Sunday, November 26, 2006

Another 4,000 written, 28,000 to go

Life in the academic lane--a view from my computer! Wow, isn't life exciting in rural Japan!

Well, I wrote and printed (3x) another 4, 317 words (36 pages)! Whew! Glad that's done! Now I only have about 28,000 words to come up with before I check off MA from my life "to do" list!

It's gonna be a long few years!

A Teaser

Here is a little teaser of what's to come on December 17th at 2pm in Colare!!
Have you got your ticket yet?


Thursday, November 23, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving

Giving Thanks in 舟見 (video)!!!!



This is JP's third year cooking up the bird! It gets tastier every year! Thanks dude! I can't wait for next year! ;)




Everyone loved the turkey, even the first timers. The Japanese girls couldn't get enough...they were pulling it apart, trying to get every last piece of meat by the end. Isn't Mai-chan cute?




This table isn't very impressive because we kept all the food in another room. With 28 people sitting around two tables, the traditional 'passing' method doesn't work so well. We stuck to buffet style!





After a few round of turkey and all the fixings we had to get some fresh air. We went for a walk in the woods, around the lake and found ourselves in the playground!




We ran around, played on the monkey bars, went down the slide, played a quick game of ultimate and even....




...hung upside down.



All in all it was a great Thanksgiving with all the fixin's, except the cranberry sauce! Oh well, we had sushi and yakisoba and all sorts of other goodies in addition to the Thanksgiving fare...anything else would have gotten lost in the mix. I'll be eating mashed potatoes and gravy for weeks. And I even have a little corn left to be baked this weekend--hurray!!

After cleaning up the house and packing up all the leftovers, some of us third+ years (and friends) headed to 山の越 for a few drinks and lots of catching up! Where will we all be in a year? What will we be doing? Who will we be sharing Thanksgiving with next year? Lots to be thankful for...choices, opportunities, friends, great food, and family. Thanks for another great Thanksgiving!

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Sumo & Swimming

I need to finish my paper, I need to finish my paper, I NEED to finish my paper...but I just can't!

So...in other news the sumo boys are doing it up in Fukuoka right now. If you can't watch them on your TV, I strongly recommend you try the live Video! Of course, if you live in some far away distant land, you'll have to stay up late to watch it...but trust me, it's worth it! I'm however missing most of it 'cause of this stupid paper that needs to get finished.

And in more local news...I swam in another swim meet this weekend. Hurray! Life is always fun in the water. Read about it on my workout blog A Mad Duck.

Now if we could only combine sumo and swimming....that would be an interesting sporting event. What about floating sumo--an island in the middle of the pool that they have to push each other off of? I mean really, a mawashi isn't that much different from a speedo! I think it could work!

Back to the paper.......

Monday, November 13, 2006

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Did you know there is a world RPS society? that there is a USA RPS League? that you can win money at RPS tournaments? I didn't! I just thought it was a game I play with my kids 100's of times a day for pure amusement and to decide who gets the extra dessert. But there is strategy and technique, and the best players have agents! What??

Listen to this interview with former Rock, Paper, Scissors Champion, Master Roshambollah, from Morning Edition on NPR

Tomorrow is the RPS Championship in Toronto! I wonder if they have a subdivision championship for the Japanese version, じゃんけんぽん?

Friday, November 10, 2006

バルトの楽園 & ベートーヴィん No. 9 Op. 125

Last night my neighbors and I went to see the movie バルトの楽園 Baruto no Gakuen. It was the first movie in a movie theater I've seen since Linea and I watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" before we almost missed our ferry from Hokkaido to Honshu. And before that, I can't remember the last movie I've seen on the big screen. Sad but true!

I'll admit it, the movie made me cry! I had tears in my eyes by the end. I'm a sucker for these cross-cultural flicks with happy endings. This movie takes place in a Japanese POW Camps during WWI on the island of Shikoku in Japan. German POWs are being held there, but they have a pub, printing press and bakery on site. They can play soccer in the courtyard. And with permission, they can leave the grounds and walk around the town. They are free to come and go. They even go on field trips to the beach. It's not a prision, it's just a holding area until the war ends.

When the war finally does end the prisoners prepare for their farewell. Unlike saying good-bye to some horride retchid place, they have made friends, established relationships, and will miss this POW camp they called home for several years. To celebrate and say good-bye, they decide to preform Beethoven's 9th Symphony (The Ode to Joy), but with a limited orchestra and a limited choir (only men). It was the first time this symphony was played in Japan, but not the last! It started an 'Ode to Joy' obsession! It's no wonder the soldiers decided the Beethoven's 9th was appropriate when you read the translation of the fourth movement is below.

Without knowing anything about the movie before hand, I left the theater very skeptical that it could be based on a true-story. I didn't think a POW camp in Japan could ever be or ever was so lush! But in fact, it's based on a true story. Camp Banto, as it was called, is now open to the public and can be toured. You can Visit Camp Banto and take a tour of the barricks and German bakery they had on site. This camp was run by General Toyohisa Matsue. He had very unique and humane ideas about how a POW camp should operate. If only all generals were so humane!

Maybe my excitement about the film was just seeing it on a big screen (a rare event these days). Or maybe it's because I could relate to the cross-cultural moments the characters shared. Or maybe it's because I have a hard time believing that prisoners and locals could ever live so cordially together, but apparently they did once upon a time. But regardless of my personal reasons for enjoying it, I recommend watching it. I'm not sure if it'll be released in the US or maybe it already has, but try to see it! It's a feel good kind of movie. Here are links to the Introduction (in English) and the Story (in English) . It's a bilingual movie, both in German and Japanese. Without English subtitles, I know I missed a lot of it. Although it's also the kind of movie that doesn't really need subtitles.

And if all those other websites are too much to get through, spend a few minutes and read this really cute version of the story written by children, The Symphony of Friendship, it's a picture book online.

As for Beethoven's 9th....
Every December, there are literally hundreds of groups performing Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Since WWI it has gained tremendous popularity all over Japan and there is even an annual 5,000 member choir that has been performing it in the Tokyo Sumo Stadium for over 20 years. Beethoven's 9th has become an annual event adopted by Japan, but started in a German POW camp in Shikoku. I'm sure the 9th symphony has reached far beyond Beethoven's wildest dreams!

This December 17th, JP & I will join in the fun. We've become part of the masses of choirs and orchestras performing the 'ode obession' during the holidays. Tickets are on sale!

ベートーヴィん No. 9 コンサート
コラーレ、 カーターホール
12月17日 日曜日    
14:00時
3000円

Text of the fourth movement
(English translation, taken from Wikipedia)
Oh friends, not these tones!
Rather let us sing more
cheerful and more joyful ones.
Joy! Joy!
Joy, thou glorious spark of heaven,
Daughter of Elysium,
We approach fire-drunk,
Heavenly One, your shrine.
Your magic reunites
What custom sternly divides;
All people become brothers
(Schiller's original:
What custom's sword separates;
Beggars become princes' brothers)
Where your gentle wing alights.
Whoever succeeds in the great attempt
To be a friend of a friend,
Whoever has won a lovely woman,
Let him add his jubilation!
Yes, whoever calls even one soul
His own on the earth's globe!
And who never has, let him steal,
Weeping, away from this group.
All creatures drink joy
At the breasts of nature;
All the good, all the evil
Follow her roses' trail.
Kisses gave she us, and wine,
A friend, proven unto death;
Pleasure was to the worm granted,
And the cherub stands before God.
Glad, as his suns fly
Through the Heavens' glorious plan,
Run, brothers, your race,
Joyful, as a hero to victory.
Be embraced, you millions!
This kiss for the whole world!
Brothers, beyond the star-canopy
Must a loving Father dwell.
Do you bow down, you millions?
Do you sense the Creator, world?
Seek Him beyond the star-canopy!
Beyond the stars must He dwell.
Finale repeats the words:
Be embraced, ye millions!
This kiss for the whole world!
Brothers, beyond the star-canopy
Must a loving Father dwell.
Be embraced,
This kiss for the whole world!
Joy, beautiful spark of the gods,
Daughter of Elysium,
Joy, beautiful spark of the gods

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Congratulations Democrats

...for stealing back The House and The Senate!! Wow, maybe the last two years with "he who must not be named" won't be so tragic and horrific afterall (maybe).

And Congratulations to my Aunt A for scoring a democratic victory in her hometown! Hooray!


My Aunt Arlene wins!


When do we start addressing you as "Your honor the mayor?"

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

さよなら 秋! こにちわ 冬!


Good-bye fall! Hello winter!

Last weekened was a sunny, warm, beautiful 3-day holiday. And yesterday, Monday, it turned ugly. It started raining, the wind picked up, and it got dark and grey. There was thunder and lightning last night and today. And it's COLD!

Luckily, I got in a fall leaf "viewing" day before the official start of winter in Japan (today). Last Friday, some friends and I headed to the Tsugaike National Park in Nagano for a light hike in the mountains. Takae and I tried to do this hike in August, but we got stormed out half way up the mountain between the gondola and the ropeway. We were determined to try it again!

This time around, we were really lucky, Asuka was able to join us and we got a beautiful sunny day! It was a lovely day of walking, and admiring the view-mountain tops, leaves of every color, and the mountain wetlands that make up the national park.

And of course, we had a gourmet meal on the mountain. We all brought a little something to share and it was fabulous--onigiri (rice balls), dried fugu (blow fish), pasta salad, tamagoyaki (fried egg roll), vegetables, meatballs, chocolate, oranges, cookies, cakes, hot tea and hot milk tea! After lunch we headed back down the mountain (via the ropeway and gondola) and went to an onsen. We ended up traveling down a road that took us deep into the mountains and further into the beautiful fall colors. The onsen was a very small, very very hot bath coated in inches of rock mineral deposits! It felt fabulous, too bad it wasn't outside with a view of the leaves!

Thanks girls! It was a great day! Let's start planning our next adventure!


Seriously, now I HAVE to get back to work and finish this #%*@ paper!

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

It's Time to Vote!!

A year ago this week, I accidently deleted my blog! To celebrate one year of blogging (on the current blog), over 10,300 hits, and over 112 posts, I'm posting a POLL!! The future of my blog depends a lot on my future. I won't necessarily base my decision on the results, but I'll take it into consideration!

And for all of you out there who read my blog on a regular basis....and I know you're there because I have a stat counter, please vote, and please feel free to leave comments!

Before you vote below consider these points:

  1. I've just started an MA program, if I stay I can continue paying for my course and finish the coursework in Japan (while still saving money & living well).
  2. I really want to see more of the world.
  3. I really want to work in the Middle East.
  4. I'm very comfortable here! I love my apartment, and I enjoy my job (usually).
  5. If I stay, I can snowboard for another year.
  6. If I stay, that will be more money in my savings account to do more later.
  7. If I leave, my finances will be tight, and I'll have to take a leave of absense from my MA program.
  8. If I stop my MA, I may not start it up again!
  9. If I stay, I can theoretically learn more Japanese.
  10. If I leave, I can start learning Arabic or another language.
  11. The dating pool here has been drained!
  12. Who needs a date, I love living alone!
  13. I have a really good online study support group.
  14. I love eating school lunch (usually).
  15. I hate packing. I mean I HATE packing!

Should Kirsten stay in Japan for a 4th year?

Yes, of course!!
Yes, of course!!
No way, get out while you can.
No way, get out while you can.
Flip a coin, there isn't a bad decision
Flip a coin, there isn't a bad decision
Travel the world for a year, I'll send monetary donations to support you!
Travel the world for a year, I'll send monetary donations to support you!
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