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The short hot summerAugust 2002
I was driving along the old road into the valley just this past Monday when I noticed patches of red leaves high on the mountain side. With the passing of a typhoon last week, the Japanese weather bureau said that the ensuing cold change was here to stay, and I guess they were right. By the time I return from England in mid-September I'll probably need to swap shorts and shirt for something warmer, and there won't be any swimming in the river again until next June. Is the short summer a sign of an especially cold winter to come?
Thoughts of snow yet to be shoveled have been far from my mind until now, though, because it's been an action-packed August here in Tokushima. The new batch of JET teachers arrived at the start of the month and we've been getting amongst it with orientation activities ever since. They look like a great bunch of people and I'm already looking forward to another top year in Japan!
The orientation programme was little changed from last year, but being at the organising end of the team put a whole new perspective on it. With 32 new JETs arriving in two groups, we warmed them up with a couple of nights out in the city before getting into the official programme on August 14. We danced down the streets of Tokushima in the Awa Odori festival before kicking on to a temple just outside the city for a three-day English camp with local high school students. The temple, Anrakuji, is one of the 88 temples on Shikoku's famous pilgrimage route. Cultural significance aside, we had a fun time with the students and duly went home very tired on Sunday night. A great start to the new JET year!
I think I can put claim to being the most tired, because I just couldn't leave it at one night's dancing. Awa Odori runs from August 12 to 15 in Tokushima City, and at slightly different times in other smaller towns around the prefecture. I got out there on the 12th with an international association group, took some time to wander around and watch other groups (and occasionally join in) on the 13th, and then joined Arasowa-ren with the other JETs on the 14th to make it three days of dancing in the big city. On the evening of the 15th I met up with Minoda-ren, the group I practice with every week, to dance in Kamojima town. The 16th saw me at it again with Minoda-ren further west in Ikeda town. At the English camp, we had a night of performance on the 17th, so I did a short solo for the kids and other teachers. Finally, on the 18th, after the camp had concluded, Minoda-ren was scheduled to give its usual set of afternoon performances. We had a barbeque that evening to celebrate the conclusion of a big week of dancing. I danced every night for seven straight days - that's what I call a big week!
At said barbeque, the leaders of my dance group insisted that they would pay for "daikou" so that I could have a few drinks to really wind down. Daikou is a service where someone else drives your car home for you, with you as passenger, while they have another car following until your destination to take the driver back to base - a great idea that could get more use in Australia! It's a full hour on the road from Miyoshi, where we dance, to my home in Nishiiya. It must have cost the group a packet to pay for it, but they insisted it was no problem. Just another example of the generosity that is so common amongst the people I know here.
Orientation wasn't finished with the English camp, though, for we had the Kamiyama homestay weekend to back it up. Kamiyama means "god mountain", and it's really not hard to see why they call it that. On one hand, you'd better have the luck of the gods on your side if you're going to drive on those mountain roads. On the other, when you arrive, it's a beautiful place with people to match. So we turned up in Kamiyama this past Friday evening to meet our host families, this year being the tenth in a row that they have welcomed us into their community. As always, the families were wonderful and everyone returned after two days with stories of the hospitality they'd received and the unique insights into Japanese family life they'd gained. I stayed with the Takahashi family, paired up with a new JET, American Jeff. They treated us to good food, the happy company of their three young sons, some more food, a hike to the local temple, a quick lesson in "kembu" sword dancing, more food, karaoke, and a bit more food. Tough weekend!
It wasn't all fun and games, of course, for we had to run a seminar on teaching in Japan on Sunday morning, but we managed to keep it low-key and useful. A hike up to the local waterfall in the afternoon, followed by an onsen, filled time until the evening's town party. Again we were treated to piles of food, more than enough to drink, and entertainment from the locals. Not content to go to bed at nine, the JETs partied on back at the hotel until the wee hours. Last year I remember being inclined to go for a swim in the river, swimwear or no. This year, my futon seemed more attractive, but I awoke in the morning to find that our new JETs had made the most of their evening with a midnight paddle. Indeed, some people made a little too much of the night, losing their clothes and wallets in the process, but a quick search in the morning turned up everyone's valuables and saved them any embarrassment at the police office. It's amazing how you can leave stuff around in Japan and be reasonably sure that none of the locals will take anything. A happy ending to an all round top summer.
It's difficult to top this action, but last mention goes to a little local tradition that I was lucky to witness at the start of the month. Every summer for the past thousand years or so, the inhabitants of the Iya Valley have performed "amagoi", a rain dance, at the summit of a local mountain. A handful of my students live in the area where they still carry on the tradition and they duly performed in the dance this year. It's quite a little event - locals, not-so-locals and TV crews all make the trek up a tight, unsealed track to the temple at the summit to check it out. The women dress in purple kimonos and large decorated bonnets, dancing with a fan. The men dress in colourful streamers and dance with long poles, chasing another dancer dressed as a devil around the summit as they go. It was a beautiful day. For me, it was fantastic just to hang out with the locals and see my kids celebrating their heritage, especially since there aren't many kids left in Nishiiya to do so. And sure enough, within a week, we had some good rain in the valley.
I hear that a bit of rain wouldn't go astray back in Australia at the moment, but I have to say that I hope the rain stays away from England for the next fortnight or so. I leave from Osaka next Monday to see family and friends in London and elsewhere. Most JETs use their time in Japan to travel around Asia, of course, but I've never been to Europe before. There'll be time enough for Asia next summer, I think. Unless I take my Awa Odori group on tour to Australia, but that's another story... :)
Lots of love,
Dave