Merry Christmas everyone!

I know it has been A LONG time since I have updated the blog with any recent events and I’m sorry about that. Let’s see… well winter has definitely arrived in Ehime-ken. The top of the mountains are covered in snow and with the lack of central heating, all the houses are pretty cold. The other night it was so cold I was wearing my jacket, mittens, hat and scarf inside my house!

Now is 2 days before Christmas and most people are either in Thailand, or home for Christmas. I work until the 26th of December so I’m still around. Being away from home at Christmas has definitely been hard for me. I love Christmas and now I realize that I love Christmas in Canada. The lights, smells, and sounds of Christmas are something that I have for years taken for granted. I know this is going to sound crazy but I even miss the 24 hrs a day Christmas music radio station! But mainly I miss my mom and close family and friends. For the last 10 years I have spent Christmas Eve at Nona’s and Christmas Day with the Neglia’s, and I always look forward to those 2 days during the holidays.

Christmas in Japan is a little odd. To begin with most of the Japanese population is Buddhist, so they really don’t celebrate Christmas. However, they put up Christmas trees and the children receive gifts from Santa-San. They also know a couple of popular Christmas songs including ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ which the children sang for me the other day and was one of the cutest but also oddest things I have ever heard. At the same time, they don’t like English Christmas songs and always keep asking me “what is this?” when I play Christmas songs in class. So quite honestly it doesn’t really feel like Christmas over here. I decorated my house and Tricia was kind enough to decorate the classroom, so we try to keep alive the spirit of Christmas.

On the 28th I will be leaving for a week of snowboarding in Nagano. I’m getting really excited about it! My mom being the wonderful woman that she is sent my snowboard all the way from Toronto so the least I can do is actually make good use of it. I will be there for 3-4 days. I will make sure to take lots and lots of pictures and to show you all what is known as “the roof of Japan.”

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

By the time the last day of Matsuri came around I was exhausted!

The last event of Matsuri took place on Sunday evening. I went to Niihama and a couple of us made our way to Ikku Shrine in Downtown Niihama. This last event is also a Taiko Competition and the event in which taikos get into fights with each other.

To be quite honest by this point I was pretty tired, so I decided to go see the competition because I felt like I needed to see everything during the festival, something that I might need to reconsider if I decide to stick around for another Matsuri. The competition was super exciting! Basically the Taikodais come into the shrine and then the men lift the taikodais and the men standing on the poles that support the taikodais, start jumping up and down while trying to keep their balance. Is crazy difficult! and I still don’t knowhow they do it. That part of the event was really cool, but most people show up to Ikku Shrine to see the fights between the Taiko teams.

I personally found this extremely boring. First the members of each taiko team start shouting at each other and just try to build up the whole atmosphere for a fight. Then they move the taikodais so they face each other and after much fanfare they eventually run full speed towards each other and try to either break the taikodais (or some part of it), injure the members of the taikodais, or get on the other teamn’s taikodai and do some sort of damage. All that sounds pretty exciting in theory but for them to actually run towards each other takes forever! I must have been standing there for at lest 20-30 minutes before anything exciting actually happened, and then I couldn’t see anything because I was being crushed by the crowd! The funniest thing however was seeing all the people take out their cellphones the moment they heard that a fight would start. I wish I had taken a picture of hundreds of cellphones up in the air with their video cameras ready to capture the action. Japanese culture at its best.

Since I really couldn’t see anything, and I was falling asleep standing up I decided to call it a day and drove home, got into my pj’s and slept for 12 hours straight. Matsuri came to an end, but I definitely had the most amazing time and just as I was told they would be, those 4 days were probably the most exhausting but fun days in the last 6 months.

Keeping you posted!

The third day of Matsuri was probably one of the best days in the whole time I have been living in Japan.

The night before we all went out for raman and we didn’t get home too late, so we actually got a decent night of sleep. This was surprising since I had visitors at my house for 5 nights straight and we all had to share beds, futons, blankets, etc… but as per usual we all managed just fine!

On Friday night Dani, Heidi, Joe and Liz stayed over. We all woke up and got ready to go to Niihama for the Taiko competition. Traffic was pretty bad, but because I work near to where we needed to go, I managed to find some parking pretty close to the place of the event. Unfortunately as we arrived and I tried to take a picture I realized that I had left my battery charging at home. I wanted to go back home and pick it up but knew that if I tried to do that I would miss the whole competition. Thankfully Ty was around to save the day because he very graciously offered me his camera for the day. I guess that since he has been around for a couple of Matsuris it wasn’t a big deal if he didn’t take pictures this time. So I grabbed the camera and basically disappeared for the rest of the evening.

First I walked up the mountain and pushed and shoved my way through throngs of people to be able to get a decent view. We arrived just as the event was about to begin so I couldn’t be too particular about where I got to sit and because I’m small I think I got pretty lucky. So I took a lot of long-shot pictures from up there and then moved my way down to the middle of the action.

Now Taikodais are huge structures, so one needs to be super careful when they are around as the men get tired and drop them since they are so incredibly heavy. Also when they turn they make wide-angle turns, so people really need to get out of their way. Dani almost got trampled by one the day before while she was trying to eat her breakfast and I had to literally pull her back because she wasn’t paying attention. But no pain no game right? So I decided to be adventurous and just ran the whole afternoon between taikos taking pictures. I have too many to post, but I have selected what I think are some of the best shots of the day. I had a fantastic time getting all of these photos so I wanted to share them with you.

Keeping you posted!

The second day of Matsuri went on forever!

So as mentioned on Matsuri (Day 2, see below) the second day of Matsuri began at 3am in Niihama. We  finished at around 7am and went home to sleep. To this day I do not remember arriving home. All I remember is getting home and dropping on my bed. We slept for a couple of hours (not nearly enough) and got ready for the finale of Saijo Matsuri.

On Friday afternoon we headed down to Kamogawa River to see the end of Saijo Matsuri. On this evening all the danjeres gather at the bank of the river and only the best get to actually go into the river. I’m not quite sure how it is determined which danjeres are the best though. Must investigate. Anyways the best go into the river and there is a special portable shrine which is believed to carry a god. The danjeres begin to chase this shrine while in the river and once it is believed that the god has escaped, the festival comes to an end. Is somewhat difficult to explain as I myself was quite confused, and it was difficult to really see what was going on because there were so many people and I quite honestly had a difficult time watching what was going on, but to see all the danjeres in the water is quite something, with all their lanterns lighted as it becomes dark .

During this time we were lucky to have Olivia’s parents here who were visiting from Toronto. They were an absolute blast to have around and total troopers as they were up every night, attended all the festivities and put up with all of our craziness!

For me the best part of Matsuri was being able to hang out with everyone. Because we have such different schedules from those in the JET program we don’t get to see each other during the week, but during the length of the festival we were all around each other and quite simply had a great time!

Keeping you posted!

The second night of Matsuri was my favourite!

On the second I arrived at Olivia’s house at midnight, took a nap and was ready to go by 3am.

At Niihama Matsuri there are no Danjiris but Taikodais, which are these massive shrines that up to 200 men carry on their shoulders! They are also incredibly heavy  (2 tonnes) and sometimes the men cannot carry them any longer, so they collapse under the weight. On this second night, we followed one of the Taikodais up to a shrine in the mountain, and it was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen!

The reason I enjoyed this evening more than the first night of Saijo Matsuri is that because the taikodais are so much heavier and much bigger than the danjiris, the men are so much more focused and to me it was much more impressive to see them carry a taikodai… especially up a hill. Also when lit at night the Taikodais look so beautiful with all the details that go into them (My favourite was a gold dragon with red fire coming out of its mouth!).

We all had a great, great time this night! We had so much energy and were just so excited at what we were seeing that  a few of us decided to stay to the very end, sometime around 7am. We followed the last taikodai down the hill, and it took them a very long time to make their way down (I think they were very tired). Once again we went home, slept, ate and got ready for the finale of Saijo Matsuri that same evening.

Keeping you posted!

5 days of portable shrines (Taikodai), a LOT of men, sake and fun all around!

Last month I experienced my first Japanese Festival (Matsuri) in Saijo and Niihama. Everything began on Thursday morning (1 am). I personally didn’t feel like going anywhere at that time in the morning so I was asleep when my friends came knocking at my door to get ready to go… and I am so glad they came to get me! We walked to a shrine about 45 minutes away from my home along with the danjiris (portables shrines, covered with lanterns). They bring the danjiris up to the shrine and is incredibly beautiful to see all these shrines covered in lanterns coming up the hill. I have also never seen so many people in Saijo in the whole time I’ve lived here! It was crazy, and sake bottles were passed at me from all over the place. The festivities didn’t finish until 7:30 am, when we came back to my place, slept, ate, got rid of our hangovers and got ready for Day 2.

Keeping you posted!

I love kindy!

As a private school teacher I don’t get to teach at regular Japanese schools too often. As a matter of fact I only teach at a kindergarten once a month. There are approximately 30 children ages 5 and 6, and I teach them for an hour. I teach them the colours, how are you?, I’m from Japan!, animals, the weather, fruits and vegetables, and play and dance and sing with them!

Every monday night before kindy however I feel physically sick. I get so nervous that on the morning of kindy I can’t have breakfast because I feel like throwing up. 5 year old children scare me… the expectation of having their little faces staring at me and expecting me to do something is terrifying!

This morning I had kindy and I sat in the car for 5 minutes before the class just going over my lesson plan and trying to calm my nerves down. Then I walked in and all those fears were gone right away. I couldn’t believe that although they only see me once a month, they remember my name (this is the first time I teach them on my own, the last 2 times I was training). I walked in and they were all saying “Hello, Liz-Sensei!”

I had a great time with them! I have A LOT to learn about kindy but they seemed to enjoy themselves too and that’s what matters. Every time I shook my crazy hair and opened my eyes really big they would laugh hysterically. The most important thing that I have learned from kindy is not to take life too seriously. It is more than okay to act stupid and silly and to have fun… funny how a child can teach you that.

Now I’m starving…

Keeping you posted!

Last month I went surfing for the first time in my life, and let me tell you it was hard!

A friend of mine is really into surfing and he let us use his equipment while he went on a sailing trip for the weekend. We totally took advantage of the situation and made it a girls weekend. This was probably the best weekend I’ve had since I arrived in Japan!

It has been years since the last time I’ve seen the ocean so it was fantastic to be near actual waves, real sand and salty water (although my lungs did not appreciate the salty water after one too many falls!)

Surfing didn’t go that well. Those waves really got the best out of me, but we all had a great time just paddling and falling consistently. The best part of Kochi however, was at night when you can see thousands of stars! You could just sit there for hours on end staring at the sky. I had never seen stars actually twinkle until I’ve visited Kochi, so that was definitely the highlight of the trip. Unfortunately I have not been able to go back since, but it was definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to, so I thought I’d post some photos. Enjoy!

Keeping you posted!

Hello everyone!

Some of you have been trying to reach me to make sure that I’m doing ok as Typhoon Melor makes its way through Japan. To all of you, thank you for keeping an eye out for me!

I’m doing fine and everyone here is fine as well. We actually didn’t get hit as bad as expected. Last night there were some strong winds, but nothing major and by the time I woke up this morning it had stopped raining altogether and the sun was trying to break though (although it failed at doing so).

I was totally prepared for it though! I have enough food to feed a small army, movies, tea, hot chocolate, books and a blanket… what else could I need?

Anyways I just wanted to let you all know that I have survived my first typhoon and that I do appreciate all your concerns.

Keeping you posted!

A few weekends ago, two of the girls I work with and I decided to bike across the Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge.

The Kurushima bridge is the world’s longest suspension bridge structure that spans a series of islands, and joins Shikoku Island (where I live) to Honshu Island, where one finds Hiroshima.

The bridge was completed in 1999, and is 4, 015 m in length.

The day could not be more perfect. The clear blue sky gave us a great visibility of all the surrounding islands, and while it was hot it was not as humid as it had been a few days before. We rode from Imabari which is the city on the border of Shikoku Island to Oshima Island. Then we went down to Oshima and had a well deserved ice cream, walked a bit around the marina and made our way back.

The bikes we rented were so nice too.They were pretty sleek, and most importantly they were speed bikes! Our bikes in Saijo and Niihama do not have speeds, and they are also not the most ergonomically correct bikes, so your behind feels every bump while riding on the sidewalk.

Going up to the bridge was hard work! I tried to act cool and composed, but to be quite honest I was feeling pretty out of breath, which is scary because that means that I’m pretty out of shape! So I have decided to go back until I can go up to the bridge without puffing my way up the path.

Crossing the bridge was on my to do list while living in Japan, so I was psyched that I got to do it in such a perfect day with great companions. The view is also quite spectacular so I thought I’d share some of the pictures with you.

Keeping you posted!