Sports Day!!!

Hello, to those of you who stuck it out and actually hung on until I returned. I'd like to say I've been too busy readjusting to life after Japan, but when it boils down to it... I'm just lazy. :D So, I'm going to try and do a couple more blog entries about the last few months over there, hitting on a few noteworthy things that happened. (Just... close your eyes and pretend I'm still there while you're reading this... wait, what?)

Shortly after the below mentioned trip to Korea, the wonderful people of Ozu Junior High finally got around to doing Sports Day! They'd been practicing for weeks on it. We would take time during the day, or at the end of the day (sometimes leaking over to after-school territory, and the students would practice marching. Yes, marching. I would always joke, "Like good little military kids." They practiced for this just about every day. Arms rigidly out in front of them, knees up to a 90 degree angle, keeping up pace while everyone screamed, "ICHI!! NI!!" *step step* "ICHI!! NI!!" *step step* It was quite shocking to see the amount of discipline they had. 500 students in perfect unison (well, not ALWAYS, but you get the idea) stomping around is kind of... intimidating? I dunno, but it was something!

Lemme back up and explain a bit of what Sports Day is. Every year, all of the schools in Japan set aside one day to celebrate athletics. It's kind of a glorified Field Day. There is a very precise opening ceremony (the marching practice is for the opening parade), followed by a morning of track competitions, and an afternoon of various group and team building games and activities. The entire school is involved, and everyone's parents are invited to watch, often times participating in a race or two.

The downside was that it was on a Sunday, so our "weekend" was shifted to Monday. The other thing was that we had to work on Saturday right before it, meaning THAT day off was shifted to the Friday the week before. So, right after Golden Week, I got back to a couple days of school, a 3 day weekend, and then Monday through Sunday of school everyday before finally having a day off on Monday right after Sports Day. Eesh...

It wasn't so bad. Kinda fun, since it kinda gave me a little extra time to "play" with the students. Anyway, the students divided up into 3 teams, red, yellow, and blue, and that was how they practiced and competed, tallying scores for the whole day. After every event, eyes kept shooting back to the score board put up behind home plate to see how they were doing.

When that Sunday rolled around, all eyes went to the sky, however. The weather was looking rather ominous, and we all arrived at school wondering if it would actually happen that day or not... but we went for it. We shifted the activities around and had to cut out one or two (The parent-participation ones, actually... the one I would have gotten to run in), but we set off to get as much done as we could before the weather hit us. It was pretty windy, but GAMBATTE!!

Among the activities, there were the 3rd year boys doing a series of balancing and endurance tasks (which proved difficult and maybe dangerous in the wind), the 3rd year girls did a dance to "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne (swearing intact... haha), the second year classes all did a group jump-rope competition (imagine 40 kids all jumping in unison over two incredibly long jump ropes), and the first years played an awesome class game called Typhoon. Typhoon is played by having the class sit in rows. The first row grabs a long pole and runs as a line around a weaving pathway. when they turn and come back to the class, they lower the bar and the rest of the class must jump the bar as it passes under them. Then, they pass the bar back to the next row and continue on until the whole class has gone. This was AWESOME and I totally want to steal it for some future school event!!

About the time we finished all of that, though, the weather finally gave out and it started pouring rain. We canceled the afternoon and decided that we would pick up on Tuesday morning. The students went home, and the teachers just sort of... hung out... for the rest of the afternoon.

On Tuesday, we started up again, but this time with the track activities. Each class and grade competed in various types of races: 50 yard dashes, 4x4 relays, and even relays involving the entire classes. It was really neat to watch them all band together. (And on a self-centered note, it was really neat to hear a group of first years cheering their team on with a cheer I taught them, "Let's go yel-low! *clap, clap, clap-clap-clap*)

Once all of this was finished, it was on to the cheering competition. Each of the three teams had practiced the same cheer, but then added in a couple of their own. This was more or less a spirit competition. The Red team was freaking AWESOME!!! Yet again, about 150 students all doing the same thing in perfect unison looked great, and they were by far the sharpest. (My team, the Yellow team, was... uh... *ahem* "less" enthusiastic...)

Anyway, overall, it was a fantastic day/s. Certainly something I'll never forget. And I have tons of pictures and video, so maybe someday soon, I'll put it all together and put it up here.

That's all for now!

For the students...

So I've come to it. I'm just about to start my last week at school. On Friday, I will officially say goodbye to my kids.

Everything is happening really fast, and I feel like I'm not getting a moment to stop and think about it. That's probably good because I don't think I want to... I'll save the "being sad" part for the plane ride home. But on the other hand, things like this happen. I'm suddenly surprised that it's my last week, and I haven't really had it sink in yet.

I've been trying to avoid telling the students that I'll be leaving in August just because I don't want to be treated any differently by them (good or bad). A few of them knew anyway for whatever reason, but for the past few weeks, my JTEs have been letting them know that my last week is coming soon. And every time I hear it, I can only think to stare at the floor. I don't want to be arrogant and assume that they're going to miss me, but I don't want to look at those who I know are indifferent and feel like I've had no effect on them.

Everyday, now, I'm getting a student or two stopping me in the hall and asking me when I'm leaving. After the teacher makes the announcement at the end of class, I sometimes get a student or two that comes up to me and asks, "Really? So soon?" There's been this group of boys that I sometimes joke with outside of class. In class, they're rowdy, noisy, and not the best students. I thought they hated English and didn't really care about me. But just the other day, at the end of class, they came up to me, "Wait, so you're leaving?" "Yeah, guys." "Oh..." and they each decided they wanted to help me carry my books and materials back down to the teacher's office. This meant I had a group of boys walking with me, each of them only carrying 1 book, or a pencil case, or a rolled up paper (And the JTE with an armful of books and a CD player trailing behind). I like those guys. :)

I like all my students. What can I say? There are too many things that happen with them everyday to mention. There are way too many inside jokes and conversations and quick hellos and strange glances in the halls to type out. If there was ever a day where I was getting frustrated at anything, be it workload, other teachers, or just life in general, I would consciously make the decision to go into the hall between a class. Because I knew my students would make me happier.

And it worked. Every time. I'd wander over to my bulletin board to staple something up and suddenly there would be 5 kids waving at me and trying to practice English as they ran to PE. Or there would be a group of boys who learned the word "Cool" and would proudly shout at me, "Mr. Sandall! You... are... cool!!!" and await my reaction, only to shout, "Hai! Uso desu!" wink, then run off laughing. Or there would be that girl, Shoko, who I once told was always very polite in the halls, and since then is sure to give me a super-deep bow everytime I see her (which I of course return. It's funny to see a 6'3" American bow so respectfully ;) ). Or the "sex technicians." Or the pirate crew. Or that shy girl who used to lower her head when I said konnichiwa, and now smiles with a "Hello," everytime.

I was really afraid at the beginning that they wouldn't ever like me, as I'm sure most new teachers are. So I was content just doing my job and being there for those who needed it. I was in love with Japan, so it didn't really matter to me if I would grow on them or not. I couldn't imagine how it would be to be able to walk through the halls and almost instinctively respond to 400 Hellos, 100 Heys, and 20 japanese jokes every passing.

Now, I can't really imagine how it's going to be without it.

PS: My old principal who left in April, Mr. Higashi, came over to my apartment tonight to bring me a present and to say goodbye. Wow. I'm in shock. :)

Hisashiburi da, ne?

I feel like I've used that topic before... huh....

Anyway, so there's been a massive lack of posts, yes? Yes. Yes, there have. Ok, so life's gotten busy. I'm trying to see all of my friends and do all of these things I want to do before I leave in... one month. (It's getting more and more depressing each time someone reminds me... at this rate, I will be a raging ball of tears before I even hit the Kumamoto airport... k, maybe not. :D) On top of all this, I have... actual work to do... haha, "Oh yeah. That."

So it comes down to me having a lot going on, and having a lot to write about, but no time to write about it. Because if I take the time to write about one thing, I feel like I'm missing another.

I guess what I'm trying to say is excuse the sporadic posts, but expect things to be the same while I'm still here. I'll update a little here and there, but honestly, they may be few and far between in this final month. Hey, this gives you plenty of time to catch up on the long-winded posts from earlier. :D

Anyway... expect an eventual update on my Miyazaki mountain biking trip, my brother coming to visit, other concerts with Crossroads and Destined for Desolation (folk band and rock band respectively), and my potential Okinawa trip coming up in a few weeks...

For now, I will be heading off! I feel like a year's worth of not sleeping a lot is catching up to me finally... meh. :)

Oh, and keep checking back for updates on when I'll return and what I plan to do!

Because I enjoy reminding people how dorky I am...

The Fine Art of Japanese Cuisine



Enjoy. I hope this makes you a better chef.

Long awaited!!

This is long overdue, and a lot has happened between now and my last real update, so I'm going to do my best to make this short and to the point. Hey, at least I've been keeping myself (very/too/disgustingly) busy! We got a lot of ground to cover, gang, so hang on.

Well, let's see. Since I last posted, the very first thing I did was head over to a small river resort town about an hour and a half east of here to check out their coi flag festival. Boy's (Now Children's) Day was coming up, and traditionally, families hang massive flags out to represent their family, especially the children. This town we went to prides itself on these flags and hangs them over the river. Ever wonder what 3,500 8 ft. long fish flags look like? Completely awesome and well worth the trip.

Shortly after that, I made a trip to Korea over Golden Week! What's Golden Week?? Well I'm GLAD YOU ASKED! In early May, 3 holidays fall in a row which means 5 day weekend! This is one of the longest breaks for most people so just about everyone travels for the long weekend. Korea sounded good because I've got a friend, Amy, living over in Seoul teaching English. Thanks to an awesome travel agent (who knocked 1,000$ off of my plane ticket THANK YOU VERY MUCH!) I was able to fly in on Friday night after school. It was quite the weekend! But again, keepin' it short. Here are some of the highlights. (Those on facebook can see a lot of the pictures I took. Others can wait until I dump the next chunk of photos into photobucket)

The first day in, we decided to check out Seodaemun Prison. This is a prison built by the Japanese during their occupation of Korea in the first half of the 20th century to hold Korean independence fighters. Aside from the terrible living conditions such as hunger and disease, inmates were in constant fear of brutal torture and swift executions. Of course, to capitalize on this, the prison has since been turned into a tourist attraction where you can pay to go and see recreations of the torture devices, the prison cells, and even a small wax/animatronic gallery depicting several of the more gruesome tortures in full, bloody detail. (Bring the kids!) It was very interesting to see, in all seriousness. I guess I'm stupid, but I didn't know much of the history behind any of it, so it was all new to me (as read through heavily biased display descriptions. :D).

We saw the same palace 3 times... or so I like to say. On 3 days, we went to 3 palaces. Each of the main portions of the palaces all look pretty much the same. By the third time, Amy and I were sure to make plenty of deja vu jokes. The distinguishing features of each one lie around the main palace in the grounds. One of them had a beautiful lake, another had many smaller buildings, including an island pagoda, and the third, more centrally located one, has a changing of the guard ceremony everyday. THAT was cool. In full "medieval" Korean clothing, the sword-wielding guards put on a great display, accompanied by traditional Korean musicians, all marching and moving with great precision. I was enthralled by the music (being a massive music nerd) and so I spent the bulk of my time watching them play the unique instruments. Also, the "drum major" completely rocked. :D

Amy made me go to church. *sigh* Ok, so I went to an English singles ward in Korea. Actually, it was kinda fun to hang out and talk with more people who have such a strong drive to go experience other cultures. On Saturday night, they had an event called Bob's House of Blues... basically, everyone gathers at this guy's apartment, eats dinner, and holds an Open Mic night sort of thing. People sing, tell stories, read poetry, or perform pacific island dances. It was just a lot of fun to hang out, and it was a nice apartment, too! (They convinced me to play... it was terrible. I haven't touched a guitar in almost 10 months, and I wasn't even that good to begin with.)

Based on a recommendation from my Japanese teacher here, we went to go see JUMP! on Tuesday. JUMP! is a... well... "Martial Arts Comedy Extravaganza" for lack of a better description (as if there could BE a better description!). It was a mostly pantomimed show about a strange family who are all martial arts masters. Stuff happens... stuff which enables them to jump really high, flip, break boards, run off of walls, throw each other around, swing bo staffs, and make the audience laugh the entire time. It was a GREAT show! Completely glad we went to do that (and glad it was MY recommendation! Ha!)

Anyway, that's about it for Korea. Of course we went to Seoul Tower and a few more places, but I'll spare the descriptions. I might be throwing a video together soon, anyway.

Believe it or not, after a few days in Korea, I actually got homesick... for Japan. Weirdest feeling... haha. Anyway, I headed back home to a few days of school, a 3 day weekend, and then a solid 7 days in a row of school. Tuesday through Sunday. Why oh why would they put us through such torture? The answer, of course, is Sports Day. For about a month before that Sunday, we had been practicing almost everyday for Sports Day. The students practiced marching, they practiced team cheers, they practiced their individual events...basically, a TON of hard work. All of it came to one massive event. Pretty cool, says I... and I've got tons of pictures and video. I've got ideas of a video I want to make, so maybe expect something soon.

Otherwise, things continue to be busy. I'm still performing with that band I sang clapton songs with, the other band I'm playing bass in (New name pending), and still taking a bit of kendo. Kendo... is hard. In fact, today, I was having a hard time with one "routine," and so the teacher brought over this elementary school girl to show me how to do it... talk about emasculating...

That's it for now! Until later!

*gasp for air*

I AM ALIVE!! I'm alive... relax.

It's been a busy... BUSY... couple of weeks. Since I last updated, there's been a trip to Korea, starting up Kendo, and weeks and weeks of Sports Day practice (including working on the weekend...).

More detailed updates coming soon, including loads of pictures and video!

Say "Tsutsuji Matsuri" 5 times fast

Sunday, Ozu held their Tsutsuji Matsuri (Azalea Festival). Though as luck would have it, all of the azaleas in Showa Park had already bloomed and fallen off thanks to the strange weather... so a flower festival without the flowers... NO WORRIES! There's still plenty to do!

Downtown Ozu had a parade, a stage setup with cultural things going on, and everything ranging from a Flea Market to Kids Sumo (It was quite hilarious to see pictures of these scrawny little boys trying to sumo the crap out of each other). Oh, also the Ozu Karaimo made an appearance. It's a family of 3 sweet potato mascots which I forget the names of, but... yeah. Anyway, all of this downtown stuff, I missed. I was busy over at Showa Park performing with a lady from my eikaiwa class. Her family has a band and she invited me to come sing a few songs with them, which then turned into playing a few MORE songs with them... and... Yeah. You've got a whole day of sitting at the music festival at Showa Park. A group of friends showed up to show support, and video tape... sooo... here. Be nice. :(

(Not going to embed, since there are 3 clips)
Shimanchu nu Takara - BEGIN (Me on drums)
Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton (Me singing)
Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton (Me singing)

Fun day. Cold day. and I was freaking nervous... eh.

PS: This weekend, I'm headed to Seoul, South Korea for Golden Week! Yay!

Only in Japan

Last Wednesday afternoon at school, all of the sports teams and clubs put on an assembly for all of the new students as a sort of recruitment tool. The basketball players showed off some skills, the tennis team smacked some tennis balls around, and the badminton team shot their birdies into the audience. The highlight for me, though, was watching the kendo students. It's something that's so uniquely "Japan." I've always been interested in it, but figured it was way out of my range, since first of all, I'm a teacher, and second, I don't speak enough Japanese.

After the assembly, I was talking with one of my English teachers. She asked me which club I liked the best, so I said, "The kendo team was pretty cool. I think Kendo looks really interesting." At that, she ran over to the kendo coach and told him what I'd said. This intimidating guy looked over at me, smiled, then called out, "Hai! Samurai!" making the motion of a samurai sword. I just sort of laughed and nodded. After all, even though I've worked at this school for 8 months, I barely know him.

Two days later, I come back from an ichinensei class to find a brand new kendo sword ("shinai") sitting on my desk.

I was completely speechless. Again, I barely know this guy. Why would he do this?? That shinai costs around 40$!! Anyway, the first chance I got, I thanked him as best as I could, bowing deeply and using the formal thank you. He brushed it off saying basically, "Hey, don't mention it. It's no problem. Please, come join us sometime!"

So there it is. Because I only said "Kendo looks fun and interesting," and I got a free sword out of the deal and a standing invitation to come learn kendo with my students. I'm definitely taking it up.

For reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh2TNO5CGXQ

(PS: I'm 6'3"... my students are much shorter... on the one hand, I'll be able to thwomp their heads easier, but on the other, it might be difficult to find me a long enough uniform...)

Just a lil' bit of nothing

What I wouldn't give for things to get back to normal. After the busy weekend in Tokyo, I got right back to school for the ninensei/sannensei opening ceremony. Then the next day we greeted the new students with THEIR opening ceremony. Two days in a row of suit and tie.

I will say greeting the new students was cool. It was a ceremony almost as big as graduation. Parents lined the back walls, the band played warm-up songs, lots of members of the Board of Education showed up. I was actually given a job to assist... I stood in the hallway and greeted all the old BOE members, motioned to the left, and said, "Toshoshitsu wa kochira desu." (The library is over there.) Of course, I was standing next to a sign with an arrow directing them that way, but YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO CAREFUL! (Especially since a few of the older ones started to aimlessly wander past me, prompting me to proudly repeat my canned phrase.)

When the actual ceremony started, it was almost motion-for-motion the same as graduation. Students stood, teachers read names, students sat, other students stood, students sang... but then we had to sing. All of the teachers filed in a mob to our assigned places in the gym and sang to the new ichinensei. The nearest I could work out the lyrics in the single day that I had to practice is that it was something about giving the students flowers and dandelions or something. Though I suppose with Japanese imagery and metaphor, it probably meant each flower is the gift of knowledge, and each petal of that flower is a page of a textbook, filled with incredible information vital to the growing minds and bodies of the youth of Japan (The bumblebee on the flower represents cotton-candy... still trying to figure that metaphor out... silly Japanese poetry).

Probably the the most interesting moment was when the teachers had to introduce themselves to the crowd. We have a student with a hearing impairment, so to assist, all of the teachers had banners with their names on it. In traditional Japanese, their names, consisting of only two kanji, were all aranged vertically on two sheets of printer paper. When the moment came, we lined up across the front of the gym while the vice principapl read our names and subjects of each teacher. I was very last.

The format was the same, "Matsuzaki Mariko," she'd step forward, "Yorohiku onegaishimasu," bow, and hold up her vertical scroll. "Iida Yuki," she'd step forward, "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu," bow, and hold up her vertical scroll. "Hiraki Kenichiro," he'd step forward, bow, hold up his scroll and say, "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu," just to mix it up. Then it got to me. The vice principal read my name in perfect katakana english, I stepped forward, bowed, said, "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu," and held up my horizontal scroll spelled out in English. 42 vertical scrolls, and finally the tall, lanky American guy holds up this horizontal thing so incredibly different from the others. It got a few chuckles from just about everyone, including myself. :) (Then I cried a little inside. :( (Not really...))

Since then, though, the daily routine has been orientations and introductions for the students. It's been a week, and I still haven't really taught a class yet. I've been bringing my laptop to school to hopefully fill the free time and get some actual work done, but after several hours of that, it's good to break up the monotony with an ebook or something (World War Z! Yay!).

The new English teachers are great, though. The new ninensei teacher has already had me come to a class (not that I did much, but the effort was there!). But I won't really start anything until next week. In the meantime, it's pretty dull. All my extra-curricular stuff is going well (band practice, japanese lessons, even ballroom dance, though it's still freaking hard). Also, I'm getting tons of ideas for lame videos to make, so maybe someday, if I get the drive and if I allow myself to look like more of an idiot, I might make them. :D

The Tokyo Thing

Hey, surprise! I went to Tokyo! I guess I was too busy to mention it on here, but... yeah. I went. This came out of it.



WHERE'D WE GO?? (Places (briefly) featured in the video)
Day 1:
-Imperial Palace Tour
-Shinjuku
-Tokyo Municipal Building (45th Floor)
-Kabuki-cho
-Shibuya

Day 2:
-Camp Zama Army Base

Day 3:
-Punkspring '09 (Maseharu Messe, Chiba-ken)

Day 4:
-Tsukiji Fish Market, random sushi restaurant
-Sensoji (in Asakusa)
-Akihabara

Day 5:
-Subway
-Kumamoto

That's all for now! I have a bunch of pictures covering the many things I couldn't fit into the video. Look for them on Facebook soon! (Or photobucket... if I ever get around to it. The link is in the upper left of this page)

Sakura Season

This past weekend, I had the chance to participate in "O-Hanami." (hana = flower, mi = look. "Flower Viewing." The O often gets added onto certain words as a formality. Even the glorious bentos I keep writing about get the O treatment and become O-bentos, or, Honorable Boxed Lunches.) During a hanami party, people gather together to have picnics underneath sakura trees.

O-Hanami takes place during the time of year when the Sakura are in bloom. Almost everywhere you look in this all-too-short season, you will see at least one bright pink, blossoming tree. In certain areas, entire parks have changed colors, lighting up the landscape and adding new flavor to a previously worn-out view.

On Saturday, the Kikuchi-gun ALTs decided to have a hanami party. Our directions were to go to Kikuchi city at around 7:00 PM and meet at a park that is famous for sakura. It seemed a bit strange going at night to see some flowers, but I was reassured it would be worthwhile.

So, around 7, a carload of us arrived near the Takemitsuko statue. We'd all been by it before, and we always notice the great bronze samurai in mid-gallop on his horse, war fan at the ready. It was always a passing, "Oh, neat... anyway..." This day, as we drove in front of it, I finally noticed it's backdrop; a large hill not too far behind it. Only now, the hill was absolutely covered in Sakura. Swirls of the pink flowers mixed in with the ordinary trees, helping the sakura to stand out even brighter against the darkening sky. In faint zig-zags criss-crossing through the trees, there were specks of what must have been street lights and paper lanterns leading the way. Instantly, this seemed like a fantastic idea.

We grabbed our supplies and began our walk up into the hill. The main entrance was a long walkway lined with sakura. A faint, red glow came from each of the chouchin (lanterns) hanging perfectly spaced down the center. At the end, a large, stone torii (gate) stood against the dark forest huddling around the jinja behind it. We veered right, off the path, and wound our way up the smaller footpaths leading higher up the side of the hill. We would occasionally stop to try and catch a picture, but even after we figured out the best way to take a night photo, we all realized there was no way it could ever do this justice.

The rest of the evening was spent sitting on tarps and roll-up tatami mats while eating underneath the cherry blossoms. Someone made the comment, "It's too bad that it's going to rain tomorrow. All this will be gone." Just like that, as quickly as it starts, the sakura season ends. Very soon, the pink blossoms that we've grown accustomed to will be gone. For me, it's most likely my last time to see them. But I can't ever forget them.

Several teachers are transferring schools this week. As I've mentioned before, March is the end of the school year. Some teachers will change schools within the prefecture, others will stay. Next week, the next school year will start.

It came on so suddenly. In the rush to finish the textbooks before the last class, or to cram that last bit of information for the entrance examinations, the last days of school crept up on me. Not an hour after the closing ceremony, the principal was already calling teachers one-by-one into his office to tell them if they'd stay or go. Some came out trying to remain polite and formal, others came out smiling with sighs of relief, and others came out fighting back tears. The teachers who are staying will have the coming year to celebrate and relax. These few weeks, though, are for the transferring teachers.

In the week to come, some really amazing people are leaving. There's the ichinensei math teacher who was one of the first to try out her English on me at an Enkai when I was randomly assigned to sit next to her, and has since struck up the odd conversation with me in passing. There's the librarian who would always greet me with a "Good morning!" as she'd walk by my desk to get coffee, often times stopping to practice more English, or teach me more Japanese. There's my principal who is blindingly convinced that I will become a famous singer and will then be too famous to talk to him when he visits the USA, even though we've already had many great conversations about everything from Steve McQueen to Jazz.

I've known these people for an all-too-short period of time. And these faces that I've grown accustomed to will soon be gone. This week may well be the last time I see them. But I can't ever forget them.

A Special Springtime

Spring is here. The cold wind has receded to the mountains until next fall. The bitter snow, long gone. As the students shed their coats and open the classroom curtains, the sun beats down harder and harder. This, too, dear friends, is the season of the Sakura, Japan's famous cherry blossoms. Seemingly every tree is bursting with the light pink flower on every branch. It is a sight to behold, one which draws visitors from all over the world annually. And what would the sakura and spring time, even Japan, be without one very important thing?

That thing, of course, is racism.

Ok, calm down. Let me break out the story. :D

This past weekend, I went to Fukuoka on a whim. Hey, I hadn't been there yet, and it's supposed to be a nice place (It was). Additionally, it has a Wendy's which is supposed to be delicious (It was... twice). Come on, give me a break, I haven't been there in 7 months. Anyway, I went with 3 friends. Two other american guys, Anthony and Matt, and one of my Japanese friends, Kana.

Since we were going on a whim, we didn't make hotel reservations anywhere. We figured we'd try our luck once we got there. We left a little late, so that was going to make things a bit more difficult. We arrived in Fukuoka in the mid afternoon and immediately started walking around looking for capsule hotels, or hostels, or cheap hotels, or whatever we could find. After many failed attempts, we started to realize we may just have to break into two groups for the night (since it's near impossible to find a 4 person hotel room without sinking to a Love Hotel).

Kana and Matt found a double in one hotel while Anthony and I waited outside (so the hotel clerk wouldn't see us in case they found something we could all sneak into later). Unfortunately, there was only one room, but there was a hotel across the street. Before booking, Matt and Kana went over to the other hotel to check there. They came out a moment later to tell Anthony and I, "Ok, they have two singles." We decided to split here and go check in to our respective hotels. Matt and Kana went back across the street while Anthony and I walked into the new hotel. Anthony approached the counter, "Futatsu shingaru, kudasai." (Two singles, please.)

The two men behind the counter fumbled with the papers for a moment but almost instantly, one of them looked up and said, "Oh... umm... no... no vacancy..."

Anthony and I looked at each other puzzled and said, "Oh... okay, thank you..." and left. Outside, Anthony said to me, "I bet it's because we're gaijin..." I didn't quite believe this, but didn't think it was too far fetched... we called Matt and Kana to hopefully catch them before making reservations to let them know that our hotel was now magically full. They returned a minute later just as confused as we were. We told them Anthony's hypothesis and Kana kind of rolled her eyes. Matt said, "Okay, Kana, let's go back in there." And off they went. :)

The next bit went something like this. Kana walked back in and asked the men, "Wait a second. I came in 5 minutes ago and you had rooms available. My friends, who speak Japanese, came in not two minutes later, and suddenly you're full. What happened?" The men looked at each other and said, "Oh... we filled the rooms... but wait, we just got a cancellation." Kana asked, "You just now got a cancellation?" The men replied, "Uh... yes..." "Yeah, that's a good story..." Kana said, rather pointedly. To this, the men only shuffled with more papers while staring at their feet, remaining completely silent.

Kana and Matt came back outside to tell us that we had rooms and to go back in. So we did. Once inside, the men were much more polite and cordial while we filled out the information sheet and paid. I got them back, though... I filled out my information in romaji. Those punks don't DESERVE kanji. >:(

Anyway, it was just something to laugh about. We didn't get too offended or upset because what good would it do? We just rolled with it and enjoyed the rest of our trip wandering around downtown Fukuoka (and eating Wendy's... did I mention that important bit yet?). I guess since Fukuoka's a bigger tourist place, certain hotels are less apt to let the "party-boy american" types in their hotels. That's all well and good, but we literally said two words to them and they made that judgement. Racism is an interesting thing in Japan... so many borderline, if not full-out prejudiced things happen that it's hard to list specifics. You just take it in stride and remember that's the whole point of the exchange programs: to knock down the stereotypes and internationalize both parties.

Don't get me wrong. I completely love Japan. I don't at all see this experience as a black mark that will bring shame upon this country for millenia to come. It was just funny and worth telling about. :)

And Wendy's was awesome, too.

Sayonara, Sannensei :(

Pardon the long post (I think it's redundant to say that at this point... :D) but I have to write this all down. It's been quite the week over at school. Since school is only required through Junior High, graduation is a bigger deal here than back in the states. One of my teachers told me, "It's probably the most formal event of the whole school year." Man, she wasn't kidding. I felt like such a foreigner standing slack-jawed in awe of some of the stuff going on while the rest of the faculty looked bored as ever... silly Americans. :D

Practice, Practice, Practice
All week, the sannensei have been out of school. They've been taking their high school entrance exams (tests to get into certain high schools) and showing up for graduation rehearsals. Oh yes, rehearsals. At least 1 period a day all week was taken up by graduation practice (On Thursday, we took the entire morning to run a mock graduation... complete with reading all the names but sans parents). Everything from proper bowing etiquette to music rehearsals to what sounded like death threats from the teachers promising much pain and suffering to those who dared to even blink.

I must say, the first corrrect "kiritsu" made me jump a little. The procedure is like this. As the students are sitting like perfect little soldiers in a row, the MC says, "Ichido..." (All who are present) then stone silence... then, "Kiritsu!!" At that, EVERY STUDENT jumps to their feet in a perfect single move. "Rei!" Each student bows at the waist and counts to themselves, "Ichi... ni... san..." and stands back up again in perfect unison. Finally, a last word (I forget :( ) and all sit again as a large, robotic mass. Seriously impressive. The standing up and sitting down happened in a fraction of a second with a fantastic, "FWOOSH" noise... imagine 400 students with that sort of discipline. I now fear them turning that amount of discipline on me. :( (not really. :D)

The Big Day
Anyway, Friday morning, everyone arrived looking their best (Yay for walking to school in a suit in the rain... woo) and the ceremony was underway. Once it started, not a single student spoke unless required. Any teacher would say that's an impressive feat, but these kids did it. Of course, the teachers had to sit at the front, so there I was in a suit sandwiched in between a couple other teachers terrified to even scratch my face with the thousand or so people all sitting out in front of us.

The Order of Events
So, the national anthem started off and I quickly felt like an idiot for not knowing the words. (Silly Americans!) Then it was on to the most ingenious bit of thinking ever. At my school (Probably throughout Japan) They put the conferring of diplomas AT THE BEGINNING! And even better, they have it down to a science and got through 200 students in about 25 minutes. Each student (seated in prefect rows by class) stands up and proceeds through a series of seven stations to finally recieve their diploma (think of it like being "on deck" in baseball). Like a well-oiled machine. But during this, only light music was played. The only other sound was each student saying, "Hai!" as their name was called. No cheering, no airhorns, no "YOU GO GIRL!" to my sister at her high school graduation. (ugh... flashbacks... :D) Completely solemn, formal, and whatnot...

...with the exception of two boys. First, one of the "yankees" ("bad students") rose his hand all super-genki-like when his name was called and cheerfully shouted, "HAI!!" much louder than necessary (Oh, you're not supposed to raise your hand or do anything showy...) which got a few laughs from the crowd. But he's a decent kid. he shows up to school and is a nice guy, even if he doesn't do any work or pay any attention. The other kid was later in the ceremony... this was a student that I had honestly never seen before. Naturally, he had no idea what he was doing so he caused quite a disturbance while getting his diploma. But yes. He still got his diploma. This boy hadn't been to school for almost 2 years and he showed up on Graduation to pick up his certificate. See, in Japan, it's a student's right to come to school. Students can't fail out of school. No matter what a student does, or how a student does in class, he or she WILL graduate. They won't get into a good high school without the grades, but usually the kids don't even care to go to high school and just immediately enter the work force. Anyway, later on, the teachers were complaining about how disrespectful those boys were. Yeah, relatively speaking, they were loud and obnoxious... but they'd fit right in at an American graduation. :D

Yet more speeches
After the diplomas were given, there were a series of speeches by the Principal ("Saikosei!! Kiritsu... Rei!!"), the Superintendant ("Saikosei!! Kiritsu... Rei!!"), the Mayor ("Saikosei!! Kiritsu... Rei!!"), and the head of the PTA ("Saikosei!! Kiritsu... Rei!!"). Something I should've mentioned a while ago is the process for approaching the podium in an assembly (I had to do this my first day... good thing I paid attention). The speaker stands up and walks to the side of the stage. He turns to the highest ranking people, bows, turns to the other side (the teachers in this case), bows, walks up on the stage, faces the Japanese flag, bows, and finally gets behind the podium, where everyone bows together (synchronized to the "Rei!!"). After the speech is done, you reverse the process. This all adds about 45 seconds to the beginning and end of each speech. Imagine that for EVERY SPEECH.

Take it away, kids
Now the student portion starts. The sannensei all stand, turn their chairs around to face the ichinensei and ninensei, and sort themselves into boys on one side and girls on the other. Again, super fast and coordinated... maybe 30 seconds or less. In complete silence. :D Next years student council president (An awesome girl!) stood up and gave a short congratulatory speech. The student council came up from the back and handed out greeting cards to each row of grads (while saying in, again, perfect robotic unison, "Omedetto gosaimasu!" (congratulations)). Following this, the ichinensei and ninensei sing their musical tribute to the Sannensei. Just a single song, but a good one, anyway. After that, it's the sannensei's turn.

Sempai, show them how it's done
They had a presentation prepared where 4 students came to the microphone and talked about memories from their school days. After each speech, there was a song performed to the underclassmen. The most striking song was Tegami by Angela Aki. The lyrics are about a woman giving advice to the confused 15 year old version of herself. The melody is gorgeous. (and I know the lyrics sound cheesy, but it was the only song that I actually knew before hand... SHUT UP!!) It was interesting to think of it in terms of the sannensei "passing the torch," so to speak, to the ninensei and ichinensei.

After the students finished (To the first applause in about an hour and a half), there were a few more short speeches including the parents thanking the teachers for their hard work (and due to my position, she was standing almost right in front of me... it was a bit unnerving. :D). Finally the grads recessed. The teachers rushed to the back of the gym to form a tunnel for the students as the rest of the audience applauded loudly and the band played Kiseki, another pretty cool song that just sounded neat in the context. As the sannensei walked out, there were obviously lots of tears, but countless smiles. A few of my favorite students shot me quick toothy smiles and the occasional inside joke ("Wakachiko!") on the way out.

Teary goodbyes
And that was the end of it. The parents headed home, the rest of the students stayed behind to clean up the gym, and the sannensei went up to their classes for one final, teary homeroom with their teachers. I accidentally wandered upstairs as they were finishing and got snagged by a few students for pictures, yearbook signings and all that. One of my favorite students actually gave me a bag of cookies with a card (written in English!!) and thanked me. I hate to sound like I've got a big head, but dangit, the whole experience really made me feel like I'm doing a half-way decent job. Kind of a, "Ok... so they DO like me... I guess I'm doing this right." Confidence boosts are good and occassionally necessary, ne? :)

Anyway, I'm gonna miss those guys. The pirate crew is gone, the japanese comedians are gone, the guys who pretended to be MIBs when I was around are gone (if I'll even remember.. one of them mime-flashed me with a memory-eraser-thing before leaving). I was just starting to get the hang of this gig, the students were starting to open up, and wham. They're out.

That's life, I suppose. Looks like we get to start all over again in a month. :)

Random

I'm still alive and will soon sit down to write a post, but for now, you get this fun fact.

In Japan, my last name has 3 syllables. It takes a bit of getting used to it to realize that a student is actually referring to me when he says, "SAN-DAH-ROOOO!!"

Ja, mata ne.

Takusan no soubetsukai

It's March. Aside from all of that usual stuff that comes with this time of year, I've got some new things to worry about now that I'm in Japan.

There's an interesting thing about Japan. The business year (for lack of a better term) starts in April. At the very beginning of April, government officials get shifted around to new offices. Maybe it's to prevent boredom, maybe it's to keep people fresh on the job, maybe it's a way to evenly distribute good service, I don't know. Along with this, the school year also starts in April. It would follow, then, that the school year ENDS in March. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the midst of soubetsukai (leaving party) season.

As I've stated a lot in the past, I'm not a JET, but I'm lucky enough to be using the same program that they do meaning I arrive in August, I leave in August. I have a couple of non-JET friends who aren't so lucky. I'm in the exact middle of a 4 week run of weekly soubetsukai for a lot of friends. Two weeks ago, it was for Jaime who had to return to South Africa. Last weekend, it was for Julie, an ALT went home today for America after 4 and a half years, but has been a great friend for my relatively short time. This weekend, it's for Ryo, a government worker who is getting shifted to Tokyo next month (this is a much farther transfer than the average job... he's kind of specialized), which then leaves my weekly Japanese class/dinner group down one member. In a couple weeks, it's going to be for Jolene, another non-JET ALT who will have to return to Canada once the school year ends. All of these people are amazing. All of them have had second thoughts and wish they could stay longer. Sadly, though, that's just not how it works.

Now, as I said before about Government officials getting shifted around... Teachers are government officials. No one knows yet who will stay at my junior high school for the next school year. We won't find that out untill right before they have to leave. I've spent 7 months slowly building up an office rapport with the group we have now. It's strange to look around the office and imagine any other configuration of teachers scribbling frantically at their desks. I know of a couple that are leaving for sure. One may be a welcome departure, but the other leaves things to chance. Who knows if my new JTE will be better or worse than what I'm working with now? Who knows if they'll view my perhaps-crazy antics as good relationships with the students, or as distractions in their strict, lock-step classroom? And the Principal is retiring, too. Among other ALTs, I think I'm lucky. They always talk about how bad or impersonal their principals are. Mine is the opposite. Is my new principal going to be as eager to try broken english with me as this one is? Will he actually sit down occassionally next to me and practice reading english while looking to me for approval? I have no idea. Here's to hoping, right?

And of course it wouldn't be the end of the school year without Graduation. That time that seemed so far off back in August has now hit. I've spent all this time slowly building relationships with my sannensei. Real, honest relationships. The sannensei at my school are incredible people and I've enjoyed every strange joke, japanese comedian quote, confused expression (both from me and from them), and just plain conversation I've shared with them. All of a sudden today, I was having 2 very last classes. (Of course, we're going out with a bang: English Jeopardy game complete with cheesy game show host voice.) And these are 2 of my favorite classes in the entire school, and 2 of the most genki. One class actually asks the teacher when I'm coming on days when I'm not there. But, we wrapped up Final Jeopardy, and before we knew it, the bell chimed and I was standing in front of them for their last "Goodbye, everyone!"s, arigatou's, bows, and "See you"'s. It occured to me right then that this really sucks. I've spent 6 months getting comfortable in Japan. I'm finally here and these guys have to go. To say "Nuts," would be a massive understatement.

In the month to come, I'm going to say goodbye to more friends, more teachers, more students... and it's really sad because I don't know Japan without these people. They've all been "Japan" to me. Everyday, routine dictates that I will see these people at these times just because that's how things work in this new culture. Now it's all getting shaken up. However, I suppose with my new-found Japanese spirit, I'll be sad for the goodbyes but excited for the changes ahead.

After all. Thinking of all of these great people I've met over the last 6-7 months actually has me excited that I get to do it all over again for the next 5-6 months.

English can be fun

A couple months back, I was doing a reading lesson in an ichinensei class. I don't really remember the grammar topic, but it was a section where a boy was talking about his Uncle Nick in America. He was describing the energy efficient house that Uncle Nick lived in. We went through the usual routine and had the students listened to us read it first. A particular section passed by, "Uncle Nick's house has solar panels. He gets his energy from the sun."

Next, we do a read and repeat section with the students. The teacher reads as one character, I read as the other, and the students repeat every sentence. "Uncle Nick's house has solar panels." "Uncle Nick's house has solar panels." "He gets his energy from the sun." "He gets his energy from the sun."

So, we read, they repeated, and then they practice. The students all stand up and practice reading through the entire page on their own and we walk around and help them. Most students stumbled on words, a few stood out as excellent, but it soon became apparent that a few had no idea what the English meant.

After that, the teacher usually checks the meaning. He reads the sentence in English and then asks the students if they understand and to try and translate. 9 times out of 10 they don't, so the teacher translates it for them, which they then write down in their notebooks. It got to the section mentioned above.

"Uncle Nick's house has solar panels. Niku oji no ie wa soraru paneru ja arimasu." (I probably butchered the Japanese there...) The students wrote it down and waited for the next sentence, bored as ever.

"He gets his energy from the sun. (I don't know the japanese here.)" There was a brief pause and a few boys chuckled. One of them said, "Nani... mo ikkai!" (What... one more time!) The teacher repeated the sentence. More of the class giggled and the boys flat-out started laughing.

The boy who asked for him to repeat got really excited. "Oh, oh, OH!!!" he exclaimed, slowly rising out of his chair. As he gracefully spread his arms out to the sides and tilted his head back, as if basking in the warm glow of the Yellow Sun, he shouted, "SUPERMAAAAAN!!"

I laughed. Hard.

It's funny how awesome simple sentences can be when taken out of context. :)

Doin' That Thing I Do

It occurs to me that I do too much. Well, wait, lemme back up. I do lots of stuff. But I do so much of it that I forget to talk about it. Wait, lemme back up again. I do a lot of little random things that I keep meaning to write about but keep forgetting to. Wait, lemme back up. I do a lot of little random things that I keep meaning to write about but keep forgetting. Can't end that last sentence with a preposition. That's just bad. Wait, one more time, I gotta back up. In that sense, "to" is a particle... the original sentence stands. Are we clear? No? Good. Moving on.

The point is that I get all wrapped up in trying to be poetic and artsy that I end up forgetting to write about some of the weekly or monthly routine that I have going on. Or else I remember near the end of the post and think I should save it for another time because the post is already insanely long and I should spare you. Well, ladies and gentlemen, now is that "another time."

Every other month, I write an article for the town magazine. The two ALTs employed by the town office (Tim and I) switch off every month writing a "Cultural perspectives" type article Actually, that's the name of Tim's column... mine is "Nebraskan News." Gotta play up the sister cities relationship, yo. I wanted to name it "High Times" because I'm tall, but I hear that one is already taken... *rimshot* ANYway, we're asked to write a short piece on whatever we feel like that kind of gives our perspective on life in Japan. So far, I've written about how hard working the teachers are, how I love all the little things about Japan, and the differences between Hastings and Ozu ("Golly! We're not so different after all! ^_^ " *cue music, close curtain, applause applause applause*). Since neither Tim or I have good enough Japanese for print, we write it up in English and send it two months in advance to be translated by our tantousha. This makes for interesting conversation when the article finally comes to print.

It's great because in the first week or so of my month, I get people asking me about it. Even people I don't know. Members of OIEO, the checkout girl at the grocery store, my students even asked me about it today. I said "interesting conversation" because... two months later, I've forgotten what I've written. And since I can't read the kanji, it makes it difficult to reference it. So when English speakers say, "Oh, hey, Colin! We read your article! That must have been fun!" I either have to pretend I remember, or look confused and say, "Wait, what did I say?" (Yeah, real sincere writing, obviously.) And the people I don't know (The convenience store clerk I see once a week when I buy a candy bar while waiting for the train) all of a sudden know who I am. "Etooouu... Colin desu ka?" "Hmm? Oh... umm, yes! Er... hai... *puzzled look*" "OH! Ano... anooo... Ozu *japanesejapanese* zasshi *japanesejapanese* gatsu!" (I'm still working on listening comprehension... gimme a break. :( (Oh, and that means "Ozu," "magazine," and "month," btw))

Actually, the scary part about it is that a picture goes with it... I have a standard picture that goes with it every month (Think of those Dear Helen, or Ask Judy articles and imagine my beaming face at the top), and also a bigger picture that I submit to help illustrate the article. The first month I had one out, some of my sannensei boys cut out my face and pasted them inside their pencil cases, proudly showing me and yelling, "O-KAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!" Today, I had a girl re-enacting my enthusiastic thumbs-up, leaning pose from the February article. I try not to get a big head about it, but it's hard when you're so awesome. ;) ;) ;)

Another routine I keep wanting to mention is singing... every single sannensei class starts off with singing an English song. The teacher picks them out every month and we belt away everything from Don't Wanna Miss a Thing, to Bad Day by Daniel Powter, to All I Want For Christmas Is You. Needless to say, I know most of these songs by heart now, like it or not. The best part about this is that the first day a song is introduced, we take the whole lesson teaching it. First, they listen and fill in the missing lyrics on a whited-out copy. Then there's the part where they repeat after me. If you thought bad 80's rock tunes had dumb sounding lyrics before (Mr. Big's "Be With You" comes to mind as a particular favorite), imagine having to stand in front of a class of 9th graders and recite each line sans music (this even includes all the "oh yeah"s and "baby"s, too...). Then for the last bit, all the students stand up and take a stab at singing it while we wander around like prison guards listening to them. Hey, I'll admit it. Usually the songs are kinda fun. :D (But if you tell anyone I said that, I'll deny everything.)

Yet another routine that I'm sure I've talked about, but not in depth is my Wednesday Japanese lesson. Now that I'm writing this, I remember it being featured in my "Wednesday" video. Anyway, they offer free lessons at the international center downtown, so I head over to hang out and converse in Japanese. This past week, I was able to get through about 70% of my lesson entirely in Japanese!! Of course, I was talking about basic stuff with a teacher who knows exactly what I've learned and thus fed my questions that would illicit responses I understood, BUT HEY PROGRESS IS PROGRESS!! Anyway, the real fun of the class is afterward. Class ends about 8:00 and then a group of us head out to dinner. It's cool because way back in September when I started, it was just Tim and I going out to dinner, but slowly, after inviting other people, there's now a pretty large group that heads out every week. Like it's a nice routine now. It's helped to be able to meet other students and teachers in the club. In fact, one Saturday last month, a lot of the members of the group were invited to a teacher's house for a sukiyaki party. Since it was good timing, Anna got to come to that, too. :D (Though she didn't have the guts to try the raw egg portion of it... something about egg allergies... whatever, wimp.)

A new routine that I've picked up kind of came about because of the dinner group. I figured now is a good time to admit this publically. Let me first apologize to those I'm going to offend by saying this. I'm sorry. It was peer pressure and I couldn't say no. Mom, Dad, I hope you still love me. Friends, please don't think less of me. But I have to tell you this. I... Colin Sandall...

...have taken up Ballroom Dancing.

I'll give you a moment to let that sink in.

...

I don't know. I've been interested for a while (Maybe after watching Adam Carolla and Shannon Elizabeth... curse my family for making me watch...) and one of the teachers said they were looking for more guys about the time I was looking for more activities to get involved in, so it clicked. Of course, the average age of the class is around 42, but it jumps to about 50 when you take me out of the equation. I'm the youngest person in the class by about 10 years. BUT STILL! It's a great way to meet some people! GIMME A BREAK!! :(

Right, well, I should excuse myself now before this post turns into an intervention. Hey, I can quit anytime I want! I don't NEED ballroom dancing!! :(

Later, folks.

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Over the Hill

It occurred to me last week that I have been here now for a few days over 6 months. I’m at the halfway point. I remember back when a year seemed so long. And now, it feels like my remaining 6 months won’t be long enough. A couple of weeks ago, the recontracting deadline came around. I opted not to recontract, solidifying that I would, in fact, be leaving in August, as per the original plan. It’s not that I don’t love what I’m doing and where I’m at. I just have too many other things to do back in the states. Had I known it would be like this, though, I might have planned way back at the start of this process to stay for longer.

Of course, there was a lot about my time in Japan I didn’t know back then. I didn’t know I’d have a bigger apartment than the pictures showed. I didn’t know I’d have an awesome convenient store right across the street with fantastic service and even better bentos. I didn’t know I’d be placed in a lovely spot just kind-of-in the inaka, but still with a touch of big city life.

I didn’t know I’d meet so many people from so many different countries; Ireland, England, Australia, New Zealand, Norway… Texas... ... Alaska. I didn’t know I’d meet so many people from different parts of Japan. I’ve got great friends in Ozu, Arao, Mifune, Nankan, Tamana, Yamaga and many, many other places including Kyoto and Osaka. I didn’t know we’d be going out and having some of the most incredible nights I’ve had in a long time. ...I didn't know I would actually ENJOY karaoke...

I didn’t know Anna would be able to come visit and let me show her around for a few weeks. Nor did I know we’d be going to see Nagasaki together, standing at the epicenter of the A-bomb, or going to Beppu and ooo-ing and aah-ing over Hell, or going to Kumamoto and standing at the top of one of the top 3 most beautiful castles in all of Japan. I had no idea I’d be experienced enough in Japanese language and custom to get us around to those places without help (or get us lost so spectacularly… *cough*).

And speaking of that, I didn’t think it would be possible to learn as much Japanese as I have, and be as comfortable with custom as I’ve gotten. Of course there are miles and miles to go with it, but starting from absolutely nothing, I’m shocked. I didn’t think my anxiety and fear as I stepped off the plane would ever melt into sighs of relief and solid self-reassurances of “You can do this.”

Yeah, had I known all of this, sure. I would have planned for longer. Who wouldn’t? However, I do know that all good things must come to an end. I don’t want to make myself sick of Japan… Personally, I know if I stay any longer and try to recreate all of the magic from my first year, it would cheapen the whole experience for me. I planned 1 year, I have the mindset for 1 year, I’m going home after 1 year. Well... 6 months now. ;)

As a disclaimer to all you people interested in a program like this, don’t think this means I’m saying YOU should only stay for 1 year. By all means, you should stick around and enjoy Japan for as long as you like. You make the decision that’s best for you, just as I have. I’m only trying to give you a heads up: You’re gonna want more. ;)

The Beppu Experience

In an effort to crack into the pile of things to talk about, here's a post about Beppu!

Anna and I took a short trip out to Beppu last month. If Kyushu is the Onsen capital of Japan, then Beppu is the Imperial City, or something. Aside from Onsens (hot springs), the big tourist-y thing to do is to go check out the Jigoku tour. We spent the afternoon wandering around the town finding these things and snapping pictures as we went. It was a pretty neat little trip! Of course, by about the 7th and 8th ones, we were worn out, so we ran to the nearest onsen to relax. A sand bath and a hot spring later, we started walking again to the nearest train station to head 3 hours back to Ozu. I say started because...

...we got lost. (Here's the part Anna made me wait until she was safely back in the states before I could tell anybody... ;) )

The map we had didn't include all the little neighborhood roads and offshoots, so somewhere along the way, we ended up veering North instead of East. We quickly found the way back, but because of the delay, we missed the last express train back to Ozu (The express train would have shaved off maybe an hour from the trip). I was leery about being able to make it back. The trains in the more rural parts of the trip don't run as frequently... but we trudged on, hopeful.

We made it to a smallish town called Taketa at about 8:30. The next train continued on a little farther at 9:15 to a station called Bungo-ogi. That station was about 3 stops from Miyaji, which routinely runs a direct line to Ozu. I thought, "If we can get to Miyaji, we'll be all set..." so we tried our luck. If all else failed, maybe we'd have to find a hotel, or drop some money on an expensive taxi.

The train stopped at Bungo-ogi at 9:30. We got off (along with the 2 other passengers there...) and searched for the schedule.

No luck. That was the last train, and the closest to Ozu we were going to get. Ok, no problem, I thought. We went to the front of the train station to find a taxi, which usually camp out near train stations. Unfortunately, this wasn't exactly the biggest town, and there wasn't a taxi in sight. There wasn't MUCH in sight, because just outside of a few small street lamps, we could see nothing. The town was largely unlit.

Oh crap, and maybe a few other descriptive interjections entered my head. There was a map posted up of the city, so we looked for the most likely place to find a taxi or a hotel and wandered that way. But the farther we got from the station, the less and less light there was. We gave up and turned around to ask the train conductor to help us, but on the way back, we watched as the train pulled out of the station to park for the night.

Double crap.

After apologizing many times to Anna and sorting out what to do, we happened to stumble across a man walking his dog. I grabbed his attention... he didn't speak any english, and I speak broken Japanese, but I tried my darndest. I asked him if he knew the number for the taxi stand, but he didn't. I explained our situation and asked about the nearest hotel... turns out THAT was back in Taketa, the town we'd just left. (Worried or not, I was still impressed withi my own Japanese abilities *gloat gloat gloat*)

The man took us to a friend's shop that happened to still be open. The lady inside also tried to help us, but didn't speak any English, either. In turn, SHE called HER friend from across the street who came over. Finally, this third lady spoke a little bit of english, and I again explained the story, using English to fill in the holes I missed. After a few minutes of deliberating what to do, the third lady smiled and said, "Ok, you come stay at my house."

"What?" She repeated it. "Are you sure? I mean... is it really okay? Honto ni ii desu ka?" "Hai," she enthusiastically replied. A few more umms and stammerings and we found ourselves following this lady back to her house. Well, here we go, I thought, feeling incredibly bad for putting this woman out like this.

As it turns out, though... this woman and her family routinely host the local ALTs at their house, so they're used to it. Like a well-oiled machine, her husband and daughter immediatly prepared the spare room while she showed Anna and I pictures of other ALTs. The woman's daughter not only spoke a little bit more english than her mom, but also takes piano lessons from the mother of two of my middle schoolers! Small world, right? :) All of the connections, combined with the demeanor and hospitality of this family made Anna and I relax quite a bit and enjoy a bit of conversation.

Now, had this been any other country, I would have said "No thank you," to the woman and found something else. But in Japan, especially in Rural Japan, these are the kinds of things that just happen sometimes. The people are so generous and honest, it was amazing to experience it first hand. Every ALT friend I told about it afterwards was jealous of it. Every Japanese friend I told shrugged and said, "Yeah, that's just Japan." It was the sort of experience you always hear about happening and wonder, "Oh come on... really?" Well, yes. Really.

We left bright and early the next morning and made it back to Ozu with no more delays. :)

(However... Anna was probably a bit more angry than she let on... heh)

Anyway, ENJOY THE VIDEO!