Japanese Adventure 2007

When I got back to Japan I met up with my friend Sol in Osaka and spent several days with him and his friend, Chris, exploring Osaka and Amanohachidate.

Aminohachidate is called one of the top ten views in Japan and it is basically a tree covered sand bar that connects the mainland to the island where we stayed.

In order to get the full effect of the view one is meant to travel to the top of a mountain and view the sandbar by bending over and looking through their legs. It’s hysterical. Here is Sol doing it.

Here is what it looks like.

Only in Japan would they have looked at the view so many different ways they would eventually discover that the best way to looking at the view is in fact through your legs. And it really is better. Unfortunately, all my pictures of this trip with Sol were somehow lost off my camera so I have have had to borrow Sol's pictures from the trip. All these photos are ones he took.

A few weeks after my return to Japan I celebrated my 31st birthday. I decided to spend the week on a small island in the Seto Inland Sea, not far from my home.

Unfortunately the weather was crappy the whole time and I decided to leave early. I did however have my first sailboat ride and a lovely birthday party before I left.

I was also able to take many great pictures of the views around the island.

When I finally returned back to work at the schools in September it was time for the students to prepare for their sports days. Sports day consists of a variety of events such as relay races, beanbag tosses, dance and cheer contests, and various performances.

Two of my favorite performances are the Sorambushi dance, which is a traditional Hokkaido fisherman’s dance, and the pyramid building performance, during which boys create various human pyramids some of which end in choreographed collapse. It’s a full day, and all the parents (and I really mean all) and community members come out to watch the events. Many family members are also asked to participate in some of the events. I’m glad to report that the weather this year was much cooler than last year so it was a relatively comfortable day and better than last year when the students were dropping like flies.

While I can't show you pictures of the student's faces, I can show you pictures of the party after.

Naturally, after a day like sports day, all the teachers go out for a party. This party had three parts. Dinner and Beer, Snack and Hard Liquor, Dinner and Watching the News. Great night. Actually it was a full moon that night and there is a special dish the Japanese eat on the full moon.

I can't remember what it is called but it has the Japanese word for "moon" in it. Not as good as it looks.

September was also the time we English teaching veterans welcomed the new teachers to Okayama. Naturally there was lots of time spent in Karaoke bars and sushi houses in attempt to make the new teachers feel welcome in Okayama. My town of Kibichuo-cho said goodbye to Melissa who was here last year from Michigan, USA and this year welcomed Tina who is an artist from upstate New York, USA. One of the first things Tina and I did together was pick blueberries and go up to the local ostrich farm to have a look. What ugly birds! They freak me out!

A few weeks later we were invited to Yokota-san’s house for a soba making challenge. Soba is a flower that is dried and ground down into powder which they mix with water to make soba noodles.

The noodles have a very earthy, grainy taste and are usually served cold with a dark sauce, wasabi, green onion and sesame seeds. The grinding of the seeds takes forever though and even with six of us grinding at top speeds we maybe only produced a half-cup of flower after a half hour.

Yokota-san’s wife said it takes three hours to grind enough flower for a decent batch of soba.

After the soba challenge we went down to look at the rice field we had planted in the spring which was not yet ready for harvest. We also picked grapes from Yokota’s vines and were sent home with enough grapes to fill a bathtub.

It was another great day.

A few weeks after that, we were invited to yet another Ekaiwa student’s home. Tadao-san loves to make pizza, almost as much as he loves to brag.

So after going on a tour of his home listening to him tell us how many things he made in it we started to make pizzas. Then we walked down the stairs that Tadao made and sat in the chairs that Tadao made and ate with the chopsticks Tadao made, all the while listening to Tadao talk about how great he thought all the things he made were.

They are pretty great but they loose their luster when the he brags about it every five minutes. When we were finally all bragged out we headed home, once again, with a bathtub full of grapes.

So that brings me to last weekend when a few friends and I went to Takebe to enjoy the fall festival there. It is a very vibrant and colourful festival, as all the fall festivals are, and I had a wonderful time.

And one week later, we found ourselves at another fall festival, this time in my town. The Kamotaisai festival is one of the three larges festivals in Okayama and it is really spectacular.

Last year Shane and I went and had a great time so we went again and took a new English teacher from Scotland, Katie, with us. All afternoon we enjoyed the okonomiyaki and all the other goodies that the street vendors had to offer. We also took in some Japanese masked stick fighting, some shrine shaking, some priest bowing, some drum banging, some drunken fighting, some flute playing and some slutty teen parades.

Just a usual afternoon at a Japanese fall festival and it was a great time.

But that wasn't the end of the fall festivals. Oh no! They love the fall festivals here. Every town and every village and every shrine and temple has one and the shrine nearest my house is no exception. My area, Yoshikawa, in fact has a very famous, well known temple and it's fall festival is equally as famous if not widely visited.

Two boys are chosen from the town to ride up to the temple on horses with their gang of priests and samurai following behind.

There is a lot of shouting and drinking on the way. Once the two groups have reached the shrine steps the boys are pulled off their horses and raced up the steps to the shine. They are set on cushions and fed all day long in two separate corrals. Several dances and ceremonies take place through out the day, and, as always, there are lots of vendors serving Japanese favorites such as sweet bean paste cakes and octopus on a stick.

The next weekend a couple of friends and I went out to explore the Seto ohashi bridge. One of my friends lives very near the bridge so we drove up to have a look.

The bridge is the longest two teared bridge in the world and is 35 km long. It's pretty cool but very expensive to cross in a car. I have gone over it twice now.

This weekend we were invited by Yokota-san to go with him to Hiroshima to pick oranges on Ikuchijima island. The Christmas mandarin oranges are perfect right now. We drove about two hours out to a little island which is famous for the orange picking, the incredible temple, and octopus(s) (?) The weather was perfect and we were able to enjoy a lovely morning of climbing into trees and eating as many mandarins as we could. A one point a woman who hadn't seen me picking in the tree suddenly saw me there. She gave a little shout, turned to her friend and said, "There is a foreigner in this tree." Very funny.

After the picking we went off to have our octopus lunch. I usually don't think that much of octopus (I don't mind it but I never order it) but this octopus was very tasty. One of my friends, Lauren, is a vegetarian and that always perplexes the Japanese mind. There are pretty much no vegetarians in Japan and they don't at all grasp the idea of not eating meat. They were very nice though and did their best to make some vegetarian stuff for Lauren. They did think she was very strange though.

After lunch we went off to check out Kosanji Temple and museum and it was amazing.

The temple had many sections and you could spend hours there just checking out all the nooks and crannies. The temple buildings were all very decorative and brightly coloured. They looked like new. There was an enormous 50 statue in the middle of it all of some female goddess.

The best part by far was the cave. My pictures will do it no justice at all. The stones that lined the cave were brought in from Mnt. Fuji and there were hundreds of rock statues throughout. The statues lined all the walls and went right up to the ceiling. Every where you turned there was a beautiful little carved statue. It was amazing to see.

Outside the cave there were beautiful gardens and an incredible marble monument called "The Hill of Hope" It reminded me of Crete in Greece.

So now, here I sit on Monday afternoon, trying to choke down what I affectionately refer to as spit salad, wishing I were back on the island chewing on BBQ octopus.

So! Here I am. I have not perished in Japan but am in fact living out a very happy and healthy life. Dad has been hounding me to put something on my blog for months and I have to admit I have been neglecting my blogging responsibilities for some time now. So, for those of you who are dying to know what is going on with me, here is an update.

Three months ago, when last I left you, it was springtime here in Japan. My friends and I enjoyed planting rice in a friend’s field, a rugby tournament in Tokushima, and an exciting trip to Tokyo. The last three months have been just as exciting with my trip home to Canada being the highlight of the summer. It was so great to get home and see my friends and family and spend some time at the lake. The best thing was seeing my niece and nephews and meeting the newest little addition to the Boonstra family, Liam. Liam was born in the spring and it was strange to know that there was a new member of my family across the world who I had not yet met. The time I spent with my brother’s kids was defiantly the highlight of my trip home. Just look how cute they are.

Before I left Japan for the summer, however, there were a few interesting events that are worth mentioning. The Sayonara Party to say goodbye to all the English teachers who were heading back home after their time in Japan was up. The AJET organization I volunteer for rented an old samurai house at the top of a mountain not far from the city. The views were spectacular and the party was a raging success.

Overlooking the valley

Checking out the view

Enjoying the entrance

Many beautiful views

Spring flowers

Another event was the Ekaiwa BBQ. Ekaiwa means adult English class in Japanese. I have been teaching the Ekaiwa class since I arrived in Japan last year. I really enjoy meeting with the regular class members, as they are a great source of information for me about the community and about Japanese culture in general. I find that Japanese people don’t always get me and many don’t try. They often see me as strange and rude but the Ekaiwa people are usually very open to understanding me and the reasons why I think and do things the way I do. Still, despite their openness to me, there have still been some cultural bumps in our road. The Ekaiwa BBQ was one of them.

To begin with the BBQ wasn’t supposed to be a BBQ, it was supposed to be a simple bonfire with wieners and marshmallows. It came up because Melissa (the other English teacher in my town at the time) and myself had been lamenting to the class about missing campfires like we had at home. We explained it to them and they said there was a good place to do it at a local park. So, we started to plan. By the time the next Ekaiwa class rolled around the students had taken the simple bonfire and Japaneseized it. They turned what was supposed to be a simple evening of conversation and relaxation into and evening of hectic food preparation and prescribed behaviour. They can’t help it. It’s what they do. But, there was no way to stop the rollercoaster without inconveniencing some class members who had already taken it upon themselves to buy food.

So, on the day of the bonfire, one of the members of the Ekaiwa class and his wife went to the campsite at 4pm to start preparations for the 7pm BBQ. When I turned up at seven I found all the members of the Ekaiwa class there deep in the throws of chopping vegetables and fruit for various Japanese BBQ dishes. The majority of them had been there since 5pm. I was worried they wouldn’t know exactly what an actual campfire was but I was pleasantly surprised to find a lovely roaring fire when I turned up. What I was not overjoyed with was the two floodlights they cast on the fire so they could keep a close watch on the cooking. On top of the Japanese food that had been cooked, one man brought his wife along so she could BBQ meet for us. This is such a ridiculous Japanese male thing to do, to drag their wife places to do things for everyone else while the men enjoyed themselves. It ticks me off more that the women do it. So, there she stood next to a roaring fire, under two flood lights, cooking meat over a portable BBQ while us foreigners struggled to distract the people from their busy-bee absurdities in order for them to practice English conversation with us. Once the food was all finished, the Japanese people started cleaning up. They literally took their last bite of food and instantly started on the task of cleaning the whole thing up. So there they went, busy again.

Once everything was cleaned up they announced, “OK, we’re finished. It’s time to go home.” But the fire was still roaring and it was only 9pm. So we said, ok you can do what you like but we are going to stay. They didn’t get that at all. They do everything as a group in Japan and they can’t really handle people breaking away from the group so they all decided to stay, which was great. So we all sat around the fire and told some ghost storied and talked about a variety of very interesting things. Then it was 10pm and they said, OK, now we are finished. Once again we said you can do what you like but we are going to stay and enjoy the fire. There was lots more wood and it was a Friday night. We explained that at home we would likely stay until enjoy the fire and have conversations until late at night. They said that some people were tired and wanted to go home. We said, you don’t have to stay, please go home if you wish. Please stay if you wish. They said they needed to put out the fire. We said we could do it. They said Yokota-san was responsible for the campsite. We said we would take responsibility for the site and the fire. All the people left reluctantly and rather uncomfortably but Yokota-san stayed. He simply could not handle passing off the responsibility of the campsite to us. We stayed until 1:30am. Yokota-san stayed too. Yokota-san incidentally is the same man who dragged his wife along to suffer through cooking meat.

After the BBQ, the next major event in my life was the celebration of the Fourth of July. I find myself celebrating many American holidays here in Japan as so many of my friends here are American.

So this time it was American independence. Of course the whole thing is not a lot different than the Canada Day celebrations with the food and the friends and the flags. It might be an American holiday but it sure reminds me of home.

Then came my lovely three week vacation at home in Manitoba.

Certainly the highlights were the BBQ my folks threw for me with all my cousins when I got home, the camping trip with the extended family in Ontario, and the time spent with my niece and nephews. I also spent a great deal of time with friends as the Winnipeg Fringe Festival was on at the time. The Fringe of course draws all my theatre friends from all over Canada to Winnipeg, which means I got to see a pile of old school friends.

It was a wonderful and much needed vacation home.

Once again the seasons have changed here in Japan and I am gratefully enjoying the most beautiful spring of my life. In Canada in the spring things are always so gray. The city always has that thick layer of dust and garbage coating the streets. When the grass has not yet turned green and the trees have not yet begun to bud things can be very ugly. Japan, however, does not have to deal with winter graters or freezing temperatures so the spring comes in the most beautiful way.

In fact, the winter is mild enough for the locals to continue growing gardens. They even plant fresh plants in the fall. So you can imagine that when the warm weather starts coming in things get very colourful very quickly.

Not too much has been going on lately. In recent months I haven’t been doing much traveling as I’m trying to save up some money for a trip home. All my friends out here have gone home at least once since arriving in Japan but not I. I have been on a marathon stretch here in Japan and while I love living here I am very excited to come home to see my friends and family.

So let’s see…why do I love Japan so much? Let me count the ways.

- Onigiri rice balls at the convenience stores: they are filled with tuna and other goodness and make a much better snack than a 7-11 hot dog.
- The weather: Strolling by the ocean in a light coat in January. That can’t be beat!
- The flora: there are flowers everywhere all the time and I just love all the rose bushes and the flowers on the trees.

- Not speaking the language is a constant out for anything I don’t want to do. If someone asks me to do something I don’t to or wants me to eat something creepy I just fake mass confusion and find my way out the other side of most problems quite easily.
- The kids are so cute and respectful. I have thought about becoming a teacher back home but I have my doubts they would ever respect me like they do here.
- The gas station attendants: when you roll into a Japanese gas station the attendants really do jump to the pump and they always have a smile on their face. They stand in the lot waiting for customers and when you come in they guide you into the spot they want you and then three more attendants come running out and while one fills your car the others happily wipe down your whole car. And, when you leave they stop traffic so you won’t get hit on your way out. I love the gas station attendants.
- Wheat and popcorn flavoured tea.
- Onsens: I don’t know how I’ll live without the onsens when I come home. I know getting naked with a bunch of other people is not the kind of thing most Canadians see as relaxing but the experience really is lovely, especially in the winter months when you have been hiding away in your house and you just want to get warm. So many onsens have beautiful outdoor sections with amazing gardens and rock pools. I will defiantly miss the onsens when I am gone.

Ok, I guess to keep it balanced I should throw out a little of the downside of living in Japan.

- Never knowing what the hell you are eating. Sometimes it’s a hit and sometimes it s a big fat fishy miss.
- The bugs: they have some real monsters out here and while I have successfully managed to keep my house relatively bug free I am aware that they are out there: spiders and centipedes and cockroaches, oh my!
- Little dogs in even littler cages: everyone in this country wants a little dog so the pet shops have dozens and dozens and dozens of teeny tiny cages holding as many teeny sad little dogs. The dogs are stupidly expensive so they take months and months to sell. I keep going to visit the little things but it is so depressing to watch them sit in those tiny little cages for months on end. And while I’m on the animal thing. I should say that nearly every school I go to has a cage of mistreated animals behind their school. The little kids go in and terrorize the chickens or the bunnies and I can’t stand it.
- Not being able to understand anything: because I can’t speak Japanese most of the people here assume I don’t know how to do anything. Yesterday a little kid at school was showing me, in a very specific way, how to wring water from a washcloth. This is the kind of thing I deal with all the time. They assume because I often do things differently that I don’t know how to do anything at all. If I could speak to them I could tell them that it’s not that I don’t know how it’s that I do it differently.
- Wa: wa is the very essence of being Japanese. It has something to do with peace and it is a crime to disturb the wa. So, at times it seams as though Japanese people are floating around in a personal mist oblivious to what is going on around them. They call it wa I call it spaced out.
- Sweet bean curd…kill me now.

Ok, now I’ve got all that out of my system I can tell you about what I have been up to and the best way to do that is to go back and look at my pictures.

During sakura (cherry blossom) season, a few of my friends and I went off to a tiny Okayama town called Mimasaka to visit another friend who lives up there. It’s a little way off the beaten path so none of us had gone out to visit there yet. We went off into the mountainside to enjoy the last days of the sakura and to stretch out our legs after a long winter.

Recently, I found a lovely forest park a mere two-minute drive from my house. Being that it is in the forest I didn’t even know it was there. My usual bunch of buddies came for a rare visit to my house (I too live way off the beaten path) and we explored the area.

Golden week in Japan is a very busy time. Usually there are a number of public holidays all strung together and the whole of Japan goes crazy with travelers. This year, however, the holiday was split by one non-holiday day and it kept many people closer to home…but not me. I took off with my friend Shane to Tokyo to visit my Japanese/New Yorker, Masami. Masami was the girl I stay with in Tokyo the first time I went at Christmas. Anyway, this time around we did less traditional things and instead spent some time exploring museums and other interesting exhibits. We also went out to the Toyota showroom and museum with was quite enjoyable despite not knowing anything about cars.

As always is the case in Tokyo, my favorite place to visit is Harajuku just to look at the crazy outfits and go shopping. Harajuku never disappoints.

Back in the countryside a week later the process of prepping and planting rice fields was in full swing.

I have become quite close with many of the members of my adult conversation class and one of them, Yokota-san just happens to have a rice field and he invited Shane and I to come plant some rice with him.

It was a lovely day, not too hot, and we got to experience first hand the process of planting rice in Japan. I was curious about how much they produce and who they sell it too so I asked Yokota-san. He said they only grow a few acres of rice and they don’t sell it. They dry it and spit it with the neighbours and eat it themselves all year. They were shocked to hear that we don’t eat a single thing we produce. Food is quite expensive in Japan so most people who have any land at all are strictly growing food to feed their families.

So, for lunch we had…you guessed it, rice, and cooked meat and at the end of the day Yokota-san’s wife gave me a yukata which is a summer kimono. It was a lovely present. We are planning on going back soon to make some soba with them.

Recently one of my Japanese friends moved away our badminton team had an enkai (party) for him. These enkais always start with a draw for seats. When the seating arrangement dust cleared there were two non-English speakers sitting at the very end of the table nest to me and another English speaker. They were trapped far away from the Japanese conversation. So they did what they had to and got rip roaring drunk and pretended to be able to speak English. It was hysterical. It showed them how we use burned cork as stage makeup and they couldn’t get enough of it. No one was safe from the burned cork and everyone went home with a black face.

Perhaps the thing that has been consuming the greatest part of my time lately is rugby. The New Zealand couple who came over with me and who have become my dearest friends took on the task of forming and training a touch rugby team.

The goal was to sign the team up for an annual rugby tournament held every year on the island of Shikoku. Needless to say, training a bunch of flabby foreigners who think a rugby ball is a football is no easy task. So, we had been getting together every weekend to learn the sport in the hopes of actually winning a game in Shikoku. Well, last weekend was the big tournament and the team of 12 and three supporters drove the two hours over to the tournament grounds.

The grounds were located next to a big and beautiful campground where cozy little tents were already set up and waiting for us. Unfortunately, the first day it rained making things a little uncomfortable.

Nonetheless, we played with as much heart as any team out there and we brought home a win and a tie by the time we started the final matches. The very first team we played was made up of huge New Zealand guys so we girded our loins and did our best.

The team after that was a quick and happy little Japanese team that really enjoyed kicking our ass. The benefit of playing two really good teams first though was that our playing improved literally by leaps and bounds with every play and when placements were announced for each pool we came out 1st on the C-side.

While we did our best to fight our way into the semi-finals we just couldn’t beat that happy little Japanese team though we gave them a really good run for their money. I think they were really shocked at how much we had improved since the day before. The tournament was won by a Maori team from New Zealand (naturally) who surprised everyone by performing the traditional Haka war dance after the final game.

I didn't get a decent picture of the dance because I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It was probably one of the most electrifying observances of my life and I felt extremely grateful for having seen it. In the end we had played seven games of rugby, three in the rain, and we walked away sore and floating on the cloud of one of the best weekends we have had here in Japan so far.

Next up one solid month of rain so stay tuned for future rants about that.

Here is some Janglish for your amusement:

So, I have been neglecting my blogging duties it’s true. They say that when you hear from some one too much they are probably lonely but if you never hear from them they are having fun. I am glad to report I am falling towards the latter these days and I have been having a wonderful time exploring Japan due to an unexpected increase in holiday time. The school board I work for recently decided that part of the purpose of my being here in Japan is to learn more about Japan so I can share my findings with all of you. So, they decided that I would be allowed to take “Japanese Study Time” whenever the students are away from school. That means I have more time to travel in Japan and experience Japanese culture and less time sitting in the teacher’s office doing nothing. So, that lovely change will start to pay off for the school board right now as I tell you all about my latest adventures in Japan.

When last I left you I was standing in sub-zero temperatures watching a bunch of naked men fight for a stick. I’m happy to say that I have officially turned off my heater and I am enjoying some lovely 20°C weather. Come home you ask. Why, I ask. But I am getting a bit ahead of my self here. Let’s go back to February.

I spend most of my time in February exploring little areas near my home. I made efforts to stop whenever the notion struck me and I was able to glean a few interesting pictures this way. I took an alternate road home from the city one day and found one of the largest graveyards in Okayama and an immense tori gate. I have been meaning to ask about how the Japanese are traditionally buried but I keep forgetting. I’m thinking that given the size of the tombs cremation might be the way.

Also in February I went off to Bear Valley an hour away to indulge in my second attempt at snowboarding. The trip there was breathtaking along lakes and higher and higher mountain vistas. I loved the snowboarding too but at the end of the day it felt like I had been involved in several fairly brutal car accidents. Luckily it snowed like mad so it was more like violently smashing into pillows than concrete, which was good. It was also a great opportunity to spend some time with friends and get some much-needed exercise in the winter months.

March saw the graduation of the third year junior high school students. This was an incredibly ceremonial event and many of the students took to fits of tears when they realized they would now have to work for their A pluses.

I discovered a beautiful campground near my house in March. The scene was so inspiring I think I took a million photos. Here are a few of my favorites from that afternoon.

I have been taking a Japanese language class every Wednesday night in the city and at the end of March we were treated to a lesson in Shuji (also known as Shodo or Japanese calligraphy). It was love at first character. I went out the next day and bought a shuji kit and have been covering my house with my creations despite their serious lack of talent.

The shuji kit was purchased on a trip my friend Jade and I took to Nimi about an hour from my home. Jade and I went to visit a Japanese friend of ours who has made a name for herself playing tour guide. We had the pleasure of joining her on a tour of her hometown which included a trip to the Nimi caves and the very relaxing onsen. The day was capped off with a lovely visit to an Okinawan restaurant. Yet another reason why I have to go on a diet.

So that brings me up to last weekend. It was right in the middle of spring break so a couple of girls I do dinner with every week and I decided to take a trip to the culture capital of Honshu, Nara. Nara is one of those lovely little cities that managed to escape the fire bombings during the war so many of the old temples and artifacts remain as they have been for hundreds of years. The highlight of course was Todaiji temple which houses three massive Buddhas. The town is littered with dear which the locals believe to be lucky. We were blessed to have great weather and the cherry blossoms had even begun to make an appearance as well.

Yesterday was the middle of the cherry blossom viewing season. The Japanese go bonkers for them. They sit outside on tarps under the trees with their friends and family and get drunk. Wherever you find a cherry blossom tree you are sure to find ten or twelve drunk Japanese people under it. We didn’t want to be left out of this cultural experience so myself and a bunch of other English teachers gathered under the cherry blossoms yesterday afternoon and, well, I’m sure the rest is history.

And here is a photo for your amusement.

It is essential that I make a record of last night’s events before the details start slipping from my mind. With that said, last night was a night I will never forget!

The festival is called Hadaka Matsuri in Japanese or Naked Man Festival in English. Here is the breakdown. Thousands of men dress in loincloths and Japanese booties and run around the temple grounds for a few hours. They repeatedly clean themselves in a fountain bath and purify themselves with the incense smoke near the alter. Then, at the stroke of midnight, priests standing above the crowd throw ten sticks out (two them are fakes). The men struggle with one another to gain possession of the sticks. Whoever goes home with the sticks is guaranteed luck for the whole year. The even goes ahead no matter what the weather. Last year it was -6 and raining, as I understand it.

Now here is what I saw. We arrived at 8:30 to catch the fireworks display. On our way into the grounds we were shamed by the idiotic displays of other foreigners who had clearly gotten hammered before coming and were just making fools of themselves on the way to the festival. Some days I wish I wasn’t a foreigner.

Anyway, when we got to the grounds we were surprised to see men already lapping the temple in their loincloths and dipping into the fountain while shouting “Whashoi!” They would enter the fountain in rows, arms over shoulders, and then start splashing each other. Eeek! The temperature was a nippy -5 and it was cold out there. The first groups of guys were carrying the littlest kids who were also nearly naked in their tiny little loincloths freezing their little asses off on the shoulders of their so-called “caregivers”. Shortly after, about eight women dresses in white cotton chest wraps and skirts where hustled through the fountain. In the past women have not been allowed to participate in the festival but the rule has recently been changed. However, the girls who did participate seemed almost ashamed of themselves because they had their heads down and they didn’t seem happy like the men. It just seemed like a bit of a spectacle and I never saw a single one of them in the scrum for the sticks but who can blame them. The battle for the sticks is crazy

I went into the fountain area to get some video of the groups of men coming through the fountain. I also had a friend who was participating so I was hoping to catch him on camera. However my flipping video camera wasn’t working and I tried everything to get it to work. Just as I was about to chuck the stupid thing into the fountain it started to work. After a few minutes of filming I ran out of battery power but luckily had another battery in my purse. I fumbled through my purse for the battery and as I pulled it out I lost grip on it and it did a very dramatic bounch-bounce-bounce-gloosh straight into the fountain. Needless to say, I got very limited video footage of this event.

Anyway, we got some cheep tickets which allowed us entrance into the temple to see where they would throw the sticks from. The temple was AMAZING! I have seen many amazing temples and maybe it was the excitement of the event and the naked screaming men running by below but this temple was just breathtaking. It was very exciting to get to stand in that gallery and look at the crowds below.

The crowds of people were allowed to freely wander the grounds until about 10:30 when everyone was asked to move to the viewing areas, only the men in loincloths were allowed to stay in the inner grounds. So we picked a spot and stood there for an hour and a half in order to hold onto them.

After 10:30 the groups of men marching in circles and dipping into the fountains began to increase in number until there were thousands of less-than-half naked men pilling around the temple. The numbers were becoming a bit overwhelming. Closer to midnight more groups of older men started to enter the area and also many men wearing bandages all up their arms and legs. You see, this is a very serious event in Japan and in the past many of the Japanese mafia try to come in and bully their way to the sticks by showing off their many tattoos. Now there is a rule that absolutely no tattoos are permitted. People are also warned about trying to cover up tattoos but many, many men seemed to have slipped past this rule because there were either a lot of men with some pretty serious upper arm injuries or there were some hidden tattoos around.

Around 11:30 most of the men are trying to get a spot on the upper platform near where the sticks will be thrown out. There are thousands of men on the platform and we can see the men really start to push their way into the crowd now. All along the edge of the enclosure are men in white and men in blue. The men in white are emergency medics (last year a man died in the festival which is easy to understand when you see this frantic uncontrolled mob of men. The whole thing is quite scary even before the sticks are thrown. It is a wonder more people aren’t killed every year) and they are terribly efficient. Every few minutes hands would start waving deep in the crowd and the men in white would storm troup their way into the crowd. They would move in the most efficient way. They would go in and pierce the crown and then open up a hole for more men in white to come in and rescue whoever had been hurt and then exit again as quickly as they had come in. They seemed to do this every few minutes. Apparently a lot of men faint right in the middle of the mob because of the pressure and heat and exhaustion and cold and whatever…it’s not safe anyway. The problem with the men in white was that every time they left the scene there where men struggling to fight for a better position which would cause huge waves of men to start pushing which almost every time led to dozens of people falling down the stairs. It was really shocking to watch. It was at about this point that I really started to worry about my friend TJ who was participating.

Just moments before midnight the crowd was in a frenzy, Men were constantly falling off the platform in waves and everyone’s hands were in the air. Suddenly the lights in the temple went out (oh, did I mention the battle for the sticks happens in the dark?). The crowd erupted into thunderous noise while the onlookers gasped and winced and the inevitable injuries that would undoubtedly be sustained. Some of the wrestling moved out into the courtyard and lasted for longer than ten minutes. Fights began to break out here and there and we turned around to find that a fight had even broken out in the crowd of spectators (not very Japanese like). Then before you knew it was all over. The pressure in the crown started to release and everyone started to exit the temple grounds. I have no idea who the lucky men are but I’d wager they are probably sustained some not so lucky injuries for their efforts.

All and all I have to say the Naked Man Festival is the wackiest thing I have ever seen in my life.

So, after many months of just soaking in to my new life and neglecting my blogging duties, I am here to tell you that I am still alive and well in Japan, and I’ll try to catch you up on everything that has been going on here lately.

When last I left you I was fully enjoying the fall weather which was beautiful and mild and lasted right up until the new year. However, it was cold. You see the homes in Japan are not insulated which means that even though it is still plus four out side and it’s lovely it is the same temperature in your house and that is not so lovely. I have managed to adjust to it using a series of carefully placed kerosene heaters in my home. I always took advantage of heat at home and enjoyed the benefits of simply turning a knob and having heat suddenly appear but here in Japan I have to take my two twenty-litre jugs to the gas station and buy the fuel that will heat my house for about a month. It’s a little like finding out milk comes from cows and not the grocery store.

December was a bit of a rough month for me. I was cold, I was feeling homesick and I wished I could be home for Christmas but that wasn’t in my budget. But I really didn’t have any plan for Christmas and the idea of being alone on Christmas in a country that didn’t even celebrate Christmas was hard to take. Then my good friend suggested a few of us go to Tokyo for Christmas and all my problems were solved. We took the cheepo local trains, which were on sale for obvious reasons, all the way to Tokyo in a mere 11 hours. Whoot!

What can I say about Tokyo? Well, first of all, I was completely intimidated by the subway system as it looks something like a rat king (if you have never heard of a “rat king” look it up and be completely disgusted). As it turns out Tokyo is totally English friendly which defiantly can’t be said about all Japanese cities. The subway and all other necessities were a snap and I was able to wander the city as I pleased with very little help although there were plenty of people in Tokyo who were willing to offer help.

As I’m sure you can guess, Tokyo is filled with lights, noise, crazy fashions, great food, fabulous people and amazing temples and other sites. There was no shortage of things to do or see and I tried my best to do it all. My top three would have to be checking out the rockabilly dancers in the park at Harajuku, running out into the busiest intersection in the world (Shabuya) on the stroke of midnight 2008, and visiting Tokyo’s most famous temple (Meiji-jingu) with over a million other people to pray on New Year’s day. We also had the great fortune being able to visit the imperial palace on one of the two days a year it is open to the public.

After Tokyo I headed for Osaka where I picked up my parents and we continued Touring Japan. They wanted to drive on the coast so we headed up to the San-in coast and spend a bit of time driving on that beautiful side of Japan. Unfortunately, my camera was out of juice by this time so I don’t have any pictures of the coast but stay tuned for a video I’m producing.

We also went to visit Hiroshima which is a beautiful and vibrant city despite its horrible destruction during the war. We went out to Miyajima Island (AKA: deer island) so see one of Japan’s three greatest views and we were not disappointed to find it was a wonderful place to visit.

After Hiroshima I sent mom and dad back to Osaka on the bullet train and headed back to my little hometown of Kibichuo to find snow. Something about the snow and the vacation and the kids that greeted me when I got back to school renewed my spirit. I have decided to stay in Japan and to run on and see what the future will hold for me here. I signed the contract again so I am officially here until August 2009. Whoa Nelly! It's gonna be quite a ride.

Until now I have only experienced two seasons in Japan: the repressive and painfully hot summer and the glorious and oh-so-pleasant fall. I can’t imagine the other two seasons possibly measuring up this marvelous season. The mornings are breathtaking: misty and cool. The afternoons are warm and sunny and the evenings smell of burning leaves and tilled soil.

While I find myself completely broke (I have put myself on a strict debt-reducing budget) I have still managed to get out and enjoy some loveliness closer to home.

Despite Japan’s lack of proper Halloween festivities, the schools encourage us teachers to give the students a little taste of Halloween. I wrapped most of my students in toilet paper and called them mummies. I have also been toting around a big bag of Halloween costumes for the kids to try on. I think the kids are dying to try out trick-or-treating.

Speaking of the kids, you may or may not notice I have taken down the pictures of my students. It was recently brought to the attention of all teachers here that we could get in trouble for posting pictures of the kids. So, while I would love to show you all how cute they are wrapped in toilet paper, you will just have to use your imaginations. However, I can still post pictures of the staff. In this picture is the school nutritionist (left), the principal, (center), and the school secretary (right). They got right into the Halloween spirit.

This same day I was invited to join some of the children (I think I can get away with this picture as you can’t see his face) to learn how to perform a traditional tea ceremony. I was asked to perform the guest duties first which, as it turns out, are just as painful as the host duties. Every part of the tea ceremony is choreographed; the host and the guest perform the ritual together. Not a single movement is wasted. As the guest I enter and get into seiza (sitting on your knees). I place my fan before me at a very specific place on the floor and I bow. I rise and take very deliberate steps to a flower arrangement which I examine from top to bottom and I bow again. Then I will sit in seiza for what feels like a lifetime. During this time I will eat a chalky cookie and drink some weedy tea. It might all taste better if my ankles didn’t feel like they were being bitten by fire ants the whole time. On the hosting side of the tea ceremony there are a lot more moves to learn. Very specific ways of folding the napkin and stirring the tea makes the hosting job a hard one to master. It is easy to become entranced by the motions and forget the pain in your legs. Actually my legs fell asleep so I couldn’t feel them at all. I also couldn’t feel them when I tried to gracefully get up to bring the tea away. There was a lot of giggling I tell you.

We did actually have some festivities just before Halloween and I was pleased that nearly everyone had an awesome costume. The music and the venue were great; it almost felt like home.

My new and delightful friends Shane B and Laura H (both American), and I, have gone on a few low-cost adventures recently. The first was a lovely sleepover at Laura’s mansion. I’m just barely overestimating the reality) followed by a day in Tsuyama. We made our way to the Tsuyama castle, which was nothing if not positively breathtaking. I’m told it is even better in the spring when people come from all over Japan to view over 500 cherry trees in bloom.

As we left the castle we stumbled right into a full-on festival so we followed the crowd and took dozens of pictures. It was a great day.

The next weekend the three of us headed off to Kurashiki where there is a great little old fashion touristy area near the station. We wandered around and soaked up the beautiful weather, the unusual shopping, and the delightful food.

This weekend I was not only given an electric blanket by one of my teachers, Kobara-sensei, but I was also treated to a day of relaxation and great food. Kobara-sensei wanted to show me some of the onsens in my area. Onsens are public baths which dot the entire country of Japan. They bring much needed warmth when the seasons cool down. We first went to an onsen close to my house which was inside of an old hotel. It felt very much like stepping back in time. Before the visiting the second onsen I was treated to lunch at Kobara-sensei’s mother-in-law’s house. She made a feast. If I had even coughed I would have splattered all over the place. Kobara-sensei’s father-in-law even treated me to a great performance of traditional Japanese mask dance. All this was followed up by a visit to a full-on onsen resort with hot sand baths, saunas, and six different baths to soak in. it was an absolutely wonderful day.

As my budget has kept me close to home recently, my darling friends came to me this past weekend. We took a hike though the forest near my home and discovered a surprisingly beautiful and challenging trail to consume our afternoon. Later we walked around my little town and took in the shrines while Shane unleashed his wild side.

They say that the three to four month mark is a time when teachers typically start feeling very low and homesick. While I have been warding off homesickness very well (thank you Skype) I have had my down days. Communicating is always a tough road and people are very shy and embarrassed to speak to me. Thankfully there are still a few who go out of their way to make me feel at home here and others who just go out of their way. One way or the other I am glad and grateful for those friends who make life in Japan that much easier.

What a weekend. Where should I begin?

A few weeks back a few teachers asked me if I wanted to go on a trip with them to Osaka and Kyoto. As they were places I had hoped to visit anyway, and, as I was quite drunk at the time, I shouted out, “Yes! I would love to go!” A few weeks later I found out the trip was going to cost $440 for one night and two days so I was wishing I hadn’t been quite so eager in the first place. Well, I had made my bed and then I had to get comfortable in it. I know at home I would have said, “No, that’s too much. I’m bowing out,” but here there’s an obvious communication gap and bowing out could mean offending the only Japanese friends I have. So, instead of worrying about the money I decided it was going to be a great time and worth every penny. I didn’t know at the time it would be worth so much more.

The two girls in charge of the trip handled everything. We chartered a bus that picked us up early Saturday morning from the school behind my house and drove us an hour and a half to Kobe, the site of a 7.9 magnitude earthquake which ripped apart the city on January 17, 1995. The earthquake killed over 6,000 people in Kobe and had an impact on nearly every person in the city. We visited the Disaster Reduction Museum which stands on the site of the hardest hit area in Kobe. The exhibit itself was not only creative (a jagged screen showed a 15-minute representation of the earthquake) but deeply moving (a young girl tells the story of how she watched her sister die in a fire before she could be rescued from the rubble and how the volunteers gave her hope to start again). There were dozens of miracle stories and thousands of pictures documenting the event but the best parts of the exhibit had to do with recovery and the quest for renewal. As its name suggests, the museum also had many areas dedicated to disaster reduction which also made for some pretty interesting information which I value deeply now that I’m in earthquake country. I’m sure this is one of those places I may not have visited if I hadn’t had some Japanese people take me.

Next on the agenda was a bit of shopping and a visit to the Osaka aquarium where I enjoyed a number of animals I had never seen up close before. It reminded me a lot of my scuba diving experiences in Thailand and made me want to go back. It seems that when you are under water all the problems in the world, all the worries and all the stress, just gets washed away.

After the aquarium we hurried off to enjoy the latest Imax film in 3D. It was wicked!

After loading the bus again we drove about thirty minutes to our hotel in the heart of Osaka’s busiest district. With three hours to wander around I was able to buy a new camera take some pictures of the very busy Osakan sites.

When dinnertime rolled around we met back at the hotel and walked through the mobs of people to a quiet little shabushabu place. The twelve of us sat in a bare room on the floor and we were served the dish by kimono-clad women who were probably the best servers I have ever seen. It was so enjoyable I could have burst. Our main serving lady entertained us with a few English phrases and we ate the most delicious meal. Shabushabu is a broth that is boiled in a clay pot on a burner on your table. First the serving lady adds some meet and a few vegetables and then serves us in small bowls lined with ground sesame seeds. She then returns every few minutes to add different vegetables and meats to the pot and serves us again. It goes on like this until there is nothing more to add to the pot. At this point she brings in udon noodles (the really fat ones) and adds them to the tasty broth and serves it. Of course there is a pallet cleanser and a bowl of rice after followed by a lovely orange mystery desert. Add a few glasses of wine and sake to the mix and I was full to my eyeballs. It was a wonderful time.

After dinner we took some photos in the silly photo booths and played some Japanese video games. I had no clue what I was doing with most of the games but I know I kicked ass at air hockey.

Later we went to like a late-night Japanese old town where we ate some more food (the Japanese really like to eat) and played old fashion games. It was like Lower Fort Garry meets Tinkertown. Good fun.

After some much needed sleep at the hotel and a breakfast buffet to get us going again, we headed off for Kyoto and what has been hailed as one of Japan’s most famous rock gardens. It was something I had never seen before. Fifteen strategically placed, moss-covered rocks in a sea of carefully raked stones. It really was quite exquisite, and the buildings and gardens surrounding it were also very inspiring in their own ways.

After a few hours of shopping in the tourist area of Kyoto and picture with a Geisha, we headed off for another totally fabulous dinning experience.

This time it was called Bento, I think. You get several different kinds of food ranging from one little perfect white potato to tiny little bunch of mushrooms tied together with some sort of radish string. You only get one of everything but there is a lot of variety. In this place we were given an extraordinary room with sliding glass doors that gave a perfect view of a little garden. Once again a woman in Kimono served us. It may sound like this is the norm here but I’m sure it’s not. Remember, we paid a small fortune for this trip.

After lunch and a bit of lounging around time we headed off for the last stop—calligraphy. I was surprised to find that we were taken to a temple and practiced calligraphy while a priest prayed and banged a gong. The room must have been filled with a hundred other people all there to practice calligraphy and meditate. It took me forever to finish but finally finished some thirty or so lines of Japanese Kanji characters. We complimented our time at the temple with a short walk around the temple garden, which is famous for the thick green moss that grows so perfectly in the forest around the temple.

Back on the bus we enjoyed the views and a live comedy show that reminded me of a television sitcom. I couldn’t understand it but I still thought it was pretty funny. A few hours later I was back home wondering when I would next have the chance to do it all again.

A few weeks back I was told a festival would be held in Kibichuo-cho, my home town. So far festivals in my town have been small with a little bit of music and four or five food stalls so I didn't get too excited about it but I thought I would check it out anyway. Well, as I approached the grounds in my car I realized this whole thing was going to be a lot bigger than I thought. The cars were parked miles in every direction and people still swarmed the sidewalks hours after the event had started.

The festival was held a few miles from my house on the grounds of Kibi Plaza which is where the board of education is located. I have been there dozens of times but it wasn’t until today I realized how big the grounds around the Plaza are. Little streams and waterfalls seem to drop over dozens of small hills and even with thousands of people around one could still find a beautiful and quiet little corner to eat their lunch.

Oh, and what a lunch: grilled corn, weird fish, amazing noodle dishes, egg rolls—not the kind you think. This was literally fried egg rolled up. There was all kinds of soups and vegetable dishes, crepes, ice cream and of course half a dozen things I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole.

There was lots to look at and games to play. There was loads of live entertainment and I even joined the Japanese army.

All and all, it was a pretty good day.

Oh, and just for kicks (it may only be enjoyed by those who where there) here is a video I made after the JET orientation session in Okayama city.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nFUgQ1QluI

Coming from a farming community myself, I feel very happy and comfortable with the fall and its accompanying harvest. Everyday now the scene reminds me of home but is yet so different. The massive combining equipment at home would dwarf these little rice picking machines and one of our grain trucks could fit ten or more of their little trucks inside it.

It’s all about volume. Our fields are a hundred acres each or more while the average field here is no larger than a city lot. All these little fields fit snugly between the mountains and are farmed usually by one or two men and their wives. We, of course, are without mountains and there is no limit to the available farming space. We harvest hundreds of bushels a day while these farmers drive away from the fields at the end of the day with around forty grain sacks of rice.

While we are now officially into the fall, we are not yet experiencing fall weather. The heat may come down a little with a day or two of rain but we sit eternally at a 30-degree temperature daily. The humidity is what does me in though. Playing with my younger students has me dripping with sweat and constantly wiping my face with a towel. Towels are an essential part of life here in the summer and fall. It is very rude to wipe your sweat with your hand so everyone carries a towel with them wherever they go. The kids however can get away with anything cause they are just so cute!

Fall also brings with it school sports days. This is a day for which students spend an entire week preparing. Families, town officials, principals and teachers from other schools will gather at the sports day site and will participate and observe a day full of fun and athletic activity. Many of the games I had never seen before and every school had its own variation of almost every game. My favorite game is the beanbag toss that sees two teams face off with a player from each team sporting a basket on their backs. The basket heavy players must stay inside the opposing team's area while each team tries to get as many bean bags into the basket as they can. The basket laden players do their best to run away from beanbag wielding players on the opposing team—good fun, very athletic, and a great laugh every time.

The sports day yesterday ended with a party at the local hotel. Everyone enters the room and chooses a number. The number determines where you will sit. Last night the luck of the draw put me nowhere near any English speakers but we still communicated and had a great time. The party doesn’t start until there is a speech and a kampai which is basically a toast. No one drinks until the toast. After the toast we eat and eat and eat. You will either get platters of food you all share or you will get twenty little bowls all filled with colorful little things which are usually either egg or fish. I say that in jest of course. There are many tasty and unique foods to try at these parties. It is also your responsibility to make sure you keep and eye on the glasses of the people around you as it is rude for a person to pour their own drink. You must make sure your neighbour's glass is always full. The night usually only lasts three hours when some fruit or rice and coffee will be brought it to help soak up your alcohol. Japanese people seem to get quite drunk on just a small amount of alcohol so they are astounded at the amount I can drink without even feeling tipsy.

Tonight I venture to a small town near by in my little car. I have become quite accustomed to driving on the left hand side of the road. The problems only come with finding my way as most of the streets have no names. My instincts really come in handy for getting around.
The town I will go to tonight is called Takebe. It is home one of Okayama’s five international villas and a lovely onsen. An onsen is a public bath where people pay a small price to go in, sit naked with their friends and coworkers on little wooden stools (men and women are separated of course) and wash themselves completely before submerging themselves in a hot mineral bath. A lovely time if you can get past being a fat westerner among tiny little Asian beauties. But, all problems, all worries, and all stresses are soaked a away in just a few minutes and one feels ready and willing to face another day in Japan.

Here are some photos from this morning's walk for your viewing pleasure.

If there is anything in partictular you would like to see a photo of let me know and I'll snap it and post it for you.

Had a few days off last week so I took out my trusty video camera and made you this video to give you a better sense of what I am surrounded by. The video quality is really crappy. If anyone knows how to make it better let me know.

Here is an excerpt from my journal on August 11, 2007:

August 11, 2007

This morning I wake in my new Japanese mountain home early enough to take a walk through the morning mists haunting the village’s many walkways. The air is wet and the trees gently drip dew onto the path before me.
My mind stiffens as I approach an unfamiliar Shinto archway, flanked by two fierce looking rock dragons. Stone steps rise between and beckon me but hide what lies ahead. Yet, I am unafraid, only joy fills me. Carefully, thoughtfully, I climb.
At the top of the steps is a path leading to an old wooden temple. On either side of me is a platform on which stands a large leaning bamboo rod wrapped at the top and in the middle with white cloth. I can only guess what they symbolize. Life? Death?
I advance humbly down the path, studying the old buildings before me: a wide platform accessible by wooden steps, a table supporting a wooden box, a thick rope, a bell. I wish to ring it but I fear I might wake someone…or something. Another platform, this one higher, holds a larger bell; another rope, this one thicker, grips me and pulls. The silence is so delicate I do not want to break it, to offend the keeper of this majestic place with my clumsy, unknowing noise. First, I will learn, then I will ring.
As I continue though the grounds I come across a small yard. Several rounded stone pillars have been placed along each side. Some are shaped like temples, some like baths, some like altars, high as my hip. Behind, flat sticks rest in wooden grates. What I can only imagine are prayers, or blessings, have been painted on each stick by a skilled calligrapher’s hand. Beside is a small box containing dusty bowls and burnt incense. Is it a graveyard? One thing is sure, it is a holy place.
At the end of the yard is a path leading into the woods. Two primitive log archways mark the way. Webs caught in the corners are turned to beautiful silver frames before the misty backdrop. Beyond the arches, in the forest, countless webs shimmer in the day’s hazy morning light. I walk until I come to an opening. Beyond is a field of rice, and beyond that, an old farmhouse. An old man working in his garden looks up and waves, “Ohayo, gosaimasu!”
The day is born again, and I too feel as though I have started a new life.

In about 56 hours I’ll move to Japan. My brain is already there but my body is still at home. I’ve been reading Shogun to get myself in the mood but I have forgotten to pack. I’ll get on that very soon, I swear.

I spent my summer visiting all the family I could before leaving for a year (maybe more) to teach English in Japan. Though I love all my family, the most important visit was one with my grandfather in Houston B.C.. He’s an old man, my grandfather, but he still gives ‘er shit when he wants to. I find him encouraging and curious and full of life and I love being around him. He asked me for a hand-written letter from Japan so that will be first on my list of things to do when I get to my new home in Kibichuo, Okayama, Japan.

I had a wonderful time this summer enjoying all Canada has to offer. These days I feel very nostalgic about leaving. I love Canada. I love riding a motorcycle in the B.C. mountains on Canada Day, and I love going to gay weddings on Pelican Lake, and I love quietly fishing with friends on the family lake in the Canadian Shield. I love the prairies too, so much. I love the hot sun and the dust, and I love the long straight gravel roads, and I love watching the crops come off the field, and I love a good year, and Lord I love the sunsets. I will miss you Canada.