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Unchaka rakachakaJuly 2003
I haven't hit a drum or picked up a bamboo sword in earnest for a while. It's been a quite unremarkable few weeks since the start of July, in fact, but in many ways that's more an indication of me having settled into the rhythm of my life in Japan, rather than life actually being boring. The rainy season has come and gone, leaving sticky heat in its wake. The school term finished last week, but the kids were back at school after the long weekend, running, throwing and jumping their way around our dirt oval in preparation for athletics carnivals in the spring. Awa Odori dance practice is on every day now, with less than a month until the Obon festival, so taiko drumming and kendo have to take a back seat. It's all in a summer's work here in Tokushima.
But a lot of my time has also been taken up preparing for the coming fortnight. 3000 new JET Programme participants are turning up in Tokyo in two batches, and I'll be a member of their welcoming crew. One of my tasks has been putting together a 64-page booklet about AJET, the volunteer representative organisation for JETs, so I've been frantically gathering articles, formatting them for printing, dealing with the printers to get it just right, and pushing a few late nights to make deadlines. This in the midst of having to say farewell to the pile of friends leaving the JET Programme this month, heading back to their home countries to re-enter the more familiar, less surreal cultures they left behind three years ago. It's a busy, sad-but-happy time of year. Watching people come and go makes you wonder when it'll be your turn, and what you're going to do. I still don't know.
Before the end of the first term of the school year, my junior high school headed over to Tokushima's east coast for a one-night camp at YMCA Anan. Most schools would only send one grade every year, but of course, with only 22 students in our whole school, Nishiiya Chuugaku sends the lot. The rainy season broke just in time for our camp, which was blessed with beautiful hot weather. One of the games we played in the evening was a chant asking the "kamisama" (gods) to keep the forecasted rain away so we could have fun the next morning. Everyone was amusedly skeptical as we placated the gods with rising and falling chants of "unchaka rakachaka" but the proof was in the pudding as the next day dawned even hotter than the one before. Maybe we unchaka-ed too much?! Whatever the case, the rain stayed away until we were safely on the bus and winding our way back to the valley. Our two days of sailing, kayaking and canoeing were very well spent. YMCA Anan gets a big thumbs up from me, especially in comparison to last year's visit to Awaji Island, and I'm even looking forward to going back again next July.
No sooner had I gotten off the bus in Iya and ducked quickly into my apartment to catch up on some work and change, then I was back in my mini-Pajero and on the road all the way back to Tokushima city for dinner. Nothing like the prospect of beautiful company and good food to keep you from falling asleep at the wheel! Eating Italian and listening to the sound of gongs, drums and flutes drifting down the canal is par for the course in the city during summer, but it had been quite some time since my last visit to the big smoke and I was happy to soak up the atmosphere. Dinner on Friday night wasn't my only reason for making such a long journey, however. My main purpose in hitting the town was to get along to the AJET Sayonara Party on Saturday.
The usual JET party involves finding a suitable establishment for eating and drinking as much as we can with little care for decorum, or booking ourselves a remote campsite, far from Japanese eyes, where we can bring all our own supplies and do much the same with even less decorum. This time, however, the AJET committee decided to take our last big party of the year to a hotel, put on some decent food (and drink, of course), and ask people to make a bit of an effort to dress up. The response was impressive - some people resisted the dressing up part on principle, but we all had a good time and didn't manage to annoy the locals as much as usual. If you haven't guessed, I'm not a big fan of the standard JET party, nor of being a part of loud, abrasive groups of foreigners carving a swathe of careless rudeness through the town. Thankfully, this was a notable and enjoyable exception. It's sort of strange how it came and went, too - you're having a great time, then you realise that it's a Sayonara Party and it won't be long before the good times end and the goodbyes start. Then you wake up in the morning and wonder how those people sleeping next to you, and in the kitchen, and in the corridor, came to be there. I guess that's what you call a good night.
Just when I thought I'd had enough, though, one more dinner party before the trek back to Iya. I've gotten to know over the past six months a Chinese girl working at the international office in the city, Liu Li. A doctor, Liu came to Japan with her husband (a physicist) to do some research in enzyme genetics. When I found out about our common interest in biotechnology, I had the chance to help her out with a paper she has been writing. Getting your research published in a decent journal is hard enough without having to overcome a significant language barrier, so I took Liu's paper and tried to clean up the English a bit, a task that required an appreciation of her field, of its technical language and of scientific writing. It was refreshing to do something with the knowledge I acquired at university - it's certainly been a while! Liu said thanks by inviting me to dinner with a few friends. Some pig's foot (good for the skin, apparently), tofu noodles (nice) and a few too many delicious handmade "gyoza" (Chinese dumplings) later, I had enough food in my stomach to get me back to Iya and through most of the next day.
I'll be packing my bags tonight and jumping on the plane to Tokyo tomorrow morning. Somewhere in my luggage will be my "jitte" - a short metal prong that is the latest addition to my repertoire of Awa Odori dancing accessories. Not sure if it'll pass inspection of carry-on luggage, of course, but I need to take it to Tokyo to keep in practice for the Obon festival. I hope there's a laundrette in Shinjuku - I can only fit so much clothing in my suitcase! I'm sure I'll have plenty of tales to tell upon my return to Tokushima and after the Awa Odori season is finished, so until late August, have a great summer (or winter, as the case may be) and take care.
Love,
Dave