School Performance

Clara's school had a show / open day on the 26th January. All the classes had to sing a number of songs, play musical instruments, and do a few dances. It was nice to see Clara going through the motions and good to see her interacting with her classmates. I always worry whether Clara will be fully accepted by the other children as she is half Scottish. Japan still seems to be light years behind other countries in the acceptance of foreigners and I have heard a few horror stories regarding the integration of children without 100% Japanese ethnicity. All seemed well.

After the show, we were invited to watch her teacher (Sakurai sensei) perform a lesson. The theme was bullying - a hot topic in Japan over the last year due to a number of headline grabbing suicides involving school kids. The pupils seemed to be genuinely interested and took their teacher seriously. Clara was lucky to get a good teacher this year. Hopefully her luck will hold out for next year.

Following class, the parents were then ushered back into the gymnasium to receive a lecture from a professor who apparently specialises in childcare. I politely tried to maintain the appearance of being awake which was not difficult as the gymnasium was freezing. Hypothermia was the only realistic alternative to the profs antics.

We returned to Clara's classroom to collect her and her friend Kiri. Clara's hands were like little blocks of ice. The whole school was freezing and I was a bit concerned to be honest. From my experiences in Japanese schools, heaters are used only at certain times and in specific months. Because the open day was on a Saturday, I suspect that heater use was prohibited. It would not matter if there was a mini Ice Age in July, the kids would have to make do without any additional heat source. This moronic rule following used to really annoy me. The most pleasing aspect of our visit to Higashi Hagiyama Elementary School was that the students paid me very little attention. I was worried that the presence of a foreigner would be a major event, but it turned out not to be the case. The kids seemed totally unfazed to my presence and this bodes well for Japan becoming a more racially tolerant society in future.

Hon Kawagoe

Today is a national holiday in Japan called Coming of Age Day. All young people who turn 20 years old during the year celebrate on this day. Turning 20 years old is regarded as the start of adulthood in Japan. Because we had time to kill, we all took the train to the end of the line to a station called Hon Kawagoe. Near the station, there are some temples and other old buildings. It seems to be a fairly popular tourist destination and the temple was busy with people who were apparently still performing their New Year rituals.

There were lots of stalls selling traditional snacks and trinkets. The picture at the top shows daruma - traditional Japanese dolls which are used for making wishes. As can be seen from the picture, each daruma has no eyes. When you make a wish you colour the right eye black. If your wish subsequently comes true later in the year, you then colour the left eye black. If you look at the picture of the daruma in the fire on my New Year blog, it appears that whatever wish was made did not come true in 2007 as the left eye was still uncoloured.

The next picture shows lucky cats or maneki neko. Cats which hold up their right hand are supposed to attract money while cats holding up the left hand are supposed to attract customers. We also visited Toki-no-Kane, a famous belltower which is about 400 years old. I took some photos of the area but because blogger does not seem to accept pictures in portrait, I have had to steal an image from the internet. I am also still unable to include links in my postings....arghh!!

Baked Beans

Ok, I admit that this might not be the most exciting posting in the world, but I feel compelled to write about this major and life changing event.

Yesterday, we went shopping to a supermarket called Tsurukamelando (つるかめらんど). It turns out that this supermarket is affiliated in some way to Tesco Supermarket in the UK. We have visited previously and I was happy enough to be able to buy digestive biscuits and a couple of even more mundane items. However, I always wished that they stocked baked beans. Baked beans are perhaps one of the things I miss most from the UK.

As you can see, my wish has come true. We picked up a few cans and will be visiting again soon for another consignment. Last night was like a scene from the film 'Blazing Saddles'.

Happy New Year - 2008

New Year passed relatively well and we continued to eat, drink, and be merry. I 'saw the bells in' in our apartment in Tokyo and then headed to my local bar (Bo Jangles) to continue the celebrations. The craic was good and all the customers were in party mood. I was left alone in the bar at around 2am when all the customers headed to the local shrine to pay their respects. I turned down their invitation to join them and relaxed in the empty bar drinking my beer. I staggered home at about 3.30am and tried to mentally prepare myself to be woken up at 9.30am so we could all join Yuki's parents for a special New Years brunch.

Everyone filed to the family shrine (in a spare room) to light incense and pay their respects to the family ancestors. I thought that it was a nice way to include those who have passed away in our thoughts during this special occasion. I suppose religion does have its benefits after all.... The photo is an example of a typical family shrine, although perhaps on the large side.

Once we all returned downstairs, we all sat at the large kotatsu table and had a short toast in Japanese and English. The Japanese family members all tucked into an expensive array of assorted seafood whilst I experienced the delight of a good old ham salad. I have never liked seafood so I was quite happy with what I was given. Sometimes I feel a bit of a liability at family dinner times as an extra dish usually needs to be prepared for myself. I have come to the conclusion that I will never come to like seafood - a big shame in Japan.

The early afternoon on New Years Day passed quietly and then I met up with an old Japanese friend to continue the celebrations. We headed to Yasaka Shrine, near my apartment, and I was able to watch the natives perform their rituals. We queued for about 30 minutes and then made a small cash donation, rang the temple bell, and clapped our hands twice to ostensibly pray. I was wondering whether the people who made the effort to visit the shrine actually had some religious beliefs or were there because it is 'the thing to do' at New Year.

Outside the shrine, there was a small bonfire that seemed to be burning the old fittings from 2007. I guess it's a kind of 'out with the old and in with the new' scenario. If anyone can enlighten me further, it would be appreciated.

Once we left the shrine, we found the only bar that was open and continued to enjoy ourselves.

So now it is 2008 and the year promises to hold many challenges. Hopefully I'll be able to regain some blogging momentum and produce a few more stories from my time in Japan. Happy 2008!!