Japan e-mail: Aug. 24, 2001

(Retrospection)

Dear Brett,
Thanks for the reply. Yes, that sand bath was supposed to be relaxing, but let me tell you brother, I didn't feel very relaxed. Those old ladies were pretty crabby, and I never knew what was going to happen next. They kept us moving too. I was only buried in the sand for like 5 minutes before they were telling us to move on, and then I had to go and wash all the sand off in a shower, and all of this is still in the same small room, so I was still feeling exposed in front of the old ladies.
(And it wasn't so much a shower as a tub of water and a bucket thingy I had to use to scoop water on myself.) Anyway, it was an interesting experience, but I don't think I'm going to do it again.
(Unless someone comes over here to visit me. It would be fun to take them to the sand bath and just not tell them anything about what to expect.)
If we ever started anything up like this in the States, we'd have to make sure we only got friendly old ladies to work at the place....And then what if our Sand Bath became really successful, and all of our friends lost their jobs in a big depression or something, so we had to hire them to bury naked people in the sand. Can you imagine Butterball, Cakes, Rob, Bear, Cecil, Bosch and the rest of the gang busy burying naked people in sand? (Alright, I know all this is all getting pretty ridiculous, but a man can dream, can't he?)

I've got a car here, like I told you last e-mail, but it's a manual transmission. I was a bit intimidated by this at first, but after the initial shock I'm actually glad about this, because this is one of those things I would have to learn eventually. I went out driving last night with one of my Japanese friends Issei, and it was a disaster. I stalled at every stop light. Although mind you it was the first time I had ever driven the thing, so I'm sure I'll just get better from here on out.

*******
Dear Mark,
Being overseas I can really identify with your story about anti-American attitudes. Not so much from the Japanese. The Japanese still adore Americans in a starry eyed sort of way, and think every American is a movie star or something. But I do get attitude sometimes from the other English teachers: the Brits, the Aussies, the New Zealanders, and even sometimes the Canadians. It's interesting to gauge my own reaction, because I've never considered myself a big patriot, but it's amazing how defensive I get when an outsider is attacking my country. It's something I have to watch myself on because I've caught myself defending things about US foreign policy I would never ordinarily defend.

I once saw a Noam Chomsky video once, and someone asked him if he thought we could ever be proud to be an American. Chomksy answered we could be proud of the American people at times, but we should never be proud of the American government, because governments are inherently violent institutions.
Anyway, I'm sure you are one of the good Americans. You, and me, and maybe Nate are the good Americans. The rest are just bloodthirsty capitalists.

***********

Dear Peter,
You know that I, like yourself, am a very political animal. Unfortunately I'm a bit cut off from English speaking media at the moment, so even though I'm living in Japan I really don't know much about recent political events here.
As for where I'm living, the short answer is that I'm out in a small town in the middle of nowhere, but if you want to try and locate me on the map, I'm on the Island of Kyushu, in Oita Prefecture (in the Northeast corner of Kyushu) near the city of Usa, in a little town called Ajimu. (Although good luck finding Ajimu on the map).

Anyway, the little bit I do know about current Japanese politics is that the Prime Minister is an LDP, and even though he does have a tendency to buck his own party, I think he's still a rightest at heart. (Perhaps like the John McCain of Japan). I'm sure you've been following the whole textbook/ visit to war criminal shrine controversy, and I imagine you are better informed about it then I am given how far removed I am from English media. (I do occasionally check news sites like CNN.com, but this computer at the Board of Education is so slow that I mainly just use it for E-mailing purposes.)

I do think the whole controversy is disappointing and represents a step back for Japan, but my Japanese supervisor explained it to me in a bit of a different light. He said that the reason the Prime Minister went to the graves of war criminals was to pray for peace, and that by going to the graves of war criminals he was trying to make a point about how devastating the war had been, and how Japan must remain peaceful. I don't know how much that is worth, but I guess it does represent a different perspective.

As for the current economic depression, that is something I hear about occasionally. For example I've met one or two young Japanese people over here who moved to Ajimu to get jobs. It seemed a bit strange to me because they moved from the big city into the countryside to find jobs. I think in America during a depression the migration would be in reverse, but there's a lot of bureaucracy in Japan so they need people to fill civil servant positions in the town hall in the Japanese small towns.

Other than that it's the same old same old over here. I'm still just hanging out in the office everyday while I wait for school to start. I've met some of the other English teachers in some of the neighboring towns. Sounds like you're more physically active than me. I haven't really gotten into an exercise routine since I got to Japan.

I went to a prefecture orientation in Beppu last week, and met a few of the other JETs in the prefecture. Mostly though I just hung around with people I had already met at the Tokyo orientation. But of course at the Tokyo orientation I also met a lot of people who were going to all different corners of Japan, so it was nice to meet more people close by.

******
Dear Ben,
Things are going pretty well here. I still can't get over how beautiful these mountains are, although I suspect once I've been here a while maybe they'll fade into the background and I won't notice them as much. I did finally get a hold of the car you left for me. Issei took me out driving last night. I'm not used to a manual transmission, so he showed me how to work it. I still stalled it at every light, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.
I've hung out with Aaron from Innai a couple times. He took us to the Innai O-bon festival, and invited us to the Jamaican festival, which was a lot of fun. (By us I mean me and Ryan, (Charlie's successor)). Ryan and I have been hanging around a lot, being the only two English speakers in Ajimu. He's also managed to acquire a car.

School hasn't started yet, but I don't mind hanging around the office. For one thing it's the only place where I have internet access, so I spend half the day just doing e-mail. Secondly it's a nice place to study Japanese. I'm pretty much at ground zero in terms of language ability, so I'm trying to get as much under my belt as I can while my enthusiasm is still high. I've heard encouraging stories from 2nd and 3rd year JETs about how much it is possible to learn in the first year.

******
Dear Ryan,
Okay, here is the deal as far as I can work out. I ran things by my supervisor like I said I would, and he said it was okay for your friend to come with us tomorrow to the African Safari park, but it looks like his generosity won't extend to paying for her ticket. Not to worry though. If you pay for 1/3 of her ticket, I'll chip in 1/3 as well. I asked what time we should be ready tomorrow, and he said about 9. I think he's probably picking us up in his car, but the word bus was mentioned a couple of times. I'm not sure what it all means. For now just assume that you're getting picked up, and I'll try and drop a note off by your apartment if things change.

Oh, and while I'm on the subject I should clarify that I'm not entirely sure where the price of your ticket is coming from. My supervisor has paid for everything else we've done together so far, and as I've mentioned he said something about having a friend who worked there or something, so I'm not sure if that means he can get us in for free or not. Because of his limited English and the language barrier I'm never really sure what is going on. I'm sure you can identify.
Anyway, hope this helps.

Link of the Day
Article on Media Mouse: Art Cooperative Closes its Doors
I was never involved with the Art Cooperative, but it sounds vaguely familiar. Was this set up by people we know from Calvin, or am I thinking of something else? Can anyone fill me in?