Something Old, Something New...Japan!

Starting the weekend off right!

What a week. Nothing went inherently wrong, but it was a demanding week at いい中学校. With some of the schools, the teachers take a backseat role. At other schools, it’s more like car surfing: they’re not even in the vehicle anymore and I’m there alone with my white knuckles and 30 odd petrified/giddy passengers. Sometimes, I don’t know exactly what the teacher wants from me in the way of a lesson, so class 1 is a shot in the dark; class 2 lets me apply whatever notes and advice I can glean from the teacher during the 10 minute break and class 3 is typically the ideal lesson. Though, I do feel bad for the first class because I feel like they got completely shafted. But again, maybe I’m just paranoid. 

“Maybe?” I can hear you say. Shuddup.

Anyway, five days, 14 classes and two earthquakes later, it was Friday afternoon...

Kites!

Quick side-note: In the afternoons, Japanese students clean their school. It teaches pride and responsibility and makes for one squeaky clean establishment day after day. At いい, the fuku kocho sensei likes it if I walk around and supervise the students. It usually turns into a “Maa-ta Sensei!” free for all, which is fine by me: it lets me talk to the students less formally outside of the classroom and practice my Japanese a little while they can practice their English. Anyway, Friday afternoon, I was walking down the hallway and one of the girls was cleaning the floor the traditional way: taking a damp rag, laying it flat on the ground with both hands then sprinting across the floor! It’s quite a sight, really! I was laughing and the girl with the rag stood up and asked if I’d like to try.

Why the hell not?

It’s actually a little harder than it looks, mostly because the floor is slippery, partly because I was in my work pumps and lastly because oh my god, you go so much faster than you expect to! 

I slipped, rolled across the floor, knocked over the bucket of water and bowled over a cluster of first year boys who were taking out the trash from their classes. I broke my nose and split my lip.*

(*Note: None of that happened. It was fun and I enjoyed it.)

So anyway! Back to my hard-earned weekend! This weekend was National Marta Learns About Kitakami History Weekend. I went to the Michinoku Folklore Village and Kitakami City Museum on Saturday. The museum was opened in 1973 with the theme, “Nature and Culture Around the Kitakami River” and the intent of passing on Kitakami’s history to the people. 

Ancient Pokemon

See Jack. See Jack BEAST IT!

The exhibits range from taxidermied wildlife to religious and culturally significant artifacts of both war and everyday life. The oldest artifacts are the Jomon people earthenware, hunting weapons and tools. Then the exhibits move through the decades and go as far as the early 1900s. 

The village is an open air museum that displays about 30 preserved farmhouses and buildings from different historical eras found throughout the Tohoku Region, not just in Kitakami City. You can actually enter a few of the buildings including the 300 year old Kanno’s House. It’s a huge house with a thatched roof where the village head lived. Inside the large main room was an open fire pit with a large iron pot hanging over the fire from an enormous beam. Travellers and the family could hang their damp straw sandals from an iron frame hanging from the same beam. This frame could also hang meat, herbs and roast nori while you wait on the square benches around the fire pit. 

Other buildings included Tearasaka Checkpoint House where travelers between the Nambu and Sendal feudal border would be inspected. After, if you passed muster, you could have a nice cup of tea from the set kept in the corner of the room. There are also a few shrines, water gardens and vegetable patches. 

One of the most grand buildings is the Oizumi’s House and the Watanabe’s Gate: a samurai’s house and symbolic gateway which both indicate authority and power. There are two doors leading inside but you enter according to your station: the nicer, larger door is obviously for high ranking officials and guests, but everyone else has to duck in through a smaller, less impressively decorated doorway. 

A few of the houses show what it was like to live in an agricultural village. The Hoshikawa’s House is known as a nanbu magari house: it’s shaped like an L because in one part of the house was a stable for the horses! Not only did it keep the house warm in the winter, but it also shows the close relationship between men and their horses whether it was for use in the field or in battle. 

So during this whole excursion, there were a few people walking around the village, but since the was a bit windy, the place wasn’t crowded. However, there was one visitor in particular that really caught my attention: a man in full business attire. Three piece suit and he was walking around the houses, poking his head in and admiring the buildings. I’d see him on minute, then he’d disappear around the next corner. Then suddenly, he came sprinting up the hill and was gone like a shot! I was startled, but you know, didn’t think anything of it. I walked down the same hill and was getting ready to walk into a new building when….

Samurai house and gate

BEES!　A HUGE HIVE OF BEES was just a couple feet away on a small tree by the path! A giant buzzing ball of hatred and death! I did just like the salary man and bolted, but stupidly down the hill and right into a dead end. The bees weren’t chasing but damned if I had to go right back up the hill past them! Fortunately, no damage was done. 

But as I was walking back up the hill, I passed two other visitors, more locals to the area. They were going down the hill. I thought about how the salary man had just blazed by without a word, maybe out of fear of the bees or fear of the foreigners, but I didn’t want to risk their getting attacked. So after a little quick translation research, I jogged back after the couple calling, “Sumimasen! (Excuse me)!”

If you can't afford a horse, a goat will do in a pinch

The stopped and looked a little alarmed to see this crazy-eyed foreigner running at them, but with some charades—using my finger to draw loops in the air and making a buzzing sound—I was able to tell them “hachinosu…chu-i.” I may have also poked my arm and said “Ouch.” But the woman caught on and seemed relieved and grateful, but the sweet part was she actually was concerned and asked if I’d been stung! I assured her that no, I wasn’t, and she bowed with an “Arigato gozaimasu” as we departed. So, a great day!

So Saturday was the Old Japan, today was more about New Japan. There are a few things about Japanese culture that you would not expect to find here. Among the rice paddies, the obaachans hunched over in half walking to the market, and the beautifully tended bonsai gardens are incredible and often enormous second-hand stores!

In Kitakami, there is a tiny store that looks more like an episode of “Hoarders,” but up Route 4 is this place:

It is a wonderland inside. I’ve driven by it almost every day for the past two months and couldn’t figure out what it was. It has a 24hr sign with “DVD, CD” advertised, but you know, a big building with no windows…you automatically assume “pachinko parlor.” But after watching young kids, old men and business suits walking in and out of the place for weeks, I decided this was the day I’d squash that curious cat within me.

I was not disappointed! My local second-hand utopia is very similar to the one I posted about from Hachinohe: electronics old and new, used clothes, brand new guitars, and of course, claw machines! I’ve found my new playground, ladies and gentlemen. 

Pleeeease I can haz?

Chicken Teriyaki Pizza...la?

And that’s the end of my weekend. I have some new/old work shirts, a noggin full of Kitakami history and a good deed under my belt. Bring it on, work week! This Tuesday, three of my four schools will get a visit from the company I work for so they can monitor my progress and see if I’m living up to the high standard set for me. I’m trying not to worry myself sick over it. 

I found where you left your childhood

The verdict later this week!