Yesterday I took a long-overdue trip to the nearest 100-yen store, which also happens to be the first one I've ever been to. These days a lot of things are happening with people leaving and my tenure drawing to a close, so I've been thinking a great deal about my time here. My reflections lead me to start a little mini-series I'll call Recollection. I hope to be able to include a little photo with each of my remembrances.
For maybe the first week in Gyoda, I had no real access to internet. I remember huddling in one uncomfortable corner of my apartment, trying in vain to get a suitable connection to a neighbor's unsecured wireless network. Failing that, I took to roaming the streets on my bicycle (a total "mamachari" or Mama Chariot if you must know) with my laptop tucked in the basket, screen open and ready to display any signal I might come across. It was summer (and damn hot) and I was ready to camp out just about anywhere so I could write home. Remember, at this point I don't even think I knew my phone number, much less how to call out. Regardless, I found no signal.
Unfortunately I don't quite remember how, but I stumbled across the best free internet in town on the top floor of Paseos, our local throwback-to-the-80s department store. If you sat in a certain area, you could get a signal that was reliable enough to send out some emails before conking out. The bonus was that the area in which you could sit also happened to be the cafeteria for Paseos, which meant that there were actually tables and food and drink! After my search, I had come to paradise. It was made doubly enticing by the fact that though it was sweltering outside, it was nicely air-conditioned within.
Once we got to know each other more, I remember sitting there for quite the long stretches with Nichole and Peter, sharing computers before we all had one and sometimes plastering ourselves to the window in vain attempt to get back a signal that had died. I've never eaten mediocre cafeteria curry so many days in a row, and I do hope I never do again! We always got soft-serve ice cream after our curry/wi-fi fix, and since we were still all furnishing our apartments to our liking, often a 100-yen store visit followed.
These days, any trip back to Paseos brings back those memories. All I have to do is look out the window and remember those first summer days.
You can read one of my original posts about it here: http://www.shock-e.com/archives/2004/08/a_town_called_gyoda.html
Last night I hosted a small barbecue that was supposed to be the last real get-together of The League. It started out innocuously enough with a very small fire in the local park that was carefully coaxed into being over the course of about an hour (yeah it always takes us forever to get fires going). We cooked our food, then my neighbors came over to cook theirs.
Now, there were never more than four people at any one time at this fire. It was also contained in a barbecue grill that I have. Yet we must have ruffled someone's feathers by having too much fun (read: standing around and cooking quietly), because both the fire department and the police showed up within minutes of each other. Mind you, this was after we'd had a fire going for over an hour. It was uncomfortable but they were very courteous and we were asked not to do it at night.
Someone had apparently called in about it. It's really too bad that people can't be more accepting of even such a small step out of the norm. Spontaneity in Japan is dead.
Regardless, we had a good time and I am very thankful that both the FD and the PD were good-hearted about it. In fact, the police looked quite regretful to continue their patrol!
Today on my way to the bank I saw something I never thought I'd see anywhere in Japan, much less in my little town of Gyoda: A protest! Here I was for three years thinking I lived in pretty much the most apathetic country on Earth, but this is an obvious sign that such is not the case.
Granted, they were protesting a tax hike (when do people not protest a tax hike?), but it was a bit refreshing to see Japanese people get up and fight something they don't want instead of shrugging and accepting it with the obligatory しょうがない (shouganai: roughly it means "can't be helped").
Pictures to come, if I can get the pictures off of my phone.
Today I prevailed upon one of the Home Economy teachers to give me help in sewing a blanket for my friend's soon-to-be one year old daughter. I wanted to give a gift that was something a little more special than a generic baby toy, which I'm sure they have a billion of. I remembered my own baby blanket and wanted to make one.
The problem was that I haven't sewn enough in my life to actually be able to put together something even as simple as a blanket. Horiguchi-sensei really helped me out and enabled me to make a pretty kickass (in a cute way) baby blanket.
I'm glad that in this country there are still plenty of people who are willing to help out instead of defaulting to "I'm busy." She saved the day!
Yesterday our third grade (the equivalent of senior) students graduated. The ceremony was predictably very long, filled with formality and speeches and tears.
For me it was a particularly poignant time because I had to say goodbye to two of my dearest students, we'll call them A-san and A-san. They were scared and small first graders in the English Club when I first came to my school, also scared and small. I feel closest to them because we all grew together and we're all leaving.
Of course, I really doubt they feel so strongly about the whole thing seeing as to them I'm only a teacher, but seeing them go has made me reflect a great deal on my time here.
I hope I see them again.
Pete and I went to Korea for a short trip. It's very cheap (under $400) for airfare and hotel for 3 nights, and it's quite a short flight. Why not, right?
We arrived at night and had a hell of a time finding the hotel. The reviews of the hotel online weren't exaggerating when they said it's hard to find. We ended up being in the complete wrong part of the area, though luckily some weird guy on a bike decided he wanted to practice English with us and helped us find the place. Admittedly, there was a little suspicion as to why he was being so nice to us...
The second day we did a lot of palace/temple sightseeing. When in asia...
One palace you can only enter via a guided tour. Unfortunately, the English tours are rather few and far between, so Pete's stroke of genius was to take a Japanese-language tour. It worked beautifully. Coincidentally, the day on which we took the tour also happened to be Independence Day in Korea...Independence from Japan. So during the tour, at one point our tour was waiting for another all-Korean tour to exit a certain area of the palace so we could fit in. The tension was rather tangible, as many of the Koreans exiting gave the Japanese group the evil eye. In true Japanese fashion, however, our group seemed completely clueless.
The next day we did more palace touring, this time in the rain.
Highlights: Check out the colorful painting that is clearly different than Japanese-style historical architecture. Also of note is the bowl of silkworm larvae that is supposedly a "popular street snack." I can't see how it can be popular, as I ate one and it was...unpalatable, to say the least. Without further ado, here you go!
I've made a big move from one hosting provider to another. With any luck, everything will go smoothly without any sort of loss of this page.
If you see anything weird (particularly in the images area, I'm still working on ironing that out), please let me know.
Look forward to a photo gallery and summary of my just-past Korea trip!