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My grandmother died last night in the US… or in the middle of the afternoon here in Japan. She was suffering from alzheimers and I guess pretty out of it these past couple years, so I guess its good that she and my family don’t have to suffer anymore. In any case, it’s no fun to be living in another country when family members die. I lost both my grandparents while I was over here and I wasn’t able to see the funeral services or meet with family members either time. That makes you feel like a bad family member. Rest in peace, Granny.

This is kind of random, as it happened a few years ago, but I just remembered it this morning as I was reading the Latin news.

Years back when I was a Ringling student, my friend asked me if I wanted to go to a Latin club with her and her friend. I was so shocked and excited — not having spoken any Latin since high school — that I said yes in an instant; I didn’t think properly that they were big salsa dancers and went to clubs weekly. You can imagine my disappointment when I got there…

“Guten taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag!”
“Johannes Brahms?!?!?!”

This is a painting that I meant to paint last year. Actually, it was the first painting I planned on painting in Takefu, after seeing the summer festival fireworks last Obon vacation. I ended up sketching it, but never got around to painting it, as I was focusing in digital paintings. I finally got around to it — I did it in gouache rather than digital, and I was floored by how quickly I did it. I had forgotten how much extra time it takes me to do digital rather than traditional paintings… and of course by how fast gouache is compared to oil. The whole thing probably took me 3 or 4 hours to do, and it was super fun. The downside to gouache, though, is that if it get so much as slightly wet, the image will be ruined… and also that the scan doesn’t look half as good as the real painting.

I’m giving it to Hitomi’s dad, since the first time I met him he jokingly demanded that I paint him something. Plus he said he’d trade me his daughter for a painting. Nice. I had been working on an oil for him, but this one turned out so much better than the other one.

Fireworks Over Hino River

(So this was at the beginning of the month — 2nd, 3rd, and 4th — but I haven’t had time until now to write it…)

Amazing sunset!

It definitely feels like I’ve been here for a year now. Earlier this month I went to the Phoenix Festival up in Fukui, like I did last year. Last year it was the first time I had a chance to meet Minako and Hiro in Japan — I went up there for just one day, took a short tour of Fukui, had my first Fukui soba, and saw some yosakoi dancing.

Yosakoi

This year I went for a bit longer — I visited each of the 3 days. The first night was the big yosakoi celebration, and Hitomi’s students were performing, so I went to watch. I had to work late, so I only got to see the tail end of it, but I did get to see some amazing dancing. It was hot as balls, and they closed off the main street in Fukui for the dancing and filled it with shops cooking hot food, and hot, sweaty people.

Hokkaido Yosakoi

I also got to see a really good guest dance squad from Hokkaido (where yosakoi comes from) who danced in traditional Hokkaido style — by stripping off all their clothes and dancing naked.

Naked Hokkaido Yosakoi

After that there was another combined dance, with the local schools, the Hokkaido school, and some folks off the street. Quite fun, but we booked out of their early to beat the unbelievable crowds on the train home.

Don't touch the naked people!

The next day we had bon dance practice (more on that later) and then in the afternoon went back to Fukui for more festival. This was just like when I went with Minako and Hiro — hot as hell and sunny. But it was fun; we saw tons of small shops selling beer and festival food, lots of games and performances, and thousands of people in yukata! I love watching people wearing yukata, so it was quite fun. I also won a bouncy money head by fishing it out of a pool with a paper string and a hook.

Shopping at Japan's wonderful stores...

I took this same photo last year, when I was fatter and had shorter hair...

My monkey head!

Hitomi and my monkey head by the castle

It was soooooo hot, so we had to get home and cool down. But there was more the next day, so we came back. The final day of the Phoenix Matsuri was the fireworks. The previous week (as you may remember) we went shopping after the gospel concert to buy yukata. So we finally got a chance to put them on and head back to Fukui for the fireworks show.

Hitomi changing into her yukata -- gotta love the Ukiyo-e on the wall behind her!

And here's me in my yukata.

Watch out, kid!

The fireworks were nice. The atmosphere was great, of course… steaming hot weather, night time, hundreds of people walking around in wooden shoes that make great sounds. After a while though (Japanese fireworks shows can last hours!) we got tired and went to a bar before catching the last train home. Nothing like bar food and beer on a hot summer night!

Hitomi at the bar

Me at the bar -- drink up!

Just a quit post to say I’m out of the hospital/not sick anymore and my summer vacation is over… hurrah… Back to work. The good side of this is that I was able to schedule a date to have my tonsils taken out. Finally.

The doctors here were like, “Oh wow. Every month??? That must hurt a lot. Of course you’d want your tonsils out.” Contrast that with the doctors in the US: “Yeah… it’ll go away on its own. Yes, each time. No, there’s nothing you can do about it. No, there’s no need for surgery. At all.”

So despite having some horrible times this week, I’m a bit relieved that I was able to handle the hospital in Japanese on my own while running a 104 fever, as well as (with Hitomi’s very much needed help) schedule a surgery date.

On a further note, I got a phone call yesterday from the headquaters in Nagoya checking up on me. It’s a nice thing I guess — caring about me and all. But it definitely served to underscore the way your job in Japan is like Big Brother. Of course I guess it’s not a perfectly fair assessment considering the kind of job I’m in, and being a foreigner in Japan…

So I had a lot planned to write this past week — the Phoenix Matsuri, the BBQ in the mountains, my trip to Osaka, and the Takefu Bon dance — but the fever cut them short. So I’ll try catching up on them sometime this week.

I laughed until I cried after I saw this. Made me feel sick again…