School Marathon

School started up again in the first week of September, and since then the kids have been training for the school marathon. Yep, the kiddies hafta run a marathon, and if they don't finish in the allotted time they must rerun it. Of course, this is a Japanese marathon, which means any long run.

Last year the girls ran 3K and the boys 5K. I was looking forward to joining in for a leisurely 3K jog to break up my day, but this year the distances were increased. The girls had 5K and the boys had a whopping 9K! I joined in anyway, but it wasn't as fun and easy as I'd hoped. Still fun, though.

It was a beautiful day for it, too. We ran a loop around the school, then down a path by the river. Teachers were placed every few hundred meters to encourage/enforce running.

Overall, I came in 58th out of 170 girls, so not too bad. I think the students really liked seeing me join in their misery. And my tomato coloring definately entertained them-- "Do all white people turn so red after exercise?"

Jupiter Hall

Our kaiwa class gave us two tickets to go see a fall variety show at the local performance hall, Jupiter Hall. Fall variety show sounds kinda hokey, but it was really cool! There about 5 acts. Most were musical, but one featured dancing, while another was a short scene from a play. In general, not knowing what was being said didn't hinder our enjoyment, music being music and dancing being dancing. The show ended with an amazing taiko performance-- while I always like taiko, this really blew me away.

Before the show started, people were encouraged to sit in the "tea garden" and enjoy some matcha and mochi while getting a preview of the koto players. I love that powdered green tea!



And a nice plus to our attending the show-- we saw a lot of people from our neighborhood and the schools. Kinda made us feel like part of the community. Aaaww.

Takeda Castle Ruins

Fall is the perfect time to be outdoors in Japan. The cicadas are mostly dead, the temperature is that perfect not-hot, not-cold, and the weather's fine. So Aaron and I decided to hike up the Takeda Castle Ruins with Travy.

Since Travy's into real hiking, we planned to hike from the base all the way up. Buuut we ended up parking at the lower of the two parking lots, which meant our climb was reduced to a mere 15 minutes. Kinda wimpy, but it was still pretty steep. The view was fantastic and we ended up wandering around up top for over an hour, so it's probably best we drove.

Meds

I finally did it. I broke down and went to a doctor. I wasn't horribly sick; a very sore throat, scratchy voice, and really tired. Normally, I would just take a day or two off, sleep a lot, and recover on my own. But that's not the Japanese way.

In order to take a sick day, I must actually go to the doctor and take a note [receipt/prescription/whatever] as proof to school. Otherwise, I have to use a vacation day. Not surprisingly, I value my vacation days, so it was off to the doctor.

I was prepared to go alone, but one of my teachers volunteered to take me. Good thing, too! The kanji on the "medical history" was above my level. When we saw the doctor, I was able to understand him very well, but it was really nice to have someone there to confirm that I did indeed hear the doc right.

All in all, it was pretty easy, pretty fast, and super cheap! My prescription included 3 medications, 1 fever reducer, and some gigantic lozenges. The grand total was about $8.00!! While I've heard many foreigners say that Japanese medication is pretty weak [my experience with OTC painkillers here supports this], the stuff I took kicked in immediately-- I was feeling better the next day. Although that might have something to do with the fact that I called out and slept in.

Sports Day

The Monday after the Culture Festival was Wadayama High School's Sports Day- not to be confused with the National Sports Day in October. We were lucky and had perfect weather -- clear blue skies, with enough breeze to cool you down.






The kids were divided by grade level for the various events. There were a lot of races, but my favorites were the obstacle courses and the Bamboo Pull. The Bamboo Pull pits two teams of girls against each other, with 12 bamboo poles equidistant from the teams' finishing lines. The girls run out and try to drag the most poles to their side. As girls win one pole, they're freed up to join other girls on other poles. This leads to lots of lop-sided contests, with girls being dragged along the ground, kicking and yelling. Tons of fun!!

Fun Times!

Oops! Forgot to mention all the cool things after the marathon. Not quite a festival, but tons of free things to be had. We're hoping all the free stuff is a staple of Japanese marathons.

Showers for us stinky folk. The sign reads "Don't drink the water." Hahahaa!


Yep, there are Cub Scouts in Japan.

Free watermelon! Or, if you really wanted to, you could buy one for the normal price of $10.00. Since I despise watermelon, I gorged on cherry tomatoes instead. Aaron ate my share for me.


There was a pool where kids could catch their own fish to grill! So cool! The line for that was pretty long, so we did the adult thing and just stood in line for the already prepped fish.

Culture Day at the SHS

First week after summer vacation, and only 2 hours of class. How can that be possible you ask?

Presenting... The Culture Festival.

The home rooms each create a 30 min skit, and man a food stall. The non-sports clubs create displays or do preformances. Since the Culture Festival spans two days, classes are cancelled to give everyone preparation time.

I really enjoyed the Festival this year. Last year I had only met a few students, so I didn't know anyone involved.This year I could appreciate the really shy guy being the star of the show, or appreciate how hard the students worked. The skits were also much more original this year. Last year most of them were renditions of Disney movies.

My favorites would have to be the skit featuring Perry's arrival to Japan. Lots of great dancing! The Brass Band also did a fantastic job. Interestingly, the band always sounds horrible in practice, yet whenever they perform they're amazing. Must discover the secret...

The Hated Habatan

What I've been told: Habatan is the official mascot of Hyogo [or Kobe]. Despite his balloonish appearance, Habatan is a phoenix, which is appropriate since he's the embodiment of Hyogo/Kobe's resiliency after the Hanshin Earthquake of 1995. Since Hyogo is hosting the 61st National Sports Festival, Habatan in various sporty poses is absolutely everywhere. There's a Habatan dance that loads of kids learn.

My problem? I don't like cutesy things. The exceptions to this are Studio Ghibli characters, Moomintroll stuff, and the occasional Snoopy as the Red Baron.

Hating cutesy stuff can be hard in Japan, where grown men adorn their cars with multitudes of stuffies. My former Kyoto-sensei drank his coffee out of a teddy bear mug. Students frequently ask me if I prefer Kitty-chan [Hello Kitty] or Pooh-san [Winnie the Pooh].

Team Picture

Yeah, we look great.

Happily, though, that damn Habatan got cut out. I hate Habatan.

Kannabe Marathon

The Sunday after our return from Shikoku was the Kannabe Marathon. Gotta love the Japanese definition of marathon- any organized run longer than 50 m. Hooray! This made our team, the Tajima United, marathon runners despite the 5 K distance.

So it was up at the horrible hour of 5:30. Ugh. Ate breakfast, then Gregory and Jamila picked us up at 6:30. Made it up to the Tajima Dome to register by 8. Met up with the rest of the team- Grayson, Luke, Tsukasa, and Tsukasa's friend, whose name I can't recall... We pinned our numbers on, stretched a bit, and looked at some of our competitors. Um, wow. There were tons of folks in their "Golden Years"-- I was not looking forward to being whooped by 80 year olds. There were also a couple crazies dressed in animal suits- a cow and a tiger. Looked fun, but far too hot.

And all too soon it was time to go. The course was really tough, with long, sharp inclines, and balancing that out- long, sharp declines. I discovered that I absolutely hate distance markers, as discovering I'd only gone 2 K instead of the 4 I thought was pretty heartbreaking.

But we managed to finish. Aaron had the respectable time of 32:32, while I brought up the rear with 36:24. Not horrible, but it should be easy to improve on that with a flat course.

Finally, the Big Bridge!

The big bridge I keep referencing is the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world. The bridge connects Honshu [largest island] to Awaji, which is just a skip away from Shikoku [smallest of the big 4 islands]. No trains over this guy, and no trains in all of Akashi, for that matter.

No picture of the bridge; in general I don't think suspension bridges are great viewing. Clearly, the Japanese postcard industry disagrees with me...

So we'd found seats on a highway bus to take us back to familiar grounds. We went over the bridge, and yes, it's huge. More interesting at night when it's lit up, but still nifty during the day. We went to Kobe for dinner, then met up with Joy, who graciously let us sleep over. Then it was a Costco run before finally heading home.

Shikoku reflections: Beautiful, but I think a car is a necessity. The trains don't travel to some of the most recommended sights [Iya valley], and they are slow and infrequent. Shikoku is also hugely popular with cyclists, so if you're hardcore, I'm sure you would have a great time on your bike. The cities all had very distinctive moods, with the laid-back surliness of Kochi being our favorite. Shikoku does a lot of agriculture, and the food is fab. Overall; you should go.

Naruto Whirlpool

I fell down three times this day. First, at Jason's as I was hanging up a towel on the balcony. Second, more of a stumble somewhere while looking for transit. Third, as we were searching for the bus center that could get us over Awaji. The third time I fully fell down as I tripped over a cement cinderblock.

What does this have to do with the whirlpool? Well, nothing, except what was the easiest to find attraction of our trip was the most difficult to accomodate. Despite being a huge tourist attraction, and right by a major highway, buses only run there for a few hours everyday. And you can't catch a highway bus from there. Falling and transportation woes = super frustration.

So we get to the place, hike up and look through the viewers at the whirlpool. Well, where the whirlpool would be. The whirlpool is only distinct about twice a day. The area was still pretty cool to look at-- a big circular patch of stormy water. Since there was no way I'd get a good picture, we checked all the souvenier shops for postcards. Get this-- there were no postcards of the damn whirlpool. Instead, they had postcards of the bridge [no, still not the huge bridge]. There was a pack of Shikoku-Awaji postcards that had a single card of the whirlpool, along with about 8 of the damn bridge at different times of day. So this picture posted here was swiped off the internet.