magic, graduation, and a museum (of sorts)

Cyril performing
see all photos »

The academic year in Japan runs from April - March.  As such, the run-in to the graduation ceremony in March involves very little teaching.  Students who aren't graduating have exams, and study for them with their native Japanese, English teachers only (apparently we ALT's are not actually required when it comes to knuckling down with some real study!).

Most of the past weekends have been pretty quiet affairs.  It seems the novelties of Japan have pretty much worn off on us now, and a trip to the local shrine no longer holds the same excitement it once did and supermarkets are now a 'super draining'.  We now have to travel a bit further to get that "wow, we're somewhere new" buzz.  Instead, we have been spending our Sundays relaxing at home or sifting round our town enjoying the spring sunshine (plum blossom is out in force now).  I now spend most of my Saturdays playing futsal with some local high school kids to give myself something to do while Karen is at work, and in an attempt at getting fit.

Teachers passed sake round like it was water

Taku's confuscious shrine.
see all photos »

- Magic show -

However, in the midst of living the 'quiet-life', one night of entertainment came midweek when eight of us headed north to Fukuoka, and went to a magic show.  We all went to see the, youtube famous, magician Cyril Takayama.  Having seen a number of the videos on youtube we were all very excited to see him live.

Upon arrival (stressfully, with only two minutes to spare I might add) we quickly found out how popular Cyril Takayama is in Japan. The theater was a pretty decent size, and full, with what I estimate to be over a thousand people were in the audience, much more than I had imagined there would be.  Unfortunately our seats were one row from the back, right up in the "cheap seats"!  Still, it didn't really matter as a couple of large projector screens had been put up supplying a great view of all the tricks and illusions, and honestly, it was just being there that made it cool in the first place.

a look at the tiles in shade
see all photos »

Cyril is definitely a talented man, ranging from illusion, to performance magic, to "street tricks" and slight of hand.  A number of his tricks really had us wondering "how on earth did he do that?!"  For one of my favourite illusions, he somehow made a card go into a fish tank, after he threw the cards against the glass.  Then he put his hand and arm through a napkin, and consequently through the glass, into the tank to retrieve the card from the other side!  He then pulled out slowly and wiped the glass with the napkin to reveal not a trace of broken glass?!  Check out youtube for a proper look at what I am poorly describing.

Shino-chan the acrobatic!
see all photos »

Final verdict, Cyril is awesome!  Check him out if you haven't already.  And, if you ever get a chance, check out one of his shows.

- Graduation -

This years graduation was a great day.  Having worked with the graduating students for the past year, and therefore, knowing a lot of them relatively well, it was a sad, but proud affair.  The Ceremony itself was a mixture between times of total boredom (very normal for me in long ceremonys spoken in only Japanese) and moments of witnessing touching sincerity and inspirational emotion amongst the students, staff and parents.

a weird dance routine
see all photos »

Although I didn't understand the words the second year student spoke during her address to her elder, third year students, I did understand the meaning and feeling behind it.  I have always thought of Seiryo as a very special school, one in which all students seem to get along with, and respect, one another.  I could see on the faces of the first and second year students that I was right.  They really held an enormous amount of respect for the graduating students and valued the time they had been able to share at the school with them.

karen's cell phone and toys
see all photos »

It was impossible to spot a dry eye during a song that was sung to the graduating students by the first and second years.  It was a truly moving performance by all of them.

After all the formalities, speeches and songs, the conclusion to the ceremony involved all the remaining students lining the outside of the gymnasium, the parents standing five meters in, and also forming a line around the gym, making a pathway in the middle.  It was down this path that the graduating students took their final walk class by class.

Jonathon Dragon DJ
see all photos »

That night we had a teachers enkai (party).  The food was pretty good, I managed to eat at least half of it (which is actually a very good sign)!  Most of the teachers let loose, got hammered and had a great night.  I only stayed for as long as my wallet allowed (until the end of the "first" party), but had a great night nonetheless.  Teachers passed sake round like it was water, refilled each others glasses with beer every minute or so, sang karaoke (badly), danced, and even threw the third year home room teachers into the air in celebration of their hard work and achievement.

Yamauchi saturday soccer kick around
see all photos »

- Ureshino sex museum -

Another Tuesday snuck up on us and brought some more entertainment, this time in the form of some laughs at the Ureshino sex museum.  For anyone interested in visiting, it's easy to find.  Just drive towards Ureshino from Takeo and look for the massive gold statue on your right, there's also a six foot stone penis out the front, you can't miss it!

Now, although visiting was a must for us (since we live here it had to be done at some stage), it wasn't actually that good, and for the admission price (1,500 yen) I would not recommend it.

ume (plum) blossom
see all photos »

Basically the museum houses a lot of old Japanese art (old school porn), strange displays and a sex shop.  None of the information has been translated into English, which is quite understandable as we are probably the first foreigners to go through it this year.  As well as the old art, there is a small room with sex toys from present day as well as older times.  The funniest exhibits were the displays of mannequins in various settings and positions.  Mostly, they were just weird, but, sometimes weird equals funny so it was all good .  There was a display of superman having sex, a couple on a camel, a lady on a beach, a man who's pants dropped reavealing a "two-incher", a pool party, and more.

some children painting at the plum orchard
see all photos »

At the end of the "tour" we ended up at a very home made (some chairs, a couple of couches and a projector screen) cinema playing a Japanese porn.  The next, and final room was a sex shop, decked out with DVD's, Video's, toys, costumes (including junior high school outfits! WTF!) posters, and an old lady behind the counter.  Needless to say, we didn't spend any money and were soon on the road to Matt's house for dinner feeling a tad let down by the somewhat average Ureshino sex museum.