And the earth shook...

I was browsing the internet late at night when I saw my friend post a link about Earthquake safety. I clicked the link and saved it for later reading. Sometime late, my bed began to shake. I thought it was the laundry machines, as sometimes back at my house, the walls will shake a bit in the room by the laundry machine. Then it went on for a minute. I clutched my laptop to my chest as another minute passed. Was it an earthquake? What should I do? Stay here or run outside? I didn't hear anyone else moving about in the hallway, but that was probably because it was late. Then, as soon as it started, it was over. Maybe it wasn't an earthquake after all? Browsing the web again, I found the international student group on facebook and saw all the excited posts about the 4 earthquakes that had rattled Japan! For once I was awake during an earthquake! How scary! Yeah, my story was more dramatic than the actual event! Hahaha! I was so scared, but the tremors I felt only lasted about 4 minutes.
 I'm okay family! Thought I would share! I should be all caught up on posts this weekend! Ciao!

Tanbo Gakkō-Rice Cropping

*Sorry for the very late entry everyone. I was having trouble accessing my blog. Apparently verification codes cannot be sent to my cellphone to prove that I am indeed human and own this account. Should be fine now. Expect a lot of posts coming your way to make up for lost time! Excuse any errors or lapses in knowledge, its 2:30am here.*

For religion and culture class, we went on a very special trip. The Kokugakuin specializes in Shinto studies and has ties with this particular shrine. The matsuri(festival) is called Tanbo Gakkō and aims to educate people from the city about farming and bring them closer to to nature. The harvest and planting of rice represents fertility in the Shinto religion. Volunteers from the Kokugakuin Shinto studies department and members of a Japanese cultural preservation society helped run the Tanbo Gakkō and keep operations running smoothly. It was a 2 hour bus drive to the shrine and the fields of rice were beautiful. So was the temple.

The people in the green jackets were volunteers

Temple gates

the shrine

There were a ton of families there as well as college students. The we were gathered round and warned about the giant wasps in the forest behind the temple. Our teacher told us that stings from those guys can be lethal. Yikes! Needless to say, I stayed far away! Because it had rained previously, we could not harvest the rice in the morning as scheduled. They wanted it to dry out more, as rice should be dry when cut. Instead, we husked rice that had been previously harvested.There was a large tent erected to cover us and a tarp below for families to sit on. The tools for husking the rice are not what farmers use, but they were very effective for such a large group of amateurs such as ourselves =P

Tools of the trade: a bowl, a baseball, a glass bottle, a wooden rod, and chopsticks.

Separate the grains from the stalk

Roll the baseball over the grains to separate the hull from the bran, afterword, blow gently to get ride of the chaff.

the grains so far. Needs further extraction.

Use a funnel and pour grains into the glass bottle. Gently pound on the rice to remove the bran.

Rice afterward.

Rice free from tyranny.

Our rice was collected and then it was time to make mochi! Mochi is a sticky, pounded rice sweet. They used a very old style rice cooker, using wood to fuel the fire and boil the water. When the rice was cooked, it was dumped into a hollowed out stump. The stump was regularly doused with water so that the mochi wouldn't stick. Then, everyone took turns hammering the rice, even the kids! It was a real team effort! One person would hammer, another would dart in on the upswing the turn the rice over. Then, a pair of people would hammer the rice.

rice cooker.

Striking the mochi rice

Mochi mallet and the tree stump.

my brave partner flipping rice before I swing down. The crowd chants with each strike to help keep a rhythm going.

downswing!

There was also a station for traditional firestarting using a firestarting bow. I forget the name, but I remember trying to do this as a kid. It takes a long time to get an ember! The ember is cradled in a sling of paper and the person wheels it around swiftly to feed the ember oxygen and make it grow. It looked like the kids were winding up at a softball game!

The finished mochi with sweet beans and other seasoning!!

The provided bento. Oishikattadesu!

More mochi was made and then we were off to the fields! We followed the priest, who chanted and shrill flutes played along the way made it seem like we were in a documentary. The fields were breath takingly beautiful. I never knew rice could look so good. The fields were a little muddy, but not bad. The water had dried up by then in paddies. There were little frogs hopping around, and after cutting the rice, I joined the kids in catching frogs. They helped me catch all the colors, even giving me their own because I was a bit too slow to catch more than one. I decided to go barefoot and sadly no one else wanted to brave the mud. If I could get away with it, I wouldn't wear shoes at all. Sensei told us stories of poisonous snakes in the fields to scare us a little. Those scythes sheared through the stalks like they were tissue. It was amazing! Sensei told us that the rack holding a drying bundle of rice was a bed for kami to rest on. I found it adorable.

The priest.

Frog! The field was full of them!

Makes me want to break out the paint.

cropping rice

The bed for the kami

We then walked back, stopping at a little school along the way so that everyone could wash their boots and I washed my feet. When we returned, it was time for the ceremony. A few kids were chosen to present offerings to the kami and they were so proud of their duty. Students from kokugakuin played gagaku, traditional Japanese music, during the ceremony. I have a video below and hopefully you can hear it. The music is very unique. I find it haunting and a bit scary.

Offering for the kami.

The band. I can see sho(mouth organ) and ryuteki(flute).

purification before the ceremony.

The priest.

children bringing the offering to the alter.

Music clip as well as a clip of the offerings.

Afterward, the staff handed out turtles made from rice stalks! They are gorgeous! All the kids and the international students received them. Then, we said our thank yous and goodbyes and took the bus home.

Nicer pictures by my teacher over here ---> http://s27.photobucket.com/user/Peregrinor/library/tanbo_gakko/131006_tanbo_gakko?sort=2&page=1

NEXT UP:

• The Kokugakuin Welcome Party
• Kendo
• Chado
• Oeshiki Festival at Ikegami Honmonji Temple
• Ramen
• Akihabra revisited
•  Moon Viewing Festival
• Traditional Pottery

Kendo & Qipao

I had my first real gym class last week! For the first session, we are learning kendo. Kendo is a modern sport that evolved from traditional Japanese swordsmanship. The competitors wear armor and use bamboo swords called shinai to strike at three vital parts of the body to score points. The points are the head, wrist, and ribs. During gym class, you can hear when the kendo teams start up practice. Men and women scream and shout and loud stomps vibrate through the building. It can be rather frightening! I wish you all could hear my cry as I strike with my shinai. It probably sounds like a frightened rabbit...I have no pictures or videos because I keep forgetting to bring my camera, but next week I will! You will get to see me and my classmates hitting things with bamboo swords wearing armor that reminds me of traditional samurai armor!Here is a stock image in the meantime.

This Saturday, my friends and I went back to the hyakuyen store to get a few things. Along the way, we stopped at the store next to it that has coach bags, music, and other things. On the ceiling hung qipao(cheongsam), or Chinese style dresses. I bought one for 1500 yen($15)! I will be wearing it to the school's welcome party. I promise to get better pictures soon.

qipao

qipao details

Add caption

Sunday, I went rice cropping. I am going to make a separate post because I have a TON of pictures I would like to touch up and share.

A Weekend of Adventure

Moteki san, one of the heads of the international office, informed us of a Polish Fest happening in the area. We all agreed to go after classes. We walked 30mins to get there. The place was a huge and had maps inside, it was so big. Everyone was dressed up and the place seemed to sell designer clothes. I saw a display of clothes and the jacket alone on the manikin was $300. Names like Marc Jacobs, Coach, Gucci, and others lined the store fronts as well as fancy cafes and restaurants. Its called Roppongi Hills. Inside, we discovered the Polishfest. Many goods were available for purchase, such as beer, pottery, clothing, boardgames, and toys. There was a food truck selling food that my friend informed me was usually eaten on holidays. On her advice, I tried bigos, a kind of stew-like dish with cabbage,sausage, and beef along with sweet pickle slices and slices of bread. It was slightly sour, though my friend Marta told me that the real thing is much more sour. It was delicious, though the portion was really small. The meals of the students were covered by Moteki san. She is a really wonderful woman. I need to treat her to something in return for her kindness. After eating, we listened to a pianist's performance before taking the bus home.

Roppongi Hills

A spider statue. Moteki san said there is a similar statue in NYC

One of the booths at the Festival

Traditional Polish garb

On the way to the Polish Fest, I chatted with Erika. Erika is half Japanese, half Ghanian.  I was curious, and asked her how it was like to grow up half Japanese in Japan. Erika grew up in the country side, which has little diversity. As a result, she was picked on all through her school age years. The boys would tease her about her dark skin, her kinky hair. They would even call her by her father's name or brother's name to spite her. This wouldn't seem like a big deal to most people, but to her, it was very hurtful. Her name is Erika, why call her by another name? Erika told me that she is grateful for the body she has, because it got her through the tough times and into an environment that is more diverse and welcoming. Her story was truly inspiring and I admire her courage. She is a very friendly and upbeat young woman who studies English and French, as well as some Arabic and Spanish.

The guys organized a trip to Akihabra on Saturday and invited us girls along. There was some confusion. Some folks came late, some folks got separated and we didn't find each other until we got home to the dorms, but we had a great time. The guys told me Akihabara was an anime paradise. They weren't wrong. There were figurine shops and crane machine game rooms willed with stuffed animals everywhere! Some parts of the figurine shops were really creepy and shadey. I really didn't need to know that old man like to covet figurines of scantily clad women...Wouldn't mind so much if there was some equality in the stores! But nope! Only one figurine and it was shirtless, that's it. They had those gumball-like machines, except you get highly detailed and wonderfully painted figurines! These shops had multiple levels. I went to one shope and I couldn't tell which floor was the last. We just kept climbing up and up! There were Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, Pokemon, Men in Black, Avengers, EVERYTHING. There were floors where you could make your own doll from parts in any size or shape you wanted with shelves of clothing and hair and accessories. There was a floor of the machines with the little figurines, a floor of trading cards, literally everything I could possibely want. I didn't buy a thing, because I was so scared of spending my money too fast. I kind of regret it now, but we will be going back one day. We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant. You place your order into a machine outside of the store, hand the ticket to the door attendent and then wait at your table. I ordered ginger and garlic pork with cabbage, miso soup, and rice. Most of the guys got pork over noodles, with rice, miso soup, and a raw egg to pour over their meal. I got to try it, it was good!None of them got sick from the egg, which was also good! Afterward, we went the Akihabara Animate, which had many more levels and was so crowded it was hard to move.

Akihabara Station Electric Town exit

Akihabara

Akihabra

Akihabra

The figurine and button machines! There were veggies, Japanese wildlife, endangered species, dinosaurs,fossils,dragons,crabs,Netherland dwarf rabbits, and pets...I wanted them all!

The pets series from the machines

The veggies series

Pokemon figurines!

Doll making bodies

Sunday, in Shinjuku, the Multicultural Plaza was hosting an event where you could wear kimono for around 200 yen($2). The event was from 10:30-1pm, so we hustled onto the train to Shinjuku. Shinjuku seems more multicultural than other areas, as we saw Indian, Korean, and Thai shops. We saw some homeless people sleeping outside. It was a grim reminder that not everyone shares the prosperity of Japan. We did not know how to get to the Multicultural Plaza, so we asked many people for directions and walked what feels like all over Shinjuku. It ended up we had passed it and circled it before finally finding it. We stopped by a local police station and they just pointed around the corner and there it was! We rushed in, hoping we weren't too late. The elevators could only go to certain floors, which was a bit annoying to find out, but we made it! We were bustled in, got to pick our kimonos and then were dressed by the assistants. They then took us outside with the group and we were allowed to walk down the street in our kimono and hakama(for the guys) and take pictures. It was well worth the walk!

Today, my class was supposed to go to an open air folk house museum, but it was canceled due to the wind and rain. It will hopefully be rescheduled. This weekend, I will be waking up bright and early to go rice cropping!

Shinjuku view from the Plaza

A horse statue we saw during our journey to the plaza

Pedo bear makes an appearance! Naw, they were just running down the sidewalk waving at people and we got pictures

My friends and I look good in kimono!

Soccer balls and sneakers stacked to the ceiling in a shop in Shinjuku. All I could think was that my brother Isaiah would love the selection.