April 20th-Aoshima
Today’s plans worked out even better than I had expected. Before I get to the good parts though, I’ll start at the beginning as I always try to do! I had to get up this morning at the regular time because we had school for a little bit in the morning because of that parents meeting with the teachers thing. The one class we had was OCC. Somehow…a few days ago…I volunteered to talk about a personal experience of mine that I had at a Native American powwow. So you ask, “Since when do you have a personal experience at a powwow?!?!” Well, the answer is of course a resounding “No!” Why was a supposed to talk about a powwow of all things? Well that’s because the kids in the class are reading a little story about a guy who goes to a modern-day powwow and he describes his experience. I told Matsuki-sensei that I’ve never been to a powwow and she seemed a little bit disappointed, but I assured her I would tell the students something about Native Americans. So this morning after Matsuki-sensei had checked the kids’ homework and about 20 or so parents were standing in the back of the room and out in the hallway looking in, I got up in front of the class. All I had decided upon was that I could talk about the trip that my family and I took to the American Southwest back when I was in middle school and we saw a bunch of Native American things for 2 weeks straight. First I drew a crude map of the US on the board and marked New York and Los Angeles and drew an arrow west of Los Angeles into the Pacific Ocean that said, “Japan” next to it. Then I scribbled some circles on the approximate area where we saw the Native American stuff. I ended up just kind of babbling about kivas (holes in the ground for storing stuff) and cave dwellings for about 5 minutes and I think my closing statement was something like, “The place where the Native Americans lived was interesting and it was hot there.” HAHHHAhahahHAHhAhah Oh boy…I think the only person who understood what I said though was Matsuki-sensei (English teacher) and she was very grateful to me for some reason…like my effort in the class had been such a trial. After the class was over we all left the school. I was trying to get home as fast as I could because I was supposed to be back near school by 11am to meet Chie to go to Aoshima (Blue Island). When I left school it was about 9:50am and I had to go home, shower, change, and go almost all the way back to school. I took off my school jacket rolled up my sleeves and peddled hard. Unfortunately, the wind…somehow…was ALWAYS blowing in precisely the opposite direction than the one I was trying to ride in. And this wasn’t a sissy wind either! I’d say on average it was about 20 mph with lulls to 10mph and gusts probably to 35mph. It was quite frustrating. Today I did something that I’d never been able to do before though. I made it entirely up the long hill without getting off my bike. I just rode the entire way up it! Yeah, I got a couple short breaks when I had to stop for a traffic light, but other than that, I did it all. I was certainly in pain, but after another 3.5 months of riding my bike up that hill and all over town, my legs are going to be like the legs on Atlas supporting the heavens. By the way, if you don’t know who Atlas is, go get a book and find out because that’s something you should know. By the time I got home, I was drenched in sweat (yeah…it was really disgusting, but that’s something I’ve gotten used to). I took a quick shower, changed my clothes, grabbed my camera bag, and dashed out the door again at 10:45am. I would be the smartest person alive if I could answer the question of how…even on taking the precise opposite route going back into town only 20 minutes after getting home, the wind had reversed direction at every turn and was going in the exact opposite direction as I was going. It wasn’t as bad this time though because I could just coast down the hill for the most part and I wasn’t forced to peddle against the wind. The biggest thing that I had been worrying about today was that it would rain. I checked just about every source for weather that I could think of: my cell phone, various morning TV shows, the newspaper, the Internet, etc. and all of them said that it would be cloudy in Miyazaki today and the clouds would turn to rain. It was depressing since this was the one day that I wanted it to be sunny because I was going to be outside for the day!!! But so far during the day, it had been sunny with periods of cloudiness that always passed with no rain. As it turned out…it’s 10:13pm now and I still haven’t felt a drop of rain. So, my mistrust of the meteorological services has been strengthened, but I don’t mind because it was a great day today for weather. Actually…at times it was a little too hot. I ended up getting a bit of a sunburn on my forehead, cheeks, and forearms. But at least I got to learn two new words out of it! “yaketa” (burnt) and “makka” (crimson). At any rate, I peddled hard on the way back and I made it to the meeting spot exactly at 11am. I was really proud of myself. As it turned out, Chie was running late, and she didn’t show up until 11:20!!! Then we rode to 南宮崎駅(Minami Miyazaki Eki) (South Miyazaki Station) and got there about 1 minute before our train was supposed to leave. So, Chie called her mom and about 20 minutes later, her Mom AND Dad showed up to give us a ride to Aoshima. Chie was really nervous about her parents showing up to give us a ride. I think they embarrass her like most parents embarrass their children. I was just worried that they would start interrogating me or asking all kinds of weird questions about why I’m in Japan that I wouldn’t know how to answer. As it turned out, they were very nice and pretty funny. Mrs. Harada (Chie’s Mom) was pretending to be a tour guide along the way and pointed out various sites that she thought I should know about. At one point in the road, we reached a high point that suddenly revealed the Pacific Ocean. When we were getting close she did a little countdown…it was pretty funny. It was really picturesque up there and we stopped for about 15 minutes to snap some pictures. Next we drove back the way we came and parked the car and got out and walked to Aoshima. Yes…it’s an island, but it’s very close to the land and there’s a bridge that you walk over to get to it. As it turned out, Chie had never been there either, so it was good for both of us. On the Island are a temple and a thick jungle. Surrounding the island is a very interesting natural occurrence that the Miyazaki people call “The Giant’s Washboard” (*translation*). The reason they call it that is because all around the island for about 100ft or more on all sides, are rock formations that have very clear ridges, each of which is about 1 foot from the base to the crest. At first I didn’t even believe it was natural, but upon closer examination, I could see it was. The temple and jungle were pretty cool. In fact, one of the temples, a little one down a small path apart from the main temple, was very significant. Want to know why? That little temple is where GOD LIVES!!! And God was born on this island!!! Of course I took a couple of pictures and I did “Ni rei ni hakushu ichi rei” (2 bows, 2 claps, 1 bow)—the procedure when praying in front of a temple. When we were on the island it was pretty hot and I could feel my skin roasting a little bit. After that, we drove a little way to Kodomo no Kuni (Children’s Country) and Chie’s parents dropped us off. All it really was was an amusement park next to the beach. I think we were a little bit old for the place since almost all of the rides were targeted towards much younger children. It was ok though. We spent our time walking around looking at the flowers (the Miyazaki Flower Festival is going on now…it’s not really a festival…it’s more of a time when you can see a lot of really nice flowers near Aoshima). That was really nice and the flowers were really pretty. I ate some gyudon (rice, onion, and beef dish) and Chie ate daigakuimo (some kind of potato dish…but…the first two characters in the name mean “university” so I was a bit confused). We did a lot of talking to and just hanging out. It was nice and it ended up being a good day. We took the train home and it was pretty funny because there was exactly 1 train car for everyone going home. It got kind of crowded, but Chie and I had seats, so it was ok for us hahahahaha.
On my bike ride home, I ran into some other people from my school. We started talking and I found out that a few of them live in my neighborhood. So, I guess we could hang out some time. Although I still haven’t resolved the issue of how people make plans with other people in this country. Like…to get a complete answer, you have to ask way more questions that you should really have to and in the end, the answer is probably “no.” Ok, I’ll give you an example that’s very current. Over the past few hours, I’ve been in communication with a bunch of people about tomorrow. I can only hang out with one person, but I decided to broaden my options to include everyone who I think would consider hanging out with me. I feel safe doing that since it would really surprise me if any of them actually committed to doing anything tomorrow. Here’s a model of a standard conversation that’s been altered slightly to incorporate the myriad qualities of the Japanese psyche. Each side of the conversation is a few minutes after the previous side because this is over e-mail through our phones. This conversation has been translated from Japanese for your convenience:
Me: Hey, what’s up? It’s Mike. How are you? Do you have any free time tomorrow?
Person: Hey! I’m just fine.
Me: So what are you doing tomorrow?
Person: Don’t you have boat practice tomorrow?
Me: Yes, I do, but I’ll be done by around 1 in the afternoon.
Person: Oh, ok.
Me: So do you want to hang out tomorrow?
Person: I have marching band practice.
Me: Yes, I know. Are you going to practice all day long?
Person: No, of course not.
Me: So when do you think you’ll be finished?
Person: Oh, it’s not decided yet, so I’m really not sure.
Me: When you’re done, you think you could get in touch with me?
Person: I just got out of the bath and I’m in my pajamas now. I have to go out with my parents tomorrow.
Me: I thought you had marching band practice. When are you going to be home?
Person: I’m really not sure.
Me: Don’t you want to hang out with me?
Person: Yes, I do, although tomorrow is an impossibility.
Me: Ok, fine. Well, the next time you’re free, think we could hang out?
Person: The next time I think I’ll be free, I’ll get in touch with you the day before that day.
Me: About when do you think that might be?
Person: I don’t know yet. Next time, eh!?
Me: Next time? What does that mean?
Person: Actually, I’m busy every single day. I’m real sorry, eh?! Byebye
Me: Ok…
Notice how this entire conversation could have been shortened to a fantastically simple exchange had the person only gotten to the point from the very beginning instead of waiting an half hour so to finally get it out. I think what’s most frustrating about this kind of thing, is that when you’re with the person, and you ask them about hanging out, they’re very positive about it all and it seems that they can’t wait to do something with you. Then when you’re not face-to-face, everything falls apart. Oh well…maybe I’ll get lucky and find someone who has their head on straight or I’ll get the knack of understanding and predicting the difference between what people say here and what they actually intend.
Now, on an entirely unrelated topic, I will present to you:
New Skills I Have Acquired
from my Time thus Far In Japan
I think I had more things or other things on the list when I was formulating it the other day on the ride home, but I think I forgot them. Well, if I think of some more things, or if other things come up I’ll add them to the list. Ok, tomorrow I have boat practice in the morning. After that…I really don’t know what I’m going to do. Tomorrow is a day off (because we had to go to school this morning), so I’ll have to try and make plans with someone. Or…alternatively I can just sleep all day like I did yesterday after boat practice. I wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow? Oh yeah, the other thing that happened today was Dad came home. He was a week in Houston, Texas on a business trip. When he got home he unpacked his suitcase. I think he practically brought home America with him. He had bought everything in there from chocolates, to wine, to Bounty paper towels, to cookies, drawings of flowers, to t-shirts, to baking mixes. I was impressed with the haul. I got a t-shirt, so that was nice. Ok, this journal entry is long enough already, so I’ll stop there and go to sleep because it’s late and I’m tired and I might actually get to hop in a REAL BOAT tomorrow in some REAL WATER so that should be exciting and I don’t want the excitement to get the better of me and pass out and fall overboard.
-Maikeru