Class at Shiga University

Thursday I had the first session of my Japanese Economy and Business class at Shiga University. I had been to Shiga U before for field trips and a festival, so I knew my way around the campus and cafeteria. I biked over early with a group of JCMU students to get lunch in the cafeteria, and I had an excellent squash curry. Eating lunch made us late for the class, so I’m going to have to work out something for eating lunch.

The class is about 15 JCMU and 15 Shiga U students. The room was small and hot, but Professor Maeda said we’ll be moved to a bigger room later. Professor Maeda has a master’s degree from Indian University and therefore speaks English well. Unfortunately, few of the Shiga U students seem to have a firm grasp of English. Since we work in groups to give presentations on newspaper articles, I can see the JCMU students doing a lot more work translating for the Shiga U students. Nevertheless, meeting the Japanese kids is a great experience. One of the group members, Shoko, lives at the JCMU and is taking English language classes. The other Japanese student is a kid from Kobe, who makes a 5 hour commute to Hikone. My JCMU partner is my friend Kevin, so that at least will work out fine.

A group of students from Waseda University in Tokyo came out on Tuesday and is staying in Hikone until Saturday. Last night a group of girls came by JCMU and hung out for a while. The program at Waseda is taught in English and all the Japanese students I’ve met are nearly fluent. We’re supposed to hang out with them more tonight, which should be fun. Also, the typhoon heading for Osaka is now going to Tokyo so there shouldn’t be any insane weather this weekend.

Adventures in Cooking

Tonight Kevin and I decided to eat the steak we bough from Iruha. Marie-Angela provided the recipe and when we seemed to vacillate in the face of cooking such a nice piece of meat she graciously seized the initiative and did the cooking. We fried the steak on a skillet before it went in what passes for an oven in my small kitchen. We put some pepper on the steak before cooking, and Marie-Angela put margarine on it in the oven. The steak exceeded out expectations. If the cut of meat cost less than $18 I would likely be making that every single night.

The Respect-for-the-Aged Long Weekend

On Friday after a grueling first exam the afternoons’ entertainment was provided by the front office staff. At one Fujii-san, the Shiga Prefecture bureaucrat in charge of the front office gave the student body the safety lecture. We are to maintain our “composure” if there is a fire and leave without causing a “commotion”. There are defibrillators in both the dormitory and the academic building, and Fujii-san instructed us that in the event of a person losing their “conscience” we were to defibrillate the person. Afterwards the municipal fire department visited the center with an earthquake simulation truck. We sat around a table and the truck vibrated up to the highest level earthquake the Japanese have experienced. Hikone is pretty safe as far as earthquakes are concerned, yet the locals take earthquake prevention seriously here. At three representatives of the American Consulate-General for Osaka-Kobe came by to offer us ballots and give a recruiting speech. Since I ought to have a ballot on the way from Lyon Township, I skipped most of the forms they brought. Friday night was relaxing; we hit Yabus’ bar and I nabbed a few Heartland beers before we took off at midnight to get some sleep before Kyoto.

Kyoto is still awesome; while not as big as Osaka or Tokyo, Kyoto is much more manageable. Nate and I guided twelve other students around Kyoto, which was a mistake. I took everyone to the Seibu Burger restaurant on the tenth floor of the Kyoto station. After two weeks in Japan that was a mighty good burger. Once everyone had made it through lunch we went through the station to get a good view of Kyoto, and the off to the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. I’ve decided that before I leave I need to see the Pavilion during a snowfall. The building is stunning in person; pictures do not capture just how neat the Golden Pavilion is.

By the time everyone was through the Golden Pavilion grounds the sun was starting to go down, so we made our way to the Teramachi shopping arcade. The bus ride was long since we had to go from the north-west corner of the city to the south-east, but I found another fencing store in Kyoto on the bus ride. At Gion the group slit up and I took my group to Sukiya, a donburi restaurant. Sukiya is basically a diner; there are only a few items on the menu but everything is tasty. After dinner the shopping arcades were closed but we walked around a bit and enjoyed a few beers on the banks of the Kamo River, listening to a jazz quartet that had setup nearby.

When I came out of the Lawson convenience store with a beer in hand I ran into a friend of Megan’s, an Australian named Jerame. Jerame lives in Hikone and teaches English for a private company. Jerame had a friend of his from the same company with him on Saturday, and both the guys really seem to hate Japan. I met a guy at Yabus’ like this as well. I’m really thrilled to be here, but I’m not contractually obligated to stay in Japan as these guys are. Still, I continue meeting foreigners who don’t really appreciate what being abroad really means. We’re definitely going to be seeing Jerame again, so I’m going to have to pick his brain about why he’s in Japan.

I’d like to say something interesting happened on Sunday and Monday, but I pretty much wasted time and did some work. Nothing remarkable happened. Everyone has formed cliques and after a few weeks I am not surprised. There are a lot more odd people at JCMU this semester than the last, and I’m disappointed. I cannot escape the feeling that the anime freaks bring down the Japanese image of Americans. The summer had a lot more interesting people, but at least the core of my clique is made up of some rather awesome people.

Sayonara

"What we have here is a failure to communicate."

Toyo-san and I enjoy a bottle of Heartland at Yab's Bar

Last night Kevin and I went over to Yab’s for an evening beer. Wednesday nights are slow at Yabs’; when we got in at 8 there was only one other patron. The Japanese slowly came in and Kevin convinced me to talk to one of the locals. Toyo-san ended up being very friendly, and with two dictionaries and nearly all the other bar patrons we were able to have a pretty decent conversation about the American music videos on the TV.

During the day we found an awesome family-owned liquor store in Hikone: Sazanami. The old man behind the counter offered us some Nihonshu brand sake to try. While he described it as gasoline the sake went down smoother than any liquor I’ve have recently. The nearly two liter bottle was a mere two thousand Yen, and Breanne bought one. Nathan and I stuck to beer. Sazanami has an extensive offering of European beers; mainly Belgian and German but a few British as well. I grabbed a few cans of Tokyo Black, a rich and smooth porter while Nathan is trying the Aooni India Pale Ale. We’ll see if that’s good.

"The Return of the Native"

Air guitar at 'All Days' karaoke parlour

I’ve been in Hikone now for a little over a week and it is great to be back. The city is the same and the familiarity has been a gat comfort. Several times I have encountered Japanese who came up to me to say it was good to see me, although they’ve all been shopkeepers. When I went back to Yab’s bar the waitress Minami had my usual bottle of Heartland beer opened for me as soon as I walked through the door.

The first few days in Hikone were a lot of fun. Along with my fellow returning students Nate and Katherine, I gave the new students tours of the best spots in Hikone. We’ve already been to a few restaurants I only tried briefly. I got a chance to take the group to CoCo Curry House for dinner, and then to karaoke.

Last Friday some high school students from Maibara, the city one train stop north of Hikone, came by the JCMU to speak English. The two girls in my group ended up knowing very little English, so I got a chance to practice my Japanese. The one girl kept lying to us, stating with a straight face that her father was a professional golfer and that her family owned four cars. The lying students’ friend was in complete hysterics over my skepticism. The other American student in our group was a first year, and had only studied Japanese for two days, and had no idea what was going on.

Yesterday another group of English language students came by, but this group was mainly college students and adults. I spent most of the time talking to a middle-aged housewife who was not confident speaking in English. I helped her translate the ice-breaker questionnaire and then we talked about sports; she plays golf and I explained fencing to her. The other housewife nearby kept told us we were very “attractive young people” and invited us all out to dinner sometime soon.

On Saturday we went for brunch at the coffee shop across the road. For a mere 950 yen I got one cup of coffee and two pancakes! Never again…

On the top floor of a local mall I found a museum to feudal Japanese horsemanship. Models of horses decked out in 16th and 17th century military armour decorate the room, and there is a fantastic view of the city from that floor. I got a chance to use my Japanese with the docent who attempted to explain Japanese riding to me with limited success, yet I think it was a rewarding experience.

Right now the biggest shock for me is that the students have already split up into cliques. Over the summer the cliques seemed larger and much more permeable, now there are distinct groups. I think this may be because there are a lot more otaku, the slang given to fanatics of Japanese anime and culture. I’ve not gotten into any arguments with these people yet, but they irk me. I feel like their complete adoption and emulation of the strangest fashion trends casts all foreign students in a poor light.

However, I’ve found a group of pretty interesting and adventurous students. I’m looking forward to exploring the local area more thoroughly. Starting next week I’m taking a class on the Japanese economy at the local Shiga University. I’ll be in the class with some local students who I’ve already met before, so getting better acquainted with them will be nice.

The Latest Pictures

The Daibutsu or Buddha Vairocana
The Sika Deer at Nara
Petting a friendly deer
Lauren, Will, myself and Jon at a local festival. Lauren paid good money for her yukata, I got the male version for $15. No one told us only foreigners wear yukata to the festivals here...
Horyu-Ji in Nara
Horyu-Ji in Nara
The group before the Horyu-Ji gates. I'm in the back under the guy with his arms spread.

A Saturday of Sightseeing

Last weekend most of the JCMU took a field trip to Nara to see two of the primary temples in the city. July seems to be the hottest month here, and we were fortunate to have an air conditioned coach. This was the second time I rode on a chartered coach here, and both times the coaches had chandelier like crystals from the ceiling along with mirrors. I was informed that the reason for the gaudy decorations is that sometimes the coaches are rented for drinking parties. The trip to Nara took a few hours, and I fell in and out of sleep. My friend Steve is adamant to take as many pictures as he could, and every so often I would wake up to him shouting in surprise at finding a particularly nice shot. The drive to Nara was the first time I saw vast Japanese forests. The hillsides were wild and covered in pines.

About halfway between Hikone and Nara our two JCMU coaches stopped at a highway rest station. I made my way into the huge bathroom facility to find only two western toilets. Many of the Japanese bathrooms have one western toilet and one traditional trough in the floor. Besides the oddity that causes the environmentally conscious bathroom planners neglect to install towel dispensers. I was lucky to find a useful air blower to dry my hands, but I have noticed that many Japanese carry handkerchiefs with them to use.

The first temple we stopped at was the Todai-Ji temple. The grounds surrounding the temple are home to sacred Sika deer. Hawkers sell special crackers to feed to the deer. This is a bad idea. I watched one of my classmates surrounded by hungry deer which actually hopped into the air to grab the crackers from her. Steve conned a deer into running in a circle after him to get a cracker, but his plan was foiled by another group of deer. Our student services coordinator had her itinerary eaten by one of the deer.

The Todai-Ji is a large complex of temples and monasteries. As we made our way to the Great Buddha Hall, the group came upon a sight rather out of place. A group of Mexican high school students was performing dances in traditional Mexican costumes before one of the closed gates to the Great Buddha Hall. The whole sight was rather surreal and truly out of place. The Great Buddha Hall is home to a colossal Buddha statue. Entering the temple, surrounded by the smell of incense, is an awe inspiring experience. The hall is dimly lit, and the smell of wood and incense permeates the whole building. After leaving the Todai-Ji we walked around the nearby streets, bought some curry for lunch and then headed out to the second temple on our trip.

The second and last temple we visited was the Horyu-Ji, also in Nara. The temple was commissioned by the legendary Prince Shotoku and one of the buildings in the complex is an air conditioned museum displaying artifacts over a thousand years old. The grounds are immaculate; while we were there an army of attendants were sweeping paths and tending to the grounds. The Horyu-Ji is a sprawling complex of buildings, and walking through them gives a taste of a much older architectural style.

Our coach left the heat of Nara and made an hour long trek into Kyoto. I got out at Kyoto station, and a few of our number made their way inside to travel to Osaka. A group of JCMU ladies jumped into two cabs and headed to the Gion district to see the apprentice geisha, the maiko, who walk around the streets wearing gorgeous kimonos. Jason, Nathan, Scott and I planned on going shopping in Terumachi. The director of the JCMU, Dr. Reagan, accompanied us to Kyoto and the five of us grabbed cheeseburgers on the eleventh floor of the Kyoto station before Dr. Reagan translated our directions to a cab driver and saw us off.

I visited Terumachi street covered arcade before, but with a different group of friends. Nathan was looking for a pair of shoes, and we went into some rather wild shops until he found a pair of blue and green Puma sneakers. The shops in Terumachi are a neat assortment, and I regret that I wasn’t able to make it into the English language bookstore on this particular trip. I’m halfway into a book I purchased on the last outing, a translation of a historical fiction written about samurai. “The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan” has proved to be a quick read. Terumachi Street was half closed when we arrived, so after moving through a few other arcades we made our way into Gion.

The four of us walked along ‘Third Avenue’, Sanjo, into Gion. The streets are packed with trendy Japanese bar hopping and listening to street performers. The musicians on the streets bring out amplifiers and blast pop music at small crowds of admirers in an attempt to land a recording contract. The Gion bars didn’t appeal to us that night, so we walked along the Kamo River, beers in hand. The sidewalk next to the Kamo is really a wide pedestrian boulevard packed with people at night. We sat down on the banks to drink and chat. A Korean businessman who knew English talked to Jason for a while. A group of performers setup nearby, and we watched them dance while twirling burning spheres of pitch on chains around their bodies accompanied by drumming.

After watching the fire dancing we found a small street full of people and walked back to the station to catch the last train. The street that ran parallel to the river had a few bars along it, and the patrons walked down the street dressed up in riotous clubbing attire. One bar had a stuffed bear in the window holding a sign reading: “My name is beer. Come on a my house.”

On the train ride back to Hikone we found a man passed out on the floor of the car we were in. At first I was worried, but once he started snoring we decided he would be fine. The passengers stepped over him and shared a laugh, and a conductor woke him when our express stopped at Yasu and we changed to a local.

Osaka

Somewhere between Hikone and Kyoto, on my way to Osaka, I was struck by how the scenery racing past our train car was an uninterrupted urban landscape. In Hikone, the city is broken by rice paddies and rivers, yet the area is entirely urban sprawl. The train ride from Hikone to Osaka is nonetheless beautiful. The cities here in Japan are situated between picturesque mountains that provide a green contrast to the concrete skyscrapers.

The train terminal in Osaka is nothing like the grand main station in Kyoto. The Osaka station was even larger than the Kyoto station, with trains and subways arriving on many different levels. The chief difference is that the Osaka station is no where near as pleasing to the eye as Kyoto. Immediately after disembarking in Osaka my group of eight was pulled along in a sea of Japanese. The train station was overwhelming in the morning. Thankfully Jon and Ryan had read through a guidebook and navigated us to the local terminal where we caught another train.

The two locations out group seemed most interested in visiting were the Outback Steakhouse and a street called Den-Den Town. Our navigators were unable to find the Outback Steakhouse, but Den-Den Town was much easier to locate. Den-Den Town is the epicenter of anime fandom in Osaka. The street is lined with anime souvenir stores of all sorts. I found action figures, models, t-shirts, caps, mug and costumes. Costumes of female anime characters were found at every store. My friend Jon bought a costume of a character from Final Fantasy X for $130. The worst part of the Den-Den Town is how unbearably seedy the street is. Every block contained a store selling pornography. For the first time in Japan I saw homeless and litter on the streets. Even at night, Den-Den Town is still an ugly street bath in a neon glow.

At this point Lauren, Jon, Steve, Scott and I left the other three guys we came with at a maid café and made our way to the shopping-arcades around Dotombori. A maid café is a restaurant where the patrons are served food and chatted to by women dressed in scanty French maid costumes. The five of us were not into that sort of thing so we moved on. Dotombori contained many shopping arcades; these covered streets are one of the coolest features of Japanese cities. Even the small hamlets surrounding Hikone have a covered arcade or two. The arcades in Osaka were even busier than the few I visited in Kyoto.

After our walk around Dotombori we walked across Mido Avenue to Amerika-Mura, the epicenter for finding foreign fashions in Osaka. The Lonely Planet guidebook described Amerika-Mura as a “…concrete park with benches where you can sit and watch the parade of fashion victims.” I doubt I could have said it better. Amerika-Mura is filled with colorful stores selling vintage American clothes, gothic maid costumes and urban hip-hop paraphernalia. I am still amazed at what a high price an old college t-shirt can fetch at a boutique in Japan. After seeing the sights in Amerika-Mura, we got back to the train station for the long ride back to Hikone.

My Morning as a Giant

On Friday the JCMU students were sent to elementary schools. The trip was planned into the program, and at the usual time class started we lined up in the lobby according to the school we would go to. I went to Kawase, a school on the edge of the city. Our professors lined up and wished us luck. My feeling is that the trip was supposed to teach us that even second-graders know more Japanese than we do, which turned out to be the case. However, I took some consolation in the fact that for the morning I was a giant amongst Lilliputians.

We arrived at the school after a cramped taxi ride and changed our shoes for slippers. Every student here leaves their street shoes at the door and puts on school slippers. We were given the generic burnt orange slippers that seem to be everywhere and only fit half my foot. The principal and vice- principal met us at the door, and showed my group of five into the principal's office. Inside the office a secretary brought us green tea and the principal told us about the school. Kawase is going to be graduating the 119th class this year. On the office walls were black and white pictures of the principals dating back to the founding of the school.

Soon three second-grade girls arrived at the office to take the five of us to the gymnasium, where we were to play with the kids for a few hours. As we walked through the school the children in class would pause and point at us, with surprised looks on their faces. In the gym the 76 second-graders were lined up in neat rows on the floor while a teacher played the piano. We were ushered into five chairs up front while one of the girls read an introduction thanking us for visiting the school. Then the whole class sang a song in which they asked us to play with them, or something of that nature. By this point I had realized that I wouldn’t be able to understand anything the kids were saying except that we were Americans.

After the song we introduced ourselves. The first girl in my group was Katherine, and the Japanese loved to pronounce her name. As she moved around the room, the children would try to say her name as best they could. Grace, Jason and I have names that were soon forgotten. The last guy in my group was Michael. When the teacher asked the calls to repeat his name we heard a chorus of “Mikey,” come children muttered “Michael Jackson” and giggled a lot. Michael was not pleased but took it well.

Once we had finished introducing ourselves the students set up games around the gym. I went to a marble game, a ball on string game and then Othello. Grace and Katherine played at origami and bean-bag sacks with the girls. The children picked up on the fact that I had no idea how to play the marble game, and through gestures I was surprised that they were able to teach me. The children at Othello did pretty well, but I asserted by college-educated skills to only beat them by two pieces. Once the structured games were over the class was split into six teams and the teams lined up across the gym from each other in pairs. The other JCMU students and I were distributed through the groups. The game was a variant on rock-paper-scissors. Each team started at an orange cone, and the two contestants would run out to meet in the middle, then play rock-paper-scissors. The winner ran past the loser, trying to reach the opposition cone to score a point. I figured this out by watching, since the teachers threw us into the game.

The children in my group were more interested in my height than in the game. None of the children were taller than my waist, and they delighted in jumping to see if they could be as tall as me. One of the boys tied to jump on my back, so I picked him up and he yelled at his friends that he was now taller then the rest of the class. After that he pointed at my nose and called me Pinocchio.

After the games were over each of the JCMU students was given a bag with the origami that was made as a souvenir. The contrast in origami was hysterical. I’d watched the little girls make beautiful cranes and swans, while the boys had stuffed about twelve paper airplanes into my bag. A friend of mine even got three paper-airplanes taped together. The children all called out “bye-bye” in English as we left.

Back in the principal's office the secretary brought in delicious iced apple tea. The principal tried to entertain us until our taxi arrived, but a few of the students were more interested in talking to each-other. Michael and I talked with the older man, who sprinkled English in with Japanese. Apparently, the principal had visited Ann Arbor years ago as an exchange student. He had gone in the winter and said that the city was nice but too cold for him. Once the taxi arrived we were shown out with a lot of formal bows while the children waved at us from the windows.

"Engrish" Update

This is not where I am going to get my hair cut...