光陰矢のごとし Time Flies

Time sure does fly by quickly! This month marks two years of me living and working here in Seika Town as the Coordinator for International Relations. This is also my final entry into this blog as two years is the length of my job contract. When I think back over my time in Seika it is hard to believe that two years could fly by so fast, but at the same time I have experienced so much, and met so many people that its hard to believe that its only been two years.

One of my favorite parts of my job here has been going out into the community and interacting with people of all walks of life. For example, I think that from my visits to all five elementary schools in Seika I know every single young child living in Seika. Also, my visits to the Kashinokien Day Service Center gave me a great chance to meet and talk with some of Seika’s more experienced citizens. Then of course all of the people I was able to meet at all of the international exchange events and festivals that I have taken part in. Everyone in Seika has been so kind to me in my time here and because of the warmth of the people here I have been able to have many amazing experiences.

My only other experience living in Japan was during a year of university in Tokyo. Tokyo is a fun and exciting place, but I am very happy to be able to have had the opportunity to live in a more traditional town like Seika where the people are friendly, the air and water are clean, and I was able to experience things like rice planting/harvesting, the Igomori Festival, and my favorite of all; eating school lunches with the kids at elementary schools.

I honestly had no idea what to expect before I came to Seika, but my time here has allowed me to meet interesting people, and take part in experiences I would not have been able to imagine before coming here. But of course my job wasn’t all about what I could learn, rather what I was able to contribute to Seika. So I truly hope that in my time writing the newsletter column, teaching at schools, giving presentations in the community, and helping out at various festivals that I was able to have an effect on the lives of Seika’s residents. I would be happy if something I did or said changed people’s impressions of Americans and foreigners for the better, broke down a long held stereotype, or helped to aid international understanding. My biggest hope is that I was able to encourage the younger children to think of the world beyond Japan, and hopefully to inspire some of them to learn more about foreign cultures, peoples and languages.

I want to thank all the people who have been reading this blog and for helping to make my time here a wonderful and rewarding experience. I know that no matter where I end up in life I will always consider Seika as a second home.

　時間がたつのは何て早いのでしょう！精華町で国際交流員として働くのが今月でちょうど２年となりました。そして、仕事の契約は２年間ですので、今月のコラムは最後となります。私が精華町に暮している時を振り返ると、２年間がそんなに早く過ぎ去るとは信じられませんが、一方で色々なことを体験し、多くの優しい人々と出会ったので、もう２年たったのかあと言う感じがします。

　精華町のコミュニティで様々な住民の方とふれあうことは仕事の業務の中で一番好きな役割でした。例えば、町内５小学校全ての学校訪問のおかげで、精華町の小学生は全員知っていると思います。また、かしのき苑への訪問では、お年寄りの方と出会え、素晴らしい話し合う機会がありました。そして、たくさんの国際交流イベントと祭りなどで多くの人々と出会うこともできました。精華町に暮していた間に、みなさまが非常に親切で、心の温く接してくださったおかげで、大変素晴らしい経験になりました。

　日本に住む経験の中では大学の時、東京に一年住んだことがあります。東京は面白くて、楽しいところですが、精華町では人々が優しくて、空気と水がきれいで、田植えと収穫を体験でき、いごもり祭りを見られ、小学生と一緒に給食を食べることができ、これらの伝統的で文化がある精華町に住むことができて、大変嬉しく思っています。

　精華町に来る前は、どんなことをするのか、正直全く知りませんでしたが、ここでは予想できないことを体験しましたし、面白い人と出会うことが実現しました。しかし、私の仕事は、自分自身が何かを学ぶことだけではなく、むしろ精華町に貢献することですので、このコラムを書いたり、学校を訪問したり、地域の講座に行ったり、祭りに参加する時間の中で、精華町民のみなさまの暮らしの中で何か影響を与えることができたらと思っていました。私の発信や行動によって、アメリカ人や外国人の印象を変えたり、ステレオタイプを打破したり、国際理解を深めたり、することができたのでしたら嬉しいです。子どもたちの世界観を広げて、将来に外国の文化や人類や言語などに興味を持ってもらえることは私の一番希の望していることです。

このコラムを読んでくださったみなさま、そして全ての方々に、大変素晴らしくて、価値のある経験をさせていただいたことを感謝しています。私の人生の旅は、どこまで歩んでも、第２の故郷は精華町であると思います。

京都市でのお花見 Flower Viewing in Kyoto

そして、大阪城公園に行った翌日に伝統的な京都市でお花見をしに行きました。祗園で舞妓さんを見かけて、桜もきれいだったし、とても楽しかったです。丸山公園の桜も満開で、人がいっぱいでした。

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Then the day after I went to Osaka Castle Park I went to traditional Kyoto City to do some more flower viewing. In Gion I saw some Maiko, and the cherry blossoms there were also very beautiful. In Maruyama Park, the flowers were also in full bloom so there were a lot of people.

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大阪城でのお花見 Flower Viewing at Osaka Castle

先週末の良い天気のかげで、今年初花見ができました。土曜日の昼頃友達と一緒に大阪城公園に行きました。もちろん、お花見をする人々が多かったが、その上、公園の中コンサートもあったので、すごい人いっぱいでした。でも、桜が満開だったし、温かかったし、完璧でした。お花見の楽しい雰囲気があるので、一年中この季節が一番いいと思います。

Thanks to the nice weather of this past weekend I was able to go for my first flower viewing party of the year. On Saturday afternoon I went with my friends to Osaka Castle Park. Of course there were a lot of people there to enjoy the cherry blossoms, but there was also a concert in the park too so it was so crowded. But the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and the weather was warm so it was perfect. Because of fun atmosphere of flower viewing I think this is the best time of year.

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梅のお花見 Plum Blossom Viewing

日本では春になるとお花見が大人気の遊びです。多くの人がお花見を考えたら、桜と想像するでしょう。今京都府では桜がまだまだ咲いていないので、先週末に京都市内の植物園へ梅を見に行きました。そのときに、梅が満開だったので、とてもきれいでした。桜より梅はもっと深いピンクと紫色だし、白もあるので、すごくきれいな景色でした。

In Japan once it turns to spring during hanami (flower viewing) is a very popular activity. For most people, thinking about hanami conjures images of cherry blossom trees. Right now the cherry blossoms have yet to bloom in Kyoto Prefecture so last weekend I went to the Kyoto City Botanical Gardens to see the plum blossoms. At that time the plum blossoms were in full bloom so it was very beautiful. Compared to the cherry blossoms the plum blooms in deeper pinks and purples, along with white so it creates a really gorgeous scenery.

(下の写真は早めに咲いていた桜です。 The picture below is a early blooming cherry blossom tree.)

冬の気分 It Feels Like Winter

土曜日の夜雨が降っていたので、日曜日の朝に起きたとき、窓から外へ見て、雪が積もっていたのはすごくびっくりしました。今まで精華町に住んで、２年目の冬ですのに、初めて雪が積もることでした。約５ｃｍしか積もってなかったが、すごいけれいと思っていました。

そして、その冬の気分で、友達と一緒に京都市の西京極にあるアイススケート場に行きました。なんとか、今までの人生は一回もアイススケートをしたことがありませんでした。だから、初めてでした。一発目は怖いと思っていたが、頑張って三時間をスケートしたら滑れるようになりました。勿論、倒りましたが、楽しい経験でした。

This past Saturday night it was raining all night long so when I woke up and looked out the window to see snow covering everything on Sunday morning I was really surprised. This is the second winter that I have lived in Seika Town but this was the first time I have seen snow covering the ground. There was only about 5cm of snow covering cars and in the rice fields, but I thought it looked really beautiful.

So with that feeling of winter, my friends and I went to the ice skating rink in Nishi Kyogoku, Kyoto City. Somehow I have made it this far in my life without ever once having ice skated, so this was my first time. When I first stepped onto the ice it was really scary and I didn’t even see how I would start. But we were there for about 3 hours so by the end I was able to skate fairly well. Of course I fell down, but all in all it was a fun experience.

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スノボード Snowboarding

Even though I have lived in Japan for a total of two and a half years now I had never gone skiing or snowboarding until recently. I used to snowboard a lot when I was a teenager and then less frequently when I got into college so I am decent at snowboarding and I do really like it. I guess the reason why I had never gone until now was mostly due to the fact that I wear size 31cm shoe (US 13) and I just assumed they would never have my size boots for rental at the ski shops since I can never find my shoe size at any shoe store in Japan. That and the fact that I don’t have a board or any other gear of my own with me here in Japan so I knew it would be expensive to rent everything and pay for the lift ticket and transportation.

Well, it turns out I was wrong about the first assumption but dead on with the second. They do have size 31 cm boots for rental at Takasu Snow Park where I went, and yes it was really expensive for everything. Three friends and I rented a car and drove about 5 hours to Gifu Prefecture in the middle of the night to get there the next day and start boarding at 9am. I guess its been about 2 years since the last time I boarded so it was really fun to feel the sensation of gliding down a snowy mountain again. But by the end of the day my legs and knees were so sore from the unfamiliar exercise.

I don’t know if all Japanese ski slopes are the same but the one I went to was really different from ones I’m used to back home in one particular way: At home my favorite part of boarding is to leave the groomed course and weave in and out of the trees on the relatively untouched and softer snow. The trees on the mountain here were much denser and had a lot more low branches so it wasn’t really possible to cut a path through them. Plus the rules seemed a lot more strict here as there was almost always fencing put up right on the side of the groomed slopes so that you couldn’t go off the beaten path. That was a let down, but all in all it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately it was really pricey for one day of fun so it doesn’t look like I will be going too often.

I only got these two pictures of the mountains from the parking lot in the morning because I didn’t want to risk breaking my camera when I took an inevitable crash on the slopes.

（日本語版はちょっと遅れますので、すみません。）

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いごもり祭 Igomori Festival

For those of you who are faithful readers of this blog you will remember my post from last year about the Igomori Festival (see January 2007 archive). Well, this year I went again to the festival and it was just as firey as last year. This is the festival that began more than 1,000 years ago to scare off an evil spirit that was haunting the local Hahasono woods.

What they do is light a huge bamboo torch on fire and haul it around the neighborhood to scare off the spirit and thus insure a good crop for the year. The torch is about 3-4 meters (12 ft) in height, really big in girth and weighs a lot. They light a big fire inside of the shrine building with flames licking the ceiling yet somehow not burning down the whole thing. Then they stick the torch on the fire and get one end burning real good. After it is sufficiently on fire about 6 men haul the torch about 3 km around the neighborhood in the dark.

It is pretty amazing to watch. This year I followed the torch around the neighborhood for a while. It was pretty funny because they would get to a stop light and wait for it to turn green. Since the festival isn’t very well known I can only image the shock of the people in cars that happened to see 6 men in all white robes carrying a humongous burning torch down the street in the middle of winter. This year I just brought my little digital camera so the photos I got might not be such great quality. I don’t like to use the flash as it just ruins the night time eerie feel, but no flash often comes out blurry. Here are the best photos I could get.

（日本語版はちょっと遅れますので、すみません。）

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弓始式 Gentlemen, start your bows!

I’ve been pretty busy doing elementary school visits for work lately so its been a while since I had a chance to update the blog. I do however have some things to write about so here I go with the catch-up posts.

A couple weeks ago I went to a secluded Shinto shrine for a small traditional festival. I don’t think there is a good way to translate the name of the ceremony into English so here is the Japanese; 弓始式 (bow as in bow and arrow, start, ceremony). Anyways, name aside it was a curious little ceremony where the Shinto priests dressed all in white and shot arrows at a target in this year’s lucky direction. I assume that the lucky direction is determined in some ancient book of Chinese mysticism, or some other such almanac.

Apparently the ceremony is supposed to insure good crops for the year. They also cooked a fish over a little fire. I am not sure if that was part of the ceremony or if one of the old men in attendance just had a fish that needed cooking. Anyways, I got some nice photos of the bow and arrow shooting so I thought I would post them.

（日本語版がちょっと遅れますので、すみません。）

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