Signing off, until next year...

This week I wrapped up my final classes of the year. Our second semester of school finished yesterday, and I am off tomorrow for three weeks in Vietnam. Will be a welcome, warm vacation (Xmas on the beach!) before the long winter that awaits my return...

Despite my scrooginess, I managed to have a little Xmas spirit this past week. Played Santa Claus at pre-school, kindergarten, baked gingerbread cookies and decorated them at my English conversation class Xmas party, sent more Xmas cards then I ever have before, did several Xmas-themed lessons with students, and even bought and received a few presents. Not so bad at all...

Sunday I had a great day snowboarding with two friends in Iwate Prefecture--I had been itching to go since early November! It snowed all day and we had some decent powder for a couple hours. Was happy to get a day of riding in before taking off for the tropics...

My best to all, have a wonderful holiday and may the New Year greet you with health and happiness!

A Myriad of Days. Really.

Today is my 10,000th day on planet earth.

クリスマス in Japan ?!?!

I haven't met too many Japanese who actually celebrate Christmas, but Japan on the whole certainly appears to have the spirit every year.

In cities, Xmas decorations and lights went up in mid-November and the department stores too have Christmas displays of candy canes, fake snow, and fake trees, walls of Hallmark cards, employees dressed in ridiculous elf costumes, and shopping crowds to rival those in the West (though the noise level is noticeably more quiet). I am not sure if the crowds are actually shopping for Christmas presents, or if they are just spending their end-of-year bonuses (just about every Japanese employee gets a substantial one every December).

Local elementary schools have requested me to be Santa again this year for their kindergarten Christmas parties (this is kinda fun, but mostly silly). Junior High Students have put up decorations on their classroom doors. We even had Christmas music pumping from the lunchroom speakers today as we ate our midday meal of udon (noodles), some kind of octopus dish, and Japanese tuna salad surprise.

Christmas is not my favorite holiday. Not so much Christmas Day, but its buildup. I detest Christmas shopping and crowded shops/streets/parking lots, and I can't say I care for the decorations and bad music either. Santa and his elves too, as fascinating as they were as a kid, now seem silly. Call me a scrooge, I dont care. But, it baffles me that Japan has embraced everything about Christmas I believe to be a hassle, while enjoying none of its specialties (family time, food, and opening/watching kids open presents by the fireplace on Christmas morn.

朝のお風呂

Between shoulder blades
Water falls, frosted windows
At Takinoyu

父たちの星条旗

I watched "Flags of our Fathers" last night with a Japanese friend. The movie was certainly impressive and I found the story quite interesting, being rather ignorant of the battle (and WWII history in general), but I didn't find the script all that well written. The second half of the movie, as they explained the aftermath and the story of the "heroes" lacked something, though I couldn't put my finger on what. The scenes with the present day heroes and the author/son didn't seem to mesh well with the rest of the film. That said, my friend and I left the theatre feeling sombre, and eager to see the Japanese point of view in "Letters from Iwo Jima", which comes here out next week. However, it will be a challenge for me to undersand, as the movie is in Japanese and obviously, wont have subtitles here...

難しい

On Sunday I will attempt the 3rd level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (1 being the highest level, 4 being the lowest). It is the first academic test I've taken in four years and I must say, I dont think I am fully prepared.

I signed up for the test way back in September, my thinking being that with a test looming, I would be motivated to study this fall. Indeed I have studied quite a lot, but with mountains to climb, famous places to water ski, golf courses to play, onsens to enjoy, and a number of other diversions, I'm not sure it was nearly enough. I came to this realization late last week and thus, have been cramming since. Online practice kanji tests, grammar books, multiple choice practice tests; all have my brain overloaded with new information, but most of which I haven't yet shelved into organized usable knowledge.

With any luck, I'll be able to regurgitate enough of it for a passing score, and feel like the effort was worth it. Suddenly, I feel like one of my students, who memorize but don't learn!

Football and a Feast

I haven't been on American soil on Thanksgiving Day in over five years, and yet I always seem to be surrounded by many friends and too much food on my favorite holiday. This year was no different, though I did much of the planning and cooking. With the help of a few friends, we prepared quite a feast of turkey (the first I have ever cooked), gravy, mashed potatoes, mashed maple syrup-cajun sweet potatoes (delicious), cranberry sauce, fresh baked bread, mac & cheese, green beans, salad, pumpkin pies, and the oh-so special spam rice balls (you think I'm kidding but they're fantastic).

Before the meal however, we went down to the riverside and played some good 'ol two hand touch American Football. A fine day, a beautiful playing field, and countless perfect passes and defensive plays from both sides. However, despite what the lying, cheaters on the other team will tell you, my own squad was the actual victor.

Enjoy the photos below

Over a week late post

Nearly forgot to post some photos from last weekend's adventure. New buddy Aaron and I took a road trip up to Aomori (Blue Forest) Prefecture. A very good trip with fine weather, great tunes in the car, extremely curvy roads, good hiking, a 1000 person onsen, a largely unsuccessful attempt to paint the town of Aomori red, and a fruitless search for a Denny's Grand Slam.


Aaron descending Hakkoda-san


The leaves were unfortunately, just past peak


One of the many ravens


A view of Hakkoda-san


A streamside autumn wildflower


Myself, at the Hakkoda-summit

TGIF

Wednesday, my co-teacher had to leave mid-way through our 7th grade class, and left me to teach alone the last twenty minutes. No problem I thought, the kids are busy with a writing activity and the class is on cruise control. Yet, within 10 minutes of my co-teacher's departure, I made one of the students cry when I helped him correct a spelling mistake. The more I tried to tell him it was OK, the more he sobbed. Meanwhile, the other kids snickered at him and I couldn't do anything without drawing more attention to the student. I felt pretty bad until my co-teacher told me later that this kid cries about something every week. She said, "Oh don't worry about it at all, he doesn't even know why he's crying."

Today, a 9th grader told me I had a "10-head body". Apparently, this is quite a compliment in Japan, but I haven't quite figured out what he meant.

Sure am glad its Friday, this has been a most peculiar and busy week.

Ya'll have been fantastic...

Well the lecture came off much easier than I expected. My audience was at least polite enough to pretend that they were following my discourse. It was rather hard to guage how much they understood, as they didnt ask too many questions at the end. I'm not sure if it was because I spoke too fast out of nervousnous, or because my points were not well put together.

About 10 minutes into it, I posed these questions:

Does anyone here teach at elementary school? Nope, not a one.

Has anyone every taught at elementary school? Again, no one.

Does anyone wish to teach at elementary school in the future? Nobody.

Pretty stress free from this point on, felt like I could have spoken gibberish and no one would have cared.

Anyways, the keynote speaker after me was brilliant and backed up her talk (about the same topic, but in Japanese) with PowerPoint slides and scientific research and statistics, but she received fewer questions than I did. So yeah, the audience was well chosen.

Tomorrow I am the guest speaker at a seminar for Japanese English teachers. I am to give a 50 minute presentation on "How to teach English in Japanese elementary schools". Now, this doesn't seem strange until you consider three facts.

1. I rarely teach at elementary schools, and have little experience doing so.
2. I have no formal teacher training at any level. Thus, I have no educational background or experience on which to base my talk.
3. All of the teachers to whom I will be speaking are junior high school teachers. Not a single one teaches at elementary school.

Maybe I'll stay at a Holiday Inn tonight.

No, really, lie to my face, I don't mind.

On Monday, I arrived at school and was told we would have a fire drill later in the day. Not having experienced a Japanese fire drill (though I recall several of the Chinese variety), a question popped into my head: Do Japanese change their indoor shoes for outdoor ones before proceeding outside? Normally, wearing indoor shoes outside is a punishable sin. I posed the question to the teacher sitting across from me. "Absolutely not," she said, "we must pretend its a real emergency so we do not change our shoes." So an hour later the fire bell goes off and I proceed outside with my indoor shoes. All of the students did the same. But as I looked around, I notice that every teacher had changed their shoes. Every single one, including the one who told me not to do so. Perplexed, I called that teacher a liar to her face, and oh so carefully avoided the doormat as I entered the school with my now tainted shoes.

The Sticky

Another fine fall day this past Saturday, perfect for BBQing with friends and learning an old Japanese custom: 餅つき　or Mochi Making. Mochi, if you recall from a previous post, is a Japanese rice cake made from glutinous rice. I believe I originally described the texture of mochi as "playdoh-like".

Kanai sensei, a super friendly Japanese teacher, whose English is excellent, invited some JET friends, his neighbors and myself over to his lovely country home for the day. Upon arrival, we were put to work immediately, taking turns mashing and pounding the rice with a big wooden hammer. I expected it to be a long, tedious process, but in fact we were done in less than 30 minutes.

The tools:


The power:



The product:After finishing, we gorged ourselves on the fruits of our labor, combining the mochi with all sort of goodies like natto (fermented soy beans), anko (red bean paste), kurogoma (black sesame paste), and Japanese pickles.



Mochi is quite sticky and a bit hard to eat. It is tempting to stick the whole cake in your mouth at once rather than take bites, but this is unadviseable. More than a few people die every year from choking on mochi. It is so sticky, it is said, that even the Heimlich maneuver is not effective at removing mochi stuck in the throat. A vacuum is recommended.

After the mochi, Kanai-sensei plopped down two enormous slabs of salmon on an outdoor grill, then covered them with cabbage, bean sprouts, and miso. More gorging.

Then the wives cooked the rest of the mochi on the grill, known as "yakimochi". However, "yakimochi" is also the word for jealousy. You can imagine the "wives cooking up jealousy" jokes that followed...

Another highlight of the day was Masaki-san, the genki neighbor, whose English was not so good, but was a barrel of laughs. Inexplicably, he is a big fan of American football and hates Japanese beer. He ONLY drinks Budweiser. This baffles me. Perhaps its because its made from rice.

体育の日

This past Monday was a public holiday, "Taiiku no Hi" or "Health and Sports Day", so three friends and I opted to get some serious excercise on a long hike. After packing our gear and a very late start on Sunday night, we drove two hours north into Iwate-ken, the prefecture above Miyagi. Not finding the Iwate-san trailhead parking area where we had hoped to camp, we pulled into a nearby campground at the base of the mountain around 1 a.m. We setup our tents as quietly as possible, had a hot lemon whiskey nightcap (provided by Mark) to keep off the chill, and quickly went to bed.



In the morning we were up just past 6, had a quick breakfast of coffee, bananas, rice balls, and red bean paste donuts (I'm ridiculously addicted to these things), broke camp and then found the aforementioned trailhead.

The first kilometers of the hike through dense forest reminded me of Appalachia, though the vegetation was somewhat different of course. We met a single descending hiker who told us we could not get to the top and down in one day. Yet, not wanting to believe the naysayer, we pressed on. After several hours in the woods on a wet and muddy trail, we surfaced on a natural bald, with beautiful views of the summit and the rugged ridgeline leading up to it. We had fine, clear weather for most of the day, but the sky was fickle indeed, clouds blowing quickly in and out like a sea tide.



Stunning views as we walked along the ridgeline, looking much like what I imagine Peru's mountains might. Nearing the the top, we realized we were indeed pressed for daylight, and only one of us carrying a headlamp. Decision time. Akiko, celebrating her birthday, was not going to stop before reaching the summit. Mark, though wheezing from a lingering bout of bronchitis, was not to be outdone by a girl. Thus, they marched on. Kaori and I, both quite hungry, decided however, rather than race to the top and back, to spend the hour on a false summit eating norimaki sushi, ramen, and chocolate, and enjoying the sunshine and immense panorama. I did not regret the decision.





The walk down was stunning as well, with the surrounding mountains looking quite different in the weak afternoon light than they had in the morning. On the descent, I walked ahead of the others, spacing out for about two hours, as I tend to do when I am hiking, lost in my own world of thought and non-thought. The others caught me later, as I took a break on a sunny rock and took in a bit more of the views. We hiked the last kms together, tired but cheerful, oohing, ahhing, and sugoi-ing at the departing sun and its last rays piercing the evergreens and yellowing maples.





We had been looking forward to enjoying one of the nearby Nyuto Onsens (literally "Nipple Hot Spring", so called because the water apparently looks like breast milk) but unfortunately we had a long drive ahead of us and Akiko a train to catch. So we drove home dirty, smelly, and sore, but happy nonetheless after the healthy, 9-hour walk. A day well spent.

The Wall of America

Does this really have a lot of support in America right now? Those who do support it, do they really think it will work?

It reminds me of a situation in Panama. There was a boarding school that had seperate dormitories for girls and boys. The boys liked to sneak out at night, and climb through the windows into the girls' dorm. Many teenage pregnancies followed. So, the school built a tall wall with razor wire on the top around the girl's dorm to keep the boys out. What happened? The GIRLS found ways to get out, and went to the boys' dorm. More pregnancies...

While I am not suggesting that many Americans will be trying to jump over the proposed border fence into Mexico, I do think it (the fence) fails to solve the larger issue(s). In the case of the school, the problem was not the midnight escapes/escapades, but girls becoming pregnant while still in high school. The border fence may succeed in keeping a few more illegal immigrants out, but in no way addresses the issues of those already in America, (un)employment, and immigrants who enter from other points. In addition, it seems it would only hurt US/Mexico political relations. I'm sure I don't have the solution, but there's gotta be a better way to spend a billion dollars.

Tell me what YOU think.

東鳴子お神輿祭り

A break from writing this past week and a half, as I used my free time to rest my body from the many recent adventures, enjoy the onsen of Naruko, begin reading again (two gripping books, Nobel Prize Winner Richard Feynman's "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman" and James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces"), continue my Japanese study efforts, and consider what lies ahead for me post-Japan.

This past Sunday, however, I took a break from all that to take part, at the behest of my principal and innkeeper friend, in the Higashi Naruko Omikoshi Matsuri, otherwise known as the East Naruko Portable Shrine Festival. I participated last year as well, and it was moderately interesting, but also miserably cold and wet. This year we had a fine day, and I was much happier to join. The shrine, shouldered by 8-10 folks at a time, is carried from business to business within the town (mostly inns) where the proprietors put out a spread of food, tea, and beer/sake for all the participants to partake. While being carried, the bearers and the rest of the people walking with the procession, chant something like "Wa-shoi", which directly translated, means "Lets all together carry this in harmony". Upon arrival at an establishment, the bearers spin the shrine exactly one revolution, and then hoist it in the air three times before setting it down on its stand. Then, everyone eats and drinks.




I did more my than my share of the carrying, for some reason always on the right side, and thus my left shoulder was still a littl sore three days later. I had hoped to meet some new folks in my neighborhood, but apart from the innkeeper and a few of my students and PTA members whom I already knew, much of the group was made up of out-of-towners (from Tokyo I think) who were none too friendly. One of these city slickers did talk to me a bit, but in a rather rude/drunk fashion. At one inn, he shouted to the old matron of the house, who came out to serve us homemade sake ("doburoku") and wore a hearing aid, "Hey grandma, what do you make of this strange gaijin?" The dear old woman, seemingly indifferent to where I came from, said nothing, poured me a glass of the bitter brew and probably didn't hear my sincere "Arigatou gozaimashita!"



After several hours, we took a break at the community center and had a wonderful Japanese lunch of miso soup, delicious onigiri/rice balls, salmon, tea, and more beer. During lunch I talked to two of my students, whom were much more eager to speak English outside of class, but I had to fend off the Big Shot who continued to bombard me with his attitude/drunkeness. Just after finishing my lunch, I heard my name mentioned, and turned around. A middle-aged lady whom I didn't know was looking at me funny, and turned back to her friend and said "Michael ga yowai nee?" (Michael is weak, isn't he?). Not a clue to what she was talking about, but still offended, I retorted "tsuyoi da yo!" (I'm quite strong!).

Not acustommed to having a few drinks in the morning, I felt quite sleepy after lunch and decided to skip the afternoon procession in favor of a nap. I walked happily home in the warm sunshine, musing about the fine morning, and yet with a sourness in mouth not entirely imparted by the doburoku.

Late September

Two Monday photos:

One of a dragonfly who alighted on my cap and stayed there for about 30 minutes as I sat on a sunny bank and watched the local district JHS tennis tournament. Remained perched even when I got up and moved to watch a match on a different court.



The second is a shot of a large, soon to be harvested rice field that I took from my car. The shinkansen/bullet train tracks are in the background.

秋分の日

An absolutely incredible day yesterday on the Autumnal Equinox. Mark (from Northern Ireland) and I joined Kieran (a Scot), John (an Englishman) and Yamauchi-san (Japanese) for an exhilirating day of international wakeboarding in Matsushima (Pine Islands), supposedly one of the three most beautiful places in Japan.

It was my first time wakeboarding, though I have been waterskiing several times before. Fortunately the movement is very similar to snowboarding, so I picked it up quickly. Before long, I was attempting jumps and failing miserably trying to land them. Water hurts much less than hard-packed snow. However, I must have used some new/out-of-shape muscles, because today my upper body feels like it got run over by a firetruck. Everything hurts, even after taking 800mg of Advil.



We had beautiful weather, especially in the afternoon when the wind died and the sea became quite calm. The islands of Matsushima (several hundred of them) looked quite brilliant in the afternoon sun. If the photos look blurry, its because we were going so fast!

I was exhausted on the train+car journey home, but stayed awake to peer out the windows and enjoy the fine fall afternoon. I love this time of year here, as the rice turns from lush green to golden, and the harvest looks heavy in the paddies.

Fuji, Day Two

At a little past 3:00 a.m. we are roused from sleep by the quiet bustle of others getting ready for the final ascent. We slip into our thermal underwear and strap on our headlamps, in a manner much more "genki" than one would expect, considering the hour and the temperature.

Outside the hut, we fall in line behind the dozens of other pilgrims, all taking the first steps of what we are told will be a 2 hour climb to the top.


Many of the hikers are in large groups, all following their respective leaders who are wearing flashing red beacons on their backpacks. Looking up the dark mountain, a zig-zag trail of flashlights illuminates the switchback trail. The slow pace of the single file line quickly becomes tedious however, and being gaijin, we have no problems stepping out of line, then scrambling by the band of hikers (many of whom are sucking oxygen from aerosol cans), and huffing and wheezing our way to the front. The string of headlights looks much prettier from above than below.

At just before 5 a.m., we arrive at the top, after just an hour and twenty minutes of climbing. A few small groups of hikers have already made it, and are now setting up tripods or huddling by a wall to get out of the wind. Within minutes of our arrival, a thin sliver of bright red light appears on the horizon, and then disperses into paler shades on the dawn clouds.



We are denied a view of a red sphere sun rising into the sky as I had hoped, and yet the dawn is still spectacular. I've never seen so many cloud formations, nor seen them so far below me. The "unkai" does indeed look like an ocean of clouds. Most of the land is covered by a white blanket, though a few other mountain tops poke through like toes at the end of the bed. We take the requisite photos and chat with some other climbers, including some of Mark's countrymen who also want to pose with the Irish tri-color he brought along.




It takes us about an hour to walk around the crater, which, were it not for the many building scraps (?) lying about and the blue sky above us, would look like the surface of another planet (or so I imagine). Walking even the slightest incline, is taxing; we have to stop for a breather after every couple steps.



After completing the circumfrence, we breakfast on our final rice balls, generic Pringles, and chocolate, desperately wishing we had filled up our thermos with something hot before setting off. A cup of coffee would have been lovely...Yet the views more than make up for the lack of hot beverage and after a last long look, we gather our things and begin our descent.







The walk down is hard on the knees but otherwise easy as the air becomes thicker and our breathing more effortless. The views are more gorgeous than the previous day--Fuji's color against the blue sky and white clouds is striking. I tune out/in with my iPod for awhile, enjoying some shamisen music and the fine day we are so fortunate to have.






Less than three hours after leaving the summit, we are back at 5th station, and treat ourselves to an icecream and a bowl of ramen before passing out in the sun on the stone courtyard outside the shops/restaurants.

An email later in the week from a friend will say "You can now look at those snow-capped Fuji postcards, and feel a sense of complete domination of the mountain." Yeah, something like that.

Wakari-yasui

In my kanji study today, I came across the character 怒, (okoru) meaning "to get angry". To remember kanji, it is often helpful to break them into their seperate parts. Breaking okoru into its three parts, you see the kanji characters for "woman", "mind/heart", and "again".

There is also a saying in Japanese that goes something like "A woman's mind is like the autumn weather".

No doubt a man came up with both of these, but there seems to be a general feeling that women are fickle!

Fuji, Day One

My friend Mark and I took advantage of the recent long weekend (Monday was "Respect for the Aged Day") to make our assault on Mt. Fuji, affectionately known in Japan as Fuji-san. The climbing season is officially closed, though it is possible to summit year-round if you have the gear and the gumption. September is an opportune time to make the climb actually, as most of the crowds (600,000 a year) are gone and the weather is still quite good (or maybe we just lucked out). We set off Saturday afternoon from 5th Station, where the road stops and the trailhead begins. 5th Station is as high as many folks go, unfortunate as it is merely a collection of over-priced restaurants, over-priced souvenir shops, and rather poor views of the great mountain. After stocking up on some riceballs and $2 Snickers, we began our walk.

After leaving 5th Station, it doesnt take long to get above the tree line. The lush green of Japan soon turns into the gray, brown, and red rock of Fuji's cone.




The trail is ugly at times, especially as the afternoon sun disappeared behind the mountain and the light faded. Yet, when turn your back on the mountain and take a look a the 雲海　(unkai/cloud sea) below, you realize what a spectacular place it is.



It took us just over three hours to reach the 8th station, arriving just after dark as a cold mist was enveloping the mountain. The ascent was by no means easy, the terrain was often steep and rocky, or covered in loose gravel. Yet, we were some of the fastest climbers on the mountain, leapfrogging the few bottlenecks we encountered,



and half-competing with a group of four young Frenchmen who were hiking in jeans and suede loafers.

By the 7th station, I noticed a considerable difference in the air. We luckily didn't suffer any affects from the altitude, save for becoming easily winded. Our climbing strategy of walking fast and breaking often, was much different than the trudginly slow, but steady pace of most of the Japanese.



Reaching the 8th station as the temperature dropped and the winded picked up, we checked into a warm hut/bunkhouse, paid our $55, and were given a couple of futons/spots on a large bunkbed. We had hoped to chat a bit with the others in the hut, but it seemed a rather unsocial crowd so we ate our onigiri, chips, and chocolate quietly, and had a few nips of brandy to keep the chill off. Not quite full, I paid an exorbitant $5 for a instant cup noodle, but did so with little complaint as it was hot and delicious. Retired to our bunk-futons early to rest for the early morning ahead of us...

Below, a few more photos from the afternoon's ascent above the clouds: