Shakan Shakan

Wow, I'm really sorry I haven't written lately. I'm trying to think of someone to blame but can't, it is just that I haven't really been doing all that much lately.

Recently, what have I done? I've been to Karaoke twice, both times I sung anime songs, all the English songs I know aren't there because the songs that I like are not normal songs. When I sing in English though everyone thinks I'm cool. XD

Apart from that, and buying three new DS games. Death Note, Vampire Knight and Tales of Hearts which cost me like $70 even though they were all second hand. (It's Vampire Knight's fault being $40.)

I watch lots of TV drama's, I like Hana Yori Dango, Vampire Boy, Kids War and am currently watching Otomen. Unfortunately it is a scary episode, it is about a somewhat girly boy who hides his girliness behind his awesome Kendo skills. This episode is based on Ju-on, the Japanese version of the Grudge. You know how I hate scary things...

Anyways, that aside. This post is supposed to be about Shakan Shakan. Now, for those that haven't picked up on it, Shakan Shakan is the name of the odd little country dance that I've been practicing for. It is pretty simple, 8 people, four poles, two lines of four people.

The person with the pole is followed by someone without one. Everyone walks forward at the pace of about a wedding march, each beat marked by a ringing of the metal hoops inside the pole. A designated person says 'Mairimashou, mairimashou' which marks the beginning of the change of the pole between two people. The person behind walks forward and swivels and the person with the pole throws it to them and then we get back into routine.

The person holds the pole at the bottom with their right hand and always has their left arm swaying back and forth. The person without the pole has both arms outstretched, swaying back and forth in different directions. That's basically it. At least, that's the female version, the males follow behind and do it as well but their poles are different and heavier.

The Shakan Shakan is performed every year by a different town, this year was Nishizato machi, where I am living. The mother, father and younger sister are partcipating as well. Shakan Shakan is done along with other traditional dances to pay homage to the Water Gods and to ask for blessings for the year to come or something like that.

The 16th, being a Sunday and at least 30 degrees, we walked to the place we always meet which is just a minute away. There we got all dressed up in our horribly heavy traditional gear. From there we walked 10 minutes to the buses. Before getting on the buses, we all prayed at a little shrine.

>Insert Money

>Bow Twice

>Clap Twice

>Bow Once

I didn't know that until they told me. The bus ride was uncomfortable, it was short but I had a bow like thing at the back and thus couldn't sit comfortably. Not to mention that Japanese buses are great with space reduction. Once all the normal seats are filled, there are seats at the side which fold out into the aisle. I don't know if we have that in Oz, but I hadn't seen it before.

It would have had to be more than 40 degrees in the ridiculous costume. I hate humidity. Oh, and how hilarious. Before we did our dance for a crowd of about 30/40 people, the boss man introduced me to a scary guy wearing an orange shirt who had a news camera with him. He asked if he could talk to me afterwards and 'okay' came squeaking out my terrified mouth. I would be fine if it was English but Japanese TV peoples use Keigo. Keigo and I don't get along. Keigo is the fancy formal way of speaking which sucks to understand when I only speak normal Japanese. I tried to figure out what to say and then gave up, telling myself to say whatever comes and see what happens. We then performed for the first time, waited for the Taiko (The Drum performance) to finish. We had lunch of Onigiri's (Japanese Rice Balls) and an assortment of chicken, octopus and other things that I don't remember. I have a bad memory.

Then I talked to the scary camera man. I tried to answer the questions as best I could but there were people watching and the questions were hard. One of them was 'how I felt the first time I saw a Japanese festival and why?' That question is hard to answer in English let alone Japanese. So, I didn't like the Sun Sun Terebi Interview. Afterwards, someone else dragged me over to a lady with a microphone and talked to me from Isahaya Radio. I liked her much better, she spoke normally. It isn't really a big deal, it is only local TV and radio. I don't even know if I will get on either but it was still an interesting experience.

After that interlude we performed again. The second time around there were a lot more people that hadn't seen me before and were calling out while we danced. Kind of weird, it was friendly stuff like, do your best, but still...weird. Then as we finished and were crossing to put our stuff away someone grabbed the fan I had hanging from my waist which jerked me back. I stared, nodded once and ran away. I think they wanted my attention, I was kind of embarrassed by the whole thing.

It was around 2.30 by the time we returned. Once we returned I was dismayed to learn that we had to perform it twice more and this time without the shade of the trees. Once we performed in some random person's front yeard who turned out to be the teacher or founder or some important person. The second time was for family and friends but someone had the ridiculous idea of not just doing it in front of them but instead from all the way down the street and up a sloped hill. WTF?

Not to mention Gaijin Death traps, the really deep drains running either side of the road. One of the guys poles actually fell in. Finally, we finished with great relief and I got changed out of my costume being sweaty and tired. After getting changed I lounged inside for a while and then watched the drumming and the kids perform their dances until we finished.

Everyone returned inside and we were fed and watered. The kids had curry, I was with the adults in a different room. Hordes of beer were passed around. I stole most of the chocolate from the plate of nuts, and discovered that Japanese people have a thing for pouring other people drinks. I asked about it after and Akane's mum said that it was a way to say, 'Thanks, good job' to pour/top up other people's drinks. I was drinking Ocha (Tea) which looked nearly identical to beer so I had to refuse a surplus amount of times that I was 17, couldn't drink alcohol, didn't want to drink alcohol, etc.

One person did make me laugh. He offered to top up my Ocha with beer, Akane's mum came to the rescue saying that I couldn't because I was a student. Then he was like, 'Well, then she should definitely drink some!' That made me LoL.

Everyone progressively became more drunk, the guys get louder and the women just laugh a lot more. Drunk men are funny and slightly scary. One guy came over, lifted his glass and was like 'Yeah!' and I was like, 'Yeah...' and he did it again, so I did it again and then again. He was weird. Then, for some reason, they start trying to speak English to me even though my Japanese is better than their English. Drunk people are odd people.

We got home at like 8.30 or something. That was a weird day but, it is all over now. Yay. School starts soon and I move soon. Not to mention I feel loved lately having received a letter from both Katherine and Ross this month and yesterday a chocolate care package from Nanny. Thank you sooo much! I'm going to write to everyone by the end of the month so, expect letters next month. ^^

Last night, we went out for unagi which is eel. Everything on the menu was really expensive, I just had a bite of Akane's unagi as I wasn't game to order a whole eel dish for myself not knowing whether or not I'd like it. I had a karage/tonkatsu combination both of which are chicken. ^^ Chicken is safe. So, that's life right now. And now, for your amusement. An ad which I find myself liking. The guy in it is from SMAP, which is like the most famous Japanese boy band. Enjoy, again it is youtube. Soz. CLICK ME!

That is all for today, I'll post more once life gets back into the swing of things and I am back at school.

<3

Ashley-chan.

P.s: Lolz at the costume, right?

Huis Ten Bosch

Dammit. My foot has gone numb. Gah!

So, the weekend took me to somewhere I hadn't been before. About an hour and a half out of Nagasaki on a Saturday morning took us to Sasebo where the one of the other 4 Kyuushuu exchange students had been living. It looked fairly similar as we drove past and I spent most of the time staring out the window and thinking about the purpose of human existence and life and I don't know, I was bored. I got my first glimpse of the U.S Naval base in Sasebo. It was huge and it seemed deserted, I got to see a few of the ships and my overactive imagination was all suspicious of massively large warehouses labelled, No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4. I just thought that was weird, there were English signs saying Unauthorized entry is strictly prohibited and yet I didn't see a single Gaijin walking around. Being a U.S Naval base I would have assumed that Americans worked there.

Anyway, we arrived at our hotel, Hotel Lorelei at around 11.00 ish. From there, we made the walk over to Huis Ten Bosch which was only like 10 minutes away from where we were staying. The sky wasn't as happy as I wanted it to be but the weather itself wasn't too bad. At least it wasn't raining. The building out the front was pretty huge and it had two clocks attached, one was just a normal clock but the one on the left only had one hand and around the clockface instead of numbers it had letters. That confused me a little bit.

We made our way in and were happy to find that it wasn't as crowded as we first expected. We had an extensive walk around looking at the Dutch bridges and windmills and things. It was a very quaint little atmosphere. They had cheese and bread shops and so on, I've discovered that I quite like Gouda cheese despite protesting it the whole time I worked in IGA because all the fancy cheeses smelt/looked funny. For those that don't know, Huis Ten Bosch is kind of like a theme park but with no rides, it is renowned for its flowers, it is a Holland themed place with windmills and boats and things.

I think the first thing we did is have a little look inside the shops where I was thrilled to find that, totally randomly, they had Pirates of the Caribbean merchandise. Lolz. Naturally, I bought some. I bought a ring with some pirate style keys on it and an accessory which resembles the coin and beaded chain that Cpt. Jack Sparrow wears from his bandana. Either way, I attached that to the keys as well which I can wear off my pants and look all cool. I wish I bought more. I always don't buy much and figure I'll come back later but I never come back. Then again, if I bought heaps I'd always just spend way too much money and end up with a bunch of crap.

After that we went inside a mirror maze which wasn't too hard and then into a pretty cool place that specialized in optical illusions in pictures. We even saw one that had been featured on TV which was quite impressive. It is three streets and as you walk back and forth you can see the neighbourhoods from different angles. It is quite amazing, there were some other interesting ones too.

After that...I did the most hilarious thing. I posed for a portrait, she said it took 10 minutes but it was more like 20. I didn't actually plan to do it, I was admiring the one she had of Willy Wonka and was thinking about buying it but the mother mistook this interest and thus I ended up doing it. How hilarious. It turned out pretty good I thought. Either way, it is hilarious. It cost 1500 yen and I tried paying but the mother insisted so I paid her back by paying for icecream for Akane, Non-chan and I. It was Dippin' Dots which I'd only had once before. Naturally I got the chocolate mint, Akane got the Banana mix which is Banana, Chocolate and Vanilla and Non-chan got the Rainbow. From there, we saw a recreation of a flood, tempest thing with water. I thought it was like a 3D theater but apparently I was mistaken. They had the voices in Japanese but there was a plug in for headphones if you wanted to listen to it in English, Chinese or Korean. I tried listening in English but only one headphone worked and it was super loud. I think the video was originally in English but I ended up watching it in Japanese because it was easier.

It was about the spirit of an angsty little girl in a statue getting annoyed and consequently causing a storm around the house. There were 3D models of the houses on a stage in front of us and from the roof, rain and hoardes of water came rushing down. It was kind of like, huh? But still amusing.

Then we had lunch in a somewhat small place with mediocre food and a tiny menu. I had curry rice but it wasn't great. Then Non and I went in the Haunted House that had opened that day. It wasn't too scary but you know how everything seems scarier at the time. It was all mechanical, things lurching forward as we made our way down the thin corridors. The scariest was when we were trying to turn a 90 degree right corner but there was something sitting in the apex of the corner which meant we had to go past it. The scary part was that we didn't know whether or not it would leap out and get us. I thought it might be a person but when we finally made our way past, it did nothing. Half way through the scary things, a lady gave us 3D glasses and from there on it was just scary 3D pictures on the wall that weren't all that scary.

Once we were out in the dispelling sunlight, we went on a boat ride around the place before doing a little more shopping and then we went back to the hotel. Rolled around for a little while before going down for dinner. I think I had a Japanese hamburger which means, just the meat, as I wasn't very hungry. Then I had another ofuro incident. I am getting used to Japanese bathing now, I have seen more naked people in Japan then I have in Australia. It sucks doing it in Japan too as asides from the elderly, not a single woman has an ounce of fat on her which just makes me feel all self-conscious. The onsen is nice though...It seems I am destined to see every family that hosts me naked.

I left my little piece of leather in the hotel room this time. No one tried to steal my towel, I think it was the most normal onsen experience I have had so far. We went back to our rooms then, Akane and I were in one room and Non and Akiko were in the other. Later on, we returned to Huis Ten Bosch for the fireworks, the whole place seemed creepily deserted. Turns out everyone was gathered and waiting for the fireworks and we were just in the wrong place. The fireworks themself were nice but the amount was ridiculously small. It was like 10 in total but considering they do fireworks every night, I can understand.

We returned to the hotel and I went to sleep after watching an Arashi special, I like Arashi, they are a boy band. Boy bands are still way popular over here, even SMAP who in their 40's are still profitting from their fame through commercials and TV shows. I went to sleep around 12.30 I think.

I woke up at 3-ish because the room was too light so I closed the curtains and went back to sleep. We then were awoken by a phone call from the other room at around 9o'clock, telling us to get up as we were going to have breakfast. Breakfast was バイキング, Baikingu which freaked me out for a second when I thought we were going Bicycle riding until the explained that it meant self-serve. I had bread, some nuggets and some pasta and potato salad which is different to Australia's but it is still pretty decent.

After breakfast and lounging around for another hour, we checked out at 10.30 and headed to an aqaurium. It took forever to get there due to the bumper-bumper waiting for parking. Then, when we were inside we didn't even really look around. We just headed straight for the dolphins and then sat there for like an hour waiting for the show to start. There were three dolphins in the pool, San-chan and Yon-chan who were your normal, streamlined, handsome dolphins and then there was Hana-chan who was slightly more ugly. She didn't really look like a dolphin, more like an odd looking whale but regadless. Once the show started they had them perform some tricks and jumps, I got splashed a few times and had some annoying kids in front of me who were standing right in front of the tank so I couldn't see.

Once we had seen the show, again, we rushed out of there to beat the crowds and I drunk some Ramune which I now like. ^_^ We returned to the Hotel for the purpose of devouring some renowned Sasebo burgers which were included in the Hotel fee. They were pretty huge but they were おいしい　だよ。 They were delicious. On it was lettuce, cheese, meat patty, egg, bacon and tomato which of course I took off and gave to Akane. They were like the Japanese version of Big Chief Burgers.

Around 3.30, we made the return trip home. We weren't really hungry so we didn't eat much for dinner, but we did have some watermelon.

The next day I spent as I have been spending days lately, sleeping in, waking up, eating breakfast, reading/writing/listening to music/watching Mighty Boosh/ eating lunch, play on the computer, watch TV all of the usual boredom busters. Then, from 6 o'clock onwards, Akane and I went to Isahaya station to meet An-chan. We were going to Omura festival.

It wasn't as crowded as Isahaya but that is probably because the streets were wider. There were lots of pretty lanterns, all of the stalls are practically food, I had fairy floss and 白いたいやき (White Taiyaki) which I had wanted to try. Actually I just wanted to try the normal Taiyaki, taiyaki being a fish shaped mochi casing with various things inside. The traditional one is Anko which I don't really like so I was going to have chocolate but they were really tiny, literally bite-size so we went looking for another stall and came upon White Taiyaki which is similar but the outside is much more mochi-style, ((like chewwy rice paste)) on the inside we had custard. It was soooo good. I wish I bought some to bring home. Now I want to try the normal ones as well.

I also bumped into Yui's dad who was doing the flag waving (I mean a big flag, not one of the little ones) for a dance group. We chatted briefly, he asked me who I was here with and I told him がんばって (Do your best.) because that's what everyone does. Out of the Kamito family, the Dad and I got along really well, along with the Grandpa. They were my favourite. >_< I also met An-chan's dad who was working at the festival, he gave me a fan. It was just one of those plastic ones but it is the first I've gotten. He knew my name and said "Pleased to meet you" in English.

On that topic, it was Gaijin night at Omura. I saw two Gaijin which we saw at Isahaya festival as well, one was speaking Japanese. In total, asides from myself, I saw a total of 8 other Gaijin. WTF? In Omura? Seriously. Usually we nodded to each other in some form of greeting, it is just kind of uniform when seeing someone from another part of the world in this odd little town in Nagasaki. It was nice though, when we nodded to each other all I could think was "Gaijin Unite."
I have no idea why.

I also tried my hand at Kingyou Tsukue which is the stall where you use a thin paper to scoop up fish. I went to the cheaper stall which meant I didn't really do it the proper way. It is harder than it looks, I got one and then when I was changing hands to get better access to the fishies, my scoop slid off the end of the handle and fell in. So, that was the end of my turn which made me a little sad. But the man was nice and gave me two more so I went home with three little gold fish.

Akane told me they had a gold fish in the Genkan, the place where you put your shoes, and I was like, "No way! I've never seen it!" and then when we got home and checked, turned out it had died ages ago. Lolz. We got a ride back to Isahaya station with An-chan's mother, and they played High School Musical songs in the car which I embarassignly sung along too, something I would only do in Japan.

We got home around 10.30 p.m and showered and then I stayed up for a little while watching TV before going to my room and finishing reading my current book. It wasn't great. Memoirs of a Geisha was really good, I'd love to see the movie again now that I've read it. The guy, I thought, was a really good writer. His simile's were really well used and generated vivid images. I dunno, I just liked him. The phone is ringing. ZOMG. My bloody foot is numb again, it is from always sitting on the bloody floor. >_< Angst. I had cup ramen for lunch. It was one off an add with an aforementioned SMAP member, the one I know the best. The dude from Mr. Brain. I can't remember his name though.

And now, I am here. Tomorrow, I think we are going to rent some DVD's which I am excited about. For some reason I want to watch Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I think I'll get POTC: COTBP because Akane hasn't seen it and I think she should. Everyone should see Curse of the Black Pearl at the very least.

I'm going to stop writing now. >_<

<3

Ashley-chan.