Life Update - Bunkasai, Tokyo (long post)

Alright, finally a free period at school so gonna try to catch up here a little more. You might have noticed, but I’m trying to get back into writing and keeping updates of what’s going on in Japan... it’s just hard when you’ve got too much going on to write.

The last few weeks have turned out to be pretty busy. There have been lags of time, yes, but most of them when I’m not at home to just veg out :-p I’ve been averaging 3 hours of English Club (ie – after school time in addition to my regular work hours) everyday lately as we prepare for the school cultural festival, too, which had probably had an effect on this time strain.

BUNKASAI
As you probably know, the school culture festival (“Bunkasai” in Japanese) is a day where each class/homeroom performs or makes a display. Sort of like a Japanese pepfest and one of the biggest events of the year. Seriously... one of the seniors that had a solo in it last year got a perm so he looked good for the day (can say a few things about that, but moving on...).

In addition to all the classes, clubs and teams can also present stuff. Two years ago, the English Club held a prom with a full-size Prom King and Queen (cutout faces) for prom pictures (posted on the web) and a DJ booth. Then last year, we made a full-size totem pole (with each kids’ animal on it and an eagle at the top), full-size teepee and a sky-colored backdrop with posters about Native North Americans. I was sort of stuck on what I wanted to do this year, but then someone told me about their school doing an international food poster and the lightbulb went on: *COOKBOOK*!

We decided (or I decided, tried to sell my "vision" and the girls - luckily - liked the idea) to do an international cookbook, featuring foods from 5 different parts of the world. I found recipes - mostly on the internet – of culinary treats I was aware of and have enjoyed and then transcribed the recipes into easier English for the kids. The senior girls translated all of the info into Japanese while I was in Tokyo last week (wow! so impressed!) and we’ve been spending almost everyday after school cooking our butts off so we can try all the recipes. I even came back to Takanan after a full day at my other school so we could work on it.

The five dishes we decided to make are from: 1) ITALY (homemade pasta sauce & bruschetta), 2) UK, AUSTRALIA & NZ (fish’n chips), 3) the MIDDLE EAST (homemade pita bread, 2 kinds of hummus & baba gannouj), 4) USA (christmas cookies – no xmas cake here, baby!), and 5) MEXICO (homemade flour tortillas, tacos & two kinds of giant nacho dishes).

We can’t actually serve the food AT the festival (too many hoops to jump through – including fronting money for all the materials and sending in stool samples to the Board of Education to prove we’re healthy to handle food), but we decided to make everything we’re recommending so we know if the recipes are any good and so that we can include pictures and offer comments/opinions about the cooking process. Had some longer days at school, but it's going REALLY well! We have so much food, it's been pretty much enough for dinner every night, too!

Anyways, now that we’re done cooking, we’re choosing what pictures (from the over 600 I’ve taken) we want to use and starting on the posters. We get a whole classroom in the middle of school for the exhibition part of the project (big world map with coordinating strings going to each food poster & poster boards). We’re also thinking about setting up a fake table with pictures of the foods we made. And the kicker is sort of the goal of the whole thing... our little “omiyage” cookbooks that everyone can take home (basically a present for visiting our display).

Bunkasai is next Wednesday (and again on Friday, at my other school), and we have a lot of work to do before we're ready to present, but everyone is really into it and working hard so I’ve been really inspired and motivated to keep going. Even if it means being at work until 7:30! We’ve also attracted a few more ESS members through the process (food always works wonders for these things...), so I’m excited because the person who replaces me next month will come into a pretty good-sized club, with members from all three grades.

SLEEP, TOKYO & the big fat run-around
Sleep. Yeah, I need some. Things have been so amazing, fun, crazy and adventurous lately (literally flying by the seat of my pants), but yeah, also busy... even for me.

So about 2 weeks ago, I did a one-day roadtrip to the Iseshima, home of Japan’s most sacred shrine, Isejinju . I've really wanted to see this shrine and the roadtrip portion of it was really great (wish I had done more of them while I've been here in Japan), but it was also sort of too long of a drive for a daytrip and I didn’t get home until 2am. Don't get my wrong. I'm glad I went. I'm glad I saw the shrine.  But man... long day :-P  Got home from the road and needed to finish a PPT for work the next day (since the copy I made earlier on my Mac wouldn’t open on a PC) so I probably got to bed after 3, getting less than 4 hours of sleep. Ouch. Had a full day the next day and was up late again packing for Tokyo, cleaning the apartment for my brother and his friends (who would stay there while I was in Tokyo) and finishing up another PPT for our presentation at the Opinion Exchange, so things kept going on par course. Friday was full of classes and I snuck out of work early to get to the airport for my flight to Tokyo. Waiting on the roof of Kobe Airport was relaxing (truly a treat – they have some beautiful gardens and views up there if you ever find yourself there) and I had a fun, lowkey night going to Tokyo Tower and hanging out with my brother and friends. Just a lot of late nights. That was last week. And then it got crazier.

Over the weekend, I had national committee changeover meetings on Saturday and Sunday with ENKAIs (dinner ceremonies) for new and old council members both nights and some extra karaoke madness in Shibuya on Saturday night. I'll skip the nijikai details, but ALMOST missed last train out of Shibuya because we were having an ice fight with some new Japanese friends and I pulled my leg muscle doing 3 cartwheels through the Shibuya intersection. Wise, I know :-p

The outgoing council had some later meetings on Sunday, so I did get a chance to sneak out alone on Sunday morning and finally check out the “cozplay” (costume play, where a following of younger Japanese people dress up like baby dolls and stuff) near Yoyogi Park and Meiji Shrine in Harajuku. I’ve tried to see the groups of people dressed up on Sundays a few times and was really excited that it finally worked out. I asked to take a picture with one of the gothic-themed cozplay guys and was surprised to find that he was really friendly and nice -- even gave me a souvenir keychain that matched his goth outfit! I also quickly ran through an exhibit on royal ornaments (mostly hair ornaments form the Mieji and Edo periods) at the Meiji Shrine complex, but it was all meetings and prep for Monday and Tuesday from there on out.

Monday and Tuesday were our Opinion Exchanges with CLAIR (the Council for Local Authorities and International Relations) and the three other government ministries responsible for education in Japan. This was my third Opinion Exchange and I think it went pretty well. I remember being pretty nervous at them in the past, especially the first one ("oh my gosh... what if I forget the keigo Japanese in my self introduction in front of all these people" type of silliness). But now -- no problem at all. We presented 5 reports, with my team focusing on the new effect of the new curriculum for 5th and 6th graders rolling out nationwide as mandatory curriculum. We did a survey based on teh reactions of foreigners working at the 614 pilot schools to the program, wrote up the results and the reported on our findings via powerpoint at the meeting. I basically just helped make the survey, edit drafts of the report and made the English Powerpoint (with we translated into Japanese), but my role at the actual exchange was posing our follow-up questions to MEXT. I had a translator, but I was shocked to discover that I actually knew one of the MEXT representatives from a non-related event and thought the whole thing was pretty straight-forward. The banquet that night was nice, I finally got to talk to some of the government guys I've been so intrigued by all year (especially the Ministry of Foriegn Affairs diplomat with 3 different kids from 3 different wives in 3 different countries - charming fellow, but crazy dayo). A lot of people from the government offices came out for the nijikai (after party) - defiitely more than were invovled in our Opinion Exchange event - which also made for an interesting night, but I thought it was the perfect end to the experience.

After the meetings on Tuesday, we had the traditional post-meeting pizza party at the CLAIR office (Dominos eggplant and Ceaser Salad pizzas are my favorites -- going to miss 'em!) and then headed off for some quick galavanting/shopping/people watching in Harajuku before people had to trickle off to catch trains, planes and automobiles taking them back to all corners of Japan. 

I spent the evening meeting up with an old friend from Chiba Prefecture, Shinya. I've been to Shinya's house before and he and my friend Jessica stayed with me for a few days when I FIRST moved to Japan (literally my first or second week - I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't given me a tour of the grocery store and told me tips about Japanese food), but it was still a little sad or funny to chill with him and not have Jess there. We went to an area in Tokyo called Tsukishima, which is famous for monjyayaki, sort of a half-cooked version of the Kansai or Hiroshima Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake??). I was a little scared when I first saw it, not liking the raw look of the stuff, but it turned out to be really delcicous. We even ordered seconds!

NIKKO AND GHIBLI
On Wednesday morning, we said our goodbyes and otsukaresamdeshita's to new and old council members and I headed out for my hotel in Shinjuku. My boss was really awesome about missing an extra day of work to do some final sightseeing in Tokyo and then my friend Emi helped me find some really good deals to make it happen financially. I've always really wanted to see Nikko, a temple complex about 2.5 hours north of Tokyo (by train) because so many people say it's one of their favorite places in Japan. I only planned one day for the trip, but gotta say... I was not disappointed.

Nikko is actually on the edge of a national park and the area around it is so beautiful. Mountains, sleepy town, not too busy. I took a very early train, so I slept most of the way there in the morning, but the scenery on the way - mostly rural - was also very picturesque.

I arrived at Nikko early in the morning, followed a huge group of Japanese people onto the wrong bus (next to my bus... almost went hiking with them!!) and after some more walking (and some laughs when I figured out what happened), I made it to the temple complex. I bought the multiple entry pass, thinking (because I'm so accustomed to spread out Kyoto) that I'd try to hit as many places as I could, but acepting that I couldn't... and headed out for the first temple on the pass, Rinno-ji Temple.  It was pretty much empty and resembled the scene you'll find in Nara, but I was so blown away by this area.  I actually made it to see everything, even spending extra time to admire details (and make my way through the swarms of Japanese school children once the field trip groups arrived a bit later) and was so stunned.  Completely charming, relaxing. Stunning.  There was definitely more color and detail (especially on the ceilings) to what I am accustomed to seeing in other temples.  It was like Kyoto set in an 8-block radius, set in a huge forest.  

After exploring Nikko, I caught a train back to Shinjuku and spent some time at the Ghibli Museum.  Ghibli is like the Disney of Japan.  The place was not exactly Disney World, but it's actually more of what I was looking for.  The magic in the detail with displays showing Miyazaki's workshop and a really cute small feature film about a girl going hiking for the day.

Definitely a satisfying trip and splendid goodbye to beautiful Tokyo.  I have a feeling it'll be a long time before I'll be back, but I felt content with my goodbyes to that lovely metropolis.

CELL PHONE
On a random note, also some drama at work last Friday. My cell phone got stolen (I think...)!! At school!

 I never would have believed it, but it was basically in my purse when I went to class (and my coworker saw me put it there), but missing when I got back. I was trying to call my brother right before class and planned to try again when I got back, so I was certain of where I put it. I sit next to the staff room door and my purse is usually open under my desk, by the door. The phone was sitting in the middle of the bag and would be easy to grab, but since most of my coworkers just leave their phones on their desk anyways and I trust people at school, I would never think twice about locking stuff away. 

Anyways, I realized it was missing and immediately thought, “oh crap. Ok, where did I put it now?” Searched my purse. Searched my desk. Searched under the desk (on hands and feet). Called it about 4 times. Nothing. Then I started to get nervous, so I asked 2 other teachers to help me. I literally checked every bathroom to make sure it wasn’t there, checked my classroom (all the desks, etc), dumped out the garbage in both my classroom and the other one, and crawled around on the staff room floor looking for it a bit more before I started to believe maybe someone DID take it from my purse. The teachers that were in the staff room at the time said no strangers had been in the room. So great, a student?!  We called a few more times and then decided it was time to tell the Vice Principal.

Well, I think a lot of students saw me walking around with the usual chipper expression (or "genki" hello to match it) and thought something was up.  When my ESS girls came to meet a bit later, I told them I couldn't meet with them until I figured out what happened, so they decided to help me look, too... and then... we found it!

The phone was on the floor, one row over.  OK, I know I could have missed it, but it was literally right next to the desk of one of the coworkers that was helping me look for it (and also called the phone a few times).  I hate to think a student would have taken it, freaked out when we realized it was missing so fast, and then dropped it.  But that is what probably happened.  

Still trust my school and am really, really relieved to have the phone back (phone plans are expensive here... it would have been a nightmare to lose all my info and try to find something to use for the last month and a half here).  But I am also closing up my bag from now on and making sure it's out of the way.  Yikes.

GOOD NEWS and CHANGES
This post is getting long so I'll cut, but a few other random tidbits.  Recently won a National Service Award (2nd year in a row). I thought it was just for volunteering this year and that everyone on the AJET National Council (the non-profit I’ve been working with) was going to get one, so I was sort of goofing around when I went up to accept the certificate and only later realized only a few of us were nominated for it. Oops. Have no idea who nominated me, but I guess thank you if you are reading this! I was also chosen as a Hyogo Prefecture Goodwill Ambassador. I think this basically means I’ll represent the best interests of the prefecture when talking about Japan (post-Japan) and that the prefectural government can contact me if they need to enlist someone abroad to help them out. I plan to be involved with the Japanese community in some way when I move back to the states in the fall, anyways, so I suppose having a connection to my temporary home here is an even better reason to do it.  And I get a cute little lapel pin to wear ;)

Wow, yeah. So much to tell. I'm going to Okinawa and also have another friend (Bekah Kiecker and her boyfriend Chris) coming next week so I'll try to keep it shorter, but keep this updated.  Until then, good vibes from Japan :)