Uchinada World Kite Festival May 3-4

Courtesy of Drachenman

Finally, an excuse to bring your flip-flops out of hiding! If you’re sticking around Ishikawa this Golden Week come on out to Uchinada Beach, just 15 minutes from KZ station, on May 3rd and 4th (Thursday and Friday) for this exciting daytime event.

The Uchinada World Kite Festival is in it’s 23rd year (last year was cancelled due to tsunami concerns), and it is the first event to re-open the Uchinada Beach area after winter – lots of fun, food, and sun to be had! If you’ve not been to this festival yet, I recommend it. The kites themselves are enormous! They seem more the size of a hot-air balloon than a kite and the people that fly them come from all over the world. The stunt kite competition is also very impressive, with teams of up to eight pilots flying their kites within inches of each other and performing all manner of figures and formations in the air while somehow narrowly averting disaster.

There will be cheap Japanese kites for sale, festival attendees are encouraged to try their hand at flying their own tako!

Read on for schedule and transportation info:

IFIE Mini International Movie Festival

IFIE is having its first ‘mini international movie festival’ on 2^nd & 3^rd of July. Here are the details:

What: Bollywood (India) Movie “Monsoon Wedding” & Korean Movie “King & the Clown” (王の男)

When: Monsoon Wedding on 2^nd July 13:00 – 16:00  /  King & the Clown on 3^rd July 13:00 – 16:00

Where: Rifare, 4^th Floor (Room ABC)

How much: FREE!

What else: Enjoy some Indian & Korean snacks after the movies.

You need to make a separate reservation for each day.  For more info email: joho AT ifie DOT or DOT jp, or click to see the flyer here: IFIE Mini Film Fest

See you movie buffs on 2^nd/3^rd!!

Noto Abare Matsuri 暴れ祭り (Fire and Violence Festival)

Yes, yes, yes, summer festival season is here! This guest post was written last year by Ginny Middleton, a second-year ALT working in the Noto. This festival is one of Noto’s most famous, so if you aren’t taking the July 2011 JLPT (or even if you are), plan to attend!

Noto Abare Matsuri 暴れ祭り(Fire and Violence Festival)

Photo thanks to gazoo.com

Arguably the best festival in the Noto, Abare Matsuri (the Fire and Violence Festival) will take place from 9 am on the first Friday and Saturday in July every year (1st and 2nd July 2011 – same weekend as the JLPT)–although most of the best parts are after dark. The festival is held in the rural town of Ushitsu　宇出津 in the northern Noto peninsula and has been running for 350 years!

International Exchange Party at IFIE

This information comes to us from Ishikawa CIR Rohan:

Kanazawa IFIE International Salaon

Hello everyone,

IFIE is organizing its first International Exchange Party ‘Salon de Talk’ of 2011 on 1^st of July. This time we’ve decided to make it a 2-in-1 affair. You’re welcome to wear a traditional ethnic costume…I’ll probably try and look Indian…for a change!

Please see the attached poster for details. Let me know if you’re interested in participating (rohanranade AT ifie DOT or DOT jp)…but please HURRY, since there only 30 slots available for foreigners.

Have a great week!

Ishikawa Art Journal: Call for Submissions!

This guest post is from Creighton Hofeditz, ALT:

Hi everyone,

Over my two years in Ishikawa, I have continually been impressed at the secret reserves of creativity and artistry present in the JET and larger expat community.  Whether from a professional or an amateur background, the level of art I’ve seen from different sources is pretty astounding, and it’s been cool to see the degree to which that artistry has reflected the experience of living in Japan.

Inspired by the tsunami fundraising ideas of a couple other people in the local and national community, I would like to announce that I’m opening submissions for an Ishikawa Art Journal (working title).  The idea is to produce a collection of poems, drawings, essays, paintings, photos, fiction, and whatever else you can come up with that best represents your reaction to and relationship with Japan.  It can be about the Tohoku disaster, but it doesn’t have to be.  The collection will then be put up for sale to ourselves and to any interested friends and family at a reasonable price but one that allows us to donate all proceeds to the relief efforts.

Daishoji Hanami, April 9-10

Hard to imagine amidst all that is going on right now, but hanami season is just around the corner.  Here is some info about a cherry blossom festival near Kaga provided by our pink PA, Anna:

Daishoji Hanami

Daishoji Hanami Matsuri

Daishoji Cherry Blossom Festival will take place in Kaga on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th April. As well as relaxing under some beautiful cherry blossoms, this small-town celebration offers portable shrine processions, Lion’s Head dances, boat trips down Daishoji river and all the usual festival stalls and food.

All activities are within walking distance of Daishoji station (approx. 1 hour from Kanazawa station, Y820). From the station walk straight down to the main road, turn left at Lawson’s and follow the 305 until you arrive at the river.

Kanazawa Walking Tour Needs Volunteers

 

AJET Haiku and Photo Competition 2011

Winner of 2010 AJET Photo Contest, shot by Tim Harding (Ehime-ken)

This info comes to us via our stalwart AJET president, Sarah Kelly:

Every year, AJET encourages poets and photographers from the JET community to exercise their creative talents with out annual AJET Haiku and Photo Competitions.

Haiku Competition – Opens immediately. Closes 31st May.
Haikus can be in reference to life on JET or in the traditional style. We’re not fussy! Humorous Haikus are always welcome too.

The competition will be split into two categories, English and Japanese, so get creative with your Nihongo skills too.

Submissions should be:

1. accompanied by the name, address and JET number of the poet
2. original works
3. written in English and/or Japanese
4. if written in Japanese, accompanied by furigana and an English translation

There is a limit of two (2) haiku per entrant total. Current National AJET Council members are not eligible to enter.

Entries and inquiries should be sent to Avalyn at contest[AT]ajet[DOT]net.

Judging will be conducted by members of the AJET council. We are also hoping an outside Haiku poet will be able to judge this year.

Ownership/ Use Rights: Haiku authors retain the copyright of their haiku. By entering the contest authors agree to have their submitted haiku displayed on the AJET website (ajet.net), displayed on the National AJET fan page (facebook), and used in AJET publications without any fee or other compensation. Haiku will be credited to the author named in the entry form. Please make copies of poetry you want to keep on record. Entries will never be used by AJET in any manner for advertising or sale. In the even that ownership of any haiku is contested in any manner, AJET retains the discretion to disqualify that haiku and discontinue use.

Two first place winners, one in English and one Japanese will win a 3000 yen Amazon online gift voucher. Second place (in English and Japanese) will win a 1000 yen voucher.

Photo Competition – Open immediately. Closing date 31st May.

AJET wants to encourage all professional and budding photographers to send in their photos of Japan and life on JET.

We are interested in ‘human’ or humorous photos of your life on JET. Landscape photos are unlikely to get much attention.

Judging will be conducted by the AJET council. The winner on the competition will win a 3000 yen Amazon online gift voucher and will feature in the Tokyo Orientation Guide Book for the incoming JETs (often the front page).

Submissions should be:

1. accompanied by a caption describing the scene
2. accompanied by the name, address and JET number of the photographer
3. original images
4. high quality JPG files; for example, a single image should be at least 400kb in size

There is a limit of two (2) images per entrant. Current National AJET Council members are not eligible to enter. In the case that you submit photographs including people’s faces, please receive permission from those featured before submission.

Entries and enquiries should be sent to Avalyn at contest[AT]ajet[DOT]net.

Ownership/Rights: Photographers retain the copyright of their photos. By entering the contest photographers agree to have their submitted photo displayed on the AJET website (ajet.net), displayed on the National AJET fan page (facebook), and used in AJET publications without any fee or other compensation. The photo will be credited to the photographer named in the entry form. Please make copies of the photo that you want to keep on record. Entries will never be used by AJET in any manner for advertising or sale. In the even that ownership of any photo is contested in any manner, AJET retains the discretion to disqualify that haiku and discontinue use.

Good luck!

Yunokuni no Mori Traditional Handicrafts Village

If you like the traditional arts and crafts of Ishikawa and feel the need to create and be creative, makes plans to head to Kaga’s Yunokuni no Mori (ゆのくにの森). Yunokuni no Mori is a Kaga Traditional Cultural Amenity and offers guests the chance to watch craft-making, make their own crafts, and make or eat fantastic food. (Yes, handmade food is an artistic creation!)

Photo by Leah Zoller.

The “village” is a cluster of workshops that focus on the traditional crafts of Ishikawa: kutani ceramic pottery（kutani-yaki, 九谷焼）; Wajima lacquerware (wajima nuri, 輪島塗）; Japanese paper-making （washi, 和紙）; Kaga yuzen printed silk （yuzen, 友禅）; gold leaf（kinpaku, 金箔）; Yamanaka lacquerware (yamanaka nuri, 山中塗); music boxes (orugouru, オルゴール); glasswork (gurasu kougei, グラス工芸); Echizen pottery (echizen te bineri, 越前手びねり) and the culinary arts: Japanese and Western sweets (okashi, お菓子) and soba-noodle making (soba, そば). There are three restaurants with delicious local food, a teahouse, an omiyage shop, and some art galleries as well.  You pay a flat fee to enter, and then you pay a fee for whatever activities you choose.

The village is gorgeous—set in a wooden area not too far from Natadera by car, the thatched roves and stone paths of the village are gorgeous in the snow. The village boasts beautiful wildflowers and blooms in the warmer months, and maple leaves in the fall.

Photo from Yunokuni no Mori's website.

If you speak good Japanese, around JLPT N2 level, you shouldn’t have a problem making the crafts. A lot of the signs are bilingual, but the staff isn’t really, though they are friendly and willing to help. I recommend going with a Japanese-speaker if you don’t speak a lot.

When I visited, I decorated a tea tray with gold leaf at a workshop. If you have a small group (under 10 people), you don’t need a reservation, so I was able to just walk into the gold leaf house and didn’t have to wait to get started. The gold-leaf decorating, like the pottery painting/sculpture and paper-making, is priced based on the piece. A tea tray is about 1500 yen to decorate, but a vase is 2000 yen. You can view the prices on the website: click on the building on the map, then scroll down and click the activity (Japanese only).

Photo by Leah Zoller

 

This was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, and I can’t recommend Hakusan, the soba restaurant, enough. I ordered a vegetable-based meal of soba and a stone pot of rice and veggies, and it was worth every yen.

More information below the cut.

High School Graduation in Japan

Photo: Steph & Adam

March 3rd was graduation at my high school here in Japan, so I thought I’d give the run-down of what it’s like, as well as a few tips to prepare for yours if it hasn’t happened yet.  If you notice any difference from your own, write in the comments.  I’ve only seen graduation at one school, after all.

Graduation came the day after exams ended, in the middle of the week, with classes for the 1st and 2nd year students continuing the very next day.  At my school, it takes place in the gym, and fortunately it was sunny outside, so I only needed to wear 4 layers to stay reasonably warm.

The entire ceremony went just over an hour, from 9:50am – 11:00am, although I was recommended to head down around 9:20 to get a seat in the teachers’ section.  The front row of the teacher’s section is reserved for the homeroom teachers of the graduating 3rd year classes.  As it happened, I was the first teacher to actually sit down, so I went with my supervisor’s suggestion and grabbed the seat closest to the heater, and other teachers quickly sat down near me.  The 2nd year students were already seated (1st year students don’t attend), and most of the parents had already found their seats.

At 9:50 the school band started to play and the 3rd year students began filing into the gym, two by two, led by their homeroom teacher, standing before their seats, and sitting as a class when told.  They spent the day prior to graduation practicing the whole ceremony.  They wear their school uniform that they wear everyday.

Photo: bazylek100

At 10:00 the ceremony began with everyone standing to sing the Japanese national anthem.  Then, we sat down and were immediately asked to stand to sing the school song, which was displayed in hiragana so I could follow along.

With the singing finished (for now), we sat down, and each 3rd year student was called by name by their homeroom teacher.  As each name is called, the student stands up and says “hai!”.  Interestingly, the less-motivated students said nothing at all, and the more motivated students spoke loudly.  Amazing what you can glean about a student just from how they say the word “hai”.

When all students’ names had been called, one student from the graduating class approached the principal at the podium and formally received a diploma on behalf of all of the students, by raising it above his head, bowing, and retreating backwards off of the stage.  There is a lot of formal footwork by anyone who approaches the ceremony, as they have to pay respect to the flag on the stage, the teachers to the left of the stage, and the city officials to the right of the stage.  It’s very interesting to watch, considering the in U.S. all I had to worry about was making sure I didn’t trip and taking the diploma in the correct hand — oh, and switching the tassel on my mortar board!

After the diploma is received, speeches follow.  This takes up the majority of the time, and might be interesting if you can understand Japanese.  If not, consider it a good chance to try to understand Japanese intonation and pick out any katakana words.  The principal and mayor both gave speeches, as did a 2nd year student to his upperclassman, and a 3rd year student to his fellow classmates.  Each person giving a speech has it written on a special, long piece of paper, that is folded in an accordion, so they can read the speech without any page flipping.  Afterwards, it’s put into a special envelope and placed on the podium.

Finally, the ceremony nears completion when everyone sings “Auld Lang Syne” (in Japanese).  The 3rd year homeroom teachers tell their students to stand, and they file out.  In previous years the students used to shout something at their teachers or make some kind of joke, but this year it was decided that it wasn’t formal enough for a ceremony so that (along with party poppers, a previous tradition) has fallen to the wayside.

After graduation, the students go back to their homeroom to receive their yearbooks and enjoy looking at photos of everyone and taking photos with friends and teachers.  The homeroom teachers often receive large bouquets of flowers.  It’s a fun time to wander around the halls with your camera and say your final goodbyes to the 3rd year students.

For the visual types among you, here’s a video summarizing graduation ceremonies in Japan — complete with “Auld Lang Syne” at the end.

Tips

• Ask your teachers what you should wear. At my school, the men all wear black suits and white ties (subtle patterns on the ties are okay).  One teacher wore a nice black dress.  Two others wore formal hakama.  Often women wear formal kimono (added bonus, because they’re warm).  Many female teachers wear suits.   I noticed that many women wore more makeup than usual, and many were wearing pearls.
• Wear clothes to keep warm! Our school gym had 5 small space heaters for the entire gym.  You can wear a few undershirts to keep your core insulated.
• Use kairo.  At drugstores you can find pocket-sized body warmers that work when the chemicals are exposed to air — some even have a sticky side so you can attach them to your shirt under your suit.  Don’t feel silly; my teachers all made a big production of sticking the kairo under each others’ suit jackets last year.  Or, just shove one in your pocket and be thankful during the speeches.
• Don’t watch the homeroom teachers to know when to stand/sit. If you have a row of homeroom teachers in front of you, keep in mind that sometimes they have to stand when the rest of the teachers don’t, so keep an eye on the teacher next to you instead if you can’t understand Japanese.
• Practice the Japanese anthem and school song to be involved in a group you belong to.

Useful Vocab

Even if you can’t count to ten in Japanese, you’ll be in-the-know if you can at least recognize some of these words:

sotsugyou (卒業) – graduation

sotsugyoushiki (卒業式) – graduation ceremony

kiritsu (起立) - stand up

rei (礼) - bow (at least that’s what this means in the context of a graduation ceremony)

chakuseki (着席) – sit down

seito (生徒) – students (as in “students, stand up”)

sotsugyousei (卒業生) – graduate, someone who graduated

shokuin (職員) - staff members (as in “staff, stand up” — this includes teachers)