Sumoo!

Zack was gone over Thanksgiving Weekend, so I went to see Sumoo wrestling in Fukuoka. It was one of those things that I figured I should do if I had the chance since we are, after all, in Japan. I learned that there are exactly six Sumoo tournaments held each year, each one lasting 15 days. The trip I took was on day 15 of the only tournament held in Fukuoka each year, so it was a good time to go, apparently.

The trip turned out to be not only entertaining, but also informative, at least to some extent. While I did not learn exactly why everything is done in the tournament the way it is, I did learn a little bit about the many traditions that make Sumoo what it is. For example, the roof you see over the wrestlers here is representative of the roof of a shrine where sumoo would have originally taken place.

The wrestlers you see there are one of the professional teams at this tournament. I learned that there are five classes of sumoo wrestlers, and they wrestle during tournaments starting with the lowest class (the amateurs) and going up to the highest. There are always two teams: east and west. I have no idea how the teams are determined. What I do know is that every wrestler on the east team will wrestle everyone on the west over the course of a fifteen day tournament. Wins and losses are then totalled and the guy with the most wins gets a super big trophy (and a lot of money).

I also learned that there are no weight restrictions in sumoo. Everyone wrestles everyone else regardless of size. We saw a few cases where a (relatively) little guy was pitted against a much bigger guy. The neat thing was, the bigger guy did not always win.

See, every wrestling match starts out with two guys facing off like the ones above. The guy in the kimono is the judge. There are two ways to win, though: either you can push your opponent out of the circle you see on the floor in the picture above, or you can cause your opponent to touch the ground with any part of their body other than their feet. The nifty rule summary we got said that anything from a pinky finger to a top knot touching the ground will cause a wrestler to lose. When the wrestlers try to knock each other out of the ring, and they're fairly well matched, the result looks something like this:

When someone is knocked over, it usually happens too fast for pictures. The above picture is of the best match we saw. The guy on the left is Russian, by the way. The two pushed each other and tried to throw each other off balance for a solid three minutes (if it had gone four, it would have been declared a tie and there would have been a rematch). It was really captivating to watch. (The Russian finally knocked the other guy out of the circle.) I was amazed at how flexible these guys are despite the fact that they are enormous.

So most matches don't last very long, usually just a few seconds, may be a minute, but they are really very exciting. And after the last match, the people in the expensive seats throw the cushions they've been siting on:

Then the trophies are awarded. We didn't stay for the whole trophy ceremony, but the wrestling itself was very exciting. I'm told it's much better in real life than on TV (like most things), and I can understand why people would follow it now. I hope I get a chance to bring Zack along next year...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Okay, so I'm really late about posting these, but November was a busy month. Sorry. Over Halloween this year, I went to three costume parties: two at the junior college and one that OSC hosted for the International Ladies Club. Here are some pictures from each.

Party 1: the English Department Party

The part of this party most worth seeing was the mummy wrapping contest. Here are the results:
Not a lot of kids dressed up, but we did get a few witches...

And the teachers showed the kids how to REALLY dress up...

... As did this student:

Party 2: Childcare English

I decided that, to ensure that I was not the only person in costume, I would bribe my students. I told them there would be trick-or-treating at the party, BUT no costume, no candy. All 18 of my girls dressed up, the boys decided their pride was worth more than candy. As a back up plan, I had them all make paper plate masks. Here's one guy's brand new "costume": And here are a few of the girls...

And there's all of us:

Party 3: International Lady's Club

The adults got to have some fun on this one. The idea was to show the Japanese women what Halloween was all about. The buffet lunch was a haunted house, and EVERYONE dressed up. Here's what it looked like:

Sponge Bob is secretly a Japanese woman...

More Japanese costumes...

A bunch of the American Ladies went with a Wizard of Oz theme. Here are some munchkins:

These ladies made everything they're wearing by hand:

And even Little Bo Peep had fun...

So it turns out if you really want to celebrate an American Holiday right, you just have to leave the country!

For Thanksgiving, the families from Zack's ship got together at the Harbor View, since the ship was still out at that point. I also did a day-after dinner at a friends house, so I got all the traditional food. Zack said there was turkey and pumpkin pie on the ship, too.

Posts to look forward to: Sumo wrestling!!! I actually saw it, and it's really fun to watch. Now that November is over and I'm taking a break from grad school, those should be up fairly soon. Also, Zack is putting together some pictures from this last deployment.

Japanese Performing Arts

October 26-28:

Wow, what a weekend it was in Sasebo. I barely got home at all. On Saturday, I went on a tour with FIS (Friendship International Society), the group who sponsors my Japanese lessons. We visited Hirado, then wandered to the next island over, famous for a giant statue of Budda:

And also for a scenic road/trail called the Kawachi Pass:

Though the pictures pretty much speak for themselves, it was very much like being in Scotland again. We had a picnic in the pass, which was lovely, then went on to a small town to take in a local festival.
Our guide, a native of the town we were visiting, said that the festival was a local harvest celebration, held every year to thank the sea god for all the fish they had caught. Usually, there's a Kabuki play involved, but this year, it was "just" some traditional Japanese dance:

We were also told that the dancing was all done by local ladies. I thought it was quite good. Definetely worth the trip.
Also, in Sasebo this weekend was a festival called Yosakoi. The Navy ladies have been getting excited about this festival since early September. Yosakoi, as they described it, is a dance festival. Tons of dancing groups come to town and they (you guessed it) peform dances all over town. While all this is accurate, it doesn't really do the festival justice. It's a very difficult thing to describe, but I'll start with what I know: marching band (sorry for those of you who aren't band geeks). Think of it like a band competition at a high school: there's people in funny outfits wandering around, there's a big arena where people are performing, and lots of other people running around helping get the uniformed people where they're going. Now make the high school a whole city, add two more arenas, and close off a few roads for good measure. Have the uniformed folks running from stage to stage and dancing on the closed roads in between. You'll be getting closer to what Yosakoi is like now. Here's a picture of the main stage from above:

In my head, I had imagined that the dancing would be of a relatively modern sort based on what I see kids doing in parks occasionally. I had also figured the dancers would be college/high school aged. In fact, while some of the music had a modern spin to it, and the moves reflected that, mostly it was a more traditional form of dance, I would say. Also, the dancers ranged in age from just old enough to walk to old enough to be grandparents. Here are some of the pictures, but they don't really do the thing justice. It was a really cool weekend.

Soon to come: Halloween pictures from three parties (more than I've ever been to in one year in the States), and pictures of Dory in her Halloween costume.

Reasons they're not up yet: Grad school, grad school, substitute teaching, grad school, a speech contest, nanowrimo, and grad school. Stay tuned...

Cruisin...

Well time just has been flying along. I'm working on my ARP for my master's degree, lesson planning on the fly, and singing a lot recently, too. I joined the choir at church awhile back, and they invited me to join a Christmas Caroling group for the holiday season. Who doesn't like to sing Christmas carols, right?
And just because I had discovered that I'm now officially home only two nights a week on average, the ship's family readiness group was in desparate need of a President, so now I'm doing that too. (It was either me, or the whole thing would fall apart, apparently.) I know that the family readiness group is supposed to support the families, and that ours is clearly not terribly active, but that's about it. How we go about supporting families? No idea. Luckily, the current ombudsman used to be FRG President, and she's happy to help... or basically just tell me what to do... which is what I really need anyway, so I'll be helping to raise money for and plan a Christmas party on top of everything else. I wonder if it's my job to contact Santa...
As a reward for burying myself in random projects, I got great news from Zack last night. We officially have permission to take our Christmas vacation: a Cruise through New Zealand and Austrailia. I'm super excited, and now I get to plan all of that, too. So far, I have the cruise booked and Dory's trip to the kennel: she got the last kennel spot available for the dates, so we found out just in time.
The funny thing is the more I find that I "have to" do, the more I find myself capable of getting done. Granted, I have been resorting to planning lessons in the morning on my way to school (which I NEVER could have done in the States) from time to time, but I get a lot accomplished in the average day now, so life is good.

General News

So this week I started teaching daily. I'm subbing for another teacher at the Junior College until November, so suddenly my mornings are gone. I can't figure out how I used to teach full time and still have energy to walk the dog at the end of the day. Good thing Dory still refuses to take walks here. I think she's afraid the house will disappear or something.
Zack is gone again. He called me a few days ago with two important pieces of information: 1. He passed a major inspection with flying colors thereby winning the approval of his CO for at least another 24 hours, which is a major major major relief because this was causing a lot of stress. I don't claim to understand all the details, but I know that their ship now qualifies again for the Blue E, which is a big award for a ship. So go Zack! 2. He was on his way into Disney Tokyo. I promptly went to MWR and signed up for two trips in November to make myself feel better.
Other than that, life proceeds quite normally. It's FINALLY starting to cool off, so I'm not using the AC so much. I'm almost done with another class for my graduate degree, and I've also teach two private classes a week now, one of which is in my house, which means I suddenly feel required to keep the dust out of my downstairs. This could be a full time job all by itself. So the time is going quickly. I'm not entirely sure where my September went, but I'm pretty sure October will go much the same way.

Kumamoto

So last Sunday, I joined an MWR trip to Kumamoto. Kumamoto is just far enough away from Sasebo that it's kind of expensive to drive because of the tolls. So taking the MWR trip is the most reasonable way to get there. Plus, then you get a tour guide who will explain all the stuff that isn't translated, and if you're lucky (like I was) you get Eriko:

who doesn't know how to be anything but enthusiastic. She drew the poster she's pointing to, which is her brief history of the end of the age of Samurais. On the two hour drive, she explained how what we were about to see fits into history. As a direct result of this lecture, I can't remember the names of any of the important people, I simply know them as "horse family, monkey guy, and tiger guy." I apologize if anyone reading this has a better grip on their history.

At any rate, our first stop in Kumamoto was a park created by the horse family. The whole family was involved because it took like twenty years to get it looking right. The park site was chosen because there is a stream there that has super pure water: good for tea ceremony. At the time, a truely cultured man knew how to make really good tea (I like this culture), and so horse man number one decided to create a park in which he could practice. The park is also home to several shrines. The reason the park took so long to design was because the designer wanted to depict all the most scenic spots in Japan in one central location. I'm told that now I don't have to leave Kyushu, I've seen the rest of Japan. Here's what it looks like:

Honestly, the only part I recognized was the imitation Mt. Fuji, so may be I should do some traveling anyway. The park really was lovely, though. There were walking paths and bridges, and the biggest koi I've ever seen:
Eriko bought some fish food and insisted we all feed them, hence the crowd. And of course there was a shrine centered around the super-pure stream water. Eriko said, "If you drink one sip, you'll live one day longer. Two sips, and you'll live two days longer. If you drink a whole cup, you'll live until you die." That's just her sense of humor.

And since there were two shrines on site, I got the extended version of Eriko's patented shrine lecture. I learned about years that are considered unlucky for men and women (based on the average ages that they lost parents or children hundreds of years ago), and I also learned that shrines with a line of gates like this: are meant for business purposes. Hence, for those of you who saw Memoirs of a Geisha, when the girl runs through all those gates and drops her money in and makes her wish, she's wishing for good business. (Sorry, I haven't seen the movie, but I know some of you have, so hopefully that will make more sense to you.)

The final stop on the park tour was a 400 year old tea house built by one of the horse family members. It commands the best view of the park. Tea is no longer served there, much to my dismay. Mostly it serves as a historic monument.

In the vertical picture you can sort of see on the wall two tiny squares, one dark brown, the other tan above the rock on the ground. If you look closely, there's a stone path leading to that spot on the wall. That, according to Eriko, is how visitors who intended to be a part of the tea ceremony had to enter the building. The theory was that during the tea ceremony ritual, everyone was equal, and if you had to come through that tiny door, it meant you had to take off any weapons or armor and crawl, so it equalized everyone. I found it interesting that honored guests would be expected to crawl into a space to take part in a tea ceremony.

Our next stop was Kumamoto Castle. It is the third largest castle in Japan. If you've seen The Last Samurai (another of Eriko's favorite movies), the events described in that movie took place at Kumamoto Castle, more or less. There was no Tom Cruise, Eriko says, but I saw a real picture of the Japanese last samurai, and let me tell you, the one in the movie was way cuter. Anyway, that guy wanted to keep the shogun in power, and the emperor didn't want a shogun anymore, so the last samurai and a bunch of samurais retreated to Kumamoto Castle where they stayed, living relatively comfortably until the army that was seiging the castle gave up and blew it to pieces. Like every castle I've seen so far, it's not the original, but a replica. However, this castle does have one tower still standing that is over 400 years old. Here it is:




Kumamoto Castle is also home to the longest stone wall in Japan due to the fact that it's one of only a few castles built on a plane instead on a high bluff or peninsula that has natural defenses. Instead, it has this nice long wall and what used to be a deep moat:























The reason for the exceptionally long history lesson was that it tied nicely into the building of Kumamoto Castle. It was built by Tiger Guy, who was a fierce fighter with unfortunate family ties. He got a great reputation when his cousin was shogun (Monkey Guy) by killing a tiger with his bare hands in Korea, but then when monkey guy died the guy who promised to take care of his son and help him become shogun killed said son instead (surprise surprise) and became shogun himself. Tiger guy, as a result, was sent to a different prefecture, someplace quiet and out of the way where he couldn't cause too much trouble, and Horse guy number one got promoted basically and took over the castle and finished building it. As a result, the family crests of both families are strategically built into various aspects of the castle. We had the option of climbing one of two towers: the 400 year old one or the rebuilt one here:

We were warned that climbing the 400 year old one involved taking off shoes, going through narrow stairs, and climbing ladders. Naturally, I chose the modern one. The castle is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year, so they have a few people wandering around in character:
And as usual, the view from the top was fantastic: From the castle, we made our way to a nearby samurai mansion. The mansion was home to a member of the horse family who was also a judge. Here, we all had to take off our shoes to tour the place. We saw, among other things, the room where honored guests were entertained:
The judge's study:

The judge's personal bathroom (reserved for him and his wife):
And the stairway to the where the female servants slept: By this time it was late in the afternoon, so we all piled back on the bus. But it was a very good trip. We saw a lot and got a lot of history too.

Camera Eye's View

I finally got around to uploading pictures from my super cool brand new camera today and I realized I had pictures of several things that I never mentioned in writing. So here's what the camera says I've done:



This is the hotel that is located near Hario housing where Zack and I went to get this lovely foot massage.

ILC had it's first meeting of this year. ILC stands for International Ladies Club, or may be International Lady's Club, either way I'm officially a member now. It consists of five other clubs: four Japanese groups and Officer's Spouse's Club, to which I also belong. Each club hosts two meetings a year and then they take two months off. This meeting was hosted by one of the Japanese groups, who taught us to tie furoshiki (pronounced fu-row-shkey), which are basically decorative scarves. They can be made into hats or bags, as modeled by the lovely woman in the picture, and are also often used as wrapping when Japanese people give gifts, and to wrap up lunch to take to work or school. I got one as a door prize, so I'll have to practice.

Then there are a few shots of Dory destroying a toy I bought her. The only toy she still owns is the first one I ever got her. She's destroyed everything else I've bought her, and monkey ball is also loosing all resemblance to either a monkey or a ball lately. So I bought her a new one hoping to replace the old guy, but it wasn't constructed like the old one, and in literally an hour (I timed her), it looked like this: There's a reason Zack calls her Ripper. The thing in front is the rattle that used to be in the toy's head. By the end of that day, she had pulled out all of the legs and unraveled them and even gone so far as to attempt to take the fuzz off the tenis ball part. I guess the toy hunt is still on. At least she liked it, right?

Anyway, the rest of the pictures are of a trip to Kumamoto I took which deserves it's own post, so there will be more coming soon, I promise.