Okay, it has been a long time since my last diary entry, so apologies firstly
for the length of this one, the delay, and the degree of fabrication therefore
necessitated in its creation. It should be a laugh anyway, and as always, there
are photos for relief.
On Wednesday 8th September I went for a bike ride, and explored the Hachinohe area one evening after work. This was pretty interesting, and I got to see all the rice fields in their glory. I then strayed into the industrial zone (which, this being Japan, is right next to the good areas, as there is no such thing as zoning here). The industrial zone is unashamedly polluting and refreshingly honest for it. This tendency to not the bad is echoed in most things here, such as the propensity to put power lines everywhere, including shrines, and the postcards I obtained, which have a painting of the Hachinohe coastline, complete with smoke belching from the industrial zone.
Friday the 10th was a weird one. The day was spent at the speech contest. This is essentially listening to Japanese kids recite one of three different passages for the duration of the day. The stories are quite moving, but when you have heard the story of a sixty-year old tree in Hiroshima’s life the fifth time, it starts to grate. Nonetheless, the kids did very well, apart from a couple of excruciating intervals where they totally lost their oratory footings, and the audience had to watch them looking worried and saying nothing for anything up to a minute. Interestingly, that sort of thing happens a lot more here, especially in class, so whilst it used to seem painful, it now seems reasonable. Helplessness is a more acceptable trait here, perhaps because it has the effect of strengthening the bonds between people.
In the evening, we went to the Enkai. This is the work party, where all one’s Japanese co-workers let loose and you can see their true personalities. We are lucky in our office, as everyone is quite relaxed already, but the change at the party is still marked. First we went to an inn, for all you can eat (and drink). After this, Mike fed Jaya (see photo) and had a mild altercation with Dave after locking his bike, and then we headed to a snack bar. A snack bar is essentially a place where you are served snacks such as edamame (green beans) and booze by a hostess, and you can sing karaoke. Needless to say, we all jumped at the opportunity to have a sing-song, and good fun was had by all, although the recordings suggest that I had reached tone-deafness, despite the fact that I thought I was singing beautifully.
The day after the Enkai, a swim was in order, so we headed down to the beach to meet Kerry, my big sister. It proved to be an excellent hangover cure, and the weather was hyperclement. After that, we went round some shops, and decided to orchestrate a scenario of Mike standing next to a photo of Boris doing the toxic face using the power of the Internet…
The following week was pretty standard-issue, the high-point being when I visited Meiji elementary school, as the photos show. As I left, I was seen off by one of the teachers, and three of the kids came up and started chatting, as well as offering us conkers. I tried to explain the game “Conkers” to them, realising the pointlessness of such an endeavour at precisely the point when I could not stop the explanation for fear of being branded a fool or a lunatic. Nonetheless, the day ended in the usual joyous way that elementary school visits do, with smiles and waves all round.
Friday was the night before Mike’s party. This was a much-publicised event, and some people (Chris Hunnicutt) were so excited by the prospect that they turned up a day early. We duly went to Karaoke. For some reason, known not even to ourselves, we smuggled whisky into the all-you-can-drink karaoke joint, and proceeded to order Cokes, and surreptitiously add the whisky. Why we did this is anyone’s guess.
The next day I went to watch the local high schools’ sports competition, which was impressive. There was a proper baseball competition in progress, and the players really looked the part. I also found a velodrome, with a solitary cyclist challenging themselves on it. It was interesting to watch. I almost had a philosophical thought about the greater honesty of competing solely with one’s self, but then I realised it was silly, so I stopped. In the evening, it was time for Mike’s party…
The party warm-up occurred at Mike’s house, and many people arrived. As a mark of gratitude, Alec attempted to blow mike up with the blowtorch, an event that I was so disturbed by that I had to take a photograph of it before attempting to help. The next development was that Mike and Chris gave me some blue coveralls, and we headed into town. After Mike had taken time out to accost some street entertainers, he then stopped all the traffic on the main drag in Hach to allow us to cross the street. Since even walking across a totally clear road on a red light here is frowned upon, Mike’s actions could have been seen as a precursor to armed conflict. We somehow survived, and headed into Hach’s premiere club, B12. Needless to say, the club was an heinous crime, but the people made it good.
click here for all of the photos...
On Sunday morning the remaining survivors headed to a ramen place to refuel, and then we went to the beach to relax and get thrown around by the surf. A bit of rock climbing ensued too. I also indulged my borderline-autistic passion for close-up photography. Some people were still unable to leave that night too, so we congregated at Mike’s, listened to music and watched “Inside John Malkovich’s Mind”.
Monday was a national holiday, so we piled into my car and headed for mount Hakkoda. We were in a group of five: Elly, Liz, her two English friends and myself. Hakkoda is the highest mountain in Aomori, and the hike was good exercise. The path was well-worn, but the weather got pretty chilly and foggy towards the summit, so we were alone. We had lunch in a shelter near the top, and then headed down. Night fell before we reached the bottom, so we were just in time to meet a cyclist, who we all concluded was slightly tapped: he was cycling over the mountains on a three-speed shopper bike. On the way back, Elly showed me an outdoor onsen with real volcanic water, which was amazing. Not only was the water super hot and really sulphurous, but the complex felt like a Bond-villain’s lair, labyrinthine in its scope. It was not unlike a wood –panelled version of the space-station in Moonraker. Except without weightlessness, and Drax.
I only had two days’ work during the week. The first was in a primary school which was great fun. The pupils ended up role-playing pointing guns at each other, at the recommendation of their teacher. They loved it, of course. The next day was a Hawaii Simulation organised by Mark Devlin, a local ALT. His pupils are going on a school trip to Hawaii, and our job was to prepare them for things like air travel, fast food, and their home-stay. During the Burger-King simulation, I was snapped for the local paper, again.
On Thursday 23rd, we headed over to Osorezan. Osorezan is quite a chilling place. It is a shrine to dead children. This means that you look round the various sites within, and there are traditional looking effigies, with children’s favourite toys and dolls alongside. The scenery is beautiful, and area is calm. The place is lent an eerie air by the landscape, which has been leeched of nutrients by the volcanic activity, so nothing really grows there. It is as if the area was hit by a meteorite, or the spirits of the dead forbid the living to become established. In fact, rumour has it that the first time one goes there, one’s soul is left behind. This means that I actually have no soul as I write this, so no change there then. Osorezan was full of overly aggressive crows, which had a penchant for taking the edible gifts on the various shrines. The bastards.
On the way back, we headed up to the nearby mountaintop observatory, to check out the view. We could see about 100 kilometres: almost all the way back to Hachinohe, to the extent of both ends of the “axe” of Hachinohe (take a look at a map to see what I mean). The views were beautiful, and we had the added bonus of finding a hornet getting drunk: it had contrived to drown itself in a can of scho-chu (rice wine), and when Alex fished it out, it just lolled around looking confused. Eventually, it took wing, and one of its friends (if hornets have friends) started indulging in the same perilous endeavour. If insects can be prone to alcoholism, what hope have we? On the way back, Elly rode in the boot, as there were six of us in the car, and the “I’ve got a body in my boot” vibe really added to the experience for me.
The weekend got messy. There was a toga party on the other side of the ken. This entailed a 3 hour drive. At night. Wearing sunglasses. In togas. Needless to say, on arrival we did it Roman style all night long. And Tammy had organised a proper British style pub quiz. Our team did pretty well. Carnage kicked in. I woke up in the morning, and unable to find my clothes, I was offered a halterneck. I duly wore this to the local convenience store. The proprietors were was surprisingly deadpan about the situation. This leaves me wondering quite how far one would have to push things in order to elicit an overt response of shock. After onsenning it up, and a sushi lunch, we dropped Alex off in Rokkasho, and saw some beautiful views involving the wind-turbines. Eyesore? Pah! We also had a look at a “porn shack” on the way back, and were disturbed by the machine that sold “menstruation goods”. Yes, menstruation goods. I thought the stories of machines selling worn lingerie were far-fetched, but I’ve seen it all now. Except that I can’t have, so I dread to think what further perverse surprises lie in store. It would seem that all of the myths about Japan are actually true…
Monday 27th to Wednesday 29th were spent at Minami high school and whilst it was quite formulaic, I had good fun. The 30th was another elementary visit, so needless to say I had fun making a fool of myself for the benefit of the children (that’s what I tell myself anyway). On leaving one of the lessons, the children followed me as far as they could, waving and saying “see you”, before the teacher had to barricade them. I felt like The Rolling Stones I tell you. Friday was spent at my base school, Higashi and I taught my first proper lesson. I actually felt like a resource. It was very special. I was invited to the school’s culture day too.
On Friday evening, we had a meeting of J-think Aomori. This is a little society started my Marvin from Detroit, where we get together to discuss various works of literature and articles about Japanese society. Last week, we read “Norwegian Wood” by Haruki Murakami, and it was fantastic. I highly recommend it. After this, we went for an impromptu meal, and pulled funny faces.
On Sunday 3rd October, we visited the Takko International Festival of Beef and Garlic (TIFBAG, maybe). This is a massively popular event where people congregate and, yes you guessed it, eat garlic and beef. We showed up, bought out ingredients, rented our Barbie, and cooked away. Bellissima. As an added bonus, I bought cloves of garlic for my colleagues in the office, which went down surprisingly well.
On the way back, we saw some interesting sights at a roadside industrial installation (I’m not sure whether we were supposed to climb inside it though), and some truly beautiful sights at Lake Towada. As we arrived, the sun was setting, and we took a few decent photos. We were about to leave, when I looked at the sun again, and it had decided to go utterly beautiful. We got out of the car again and I took a silly number of photos, and then we headed back, stopping by the outdoor onsen again for good measure.
So that’s it for this entry. It’s been a while, and I’ve had a lot of fun. Far too much fun, in fact, for the amount we are paid, and the amount of work we have to do. This programme is scandalous. But I am not complaining.