Swamp Song

Having been away for an exhausting four days, I returned home yesterday morning and got my first true taste of isolation. Last Wednesday, I left for Kanazawa for a three day orientation. It was useful for a variety of reasons, such as getting to know other new Jets from this Prefecture, getting practical information about living in these environs, and a myriad other orientation like things that usually accompany something like this. Naturally enough, whenever the human mind is bombarded with such an overload of information, its chances of retention are quite slim, and right now I feel like I remember 5% of everything that I learned, but I wrote a lot of crap down, so it may come in handy someday. In terms of what actually happened in Kanazawa, there wasn’t particularly much of interest. Wednesday night, the evening’s entertainment consisted of a pub quiz, with a pre-arranged konbini run that secured all of us that treasured beverage… After that, since the place we were staying had an 11:00 lockdown, we all piled into a tiny hotel room (read, like 25 or so people) and hung out, chatting, cavorting, some even going further (I, naturally enough, was not a part of this group). In the morning, it was quite difficult to wake up, but after a Japanese breakfast (yeah baby, rice, miso, salmon, tea, coffee, and unnameable vegetables) the day got off to a good start.

Two highlights of Thursday. The first, which anywhere else would be purely straightforward and uninteresting but in Japan was quite enjoyable, was getting a keitai (i.e. cell phone). Like eighteen of us gaijin (i.e. foreigner) piled into the Vodafone store and besieged the poor Japanese employees, who behind their smiles were absolutely terrified. Then it was picking (a rather large selection) and then the plans (which are vastly different from American plans – i.e. the whole 600 min/month, free nights and weekends is unheard of here; its more like 65 minutes a month but a crapload of text and email messages – its strange but people don’t really talk on the phone here but send constant emails). And then the signing up. We had to write our addresses in kanji, and of course no one really knew how, so the whole thing ended up taking like four hours, literally. But I do have a keitai now…it has a t.v., a radio, a 2.0 megapixel video and photo camera, a motion sensor (i.e. you play games on the phone such as golf by moving the actual phone to swing), and a bunch of other goodies I have yet to figure out…

Secondly, I got to hang out with Sergey, who is a pure bred Russian, from Irkutsk and speaks fluent Japanese. First we went to a ramen bar and had some amazing ramen with gyoza and edamame (and its not the stuff you pour hot water over either, it was good stuff). Then we went to Apre, this bar that specifically caters to foreigners (it was really interesting to walk into this place and completely forget you’re in Japan, except of course for the Japanese staff). They played really good music from like the late 90s. We met up with Katya there, another bona fide Russian, also from Irkutsk, studying at a university here. We spent some pleasant time together, and it was really good to practice my Russian… On the way home, we walked through the samurai district of Kanazawa, which is a few streets that, by ordinance, have not really changed for like one hundred years. It was awesome; felt like walking through 18th century Japan, with the old fashioned houses, cobblestone roads, etc. (Of course, my not-so-intelligent self forgot my camera and was not yet keen enough to use the one on my phone, so I don’t have pictures from the weekend, but I’m sure I’ll go back to this area). Overall, a good day.

On Friday, nothing much happened, except we finally had some training about our actual jobs, about what we’re actually supposed to do, how we’re supposed to teach English to a bunch of Japanese kids, many of whom have absolutely no interest in it. It got me quite excited about my job, about trying to teach a foreign language. At night, we went out to a kaiten sushi place (conveyor belt sushi) where, for like $25 I had some great sushi that would have cost an arm and a leg in the states. The next day was full of walking, so much walking that my legs were close to simply falling off. We went to Yamada Denki, a large electronics store, in part just to have a look and in part to make some purchases. It was absolutely insane, largely due to the loud, annoying theme song that kept playing over and over and over etc. again. Lots of cool stuff and gadgetry, but I wasn’t all that impressed at all, largely because a lot of it I couldn’t understand. I mean, I could get the general idea, but as to the differences between the 3,234 models of mp3 players, I wouldn’t know one slight bit. After we dropped by a sporting goods store, where I bought the largest pair of shorts in the place, and boy was it squishy… Oh yeah, for lunch, we were walking along kind of an industrial big street (so not a lot of places to eat) but we randomly found this one nice-looking restaurant. We walked in, lured by the potential promise of a meal for 980Y (about $9.80). We sat, were served tea, and opened the menus, only to find out that that was the lunch special from 12:00-2:00 on Saturday and the next thing on the menu cost like 2300Y, which wasn’t our idea of lunch. After some deliberation, we decided to leave (as Americans, Russians, and all are apt to do, but we weren’t sure how it was in Japan). On our way, however, the nice waitress stopped us and after awkwardly explaining our situation, she assured us that we could have the 980 price. Lo and behold, we had an amazing sampling of sashimi which in the states would have cost around $50 and included in it (it is unconfirmed however) something that highly resembled whale semen (not that I would know of course, but if I was asked to describe it, that is exactly what I would say). Great Lunch all in all.

That night was the JET welcome beach bash, on the beach in Uchinada, a small beach town just north of Kanazawa. There was a bar right on the beach, and hammocks, and food, and of course, the Sea of Japan, where the water was absolutely gorgeous (we’re in the midst of three week swimming season, before the armies of jellyfish come out). So there was much merriment and a great mix of people. (Jets, Novas (which is another company that hires foreigners to teach English, Brazilians (of whom there’s apparently very many in Japan), and of course Japanese). Biiru and sake flowing, punk rock bands on the stage, a half-pipe on the beach, and a continual barrage of fireworks (which are legal here and absolutely fascinating to the Japanese). We spent a good eight hours just partying, swimming relaxing, etc. and then a tiring walk to yet another futon to crash on. (The Jet community is great because people let others crash at their houses all the time, but I wouldn’t want that happening to me – which makes me lucky, because not many people would want to travel out to the boonies to see me)
The next half day was atrocious. I must have smelled like a really old egg that had been floating down sewage pipes for a few weeks before ending up at the slaughterhouse. When I got home, it was the best shower I’ve had in the remembarable past. Actually, on Sunday, was the first time I really got a taste of life in the inaka (i.e. countryside). I spent the whole day just organizing things, reading, relaxing, figuring stuff out, and not uttering a single word to anybody. It’s a state of mind that can either drive one absolutely mad or be conducive to a productive mental and physical activity. It’s too early to tell yet, but I will keep all posted. (I did get as far as Lt. Mamiya’s Long Story, Part I, for those in the know). Actually, this is a topic I will return to when I feel more capable of reflection than right now. Work took a lot out of me today (there was virtually in the office – it is Obon, the time of the year when the Japanese go home to their families and spend time together, paying homage to ancestors, etc.) So I had to find amusement for myself for a while. But the highlight of the day, bar none, was driving. Yes, on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car. It was a truly strange feeling. The difficult part is not so much keeping to the proper sides of the road as keeping straight in your lane. Unless I was paying careful attention to what I was doing, I would always have a tendency to continuously inch to the left (because while I am driving, I am used to being on the left side of the lane, and here you have to keep to the right, naturally). But I think I will get used to it quite quickly – and come to think of it, it was quite fun, making left turns as if they were right turns…

Anyway, I watched Day of the Jackal today and its time for bed, it being past twelve and all. Still don’t have internet at home, unfortunately, but it will hopefully soon come. (This is written in Word and then copied and pasted later). Ok, boys and girls, that’s all for now. Forgive the quotidian nature of the post, but that’s how life has been lately. What’s new with y’all? Out.