Am I a bad person?

So let me point out is is crazy hot right now. Merely shifting one's gaze from left to right breaks a sweat.

I just got back to work after a brief break and sitting in a hot car. Then I let a student trick me into eating a cola tablet (you're supposed to put it in water, and it carbonates into a drink) As I was complaingin about how terrible the flavour was, Yui-chan shot me in the face with a water gun. Interesting. She had crossed the student-teacher barrier, and stood there laughing proudly. Hmm.

So the girls have their water guns and water balloons all prepped for some afternoon fun to cool down in this rediculous weather, and of course I'm going to join in. Yui is the target of my wrath, as she did shoot me point blank in the temple shortly after the long shot in the face. She takes a balloon to the back, which gets me cheers. I have crossed the teacher -student barrier and stand there proudly.

Then a game of balloon careful catch. Water is nice on a hot day... It is only after the fact that I question if I should have been playing water games with a group of 17 year old girls in white gym shirts...

Maybe there is something to Michael Jackson's "Naive Idiot" deffence after all.

Taiko revisited

So thought a couple more shots of taiko were in order. Really wish I had more of actual taiko playing, but portrait stuff interests me these days. Here be me and Kyle, who's far too funny of a person. Say somethin bad 'bout Kyle I'm gonna have to kick yer ass.



Uriu-san lives far and comes out for the festival every year. Dude makes me piss myself. Low stamina but a lot of power... I figure there's some sort of gaming comparison but I don't know about gaming so I can't give it. Anyway, hangin with him makes me feel more like a gangster, though once he smiles you know there's nothing gangster about him. If he stays quiet with his glasses on and arms folded, he looks like my body guard though.



And who can't resist kids pulling a float? Not that they really do any work, the slackers, but they get points for cuteness. Why is everything in Japan cute? No idea, but I've been told by someone close to me recently that she no longer wants to correct my Japanese. Not because it's tedious or anything like that... but because my errors are so small they make my Japanese sound cute. Not sure how i feel about this. If Akira gets in a tustle at some Izakaya, the last thing we want is to be rolling our "r"s in Yakuza talk while making cute mistakes.

So another year in Japan, and another Kokura Gion Daiko wrapped up with caloused hands, ripped quad muscles, a kilo or so lost in sweat, and a batch of reble photos of yours true decked out in the Nippon style of the times evening glasses.

Yes, had to change from the orange ones worn last year for a couple reasons. One is that they are scratched to eyebrow headache causing belief from being dropped on asphalt a few too many times, and the more important reason that these silver "can still see your eyes" glasses are the new style of evening wear for the hep cat in Japan.

Even with my 不良 image, however, I couldn't resist Mika-chan's request to wear my specs for a photo. Inn'she cute as the world sitting in my hand? And could one ask for better lighting than the natural perfection of a Japanese evening sun? I think not.


After sundown however, let the new children of the night play, and play. And play they will, banging their drums in primal stylistic brilliance. We have here yours sweet and true, Akira Sundance, with my fellow rebel taiko player Eguchi-san. There are a couple of us that play a different (and let me say far more wickedly interesting to watch) form of taiko from our group members. Takes some flak during competition time, as uniformity is important, but come the free for all playing of festivals, we get to flail our arms in Taoist water-like circles that strike drums without being known.

While watching Eguchi I noticed he does a quick double hit that adds this amazing extra half beat on the opening verse. I learn so much from this man that I only see for three days a year that I am in awe. Of course he's good. 17 years of playing will get ya there.


Thanks to those who came (and this is listed in order of when people came, not by preference): Manny from Sugar-D, Karin-chan (yes we are dating again to answer your question), Akiko and her husband (I'm sorry I can't remember your first name) Miyase-san, Steve, Adrianna, Toni, Yamada Sensei, and the plethora of my way too cute students who snapped away photos of the big sweaty foreigner that has mastered their drum, and their tongue. Take that as you will.

Saw this quizzy quizz over on Murphy's blog (which although it is a great blog, with great points and interesting opinions, she won't let me link to as it's a "private" blog... elitist, but I have to respect her wishes).

There are a few things I like about my results. First and foremost is that I understand what Canucks are saying, though apparently, 25% of the time I'm clueless. I am also quite impressed that I still have what it takes to communicate half of the time with bandits and hooligans.

Aparently, I have no idea what Americans are saying to me.

Your Slanguage Profile

Canadian Slang: 75%

Aussie Slang: 50%

Prison Slang: 50%

British Slang: 25%

New England Slang: 0%

Southern Slang: 0%

Victorian Slang: 0%

What Slanguage Do You Speak?

Life lessons all around us.

I've never really liked American horror flicks other than for having a laugh. And given the script brilliance of Japanese horror, where psychological fear is used rather than blood, I really figured I would not give another thought to American horror... but I may have to reconsider that. Perhaps there are some good lessons to be learned.

I write a journal back and forth with one of my students. He's quite advanced, always has a good train of though, and likes American music, so he's always picking up new slang and asking about it. Today he hands me the journal where he's picked up some self improvement tips from Jason of Friday the 13th fame:

"I hate to do my best, or work hard to do something. But lately I watched "Jason vs. Freddy" and I changed my mind. Jason tried hard to kill Freddy. He was hurt so much, but he didn't give up. He tore Freddy's arm off and stabbed with his arm into Freddy. I was so impressed. To do my best is a good thing."

Interesting point ○○○君。

metabolism, what?

I thought excercise is supposed to make one more energetic, and wake up early.

As it stands, with intensive Taiko every night, I'm sleeping through my alarms. I think it's mild dehydration.

Last night after practice and a cold shower, I took a nice little walk down to the convienience store for a beverage. Picking up some tart vitamin C packed drink (like cranberry, but i forget the fruit in question) and some dried squid, I paused for about half an hour by this rice paddy I have liked for three years. At times, while listening to the synphony of frogs and the sound of wind through rice, I wondered if it was disrespectful to be eating a fellow water creature in their pressence.

Anyway, Manny has asked when a good time to come to 小倉祇園太鼓 is. Let's throw out some information for the viewers:

Friday, July 15th→　Prolly Taiko throughout Kokura. We will be infront of the NTT building by Cha Cha Town, most likely playing from 7 until 10 at night. Will update this entry when I know specifics.

Saturday→　Starting about 6:30 pm, we will be moving through town playing drums mounted on a float. From about 7pm, we will pause in front of Quest and play there for about an hour or so. This is a wild time. From there we will weave through the 魚町　arcade stopping and playing, playing and walking.

Sunday→　Massive event at Kokura Castle from about noon with about 30 groups playing together. From there we will move to 小倉駅の北口　(north entrance of kokura station... out towards Laforet on the ground floor) and play a good 6 hours or so. This is also a good good evening.

Hope to see ya out.

Further Confusion

So the marking system of this country baffles me further.

now the problem is that some of the kids are failing... and we can't have that, now can we. So this kid I gave a generous 11 out of 20 to botched his exam. Like really really botched it. So he's got to do 5 extra classes in the summer (as in 5 hours) to pass the class. I can see how 5 extra hours will help him learn English. 5 more hours for yours truly and I'll be fluent in Japanese I suppose.

Another kid has to do the same thing because she cheated on the exam. I wonder why that wouldn't be a failure, but hey... what do I know. I asked why she's allowed to pass if she cheated, and the answer was that she didn't actually cheat. She intended to, and had cheat sheets in her pocket, but the teacher caught her as she was pulling them out, so she got caught before cheating, so she didn't do something as bad as cheating.

This is the complete opposite of the thought crime jailings of the American Government, now innit? Read this lovely quote from Monkey-boy himself, after the London bombings: "I was most impressed by the resolve of all the leaders in the room. Their resolve is as strong as my resolve."

Can you say resolve one more time, please? Tool.

What's the bleedin point??

Right. So I'm gonna talk shop for a moment. It's not a shop that I'd like to talk about... like I wish I could talk pounds of torque, and RPMs and zero to 60 in how ever many seconds.... but I'm talking school here. I'm a teacher by pay-cheque.

So finals were last week, and after a ka-razy week of marking all the mistakes on the exams (went a little overboard on the marking. could have just slashed it as a wrong answer, but the dedicated teacher in me decided to decipher what the little angels were trying to say, and then in my snazzy red pen, I wrote it in propper English... so they could learn from their mistakes... if they care)

So exams count for 50% of their grade, 10% from a participation sheet, 20% from their class work with a Japanese teacher, and 20% from yours truly. As I'm dollin' out my 20% worth, and givin a fair amount of 17s and 18s in the process (cause language is about practice, and if they try to use English in class, I'll give "em a good grade, yeah) I ask my co-worker about something.

She throws back the "Yeah, that is a good question... (nuance of "more importantly" coming up)... your grades are too high."

Turns out my school has a 70% policy. As in... the highest grade that can be awarded is a 70%. I knew we can't fail kids, and that grades are adjusted... or that extra homework is given to failures (er... kids that are failing) to bump them up... but I didn't know that grades have to be bumped down as well.

So, even though the Mikas and Yuinas and Masatos try every class, and hand in all their homework, and ask me questions... the ceiling they can look forward to is 70%, even though I would say they gave a 90% effort all year. If a kid does too well, the teacher gets in trouble for making it too easy. I asked "Well what about the kid that studies a lot and does better than everyone in class?" The answer was "Yes, some kids study... It's a shame, but It can't be helped."

As a result of this, I had to re-calculate all their grades adjusting for a bell curve that isn't real. So my question is what's the point? Why give a grade at all? I mean the bigger the scale, the better you can give a kid a specific grade based on performance... but as it stands, the area from 15 - 20 (out of 20) are right off limits. Why not just pass? Cause fail is off limits too. Why go to school? Why get a job? Why not say "Fuck yer 70%, I earned 71! And I'm off to try my luck in Tokyo" or better yet, some mountain filled with trees, rivers and wild boar?

I wonder if the kids know about all this?

小倉祇園太鼓

wheeew

just to put the word on the street for the peeps near kokura, Kokura Gion Taiko Festival is less than two weeks away.

Get on yer jimbe, or yukata and get yer ass down town the nights and days of July 15, 16, and 17.

We'z all practicin everynight to make it a whamathon of a weekend.

Will post closer to game time as well.

That is all

The Musical Baton

Right. so Manny over at Sugar Disaster has sent us the musical baton, which is a space time/cross section of what we as friends, lovers, strangers, humans are doing with our musical spare time.

Here we go:

1. Total volume of music files on my compter
Ri~ght. well after sustaining the Great Harddrive Crash of 2005 (GHC '05) I have lost my entire music library. And without access to piracy sites, all I have is what I've ripped off CDs I've rented... that being -

114 songs, 7.9 hours, 437.2 MB

2. Last CD I bought

The soundtrack to 凶気の桜　(kyouki no sakura). A wicked awesome Japanese Right-Wing, Anti-American, Clockwork Orange meets Yakuza in Shibuya, music video style Japanese piece of fun brilliance. I am dangerously hooked on this movie and soundtrack these days.

3. Song Playing Right Now

ペンギン　(Penguin) Yamazaki Masayoshi

4. Five songs/albums I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me.

I've decided to list this as a chronical of transitional phases in my life...

◎Duran Duran - Arena
This was my first non-kid album, and I listened to it like crazy on my little silver Sony (early connection to Japan, no?) casette radio. Till that point the only casettes I owned were Disney. I had Rocky on vinyl, but casettes were the wave of the future.

◎Led Zeppelin - what is commonly referred to as Zeppelin IV, though it was untitled.
I found this old casette of my dad's in the basement and fell in love with it, though I had no idea who they were or what the songs meant in the ultimate history of Rock. This album ended my Li'l Rapper phase.

◎Nirvana - Nevermind
Again, I had no idea who they were, what the song titles were, or what they would mean. I got the tape from a buddy that was all "check this out". This ended, or at least lessened, my Classic Rock phase.

◎Ego Wrappin - Night Food
Wow, heard くちばしにチェリ　(kuchibashi ni cherry) on the radio at a burger joint my first year in Japan, asked who it was, and went and bought the album. This moved me into Japanese Blue/Jazz/Fusion music, which has lead to Love Psychedelico, Orange Pekoe, Blue Hearts, Yamazaki et al.

◎凶気の桜　(kyouki no sakura) - Soundtrack
Though I have been into M-Flo for sometime, this comp hip-hop album threw me into the underground Nationalism of youth. The music is def, the lyrics are power, and the scene of a 6 foot tall white dude driving his suped up Subaru Impreza through Japanese streets with the window down and the "Fuck CocaColonization" music blastin is a film... a film where the white dude eventually gets his ass kicked, but...

5. Three people to whom I'm passin the baton
Murphy over at Unhappening (a private blog. sorry folks)
Richard-san at ... well his blog is kinda un-named but...
Kirk, cause today's his birthday, and ya gotta admire anyone lucky enough to have a birthday on Canada Day...

★This was the original baton, but Manny felt that the last one is not really a question, so he added

"If you could eat any meal of the day with any 3 artists (alive or dead), what meal, what kind of food and which artists?"

Well I would argue that none of the above are questions. The are all statements that one could infer as questions. ie. "Last CD I bought" is infered as the question "What was the last CD you bought." Hense →　"Three people to whom I'm passing the baton" would read as "Who are three people to whom you are passing the baton".

Furthermore, the Baton does not claim to be "5 questions about your musical tastes", so no one should feel duped that the final statement is a passing of the torch.

For these reasons I refuse to answer Manny's question. Do as you will.