"It is alright to make mistakes, as long as you keep trying..."

Last weekend, I went to Gunma prefecture to visit Ben. Our plans for Saturday fell through due to bad weather, so we ended up visiting the Daruma Factory in nearby Takasaki city. We had a great time roaming around the gift shop, filled with hundreds of Daruma, every color and size imaginable (even rainbow!). We also got to paint our own Daruma dolls.

In a warehouse behind the gift shop, we sat at a work bench next to an older man, who demonstrated how to paint the face of a Daruma for us. I knew we'd never be able to match his agility and precision with a paint brush, but we tried our best! We used black paint and thin paint brushes to add features to the faces of our Darumas. Ben bought a green and gold Daruma to work with and I chose a purple and pink one.

When we were walking around the gift shop afterwards, we noticed a picture of President George W. Bush holding a big red Daruma. The man who had instructed us told us that he had customized the Daruma doll for Bush. We also saw a picture of Princess Diana painting the eye of a Daruma.

According to the explanation that came with our dolls:

"Paint in the Daruma's right eye, then set the tumbling doll somewhere in your home or office for all to see. And when you achieve some major objective - whether it be in sales or life - paint in the other eye as a symbol of your success, even in the face of frequent failures. The Daruma always comes up smiling."

But my favorite part of the explanation had to have been this:

"It is alright to make mistakes, as long as you keep trying. This lesson is illustrated by the Daruma doll, which always returns to the upright position when it is tipped over. In olden times, people tried to obtain this doll in the hope that they can rise again an eighth time even if they fall down seven times."

Freshly painted Darumas.

Just beginning to paint my Daruma.
Photo credit: Benjamin Woodard

The Daruma master!
Photo Credit: Benjamin Woodard

The painting area. First, a Daruma is dipped into white paint and then set aside to dry. Once it dries, it is painted a different color. Then comes the face!






The finished product!



Another Tuesday night with Kazumi-san

Every Tuesday night brings something new and exciting at my Japanese teacher's house. When I first started going there, about two years ago, we studied Japanese a lot more than we do now. Recently, we've been spending a good amount of our time together just chatting about things, like what's going on in the news, and showing each other our new hobbies. Last night was no different. Even though the outside of her house is still partially under reconstruction due to the earthquake, and things are scattered around inside, she has managed to make each one of our meetings just as special as before.
 

Rice topped with chicken, salmon, eggs, and vegetables.



Homemade banana bread. Delicious.:)

Dinner.

A 25-year-old bottle of umeshu that my Japanese teacher made, forgot about, and rediscovered after the big earthquake. Umeshu is a Japanese liqueur made from sugar, shochu (alcohol), and ume fruits.

"I Love Shiny."

This is called a "haori" coat. It is a light coat that is worn over a kimono to protect it from bad weather.





The Great Fly Invasion

On Monday night, I came home to find about 30 big black flies in the spare room of my apartment. About ten were stuck to the window and the others were flying around the room. I spent about two hours frantically swatting to death as many as I could, aerosal hairspray in one hand, old magazine in the other. The aerosal hairspray didn't work so well. And on top of that, a decent sized aftershock shook my apartment while I was trying to take care of the mess. I was desperate, tired, and grossed out.

I decided to see if a 7-11 or drug store near me might be open so that I could pick up some insecticide, or anything else that would help me battle the intruders. Luckily, the drug store was open. I found out from the Japanese boyfriend of my neighbor that fly is "hae" in Japanese. The lady at the drug store kindly guided me to the bug area. There were shelves of sprays, powders, and canned things that could be used to kill the flies in my apartment. I didn't know which was the best or the strongest.

So I bought one of everything that was pointed out to me, just to be safe.

I rushed back to my apartment and got to work. Face mask, check. Gloves, check. Fly killing spray, check. After just a few sprays, the flies surrendered and slowly began falling to the ground. I thought I had taken care of the problem for sure, but the next day, I found another four flies lurking in the room.

That was it. I moved every piece of garbage from my balcony (near the room where the flies were) into the storage shed outside of my apartment building, assuming that that was where the flies were coming from.

Problem solved! At least for now...

Guess Who?

http://shishido0.tripod.com/ishihara.html

It's okay, I didn't know who this was at first, either. But somehow, my trip to the dry cleaners last week ended up with me walking out the door carrying this picture.

This is Yujiro Ishihara. This picture was leaning against one the tables in the room at the dry cleaners across the street from my apartment. I asked my old man friend who works there to explain to me who was in the photo and why it was in the dry cleaners.



Hitachi Cleaners

Like usual, the old man started speaking to me in Japanese really quickly, probably explaining how he got the picture and who the man was. It was pretty difficult to understand him because his Japanese is a little different from what I'm used to and he uses 'Ibaraki-ben,' one of the less known dialects of Japan. But I managed to catch that he got the picture from a neighbors house after the big earthquake. After that, I caught the words for 'movie' and 'production,' I think. And he said something about how all Japanese people know who this guy is. I felt pretty special having learned about a Japanese figure that apparently most people here know about.

After our conversation, my friend handed me the picture. I explained to him that I really didn't need it. I had only asked about it out of curiousity, but he kept insisting that I take the picture. So finally I did.

I decided to do a little research on the guy after getting home. It turns out that he was a pretty big hit in the Japanese movie world in the 1950's and early 1960's. I read somewhere that he has been referred to as the Japanese version of Elvis Presley, although when I mentioned that to my supervisor at school today, she seemed to disagree. I also found out that Yujiro's older brother is the current governor of Tokyo.

But the best part of the whole thing was when I was walking up the stairs to my apartment after receiving the picture. The lady who lives below me had her door open and was talking to a friend right outside. They saw me walk by and I heard one of the ladies whisper to the other one, 'Oh! Ishihara Yujiro!'

Pumpkin Pies in May



My neighbor and I made pumpkin pies last weekend because I had a can of pumpkin that has been sitting in my kitchen since last year. We used cream instead of evaporated milk and made a graham cracker crust instead of using a pie shell. They were absolutely delicious.



We even topped one with marshmallows and cocoa powder, just for fun. I thought the marshmallows would melt into the pie but instead they stayed on top and got nice and toasty. Perfect!

Welcome to Spring in Ibaraki!

It feels good to be back at my apartment in Hitachi and getting settled once again. I feel lucky to have had so many days off since I returned to get over jet lag and enjoy what Spring has to offer in Japan. This year, May 2nd was the beginning of 'Golden Week' in Japan, one of the longest holidays for Japanese people. Most people travel during this time because they have 3 consecutive days off during the week, and if they take 'nenkyu' (paid leave) for 2 days, they can have an entire week off. I don't have any nenkyu left, so work began for me on Monday. 

I did 3 self-introductions in Oral Communication classes, which all went well. I showed the students pictures of my family, California Disneyland, mexican food, and a bunch of other California stuff. I got asked all the usual questions, like 'Can you eat natto?' [Natto is fermented soybeans, a popular food in Ibaraki] and 'Do you have a boyfriend?' And even a new one: 'Do you know Justin Bieber?'

But my favorite part was when, in one class, the teacher called on a girl to ask me a question when there were no more volunteers. The girl was obviously flustered, embarrassed, and didn't know what was going on. She quickly stood up and her face turned bright red. She looked at me and very seriously said: 'You look like Lady Gaga.' The rest of the class started laughing while the girl continued to stand, still unaware of what was going on. Those are the moments I'm going to miss about teaching in Japan.

An Ibaraki natto postcard.

April 30th, 2011 - Nemophila Harmony at Hitachi Seaside Park, Ibaraki.

 

Children's Day is celebrated in the first week of May in Japan. People hang these fish flags to symbolize good luck and well being. They also represent family. Black fish flags are for fathers, orange/red for mothers, blue/white for boys, and red/pink for girls.
source: http://www.cybertraveltips.com/asia/japan/Japanese-Tradition-Of-Fish-Flags.html