They do Christmas wrong here

Yesterday was Chinzei's Hallelujah Chorus concert. They had practiced it every day after classes at school for the past three days, and even though I wasn't going to participate in the singing of it, I had to stand with the rest of the students for an hour each time as they practiced. The concert itself was pretty nice though. They held it at some big concert hall instead of the school so that others could that others from the city could come and watch, and so that other acts could participate. The stage had a big drop-down mural/curtain that depicted various scenes of Isahaya, including the Buddhas carved into stone I had written about this summer, and the bridge that they have on every storm drain throughout the city. I'll try to get a picture of the actual bridge itself sometime soon.

I was a bit tired when we got to the concert hall, and I tried my very best to stay awake, but after the first performance by a bunch of kindergarten-aged children, I passed out. I managed to wake up during the next performance, but it was just a bunch of middle-aged women singing Christmas stuff, so I fell asleep again. A Jazz big band performed after them, and managed to hold my interest enough so that I wouldn't fall asleep. However, they didn't really play stuff that was all too interesting. It was all stuff like Sing Sing Sing and In the Mood and other stuff I haven't really heard since middle school.

The Hallelujah Chorus wasn't really all to much to talk about, seeing as they forced all the students in the school to participate, so on average, not a whole lot of effort was put in. The school's band, however, was fantastic. I don't know if I've written about them before, but they're seriously good. Whenever they play anything, it is flawless, and I'm pretty sure it's because of the fact that the Japanese are ridiculously well-behaved when it comes to stuff like practice. For the sports teams they don't even have a coach there most of the time; In the entire time I have been here, the Kendo coach has been to practice probably less than twenty times, yet each practice the kids go through the whole routine and actually work on stuff on their own. I'm sure the band is no different.

Today I didn't really do all too much. Woke up, ate some cereal, looked around on the internet, had lunch. After lunch my host parents took me to see their new house. I think they've lived there before staying here (they refer to this home as their "temporary home") and they've just rebuilt the house on the same property. We tried getting in, but my host mom couldn't find the key she had hidden before.

When we came back the house we're currently staying at, we drove around a bit and they showed me some stuff that's near to the house that I never really knew about before. They showed me a tree that's apparently 600 years old, and is actually not a single tree, but two trees that have grown together and are now intertwined or something. It had a bunch of supports and metal bands holding it together, which looked a bit odd. I'll try to get some pictures of it sometime, if I get the chance.

Also nearby is a jail, but we couldn't really see much of that except the fence. Also they had an apartment building literally next door to the complex, which I thought was a little weird, but then again it is Japan and they probably figure "It's jail! No way they're gonna break out, that's why it's a jail!" or some other strange logic.

I would like to point out that this was the first super-short weekend I've had in quite a while now seeing as all my other would-be short weekend were elongated either by Rotary events or special circumstances, and I must say that I hate them. One day is not long enough to make up for a whole week of school. I am making a promise to myself right now that after I get back, I am never giving up a weekend day to do work- or school-related EVER. And if I absolutely can't avoid it, I will take the following Monday off. One day is totally not enough.

Also there is a new poll
ROCK THE VOTE on pancakes