January OSC

This month, OSC planned to meet to see some Chinese acrobats at Hosch Ten Bosch (which I'm almost certainly misspelling). Hosch Ten Bosch is the Dutch Village Amusement Park located near here. For a (not so) small fee, you can go in and walk around in the village, feeling very much like you've left Japan and gone to Europe. Inside, you can pay extra to do things like ride a boat through the canals, see museums related to all things Dutch, or see special shows, like the acrobats we went to see. They also have restaurants serving every type of food you might desire and shops selling mostly foreign stuff, like very expensive cheese (cheese is a rare commodity in Japan). Here's what the place looks like on the inside:


So why would anyone build such a place? Well, two reasons: 1) from the Japanese perspective, it's exotic. While we Americans may not especially want to see a European Village in the middle of Japan, they love the place and go often to get away from "boring old Japanese stuff". 2) The Dutch had a major influence in this area. When the Japanese government went isolationist and closed every port except Nagasaki, they allowed the Dutch to come into Nagasaki's port to do business, no one else. (Apparently the Dutch were considered the least likely to try to convert anyone religiously, making them the most desirable business partners.) So actually, there are little Dutch-related things all over Kyushu island. Most are historical buildings like old warehouses, this one just happens to be a replication of some of the more interesting buildings from that area.
Anyway, we had lunch at a nice little Italian restaurant in the area, took the boat around the canals, and saw the Chinese acrobats. Unfortunately, no flash photograph was allowed in the actual show, so most of my pictures came out blurry, but here are two of the acts we saw:


I know that second one is hard to see, but each girl in that tower was laying on her her chin and chest with her legs bent up and around backwards so her feet would touch her shoulders... on top of another girl doing the same thing. My back is sore just thinking about it!

It was quite a nice event, and I'm glad I got the chance to see another set of acrobats (I've seen them in Beijing and Nagasaki before). It was also good to see what the whole Hosch Ten Bosch thing was all about. I can't say that I'll be investing in a year long pass any time soon, but it was good to check out.

January ILC

January's ILC meeting was a mixture of a variety of activities. First, we had our yearly group photo. Then there were several demonstrations. The first gentleman to perform is a man skill in traditional Japanese singing and flute playing. The traditional songs he sang were very... well... asian sounding. I was amazed at how long he could go without breathing, but may be that's just because lately I can't get through a whole sentence without stopping for air. :-) He also played a little bit of non-traditional music on his flute. It was very interesting to listen to, but probably not so interesting to look at in pictures. Here he is, anyway.

The next demonstration was three guys who did some martial arts (and now I've forgotten which style, sorry!). First there were individual displays, followed by an example fight. This was much more visually stimulating, but difficult to catch on film.


Finally, there was a group of Japanese Navy who have started a Taiko Drum group. I love Taiko drumming because it's both visual and really exciting to listen to. This group was especially entertaining because the leader had a very unique sense of humor. The first piece they did was entirely using little cymbals. Three guys sat in a row and were playing catch with the sound coming from the cymbals, if that makes any sense at all. One would hit his cymbals together really hard aimed at another and all three of them would "watch" the sound fly through the air and then the other guy would catch it. Of course, there were a few "mishaps" along the way. It got caught on the ceiling and accidentally hit one of the guys, that type of thing. It was really funny to watch. Then they got on to the stuff that I've seen drum groups do before. Here's a picture of that:

Like I said, it's more than just music, it's also visually exciting to watch. So it was a very fun event.

More to come...

I have a ton of updating to do on this blog, I know. There's the ILC and OSC events to talk about, plus another really cool baby shower and some general baby stuff. But first, I really need to brag.
Yesterday, I finished my master's degree. Today I got grades back on my last two major assignments and I can now say with some certainty (though the final grade hasn't actually come through, the numbers are pretty clear) that I managed not only to complete it, but to get through the whole thing with straight A's. I am wandering around my living room doing the happy dance!
It feels really really really (add a few more there if you like) good to be done! The degree is a Masters of Arts (Education) in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in English as a Second Language. In normal people language, I studied how to put together the information that is taught in a class and how to teach it effectively with special emphasis on how to best help students who are not yet fluent in English. I think I've earned my break from academia... and a trip to the Steak Salon (the reallly nice steak house here) to celebrate...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! It's almost the end of January 1st in Japan, but we've been enjoying a rare day at home together just relaxing before the rush picks back up in a few days, so I haven't been thinking much about the blog.
We celebrated New Year's Eve with a nice dinner at the restaurant on base (all the Japanese places were closed for the holiday, which is more family-oriented here). We followed that with... sleep. This whole staying up till midnight thing just didn't make a lot of sense to either of us this year. We weren't going to any parties, and we couldn't find a single good reason to stay awake past about 10, so we went to bed. And it was wonderful.
When I first arrived in Japan, one of my friends told me that it snows twice a year in Sasebo: once on New Year's and once in Februaryish. I have been mildly skeptical about how accurate that could possibly be. Last New Years, we were on a ship somewhere near New Zealand (and loving it), so I was not around to confirm the rumor, but I did hear that it snowed some, so this year I was even more curious. Last night it wasn't cold enough to snow and the forecast was predicting that it would stay in the upper 30's so I went to bed thinking the rumor had been debunked.
Then I woke up this morning to the sound of precipitation hitting our window. I looked out and sure enough: snow. Nice pretty little flakes flew cheerfully around all morning and then promptly melted when they hit much of anything. It was a very pretty way to start the year. So may be it does snow every New Year's in Sasebo... we won't be around next year to have a retest, but I'll be watching the clouds in February.
We spent most of today just holed up inside enjoying a day off, as I mentioned. It's not often that both of us are actually in the house for more than a few hours in the evening. The Japanese people have big sales starting today, and I was advised by concerned students not to visit any shopping areas because it would be like Black Friday is in America and I might get hurt (they are all deeply concerned about my every move since I'm a bit bigger than the average Japanese pregnant lady). Tomorrow the sales will continue, and my students feel it might be safe to check them out then, but they still advise against it on the whole. It's a good thing I'm not much of a shopper anyway. I have heard from others, though, that it's really kind of fun to go out and see all of the locals going crazy over the sales, so we'll see what happens.
In the mean time, I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!