Japanese Culture Overload

I've been really busy this past week with 2 main things: 1) the Yamagata ALT Mid-Year Seminar and 2) experiencing Japanese culture and traditions.



MID-YEAR SEMINAR
We were required to attend a mid-year seminar for all of the ALT's in the prefecture. I thought it was weird that we were already having our mid-year seminar when it wasn't even mid year yet (the new ALTs have only been here for 4 months). So for 3 days we attended workshops that helped improve our teaching and expose us some culture.

The seminar turned out to be a lot funner than I had anticipated. The workshops were actually really useful and beneficial. I attended some that demonstrated sample teaching classes and gave tips on motivating a low level class.

But my favorite teaching-related workshops were the Art in the Classroom and Trading Places workshop. Since I arts and crafts, I found the first workshop really interesting and she had a lot of great suggestions on how we could incorporate art into our lessons.

Trading Places was a class taught entirely in Russian. For an hour and a half we listened to a language that sounded so foreign to us. The point of this lesson was to give us a perspective on how the kids feel when we are teaching them in English. It definitely was eye-opening, and I learned that a lot of gestures and pictures are KEY. We walked out a lot more sympathetic and understanding, and now I know how to say the following in Russian:

• Hello
• How are you?
• I'm sad.
• I'm happy.
• Hands up.
• Hands down.
• Stand up.
• Sit down.
• Love.
• "Simon says"

But, I can't read the alphabet used in Russian and it is so hard to switch from Japanese to Russian. My mind was so exhausted from the end of it.

Culturally, I went to Yoga and Soba-making. It was my first time to ever try yoga and it was taught by a Japanese instructor. So half the time I was trying to figure out what she was saying, while trying to learn the moves. I thought it was so hard but really fun. The first time you do yoga there's so much running through your mind: Am I breathing correctly? Is my form correct? Am I relaxed? What is she telling me to do?

Some of the moves though weren't easy if you were a first timer. For instance, there was one where you balance your entire body weight on just your arms. I'm determined to learn how to do this. There's another where your butt's on the ground and your back and legs are up in a V-form. This pose is so hard to hold.

The best part was when we just laid there and listened to the "spiritual" music she played. I felt the pain the next day.

Soba-making was a blast! A lot of work goes into making soba noodles by hand. Most of the time you spend kneading the dough and prepping it. The funnest part was cutting. Then we got to eat it and it was delicious =)!






DEBUT TAIKO PERFORMANCE
Saturday my friend and I had our debut taiko performance in my town's music festival. However, I didn't know that this music festival consisted of all of my town's schools. So the entire audience was made up of all of the students I teach, their parents and the teachers. Holy crap I was so nervous! Especially since they all recognized me and I was getting "Chryssie sensei, Hi!" everywhere. If I mess up, I thought, they will surely have something to say to me the next time I visit their school.


There were only 6 of us performing and they wanted my friend and I in the very front. Great... thanks guys. I called it our initiation into the team. The stage was set up so dramatically - lights and fog, which I was so grateful for because it eased my fears. As they were introducing us, they mentioned our names personally, "Chryssie sensei... and Kawanishi ALT, Kaito." That made us even more nervous.


Once we walked out on the stage our butterflies went away. I waved to all my students and we banged away. I didn't make any mistakes! And I thought the performance was great - we were so relieved afterwards. At the end I gave another wave to all my students and hoped that they enjoyed it.






I'm loving taiko and the next song we learn is so dope.



THE BEAUTY OF OCHA (TEA)
I attended my first official Tea Ceremony today. I was invited by the lady who sits next time, who has always been incredibly kind and sweet to me.

We first went to her bestfriend's house to put on our kimonos. Prior to this, she had asked me what color kimono I preferred. I said my favorite color was brown, but she ensured me that was for old ladies. LOL. So I told her I would trust her judgement. The kimono she chose for me was so beautiful! It was black, but it had all of these fall colors and leaves/flowers adorning it. I fell in love with the fabric. The pictures I took don't give it any justice but I really liked it. Her bestfriend's kimono had green leaves all over it and her obi had a bird on the back. How cute is that?

Took a good half hour to put on the kimono. They kept poking at me for being so skinny and we had to do a lot of adjusting to compensate for skinniness and curves. Eventually I was all buckled in.


We attended 2 tea ceremonies. The first of which we sat in chairs at tables and watched the head lady perform the tea ceremony. Everything goes so slow and there's so much grace in the moves. But sometimes she would pick up a cup and put it right back in it's exact place -- I have no idea what that was supposed to signify. Maybe she made a mistake? lol, I wouldn't know.



I noticed that during a tea ceremony it is really important to do the following:

• Speak quietly
• Speak gently
• Always, always say thank you
• Be dainty
• Bow and bow some more
• Examine your bowl and the decor and CONSTANTLY comment on it

At one point we were staring at a bowl for a long time and it wasn't that pretty, but they just kept talking about it.



We ate a traditional Japanese lunch and enjoyed the view of a rainy day in Nagai City. Then we attended a 2nd tea ceremony that was different from the first. They kept asking me if I was sure if I wanted to do this one. I didn't know what they were trying to get at, but I said "of course!"

They were concerned because this tea ceremony required that we sit in traditional Japanese style, seiza, which for many foreigners can become very uncomfortable rather quickly. But I managed and sat through the whole thing.

This particular ceremony was in a very small, dimly lit tatami room. We had to crawl through a small door on our knees, which I found to be so entertaining to do. The tea was delicious and I tried to understand the reasoning behind the procedures.

I find Japanese culture absolutely fascinating. There is always some kind of meaning behind what they do. Every time I enter a Japanese house I take a look around and admire the simplicity. And in the back of my mind I try to figure out why they set their houses up the way they do.

I'm just taking it all in.