August 21-25 (Wed-Sun) - Floating Lanterns! or, I caught the moon

Wednesday: Murata business class in the morning. Unfortunately I had to give them a rather difficult, unfair test, and I had to tell them to do homework. As a student (always) these are good, but as a teacher, I didn’t like this discouraging mood. And I was still sick. But then I had them tell me about their holidays, and that was good, they’re a really nice group of people, so the lesson was good.

That night I had class with Miki. I was barely making it, I was sorry I had to be sick AGAIN for her class but she’s always fun to talk to. I always feel better after classes with Miki.

Thursday: Yanagi Nursery School, earlier than usual, because afterwards Yuka picked me up and we went to Itou Elementary for a demo lesson. For whatever reason, the teacher assumed I was giving the demo lesson — even though he always plans the lessons, as it’s supposed to be, since I’m a ‘language assistant’ — but thankfully we were there an hour before and this gave us ample time to come up with a plan. (Thanks to Yuka.) So in the end it went well.

That evening I had Miwa private class. Before we began, Mrs Miwa invited me to sit and eat treats and chat with her and her sister, who was visiting from L.A. That was fun, I wish I’d had more time to chat with them.

Friday: I’m sure I did something today besides going to the grocery store, which I only know thanks to my iPhone. Oh, I made thai curry with Japanese ginger:

That night Kaori didn’t feel like dance, and my feet were happy to take another break, so instead we went to a cafe and talked for quite a while.

Saturday: Kids class was fine. Afternoon classes normal (meaning tiring then fun). 

That evening I went alone to Fukui to one of Miki’s CD release gigs. It was late and smoky and I had to like talk to people and stuff, but I’m glad I went. It was pretty interesting, the atmosphere at this place was much more fun. Basically all the bands support each other, so it’s more like a party, and people were pretty funny (even if I couldn’t understand everything they said). Their gig went well, and I bought one of her CDs.

Sunday: Zumba and yoga in the morning. I’d missed 2 weeks! So I was tired but it felt really good. We had a feast for lunch, went to get ice cream, studied Japanese, then when the evening was approaching we had to decide if we wanted to go see the lantern festival at Eiheiji I’d learned about when I was at the temple. We decided to go (mostly because I really wanted to), and enjoyed a long, scenic route there. 

As we approached the temple, however, we realized something was wrong — it wasn’t crowded. Oops. The festival wasn’t at the temple, but way down in town. ‘Eiheiji’ is the name of the town, but it’s also the temple. Confusing. 

We had to park and take a shuttle bus (no charge), which worked out fine. The festival area was crowded, of course, but we got french fries, yakitori, and nikuman (meat buns), 

got some pictures of this dragon,

 then spread plastic bags on the damp grass and sat to wait. People paid about $10 to write their wishes and make lanterns, then they lined up to release the lanterns into the river. This is of course an Obon or Beltane-like tradition for the dead. It was late in starting, but once it did, it was quite beautiful. 

Only, people weren’t content to stay where they were, and walked to the front, blocking the view for all us people who got good spots on the grass. Some people. So I managed to get a few decent pictures, but actually some good video, see it here. (the only way I could find to mute the audio was to add music.)

Worried about how crowded it might be leaving, we departed before they were even close to finished. I was sad to leave, but at that point we really couldn’t see anyway. We had no trouble getting home and it wasn’t too late, so this was good. I’m glad I got to go to a festival with my friends, even if we weren’t prepared and it was crowded, and I’m really glad I got to see the floating lanterns. 

Afterwards, feeling affable toward my camera, I went out with my tripod and found out I CAN capture the moon.

Recent Japanese:

sunadokei = hourglass (lit. sand clock)

sumire = violet (flower)

hoikuen = nursery school

kiyasume (kusuri) = placebo

yoridori = picking and choosing (like buy 3 for 300, of your selection... I think.)

myouga = Japanese ginger

kuchibeni = lipstick

~beki = have to; ikubeki = I have to go

~ni totte = for, according to; watashi ni totte, choco no hou ga ii = for me, chocolate is best

sasageru = to devote

yaritogeru = to finish, accomplish

kagirareru = limited

chouchin = paper lantern

hokutoshichisei = big dipper (big dipper 7 stars)