IrishOboe

Friday night (March 17^th) Kasia spent the night and we had a lovely evening and morning together. We made dinner and played with my shamisen and shakuhachi and she got a sound out sooner than I did! The next morning we went for a run, and this time running in the morning didn’t kill me like it did when I tried with Leslie.

Saturday (March 18^th) I rode my bike into south Kofu for a treatment at the same clinic I went to last week. This time it only cost me $5. I can’t say I like the massage better than in the states, but it’s not bad for the price!

I then biked up to Kofu eki for a Hippo Family Club meeting. I had thought the leader would be waiting outside for me, or at least at the entrance of the building, but after waiting a little I decided that wasn’t the case. I then did my best to decipher all the nihongo around me and made a guess that they meet on the second floor. I picked my head in and thought I was wrong, but they saw me and invited me in. This Hippo club is mostly very young kids! When I sat down they were all introducing themselves into a mike in whatever language they wanted to. It was cool to watch! The meeting was two hours long and much of the time there were at least some kids running around playing during the ‘meeting.’ It was great fun to be around families and kids!

I introduced myself in Japanese then we started off by playing games. It was fun! It was strange to see Japanese adults willing to play games with the kids. I wouldn’t be so surprised in America, but it seems most Japanese people wouldn’t do such a thing. Like I said it was mostly young children (age 1 to 8 I’m guessing) and their parents (about 15 of them) and a sweet old couple (70’s?). Everyone joined in! We played London Bridge and group version of janken (rock, paper, scissors) in Korean. It was a great way to break the ice with everyone. The kids were sweet to me and tried to explain things in nihongo and they looked a little surprised when I didn’t understand them . . .

We then split into groups and babbled after the Hippo tapes. It was great to hear the native Chinese and Korean (and of course Japanese) speakers copy the tapes. It was much easier to copy when I could see how the mouth formed the sounds, too.

After that we all sat together again and one family did a little presentation, which I didn’t really understand too much of, sadly. We then had ‘improvised speeches’ where we passed around the mike again and people said for memory various parts of the Hippo tapes. It was interesting to hear how they did this. If they tried a language they didn’t know much about they would often ‘sing’ a more complicated section since they hadn’t distinguished the individual sounds yet (see ‘from the whole to the parts’ on the Hippo website), and now it didn’t matter! People joined in and supported and mistakes were of no importance. How different that is from the rest of Japan! I didn’t escape the mike this time either and since I haven’t been listening to the Hippo tapes much I did an English passage that a number of them had done and I’d memorized through that repetition. Then they encouraged me to try the same passage in nihongo, which I did even though I had to be fed every line. It didn’t matter!

I’m not sure what all to make of Hippo yet and I might not be able to form an intelligent opinion until I’ve been in it for a while. In the mean time, it’s a fun way to be surrounded by Japanese families and language for a few hours a week!

After Hippo I wondered around Kofu for a while then took the train to church. Atley did a one-man drama for the Jewish holiday of Purim, which celebrates the events in the book of Ester. It was well done and very enjoyable. As usual we enjoyed a nice dinner, but since my bike was at Kofu station it was a late, cold ride home . . .

At dinner I rediscovered what my last name sounds like to everyone else. As we sat to eat a little boy came around the corner and shouted “Wightman!” I spell it like that because that is how I heard it, of course! I looked up in a bit of a shock then asked what he had really said since I knew he didn’t know my name. I was told he was surprised by the foreigners and so called out “white man.” Adden said the Chinese say the same thing. I guess it’s only fair that we call them “yellow.” Anyway, nobody’s commented on my last name, but I imagine it seems a little strange to the Japanese! I was reminded of how my 9^th-grade English teacher would call me “blackwomen” because my name was politically incorrect . . .

Sunday (March 19^th) I took the train into Tokyo with Leslie after meeting in Otsuki. We hung around Shinjuku looking at the view from the government building tower and wondering in Central Park. We then met Leslie’s family (cousins a few times removed, I believe) in Harajuku and I got to see live Harajuku girls. If you don’t know who they are (like me before I came to Japan) then I’m sure you can find out all you ever wanted to know and more by doing an internet search. I can’t say it’s my cup of tea, but I did appreciate the Pooh costume.

We ate kaiten sushi (conveyor belt sushi), which was actually quite tasty and had good conversation in English. They are Japanese but speak English quite well. We walked in to Meji Shrine, which is in the middle of a beautiful park with great big trees that block out the city. It looked quite funny from the tower – a big green blob in the middle of a mass of concrete that stretched until the eye met mountains or haze. The shrine was impressive and we also got to see two weddings and a special ceremony for babies. I decided to be a tourist and take pictures . . .

Then we headed for the main attraction – the St. Patrick’s Day Parade! I’m afraid to say it was a bit of a let down, so I’m glad I had such a great time with Leslie and her family. There was plenty of green and big Guinness floats, but most of the parade was just like any other. There were marching bands and baton twirlers and people on stilts and the like. I’d almost given up hope at actually hearing some Irish music (though there was a pipe band that played Scotland the brave) when two groups went by with the real thing! It was a bit hard to hear session instruments in an environment like that, but hear them I did and they had some set dancers, too. I saw some solo dancers but they had their hard shoes on and I doubt they did any dancing on the pavement.

There were so many foreigners there I couldn’t get used to it. I saw white faces and heard English in a variety of accents. It was so weird!

Leslie and I went to Tower Records in yet another fruitless attempted to get some Irish CD’s by Japanese artists. I know they’re out there I just can’t find them! At least I was able to get the question across in Japanese!

Tower Records also had the most amazing selection of foreign books. I think the section on Christianity was better than some Christian book stores in the states! That might be only a slight exaggeration!

Leslie and I had a lovely tonkatsu dinner we both were quite wiped and headed home. It was a good day and I’m glad I went, but traveling sure wears me out!

On the way back to Shinjuki I discovered the hard way that the trains are not like the ones in Boston. Somehow I didn’t realize the doors were closing until it had got my foot and I was lunging toward the people in the train. Luckily the doors did open up again, but they shut so quickly that I found myself looking outside of the train doors at Leslie standing on the Platform! Luckily I knew where we were going and she followed on the next train. The shocking thing is that the train I was on was about 15 cars long and full, though not packed. By full I mean at least 10 people standing in front of the doors. The next train came no more than two minutes later and it was just as big and just as full! I can’t imagine what rush hour is like! On the way home I discovered I have a lovely suveniar from the trip – a great big bruise above my ankle. Come to think of it – it hurt! Next time I’m in Tokyo I’ll take care of the fact that doors close quickly and trains come frequently.

Fortunately, Monday (March 20^th) wasn’t a hard day at school. We had a beautifully sunny, though chilly, first day of spring. I can’t understand the schedule, but I think it’s the last day of school-type stuff for the students, though many will continue to come for clubs and other reasons. We had a big cleaning time and I was disappointed that my least favorite cleaning group was scheduled for my area. Why does that always happen? Well, God chastised me for my judgment by showing once again that what appeared to be apathy, laziness, and distain turned out to be the horrible beat of shyness once again. I managed to get a conversation started with two students and even though I sent the cleaning team off after 20 minutes of the scheduled 50min cleaning time they stayed talking to me for an hour and a half! Once again, I discovered that they knew so much more English than I’d realized, though of course they had trouble expressing themselves. I wish I could be a fly on the wall that understood Japanese so I could get a glimpse as to what makes them the way they are! In any case, I enjoyed the conversation and got a promise that they’d come back, so I assume that means they enjoyed it, too.

After arriving home I was so excited about the prospect of two days to prepare for Mom and Dad’s visit because tomorrow’s a holiday and I’m taking the next day off, that it felt like a Friday and I completely forgot about Bible study! That was a shame so I comforted myself by trying to make okonomiyaki. I’m not sure how linked the two are . . .

It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t right. I’m excited to try again, though, because it was tasty and quite easy, too.

That’s it for now. It’s 10pm already and I’m pooped.