A few more months worth of freedays and observations.

Hello again from the Land of the Rising Sun, as the Chinese dubbed the country many centuries ago.

As you might expect, I have been very busy since my last update in November. School life has settled into a comfortable routine. I ride to school and get there at about 8:30 in the morning. I help teach a few classes in the morning and usually have an hour or two free to study Japanese. I eat lunch in a different class room everyday. The students are always excited to see me enter the room at lunch time. Sometimes they talk to me, sometimes they don't. After lunch there is a free period, and I have begun playing Shogi with the students.

Shogi is the Japanese version of chess. It is very similar to chess, so I was able to figure it out quickly. In some ways I like it more than chess. When you capture an opponent's piece, you can put it back on the board for your own side. In one of my school's the students are not allowed to play games, but in the other two, I enjoy a game or two of Shogi before my final class of the day. Then, I head home and go to the gym or Tai Chi or rock climbing or Japanese class.

At school, I have settled into a routine with my teachers. Some only use me to stand up there and read an occasional sentence. Others like me to do a five or ten minute warm up activity before standing up there and reading an occasional sentence. A few make an effort to never use the text book when I am there and plan fun activities for the whole class. A couple of others always ask me what I have planned and let me run the whole 50 minute class.

I no longer visit third grade student classes. They are too busy for fun and games. They will all take the entrance examinations for High School during the next five weeks. The examinations for the private High Schools started yesterday and continue through the 8th of March, when the public school test is given. This is a very big deal to them and they have spent a lot of time studying.

On Thursday, at Kamoike Junior High School, the students were given a large pile of papers describing how to behave and what to do during this weekends testing. For an hour, they were told a million little details over the loud speaker. They were told to get a good night rest, to eat breakfast, to take public transport to the test, wear a clean uniform, make sure no buttons are missing, use the toilet at home before they go, bring their own slippers, not to fight with students from other schools at the test site, cut their finger nails, call the homeroom teacher as soon as they get home and not to eat during breaks. They had so many rules to remember that I will be surprised if there is any room left in their heads for the actual test material.

Last August I started to learn the Hiragana alphabet. Hiragana is the Japanese writing system used for verb endings, prepositions, pronunciation guides, general "Japanese" words and most non-verb and non-noun parts of speech. It took a while to learn all 46 symbols, but I have got it down pretty well now. In October, I started on Katakana. Katakana is sort of like the printing version of the cursive Hiragana style. Each of the 46 Hiragana symbols has very different Katakana version. Katakana is used for foreign loan words, of which there is a surprising number. Many foods, foreign names, and all of the thousands of borrowed words in Japanese are written in Katakana.

An amazing number of things are written in Katakana. Once I was able to read it, I could understand a lot. The only trick is trying to guess the English word buried in the Japanese pronunciation. There is no way to write the "TH", "L" or "V" sounds in any Japanese writing system, so they have to approximate with "SE", "RA" and "BU" instead. This means that "Love" is written as "Rabu" in Japanese. Some words, like "Aisu Curimu"(ice cream) are easy. Others, like "Hochikisu" (Hodgekiss - the word they use for stapler) are a bit more difficult to figure out.

Finally, I have begun to study Kanji, as well. Kanji is the picture writing system that was borrowed from the Chinese. Kanji is used for people and place names, as well as for verb roots and most nouns. Some of the pictures look like what they are supposed to mean. So, it is easy to read mountain, because it looks like a mountain. Most are much more difficult. There are about 80 basic elements that make up the majority of Kanji characters and I am starting to become familiar with them. I would have to learn about 2000 of the well over 10,000 to read a newspaper. I don't expect to ever read a newspaper.

Ever since the first time I learned to read, over 25 years ago, I have enjoyed reading. As I become familiar with more and more characters in the various Japanese alphabets, it takes me longer and longer to walk down the street. I try to read as much of every sign as I can, so a one block walk can take about 15 minutes as I slowly sound out each letter. I can still hear my mother's voice in my head from 25 years ago encouraging me to look at the word and "sound it out".

Sometimes, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. I went to my favorite store in town, Outdoors Station, and found an application for a rock climbing class. There was a lot of undecipherable Kanji on the form, but I could read the parts in Katakana that spoke of rock climbing, middle and expert classes, top-roping and other climbing terms. I signed up and went on the appropriate day. Everyone took turns climbing on the 40 foot wall. I had my turn and only got up about half way before falling off and being caught by the rope. When I got down, one of the other contestants told me "Not to worry, every one does poorly in their first competition." Competition? This was the first I had heard of a competition, I thought it was a class. Needless to say, I came in last place. The next day I bought some climbing shoes and a harness and now I go out to the wall a few times per week to practice.

Speaking of competitive events, I ran in my first 10km (6.2 mile) race in January. I went down to Ibuski for the 22st (22st is their spelling -last year was the 21th and I suppose that next year will be the 23nd) Nanohana Marathon and had a good time. I had stopped training six weeks before due to the cold, so I was well rested. The main event of the day was a marathon, in which about 6,000 people participated. I joined the smaller crowd of nearly 3,000 for the 10 km race. I started in the back, so it took nearly two minutes for me just to get to the starting line.

For the first 5km there were so many people packed into the street, that it was difficult to pass anyone. During the second half of the race, it was still crowded, but I could finally speed up a little bit. I was good and tired by the end, but finished in a decent 52 minutes. After the race, I headed straight to the beach to get buried up to my neck in the naturally heated sand. Then I went back to the road to watch the marathoners finish. Even after five hours, there were still hundreds of them passing by. I have a few more races planned in the next few months and I hope to improve my times. I am making the Nanohana Marathon of 2004 my training goal.

I am still spending one day each weekend on a long bike ride. Click here to see my bike, it is in the Products page, the Great Journey 1. I usually go about 60 or 70 miles in a different direction each week.

I had nine days of free time during the New Year's break. I finally got a chance to take my new bike out for a true test. On the 28th of December, I loaded up my tent, stove, food, camping supplies and bike tools and headed northwest. I knew I was off to a good start when I got to about 2,000 feet above sea level and it started to snow. I came down the other side of the mountain and into the rain. I went almost to Nagashima, in the extreme Northwest part of Kagoshima Prefecture. I camped near the ocean and rode on into Amuksa in the Kumamoto Prefecture the next day. After spending a night near some hot springs, I continued on to Kumamoto City. I saw one of the three best preserved (recently reconstructed) ancient castles of Japan. I also ate the regional specialty -raw horse meat sushi. The neck was white and chewy and not my favorite. The chest meat was tasty and red and well marbled with fat, as they like all their mammal meats here.

Kumamoto is a bigger city than Kagoshima and I saw many things there that we do not have here. They had ATM machines open until mid-night and a Starbucks coffee shop. But I don't miss those things here in Kagoshima. I don't often bank late at night and I don't drink coffee. Besides, we do have Haagen Daaz and Baskin Robbins ice cream shops in Kagoshima.

From Kumamoto, I headed east and camped near Gokase, in Miyazaki Prefecture. I camped near the southernmost ski resort in Japan. The operative part of that phrase was ski resort and not southernmost. It was cold. Then I went to Miyazaki City and Aoshima Island on the east coast of this part of Japan. I soaked in a nice hot spring and then continued south. Along the way I saw some monkeys. At Cape Toi I saw wild horses, but I had no soy sauce, so I left them alone. The whole southern coast of Miyazaki Prefecture is lined with interesting rock formations which I could admire from my bike as I rode through the rain.

After a few days of being cold and wet, I decided to head home early. I ended up riding about 400 miles in eight days. I still like hiking better, but I now think that a bike would be a great way to get from hike to hike on some future multi-month vacation.

I was glad I cut my ride a day short. A few hours after I got home, it snowed for the first time in 16 years in Kagoshima City. It snowed all night and all day the next day. The snow stuck around for about three days and many children had their first snowball fights. On Monday, the little elementary school boys were so cute in their super-short shorts and uniform jackets. None of them strolled to school that day. Nope, they all ran through the snow with their little knees knocking, no doubt looking forward to the days when they will be Junior High School students and will be allowed (required) to wear long pants every day. The girls also looked cold in their skirts, but they will not be allowed to wear tights until they get to High School. But, they can wear shorts under their skirts and as many shirts as will fit under their sailor uniforms.
Last Wednesday, it snowed for the second time in 16 years, as well as the second time this month. It was hard to keep the student's attention in class since they all wanted to watch the snow storm outside the big windows. But, it was fun to watch their breath as they talked. I stole a page from their book and started heavy layering. On the cold days, I now wear long under wear under my pants, and three jackets over my heavy work shirt and undershirts. The class rooms are well ventilated and don't really start to heat up until about 30 minutes after class starts. After it ends, the doors are opened up again as people come and go. Then, the cold comes and the heat goes. The teachers return to the teacher's room and stand around the little kerosene heater with the teapot on top and complain about how cold it is.

For the past two weeks, many students and teachers have been absent. In some classes, as many as 10 students were missing, out of 35. Some schools were closed due to lack of attendance. There has been a bad cold going around, which they call influenza, but I think we just call it the flu in English.

Many students, especially girls, carry around cute washcloth sized towels. In the summer they used them to blot sweat off of their heads. Now, I have discovered that they have a winter use as well. They can blot their nose if anything leaks out. As every good Japanese knows, it is rude and disgusting to blow your nose in a tissue. If you do, you are stuck with a dirty piece of garbage in your hand. No, it is much better to sniffle. The music of 30 people in a room sniffling is truly unique to my experience. The towels are just a back-up, in case gravity proves to be stronger than suction. I have this picture in my head of young Japanese children, sitting in front of the TV when they have a cold and blowing their noses. In my vision, their mothers scold them and say "Stop blowing your nose and just sniffle." I imagine that none of them have experienced the horror of being chased and smothered by a tissue and told to blow.

I mentioned the wonders of mid-night banking in Kumamoto City. The banking system here has taken some getting used to for my. Here the banks are doing you a favor by looking after your money and you have to fit your visits to them into your schedule. They do not pay interest on regular accounts, but they do have some 6 month CDs that return a whopping 0.2%. Yes, that is less than one percent. Don't even ask about the rate for a one month CD. Banks are open on weekdays, from about 9:30 am until 3:30 pm. Most of the cash machines are located in the bank lobby and remain open until about 6:00 pm. Often, they are open for about eight hours on Saturday as well. The rest of the time, the miracle of 24hour banking has not yet arrived to Japan, except in Tokyo airport and a few other places.

People do not use checks here and credit cards are extremely rare. Cash is used for all store purchases. When the amounts get too high, or when you want to give money to another individual or organization, the direct bank transfer is used. When I want to pay my rent, I race to the bank to get to the ATM before the attendant goes home and the ATM shuts down. I punch in a bunch of numbers, deposit my coins and bills into the machine and send it all to my landlord's account electronically. My friends bought a brand new car using a bank transfer. All of the applications for the races I enter also come with a bank number so that I can transfer the registration fee directly to them at the post office. The bank accounts still use passbooks and the ATM machine accepts them as well. I discovered yesterday that the machine can even turn the pages in the book when one fills up and it wants to start printing on the next page.

On the note of Japanese technology, some things here still confuse me. They have a high level of technology in many areas, but on the evening news, they do not always make use of it. When the newsreader is talking about the operations of a ship, he moves a little plastic ship around his desk to demonstrate. Many things on the news that have been presented by computer graphics for years in the US are shown with cardboard posters and tape and magnets here.
I am still getting to sushi quite often, as well as learning to make my own Japanese rice balls and pancakes (they have squid in them).

Since 1995, I have organized my life so as to avoid winter. To me, there has only been tourist season and rainy season. Cold weather season meant climbing a mountain, hot weather season meant going to the beach. Here, they organize their seasons differently. I do not even have to move to change seasons. One month it summer, later it is fall, and then a few months later it is winter. It is strange for me to witness the change of seasons without traveling. It also means that I can not get warm again by just lowering my elevation. I am already at sea level. This whole winter thing is taking some getting used to, especially since it is the coldest winter in a very long time here. But, on the 21st of December I was happy. Up until that day, every day since the day I arrived in Japan, was shorter than the previous one. Since the end of December, however, every day has been longer than the one before it and I can expect this pattern to continue for many more months still.

For the first time since July of 1995, I do not have sandal tan marks on my feet. I have no tan marks anyplace. Too much bundling up I fear.

Re-contracting decision day was yesterday and I formally requested a second year here on the JET program. So, after the summer that I am looking forward to, it seems that I will have another winter to survive. But, survive I will, and no doubt enjoy as well.