The wildness continues...

after returning late from minamishiro's graduation festivities, i crashed, only to rise again monday morning and head for yoshikawa koko, my satellite school which is about an hour commute into the country, for graduation. to my surprise, the gym looked identical in both schools, chair arrangement and tall red and white striped wall hangings circling the huge room. and it was also a bow fest. i noticed that everyone who spoke had their speeches written on a white paper fan similar to the ones we made as children. as they stood behind the podium, they ceremoniously unfolded the four sides of another white piece of paper that enveloped it. after finshing, they repeated the process in reverse order. i also noticed the lack of expression on the students' faces; no upturned corners of mouths, no wet eyes. one teacher told me the japanese don't like to share their feelings. after the ceremony, i made the rounds congratulating the students...

sacchi chan, on the right, has really good english and would help me out when i was conducting class solo. the girl to the left of me rode the bus and the train with me every morning and afternoon before i got my car so we had a lot of time to talk.

the girl on the left is valedictorian and head of the tea ceremony club to which i would accompany her regularly.
i passed kimura san, my maintenance man friend [not the flirty one], who told me to go to the sake making room, wink, nudge. after i wound my way thru the maze that is yoshikawa's hallways, i found several of the male staffers gathered around a table on which were 3 large cups of sake, each labeled with their name, brewing dates and specs on their alcohol content and ingredients. they explained to me which was which and urged me to try. we all stood around chatting and sipping from the same big ole cups. there was sweet, normal and spicy, which was my favorite. later the teacher gave me a tour of the equipment.

the best i could understand...the rice starts here where it is mashed. then it is piped to a large vat where sugar and other things are added. then it is piped into tubs like this:

where it is labeled and allowed to ferment. they only make one batch, consisting of three big tubs, each year.
later some of the graduates' bands were playing in the music room. note the misspelling of 'welcome' on the sign in the background.

[video to come soon...cut and paste this link to see it: http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/japanbystorm]

this is kaneko kun, my boyfriend, uh...i mean student, who asked me to marry him on the last day of class.




everyday at yoshikawa i find myself examining sato and kobayashi senseis lunches; they are always beautifully arranged pieces of meat and vegetables prepared by their dutiful wife and mother respectively. on this day, sato sensei's wife had also made lunch for me...a bowl of rice topped with strips of egg, seaweed, shrimp, lotus root, green vegetable and sesame seeds, aka chirashi zushi. it was great. it took me about 10 minutes to write her a simple thank you note in japanese script which i tucked back into the container.


i returned to takada, the part of town where i live, early to drop off my car and catch the train back to yoshikawa. this way i could drink at the enkai. at this point, i'm running on 7 hours of cumulative sleep over the previous 2 nights. sato sensei picked me up at the station and we headed to mitsu nagame, or 3 views, inn for the party. this time i drew the number 3 which meant i was seated at the head table with the 2 guests of honor [the seniors' homeroom teachers], a man i didn't know and 1 man i had met at a party 5 months ago [he continuously complemented my japanese, saying how much it had improved since we were introduced. yeah.]. 3 teachers did a hilarious comedy skit [body language goes a long way]

another sang a roast of some teachers

it was an absolute laught fest. i was so busy making the rounds, talking with the vice principal i adore and other teachers that i had seen and was curious to meet, that i didn't get the chance to schmooze with any of the english teachers. afterwards, about 10 of us walked to another inn nearby for the ni ji kai.

we took the last train as far into town as it would go and then torishima sensei, back left corner of above pic, had his wife drive several of us home.
for working on sunday, i was given tuesday off, which i spent in a coma. good thing my sleep feels somewhat back to normal because i'm fighting off sickness and the weekend is approaching...not just any weekend, but the last weekend we'll have to perform the musical! i am damn excited. the show is on sado island, which is a bit of a hassle to get to. after that...PNG, here i come. ****9 days to go*****