50k Words in 30 days


As you may have noticed on my widget bar on the left, I am an official participant of Nanowrimo 2009. For those of you who don't know, Nanowrimo is short for National Novel Writing Month. Each year in November, people from around the world sit in front of their computers and type away in order to meet the Nanowrimo's goal: writing a 50 000 word novel in 30 days.

I discovered Nanowrimo in December 2007 and was really sad to see that the event was already over. Last year, I was ready to give the challenge a try. I had the names of my characters but no plot and absolutely no idea where the story would lead. I ended up thirty days later with a 70 000 word novel.

I've been writing stories ever since I was in elementary school and even had a 160 pages manuscript going on when I was in junior high school. Unfortunately, whenever I wrote, I would never finish my stories; I always knew how to start and finish the tale but never how to get from A to B. Last year, the pressure from the deadline forced me to write at a madman's speed and thanks to that, I was able to finish my first story, ever.

Of course the final result is nothing I would even dare to send to a publisher but with a lot of editing, I think it has potential. My friend Gen, who keeps me going by reading my new updates daily, surely seems to think so. I must say, tho, that I prefer the novel I'm currently writing.

So far I have 17600 words. I plan to rocket that to 25k this weekend. If you are doing the Nanowrimo, I would love to become your writing buddy. I go by the name of kanmuri and this is my profile page.

To learn more about nanowrimo, please take a look at their excellent website.



Because I like biting bread off a stick

November came and suddenly it's as if the Gods have realized they had left the heater's switch on; they turned it off. It is coooold! Since our house has no insulation (Yay! for Japanese houses) we have the joy of waking up to a nice 10 degrees Celsius... It makes getting out of bed even harder.

We got our first snowfall on Monday night continuing through Tuesday morning but it all melted away. It'll be a while before it stays. I saw pictures of that crazy snowfall in the US and it makes me glad to be sitting at my heated table, inside.

Last Saturday, Mr. kanmuri and I braved the early morning cold and drove to Morioka to take part in the Lalala's International Sports Festival. Lalala is a small international group which organizes numerous activities to promote cultural exchange. You can learn more about them here.

During my career as a teacher in Japan I have seen many Sports Festival but up until last Sunday, I had never taken part into one. This sports event was modelled after the ones taking place in elementary schools. It was tons of fun.

Here are some pictures. I will try to explain the different competitions. If you want to know more about the origin of sports festivals in Japan take a look at this post I wrote a while ago.


Our team, the White team.

Bread Eating Competition
In this activity we had to walk in hoops to reach the pole with dangling bags of bread. Then, we had to bite off the bags with our teeth.



Victory is mine


Caterpillar Walk
For this activity we had to walk in a huge cardboard caterpillar and then push a ball around with a stick.





Pop the Balloon
This game was really simple. We all tied balloons to our legs and then had to pop the balloons of the opposite team.




Throw the balls in the basket
The title pretty much says it all. The first team to finish wins. We won twice because our team had all the tall people :D I don't have pictures of us in action because everyone took part in the game.



Boot Camp
I don't know what this one was called but it reminded be of a military exercise with the net thing. Simple game, we had to crawl under the net, and then take down paper baskets with a ball attached to a string.



Race
I'm sure this game has a name but I don't know it. Ten people of each team tied their feet to two parallel ropes and raced across the gym. We won, two times :D





In the end, our team won by two points and Mr. kanmuri was chosen as the MVP of the event.



Both Red and White teams


And lastly...







I got the sliced bread... oh yeah!

Wedding Favors: A poll!!

It seems like all I post about lately is weddings... I hope my male readers will forgive me. Today I want your opinion on wedding favours. I'm trying to figure out what I should give my guests and would like to know what you would like to receive, were you to come to my wedding. My wedding will be held in February so I decided to use a winter/snow theme.


Snowflake wine bottle stopper


Snowflake coasters


Snowflake ornament

Tiffany blue sugared almond set

Fancy chocolates

What favours would you like to receive (select two)?
Snowflake wine bottle stopper
Snowflake coasters
Snowflake ornament
Tiffany blue sugared almond set
Fancy chocolates


ugg boots


I also intend to buy a few goodies in South East Asia to complete the gift bags and I'm thinking about making cookies, too.  If you have any good ideas, please share them with me!!

Hybrid Wedding

In my post about the Japanese wedding, I mentioned that I also had been to another wedding during the same weekend. Today, I want to tell you more about that one.

I must say that I had really high expectations for that second wedding because I knew it was going different; my friend Ellie, an American girl, was getting married to Eiji, a Japanese guy. I just couldn't wait to see how they would reconcile two wedding traditions. I was not to be disappointed.




Once again I could go about the party for ages but I'll stick to the things that were interesting. Although quinn has assured me that no one can be electrocuted by the low voltage of a keyboard, I still don't want to take a chance!!

1. Exchange of the rings
Not only did the two exchange the usual rings, but they also exchanged bracelets that one of their friends had made especially for them. I thought it was a nice that they included the bracelets, too. Plus, it was a beautiful display of friendship.




2. Sake drinking
In Japanese traditional wedding ceremonies, the groom and the bride usually drink sake. They share the same cup and drink the alcohol in three sips. Although Ellie and Eiji decided against a formal ceremony, they still decided to keep this element and performed this little ritual during the reception. Mr. kanmuri told me that it was only water, not real sake. I need to ask Ellie about that. Anyway, it was really interesting and I was glad I could see it.


 
 

3. Sake barrel
Not long after the sake drinking ritual, the groom and the bride were joined by their parents on the stage for another ritual: breaking a sake barrel open. With wooden mallets in hand, they all stood around the barrel and broke it open at the wedding stalker's signal. The barrel wasn't actually full; only a small part at the top contained alcohol. They then poured the liquid in little square lacquered wooden boxes called masu. I'm pretty sure they drank from them but I don't remember...


 


4. Changing
This usually happens in most Asian weddings and it did happen at the other wedding I talked about, although I didn't mention it. About half way through the reception, Ellie and Eiji went away and changed from their Japanese traditional outfits into the traditional western white dress and tuxedo. Ellie's dress was really simple but she looked stunning. As for Eiji, he was dashing.





5. The Cake
This time, we were treated to real cake, not paper cake! After the lovebirds did the traditional cutting of the cake, they fed each other a big bite of it and it was then taken away to be cut into portions for everyone. Ellie actually told me that she had to fight with the wedding planners to make sure that they would serve the cake to the guests: apparently, they wanted us to take it home! The cake was served outside and the whole reception started looking like a big BBQ.




 
 

6. Games
When she was planning her wedding, Ellie told me that she would try to have some dancing at the reception. For me, dancing is an integral part of the western wedding reception; I just love it. Unfortunately, this is a fight Ellie didn't win. There isn't any dancing at Japanese wedding receptions. In fact, the bride even told me that some of her friends had seemed appalled at the idea and were considering whether to go to the wedding or not on these grounds. I guess that the idea of looking awkward on the dance floor was a big turn off for them. Luckily, Ellie and Eiji managed to have some games during the reception. It was all very cute and amusing.

7. Bouquet and Balloons
On our way out after the reception was over, Ellie and Eiji gave us helium balloons. Once everyone had a balloon, Ellie threw her bouquet and my friend Claire (from the Mount Fuji excursion) caught it. According to Mr. kanmuri, she jumped a meter high... at least! After the bouquet, we we all released our balloons and watched them fly away. It was really beautiful, yet it had me concerned about the environment: where would these balloon fall and who would pick them up?





8. Napkins
This I learned after the wedding was over and thought was really funny. Ellie told be that they had to buy all the napkins (that's about 140 of them) because apparently, Japanese people like to take the dirty napkins home after the reception! Guess what? Yeah, I didn't take mine home...

All in all it was beautiful wedding with a good balance of laughs and tears. It was grand, but not lavish. It was perfect and I'm glad Ellie did me the honour of inviting me.




Finally, maybe you have noticed Ellie's round belly on the pictures; actually, the newlyweds are awaiting the arrival of their first child; a sweet baby boy! Congratulations to both of them!