The students of Oshima Middle School, Sakito Fireworks (8/12/2007)

yo!

So last time I think I wrote to tell you all about the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony, but I didn't really mention any interaction with the actual students that were there for the ceremony.  Obviously the new foreigner English teacher at the school is going to elicit a bit of staring, so whenever one of the kids looked my way I would just smile and give them a little nod or wave or something.   During a break in the ceremony two third-year boys actually came up and introduced themselves, and I was mighty impressed.  I'll be damned if I can remember their names now though.

The real kicker came after the ceremony was over.  I went to the entrance of the gym to change from my gym shoes back into my inside shoes and one of the kids like grabs my shoulders and shouts to surprise me!  It turned out to be another third-year named Hiroki, who promptly introduced himself and two of his friends.  Hiroki though I do remember for the simple fact that he is crazy.

Also that day I was introduced Manami, a third-year who is practicing for an English speech contest.  I helped her out with the rhythm / accentuation of a sheet she was practicing.  She seemed a little shy, but her English was really good.

The next day, Friday 8/10, I went to the Sakito Fireworks Festival with Dino (Rachel's successor), Jyoti (new ALT right across the bridge), and Naritomi-sensei (Dino's supervisor & English teacher at the high school).  Sakito is an island just off the west coast of Oshima, connected by bridge to Oshima, and there's actually another ALT named Ellen who lives there.  Ellen is starting her fourth year here in Japan, so she definitely knows what's up.

Summertime in Japan is synonymous with local matsuri (festivals) that each town has in addition to more well-known, nationwide festivals like the upcoming Obon, a festival of Chinese origin that celebrates a family's ancestors.  The Sakito Fireworks Festival is just a simple local festival though, and my first one here in Japan.  It was really interesting to see all of the colorful food stalls set up next to the harbor.  A lot of the people there were also dressed in traditional clothes, either summer-weight kimonos called yukata for the girls...  I can't remember the name but a robe-type shirt and shorts for either guys or dolls.

Of course a lot of my soon-to-be students were there, including of course Hiroki and his crew as well as a group of mischievous girls that I met earlier that day.   One of them swears that her name is "Arien".  Like an "alien" I guess?  I don't know, but they all kept trying to steal my beer / food.  Greedy little buggers, I say, but they seem like pretty fun kids.

The fireworks started maybe an hour after we had gotten there, giving us plenty of time to stuff our faces with the delightful chicken skewers and fried soba noodles.  The aerial show was really good, especially for such a small town, but the most surprising part came when fireworks started exploding out of the water.  We hadn't noticed them at first but there were two boats that were making slow passes across the harbor in front of us, tossing lit charges off the back so that the fireworks exploded like flowers from the water!  "Fireworks" in Japanese is a combination of "fire" and "flower", so I think it was pretty appropriate.

After the matsuri was over we hung out and talked to random people while Naritomi-sensei did her teacherly duty and patrolled for mischievous kids.  Jyoti, Dino, and I went back to Dino's place and chilled for a bit, and then I took a nice stroll through town on my way home.  I got back to my house around 2am to see Naritomi-sensei just pulling in next door after going and setting off fireworks with some ex-students and stargazing.  Even though I'm alone in my building it's nice that I've got a friend that lives in the block next door.

All in all it was a pretty awesome night and I'll try and get some pictures up from the whole bit soon.  I'll let ya'll know when they're up.

with love FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.

ps: i am taking Michael Robbins' suggestion and just making that the tail-end to them all... thanks Michael.