Monday, January 31, 2011

Goodbye Seniors Goodbye

Last week was our 3rd year's (senior's) final week of school. (Yes, school ends in March but they get about a month and a half off from school. While some students must prepare for college (they are given college homework even before they get there) most of our students don't do anything cause they will just get a regular job). This year was particulary saddening to us because these 3rd year's were the students we came into Toogijuku with and these are the students we will leave Toogijuku with (Remember, Japanese high school only has three years). So it was very sad to see them go. For most of them, unfortunately, this will be the high point of their English ability. We do love them all though, and we hope they realize that.



Even more saddening was the loss of our 3rd year English Club students. These were the students we have grown closest to in our 3 years over here. They probably know us better than most of our friends here in Japan. We had our final English Club two weeks ago and had a treasure hunt extravaganza! We had all their favorite games compiled into an activity based treasure hunt with everyone winning a prize at the end!! Last Friday we gave them their graduation presents and said, "See you next time!!" as we hope to gather together before we leave Japan and they leave for college. NO goodbyes yet!! But needless to say, we are going to miss these six dear friends of ours!

Monday, January 17, 2011

They have "come of age"!!

About a week ago we experienced, for the first time ever, the Coming of Age Day. Well, not exactly experienced but saw what it was all about. The students who were seniors our first year have or will turn twenty this year. When you turn twenty in Japan, you are officially an adult. This is a much bigger turning point in a Japanese person's life than in America. They have a big ceremony to congratulate the newly turned adults. Since our students were a part of this group we decided to venture out to see them...
As you can see the women (not girls anymore!) dress up in the traditional Japanese style kimono with vibrant colors along with elaborate hair and make-up. We look pretty drabby next to these stunning ladies!!


It was heart-warming to see our students in all their splendor come to maturation. We were happy to see some of our old students, some of which will probably be the last time.......



Friday, January 7, 2011

"A" Happy New Year

Yes, we did have ourselves "a" Happy New Year but for some reason our students can't grasp the fact that the "A" is dropped when used as a greeting. Somehow they have added the "a" making a specialized, single event of happiness in the New Year, as we understand it!
Oh well, at least they greet us with something! And so we greet you too with all the happiness for the upcoming new year. Here is a short overview of our "A" New Year's celebrations:

On "A" New Year's Eve we had ourselves a small gathering of close friends. "A" New Year's here is a family event and so we only had our foreign friends over to our apartment for food and fun. Around 11pm we headed to the city park for the special count down. You see, our city castle is turning 400 years old this year (even though it was actually burned down shortly after it was built as it was struck by lightning) and they are having special events all year to celebrate. Well, to open the 400 year birthday there was a special count down with fireworks!!! It wasn't much of a celebration seeing how our group of 7 foreigners were louder than the hundreds of Japanese people there.
In the picture below, this lucky castle "guard", got to pose with all 7 foreigners...one at a time!!!

Later on in the week we had our traditional mochi eating celebration. Mochi is a rice based gooey, stretchy, mostly tasteless, partially edible, cake glob. This is eaten every "A" New Year's by Japanese people. It is to symbolize the hope for a long life due to its stretchiness, although every year people die from choking on it because of its elasticity!! One of our friends came over to show how to cook and eat it. Ours didn't turn out so well since we bought the cheap stuff from the hundred yen (dollar) shop here!
The picture above shows the mochi before cooking.
And here we have the cooked mochi blob.
And finally, in all its stretchiness, the edible mochi dipped in sugared soy sauce!!

Overall it was "A" Happy New Year for us and our dear friends we spent it with!!