Kimonomono!

In Japanese, "mono" means "thing(s)". Hence the terrible joke that is this post's title.

Ohanami, oh my!

It's springtime in Japan, and that means cherry blossoms! Yesterday, I went to my very first ohanami, or cherry blossom viewing party. It's a tradition in Japan to go with your family, friends, and coworkers to a park and set up a picnic spot under cherry blossoms... it's very popular, so much so that our spot occasioned a stakeout from about 7am; the actual event was scheduled for noon. It's a sort of potluck-picnic; everyone brings a snack to share, plus alcohol, and you get drunk and chat to people and consume delicious things all afternoon.

Today is beautiful and sunny, with gorgeous warm weather; I took a bike ride to my grocery store, since my 105-yen Lawson's mysteriously closed last week. I discovered, much to my delight, that my river is lined with sakura on the block near my grocery store, so of course I took some pictures.

It snowed on Friday! It didn't stay on the ground for very long, but it was rather magical, I think.

Kyoto!

Okay, this is my first time trying this, so there's gonna be a ton of photos under the jump break for those of you who don't have Facebook :) Bear with me - this is why there were no posts earlier this week, because getting this thing ready took a bunch of time.

Delicious chocolate to fuel our adventure

I didn't seem to get around to posting yesterday, for whatever reason. My bad.

This weekend, I didn't do much of anything - on Sunday, Caitlin and I went to see a Noh + Kyogen performance, both examples of traditional Japanese theatre. It was certainly an impressive cultural experience, if a little less than exciting, and I admit to perhaps having fallen asleep a couple times during the Noh section. It seemed that this was less to do with the fact that I didn't understand anything and more about tradition - there were numerous older Japanese people around me indulging the very same pastime, so I didn't feel too bad about it.

The rest of the weekend, I mostly hung about my apartment, cleaning or going to do the groceries. I finally stopped by the temple in my neighbourhood, and it was lovely; peaceful in the autumn afternoon, and pretty much deserted. I'll have to go back there and spend more time; as it was, it was getting dark. I don't feel quite so refreshed as I usually do after the weekend, thus going back to work this morning is going to be more of a drag than normal, but eh, that's life!

Snoozin'

This is a sight I too often see on the way home. At about 9:15 at night, mind you, there are junior high-school students JUST coming back from school. That gym bag probably holds a ton of homework. Like, if kids have a day off, they'll go to a "cram school", which is like, extra school to stuff all the bits that you didn't pick up in class back into your head.

Kids go to cram school on holiday and on weekends. They have summer homework to do. They have extracurriculars on top of that. There are entrance exams for kindergartens nowadays, not just junior high and high schools. No wonder these kids are always snoozing on the subways! Although that's another marker of being in Japan - lone kids under the age of 13 on the subway. That's not a sight I saw much when I was in Toronto (grant you that was over a decade ago, so the times may have changed, but still)!

Culture day!

Or something. Today's a holiday at any rate, and it's an absolutely gorgeous day - sunny and blustery and cool. It feels like the middle of September here, not the beginning of November.

Fall colours around my place!

See full-size image here, because the silly thing won't click to enlarge for love or money.

It's perfect hiking weather, but alas I have no place to hike. Biking around my neighbourhood is pretty ace, though. People are playing baseball in the park and it's lovely. Today's one of those days where you feel wonderful about being alive. Of course, I've still got my Japanese homework to do, laundry to fold, the room to vacuum and my fall clothes to sort out from my summer clothes (not to mention trying to organize the mess that is my desk), but for now I think I'm just going to enjoy the afternoon.

べんきょうします！

Mmm, delicious knowledge...

Tonight is Wednesday night, and so, as is our custom, Miyaka and I retired to Denny's after work: we relaxed, we gossiped, we ate, and then she drilled me on irregular verb conjugation and expressions of time. It's a pretty fair deal, trading knowledge for food: I get hang-out time, a private lesson, and homework, all for picking up the tab at the end of the night. Since it's Denny's, that doesn't really ever amount to much, either. Japanese Denny's, by the way, is highly superior to its original incarnation: tonight's dinner was cooked rice smothered in melted cheese and mushroom sauce, garnished with some sort of herb, and served steaming hot. 食べました；おいしい買った!

Apologies for the random kanji, by the way, because my keyboard likes to sub them in and I don't feel like messing about with them just yet!

Osaka, oh my!

This weekend, I took an extra day off and, with my friend C, ventured into Osaka prefecture for the first time. We took the bullet train to Osaka city, which was amazing, because it hardly felt like the trip took any time at all, though it took an hour to get there. The scenery just raced by as C and I chatted, and I was just about to turn over and take a nap when we pulled into the Shin-Osaka station!

Sunday musings.

The recent news about the mosque and Islamic cultural centre being built two blocks down from Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan is, no doubt, old news to almost everyone. This past week, I had a chance to discuss it with some of my older students, who were torn on the issue. One student was quite firm in the belief that, since America has freedom of religion, the mosque should absolutely be allowed to be built. The other was not quite so sure - do they have to construct the mosque so close to Ground Zero? Had they even considered the feelings of the families of those who lost their relatives in the attacks? Of course Al-Qaeda and Islam are not equatable by a long shot but, my student pointed out, no matter how many times we say that, they still remain tied together in the minds of the people. Surely there must be another site, perhaps further away, where the centre and the mosque can be built.

Let me be clear: I myself think that the whole issue is ridiculous and of course they should be allowed to build the mosque wherever they please - the double-standard, Islamophobic reactions to the whole affair are staggering and extremely disappointing. However, my student brought up something that he thought was similar about Japan: the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo.

Bikes and banks

The season's starting to change. People say that summer here lasts well into October, and I believe it, but the dog days of it are, I believe, starting to finally fade out. I may be saying this prematurely, but I noticed earlier this week that I haven't heard the cicadas... at all. Finally, quiet. And tonight? I don't have my a/c on. That must be the first time since the beginning of June that I've come home and not had to turn on my a/c right away (I probably will once I go to bed just to clear out the air and put on the dehumidifier, but my point stands).

On Monday, I'm going to go and pay a ridiculous amount of money for a bike, but I'm tired of waiting for a windfall or deal to come along, and I have the money required; I'm just going to go and buy a bike at full price, damn the torpedoes. It's really going to be quite indispensable for getting around my neighbourhood, being able to maximize my time when doing groceries, and also for exploring. I've lived here three months and I'm still not really sure about anything outside of my immediate neighbourhood and walk to the subway station. I will of course need to register it, which will be a process and a half, but I'm confident I can make it through.

Speaking of which, this Thursday I spent a total of two hours at the bank, attempting to make an international transfer. I had anticipated that it would take a while, since I have no useful Japanese for banking situations and one cannot expect employees of a national bank in the busiest (most international) section of one of the biggest cities in the country to speak a singel word of English. I waited for ten minutes until it was my turn to go into the little international transfer booth, then waited another 20 minutes for my turn to come up in the queue: when the computer screen came up with the attendant on it, she made me go through all the procedures before awkwardly telling me that I should have filled out a form with my information on it to scan to her... and that was that. The television screen disappeared, and I was back in the queue: I waited another 50 minutes (filling out the paperwork, which had been on my right and that not a single person I had interacted with had bothered to show me was there or even important), repressing the mad urge to attempt to strangle the cartoony avatar of a nice office lady (asking me to wait in the most extremely polite of manners, of course) on the screen.

The actual transaction took all of ten minutes, after which I rushed to work. However, my slaving was not in vain, because the money I transferred actually did end up in my Canadian bank account. What with the yen being quite strong now, I'm quite happy with the results. I'm a little poorer on this end, but as soon as I figure out how, I'll be a little less in debt on the other. It's taken me the whole summer to get to this point, but I'm quite proud of myself. Here's hoping I can say the same in another three months.

On holiday!

This week following, I'll be on holiday! One whole week of futzing around doing nothing in particular - it will be wonderful. For the past two nights I've been out drinking; Saturday night was a party arranged by my manager and the staff of another school, so we all went out for yakitori* and nomi hodai**, and Sunday I was going to go out with a friend of mine, but plans changed and I ended up at the bar by myself... until I was invited over to a table of other gaijin, and I passed a nice three hours talking with our assorted bunch and having drinks bought for me. Not bad. Tonight I'm going out with some other teachers to a bar I've never been to; it should be a good time.

Other than that, my plans for this week include going fishing (with my coworker), going to the Nagoya Aquarium (with friends from church), and going camping and all-night Bon dancing (with pretty much everyone I know - it's dashed popular).

It's nice to be able to sleep in and not do a whole heck of a lot, I must say. Oh, and before I forget, I've decided to trash the whole imperative of saving money: it's just not working, and I think I'll be a lot happier if I'm not worrying the entire time. Sure, I'll send money home when I can, but it's not going to be such a big thing anymore for me: I can already feel myself breathing easier.

Speaking of which, it's been cloudy and slightly rainy for the past two days, and it's wonderful. The temperature is actually bearable, and last night I got a full eight hours of sleep for the first time in about ten weeks. Ahhh. I hope it keeps up!

*It's where you grill your own beef and then stick it into a lettuce leaf with kimchi and various other condiments and then eat your lettuce sandwich. Delicious!

**All-you-can-drink.

On consumerism

I've been in a pensive mood lately, so allow me to expand slightly on a theme I believe I touched on previously - that of the consumer society that exists around me. In Canada, capitalism is a fact of life, much like wind; we live and breathe it, and occasionally rail against it, and sometimes it smells awful and we hate it and a lot of the time it drives us absolutely crazy, but there's really no getting away from it. It is the same in Japan - magnified. The language barrier perhaps has something to do with it: instead of gently permeating my consciousness, the plethora bold kanji and brightly-coloured kana are a wall that my eyes come up against, and hard. However, from what I have seen, Japanese society is not satisfied with being comfortably capitalist: it is aggressively consumerist.

Sakkaa

Tonight was the Japan-Holland game for the FIFA World Cup, as well as the night that I and my coworkers went out to karaoke with each other and a bunch of students. We were originally going to go to Mexigan (a "Mexican" food place), but it was packed and not letting people in, due to soccer overload. So we chilled in a karaoke room and sang a lot of Japanese pop and classic rock songs. I tried pickled eggplant... it was slightly overwhelming.

International soccer ranks up there with national baseball in popularity with the Japanese. Our karaoke night ended at the same time as the soccer game, and thus we joined the throngs of people in blue jerseys out on the swampy streets after leaving the karaoke bar. Though Japan lost, most people were cheerful, and nobody was getting violent; a nice change from some fans of the European persuasion. Perhaps it's because Japan was ranked 31/32 when the FIFA games started, or perhaps it's just because Japanese people are of a more rational and courteous nature, I don't know, but it was rather nice.

Despite the lack of loudness and brutality, soccer in Japan still manages to bring people together. There was a man in a KNVB* shirt in front of me in the line for the subway**; he caught my eye and I queried a tentative "Hup Holland?" We ended up talking until he got off at his subway stop: his name's Kevin, he's a Dutch-Canadian expat from Vancouver, and he teaches English at a university in Nagoya. He had been in Japan for a year and a half - previous to the university job, he'd taught with a private language school for a while. His advice to me was to learn to leave Canada behind: his sister had come over to teach for 6 months and had never been able to do it, and so had gone back home.

I had been pondering just this morning the fact that I feel painfully uprooted; my own willing divorce from Canada has left a gap in my identity that I don't think can be traced to mere homesickness. Now that I've recognized this, I think I can start to deal with it: it's time for me not to attempt to put down roots, but to learn how to self-sustain, to be myself without national identity. I am not sure it's completely possible, but I can try, and I think it will make things here a lot easier.

A lot of soccer fans had the Japanese flag painted in a neat little square on their cheeks. I am told that generally one does not fly the Japanese flag unless one is a jingoist conservative, as too much patriotism is associated with the extremism that fuelled Japan in WW2, and is therefore taboo. Thus patriotism remains small; a flag on the cheek; a royal blue soccer jersey. One young guy had a flag on his cheek where, instead of the red dot of the rising sun, a heart was placed instead.



*Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond. Royal Dutch Football Association.
**They line up for the subway here; very efficient, saves time, is logical, and things progress smoothly. Sheesh, they should do that in Canada.

On communicating ideas

There is an election happening. I know this because almost every morning I am woken up around 8:30 am by blaring (albeit easy-listening) music and a calm and genki female voice giving me what I assume is information on someone's political campaign. I know that it has to do with the election because one such vehicle (yes, they are talking cars that drive around city neighbourhoods spewing information into the airwaves) was pointed out to me by my trainers during my first week here. Ambulances also talk. In addition to sirens, they say something to the effect of "Please get out of the way; this is an emergency" if they're navigating a street full of pedestrians.

Today is beautiful, despite the forecast of rain; it's only a touch humid, and though it's enough to make the mountains hazy and cloud-like, it's not noticeable in the air. Thusly, laundry was done this morning: I can't dry my clothes if it is either humid or rainy, and I have been assured that this summer will be a Venn diagram of both, and I'm not quite sure what I will do then. Most likely I'll end up hanging things in my shower.

I gave out my very first business card this afternoon, after my Japanese class. C (my regular Japanese-class buddy) wasn't there today, so I was paired with another student, named Sajid. Now, his Japanese is amazing; mine, not so much. And so when we were told to practice dialogues in pairs, I failed pretty spectacularly. Sajid, being the ridiculously nice guy that he is, tried to explain the grammar point to me - first in Japanese, which totally went over my head, and then in English, which was completely outside of his grasp. It came up that I'm an English teacher, and he began asking me questions about where I teach, who I teach, etc. After class, I gave him my business card and pointed to the website, so he could research it more. I kept trying to talk to him in French, and we both felt really silly and helpless by the end of it, I'm pretty sure. I find it so frustrating not to be able to communicate, especially since, in my previous language classes, I've always been one of the top students. This is a very humbling experience for me.

Missives from away

This week has been the longest week of my life so far. I'm sure next week will be even longer, but I knew that when I signed up, so I have no business whingeing about it now. I am to mask my inner emotions and be super genki on the outside, even if I'm stressed and really have no idea what the hell I'm doing on the inside.

I can't read anything. This is such a problem, you have no idea. I've identified the kanji for wheat, and I have written down the kanji for rye and barley, as well, but seriously it's like a treasure hunt every single time I try to read a label of something that might contain wheat. I think I accidentally ate something containing wheat today because my liver has been pinging me something fierce - just random little stabs of pain, saying "Hey, you're eating shit you can't digest!"

Frustrations aside, I've mostly settled into my apartment. My neighbourhood is super-beautiful, even if I do live in the boonies - ie, not in the centre of Nagoya. Whatever; I like it. There's old-style Japanese houses and gardens that smell lovely at night, and a stream and a jogging path. The dog who lives in the backyard across from my front door is adorable. I had a dream last night that I was hugging it - I have been having some very, very vivid dreams lately, the scariest of which was after my welcome party, at which I drank umesshu, or Japanese plum wine, and I blame it entirely.

Tomorrow is my second Japanese lesson. I feel kind of like I'm the dumb kid in the class, because I can't really string a sentence together with confidence, and I have to really think to understand what they're saying. Also there's a dude from the Philippines who is pretty much fluent (I have no idea why he's in the class) and who finds every little thing hilarious, and jokes around with the teacher, and not in a nice way, I think. He also dresses like your typical douchebag, so I think I was biased against him from the start.

I was unable to sign up for a bank account, due to the fact that I don't have my Alien Registration Card yet. This is balls, as I can't get a cellphone until I have a bank account, really. I think I'm going to try to open an account at the bank at Nagoya Station tomorrow, and see if I can cheat the system.

Three days and counting II: Electric Boogaloo

Technically I've only been in Japan for two days and a couple hours (give or take), but it is the third day officially since I landed on Nagoya International's tarmac and so I think it counts. In any case, I will probably be too tired by this evening to write the post up, so forget precision timing.

I've only been here for two full days and it already feels like it's been a week. Sunday, my friend C (who is teaching here in Nagoya as well) and their partner Saber (who is visiting from the United States) came and picked me up and took me all over Nagoya - I signed up for Japanese lessons at the International Centre, ate at a ticket restaurant (you choose your meal from a vending machine with pictures on; you pay it, it gives you a little slip, you give that to the cook, then voila: food in about 5-10 minutes, no Japanese necessary), saw Nagoya Castle, wandered the residential streets a bit, and a good time was had by all. Yesterday was the first day of training: long days of 10-7, but I'm not going to talk about it since this blog is about culture, not my teaching career.

The weather here has been quite nice. It was fiercely hot on Sunday, but it's been cooler for the rest, since it's been cloudy and slightly rainy. The air is not dry - it's not terribly humid, but it's enough that I really don't need hand lotion or anything, which is a change from this time of year in Guelph. I think this stay in Japan will be good for my skin, if nothing else ;)

Eating here has been an experience so far: I mostly buy my breakfast and snacks at the convenience stores, since they have very good tuna-filled onigiri, as well as fruit cups and what claims to be pudding, but I know better. It's more of a custard than anything else, made with eggs and milk; it's quite delicious. Things are not as sweet here (which bodes well for my sugar intake), and there are more savory and delicate flavours than anything else.

For other meals, I've tried the ticket-restaurant, and last night I went with three of my fellow trainees to a combined bar-restaurant (izakaya). The menu was entirely in Japanese, though the server spoke a bit of English, and it was hilarious trying to communicate what we wanted. In the end, we had edamame and some skewers with meat of questionable origin (the server was killing himself laughing while miming things like stomach, intestine, cheek, heart, liver, etc), but it tasted delicious. We were a pretty big hit there; everyone wanted to speak English to us, so we had a lot of shouted "HI"s, "EIGO"s (English person) and "WELCOME"s, and a lot of laughter.

This morning I attempted to buy an orange: the little old man who was vending tried to give me the entire basket, but after a lot of insistent "ichi!"s (one) and gesturing, I managed to come home with only one orange, and not nine. It was delicious. I should try to be more polite, however; I tend to forget my o-kudasai (please), or to tack on "gozaimasu" after arigato (which ups it from a casual "thanks" to "thank you very much"). I'm pretty excellent at saying "sumimasen" (excuse me), however. Here's hoping those lessons at the International Centre help with that!