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| JET Adventures 23 - Opera and the moon party |
| Saturday, October 08, 2005 |
It's all been happening this week. Amazingly it's yet another long weekend (this time it's Sports Day on Monday, or "staying-in-bed day" as I like to call it). The school made everyone go to a traditional Okinawan opera (kumi odori, possibly). No one really wanted to go but it's all part of the drive to keep Okinawan culture alive. The reason teachers and students alike were dragging their feet was because the opera is done in Okinawan dialect that no one understands, and they all speak and move v-e-r-y-s-l-o-w-l-y. It was only an hour long but I found myself falling asleep. I felt a bit better when I turned round and saw half the theatre were unconscious though. The story was: girl meets boy, girl falls in love with boy, boy isn't really interested, girl turns into a big demon, comedy priests kill girl - let that be a lesson to all of us.
Yesterday was the Moon Viewing party. No one I asked knew why Okinawa celebrated this festival - we didn't even get to see the moon as the party was held in the basement of a 5* hotel. I thought it would be a relaxed affair, just chilling out and drinking awamori but the PE teachers had put togther an intensive agenda of games (some kind of version of Give Us A Clue and a baffling game with sticks that I was "chotto rubbish" at - my own words used against me!), poetry reading, guitar playing and prizes given out at random. The comedy moment of the night was when I went to congratulate the Vice Principal on his guitar playing. Only instead of saying "Sensei no sanshin wa kando shimashita" (I was deeply moved by your guitar playing) I said "Sensei no sanshin wa kendo shimashita" (Your guitar playing made me want to hit you with a big stick). Chotto rubbish indeed!
After the party had finished some of us went back to the school so we could carry on drinking at the karaoke bar next door and I was amazed to see loads of students still at school, doing marching band activities and sports all in the dark. They didn't seem very surprised to see a bus load of teachers reeking of awamori giggling and staggering about so I guess this sort of thing happens all the time.
It amazes me how much time the students spend at school. When I arrive at 8am they've already been there for an hour, running, training, playing musical instruments - and when I leave at about 5ish they're there doing it all over again. They're there Saturday and Sunday too, all of their own accord. The only thing that is more amazing is how awful the teachers are at drinking. One sniff of alcohol and they're falling over, standing on the tables, wearing girl's clothes and singing boyband songs. I'm fairly sure I can drink every single one of them under the table, maybe I will suggest a banzai challenge, then we can see who is the most chotto rubbish. |
posted by Alice @ 8:03 pm  |
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