A School Excursion Japanese-style

During my many free hours at school today, I found an interesting little yellow booklet. Being bored (and nosy, but mostly bored) I picked it up and found that it was a handbook for the school excursion to Tokyo. I was surprised by the amount of detail it contained for a two-night trip.



Firstly, there was this chart (above) which shows what the students will be doing every half hour, including toilet breaks.



Next, there was a little diagram thing that you probably can't make out (above) that shows how to line up in photographs. Class one is to be on the left, with students lined up from left to right from tallest to shortest. On the right is class two with students lined up from shortest to tallest left to right (I thought this was curious because the shortest students would be in the middle, with the teachers and principal - maybe this is to make them feel tall).




Then there are the diagrams, my favourites. The above left diagram shows you how to use your card key at the hotel. Fair enough. Some kids have probably never stayed at a Hilton before.
Above middle is a diagram that shows you how to bathe, complete with instructions on, firstly, where to FIND the bathmat, then where to PUT the bathmat, as well as other useful advice such as suggesting that you close the shower curtain while using the bath.
And on the right is a manga-style picture that one of the students has drawn for the back cover, featuring a crying student (crying because their lives are so over regulated?).

Perfecting the "Sleep Move"

Japanese people have this one down. They can do it sitting down...



Or lying down...



Even the cars can do it...

Clubbing in Tokyo


This weekend I made the trek down to Tokyo to purchase items unavailable in the great metropolis of Shirakawa (such as deodorant and underpants, seeing as you asked).


In addition to the excitement normally associated with the purchase of abovementioned personal items, I also went clubbing with the lovely Alex (who has the good fortune to live in a town called Kuki).


We went to an R&B club called Vuenos in Shibuya. It was a fun night, but I found it hard to take any of it seriously, unlike the J-gangstas around us. These guys try sooooo hard. The only thing worse than a Japanese guy who thinks he's black is a white guy who thinks he's black - and there were a few of those too.


Soon after we arrived there was a kind of dance performance, that was so bad I just couldn't stop laughing. But everyone else seemed to think it was pretty good - maybe I'm just too cynical.


The other live performances were equally lame, but very amusing, so it was all good. And I managed to stay out all night without ending up asleep on the floor of a club! At age 27, that is quite an achievement. Well done me!

Baby Sumo

I saw this while I was in Hiroshima, and it was so freakin cute I just had to blog it. I’m not really sure what it is, but it happened on the Children’s Day public holiday.

From what I could gather, it seems that a pair of babies are put into the ring by their parents, and the Shinto official waves his fan to start the bout. It seemed to me that whichever baby cried the first or the loudest was the winner.

Hiroshima

After saying my heartfelt goodbyes to my parents, I headed down to spend some time in Hiroshima with fellow Shirakawa ALTs Liz and Phil. (Timmay didn’t make it because he had to work for a change hahahahahahahahahahahaha. And Andy didn’t because he hates us – who could blame him, not only are incredibly annoying, we’re also far better looking than he is).

Hiroshima isn’t quite the depressing place that I thought it would be. It’s very green (for a Japanese city, anyway) and it’s on the water. The sun was shining and the birds were singing, so it was all good.

The depressing part came later. For now, enjoy some beautiful photos of Liz and I taking a turn in the garden. And Liz eating meat on a stick. Mmmmm. Meat. On a stick.

Hiroshima – the depressing part

The A-bomb dome is well known as the symbol of the devastation of Hiroshima. One of the most amazing things about it for me was that there’s so much of it standing. It’s only when you see the photos that show that it was virtually the ONLY building still standing after the bomb was dropped that you realise the scale of the destruction.

There is also a famous church in Hiroshima which was built using the ashes and rubble left from the blast. While the building itself isn’t that amazing to look at, it has a weird kind of presence because you know that it was built literally from the ashes of the destruction of Hiroshima.

Probably the most disturbing part of my time in Hiroshima was the A-bomb museum. I visited during a national holiday and the place was packed with Japanese, with few foreigners in sight. As I walked through the graphic displays (including burned school uniforms, sections of mangled buildings and distressingly contorted body parts) I felt as if the Japanese in the room were staring at me, as if they were blaming me for the tragedy of Hiroshima. Although the museum supposedly creates a sense of hope for the future, I left feeling more worried than hopeful. The scale of the destruction wrought on Hiroshima was the result of what would these days be regarded as a “small” atomic weapon. It’s frightening to imagine what could happen if a larger weapon was used. And what the point of it’s use would be.