Christmas in Japan

So it’s coming up on Christmas time. As of yesterday I’m officially on my Christmas break, and I am in desperate need of it!!

I haven’t been up to much since my birthday except for a weekend (last weekend) in Kyoto with some close friends who are leaving Japan for good. Tomorrow I’m off to Tokyo to see them off (with a drink at the Park Hyatt lost in translation-style) and I also want to do various things around, like looking at the Christmas lights and renewing my passport.

Christmas in Japan is not very exciting. As they are completely unaware of what it actually involves, Christmas eve has turned into a very popular date night! Christmas day they relax – though if it weren’t on a Saturday this year they would be in the office, and the minute it hits the 26th, all the Christmas lights are changed into Oshogatsu (New Years) decorations… so I hear! The Japanese do very beautiful Christmas lights I must say – last year there was this screen of lights on the Nagoya station building that changed scenes and showed the various seasons throughout the year. Sadly enough this is not there this year. And sadly enough no amount of lights will make up for the Christmas spirit and atmosphere which somehow seems to appear back home. I hear that Osaka now even has a German Christmas market – which would be very interesting to go to! I wonder how much that’ll add to the atmosphere.




More and more kids are getting a present for Christmas – I heard one of my kids ask another kid the other day if his present had been decided – on top of which they still get tons and tons of money on New Years day from various relatives and friends. However, they don’t understand the concept of Christmas presents really – because their new years money only comes from older people. i.e. If you were older than your younger cousin, you’re expected to give them money, but if they were older you could just sit there and cash in. Which would be good from my standpoint of being the youngest of the family.

So I will be here, seeing as many friends and keeping busy as much as possible to try and keep some sort of Christmas atmosphere in my heart. It’s just not the same!!

p.s. pictures of the lights etc will be up once i take them in a few days' time.

Japanese baby names

I have this urge to share this peculiarity with you.

We choose our baby names based on sound, or relatives, and only sometimes meaning.
However japanese take the word 'meaning' to a whole new level.
I've just learned from a friend who is pregnant that the Japanese baby naming system is based on fortune.

Japanese 'kanji', writing symbols derived from Chinese characters, has a certain number of strokes. This is the amount of times you make a line on the paper. The amount of times you out your brush down and lift it up again. To keep it simple - our letter l has 1 stroke, but our letter t has two strokes. chapice?

Now, Japanese are made up of a certain number of kanji - for example Tanaka, when written in Japanese is 田中, so it has 2 kanji. The first kanji has 5 strokes, and the second 4. So you get 5-4.

For the first name, you now consult a book, to look up what stroke combinations for the first name when put together with the last name bring good luck - i.e. how many strokes, when matched with 5-4 (for Tanaka), would bring good luck.
The book will say, for example, 10-6.
So then you look for a name that has 2 kanji, with the first having 10 strokes, and the second 6 strokes. Some people get clever and will put kanji together than don't usually go together, but technically CAN be read that way. This then means that sometimes even Japanese can't automatically read someone's name on paper.
And finally, if you're stuck on a name, but the stroke count is unfortunate, sometimes Japanese people just revert to their simpler form of writing - called hiragana.

Complicated enough for you? I'll take the easy option please!

I'm getting old... 23!

Hey hey hey!
It's been exactly a month since i wrote! Wow, this time time has gone by reasonably quickly.

First of all, I have received an offer from Nottingham to study biological photography and I have officially accepted the offer. It seems strange thinking that I am leaving this place. I have never had a very short-term attitude (nor a long-term attitude) but now with people learning that I will be leaving they keep on reminding me that I only have 5 months left. And that makes me really sad. In fact, I was so sad that I considered staying and going to Tokyo for a year of fun before starting the masters. However, I've come to realize that, knowing myself fairly well, I would be bored with so much free time and that I'm not leaving Japan because I dislike it here, or because I miss my friends and family; but that studying this masters is fun and I am so excited about it! Hopefully, someday I can also win the wildlife photographer of the year competition (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/onlineGallery.do)

There's 2 public holidays in Japan this month: the 3rd of November (which was cultural day or something) and the 23rd. For the one at the end of October, a Japanese friend and I went to Hamanako, the 10th biggest lake in Japan in the prefecture just north of Aichi (where Nagoya is located). We had great weather and it was very pretty. It was one of the last few places i still want to visit in this area! Photos are up under 'Nagoya'.

I relaxed on the first one in November, last week. Actually, I prepared a science lesson for a public high school - one of the top ones in Nagoya.
The slightly twisted way in which the school system works in Japan is that everyone gets graded based on standardised test scores. This happens from a very early age, and how you do on those tests will determine how far you can go in life. If you don't do well, you can't get into the top junior high schools. Which then means you can't get into one of the top high schools. Which means you will never get into Tokyo or Kyoto University. Which means you won't get hired for the best jobs in the best companies.
The school I went to teach at was one that sends a lot of students to Tokyo and Kyoto university, so it was A LOT of fun teaching kids who are genuinely interested and motivated! Their reading skills are higher than their listening skills which are higher than their speaking skills, so I guessed their level a little bit too high. That made me really sad because if it'd been easier maybe they may have enjoyed it more (what do you expect if you tell me you want a native-level science class!). But i had a discussion at the end where i split them into groups, and they had to say why their team should win, and they tried to come up with good reasons and there was always at least 1 volunteer for saying it in English, so I was extremely happy about that, and I think the school too! I will hear (i hope) on friday how it went. Hopefully I can get another shot at it next term (i'm keeping my fingers crossed).

On saturday i had a little 'do' for my birthday - first I went for some pre-drinks at the very classy establishment of the marriot's sky lounge on the 52nd floor of the station building (they heard it was my birthday and brought me free cake!). Then some friends and I went to take some purikura photos (i recently learned this stands for picture club) - purikura is a photobooth where you can choose the background, and choose the mode in which it takes photos (most japanese like to have enlarged eyes etc which can make you look about 10 years younger) and then when you finish taking the pictures (it's all very very speedy) you can draw on them before getting them printed - which comes in the form of small stickers that school kids will put all over their notebooks. It's actually very fun! That, along with karaoke, are some of my favourite habits picked up in Japan.
After purikura we met the other folks at yamachan (a restaurant with nagoya's famous spicy chicken wings, de-lish) which was great, a lot of people didn't know each other well at all! Finally the toughies stuck around to go to my friend's club and everyone ended up having a good time I think. I certainly did! I felt very special.

Hangover avoided on Sunday morning, in the evening I hopped on an overnight bus with another Japanese friend and we went to Tokyo Disney Sea!
Tokyo Disneyland is the only one around the world not actually owned by the Disney company. So in 2002 or so, they were making a lot of money (I think Japanese go to disneyland more than anyone else, and spend a LOT on souvenirs), and decided to build a 2nd park called Disney Sea. It's themed in different areas based on different stories (like a mermaid area and an akraba area for aladdin) so it's a little bit more mature than the others. I decided to go for Sea rather than Land, and it was REALLY FUN! I hadn't been to a disney park since going to Eurodisney when i was 6, and despite the lack of sleep from the bus journey, i fully enjoyed going on the rides (even queueing for an hour was do-able), eating the interesting food (curry and pepper-flavoured popcorn!) and seeing the light and fireworks battle between water and fire. It was QUITE magical, and i loved the sceneries with the mediterranean villages and the American villages. Check out the photos. The best word to describe it: FUN!

I have to say, not a disappointing 23rd bday celebration so far!!

october update

I have now officially signed up to take the JLPT (Japanese language proficiency test) level N3 (the intermediate level) on December 5th. I’m only doing it because I’m leaving in April, otherwise I wouldn’t – Japanese testing is basically testing your comprehension in multiple-choice questions and grammar. There is no composition or speaking, which to me are the biggest test of your grasp of that language! This happens with their English testing, Japanese and anything else. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was how they did a lot of their university testing too!

Even though I’m very busy now back at work, it doesn’t always feel like it – Japan has so many public holidays that since summer there’s at least 1 bank holiday a month. More in September as there was ‘silver week’, basically designed by the Japanese government to try and promote more spending by celebrating the autumn equinox and ‘respect for the aged’ day. This week the days fell on a Monday and Thursday. On the long weekend I went to Osaka and Kobe just for fun – most of my Japanese friends didn’t understand this concept – I took a few photos around Kobe. Speaking of photo’s – I’ve been trying out some things around here, so please look at my photoalbum streets of Nagoya. I tried to take some candid black and white shots too recently.
This Monday is another public holiday. Yay!

Singapore

As the days pass here, and it’s still averaging in the mid-30’s (with today being particularly disgusting as the rain came pouring down), summer is noticeably over with the beginning of work. Sadly I’m stuck subbing for my friend at his junior high school, with long days of doing NOTHING. At times like these, I like to reminisce over the good times from the summer.

After going to Sendai and doing the summer camp, I jetted off to Singapore to meet up with my friends whom I greatly missed! Tim, whose parents live there, had kindly offered to house Aaliya, Sety (2 friends from imperial) and I there. First of all, the house, paid for by the father’s work, was a palace. I used the swimming pool as frequently as I could!

Everyone had told me two things about Singapore – it’s clean (why was this always the first thing to come up?) and 7 days is too long there. Au contraire my friend!
I arrived a day before the two girls, so Tim and I headed out to the zoo, which was huge and surprisingly well done. I’m a sceptic when it comes to zoo keeping, but I was impressed. The night zoo, which we visited with everyone, was pretty good too. Some enclosures were a little too small for my liking though.
The aquarium, over by the beaches, had some cool animals, but I was a little disappointed by its size. Oh well, can’t have everything right!

Once the girls arrived, most activities revolved around shopping – visiting little India with its cheap Mustafa center and AMAZING curries, tasting some typical Singaporean-Malay breakfasts, going around the high-end malls of Orchard Road, visiting Chinatown with all its tacky souvenirs, and going to the Ramadan markets which were crammed with amazing food stalls.

I have to admit, my favourite part of Singapore is the old colonial quarters. I seem to really like the colonial architecture, and sipping on a drink at Raffles hotel makes you feel at the height of sophistication. The marina bay and the river side are also great places to sit back and relax on a nice sunny day – most of which will see some rain as it gets almost the same amount of rainfall as the Amazon!!

One surprising thing about Singapore is that going out for a drink is really expensive! I mean, London high-end prices! I don’t know why, but it may be heavily taxed for religious reasons. This is just suspicion though.

It was a whirlwind trip of laughs, great FOOD and interesting cultural mixes. Tim’s parents were great too, treating us to a feast of chilli crab on our second-to-last night.

North and West of Tokyo

The past 10 days I managed to escape Nagoya and go up north past Tokyo. Yes, there is something beyond Tokyo and it’s actually really nice. I didn’t go too far, just slightly beyond the big city called Sendai. First I went to a place called Matsushima bay, supposedly being in the top 3 seascape views of Japan (Japanese love putting stuff in rankings). The main place to see the bay is, as is most of Japan, quite crowded, but it was a view with scattered islands out of the bay.

I stayed at a hostel in an area called Oku-Matsushima, basically the northern part of the bay, and in the morning (as it was really hot) I borrowed a bike and went biking around the island of miyatojima, which was far nicer than the main place. After biking through flat fields of green in the light morning breeze, you climbed through bits of pine forest (after all – matsu is the Japanese name for pine, and shima is the name for island) and after wrestling past the mosquitoes you got several stunning views… very local Japanese life, which is what you want, right?

The next part saw me heading back to Sendai for the tanabata matsuri celebration. The tanabata matsuri, or star festival, is a celebration on the 7th of July, but in Sendai it’s celebrated a month later. The story goes that a weaver girl worked so hard that she could never meet anyone to fall in love with. Her father arranged her to meet a cow herder with whom she fell instantly in love with. After they married, however, she stopped weaving cloth and her husband let his cows run free. The father was so angered that he separated them by a river, but his daughter’s tears convinced him to let them meet once a year. Because of this story, the most commonly seen decorations at this festival are streamers hung from a ball to represent her weaving strings.
I didn’t stay for the dancing but I saw the decorations which were really pretty. There were over 3000 of them! Some of them shops along which they were hung but others made by students etc from all over.

That evening I headed west to a place called Tsuruoka to climb up Dewa Sanzan. This is a group of 3 mountain peaks that is very important for the religious following of Shugendo. This religion was created in the over a 1000 years ago and combined Buddhism with Shintoism, with enlightenment being achieved by an understanding of the relationship between man and nature. In the Meiji restoration, at the beginning of the 1900s, Shinto was named an independent state religion from Buddhism and shugendo was banned, therefore it lost popularity. However, still today, you can see pilgrims who visit the 3 peaks in their white robes and conc shell horns.

I walked the what seemed like millions of steps up to the first peak on Haguro-san. It was sweltering hot. I wanted to head to the 2nd and 3rd peaks, which are close together and you get there by taking a bus into the mountains followed by hiking for 2 hours across marshy plains. The bus ride up was really nice, as the higher we got the cooler it got, and loomingly, the lower and thicker the clouds got. I thought that it was just because we were going into the moutains, but no, as we were almost at the top, the clouds opened up and it started pissing it down with rain, and the color of the clouds gave me the impression it wasn’t going away! Oops. So I ended up getting right back on the bus (which was an expensive ticket!) and ended up spending a total of 3 hours on the bus. Nice. Followed by waiting around in a mister donut for about 6 hours as I was waiting for my night bus back to Tokyo.

In Tokyo I did some shopping in Daikan’yama and Shibuya & Harajuku – everytime I go to Tokyo I realize how much I love it (I somehow forget being in Nagoya)… I wish I could live there.

The last 5 days of my trip I helped run a summer camp for 47 kids – 27 of which were mostly returnee kids (i.e. kids who’d lived abroad and understood normal English) and 20 who were beginners at English. We went into the mountains around Tokyo and we went on hikes, played sports, did a treasure hunt, had a campfire… It was so tiring because the kids wouldn’t sleep at night etc etc (being your typical 6-12 year olds) but I really really enjoyed doing it, maybe because of the nature, maybe because I was able to talk like a normal person to these kids, maybe because the other leaders were cool too… Either way, I came back to Nagoya on a high. If I could have, I would’ve liked to have done another camp.
But, instead, I’m leaving for Singapore tomorrow… It’s a pretty good life out here sometimes!

Kawaii!!!

Enough of all the self-reflection, back to a bit of Japanese culture for you.
Kawaii – 可愛い . If you look up the definition of this word on the internet, it comes up with, ‘cute’ and ‘loveable’. However, I feel my electronic dictionary has better, or should I say, more definitions of the word, such as ‘charming’, ‘lovely’, ‘pretty’, ‘precious’ and ‘tiny’.
It may be one of the most versatile words in modern-day Japanese.

People who have visited Japan, even those who are quite uninterested in it and have heard about it from home, will know that Japanese are obsessed with all things cute, big or small. This goes for toys, key chains, things around the house, clothes. Think pokemon. Think hello kitty. Think Care Bears. Think high squeaky voices that even normal little kids don’t naturally have. Why else do they have ‘moe’ (pronouncedmoh-eh), those girls with pig-tails, in milk-maid type costumes with big eyes everywhere in their anime and manga? (anime is the televised version of manga). Storeclerks will insistently shout welcome in japanese in the most horrid nasal voices for anyone who walks past, as they somehow feel this may entice people into their store. For girls, to look cute is the ultimate attractor for men. This is why they are obsessed with pastel pinks, blues and beiges in their fashion (you cannot imagine how difficult it is to find hard deep reds or purples in the shops here).
Ok, so you get the picture. This is some of modern Japan that is common knowledge.


Bento, or lunchbox, fillers


Hello Kitty


Moe girl


My favorite, mameshiba, talking soy beans

And it is not just a girly obsession, contrary to what one may expect. Boys will have things hanging from their bags like big stitch dolls at the age of 21. I have heard men say ‘kawaii’ as if it’s the most normal thing in the world.


Astroboy, the 'cutest' boy manga

Though obviously not in the high squeaky voices that girls do it in (last year, at my school, there were these girls that shouted “Ester! Hi!” and waved. Whenever I waved back I would get the most ear-piercing KAWAIIIIIIIII!!!!. Even my teacher said it was pretty bad).
I was shopping the other day, and there were t-shirts that some girls would look at and they would constantly say : “ah, kawaii ne!”, meaning it’s pretty, or cool. They would never use the Japanese word for cool (‘kakkoi’) unless it refers to something that men have that make them handsome – they do say ‘hansamu’ but usually to ask which boy do you like, you ask who is ‘kakkoi’. So for anything to do with girls, they use ‘kawaii’ instead, even if they don’t mean the literal mean of cute. This is the difficulty with Japanese – occasionally they have limited adjectives (e.g. the word ‘omoshiroi’ means both interesting AND funny. WHAT?)

On Sunday, I was wearing a yukata (summer kimono, made of thin cotton material) in town, and the amount of times I heard the word ‘kawaii’ shot in my direction… This probably meant they didn’t think we (my friend and I) were cute, like pokemon is cute. As mentioned before, girls who are pretty, or beautiful, are referred to as ‘kawaii’. By men and women. And in this case they probably thought it looked odd to see Japanese clothes on foreigners. I guess it’s the word they use when they can’t really think of anything else to say, and it’s usually always positive in it’s meaning.

So whether it means, cute, pretty or precious, if it is said to you, or about anything, it is a positive thing. Though it is quickly become the most worn out word I can imagine!


AKB48, a group of girls singing typical J-pop, in high-school uniform

Friendships in Japan

Being out here in Japan, so far away from everything and everyone that’s comfortable to me, I often get asked questions like are you happy? And one I often feel is very related: what do you like about Japan? In fact, when I tell Japanese people that I do really like Japan they sometimes give me the look of a weirdo and ask: but why?

I feel it usually revolves around the same issue: people. As a matter of fact, I feel this often dictates for me how much I enjoy any given place.
For example, I don’t like Paris. Controversial as that may be, I don’t like it. It’s so dirty, and most of all the people are the most unfriendly ones ever; I feel ashamed for tourist who go to Paris and think that those people represent all Europeans! I really liked my time in the rainforest in Borneo. This is partly because I was with animals and that in itself is enough to make me happy but the guides were really cool and down to earth. And I had some great times in New Zealand, hanging out with a friend from university in Wellington and getting up to no good, or down south biking with a bunch of Aussies and a German girl.
So as much as food is a great benefit of travelling so are the people you meet. And to me this can make a world of difference.

What does this say about Japanese people you ask?
Now, this is a tricky question. I would not hesitate to say, hands down, that Japanese people are extremely friendly. They will do to extreme lengths to try to please you, and even if you can’t speak the language they will still more than happily chat away to you in Japanese as long as you keep giving them a little headnod (which some have caught on to know the meaning. I find some Japanese people still don’t fully understand that when I shake my head it is a negative thing).
Partly to do with some Japanese who speak English but never have the chance to practice it.
And there’s probably many a Japanese out there who rarely interact with foreigners and get some sort of weird kick out of doing so.

Once you transfer yourself into their world, however, you start to realise this is very shallow behaviour. By that, I mean that this is what they do to people they meet once. I don’t even really work for a Japanese company, but once you start to get to know some of those people better, it starts to feel very insincere. They still try to help you out, at least, those who have some understanding of how difficult it must be living in a country where you have absolutely no understanding of what goes on around you, but friendly offers like ‘we should have a drink sometime’ become merely a status of how close you are rather than a genuine offer. And there’s always the issue that you’re an outsider. I reckon, even if you’ve been here for 20 years, they will still consider you an outsider. Understand their culture fully but you’re never one of them.
To the question: why do you like Japan? I often say either old culture, or Japanese people, but I don’t know how much that latter answer is really true…

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about this question – am I happy? I was planning a hiking trip in Hokkaido by myself, for which I’m yet again, by myself, but I’m currently thinking of changing my plans and joining some friends in Singapore for a week. I wasn’t feeling too bothered about not going to Hokkaido anymore, which is strange, because I’ve always wanted to explore as much of Japan as possible. Why? I think on the trip I’ll be lonely, only to return home and to be… lonely.
As I am giving myself a little bit more free time, which I really should be doing throughout the whole year anyway, and with summer coming up, the issue of friends always comes up. Needless to say, I really miss my friends from home, and I just can’t find people like that here. Many foreigners here are either in the ALT mode – i.e. always moving around teaching in different places so they don’t even try to get close – or are just not the kind of people that I get on well naturally with – a lot of Americans with a different way of thinking, a lot of loose girls actually, or people who are really into their Manga.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve made I would say about 2 friendships that I know will last, but one of them is only here for 3 months and then is gone again.
Thinking about this made me very UNhappy, and I started thinking about home.

But then I’ve come to realise that I’ve put the emphasis on my friendships all wrong. When I really come to think about it, the people I like a lot are, in fact, Japanese, who live here, and know a little about foreign culture. And as soon as I realised I had my priorities all wrong and that I do have people I can rely on but I need to focus more on them, I all of a sudden became a lot more comfortable in my skin.

So, am I happy? With everything being foreign and difficult for me here (yes, still, it’s been over a year, but I think there are thing’s I’d always have issues wit) I have my good times and my bad times. Sometimes I have my busy times where I don’t really have time to contemplate such deep questions. I love the place. It’s just the company that I need to work on.

Yakuza

In my recent sick-and-stuck-at-home state, I read a book called “yakuza moon”, written by a girl whose father used to be part of the Yakuza.
This phenomenon has always interested me as many people believe Japan to be the safest country in the world, which it may well be, but they also have their own Italian mafia called the Yakuza. To make it even more ridiculous, unlike the mafia, the yakuza is not secret, they have offices with family emblems on the front and want to show civilians (who they call ‘katagi’) that they are part of the yakuza – by the way they dress, by showing off their full-body tattoos and apparently even they way they walk is slightly different. Their history as a legitimate feudal organization during the Edo-period almost makes them part of Japanese establishment.

The police call yakuza boryokudan (暴力団) which means violence group, but the yakuza like to call themselves ninkyodantai (任侠団体) which means chivalrous organization.
Most of their current income comes from ‘protection rackets’, extortion schemes in which one coerces another to pay money for ‘protection’ services. They have these in shopping, entertainment and red-light districts. Yakuza are heavily involved in the sex-related industry – they are known to buy girls from China and the Phillipines cheaply and create prostitution rings, or smuggle uncensored porn.

The problem is that they are sometimes seen as semi-legitimate – in fact, after the Kobe earthquake the Yamaguchi-clan of the Yakuza provided faster disaster relief than the government. They are not stealing money, as theft implies covert action. Also, they local business like merchandising, loan sharking and gambling houses are run by non-yakuza who pay protection fees.

They apply the typical Japanese oyabun-kobun relationship (as mentioned in those posts about Japanese society). This relationship and loyalty to a particular oyabun is formalized by sharing sake. This loyalty then comes before than of family members, and most yakuza are men. If you have something to apologize for (also leaving the yakuza) you have to cut the tip of your left little finger first – the way you hold a traditional Japanese sword, the main grip comes from the lower 3 fingers and the thumb and index finger only grip it loosely.

There are currently more than 87,000 members of the Yakuza today in Japan. They can mostly be found in port cities, such as Osaka or Kobe. The Yamaguchi clan is the biggest today, with about 50% of all Yakuza members belonging to this clan. Their headquarters are in Kobe, and the current oyabun is Shinobu Tsukasa.
Other big clans are Sumiyoshi-Rengo (about 20,000 members) and Inagawa-kai (15,000).

Although the book didn’t really satisfy me too much in gaining insight into Yakuza operations, it did show how easily a girl gets sucked into that kind of a lifestyle, bleaching their hair, doing speed, and then doing sex to get the drugs. Most of these girls find ‘salvation’ by getting a job working as a hostess bar, but that did shock me – how common it seems for Japanese businessmen to have a girlfriend on the side of their marriage they provide well for.

Japanese society is just as, if not more, messed up than any other society.

Quick hello - nothing more interesting to say yet!

Temperatures are rising here in Japan – we’re almost hitting 30 during the day, with a strange slightly lower temperatures at night, but the humidity is rising along with it! And as the temperatures rise, the amount of barbeques (went to 3 in the past 2 weeks) and matsuri - Japanese festivals – does too.
I keep busy enough these days with the mundane things like work – it’s still very entertaining, teaching the little ones who get extremely excited. I was teaching a class on colours and I was blowing up some balloons and the 7-year-old kids were scared that the balloon was going to pop! I got to sign a kid’s backpack, a few hands, arms and legs too. And then I felt very old when a little girl asked me to join her on the jungle gym…
I’ve also recently had my third couchsurfer stay over (amidst all the busy social activities I can’t seem to say no to!) For those who don’t know, couchsurfing is where you stay over in someone’s home for free. I’ve done it about three times now here in Japan, and it’s so much help for those travelling on the cheap! Plus it’s a great way to meet new friends.
It’s strange, I feel so at home here now, and to think that this time next year, I won’t be here anymore. I’ll be as far removed from here as physically possible.

Golden week in Okinawa

I spent the last 8 days in wonderful Okinawa. These are a group of islands formerly known as the Ryukyu kingdom and they were under Chinese control until the late 1800s when Japan was successfully encroaching upon Beijing.

Because of their far off location & short inclusion in Japanese history they have a very special culture (which I didn’t witness too much I’m ashamed to say) and many even speak Japanese that sounds very old-fashioned. Some bus drivers up north on the main island even said they spoke English but only a little bit of Japanese! The English influence is probably the result of the American bases that are spread out all over the island like the plague.

The capital, Naha, is a sprawling city – with around 400,000 inhabitants. When I arrived it was raining (Okinawa being between the equator and the tropic of cancer average temperatures range between 15 and 30 C) but I was extremely lucky with the weather after, and didn’t really experience any daytime rain thereafter.
I first took a ferry to Zamamijima (jima, or shima, is the Japanese word for island) which took about 2 hours (slow ferry aka cheaper). This island is usually crowded from January till March as people flock there to see the humpback whales. It also has good diving, which was my reason to stop by.

It’s a tiny island, with a population of only 1000. I camped out for the 2 nights, and was very happy with the lack of rain, as my tent was cheap and therefore NOT waterproof. I was there for 3 days – the first day I rented a bike with a Japanese girl I’d just met and we biked one of the two circuits around the island – about 10K long. The next day I went diving which was so-so: I was not convinced about their interest in my certification level, and the follow up on the diving was pretty much non-existent. I found a BSAC place there though, so anyone interested in diving on zamami there IS a BSAC shop there. Don’t know how much it is though. The quality of the underwater life WAS good – we swam through narrow coral walls (lots of fire coral too) and saw a ton of garden eels and some other cool fish we didn’t really identify by name.
The last day there was my beach time – and I chose a good day to do it too, it was so hot!

I got back to my hostel in Naha and ended up going to karaoke with some of the other people. I never thought I’d like karaoke so much when coming to Japan. Though it’s better if you’ve had a few, obviously.

I didn’t go to any other islands as I wanted to take it easy – a decision I regretted as soon as I saw the swarms of people further up north.
I went to Okinawa during what’s known as “golden week” in Japan. This is a week where there are 4 holidays very close to each other and some people get a whole week off. But I didn’t feel the full force in the beginning as the first holiday was on Thursday the 29th (the former emperor Hirohito’s birthday), some people had to work on the Friday so only once the weekend started did all the other Japanese flock to Okinawa.
The other days in golden week are may 3rd – constitution memorial day, may 4th – greenery day, a day that used to be on the 29th but they changed it around in 2007 and it’s a day to honor nature and be thankful for it’s blessings, and may 5th – children’s day, or also known as boy’s day to celebrate their happiness and longevity.
I went up north and stayed at a random campground. Again, I was very lucky it didn’t rain but there were very strong, typhoon-esque winds circulating which meant that I was very worried all night that my cheap tent might tear!!

The next morning I went to the world expo park, where every person visiting japan was also going to I realized, because they have the best aquarium in japan – one of its main attractions is the world’s second-largest acrylic glass tank measuring 8.2m by 22.5m and contains huge manta rays as well as 3 whale sharks.

They’d predicted rain for the afternoon so I decided to chill on emerald beach, named for the beautiful color of the water!!, in the morning and then maybe go to the aquarium in the afternoon, but this was a mistake, as not only did it generally get busier, but it also got busier because after 4pm it’s 600 yen cheaper per person. And the Japanese L.O.V.E. to queue – it must’ve been a wait of more than 2 hours…
At this point the rain forecast was changed to just cloud, so I decided to come back in the morning as early as possible and I went to find a random beach to camp on. Many other families had had this idea so I was surrounded by kids screaming and running around. But the parents proved more of a problem being loud and drunk and 1am!!
The aquarium was very impressive. I still wasn’t too convinced by the allocation of space per animal, but it was very educative and the whalesharks were stunning. I’ve always wanted to see one… now to see it in the water!

That evening I met up with a lady who lives one of the many American bases. I knew her through a friend who’d met her a week before, and it was good timing as a cold that had started coming on got really bad as well as that there was rain so I was happy to be in a bed! With a mattress!
But other than that the base tour and everything really showed how much those ladies live in a sheltered environment. Okinawa is more chilled out than mainland japan as it is, but then to live somewhere where you get US dollars from bank machines! It’s quite ridiculous.
Luckily we didn’t spend too long there. We went to a slightly tacky village to get an idea of Okinawan culture (that dealt with a guilty feeling in my mind) and then went to see some more views of the stunning water. I also got a very Japanese manicure… see the photos!

My last day in Okinawa I headed back to Naha to do some last minute shopping but I was feeling so out of it as a result of my cold as well as that it was crazy humid that I was happy to get back to Nagoya…
But I will say this – I know I’ll be heading back to Okinawa at some point in the future.

Quick elementary school post

I’m back in schools now – I’ve taken a very different last-minute contract offer and now I’m hopping elementary schools like there’s no tomorrow.
It took me a while to decide whether to take it but I get more money, I get appreciated for the work that I do, the people are actually nice, and I almost get my Friday’s off! AND I can leave as soon as I finish around 2.30pm. The only downside is that I won’t really get to know any of my students but it will only make it easier to leave when I come home next April…
In Japanese elementary school the ages are 6-12, there are 6 grades, and only the latter 2 have actual English class. This is all going to change from next year onwards, but I don't really see how that will help if the people doing the teaching can’t actually speak it themselves.
The students are SO CUTE! They are super happy. I can be as stupid and idiotic as I want and they’ll still have a great time. Most of the time it’s playing games with greetings so far, like “how are you? I’m fine. And you? I’m fine too” with the occasional hello and goodbye song and for the slightly more advanced, I’m happy, I’m hungry etc. it’s great because I can just start chanting along to clapping, I can make them run around playing a kind of musical chairs and all of that stuff.
They come and ask if I can have lunch with them and they try and talk to me in Japanese (and I try to talk back) and they have all these interesting questions if I know this and that and the other…. And at lunch (this is adorable) they dish out the hot meal, for which there are set students, and whilst they do this they wear white coats and special hats to make sure the hair doesn’t fall in the food, and they make sure the other kids are listening and get all the food. It’s like they’re playing kitchen except for that they are actually giving food.
Also some kids occasionally set the trend by asking me for my signature. I feel like a famous person! Why on earth they’d want it I don’t know, but it’s so endearing.
I can tell this year will be much different from the last…

Some travels

So, this one is a little update on some travelling I’ve done recently..
I made use of the ever so lovely seishun 18-kippu, valid for any 5 days travel in a certain period, for a mere 90 euros.
I travelled to Hiroshima first with a stopover at Himeji on the way. Himeji itself isn’t all that big but the castle is really famous as it’s a UNESCO world heritage site, being one of the few castles in Japan that has managed to keep so much of its original structure, and is one of the top 3 in Japan (along with Nagoya castle, wink wink). It was very pretty, but after a while, as with temples, many castles start looking alike.

I reached Hiroshima in the evening and went out to get some okonomiyaki.
Okonomiyaki is like pancakes in that it has batter made of flour and egg and water, but it isn’t like pancakes because it is stuffed with cabbage and other various toppings. Two of the most famous kinds of okonomiyaki are Hiroshima-style and Osaka-style. Hiroshima-style clearly consists of 2 layers of batter – one layer is placed on a hot plate, cabbage, soba (Japanese noodles) and other ingredients such as meat or squid is added, then a layer is placed on top and then an egg on top of that. The layers along with the soba makes it unique (as well as extremely filling!). Osaka-style is where everything is mixed together (no soba but again choice of ingredients) and then fried on a hot plate on both sides. On top of both styles, they then pile okonomiyaki-sauce and mayonnaise. YUM!
Even stranger – in Hiroshima they have a place called okonomiyaki-mura, or okonomiyaki village, where there are 16 different stalls on 3 floors all selling okonomiyaki. They all probably taste the same. Gotta love the Japanese!
The next morning I packed in the peace park and the museum along with miyajima on the same day – not too stressful to do.
For those not very interested in history Hiroshima was the first place the US bombed with an A-bomb at 8.15am August 8th, 1945. About 2 hours later they bombed Nagasaki (not the original second target), which eventually led Japanese to surrender at the end of WWII. They now have a huge park with monuments and a museum. I’ve been to Nagasaki but the 2nd floor of the museum in Hiroshima really grips you. It’s the personal stories, of fathers who donated their kids school uniform, all that was left of their 8-year-old children. It's the imagery of people walking away with their flesh melted off their arms because of the 2000 degree celcius heat. Not very uplifting. But gripping.
I saw Miyajima for sunset. It’s a tori gate to a temple on the island just off of Hiroshima’s coast, but one of the reasons it’s so famous is because the guy who designed it placed it so that at high tide, it looks like a floating gate. I, however, went for sunset, and caught it at low tide. It was still very pretty though!
The next day I went to Okayama, stopping at Tomonora (sleeping little fishing town where Hayao Miyazaki got his inspiration for Ponyo) and Kurashiki (with a little Venice-esque canal) on the way. Okayama itself isn’t very thrilling but I went to see the Seto bridge – you go through Kojima to see it. And it’s so worth it – it’s this ridiculously long bridge, and it’s hard to describe it but it’s pretty amazing to see. I didn’t stay for sunset, something I am still kicking myself for, 2 weeks later.

I just came back from another short little trip to Kobe and Osaka. I’ve admittedly never been to either, despite being here for so long. I really enjoyed Kobe, it has a very relaxed feel to it, and some of the older houses in the Kitano district, built over 50 years ago, are very pretty. I saw some of the cherry blossoms which were beautiful. All the Japanese love Kobe, they think it so international but I have to admit, I agree that it is very nice, with a good atmosphere too.
Osaka, on the other hand, I was not at all impressed with. I did some shopping, stayed at a capsule hotel, and went to see Kings of Convenience live (awesome gig! Though the Japanese were a little on the quiet side, to be expected) and when I went to look at some touristy stuff I left immediately. Apart from the nightlife and the shopping it’s really not worth your time. Soulless.

But a quick word on the cherry blossoms – they are incredibly beautiful! I went to see them at Iwakura (my favourite on with the canal and the cherry blossoms draping over it), Okazaki (they were too scattered out) and then I had a hanami -cherry blossoms party – at Tsurumai park. This party is basically an excuse for Japanese to get drunk outside during the daytime, but the cherry blossoms are pretty amazing, when you see about 100 of them in full bloom… checking out the castle tomorrow and then the season’s pretty much over…

The Japanese mindset - part 3

Because your current frame, or group, in society is the most defining aspect of your persona, competition, which exists in japan as much as in any other country, is not as such between colleagues but more between company A and company B. Rating tends to be the prize outcome of competition. One very prominent example of this is the strong competition that exists between Tokyo and Kyoto universities – Tokyo wins so it ranks higher than Kyoto to everyone. So much so that some companies will only higher graduates from Tokyo university than any other university.
Because this headstrong competition exists, there is often a waste of energy – if one farmer says that cabbages are good the others will follow suit to try and outcompete the other at cabbages. They don’t give any consideration to diversification, in so far that this also happens at book publishers and newspaper companies – the latter group comprises 3 different companies that all do the same morning and evening editions with almost exactly the same layout and content.
This competition not only exists in the top levels, but also within the secondary levels there is competition to be the top of the secondary level.

The final chapter in the book talks about the position the individual takes in this vertical hierarchy. As mentioned before, one is characterised by what frame he is currently in, determined by previous achievements rather than birth or other background. When such an individual enters a group, due to the hierarchical order, he enters at the bottom. If offered a better salary at a different company, the individual may turn the offer down as the increase in salary is accompanied by a potential significant loss in social ranking (both in the position within the hierarchy as well as acceptance). This is partly why, in the past more than the present, Japanese have been very reluctant to take overseas positions – once back in Japan it is hard, sometimes impossible, to immerse fully into a company’s social grouping.

This social grouping exists already from a rather early stage in life – even at university, graduates from the University of Tokyo belong to a sort of social clique. The awareness of this clique mentality is felt more by those outside it than those immersed in it. Just as your chances of employment for good companies are improved by the graduating from the University of Tokyo, your chances of getting into the university are improved by going to a high-ranking high school. Therefore the pressure on students to do well is felt by Japanese at a young age – probably around the time of high school entrance exams. This is all important as the company you enter working for tends to be the one you stay at forever.
As international business relations are becoming increasingly important in Japan, it’s interesting to note that employees who studied abroad before entering the company and have done it for personal gain rather than purely work, fare worse as most companies still prefer to send their own, already established employees, abroad to pick up these qualifications.
This is very indicative of the current Japan – it claims to be modernised, but only so in the political and social sense of the word; the traditional structure remains but utilises modern aspects and therefore masks itself.

The most comfortable career for Japanese is that where they are incorporated in a stable hierarchical system, rise to the top and then retire. The career of a professional is far less stable and much more emphasis is on merit. You are still recognized belonging to a company, and therefore if this company is not of high ranking, neither are you. This means that there are very few free-lancers in Japan. You work for one newspaper, and you do not submit to a competing company’s newspaper.
As in Japan the men spend their entire lives dedicating themselves to their work, their social contacts rarely extend beyond these limits. This is partly because the work that you do is not as strictly divided as in the west, but also because for you to be stable at work everything else must be stable in your life too. It is a little bit like a village. The people that know most about you tend to be your colleagues. However, this information is not shared as freely as it would be with western relationships. Inter-personal relationships in japan are very complicated, and take a lot of constant effort to get right. Therefore the only time many Japanese feel they can relax is going to bars after work (done mostly with colleagues). They feel this is one of the few places they can really relax, not just because of alcohol but also the atmosphere. They come here and drink and talk and are accepted, not having to abide by any strict rules. As the alcohol frees the lips and inhibitions, many personal things are often revealed, but most people understand the need for these bars, nothing said in the bars is referred to ever again. The essence of these meetings is not so much in the conversation as is the emotional exchange.
Because of this – the revolving of a Japanese man’s life around work and his colleagues – wives are often shut out of these social activities and her attention is focused on the children. As they often live far away from family and school friends, their ability to extend social activities is more limited than the husband’s. But as a man climbs the social ladder at work, his attention at home decreases, and often the Japanese wife is a mother both to her kids as to her husband – the core of the Japanese family is parent-child, not husband-wife, a principal not changed after the war.

The last interesting point that the author makes is that tangibility is very important to social relationships. Many Japanese don’t want to work abroad not only for their status at the work place, but also their friends. Often, in Japan, they are not so good with the concept of keeping in contact through letters and phonecalls and e-mails. It is more the concept of: out of sight out of mind. Once someone comes back after say a year, the relationship between old friends is very weak, and things they used to talk about on a daily basis are no more, to such an extent that they almost find it difficult to be friends again.

That’s where I leave off.
I hope you have found it as interesting as I. If anyone wishes to read it it’s called “Japanese society, a practical guide to understanding the Japanese mindset and culture” by Chie Nakane.

The Japanese mindset - part 2

As I said in my last post, about the Japanese system very much working on a vertical level (from old to young, or mostly time working somewhere which is usually along the general guidelines of old to young), and from this next bit you can conclude that his usually seems to be very similar to feudal relationships, and therefore no matter how modern they may seem on the outside, they are still very traditional on the inside. This is very deceptive to most people!!

To take this vertical relationship even further, in most companies and organizations there is a ^ shape with the boss (a) communicating with subordinate 1 (b) or subordinate 2 (c) but b and c never really communicate with each other, like a bottomless triangle.
This means that there can only ever be 1 leader – there is no such thing as parallels or joint leaders. At this point the book goes into detail about oyabun and kobun.

Most Japanese have many sempai – the name for older people they respect and look up to. But out of these someone will usually become an oyabun – someone who guides the younger person though their life and will make difficult decisions for them. If the oyabun doesn’t agree the kobun (younger counterpart) will not do it either. Not everyone is an oyabun, and it doesn’t mean too much if you don’t have one, but very few have don’t have an oyabun (but there is only ever 1 oyabun, never more). Being such a lone wolf (called ippikikan) is very difficult in Japanese society.

So back to the image of the triangle without a base. The supreme importance of the leader in this figure is to prevent it from breaking. This triangular shape without a base is very prone to instability and subsequent fission. Once the leader goes away (leaves, or passes away) Each leg, i.e. b and c, usually breaks away and takes their kobun with them – b or c, based on seniority in terms of years working for the company will take the lead and one will leave.
Another reason fission could occur is because a part is displeased. In Japan, a man gets on top by seniority, and unless you are on top, it is very rare to get public appraisal – to get on top you either wait your turn or you leave. No individual popularity from outside the company (e.g. for being really good at something, popularity from another school or company etc) should exceed that of your senior or boss.

Enlargement of a company will lead to vertical attachments – keeping the same structural characteristics as before. The bigger the company, the more the effectiveness is decreased as the on at the top of the baseless triangle will have more subordinates to work with – for b to get to c, it must go through a first, so with more legs this becomes very hectic. The book claims that this system still survives as the inefficiency is compensated by the efficiency of sending news from top to bottom, but as far as my experience goes, it still remains extremely inefficient by comparison!
Almost there.
The locus is the group instead of personal merit – and oyabun often try to bring kobun along with their success. The protection the kobun give the oyabun is repaid by dependence of oyabun on kobun, affection and loyalty – sometimes called ‘paternalism’ – so the relationship between these people has a greatly enlarged emotional element. A good chief is indicated by his perceptiveness and permission to his kobun. It is also said that it’s better if the man on top is not brilliant because if he were, he wouldn’t be so dependent on his subordinates for help and information thereby losing part of their essential function.

This means there is no clear cut in the divisions of labour – the entire group is amalgamated into a single functional body.
One of the most popular Japanese lovestory is one called: The Forty-Seven Ronin. Oishi Kuranosuke was the leader, and as he was very paternalistic, he had utmost devotion from his 46 followers, so much that they left their families on a course that would end in a suicidal deed, in order that they might assist Oishi’s revenge on his own master.
Men so involved as this have little room left for a wife/sweetheart – if he were to be so involved in a man-to-man relationship there would seem no necessity for a love affair with a woman. His emotions would be completely expended in his devotion to his master – this was most likely the real nature of samurai mentality and is sometimes still true of the modern Japanese man.

Sorry for the long entry but I felt it would be best to explain this all in one!
Hope you find it interesting.
I’ve also attached a photo of a work done by one of my kids at school, I think it’s hilarious English:

Japanese mindset - part 1

In defining people, and their cultural groupings, two terms are sometimes used:
- frame, which describes the circumstantial situation of a person i.e. place of residence, work etc.
- attributes, which is what a person is, so what skills they possess, who they're related to etc.

In Japanese society, frame is the most important factor in determining social groupings - where you work, what town you live in, who lives in your house - is more important than what attributes you have. This is in contrast to most other societies, which place huge importance on the value of family, the most extreme being the caste system in India where where you're born into determines you for your whole life.
For Japanese, this means that their workplace becomes more important than anything else, and more shockingly to me, that their homes once they get married are more important than the ones they come form - to the extent that even servants are included and are sometimes considered more important than sisters or even parents who live in other houses.

This is the first point made in a book i've started to read, and it's fascinating. I'll give you a little summary over the next week or so.

The next point is a further distinction. One of the things that it stresses is that the nature of Japanese people is one that will always make rankings. No one is ever exactly the same, unless they're extremely close.
The next distinction, which will clarify this, is that of the vertical relationship compared to the horizontal one - i.e. older-younger vs peer to peer. The vertical relationship is the most important one in Japanese society, i.e. that if you are older, or if you have worked for the company for longer, you are superior to that of your colleague. You are always placed in this vertical system, even with people who work in the same department in the company as you.
As this tie is more important, along with your frame, your alliance will be with your sempai (your elder) and your kohai (your junior) rather than with people doing the same job but for a different company. This is so ingrained that not even the highest member in the vertical chain is able to make a change to this (though this vertical distinction is sometimes only really realized by the youth once they start a career).
This is a mindset that has become under increasing pressure recently with smaller business because merit has very little swing with your position - in fact what university you went to is far more important than what marks you got when graduating. But it is also a more stable mindset and form of ranking, which has allowed Japanese life to be so regulated.

2 more points on this latter topic:
- this distinction of older to younger goes so far, that even in a dining setting, the elder sits by the window with the plants, but the inferiour sits on the worst chair by the entrance.
- this distinction has made the Japanese mind as uninquisitive as it is. A junior takes great care not to create open confrontation with his superior (and as a distinction between senior and junior is made almost everywhere, you usually don't say a thing). it's better not to say anything than to say "no" or "i disagree" and risk being cast out of the group - which is why many conversations are one-sided sermons, usually intellectually dull and emotionally enjoyable only to the speaker, not the listener. I haven't explained this point nearly enough but i just want to say that this explains so many things i have noticed - most people hate goign to office parties when their boss is there, and that in Japanese no one says "iie", the Japanese word for no. They instead choose to use, "ii desu" it's fine (for example if asked if you want the receipt, saying ii desu means no), "...wa irimasen" (I dont need...) or "chigau/chigaimasu" it's different.

Now that shit would not fly back home!

Anyway, that's what i've understood from the book so far.
On a slightly different note, i think you may find this link quite interesting:
It's a video of a penis festival they hold near here every year - they carry a penis statue, and eat phallic-shaped ice lollies and everything!
Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXh3UUwn1_I&feature=fvw

Last day at junior high school

Yesterday I finished at my junior high school here in Japan. Although part of me was glad, part of me was very sad too. Let me just point out that this was mainly in relation to the students - i felt vastly unappreciated by the teachers. (i think if their appreciation showed at all it was in encouraging the kids to talk to me, that's all).

But let me describe the day to do - it was quite something!

So I got to school my usual time - around 8am and on my chair i found some chocolates from one of the 3rd year teachers who is always so sweet - she's about 24 and i think she regrets not being able to communicate with me (the feeling's mutual) - and with the chocolates was a note written in English. I was touched.
I went outside to greet the students, not a requirement of my job but something i enjoy doing and the students have said they'll remember me by. I was called back inside by the kyotosensei (vice principal) and I had to give a speech to the staff room - something i'd prepared in Japanese and i said i with bad pronunciation (in hindsight).
Then I had to give a speech to all the students in a morning assembly. The way these work is that all the studnets sit in a line in their classes and there is complete silence with the teachers inspecting their behaviour, then several bows to the kochosensei (prinicpal) and anyone else who has to say something. Therefore I was given a bow too - it's weird when 750 people do that for yoU! I started my speech with good morning - and i got several back from the students too - that was funny. When i finished my short but sweet speech, one of the English teachers translated it. A student then came up and gave me these beautiful pink flowers. When it was finished the students parted, like the red sea would've done for moses in the stories, and they clapped as the kochosensei and I walked passed. Now that was just embarrasing! I hate that kind of spotlight (esp as i was walking with this huge bunch of flowers).

Classes started as normal. I did the usual last classes, which involved playing shiritori for the last 15 minutes (game: ate -> egg -> guitar etc) which has never failed in any class, and a picture with the class. My schedule was pretty packed as I was asked (and gladly accepted) to go to the special needs class in my free period, which I have occassionally done in the past. They are so cute, they did 2 dances for me! I love going to that class. All i know is that there's a girl with down's syndrome and 3 with autism, but maybe asperger's as it's not very obvious.

Working back to back until lunch and at lunch I ate with my 2nd year students in the lunchroom (no pictures of this but there's only space for 4 classes in the lunchroom, so they rotate who can eat hot lunch and the rest eat a cold lunch in their classrooms). Luckily it was a yummy beef curry lunch. After lunch i went to my last real class: 107 (class 7 of the first years) and they are so great to teach. They always clap when i do something exciting and they're studious but really fun! I will miss them the most, maybe. At the end, one of the girls asked for a hug, and she started crying. I gave her like 5 more, and took some a photo with her but i felt so bad!

I had been asked earlier if i was teaching in my 6th period, because a 3rd year class wanted me to come to their class for picture shiritori (like shiritori above but you draw out the words instead of writing them) which was really fun. But i also wanted to say goodbye to most of the students i could. I left and went to the teachers room to finish some paperwork. When the students started leaving i went to say goodbye and I got more responses than usual. some 1st years asked me for a message in their notebooks, some gave me little notes, and one, who had given me a gift, also started crying! The most bizarre though was when some 3rd year boys came and saw me with this heat pack (signed by a 3rd year girl) so they wanted to give me something. One gave me his heat pack and a band-aid (anything he could) and another gave me his lunch ticket for monday! It was so random.

I put the photos on a memory stick for whoever wanted the pictures i took of their class, and when i finally finished i packed up (luckily a teacher offered to drive some stuff over) i was ready to go and everyone around in the staff room came and waved me out. I thought that was very sweet. And then as I walked away and got some last "ester! byebye!" from the students, i didn't really feel any different. Is that a bad thing? In my mind, i was relieved, and touched.

I know I'm coming back though - many 3rd year students asked me to see their graduation ceremony on the 9th of march, and also i've agreed to play with the brass band at a concert. Now that is something I did not see happening here in Japan!I was asked by one of my English teachers to play for the students, and the music teacher (as well as some students!) asked me to be the special guest. How could i say no?

Japanese New Years

Currently I’m back in the land of the rising sun, after a very enjoyable but extremely busy 2 week holiday back home.
The usual occurred – presents opened on Christmas Eve, a Lord of the Rings marathon on the 25th and the 26th, a top-ten New Year’s Eve playing charades and who am I at a friends’ house in London and then some quality time with my brothers in Nottingham.
As seems to have been the trend this schoolyear, some teachers at my school took advantage of my travels and the amount of times I had to repeat that story as a listening exercise made me almost sick of remembering it! As much as some kids understood the gist of the story, most of them were very surprised at the notion of Christmas presents.

They have heard of Christmas, and associate presents and decorated Christmas trees & Santa with it, but they don’t really understand it (as with all things foreign to Japanese people). In Japan, the main holiday is New Years, called oshoogatsu. Before New Year’s you wish someone “yoi otoshi yo” and after you say “akemashite omedetoo”. Kids, no matter what age, receive presents from their parents in the form of a fat wad of cash (called “otoshidama”) in an envelope (called “pochibukuro”) - Japan is, after all, a cash society. So when they think about Christmas they think about kids getting presents from Santa, but my teacher had to specifically explain to them that everyone in the family receives presents and you open them. When I was buying some Christmas presents and when looking for something for my grandmother, I explained who it was for that I was looking for and I heard many expressions giving off a feeling of surprise mixed with amazement (“sugoi” which means great, or “suteki”).
It is clearly not the fashion to buy things for your older relatives. In fact, Japanese mentality is such that once you have a family of your own, with a wife/husband and maybe even children, these have financial priority over anyone else in your previous “family group”.

New Year in Japan is more like Christmas back home, firstly in that it is a family event. They find it strange here that I spent New Year’s with friends. It is also a lot more solemn – very low key, with people visiting shrines (a ritual called “hatsumode” when they visit their 1st shrine of the new year) some waiting for the turn of the clock, or some just on New Year’s Day itself. They usually wish for good fortunes throughout the new year. Many Japanese people who visit foreign countries find the ritual of setting off fireworks to be very strange, as for them it’s just some fun rather than for a special festive occasion – not that anyone can outdo the Japanese with fireworks shows – just go to one of the many that are held every summer!
They have their own kind of cards, nengajoo, which have the symbol of the Chinese year on it, this year having been the year of the tiger. The reason for this is that until 1873 the Japanese used the Chinese lunar calendar but during the Meiji restoration period they adopted the Gregorian calendar so they still count with Chinese years but they celebrate it on the same day as us. (To make matters even more complicated, for official documents they don’t put years like we do e.g. 2010, but they count in years of the reigning emperor – now we’re in Heisei 22 (so the date would be 22-month-day)). Often the messages read: I hope for your favour again in the coming year, or happiness to you on the dawn of a new year.

They also have a lot of special food associated with New Year, one of which is called “osechi” – each ingredient has a special meaning and it's made with sweet potato, fish cakes and chestnuts. Another common dish is the rice cake – or “mochi” (sometimes called “omochi”). This is pound rice, and you cook it either as “ozoni” – this stretchy rice cake in a fish broth with chicken, eating for breakfast on new years – or sweet, such as dipped in kineki powder (beige powder tasting a little like green tea, bitter) called “kinekimochi”, dipped in soy sauce with sugar and wrapped in seaweed “yakimochi”, or drenched in sweetened red beans called “zenzai”. The strangest thing they do with these mochi is that they actually have some (called “kagami mochi”) that they put out for decorations, topped with a bitter orange (called “daidai”) purely for decorative purposes and is supposed to give you many years to come.

So that’s the Japanese way of celebrating New Years. I did not have the fortune to experience it this year (though I was more than happy to go home and get some normality!) I most likely will next year – I’ll keep you all posted.