ikeda sake festival

OK, so this is how to describe an osake-matsuri (sake festival) in western Tokushima:

-Literally enough sake in one room to get the entire town of Ikeda at least 'buzzed'.
-This room having one of the craziest smells that I've ever come across...I can't even begin to describe it.
-Plastic taped to the floor so that you don't have to worry about taking your shoes off when you get into the building (this is very un-Japanese).
-Scores of people passed out in folding chairs throughout the day...and most of them in their late 60s and 70s.
-Realizing that there's really no way to pace yourself at an event like this.
-Realizing that eating breakfast beforehand would have been smart.


We basically stayed there until it became too difficult to consume Japan's famous beverage and left for some food and a nice, smooth beer.


But this guy wasn't going anywhere.


And people like this took the event a bit more seriously that I did.


As I randomly make my way through various small towns around here I'm happy to say that I'm coming away with more than a few hazy memories of friendly old men, strange alcohol, and multiple days of recovery.

long, long, long

This week won't end. And it's been a strange one as well. I've been back into the habit of running once again but I couldn't do it the past few days because I've been getting home too late and the streets aren't really lit up in my neighborhood. The last thing I need is to fall in an irrigation ditch or some other ambiguous stream of water that runs not far from my apartment. Work has been really slow the past few days. A bunch of classes were cancelled (due to bad behavior of the students) and I've been sitting around reading about New Zealand. However, there have been some highlights. One of note was yesterday when a fellow teacher asked me, "Brad, how much do...you...alcohol?" This, of course, led to a lively conversation. This is at the same school where the vice principal randomly gave me a bottle of kintoki (sweet potato) flavored liquor because I think I mentioned at some point that I'd like to try it. Another amusing thing that happened today is the reaction that I got when I signed a receipt in front of some teachers. I guess signatures aren't really hand-written here so it must have been crazy to see the pen move with such quick and unfamiliar strokes. A whole group of teachers gasped and then clapped after seeing me do it.

Tomorrow is finally Friday and I'm catching a ride out west with Jill to attend a sake festival in Ikeda. Other than that event I just want to sit around and maybe watch a movie and cook some good food. Raging Bull came in the mail the other day so I'll be throwing that in my backpack before taking off. Less than one month 'til vacation and I am counting down the days.

the new normalcy

Today I taught three classes at good ol' Naruto Technical High School. A day pretty much like any other but I took note of how a half year of adjustment will make things that beforehand seemed so unlikely or strange just part of the routine at a technical school in Tokushima. Here are a few examples:

-Boys plucking each others' eyebrows during class while wearing pink Dolce and Gabbana scarfs.
-A student eating a huge hamburger and hiding under a curtain as I explain my lesson.
-Once again, a student taking his pants off completely during class (I STILL don't know why this happens or why it seems like I'm the only one that notices it).
-The 'hibernating' students (usually baseball players) that have slept through every one of my classes and I have literally never seen their faces.
-Classes in which 75% of the students are playing hand held electronic games.
-Endless hand touching, head rubbing, and groping. (yes, these are all boys...and they do this stuff as they send cell phone texts to their girlfriends).

This is pretty much all I can think of for today. The good thing is that I really like these guys a lot, even if class simply consists of me just hanging out with them (it happens more than you'd think). I've always got a lesson for them but some kids can benefit more from the fact of my presence as opposed to a game or a worksheet.

I am happy right now but a lot of my attention is being focused on my upcoming trip to New Zealand (in a month!) and when I visit the States again at some point. And I think I finally feel what 'real life' here is like, though it's hard to really define that because those words mean different things to different people.

I can, however, say for certain that there are some things about America that I miss at the moment. Here's a small list of things that are on my mind:

-Walking down the street and sitting down with a cup of coffee and a good friend. I did that a lot in Pittsburgh. And I wish that the coffee shop nearby didn't close at 6:00pm.
-Hummus and whole wheat wraps.
-ANYTHING but Japanese beer...even though I sometimes pay $3.50 for a bottle of Hoegaarden at the grocery store.
-Waking up to discover a foot of snow on the ground.
-Playing music with my best friends.
-Wide streets.
-Blending in, being 'normal' and not stared at when you're not in the mood for it.
-Signs of any kind of subculture.

But these things will keep me sane for as long as I need them to:

-The good people here that make it worthwhile to stay another year.
-The situations that I find myself in and how I never thought I'd experience them.
-The 13,000 songs on my computer.
-Syd Barrett's biography (it's in the mail).
-Homemade strawberry pancakes.
-Never running out of people to write letters to.
-Not saving money but seeing such interesting parts of the world.

Winter, yeah, it's OK...but I'm pretty ready for spring to show up out here.

valentine's day 10k

Well, I've been meaning to get back into running recently and I think that doing a 10 kilometer race (6.2 miles) in the middle of February with my students was a good way to do that. I woke up this morning and biked to my high school and joined the students in the baseball field where they were preparing to run. One of the teachers told me that if they didn't complete the race in under 75 minutes, they'd have to run it again.


I ended up finishing in 48 minutes. The course was mainly by the seaside through rice fields and farms on roads that were in good shape and fairly flat. The last two kilometers were a bit difficult as the sun was in my face while I was trying to keep myself together and cross the finish line in a decent time.


Two of the girls that attend the school cheered the runners on and proved that looking is good is more important than keeping warm in the middle of winter.


And finally, I received a Valentine's Day card from one of my favorite students that put me in good spirits during what's usually a pretty dreary time of the year.

JET interview, revisited

So last year at this time I was not only freezing in my heatless apartment in Pittsburgh but I was also trying to prepare for my JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) interview at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, DC. Actually, my main source of anxiety was not the interview itself but rather getting to where I needed to be. The night before my interview my flight to DC was cancelled twice due to an ice storm in Pittsburgh but thankfully I made it out of the city only a few hours later than I was scheduled to. I stayed with Lisa who at the time was doing an internship at National Public Radio and also had a JET interview that day. I was dropped off in the city six hours before my interview and 30 blocks away from the embassy. I killed most of that time by scribbling away in my journal in the corner of an Au Bon Pain. Anyway, soon after putting my suit on in a nearby Starbucks bathroom, I got to the Japanese Embassy. A few other people were there waiting for their interviews, including Lisa. I wasn't really nervous as she and I sat and talked while waiting to be called into the interview room. Eventually, my name was next on the list and I walked though a door and was faced with a panel of three people that I spoke with for about 30 minutes. Here are the questions that I was asked:

-Please explain how you first got into teaching.
-In what ways did you shape the kids that you were tutoring?
-Have you ever studied any other languages?
-Do you think that you will be able to adjust to Japanese food?
-What is your opinion on how Japan is dealing with nature conservation?
-Please name and describe the three best things about Pittsburgh.
-What will you bring with you to Japan to share with your students as well as remember your life back home?
-Please talk about any issues concerning the relationship between Japan and the US.
-What would you do if you were asked to do teach very banal lessons day after day?
-I was then asked to do a ten minute self-introduction on the spot.

I'm happy to say that I walked out of the embassy feeling like I nailed it. I called my mom to tell her the good news and then got a nice cup of coffee and sat on a bench near DuPont Circle (even though it was freeeezing outside). That night, Lisa and I planned to go out and see a bit of the city but instead we stayed in, put on a documentary, and crashed very early in the evening. We did get to see some good museums the next day and I even snuck into the NPR building to see firsthand where all the 'magic' goes down.

The waiting period over the next month and a half was pretty awful. All that I knew was that in early April I'd either be shortlisted, an alternate, or rejected. I didn't resign my lease in Pittsburgh and knew that one way or another I was heading out of the city and, if possible, landing a job abroad. During the first week of April I got the email that had been waiting for since I turned my written application in sometime in November. And now I'm sitting on my tatami mat, drinking coffee and listening to King Crimson albums back to back and I've got to say that, as of now, I'm pretty content.

Of course I'll have to apply and interview for other jobs after this one (at some point) but I think that the whole JET application process really puts one's nerves through the ringer. I don't think it would have been so bad if the waiting periods were shorter (or maybe less vague on the dates that we'd be receiving important information). This may be the first time in my life where I'm not too worried about my next step, although I think about it a lot. Who knows what will come up between now and the time I say goodbye to Japan, whenever that may be.

first (but not the last) trip to naoshima island

I might have said this before in an earlier post but this winter seems to be just flying by. I guess it's my first one spent in a climate that's significantly warmer than southwestern Pennsylvania and the lack of 'frigidness' is a welcome change...although I really miss seeing snow. Speaking of bad weather, Caitlin and I took a day during the long weekend to check out some installation artwork and an art museum on Naoshima Island near the city of Takamatsu in Kagawa prefecture. My ex-roommate Katyana was there last year and highly recommended visiting the island once she found out that I would be living in Shikoku. I was also happy to see some more of Yayoi Kusama's works aside from the installations that she has at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh. We didn't get to see too many things during this visit (and faced some dreary rain at points) but now that we know how easy it is to get there it looks like Naoshima will be great place spend some time once the weather gets a bit warmer.



The rest of the weekend was pretty calm. I got to cook for some friends in the neighborhood on Sunday and Monday and it felt pretty good to prepare food for more than just myself or a few other people. It seemed like Fukui sensei and her family were really into watching me cut up vegetables although I'm not too sure why. The meal that I cooked for them was my version of an 'American' dish- seitan, quinoa, cashews, asparagus, cabbage, mushrooms, fresh basil, garlic, etc., etc. All plates were clean when the night was over so I was happy with that. On Sunday (the night before) Caitlin and I hung out with Hiroko and Taka (and Riku-chan) and brought over some pizza and a homemade salad and dressing for dinner. This was my first taste of pizza in Naruto and I was impressed. I think I'm lucky to live where I do soley based on the good Mexican food and pizza here. Yeah, and the sushi's not too bad either.


Hiroko's brother Shige is an interesting person. He is a teacher at a school for the deaf near Tokushima City and is deaf himself. When he talked, he used sign language, Japanese, and written and spoken English to get his point across. He would ask questions by writing them down in English and was able to lip-read most of the answers (in both English and Japanese). He was quickly able to adapt to our multi-lingual conversations (not that I can speak much Japanese) and has overcome his disablility to a great extent. Sometimes I get pretty frustrated as I blankly stare at 'Minna no Nihongo Volume I' but I realize that learning a second language could be much more challenging...

there's not much space in this country

And piling stuff up until it falls down is really popular here. This is a teacher's desk at one of my schools.

"because the whole world isn't japan"

Three years ago this month I took a trip to Reykjavik, Iceland and every time I look at the pictures it reminds me of how much I want to go back. This was my first time abroad and I went without any specific plans and, thanks to some wonderful luck and generous people, I got to see and experience a lot of really cool things.







(And my hair was long...which is kinda funny.)

hangin' out with miori sensei

On Thursday evenings from 6:00pm-8:00pm I spend my time hanging out at the Ueta household with Miori sensei, my Japanese teacher. The night usually starts out with exchanging a small gift or food item if one of us ventured out of Naruto the weekend before. In Japan it's very common to bring back some kind of treat for your friends or coworkers when you visit a place of significance. I was in Tokyo the weekend before our last lesson so I brought her some cheese and wasabi snacks and told her "これは おもしろい です" ("Kore wa omoshiroi desu." or, "This is interesting...").

Miori sensei is a good friend to have here because she's very open-minded and interested in the world as a whole. This week she'll be going to Spain with her lunch group to see some of the sights in Madrid. I told her about my experiences in Barcelona a few years back and she said that one day she hopes to get there. We often talk about the places that we want to see and, though our lists of potential trips are extensive, we're both slowly crossing off each destination.


Miori sensei's husband is an elementary school principal and he does some really fantastic artwork in his spare time. The picture above is a depiction of the Kazurabashi Vine Bridge in western Tokushima. He creates this art by meticulously cutting one sheet of black paper with a very small knife and placing the paper on a white background so that the forms exist due to the negative space. All of the black that you see in the picture above is cut from a solid piece of paper and no marker or glue is used at all. Miori sensei tells me that his work is at the national gallery in Tokyo as well as some other major cities in Japan. When seeing his work in person, it's easy to believe this to be true.