Monthly Archive for July, 2006

Water babies?

Published on July 31, 2006 in blog. 0 Comments
Well, maybe that title is a little unfair. Reni doesn’t like to be called a baby anymore. Maybe I should have said infants or kids.
Anyway to get to the point. Summer really is here now. I mentioned once before that it had arrived but I was mistaken. It rained for another week after that. (This year’s rainy season which finished  later than usual and caused widespread damage.)
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200607240627.html
Being summer, same as anywhere, it’s a good time to go to the beach. Well, maybe. We went to the beach last week and it was so hot you couldn’t take your sandals/thongs off or the sand would burn your feet. It wasn’t particularly safe to go barefoot to the shore either. It was very disappointing, not to mention dangerous, that there was a lot of broken glass along the shoreline.  
The water was very pleasant however. I could have stayed in for hours. The kids though were not so keen. Reni and his two good friends, Seri and Hana, (both girls) were very reluctant to enter the water. Hana was the gamest of the three. She was prepared to go into the water a little with her father holding her. Reni would have none of it and got quite upset whenever we tried to coax him to the water.
We enjoyed a picnic lunch at the beach. I must have looked quite odd to our company I imagine. Reni seemed a bit confused that while he and everybody else ate McDonalds, I had a bento, readymade Japanese lunch.  (I’ve been boycotting McDonalds since America invaded Iraq.)
 
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After lunch we moved from the beach to a nearby pool. Hana’s grandfather works for Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, one of Tokushima’s largest companies. Otsuka owns the pool and allows it’s workers and their families to use it free of charge. As it was a weekday there was virtually nobody there so the pool was all ours to use.
Seri and Hana were soon splashing about in the toddler pool. Reni wasn’t quite so keen but after a while he got in the water too. In fact at one point he got a little too deep in the water. He fell face first into the slightly deeper kids pool next to the toddler’s one. Fortunately Yoko was on hand to retrieve him. I think it gave Reni a bit of a scare. I know it did me and made me realize how essential it is not to take my eye off him for even one second. 
It was interesting to see how the kids reacted differently to the water at the beach and at the pool. Maybe they were frightened at the beach because of the waves or the water is endless. Certainly Reni would much rather go to a pool. As he told Yoko on the way home, ” I love the pool!”  

        Into the water.

 

A Different Taste of Chinese

Published on July 27, 2006 in blog. 1 Comment

Last Saturday we went to Bunka no Mori (Cultural Forest) to see a concert. The prefectural government kindly provides these concerts a few times a year free of charge. They are usually held outdoors in an amphitheatre which is a part of the arts and culture centre.

The concert this time featured musicians from China. Most of the musicians were women. (This seems to be common. In my family the musicians are all women and at one of the schools I teach at all the band members are girls.) They performed together as one group and also solo and in duets.

The music was generally very peaceful and relaxing. The instruments were quite fascinating. Some of them I’d never seen or heard of before. Most of them were string instruments, either bowed or plucked. There were huqin (Chinese violins or fiddles), pipa and ruan(Chinese lutes; the former is pear-shaped and also known as a biwa in Japan, while the later is round), guzheng (zither, similar to the Japanese koto) and suona (a kind of short horn).

(If you’d like to know more about them and you can trust Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_musical_instruments )


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The most fascinating of the instruments however was the voice of the lady that played the suona horn. She somehow used her mouth and/or vocal chords to produce this shrill sound a bit like someone blowing a eucalyptus leaf. She combined this sound with two lower-pitched suona. The effect was a bit like a symphony of car-horns and had Reni and I in hysterics.

Fireflowers

Published on July 21, 2006 in blog. 1 Comment

literally translated means fireflower, but is more commonly known as fireworks. Just like the matsuri, hanabi is a regular summer event. In fact they often are held together- fireworks often bring a festival to a close. 

Last weekend there was a festival in the port town of Komatsushima, just south of Tokushima. On Sunday we visited our friends Naga and Maki who live there. We could hear the music accompanying the Awa-Odori dance being performed at the festival. We turned on the local cable TV channel and hey presto- we could see it too!

The following day, Monday, was a public holiday, Umi no Hi (Ocean Day). The festival was on this day too. To wrap up the festival there was a big fireworks show over the harbour. We went to see the show with a friend of mine, Latch (nickname of course) and his wife and son, Ai and Taishin

On the way there we had a minor scare, particularly me. The brakes on our car failed! I had to pump the brake pedal repeatedly and use the handbrake for us to get there safely. It was a great relief when I finally could park the car and turn the engine off.

Many people were probably deterred from coming because of the weather. It had been raining through the day. This turned out to be a blessing because not only did it keep the crowd down, it reduced the temperature and humidity to a pleasant level too.

We found a good vantage point at the port. While we ate our dinner we enjoyed the show. It continued for over an hour, gradually becoming more and more spectacular. The final fireworks were so huge they seemed to light up the whole sky. Kirei (beautiful) as they say here.

Taishin reflectsWiggly works

 

Summer = Matsuri

Published on July 18, 2006 in blog. 0 Comments

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The rainy season has just about come to an end, although it has been raining today. Typhoons are beginning to occur. I wake up in the morning, sweating. Summer has arrived.

Summer also means matsuri time. Matsuri means festival. (If you’ve heard of the Matsuri in Broome, a Japanese (mikimoto pearls) influenced festival, you’ll know what I’m talking about.)

So what does a festival consist of? Well, the basic ingredient is of course, people. Then you need activities and things that people will enjoy. There are snacks to eat such as frankfurt on a stick, octopus in batter (tako-yaki), fried noodles (yaki-soba) and fried chicken (kara-age). There are refreshments to cool off with such as shaved ice (kaki-gori), ice cream and cold drinks like juice or beer. There are games to play such as coits, lucky dip and catch the goldfish with a scoop (kingyo-sukui). To finish with there’s usually some entertainment. Typically in Tokushima this consists of a performance of the famous local dance, the Awa-Odori.


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This weekend there were a couple of festivals at the local kindergartens. At the festival on Saturday there was a bazaar. Reni got lots of Thomas the Tank Engine series toy trains and some matchbox cars. He was very pleased. (So were we because they only cost 150 yen!) It was sweltering hot though so we didn’t stay to watch all of the dance perrformance.

On Sunday, Yoko and Reni went to another nearby kindergarten’s festival. (I stayed home and vacuumed the apartment.) There was a maze at the festival constructed to look like underwater that Reni really liked. He also enjoyed the cold drink he won from the coits game, (so much so he kept on going back to try and get more!)

Wee!

Published on July 14, 2006 in blog. 0 Comments

I noticed the blog has had a sort of dark tone of late, so I thought it time to add some cheery news.

Our boy Reni rascal, up until now has not been very co-operative in terms of toilet training. In fact he has put in next to no training at all. Not only has he shown a lack of interest in venturing to the loo, he has been very unco-operative whenever it has been time to change his nappy.

Things have taken a turn for the better in the past week however thanks to an incentive chart  we have posted on the toilet wall. The chart shows one of Reni’s favourite characters, “Anpan-Man” (red bean bread man) going to the loo. Below the picture there are spaces for  Reni to add Anpan-Man stickers whenever he goes or tries to go to the toilet.

Reni is quite keen on the stickers.  Almost every day this week after his shower he has told us he needs to do a pee (oshikko).  He cleverly realized that by doing this he can add a sticker to the chart. There had been no sign of any actual pee however, until last night.

Once again after his shower Reni said he needed to go to the loo. Soon after he asked for a sticker, so we figured he didn’t really need to go and left him on his own. I went into the bathroom to have a shower. Soon after I heard Yoko exclaiming in delight, “You did a pee-pee, Reni!”

I opened the bathroom door to see if it was true. Yoko wasn’t 100% sure but she said it appeared he’d been. Reni looked very proud of himself. He is quite clever at tricking us but his expression did appear genuine. Let’s hope we have turned a corner and our nappy bill will be a thing of the past before too long!  

 

D.I.Y

Published on July 14, 2006 in blog. 0 Comments

D.I.Y, that’s do it yourself. In this case, kill yourself.

In my last entry I wrote of the death of a local infant. The father was suspected of wrongdoing but had disappeared.

He’s now been found, dead. He apparently committed suicide. Whether he was guilty of murdering his child or not we’ll never know but it does appear so.

Suicide is a common form of death in Japan. In the age of the Samurai it was even considered noble. If your master died, the honourable thing to do was to pass on with him. The usual method of doing this was to stab one’s self in the guts with a sword. This act of self disembowelment is known as ’sepppuku’ or ‘hara-kiri’ (gut cutting).

See: http://www.jref.com/glossary/harakiri.shtml

During the war too sucide was an act of honour. ‘Kamikaze’ (god’s wind) pilots would divebomb their planes into enemy targets. Sacrifice was made for the emperor and nation.

Naturally these days suicide is not so readily acceptable. Unfortunately it is still quite common however. There are places in Japan that are notorious for suicide. The cliffs of Cape Ashizuri at the tip of southwest Shikoku is one place, the forest near the base of Mt Fuji, another.

A recent bizarre trend in suicide is group suicide. Participants arrange a meeting through the internet. Typically they drive to a remote location where  they then asphyxiate themselves by burning charcoal within their vehicle. Totally senseless.

Oh dear!

Published on July 13, 2006 in blog. 0 Comments

On my way home from school today there was a helicopter hovering above me. It circled a number of times. Most likely it was a police chopper searching for someone they’d very much like to talk to. You see, a terrible thing happened in our neighbourhood yesterday.

A two year-old boy was found dead in a nearby apartment. He was discovered in the bath, fully clothed. His father had been taking care of him at the time. The father is now missing.

Of course everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty but if it was an accident, why didn’t the father call an ambulance? Why didn’t he  answer calls from his wife? Why has he and his car suddenly disappeared?  It does appear that he has committed this unspeakable crime.

Unfortunately this is not a rare incident in Japan of late. Last year, also in Tokushima, a mother killed her two children after throwing them into a dam. Admittedly she was diagnosed as mentally ill. You have to wonder though why she was allowed to retain custody of her children if she was obviously so incapable of managing.

There was also a double child-murder in Akita prefecture in northern Japan recently too. A young mother has admitted to killing one of the children. It appears likely she also killed the other child too, who just so happened to be her own.

It’s so sad to see. How anybody could stoop to killing a defenceless child is beyond comprehension. Japanese psychiatric care needs a serious overhaul it seems.    

Losing it

Published on July 11, 2006 in blog. 1 Comment
By now everybody will have at least heard of, if not seen, ‘that headbutt’. French soccer legend, Zidane, in his last game ever, the final of the World Cup, lost his cool and was sent off for headbutting his Italian opponent, Materazzi in the chest. To add further insult to injury, the Italians then won the game on penalties. :(
It just goes to show how harmful and humiliating it can be when you lose your temper. Recently I’ve felt my patience being put to the test too by a variety of people; Reni, my students, my workmates and Tokushima’s drivers to name a few.
Sunday was a good example. In the afternoon we went to a barbecue at the beach that some of my students from the youth centre had organised. On the way there a woman drove up fast behind us, swerved round (into the left-hand turn ony lane) and then cut back in front of us, nearly colliding with the car in front . Her reckless driving was typical of the many imbeciles on the road here. Tokushima drivers in fact have a reputation as the worst in Japan.  
When we arrived at the beach the students flocked around Reni exclaiming, “Isn’t he cute?!” Their ooohing and aahing was really excessive though and naturally made poor Reni uncomfortable. One of the students then thought it would be a tremendous joke if he picked up Reni and ran around with him in his arms. Well, needless to say, Reni bawled his eyes out. That irritated me considerably but I held my tongue. As Yoko wisely remarked to me, “They’re young and don’t have children of their own so they do’nt understand.”
As I struggled to retain my composure I chatted with some of the students. Nearby some boys played with a soccer ball (that I’d brought along at their request). Suddenly the ball hit my head, then Reni’s as the boys lost control of it. Quite a few people laughed. Reni cried.  Fuming, I tossed the ball away and told them to go and kick it far from us. They apologised profusely to the point that I felt embarrassed by my reaction.
It wasn’t a particularly good start to the afternoon. Reni  then proceeded to test our patience, (as he has been doing very regularly of late). First of all he wouldn’t eat his lunch. Then he jumped about splashing sand onto the food. After he’d finally eaten we tried to kick the ball with him. He refused to share the ball with us however, (a common problem lately too). Finally when it was time to go home he didn’t want to go.
This kind of behaviour is typical of children Reni’s age I hear. The terrible twos are upon us. It’s a test of patience. I don’t mind though- it’s nothing compared to the lunacy I see on the roads here. Take a deep breath, stay calm…:roll:
 

Toys

Published on July 3, 2006 in blog. 1 Comment
I haven’t been able to post to this blog for sometime due to an update of the site. (Whether the site has been improved or not is debatable to me at this point in time.) :roll:
Anyway I thought I should tell you about the bazaar (flea market) we went to the weekend before last. It was held at of one of the primary schools I work at.  
I was fortunate enough to get a sneak preview of the goods for the sale the day before the bazaar. There were numerous toys and books that looked suitable for Reni. I thought he would particularly enjoy the small trampoline that was there. 
When we arrived at the school there was already a long line of people waiting to snap up some bargains. We joined the queue and waited for the gym doors to open and the bazaar to begin.
As soon as we entered the gym I claimed the trampoline. There was a play car (foot-powered, Flinstones style) for sale too. Reni automatically went and claimed it. He climbed inside and started driving. He remained there while we looked at the other books and toys.
Even though he had two similar cars at home, it was difficult (perhaps impossible) to refuse Reni the car. He would not take no for an answer. He absolutely had to have it! Fortunately it was only 300 yen.
Besides the car and mini-trampoline we purchased a couple of books (including a bi-lingual Sesame Street picture book) and a bicycle seat (that we’ll attach to the back of one our bikes) for Reni and a machine for making shaved ice drinks. Grand total for our shopping- about 1000yen or $10. Best value shopping I’ve done in a long time!
 
 
biker boys
 
 

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