Bunkasai!

A teenage boy arm wrestling a cow while Minnie Mouse in fishnets dances on the side? Is it the latest Japanese variety show? Nope, it's the Yoshida High School Bunkasai!

The Bunkasai, or Culture Festival, is THE event of the year for Japanese high schools, on the same level as Homecoming for American high schools. The students spend months preparing - planning theme rooms, ordering food, making decorations, practicing dances and designing costumes. And for two and a half days, the entire school turns into a carnival/talent/art show, open to the public to come and enjoy. The kids pour their souls into it, and all the creativity that gets stifled the rest of the year comes bursting out all at once. It is a TON of fun too, by far the best day I have had as school while I've been in Japan.

Of course I took oodles of photos! I will put some of my favorites here, and the rest are up online -- WARNING - there are a lot of photos of students smiling and giving the peace sign, so if that drives you bonkers, then you may want to pass :)

Click HERE to see the rest of the photos online!

The preparation.

These are some of my general course third year students. Their "booth" was a carnival style series of games that stretched for 3 classrooms.

Me with some of my 3rd year English course girls, a cow, and a French Maid.

One thing that became abundantly clear to me is how difficult it can be to get candid photos of Japanese students! My theory is that Japanese teens have a sort of disease which causes them to explode if their photo is taken. Apparently there are three ways to counteract this unfortunate side effect 1) Forcing several friends to join in the photo (safety in numbers) 2) Give the peace sign, and 3) Hide behind your hair.

For every good photo, I also had to delete one crappy one. Sigh.

I tried to be sneaky, but usually the students were faster than me. But sometimes it resulted in some really cute shots, like this one:


Of course there are exceptions to the camera-shy disease, thankfully:

Lorrayne (pronounced Ro-hai-ne), one of my best third year English course students. She is half Brazilian and half Japanese, surfer girl, star student, and definitely NOT camera shy.

I don't know this girl, but I think this picture is absolutely darling!

I think he was dressed as a cow because his class was selling hamburgers and ice cream.

This is 33HR, one of my absolute favorite groups in the school. They did a very difficult traditional Japanese dance, which they practiced for almost 4 months before the festival. It was worth it too, because the dance was AWESOME. After the final performance, they were all in tears, two had heat exhaustion and one ended up with a sprained knee. All part of the experience I guess!

The Bunksai was also an interesting peek into the world of Japanese school regulations. a guessing game - look at the next two pictures:

Picture A - Pot Leaf T-Shirts

Picture B - Middle School Uniforms

Guess which students got in trouble for their clothes. Picture B - the middle school uniforms! I know, what? That's typical Japan though - first of all, nobody here really knows what marijuana is, or they don't know what the leaf looks like. Every other person has a pot-leaf air freshener in their car, but they don't know what it is. The teacher for the class with the big pot-leaves on their shirts thought it was a maple leaf, as did most of the students. I know that teacher pretty well, and when I told her what it really was, she was shocked. She had no idea!

And the other girls got busted because they wore school uniforms with the skirts rolled up too short. Outright defiance in the eyes of even the least strict Japanese teachers - they were NOT happy about this at all.

Another funny thing was that even on festival day, the students could not wear make-up, paint their nails, or have hair-dos that were too crazy. They had to have on their uniforms during the morning and afternoon ceremonies, and were only allowed to don their festival shirts *after* the official start each day. Yet, at one point, the girl dressed as Minnie Mouse, while MCing the Opening Ceremony, removed her poofy skirt and shirt and was wearing ONLY fishnets, high heels and a lingerie style top that ended two inches below her waist, essentially dressed just like a prostitute, and nobody blinked an eye. I suspect it was alright because she was not breaking any pre-established rules - nobody told her it was not ok to be half naked in front of the whole school.

Lisa and Miho, two of my favorite 3rd year English course students.

I swear I don't know these foreigners.San-nensei soccer boys.

Giant calligraphy demo

This is what my school looks like, by the way:

And this is the view from the 5th floor, with Koyama Castle up on the hill:

For the Love of Rice

Rice is a beautiful food, and a beautiful crop. Who would have thought? I noticed it when I first arrived, when the rice plants were at their peak and ready to be harvested. The endless fields of light brown and bright green blowing in the breeze stands out in my mind as one of the loveliest sights of the Japanese summer.

And now it is time to plant the rice, creating scenery that is equally beautiful, but in a completely different way. I took these pictures tonight while walking through the fields behind my neighborhood.

Rice planting is done during the rainy season, when the fields are flooded and the ground is soft. When the wind dies down the reflection of the clouds and houses is quite a sight, but in my area the wind rarely goes away, and the flooded fields usually look more like rippled lakes. In the mornings on the way to school I pass farmers slogging through the fields with their boots or their tractors, preparing the muddy soil for the planting. My favorite sight though, is the crows wading through the fields searching for food, gingerly pulling their feet from the mud with every step. I think the crows must resent the rice planting time, when their grocery stores get flooded.

Rice Sprouts

The rice is sprouted in green houses, then put into the ground once it is a few inches high. The farmers here have these incredible machines that plant the rice, but I haven't been able to get a picture of them yet. After all the sprouts are planted by machine, the farmers go in and removed the failed plants by hand, inserting new healthy sprouts in their place.

Rice waiting to be planted.

Growing up in the US, rice was something that came in a box and was eaten about once a month. We had to read the directions on the package every time we made it, carefully measuring out the rice, water and butter, before setting the timer for 20 minutes. The rice that resulted from those boxes was nothing like the stuff we got from the Chinese takeout places, which had a mysterious way of sticking together. Our home cooked rice wasn't sticky at all, but instead it was slightly slippery and had to be eaten with a spoon. My favorite way to eat rice was with butter, soy sauce, salt and pepper. The thought of eating plain white rice, with no sauce of any sort, was really gross to me. Why would anyone eat something so bland all by itself?

When I tell my Asian friends about our American rice habits, they laugh like crazy.


My first exposure to the way Asian people cook rice was through my college roommate Lucia. Lucia was Korean-American, and she taught me how to properly wash rice and how to use a rice cooker. Lucia thought it was really weird that my family got rice out of a box, and ate it with butter. When Lucia made rice, I remember being amazed at the fact that she didn't have to measure anything. I thought this was because the rice cooker was just really "smart," and adjusted the time and temperature enough to account for inaccuracies in amounts, but now I know that when you make rice enough times, you instinctually know exactly how much water is needed.

My rice cooker, full of newly make おかゆ - okayu (rice porridge).

Sea of rice

Now, I make rice for myself almost everyday. I don't need to measure anything, and it turns out perfect every time. I can even do it without a rice cooker. My rice turns out sticky just like the restaurants, and given the proper tools I can even make rice that is sticky enough to be eating with the fingers, Southeast Asian style. I also know how to make fried rice, which I used to think was the exclusive domain of Chinese people. I can make rice porridge, mochi rice, and any number of rice based dishes. It is only now that I realize just how valuable and versatile a food rice can be, if only you know what to do with it.

White and brown rice, bought by the kilo, are now the cornerstone of my diet.

Recently, I learned how to make proper sushi rice. Before coming to Japan, I though the rice used in sushi was just the same as the rice served in the bowl, but it's not. The preparation of REAL proper sushi rice is such an art form that sushi chefs-in-training spend a full year doing nothing but making the rice in the back of the restaurant. My sushi rice doesn't come close to theirs of course, but it does the job.

The tools of sushi rice - a はんぎり - hangiri (wooden tub), rice paddles, sushi vinegar, and a fan.

Living in Asia has also entirely transformed the way I treat rice as a food source. No longer is it the thing I eat once a month when Mom makes Broccoli Beef. These days, I eat rice every day, often with every meal. At first, when I was living in Korea and realized how often I found myself eating rice, I thought it was strange. I actually made an effort to not eat rice so often, because it felt like a cop-out in some strange way. But then it struck me - my aversion to eating rice everyday was a product of my Western upbringing, where rice is regarded as something bland and boring that should not be eaten all that often. It's funny now when I think about that, because rice is THE staple food for millions of people on this planet, people who eat it every day with every meal, as their ancestors have done for centuries. It is what bread is to Europeans. (And the lack of decent bread where I live is enough to drive anyone to learn to love rice!)


In the traditional way of eating in Japan, food is not technically considered a meal unless it includes rice. (Unless it is a noodle dish, then it is ok to forego the rice.) In fact, the general word for "meal" in Japanese - gohan - is the same word used for cooked white rice. If a man goes to the pub after work, he will have a full meal's worth of food and alcohol, but when he goes home and his wife asks, "Have you eaten dinner?" he will say no. He has not eaten dinner because he has not had rice.

The kanji used for uncooked rice - 米 (pronounced kome) - coincidentally, is also the kanji used for the USA. I have no idea why!

No longer do I think of rice as bland and boring. A full bowl of hot white rice, eaten completely plain, is absolutely delicious. The trick, what we didn't know back in the US when I was a kid, is starting with good quality rice. The stuff I was eating back then was the rice-equivalent to cheap white bread.

I think the crows got him :(

These pictures made me realize that I often fail to appreciate the beauty of where I am living right now. It may not be the sort of place that draws tourists from abroad, or even tourists from Japan for that matter, but this place really is quite beautiful. I only need to take the time to look.

Onamae wa?

Today in my conversation class, we did a speaking exercise about introducing yourself to others, so I decided to include a little mini-lesson on "short names" in the English speaking world -- ie. Robert can become Rob, Bob, Robbie or Bobby. I gave tons of examples, and then got into the interesting stuff - the tidbits that are usually *not* in the Culture Window section of the textbook, but can only be learned through a native speaker. The more I thought about it, the more I realized just how much culture is tied up in short names. Here is what I taught my students, which is really only the tip of the iceberg:

- The Teachers Challenge - how teachers in the US will usually find out on the first day of class what each student actually goes by, and have to mark up their role sheet until they can remember.

-The issue of WHO decides what name a person will go by: parents in the beginning, then the person chooses for themselves later in life.

- How people tend to go by the longer name as they grow older. For example, Billy is more common for younger boys, but Bill is more common for adults. But I also explained how the family and close friends that have known that person since childhood often can't adjust to the new "adult name," and continue to use the short name. (My brother has preferred to be Daniel for the past 10 years or so, but to me, he will ALWAYS be Danny.)

- How some parents will NOT chose certain names for their babies simply because they don't like the possible short names that go with it - Charles and Chuck for example.

- And of course, using my own name as an example, I told them how some people spent their whole lives saying, "No, please don't call me Nikki!" or whatever.

They were fascinated by it! Even my JTE, who has studied English most of her life, found it really interesting and said she had never learned a lot of it before. The kids were asking some great questions too, like "Do parents ever just name their kid the short name instead?" and "Are there any names that do not have a short name?" (If you have ever taught Japanese kids, you can appreciate what a RARE thing it is for students to actually ask curiosity-driven questions in class.) In Japanese, they don't usually use short names, which was why I decided to do a lesson on it, but I had no idea they would be so interested.

Anyway, it was fun, and so I thought I would write a blog about Japanese names. I'm no expert on this stuff, just a foreigner living here for a bit pulling together the bits and pieces of what I have learned on my own. But I'll do my best!

First of all, Japanese people have a family name and a given name. No middle names. The family name is always said first, opposite of English. So for example, Suzuki Toshio. And outside of family and very close friends, people almost always call each other by their family names.

English classes led by an ALT are an exception, because we try to integrate as much culture as possible. The students are used to this fortunately, and they know they should use their given name with me, even though they use their family name with all other teachers. It sometimes causes confusion when I am discussing students with the Japanese teachers. They will refer to them by their family name, out of habit, but I often only remember the given names, and have no idea who they are talking about. And funny enough, out of about 100 students, I only have ONE student who insists on using his family name in English class. (Which also happens to be the same name as the school itself - Yoshida.) I'm not sure why he does though, and I have never asked him. But the rest of the kids seem to like the chance to be called by their given names in class.

In addition, when speaking about or to another person, an honorific title is *almost* always attached to the name. The most common is -san, as in Suzuki-san. But they also use -sama, -kun, and -chan, depending on the level of formality. Teachers get the honorific - sensei attached to their names, and I believe there is a separate honorific for doctors and lawyers. So at school, I am called Nikoru-sensei by many of my students. However, many of them also are familiar with the Western way of using names, and they simply call me Nikoru, or Nicole if their pronunciation is good. I sometimes wonder if this is awkward for them in the beginning, given that in Japanese society you only drop the honorifics when talking to close friends and family. But come to think of it, it wasn't hard for me to adjust to using the honorifics, and now to call my fellow teachers by only their name, without -sensei attached, would feel extremely wrong.

And sometimes, even cartoon characters get honorific titles. Hello Kitty is called "kitty-chan" and Winnie the Pooh is "Pooh-chan."

However, you can never attach an honorific title to your own name. To do so would come across as trying to elevate yourself above others, and in Japanese it is all about remaining humble. Respect for others, modesty for yourself, always. There are actually a lot more rules in the Japanese language that revolve around honor and respect, but that would be a whole blog entry in itself!

Ok, back the the names! Most commonly, each of these two names (family and given) is made with two kanji (Chinese characters). Some names, however, have one or three kanji, and four or five in rare cases. Each individual kanji means something, usually associated with nature in some way. Here are some examples using names of people I know:

朝子 - Asako - Morning Child
茜 - Akane - Deep Red
原口 - Haraguchi - Meadow Entrance
川島 - Kawashima - River Island
松田 - Matsuda - Pine Field

So for example, if somebody had the name Kawashima Asako, it means River Island Morning Child. If you know any Japanese people, ask them what their name means!

However, depending on which kanji is used to write the name, the meaning changes. So some people might have the same name, but written differently and with different meaning. For example, Airi, which is a girl's given name, can be written like this 愛利, using the characters for Love and Jasmine, or 愛梨, using the characters for Love and Pear. Some kanji have a baffling number of different pronunciations, and most of the syllables also can be written with many different kanji. What this means is that Japanese people don't necessarily know how to pronounce another person's name if they read it on paper, because they don't know which reading of the kanji the person uses. Or, if they hear the name spoken, they might now know how to write it, because they don't know which kanji the person uses to for each syllable! Confusing? But it is not so bad in reality, because most people go with the common spellings and pronunciations, so the majority of names are familiar ones.

As a foreigner, it is fun to figure out what your Japanese name is. I'll see if I can explain how that works without getting too deep into the technicalities of the Japanese language. . .

Here is how two teachers at my school went about figuring out my Japanese name: First, they started with the syllables. My name, broken into syllables and adjusted for Japanese pronunciation, is Nikoru. So three syllables - ni, ko, ru. Then, they made a short list of the different kanji that *could* be used for each of those syllables - I think they came up with 2 or 3 of the most common ones, but had they consulted a dictionary, it is likely they would have ended up with 10-15 possible kanji to match each syllable. Next, they wrote down each kanji and it's meaning for me, and had me pick which combination I liked best, based on the meaning and the appearance. The combination I chose was this: 仁子流 . Loosely translated, it means Kindness Girl Flow. (Hopefully I am getting it right - I lost the paper I originally wrote it down on and had to figure it out using the online dictionary and my computers kanji/romaji translator.)

Of course, for a Japanese person to see those three kanji used as a name would be really strange, since they aren't actually ever used together. So foreigners here usually spell their names in Katakana, which is the alphabet used for words of foreign origin. My name in katakana is ニコル, and that is what I use for all official documents。 And that is much easier to write than 仁子流 , so I am happy.

And, after writing this, I (foolishly?) took a look at the Wikipedia entry for Japanese names, and as usual realized that it is actually MUCH MORE COMPLEX!!! So if you really want to dig into it, check it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_name (beware, it is really detailed!)

Also an interesting site the tells the various meanings:
http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/jap.php