Bronze

I’m looking at my calendar and I can’t really believe my eyes again. It looks like a second silver-lined week is headed my way, and I didn’t even realize it.

Well, kinda. The first silver-lined week was September 18th to 26th, wherein we had a 3-day-weekend, followed by a two-day work week, and then I had myself a four-day weekend right after that (I created this by taking Friday off, but Thursday was a holiday).

This coming weekend is another 3-day lovely, then there’s good ol’ Tuesday and Wednesday, and then I’m off to Tokyo for the conference, which is work, but it’s not at all like work.

I’m still under the weather, pretty as the weather has been. The dollar dropped some MORE against the yen and I sent home all my extra cash.

That’s about all for now. Shikoku stuff is almost ready to be posted. Then I can get back to observing life in this my little trainless town. Hopefully you’ll get to hear about speech contest and taking walks real soon!

<3

Silver-Lined Week part one: Forest Therapy

A few weeks ago, a friend of a friend passed along an article with the caption “not sure Emily’s into traditional Japan”.. just for future reference, I am always into ancient stuff. The older, the better. Old buildings? Sweet! RUINS? Absolutely.

Just today, another friend sent me this Smithsonian article about the same place!

Anyway, the first article was about some well-preserved little towns somewhere in Japan, which still looked more or less like they had in the Edo period hundreds of years ago. They are outposts along the old Nakasendou, or inland highway that led between Tokyo (then called Edo, a’ course) and Kyoto. People used to have to walk this route to get between the two major cities.

Little towns like Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku were places for travelers to rest, eat, wash up, find a place to crash, and nowadays, purchase souvenirs. The Kiso Valley boasts some of the best preserved of these little post towns, as well as some pretty nature sights and mountain views. Kiso is located in the Central Japan Alps, sort of north-east of Nagoya.

Upon reading this article, in which the author walks the trail from Magome to Tsumago and stays the night in each, I of course wanted to visit this place. I spent most of the last year kind of going along with other people’s weekend trips because I didn’t really have plans of my own, but finally I decided to plan a venture out on our three-day-weekend. We decided it would be a roadtrip, because out in the middle of nowhere mountains, trains are more scarce, and bus schedules can be harsh mistresses. The guidebooks said that a car would be the “most flexible” mode of transport. It’s actually much cheaper, too, if you get more people in the car to share the gas and tolls.

We got caught in some pretty merciless traffic right outside of Kyoto (go figure.. and if you remember, last year in Kyoto at this time was more crowded than Nami-san ever remembered seeing it!) which slowed our roll tremendously as we pushed toward our destination. I had hoped we would take our walk from Magome to Tsumago on Saturday just after arriving from the drive.

Instead, we pulled off at the first sight within the area that seemed to hold any promise. We followed a little road snaking along beside the Atera gorge, where the rocks were large and white, and the river a crystal blue. We wanted to make the most of daylight, while we had it.

Not content to simply feast on the view, of course, we were soon scrambling into the canyon to clamber over rocks and dip our fingers into the holy-looking water.

Further up the gorge, we found a path to a waterfall we’d seen from the road, so we ambled on down to explore and enjoy the scenery.

By the time we got back on the road, the light was basically gone, and it was about 6pm. I’d tried to book us accommodations in Tsumago or Magome, but everywhere seemed either full or 7,500 yen (including dinner). Then, there was a youth hostel in Kiso-Fukushima that only cost 3,000; I figured we weren’t going to have a $40 dinner, so I booked that one.

It turned out to be incredibly difficult to find, so after enlisting the help of some forest park (?) workers in the dark, we finally found our way to the hostel. The inside was lovely and sprawling and all four of us agreed that the place really “had character.” It reminded me of Centro Due (The Villa Vergiliana) in that it was beautiful and there was farmland all around.. it felt oldschool and homelike while simultaneously rustic and inn-like.

We also felt like we had the run of the place, since we only saw a few other travelers in the common rooms and corridors. We played cards and went to sleep, hoping to be fresh for morning explorations.

Our first stop in the morning was the Nezame-no-toko, a gorge much greater in size than the Atera. It was very pretty, and a lot of fun to climb on, but it lacked the subtle beauty of the more or less deserted Atera from the day before. We underestimated the impressiveness of the Nezame-no-toko from afar, so we were quite pleased once we got down to it.

From there we went on to Magome to start our hike. We managed to park for free, grabbed a noodle lunch (mine was zaru soba, yum!), and hit the trail. The walk itself was really nice, not too strenuous, but still a good challenge. We rang the bear bells set up along the way and labeled “Ring the bell hard against bears.” Some of the uphill portions were a bit daunting.

We reached Tsumago a bit tired, and after the departure of the last bus back to Magome. We knew this was a real possibility and were prepared to take a cab (it was only a couple hundred yen more per person to do that) for our return trip. Ah, the joys of traveling in groups.

Tsumago was very nice, though I’d read too much about how enchanting it was to really appreciate it in its tourist-crawling state. Although one could imagine oneself back in old Japan, it would take a great force of imagination at that time of day.

We returned to our car to finish our evening in Nagoya.

Nagoya traffic surprised us (though it shouldn’t have, perhaps), though we did like the look of the city. Nagoya’s roads are wide and the city lacked Osaka’s tendency to bear over on a person. I’ve heard that clubbing in Nagoya is a lot of fun, but we were pretty exhausted, so we just ate some curry and crashed in our Toyoko Inn.

The next morning we toured Nagoya castle and ate at a Denny’s (which wasn’t serving breakfast – argh!), and got back on the long road home.

Kiso Photos, because I was too lazy to pick out just a few and pepper them into the post.

I Create Monsters.

You might have seen this coming a mile off. Or, at least I did. I've got a sore throat.

Which is, of course, often a precursor to something like a cold.

I'd blame the change of season, if it were to blame.

But I'm young and spry, and I almost never get sick without having pushed myself too far outside my ability to function. The monster, this time, is my schedule again. You might recognize it from its predecessor, My College Schedule, which made for an impressive resume but also left me a bit unstrung from time to time.

I'm still working on putting together the blog posts from my last two (long) weekends; it takes a lot of time to get all the photos going, really.

Autumn came right on schedule. I mean on September 23rd, the temperature plummeted. If you look at photos from Kiso (September 18th weekend) you will see us in shorts; it was hot. On the 23rd, down in Shikoku (which is a decent distance to the south), I at least found myself wishing I'd brought more than just my single pair of afterthought-sweatpants.

But it's not just weekends out that'll be kicking in. It's the workaday week, too. I am back to four-to-six classes a day (except Wednesday, on which day I magically expect to catch up on all deskwork.. including planning my next trip and recapping the last one), and I'm still re-adjusting to that workload.

My problem is not new to me. I've always wanted to do/see/try everything. And I've always been too easy to rope into things, too. It may seem like I've only added Shorinji Kempo to my life, which is just one night a week, but actually there is a lot going on.

Autumn is a beautiful season in Japan, and so I want to spend as much time as I can out enjoying it, whether that is traveling to other cities and exercising my inner tourist or taking walks and exploring, observing the more local seasonal change. Also, autumn means that winter is coming. Winter in Japan blows in general, but apparently this year is due to be super-suck harsh (La Nina or something... efff), so my hope is to escape at least for a little while into warmer climes like Thailand or Malaysia. All of which will require planning, sooner rather than later if I want to spend less than 1.5 fortunes on it.

I was totally slacking off on my Hyogo Times duties, so I've tried to get back in the swing of actually doing my editing job. I'm also writing for the HT more than I was before (but not, of course, more than I ought to be.. I want to continue to contribute writing to the HT). What? You didn't know I was the second-editor of the prefectural monthly newspaper for JETs? Come on, of course I am.

I like writing, and I want to keep this blog up regularly. I also want to keep reading the stuff I profess to read on my blogroll (confession: have not read any of that stuff for like three weeks, serious). I was recently given the key to the Impetuous Windmills blog (I guess since I was such a master of highbrow in that podcast ^_~) but of course I have not yet produced any content for that. I also was hoping to write a short story for a writing group I sort of faux joined a while back which never seemed to be meeting on a day when I was free.....

Lots of things interest me. Another is psychology; I'm a pretty good listener. So I signed up as a volunteer for the AJET Peer Support Group back in the summer. Now I'm trained, although they have invited me to a Prefectural Advisor conference in Tokyo in a couple weeks, and of course I'm going. I only man the phone lines for this once or twice a month, though it's an overnight affair.

And I really do want to improve my Japanese. It's not bad, right now, passable. I've been trying to stay on top of solidifying my kanji (still right there at 508 kanji, and since classes started.. a lot less desk time to sit there and write kanji words to learn) so I can, you know, read. I go to Japanese class on Wednesday nights (it includes dinner, so this is a lot less stressful than Tues or Thurs which require me to somehow make dinner before going wherever). Today was the last day to apply for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. I looked over the application and decided to let it go.

And there's still ikebana, and my adult class (which is getting better but has been a big stressor, as I want to do a Good Job, and have never been sure quite how to go about that, with this). Both Thursday night. Thursdays are still 5th and 6th grade at big elementary, which are still kind of a bear.

Fridays are four classes, but more relaxed because it's just the same thing four times (all third-years/9th graders)... Mondays are first and second years, so I do two of each (it's tougher to switch because you have to switch materials as well as mindsets).

Tuesdays are six classes if I am at big elementary, five at small. It's a long day, and I like to shock my fellow JETs with those numbers, because almost no one else works that much, and especially not with any regularity. I'm not complaining, really, because I would much rather feel like I am working and accomplishing something than sit around. Part of the problem with the JET program is that schools don't know how to use their ALTs, but I'm pretty sure my school(s) have figured it out. I know I don't really have any place to complain, both because compared to what some people do (and what most people in Japan do), I don't work that hard; also the rest of my beastly schedule is, as you see, of my own creation.

In my spare time, I've been doing things like, you know, dishes, or laundry, and reading before bed and on the bus.

But I went for a walk today in Seino, which is a little hamlet by the river about halfway home from work. It was nice to just take in the smells of autumn and say hello to the old people who seemed totally shocked to have a gaijin-san (yeah they actually called me that to my face ^_^;;) wandering through.

Then, because it was Friday night, I de-disgusting-ed the bathroom full force. Holla.

Keep looking forward to the Kiso and Shikoku posts. They were kickass weekends and I hope to do justice by them.

I have recently considered a career in travel planning/travel writing. I mean, if someone would pay me to do that... well hell.

It bothers me, because I want to do a lot of things. But I also want to do whatever I do very well. And the more things you do, the less you can devote to each thing. It's just mathematics. It's just how many hours in a day, and how many weeks in a season.

Alas.

Housekeeping

Alright. With one thing and another, there are a couple of things to make a short post.

One is, as part of one of my super-busy weeks (sports day practice week, actually), I hurried home from Salamander to take part in some highbrow discussion podcasting. If you’d like to hear my guest appearance on Impetuous Windmills, check out episode 16: Gravitass. I hesitated in posting this here only because of the content of our highbrow conversation, which is not really related to this blog. And also my unedited use of the f-word. But if you have an hour of mindless chores or driving to do, and want to listen to some college friends go on about some stuff, please enjoy! I’m including it because it is in fact the kind of conversations I tend to have at dinners and parties and dinner parties.

Another is, this entry which covers a lot of stuff, is now complete with pictures. That is to say, it was rather incomplete before, but now it’s better. Please click on any of the photos to see a larger image!

Please eagerly anticipate my posts about Kiso Valley (in Nagano, the Central Japanese Alps) and later, Iya Valley (Shikoku)!

Out of This World

I’ve reclaimed my commute.

When I first arrived here, I was totally stunned by it. You trundle past waving rice stalks and quaint-looking houses and uniformed elementary kids all in a line, cross over beautiful clear-flowing rivers and then run alongside them north through the mountains.

About a month ago, my commute was (surprise?) not so startling anymore. I mean, it’s a commute. You make it every day. And at that time, it was still summer vacation; after that day I was four hours late, it became very hard to motivate myself to catch my morning bus. So I’d trudge to my car, climb aboard, and navigate myself upriver in a haze of wishing I were still abed, instead of northbound on 29, about to spend a good chunk of hours doing just whatever.

But I’m back; today was my first day of middle-school classes of the new semester. And on the bus I read, or sit and look out the window. Every piece of town I peer at in passing makes me think, it’s going to suck to leave this place.

I mean, I know I can’t make a life here forever, but for a moment there it seemed kind of silly to think of coming all the way here, doing whatever it is we do, and then tearing ourselves out of it again.

Furthermore, the kids we love best will graduate and go away, and ever flower will fade and fall off, and even the co-workers we like will be transferred eventually, or move to new cities, or make new lives. You can’t really stay in any place, because a place is also tied to a time, and time will never quit changing on you.

Of course I think about whether I should stay a third year. Have I mentioned it? I might have. I think about it a lot. Like all the time, it’s quietly at the back of my mind, quietly hanging out. I’m not worried about it yet, or about the way I some days feel like I know, and some days don’t. I am making an honest effort to follow my heart, but let’s be honest and admit that sometimes my heart has made choices my head can only conclude are STUPID.

I’m not worried because I’m convinced that by constantly weighing the yes against the no, the stay against the go, I will just know by the time February rolls around.

For now, better to just enjoy the advent of the first coolish day of fall, without the pressure of thinking it’s the last fall I’ll have here, nor the promise (and therefore excuse) that there will be many more.

Mecchakucha

Well, it’s been a busy couple of weeks. I blame a total lack of weekends due to an inability to say “no” to stuff. This is going to feedback-reverse itself into a three-day-weekend, immediately followed by a two-day work week and a four-day weekend thereafter.

This change will have little effect on my blogging habits, though; posts will still be infrequent but muse-led.

What could I have been doing that would explain this? Well, let me go in order I suppose. Allow me to whisk you back about two weeks.

Two weeks ago, it was hot as balls. September had just begun, and preparations for preparations for the Sports Festival had also begun. I myself was still in do-what-you-want-at-your-desk land, which amounts to a lot of kanji studying, internet surfing (such as personal vacation-trip planning, or browsing as it were), and valiant attempts to not fall asleep. My focus had just shifted to the September 5th picnic, which was about to rule my weekend.

That Saturday, charged with the task of purchasing hot dogs, buns, cookies, and drinks (we added chips) for 100, JET Upstairs and I made the long drive to Costco in Amagasaki with her little sister and in her car “The Post Office.”

The cart. Carts.

The car.

We left pretty early, trying to make it not an all day affair, but of course, when Costco is two hours away, it just is an all-day affair. It’s unfortunately a total-car affair and is now recommended to be undertaken by no more (and no less) than two individuals, lest there be no place for the third to sit on the way home again. This is assuming you buy stuff for yourself as well as whatever mission you happen to be on that day.

Little sister pushed the pillows down so we could see her seat situation. Awesome.

And don’t get me wrong. Part of the joy of getting to be one of the Costco-goers is that you get to have your own go at the goods for sale. I bought myself space bags, bagels, muffins, cereal, soap, and of course, lunch. Costco lunch is effin’ awesome in any country.

Water balloon toss! We are so USA.

Limbo!

So that was one weekend day down. The next was the picnic itself, also not supposed to be an all-day affair, but we did have to fill a lot of water balloons. The picnic was a pretty fun time, despite it being (still) hot as balls and having way less than 100 people show up. The hot dogs were fantastic, and our ploy to clear out Costco’s bakery of all hot dog buns was a good one. The picnic plus cleanup was day two. Monday? Back to work.

Only it’s sports practice every day from there, so it’s a no-desk-sittin’ solid week of slatherin’ sunscreen, wearin’ hats, and sweating a lot in the gym and on the field (side note: to me, a field suggests that it is grassy. This is more like a “ground” that we are working with.). I got co-opted into the folk dance (which for some reason is the Oklahoma Mixer?!) but I didn’t really mind, because it was easy, and it was fun to see the reactions of the third-year boys who got stuck dancing with me.

We watch from the third floor of the elementary school while the JHS does Soran.

Turns out this is a pretty good vantage.

I spent Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the middle school, and Tuesday and Thursday at the elementary school, but it was basically the same effect. Still wanting to browse for travel stuff, or maybe even book something, or make an actual plan. Fallin’ behind on kanji (I use a timed flashcard-box system, so if I leave it be for a week, I have like 300 kanji to review due). To boot, I was going to have real live CLASS on the following Tuesday when I went back to small elementary (their sports day circa springtime, 2010).

I spent my evenings in the usual way. Which means Wednesday night Japanese (but Osaki-san makes dinner on those nights, so really they are not stressful), Thursday night ikebana and adult English class, and I had added in this trying-Shorinji-Kempo thing, which was Tuesday nights.

I also had to do laundry about every other day, and buy myself some more cool sports wear to last through this hot-as-balls (still) week of all outside all the time.

A word on sports day practice. I like to complain about it, and I did sometimes stand there and wonder, as long as I’m not doing anything remotely useful or important, maybe I could go somewhere else?? But I also really enjoyed it this year. This year, I kinda know the kids, and it made a whole world of difference in how much I care about what is going on around me. I watched the races avidly and even found myself tearing up from time to time. Which is ridiculous, but also pretty awesome of me.

My more favorite kids hung around the main tent (the student leader group had their chairs there, actually) and talked to me sometimes, and I cheered them on and learned to appreciate that it’s totally Sports Festival, not just field day, and it’s kind of a community event, and that’s why they practice. They’re hosting an event in addition to having some game competitions along the way. So it’s kind of like graduation to me, in that it’s not really for the kids entirely. But it is kinda for them, too, and they did have fun (when they weren’t standing there wondering, as long as I’m not doing anything remotely important, maybe I could go sit in the shade??). I loved seeing their faces. I also loved on actual sports day, seeing them run the show. The entire shebang is driven by the student leaders, more or less, and that group is a good bunch.

Some sports day photos:

Some of my favorite kids, pre-festival.

Carrying the school flag! I love their faces. These are some of my favorite kids, again.

Getting ready for the relay.



This is from the giant jumprope competition. I love the look on the kid in the middle. He pretty much looks like that all the time.

Kibasen, or "chicken hat fights without a pool" commence.

Kumi mans the drums for kibasen.

Our announcers have opposite reactions to the camera but neither is rendered recognizable. (This is another couple of favorite kids)

This was something I hadn't seen: forcible crowd-surfing. That kid is flying because the lines are throwing him forward.

Soran dance is about to begin.

Here, they've finished the dance. Check out both the pyramid of boys and how low the girls are into their do-kai-shos. They did that every time. Also, the girl in front. Yeah, another favorite. Check out her face: that's her attitude on most things.

After lunch: the march of the clubs is about to commence. These are some of the banner bearers; each object is because we recently won some sporting event or other. Next time that event occurs, they add a ribbon with our school's name and the year, and pass it on to the new winner.

Getting ready for the folk dance. The boys make their team marker bands into neckties. The girls made theirs into bows for their hair. One was also pushed upon me (blue).

Every year, mukade (centipede) relay is a hazard and a thriller. Here, the first groups charge toward the leg-tying area. This is the last sport event of the day.

The blue-team teachers (classes 3-2, 1-2, and 2-2, left to right) prepare to cheer on their mukade teams and perhaps help keep them in rhythm.

Typically, third-years do best in mukade, being the most experienced. But on this sports day, 3-2 is running in dead last (note the other kids just kinda sitting by the finish line). Our cap-gun weildin' class president awaits their imminent finish.

But 3-2 is taking longer than anticipated and is actually slowing as they approach the finish line.

Then we see them do this.

Aaaand.. finish! They all leaped/fell across together.

It was Wednesday, in the wake of a typhoon that swung way north and pretty much didn’t cause much more than a light rainshower, that the summer’s persistent heat broke. I mean, from about 9:30 on it was hot as balls again until evening, but I knew something was different because I began waking up chilly (I understand our perceptions of this word may vary.. mine means only that I woke up with the fan on and immediately turned it off) in the morning, and have from Wednesday on.

So fall is on the way, and that’s my favorite (though it’s the most melancholic of them) season. Sports Day finished with an enkai, one of those work drinking parties at which I (as usual) consumed much more beer than is my wont because they just kept refilling the tiny glass. And it’s such a tiny glass. There’s a new teacher, come to replace the guy who quit at the start of the year in spring. The new guy is my age and is pretty good at English, too, so he talked to me through about the second half of the dinner party. He was about as beer-i-fied as me, and that was kinda fun.

I’ve spent the rest of my afternoons in lots of ways where I did a lot of work but feel like nothing is actually done, finished, complete.

Today, it’s cool for real. The kids are complaining that it’s hot, and I guess if you run around in the sunshine, it is, but if you cling to the shade like a redhead who forgot her sunscreen, it’s perhaps the most perfect bright-clear early autumn day you could ask for.

Highlights include the attractive special education teacher inviting me to sit under the giant cherry tree with him and have a conversation like a real human being. I guess otherness doesn’t scare him, anyway. He told me his specific student is in “his own world.” I watched the kid playing in the sand and dirt making happy noises and pondered the term “disabled.”

On the 9th, I decided firmly that it was a good day to be alive. On the 16th it kind of seemed like that was true with or without my consent.

My VP has made a dangerous discovery, being that I like to work.

So now, I'm always working.

It's field-day-week (and a half) again, and this time I am less baffled and more involved than before. I am also better prepared. I'm hatted, fully sunscreened, and double-fisting on the water bottles every day we are outside. Because of rain, we were inside today. I am perhaps even sweatier for it.

All this stuff is a lot more fun when you know the kids and can kind of enjoy their antics. My favorites among the girl students keep making me join their dance practices and I suspect I'll be expected to participate in that stuff in actual sports day too.

When I wasn't folk-dancing (the Oklahoma Mixer, no less) and sweating a disgusting amount, I was sitting in the upper level of the gym, sorting paintings for display, putting them in plastic sleeves, labeling them, and sweating a disgusting amount. Or I was outside raking grass clippings and sweating a disgusting amount. I wear real American-made deodorant and I am embarrassed at the way I smell right now sitting in the staff office.

But this post is already longer than I thought it would be, because mostly all I came to say is, I had like a whole month to be at my desk. And now I have no time, and I need to make a lesson plan for elementary school (little elementary.. the big one is doing the same stuff we are, namely running around outside all the time and sweating a disgusting amount), and I'm silly for not having done that sooner. Alas. I keep feeling like I have no time to take care of my own stuff. As little of that as there is. I'm tryin' to plan trips here, and classes. My apartment languishes in a seemingly endless state of disarray. I've got Japanese class and maybe karate and ikebana and eikaiwa. And my taxes, and sending money home (since it's like 84 yen on the dollar right now.. I just sent a couple thousand bucks), and trying to find better sports day practice clothing (this shit ain't cutting it), and preparing to be a guest on an hour long podcast to be recorded this week, and no weekend to speak of... Haha. Well.

I'll write more about Sports Day later, when I feel like I have time to reflect on it more. Just suffice for now to say I am enjoying it, more or less.