Hanaichi and INSANITY Day 5!!!

Congratulations to Wednesday's winner of the Blogger's Choice Packet: ElbieNy25!

I have to comment on you guys' responses on sex in YA. I was a little shocked to find that you're all so, um, sensible about it. Not that you're not all sensible people. But sometimes otherwise sensible have amazingly extremist views. I'm sure you've met a few like that. Maybe it's because we're all writers that we know that everything we see or hear in art won't make the world implode. To quote M.L. Mansfield "Marilyn Manson did not cause the shooting at Columbine!"

You guys are brilliant!

Last weekend the high school in our town put on a dance show. They had an exhibition dance called hanaichi, which seems to be a regional dance, but as with much of the stuff outside of the Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto bubble, there's not much we could drag up online. We thought it would just be a little thing, but when we got there, the Mayor and the Supervisor of the Board of Education were there.

As it turned out every class had to do a dance. It was pretty fun. Except that I had the shouts of "so-ray," "so so so," and "ha" etched into my auditory nerves for hours after.

Here are a few pics!
The entire school. It may be small to you. But we've all adjusted to smaller schools- the largest school in town, one of mine, is 208 kids- so we thought this was amazingly huge.


The Hanaichi dancers


A third year class. Cross-dressing is a staple at school events. As my neighbour put it, "Think about it. All our politicians, people of power, they've all cross-dressed at some point!" And in case you haven't figured it out by now, the two in the back are GUYS!


This kid was the only excitement in this first year class. Everybody else looked like they could think of better things to do with their Saturday.


3 more boys. These three were freaking hilarious though. At the end of the dance, the others surrounded them and stole their skirts and ran off!


But the best part was when they leapt into these other guys' arms!


This girl was imitated the "Shodo Girls." A group of girls who do calligraphy like it's a martial art, jumping around and waving giant paintbrushes while dressed in traditional martial art style.


Awesome flips, sucky pix :(


One of the first year classes. Since I've been here 2 years, and my JHS is the big one in town, I taught many of the kids at the high school. Only one kid in this pic wasn't my student.


Please excuse me while I fix my boob!


A guy as a girl, and a girl as a guy!


Bunny-eared girl on the left (imagine that! I have to differentiate) was my student 2 years ago. She came up and said, "Remember me? Junior High School!" Then she turned to her friends and said, "This my friend!" I was so proud!


Guy's head under guy's skirt. Where to begin. Top kid is also a former student, but I did NOT teach him that!


The teachers dance


You shouldn't ask something of your students that you wouldn't do yourself. So I present, cross-dressing teachers!


The whole event was at a historical site (Goshono Jomon Site) where the earliest known inhabitants of my town lived. Here's a recreated hut.


The entrance to the bridge at Goshono Jomon which one the "Naisu Dizain" (Nice Design) award. Seriously, that is the name of the award.


The inside of the bridge


I don't know how this turned into the cross-dressing show, but here's a clip of the Hanaichi dance, which involved only one male, who was, thankfully, dressed as a male.



PS, My theory on cross-dressing is that since being gay is so outrageously unacceptable here, cross-dressing is just funny, with no undertones of homosexuality.

Also, here's IWATE 16


And finally INSANITY Day 5!!

The Recent Debut Packet:

Because

1. This is the last day of INSANITY

and

2. I'm crazy

and

3. I absolutely suck at making decisions

I will be giving 4 books to a lucky winner. And because I love you all so much, you're all eligible today. Disregard earlier rule about winning a mximum of twice (although noone's actually won twice anyhow).

You've got until 11.59 pm EST to enter.

These books are kind of random. I tried to pick four books that were very different from one another and did not favour YA (my obvious preference too heavily). I hope you likey!






Two questions today.

1. What will (did) you do when your book debuts?
2. Since it's summer (except for those in the Southern hemisphere- any Southerners out there?), what's your dream summer vacation?

My answers:
1. Pink hair!!!
2. Italy/Spain/Greece. I'd be in heaven!

Good luck guys! And thank you all for supporting my blog and for joining in my madness!