Festivities

Now that I have finished bringing my house into somewhat livable fashion (I never really realized how much of a neat freak I am until I had to live all by myself), I can sit down and briefly (or perhaps not so) recount the last couple of days of my life. Last Friday morning, I decided that it would be a good idea to go play tennis with the Shio chugakko (junior high school) girls’ tennis team. It would give me a chance to get to know the students a little more, as well as the two coaches who also happen to be the two English teachers at the school, those with whom I will be working more often. Plus, it would be good exercise. So we went and played at the sports complex on a hill near my house. We played on clay courts and it was a peculiarly Japanese version of tennis, played with normal rackets but soft, as opposed to hard, rubber balls without any of the yellow felt on them. So they did not bounce very well, which meant that there was lots of running around. We did drills and such and some free practice; it was amazing how some of the girls were better than their instructors and myself. By the way, did I mention that Japan is stupendously hot at this time of the year… Yeah, people told me before hand to prepare for it, but, ladies, this is the most intense heat and humidity I have ever experienced. Its regularly above 30, with the hottest parts of the day tottering around the upper 30s (pardon the Celsius), with the humidity at an insane level. A five minute walk outside nets me a soaked t-shirt and probably a smell that a rhino would find unfriendly. So, after three hours of playing, I had become a bathroom sink. I consumed three bottles of Gatorade, purchased at a conveniently located vending machine by the courts. It was fun overall however. Interesting side note – the junior high consists of three grades (1st, 2nd, and 3rd, which are the equivalents of 7th, 8th, and 9th grades in the US) and the first grade always gets picked on to do chores. Actually, all students have to do chores (i.e. the school has no janitorial staff; the students clean it twice or three times a week) but the first graders get the worse of it. So after those three hours of tennis, the teachers, 2nd and 3rd graders and myself sat around, relaxing, while the poor first graders had to go and rake the clay, roll up the nets, and generally get the court into playable condition again. I felt pretty bad for them as I watched in between huge gasps for air (remember, I, I, I, had been playing for three hours). That’s just the way it is; next year, the new first graders will have to do it, and so it goes…Judge for yourself. When we got back to the school, I was dying for a shower and asked the teachers where it was. As I was to find out later, the teachers don’t really shower after strenuous sports activities, but rather just change. So they had to take the big American over to the only shower, which happened to be right by the outdoor swimming pool. So, I’ll skip over the details of a big dorky white guy, showering naked outside, right next to the Jr. High swimming pool of a school in the middle of nowhere, Japan.

That night, I took the train down to Kanazawa, the nearest “big” city, with a population of 450,000. I bicycled down to the train station and left my bike there (out of the fifty or so bikes that were at the train station, maybe four or five of them were locked up, the rest were just standing there….), planning on catching the last train out of Kanazawa at 11:00 PM that night. It was a fifty-minute ride or so, and when I arrived, I met up with a group of other JETS, both new and old, and we hiked down the main street of Kanazawa to the group meeting point at a restaurant. The city was fairly nice – not as anonymous as Tokyo, but still with a big city feel. (We passed all three Starbucks in the city on our half hour walk to the restaurant). The cuisine that night was a new one for me, called okunomiyake. The basic idea is a bunch of ingredients are stirred together and made into this omelet like thing. It difficult to explain, but imagine an omelet where the eggs are not the main ingredients, but rather the cementing agents, and there’s all kinds of other stuff in it. It was quite good, and we actually got to make it ourselves (the tables had hot plates in the middle of them). I sat with the drinking group and we got all-you-can drink (nomihoudai) for one hour, so it was this all out marathon (probably like seven or eight rounds over all). So, slightly intoxicated, we ate our food, and “got to know each other,” in the pc way, smazo. Many of the people I hung out that night, while cool to hang out with, were not necessarily people I would want to know further or become good friends with. Some were simply outright loud, obnoxious, “typical” Americans, we all know the type. But for an evening, it was alright. After, we went to a rooftop bar that caters to foreigners and hung out there for a bit. It is very interesting how the foreigner culture works and interpenetrates with the Japanese culture. Naturally enough, the foreigners feel a bond in this place, and as we walked among the crowds of Japanese, I thought about this a bit, and it should be interesting to see how it develops further. After the bar, we stocked up on some “biiru” in a “konbini” and went to the riverfront and just hung out there for a while. Some guy, Pete from Australia, had some kerosene and fire sticks, so he was breathing fire for a bit (nothing like drinking, and then putting kerosene in your mouth and blowing huge flames). Naturally enough I had long ago missed my train back, so I had to hang out until the morning. At around 4:30, I began a leisurely and highly reflective stroll back to the station. As the morning dawned around me, it gradually hit me that I would be here a long time, and that I would have to make the best of it… Someone once said that life is what you make of it, that you can either make the most or the least of ANY situation. Over here, that expression has an especially true ring to it. I caught the 5:24 train back and rode my bike back in a daze to the early morning traffic.

After like a three hour nap, I had to meet some Japanese fellows and we went to see the Houdatsushimizu basketball team play against another local team. That was fun, to watch some ball. They’re already gearing up to have me join this team, as I had at least three or four inches on the tallest player. What they don’t know, of course, is I wouldn’t last five minutes running up and down the court. (Something else I’d like to work on). Afterwards, they took me out to lunch. By the way, I was with four guys, and none of them, repeat none of them, spoke any English. So it was interesting and I could truly play the role of the strong silent type. Anyway, after the dropped me off, I caught up on some sleep before the big night outing.

In the evening, I drove with Ryo (a Japanese guy from the BOE, who speaks English) up to Wakura, a little town about one hour’s ride north of me. It was their annual Issaki Hoto Matsuriya festival. Apparently, this town used to be a huge fishing village (it still is to some degree, but not the same as like one hundred years ago) and this festival is a celebration of the fishing season. It was quite a new, unique, and barely describable experience. Basically, the festival centered around six huge floats. Each float had a different team associated with it, and each team had about 60 or so members. These floats were huge. About 80 feet in length and at least as high. On them were some kids, six flute players, and a guy playing taiko drums. In the center of each was a huge drawing of some sort (each different, some sumo wrestlers, some samurai, some just old Chinese writing). Again, hard to describe (I will post pictures soon, but they’re fuzzy as it was dark and hard to get a good one). So, here’s the fun part of that festival. The big idea was to have like 65 guys carry this gigantic thing on their shoulders (it must have weighed a good ton, if not more). They were set up in rows underneath, heaving, carrying, and chanting. Mind you, they carried them through highly narrow streets filled with people who cheering along. It was insanely hot, no space, the float leaning this way and that, the whole thing strangely reminiscent of the running of the bulls. They must have carried those things around for a good four or five hours. Meanwhile, we the bystanders, stood around, drinking, eating some highly interesting festival food. (While getting this food, I had the pleasure of witnessing a bunch of yakuza escorting a boss’ family, and a caravan of six or seven expensive German vehicles speeding away). Again, the whole festival idea is difficult to describe, but its quite unlike anything that I have ever seen. Even stranger was what we did next. Apparently, the people who live in this town open up their doors to strangers on this night and invite them in to eat and drink in their homes. So, we went in to a bunch of people’s houses, sat and drank and ate with them. It was quite a good time. One guy in particular (a trainer of sumo wrestlers) had a bunch of people over, and invited us inside. We sat around, drinking JW Blue Label, eating some fine sushi and tempura, and chatting away. Well naturally, I wasn’t chatting, mostly eating and drinking, being amazed at the hospitality. Again, never before had I experienced stuff like that. At like two in the morning, we took cabs back to someone’s (a Jet’s) house to crash for the night. He lives in an old supermarket, which was remade into living quarters – quite huge ones at that. So I slept there and got a ride back in the morning. That day, I had makudonarudo for lunch, just to try it out in Japan. It remarkably similar. The rest of the day, literally, was spent ironing. Jesus, go ahead and try ironing for six hours straight, it’ll make your head go funny.

And so another week begins. Monday, I was putzing around all day, opening a bank account, trying to buy a cell phone (I didn’t yet, will wait until the latest model comes out on the 19th) and finally finished tidying up the house, which is about where I came in. For the rest of this week, I have a three day orientation in Kanazawa, so I won’t have online access. But I’ll definitely write about it later. For now, all please take care.

Peter Jennings, R.I.P.

V=Peace

Just a quick note about photography, Japan, and the peace sign. Apparently its on many people's minds as to why this happens in pictures of Japanese people. I have actually asked some of my Japanese co-workers and none of them seem to really know because its been something they have taken for granted for some time. I asked and looked around more, and there are several cogent theories floating around, although no one really knows for sure. It is definitely a peace sign, although sometimes Japanese people, instead of saying "say cheese" when taking pictures ask "what's 1 + 1?" and the reason there for the two is obvious. Another possibility - dentistry in Japan is atrociously and people's teeth are in al sorts of bad condition, and I think its something that many feel self-conscious about, and so, in many cases, the peace sign is placed somewhere in the vicinity of the mouth, so as to cover up the teeth in the picture... Anyway, no one really knows, but here's a funny website about, just in case you want to know more...http://www.maninjapan.co.uk/index.php?p=99...over and out...

Nomunication

The Japanese verb for to drink is nomu, so from that the meaning of the above title should be fairly evident. For better or for worse, this is definitely a drinking culture. Every day I have been in Japan, I have had at least a drink and on some days, quite a bit more than one. I would not go as far as to call it an alcoholic culture, but rather one in which alcohol provides the much needed bridge between the world of officialdom, of work, of routine and formality, and that of relaxation, of simply hanging back, kicking off the slippers, and slowly allowing your body to spread out on the tatami (mats in watsushi, traditional Japanese rooms). In my personal case, alcohol has also helped with the language barrier a little bit because it gets broken down. I guess alcohol plays a similar role anywhere it is consumed, but its much more ritualized here, as many other things are....Ok, enough of a cultural note, let me say a few things about the last couple of days...
On Monday, there was an event on the beach sponsored by an organization known as Japan Tent, which brings international university students who are studying in Japan to stay with families across the country for a little while. I went to eat, and it turned out to be a good opportunity to eat and drink a lot of good food and spirits in the middle of the day, and then hang out at the beach for like three hours. (Work is difficult, n'est-ce pas?)
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights I spent at the family home of the kocho-sensei (the principal of the school). His family was quite nice, although they did not know any English whatsoever. As is customary for many families in Japan (as it also was in Russia and in some Russian families in America, including my own), he lives with his wife, his mother, and his grandmother (yeah, pretty amazing, he is 57; his grandmother turns 100 on August 23rd; I have never met anyone who is that healthy and that old...). Monday night, there was a big dinner. (Have I mentioned the fact that the Japanese love to eat small portions of a million different servings). We must have polished off like 5 or 6 large cans of beer and got stuffed. The next day, he had to stay at school late, so I just went home by myself and was fed. That night, I finally got some alone time (after like 10 days incountry) so I got out the Murakami and began the Chronicle for the second time (what an amazing book...) Oh, I forgot, on Tuesday, there was also an all-school assembly for a variety of things. First, the volleyball team (did I mention that every kid is involved in some sort of club or sport and even though it is summer vacation, all teachers and students still come to school everyday - for practice and whatnot. The teachers are all meant to be busy, or at least pretend to be, and its fun to watch them shoot the shit while pretending like they're actually doing work) anyway, the volleyball team accomplished some sort of acclaim and were going to the national tournament, so the students had to give them props. They ran in to a drum roll (I cannot imagine an assembly in the US with a huge taiko drum roll), and the students saluted them. Then there were various speeches, all very formal, etc., until finally it was our turn (Ryan, the person leaving, and Roman, the person coming) to give short talks. There was a formal procession in front of the students, and then he got up on stage and talked for a little while. Then I get up there, and like 200+ people are staring at me, and I had to say a few things about myself in Japanese. I was not nervous at all (as I did not really know what I was saying - I had some help in translation) but the experience was tremendous nonetheless. After the customary applause, we walked off the stage and the kids proceeded to watch a video about a very important topic here in Japan, Peace Memorial Day (as some of you history folks might know, exactly 60 years ago, on August 6th, 1945 a horrific event occurred here in Japan, followed by another three days later. Ever since then, the anniversary has been celebrated as a day of peace and rememberance, and this year especially, it will be very somber...) Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand. On Wednesday, the Board of Education for which I work held a welcome party for me and a farewell party for Ryan. It was quite an experience... it started around 6:30, when the head of the BOE gave a short toast, and we kanpai'd (kanpai=cheers). There were like thirty people in this tatami room, all sitting on little pillows on the floor (oh, another thing, my legs have recently been killing me, as I have little experience sitting down Japanese style). And so the beers were opened and started flowing. In Japan, custom dictates that at official gatherings of this type, you are not allowed to pour your own drink and that someone else has to do it for you. Also, the glass in not allowed to become empty and the only way you can indicate that you are done drinking is to not touch your refilled glass (a lot of liquor is wasted this way). At any rate, they also served a bunch of food and a little later, brought out some locally brewed sake. Let me just say that by 7:30, I was sufficiently warmed up to be rolling around on the tatami. The Japanese sure know how to relax. At this point, I had to give a brief speech, which was a lot of fun. Then, a bunch of folks (I am really bad with names over here...) came by and kept pouring and pouring and pouring (copy/paste that about a hundred times). When the shebang ended only around 10:00, I was, in no glamorous words, wasted, as were some of my co-workers at the BOE, whom I do not know very well, because I spend my time in the junior high school, mostly. (That welcome party is coming soon). After all that, I was driven back to the principal's house and he had to deal with my drunken self...
The next morning, at 8:15 PM, everybody from the town hall gathered in the gymnasium, lined up in rows, for an official assembly of some sort. First, the mayor of this little town (which has a population of 15,000) said a few words to the crowd, then some people who are new introduced themselves, and then my hungover self had to introduce myself (I could see the panic on my superviser's face as I trodded through the all newly familiar routine of saying that I am Roman Marchenko, from Chicago, IL, and that I don't speak much Japanese, and that I like basketball, and all that...) After that little ceremony, I came back to my desk at the school, which has become my sanctuary, where I can spend my time however I like. (I do not have official duties for about another month, which gives me plenty of time to learn the language and write obnoxiously long blogs, but at the same time, its awful hard to fill sometimes...) At any rate, I am excited, because tonight is the first night I get to spend at "home," so I can finally unpack, and start to really settle in, and truly figure out what I need to do. It will be interesting to actually cook something by myself, after 10 days of stupendously good food...

Ok, sorry for the atrocious length, but I had some things to get off my chest...I'm trying to gear up for a post that's more substantive rather than merely informative like this one had been. But in any case, take care....all are missed....gambatte kudasai...

A New Week Begins....

I think I have officially tried every single type of Japanese food there is. I have stayed with two different families already, and tonight, I will be staying with a third one (the principal`s). Boy, have they treated me well... Actually, I do not think I have received this kind of hospitality ever in my life...as they say, the Japanese are very eager to please. The first family (Kamatani`s - the English teacher) had three children, Tomoki (9), Mayuko (6), and Takuma (4), and they were all very, very cute and kept speaking to me in Japanese, and I would just stand there like the ogre that I am and smile. (I have really learned to smile a lot recently). So, I played with the kids, ate a bunch (the Japanese love to eat - breakfast, snack, lunch, tea time, dinner, every frigging day, at set times), discussed Koizumi with Takeshi (the father), and mostly just enjoyed my time. Over the weekend, I stayed with Nozaki-sensei, the Japanese teacher and his family (kids - Tatsumi (12) and Miho (14). We actually drove up to Nanao City, which is a sister city to Monterey California, for the Monterey Jazz Festival, which was like 8 hours of jazz, non-stop, on the sea shore. It was quite nice. There was a group that performed Girl from Ipanema, in Japanese, very nice. The main band was the band of Sadao Watanabe, who is this 72 year old saxophone player, and he was pretty amazing. (I am wondering if he was mentioned in Murakami novels, I think he may have been).

Frustrations thus far - primarily with the language; I cannot put two and two together. I know a bunch of vocab, but in terms of grammar, I can manage something like Its a question of learning, studying, and trying to use whenever I can. The problem is, the Japanese do not expect any Japanese language to come out of my mouth, so whenever I try to speak in my broke ass Japanese, they simply think its an English word they do not know... It makes for quite amusing but also frustrating situations... Anyhoots..

Quick comment. I have not yet moved in to my house, and my online access is quite erratic, so I apologize for the infrequent updates and the inability to write emails back to you guys. I am checking whenever I can and am trying to utilize my time well. Hopefully, within a week or so I will be able to have more regular access and everything...

Ok, everyone take care....more substantiation coming soon...

Quickie

I have arrived in the place where I will be spending quite a while. After three nights in Tokyo, where we did much drinking and sight seeing (if anyone can find a kitten sushi place in Chicago, go check it out - its the one with the conveyor belt) and were dipped in this pool of luxury, I arrived in Houdatsushimizu Town. I am very lucky because I was met by my predescesor, who is here another week, and by another third year JET who lives in the same town. They have shown me around and of course, it all still has not settled in yet. I do not have much time right now to write extensively. But I will say that I am being shuffled around quite a bit right now because my house will not be ready for another week or so, but at least I am getting a chance to meet some of the people I will be working with. (Damn, there is so much to say) Like last night, I went out with the vice-principal of my school. He drove me around the town (its main natural attractions are the highest mountain in the prefecture (only about 800 meters) and a long road on the beach (literally on the sand on the beach on the Sea of Japan). I thought we would staying with his family, but we went to a hotel instead. (Separate rooms, you sick people). He took me out to an izikaya, a small Japanese family restaurant and had me try all kinds of Japanese food and even showed me how to use chopsticks, because obviously I do not know how. We also drank a bit of sake and lots of beer. Meanwhile, the man speaks like two words of English and I apparently do not know any Japanese (so all that studying at home is a big mystery to me). In any case, it was a pretty good time, and I certainly understand why the Japanese drink so much. Today, I met some more of the teachers and even some of the students...for them, its summer vacation, but they are still at school, doing their club activities and what not) Next week, there will be an all-school assembly, where I have to give a speech to the whole frigging school. Also, it will be a farewell assembly for my predescesor, so I think that it will be somewhat unfair (in two years, he has learned to speak Japanese quite well.) Anyhoot, like I said, there is a lot more I would like to post, but do not have the time. Tonight, I am staying with another teacher, but she is a teacher of English, so hopefully that means something. Anyway, when I get settled in and have a little more time, I will write a better post. I will also get a phone and stuff and we can talk. I miss everyone. Take care.

Inexperience

I am sitting in cubicle number 116. There is a computer here, a TV, a food service, free beverages, smoking, and a slew of words that I do not understant. It is an internet cafe, but unlike any I have ever seen. It is located in the heart of Shinjuku, which in itself is one of the most thriving neighborhoods of Tokyo, one that you have likely seen in pictures of the city (think ubiqituous neon lights). Thus far, there are few words to describe what I have gone through. After a torturous 13 hour flight, and then a two hour bus ride to the center of the city (during which I got to see the vast expanse that is Tokyo and to understand exactly how they manage to fit 100,000 people into a single city block) I checked into the hotel, and along with a slew of other wide-eyed Jets from all over the world descended on the heart of this city. Literally, it is a feeling of awe, of a pure and perhaps even infantile awe. Surrounded by people whom I cannot yet understand, neither literally nor culturally, I walk and I gawk and I take pictures of the vending machines and get stares from onlookers who cannot for the life of them figure out why I am doing what I am doing. Mind you, after close to 30 hours without any sleep, I have not lost the capacity to marvel. Simply walking down a street that is littered with all sorts of shops, signs, etc., I feel like I have stepped out into the world for the first time. I have been told that this experience is quite often and hits most people upon their first exposure to all of this. I have been told to prepare myself for the true shock that comes after the marvel. But that has not yet arrived. I really do need to learn the language and to try to fit into the life more. But again, that is in the future. For now, let me just say that, vse eto snogshebatelnoe. (The damn mirror in the bathroom has a special section that does not fog up, right around where your face would be if you were looking into it after your shower...)

Ok. That is all for now. On my way to get some food, again for the first time. End thought is a brief encounter that took place at the airport. We were standing outside, waiting to ship our luggage on to our hometowns, when a a white guy with a Japanese daughter in his arms was walking by. He asked us where we from and we told him we were on the Jet program. His response - I did the Jet program fifteen years ago and this is what happens because of it, pointing at the child in his arms. I wanted to share that, and of course it is bound to get all sorts of negative responses and predictions, but lets not do any of that now. That is simply what happened. Ok, take care everyone, let us keep in touch...

Basic Principles

At the risk of sounding like an apologist, I feel like this is an appropriate place to display my thoughts on the reasons behind this trip that I am taking. I am not sure that I have told people about them in direct terms nor necessarily have I been asked about them, but I feel like its something I should do for at least my own piece of mind. Primarily and most bluntly, it is about the elimination of old habits, based on the hope that either habits in general will become less dominant or, at the very least, new, healthier habits will be taken on. My life up to this point, and especially so for the last few years, has been dominated by certain things (and it is not necessary to mention them here) and some time ago, I came to the conclusion that that dominance could be affected significantly by a major shift in my life situation. A literal example would be a static system that requires a shock to get it back on the road of motion, of some sort of forward, progressive development. In large part, this has to do with an insurmountable inertia caused by an utterly paralyzing laziness. My ass is lazy, bar none. And I simply did not have the will or energy necessary to change that particular aspect of my life. And so, I decided to put myself in a situation where it was all sink or swim, where the kickstart would come or I would simply float to the bottom of a very uncomfortable shit bucket. I have some amount of faith that these new conditions will provide the proper impetus. Its not that I don't see myself as capable of overcoming it, rather its me relying too much on the comfort of my environment here to bring the effort into being. In addition to that general need, of course there is also a worldly impetus at play here. I have a substantially strong desire to learn all about a different culture and society, where interaction between people (which is, after all, a bed-rock of any society) is governed by a wholly different set of rules and regulations. To submerge myself in it would not only lead me to question and re-evaluate my own assumptions about the subject, but also provide this whole new model with which to compare (something that is a rarity in life). Furthermore, I am going to do something that carries a lot of weight within my outlook anyways, and that is teaching. To inspire and influence a future generation, in my eyes, is trully a way of impacting the environment around us, and here I am given this opportunity to do so on the other side of the world. Its a great one. Writing about this stuff now makes me realize that I can keep going with the list for quite some time, but there's no real need for it now, because the main points have been made. Let me end on just this last one. Starting with my primitive interest in Buddhism in high school, continuing through my formal education in college, and in combination with an absolutely amazing Japanese author, I have become convinced that in the East lie answers to many great questions that we Westerners have either answered through science (or some branch thereof, such as philosophy) or simply left as unanswerable (except maybe by science a few years down the road). I believe I have an opportunity here to seek out those answers, or at least be in closer proximity to them. Ok. There it was. My excuse.

To all those close and dear to me, please take care of yourselves. I will surely miss you. Thank you for everything. And I hope that our friendships could only grow and mature with this test of time, simply time. My greatest love and admiration. Poma.

Justify

I'm not exactly sure how these things work, nor have I been an active participant in the blogger hysteria that has swept the world wide web in the past few years, but I thought this would be a convenient way for me to communicate and interact with you guys (by guys, I mean my friends and acquaintances) and to create a forum where our ideas and experiences could be shared. I've always been somewhat ambivalent about things like this - on the one hand is the introverted me, who likes to keep a nice wall between myself and the outside world, and on the other is the me who sucks up attention like no other (even more so than Ellen). So, bear with me and lets try to make this work. Of course, for all I know, this could simply turn into an online diary for myself with all of about one reader...

Anyway, lets see how it goes. There will be a farewell posting soon...