OCTOBER II
20th October
It’s been a long day, but a rewarding one. It began with a Japanese lesson at the Kominkan (Community Centre), from which I darted to Kawagoe for their annual “matsuri” (festival). Kawagoe is a small city, whose principle attractions are its clay-walled merchant warehouses built in the 19th century to be fireproof. They were sealed with a burning candle inside them, which used up all the oxygen in the storeroom, thus leaving nothing to fuel the flames.
I met up in Kawagoe with some of the guys (Andy and James) that went to Kamakura, along with some of their colleagues who work at the AEON English language school. I jumped at the opportunity to travel somewhere and experience Japanese “culture” (if indeed “culture” is something that can have a box drawn round it and be appropriated by taking pictures of “it”!). I’ve felt guilty at the amount of time I’ve just wasted in Shiraoka and its environs. Perhaps it’s because travelling in Japan requires planning, energy and time, that I’ve spent so many weekends just lazing around. I mean, I’m only here for a limited amount of time, I’m living somewhere that most people from Northern Ireland will never travel to in their lives, and yet I’ve been taking it for granted. There’s also this nagging voice in the back of my head that tells me how disappointed my Anthropology tutors would be at my utter failure to conduct some sort of Anthropological study whilst living in a foreign culture. Right, enough of that.
The matsuri was billed as “a boisterous affair with clashing floats, and activities that go on well into the night” by the Lonely Planet, and indeed it was. The place was awash with people, colourful stalls, every kind of junk food under the sun, and the excuse for the thronging masses to be here was the tenuous link to large wooden floats which are hauled along the ground by colourful rival clans. The floats were beautifully decorated, with small bands of musicians churning out simple traditional tunes, a costumed dancer, and an effigy at the top. I went a bit snap-happy, taking pictures of everything, until I realised that all my pictures looked exactly the same. I guess once you’ve seen one float (or temple for that matter), you’ve seen ‘em all!
Another frustrating aspect of Japanese “culture” is the spurious ancientness attributed to everything. The bell-tower in Kawagoe had been built in the 16th century, the plaque read (but in small print mentioned that it had burnt down and been rebuilt in the 19th century). Many of the “old” buildings in Japan are in fact merely copies of old buildings that stood on the same site, and one wonders if the same applies to the festivals. Every town seems to have its own “unique” festival with amazing wonderful one-off things that happen in them, but I am reliably informed by those who have been here a little longer that almost every festival is EXACTLY THE SAME with the same ingredients and a similar order of ceremony. Andy Wong cynically suggests that the oodles of cash raked in by the stalls and the boost to the local economy are more than reason enough to resurrect or even invent some “ancient unique” ceremony, but surely the Japanese would never do something as cynically commercial as that!
So, I’ve got school tomorrow, and I really should get some shut-eye.
22nd October
I’m not having a great day today. I’ve got this developing head-cold which is threatening to go full blown. Futhermore I had to cycle to work this morning for 20 minutes in the driving rain, without an umbrella which I’d helpfully left at school the day before. I would take a sick day, but its “Japanese custom” never to take a day off unless you’re on your death bed, and even then most people use their paid holidays rather than take sick leave. I remember earlier in the month Ricky was told by Mr Yamaguchi that if he needed to recover from his cold, then he should take a days holiday leave. Now how stupid is this? I only have 20 days paid leave for the whole year, I’ve spent half of them on my Christmas vacation at home, and yet I’m expected to just chuck those precious days away when I have a temperature and feel a bit sick! The official procedure for taking a sick day is to phone in and declare that you’ve caught the bubonic plague, then find a doctor, pay for consultation and a whole load of expensive placebos, and get a sick note as evidence of your illness. This is not a country which tolerates taking a “sicky” when all you really have is a hangover from too much revelry!
Of course, it’s easy to see how things have come to this. I’m in an entirely new country and my immune system probably hasn’t adjusted to the resident viruses. Moreover I work with hundreds of little disease bags who come to school wearing their SARS masks thinking that’ll prevent the spread of any further infection. Half the teachers in the staffroom permanently have some sort of cough or something, and the staffroom is kept at boiling temperature whilst outside is getting a little “nippy”. Add to this the state that some of the bathrooms are in, and that the only European style toilet is now so encrusted in hard sh1t after about four (?) weeks of not being cleaned (forcing me to delay releasing my dump until I get home!). Ughhh. A big drip of mucus just left my nose and splashed on the desk below me. Mum, I really hope those winter clothes are going to be here soon, and did you by any chance send a fresh supply of Haliborange?
October 23rd
hello again, and so soon. I got the day off work, yessssssss!! It's not that I dislike work, its just that not working when everyone else is seems so much sweeter than when everyone has the day off, wahahaha. Changed the introduction page, I got tired of the Buddha and opted for a small injection of terror. I guess it symbolises the transition from wide-eyed, bushy tailed neophyte, to wizened, grouchy old ex-pat who's been away from home too long yarayarayara. Come to think of it, the whole site would need an overhaul if I ever found the time or energy to learn enough html code to do so. Just looked at the "old" photos from Prague, and my friends from Uni. When I put them up I thought they were pretty snazzy, but compared to the pics from my new digicam they look positively ice-age. Right, right, I'll write if I have anything decent to write about, see you.
25th October
Thanks to my parents who called me tonight (miracles will never cease), and as I’ve managed to fix the problem with my computer, I’ll do a short update. I’ve been suffering with a cold since Wednesday I believe, and though I don’t feel ill, mucus is clogging up my entire head. Coupled with starting at a new school (and one which comes with the reputation of having a smoky staff-room and a crap English teacher), I must say I’m not much looking forward to the start of a new working week. My Japanese lessons have also stepped up a gear, so I’ll need to try a bit harder to fit in a bit of homework everyday. I’ve clearly had the gentlest introductory two months, as suddenly nothing my teacher said to me on Friday made any sense. Kind of reminds me of what French did after first year at Sullivan.
Did more of the culture-vulture thing at the weekend. On Saturday I went to Nikko, a World Heritage Site, with loads of ornate shrines and temples. It was only one Prefecture across, but took several hours to reach. What I enjoyed most was not so much the temples and shrines (which don’t mean an awful lot to me as neither a Buddhist nor a Japanese person), but just getting away from buildings and traffic, and seeing trees! The scenery was terrific, and the maples were just beginning to change colour. I had visions of family outings as a child when my father took his young family to National Trust gardens and got us to “collect” (steal?) seeds from all the varieties of Japanese maple. As an interesting aside, this is where the “hear no, see no, speak no evil” come from, not to mention the crazy carving of elephants”, a creature which the artist had never seen! It’s a very nice place, but to do it justice, I’d need to stay for a couple of days. Moreover, I REALLY need an English manual for my camera. OK, I promised a short update, so I’ll end it now and go off to start creating the webpages for you lucky people who only need to click and read. “Are you not entertained!?”
27th October
Evenin’ all. Looking back over the latter half of the month it may have occurred to some that I was cosying up to Japan, learning to love its little nuances and ways, but this isn’t entirely true. I haven’t had a rant for a little while now, and considering the day I’ve had, I feel it necessary to vent my spleen. Partly I feel inspired by my friend Leanne’s (webpage) which enjoyed a similar rant recently, and I guess I felt left out.
Once again, tomorrow, I will be at the Board of Education, doing absolutely nothing, shut away in a tiny office, out of harms way. It’s my new school’s foundation day, so everyone else gets the day off, but as I’m officially employed by the town I must put up the pretence of working (namely, sit at a desk). It would seem easier to let me take the day off, but oh no, Japan Strikes again dag nam it! I don’t know how we all came to be duped into thinking that the Japanese were really hard working little busy bodies. Just read the article!
So, we had our weekly meeting at the Bureau of Education. I did my best to rile Yamaguchi again, confronting him with more bills upon bills that I keep receiving, despite the fact that this man was meant to set up direct debits for me three months ago. This time it might not be his fault, but that of the beard growingly slow turning of the Japanese bureaucratic machine. Josh took his turn next. He tried to get out of a conference that he’s been to the past two years running, that is running exactly the same classes and lectures as last year: “Please Mr Yamaguchi, don’t make me go”, “Why do you say this to me Joshua, it is Saitama Board of Educations decision, not mine, speak to them”.
Josh has been here for three years. He studied Japan and her language at University, and has an excellent grasp of the language. Yet, despite choosing to stay for a third year, I get the impression he did so through lack of ideas for anything better to do! I can’t remember the last time he said anything positive about the country, and though I think his views too extreme by a long way, there are times when I sympathise with his stance. In particular the recurrent theme in my journal, that of the Japanese working environment, really gets my goat. This is a country of lazy, unenthusiastic, unmotivated men who think that a well paid and easy job is their right rather than their privilege. Though I am now as guilty as them of this sin, I intend to exploit my position for only a year or two as a means to an end (namely travel and study), lest lack of initiative becomes my routine. It scares me to think that I might be destined to a life of pen-pushing and number crunching in a boring office like this!
28th October
Well, what a great day! Secluded in an office all day by myself, I managed to go through my entire music collection, watch a three hour DVD, complete the monthly test in Beginners Japanese, read some Lonely Planet for the Mt Fuji area (I’m planning on going with Josh and Toshi on Sunday and Monday), eat copious amounts of convenience store food, teach myself a new grammar point, refurbish a few pages on my website, check my e-mails and write this nonsensical update. I watched “The Hurricane” last night – good film, well, the parts with Denzel Washington anyway. Kind of inspired me to defeat the system by just ignoring it the way he did. Far be it for me to compare my day at the Board of Education to the life of a black prizefighter wrongly imprisoned for murder, but the principle remains ;) Long may this last! Oh, it’s over, and with it, three months in Japan. Wow.
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