Biggest disappointment about Japan and JET so far is...University of Florida bragging rights.
Japanese people follow sports closely, if it's sumo or baseball.
Japanese Person: Oh, do you like sports?
Me: Yes, I do.
JP: American people like football, right?
Me: Yes. Actually, my university won the national championship in football. Oh, and we also won the national championship in basketball back to back.
JP: *blank stare*... So, do you play baseball?
Then there are my fellow JETs.
JET1: Where did you go to college?
Me: University of Florida.
JET1: *eyes glaze over* Is that in Florida?
JET2: You went to Florida?
Me: Yes! You follow sports?!
JET2: No.
Me: National Championship?...Football...basketball...twice...
JET2: ...
JET3: I like sports, my college was in the NCAA tournament two years ago.
Me: Oh! So was mine! University of Florida!
JET3: Don't know...
Me: Do you know who won the tournament two years ago?
JET3: No.
Me: FLORIDA!!
JET3: *rolls eyes*
And these are the American JETs. Everyone else is from the UK, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
For it being a 'small world', Gainesville seems so far away.
Last week was a bunch of random trips around Ogimi. Did hiking, kayaking, and made a coaster! The first day involved cutting down a banana tree, trimming off the outside bark, and then separating the layers of 'workable' bark. These were boiled, then we did some more skinning until we had a bunch of white 'ribbon'. The next day, we tore the 'ribbon' until it was thread like, and then tied them together to create one long string. This was put into a loom and I made my coaster!
This weekend was Obon. On mainland Japan, Obon is in July, but Okinawa follows the lunar calendar. On Saturday, the ancestors come by sea and the family drinks and eats to celebrate their arrival. On Sunday, more lounging around. Then on Monday, there is another feast and more drinking to send them off.
Elina and I were invited to Tachi's wife's family's house for the sending off party. The atmosphere was relaxed. We sat around eating and talking while watching some World Track and Field Championship that Japan was competing in. A few people would ask us if we were religious at all, and then say how in Okinawa, their religion is only ancestor worship.
I view it more as ancestor remembrance. After the eating, we went into a room where an alter was set up. Three pictures of the family's ancestor's were hung on the wall. I guess they were the only ones alive when there were cameras. Then someone lit bowls of incense and the elder people started praying. I was looking around the room, and I see the kids shuffling their feet, the young adults sitting in respectful silence, but it's the older people who were praying hard. This is why I say ancestor remembrance, because it struck me that to these older people, they're praying to their mom, dad, brother or sister. The people who were family to them for so long who are now dead. What began to disturb me was the idea of my picture being up on a wall some day.
We left after that. Later on, they will go to the beach to light incense and send them away. On the way back, Tachi stopped at the beach and we saw another family doing just that. Because Obon is scheduled according to the lunar calendar, we had a full moon to look at. It was all very allegorical: the sea being a 'life-death cycle' and the waxing and waning of the moon.
Japan likes to remind you that, yes, you will die too.
Yuka came down Friday night and stayed until Sunday night. We went snorkeling and saw a pretty cool aquarium that had three whale sharks. It was a lot of fun, and the best part is that I'll see her again in 4 weeks.
Last night was our village festival. I was able to catch the end of it and witness the best firework show I have ever seen. I was thinking 'little village' = 'little fireworks'. Not at all. Simply amazing.
My supervisor is named Tachi (ta-chee). He told me last week that on Monday, I need to start showing up at the office at 9. This morning, I dressed in a polo, slacks, dress shoes, and showed up with my computer, thinking I would be sitting at a desk going over lesson plans. Tachi takes a look at my shoes and tells me I need to change, cause we're going hiking. Everyone else was dressed similar to me, except they were wearing tennis shoes. By everyone, I mean various people in the education system, so teachers and other administration people.
A bus pulls up, and Tachi drives everyone around to educate us in some of the local landmarks, which were mainly shrines, but we also went to a waterfall. During lunch, I learned that the "hike" we were going on was to see "world war holes". One of the teachers spoke English decently, so between his English, my Japanese, and hand gestures, we communicated.
On a side note, his everyday English is really good, but when he was trying to translate to me what was being said about this shrine, or that rock, he struggled with vocabulary. This is where I came in. What does 葬式 mean? Oh, funeral. What does 宗教 mean? Oh, religion. Glad to see three years at UF has taught me nothing about having a simple conversation, but I know these kinds of words. Thanks, Uotate.
So after lunch, we take a bus halfway up a mini-mountain and get out to begin our hike. I was expecting hiking as in trail, where two people or more could walk side by side with signs scattered about describing a certain tree or view.
How wrong I was.
Tachi and another elder man get out of the bus holding machetes. We start walking and there is a giant wire fence blocking the road. We had to walk through the woods to get around it. That was just the beginning. Behind the fence, we walked a dirt path, and then suddenly, Tachi starts hacking at the foliage beside him and we step into the jungle. There is no trail, only bamboo, trees, and wet leaves.
I have no tennis shoes. My shoes are skateboard shoes, so the soles are flat. I do not think I can describe how inconvenient my shoes and clothes were for this trip. We were climbing up a mountain, creating our own trail as we went. I slipped all over the place. Other people were falling. One elder lady did not go, because apparently the last time she did it, she BROKE HER LEG. We grabbed at roots and branches to pull ourselves up and up. Several places, we had to jump over little gaps, where, had I slipped, I would have easily broken my neck. Another thing to picture is that all these people are similarly dressed, and twice as old as me. They seemed to enjoy saying 「危ないね？」 ('dangerous isn't it?'), followed by laughter, after every slip and jump. Another 'humorous' thing about this trip is that I'm a head taller than everyone else, so the path Tachi was clearing was perfect for all the 5'5 tall Japanese people following him. I kept hitting my head on everything he missed. Parts of our trek took us through grass that was taller than me, and we had to be wary of the ハブ (habu), a poisonous snake that will KILL YOU.
During the hiking, the climbing, and the slipping, I was thinking about how I should act when we reach the 'world war holes'. Being American and being shown bomb holes created by your country, do I just look ashamed? do I bow? do I get on my knees and beg for forgiveness before being disemboweled by one of the men holding machetes?
Well, it turned out that 'world war hole' was just bad pronunciation. We were touring 'wild boar holes', or wild pig traps: deep holes in the ground resembling wells without the concrete. I learned Ogimi has many wild pigs in the jungle, and these traps were over 50 years old. One person told me that sometimes a pig leaves the jungle and will run through the street. I made a Ring joke about Sadako climbing out, and everyone seemed to appreciate it.
There were a total of 7 holes, and I think it took us about an hour and a half. When we got to the last one, I thought we would have to turn around, but thankfully, we stepped into civilization, and we were magically back to where we had parked. My shirts were soaked in sweat, my khakis and shoes were muddy, but it was actually a lot of fun.
I read in a book once that your soul can't travel on airplanes, so the farther you go on a trip, the longer you have to wait for your soul to catch up. I've never really gotten jet lag going to Japan in the sense of having sleeping through the day and can't fall asleep at night. But the first week is performed in a somewhat functional daze. Now that it's been a week, I can say my soul has caught up.
The closest city to Ogimi is called Nago, and it is about a 30 minute drive. The end of last week and this weekend has consisted of paperwork, unpacking, and making trips to Nago for supplies. I've spent more money than I care to admit on eating out and basic apartment necessities, but I guess it is to be expected when moving.
If I head west from my apartment, I cross a main highway and I'm at the beach in one minute. If I head east, I can walk deeper into an old neighborhood with lots of Ryuuku style houses. At the end of the neighborhood, there is a path that leads to a waterfall. The past two days have been rainy, and it finally let up when we went out. Because of the rain, the waterfall was flowing harder more than usual. We took off our shoes and waded into the pool and just stared at it and messed around for a good 30 minutes. When we left, someone pointed out what appeared to be a hawk. It was light grey and hawk-size. As it flew closer to us, we noticed the pointy ears, the fur on its head and body, and the teeth. It was a monstrous bat and it swooped down about 20 feet in front of us. I've seen the little bats at the Gainesville bat house, but this was amazing. I am now convinced vampires live in Ogimi and that's why they are the village with the longest life span in the world.
Welcome to Ogimi...MUAH-HA-HA....
Japan is awesome. Traveling to Japan sucks. From the moment you wake up until the moment you walk into your place of stay, the total time of traveling is around 24 hours. Then you have to spend the next week adjusting to the time difference, which is 13 hours ahead. I have never gotten jet lag going to Japan, and this time proved no different. You just find yourself going to bed around 10 and waking up at 5am.
I arrived at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo around 7pm. Sunday consisted of dropping off my luggage, going to find something to eat, and then crashing.
The next day was the first day of Orientation. In the morning, all the Okinawan people got together and introduced themselves. Then we listened to opening remarks by some important Japanese people (so we were told). After that was lunch and workshops. For me, it was lunch and exploring Tokyo. Me and my roommate went to Shibuya, where they have the busiest intersection in the world, and then to Akihabara, which is famous for its electronic stores. That night, I went to dinner with Josh (a fellow UF graduate) and Ben (who is studying abroad this summer).
Tuesday, I found some lunch and went to some of the workshops at the hotel, such as Driving in Japan and Teaching in Elementary Schools. That night for dinner I went to an izakaiya, which is place with lots of food and beer. I met up with Josh, Josh's friend Jamie (who's practically fluent), Ben, Megumi, and Junko (a penpal friend).
Wednesday, met in the lobby at 6:30am to begin the trip to Okinawa. The flight was bumpy, but it landed eventually. I had eaten some raw horse the night before (yes, RAW horse) and I had liked it the evening before, but after sitting in my stomach all night, plus the bumpy plane ride, I felt extremely sick. All that went away when I walked into the airport lobby after getting my luggage. A giant sign reading "Welcome to Okinawa" greeted me. I met Elina, the other JET in Ogimi, my supervisor, the superintendent, and a lady who worked at the junior high that wanted to come a long. We went out to lunch and then arrived in my new home Ogimi an hour and a half later.
Ogimi is beautiful. It is on the west coast of Okinawa and sits along one of the main state roads. So to drive along Ogimi, you have jungle on one side, and baby blue sea on the other. The weather feels exactly like Florida, the water looks like the Keys, and then there are little mountains. I will be taking lots and lots of pictures, and I will post some soon.
My apartment is very old, but awesome. There is a kitchen, and 3 other rooms. Two of the rooms have tatami mats, and all the rooms have sliding doors. Very Japanese. I have seen a cockroach under the sink, but that was no big deal. Boric acid, coming soon. What there are a lot of are ants. But they are small and they don't bite, so I have fun hunting the mats killing them with my thumb or sucking them up with the vacuum. I have seen two huge spiders sitting on the wall outside. I think they were the size of my hand, but I've been told they're not poisonous. I don't know what I'd do if I saw one in my apartment. Probably use the vacuum. Next week, when I go to Naha (the capital of Okinawa) for a welcome conference, I'm having my place nuked. After nuking, apparently it is unsafe to enter the apartment for a day. Sounds like the perfect stuff.
It's very hot, but no different than Florida. I just have a weaker air conditioner. I have some fans, and I use a mini cloth towel to wipe the sweat off my face.
Right now, I'm going through the paperwork. Getting my alien registration card, health insurance card, setting up internet, my van, phone lines, cell phone, and bank account.
Ogimi has the longest life span in the world. It has a population of 3,500, and almost no English speaking people. My supervisors all speak very little, so I've been using Japanese, which is awesome. Elina speaks Japanese really well, so she has been a huge help in communicating information to me. Right now, I am using her internet, cause I won't have my for another week (yea, I know). When I do, I'll post pictures.