Hyakunin-isshu (Traditional card game)

I spent my afternoon playing a traditional Japanese card game, which is apparently played in January.     

Cards are placed on the floor (about 100 - plus or minus).  They are covered in writing.   Yes, in Japanese writing (it was a good thing I remembered that Japanese writing goes top to bottom and right to left - or I would've really been stuck!).  The writing was the second half of a poem/song that was sang/chanted.  Obviously we had to match the card with the song.  Much easier said than done!  

It was difficult for a number of reasons - 1.  it was all Japanese to me :P  2. I had difficulty knowing where they were starting to sing the part on the card.  3. The students were all faster than me (I guess if didn't take them as long to translate the random sounds to writing) and some of the kids even knew the ending to the song before they got to the card!    

I have to admit that it was fun, it was also challenging, frustrating, uncomfortable (sitting on my legs for an hour and a half) and cold (my poor feet were frozen by the end of it).  I felt like I had quite a distinct disadvantage.  But I was pleased to be invited and included and for someone who doesn't know the language, I felt I did ok, picking up 2 cards and being slightly slow at 3 more (I was reading the card - making sure when a hand sneaked under my nose and got to it first).  So sad to be defeated by all these ichi-nen sai (year 7) kids! 

                      

I did a little more research and this is what I discovered....

About 750 years ago, a famous poet, Teika Fujiwara, selected 100 excellent poems among the poems written by the poets from the 7th to the 13th centuries. Hyaku-Nin-Isshu is 100 poems by 100 poets in Japan.

There's more info on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyakunin_Isshu

Snow watching..

I guess, seeing as it was a Saturday morning, you all slept in and had a nice, quiet and relaxing morning.  Yes, I remember those days... Us on the other hand, were first disturbed before 8am, and then again at 8:30 and on and off all day by trucks with loud speakers on top.  It was probably just the communist party again, but boy was it annoying!  

But we were awake all morning, day and night to watch the snow...!  Our neighbours were probably laughing at us with just our heads poking out from the curtain.  We really were fascinated!  The snow changes direction so much due to wind, and it can fall different directions depending on where you're looking.  

Once again, looking like a silly gaijin, I took my camera and went for a walk.  It was really interesting and fun.  I wouldn't have been quite so cold if I hadn't forgotten to take my gloves, but the tingling has almost gone away and none of my fingers dropped off.      

*cough cough splatter splatter* (Wednesday 14th January)

Yep - you guessed it, both Dan and I have been down with a particularly nasty cold.    While we're at least on the mend now, both of us are still feeling a bit sorry for ourselves - well, at lest I am.  If I had been in Australia, I would have called up sick for today and yesterday, but while I'm in Japan I can only take sick leave if I go to a doctor and I really didn't have the energy for that!  

I found some pretty good drugs at a chemist and grocery store.  All I had to do was recognise a few Japanese words associated with colds to choose cold and flu tablets.  (Some of the translations are great too:  nose water, jam nose...)  

I guess as jobs go, this one isn't too difficult to stay with it even when I'm not well.  I feel like my head's stuffed with cotton wool and I'm talking through my nose, but I can't really hear my voice as my ears are blocked too.  I guess I haven't done too much wrong or someone would have told me to go home - no wait, this is Japan, you only have a day off work if you're dying.

I feel like I should be wearing a mask like all the other sick people, but I just can't bring myself to do it.  It's just way too strange for me.  I wonder if they are looking at me saying," if you wore a mask you'd keep those nasty germs to yourself!!"    

Hopefully in a day or two I will be fine, and until then I'll try to keep it together at work and do my dying at home.  

I also wonder if our neighbours are sick of our coughing too...  the walls are pretty thin and we certainly get sick of listening to their toddler running up and down the apartment.  Then again, some things you are better off not knowing!   

What colour do gaijin turn when they're sick?

I must have looked pretty sick on Friday because they did send me home!  I decided to go to the doctors (I didn't want to use my holiday pay for a sick day!).  

But 3 days off work did wonders and I'm pretty much back to my old self now.  

Snow on New Years Day

Hope you've all been enjoying the summer weather!  It's been quite cold here, but it was fun to have snow on New Years day!  (If you can't see the snow in the photo - look closer!  There was a cool photo of Dan in the snow with decent coverage of his hair, beard, jumper, but he won't let me post it.  He might let me email it, if you really want to see). 

I ended up getting the last week off work - not quite sure how that happened - but not complaining.  While we spent a bit of time at home relaxing and taking it easy, we also did a few little trips and investigated some places that visitors might like to check out.  

So, what is New Years like in Japan?

New Years Eve seems to be the lesser of the days - with people preparing for New Years day.  There were fireworks, but we couldn't see them from our apartment, only hear them.  Apparently fireworks is more of a summer thing though.  Going to the temple/shrine is very important.  Many people line up and enter at midnight.  But it seems anytime in the New Year period is ok. All the shrines/temples have paper lanterns strung around.  While many people asked if I had been to the shrine, they were surprised when I said 'no', but when I asked them, they said they were too busy...   

You don't give out Christmas cards in Japan, but New Years cards.  These all appear in your letterbox New Years morning.  They're like postcards, and generally all typed in Japanese, including names.  So, while I got a handful, I can only read half.  I will take them to work with me tomorrow and try and find someone who can translate them and tell me if I need to do something special (like thank you cards).  New customs are all very confusing!  

On New Years Day we went to my boss' place for 

a traditional Japanese New Years lunch.  The highlight was probably waiting for trains in the snow!  But we were privileged to be invited and included in a special family time.  All the traditional foods had special meanings  - prawns for long life (so that you live to be so old that yo

ur back is stooped like a prawn's back), fish eggs (my favourite!) for fertility, black beans for energy (yes, Daniel ate some of them!), smoked fish for men so they can be strong for working in the rice paddies... 

My boss is a lovely lady who is very interested in cultural exchange.  She often helps us understand Japanese culture and is always interested in our culture.  So as part of this she cooked 'natto' (very sticky fermented soy beans) and asked her friend to prepare a traditional tea ceremony for us.  Japanese people always want to know if I've tried natto and if I like it. Apparently it is very good for you, but considered as one of the foods that foreigners never like, (most kids don't like it either!).  Most women say that they ate it when they were pregnant, but no-one ever seems to say that they like it.  Well, I've now tried it, not over-keen on it, but can eat it.  

I'm back to work tomorrow, but I'm not doing much until Thursday when the kids go back to school.  

That's about as interesting as it's been - apart from trying to decipher the holiday bus timetable, reading and watching StarGate!  It has also been very nice to sleep in.  It's going to be very difficult to pry myself out of bed tomorrow morning at 6:30 in the cold and the dark.  

If you're bored, I added some photos to my photo page.   (The link is on the right hand side of this page).