The Vanimal

My New Man

Stay tuned...

...for loads of pics from my "Final Days" in the Land of the Rising Sun to pics and stories about my transition to the Sunshine State (a.k.a. America's Wang).

Things I Am Going to Really Miss about Japan (Part 1-Abbreviated)

I've been working on a much longer list, but riding my bike home from my last dinner at Dalwhinnie I didn't want to forget these:
My laughably puny, yet completely adorable foldable bike
Dalwhinnie (the wife-owner gave me a purple coffee mug as a goodbye gift!)
Dinners with my favorite group of teachers at Koga 1st (notably Yuko Handa, such a sweetie)
Junior high school kids playing soccer under the lights near the elementary school by my house
The over-powering smell of honeysuckle in July coming from the bushes by my house
Two-liter plastic bottles of sake filled with water used to prop upon kitchen doors in my apartment complex during the summer months
My little apartment
The humidity at night--when it's cooled off--and become comforting, rather than oppressive
Ah, Koga! I love you in all your inaka glory, and I will miss you so very dearly.

Best Week Ever

I should definitely be featured on VH1's eponomously named show because I have most definitely had the best week ever. Here's the rundown:
Monday-No classes. Worked on getting surveys together for teachers. Monday night dinner at Nambu-senseis. I got to meet his super cute daughter, who kept crawling into my lap. His wife, who is also an English teacher, made a really yummy curry with home-grown veggies.
Tuesday-Started giving last lessons at Koga 3st, which is itself a good thing. This is the school I teach by myself at, and well, I'm kind of over the whole "teaching by myself" thing, especially since recently the kids have been really rowdy. Tuesday night I had dinner at the Ishikis. Mr. Ishiki is a history teacher at Sanwa and his wife is an English teacher at Sakai. They have a really cute 6-year-old daughter, and they live with Ms. Ishiki's parents, who are really cool (her dad is a very refined and cultivated gentleman who speaks fluent English and her mom is a superb cook and Ikebana teacher). During the dinner, which was delicious and super healthy as always, we played English karurta at Myu-chan's suggestion. I was so surprised that not only did this little 6-year-old girl think to try an English version of the Japanese game, but that she could play karuta better than some of my high schoolers! Also, the Ishikis unexpectedly gave me a really nice gift--a samue, which is what monks where. It's beautiful.
Wednesday-Again no classes. Continued to de-bug the surveys. Wednesday night I had dinner with Katsuko, a member of Pera Pera English Club, and her daughter, who studied in Alabama, and her daughter's 7-month-old baby Boy, Ryuto. The conversation at dinner was really nice. And on top of her marvelous gift of hundreds of beautiful Japanese stamps, Katsuko gave me some lovely pictures of cherry blossoms.
Thursday-Good classes at Koga 1st, my favorite school. Then Thursday night I had the best karate class ever. Uchida-sensei video taped me doing all the kata I know by myself, which was totally nerve wracking, but will be a nice memory. She also video taped me doing punches and kicks, and Tenshou with Hiro. Then I took a picture with all the members of the dojo, and then with Oomori-sensei and Uchida sensei. Then Oomori-sensei told me he was going to frame the picture of me with matting that all the black belts had written a good-bye message to me on. And then, Uchida-sensei gave me all these beautiful handmade things: bags, a money holder and a frog. Such unexpected kindess I almost started to cry.
Tonight-Tanabata party in Koga! Eating with Hiro, Matt, Wen, Matt C., Aurelien, Ai-chan, Adriane at Dalwhinnie and then we're going to go bowling and sing karaoke at the ghetto-fab place by my house.
Saturday-my last day and night in Tokyo. Going dancing with Sarah, Sabah, Adriane. Ghostface Killah is at Ageha, so I'm pulling for that, but I'm sure we'll have a blast no matter what we do.
Sunday-My first farewell party, Soba lunch with Pera Pera.

And the next 3 weeks look to be roughly the same!

I Really Like this Poem

No classes today, so while reading the New Yorker I came across a reference to Horace's Ode 1.9. I looked up the ode and I really like it so I want to post it here.

Deep With Snow
You see how white Soractus stands deep with snow
and how the laboring woods cannot support
their burden, and the rivers stand still with frost.

Drive out the cold, Thaliarchus, piling logs
high on the fire, and bring out in abundance
that four-year-old vintage in the Sabine jar.

Leave all else to the gods, for not cypresses
nor ancient wild ash trees are disturbed when
they scatter warring winds over raging seas.

Don't bother asking what tomorrow will bring,
consider as gain whatever days fortune
grants — don't spurn sweet loves and dances while you're young,

while yet you flourish and capricious old age
has not yet arrived. So let's seek out the town,
with low whispering at the appointed hour

under the stars, the tell-tale laugh of a girl
hiding in the farthest corner, and the pledge
torn from her arm or finger, not unyielding.

Canyoning and Camping

Two weekends ago, a group of friends and I went canyoning and camping in Minakami, Gunma, where there was still snow in the mountain peaks (you can imagine how cold the water was). It is a ridiculous amount of fun, and scary as hell.



Our camp site. My tent is the weird shaped blue one to the right. It's supposed to look like that, promise.


Grab the meat!
Terran, Matt, Guido, Lee, Bruce, Me (not shown: Kaaran and Michelle)

Ikebana Class at Sanwa High School

So I had my first Ikebana class at Sanwa last Wednesday, and I was super excited because Ikebana is something I have always wanted to try. There is a really cool class one of the teachers has developed, and basically it's a course on traditional Japanese arts. We had been learning about tea ceremony, but this week was flower arrangement. We got some brief instruction and a piece of paper (none of which I understood) and then a huge bunch of flowers, a vase, some clippers and a heavy spikey thing to stick the flowers into. Then, we were told to begin. I had absolutely no idea what to do so I did what any good Westerner would do, I doggedly found a way to squeeze in all the flowers and arranged them all in the center, in a heirarchical fashion--tallest, shorter, shortest.



These students seemed to have a much better idea of what was going on.



My attempt.



My teacher's redo.
With 5 minutes left in the class, the teacher finally came to survey my arrangement, which I had been gloating over for an hour. She looked at it and exclaimed, "Perfect!" Then she looked at it some more, and tentively at first, but then with more force, started to move around some of the flowers. When it became clear to her that simply bending wasn't going to be enough she asked if I minded if she "rearrange it". I said, of course not. And then she proceeded to completely deconstruct my arrangement, but as she redid it she politely explained why mine sucked and why her arrangement was so much better. You see mine lacked space and atmosphere and was too busy and crowded. Ikebana is about beauty, and beauty is simplicity she explained. I couldn't agree with her more.