Sweet Home Itakura

My tipsy little house has grown on me. Despite the harshness of the Japanese winters, the house doesn’t appear to be overly sturdy at first sight, but I have been reliably informed that it has withstood what nature has thrown at it so far – earthquakes and typhoons. The rain lashing down on the tin roof and the tin roofs of the nextdoor buildings has quite a relaxing affect when I’m curled up on my futon. When the wind starts to blow, there is always a good 20 minutes of fun to be had trying to shove paper between the shoji screens and windows to stop them rattling.
My apartment is on the small side, but this has its good and bad points. Whereas I’ll never have space to host a big party, I am able to heat my place in the fraction of the time it takes some people. I have one tatami room where I sleep, study, eat and relax in. Tatami is the tightly woven straw matting that is a commonly used in Japan. It’s a no shoes zone – socks or barefoot only please… It’s a much warmer surface than a wooden floor and easier to clean than a carpet. I have a decent sized kitchen, a bathroom and a fair bit of storage for all sorts of bits and bobs. The only furniture I have is a chair, a bookcase, a wardrobe and a low table called a kotatsu. It’s basic, but I don’t like having a lot of clutter around me, so it suits me fine.
The place is reasonably traditional. I’ve got the tatami floor, sliding doors and shoji screens (paper walls / blinds – I fully expect to drunkenly put my hand / foot / head / all of the above through it in the not too distant future, so I don’t count them as a permanent feature of my house…).
Aircon is a man’s best friend here. As there is no real insulation in the building, you seem to be either too hot or too cold, except for about four days in October when the temperature was perfect.
I got a wee car. It’s a four wheel drive… um, Suzuki Alto… It might not look it, but it’s a dream to drive, honest! Slightly concerned that I won’t be able to find it in the morning after a heavy night of snow. It’s a bit of golf cart really, but when the studded winter tyres are on her, then the true beast will be revealed! With a bit of persuasion I should be able to get it up to the slopes in winter. Driving around has helped me orientate myself. It’s also nice to have the freedom to just shoot off into the hills whenever I want.
There is not much in Joetsu to be honest, so I’m quite glad to be out in the sticks. I’m in the village of Itakura, which has a population of 2000 or so, but it is quite spread out. It’s far nicer to go for a run amongst the rice fields than down the streets of a rather non-descript town. Joetsu City reminds me of a sprawling US town that doesn’t really have a town centre.
The town is too sparse to just walk around and all the streets look the same. There aren’t an abundance of street signs, even in kanji, which makes it’s a tricky for those new to the place. There is an area called Takada, however, that is quite nice. There are a few nice shops there, a big park with castle and a massive lake covered in lotus flowers. There is also an area in town called Honcho, which has lots of shops – it should get quite Christmassy there soon, well, by Japanese standards at least…

Proper Crimbo (shopping)

Well I’d better try and get into the habit of the blog lark, so here are a few words on my trip to Tokyo this weekend – well, Saturday to be precise.
My home prefecture of Niigata is on the west coast of Honshu and sits next to the Sea of Japan. Tokyo is on t’other side of Honshu, but thanks to Shinky the Shinkansen you can get across to the capital relatively swiftly. We (Heather, Stacia and I – the three of us live in the same building in Itakura) left our sleepy mountain village before sun up in an attempt to cram in as much as we could in our brief visit to the city, the principal aim of which was Christmas shopping.
Squeezed into Stacia’s tiny Suzuki something or other, we weaved our way through the misty mountains and numerous tunnels on our way to Nagano City in the next prefecture – along the expressway it takes a little over an hour. We parked the car up at Nagano train station and head off for the Shinkansen line just as the sun sleepily lifted its head from behind the horizon.
If you are a kid in the UK and you say that you love trains, then people will think you are a geeky trainspotter. Not so here. Boys in Japan love trains, and rightfully so, because the Shinkansen is a very cool thing indeed for numerous reasons.
Firstly, they look like space shuttles more than trains; secondly, they travel at around 200mph; and thirdly, they are always on time. Your ticket has your seat and carriage number on it and indicated on the platform is where you should stand and wait for the train. The Shink then whispers its way up to the platform at precisely the scheduled minute and, as if by magic, the carriage door you want is tight in front of you. Once on board you have bags of legroom, plenty of space for your bags (and legs) and the ride is so quiet and smooth that you nod off within a few minutes – none of this screeching of wheel on tracks that cuts you right to the core. Anyway, enough of this waffle – the moral of the story is that the Shinkansen is quite cool. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Tokyo from Nagano.
Once in Tokyo it was time to see whether I still had all the city-slicker skills that I’d picked up in London. Not so, it seems, as I tripped coming off the train and had a close encounter with an elderly Japanese businessman. We took the metro from Tokyo Station to Shibuya, where some of the city’s best you-can-buy-it-all-here-and-more department stores are.
I had heard a lot about the outrageous dressing of the Tokyo youngsters (says he at all of 24), but I thought it was probably just a few alternatively-dressed kids and the whole thing had been hyped up. Not so, they are all over the place. If you can imagine Camden on a Saturday afternoon cranked up a little bit, but more cutesy and less Goth / rock, you're almost there. The guys have big coiffured hair soaked in so much hairspray that you fear walking too close to them as they might spontaneously combust, while the ladies are so scantily clad it would make you mother blush. It is definitely the place to be seen.
Our first port of call was Tokyu Hands, three sprawling multi-story towers of all sorts of Japanese randomness. Christmas isn’t a very important religious holiday in Japan, but they have embraced the spirit of Christmas – the commercial spirit that is.
Having looked through what Tokyu had to offer, we toddled along to Loft – more of the same basically, but more trendy. Back out on the streets we took in the atmosphere – a cup of coffee while standing by one of the busy crossings made you wonder where all of these people could possibly be going (I think I have been out in the sticks for too long).
Next stop was Asakusa, formerly Tokyo’s principal entertainment districts way back when. The main attraction for us was Nakamise-dori (top picture), a long shopping precinct that leads up to Senso-ji Temple. You can buy all manner of bits and bobs here and it’s a fascinating area to simply wander around. At night the street is wonderfully lit, which makes it very atmospheric. Senso-ji is not one of the most attractive temples I’ve seen since I’ve been in Japan, but to it’s left is a stunning five storey Pagoda. It too was rather atmospheric, all lit up and that…
Back on the tube and we scooted off to the Ginza district. Ginza is the posh shopping area in Tokyo; huge buildings pulsate with neon and the main aim seems to be to remove as much yen from your wallet as you can as quickly as possible. The most impressive building for me was by Dior (I don’t know if he designed it, but it had his name on it). It looked as though it was covered in diamonds.
In search of some non-Japanesey food – not something we have the luxury of in Joestu too often – ideally we would have stumbled upon a Mexican restaurant as soon as we exited the station, but it wasn’t to be. Instead we settled for a wee Irish pub down a side street. I didn’t catch the name, but O’Flannigan’s probably isn’t far off. A Guinness and a Shepherds Pie later and I was a happy bunny.
A hop, skip and a jump back to Tokyo Station and we were soon Shinking our way back Nagano.
Did I ever tell you how cool the Shinkansen is? Well, firstly…and sleep.

Why put off today what you can put off tomorrow?

Well I make that a solid month and a half since I wrote anything on this blog. Yes, like a small child, I picked up the concept of “the blog,” played with it for a wee while and then threw it away and moved onto something else. While that is part of what happened, another reason for my infrequent updates is that life in Japan started, and a little matter of learning how to teach English (and speak Japanese) came into focus.

Even as much as two months into being here the holiday atmosphere was still in full swing. The days were warm, the nights long, and everything was new and exciting. All the newbies here in Joetsu were frantically rushing here, there and everywhere to see all the different and unusual things that our new home had to offer. Needless to say, such a pace was not going to be kept up indefinitely. In my first nine or so weeks in Japan, only one weekend did not involve jumping in a car and heading out of town on some sort of adventure.

I must admit being rather impressed by what lies on our doorstep. Being in the central belt of the main island of Honshu, there are a lot of places within easy striking distance. Niigata itself comes into it’s own when the snow arrives (which, I have been promised, is imminent). The novel Snow Country by Kawabata Yasunari, which won the 1968 Nobel Prize for literature, was set in Niigata (but I don’t need to tell you that). The prefecture is famous for excellent rice, sake and skiing, and I’m happy with that.

I’m yet to explore the coastline, but I have been told that a few good beaches exist. South along the coast from Joetsu is the town of Kanazawa. Due to its lack of military targets it was spared the kind of destruction that many of the other major cities received in WWII (Kyoto also escaped in tact). Consequently, many of the cultural and historical sights still exist, including former samurai and geisha districts.

In the next door prefecture of Nagano are some of the most breathtaking mountains that the country has to offer; it is often referred to as “the roof of Japan.” It is also home to apples the size of grapefruits, which are a meal in their own right (Dave will attest to this). The prefecture’s main city, also called Nagano – really, what are the chances? – is only a short drive along the expressway from Joetsu. It’s a very modern and trendy city and got quite a boost thanks to it’s Winter Olympics in 1998.

One of it’s main attractions, piping Starbucks by a whisker, is Zenkoji Buddhist temple. Inside, next to the main alter, is a staircase that descends into a pitch-black tunnel that you can walk through – this symbolises death and re-birth, clever, eh? Within the dark, twisting tunnel you can find the key to eternal salvation. FYI – it’s about two-thirds of the way along on your right.
That’ll do as a wee chunk for now. I’ll update this as best I can, but I can’t guarantee there will be any coherence to things until we are up to speed. Things will just come to me over the coming days and weeks and I’ll be inspired to type in a few lines, so bear with me.

Fuji

Definitely one of the highlights of my first couple of weeks in Japan was my trip to Mount Fuji, or Fuji-san as the Japanese call it. At 3,776m it’s the tallest mountain in Japan by quite some way. However, as it’s the most sacred mountain in Japan, it’s also one of the most frequently climbed. So, if you head to Fuji during a holiday weekend in the height of the climbing season, don’t expect to have the place to yourself…
A group of the Joetsu ALTs set off in convoy early on Saturday morning in high spirits. The sun was shining and it was nice to leave our little town behind for a day or two. Three carloads set off from Sanko (the accommodation for one group of ALTs) at around 10am. However, the group soon split up/got lost. Japanese road maps in English aren’t easy to come by and they aren’t especially detailed either. Therefore, most of the journey involved confused mobile phone conversations trying to determine exactly where x and y have taken a wrong turning and why they’ve run out of expressway!
For my group everything was going fine until we stopped in a small town near the base of Fuji for some dinner. Having fuelled up on whatever stodge we could get our paws on, we then set off (in the dark) to drive up to the 5th station on Fuji. In the daytime, trying to find this road would be very straightforward – there’s the volcano, the roads probably between here and there somewhere. However, at night, the task is a little trickier. Two failed attempts and numerous u-turns later, we were crawling our way up Fuji to an altitude of 2,300m.
It is possible to climb Fuji from sea level, but it’s also possible to swim the Channel – but I choose not to. At 2,300m you are already much higher than the highest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis at 1,344m, and you still have that height to climb again to get to the top of Fuji. I for one make a point of aiming for the line of least resistance.
At the 5th station we prepped ourselves for the ascent. Our aim was to climb at night and in order to see the sun rise (in the Land of the Rising Sun, clever, eh?). Due to the temperature difference between a clear night at altitude and the baking morning heat, we were all kitted-out like Arctic explorers setting off on a three-month reconnaissance of the East Siberian Sea quickly followed by a fortnight in Magaluf.
Rarely are the words “souvenir” and “practical” used in the same sentence, but the Fuji-san Walking Stick™ was just that. Providing a third foot on tricky inclines and offering some support to weary feet on the way down, most climbers opted for the walking stick. Tie a Japanese flag to the top and even the most tight-fisted of tourist couldn’t resist. As an added bonus, you can get various stamps burnt into your stick at the various stations you pass on the way up to the top. Needless to say these were all in kanji and I couldn’t read them, but I like to think that they are all very poetic, meaningful and full of Eastern wisdom. So, having picked up a few last minute monkeys and parrots, we set off at about 9.30pm, everyone suitably full of beans.
A few early jokes along the lines of “oh, this is a bit tough, ha ha!” soon turned into somewhat more serious concerns about exactly what had been taken on. As we were already at quite an altitude, some of the guys were puffing and panting quite early on, so the pace slowed to make sure that everyone stayed together – it was pitch black after all! The general terrain was coarse, volcanic gravel, which was quite frustrating to walk on – two steps forward, one step back… Some light relief was given through sections of vertical, rocky climbs using handily attached chains.
Along the way we came across various official stations and pseudo-stations. They all provided a place for a short rest, a shop to buy some basic food and drink, and an old weather-beaten man to burn the must-have stamp for that station onto your walking stick (for 200 yen of course).
As the night wore on we began to realize that this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park that we had hoped for and that we would actually be climbing through the night. At about 2pm tiredness was starting to take hold. Up until then the blood pumping through my body had done a great job of keeping me awake irrespective of the time. However, the stations were no longer for catching your breath, but for catching 40 precious winks. It’s very surreal to fall asleep, even for a moment, and awaken halfway up a volcano in Japan in the middle of the night…
At the 10th station I decided to make use of the “facilities.” I’m not a fan of the Asian loo; I’ve never claimed to be. Crouched in position with your trousers around your ankles, if you’re not crapping into back pocket, you’re peeing into your front pocket. The loos on Fuji were pretty primitive and generally just a hole in the floor of a wooden hut. Plenty of “misfires” ensured that the wooden floor around the hole was well soiled, and a pile of poo sat at the bottom like some kind of decaying pyramid. At almost 10,000 feet it’s pretty hard to hold your breath for very long. You enter the hut bravely, breath held, and desperately try and do what you have to do without inhaling. Inevitably you give up, start gasping and are left squatting there puffing in the most rancid of smells.
The penultimate station was reached at around 3am, and from there on it was a straightforward slog for the top. The last station had a tatami room where you could, for a fee, have a proper kip before the final assault on Fuji-san. As a result, when we passed that station we joined a queue of people pouring out onto the climbing path, all hoping to reach the top in time for sun rise. It became very slow going from this point on. What should have taken an hour to climb took a good two and half hours.
We were now in Indian file and had to stop for five to ten seconds every couple of steps. This is where standing still in the dark whilst incredibly tired started to play funny tricks on my mind. While standing waiting for the queue to inch forward I would doze off sleep apnea style – not the best thing to be doing when you could fall and roll all the way down the volcano you’ve been climbing for the last eight hours. During these little naps I would have sworn that I saw a little old Japanese lady dressed in white run though the queue selling bowls of steaming hot ramen. I have been assured that this was not the case…
It was now past 5am and there was a strong orange glow on the horizon. For a short moment you could see the stars in the night’s sky, the orange pre-sunrise glow on the horizon and the lights in the village below. Luckily we seemed to time our walk to perfection. We reached the summit (no sign of the old lady, hm…) just in time to get a good position for some photos before the sun burst out from behind the horizon. It was spectacular. There were gasps and shouts of “sugoi!!” (cool) and “o-hayo gozaimaaaaasu!!” (good morning). Naturally, all the tiredness was replaced with a combination of awe and a sense of achievement. As we were officially climbing out of season, we were very lucky to get the view that we did – it could very easily have been thick cloud, especially at 3,776m.
One final stamp and a peek into the crater and then we set off back down the mountain. There are two (and only two) good things about climbing Fuji at night. Firstly, you are entirely unaware that you are climbing what is in fact a very ugly mountain, close-up at least. Secondly, you can’t see how far you have to climb, beyond a faint line of head-torch lamps that zigzag above you. On the way down, however, you get to see the red, volcanic dust all around you and you can see precisely how far you have to go before you can take your boots off and have a beer. The early-morning sun turned into full-blown midday sun and jackets and fleeces were swapped for water bottles and sunscreen. At 11am we arrived back at the 5th station and treated ourselves to a well-earned burger and an ice cream. The best thing to do after such exertion is to relax in an onsen and we found a suitably relaxing onsen nearby. We slowly soaked our aching muscles before passing out on the communal tatami floor.

The opening gambit....

Well, I’m here…

I’ve been here about a month and I’ve decided to get the blog up and running. It’s gone by really quickly, but quite slowly at the same time. Lots done and my head has almost stopped spinning. I’ll try and bring you up to speed as quickly as possible…

Arrived in Tokyo in the 17th of August. Got off the plane and hit a wall of heat. Summer was in full swing and the humidity was intense. Luckily most of my time in Tokyo was spent in an air-conditioned hotel. We had a two-day orientation, which basically reviewed a lot of info that was already in our handbook, just to make sure everyone was “on the same page.” It was nice to meet some other new JETs and see how their last month had been. I had about four weeks notice to sort myself out, but some people only had two weeks! I can’t imagine how stressful that would have been.


The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices, opposite the hotel

We had the chance to go out and explore in the evenings. The streets were hot and humid – about 27C even at 10pm. I’ve never seen anything like Tokyo at night. It was like walking through a theme park, all flashing lights and strange writing. The streets were immaculately clean and not a spot of graffiti anywhere. I had to remind myself that I was actually there and that it wasn’t a dream. The whole experience just seemed very odd.


A tourist friendly menu outside a restaurant

We ended up in a little noodle shop on the first night, but on the second night we splashed out and went for drinks on the top floor of the Hyatt hotel (where Bill Murray did his drinking in Lost in Translation – a bit cheesy I know, but the views were incredible, the lights just went on and on). On the way back we popped into a pachinko parlour (basically a vertical pinball game). It’s hugely popular in Japan. Apparently the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) launder a lot of money through them – good to know.


If you like noise and flashing lights, Pachinko could be the thing for you

Headed off the next morning (Friday). A lady from the “Niigata Internationalisation Team” came to pick me up from the hotel. The Shinkansen (or bullet train) pulled into Tokyo Station and a squad of cleaners were waiting for it. They all bowed as the train went past. Once the passengers had gotten off the train they ran onto the train in a cleaning frenzy. To my delight, it was not just a bullet train, but a double-decker bullet train at that! I was mightily impressed; I didn’t even know they existed. The ride was very smooth and slept like a baby all the way to Nagaoka where I got off to meet the Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) for my school. He and his colleague were holding a sign saying “Welcome to Joetsu, Colin,” a lovely touch.

It was about another 40 minute drive to Joetsu City, where I met up with my supervisor and some of the other ALTs for the region, about 16 or so. They were all expecting me and I got a big round of applause when I arrived, which was a bit overwhelming. They are all really nice – a good mix of Brits and Americans (Brits have the edge in terms of numbers). We went out for dinner that evening and then I unpacked some of my things.

On Saturday morning we took the three-hour ferry out to Sadogashima. It wasn’t like the Stornoway ferry, there were no seats inside, just carpet (no shoes remember!). It was perfect for sleeping on and the three hours flew by! The kids on the ferry had a great time running around.


Not sure what this was about, but it was worth a snap

The reason for going out to the island was the Sado Island Earth Celebration festival. It’s a three-day music, dance and art festival. The Kodo drummers are the big draw. These guys tour the world eight months of the year, but they live in a compound just north of the port of Ogi on Sado. They have to adhere to a strict physical, mental and spiritual training regime. These guys are insanely fit. Try http://www.kodo.or.jp/ for more details.

From Ogi we got a bus out to a beach, the name of which escapes me, and we set up camp on the sand. Some volleyball and a swim was followed by a few beers and sake around a campfire. One of the Japanese blokes we had played volleyball with came over later in the evening and said, “fire, now” and walked off. We figured that he wanted us to join his campfire, so we followed him with a few beers to be polite. Oh how wrong we were! What he meant was that a couple of the fire dancers who would be performing at the festival on the Sunday night wanted to give us a show. It was truly awesome. There were about 15 of us watching it, so it was quite intimate. It worked so well with the pitch-black background of nighttime, the flames illuminating whatever they passed – a head, a leg, the sand. Some mad heat lightening over the sea topped off quite an interesting first full day in Niigata.


Awesome, in the old-fashoned sense of the word

The heat of the early morning sun woke me up at 6am. Myself and a few of the other guys went for a swim before we packed up our things and headed back into town. I then had my first onsen experience… It’s basically a mineral hot-spring spa and they seem to be just about everywhere in Japan. Get stripped off, have a good old wash and then slip into a big pool with lots of naked men you’ve never met before. Oh, and I’ve discovered that if you’re a little sunburnt then the water will feel hot enough to peel the skin off a rhino. Onsen veterans had their own “modesty towel,” but newbies such as myself have to settle for the old birthday suit. This onsen was really nice – perched on top of a hill overlooking a bay. It had several pools and a couple outside (suitably private of course). To top the whole thing off, a couple of eagles cruised past us only about 30m away. Had a rinse down and a shave before passing out in the communal tatami (tight woven matting) room for about two hours.

Back in town we bought our tickets for the Sunday night show. A Spanish chap called Carlos Nunez was on the bill – believe it or not, but he played Celtic music and it was the most amazing bagpipe playing that I’ve ever heard in my life! If Jimi Hendrix had played the bagpipes it would have been like that. The main event, however, was Kodo. The speed, timing and power of the drumming has to be seen to be believed. The drums are huge and they use drumsticks the size of rolling pins. A couple of guys had baseball-bat-sized drumsticks. Their part culminated with the big man being wheeled out to do his 20-minute solo on a massive drum. He was an absolute beast of a man. Even when he finished his solo, he just jumped down from his drum and got stuck in with 30 minutes more drumming with 5 other guys – and they don’t mess about!


The big-yin

Camped again that night and then got the 6.30am ferry back to Joetsu in time for our day of seminars with the Joetsu-shi elementary school teachers. The aim was to tell them how to use an us, the native English speakers, effectively. I got to meet my elementary school teachers – I’ll be teaching at Hari ES, Kakasaki ES, Miyajima ES, but will be based at Itakura JHS.

On Tuesday I finally went to my Junior High School – all of 100 yards from my house! I can here the band practising when I’m eating my breakfast. I met all the teachers. I had to give a brief introducion of myself, which was translated by the JTE. All of the teachers are very friendly and welcoming. Only my the principal and my JTE speak decent English, so trying to communicate with the other teachers is great fun – try doing a 9 – 5 though the medium of charades!! It’ll help my Japanese, but my eloquence in English might ware-off!

Itakura is the village I live and it’s tiny. The population is around 2,000 but that's spread over quite a large area. Stacia, an American ALT who lives in my building, went to the post office to collect a package that was delivered while she was out – all the staff excitedly ran out to greet her. They then lined up and introduced themselves to her. It is proper countryside here – just rice fields and mountains. There is a great panorama from the 3rd grade classroom. There’s also a 2500m mountain nearby called Myoko, which is a great backdrop. I’m about a 15 minute drive to the nearest big town, Joetsu-shi.

This is apparently one of the best areas in Japan to ski. I’m about 50km from Nagano where the Winter Olympics were held in 1998. There are other slopes about 20 minutes drive from my house. Snowboarding will be the way to go – apparently it’s pretty much the only thing to do in the winter… well, it could be worse. The weather just now is about 30C+ most days, but come November it will get much colder – they had 2m of snow at one point a few winters ago.

The food has been ok. Much less fat in the cuisine here, but I’ve realised that even the most inconspicuous bits of food can have fish in them. A couple of the veggie ALTs are having difficulties. Food shopping is a real treat here, especially if you can’t read kanji (characters taken from Chinese). My thinking is that if in doubt, it probably has fish in it. It’s is basically a bit of a lucky dip at the moment – although I have developed a bit of a penchant for their sticky rice, which you can buy in huge cement-sized-bags for £15. Interestingly, you can buy three squid for a quid (and I mean an entire squid, eyes and all); it’s probably three quid per squid in the UK…

My Japanese just now involves a few phrases that are needed to be polite, some very random vocab (acquired as necessary) and some basic phrase structures – do you have, I would like, what is this, etc.

Well, that's a summary of my first few days in Japan. I'll try and fill you in on the rest of the month when I get a chance.