The Beginning

ARRIVING

Arriving on Kamigoto was indescribable. But I am going to describe it anyway in hopes that you will be tempted to visit me, resolving that you must see this for yourself as soon as possible, for alas tomorrow is never promised. I only saw Nagasaki City in passing, but it reminded me of San Francisco. It had the same noise and smell that happens when city meets ocean, and the same vibe as “relax everything is ok.” The three of us had just met our supervisor at the airport and all too suddenly we left the Nagasaki JETS, like little illiterate orphans being taken home. The ferry ride was something you will have to experience yourself…nothing culturally shocking, just the need for seatbelts.

Coming off the boat, it was dusk and a mist had seemed to settle over the lapping blue/green water. The most dense green mountains rose up all around. There were even steps that went straight up from the water to a shrine tucked into the mountain. It had the time traveling feeling of Jurassic Park. There are even suspicious looking tall fences and “announcements” which a few hours later led me to start making comparisons to LOST.

We went to eat with everyone right away, which was trouble for me at first because the boat had made me sea sick. But, in no time I was eating delicious pork belly, raw squid and chicken cartilage just like everyone else. At such drinking/welcome parties there comes a time where many move on to another establishment for the thirsty.

There we met George. I found this to be the most disorienting experience of all. In the last 5 days I had slept maybe 12 hours. In the last couple hours I had eaten ridiculous amounts of food. And now I was in a dive bar with random pieces of crap, a piano and blue light, with a pimp bartender that was wearing Westwood rhinestone sunglasses and spoke like he was yelling off an English dictionary of only bad words.

The next morning I woke up at 5am in a hotel room, lied there until 6:50am, which was when I finally had the courage to peek out the window only to see more blue green misty mountains. That was the first time I had more than 2 minutes to myself to think since arriving in Japan, subsequently leading to mild hyperventilation.

“YOU WILL GONG. GONG GONG GONG ENDLESS.”

That is something I was not expecting to hear at school. I was also confused as to why the vice principal kept pointing at my shoes. After a little… “Am I supposed to come with you? I go with you? I stay here? What? Ok do I follow him? We go together? Yes? No?...” I found myself following the VP to his car. We literally drove just down the street got out and there is a huge event going on with all the teachers from school and children in Uonome dressed in yukata and dancing and racing boats. (Again the things I wonder when I find myself alone in the staff room…) I realized I would be participating in the boat races as the gong banger in the middle of the boat as the kids and teachers rowed across the harbor. I think they must have thought they were giving me the easy job, but they seriously overestimated my rhythm abilities

It was so much fun! I couldn’t believe myself. I was just laughing and hitting the gong while the kids yelled at me that I was doing it wrong and the teachers were heaving and splashing the other boats. And the crowd was cheering as we went by and I was sticking out like a flaming ball of gajin.

SATANS CONTRAPTION OF MIND GAMES, FESTERING ITCHING, AND SLOW DEATH.

I almost missed my bus today because of pantyhose. Nevertheless I am deleting this explicit paragraph for the children.

FINALLY, TIME TO CONQUER THE SQUATTER

The only people at work today are me, the grandma-chic science teacher and the principal - I presume because I hear shuffling in his office. I am not bored, like I am complaining bored, but just I literally have nothing to do for 8 hours.

I have playing hiragana and katakana games online. I’ve been facebook chatting with the most random people who appear online as a form of self entertainment. But, given the circumstances lunch came relatively quicky and its already 2:30. It’s a little awkward because the only word I have said to the other teacher this whole day was いただきます (itadakimasu, and yes I can read the hiragana because I have been using such free time to learn Japanese), which you are obliged to say before eating anyway.

I was so bored I decided to make myself crap in the squatting toilets just for kicks. I haven’t done that yet and I wanted to accomplish something new today. Well, the mosquitoes must be equally as bored because now, five minutes later I have three bites on my ろば and one on my foot. And I don’t even know if I can say that I really even had a legitimate poo.

JUST FIND AN OLD MAN

So we wanted to go fishing and I thought how hard could that be, all we have to do if we can’t figure it out is find an old man down by the sea. Well…Mark, Robin and I ended up stalking and old Japanese man who had a fishing pole sticking out of his fanny pack as he made his way down towards the water in Arikawa. He turned out to be from Osaka and was here for the fishing. He helped us set everything up and taught us the technique. Turns out the pole we bought was 3x longer than it needed to be and came with a line of 6 hooks. MY GOD I have never seen a line with 6 hooks. The little tiny shrimpys we bought for bait were slippery jokesters, but we each ended up catching a fish in ascending size order! We only caught one fish per 6 hooks though, and all the bait was gone every time. The hardest part was putting them back because they (I) would freak out when you touched them. WHAT A RUSH. A caught my first fish. It had a spine and was really gross to hold. DAH! I just wanted to throw it back. And catch more and more and more.

OBON TEMPLE CRASHING

Saturday night was pretty high on the “I can’t believe my life right now” scale. Robin hooked us up with an invitation to a Buddist Bon ceremony. When we sat down in the temple I definitely felt like a temple crasher though. Everyone was politely staring at us and it was silent until the monk came out and started chanting. Some people were clasping their hands around prayer beads and took turns going up to pray and maybe put money in the incense pot? I’m not sure what was going on. The chanting was very hypnotizing. I was falling asleep, admiring the architecture, trying to figure out what people were doing, feeling the moment, smashing mosquitoes and generally disbelieving my life all at once. Then we all moved outside and lit lanterns while leading a small wooden boat throughout town. The old men were going a little crazy with the firecrackers in the street and the little kids were wearing kimonos and holding lanterns. The boats were designated for each couple of streets to provide offerings for (Offerings for the departed, who’s souls were being guided by the lanterns back to heaven after a brief visit back home). I felt strange leading the boat of their dead ancestors holding this beautiful lantern listening to monks on tape and smelling incense, while we stopped at each house on the way to the bay. But people were nice and tried to explain the traditions to us and made sure our lanterns stayed lit. It felt very festive and somber at the same time. Watching the glowing boats (maybe 6 of them) be pulled out into the water with fireworks being shot over them and nuns chanting with bells was so amazing. Then after a few loops around the harbor they were pulled out toward the ocean and the crowd faded away. We went for some Hotto Motto. That is Japanese fast food.

MO MONEY MO PROBLEMS. STILL GETTING PAID TO DO たわごと.

I expect this all to change when September hits the fan, but for now work is an incredible guilt trip mixed with confusion and shame. Right now its me, two teachers, my JTE and my VP. They see me on facebook. They see me writing this. They seem me checking my email, the news and things I don't even care about in general. They see me studying Japanese (and scoff). What am I supposed to do from 8 till 4:45. I try to piece together a sentence just for the sake of saying something every 2 hours, so they don’t think I am a mute retard, but they don’t think it is cute. And I am always wearing the wrong clothes. Sometimes I will realize I am the only one in the room. Then I wander the grounds looking for anyone, usually finding the VP cutting a bush and that’s about it. I could lesson plan…but what does that mean? I don’t know how to teach. Psh, what do they think I am.