I am not built for this sort of heat...

Saturday 6th August

I was SO ridiculously excited to finally have a day off (and three in a row at that!) there were streets to be explored, hills to be climbed, shrines to be discovered, and boiling heat to send me trudging back to my room with my tail between my legs after an hour and a half of being out in the summer humidity.

Shirase Nobu feat. Penguin

I manged to make it to Shirase Nobu’s grave site which is behind the BOE office. Shirase was a Japanese army officer who led an expedition to Antarctica and was the first to make landfall on the Edward VII Peninsula. He was born in Konoura so there is a museum dedicated to him (which I might hit up tomorrow) statues and it is also the reason why Konoura has quite an obsession with Penguins…

After wandering around the shrine and graveyard there I headed down the hill and made my way to the beach only to discover that there seems to be a sea wall running along most of the water front, so while it’s nice to see the ocean, it might be a bit more of a walk if I want to get my feet wet. Meandering back to the main street I found another graveyard on top of a hill and took refuge in some shade, until I realised that butch ass ants were also taking refuge in the shade and apparently on me.

Decided it was getting a bit too hot so picked up some lunch on the way through and went back home for an hour or so to cool down and start prepping my self-introduction which I’ll have to do god knows how many times for the schools.

Back out into the furnace – but this time donning running shoes with my non-running outfit (Nelly I’m sorry) as my feet (and fingers) were a bit swollen for the heat and I was planning to make it to Seishi park which was a bit of a hike (in 30 degrees).

I got to a lake and decided to take a stroll around that (good thing I did because I then realised that THAT was seishi park…) Cherry Blossom trees ran all the way around the lake so while it will look miserable in winter when all the leaves go, it will be absolutely stunning in spring. Chilled out on a little bench by the water in the shade for a wee bit. It’s so lovely and peaceful here. Very little traffic noise and there are birds and butterflies all over (though the little shits move too quick for me to get a decent photo).

Zigzagged my way to another Shrine, I didn’t explore all the little paths around it as there was a sign that warned that some sort of bee had been hanging around. There seems to be a trail of sorts with 33 points, I have a feeling that it takes you around all the shrines and grave sights but I’m not sure as of yet – I also think I read something that said it was based on the 88 temple pilgrimage in Shikoku (google it).

Still not convinced that I had seen all of Seishi park I followed signs that had “Seishi” followed by kanji that I couldn’t read on them. As it turns out the kanji meant nursery so I scrapped that mission and headed back up another hill to yet another grave yard. You’re supposed to wash your hands and face after being in a cemetery to wash the taint of death off you (very similar to Maori culture) but given I didn’t want to sacrifice my drinking water I’ll just have to hope that the cold shower when I got home did the trick.

After inadvertently walking back up to the same temple twice more I managed to find my way to another foresty park thing. Walking through the trees reminded me how different this was to Tokyo, and that there had been several bear issues in Akita recently….

Found another lake to walk around- this one seemed to be set up for rowing – suspicions confirmed when two young lads paddled out in a boat, chuckles escaped when one of them fell in. I found the “whale park” that Yuu-san had pointed out to me on Thursday night and took no time in testing out the flying fox. There was also a large boat that was part of the playground so I have a feeling the whole thing is another nudge towards Shirase (the fact that his museum was right across the road was also a solid hint).

Playground opposite the Shirase Nobu Museum

Toddled back home with swollen fingers and tonight actually manged to get my stove working. The thing is ancient and only has a few buttons but  still won’t do anything unless you have something sitting on it apparently. For the record – Udon stir-fry-ish-sorta-thing tastes waaaaay better coming from a wok that it does when you are culinarily challenged and have to cook it in the microwave.

For the time being and until I start getting busy I think I’ll opt for cooking every night rather than doing big batches and fridging it – mainly for time killing purposes so that I don’t spend too much time by myself getting lonely.

Sunday 7th August

Today I was lazy.

The alarm was snoozed for nearly 2 hours and I managed to peal myself out of bed (yes bed, by the way  - I don’t have to sleep on the floor) and mooched around in my pyjamas, making breakfast and coffee with no intention to leave the somewhat cool –ish house until I had binged a few episodes of game of thrones. I think all the running around finally caught up with me. Even just sitting on the couch with the fan pointed directly at me it was still uncomfortably muggy. I do feel a bit bad moaning about the heat when Wellington seems to be freezing over currently but I’m quite over being covered in a layer of my own sweat.

Sometime after 12 I ventured out into the heat, picked up a bento from the supermarket (my GOD that air conditioning is heaven) and went and sat by one of the lakes that I had found yesterday and watched dragon flies flitting around (apparently it’s mating season for them….).

Continued on and took a wee detour up to one of the shrines on the 33 route (reference to previous entry) only to discover that there were a few spider webs in between myself and the statue. I’m not normally phased by spiders, but I have also seen how big they are here and more importantly it was too bloody hot to deal with trying to pluck webs off my face.  Took a couple of photos – got sick of mozzies buzzing in my ear and soldiered on.

After inadvertently taking the long way around the second lake I made it to the Shirase Nobu museum.

The Doors at the entrance were curved metal and you walk through the first set to find yourself in a circular chamber type thing, then have to walk through the next set – this is one of those times that you start to doubt that you’re in the right place so I think I looked quite perplexed when the second set of doors opened into the entrance/giftshop and the employee was sitting there ready to greet me.

I gave reading  the oodles of information a shot but really my kanji is crap and just went around looking at the pictures, model boats and taxidermied penguins. Did learn that there is a plaque of sorts for Shirase in Wellington (it looks like it’s on the water front by frankitts so someone will have to have a look and let me know). There was a section of the sail boat (Nankaimaru – which I think roughly translates as south sea circle….up for interpretation) that Shirase took to show what the sleeping quarters were like, as well as one of the big ass snow trucks that they pottered around in – with all the tech they would have used as well.

Sat through a video on the aurora (was getting to the stage where I had to concentrate a bit not too fall asleep with the lights so dim…). Pottered back through the parks and stopped in at the supermarket again (I always swore on doing one supermarket visit a week and now I'm popping in at least once a day) to pick up some treats for myself. Was pretty unimpressed at the fact that the only dishwashing gloves that didn’t come in pink were the large sized 

ones.

Back home to continue prepping my self-introduction powerpoint, udon noodle stir-fry-thing for dinner for the third night in a row and then I think it will be about time for macha ice cream and more Game of Thrones. And hopefully soon I’ll stop freaking out every time I hear a noise and thinking it’s someone in my room ==” .
 

In other news, everything that requires to be stored below 30 degrees has now been moved to my fridge, given that it got to 34 the other day…(this includes contact lense solution, sunblock and after sun gel).

I Don't Think So Honey - Phone Fun

Friday 5th August 2016
What. An. Effing. Mission.

who would have thought that it would be so bloody difficult to get a phone working in the land of the future? (even if it is in the wopwops…) three trips and many hours in the phone shop later (not to mention a trip to the electronics store) and I finally had a tolerable (if not a little pricey) phone/internet plan.

We had been forwarned of the fight that's involved to get a Japanese sim for an NZ phone, I think the issue is that a lot of the phones in the states are locked so it isn't possible for the Americans to get a sim, and seeing as all gaijin come from America.... We embarked on a trip back to the BOE to try and prove that the gaijin did know what she talking about when she said she thought that maybe (ie. was pretty effing positive that) her phone wasn't locked. After it took two of the employees 15 mins to work out how to get their sims out of their phones we had the required ammunition.

I’m not sure if it’s just me being stingy but 7,000yen for 5mins of calling and 5 gigs of data (which I was to use also to tether to my laptop rather than getting an internet plan) seems a bit bloody cheeky.

After consulting with a couple of people we managed a plan that also got me unlimited internet (which won’t happen until the end of August as they need to install a phone line or something daft) BUT this means that I don’t have to skimp on using the internet (thank Christ coz I used up 1gig last night on skype so 5 gigs to last between my laptop and phone would not have cut it. I had to abruptly put my phone on silent after we turned it on with the new sim card in- having not been connected to the internet for 2 days it had a fair bit of squawking to do…

Where my Japanese may be sufficient for basic chit chat, setting up phone contracts is a whole nother kettle of slippery fish, We had a system sussed by the end though; the shop assistant would explain something in her pretty, polite and complicated Japanese, then I would glance at U-san and she'd translate that into gaijin friendly Japanese - mildly entertaining when all three of us were sitting there with our various dictionaries going... The issue is that by the time someone's found the word that I didn't understand, I've generally forgotten the context...

Kanto Festival: Plummeting Lanterns of Death

As painful as daylight savings can be, it has its benefits. I’m yet to research what time the sun actually rises (I’m writing this on Friday sans internet) but it seems to be around 5am. Having reaped the benefits of the hotel air conditioning in Tokyo it wasn’t so much of a problem, but I am a stingy individual and refuse to leave my aircon on 24/7 and so at 6.30am when it’s been light for over an hour, it is HOT. That’s the only explanation I have as to why my body thinks it ok to ping awake at 6.30 (and when I say ping I mean grumble, squint at the time on my phone which is currently a glorified watch due to no contract here yet, and shuffle around with puffy eyes for the next hour).

U-san came and picked me up (at which point I discovered I have an adorable sounding door bell), and we went to the bank to set up an account. Unfortunately my hanko (name stamp) hadn’t arrived yet, which pretty much meant I couldn’t do anything. I would need a bank account to set up a phone and internet plan and to have a bank account I would need to “sign” documents, which involved having a hanko.

The Illusive Hanko

So I sat at the BOE practicing writing my address in Kanji (one of the staff came over and assured me that one kanji in particular was really hard and nobody could write it properly).

It was decided that we’d make use of the time and go to visit my new junior high school and primary school. Which also meant a quick detour back to my flat to change out of my decidedly casual clothes (nb. The multiple mentions of how important first impressions are were heeded).

One of the things I have decided I love about being a quasi-adult in Japan is that everyone gives you their meishi (business card) which means that if you forget your principals name 2 seconds after he introduces himself, it’s not the end of the world.

All those lessons we had on self-introductions? Right out the window. U-san and H-san introduced me so I just nodded and smiled and Yoroshiku onegai-d.

The English teachers were out practicing baseball with their students and the principal called them off of the field (and by this I mean brown sandy pitch) to come meet us. A quick visit to my new Primary school and then it was back to the BOE to discover that my hanko had finally arrived (thank god)

Having come from a flat of 7 people it’s very strange having no one to chat to in the evenings.

Back to the bank where I was waved over by an old Jii-chan (grandad – not impolite to call people that here) who asked where I was from, explained that he was a previous mayor of Konoura (this took about 5 minutes to decipher as he mumbled a lot and I think spoke in Akita-ben (dialect)). He then proceeded to inform me that there were 40million goats in New Zealand and our largest city Christchurch had 3 million people…

Nothing like a couple girls in Yukata to make you feel like a scruffy Gaijin

U-san drove me to the Nikaho city office where I met a group of exchange students from Oklahoma and joined them on the bus to the Akita Kanto festival.

Yuu who helped organise the trip and exchange sat next to me on the bus “is it ok if I keep asking you questions?” she’s an interpreter so despite the heat still pressing in, I was feeling a bit more awake with being able to speak English to her (I forgot how bloody tiring constantly having to put effort into forming and understanding sentences can be.

Once in Akita city we broke off and went for a coffee with the other City office workers, followed by a soba place for dinner (and we discovered that there is a punny reason as to why there is a particular meal named tanuki soba/udon –Tanuki is a sort of badger dog that roams the country side-). Yuu veered off from the group again so that she could show me the old castle moat that was full of gorgeous lotus flowers.

Back with the main group was an incredibly genki lady called Keiko who had known one of my predecessors and is a teacher aid at one of my schools. One thing that is good about being in a small town is that the women especially seem to take you under their wing – and their company I feel will be so important to prevent the ever-impending home sickness.

I was stoked to discover that the city office had actually bought tickets so that rather than crouching or standing on the footpath, we were sitting in bleachers down the middle of the road.

EXPLANATION: there are 6 prefectures in the north of Honshu that each have a large festival. Akita has the kanto festival which involves huge bamboo posts adorned with lanterns being carried down the street. The participants balance these on the palm of one hand, their shoulder, their hip and most impressively – their forehead. Each Kanto weighs about 110 pounds, there is a medium sized version for teenagers and young adults and the smallest size for young kids weighs about 5kg.

Yuu explained that the purpose of the festival is to pray for a bountiful harvest (and in modern days – an excellent advertising event for companies…). She explained that when you look down the road and see the many Kanto swaying and glowing with the candle light – it looks like a rice paddy in summer when they turn gold and sway in the breeze.

The festival started with the participants carrying the Kanto horizontally down the road behind the floats that had drummers on the back and groups of people playing wooden flutes walking alongside. Some very small children carried single lanterns (ever so slightly adorable).

After a few minutes the parade came to a halt, the chanting began, and the Kanto were lifted. Once the main structure was vertical extra bamboo posts were added to the main pole to elevate it further, the posts alone were twice the height of a person and then there was the main section with the lanterns on top of that.

I had been wondering why on earth there were wires running along both sides of the street above the seating, but once one of the Kanto went for a plummet to be stopped only by the wire – the answer became quite obvious. It was quite spectacular (not to mention a little disconcerting) when one of them fell, or bumped into another Kanto, the shrieks generally alerted you to the fact that there was a mishap not far away.

Combustion isues

I had been under the assumption that the lights in the lanters were electric – that was until one of the kids’ ones caught a light. There seemed to be a group of about 4 people per Kanto, who took turns to carry (or rather
– balance ) it and to make a mad dash to help if anything turned ugly. An adult supervised the kids’ Kanto and where some were just too little to hold it steady, others were balancing it on their foreheads with a determination that suggested many hours of practice.

The bus ride back home was a fair bit quieter than on the way to the festival – that is – after the Japanese students at the back stopped playing Justin Bieber on their phones and the American teenagers up the front stopped shrieking in excitement and singing along….

Yuu-san and I got onto the subject of kanji and the meaning behind them. She said that it can be a bit tough on the kids if their parents put heaps of effort into their names – I guess it sounds poncy (can think of a few western names that have a similar effect…). She explained that owls are seen as good luck in Japan as in Japanese they are called fukurou, kurou meaning to bear a burden, and fu being a negative, implying that the person will not suffer from hardship. She also said that she had seen a kamoshika (Japanese goat antelope) in her garden once so I’m pretty pumped for the potential wildlife viewing while I’m here :3.

Tadaima

In 2010 I was a relatively clueless student, donning a too-cute school uniform in a Japanese language class in Matsuyama, listening to Assistant language teachers talking about the JET programme.

I remember thinking, if I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life after university, teaching English in Japan didn't seem like a bad option.

6 years later, after the most stressful application process I have ever been through (I never thought I would have a breakdown about not having uniform paper clips) I have ditched the sailor moon-esque attire, and traded the 'clueless student' status for 'clueless uni grad', still have no idea what I want to do with my life and so - I'm back.

And now that I've finally got my internet hooked up (you learn to disregard all images of a futuristic Japan when your placement is in a town of 5,000 people....) I am once again privileged with spamming everyone with my poor grammar, and even worse proof reading skills as I document my time abroad, with my base in the quaint little town of Konoura, Nikaho, Akita Prefecture.

 This time round has a bit of a different ring to it, though I'm still being Shepherded around by my supervisor and have her to hold my hand while I have to do terrifying grown up shit like set up bank accounts and sign tenancy contracts (or sign my life away and hope that I'm not agreeing to donate my organs through an agreement that has far to much kanji for me to read) It is very much a flying solo kind of deal.

In amongst the excitement of returning to Japan, we were warned of what an isolation and lonely experience that JET can be if you let it. Where I'm fortunate to be able to speak terrible but mildly coherent Japanese and am somewhat accustomed to the food, the kids from the states in particular may not only have to learn a new language and stumble thorugh a completely foreign culture, but also learn to drive on the 'wrong' side of the road and decipher the metric and Celsius system, so in short, everything they ever knew is wrong.

Strangely it's not the language or culture, but going from living in a flat with 6 other people, to being alone from the time you get home to the time you leave the next morning that has been the biggest shock to the system.

But now that I seem to have stopped waking up in a panic because I'm convinced there's someone in my flat - life in Akita promises to be a charming (and character building) experience.

Watch me stumble my way through life here x