Shinjin Kouen and the School Visit

Had a pretty active week following the farmstay out in Bungotakada.

First up on Tuesday, we'd been seeing little flyers for a 'Traditional Japanese Performance' in Millennium Hall, with a variety of acts including taiko, dance, and lots of stuff among this large performing troupe from APU. Following our...ever-so-favorite class (not the Japanese ones, this was an extra), a good number of us pile on over, procuring a number of good seats very close to front row. While waiting for the performance to begin, of course there are silly photos being taken, and much laughter had when Jessica discovered her camera has a 'smile enhancement' feature; we spent a good while finding stupid grins, expanding them to ridiculous proportions, and having tearful laughter as a result.

The start of the performance was a brief film recapping the past few years of competitions and what the themes of the performances were, leading up to the current. Above the stage they also projected the name of each separate act that was part of the overall performance. There were a lot of really cool dances, drummings, and little acts, starting with a call-and-response deal among the people on stage that later was spread out to the audience as the various smaller groups of the troupe came together for the large final dance number. The dancers seen below on the right had ridiculous energy, it was pretty impressive.

The first part of the taiko side had 3 drums set up on the stage, and all the taiko drummers lined up along the back of the stage. In sync, they would all in turn come out, drum the set part, and trade out with the next person, never having a single beat skipped or missed. The 2 outer drums had one guy apiece on the opposite side setting out the regular beat; at the height of the segment someone manned the third drum in front (the darker one at the left of the frame), and had 3 drums rotating people all at once, again, never missing a beat.



I forget exactly where the above guys were in among everything else, I believe they came in after the first set of taiko. They're the same trio from way back during the international festival back in mid-June, it was pretty neat seeing the performance in its entirety this time with a much better view.

The group at left started off with just the one girl in the back, a bit right of center cavorting through the aisles of the Hall with the mask on her face, tossing treats out into the audience. Following that, the group in regalia paraded out from stage right, whereupon she joined them, all taking in turn a bit of weapon-dancing-esque display. Below were guys who started off with the call-and-response group at the start, this was as momentum picked up. There also came a part where they each 'picked' one of the yukata-clad fan-bearing girls from before and paired off towards the grand finale.

Prior to the finale though, there was a larger, slightly more elaborate taiko performance, replete with the tiny cymbal-things and a shakuhachi player.

I've some more pictures, but those'll have to wait until I upload photo albums elsewhere. There's a lot <__<;

The next day was another Summer Gateway-planned activity: an elementary school visit. Early morning we pile onto another charter bus and head south through Beppu towards Oita city proper. I have a remarkably scarce few photos, because we were told we couldn't post anything online for security purposes...however, program administrators took an ass-ton of them and put them up to a Picasa album, so you can go there for more.

Basically, we arrive amidst the rains that haven't quite given up and turned into oppressive heat, and trade off our shoes for either indoor shoes (that we were supposed to bring), or slippers decidedly not meant for western feet (for those of us that forgot shoes/had no others), and we're taken out to the gym. Upon entry, there are 2 rows of folding chairs set up out in front of the stage, where there are rows of  a lot of 4th graders, who all applaud as we enter. No pressure, eh? We're given a welcome speech by some of the school staff, the kids sing their school song, then play a song for us on recorders (I remember those days...). 2 of our number give a brief welcome and thanks-for-having-us speech, then the kids split off into columns of 4 or 5 that each one of us is paired with, then taken off to our respective classrooms. We also have a teacher/gateway admin person set into our room; I ended up with one of my Japanese teachers, Yamamoto-sensei. A bit later on Aya (one of the AP buddies) also showed up and sat in with my class.

There's introductions had all around; we're also all wearing nametags to facilitate this (all ours written in katakana, theirs in romanji), then we're allowed to split off into our kids/oneesan|oniisan (big brother/sister...what we were referred to by the teachers) groups, and they show us around the school. My group was 2 boys, 2 girls, one sorta shy of each, and one very energetic of each. I got to see the library, music room, kitchen (lunch is had in the classes, fetched by the kids, as you'll see later), and that the school keeps rabbits. Unfortunately, due to the rain, they weren't in the outside hutch we passed by. A few other places about the school, and we head back to the classroom to start the day's planned activities.

First off was shodo practice for the kids, where they all picked a favorite kanji they knew, then each of us would pick one among those and write it ourselves. The kids certainly had a more deft hand at the brushwork and manipulating the damned thing to give the right effects to the strokes...we just tried to not be too sloppy <__<; Following this, we were all handed out blank paper fans that we then calligraphed ourselves for a souvenir.

Next up was origami: fortunately the designated object d'arte was a crane, one of the 2 things I remember how to make sans instructions (though I learned that I'd forgotten one step, so I had a bit of a fat crane at first). I then delighted the kids at my table by teaching them the origami balloon. After origami time they brought out the little ball-and-cup game I remember as a kid; and man...these kids are bleedin' good at it. These versions were a cross shape, 3 little concave divots instead of full-on cups, and the peg at the top. The trick of the peg and hole in the ball, I discovered while watching the kids do it, was to spin the ball first, then flip it up to catch it on the peg. Gyroscopic stabilization, mastered by 4th graders. Damn. Naturally, in turn it comes to me, I catch the ball on a cup with a few tries (these kids can skip it from one cup to another and back...over and over...), then much to my and everyone else who saw me do it's surprise, pegged the ball on my first shot. Couldn't do it again to save my life, but hey...it was impressive once. Another part of the free play time we had involved (for my group at least) batting about the origami balloons I and one of the girls had made in volleyball fashion, until the more energetic lad pulled out his fan we'd just made and turned it into more of a tennis match.

Lunchtime rolls about, and a group of kids don aprons and caps, and disappear off to the kitchen, returning with trays, bowls, utensils, and our meal. The lunch provided was a good size roll of rice bread, corn on the cob (score), and a meat'n'taters stew. One really neat thing about the whole deal was the teachers weren't the ones fetching and doling out everything, it was all done by the kids. They were responsible for going to the kitchen, bringing back the materials, and making sure everyone had their lunch given out to them. Trusted with responsibility, and very eager to jump forward to do it. Tasty meal too.

Following lunch, we push all the desks towards the back of the room, creating a large enough space in the middle of the classroom for the next game: essentially Hot Potato. We're all sat in a large circle (or oval, as it became with the available space), and start. One person's stuck in the middle, covers their eyes, and gets to call the amount of time (by saying guruguruguruguru...) and direction the ball gets passed (pika to reverse). When they stop (dokan), the person holding the ball trades places with the one in the center, had to say their name, and something they like...in English for the kids, in Japanese for us. The first person to get stuck in the middle 3 times 'lost,' and the game ended. One of our number was the unfortunate 'loser,' but not before we'd gone a good while, and even managed to get Yamamoto-sensei 'stuck' for a round.

There was still game time left to be had, so as I'm standing talking to...Yamamoto-sensei, I think, the energetic girl of my group runs up, grabs my hand, and pulls me over to where another game's being played. This one involved a shoji (Japanese chess) set: all the pieces were collected in the box, flipped upside-down on the board, and the box removed. The object was to take tiles (the pieces) off the board, with one finger, without making any noise. You make a noise, you lose your turn and don't get the tile you were attempting. Go around in the circle until you're out of tiles, and the person with the most won.

The day's wound down to its end by this point, so it's cleaning time. There are no janitors who come about and clean the bathrooms on the floors, or the classrooms: it's all done by the kids. I can see some wisdom in this practice...for one, you're trusted to do a proper job of cleaning, and you're less apt to make a mess as you know you're the one who has to clean it up at the end of the day. I get called in to help with cleaning up the bathroom, cramming my feet from slippers that my heel overhung by at least 2" to even smaller bathroom slippers...ergh.

Cleaning done, we gather our bags and head back to the gym. We're all sitting in our groups, get the thank-you speech from the school, and Sam gets up for a thank-you-and-goodbye speech...but instead of a speech, he goes over to the piano sitting in the gym. Much to my, and other people who live in AP1 (he lives in AP2), he launches into music from Princess Mononoke, 2 of the Mario themes, then after being called back for an encore, which he does what he can remember of music from Howl's Moving Castle, but later admitted he just was improvising the latter half of it (still sounded good to me). Evidently, about every day over in AP2, Sam can be found on the piano in the large common area playing for a few hours...who knew. At any rate, following this, we'd all been distributed stickers (it's APU's 10th anniversary) that we then give out to the kids, who are thrilled. Finally, we're all piled up onto the stage/platform the kids started out on that morning, and luckily don't have to sing anything...which some of us were a little worried we were gonna be informed just then that we were supposed to do <__<; Instead, the kids then all form a huge 2-lined "S" that we then pile down off the stage and walk through, high-fiving everyone along the way (Sam at 6'2" was having fun holding his hands way up high making the kids jump for it). We pile back on the bus and head back to APU. Fun, fun day...a lot more than I was expecting it to be.


Featured here is Sam during one of his afternoon performances, actually the afternoon we got back from the school trip. Evidently he'd been playing for 10+ years...unfortunately he didn't know the Charlie Brown music from Vince Guaraldi. Alas.