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.

Blue Baby's Breath

Yet another Ikebana attempt. I actually really like this one, but I guess it's more a normal flower arrangement than an Ikebana, as traditional Ikebana has rules and math (yes, math, ugh!). I found out only recently that there are fairly strict rules where the subject flower has to be at a 45 degree angle from the main flower, or some other such number/angle depending on which shape or style the Ikebana arrangement is in. Boo for math, but yay for blue baby's breath and lilies, although I don't know if the blue is natural or sprayed on. Either way, it's pretty!

My Kids

Japan has privacy laws out the ying-yang, which is why I never post pictures of my kids, unless it's at some sort of public event like a festival, which even then is kind of pushing it. I had to post this picture though, as not only does it show the entirety of my fourth grade class that I do all these whiteboard drawings for, it shows them playing one of my favorite activities: human alphabet! In this picture they are making the letter K, and doing it quite well. It also made me laugh for some reason, so I had to take a picture of it. They were very obliging to stay still while I took it, and they enjoyed seeing it after the fact. They laughed too, although why we all found this picture so funny I still can't really say. As none of the kids are showing their faces, I also feel reasonably safe in posting it, so yay! (Well, one kid is kinda looking up, but it's blurry, so oh well.) These kids were 1st graders when I first came to Japan, and they'll be 6th graders when I leave. I've really enjoyed watching them grow up so much this far, and I'm looking forward to the time I have left with them. Yay for my favorite class!

Kitty-chan

This isn't the most detailed whiteboard doodle I've done, or the best, but it is one of my favorites, simply because of why it was drawn. All the drawings I've done up to this point were originally for my fourth graders, who were first graders when I first came to Japan. They were also the class I was with during the Tohoku Earthquake a couple years ago now, and they are hands-down my favorite class ever. Always have been. So, I originally started drawing things the fourth graders requested, with an occasional request from the sixth graders (who benefited from following the fourth graders' class) thrown in there. This drawing is one of my favorites because a little girl named Ai requested it, who is the ONLY girl in the entire class of very rambunctious (well-behaved and sweet, but super energetic) fourth grade boys. She asked me, in a very quiet voice, if I would draw her a Kitty-chan (Hello Kitty), even though she thought it was kind of selfish of her to even ask, as she was the only one who liked it.

I drew her name in kanji and a Kitty-chan the very next week; she was almost in tears she was so happy when she saw it, and all the boys danced around her in a circle and cheered and celebrated that she got what she wanted.

Little Yellow Flowers

 

This week's Ikebana is... okay. I like it well enough. Not terribly interesting, but not bad. Plus, while I don't know the name of the little yellow wildflowers, I do know the pink and orange ones! They're roses... that's why I know them. On a side note, I just realized I'd never seen orange roses before this. Huh.

Ninja Restaurants, However, are Cooler Than Ninja Drawings

In Tokyo, the Akasaka district to be exact, there is a restaurant named Ninja Akasaka. It is probably the most expensive restaurant I've ever been to, but it is also the most awesome. I went there last summer when I had relatives come to visit, and if you ever have some free time in Tokyo and lots of money to burn, I can't recommend it enough. If the restaurant is good enough for Steven Spielberg (that's his signature on a wall in the restaurant pictured above), then it's good enough for you.

Ninja Akasaka is a theme restaurant, in that it's all built around the premise of diners eating inside an old ninja fortress. From the outside it's very plain; the building is nothing more than a brownish color warehouse, with a man in a suit standing outside the entryway with a checklist. Upon approaching him, he will ask if you have a reservation, as that is the only way to get into the restaurant. Answering in the affirmative and your name being on 'the list' gets you a bow and a smile as the man moves out of your way, and you enter the realm of the ninja!... Actually, not quite yet. You enter into a little waiting area, where a hostess is waiting to greet you. After double-checking your name and what sort of table you wanted, she summons your server by knocking on the wall, after which your waiter or waitress opens up a hidden panel door in the wall and literally somersaults out to land in front of you. The night just gets more awesome from there.

Your server leads you to your table through an underground tunnel area, complete with a small river and waterfall and working draw-bridge, before finally arriving safely at your table. The menu, all written on a magic ninja scroll, is unfurled in front of you with flair. All the food has ninja-themed puns, and many dishes have some sort of magic/special presentation show to go with them. Things are lit on fire, spun around, thrown into the air and juggled, all for your viewing pleasure. The dessert menu is written on flash paper and immediately set on fire once read, so as to prevent it from falling into enemy hands, and a special ninja comes to your table during dinner to do a magic show while you eat.

All these gimmicks, as awesome as they are, wouldn't make up for poor quality food, so it's fortunate that the food is delicious. To be fair, though, poor quality food is a very rare exception in Japanese restaurants; even little hole-in-the-wall ramen shacks on the side of the road are usually incredibly tasty and safe. My favorite dish of the night was actually not my main course (although my cubed steak with slices of garlic and vegetables literally melted in my mouth), but a little appetizer I got, pictured above. It's small pieces of seared mahi tuna with rice-stuffed scallions over a kind of tare sauce, it cost $12 a plate, and it was worth every freaking cent. I ordered two of them actually, just because I needed another one as soon as I finished the first one. The desert, a chocolate lava cake with real vanilla bean ice cream, was also to die for. Going to this place again before I leave is already on my Japan bucket list, and again, if you ever have the chance, I cannot recommend it enough. Go enter the realm of the ninja!

Ninja Drawings are More Fun

Of course, one could argue that this isn't a proper ninja drawing, as you can see it. This particular ninja is Naruto, who is from the anime of the same name. After One Piece, I think this is one of the most popular animes among young boys currently. I had a lot of requests for Naruto, and I ended up really enjoying drawing this. Getting the perspective on the hand right was tough, but it turned out well. It's a shame this photo didn't turn out better, as there's lots of orange and yellow highlights I did in his hair and jumpsuit that you can't really see at all unless you get close. One of my fourth graders asked how I got the yellow, as they thought I was still using the school's markers, which are limited to black, red, and blue. Little did he know that by this point, I had already bought my own set of markers for use on whiteboard doodles, as the school's markers were running out of ink at an alarming rate. I was going to tease the kid by telling him I made it by mixing red and blue, but I thought it best not to mess with his color wheel studies.

I Really Need a New Ikebana Vase

I realize, looking back on these pictures of Ikebana I've done over the past few months, that I really need a new Ikebana vase/container. Quite possibly a few different ones. With the one I currently have, I think there's only so many shapes and arrangements I can do. Sorry then if this is familiar to something you've seen before, but here's another arrangement I did. (I'm still catching up on all the pictures I have of Ikebana and whiteboard doodles.) I'm kind of... indifferent to this one. I don't hate it, but I don't really like it either. It's just sort of there. I do, however, wish I knew the name for all these flowers. It's starting to bug me a little. Perhaps, in addition to some new Ikebana vases, I will also invest in a book of some sorts to identify all these flowers I'm using.

Beach Day!

Two new ALTs came to my town this last summer, and on one of the hottest days all year we decided to all go run away to the beach. We went to Tanizashi Seashore, which is absolutely beautiful, but due to the rocks lining the shore and a nasty undertow, you can't swim there. The swimming beach was horribly crowded anyways, so we figured we'd just dip our feet in the cool water and walk along the sand. It was a lot of fun, even if my skin was busy melting off my body.

One Piece Mania

After drawing Chopper from One Piece the week before, the children wanted to see other characters from their favorite show go up on the whiteboard. Usually I try to space out character requests that are too similar, but I decided to give in this time and draw Luffy, the main character from One Piece. I admit I know very little about this show, but I DO know that Luffy is a pirate who can stretch out any part of his body, ala Mr. Fantastic, and that all my boys worship him.

My Favorite Ikebana

Or at least one of my favorites, at least. It's super simplistic, but I admit I really like that. How well this turned out is mostly due to the beauty of the main flower (which I'm pretty sure is an Orchid... right?), but I'd like to think that by this point I've maybe gotten a little better at the whole flower arranging thing.

The Dragon Tower

Aaron was driving around one day, and happened to glance off to his left into the mountains. He noticed something there he'd never seen before: a giant dragon head sticking out of the trees. Understandably intrigued, he decided to drive in the general direction of the dragon and see if he could find a way up to it. He did, and a week later he told me he had something to show me: the dragon tower. Apparently there's some sort of camping/recreation area in the hills of Nagawa, near where we live, and they have converted what looks like the remnants of a cell phone tower base into a giant dragon themed jungle-gym kids can climb up and play on. I'm sorry I didn't get a closer picture, but there was actually a man in the little guard tower at the bottom (apparently there's a dollar fee to play on the dragon) who was staring at us impassively, and I decided I would be too embarrassed if another person saw my grown-up self absolutely freaking out over how cool this thing is. Please accept this far away picture and my apologies. I was too embarrassed to go climb on the dragon that day, but it's made it onto my bucket list of things to do in Japan before I leave (yes, I'm actually making one), so be assured that you will see this thing again. Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to go back on as nice a day as this one was, as you can possibly tell from the picture below. All the little hut thingies are covered picnic tables, in case you were wondering.

You Can't Ride this Chopper

This week's whiteboard doodle was Chopper, who is a character from the super popular anime One Piece. Pretty much all my kids requested him, but I have to admit I never understood his appeal. I don't really think weird moose/reindeer looking creatures in giant pink hats are cute, but hey, what do I know? If the popularity of both One Piece and Chopper is any indication, then I have no understanding of what classifies as 'cute' in Japan. It suppose it doesn't really matter though, as long as I get to see my students do happy dances when their request finally goes up on the whiteboard.

Did I Mention Lilies are Awesome?

Apparently I liked using lilies so much, right after the last arrangement I made, I immediately used them again! Different color and arrangement this time though, with different supporting flowers. I wasn't lying when I said I really liked lilies, so I'm warning you now they show up many more times in my Ikebana attempts.

Baby Seagulls

In nearby Hachinohe, there's a magical place, which I've talked about before. Well, not so much magical as absolutely horrifying. Kabushima is a little shrine on a hill, which happens to also be the traditional breeding ground of about 40,000 black-tailed seagulls, which descend upon the place like a plague every year. I've already been there once, and honestly that's kind of enough, but I always go back and show it to anyone who dares to come visit me. This last year, I had family come up and visit, so of course we had to show them this terrifying place. We actually went to Kabushima at a different time of year then we usually go though, so instead of just having adults everywhere, sitting on eggs or flying around, there were newly hatched seagull chicks as well. And.... I have to begrudgingly admit they are kinda cute for little brown balls of fluff. I still don't like seagulls though, even if the ones in these pictures are glowing with the light of god for some reason (my camera must have been having an off day).

Samurai Movies

Rurouni Kenshin is a now 10 year old Japanese comic and anime series that I loved when I was younger, and for its anniversary they made a live-action movie, which of course I had to go see. It was a really awesome movie, and I was super proud of myself for understanding the entire thing as well (I was a little concerned the old Japanese grammar forms and Samurai speaking style might throw me). Rurouni Kenshin also ended up being one of my favorite whiteboard doodles when I drew it for the kids after summer break finally ended. I was surprised how many of the 4th graders recognized a 10 year old anime character, but I guess it's still pretty popular in Japan.

The photo at the top of the page is the official poster for the movie, which you should all go see if it ends up heading to the States. The middle picture is the overall whiteboard doodle, complete with my message to the kiddies, and the bottom picture is a close-up of just Kenshin's face. Because he's beautiful like that.