The Time I Failed at Drawing Mario

So I mentioned last week how I started drawing white board doodles for my kids at my elementary school, and they freaked out and loved it. Right after I drew the Totoro, I went to Tokyo to meet up with some visiting family, and didn't see them (between my trip and other things) for two weeks straight. Before I left, my fourth grade students shyly asked, if it wasn't too much trouble, if I could draw a Mario when I came back. Of course, I couldn't turn down that many puppy dog eyes at once, so Mario was the first thing I drew after coming back from my vacation.

In my estimation, it was a failure. It was my first time drawing something so big (the Totoro wasn't actually that large), and I barely managed to finish it in time before the kids came streaming through the doors into the English classroom. Due to that, I wasn't able to fix his funky left eye, and it was bugging me pretty badly. That is, it was bothering me until all the fourth graders started bouncing around, jumping up and down, started hugging me, and chanted 'Shari-sensei remembered!'. Then I decided I was pretty glad I drew a Mario for them.

Sannohe Spring Festival

Super quick post about the Sannohe Spring Festival that happened this last May. It's a really tiny festival, with just a few booths selling food, but there's lots of cherry blossoms so it's all good. Spring is all about cherry blossoms anyways, and I've decided I need to find a way to plant one in my backyard whenever I head back the States. In the mean time, why am I posting pictures of cherry blossoms right now? Because it just started snowing a few days ago, and I already need to remind myself that after every winter, beautiful spring comes, complete with delicate little pink flowers.

Plastic Flowers

It's time for more Ikebana attempts, as I'm still trying to go through the massive amounts of pictures I've taken over the last seven months. These flowers are not actually plastic. They are in fact quite real; they just look like they're made of plastic. Also in the picture: one of my many Japanese textbooks and my little moving 'Welcome Home' Totoro motion sensor. He's actually made of plastic.

Whiteboard Doodles and Children's Smiles

Many months ago, I found myself with some free time while preparing for one of my classes at my elementary school. I always have class with my fourth grade students second period, so I use first period to gather any materials and set up any games I'll need for them. I misjudged the amount of time I would need, and having another five minutes or so before the kids came in, I decided as a spur of the moment thing to draw a little doodle of myself up on the whiteboard to welcome them in.

The kids freaked out. They thought it was awesome, and immediately tried their best to read what I had written up on the board. Then they asked if I was going to draw something next week. I shrugged, and said I'd think about it.

When next week came, I didn't go in my usual 15 minutes or so before second period; I went to the English classroom as soon as first period started. I had decided that I would draw them something again, and it would be one of my favorite things in the world: Totoro.

If I thought the kids had freaked out the week before, they absolutely lost their minds when they saw Totoro. They started jumping up and down they were so excited, and again, just like the week before, they tried their best to read the English words I had written along with the drawing on the board. They didn't have the heart to erase it, so the sixth graders saw it in 4th period (they hadn't seen the one I'd drawn the week before), and they freaked out almost as bad as the fourth graders. They did a lot better at reading the English though, lol. As the sixth graders laughed at their teacher trying to mimic my drawing with a red marker, I realized that this was something I had to continue; the kids enjoyed it too much not to keep doing it. It's been quite a few months now, and my kids expect to see a drawing on the whiteboard as soon as they come into the room. I also have many requests from the kids, more than I think I'll ever be able to finish. I've been posting the drawings on facebook, but again, not all my family and friends use facebook, so I decided to start putting them up here as well. Blogger also allows me more words to tell the stories behind and reactions to each of my whiteboard doodles. I hope you all enjoy them, and look forward to more to come! (Also, as always, click on the images to embiggen them.)

More Adventures in Ikebana

So, a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I wrote about going to a little old Japanese lady's house and learning the traditional art of Ikebana, or flower arranging. That was about, oh, 7 months or so ago, and my promise of posting and sharing any other attempts at this ancient Japanese art with all of you went unfulfilled. The promise was not, however, forgotten, and I have diligently photographed each of my attempts over all this time. They are not all that great, but they will all be put up here regardless; with any luck, I might even get better over time. The one above was my first ever attempt by myself, without little old Japanese ladies fluttering about me giving advice. Below is the same arrangement a week later, after the lilies had fully bloomed. I am fortunate that my little tiny town has not one, but two really awesome fresh flower shops to utilize (one has even hooked me up with a discount). Look for more soon!

Sannohe Autumn Festival, Year 3

As is obvious by the title, this is the third time I've talked about this little festival in my town, but as the floats are different every year, it's still worth posting pictures of. In case you missed it the last time, every autumn my town makes a bunch of floats and tows them through the streets, singing and dancing. There's a lot of float type festivals in Aomori ken, so our little festival isn't well known at all. It doesn't matter though, since it's important to the people who live here. What's different about this post this time, is that these were all taken with Aaron's spiffy new DSLR camera, so hopefully the pictures will be even better than usual!

I usually don't post pictures of specific people on here, mostly because Japan is crazy with their privacy laws, and I don't want to get in trouble posting pictures of my students. However, the family above are not my students; they are Aaron's, and they are awesome. The little boy is probably one of my favorite kids in town; I am in love with his smile. So, I figured I'd share his smile with you.

Again, not usually with posting pictures of individual people, but this is one of Aaron's favorite shots that he took that day. This is also one of his students, although he's going to be one of mine starting this next semester. He ran up behind Aaron and tickled him or something, then tried to run away while Aaron threatened to take his picture. Aaron actually did snap a few shots, but most of them blurred as the boy zigged this way and that; this was the only one that took, and the expression of sheer fun on the little imp's face makes Aaron love this picture. This boy really is a good kid.

This is the last picture I'm going to highlight in this post, but it's my favorite of the whole batch. I don't know this little girl, neither does Aaron, but she was one of the 'Festival Girls' of the float parade; her and the other girl led the parade at one point. Apparently the little girl got tired of carrying her decorative tree branch at some point, because when Aaron snapped this shot, she was sweeping the road. Maybe it was dirty in her little mind....who knows. All I know is it's adorable, and I love how this shot turned out. Everything from here on is going to be another photo dump, so enjoy! I am actually in two pictures this time, can you find me?

Hakodate, Day Two

Continuing on from my last post, day two in Hakodate found us going to Goryokaku. The entrance into Goryokaku can be seen above (you have to cross a bridge to enter the structure proper, and you can take boats around the moat, how cool is that?). But wait, what is Goryokaku, you say? Well... I'll just let this next picture explain for me. (Click to embiggen, as always.)

Yay! So, basically, it's a really old fort (a pentagon shaped fort, no less!), that's now a really pretty park/tourist attraction. At the entrance of the park, you can see the 3D statue map below.

At least, I believe that's what it used to look like. Not all the parapets and buildings are still standing. Most of the parapets and walls that remain look like the picture below; still there, but overgrown, weathered, and no longer battle-ready.

Of course, with structures well over a hundred years old, this is easily forgiven. The Magistrate's Office, mentioned in the previous plaque, is still standing however, and in great shape; although, to be fair, it was probably rebuilt/restored heavily at some point.

Apparently, the Magistrate lived in style... You could actually go into the building and walk around if you wanted to, but as it required taking off our shoes, Aaron and I didn't go in; we wore inconvenient, non-Japan friendly shoes that day, unfortunately. Lots of other people did go in, though, and hang out on the amazing back porch like some sort of Japanese samurai lord, as you can see in the picture below.

Even without going into the main building, there was still plenty to see. There were auxiliary buildings that were storage buildings and such (long, long ago) that had been turned into museums. As you were allowed into those with your shoes on, Aaron and I were able to go in and look at all the various historical artifacts on display. Also, gawk at the cannons in front of the building...

We also just walked around the grounds, which were very park-like in their prettiness. What was not park-like, however, was how many archelogical dig sites there were, scattered about. Apparently, researchers are still working on cataloguing the park, and are slowly going through different sections searching for historical artifacts. It was actually really cool to see, as were the giant trees in the picture below.

I have no idea what kind of trees they are, but they were everywhere, and they look like giant bonsai trees. Which I'm not complaining about.

After the park, we wandered out to the building pictured above. It's right on the edge of Goryokaku, and going all the way up to the observation deck gives you a magnificent view of the whole star-shaped fort. Beyond the observation deck, there are a bunch of restaurants and souvenir shops inside, along with a decorated lounge where you can rest your feet.

There were two really awesome things in this place: one was delicious ice cream, and the second was delicious curry. The ice cream was delicious because it uses Hokkaido milk, from Hokkaido cows, which are famous for their delciousness. Just the milk, though; the most delicious beef in the country is still considered to be the venerable Kobe beef. Aaron and I shared a mixed vanilla and chocolate soft-serve cone, and man do I wish I wasn't so stuffed from the curry; I wanted to eat that ice cream all day.

The curry was impossible not to gorge on, unfortunately. Hakodate is renowned for its seafood because, well, it's a port town, but it's also renowned for its curry. You see, all those Dutch traders that came in, along with other foreigners eventually, were all caught up with this delicious Indian food known as curry. The traders shared some with the people in Hakodate, they thought it was awesome too, and they started making tons of it for both themselves and the foreigners that suddenly were living in their little town. There's a curry restaurant in Hakodate that has been in business for almost a 150 years, and we were lucky enough to eat at one of their branch restaurants. It was so good.... and probably the only thing that could have made me fill up too much to enjoy the ice cream later. Curses.

Hakodate was definitely a blast, and a wonderful way to spend a three day weekend. I hope we have the chance to go there again. If you're ever up in Hokkaido for any reason, do yourself a favor and check out Hakodate; it really is awesome.

Hakodate, Day One

So, I am incredibly slow at updating this blog... but I always get to it eventually, at least. Last summer/fall (on August 14th and 15th, to be exact), Aaron and I went to Hakodate for vacation. We'd never been up to Hokkaido before (the large island at the very northern end of Japan), but the capitol city of Sapporo seemed a bit too far for an extended weekend vacation... so we choose Hakodate, a port town at the southern tip of Hokkaido instead.

Our friend Laura, an ALT here about two years ago, had always raved about Hakodate as well, so that factored into our final decision. To be honest though, I always thought it couldn't be that great, at least not as awesome as she always said it was. Boy, did I feast on some humble pie.

Hakodate was, indeed, awesome; I would love to go back there again before my contract in Japan is up. Hopefully with friends, as Hakodate is definitely a place that should be shared. Part of the reason it's so awesome is the feeling about the town; Hakodate was one of the few ports open to foreign traders during Japan's isolation period (and before that, too), and the foreign influence is still felt to this day. Massive Buddhist temples battle Greek Orthodox church spires for dominance over the city skyline, statues of Dutch traders stand next to statues of samurai, and the food is varied and delicious.

One of those cool, old, western influences is the trolley system, which you can see above. Hakodate has the San Francisco vibe going, with trolley lines crossing everywhere. What's especially neat though is that it's not just some tourist attraction; the trolleys are used just as much as buses and taxis, and are considered to be an equally viable form of transportation. I think Aaron and I ended up using them even more than buses, actually; they were usually more convenient for the places we were interested in going.

Most of the really cool stuff was in this one neighborhood... which I've now completely forgotten the name of. It was full of neat little shops, old churches, museums, and really, really expensive looking houses. Most of the houses had cars with brand names like Lexus and such parked in front of them. It's apparently quite an old, historical district...and it's mostly uphill. You can see the main road we hiked up in the picture above; while it is gorgeous, my legs weren't impressed with the 30 degree or so angle it had going.

There is a reason for the uphill climb though; this district sits on the base of the small mountain shown above, Mt. Hakodate. This small mountain was actually the main reason we even went to that area; you can ride a cable car all the way up to the top, where you are afforded a brilliant view of the entire city, complete with the harbor opening onto the ocean, laid out in front of you. Unfortunately, you may have noticed how cloudy the top of the mountain is... that same cloud prevented us from having a clear view of the city, and hence I have no nice pictures from the summit. Considering that the night view from the top of Mt. Hakodate is considered to be one of the most beautiful in the world, I was pretty disappointed. I suppose it makes me more determined to go again sometime, though. Riding the cable car up into the mist and clouds was quite the experience, however, so I suppose I can't be too upset it was overcast when we went.

One of the little shops that was in this district was a sausage/meat shop. It was apparently owned by a German immigrant who came over in his mid-20s, then lived the rest of his life in Hakodate. There was a picture of him (above) inside the shop for all to see, and a statue of him (below) greeting everyone as they walked towards the entrance. We didn't have a chance to actually taste anything, as we weren't sure how well we could pack sausages into our luggage to take back home, but man.... it smelled and looked amazing. It was nice to see German sausage and European cheese in Japan; they're pretty hard to find most of the time. Consider me supremely envious of the people who live in that neighborhood and can go there everyday... in their Lexus and Range Rovers.... I guess I'm jealous of that too.

From here on, this post will become a photo dump. Yay! Please enjoy the various pictures of churches and statues we took in this amazing district that took up all of our first day in Hakodate. Oh, I forgot to mention...this trip was actually the first time we used Aaron's new camera, which is a real, actual, honest-to-goodness DSLR camera. It's a very nice camera, and it took some very nice pictures. I hope you agree. Day Two of Hakodate goodness should be up soon!