Caol's Culture Festival

Sorry I didn't update last week, nothing very exciting has happened. Also Pokémon X and Y came out, so most of my free time has been devoted to mu 3DS. I still don't have too much excitement to report, but I still had a fun weekend and next weekend should be even better!

After getting out of school on Friday I met up with Leah. We had dinner at my place then walked to Kokura station. The weather has finally cooled down and I've started walking more instead of taking the monorail. We went shopping by Kokura station to see everything the stores had put out for Halloween. The mall closed earlier than we were expecting and since we were supposed to meet a friend we decided to kill time in Starbucks, hoping for some pumpkin coffee to go with our night of Halloween window shopping. Of course, we forgot that Japan doesn't do pumpkin flavored anything, so we ended up with two teas and two small desserts. It was nice to sit and drink our tea, looking out at everyone walking to and from the station. I eventually heard from our friend that she wasn't going to be able to meet us, but Patrick ended up in the Starbucks with us. We all walked back to my place together and had a nice night in watching Hot Fuzz and Sean of the Dead. Leah and Patrick had never seen the movies before, but they are some of my favorites.

The next day Patrick, Leah, and I headed off to Jono, one monorail station away. Our friend Caol, a high school JET, was having his culture festival and the school had asked him to bring some other English speakers. During the culture festival each class set up a booth that sold food or small gifts. (In Japan, the students stay one class all day instead of having different students in each class like in America.) It was really nice to meet a lot of the students and try the different food. One class was even selling pumpkin flavored ice cream, so Leah and I jumped at the chance after missing our pumpkin coffee the day before. We saw some dance performances put on by some elementary school students and a taiko performance by some middle school students. There was everything from fresh fruit to fresh fish to buy and one class even had a beef leg on a spit next to another class selling flowers. It was a lot of fun to meet the students and it made me extra excited for my school's culture festival that is happening this weekend.

Saturday night I went into Fukuoka with some friends. There was a big bar crawl called Night Walker that is very popular among both Japanese people and many of the JETs from around Fukuoka prefecture. We had a great time and made a lot of new friends. I hadn't been to Fukuoka city much before, but I'm hoping to go out more in Fukuoka now that I know it a little better!

This week is going to be a long one as everyone gets ready for culture festival. There is some Halloween stuff going on in Kokura on Wednesday and Caol is going to cook a traditional Irish Halloween dinner on Thursday. So although it's going to be a tough week, it should be a fun one. Hopefully I'll have some good updates again soon!

A Weekend Full of Caves and Waterfalls

We did have a typhoon this week and school was canceled in advance on Wednesday. The typhoon never really came, though, it was just a windy day with some rain. But none the less it was a long week for me and I was so excited when the weekend finally came around! We had another long weekend and a few of us had rented a car again. We weren't exactly sure what we wanted to do and we weren't planning to stay anywhere over night, but we knew it would be a fun weekend!

We picked up our car on Sunday and all met at Kokura station around 8 AM. Juha was nice enough to provide us with some croissants, breakfast sandwiches, and coffee as we sat in the car deciding where to go. We know we wanted to go to a beach, so we decided to head towards Tsunoshima, a small island in the north west of Yamaguchi prefecture. We were soon on our way and with Kyoko in the front helping Vixay navigate, we didn't get nearly as lost as our first adventure. We quickly hit the Kanmon tunnel (the tunnel running under the water connecting Kyushu to Honshu) and we were making such good time we decided to take a detour.

We were passing through a town famous for hot springs and kawarasoba, a kind of soba noodles cooked and served on a traditional roof tile. We thought it might be fun to try kawarasoba and stopped at a small restaurant. Unfortunately, we were too early and nowhere was open. We parked and re-grouped. While driving we had talked about going to Akiyoshidai, the longest cave in Japan and one of the longest in Asia. We decided to change course and head to Akiyoshidai first and go back towards the beach later.

We got to Akiyoshidai around 11 AM and headed in. The entire cave is a little under 9 kilometers long, but only about one kilometer is open to the public. Thankfully it was a huge cave and they had put in big lights so that we could see. Everything inside was incredible. From "1000 Plates," a huge group of pools that had formed and were overlapping and stacked up to the stalagmites and stalactites that could be seen almost everywhere to the "Pillar of Gold," a giant column of limestone that connected the floor to the ceiling and looked like a pipe organ made of stone, we spent time taking in ever part of the cave.

We even did an "adventure course" on our way back out. This course was really pretty small and right by the entrance.It lead to a small plateau higher up in the cave. There were rungs put into the side of the cave wall and a chain along the edge to hold onto. We all climbed up and played around on the plateau before making our way back to the the steep steps on the other side and out of the cave.

On our way back to the car we stopped from lunch at a kawarasoba place. We were a little surprised to see one, but figured it was a sign since we had been too early for the one's we passed before.

Akiyoshidai had been a lot of fun, but it also had taken us more time than we expected because of how long we stopped to look at everything. We headed back towards our original destination of Tsunoshima and the promise of some beautiful beaches. We got to Yamaguchi prefecture around 3 PM and headed across the bridge to Tsunoshima Island. We found two beaches, but neither were the ideal beaches we had seen in pictures. Also, no one was swimming and Leah was worried about being the only people in the water (or even in bathing suits). Kyoko explained that we were passed swimming season already, so the nicer beaches back on the mainland were closed and that no one would be swimming.

We decided to try our luck at a beach back on the other side of the bridge and were ecstatic to find it open! Well, it may not have been open, but it was a free beach and there was no gate. By this point it was getting late and we were worried about getting to swim before sunset, so we changed into our bathing suites pretty quickly and were in the water in no time. We swam and played in the water for a good hour or so before it got too cold and the sun was starting to set. We got out and dried off and stayed on the beach to watch the sunset. My pictures on the iPhone don't do it justice, it was gorgeous.

It had been a long day and we decided to head home. We got back to Kokura around 8 P.M. and all went out to dinner at our favorite gyoza place under the station. Vixay dropped everyone off after dinner and we agreed on a time to meet in the morning.

The next morning we headed out around 10 A.M. We tried to get breakfast at a pancake place near Leah's apartment, but again we were too early and ended up eating breakfast somewhere else. We talked about where we wanted to go and decided to head to a waterfall Juha had heard about. We didn't expect much and wanted to get it out of the way early.

It was in Fukuoka prefecture still, so we did not have to go very far. We were a little worried about the road leading up to the waterfall, it was very narrow and winded up a mountain. It reminded me of the beginning of Spirited Away. Someone even said they thought we might be accidentally driving to the Spirit World. Thankfully, Vixay got us up safe.

We walked along a nature path, stopping to admire the many small shrines we found along the way and occasionally wandering down close the stream we were following. After about a 20 minute walk we came to the waterfall. It was breathtaking. It was in two parts, the taller part at the top fell into a deep pool that collected and then bubbled down some rocks to the stream below. There were more shrines built into the walls and there were small statues everywhere. We sat at the waterfall for a while and climbed up to the pool and some of the shrines. Many people came and went, most dipping their feet into the water or cleaning their hands with it. A few people we saw brought lunch and had a picnic on the rocks. We decided next time we have a car we'd come back and a have a picnic.

After the waterfall we decided to visit another cave. Juha knew a good one on Hiraodai, a mountain not too far away. We drove back down that tiny road and then up the mountain of Hiraodai. Monkeys live on that mountain and we saw one on the way up! That was my first time ever seeing a wild monkey. Everyone else was surprised as well. Usually the monkeys are hard to see, but this one was hanging out on the side of the road. We think it was waiting to cross the street.

We made a wrong turn and ended up at a different cave then we meant to, but decided to explore this new cave anyway. It had a really cool entrance way and it was a little scary looking, but it turned out to be a very short cave with nothing much interesting. The guy running it ended up letting me go in for free, though, because he said I looked like a super model. He was definitely much creepier than the cave was.

We headed to a lookout area and sat for a little while planning our next move. We had originally said we were going to head to another park in the area that day, but decided to stay on Hiraodai to go see the caves we meant to go to in the first place and climb a little if we had time. We headed off for the other cave and found it quickly. We had to take off our shoes and put sandals on before going in because this cave didn't have a walkway like the first one, so parts of the cave we would have to walk through water.

This cave was much smaller. We were forced to walk single file and squeeze through small rock openings. Sometimes we had to duck when the ceiling got low. I was worried at first about the water and the tight spaces, but this cave may have been my favorite. The water was cold, but very clear and kind of refreshing. The highest it ever got was a little past my knees, but I had been crouched down then to avoid a low ceiling at that point. It was difficult when people needed to pass going the other direction, but it was easy enough to stop in places there was more room to let them through. (There is no outlet on the other side, so you have to walk in one way, and then back out the same way.) The end of the cave is not really an end, it's just the end of where they stopped lighting it. You can continue if you have a flashlight and proper clothes, but apparently the water starts to get a lot deeper in the pitch black section. Vixay, Leah, and I are hoping to get a chance to go back and explore the dark areas another day.

By the time we got out of the cave and had some well deserved-ice cream it was getting late, but we weren't ready to go. The cave was at a bottom of a hill, so we climbed back up and got in the car. We only made it maybe a minute or two before Leah saw a boulder field she decided was perfect to play in. Leah and Vixay headed off in to the rocks and Kyoko, Juha, and I stayed by the car. Kyoko was poking Juha with some dried grass that was everywhere and the end broke off. Juha decided it was the perfect hair extension and we had soon had some collected and started haphazardly placing them in his hair. He even tried to copy my hairstyle.

After our little detour, we jumped back in the car and drove to a lookout point under some of the mountains peaks. We hiked up to the top just in time to see the sun set over Kitakyushu. We explored the mountain a little bit more, but I found a mukade (giant poisonous centipede) and we decided it was time to go. We talked about coming back to have a BBQ one day when there's a full moon and we can watch the stars.

We headed back to Kokura to return the car and found ourselves walking around Kokura by 7:30 P.M. We decided it was time for dinner and Vixay and Juha suggested an all you can eat yakiniku place they knew. The food was delicious and we all had a round of beer to celebrate our successful trip. We hung out until about 9:15, when we went our separate ways. Except me, I followed Vixay home so I could play some video games.

All in all I had another AMAZING long weekends. The next on is at the end of the month and I can't wait! I have no idea what we will do, but I'm sure it will be good. This was the perfect trip with lots of adventure and best of all, no kerosene.

Speech Contest

Two and a half weeks ago I had a three day week because of Sports Day and holidays. I had to work a Saturday and Sunday, but it was so much fun to be outside dancing and playing it didn't feel like school. Last week I made up for it by having a six day week. I, along with all the other Kitakyushu JETs, were judges in Kitakyushu's English Speech Contest two days ago (Saturday). Despite working a longer day than I normally do at school, I really enjoyed it!

We have all been preparing out students for this contest since before school started. About one to fifteen students from each middle school participated. They were given three speeches and had to pick one to memorize and recite. The first speech was Martin Luther Kings, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream," the second was Severn Suzuki speaking at the UN about making positive environmental changes and the third was a fictional character Takuya speaking about the history of Kitakyushu. A very small group of students wrote their own speeches, but none of my students did and I was not an original speech judge. The students have been staying after school, sometimes for hours, practicing with me. We worked on everything from how to correctly pronounce words to where to put natural sounding pauses to stressing the correct syllable within a word. All of my students worked incredibly hard and were incredibly nervous when the day finally came.

The JETs got to the convention center early and had breakfast. After breakfast we went in to find our students and do one final practice with them. Many of the English teachers from my schools came to see the students' speeches. We did one final run through of everyone's speech, then I told them how proud I was of all of them for their hard work and wished them luck. They then had to spread out into their respective groups.

The contestants were split into eleven groups in order to help with time and to insure we did not judge our own students. Kris and I were in group A, so we went to the room early to set up the tables, chairs, and podium. We went back downstairs for the opening ceremony, which was pretty quick and not very interesting. We lead our group of students up to our room and helped them find their seats. All the students were quietly mouthing their speeches in one last attempt to practice before we started. The day went by pretty quick, we had 26 speeches in total to listen to.

Our judging criteria was pretty loose. The students could get a total of 30 points over all. 10 points for memorization, 10 for presentation, and 10 for English. Memorization was pretty straight forward and presentation we judged by the volume and eye contact of the speaker. English was a bit more vague. We decided that pronunciation of the harder sounds ('th' and 'v') would be a big part as well as how naturally the students spoke. Afterwards, Kris and I easily came to a decision about the winners. There was one winner in each group and three second place prizes.

We reported our winner and runner ups and went back downstairs to hear the winners announced. All the JETs were finding out who's group their students were in and asking how they did. 前田 (Maeda), one of my students from 二島 (Futajima), won first place in her group! Unfortunately, another of my students who I had stayed late with a lot didn't win. She was a third year, so will be in high school next year and unable to try again. She found me right after the ending ceremony and started to cry. I told her I was really proud of her and knew David, the judge in her room. I told her she did really well and was really close to winning. I told her I was really proud of how hard she worked and we went to go find the other teachers. It was really heartbreaking, but she seemed a bit cheered up after we talked. I had gotten little notebooks for all the students who participated and gave them out before everyone left.

Yesterday (Sunday) I had a low key game day. Dan, Nick, and Jake came over and we played a whole bunch of board games, both in Japanese and English. I had a ton of fun! Today is Patrick's birthday, so I'm going to look for a bakery after school so I can get him a cake. Wednesday we have typhoon warning, so maybe no school! That's all for now, I'm going to get back to cutting out pumpkin cards for a game we're playing in school tomorrow!