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| What do Michael Jackson's Thriller, squid, and Commodore Perry have in common? They were all to be found at the recent Minato Matsuri (Port Festival) in Hakodate.
Just a couple photos.
Check out more photos at my Picasa site.
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| Well, it's been rather a long time since I've posted anything of any consequence on this blog. Hell, it's been a long time since I posted anything. Period. A month and a half since my last post. Two months since I posted any real photos. Five months since there has been a substantial post with any sort of writing. I've been remiss. If I had any readers other than my family, I imagine I've lost them. But I've just felt no real urge to broadcast any thoughts because I feel that the majority of those thoughts have been, well, less than noteworthy.
But I guess I'll write a little tonight as I've actually got some down time at present.
I guess I could start with the most recent news events in my life. If you can count the events as "news," which would be something of a stretch. But enough with the self-deprecation.
Personally, I've done very little other than work, go to shamisen lessons, stress out about this that and the other. Stresses include friends, girlfriend, and work. Now, anyone who knows me really well knows that I'm terrible about making new friends. But when I do make a friend, the friendship tends to be built on really strong bonds. But recently I've had reason to doubt the strength of friendship coming from the other side of a couple of relationships. This despite the friends in question having told me, as well as my girlfriend, that I was a really important friend. Hard to say for sure when you reach out for a person to talk to about your stresses, and there's no hand reaching back. I'm not trying to get all mopey or anything on everyone in this posting. I just haven't had a lot of chance to express these frustrations since I stopped writing. So I guess it comes out now.
As far as girlfriend issues, well, those are complicated. Aren't they always. I don't intend to go into much detail here. Just suffice to say that things are up and down. Some days, really good. Some days, not so much.
As far as work is concerned - I'm beginning to get tired of eikaiwa. I'd much rather get back into working in schools. For one, I don't have to pretend to care about the health issues of 50 year old housewives. Which is a large percentage of the conversations I have in my English conversation classes. The great irony of me teaching English conversation is that I'm a pretty terrible conversationalist. I have always been a man of few words. Just ask my folks. Anything about my private life - it's usually kind of like trying to pry a lug nut off of a wheel with 40 years of accumulated rust. I generally only talk when I'm good and ready, which is seldom.
So, all that being said, I'm beginning to think about how long I'm going to be here in my current job. Part of the stress related to this is that my contract begins at the beginning of September, running through the following August. And anyone who knows about Japan, that is not a good time to be looking for a job. I really need to see if I can't get myself onto the Japanese academic (everything really) calendar. Everything starts in April. That's when everyone gets transferred within city hall, the police force, teachers, anyone who is going to be transferred. I need to talk to my boss before I sign my new contract to see if we can negotiate a half year contract. I've been thinking that I should really begin thinking about my future. Maybe not incredibly seriously, but with at least a passing seriousness. I mean, I'm sitting on some decent savings, and I have my Japanese pension and the like, but still. It'd be a good idea, nonetheless.
So that's what's been stressing me out.
Now onto the actual events promised at the top of this post.
Last weekend, I made an incredibly short trip back to Akita for Odawara (Oda for short) and Junko's (Jun) wedding. They are both good friends from back at the Jolly Roger. Oda worked part time and Jun was often at the bar. They had gotten married last year, but finally had their wedding ceremony and reception this month. In Japan, the actual act of getting married and the ceremony/reception are often separated by a fair amount temporally. It's a very different system than back in the States and I imagine in most of the English speaking world. The actual ceremony is usually only witnessed by family. I was really fortunate that the first wedding I went to in Japan, I was invited by Kaz to come to the actual ceremony before the reception. But that's something of an anomaly.
The reception is also very different. For Oda and Jun's reception, they repeated the ceremony a second time, in front of all the guests, which I thought was really cool. Then with the changing of the clothes. Kimonos, hakama, wedding gowns, tuxedos. Yes, those plurals are correct. There's a lot of clothing involved in a wedding here. After starting in very traditional Japanese wedding attire, the couple changed to purple. Jun was wearing a purple evening gown, and Oda was in a white tux with a purple suit. With his hair style, he looked something like Prince. Not as in royalty, but the enigmatic musician from the Twin Cities. And like Prince, Oda is a rather short man. But he looked rather カッコいい(kakkoii: cool). And then Oda's band (which used to be my band incidentally) played two songs - Daydream Believer (a Monkees hit) and Basketcase (one of Green Day's earliest hits). Yes, we had punk rock at a wedding. A first for me. But I thought it was fantastic. And I was seated at one of the best tables, apparently.
To cut a long, rather tediously (and poorly) written description of the wedding short, it was nice to see Oda and Jun on such a fun day. And everyone else. Anbo-sensei, Saito, Kaz and Mami, Hyodo and his wife, Takato and Kazumi, and everyone else. And of course, the newlyweds. My Kisakata friends really are like family for me. When I go back, it seems like I have a handful of brothers, sisters and cousins. Unfortunately I had to leave after only 8 hours in Akita to get back for work Monday morning. (Another reason I want to get back into schools - the ability to take a day off for cases like this. I don't really have that option here.)
And after more or less a one year hiatus, I'm back playing ultimate properly this year. My ankle is properly healed after a long frustrating injury, and the Tohoku League schedule works out for me, so I'm planning on making it to three tournaments this summer. One this coming weekend actually. It falls on Sunday and Monday, as Monday is Marine Day here in Japan. And I don't mean the branch of the military. But rather "marine" as in marine biology or marine mammal. Sea. Ocean. That kind of marine. It's a national holiday. So I'm heading down to Kitakami, Iwate for two days with some of my old ultimate friends in the Tohoku area.
And maybe before too long, I might have started a team here in Hakodate. This past weekend, I coached a first experience/practice at the National School of Technology (Hakodate branch). The English teacher there is a student in one of my conversation classes, and as kind of an internationalization/English practice thing, she got some of her students interested in at least giving disc a little try. And I think everyone had a good time. Our numbers were a little low, but hopefully as they have fun, we can increase the numbers, maybe try to get the other universities in Hakodate started and maybe have a city league. Ambitious? Sure. Likely? Not so much. But it's something to shoot for. At least, let's get one team started in Hakodate. Gotta start somewhere, right?
So, come July 25, it will have been exactly 5 years since I touched down at Narita New Tokyo International Airport. What have I learned? Surely I've learned something, right? Even if I were in the States, I should have learned something after 5 years. And I guess I have. I mean, on a practical level, I've learned a lot of Japanese. When I first came, I spoke a little. Enough to get buy at a store without too much difficulty. Now, I (somehow) have my Japanese Language Proficiency Level 2 certification. Not sure that means a whole lot. But it looks good on a resume.
What about on a more philosophical level? Well, that's of course a lot harder to pin down. I guess I've realized that Japan has come to suit my personality and, to a large degree, my personality to Japan. I've learned that my mother was right to think that there is a very real possibility that I'm in Japan for the duration. And she said that back pretty early in my 5 years. I guess you get to a certain point and it just seems like the right thing to do. I've also learned - well, maybe you could say I've had the point reinforced - I'm actually ridiculously private person. Usually to the point of my own detriment. It makes it hard to make friends. Certainly, that's a lesson I probably would have learned anywhere. I just happen to live in Japan.
But why end on such a negative note. Let's find something positive, shall we?
I guess one thing that I have learned is that once I do make a friend, it carries a deep meaning. And I feel like, at least in the case back in Akita, the people there feel the same way about that connection. And that's something worth remembering.
Blech. Sorry. After school special smarm. I don't know what I've learned of any real significance. I'm sure there is something, but it's so completely internalized that without sitting down and thinking about it, I'm not going to come up with anything off the top of my head.
Well. That's enough mindless folderol. 5 years. Raise a glass, or something. Cheers. Kanpai.
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So here is a short clip of the shamisen. This is the song that I am currently learning. Not played by me, but rather by my sensei, who you can hear talking in the recording a little bit. He has a heavy accent, not that you can tell. I'm learning completely by ear, with no sheet music. There is probably some sort of sheet music out there, but we're not using it, thus this recording. It's for my practice purposes.
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So as some of my readers know - okay, my folks - I have started taking shamisen lessons. Specifically I'm learning the style known as Tsugaru-jamisen. It's named for the region of Aomori where it originated. It's larger than other shamisen and the hide is dog rather than cat. And there's a very closely related instrument in Okinawa that uses snake skin. And, yes, in Japanese a 'sha-' sound can become 'ja-' in Japanese. The sounds are really closely related, phonetically.
So today, I received my own shamisen. It's a reasonably good used instrument that my teacher found for me.
This is the bachi, or plectrum, used to play the shamisen. As you can see it's pretty large, and looks not unlike a specialized kitchen spatula.
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