Taiikusai

The arrival of autumn is always an important social event for any agrarian culture. Usually accompanied by brisk, early sunsets and homecoming football, the arrival of the Autumnal Equinox marks the changing of attitudes as much as the changing of the season, as the sweet, sleepy smell of farmers’ field fires and good-luck incense settles in a ring around the city of Kashiwa, and in a mind-numbing haze over Ichikashi

¹ For the record, its full name is 柏市立柏高等学校, “Kashiwa Municipal Kashiwa Senior High School,” which is colloquially shortened to “Ichikashi.” Much like how Boston College should really be “Boston College University (3 miles East of Boston) in Chestnut Hill, Mass.” But it’s not.

¹.

Now Ichikashi doesn’t do homecoming (neither the game nor dance).

Likewise, it probably won’t surprise you to hear that, in not so much a Footloose-ian fashion, they don’t do very many social events at all, and certainly no dances of any kind

² Then again, if I think about it, they don’t even do “sports” right: these sports “clubs” (just one team: no JV or developmental squads) practice all year for one tournament (no league play), with very little student body support.

². Then again, Ichikashi, like every other high school in Japan, does Bunkasai and Taiikusai.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes: the sweet smell of autumn incense from the nearby farms settled heavily over the field.

To call it a field would be generous. It was a hard packed dirt lot, painstakingly lined with chalk and meticulously maintained by hand to be free of weeds and dust. It is almost the complete ideological opposite of any notion of a “field,” in that sense. But if it’s good enough for the soccer team to play on, it’s certainly good enough for Taiikusai. And probably cost-effective

³ Then again, again, this is also a school system that has the kids clean the campus every day after 6th period.

³.

Taiikusai consisted of three teams semi-arbitrarily divided up into even teams with equal grade representation battling it out over numbers physical challenges of dubious design and contemplation. Games like 200/400m mixed gender relay races, obstacle courses, tug-of-war, camp-style food and drinking challenges, as well as a couple of fairly brutal climbing, grabbing and pulling games (all of which can be found visually represented on my Flickr, as always).




I’m not terribly sure what the point of Taiikusai is. It was never explained to me, just that every school does it, despite the fact

⁴ Or maybe “because of the fact.”

⁴ that half, if not most, of the games would never be allowed to be played in America either on the grounds that they are too dangerous or slightly sexist in the division of tasks.

Despite all that, it looked like the kids had a lot of fun. Except Menzai, who had a broken foot and couldn’t play. Or Kazuyoshi, who ate curry for breakfast and then had to eat it again after his leg of the relay. Or Hakuto, who looked like he was mad at me, but I swear he really wasn’t.


This past week I’ve also started my Japanese lessons. My tutor has me reading through some rudimentary introductory phrase books. What I really think is really holding me back, at this point at least, is my combination of lack of “natural” vocabulary (the kind where you look at something and you know the dialect-word for it, rather than translations

⁵ The ol’ semiotic exercise of seeing a tree and thinking “木,” rather than seeing a tree and thinking “tree -> 木.”

⁵), and my lack of general grammatical understanding. Interestingly, my interest in learning Kanji far outstrips my interest in reading my grammar lesson book. Maybe it’s my combined desire to be able to order off of a menu (finally) while simultaneously acquiring vocabulary

⁶ Though it is completely possible to study Kanji and never once use any Japanese words

⁶, or it could just be that vocabulary is more interesting to me than particles and S-O-V constructions.

Oh, and one more thing, Nick, today was my welcome party; the theme of which was, of course, to get drunk. Their game, of course, was to get me drunk. My game was, of course, to not.

I was conveniently seated between the Principal and the Dean of Students (who also moonlights as the Kendo instructor). I was complimented by both for my enthusiasm, my 頑張る attitude, and my efforts to learn everything I can about Japan and Japanese. Of course, the conversation shifted to what extracurricular activities I am interested in. I was also asked, independently of each other, what clubs I would (of course) be interested in joining. Of course, I said “Kendo” (which made Goto-sensei VERY happy), but also mentioned judo. It appears that I have an “in,” administratively, if I ever get the gumption to try. Or at least find the time.

I’ve been spending all of my time helping students prepare speeches for the Chiba Prefectural Speech and Recitation competition next week, as well as lead the English Conversation club (from the seat of my pants, may I mention).

And, finally, lest I forget: お誕生日おめでとう。

Shubun no Hi

Let me just start by saying that I think I’m done with castle tours. They’re all around ¥600, and they are all about why local-castle reconstruction projects are important, and they all have a small cache of Edo-period architectural pieces, political documents, and weapons. It will suffice to say that I am quite sure there are some good castle-museums out there, and, when instructed, I am more than willing to go to them, but, as it stands, I think I’m done chucking cash in that direction.

With that out of the way (and all apologies to the Odawara Castle Association, I didn’t intend to single you out): Hakone.

Now, usually I have a policy of being committed to fully experiencing a scenic location: that means that I try to take my time, try to look first with my eyes (then through the lens), try to breathe through my nose, and definitely walk without ear-buds. But only a few minutes into Hakone (which was surprisingly overcast, affording not even the slightest shadowy view of Mt. Fuji) I had an immense desire to add the Joe Hisaishi soundtrack.

It felt like sights from Hakone were lifted straight out of any one of Miyazaki’s films: Nausicaä, Totoro, Mononoke, Spirited Away, Ponyo

¹ Though maybe not Porco Rosso.

¹. It was dreamlike. And, just as in the dream world of Spirited Away, no Japanese trip into the spirit world is complete without a stop in a natural mountain Onsen. It was a good decision as the next day would be another long day of touring.



Sometimes I forget that not everyone tours like my family does. So when I invited my cousin and her friends from Wasera to go to Kamakura with me, I thought a simple warning of “it’s going to be a LOT of walking” would suffice. I’ll just say that I had a list of about 7 temples in Kitakamakura, 1 shrine in Kamakura proper, and two temple sites in Hasekamakura that I wanted to hit up. I ended up having to cut out 4 temples and run a fly-by through the shrine. I’m not blaming them for anything because, even as I write this now I have to admit that maybe, with a list of 7 sites, I underestimated the size and quality of the temples in Kamakura.

I just need to keep in mind that not everyone pounds the tourist pavement as furiously as we do. I’m actually not quite sure what the compulsion is, but it is certainly not relaxing nor revitalizing.



Well, to be fair, my trip to Ryogoku to see the Fall Grand Sumo Tournament was supposed to be relaxing. And for the most part, it was. I decided not to go to the Edo-Tokyo Museum (literally next door to the Sumo Arena) and just enjoy the tournament. I arrived what I thought was a little late at around 1 (after lunch) to a very empty stadium. As I wasn’t able to sneak down to the lower levels (ticket required for admittance), I snuck my way into the Press section where I watched the next 3 hours of Sumo.

Though, at around 3:30, as the stadium started to fill for the top-tier matches, I thought that I had possibly lucked into ¥10,000

³ That’s ¥$100.

³ press-access seats. Eventually I was evicted in favor of some late-arriving free-lance press members, and scampered back to my ticketed seats which, as you’ll see, weren’t all that bad to begin with.





Everything else, of course, can be found on my Flickr.

It was pretty cool, even despite misjudging the landfall of the typhoon. I was stranded in the Ueno J.R. station for about 5 hours. But, as I said on my Facebook wall, what would a stint in Japan be if I never had the experience of being stranded in a train station because of a storm?

Keiro no Hi

Tomorrow is Keiro no Hi (敬老の日), or “Respect for the Aged Day.” So, in honor of old people everywhere, I woke up early, walked around town, went to the Japanese Sword Museum in Shibuya, milled about in the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

¹ Which continues my streak of paying to enter a botanical garden whose flowers are not in bloom.

¹ for a few hours and read To Kill A Mockingbird on a park bench in the shade. I even ate an early dinner. I didn’t mean to: I was hoping to find a soba place between Gyoen and the train station but couldn’t find any and ended up at Pepper Lunch again. Everything’s like that in Japan: if you’re looking for it you can’t find it. You’ll just end up in the same place you ate at last week. Next time I’ll plan on not looking for soba.

Tomorrow, my observance of Old People’s Day continues with a very traditional and respectable trip to Hakone

² A national park/onsen resort in the shadow of Mt. Fuji.

², a whirlwind walking tour of Kamakura—the OLD old capital—on Tuesday, and, on a whim, the Grand Sumo Tournament. I decided to run down to Ryogoku today to buy some cheap day-of tickets and lucked into some primo-seats at a… “reasonable” price. Now, if only I can find a Kabuki theater, I will have fallen into a near-perfect Tour of Old Style Japan. That’s the right way to celebrate OLD old people.

The weather has turned for the better. It is still a little warm, but the humidity has pretty much blown away. It’s almost as if someone took a lid off of Japan and the steam just evaporated. Don’t get me wrong: I still feel like the sweatiest person in all of Japan, but now when I sweat, eventually I dry.

Speaking of which, I was in Shinjuku primarily to do some more tenugui shopping. My inside information suggested that there were two shops in a little strip mall called “Mosaic” between Lumine1 and Lumine 2, under a place called MyLord. Well, there was only one, and it sucked, too. All of the patterns where pretty much the same as Kamawanu, which means that even the touristy omiyage shop that my mom found in Kyoto Station had more interesting designs. The search continues. Or maybe I should just go back to Chidori. After all, in addition to their patterns being more interesting, their colors being more vibrant, and their selection bigger, they carried furoshiki ”

³ 90cm x 90cm tenugui, which are normally 35x90, for package wrapping.

³. That’s what all of the ladies like anyway.

I’m sure I’ll have more on Hakone, Kamakura, and the Sumo Tournament later… like when I actually go there. So maybe you’re wondering about the Sword Museum. Well, it was okay. It was a single floor of sword blades on display, mostly from the 13th and 14th centuries, mostly notable for either being “important historical artifacts” or “important artistic artifacts”

⁴ Though the distinction was lost on me as the explanations were all in Japanese.

⁴. At something like ¥$6, it’s a bit steep for a quick 20 minute walk-through, but in honor of Keiro-no-Hi, I felt like it was the least that I could do! I did come away with a stack of printed literature that I will eventually not-read and stash away in some cubby hole for the next ALT to find, wonder at and probably trick into going, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it to anyone if they asked.





Last week was our Bunkasai: I was asked to do my TSCA write up on it, but I am finding I am at a loss for words. My first two drafts came off heavy-handed and didactic. I’m not sure why I’m concerned about the literary merits of a TSCA write up… but I am at a complete loss of words to describe what it’s like. To me, Bunkasai in California was an annual event meant to (literally) celebrate Japanese Culture. Sure, there’s a tiny bit of that at Ichikashi: one room dedicated to wood carvings and calligraphy paintings (with an ikebana display shoehorned in), a tea ceremony room, and a leather-craft and pottery display/sale. And yet I think a closer analog than even an Obon festival is GVBC’s Harvest Festival.

For one time every year, the students are called to think of themselves not as Ichikashi students, but as a homeroom. They make class room t-shirts that they wear instead of their uniforms, which is a pretty big deal. As a group they decide what they want to do, be it sell food, host carnival games, build a mini-ride or haunted house—of which there were plenty—put on a puppet show or dance review, or a mini-, 1-hour musical presentation of the Lion King, complete with costumes, dance numbers and prancing gazelle puppets

⁵ Which makes sense since bunraku is a traditional Japanese performance art… which I need to add to my Official Keiro-no-Hi Celebration List.

⁵.

So, even though there’s not a lot of traditional Japanese culture on display, there is a subtle undercurrent suggesting that these booths and shows are, in fact, cultural displays, telling the teachers, community outsiders, and visiting alumni a little bit about who the students are and maybe a little bit about what Japan’s future, in them, is going to look like.

Maybe.

I’d hate to think that Japan is going to be 60% haunted houses, but looking at their track record…

Teganuma Loop

After an early morning session at Megalos and a quick lunch at Yoshinoya, I decided to take Mickie out for a Rugby World Cup victory lap

¹ Technically, since France won the game I was watching, I suppose I lost… even though Japan kept it close for 70 minutes. But being able to watch the RWC and not have to pay Universal Sports $150 for their crappy coverage is a win.

¹ around Teganuma Lake to snap some shots at the Golden Hour. The lake is about 12.5 miles around, but I take the Tega Ohasi Bridge, which is about half way into Abiko. Ken says there are a couple of good places to eat there, but I wasn’t in an experimental mood… I ended up riding back into Kashiwa-proper and eating a teri-chicken sandwich at MosBurger instead.






Apparently, the map I am looking at suggests that there is an “Aquatic Park” and a “Museum of Birds” in Abiko if I just turned right instead of left at Tega Ohasi. I’ll have to stop by the Bird Museum one day

² I’m pretty sure the “Aquatic Park” is most likely water slides and speedos.

². Then again, to the south east of the bridge is a “Lotus Habitat,” and even farther south are two “Dogtooth Violet Habitats.” That and I still need to get around to seeing either the Chiba Marines or the Kashiwa Reysols. So there’s still plenty to do even just in the Kashiwa-Abiko area.

I was perusing the pictures I just posted and realized that if you had never been to Kashiwa

³ Which I suspect is the case.

³, you’d think that I lived in some backwoods, rural farm town. I’ll throw up some shots of the more urban center of Kashiwa, which would otherwise not warrant posting.


Next week is the continuation of our wacky late-summer schedule. So with Bunkasai and Undoukai coming up, I’ll have some pictures of Ichikashi to post.

Look forward to that!

Oh, and I think I figured out what I’m going to do with my long breaks: I mentioned that I was going to Kashima with the second break, but I think I’m going to go to Kamakura for at least one of my 5 days off. I’ll also take a look at the Reysol’s and Marine’s schedules to see if any of those games appear amenable.

Oh, and one more thing… tomorrow I’m going to head into Tokyo to meet up with my aunt and cousin for dinner. On my way I think I’ll stop by Kamawanu

⁴ Since I’ll be out in Minmai-Nagareyama to check out IBF on T.J. Yee’s recommendation.

⁴, another famous tenugui shop. Let me know if you want me to pick one up for you. Personally, I think they make great omiyage/birthday/Christmas gifts. Additionally, my dad is also going to be flying into Korea in early October, and is planning on an extended layover in Japan… Funny how things like that work out, isn’t it?