Welcome Party

The welcome party for the Stony Plain delegation's arrival went very smoothly. Something funny did happen toward the end of the evening as the representative for the Town of Stony Plain, Paul McCann, official presitation of a book (about Canada) went horribly awry and I was called into action. It started when the official cameraman began to have trouble with his flash. It just so happened that only moments before others had noticed me taking pictures with my big camera without a flash. All of a sudden I heard my name being called and I grab my camera to get the shot. The resulting picture is below.

Arrived (more to follow)

Ah Weather in Shikaoi

I was lamenting yesterday - and resisting to expose - Shikaoi's porr weather forecast. However, upon getting up this morning, it was easy to spot that the forecast had been 100% wrong; it was a complete turn around from the previous day's forecast. Rain all today and through the weekend had been predicted. Waking up I instancely saw bright sun streaming into my house. How can weather forecasting be so wrong in this part of the world? Outside it is now 34C which means it's also 34C inside my house. (I can get a good cross breeze through my house though.) This is actually the first time it has been this hot this year. I have a fan beside me as I type but all I can feel is blowing hot air. Oh, and the delegation has still not arrived yet. Still waiting. Within a couple of hours I expect.

Today's Theme: Eating (Odd!?!?)

Seeing as my Mom will soon be landing in Chitose (and I have nothing else on my mind at the moment) I decided I should reflect on the upcoming visit. I guess the topic that would jump into most people's mind is to talk about change. But I am resistive to change by nature and I would propose most others are too. An inordinate amount of preparation has been done for the visit. My house has never looked so clean (and I normally keep it rather clean by habit). However - and I will confess this - I have been so busy just trying to keep up with my commitments that I haven't been able to raise my head above the taste at hand and look ahead to what on Earth I should do in the spare time allotted with host families. This could either be a brilliant move on my part or something that was woefully over-looked. I have come to one conclusion; to continue the timeless tradition carried on through many parts of the World and eat. We will eat our way through Japan.

The official delegation will also be busy. Myself being at the very bottom wrung have only gleaned the foggiest idea of what's going on. (I have actually gathered a lot of information second hand.) The delegation schedule looks good. I think the group will be touring under a heavy dose of Japanese culture; something I have grown to love but which can have a stunning/stupefying-effect when compressed into a short time period. I am sure awkward moments will abound; (a word to the wise) I have found the best remedy to deal with this type of situation is to do something completely unexpected (like conjure a cute puppy out of thin air or do three-dimensional math equations in five dimensions while juggling fire).

And because things will be so busy in Shikaoi and because I have to share my time with others while in Shikaoi my mother and I will be spending time in Sapporo for a couple of days until she returns. When I'm in Shikaoi there are too many things pulling me in many directions. This is not conducive to the most quality of visits. Sapporo is great in the summer and I am desperately looking forward to week away from Shikaoi with family. Returning to the issue of eating: I appreciate that Japanese food in Japan is several times better than anything can be found in Alberta and I respect that everyone is here for only a short time - I love Japanese food and I would want to cram as much down my gullet as I could - however, my Mom might have to put up with some foreign food while in Sapporo. There are times when I am really drawn to other tastes besides Japanese food. Eating Japanese food, and the health benefits it provides, is one of my most serious concern about returning to Canada. But sometimes I want to taste tomatoes and basil and smoky BBQ sauce!

At this time I would also like to roll out for my readers my Summer schedule. Of course there is the touring around Shikaoi and a trip to Sapporo. I will also be returning to Koriyama for a week. I will again be staying with the Tsuchiya's, who were so kind to me last May during Golden Week. They will be nursing a sad Blair, missing his Mom, back to uber-genki-ness. Also scheduled is a trip to Tokyo to spend money - you know - to help the economy and all. Tokyo is the one place you could save a lot of money if you don't eat.

Downhill to Thursday

Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday. On top of my abnormal uber-cleaning routine of the past month to get ready for my Mom's visit (the Japanese normally do this every Spring but I needed a bit more motivation) I am also very busy at work. Returning to the office today I found another fax to deal with. As they say: No rest for the weary. It will all get done but it cuts into time that would otherwise be spent posting. My Mom should be leaving the airport in a matter of hours. Maybe she will check my blog before she leaves? The transit for the group (from Stony Plain) is quite long. Note the timing of this post. The group does not arrive in Shikaoi until Thursday night my time. Yikes. That's brutal.

Below are pictures from Monday. Ack! Sorry for the delay. They are taken from a "Te Matsuri" during recess at Shikaoi Sho Gakko. It translate as a "hand festival". The older students have done a great job creating fun games for everyone to play all week. Balancing, ring toss, bean counting and drawing, among other things. I tried my hand at a couple of events. Actually, I am the current record holder for the event illustrated directly below; the dama holding event. I was able to hold an amazing eight grams of beads in my right hand. My students are at a slight disadvantage being younger than thirteen but the grade sixes decided to let the record stand. I nearly bowed over with surprise and laugher when I heard my name announced for it over the school's intercom.

The Day that Was

Saturday, for the most part, was very busy; I can't remember one still moment until just before bed. My morning was filled with cleaning, yard work, and shopping; a rather uninteresting coupling void of photogenic moments. Two long distance phone calls Saturday morning was a surprise; I think people are starting to figure out that it's the only time that I am consistently home. It also turned out to be a beautiful day and I was lucky to have an excuse to spend it all outside. There was a small BBQ in honor of those that are returning home for local foreign English teachers at Tokachi Ecology Park. As a testament to the power of the internet to connect we were treated to fresh real all-beef mail-order hamburgers and hot dogs, also present the fresh buns needed to complete the sandwich. Everything was just like you could buy at Safeway. I think I am starting to lose it here when such simple things impress me so much. I haven't had a hamburger since last year and I committed a very sinful gluttous act by eating three. I think the real high moment of the afternoon - which also happened to be miraculous in my opinion - was the appearance of real Bull's Eye BBQ sauce someone brought back from Canada. We went through two bottles of the stuff; but you must understand one can't even find the taste of real smoky tangy BBC sauce here. It was a great afternoon with everyone huddling in the shade the only tree near the BBQ sharing information and blowing off some steam.

My evening was filled with the First Annual Rock Jam held outdoors. Lights, sound, a stage, fireworks had all been set-up on the lawn of the Country Papa restaurant. Outdoor folk music festivals are a soft spot for me and I was quick to settle down on the ground to listen to the music - which I won't even attempt to describe (except to say that it's as if only a small cross section of 60s Rock n' Roll made it over here, for example; instrumental surfer rock). Local events like the Rock Jam in Shikaoi are always a lot of fun because there are always a lot of people I know. Lots of kids too, of course, to play with; many had come with their parents to see the fireworks. We decided to stop in on our way home at Nizen, a small local pub (I really wanted some of his garlic fried onigiri), which was packed - predictably - with people Kevin and I knew from Shikaoi. Lots of nice shoes too at the Rock Jam but am I not at liberty to reveal who's.

Update: Something to Look At.

I have taken the time this morning to review yesterday's post and add text. Even the small amount of text I offer will make the images seem much less absurd. Sorry for the delay. The first image (above) is of the corner of Urimaku Elementery School as I arrived Friday morning.


Here are a group of grade one's that offered me a couple of tomatoes during lunch time that they had grown for a science experiment.


But I actually ate lunch with the grade twos that day.


We had summer vegtable curry rice for lunch. Above is a before and after composite image.


The above image was taken by a grade two of "Whitey", the class bear puppet. His attendence to lunch is unknown to me. The last image below is just a small image of Japan through my eyes.

Who Thinks This is Funny?

I was sent an e-copy of a book by some local Tokachi English teachers. It is interesting for several reasons: It was written in 1879 and it deals with learning Yokohama-dialect Japanese (the area just south of Tokyo) . I am not sure who will find this funny. From my perspective as an advanced student of Japanese I laugh in wonder at how he came up with some of his translations and the constructions there of. There too far off to be of any help. Readers with little knowledge of the Japanese luggage may find little of interest, but I could be wrong. I would like to strongly caution against using the link as any sort of guide to learning Japanese; an infinite number of monkeys writing a Japanese textbook will probably get you closer to conversational Japanese. I took some pictures today and I will try to get them up later.

Baseball in Japan

Now that Shikaoi Elementary School's short baseball season is over I thought I would share my experiences playing baseball in Japan. Japan's dedication to baseball is well known in the West. It was a proud moment this year when Japan stood supreme at the World Baseball Classic. My season was only two games which makes it possible to write a full account of each game. I had no idea how many games our season involved and I only had an inkling - abet a scary one - of what the Japanese thought of baseball, when I jumped at the opportunity to play with my peers on Shikaoi Sho Gakko's baseball team. We call it "Yakyuu", which translates as baseball, but what is in reality for us what we call softball. In any case, I was surprised after playing Kevin and Shikaoi Junior High School (not to make it sound like he was leading them) to learn that that had been our last game of the season. I'm glad I remembered my camera which I had forgotten the first game. I think the last picture turned out well.

I can't give a complete comparison between baseball in Japan and baseball in Canada because in my youth I had little interest in baseball. This has continued into the present. Some sports are better to play then to watch, like soccer: I much rather play soccer then watch two teams battle to a scoreless tie. Sports like curling are enriched though the television medium. Baseball, on the other hand, is neither attractive to watch nor play to me; the difference here being that I was playing with friends. A full study of baseball's history in Japan makes clear there is a deep connection between the game of baseball and Japan's inner psyche (to which I am clueless).

On a scale of seriousness - one being not very serious and ten being near professional - the division we were in contained a range of teams. I would peg Shikaoi Sho Gakko a one; we were only in it to have a few laughs. The first team we played was Tsumei, a smaller community northwest of Shikaoi proper. These guys were killers, real robots. I think they even held practices. This is the game I refer to below and blame on the fog. The only reason I will mention the score now is because it really was quite humorous. We lost 19-2. Ouch. Now in hindsight I just blame the lose on bad luck, of which there was lots to go around. But if you don't take it too seriously no one gets hurt.

Shikaoi Junior High School was much more relaxed about such things and thus the second game was much closer. Still it was a lose. My whole methodology while playing baseball was two fold; not to make any big mistakes to lose the game and, secondly, not injure myself, which I am more than capable of doing even though it's only a community sport. I actually pitched for the first inning of the second game (there were only three innings and Kevin was pitching for the Junior High School) and did quite well. Letting in only four runs before mercifully pitching enough fly balls to end the inning. The local diamond where we played was nicely equipped. Playing under the bright lights made it feel like the big leagues. There were also four umpires, one at each base, of which I was able to raise the eyebrows of each individually with a mix of my foreign strangeness and completely beginner status. I also owe a big thanks to the first and third base coaches, without which I would never had made it around the bases to make my first run ever.