hello all
i was waiting till something blog-worthy appeared in my life to give you all another update of my life here in japan.
well something turned up- its sakura (cherry blossom) season in Japan at the moment. this "season" lasts for about a week. on friday, i went with ando-san and haruna to Ritsurin Park to see the cherry blossoms at night which was fun, then i went again on monday during the day with andrew, angela, miyoko and mai (friends weve made). i preferred the day, as i got nicer photos of the flowers and on monday they were in fuller bloom than on friday (can u even say that in english?)
last night after going to ritsurin park, me, miyoko, andrew and angela went out to dinner together to an Okinawan restaurant. Okinawa is a group of islands south-west of Japan, between Japan and Taiwan. okinawa is supposed to have the largest number of centenarians per capita in the world i think. anyway it was pretty yummy and the restaurant had a lovely atmosphere.
on i spent the weekend with ando-san and haruna. on saturday morning, we all helped out with a Baha'i junior youth group. the 2 boys who were able to come were half-Australian which was nice. (japanese junior high school students are insanely insanely busy so its really difficult to make a date which everyone can come to)
anyway after that we went to an exhibition at the local art gallery on early 20th century japanese porcelain (like tea cups etc). apparently its popular in japan. after going to see the cherry blossoms, we went out to karaoke with andrew and angela which was really fun. then i slept over ando-sans place :)
on sunday me, ando-san, andrew and angela went to Shodoshima Island, an island between Shikoku and mainland Japan. we spent the day there with a lady who used to work for Cathy and Yuichi and she took us around doing touristy things. it was really nice cos theres quite a bit of nature remaining on the island, and i always feel alot better when im around nature. in fact, we saw wild monkeys (those ones with pink faces and grey fur) as we were driving in the bush at one stage. me, a&a went insane haha
it was only angelas 3rd time to see the ocean (shes originally from St Louis then moved to Chicago, both of which are in inland America) so it was really great to see how excited she got about seeing the sea. she said the 2 other times shes seen the ocean were in Florida and California, both of which were at crowded tourist beaches so this quiet, Tasmania-esque beach was really special to her.
its her birthday in a week or so, so we (ritsurin park people) decided that she should have a birthday party which somehow involves karaoke. she had a bit of a laugh that its gonna be the smallest birthday party shes ever had- its so true, both of our social circles are single-digit figures, but its been good for me, im usually so lazy organising social things in sydney, whereas now its so different.
on the way to Shodoshima Island, me, Ando-san, A & A had a really good talk about heaps of stuff and one of the things i said was how glad i am to meet different Baha'is. Baha'is in the same local council area (eg Warringah) are organised into the same Baha'i community. the vast majority of the things you do as a Baha'i are with others from your community. anyway ive been in warringah bahai community for 8 years so its refreshing for me to meet others from different places.
also its nice to socialise with bahais (in australia my social life with other bahais is non-existent). and ive noticed that before coming here i based a lot of my view of the Baha'i world on my community- eg i honestly thought most bahais were either persian or westerner just because if you live in sydney thats how it seems, but like 90+ percent of Japanese Bahais are ethnically Japanese. According to bahai.org, the bahais in the world are from over 2100 different races, which i think id prob read before but its starting to sink in more now. Although I already knew that the Bahai Faith is the 2nd most geographically widespread religion in the world after Christianity, i think i subconsciously presumed that Iranian and American Bahais just moved to a lot of countries. hahaha i feel so dumb now lol
im so happy at the moment- its spring, which means i no longer have to look like "shrek" or a "bear" as Cathy joked a lot during winter (i feel the cold), i now only have to wear 3 jumpers! id become a walking example of Australias obesity epidemic- the only visible part of my body was my fat face, then wearing 6 layers+ a ski jacket isnt exactly flattering. jenny would have a ball if she were here hahaha...
bye everyone!
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Tuesday 17 March 2009
Shoko!
hello everybody again
this week we had visitors staying with us which was pretty exciting. reina, cathy and yuichis daughter, is here for a week, and a bahai girl called Shoko was here for like 4 days too. shoko recently returned from volunteering at a bahai-inspired international school in Czech Republic, and her english is insaaaanely good like she has like 1% of an accent its crazy...
being with reina and shoko was very good for my japanese too. in japanese, you use polite form to your superiors (those older then you etc) and then plain form when speaking to people beneath you or equal to you (eg kids, teenagers etc). in school, u learn both forms but cos you always just use polite form in the HSC exam, you dont really ever practise using plain form.
so spending a few days with young people a lot helped me with my plain form although i often keep slipping back into polite form, i guess its better then the other way round when with older people.
the other day, a Japanese nurse whod just returned from spending a year working on one of Second Hand's projects in Cambodia talked to second hand volunteers about her trip. it was quite formal, which meant she spoke clearly and at a measured pace, and she had a slideshow of pictures and point from her talk which helped me to follow. this went for 2 hrs, but was hecticaly good for my japanese, and i found i could follow most of it so i was happy.
the project she was involved with was an ambulance service in Phnom Penh which Second Hand established. Cambodia is a country in south-east Asia near thailand where many people are living in poverty. but the standard ambulance service is really expensive and slow, so often even though someone is covered in blood and losing consciousness after a car crash, they dont want to go in an ambulance cos they cant afford it. the second hand service is faster than the other ambulances, has better equipment (donated from japan) and patients can pay as much as they want (or nothing) for the service. also, theyre trying to always have one japanese person with the ambulance service cos in Cambodian culture everyone takes there time to get places but obviously for an ambulance service this can cost people their lives. japanese people often tend to be really busy and rushing everywhere, and i thought it was a really interesting way to look at how certain traits of different cultures can complement each other quite well.
i could tell the difference with being bombarded with japanese at last nights study circle with the childrens class fathers. cathy wasnt there for most of it so i was left in a discussion about prayer, why we pray etc but it was actually ok. my work book is in english, and beneath each quote theres comprehension questions on the quote. anyway i always answer these questions in english, but last night yuichi was like 'why dont you do it in japanese?' (i always end up having to translate them verbally into japanese anyway) which made me happy.
yesterday i went to Ritsurin Park with angela, andrew, and haruna (ando-san's daughter whos 22 and is home for the uni holidays). it was so peaceful and beautiful, and it was a good time for us to get to know haruna and vice-versa. harunas fairly quiet, and im not hugely outgoing either, so when ive seen her before at social events its gotten a bit awkward, but after spending 3hrs together it got rid of all that. i also think shes incredible cos we were speaking in english for the whole time, except when i occasionally talked to her in japanese, and she didnt seem to mind at all. today shes coming over here again to plan the Naw Ruz party (Baha'i new year) were having on friday night here.
im also looking forward to that cos it signals the end of the Fast which ive really been enjoying cos its all spiritualish and stuff but at the same time i looove food and especially in japan where the food is actually nice 99% of the time... its so funny like everyday for dinner me and reina eat sooo much then eat sooo much dessert cos i have some weird outlook where i have to make up for all i missed out on that day hahha and then my stomach is always so sore hahaha
xoxo
this week we had visitors staying with us which was pretty exciting. reina, cathy and yuichis daughter, is here for a week, and a bahai girl called Shoko was here for like 4 days too. shoko recently returned from volunteering at a bahai-inspired international school in Czech Republic, and her english is insaaaanely good like she has like 1% of an accent its crazy...
being with reina and shoko was very good for my japanese too. in japanese, you use polite form to your superiors (those older then you etc) and then plain form when speaking to people beneath you or equal to you (eg kids, teenagers etc). in school, u learn both forms but cos you always just use polite form in the HSC exam, you dont really ever practise using plain form.
so spending a few days with young people a lot helped me with my plain form although i often keep slipping back into polite form, i guess its better then the other way round when with older people.
the other day, a Japanese nurse whod just returned from spending a year working on one of Second Hand's projects in Cambodia talked to second hand volunteers about her trip. it was quite formal, which meant she spoke clearly and at a measured pace, and she had a slideshow of pictures and point from her talk which helped me to follow. this went for 2 hrs, but was hecticaly good for my japanese, and i found i could follow most of it so i was happy.
the project she was involved with was an ambulance service in Phnom Penh which Second Hand established. Cambodia is a country in south-east Asia near thailand where many people are living in poverty. but the standard ambulance service is really expensive and slow, so often even though someone is covered in blood and losing consciousness after a car crash, they dont want to go in an ambulance cos they cant afford it. the second hand service is faster than the other ambulances, has better equipment (donated from japan) and patients can pay as much as they want (or nothing) for the service. also, theyre trying to always have one japanese person with the ambulance service cos in Cambodian culture everyone takes there time to get places but obviously for an ambulance service this can cost people their lives. japanese people often tend to be really busy and rushing everywhere, and i thought it was a really interesting way to look at how certain traits of different cultures can complement each other quite well.
i could tell the difference with being bombarded with japanese at last nights study circle with the childrens class fathers. cathy wasnt there for most of it so i was left in a discussion about prayer, why we pray etc but it was actually ok. my work book is in english, and beneath each quote theres comprehension questions on the quote. anyway i always answer these questions in english, but last night yuichi was like 'why dont you do it in japanese?' (i always end up having to translate them verbally into japanese anyway) which made me happy.
yesterday i went to Ritsurin Park with angela, andrew, and haruna (ando-san's daughter whos 22 and is home for the uni holidays). it was so peaceful and beautiful, and it was a good time for us to get to know haruna and vice-versa. harunas fairly quiet, and im not hugely outgoing either, so when ive seen her before at social events its gotten a bit awkward, but after spending 3hrs together it got rid of all that. i also think shes incredible cos we were speaking in english for the whole time, except when i occasionally talked to her in japanese, and she didnt seem to mind at all. today shes coming over here again to plan the Naw Ruz party (Baha'i new year) were having on friday night here.
im also looking forward to that cos it signals the end of the Fast which ive really been enjoying cos its all spiritualish and stuff but at the same time i looove food and especially in japan where the food is actually nice 99% of the time... its so funny like everyday for dinner me and reina eat sooo much then eat sooo much dessert cos i have some weird outlook where i have to make up for all i missed out on that day hahha and then my stomach is always so sore hahaha
xoxo
Wednesday 11 March 2009
udon is my love
hello everybody
my life in the past week has been exceptionally uninteresting in terms of blogability, other than that ive of course been fasting, so i dont really have much to add, i thought id just point up that ive uploaded a few more photos that hopefully convey a bit more of the flavour of Takamatsu...
my profile picture is of me eating udon, the specialty of this area. udon is incredibly amazingly delicious if u have it here, but whatever you do, dont have it in other parts of japan. i made the mistake of ordering udon when i was in tokyo in 2005 and it was really terrible.
this is a neat fact from a movie i watched, Udon, which is about the udon noodles in this prefecture:
"Though Japan's smallest in terms of land mass, Kagawa Prefecture and its population of approximately one million is served by nearly 900 udon shops. By comparison, there are 515 McDonald's outlets serving a population of 12.5 million in Tokyo. "
on monday, we had the study circle with the fathers from the childrens class. the topic this week was "Backbiting", ie gossiping and saying mean things about other people behind their backs.
the main reason im putting this up here was that i found it really interesting. after reading a few Baha'i quotes and discussing why backbiting is a bad thing (cos it makes you more insecure, look like an extra bad person yourself, foster disunity etc), yuichi asked us "well then, why do we do it?"
ive never really thought about that before- and peoples thoughts were really interesting. two of the main ones were "because its a good conversation starter/icebreaker" and "because its fun". others included "when you really like a close friend but out of embarassment try to cover it up with putdowns" or "when youre worried about someone close to you and so get frustrated and backbite", or "when theres someone you love but theres one thing about them that drives you insane"
i know for me, backbiting is such a difficult thing to stop doing, i mean realising when youre saying mean things about others is hard enough, then being strong enough to stop doing it and finding ways to get out of situations when people around you are doing it...
its definitely a bit easier for me not to at the moment, being away from the peer group and everything.
anyway, ive made it my personal goal to try to stop doing it and to stop thinking mean things about others too. but at the same time, ive reminded myself not to get disheartened if i let it slip a couple of times, but to keep in mind that any amount of improvement is a good thing! think of what could be achieved if each of us thought like that, instead of thinking "the world is a bad place what can i do about it"...
as Mahatma Gandhi said,
"Be the change you wish to see in the world"
heres some other quotes i like, that weve been looking at in the study circles:
"Do not be content with showing friendship in words alone, let your heart burn with loving-kindness for all who may cross your path"
"When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love"
"Speak no evil, that thou mayest not hear it spoken unto thee, and magnify not the faults of others that thine own faults may not appear great..."
my life in the past week has been exceptionally uninteresting in terms of blogability, other than that ive of course been fasting, so i dont really have much to add, i thought id just point up that ive uploaded a few more photos that hopefully convey a bit more of the flavour of Takamatsu...
my profile picture is of me eating udon, the specialty of this area. udon is incredibly amazingly delicious if u have it here, but whatever you do, dont have it in other parts of japan. i made the mistake of ordering udon when i was in tokyo in 2005 and it was really terrible.
this is a neat fact from a movie i watched, Udon, which is about the udon noodles in this prefecture:
"Though Japan's smallest in terms of land mass, Kagawa Prefecture and its population of approximately one million is served by nearly 900 udon shops. By comparison, there are 515 McDonald's outlets serving a population of 12.5 million in Tokyo. "
on monday, we had the study circle with the fathers from the childrens class. the topic this week was "Backbiting", ie gossiping and saying mean things about other people behind their backs.
the main reason im putting this up here was that i found it really interesting. after reading a few Baha'i quotes and discussing why backbiting is a bad thing (cos it makes you more insecure, look like an extra bad person yourself, foster disunity etc), yuichi asked us "well then, why do we do it?"
ive never really thought about that before- and peoples thoughts were really interesting. two of the main ones were "because its a good conversation starter/icebreaker" and "because its fun". others included "when you really like a close friend but out of embarassment try to cover it up with putdowns" or "when youre worried about someone close to you and so get frustrated and backbite", or "when theres someone you love but theres one thing about them that drives you insane"
i know for me, backbiting is such a difficult thing to stop doing, i mean realising when youre saying mean things about others is hard enough, then being strong enough to stop doing it and finding ways to get out of situations when people around you are doing it...
its definitely a bit easier for me not to at the moment, being away from the peer group and everything.
anyway, ive made it my personal goal to try to stop doing it and to stop thinking mean things about others too. but at the same time, ive reminded myself not to get disheartened if i let it slip a couple of times, but to keep in mind that any amount of improvement is a good thing! think of what could be achieved if each of us thought like that, instead of thinking "the world is a bad place what can i do about it"...
as Mahatma Gandhi said,
"Be the change you wish to see in the world"
heres some other quotes i like, that weve been looking at in the study circles:
"Do not be content with showing friendship in words alone, let your heart burn with loving-kindness for all who may cross your path"
"When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love"
"Speak no evil, that thou mayest not hear it spoken unto thee, and magnify not the faults of others that thine own faults may not appear great..."
Wednesday 4 March 2009
Welcome Andrew and Angela!
hello once again
something very exciting happened this week. a young Baha'i couple from Chicago, andrew and angela, have moved to Takamatsu! they are here to teach English to pay off their student loans from university and at the same time help out the Takamatsu Baha'is. they don't speak Japanese, but they are really eager to learn it and have a great attitude (i think).
on monday, the Baha'i Fast started. this means that between sunrise and sunset we don't eat or drink, and at the same time we try to make an extra special effort to become a better person (more kind, caring etc). i find it also helps me to become more self-disciplined and after the Fast i always try to eat more in moderation- ie not too much, but not too little either.
only those between 15-70 fast and if you have certain health conditions or are pregnant or breastfeeding or in heavy labour you dont either. also if you start getting sick during it, youre allowed to stop fasting. theres been quite a few medical studies which show the health benefits of fasting for a limited period of time each year.
anyway, the hardest part of fasting at the moment for me is getting up at 5.45 am after being used to sleeping in till 10 every day. especially cos we arent going out as much, if youre doing something like studying Chinese characters, you get tired fast! so i had a nap yesterday and today. and cathy cooks us all breakfast and an amazing breakfast at that- she should win some award for how healthy her food is, so i only start getting hungry in the afternoon :D cant beat brown rice
i went to the public baths for the first time on monday with Reina, my host parents daughter, and obaa-chan. i had been reeeeally reeeeeally intimidated of going, especially cos even though i can handle standing out normally, standing out while i have no clothes on is one of the most daunting things i could imagine. but we went in the middle of the day so there was hardly anyone there and they were all middle-aged so it wasnt that bad- actually it was really relaxing. there are heaps of different small pools which are really hot and have different types of water or diff scents or something. of course male and female baths are completely separate.
on friday i was supposed to go to Ritsurin Park (the one in the photo on my blog which i got from google images) with a friend of Cathy and Yuichis. but it ended up raining, and more importantly for me, freeeezing. so we ended up going to the biggest shopping centre in the prefecture (which was about the size of Cairns Central or Greensborough in melbourne- which areboth averageish sized) we didnt buy anything, but we talked in english the whole time cos Hirano-san (the womans name) is trying to learn english.
afterwards, we went to the day centre for children with intellectual disabilities that Hirano-san works at. i spent the afternoon there, and met 3 of the children who come there. one was a girl who was 6 yrs old and had a more severe form of autism that meant she was unable to speak, but occasionally said recognisable words. one was a 10yr old boy whod only recently been ableto sit ona chair because he was so full of energy. another was a 14 yr old boy who also had autism but more mildly, so he could respond if you asked him questions and was really into drawing and could write chinese characters (and really prettily).
it was quite confronting to be honest, particularly the girl, who was really emotionally volatile. but i enjoyed it, and probably the main thing i took away from there was a huge feeling of respect for the parents and carers i met. Japanese society, in general, probably doesnt accept people with disabilities to the same degree that they are in the West, although of course theres room for improvement there too. but, Hirano-san was telling me, this puts an extra burden on parents of children with disabilities, and apparently some of the parents of the children who go to the centre have been hospitalised and are on medication because of conditions related to the stress they feel.
ive told heaps of people already, but in Japanese Extension at school, we had to study a book called "Noones Perfect" by Hirotada Ototake, and i thoroughly recommend anyone who has the opportunity to read it. Ototake was born in Japan with no arms and no legs and the book is his autobiography up until he was a young adult. it reached number 1 in japan and holds some record for being the most books soldin japan ever or the 2nd most or sumthing.
anyway, id never really thought of people with disabilities before i read that book, mainly because i dont know anyone with one, and reading that book was a big eye-opener for me.
whats perhaps most impressive is that Ototake thinks that the biggest way to increase acceptance of people with disabilities is through the education of children. to that end, he wrote his book in very simple Japanese and has become a primary school teacher. as he says in the book, he gets lots of children staring at him and asking Ototake whats wrong with him. often what happens then is that their parents tell their children to be quiet and they hurry along embarassed. but Ototake questions whether this is the best response. at school, Ototake was always really popular amongst other kids and never got bullied. he says that (paraphrasing) "of course children when they first see me all wonder whats wrong with me and thing it's strange. but once i tell them 'i got sick when i was in my mummy's tummy', they accept it and dont think about it any more"
wow my blog ended up hectically philosophical yet again haha... anyway good luck everyone whos going to uni with their first week- hope its going well :)
something very exciting happened this week. a young Baha'i couple from Chicago, andrew and angela, have moved to Takamatsu! they are here to teach English to pay off their student loans from university and at the same time help out the Takamatsu Baha'is. they don't speak Japanese, but they are really eager to learn it and have a great attitude (i think).
on monday, the Baha'i Fast started. this means that between sunrise and sunset we don't eat or drink, and at the same time we try to make an extra special effort to become a better person (more kind, caring etc). i find it also helps me to become more self-disciplined and after the Fast i always try to eat more in moderation- ie not too much, but not too little either.
only those between 15-70 fast and if you have certain health conditions or are pregnant or breastfeeding or in heavy labour you dont either. also if you start getting sick during it, youre allowed to stop fasting. theres been quite a few medical studies which show the health benefits of fasting for a limited period of time each year.
anyway, the hardest part of fasting at the moment for me is getting up at 5.45 am after being used to sleeping in till 10 every day. especially cos we arent going out as much, if youre doing something like studying Chinese characters, you get tired fast! so i had a nap yesterday and today. and cathy cooks us all breakfast and an amazing breakfast at that- she should win some award for how healthy her food is, so i only start getting hungry in the afternoon :D cant beat brown rice
i went to the public baths for the first time on monday with Reina, my host parents daughter, and obaa-chan. i had been reeeeally reeeeeally intimidated of going, especially cos even though i can handle standing out normally, standing out while i have no clothes on is one of the most daunting things i could imagine. but we went in the middle of the day so there was hardly anyone there and they were all middle-aged so it wasnt that bad- actually it was really relaxing. there are heaps of different small pools which are really hot and have different types of water or diff scents or something. of course male and female baths are completely separate.
on friday i was supposed to go to Ritsurin Park (the one in the photo on my blog which i got from google images) with a friend of Cathy and Yuichis. but it ended up raining, and more importantly for me, freeeezing. so we ended up going to the biggest shopping centre in the prefecture (which was about the size of Cairns Central or Greensborough in melbourne- which areboth averageish sized) we didnt buy anything, but we talked in english the whole time cos Hirano-san (the womans name) is trying to learn english.
afterwards, we went to the day centre for children with intellectual disabilities that Hirano-san works at. i spent the afternoon there, and met 3 of the children who come there. one was a girl who was 6 yrs old and had a more severe form of autism that meant she was unable to speak, but occasionally said recognisable words. one was a 10yr old boy whod only recently been ableto sit ona chair because he was so full of energy. another was a 14 yr old boy who also had autism but more mildly, so he could respond if you asked him questions and was really into drawing and could write chinese characters (and really prettily).
it was quite confronting to be honest, particularly the girl, who was really emotionally volatile. but i enjoyed it, and probably the main thing i took away from there was a huge feeling of respect for the parents and carers i met. Japanese society, in general, probably doesnt accept people with disabilities to the same degree that they are in the West, although of course theres room for improvement there too. but, Hirano-san was telling me, this puts an extra burden on parents of children with disabilities, and apparently some of the parents of the children who go to the centre have been hospitalised and are on medication because of conditions related to the stress they feel.
ive told heaps of people already, but in Japanese Extension at school, we had to study a book called "Noones Perfect" by Hirotada Ototake, and i thoroughly recommend anyone who has the opportunity to read it. Ototake was born in Japan with no arms and no legs and the book is his autobiography up until he was a young adult. it reached number 1 in japan and holds some record for being the most books soldin japan ever or the 2nd most or sumthing.
anyway, id never really thought of people with disabilities before i read that book, mainly because i dont know anyone with one, and reading that book was a big eye-opener for me.
whats perhaps most impressive is that Ototake thinks that the biggest way to increase acceptance of people with disabilities is through the education of children. to that end, he wrote his book in very simple Japanese and has become a primary school teacher. as he says in the book, he gets lots of children staring at him and asking Ototake whats wrong with him. often what happens then is that their parents tell their children to be quiet and they hurry along embarassed. but Ototake questions whether this is the best response. at school, Ototake was always really popular amongst other kids and never got bullied. he says that (paraphrasing) "of course children when they first see me all wonder whats wrong with me and thing it's strange. but once i tell them 'i got sick when i was in my mummy's tummy', they accept it and dont think about it any more"
wow my blog ended up hectically philosophical yet again haha... anyway good luck everyone whos going to uni with their first week- hope its going well :)
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