said only in Japan. After one member of our group was handcuffed we were all led off to our cell (table). We were in the ‘brain surgery’ cell. We were put in and they closed the gates on us, to order we had to bang on the metal bars and a nurse would come and take our order. We ordered various drinks, and when they appeared we were quite surprised as some were in lab kits that you had to mix yourself, one was in a baby bottle, and one even came inside of a woman’s head. There was also a show. During which the lights went out and some masked man appeared in our cell and decided to scare me when the lights came back on! And eventually they found an unsuspecting customer who they put on a stretcher and carried around and performed some sort of ‘surgery’ on. It was all very odd, and uniquely Japanese.

I think that's most of the weird events of the night but more about the weekend to come, have to run to class….

Well I am officially back in Japan, and officially back at work (with no classes today). I hope that everyone enjoyed their holidays! I enjoyed mine quite a bit. It was great to be able to spend the holidays with my family and enjoy the indulgences such as warmer weather, shopping, and hot running water!

I headed back to the USA on December 21st and was there through this past weekend. Fox flew out to Phoenix and spent Christmas with me and my family. It was really great to see him. While in Phoenix I got to spend time with all the family, head up to Sedona with Fox, and even trekked down to Tuscon to visit Fox's brother and show Dev around the University of Arizona. Also spent probably too much time shopping, but i needed more work clothes and winter clothes to layer up with!! I had an excuse.

Here are a few pictures from Christmas:

























next on to sedona:















hiking the south mountains near my parents house in phoenix:





New Years eve we went to a nice restaurant for dinner then headed home, took a few pictures, and then my dad fell asleep and dev finished packing then headed out to a party. so my mom and I were the only ones still awake in the house as midnight approached, so we decided to pack up a bottle of wine and hike up to a look out point (near the house, where we could see most of the valley) to toast the New Year and see a few fireworks.