I recently took a video clip of an interesting looking chair in a love hotel. I posted it on YouTube 5 days ago and was surprised to see how many views it was getting!
Yesterday I realised that it is currently the 10th most viewed video in Ireland this month and the 12th most viewed in Japan this week in the education section of YouTube!
In Akita most of the winter festivals are on around the same time, and many overlap. So it's often a choice between going to a festival this year, or waiting till next year. This year we ambitiously decided that we would visit 3 different festivals on February 15th; Inukko Matsuri (犬っ子祭り) in Yuzawa, Kamakura Matsuri (かまくら祭り) in Yokote, and the famous Takeuchi Matsuri (竹うち祭り) in Rokugō, Misato.
We left Honjo at about 13:30 in 3 cars and headed for the Inukko Matsuri. This dog festival has large snow sculptures of houses and dogs. This year the weather has been warmer and although it was snowing while we were there, it hadn't snowed in about a week and a half beforehand. So the sculptures we not as impressive as the pictures I had seen from last year. Many were broken or melting, but still it was impressive. And we got given free sake and had festival food, and spoke to random Japanese people who wanted to practice their English.
Next we headed for Yokote, to the Kamakura festival. This festival has hundreds of Kamakuras of various sizes. Some are 2 metres tall others are about a foot in height. The larger are made by piling up and compacting snow, then the inside is hollowed out. Local people relax inside the Kamakuras while drinking hot Amazake and eating grilled mochi. They welcome anyone in to share with them and to take pictures. They have large sculptures too, one was a large sumo wrestler which Phil titled Asa-snow-ryū after Asashōryū; currently the best yokozuna in sumo.
By the river there were hundreds of small kamakura that elementary children had built. We all tried our best to take nice photos of them, but night photos are difficult to take! I like this one though!
It was getting close to 19:00 so we needed to get moving. Phil's younger brother who is here on holidays here at the moment was to partake in, and hopefully not become the next death victim of the Takeuchi festival.
The Takeuchi festival is one of the more different festivals I've encountered. The small town of Rokugō divides into two teams, the north team and the south team. They are fighting for their livelihoods, and their lives! It is believed that if the south team wins, this traditional festival, the price of rice will go up. And if the north team wins, it is believed that the following season with yield a good harvest. Both outcomes are beneficial for the small town! Foreigners are allowed participate in this festival, but must be on the south team.
So armed with 20-foot bamboo poles and wearing a variety of different helmets, including motorbike, hockey, snowboard and hardhats the two teams line up. They drink some more sake, rattle their poles together to psyche themselves up, and await the bell to signal round one!
When the fight begins the bamboo poles crash down on the heads, shoulders, or backs of the opposing team members. The poles are then raised back up, if possible, and strike back down again. The poles often shatter from the impact and become even more dangerous. As the round progresses the poles are no longer used so people resort to punching and kicking each other. And as much alcohol has been consumed it often takes a while to break up the fights after the bell has been rung to end the round.
The fighters have about 10 minutes to gather their wounded members and regroup. The poles are removed from the battlefield and new poles are distributed. Again the bell is rung, more people get cracked on the head, after a while the bell signals again, and the fighting has to be broken up again.
Before the 3rd and final round there is a ceremony. And in the centre of the battlefield two huge fires are lit. The poles with flags at the top are ignited. Its then time for round 3!
I'm not sure how they decide who the winner is; it may have to do with how far the opposition is pushed back. Maybe! I think the winner is not so important to many of the people who have forgotten about the festival and just want to fight! This year the festival was not as aggressive as last year. Many people were more injured last year. Some of my friends were knocked to the ground and kicked in the head. One had broken teeth; another had large cuts under both his eyes. This year I didn't see any of that! A little disappointing! Below is a picture of one of the guys from last year.
Below is a picture of Scottish Dave after his experience of the festival last year. He got separated from his group and singled out, something he ensured didn't happen this time around!
Around 21:00 we decided to head for home. It had been snowing all day, so there was a lot of snow on the roads. I was in David's jeep and we were speaking of how recently I had been driving behind a friend on the way to a ski jo, when she lost control on a straight road, spun 180 degrees and bounced of the far side of the road. We were discussing the best way to react in such a situation; we both agreed that braking was not the way to go! Then 10 minutes later as we were going around a bend in Ouchi, a little faster that what would have been a safe speed for the conditions, we lost control of the jeep. In fairness David's reaction was very good and he avoided the initial instinct to step on the brakes. We were going around a turn to the right, but we were heading for the right barrier. David contained the jeeps slide and managed to get it to veer back to the left, unfortunately he overcompensated slightly and then we were heading for the left barrier. We braced for the inevitable impact, which was absorbed well by the barrier and the fact that we hit it on an angle. We were both fine. We pulled the car off the road to have a look. The bullbar took most of the impact, but was pushed back into the car at an angle, and one of the lights was smashed.
We drove to the nearest convenience store and took another look. Now we realised that the radiator was leaking quickly. So we thought it best to leave it there till the morning. I rang one of the other cars to let them know what happened and to get a life. So when Phil arrived David and myself packed into Phil's car that already had 4 people in it!
We had a cosy journey back to Honjo. But just about 100 metres from our destination at a traffic light, we needed to make a right. The conversation was about what Phil’s name would be if he were a superhero. It was decided he would be called Wolver-rib; he currently has a cracked rib from a snowboarding accident. As we waited for a space to go, or the green arrow I was looking out through the windscreen that had only one wiper working. In a moment of madness Wolver-rib forgot that six people were in his aging car, that there was a solid layer of snow on the road, that he wasn’t in fact a superhero, and decided to go through a small space between a car and a large truck! As our acceleration was very slow, I watched the truck approach, my eyes widening with every metre it approached. Finally the car wheels stopped spinning on the snow and managed to get some grip, we just avoided the truck, but the car wasn't completely interested in going where the wheels were pointing. Wolver-rib’s brother words were “I don’t think you’d make a very good superhero!” And with that we crashed straight into the barrier in front of us!
Two car crashes in under an hour, and I still wasn't home. I removed the thick layer of snow from my car and drove home very slowly!
On 10th of February every year there is a Balloon Festival in Kamihinokinai, Nishiki, Semboku City, Akita. Huge hot air paper balloons are released. They were between 8 to 12 metres in height and about 3 metres in diameter. The balloons are first filled with hot air from gas hoses, and then a ball of material soaked in fuel is attached and ignited. The balloons can travel for kilometres or crash nearby. I don't know if they collect the balloons afterwards, to be honest I don't see how they could!
There are two festivals on the same date every year, and they are a little apart, the other festival being the Giant Tug of war in Kariwano, Daisen City. We decided to try to make it the two festivals. But the Balloon Festival was further away than we thought. We still tried to make the Tug of war, but arrived just as it ended.
We stayed at the Balloon festival for only about 30 minutes, but it was really impressive. These are some of the video clips we took while there.
While studying Japanese last week I came across the word for multiplication table, 九九 (kuku) which translates into nine nine. I thought it a little strange at the time but didn't think too much about it.
Yesterday I was asked to join the 3rd grade maths class as my JTE was absent because her sick was child. My role was to go to the class and read out equations the teacher wrote on the board such as 2x + 4x = 6x and (a + b)² = a² + 2ab + b². The students were unfamiliar with how to read such equations. The goal was just to expose them to words like: multiplied by, divided by, squared, cubed, equals etc.
It was my first time attending a full class other than English since I started teaching here. An interesting thing came up. In Japan students learn the multiplication tables only up to 9 x 9, (hence the name) as opposed to 12 x 12 in Ireland and most western countries. The math teacher told me that in India the students learn up to 17 x 17!
At the end of class the teacher the asked the students to give Mr. Owen a 'challenge' question. So one smart-ass kid stands up after flicking through his maths book to find the most difficult equation he could find and reads out this:
√40 + 5√2 / √5 = ? Read: the square root of 40 plus the 5th root of 2 divided by the square root of 5 equals ...
On Sunday 8th February 2009 we had a New Year's party with my shamisen group. We were to meet at 9am, somewhere, but as usual I couldn't understand my teacher, so after collecting everyone at the pick-up point he got the bus to meet me at Honjo city hall. We then went to Kisakata Seaside Hotel, about 30 minutes south of Honjo.
We went to the same place last year also, though at the time I had no idea that it was a New Year's party, I just though it was a concert. I also found out this year that the group I play with is much bigger than I though, it has about 25 members and is called Akita shinzankai (秋田新山会). In the folk group we have shamisen, shakuhachi, and taiko players, as well as dancers and singers.
To start off the day we had a meeting about the groups finances. Then we got changed into our kimonos and hakamas, went into a room with a stage set up and took some group photos. I realised how much taller I was to everyone else! Then we began our concert.
Everyone took turns playing different songs and dancing. The age of these people is quite apparent. I reckon the youngest, besides myself, is about 50 and she is much younger than the rest which must all have about 40 years on me!
I played just one song this year, ringo bushi. I played it with my teacher, a taiko drummer, shakuhachi player and a singer. I took a video but unfortunately the singer was standing between me and the camera for most of the video.
We started our enkai, which involves much drinking, at about 1 o'clock. Beer was the first drink to arrive, and was followed quickly by wine and whiskey both of which i refused, at first. Then came tamagozake (卵酒) or egg sake, not something I reccommend, though apparently it is good for the common cold! Then the normal sake arrived, then the wine came back. At this point many of my collegues were getting drunk quickly and becomming more insistant that I should drink everythink they had to offer!
At 4pm we headed back to Honjo and went to a karaoke bar, owned by the wife of my teacher called Night in Castle. They were singing all Japanese folk songs, many dating from the 1940's! When they requested me to sing I knew I was in trouble. I looked for my only reliable song, the one all my friends must be sick of hearing, 1979, but apparently it was a much too recent song. I went with the slightly older Disarm. Nobody joined in!
Your love for me is not debatable Your sexual appetite's insatiable You never ever make me waitable Delectable, inflatable you.
You don't have problems with your weight at all You never steal food off my plate at all I never have to masturbate at all Unstoppable, inflatable you.
You never seem to menstruate at all So you're not angry when I'm late at all I feel permanently felatable Unpoppable, inflatable you.
With you in my arms I feel we could just float away With the right kind of gas I might even try it some day In this ocean of life I'm never afraid I might drown We could just float forever whatever the weather Whenever my inflatable love is around.
Your thighs and buttocks are so holdable You always do what you are toldable And if we argue you just foldable Controllable consolable you.
My mates all reckon you are suitable I took you 'round to watch the football And Steve and Gary said you're rootable Refutable, commutable, you.
You're never sensitive or tickly When I rub you my skin goes prickly It's known as static electricity Felicity when I'm kissing you.
Your skin is so smooth I couldn't afford you with hair You have all the holes real girls have got plus one for the air Your problems are simple, I don't need my Masters in Psych To know if you get down I just perk you right up With a couple of squirts with the pump of my bike.
You never wake up when I snore at all A trait which I find quite adorable You have a box and you are storable Ignorable, back-doorable you.
Any sexual position's feasible Although you don't bend at the knees at all Your hooters are so firm and squeezable Increasable, un-creasable you.
Now birth control is not an issue I clean it all off with a ... I bet my jealous friend all wish you Were insatiably inflatably theirs.
Don’t let me down. Don’t let me down. Don’t let me down. And I won’t let you down.
