Silver Week

This weekend, I met up with my friends, Greg and Kyle, whom I had met on the plane to Hokkaido. We had hung out a couple of times since then, and decided to hang out again for Japans 5 day long weekend which they have called Silver Week. Friday evening, I took a train to Kushiro, the 4th largest city in Hokkaido, and about 2 hours away by express train to meet the both of them; this being a good meeting place for all three of us, since we all live in different directions from one another. We all ended up meeting each other at the train station at the same time, and headed out into the city. I have come to the conclusion that I don’t want to live in a city if I can help it. I enjoy visiting cities and exploring them, but even more I really love being out doors and away from the noise and confusion; I find that I’m the happiest when I’m in the country. Greg is the opposite. He loves city life. While walking around Kushiro, he couldn’t decide which street to go down first. We ended up eating in some hole-in-the-wall restaurant. The counter, being the only place to sit at, must have only had enough chairs for a total of 6 people. These are my favourite kinds of places to eat.
After a light meal of fish and skewered pork, we headed off to the Karaoke club. You really do have to go with other people who don’t know how to sing when your not confident about your own singing capabilities. The evening was good except the part where my friend Kyle and I had to go running into the streets to find Greg, who ended up having way too much saki at the Karaoke club. Kyle and I eventually peeled Greg off the streets and taxied our way back to the hotel. The hotel room was only meant for one person, yet Kyle and I stayed there anyways. This had to be one of the smallest rooms, and awkwardest sleeps I’ve had in a while.
The next day Kyle left us to go back to his home town of Nemuro. By then, Greg had sobered up enough to drive us back to his hometown of Tsubetsu. On the way there, we were rerouted off the road and stopped by the police to be given the largest and whitest radish I have ever seen. It was a Japanese daikon. I’m not even going to try to understand this one. Before reaching Tsubetsu, we passed through some mountains, one of which was almost completely barren of trees on the top. Usually its me who looks for trouble and adventure, but this time Greg was the first to act. We ended up turning around and finding a hidden trail that led up to the bald part of the mountain. The trail we took was like walking through Narnia or something. Lush green flora surrounding us on all sides with cool little streams that cut through the soil with ease. A beautiful waterfall at the end of the stream ended the walk, and began the ascent. We’ve been told that Hokkadio has bears, so every twitch of the bushes made us jump. More often then not, it would be a deer, which would scramble up the mountain after seeing us. We eventually made it close to the top, but were restricted by the high plants, which substituted the absence of trees. Walking up there with no people around, no buildings, no bugs, and no noise made it feel as if we were on another planet which was only populated by a thick knee deep leafy weed.
We eventually made it to Gregs house, but not before missing a pack of wild dear, which hogged half the road. The next day we drove to Kitami, the nearest city to Tsubetsu, where we attended a Catholic Church Service. I’ve been to a couple of Catholic Church Services before, but this one was exceptionally long. After the service, I was asked to give a speech (The Japanese love their speeches!!!) about where I’m from, and what I thought of my students in Shimizu (???).

The next day, our friend Eri joined our group. Greg and I had been planning to hike one of the mountains in Daisetzuan National park, and Eri voiced that she would like to come along. Her English is really good, she has a great sense of humour, and she’s really pretty, so we couldn’t say no. It was nice to have a girl presence in the car. All three of us really got along and seemed to really enjoy one another’s company. We ended up climbing the mountain that afternoon, and were the last ones to the top, but the view was amazing!!! It has already snowed a bit on some of the other mountaintops, which really added to the scene. It actually reminded me of the arctic, being up there. Later that evening, we drove to the nicest camping site that I’ve ever seen. People were paying 4000 yen (around 40ish dollars) a night, yet we ended up sneaking into the cheaper site (did I mention that we are all really cheap?). The next morning, we drove to Asahikawa, the second largest city in Hokkaido, where we met up with Eri’s identical twin sister for dinner, before going home the next day. All in all, this Silver Week has been the best Silver Week I’ve ever had.

Week Six Many Faces

Many faces, yet all true

What I really find interesting is the levels of politeness that exist within Japan. There are entirely different ways to say virtually the same thing, but a lot more politer, depending on the situation you’re in. The Japanese will use the more polite Japanese at work or in formal situations. Using apologies to express gratitude for example, as I had mentioned in an earlier journal. When you are with your friends though, you would refrain from talking like this. My friend from Minnesota and I were talking about this and he mentioned a book he read which mentioned that the Japanese people have five ‘masks’: One for formal occasions, one for work, one for family, one for friends, and one for oneself. These different ‘masks’ call for different codes of behaviour including different levels of polite language. I might be completely wrong in saying this, but in North America, it seems that many of us look for the sincerity in people and try to see what’s behind the mask. In Japan, there is no looking behind the mask because all there is, is the mask. The idea of looking for the genuine person I think is very much a Western idea, yet again, I could be completely wrong about this. What’s really confirmed this idea of certain attitudes in certain places within Japan is not only in the language, but also the lifestyle. In Japan, you never wear your outdoor shoes inside your house. At the front of every house in Japan is a lower level than the rest of the house for leaving your shoes. You can then put on your indoor shoes after taking your outdoor shoes off. Most of us take off our shoes when we go inside a house anyways, and is just plain sensible if you think about it, yet I had heard that the reasoning for this in Japan is that you live a life outside of your house, and you live a life inside of your house. A lot of dirt and attitudes come home with you, but should not be let inside your house, and therefore left at the door.
Another element of Japanese lifestyle, one which I think everyone should try, are the onsens, or natural hot springs. Japan is of course along the Pacific ring of fire and is no exception to the large amount of thermal energy which exists in this part of the world, and therefore creating some of the best hot springs. These hot springs aren’t used in the same way that we use hot tubs back home, where you just plop into a hot pool of water with your bathing suit on. Instead, onsens are used as a bath. And just like bathing at home, you would not wear a bathing suit. Yes, that’s right! Nude! Family, friends, co-workers and total strangers bath together in the same hot spring, and no one thinks anything of it. What I really love about this is that any sort of hierarchy system that exists in Japan is broken down when you are sitting and relaxing in an onsen. It’s difficult to tell who’s the president of a major company when they’re not wearing any cloths.

Week Six

What should I say…?

Last week was a week of self-introductions. I think I’ve now introduced myself to at least 700 students. “Hello, my name is Joey. I am from Canada. My city’s name is Winnipeg…” Part of my self-introduction involves talking about animals, and I had mentioned that I have a cat back home. To go along with this, I made a cat sound, “Meow” I got a lot of blank stares after making the sound. Wondering if they had understood or not, I looked to the Japanese-English teacher for translation. She quickly sputtered off a bunch of Japanese ending with the sound “Niao”. I looked at her again with a confused look on my face. “In Japanese, the sound for cat is Niao” she told me. I was fairly surprised at this fact as I had always thought that this animal sound was universal. After class, I began to ask her and my other Japanese-English teacher other Onomatopoeias. For those of you unfamiliar with this unnecessarily long word, Onomatopoeias are words which sounds are imitative of the sound of the noise or action designated (This definition was totally plagiarized by the way). Some of these sounds are very similar to the English sounds, yet some are just bizarre. For example the sound for cat, as mentioned, is Niao. Ok, pretty similar. The sound for dog: won won. Sound for horse: hinhin-hinhin. The sound for pig: boo-boo. Duck: gaga. Crying baby: en-en. Gurging water: gara-gara. Mouse: chu-chu. Train sound: shushu-poopoo. Dropping large rock in water: Bo-cha! (You can almost hear this one).Dropping a small rock in water: po-cha. Ripping paper: biri-biri (I don’t get this one…) Unlocking a door: cacha-cacha. Touching something hot: achi (In North America, I believe the sound is a sharp Tsss). Stomach rumbling: gogo. And finally a buzzing bee: buuuuuuuuu.
I hope to teach a class on these in the near future. Part of my role here is not only to assist the Japanese English teachers with teaching English, but also to be a cultural ambassador for the students. Onomatopoeias are just one example of the many interesting cultural differences that exist. I hadn’t realized that saying ‘bless you’ after you sneeze is pretty North American. I was walking with a New Zealander, where at one point he let out a large sneeze. I dropped the ‘bless you’ remark and he began to laugh explaining that in New Zealand, they don’t say anything, and that he usually tries to stand beside someone from North America when he needs to sneeze so he can hear our absurd remark to a natural phenomenon. The Japanese don’t have a remark for it either which I find interesting since Japan usually has a polite phrase or action that goes along with almost everything. I got scolded the other day by one of my Japanese English teachers for not putting the word san after one of the secretary’s names when talking about them. The word san will always follow a person’s family name (last name) to show respect, but for me, because I’m considered a teacher in Japan, I get the honorary title of sensei. I don’t think I deserve this title given the role of what a teacher in Japan has to do (I’ll have to talk more about this in a later journal). I was also scolded for asking, “How are you?” to the principle. There is very much a hierarchy system in Japan, and a principle, as you might expect, is above the teachers. Asking “How are you” is just too casual, and is perhaps rude for a teacher to ask this question. He just looks so friendly though!!!