It’s easy to get used to living in Japan when you are here every day for months at a time. I’ve noticed that since I’ve come back to Japan from a brief vacation in California, things seem a little more strange and interesting.
Today Kuniko and I were back to school. Neither of us had classes, just an opening ceremony. For me, the day was pretty relaxed, with the most pressing issue being how to distribute all the omiyage from my trip. I dealt out candies like poker cards, and everyone seemed really happy with the hand that they got.
After the opening ceremony I was free, so I changed clothes and spent about an hour shooting baskets in the gym. The basketball teams (boys and girls) were both practicing in there, so I practiced with them a little and had a good time. The students would occasionally come by and tell me how great I was at basketball. They were really just trying to use English, and I was happy to speak with them a little bit. I know I’m not great at basketball.
I studied a couple of newspaper articles that a teacher had cut out for me, and then in the afternoon I left school. Before leaving I had the vice-principal stamp my time sheet, and I noticed that he had taken the opportunity during the long vacation to dye his hair a shade darker. I have a feeling that there is a lot of hair dyeing going on in Japan.
On the way to school I noticed that they were setting up hundreds of tiny stands around the Nishinomiya shrine, and sure enough, at the end of the day there was a big festival going on. I found out that it is a three day festival. Since Antoine and I were going to meet up in Imazu, I went over there and brought him back to the festival instead.
The festival was packed – the city had closed many roads and people were walking all over the place. Everyone was carrying a lucky tree branch – the main attraction of this festival – and it reminded me that I had a lucky tree branch from a few years ago at home. I wanted to buy a new one, but I first have to bring back the old one and replace it. I guess the luck doesn’t accumulate the more branches you buy.
Antoine and I walked around the place and enjoyed all the sights and sounds. We walked into the shrine, bowing underneath big paper waterfalls that priests waved around to bless visitors. Inside the shrine was a huge tuna fish, and people placed money all over its surface for some sort of good luck.
On the way out of the shrine we walked through a huge sales area. Like I said, the main item was the lucky tree branches. The boths were manned by girls dressed in religious robes and wearing special headdresses. The girls watched us as we walked by, smiling in our direction in the hope that maybe we’d stop by and buy a branch.
After walking around we pulled into a booth and ate some okonimiyaki and had some beer. Antoine told me all the stories about his trip to America with Miwako. He made their engagement official over there, and his family was very excited. He also found out that his sister is pregnant, so there was a lot of happy family members around his household.
The more we walked around the more I bumped into my students. They all wanted to chat with me and Antoine, and it started to become really hard to make any progress through the crowds. We ducked into a yakitori to get away for a while and have a beer. The people were really excited to have some foreigners in the restaurant, and so we talked with them a little bit and ordered some chicken cartilage off the menu to go with our beers.
I’ve been in Japan for more than three years, but I still like to see how excited people get when a foreigner is around. They try hard to speak English, and they are genuinely curious about you and where you are from. It was nice to get a little bit of that tonight.
Finally we finished up there, and then fought through the crowds at the train station and went our separate ways. Now I’m home and I’ve got the place in pretty good shape. Kuniko is at a school event tonight and won’t get home until late. I’m looking forward to tomorrow – I can start to teach some classes again.
