~Angelic~

As I sit here at my desk writing this, I am listening to angelic voices. Really it is just my students practicing for the school music festival next Wednesday. It is amazing how beautiful the little tyrants can sound, this is a complete contrast from my typical lesson. (I have yet been able to go practice with the teachers and parents but I am expected to and going to attempt to sing two japanese songs next week in front of all my students like i did last year

Aren't they the cutest little darlings~on the left we have Sena showing off her ishou (costume) and on the right we have Ruki. Ruki was too anxious for a picture she just wanted to show off her jack-o-lantern. I started back teaching my ekaiwa this week. I really do enjoy it, but it is a lot of work to entertain small children with English for an hour. Especially since it is only three students- makes games an issue, but you just look at their cute little faces and it all goes away. Sena and Ruki's mom is in my adult class, and their english rocks... they are not shy so it is a lot of fun to play with them. I recently ran into another one of my ekaiwa students, Aira, at the grocery store. Aira saw me and screamed Eigo no Sensei (I had only taught him once thus far) and then he ran off to find his friends, and i went back to shopping. As I was browsing the various rice toppings I heard the voices of three small children yelling "eigo no Sensie, Eigo no Sensei!!!" they were running around the store looking for me...three wee ones ages 2-6. cute! they wanted to know what I was buying, and how to say miso in English, and they were completely amazed when they learned we also call it Miso.

stay tuned for updates which are on their way because I have been a busy little bee and yet again I have a hefty weekend planned full of Halloween fun and Rock Party madness

The Year Anniversary

Sunday marked the year anniversary of the Niigata Earthquakes

So, It has been a year since I was wildly rocked atop the second floor of Jusco, admist swinging bras and crying kids, full of the fear that the wire racks were going to fall on my head, taken back with the realization that amidsts all the other shopping Japanese ladies, I was the only one who seemed to have learn the duck and cover technique beacausse they were all just looking up and holding on to large heavy pillars or racks. You can read my account of it back in my archives of last year. But here is a picture I never posted. This one I took on my ketai as a crowd formed around the televisions so we could see what happened. The initial report I saw was that the epicenter was in Nagano, people were buzzing that they thought Asama had erupted. Asama is an active steaming volcano about 2 hours from where I live, and when volcanos erupt, earthquakes tend to happen. I can't believe it has been a year, and on top of that I can't believe that this quake was my first of what has turned out to be many while I live here in Japan. I must say that it instills a certain type of fear in you, There are times, like when Sara, Jan, and I are in Tokyo and the ground started to shake, that you fear the worst. I honestly fear being in that city when the predicted "Big One" hits. After seeing photos of the quake that hit Kobe, which is a city, I never want to be in a city when one with the magnitude of the quake I was in last year hits. Even now, a year later, you can still see the aftermath of last years quakes. There are still schools gone, fish dead, mountain sides missing, people struggling to get their life back together. ..even though Niigata is out here in the inaka in the city like Tokyo you still can see the aftermath of that quake, since the quake, I still have not been to Tokyo without seeing people out fundraising for the Victims of the Niigata Earthquake.

My friends and I are all so lucky for our safety last year. And in a year of Natural disasters that have hit so close to home, friends, and family so many times, I am lucky that it is not just times like this that make me think of my blessings, but it sure helps resurface the feeling of "look at what has happened in the last year", what a year. I am so thankful for my safety, blessings, opportunity, friends and family that have surrounded me in my life.

The End of the Season for My Redbirds

Everyday I have been checking on my team, wondering if they have won their game, last year I had enough free time to stream the games and watch them, but this year my schedule is too busy. But now the season has come to an end, the Cardinals lost in game 6 to the Astros, making it The White Sox and the Astros in the World Series. Not only that, but this was also the last season for Busch Stadium (the one we know now) There is a new stadium in Saint Louis, was how much changes in a year, I guess I will get to see it when I come home in December...

So now let's begin our travel back in time....FUJI ROCK

In July I found myself at one of the largest rock festivals in Japan...

FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL.
After nearly a year of living in Japan and only seeing one live show (I saw the Scissor Sisters in February) other than my friends or others rocking out, I packed up my bag, threw together my gear, grabbed my friends and headed to Naeba Ski Resort (the venue)- which convienently is located just a bit over an hour from me here in Niigata. Tiff, Liz, Mel and I met up on the train cracked open our beers and the weekend we had all been waiting for began....on Thursday. We headed up early so we wouldn't miss a beat.

armed with our headlamps we set up camp. Then we head off into the night for an evening of fun.

This is the palace of wonder, complete with a tree made out of exhaust pipes that smoke, to a giant ant eating a car. The artists creations used auto parts. The venue kicked ass. It was HUGE, intriguing and well planned out. The one issue I would say was that it is laid out in a long straight line, making some stages way off in BFE.


main gate on the way to DJ Kentaro's set....

After wandering some, we headed back for some campsite fun and getting to know our new neighbors whom we met in route from the train who moved their gear and camped near us....

They are Uma, Nori, and Nobu.. All three dig great music which is sometimes a challenge for Japanese kids...all three are from Osaka (where I will be going very soon for four days of fun) here Nori is enjoying many many peanuts...

the campsite is set up on the ski slopes, we marked our tent with a Niigata Alberix fan, I knew that that pole we lugged from Arai would come in handy....

Friday Beth came up and joined the fun (as of right now, I have no pics of this day but maybe Beth will provide me with some.... Friday was so much fun!!
Kicked the day off with the first band of the festival. "Cake": man those guys are getting old, so that means I am too!! We then saw one of my highlights of the weekend in the Red Marquee was watching the Kaiser Chiefs. A group of my friends and I gathered up front and danced like there was no tomorrow to many tunes off of their album Employment- and if you don't have this, get it (dance/rock)..Good stuff....After getting sweaty with music love, the girls and I headed over to see another Brit band "The Music" end their set, and then Beth and I saw a bit of "Coldplay", enough to see Chris Martin thank the crowd after the opening song with a sincere "Sayonara" which most everyone in the world knows means Goodbye in Japanese...imagine a band coming out and playing one song then saying Goodbye..that's what happened while heading over to jig away in the mud and watch "The Pogues". I couldn't believe no one else wanted to go and see them. Luckily Beth was there, and we got to watch an inihebriated and staggering Shane MacGowan, reunited with the Pogues, create a crowd of craziness with some Irish tunes drenched with Scotch. The surrounding Japanese folk thought it was funny when we told them that MacGowan is speaking English, but we can't understand it at all....We jigged back to through the mud and ended up in the SKA tent, dancing away (being the center of attention as some people here have horrid shyness issues making dancing a bit difficult at times) we were exhausted and had consumed our fair share of beer at that point, so we headed back.

Only to be woken up by the rest of the folks (particularly Liz and Tif) at some odd hour...don't be mistaken by the smile, I am extremely pissed off here... I know, I know, why are you sleeping you ask?? Because Saturday was my big day...I had people I wanted to see starting at 12 pm with the last one staring at 4am, long day ne.

mama melly
Saturday was the day I had been waiting for...got to see my number 1...BECK!!! I also knew it was going to be a long day for me, as I wanted to see Laurent Garnier spin at 3am...I had been listening to both artists for ages, and had never seen them, so this was my day...

tif and me : Saturday's Shows: The Black Velvets, The Bravery, Asian Dub Foundation, Beck, Fat Boy Slim, Vitalic Laurent Garnier,

fans

waiting for Beck ....I was going nuts waiting for Beck...the roadie would tune a guitar, I would scream...Oh! He is gonna play an elecric set...Then he would tune an acoustic, OH he is going to play an acoustic set!

AGGGH BECK!!! I have waited so long!!

very very happy to see beck face ... The show was awesome!! He completely rocked out and played songs from all my favorite albums. During his acoustic set, which he played Golden Age, the band set down and ate a meal, letting Beck take center stage, and highlighting the show with latin like percussion accompaniment using the silverware and plates as their instruments.

dancing

wooohoo

show

fat boy slim spun a great set, and had a 3D light show to awe the crowd (none of us had glasses but some people around us gave me a peek.

our camp site : Sunday was also a blast. We all partied until we almost missed our train home (we actually did miss one) Sunday was a day for some surreal music: Sunday's shows: caught the last tune of the Magic Numbers, but did not see them, chilled out with Mel and saw Aqualung, rocked out with the gals and the Osaka boys to the Futureheads, ran over to the White Stage singing along with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys on the way (which really entertained the folks around us- it is amazing how many Beach Boy tunes one actually knows) and caught the end of the Doves, then I headed off on my own to the Field of Heaven and danced amoungst the hippies to a favorite of mine Yonder Mountain String Band

(gotta love the Bluegrass) met back up with Liz and Tif for a mind blowing show by Mars Volta

(catch them if you ever get the chance- unreal!) and then to top that off they were followed

by one of my favorite bands to see live Sigur Ros,

a band that is ambient, tearjerking, beautiful, even in the atmosphere of a large festival the crowd was silenced..

after that we danced into the wee hours of the morning to Milo, Peter Hook of New Order (killer set) and DJ Takayuki Serino.

Living in Japan you sometimes run into strange celebrity like photo shoots…We walked by this guy in this hat (the frog one Tiff is wearing) and the next thing we know we are getting our picture taken numerous times with this group of kids...I swear there have to be 15 people out there with a picture of them, us and this hat.

many many chopsticks - waiting to be recycled...next stop, paper!

the boys at the site: Uma, Nori, and Nobu : the site is set on the mountain side, so you sleep (or attempt to sleep) at a strange unpleasant angle

.
All in all the show was a completely rocking time...so amidsts the torrential downpours and the mountains of Niigata a ton of fun was had. Can't wait until next year, I am ready for those swollen dirty feet again.

(photos credited to Tiffany, Smash, and myself)