Your Japanese word of the week is...

"kincho". It means nervous and what you might expect me to talk about is my dan (or black belt level) grading this past weekend.

But interestingly, that wasn't the most recent nerve wracking experience I've had this weekend. As a matter of fact, last night something else crazy happened. I got pulled over........... on my bike.....

See, I was feeling a bit peckish at night and was heading to the convenience store (or "convenie") for some food. By bike it takes about 5 minutes and so I didn't think much of it as I hopped on my bike to go.

Halfway there, this black and white Toyota Echo (or Platz, as it's called here) pulled up and three (3!!!!) men stepped out. I'm not sure if they're really police or just patrol or something, but they asked me to get off the bike and asked for some information. I can just imagine how odd it must've looked to have 3 guys in a car stopping one kid on a bike........

Anyway, one gentleman pointed out to me (after I pointed out to him I don't speak Japanese) that riding at night without the headlight on is dangerous.

"Oh sorry! Yes, you're right. There you go, it's on now."

While all this was happening, another one was radio-ing (is that a word??) in the serial number on the bike while the third man was checking to see if my lock had a key and if my tire was properly inflated and such. I started to wonder if I was going to get arrested for a wobbly rear tire or something........

Anyways, long story short, I didn't get a fine and the men left, with one man's last three words being, "No. Light. Dangerous." Yes, thank you.........

The weirdest part was that not one of them mentioned that not wearing a helmet is dangerous, too. Honestly, they checked the bike rather thoroughly and only left when they were convinced that it was in good working condition and, rightly I might add, were concerned for my night time safety lest I be run over by a truck. But then again, it's totally fine to bike around with no helmet?? Weird............

Regardless, back to the main point of my weekend heh.......... I did indeed go to my karate grading. In case you don't know, the grading was for my second degree black belt, otherwise known as a nidan. It took place in Urayasu city in Chiba which was about an hour and a half drive from where I am, and near Tokyo Disneyland. There were 12 of us going for the test from Shiramizu, 3 testing for their nidan (including me) while the rest went for their shodan.

I had been putting in quite a bit of self training at the dojo for the few weeks leading up to it and I'm happy to say I passed (as did everyone else from Shiramizu, regardless a few of them not smiling in the picture haha). Although, now that I think about it, having passed it only means the work gets harder since now not only are all the coloured belts looking up to me, so are all the shodan (first degree) students. The responsibility to be a role model both in karate and as a character grows so this is indeed not the end but rather, the beginning.

Still, I'm quite happy because I put in the effort and it's nice to see these things bear fruit.......

This is a picture I "borrowed" (heh) from Arakawa Sensei's blog of us after we got back to the dojo.

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"issho kenmei". According to the dictionary, it means "with all one's might" which, if you ask me, sounds bit too much of a Norwegian strong man girding his loins to throw an Olympic hammer clear across the Atlantic. But it is technically the right translation. It just means putting all your effort into a task.

Of course, there's also the (somewhat) well known phrase "gambatte" which means to do one's best. Well, if I'm REALLY technical, the verb is "gambaru" while "gambatte" is just a conjugated form of it........ yay nerdiness......

So what task am working so hard at?? My belt test on the 23rd. According to the Wadokai (the governing body of my karate style and itself part of the larger Japan Karatedo Federation), any belt tests below black belt may be given by the instructor of the dojo. But any level from black belt onwards must be tested by the Wadokai examiners and these tests only happen a few times a year. There'll be about 10 of us from the dojo going. It's a bit nerve wracking and the tension doesn't help muscle speed, but oh well......... I'm just gonna go at it "with all my might" and see what happens.......

Also, last week was Valentine's Day so........ Happy Valentine's. As you might expect with how Halloween and Christmas are viewed here, Valentine's is quite a commercialized day as well (as if it wasn't in Canada haha)...... But it works a bit differently here.....

On Valentine's, only girls give boys presents and it's usually chocolate.

Brilliant!, I thought. But hang on, what's this about a White Day??

Well, White Day is one month after Valentine's (March 14th) and it's when the boy gives presents back to the girl. And it's NOT chocolate....... necklaces, perhaps. Or earrings........

I thought I was quite lucky to get gifts from my students and coworkers and such. But now........ I'm not so sure ;) haha j/k......

But that's ok. For now, I'll be using the chocolate derived energy to help me along the days leading up til the 23rd. Everything else is sort of secondary =P heh.......

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"kankaku". There's two different kanji with the same pronounciation but the one I'm talking about today means "sense" or "feeling".

And that's what I spent most of today doing, getting a "feel" for my new job. In case you haven't heard, I got hired as a teacher for Seiritsu Gakuen (a private high school in Tokyo) to teach their foreign exchange students. I'll be teaching mainly science and math with an extra subject that is currently history. I'll also be doing all my internship work at the same time (until July that is). Once July's come and gone, I'll use my afternoons to help teach English at the school and other activities. Oh, it also means I'm here til April 2009............. =P

So today I shadowed the current teacher to get a feel for how the classes are run and got to meet the students (the department isn't that big right now, so there aren't many).

But over the weekend, Peter came to Tokyo!! I used to work with him back at Lexus and he's in Japan teaching English as well. If Tokyo is Vancouver, I sort of live in Coquitlam- accessible but sometimes inconvenient. Peter, unfortunately, lives in Aizu Wakamatsu in the Fukushima prefecture............ that's sort of like Kelowna.

No problem though, as he packed an overnight bag and hopped on the bus to spend a night in Tokyo.

I met him at the Shinjuku bus station and, after lunch, we saw bits of Shinjuku, Harajuku, the Tokyo Tower (there USED to be a picture of Peter in front of Tokyo Tower, but since he complained, it's now him in Harajuku =P.....), and Roppongi. After lots of walking, we took the train back to my city and stuffed ourselves silly at an all-you-can-eat restaurant.

The next day, we got up a bit early and checked out Akihabara and Ginza. We went into this awesome watch shop where the first floor has all these glass enclosures for different brands of watches and, when you walk in one, they're actually elevators that take you either to the second floor or the basement, where there's a small area that sells only that brand of watch.

So walking into the Swatch "cylinder" takes you down to the Swatch section. Go in the Omega part and it takes you up to the Omega area. It's pretty sweet. You can see in the picture below, one of the elevators has gone up.

So, all in all, a good weekend heh........... The next two weeks will be me frantically trying to prepare for my belt exam on the 23rd..............

PS- There's also an awesome spider sculpture thing in the Roppongi Hills shopping area. It's spider-iffic haha.......

It's a fish!! It's a squiggle!! It's a....... what the??

Actually, it's a "yu". Well, the hiragana character for "yu" anyway, since the katakana version is different.

But I wanted to highlight the fact that learning a new language (or anything, really) inevitably means drawing parallels to what you already know as you try to make sense of it.

In this case, "yu" happens to sound like a mispronounced Cantonese fish. And I happen to think the Japanese character looks like a fish........ Hmm........ profound heh.....

But the same is true for the kids I teach. I was teaching them the seasons of the year and as one kid was writing down "winter", he said:

"Double U....... I........ Enn......... TASU (which means 'plus' in Japanese)...... E....... Arr"

Umm........ that's a "T", not a 'plus'...... but at least I see where he's coming from haha......



Hanko'd


It sounds like something bad's happened to me, but a hanko is the name the stamp that most Japanese people use as their signature. I had to get one for my new job starting in April for things like signing in when I get to the school.

It was pretty cheap, at about $15 for a 12mm one (the second smallest) with a case. I'm pretty sure it's plastic considering the price, but you can buy $100+ ones that are, like, 25+mm and made of ivory.

As you can see, it's my name in katakana.

And it won't be long before I've branded everything in my room......... muahahaha..........


Pringle'd

As I went to pick up my hanko, I saw this in the store.

"Winter Cheese Fondue" flavoured Pringles. Wow, I thought, the name totally makes me want to eat it.

And so I bought one out of curiousity.

It tastes like........... cheese. I shouldn't be surprised, really, but I sort of am. I kind of expected more......

I can't think of a more overly ostentatious chip flavour name than this. Even "Sea Salt & Malt Vinegar" is at least reasonably restrained..........

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"setsubun". "Setsu" is derived from "kisetsu", or season. The latter part of the word, "bun", means part/division. For instance, "hanbun" is half and "yonbun no ichi" is "one out of four parts". It follows, then, that "setsubun" is the division of the four seasons of the year and, more specifically, means the day prior to the start of each season.

More broadly speaking, setsubun most commonly refers to the start of spring and is celebrated on Feb 3rd with a ritual known as "mamemaki", or "bean scattering".

This was a present from one of my English students. The beans meant to be scattered are the green ones, which are roasted soy beans. During the mamemaki, the soy beans (you can buy big packs of them; they're not all in such fancy boxes) are tossed out the door while shouting "Oni wa soto", meaning "Demons out". Then you chuck some inside the house and say "Fuku wa uchi", or "Fortune in". It's a ritual to drive out the bad spirits and bring in the good ones. Then you go around the house picking up the soy beans that you tossed........

Or, if you have family members around the house, you can get one of them to don a monster mask and hurl soy beans at them instead, yelling at them to leave. All in the name of good luck, of course =)......

Afterwards, you eat as many beans as you are old plus one more for good luck, so that was 25 for me. I might suggest not watching a movie while eating them because I lost count at 3....... and 8...... and 9...... and 10. At which point I scarfed down 15 more just to get it over with =P.......

But then again, I ate more afterwards so that would technically make me about 84 years old...... Hmm.......

Regardless, there are also coloured items as you can see, and they're mostly either powdered sugar or sugar coated soy beans. Tasty.....

In other news, it snowed again yesterday. Like, real snow that stuck, not just flurries like two weeks ago, even though it still wasn't much anyway. But some people went way overboard and put chains on their tires! I was walking down the street and saw two cars with tire chains rumbling down what was basically a clear road. I can't imagine the asphalt lasting too long if people get that serious about snow driving.

It seriously wasn't that bad but I guess some people get a bit freaked out.

But it's nice and sunny today, so it's mostly melting, which I'm a bit grateful for. As much as I love the snow, biking in it is a bit dangerous......