Shiogama-ites wait in expectation for the Omikoshi to be carried down the 202 stone steps of the front of Shiogama Jinja. 

The Omikoshi being carried down the steps. This thing is HEAVY - I know, I carried one myself last year. Upwards of 700 kg, carried by 16 people.  

The Phoenix Boat, one of two boats onto which the omikoshi are loaded to tour the bay area.  

The Dragon Boat, the other main focus of the water-born procession.  

A lighter moment for Anette, Steph and Chris... 

Boats in full procession... 

Some kids we bumped into on Katsurashima. Needles to say, they loved having their photo taken.  

Kagura we saw on a stopover on one of the islands. Oyako shishimai, parent and child lion dance. Here we see the parent and child... 

...when all of a sudden, a demon appears and starts bothering them.  

From nowhere, a Buddhist Guardian Deity appears... 

The demon gets the better of it and takes the Guardian's spear... 

Battle is joined... 

The Buddhist Guardian is victorious and takes the demon's head... 

The survivors of the boat trip. I have my eyes closed, which is a really bad habit I seem to have developed when having my photo taken.  

Knackered...

I tell you what, another sobetsukai later and I am tired. Feels like the farewells have been dragged out so long I just want to leave and get the whole damn thing over with. Friday's was my departmental one. It was OK, I like the people in my department and get on well with them - gave them handkerchiefs as a farewell present, as I understand the custom is here. Party itself was much of a muchness, started off at the spick and span Kameki Sushi and wound up in a dingy snack bar in Ojima-cho, Shiogama's red light district. Made my excuses and left after a while, but not before one of the guys in the department next door to us, had confessed to (if I understood him correctly, and I think I did) having had an affair with one of my predecessors (female, I hasten to add). No idea why he thought it would be a good idea to tell me that, but he was pretty drunk at the time - not exactly unusual, he likes the ales. Oh well, not like I'm going to tell anyone. His wife is pretty fit though, it has to be said...more fool him. And I've seen shots of my predecessors, they weren't all that.

Fireworks in Shiogama tomorrow evening, the weather looks like being good and there's even more beer on the table...dunno if I'm gonna make it to Wednesday.

Man, it's tough getting so much free stuff...

Another sobetsukai last night, in the less than high-class surroundings of Shiogama Ekimae Yoronotaki, but they had beer and I wasn't paying, so it's all good. Thrown by my English class students, it was more relaxed and altogether more fun than Tuesday's affair. Still got showered with a variety of presents; I've had so much stuff given to me over the last few days I don't think I'm going to be able to take it all home with me, which is rather a shame. Some really nice items in there though, will definitely be displaying some of them in my room in NYC.

More or less my last day in the office today. Though I have to work on Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours and all day Monday, I'll be out and about for that rather than sat at my desk. The last rites start here.

1 week today

13th July, I leave in one week. Am in the middle of the usual round of sobetsukais and farewell parties; I had one in my honour given by the mayor and the various dignitaries of the city last night. It was as stiff and formal as one would expect, though I did get some cool presents, including a gold-plated sake cup from Ogawa-sensei, head of the BOE and fan of mine, mainly because I'm male and not American. The party was bearable, anyway, and after it finished I and some of my colleagues went drinking in our local izakaya.

Been thinking some more about London...every time someone asks me about it, as for example last night, the first thing I say is something along the lines of "well, everyone I know is OK". It feels wrong somehow, that I shouldn't be so concerned with only my own acquaintances, that I shouldn't think of the lives of those who did die in the bombings as less important. I don't normally think of myself as particularly parochial...but I guess it's hard not to be.

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

- John Donne, Meditations XVII

Riding the Whirlwind

It's been an eventful few days since my last post on both a personal and a broader level, to say the least. First we saw London triumphant in the Olympic bid, only to be brought to a standstill 24 hours later by what seems to have been the work of Al-Qaeda or one of its offshoots. And it was also the Miyagi AJET Farewell party at Oshima, of which more later.

First, the bombings in London, which as of today are estimated to have killed 50-60 people and injured a scarcely believable 700. It's hard to know what to say in these kinds of circumstances without sounding trite, cliched or mawkish, and most of what I would wish to say has been said by many, many people already. So, I'll take some more time to reflect before I try writing anything in length. I'm obviously profoundly grateful that none of my close friends or family were affected in any sense beyond mild inconvenience and trouble getting home - it could have been much, much worse. The whole incident shocked me, to be sure, especially being so far from home, but right now I can view it in a rather more detached manner, as shocking but perhaps not surprising. Although that's very easy for me to say when I know everyone close to me is safe.

Anyway, as in London and the UK generally, life goes on, and one thing particularly notable in the JET community here was how little the events were discussed at the Oshima Leaver's party. A bunch of us had gone to Oshima during Golden Week in May, so this was the second time I had been there, but unfortunately the weather was not as kind as it had been two months ago, when we were lucky enough to have clear skies and reasonably warm weather. It rained more or less solidly throughout the whole time we were on Oshima, most of the time just a light drizzle, but later in the evening it really belted down and we had to take cover. Fortunately for us, there was enough cover to shelter most of the 100 or so people in attendance, and enough alcohol to ensure that one didn't really care about getting wet that much.

Pictures? Funny you should ask...

Jacket: Louise's. Trousers: Paula's. Booty: Model's own.  

Despite the rain, we found time for several games of frisbee, or (as you see here) Tipping. Game in progress is Boys v. Girls, Game 2 of 2, both of which the Boys won, naturally. Partly thanks to their star forward, me.  

Would it be inappropriate to caption this photo as "me and my bitches"? It would? Oh, right... 

The party in full swing.  

Paz, Dave Freeborough, and self. The mike is my prize for winning the Drum Awards Frank Sinatra Award for Consistently Appalling Karaoke.  

Dr. Ben, Chris, and self. Yes, I know my glasses are skewiff, that's what happens when you head frisbees.  

Adam luxuriates in the aftermath of the inevitable mayonnaise fight... 

...as do Natalie and Corin... 

The Management: PA Dave Van Ommen and Senior ALT Advisor Ben Shearon on the ferry back to the mainland. Given Ben's lofty position and the respect he commands it would be obviously inappropriate to mention he was drinking with me til 4.30 a.m. on Sat.  

What I did with my weekend

And here, pitifully late cos I'm really busy at work and have loads of important stuff to do (no, honestly I do), is a pictorial account of what happened this weekend. Mostly spent having farewell dinners/excursions with the Shiogama clan, so here's a shot of us on the beach...



Frisbee games and swimming in the sea, a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. Water was cold, but you got used to it once you were in for a bit. Thence to dinner at Ducca, a restaurant by Sendai station...



Food wasn't bad, but there wasn't enough of it. The beer, on the other hand, was fine, and in plentiful supply. Thereafter, we to karaoke, and beyond...found a rather cool little bar going by the name of Maverick in Kokubuncho, done up like a Wild West saloon. Needless to say we got in the spirit of things...



And this one needs no comment, I feel.



Sunday night, went to sample some of Shiogama's famed sushi with Isaac, Ellie, David and Lindsay. A pleasure as always to see all of them, and I look forward to their continued friendship in the US...they're all off to grad school there, sooner or later, Isaac to Cornell, David to UC Davis, and Ellie to Columbia (if she gets in. At which point I have assured her I will transfer somewhere else). Enjoyed the conversation so much, though, that I forgot to take any photos. My apologies.

All the business at work has obscured the fact that I leave 2 weeks today, and I will be living in New York in 6 weeks or so. Time has gone so fast it makes my head spin.