Part II

PART TWO:
Written on October 4th, 2007 (Thursday)


So far fall term has been full of three day weekends, which is great, but I guess after this they pretty much stop. So, Hylton and I are trying to make the best use of time off by exploring when we can. We have this upcoming Monday off for "Health and Sports Day," which apparently is a national holiday. Our first three day weekend we stayed home, the next we went to Tokyo, and the one after that we went to Chiba. So, this weekend we are planning to go to Osaka. While traveling in Australia Hylton met a Japanese guy named Atsushi who has been living in there as a pilot. He is from Osaka and is currently back there until November. He has offered to show us around and stuff, so we thought this would be a good opportunity to see Japan's third largest city. We were going to take an overnight bus from Tokyo to Osaka to save money, but that ended up costing not too much less than it would to take the shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka on Saturday morning. The shinkansen is Japan's bullet train, which can get you from Tokyo to Osaka in two and a half hours. If you look on a map, you'll see that this is pretty fast. So this way we should get decent sleep beforehand, which is fairly crucial. Unfortunately the shinkansen, though not too much more expensive than that overnight bus, is still super expensive. I don't remember the exact amounts now, but I think it'll end up costing us at least 30,000 yen to get there and back. Pretty expensive, but it is also really nice to know someone in a place and have them tell you what to check out. Hylton has also been trying to connect with some Japanese musicians through the Internet, and there is a group he wants to see that is playing there on Saturday afternoon. So that would be fun too.

And speaking of Hylton and Japanese musicians, you'll remember, loyal reader, that he befriended a band he saw play at the outdoor festival in Chiba a few weeks ago. They all traded emails and so forth, and they wrote him and asked him to play a show with them in Tokyo on December 1st. Two friends of the band went to English-only high schools here in Japan, so I think they should help lower the language barrier a bit. Ah yes, best part: the band is called AMERICAN SHORT HAIR. When I saw this on the line-up at the festival I had a good laugh, and it was only later that I realized they might be talking about the breed of cat. Hair cut or cat, both pretty good.

Yesterday afternoon, as I was riding from Nango Elementary back to the 121 that takes me home, I had one of those experience-affirming interactions. The weather was looking pre-stormish, and there was that slight chill in the air that emerged just days ago, that is perhaps only recognizable after the intense humidity that was September. So, under gray skies I slowed as I approached to the right of the road a group of middle-aged women packing up shop. Six or seven bonneted and hatted-Japanese women were loading barrels onto the bed of the small white flatbed truck, that is to me so characteristic of this little agricultural town. The scene looked so idyllic that after barely rolling by I stopped, hesitated, and then moved my bike out of the road. I rummaged through the bag in my bike basket to locate my camera, and then a few konnichiwas later I approached them and asked if it would be alright if I took a picture. Of course, what I said was more like "Picture okay is?", but they seemed to get it, and after looking around at one another, nodded and smiled. They sort of shuffled around for a bit in the dirt of the field they had been working in all day, and then made some jokes about not looking fit for a picture, and finally got close enough together that I could get them in the viewfinder of my camera. After I got their picture I asked if I could get in there too. They seemed to like this, and oohed as I walked up and towered over them. As they all barely came up to my shoulders, I stood behind them, looking out of place in more ways than one.

After that we got talking, which means I ran and got my dictionary. They were harvesting peanuts and sweet potatoes, which here are long and purple. I was offered a bit of both, and instructed to take a bite of each, fresh from the earth. With a foreigner in their midst, they seemed interested in talking with me. Most of their questions were things I could imagine being asked in this situation, so it wasn't too difficult. Am I an English teacher around here? How long have I been here, and when am I leaving? Where am I from? Where do I live? When asked this last one, one woman actually ran to her bag and got out paper and a pen so she could write down my address. I don't think she got the whole thing, but I described the general area where I live, and as there really aren't that many other white girls running around, if they saw me again I think they'd know it. I think a few of them told me where they lived, and one apparently lived just down the street from where we were. At that point there was some commotion, and when I looked up what they were saying in my jisho (dictionary) I realized one was saying something like she:d be pleased if I... and the next thing I knew two of them were yanking two gigantic sweet potatoes from the ground. They were then rinsed off, bagged, and handed to me. I think I bowed my way to an appropriate level of politeness, but I was really very touched. Especially since what they gave me probably would have cost me at least five dollars at a store.




After maybe ten or fifteen minutes we had sort of run out of things to say, the sky was darkening and I didn't want to take up anymore of their time, so I thanked them, said goodbye, and swung onto my bike. After another round of thank-yous, I waved and was on my way. As I went on down that small stretch of road I passed the man with the vegetable truck, from whom I bought a tomato and a cucumber last Wednesday, and when he responded to my hello I think he must have remembered me from before.

This all was after an afternoon of third and fifth graders, and the very last bit of recess that I caught as I biked to Nango after I finished lunch at Naruto Higashi. To get into the back of the school where I am supposed to park my bike, I have to bike past the playground to get into the one gate that isn't locked. The first week or two I rode past elicited a few surprised noises from the children near enough to the road to spot me. Once I had taught a few classes and my name had apparently been passed around the school, I got a few hellos (hello = konnichiwa). This week some of the first graders (my eternal friends) on top of the playground hill saw me, and shouted MEREDESU-SENSEI as I waved and flew by. I had already been thinking that I would try to go out at recess to play if I got there in time, but now I knew I had to.

So, I parked my bike, got into the building, changed from my outdoor shoes to my indoor shoes, and hurried into the teachers room. I did the formal greetings to the vice principle and the head teacher, and asked the head teacher (who speaks a decent amount of English) if I could go out and play. As I set down my bag at the little table that serves as my weekly desk, I saw a boy and a girl out in the hall staring at me. I smiled and waved, and they shyly waved back. When I went into the hall, Iwasaka-sensei grabbed them and forced them to introduce themselves to me. When this happens most kids speak either too quietly or too quickly for me to actually remember their names and this time was no different, but I smiled and shook their hands all the same. Then I headed to the door, where I changed my shoes again (back into outdoor shoes) so I could go outside and join the children at recess. It didn't take too long for a ragtag team of children to come and greet me. We sort of shuffled over to the little koi pond (I just found out this weekend that koi just means carp in Japanese... how unexotic), where the kids stood around sort of shyly, poking sticks into the water. Not having anything close to a command of their language proved a huge hindrance, but a lot of the kids just wanted to come say hello, tell me their names, and find out how old I am. All of that I can handle. The little girl who had waved shyly to me out in the hall now took charge of me, and showed me some yellow mushrooms that were hiding underneath a little sapling by the pond. Eventually a gigantic girl named Megumi came over, and once in my presence didn't let go of me. If you have seen the movie My Neighbor Totoro you can imagine Megumi as a large Totoro. Both girls were third graders that I would be teaching that day. Also during recess many of the first graders I had taught in the weeks previous ran up to say hello. In all I got three presents: an acorn shell from the little boy in the hall (a third grader), a blade of grass from Totoro (Megumi), and paper with hiragana and drawings all over it, that neither Hylton nor I could make sense of. I don't know if it was just something the girl had in her pocket at the time (and was feeling generous), or if it was actually intended for me. Either way, I was pleased.

Details of our weekend in Osaka to follow...