Ooop! An addition to the preceding post.

Hmm, I got so into my undokai stories that I completely forgot to write about the ipod! This is the best story ever! At Shimodakita shougakko, the teacher in charge of me is a girl my age, (she's 25 I believe) and we get along really well in spite of the language barrier. I was at Shimodakita a few weeks ago and had some time off between classes, so we were chatting about how the school's undokai had gone etc. She took out her digital camera to show me some pics and I just loved the camera! (It was small, with a huge screen, and it was red! Neat!) I'm thinking about getting a new camera while I'm here, so I was asking her where she bought it and talking about how much I want to buy some cool gadgets while I'm here. I said something to the effect of, "I really want to buy a new digital camera while I'm here, they're so cool! I want to get an ipod too, I've been wanting an ipod for a while" to which Tabuchi-sensei replied, "Oh? You want an ipod? I have one that I won and don't use, do you want it?" She absolutely insisted that I take this aweseom ipod nano off her hands because it'd been sitting in her desk drawer for several months and she just never used it. Can you believe it?! A free ipod nano, just like that! I almost fell out of my chair! I was so excited that I was literally bouncing around, so falling out of the chair was an actual concern! :-P The only small problem is that everything is in Japanese... but I can read some of the katakana, so I've uploaded my music and I use it everyday! This is one reason why I really like Japan, Amakusa-machi especially. The people are so nice and go giving, they will give you almost anything if they know it'll make you happy. What a great town! Now... if only it had a shopping mall. I'd kill for some retail therapy! ;-)

...And so I got a free IPod and other adventures!

Many apologies for not updating more often, it's hard to find the time/energy at night. These kids are running me ragged! I've been keeping busy for the past few weekends too, it's leaving me no time to write! Ahhhhhh! So here's the lowdown:

Weekend of Sept 23-34: I was home long enough to eat breakfast and take a shower! This was my undokai (sports day) weekend! In Japan, every shougakko, chugakko, and preschool (and town!) have a undokai at some point during the year. I'm not sure why, no one has really been able to explain it to me. Anyway, at the shougakko the school is divided into two teams: the Red team and the White team. The colors were chosen because they are considered to be lucky/good fortune colors here in Japan. Kids are assigned to a team when the enter shougakko and stay on the team until they leave, so they are very competive. They don't assign teams at the preschool undokai, it wouldn't really work! The first undokai I went to was on Saturday, my JTE (Japanese teacher of English) invited me to his 1 year old son's preschool to watch and I had to go! The preschools here, btw, consist of newborns to 4/5 year olds! They are a bit like daycares, very strange! ANYWAY, this undokai was freakin' adorable! I wish that I had remembered my camera! The kids ran races, did some "dancing," ran obstacle courses, etc. The adults also participate... I found this out the hard way! It was still a really good time and I spent the rest of the day with my JTE's wife Kimi-sensei. We just chatted and had a good time, it was really fun!
The shougakko undokai are a lot more structed. It begins with the students marching around the track and lining up in their teams. They sing, do some group excersizes, and get ready to compete! Like the preschool, there is dancing, relays, obstacle courses, etc and it's really fun to watch! The kids have been practicing for WEEKS by the time the undokai rolls around, so they are fired up and ready to go! (I posted some pics from the Takahama shou undokai, check them out!) After the undokai is over, there is an afterparty for everyone who participated (adults!) to reward them for their hard work. I was invited as a guest so I didn't have to pay a dime, one of the perks to being a gaijin! It was was a really good time, the Japanese are freakin' hilarious once they get some alcohol in them! The kept getting up and performing the dances from the undokai! (I was pushed into joining each time, of course!) This night, they were also really into hugging me. It was really weird! Everytime I turned around, a random guy wanted me to hug him! Sigh, crazy drunken Japanese!

Weekend of Sept 30: The Kumomoto AJET Waterwheel Party! I was really excited for this, as all of 2nd & 3rd year JETS said this is THE party of the year. It was a lot of fun, but I don't think it lived up to the hype. The location was freaking gorgeous, (see pics) but a bit dangerous since the swimming area was rocky and not sandy making it scary getting in and out of the water. (I slipped and thought that I'd fractured my wrist, it hurt so bad!) There was a waterfall that people could jump off of, (I declined!) and we stayed in these AWESOME bungalows! After swimming, we headed back to the bungalows and the party began! It was a BYOE, (everything) which was kinda sad but everyone was quite willing to share food and alcohol. We partied into the wee hours of the morning... I think that I only made it until 2:30 though, I'd been out late the night before too so I was tired! The next day I headed home early for some much needed sleeping time. All in all, a good time!

Oct. 8: Takahama Undokaii!!! (The town, not the school!) About a month ago, a couple of ladies stopped by my aparto to invite me to join the town's undokai. I thought it sounded like fun, so I agreed. I was right, it was a lot of fun! Apparently Takahama is split up into different neighborhood groups and, at the undokai, they all compete against each other. I was in four events: the 60m dash, (I placed a close 2nd, some people thought that I won!) group jump rope, (there were 8 of us jumping at once) group tug-o-war, and the big relay at the end. It was really fun to see the entire town getting into the fun! Everyone from infants to grandparents participated, can't remember ever seeing anything like this back home! Anyhoo, my team ended up getting 2nd place... we lost to the 1st place team by two points. TWO POINTS!!! Sigh, very sad. After the undokai was, that's right, an enkai. (These people LOVE LOVE LOVE to drink! They use any excuse!) The party was at my groups community center and the women cooked all the food themselves, it was AMAZING! I ate way too much, but it's expected at these things! The best part of the evening was when all the men had indulged quite a bit of booze and decided it would be a great idea to dress up in the frog costumes that the kids had used for a dance earlier. OMG, I thought that I was going to die from laughing! Seeing grown men in these little frog costumes is a sight that I'll never forget! The pictures just don't do it justice.

So that's what I've been up to for the past few weeks. I'm also going to chugakko almost every night to help some students get ready for a speech contest at the end of October. They need the help, let me tell you! Some of these kids have the thickest Japanese accents, it's hilarious! I'm going my best, but it's hard to keep a straight face sometimes. They can just mangle certain words beyond all recognition! It doesn't help that, in Japanese, 'r' and 'l' sound the same. So, to them, flesh and fresh sound like the same word. It can make for fun conversations! Welllll, that's all for now. I need to get a paper ready for a JET conference I'm attending next week. Gah, stupid papers. I'm not in college anymore, wtf mate! Jaa mata!