Happy Halloween!

We went to the Halloween party again this year that our company holds for the kids. This is our second blog about Halloween, but we couldn't resist posting some pictures of our adorable students. About 170 kids came along with their parents and they all looked really cute in their costumes. Most of the little girls dressed-up as a princess or a witch and most of the boys were a vampire or a pirate. We played some games and danced to the Monster Mash. Frank dressed up as a vampire and Melissa was Little Red Riding Hood. We were surprised they actually have the story Little Red Riding Hood in Japanese (called Akazukin-Chan).



Here are some pictures of the other teachers we work with. Some of their costumes were hilarious!

Road trip to the Coast

Last weekend we traveled north with our friends Yuka and Taka to the Sea of Japan. We took their camper and had a blast! We all slept in the camper at night and drove to a few different cities during the day. The camper looks like a big van, but inside there's a double bed, small kitchen, toilet, and four seats. The front seats fold down into 2 single beds, so 4 people can actually sleep in it.

Our first stop was Wajima. This city is famous for their morning market. The market sold things such as fish, toys, lacquer ware, and souvenirs.

We also walked to a temple and to a hot spring foot bath...the water was scorching hot, but felt really good after a few minutes.

We then got back in the camper and drove to Chirihama Beach. This was our first time going to the Sea of Japan, so we were pretty excited. We walked around for a while and found a ton of sand dollars!


We then went to Kanazawa City to eat lunch at a really popular sushi restaurant. The restaurant was really crowded...but worth the wait. Some sushi restaurants in Japan send the sushi around on a conveyor belt and you can grab a plate when one looks appetizing. At the end of the meal, the server counts the plates and gives you your bill (each color plate is a different price). The sushi ranged from 1 to 9 dollars a plate.

We ended our road trip by driving to a waterfall in the mountains and doing some hiking for a while. We had a great time on this trip and really want to buy a camper when we get home...we'll just add this dream to our growing list!

Kindergarten Sports Festival

Last Saturday we both attended the sports festival at the kindergartens we each work at. It's an all day event where the 3, 4, and 5 year-olds all perform acrobatics, compete in races, have dance performances, and do other activities that involve the parents, grandparents, and siblings. The kids work so hard for months to prepare for this day. The sports festivals are really popular here; it's actually a national holiday where we get the day off! Elementary and Jr. high schools hold sports festivals as well.

The schools get really excited when the English teachers come to events. At the kindergartens, they always give us presents afterwards as a thank you. Melissa even got a reserved parking space...the Japanese writing on the paper says "Melissa Sensei," which means teacher.

Just like at home, the parents all videotaped the kids from the sidelines.

The event begins with the opening ceremony. Then they have opening speeches. Melissa had to give a short speech in English at the kindergarten she went to! Then they say a prayer (see picture on left) and sing some songs, then the games begin. The kids really take this day seriously and it is so cute to watch! Here are some pictures below of the kids doing their dances, relays, and games.

The five year olds did some acrobatic performances. They practiced for up to 6 months for this. We were really impressed with how well they all worked together and did everything at the exact same time. Here is a video and some pictures.

Next Stop: Koyasan

After spending the night in Nara, we headed with Matt and Chelsea to Koyasan. This city is located on the summit of a mountain 1000 meters above sea level. When arriving at the train station, we had to take a cable car to the top of the mountain to get to Koyasan, where we spent one night in a temple! This city was established 1200 years ago and is the headquarters for the Shingon school of Esoteric Buddhism. Koyasan is considered one of the holiest places in Japan.

Spending the night in a temple- Being the HQ for the Buddhist school, there were a ton of temples everywhere. About 50 of them offer rooms for guests to spend the night and the monks act as the hotel staff. Here is the temple we stayed at.

Our room: When we first arrived at the Eikoin Temple, 1 of the many young monks standing around the temple led us to our room on the second floor. The room actually consisted of 3 rooms with sliding doors that we could close if we wanted to. We ate our meals in one room and we slept in the other two rooms. The rooms were very Japanese, with tatami floors, a small table with green tea in the corner, our futons (beds) folded in the closet, and a beautiful view of the Japanese garden outside. The onsen (public bath) was located on the first floor of the temple. So we all took a shower and bath with the other guests during the evening (it's strange, but this feels normal to us now!)

Dinner: The temple stay is a bit expensive, $100 a person, but it does include 2 meals. We were told to be in our rooms at 5:30pm for our dinner to be served. The monks prepared a huge meal for us then set it out in our room. The food was all vegetarian; they don't eat any meat, fish, onions or garlic. At first we thought that the food wasn't that bad, but the more we ate it, the more we realized how strange the textures and tastes were!

Our meal consisted of white rice, cold soba noodles, veggie tempura (this was really good), cold sweet beans, miso soup with seaweed, sesame tofu, a Japanese pear, and a plate of something we really had no idea what it was...it literally absorbed water like a sponge and had no flavor! While we were eating, the monks were in the other 2 rooms preparing our beds.

Morning Prayer Services: Because temple stays are intended for religious pilgrims, we were expected to observe the Buddhist prayer services the next morning. At 6:30 am, a monk came to our room and led us and about 30 other guests to the temple's main hall. We all sat on the floor here for about 30 minutes listening to about 8 monks pray and chant sutras from a venerable scroll. Some of the Japanese guests went to the front and did a prayer as well, but others like us just watched.

Here is a video of us trying to be discreet and videotape the prayer service:

After the prayer service, we moved to a smaller building where two monks performed a ritual in which they built a bonfire in a huge burner, and then read prayers for health and prosperity. Here is another video:

Breakfast: After the prayer service, we went back to our room to find breakfast ready and waiting for us. We had miso soup, white rice, green beans with a white gooey sauce, and "sponge" again. Not too great, but edible for the most part.

Staying the night in the temple was a great experience! It was really interesting for us to not only see this part of the Japanese culture, but also be able to participate in it.

Sights around Koyasan-

Kongobuji Temple and Rock Garden: This temple, built in 1593, is the headquarters of 3600 Shingon temples in Japan. Each room had ornate paintings on the doors that told a different story, unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures.

We really enjoyed the huge rock garden here. It is actually the largest in Japan and has 140 granite stones arranged to look like a pair of dragons emerging from clouds to protect the temple.

After walking around this temple, we went into a large hall for green tea and rice cakes.

Garan: This is an area filled with many temples and pagodas, which are known as some of the most sacred sites in Koyasan.

Okunoin Graveyard: Believe it or not, walking through this graveyard was the highlight of our time in Koyasan...it was beautiful and extremely peaceful. This cemetery has more than 500,000 grave stones, the oldest dating to the 9th century! This is actually the most desirable cemetery to be buried in in the country because the Japanese believe that anyone buried here is in the pole position for when the future Buddha returns to the world. For centuries, anyone who is anyone has been buried here, even if its only a lock of hair or a tooth or two. The people who founded Nissan and Toyota are even buried here!

We walked along a 2 km winding path that was lined with enormous cypress trees. The cemetary was very serene and filled with so much history. We did come across some grave stones that were wearing make-up and clothes...this we found pretty funny!

Torodo Lantern Hall: At the end of the 2 km path in the graveyard was a lantern hall filled with about 21,000 lanterns! This is why we were interested in coming to Koyasan initially. It was unbelievable the amount of lanterns they had here. We even came back again to see the lanterns at night. There are supposedly 2 lanterns here that have burned uninterrupted for a thousand years! After looking at all the lanterns, we discovered a room filled with thousands of really small Buddha statues.