What I've been up to this Week

I actually spent this whole weekend on various social excursions with the teachers I work with at the Junior High School.

I'm spending a lot more time socially with my Japanese co-workers here than I ever did in Ajimu. I'm not exactly sure why that is, but I think that the fact that I am primarily anchored at just one school now means I establish closer relations with the other faculty here. And I think the greater number of younger teachers also helps.

Friday night I went out drinking with one of the Japanese English teachers I teach with. Although I say "went out" we actually decided it would be cheaper to just drink in, so after hitting a ramen shop we went back to my place for beer and potato chips.

Since he lives in another town, and because of the strict drunk driving laws in Japan, he wanted to crash at my place. Which I was cool with, but I did my best to warn him that my place was very dirty, and didn't have very many furnishings, and that in fact I did not have spare bedding. "It's okay. I can sleep anywhere. The floor is okay," he replied. I ended up picking up some more blankets and a pillow before he came over, so we were all right on that account, but I still have no tables or chairs in my apartment so we sat on the floor and ate the potato chips off of the floor. He was okay with all of this, but reacted with the most surprise when he found out I didn't have a TV.

Regular readers of this blog may recall me saying several times that I don't particular like drinking, but will occasionally do it for the purpose of social interaction in Japan. This was one of those times. He really wanted to drink a lot, and I had a beer or two more than I wanted. He was used to this kind of thing and up bright and early the next morning looking none the worse. I felt a bit queasy the following day, but I'm not entirely sure if it can all be blamed on the beer, or if all the ramen and potato chips and chocolate cookies swimming around in my stomach might hold part of the blame.

At any rate, in 3 years at Ajimu I never had a co-worker from school crash at my apartment, so I feel already I'm starting to bond with my new co-workers very well.

On Saturday I went with the husband of one of my co-workers to his company barbeque. This couple has been extremely kind to me since I've arrived in Gifu, and has often taken me out on the weekend. I did think it was a bit strange that I was invited to the husband's company barbeque, however.

What makes it a little more strange is that I initially recieved the invitation to this barbeque shortly after I had first arrived in Gifu, before I had even met the husband. His wife, who teaches with me, said to me during my first week of teaching that her husband would like to invite me to his company Barbeque. I wondered why someone I had never met would want to invite me to a company BBQ I had no connection to.

If I was cynical about it, I might say this was an example of a phenemon I learned about at the Tokyo JET orientation 3 years ago called "Gaijin Trophy" or the foreigner as a Trophy. The idea that having foreign friends will increase a Japanese person's status among their peers, so the foreign friend finds himself invited to all sorts of randomn events. However since this couple has been very kind to me since my arrival, there is probably no need to be cynical about it, and I can assume they invited me just because they thought I would enjoy it.

The other people at the company barbeque, however, appearently also found my presence a bit strange. I could over hear them joking about it at times.
"Who is that guy and why is he here?"
"I don't know. He's connected with Yokoyama's wife somehow."
"What kind of connection? Is it his wife's boyfriend?"

Despite feeling slightly out of place, I was able to meet many nice people at this company barbeque, and afterwards some of us went out for coffee and miniture golf. (Most expensive game of miniture golf in my life by the way. $15-only in Japan).

Sunday yet another teacher took me out to Takayama. (Okay actually it was the same one who crashed at my place on Friday night). Takayama is sort of like the Kyoto of Gifu prefecture, filled with old castles and temples.

Anyone who has been to Asia even for a short period of time has probably gotten sick of seeing temples very quickly, but to a certain extent sight seeing is like everything else people do for fun: It's not the sight seeing itself, it is just an excuse to interact with friends while doing something.

The high light of the day for me was a folk village we entered. My Japanese co-worker and his friend, both the same age as me, were somewhat reluctant to enter, but decided to check it out. "This my be the first and last time we go here," he said to me on the way in. "There's nobody here but old people."

Indeed, the place was filled with elderly tourists and a few other foreigners, thus seeming to prove the old joke that the only people interested in Japanese culture are the very old and the foreigners.

The folk village was however very picture-esque, and I think the Japanese friends I came with did appreciate that aspect of it at the end. The park was a recreation of an old Japanese mountain village. It had old moss covered straw roofed houses around a pond on a hillside, and a water wheel that was powered by a stream that flowed into the pond, and even swans swimming around.

The drive their and back consisted of going through what appearently was geographically the exact center of Japan. "The people in this town want to make this the new capital of Japan," my friend explained to me. "But the rest of us think it would be a terrible idea." I looked out the window at all the rice fields and country side, and considered his point.