A Good Saturday: Walking, Arita-yaki, Tea Ceremony, and Study

I had a good day today. In the morning I went on a walk with Jono around Arita. It was refreshing to get out early in the morning and walk. My weekend mornings tend to slip buy trudgingly, with me situated in front of my computer calling all the people I don't usually call during the week (like my folks), and it was surprisingly exhausting getting out and walking. I kept yawning, despite having slept for nearly 11 hours (10:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m.). Yet more proof that I should get out and walk more regularly.

Anyway, the reason I went to Arita with Jono was to see his student's ceramic exhibition, so we went to the 文化館 (culture hall). There was all sorts of ceramics, and, golly, I love looking at ceramics. I kept pausing to admire amazing craftsmanship or to wonder how they had done something. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures, so I can't show you anything, but there was one bowl that looked like the design was made by mashing together different colors of clay, and I have no idea how they did that and then shaped it into a bowl and then fired it without the many different pieces expanding and shrinking and different rates and then cracking and falling apart... it was gorgeous, and I was captivated, and I really want to get back into ceramics.

I came home and went to Tea Ceremony, as usual for a Saturday. Apparently I have good poise and remembered a lot of the steps, because they kept talking about how elegant I was after the lesson, even though I had forgotten so much. It was slightly embarassing, because I had to have my teacher demonstrate how to handle the whisk and hot water scoop for me, and I felt like I had forgotten so much. Oh well, it was very nice to sit with calm, kind ladies, listening to their soft Japanese, and handle their gorgeous tools elegantly. It's meditative and calming, and I find myself wishing I could go more often than once a week.

Then I came home and studied kanji, read ONEPIECE (a children's manga in Japanese), cleaned my apartment, finished all the dishes that have been sitting around in my sink, and video chatted with my boyfriend and my cousin. Then, I decided to take myself out to a celebratory dinner tonight-- yesterday I got my reviews from all my schools during my interview with my JET supervisors, and I received all positive feedback! Basically, they told me I was doing great, and the only thing I need to work on is not worrying (or 頑張る過ぎるing), especially when I'm sick. It was awesome to receive positive feedback, because sometimes it's hard to receive any feedback while on the job. So I bought myself a curry dinner (yummm, spinach curry), and I'm excited to finish the rest of this semester and go into the new school year in April.




*All images taken liberally from Google.

poem

We are singing to the Earth
the hands of the Rain

What Miss Mary Did for New Years

Okay, so the rest of my winter vacation:

After Dana left, I spent a few days hanging around in Saga. I reigned in the new year with oysters on the half shell and beer (and delicious meal and an excellent combination to get nauseous on), watching music shows on TV, and talking with a bunch of young Japanese folks. It was pretty excellent.

After midnight hit, we hopped in the car with the intent to go to Yuutoku Shrine. When we hit mostly stop and no go traffic 10 kilometers out from the Shrine, we decided no way, and then proceeded to wait 20 minutes before traffic moved enough for us to turn around. We went around Saga dropping people off, and I got home at around 2 and passed out.

Then, on New Years Day, I went to a Shrine. I turned in my old omamori (Literally, "honorable protection", usually they're in the shape of little square silk pouches with a piece of holy writing inside of it, but they can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes) and bought new omamori for the new year. Then I had a delicious meal with Emiko and Okamura-san and Tai-kun, and went home and slept soundly.

On January 2nd, I went across Kyushu to Oita. On the way there, I SAW SNOW!!! 8D I was on the train passing through Tosu, and the other commuters must've thought I was crazy because I kept snapping pictures and pressing my nose to the window and grinning like an idiot. But I don't care. I SAW SNOW. So there.
(Most of the pictures are blurry because the train was moving so fast, but I got to see it, and I got one picture that came out decently to prove I saw it, and I'm still super happy when I think about it, so all's good.)

I spent two days doing ne-shogatsu (Literally: "sleeping New Year." It works something like this: Sitting at what looks like a coffee table with about 12 other people, you eat traditional new years food (called osechi) and then watched TV, and if you feel like it you can lay down and nap (hey, you're sitting on the floor anyway, it's not that far), and then you wake up and watch more TV, then you go take a long hot bath in the family bath, and then you lay down some more and watch some more TV, and eventually the night passes an the host brings out a traiditonal Japanese breakfast, and you crawl over in your pj's and eat some more and then watch some more TV and talk, and then take a midday nap, and then lunch is brought out... Yep. I love ne-shogatsu!)

I decided in the middle of this that I had to get outside and walk and get some fresh air or my body and joints would murder me, so I did.

And then this cat decided it'd climb on me.

She was adorable and small and super affectionate. She also had fleas, so I kept the snuggling and rubbing to a minimum.

But, man, I miss cats.


Thank you, Saori and Saori's family, for your generosity! I really enjoyed all of the food (it was super delicious), the funny TV shows, the conversation, and the relaxing.

Winter in Saga

明けましておめでとうございます！

I saw these pretty frost-rimmed leaves on the walk to school earlier this week, and thought I'd take a few pictures to share with you. <3

I've been sick this past week, so not much energy to go around. Hopefully a restful weekend will get me prepared for next week, which is full of lessons, conferences, job interviews, and other exciting things!