Monday, October 31, 2005

Nihongo no burogu ga dekita!

日本語のブログができた!

羽付く人って言うブログです。リンクは右側のサイドバーの上にあるとここです。携帯電話使う人々にご免なさい、ライブ・ジャーナルは文字化けだらけです。パソコンしかできないと思います。内容はこのブログと4Vとたまに同じ、たまに違う、気分によってね。読んでください!よろしくお願いします!


I now have a Japanese blog!

It's called hane_tsuku_hito. Either click the name in this post or follow the link at the top of the sidebar on the right. Sorry to cell phone users, the characters don't seem to display right from LiveJournal blogs. Only a computer will do. The contents may be the same as this blog or shibui or they may be different, depending on how I feel. Please give it a read! Thank you kindly!

(Note to non-Japanese speakers: There really isn't any English, so don't expect too much from it. I started it because recently a bunch of my Japanese friends and students have tried looking at my blog and been disappointed at not really being able to read anything. And it's not like my posts are short and accessible to learners of the language. The name hane_tsuku_hito is a rough translation of my nickname "Fletcher." There's no Japanese word for a person whose profession is sticking feathers on arrows to make them fly straight, so feather_stick_person is about the closest I could get in the available character count. unfortunately "hanetsuku" sounds a lot like "hanetsukeru" which means to reject, turn down, or scorn something, but you can't win them all, now, can you?)

Our Awa Odori Comeback!

Last night we, Kocho-ren (the butterfly, not the principal), performed at a big meeting at Tsukigatani Onsen. The meeting was about what to do regarding the town's rapidly declining population. And they asked us to be there to show off, I mean, perform.

We practiced on Saturdays for the thee or four weeks preceeding; it was just enough practice to make the short performance doable. Beforehand we had been pretty doubtful of how it would go over. It could have been a room full of drunk old men bent on grabbing the bottoms of out junior high aged female members, it could have been dead and solemn. We were prepared for the worst. There are few things worse than an unresponsive crowd. What we were not prepared for was massive enthusiasm. We were super well recieved, and as at any other time when we have been cheered, our performance stepped up. People were clapping, shouting "Yattosa yattoSAAA!" and really getting into it. That kind of response somehow makes you shine all the more, it gives you the guts to try pulling off those random cool moves you probably wouldn't try otherwise. We all danced really really well. When I was doing my solo bit down the aisle amidst everyone, the town mayor gave me a big smile and thumbs up. When we had finished everyone was shouting "An-ko-rei! An-ko-rei!" (encore, encore). We smiled back at them with smiles that said "No, please, my body can't handle any more!" Our musicians started playing again at high tempo and there was nothing we could do but dance. We danced our bad selves out of the room to much applause, taking our time to be the showmen (showpeople?) we were born to be.

It was awesome. I was in high spirits verging on massively hyperactive for the rest of the evening, perhaps to the chagrin of the other members of our ren. So much fun. I'm so glad I didn't have to say goodbye for the year until the end of the month. In retrospect, it was a pretty awesome birthday gift, even if it came two weeks late. Kouichiro commented that it was like summer was back for just a little bit more. I sure do love that awa odori. Too bad it was a school night. We could have rounded the night off with some karaoke otherwise.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

So. What's to talk about?

I feel like I should post something just because it seems like ages since I have added anything. I need to post if for no other reason than to get that asse moving. But what to talk about? I have had a pretty sleepy week, in the sense that I have been sleepy all week from getting little sleep. [He glances surreptitiously down at his last few posts.] My weekend was not insanely restful, an the next few days were less so. For some reason on Monday night I had trouble getting to bed, and being not sleepy when midnight rolled around I cleaned my apartment a little. And I got to sleep by about five. And we had a seminar the next day.

Tuesday found me opening my eyes to a clock that read 10:00 and my own shouts of "Holy crap! How did that happen?" I now know better than to use my extra heavy futon-like comforter on nights when I only plan to sleep for three hours. The seminar started at 9:30 am so I was already late. A lightning fast shower and shave later I was in my suit and in my car speeding down the road. I managed to get to the seminar in Anan by about 10:50. The part that had looked to be the only possibly fun portion was the first thing on the schedule, and I was hungry and still sleepy, so it was a pretty sucky way to begin. But a bunch of the other ALTs said they were jealous of my having come late because the morning had been so dull, so I felt a little better. But still embarrassed. The afternoon looked to be nauseatingly boring, all ceremonies and a Japanese speaker slated to talk for two hours. Great. However, much to my surprise he really was great. Amazing, even.

So you know that loads of ALTs complain about the problems with the language education here, especially those with real teacher training. This guy was much the same, but he was SUPER encouraging. His topic was 「絶対評価の現在と課題」which would be something like "The Challenge and Current State of Absolute Evaluation." He's a sub-professor at Hiroshima University. He started talking about how to build an evaluation system for something as subjective as language. He questioned the effectiveness of a number grade, suggesting instead an ABC kind of system, where B is meets expectations and A is above, and C is below. He separated the class marks into three groups: 表現 (hyougen: expression), 理解 (rikai: understanding), and 関心・意欲・態度 (kanshin, iyoku, taido: intrest, effort, attitude. 感意態 kanitai for short). Then with a simple graph of the three areas and the three terms and only three possibilities, a parent can easily see and understand a student's progress or regression. The final mark is out of 5. Average of three A's = 5, and less for lower.

He talked about how to mark intrest/effort/attitude. First he said it should be looked at from the direction of communication. So attitude is not marked by whether they hand in all their homework, or whether they listen attentively to every word the teacher says, but on the basis of whether they try when communicating. So if you ask, "What are you going to do this weekend?" and the student answers, "I'mu... I'mu... I'mu I'mu I'mu... tennisu," that is an A! And he went on tosay, "It's okay if everyone gets an A! You don't need kids getting C for attitude to make a fair scale! Even if their English is terrible, but they try, that's an A!"

He talked about how to make a good class atmosphere. He criticized grammar translation question very strongly (calling them だめだめ問題), and just as you could feel the wave of resentment or panic moving through the crowd, he put forth the kind of questions that kids should get on assingments; the kind where you cannot predict the answer (calling them いけいけ問題). So instead of translating a Japanese sentance into English, assign a sentance that uses a certain grammar, like "be going to." Or have them read a sentance or two and write the next. Basically, he was encouraging the kind of teaching that leads kids to think in English as best they can.

His powerpoint was peppered with funny little things at the bottom. Example: a picture of students studying and one thinking in a thought bubble, "All I have to do is memorise this print to get full marks on that teacher's tests!"

He also attacked the attitude "Isn't it enough that they can pass the high school exams?" saying that todays junior high kids are our leading adults in 40 years. He reminded teachers, especially small town school teachers that the future of those small towns' English rests often solely on their shoulders.

He was basically promoting a student centered classroom over a teacher centered classroom. And he had proof that it works with Japanese kids (just in case there was any doubt?).

Pretty earthshaking stuff as far as English teaching in Japanese public junior high schools is concerned. Nonetheless his manner was soft and encouraging and filled with the confidence of a revolutionary. He may have even said "Let's enjoy the revolution!" I think he inspired a lot of the teachers there. Even my JTE seemed keen and eager to change the system the next day, and her reaction to conferences is almost without fail boredom. IMHO, on the whole, Japanese keynote speakers are really boring compared to your average keynote speaker from anywhere else, whether you are talking about education seminars or graphic design conferences or whatever. But our mid-year seminar last year's speaker sucked the bag and this speaker was awesome, so maybe there really is a revolution happening.

It's a shame that so few of the ALTs speak enough Japanese to have enjoyed the talk so much. Though there is promise on that front. There seems to be a much larger proportion of new JETs this year who have studied a lot of Japanese in the past. A lot of them will be way better than me in very short order.

Anyway, it was fantastic. Who knew there would be anything good in the afternoon? Not me, at the very least.

Last night I went to bed at two and thought to myself "It's nice to be going to bed a little earlier for a change." It's been a long time since I have thought that at two in the morning.

Monday, October 24, 2005

Seasonal Chocolate


Seasonal Chocolate, originally uploaded by irodoramatic burnorama.

Because Christmas just isn't Christmas without a sweet piece of Asse.

Sunday, October 23, 2005

In All Respects, a Respectable Weekend.

Old school video games were played.
Grapes of Wrath was consumed.
Awa Odori was danced.
Cranium was played.
Settlers was taught.
Rest was had.
It was good.

New Developments


current photo, originally uploaded by irodoramatic burnorama.


1. New dead pixels on my cell phone camera
2. My hair is now so long that it splits itself down the middle automatically. Which is just as well, I suppose, given that it would be in my eyes if it did go forward the way I like it to. Should I cut it?

To give you some kind of comparison, allow me to post a shot of myself from last December, with my hair cut and bleached:

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Augh, my brain hurts now.

So like every year the ALTs are putting on Xmas parties for a handful of orphanages. This year it has fallen to me to be the go-between for the orphanages and the planners. I was mailed the info and spreadsheet to fill in (kid numbers, available dates etc) as well as contact info on Monday. It has taken me all week to build up to actually making a phonecall though.
But having had the ball passed to me, I felt like I needed to do something about it ASAP, so to let the weekend come would have let everyone down and maybe screwed everything up. Need to start that metaphorical ball rolling, because it rolls really slow for the first while.

So this afternoon I sat down to make the calls, but couldn't actually bring myself to do it until I had written out a little script for what to say. I didn't follow it exactly, but here is the gist:

初めまして、上勝中学校のシェットラ・マシューともします。お世話になります。 ___さんはいますか。

AETたちのクリスマス・パーティについて話したいです。
今年の行事で午前又は午後に二か三時間ができます。

私達にとって、十月10日と11日の方が一番都合のよう日々です。
ほかのは11月の26日と27日です。 その四つが非常に全然できない場合に、十二月の三日と四日も微妙にできるでけど。

子供のポレゼンとについて、子供の数を確かめたいです。
女子も男子も五つのグループに別れています。 (then list the groups)

よろしくお願いします。 失礼します。

I also had my schools phone and phaks numbers at the bottom for quick reference.
Who knew I would actually learn something from high school telemarketing jobs?
And speaking of learning, I asked the school's Japanese teacher a few questions as I was making the script and learned something new: when you call a place for the first time, it is polite to say, "Hajimemashite," instead of "Konnichiwa."
This was especailly important given that for the last 4 or so years it has been the same person calling, and now I am a new guy. And there will be someone else calling next year.

Anyway, after only four phone calls, my brain hurts. And you KNOW the whole office was listening to every word I said (they didn't really make any secrets about it), which only adds to the initial nervous pressure as I dial the number and wait.

So two of the contacts weren't in and I need to call one tomorrow morning, and the other on Tuesday morning. But at least the initial step has neen made, and that is often the hardest.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

The puppets

If anyone reads the posts on outpostnine.com, they will possibly already know the quote I am about to post. With our ninensei students we are now in the part of the textbook that has the puppets. In Katsuura-gun we use the "New Horizon English Course," the same textbooks as the guy who writes outpost nine. Now I cannot help thinking of his post when we do this puppet section, so I thought I would share it with you all. First, a pic of the text:


And then the quote from outpostnine (profanity warning):

This past week, we went to class early to just hang out a bit before the students came. The lesson we were about to do was this really stupid puppet play. Actually, hearing the kids do it is kind of cute...but the "professional" version on the CD is nothing short of annoying. I wonder what kind of sick and twisted hatrid the Japanese government has for English teachers to send them such a horrible thing. Anyway, we were talking about it, and I said "Man I hate those puppets. Just shut up already!" She nodded in agreement and said "Yeah, really. Shut the hell up, you son of a bitch! Motherfucking puppet, shut up." -whole post-

Can you imagine your JTE saying something like that to you?
[SHOCK]

Unsettling Dream

Last night I had a dream that I went back to Canada, and when I got to the street my parents live on I couldn't find the house. Everything was different. Now, you've got to understand that I lived in that house from the ages of two to twenty two. I know the area pretty well. But the houses were all in a different order and I couldn't spot our house at all. And then all of a sudden I saw it. It was like it looked when we first moved in (which I know from photos): ugly. All the nice wood and colour was gone, the bay windows gone, the bushes in front gone, leaving a flat ugly white which may have been stucco. The trees on the whole street were also hideously overgrown, hiding all the houses in an unplesant dank and mottled shade. Somehow I discerned that my dad had decided to take the house back to the ugly it had been when they bought it so that they could sell it as a fixer-upper. Even in the dream I failed to see the logic in that. As I approached the house it turned from being ugly white to ugly Winnipeg brown and misshapen.

It was very unsettling.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

A day in the life of B-notes.

The first entry here was what prompted me to type these all in today. These are the eight students out of the 21 third year students (grade niners) who hand in their b-notebooks every day like they are supposed to. The other 13 don't hand them in at all. And the class spoken-English-prodigy is not among the eight. (oVo);;


Friday, October fourteenth

Today was holiday. I got up at 11:00. So my mother got angry.

In the afternoon I must help my mother and glandmother. I was very tired. But my glandmother gave me some money. It made me happy.

At night I went to bed early because tomorrow we went on outing. I'll be fun.

-Misuzu



Friday october fourteenth

Today is cloudy.
I used the computer.
Recently I can't sleep early.
Because I don't become sleepy.
So I use the computer recently.
I've studied about the computer.

-Marina


Friday, October fourteenth

Today was a holiday.
It was sunny.
I didn't have breakfast.
I played a video game.
But it wasn't so interesting.
In the afternoon I played with Kouhei.
We played a video game and watched DVD.
Kouhei went home at five.
I was tired.
I had dinner at six.

-Masayuki


Thursday, october thirteenth

I got up at seven.
I watched TV.
I had breakfast.
I went to school?
I played English game.
It's exciting.
I had lunch.
I played baseball.
I had a good time.

-Naohiro


Friday, October forteenth

I got up at seven thirty.
This time I used an alarm.
I studied English and science in the morning.
They were difficult for me.
In the afternoon I went shopping and I bought a book.
The book was "Kinonotabi the Beautiful World" It was interesting.
After dinner I watch TV.
I went to bed at ten.

-Yoko


10.14.木

Today. Kouhei and. Hiroki
今日. 耕平君と. 弘記君
and. Royout. comd
と. りょうた君 が
my house. from. morning.
朝から. 来ました。
we. played. video game.
私たちは. ゲームをしたり.
and. baseball. in.
野球を.
Hukugawa grand.
福川グランドでしました。
baseball was. very hot.
野球は. とても暑かった。
of course. of course. of course.
もちろん
wouldyoulikeanotherpieceofcake?
もう1きれいかがですっか
No thank you. No thank you.
もうけっこうです
I've had plenty. I've had plenty.
おなかいっぱいで

-Takehiro


october thrdteenth Friday

I go up at six.
I ate breakfast.
I watched TV.
I played video game.
It was interesting.
I played baseball.
I went to bed at ten.
I had a good time.

-Kazuki


Friday, October 14

Good afternoon.
How are you doing?
I'm very sleepy and cold.
Thank you.
Today I go to shopping.
I bought these raincoat for 1,05 yen.
I bought these comic book for 4,10 yen.

-Narumi


Misuzu and Masayuki are two of the best at english, Masa being the school brain who gets 100 in almost everything. Yoko is upper middle or lower upper. The rest are average-ish. This is one day, you don't see that some of them (yes, I'm looking at you, Nao) wright almost the exact same thing every day. Masa and most of the others write by pattern, using the same pattern everyday. Takehiro tries to write different and interesting things everyday, but his English can't support what he wants to say. But he makes me really pleased with the fact that he continually tries! Marina has an unusual way of communicating her thoughts that is kind of amusing. She's pretty crazy in reality too, so I don't try to change it much. Misuzu is possibly be best overall. She writes on all sorts of different things, and she writes everyday. Another student, Ayumi, used to do likewise but since the speech contest seems to have lost motivation. Eri, the spoken English star, was looking at Misuzu's b-notebook (the a-notebook is for textbook and class use) in class today and promised me she would write one for tomorrow. Perhaps this time she will maintain it until the end of term? Doesn't hurt to hope, I guess. Nothing improves their English like actually using it!

This is a significant part of what I do every day. Unlike most ALTs (JETs) I am in nearly every class where textbook progress is made. This means that I conduct very few full lessons by myself. Really, I only ever plan a handful of complete lessons each year. The rest is coming up with 10 to 20 minute warm-up games (word games, conversation practice games, memory games etc) to start the class, and then being a part of the textbook teaching. So I am there to help students make correct sentances, give natural pronunciation to mimic, say when a sentance is odd, or to give a context for a strange sentance in which it could make sense (very fun). And to draw pictures at random and try my best to help make everything understood. So outside of class, the biggest thing I do is mark b-notes. This has been my last year and a half. My previous Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) was really disorganised but better at leading a more student centered class, I think. Well, as far as teaching in Japan goes anyhow, so we did more double-team teaching rather than tag-team teaching.

I don't know why I reflect back on all this now all of a sudden, but maybe someone will find it interesting. It feels like I almost never write about what happens at school, perhaps in the same way that kids never really tell their parents what happened at school that day either. A lot happens, but little that makes great telling. I do work, but it's only my extra-laborial activities that I feel like I need to tell everyone about. Shows where my passion lies, I guess.

No passion for teaching, but junior high kids are some of the coolest people in the world.

Multitudes of Mantises (Manti?), Bathroom Crickets, and a Happy Birthday


I like birthday. I'll become old man.
And yet I like birthday.
I like birthday. Because you celebrate
Happy happy happy birthday!


A big thanks to everyone who came out last night after church to sing karaoke with me! And thanks for treating me! (>_<)
Normally I don't mention my birthday has happened to anyone who doesn't ask until several weeks after it has happened, but 25 is not just any birthday. It's like 10, only bigger. You can count your years in small fractions of a century. 25 is only rivaled by 50 and 75, and of course 100. I plan to have a massive party when I turn 75. I don't expect to make it to 100, you see.
And it was a way to get people to come out for karaoke. If there hadn't been karaoke or the chance for it, I probably wouldn't have mentioned it at all.

Anyway, so my birthday events included playing a videogame until 3 am sunday morning, then sleeping in until just when I needed to leave for ultimate frisbee, but my wake-up call was a call from home to wish me a happy b-day. (Thanks for calling!) Of course, upon waking I had forgotten that it was my birthday. They called and were like "Happy Birthday" and I was like "Buh? Wa? Huh? Oh yeah, right!" We talked for only one hour, and then I ran out the door.

Being an hour late for utlimate wasn't so bad. They were playing a modified version because of small numbers (only 8 people total). You have to always cross the center line, when you get possession like in hockey, but then you can score on either goal (each a frisbee) if the defense on one end is too tight. It was fun. We played for yet an hour and a half after I arrived.

Then church, where Brian spoke, and then driving Derek to the ferry, and then karaoke! As I drove home I realised that all I had eaten all day was two slices of bread, so I picked up a meal from Lawson's, drove the rest of the way home and ate my expensive cheap gyudon as I watched Titan AE. (I know it'a pretty poor, but it's in my apartment and I find myself watching it again and again and again. Maybe b/c it's the only sci-fi movie I have?)

It's been a long time since I have been picky about my birthdays. Really, if I can enjoy it with friends I am generally pleased with the day. I kinda like the Bilbo Baggins way, the throwing a party for all your friends, though I've yet to go so far as to buy gifts for everyone, maybe when I turn 75?

In other news, autumn in Kamikatsu is beautiful. And a bunch of the good insects come out. There have been LOADs of praying mantises (how DO you pluralise that, anyway?) this year, more than any past year I have been here. My guess is that's from the general or total lack of typhoons hitting Tokushima this year. Also, I am on my second bathroom cricket. I don't know why I have bathroom crickets, but I do. They have been there for what feels like a month. (This is the shower room, the one with the bath, as opposed to the toilet room, which is on the other side of the apartment). I cleaned the shower room until it sparkled for the first time since the spring this past week, and for the first time the cricket started chirping. And now he chirps happily in my shower room every evening. I guess crickets like clean living spaces? Motivation to clean more often? We'll see.

One song that I sang (or attempted to sing for the first time) at karaoke last night was the song "Happy Birthday" by Mongol 800 (aka モンゴル・ハッピャク or monpachi). I also tried Monpachi's "Chiisana Koi no Uta" by myself for the first time with mixed results. Anyways, the words to the Happy Birthday song:

I like birthday. I'll become old man.
And yet I like birthday.
I like birthday. Because you celebrate
Happy happy happy birthday!

I'm looking forward to so happy day.
What will you present for me?
Please hold on me.
I'd like you to do nothing for me.
So hold on me. Please give me your love.

I like birthday. I'll become old man.
And yet I like birthday.
I like birthday. Because you celebrate
Happy happy happy birthday.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

忍者訓練センター

"Ninja Training Center?" Only in my dreams. We were at the ninja residence and museum for two, maybe three hours. If there is a ninja training center, maybe they were scoping us out or even testing us as we made our way through. If any of us passed it wasn't me, that's for sure. Maybe Jenna and her mad shuriken throwing skillz could stand a chance. We did go find the ninja supply store afterwards though, and I bought like seven throwing stars to bring back to Canada with me so I can practice at home. Once I get good I'll carry two with me hidden in a secret pocket all the time. Except on airplanes, I guess. Ninjas are all make believe anyways, like Shakespeare and Julius Ceasar.

Yen for a Typhoon

[sigh] I don't know why but recently I have really been craving a typhoon. I check the tracker website from time to time but no luck so far. This time last year we had a taiphoon that dumped more rain on Kamikatsu than any other that year. We even had a small landslide or two on the main road. If I do get my taiphoon, I hope it hits us here in Tokushima but misses Tokyo, because our second year students are going on their "study vacation" next week to Tokyo.


(When I looked a couple days ago, number 15, called "Longwang," didn't make it to Japan at all. As you might expect from the name, it went to China. There's a joke or two in there somewhere.)

Monday, October 03, 2005

Tachibana's matsuri


Mikoshi, originally uploaded by *junko*.

I remember writing about this last October, so I won't go into great detail again this time. We went, we watched massive wooden structures charge down the roads and collide, we enjoyed ourselves. I took video this time, too, because the photos just don't communicate the atmosphere as well as I'd like. This photo is nicked from my friend Junko's page.

The next day was the prefectural speech competition. Even though I didn't have a student who made it, I was interested to see how the girl who won in our county last monday, would do. Also, because I helped judge the kaifu county english speech competition last wednesday, I wanted to see how the two kids we picked would do. One of them came in second! The top three get to go to the national competition. There is also a shocking rumor going around that the girl who won didn't write her speech at all; the ALT was forced to do it. By the time I had heard that, it was so far from the horse's mouth that I couldn't tell you how true it is, but if you are an ALT and you are reading this, and your school wants to force you to write the speeches, ADAMANTLY REFUSE. It's not fair to the other kids. Thankyou.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Too Bad We Weren't Ninjas

How many hours of sleep did I start the day with? Not all that many. Friday was a national holidy, the kind of day on which in Canada one normally sleeps late, but since I have come to Japan, the holidays have rarely been like that. On this fine holiday morning I was rousing myself from my short short slumber before O-Hi-Sama (Mr. Sun) had managed to scale Kamikatsu's mountains. Five thirty. At least the hour was beyond that sacred 30 minute period of four to four-thirty when anyone who plans to sleep should be asleep. But it wasn't so bad. I had friends awaiting my appearance in Tokushima and Naruto, and that is always motivation enough to get up and out.

I had made the normal hour drive into Tokushima in about 50 minutes, picked up Jenna on time at six and we made it to Brian and Christine's (hereafter B&C or Brian and Xine) 20 minutes later, I parked in Brian's spot while he was out picking up Julie and we were on our way in B&C's car by eight. And I was navigator. Mixed feelings about that. On the one hand I was sad because it meant I would get no sleep before we reached our destination eight hours later, but on the other hand I got to look at maps, read kanji, and best of all, play with electronic gadgets like ipods and sattelite navigation systems. Wheee! Of course in my playing I managed to delete our plotted trip and we missed a cruicial turn before I re-entered our destination and the trip plotted again, but it just found a new route that was a kilometer or so longer (and in the end possibly faster because we went around Osaka rather than through it as planned).

Having closely examined the route the sattelite was giving us, we were sure there was a faster way, so we stopped in Shizuoka city to go to a tourist office for some roadmaps to enable the choosing of a shorter and cheaper route (you have to pay heavy road tolls for expressways here, hence why we were five in the car). Searching for dinner we followed Jenna's inspiration and sought out a tonkatsu restaurant on the sixth floor of the station.

The tonkatsu so hit the spot: all carbs and protein, exactly what we would be needing. We hit up a Lawson's or four and a supermarket to load up on our 2 litres each of water and sport drinks and onigiri, chocolate, calorie-mate blocks and whatever else we might need for our ordeal. Oh yeah and another dinner. (The tonkatsu could be considered a late lunch.) Then it was off to our challenge for the evening.

It took us a while before we could see it rising above the city, solitary, graceful, and imposing, a common symbol of the nation in which we are living, recognisable the world over. Fuji.



By the time we had driven from the town of Fuji to the fifth station on Fuji-san itself O-Hi-Sama had finished his daily ascent and descent of the heavens. We parked the car at 2400 meters, the fifth station began to get ready. It became official, I was by far the least well prepared. I had my essentials: flashlight, shoes that can get destroyed, raincoat/shell, longsleeved shirt and tee shrit, food and liquid. But I still may win an award for least well prepared, or thought I might when I stepped out and felt how cold it was. Really, it was okay, but that was like seven in the evening and the air would cool a lot more and the wind get stronger as the night drew on and we got to the top. But thankfully everyone else over-prepared, and I was able to borrow a sweater from Brian to wear at the top. I was a bit concerned, but it was okay in the end.

So I had been up since 5:30 and the sun was to rise at 5:00 and that's when we wanted to be at the top of the mountain. Julie had looked up altitude sickness on the internet the week before and had been spewing forth various facts about what can happen to you, the signs of altitude sickness, how gross sputum is, et cetera and so forth, and it had gotten to me enough to make me concerned about my body's ability to adapt after all that lack of sleep. One of our friends, Ellie (her link is in the column on the right) hadn't made it up on her attempt because she got too ill. You can get altitude sickness once you are beyond 2500 meters. We were starting at 2400.

Before we had begun the hike, my friend Derek had emailed me saying "Dont talk too much or youll fall over!" And he wasn't the first to say that either. Hmmm...

It was a five hour hike, but as a result of getting there mega-early we left mega-early. The positive side of this was that the sixth station was open when we got there, and we were able to buy some cloth gloves (imagine gardening gloves) and kill some time. They gave us warnings about how cold it would be and worried for us, and offered to make us tea when we came back down. Love the Asian hospitality.

The hike up was absolutely beautiful. The moon was bright enough to cast our shadows onto the rocks, and eventually we stopped using flashlights and just walked in the light of la lune. The moon itself, though only just over half full, was also quite astonishing. For much of our walk it was surrounded with a glowing corona (aka aureole). At times, looking down onto the town and the clouds and feeling the crunch of volcanic rock underfoot as we scrabbled up the mountainside, it felt like we were climbing Mt Doom– if you could imagine Mt Doom ever being beautiful in a severe sort of way.

We took as much time as we could and took many many breaks, but we could only sit for so about fifteen minutes before we needed to get moving and warm up again. Also, the clouds sometimes rose, and we would keep going to stay above them. At times they overtook us, and at times they seemed to blow away from the mountain altogether. Mist and stone natural elegance.

At some point it became apparrent to us that we were not going any slower than the expected pace, which meant that we were slated to arrive at the summit a full two hours before sunrise. We were warned that the summit would be below zero degrees (like my apartment in winter) and very windy. The last three stations before the top, eight, eight b, and nine, each had only 30 minute hikes that followed them. When we got to eight b and saw that it had a nice sheltering wall (all the stations were closed but for six because it was past the climbing season). We decided to try to snuggle up into a corner or two and see if we couldn't catch some z's and stay warm.

I figured that if I put on the sweater and raincoat that would be enough to keep me warm. Not so. Having us all cuddled together like that was definitely one of the warmest things we could do, but none of us managed to fall asleep at all. Warmest is not necessarily the same as warm, nor does most comfortable mean the same as comfortable. I suspect it may be some unconscious or biological reaction that keeps you awake when you are in danger of freezing to death should you fall asleep. Not that we were in that danger at all, but... well let me describe it like this: The feeling was not unlike when you have all your snowgear on and you throw yourself into a snowbank, to get some rest, but tired as you are you can only lightly doze or stare at the falling snow as you relax, but sleep evades and the slope beckons. Surely I am not the only one with that experience? After maybe as much as an hour (but probably less) we could take the sitting no longer and roused our selves and got ready to continue. At this point a lot of the climbing had become more like climbing, and less like walking. Well, maybe more like crawling uphill. Or scrabbling. We need a new word.

Up to that point we had all experienced dizzy spells and/or minor headaches (warning signs of altitude sickness), and the sitting for an hour or so made a world of difference in that regard. We had acclimatized a little bit more. And we were that much better rested, if still sleep deprived.

I was the first to make it to the ninth station and when I got there I thought loudly "Hey, some people left all their luggage right here! I guess they didn't want to carry it all the way up..." I walked up close to examine and jumped back. There was a tangled mass of human bodies there! Obviously someone had an easier time getting some shuteye. When the others made it up and there was still loads of time before dawn, we decided to try the huddle-cuddling again, this time in a place better sheltered than the last. Julie went back to go look at the sleeping people and when she came back referred to them as kittens. We killed a bunch of time there and the clouds caught up with us good and proper. We were in the thick of them. We got underway agian behind the kittens and their friends who had come up to meet them, and they were all really slow, slower than we were, and we had been shuffling along with baby steps like Bill Murray in What About Bob. The sky started to lighten so I kicked open the reserve energy, ignored my pulsating pounding brain and practically ran the rest of the way up so as to not miss the sunrise. The others must have sped up quite a bit too because they got there before most of the kitten group, too. We found our way to the edge of the crater and looked out towards the east to watch the sun rise.

Everyone talks about the sunrise on Fuji as being one of the best things, one of the most beautiful experiences they have seen and had in Japan. With that in mind, what I saw was totally beyond all I had expected.

I saw cloud.

Or nothing if you prefer. We looked into the mist. We could barely see down the slope and the sun was doing nothing to break through the barrier of gray. Somewhere way up above the clouds we could vaguely see some blue, but this is going to have to be slated down as a general disappointment. There was nothing we could do, really. The clouds has gotten thicker and the the drops of mist were starting to feel more like a light spraying rain masquerading as fog. Xine had been feeling woozy and as we got to the top was downright sick. We took our photos and began our descent O-Hi-Sama couldn't see that we this time setting while he was rising.

As we climbed/slid/walked/rolled/ran/slipped/eased our way down the side of Fuji the mist and fog became proper rain, so that by the time we got back to the seventh station we were soaked as well as sore. As I waited at the seventh station for the others, I chatted with a couple of other foreigners who had made their way down before my friends. They had arrived just before midnight and had climbed the whole mountain without a break. And they were just other JETs too. They were hurrying down because "Now we just want to get off of this [accursed] mountain."
The word 'accursed' was implied by tone. We had few words of praise left to offer Mt Fuji either. Disappointing, but we did it. Cross that one off the list.

About halfway to the sixth station we finally came out from the midst of the clouds. We were given the promised tea at the sixth station and it was a local special mushroom tea that was almost like a soup broth. Ahhhh. After the last stretch back to the parking lot at the fifth station the girls went behind some building to change and I changed in the parking lot behind a van. Then it was off to an onsen to feed and soak our weary remains. The place we went to was kinda expensive, and not all that amazing, just close to Fuji, but they did have a room where Christine slept off her altitude sickness while the rest of us bathed and sat in massage chairs.

On our way away we stopped at a waterfall. It was quite a nice waterfall at that. But for some reason at the gift shop near the base of the waterfall they were selling lollipops shaped like male and female genitals. Figure that one out.

Then we tried to check out this lake where you can see Mt. Fuji's reflection, but as it was yet shrouded in cloud, that was a wash. We called Shizuoka city and secured ourselves some rooms at the Hotel Mustache. Italian dinner, puri-kura, a few rounds of the taiko game, watching a high school kid show off at the taiko game, a few rounds of UNO while watching bizarre evening TV, and bed.

When I woke up and pulled open my curtains I was staring at Fuji, who was still surrounded by his own scattered curtains of cloud.

The big agenda item for Sunday was the Iga-Ryu Ninja Yashiki in Ueno city in Mie prefecture. Yes you did see the word ninja in there. The Ninja Residence. The ninja residence was nothing if not astoundingly cool and superlatively interesting. I haven't stopped talking about it since we went.

Ninja have a lot of mystique about them, and there is certainly a lot of myth and misunderstanding. So while I had been looking forward to the ninja house, I was expecting it to be the kind of trip where a whole lot of my own misconceptions get shattered. And I guess a bunch did. But it wasn't so much "shattered misconceptions," as it was "corrected perceptions."

The house itself was pretty cool, with several trick walls and escape hatches, which all the tour guide girls in their pink ninja costumes were trained in how to use. At first it was just like, "Oh yeah, here is this wall panel that spins around in case they need to hide, here you can see it moves," and then the tour guide had disappeared in a blur behind the panel leaving it looking like a regular wall again. We were free to try, but I opted out due to hight. It looked like it took some fancy footwork and a lot of practice to disappear in a flash like that. Our guide continued to impress as she would slowly show the mechanism and describe why it was there and when it was meant to be used, and then blow us away with sudden swift graceful disappearances. In the case of the floorboard with the sword underneath, she thumped on it with her hand to show that it would not normally stand out and would just be a normal floor piece until she was brandishing a sword in one hand, scabbard in the other, and her foot was on the corner of the board by the wall. So cool. There were also a couple shuriken in the area where the sword had been.

The next area was all about the weapons, disguises, techniques, and methods of the ninja in the Iga-ryu. It was all about shinobi, which is a hard word to wrap my brain around. 忍び (shinobi) could be translated as anything from "stealth" to "suffering." The kanji appears in words like endurance as well. The word 忍者 (ninja) is efffectively "shinobi-person." The stealth element of shinobi was the focus of the first museum area. The regular looking farmer garments with all the hidden pockets, the various tools of the trade for boring holes in walls or breaking jail, shuriken ("underhanded sword" aka throwing stars and knives), staves containing swords or weighted chains, tools for crossing swampy moats, videos showing various techniques in action, the various uses of canons, rocket arrows, and other unusual weapons. In the end, the sickle seems to have been the most versatile weapon. First off they could be in farmer disguise and nobody would think anything of them carrying one or two around. They could block swords and kill with them. They could bind four together with rope and use them for scaling walls. They could throw them like axes. At least one ninja liked his so much that he made what I could only describe as a battle-sickle, complete with hand-guard, weighted chain, and extra blade. Crazy. (The correct term is "kusari-gama" or "chainsickle". Sweet) And ninja didn't wear black like they do in the movies for two reasons: a) black stands out in the darkness, dark blue does not; b) regular people like farmers wore dark blue, but black was unusual. Also, warfare seems to have been only half or less of their work. They were the spies and spymasters. They had a variety of disguises (entertainers, buddhist priests, itinerant priests, merchants, aristocrats, and of course farmers and soldiers), and would employ a variety of spies or contacts in castles. A good deal of their castle infiltration was done not for assassination but for the transportation and communication of secret messages. Even back then the brush was mightier than the katana.

Then we went into a demonstration zone where several guys dressed as ninja did demonstrations of the basic weaponry: katana, straight katana, shuriken, kama (sickles), and entertainer/busker tricks from back in the day. Oh yeah, a lot of it was done to the music and sound effects from the currenly mega-popular ninja anime 'Naruto.' And I swear one of the guys talked exactly like Rock Lee.

The first thing they showed off was the regular katana. There were these two standing rolls of what looked like the top sheets of tatami, and the demonstrator cut through them like butter chopping them down piece by piece effortlessly. Then he said that they were made of the grass tops of tatami wrapped and bound together when soaking wet, so that when dry very closely approximated the average human neck. The sword cuts through effortlessly because the slight curve of the blade concentrates all the force in a slash to the single point of contact.

They did more with an unusual straight katana. The samurai often wore armour, and the slash of a sword was pretty ineffective. The only chinks in the armour were, well, its chinks. The straight sword was for thrusting into the neck or other small opening.



But it had other uses, too. Note the metal cap on the end of the scabbard, and the unusually long tether. This was so the sword could be pushed into the dirt and used to easily get up a wall. With the long tether held in his teeth, a ninja could retrieve his sword at the top and leave no real trace of his passing.



Given the need to work at night and in patrolled or guarded territory, the tethered scabbard also became a feeler. Holding the sword at arms length, drawing the scabbard out to the tip of the sword but holding it in place with tether in teeth, the ninja could feel his way through the darkness. Should he bump an enemy, he would have the tactical advantage of knowing where his enemy is but being initially well out of striking distance.



They demonstrated the throwing of shuriken and kama as well, but emphasized that shuriken were a last-ditch emergency weapon. They were not great for stealth because they could flash in any light, and have none of the distance of an arrow. And they are heavy. In movies and anime like Naruto, you see ninja carrying around bags filled with shuriken and kunai, and then firing them off one after another in quick succession. Untrue. In reality, we were told, the average ninja might carry one, perhaps two. Unusually three. He demonstrated throwing various forms of shuriken, ending with a pair of six-pointed ones thrown as one, and then three six-pointed shuriken thrown as one. And because they only carry one or two, if you miss its all for naught. So poison the tips and a scratch can be enough!

Afterwards we got to try for ourselves. Neither Brian nor I got any on target in our first rounds of five. I had trouble just getting them to stick into the wood behind. Jenna, who had done some kind of mixed martial arts in past got all five on target and won a prize.

The last area was all about the endurance meaning of the word shinobi, and detailed the ninja's lifestyle and beliefs. There was a model of the typical ninja village farming community, built of houses like the one we toured through and beneath the roads between homesteads would be tunnels for quick escape or discreet message transfer. They would also make gunpowder in those tunnels. Perhaps one reason for the ninja being in that part of Japan was the easy accessibility of the all necessary ingredients for gunpowder.

Their methods of leaving secret messages out in the open using tied ropes or coloured grains of rice, the ways they searched for water on a long trek through the mountains, and the ways they forecasted weather were displayed. Among them we encountered this:



"Too bad we weren't ninjas."

I wished I had more time because there was a computer kiosk that had all sorts of info about the ninja diet, medicines, physical training, and more. Don't like tofu? (as if such a thing were possible) Well, it was a mainstay of the ninja diet. Your kid won't eat his umeboshi? Ninja food. Brown rice instead of white? The ninjas knew and ate it. Konnyaku potato? Ninja food. I would love to alter my diet to all ninja food for a few months. How cool would that be? But then, I would already have failed, because they were way shorter than your average Japanese person today, and they kept their body weight to under 60 kilograms. Why 60? It was the maximum weight that would still allow them hold their body from the ceiling using only the thumb and forefinger. They slept on their left sides so that in case of sudden attack their heart would be protected. They could tell the time of day or night by the dilation of a cat's eyes. Their lives were training. Japan's greatest ninja, Hattori Hanzo from the Edo period, came out of one of the clans in Iga.

I wish they were still around, because I would love to do a homestay at a ninja homestead.