Where do the hours go? So I find myself again at the start of another week, having no clue where the past 7 days have gone. What did I get up to this weekend you ask? Loads! Aren’t weekends for relaxing?? Not that I’m complaining. Hung out with Mari on Saturday and went to see the new (here in Japan at least) Tom Cruise movie Collateral. Sadly disappointing. It’s one of those movies that tried to be all deep and philosophical but fails miserably. I don’t mind depressing movies, if they’re good.
Despite warning from Phil to not run around like a chicken with my head cut off, that’s what I did on Sunday. I went to watch my taiko group perform at the town cultural festival. It was great and taiko is soo much fun! The other woman (Inoue….didn’t catch her first name), who started at the same time as me is phenomenal! She makes me look sooo bad! I hadn’t memorized the song in time for the performance so I was on video duty! There is a wedding in 2 weeks that will be my debut! Should be good fun.
Taiko!
Birthday Boy Tom looking wayyy too happy with his ramen-setto!
We spent the afternoon at a Halloween party for elementary students at a local orphanage. A BIG otsukaresama deshita to Nathalie, for all of her hard work organizing the party. I think that the kids really had a fun time! It’s always fun to go to the orphanage and the kids are always great!
Adoption is not nearly as popular here in Japan as it is back home. There’s quite a big social stigma against adopted children. As a result many families are reluctant to adopt children, especially in the rural areas. Adults are too concerned for the child’s’ welfare and ability to fit into Japanese society, and thus don’t see adoption as an option. It all relates to ‘in groups’ and ‘out groups’, a crucial part of Japanese culture. Older children or children of mixed race are particularly ‘undesirable.’ It’s not that people think these children are bad, but more an overwhelming belief that life would be more difficult for them if there were adopted. Though from a few conversations I’ve had, if a family adopts a child at a very young age and moves towns, adoption is an option. It’s difficult to see so many great kids knowing that many of them will grow up without a family. Still, that aside, it’s always fun to visit the orphanage and I think that the ALTs get a lot out of it too!
After catching the train back from Matsuyama and picking up Okuno, I had my welcome party at taiko. It turned into an informal English lesson with everyone practicing and asking me questions. I also learnt some silly Japanese in exchange! But, by far the best line of the night was as follows…..
There is a father/son pair in the taiko group. The son had had his fair share of beer and was dozing off in the corner when the conversation topic changed. We were talking about which countries everyone had visited and the father mentioned that his honeymoon was in Australia. That prompted the following comment:
Father: “There’s my son! Made in Australia. Born in Japan.”
Son: Wishing that he’d stayed home to play video games with his friends……
If people could die of embarrassment I would have called an ambulance!
emma found her way @ 7:15 p.m.
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