The Year of the Wild Boar

So ends 2007. For the Japanese it was the 19th year of the Heisei era, and also the year of the wild boar. For myself, as for many of you, it was a year of change; of mistakes made and lessons learnt; and of big decisions. Some were difficult, others heartbreaking. When I think back to this time last year, I can’t help but shake my head in amazement.

There were, in fact, plenty of good times. There was my trip through Korea, China, and Mongolia, a trip that earned me a very good friend. Then some friends here in Japan got married and had a baby. There was also an unforgettable trip to Okinawa. And most recently there was my brief trip home to Australia—for a reunion with friends and family and another wedding—which was followed by another random little trip upon my return to Japan.

Of course no year passes without its more trying moments. For me, for this year, there were / are two such moments. The first was a fateful night in Tokyo followed, shortly thereafter, by a severe change in relationship status. The second was the demise of Nova, the private language school I was working for. Everything, it seemed, was crumbling down around me all at once. It was a reminder of how fragile everything is. But it wasn’t, and isn’t, all bad. And with endings come new beginnings.

So what does 2008—the 20th year of the Heisei era and the year of the mouse—have in store?

Who among us can say with any certainty? I do suspect that I’ll be moving on from this place—Fukuoka—I’ve called home for the last three years. Whether it is to another city in Japan, elsewhere abroad, or back home to Australia, I’m not yet sure. But I dare say, in twelve months time, I’ll be shaking my head again.

NB: stay posted for a photo essay of the random trip I mentioned above, and of Christmas.

Japan Culture Lab - Sushi

ようこそ、テロリスト！

Well that was quick. A week in Australia--in Newcastle, in Sydney--and before I know it I'm here typing this in a tiny internet cafe booth (1x2M) in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The booth, by the way, is also my accommodation for the night, costing about AU$12.

No more meat pies. No more roast dinners or legs of lamb on the barbie. No more schooies, no more middies, and definitely no more punting. The best thing about going back to Australia was, of course, catching up with all, or nearly all, my friends and family. The strangest part of the trip was spending a few nights in my old bedroom in mum's house. It was like a time capsule. Stepping into it was like stepping three years into the past. The same old posters up on the walls, a few photos from high school and uni, some dusty CD's and text books and essays and reports scattered about on my old dusty desk. And when I woke up in my big ol' comfortable bed I wondered whether Japan had just been a dream.

The trips most ironic moment happened pretty much as soon as I touched down in Sydney. Strutting down one of the near empty Australian and New Zealand citizen lanes, towards the passport inspection counters, I felt a deep and satisfying sense of ha-ha-look-who's-the-foreigner-nowiness as I passed hundreds of my Japanese co-passengers who were of course lined up in the Non-Australian citizen lanes. Now before I go on, I should explain that just days before, Japan had become only the second country in the world to begin fingerprinting and photographing foreigners entering the country. Ostensibly, it is supposed to reduce the risk of a terrorist attack happening in Japan. The minister of (in)justice justified it with words along the lines of, "There is evidence of Al Qaida members entering and reentering Japan on numerous occassions. In fact, a friend of a friend of mine is an Al Qaida member...So, err, what I mean is, the point I'm trying to make..." and so on, digging himself a nice little hole. So while the only person in Japan with links to Al Qaida is the minister of justice, us foreigners are being treated like cattle with criminal impulses.

So perhaps now you can understand why I was so "Carn the ANZACS!" as I gleefully strolled towards the passport inspection counter. But then, when I was just a few metres away from the big red line that says STOP, a Japanese tour guide began ushering her charges into OUR lane; and then we were the JANZACS and I ended up waiting in line behind a couple of Japanese gents. And what did the Australian immigration officials have to say about this? It wasn't GET IN THE PROPER LINE OR WE'LL HAVE YOU GITMO'd. It was "How ya goin'?" "No worries, in ya go. 'Ave a good one."

What can I say? Such is life. Anyway, getting through immigration at Tokyo was no big deal. In addition to all the concerns about invasion of privacy and whatnot, there had also been a lot of talk about how long and tedious the process of photographing and fingerprinting everyone would be. But I can now tell you it took only a few seconds and was quite painless.

So that's it for the wrap up of my trip home. From tomorrow I'll be embarking on another mini-trip, this one semi-planned and uncosted. First stop, Kamakura. Or Kobe. Or maybe Nara. We'll I'll let you know tomorrow anyway.

FUGU ME!!

So I went to Ganryujima the other day, a place I had been wanting to go to for quite some time. It's a tiny island off the port city of Shiminoseki, famous throughout Japan and among martial arts enthusiasts the world over, though many don't know where it is. Luckily for me, it is not so far from where I live, taking about two hours by train and ferry to get there.

But why is it famous, and why did I want to go there? Glad you asked.

Unique indeed!

This is the book responsible for me wanting to visit Ganryujima, where the story's climactic scene takes place. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Japanese history or culture, or indeed anyone who has a lot of spare time as it runs for almost 1000 pages.

I don't know what this is. Emiko said it's the spot where they fought...


But I thought this was more likely to have been the spot.

Musashi strikes!

A replica of the boat in which Musashi came to the fight. I was just about to hop in for a photo when we heard a voice shouting. We turned around to see one of the old fellows that run the ferry riding along the footpath on an old beat up bicycle. He told us to hurry up because the last ferry for the day was about to leave. And so that was that.

It was almost dark when we got back to Shiminoseki harbour. We decided it was time for something to eat. But what does one eat when in Shiminoseki? Apparently one eats Fugu (blowfish) if one dares. Fugu, as you may have heard, is lethally poisonous if not prepared properly. That's why a Fugu chef is required to have a special licence. Even so, every year a handful of people die from eating ill-prepared Fugu.

Two test nibbles; didn't die.

Thus emboldened I went and ordered Fugu curry, while Emiko, not wholly satisfied with the already modest danger levels, ordered a Fugu sashi don, which is RAW Fugu on rice.

Well anyway the good news is we survived. The verdict? I wish I could say "Fugutastic", but the truth is it was "ma-ma desu". Not so very tasty. But at least we're still breathing.

The Demise of Nova and a Trip to Okinawa

What the hell have you been doing? you ask.

Let me tell you. NOVA, the 英会話 (= eikawa = English conversation…yes I’m showing off because I’ve just learned how to use—intentionally—Japanese script on my computer) company I work for is now insolvent and about to collapse. It all started earlier this year with the media reporting (not falsely) that there had been a huge number of student complaints since last year about not being able to book lessons as easily as sales staff had promised them. Consequently, a lot of students quit and demanded refunds. NOVA said they were not entitled to a refund—and so it went to court. The court ruled in favour of the ex-students and NOVA was forced to pay up. Not long after that NOVA was again back in the courts. Why? Two reasons: they were being sued for (1) the dishonest way in which they calculated some of the refunds and (2) in some cases ignoring the earlier court ruling and giving no refund at all. Then the government stepped in and penalized NOVA by ordering a partial suspension of operations. Since June NOVA has not been allowed to sign-up any new students for packages of more than one year. So expenditures have soared while revenue has dried up. NOVA has stopped making scheduled bank payments. They have stopped paying rent for schools. They have stopped paying rent for instructor accommodation (resulting in a lot of instructors being evicted from their apartments, in some cases with less than a week’s notice). They were late in paying the Japanese staff a couple months running. Then last month they were late paying teachers (while the Japanese staff got nothing). They were of course late again this month. And so now, according to some, I’m eligible to collect unemployment insurance. I just have to wait for the company to officially go bankrupt. According to others, I can quit now and still be eligible for UI because it’s the second month they’ve been late with my pay. That’s the problem. There’s so much conflicting information out there I don’t really know what to do. So now I’m on unpaid leave and am just kind of waiting around for some kind of resolution. In a word: it SUX. Whatever happens I’ve decided to give English teaching a rest.

What’s next?

Farm stays. Obviously. It’s like this: I travel around Japan, living and working with Japanese farming families. I harvest some rice here, pick some radishes there, and maybe even herd a bit of Kobe beef. It has ADVENTURE written all over it. Plus it’s a good opportunity to take my Nihongo to the next level. Which after three years has yet to advance beyond BEGINNER, owing to my lousy job of “teaching” English all day, everyday.

Anyway, that’s enough ranting for one post. Time for something more pleasant:

That's me with my girlfriend, Emiko. We've been together for about four months now. Yes, a lot has happened since last December...

Anyway, in August, about a week after my birthday, we flew to Okinawa for three glorious days.

Day I

'Twas an onimous start. This is the scene that greeted us at Okinawa's airport. This plane had exploded upon landing just the day before. Amazingly, if memory serves me correctly, there were few, if any, casualties.

Emiko's friend met us at the airport and then drove us around so that we could see a few of the sights.
Our first stop was Ryuku Village. It's a place where you can get a taste of what life was like in Okinawa, in the old days before the Japanese took it over. No, that is not Emiko's friend in the photo with us. Whoever she is, she got skills!

That's Emiko's friend. Her name's Akiko. Unfortunately, here in this photo she looks mentally handicapped.

The habu centre! Snake centre in layman's terms.

I didn't even know they had mongooses in Japan.

The local brew: Orion. 'Tweren't half bad, let me tell you.

Jammin' away on some shamisens. The ojisan (old dude) sitting next to Emiko has a pretty sweet gig. Far as I can tell he gets paid to sit around drinking sake, play a few tunes on the shamisen, and chat to tourists like us. Maybe after I'm through with my farm stays...

Buyin' some sake!

The next place we went to was...well I forget the name, but anyway, that rock formation to Emiko's right is supposed to resemble an elephant.

It was a lovely and peaceful spot. That is with the exception of...

...the nearby U.S. military base where they kept detonating things, as is their wont.

But not even they could ruin the sunset.

Did someone say more shamisens please?

Our final stop for the first day was a little bar/restaurant on Kokusai-dori, the main street of Naha. We had a few drinks and were treated to some live music, performed by...

...this man. Here he's teaching Emiko a few chords to one of the songs. She picked it up really quickly, I guess she has some kind of untapped musical genius. When I, however, attempted the same feat I was unable to get my fumbling fingers to produce anything that could be called music, even by the most generous of observers. FYI: Okinawan music rocks!

Day II

Our second day in Okinawa was a sombre affair. Not that we didn't enjoy ourselves. It's just that the places we went to were all about WWII and the battle of Okinawa.

Our first stop was to the Himeyuri War Memorial and the Himeyuri Peace Museum. Both were built in honour of 194 schoolgirls and 17 teachers who served as nurses assistants during some of the most intense fighting. Only five survived.

This is one of the caves in which they worked

These are thousands of little folded paper cranes. They symbolize a wish for peace.

Next stop: The Peace Park. This is where the last of the fighting took place.

It looks like a lighthouse, but it's actually an exhibition hall. Inside is a huge statue of Budda. I tried to take a photo but it was too dark.

The Peace Park's very own Peace Musuem. (There is no shortage of peace museums in Japan. Nor peace parks for that matter.) We actually didn't get to go inside because we took too long wandering around the grounds and by the time we got to it it had closed.

le Cornerstone of Peace

And then there was a hat...

This memorial was a gift from Fukuoka Prefecture where I live. Every prefecture has there own memorial here.

Later that night...

Snakes in alcohol! When we were back in the city we came across these in a souvenir shop on Kokusai-dori. The price tag says ￥68, 145. Which is roughly $700. So, much as I would have liked to I didn't get to try any.

Day III

First stop...

...world heritage listed Shurijo Castle.

Final stop:

Emiko attempting her first sand castle

Me showing her how it's done.

This is where the sand castle picture should be but...well, let's just say that Emiko was not impressed with my sand castle constructing ability.

Peace!!