Hot springs, instruments, and friendship

October 6, 2009-October 19.2009
Well, boys and girls, it’s been a LITTLE too long since I last wrote. And well, there was this report and presentation on a non-Roman script (mine was Arabic) and lack of Internet and etc. etc. BUT I’M BACK! And in line with on reader’s suggestion, I shall NOT force you to sit through “and then we stood here for 20 minutes and then we rode the bus and then we ate this and then we waited”. Or at least I will try to eliminate such language. 
The second host family meeting took place (no big problems exist) and afterwards, my host mother returned with ways to improve my Japanese-wants me to spend time watching Japanese TV and this drama, “Pure Love”, from which I gain TREMENDOUS new vocabulary and Tsukie kindly corrects my pronunciation and spelling. She also has me read along in a children’s folktale book while listening to the reading of it on a CD. More vocab and practice reading out loud.
At Senboku, as I may have mentioned before, I am completing my field study for the Human Development and Social Relations major (psychology and sociology). Its coming along great, as it is ALWAYS easy for me to be detailed and verbose (as is evident in this here blog) I almost have two notebooks full. WOW.
We had an Encouragement Party (6:30-8pm) held by the Morioka Board of Education on Wednesday, 10/7, with the current Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs; all Earlham ’08 and ’09 grads if I hadn’t already mentioned that) joining us. Great spread of food platters-sashimi and sushi roll, kara’age (fried food), pork with sauce, potato and mame (soybeans), sandwiches, chips, popcorn, and many soft drinks. Chocolate cookies for dessert. We did self introductions and heard the B of E introduce themselves (~10 people). Played elementary school-level games after. Cleaning up meant we could take leftover food, so I ended up with two HUGE bottles of ocha (tea) and orange soda.
Thursday, 10/8, was Typhoon Day, as in a typhoon came through. Tsukie would not let me or Ko ride to school, so she drove us. It was our first day of Japanese classes with other Gandai exchange students, so Elementary Japanese II was the four of us SICEers and Dian, from Indonesia, Jadan, from Bangladesh, and Kotan and Nin, from China. The next week, Suripon, from Thailand, would join us. The Intermediate class has ~20 people. With everyone back at school, the cafeteria was crowded, something we have grown to dislike since we all like sitting together and talking about our day thus far (and perhaps dreading Sensei’s class if the homework has not been finished ). After class was the Welcome Party-self introductions to the 40some Japanese students and English majors. Games (Pictionary and the human knot), talking for nearly half an hour, exchanging of phone numbers and emails. One girl, Masumi , likes Angelina Jolie, so we want to watch “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” at some point. Met Bethany, from North Central College outside of Chicago, who is there for the whole year.
On Friday (10/9), Ko made varsity badminton!!!! Previously he had been playing doubles, but he beat a number of other boys and is now in the elite seven (I think that’s how many)-cool warm-up suit and all.
Saturday (10/10) was the PTA bazaar at Senboku (all parents serve on the PTA). Bazaars are very popular and, like most others, many different foods were for sale (bought delicious soba). Was able to talk with my English teacher, Osawa Sensei, for a great deal of time as well as four first year girls and didn’t actually make it in to see the bazaar . The students had school that day until around noon. Helped clean up afterwards. Then, I met Keira (from the nomikai with Dan, a previous SICEer and current ALT) for “coffee” –heard a great deal about her life in Scotland and London. Back home, could joke around in Japanese. *sigh* WONDERFUL.
The family went to an onsen (hot springs) on Sunday (10/11) and this is an exceptional experience. We left around 3:45pm to pick Ko up at badminton practice and then drove about an hour out into the mountains. The site is old, but the building was relatively new. You enter, take off your shoes, then pay the entrance fee (¥500 for adults, ¥300 foe elementary students). Then you can buy some snacks (we brought our own) and sit on cushions at low tables in an open room, lit by natural light during the day, and rest before going in to bathe. We snacked on some chocolate and drank tea from the counter and I looked at the people sleeping on the floor. Relaxing.
In knowing very little about Japanese baths and being oh so very naïve in general (I hope…), I thought “Oh maybe this is a place where you keep a towel around you.” Ummmm no Hannah, sorry to burst your bubble. Tsukie and I visited the bathroom, then entered the female bath changing area, where valuables can be put in locked lockers (and the key is on a bracelet you wear while you bathe) and your clothes go n wicker baskets on shelves. The best thing though was that it was so comfortable of an atmosphere. Every body type was present, though most prevalent were mothers in their late 20s or early 30s with children (after about age 8, male children go to the male bath) and older women.
We entered the bath area through a sliding door. Along the wall to the right were seven seats with manual shower heads and spigots, both operated by a push button which ran for eight to ten seconds. Buckets and cups were everywhere in order to throw water on one’s back or over one’s head. To the left along the far wall were another six seats, shower heads, and spigots. Baths in homes have the same things-a plastic seat with a shallow bucket to make sure backs get washed. Above each spigot was a wall-mounted mirror and a ledge on which people put baskets containing their bathing things, like washcloths, loofahs, soap, shampoo, and rinse. ALSO on the shelf were bottles of soap, shampoo, and rinse/treatment akin to Mane and Tail hair care products. The next day, my hair was SO soft. I wanted to go back JUST to get me some of that sweetness.
Two baths existed-the main, larger indoor bath, and a smaller one outside in the chilly air. Such a good, calming experience. Nearly all of the women had towels they used to sweep their hair back or wore over their head as if to cool them OR keep the heat in (though I don’t know how or why). Tsukie and I both washed our hair (I at first didn’t want to because of all the hair that comes out when I wash-didn’t feel like being the gaijin who comes in and whose hair clogs up the drain or some tragedy like that. But we dried ourselves and met Ko and Otoosan back in the relax room, sitting a little while before heading out. Ko, the active adolescent male that he was, was a bit hungry so Otoosan bought him an ice cream. I said I was oaky, but he bought me one too.  We had an impromptu English lesson talking about Seattle and snow. It felt good to help Ko and all talk in two languages.
Ate dinner at Bikkuri Donkey (bikkuri means “surprise”), a hambagu place near Aeon Mall, about 20 minutes from home. Busy busy, so looked around at the “gift shop” of sorts, containing keitai charms with Hello Kitty and Bikkuri Donkey, little keychains, chopsticks, pins, etc. We waited about 20 minutes for a table, then fries came as an appetizer. Ending up having a regular: hambagu, rice, vegetables. Then we ate an ice cream dessert dusted with macha powder and containing mochi balls and a senbei cracker (usually accompany tea). Before and during dinner, songs from “Moulin Rouge” played, as did “Take On Me”, “Stop in the Name of Love”, “Like a Virgin”, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, and “Hotel California”. Ah memories.
Monday (10/12) was a break day (oyasumi) and Otoosan took me to a calligraphy showing in a local furniture store (where all pieces are made from a single piece of wood). A former colleague of his had some of is “art” in the gallery (to the rear of the store). Had gyuudon for lunch at home and then headed to a koto (an old Chinese instrument with many strings and bridges like that of a violin; it’s the size of a keyboard, but much wider) concert of nikoo (Morioka’s #2 high school) students (at a hall, much like any concert hall in the United States). Nicole, Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s host mother, Tamara, Mitchell, Ethan, and I enjoyed nearly two hours of beautiful music-according to Otoosan, the best koto high school program in Japan.
A buzzing announced the start of the concert (at 2pm), then another buzzing at 5 minutes past 2pm. Before every musical selection/”act”, two girls who were part of the following piece came into the spotlight in front of the curtain (which was a tapestry of Mt. Iwate), bowed (we clapped), then explained the following performance. First one would speak and tell half the explanation or one part of the explanation, then the other would finish. Then they would bow, we clapped, and they went behind the curtain, extinguishing the spotlight. The curtain would then lift to reveal anywhere from 7-40 girls seated (kneeling), facing the audience. They bowed in unison, we clapped, then they rose slowly and shifted their seated position to play, taking their cue from an individual or two near the center front.
No sheet music was present. Usually the performers were broken into three groups, playing different parts at different times. At the end of the song, they would turn back to facing the audience, bow, we would clap, and then they would rise, no one moving as the curtain lowered. In some pieces, the coach for that specific piece would be called to the stage by one of the girls and they would explain their method/discuss the meaning of the piece/commend the girls on a job well done. At the end of the last piece played (there were six total with a 15 break halfway through), some girls were crying. It was emotional to watch the result of hard work, to see the energy and time be made a reality. On our way out, female teachers/PTA members/mothers stood on one side of the flight of stairs, while the girls lined the other side, a way of saying thank you to us for listening.
On Tuesday, 10/13, I had another holiday due to the PTA bazaar on Saturday, so I went to Gandai and did Internet research on Arabic for Monday’s Non-Roman script paper and presentation. Did much work on Facebook and in email, which felt good. But also did some great research, ending up with around 25 pages of information (in addition to the 15 I had from an earlier Internet search)-too much for a 5-8 page paper. BUT I am getting much better at paring things down, I have noticed.
On Wednesday (10/14), we visited Fuzoku Elementary School. When we arrived, 6th graders were doing a hands on activity on the “playground”-building an open fire in order to make pottery the way Japanese people did AGES ago. We observed an English lesson (for 4th graders) in which students danced to English songs (“Five Little Monkeys”; “Yes We Can”, by Will.i.am, about Obama) and acted like animals in line with an Eric Carle book. We observed two Japanese classes (one 4th grade and one 3rd/4th grade split) and ate lunch with a 4th grade class. A new program has been implemented in elementary schools where no food is wasted and children must eat all foods on their plate. I thought it was delicious, but I am seven at heart -breaded meat put on bun, soup, kiwi, salad with apples and celery.
Prior to the visit, Yuki selected me to assist a fifth year English teacher as an ALT for a lesson. It was WONDERFUL. We met prior to the class so we could talk over how the lesson would go. Talked about where different international foods are from. Due to the short attention spans of children, teachers were very energetic and active, always asking the children their point of view, engaging them in the lesson very well.
The school is owned and operated by Iwate University, not the Morioka Board of Education, and is very much an experimental study in teaching. English is taught to the children all six years of their elementary school education and Fuzoku is very much an active model of how English can/should be taught. The Japanese education system is always thinking 10 years ahead, so Fuzoku attempts to always make the school better and contribute positively to the question of how Japanese students can be taught best. Teachers are trained, educational research is done, and the school contributes to the regional. Fuzoku teachers lecture at Iwate University and other elementary schools. Teachers from other schools visit Fuzoku classes.
Afterwards, we all went to McDonald’s to celebrate Elizabeth’s birthday (Was the day before, 10/13).
Thursday’s (10/14) Japanese class was very much review, as many have been and seem to continue to be, but I think it is good to continually lay a good, strong foundation. Ethan, Abhi, Tamara, Nicole, and I, the Gandai Festival crew (for the festival 10/24-10/25) attended a meeting of all involved groups. Corrected some 2nd year sentences (“I hope…”, “I know…”) Osawa Sensei had them write to me on Saturday (10/10) to me; when I read “I know Hannah is easy” and “I know Hannah’s golden hair is beautiful,” I loved the kids even more than I already did. Oh English…
Friday (10/16) at Senboku was BUSY. Some third year girls invited me to do origami with them after lunch-wow. Now I have iketori on my desk. (Ikebana is “flower arranging”, but I have an origami box filled with origami cranes (“tori” means bird), so I called it “iketori”.) Elizabeth and I did some more bicycle riding practice (she’s getting great!). I ran and then met Abhi, Nicole, Mitchell, and Tamara for dinner at a Thai restaurant ~10 minutes from my house. Suripon, in our Japanese class, recommended the place and it was AMAZING!
Friday night and Saturday night were great because I didn’t go to bed too late and thus was able to wake up at 8am the next days. On Saturday (10/19), Elizabeth and I explored the Morioka Train Station-the department store within it, had a Baskin & Robbins Halloween sundae, and went to Aiina for her to do research and me to pare down my Arabic research. We talked a lot about how surreal it will be to return, to talk to next year’s SICE students…
That day was also the Aiina Friendship Fest with the theme “the world is friends” and Otoosan and I had planned to meet around 1:30pm. Prior to us meeting (Otoosan became delayed, so he didn’t arrive until ~3pm), an older man (probably in his sixties) approached me while I watched a Philippine dance and then a Nepalese flute/drum/guitar group on one of the stages. He (Yamazaki san) knew of Earlham and had visited the United States many times due to his involvement with a Christian church in Morioka. He was with Amnesty International and later on, Otoosan and I visited the photography exhibit he was with. Unicef, Free Trade, and Amnesty International were prevalent at the festival. Also, Japan makes little things seem important where, in America, one may encounter an “Oh, it’s not enough! What are we going to do?!” or dissatisfied patrons who think something was not done well enough. The Japanese just do things WELL. When they do them, they do not do them halfway.
Met a number of people Otoosan knows through his current work or previous engagements, such as Miya Sensei, the general manager of the 5th floor plaza (where we had first met Sugiwara Sensei OH SO LONG AGO), and a couple who, I think, hosted a SICE student some 20 years ago AND the boss of the 5th floor plaza. Otoosan is very popular. While looking at a series of tables, we met the man Osawa Sensei went to Victoria with last year (as its sister city, Morioka sends students regularly), who also happens to be the director of the Gender Equality and International Relations Division of the Morioka Board of Education. Hmmmm. Otoosan had primarily come to see a concert of the same three individuals playing Nepalese music on flute/drum/guitar I had seen earlier-good group with good music; currently helping a Nepalese elementary school (a “charity concert”). Bussed home since Otoosan had ridden his bike and I had bussed with Elizabeth that morning.
Saturday evening and Sunday (10/18) all day (save for Skype time with my mother), was me working on the Arabic report. And it turned out well. I got the 40some pages I had collected down to nine. WOOHOO. And I thoroughly enjoyed making the Power Point, creating a somewhat silly presentation, but I got my point across. Had another Gandai festival meeting tonight (Monday, 10/19) and afterwards, craved daifuku (mochi balls with ice cream in the middle; two-bite size). SO adventure ensued. Ethan, Tamara, and I found a konbini close by that had a package of two large ones, so Ethan and split that. Then, I succumbed to the box of 21 mini daifuku in vanilla, macha (green tea) and azuki (red bean paste). OH BABY. They were individually packaged and everything. I’ve decided that’s what I just might miss the most.
Hope Early Semester Break went well for all you Earlhamites and I hope winter hasn’t come QUITE yet to the Midwest or to Seatown OR to wherever you are.
Love from the Orient,
Hannah (if you need anything: bananasmile@softbank.ne.jp)