Wednesday, October 6, 2010

ようこそ、岡山県へ
Welcome to Okayama Prefecture

So this last weekend was one hell of an interesting one. Every year, KCJS students go off on a trip to... pretty much somewhere other than Kyoto. Okayama Prefecture seems to be a popular destination, considering that they went there last year too. My hosts in Okayama Prefecture had a picture of some of last year’s Brandeis students at a festival that’s held every year around this time.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Two caveats: one, as you may have noticed, this post will be the one exception to my posting in English and Japanese. I do not have the time to do my actual Japanese homework and translate a post of this length. Second, since I didn’t really have an Internet connection there, I had to merely write this post day by day, and now I’m posting it all at once. So this is going to be very long. Prepare yourselves!

Friday

We left Kyoto at nine in the morning. We gathered at Doshisha and were loaded onto two buses, one heading up into the mountains and one (the one I was on) making for the coastline.

Japanese highways are really not that much different from American ones. I mean, there’s the whole “drive on the left side of the road” thing, but that’s about the only difference. The highway did have a lot of tunnels though. I suppose that’s to be expected in a country with so many mountains.

We drove through Himeji City on the way... it saddens me to realize that the White Heron Castle, Himeji Castle, is undergoing renovations, and will be for years. I wanted to see that castle... *sigh*

We got lunch on the way, and arrived in Asakuchi City around 1:30 in the afternoon. I didn’t think this would be all that special, but apparently it was... there was a welcome ceremony with all sorts of Asakuchi City people making speeches. In Japanese of course. And we met our hosts for the next three days too. My hosts were really nice people; I would have been perfectly happy staying with them for a lot more than just three days.

Once the speeches were over, we all went over to a nearby school, Konkou Academy, and were given a tour of the school. Words cannot describe how awesome this was. My host family and I were one of the first to get there, so while we were waiting, I had some of the Japanese students peering out the windows at myself and one of the other KCJS students to arrive early. I love being a source of amusement for Japanese students...

Once everyone had arrived, the school’s band put on a quick little concert as their welcoming ceremony. It was really wonderful; music is one of the things I have a soft spot for, so yeah. After that, we were taken over to see some of the other club activities... first was some martial art whose name I honestly do not remember. All the same, those wrist holds and takedowns looked absolutely painful. I am very, very glad I didn’t volunteer to participate in that.

Then we watched the judo club at their work. Which was mostly grabbing their opponents’ clothing and trying to trip or throw him. This... also looked painful. At least for kendo, which came after that, they got to wear armor of a sort. Of course, when you’re using a wooden sword as a weapon and striking at the head, without armor you’d be killing people. So yeah.

The kendo was also awesome because after the two club members demonstrated their abilities, the instructor offered to let us take a wooden sword and try some of the attacks ourselves. That was awesome. Probably the most fun I’ve had here in Japan yet.

Finally, we participated in a tea ceremony, courtesy of Konkou Academy’s tea ceremony club. With twelve people, it was a little cramped and a little rushed... but then again, the snacks and tea are delicious, so I’m not going to begrudge any chance to participate in a tea ceremony. The Japanese guy sitting next to me seemed surprised when I said I liked the tea... I don’t think he was expecting that.

With that, our tour of Konkou Academy was over, unfortunately. It was ridiculously fun. Okayama Prefecture knows how to make people feel welcome, that’s for sure. I wonder if I’ll ever have a chance to go back there, sometime...

Well, after that my hosts drove me to the coastline. Asakuchi is right on the Seto Inland Sea, and there was a breeze coming in off the sea. It felt great... I really don’t go to the coast often enough, especially considering my home is really close to the ocean. (Well, the Chesapeake Bay. To be precise.)

I met my hosts’ grandchildren, who are (in the true style of kids everywhere) overly energetic. They somewhat awkwardly greeted me in English... it was so cute! They live with their parents, not with my hosts, so we didn’t have long to chat, but I kicked a soccer ball around a little and played some baseball too.

Finally, we made it back to my hosts’ home and had a relaxing evening... dinner was good (nabemono... look it up), and then I showed my hosts where I was from on Google Maps while we were all relaxing in front of the TV.

And this was just one day! If the rest of the weekend is this much fun...

Saturday

“If the rest of the weekend is this much fun” indeed. Holy damn.

The day’s activities started at 10 with a trip to Ryūnan Nursery School in Asakuchi, where one of my hosts’ grandkids goes. They had me sit up front and field some questions about myself, both from the teachers and the kids. I ended up singing the first part of the opening theme to Space Battleship Yamato, somehow.

We then moved on to coloring these little paper doll elephants, and then had them fight each other, sumo-style. That was... interesting. It’s hard to describe. I didn’t win all that often, not that I minded.

Then came lunch. I don’t even remember what we ate for lunch. Rice was involved, and I’m pretty sure there was miso soup too... but this is Japan, practically every meal has those.

Before I left the nursery school, the kids gave me a little card and a paper necklace to thank me for coming... to repeat myself from yesterday, it was so cute! Even though it’s exhausting to hang out with little kids, it was so much fun!

At this point, I could have spent the rest of the day doing nothing and still have had an awesome day. But that was far from it. Next came a visit to the Kamogata Machiya Park. There, I got to play with a kendama! It’s this little toy that’s a ball connected by a string to a little cross-shaped piece of wood. You hold the cross-shaped part and try to get the ball to land on the ends of the cross. For such a little thing, it is surprisingly difficult... although I was getting decently good at it by the time we left.

We also tried walking on stilts. “Tried” being the operative word. I couldn’t manage it. Pity no one had a video camera, or we’d have some interesting YouTube fodder.

There was also a koto lesson in progress when we got there... when it ended, I got a chance to play the koto myself. Now that was interesting. Having played piano in the past, rhythm wasn’t a problem, but it was still kinda hard.

Nothing else interesting really happened until dinner. Of course, dinner was a barbecue party with my hosts’ extended family, so yeah. Yakitori, crab, shrimp, sushi, onigiri... the amount of food there was just insane. Now if only they had had soda, it would have been perfect. There was plenty of beer, but they already knew that I didn’t drink (not even legal yet in Japan, much less the United States), so that wasn’t an option.

And after dinner... I believe I mentioned a festival? The Ōura Shrine Annual Autumn Festival (Shūki Reitaisai), at a shrine in Asakuchi City, would be that festival. I believe that all of the KCJS students in Asakuchi attended. And all of the guys helped with the festival.

By “helped”, I mean we helped to carry one of the portable shrines. Those things were heavy. I mean, damn, with a good thirty people all carrying it, you’d think it wouldn’t be all that bad. Oh no. I’m typing this four hours later and my back and shoulder still ache a little.

But it was still great fun. I got taiyaki for my trouble, so I was happy. Everyone (else) was drinking beer and having a great time. If there’s one thing I’m really going to miss when I have to go back to the U.S., it’s going to be the festivals. (If only for the taiyaki.)

One more day... there’s no way anything could top that Saturday, though.


Sunday

Well, today was much quieter. Went on a trip to Fukuyama Castle, mostly because I admitted to my hosts yesterday that I liked castles. Like most currently in Japan, Fukyuama Castle is rebuilt... only a very few survive in their original state, and the only one that comes to mind right off is Himeji. (See above about Himeji’s current state. *sigh*)

The problem with this outing was that the museum is in Japanese. Now, I like history, and I like learning more about history... but I simply can’t translate museum signs from Japanese into English in any reasonable length of time. My translation works best when I’m sitting down in front of a computer with a good two or three hours to spare.

All the same, it was cool. Any traditional Japanese castle with tower is good in my book, and usually the museums show what they looked like back when they were built and/or at their peak. It makes me wonder how anyone ever dared to challenge them. I mean, seriously... a moat, outer wall, inner wall, built steadily higher on a hill... I guess this is why siege warfare was invented.

We also got lunch in Fukuyama Station... I got hamburger, which apparently here in Japan just means a slab of meat. Not that I minded, it was good, and it’s not like I was expecting a bun. Oh, and rice, of course. Although my rice was served on a plate for some reason... news flash, I’ve been in Japan for a month, I can use chopsticks and would like my rice in a bowl where I can actually eat it with chopsticks, thank you very much.

Finally, I got a souvenir to take back with me from Fukujima... momiji manju, these little tasty cake-like pastries with filling, shaped like autumn leaves. They’re filled with all kinds of things... this set was an assortment, with anko (red bean paste, like taiyaki... yay), green tea, chocolate, and mocha-filled ones. (Having already eaten them, considering it took me a while to write and post this... the anko-filled ones were the best. Just saying.)

That was pretty much it... by the time we returned to Okayama, it was time to leave for good. Tearful goodbyes were had (okay, not all that tearful), souvenirs and thank yous were exchanged, and we loaded up on the bus back to Kyoto.

... There’s only one weekend that could possibly top this, and that would be one spent in Tokyo. Oh wait, we have a break coming up later in October...

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