Wander into the magical land of Ghibli in this fairytale forest town

Putting this place on my Japan Bucket List. It’s absolutely gorgeous!

Disney Heroines As Sailor Moon Characters

Disney Heroines As Sailor Moon Characters.

Update: Garin Dart Found

About a year ago, I reblogged a missing person’s post for Garin Dart but it turned out I needn’t have bothered. Garin Dart is alive and well and currently residing in the UK. To make a long story short, Dart supposedly got into some yakuza trouble and ran away from it, leaving his pregnant wife and child behind in Japan. Many, many people doubt his story, but whether or not it’s true, I am glad at least he’s alive and not in a ditch somewhere.

 

 

 

China’s Horcrux: Tibet

Reuters (Beijing) recently reported about possibly the most hilarious use of a fictional character used as an insult in the political arena, with China and Japan calling each other Voldemort. China specifically referred to Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine as “a kind of horcrux, representing the darkest part of the nation’s soul.” While I commend Chinese ambassador Liu Xiaoming for his extensive knowledge of the Potter-verse, I would like to counter argue that if the Yasukuni Shrine is Japan’s horcrux, then Tibet is China’s.

China committed mass genocide in the Cultural Revolution that killed over a million of the Tibetan people. Also, where Japan had comfort women, China had Thamzing, which was the torture and/or killing of any “political dissenters” (i.e. anybody who the Red Guards didn’t like). There were labor camps, executions, and numerous human rights violations.

Yes, the Yasukuni Shrine visits are a very hot topic, but Abe basically gets little to no choice in the matter. He’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. While their are war criminals at the shrine, there are also war heroes there as well. Would it be fair to neglect the people at that shrine who died to defend their country from the American invasion and subsequent occupation? How could Abe defend his stance not to go when the daughters and sons of those brave soldiers beg him to not punish the memory of their family’s noble deeds because they share the same space with dishonored men?

China hounds Japan for an apology for all the horror it inflicted in the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, but how about China apologizes for the 2008 crackdown against Tibetan protestors? How about China apologizes to Tibet for still occupying it long after it’s been made abundantly clear that Tibet doesn’t want to be a part of China? How about apologizing to the Dalai Lama for trying to kill him more than a few times?

Now, Abe talking about revising the Japanese constitution to allow for militarization and the recent Senkaku Islands debacle looks suspicious. Abe wants the U.S. out of Okinawa to make way for Japan’s new military base, and that definitely makes China uncomfortable , too. China has every right to point out there’s some shady goings on over here in Japan. I would be suspicious too if my neighbor and I were having a land owners dispute and then suddenly my neighbor came back with a license to carry and a gun.

However, it’s not a black and white picture that China, as well as Korea, try to paint it to be. Both China and Japan are complex countries with complex cultural views, and each considers their part in World War II with different sets of eyes. What’s obvious is that both China wants the world to view Japan in a negative light, and Japan wants the same for China.

At the end of the day, neither China nor Japan are Voldemort, but each definitely have the characteristics that reflect an alignment with Slytherin house. Yet, as many fans on Pottermore will attest, Slytherin doesn’t equal evil. Wanting to attain power isn’t a bad thing, because power can give a country the ability to take care of its people. Both China and Japan are ambitious countries that want to be taken seriously on the international front, but unfortunately this recent news makes them both look a little ridiculous.

And it’s a rotten shame, because the issues are far from trivial.

The Very First Christmas Abroad!

Well, it finally happened. This year, I ended up staying in Japan instead of going home. I expected that I’d feel homesick, that maybe I’d even feel like a terrible person for missing out on family time.

I have a confession to make: I felt NONE OF THAT NONSENSE. God, the amount of stress relief was amazing. No getting up at the crack of dawn to travel down to Narita. No crying babies for hours on a fourteen hour flight. No running to catch my stupid connection through a busy airport only to wait two hours for the next one. No traveling all over the country after I get to the U.S.A. because my family lives in separate states. No one bitching at me to come home instead of “living so far away.” Repeat process in reverse to get back to Japan and add in some really awful TSA groping at some point in Chicago O’Hare (aka the pit stain of airports). I love my family and friends, but being able to take a break from the Christmas madness was awesome.

Because I didn’t go home, I actually got to go the winter closing ceremony at Hinode Junior High School. At first, the students came inside the gymnasium, shaking and shivering while saying, “Samuiiiiiiii! (It’s cold!)” They divided into columns within their own year, dressed properly in their school uniforms. The boys were lucky because they got to wear suits, long sleeves and long pants. The girls wore long sleeves and long skirts, which exposed skin to the cold.

It was so cold they could see their breath crystallize in the air. The teachers all stood there, shivering like crazy, but trying to put on a brave face. Shouldering onward, the ceremony began with students standing up to bow before their vice principal and principal. I lazily sing the school’s theme song (I never remember the whole thing, so sue me). I stood in the back, pretending to pay attention, but my eye keeps drifting over to the one heater that reluctantly blazed into the huge, open two story tall building. The heater was pretty usless since it didn’t affect anything but perhaps two feet in front of it. The cord was only a foot long, so the heater stayed close to the wall, far away from all of us freezing humans.

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard ex-pats in Japan complain about the lack of central heating and air in schools. Strangely, no air conditioning doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal. Instead, foreigners bear a grudge against the Japanese anti-heating culture. It’s as if somehow being warm is a luxurious idea instead of a basic package deal with any school building in Japan.

In America, if a school didn’t have central heating in the winter, we canceled school (or at least they did in Kentucky). American parents would pitch an almighty fit if their children were forced to sit in freezing conditions like my Japanese students did that day. I can imagine the phone lines ringing off the hook for hours, just complaints after complaints. “How dare you make my child  sit there for a whole hour in the cold? That’s child abuse!” And other things like that.

Here in Japan, parents are fine with it. There is still a tough love is the best love mentality here when it comes to things like that. Most of my teachers think that central heating systems are “too expensive” and “frivolous.” They talk about central heating like it’s some kind of constantly running, energy depleting demon that cannot be stopped once the on button is pressed. I’m fairly certain they’ve been lied to by the construction companies, or the construction companies are awful. Either way, there’s a severe misunderstanding on their part about how central heating works.

Anyway, since I didn’t go home I was also able to go to the end of the year parties (bonenkai) with some friends associated with YES Eikaiwa, an English school that’s just down my street. We ate at a Chinese restaurant, where we sang Christmas songs and did a Santa Swap.

YES Eikaiwa Party!

I ended up winning some bath salts, which are amazing. I don’t know where they’re from, but they make my skin nice and pretty.

And of course, I got to do Christmas lessons. The students this year did songs and activities. The first years (7th grade for you Americans) got to make 3D Christmas cards. Some of them were really pretty!

My base school also had a bonenkai, which involved a buffet of Japanese food, BINGO Santa Swap, and some other games.

The BINGO game was fun. You could choose from a huge pile of presents when you won. I ended up choosing some fancy chocolates. I found that funny considering I gave chocolates as my gift. One of the teachers had this strange random number gadget that he would press for the next number. It kept doing old numbers over and over again, so all the teachers gave him a hard time.

After the first round was over, we all went to the second round of the party (nijikai). We went to a karaoke place to sing and drink, which is par for the course of a nijikai. The party didn’t go onto a third round (sanjikai) because many teachers were also coaches that had games the next day.

Usually, people who are deeply liked, respected, and/or higher in rank are invited to the next party. If you’re just a part timer or the youngest of the bunch, it’s not uncommon to not be invited to the second or third rounds. For ALTs, it depends on the school if you get invited to the bonenkai or not. Some do, some don’t. Both of mine do, because they know I will sing Lady Gaga like no one’s business.

For Christmas Day, I went over to my friend Cameron’s house in Toride. She served some delicious chicken, salad, and some wonderful stuffing.

I forgot to take a picture of the food, so here’s Cameron’s pretty tree instead.

We had red velvet cupcakes for dessert.

Be jealous!

In between this time, I visited other friends in Japan, getting in touch with them again and having a blast. I remembered my family fondly, recalling all the times I’d gone to my grandmother’s house packed full of my father’s side of the family. All my aunts and uncles catching with up everyone about what’s going on and what everyone’s planning to do. The people in my age range talked among ourselves for the most part, my brother and I swapping stories and inside jokes. However, I didn’t really feel like I was missing out. I knew I’d be there again someday in the future, and I sent them my love from Japan.

New Years Eve I went to Tokyo. My friend Candice and I went to a couple of clubs and danced the night away. I got to see the sunrise on January 1st, 2014 in Roppongi. 

A few days later, I went with some friends to the Kashima Shrine (Kashimajingu). I did go there on New Years Day about two years ago and it was a madhouse! This year I ended up going later, but guess what? It was still a madhouse!

GAH! I can’t move!

We purified our hands before going inside and getting our fortunes for the new year (the year of the horse, by the way).

This is where people line up to wash their hands and gargle (NOT DRINK) the water.

Turns out that for at least a week local shrines are packed full of people buying things for the New Year, such as good luck charms and fortunes. People will also burn certain items as offerings to the god(s) of the shrine and might get themselves purified within the shrine in the spring. The spring, by the way, is freezing cold, but it’s supposed to give you long life and good health so people go in for a dip. You can take a drink from a running spring in the back of the shrine, too, which is also for good health and longevity.

I did neither of those things because I would rather not be colder than I already am. Besides, my fortune was the top ranking, you can do anything you want this year congratulations kind of fortune.

Whoo-hoo! I won the luck lottery! Now if I could just win the real one…

These fortunes are fun little things that supposedly tell you what you’re supposed to do this year to get what you want out of life. If you get a bad one, most people tie them to trees or a standing wire board provided by the shrine so you can expel the bad luck.

I took mine and put it in my wallet. Putting good fortunes in your wallet is believed to bring you more money. It’s only good for one year, so once the year is over, you have to take it out, or so I’ve been told.

All in all, I was very pleased with my first Christmas away from home. It was a nice change of pace, and really did make me feel more at ease than trying so hard to get back. I think I will go home next year for sure, though, because Christmas really means a lot to my family.

Happy 2014 everyone! Let’s make it EPIC!