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Luck well spentDecember 2003
I usually don't like waking up with aches all over my body. Like last month, when I got home from a big JET soccer tournament. Teams of English teachers and odd bodies came together from all over Japan in Awaji Island, just near Kobe, where the perennially famous Beckham and Team England were based during the World Cup. Our very own Tokkers FC fancied its chances of taking home the trophy, so we pulled together a team of nearly 20 likely looking players for the weekend's action. And we came home on Sunday afternoon without a goal to our name. Lucky I had a good onsen close at hand here in Iya to soak away the pain of that quite forgettable experience. :)
However, aches and pains in the morning are okay when it's the consequence of many a tumble down alpine slopes on my snowboard, as was the case this weekend just past. The chances of getting good snow aren't so high in mid-December, unless you make the long trek to Hokkaido in the north, but fortune smiled on us with snow the night before we hit the mountain. You beauty!
With three Japanese mates from the valley, we piled into a borrowed vehicle, a huge Pajero belonging to a local restaurant owner, and hit the road on Friday night for the five-hour journey to Toyooka in Hyogo-ken. Tokushima borders Hyogo, but Hyogo itself spans Japan's main island, stretching from Kobe and Awaji on the Inland Sea in the south to the more rural Sea of Japan coast in the north. Our ultimate destination was on the Sea of Japan side, and of course, Iya is about as far from Hyogo as you can get and still be in Tokushima. But waiting for us at the other end was good snow and great company in the form of our host, my friend from the AJET National Council, Amanda. So we packed our boards and bodies into the car and took it in turns to wind our way to Toyooka via Okayama. A few hours of sleep, probably more hours of snowboarding, a good onsen at famous Kinosaki, an interesting Christmas party with the locals, a few of Amanda's delicious chocolate chip pancakes, and another long drive later, we were back in Iya, very sore, very tired, but pretty happy with our weekend. Nice to have friends who live near ski slopes. :)
In fact, since the start of November, every weekend - even the soccer fiasco, which was a great chance to hang out with mates - has been enjoyable. The AJET meeting in Tokyo was tiring but largely a success. A couple of Japanese drumming performances have cropped up recently. We had our annual Christmas carols tour around junior high schools in my area just last week, always a good time. And the local JETs visited an orphanage in Tokushima city to spread some Christmas cheer at the start of this month, too. But the standout pair of weekends came one after another in late November. Both of them featured dancing and great company - two things of which I can never get too much. :)
The first said top weekend was spent in Osaka with Minoda-ren for our last Awa Odori performance of the year. We danced, ate, drank, played cards, and watched the World Cup rugby final into the wee hours of the morning. Even Johnny Wilkinson's right foot couldn't dampen my spirits for long in such good company. The next day, we stopped in Kobe on the way home, ostensibly to go shopping, but the men promptly wandered off down the road to get stuck into the one Japanese pastime I can't understand - pachinko. Like poker machines, but noisier and just as pointless. But it was shopping with the girls or pachinko with the boys...
I went in, watched them play for a bit, got some food across the street, came back, and finally sat down at a machine next to one of the young guys. Maybe he can explain it to me, I thought, so I might as well try it out. So I can say I've done it. Just 1000 yen, no problem. Famous last words?
Put in my thousand yen, out come a small pile of machine coins into the tray. Chuck a few in to get going. Samio tells me I should be looking for three of anything. Three gold rings, okay, keep pressing the buttons, not really getting anywhere, but the graphics are nice. Get into a rhythm. Haven't lost all my money yet, that's good. New round, one blue seven, a second blue seven, how about number three, a blue seven? Yes, is that good? What's that music? Cool graphics and more coins? Did I win? Yes, you won, says Samio! Keep playing! Half an hour and many more button pushes later, I jackpotted another 3 times and ended up walking out with about $200 for my effort. Very lucky! But the other guys weren't so fortunate, they all lost. So I spent it all buying them lunch. Luck well spent, I think, and a nice way to see out the year with a great bunch of people.
It's hard to top that, but the next weekend went one better when the Ship for World Youth came into port in Nishiiya.
The Ship for World Youth is a Japan-based international exchange project that brings some 200 young people from all over the world together on the cruise ship Nippon Maru. They travel to several different ports over the course of two months - this coming January's itinerary includes India and the Seychelles - all the while engaging in activities designed to foster cultural awareness, understanding and friendship. Gosh, it sounds like the JET Programme on a boat!
Now, the Nippon Maru didn't exactly come steaming up the Yoshino River to berth in the Iya Gorge, but a Japanese friend of mine from near Tokushima city is joining SWY in January and she had organised for a handful of other SWY members to come down to Shikoku for a weekend of Awa Odori and sightseeing. We spent a couple of hours in the city on Saturday afternoon teaching them how to dance - they'll perform aboard the ship, I believe - before making the hike out to Iya for an onsen and a night's fun at my place. Somehow I managed to fit ten people in my apartment that night! It was fantastic to spend time with such a positive group of Japanese people my age. I took them to the vine bridge and Chiiori the next day before they all had to return to their homes on the mainland. Somewhere in the back of my head is the flicker of a thought of boarding that ship one day. We'll see. :)
Even the little time that I've spent at home in Iya the last month has had its moments. Out of the blue, I got a call from a fellow teacher. Please go down to the police station, he said, there's a French man who's had a car accident and needs some help. Dictionary in hand, I wandered down to the one room station and found a man and his wife trying to communicate with the local constable. They were probably as surprised to see me as I was to see them! My French is atrocious, but I was relying on them speaking the competent English that every Frenchman I've ever met does. Sure enough, Jacques and Bernadette had great English, but little Japanese. The accident was minor, but they needed to get some official paperwork, so I stepped in with a little translation and helped them get back on their way. I don't often feel useful as the only foreigner living in a tiny village. It was nice to be able to make a difference.
With winter finally arriving in full force in Japan, I'm glad that I'll be back in Queensland, however briefly, in less than a week. Has it been a whole year since the last time I left Japan? I can just about feel the sand between my toes and taste Mum's cooking in my mouth already. I'll be at home on the Gold Coast pretty much the whole time between Christmas Eve and my return to Japan on January 5. I'd love to catch up with anyone who's in town, please drop me an email or call me if you have time.
Sending you all my very warmest wishes of the season, lots of love,
Dave