Obon Festival and Exploring the Town

Dear Bear,

I haven’t heard about Cowboy Bebop yet. Last night people were telling me about an animated children’s show that is quite popular among Japanese children, called An Pan Man, or something like that, which apparently translates into Bread Face Man. It sounded quite strange to me, but perhaps you’ve heard something about it or other.

Yes, I am in the land of Anime I suppose. And yet I think it will be difficult to find any Anime in English, so I might have to wait until I get back to the U.S. before I start watching any of it.

The town is pretty small, about 8,000 people, and not too many people my age (although I have met a few). And I have one other Jet here too, who is a New Zealand fellow, and we’ve hung out a bit. I’ve discovered my Americanness makes me pretty popular among the locals here. For instance, last night me and Ryan (the New Zealand guy) went into a supermarket, and the owner was so happy to see us in her store that she invited us to dinner later that week. So, it’s pretty easy to keep occupied. And when I don’t have anything to do, my apartment is only about an hour’s walk away from some great hiking.

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Thanks for the heads up. I checked out CNN’s website after reading your e-mail. [Story relating to protests in Tokyo over controversial new Japanese text book. Also bomb went off in author’s office. Left Wing Japanese group claimed responsibility].

Funny thing, I was in Tokyo when that bomb went off and when they were having those protests. And I was completely oblivious to it. Of course, Tokyo is a huge city. Even bigger than New York. On the last night we were there we went out for food. We got on a train in downtown Tokyo, rode for 15 minutes, got off, and we were still in the middle of downtown Tokyo.

My apartment is pretty nice actually. About as big as Rob’s current place back home. 

Living by myself is a bit lonely. So far I’ve been keeping busy though. I get a lot of invitations to places.

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Dear Rob,

Yes, it is quite humid over here too. It’s probably no worse than a hot summer day in Michigan. (That is, a really hot 90 degree day). But the killer is that it is like this every day, instead of in Michigan where we might have one 90 degree day only once in a while. Fortunately my work and apartment are air-conditioned. (My apartment is actually very much like yours in terms of the way it’s laid out).

I’m in my little mountain town right now. [Ed: note--It wasn't actually in the mountains, but it was nearby mountains.]  I only spent a couple days in Tokyo actually. Tell Brett it is absolutely gorgeous over here. Be sure and rub it in a lot. Seriously though, I’m right next to a bunch of mountains, and I’m only an hour’s walk away from the top. But these mountains aren’t like Colorado or the Smokey’s or anything like that. They’re covered in bamboo plants, and have tons of weird insects and spiders. (Actually the spiders are a bit creepy).

I haven’t heard any Aerosmith since I got here, but the Beatles are quite popular. In fact the Beatles are more popular in Japan than they are in the US. I think that might be partly because of the whole thing with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, because everyone talks about John Lennon a lot. I see his picture all over the place, and I learned that John Lennon’s favorite food is Miso soup. It almost seems to be common knowledge over here. I used to read about the Beatles all the time, and I never found out Miso Soup was John Lennon’s favorite food.
[Ed. Note: Actually this e-mail is a classic case of speaking (or writing) too soon. It turns out Aerosmith is also very popular in Japan, and I would hear a lot of Aerosmith as well over my Japan time.]

I haven’t started teaching yet. It’s kind of a weird system. They don’t have anything for me to do right now, but I show up everyday to show I’m a team player (which apparently is very important in Japan). The office just lets me read or do e-mail (which is where I’m e-mailing you from right now).

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Dear Mom,
In regards to my mail, please save the letters from the War Resisters League. None of it is particularly important, and you certainly don’t need to forward it to me here in Japan, but it would be nice to read when I return home. As for the Sports Illustrated: Butterball signed me up for a subscription over the internet as a joke, along with Cigar Monthly, National Geographic, etc. (I think Butterball has a lot of time on his hands). Anyway, I’ve just been ignoring it, and most of the magazines gradually stop coming. Sports Illustrated is more persistent than the others, but everything is being sent to the Camelot address, so I don’t think they’ll be able to send me anything once the forwarding stops.

Things are good here. This is a brief description of what I’ve been up to since I arrived in Ajimu:
Wednesday: I actually just spent this night by myself, because the office assumed I would be tired and would want to sleep. I did some unpacking, and took a walk through the town, but it gets dark here so early that I couldn’t see much. (There’s no daylight savings time in Japan, plus the surrounding mountains block the sun earlier).

Thursday: First day of work. They don’t have anything for me to do yet, (summer vacation) but it is important that I show up because of the emphasis here on team. I just do e-mail or study Japanese. I was also introduced to everyone in the town hall. At night Issei (one of the younger guys in the office) took me out on the town with his friends.

Friday: Work, and then at night I had nothing to do, so I just went hiking in the hills around here (although again it gets dark early so I had to cut it short).

Saturday and Sunday: My supervisor had his family in town (they are usually studying in Tokyo, but he has two sons, 17 and 23–the same ages as me and Kyle). He invited me over and took me sight seeing with his family to all the scenic spots in Ajimu. Lots of Buddhist temples, much like our trip to Korea. But there are also beautiful mountain views and waterfalls. We spent all day Saturday sight seeing, but Sunday afternoon he dropped me back home early, so I just went hiking around town again. I met some Japanese college students up in the trails, and they took me around and showed the safe hiking areas. Then I hung out with Ryan (the other New Zealand Jet in my town. I had been unable to get a hold of him before then, but a 3rd year Jet from the neighboring town of Innai came over to visit, and showed me where Ryan lived).

Monday: went to work, and then hung out with Ryan in the evening. At night, Issei took me to O-bon festival (Shinto festival for the dead, lots of dancing and drinking. Even though I think most Japanese are not religious, they like the old festivals. Afterwards we had a party in the temple.)

Things are going good over here. I’m certainly getting a lot of special attention where ever I go. Last night Ryan and I just walked into a grocery store, and the owner invited us for dinner, so that’s what we’re doing Thursday. Tonight and tomorrow there is a coming of Age Ceremony, and Ryan and I are supposed to say a few words or something. To be honest I’m not really sure what we’re doing, but I’m sure it will be interesting.

Note:

This post was originally emails that I sent on this day.  I didn't actually start this blog until October 14, 2003.  But in order to preserve a complete record of my travels, I have added in some of my old emails from my Japan days, and backdated them to the date that I originally sent them.

Settling In

Yesterday I went hiking around through some mountain trails. It was good fun, and turns out the peak is only about an hour walk from my apartment. I met some young Japanese people on the trail. They were about my age (I think all three of them were 22) and they were very surprised to see this American tromping around through the trails out in the middle of nowhere. They were very nice. They showed me the way down the mountain, pointed out a few interesting sites, and even gave me a lift home. I’m finding out that I get a lot of special treatment around here just for being me.  [Ed. note: The "mountain" that I mentioned was really more of a hill.]

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It turns out there is only one other JET in my town, Ryan, a New Zealand guy. I met him briefly at the orientation. But aside from that many other towns are within driving distance. Last night another JET drove over from the neighboring town to hang out with me and Ryan. It was nice to be able to speak normal English. Usually I have to speak English very slowly and use a lot of gestures. The other guy, Aaron, is from Wales, and has been here 3 years already. He was saying that sometimes it is hard for Americans to make friends because many of the other JETs have resentment against Americans, but I haven’t encounter this yet. {ED. Note: Nor would I}.

Things are going good over here. They don’t have too much for me to do around the office just yet, so I can write e-mails and study Japanese. After my work-aholic life style in the United States, it is hard for me to just sit around and not do much of anything, but I’m getting used to it. 

No car just yet. There seems to be some confusion about it, so I’m trying to get that straightened out. The school board has been generous enough to loan me a bike, which is a very nice gesture, although the bike is a little small for me. My knees are almost hitting my chin when I ride it. And, for some weird reason, there is apparently no bathroom at the Board of Education office. So no place to change clothes. I have to wear my nice clothes while I bike around the town. {Ed. Note: In fact there was a bathroom on the first floor. This turned out to be a misunderstanding. I tried to use my Japanese-English dictionary to ask where the bathroom was, and ended up asking where the bathing room was. They told me I had to attend to that at my own apartment, and I thought this meant no one used the toilet at the office}.
Anyway, I’m sure I look pretty silly, picture me riding around town this Japanese town on a small bike in my nice slacks.

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I see a lot of things around here that remind me of you Bear. Mostly Anime actually, but people over here really take their Anime seriously. In particular I’ve been hearing a lot about “Princess Mononoke, which I believe was one of the Anime’s you used to talk about. It must have been a big hit over here, because everyone knows about it. I’ll have to check it out someday. Actually I’ll probably wait till I’m back in the States so I can see it with English subtitles.)

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Dear Mom, I don’t have a phone number yet. That still needs to be set up, and I was told it would take a few days. (Which seems reasonable. I’m sure it would take a few days to set up a new phone line in the States as well.) Maybe I can use the phone card to call from a public phone, although the time change would be a bit of a pain in the neck. I don’t know my address yet, but I’ll let you know of it when I find out. I’m already thinking of a few things it might be nice to ship over, but nothing urgent.

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I’m having a good time over here, although a lot of the differences are interesting. Japan is not, shall we say, on the forefront of the feminist movement. Maybe it would be different in a big city, I don’t know. I haven’t seen any major injustices, but I’ve picked up on a lot of little things. The way the woman always serve tea to the men at the office, and then clean up after them. And there's also the way boys are always called on first in school and stuff.

I’ve modified my no-drinking policy over here to a two drink policy. I figured it was the only way to have a social life, since so much of Japanese culture revolves around drinking. And I figure two drinks never hurt anyone. The only thing is I still haven’t acquired a taste for alcohol, so the beer tastes bitter going down, and I have to hide my reaction from my hosts. Oh well.

Note:

This post was originally an email that I sent.  I didn't actually start this blog until October 14, 2003.  But in order to preserve a complete record of my travels, I have added in some of my old emails from my Japan days, and backdated them to the date that I originally sent them.

The first few months I was in Japan I was very prolific with the e-mails. These are bits and pieces cut and pasted from various e-mails I sent to various people on August 12, 2001

I've Arrived In Japan

 Greetings from Japan. First of all, sorry about this mass e-mail. I know it's impersonal, etc, but I thought for starting out this would be the best way to go. And some of you receiving this have also been guilty of mass e-mails in the past (you know who you are).

And, a word about the randomness of the recipients. I have some free time now, and I'm by a computer, so I thought I'd just send this e-mail out. So, I didn't bring my e-mail address list with me, and I just went and clicked on the names that were already in my address book, and then added those of you who have easy to remember e-mail addresses. So, if someone could forward this to the people I forgot about, I'd appreciate it. (Sigh, no one is going to do it. I know you guys too well. Seriously, if someone can take the time and do that for me, I'd appreciate it.)

And one more word of business before I get started on the message. I realize this might be of minimal interest for those on the chimes listserve who don't know me very well. Just hit the delete key and no whining.

I am in Ajimu-Machi now, arriving here yesterday afternoon. I've never been to Japan before, but it is everything I pictured a small Japanese town to look like. Very scenic too, right up in the mountains.

Japan is kind of like a bad science fiction movie. The kind of movie that you watch and think to yourself, "This is so fake. If they have the technology for laser guns and hoover crafts, why are they still living in caves?" Okay, so the analogy is a bit of a stretch, but it's interesting here. Lots of their little gadgets and gizmos are much more advanced than the stuff available in the US, but the big things like central heating, insulation and decent roads are all very primitive.

I arrived in Tokyo on Sunday night, and had two days of orientation. Unfortunately, we were so busy during orientation I didn't get a chance to see much of the city, but we went out a little bit at night (while fighting jet lag).

The rest of the JETs are from all over the world. Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and even some places I didn't expect like Singapore and Germany. I know this is old hat to all you international travelers, but it is a new experience for me, and I like meeting a lot of cool people with weird sounding accents. I met a guy from Liverpool (with an accent so thick I could barely understand him) and I said, "Ah, Liverpool, where the Beatles are from right?" And he said, "I'm so sick of everyone saying that." Similarly, I've discovered people from Australia don't like it when you bring up Crocodile Dundee. The British Embassy had a night where they hosted all the British people. I didn't go (naturally) but it was funny to hear the Brits talk about it. Apparently the ambassador was saying things like, "Jolly good that you're here lads, now go out there and have a bloody good time." And someone complained to me, "This is the last thing we need. That's why everyone thinks we Brits are such tarts, isn't it?" (By the way, I've discovered that Brits use "isn't it" or "wasn't it" in the same way Canadians use "eh.")

Hope to hear from you all (I'm still easing my way into the office here, so I'm hesitant about using e-mail. I only use this machine when I'm offered, but I think as I get settled in I'll be able to write longer and more frequently. We'll see how things go on a day by day basis)

Note:

This post was originally an email that I sent.  I didn't actually start this blog until October 14, 2003.  But in order to preserve a complete record of my travels, I have added in some of my old emails from my Japan days, and backdated them to the date that I originally sent them.