Yasumi Verbage

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I left my USB camera-to-computer cable back in my apartment, so here are some words... (sorry! I'll get some photos up tomorrow).

As I mentioned, I took Obon yasumi (Obon vacation) for the last several days. Much of this time was spent guiltily exploring Murakami-shi (guilty because it is A) expensive and B) not the town where I'm working- I feel like I should keep a high profile in Arakawa for international relation's sake). I also went to a barbecue (Nihon-style), a matsuri, and an orientation. I'll write about them in reverse order:

The orientation was the prefectural meeting/shindig for all the new JETs in Niigata. It consisted of more meetings with more information about culture shock, teaching, and the general mechanics of the local bureaucracy. The culture shock information was nothing new, so I think I've pretty much got that information down pat. The teaching seminars were very helpful- lots of presented and written information about how to introduce oneself to the elementary students. I won't go into the bureaucratic machinations of JET and Japan, suffice to say that they are quite extensive. I may need to create a chart for my wall at some point in order to sort it all out.

Following the orientation was a shindig at a bar in Niigata-shi called "Shame" (??...couldn't tell you). It was a great chance to get to know other JETs in the area better and map out future plans- going to the Dark Knight and Ninja Camp (jah- ninja camp- more on this later), for instance. It also afforded an opportunity to sing songs in English at a local karaoke joint, and to awkwardly interact with some Niigata-shi residents:

They: Americajin desu ka?
Me: Hai! Coloradojin.
They: (looking somewhat impressed and somewhat perplexed) Aaaaaaah...Colorado!(?)
Me: Skiingu or suru...hikingu o suru...
They: (with actual comprehension) Aaaaaah! Colorado!
They: (日本語げらげらとべらべら)
Me: eh?
Me: (in English, after a pause) It's nice to meet you.
They: (in English...sort of) It's nice to meet you! (laughter)
-conversation abruptly ends-


Next: the Barbecue
Wada-sensei-another person in the board of education office- invited me to his house for some food and conversation the night after the orientation. I was introduced to several youngish people (young- but I was still the youngest one there, aside from two very young children). I ran the full range of familiar questions (Age? How long in Japan? Interests? Girlfriend? Why no girlfriend?), and ate about a 100kilo of delicious meat and garden vegetables. Mostly delicious- actually- the snails were decent tasting but sandy in texture- once extracted from their shells. My hosts did it easily with a toothpick- I found it nigh impossible even when using two metal skewers.
I also had to explain, to some extent, that I was not interested much in team sports (although it looks like I may need to pick up an interest here)- especially not in American football. In Japan a favorite sport and a hobby are ingrained identity features, more like parts of your name than activities. Hiking, for whatever reason, is considered an elderly people's activity, and skiing isn't really something I could do with the kids. People seem to perk up when I mention martial arts, so maybe Kendo or Judo is the way to go.


Finally- there's Murakami-shi
Murakami-shi is the municipality that Arakawa is now technically a part of, and it lies about 15 minutes north by train (for about U.S.$2.3 per ticket, not too bad). Murakami has all the things that you might expect from a smallish city- a decent array of good restaurants, some interesting local businesses (more on that in a moment), and a modest but well-stocked mall.
Saturday night was punctuated by incessant rain that was either pouring or drizzling depending upon when you looked outside. Murakami is an ancient city with a lot of old-style architecture and classic looking signs- the rain and the streetlights painted the city like something from the pallet of Curaado Mone or maybe Agaasuto Renwa. In the rain, some of the Murakami JETs and myself went to a kaiten sushi joint- a cheapish (at least in our case) sushi-ya wherein sushi slides by on a conveyor belt in front of bar-stool seating. You just snag what you want to eat, and you pay at the end by tallying up the number and color of empty plates in front of you. We sat in front of a particularly gregarious sushi chef, who gave us little vocab lessons throughout the meal and asked us about ourselves. Very cool.
Sunday night was a matsuri whose name escapes me. It is one of the larger festivals celebrated across Japan (not Obon), but for some reason or another Murakami-shi does this one earlier than everyone else. It celebrates something about a man and a woman who only meet once a year (from what I was able to glean), and also serves to drive away daemons (akuma!).
Prior to the festival, however, we decided to go explore the town a bit, and to go get some green tea ice cream. After taking a stroll through the park (very pretty, and very hot), and investigating the pond filled with XXL koi, we went to a local tea shop that doubles as an ice cream parlor.

This tea house is where our afternoon took a turn for the bizarre (and awesome): We were introduced to a man (whose name escapes me now) who is a professional tour guide for Murakami-shi. He showed us around the tea house, which also contained a traditional Japanese tea room and an etiquette school, and then declared that we should come with him to the liquor store that he also owned. Not having anything else planned (the festival wasn't for many hours yet), we piled into his van and took off. We stopped at one of his friend's candy shops first, learned some traditional greetings, and got to sample Japanese jelly candy. Then we went to the liquor store to sample (guesses anyone?). He makes his own sake (or more accurately, Nihonshu- sake is the generic term for alcohol here, whereas Nihonshu is what we Americajin call "sake:" rice- derived alcohol), which was superb. One bottle (the name escapes me) had a sort of musky, subtle rice wine in it, which was very tasty. Another of his home brews was called "samurai," one dash of which was sufficient to blast the imbiber's hair towards the back of the room.

Please bear in mind at this juncture- people in Japan can sometimes seem standoffish by Western standards. It is uncommon to talk at length to someone that you have just met randomly, and it is VERY uncommon to get into a car with them and go somewhere (unless you're at a pick-up bar or something- they do have those here). This guy has no association with the JET program or the school system- he is, in terms of relating to our existing support network, some dude. Given that set of circumstances, the odds of any of this happening are nil. But it did happen, and the story continues:

While we sat and talked and sampled, he made us beautiful souvenir items with his own calligraphy on them (he's quite skilled), and invited us to one of his concerts that he gives at the local onsen later in November (complete with Elvis-style hair). It came to light that he owned a banjo and a saxophone at his nearby country house, and that I played both instruments (to varying degrees), so as evening fell we drove out a couple kilometers to a spectacular traditionally furnished country house where we played and sang "you are my sunshine" on guitar and banjo, among other songs, until it was time to go back to the matsuri.
At the end of all this, my nerves were thoroughly overstimulated (and a little bit crossed- folk music in a Japanese villa is an unusual experience), but there was no stopping: it was matsuri time!
I will leave the matsuri details for a later post so that those of you who have waded this far can use the bathroom or go to bed or whatever. I promise I will reward your diligence with pictures in the next post or so!