Catching Up Pt. 2

Alright, so now that I've gone over essentially everything that happened in February, I'll talk about what happened in March. I'm kind of excited about March, because I went to my favorite type of concert: a Japanese drumming concert, called Taiko. It was at a local temple, and was performed as a play, called "Kiyohime and Anchin". But I'm getting ahead of myself.

(My favorite group, Kodo, is actually performing in a nearby city in early June, actually, and I'll be going to see them with a few exchange student friends! I'm super excited.)

So after I expressed an interest in going to see a Taiko performance, Rotary invited me and two other exchange students to a showing at a nearby temple. The Doujo that the Taiko drummers belong to isn't actually just for drumming; it's also a traditional dance studio, and we got to see some traditional dancing as well.

Anyway, the Taiko performance was about two...I hesitate to call them lovers, because while they were in love at one point, the man, Anchin, quickly fell out of love. However the woman, Kiyohime, was still in love, and was so angry when she figured out that he didn't have feelings for her anymore that she chased him basically across the whole of Japan before killing him. And apparently she turned into a giant serpent because she was just that angry. 

You know, I kind of understand where that story is coming from, though. After all, my mom also turns into a dragon when my dad does something stupid.

(Just kidding. I'm sorry mom.)

I researched this story after I saw the performance, I have to admit, just because it's really hard to convey turning into a dragon with just props. Also there was some speaking going on, but during Japanese story telling they tend to use old terms that even the modern Japanese don't know, so I was confused. At least the drumming was VERY COOL. There is something very satisfying about watching a bunch of fit people hit drums. Here's a video--I'm crossing my fingers that it'll work, but these things so rarely do.

Anyway, after that we watched a bunch of amateur performances by elementary schoolers, middle schoolers, and high schoolers. Very cute all around! This performance was also during cherry blossom time, so I got some nice pics of the temple. 

I found it very pleasing to ride through the mountains when there were sakura blossoms on the trees. Japan in the spring is the best. 

Anyway, continuing on. I got to see the semi-finals for the high school baseball league! You may be wondering, the semi-finals for the high school baseball league? Yes, that is correct. Baseball is a huge thing in Japan; there's a stadium in Osaka completely dedicated to the Spring and Summer league. The league is called 'Koshien', and I'm really disappointed that I'm missing this summer, because I really wanted to watch all of it.

Anyway, my host mom and I got to go because her coworker's child was on one of the teams, Chiben. Chiben won, and here's something I don't say often, but sometimes it's the truth: real Japan is sometimes a lot like anime Japan. Here's the story.

It was the bottom of the ninth, and the score was 0-1, with the other team in the lead. Chiben was having it's final at-bat, and here's the thing--no one actually had expected Chiben to win, because they'd been losing the entire game. 

But then one of the kids hit a huge one, and managed to get the two on base home. I think the stands literally exploded--everyone jumped to their feet and started screaming, and this guy who I'd only met that day reached out and grabbed my hand as we were all jumping and screaming. And then everyone started crying--Chiben was crying, my host mom was crying, I nearly started crying too out of solidarity. It was so much fun.

Anyway, so like I said in the last post--I had my aikido black belt test last week, and I passed! I am now a certified black belt! (Haha that reminds me--the other day in aikido I was paired up with this one friend of mine. And in aikido, you're trying to make people unbalance and fall over, essentially. So what I did was I pointed at his chest and said, "What's that?" When he looked down, I flicked his nose and pushed him over. Being a black belt really just gives you license to be eccentric.)