One week and counting...

Here's the first Jack-o-lantern I've made this year.
I'll be bringing him to most of my classes this week











-if he survives!

I ordered the pumpkin off the internet for about $20 (from costco in Japan).

Sounds expensive but it was totally worth it when I stuck my hand in for the first time to scoop out pumpkin seeds! I love this holiday.

Part II

This weekend was full of entertainment.
First of all, I went to my 6th live sumo event.
Kirsten and I jumped in her car Saturday morning and spent the day at Ariso Dome in Uozu city watching our favorite sumo wrestlers, or better yet, sumo stars. They really are celebrities, just as hockey players and ball players are back home.


This guys's waiting for the bus. No, seriously, he is.

The official name for a sumo wrestler is 'rishiki'. There are various ranks of rikishi and that rank determines the order they will fight in any given match or tournament. Lower levels go first. These are usually the younger athletes whose size and strength might dominate even some of the higher level rikishi, yet sit at the bottom while they strive to acquire the technical skills needed for sumo.


These guys are helping the Yokozuna (the highest ranked rikishi) tie a huge white cord around his waist.

Here's the result.


I have been up close to some of my favorites in the past, and this year was no exception. I still have a hard time pushing my way through a crowd to get a good photo, I see these guys first as athletes and don't want bother them by asking for a photo. However the temptation is pretty strong at times and Kirsten and I managed to get a few shots of ourselves with some of the high level rikishi.

After the sumo exhibition we went to Toyama, had a great dinner at Santoshi, an Indian restaurant I really enjoy, and then went to a live theatre production to watch my friend Lee's puppet performance.

Lee is a 4th year JET like me, and a good friend. He came to Toyama years before becoming a JET with a puppet production company and then ended up here again when he applied for the JET Programme. In his spare time he works with theatre groups to produce some amazing puppetry.

This latest endeavor involved a group of musicians and throat singers from Mongolia! Together they retold the popular children's story "Suho's White Horse".

The music on it's own was beautiful -especially the vocals. But combined with the visuals created by a wonderful variety of puppets -marionettes, shadow puppets and even life sized puppets, it was truly a wonderful evening of entertainment.

Outside the theatre a traditional Mongolian house had been erected for people to enter, view some photographs, and try a type of milk tea common to Mongolia.

So a very special congratulations to Lee for a great performance!

Next on the entertainment list was Kirsten's swim meet on Sunday. I got up and drove to Toyama to watch (with some envy) as she swam her events for the Master's Swim Meet.
Great job Sista K, I really enjoyed watching your swims.

Lastly, the icing on the cake was that my FAVORITE AUNT sent me season two of "Corner Gas". I've almost finished watching all 18 episodes...in less than a week. Oh, come on, you all know they're addicting!!! Thank you M for spoiling me to death (that included the stickers and Wee Sing book too!!!)

A great weekend of entertainment, don't you think?

Feels like high school...

...you know, you leave your homework until Sunday night? That's how this blog feels. I've been putting it off all week, and now it's Sunday night and it seems like there's too much to do in just one blog.

I've got two themes to this post, one is first aid. The other is entertainment.
Totally unrelated, I know.

Let's start with 'first aid' shall we? At the beginning of the week there was a grade 2 student who got hit in the face with a ball at my school. He came into the staff room with a scraped knee, a fat lip and bleeding gums. The school nurse was off on a school field trip with the 6th graders, so the homeroom teacher was responsible for him. She got on the phone right away and called his mother. Sounds reasonable. She then called the hospital and told them that he'd be coming in -another good idea. What she didn't do however, was TREAT THE CHILD. I sat and watched as he bled and sniffled, teachers walking by tsking and shaking their heads, "poor kid". BUT NOBODY DID ANYTHING FOR HIM!!

I turned to my Japanese Assistant Teacher and said, "Somebody needs to get that boy some ice." Her response was, "Oh, but the nurse isn't here today, and besides, they've called his mother."

...

I repeated my concern for his swelling lip and she shrugged and said that he'd be going to the hospital soon.

...


Does this seem totally lame to anyone else? The boy's lip was huge and only getting bigger. The teacher left the room so I went to the refridgerator and got an ice pack for him. I wrapped it in tissue because I didn't know where to find clean, sanitary towels or cloth. As I was handing it to him the teacher came back in and said to the boy, "Oh isn't Linea-sensei so nice, how thoughtful of her."


First aid:
Pronunciation: "f&rst-'Ad
Function: noun: emergency care or treatment given to an ill or injured person before regular medical aid can be obtained
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.

You don't have to be trained in it to do it -it's common sense. Or so I thought. As someone who has been trained, this was a very uncomfortable situation for me and I couldn't stand by and not do anything, even though I had basically been told I shouldn't.

This led to a whole discussion with my JAT about how I have observed a total lack of training in first aid in this country. I told her how most people in North America get at least a basic level of first aid training as a requirement for many jobs -and that it's especially important for teachers or anyone who works with children. She admitted she hadn't really thought about it before.

Yikes.

Then Thursday when I arrived at school I was informed that a 3rd grade student from another Kurobe City elementary school had collapsed and died during a basketball practice the night before as a result of vetricullar fibrillation (irregular heart rhythm).

He had done one lap and suddenly fell over. He tried to get up, but fell over again.

Now here's the concerning part: according to my JAT, there was no coach, manager nor teacher in the gym at the time. Only parents. Of course they called the ambulance once they realized the seriousness of it. However, they didn't think to contact any of the staff at the school.

Now, nobody can predict what could have happened had a teacher been called, but perhaps had a teacher been contacted they would have been able to administer some kind of first aid while waiting for the ambulance. At least I would hope so.

I would like to point out at this time that since two similar deaths have occured in the last two years in Nyuzen Town, pretty much every school has now been equipped with AEDs(click) (Automatic External Defibrillators). As a Nyuzen High School staff member I was given a 3 hour seminar in how to use this device, as well as a quick CPR lesson. I was astonished at my coworkers' complete lack of knowledge in first aid.

Having an AED machine in a school doesn't mean that every staff member knows how to use it, but that's part of the reason for AED machines -they are designed to be used by trained or non-trained individuals. Perhaps had the parents called a staff member, the would have been able to at least try to used the machine before the ambulance arrived. But it sounds like very little was done.

It's a horrible tragedy, and I can't help but feel that more could have been done for this child. As a parent, wouldn't you want to know what to do if your child (or any child) collapsed, started choking, or was bleeding? You don' t have to be able to set a bone or stitch a gaping wound, but shouldn't you at least know how to stop the bleeding for the time being or in more serious cases open an airway, check for breathing and circulation?

Finally as a last note on this topic, today while watching Kirsten's swim meet there was a woman who apparently had a very bad cramp or some other immobillizing condition in the last 25 of her swim. I watched from the stands as 5 or 6 people walked along the deck watching her way out in lane 5 struggle to get herself to the end of the lane. Finally when she was about 10 feet from the wall another swimmer jumped in to try and help her.

Are you thinking what I was thinking?

Where the hell was the lifeguard. Your guess is as good as mine. One of the first things I noticed when I started swimming in Japan was the complete lack of rescue equipment on deck. Nothing. They must be really adept with a flutter board...

Anyway. So, instead of this woman getting out on the side, she struggled to the end of the lane and then got out on the side. She was a larger woman and I cringed as I watched 4 people try to drag her up out of the water at the ladder. Where is the @!$%$#%ing protocol in this country? Finally she was flopped over onto the deck where now 10 people hovered over her. They brought out a mat and haphazardly yanked and dragged her over to it (instead of sliding it underneath her)....sigh.

Remind me never to get injured in this country.

It's late, I'm tired. I'll leave the entertainment part til morning...before class.

Who's missing from this photo?

After not running at all since my Triathlon (a kazillion eons ago), I joined the Toyama Relay Marathon for the 2nd year in a row. Although it was a blast, as always, it wasn't the same without Jimmy-san on the team.

Add this to the "Lessons Learned" list

Never get your hair done on Friday the 13th.



Unless you want blue hair.



No I don' t have photos...I was in too much shock.

ewwww

my lunch today














see the little chunks of gunk in there...it's called surimi and it's nasty.

ground fish meat -it's all gelatinous and slightly gritty.

in a word: gross

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

What time is it Mr. Wolf??

It's Lunch Time!!!

That seems to have been the theme for me at school this week.

First of all, I played 'What time is it Mr. Wolf?' multiple times in my 3rd and 4th grade classes (we're teaching 'time').

I've also had 3 special lunches this week.

Tuesday was 青空ランチ (blue sky lunch) -all the students and teachers took their lunch trays outside and we ate under a very blue sky!

Thursday was ミニミニ席替え　All the 4th graders had gone on a field trip, so their luchroom seats were empty. Instead of leaving them this way, the school invited parents to come and fill the seats and have lunch with us!!

And finally today was お月見　(a moon viewing day) -we in Canada talk about 'the man in the moon' but in Japan they believe you can see rabbits. Tonight is a full moon, unfortunately it's been storming all day and evening, so there will be no lunar viewing enjoyment tonight. Despite this meteorological annoyance we were still able to partake in tsukimi (moon viewing) in the form of dessert today!

Spread the Spookiness

Many of the teachers that I work with have expressed interest in doing a 'trick or treat' lesson in our English classes! But we've hit a snag. We can't give out candy to the students, so we'd like to give them stickers instead! BUT, it's really hard to find Halloween stickers in sufficient amounts here in Japan. SO, I'm sending out a plea to anyone who reads this to please send me some halloween stickers or other small, non-edible goodies that I could hand out to a class of 35 elementary school children.

My mailing address is:

Linea Napier
Sun Heights H-22
Aoki 2519-6
Nyuzen-machi
Shimoniikawa-gun
Toyama-ken
Japan
939-0643

(please don't let it's length frighten you!)

If you're sending stickers in an envelope, the average time from North America is 7-10 days!

Another Weekend in Toga

I went camping again this weekend. Well, I guess some people consider it camping, I'd rather say that I spent the night in a tent. The rest was pretty cushy, including a fridge to store our food and beverages, a sound system (OK, an iPod with speakers, but music nonetheless). and running water. We stayed in a popular camping spot and we rented all the equipment and facilities for the night, all we had to pack was our food and a change of clothes.

My friend Kei set the weekend up for about 15 people, including 2 former JET participants who started JET the same year I did. Amber has just left the JET Programme and is now studying Japanese in Mie-ken. And Brian was a former CIR who left 2 years ago, but is now back in Toyama teaching at the exact same NOVA school that I used to work at!

It was a typical weekend outdoors - frisbee, BBQ, and lots of beer. We managed to get a campfire going later in the evening, which was much appreciated on the cool last-day-of-September weather.

Sunday morning we packed up, had a huge yakisoba meal and then went to the onsen to wash up and soak before heading back to Toyama.

Thanks for the invite Kei, I hope we can do it again next year!

Scary Request

In some of my upcoming elementary school lessons I have to explain and describe Halloween to my students.

The best way to do this is through pictures!

So I need your help!!!

Please send me photos that you have of the following:

Jack-o-lanterns

Costumes (for children)

Crafts

Games/Actvities (i.e. Bobbing for Apples)

Trick or Treating

Parties (for children)

Food

and anything else you can think of!!



Please and thank you very muchly!!!

send to linea.napier@gmail.com

Ribs

Last night I dreamed that I was at an ALL YOU CAN EAT ribs festival. We all sat under a big white tent where they kept the ribs (which were Fred Flintstone sized) loaded on those big folding tables used at rental halls. They had all kinds which were slathered in juicy, greasy sauces.

$33.99 / hour

That's what I dreamed Jimmy was getting paid to work at Tim Horton's.

I really want it to be true for his sake.

I also dreamed he had facial hair.

Care to analyze?

安心マップ

Today instead of teaching classes in the morning, I went out with my students and the other teachers as they mapped their neighborhoods, taking pictures and interviewing people about the possible 'danger' spots they could encounter on their way to and from school.

The students were grouped according to the area they lived in. Then, with a teacher and parent volunteers, they headed out with a map, a digital camera and pen & paper to record areas of concern that they found. My group had an area near the school. We wandered around the side roads and alleyways noting where a stranger could lurk and possibly jump out at students. I thought it was also going to be about dangerous places where students could get hurt, but it was just about places where suspicious individuals could hide without students seeing them.

We spent 3 hours outside, stopping for short breaks in the neighborhood parks where my students showed their aptitude for drawing Anpanman and Sponge Bob.

After we had covered the required area and interviewed the required 3 people, we went pack to the school where the teachers printed out the photos for the students to put on their own large scale, hand drawn map which will be pieced together into one big map of the city.

The only negative part of the day was when the other teacher I was with stopped twice for cigarette breaks, right in front of the students...NEVER would that happen in Canada.

A Rollercoaster Weekend (click here)

It started at 11:30 Friday night.

Mihoko and I jumped in her Mazda and headed for Nagoya.





We drove all night -6 hours to be exact. We parked in front of the gates to Nagashima Spaland (click) and waited for the parking lot to open at 8:00. We were the fourth car in line! Mihoko pointed out a huge rollercoaster standing ominously in the park -the STEEL DRAGON towering above all the other rollercoasters at 318 ft / 98 m tall!! She said that it had been closed for a few years due to an accident and she didn't know when it would be open again...hm.

After sleeping for all of 30 minutes in front of the gates we started to hear banging and clanging... The guy in the car behind us was fixing his engine, and the van behind him was cooking breakfast! No more sleep for us.








Once the gates to the parking lot opened we had to wait for the gates to the amusment park to open at 9:00. We were pretty sleepy but excited to finally have escaped Toyama for a couple of days, we downed some tea and got ready to ride! Once in the park we headed straight to the second largest rollercoaster in the park -the White Cyclone which is 139 ft / 43 m tall and the 9th largest WOODEN rollercoaster in the world. It was crazy!!! I was totally freaked out and couldn't stop thinking that the wood was going to fly apart at any minute. And that's was just the beginning.

The White Cyclone














On the way to our second rollercoaster, we noticed that the Steel Dragon had cars going up. We thought maybe they were just testing it. But when we took a closer look we saw that all the cars were filled with people! It was open again! We made a bee line for the entrance and before we knew it we were screaming our way down the first drop!

The Steel Dragon













We would ride the Steel Dragon (click for video) again later in the day, after testing
Shoot the Chute (click for video), the Space Shuttle, the Viking Ship, the Ferris Wheel and a few other rides. We stopped once for brunch and once for a coffee break...we were having so much fun. Now, some of you are thinking to yourselves, "Yeah, right. Linea rode more than one rollercoaster in a day. Impossible." I too thought I was not going to be able to spend a whole day in an amusement park -riding. Maybe it was the lack of sleep that did it for me, but I had a great time and only felt sick once I got hungry -and that was quickly remedied with some tasty fried rice for brunch! (I felt more ill in the car ride through the mountains than I did on the rollercoasters.)

Unforunately the rides had to come to an end and we said goodbye to the amusement park and headed to the attached outlet mall where we shopped for a few hours before going to Mihoko's cousin's house to spend the night.




























Sunday we had a BBQ with Mihoko's cousin's family and friends and then we met up with Kate, a former Kurobe ALT who is now living in Nagoya. She took us to a great little Chinese tea house/cafe and we caught up on the latest gossip. By this time it was past 4 and we still had a 6 hour drive ahead of us. We made it out of Nagoya city around 5:30 and were home in Nyuzen by 11:30.




















An exhausting but extremely fun weekend.

the whole veiw -click

Are there elevators in Canada??

That's what one of my first graders asked me today during our introductory Q&A time...

CUTE!!!

I also got:

What bugs do you like?
What bugs do you hate?
Do you eat raw bugs in Canada?
Do you like snakes?
What are some famous animals in Canada?
What's your favorite color?
What color don't you like?
Why don't you like purple?
How many pets do you have?
Why don' t you have pets?
How many people in your family?
Do you have any famous foods in Canada?
How tall are you?
Do you have any friends?
What character do you like?
What's your favorite cake?

Inquiring minds wanted to know!

Holy Typhoon!! Holy Mountain.

Japan is notorious for enumerating itself. It started in 1643 when scholar Hayashi Razan listed 'The Three Views of Japan". Since then there have be various other
'Top 3" lists and recently I've learned that there is a list of the 100 most famous roads in Japan.

Well, as of this past weekend I have completed a hat trick of the 3 Famous/Sacred/Holy Moutains of Japan. I climbed Mt. Fuji 4 years ago (in a typhoon), I've climbed Mt. Tate (pronounced ta-tay) and now I've been to the to of Mt. Haku (or Hakusan as it's called here). This time, I and 7 others narrowly averted another typhoon episode on a holy mountain (my ame-ona powers can be annoying...).

In two teams of four, we started out for Ishikawa prefecture Saturday evening hoping to make camp, get up early and conquer Holy Mountain #3 on Sunday. We arrived at our destination- in the rain - to a closed campsite. We took one look at the ryokan (Japanese style inn) nearby, had Chika-chan negotiate a price we couldn't resist, and before we knew it we were snug in our sleeping bags in a nicely heated tatami room.

When we woke up in the morning we had to catch a bus to the trailhead which was still farther up the mountain. We were geared up for at least one night on the mountain, but we knew our plans could easily change with the impending typhoon scheduled to hit around noon on Monday.


















We met some hikers who were heading down and they warned us that tenting at the top was not recommended. Apparently the typhoon was coming faster than first expected.

We made it to the emergency shelter and decided to drop most of our gear off there, head to the summit and then come back for our gear and head back down to the trail head.
















It was great to drop all that weight for the last couple of hours up. We stopped for lunch just before the quick 40 minute sprint to the peak where we took some photos, prayed at the shrine, and then headed down again. It had been a beautiful day (the typical calm before the storm) but the wind was picking up and we certainly didn’t want to be clinging to a rock somewhere when the typhoon blew over.









The climb up was tough, hot at the beginning with lots of slippery spots and some scrambling. But it was nothing compared to the climb down on those same slippery spots and scrambling down. Not long after we left the emergency shelter with our gear, we heard a helicopter overhead.

It was circling Hakusan and telling people to get off the mountain! We paused long enough to get a couple of photos then kept moving so that they’d know we were heading in the right direction -down.








By this time the wind was strong enough to shake us around a bit. We were happy to finally get off the exposed ridge and out of it’s way!

We made it back to the bus stop/shelter around 6:00 p.m., where two of our team mates had already arrived. We had missed the last bus down, so they had negotiated with the guy at the shelter to allow us to stay there for the night. It was a large community room with 3 tatami style benches and 3 wooden benches.

Needless to say, we were tired and hungry. Owen was in charge of dinner and he had all the goods for tom yum soup with thai curry and rice. And to top it all off, we shared a bottle of red wine. Dessert was chocolate and Bailey’s. We were really roughing it!














By the time we were in our sleeping bags the typhoon was on it’s way –about 12 hours early! It hit hard in the middle of the night and kept the big sliding doors rattling nonstop. Some of us didn’t get much sleep and before we knew it it was morning and the mountain patrol was banging on the door asking us when we’d be ready to take the bus down!

We packed up, and said goodbye and thanks to my now favorite of the 3 Holy Mountains. It was just challenging enough, with great weather for the climb, sufficient facilities and astounding views.

My team was great and I would climb with them again any day! Thanks for another weekend of wonderful memories!