Sport Pumpkin

Happy Sports Day, everyone. Yes, sports are so important in Japan there's in fact a holiday for them. Sports really are like a religion in Japan, as you can see from the tradition for Japanese baseball players to shave their heads (though that particular tradition is in decline). I suspect it's partly related to the fact that western style sports were only introduced to Japan at the end of the 19th century. Before that, there were only martial arts, which tend to have religious or at least ritualistic connotations. So it makes sense playing baseball would be like becoming a monk.

Last week, the schools had their sports festivals in which an entire day was given over for students to compete in relay races, tugs of war, and obstacle courses. It happened to be my last day at one particular school. The school's brass band, whom I often visited after school, gave me these flowers and they all sang for me the theme from Space Battleship Yamato.

I was overwhelmed, to say the least. It's truly an honour to work with such lovely students.

To-day, of course, I haven't been playing sports. I have been making pumpkin muffins:

Pumpkin muffin recipes I found online called for pumpkin puree but I decided to mince it instead.

I used a quarter of a green Japanese pumpkin for a batch of six muffins, chopping that quarter into four parts. Three parts I chop into tiny pieces to mix into the batter and the fourth part I chop into large chunks to sprinkle on the tops.

Normally in Japan, pumpkin is eaten, with the rind, boiled in soups or fried as tempura. So I thought, why not bake it? The muffins are pretty tasty, if I do say so myself. I used cinnamon and brown sugar.

Halloween in Japan is kind of seen as an adult holiday due to the wild Halloween parties held in Shibuya every year. But a lot of people, especially people selling sweets, are trying to make Halloween happen for kids. I'm trying to do my part. Here's a worksheet I made recently to teach relative pronouns:

By the way, my preferred relative pronouns are that, who, and whom.

X Sonnet #1747

The living truth was far behind the tube.
A trusting god would eat the breakfast cake.
So place the proper squares around the cube.
You're gonna buy another bridge to stake.
The lengthy lizard bugs devour guts.
Remember looking lost the Nazis skins.
Exploding heads compete with rifle butts.
An angry sky attests the end begins.
Descending guests concealed their eyes from view.
The mountainside was shaken past resolve.
The atmosphere was orange and liquid blue.
A thousand grains do morbid plans involve.
Approaching pumpkin moons survey the ground.
The nights absorb a shaky screaming sound.

The Days of Brass and Colour

Yesterday I went to see a performance by the brass band and colour guard from one of the schools I work at. This show was the culmination of months of preparation and practice and they were great.

Part of my job is to walk around the school and visit the clubs to engage students in English conversation. In my first year, I spent almost all my time with the art club but I also made one or two visits to other clubs. I'm not really interested in sports, which is kind of a sore spot because sports are really important in Japan. Especially baseball, which, I can say without exaggeration, is like a religion here. But on days when the art club doesn't meet, I had to visit other clubs and I found myself making repeat visits to the more creatively inclined clubs like the brass band and the colour guard. And then it got so I spent half the week with the art club and half the week with the colour guard.

One of the other English teachers is in charge of the colour guard so it gives me an opportunity to talk to her. But the students themselves are also remarkable. All the colour guard members are girls at this school. They and the girls in art club remind me that not all Japanese women are incredibly uptight. The colour guard girls are always fun to talk to. They like horror movies and dance music. I saw one of them last year posing in the hallway like Madonna in her "Vogue" video. When I asked if she liked Madonna I found out she'd never heard of her. I gave her a note to check out "Vogue" on YouTube--I often recommend English music, movies, and books to students. In this case, her wide eyes and words of thanks the next day told me I'd struck gold. I like to think of myself as a media matchmaker sometimes and it makes me happy when I can pair the right person with the right music or movie.

This girl graduated earlier this year and was serving as an usher for yesterday's show. Watching the students on stage, many of whom were getting ready to move on, it occurred to me I was probably witnessing, for many of them, the single greatest moment of their lives, at least in terms of self-fulfillment. When I watch the colour guard practice, a former student who works at a bakery comes by to help train them. Not that there's anything wrong with working at a bakery, and she shows us items from the latest menu with pride. The bakeries around here are fantastic--despite what you may have heard, the Japanese aren't all about rice. But clearly her centre of pride is associated with the colour guard.

After the performance yesterday, I hung around outside the nearby department store to give any students who wanted it the opportunity to talk to me. A couple girls walked up and one of them showed me a short piece of footage on her phone of a boy playing snare drum. He was wearing a hoodie with the hood covering his face--all of the drummers were for a performance of a Yoasabi song. In the footage, he stopped and pulled back the hood and looked at the audience dramatically. He was the girl's boyfriend. She emphatically said, "He's cool. I love him."