I'll start with the present and blog backwards-- back-blog?-- to at least last April; it's about time I got around to blog about the India trip! ^^
Today is the first day back-to-school with students present and "attending classes." In reality, there aren't any classes and won't be for a few days. Why? In true we-can't-let-students-have-any-real-holidays...-ever Japanese fashion, the first few days back are spent in rigorous testing of everything that the students were supposed to have learned since last April (the beginning of the Japanese school year). Kind of like a mid-year exam. And of course over the holidays, the students were also given a load of homework they had to complete in preparation for these tests. Winter vacation? I think not.
My winter vacation was quite nice, however, even if I never did get over jet-lag. The first weekend back was spent in a jet-lag and reverse culture-shock stupor, sometimes with bits of English emerging from my mouth that only vaguely resembled what I was trying to say. Kate and Sonic can attest to this because I spent that first weekend at Sonic's house in NH ^^ We basically hung out and chatted, although we also took one marvelous trip to Hanniford, where I wandered down the aisles in a daze, touched things I haven't seen in months (like pre-cut mixed salad and an entire cooler of cheese) reverently, and put random things into the cart. There was just so much of everything, so many choices and in such bulk. Red pepper hummus, brownies, and multiple flavors of instant oatmeal made it into the cart although they weren't on our shopping list.
And then home, to the AFU, to the cats-- er, cat--, to the Christmas tree cut earlier that day and waiting to be decorated. Sadly, Min didn't make it until I got home. Her health's been declining steadily for the past few years, but after a few days of rapid deterioration in the week before I was to come home, B+B decided to put her down. I'm sad I couldn't see her again but wouldn't have wanted to prolong her suffering... but she will be greatly missed.
So I had a couple of days to hang out a bit, pet Max, go to a dentist's appointment, and wrap presents before it was off to the Granville Christmas Eve festivities. I think it went well, and from there vacation just flew by. We got a killer blizzard on the 26-27th, during which I went snowshoeing for the first time with Aunt Beth. It was fun but a little crazy; the wind kept blowing me down, and it's rather hard to stand back up in snowshoes, even with accompanying poles. I laughed myself almost to tears. We also went out at night, and despite the wind and the snow, everything was very still, almost magical. Going down her snowy unpaved road, with the neighbors' houses far apart, I could imagine that no one else existed: it was just us and the snow and the road.
Soon it was time to return to Japan with a quick stop to see the Lunds in Boston on the way back. Cosmo has become quite the young gentleman, and Theia's just an adorable little angel (golden curls and all) looking for playmates all the time. It was quite refreshing in comparison to the shy Japanese preschoolers that I sometimes encounter... she didn't burst into tears at the sight of me!! :) One point Theia, zero points Japanese preschoolers. Harriet, the new baby Lund addition, was also quite cute, although she -did- cry at the sight of me. Or maybe her diaper was just dirty.
The longest plane ride back (Chicago to Tokyo) didn't seem nearly as long as it has before, possibly because the airplane's individual entertainment options included the complete first season of Heroes. I'd watched parts of episodes here and there during college and while slightly interested never quite got into it. Well, that 14-hour plane ride gave me plenty of time to zoom through the first 8 episodes. I'm currently on the look-out for more ^^ ("Save the cheerleader, save the world." --- what does that mean?! No, wait, don't tell me :)
I spent a night in Fukuoka and played the next day before an evening flight back to Tsushima. I'd read about a VanGogh exhibition at the Kyushu national museum in Dazaifu and went to check it out in addition to this year's first pilgrimage to the Dazaifu-Tenmangu shrine. The exhibition had quite a few famous pieces, including the painting of the artist's room, a few self-portraits, and his "Irises." While interesting, it was also quite depressing, and I enjoyed my visit to the historical/art section of the museum more. It was my second trip, but I think the exhibits have changed in the past 2 years. There were quite a few more Tsushima pirate seals (made by the pirates to imitate true imperial stamps for official documents) as well as an exhibit on Okinoshima island.
I'd heard about Okinoshima from my Tsushima taxi drivers; it's a very tiny island, little more than the size of an athletic field, with a shrine on it. It's located between Tsushima and the mainland, about the same distance away as Iki, and sometimes can be seen from certain northeastern points of Tsushima on very clear days. Apparently, like Tsushima, Okinoshima was used as a pit-stop during voyages between Korea and Japan way back when. It's much more sacred than Tsushima, though. First of all, no women are allowed on the island. Ever. I forget what happens if a woman tries to step on land, but it's very bad. Also, men are only allowed on the island after a purification process. According to my taxi driver, men these days go in their fishing boats, jump out of their boats close to land, swim to where they can stand in the water, and purify themselves there by scrubbing all over. Interestingly enough, there is also a mythical connection between the shrine at Okinoshima and one in Tsushima. According to legend, the deity at Okinoshima and the deity of the shrine at the top of Mitake mountain in Kamiagata are rivals. The god of Mitake mountain did something to piss off the god of Okinoshima, so the Okinoshima deity threw a giant boulder at the Mitake god. The boulder missed the Mitake deity's shrine by a bit, but it can be found at the top of Mitake mountain.
Anyway, Okinoshima is of historical importance because as the many ships that traveled to and from Korea in bygone days stopped on the island, they left many treasures at the shrine. Bronze mirrors, glass beads, and many other things have been excavated and brought to the Kyushu museum. It was kind of cool to see the treasures in the museum because if left on Okinoshima, I never would have been able to see them.
After wandering about the exhibits and making a quick stop at one of the sento-like Futsukaichi onsens, it was time to head back to Tsushima. It was very good to come back; I don't know when it happened, but I definetely think of Tsushima as home now. Well, at least I can hang onto that thought for the next 6 months.
I arrived back in Tsushima on Jan 4th and had an incredible experience on the drive home. I saw my first wild yamaneko!!!!! ..I'd seriously been thinking that I'd have to leave Tsushima this year without ever seeing one. Of course I've been to the yamaneko center and seen the one in captivity there, but thousands of Korean tourists see that one too. I wanted to be able to leave Tsushima with the boasting power of a true Tsushimian, and now I can! I was driving home on the coastal road around 8:30 PM and passing through the narrow woodsy road in Shushi between Nanyo middle school and the intersection with Momiji Road. And then, just as I came around a turn, there was a critter on the side of the road, frozen in my headlights, eyes reflecting light, characteristic spotty pattern and insanely thick bushy tain... no doubt at all, it was a yamaneko. I wasn't driving that fast but as it was sort of on a turn I had passed it before I could make the decision to stop or not. So there's no picture to accompany the wild yamaneko sighting story, but it really happened! :) What a welcome home present from the island.
The next day I was at my Board of Education. Usually there's not much for me to do, but I had a couple of schools to prepare classes for so it was okay. It was also the special Kamitsushima Firefighter's Parade Day! ...the troups assembled outside in the town office parking lot:
And I learned that this is the Japanese firefighters' flag. Isn't that cool? It's like a secret organization! (maybe American firefighters have their own flag and I just don't know about it?)
Oh, and I also thought it was interesting that all of the firefighting trucks had New Year's decorations on them. I've seen many of these kinds of decorations on houses (think Christmas wreaths but for New Year's), but apparently they can be put on vehicles too.
After the mini-parade, all the firefighters and all 16 trucks assemble at the Hitakatsu port near downtown. They test the hoses over the water and, to delight the children who line up on the bridge to watch, color some of the water as it streams out. This year there was pink, red, blue, and green water.
Fast-forward a few days to January 10th, a national holiday. It was Adult's Day, and I went to the Tsushima celebrations for the first time at the Mine dome. In Japan, you are an adult when you turn 20. (It's the legal drinking age, etc). On Adult's Day, everyone who is going to turn 20 in the coming year goes back to their hometown, gets dressed up (young ladies in very lovely kimono with long sleeves that nearly brush the ground, young men in hakama or, as was more popular in Tsushima this year, suits), listens to boring speeches, gets a certificate, and then goes to a big party with all of their friends who they haven't seen since high school graduation. I met up with an aquaintence from my Board of Education, an elementary-school teacher whose former 6th-graders would be at the celebration. But mostly, I went to see the pretty kimono ^^
After the boring speeches started, we made our escape and went to Kechi, where my BOE friend has a house. She bought cakes and pudding from "the best cake shop in Tsushima," and I have to admit they did rival anything from Kyoto. I usually don't care much for Japanese cakes (too fluffy, no substance, and they --never-- get that rich chocolate taste just right), but these were quite delectable. I'd go back again for their chestnut pudding or "Turkish Delight," which was a melt-in-your-mouth mochi-like starch coating fresh whipped cream and bits of peach and strawberry with a mini-vanilla cake under everything. Nothing like real Turkish Delight, I'm sure, but delicious all the same.
In the early evening, we went to Izuhara Elementary school to dig out a time capsule that her former 6th-grade students had buried 8 years ago. About 20 of the former students showed up and dug away at the semi-frozen earth, eventually uncovering the time capsule. Unfortunately, despite many layers of plastic wrap, water had gotten into the capsule, and many of the letters-to-my-future-self were ruined. It was interesting to see Hello Kitty erasers and One Piece keychains emerge, though; I suppose some things are timeless.
I think that's a pretty decent update of Christmas vacation to the present; the next installment will include last November's travels to Kamakura/Disneyland/a wine festival in the middle of nowhere and mikan-picking in Tsutsu, Tsushima.
Oh, and before I forget, this year's New Year's resolutions! (only the first two are "official" in that they were recorded by Aunt Bip on New Year's Eve. the rest were added later.)
1. Lose 5% of body weight
2. Strength-train 3x/week (when not on vacation)
3. Try to FLY! (this deserves its owm blog post later: www.flylady.net)
4. Blog once/week (when not on vacation)
5. Clean out gmail inbox
6. Try to get through _Remember the Kanji_
...so far, so good! ^^
1 comment:
What does "try to fly" mean?
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