清流祭 - School Festival

I know it's been about a week since I posted. But I've had a hectic week, and believe me, this makes up for it. :-P

First and foremost: here are external links to view my photo's from the event, since I'm not going to upload all 80 of them to my blog.

Day 1: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019350&l=c455f&id=62600704
Day 2:http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019384&l=f45ed&id=62600704

Ok, so, normally we have 5 periods of class each day, but for the last couple of weeks, we have been skipping period 5 as prep for the Seiryusai (school festival), to give you and idea of how much effort goes into this thing. The students absolutely dedicate themselves to making this a thing of beauty.

Well, I get to come in a bit later than normal, aka my actual time to get there, since I didn't have to go to the teacher's meeting. Unfortunately, a storm had rolled in the night before and had yet to stop, so the driving rain and wind, plus my recently broken umbrella (due to the wind the night before) left me in normal clothes making my way to work with my dress clothes in my bag. I made it to school and changed really fast, but blech, I was wet.

The festivities kicked off just before 9, which included a very epic intro video of the three 'hosts' running all across southern nagano getting to school, and ended with them running down the hallway of school, and then actually running into the gym with a host of other kids. They were carrying an old lamp too, 'bringing the flame of Seiryusai to Iijima Jr. High', and then lit a mock olympic torch-ish flame. hell of an opening.

Intro was then done by the Principle, as well as several members of the PTA, and then students giving speeches too. I more or less zone out through all of this, since I can't follow all the Japanese obviously. Before these speeches though, there was a big unveiling ceremony of the big banner with the 'challenge' theme. The unveiling ceremony was pretty overblown and funny. I took a vid of it, becuase it was so silly. But I was really blown away by how epic this thing is. No doubt there had to have been over 100 man hours put into this thing. I still really can't believe just how detailed the kids were when making this.



After that, I had just over an hour to go around and view different rooms and see lots of displays done by the different students. Which included everything from calligraphy, to artwork, fans done by the students, and even stools made by the first years! It was pretty neat stuff!


I also found the art room too, which ended up being a major treat. Considering everyone had submitted an artistic design for the seiryusai logo, as well as doing the landscape artwork, I had ended up forgetting that there would be work on display by the students in the art club. I ended up having my socks knocked off by just how good this work was. I was able to talk to the student who did this piece and she said she'll bring me one of her pieces from last year to give me, so that I have something to spruce up my wall.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I had bento (boxed) lunches, since the students were busy and we were off a regular schedule. The bento was a bit expensive at 10$ a pop, but super delicious and warm meals are always a plus, especially when they're this good!


the afternoon was filled with talents shows done by the different classes. They were both adorable and funny, and some had some pretty sweet music to them too! All in all, I ended up having a great time in the afternoon with the kids! The kicker though, was finding out just after lunch that the teachers planned on doing a skit too, and they wanted me to join in with them! And they were doing it in costumes. well, I wasn't going to miss out on the fun! So i just threw the clothes I had worn to school, plus a little kids had, and went as a kid. Lol. I didn't quite learn the dance perfectly, but that's ok, because it was still fun. Plus, I got to see kasuga sensei in a darth-vader helmet. Epic to no end.



Day one wrapped on up, and I had dinner and called it a night since I had to get up and be back at school again on saturday morning for day two!

Day two was 'performance' day, and had a one act play (that was pretty well done! although the story was kinda meh. A kid dies, travels to the afterlife, and says goodbye to his family.)

The band then performed, as well as the the choir. Then it was lunch-time, and over to the cultural center to see all the classes sing songs. I was really happy / proud to see the 3rd years of class 3 sing their song, as well as the 3rd year song of finlandia that I had ended up memorizing. :-P They did a fantastic job, and I took video of their performances. If you're up for seeing a fantastic performance, but a little long of a video, I'll link them once they're uploaded.

We then returned for the closing ceremony, which included a really touching closing ceremony where the students all lit candles, and quotes were read from different students about what they loved about the event, and then had a representative from each class say their thanks on behalf of their class, and then the class would blow out it's candles. The fact that 300 jr. high kids had open flame i think illustrates the gulf between the american and japanese school system.


Afterwards, the 3rd years of class three stuck around and had a picture taken, and then were ambushed by the rest of the 3rd years, and everyone ended up bursting into song, the theme song for this Seiryusai (the theme was 'Challenge'). Everyone was in a big circle and had linked arms, and it was just moving and awesome.


In japan, students take placement tests to get into high school, which means that after jr. high, oftentimes students leave many of their friends behind, hence the sense of comraderie.

I then dawdled around at school until it was time for the enkai (drinking party). I went to the party with kawai sensei, but got there a bit early and had to wait in a different room. I was one of 6 guests, the other 5 being teachers who used to teach at Iijima but now are somewhere else.

The food was absolutely scrumptous, and included some red tuna that just melted in my mouth, as well as great sushi. Also, per japanese custom, you get your drink topped off as a easy icebreaker and as a good way to keep the liquer flowing. It didn't take long for there to be lots of red-faced japanese etc. I myself had my fair share to drink (and at 50$, you darn right I was going to!). Well, then they had the guests give speeches, and I had to go about 1/2 through. which meant I had to do public speaking slightly iniebriated. Great. They wanted me to do it in Japanese, but I said I was too scared. :-P

I prefaced my speech by saying (and having someone translate for me) "Where alcohol flows, so too do true words.", to let them know I meant what I was saying. I told them how even though I had only been in Iijima a month, I saw many similarities to Washington, the friendship, the happyness. Especially among teachers, which I said isn't quite so common in America. I told them how Iijima felt like my new home and the teachers felt like my new family. Well, alcohol plus kind words = tears I guess. :-P I saw two teachers crying then, and two more told me later that my kindness moved them to tears. that was nice of them. :-)

Here's Kasuga-sensei enjoying the pleasures of the enkai.



Afterwards about half of us went to an afterparty, since we only get a certain amount of time at the enkai place. Kasuga was plenty drunk already, and this led to much laughter on behalf of all. The afterparty wasn't particularly interesting. Just fun and enjoyable. Although Kasuga and Kubota sensei both bailed while I was in the bathroom. Punks! I still had a good time, and everyone refused to let me chip in for the bill.

I started walking towards home with one of the teachers, the one who's class I'm eating with this month. I figured I'd keep him company instead of taking the direct shot home. We walked up the hill towards the school, and then he said he was hanging a right. He asked if my apt. was that way, and I said that It was in that direction, but I had never taken that route. I wanted to give it a shot though, since if I continued up to school, i'd end up doubling back later, and I know I had seen several streets that come out near my place, so I figured I'd end up on one of those. Along the way, we talked about how great it was to be able to see the starts, as well as constellations and stuff. I couldn't remember the word for satellite and wanted to ask if he had ever seen them at night. :-P I told him I'd bringn the word with me tomorrow.

Well, we got to a point where the teacher goes a diff way to get to his house, and I said that was fine, I'd go stright. Well, that was a dead end after a block. So I went back and went the way the teacher had, but he was already gone. I went down that road, hoping i would meet up with the road I normally take to and from school, but I had no luck with that either. I was pretty sure I was close to home though, because from my window I can see a cemetary up on a hill, and I was standing next to this cemetary now. But I'll tell you, this town is a different creature at night. I couldn't recognize anythiing. So i figure, what the hell, it's only 10:30, it's not that late, If i end up lost, I can walk for several hours with no problem. This town isn't that big, I'll just go back the way we came. well, I do this, and after not too long I realize i should ahve taken the fork on the road, and now I am lost. So I just start making my way towards what I figure is downtown. Well, I'm walking for a while, and notice that the hill i'm walking down kinda reminds me of Kansai. Then it reminds me of walking towards school. then I realize it IS the road to school. But I had been positive I hadn't turned onto this road, and the point I had realized I was on this road, I had been walking the path I take every single day for nearly two blocks. That was a bit of a head-trip, because I in essence, had no idea how I had ended up on this route. I turned around and started walking towards home, and all of a sudden I recognized everything (although this was the first time seeing it at night.). It was just really creepy how it all came into focus at once.

Today I took it easy, cleaned up (and now my apt. looks pretty darn spiffy!) and made some great spaghetti for dinner and an omlette for b-fast/lunch. I went shopping at a different grocery store today, that's only about a block farther than the one i normally go to, but I had been avoiding because I'd been having trouble getting to it on a day it was open. well, I'm going to keep going there from now on. A much better selection of stuff and it's cheaper. I had melon cream soda today, and nearly wet myself. Fantastic stuff.