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.

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