yosakoi yosakoi

So last month a joined a yosakoi dance team, and it's slowly but surely taking over my life really really fun! Yosakoi is a type of Japanese dance, and the style that my team is, yosakoi soran, only has two rules: that the dancers dance while holding naruko (clappers) and that the song includes lyrics from soran bushi, a famous traditional song. Other than that, anything goes, so yosakoi teams all have their own unique styles and interpretations.

The team I joined is called Chiyoren Hokutenkai, and I think it's one of the bigger and well-established teams in Chiba Prefecture (though since I've just joined I'm still learning about it). There are probably 50-60 active members of all ages, and it's super fun! Everybody has been very welcoming (apparently I've joined at a time when they manage to recruit lots of new people like college students) and I already wish I'd discovered them earlier!

Anyway, a couple of weekends ago I helped out as staff (since I hadn't learned the dance yet) at a yosakoi event called Yosakoi Kisarazu Buson, which took place for the 13th time this year and included over 30 teams and 1000 dancers! Yosakoi soran originally started in Hokkaido before spreading all over the country, so I think it's pretty cool that there are that many people who do it here in Chiba.



The event took place in Kisarazu, which I don't think I've been to before, but is apparently famous for tanuki (raccoon dogs), judging by the giant statue of one near the station. I was in charge of photography for the day, so I followed the team around during their performances, both on stage and in parade style. I didn't get to see that many performances of other teams, but I did see all of their introductions in the opening ceremony and admire their flags (yosakoi teams aren't just dancers but also include people who wave giant flags around in the background - it looks much cooler than that sounds, I promise).

Anyway, my team made it to the finals and eventually got 1st place, which means we got to take home a grand prize of 1000 packages of nori (dried seaweed). I didn't do anything to help them get there, but I did get to take some too. :D

I think there will be several more yosakoi events taking place in Chiba this summer (actually there's one this weekend but I'll have to miss it), and now that I've officially debuted and can dance with the team, I should be able to post some more exciting updates! Stay tuned. :)

taiwan travels

This year for Golden Week, instead of staying home and dancing all week, I took a trip to Taiwan with a couple of friends! Well, I say 'with', but actually we all had different flights/schedules and only had one day where all three of us were together, but I got to spend the whole time with at least one companion and it was great. :)

Here's how my itinerary ended up:

Day 1:
 - arrival in Taipei in the evening and meeting up with my friend (who was kind enough to take me to my hostel because I am bad at directions, haha)
- dinner at Din Tai Fung (a restaurant famous for its xialong bao, which were amazing)
- clubbing (there was supposed to be an indoor waterfall but we couldn't find it, sad)

Day 2:
- hopping on a train to Tamsui, where we wandered along the wharf, bought street food, shared a coconut, and tried (and failed) to find a certain fabled beach
- stopping by the Taipei Expo Park on the way back and exploring the area around it, which was open and beautiful and included things like an indigenous people's museum
- meeting up with our friend and heading back to Din Tai Fung for round 2 (because we decided the night before we had to take her there), which was just as delicious
- going up to a fancy restaurant/bar near the top of Taipei 101, which used to be the world's tallest building. We weren't at the very top and the only place I could see a view was in the bathroom, but it was still pretty cool.
- wandering around Shilin Night Market! In retrospect I think I should have shopped and eaten more while we were there, but just exploring and seeing all the stands and people was lots of fun

Day 3:
- taking a dubious but persistent taxi driver's offer to drive us up to Jiu Fen, the place that was the inspiration for the town in Spirited Away, where we stopped at a tea house and explored the narrow streets, taking lots of pictures on the way
- going to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial, which is flanked by the National Theatre and Concert Hall, all in a huge open space, where we also happened to see the changing of the guards and see some exhibits
- a brief visit to Ximen, which was so full of Japanese restaurants and chains it was almost like we hadn't left at all
- going to a puzzle cafe! What a great idea, and such a sense of accomplishment (even though we only did two smallish ones in about an hour and a half)

Day 4:
- visiting the National Palace Museum, where we lined up for 20 minutes to see a jadeite cabbage (among other interesting and beautiful things)
- trekking out to eat beef noodles, which were great (though I think my mom could give them a run for their money)
- visiting Longshan Temple, which was full of people who all knew what they were doing (unlike us)
- making another special trip to go find a certain pineapple cake shop, where everybody who goes there gets to sample a cake and enjoy a cup of tea (before buying pricey but actually very tasty pineapple cakes)
- wandering around the area, which was full of little and interesting stores and cafes - if I lived near there I would definitely want to explore more thoroughly (though I suspect it's a rather expensive place to live)
- getting some frozen yogurt at Taipei Station before heading out again to some new night markets in search of omiyage for our coworkers

And then I got up super early to go back to Japan, with a decent amount of Taiwan dollars left over - proof that I should have bought/eaten (mostly eaten) more while I was there, but also an incentive to go back sometime! Definitely a great trip. :D

new fiscal year and new beginnings

Well, it's been a while since my last post here, but in my defense, up until recently things have been pretty humdrum. Not boring per se, but not exactly thrilling, either. But the key words here are 'up until recently' - maybe it's because I'm already starting to feel like I'm running out of time in Japan (though right now I'll be here for at least another year and three months), but at any rate I've been trying to keep things exciting after settling in for (almost) two years.

Some recent stimulating developments in my life:
- A new office (space) for the second year in a row. As of April we are now on the 2nd floor as opposed to the 5th, in an even smaller room than last year. I suppose you can call it cozy, at least? While moving everything was frankly a pain, it does mean that I'll have spent each year on JET in a different location, which is kind of cool, and it is nice to have a change of scenery (figuratively speaking, because this new office looks over the parking lot).

- New English names for the City of Chiba! Up until now the English translation for 課, the basic unit in an organization that comes after bureau/department has been 'Section', while a smaller subsection, 係, has been 'Division', which I've felt has been backwards since I got here. This year I somehow managed to get permission to change all of the English names of 課 in the City of Chiba from Section to Division (and vice versa), which is both a big change and not at the same time, but it's definitely something I've been wanting to make happen for a long time and I feel like this'll be part of the mark that I want to leave on the city.

- I've also been able to make real measurable progress on my overall goal of improving the city's foreign-language pages (which are currently basically non-existent), by updating the English version of the city's living guide online (small steps). It's something that should have been done months and months ago, but after harrying my coworker in charge of the guide and convincing him to let me edit the pages myself, the updated version finally went online today and it's much easier to navigate and read than it used to be. This whole process has been a reminder that perseverance pays off and it also feels really nice to be working on something that isn't just translation.

- Signing up for a Korean class! I've been saying that I want to learn Korean for a while now but never actually did anything about it, until I saw a flier for small-group introductory lessons that were starting in April. I prefer group classes to one-on-one tutoring and the lessons are also run by an organization instead of a company so they're not too expensive, so this is basically the perfect chance to actually start learning Korean. I've only been to one trial class so far, but apparently they've only been doing pronunciation up until now so I'm excited for the first full lesson!

- I've also joined a yosakoi team (this one, in fact), which has been super fun! I'd thought about doing yosakoi (a type of Japanese dance) before but didn't follow up on that until now, and now I really wish I'd discovered this a lot earlier, like when I first got here. The team I've joined is really welcoming and the style of dance is intense but fun (lots of shouting and sweating), and they even go to a nearby park after practice to pick up trash and socialize, which I think is great. I went to see a performance of theirs on Sunday and though I didn't really get to watch since I agreed to take pictures for them, what I could see was really cool. It's really fun to do choreographed dance again, and I'm planning to go to a tournament with them in Hokkaido in June!

I'm also going to Taiwan this Saturday (!) for Golden Week for a few days and will be visiting some TOA friends in Shikoku at the end of the month, so it looks like May will be action-packed, which is perfectly fine with me. :D