The Gaijin Diaries: Reloaded: May 2014

“Are there schools in America?”

Yes, sweet child, yes there are. And I was once an elementary schooler just like you! *cue gasps and cries of shock throughout the room*

That was a slightly exaggerated version of an exchange that took place during lunchtime with a 1^st grade class the other day (May 13^th). The cuteness and silliness of it all was just too overwhelming…

Actually, I thought I’d take the chance to reply to several questions I get asked often by students (and sometimes peers/older people) here:

No, I don’t have a boyfriend/husband. This is by far the most common question!
I like everyone! You’re all great! (In response to “who do you like?”)
I am 22 years old.
I live alone. (My family is back in America, and I’m the oldest sibling.)
I don’t have any children—didn’t I say I was 22?? (No disrespect to those people who do have kids at 22, though, that’s just too early for me!)
I bring my own lunch because I’m a vegetarian (albeit a seafood-eating one), and the school lunch often has meat in it.
I’ve been studying Japanese since ninth grade, so over 8 ½ years now. Darn, guess I should be a lot better then!
Cats are my favorite animal, and I also like bunnies and dolphins (I would say beluga whales but I don’t think they’d understand…)
My favorite Japanese foods include unagi (eel), okonomiyaki (Hiroshima-style forever!), sushi, tempura, tamagoyaki, takoyaki, soba and udon.
Yes, in America there are a lot of shops, fun places to see, and tasty foods! *insert examples here*
I came to Japan because I love Japan and got interested in its culture from an early age through pop culture (anime/manga, music, etc.) Then my interest expanded.

Anyway, to continue from where I left off… I was in the Kansai region for a Galneryus concert in Osaka on Sunday April 20^th, and stayed in Kobe with my friend from study abroad who is now a JET—not an ALT, but helping coordinate the hordes of other JETs in Kobe. Apparently it’s the city with the most JETs, which I can definitely believe since the small foreigner bar where we went to see our mutual study abroad friend’s cover band was packed with them. I was a little bit jealous of the big community there, but there are 9 of us Interac folks in Miyoshi, so I can’t really complain. I even know a few people who are alone in their town!

Because I hadn’t gotten to do anything for Passover and it felt weird (my dad’s side is Jewish, so we always did Passover back home), I had contacted a tiny temple in the city…it seems like it’s one of only two places for Jews to gather here, the other being Tokyo, of course. It was a cozy place up near the northern side of town where the mountain slopes begin, with a room for worship and a room for dining. There weren’t many people—a couple of Americans, a couple of Orthodox guys who may have recently come from Israel, and a couple of families with small children. There was some prayer and reflection, and then a lunch of delicious Israeli/Jewish dishes, some with Japanese ingredients like daikon radish. Overall it was a pleasant time, if a bit awkward for a newcomer. That week, after getting back home, I did end up cooking a makeshift matzo ball soup, but with crushed Carr’s table water crackers instead of matzo meal…so yeah, that was my Passover.

I explored Kobe that day and the next morning with my friend, including the foreign import stores and Kobe’s small Chinatown, one of three in Japan (the others are in Yokohama and Nagasaki—now I’ve seen all three!). The next day we got a cool view of the city from high up in Kobe’s city hall…for free! Travelers, take note. We then went into Osaka for some frozen yogurt and some shopping at Forever 21 (both pretty rare in Japan). After that, I went off on my own to revisit Tsuruhashi a.k.a. Koreatown and sample all the kinds of kimchi ever made before heading over to see Galneryus at the “Big Cat” concert venue that was conveniently…in a shopping building? Anyway, I went in and had to pay for a drink ticket, and who do I see at the bar but the only other foreigner at the show (it seemed)? I introduced myself and got a concert buddy who spoke English and also was into this same random Japanese power metal band! They’re pretty successful but I really only know maybe three other people who like or have even heard of them.

Apparently Galneryus doesn’t have openers, and they do three to four encores…crazy. Yes, many things about them impressed me, but I guess the biggest thing was their endurance. I kept expecting the singer Sho to lose his voice from all the belting, but he didn’t even sound tired…Also, at the first encore, they all changed into matching purple tees of their own band. SO adorkable. Another thing: some people have this image of Japanese audiences as being quiet/polite/reserved … maybe at some shows, but after seeing this show, along with a couple of other concerts and part of a J-rock festival during study abroad, I can say that this is just a stereotype and Japanese audiences are more than willing to move around and throw their rock fists up. Aw yeah. \m/

So yeah, those guys ended up performing for almost three hours with only a few breaks in between…hats off to them! They gave such a good show that it made the super-long drive back home until nearly 3 A.M. worthwhile. This is a good sampling of their live performances (feel free to skip to 2:33 if you're short on time): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtNVuB_0Z6Q

The following weekend, I drove down to Hiroshima with an ALT friend (also working in Miyoshi) on Friday after work to meet some of the other Hiroshima ALTs and celebrate the end of training for a small group of new people in our branch (who are finally starting to teach this week, the 19^th) at an okonomiyaki restaurant. (What’s okonomiyaki? Check it, yo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki) After that, some of us split off to a gaijin bar nearby and then ever fewer of us went for a good ol’ round of karaoke. Somehow we even ended up singing “Poor Unfortunate Souls” in full Ursula mode…uhh, go us? The new trainees, incidentally, were mostly placed in a town just under an hour north from me and they’re a great, fun group, so I’ve already gotten to meet up with them again a couple times.

My friend and I stayed in a hostel and then walked along a lovely river to see the Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum the next day. Neither of us had been in several years, and the impact was still just as potent as when I had visited with a school group during my first time in Japan at age 15, the summer after tenth grade. The first part of the museum is hard enough, but the second part has the remains of personal belongings, grotesque photos of the aftermath, and personal stories, including the tale of Sadako and the thousand paper cranes, which I read about in third grade. You know that thing called “white guilt?” Well, that—or rather, American guilt—weighed me down like so many sandbags as I walked through the exhibits. I am most definitely a pacifist, and though I know there were some logical reasons for using the atom bomb, there were also many reasons not to…including the deaths of so many innocent people. I just hate when war destroys the lives of civilians…or really, lives in general.

At least it was a beautiful day outside, and the Peace Park truly was peaceful…

Next came the long sought-after Golden Week. Golden Week is not usually an actual week, it’s a series of holidays that are clumped together, and the length of the break varies year to year. This time we got a random Tuesday off (April 29^th) and a four-day weekend from Saturday to Tuesday…better than nothing! That Tuesday I had a bit of cabin fever, so I drove up to visit some fellow new teachers in Matsue. It’s the capital of Shimane Prefecture to our north, and is on the shore of Lake Shinji near the Sea of Japan. It takes over 1.5 hours even by car, but I didn’t mind… nothing else better to do, and I love exploring!

I told the other ALTs they were really lucky, because Matsue is in a beautiful location (awesome lake and mountain scenery, and not far from the beach), but is also pretty urban, at least by Miyoshi standards. They at least have a university and a castle—more than we can say! So we had lunch at a random tiny hole-in-the-wall we found called Green’s Baby, then explored the castle, its grounds, and a nearby shrine to Inari, the fox deity. We wrapped up with a stroll by the lake, and more karaoke (are you seeing a karaoke pattern yet? I may be addicted).

The Friday before Golden Week, many schools went on an ensoku (“long foot” a.k.a. field trip), and my school that day was no exception. We walked to the prefectural park, which took about 50 minutes. That wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t sunny and cloudless that day. We were out in the sun playing games and eating bentou and such for a really long time, and I didn’t notice a burn coming on until too late. Moral of the story: I’m a moron and didn’t expect sunburn time to come so soon. At least I had fun when the kids dragged me onto the fuwa-fuwa dohmu, or fluffy dome, a bizarre cross between a trampoline and a giant marshmallow… (???)

Most of my Golden Week adventures were on Sunday and Monday. Going anywhere that required a travel ticket was pretty much out of the question since people snap all that up way ahead of time or it gets really pricey. So I went with a driving trip, which I mostly did with another new ALT who lives near Okayama and Kurashiki, where I spent Sunday. Although we trained in Okayama, all our work was during prime tourist-y hours, so we didn’t get out much. This time my friend and I made up for that, as we went to Korakuen (one of Japan’s three most famous gardens—I’ve already been to Kenrokuen in Kanazawa, so two down, one to go!) and Okayama Castle. They’re very close, so you get a lovely view of the castle from the garden and vice versa. The pictures should speak for themselves. Outside the castle, there were also a bunch of fun workshops going on, and a super cool old man dressed like a samurai, who we of course posed for intense photos with.

After I introduced my friend to the glory of Japanese curry (CoCo Curry House, why are you not in my town?!), we hurried to meet my JET friend at Kurashiki, the city next door that my high school group had also visited seven years ago. It’s known for the Bikan Chiku, a.k.a. Canal District, and Ivy Square. The Canal District looks straight out of Memoirs of a Geisha, mainly that one town scene near the bridge…in fact, when I first went in high school, I was convinced that they filmed it there. There are beautiful stone paths and narrow bridges, weeping willows, a shallow canal, and old white storehouses that have been converted to shops or museums. There was some special event called Heartlands Kurashiki (odd since that sounds very American), so there were a few cool performances. We saw people dressed as oni (ogres) drumming on taiko as their tiny boat glided up and down the canal. Then after walking around the Ivy Square, whose buildings were actually blanketed in Ivy, we saw a jazz band perform there in the middle with a huge audience! Then off to the mall for—you guessed it—karaoke, with a side of kaiten-zushi a.k.a. conveyor belt sushi, which is wonderfully common here.

On the morrow (haha, that doesn’t sound pretentious at all!), we drove further east to Himeji, known for Himeji Castle, called the most lovely castle in Japan…which is sadly still undergoing restoration on the main keep that should finish around the end of our contracts next year in late March. Sigh. But first, we saw the only spot in town rated higher on Tripadvisor than the famed castle—Engyouji, a serene temple complex in the mountains. Now I need to re-watch The Last Samurai since they filmed some of it there. We took the cable car up and back because it was way up the mountain, and ain’t nobody got time for that. There was plenty of trekking around all the temple buildings, which were lovely—overall a great side trip for getting your Zen on.

It says a lot about Himeji Castle that it was still radiant despite the top of the main tower barely peeking out of the scaffolding. The whole complex is just as elegant as I remember from high school! (As the first castle I ever saw, it set the bar pretty high.) Plus we got to learn a lot about the history, including a special exhibition on this lord named Kuroda Kanbee, whom I’d never heard of in my life. You learn something new every day, I guess.

That was just about it for Golden Week. I learned that road trips can be pretty easy and great, and reaffirmed my belief that humans are a fickle species (I had about four people cancel during various parts of the trip). Life lessons, hooray!

This is getting absurdly long so I’ll catch you guys up in the next post. Even more fun stuff has happened since May 4^th a.k.a. Star Wars Day for the geeks out there. Tune in next time for sketchy guys at da klubz, racial profiling, and chorus and ballroom dancing with grandmas and grandpas!

Over and out.