The month of Fire Festivals!
Trip Start
Jun 27, 2009
1
20
47
Trip End
Jun 25, 2011
Nachikatsuura, Kushimoto, Shingu,
Japan
Monday, February 5, 2007
01 all suited up and ready to go
. Next was to lead your partner around while they wore a blindfold, and last was to learn how to use a wheelchair. Why is this important? Besides the obvious reasons (the kids learn to respect the elderly and doing this gave them a better understanding of what life would be like under these different circumstances), Japan's aging population is growing rapidly. This gives the students an opportunity to learn to deal with the elderly. In 2005, the population of Japanese elderly citizens (65 years and over) was 26.82 million, constituting 21% of the total population! (record highs in both number and percentage terms) The speed of aging of Japan's population is much faster than in advanced Western European countries or the U.S.A. The percentage of younger people in Japan has been decreasing since 1982, and instead of new schools being constructed, day facilities for elderly people are being built. There is one almost finished right across the street from my apartment. Yet another reason this activity was important for the students is that in Japan (a "group" oriented culture) it is very common for your grandparents to live in the same house as you- I actually don't know where an assisted living facility is in my town.
Another fact: The average life expectancy in Japan climbed after World War II, and is the highest of any other country in the world. In 2005, life expectancy at birth was 85.49 years for women and 78.53 years for men. The U.S. (women: 80.4 years, men 74.8 years) is 5th on the list following: Switzerland, France and Sweden.
The Japanese government has apparently failed to address the problem of it's declining population
02 trying to turn on the stove to make tea is hard
. I read an article on-line that says, "Japan's demographic crisis raises three major issues, -- the pension system, immigration, and women -- all of which are undermining the world's second largest economy. The part of the article I found most interesting was about immigration: the Japanese are a very homogeneous society and are very wary of foreigners, especially of other Asians. Immigration would play a key role in replacing the shrinking workforce. A UN report recently forecast that to maintain the size of its working population, "Japan would need 17 million new immigrants by 2050," which "would represent 18 percent of the Japanese population" compared to today's one percent. ONE PERCENT OF FOREIGNERS! crazy! I could go on, but I realize this isn't at ALL interesting if you aren't living here to care about it. Next!
Lots of JET's made the trip "down South" for the annual Kushimoto Fire Festival. 'Shionomisaki' is the part of Kushimoto that is famous for being the 'most southern tip of the island of Honshu.' The festival was held on Saturday and consisted of Taiko drumming, dancing, making mochi (Japanese rice cake), and culminated in Miss Kushimoto (a girl from our taiko group!) lighting the fire that was then transferred to the arrows of the Shingu Kyudo group
03 so is picking up money!
! They stood in their white robes, with fire balls on the end of their arrows, and shot clear across the large field one by one. The fire spread slowly across the field as hundreds of people began to make their way down to get up close. There were even people who's job was to drag a ball of fire on a stick through the field to spread the fire, making it even larger! Don't worry, Japan isn't lacking completely in safety skills, there were firemen standing by if things got out of hand. We walked around, tried to keep the smoke out of our eyes, jumped in and out of the fire while we watched it spread. The festival was over before we knew it, and the fire was slowly dying. All the JET's (about 15-20 of us I think) headed to a local restaurant for dinner afterwards which was fun-nice to spend time with Northerners who we don't get to see as much. On our way back from Chris's Birthday Party up north, we stopped at the famous Shirahama Fish Market, apparently the biggest fish market in the Kansai region. It was full of Japanese tourists (on a brief stop off their group tours on huge air buses)! We walked around looking at all the different types of fish, HUGE crabs from Russia, fish from Korea, Alaska, and Tuna from Wakayama!! We watched a fisherman cut up this huge tuna and auction off the various pieces of it. If you purchased anything you take it to a little stand, where they package it in Styrofoam and ship it directly to your house
04 walking with a cane
. The Japanese LOVE delivery services. Lily and I are still going to tea ceremony lessons: we have now started to practice with a high schooler named Maki-Chan. She actually studied in Australia for a year, so she speaks English which is a refreshing surprise in our part of the prefecture :) I enjoy going to tea ceremony for 3 reasons:
#1: Lily and I are constantly making big mistakes during practice, and just being clumsy Americans, which is always a source of great entertainment (our teacher thinks so too)
#2: We get to try our teachers delicious sweets (specially made just for tea ceremonies, she orders them from this huge catalog).
#2: Our tea ceremony teacher always tells us about the current Japanese holiday, festival, season. I really enjoy learning about the cultural things and traditions that are still so alive in this country. She told us that February 3rd marked the end of winter and the beginning of spring. This change in season (any season not just winter-spring) is called "Setsubon." Spring Setsubon is a sort of New Year's Eve, and is accompanied by a special ritual to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come. This special ritual is called "mamemaki" which literally means 'bean scattering.' She told us that people stand at the doorways of their homes with a heated soybean, and shout "Oni wa soto!" which means "Demons, out! Luck, in!" After practice ended Lily and I went to the super center and bought our own beans, and devil masks to have our own Setsubon at our apartment
05 the blind leading the blind...
. We had fun throwing the beans into the mountain outside our apartment, and are hoping to attract some wild boars!! hahaThis entry is kind of boring, and I'm tired of writing, so the last few pictures I uploaded are of the festival we went to tonight in Shingu called the "Otou Matsuri." Men wait at the top of this mountain until 8:00pm when they light torches on fire and race down to the bottom. Most men we saw at the end looked so ragged, dirty, bloody and just plain exhausted from running, fighting, and drinking. It was fun to do something like this during the week, and we even got to see a big fight! One guy cold clocked another guy in the face, and then kicked him while he was down...before swinging his fire torch in the other guys face! Crazy Japanese festivals..
This weekend I'm off to HOKKAIDO!! The JET's in Hokkaido organize a package for other JET's to attend the famous annual Snow Festival!! I'm excited to go to see Sapporo, visit the Kirin Beer Garden, and go skiing!
Last thing I'll leave you with are some funny quotes/things from school:
-"Katherine-sensei, where is your rice?"
"I don't eat rice everyday like you do
06 learning how to use a wheel chair
. I eat bread.""EHHHHH???"
-"Katherine sensei, does everyone in America have yellow hair?"-3rd grade boy
-"AH! Your eyes are so green and scary! You look like a snake!" -4th grade girl
-"Do you have McDonald's in America?"-the Vice Principal of one of my schools
-one school uses corona and vodka bottles as flower vases!! haha that would never fly in America
-another school there was a huge sledgehammer on the playground, i don't know why, but the kids were playing with it at recess. it was hard for me to not go into teacher mode and tell them to stop because it was dangerous!
-one boy thought the Great Wall of China was in the mountains in my town (even though I had just said I been to CHINA)
-every morning now at most schools, the entire student body + teachers forms into preassigned small groups (1st-6th graders in each group) outside and jump ropes (double dutch style!) for 20 minutes before school starts. they are REALLY good at it! they couldn't believe it when I told them we don't teach jump roping in America.
