I leave tomorrow for Thailand. No idea how much time I'll have and if I'll want to post anything during my time there. I return the 9th of January, so look for something to come up that mid-week.
良いお年を (Happy New Year's in Japanese)
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
The changing of the (Cell Phone) Guard
My cell phone endured much pain. In fact, I think I dropped it more than anything else I can remember in my life. It was a warrior. This past weekend, it could not handle the fierce colds and snows of Hokkaido. I took it up the mountain in my jacket, and although it survived the 1st run, I decided to wrap it in a bag for the second run, and pulled it out of that soaking wet for some reason. My only thought is that the bag was from a warm environment, and when wrapping it up, warm air got caught in the bag and bringing it from 20 degrees celcius to -10 degrees celcius, the moisture in the air came out in the form of water, and since my cellphone was wrapped in this bag, it became like wrapping one's phone in a bag of water.
Does that theory sound appropriate? I think so. Now that I think about it, I could test it by doing the same here and seeing if it happened. Anybody smarter than me want to take a shot at another theory or agree with mine?
Regardless, here's my old phone (these are pictures of the internet, not my actual phone).
It used to be the superiority of its class: It had a 2.1 megapixel camera, it was sleek, came in black, silver or blue (the color I picked), and could be used in English or Japanese. Also with an external display, this keitai (cell phone in Japanese) was a trooper. The camera broke actually a couple of months ago, but even then, everything else worked despite constant torture and harm.
I went to the DoCoMo store to talk to Kyoko, the one and only DoCoMo girl on getting a new phone. Options for Mova (more coverage than Foma, although DoCoMo is trying to promote Foma since it's got much more options and gadgets, although it's coverage is still sub-par compared to Mova or AU, another cell phone brand). That being said, I insisted on Mova, and she brought out my options. Here's the phone that I picked:
This one's pretty wild. It's a fat square basically. Doesn't look like a keitai at all. Has a horizontal display (very cool actually), all the usual functions (a crappy 1.3megapixel camera but at least it works!), the ability to not only listen to the radio but also play mp3's (yeah, I know, I already have an mp3 player, but this is conventient as well, no), but here's the kicker: It's only available with Japanese directions and such. Therefore, I have now successfully forced myself to use my keitai solely in Japanese, zero English. Very good. Also, another advantage is that it was free since I've been a DoCoMo phone-holder for over 10 months (the other options were about 5000 and 7000yen). Even better was since I'm friends with Kyoko she gave me a used charger cable for free, thus avoiding an additional 1800yen.
So the only cost I will pay is the 2000yen for deactivating my old phone and activating the new one. So roughly twenty dollars to switch phones. Not a bad choice considering the options I think!
Does that theory sound appropriate? I think so. Now that I think about it, I could test it by doing the same here and seeing if it happened. Anybody smarter than me want to take a shot at another theory or agree with mine?
Regardless, here's my old phone (these are pictures of the internet, not my actual phone).
It used to be the superiority of its class: It had a 2.1 megapixel camera, it was sleek, came in black, silver or blue (the color I picked), and could be used in English or Japanese. Also with an external display, this keitai (cell phone in Japanese) was a trooper. The camera broke actually a couple of months ago, but even then, everything else worked despite constant torture and harm.
I went to the DoCoMo store to talk to Kyoko, the one and only DoCoMo girl on getting a new phone. Options for Mova (more coverage than Foma, although DoCoMo is trying to promote Foma since it's got much more options and gadgets, although it's coverage is still sub-par compared to Mova or AU, another cell phone brand). That being said, I insisted on Mova, and she brought out my options. Here's the phone that I picked:
This one's pretty wild. It's a fat square basically. Doesn't look like a keitai at all. Has a horizontal display (very cool actually), all the usual functions (a crappy 1.3megapixel camera but at least it works!), the ability to not only listen to the radio but also play mp3's (yeah, I know, I already have an mp3 player, but this is conventient as well, no), but here's the kicker: It's only available with Japanese directions and such. Therefore, I have now successfully forced myself to use my keitai solely in Japanese, zero English. Very good. Also, another advantage is that it was free since I've been a DoCoMo phone-holder for over 10 months (the other options were about 5000 and 7000yen). Even better was since I'm friends with Kyoko she gave me a used charger cable for free, thus avoiding an additional 1800yen.
So the only cost I will pay is the 2000yen for deactivating my old phone and activating the new one. So roughly twenty dollars to switch phones. Not a bad choice considering the options I think!
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Hokkaido - The Adventure, Pt. II
First off, where is Hokkaido? Well, it is the northernmost prefecture in Japan (the BIG island).
Here is a map of Japan with Hokkaido being in dark blue. Okayama is in Chugoku region (light blue), roughly between Hiroshima and Osaka (Okayama's eastern border is the border with Hyogo Prefecture which is in the red kansai region).
We landed at Chitose and took a bus (over 3 hours) from there to Hirafu, the name of the ski resort in Niseko.
On the way to the ski resort, we stopped at a rest stop at a little after 5pm to a really funny site: Tons of high schoolers frolicking in the snow, complete with boys throwing snowballs and girls in short skirts screaming. Turns out (I asked) they were from Oita prefecture, 2nd year students on their school trip, and for many of them, their first time seeing snow. They were absolutely thrilled. We took some pictures and marveled at the willpower of the girls to wear school uniforms, i.e. short skirts, in such cold weather. Here's a picture of Sarah with the ladies on the little hilltop.
Finally we arrived at Hirafu. There was only one other person with us on the bus. Actually, here's a funny story: We reserved seats on the bus such that they knew we were coming and just in case it was full. We got on and there is one other foreign looking male and us. We wait. It is past the departure time for the bus when two asian males get on the bus. How fitting, comments Sarah, that for as punctual as Japanese usually are, here's juxtaposition with a bus of foreigners waiting on the Japanese. This theory held up until about 5 minutes in when finally one of them spoke up quite loudly and we all realized that it was definitely not Japanese, but Chinese that came out of his mouth. Oops.
So we call Morio, who is the owner of "Log Kanon" where we were staying, and have him come and pick us up. He was very low-key and helpful, and didn't feed us with the usual BS of most Japanese people hosting foreigners. All in all, a perfect and wise choice by Sarah (albeit convenient since it was the cheapest by far out of all the possible lodgings at Hirafu, and why I don't know because it was seriously comfortable, warm, and homey).
It only being about 7pm, we decided to suit up and go for some home-schooling lessons on how to snowboard from Sarah. It was quite cold but I had bought a snowsuit for 4000yen (roughly forty dollars) from Daiki (used to be DIK, a do-it-yourself hardware store in Tamano), so I was totally warm and cozy despite sub-zero temperatures (in celcius), and some awesome snow falling everywhere. Here is me on one of my runs down the little hill we were using as a practice ground.
On the way back, I got a nice shot of the slopes from the bend in the road right before our log cabin.
I cannot begin to express how much snow there was, and how hard it was snowing all day Saturday and Sunday. I was just flat out amazed/impressed, and this was still considered the "pre-season". The season actually starts on December 22nd so the slopes and everything was not very crowded at all, and overall seemed a little bit like a ghost resort almost except that everything was fabulous.
Here is a map of Japan with Hokkaido being in dark blue. Okayama is in Chugoku region (light blue), roughly between Hiroshima and Osaka (Okayama's eastern border is the border with Hyogo Prefecture which is in the red kansai region).
We landed at Chitose and took a bus (over 3 hours) from there to Hirafu, the name of the ski resort in Niseko.
On the way to the ski resort, we stopped at a rest stop at a little after 5pm to a really funny site: Tons of high schoolers frolicking in the snow, complete with boys throwing snowballs and girls in short skirts screaming. Turns out (I asked) they were from Oita prefecture, 2nd year students on their school trip, and for many of them, their first time seeing snow. They were absolutely thrilled. We took some pictures and marveled at the willpower of the girls to wear school uniforms, i.e. short skirts, in such cold weather. Here's a picture of Sarah with the ladies on the little hilltop.
Finally we arrived at Hirafu. There was only one other person with us on the bus. Actually, here's a funny story: We reserved seats on the bus such that they knew we were coming and just in case it was full. We got on and there is one other foreign looking male and us. We wait. It is past the departure time for the bus when two asian males get on the bus. How fitting, comments Sarah, that for as punctual as Japanese usually are, here's juxtaposition with a bus of foreigners waiting on the Japanese. This theory held up until about 5 minutes in when finally one of them spoke up quite loudly and we all realized that it was definitely not Japanese, but Chinese that came out of his mouth. Oops.
So we call Morio, who is the owner of "Log Kanon" where we were staying, and have him come and pick us up. He was very low-key and helpful, and didn't feed us with the usual BS of most Japanese people hosting foreigners. All in all, a perfect and wise choice by Sarah (albeit convenient since it was the cheapest by far out of all the possible lodgings at Hirafu, and why I don't know because it was seriously comfortable, warm, and homey).
It only being about 7pm, we decided to suit up and go for some home-schooling lessons on how to snowboard from Sarah. It was quite cold but I had bought a snowsuit for 4000yen (roughly forty dollars) from Daiki (used to be DIK, a do-it-yourself hardware store in Tamano), so I was totally warm and cozy despite sub-zero temperatures (in celcius), and some awesome snow falling everywhere. Here is me on one of my runs down the little hill we were using as a practice ground.
On the way back, I got a nice shot of the slopes from the bend in the road right before our log cabin.
I cannot begin to express how much snow there was, and how hard it was snowing all day Saturday and Sunday. I was just flat out amazed/impressed, and this was still considered the "pre-season". The season actually starts on December 22nd so the slopes and everything was not very crowded at all, and overall seemed a little bit like a ghost resort almost except that everything was fabulous.
Hokkaido - The Adventure, Pt. I
So this past weekend, I went to Hokkaido to go snowboarding for the first time in my life. Why did I choose to go? Well, my good friend Sarah (who's picture you will see below) told me about it at a fall bbq sometime back in September. They were use 誕生日切符 or birthday tickets, which are 12,500yen one-way, or for Japan, a deal.
Due to some strange problems or rather inconveniences, the plan was to fly out of Okayama on Saturday morning, and return through Kansai on Monday night, but as usual, things didn't go as planned but this was not for the worse actually.
First off, who did I go with? I went with my two Interac (another program which sends foreigners to Japan to teach) friends: Sarah and Rosey (shown below).
We all stayed overnight at Sarah's house northwest of the city, rode into the city on train then got on the bus (490yen one-way) to Okayama's airport. We did this carrying all of our luggage and borrowed (at least in Rosey's and my case) snowboards and boots. A little bit cumbersome, but possible and done nonetheless.
Sarah did all of the planning (she was playing the role of big sister), so she bought the tickets. She might have been complaining about something in this picture, but this shows the flight (379) in the background to Sapporo as well as the amount of stuff each of us was approximately carrying.
Now off to our gate! We bought Omiyage (presents usually representative of a place/prefecture visited) for Taka, who was a Japanese near-pro snowboarder who was going to come and join us on Sunday (unfortunately there was so much snow on Saturday and Sunday that he mailed that morning to say it was too dangerous to drive up to the mountain).
On the way, we came across this priceless view of the hedges spelling out OKAY(ama)!
Don't have much to say for the plane ride other than it was packed. Why? Because there is only one flight a day leaving Okayama for Sapporo. Just one. It being a weekend too, yep, as you would imagine, it was packed. I had an interesting discussion with Sarah on how her father asks her questions about her vacation such as: How packed was the plane? Or how far from the city center was the hotel, and was breakfast free, and if so, continental or western? I consider these normal and imformative vacation questions whereas Sarah preferred the classics: How was your vacation? And did you have a good time?
Here was our first view of snow, from the video screen on the plane showing the movement of the plane and descent (this is supposed to lessen the effects of motion sickness because you have visual cues of movement to supplement those that your inner ear feels).
Then it was off to the bus to go to the mountain in Niseko. Times and all had already been researched on the web, so there was no hastle, struggle or stress, allowing us to dine at Mos Burger. Here is what Mos Burger's burger menu looks like.
This is a picture of the first witnessed snow. Walking outside we realized a bitter truth, it was ridiculously cold in Hokkaido, even moreso than the already annoying biting cold temperatures of Okayama.
Due to some strange problems or rather inconveniences, the plan was to fly out of Okayama on Saturday morning, and return through Kansai on Monday night, but as usual, things didn't go as planned but this was not for the worse actually.
First off, who did I go with? I went with my two Interac (another program which sends foreigners to Japan to teach) friends: Sarah and Rosey (shown below).
We all stayed overnight at Sarah's house northwest of the city, rode into the city on train then got on the bus (490yen one-way) to Okayama's airport. We did this carrying all of our luggage and borrowed (at least in Rosey's and my case) snowboards and boots. A little bit cumbersome, but possible and done nonetheless.
Sarah did all of the planning (she was playing the role of big sister), so she bought the tickets. She might have been complaining about something in this picture, but this shows the flight (379) in the background to Sapporo as well as the amount of stuff each of us was approximately carrying.
Now off to our gate! We bought Omiyage (presents usually representative of a place/prefecture visited) for Taka, who was a Japanese near-pro snowboarder who was going to come and join us on Sunday (unfortunately there was so much snow on Saturday and Sunday that he mailed that morning to say it was too dangerous to drive up to the mountain).
On the way, we came across this priceless view of the hedges spelling out OKAY(ama)!
Don't have much to say for the plane ride other than it was packed. Why? Because there is only one flight a day leaving Okayama for Sapporo. Just one. It being a weekend too, yep, as you would imagine, it was packed. I had an interesting discussion with Sarah on how her father asks her questions about her vacation such as: How packed was the plane? Or how far from the city center was the hotel, and was breakfast free, and if so, continental or western? I consider these normal and imformative vacation questions whereas Sarah preferred the classics: How was your vacation? And did you have a good time?
Here was our first view of snow, from the video screen on the plane showing the movement of the plane and descent (this is supposed to lessen the effects of motion sickness because you have visual cues of movement to supplement those that your inner ear feels).
Then it was off to the bus to go to the mountain in Niseko. Times and all had already been researched on the web, so there was no hastle, struggle or stress, allowing us to dine at Mos Burger. Here is what Mos Burger's burger menu looks like.
This is a picture of the first witnessed snow. Walking outside we realized a bitter truth, it was ridiculously cold in Hokkaido, even moreso than the already annoying biting cold temperatures of Okayama.
The Yankee Squat
So somebody previously asked me what a "yankee" is. In Japan, students that don't conform to the usual rules of high school are called "yankees". This means that they do any one of these things:
Dye their hair.
Wear lots of makeup.
Roll up their skirts or wear their ties loose.
Unbutton blouses/shirts.
Talk using lots of slang and are rude.
Don't pay much attention in class, either sleeping or causing disruptions.
Walk around acting like they are the class of the school, bullying others at times.
And last but definitely not least, they sit in the style that is described as the "yankee squat".
I was unable to find any pictures online of Japanese highschoolers sitting in the style of a yankee, or even any pictures of yankees online... hm... I did find though a picture of baseball players sitting in "yankee" style (a common way to rest in Japan if you're tired of standing but there are no seats around).
I find myself occasionally getting into the stance without realizing it.
Dye their hair.
Wear lots of makeup.
Roll up their skirts or wear their ties loose.
Unbutton blouses/shirts.
Talk using lots of slang and are rude.
Don't pay much attention in class, either sleeping or causing disruptions.
Walk around acting like they are the class of the school, bullying others at times.
And last but definitely not least, they sit in the style that is described as the "yankee squat".
I was unable to find any pictures online of Japanese highschoolers sitting in the style of a yankee, or even any pictures of yankees online... hm... I did find though a picture of baseball players sitting in "yankee" style (a common way to rest in Japan if you're tired of standing but there are no seats around).
I find myself occasionally getting into the stance without realizing it.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Haado Gei
So I was in elementary school awhile back when during school lunch (給食) I had a student ask me, "Niiru (pronounced nee-roo) sensei (teacher), Haado Gei, do you know?"
My response of I had not heard of him prompted some students to demonstrate his signature move: putting his hands on his head and gyrating his hips, thrusting into the air.
So Haado Gei, or Hard Gay, is a comedian here in Japan who portrays and stereotypes homosexuals. He is well-known amongst adults and children since for some reason despite the heavy sexual content of his humor and shows, he still airs on family shows and normal times.
Here is a picture of him as well as a link to an article written about him:
Greg, a JET in Champclair (the "mansion" or apartment building in the shi (Okayama City) where most of the city JETs live), came dressed to the halloween party as Hard Gay. An interesting costume choice, indeed.
My response of I had not heard of him prompted some students to demonstrate his signature move: putting his hands on his head and gyrating his hips, thrusting into the air.
So Haado Gei, or Hard Gay, is a comedian here in Japan who portrays and stereotypes homosexuals. He is well-known amongst adults and children since for some reason despite the heavy sexual content of his humor and shows, he still airs on family shows and normal times.
Here is a picture of him as well as a link to an article written about him:
Greg, a JET in Champclair (the "mansion" or apartment building in the shi (Okayama City) where most of the city JETs live), came dressed to the halloween party as Hard Gay. An interesting costume choice, indeed.
The yankee baseball students
So in my last class today, a yankee baseball student was asked the followed question: "How do you spell the word 'straight'?"
Since, as most of my baseball players are, he was not the brightest star in the sky, he relies on the student, his friend (and not a baseball player) behind him to whisper him the answers so that the teacher doesn't hear, thinks the baseball player knows what's going on, and doesn't ask him any more questions.
Unfortunately though, this time around the student behind him misheard the question and thought the teacher had asked to spell the word "street," so he whispers s-t-r-e-e-t. The baseball player dutifully repeats each letter.
The teacher looks at him, shaking her head. "That's wrong, I asked you to spell straight, not street!" chuckling even. The baseball player annoyed that he made himself look bad (although everyone in class knows about this whispering-deal) turns around and smacks his friend behind him on the head reprimanding him in Japanese for spelling to him the wrong word.
Oops, he blew his own cover. I knew what was going on, but was having more fun just watching it knowing he was going to be wrong. Much of the class burst out in laugher, and the next time he was called on, his friend behind him had to stand while he was answering the question so his mouth was readily visible.
Since, as most of my baseball players are, he was not the brightest star in the sky, he relies on the student, his friend (and not a baseball player) behind him to whisper him the answers so that the teacher doesn't hear, thinks the baseball player knows what's going on, and doesn't ask him any more questions.
Unfortunately though, this time around the student behind him misheard the question and thought the teacher had asked to spell the word "street," so he whispers s-t-r-e-e-t. The baseball player dutifully repeats each letter.
The teacher looks at him, shaking her head. "That's wrong, I asked you to spell straight, not street!" chuckling even. The baseball player annoyed that he made himself look bad (although everyone in class knows about this whispering-deal) turns around and smacks his friend behind him on the head reprimanding him in Japanese for spelling to him the wrong word.
Oops, he blew his own cover. I knew what was going on, but was having more fun just watching it knowing he was going to be wrong. Much of the class burst out in laugher, and the next time he was called on, his friend behind him had to stand while he was answering the question so his mouth was readily visible.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Japanese Green Tea Ceremony
So after playing soccer in Bizen, as I had explained before we went to a nearby temple for a tea ceremony amongst other things.
Here are some simple explanations for you on what to do at a tea ceremony:
First off, you sit souzan style, or with your feet tucked underneath you. This is very painful for me and some people, but classically the entire duration should be attended in this seating position.
You will receive sweet treats on a square sheet of paper that has been folded once. These are two be eaten before the green tea.
When you receive the tea, bow and thank to thank the person.
Then, moving the bowl to the right so it is in front of your right leg, closer to the person sitting to your right, say: "もう一服いかがでございませんか？" (mou ippuku ikaga de gozaimasenka?). This means in very formal Japanese, "Would you like another one (bowl of green tea)?"
A formal response to this is, "いいえ、もう結構です。”(iie, mou kekkou desu), or "No, no thank you." You can actually say yes, implying that you would like another bowl of green tea, thus effectively taking it from the person and having your second, but this is rude and not done.
Then you move the bowl of tea in front of your left leg, and say to the person to your left: "先にちょうだい致します。”（saki ni choudai itashimasu), or again in formal Japanese, "First, I will drink." (implying excuse me).
Now you may move the bowl back to directly in front of you, and pick it up. Before drinking though, holding the bowl in your left hand, turn it clockwise three times in your left palm with your right hand. Then drink once. The second time you drink, finish the entire bowl, thus if you take a very small first drink, you will have to take a large second drink. Make sure though that the first drink is shorter than the second.
After drinking all the tea, rotate the bowl counterclockwise three times again using your right hand to turn the bowl.
Put the bowl back down on the tatami and say "ごちそうさまでした" (phrase said after drinking/eating something given to you to thank them for it).
If you are sharing bowls (i.e. they are not being washed between people, rather just returned and used directly again) then you are to take the paper which the sweets were on, and bending it around the rim, wipe the rim where you drank, folding the paper when you're done with the wipe so that when you put the paper back down on the tatami clean sides are touching the tatami, not where you wiped.
At this point, if there are other bowls circulating or the person making the tea is busy, you are encouraged to examine the bowl. Green tea is usually served in very ornate bowls, and the pictures convey stories or folklore. Do not though, lift the bowl off the tatami but tilt it instead. Also, sometimes on the bottom of the bowl is interesting information written. Again, to look tilt and lower your head, do not lift the bowl off the tatami.
This process is repeated with people being served in a clockwise fashion.
I think you can converse during it, although for very formal ones, I am not sure. We talked during ours and asked questions on what to say, do, etc. (although I remembered quite a bit from the first tea ceremony I attended with Jimbo-sensei for the full moon showing last year).
Perhaps this all seems a little trite, but I find it very interesting and really enjoy the process as well as green tea. There is also a whole process associated with how to make it (taking out the box with all the utensils, what order to use them in, how to orient the spoon, how to whisk, etc.) so as you can imagine, this really can get complex and that's why there are tea ceremony clubs at some middle schools and high schools: For students who are interested in the complexities of the Japanese tea ceremony.
This was quite the informative post. If I made an error on something or forgot to include something, please let me know!!!
Here are some simple explanations for you on what to do at a tea ceremony:
First off, you sit souzan style, or with your feet tucked underneath you. This is very painful for me and some people, but classically the entire duration should be attended in this seating position.
You will receive sweet treats on a square sheet of paper that has been folded once. These are two be eaten before the green tea.
When you receive the tea, bow and thank to thank the person.
Then, moving the bowl to the right so it is in front of your right leg, closer to the person sitting to your right, say: "もう一服いかがでございませんか？" (mou ippuku ikaga de gozaimasenka?). This means in very formal Japanese, "Would you like another one (bowl of green tea)?"
A formal response to this is, "いいえ、もう結構です。”(iie, mou kekkou desu), or "No, no thank you." You can actually say yes, implying that you would like another bowl of green tea, thus effectively taking it from the person and having your second, but this is rude and not done.
Then you move the bowl of tea in front of your left leg, and say to the person to your left: "先にちょうだい致します。”（saki ni choudai itashimasu), or again in formal Japanese, "First, I will drink." (implying excuse me).
Now you may move the bowl back to directly in front of you, and pick it up. Before drinking though, holding the bowl in your left hand, turn it clockwise three times in your left palm with your right hand. Then drink once. The second time you drink, finish the entire bowl, thus if you take a very small first drink, you will have to take a large second drink. Make sure though that the first drink is shorter than the second.
After drinking all the tea, rotate the bowl counterclockwise three times again using your right hand to turn the bowl.
Put the bowl back down on the tatami and say "ごちそうさまでした" (phrase said after drinking/eating something given to you to thank them for it).
If you are sharing bowls (i.e. they are not being washed between people, rather just returned and used directly again) then you are to take the paper which the sweets were on, and bending it around the rim, wipe the rim where you drank, folding the paper when you're done with the wipe so that when you put the paper back down on the tatami clean sides are touching the tatami, not where you wiped.
At this point, if there are other bowls circulating or the person making the tea is busy, you are encouraged to examine the bowl. Green tea is usually served in very ornate bowls, and the pictures convey stories or folklore. Do not though, lift the bowl off the tatami but tilt it instead. Also, sometimes on the bottom of the bowl is interesting information written. Again, to look tilt and lower your head, do not lift the bowl off the tatami.
This process is repeated with people being served in a clockwise fashion.
I think you can converse during it, although for very formal ones, I am not sure. We talked during ours and asked questions on what to say, do, etc. (although I remembered quite a bit from the first tea ceremony I attended with Jimbo-sensei for the full moon showing last year).
Perhaps this all seems a little trite, but I find it very interesting and really enjoy the process as well as green tea. There is also a whole process associated with how to make it (taking out the box with all the utensils, what order to use them in, how to orient the spoon, how to whisk, etc.) so as you can imagine, this really can get complex and that's why there are tea ceremony clubs at some middle schools and high schools: For students who are interested in the complexities of the Japanese tea ceremony.
This was quite the informative post. If I made an error on something or forgot to include something, please let me know!!!
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Thanksgiving
I organized a Thanksgiving feast in Tamano this past weekend. There were supposed to be 50 people, but only 40 showed, so there was as expected LOTS of extra food. I took home two whole turkeys (8 13lb'ers total made). A large statistical error on food amount, so will have lots of turkey for the next couple of months, but it's all in the freezer, so no big deal!
Took some pictures, but was really busy running around the kitchen, but felt amazingly at home. Slept all day Sunday since I was thoroughly exhausted. Pretty busy today at school but with my own list of things to do.
I will hopefully get some better pictures from friends and put them up. I will also scour other people's blogs and post their thoughts on this so I don't have to write as much. On another day I'll go through the day in more detail, but for now, it was a world of fun and a huge learning experience (never have I organized such a large event before).
Took some pictures, but was really busy running around the kitchen, but felt amazingly at home. Slept all day Sunday since I was thoroughly exhausted. Pretty busy today at school but with my own list of things to do.
I will hopefully get some better pictures from friends and put them up. I will also scour other people's blogs and post their thoughts on this so I don't have to write as much. On another day I'll go through the day in more detail, but for now, it was a world of fun and a huge learning experience (never have I organized such a large event before).
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