Week in Review, Odds and Ends
Still dealing with limited e-mail access over here, so a dual apology for all the unanswered e-mails and for not updating this weblog as frequently as I used to. Because of the limited access I'm going to just combine all my thoughts and stories from this week into a week in review type post.
First off, my friend Aaron in his blog responds to one of my previous posts about the application for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. I do realize that I am probably severely testing the patience of any regular readers of this blog by writing too much about the application process for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, but anyone interested can check out Aaron's blog in which he vouches for my claim that they don't make it easy.

This week was actually very similar to last week. I had another Sports day on Saturday, followed by a drinking party afterwards. The difference was that this week Sports day was at the Elementary School. Basically the same thing, a couple small differences.

For instance, the 6th grade students had been trained in fire safety by the local fire department, and exhibited their skills by putting out a fire. They also marched around the field in a their Junior Fire safety uniforms, in a display that to me looked disturbingly militaristic. More disturbing was watching the practices the week before, in which the teachers marched along side the students to get them to goose step in line, and turn their heads to the right or left when ordered to do so. It seemed like something straight out of a North Korean film.

Although Japan is a strongly pacifist country, the educational system can occasionally show the society's militaristic roots. The school uniforms are modeled on the army uniforms for boys, and on the navy uniforms for girls. (Which by the way, when I first arrived in Japan, I could not get over how ridiculous all these girls looked like running around in sailor uniforms. Now I've gotten somewhat accustomed to it).

Sports Day, with all the marching and flag waving, was apparently identified as being to militaristic by the American occupation forces, and temporarily banned, but restarted after the occupation ended. It's been softened somewhat, but it still can make westerners feel uncomfortable. I tried to soften my criticisms on Saturday by disguising them as compliments ("Isn't it great the way the students are marching together? They march so well I can't tell whether this is an army or a school."), which I feel still gets the point across.

Saturday night was a drinking party. Sunday a teacher from the Junior High School took me out to see some of the local sights of the area.

Nice guy this teacher. He's the same age as me, but, as Japanese people can sometimes do, looks about 10 years younger. Seriously, he could easily pass for 16 in the States. A lot of Japanese people just have very young faces.

He is not, I am discovering, as innocent as he looks however. Although he seems very professional at school, he enjoys a bit of indulgence on the weekends. And, to my surprise, he picked me up Sunday morning accompanied by a former female student of his who had recently graduated from high school. The two of them apparently go out drinking together quite frequently even though she is below legal drinking age. (She's 19, drinking age is 20 in Japan). And during the day he gave her several cigarettes even though the legal smoking age is also 20. They both seem to be heavy smokers.

It all seemed a bit sketchy to me, but I have gotten the impression that it is more acceptable for male teachers in Japan to have close relations with some of their female students. Although I do have to confess I don't really know, and I thought it rude to ask directly that day. She was, however, pretty, energetic, and a pleasure to have with us during the day. Actually both of them were a lot of fun and great company. Sometimes I feel like a lot of my Japanese friends can be very serious or studious people, and it was a really refreshing change of pace to hang out with the two of them.

We did a bit of hiking, played badminton and Frisbee in the park, got some pizza. In the evening we went to see the "Ukai". The Ukai are these birds that are used for fishing. They have bands around their neck so they can't swallow the fish, but they dive into the river, retrieve fish, and then cough them up into the fisherman's boat. It is a traditional way of fishing in Gifu, and a bit of a tourist industry as well. We road down the river on traditional Japanese boats light by lanterns and steered by two men with poles, somewhat reminiscent of Venice. (I've never been to Venice, but you know...). After wards we went to a "view spot" which was a good place to see the city lights and filled with couples. We made ourselves very popular with the couples there by setting off fireworks.