Once upon a time, in the far away land of Japan there was an old women and an old man.
They wished everyday for snow so that they could go skiing. But, the snow refused to come and the cold winds of autum continued to blow. But, one day they saw in the sky what looked to be snow but, it wasn't coming down like snow and it was blowing in all different directions. "What is that?" The old man wondered. When the snow like things got closer, the old women and old man gasped. They were bugs. "This is not snow?" the old women said. But, within a weeks time snow began to fall. And that is the story of Yuki mushi.....jk.
Actually I don't completely understand the whole backing behind the yuki mushi (snow bugs). But, I do know that its a Japanese superstition. Basically Yuki mushi are white aphids. Once they start coming out in full, that within a week or two snow will fall. Lately they have been so many, I believe I have eaten some while riding my bike. Everybody has been saying it will snow on Tuesday or Wednesday this week. I completely don't believe them because we have been having such great sunny weather but know it is suddenly very cold. Maybe over night it will snow. If that happens I will totally believe in the Yuki Mushi power because if my memory serves right last Tuesday was when I started to see them all the time. I guess only time will tell.
EDIT (Oct. 26..Tuesday): OK. The Yuki mushi theory is totally true. I snowed. :( Bring on the winter.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
The School Festival
Right now the fall leaves have started up and the weather is slowly getting colder and colder. For schools that usually means school festival time. A school festival is the Japanese schools way of allowing parents and others to come to the school for the day or two days, and enjoy what their kids can do.
School festivals (for Jr. high) usually start out with chorus contests. Each grade sings one song that each class in their grade has too, followed by their classes song of choice. After this one group is chosen as the winner in each grade, as well as an overall winner. The overall group gets to preform against the other schools in the area at a big hall concert. After singing each class/grade performs either a dance or a play. Than there is lunch time, in which the students help to serve the lunches (usually made by PTA moms in Jr. High). Than finally in the afternoon each class sets up their games/shops, and the parents and others get to shop around and play the games the kids created.
The elementary school festivals are not as intense. They last only in the morning time, about 9 - 12. First, they start off with the whole school singing a song, as well as their school song. Than each grade performs either a play or does music/sings. Each grade gets about 30 minutes to preform. Than everybody goes home and the poor teachers have to clean up the gym.
The great thing about Japanese schools is that they have things like this. The bad thing about things like this is....they tend to use time that should be spent studying in the classroom on it. Often two weeks before the festival the schools will slowly start to cancel afternoon classes so that the students can work on their festival instead. Sounds great right!? No, because they still have to get though the textbook by the end of the year. This means after the school festival teachers tend to push though the textbooks super fast to make up for lost time, which in turns means the kids don't have any idea what is going on, (at least in English).
Don't get me wrong though, I love school festivals. I just wish they could do them without missing so much class time.
School festivals (for Jr. high) usually start out with chorus contests. Each grade sings one song that each class in their grade has too, followed by their classes song of choice. After this one group is chosen as the winner in each grade, as well as an overall winner. The overall group gets to preform against the other schools in the area at a big hall concert. After singing each class/grade performs either a dance or a play. Than there is lunch time, in which the students help to serve the lunches (usually made by PTA moms in Jr. High). Than finally in the afternoon each class sets up their games/shops, and the parents and others get to shop around and play the games the kids created.
The elementary school festivals are not as intense. They last only in the morning time, about 9 - 12. First, they start off with the whole school singing a song, as well as their school song. Than each grade performs either a play or does music/sings. Each grade gets about 30 minutes to preform. Than everybody goes home and the poor teachers have to clean up the gym.
The great thing about Japanese schools is that they have things like this. The bad thing about things like this is....they tend to use time that should be spent studying in the classroom on it. Often two weeks before the festival the schools will slowly start to cancel afternoon classes so that the students can work on their festival instead. Sounds great right!? No, because they still have to get though the textbook by the end of the year. This means after the school festival teachers tend to push though the textbooks super fast to make up for lost time, which in turns means the kids don't have any idea what is going on, (at least in English).
Don't get me wrong though, I love school festivals. I just wish they could do them without missing so much class time.
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