Sara - Tea Ceremony Luncheon

On May 23rd, I went to a luncheon with my tea ceremony class, for class. We went to a sushi restaurant that had a tea room in the back. We were served many delicious by Ms. Obara.

Ms. Obara is an advanced student in my class and was practicing a tea ceremony luncheon. Part of the practice included writing out invitations. There are specific things that had to be written and she went through several drafts before giving us the final one. My teacher, fellow students, and I practiced being guests. There a few mistakes made by both host and guests, but it was the best lesson.

The food was amazingly beautiful and delicious. Unfortunately I was unable to take any pictures because I was concentrating so hard on the eating order that I forgot to take out the camera. I had to keep track of where I placed lids, chopsticks, sake cups, and which way to pass serving dishes.

Each food item had a meaning and reflected upon spring. The flower arrangement on the wall also reflected upon spring. The flowers also have meanings, but I was a very bad student and didn't keep track of that.

I did put together a quick video of what I was able to capture of the ceremony. I didn't get all of the moves, but you can watch Ms. Obara make Ousu (light green tea).

Sara- Time Warp to September 2008 (Yabusame Festival)

Well I finally got the video put together. I hate Apple iMovie and this may be the last movie I make with it.
Anyway, back in September 2008, Patrick and I skipped work to go see Yabusame which I believe is part of the two or three day Hachimangu festival...

Yabusame is archery on horseback. The ground for the event is blessed by the Shinto priests, and if I remember correctly, horse archery was not used only for warfare in Iwate, but it was also used as a way to scare off demons and so there were also priests at the event.

Sara - Kitamatsuzono Graduation

Well we finally had our graduation on the 13th and everything went well. We had a lot of speeches, and some singing. Graduation took up half the day and I was lucky to get out at 3:30 instead of 4:25. I made a movie of the event so that you can sort of see what goes on. I skipped the speeches. The music in the movie is called "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" which translates to 'Please give me wings'. The words, roughly translated, are:

If I could have one wish granted now, I would wish for a pair of wings.
Upon my back, like a bird, I wish you would give me a pair of white wings.

I want to spread my wings and fly through this wide blue sky.
Through the free heavens where there is no sorrow, I want to soar and fly far!

When I was a child, I used to have this dream, and even now I still dream the same dream.





The girl who waves towards the end of the movie is Misa. She comes by every day to talk to me in English. Her English ability is very impressive. She went to Indiana on a two week abroad program so we often talk about her friends in America and American culture.

Sara - Spring Ballroom Party 09

Last year I went to a ballroom dance party that my dance studio held and had a great time. I went again this year, just yesterday, and was just as amazed. This time we had a couple from the US come and perform. They are placed as 2nd in the world in the category of Latin dancing. But they won 1st place at the Osaka Asia Open on Feb. 24th. Riccardo Cocchi is actually Italian and Yulia Zagorouitchenko is Russian, but they now compete as a couple for the US. (Since 2007)
It was really great seeing them as the performed show dances. It's still ballroom, but a lot flashier since they don't have to worry about getting points etc.

Here is a brief collection of the dances they performed. I thought Yulia's costumes were especially fantastic.

Sara-2008 recap

I said I would write about all my previous adventures, but I never quite got around to it unfortunately. So instead, I mashed up all the things I did into one movie. There is the all city track and field meet, Yabusame (horse archery festival in Morioka), the school festival and my trip to Yamagata with my teachers. I got the perfect music for the movie for Christmas from friends back home, G and Ryan. A big thank you goes to them since I wouldn't have done it otherwise. The music really sums up my feelings about 2008 I think.

Sara-Akita trip

This past weekend, Patrick and I went up to Akita as part of my birthday celebration.
Patrick took me to the aquarium there. I really love aquariums, and this one was really fun. So I put together a little video.


After the aquarium we stayed at a very nice onsen (public bath house, one for men, one for women). An onsen is also a hotel.


We had a very spacious room with a good view of the ocean. The room was actually bigger than our apartments!


We had a great dinner of fresh sea food that they brought to our rooms.



The food was incredibly good. And the bath was very relaxing after you get over the shyness.
After dinner and our bathing, we met up again to go to a taiko drumming performance that was at a small community theatre down the street. I can't particularly remember the troupe's name, but they dressed up as Namahage (A type of demon/god of Akita). People usually dress up as these beings for various festivals in Akita. This troupe performed as Namahage as a way of preserving tradition and teaching their culture in Akita. Namahage are beings who would punish/take away bad children so when they performed, the Namahage would wander the audience yelling "Arrgh! Are there any bad children here today?? Are there lazy, or rude children?" Parents were told to hold tightly to their child to protect them from these gods. It was a really great show. The drumming was amazing and it was free. It is a must see for anyone going to Akita.
This is a brief video I put together of the performance. The last piece they performed, I believe they composed themselves. For anyone who is familiar with taiko drumming, you may notice the more modern sound.



The next day we had another wonderful meal. Breakfast was served in their dinning room. It was a traditional tatami mat room. We were the only ones there but it was nice to have a quiet and relaxing morning. After breakfast, we checked out and wandered around the small town and then took the train to Akita city, in Akita. We went to a small art museum and wandered through a nice park. We ate dinner at the train station and then took the shinkansen back to Morioka. Though it was a brief trip, it was a lot of fun.

Sara-Sansa Festival '08

From August 1st to the 4th, Morioka has it's Sansa Festival. Sansa is a type of traditional dance here in Iwate. There are many different dance troupes that perform during this time. Companies and neighborhoods put together troupes of dancers, drummers, and flutists. They parade down the main street of Morioka in their summer kimonos (yukata). Children and adults take part in the parade. Many families perform together. I saw some of my students participating as dancers for their neighborhood troupe. It's a very festive parade. Everyone dances, even the drummers and flutists. They also have an announcer who announces each troupe, and when the troupe gets to the finish line she announces "Thank you for your wonderful performance."
I have put together a brief movie with the original sound so you can hear the music. The dancers are chanting something like "Sakkora Choiwa yasse!" I'm guessing that this is from their local dialect, or something much older or a mixture of local and old Emishi. (The Emishi were the natives of Tohoku) I have heard that there are about 20,000 performers and around 5,000 drums. In the video you will also see performers wearing large flowers on their heads or a straw hat. Those are the traditional Sansa costumes.

Sara-Miyako

This past weekend our Earlham friends, Risa and Jura, came to visit from Tokyo. During their time here, Patrick and I went to Miyako with them. Miyako is a small town on the coast and it's about 2 hours away by bus. We got bus tickets for 5,000 yen that was round trip and it included lunch, a boat tour, and local bus fair to get to the boat tour. Unfortunately I believe that this is just a limited summer deal. The food was great and the boat tour was amazing. It was an overcast day, but we had a lot of fun on the rocky beach and wandering the beautiful town.

ALT BBQ

Sara- This past weekend, Patrick, Catherine and I went to an ALT BBQ over at Iwaizumi, a town that's about 2 hours away by car/bus. There we met our friends Shannon, who is on Earlham's program, and Martin. Then we met the ALTs who were hosting, Caitlin, and Jeff. We had a great time. Patrick brought chips, Catherine made mac 'n cheese and sangria, and I made coleslaw. There was a lot of food and later we enjoyed lighting small fireworks. That night we spent at Jeff's family house.
The next morning, everyone but Jeff, who had work, went to Ryusendo Cave. It was very exciting and fascinating. I made a short video of it. After the cave, we went to another one just down the street. It was the science cave. The cave was real, but inside they painted some fake cave paintings from different parts of the world and there was a part where they had cavemen from Japan with Native American paintings in the background. It was very fun. Then on the way back we went to an ice cream shop that had very unusual flavors. I had Rose and Cherry blossom. It was delicious. Patrick had wasabi and pickled plum (umeboshi). The wasabi tasted like wasabi, just sweet as well-but it still burned in my opinion.

Sara-Baseball finals and horse festival movie

Today I had a surprise at work. Instead of classes the whole school went out to the big ballpark because our team went into the finals. (We lost, Catherine's school won. 0-1) So when I got back to work, I didn't have a lot to do to fill the time. After 3, I finished studying Japanese and by 3:30 I was getting bored of reading so I made this little slide show/video of the horse festival I went to on Saturday. Hopefully it gives a better idea of the main street. Unfortunately I was stuck to one place so it's not much. I replaced the sound of all the bells on the horses with music. If anyone really wanted to hear what they sounded like, just think of 100 cow bells, and hooves.

Sara-Nihon Buyo (Japanese Dance)

On June 1st I went to a Japanese Dance rehearsal/performance. My teachers are of the Wakayagiryu School/branch of Japanese dance. The students of my two Japanese Dance teachers performed at the Morioka community theatre. The event was from 10am to 7:30pm. I stayed for most of it and had a nice time. The costumes and sets were very beautiful and the dancers were amazing, especially since 30 students were between the ages of 50 and 80. There were 2 high school girls, and 4 girls between the ages of 3 and 7. I have two movies to show. The first is a sampling of the variety of dances and the second one is a longer version of three of the 4 little girls (the 3 year old is not with them.) It is also the dance that I am practicing at the moment.

Sara-Taikusai (Sports Day)

This past Monday was Shitakoji's Sports Day. On that day we went to the large track and field stadium in the Sports Park. It was from 9am to 5pm and between 7am and 9am, students and teachers were getting everything set up. Parents came and watched. It was a big event. Basically it was a very big mini Olympic for those who had mini Olympics in the JHS. I did when I was a middle school student. But for the junior high students in Japan, Sports Day means a lot to them. The different classes in each grade competed against each other. So Class 1 of grade 1 vs. Class, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
To try and recreate the atmosphere of the event I made a short movie with music so please be aware of where you have your volume set.

Sara-Ballroom dance party

On Feb. 26th, I went to a dinner/recital/dance party that my ballroom dance teachers held. My teachers are Mr. and Mrs. Hakoishi, their son,Nobu, and Ekaterina, a Russian student who is about 24. It was at a hotel and other teachers from other schools were there as well. I believe most of the ballroom dance schools had one or two of their students perform. Then the teachers performed and we also had a world champion Italian couple perform. They are good friends with my teachers so they had agreed to come and dance at the party.
There was also a Chinese course dinner on a Lazy Susan.

I filmed a little bit of the event and broke it up into sections. I was able to film Ekatarina's performance with Nobu, but not Mr. and Mrs. Hakoishi. I used my digital camera and it was not able to handle the lighting very well. There was also dance time, where a live band played and anyone could dance on the dance floor. I danced the jitterbug once. I kept waiting to see Humphrey Bogart burst in after some woman he just offended. (Also, there is sound, so please be careful of where you have your volume.)

Sara- Morioka Sports Day

On September 4th, Morioka had a Track and Field competition for all the junior high schools. It took place in a very large stadium and 23 out of 26 schools participated. My school, Shitakouji came in 1st place for the boys and 2nd for the girls.

The track and field is what one might expect, except for the cheering. Each school groups together and not only do they have set cheers that all the students have to say, but they also change their uniforms to form various writing. These cheers are usually led by three boys who are the leaders of the cheer squad. Look for them near the end of the video.

Patrick writes: You may not believe it at first, but cheerleaders are not only male, they actually all wear clothes here. They don't do any slutty dances, either. Instead, they actually lead cheers. I was taken aback at first, too.

Obon

Obon is in the middle of August and is a holiday lasting several days where families visit the graves of their ancestors. Obon is a celebration of the Shinto religion and the belief behind the celebration is that the spirits of one's ancestors returns to Earth to visit. For this reason, lanterns are often light out side of houses to guid ancestors back to homes. At the end of the week, special lanterns are lit and are released into a near by river to guid the spirits back into the spirit realm. In many places in Japan, this special event at a river is called Toronagashi.

In Morioka, however, it is called Funekko Oroshi. This is because part of the celebration involves setting aflame boats (about twenty, one for each neighborhood) full of fireworks on a river. (In Japanese, the word for boat is fune). Although bad for the environment, it is quite a spectacle.

As the people (mostly men, and a few women) who pull the boats down the river are nearly naked, it is also I imagine quite dangerous, since the fireworks and debris could be seen spilling out of the boats.

At the end of the festival, several hundred fireworks were shot off as men set paper lanterns out to float down the river.

Watch the video (about three and a half minutes long, no sound) below. The people are a little compressed because the original video is widescreen but on the internet it has to be a square rather than a rectangle.