Dance, dance, dance

Hmm... Japan has many traditions and iconic cultural facets (that sounded good didn't it?) such as geisha girls, samurai, martial arts, flower arranging and kimono weaving, but I didn't know much about Japanese traditional dance. All I had seen at school was this dance that the students do where the only words in the song are "yokasou yokasou so ra so ra" (or something along those lines). The movements in the dance are meant to resemble fishermen going out to sea, casting their nets and then hauling in their catch. It's quite interesting to see. The other dance I have seen is one's the schoolgirls made up and performed at the sports day (undokai). They danced to "Mickey". As in "oh Mickey! You're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind..." This also seems to be a national and traditional dance song as many JETs have reported their students doing it. It is mildly underwhelming as most of the girls look like they've just taken 20 valium before performing. And then there are the five who are really going for it.

Anyway, imagine my excitement when I was asked to join a team to dance in the festival. "Ooh," I thought, "a chance to meet other gays". And then I remembered I wasn't in England, so I thought, "Ooh, a chance to meet and talk to Japanese people while learning something cultural." Well, it was something close to that. The majority of my thoughts are invaded by the word "chocolate". I sometimes think I am schizophrenic and that my mind is controlled by Cadburys. So on Thursday night I went to the rehearsal wondering what dance we were doing and how hard it would be, and as I walked in, I thought, "that music seems familiar... hmm." And then I overheard "yokasou yokasou". So I can only assume that the geisha girls in Kyoto hold the rights to all other traditional dances in Japan and stand by their copyright laws vehemently. But it was fun. Being instructed in full Japanese isn't too traumatic when you're learning a dance routine. And it was only for an hour. Everyone was complaining about how hard it was, but I guess they never learned dance routines from Top Of The Pops when they were teenagers.

Friday was our first trip to Niimi to see Abby. I met Johanna on the train and appeared to scandalise my Junior High students by talking in a loud voice and sitting with a girl, and then at Niimi we were joined by Saddam (Sarah). Abby lives just outside Niimi city, to the west of Katsuyama, but we ate and drank in Niimi, in the equivalent of a Little Chef called a Joyfull (yes, it has two `l`s, and has cheap and good food too). It was funny (as everything is here). We had a volume contest with a group of 5 under 6's on the next table. We may have just beat them. These kids were so loud even the waitress sneered at them when she came to take our order. The international language of sneering. You can't beat it. Although here you can say pretty much any horrible thing in English and no-one will understand you. But then, you don't know what they're saying about you...

From Joyfull we went to meet some Niimi JETs in a local bar that played Jazz music. Except for some reason it chose to play old 1920s gramophone style music this night. It was quite surreal. The Niimi festival had been on that day and participants had been given big (and I mean BIG) bottles of Sake that no one seemed to want. So Abby told a group of fellas it was my birthday and I had to accept a big bottle of Sake. Not surprisingly we made a quick exit.

On Saturday Abby showed us the delights of Shingo town which included a tree that looked like a giant cotton bud, a massive waterwheel and some koi carp which Johanna tried to feed with a dead crab. She said, "they're Japanese, they'll eat anything." I pointed out that this was wrong. "Only Koreans would eat dead crab". The fish weren't Korean. The Asahi river goes through my town and also through Abby's where it is very shallow, and so we crossed it using stepping stones, and as the time to leave came closer, Saddam and I became distracted by a children's playground. Not many people can say they've been on the swings with Saddam.

We headed back to Katsuyama as I was acting as host for the night to a crazy man who was running a half marathon (which he did in 2hrs and 9mins with Christine from my town) and Chad's friend Tiger. We all went to dinner and Tiger proved his drinking ability. This was even more striking as near everyone else was on soft drinks. Of course, I was the cause of the word near in the last statement, and had some chu hai and some wine at the resturant.

Sunday was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. I woke early but had to wait in for a package to be delivered. I was fooled at 11 by the doorbell. Thinking it was the delivery man, I let him in only for it to be Mr NHK (Japanese telly station, though for the life of me I can't figure out what NHK means- National Hong Kong?). Mr NHK was speaking in fluent Japanese which is always a problem on a Sunday morning. And I knew he wanted money, but thought my continually saying "I don't understand, sorry" must sound a bit false. I ended up giving him my bank details. I'm not sure what I've signed up for. Oh well, you've got to roll with the punches (or something.) Delivery man came at 11:30 and my neighbour made me lunch (her 5 year old son brought it to my door) which was gorgeous. And then I cycled to Kuse. Only three near accidents in my longest ever bike ride (half an hour each way). I almost rode over a snake (I didn't see it when it moved). I nearly fell in a ditch (I stopped at a junction and tried to put my left foot on the floor. Only there was no floor. Oops) and on the way home my shoelaces got caught in the pedals and I nearly went ass over tit into the road. Makes it more fun though I find.

Sunday was in fact a supreme day because a new supermarket opened in Kuse and they had Cadbury's Dairy Milk and Time Out. Made in New Zealand, but still good. And Johanna and I watched "How Stella Got Her Groove Back". If I ever loose my groove, I don't want it back. Apparently to get it back your best friend has to die, you have to lose your job and then some other stuff had to happen. But to be honest, after 2 hours I couldn't have cared if Stella got hit by a bus.

Monday was the start of the Katsuayama festival. This was very interesting. It involved 9 teams each with a large wooden carriage. In turn, 2 teams at a time would run directly at each other and bang their carriages together. It was all very unclear, and I really didn't understand why they did it. But it was fun to watch. The teams are decided on where in town you live, so everyone was cheering on their area. I'm glad I went monday because the rain caused it to be called off last night (too dangerous), so Johanna and I stuffed our face with sushi and cake instead. The only other incident of note on Tuesday was that someone came to school to take my photo. I don't know why. I know it wasn't anything dodgy because he didn't ask me to drop my shirt off my shoulders and pout or anything. I've seen Fame. I know what photographers are like...

And today? Today is Wednesday. And what does that mean? It means the 23rd typhoon this year hits Japan. No kids at school, nothing to do. But update my weblog. It's only 9:40 here. I'm going to be so bored for the rest of the day...