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!

Like a giant, deadly Slip 'n' Slide

An amazing end to a looong week. Let's just get into it.

The school week was pretty okay. The sannensei teacher kept shifting my classes around, so I didn't go to many of theirs... but I picked up the slack and went to extra ninensei classes just for fun. And yes, they were fun. :D Friday was a good day because 6th period was a special cleaning period. As some of you know, Japanese kids take a time during the day to clean up the entire school. I help a group sweeping the front entry way by the shoe boxes, and we have a good time doing it. But Friday was different. I get back from my 5th period class and shortly after, all the teachers have disappeared, except for one of my JTEs. I ask him what's going on, and he said, "Oh, it's a special cleaning period. The students all go outside and help clean up the grounds." "Ok," I asked, "So where do we go?" "I'm waiting to see where a group is, then I'll go join them, I suppose." Since he seemed to be in no rush, I poked my head out into the hallway to see what was goin' down. I met eyes with one of the teachers I barely know, and, as always through broken english, she asked if I wanted to join her class once she saw I was confused as all heck.

Well of COURSE I want to join her class! They always say to embrace the chances to mingle with your students even more, so I jumped at it and went outside (being one of the only teachers that didn't bring a change of clothes...). We spent the next 40 minutes pulling weeds and goofing off. The students would tell me things in japanese, I'd repeat them, then quiz them in english. (Me: "Kore wa nihongo de nan desu ka?" (What is this in japanese?) Them: "Houki desu." (It's 'Houki!') Me: "Aaahhh... houki wa eigo de nan desu ka?" ("What is 'houki' in english?") Them: "Uh... uh... *furiously shaking their heads.*" Me: "'Broom' desu!" yes, I'm a nerd and love every chance I get to practice my lame japanese.) I even threw in some easy ones to mess with them. "Booru wa eigo de nan desu ka?" "Uuuuhh... Oh! ...Booru. *eye roll*" (Booru = ball... which is pronounced "booru" with the accent... guess that joke might be lost in translation (*bah dumpPSSH* I'm on a roll!) One of the kids spoke really good english, so eventually, they all started asking me what sort of food I eat, and were shocked when I said I eat school lunch and a lot of bentos. They started giving me advice on places to go. Anyway, great time with one of the better classes. :D

Fast forward to today. Today, a whole bunch of the JETs were planning to go to Oita and hit the "water slides." Turns out the water slides were actually parts of a waterfall that has smoothed over the rocks (both from water, and thousands of brave, young people...). It's a major area attraction, and it's an annual event, so we packed up the cars and road tripped up the 2 hour drive (which really doesn't feel like 2 hours. A 2 hour drive to me is Omaha to Hastings on I-80. In contrast, every 2 hour drive I've been to in Japan ACTUALLY HAS TURNS AND THINGS TO SEE ALL ALONG THE WAY). After finally finding the place, we grabbed our stuff and walked up the short trail until the woods opened out into a massive swimming area of people screaming as they flew down the rock wall. (I'm overexaggerting... but not by much, dangit.) We stood on top of the steps waiting for the rest of our group and snapped a few photos of the place. There was kind of a lower pool and an upper pool, and a whole row of slippery rock that people kept launchign themselves down, screaming the entire way. In the upper pool, people were jumping off the cliff and sitting precariously on the edge leading down to the bottom. Seriously, the upper pool is incredibly deep (I never once touched bottom) and all that seperates it from the sliding part is a thin rock wall that people had to hoist themselves on to and wait their turn. I did everything. I jumped off the cliff, I climbed under the main waterfall and dove from that, I slide down the "hard course." ...You know what? Enough explaining, here's a picture.

Annnnd just to worry mom, here's another picture. (btw, click pics to enlarge (Edit: Ok, the enlarging bit is currently not working... so go here for the below pic: http://img123.imageshack.us/my.php?image=waterfallchartdb1.jpg)

I managed to escape all of that with only a sore elbow (which felt fine a minute later) and a tiny swollen spot on my knee which was magically healed by the mystical powers of the japanese onsen (Oooooooooo).

Part 2 of the JET outing was to hit up an Onsen on the way back from Oita. We stopped by this town that seemed to exist only for the purpose of onsens. Seriously, there were about 20 onsens, and no houses. We picked one and headed in. It was a natural onsen, meaning that it didn't have all the fancy gadgets the one in Ozu has. But instead of fancy gadgets, you get amazing views (No, not all the other naked dudes. :( ). It was up in the mountains in the middle of this dense forest away from the other 19 onsens.

The hot springs were built right next to a river flowing down from the mountain. You're supposed to first get in the hot spring and get acclimated to the hot water. Then, you walk down the stairway and jump into the river. At this point, you scream like a girl when you realize the river is freezing cold. Now, you do your best to climb out, keeping in mind that your muscles have siezed up and are violently spasming. When you finally make it out of the river, you scramble back up the rocks and dive head first back into the hot springs. Surprise, because your body has reacclimated to the cold water, so now the hot springs feel like they're boiling. You then shoot out of the scorching water like a rocket and fall down the rocks back into the river, again forgetting about your body acclimating to the water above. Lather, rinse, repeat. Or at least, I THINK that's how it's supposed to happen. That's what we all did, anyway.

Basically, the day was a blast. I hitched a ride home with some different people, (who have INCREDIBLE taste in music... Ben Folds, Simon and Garfunkle, The Last 5 Years... my dream mix, or something) stopped for some dinner at KFC, and now I sit here, in some weird zen-like trance (I start the "Ohms" in 5 minutes, for those who want to join internationally, for a truly transcendental experience... (not really)). Ok, not really, but it was an awesome day.

Tomorrow looks to be a much needed break. Hope it doesn't rain... because then I can't do my laundry. :(