Week 5 begins with me on a mission for a new and improved bike. While my orange bike was a welcome gift from the outgoing NET what I neglected to mention is the condition of the bike itself. From a dented front fender to the worn out treads the bike had seen better days, add to it that it appeared to be a mere 24 inches when one much larger would be better for me I decided to purchase a new one after a tire incident in which the tread cracked and began slowly releasing air from the back tire. I spent most of Sunday checking prices at a few of the stores in Kasugai before settling on a full service bike shop right near the school. As I had mentioned before bikes in Japan are merely for getting place to place so the prices are significantly lower than the bike market is in the States. For about 17,500 yen ($160) I picked up a brand new sea foam green 27-inch bike. Oddly enough in Japanese random fashion the model stenciled across the frame is FROMAGE, which being the French word for cheese left me scratching my head. After paying an extra 300-yen to have it registered with the shop it appears I now am able to have minor issues repaired for free at the shop for a few weeks. I took advantage of this right away the following day by having the seat and handle bars raised to their max height as well as having an extra large basket fitted on the back for errands requiring the ferrying of larger bags i.e. grocery store, dry cleaning pickups etc. I spent the remainder of Sunday doing some grocery shopping before heading home for the Sunday movie at 9PM on Channel 61. As great as DVD’s and Internet related content can be I still like the feeling of watching something on my TV as rare as that may be due to the language barrier. The movie of the week are almost always American movies so they are broadcast in dual language tracks allowing me to switch over to English and watch them on my small flat screen TV just as if I were back in the States. Although this weeks movie, Poseidon starring Kurt Russell was not my favorite it still feels good to watch a movie on TV like you used to at home. I am already getting excited for Mission Impossible 2, which according to the commercials is next week’s movie.
Monday I slept in and then got dressed for a day out as I headed to Nagoya around 11AM to use the free WIFI at Dotour Coffee Shop near the station. From there I took my first trip out of the Nagoya area on the local JR train to a town roughly 30 miles north of Kasugai called Gifu City. Unfortunately for me I did not arrive in Gifu until almost 4PM so I was now not going to be able to see both items on my list, namely the large golden Buddha statue and shrine the town has as well as all the sites in Gifu Park like Gifu Castle which sits atop one of the large mountains in town. The castle can be reached by taking the Kinkazan Ropeway cable car to the top of the mountain. Since the Buddha shrine was closing in less than an hour I decided to head to Gifu Park which was open until 6:30PM aboard a local Gifu city bus. After taking a few photos at the park I boarded the cable car and reached the top leaving me about 40 minutes to take some photos of the city below before heading down on the last car at 6:30PM. It seems there are many more things to see in Gifu and as it is only about 10 dollars round trip on the train I hope to make several trips back to the city in the future. After leaving the park I strolled across the street to a Chinese chain restaurant called Bamiyan for some friend rice and gyoza before beginning my trip back to Kasugai. The only real story of note was I attempting to ask some passerby’s which route I needed to take via the bus to return me to the Gifu JR station. Thus far buses seem to be the most difficult to maneuver in Japan since all the signage both on the bus and at all the stops is in Kata Kana and Hiragana. When taking either the JR (local) train, the subway or certainly the Shinkansen (Japan’s version of Amtrak) you will almost always see English translations both when boarding, riding or exiting both the train and the stations. As I crossed the street I spied a middle age woman making her way down the dark street across from Gifu Park. As soon as she caught sight of me standing in the bus shelter she immediately edged closer to the rail on the other side of the sidewalk and began looking down at the ground her gait slowly increasing as she approached. Realizing she was a little freaked out by me on this desolate stretch of road I thought about letting her pass without trying to ask her which way to “Gifu eki” but since the street was so quiet I feared I might not get another opportunity. As she neared I summoned a Sumimasen (Excuse Me) only from the look on her face when I spoke it seemed her worst fears were confirmed that this foreigner was going to try to talk to her as she attempted to pass by. With a wave of her hand she sped up as if in an Olympic Speed Walking event and began heading down the street as if a pack of wolves were close on her heels. I am sure only her Japanese politeness stopped her from altogether shrieking with terror and running in the opposite direction. Fortunately for me not more than 2 minutes later another slightly younger woman approached and when asked she was only too happy to explain that yes this was the place to wait for the bus and confirmed that it would stop at the Gifu train station. Also fortunately she seemed to have some mothering instinct as she sat next to me on the bus, explained when the station was approaching and since she was also going there too walked me into the departure area even though I was already clear where to go from there. As I headed for the platform for Nagoya she gave a smile and a wave before setting out on her own train. Once again my travels in Japan prove that you can never be sure what you will find, one person thinks you are a foreigner bent on attack while another takes you almost by the hand to help you.
Another week at school passed with little change, more long hours at school with much planning as we have a week of supplemental lessons to teach for Halloween. The only thing that has become more apparent is how stringent the life of Japanese children especially teens seem to be in Japan. On many nights at school often I have private lessons with students that begin as late as 8 o’clock in the evening and while I had the luxury of not beginning work until noon my students were up as early as 5 or 6 and have had an entire day of school before coming to Amity for their English class. In many cases students depending on how rigid their particular school curriculum is attend regular classes on Saturday or at the very least go to school to meet with study groups, attend school club meetings or have sports practice. When attending these things at school it is not done in casual weekend wear as all students are expected to be in full uniform when at school even during the weekend. It is not strange for me to see children out on the streets even on a Sunday in their full school uniform. Japan as far as I can tell seems to be an extremely tired and overworked population though that it what is expected. You only need to take one trip on any sort of public transit to see children, teens and businessmen and woman slumped down dead asleep regardless of the time of day to realize they seem not to be getting proper rest. In talking to one of my 15 year old female students she explained how often she does not go to bed until 2 or 3 AM after dinner and hours of study and homework only to rise at 6 or 6:30AM to begin it all again. Early on in my teaching I made the mistake of explaining how American students leave school usually no later than 3PM. When explaining this to a group of Japanese high school students they looked at my like I was kidding them with the prospect of what for them would be a half-day. Even at Amity there are groups of students who come every Saturday for 3 or 4 classes on what most would consider their “day off from real school”.
As the week was drawing to a close I made my stop to the Backbeat after work Friday to check in on Kazuhiko and Mikka this time I was joined by my friend Ryan, my co net as well as one of the female Japanese teachers from my school. Kazuhiko was excited I was bringing some other friends along as the four of us plus the 4 or 5 regulars made for the largest group I had seen at the place since I started going there. After 3 or 4 beers we headed home around midnight with Kazuhiko making sure I would be back next Friday as one of Mikka’s Japanese friends who lived for a time in Australia would be stopping by. I am still not clear but Mikka’s slight smile as he told me of her visit made me think my new Japanese friends might be eyeing a “set up” but I can not be sure. More to follow on this topic. After work Saturday I quickly rode back to my apartment, changed and headed out to the station so as to get the earliest train I could to meet up with Ryan in Nagoya. After a change to the subway I arrived in Sakae at about 9PM and headed over to a bar called the Hub. For the first time since I arrived in Japan I encountered a packed bar loaded with mostly foreigners and had a couple of pints until Ryan arrived with some friends. Adam the basketball player from California I met two weeks ago was also with them as he was back from an away game the Dolphins had played in Osaka. Although I was convinced I was going to take the last train back to Kasugai at around midnight as Ryan planned to I was having a little too much fun and ended up heading out with a new friend, Darren to a club a few blocks away called JB’s where Darren knew some DJ’s who were going to be playing that night. Whether due to the loud music, crowded location Darren and I got separated after 1AM and I lost track of him completely by 2. Fortunately I met some English guys and a group of Japanese girls for the remaining time and as it approached 4AM I figured I was ready to go. Two interesting things were it was the first time I have ever seen a beer vending machine in a bar. It actually is a great idea, if the bar was too crowded just pop 500 yen into the machine for a cold Coors can right there. Also the music at clubs is hilarious, never do the Japanese feel the need to be too cool for school when spinning music, while at JB’s not only did the club go nuts for Oasis’s Don’t Look Back in Anger (not exactly a club anthem) but even more funny, That Thing You Do by the Wonders from the Tom Hank’s movie from a few years back. I stumbled out in the early Japanese morning before settling in a booth at where else Denny’s (just like home) and ordered a meat and rice dish called Doria (I think) as well as a cup of coffee. In more Japanese politeness related news the waitress did not even wake me when I fell asleep for about thirty minutes my coffee cup still in hand. After scanning the place to see who was laughing it appeared half the people in there were doing the same thing so I paid the bill and headed out to wait for the 6:08AM train home to Kasugai.
Why do several of my stories involve me sleeping in more and more public of places?
Catch up with Week 6 of the blog for all the details, will I make it home safely, are my new friends really playing matchmaker, why are the Japanese determined to feed me so much, will I attempt to again “eat outside” and why are cormorants such darn good fisherman.
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