Halloween

October 22, 2014

                This past Saturday, we were invited to attend a Halloween party at a preschool in Tarui.  We were asked to dress up.  Adam decided to go as Super Bear (AKA Super Kuma) and I went as a princess (AKA a woman in a green dress). 

                We were picked up by the school bus and driven out to the preschool.  It actually was quite far so I was glad we had a ride.  When we arrived we were greeted by the head teacher (or at least the teacher in charge of the day).  All the kids and teachers were dressed up, but none of the parents were.  I’m pretty sure Adam should have won a prize for the best adult costume.  Maybe even the best costume.  We had a few minutes before the activities began and in that time Adam had all these little preschoolers around him poking at him and feeling his costume.  They are told to sit down which actually involves them squatting.  Adam and I are given seats of honour (hot pink chairs) in front.  No one else has chairs except the head teacher.  All the kids around us are more interested in Adam than all the activities that are going on.  

              

Can you spot the hot pink chairs?

             Adam is first introduced and then interviewed by the Kita Junior High students who are volunteering as helpers for the day.  After some songs, a magic show, some stories (all of this done in English and fairly impressively), came the main highlight: Adam demonstrating how to carve a pumpkin.  The pumpkins that normally grow in Japan are little green ones (I had bought one earlier in the week to make a pumpkin loaf for our company Saturday night) so part of the cultural learning for the children was to see a large orange pumpkin and how to carve it.  I guess every year this preschool grows orange pumpkins for their party, but it’s hard to grow them because the summers are so hot.  From what I gathered, this year their crop didn’t do so well, so some farmers donated theirs.  Nonetheless, a couple of these pumpkins were huge! 

                Back to the main highlight, after Adam had asked what shape to make the eyes, nose, mouth, and drawn them on the pumpkin, he offered the knife to the junior high students.  All of them backed away.  So there’s Adam with a huge mincing knife carving this pumpkin.  The preschoolers are very interested, they’re all standing now peering over each other to get a look at the carving action.  The junior high students do step in and help take out the insides of the pumpkin while Adam explains how you can cook and eat the seeds.  I thought it was funny that the students had a plastic glove on to take out the insides of the pumpkin.  At last, the pumpkin was carved and the kids sang a song as Adam showed off his handy work. 

                After the main highlight, the children had the option to make a pumpkin craft with seeds, carve a pumpkin, or make pumpkin chiffon cakes (all of this with their parents of course).  During this time we wandered around checking it all out.  We ran into the English speaking family that we know here and chatted with them, admiring the children’s costumes. 

                As the activity time was coming to a close, the kids were arranged into partners to go trick or treating to fourteen haunted houses  These kids held hands with their partner the entire time (or at least it seemed so) which often resulted in one kid running ahead and pulling his/her partner behind to the next haunted house.  As you can see from the pictures, they’re really impressive and from the sounds of things they make them new every year.  That’s a lot of hard work!  Now, I’m getting ahead of myself.  So Super Kuma and Princess Janelle were also given trick or treating bags.  They gave us a map with the fourteen haunted houses on it and each time we visited a house they stamped that house on our map (this is multi-purposed as it helps kids see which ones they've missed and also make sure they don’t keep going back to the same house).  We both got bag fulls of candy and felt like little kids again.  Once the trick or treating was wrapping up, we were escorted to our table for lunch.  We were served a delicious lunch!  The party was over after lunch.  We were given a huge fruit basket and Belgian chocolates as a thank you for coming/ nice to meet you.  We also got to take the pumpkin that Adam carved home. I’d say that we got a lot of food just for demonstrating how to carve a pumpkin. 

Trick-or-treating
I think I look a little old for this :)

We were given a very warm send off as we were accompanied to the school bus/van.  The teachers and junior high students stood around the van and waived for quite a while as we drove off into the midday sun.  We really were given the royal treatment.  It will be strange going back to Calgary and losing our “celebrity” status.  It was a really enjoyable day and really great seeing all these cute kids dressed up for Halloween. 

                In conclusion, it seems like the Japanese, while not celebrating Halloween like we do in Canada, make a bigger deal out of it than us.  Lately, all my classes at the American Language School involves some Halloween activities.  

                That evening, we had one of the girls that I work with over for dinner.  It was an enjoyable evening filled with good food and Scrabble.

                With the new influx of pumpkin in our home, I have been making pumpkin loaves this week.  My plan is to give them to different people as gifts.

                Sunday, there was a Brazillian BBQ at church that we attended.  The food was really good, although there was only one kind of barbecued meat (they also had noodles, rice, a curry-potato dish, and salads).  That being said we both ate a week’s worth of meat.  

                Today was the Kita Junior High choral festival.  It was at the cultural centre and open to everyone.  Adam and I went together.  Every home room class in the school is its own choir.  They compete against all the other classes in this festival.  Each class first sings the same song (ie. the seventh graders all sing the same first song, the eighth graders a different same song, etc.) and then a different song.  They have (a) student(s) from their class playing the piano.  They also have a fellow student conduct them.  Boy, do those kids get into the conducting too.  The entire ceremony was led by the students, with them speaking before they performed.  The students were very well behaved and respectful as the other classes performed.  They do harmonies and different parts and everything.  They all sound very good!  I guess the most impressive thing to me, is that all the students participate, it’s not just those who are more musically inclined.  I had to leave before the end to go to work, but I guess after I left the entire school sang a song together and then the awards of first, second, and third place were given.  

The Weekend of the Three Matsuri

October 12, 2014

                Well, it’s only Sunday night and Adam and I have already gone to three festivals this weekend.  Saturday morning, we got up early and headed for Nagoya (about a 45 minute train ride).  We rode the train past the main Nagoya station to a station closer to the port.  After buying an all day metro pass, we found our way to the aquarium.  Although it was a little expensive (2000 yen each), we decided it was worth it.  Apparently, it’s the largest aquarium in Japan.  We got to see beluga whales, orcas, dolphins, sea turtles, seals, tropical fish etc.  I liked the seals the best, they’re just so cute.  They also train the dolphins and whales to do tricks.  The dolphin show was especially impressive as you can see from the video.

                After having enough of the sea, we headed downtown to the Osu Shopping District for the street performers festival.  

This is the "Beckoning Cat" that is supposed to bring luck in romantic relationships, luckwith money, and business prosperity. 

      At first, we weren’t too impressed as there were so many people we couldn’t see the performers.  The shopping district was so busy, shops everywhere, performers here and there, and a parade of people dressed up passing randomly and pushing everyone to the sides.  The women in the parade are remarked for their particular way of walking.  They need to support themselves on a man’s shoulder because their shoes are these large wooden blocks. 

We finally found a place to sit and watched a performer who could play bagpipes of all things!  We also saw some acrobats, a magician/man who made balloon dogs, and finally a mime. 

                

Our last stop in Nagoya was the Cathedral.  They had 6:30pm vigil Mass that we were able to attend.  It was really beautiful church, very much modelled after European styles.

               

 On our way home that night, Adam wanted to ask a man if the subway we were getting on was the right one.  So, he goes up to him and says, “Sumimasen.” (Excuse me) and the guy moves over.  This happened a couple times, as the guy kept slightly glancing up at Adam and giving him a weird look.  The thing was that there was so much room around both of them.  It was like the man was thinking, “Why do I have to move?  There’s so much room around me.”  Adam claims that he probably didn’t hear the “sumimasen” which would mean he was uncomfortable with Adam’s proximity. 

                Today, we went to our Japanese class and learned the directions: North, South, East, West.  Afterwards, we headed for the Ogaki Festival.  At the Suitopia centre, we had the option to be in the festival parade and carry the float.  We opted to just attend the festival and were glad we did.  We arrived just in time to see a parade of baseball teams, and a marching band of elementary/junior high kids (probably the most impressive thing of the day).  

We headed down looking for food and were stopped by a blocked off square of road where these samurai paraded around and then fired guns. 

We found some food and watched traditional dancing.  (Can you spot the tired little girl?)

The second parade started with preschoolers hanging onto a rope pulling their floats.

 

This parade stopped for about half an hour while other performers did their thing (their thing being a portrayal of a history story or a legend?)  In situations like this, it would be rather nice to know some Japanese to be able to understand a little of what is happening. 

 The parade continued.  In Japan, there is no law against public drinking.  So many of the people in the parade were drinking beer and had someone pulling a cart of belongings/beer behind them.  Besides that, the parade is much like a Canadian one.  Different companies use it to advertise and hand out fans.  The main difference is that they carry the floats instead of attaching them behind trucks and that the parade goes up the left side of the street and then down on the right side making an oval.

                That evening, we heard that there was a fireworks festival North of Tarui at a shrine.  We didn’t know where the shrine was and we thought the fireworks started at 6:20 pm.  We headed out into the dark night on our bikes.  We couldn’t find the shrine at first, so we decided to ask some people who conveniently had never heard of the shrine.  We wandered a little ways further and found a shrine with a bunch of bikes parked at it.  We saw a son and father climbing up so we followed them.  As we got to the top the father looked around.  We asked him about the fireworks and he seemed to communicate that they would happen later (this communication involved both Adam and the man pretending to be a firework).  After this “conversation,” we were still unclear on where the fireworks would be.  On our way back down from the shrine, we saw people climbing down a mountain a little ways off and figured the shrine must be up there and the fireworks are done (there are many, many shrines in Tarui).  We weren’t sure though since the man had told us 7:30pm.  After following random people coming down from the mountain, as inconspicuously as two foreigners can, we decided that we certainly must have missed the fireworks and to head home.  On the way, we passed a parking lot with a bulletin board and some people reading it.  We asked again about the fireworks, they said that they started at 7:30pm and that this parking lot was a good place to see them.  So we waited as gradually more and more people showed up at this parking lot.  Sure enough at 7:30pm sharp, the fireworks started.  We had a great view of them too as they were being shot off in the field in front of us.  The fireworks seemed to be much bigger than the ones we have in Canada.  They shot them off one at a time and they went on for 40 minutes.  Anyways, we were glad that we had gone out and glad too that we randomly found the best place to watch them and it wasn’t at a shrine.

         

The Andrusiak Times

October 7, 2014

Cockroach Obituaries

This week, we have already had two mortalities among the cockroaches of the Andrusiak residence.  Monday morning, Croakie was thought to have entered the Andrusiak living room through the light fixture on the roof.  It is assumed that he fell (he was always one to forget to fly) into Mrs. Andrusiak’s water glass.  He appeared to have drowned and was thrown out the front door into the raging typhoon.

 

The time of Yuckie’s death is uncertain.  Mrs. Andrusiak found him lying dead on his back under the living room desk early Tuesday afternoon.  He was promptly sucked up by the vacuum cleaner as she was doing her rounds.  Although the cause of death is uncertain, it is hypothesized that he died of poisoning, as his body was found beside a cockroach poison trap. 

Due to the high number of recent deaths among the cockroaches of the Andrusiak residence, as well as the recent discovery of cockroach poison both in and outside the home, we are advising an immediate evacuation of all cockroaches from the premises.  That is an IMMEDIATE EVACUATION of all cockroaches.  Please notify all family and friends of this evacuation.  Thank you.

Culture

This past weekend, Mr. and Mrs. Andrusiak frequented the Osa Drum Festival.  They arrived more than fashionably late at around 3:40pm as they had to walk forty minutes in the rain.  They entered the school gymnasium and watched the drumming for 20 minutes.  A speaker came on stage, assumedly thanking everyone for coming.  The Andrusiaks thought the festival continued until 6pm that evening, so they stayed at their vantage point on the upper floor overlooking the school gym.  A few minutes passed and people started to clean up, at this point they realized that the festival was over and were rather glad that they arrived when they did.  Unfortunately, at this point, the men who were playing the drums had made their way to the upper floor and were changing out of their kimonos and into their regular clothes, thereby blocking the Andrusiaks exit.  After waiting a while longer and seeing even more men head upstairs to change, they decided to take the roped off way downstairs and across the stage.  Mr. Andrusiak reckoned, “We’re always making a scene anyways.”  They crossed the stage and returned home. 

Mount Ibuki

October 1, 2014

                This past Friday, I was taken to the Gifu immigration office.  I had found out that I needed to submit some paperwork in order to be able to work as a dependent.  Language barriers later, I had paperwork done and was taken to the immigration office.  Once it was my turn, the process was very easy, they simply stamped my ID card with something that says I can work up to 28 hours (I think that's what it says, all I can make out is the 28 on the stamp).  I was told it’s finished, so as far as I know I can work 28 hours a week... I think.  It was very nice to have a Japanese speaker with me to handle the process.  As it was the end of the month, I also got paid in cash.  Paying for things with cash and being paid in cash gives me a different perspective on money.  I feel like I’m making all this money when it’s handed to me in cash form.  I also feel like I’m spending a lot more money when I’m paying with cash.  In Canada, I hardly ever used cash to pay for anything and certainly wasn’t paid in cash other than babysitting as a teenager.

                As a side note, the way that you get groceries here is slightly different too.  Vegetables and fruit are sold per piece (not per pound or per kilogram).  The shopping carts are made to put two baskets in the top and the bottom.  When you go to pay for what you bought, you simply put the basket on the counter.  The cashier takes it out as she scans it, and repacks it into a different coloured basket which means that you paid for it.  Some people have their own baskets that act as the “paid for basket” which they can then just take home.  Alternatively, you take the store “paid for basket” to the counter that they have lining the back of the store and re-pack it into the bags that you brought.  I think this system is more efficient than the Canadian one. 

                This past Saturday, Adam and I went to climb Mount Ibuki.  Luckily, we were nowhere near the volcano eruption.  This mountain is very close to Tarui, but we still had to take a train and a bus.  Earlier in the week, I had gone to the tourist information in Tarui to ask about Mount Ibuki with a few sentences that Miki had helped me to prepare.  The tourist information man managed to communicate with me that I had to take a train from Tarui to Sekigahara and that there were buses at Sekigahara for Mount Ibuki.  I came home and researched the bus.  I found a schedule for a bus that went all the way up the mountain and figured that it must stop at the bottom first for the people who want to hike.  I also looked up directions from the bus stop to the trail head and landmarks we should pass during the hike. 

                Saturday morning, we get off the train at Sekigahara and go outside.  There are people waiting for a bus going to Mount Ibuki, so we wait with them.  I go and look at the tourist information across the street and have some sort of a “communication” with a lady.  The bus comes, we get on, we try and communicate with the bus driver that we want to hike, he says, “Yes,” and we start driving.  It seems like within a few minutes the bus stops, waits a couple minutes, but no one gets off.  I’m wondering if that was our stop, but didn’t want to get off too soon at the wrong place and have to wait an hour until the next bus passed.  Next thing I know, we’re going through the toll road and I’m thinking, “Shoot, that was the stop.”  I spend the rest of the time up the mountain, enjoying the nice scenery, but also wondering if we were supposed to get off at that first stop.  Forty-five minutes later, we’re at the top of the mountain.  Unfortunately, this made the bus fare that much more expensive.  We made the most of it though and still hiked around the summit.  The highest parking lot (which is where we were dropped off) is about a 20 minute hike to the top and there’s a 2km hike that you can do around the summit.  It’s really beautiful: you can see Lake Biwa, cities, rolling mountains, etc.  We took some time in prayer, ate a picnic lunch and relaxed.  We could’ve hiked down the mountain since we failed to hike up, but it looked like it would be hard on the knees (17km downhill), so we took the bus back down. 

                At the summit there are a bunch of little souvenir shops that sell some food too.  The only thing we bought was a bag of yams.  Yams here are around 95-195 yen a piece, and sometimes you can get a bag of three little ones for 195 yen.  We got a bag of 5-6 yams for 100 yen, so quite the good deal.  We thought it was so funny that the cheapest place to get yams is at the top of a mountain, go figure.  We wondered, “Who would buy things from this little produce stand, when people come here to hike and would have to carry it down?”  Apparently, people like us do.

                Sunday brought the second English Mass that we’ve attended.  Adam and I were the only English speakers there with a Pilipino family who were there to attend a baptism preparation seminar afterwards.  It’s interesting having a Mass said just for us.  We did the readings and the music (acapella).  Father’s homily was like a conversation with us.  He had his power point with pictures, but he stands only a few feet away and asks us questions, such as: who we identify with in the Gospel, how things are different in Canada, etc.  Needless to say, you sure don’t get distracted during his homilies. 

                Adam and I are still discovering new things in our home.  There are a few storage spaces in the house where previous ALT’s have left things.  Just this week, I discovered Halloween costumes and a toaster oven (along with a bunch of other things) in one of the closets in our bedroom. 

                We have also started to internet shop.  On Amazon Japan you can buy pretty much anything and many things have free delivery.  So far we've bought air beds, an air pump, and bike helmets.  Yes, we gave in and decided that we prefer a soft bed to increasing our bone density while sleeping.  I think it's funny how all last year I slept on an airbed and here I am for the second year sleeping on one too.  

                 Until next time :)