drums drums drums

So last month I went to Narita for their plum blossom festival, but this month I found myself back again, this time for their drum festival! I heard about it last year too but couldn't make it, so this year I managed to go on the second/last day, and it was great. :D

I heard from a friend of mine that the opening event for the day was not to be missed, so I dragged myself out of bed early and ran into some friends who were also on their way to the festival at the station. We got to the main area about a half hour before it was supposed to start, but there was already a big crowd. I couldn't see them at first, but all the taiko/drumming groups that would be performing during the day were all gathered in front of the main temple (with their drums), which was more than 600 people. After some speeches by some people, they introduced each of the groups one by one, with each group playing a short sequence.

Then it was time for the main performance, which was all 600+ drummers performing the same song together. Even before they started making noise, the moment when they all lifted their drumsticks in the air at once was really cool, and then they started! Needless to say, it was pretty loud, to the point where I could feel the vibrations, but it was awesome. Totally worth getting up for and definitely the highlight of the day.



From then on it was just going from performance to performance, as they were happening all day at various stages all along the path from the station down to the temple. The first group we went to was actually an African drum group from Ghana, which was pretty cool, followed by a group that had piqued my interest during their introduction at the beginning. They're apparently a pretty famous group that does tours around Japan and the world, and their performance was super energetic and exciting.

Next it was time for the parade, which I think was supposed to be the big wrap-up event. We got to see a lot more groups pass by, including one where everybody was dressed like some sort of bug (I think maybe they were ants? Or fireflies? Unclear) and one with steel drums. It moved a lot more slowly than most parades I've seen, but it was pretty interesting/impressive to see/hear all the groups playing different songs so close to each other without getting confused.

After that I went to see my friend's performance with his local taiko group, which was also cool. Plus they had little kids performing, who were all super cute. :)

And that was the Narita Taiko Matsuri! I was pretty tired after and my ears were happy to get back to my quiet apartment, but all in all it was pretty great.

narita plum blossom festival

So one thing I've learned since coming to Japan is that they have festivals for everything! Last weekend I went to the Narita Plum Blossom Festival, which was a small celebration that took place inside Naritasan Park, which is also home to Shinshoji Temple. I've been there before, but it really is such a beautiful place that I could go there just to sit on a regular basis and probably wouldn't get sick of it. :)


Anyway, the festival had been going on for a few weeks and this was the last weekend, so I'm not sure if the timing was too late or too early, but there weren't as many blossoms as I expected. Which is not to say that the ones that were there weren't pretty, though! It was also a really gorgeous day out, which was perfect for wandering leisurely outside, which is what we did.


Highlights of the day included getting to participate in a tea ceremony outdoors, which I've never done before! An elderly lady who apparently used to be an English tour guide came up and talked to us, explaining that this is the only time of year when you can drink tea outside under the plum blossoms, so they do it for free at the festival. I have to admit I was more interested in the kimonos they were wearing than the tea ceremony itself (partly because I never know what to do at the tea ceremony so it's always just kind of awkward), but it was pretty awesome to drink hot tea outside on a sunny but slightly chilly day.


We also got to hear some live tsugaru shamisen performances, which were really impressive. It was pretty mesmerizing to watch their hands and fingers move so quickly while playing, and there were a couple of solos where the performers got really really into it. Intense.





I'm glad that I got to see more of the park than last time, including some ponds I didn't know where there before. (I also realized that giant koi freak me out a little bit, though I'm not sure why exactly...) All in all, it was a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

kimono lessons, take two!

So exactly a year after I took lessons to learn how to put on a kimono, I decided to continue and take the intermediate class! And a good thing I did, too, because it turns out I remembered pretty much nothing about how to put on a kimono, but now I've reached the point where today I successfully remembered all the steps and put on a kimono entirely by myself at home, in less than forty minutes! (If that sounds like a long time, it is, but it's a very elaborate process so I'm pretty sure even my teachers take at least 20 minutes.)

Here's some shots of me feeling accomplished, because the first time I tried to put on a kimono outside of class, it took at least an hour. -.-'

The kimono, obi, and accessories in these pictures were all ones that I found at a recycle shop nearby; even though kimonos (and obis and accessories) are pretty much all really expensive if you buy them new, I've found that there are lots of places where you can find used ones, which is fantastic! I think I actually like shopping at used clothing stores more than regular ones, because it's more fun to see what you can find (plus recycling and cutting costs is always a plus), so it's pretty cool to be able to find kimonos too, and whenever I see kimono stuff for sale I always have to go take a look. (Actually, I just always have to go look when I see kimono stuff anywhere - I think I'm really starting to get hooked, haha.)

I still haven't decided yet if I want to continue on the the advanced class right away or not, but I do think I will take it eventually. Now that I actually own my own kimonos and accessories, it's pretty good motivation to remember how to put them on, haha. And I feel like I might be on the verge of starting a collection...not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but. :)

chiba zoological park

This post is a bit late, but last month I finally made it out to the Chiba Zoological Park! I've been hearing about it every since I came to Chiba City but never actually went - until now, that is. I must say, I didn't have super high expectations for it (the last zoo I went to in Japan just depressed me a little), but we were both pleasantly surprised!

To start off, maybe because it's called a zoological park instead of a zoo, I was expecting it to be pretty small, but actually it's quite big! After asking around a bit it seems that the reason for the name is that it's not only a zoo, but also a park (as in, there are areas without animals that are meant to just be enjoyed as they are, like a huge lake and a promenade with flowers and benches). Makes sense!

I also learned the other day (via the mayor's Twitter, haha) that the Chiba Zoological Park has no meat-eating animals, which I assumed meant that everything would be pretty dinky, but again I was proven wrong! The zoological park is split into several small areas, including a monkey zone, lake area, children's zoo, origin of farm animals zone (...? Like actually, that's the name, and I seem to recall it including reindeer and bison and other things that I guess are the ancestors of farm animals?), a little amusement park (which we didn't go to, though I kind of wanted to), and more. And they actually have quite a large variety of interesting animals (not just farm animals and their ancestors, haha), so all in all I was impressed.
 
Anyway, we got there via the Chiba Urban Monorail, using a weekend day pass, where you can ride the monorail as much as you want for just 600 yen! Considering it can cost up to 400+ yen to go from one end of the line to another (and the starting fare is 190 yen), the pass is really a great deal. Plus it gets you a discount to places like the zoological park, Port Tower, the Chiba City Museum of Art, and more! My companion for the day had never been to Chiba City outside of work before, so of course I had to take him on the monorail (besides the fact that it's also the only way I know how to get to the zoological park), and he seemed pretty impressed. :D

When we got to the zoo, our first stop was the monkey zone, which was not so bad, considering I am terrified of monkeys. (Though it didn't help that my companion kept pointing out how easily it looked like they could escape...-.-') There were big monkeys and little monkeys and medium-sized monkeys (those are the scary ones), including a mandrill, and we got to see them right around feeding time.

Other highlights include: finding birds and a sloth in the tropical/jungle area, bats and bushbabies and a slow loris (it really moves so slowly it's hilarious, I couldn't stop watching it) in the nocturnal area, and finally seeing the red pandas that they PR like crazy! We couldn't figure out which one was Fuuta-kun, who is (I think) the Chiba Zoological Park's mascot (he's even on the monorail day pass) and is famous for standing up on two legs and just turned 10 last year, but they were pretty cute, it's true. (Random fact - in Japanese they're called 'lesser pandas' for some reason.)

All in all, it was a lovely afternoon filled with cute/interesting/scary animals, and I'm glad to have finally gone! The mayor was tweeting about how the zoological park is considering acquiring some meat-eating animals in the future, so who knows, it could have even more to offer soon!


Chiba Zoological Park
Address: 280  Minamotocho, Wakaba-ku, Chiba-shi, 264-0037
TEL: 043-252-1111
Hours: 9:30AM - 4:30PM, closed Mondays
Admission: 500 yen for high school students and older (200 yen discount available with a monorail day pass), 100 yen for middle/elementary school students
Access: just outside Chiba Urban Monorail Dobutsukoen Station
Website (Japanese only): https://www.city.chiba.jp/zoo/index.html

fourth and final chiba-kun ambassadors tour!

So a couple of weekends ago was our very last Chiba-kun Ambassadors tour, aww. Our term lasts until June though (I think), so you'll still be getting updates from me, never fear. This last tour was very chill and relaxed (due in part to an accident on the Choshi Railway that prevented us from riding it as planned), and it felt like a good ending to our joint adventures.

Our destination this time was Choshi, the town where my parents actually stayed for a couple of weeks when I was in high school! My dad had a business trip there and my mom went with him, to my intense jealousy, haha. Anyway, it was my first time there, so it was pretty cool to finally go to the place whose sushi my mom still raves about. :)

After a brief rest stop amidst some falling snow (!!), we arrived at our first destination, Hayashi Strawberry Garden (?) for some all-you-can-eat strawberry picking! I've always thought of strawberries as a summer food, but here in Japan they grow them in greenhouses and so the time to go strawberry-picking is January to early May. This particular destination in Tohnosho was famous for a type of strawberry called 'ai-berry', which is apparently not often sold in stores, but whose berries are sweet and tasty whether they're big or small. Basically you just go to the garden and you get half an hour to pick and eat as many strawberries as you want, then and there! They also give you a little tray with some condensed milk to dip them in, which is amazing. We all got fuller faster than we expected and had lots of fun both eating strawberries and taking pictures of ourselves doing it, haha. :)



Hayashi Strawberry Garden
Address: 1120  Sasagawaro, Tohnosho, Katori-gun, Chiba Prefecture
TEL: 0478-86-1614
Hours: 10:00AM - 4:00PM
Fee: 800-1700yen, depending on the month
Website (Japanese only): http://w01.tp1.jp/~a273350079/index.html





Next we tried our hand at Choshi chijimi indigo dyeing! Choshi is apparently famous for this type of fabric, which is only made here and is an intangible cultural asset of Chiba Prefecture. We got to make tie-dye-style handkerchiefs, by first wrapping a handkerchief around a chopstick and strategically tying rubber bands around it.  Then we trekked outside to where there were three big vats of indigo dye, steaming and giving off a distinctive smell. Our instructions were to dip our handkerchiefs inside, slowly count to 50, and then vigorously wring and rub the fabric until it changed color. The fabric starts out yellow once you take it out of the water, but as it touches the air, some sort of chemical reaction happens (oxidization? Not sure) and slowly it turns blue! But you have to work the fabric pretty well to make sure that the color is uniform and dark, so apparently you can tell who is slacking by the color of their handkerchief...unfortunately mine didn't turn out very dark, but I swear I didn't slack! Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the end result. Definitely a fun and unique experience. :)

Choshi Chijimi Traditional Craft Center
Address: 3-228  Matsugishimachi, Choshi, Chiba Prefecture
Access: 5-minute walk from JR Matsugishi Station, 15-minute drive from JR Choshi Station
Hours: 10:00AM - 3:30PM
Fee: 1575 yen
Website (Japanese only): http://www.choshikanko.com/ccd/try/013.html

Having worked off all the strawberries by then, it was time for lunch! We went to a restaurant overlooking the ocean, which was a gorgeous view. Choshi is the easternmost part of Japan's main island, which means it's the first place to see the sunrise on the New Year and also right by the ocean, hence lots of delicious fresh fish. Which was the main part of our lunch! To be honest I don't know really know what most of it was as far as type of fish was concerned (sashimi of some sort, tempura of some sort, boiled (?) fish of some sort, miso soup with seafood of some sort), but it was certainly delicious! I don't think there's much that can beat eating yummy food while watching seagulls hanging out on rocks by the sea.

Ichiyama Ikesu
Address: 7387-5 Kurohai-cho, Choshi, Chiba Prefecture
TEL: 0479-22-7622
Access: 20-minute bus ride from JR Choshi Station
Hours: 11:00AM - 3:30PM (lunch), 4:30PM - 8:00PM (dinner)
Website (Japanese only): http://www.ichiyamaikesu.co.jp/index.html

Fourth and finally, our very last stop was the Inubousaki Kankou Hotel, for a dip in the onsen (hot springs) there! Apparently if you stay at the hotel you can get into the hot springs in the morning to see the sun rise from the bath, and since Choshi is where the sun rises first in Japan, it's probably worth it! The hotel has open-air baths that overlook the sea, and frankly, it's heavenly. In Japan people go into onsen without bathing suits, which can take some getting used to, but once you do, the feeling of being in essentially a warm bath while gazing out at the ocean and the nearby lighthouse is pretty sublime. From what I can tell, the hotel itself is very nice, too! They had ice cream and an assortment of exercise equipment available right outside the bath (including some sort of machine that is supposed to be like riding in a rodeo? Not sure but it was weirdly fun), so you can either try to gain weight or lose it right away, haha. Still, the exercise machines were all in front of some giant glass windows facing the ocean too, so I could see myself spending some time getting fit and enjoying the view at the same time.

Inubousaki Kankou Hotel
Address: 10293 Inubousaki, Choshi, Chiba Prefecture
TEL: 0479-23-5111
Website (Japanese only): http://www.inubou.co.jp/index.html

And so, we ended our last tour on a very relaxing note. It's not the end of our time together as Chiba-kun Ambassadors (we still have a presentation coming up next month too), but it was still kind of sad to think that it was our last tour, because they've all been really fun and I've enjoyed getting to know everybody else better. Still, I suppose all good things must come to an end, if only to make room for new ones! 

reflections on 2013

As it seems I didn't write a yearly reflection post last year and haven't posted since November (in my defense, December was crazy busy), I've decided I should! The omikuji fortune from my first shrine visit of 2013 predicted I would have the best luck for the year, and all things considered, I think it turned out to be pretty accurate (despite the fact that I promptly lost the paper with the fortune on it...oops)!

In 2013, I:
- went skiing and snowboarding in Nagano Prefecture
- went to Disney Sea for the first time with my friend Ella
- took lessons to learn how to put on a kimono
- helped welcome a delegation of 12 guests from our sister city of Houston and acted as their primary interpreter for four days
- swing danced under the cherry blossoms
- moved to a different building for work
- volunteered as an interpreter at an international triathlon in Ishigaki, Okinawa and experienced scuba diving for the first time
- saw my Carleton linguistics professor and later agreed to give a talk to the study abroad group coming from there this April
- became a Chiba-kun Ambassador 
- held an English conversation class for city hall workers
- volunteered at an organic cotton farm in Fukushima Prefecture
- stayed out all night swing dancing during Golden Week
- passed the JLPT N1
- welcomed new JETs and gave a presentation as a TOA for Tokyo Orientation
- interpreted via Skype for people in North Vancouver and Houston
- went paragliding in Shizuoka Prefecture
- went to Nagoya to see my host family and study abroad friends
- went to Korea to see my friend Kellianne
- interpreted for the ambassador of South Africa
- gave a 'lunchtime lecture' about study abroad to students at Keai University
- danced in a flashmob in Tokyo
- went squid fishing and caught three tiny squid
- spent an amazing week in Shiga Prefecture for training for CLAIR's Translation & Interpretation course
- came back to the US for the first time in almost a year and a half


2013 in Numbers
- 2 Analogfish concerts
- 4 Chiba AJET events (YETI ski trip, ice skating, camping, Thanksgiving)
- 4 frisbee tournaments (Shonan Beach, Sugadaira, OVNI spring and fall)
- 5 school visits
- 11 interpreting gigs
- 24 photo albums on Facebook
- 54 blog posts (combined)
- 12 overnight trips outside of Chiba
- 8 prefectures visited (Nagano, Okinawa, Kanagawa, Fukushima, Nagoya, Tochigi, Shiga, Kyoto)

Too many to count: swing dance events, salsa parties, frisbee practices, good movies watched, new/fun/exciting experiences, new people met, unfamiliar places, meals and trips and good times with friends (and more)

For me, 2012 meant a lot of big changes, but I think 2013 was more about subtle developments: getting more comfortable at work and gaining confidence in my translation & interpretation skills, making new connections and becoming more active in the JET/Chiba/dance/ultimate communities, improving my Japanese, slowly but surely filling my apartment with more and more junk...

At any rate, I've thoroughly enjoyed the last twelve months and expect to do the same for the next twelve (and more, hopefully). Here's to not getting complacent or too settled and to more travel, challenges, and new experiences. :D

squid fishing in chiba port

Did you know that Chiba Port is one of Japan's busiest ports?

And did you know that you can catch squid there?

Because I was definitely not aware of the last fact, until I went fishing with my ultimate frisbee teammates and caught three of them myself!

Chiba Port is actually only about a ten-minute walk from my work, though I can't actually see it from my office (though if you go up to the top of city hall, you can) so I tend to forget about the ocean (I know I say this literally every time I talk about the ocean near Chiba City, but it's true), and the whole time we were fishing I kept thinking how weird it was to be so close to work but doing something so different from normal.

Anyway, we met up in the evening and set up camp in some random parking lot-esque area behind some company (a few of us kept wondering if it was really okay and a few of us were totally unconcerned), with a table and chairs and fishing poles. It turns out that for squid fishing, you can just use a normal fishing rod with a lure, in this case shaped like shrimp!

I didn't expect to actually catch anything, but in fact I caught my first squid while I was still being taught what to do (to my and everybody else's surprise). And then I caught another, and another! Altogether, the nine of us caught 19 little squid, which I think was a pretty good haul.

We also cooked and ate some right there, and though I was a little apprehensive about eating the entire squid whole, it was actually very tasty! I also ate mini-ramen out of a mug and it kind of felt like camping. :)

Anyway, it turns out that fishing for squid in Chiba Port is totally possible and that I am in fact capable of catching squid! Good times. :D