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5 travel blogs written in Mie Machi just outside of Oita city
Find accommodation in Mie Machi just outside of Oita cityWordless Wednesday: Little Froggy Is Our New Roommate In Japan
28. Mai 2008 | en
Marqueurs:
Mie Machi just outside of Oita city
Japan
Frog
Carte:
N 33° 26.624
E 131° 6.162
Created at: 28. Mai 2008
Kagara Debut Stolen From An Email John Wrote
04. Août 2007 | en
I`ll just jump in somewhere in the middle…
at the insistence of the office manager of Sherrie`s high school two lucky foreigners have been coerced into learning the ancient and revered art of kagura. Japanese traditional shrine dancing…a testament to japan`s long history and culture. something that should never have been entrusted to two clumsy foreigners.
Anyone that knows either myself or sherrie, or anyone who has had the misfortune of seeing or experiencing our dancing prior to japan should realize that this story will most likely end in an injury of some sort.
(foreshadowing)
But first, a brief intro to kagura. Each performance is perhaps 4 acts long, each act lasting about 20-30 mins. The characters are all manner of earthly
and divine beings. We`re not sure, but we believe that our first performance involved a family who had to ask for the gods assistance after all but one of their children was devoured by a snake. really great battle scenes.
For music there is one person playing a bamboo flute while several others play japanese drums. It`s a very rhythm driven performance.
They let me and sherrie play the bell.
But they also let us dance. Problem being that neither of us has any rythm.
Jump ahead a couple of practices and we find ourselves at the local old folks club. We`ve apparently been invited to give a performance. Regional newsgroups have been tipped about the two foreigners arsing up the previously mentioned art form and there is a video crew on hand.
Act two – sherrie makes her first appearance as a, well we`re not quite sure what she was, but she managed to dance perfectly for the first time since
practice began. She was given a huge ovation after her part was finished, and once again she left it all up to me to arse up. While sherrie is putting on the kagura performance of a life time I`m being reminded of my part.
I`ve completely forgotten it, again. Before I completely learn my part the other dancers (who are all students at Sherrie`s school) usher me into a small room and attach a devil`s mask of some sort to my face, effectively
eliminating all peripheral vision. I`m then corralled into a queue of other devils and told to wait my turn…`but what the jesus am i supposed to do once i get out there?` no answer.
Act 3 – sherrie is on the bell, I`m waiting impatiently for my turn to dance. In the meantime I`ve been given a sword. this doesn`t bode well for anyone involved. My turn comes and I walk devilishly out onto the stage,
knocking over a camera man along the way, only to be grabbed from behind to be told that it is not yet my turn. I stumble back, only to be pushed directly back onto the stage amid a cheer of `let`s enjoy.`
My confidence is briefly boosted by the applause from the audience, but that comes crashing when I can`t get the rythm straight at all. So I stagger around the stage like a drunken devil for a while before putting my sword
down in favour of the traditional twig stealing. During my re-enactment of an inebriated devil I noticed, through my limited vision, that there were people in the crowd taunting the devils by waving branches at them.
This much of the dance I remember. I`m supposed to steal one of their twigs.
Guided only by my myopic vision I wander towards the crowd.
The first person I come across with a twig I recognize as the oldest man in Japan. At least a hundred and fifty. I don`t really want to steal his twig, but it was only a miracle that I managed to walk a straight line towards the
crowd so I give in and make a grab for it. But the old bastard isn`t giving it up. First he takes advantage of my poor vision and hides the branch behind his back. Confused by this new development I fall over and he
gives me a couple of taunting whips. I manage to get back on my feet, hiss at the old bastard and grab ahold of the branch. Only he doesn`t want to let go. I
look around for a hint of what to do and see that there are other devils also fighting to get the twigs from the audience. Bolstered by this I don`t feel so bad when I pull him out of his seat, twig and all. By this point my
mask has come completely undone and the forehead is around my eyes, eliminating any vision that I had had.all future events have been narrated to me by sherrie.
I continue to drag the old feller around the room. The floor is pretty slippery so he is sliding everywhere but he won`t let go. I get a footing and at this point sherrie realizes that things are going down an all too
familiar path. The old guy pulls on the twig for a bit before I give iteverything I have, in the process pulling the poor old man completely off his feet and sending him into a spiral towards the ground, headfirst. all I
notice is that the drums lose their rythm for a second. But I`m not deterred by the drums or the lack of vision, I start my victory dance, while the oldest man in japan lies helplessly at my feet. I puff my chest out and
jump around the floor not realizing that i may have killed a national treasure.
Sherrie never fully recovers the rythm of the bell, but she did notice that my adversary got back to his chair and looked quite pleased with himself, although she did say that his eyes had a peculiar glaze.
as for me, it wasn`t until i put a little kid into a headlock before the manager ran out to direct me off stage…
Marqueurs:
Carte:
N 33° 26.624
E 131° 6.162
Dance Gaijin Monkey Dance
01. Mars 2004 | en
Cold sweat and bile in my stomach seems to be a normal reaction here. Krista kick a roommate out (you dont need Ted anyway) Im moving to Taiwan. The sheer shock I received this morning is enough to drive me into shell shock overdrive. you thought I was dodgey and paranoid after living with Mary?? I happily sit down at my desk this morning (I have after all got my bike ride timed perfectly so I can get here and at my desk with 2 minutes to spare heh) and my office manager comes up to me about – yes Kagara. Japan TV fools are taping my Kagara practice on Friday and me and John teaching on Friday and Monday. Then he says something about swimming. (he caught me at the pool once). I thought he was saying I canceled practice for swimming. no. NHK wants to follow me and John around and get `snapshots` of our life in Japan. This includes us at the pool. Whats so bad about this? Ignore the fact I dont want to be half naked on national TV and think of what my darling brother said to me
` Sherrie you really ought to learn how to do something besides the doggie paddle because you like a drowning dog.`
Add to this that John has a tendency to have his chest stroked by old men who are fascinated by his hair at the pool and we have the making of a bad situation. I can already see the black bars in place.
Anyway I refused. Ive never been so forceful in my life. Im sure the office manager is hiding under his desk. This is the land of chotto – or a little bit yes. It means “no but Im too polite and I dont like direct confrontations that come with saying no.” The screaming gaijin who has finally snapped has now driven everyone out of the room. However the bastards are persistent, now they want to film us hiking (hell at least we`ll have clothes on) and us at our house. Maybe they will get stuck to the sticky pads like the NHK lady. (another story for another time).
Marqueurs:
Carte:
N 33° 26.624
E 131° 6.162
`I suffered from a insomnia...Because I put many people to trouble on Saturday and club activities at that. I am weak because I haven't gotten over the shock.
16. FĂ©vrier 2004 | en
Allo my darlings, I am in a surprisingly good mood considering i came straight off the Osaka ferry this morning and went straight to school. This did involve being up at 5 and a 5 minute cab ride that cost over 15 dollars (welcome to Japan). Maybe it was just that the weekend was great, I got to see Hans and Erin, and we went to Tackoarchka (so spelled wrong), and went to a great goth night. I now understand why Osaka is one of Japan`s big goth sites. Memories of high school came flooding back. Well, none of the anger, but all the pretty people in black clothes was fun. To my credit I did not have a complete flash back and attempt to stalk anybody. I feel this shows my total rehabilitation in itself. This is also very impressive as this is Japan, and image is EVERYTHING. What this translates into is men and woman walking around in 400 dollar outfits on average, not counting what they spent on clothes and hair. (and we know because we hit the stores to find something suitable for John before hand, I’m hoping he will let me send out the pics!!). :) And all my students love my nails, nothing special, I did alternate silver black silver black, but as they are forbidden nail polish in school my nails rock. However I wont be starting any rebellions yet, I’m practically sitting on my hands whenever the vice principal walks by. I was 5 minute late due to the ferry, I’m already hated enough his morning.
Although I do have update from journals, my absolute favorite (from one of 2 males in my class) is `I suffered from a insomnia…Because I put many people to trouble on Saturday and club activities at that. I am weak because I haven’t gotten over the shock.` Thats it, not why or what, just that. total cliff hanger, I still haven’t figured out what the hell he did (maybe painted his nails?)
And the other is about school marathon. Friday the poor schmucks had to run 20 K (girls) and 26 K (boys). One of my teachers told me it was good Japanese assimilation. (Ok, too much star trek for you). Anyway the other guy wrote the following
`And next day very very sore! What! What is it! My leg very break. Very sad. I love my leg.` I swear I dont add anything, right down to the exclamation marks its what they write.
Oh well, he could have been the horde of first year boys who instead
of running walked in front of the car I was in screaming Sherrie I love you.
oh darlings.
Marqueurs:
Carte:
N 33° 26.624
E 131° 6.162
Run Faster Sherrie We Are Going To Die
27. Août 2003 | en
The weekend:s plan was to go to Yufuin, but we woke
up to a dead heat and dead exhausted so we decided
climbing a volcano would not be a good idea.
Instead we thought we would go for a swim and into
Oita city. See a movie, keep group nudity down,
etc. Halfway to the pool John looks and me and goes
“its stopped being hot.” And it was true, in about 10
seconds the temp dropped about 10 degrees. we were
a little concerned. well John was, because the sky
clouded over and a storm was coming. I thought it
was since the air cleared, a good rain was needed,
and we could stop melting. When we were almost at
the pool we saw the lightening. It was orange and
zig zagged across the sky. Twice before a huge clap
of lighting and huge raindrops. John screamed something along the lines of fuck swimming save your
self and took off towards the house. The house
which was about 30 min away, When we got to the
lights the electricity was gone and John was rather
wild eyed. And then then the storm really began. The thunder and lightening began to crash everywhere, and it was literally focused on our house. I think it was 2 storms because it kept going form rain to not, and the thunder was going from one side to the other. I think the lightening struck the tennis courts about 100 metere from us at one point. Either way the storm was on top of us.
The result, John rapidly disapearing from sight as
he occasionally looked over his shoulder and screamed
“run faster Sherrie we are going to die.” And he meant
it. What scarred me more than anything else was how fast John was willing to leave me behind. Im numismatic and it was humid, I cant run. I felt like Piggy in Lord of the Flies. Sucks to my asmar.
Then John realized i knew were the keys were, and
he screamed at me to catch up so he can get inside.
Glad to see I have some value.
Once inside however I was fully ok, but poor John is
actually afraid of lightening. SO though he felt
better he didnt feel fully ok. So we videoed some of
the storm, and then it looked like it was stopping.
We put the camera down. And then the biggest clap
of lightening followed by thunder at the same
time made John hit the tatami mat. Just one scream and bang flat down. Oh I should not tease, but i
just couldn’t help it. He still makes fun of me for
screaming when I walked through a spider web, I
should be allowed this!
Anyway thats the past week. Now im back in school,
rather bored, as I have no idea what to do or where
to go. But i am paid for this.
Marqueurs:
Carte:
N 33° 26.624
E 131° 6.162
VĂ©hicule de ce lieu : Avion
