The Orange Tree Did What?

I was studying this last week in Japanese class. It was scary. But, when you break it down, give me a few hints and a push or two, I can still only understand about a third of it. I still take that as a victory.  

Where Am I Again?

It sounds crazy. Insane. Stupid. And maybe a little wrong. But I keep forgetting I'm in Japan.

The first few weeks, it feels like Japan is rammed down your throat; the food, the people, the language, the buildings, the shops, everything! But after a while you become too close to see the wood for tree. To close to really appreciate the adventure; to close to see the the effort it took to get here, my life in England and the sheer randomness of Japan. Don't get me wrong, I'm not crazy. If you asked me where I am, of course, I'm going to say “Japan, of course!” But I feel like sometimes I need a jolt to remind me, to remind me of the scale of my undertaking, to remind me I'm half way around the world in a country that is about as alien as an un-touched Brazilian tribe.

Last night I had such a jolt and it came from the most unexpected of things. My face! I was going up an escalator into a shop and the walls either side were covered in mirrors. I caught sight of my face in the mirror and it all came in like a rush. I'm so used to seeing Japanese faces, sometimes its surprising to see my white face, ginger beard and ruffled, blonde haired face. It's sad really, that I need to remind myself of this. I enjoy feeling culturally alien, in a different World. It makes me feel more a live. But although I'm lost in translation on a minute-by-minute basis, sometimes, it all seems so normal. The randomness is starting to seem normal!  

Mushiatsui

It just started to get hot, really hot. I thought I was doing so well. Everyone was saying “It's hot” and I was like “What? It's fine” and I kept telling myself, maybe I've just got used to the heat and what everyone was telling me about “Yeah, it's so hot in Japan in the summer. It gets so humid” was just over reacting. But it wasn't. I'm melting. And the worst part, summer has only just started. It's only going to get hotter.

As an English person, I'm not used to seeing that fiery ball in the sky (And from what I heard from friends back home, it hasn't been making any kind of an appearance yet). I feel like a vampire when I step into the direct sunlight. My skin seems to burn on contact and I fearful one day I might spontaneously combust, only leaving a pile of gaijin ashes. I feel like I must adapt to survive. Watch this space...  

Random English of the Month - Fudge

I wanted to start a random use of English section as I see humorous uses of mouth tongue so often, I'd like to share it with you all. This month it's 'Fudge', an interior design magazine with not relation to fudge or fudge making. Nice. I like to think someone with a good grasp of English and an even better sense of humour decided to name this magazine.

WTF IS THAT!?

I'm not inflicted with a fear of creepy crawlies, but it doesn't mean I like them either. The above photo doesn't really capture the scale, so let me explain, the body was about 9cm long and the anti were about 6cm on top of that. And while that may not sound much, think about if you were holding it your hand. Oh, and it flies too. 

Japan has insects on steroids, in size and in volume. The night buzzes with the sound of insects and winged beasts congregate around light sources in their hundreds. And let me leave you with this thought, the other day I saw what I thought was a sparrow flying around the house as I walked to my car, but it was flying kind of strange. It landed for a moment for me to capture its true identity; it was in fact the biggest moth I've ever seen. Good job I wasn't wearing a wooly jumper.

Some Home Truths

Presenting pictures photoshopped and hand selected from many might give the impression that the Japan I'm currently residing has a sleek aesthetic around every turn; and in some cases it is. However, I feel obligated to show you a little bit of the alternative vistas available around where I live. You see, for me, there are two things that spoil this land of visual milk and honey. Wires and rundown builds.

From what I understand, Japan doesn't bury it's electrical or telephone wire like we mostly do in the UK. It streams them from post to post, building to building and sometimes it looks like a vast network is running around even the smallest of villages. Ok, it does mean that they don't have to dig up the roads every time they need to amend or fix something and it probably has something to do with the unstable tectonic nature of the ground, but it does have a habit of spoil a lot of the photos I take. I love the view from my living-room but I just counted over 30 (I got bored counting) out my window alone.

The second point would be the state of disrepair of the architecture of Japan. Sure there are some amazing building, with gardens pruned to perfection, looking like a picture post-card, some of which are a stones throw from my door step. But for ever perfect building there is a rundown, shack of a structure, that looks like it would contravene about 20 British health and safety laws. I have a theory for this, although it is just a theory. You see houses in Japan loose value the older they are. It's like a car in that respect. As soon a you drive it out the forecourt it looses a chunk of its value, and the Japanese like it new. If your house is going to loose value, it doesn't make as much sense to maintain it as vigilantly as one might back home. Of course, if you live there, it does make sense to make a nice home, but if you had an old banger of a car, would you both trying to spruce it up with a new engine. Probably not. You would probably sell it for scrap or trade it in and invest in a newer model. And this is what I believe is happening with their homes. From what I understand, it wasn't too long ago (Relatively speaking) that Japan made more of an effort to conserve and protect its older areas of architectural interest and heritage. But even so, while our home back in London has a beautiful characteristic of an original brick fireplace, that kind of 'character' we all desire back in England, doesn't appeal to a larger percentage of the younger folk here. They seem to be fighting a loosing battle to keep it's heritage and when they do preserve it, it's always in danger of become what I refer to as 'Disneyfied' (A cheap plastic representation of the reality).

But beyond all that, I can't help seeing the beauty, even in the run-down shacks and seeing past the wires to the landscape behind. Maybe it is because I'm a foreigner and everything is still unique and exciting, be it a pristine temple or an old, dilapidated dwelling; but Japan is still, in a weird way, very beautiful to me.

Yonago Kendo Tournament

We drove up to Yonago in Tottori Prefecture to watch one of the teachers from my school fight Kendo. She is rated number three in all of Japan and also had the World number one on her side so it sounded like a must see event. It seemed quite a formal event as the crowd were so quiet. There are two really striking things. One is the masks, which are on their own somewhat intimidating, but it's more the screams they make. It's really like something for a horror movie. But it was entertaining to watch, especially as I knew who was fighting. My sensei also won all of her matches it good style.  

Officially the Rain Season

My Friday

I was sat at my desk preparing for the next lesson, when suddenly the other staff members began frantically running around and behaving in a rather alarming manner. They all ran out the staff room and our into the main part of the school. It was like some emergency was underway, but not being able to understand my Japanese colleagues I was somewhat in the dark. Being the helpful individual I am, I wanted to aid them in what ever was going on, so I investigated. I assumed it would be a fire or something and I might be required to pull children from the burning building in a heroic fashion. However, peering into the hallway I saw a policeman in fall flat jacket and helmet being led by another teacher. I spend a lot of my day confused, but this really threw me! At that point all the children began streaming out the building to an evacuation point. I managed to grab one of the teachers, but they're English wasn't so good. I ask what was happening and after a couple of attempts they were able to find an English word that fit; “Practice”. I asked what kind of practice? She said “Bad man! Bad man in building practice.” I wish people would tell me of these things before hand. Sometimes I feel like they are sat around thinking “So, what can we do today to really screw with the Gaijin's head? I know that's have a drill from a strange man being in the school, but not tell him.” Still, keeps me on my toes I guess.

I had my first lesson with the first years today too. They are soooo tiny and sooo cute. First years are about 6 or 7 year olds. I find smaller children are easier, you just do over the top actions and gestures and they think you're amazing. After the lesson I had lunch with them and managed to highly entertain them by going cross-eyed every time I sucked my milk with the straw. Once they had all finish I did a magic trick for them. I take a metal coin and bite off a part. As a finale, I then magically spit the top section back onto the coin. It's quite an impressive trick even for adults to see, but with children they just go ape! Here is a youtube link of David Blaine doing the same trick http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8Yhaz4xDRM. So I did the trick and they went a little too crazy. They kept asking for it again and again, with more kids joining each time until I was surrounded by a pint-sized mob, trying to get the coin and see how it was done. In the end I had to discreetly slide the coin in my back pocket and then pretended to put the whole coin in my mouth, gulped and showed them there was nothing in my hands or mouth. This created an even stronger reaction with a choral Japanese “ehhhhhh!?!?” and some very shocked faces. If only we were all so easy to please and entertain.

And that was my Friday.

湯の郷蛍祭 - Yunogo Firefly Festival

Last night we also managed to get to 湯の郷蛍祭, a Firefly Festival at nearby Yunogo. It was quite busy and lots of people and stalls. We weren't expecting to see so many fireflies so close to this bustling carnival, but as the twilight turned to darkness, the bushy river turned into a insect light show. In the photo, all the light green lights and lines in the centre of the bushes are the fireflies.  It was a little difficult to really capture the moment though.

LED Bugs and Big Drums

Shoo keeps still keeps surprising me. The other night, me and Maki went for a walk to see if there were any fireflies out yet and was pleasantly surprised to see some only minutes from my home. It's amazing how much light these little bugs can kick out and is comparable to a strong LED. While walking back home we heard some taiko drums in the distance. Curious, we decided to investigate. We found the 勝央金時太鼓 (Shoo Taiko-club) practising in local concert hall (Which is surprising big and grand for such a small town!) for an upcoming event. They kindly invited us in and treated us to an exclusive performance just of the two of us. It was nothing sort of awesome. You can easily get drawn into the beat and rhyme and there is something very captivating about the intensity of the drums. They also took the time to give us a crash-course in how to play the drums, which we thoroughly enjoyed and hopefully I can make time to continue and learn some more while I'm here.  

Shinkansen from Nagoya

Watch as the scenery flies by on one of the Worlds most fast trains. It feels like you're in a plane flying very, very low. The seats are big and luxurious and unfortunately a price to match!

The Power of Youth

I have two days a week at my elementary schools and take up 90% of my planning time and 90% of my energy for the week. Younger children seem to have this endless supply of energy. It's surprising how much noise such small children can make. Today I've had the loudest class of all so far and I have to shout even louder to control them and simply make my voice heard. Now my throat feels so sore it throbs, and is begging for a Halls Smoother. Last Tuesday I came hope and collapsed on the sofa for the length of the evening, unable to muster enough energy to do anything.

I make it sound like hell, but believe it or not, the elementary schools (ES) are the highlight of my week. I enjoy them and for every ounce of sweat I put in, I get bucket loads of enthusiasm back. Their tiny little smiles light up my day. Young children in Japan seem happy in Japan and behave like young children should, playing games and singing songs. They learn so easily, soaking up information and new words like walking, talking, sponges. I'm always impressed how quickly they pick up songs and with how much gusto they put into them. I actually get more English (And Japanese for that matter) from them than my Junior High Schools, who seem to think English isn't cool. It's a lot of work but how can you unhappy when you get to play with cute little Japanese children all day. Last Tuesday an 2^nd Year boy came bouncing up to me and presented me with the below origami goldfish and said “Present!” How sweet. It now has pride of place on my fridge to remind me why I do this on the tougher days.

棚田 - Terraced Rice Field

祖母ちゃん VS トラクター (Old lady VS Tractor)

Suponji Bobu Sukuea Pantsu

One for Jamie, you'll like this. It's a really short clip, but I enjoy just knowing that Sponge Bob is now in Japanese!