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 Lost Pumpkin

I found an orange pumpkin! Two, in fact. It's not really a bona fide American orange pumpkin, I guess, it seems to be a freak among the normal Japanese green pumpkins. It tasted like the green pumpkins--I boiled it with some udon and cabbage. But it looked nice and autumnal on the kitchen table.

The photo's actually from last month but it scarcely feels more autumnal now, halfway through September. We're in the middle of a heat wave here in Kashihara, Japan, in fact. I suppose that's nothing new but September 15 is Felt Hat Day, the day men used to switch from wearing straw hats to felt hats. And I was definitely not up to making that change. The fact that the day is located on September 15 let's us know there was a time and place when it was generally reasonable to switch to a warmer hat.

This is no weather to have your head wrapped in felt. If you ever see pictures of real archaeologists in the field, you generally see them wearing straw or canvas hats, not felt like Indiana Jones wore through South American jungles and African deserts. Felt sure looks a lot better on camera, though.

I'm spoiling for fall. A few days ago, I watched Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow again. I often want to revisit that film around this time of year though I tend to like the script less every time I watch it. I guess it's in keeping with Burton's Hammer and Roger Corman influences that the story diverges so much from the source material but the Christianity vs. Science vs. Magic theme feels increasingly dated. Still, if they'd gone with the original story, they couldn't have had any of the cool Headless Horseman action scenes. I love the Danny Elfman score, the cinematography, the production design, and the costumes. Christina Ricci looks gorgeous and Johnny Depp gives a good performance.