My Students Are Crazy Talented

So, I teach at two middle schools and one elementary school. While the elementary school kids are good at art for their age, they are still, well... elementary school kids' drawings. The middle schools, on the other hand, have some serious talent happening in some of their kids. Every year, the middle schools have a Bunkasai, or Culture Festival, where the students perform skits, have a concert, and display things they have made throughout the school year for their parents. Think of it like an open house on steroids. At last year's Bunkasai, these two drawings took first and second place at the art contest the school held. The top one is Rurouni Kenshin, done entirely in pen and black ink brushwork, and the kid is only 15! It was even more awesome in person. The one below took second, which made me quite happy as it's drawn by my neighbor's boy. He also goes to my husband's English school, and we've become drawing buddies. He will often draw me pictures, which I will then use as an excuse to return the favor. I'd like to believe we've both become better artists thanks to all the extra practice. In any case, I was super proud of them both!

Fall Onsen Trip

Onsens are Japanese hot spring baths, where everyone gets naked and bathes together in natural sulfur infused water bubbling forth from the volcanic mountains dotting Japan. While the word onsen is now used to refer to pretty much any communal bathing establishment in Japan, whether located in the mountains with a natural hot spring or not, the best ones are the real ones. Last fall, before the world got covered with white, I went to an onsen with my boss and another JET in my town. It was a beautiful fall day, and the mountains were covered with shades of red, yellow and orange. On the way back, we even saw full double rainbows, which I had not seen during my entire time in Japan. It was an awesome day, and as the white is starting to recede from the world and spring is not far off, I find myself looking forward to going to onsens up in the mountains again.

Hachinohe Sansha Taisai Festival

Hachinohe, the city about 45 minutes away from my little town, has a few big festivals each year. One of their biggest, though, has to be Sansha Taisai, or the Three Shrines Festival. It's a huge festival where they shut down the road through downtown and parade giant floats through it. Each neighborhood in Hachinohe is responsible for making (and paying for, through donations... many, many donations) their individual float, and there's always a 'best of show' picked every year. This particular festival happens August 1st-3rd generally, and last year was actually my first year going to see it. I went with my boss and my then just-arrived fellow JET, and it was a blast. I really enjoyed watching all the floats, and I enjoyed eating all the festival food even more. In the crazy, horribly humid heat of summer in Japan, festivals are the one thing that make sweating through each day worthwhile. Now, without further ado, PHOTO DUMP. As always, click on any of the pictures to embiggen!

The Most Challenging Doodle Ever...

...was Stitch, and it really shouldn't have been that hard. This was requested by one of my 6th grade boys, mostly because he can do a spot on impersonation of Stitch's voice. I readily agreed to draw it, thinking that there's no way it would be that hard to draw. I mean, it's a Disney character for goodness' sake, it's not that complicated of a design. Not only did I barely finish before kids started streaming through my doors, but I almost killed an eraser that day from multiple tries to get it right. I have no idea why Stitch was such a hard thing for me to handle, but I still cringe slightly whenever I remember this doodle.

Fall is for Ikebana

This is one of my favorite Ikebana attempts, for two reasons. First, I like how it turned out. Second, I had fun finding the maple leaf branch, which involved me traipsing about my town's local park with Ikebana shears and looking for a tree that wouldn't miss a small part of itself. Thankfully, people in my town are used to the odd goings-on of their local foreigners; otherwise, I believe most people would have called the cops on some strange white person wandering around with a sharp, pointy object.

Kabocha Friends

Also known as pumpkin friends, these particular kabocha rode on a bus with me one fine day last October, bound for my little rural middle school with its whopping population of 11 students. Not only is this one of my favorite schools, one of the cool things about having only 11 kids is you can have really awesome classes with them. Since it was October, I decided that I wanted the kids to carve Jack-O-Lanterns. This was harder than I originally anticipated, mostly because driving all over the countryside looking for orange pumpkins (most of the pumpkins here are small and green and used for cooking) was more annoying than I thought it would be. Still, I was lucky enough to find a couple nice-shaped ones, and so my students diligently cut them up into quite adorable Jack-O-Lanterns (not bad for a first try, huh?). They were less skilled at handling how grossed out scooping pumpkin guts and seeds made them, though. We can work more on that next time.

Pooh-san

Winnie the Pooh is known as 'Pooh-san' here in Japan, and he is the subject of this week's whiteboard doodle. I was literally singing the theme song the entire time I was drawing him. He was requested by quite a few of my sixth grade girls, and I decided to draw him to welcome the arrival of fall.... which was many months ago now. As I look out upon the mountains of snow outside my office window, I can't help but remember fall fondly. Honestly, spring and fall are the best times of year in Japan, and while I do appreciate having four distinct, beautiful seasons here, there are times when I just get sick to death of snow.