Hotaru Matsuri

Hotaru Matsuri

4 June 2011

I have read about the Hotaru Matsuri (Fireflies Festival) in Honjyo (one of the village in Saiki) before and I have alwasy wanted to go. Well... SIngapore being such a small city, has no place for fireflies. I have never seen fireflies before. Since I am in Saiki, I have to see it! Weeks before the matsuri, I have to telling everyone (from my neighbour to the teachers in school) that I want to go to Honjyo to see fireflies. But none of them volunteered to take me. One of the teacher says she would invite me to her hometown in Honjyo, but she never did. Until on Friday evening, I met my neighbour and she asked," Are you coming with us for the Hotaru Matsuri tomorrow?" I was so excited! Yipee!!! Finally someone is taking me to see fireflies!!! The scene was amazing with many many blinking lights. But no decent pictures came out, so I gave up on taking pictures and enjoyed the moment then.

Just the Yatais...

Hita Fireworks Festival

Hita Fireworks Festival
20 May 2011

Was a little hesistant about going to Hita for the festival at first, cos it's really far and I don't really know the ALTs there very well. But, it beats staying at home, doing nothing. Fireworks will be exciting and beautiful. I took a train down to Hita in the morning, explored a bit, ate a recommended udon that I didnt get to eat the last time, before I met up with the rest of the ALTs who took part in the tub-rowing competition. The fireworks display was over an hour, it's so long that I started think: When is it ending? hah... no complains, it's beautiful... (can't imagine how much they spent on that, or how much the whole of Japan spend on fireworks every year :P) oh... and the ALTs are nice too...Worth spending the money to get there!



Random flowers...



Chicken and Gobo Tempura Udon

I wanted to post a video, but seems like the file is too big...

Kakujyo Sports Day

Kakujyo Sports Day (体育祭）
20 May 2011

I have blogged about Sports Day in Japan being different from Singapore's Sports Day. There are more games than races. In Kakujyo, the students are divided into 2 teams: Red vs White. They have games and races and points are accumulated. This year, the White team won.

Interesting game... only the boys get to play...

Amazing how the boys managed to climb up...

Ferocious girls.. Don't mess with them...

Club activity race...

I love some of the games they play, dangerous but fun! I'm sure parents in Spore will complain if we play such games. Talking about parents, many parents turned up for Sports Day. Their PTA is really strong! I love the folk dance at the end of the Sports meet too (no photos nor videos cos I was dancing with my students.)

骑马战

Pray From Saiki

Pray from Saiki
15 May 2011

Pray for Saiki is a charity event in an effort to raise funds for the Tohoku Earthquake victims. It was a small event, but every little things add up. Saiki is a small part of Japan, we were not directly affected by the earthquake, and we just wanna do our part to support the people there. There were performances and sale of items. I went there with my African drum group Antatorona. It was my first performance, very enjoyable indeed. I can't wait for the next performance, I hope I get to perform with them again before I head back home. I'm going to miss them so much!



Pray from Saiki: a small but meaningful event

Gokkin: Leader of Antatorona

Masako-Chan

Baking and Cooking Sunday...

Baking and Cooking Sunday...

27 February 2011

Free day = Baking or Cooking Day (I did both!)

I wanted to cook yam kueh, but there's no yam in the supermarket, guess the season is over. Now there are lots of sweet potatoes. I went for a curry event in the afternoon. There were many stalls from all over Saiki selling different types of curry. I could only eat 1, so I randomly chose one that look not bad, renkon curry. Maybe I will try to cook this soon. hee... Renkon chips are so tasty, but I really dont feel like deep-frying in my apoartment.

Renkon (Lotus root) Curry

I got back around 1pm and starting baking Lemon Pound Cake, cos I have some lemons left and a can of orange juice given to me by my landlady.

Lemon Pound Cake

Whenever I bake, I would offer them to my landlady, cos she is always giving me food. 礼尚往来。She invited me for a cup of coffee in her house. In the end I helped her in the kitchen and she taught me how to cook Niku Jaga and Stir-fry Renkon. I cooked braised Toufu for her too. It was a day of eating, baking and cooking. Oh... and I'm hooked on some HK drama that I downloaded... hee...Becoming a couch potato...  WIth the weather getting better, much warmer, I better start moving and prepare for my bike trip. hmmm...

Early CNY Celebration with Singaporeans in Oita!

22 January to 23 January 2011

 Early CNY celebration @ Peihoon's Apartment 

Fighting over CNY goodies!!!

Tomyam Nabe with Sashimi as sides...

Birthday cake baked by me,
decorated by birthday girl, Peihoon

Oden for lunch

Exploring Bungo Takada

 It was a fun weekend spent with the 2 girls. Eating is our favourite activity! :)

Hooked on Baking...CNY baking!!! 新年快到啦！

Today is a free day. I went to school as usual, but my students are not in school. They are off to Tokyo for school trip. After school, there is no Sado Club, and drumming is changed to Thursday. I came home and decided to bake CNY cookies (to have a little CNY mood). I tried baking Hup Toh Sow/Chinese Walnut Cookies. They taste ok, and they melt in the mouth, but it is not 香. I donno why. Now I understand how important the smell is. The smell really enhance the taste. Maybe I will try the Chinese Peanut Cookies next time. 

Walnut cookies

30 January 2011...
After my lunch with Kate, I went back home to try baking the peanut cookies (花生饼）. They are much better than the Walnut cookies. Look and taste better... hee...Very crunchy...

花生饼

TonDon Festival on Oyujima Island

Yesterday, I braved the strong, cold and heartless wind to go to Oyujima Island for their TonDon Festival (I would call it the Fire Festival). It was really freezing cold (especially after the 30 min snow on Saturday, the temperature in Saiki dropped quite a bit. Usually, Saiki don't snow, but according to the teachers, this year is much colder than previous years.) with the strong wind blowing non-stop. However, the festival was worth it. We went as a group of 7 Gaijins and 1 Japanese and the TV station people can't help but film us as and when they see us. Once we reached Oyujima Island, we went for the 100yen Gomadashi Udon. It was cheap and good and of course most importantly, the hot soup warmed us up a little. We had to stand near the temporary fireplace to keep warm.



Purifying procession 



Priest stirring the cauldron

Unfortunately, there was no fireplace near the stage or the ceremony. I cuddled up with my friends for some warmth and waited for the Taiko performance by the elementary school pupils to start (There are only 15 of them), followed by a few ceremonies and prayers by the priests (1 of which included the 3 Junior High students on the island). The most interesting ceremony was performed by one of the priest. He would be holding on to 2 bunches of leaves and he would dip the leaves into the boiling water and go around hitting people's head to get rid of their bad thoughts. We were not spared from the "hitting".

  

Later, there were hanabi (fireworks)! It was short but beautiful. Some of the hanabis were designed by the students studying on Oyujima Island and it was the first time they had hanabi for this festival. 

短暂的美丽，永恒的回忆。

The finale was the burning of a tall tower. People would put the amulets or charms from last year at the bottom of the tower and set the tower on fire.

  

Before burning...



Burning...



Engulfed by the smoke!

After all these, I was already frozen. My toes were numb and my nose was red. We quickly went to queue for the boat ride back to mainland.

Oyujima Island reminded me of Pulau Ubin. I will be back in Spring or Summer to cycle around and truly enjoy the nature out there. It will definitely not be in the Winter, it's just toooo cold for me. I am also looking forward to more festivals in Saiki!!! 

Horan-Enya (8 January to 10 January 2011)

The colourful ship with the almost naked men...

Horan-Enya Festival is held to pray for a safe, prosperous New Year and a bountiful catch for the fishermen of the town. Men in loincloths row the colourfully decorated boats and throw mochi to people on the shore. They would also jump into the chilly water and swim to the shore.

Tanabe Sensei's hometown is in Bungotakada, so she invited me to stay at her house and attend the above mentioned festival. I managed to get some mochi which is suppose to represent good luck, but I didn't get any good prizes from the lucky draw, only won a packet of crackers. After the festival, we went to Usa Shrine which is a famous shrine in Oita.



6 lucky draw tickets... 1 packet of crackers...

Usa Shrine

Tanabe sensei's parents, auntie and Ba-chan are so nice! Her father drove us around, brought us to onsen, drove us to the festival and also to visit Usa Shrine; her mother prepared lots of delicious food (Kimchi Nabe, Sukiyaki and breakfasts) for us; her aunt gave me mikans and cakes for tea; her Ba-Chan is 90 years old and she is so cute, like a child (reciting ABC and kept asking who I am everytime I go and see her). I had a great time there. Thanks to the Tanabe family for the homestay programme!

Kimchi Nabe for dinner on the 1st night

Sukiyaki for dinner on the 2nd night

Yummy breakfast

Ba-chan and Auntie

Tanabe sensei's parents

One and Only Japanese New Year Card

Today, I received my one and only New Year card from my favourite student. She is so sweet, never fails to make my day!

Nice envelope

The New Year Card...from YUO...

Merry Christmas!!! (Something new that I tried...)

Customize a digital greeting

Early Merry Christmas

Last week, I started Christmas lesson with my 1st grade students in Kakujyo and my 2nd grade students in Tsuruoka. They are suppose to design a Christmas card and write a message to whoever they want (in English, which is really difficult for them). I have yet to finish with all the classes and some of them have not handed in the cards. I managed to mark some. Some are very funny (and I have become quite good at guessing what they they are writing) while some are super sweet (cos they are for me, hee... )



I don't know whose his "Honey" is.

According to the sensei, he doesn't have any girlfriend. His wish is to eat kamaboko (fishcake) with his Honey... Hmmm... Interesting idea for a Christmas dinner...



She wants to say that she is a member of the brass band
and she plays the horn.

Takeyoi Matsuri@Usuki (Bamboo Lantern Festival.竹宵)

At the Takeyoi Matsuri the area was lighted up with many hand-carved bamboo lanterns. It was beautiful. It reminded me of Mid-Autumn Festival, where we light up the lanterns back home. I had Bunkasai in the day and only got to Usuki in the evening. I am definitely going back for a day trip.

Usuki is famous for Usuki Sekibutsu (Stone Buddhas)

Outside the train station

Wall of bamboos

 

I like the blue lights...



Beautiful designs 

Interesting structure...

Takeyoi Usuki



The only good blur picture I took of the procession



Legend of the Usuki Takeyoi...

Thousands of years ago, there was a beautiful girl in Usuki named Hanyahime. She was famous for her beauty and kindness. The people who served the emperor heard the story of the beautiful girl, and relayed it to the Emperor. Soon, a request from the Emperor for the princess to marry the emperor’s son was brought, but her parents did not want her to get married. They felt that if she got married, she wouldn’t be their daughter anymore-which was most likely the case because the wives were often swallowed up into the husband’s family, especially the Emperor’s family. In an attempt to appease him, Hanyahime’s parents sent a box with her picture instead of the princess herself back to the Emperor. One of the emperor’s sons looked at the picture in the box and fell in love with her. He came to Usuki city and they were married. They were very happy in Usuki together, and she became pregnant. In those days, the Emperor and his constituents lived in Nara, and he wanted his son to come back to the family dwelling. The Prince went back to the Emperor’s palace, but without Hanyahime. The princess bore a baby girl, but she left her daughter in Usuki with her parents to travel to Nara to see her husband. On the way to Nara, she died because there was a torrential storm. The princess’s parents wanted the box with her picture to be sent back from Nara, and the Emperor obliged. After the memorial, the box served as the daughter of the parents and the mother of the baby girl. In Autumn, the roads to Usuki get very dark earlier than at other times of the year, so the people of Usuki set out the bamboo lanterns to guide the princess’s spirit and other travelers home safely.