Previously, I mentioned a Kaseda Matsuri or festival, with much food and dancing and all the local families coming out to celebrate and meet their friends, just like a fireman's carnival in the states. The festivals were held on the street right below my apartment so I was always aware that something would be going on, and I would be right in the middle of it.
On this early Saturday morning in September the hammering woke me up before 8. I looked outside, and it appeared they were building a large, shallow rectangular pool. I assumed they were making a wading area for the children. I had early on observed the Japanese loved their children and grandchildren. I went about my chores and didn't pay much attention outside. I had wash to do and cleaning, and the usual weekend tasks. Suddenly I heard shrieking and screaming and had to run to the windows to peek outside.
Well, it was a shallow wading pool, but its purpose was not just for the kiddies. Instead, farm-raised sea eels had been released into the pool. Then the kids went in and caught them. Their catch could be taken home and eaten. Silly me! I really had to remember that in Japan I was truly a tabla rosa, a blank slate and I knew nothing even when I thought I had it all figured out. The eel pool was a great big success, and parents and kids were happy about it. I was glad I had observed it from a distance, as I am not a big fan of live eels. But I have eaten unagi, the eel that is served with a thick, heavy teriyaki sauce, and I am a fan of that. If you put sugar and soy sauce on just about anything, it becomes edible.
Once school started,, some of the students were not so shy. They knew where may apartment was and they had met me in their classes. A friendly student named Tomomi came up the steps and got me to go downstairs an hour or so after all the fun in the pool had ended.
We got in line with another student, her friend, Shian, and I got my first matsuri (festival) dancing lessons. Everyone was joining into the groups of practiced dancers and having fun. I didn't feel like a foreigner doing this. I had to remind myself again that this was a unique experience and to keep it for my memory bank. But I fit in to a group of people of all ages having fun in the sun.
We then checked out the food booths. No funnel cakes here, but something like them though not sweet called takoyaki were available. They bake little muffins in small pans and inside each little muffin is a piece of tako (octopus). They are a little chewy and can be found at festivals and roadside stands, similar to hot dog stands.
But we went to a Tako on a Stick booth and ordered that instead. They were cooked in teriyaki sauce and put on a stick. Look out corn dogs! Chewy, but like I said, sugar and soy sauce and I could eat it. It wasn't bad at all. If you go to live in a foreign place, you need to try to rid yourself of the "ick" factor. You will have a much better time, although everyone has their limits. One of the Kagoshima specialties was tori sashimi, raw chicken. Even though I lived there for 4 years, I would never try it.
A tip on learning to read Japanese. The top 4 symbols say Ka Se Da Shi which means Kaseda City. The symbols are written in hiragana characters. The characters below are written in kanji. It is very difficult to read Japanese because you need about 2,000 kanji characters to read the newspaper. Highly educated academics need to be able to read 4,000 kanji. Hiragana is an easier way to write all the separate sounds in Japanese, without using the pictorial like symbols taken from the Chinese characters. Hiragana has over 200 symbols, which I learned to read while I was there, although I still didn't know the meanings of most words after I put the sounds together. I only ever conquered a little over 200 kanji and remained basically illiterate the entire 4 years I was there.
I studied the hiragana not only from books but by going to karaoke and reading the words while the others sang. TV news and maps for weather helped with kanji, which then enabled me to use the bus and train system, as I could identify the cities names. Of course, reading labels at the store finally helped me understand why the beef did not taste like beef in the US. Half the time I was buying a pork and beef mix.
Some words use a mix of hiragana and kanji, so I could only read some of the syllables. It was a huge challenge and while it was a barrier, I loved when I read something! My first attempts were signs hanging in front of stores. I don't know how many times I read ta ba ko (tobacco) to some disgust, since I have never used it. But soon I could read un a gi, unagi (eel), so I was learning if ever so slowly. There are also another set of symbols called kana, also over 200 in number. I could also read all of these. They are used to express foreign words, like ar bei to, from arbeit meaning work in German and arbeito was used for part time work. If this sounds confusing, good! It totally was. Especially when the Japanese would know the word was a foreign one and they would expect me to recognize/translate it even though it could have been French or German, as in the case of arbeito.
From then on, if I was in town and there was a festival on the street below, I made it a habit to attend. I was meeting enough people through school and at the restaurants and through the original friends, and Nancy and Brian that I could run into people and exchange greetings and have a reasonably good time even though I went out on my own.
Around this same time Nancy had started taking me to some of her adult evening classes that were in her list of duties. These were women and a few men who were closer to my age and we could share conversation about a lot of things we had in common.
Nancy was fluent in Japanese, but I could still add some ideas and lots of laughs with my hand motions if nothing else. Some of these people became our best friends and would have us over to their houses often throughout our stay, to meet friends, enjoy a holiday, or to pass a cold winter's night with a hot pot of wonderfully cooked foods.
I have never taken to a lot of the sashimi or raw foods, and one of my favorite memories was at one of these home parties, when I mentioned I wouldn't eat the raw oysters. But I said I liked them fried. I was sorry I mentioned that, in one way. The hostess, Junko, couldn't move to the kitchen fast enough, while with another 10 or more guests coming, she quickly made some of the best fried oysters I ever ate, just for me. I really had not meant that she should do that, and I still feel guilty that she went to the trouble.
However, I started getting used to a pattern here. I might feel like I fit in; but I was different and I would always be a foreigner, especially in this rural area. However, they wanted me to like them, their culture and their country, and, therefore, they would jump over hoops even though I didn't need them to do that to make me happy. Sooner or later, a lot of us ALTs really liked this celebrity status they gave us so happily. We did not realize at that time that we would have reverse culture shock when we returned home. In our own countries we would not really be that special any more.
On this early Saturday morning in September the hammering woke me up before 8. I looked outside, and it appeared they were building a large, shallow rectangular pool. I assumed they were making a wading area for the children. I had early on observed the Japanese loved their children and grandchildren. I went about my chores and didn't pay much attention outside. I had wash to do and cleaning, and the usual weekend tasks. Suddenly I heard shrieking and screaming and had to run to the windows to peek outside.
Well, it was a shallow wading pool, but its purpose was not just for the kiddies. Instead, farm-raised sea eels had been released into the pool. Then the kids went in and caught them. Their catch could be taken home and eaten. Silly me! I really had to remember that in Japan I was truly a tabla rosa, a blank slate and I knew nothing even when I thought I had it all figured out. The eel pool was a great big success, and parents and kids were happy about it. I was glad I had observed it from a distance, as I am not a big fan of live eels. But I have eaten unagi, the eel that is served with a thick, heavy teriyaki sauce, and I am a fan of that. If you put sugar and soy sauce on just about anything, it becomes edible.
Once school started,, some of the students were not so shy. They knew where may apartment was and they had met me in their classes. A friendly student named Tomomi came up the steps and got me to go downstairs an hour or so after all the fun in the pool had ended.
We got in line with another student, her friend, Shian, and I got my first matsuri (festival) dancing lessons. Everyone was joining into the groups of practiced dancers and having fun. I didn't feel like a foreigner doing this. I had to remind myself again that this was a unique experience and to keep it for my memory bank. But I fit in to a group of people of all ages having fun in the sun.
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| If little kids can do the dance, I should be able to learn it, too. |
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| "We start out like this....." ( My apartment is right behind me.) |
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| Tomomi and another student, the fellow in the white pants, Shian, taught me the basics. Tomomi lent me her hapi coat. |
We then checked out the food booths. No funnel cakes here, but something like them though not sweet called takoyaki were available. They bake little muffins in small pans and inside each little muffin is a piece of tako (octopus). They are a little chewy and can be found at festivals and roadside stands, similar to hot dog stands.
But we went to a Tako on a Stick booth and ordered that instead. They were cooked in teriyaki sauce and put on a stick. Look out corn dogs! Chewy, but like I said, sugar and soy sauce and I could eat it. It wasn't bad at all. If you go to live in a foreign place, you need to try to rid yourself of the "ick" factor. You will have a much better time, although everyone has their limits. One of the Kagoshima specialties was tori sashimi, raw chicken. Even though I lived there for 4 years, I would never try it.
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| Tomomi and I eat Tako on a stick. It's chewy, but quite good! |
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| The six symbols in red say Ka se da Ma tsu ri in hiragana. |
Some words use a mix of hiragana and kanji, so I could only read some of the syllables. It was a huge challenge and while it was a barrier, I loved when I read something! My first attempts were signs hanging in front of stores. I don't know how many times I read ta ba ko (tobacco) to some disgust, since I have never used it. But soon I could read un a gi, unagi (eel), so I was learning if ever so slowly. There are also another set of symbols called kana, also over 200 in number. I could also read all of these. They are used to express foreign words, like ar bei to, from arbeit meaning work in German and arbeito was used for part time work. If this sounds confusing, good! It totally was. Especially when the Japanese would know the word was a foreign one and they would expect me to recognize/translate it even though it could have been French or German, as in the case of arbeito.
From then on, if I was in town and there was a festival on the street below, I made it a habit to attend. I was meeting enough people through school and at the restaurants and through the original friends, and Nancy and Brian that I could run into people and exchange greetings and have a reasonably good time even though I went out on my own.
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| My apartment was on the corner, second floor, of the building on the left, which gave me a bird's eye view of the street activities. |
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Nancy was fluent in Japanese, but I could still add some ideas and lots of laughs with my hand motions if nothing else. Some of these people became our best friends and would have us over to their houses often throughout our stay, to meet friends, enjoy a holiday, or to pass a cold winter's night with a hot pot of wonderfully cooked foods.
I have never taken to a lot of the sashimi or raw foods, and one of my favorite memories was at one of these home parties, when I mentioned I wouldn't eat the raw oysters. But I said I liked them fried. I was sorry I mentioned that, in one way. The hostess, Junko, couldn't move to the kitchen fast enough, while with another 10 or more guests coming, she quickly made some of the best fried oysters I ever ate, just for me. I really had not meant that she should do that, and I still feel guilty that she went to the trouble.
However, I started getting used to a pattern here. I might feel like I fit in; but I was different and I would always be a foreigner, especially in this rural area. However, they wanted me to like them, their culture and their country, and, therefore, they would jump over hoops even though I didn't need them to do that to make me happy. Sooner or later, a lot of us ALTs really liked this celebrity status they gave us so happily. We did not realize at that time that we would have reverse culture shock when we returned home. In our own countries we would not really be that special any more.
If we feel that way in our own country, just think how our foreign visitors must feel.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting thought! I once saw a worker at the food counter in Minneapolis treat a Chinese lady rather rudely. Since the worker's accent was strong, the Chinese lady was having a difficult time any way, and the worker really didn't seem to have any patience. But she made a comment back to me that the Chinese lady had no problem understanding her when she said how much she owed. I was upset, and didn't know how to respond because really any traveler knows to learn the money exchanges and every language learner starts out with the numbers!
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