6th kyu passed!

Today I passed my 6th kyu Karate test. Woo! It was tough work in the heat, the test being held between 1 and 3 in the afternoon, the hottest part of the day (and the heat and humidity here is abnormally high this year). Still, がんばった、ね。

Next stop, 5th kyu in late Autumn!

Fly away, little birdies!

Well, I managed to enjoy the company of Redbeard and his new clan for around week after I got back to Japan. Sadly though, they have all departed, their nest of dried mud and twigs now sits empty above my front door. Recently I have watched them all go crazy whenever I came home (I doubt they were happy to see me, more disturbed by me being so close to the nest), or from a night out, but now, after a week of remaining vigilant, I'm certain they have headed back west towards Thailand or Cambodia, wherever Redbeard came from originally. I will miss their excited chatter whenever I leave my house in the morning, but I have to say I won't miss the growing mound of poop they left on my doorstep. Which reminds me, I really should clear that up...

Takagi Matsuri

A year ago I stood in a crowd of people I didn't know, watching locals join in with a festival dance. The smell of the food stalls behind me, the summer heat, the brilliant hanabi (fireworks) exploding overhead were almost overwhelming for the senses. As I watched the finale, a taiko group performed a song from their repertoire while a framework of fireworks burned furiously behind them. I remember thinking how awesome it would have been to be up there, drumming away while people looked on and clapped and cheered.

This year I was part of that taiko group, drumming away while the people of my village looked on, clapping, cheering and enjoying the extensive firework display around us. We were onstage for no more than ten minutes or so, but the intensity of the realisation took my mind off the unbelievable humidity. It was at that point I realised that, in just a year, I'd managed to do something I've always wanted to; to put myself into a foreign culture and become a member of the community. For the millionth time this past year, I'm so very glad I took the steps I did to be here...

Nagano orientation

I can't believe it's been a year, I really can't. On Wednesday I headed to Nagano city to meet all the newbies in the ken, fresh-faced and eager. It seemed like such a short time ago I was one of those people, half excited, half frightened to death. It was an enjoyable day, I just wish the humidity had let up for just a moment, phew!

Incidently, the summer temperature here is consistently at around 33-35 degrees for virtually all the time the sun is up, the humidity in the 80's and 90's. I can't believe how much water I've sweated out the past few weeks!

I also realise I've been rather slack with blogs this month, although I chalk that up to the heat and humidity; I've wanted to do nothing in my free time except lounge around under my air-con in my underwear. Now there's a lovely image.

The 1 yr mark

That's right folks! It's been just over a year since I stepped onto a plane with a one-way ticket destined for the other side of the planet. At that point I'd spent the best part of a year bringing the plan to fruition. I'd also never lived, worked or spent any longer than two weeks away from home and family. That 12 hour plane journey was the first step towards a home away from home. The next step involved me soiling myself. After that, it was relatively smooth sailing.

Now a year later I can say I don't regret it for an instant. The people I've met, the adventures and experiences I've had so far have most certainly helped to shape my perceptions and attitudes, and for that I will always be grateful. If someone had told me a couple of years ago that in the summer of 2010 I'd have been living in Japan for a year I'd have told them to stop taking that rubbish, but alas here I am. Japan has certainly been well worth a year of my life, and I'm now in my second year.

"Hold on, hold on, I'm not done... one more time, with feeling!"

Redbeard's babies

A few blogs ago I introduced you to my new avian lodger. Recently I was delighted to discover he has had babies with his significant other, all of which still have closed eyes and make no noise, but are rather animated nonetheless. They also insist on greeting me whenever I return home.

Driving license - acquisition of

On Tuesday Ben and me drove up to Shiojiri (Shiojiri; literally, "salty bottom", very amusing, but a joke for another time) to sort out our Japanese driving licenses. The international ones we'd bought in the UK a year ago will expire soon, so we needed to swap them for full on Japanese ones. Well, I say "swap", but it was quite a lengthy process.

We arrived at the centre at the ungodly time of 8.30 am and went to the international booth. We were asked for various forms of ID, including passports and our international licenses, about which we were asked an obscenely long list of questions about... in Japanese. Quite the experience.

At intermittent times through the day we were asked to go to various other booths in the area, including ones to buy 'stamps' (?!) from, one for a photograph, one for aptitude tests (by the time we'd worked out what we had to do we should have been registered as very, very blind) and another to collect the issued license itself. All very formal, by the book, the entire process bound securely by the red tape the Japanese are rather fond of.

Anyway, after 3 or 4 hours of mostly waiting, trying to answer questions in Japanese, we were issued our licenses and are now legally allowed to drive some form of transport around Japan. It could be donkeys, it could be quad bikes, who the hell knows...

Sumo

On Sunday we headed to Nagoya, the city of plenty, to watch the Sumo tournament. Recently there has been some bad press for the sport, as several wrestlers and associated people were found guilty of illegal gambling on baseball games, in which the Japanese mafia (Yakuza) were involved. This proved quite a big hoo-haa in Japan, and as a result several wrestlers were suspected, including one of Nagoya's homegrown heroes, Kotomitsuki, an Ozeki (second in ranking to the champion Yokozuna). As such Japan's tv networks refused to air it nationally.

Anyway, we made our way there to have a gawp at some big fat wrestlers slapping and trying to throw eachother out of the ring. Actually, there's a bit more to it than that, and it was a surprising amount of fun to watch! I buckled slightly to consumerism and bought a poster illustrating all the wrestlers taking part, as well as a traditional mug with all their names on. Well, how often do you get to watch a sumo tournament?


I bet on the guy in blue...


...crap!

Tanabata & zebra swarms

An amusing conversation was had today when I questioned the brightly-decorated pots of jelly served at lunchtime. According to my schools art teacher, today is Tanabata (七夕), a star festival related to the Chinese star festival, Qixi.

The Tanabata story celebrates the coming together of the two stars Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). The story says that these two lovers are separated by a great river (the Milky Way) and are allowed to meet once every year, on the 7th day of the 7th month.

The art teacher and a student were trying to describe something about stars in the sky, and then offered me a Jap-Eng dictionary which they hoped would explain things. I've never heard the term 'meteoric swarm', and on reading it found it rather amusing. I explained that it is common to call it a meteor shower, which itself amused several students given that the first translated it to them as 'meteor bath.' I said it is unusual to call a shower of meteors a 'swarm', offering them the example of 'a swarm of insects.'

The art teacher then offered the wonderfully amusing example of 'a swarm of zebra.' The thought of a huge, airbourne, black and white -striped flying menace amused me greatly, as it did the other students. I explained the collective term 'herd' to her, then regretted it immediately as I was routinely tested on my knowledge of animal collectives for every one they could think of...

Canyoning

On the weekend we trundled up to Hakuba for canyoning (our first shot at it a couple of weeks ago was ruined by rain). Thankfully the weather was good and the only customers were the four of us, so we had a small and easy group to move around.

I've wanted to go canyoning for a while and I wasn't disappointed. Sliding down waterfalls and leaping off high rocks into pools is great fun!


A brave wave


Weeeeeeeeee!