8th July, 2007 - University Festival

As you may not know, every Saturday I take myself down to Yamaguchi University and engage in two hours of Japanese class. It's not usually very exciting, except on occasions like today.
On the way to class I was confronted with crowds of people dressed in Yukata (traditional Japanese dress), all busy erecting stages and stalls.
"Why?" I thought, "Is it the summer vacation already?"
"No, that isn't till next month."
"Must be because of Tanabata" which is a traditional summer festival, based on a story about two gods who fell in love. Read the Tanabata Wiki.
"No, it is just a school festival."

I'm sure not everyone has had the same experience as me. But when I was in University, our school festival was pretty lame. I mean, it was just an open day really, where prospective students would come and see some exhibitions of student work. But this festival was excellent, so much preparation had gone into it! This picture is one of the floats they had built. There was also an outdoor stage with live dancing and about fifty stalls run by students, selling everything from Rice Cakes to Kirin Draught.
I even wandered into one of the classrooms and found a sound stage had been set up, complete with mixing equipment and lighting. It was really exciting, and I could really feel a sense of community amongst students. Makes me feel good about Japan's future, if they only put half as much effort into their studies.

27th June, 2007 - Whaling

I had an interesting discussion about whaling in Japan with some of my students today. To me, and many others, whales are symbols of peace, that remind us of just how diverse our great planet is. I think many modern thinking Japanese people would agree with me on that point.
As many Australians and other world citizens may not know, many Japanese where raised on a diet of whale meat. It was served for lunch in the school cafeteria. I think many people in Australia and other resource rich nations, who have such an abundance of food, forget that Japan has only the ocean as it's farm.

While Japan is taking whales under the guise of "scientific research" they use the majority of the whale for culinary consumption. It is quite a delicacy here. I am a little ashamed to say that I have tried it, but I can assure you it's nothing to call home about. I would rather have a steak any day of the week.
In summary, I think we have strike a balance. I think Japanese have to understand how the world community feel about our globe trotting mammal friends, and that the global community should consider Japan's culture of living from the sea. With those ideas in mind, we can sustainability enjoy whales, one of our greatest natural resources.

24th June, 2007

It's 2am I've been busy putting this site up all weekend. I got something to show! Sweet. I can add streaming sound into these pages, which is really cool. I want to add a juke box of my CDs. So many cool things to do on the internet, I don't know why everybody isn't a nerd.