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...

JCMU outings

At a party hosted by students from the local university.

At karaoke, in uniform
"And I would walk 500 miles..."

The best bar in Hikone

I’ve found possibly one of the coolest bars ever in Hikone. The place is called Yab’s, “Food & Sports Bar Guts Wrench” is the motto. The place is small, a long bar with about twelve stools and a few tables. One wall is covered by markers with messages from the previous patrons; many of the notes are in English. The reason is that Yab’s is one of the few bars we have found to be foreigner friendly. Some of my fellow students went to a local Reggae bar and were asked to leave. The staff at Yab’s are a colorful bunch who sprinkle English into our interactions. Such phrases as “pick your poison” and “pay me motherf***er” are the norm at Yab’s. The proprietor, Yabu, has a notebook of pick-up lines which he asked us to add to. Ours were clean compared to some of the crude entries, and Yabu admitted that he learns his English from the patrons. One of the bartenders, Patrick, is from Ottawa and helps us translate our slang into Japanese. The menu is half in English and on the cover is printed “Let’s get s**t-faced!” in bold colors. The TV plays a mixture of soccer, basketball and American music videos. The JCMU students have really taken to Yab’s as our bar, and I enjoy going there weekly.

More pictures of Kyoto

On the grounds of Nijo castle in Kyoto.
The main gate of a temple in Kyoto

The Kamo river in Kyoto
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto

My good friends here: Jon, Steve H., Lauren, Justin and I.
Jon and Steve H. preparing to throw me into the moat at Nijo castle.

The gate to the interior of Nijo castle
The Golden Pavilion needed more pictures

The train station in Kyoto

The Kyoto Tower

Signs

I found this sign in what I believe to be the "red light" district of Hikone.

Pictures of the river in Kyoto

Kyoto

Last weekend we made a trip into Kyoto. We took the express train into Kyoto station at nine in the morning, and the second largest train station in Japan was already busy. The buses were full and after a few stops we were packed in. At one point the driver had to ask people to stop getting on the bus because the doors wouldn’t close. The first stop we made was at the Kinkaku-ji; the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. The Golden Pavilion is on a small lake surrounded by trees, far enough from the main road that if it were not for all the tourists you could really feel like you were in the wilderness.

After we left the Kinkaku-ji, our group endured another cramped bus ride to get to Nijo castle. The castle grounds are immaculately manicured; while we were there the grounds staff was trimming the bonsai trees near the keep. I have found that the Japanese pay a high attention to maintaining the landscape architecture of their castle.

After leaving Nijo castle we hopped another bus and made our way to the Gion district. Although the temple we found to be open was unimpressive, the streets were full of people. Cutting through Gion is the Kamo River. Between Third and Fourth Avenues there are a series of large blocks in the river, and we made our way out to get a spectacular view of the shoreline. People lined the river lounging in the afternoon, and houses and restaurants had balconies which lined the banks above the pathway.

After leaving the river we wandered around the streets of the Gion district. The small streets were only a car width wide, and shoppers filled the road after cars went past. We found a slew of boutiques which sold overpriced, vintage clothes from America. One shop sold antique wood-block prints for hundreds of dollars. I was thrilled to find an English-language bookstore, where I bought a translation of a best-selling Japanese author. To my chagrin I have discovered that Starbucks is even more expensive in Japan.

The streets of Kyoto at night were surprisingly deserted. I really enjoy walking around Japan after dark, because most places are surreally quite. The train station was still busy at ten at night, and we made our way home on another packed train to an empty Hikone train station.

Pictures of Kyoto

"Engrish" Update

In Kyoto I found polo shirt which read "Detroit Kill City 1968" for a mere $144.

I am a samurai!

Cartography

Hikone is the star in the center of the map on Lake Biwa. Hikone is situated in Shiga Prefecture, and together with the surrounding provinces we are in the Kansai region.

I fought the law, and the law won...

I landed in a rainy Osaka. I had to ride a tram from the terminal to the customs depot where I made my first mistake in Japan. I was blissfully ignorant of the fact that a stay of six months would require a Visa; on the entry form I ought to have written two months. At the immigration station I was redirected away from the other students and into a holding area. No one spoke English. I tried to show my paperwork to the officers and had my whole bag searched through by a very diminutive Japanese lady. I was held in the room for half an hour while the Japanese tried to ascertain who I was. Finally, a customer service representative who spoke fluent English showed up and quickly found the JCMU representative who was waiting for me.

The grand solution to my problem was to cross out the “6” and replace it with a “2”. I rushed through customs to the JCMU group; who I found had not even made it through the kiosk to have our luggage shipped to Hikone. I ended up waiting another half hour until we got on the bus and made a three hour bus ride from Osaka to Hikone through the rain.

The last few days in Hikone

On the flight to Osaka Kansai Airport the seat next to me was occupied by a very chatty native Osakan woman named Kaeko. If I wasn’t sleeping we were talking; mainly about what I would encounter in Japan that would be radically different from America, but also about Kaekos’ time in America. Listening to a Japanese perspective on living in the west was fascinating, especially since Japan has a very low crime rate and Kaeko had lived in New York City. One of the enduring points Kaeko made was that the Japanese are obsessed with “cute”. Kaeko had a bright pink cell phone with a long chain of charms hanging off it. In Hikone we have a samurai cat as the official mascot of the city.

On Saturday we went to Hikone castle. The castle is in the heart of the town and has an incredible view of the city. However, to get to the castle you have to climb up a long ramp that twists and turns around guard parapets. Greeting us at the top of the ramp was a souvenir stand selling the Hikone cat on shirts, towels, glasses etc. Although seeing the tourist stand was odd, the castle is gorgeous. Inside Hikone castle there are very few signs and the grounds are very sparse. In order to get to the keep we had to climb up a few sets of nearly vertical stairs. The group was standing at the bottom of a set trying to figure out how best to climb up when a pair of little, old ladies simply went right up; we couldn’t live down the shame of not going up if the elderly in Japan could do it.

On the castle grounds were a set of period actors. A man was dressed as a samurai while a pair of women were wearing kimonos and taking pictures with the tourists. When the samurai saw us across the yard he waved us over and offered to take a picture. Afterwards one of the women came up to me with a dagger and stabbed me. The dagger was a theatrical model and the blade slid into the hilt, but the Japanese found this to be really hysterical. As if to make up for it the samurai drew is katana and offered it to me for a picture, then drew his short sword and we got a few great shots.

"Engrish" Update

Today we saw a t-shirt at the mall which proudly declared "Mayonnaise is the new core".

The first week in Hikone

I’ve been stalling to start writing a journal until I did something truly noteworthy. Japan has been amazing thus far; there are so many little touches here in Hikone that are different from the States. The JCMU is right on Biwako (Lake Biwa), and I’m a minute walk from staring across the water at the hazy shoreline on the other side. Out my window I have a view of the parking lot and across the road the Hotel Ride, a love hotel where you can pay by the hour. I’ve biked daily along a road to downtown Hikone which runs right along the beach. The view is only marred by the tiny cars which race along the same road at speed which seem indecent at the least. Classes have been going very well. I’m taking the 100 level class which has not as of yet required much effort. My study time is spent working with the other 100 level students and that has proven helpful. The professors are very enthusiastic here; Aizawa-sensee and Ohasi-sensee both barely stop moving throughout the entire 50 minute class. The main challenge has been to respond with the speed I ought to be at right now. Sadly I have been eating a lot of American food. There is a restaurant attached to the JCMU which serves primarily American fare mixed in with various Asian dishes. The other favorite restaurant is a place called “Joyfull”, which also serves American food. The amount of English is surprising; the convenience store across the road from us is a Lawson, for instance. My breakfast food has been the pastry brand “A taste of the BREAD” which I do not know how I have gone twenty three years without.

Last night the JCMU students were invited to a party held by the students of the Shiga University, the local college in Hikone. For $10 we were given all the sushi we could eat and all the beer we could drink. I ate a lot of sushi, none of which I could identify but all of which was drastically different. The flavors are sweeter and tangier, while the texture is a bit rougher than back home. The students of Shiga University were incredibly friendly. Most of the students were very fluent and those that were not could usually make sense of my broken Japanese. The music was exclusively American hip-hop and rap, and everyone I asked claimed to love it. None of the students who were under 20, the legal drinking age in Japan, consumed any alcohol. Those who could drank copiously with the JCMU students. I was never without a beer, and when I had my fill they kept asking if they could get me something. By the end of the night, before the exceeding polite police asked us to leave, I had drunk straight from a liter bottle of sake surrounded by chanting Japanese. After the party was broken up, most of the students went to Yabs’ bar. I ended up with a group who were too drunk to ride their bicycles. The rest of the students riding outpaced us quickly and we ended up getting lost in the narrow residential streets. Just after we had turned back to go home we ran into another group of students who had left the party late. We ended up being directed by a Japanese student named Yuta, who led us on foot for over an hour to the bar.

Before we got to Yabs another group intercepted us and told us a few people had gone to a karaoke bar; which is how I ended up at my first Japanese karaoke parlor. The Japanese take their karaoke very, very seriously. We were shown into a small room with couch benches along the sides and a table in the center full of glasses of water and sake cocktails. The screen at the far end showed the music videos behind the scrolling song lyrics. One of the funniest things of the whole experience was that none of the English songs had a music video to accompany them; there was simply a film of the same scenery of Washington D.C., Rome, and San Francisco. The Japanese students there were unbelievably enthusiastic about singing every song, even the English ones. We kept it up for hours before we had to leave. The karaoke parlor experience ranks up there with the top parties I’ve ever been too, with so much mirth and drinking and thankfully we could all manage our bikes home.