when in oguni...do as the ogunians do!

Friday, October 22, 2010

I really thought regularly maintaining a blog would be rather easy, but I have failed miserably. Sorry about that. I guess the good news is that I haven’t been writing about my experiences because I’ve been so busy, well, experiencing them. Really though, it’s time for an update!

Well folks, summer is officially over. I added two layers of stockings, an undershirt under my undershirt, and gloves to my work outfit this morning and finally figured out how to turn on my heater when I got home tonight. Wait a minute—wasn’t I looking forward to fall? I couldn’t possibly have overlooked an entire season! The leaves are still green and it’s still October! Uh oh. If these temperatures are any indication as to what the approaching “cold” season will be like then, ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry to announce that I won’t make it back to you next spring. I’m going to turn into an American-popsicle and freeze to death in Sendai...not to be dramatic or anything. :-)

Anyway, the day after my last entry, I took off to spend a few days in Tokyo. Interestingly, I didn’t realize until I was on my way out that six months to the day had passed since my arrival in Japan. How fitting that I spent my halfway-mark returning to where I started here six incredible months ago. Of course, the city felt quite different to me on my last visit than it during my daunting first few days here. I traveled alone again with the same pink-and-black backpack strapped around my shoulders, but I didn’t feel anything like the girl that was there last spring. I calmly and easily navigated the same subway systems that literally brought frightened tears to my eyes the first time I saw them. I comfortably and peacefully wandered around the city visiting the LDS temple, running into friends (and in a city of 13 million people, that is pretty cool), exploring new Tokyo districts, and spending my early mornings writing and reading in a lovely park near the temple. I reflected quite a bit on my time here and while I would love to share some of those thoughts, I would not make it on to any more updates if I allowed myself to get started there. Maybe another time!


My favorite place to spend early mornings in Tokyo.

I came back to Sendai refreshed and ready for another week of work. Unfortunately, my body decided to betray me and I got a terrible cold that didn’t go away for almost two weeks. Coughing and being congested is never fun, but there are few things more detrimental to one’s ability to teach than a scratchy throat that is ready to burst into a coughing fit at the first attempt to speak. I armed myself with cough drops, tissues, and enough honey to satisfy Winnie the Pooh, and went about my lessons. Much to my dismay, my sore throat only increased though and by the end of the week, I had almost lost my voice entirely. I forced out a sound that slightly resembled a human voice and did my best—I had teachers offering to take over my classes and take me to the doctor. They are so darling! Of course, I assured them that I was fine, but I appreciated their sincere offers. Still, the most touching responses were from my students. They were so patient with my attempts to teach audibly and after class one day, one of my girls slipped me a little note covered in red hearts and smiley faces. “Kari-sensei,” she wrote, “Please take care of yourself. I want to listen to your beautiful voice!” Ha ha ha, I know. Pretty stinkin’ cute!

Luckily, I was back to perfect health in time to visit Oguni, Yamagata for a music festival held a couple weeks ago. Tyla lives there and her friend Yas organized a huge two-day concert in the mountains, so several people gathered at her place for the weekend. Sarah, Tauna, Tyla, and I haven’t been together at the same time since last March and so we were all REALLY excited for this weekend. I was expecting a fun getaway with my girlfriends but ended up having so much more fun that I could have ever anticipated. It was an amazing weekend!

Tyla has often told me about her “small village town” and I know she hasn’t been exaggerating, but still, it was hard to picture the lifestyle she described in a small, remote Japanese town while I am living in a large city, one of the central hubs of Eastern Japan. As I stepped off the train and into Oguni’s only train station, I instantly fell in love with the charming little place. A sweet man at the train station couldn’t accept the “big city” train pass I use to get around everywhere in Sendai and I could almost hear the eyes stretching and jaws dropping around me as people jerked their attention toward the tall, foreign girl speaking English in the corner. There aren’t many foreigners in Sendai and I’m used to small children gawking at my white-girl-ness everywhere I go, but this was a room of adult men and women. What could have possibly made me more conspicuous? Tyla running into the station and chatting with me, of course! We jumped in her car and the expressions were priceless as the two blonde girls walked around speaking English and towering over everyone!

We headed straight to one of Tyla’s schools, where they were holding a Kendo match! Kendo is a form of Japanese martial arts and is more or less based ancient sword fighting, but with sticks. It was really cool. We met the town officials and school board members and had the Japanese paparazzi photographing us throughout the entire match...ha ha ha. Afterward, they had us pose with all the Kendo students for some group shots and then we were invited over to the community center for a little post-match party. There was SO much food! And liquor...lots of liquor. Japanese people are incredibly friendly, but also extremely shy, if that makes any sense at all. They are very hospitable and kind, but at quite an emotional distance. As we all know though, alcohol has a...unique...way of obliterating such reservations. As the hours passed, the people became louder, friendlier, and more hilarious. One of the directors of the Board of Education kept giving us hugs and tried teaching us “magic tricks.” We ate ridiculous amounts of food; some of it was rather sketchy (and not in a good “sketch-mex” kind of way), but most of it was delicious.

At some point the dinner led to arm-wrestling matches with the locals.
This guy ripped off his shirt and challenged us. Chuma took him on and almost won!

We spent the rest of the weekend exploring Oguni, catching up with each other, and jamming to every minute of the two-night concert. Wow. Japanese people get crazy ha ha ha! I don’t even know where to begin describing the events of those two nights. It was kind of like a combining a Sugarhouse drum-circle with a reggae concert, rave party, and the Japanese version of Westminster College’s student body. Oh yes, it was that good. :-) It was pouring rain most of the time but they covered the area next to the stage and it all just seemed to add to the atmosphere of our crazy hippie party in the mountains of Oguni.

The nights were kind of a blur of dancing, eating, and rocking out with total strangers that became instant friends. Still, I remember that at one point I ended up on stage, dancing with one of the DJs, Tyla broke up a fist fight between a couple men, and our friend Will stepped into a drum-circle jam session and taught a Japanese girl how to play the Didgeridoo. :-) The first night was really Westernized and pretty much felt  like clubbing on a mountain, but the second night was very earthy--mostly drums, chants, and all that marvelous hippie stuff he he.

During Rabi Rabi's performance--absolutely the favorite group of the weekend.

Unfortunately, the weekend soon came to an end and we all had to head back our separate ways. I love Sendai, but I was a little sad to leave that lovely town. Luckily, we took some time to plan future trips together though and I’m really excited! I’m going to spend winter vacation traveling with Chuma and then we (Sarah, Tyla, Tauna, and me) are going to get together again on December 31 to celebrate the New Year together in Tokyo. We’ll stay there for a few days, hit up Tokyo Disneyland, and then Tyla and I are going to attend a Sumo match! YES!

The Fantastic Four - reunited again!

I can’t even process that it’s already been two weeks since my Oguni trip! Summarizing the latter half of this month will have to wait for another post though. I have to run some errands and catch up on some side-work; plus I realized that I haven’t even posted pictures online from this summer yet and, as we established, summer is OVER. I need to get on the ball! I’ll write more soon—seriously this time...!

All my love <3

P.S. Happy Birthday Emerson Romney Parkin! xxx