Welcoming the New Year in Japan

Winter vacation has come to a close which means I will be heading back to work tomorrow. I spent a few days in Seoul, and that was a great. Seoul would be a cool city to live in, and like Japan, Korea pays its English teachers pretty well. Who knows? Maybe I'll head there for a year or two after Yakage.

I wanted to be back in Japan for New Year's though. Its the most important holiday to the Japanese so I wanted to see how they celebrated it. Like the rest of the world, Japan goes out partying and counting down until midnight, but it has a deeper meaning.

Food stalls set up all week

The festivities occur at a local shrine where bells will ring announcing the new year. Then businesses will close for a number of days for people to continue celebrating. Some big chains will open by the 2nd or 3rd, but my favorite bakery has been closed all week, which was very upsetting. During this time, everyone is returning to their hometowns and going to a local shrine for hatsumoude, or the first visit of the year. At the shrine, you're wishing for good fortune this coming year. If you're a student or parent, this usually means praying for success in future high school/university entrance exams.

Wash your hands first!

I was fortunate enough to go to hatsumoude with a Japanese family, and they were nice enough to put up with me asking so many questions and to show me what to do. During other trips to shrines, like in Kyoto, I was always just going as a tourist, so I would always just walk through and never really wanted to wait in line with everyone else to pay money to get a fortune made for me. But this was hatsumoude, so I had to.



This photo on the left is like a giant collection dish as people throw in some change as an offering to the kami, or god, bow twice, clap twice, then bow once more as you pray for its blessing.



 There's a lot of praying that goes on at various places around the shrine's grounds. I guess less is not more in this case. In order to get my fortune for the year, I shook that wooden case, and received a description based on the number that came out. In case you were wondering, mine was normal luck for this coming year, as long as I remain calm and easy-going. After you read your fortune, you don't take it home with you, instead you just tie and seal it off forever.

 Also, as you might expect of an East Asia country with a lot of ties to Chinese culture, zodiac signs are fairly important. During my time in Seoul and throughout town, I've seen banners welcoming the new year with pictures of horses on them. So yes, for all the 1990 babies out there, this is your year. I'll be waiting a while for the snake to come around again.

メリークリスマス

Merry Christmas, merii kurisumasu, メリークリスマス!

Yes, Japan does in fact celebrate Christmas, just not the way Christians, or even Jewish people, are used to. Christmas has made its way over to Japan just like many other aspects of Western culture. And since only 1% of the population is Christian, it has no real religious significance for people living here. Instead it's become the most romantic holiday in Japan for couples or an excuse for kids to get presents. However, since the 25th is not a holiday for the Japanese, the special dinners are celebrated on Christmas Eve instead of the actual day. Your traditional Japanese Christmas dinner will consist of Kentucky Fried Chicken and for dessert, a Christmas cake! Because that's what Japanese people think Westerners do, so they mimic us by going to our Western fast food chains. Can you imagine taking your loved one to a KFC as a romantic gesture? The KFC Christmas dinner has become so popular that you need to order months in advance to get a bucket of fried chicken prepared for pick up.

Can't wait to eat my Christmas cake

Little something extra on the last day

As you can see from the photo, I once again dressed up to help talk about an American holiday. I started off pretty ambitiously, trying to explain in Japanese about the various traditions and Santa stories we have in the USA, like decorating Christmas trees and how Santa comes down the chimney. Most importantly, I had to correct the notion that the Christmas cake was something Japan took from the US. The tree part they found interesting (you bring it IN the house?!) but since Japanese homes don't have chimneys, there was a bit of a snag there (How does Santa deliver them to the Japanese kids?). And also, it was just too much to pack in as well as holding an activity to make the class fun. So while kid made Christmas cards, I rocked out to Christmas carols dancing around the classroom lip syncing Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You"

Perhaps the best thing that happened over the course of these past 3 weeks teaching Christmas lesson after Christmas lesson, was on the last day, it began to snow as I taught my first class of the day. By the time the period was over it had stopped and nothing was left on the ground, but it was still pretty magical

A Tale of Two Cities

As the year comes to a close, Japanese organizations plan events for coworkers to celebrate the past year called bounenkai, 忘年会. This past weekend, those of us at the Yakuba went off to Osaka and Kyoto for a 2 day trip. Since I spend most of the day off at different schools, and the office isn't a place for socializing anyway, this was an ideal chance to interact with my coworkers. Overall, it was a great time, and I learned some new things about Japanese social behavior along the way.

Bingo programmed into the bus

First, Saturday morning kicked off bright and early as we pulled out of the town hall parking lot at 7:30 a.m. Ten minutes later and the men were already cracking open beer cans and chilling in the back lounge area of the party bus. The two who had organized this trip did a great job making sure people would be entertained as we were fully stocked on booze, snacks, and games.

Depending on the schedule you chose, you could either get dropped off in Kobe for some horse race gambling, or continue on to Osaka for a comedy show. I opted for the comedy show despite my reservations about how much I'd actually understand. The show was put on by a famous comedy troupe called Yoshimoto that apparently has venues all over Japan. It seems like the first half was a variety of stuff to showcase some new talent while the second half was a hilarious Christmas skit. When some colleagues later asked if I had understood what was going on, others who had been sitting next to me chimed in that I was laughing louder than everyone else. I apologized for the noise level, but I was pleased I had been able to follow the plot.

Osaka is famous for its takoyaki (fried octopus)
Also a lot of fun to watch them make

Now Osaka doesn't have much in the way of cultural sites. It's a destination for people wanting to shop and enjoy the nightlife. So after the show, people went their separate ways to spend the time until dinner. Once dinner started, the beer kept flowing until dessert. Drinking in Japan is something else. I don't really know how to put it. People are constantly refilling your glass before you even finish all of it because you don't pour for yourself. "Oh no! Your glass is half-full, let me top you off. Some coworkers went too hard too quickly and tried to signal no more drinks by keeping their glasses full. NOPE! When that bottle came around you were expected to take a sip so at least some could be poured in again. After dinner had concluded, people once again went their separate ways. I went off to a karaoke bar with some others and sang for two hours. I do love me some karaoke.

Now you might be thinking, "Wow! That sounds like you had a great bonding experience." After all, in America, sometimes a drunken night will lead to a new friendship. Or you may never talk to that person again once you're sober. Japan is a lot like the latter. What happens when you're drunk, stays there. So even though I rocked out to some 80's classics with my bosses, I can't act all chummy with them the next day. Also, fortunately for those that got totally smashed at dinner, there is no public shaming the next day.

On Sunday, we set off for nearby Kyoto. What Osaka lacks in culture, Kyoto makes up for tenfold. Kyoto has the largest population of working geisha in Japan, and it's not uncommon to see men and women walking around wearing traditional kimonos. There seems to be a famous temple or shrine of some sort every half a mile, and some smaller ones tucked in between commercial buildings. First, I went off to Fushimi Inari shrine and later met up with everyone else at the temple Kiyomizudera. 

 Fushimi Inari is one of my favorite shrines because of the thousands of torii gates that you walk through as you ascend the mountain. Since it is a shrine, it is related to the Japanese religion Shinto. Shinto is a little ambiguous with each deity's role, so Inari is the god/goddess of business and many other things. The inscriptions you see on the torii gates show the patrons who donated the money to the shrine.

The Buddhist temple Kiyomizudera has a variety of things going for it to attract visitors. The photo at the top shows a fountain that will grant a long healthy life and wishes and other good things if you drink from it. So of course I did, and you can see people extended their cups out under the water. Even though this is a Buddhist temple, religions often overlap in Asian societies. Within the temple grounds there is a shrine to the Shinto god of love and matchmaking. At this shrine there are two rocks about 20 ft apart, and if you can walk from one to the other with your eyes closed, the myth is you will find true love. People rarely do that one for fear of ridicule.

Winter in Japan

Wow, I did not realize it's been so long since I did my last blog post. A month has gone by pretty quickly. I just sent in my 3 month field report to PiA. It's actually hard to imagine that only 3 months have gone by. It seems like Backstreet Boys and rice picking was forever ago.

One reason for the lack of new posts is because things have slowed down here in Yakage now that winter is descending upon us. Things are pretty routine here now. But all of you should get a sense of what Japan is like in the winter.

Japanese people like to say they have 4 distinct seasons, but if you ask any foreigner, there are only 2. Muggy summers and chilly winters. Summer temperature was extending through October, then for a week or so in late October/early November, there was some perfect cool temps. Then suddenly it all got freezing cold again. Growing up in New England, I liked to think I could handle inclement weather better than the average person as I walked around Dickinson in shorts and a T-shirt. And it certainly is colder in the States from a degree standpoint. But the cold just pierces through your walls and into your room.

Buildings in Japan, at least the schools and houses here in Yakage, seem to focus around letting air flow in and out of rooms. I've heard that houses in Japan are not built with thick walls because they need to be flexible for the frequent earthquakes. This means not a lot of insulation. I get that, what I find surprising is the layout of these schools I go to everyday. To move from one class to another, you have to go outside. Meanwhile, school uniforms require kids to wear skirts and shorts. It's tough to be a student in Japan

So how do Japanese people deal with the cold? Some inventions are pretty amazing (like a toilet seat that heats itself up when you sit down). Others are pretty low tech (kerosene stove). Every classroom has one of those babies parked right in the middle blasting away to keep the room piping hot.

Japanese people love their baths for relaxing. Hot springs can be found all over the country. In Japan, showers are really just a way to rinse off so you can be clean upon entering the tub. Don't want to be sitting in a pool of your own filth after all. Also, bathrooms are separated to keep everything free from contamination. The toilet is in a completely different room, and the shower is located next to the tub for the rinse.

Sadly, despite the chilly weather, it hardly snows here in Yakage. When it does, it's a light dusting. However, during the one Christmas lesson I taught at my school, it began to snow for a few minutes. I'll take that as a good sign of things to come.

Daimyo Gyouretsu (Samurai Parade)

Last week was the event I've been waiting for since I arrived here in Yakage. Daimyo. Gyouretsu. There are festivals all over Japan all throughout the year, so I wasn't surprised to discover that there was one in even a small town such as Yakage. Yakage is in a prefecture called Okayama that even locals of the capital city refer to as the countryside. So I'm pretty much living in the equivalent of a small town in Iowa. Not a lot goes on here. So when I learned that there was not only a pretty popular festival in Yakage, but also that I would be able to participate in the actual parade (gyouretsu), dressed as a samurai, I was all about that. I've been counting down the weekends for this moment. And it was so cool to wear the official regalia given to me by the sponsors of the festival (unfortunately couldn't keep it). 

Group photo

As you can see there are many different outfits for the people involved in this parade. Quick history lesson. "Daimyo" was the title given to the feudal lords of Japan. As an effort to keep his lords loyal to him and prevent any conspiracies, the shogun made the daimyo spend 6 months in Tokyo and 6 months in their own territory. Wives and children always had to remain in Tokyo as an insurance policy. The reason why Yakage hosts this festival is because Yakage was once a way-station on the Edo Road (Edo was the name

for Tokyo during this era), which all the daimyo would travel along to get to the capital. And of course they would not be traveling alone. They had to bring their entourage along with them.

My rank was that of a "kinju samurai". I wasn't quite sure what that rank entailed at first. Was I be given a fairly important role since I was a foreigner? Or was I being given a fairly meaningless role since I was a foreigner? Asking various teachers at school the next day, it seems like they didn't know what a kinju samurai was either. I guess the exact meaning of the different roles seems to have been forgotten over time. However, according to the principal, based on the amount of clothing I wore compared to some of the other people further up in the group photo, that must have signified some higher status. Warmth = Degree of Importance. In addition to that, the characters for kinju, "近習", display "close" and "learn". So one teacher came up to me and said after doing some research, these samurai were like bodyguards for the daimyo, but then another said they would have been trained by the daimyo. Based on the characters, I'm more inclined to believe they were more like apprentices receiving guidance in the ways of the warrior, or "bushido" and as a second duty had to protect the daimyo of course. I'm satisfied with that. Others were foot soldiers or the official heralds announcing the arrival of the daimyo.

Fortunately, we got these photos in just in time because soon after it started to rain, and we had to don ponchos to protect the clothing. The actual procession was quite slow. For a street that would normally have taken 10 minutes to walk up and down, we were able to stretch it out for 3 hours. I hope they didn't actually march at that pace during the feudal era. This did give me ample time to wave to all my students that I saw as they shouted, "James-sensei da!" And then of course to those who didn't go, or somehow missed me walking by at that turtle's pace, when they asked, "Did you go to Daimyo Gyouretsu?" I got to reply that I was in it and watch their eyes pop out.

One of our coworkers from the town hall

Halloween

In Japan, Halloween is more of a holiday for college age students to have an excuse to dress up and go to a party. But as English teachers, we still try to teach our kids how things like trick-or-treating works or what a jack-o-lantern is. So for the past two weeks everyday I was dressing up as a skeleton to show the kids some Halloween spirit.

Specifically, I was a character called Brook from a popular anime called One Piece. Kids who had seen the show caught on pretty quickly who I was, shouting that Brook had come to class.







If the kids took anything away from this lesson, it was the phrase "trick or treat". To them, "trick or treat" = receiving candy. I brought candy to class to demonstrate this point, but one piece wasn't enough. They would come up to me later in the day or the following week, with a hand out waiting to receive something, to prove they paid attention in class.

Daily Life in Japan

Today in town we had a rain day, which reminded me of how I wanted to highlight some differences between Japan and American daily life. First of all, it doesn't snow a lot in Okayama but we do get a decent number of typhoons, so yes the schools were closed because of too much rain. That meant I had to spend the whole day at the town hall. I do not know if other Japanese companies are like this, we did not do it while I worked at AMDA, but at 8:15 am employees do this routine of morning calisthenics. If you were at all sleepy still, that will probably wake you up. Also, cleaning is big here. So at 5:15 pm everyone goes around sweeping and emptying trash cans on the office floor, even though there are janitors.

Schools
All the schools in town follow relatively the same kind of schedule. After third period, there's a 15 minute recess to go play outside. And then they get a second recess after lunch! Once again, cleaning is important in Japan, so after the second recess, I guess as a kind of cool down before going back to class, kids grab brooms and mop buckets to sweep and scrub floors. Also, in classic Japanese politeness, kids need to say excuse me whenever entering or leaving the teacher's room. I know it's been a while since I was in elementary school, but that seems pretty different. Another interesting aspect of going to school in Japan, or at least Yakage, is lunch time. First, lunch is provided for by the schools after parents pay for a month's worth. Everyone eats the same meal and it's usually pretty healthy looking. You got a bed of rice, some vegetables, meat or fish, a bottle of milk, and a dessert or fruit. All for $2.50 a day. All the kids get dressed up and walk together to bring their tanks of food up to the classroom to dole out to everyone. Afterwards, they brush their teeth and wash up to go out to recess.