Traditional Japan: November 25 through 27

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A few months ago my friend Ross was told to check out the Okayama International Villas. He went online, checked them out, and immediately booked one for November. This past weekend, I was among the 13 friends who stayed at one of the villas.

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Okayama is the prefecture to the East of Hyogo-ken. Some years ago, a Japanese man did some traveling around the world, and on returning to Japan realized gaijin do not have a lot of opportunity to stay in and experience the beauty of traditional Japan. He decided he would build various villas around the prefecture so gaijin would have such an opportunity. We stayed at the Hattoji villa, which was originally built over 120 years ago and then rebuilt around twenty years ago. It is the most traditional of the various villas.

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Staying at Hattoji was nothing short of magical. The villa had four large tatami rooms for sleeping, a full-sized modern kitchen, a nice shower and traditional bath, and a large common room with a fire pit and a kotatsu (heated table). All the rooms were divided by fusuma (sliding doors).

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The villa was nestled in a small mountain village. The locals were scarce and at times it felt like a ghost town. There were several houses and temples that were clearly unoccupied. Aside from a few leafers out to see the fall colors on Sunday, the area was quiet and peaceful. It really looked like the “old Japan” I have read about in legends and folklore.

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Right beside the villa was a small mountain, which was really more of a large hill. At the base of the mountain were a number of large shrines, and small shrines were alongside the trail all the way up. At the peak of the mountain there were some amazing views of the valley below.

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In a small building next to the house were a variety of enlarged black and white photos. I quickly found out the villa was the location for the Japanese film “Black Rain” by Shohei Imamura (not to be confused with the American film of the same name set in Japan by Ridley Scott), which was based on the book “Black Rain” by Masuji Ibuse. I saw and read both of these works in my Japanese literature class last year. Across the rode from the villa was a little museum about the movie and behind it was a shrine to the various famous actors who were in the film. “Black Rain” is about the destruction and aftermath of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and how the lives of various characters were affected by it. Both works were excellent, but the novel was much better and also more graphic.

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The weekend was far too short. We could have easily done another day or two there. We do have aspirations to visit some of the other villas in Okayama, but Hattoji is the biggest and the most traditional, so it is unlikely the experience will be the same anywhere else. There is one villa on an island Southwest of the prefecture. Perhaps that will be the next getaway.

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No turkey this year

Yesterday was the Japanese national holiday Labor/Thanksgiving Day. Apparently they stole two American holidays to make one super-holiday. The Japanese are best at "borrowing" ideas from other countries and then improving on them.

So on this super-holiday, I went to a festival at Harima Agricultural High School in Kasai city. While I will openly describe much criticism for the Japanese education system, the agricultural school is one outstanding aspect. It has always been my understanding that the children of farmers in the United States usually go to a regular high school and learn most of what they know about farming from their parents. Throughout Japan there are various agricultural high schools where the students learn about farming, cows, etc., alongside all the normal subjects. Upon graduation they have all the necessary skills to be professional farmers. For some reason they are forced to learn English that they will probably never use. At the festival we were able to see Kabuki, a traditional form of theater in Japan, cows and plants, and buy plants, flowers and food. All in all, it was a good time.

Next week the students have final exams from Wednesday through Friday. That mean I only have two classes during those three days, and I will try to do a major blog update with pictures. For the rest of the month, until winter break starts on the Dec. 23, it's my understanding that the students have half-days and irregular classes. Hopefully it will mean more time for blogging.

It's cold here

It's not really that cold yet. I have to remember I'm a Chicagoan. In the winter of '95 it was -75 F with wind chill. That was cold!

Everyone who has been here a year has told me to prepare for old man winter. I felt this was in complete contradiction to all the Japanese who said it barely gets cold enough to snow in my area. I'm finally starting to understand what the other JETs were talking about though. The main problem is the lack of central heating. Even though it gets much colder at home most of us go from warm houses to warm cars to warm offices or schools. Here in Japan, I wake up in a cold house, ride to work on a bicycle, and then go to a school without heat. The teacher's room has heat, but the classrooms and hallways don't. Everyone is the halls is muttering "samui" (cold) all the time.

I purchased long underwear on Monday. I've been told it will become my second skin in coming months. The students have to wear their school uniforms everyday so they just layer up underneath. One of my co-teachers said they look quite puffy in the dead of winter. I'm also told those hot gel packs are quite popular here. Apparently the students fill their pockets with them on the coldest days.

The weather turned Monday afternoon. I was sitting in my apartment watching a movie (I had the day off because I worked on Saturday), and it began growing colder. I was already wearing a sweater so I went and put on a puffy down vest. It kept getting cold so I got a blanket. My nose remained cold, so I finally had to pull out a heater. My predecessor left me with four portable heaters and I also have the wall unit (which is supposed to be really expensive). I have a heated blanket, a heated floor in half of my living room, and a kotatsu: a heated Japanese table that you put your legs under to stay warm. I'm clearly as good as I can be with heaters, but it still doesn't completely solve the heating problem. It isn't wise to leave a heater running all night so waking up cold is pretty unavoidable. Maybe my big expensive heater has a timer on it...

Now the point: Japan is known throughout the world as a pioneer of new technology and various innovations, and yet central heating in uncommon. Please do not think I'm complaining. I like camping: I can handle turning on heaters and waking up cold. It's just one more thing you wouldn't expect from one of the most "modern" countries in the world.

Have I overstepped the boundries of fashion?

I always encouraged John Sieker to wear his rainbow-colored sweater. "Who cares what people think," was always my motto when it came to clothes. While I have been known to sport some loud colors from time to time, I guess this is the first time I wore a truly rainbow-colored sweater.

I bought the sweater a few weeks ago in the Modern Amusement store in Osaka. Although the tag says Modern Amusement I have a complicated theory that suggests otherwise, but that's another story. The sweater is a handsome sweater, but it is definitely a rainbow sweater. It is red, fuchsia, forest green, sea foam green, blue, orange and yellow in thick horizontal stripes. I didn't really think about it when I purchased it. It fit well and looked funky. I just thought like I have been thinking: "Great! I live in Japan, so I can wear this multi-colored dream-coat and no one will bother me about it."

Unfortunately, my school is not in Tokyo or Osaka and my students are not yet used to the liberated styles of fashion in Japan. Some of them just smiled and said my name when they saw me in my bold new sweater, which they always do when they see me. A couple of times I saw some of the younger boys pointing and whispering. I quickly approached them and made them understand I didn't need to comprehend all their words to understand they were talking about me.

I still felt really good about the sweater until a herd of 9th grade girls laughed as I walked past. I stopped and demanded an explanation from them. Apparently, I was wearing a very colorful sweater and that was somehow humorous. Leading the herd was Maki Kumamoto who is very vocal about her crush on me. One of the herd asked if it was from Uniqlo and I was outraged. Uniqlo can most easily be compared to Old Navy. It is a large store with clothes for the whole family set at affordable prices. The clothes are quite a bit nicer than Old Navy and they have really cool t-shirts in the summer time. Unfortunately, their affordable prices have established them as a brand for people who cannot afford better. I expressed my outrage and then Maki and another girl said that they liked the sweater.

So now I'm going to have to wear my new rainbow sweater regularly just to establish that I'm not afraid to do so. Next time I'll remember to wear a tie. Yoshida-sensei (an older English teacher) commented on my lack of one, partially because I was asking him last week why everyone was aloud to dress so casually. There were only four people wearing ties today. Kocho-sensei (Mr. Principal) was one of the four but he was wearing track pants and a track jacket over his shirt and tie. At least I had slacks on! I wear a tie almost every day and hardly any other teachers do. I don't feel bad about wearing my rainbow sweater with a collar and slacks once in a while.

I just found out some of the boys in ESS (English Speaking Society) club made a crack about it not being Halloween in reference to my sweater. On the one side, I give them props for coming up with such a timely cultural joke, but on the other side, I went out of my way to give them candy yesterday!

So why have I just wasted ten minutes of your time talking about rainbow sweaters in Japan? I'm trying to convince both you and myself that the rainbow sweater is here to stay. I'm not backing down on this one, people. I will march boldly in my rainbow sweater! Fortunately, the average Japanese doesn't think about the blatant cultural reference to rainbows that many people do in the West. That would make the whole situation a lot more difficult.