June 2005

Dancing Fool

Though I stand several inches over six feet tall, my feet are actually quite small. I'm a size 10 in Australia, or 28.5cm here in Japan, but I know a lot of shorter guys who take size 11 or 12 shoes. So saying, there's nothing like walking into a Japanese shoe store to remind you of how the definition of big changes in the land of the rising sun.

I usually go shoe shopping at Christmas when I return to Australia for the holiday season, but I've recently found myself in serious need of a decent pair of shoes. So I bit the bullet yesterday and wandered into a local shoe store, whereupon I immediately spied the KING SIZE section. Well I'll start there and work down, I figured. In the end, the shoes I bought were amongst the biggest from that very section, and everywhere else they stopped at 27cm. The same phenomenon tends to affect foreign men when they try to go skiing here in Japan - if they don't have their own gear and have to rent, they often find that the boots stop at about 28cm! When I'm not too busy watching that I don't bump my head on doorways, I think my dainty feet are a blessing!

Just having the time to go and buy shoes was a blessing in itself, a consequence of no longer being AJET Chair. To the letter of the AJET constitution, I'm still in the job until tomorrow, but the past month's flurry of meetings, reports and conferences has finally wound down to the point where I can float away from all things AJET and know that it is safely in someone else's hands.

With our powers combined... AJET teams 2005 and 2006

All my time on AJET seems like a bit of a blur, and the past month is especially like that. When I've long forgotten the content of the reports we've written, or the titles of the books we've published, or the details of how much it costs to run AJET from year to year, though, I'll still remember the faces. Like the hundreds I spoke to at JET conferences in Kobe and Tokyo, or the 36 who gathered for the AJET Changeover in May, or the dozen or so I got to know well at the government offices that run the JET Programme. So many great people. There have been times when I've wished I could have put my AJET work aside and spent more time just enjoying life here in Japan, and now that the job is done I'm certainly relieved to pass it on. But I'm also a little sad. It's been a big adventure, and for all the things I've learnt and all the wonderful people I've met, I'll always count myself lucky to have been a part of AJET.

Of course, I'm still here in Tokushima and still a JET for a little while yet. As we come into the Japanese summer, it's time for Sayonara Parties and new JET orientations and all that again. We certainly left the next AJET National Council with some significant challenges, too, and I'll be looking forward to seeing how things pan out for them this year. They're a very competent team and I think they'll do well. I didn't apply to help out at the big orientation conferences in Tokyo this summer, thanks to a busy work schedule, but I'll be busy enough with dancing, Japanese study and some extra TEFL study on the side.

One thing I won't really have time for this summer is a proper holiday. I was thinking seriously about seeing a friend in Canada, but things are just a bit too hectic in the lead-up to the Awa Odori festival, and after that I have to present some workshops for local teachers before school starts again in September. There are also a couple of reunions going on back home in August - one for my old high school, Somerset, and another for my university college, International House. Hard to believe that I've been away so long, really! Some JETs take most of the summer off for travel, but I'll be saving my limited paid leave for the snow season.

I don't have to travel too far to go rafting, though, and I opened my rafting account for the season back in Golden Week. Having rafted that same stretch of the Yoshino River about four times now, if I get another chance, I reckon I'd like to have a crack at river kayaking. For the moment, you can check out some of the action HERE - please enjoy the expressions of people as they plunge down the rapids! :)

Finally, on July 10 I'll be shaping up for the local Japanese speech contest for foreigners. Truth be told, I'm a bit nervous about it - I've been here fully four years, but my Japanese isn't exactly crash hot! What I've seen of this contest is that people are ordered according to the amount of time they've spent here in Japan, which means that I'll likely be somewhere near the end - and duly expected to be reasonably good! I've got a few weeks to refine the speech and commit it to memory. In the meantime, here's an excerpt. It's titled, "Odoru Ahou", which means, "Dancing Fool". Come on, what did you expect? :)

"I've already joined in with a couple of performances. For example, Tensui-ren performed at the Awa Odori Kaikan on May 24. I was actually away in Tokyo on a business trip that day. I wasn't sure that I could make it back in time to join the performance at 8pm, but my flight back to Tokushima that evening was supposed to get into the airport at 7:30, so I took my Awa Odori gear with me to Tokyo and planned to get off the plane and jump straight into my car to head over to the Kaikan as quickly as possible. I thought it would be just okay."

"On the day, the plane was late and we didn't get away from Haneda until 6:45. Oh no! I really wanted to dance! So I took my kimono onto the plane as hand luggage and, once we were safely in the air, changed out of my suit and tie straight into my kimono and dancing slippers, in the toilet on the plane! The hostesses were a bit worried about me - what's all that banging in the toilet for, is he okay? And the other passengers got a few laughs out of seeing me in a dancing robe. Nevertheless, when the plane touched down at 7:45, I made haste to get my bags, run out to the carpark, and get on my way, all ready to run straight onto stage."

"I got to the Awa Odori Kaikan at 8:10. Iuchi-san told me it was okay to miss the first 10 minutes, which was just time to present ourselves to the crowd, so long as I made it for the main show. I was there in good time to dance for the rest of the performance, and I'm glad I made the effort, because we had a good crowd in that night and the dancing was just what I needed after a long weekend in Tokyo."

"No one could believe that I'd changed on the plane in order to make it for the performance! But isn't that what being an Odoru Ahou is all about?"

"I'm the sort of person who likes playing sport much better than watching it. I don't watch TV very much, not because I'm not interested in what's happening in the world, but just because I prefer to be doing something active with my life. And I've always been much more comfortable with doing things myself, rather than delegating tasks to other people, which I guess is both a strength and a weakness."

"The famous Awa Odori saying "There are dancing fools, and there are watching fools, they're fools just the same, so you might as well dance!", really strikes a chord in my heart. It's about more than just dancing and watching. It's not just a saying. For me, it's a motto, it's about getting the most out of life every day - not just in the summer, at Obon time, but every day. If I have a choice between dancing or watching, I'll choose dancing every time. This summer, or today, or even right now, when you choose between being a Dancing Fool or a Watching Fool, which one will you be?" :)

Love,

Dave