The Canadian Academy middle school students and teachers left on February 8 for the annual ski trip. They went on a bus to catch a flight to Tokyo's Haneda airport, to catch another flight and bus to finally end up at Ajigasawa, Aomori. They stayed at a resort for 3 days and 2 nights, skiing all day and skiing or sledding in the evenings. What a trip! I must say I had some tears that early Wednesday morning when I hugged Jacob goodbye, and was so happy to see him at the school on Friday night. I think Jacob's little brother and sister missed him too!
Flu season hit the CA middle schoolers in early March. Unfortunately, it hit several of the A team soccer players just before tournament weekend March 2 & 3. The CA players that were left (including Jacob) played very hard, but lost in the final game to Osaka. The coaches were very proud that the guys never gave up, even though the team had to bring up younger B team and C team players.
Jessica was very excited to get her expander off on March 7. Now, we are just waiting for a couple of adult teeth to arrive in order to put on brackets. What was the first thing Jess did? Why, chew gum of course!
March 11 will always be a sad day for us. This year marked the 6 year anniversary of Grandpa Maloney's passing, as well as the 1 year anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami here in Japan. There has been much progress in Tohoku, but there is still much to be done. There were memorials and special moments of silence at all events that day. Also I worked with CA faculty, elementary, and a few middle school students to perform "We Are the World". The video was released early on March 11 via You Tube, Facebook, the school website, and push emails. I was very proud of the children. Jessica and Matthew closed out the video saying, "We just want you to know that our hearts and prayers are with you. And wherever you go, you will not be alone. We will always be with you." I know this video means a lot to the people of Tohoku to know that they are not forgotten one year later.
Our family took the train to Osaka to Opening Day of the Sumo Grand Tournament. This was quite an experience.
Jacob and Matthew meet a couple of sumo wrestlers on our way into the stadium.
We were fascinated by the history and rituals associated with Sumo wrestling. Sumo dates back 1500 years in Japan. The first sumo matches were a form of ritual dedicated to the gods with prayers for a bountiful harvest and performed with sacred dancing and drama within the precincts of the shrines. The sumo ring is called the dohyo. There are about 800 rikishi in professional sumo from the lowly trainee to the yokozuna at the top. We got to see the upper division called the maku-uchi group, which includes the top ranking yokozuna. (We liked to call him the big champion.)
The colorful dohyo-iri or "entering the ring" ceremony
The big champion
After entering the dohyo, each rikishi goes through a series of symbolic movements. To cleanse his mind and body, he symbolically rinses his mouth with water, the source of purity, and wipes his body with a paper towel. He claps his hands to get the attention of the gods and then extends arms to the sides and palms upward to show he is concealing no weapons. Then, at the climax, he lifts first one leg to the side high in the air, then the other, bringing each down with a resounding stamp on the ground symbolically driving evil from the dohyo. Each rikishi also scatters a handful of salt to purify the ring. This is further supposed to insure him against injuries. The salt-throwing is, however, the privilege only of maku-uchi, jury, and maku-shita rikishi (the higher ranking divisions).
We had fun guessing who would win each match, and of course, these guys were HUGE! Oh, and Phillip was pretty impressed by the one cup sake, too. :)
Peace and Love,
Tina
