新古 (Old and New)

While waiting impatiently for my colleagues to stop procrastinating and send me some photos that I wanted to post, I realized that I couldn't call them on it if I was using them to procrastinate myself. So, here's a post.

I'm finally plateauing. With the 2 month mark being today, my consciousness has come to the realization that I'm going to be here "for a while". I can't just suck it up, I have to change - and that's something I've been waiting for this whole time. That's the idea: force change, and reap the benefits. If you're confused at my way of handling "homesickness" as some call it, bear in mind that I am an exceedingly tolerant person and thus actually changing me, my core, is a difficult task; I have to force the crowbar in and do it manually.

This sort of thinking is usually triggered by an event - you're right! In fact, I will be switching host families on the 1st of December, which is in 3 days. It's a shame that I have to leave my current family behind, as they've been more than accommodating and incredibly helpful up to this point, but I should just be happy that I was able to spend 2 months with them. This movement - involving me repacking everything, taking inventory, and reestablishing myself - put me in the mindset of changing environments. I keep feeling like I should say goodbye to everyone at school and start wrapping things up, but really nothing is changing other than my home life. It feels like the end of a chapter, but it's really only another paragraph.

December will be a somewhat wild month for me. We are planning on travelling on every weekend at this point including to Nagano, about which I'm very interested; I will encounter at least two friends from Vancouver, Alecks N. and Julian D.; we will be riding the Shinkansen for the first time (on the school's bill) as we make a 3-day trip to various places including Hiroshima (where I will meet up with another Japanese friend from Vancouver) and Miyajima; and we will be spending over a week in Tokyo over New Years eating, seeing, spending, playing, and doing as much as we can.

So yes, while part of me misses Vancouver and the lifestyle I had there, it's the weak part of me - the part of me that would love to spend my life not sleeping and playing video games. The other part of me, which I suppose should be dubbed the strong part, is who was present inside me as I spent the morning today striking the helmet of my opponent with a bamboo sword and shouting "MENNNNNNnnnn..."


Places I've been to recently:
- Korankei Gorge, Toyota

As autumn hits, all the trees in this mountainous area change colours into dramatic reds, oranges, and yellows. There are many lamps set up to amplify the effect at night. When we went, it was raining, but absolutely gorgeous.

 

  

 

- Iga, Mie prefecture

Iga is known for (and certainly proud of) having a particularly skilled faction of ninja arise back in the samurai era. The streets of the city are covered in ninja-related images and characters, and even the trains had (were?!) ninjas. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about them, saw a weapons show, and saw a real kunoichi slip into a hidden wall (see the last photo - girl in pink).

 

 - Ise-shi, Ise Grand Shrine

One of the most famous Shinto shrines in Japan, dedicated to Amaterasu, the sun goddess. We went just for the sake of visiting the shrines, but were greeted with amazing scenery with some of the most beautiful autumn leaves I've seen yet, completely exposed nature in the form of animals as well as trees, and natural yet humbling shrines flooded with people.

 

Random things that happened:
- I saw an old guy on a train with a fake hand, but then he dropped his fake hand and he actually had a normal hand under it.
- I finally went 1-on-1 with the badminton sensei for reals, and he dropped me like stone. He has such finess, it hurts. He didn't even smash a single time.
- After completely discolouring both knees due to bruises from reckless badminton/volleyball dives, I went to a restaurant where I had to kneel. ...
- We foolishly tried to finish the Unbelievable.

- I ate movie theatre food (which happened to be a churro!).
- We went bowling and I attempted to get a turkey for American Thanksgiving on the 10th round, but instead I got two strikes followed by a single pin.
- In one of the bowling rounds, I struck down nine pins with a poor shot (domino effect) and one of the pins flew into the gutter so that it couldn't be pulled away by the machine. Instead of waiting and calling over an attendant, I just threw my second ball as I was fairly certain I was going to miss (I am particularly horrendous at bowling). The ball guttered almost immediately (which actually doesn't happen often - I miss, but don't gutter), struck the pin in the gutter, leaped out of the gutter and knocked down the final pin to give me a spare. Even the staff thought it was a nice shot.

終わり

目茶CICADA

One of my main goals and focal points in Japan was to note the differences in native wildlife in such a wildly different part of the world. Of course, in a less scientifically worded statement, that means I want to see monkeys running around, but that will come later, and I wait patiently. In the mean time, I must be content with things like cicadas, bats, and big spiders.

Recently though, we made a day trip to the original capital of Japan: Nara. Yes, we originally went to see the time-sensitive treasures displayed from the Nara era, objects over a thousand years old, the famous To-daiji temple housing the daibutsu - giant Buddha - and see hundreds of pieces of ancient Buddhist art and sculptures, as well as pagodas and ponds surrounded by incredibly halcyon scenery, but the real star of the show was the wildlife - deer, to be precise.

Lots of deer.

And they were just, like, there. No cages, no walls. They ran across streets and were just as wild as the deer one might see in Vancouver, but certainly less timid. Thankfully, the locals were kind enough to provide what appears to either be a warning to be careful around the deer, or a manual on how to kick a human's ass as a deer.

Press 'X' to Butt!

 

 

Following that trip, I made a second visit to Japan's second capital(Kyoto), spending time doing what has so far been my favourite activity in Japan: just hanging out with real Japanese people. Of course, being the middle of November, it is leaf-changing season, and we were able to see a lot of momiji - Japanese maples in the midst of changing colours - while touring around the city.

There were also various live acts, such as traditional dances put on by students ranging from elementary school to university, going on everywhere, from temples to train stations. The only downside was being an obviously white person amidst many other kankoukyaku - sight-seers.

Mao found it especially pertinent that I should learn Japanese quickly, and decided not to use English for most of the day. It was harsh(as I was at my limit just listening to her and parsing her sentences, so most of my responses were just a nod and an "un") but it certainly worked wonders as a motivational tool.

A little anecdote mostly for Dave:

I feel I should mention that last week, we were subjected to a "cultural sports day"(I hesitate to call it by its title because of how it actually turned out), which followed the cultural... THINGS day we had a while back(remember how I was teaching students how to attend a hockey game in Canada?). Last week was the Japanese students' turn, and we played a host of games that all resembled games that we were familiar with(Duck Duck Goose, Freeze Tag) and ended up playing a rousing game of dodgeball. 

This week, however, was the Canadians' turn to come up with something. We were at a loss for some time(hockey wasn't really an option due to the lack of basic equipment); California Kickball was nixed due to them already having it(kikkubeisu - kick base) and Capture the Flag seemed too complex to explain in another language.

Long story short, the night before(while we were drinking and cooking takoyaki at one of the student's houses - what else does one do on a weeknight?), I simply stated "Ultimate.", and it was decided. Yeah, it turned out amazing. We spent 10 minutes or so buffing up their disk-throwing skills beforehand, and then the rest of the class turned into a surprisingly fun and intense game. They really got into it, developed strategies, etc. Yay!

End of transmission.

Random photo dump:

 

 

急二十三歳 (Suddenly 23)

It's strange: I never felt birthdays as a sudden shift, as in one day I'm 22 and the next day, 23. Instead, within about a month of my birthday, sometimes more, I begin to just accept that I've basically already grown the year older. This way of thinking makes the actual day seem much less significant, but that doesn't really bother me.

I'm not going to write anything profound or philosophical. Lately, I've been to many different places, so why don't I make this entry special and actually go into detail about some of them?



1. Mao's LIVE in Kyoto
I travelled to Kyoto for an short overnight stay in order to catch my friend Mao's live performance. This was especially important for me because, due to exasperating circumstances, I've missed her lives twice in the past. We had a great time, her show was amazing, and then we spent all night afterwards hanging out with her friends, chatting, walking, etc.

In fact, I was treated as a bit of a celebrity among her friends, being a foreigner and all. One of the people at the afterparty turned out to be the "top guitarist in the world" as recognized by a very official contest held annually in the States - I found this out after I had comfortably made a fool of myself speaking to him in primitive Japanese. He didn't seem to mind, but I felt silly because I didn't know what to say. He ended up serenading me with an original piece that was so skillfully executed and melodious that I couldn't tear my eyes away from his fingers.

I pulled myself out of bed at 6:00 am after having virtually no sleep, and was fortunate enough to be walked to the bus stop by Mao. She reassured me that it was okay because she could sleep in until noon as soon as I left - whereas I had a 2.5 hour bus ride ahead of me followed by a day of classes. No complaints.



2. The Pottery Walkway in Tokoname
An arbitrary holiday on a Wednesday became a trip to a place I had never even heard of. Tokoname is gorgeous, both naturally and based off what the locals create. We walked through what appeared to be a neighbourhood in a mountainous area, but pieces of art and pottery were strewn everywhere, on walls, sides of buildings, and the ground we walked on.

Looking down into the city from the higher reaches, you could see many chimneys, wide and square, rising from houses. These symbols of Tokoname are chimneys for all the kilns that this pottery village use or once used - most of the ovens are shut down now. There were many shops where people would sell their wares, and many old-style houses as well. We even saw what was called the "Climbing Kiln": a giant oven the size of a building.

 3. Expo Park and the Sky Garden in Osaka
 My second trip to Osaka, but with a slightly different flavour this time. We were in the north part, the more mountainous area of Osaka, and we travelled to the 1970 Osaka Expo location, which has since been converted into a museum/park of sorts. It was very lively: flea markets, food stands, live music, and all sorts of worldly trivia to check out. The most interesting piece, however, was the Tower of the Sun, a massive structure created by Tarou Okamoto. We had already seen one of his creations in Inuyama, near Monkey Park, but this one was much more impressive.

(For whatever reason, this thing really reminds me of the angels from Evangelion. Anyone else get that?)

We also went to a large building in the city known as the Floating Garden Observatory. Very touristy, and not a garden at all - just a building with 40-something floors and a beautiful observation deck on the top. We were able to see all around Osaka at night, and it was gorgeous. It was intimidating, though: you couldn't see the edge of the city. It was lights as far as the eye could see in every direction. Simply massive.

4. Tajimi and Seki
On the other side of the mountains, in the prefecture neighbouring Aichi, we travelled to a few cities that are slightly more remote than, say, Nagoya. Seki is a city known for its sword-smiths, and more recently, cutlery. We travelled there specifically to see one of the rare sword-smithing demonstrations, where a master came out and displayed the methods of folding steel to make katanas and similar blades.

The museum itself was quite interesting, filled with katanas, tantous, and wakizashis from many different eras. It was interesting to see the change in the size of the blade and edge over time - the older samurais used a much thinner, slightly shorter blade, presumably light enough to wield with one hand. Above the sword museum was a cutlery museum, which was actually more interesting than it sounds. There were many kinds of knives, from switchblade to Bowie knife to kitchen knife to nail clipper.

The actual sword-smithing ceremony was a treat to see, and afterwards I actually got the opportunity to smack the metal myself! The master said I was very good at it and the audience applauded me(they didn't for anyone else). I guess I was just born to fold steel; what can I say?

Following that, we travelled to a Enku museum(Enku being a Buddhist priest who carved 10s of thousands of religious statues), and went to a ceramics museum in Tajimi. They were both filled with ancient culture and beautiful art.

And that's all for now.

By no means am I finished going places, though. All of this was only over a span of 5 days, and I plan on doing much, much more. I'll leave you with some more pictures, if this page wasn't taking long enough to load already.

Random photo dump: