Lorraine, my density has brought me to you.

Did you know that in Morrocco it is common to exchange a small gift when meeting somebody for the first time? In Japan, you must always commit suicide to avoid embarrassment. In Italy, you must always wash your hands after going to the bathroom. This is considered to be polite.
–The Office

Quite of lot of interesting things have happened in the past few months. Like my time in Yamaguchi, I’ve experienced a lot of cultural episodes for the first time, although this time around my experiences have been a bit different, mainly, I assume, because I’m not an exchange student and thus haven’t been hanging out almost exclusively with other exchange students. Add in the fact that I’m dating a Japanese girl whose family seems to like me quite a bit, and it’s been a lot more interesting (and simultaneously nerve wracking at times.)

Touching back on that Hanshin Tigers game I mentioned in my last blog post, I didn’t have pictures at the time so didn’t think to desribe some of the stranger customs of the Hanshin fans. At set times throughout the game–the beginning of the 7th inning and the end of the game, if I remember correctly–the Hanshin fans collectively blow up thousands of these giant euphamistically shaped balloons and when commanded, release them into the air with a cheer. There appears to be no greater purpose to this custom other than to release balloons in the air, but it is what it is.

The balloons

Anyway, of the things to write about, nearly all of them happened during my two week winter break from work, and I really had a blast. For Christmas, Nahomi and I visited Universal Studios Japan, which on Christmas Eve put on a really cool Christmas musical with a giant tree lighting. It’d been forever since I’d gone to Universal Studios as a kid, and I was delighted to see some of the old rides I remembered loving, like E.T. and Back to the Future, especially since the latter has been disconntinued in the States. Back to the Future was exactly like the ride I remember, only dubbed into Japanese. Newer rides like Spiderman were also really cool. But the Christmas show definitely took the cake. In the central square of the mock city that is USJ, they put on a show complete with dancing angels, performers, and a huge choir, all on the facade of this 4 storey building that was used as a giant projector screen to make all sorts of moving images appear on it. It’s kind of hard to describe, so I recommend just checking out the pictures and videos on Flickr.

Universal Studios Japan

On the 26th, Nahomi, me, her best friend, Tsukasa, and her boyfriend, Yushi, all took a night bus to Nagano Prefecture north of Tokyo for a 4 day snowboarding trip. It was my first time to snowboard and I’d only been skiing once before as well (in Hiroshima when I lived in Yamaguchi), so I was a little nervous about how bad I’d suck. But I took it all in stride and luckily Yushi had been many times in the past and turned out to be a pretty good teacher. I managed to fall down countless times my first day, but had improved enough by the second and third day that I only fell a few times. We even took a 20-minute sealed car to the very top of the mountain –the ‘no beginners allowed zone’–and I managed not to Sonny Bono or anything like that, so I was relieved to say the least. The place was just beautiful; I definitely recommend checking out the pictures. One funny thing was that there was a KFC halfway up the mountain. Their selection was limited, as is to be expected for a fast food shop halfway up a steep mountain, but there it was on the side of a mountain in the Japanese Alps, a marvel of globalization.

Snowboarding in the Japan Alps

January 1st was also Nahomi’s birthday, so on New Year’s Eve I took her out to dinner at La Tour,  a nice French restaurant at the top of the Swissôtel Nankai in the Namba district of central Osaka. For her present I bought her a pair of silver Gucci Bamboo Heart earrings, which she loved. New Year’s Day I went with Nahomi and Tsukasa to a jinja (a Shinto shrine), where they wore kimono, as is the custom for girls who have just turned twenty. (Nahomi had actually just turned 21 but hadn’t gotten to go the previous year as she was in America studying abroad.) The temple itself was packed with people praying for good fortune for the new year and buying omamori–various kinds of amulets with purposes ranging from health and good fortune to a good score on an upcoming test. But most all, I think, people came for the wonderful food. There were all kinds of stalls selling everything from grilled corn on the cob to turkey legs. The most popular food by far was bebi kasutera (‘baby castella’), which is kasutera (Japanese sponge-cake originally from Portugal) except in little balls you buy per bag. I think we waited about an hour just to get ours. It was good, but not that good if you ask me.

Following the trip to the jinja, Nahomi and I returned to her house where her mother had made the family temakizushi (lit. hand-rolled sushi), a kind of do-it-yourself sushi, where you grab a piece of nori (dried seaweed) and throw some rice and whatever else you want in it. They had everything from beef, to veggies to squid. It was really good! Before the meal, I also learned how to play–tried to learn I should say–hanafuda, a type of Japanese poker with Nahomi’s cousins. Everyone was really nice to say the least–they really made me feel like part of the family, as everyone went out of their way to talk to me, ask me if I wanted more beer (it goes great with temakizushi), tell me something about Japanese traditions, etc. After eating, I had probably the weirdest experience of my stay in Japan so far. Nahomi’s grandmother showed me the family butsudan, a type of Buddhist shrine that commemorates the family’s dead ancestors. She showed me some old black and white photos of her father, grandfather, etc. Most of these were of old looking men, but one was of a very young man in an Imperial Navy uniform. “My  brother,” she said. “He died in the war.” She went on to explain that he was on the Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, when it sank. It was just strange to think of how history works out sometimes–how he had been killed on the opposite side of WWII, yet there I was, an American, in his sister’s home, dating his great-neice, and enjoying the holidays with his family. It made me realize how unfortunate war is in very personal terms. Finally, Nahomi’s grandmother made tea for everyone and we did a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. Since she had made tea for everyone, someone needed to make it for her, and she asked me if I’d like to give it a try, so I got to make some as well.

Makin' some tea

Later in the week, I headed to Yamaguchi to visit old friends. Only after living in Osaka, a city of 8 million, did I realize just how rural Yamaguchi is. Everything seemed smaller than I remember–the buildings were shorter, the streets more narrow, everything. But it still had charm, especially as I was walking down the side walk and bumped into my old Nicaraguan friend Jader, who recognized me as he rode by on his bike and stopped to say hi. Those kinds of things happen occassionally in Osaka, but not nearly as often. Over the next few days there I just enjoyed going out with friends, such as Thomas, a friend from OU who’s studying abroad there, Yuki and Sachiyo, former OU exchange students I met in Oklahoma, Brent, who was visiting his then-fiance (now wife) Akiko, and all of my old Japanese friends who probably never thought they’d see me again. Walking into places like ‘Cocky’ or ‘Johnny’s’ and having the owners do a double-take then freak when they saw me was a pretty fun thing.

Over the eastern shore, the ocean was all I came for

Well, after a little over a year back in the States, I’m now once again living in Japan. This time, I’m doing the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program, which I must say was a lot harder to get into than the study abroad program I did before. Never the less, I’m here, settled in, and having a good time so far. I’ve been here two months and a lot has happened–probably most of which I won’t be able to remember while I’m typing this, and I apologize for that–but from now on I’ll try to update this a least once a month, maybe every other week if I’ve got a lot of news.

So, it all started with a flight–a long, long flight. (Actually, three flights to be exact.) Only this time, I knew the flight would be long, so I deprived myself of sleep to the point of having only a few hours in as many days, and I managed to make the time seem more like a drive to Dallas than a flight across the world. I think, in all, I slept probably 12 or 13 hours of my 15 hour flight. The movies were horrible anyway. (I think they even played feature length version of Stomp–so that’s two hours I can’t be blamed for.)

Anyway, I finally arrived in Tokyo’s Narita Airport with the other JETs I met in Houston mid-afternoon, made it through immigration and customs with no hitches, sent my bags off to Tondabayashi (a suburb of Osaka), where I live and work, and boarded a bus to the hotel. We stayed at the Keio Plaza Hotel, which was pretty nice, although I must say the room was nearly identical to the Tokyo Holiday Inn Brent and I stayed at 2 years before. On the first day we were free to do whatever so two of the girls I met in Houston and I all went out for dinner. The next day was orientation, which was surprisingly interesting. One man, who was the head of the Ministry of Education, if I can remember, was pretty funny. I think he talked for 15 minutes or so about how nervous he was to give speeches, then gave a speech for about the other 15.

Home, sweet home

After orientation ended, I caught the shinkansen to Osaka with Joe, an American who’s my “prefectural advisor” and John, another JET from Australia. After arriving at the Osaka Prefectural Board of Education building, we met some of the staff from our respective schools, signed some contracts and other forms , and were on our way. I arrived at Tondabayashi pretty late in the evening; was shown my apartment, where I met another teacher who had gone through the trouble of setting everything up for me; met the owners of my apartment complex, who live next door; bought some food from the grocery store down the street; and crashed. (Pictures are from later, when I actually got stuff put in order.)

On Saturday I woke up early and went to my school, which is only about 10 minutes by bike from my apartment. The bike I was left was not the best, and I figured I’d be riding it for a year at least, so I bought a new one that day as well. At my school I met some of the other staff, was shown around, and was generally stared at by the students who happened to be there preparing for the bunkasai (culture festival) which was coming up. (More on that later.)

Anyway, over the next few days (and weeks) I finally got settled in. For the first month I didn’t do much as I didn’t really know anyone, had no computer with which to contact anyone, didn’t yet know my way around, and was basically just trying to get my bearings. By the middle of September, I’d met quite a few people through my new friend Matt, who happens to be another OU alum working for the JET Program in Osaka, who happened to spot me on Facebook and shoot me a message. About that time, Nahomi also arrived back in Japan and since she lives nearby, we can meet pretty often. (That in and of itself is a weird story, seeing as how I didn’t even request to be placed in Osaka and was even told not to ask for it because it’s where everyone asks to go and I’d just be wasting a choice of location.)

'The Spiders' dance team

Also in mid September (13th and 14th) was the school bunkasai I mentioned earlier. This is basically a huge festival that takes place over the weekend at the school grounds and is managed almost entirely by the students. Each class plans their own activity, such as a play, a food vendor, or some other attraction. The third year (senior) students all do plays with their respective homerooms that are performed at the city theatre down the street from the high school. These were by far my favorite part of the bunkasai. Two of the classes did American plays, the Lion King and West Side Story, both of which were exceptional. I couldn’t believe the amount of work the students put into everything–from the costumes to the choreography to the sets, everything looked so professional. There were quite a few other things going on too, such as a ‘haunted house’ one class put on, a planetarium another did, lots of food and musical performances by some student rock bands. I also managed to attend a traditional tea ceremony put on by some students in the traditional style tea room the school has (which I was surprised about.) Everything ended on Sunday evening with a big bonfire that all the students ran around–it reminded me a lot of that scene from Lord of the Flies where everyone runs all primal-like around the fire. I even managed to get ran into while I was trying to film it. (I’ll upload the video when I can.) I realized for the seniors at least, this was the last bit hurrah of their high school careers. After that, it’s preparing for the college entrance exams and then off to university.

So far I haven’t done much travelling, but have managed to see a few cool things, mostly thanks to Nahomi. Her mom got us both tickets to see a Hanshin Tigers game, which, despite my dislike of baseball, was a really good time. The Hanshin fans are unlike any other in baseball. I think they’re the only baseball fans I know who perform organized cheers throughout the entire–and I mean entire–game. Over and over and over. Not sure that it worked though, as we ended up with a 1-1 tie after 13 innings, which was just long enough for me to miss the last train. Luckily, Nahomi’s train ran longer and her mom was kind enough to drive me home.

Kushikatsu

Aside from that, I’ve been to quite a few parties and met a ton of people so far. I really like being so close to Namba and Shinsaibashi, the places to be in south Osaka. There’s just so much to do, yet because the district is laid out on a grid, it’s very easy to find your way around. Not to mention the subway. Not too far off, Nahomi and I went to Tsutenkaku, a large tower in the Shinsekai district, where you can get a nice view of Osaka and try some kushikatsu at the many little shops in the area. (We ate that the most famous place, Daruma.) I must say, it’s now one of my favorite foods here.

Rain at the end of the tunnel

Hello again, everyone. It’s been well over a month since my last update, so quite a bit has happened. Unfortunately, when I get busy and put off writing these things, it gets harder to remember everything I’ve done, so I’ll try and cover at least the main things.

Following my last post was my birthday party. This year, my birthday (May 13) fell on a Sunday, so I opted to have my party on the Saturday before. All-in-all it was a blast, with over 30 people attending. We decided to return to our roots and start the night at Hakkenden, in the same back room where we had our first big get-together. I got a lot of cool gifts too, such as soccer cleats from Antonio (AKA Darth Jader) and a CD holder made of an Oklahoma license plate from Sarah and Anne. After a couple of hours there, we headed to karaoke at a place called Ashanti. I didn’t think to make a reservation there, but with the size of our group it turns out I should have. After being told we’d have to wait a couple hours for one of their large rooms to open up. We decided to instead try another place down the road called Shidax. Lucky for us, they were able to literally build a new room for us. You see, the big lobby has a section where hanging wall pieces can be attached to the ceiling and rolled into place to partition off a seperate room. Thus, we were able to rent a room big enough to accommodate everyone and we all had a great time. After that, we went to Johnny’s for a little while. Michael and and Yutaka jammed on the guitars, people sang, talked, and generally had a good time there as well.