It has finally gotten cold, but typical of Japan it doesn't do it in half-measures. It was so hot we were using air conditioning only a month ago and now it is time to get out the gloves and sit under the kotatsu (a table that is heated underneath to keep your feet warm). I do love the fall in Japan- the leaves are changing colors, the typhoons are finished and it hasn't started snowing yet!

I've been taking Japanese lessons in preparation for the Japanese proficiency exam I am taking in December. It is amazing but I think that I have forgotten more than most people ever learn in Japanese. Everything my teacher has covered in the last 4 lessons I know that I learned at some point but have since forgotten. I suppose that makes it easier on her because she is just refreshing my terribly memory and not teaching from scratch. Gambatte though (gambatte means good luck and I will try my hardest).

The cold weather inspires me in a way that summer and winter can't. For some reason everytime I go outside at night and feel the frost in the air I have an overwhelming desire to go trick-or-treating. Considering they don't trick-or-treat in Japan (and I am certainly too old anyways), I am making up for it by teaching my students about Halloween. They all particularly like the part about getting candy (children all over the world are exactly the same, you say candy and their ears perk up).

I was doing some reading on ghosts in Japan though and thought there were some interesting differences. Some Japanese ghosts are scary, but for the most part people look at them as just spirits coming back for a visit and not evil beings bent on destruction and terror (thanks Hollywood). Usually ghosts in Japan come back to visit earth during the summer (Oban is a national holiday to welcome back ancestors spirits). There are a few exceptions though: According to Shinto beliefs, all people have a soul called "reikon." When a person dies, the reikon leaves the body and joins the souls of its ancestors. However, when a person dies suddenly by murder, is killed in battle, commits suicide, or hasn't received an appropriate funeral, the reikon may become a "yuurei" to seek revenge. Many yuurei are female ghosts who suffered badly in life from love, jealousy, sorrow, or regret. Yuurei usually appear in a white kimono (katabira), and have no legs. They also wear a white triangular piece of paper or cloth (hitaikakushi) on their forehead. They usually appear between 2 and 3 a.m. (note to self: don't wander in forests at 2 am).

Well we are in the middle of a typhoon. The last few typhoons have been very uninteresting (at least in Fukui). We were sent home early one day in September and had class canceled several weeks ago and in both cases the typhoon was little more than some strong rains (but nothing that wouldn't be normal during rainy season). So when they canceled my classes today I really didn't think it would be anything different. But for some reason this one is much scarier. Sean and I went for a walk in the typhoon (before the center hit our area) and the rain and wind was amazing! We only walked around the block to Family Mart (a convience store) and yet we were both soaked completely through by the time we got home. We heard that the river might flood so we went to see and I was shocked at how quickly it was risen. There is a serious chance that the river will flood its banks before the night is over. I happen to live on the other side of the river bank. I live on the second story so I'm not actually in any danger (it still has 5 feet before it floods the river banks so I doubt it could make the additional 15 feet to flood my apartment). It was very frightening to watch the river. Just a few weeks ago we were at a food festival on the river banks and all of that is covered in murky brown water. There are entire trees being swept past and the waves are lapping at the stairs. Growing up in a desert doesn't give me much experience with flooded rivers and typhoons. I have become addicted to the news (even if it is all in Japanese) and I haven't turned it off all night. I keep watching the pictures of what is happening in the rest of Japan in amazement.

In other news I got internet in my apartment today (which gave me something to do all day) and will hopefully be updating my blog more frequently.

Me and Sean  

Lantern Festival in Eheiji 

So Sunday was my Yosakoi performance and it was awesome (not to say that our dancing was awesome, I think slightly competent or bordering on mediocre would be a better phrase for our dancing). We did the dance in a parade form down a street and then a second time in front of the stage (where we messed up horribly, but we all had a good laugh about it). Then all the dance teams went into the middle to do a group dance 3 times. Half-way through the first time a guy pulled me up onto the stage to dance. It was really cool, because the people on the stage could see (and be seen) over all the people dancing. I would like to think that he picked me because of my amazing dancing prowess, but it was probably because I was the only gaijin in sight.

After the dancing people from my team were hanging out in a school gym nearby drinking tea and talking. It was the first time I had really gotten to know some of the people I had been dancing with for months (As shocking as this may sound, I find myself a little shy when surrounded by large groups of Japanese people who don't speak English). well they invited me to a wedding type celebration for a couple that was getting married later in the day. the couple arrived in a rickshaw and went up on the stage and threw Manju (red bean cakes) into the crowd for good luck. It was really fun but the little old ladies were rather violent and kept pushing people down to get at the cakes.


Gotta run now, but more on the wedding I attended later.

Yosakoi festival dancing (that's my team YEG Ichoirai)

Busy busy weekend. Today (Saturday) work was canceled because of a typhoon, but by the time I woke up the typhoon was gone, it even stopped raining. Tomorrow I am going to another Yosakoi performance (yeah!). I can't figure out where we are dancing or what the occasion is, but someone is picking me up and it sounds like fun. Then, this is the exciting part, Monday I am going to a wedding! I get to watch the ceremony on a closed circuit TV (only the family takes part in the actual ceremony) and then go to the wedding reception afterwards! I am so excited! The bride, my co-worker Miho, isn't even going to have a western style wedding dress, only a kimono (most brides in Japan have both). In Japan the custom when you go to a wedding is to put $300 into an envelope and hand it to the bride and groom (you have to buy a special kind of envelope of course). Miho realizes that Sean and I don't have $300 sitting about so she said we could skip that tradition, whew that's a relief eh? I bought her a really beautiful vase though (also rather large and heavy, good thing I'm not riding my bike to the wedding). I will report later on what happens at the wedding. The only lousy part of the weekend is that we all have to go back to work Monday after the wedding to make up for getting today off (I suppose the bride gets out of that though).