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Published: September 5th 2006
Taiko
Andrew's Taiko band doing traditional drumming at an agricultural festival I attended with 2 other foreigner friends, Lucy and Harry. We were quickly "picked up" by a group of inebriated "pig cutters" who brought us meat and then did inappropriate things with the sausages. My apologies for not writing during the last two weeks as it is going to make for a tediously long update; however, I will try to focus on the most important items. I am beginning to feel quite settled in my life here so I feel much less need to synthesize everything I’m experiencing. Nonetheless, many important things are still happening so I will try to write a little more frequently to avoid subjecting you to anymore epic entries.
I have continued to receive much kindness from the Japanese people I meet both in my town and in the city. The most recent gesture was at the community pool where my friends and I have begun to swim. The pool appears to be run by two men, or at least they are always at the reception desk. The first time I swam there was with my friend Nathaniel. Seeing that we didn’t have bathing caps one of the guys brought some loaners out to us while we were on the pool deck.
Our second time there we brought our other friends Keith and Andy (not the Aussie Andrew, this guy is an American) and this time we all had
Watching the foreigner show
This little boy wasn't as interested in the show as he was in us! to borrow bathing caps. Curious about where we could buy our own bathing caps, we asked the man if he knew of any sports shops nearby. Much to our surprise he disappeared to the back of the room and returned with a cap for each of us. We asked how much they cost and he said 50 yen then leaned over the counter to whisper to us that this time they were a gift. We were touched.
In an effort to repay him for his kindness I took them a couple of magnets from Canada the next time I swam. We had a little chat about Canada and Calgary (one of the magnets was of a bull-rider at Stampede) and I carried on with my swim. When I was done, I said goodnight and headed out the door. I hadn’t gotten more than 20 feet out the door when the youngest man came running after me saying, “Teacher, teacher, please take this to buy a drink,” holding out 120 yen to use at the drink machines outside the pool. We chatted a little more as I decided which drink to buy and he mentioned how happy he was that
we came to the pool, and how much he enjoyed practicing English. I vowed that I would go often.
Just a few days before that, I was saved from drowning by a taxi driver in the city as I accompanied Lucy to the bus station. We flagged him down after 5 minutes of walking through a massive downpour and pretty much flooded his car as we dripped all over the seats. This didn’t seem to matter to him, though, and we had a nice conversation about the rain and the fact that I should probably have brought an umbrella with me instead of trying to share Lucy’s with her. The rain had eased by the time we got to the station but as Lucy and I were getting all her shopping bags out of the car he went around to the trunk and pulled out an umbrella for me as a precaution. At first I felt bad for having taken his umbrella needlessly but was pretty happy to have it when it started raining again a few minutes later.
During the same week one of the teachers at school gave me a bag of freshly picked eggplants and
green peppers from his mother-in-law’s farm with a note saying that I could e-mail or call him or his wife anytime I needed anything. I had just received my boxes of winter clothing into which I had thrown my favourite eggplant recipes so I whipped up some steamed eggplant and peppers with peanut sauce - delish!
Mai has continued to be an angel. Last week she and some of the other Japanese Teachers of English appointed Kanji (Chinese characters that make up most of Japanese written language) to my name - practically a right of passage in my eyes - while we were out for lunch one day. There are three kanji involved. The first, which stands for the E, is the sign for wealth, money and happiness (I think/hope it’s meant more abstractly than just saying that I’ve got a lot of money); the mi is the sign for beautiful; and the ri (lie is pronounced ri) stands for fruit (specifically, a pear). So maybe I’m a beautiful golden pear? I was quite flattered.
The day before the umbrella incident she also took Lucy and I back to the electronics store where we had tried to apply
The track next to the pool
I plan to start running again in the winter. for internet connections the week before (but to no avail). After successfully completing our internet applications and procuring Lucy’s new laptop Mai took us to a mall in Kanoya where she helped us get an enormous discount on yukatas (the cheaper, lighter version of the kimono, which can cost up to $4,000.00) rendering them at about 8000 yen. We ended up with beautiful outfits in colours that were just right for each of us. Mine has a white background with vibrant pink flowers and was officially approved by our reviewing party of Japanese ladies that happened to be hanging around at the store. I can’t wait to wear it at the next festival.
To add to the excitement of that weekend, my school welcome party was held on the Sunday night at a very classy izakaya (traditional Japanese restaurant where beer, shochu - the specialty drink of Kyushu Island made of fermented sweet potatoes, and food such as fried meats, rice balls and all things fishy can be ordered). Only my fellow English teachers and the vice principal were present, though we did have one other special guest with whom I sat. The guest was one of Japan’s most
Kyoiku Jimusho
This is our board of education office. The desk being moved is mine. They were making room for a new office member. renowned English teachers who has won awards for his approach to language education by the name of Goro Tajiri. The man is a visionary, who speaks perfect English (with a Canadian accent no less). We spent almost the whole party discussing the ways and reasons for which English should be taught to students.
I feel quite lucky to have received this pep talk from him just as school is starting. Friday was the first official day for the students and a large assembly was held in the gymnasium where the new German exchange student, Annette, and I were introduced and made self-introductory speeches. This was followed by a general school tidying session and an afternoon of beginning-of-semester examinations. After my speech, many students came up to me to say hi and I was glad to be surrounded by them and mingling with them during cleaning time.
I felt really excited that all the students were so “genki” (energetic) but classes started officially today and I can see how some ALTs get discouraged. Most of the English classes are conducted in Japanese and to top it all off most of the kids just sit there and stare at you!
School Slippers
Instead of wearing outdoor shoes at school wear slippers. These ones are pretty traditional (and original) and they were given to me by some Junior High School teachers I met at a conference I was helping facilitate last month. The Japanese teachers say that they are very shy and I was a little comforted by the fact that they don’t really speak much in either language but I must admit that I was a little disappointed. I’ve already decided not to take it personally, though, because I attended a Phys. Ed. Class where the very same kids that gave me blank stares this morning were dancing alongside me giggling at the moves I was making up for them.
Apart from work and community relations my time has been spent partying or doing other fun activities. Last weekend was especially exciting as I finally reached a milestone in grown-up-hood - I actually took a road trip by myself!!! Granted it was only a three-hour drive (four if we include the time I spent getting lost) to a paragliding school in the middle of the mountains but after putting off driving on my own for as many years as possible, I was finally forced to decide between staying off the road and going paragliding since no one else from my area was interested. The choice was obvious so after a week of rallying between the insurance agent and the garage
Looking Down
The view from the hill we were jumping from. We were landing in the closes field to the left of the woods. that is certifying that my car is safe for the road with my newfound friend “Johnson” (actually Jonosono, I think) and one test-drive with Andrew, I hit the road at 6 am on Saturday morning. I did turn into the wrong traffic lane a couple of times but luckily the roads were pretty empty and once I figured out the difference between right and left I was on my way. Even though I did get lost in a forest at some point, I managed to make it safe and sound and only an hour late.
The paragliding itself was fun, though we only got to jump once and spent the rest of the time getting baked under the sun. We were jumping from a 300m high hill but I have felt more fear on mountaintops in the Rockies and was only slightly unnerved when we stalled in mid-air. I guess that’s a good sign that my fear of heights is not as strong as it used to be. We were gliding in tandem with instructors from the school, as well, so I trusted that as long as I remained attached to my instructor everything would be alright.
Since
Looking Up
I took this picture as I was floating down. our campground wasn’t equipped with showers we made a stop at the local onsen to bathe. This was my first onsen experience and they are quite the test for anyone with a sense of modesty as they are basically public baths in natural hot springs and you are only allowed to take a small towel into the pool with you to cover yourself, dab the sweat from your face or wrap it around your head.
The way it works is that you go into a change room where you take off all your clothes, then slip into a room with several pools of water of varying temperatures and wash yourself thoroughly at a shower station, sitting on a plastic stool. Once you have rid yourself of the day’s impurities you can slip into the pools or the sauna. About 10 of us did this together!
Although I thought I would be self-conscious getting naked in front of other people (even other women) I actually felt quite comfortable. I guess I never really was that modest anyway. I think I may need to develop an onsen ritual come winter.
After the onsen we were plied with 6 kg
Going Down
The view as we floated down (pretty much the same as it was from the hill). or yakiniku (fried meat) and shochu, at our campsite by the very instructors that we had jumped with. It was generally a good time with lots of talking and singing of camp songs. I had but one grim moment where an (admittedly drunk) American girl told me that she was surprised that I spoke English so well as everyone else she’d met from Quebec sounded “retarded” when they spoke with their French accent. It took a lot of effort to keep my jaw from dropping outright. I should have asked her to speak French.
The next day, after a morning of recovery, we headed off for our next adventure - a ride down one of Japan’s fastest-flowing rivers. Though tame compared to Canadian rivers, we had fun riding through the rapids sitting on the front of the raft and then pushing each other into the water in the calm areas. We also stopped at an outlay of rocks where everyone took turns jumping into the water (many of us facing our fear of heights though the drop was only about 6m). Once the rafting was over we all shivered into our cars and began the long trek home.
Though I do enjoy hanging out with other foreigners, I must say that a part of me was relieved to leave this group behind. I met a lot of really nice people on the weekend but I found a lot of the guys in the group to be excessively immature (or downright creepy). I’m really glad that the people in my area are so agreeable but perhaps this was also a sign that I should lay low for this weekend to avoid foreigner burn-out.
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Kelly Hyde
non-member comment
You're so inspiring
Hi Emilie: Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful adventures. It's amazing to me how much you've already experienced in such a short time! I continue to be inspired by you and all that you've taken on in your life. You look wonderful and I know this experience will only enrich who you are :-) Again thank you for sharing this with me. Please keep in touch anc take care! Kelly