Profusemoose: April 2005

April Pics

Realise it's been ages since I posted pics - can't believe it's already 4 weeks since Kyoto, and already Golden Week (more time off, yeh!) Spring is being sulky but there have been some really gorgeously sunny days on which to appreciate the feeble attempts of nature to recover from the general drabness that winter left behind...

Wednesday 13 - The Shirakami mountains behind Iwasaki. When Fukaura and Iwasaki (different from Iwasaka, which was already part of Fukaura - how confusing??!) merged, the BOE was moved from the town office in Fukaura to the modern, spacious, open-plan sofa-packed sub-office at Iwasaki - thus condemning half of us to an hour-long commute and a life with no order-in lunches! I won't actually be at the BOE any more but am starting Wednesday visits to Iwasaki junior high, which is hilarious (with 51 kids it's the smallest junior high in the county - and boy are they genki!). Iwasaki is (was) the last village before Akita and is (still is) tucked right in against the fantabulous Shirakami, which makes for a scenic drive.

The road linking Fukaura and Iwasaki

Thursday 14 - Sunset at Akaishi (on the way back from the pool)

More sunset

Sunday 17 - Driving home from Aomori at 4am on a rainy morning...

Monday 18, morning walk along the sea wall; this is a pic of the mountains behind Iwasaka

Tuesday 19 was clean-up day at school, so we spent the morning trawling the grass verges for random bits of rubbish. It was a gorgeous sunny day though, and felt good walking down by the sea :)

Friday 22 - same morning walk as Monday, here's the sun rising over the...erm... tetrapods

Sunday 24... went up near Iwaki with Kaz, but it was pretty snowy so we came back to Aji and got lost walking around paddy fields. Spring is here but everything is still pretty brown, and Iwaki has more than her fair share of snow left if you ask me...

Still plenty of snow up at the Iwaki shrine

Iwaki looking fine in the spring sunshine

Went to this cute farm and saw the first family of sheep I've seen in Japan (as far as I remember!) lambs are just the cutest :)

Such a cool mountain...

Wadachi

Here's a song... it's by Kobukuro, called Wadachi, from the Roadmade album way back in like 2001. I'm not like a fan or anything, but you know how sometimes songs can come your way... well, I was sent this one the other day and had fun trying to put it vaguely into English, in which it sounds not unlike something from Sesame Street, as so often happens with Japanese lyrics :S !! Anyway- it was either this or post about my ni-nen-sei's new fad for "cannabis" pencil tins or how very tiny the new first years look this year... If you want to hear the song let me know. It's very cheery! Oh and of course rival submissions of the English lyrics are welcome :P

轍　/ コブクロ

そんなに遠い目をして
君は何を見ているの
一秒ずつの未来が
今も通りすぎているのに
眠れないほど悩んで
見えた答えがあるなら
君さえ知らない君を
見つける旅にでかけようよ

轍さえもない
道をただ進め
抱えきれない夢が
不安に変わりそうな日が来たら
そんな時は僕のところへ
おいで歌を唄ってあげよ
涙かれたその後にだけ
見える光明日を照らす

そんなに遠い目をして
君は何を見ているの
昨日を振り返るなら
見えない明日に目を凝らせ
こんなに強い自分が
いることに気付いたのは
この道が誰でもない
自分で選んだ道だから

しがらみの中を
かき分けて進め
傷だらけの両手が
いつの日が輝いて見えるまで
開いた扉通り抜けても
それじゃ強くなれやしないよ
閉じた扉タタキつぶでぃて
ゆこう君の未来のほうへ

そんな時は僕のところへ
おいで歌を唄ってあげよ
涙かれたその後にだけ
見える光明日を照らす
どんな時も僕はいつでも
ここで歌を唄ってるだけ
閉じた扉タタキつぶして
ゆこう君の未来のほうへ

With eyes so distant
What are you looking at?
Though each second of the future
Is passing just the same as before
Worrying so much you can’t sleep
If there’s an answer you could see
You’ve gotta go off searching for
The you that even you yourself don’t know

No more ruts in the road
All you have to do is keep going
If there comes a day when the
Dreams you can’t quite grasp turn to
insecurities
Then just come find me
And I’ll sing you a song
It’s only after the tears have run dry
That you can see tomorrow shining

With eyes so distant
What are you looking at?
If you find yourself looking back at yesterday
Strain your eyes looking for the tomorrow you can’t see
The reason I found that
I could be as strong as this
Was because it was nobody else
It was me that chose this road

In the middle of the undergrowth
You have to push your way through
With both hands covered in grazes
Until there comes a day when you can
see the light
Passing through an open door
Doesn’t make you strong

You have to smash down the closed doors

To make it to your future

So at those times come find me
I’ll sing you this song
It’s only after the tears have run dry
That you can see tomorrow shining
Anytime I’ll always be
Right here, just singing this song
You have to smash down the closed doors
To make it to your future.

Kyoto!

OK, well, this is going to be short, largely because being back at school is sheer chaos... But yes, I went to Kyoto, and spent a week sampling the delights of Temple-town, seeing the sights, chilling in the *warm* spring sunshine, drinking decent coffee, pondering and wandering. Kyoto was really superb, just the sheer concentration of cultural/religious/historic sites is mind-blowing, every corner you turn there's a Torii gate or a dragon statue or a pagoda... The intricacy of the history side of things was a bit much for a week, and there is no way this post does any kind of justice to the remaining impressions left on my mind by being literally surrounded by so many fantastic places... but for now, here's a light selection of pictures, which is like the most interesting thing anyway!
More later, have to go wring out my liver.