Ikebana

Before Korea I had an Ikebana class. It had been a while, actually since my Spring trip around Japan, since our last class. Anyway - here is the result!

Oh Japan...

I get comfortable here. Early on in my stay here I tried to forbid myself for asking the question 'why'. Quite frankly, most days that question could be asked 10 or 20 times. The problem is, that when you ask a Japanese person 'why' they seem to assume you think that the current situation is bad, so then they try to change it - when really all you want to know is 'why' without implying that it needs to change!

However, as I have forbidden the question, I float through most days without really acknowledging how crazy Japan can be! But today two events occurred which almost shocked me into asking 'why'.

Firstly, I was in the photocopying room this morning and a 9th grade boy was having his eyebrows forcibly drawn on by the school counsellor. Apparently there is a minimum thickness of eyebrow required here!

Secondly, the 8th grade boys are currently on the concrete sports field, shirtless in the 15 degree weather, practicing sumo. Seriously, Japanese kids must be made of rubber - there are practically no injuries despite all their crazy sports that they play on concrete.

The Results of Our Hard Work

Yesterday I went to collect Xav, Geoff and my hagi yaki masterpieces. When we left them about 3 weeks ago, they were not so attractive (Xav's is the one on the left), but it is amazing what difference some glaze makes!

Not sure if they would sell in any of the hagi yaki shops, but they certainly are great souvenirs. Actually I am sure I have presented my mum with many more hideous art creations than these ones though!

The New School Year Shuffle

I've been asked many times whether we have sakura (cherry blossoms) in Australia. When I say we do, and that they bloom in Sept/Oct people ask me if our school year starts at the same time. Apparently, the 'new life' the sakura represents is the same 'new life' of a school year! I suppose it explains why the school year doesn't start ater a long summer break.

However, the new school year has entailed a lot of changes. As I have already written about, my excellent and fabulous supervisor moved up, as did my 'chief' English teacher. But also, about half the teachers in most of my schools moved. When I arrived at the biggest school for the first time I wondered where everyone was! Seriously, I didn't recognise anyone's face! The other shock was how the schools have been rearranged. To begin with the teachers change desks, and then the rooms change. Last year the 9th graders were up on the 3rd floor, and now they are down, the closest to the staffroom (because they are the naughtiest grade!) Now, I have to attempt to learn new teachers' names (even though it will never happen, there are just far too many across all the schools I go to) and sort out my new supervisors! Also, I have to try and figure out the new school layouts, I got lost twice today already.

I hadn't realised how comfortable I was in the staffrooms, even though I didn't know anyone's names. It was quite easy to slip into the staffroom, unnoticed, and just hang out until it was time to leave. Though I complain about having nothing to do, it is quite a relaxing life here, and I was beginning to enjoy it. I only commented the other day how I was glad to finally have a 'schedule' of sorts. Now it feels that I have sort of to start again - getting the non-English speakers to feel comfortable when I am in the room is the first, and toughest challenge. It's amazing how people will run away, leave the room or look the other way when I am near them. At least my new desk neighbour is a little friendlier than the last one! Seriously, it took 7 months for that guy to LOOK at me!

Of course there are plenty of new students. However, the advantage of teaching at practically every school in Hagi means that there aren't really new faces - rather old faces in different places. The downside is that the new teachers want me to introduce myself to the new classes, but the 'new' students have already tried vegemite so I have to avoid repeat self introductions.

Horseback Archery

Today I went to Tsuwano with some friends from Hagi. It's a little town, in the next prefecture up, and it's really beautiful. It's 'famous' for having more koi than people in the town - and that certainly seemed the case. Every little pond, no matter how shallow, was populated by over sized carp and outside most shops/shrines were little bowls of baby koi!

Every year there is a horseback archery display (Yabusame). There are 3 targets, probably about 100m apart. The aim is that the riders go along, fast, and shoot at each target. The targets are wooden, and if broken by the arrows, are sold as souveneirs.

Some of the riders were really going fast, but there were a couple who barely seemed to be trotting! It was pretty exciting! There were a couple of riders who didn't hit any of the targets, but 2 managed to hit all 3 and got lots of cheers! Most of the riders were older men, but there was 1 woman, 1 foreigner and 1 High School student who also had a go. The costumes were pretty amazing. They obviously had to incorporate some safety features (chest protection etc) but looked beautiful and awkward to be wearing whilst doing any form of archery.

After the festival we went and explored some more of Tsuwano. We climbed up to a shrine (piddling number of steps compared to the mausoleum we climbed to in Kyoto), but the path was lined with orange tori (Japanese 'gates'), so it was a spectacular climb, and at the top the view was great too.

Tsuwano was crowded, because of the Yabusame, but I think that it is much like Hagi in that it is old and beautiful, and each day the town would be full of Japanese tour groups!

Bye Geoff!

It rained a lot in the last few days of Geoff's time in Hagi - which kind of made the bike he hired a bit useless! However, we still did some cool stuff. One night we went to a make your own okonomiyaki restaurant with Nicole.

We did try to get out and about - though Geoff looked like a bit of a doofus in his rain jacket!

Finally, it was time for him to leave, and it was finally sunny!

Tokyo Town

After Xav, Geoff and I did our temple tour in Kyoto we jumped on a Shinkansen up to Tokyo. It was an uneventful 2h 45m ride, and of course Geoff had a nap on the train. We arrived at Tokyo Station, and negotiated the subway to the hostel. Actually, once we came out of the subway the hostel was super easy to find, and incredibly close. Literally less than 100m from the subway exit. We stayed at another branch of K's House - the second branch for the trip. The one in Kyoto is a little roomier, but the Tokyo one is so convenient, and quite frankly, you can't really expect to get the same amount of space when rent prices are so much higher.

Our hostel was about 10 minutes from Senso-ji, so on our first afternoon we dawdled our way up there, taking a fair bit longer than 10 mins. Senso-ji is a pretty amazing temple, huge, and crazily commercialised. All the streets leading up to the temple are filled with souveneir stalls, and people shopping!

The next day, Friday, we met up with 2 older Japanese people, whom I found through the Tokyo Free Guide service, and they walked us around Ueno, and after we separated for lunch, Shibuya.

Ueno-koen was more sakura/hanami. Basically tarps and beer and sakura. Then on the edges of the park are museums, and various national institutions, and of course more temples/shrines. The weather was really nice - definitely tee shirt weather, so the tarps were filled with people staking their places for the weekend!

The boys and I had booked lunch at La Rochelle, Sakai's (Iron Chef) restaurant on the 32nd floor of the Shibuya Cross Tower. Whoa. Nelly. So we were totally underdressed, of course, aside from some American tourists at another table. I forgot that Iron Chef finished on Japanese TV almost 10 years ago, so to most Japanese people it is just a nice restaurant, but to us it was an EXPERIENCE!

All the food was phenomonal - as expected. Notable amongst the dishes were the cold appetiser (bonito tartare), the soup (scarily green, but delicious) and the dessert wagon. Yes, a waitress wheeled over a wagon full of cakes, puddings, ice cream and jelly. We elected for the 'tasting plate' - a slice or spoonful of practically everything! My favourite was the phenomonal chocolate brulee. After lunch we retired to the salon for tea - how civilised!

We caused some difficulties for the staff - the menu was written in French and Japanese, and the waiters were ok in dealing with the food in both those languages, but the introduction of English threw them a little! Actually, it was quite funny - they spoke to us in French/English, and their speech was punctuated by bows!

After lunch we met up with our 2 Tokyo guides, who led us on a short loop through Shibuya before they headed home.

We headed for Shinjuku, to ascend the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building - to the free 42nd floor Observation Deck. It was getting dark, and watching the lights over Tokyo was cool! Then we headed to Yodabashi, which Xav and I referred to as 'that camera store'. It really is 8 floors of electronics, many of which we haven't imagined in Australia! Afterwards Geoff and I ate dinner, and Xav did some night time wandering, then of course we hit the karaoke booth!

On our final day of the trip (Saturday) we went to Harajuku. I have been previously on a Sunday and experienced the madness, and while Saturday wasn't as crazy, it was still pretty great! We did some shopping - kiddyland (the ice cream of the future), tee shirts in transparent cans (UT shop) and bought some souveneirs for people who weren't lucky enough to join us on our trip. Then we had lunch - at a restauarant that seemed to have more English speaking waiters than Japanese speaking ones, and then ate a crepe. We were going to get 1 between 3, but then we saw them, and wanted one each! We enjoyed a lot of J fashion, just sitting outside the shops and watching people walk past us, while we attempted to take photos discreetly!

We went up to Roppongi that evening, supposedly a hip and happening entertainment area. Not really that fun, so we ate dinner and then eventually headed back to the hostel.

Next morning Xav went horrendously early to Narita Airport, and Geoff and I made our way to Haneda Airport at a much more reasonable hour, to be at my apartment in Hagi just after 5pm

The Golden Temple

I liked Kyoto – the karaoke was cheap, the food great, the sights impressive. We did have to use buses, rather than trains, to get around, and I always find that more difficult, but I handed that responsibility to Xav whom I christened ‘Mr Transport’. However, I still don’t know if I would want to spend much more time in Kyoto. I wouldn’t mind going back for a day, and a night, but not much longer. As Geoff said, it is a lot less accessible than Tokyo, or even Hiroshima, in terms of language. Also, it seemed that the night life was kind of limited to a smallish area (small in comparison to the size of the city, and its population).

We arrived, found our hostel to unload our luggage and then headed back to the train station. It’s the first train station I have seen listed in a guide book as worth seeing as a ‘sight’. It was definitely worth it, we probably spent a couple of hours riding the crazy escalators, hanging out in the sky garden, and wandering along the sky walk, before finding dinner in one of the food courts.

The next day we did the self guided walking tour, outlined in the Lonely Planet. We started the walk a few blocks before the LP start point, which resulted in us climbing 536 steps up to a Mausoleum. The old man at the entrance charged us 50 yen each, and because it was April 1st when we did this we later joked it was his April Fool’s joke on us!

Anyway, after that slight detour we followed the LP’s instructions, and hit the major sites of SE Kyoto – the temples were packed, and the gardens even more full of people enjoying ‘Ohanami’ – watching the sakura and eating and drinking, sitting on tarps underneath the trees! That night we went out for dinner and karaoke.

The following day we took on the bus system – and got excellent value out of our day pass. We went out to the Golden Temple, which was busy even at 9.15am, and to a textile centre to watch a kimono show, before doing some more cherry blossom spotting!

For our last night in Kyoto we slept in a temple, but of course went out for karaoke in downtown Kyoto before returning to the temple for bed. We took a tour of the temple the next morning, and it was filled with symbols of hidden Christianity, as it was built in the period when Christianity was banned in Japan. The tour guide – the vice-abbot – used to live in America, and had decent English. They have some seriously valuable artwork in the temple – and so in an attempt to conserve it the tours are only run in English.

Breaching the Defences of Himeji Castle

Himeji Castle is meant to be the best representative of Japanese Castles, and also supposedly resembles a white heron. So we decided to stop in Himeji, and view this castle, on our way to Kyoto from Hiroshima. The Lonely Planet recommends about 3 or 4 hours in Himeji, and that’s about as long as we spent.

It was a very easy walk, straight out of the station, up to the castle. We followed the crowds, and about half way down the road we could see the castle, so we knew we were heading in the right direction.

The castle itself is surrounded by 2 lots of gardens, and a moat (though in the olden days there were 3 moats!) So after coming through the first garden we paid our admission, and went into the inner gardens, before going into the castle (or as the boys said, breaching the castle’s defences).

All the sakura were out, and as you can imagine, there were tourists galore! As each floor in the castle gets progressively smaller we were lucky that the tour groups didn’t start coming in until after we left. Though, that may have had something to do with our early start that day, so we beat them!

The stairs inside the castle were so steep – I’m not sure defensive troops could have rushed up or down considering the armour they had to wear! Maybe that’s why there were little rooms on each level for soldiers to sit in, and pour boiling oil out the windows.

The first couple of floors had most of the artifacts from when the castle was in use, but as we climbed higher it was all about the view, which was pretty spectacular.

After reaching the top, we turned around and had to go down the stairs – which was harder than going up, given how steep they were. Then we had lunch, and watched some baseball before getting a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto.

One Day in Hiroshima

On Sunday morning we (Geoff, Xav, my ikebana friend Carla and I) met my ikebana teacher to go to Miyajima and Hiroshima. Kiyoko sensei (ikebana teacher) has a huge 6 seater car, although she lives on her own, so we all fit in, even with our luggage! The drive was fairly uneventful, I slept most of the way. However, it was raining, and continued to rain for the rest of the day, and into the evening.

We took the ferry over to Miyajima (1 of Japan’s top 3 views) – it was so windy, but worth staying outside to see the view across the shrine. Once we landed, the first thing I noticed were the deer – with their antlers shorn for safety. They just wander amongst people, looking for food really.

We walked through the shrine. Even in the horrible misty rain the bright orange still stood out! We even managed to watch a bride and groom having some photos taken in traditional Shinto wedding costumes. On the other side we went up into a hall, where some kids were playing taiko and singing and dancing, in honour of the girls festival (which I thought was only a one day event in March, so clearly I was wrong).

After the performance, and lunch, we headed back to the mainland on the ferry – this time sitting inside, and drove the 40 minutes or so to Hiroshima. Once there we had to find a car park, near the peace park. The car parks in Hiroshima are funny – they lock your car into place until you have paid, but to get into them it sounds as though you are about to break something underneath the car, which is just a little disconcerting.

It was still rainy so we spent some time in the Peace Museum, before a brief wander through the park, and down the shopping arcade. Then we went to the station, and met one of Kiyoko’s friends for okonomiyaki before getting in a taxi to go to our hostel.

The boys are (back) in town!

Xav and Geoff arrived in Hagi smelly! They had been travelling for a while, so they were desperate to get changed! Once they had done that we went to have lunch, and go for a walking tour around the inner part of Hagi – the arcade, various residences/birthplaces/cemeteries for the Hagi luminaries of old.

Of course, along the way, we attracted a fair amount of attention. After all, 2 new foreigners are noticeable in a city where there are normally 12 foreigners. This meant that the kids stopped and stared, or gave us lollies, or wanted to take photos of us! The boys loved it, and I had to explain that it can get tiresome – especially when they tell you they saw you buying noodles and onions at the supermarket and want to know what you cooked!

I introduced the boys to Purikura (sticker photos), and we even did some with some students from one of my schools.

For dinner we had Korean BBQ (yakiniku) – totally appropriate for their first proper meal in Japan!

On Saturday we went to a Hagi Yaki (Hagi pottery) studio, watched a video which showed some handy techniques with the clay, and then we sat down for about an hour. The end results weren’t so attractive! Xav’s milk jug had kind of an awkward face around the spout, and Geoff called his mug Prince Charlesesque – so big that it needed to big handles if you were to use it.

We ate lunch in the park around the castle ruins. Some of the sakura (cherry blossoms) were out, and Xav climbed a mountain (a small mountain!) so it was a pretty good day.

That night we went out with a couple of my friends for dinner, then karaoke, then dessert. Xav managed to find himself 2 potential Japanese girlfriends – a friend of mine, and another Japanese girl who I see around a little bit. Not sure which one he is going to choose though!

This is Xav with girlfriend Number 1!

A sad day

Today my supervisor told me that he is leaving the Board of Education - he is being transferred to another district to be a Principal. I mean, it's great for him, but not so good for the JETs.

Principals don't work so hard in Japan, the Vice Principals do most of the work! Also, at the BOE Tsucky works crazy hours (usually from 7am - 10 or 11pm) but at schools the latest he would have to stay is probably 7pm, or earlier. The Vice Principal stays the longest, then the teachers, and the Principal gets to go home pretty early, compared to everyone else that is!

Also, it means he has to move to that other area - he will get a small apartment and live there during the week, coming back to Hagi to see his family on the weekends. Understandably, his kids are a bit sad - actually over Tsucky's career he has spent a fair proportion living apart from them, or working so much that he never sees them. Finally he gets a job which would have him home for dinner at a reasonable hour and it is in a different city!

Our new Supervisor is an Elementary Teacher. She doesn't speak so much English, though she does try. I think that all of us at once (there are 6 of us assigned to this Board of Education) overwhelmed her earlier, and she couldn't keep up. It will be a real learning experience for us, having a supervisor who doesn't have fabulous English.

Also, my most important English Teacher (at my base school he is the guy who does everything for/with me) and a fabulous Office Lady from my base school who was helping me with my Japanese, are also going to new schools, which I won't visit. So though it's the end of the school year, and the kids are all super excited, the staff are less so as it means many changes, very quickly. Teachers get very little notice that they are being transferred, and are transferred on average every 3 years, and aren't allowed to tell people until about 5 days before they have to move! It's a crazy system...

So when I go back to my schools in about a week and a half I will most likely have new English teachers to work with, with no warning!

No longer stranded

Hanging out on Mishima was not the most fun I have had in Japan. All the teachers were really nice to me - they took me to the restaurant that is open for dinner, and the 2nd evening all the teachers had dinner at the Vice Principal's house. Actually, the worst part may have been that I didn't have enough clean clothes! Or that the Vice Principal had to lend me money, so I could pay for the extra 2 nights at the Inn.

During the day it was so boring. I feel so sorry for the teachers who live there. They have to do a 3 year rotation out there, but once they have done it, they get to choose where to go next. Usually the teachers just get shuffled around to different schools every few years, with no say in the matter, so for some teachers the Mishima rotation may be worth it.

Basically, there are 2 restaurants, and 1 shop. There are a lot of vending machines - cigarettes, beer and soft drink, and you can do karaoke at the ryokan (where I stay). That's it.

Stranded

Yesterday I came out to Mishima (my Island school) for the first time since October. The ferry is often cancelled in the winter, and the water is very wavy, so they don't like to send us then. However, Shak came out here 2 weeks ago and everything was fine, so I was looking forward to seeing the Mishima schools again.

Yesterday the water was so flat, the ride out here so smooth. Even over night in the Ryokan was good (and I don't really like that place). This morning it was raining, pretty hard really, and I even joked that I may want to stay another day, because the water looked so rough. But I really was just joking! Tomorrow is a National Holiday, and I had plans!

At about 1.30 a message came from the port that the ship was cancelled - the last ship of the day. Then even better news, as tomorrow is a holiday there will be no ferries all day. Great. Now I am stuck on Mishima until Friday morning. I had to get the school to pay for the next 2 nights at the Inn, and am a little worried about dinner/breakfast/lunch etc - there is no school tomorrow, so I can't even rely on school lunch!

So tomorrow night there is a dinner at the Vice Principal's house which I will go to... and other than that I will be bored. My ipod battery is almost flat and I have 1/3 of an unread book.

Ikebana Today

The sakura (cherry blossoms) are starting to bloom in Hagi, so today we used them in our ikebana class.

Bangladesh Jaunt

I've just returned from a 4 1/2 day trip to Dhaka, Bangladesh, where I went for a friend's wedding. Asif (a Bengali) lived with me in Australia in 2005, and I had been hanging out for the wedding ever since. 2 friends from Australia also came for the trip.

Some Basics about Bangla

Bangladesh is a small country, and only became a nation in 1971. The UN lists it as the most corrupt country in the world, and 80% of the citizens live on less than USD$2 per day. Asif's Dad (Asif being my friend, the Groom) is the District Commissioner of Dhaka. The DC is an unelected position, but is he is one of the highest ranking civil servants in the capital. As a result everything was streamlined, and made very easy for us: immigration, VIP visits to some of the sites and meals with various people. Rules and social norms were broken: foreigners in the airport and I was invited to participate in many parts of the event that are generally reserved for the men

Arriving in Bangladesh

Arriving at midday all I could see were clouds, or what I assumed to be clouds. However, it seems likely that it was really just pollution. In my time in Dhaka I did not see the sky once.

Driving from the airport to Asif's house was an adventure. In fact, every car trip was like driving dodgem' cars. Most roads have no marked lanes, but even where such markings exist they are meaningless. Cars, baby taxis, buses, bikes and rickshaws all jostle for space. The soundtrack is a cacophony of horns - from the deep bellows emanating from the buses and trucks, to the tinny little bells rung by the rickshaw drivers. To further complicate matters pedestrians cross the road wherever, and whenever the feel like.

First Impressions

On the drive from the airport to Asif's house there were 5 things that I kept noticing.

1. Pollution - which later led to headaches, and really sore eyes.
2. Power lines - many of which are illegally connected, tumble across the city.
3. Traffic - the theory in Dhaka seems to be "trust that the other vehicle will stop". To that end, we did only see 1 car crash in our time in Dhaka, and even that was minor, just resulting in a damaged door handle.
4. Staring - normally passengers have to leave the airport building to find their friends or family. This means that hundreds of Bengalis stand behind a long fence 30 metres from the airport doors, looking for their friends. This also meant that there were hundreds of Bengalis staring at me.
5. Poverty - it's very difficult to describe just how poor most people in Bangladesh are. Despite previously traveling in developing countries in South East Asia, I was still shocked. In Bangladesh there appear to be 2 social classes - the dirt poor or the super wealthy. Driving along the road that connects the airport to the city this division is obvious. There are beautifully manicured garden beds along the sides of the road, and these gardens are kept that way from coiled barbed wire preventing people from walking on them. This results in Bengalis walking bare foot, and sometimes shirtless, along what we would call a highway. When the cars stop, or slow, hordes of beggars and hawkers approach the car. It was quite confronting watching my Bengali friends not even notice these beggars, while I found it difficult to look up.

Luxury in Poverty

My friend lives in a mansion, across the street from the Prime Minister. The house was built by the British over 100 years ago. I'm not sure how many rooms were in the house - we were given a tour of the family's living area but I could see more rooms in behind. In the backyard there were at least 7 shacks for the servants to live, and more around the side for the security personnel.

At every meal we were watched over by servants, who would replace the food on our plate as we ate. There was generally 1 servant per 2 people sitting at the table. Also, when we wore traditional dress the servants would descend to help me put on the sari, and then follow me throughout the evening, fixing my clothes.

There were also several children on the property. It was disconcerting to see them running about in old, sometimes torn, clothing, surrounded by the luxury of the house. After a couple of days, using the phrasebook section of our Lonely Planet, we attempted a short conversation with these kids. Although they could tell us their names, they didn't know how old they were, presumably because they had never celebrated their birthdays. However, these kids were far better off than the children we saw begging in the street. Kids missing arms, or legs, would sit on the road, or walk among the cars, begging for a few taka.

Daily reminders that we weren’t immune from the poverty were the power outages. Each time the power went out it meant that there was no water, as electricity was required to pump it around the house. However, the area we stayed in was one of the least affected areas, as it is filled with the houses of high ranking Government Ministers.

Pre Wedding: The Holud

A Muslim Bengali wedding is composed of many parts. Prior to the actual marriage both the Bride and Groom have their own Holud. At each ceremony the betrothed takes a seat on a stage and is surrounded by food. While there are musical performances each guest at the Holud comes and sits with the Bride or Groom, paints their face with tumeric paste and feeds them.

One of Asif’s uncles explained to us that a Muslim wedding is supposed to be boring, for the Bride and Groom. Each ceremony we attended certainly lived up to that explanation. All the ceremonies seemed to consist of the Bride and Groom sitting on stages for hours at a time, and having their photo taken over and over again!

Once the Holud is complete the bride and groom must stay in their own houses until the groom comes to the bride’s house to be married.

The Wedding

The actual marriage was quite boring. We drove to the bride’s (Zafreen) house, and some segregation of the sexes was attempted. The boys I traveled with sat with the groom and his male relatives while I sat in Zafreen’s bedroom with all the female relatives. First her mother, and mother in law dressed her in mountains of gold jewelry (it took almost half an hour to put it all on), then they veiled her, and the Imam came in with 1 of her uncles, and 2 of Asif’s uncles. The bride had to utter “I’m willing” in the presence of these men, and then sign a contract. At that moment she and Asif were married – and Asif had done nothing! The Imam and the uncles then went to Asif to tell him the good news. Some prayers were sung, and Asif signed the contract.

At this stage the segregation came to a halt, and we all ate dates to celebrate. However, the bride and groom still weren’t allowed to see each other.

We went back to Asif’s house to prepare for the wedding dinner (not the reception though, this was only Thursday and the reception was not until Sunday). I was brought a fancier sari to wear, and an Aunt took me shopping for jewelry. At the Holud I was the most underdressed woman, wearing very western jewelry with my sari, so an Aunt took me to buy some serious bling.

The Wedding Dinner

At 6pm 2 costumed horses (from the Presidential Guard) arrived with their costumed handlers. Once dressed, the groom and his brother mounted the horses and were veiled with garlands of jasmine and roses. We then paraded to the dining hall. A 22 piece military band led the way, followed by the horses and a long convoy of cars. At every intersection police were controlling the traffic to allow us to pass.

At the hall Asif had to pay the bride’s family so we could go in. About $400 was paid, but even then tradition demanded that we physically push the Groom inside.

Still Asif and Zafreen were not allowed to see each other. There were 2 halls, set up identically. There were tables and chairs as far as the eye could see, and a VIP table was set up near the stage. The groom sat in 1 hall, on a chair, on the stage, and the bride did the same in the 2^nd hall. For about 2 hours photographs were taken of all the guests with the bride and groom.

At this stage she is meant to continue to look miserable, but the groom is allowed to look smug – he has stolen her from her father!

Once all the individual photos had been taken we all went downstairs. The men, the mothers, the bride and the foreigners ate dinner. Behind us the female guests poured drinks, and in front of us the waiters kept piling food onto our plates.

Finally, it was time for Zafreen and Asif to sit next to one another. She continued to look miserable, though it was clearly a struggle as she was actually happy to get married as this marriage was a ‘love match’ rather than an arranged marriage.

Hours of photo taking ensued, then finally it was time to leave. The procession returned to the groom’s house, and the bride was carried part of the way there in a Bengali version of a sedan chair.

We arrive at the house, and Zafreen stepped into a tray of vermilion dye and onto white cloth leading into the house. This is an old Hindu custom, meant to symbolize the prosperity a new wife brings into the house.

We followed the couple into their bedroom (by we I mean about 50 family members). Then we all took it in turns to sit with them and congratulate them. While we were with them the power went out and the bride had to remove her jewelry by the light of a mobile phone!

Some Sightseeing

Obviously, the reason we went to Bangladesh was for the wedding. However, we still managed to do a little sightseeing, and some shopping.

Much of Dhaka is newly built (though it looks like it will all fall down if you blow too hard). It has been ransacked of many of its treasures over time. Also Bangladesh itself is a very new country. As a result, there is practically no tourist infrastructure, and outside of the airport I saw 1 other foreigner the whole time!

We took a convoy of cars to the Liberation Memorial, Lalbagh Fort and a language memorial. The long drives also gave us a chance to see something of what life is like for regular Bengalis – the markets, the tea stands, the slums. Both the Memorial and the Fort were truly beautiful monuments, set amongst lush greenery.

To visit or not to visit

If it hadn’t been for the wedding, I probably wouldn’t have gone to Bangladesh. Going in as a regular tourist/traveler would not be for the faint of heart. To begin with, the visas are a nightmare to get, Bangladesh is not readily accessible (it took me 30 hours to travel there, because of the waiting times between flights), and once you are there Dhaka seems impenetrable. The Bangladesh Lonely Planet is the only guidebook available, but it does make a self directed trip seem possible.

My whole trip was full of amazing moments. Virtually every second something happened to make me look twice. While the wedding wasn’t exactly what Bollywood movies had led me to believe, it was really spectacular, and I feel very lucky to have experienced it.

The School Year is Coming to an End!

The school year in Japan ends on March 26 and the next one starts on April 7. This coming Saturday, whilst I am in Bangladesh, the 9th graders will be graduating, all across Hagi.

Today was the last time I will visit Sanmi JHS until the next school year, so we had a 'games' class with the 9th graders.

They are a great class - pretty good English, and generally quite keen. I have had a lot of fun with them over the last 7 months. I think a big part of why we have fun is that it is a small class - only 14 students - so no one can tune out, because I may pick on them next!

The end of the class was quite embarrassing - I had to write on all their graduation message cards, and give them encouraging farewell messages! Then the students gave me a big card which they had made - mostly full of grammatically correct messages! How gratifying for an English teacher!

I am sore all over

Yesterday I ran a 5km 'fun run' over mountains...

There are some famous caves near Hagi - Akiyoshi do - and yesterday there was a Marathon Festival. I was not going to run 21.25km (technically it's only a half marathon festival) but was up for the 5km challenge. I even went to the gym beforehand to train. However, I made a fatal error. At the gym, which costs $1.50 per visit, there are 4 treadmills, with all the instructions in Japanese. I have figured out how to press go, and that's about it. Unfortunately I don't know how to set it to 'incline' so I had been practicing running on a flat surface and yesterday was anything but flat - 90% of the time we were running up or down a mountain. Obviously running uphill is hard, but running downhill is just as hard!

I did manage to finish, though I certainly didn't cover myself in glory!

Respect...

The activity in the 8th grade class was to make a dialogue, based on one from the book.

The dialogue from the book:
Clerk: May I help you?
Judy: Yes please, I'm looking for a sweater
C: What kind of sweater are you looking for?
J: Something green
C: How about this one?
J: I like it, but it's too small
C: Shall I show you a bigger one?
J: Yes please. Oh! This is nice. How much is it?
C: It's 5000 yen
J: Ok, I'll take it.

The English teacher made up one as an example:
Board of Education Supervisor: May I help you?
Teacher: Yes, I'm looking for a JET
BOE: What kind of JET are you looking for?
T: A cheerful one
BOE: How about Kate?
T: I like it, but is there a quieter one?
BOE: No

Ikebana - the withered parts

So usually at Ikebana we just play with pretty flowers and it's lots of fun. Kiyoko-san doesn't speak English, but we gesture and get by. She owns an electronic dictionary that can speak - so when we are desperate we turn to that!

Today she wanted to teach us the 'father' and 'mother' parts of the peach blossom flower. The mother part is the flowers, while the father part is the withered old growth... charming!