Our train to the base of Mt. Fuji.... very fitting

Could not resist a picture with these cute hiking anime characters

During the Silver Week long holiday weekend, Sean and I joined a local community group's trip to the nearby Fuji Lakes region.  The plan was to take the train to the lake, buy some groceries to cook some traditional autumn food (Hoto Soup), take a bus to the campground, go on a nature hike and then make the homemade stew.  We were very excited to hang out with local Japanese people and see a bit of Japan other than Tokyo.

Hoto soup dinner - apparently a regional speciality

Our trailer for the weekend

We met at the nearby train station at nine in the morning and boarded the train together.  The group consisted of me and Sean, Madeleine (another Peace Fellow), Junko (a Japanese government worker), Kaori (a friend of Junko's), Naomi (Japanese community developer) and Yutaka (Japanese government worker).  The journey took about an hour and a half and the scenery along the way was a refreshing change from urban cityscape.

When we arrived at the home base for Mt. Fuji, we bought groceries to make Hoto stew, snacks, drinks and breakfast items.  We took a bus around the lake to our campground and got settled in to our trailer.  None of the Japanese had ever stayed in a trailer before and they were over the moon that such a shelter could exist.  Sean and I were happy that we could both stand up straight in the trailer without stooping.  We hung out by the lake shore a bit before participating in a nature walk and listening to a talk about the local flora and fauna.  By listening, I mean we followed along and watched as our guide pointed at things and then launched into detailed explanations in Japanese.

Our guide explaining about the mountain range and fault lines

Nature walk

After walking, it was time to get started on the soup.  Making the stew involved cutting up vegetables, boiling special thick noodles and adding in miso spices.  The whole process was quite lengthy but the end result was worth it.  After dinner, we shared the tradition of S'mores with our new friends and then squeezed into the trailer to sleep for the night.  Needless to say, in a trailer meant for five Japanese, it was a cozy fit with four Japanese and three Westerners.

Hanging out at the lake

Almost the whole crew

In Mitaka, the small suburb of Tokyo where I live, everyone cycles everywhere.  The bike parking garages on campus and near the subway stations are enormous and there are men whose sole job it is to keep them organized and packed in tightly together.  Sean and I both have bikes and we use them to get everywhere: the station, the grocery store, frisbee, tutoring jobs etc.  This is because it's faster (traffic hardly moves at some points in the day) and it's cheaper (a bus ride one way anywhere costs almost three dollars).

Sean getting his bike out in one of the enormous garages

I am not a skilled urban cyclist and was more than a little nervous getting started.  The good thing is that everyone sticks to the sidewalks.  Though this means bikers are constantly weaving around pedestrians it also means we're not on the road navigating through traffic.  Since Tokyo streets are so small, there are mirrors everywhere to help with merging alleyway traffic onto the main road.

So far, cycling has been smooth sailing but the other night I took a nasty spill.  I was on the way to yoga which is just a few blocks away from the university when I decided to go around a group of people walking and taking up the whole sidewalk.  When I tried to hop back up on the small curb, my tire caught and I fell hard on the sidewalk.  I skinned up my hand pretty badly along with my knee.  I bruised my ribs and leg as well and for the past few days have been hobbling around trying not to cough or sneeze.

Baskets and bungees are a asset to bike travel - here we've tied on two pizzas on the back

But it wasn't the fall that really bothered me - it was totally my fault and I should have made a more conservative decision. What was eerily depressing was that when I fell, nobody around even glanced my direction or offered to help.  There were plenty of other cyclists and pedestrians that simply cruised on by as if I weren't even there.  Sprawled out on the pavement yard-sale style I actually remember looking up at the oblivious passing parade and thinking, "Seriously?" Feeling invisible, alone and vulnerable in a new place was awful and I can't quite shake the emotion that it left me with.

In China, citizens were discouraged from helping each other because it meant that you could get involved with a legal process and possibly even be sued!  But I don't know what's going on in Japan in this regard.  Strangers helping strangers - too much to ask? Thoughts?

In September, Sean and I were invited to help carry the ICU shrine in the streets of Mitaka during the shrine carrying festival.  First we learned a little about the Shinto religion and the traditions of shrines in Japanese culture.  Then we were given special shoes, robes and towels to wear during the event.  The towel was for padding on your shoulder to help ease the pain and weight of the heavy, wooden shrine.  The robes and shoes matched what everyone else was wearing.


Before we started anything to do with the shrine, we had some sacred sake, snacks and met the shrine carrying experts who would guide us along on our way, including the kind of shrine drum master to dictated the speed, rhythm and direction of the group.  Then we took up our positions and started moving in formation with everyone else in a sort of parade of shrines in the city.



To be honest, shrine carrying was not so pleasant.  We were all packed in close together and slimy with sweat.  People were stepping on my feet and the shrine was incredibly heavy; being taller meant that I felt the weight a lot.  We took several breaks because it was hard work and were cared for by our shrine support detail.  This crew followed along behind us dragging a huge plastic tub of iced tea on wheels along with fruit.  It was all quite a production and an experience that I can only describe as "unique."

The food is delicious but sushi for breakfast? Still working on stomaching that . . .

Learning flower arranging, drumming, practicing calligraphy and making sushi are all well and good . . . but what's it really like living in Japan?  Here's some thoughts on the good, the bad and the things that still make us shake our heads and go, "Huh?":

The good

• It's safe - after having panic attacks because of having to walk alone day/night in Brazil, Tokyo (and especially Mitaka) is one of the safest places I've ever lived.
• It's clean - I've yet to see a piece of trash out of place.
• It's organized, efficient and systematic (. . . most of the time and we'll come back to this)
• It's cosmopolitan - it has everything and if you want to, you can feel like you're not really in Japan.  There is food and people from all over the world and most people speak some English.
• The people are polite and respectful (more on this later)
• It's quiet - nobody talks on the trains, subways and buses to the point of it being eerie
• It's welcoming - our community has free Japanese classes and support for foreigners wanting to learn the language and get involved
• Society functions - there are no strikes or shutdowns, infrastructure is solid, and phone and internet service is stable (and uncensored)
• It's timely - you can set your watch by the trains and if you're not five minutes early to class, you're late.  As a person who has heart palpitations if I'm going to be a minute tardy, I feel like I've finally found my people.
• Everybody follows all the rules all the time (there are a lot of rules both written and unwritten)
• It's convenient - all convenience stores are open 24/7 and if that's not good enough for you, you can always head to the thousands of vending machines carrying anything from snacks, pop, beers and cigarettes.  Amazing.

Just hanging some gutted fish out on the porch . . . to dry? Not sure.

Gasp! Caught someone openly breaking a rule.

The bad (sometimes just a different take on "the good")

• It's expensive - holy smokes, this is the most expensive place Sean and I have ever lived, by far (more on price comparisons in another post so you can see what we're up against)
• Oddly, there is no free wifi anywhere - crazy, right? You have to buy your own portable router or "pocket wifi" and carry it with you or pay for outrageously expensive data plans
• Getting a direct answer from someone is impossible and don't even think about expecting to hear the word "No" - if you like talking in circles, Japan is the place for you.  Most of the time I feel like a toddler when I try to get a direct answer as my question/frustration is simply "redirected", put off, delayed or politely avoided altogether.
• Most important communication is not by email or phone but still by snail mail or fax.  I don't get it either.
• If you're a foreigner and want to rent an apartment, you might be out of luck - only about 20% of landlords will even consider renting to non-Japanese and if so, will probably charge you more
• Everything is organized and scheduled but there's no room for creativity, spontaneity or deviation from the norm.
• Everything is efficient and systematic which is great unless you don't understand all of the complicated and unintelligible systems (machines for parking your bike, machines to pay library fines, incomprehensible deposit/transfer actions on ATMs, complicated toilet buttons  etc.)
• The people are polite and respectful but it's way over the top to the point that it doesn't seem real.  I spend most of the day saying "I'm sorry", "Excuse me", "I'm sorry", "Excuse me" and on and on.
• It's quiet because nobody speaks up and everyone is sleeping or drunk from late night business meetings at the bar (on transportation and also in class).
• People are welcoming but it's hard to get close - foreigners are kept at a distance.
• It's clean but oddly, there are no trash cans anywhere.  If you do happen to find one, you'll find an assortment of cans with strict and confusing labels telling you how to sort your garbage.  Refuse separation practically requires a college degree.
• It's sexist. Women are submissive, insecure and openly defer to male colleagues for opinions in society and in the classroom.  It's maddening.
• Dress tends to be formal and the more ceremonial process at events, the better. It's tiring.

That's all for now, I've got to get back to reading.  Have you had any similar/different experiences with Japan?

The lights are mesmerizing in the rain.

Yokohama at night along the river.

During the afternoon, after our morning flower arranging class, we had a Japanese drumming class which was a lot of fun and also very handy for taking out frustrations and stress.  We were each assigned a drum, given mallets and then taken to a soundproof room with mirrors on all sides.  Our instructor for the class was a professional drummer who had been performing Japanese percussion his whole life.


We started out with the basics: how to stand, how to hold the mallets and the different ways to hit the drum to achieve the desired sound.  Then we copied his movements and rhythms as a group while he critiqued our style and sound.  Drumming was a full-body effort as many strokes the mallets had to be raised high above one's head and then struck down with significant force.  Midway through the class most of us were sweating and breathing hard.  Our instructor informed us that he worked out regularly at the gym in order to be able to get through his percussion performances.


We worked our way through a short and simple traditional rhythm which we videotaped.  The class finished with an exhibition performance by our teacher which was quite dramatic and impressive.  The whole experience took me back to my marching band days in high school where I spent most of my time banging away on some kind of drum.  Never did I imagine that one day I'd be able to watch and learn from a Japanese drum master.  If Mr. Bullard could see me now.

The Rotary Peace Center at ICU keeps us busy not only with classes, language learning and guest lectures but also with Japanese cultural activities.  The most recent adventures involved Japanese drumming and the tradition of flower arranging called Ikebana.

This little guy has champion written all over it

Last Sunday afternoon I had the pleasure of taking part in a Japanese cooking class that focused on traditional autumn foods.  The class was half Japanese participants and half foreigners.  My group included an Australian in Tokyo to study Japanese, a German diplomat, a Japanese fashion designer and a Japanese student.




First we listened about the origin of the foods we were going to make and then we had a lesson on Japanese seasonings.  After that, we got to work and put together our own mixes of salmon and vegetables in aluminum foil pockets to be steamed over the stove.

After preparing the rice and miso soup, we enjoyed quite a feast together.  My favorite part was the dessert - I was a bit skeptical of the red bean paste but it quickly won me over.

Here was the menu for the day:

Autumn salmon
Chestnuts and red beans with sesame salt rice
Miso soup
Japanese moon festival style sweets (soft rice cake with red bean paste)
Tea

Dining room and study area, notice the traditional wood sliding doors to separate the rooms

When I saw that there was an opportunity to live on campus in married housing, I jumped at the chance to apply.  The application process was quite long since there are only five apartments and the university tries to keep the dorms very diverse. I had to write essays on our compatibility, adaptability, relationship, international experience and what we would contribute as a couple to the dorm experience.  It was a bit intense, but I was excited when we were notified that we passed and were assigned to apartment #201 for the next two years.

Bedroom, probably should have made the bed

Living in married housing has some huge advantages.  For one thing, it's very affordable.  We pay the equivalent of about 430 USD/month, which in Tokyo is unreal.  The apartment is also very big by the city's standards; most of the other fellows are living in an apartment that is the size of one of the rooms.  It also comes hooked up to electricity, water and internet so we didn't have to arrange that ourselves.  It's also very convenient living on campus as classes are only a five minute walk away, it's a nice space for running and we're close to the cafeteria if we don't feel like cooking.  We opted to rent bedding and for a yearly fee we're not only provided with sheets, comforters, pillows and blankets but we get clean sheets exchanged every two weeks.  Apparently, this is a common service for dorms in Japan and I'm not complaining.

Kitchen and main door to the hallway, bathroom is on the right

Naturally, there are some downsides too such as lists of rules that we have to follow which can be a bit much sometimes.  We also have to share the laundry facilities with everyone else in the dorm which can be challenging when there is limited sun for drying and only two washing machines. Oddly, the apartment did not come with a fridge so we had to arrange to rent one for two years.

Tiny bathroom with shower

Though it's a bit snug and storage is minimal, we're learning how to economize and essentially have zero personal space.  We do, however, have some extra futon mattresses if anyone wants to come and visit!

Our floor plan is the one on the right (one on left is for a single room)

Months ago, I got an email from CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange) that advertised a celebratory 50th anniversary event in Tokyo when we were going to be there.  I studied abroad with CIEE in Chile as an undergraduate and then Sean and I did Teach Abroad with CIEE in China.  We had a really good experience with the organization - the largest non-profit study/teach/work abroad in the world - and have kept in contact with many of the program coordinators there.


This weekend we attended the event at the Japan-American Center in downtown Tokyo and had a great time.  There were about eighty people there to celebrate fifty years of United States and Japan study abroad programming with CIEE.  We had the most fun being able to meet and talk with such a variety of people especially since we don't know anyone in Tokyo yet.  The main bonus of the night, however, was the fancy free drinks and Japanese seafood spread for dinner.



The evening started with opening remarks by one of CIEE's global directors, Adam Rubin.  There were a few short speeches by professors and program directors at various universities in Tokyo and a conclusion by a representative of the State Department, Deputy Director for Cultural Affairs, Jeff Adler.  Once again, I was happy to have Sean in Tokyo with me as he is much better at these kinds of events than I am.  He can easily talk with anyone and is really good at being social and making people feel comfortable.  I'm trying to get better at this and through "networking" we went home with a pocketful of business cards.  Happy 50 years, CIEE!