August 8, 2000

Hello from Japan!  I know that it has been a long time since I wrote, but I decided to try to send again from my friend`s machine.  Just wanted to let you in on how things are going in Japan this summer.

We are out for summer vacation, which means that I still go to work every day, like all the other teachers, and I sit here and work on various projects until around lunchtime.  Then, I go home for lunch and I don�ft come back until the next day.  Don�ft get jealous.  Try to sit for four to five hours in a sauna and you won`t think it is such a good thing anymore. There is no air conditioning here in the school, and very little air circulation, and combined with dress clothes--is a really bad combination.  So I sit here and melt until lunchtime, then I peel off the dress clothes and shower, and then I literally go to sleep from the heat.  NO worries, Mom and MeeMaw, I am feeling much better.  Today, I go back to see Dr. Sugitani again.  He is a very nice man, and I think I told you that he even gave me his home telephone and fax numbers, so that I could call him in an emergency and he could help out since his English is so good.  The hospital in Yoka where he works is a teaching hospital, and so it looks really good for them to have somebody on staff who can handle the foreigners in the community. 

Last weekend, Ken went on a solo excursion to Tateyama-san.  This is a stretch of mountain peaks in the Northern Alps near Nagano.  There are several hard climbs there, with major altitude going on since there are snowcaps there that have not melted in more than 6000 years.  There are snow fields there year-round, and there are the most difficult climbing routes in Japan there.  Thus, he had to go, you see.  So he took a day off last week and headed for the hills.  When he returned on Sunday, he was burned to a crisp from reflection off snow, dehydrated, filthy and blissfully happy after summiting among others, the sacred peaks of Ooyama and Tsurugidake.  He has sock lines, like the ones I had following drum corps, and tan lines where his watch and sleeves and shorts were too?he looks like a zebra.  It`s pretty funny, actually.  His account of the trip sounds wonderful, and I am happy that he had fun.  I would really have liked to go on this climb with him, but there was just no way this time. 

So this left me and Jessica doing the girly stuff for the weekend.  We played some chess (where she really had me running?she is getting pretty good and soon will be beating me) and we watched some movies, like Young Frankenstein (which still makes me laugh out loud) and I taught her how to make an omelet.  And yes, she even burned her finger, but she did it all by herself, and the results were delicious.  She was so proud of herself?it was really cute.  For the entire rest of the afternoon she talked about how we should open our own restaurant and she would make the best omelets in town.  For some reason, it make them taste even better, so perhaps she should consider a career in marketing.

On Saturday, we went down to Himeji and met up with our friends Chan and Will to go to the Himeji Castle Festival, held every summer.  There is a parade and lots of booths with local delicacies for sale.  We didn�ft go to the castle this time?we just went two weeks ago, and besides, Mom-O and Tracy-girl are coming in September and we want to take them then.  So we just went to take in the parade and the company of friends.

I have to say, though, that this parade was the most bizarre that I have ever seen.  Truly, there were some weird things going on in the minds of the parade coordinators.  You will have to suffer through my account of it, and keep in mind that this kind of thing could only happen in Japan.  The first group that we saw was a marching band.  I know?doesn�ft seem too unreasonable to think that there is a band in the parade.  But there were more bands than anything else.  There were kids` bands, elementary school bands, JH and SH age bands, adult community group bands, and all of them in makeshift uniforms, sometimes consisting of long sleeved button downs that were untucked, and matching bandannas on their heads.  Sometimes, they were just in the same color t-shirts.  Some had real uniforms, but not many of them.  There were about 50 bands in the parade, and every single one had a drum major WITH A MACE at the beginning.  Every single one had MAJORETTES at the front, and sometimes at the rear, and some even had POMPOM GIRLS AND BOYS accompanying them.  There were no rifles and only one group had flags.  It was catastrophic.  Ha ha ha!  But you have to imagine that there might only be forty or so in the band, and there might be fifty majorettes with them, and I was on serious baton overload by the time we were done with the parade.  There were also these TINY little children, like maybe four or five, carrying miniature bass drums and snare drums and electric keyboards on harnesses, and playing the songs from the Sound of Music.  They had little pompom girls and boys with them, too.  And all the while they marched, their parents marched beside them and FANNED their kids while the kids played or whatever.  It was bizarre.  In between some of the bands were other entries in the parade.  They included the following that I can remember?a taiko group (which was great since I love the traditional Japanese drum groups) and they were on a flatbed truck doing their thing.  There were the umbrella dancers and the women doing the fan dances, all of them dressed alike in capri pants, t-shirts and bandannas, and there were police dogs.  Yes, they paraded these poor tired police dogs around, and every one of them had tongues dragging the ground since they were so hot.  They even had a truck that carried people playing the koto, a long wooden instrument with strings, a traditional Japanese artform.  They had a group of rappers?yes, Japanese people who thought they knew how to rap, on a truck, blasting out the music of the elementary school marching band behind them.  They didn�ft have any rhythm.  Take it from me?I am the whitest white girl in Japan, and I have tons more rhythm than these kids did.  It was pretty amusing.  And just when you thought that you had experienced all the weird stuff in the parade, here came the basket-heads.  They were mendicant priests who had taken some oath that they would never make their identities known in public.  They all wore ceremonial robes and carried burning incense and ritual objects, and had huge woven baskets on their heads with holes cut out so that they could see where they were walking.  I couldn�ft make this stuff up.  It is the truth, and it was stranger than fiction.  Behind them was a unicycle group from a local elementary school, and so we watched 100 kids ride by on various heights of unicycles.  No, the oddities are not done yet.  We saw a womens` aerobic group, consisting of about 300 ladies of varying age, and they were all dressed in matching sweat pants, t-shirts and headbands, and they were performing a very low-impact routine where they twirled little blow-up pillows.  The pillows had a hole in each end, making it look like they were spinning sets of childrens` water-wings.  I was intrigued.  I decided about then that I would try to remember all the weird stuff I was seeing so that I could make a list for you.  And then it happened�cthe weirdest thing of all?the flag people showed up.  Now, these are not the kind of flags I used to get into?no, these are the traffic directing people with construction crews.  Directing traffic with flags is a serious job here in Japan, and they are everywhere, taking their directing very seriously.  At the local department store/grocery store area, there are three or four always in the parking lot, in long sleeved uniforms, white gloves and hats, directing you very carefully where to go in your car.  They are pretty confusing sometimes, and it is hard to know sometimes just where to go because they direct you AGAINST the arrows pointed on the street.  But I just smile and nod at these people, thanking them nonverbally for the great job they do for each and every one of us.  And here they all were in the parade, a red flag in one hand and a white flag in the other, all 500 or so of them, directing their little hearts out right there in the parade.  I couldn�ft help it, I had to use my hands the way they showed me, and I directed them along the parade route for a minute or two.  After all, it WAS against traffic and how else would they have known?  Leave it to me?I will do my part!

After the parade was over, we headed to get some dinner and walk around the arcade area where all the shops are.  It was nice to just hang out with Chan and Will and Jessica.  We got some print club pictures made (those tiny sticker pictures I sent to you, Mom) and Jessica and I were able to cut up a little.  The frame part of the picture had little wings and wands and halos, so that two people could put in their faces and look like angels.  So we chose to do that one.  When we got our faces in the screen it looked so funny that we started laughing pretty hard, and we spontaneously cut-up at the same time.  Jessica put her palms together in the prayer position and looked up, like a little angel except for the huge toothy grin on her face.  I looked straight out, crossed my eyes, and put my fingers on my temples like horns holding up the halo.  Hey, I thought it was fitting.  I have to say that the results are hilarious.  Jessica saw the pictures and laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks.  It was priceless.  I figure that`s what it`s all about?making her laugh.

Then it was time to watch the street dancing.  It is pretty common for the Japanese women to take part in dancing groups?they practice the traditional dances for the yearly festivals like this.  The groups all have matching yukata (light summer kimonos) and when they all get dressed up and lined up in the street, it is really something special to see.  So we watched them dance up and down the street there in the lines, about 2500 women in all, and they filled the street in front of the square.  It was a breathtaking sight, with the sun sinking behind Mount Shosha and the silhouette of the castle rising above their heads in the distance.  The music played and the ladies danced, and we stood and watched eagerly, grateful to see the spectacle before us.  It was really great!

It was over much too soon, but we comforted ourselves with a trip to Baskin Robbins.  Mmmmmm?it was nice to cool off with a treat before getting back on the train and heading back to Wadayama.  Jessica sat next to me and played Tetris on her gameboy and I watched and took notes on stuff to do with Mom and Tracy when they come to Japan.  I can hardly wait.
 
I have a few more minutes before it is time for me to head home for lunch and a nap?but I want to get this mailed out to you.  Please know that I am thinking of you and hoping that all is going well.  Lots of love from all here to all there, and hopefully everything will be worked out soon because I am homesick to hear from people!  Take care and other various mush--Lynley