Danjiri Festival

Hello everyone,

Around this time of year the Danjiri festival is held. Giant carts in the shape of a shrine or temple are carried through the streets. After months of preparation a ceremonial display is given whereby the shrines are made to "bow" as a kind of mark of respect to the passing Danjiri. The festival I saw was a fairly local one where 5 Danjiri carts met in the street. The display was very spectacular!

The carts are extremely heavy. The older members of the group are at the back turning and the younger members of the group at the front pulling. They were exhausted after the festival. The cart is kept in the temple for most of the year and has intricate and delicate carvings all over it. In the day there are celebrations too. For example, in one part of Osaka there is the famous Kishiwada Danjiri festival where they run at breakneck speed through the streets. I didn't see this but there was a lot of running in the day apparently. They have been known to cause some damage!

The whole evening lasted a couple of hours, but for the past few weeks there have been practices all over Osaka. You can hear people screaming the Japanese for "heave-ho!" everywhere.

Here are some pictures and a video.

Up close before the events began

Making last minute preparations

Drumming away in the cart

The amazing display

Feeling the burn

Why not use your mobile when you are bored up there?

They used ropes to steady themselves as the cart is dragged through the street

Getting tipped side to side! Notice the neon lights

Sunglasses, neon lights and of course purple devil horns!

Playing the flute

Didn't realise at the time but this poor boy was crying from drumming too hard

Microphones and bright lights! I like the lanterns on them!

What I have been doing in my spare time..........

Hello again!


Now for my final post of the day: what I have been doing in my spare time.

Food

Seem to be eating out a lot. Sushi, Ramen, Bentos, Okinomiayaki pretty much everything that is shoved infront of me. Some things I've had I haven't liked (squid tenticle stuck in my throat or "Octopus balls") but the food is so good here! Not too pricy either. The 100 yen Lawson shop near my house has been a Mecca for cheap food too.

Drinking

I keep going to bars and people keep buying me drinks! I met up with quite a few people and these people will not take no for an answer. I met a group of students who were in a choir in a bar near my house. They sang a very old Japanese song for me. There are many bars and resturants near my house! Including a very loud train. There is also a dog cafe on my street:

Cafe ground floor, hairdresser first!

Often you can buy all you can eat and drink for a few hours for maybe £30! The ALTs and I will go out after a meal or get a few beers and watch a film. We went out to Dotombori which is the second biggest nightlife district in Japan. The place was packed with bars and made looking people. Japanese people love being sick in the street!

A group of ALTs, teachers and Japanese friends

Need to order something? Well do it on this touch screen!

My neighbour on the left with a couple of ALTs and Ayane

The longest Keiten (conveyor belt) Sushi in the world

I can't stop eating Sushi, so cheap! Maybe £1 a plate!

Tennoji Nightlife District

All you can eat and drink! Count the beers!

Karaoke only after a few drinks!

Sumiyoshi Shrine

There is a popular and famous shrine about 10 mins cycle from my house. I got to see a wedding when I was there. This place is so beautiful and very old.

The famous old bridge

Gate

The wedding taking place

Inside one of the old buildings

A rabbit shaped fountain where you clense yourself on entry.

The after wedding photo "cheezu"

Grace and Danny on the bridge

The square

Taekwondo

I met a guy in a bar who ran his own Taekwondo classes. I thought I should try a martial art (even though it's Korean). Here is a picture of me in action:

I like this picture, but I don't think its my kind of thing!

Nara

A group of us went to Nara for the day. It was only 40 mins from Osaka by train. We saw the biggest wooden building in the world, killer deer amongst many other things. I really liked the place! The weather was perfect!

Oh-deer!

So big, not busy, great weather!

The reason I came to Japan!

The biggest wooden building in the world.......

....housing one of the biggest Buddhas in the world. The head is a different colour because
of the many earthquakes and wars that chopped it off!

Climbing through the nostril sized snose to gain enlightenment.

Here deery deery deery.

Another one of Nara's epic buildings!

The group. Enjoying a nice day at Nara

Angela: deer whisperer

Kevin-Sensei getting mauled. Deer biscuits for very cheap!

Rows of stone lanterns

The school.......

Hello all,

Just thought I would do an update on my school.

So I have been teaching a lot of lessons. About 4/5 a day, in my free time I lesson plan and brush up on my Japanese. I can't really say too much so I will do a quick list of things I like about the school:

1) Teaching, who knew there was such a job where I could talk about myself all day? I love the sound of my own voice
2) Being able to do crazy lessons: Team games where the class is divided into Harry Potter houses, making the students run around the classroom getting on furniture to teach them "in" "on" "under" "next to". Getting them to pretend to be sick! I am really enjoying teaching!
3) School lunches, the dinnerlady loves me!
4) Sports day, a whole day of Japanese style gameshow games where every kid got to join in! A whole realy race with the ENTIRE school, obstacle courses and just crazy crazy games! I got to be a judge for cheerleading, the whole school was divided into 5 teams and they all did this huge cheerleading act with pompoms and music. I got to be a judge! They loved doing it too which was very funny!
5) Giving the kids high5's or playing scissor paper rock in the corridors.
6) Having "Herro" "Engrish teacher" "Josefu" shouted at me wherever I go in the school.
7) Observing the major differences in the Japanese school system. No chocolate, no outdoor shoes inside, the teachers move to the students, umbrella racks in the classroom, a whole new level of pencil case love!
8) The other classic teachers!
9) Laughing constantly!
10) Having lessons cancelled all the time for typhoon days or the many national holidays!

There are of course some bad things, but in general its mostly good. Some grades are quiet, some are too noisy. It depends on the day and the class I think!

The end of a stressful month............

Hello all!

Just thought I would do an update as my laptop has been broken for about 4/5 weeks now. I heard a screw loose in my laptop, it hit something and wouldn't turn back on. This is where all my problems started............

Stress 1: The laptop


I never realised how much I depended on my laptop until the bastard thing broke on me. So yes, it went out and stopped working. Things have gone downhill from there. First I took it to a friend's house to get it looked at and try and get the screw out. It didn't work so we began the process of getting it sorted out (we and in myself and very helpful parents). First we rang Comet, then HP who told us that we could ring HP support in Japan and they might be able to do something. 45 mins later and a very stressful phonecall (after trying to locate a HP shop in Japan) they told me they couldn't fix the model in Japan because A) they didn't sell it here and B) it was in English.

OK

So we were told to send this information to Comet. After 1 week of e-mails with no reply we were told the e-mail address was internal so thats why there was no reply. Oh well time to send it home!

This took ages, it got repaired and sent back. All in all about 4.5 weeks and £160 spend!

People have been helpful, all the other ALTs have been letting me use their laptops/iphones/disney phones and what not! I am very grateful to them. My next door neighbour Kaz (a law and English student at OCU) has helped me so much! Japanese people will go out of their way to do ANYTHING for you.

One ALT lent me a spare laptop but the adaptor I got didn't work. Another £20 down the drain!

Stress 2: My Alien Reg card

So when you arrive in Japan you have to register yourself at the local office. When you do this you get given a card with your details on. For example your address in Japan is on there. Well, I thought me address was on there but it turns out the woman in the office fucked up bigstyle and put the next building's address on. A one Kanji charactor mistake meant my bank card, my phone and bills were being sent to the wrong building. This would be ok except for this is very rare in Japan. You have to use the card to set up your accounts and billing information. Another 2 weeks later I had it sorted, but after a lot of chasing up to reverse this error!

Stress 3: My new Bike

Got a bloody puncture didn't it! I love it though, second hand and about 30 quid! The name is "koutaku no aru" or shiny.

I cycled to the coast with a couple of ALTs and watched the sunset over this bridge

Stress 4: My phone


5 attempts and I finally have the bugger!


Stress 5: Didn't realise those bits of paper were bills


Paid them. I had to use the rare 2000yen note though!

The rare 2000 yen note I spent (by rare my next door neighbour hadn't seen one in 5 years)
My bills too, costing about £20

A couple of teething problems that are now resolved. Though I was at breaking point but now I feel a lot better. Everything slowly worked itself out (well after a lot of chasing)