Oita, Park Place, and the BBQ

That weekend we'd been planning for awhile; there was a new Studio Ghibli (Hayao Miyazaki's bunch, responsible for Mononoke, Spirited Away, etc.) movie coming out that Saturday, and a bunch of us wanted to see it. The original plan was for Aya to rent several cars that the AP buddies would then drive groups of us out to Oita city to the Park Place mall; however school admin caught wind of it, so it got changed to chartering a bus...which worked out to be cheaper, actually. Barring the somewhat isolated portion the elementary school was located in, this was the first time in Oita for the majority of us (about a half-dozen stayed behind at the school to go wander by themselves from there).

The bus took off down the coast, through Beppu, down beyond 高崎山 and 海卵 (Takasakiyama & Umitamago: Monkey Mountain and the [Sea Egg] Aquarium), through downtown Oita to the more suburb portion of the town where Park Place was located. If I lived in Japan...this is the kinda place I'd like to live. The neighborhoods have a good bit of old and new construction mixed in, it's not super crowded like the larger cities, but there's more going on than in a tinier town like Beppu.

Our first sight of the mall was the large Ferris Wheel that stood up over the trees and opposite the ginormous sports dome Oita was home to. The mall's a fair size apparatus, so we get a good feel of its size as the bus circles around to a place it can park and offload us. During this time, Aya's collecting student IDs of everyone who's going to the movie (and having a bit of fun playing the bus tour guide), and for some reason, all the IDs get funneled to me. I'm sitting there flipping through some of them for s#*ts and giggles, and I come across Matt's (not Bond). If you remember the picture from the shodo activity and how he looks kinda stalker-ish (every photo he takes does...it's the bags under his eyes); imagine one looking like a goth terrorist. That's his student ID and passport photo: nigh-unto-white pale skin, dark circles under his eyes...it was not a flattering one, but nonetheless he laughed at it as everyone passed it about the bus amid a chorus of "HOLY CRAP" and such comments.

At any rate, we offload ourselves from the bus, I hand Aya the playing-card-sized deck of student IDs, and we're given about an hour to meander, find food, or what have you before meeting at the theater at 11. Adam, Becky, Jason and I walk through the mall, following signs for the "Food Terrace" for breakfast. As we walk outside into the main plaza of the mall, we grab some maps that include stores, and food places, and decide on Mr. Donut. Along the way we pass through the central area with this large fountain. We saw later in the day as it turned into afternoon that it was a popular place for families with kids, as the fountain jets would regularly shoot up to 3-4 meters in height, cooling off the kids cavorting amongst them.

Passing by, seeing the various shops all sporting some rather enticing sales threatening to pull Becky away at every turn, we make it down to the far end of the mall to Mr. Donut, and have our breakfast of coffee or juice and donuts. During this time we also try to figure out the map of the mall to get our bearings on where the movie theater is. The morning quickly turns towards 11am, and we take off to the cinema, passing through the main plaza again, where I see, snap a picture of, and resolve to later explore the "Plaza Capcom."

We arrive at the theater, welcomed by numerous posters of Hollywood movies in their Japanese poster form, as well as many native works. Much to our delight, you can get a very respectable sized 'small' popcorn (about the size of a medium back home) for a mere 200￥. We're early, a group of people we met up with along the way opted to go for food at 'Freshness Burger' at somewhat perilously close to showtime, so we're left with some time to poke about the lobby...specifically all the capsule toy machines they had there.

Aya and Asami show up, Aya with tickets and IDs to return to everyone, and we move into the theater. A few things about the theater: for one, concessions are bleedin' cheap, the seats are way more comfy in the stadium seating back home, and when you buy a ticket, you actually have a seat assigned to it. Given there were as many of us as there were (we were half the audience of the first show of the day), we just took up 2 aisles anyway and sat where we liked.

The movie begins with some of our group still arriving slowly from Freshness Burger (fortunately they all got there during trailers, so Aya wasn't left waiting on people and missing the movie as a result), and we're treated to the informational things, but in a more entertaining fashion. Qoo, a juice drink here that tastes kinda like Sunny Delight, has a mascot of the same name. Qoo and his friends go to the movie, and in funny little clips you're asked not to smoke, use cel phones, or use an empty drink cup with ice in it as maracas during the film. Following that is trailers: a new Naruto movie (meh), the Japanese dub of the A-Team (funny to hear), and a trailer for the subtitled Harry Potter 7, part 1 that would be coming to theaters this fall.

Finally the movie proper:　借りぐらしのアリエッティ (Karigurashi no Arrietty: The Borrower Arrietty). Anyone familiar with the concept of The Borrowers and a beginner -> intermediate-level grasp of Japanese would have no problem with the movie. The narrative is basic enough, and not overladen with jargon or complex history, and visually explicit enough in the ongoings to get the grasp of what's happening, if not understand the story entirely. I only missed a few specific words here and there, mostly concerning with a type of herb/tea/etc.; very cute movie, definitely gonna have to see it again when it comes stateside.

Following the movie, we've about 4 hours worth of shop-n-wander time until we need to meet back at the bus to return to Beppu/APU. Adam, Jason and I decide to scope out the music store we passed by in a rush earlier, while Becky heads off to peruse the sales we saw before breakfast. Foiled in my attempts to find a comprehensive CD of the K-On! tunes, I pick up one of Tak Matsumoto's (guitarist from B'z, badass stuff) solo CDs, and Jason nabs the non-soundtrack CD from Arrietty that has her song done by Cecile Corbel. A bit more wandering about, and we reunite with Becky to go find some lunch.

The "Food Terrace" we end up at kicks the crap out of any food court a mall back home has to offer, we have to walk around and look at every menu to narrow it down, because everything looks tasty (the Italian gelato/sweets stand by the entrance was very tempting...). Becky gets a similar udon to her favorite here (vegetarian limits her diet somewhat...), Adam went for a rice omelet, I got a pork cutlet/rice bowl, and Jason...we're not sure what it was, nor was he entirely, but he proclaimed it to be good (mine front center, Adam's center frame, Jason's to the right of Adam's, and Becky's empty bowl in the back). Another thing: while it was 'fast' food, it wasn't in the same vein as sateside; you place your order, you're given a beeper like when you're waiting for a table at a restaurant, and perhaps 5min later you're called up to retrieve your fresh, delicious food.

Appetites sated, we walk over towards the Plaza Capcom sighted earlier, running into Zeff along the way. Outside the huge storefront that compromises the Plaza Capcom Arcade were a few different statues of Capcom icons, such as this chibi Megaman sitting on his rather unhappy-looking robot dog, Rush. The interior of the arcade was mammoth, and perhaps a quarter of it given over to a playground-like area for kids, but surprisingly there weren't as many arcade machines as I would've expected. The majority of the Plaza was given over to pachinko machines, slots, and ufo machines (the crane stuff). Nonetheless, along some of the walls, we found game cabinets and machines: a few Taiko no Tatsujin, a Time Crisis 4, some other twin shooter games...then this caught my eye:

A ridiculously sized Tetris machine. Yes, those are the joysticks you play the game with; there's 2 buttons on the orb itself to rotate. Needless to say I couldn't resist, it was too cheesy and fun not to.

We kill a bit of time there, run into a few other SG people wandering about, then go in search of good clothing and Engrish shirts. Unfortunately the latter didn't meet my requirements for level of hilarity, but I got a nice pair of cargo shorts (that I need to exchange for a larger size...these aren't made for Western asses). We wander through a few more places, and find a used clothing store, whereupon Jason and I split off after awhile to peruse other stores in our short time left there. The two of us wander over to what was more or less a Japanese version of Spencer's, where I found and had to buy a bottle of "Curiosity Cola." I haven't cracked it open yet, but curiosity is calling me....

Despite not finding any good Engrish shirts, there was at least one photo-worthy Engrish sign out in front of a shop opposite the Plaza Capcom; it reads: Smart One Had One Good Idea and That Was Stupid. Be Stupid. I think it was a watch store, or some odd designer product. Go figure >__>;

Time in Oita about up, we return to the bus, my efforts at finding a proper obi to match my yukata also foiled, where it's a bit of a feat to gather the stragglers and make sure we're not forgetting anybody. As we get back to Beppu, the bus stops at Spa Beach where well over half of us depart with the promise of a BBQ later, and not wanting to take a bus we have to pay for to come back downhill. We split yet again with some of us wanting to go to Book Off (a few people needed more luggage), and others thinking it's 'too far to walk.' Wusses.

An hour or 2 later we meet everyone else back down at the beach, but we're still waiting on the BBQ set and such to arrive. As many of us are somewhat ravenous at this point, we walk further down to Youme town, run into Sam again, and snag food from the food court there.

Then, returning to Spa Beach after stocking up on libations and other beach party supplies at konbini along the way, we find that the BBQ has arrived, and Dan's running grillmaster. It's a good few hours of hanging out, shooting the s#*t, drinking, joking, and grilling, also leading to more peculiar photos like the one below. Before it gets too late, several people call it a day and split off to catch a bus back up to campus (I among them).

Asami was either laughing at something or looking at the grill, Chris (half his face in frame) was talking to Dan perhaps, and Matt was...well...being goofy at that point as well. All in all, quite a fun day to cap off an interesting week.

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.

Farmstay and Wadaiko

Trying to catch up between studying for finals and the last few weekends we have here, but it's somewhat of a losing battle <___<;
Lessee...left of last time with Sam's birthday...

The next morning we meet earlyish again outside AP 1 (not as early as Nagasaki, but enough that I didn't get to sleep in), and pile on a bus. Adam was far worse the wear from the previous night's activities, yet was persuaded (or rather, brow-beaten) into getting his hung-over ass on the bus because he was not going to miss this (Jessica, the negotiator). Everyone accounted for and loaded in, we set off from APU. Down the hill to route 10 that makes the 'main thoroughfare' for Beppu, turn north, and head to the countryside.

Bungotakada is a farming community about an hour's drive north of Beppu, located in a marvelously scenic place (though a lot of Japan is proving this way...juxtaposition of mountains, sea, and forest in-between is great), with lots of little farms spread throughout. We get to the city meeting hall, are funneled up 3 flights of stairs to a meeting room where our host families are waiting. We're split off into our designated groups sitting in a row next to our host, introductions are made, and then we're led back outside to the hosts' cars and taken our separate ways.

Matt (younger of the 2, not the umbrella gunner from last time), Brendan, and I were sent off with a rather nice old guy who lived pretty well up on a ridge overlooking 2 valleys with a pretty nice view out of the Bungotakada 'city' and the coast beyond. He and his wife spoke, well, no English period pretty much, so I got to play interpreter to the degree I could. While they were both very nice people, the 3 of us got the impression (or I certainly did, at least) that the wife had signed them up for this little deal, leaving the husband not too certain what to do with us. After meeting back up with everyone the next day and hearing all the activities and stuff they did, we felt a little short-changed; our hosts mentioned this was the first they'd done this program through APU (they'd had Chinese exchange students before, it seemed), and it didn't really seem that there was a great deal of planning had .___.

At any rate, we arrive, are introduced to Masato's wife, Yukiko, and their 2 grandchildren, Seina and Ryuuji. Their mother was evidently a Filipino woman who died a few years ago, and their father (our hosts' son) currently lived in Tokyo, so they were taking care of the kids for a few more years (presumably until Seina was in high school and could look after Ryuuji and herself). An interesting point that we found out later that evening was that their son took gold in the 8th All-Japan Tae Kwon Do Tournament, and bronze in the World Tourney, and had spent about 4 years studying in the US. Pretty spiffy. At left is the family's Shiba Inu, Maru (bugger can run when you let him).

Our first order of business is lunch, which was actually a pretty entertaining endeavor. The planned meal was somen, sorta the Japanese vermicelli, served on a fun delivery platform: a bamboo water sluice. Yukiko would dump noodles a clump at a time at the top where the water was pouring into the long bamboo trough, and it would then flow down the line past where we sat, to be collected in a basket at the end to be re-poured. You basically sit at the trough, poke a chopstick into the water, and collect a lump of somen as it flows past. The cup in Brendan's hand is a type of fish? sauce that you soak the noodles in, then eat. Add in some onigiri (the triangular rice balls, some had the ume-boshi [salt-cured plums] in the center), pickled...something or anothers, and some sausages, and it all makes for a pretty tasty lunch.

Aside from their 2 grand-kids and the cute as hell dog Maru, there was another family pet: Mario...the goat.

Yes...a pet, male, goat. About the only good thing I can say about Mario is that he wasn't a Japanese goat, which unlike their Western counterparts, are all-white, and have sharp horns. Given Mario's proclivity for headbutting people in the back of the knees, or the thigh, this was a good thing. Hell, Seina was getting annoyed with him butting the back of her legs and was kicking him on the head, for all he seemed to notice. Mario was...a pretty nasty creature, honestly...molested Brendan's leg on multiple occasions, and at one point up and started peeing just standing next to us, turned, started drinking, then proceeded to...service himself. Ugh. Did I mention that, by some bizarre coincidence, all 3 of us were wearing red shirts? Yeah, this creature was gonna make things interesting. <__<;

At any rate, a nasty farm animal 'pet' aside, we help clean up from lunch, then are taken by Masato on a tour of the farm. Their backyard had a really pretty garden in its own right, but heading down the hill revealed plenty more sights and fruits. Immediately behind the house were trellises supporting vines of not-quite-ripe kiwi and grapes. Further down the path among the terraces yielded blueberry bushes with some ripe berries; remarkably sweet, with a little bit of tart to them. Continuing further down showed trees of apples, a tiny plot of yam-like tater things, and myriad flowers amid a very peaceful looking spot.

Back up the hill and down the other side yielded more fruit trees, and one bearing a plant which we were informed was harvested and then pressed for the oil, then used for hair products, cooking oil, and other numerous end products. We were each given a little basket and told we could pick some fruits that were ripe to take back with us (evidently they don't take their stuff to market by and large, people who want things come up the hill to them and pay to pick stuff).

Aside from plants, trees, a cute dog, and an irritating goat, the Shibagamis also kept chickens. One particular one had a nest hidden rather well away from the main coop, and as we were helping prep veggies for dinner, we were shown that this hen had just had one of her eggs hatch; you can see the little chick's head poking out at its first glimpses of the world...which from that perspective consisted of the Shibagami's garage and a few worktables. <__<;; Following veggie peeling/cutting, the 3 of us were kinda left to, well...sit about. Yukiko was making dinner with her older sister who had come over, and Masato was off on some errand. Only problem with this was, we thought we were going to be taken down to the municipal baths where we could swap stories with our program-mates thus far; with Masato gone and Yukiko unable to drive...we were kinda stranded >__>;;

So, we ended up spending awhile playing cards with Ryuuji (the kid didn't like to play fair too much, did a poor job of hiding cheating, which we weren't having any of <___<), taught him Go Fish, and then took our turns with the bath before dinner. During dinner we had a bit of basic language exchange, learning what words were in Japanese, and explaining what others were in English (the kids had some English classes in school so far), ended up watching TV for awhile, and crashing early in the room that's behind the photo at left...was separated into 2 spaces by sliding doors. Tatami mats, futons, and the odd beanbag pillows that I'm starting to get used to here...Shown below are a little alcove in the other half of the aforementioned large room with some little mementos from Seina and Ryuuji, as well as some really cool carving in the center beam above the separator doors.

The next morning began early-ish...but it was remarkably uneventful. We woke up, folded up our futons, and kinda sat about reading books or somesuch until breakfast rolled about. Following that we watched the TV show Seina was watching, which was kinda geared to our level of Japanese, so it was kinda handy.

We're informed we've some time to kill, so we decide to go for a walk up and down the road a bit. Only problem with this, as we soon found out, was that there were some sizable dogs perhaps a quarter mile one direction, and closer the other way...yay. I did manage to get a brief video of what the Japanese countryside sounds like with these loud-ass cicadas...I hear this same noise outside my dorm window pretty well every day. (The mic on my camera isn't the best...but it's a still camera, so hey)

Not too long later, we're all packed up (didn't take too long since we basically just had a night's worth of clothes...), gather outside for photos I haven't gotten from Brendan yet, and Masato takes us off to the little meeting hall thing where we're having lunch following our Wadaiko drum experience. We're by far the earliest there, though gradually other groups start showing up, we trade stories (here's where we started to feel very...well...gypped), and finally the Wadaiko group shows up and we all start helping unload their van of equipment. The only problem? Pretty soon after this picture was taken...it started to rain.

So, we packed them all up and went to a nearby elementary school gym that was reserved as a backup for us. Getting that huge-ass drum in the building was an interesting feat...barely fit through the double-doors. What struck me as odd at first was that we were bringing in a helluva lot of drums, but far more drums present than there seemed to be members of this Taiko drum troupe. Turns out that we weren't only having a performance, we were going to start off learning how to play the basic taiko patterns and having somewhat of a performance of our own. Spiff~ (photos from this later made it into a local newspaper...I'm in the shot!)

After our fun drumming lesson and practice beats, we were left with a bit of free time to dink about with the drums as we pleased while the troupe proper got geared up and all set for their performance. Jason, our local Taiko no Tatsujin (seems Pitt has a pretty good taiko club), with Connor as backup, gave us a bit of a demonstration. Rather cool~

Playtime past, we all claim some spots on the gymnasium floor with a good vantage point for the Wadaiko performance, replete with 4 different size/types of taiko, and one guy on a shakuhachi (Japanese wooden flute). The performance we were treated to was...I forget the name, but it involved an oni (demon) in the title somewhere, and was a ceremonial type performance meant to rid participants and the area/etc. of bad luck. It started with just the 2 guys on the 2 taiko and the guys on the shakuhachi and little finger cymbal thingies, with finally the lead of the troupe (and one of the host families) appearing as the oni. He drummed on the various drums a bit, then came out among all of us, tapping everyone on the head with the fan. (This was meant to cleanse bad spirits and provide us with good luck.) I have video of it, but it got remarkably long...the performance was at least 10 minutes in length.

After the performance, thanks and closing speeches from the Bungotakada representatives and one of our own, we pile back into our host families' cars and return to the temple-turned-city-restored-hall-thingie for a buffet created by local ladies. We bid our goodbyes to our hosts, retrieved our luggage, and they set out on their way. We're treated to a very tasty lunch and have a bit of time to hang about outside before the bus shows up to take us back to APU.

While I think Matt, Brendan, and my experience could've been better, it was certainly interesting...I wish there were more than the wadaiko to be the highlight of the weekend, but alas .___. Again, nothing at all against our hosts...we just got the feeling they didn't quite know what to do with us, so we had a lot of unplanned time where we kinda just...sat around. Ah well...win some, lose some.

Sports Day, Meanderings, Takoyaki, Shodou, and a Birthday

So yeah...the week before the farmstay was kinda busy <__<;;

First off, some basic things about living in Japan.

1) The "exotic" foods; i.e. なっとう (Natto). This is definitely what one would have to define as either a delicacy, an acquired taste, or perhaps simply someone not wanting to waste any food, despite how long it may have been left out. Natto is fermented soybeans, supposedly very healthy when eaten regularly...if you can get them down. When you open the packets of it available in the cafeteria here, you're welcomed by a rather peculiar astringent, somewhat medicinal reek. Second, you pull off the little protective cover over the beans themselves, seeing that, attached to them, is gooey spiderweb-like strings of...well, I'm not sure what, that hang on and stretch from here to Guadlajara. Sam, for some reason this day, was compelled to buy two packages of the stuff to try and adjust his tastebuds to it. Going by the picture, I'm not sure it worked so well.

2) Insects. Contrary to popular belief, not everything in Japan is smaller and more efficient. Sometimes efficient translates into WTFHUGE. The first example of this is the earthworm shown at left...with my foot provided to show scale. They're hooj.
Another of Japan's insects is their varietal of the hornet. Going by this video Jessica decided to share on her facebook, you can get an idea of what they're capable of. However, keep in mind the video shows the hornets going up against the European Honey Bee. The Japanese Honey Bees are quite another story. They employ a rather unique collaboration technique to fend off the unwanted invader.
Knowing this, imagine sitting in one's room with the window open and the screen pulled aside to better stimulate airflow into a room that has the smell of wet clothes from a previous weekend of rain-wandering to some onsen. Perusing some websites, killing time, when you hear what sounds like someone doing some landscaping work...notably some edging with a weed eater off in the distance. Then, out of the corner of your eye, you see something sizeable, and orange to your right.

This is what I took after I regained the presence of mind following nearly soiling myself from seeing a THREE INCH FLYING INSECT not 2 feet from me, and in the span of a second being from my desk chair by the window to the door to the hallway, seriously considering just leaving the room. The sound was not a weed-eater some distance off, but the wings of this gargantua propelling it through space. Instead of fleeing my room, common sense took hold over primal panic again, and managed to coax the Hornet Of Doom back out the window, promptly closing the screen behind it.

So yeah...some things in Japan are bleedin' huge, and incredibly intimidating (the higurashi, a type of Cicada, also grow really big here...as in, you step on one, it may push your foot off it and continue on its day).

At any rate, this past week there was another buddy event: Sports Day. Morning classes over and done for the day, we quickly run back to our dorms to change, grab 'indoor shoes' and gym clothes, then reassemble back at the APU Rotary. Also joining us for the Sports Day was a group of about a half-dozen guys from Georgia Tech who got here about 2 weeks before us on a 6-week language-intensive program. We all pour onto the bus, which much to our enjoyment, featured chandeliers and little disco lights...that were never turned on, much to our dismay. The bus loaded to capacity, we depart APU and head down the mountain to a local Beppu gym that has been reserved for our use for the day.

We're all divided into 4 teams and given colored headbands (we got to pick a color, and teams were made by that...so some numbers were a bit lopsided >__>). I got to be on Team Bada-er...Team Midori (green). For the day, we started off with Japanese calisthenics to warm up, and were told the plan of the afternoon. There were to be 3 events (tug of war, 'shippotori' [tail-pulling], and 二人三脚 (ni-nin sankyaku: lit. 2-person tripod...3-legged race), and the places would determine each team's reward. First up, with Tug of War, we won our first match against the Red Team pretty quickly, and got to watch yellow and blue go at it to see who our rival for first would be. Thanks to the weight of Sam and the pulling power of everyone we had, we took first here. Hoozah~

Next up, しっぽ取り (shippotori, tail-taking). Here, our smaller numbers worked to our disadvantage in the grand melee that was some 50-odd people running about grabbing at each others arses in an attempt to snag as many hachimaki (headband) from not-your-team as possible in the 90 seconds. With our 12 people, we got 10 hachimaki, 4 of which came from me alone <___<;; Crap.

Last was the 二人三脚 (3-legged race). Prior to this we were given a nice long rest break in which many of us took it upon ourselves to pair up with people in our teams and practice. Evan and I got some pretty good speed, as did Midori and Kotaro; so we felt pretty good about our team...until we noticed a pair of the APU buddies on red team just plain jogging 3-legged with no problems whatsoever...erk. Good competition among some members of the other teams aside, overall Team Midori won the deal. To decide the tiebreaker between 2nd and 3rd for the overall scores, Yellow and Blue got to try their hands (or feet) at a 5-legged race...4 people tied together and running. It was pretty damned entertaining to watch, I gotta say; I got a video of part of the race, but it's not that worth uploading, honestly <___<;

Overall from the day, Team Midori too first (wheee), second went to Yellow, Blue third, and Red last (alas). For our victory, 1st and 2nd place got bags of candies, and one of the buddies on our team provided promised-if-we-won ice cream (bonus~). Third place dodged the bullet that last got hit with, which was cleaning the gym when we were done. Shown at left is the awesome winning team, striking poses or just being our awesome selves. Then, we got the first full picture of all of us in the program, and Georgia Tech's crew in there too, with all the buddies who showed for the day. I think at least 2 dozen pictures were taken of this...so many cameras kept being handed up to be used. Hadn't realized before just how large our group was...

The bus was on hand to ferry us back up to APU, but the day was still young, and we'd just gotten a free ticket to town. As such, several of us decided not to squander the opportunity, and walked off to some of the local sights we wanted to hit instead of spending the better half of a day sitting around the dorms.

Our first stop along the trek was a 7-11 for some drinks and munchies to provide fuel before we made it several miles down the road to Youme town and their wonderful, oft-frequented kaitenzushi joint. Recharged, we begin our way down the main strip. The first sight that greets us is Tsutaya, a larger used book/cd/dvd store which we perused for awhile (though it seemed the cd/dvd selection was for rental only...which was peculiar) before heading further down the road.

Next up came Book Off again. I'm growing to really like this store, having found several manga that either had their series' discontinued in the states, or were new discoveries entirely, a nice inexpensive yukata (though finding an obi is proving challenging), and a spiffy cheap Stytch doll (people here love that I can do Stytch's voice). On her continuing quest to find more great Engrish shirts, Jessica also happened upon some other...treasures, which she then tried on and showcased for the rest of us.
Classy as always Jess...classy as always.


The next stop we planned on was far enough down the street, and we were tired of walking enough that we opted to hop a bus to get us closer to Youme town, where we got to be seated at one of the cool low, tatami-matted tables. After about an hour of wolfing down sushi, desserts, fried octopi, takoyaki, and even desserts delivered a la convoyeur, we took our delightfully small checks (eating there's cheap and entertaining...score), and of course wandered upstairs to the arcade.

In addition to doing a few runs on such fun games as Initial D Stage 5, House of the Dead 4, and Taiko no Tatsujin (Taiko Drum Master), I also decided to try my hand again at Beatmania, whilst Jason finally got to try Drum Mania 7. To the uninitiated, these aren't ripoffs of Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, or Rock Band...these games are where Harmonix learned how to do it all...they just packaged it and delivered it more successfully in the states than Konami ever bothered to do. Fun stuff, that.

We wandered town a little more after that, hitting Beppu Station's grocery store before heading back to APU to shower and sleep, but none of that's exactly photo-worthy.

That weekend Midori and some of the other buddies decided to have a get-together in AP House 2 and make things like takoyaki, yakisoba, and okonomiyaki (octopus meatballs, grilled soba noodles & meat/veggies, and basically a Japanese stuffed pancake, more or less). The Holland/Brazil game was also running highlights/replay/something, so there was talk about that while foodstuffs were being created. The red contrivances are takoyaki grills: the top's a metal griddle with numerous half-sphere indentations in them. Batter, tako meat (octopus), dried ebi (shrimp) bits, and onions are poured all over the top of these griddles, then gradually they attain sphere shape by repeated turning and rolling, cutting the overflowing batter and flipping each hole's worth of makings over and over until they reach doneness. Then they're put on a plate, doused with takoyaki sauce, mayo, and 2 other dried somethings for toppings.

Yakisoba is remarkably simple to make...it's just soba noodles (buckwheat), some cabbage, and shreds of beef all grilled together, some soy sauce tossed in, then served up on a plate to pick away at. Masato fried up a few batches to provide some variety to the seven batches of  takoyaki that were made all in all @__@;;
Okonomiyaki is basically a savory Japanese pancake that gets made with lots of tasty stuff thrown into the batter. Shown here is Midori (with Asami in the background) showing off what she does at her part-time job down in Youme town, making up some okonomiyaki with meat Masato didn't use on the yakisoba, cabbage, and some other ingredients, I think, into a very tasty concoction.

However, as the batter batches grew to their final numbers, Asami decided to show us what Fukuoka-style takoyaki looked like. Take your ordinary, average platefull of takoyaki, smother it with the sauce, add twice as much mayo as normal (at least), and finally, melt/grill some cheese in one of the grill holes, and drizzle it over the entire top of the plate of takoyaki. Throw on the (benito shavings, I thnk?) extra accouterments, and you end up with the plate that Brendan's holding at left. Personally, I declined the offer to try any, content with my yakisoba and okonomiyaki. I unfortunately had to leave the gathering a bit early, as I'd laundry to tend to...it seemed that day my entire floor decided to do laundry all at once, so it was a bit of a fight for a spot in the queue.

The next week, we only had one class in the morning on Wed., due to the fact we were scheduled with another Gateway Program activity: 書道 (Shodou: Calligraphy [lit.: "The Way of Writing/Drawing"]). Everyone's piled into a large classroom, spread out enough between us so there's workspace for the sizeable amount of stuff we're given to work with, and shown the basics. First we're given some blank paper and instructional sheets on how to achieve the neat effects you typically expect to see on calligraphied kanji, and practice for a bit.

Shown at left is the shodo set: you get a black felt mat so ink doesn't soak through your paper and onto the surface below, a paperweight (the bar) to hold down the very flimsy lightweight calligraphy paper, 2 brushes (1 large for the kanji themselves, 1 small for your signature), an inkstone, ink, and a little siphon to pull the excess ink from your inkstone's reservoir when you're finished. Following our basic stroke practice, we're told to pick a favorite kanji to make as an omiyage (souvenir), able to practice it some, then finally given nice, gilt-edged stiff bristol paper, and try not to screw up. While I got the desired effect on some of mine with a bit too little ink so the brushmark shows, other parts were a bit too dry...rawrface.

Mine is Wado-Ryu Karate, Matt's is...translated "I am a Tiger Pirate."
...I make no explanations for the other people in the program. If you're reading this, you probably already know how strange I am.

The final happening of the week before Saturday and our leaving for the farmstay was a rather fun evening, one I don't usually do often. Sam's birthday was Friday, so some of us went down into town that evening to Spa Beach to celebrate with alcohol, fireworks, and subsequent hijinks. By the time we got downtown and ate at MosBurger (actually really tasty burgers...far better than McCrapalds), then worked our way back up to Spa Beach...Sam was well advanced into the Land of Inebriated Fun™. When Sam enjoys his libations...he has a bit of a habit of climbing things...any and all things he can. He's surprisingly coordinated when drunk...some have said far more than when he's sober.

As we're all around shooting the s#*t, celebrating a birthday and waiting for more people to show up, many of us get more liquid courage in us, and as such...strange props make for photos and amusing conversations, such as Matt's here, reminiscent of "Dr. Livingston, I presume?"
Like I said, I just have fun hanging out with them, I don't explain any of 'em...or myself, for that matter. A rather high point of the evening involved Dan and Matt (the third of 4 of them...this one was 'football Matt [Matt at left is 'James Bond']), some roman candles, and lines from Harry Potter. Yep...a Wizard's Duel on the beach. No, they weren't falling over drunk either...this was just the standard "we're having fun and finding odd ways to do so" type thing.

Not wanting to pay for a taxi, Becky, Zeff, and I ended up leaving a bit early, sprinting to the nearest bus stop so we could catch the last bus of the night and make it back up to APU. Becky and I headed off to Jessica's room, where we found Jason, Greg, and a handful of others all hanging out pulling up random videos on Youtube that someone in the assemblage confessed to having never seen before. Jumping right on in to the fun had therein, we were up for several hours more having fun before we all had to call it a night so we could pack and sleep before the farmstay the next day. Good times, good times.