Days 32 and 33

The rain came back in! T_T
But this time, instead of mild and rainy, it's HOT and rainy! Weird ...

On Sunday night Guy invited us interns to a "party" at a "live house" called Tin Pan Alley in the Shianbashi district of Nagasaki. I guess it's supposed to be the drinking/partying district. But this was just a musical performance. There were families with kids there. But also drinking (the parents that is.) Guy bought Mai and I two drinks each. Drinking with your boss: an Asian tradition! (I always hear stories about my teaching-abroad friends drinking with their bosses and of-age students.) I had a gin and tonic and a melon ball.

The singers all knew Guy so we got to talk to them and kind of mingle. We're gearing up for a performance at Guy's new restaurant that he's opening in Sasebo called Rock 'n' Roll Brats (pronounced "broughts" like bratwurst, not like Bratz dolls.) It's a hot-dog restaurant with a rock theme. Carley and I might duet. Hopefully it doesn't have to be actual rock though, 'cause I surely can't belt that way :P




As long as it stays rainy this week, I'm just going to try and get some stuff done at home rather than go out exploring like I did so much last week. I should really read the books I brought, especially my choral conducting book. I brought it for a reason. I don't want to get too far out of practice, I don't want to lose my vision/inspiration, and I want to gear up for next school year when I MAY have my own group. Also, I need to get ready and figure out everything for once I come back: housing, moving in/out, re-starting all 4 of my jobs again, getting new students, maintaining and increasing my presence in the community. URSH. It's a lot to think about, and I'd rather not while I'm in this blessed suspension zone. My biggest stress here is figuring out whether to travel or not travel from "home," the place that's already a vacation.


TODAY'S CULTURE TIDBIT

Club Foot and Gum Tooth. Okay, so it's not really club foot: they can walk well, but one of their feet slightly points inward, leaving them with just a sliightly awkward gait and a little bit of a misalignment. According to Mai and other sources, this is how it works: Japanese society is pretty ethnically isolated and homogeneous. The vast majority of Japanese, especially those from a generation or two ago, only bred with other Japanese. So the gene pool wasn't varied, so if one parent was a carrier for a "mutation," the other would be likely to have it as well, doubling the child's chances at having the ill-fated trait. Thus, children with quasi-club-foot are born. And gum tooth, where one of your canine teeth sticks out the side of your gum rather than the bottom. An upstairs tooth. I'm sure there's more traits, and every homogeneous society/family has these "multiplyable" traits, but those are just two examples that are noticed here. It's like incest, but on a much bigger and less dangerous scale. Thoughts?

Day 31--UNZEN 雲仙

My first weekend daytrip away from the city--alone!
I'll admit, I was scared. Scared of missing the bus, scared of getting lost, scared of...just being alone basically. I couldn't even sleep the night before--my heart was pounding and I kept tossing and turning for hours. It was so frustrating. And while the trip wasn't as fun as it would be if I had a companion, it was still lots of fun alone. :)



The sea separating the Nagasaki Peninsula from the Shimabara Peninsula. I went around like this:

From the red words (Nagasaki City) up and around and down the peninsula to Unzen City (雲仙市.)

On the 1.5 hour bus ride, I loved seeing the beautiful Japanese countryside and farmland, even though it was cloudy.


Fields, mountains, and houses.

We made a stop by a little beach town called Obama, and this was in the front:

An American flag and creepy weird statue of Obama!
(In Japanese, Obama means small beach. Just a coincidence.)

Then we drove up the mountain and arrived at Unzen. What a cute little town. Touristy but not overly so. Unzen means "Cloud Wizard" but it's originally a mishearing of "onsen," the Japanese word for hot spring. The town not only has public bathhouses using natural hot spring water for jacuzzi-like naked spas (in which I did not partake because I was alone and they were expensive), but also "jigoku" which literally means Hell, the natural phenomenon of hot spring water rising to the surface and vaporizing, along with a sulfurous egg-smell. (They have the same thing in Lassen Park in CA.)

Here are pictures from the mountain town of Unzen: the little main street, the Jigoku, some hiking trails, the main temple Manmyoji, and a shrine to the Onsen.













In the end, I left a couple hours early than I had intended to stay, because a) I wanted to hike to Mt. Fugen but the visitor center people told me it was closed, b)I was tired, having only gotten 4 hours' sleep the night before, and c) It started raining. The comfort of sitting in the comfy charter bus listening to my iPod and watching the scenery called to me.


Reasons I like traveling alone
-I can go my own pace--take time where I want and rush where I want
-I walk fast, so I don't have to wait for anyone
-I don't have to burden people with waiting for me to take a good picture

Reasons I don't like traveling alone
-No one to talk with
-No one to laugh with
-No one to share the experience with
-No one to collaborate with on stressful logistics--directions, reservations, itineraries. That's the hardest part. It's way out of my comfort zone.


TODAY'S CULTURE TIDBITS

*So I just found out that almost all Japanese highways are toll highways--and the tolls are OUTRAGEOUS. Yoko told me that to get from Nagasaki to Sasebo (probably the equivalent of Sunnyvale to SF) the toll is around $30. With tolls that high, plus gas, why would anyone drive? My bus fare to Unzen was around 30 total--and I didn't have to drive, there were only 2 or 3 people besides me on the bus both ways, I got to listen to music and chill out. It was nice.

*It's still kind of a mind-boggler to me that they drive on the left here. I was referring to Guy making a "left turn" but I realized it was a right turn--I just thought of it as a left turn because it was the big, open turn instead of the tight corner turn. So turns are switched. And the passenger seat is on the left. I always forget.

Day 30

After work I braved the hot sun, walked to the bus station, went over my prepared speech in my head, and stepped up to get one ticket to Unzen. However, I couldn't get first few words out before the lady was like "マシンです"--use the machine. Womp womp. So I used the machine, which was even in English. Way to make it easy for me.

But I got my Unzen ticket!

Then, while I was in the area, I figured I'd check out the 26 marytrs memorial. Something about how there used to be a lot of Christians in the city, and then Japan decided to start punishing and exiling them, and 26 people were executed for their religion.


And apparently 3 of them were little kids. :P

While I was walking around that plateau, I found CAT CITY, CAT CAT CITY.




I swear there were at least 10 or 12 cats lying around being lazy and trying to beat the heat. Cat city man.



These signposts are everywhere, making it fairly easy to get around. If you're pretty good with relative directions like me.

I just tootled (toodled?) around town for a little bit and I happened to find THIS!



A famous temple called Shofukuji, with a giant guardian statue.



Above the temple was a cemetery. Based on the previous day's experience, I knew where that led to!



Hoorah! This is such a beautiful vantage point! You can see all of central Nagasaki. The bridge, the port terminal, Dejima, downtown, the hills, Sakuramachi, the station area...they must like to honor their deceased with amazing views!

I wished I could take a panorama, but in one of those awkward point-and-shoot-is-better-than-DSLR-ways, my camera doesn't have a panorama stitch function.





TODAY'S CULTURE TIDBITS


*The Manshon (マンション.)

These exist in every Japanese city of reasonable size. "Manshon" is basically their name for a high-rise apartment building with many many tiny one-person studio apartments and maybe small family apartments. They are the dwelling of choice for college students who don't commute from home or young singles in the city. The fact that "Manshon" came from "Mansion" makes for some potential language blunders.

*Modern-Japanese-architecture. In Europe, I feel like the reason a lot of the architecture is different from what we'd see in the states is because it's so old and everything is SO OLD. But, when something new comes up, it's relatively indistinguishable from something you might see in the US. In Japan, nothing frequently used is that old. Old things are temples and shines and castles, things that are there only for visiting/touristing, but most dwellings and office buildings are all new, for a number of factors (earthquakes, A-bombs, need to compete technologically, etc.) But their "new" architecture is still uniquely Japanese. It doesn't look Western at all. It's good to see that they aren't becoming Westernized in at least one area.

*Shoe of choice for Japanese moms:

ALL. OF. THEM. THEY ALL WEAR THEM.

Day 29

Japan--where the cemeteries soar higher than the airplanes!
This I learnt today.



--

At work, I attended a Catholic mass. This was my first Catholic mass ever, let alone in Japan. All of the girls of the school attended (my main reason for going) along with several parents and community members. The funny thing is that since I don't know exactly what they're saying, none of it registers to me. I don't sense any intensity, reverence, purpose. They're just mumbling canned memorized prayers and standing up and down. Where's the passion? But we got to sing songs and there was a song book of sheet music which is was OVERJOYED about. I hadn't even planned on sight-reading. BEST MASS EVER. I feel SO much more relaxed after I've sight-read chorales. SO GREAT. And it wasn't too easy because of the additional challenge of reading the hiragana at the same time. :)


Like this but not so easy and in 4 parts. :)

Then towards the end, a choir came out from the back and started to sing Ave Verum Corpus, seriously one of my very favorite choral pieces of all time...I ALMOST DIED. I was mouthing or softly singing the words the whole time and probably annoying the kimono-clad moms sitting around me.

--

After work I went for a random walk.(did I mention it was the first truly SUNNY DAY since I've been here?! Probably in the low 80s but the humidity made it feel like the 100s. SO. FREAKING. HOT.) I never thought I'd find everything I did!


A rolling, almost waterfall-esque turn in the river


A ladybug friend!

The former Siebold Residence. Siebold is the man who introduced Western Medicine to Japan. The street I live off of is called Siebold-Dori (Siebold street.)


Mountain Panorama #1



A beautiful shrine nestled into the hillside--with star trees!


At the top of a hill-spanning cemetery, the best and most beautiful panorama of one of Nagasaki's valleys I've ever seen! Definitely not in any guidebook.


Waiting for the sun to set. (It didn't, exactly. I guess I forgot that you have to be close to sea-level to get the pretty-sky-colors-silhouette effect.)

---

TODAY'S CULTURE TIDBITS

*Our fridge goes like this: Fridge, freezer, freezer. The fridge is about half the vertical space and the two freezers are about 1/4 each. Why there are two freezers I don't know. We don't use one. The freezers pull out like drawers, and the fridge has double hinges so you can open it from the left or right side. It has four short "levels," all of which are too short to stand up bottles/pitches upright. We either have to lay them down or put them in the side of the door if they're flat enough.

*At school and at church, we take off our shoes and put on slippers that they provide for us. Everyone does this everywhere. (Not in stores.)

*About half the time I see elementary schoolers in groups on the street, one or a few of them will pull out a "Harro!" I'm not sure of their intent, but I smile and say hello back. Sometimes they say "Nice to meet you!" Or something like that too. I think they just want to use English on a white person. It only happens when they're in big groups though. I also think they think all white people don't know Japanese. Everyone thinks that. The lady at the bus station was trying to be like "w-w-which (フイチ)..." and I was like ummm I could understand if you say DOCHIRA. I asked you the question in Japanese first soooo yeah.

*Garbage in Japan is like this: Burnable, non-burnable, and cans & bottles. Burnable trash is basically paper and food remains like fruit/vegetables/breads. I guess they don't recycle paper but burn it so at least it's not taking up space in a landfill. Non-burnable trash is everything plastic. We also put metal in there like foil and can lids. I assume they recycle everything in there. Cans and bottles are cans and bottles. (You have to take the wrappers off.) They recycle those.

Days 26-28

All right so.

Highlights from Monday:
-Basically didn't sleep because I felt super happy and peppy all day (& night)
-Went to a CREEPY BOMB SHELTER
-Went into, and then walked out of, the Nagasaki history & culture museum because I didn't want to pay
-Found a free "reconstructed 19th-century mayor's office" plaza place and went all up on that. Took pics. Alone.
-Totally PTFO in the afternoon (for the non-acronym-savvy, that means I fell asleep.)

Tuesday:
-Went to the Nagasaki Prefectural art museum. Um basically a bunch of local works by local artists a.k.a. amateur watercolors. But still a lot better than I could do. I just tend to prize conceptual art a lot more than solely-technique-based still life or scenery. Where's the fun in that?!
-Walked around Seaside Park; saw a bunch of crabs, got a bunch more bug bites in the process
-Got caught in the rain without an umbrella. Waited it out in a nearby mall until it MIRACULOUSLY stopped 20-30 min later and I was able to walk home rain-free.
-Stayed up until 5AM because I wasn't tired and I discovered literally the best food ever: peanut butter-chocolate sauce-milk. All mixed. It's like a freaking peanut butter chocolate shake. And I watched Lion King.

Wednesday:
-Slept until 12:30 (due to the previous day's staying up until 5am)
-Work meetings in the early afternoon, class in the late afternoon
-When practicing counting:
Anzu: wan...
Akari: two...
Kanta: sree...
(etc.)
Kohei: sixteen...
Sato: sebenteen...
Kosei: ....ELEBEN!
Whole class cracks up. Guess you had to be there.
-Barely went outside even though it was SUNNY and RAINLESS...wasted a sunny and rainless day...WHY OH WHY?!


PICTURES


I eat breakfast like a champ. I made pancakes. Do you hear that?! I. MADE. PANCAKES.


Bomb shelter from the outside


The bomb shelter from hell.


Walking


Walking in the rain=my Toms are on their last legs.


Reconstructed Nagasaki Village






Nagasaki-Ken Bijutsukan

Day 25

It's already the 4th weekend I've been here! o_o

Although I'm sad that I didn't get to go on a weekend trip or travel at all this weekend, at least I can take pleasure in the fact that I actually like sitting around the house sleeping and eating and being lazy. It's instant versus delayed gratification--in the moment I always feel like being lazy, but I know that in the future it'll be worth it ten times over if I get up and out.

I went for a little walk in the rain today, through the park that goes through the Suwa shrine near my house, and I happened to find an old air-raid bomb shelter tucked into a hillside. It was closed, but it's free so I'm planning to go in there next time. There's a museum nearby, too. That park area is an area I could explore a few more times and still find new stuff to see and do. I have to remind myself that even though I badly want to get out of the city, there are still opportunities every day for me to find and discover new stuff in the city. At around 400,000 it's no Paris or NY, so the opportunities are finite, but when I've been here less than a month I think it's safe to say I haven't seen everything yet.

My weekends, at least until the middle of July, are tentatively planned out. :) Next weekend I'm planning to go to Iojima, an island close by (rain or shine), and Unzen, a town along the peninsula which borders Nagasaki. (Inclement weather may change our plans D:.) The weekend after that I want to take a 3- or 4- day trip, most likely alone. (Yes, I just have to suck it up and DO IT and say I did it.) The weekend after that Alex is gonna come visit me here, and the weekend after that Liz and I are gonna meet up in Beppu. Then in August I'll be traveling around for work, though I'm still super in the dark about where/when I'll be going, what I'll be doing, and what my responsibilities will be. I guess we'll see!

I find myself wishing I had a year here. There'd be no time pressure to travel and do-everything-you-can, I could actually integrate into the community, maybe meet other expats, do activities, make friends. It's definitely confirms my belief that I want to do this for at least a year after I graduate. :) Really the only worry I have in that is that I have to use my teaching credential within 5 years of getting it, or it invalidates and I have to start ALL over again. BUT, I don't have to worry about that just yet, so I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Day 22--Heiwa Kouen

Today before class at 4:00 I went to the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Hall and the Nagasaki Peace Park. Both of them were beautiful and quintessential to the city's history and reformation. I would go up there more often to just walk around and reflect, but I have to take the tram there and so it costs money.



They have an infinity reflecting pool at the entrance. Apparently at night it's lit up with thousands of tiny lights, one for each death from the A-bomb. The rain was plip-plopping into the pool.



Inside the lower level of the Peace Memorial Hall. The giant skylight makes it heavenly. The two rows of columns of colored glass point directly to the epicenter. At the end is the most current collection of cranes that have been donated. (There are cranes everywhere around the Peace Park area.)



I was the only one in there.(Thankfully I missed the elementary-school-field-trip-rush.) It was extremely resonant and peaceful, so I sat there for a long time.



Cards of wishes for peace. "I wish for peace in all countries." I made one too.



In the peace park, there are lots and lots of different statues, made in Japan or sent from countries all over the world. Most complete with cranes.





This is an actual portion of Urakami Cathedral, the largest Catholic Cathedral in Asia at the time. It was completely obliterated except for this corner. The blackened portions of the bricks were darkened from exposure to the intense heat of the bomb. The red bricks are bricks that have lost their outermost dark layer over time since then.

It was so weird to think that on the exact spot I was standing was a pile of nothing but complete rubble and dying people all those years ago. That the entire area I traverse on a near-daily basis was completely devastated. Intentionally.



The whole Peace Park is presided over by a giant Daibutsu (Buddha) statue. The right hand points up to the threat of nuclear weapons. The left hand is outstretched in a gesture of peace. The right leg is cross-legged in silent meditation, while the left hand is poised for action to assist humanity. It's REALLY big.



And finally, Narumi :) Our English club head teacher Atsuko's new little boy. He's 5 months. She also has a 2-year-old, Kaname. Both of them are crazy cute. Can't wait til I get better pics of them. :)