Japanese life

There’s a reason why people move to Japan for a year and end up staying for five or six, there is too much to experience, and the longer you stay here the longer you want to stay! I’ve had a recurring nightmare where I go to sleep in Japan and wake up in Canada. It’s not that I don’t miss Canada, it’s just that I don’t feel fulfilled, I still haven’t had enough of Japan and I don’t know if I ever will. (But don’t worry I still plan on returning to Canada!!)

    The last three months I’ve become very busy. I now tutor three times a week, and three to four times a month I meet a small group of Japanese teachers for the evening. I get a free dinner in exchange for helping them develop there English skills, which to me, is easy. I’ve also been continuing with my Nihongo lessons, and my vocabulary is expanding daily! Furthermore, there is always something exciting to do here, whether that be partake in peace rally’s, hike in the Alps, go to an onsen, see a concert, eat out…the possibilities are endless.

   Now that I’ve gained a deeper awareness of Japanese culture, I would like to share a few of there practices with you. One Japanese tradition is onsens. An onsen is a Japanese term for hot spring. Japan’s worldly location not only makes it a earthquake target but also provides hundreds of natural onsens across the country. Onsens were an appealing aspect to my autumn visit to the Northern Japanese Alps. I wanted to hike in the fall foliage and relax in the outdoor onsens. But, before I get into my trip details, I need to explain the onsen etiquette.

   Upon entrance you neatly place all your belonging, including your clothing into a bin. The indoor onsens are separated by sex, since you bath in the nude! To me, this would make most people from North America very uncomfortable, but you have to let go of public nudity phobias and just do it! My first time I entered under false pretences, and I probably wouldn’t have gone had I known I had to go in the buff!

    Before entering the hot spring waters you need to cleanse. There are usually a few washing stations with stools, shower heads, shampoo, soap and mirrors (every women’s worst nightmare I know!). Then you simply relax in the soothing waters, and can hop from bath to bath if there are more then one. Some onsens even provide small towels that you can bring into the bath with you to make matters more private. The difference between an onsen and a public pool is the water, it’s not heated tap water it’s natural water with chemicals or minerals in it that some people believe have healing powers.

   In Japan there are many different types of onsens. There’s the traditional wooden built baths, herbal baths, cool baths (in case you overheat), some even have themes such as green tea, sake, red wine, etc. Then there are outdoor onsens, this is where things get a little more riskier as they are usually co-ed. There are also different waters as well, iron, sulphur, sodium-chloride and hydrogen carbonate. Outdoor onsens are usually in mountain rural settings, and can be man made facilities with outdoor views or onsens in the middle of the bush.

   So, back to my autumn visit to the Alps. I set out for a small town call Hakuba, settled at the foothills of mountains, it was the site of the 1998 Nagano Olympics ski jumping competition. I left with two of my fellow foreign English teachers for a two day hike, in search of a mountain lodge with enticing natural outdoor onsens. We finally reached the lodge after hiking for close to seven hours, and our bodies were screaming for some type of relief. Hiking in the Alps, was not at all comparable to Mt. Fuji. The trails were more rugged, there were less people, our bags were heavier, and there was more then one trail. At one point, we lost time going down the wrong trail, and when we were advised by some experienced Japanese hikers to give up on finding the onsen lodge, since darkness was upon us, we still decided to venture on. The next three hours of our hike were downhill, in the dark, alone……..perhaps not the best decision we ever made.

The lodge we stayed at was well worth it though. We shared our own tatami mat room, ate traditional Japanese food for dinner and breakfast and were able to use the indoor and outdoor onsens. It was a paradise located between mountains in a mosaic of orange, red and yellow trees.

   The second day we had to face the challenge of hiking back, and at this point I think I became delirious at the thought of making it back in time to catch the last gondola ride down the mountain. Was it possible? My entire body felt like I had been hit by a bus, my bad knees made it painful for me to bent down, my back ached from the weight of my bag, and hiking back up and down a mountain seemed impossible, since I was popping Advil like it was candy.

    The three of us decided our battered bodies needed to soak in the onsens and enjoy the view before we had to powerhouse it back. As we ventured onto the hiking path leading us to the outdoor onsens we passed another foreigner, who advised us the onsen at the top had the best view and was vacant. We made our way past a few and finally found the one at the top. It was perfect. The water was steaming, the mountain air was refreshing and there was no one around, it was all ours.

    We had all come with our swimsuits, but decided we were going to go the traditional Japanese way, which I’ll let you figure out. We had just slipped into the healing waters, and had took our first breath of relief when we spotted a visitor. Yes, we weren’t alone after all. A Japanese man decided to enter our bath, which made things a little awkward to say the least….good thing we had the mountain view to look at. It seemed like the minute we entered the bath we set off an alarm, ‘Attention men: Foreign women bathing at the top,’ because minutes later two more Japanese men came to our bath. At this point, Rachel, Ali and I become closer and started to silently converse over the possibilities of getting out discretely.

    Although we were bathing with complete strangers, and we felt somewhat exposed, they weren’t making us feel uncomfortable at all, they were simply enjoying the bath (or so I would like to think!). Long story short, we were eventually able to slip into our bathing attire and exit the bath with some decency!!  Later that day we made it back to civilization. 

 

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      It has been such a learning experience living and working in a homogenous country. The Japanese school life is fascinating and I learn something new almost every day. In grade one the children not only learn all of hiragana and katakana, two alphabets with over a hundred characters, but they also learn over a hundred kanji characters. Kanji, for those of you who are not aware, extends from Chinese characters and one character usually is one word. Japanese people learn over a thousand Kanji symbols between grade 1-6, and even more later. It is remarkable, I’m still having trouble remembering katakana!

   The school activities here are strongly tied in with Japanese tradition, which is very unique since culture and school do not combine in North America. For instance, the grade five and six students have home economics, where they learn how to cook traditional Japanese food. I’ve been able to watch a few of these classes and more recently, partake in a grade 5 festival where the students made mochi. Mochi, is a white paste like dough, that comes from rice flour. It is traditionally made and ate around New Years. It can be eaten with soy sauce, dried sea weed, or in bean powder. I know, it sounds appetizing doesn’t it?!

   The process of making mochi is a community event, and I realized this by the amount of people from the community that came to the school to help the grade 5′s make it. I walked up to the outdoor event and was immediately greeted by some of my students ‘Brittany sensei, ‘Brittany sensei,’ and then dragged by them to a crowd where the mochi was being made.

  A large wooden bowl contained the mochi dough, and one of my students had a long wooden hammer and was pounding the mochi. In-between the hammering an older man was added a bit of water each time, while moulding it with his hands. When the students saw me, I was given the hammer! Then after my weakened attempt, I was led by my students to the tasting table and given mochi to eat! It was mae-mae! That’s ‘not so bad’ in Japanese.

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     Aside from observing Japanese culture, I’ve also been able to observe American culture in a interesting context. The largest navy base outside of the U.S is basically next door to where I live. The American base has both a positive and negative effect on the community. The American government actually provides funding to the Yokosuka community, and the base hires Japanese people to work on it. One of the students I tutor is actually trying to get a job on base since the pay is good, which is why he is learning English. 

There is one main conflict between the Japanese and the navy base. The American’s have a ship titled ‘George Washington,’ all of the American fleets are named after previous presidents, and this ship has nuclear materials on it. When it is docked in Yokosuka there is always some type of Japanese protest. How could there not be?  The American’s dropped the first nuclear bomb on Japan and it led to so much suffering and turmoil for the Japanese, so to have an American nuclear ship docked in Japan, I would image, is slightly offensive to the Japanese. The last protest had a couple thousand people attend, and many of the Yokosuka Japanese teachers go to support the protesters. I know a few American teachers that work for my company but live on base, and they’re seen their Japanese co-workers protesting, which I’m sure makes for an interesting work dynamic! 

     There is an area just out the main base gate called the ‘Honch.’ This area of Yokosuka is classified as the American bar district, and American navy officers even patrol the streets at night. On a few occasions I’ve ventured into the Honch for a few cocktails, how could I not, in an odd way it’s a little taste of home. One particular evening I was out with the girls. We were unaware that six or so of the ships had docked that night and that the bars were going to be full of sailors who had been trapped at sea for months, only surrounded by testosterone. If we had known this, I’m sure we would have opted to stay home. 

   We entered a bar called ‘Budweiser,’ a popular wooden cabin look alike bar with American style Karaoke. Before we knew it, we were being offered drinks, dances…it was literally overwhelming. There were men flexing there muscles for us, showing off there tattoos, it felt like we were items to be won, it was amusing and entertaining all at once. Being in the Honch is like being on a rare planet dominated by egotistical males who have been kept in isolation and who go insane around the presence of females, since they are almost non-existent.

    As much as we enjoyed the ego boost, and rare English conversation, we’ve decided to stick to our Japanese bar circuit. The reason being, it’s impossible to go to a bar in the Honch without being hassled by drunk American men, but I will return for the NY pizza!

• Japan
• hiking
• TEFL