IrishOboe

I had been taking afternoons off quite often because of all the vacation I have left so I was hardly aware of all the preparations the students were doing for the school festival. If I were to be here another year I would certainly have gotten as involved as I could, but with all the planning and work at home I had to do I didn’t feel that I could stay long hours after school. Part of me wishes I had since there’s nothing like experiencing something from the inside, but I enjoyed the school festival very much none the less. I had a vague idea of what it might be like, but nothing prepared me for what actually went on! The three day festival was one of the most interesting glimpses into Japanese modern life and thinking that I’ve had so far. I hardly think I’ll be able to do it justice in writing about it now. I suspect small tidbits will come at random times in my life as things remind me of how different things are in Japan. For now, I’ll do my best to describe day 1 of the gakuensai (school festival), which includes the opening ceremony, performances by the rock groups and stage performances by every class of the school with talented student act in between.

Everyone headed for the gym for the 9am opening ceremony. Right from the start I was made aware of how totally out of the loop I was since I’d brought my gym shoes but there was no need because they’d put out flooring in the gym. There were chairs set up for everyone (usually they just sit on the floor) and every window, door and crack was covered up so that no light came in. Sadly that meant now air got in either and it became quite hot and humid even though it wasn’t too bad outside. The reason for the covers became quite clear when they turned out the lights for the start of the ceremony. All the sannensei had glow in the dark rings, sticks, and Mickey ears and a cry came up when the lights went out. This was the first time I’d seen they behave as I would expect a bunch of (American) teenagers to behave. I only mention the sannensei because they seemed to have the privilege throughout the festival (some things are quite like America). The sannensei made class festival T-shirts, the ni and sannensei made class fans, and the poor ichinensei seemed to have nothing, but I won’t go into that right now. Certainly everyone was excited though the sannensei made the most noise about it. After a few words from student council and the principal, they projected a movie on the back gym wall. I had an idea of what it would be since the makers (all sannensei) of the film had come to my office to get helping translating the script into English. I had thought it odd that they would make an opening film in English with English slang that probably I alone would understand. Wrong again, Janet. I was the only one who didn’t understand because they had Japanese subtitles and everyone was laughing and hollering so much I couldn’t hear the dialogue, and when I could, I only knew what was said because I remembered the script. Ah well, I understood most of it anyway and it was a very funny video indeed! It was a take off of the Matrix and they had some clever ways of creating home-grown special effects and there were little Japanese things thrown in that were just too funny. At one point as a “good guy” is faced with an army of “bad guys” (sorry Matrix fans, I can’t remember their titles) a hero comes in to rescue on a Japanese style bike (called mamachariots but I call them putt-putt bikes) stopping the enemy with an impressive spinout. Imagine a car chase with the hero in a family van. It just doesn’t work! They seemed to realize the comedy, however, and as the rescuer whisks his buddy away from danger (having allowed him a sit on the back luggage rack) they both topple onto the grassy bank and continue their flight on foot. I’m begging the powers that be to give me a copy of that video. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousands words and the art of a people shows their soul. The spirit of that video is the spirit of my students and I want to remember and share it.

They ended the video with the victors making their commanding walk toward the gym doors, as the video showed their approach the doors the music rose to crescendo, the gym doors opened and the spot light fell on the real heroes as them marched in with their shades and black suits. You can imagine the crowd went wild. This group of boys led most of the ceremonies for the festival and are the equivalent to student council as far as I can tell. I found out at the end that this is their last chance to be kid and have fun. They have to retire their positions soon. Why so early? With two months of their last year of high school already underway it’s time to stop all the silly stuff and get busy studying for college exams – but wait – I was talking about their creative job running the school festival.

After some short speeches (they could have bit funny blips but I couldn’t understand them) each class representative came in with his class flag and gave a short “go us” speech. After that the curtains opened at the rock bands blared and the students gathered at the base of the stage. For all the speakers and the professionally sound men it really wasn’t too loud. That made it bearable. With all due respect to the musicians, it sounded like Japanese pop music karaoke. I hope that’s a compliment to them. To me that means a driving beat, overwhelming bass, and a voice that screams in some unrelated key. It’s the later bit that drives me nuts. I can’t sing karaoke because I can’t get the pitch from the mess of the bass, which is all you can hear. I think of it as my own deficiency, but really the fault lies in letting this small matter bother me. It doesn’t seem to stop anyone else! Hey, as long as you have the words and the hand motions, plus some flashing lights for added excitement, you have a concert, right? The kids loved it.

Next all the ichinensei performed. This year they had to sing a song all together. For some bizarre reason three out of the six classes did Christian songs! They far from understood or appreciated what they sang (including “Hail Mary”), and it puzzles me, except to think that large choral music is a Western genre, but some classes did a Jpop piece together, which I would have thought would be more popular. One cool thing was that for each class a student accompanied and a student conducted, and from what I could tell of the preparation, the students trained themselves as well. Truly, some of the performances sounded like a Musica Nova performance at Eastman (and you know what music is adored there). I was almost fooled into thinking they were supposed to sound that way. Too bad they can’t reproduce it – they could be famous! Really, though, I enjoyed it. I might have the same criticism of the dances the other classes did, but I don’t know much about dance, so I don’t.

After a break for lunch the best part of the day began. The ninensei were given more freedom with what they could do and a bit more time. Group dancing was by far the most popular choice. I don’t watch television, but I’m vaguely aware that to most Jpop music there are set dances that a group of back-up dances do to the song. They all do the same thing and stand in one place moving their arms and sometimes legs and hips around. It is totally beyond my comprehension and appreciation, but the Japanese love it. They watch the video, imitate it and perform together on stage. The bit that put the dances over the top for me was the popularity of dressing the boys in drag. Nearly every class that had dancing had the boys dressed up in girl school uniforms. They often went complete with rolled up skirts, make-up, wigs, and breasts. I do have to say that given the fair complexion of most boys, their lack of hair, plus the fact that Japanese girls aren’t very shapely, most of the boys made for pretty good looking girls! The feminine gestures that Japanese boys have made it all the more convincing. Still, I wonder at the obsession. Maybe it’s just one of those traditions. Some boys wouldn’t have surprised me given their crazy personalities, but even the shy ones I’d never in a million years believe would allow themselves to be displayed like that participated. Explain to me why they are afraid to say more than three words of English to me but they’ll stand up on stage waving their arms around like fools in mini-skirts and make-up. Ah, that’s right, I forgot that I’m the fool in this country. . .

My favorite ninen performance was class 2-4. They did some dance, which has now faded among the memory of all the other dances, but for the last half of their show they did tricks with double dutch jump roping. The cool lighting and music helped, but they did a great job of entertaining. They had a stream of people jump threw in a criss-cross pattern then they jumped two at a time and turned around and switched places while jumping. Then Hiroki did a handstand trick which looked so cool and somehow the people holding the jump rope managed to turn around and do it backwards and pass of the ropes and jump inside themselves for a while. I still haven’t worked that one out in my mind. They topped the show off with an impressive stunt where they guys holding the jump rope bend over and a kids from each side leap-frogged over their backs and into the jumping zone. That was so cool! The crowed loved it, too and at the sports day the next day many ichinensei were trying to imitate the tricks.

I also really enjoyed the class 1-1 hip-hop skit. I don’t know much about hip-hop, but they worked hard and really did some dancing. It was impressive!

The sannensei shows were even crazier, for they were allowed large props and lots of time. I had a good seat for most of them because I was waiting to play whistle between sets. I can’t say that I really prepared for it since I was asked only a few days before and was too busy to think much about it. I decided to change what I’d play while I was waiting for my turn. I was mentally preparing myself for the worst rejection of my life since Irish whistle is a far cry from the craziness of the rest of the day’s entertainment. Still, I thought if I started with Amazing Grace instead of County Down they’d have at least something to hang on to. Amazing Grace held their attention. I was surprised with how quiet it was. I wonder how much of it had to do with my choice of starting off stage and walking up to the mike. Anyway, when I settled into a jig they happily clapped along and tried to push my tempo. I wouldn’t let them but I was going to give them a chance to pick up the pace when I changed to a reel. It didn’t seem to bother them that they couldn’t find the beat of my jig and when I switched to the reel, a moment that usually gets hoops and yelps from an Irish crowd, it was totally lost. Really, they seemed utterly confused (how could one change time in the middle of a piece?!) I guess I should be happy that they clapped throughout since it means they had some interest, yet it has hardly one of those satisfying performances, though I was rather impressed with how well I could keep tempo with all the clapping.

But back to the sannensei shows. Two classes in particularly did a creative job. The first was Matrix Ping Pong. I knew as soon as I saw the stage set that they would do the skit on an Internet video clip that Jon once sent to family. Check it out. Sure enough, they did the exact sequence (I studied the video for a long time when Jon sent it because I thought it was so cool) plus they added a few creative bits (for example, adding a flame trail to the ball at some point). They did a good job and I was impressed with how well they were able to imitate the video. My guess is that they put together their skit by watching the video like they do with the dance.

My favorite buy far was class 3-5. They did a Super Mario Brother video game skit. They cutest little Mario ran in place on stage and figures dressed in black (in the same manner as the ping pong skit) carried obstacles (painted on cardboard) along toward Mario and he would jump and grab and do all those things that he does in the video game. The music really made it, I think. Somehow they timed it all just right – his jumps, his killing of enemies, his grabbing of coins, all had the appropriate music. They even had him jump on a turtle, which turned into an empty shell (by flipping the cardboard box around) which then bounced off the back wall and came back to Mario, who jumped out of the way allowing the shell to knock off other enemies. It was just so clever and looked and sounded so much like the game I loved it. He jumped between worlds down a green tube and the words got ever more creative. At one point he fought Yoda in a light saber fight (complete with use of the force to retrieve the sabers) and did Double Dutch jump rope. Sadly, he never was able to nail his trick, but that gave us the occasion to watch him “die.” When he clipped the rope the “dead” music came on and he jumped down into a pile then sprang back up again where he left off. In the end he won his bride and they flashed GAME OVER. How creative! I wonder if they’d seen that one done, too. . . Oh darn, as I write this I’ve discovered that it has been done before! Here’s the link. Oh well, it was creative and well done anyhow. I think my kids did a better job with Mario running and certainly had more creative levels!

I think that was it for Day 1. I wrote enough! I’ve spent my whole Friday evening trying to relate the experience and I haven’t touched on Day 2 or 3! Stay tuned for more craziness!