Obon

Since my last entry not much has happened although I have experienced a lot. I experienced my second earthquake ever and my first ever in Japan. It was the largest earthquake I ever felt and woke me up at about 5AM. I felt and saw my room sway and shake a bit. Although this was a somewhat large event for me, it happens so often in Japan that it barely is even noticed by most Japanese. As far as natural disasters go, I also experienced a typhoon although I was lucky enough not to receive the worst part of it. It was around the same time as the typhoon in Taiwan, Morakot, which killed dozens and destroyed many cities and towns. The typhoon in Japan was less intense, but unfortunately a little farther south from me some people did die and many buildings were destroyed. I am still not sure if it was the same storm that swept over Taiwan or just another one at about the same time.

As far as work goes, I am still pretty lost when it comes to most things. In Japan, when you start a job not much is explained. Instead you are supposed to learn through observation. So I am observing, but it is difficult because besides trying to learn a new job I am trying to understand the culture. I still haven’t started teaching yet, but I did find out that school starts on September 1st. Apparently there won’t be classes on this day though, but instead an “opening ceremony” where I think I will be expected to give a short speech on the stage of my school in Japanese. Let’s just say I am not super excited for that.

Besides that I enjoyed 3 days off of work for Obon. Obon is a Japanese holiday where Japanese travel around the country making offerings to the graves or shrines of their ancestors. So these 3 days added to my weekend allowed me 5 days of vacation. Considering I am very broke now until I get paid in September, I couldn’t do much traveling since I need to eat once and a while. So instead I decided to explore around my town a little bit.

Since my town is small and there isn’t much to do I decided to go to a dam and walk around. My area isn’t lacking countryside scenery so I decided to make the most of it before the snow falls and riding my bike around will become more difficult. After exploring and taking in my surroundings I ran across a friendly guy named Miki and some of his buddies. He saw me and called me over in Japanese. It turned out he was having a BBQ and decided to offer me a few beers and a bit of his food. I ate some crazy things though, like some kind of fish eggs and a whole fish. I was pretty fine with the fish until I ate the head. They said that’s how it is done, so I didn’t want to disappoint. All in all a bunch of nice guys and a few of them even went to the school I teach at, granted that was some 15 years or more ago since they were all about 30-35 years old.

Hino river dam.

After this I tried to find a way to ride my bike to a nearby city of about 45,000 people so that I could try to do some shopping and more exploring for things to keep me interested. The city is only about 17Km away which is less than 10 miles so I figured it would be simple to ride to. So I went as far as I could on my death trap machine of a bike, with barely any breaks and a bike chain that likes to fall off every ten minutes (not the best of my ideas), until I came into a highway without a pedestrian/bicycle sidewalk. I first tried to find an alternate route but it turned into some kind of 3^rd world road through rice fields and the jungle so basically I couldn’t ride my bike on it. So I turned back to the highway and started riding on the shoulder for about 5 minutes until I got too freaked out. If you already didn’t know, roads in Japan are extremely narrow. Two lane roads are about the size of single lane roads in the U.S. So with cars passing me at about 45MpH only about 4 inches from me (that’s with them going into the oncoming traffic lane) I decided it might not be the best idea. So back to my town, mission failed. I ended up paying the $4 to take the 10 minute train ride to the town instead.

A detour through a field.

Friday was another day of local exploring and trying to find ways to save $4 by making it to more populated areas by bicycle in vain.

The weekend was spent relatively relaxed. Saturday I stayed in my town and rode my bike about 20 minutes from my house to a “German Farm Theme Park.” It seems like an odd thing to have in Japan, especially in the middle of nowhere. One of my co-workers told me it was popular about 10 years ago, but recently hasn’t received much attention. But I heard they had German beer and sausage so I paid the $8 admission fee. Overall the place was a bit eerie and not every interesting. It definitely looked like people stopped caring about it 10 years ago, which is pretty crazy for Japan since things always seem to be well kept. It gave me the feeling of a half abandoned carnival or something. Not to mention the strange looks by Japanese tourists thinking I was probably a real German who worked their or something. Nonetheless I got a small bottle of great blueberry wine and some semi-delicious German sausage (made at the German theme park) for about $12.

German Japan

Sunday was a BBQ at another JET’s house in a city about an hour away by train. I went, with my German sausages which worked out good, and met a bunch of people and heard a lot of names, very few of which I will remember. I was trying to get some people to go to Kyoto with me for the Daimonji festival where they light huge fires on mountains in Kanji and other images in order to guide the spirits of the ancestors back home to “visit” their family members. I really wanted to see it this year because last time I was in Japan I missed the fires by about a half hour. When I got to the BBQ some people decided they wanted to go, but towards the time to go they all bailed out and just wanted to stay at the BBQ. Can’t blame ‘em if they were having fun but it kinda sucked that I had to go to a festival alone. But eh, I am always up for adventure even if it is by myself. So it was a bit relaxing to walk around after I found where I could see the fires.

This festival wasn’t very lively but more solemn then most Japanese festivals which can get crazy sometimes. I was going to stay the night in Kyoto at a internet café which usually costs about $15 a night instead of paying the $10 to go home and then $20 the next day to make another trip. But I figured since I could make my last train I should go home instead of trying to save $15 because I would probably spend it or more in the city.

Daimonji Festival in Kyoto

So the next day (Monday) I made the 2 hour train ride back to Kyoto to make a bus reservation to Kumamoto and buy some incense and speakers while stopping in Otsu on my way back to get a re-entry permit for my visa so I can leave the country and come back. Without one, if you leave you aren’t allowed back in the country. Tuesday and Wednesday were also train travel days back to Otsu for a job orientation type thing.

A view of Kyoto.

So overall the last week has been pretty good, relaxing but busy. At the same time it was very expensive. I probably spend around $80 on transportation, $60 for a re-entry permit, $30 for speakers, and of course food and whatnot. Right now I hope I don’t have to pay rent until after I get paid in mid September, otherwise I might have to withdraw money from my American bank account which I need the few hundred dollars in there to pay bills back in the States until I can transfer money home.

Anyway, until next time and new adventures!

Japan as a JET

I officially landed in Japan on July 26th for a 3 day orientation in Tokyo with the JET program. On the 26th I was greeted by the hot and humid Japanese summer and a bunch of JET representatives then piled onto an wonderfully air conditioned bus to head to Shinjuku. Looking out the bus window I was overcome by a feeling of nostalgia more than the "new world" feel that most people experience when landing in a new country. I was in Japan only 11 months ago, so things seemed strangely familiar but yet foreign.

We arrived at the Keio Plaza, maybe the nicest hotel I ever stayed at in my life, and were ushered in and given our schedules for the next few days, etc. Then off to my room which I shared with two other fine young lads who departed from Seattle with me but heading to other areas of Japan. After heading to a near restaurant I returned home and crashed on my hotel bed to recover from jet lag and prepare for my 2 days of orientation.


View of Shinjuku, Tokyo from Keio Plaza.

The next two days were full of activities, speeches and lectures in attempt to prepare us, some 1000 JETs, for our new lives in Japan. My days started at around 7AM and ended somewhere around 8 or 9PM. Overall I found some of the lectures useless but at this point I didn't want to do too much since I was pretty wiped out from traveling from Bozeman to Seattle to Tokyo. If I had to do it again I would have skipped a couple lectures and explored Tokyo or took a nap. It was great talking to some of the other people who were JETs though, learning where they were from and where they were going.

On the 29th it was time to leave and head to Shiga prefecture, my new home as a JET. After another bus ride, bullet train, city train, and long walk we made it to the prefectural building where we would meet our supervisors at our Boards of Education for each of our towns/cities. After some awkward introductions I hopped in a van and headed to Hino, a small town of about 23,000 in Southeastern Shiga. Thankfully a Japanese Teacher of English came along because my Board of Education supervisors didn't speak English and my Japanese isn't the greatest.

Once in Hino I was brought to the Junior High School where I would mainly be teaching at to meet some of the teachers and principle. Then rushed to the Town Hall to meet some more people and give another awkward self introduction in Japanese. After a few more things that I can't clearly recall I was brought to my apartment where I could "rest" for an hour before I had to go to a "party" with some local officials including the mayor. By this point I just wanted to go to bed and try to organize my life that I packed into my two suitcases. Thankfully I had a chance to meet my predecessor and ask some questions though.


My non-Japanese looking Apartment Building.

After that I returned to my apartment, unpacked some clothes for the next day and went to sleep. The next day I had to take care of a bunch of other things such as bank accounts, a cell phone and foreign registration. I was lucky enough to have the assistance of another Japanese teacher of English, which was great!

Friday mainly consisted of my going back to the capital of my prefecture, Otsu, and figuring out the train systems for another orientation. Afterwards it was off to Kyoto for some drinks and karaoke with a few other JETs and then the weekend.

The following week was rather confusing. Went to school my first day having no clue what I was suppose to do, so I mainly sat at my desk and used the internet. The next day I was told to go to a museum where I listened to some lectures that I didn't understand (stuff about plankton in Japanese and whatnot). Wednesday was my first taste of "psudo-teaching" helping some of my students prepare for a speech contest, helping them with pronunciation and whatnot and then a 2 hour train ride to watch an amazing firework show in Nagahama city. Thursday and Friday were more like Monday except that a few more teachers were there and so felt like I had a bit more direction; I was able to figure out a few things how the school worked.

Friday night I went to watch another firework show in Otsu (the capital of Shiga) which may have actually been the best fireworks I have seen in my life. One word to describe it, Epic, even more epic than the 2 hours and $20 it took to get there by train.


Crowds and Fireworks in Otsu.

There has been so many things I have done within these past few weeks that it seems surreal. So many things I don't understand! Mixed with the confusion, tiredness, nervousness and excitement is a feeling of contentment. It has taken me 5 years of University to get to this point, a year long application process, $1000 interview and a little courage. I have so much more to learn and much wisdom to gain, and through my experiences in life and learning I may find my place or continue to wander in wonder of what comes next!