Cruel Summer

Webster's dictionary defines summer as "The season between spring and autumn comprising in the northern hemisphere usually the months of June, July, and August or as reckoned astronomically extending from the June solstice to the September equinox"

or more simply "the warmer half of the year".

Those are the actual definitions from the website. It also has
the meaning of a 'year', as in the phrase "A girl of seventeen summers" and the final use is that of "a period of maturing powers". Language classes with Kris. You are just like my students.

As the first definition so eloquently explained I am now in the midst of my second summer in Japan. Last summer I had visits from Sally and David so I was thankfully kept fairly busy. This year however I have no visitors and about 5 weeks spanning out ahead of me. For those of you playing at home I will not be returning to see you this vacation as much as I want to. I decided that the cost was bit too much, but more importantly I thought that this might be my last summer in Japan so I want to experience it properly.

Also let's face it, Melbourne's weather is undesirable right now.

Summer in Japan is humid due to a rainy season towards the beginning of summer. This means it's gross and sticky and very difficult to actually cool down. It's like the sweat is on the skin but the air around you doesn't want it because it's already got enough of it's own. Fortunately I don't have to go to school which means I can sit in front of a fan or something. This kind of heat just saps the energy from my bones. It's hard to ride my bike, walk, or even get in my car.

(This is what rainy season does to fun. Note the man on the float and his amazing hairstyle.)

Regardless of my lack of energy I have managed to keep myself fairly busy so far. I hope to maintain a consistent balance of relaxing and activities so as to avoid boredom creeping in. I may have to keep you updated about how I actually do going about this but...
I thought I'd fill y'all in with what one would normally do in summer in Japan. I'd like to do them if I already haven't so consider this a checklist.

- Beach
- Going to the beach is a little tricky when the prefecture I live in doesn't have a coast line. We have to high tail it to the next prefecture and abuse their beaches. I actually went last week. It took about 2 hours but it was so worth it. Japanese people go all out when it comes to having things like sun tents, parasols, floaty things, chairs to sit in, coolers of stuff and other fun things to play with. It's very Japanese to take a watermelon and smash it with a baseball bat (pinata style... minus pinata). I'm sure it would be more prevalent if watermelons weren't so expensive here but what can ya do.

- Festivals
- Japanese festivals are always lots of fun. I've been to plenty in my time here but I still love them. It's mostly the food I think. Delicious, delicious festival food. I went to a festival last weekend that had outdoor kabuki performances. Kabuki is a kind of traditional Japanese theatre (lots of twanging and strange voices). In two weeks the big festival in Otawara will be happening. It's gonna be awesome. It rained last year which sucked so here's hoping it comes good this year!

- Garden
- The small garden (if you can call it that) has mutated into a forest of weeds. I did a bangin' job and weeded but then the rainy season came and pretty much destroyed all of my hard work. I have a pine tree to trim, a new path to reinforce, spider webs to ... walk into, and obviously weeds to pull out. Lot's to do. This isn't very high on my list but I'll keep it in reserve for when I get bored.

- Travel
- I've got a few ideas for what I want to do regarding travel around Japan. I want to keep it cheap so I might just go for one decent sized journey and hang around here for the most part. I can't decide whether I want to go north or south though. I've got a friend to the south (Osaka) which would be heaps of fun to visit but I've been there before. Alternatively, When I was in a semi-local bar recently there was an Australian guy who actually owns a house on the northern-most island of Japan (Hokkaido) and has offered that up. I want to keep things cheap so I'm thinking camping.

- Onsen
- A.K.A. hot springs. Personally I'm not too keen on the concept of going from hot weather into very hot pools of water. Some people are keen though so... great?

- Barbeques
- Grab a bunch of people and have a Japanese style barbeque. Why not? Before you all start thinking of snags in bread and sauce then THINK AGAIN! Instead there is thinly sliced meat on a grill that is then dipped into a special barbeque sauce. It's good but you gotta hold chopsticks and the dipping bowl so it's really a whole hand affair. I'd buy some sausages to recreate home but they're just so embarrassingly awful here.

(A Japanese man made us stand here for photos with these miniature Kabuki peeps)

There are more things but then my list could go on for a long time and I can't be bothered! Blame the heat! I want to do at least one of all of these and hopefully much, much more. So don't get angry that I won't be visiting you all, it'll be all the sweeter when I do eventually return. Which is looking to be around February....... Don't get angry about that either.

Until next time!!

kris.

On Dancefloors

The other night I was invited by some friends to go down to Tokyo to visit a nightclub. How's that for foreshadowing?

I wanted to go because I haven't really experienced a Japanese night club in the traditional sense of the word so later that night I was on the bullet train with some pals drinking next to a 6 year old strange American girl playing her DS. It seems the only people that will sit next to foreigners on the bullet train is other foreigners. I don't think the girl could read the Japanese on my can so I maintained it was soft drink.

The nightclub in question was a nightspot called 'Ageha' and a brief perusal of the website prior to arrival for the dress code (can I wear shorts? Yes I can!) revealed that the night was some kind of special event with a DJ I had never heard of playing songs I had never heard of. This 'special event' carried the hefty price tag of 4000yen entry which translates to ... wait for it ... no I can't even tell you how much that is in Australian dollars. It disgusts me.

Ageha is one of Tokyo's biggest nightclubs with a 3,000 person capacity and is separated out into a main hall and various other spaces around the place. Upon getting inside it seemed that despite the amount of people it still seemed quite spacious, almost like a warehouse, and the main hall was being DJ'd my an astronaut. The astronaut was playing the Japanese version of dance music described as 'candy trance'. I'll give you a key example soon.

Japanese people can't dance. They either break it down with ridiculous over the top performances or awkwardly sway from side to side. This is why the astronaut was playing music that never had a stable point and instead was always constantly leading up to some point to cause everyone to jump around. Jumping, it seems, is a valid form of dance for Japanese people.
Not being satisfied 'dancing' with the douchebags at the back some of us forced our way as close to the front as possible. We got about 5 metres from the front but from then on there was some kind of people-lattice to stop any kind of free movement beyond that point. We were happy enough dancing away to sickeningly poppy music until the astronaut was finished and all of sudden we were crushed to about 2 metres from the stage.

Cue Meg.

Meg was some lady who came on stage that suddenly caused the predominantly male crowd to surge forward in order to see her. Meg appeared to be somewhat famous. Meg was the reason my entry was 4000yen. Dancing to Meg was difficult with no room to move. Meg Meg Meg.
This is Meg and this is the sound she was producing.



For the rest of the night we mostly spent outside around the pool area. The pool was more for show and wasn't really meant to be swum in... and it wasn't! Because this is Japan and in Japan people do the right thing (that's why they can have beer vending machines). The DJ outside was playing some good music too. We mulled around the venue losing each other, finding each other and then losing each other again until the sky had turned a light grey colour and from there we each made our way homes on the first train.

All in all I would say it was a lot of fun but it was also quite expensive - not something I could do very often. I would also say that nightclubs in Australia are a lot better in terms of music and prices. On the other hand, the people in Melbourne nightclubs are often just awful so I'm afraid Tokyo trumps Melbourne in that respect.

So that was my night in Tokyo.

Run

Actual sports day post. The day before the sports day I asked a student how the weather was going to be (typical question for students) to which he responded with 'cloud and rainy... but sunny in our hearts' which is a good outlook for the day I think. Turns out it did not rain but stayed consistently cloudy all day. The teachers all said that it was a good thing it was cloudy because it wasn't so hot but let's face it - sunny weather is the best kind of weather. So mediocre weather aside the day went off without a hitch. Last year it was a first for me so this year didn't hold the same level of thrill but this year I felt more at home with everything. I had absolutely no responsibilities but this year I felt more comfortable with that. I now know most of the students' names, I can speak more Japanese and I've done it all before so this time around I knew what to expect - meaning I could enjoy the day a lot more than I could last year.

(kids trying to grab sweet bread with their mouths. unsuccessfully.)

Watching the kids participate was fun because it looked like they were having a great time. It was great to watch them run in the races with huge smiles on their face. A far cry from the sports days at Beaconhills. 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m in sprints, hurdles, and relays; long jump, high jump, triple jump; discus, shotput and javelin. I don't remember having a smile on my face during any of these ... does anyone else? No.

(Wait, he's not at a Beaconhills sports day - why does he look dead?)

I ran in the relay like I did last year against the third year students. There were three teams, class 1 + class 2 + teachers/parents. This year I was the second runner. Upon starting the race it became immediately obvious we would lose as our first runner handed me the baton about half a field behind the students. Meaning from the second runner we were already half a lap behind. So we lost hideously as expected but it was still fun. Tell you what wasn't fun? The pain in my legs the next day.

(It's not a very flattering picture of me but I thought you might want to see it)

So I'll leave you with some pictures of the day and you can fill in the blanks yourself.

(Fatty Magoo wrestling a pipe from two lesser females)

( The leader of the winning team, the trophy is almost as big as he is!)

(tug of war)

(throwing balls into a basket. Just 'cause)

You Spin Me 'Round

Today was the practice for the sports festival on Saturday. I was at the sports festival last year for those reading my drivel so today's spectacularities weren't as amazing this time around. Still enjoyable mind.

I've noticed in my time in Japan that Japanese people don't particularly like to wear sunglasses. I asked a teacher why this is and my suspicions were confirmed - it's because Japanese people usually have darker eyes so the sun isn't as much of an issue.

Which means I can't wear glasses because it's against the social norm.

Which means that I am suffering a slight because of who I am!

Which MEANS I am being discriminated against!!

Outrageous.

We spent the better half of the morning sponging the ground of moisture. I recall I used to do this when I played tennis as a youngster. Well... this used to happen when I was a teenager... I don't actually recall doing it myself. Needless to say using a sponge to rid the ground of water isn't a very effective way to go about things - so it was fortunate that the sun came out.

The events/games were all slightly tweaked from last year and again made so that literally anyone could win the race. Obese? Mentally disabled? Lacking legs? You can STILL WIN!! I think it's a lot of fun to watch though and it least it gets the students active. I wish I could have helped a little more and be useful but it seems there was nothing for me to do. They were big on the whole student initiative thing so I sat around and cheered when appropriate. Great.

So on Saturday I'm going to fulfill my role of awkward mandatory attendee and run in the teachers relay, get in on the tug-of-war, throw some balls into a basket and then do the dance at the end. Full itinerary. How will I ever find time to sit around and do nothing? I'll find the time somehow.

I will have to find some headbands.

Friend in the Field

Lately at one of my schools there has been some pretty heavy construction/demolition happening. Today (and for the last few days) there has been near consistent jack-hammering all day. You can hear it everywhere in the school. Annoying. There's a demonstration class happening tomorrow for the elementary school teachers to watch how a junior high school English teacher teaches. I've got to do a whole lot of unnecessary stuff for it but it should go well me thinks.

Onto the topic at hand. Onto the blog that I need to write right now or else it becomes too late to do it. Onto my ramblings of when Brendan came to stay.

(Brendan drinking beer and giving me some cartilage on a stick)

Brendan came up to visit me over the period of Golden week. It's a series of public holidays one after the other it what would appear to be clever and generous of Japan... but look harder! What ends up happening is work-holiday-work-weekend-3daysoff-work-work-weekend. Therefore meaning that a fun romp over the course of a week (thereby living up to it's name) is in actuality chopped up into tiny pieces.

We made the most of it though I think! Brendan arrived on a Saturday and after a party that night involving me getting *highly* emotionally distressed about people purposely destroying my screen doors and we set off for Nikko the next day. Because the weather has been so retarded in Japan this year (snow falling onto the cherry blossoms. Go figure) we were able to see quite a lot of cherry blossoms in Nikko which was nice!

Other than Nikko we went to Disneyland which we thought would be crowded but totally wasn't for some reason! I showed Brendan my town and I also took him to the town I work in, Bato, which was having some kind of pseudo-festival. In Bato we met up with my friend Sam and had some soba at the restaurant he works at. He's from America and is on exchange - the family he's staying with runs a soba restaurant that he works in every now and then. Afterwards we made some pottery famous in the area/prefecture and had some fresh fish and eel from one of Sams old host families whose children I teach.

We went down to Tokyo for a bit and met up with some friends to go to a seaside town called Kamakura. It's a nice place but it was SO busy! Dare I say busier than Disneyland? By the end of that day we were exhausted but after staying in Tokyo for the night we made more of a trip around Tokyo visiting various places and catching up with another friend in Harajuku to go see a shrine together. For the next two days afterwards I had to work so Brendan wisely opted to stay in Tokyo in a pretty ritzy hotel while I slaved away at teaching English to inattentive children unwilling to admit the holiday was over.

He came back to my apartment on Friday night and we had some dinner with some pals and the next day we had to rush (i.e. speed) to Utsunomiya the next day so Brendan could get on his bus and therefore his flight.

(Snow in Nikko)

I actually stole these photo's from Brendan as I didn't really take many pictures. I'll try to take a picture of Brendan's finished toilet-bowl-cup from when we made pottery. Art.

Any Questions?

Breaking it Slowly

I managed to drunkenly break into my own car from the outside with a coat hanger after locking my keys inside. Convenient! I'll write a post either tomorrow or the day after about Brendan's stay. So uhh... look forward to that!

kris.

Cars

For the last year or so I've been driving around Japan on my international drivers license which has been great as far as I'm concerned - $25 bucks and a picture apparently qualifies me to drive in over 46 countries no questions asked. But that only lasts for one year and mine expired back in March. Usually, to get a Japanese drivers license once must undergo a written test (in notoriously poor/ambiguous English), a driving test (that people fail on average 5 times) and finally an eye test. So generally it takes a long time and multiple tries to pass.

Fortunately, as an Australian citizen I can skip over the written and driving test and just do the eye test to obtain my license. I don't know why... but I'm not exactly complaining about it! However, even as an Australian citizen there are still a few bureaucratic hoops to jump through, such as; proving when my license was first issued, proving I had my license in my country for 3 months before coming to Japan and proving I'm a man because it doesn't actually state that on my license. All easily dealt with but they need original documents which must be sent from Australia etc. It's all quite bothersome.

So after I finally had everything and got the day off work to go in I went to meet my fate.

The day begins at 6:30am. The license centre is located in such a place that it is extremely difficult to catch public transport there ... so I didn't. I had to write my name on a list at 9:00am to have an interview at 1:00pm so after wasting four hours I was taken to a small room and questioned. Then waited. Then had a picture taken. Then waited. Finally getting my licence at 4:00pm. A process that in total took about 40 minutes was some how stretched out to 7 hours. Go figure.

In any case, my picture isn't awful and at least I'm not driving illegally anymore. It must be noted though that while I was driving illegally I was also driving exceptionally safely and now that I have my license I can feel myself slacking a little...

My car changed a while ago from the blue one I may have posted here a while ago to a light purple (dare I say lavender) car. It's a better car in all regards as it has things like central locking and power windows but the fact that it is the WORST POSSIBLE COLOUR FOR A CAR is a bit of a downer for me. Nevertheless, it is what it is so I'll have to deal with it.

Look out Japan!