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Kick the can

October 2003

I had a great day yesterday. Following it up with a holiday makes it even better, I guess. :)

At my smallest elementary school, just 6 students and another 7 children in kindy, I played a game with the kids at lunch time called "Kick the Can". I'd seen it before on TV in one of many variety shows featuring famous Japanese personalities playing silly games. As I quickly learnt, the game is like "Hide and Seek" with a slight variation. The person who is UP, called the "oni" (little devil) in Japanese, has to protect a single aluminium can - or, in our case, a plastic bottle. The game starts with one runner kicking the can as far as he or she can to give everyone a little time to flee and hide before the "oni" can put it back in place and begin their search. From here, the runners are trying to get to the can without being seen. If the "oni" spots someone, they need only to run back and touch the can for that person to be OUT. If said person, or another, gets to the can first and kicks it before the "oni" makes the touch, however, then the "oni" has lost and the game starts again. It's pretty tough work for a single "oni" but a great game!

Finishing my day at school by teaching my kids about Australian money and making paper boomerangs, I got lined up with some locals for something I haven't had in ages - a night out with the boys. It's a consequence of seeing a lot of my good mates go home in July when they finish with the JET Programme, and of being so far out in the sticks that driving somewhere just to hang out is a bit much. Fortunately, Seiji, Nobu and Ken, all teachers here in Iya and all my age, were free last night, so we caught up, jumped in one car together, and headed off to the pungent metropolis of Kawanoe an hour up the road.

I say pungent because Kawanoe is the paper milling capital of Japan. At least three smoke stacks billow the waste products of this process into the Kawanoe sky every day. The locals must be used to it, but the smell hits me every time I cross the mountains from Tokushima into Ehime. To its credit, though, Kawanoe is the closest official city area to Nishiiya and has good shopping, a baseball batting range, and a bowling alley. Bowling. Yes. :)

I've had my fill of bowling this last week or so. Last Friday was the local English speech contest for junior high school students. All the ALTs from each school go along to support their student, of course, and we get to see some great efforts from the kids who like English - the kids we all want to teach! For the first time since I arrived in Iya, we had a girl step up to the plate from my school. Sayuri is only in the second grade - her competition are all third graders - but she did a great job. The eventual winner was another girl from the other end of the valley. Fantastic to see the country kids getting amongst it! After the contest, the ALTs all had lunch together and then we spent our afternoon talking about work and life in Japan, over three games at the alley. Finding myself back at the lanes just one week later was a pleasant surprise. I used to bowl in a league when I was 14 and I wouldn't mind taking it up again, but Kawanoe is just a bit too far and bowling fees are a little expensive. Bowling with the boys is just right.

I got a call from my best mate Ben, to my mobile from Australia, no less, over dinner. In many ways, that was the highlight of my day. With my birthday this past Monday, my third here in Japan, getting to speak to my family and then with Ben was just the thing to make me feel good about being 25. And it is good. I sense a good year ahead.

My birthday itself was spent at school and home - pretty average, really. However, I share my birthday with a little girl named Hidemi, one of three children in the Asakura family who I teach. I went over to the Asakura house, down by the vine bridge, to see Hidemi, give her some ice cream, and hang out briefly to play video games with her little brother. They even made me a little cake-in-a-cup to return my birthday wishes. They're great kids. This is why I've stayed here so long.

I also got dinner cooked for me by the JET at the other end of the valley, Katy. And to top it all off, a good friend on the AJET National Council, Amanda, called me during the day up to pass on an "a capella" birthday song from her students half way across Japan. Amanda came down to Shikoku a couple of weeks back to have a break and we had lots of fun climbing mountains and seeing Tokushima. (That's us at the top of Tokushima's highest peak, Tsurugi, in the photo). AJET keeps me busy, to be sure, but rewards me with the chance to meet some great people. And my birthday wasn't so average after all. :)

The very next day, I got a call from CLAIR - the government body responsible for organising much of the JET Programme - asking if I'd be interested in appearing in a new JET promotional video. Yet another AJET bonus?! It's not a sure thing yet, they're still choosing from a range of candidates, but if they do ask me to help out, it'll involve an interview, some shots from my schools, and maybe some Awa Odori footage. Not every JET has a great time in Japan, but I have. I'd be happy to give something back to the scheme. And get some fame in the process. :)

September has been busy with school carnivals and cultural festivals, one reason I haven't written with my news in over a month, and things don't look like slowing down until I get back to Australia in December. On Shikoku, I've got a jazz concert and Awa Odori coming up this weekend, possible hike up Shikoku's tallest peak next long weekend, and several more significant Awa Odori performances until the end of November. Then, off Shikoku, I have to go to Tokyo again for an AJET-CLAIR meeting on November 10, and then backup the next weekend for a JET soccer tournament on nearby Awaji Island. I'm also looking forward to some early season snowboarding in December, woohoo! It's great to be 25.

'Til next time, lots of love,

Dave