Coffee Break's Over

I think, given the Japanese alchemy that transformed the item in this picture from "Amanda's car" into "Amanda's igloo" over the course of a standard work day, it's safe to say that fall is over and winter has come at last to Honjo. This, admittedly, is not an occurrence I can honestly say I greet with joy, for a variety of reasons. As one of my mother's favorite jokes ends, "Coffee break's over, everyone back on your heads." The arrival of winter here in Akita definitely (despite its tranquil beauty and capacity to elicit almost childlike delight) certainly carries with it a modicum of the "coffee break's over" sentiment.

To start with, those of you who don't live here are probably unaware of this fact, but few if any Japanese homes are equipped with central heating or insulation. This translates to a whole lot of freezing-my-tush-off once the temperature goes below about 60 Fahrenheit. Furthermore, I am not now, nor have I ever been, a huge fan of scraping snow off of cars or shoveling out parking spaces. I see an abundance of both in my future. At any rate, enough whining about the weather. Hopefully I'll at least get to enjoy some good time at the ski-jo when I return from America with my equipment.

**ANNOUNCEMENT!!** For those who missed it, I will be visiting my hometown of Seattle from December 24th to January 2nd. If you want to see me please get in touch so we can lock something down!

Moving on from weather and travel nonsense. Today, I found myself further in the debt of the ever-wonderful Miss Ayako Sasaki. I was seriously stressing because Yashima Elementary (my least favorite school, if you'll recall from earlier posts/complaining...) wanted me to spend ten minutes each in three different classes talking about what Americans do for Christmas. There are two issues here. One, none of them speak any English worth mentioning, so anything I said would be a waste of air. Second, my Japanese (and more importantly my confidence in my Japanese) is nowhere near good enough to really explain Christmas. I have a serious aversion to promoting and enforcing stereotypes in Japan - though sometimes, it's the only route to take (see previous post regarding who my favorite singers are when I am on school premises...). But I have a much bigger issue selling the old tried-and-true expected explanation of Christmas. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth, as if I had just confirmed that black people only eat fried chicken and grits. I feel a strong desire to explain that not all Americans celebrate Christmas - some celebrate other holidays, like Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, and some celebrate nothing at all - and that among those who do celebrate, there are many different traditions.

I was getting pretty distressed at the idea of having no choice but to affirm Japanese stereotypes and pre-assumptions about American holidays, when Miss Sasaki flew to my rescue. Like the angel that she is, upon seeing my distress and asking me to explain the reason, she made a suggestion.

"How about you write down what you want to say, and I will translate it into Japanese so the homeroom teacher can explain to the children?"

God bless you, Ayako-sensei.

As a result of her generosity, I will now be able to explain at least to some extent the diversity of the holiday season in America to Yashima Elementary. How well it will go over and/or stick remains to be seen...but at least I won't go home feeling as if I've just been a willing participant in a minstrel show.

Hilarious sidenotes:

1) In my explanation of American Christmas, I did address the many people who celebrate a different holiday (Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc) and those who celebrate nothing at all. This produced shock and confusion in my Japanese coworkers, including the question "What is a Jewish?"
2) I described some classic Christmas traditions, including leaving milk and cookies out for Santa. Apparently, none of my coworkers have ever heard of this. They were all extremely puzzled. One of them asked me if Santa did not eat meat because all we fed him was cookies - evidently milk and cookies = vegetarian.
3) I described hanging stockings. One flabbergasted Japanese coworker asked me in shock, "So you put your socks on the stove?!?!"
4) I explained that my family does not do much to celebrate Christmas. My coworkers reacted with consternation and confusion. They were also surprised that most people in the US consider Christmas a time to visit family - apparently in Japan, Christmas is closer in spirit to Valentine's Day...as in, a holiday for lovers. Eek.

Clearly, one cannot make any assumptions regarding cross-cultural understanding. Of course, I am equally guilty; I have had enough preconceptions shattered here to know that my notions about Japan were nearly as misguided as Japanese preconceptions about America are.

As a wise man (Wayne Moyer!) once told me in a different context, "Where you stand depends on where you sit." Sitting here in Japan has certainly changed where I stand on many issues, including gender roles, sexual politics, religion, manners, and multiculturalism or diversity.

Stand where you may, forget not that others may sit elsewhere. Amen.

Rant, Cont'd.

Ok. So, last night's update in fact glossed over several other (equally hilarious, albeit unintentionally hugely offensive) episodes that I have endured of late. These include glorious moments such as the following conversation with one of my JTEs.

JTE: Have you eaten yakiniku?
Me: Yes. I like it a lot.
JTE: Ah. Where have you eaten?
Me: You mean where in Japan?
JTE: So.
Me: Well I haven't eaten yakiniku in Japan.
JTE: Ah. So you have never tried yakiniku.
Me: No I've had it, just not in Akita.
JTE: Right. So you have not tried.
Me: Have you ever heard of frikking Benihana?!?!

The total disconnect here was the notion that one might possibly live in a country that is NOT Japan in which one might be able to consume Japanese foods. My school staffers were amazed to hear that in the average American supermarket you can buy rice and soy sauce. Blew their minds. I felt it unnecessary to further shock their systems by explaining that many American user manuals, signs, guidebooks, menus, etc are available in Japanese, sushi and sashimi are popular, and we DO know what miso soup, gyoza, ramen, udon, soba, yakiniku and mochi are in the US. I was afraid I was the only one whose head wouldn't spontaneously explode, which would mean I'd get stuck cleaning Japanese brains off the teachers' room walls. Let's just say there's a reason that if you have any Japanese friends and you tell them you know an American girl who lives in Akita, their facial expression will probably move in this progression: shock, pity, and politely composed lemonade-making of the lemon most people consider life in Akita to be. (I actually sort of like it here, weird and alien and isolated as it is. But people's comments about "Wow. There are old people, trees and rice paddies there. Pack a coat." aren't too far off the mark to be honest.)

This is why, despite my annoyances with the place, I don't think Japanese people are racist. (One small amendment there; I think they ARE racist towards other Asians, ESPECIALLY Koreans and Southeast Asians. But not non-ethnically-Asian people.) When it comes to non-Asian people, Japanese people don't even really have "negative" or "hateful" or "condescending" attitudes. There's simply a short-circuit. Japan, for example, really doesn't have American or Mexican or Indian food readily available - as a consequence, Japanese people tend to assume that Americans only have access to American food (which, as far as they can tell from their media - remember American media sells us some pretty absurd international stereotypes, too - is hamburgers and french fries). Logical enough; in their country, they mostly only have their own ethnic cuisine...so the notion that Americans eat only McDonald's is a reasonable inference. McDonald's is American, they know McDonald's, so it follows that Americans, living in America, must eat McDonald's. And since most international food doesn't exist here, and many Japanese people (at least in Akita) have limited if any exposure to the world outside Japan, they extrapolate from their own situations and assume that other countries don't eat Japanese food, just like Japanese don't eat other countries' food particularly.

This is cold comfort in that it makes the assumptions understandable, not less annoying.

Similarly, the Japanese shock and horror that I don't know their celebrities, TV shows, idols, bands and comedians by name and face is aggravating. When I was first introduced, kids would ask me what singers or TV shows I liked. Originally I was truthful...a tactic that, as my friend Tom recently commiserated, elicited mostly blank stares and disappointment. Scrubs, Jeopardy!, Top Chef and Entourage, apparently, are not big here. Much easier to lie and say you love friggin' SpongeBob Squarepants...Similarly, don't say you like Green Day, Pearl Jam, Jimmi Hendrix or Sweatshop Union. My favorite singers, for convenience purposes and only on school premises, are Madonna, Michael Jackson and Britney Spears. And yet, somehow, despite the fact that THEY know none of MY pop culture idols, icons and standbys...they, including my JTEs, never cease to be amazed and/or horrified by my lack of knowledge of Japanese celebrities and pop culture.

Hello people. This should not be a mystery. DO I LOOK JAPANESE?!?!

Sofia Coppola had the right idea but failed to express it in its full depth and spectrum....

Sometimes I feel like my whole life is lost in translation.

After Almost Half a Year...Time for a Rant.

This is hatahata, a specialty fish and popular early winter food in Akita. The roe has a similar consistency to natto. This is a great item when playing feed-the-foreigner. Made an unwelcome appearance in my life two nights in a row. Thank you Japanese friends, I love your pranks.

After having been here nearly half a year (which some days seems like it has passed in the blink of an eye, and other days feels like an eternity) during which I have scrupulously not lost my temper, I feel it is time to release some pent-up frustration about certain aspects of life in Japan. Disclaimer: On the whole I am quite happy here. Frustrations frequently distill to individuals, circumstances or miscommunications, frequently with good intent. Venting about them is in no way intended as an indictment of Japan, Japanese people, or even the specific person who may be involved in a given incident.

Disclaimer aside, some of these things are absolutely monumentally annoying and frustrating, all high aspirations of cultural exchange be damned. (This is by no means a comprehensive list of frustrations or annoyances; recently I've simply encountered a spate of them that merited at least a digital venting session, if not a few laughs...)

To begin, a short narrative. I was out at an enkai (work drinking party) with a select subset of my colleagues from one school, and an old friend of theirs who used to teach at my school but now teaches in another town (whom I had never met). It was a fun evening, but eventually, the new guy started chatting me up. He asked me about my feelings towards Japanese food and dining in Akita. The conversation proceeded something as follows.

Japanese Man: Have you eaten at many restaurants in Akita Prefecture?

Amanda: Some. I don't eat out much, though, since I live alone. Eating at restaurants is less fun alone.

JM: Ah. I see. But I know what your favorite restaurant in Akita is.

A: *eyebrow raise* Oh? (thinking to self: is there one I've been to an inordinate amount?! I don't eat out that often...)

JM: *triumphantly* McDonald's!!!

A: *stare*

A: I haven't eaten at McDonald's since I came to Japan.

JM: Oh. KFC then.

A: Uh....No, I haven't eaten there either.

*long pause*

JM: *critical stare* Are you really American?!?!

Right. Ok. I have eaten neither KFC nor McDonald's since my arrival here in July. Given that everyone in this area, for several towns around, apparently tracks my every move (down to a random sushi restaurant owner two towns over knowing which convenience store I stop at on the way to work to buy breakfast when I'm running late, and that breakfast is usually two onigiri (rice balls) and I only ever buy salted salmon or shrimp and mayo....) and knows me by my height, body type and distinctive ponytail...I infer everyone knows there hasn't been a single KFC or McDonald's related sighting of Amanda-sensei. This means only one thing; even if nobody caught me doing it, not even the employees, being American, I must by definition be eating KFC and McDonald's, because that is what Americans eat. Oh stereotypes, thank you so.

Besides, McDonald's looks like Le Bernadin compared to this nightmare they served me at that enkai:

This is shirako. That translates as "fish testicles filled with sperm/semen". I couldn't bring myself to eat it. My table neighbor, however, in his enthusiasm, was stirring it excitedly to eat it, and splattered it on my pants. I got spooged on by a fish. A dead fish. Thank you, Japan, for bringing necrophilia and bestiality into perfect harmony in a single meal.

Next up: at work. One of my JTEs and I are chatting. She then, quite nonchalantly, asks me to describe to her in details what Americans do in church for Christmas.

...

In addition to making me a hamburger-and-crispy-chicken-family-basket-snarfing lardass, apparently being American also means I must, necessarily, attend church. Especially for my religiously significant holidays like Christmas. Despite numerous explanations, including explaining the Latin roots of "theos" and "a-" for "atheist", somehow the concept just hasn't quite sunk in. Sigh.

This was further substantiated later that week at my main elementary school. I stayed a bit later than usual, chatting with my kocho- and kyoto-senseis and some random teachers in the teachers' room. They started asking me about my musical training. I explained many US primary schools, and almost all middle schools, lacked mandatory music classes. They were horrified. Then, inspiration and clarity struck. Their faces lit up with comprehension. They gleefully announced....

"I see! You learned how to sing in church!"

...

Shoot me. Please.

I have also discovered that none of my schools have the foggiest notion that some Americans celebrate Hannukah, Kwanzaa, nothing, or any number of other holidays during this time of year. For convenience's sake I may just not hassle with explaining this. I feel it will probably go galloping down the same road of futility as my attempts to explain that I am not, never have been, and never will be a Christian. In Japan, being American has some very simple defining characteristics. Apparently, being Christian and a McDonald's addict are two of them. I'll get my revenge yet though for the hatahata and shirako torture; when I return here from the US, I got permission to have my middle schoolers taste-test American foods like ants-on-a-log, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and corn chips with jarred nacho cheese dip. Take THAT, Japan.

Nacho cheese in a jar. That's America's answer to natto, y'all.

Testing Testing: We're Back

Sorry for the neglect. I've been really busy! Not with work, actually, since as my friends here all know I have the single cushiest posting on the JET Program and only ACTUALLY work about four hours a week, and two of those probably involve playing games, drinking tea and eating cookies or candy with my elementary schoolers. The remainder of my work hours (40 a week) are spent surfing the internet in the Yuri Chu teachers' room.

Dave, I hope you're taking notes on how to treat an employee. ;-)

At any rate, for all the idleness of my gainful unemployment, I try to compensate on my days off...of which I also have an excessive number compared to other JETs in the area it seems. Consequently I've been traveling quite a bit. Destinations include Akita City, Odate, and last weekend, a journey to Kyoto and Osaka via Tokyo. To get the trip report type stuff out of the way, here's the scoop on Kyoto and Osaka, and then we'll get into my latest reflections on Japan and the experience of living here.

I took the Akita Komachi shinkansen (bullet train) from Akita City to Tokyo, where I transferred to the Nozomi shinkansen to Kyoto. Because I hadn't reserved a seat in advance, I ended up standing (well really sitting perched on my suitcase) in the compartment between two cars, crammed in with Tokyo salarymen who were all drinking, smoking, playing Nintendo DS, or in many cases passing out leaning against the wall. One could, I suppose, refer to this as a "cultural experience". I call it simply hilarious, since I paid 120 dollars to sit on my suitcase for two and a half hours inhaling smoke and surrounded by drunk Japanese businessmen. God bless the land of the rising sun.

Since we had planned very last minute everything was booked up hotel-wise in both Kyoto AND Osaka, but a friend and fellow Seattle JET who lives in Osaka (George) generously sorted out with his landlady for me and my travel partner, Elliott, to stay in his apartment building's guest room. So upon arriving in Kyoto I took a local train to Osaka, where I met up with Mari in Osaka Station. George was busy that evening, so his neighbor/friend/senpai Sam met up with me and Mari. He showed us to our temporary home (his and George's building) and then he, Mari and I went out for some izakaya (a Japanese pub serving small plates). Near their apartment exists a wondrous place known as the 280 - a modern fusion izakaya where EVERYTHING costs only 280 yen. Want some beef skewers? 280 yen. A huge beer? 280 yen. How about some fried cheese with butter on top that you push inside with your chopsticks to melt? 280 yen. Oh and by the way let the last item be a clue - leave behind your illusions about the refinement and healthfulness of Japanese food. If it can be eaten, it can be found in Japan deep fried, slathered in mayonnaise, topped with butter, and/or covered in a thick sugary sauce. Japanese people love fried anything; fried chicken, fried potatoes, fried cheese (even though they hate cheese), fried croquettes, fried pork loin, fried fish, fried fritters, fried vegetables, fried squid, fried meatballs, fried tofu, fried boiled quail eggs, fried fish cakes, fried hot dogs, fried onion, fried shrimp. If you can eat it, they have breaded it, fried it, topped it with mayonnaise, Worcestershire and skipjack tuna flakes. Japan even has multiple WORDS for fried foods, depending on the exact style of frying. 天ぷら, or tempura, is probably the best known outside of the country - originally Portuguese, it's a light panko batter with a pale yellow color. Usually applied to veggies like Japanese pumpkin, shiso leaf, etc, as well as the famous tempura shrimp, though I have also had tempura squid which is quite good. Next is カツ, or katsu, a slightly heavier, more brown-looking breading usually used on meats like chicken or pork. They also have フライ, or furai (katakana pronunciation of fry), which is the heaviest breading you'll likely find in Japan. They also have 唐揚げ, or karaage, a special soy-sauce layered technique of breading used primarily for chicken. Karaage is a popular dish at many izakaya. Lest you think we were done, they also have many kinds of stir-fries and shallow fried dishes, including yakisoba, fried rice, gyoza, and pan-fried chicken or fish. And while I am on the topic, Japanese people are OBSESSED with mayonnaise. I mean OBSESSED. You will find mayo on hamburgers, teriyaki, takoyaki (octopus fritters), pizza, okonomiyaki, sandwiches, salads (potato salad, pasta salad, tuna salad and egg salad are very popular), as salad dressing, as a sauce on pasta, and as a dip for fried chicken, French fries, and pretty much anything else including raw veggies. So much for the myth that the Japanese live forever due to a healthy diet.

If living like a Japanese person ensures longevity, I should probably start smoking like a chimney, drinking beer like water, and sucking down deep-fried foods and mayo as if I were a child freshly escaped from Bosnia.

At any rate, the next morning I took the train into Kyoto and met up with Elliott. We then went sightseeing, including Kiyomizudera and Sanjusangendo, both famous Kyoto sights. Sanjusangendo contains 1,001 statues of the Buddha Kannon, and many National Treasure statues of Buddhist gods and goddesses. Kiyomizudera is a beautiful temple, and it is said that if you drink the clear waters there you will have long life and great beauty.

For dinner we found a Spanish restaurant, and while we were having a discussion about grammar differences between English, Japanese and Chinese, a Chinese man from two tables away walked over, sat down and began chatting us up. He reminded me of nobody more than Professor Hsieh, one of my favorite teachers and mentors! That night we went out with Mari and George in Shinsaibashi in Osaka. We visited Zerro, a gaijin bar featuring a Corona-and-lime foosball table, before going to Bamboo, a Middle Eastern restaurant owned by an Israeli. We shared lamb kebabs, good conversation, and hookah. After Bamboo, we went for karaoke. We stayed late enough to miss the last train, so we just stayed up all night singing to take the first train home the next morning! When I told my JTE, Ms Sasaki, this story, she told me I am like a Japanese college student. Whether that's good or bad, I'm not sure.


The next day we got a late start due to our late night, so the only Kyoto sight Elliott and I managed on Sunday was Ginkakuji, or the Silver Temple. It was raining, but still beautiful! We had the best ramen I've had in Japan for lunch, and discovered a French cafe on our way home. With French radio playing in the background, we enjoyed coffee, beer and the best breads I've had since France!

That night we took it easy, just going for a few drinks and some good eats at a local pub. Mari and I shared several small plates, including a mochi cheese that was just yummy! Elliott was tired so he went home early, but Mari and I went with George to the 280 to keep hanging out a while longer. For the record, ice-cream filled frozen strawberries for 280 yen a plate were a FABULOUS idea, Mari!

Monday, our final day and day of departure, Elliott and I went to Kinkakuji, the legendary Golden Temple. Because all the train station lockers were taken, we had to drag our suitcases along for the trip! I'm sure we looked absurd! But the Golden Temple was as beautiful as can be, and we really enjoyed our visit. Even our heavy luggage couldn't ruin the experience!


Finally, exhausted but happy, we caught the Nozomi shinkansen back to Tokyo (two and a half more hours sitting on a suitcase...no seats available...), where Elliott and I parted ways. He boarded the Tohoku shink to Yamagata, and I got on the Akita Komachi back home to my rural, rice paddy-full home.

So that was my trip to Kyoto! The sights, company, food and experiences were fantastic. I'm really happy I went.

So, as if this post wasn't long enough, on to my latest and greatest puzzlements with Japan. There are many, and the longer I live here the more I find, so expect more to come if I get un-lazy about this blog. At any rate, the question of the moment is Japanese attitudes regarding homosexuality.

On the surface level, Japan is incredibly tolerant and accepting of what might appear to be homosexual behaviors. My junior high school boys frequently hold hands, give each other piggy back rides, and link arms; I've even come into a room to find a few of them snuggled up on the floor in a corner spooning. Ironically, Japan is VERY intolerant of actual homosexual relationships. Two persons of the same sex taking a room at a love hotel*, or in some cases a normal hotel, may very well be asked to leave. Homosexual relationships, ESPECIALLY for women, are beyond taboo. And yet, my junior high boys spoon, snuggle, hold hands, and collect Hello Kitty pens and pink cell phones. How does this all resolve?!

Ultimately, I think it dilutes down to the Japanese sense of masculinity and femininity, which is very different from the US sense of this dynamic. Masculinity is being a father, a breadwinner, a husband. It has nothing to do with snuggling other men or liking pink. It's much more concrete; consequently, "cool" high school boys in Japan frequently look like drag queens, in some cases even wearing makeup, with heavily styled hair and a feminine (to my Western eye) affectation. Much like the question of Japanese "racism", this question of Japanese "homophobia" is a very ambiguous and confusing area to examine. Actions and preferences that would be definitely considered "gay" (probably if not certainly to the social detriment of the parties in question in the US) are totally normal, acceptable, and even cool here. And yet, the notion of an actual gay relationship isn't even necessarily discriminated against per se ...because it's simply so taboo that it never happens, at least not openly. I confess I find this dichotomy - acceptance of homo-suggestive behaviors, and total rejection of homosexuality - somewhat confuzzling. That said, it is nice to see people (both male and female) feeling comfortable being affectionate with their friends gender notwithstanding, as well as feeling free to like the colors or characters that they like, without being forced by gender norms to or away from one or the other (ie, pink being girly in the US). Japanese society doesn't abuse or hate on homosexuals; it's simply so taboo, and the social pressure to conform is so strong, that it's rarely (if ever) an issue. Do you think this is better or worse than the situation in the US, where homosexual behavior is stigmatized even in the most liberal of places? (Think associations with pink, male handholding in junior high, etc...Even the most liberal and accepting American has some pretty thoroughly ingrained biases about what is "gay" or not.) Is it better or worse to embrace open displays but make relationships so taboo that they rarely emerge as a question, or to have a society that at worst openly harms gay people (ie Matthew Shepherd) and at best clings to subtle biases despite its claims of acceptance?

I'm not sure; both situations have their drawbacks and their advantages. Thoughts?


*A love hotel is a by-the-hour hotel, usually with a theme like tropical, etc, intended specifically for couples. Since many single young people in Japan still live at home, in many cases in multi-generational living situations, love hotels are a solution for young couples looking for some privacy. They tend to be cheap, affordable and reputably quite fun.

When In Rome

The season is definitely turning here in Akita, as the days grow shorter, the temperatures drop, fewer and fewer leaves remain on the trees, and violent storms sweep in off the Sea of Japan with increasing frequency. The bite of winter is lingering in the morning air. The trees are close to concluding their striptease for the year, and the rice paddies stand, - stubbly, mown and harvested - glaring mournfully at passersby with the wounded dignity of a shaved cat. Bent and wrinkled obaachans and ojiisans continue hobbling and granny biking about, albeit now wrapped in a very Japanese-looking layer of quilted, padded clothing. Japanese pumpkin and soups have supplanted corn and cold noodles in my school lunch, and I have fired up my kotatsu (a table with a heat on its underside, covered with a quilted blanket tablecloth). Indeed, autumn is coming to a close here in Tohoku. And as it does so, I am confronting a reality for anyone living abroad - homesickness.

I hit what is referred to as "Stage 2" of overseas living (the panicky, weepy, melt-down-general-mess stage that follows euphoria and precedes acceptance and integration) very early on here in Japan. I hope I never descend again to the level of stress and misery I endured during that time - that said, for anyone who is currently living, or is thinking of moving, abroad from your home country...advice from a Stage 2 survivor. Stage 2 happens. It sucks. Bigtime. The main reason I'm still in Japan is probably because I hit Stage 2 prior to having a phone or internet access so I couldn't book a flight home. But it does pass, and it is worth it to stick it out. The rewards are great, however insurmountable the turmoil of Stage 2 may seem.

But as fall fades into winter, I am finding myself confronted with a different kind of sadness. This is a gentler homesickness than the violent loneliness and stress that wracked my world a few months ago. This homesickness isn't outright painful so much as it tugs at my heartstrings - I miss all of you at home, I miss familiar places and voices and foods and routines. I miss Seattle; I miss Grinnell. It's almost as if my Stage 2 was a violent, ripping separation, and what I'm experiencing now is a slow-growing melancholy as it becomes clear to me what I've left behind (even if only temporarily). I'm certainly not in Stage 2, because I do feel some comfort with my life here in Japan, but the weight of being forever foreign, forever noteworthy, forever outside, does begin to wear on a person over time. I'm fatigued and I can't wait to visit home and recharge.

I almost hate to admit that I feel loneliness or sadness, because in so many ways being here is such an amazing opportunity that negative emotions seem unwarranted. But it seems that nobody is very open about their feelings in this regard, and for myself as well as for any other expats (current, prior or pending) out there, I think it's important to say that yes, we feel this, and it's ok. Homesickness, it seems to me, is a natural and necessary part of the process of moving away from your own country. In ways you would never imagine - from working the ATM, to screwing up basic courtesy and procedure when buying a soda at the convenience store, to being served weird unknown comestibles that manners dictate you must eat, to being unable to express even the simplest ideas to people around you - it's exhausting and frustrating to be a foreigner. And over time I think that compounds into total exhaustion with being foreign. I can't speak for anyone except myself, but I for one am currently working through feelings of cultural fatigue, language depression (I'd really hoped my Japanese would be better by now) and homesickness. I find it helps to talk often with people at home, as well as to distract myself by going out and occupying myself here. To that end I went to a track practice coached by my Yuri Elementary curriculum coordinator/JTE, Mr. Takano, this Saturday.

Most of the team members are under twelve, and I'm a distance runner not a sprinter (ever been out-sprinted by a tiny Japanese seven-year old girl? After this weekend I have), but it was a blast anyway! Hopefully wonderful moments like this keep cropping up to remind me why it's worth the loneliness and challenges of living as an expat - this is really why I'm here, after all.

Also, for any of you who are Seattlites, I'll be home for about ten days in December covering Christmas eve through the first week of January. If you want to hang out, please let me know! I would love to see you. And for myself and others who are far from home, sometimes when in Rome, it's ok to be really sick and tired of being in Rome.

Of Logistics and Race

Sorry for the lack of updates! It's been a busy week or so. But, sorry to disappoint those of you who were starting to hope, I am in fact still much alive and kicking, and will continue to saturate your RSS feeds and email alerts with my drivel. So, to fill you in on the basics...

1) I have decided to recontract. So assuming my BOE doesn't think I suck rocks and refuse to take me back, I will be signing my soul away for another year here in Crazyland.

2) I have received my materials for my CLAIR (Council of Local Authorities for International Relations) correspondence course in Japanese. Those of you who attended college with me are invited to make your own inferences about how dutifully my studies are progressing thus far.

3) I have five days off in a row in mid-November. Those with ideas for destinations, offers of hospitality, or interest in coming along are encouraged to pipe up.

4) I have now experienced an enkai. It came as a double header last weekend and certainly merits deeper exploration of its cultural and interpersonal significance.

5) I threw a Halloween party for 253 kids at my elementary school this week and I think I can safely say it was a success. I am never again writing 253 hiragana nametags by hand, attaching them 253 gift bags, each of which I had to holepunch to attach the tag, and stuffing all 253 bags by hand with candy. Never. Again. At least the kids had fun, and I think the staff really appreciated it too.

6) This week I had Monday off, 1 of my classes cancelled on Tuesday, and spent my elementary school teaching time handing out candy. On Wednesday, one of my classes was cancelled and I was excused from one because they were doing translation. Today, my elementary school cancelled so I spent the day sitting at my computer on chat, except for 45 minutes when I was invited to a class party to eat cake and play Bingo. I know it sounds like bull pucky but please believe you when I tell you that my job actually is kind of stressful. Really. Just not in the workload sense.

So for the real meat of this post, I'm going to talk about something that's pretty controversial, pretty loaded and - in the West - a pretty universally accepted truth.

I'm going to talk about racism in Japan.

In the West, we more or less take racism in Japan for granted. I remember once or twice a Japanese person in the States told me that Japan is not a racist country. I remember also how hard I worked to keep from busting out laughing because I thought they were nuts. Amazingly, now that I live here, I am going to make an assertion that - especially given that I elicit stares everywhere I go and people come up to me in the grocery store and peer into my basket to see what I'm buying, and children follow me down the street in awe - seems crazy. I am telling you straight up that, at least when it comes to Westerners like myself, the Japanese are not racist. I can't speak for their attitudes towards, say, Koreans, not having experienced being a Korean person in Japan. But as a Caucasian American, the Japanese are not racist.

Racism, I think, carries heavy implications about hate, or beliefs about inferior intellect, or similar bigotry. I think what the West mistakes for racism in the Japanese is none of these things. We are simply a multicultural, multiethnic society by nature. We are used to "different" - linguistically, racially, culturally, religiously, everything. We see it every day. We have seminars on it at work.

Japan isn't racist. It simply lacks a concept of "different".

The staring isn't because they think I am inferior or worthless or that they hate me. They stare because I am DIFFERENT. And different doesn't happen here. In a country so thoroughly homogenous, the notion of diversity is, pardon my slight pun here, foreign. And when it is thrust upon them, the Japanese react, unsurprisingly, with insular behavior, shyness, and an inward-turning reaction that is easily mistaken for discrimination. In reality, I think it is a natural enough human response in a society that pretty thoroughly lacks a concept of, much less exposure to, diversity. If you saw someone in the US walking butt naked down the middle of the freeway wearing a clown wig, you'd stare. You're not being discriminatory; it's just a completely alien appearance and you are reacting to something unforseen and for which you lack a learned appropriate response. So you manifest the natural, basic human reaction of surprise and curiosity. And while I am probably not quite as crazy as someone walking naked down the interstate in clown accessories, I am just as unexpected in the 99.99% homogenous society into which I have gaijin stomped over the last few months.

So, ironically enough, this gaijin, who is regularly reminded just how alien she is here, finds herself defending the Japanese. They are not racist - they simply lack a comprehension of diversity, which is not the same thing.

The Un-Imperial Island

One of the most shocking things to me about moving to Japan was discovering just exactly how isolated and insular this country is. I went to France this past summer; France was another country. Then in July I landed in Tokyo, and Tokyo was another planet. A few days later I stepped off a plane in Akita...and forget different country, forget different planet...Akita is at least an entirely different galaxy, if not a different universe. Japan itself is a virtually monolingual, almost 100% homogenous population. As an island, particularly as a small island separated from its nearest continental neighbors by an entire sea (the Sea of Japan), its total homogeny is virtually unique on the planet. In the United States, most people speak English, but you will frequently overhear conversations in restaurants, on buses, or from passerby on cellphones or with friends, in numerous other languages. In Japan, if you hear anything other than Japanese, your head snaps around. Furthermore, Japanese citizens are almost to a one ethnically Japanese. This is because citizenship of children is based on the citizenship of the parents...not on birth within Japan's borders. So, if your parents are not Japanese citizens, you may have been born in Japan, lived your whole life here, speak nothing but Japanese...and still have to carry an alien registration card with you at all times.

Japan's inward tendencies have a long history - and have many visible modern repercussions. For example, the Japanese language is probably the only natural language in the world that comes close to the clean, logical patterns of artificial languages. While Japanese is undeniably an intricate and challenging language to learn, it is shockingly logical - and notably free of irregular conjugations. The entire language has ONLY two irregular verbs, and they are irregular each according to their own set of rules, in every conjugation. The language is formulaic almost to the point of being mathematical in its constructions. Why? My only conclusion is that Japan's isolation prevented other languages from "mixing" with Japanese - thus minimizing the irregularities that linguistic interchange (think English, with its mixed Latin and Germanic roots, and regular interaction with other continental European languages like French, Spanish, German, Dutch, etc) introduces to less isolated languages and countries. Japan's island location prevented easy linguistic crossover, and even its interactions with countries like China were tightly regulated. Only specially chosen Japanese emissaries visited other nations, and emissaries from other countries to Japan were tightly controlled - they were not allowed to mingle freely, being supervised by government officials at all times and effectively quarantined from normal Japan. They saw only the Japan that Japanese officials chose to show them, and were permitted no free interaction with the nation's people, language, economy or anything else. This degree of control over foreign influences meant Japan borrowed much (think kanji, the Chinese characters that form such a challenging and integral part of written Japanese), but had firm control over how those influences were introduced. Thus, Japan managed to remain purely Japanese even as she incorporated to some degree select foreign influences.

This leads to the next great mystery about Japan; why did she ever become more than a hunter-gatherer society? The emergence of an advanced society in Japan is a great puzzle. Most societies evolved either in response to food pressure or to pressure from competing groups. Japan has an abundance of huntable and gatherable foods - fish, seaweed, nuts, roots, wild fruits and vegetables, small game, birds - in quantities more than sufficient to sustain the populations of that kind of society. It has adequate space, also, for such populations. It has materials such as reeds and bamboo for shelter and basic tools. With no neighboring societies to pressure them, why did Japan's effectively homogenous people ever move past the level of sophistication seen in societies like Alaskan natives or African communities? While sophisticated, these groups would certainly not be considered to have attained the degree of development reflected by Japanese agricultural, military, architectural and governmental technologies, techniques and infrastructures. Why did Japan ever become an advanced modern society? To me this is a great mystery.

Furthermore, Japan has never, in the true sense of the word, displayed colonial or imperial tendencies. Even in World War II, Japan was not imperial. She did not seek to relocate her own people outside her borders - rather, she sought to exploit other groups to benefit Japan...where, naturally, all Japanese people would still live. This oddly anti-imperial, anti-expansionist philosophy reflects the deep-seated introversion of Japanese society that I think foreigners often mistake for xenophobia or racism. While in some sense perhaps it is, I think its roots are fundamentally different than the way the Western world might perceive them.

That said all these factors combine to make Japan a marvel of unique (and often incomprehensible!) cultural, artistic, spiritual and philosophical traditions...and it certainly makes for an experience being an outsider living in a cultural that is not only fiercely introverted, but also populated almost exclusively with the in-crowd. I sometimes feel as if I am window-shopping through life but all the store doors are locked and I don't have the key. The views sure are spectacular though...

Now You See Me...

Or more like, you didn't. You may have noticed that I was AWOL for a good portion of this week. This is because I spent two days at the JET Mid-Year Conference in Tenno, stayed over Saturday night in Akita City, and spent part of Saturday and most of Sunday in Odate and the Hachimantai area. I took a trip up to the Hachimantai Forest to see the leaves changing for fall, as well to see famous Lake Towada. The fall colors were truly amazing - the hills looked like the sponge paintings I used to do as a kid. Thanks to Wil and Michael for being such great hosts during my northerly weekend sojourn!

The JET Mid-Year Conference was a pretty valuable experience for me; despite getting horrendously and epically lost on the way there (sorry, Pete, Wil), I thought having both ALTs and JTEs (Assistant Language Teachers and Japanese Teachers of English, for those not in the know) at the conference was particularly helpful. Mixed sessions discussing each side's concerns and problems about team teaching really gave me some insight into the things I find frustrating about my job, and other sessions gave good ideas for lesson plans or activities that lend themselves well to team teaching. One of my favorite JTEs, Ayako Sasaki, was also in attendance, so I think she and I both have some valuable takeaways to discuss that will make us a more effective teaching team. I'm looking forward to making some changes at the office!

After the conference ended, I went to Akita City and spent a fun night out with some friends there. The next morning, my generous host was departing for Sendai to play cricket, so I turned north to Odate to impose upon the hospitality of yet another fantastic JET! I visited Hachimantai Forest and saw Lake Towada. Then, I returned to Odate, where I spent a delightful evening with friends (one known and some new!) at a fusion izakaya called Muu. The group at the table next to us was a boisterous bunch of Japanese people, and we proceeded to have a magic trick exchange with them. Apparently lit cigarettes are considered appropriate props by Japanese magicians.

All in all, a very exciting week, and one filled with lots of travels, new friends, and new sights. I know this post is basically just a trip report, but I promise a meatier update in the next few days. Also, I have my first enkai coming up this week (two, in fact! eep!) as well as my school festival for Yuri Junior - so I anticipate a lot of interesting material in the near future.

I Have A Hobby, Translated

In Japan, everyone has a shumi, or hobby. They may consider this a standard part of a self-introduction, sharing one's hobbies. What they don't mention is that when they say "My hobby is...", it roughly translates to "I have been doing this since the first thirty seconds after I emerged from the womb and could probably be world-ranked in it if I wasn't so busy working the clerk counter at Lawson Station". In all honesty, Japanese people take the word "hobby" very seriously. Sure, in the US a lot of people are really good at their hobbies and take them seriously...but Japan just brings the whole thing into a new realm. They do hobbies in a way that only the Japanese possibly could.

I think part of the reason for this is that it is so important in the Japanese psyche to belong to a group, and to define your world in communally comprehensible terms. When you start a hobby, like playing an instrument, joining the art club, or joining a sports team, you'll automatically become a member of that group because hobbies are usually done communally, not solo. It gives you a built-in and socially acceptable community to belong to. Moreover, it says something about your personal identity when you tell someone if you have chosen to devote your soul to soccer instead of painting. It helps you establish your position in the community and your personal identity - without breaking the mold, rocking the boat, or singling yourself out, which are all cardinal sins in Japanese society. Japanese schoolchildren abhor being made to do anything alone, like standing up and speaking to a group, or playing a game to try and win for oneself. If you try to make your students play a game, for example, nobody will win if they're playing as individuals. They'll all brainpool and help each other out so as not to have anyone stand out. If you put them in teams of two or more, though, the competition gets FIERCE! Like I'm talking yelling, pounding on tables to encourage teammates, the whole shebang. But this is because in that case, you're playing for your TEAM - not yourself. Being singled out, for positive OR negative reasons, is the absolute worst thing that can happen to a Japanese person. For this reason, Japanese students do almost everything in pairs or teams, and will only do anything solo if given no choice - and then they will do it as quickly, crappily and reluctantly as possible just to get out of the spotlight. By contrast, when working for a common goal, Japanese people would rather die than fail or mess up.

Which brings us to the band concert played by my Yuri Junior High kids this weekend! Like any Japanese person with a hobby, my kids play their instruments at a more or less professional level. They also, in honor of Halloween, proceeded to do this wearing such accoutrements as cat ears, gigantic sparkly hairbows, and headbands adorned with plushie ghosts, pumpkins and so on. The conductor, in fact, entered by running full tilt into the gym wearing a cape, Mickey Mouse hands (the big puffy white gloves), and a huge yellow sequined bow tie. At one point during the show, two girls left the stage and ran around the gym shouting gleefully and flinging handfuls of candy into the audience, shouting something in katakana that I think was intended to be "Happy Halloween". Those of you familiar with Japanese accents can imagine how comprehensible that was... Amazingly, these events were trumped by a random middle school boy's abrupt appearance during one song, waving a plastic sword, as well as various episodes involving lots of Japanese chattering, waving of a cutout of a hand doing janken (rock-paper-scissors), and the random distribution of small prizes. Japanese school band concerts are definitely a little different than American ones...Not to mention that my school band concerts were gallantly suffered through by all attendees, and these kids could probably sell out shows in most cities in the states...

It Never Lives Up to the Hype

You'll all be glad to know that I am quite safe and sound, due mostly to the fact that Melor ended up amounting to little more than a glorified and slightly breezy rainstorm. Now, if I hadn't gone and dropped tons of money on setting up an emergency kit, the gods would no doubt have laughed in my face and proceeded to blow my roof off. That said, my first typhoon "experience" turned out to be dramatically less than noteworthy. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming, which usually consists of me sitting at a school desk doing nothing for approximately six hours a day.

The Leprechaun Was Insufficient: Japan Brings Greater Insanity Via Typhoon Melor

Yes, I know it's late and I should be sleeping. But the roar of the first gusts of wind and the clattering of the first driven drops of rain on my windows woke me up, and at the moment there's no calming my nerves. You see, normally I'm not quite so finicky about the weather...but tonight's a little different.

Apparently Japan's last performance review asserted that it was not bringing adequate insanity to my life. Enter Typhoon Melor. Melor, which has at least weakened considerably since its original classification as a Category 5 Super Typhoon, is nonetheless bearing down on the Land of the Rising Sun, and according to current forecasts has its sights set cheerily on Akita once it's done ravaging Tokyo like Godzilla on Viagra. OK, you say, slow down two ticks there girly. What's going on? Well, as you may or may not know already, it's currently typhoon season here in Crazyland. Normally, this would mean approximately jack diddly to me, because Akita is so far north that most of these storms, just like most people, decide it's not worth their bother and give up somewhere slightly north of Tokyo. Not Melor. (Melor, by the way, is the Malay word for "jasmine". What a cute moniker for a 357-mile-wide swatch of rotating tropical storm doom.) This puppy seems absolutely determined to make the trek out here to the rice paddies. In fact, current forecasts are leaning towards the possibility that Melor may ride the pineapple current north in the Sea of Japan, dragging its violent, and recently Japan-Sea-recharged, eye wall right over my house.

Melor is set to cause storm surges upwards of 10 feet in a lot of places, packs plenty of windy punch (and I don't mean it's full of hot air...), and could dump as much as 50 centimeters or more of rain within a twenty-four hour period. Let's just say I could be seriously wet by tomorrow evening, and that isn't a sexual innuendo.

What do I know about typhoons? A lot more now that I did this morning, before I figured out I was about to be caught in one. Another interesting sidenote; the human brain is a funny thing. I'd been skimming news stories about the tropical storm activity wreaking havoc in the Philippines, etc, but in my head somehow this still registered as a Problem On the Other Side of the Planet. It never occurred to me that storm activity raping Manila and Luzon might mean I should check my weather forecast. Next time I'll know better. And won't have to wait until my JTEs ask me if I'm aware that I'm about to be swallowed by a gigantic tropical storm.

So how does one prepare for a typhoon? Well, this being my first time, it's largely guesswork for me. I went shopping and bought lots of bottled water, canned food and dry goods, flashlights, spare batteries, and a radio, just in case the storm knocks out power or other infrastructure. I'll be making sure to crack a couple windows during the storm, to ensure I don't create a vacuum in my house. Hopefully, Melor changes course, or moves north overland instead of over the sea, both possibilities that would reduce the storm's severity for me. I'll be leaving school early tomorrow, if I go in at all, to ensure I'm not driving once Melor hits Akita.

Stay tuned; hopefully my power and internet will remain functional. If not, don't be alarmed if I disappear for a while - either way, keep watching for further updates about my first typhoon experience! Unless I die when Melor sucks the roof off my house and spirits me away to the Japanese version of Oz, which is probably a lot like Hayao Miyazaki's alternate dimension in Spirited Away. Only with Munchkins. And Glinda, I hope. I always wanted to be Glinda when I was a kid.

When Japanese Leprechauns Attack: Seaweed, Squid, Banana Crepes and the Mystery Bag o' Beans

Yesterday, I was minding my own business, working hard as usual (by that I mean 'surfing the internet' for roughly 6 of the 8 hours in my workday), when I was unexpectedly interrupted by a wizened little Japanese guy who looked about six centuries old and sported eyebrows that were pure white and bore a genuinely disconcerting resemblance to gigantic toothbrushes. This bizarre elfin creature proceeded to force upon me (with utmost courtesy, of course) a small tin of seaweed soaked in soy sauce. I was apparently expected to consume said seaweed, and although slimy oceanic plant material generally doesn't find its way into my diet until after 12:00 noon, good manners more or less dictated that I accept his offer.

The really peculiar thing about this was, this man does not work in my office. He was circulating with a tray of tins of goopy seaweed, serving them to everyone in the teachers' room, and nobody seemed to find this odd...but I had most definitely never seen this man before. Does he work at my school?! I later looked up to discover that this odd little man had done one better than just serving up seaweed - he had co-opted the sitting area by the copier and set up an entire seaweed shop, and was busily hawking his wares to any teacher fool enough to walk near him. Unfortunately, his merchandise was not restricted to seaweed; my olfactory spidey sense shortly informed me that this old goon was also dealing in dried squid, which stank up the entire office in short order. So here we were, with a total stranger parked in our tea corner selling dried sea animals and wet sea plants, sporting eyebrows out of a Pixar movie, and suffocating in the diverse and pungent aromas emanating from his makeshift storefront.

I was the only one who seemed to find this strange.

Shrugging, as I often do in Japan, I moved on without pondering the mystery too much further. In short order, however, when I returned to my desk from doing a few quick errands, more Japanese magic had occurred. There sat upon my desk a plate, a fork, and a heap of banana, whipped cream, crepe and chocolate. What?! Leprechauns with seaweed, and now mysteriously appearing crepes?! If I were in any country other than Japan, I probably would have suspected the crepe to be laced with something that would render me helpless and/or insensate and compliant for transport to the sex trade in Thailand. Since this is Japan, though, drugs were unlikely in my unexpected dessert. Nevertheless, I eyed it suspiciously.

'HOMU-MAKINGU!' shouted a voice disconcertingly close to my ear. I turned to see one of the OLs (office ladies) beaming proudly at me for her use of English - and standing about six centimeters away from me. Japanese and American notions of 'personal space', I have found, differ dramatically. The OL (sweet, wonderful woman that she is, despite yesterday's close-encounters Engrish sneak attack) proceeded to explain in Japanese that the home ec (they call it homemaking) class had made crepes, and wanted me to try their work. Well, at least it was a little more appetizing than a glob of seaweed soaking in fermented soy bean juice. It actually tasted pretty good, and I'm not usually much of a fan of banana OR chocolate, so I guess the kids are doing pretty good work in that home ec class of theirs.

But my day was yet to get slightly more peculiar. The stream of unexpected foodstuffs had not yet run dry - and believe it or not, the combination of foods showered upon me was about to get a little bit stranger. I was typing away, not paying much attention, when suddenly somebody sneak attacked me with a bag of beans. The beans plopped onto my desk, and when I looked behind me, none of the three people standing there idly chatting took responsibility for this unexpected delivery of legumes. I was not the only one so blessed; my seatmate across the desk also received such a parcel, and the two of us were equally confused. Apparently sometimes Japan confounds even its own natives.

A Trip to Hottai Falls!

This weekend, I went to see Hottai Falls, the tallest waterfall in Akita Prefecture. Getting there was quite an adventure! Armed only with a less-than-detailed map of the general vicinity, some verbal instructions from one of my JTEs, and the intermediate language skills of a couple of bumbling gaijin, a friend and I set off to find the waterfall.

During a stop to get gas in case we got horribly lost (a scenario I deemed reasonably likely...) my traveling companion managed to ask our gas attendants for some more detailed directions. Good on ya! The map and instructions we received were immensely helpful - and one guy even flagged traffic for us to make it easier to hang our right turn back onto the road! So sweet. :-)

Hottai Falls, which as I said is the tallest waterfall in Akita Prefecture, is gorgeous. There is a small restaurant, serving homemade noodles, fish grilled over open charcoal, nabe (hot pot or stew), and a variety of convenience foods like chips, candies, corn dogs, or the option we went with for our snack - sweet potatoes in sesame syrup! The restaurant looks over a large lawn leading to the bridge and short hike up to view the falls. Many elderly people were sitting on the lawn painting pictures of the falls.

It was very beautiful there, and I intend to return later this month for the Hottai Autumn Colors Festival, when the fall leaves will be in full swing and locals will be celebrating with a barbecue bash. Stay tuned!

To see Hottai Falls and the trip thereto, check out the slide show!

Party Time! Famous Festivals in Akita

Like pretty much anywhere in Japan, Akita has a wide selection of its own, special, local, and in some cases (in)famous celebrations and festivals in addition to the national holidays recognized nationwide. Some of the Akita festivals are especially noteworthy, and they range from the refined and delicate (the beautiful Komachi Festival in late spring), to the unique (summer's awesome Kanto Festival), the ridiculous (the Hinai Chicken Festival in January)...to the downright absurdly violent and dangerous (the winter Takeuchi Festival).

Gannin Dance Festival: Every spring in Hachirogata Town on May 5th, local men dress up as women to perform unique dances and comical skits. Many of the skits are taken from popular kabuki plays. For the Grinnellians in the audience, this is sort of like Mary B. James meets Cinco de Mayo and open mic night at Bob's.

Komachi Festival: As mentioned in the last post, Akita is famous for its beautiful women. Legend has it that the greatest beauty of all time in Japan, Ono-no Komachi, was born in Ogachi Town here in Akita Prefecture. Ono-no Komachi (born 809CE, during Japan's Heian period) was said to be not only beautiful beyond compare, but also a prodigy in dance, koto (Japanese harp), calligraphy, and waka (Japanese poetry). At age 13 she travelled to Kyoto, the center of Japanese culture and politics in Heian times , where she was much acclaimed for her beauty and talents. Every June Ogachi Town holds a festival in her honor, selecting seven young women from the town to dress up in Heian period clothing and recite seven waka in Ono-no Komachi's honor. The women are chosen specially for their beauty and talents in music and poetry.

Sakura Festivals: Like everywhere in Japan, the spring blooming of the cherry trees is much awaited in Akita, and merits hanami, or special trips with friends to go and view the flowers. Akita is special in that, not only does it have the usual pink and white cherry blossoms, it also has yellow cherry trees, which bloom later.

Hinai Chicken Festival: To honor the famous Hinai chickens raised in Akita, people get drunk and do a ritual chicken dance for this festival.

Ushinori-Kumomai Festival: Held in Katagami and Oga every July 7th, this festival celebrates a legend in which a princess and her husband could only be united one day a year. Rather than focusing on this, though, this festival features a very drunk Japanese man riding a bull that hasn't been fed for a week. Evidently, focusing on the sidenote in the story where a god performs a ritual riding a bull around Tenno is more amusing than a Japanified remake of Persephone's tale.

Kanto Festival: Every August in Akita City, the main street is closed to traffic. After dark, teams of performers hoist large bamboo frames hung with flaming paper lanterns. To the sound of drum, flutes and roaring chants and calls from the audience, they balance the poles on their foreheads, hips, single palms, and pass the poles among their teammates. Sometimes as tall as two stories, and weighing over 150 pounds, these poles are no joke! Between all lampposts and street signs over the sidewalk are strung heavy-duty cables, to prevent wayward bamboo frames from squashing bystanders. This festival is to pray for good fortunes in the upcoming Akita rice harvest at the end of summer.

Omagari Fireworks Festival: Every August in Omagari, the top 30 fireworks makers in Japan compete for supremacy at the National Fireworks Championship. The displays are dazzling.

Oyamabayashi Festival: In Kakunodate (the samurai town) in early September, this festival involves elaborate floats driving around the city streets. The culmination of the festival is what amounts to oversized bumper cars, as the floats ram into each other as hard as possible. Yes this is dangerous.

Namahage Festival: Held each winter in Oga City, the Namahage Festival is a Japanese version of Santa Claus. Only instead of promising goodies as a reward for good behavior, swarms of men in elaborate namahage (demon-like creatures of myth) costumes come down from the mountain, in the dark and snow, and storm into houses and try to drag the terrified children out into the cold. The parents usually let this happen until the namahage are juuust about to leave...then intercede, for the promise of good behavior from their children. They then bribe the namahage with sake to leave their children alone. Thus do Japanese children learn that being bad gets you kidnapped, but you can buy off anyone, even the devil, with sake.

Kamakura Festival: Each winter in Yokote, famous for its copious snowfall, a number of kamakura, or igloo-like snow huts, are built. Some are big enough to hold multiple people; some are tiny, built only to house candles. You can go visiting from hut to hut, being served warm rice wine and sweet cakes by that kamakura's host, usually local children.

Naked Man Festival: Every winter, one man in town is chosen to be the Naked Man. This basically means he becomes a symbolic receptacle for every else's sins. He then strips to his birthday suit (and yes it is cold here in Akita that time of year) and runs through the streets, being chased by the other townsmen wearing nothing but loincloths. If you can catch and touch the Naked Man, you transfer your sins and bad luck to him, and will have a fortunate year. He keeps running until he reaches the shrine, where he undergoes an extensive ritual purification to make sure he doesn't die from all the bad luck donated to him by his entourage of naked neighbors. In some places, women and children stand on the sidelines throwing buckets of icewater or whacking the pursuers with bamboo sticks.

Takeuchi Festival: Basically, this is a drunken brawl with the addition of gigantic bamboo poles and a bonfire. Scores of hammered Japanese men gather in teams around a bonfire, grab a bunch of bamboo poles, and proceed to beat the living **** out of each other in three short, violent rounds. Not much more to say about that one.

There are many, many more local festivals throughout the prefecture, but this is a summary of the more interesting and/or bizarre or famous ones!

Here There Be Dragons

As you may or may not know, depending how dedicated a reader you are and/or how often you talk to me, I live in Honjo, which is in Yurihonjo City in Akita Prefecture. Akita Prefecture is a rural, isolated prefecture in Japan's Tohoku region - the northern end of Honshu, the main island. Akita is at about the same latitude as Vancouver B.C. in Canada. Its summers are hot, averaging well above 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and very humid. Its winters are long, cold, and snowy - the average snowfall in Akita is one of the highest in Japan (though the snow is much deeper inland; towns like mine, on the coast, have considerably milder winters). The prefecture is on the Eastern side of the island, on the Sea of Japan. Before receiving my JET assignment, I had no idea Akita Prefecture existed - much less anything else about it. This is in no small part because Akita is one of the least well-known and least-visited prefectures in the country. Few foreigners ever see it; most Japanese never come here either. The prefecture ranks 6th in the country for its size, but 35th for its population. Like so many rural places in developed countries today, Akita is experiencing a "youth exodus". Despite a long tradition in Japan of people staying close to home and family, many young people are growing up and leaving Akita for the jobs, opportunities and general "scene" in big cities down South, like Tokyo and Osaka.

This is probably because Akita Prefecture is one of the most isolated, least-known backwaters in Japan, possibly in the developed world. If you were putting Akita on a map, you'd more or less shrug and write "here there be dragons" and then move on to worrying about someplace civilized and remotely relevant.

So what's there to know about Akita?

Well, first a few trivia facts about what Akita is "known for". Akita is famous for its rice, Akita komachi, said to be the best rice in all Japan. Due to Akita's far northern location, there is only a single rice harvest a year in the prefecture. Akita is also famous for its beef and milk, though not as famous as the better-known Kobe beef. The Hinai-jidori chicken, believed to be one of the most flavorful and delicious breeds of chicken, is also an Akita product. (As a side note, the chickens are much celebrated here - every year there is a festival in their honor, at which people wear chicken outfits, get plastered, and go around the streets doing a ritual chicken dance.) Also well-known from Akita is the Akita-inu, or Akita dog. The famously loyal Hachi, whose statue now graces Tokyo's Shinjuku station, was an Akita dog sold from this prefecture to a family in Tokyo. Perhaps of great interest to the men and some of the women in the audience, Akita is also famous for its women (Akita bijin), who are consistently ranked by the Japanese as the most beautiful women in all Japan. Akita is also famous for its dialect (ben in Japanese), Akita-ben. Akita-ben is considered one of the most challenging dialects in Japan, and is linguistically unique in that it can be spoken without ever fully opening the mouth. The story goes that Akita-dwellers developed the Akita-ben because of the prefecture's brutal winters, which were so cold that they did not want to open their mouths lest their tongues might freeze.

Industry in Akita is primarily centered around agriculture, mining, forestry and fishing. The Sea of Japan off Akita's coast is rich in numerous fish species, and the area has an abundance of trees that can be harvested for lumber. Paddy fields, in addition to some fruit and vegetable farming, checkerboard the landscape. There is not much in Akita in the way of businesses like telecom, technology, or the automotive industry - it's probably comparable to the economies of places in the US like Wyoming, Montana, Idaho or Iowa.

So what's there to do in Akita? Well, if you like hiking or camping (though Japanese camping is more car camping than wilderness trekking), Akita is a great place. It is home to Lake Tazawa, a caldera lake that is the deepest in Japan (measuring 423 meters deep). Lake Tazawa is famous because of its depth, and also that because of its depth it never freezes, not even during the harsh Akita winters. Legend has it that Tatsuko, a beautiful maiden, drank the lake water in the belief that it would grant her everlasting beauty. Greedily, she drank so much of the water that she angered the goddess Kannon, who turned her into a water dragon as punishment. Then one day, Prince Hachirotaro from a nearby village went fishinge. He caught and ate a fish from one of the streams feeding Lake Tazawa. Suddenly, he developed an unquenchable thirst - he drank the lake waters for thirty-three days without stopping, and so he too was turned into a water dragon. Unable to return home in his condition, he slipped into the lake, where he encountered Tatsuko. They became lovers, and some say that it is the passion from their lovemaking that prevents the lake from freezing in the wintertime. Akita is also home to Lake Towada, the largest caldera lake in Japan. Also in Akita Prefecture is Mount Chokai, called the Fuji of Tohoku because of its classic conical shape. Many people hike Chokai in the summer months, though snow makes it impassable during the deep Akita winters. Near Honjo, where I live, you can visit the Walk of the Thousand Jizo, a short hike along a path lined with 1,000 stone statues clothed in red fabric. The jizo are said the be the guardians of children, in particular children who died before they were born or as infants. You can also see the golden Daibutsu, or giant buddha statue, in Ouchi Town. Kakunodate is also in Akita; it is one of the best-preserved samurai towns in the country, with many samurai houses open to visitors. There are numerous onsens, some of them natural hotsprings, and many are considered among the best in Japan. If you're really into geothermal hotspots, you can visit Hell's Gate, a large and dramatic thermal area.

Akita's history is long, and much of it is also lost in the mists of time. Because of its remote location, Akita remained isolated from the rest of Japan (and therefore free of Japanese governmental recordkeeping, etc) until after 600CE. The people of Akita at this time were largely hunter-gatherers, and lived a quasi-nomadic lifestyle. The first real record of Akita is from 658CE, when the Ezo tribes of the region were conquered by Abe no Hirafu. He built a fort, beginning the Japanese settlement of what is today Akita Prefecture. Roughly seventy years later, a castle was built in what is today Akita City. This would serve as the launch point for the Japanese push even further north, into what are today Aomori and Hokkaido, as they strove to conquer the native tribespeople there. Akita Prefecture has changed management numerous times; perhaps most significant for its current manifestation was the 260 year period it was ruled by the Satake clan under the Tokugawa Shogunate. The Satake clan established the agricultural, forestry, fishing and mining industries that are today still the pillars of Akita's economy. Akita's daimyos were among the last to fall to the Meiji restoration, persisting in the Akita tradition of headstrong independence and fierce isolationism. Eventually, though, the daimyos' hold in Akita weakened, and the Meiji Restoration redrew Akita's borders into what is modern-day Akita Prefecture.

Is the Japanese Educational System Better or Worse Than the American System?

Like I said in my original post, I teach at three schools; Yuri Elementary, Yuri Junior High, and Yashima Elementary. Of the three, I definitely find Yashima the biggest challenge. Nobody there really speaks English, and as far as I can ascertain, nobody is exactly dying to learn, either. Yuri Elementary and Yuri Junior High are exceptionally motivated and academically-oriented schools, and it shows; moreover, the original principal of Yuri Elementary, a wonderful man named Kinichi Sato (who, though now retired, visits Yuri Elem a few times a month to team teach with me), was a world traveler with a firm conviction that English is crucial to facilitating international education and exchange. As a result, Yuri Elementary is an absolute pinnacle of English achievement. Throughout the school, items and doorways like desks, classrooms, and cubbies are labeled in English. The school has multiple visiting English specialists who are fluent second-tongue speakers, as well as an English-oriented curriculum coordinator. Mr. Sato himself is 100% fluent in English, as is the visiting English specialist, the estimable Mr. Ryosuke Watanabe. Mr. Takano, the curriculum coordinator, speaks fairly well, and Mr. Sugawara, a random teacher at the school, is also 100% fluent. Yuri Elementary kids are clean, bright, energetic, polite, outgoing, motivated and adorable. They can also form sentences in English, and hold simple conversations.

Yuri is a rare, rare diamond twinkling and rising above the butchered English cesspool that is apparently much more normal for elementary schools in Japan.

Yashima is definitely not a diamond in the cesspool, much less above it.

Honestly, to me the whole atmosphere in Yashima is oddly depressing, but that's besides the point. Let's face it; I think the current public education system in America is pretty bad. The system here in Japan is definitely different, so the real question is, which one do I think is better?

Like almost everything here in the Land of the Rising Sun, that's not a simple question. The main thing I can say with certainty here is that the two systems are definitely different - which I guess means that they succeed and fail in different ways. One major strength of the Japanese system is that, unlike the US system, it's not being co-opted as a channel for religious evangelism. Japanese schools are very secular. On the other hand, US schools do encourage individuality, personal identity and free choice - by letting students pick their own classes, say, or having open-format reading assignments where the student can choose their own book for a report. Japan, in contrast, creates a homogenous educational pool. Since there is no such thing as elective courses, and since all students have the same rotation of teachers due to the whole teachers-change-rooms thing, every student at a given school receives exactly the same eduction. This has its advantages; no student, for example, ever has three teachers schedule major projects due on the same day, nor does anyone have a heavier workload than their peers. In effect, these systems reflect the core values of the cultures in which they exist. The US values independence, personal identity, and out-of-the-box thinking. Japan values conformity, social harmony (called wa), and unquestioning obedience to precedence and tradition. "Why?" is a very dangerous question in Japan; in the US, it's something we're expected to ask. To a degree we rarely contemplate at home, the United States is indeed a nation of ferocious individualists. I didn't quite comprehend this until I moved to Japan, to find myself in a country that values conformists as highly as my own values individualists.

Also, the US system is one that is much more inclined toward teaching critical thinking and analytical skills. Not so Japan; though famed for their math achievement, that achievement is the result of the same process by which all information here is imparted; by rote. Japanese teaching doesn't consist of teaching so much as it does of saying things and having the kids repeat it back to you. This results in an amazing wealth of memorized facts and formulas, but little to no ability to think critically or apply that knowledge in any context other than that in which it was originally presented. This, obviously, is not a plus. On the other hand, many American students lack a sufficiently broad base of factual knowledge - also not a plus.

In the end, I think both systems are imperfect, but are shaped by and (more or less) appropriate to the cultures they serve. (I'd like to see changes in both, personally, but I don't run the zoo.) At any rate, being American, I'm always biased to leap toward saying the American way is "better" or "right"....but I'm not sure that's true. If Japan wanted to be more American, then maybe a more American approach to teaching would be right. But for Japan, especially a Japan that is and evidently wants to remain Japanese, the Japanese system with its accompanying strengths and weaknesses seems best suited to producing solid, effective Japanese adults - and the same goes for the American system. American thinking and attitudes are as out of place in Japan as Japanese ones are in America, and I think that's something that's important to come to grips with as an expat here. Schools, I'm finding, do much more than teach us reading and arithmetic. They condition us to become functional adults in the culture we live in - they shape our manners, thinking models, knowledge bases, biases, and worldview. And in that sense, the rote system here - which receives plenty of criticism in the foreign media - is actually pretty darn well suited to the rigidly conformist, communally oriented world in which Japanese adults dwell. To an outsider, it looks boring, unimaginative, stifling, and impractical, but maybe that's because we can only see it through our own (foreign) eyes.

So which system is better, American or Japanese? Both have their advantages and drawbacks, both have flaws, both could probably be improved - but in the end, I think it's a wash. I will say though, that American schools are better for Americans than Japanese schools would be; the same is true in reverse. Better? Worse? No, just different. Though I would definitely not object to less time spent rehashing the humanitarian tragedies inflicted on this nation by mine as seen through the eyes of an old tree. Thank you, New Horizon English Course.

Festivals and Holidays in Japan

This weekend was the Honjo City Festival, which is celebrated over two days (Saturday and Sunday). The city streets are hung with colorful paper lanterns, and in empty lots stages and floats are set up. The festival is basically like a city-wide block party. On Saturday night, children perform dances and taiko drumming that they've been practicing, and families meet up, eat tasty festival food, watch the performances, and play the usual goldfish-catching and target shooting Japanese festival games. On Sunday, starting pretty dang early in the morning (those taiko drums are LOUD!), teams of people pull the floats through the city streets, playing drums, shakuhachi and shamisen. They stop at various points along the routes so the kids can dance some more, and old men circulate with bamboo flasks and cups, trays of dried squid, and boxes of Popsicles. If you're me, you might get special attention because you're foreign, and find yourself invited to sit/squat with a group of old guys who are very friendly, force-feed you sake and squid, and can't really communicate with you because they only speak Akita-ben ("ben" means dialect, and the Akita one is infamous - it makes regular Japanese look like learning to count to ten). Families mill around chatting, kids play in the streets, and it's generally a very sociable occasion - not unlike the great American block party, only this one goes for two days and involves alcohol at 9am. But, interestingly enough, festivals and holidays are two different things in Japan! Festivals don't qualify as holidays, because you don't get time off from work. Holidays are observed nationally and the whole country shuts down, including the ATMs. (Those close every night, too.) Festivals are usually local, and can be as brief as a single evening or as long as several days. Festivals usually have events to attend, like fireworks displays, dance or musical performances, or parades. Holidays are usually observed privately, with family and friends. Although some holidays, like Girls' Day in the springtime (Hina Matsuri), will feature public displays - in the case of Girls' Day, elaborate displays of traditional dolls with ritual sweets as offerings to the gods for good luck - most holidays won't have any visible public observance other than a lack of postal, banking and ATM service. Curiously enough, unlike the US, most retail businesses and restaurants continue to operate on national holidays. It seems that the Japanese have festivals almost every weekend - if your town isn't having one, there is probably one within an hour or two happening in a neighboring town. In addition to all these local celebrations, Japan also has more national holidays than any other country in the world. They also have a policy that if a normal day falls in between two holidays, the intervening day also becomes a holiday! It's gotten me wondering what role all these celebrations play in the fabric of Japanese society.

Culturally, the Japanese draw very distinct and harsh boundaries between the inner, private world and the outer, public world. Personal life is rarely if ever brought into the office - you may not know your deskmate is seeing anyone, until she takes a week off to go on her honeymoon. Even more so than this sort of public-private division, Japanese are discreet to the point of being secretive about their true thoughts and feelings. In Japanese, this is described as honne, or or true thoughts, and tatamae, which translates as somewhere between "social veneer" and "white lie". The language facilitates this, as most words and sentences are wide open to interpretation - sometimes so much so that the possible interpretations may be direct opposites. Compounded by the fact that directly saying "no" isn't the done thing in Japanese, untangling the intended meaning of a sentence can be tricky enough for a foreigner - and forget wading through to grasp the original feelings or thoughts of the speaker. What does this little linguistic detour have to do with festivals? Well, I've been pondering that myself recently. You see, another Japanese cultural institution that is often shocking to Westerners is their use of alcohol. In the West, Japanese drinking (which, I can hardly deny, is both frequent and copious) seems like a horrible national case of alcoholism. But I think this may be overlooking an important point.

In Japan, there is a belief that "Before alcohol, all are equals". Alcohol levels social barriers and hierarchies that are normally insurmountable - an important release in such a strictly delineated society. Alcohol is the key to the gate when an inferior needs to communicate with a superior, but is normally prohibited from doing so by Japan's rigid status hierarchy. Moreover, what is said over drinks is rarely held against the speaker; it won't be forgotten, so it's not a total get out of jail free card, but when drinking you can say many things in Japan, and to people, that you could never do when NOT drinking. Living in Akita, I have begun to wonder if what looks like alcoholism in the West isn't, in fact, an elaborate social ritual that is important to maintain balance in a distinctly Eastern society. Over drinks, and nowhere else in Japan, can a bit of that internal honne infringe on the external world where, at all other times, tatamae, that uniquely Japanese polite fiction, holds sway.