July 20th-Counting up and Counting Down
I think one
of the things that I really like about Japanese names is that they actually
have meaning. Well, it’s not like names
of European origin don’t have meaning too, but chances are you need a dictionary
to find their meanings. For example, my
name, Michael, means “godlike.” Given
what I pulled off today, I’d say that’s not so far from the truth, but
I won’t go into that in this journal entry (or any other, so just forget it). However, with Japanese names, their meanings
are derived from common words. For
example, take my friend 春香
(Haruka). The first character in her
name is the same character as that for “Spring” (the season). In fact, the way to say “Spring” in Japanese
is also “haru” just as in the first two syllables of her name. The second kanji is the same one as in the
word 香り(kaori). The word “kaori” in Japanese means “scent”
or “fragrance.” So basically, my
friend’s name is Spring Scent. Isn’t
that really nice? One of my best friends
here, Ippei Nagatomo, has a cool name.
The kanji for his name are 一平(ippei) 長友(nagatomo). The two in his first name together mean “one peace” and the two
in his last name mean “long friend.”
Isn’t that really nice? What’s
my name mean? “Godlike Joyful” Umm…ok.
I really wish I could find some characters to use for my name so my name
could have meaning and not just a sound.
But it’s hard to find kanji for my name. I’ve tried a couple of times, but I’ve never been determined
enough to find some good ones.
So, why are we counting up
and counting down in this journal entry?
I think I might as well just come out and say it in the beginning of
this entry until waiting for the end.
If I explain sooner rather than later, it will be easier for me to get
into topics that I intend to discuss here.
So what are we counting up?
We’re counting up the time that I’ve spent here. In a few days I’ll have been in Japan for 4
months…that’s 1/3 of a year! That’s a
long time if you ask me. And of course
if you count the time I spent here the last two times I came here it will be
almost 6 months…which is ½ a year!
Wow…I can still do math.
Actually, I can’t do math. Last
week, Ippei asked me how much my video camera cost and it took me forever to
multiply 120 (120 yen to the dollar about) by 1100 (dollars for the
camera). And in the end I did it
wrong. Wow, I really hate math. Speaking of math, I also hate math
teachers. Why do I hate math
teachers? Because I hate math! On Thursday…ugh…what I had been dreading and
trying to get my way out of (and had been succeeding for a while) I had to
do. What was this? This was having lunch with my math teacher. Why on Heaven or Earth (this is an allusion
to ancient Japanese creation myths) my math teacher, who I never talk to and
never do anything in his class, would want to take me out to lunch…I have no
idea. I had managed my way out of it in
the past by saying that I had to go to boat practice (actually true) or just telling
him that I don’t know my schedule so I can’t make any promises. I guess it wouldn’t have been so bad if the
following factors weren’t coming into play:
Well you get the idea. After school
was over on Thursday I went to his office as I had been instructed to. As I was hoping he wasn’t there so I was
going to tell him on Friday (if he found me) that I TRIED to see him but he
wasn’t there. So, I went to the library
where they’ve got an air conditioner to cool off and check my e-mail. Then, 15 minutes later me materialized out
of nowhere like some sort of mystical phantom or beasts (yeah…beast) and tapped
me on the shoulder and told me we were going.
I didn’t have any choice so I followed him outside, got my stuff, and we
got in a van with one of the science teachers (who I’ve never even seen before)
and we drove off to an udon (fat noodles) place in downtown Miyazaki. I’m really not too big on udon (the noodles
feel like worms in your mouth…and I told the teacher this when he asked me if I
like udon) but he took me there anyway.
It turned out not being that bad.
Then the two teachers took me to a department store where we spent 15
minutes driving up and down the parking garage looking for a space while the
math guy made small talk with me. He
also told me about how he’s got a crush on Matsuki-sensei (my vice-homeroom
teacher). I wish I’d gotten that one on
tape hehe. Well, when we found a space
they took me to a souvenir store and got me two little dolls that are
traditional Miyazaki Prefectural wares.
I don’t need the stuff, but it’s not junk and it was nice of them to
take me out to lunch and buy me souvenirs so I was polite about it and said
thank you a bunch of times. I also
excused myself and apologized several times.
Why did I do that? Well, that’s
something about the Japanese personality that you really have to get used
to. Their first impulse is to apologize
and excuse themselves BEFORE thanking.
For example, if a Japanese person drops their pen and you pick it up for
them and give it back, chances are they’re going to say “excuse me” instead of
“thank you.” Just think about it…which
one would you use? Interesting isn’t
it? Well, I think so.
So anyway, the topic I was
on half a page ago….counting up. So
I’ve been here for a long time. What
was I doing two years ago today? 20th….I
think this was the weekend that we went to Fukui Prefecture to visit my host
family’s friends (the Yamada family). I
think we just got back. On the way home
from Fukui Prefecture we stopped at a shopping mall and we had dinner at a
restaurant on the other side of the parking lot and I ate gyuudon (beef with
onion and eggs on top of rice…very tasty).
It was fun visiting those people.
They were really nice and when we all went out to dinner, everyone
(except myself and the little kids) got totally plastered and all became the
funniest people in Japan all of a sudden.
Happy drunk people are amusing to watch…and videotape (which I did of
course). That year I videotaped almost
everything. I ended up with over 10
hours of videotape. This year it’s more
like maybe 2 hours. I really haven’t
been video taping that much stuff at all.
In fact, just last week I took my video camera to school a couple of
times so I could tape things at school and the class match (which I will talk
about later). I also took my regular
camera so I could take some snaps of people and things that I’ve just been
using my digital camera for. Well, it’s
not like there’s anything really wrong with a digital camera (it has many
benefits) but it’s more fun and easier to share picture with other people if
they are actually real pictures you can hold in your hand. Also, it’s easier to put real pictures in an
album instead of trying to print out digital ones. So I will try and take a bunch more before I leave and I’ll do my
best in Osaka and Tokyo. I know for
sure that I’ll have to take pictures of Kansai International Airport! That will be good. Why are there so many ants in my room?!?!? What the heck is this?!?! I’m under attack! Whenever I see one I just crush it with my fingers…I’m a ruthless
beast. Anyway, I’m not really sure how
I feel about having spent 6 months out of the last 2 years in Japan. I guess that’s interesting. Well, I know it’s interesting! If it weren’t interesting I would come here
so much. I still love Japan and I
definitely want to come back when I get a chance next. But, I think I’m also ready to see other
places too. I want to go to Hawaii (so
much culture there…hehehe), Europe, other East Asian countries, and South
America. A little trip to Canada would
be nice. I want to go to Banff National
Park in Canada (and stay in the car the entire time so I don’t get eaten by
grizzly bears). Anyhoo, when I’m in college
(almost just a month from now…scary eh?!) I will have more vacation time. So, during the vacation time I think I could
go interesting places or get a job so I can have money to go to even more
interesting places. I want to go
everything and see everything. There’s
a lot to see in the world so I figure I should start while I’m young (I think
I’m doing well so far).
Counting down….yes….that
is the other half of it. Now, it’s not
like I’m not having fun here in Miyazaki (now and then)…and it’s not like
things are so horrible, but it’s just that the benefits and plusses that I’m
getting out of more time here comes at too high of a price. Most of this price has to do with
frustrations with living with a host family and always being watched and
checked up on and no one leaving me alone to do what I want to do. Every situation is…wow…I actually learned
the word for this…一触即発
(isshokusokuhatsu) [a hair-trigger crisis/touch-and-go situation]. I KNEW that word would come in handy some
day!!! What do I mean by all this? Like everything is so urgent and the
slightest thing…like something that even the most uptight of people in America
would just shrug off, but here it becomes an absolute calamity! Let me give you a beautiful example. Today I hung out with my friend Haruka
(please recall her from paragraph one).
When I came to meet her, I came from the Ocean Dome (where I went this
morning) and I came by bus. I went from
the Dome, by bus, to the train station, and then walked to wear we had decided
to meet. I guess some time I casually
decided with my host mother that I would figure out my own transportation to
get back home from town after hanging out.
I didn’t know it was such a big deal so I was like, “Yeah ok, that’s
fine.” When I was ready to come home
though I didn’t feel like getting on the bus because I didn’t want to spend the
money. It’s only a few bucks, but
giving the fact that it looks like I’m going to need every single yen I have (I
don’t know where this money is going…but it’s disappearing faster than I can
realize it’s gone). So, when I was
walking back to the station I called my host mother and said, “Would it be too
much trouble if you came to pick me up?
I’m poor so I don’t really want to pay for the bus.” It sounded like it was ok, then there was a
long silence and I heard some talking between her and my host father but it was
too quiet to hear what they said, then more silence and then my host mother
came on the phone and said that my host father was mad because I wasn’t
figuring out my own way to get home.
Then I told her if it’s really such a problem I can get on the bus, it’s
no big deal. And then she told me she
would come and pick me up. So I was
like…ummm…ok. When she came to pick me
up I got in the car and I asked why my host father gets angry so easily over
the most insignificant things. And she
said something about how we had decided I would get home on my own from town
and that I wasn’t keeping my promise.
Then she mumbled something about how my host father gets angry so much. And then…1 minute later when we stopped at a
traffic light, my host mother puts her face in her hands for a while and I ask
her what’s wrong cuz she wasn’t moving at all.
She didn’t move and didn’t say anything to me. And then when the light turned green, she took her face up and
she was crying into a little towel and wiping tears out of her eyes. I asked her what the problem was but she
didn’t say anything so I just gave up and sat back. Kouki wasn’t helping. He
was just being noisy and annoying as usual.
We drove almost the entire way home in silence. When she was putting my dinner out on the
table I asked her if she wanted to see the video of my speech (the one I made
at the closing ceremony…I’ll talk about this later) and she said it would be
better to see it tomorrow or the day after tomorrow because…and she started to
say “Otoosan…” (referring to her husband) when she started to sniffle
again. I have no idea what he could
have done or said to her to upset her like that (never seen this woman upset
before). And also…how could he be so
stupid and such a jerk to get mad about something so insignificant and
pointless. Well, all I can say on
behalf of his defense (not that I feel he deserves a defense, but I’m being
fair) is that I would be pretty angry ALL the time if I were he.
Reasons Why it Seems Understandable that my Host Father is Angry All the Time
Yeah, you’d be angry too…or at least be angered very easily. Well, anyway, I’m just a little mad that I
get put into a host family that’s so unstable.
Why should I have to sit in the car with my host mother while she cries
for like 15 minutes? I don’t know what
her husband did or said, but it’s not fair to me either. Well, I have…four days left with my host
family and one of them (tomorrow) is going to be spent outside of the house, so
that gets me to three days. Life I’ve
said before, I’m going to miss the friends I made here and opportunities that
could come along by me staying longer, but…also as I’ve said before, it’s not
worth it and I can’t deal with all of this pointless near-sighted garbage all
the time day in and day out.
So how do I feel about
leaving? I guess I’ll have a better
idea about that when I get on the plane and leave on Friday morning. I’m not looking forward to the preparations
I have to do to get out of here. Like…canceling
my phone, packing my bags, shipping some stuff home, sending my big bag to
Tokyo, swindling more money out of my parents because without it I can barely
even leave this town much less make it all the way home, saying goodbye to
friends, etc etc. Once I hit Osaka it’s
going to be another maelstrom of fast times and crazy excitement. Then it’s off to Tokyo for one last blast
(hopefully one that will resemble the blast at the end of March…THAT was
interesting). You know what I miss? I miss leave leaving Helena’s house at like
3am in the bitter cold, getting French Vanilla coffee at the 7-11 near her
house, and driving home with Ayumi Hamasaki’s trance mix blasting on the
speakers while I’ve got the windows down (to keep me from getting too
sleepy). Ahhh…good times….nice
memories.
Wow, that was really
random. Anywaaay…if I could continue
here….Maybe what I miss more is the stability of knowing who my girlfriend
is. I’m not going to say even 0.001% of
what I have to say about all of this here (this is the public journal,
remember?) but I just wanted to touch on that.
Basically what I’m looking forward to is being able to start with a
clean slate once I get to college—an entirely new group of people in an
entirely new place with an entirely new lifestyle. I think that’s the best way to go about it all.
I should talk about my
last week at school now because it was an important and interesting week. I guess first I’ll talk about Vadim (aka
Wajimu) the Russian exchange student.
Thursday the 17th was his last day in Japan. Although the semester’s ending ceremony was
on the 18th (remember?
Nothing can end in Japan without an ending ceremony) he left the morning
of the ceremony without coming to school (there was no time, he had to get his
flight). At first I really didn’t like
the guy—he was noisy (more chatty and goofy than the Japanese kids), childish,
and funny looking. Like, did you see
his big nose and unibrow? I’m sorry,
but that was just wild stuff. And in
the end I still thought he was noisy and childish (the Japanese kids often say
the same things about him) but I kind of got to appreciate him a little bit
more. We didn’t really talk that much
(for me, his Japanese is kinda hard to understand with the Russian accent and
all) but it was ok. The week before the
last week of school on Thursday I spent periods 3 and 4 with 38 homeroom
(Vadim’s homeroom) in the kitchen preparing gratin, orange jelly pudding, and
salad. This was part of the home-ec
class. All the boys in the class and
myself were in one group (5 of us hehehe) and the rest of the girls were split into
6 groups or so. Making the food was fun
(and it turned out well too) and I guess Vadim is kind of funny. He makes people laugh a lot with his antics
and whatnot. Well, the next week (last
week of school) on Monday I was supposed to go to 38 homeroom (as I usually do)
but I couldn’t find the class. I
thought they might have home to the computer room so I checked there, but I
couldn’t find them. Then I looked up on
the walkway outside the classrooms on the third floor of the building next to
the one I was in. Up on the balcony was
Vadim. I could see he had a camera in
his hand; he was all alone and he was doing some sort of weird dance. I walked over there, climbed up the steps,
and asked him what was going on. He
explained to me that they were doing preparation for his going away party.
The party was fun. First various people around the room read
things they had prepared for him. Two
girls did a little accounting of special or funny events that happened with him
while he was in Miyazaki. Then we went
around the room and everyone said a little something to him. I told him that even though we hadn’t gotten
to talk that much, I was glad that I was able to get to know him a little bit. The last person so speak was the
teacher. She talked about what she had
been feeling when they told her a Russian exchange student would be coming to
join her class. While she was talking
she even started to cry a little bit.
While all this was going on, I started to think about my own homeroom
and how I was almost sure that none of them even pay attention to what I do
anymore and that they really don’t care about me that much. I’ve never been the kind of guy to have
loads and loads of friends. I just
don’t need that many. If I have a few
close friends, that’s enough for me and I’m perfectly happy with it (and that’s
what I have here). The other thing
about my personality is that I don’t feel the constant need to talk to someone
even if there’s nothing really to say.
I’m content to just sit and be quiet.
Vadim is the other way. He
always likes to be the center of attention and talk to everyone around him
(even if it’s in the middle of class).
So, I think he was much more attached to the people in his class and
they were much more attached to him. He
was also here for a lot longer than I was, but still, even if I stayed here for
another 7 months or so, I don’t think my situation or status in the class would
change so much. So, it was a little bit
depressing for me to see how they had all gotten so attached to him and how he
had really become a part of the class while I remained, until the end I
believe, on the outside of things for the most part. Although in some way I looked at this as a failure on my part, I
wasn’t sure what I could have changed about my behavior or what I did here that
would have made things better. Like, I
can’t change my personality. If I don’t
have anything to say (often the case), then I won’t say anything. I don’t really know. It’s all over now so it doesn’t matter
anyway. After the teacher had spoken,
Vadim went to the front of the room and thanked the class, said some nice
words, and took pictures of people.
Then, he took out some plastic bags.
From the bags he produced souvenirs from Russia that he’d been keeping
for the class the entire time he had been in Miyazaki. For the girls he had some kind of nice pin
(I didn’t get a close look at it). And
for the guy he had dog-tag type necklaces.
On one side of the little plate are three diagonal bands (red, blue, and
white). In the middle there is a silver
phoenix or giant bird of some kind. And
on the top is some writing in Russian (that I forgot to ask him what it
means). It looks pretty cool. Well, those were for the guys. I didn’t think I was going to get one
because it looked like he just had enough for the guys in the class. And besides, I wasn’t really in the class, I
just joined it a couple times a week.
And then, he came to the back of the row (where I was sitting) and he
handed me one too! So that was really
cool. The next thing he did was have a
quiz game. He asked the class a whole
bunch of trivia questions about Russia (that I guess they were supposed to know
after having him in the class for a year).
He asked questions like, “Who’s the leader of Russia?” “What’s the
capitol?” “What’s the famous Russian alcoholic drink?” “What’s the currency in
Russia and how many of it makes 100 Japanese yen?” “How many people are in my
family?” “When’s my birthday?” He called on the first person to raise their
hand. If they got the answer right,
they won a prize! The prizes were also
Russian-made craft type things like the little wooden dolls that you open to
reveal smaller and smaller dolls, some colorful pens, and some painted wooden
spoons. I correctly answered the
question about the leader of Russia question (Vladimir Putin). I knew I knew his last name, but I don’t
know where I pulled the first name from!
At any rate, I got a cool looking spoon for my trivia knowledge. It was a good time and the class really got
into it. I was just a little sad
because I knew that I wouldn’t get this kind of a going-away party (if any
party) from my own homeroom.
On Tuesday it was
raining. After I had breakfast I went
back to my room to get dressed as I always do and I just stared out the window
at the rain for a while. There was no
way I wanted to go to school in the rain.
And I particularly didn’t want to put on my rain suit (I already broke
my vow to never put it on again once).
So, I went back to the kitchen, and as a joke I said to my host mother,
“I don’t want to go to school in the rain, can I stay home today?” I totally expected her to say, “Of course
you have to go to school! It’s a Tuesday!”
because I was just messing around with her.
But instead she said, “Yeah, that’s all right. What excuse should we give to your teacher when I called
him?” Apparently I didn’t feel so
great, had a fever, and she had to take me to the hospital. No matter what the problem is with my host
mother, it’s off to the hospital! She’s
a maniac…I can’t even get into a fraction of it all! So anyway, I got to stay home.
The good part was that I got to sleep for an extra 3.5 hours or so and
then finish my last journal entry. The
bad part was that I was with my host family the entire day! Well, nothing really dreadfully important
happened, so I won’t bother going into it.
By the way, I’ve made up a new game!
The game is rolling my shaving cream can across the floor so it crosses
the path of an ant or two and crushes them!
Isn’t that really wholesome?
Well, the number of ants is slowly decreasing (I’ve probably killed 40
tonight) so I must be having some effect on their numbers. I want to role over 7 ants so I can have a
shirt that says, “7 At A Blow.” (Does
anyone but my own mother understand that allusion?)
On Wednesday when I got to
school I was a little bit out of it because I hadn’t been there the previous
day. All of a sudden everyone started
taking out their gym clothes and getting changed! I didn’t know what was going on so I asked some people and they
told me that today was the class match (like field day). I had had no idea it was on Wednesday so I
was really surprised and instantly got nervous about it. The guys were supposed to play basketball
and soccer (neither of which can I play).
It was a good thing I had my clothes for the boat club because otherwise
I wouldn’t have had anything to change into.
Interestingly enough the T-shirt I had was my MHS Cross Country shirt
with the American flag on the back, and I had my blue and white shorts
too. Everyone else was in his or her
dorky gym uniforms but I didn’t care. I
figured if I’m going to be humiliated at how bad I am at sports, I might as
well do it proudly. The field was wet
from the rain so there was no soccer, but we were still playing
basketball. Due to the way it was all
set up, my class had two games in the afternoon and we were just watching until
then. Well, the basketball got boring
pretty quickly so I walked around, watched some of the girls’ volleyball and
dodge ball, videotaped people and things, and talked to people. Then we had lunch and afterwards went back
to the gym to play our games. My
stomach instantly felt queasy because I had eaten too much before activity
(eating almost anything before vigorous exercise is a bad idea) and also, I was
extremely nervous about this whole basketball thing. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so terribly nervous if their hadn’t
been 200-300 people crammed into the tiny gymnasium to watch the
games….and….maybe I wouldn’t have been so terribly nervous if I hadn’t know
that all those people had their eyes on me because I’m the foreigner—the
American…and these two facts combined automatically makes me an expert or
technician and thus, people expect a lot from me. Well, it’s not like there weren’t other people there who had no
idea how to play basketball and were making fools of themselves, but other
people were actually quite good. I
decided that even if I can’t do anything positive for the team or help them
win, I can at least try my best. I
realized that it would become clear pretty soon that I don’t know how to play
basketball, but what I knew people would also be able to see is if I was trying
my best or not. In Japan, that’s what
they want you to do (and tell you this all the time)…do your best, or hang in
there with “Ganbatte!” When the game
before ours ended and the announcer called our homeroom and the opposing
homeroom up for the next game I was so nervous that I actually lost bladder
control for a moment. It was that
bad. I was selected for the jump-ball
because I’m the tallest guy in the class.
I tipped the ball off but it landed in the arms of an opponent when he
ran forward to intercept it. The game
went on for 12 minutes and in the end we won!
I didn’t score any baskets but I did plenty of running around and
getting sweaty and trying to keep the ball away from the other team. In the last seconds of the game a guy
tripped and fell down behind me. For
some reason (maybe I was trying to grab the ball) I lost my balance going
backward. And as the guy behind me
started to stand up I tumbled over him landing on my upper back. I had enough momentum though and I rolled
completely backwards, over my head, and back onto my knees. Everyone in the gym went insane when I
pulled this one off and the game ended.
I knew our second game
would be harder. Our first game was
against 1st year students while the second game was against 3rd
year students. Also, on the opposing
team in the second game there were actually people that knew how to play
basketball (a skill that no one in my class, myself included, possesses). Also, even though we had had a break, we
already played hard and were tired. 5
minutes into the game I was supposed to switch with one guy sitting out. But…as it turned out, I didn’t end up
switching. Why? I had a mission that I developed in the
first 4 minutes of the game: stop the one player getting all the baskets
against us….at all costs. There was one
guy, clearly the best player of all, who, despite how many arms we threw in
front of him, times we blocked him, number of people who bumped into him, or
times the ball was swatted in his hands, he would charge right through us,
throw the ball up in the air, and it would land in the basket. What this very clearly reminded me of was
the lacrosse game Millburn played against Livingston when I was in 8th
grade. There was one guy on the
opposing team that just kept getting through no matter what we did. I think was my subconscious was doing was
trying to make up, this time, for the fact that I was unable to stop the guy in
8th grade. I first tried
swatting the ball out of his hands. One
time this actually worked quite well. I
pushed the ball out of his reach and when he lunged for it, he lost his balance
and fell forward onto the ground while I took the ball, grinned at him on the
ground, and went back the other way up the court. That only worked once, so the next bunch of times I just tried to
block his path by getting in front of him and letting him bump into me or force
him to move around me. This didn’t work
too well. What motivated me even more
to put an end to his successes (he prolly scored about 7 baskets on us in 12
minutes) was the fact that every time he got the ball and ran down the court,
the entire gym would start clapping and screaming because it was almost certain
that he was going to score. I wanted to
squash him. And in the last seconds of
the game, I got my wish (and the best part was is that it wasn’t even really
entirely my doing). He was at the
basket and as he turned to shoot the ball I lunged forward to block his body
and his face smashed right into my shoulder and upper arm. I was just standing there, but he was
knocked completely backwards and fell on his back on the ground while clutching
his nose. At first I was worried
because if he’d broken his nose, it’d be bad.
But when he took his hand away and there was no blood I just felt fine
about it. The game ended a few moments
later (we lost of course). He hobbled
back to his side of the court with his class and just layed down on the ground
while holding his face. I went over
there and asked him if he was ok to make myself look better in the eyes of
people who thought I was being too rough.
Yeah, I know, I’m terrible; I always have a strategy or motive even if
it gets other people injured sometimes.
After the game was over I just went outside, got my towel dripping wet
with cold water, tied it around my head, and sat down to relax. The guy I was supposed to switch with during
the game was a little mad at me I think.
He didn’t really say anything to me, just glared at me after the game
was over. If he’d said something I
would have switched with him.
Throughout the game he was just sitting on the sideline looking very
uninterested so I figured he didn’t really care—meanwhile I had a specific goal
in mind: the destruction of someone who needed to be put back in their
place.
Well, the next day during
the morning we had more class matched.
My class didn’t have any so I just walked around videotaping other
matches and the school. After that we
had the closing ceremonies for the class matches (remember? Nothing ends in Japan without a closing
ceremony!) After school I had to eat
noodles with the math teacher like I already told you about. After that I just sort of hung out in town
for a bit until I decided there was nothing to do. So I went home, read a couple letters I’d gotten from friends in
America, and then headed to the Ocean Dome!
I bought the Ocean Dome Passport (for 3000 yen) and went in. When I got in there, there were about 15
people in total in the entire place. It
was really nice. I went on both of the
water slides. I didn’t have to wait at
all because there was no one else trying to ride them. I tried to go on a third time but they
wouldn’t let me! After paddling around
for a while I left because they closed the big pool to everyone but people on
body-boards. I thought of renting one,
but it was 1000 yen for half an hour, so I really didn’t think it was worth
it. I got on my bike and rode around
for the next hour and a half or so looking for a snack. I thought I could pick something up at a
fast food place but I couldn’t even find one!
I did go to one of those massive electronics stores and bought a couple
watch batteries for my little digital phonebook. I was getting irritable because I was hungry (there was no point
in just going home because no one was there and of course the door was locked)
and Chie and I were exchanging some e-mails that were making me more
annoyed. It wasn’t important though so
I won’t bother going into it. I’m glad
I found the batteries though because my little phone number thing was really
looking weak. When I got home I started
working on my speech. Oh, I didn’t tell
you?! Yeah, well, that’s how I felt
when I was told on Thursday afternoon that I would make a speech to the entire
school at the closing ceremony (for the semester). I had been expecting them to ask me, but no one bothered to
mention it until the last day before it.
I ended up being awake until almost 1am with writing it and practicing
it. My host mother helped a lot. I don’t think anyone would have understood
my speech if she hadn’t helped me put it from garbledygook (only my biological
family knows what this is I think) into actual Japanese. After we were done at about midnight I had a
few times to practice it before I went to sleep. This time I wrote it in actual Japanese instead of in romaji
(Japanese using roman letters) because it was MUCH easier for her to help me
with it in Japanese and I decided that I really should be writing in Japanese
if I’m going to be speaking in Japanese.
Here is what I wrote:
おはおうございます、みなさん。私が今学期の始めに集会でみなさんの前で演説したことはまるで一週間前のことのように思えます。その時にはいっぱい知らない人の前にいました。三ヶ月半後の現在この学校生活で沢山の友達が出来たので本当の友達の前でこの話が出来ます。私と話したことがない人や話したことが少ない人もいますが今は話をしなくてもあなた達の考えていることを分かることが出来ます。それは私がここにいる間にあなた達と一緒に生活したことによってあなた達のことがよく分かってきました。留学生として日本の高校生の生活や考え方を同じにすることと決めて来ました。そしてその目標は達成出来たと思います｡そう言うことで私の性格の中で日本人になった部分があるかも知れません。
宮崎にいる間に沢山の色々なことを経験しました。あまりにも早く宮崎での時間が過ぎてしまったので全部を思い出すのに沢山の時間がかかってしまいます。日本での四ヶ月は一生の中では短いことだけど私の人生を凝縮したものと思えるくらいの出来事です。いっぱい私の夢が実現出来てまた思ってもいなかったことも出来ました。今でも千人以上の前で話しているのは私のアメリカにいる友達が夢の中でも全然見られません。いつかお父さんになったら私の子供に宮商での経験を話したいと思います。
宮崎から出発する前に私を助けてくれたり友達になってくれた生徒のみなさんや先生がたに感謝したいです。あなたがたの助けがなかったら四月の私は何もすることが出来なかったでしょう。 沢山の人が私に手伝ってくれましたが特によくしてくれた一人一人に感謝したいと思います：担任の川崎先生、副担任の松木先生、カウンセラーの日高先生、ボート部の丹波先生ありがとうございました。それから宮商にいて親しい友達の原田ちえさん、長友一平君、谷口さとし君に感謝したいと思います。一緒に過ごしてすごく楽しかったです。作った思い出を全て忘れません。
二年前の八月一日に私は日本に戻って来ることをけついしていました。その時から二回日本に戻ってきているので出来るだけ早くまた来たいと思っています。ただ、できればアメリカの方に私に会いに来てください。アメリカに来た時はあなた達が私にしてくれたことと同じように私もあなた達に親切にしたいと思います。どうもありがとうございました！ おせわになりました。
Ok, it’s gotten extremely late all of a sudden so I’m just going to
translate the speech for you and then I’m going to go to sleep. I’ll tell you about the delivery of the
speech and the rest of the day when I write in here tomorrow (or maybe Tuesday
because I have a really busy day tomorrow).
The translation should be interesting though because I first wrote it in
English, then the meaning changed a little bit when I translated it into
Japanese, and now the meaning in going to change again when I translate it back
into English. It’s ok if it’s a crumby
translation though because I have no interest in being a translator, and if I
mess up some part, you won’t know the difference anyway. Here it goes:
Good morning, everyone. It seems like last week when I stood in front of all of you to
give a speech at the first assembly of the semester. That time, I stood in front of a room filled with strangers. Now, three and a half months later, I can
make this speech in front of true friends.
Even though there are many people here with whom I have never spoken or
have only spoken a little, I can understand how you think. During my time here living with you, I came
to understand to you very well. When I
decided to become an exchange student, I decided to live the same lifestyle and
think the same way as Japanese high school students. I think I have accomplished that goal. And to that end, there may be a part of me that became Japanese.
During my time in Miyazaki I experienced many and
various things. Since my time here
passed so quickly, it will be a long time before I can fully understand what I
did here. Even though four months in
Japan is a very small part of an entire life, the experiences I had here made
up what might be equivalent to an entire lifetime. I accomplished many dreams and did things I never even imagined I
would do. Even now, as I speak in front
of over 1,000 people in Japanese, I am doing something that my friends in
America could never even dream of.
Someday if I become a father, I want to tell my children about what I
experienced at Miyasho.
Before I depart Miyazaki, I want to thank the students
and teachers who helped me and became my friends. Without your help, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything in
April. Although many people helped me,
I would like to individually thank a few people who were especially helpful: my homeroom teacher Mr. Kawasaki, my
assistant homeroom teacher Ms. Matsuki, my counselor Mr. Hidaka, and Mr. Tanba
from the boat club. Additionally, I
would like to thank my close friends at Miyasho: Chie Harada, Ippei Nagatomo,
and Satoshi Taniguchi. Together we had
a lot of fun. I will never forget the
memories we made.
Two years ago on August 1st I made a
promise to myself to return to Japan.
Since then I have come back to Japan twice and I would like to come back
as soon as I can. However, if you’re
able to, please come meet me in America!
I want to share my country with you as your shared yours with me. Thank you very much for what you’ve done. Thank you for taking care of me.
Isn’t that all very nice? Well,
it’s mega-late now and I DO have a busy day tomorrow so I’m going to get ready
for sleep. I’ll talk more about the
speech (captured on video!!!) the next time I write. Good night!
The truth is that I’m really writing this journal entry long after the
fact. In other words, the stuff that I
have to write about now took place a while ago (it just turned August 1st). Nevertheless, it’s important to write about
these things that I haven’t written about as they are very important and
significant events and if I don’t write about them now it’s just going to get
harder and harder to write about them and put detail in. Even as it is I won’t be able to cover
things as well now as I would have been able to do right after they happened,
but I guess that’s just some unfortunate thing that we’ll all have to deal
with. I had been planning on posting
this journal entry along with its successor tonight, but it’s going to get way
too late for that. So I’m going to try
and do it tomorrow morning before I leave for the airport. And I still have a final journal entry to
write that will cover my time in Tokyo and my final thoughts on my Japan
experience this in spring and summer of 2003.
So without further adieu I will go write back into what I was writing
about a while ago (just a little bit up the page: my speech).
I had been practicing my
speech late into the night that I wrote it.
It took 5 minute to read it each time and I went over some lines
multiple times, so by 1am, I had only had gone through it in its entirety a handful
of times. The following morning I
brought my printed copy of the speech and a backup copy folded in my dictionary
to school. During the first part of the
half day we had cleaning to do (of course…) and a bunch of other pointless
things before the assembly started around 9:30. So, I spent as much of my time as I could pacing up and down the
hallways reading my speech over and over again out-loud and practicing tricky
words like “gyoushuku” dozens and dozens of times. A bunch of people asked me to show them by speech, but I refused
and told them they had to wait until the assembly. A lot of people asked me when I was going home and stuff like
that too. Finally everyone started
heading to the new gym and lining up by homeroom. I went to the front of the gym and waited on the side where
Hidaka-sensei had told me I should wait.
I looked around for him and when he didn’t show up I started to get
really nervous. I didn’t know when I
would be called to make my speech or where I should go or what exactly I should
do. As I waited, another teacher came
up to me (I don’t know exactly who he is or what he does) and asked me a few
questions like what I’m going to do after I get home, about college, and some
things like that. When I saw him
jotting down my answers I realized that he intended to say a few educated words
about me either before or after I made my speech. When he was done he said I should go sit with my class and wait
to be called up. This closing assembly
wasn’t just about me. There were a lot
of awards that were to be given out and people had to say things and all the
teachers had to have their say and talk about everything three times in three
different ways and say the exact same thing (nothing) each time. Before the opening ceremony of the closing
ceremony started, I spotted Matsuki-sensei at the back of the gym and rushed
back there to ask her to videotape my speech and give her a crash-course in
videotaping. Then I rushed back to
where I was to sit with my class in the line.
It was really hot and humid outside, and when about 1200 sweaty bodies
were crammed into the gym so close together that you couldn’t extend your arms
or legs even half way without hitting someone….it made for a very uncomfortable
environment. Everyone was sweating like
crazy and vigorously wiping their brows with their towels and sleeves. I hadn’t brought my towel, so I just used my
sleeve or my hand and then wiped by hand on my pants. As the ceremony progressed I continued to rehearse the speech
while seated and when there was clapping, I would speak out-loud. As the ceremony progressed I also got more
and more nervous because I knew it was getting closer and closer to when I
would have to give the speech that I knew I wasn’t entirely prepared to
give. Every time we would stand up to
bow for some reason my heart would feel like it was going to burst inside my
chest. It wasn’t that my heart was
beating so fast (I timed about 90-100 bpm when resting rate for me is probably
about 50-60) but it seemed to be pumping an awful lot of blood. Finally the teacher that asked me the
questions went to the microphone and when he started talking to me I went to
the front of the gym and stood next to him.
After about 20 seconds of talking about me or so I walked up the steps
to the stage, bowed to an empty stage as everyone does, bowed to the 1200
people in front of me, opened my mouth and began to speak. I’m not sure how many mistakes I made but
they weren’t serious ones. I think my
main problem was not having rehearsed enough so the words were too jerky and
didn’t flow naturally. I messed up a
word or two or whatnot a few times but I just stopped myself and read it
correctly. I think I improved as I
ready because I was getting less nervous.
Also, for some reason, the first paragraph was the most difficult. When I was done with the speech, everyone
gave me a big round of applause. The
same teacher said some more things about me and about what college I’m going to
etc. After I sat down, I realized that
the quantity of sweat emanating from my skin had tripled from the time before
the speech. Gradually I cooled down a
little bit and then the closing ceremony of the closing ceremony began. When the closing ceremony of the closing
ceremony part of the closing ceremony had ended, we all went back to our
classrooms. Back in the classroom we
waited for a while for Matsuki-sensei and Kawasaki-sensei to come back from
wherever they had been. At that point
Kawasaki-sensei said a few words about me, and had me come to the front of the
class so he could give me a gift from the class. The gift turned out to be some local Miyazaki food that I haven’t
eaten yet because it’s dark brown, pasty, and has to be prepared with someone
and you can’t just eat it the way it is.
And thus ended my last day of school at Miyazaki Shougyou High
School.
I really should talk about
what happened the happened at the end of school on Thursday after we all got
back from the closing ceremony of the class matches. Well, the teachers took a LONG time getting back from wherever
they had been. In fact…it took them
about 45 minutes to an hour. I just
occupied myself by talking to Ippei and Satoshi, walking around, and talking to
Chie about different things. As it
turned out, by the time the teachers showed up, everyone had changed back into
their school uniforms but me because I wanted to stay in my shorts and my boat
jersey that I had gotten from Tanba-sensei during the course of the day. When the teachers got there, they called me
to the front of the room and sat me down in a chair up there. Although I had an idea of what was going on,
no one had told me anything. Remember
how I told you about Wajimu’s going away party and how I didn’t think that my
class would care enough to put on something like that. Well, I was both right and wrong I
think. I was wrong in the sense that
what commenced WAS my going away party.
I think I was right in the sense that if the teachers hadn’t talked
about it and organized it and put it together, nothing would have
happened. First Kawasaki-sensei said a
few brief things about me and then he asked me to say a few words. Luckily, by that time I had developed a 6th
sense about these kinds of things…like when people expect to be thanked or for
a speech to be made. So in the minutes
before the teachers got there, I got a little piece of paper and had scribbled
a few words on it. Basically what I said
was that I think my experience at Miyasho was really good. And I wanted to thank everyone for being
patient, teaching me things, and becoming my friends. And I also said that I will be sure to come back to Miyazaki
soon. Later I asked Chie about my
speech and it turned out that I had made a few mistakes, but since I put it
together in about 5 minutes, I think it’s excusable. Unfortunately, I still haven’t learned the phrase, “My Japanese
is better now than all your English skills combined will ever be.” That would be dreadfully useful when people
giggle at me when I make little mistakes.
Japanese people at Miyasho…well…almost can’t open their mouths with the
intention of speaking English without making a mistake at some point. Well, anyway, after I had given my tiny
little speech, the two class representatives (two of the guys) came to the
front of the room and presented a tiny little speech to me….in English! I didn’t understand a good portion of what
they said, but I have a feeling they were saying nice things from the parts
that I did understand. After the
speeches were over, we started a game of Bingo using the little globe filled
with numbered balls that we use to change the seating arrangements in the classroom. There were a lot of prizes like crackers,
cookies, and other sweets. When someone
one, they would come to the front of the room and pick a little ticket out of a
box that corresponded to a prize. One
pretty funny thing was that one girl (one I really hate just because she so
horribly loud and ugly) picked out a card that had the name of one of the guys
in the class on it. That was quite amusing
and got more amusing when he said he didn’t want to go and refused to get up
when the teacher told him to go. I
ended up not winning, but it was all right.
I didn’t really want any of the nasty Japanese snacks anyway. When the game was over, there was one more
thing: a big cardboard card that everyone in the class had written a message
on. I found out about a week later from
my host mother that this is a very Japanese thing (it even has a name that I
forgot). When someone is going away or
leaving or whatnot, everyone writes a message on a big card and it’s given to
the person at their going away party. I
had suspected I would be getting something like that because I had seen
something being passed around the room all day and people were writing things
on it and giving me sideward glances and covering up the thing on their
desks. It also never got to me so that
was a bit of a tip-off too. Many of the
messages are very similar which leads me to believe that most people in the
class really didn’t have that much to say to me. But nevertheless, it was very nice to get it and the messages are
sweet and made me smile. I want to put
it in a frame or hang it on my wall or something like that. I ended up getting another one of these
things from the boat team when Ippei and Satoshi met me at Miyazaki Station to
say goodbye to me on my last Thursday in Miyazaki. The one from the boat team even has some little print club
pictures of some of the girls on it. So
that was very nice too. At least the
people on the boat team knew me better than most of the people in my class and
they actually had something to write on the big card instead of just empty
fluff.
Friday night was a rather
special night in that I didn’t just have to stay home and do nothing as
usual. In fact, I actually got to go
out and do something kind of cool. I
got to go to a festival! The festival
we went to was held in the same town as the one that my host mother’s cousin
lives in. You’ll remember my host
mother’s cousin from the entry about how I spent a wonderfully boring and torturous
afternoon with the two of them and the cousin’s two daughters who didn’t speak
and looked fearfully around as they slurped noodles. I was able to go to the festival because my host father agreed to
come home and watch Kouki so we could go out together. There was no way we would have been about to
take Kouki with us (even though he wanted to go) because he just cries too much
and it’s too much of a little baby and…well…no one can do anything if he’s
there. When my host mother first told
me about the festival earlier in the week, she told me it was a mikoshi
festival (mikoshi being mobile shrines that are carried around by people in
festival gear who scream and groan and jump in the air…for more description see
my main college essay hehehe) I got really excited. I’m totally crazy about mikoshi festivals just because they’re so
exciting and whatnot. Then she told me
it wasn’t a normal mikoshi festival.
What these guys were doing was fighting with the mikoshi. Basically the idea was that they fight with
the mikoshi and whoever wins (there were teams organized by town) would have a
good rice season this year or something like that. At first I really wanted to join in the festival and I asked if
there was some way I could get in on it.
My host mother’s cousin’s husband is some sort of big-wig and former
hot-shot in Saito (the town where they live) and he could get me into it. But when it was explained to me that this
was a fight of sorts, that people get injured, and people have been killed in
the past, I decided that it would be enough to just watch and that I really
didn’t need to get that close to the action.
I didn’t feel I really needed to fight with people I don’t know and
possibly get hurt or maimed over rice I wouldn’t get to harvest or eat anyway! So I settled for being able to watch
it.
Before we left the house
on Friday night, I put on my jibei and my host mother struggled into her yukata
with the help of a friend. When he got
to Saito we first went to meet my host mother’s cousin and then we walked into
town where the festival was being held.
For about an hour or so there weren’t any mikoshi. It was the typical Japanese festival
atmosphere: people in yukata and jibei (and regular clothes too), lots of open
stands and stalls for foods like grilled meat, chicken, fish, octopus, squid,
noodles of all sorts, fried chicken, French fries (Liberty fries?), flavored
ice shavings, sausages, soda, tea, beer, and all the other foods that make
Japanese people so fit and healthy. All
the little stores are lit up and the smell of smoke from the grills and music
from drummers and singers fills the air.
There weren’t quite as many people there as I thought there would
be. When I thought of mikoshi
festivals, I thought of those that I had gone to in Ishikawa prefecture. Basically, in those festivals (like the big
one to take place the take after tomorrow) there are so many people crammed
into the narrow streets that it is almost impossible to move. This combined with the fact that the crowd
is so thick that it can only move when the mikoshi move down the street, makes
the atmosphere much more saturated and exciting. So, the lack of a good turn out was a little disappointing to me. As it got later though, more people showed
up. All my host mother was doing was
standing in one place chatting it up with her cousin and looking at the
children. It was pretty boring, so I
finally asked if I could just go walk around by myself and if she needed me for
something she could just call my phone.
I was sure that she would call me, even if she didn’t need me for
anything. She would just call me and
talk to me to see if the phone was working or something stupid like that. When the mikoshi finally came out, it was
pretty different from how I imaged it.
Instead of there being more than one mikoshi bashing into each other
like my host mother had described it, there was just one. As it worked, the guys from four teams
(organized with colored headbands called hachimaki), lifted up a small square
mikoshi (instead of long, talls ones I’d seen in Ishikawa) and pushed it around
on their raised up hands. The idea was
to push it to the extent that it would tip over on the loser’s side of a square
of people. Around the open square stood
guys with trumpets and lanterns who directly their teams. It didn’t look that dangerous really, but
that didn’t make me want to participate in it more. It looked a little big silly to tell you the truth. I guess there was only one sort of crazy nutty
Japanese thing about it. Inside the
mikoshi were 3 or 4 boys in middle school age I would guess. They were literally tied to the mikoshi with
wide bands of fabric. Inside they beat
a big drum that was attached to the floor of the mikoshi. And when a team lost and the mikoshi tipped
over upside down, the boys were still tied inside and just waited for the
mikoshi to be righted. They played this
game of pushing the mikoshi around for a couple of hours. I alternated between eating, taking pictures
and video, and just walking around or watching. Around 9:30 it was over and I headed home with my host mother. It wasn’t how I imagined it would be and it
was a tiny bit disappointing, but I’m still glad that I was able to go to a
Japanese festival since I hadn’t been to any other ones this year.
Saturday the 19th
had been a day in the making even before I moved in with my new host
family. That was the day of the
festival for Kouki’s kindergarten. And
of course since it was family day and a big deal, I was recruited to help
out. My host family was assigned to the
yakisoba (grilled noodles…so…so…so…so….so…soooo delicious) team with four other
families. Together we were to make 260
portions of yakisoba. The preparation
wasn’t just at night when the festival actually started. At night I was supposed to be on my happi
(festival wear for guys) and sweat and toil over the fires of the grill with my
host father and the other guy or two who were assigned to work in shifts with
us making the yakisoba. The first thing
was my host mother going with the other families and buying all the ingredients
(in mass quantity) for the yakisoba.
The ingredients were to be prepared at home (as in all the cutting and
chopping that has to be done) and then they were supposed to be reassembled at
night at the festival when the cooking was to go on. After the morning meeting I went with my host mother to the
kindergarten to meet with the other families and whatnot. Then we went to the park where we were
supposed to have the festival. We spent
about an hour or so filling up balloons half-up with air and a little bit of
water and then tying a rubber-band to the end.
These were for the kids to play with.
I think we must have made about…errr…300 of these things. Then we started setting up the red and white
lanterns by screwing in all the light bulbs and attaching the lanterns to the
electrical wire by twisted wires around it.
Through the entire process it was thoroughly hot and I was tired and
sweating profusely. Also, it was
raining on and off while being sunny and cloudy at the same time. It was very strange weather. When we were finally done, my host mother
and I went to eat lunch at a restaurant.
When we got home, we had an interesting message waiting for us on the
answering machine……the festival was canceled due to the weather!!!! My host mother and I were quite
shocked. It wasn’t even really raining
that much at it was only 1pm or so. I
wasn’t sure if I was exactly disappointed though. I guess I was looking forward to making massive amounts of
yakisoba, but I also wasn’t particularly enjoying being outside so much when it
was wickedly hot and humid. My host
mother ended up complaining about the cancellation for the rest of the
day. By about 5 or 6 o’clock the
weather had pretty much entirely cleared up and it was a pleasant evening. I didn’t do so much for the rest of the day
except relax and go running.
Ok, I know this journal entry is not finished. I’m truly sorry about that.
It’s just that well…I have a lot of things to write about my last week
in Miyazaki and it’s quite late now.
Right now it’s 3am on the morning of August 1st: the day I
will leave Japan. Right now, two years
ago, I was lying on a bench in the lobby of the Hotel B&G with Leslie,
Maya, and Sam from my Experiment in International Living group. We decided to stay up all night on our last
night in Japan. We talked about all
kinds of things like our experience with our time in Japan, each other, the
other people in the group, what we had learned, and how we felt we had grown or
benefited from the experience. It’s
kind of surprising that that was only two years ago. It boggles my mind a bit when I look at how far I’ve come since
then. I’ve gone from not even being
able to say that I dislike something or being able to get on the train going
the right direction in the Tokyo subway….to being able to hold up lengthy,
in-depth conversations with people in Japanese on the phone (the telephone is
the most difficult medium over which one has to communicate) and being able to
travel all around Japan by myself and find my way anywhere. And, if I stick with Japanese and learning
about the country and the culture (like I certainly plan to do) I think it’s
entirely possible that two years from now or so I may look back at myself as I
am now and think about how stupid I was or how little I really knew. I think that all ties in with growing up,
becoming more mature, and learning more about the world around you and yourself
within. I would say that I am a pretty
remarkable guy compared to the millions of boring, hopeless, uninterested teenagers
out there in the world. I often
surprise myself with the things I’m able to accomplish or pull off so
well. And perhaps the best part is that
I’m only 19, and as far as I’m concerned…I’m just getting started in this
world. If I can do so much and come so
far in such a short amount of time, I’d say that the rest of my lifetime has
limitless possibilities…..excellent….
Well, I’ve started to wander from the topic and get a little fuzzy in my
speak. I wouldn’t be reluctant to
pursue this line of discussion if it weren’t for the fact that I have to get up
relatively soon…too soon and get my bag ready and go to the airport to find a
bag in a very very large place and I’m not sure where to start looking. And then I have to sit on an airplane for 12
and a half hours and do I don’t even know what. Well, I guess I should just conclude this journal entry with a
promise that I’m going to finish this journal entry in my next journal entry. Therefore, the finally journal entry in my Japan:
Spring to Summer 2003 series will encompass the rest of the details from my
final week in Miyazaki, my adventures in Tokyo with Kozue, and my final
thoughts upon my experiences in Japan, my feelings about coming home, and about
leaving Japan yet again. As it is now,
I’m not sure whether or not I’m happy to be leaving. Yeah, I’ve been having a lot of fun recently, and I’m a little
sad for that to end, but then again, I can’t live the hotel and restaurant life
forever and sooner or later I would want to settle down and take things
slower. There are lots of things I look
forward to about going home and in a few short weeks I’m going to be at college
starting off on yet another adventure that could lead me anywhere and allow me
to be anything. So I will just think
about that and be happy! As for now
though, I’m going to shower and go to sleep.
I will see you all tomorrow.
Good night.
-Maikeru