Sports Day (Undo-kai)

Every year Japanese elementary, junior high and high schools hold a 'sports festival' - a day of competition, ceremony and school pride held outdoors in the schoolyard. I didn't make to any of my schools' sports festivals last year, so watching the preparation and festival this year was new and interesting. The week before the festival was held much preparation was made by all the students, teachers and staff.

In this preceding week the kids practiced marching in unison in the schoolyard, created team flags for each class, and helped set up tents, ropes, etc. to aide the festivities. I was really surprised how much time the students spent outdoors in the hot sun preparing for this day. It seemed like every detail of the event was poured over - from the angle the students carrying the school flag should turn to the pitch and loudness they should be singing the school song. I was also struck by the idea that the event wasn't exactly a show for parents and families; though many families did show up, there were a limited number and most of their viewing of the events was obstructed by large tents. It was as if the sports festival was first and foremost held for the school (students and teachers) and as a part of the school tradition.

I kept wondering if this sort of event would somehow fly in the U.S., but it's hard to imagine such an event transplanted in a totally different culture. It seems like most students' and teachers' lives here revolve more around their school than you would find at any public middle school in the U.S. The only event I can remember in school for me that was even close to being similar was 'field day' held at my elementary school. Yet for field day no ceremonies were held, no preparation made by the students, and the events weren't all mandatory. Maybe it's because I now have an unforgettable image of hundreds of students in matching uniforms marching together under the beating sun (including the cutest non-athletic kids you've ever seen!) but when teachers and students asked me if there was such a thing as 'Sports Day' in America, I told them not at all.

And after all the hard prep work it turned out to be a really fun event. I'm real positive most students and teachers enjoyed the sports festival. I sure did. To recap the day, I remember an opening ceremony with flag raising and speech making, different relay races and tug of war contests, a dance intermission, lunchtime, a display and presentation of school clubs, a short relay competition between teachers and the PTA, a closing ceremony, and clean-up time. To top it off I ran with some teachers in a relay vs. the ichi-nensei (7th graders), but in the end we were beaten and came in 4th. I think my legs are still a little sore from my all out 200 meter sprint.

Preparation week

Blue and white team getting ready

The 'centipede' race - all the students' legs are tied to a large rope

From the schedule, dancing and pump-you up music before lunch

'It's the eye of the tiger, it's the cream of the fight..."

Back in Japan and avoiding the flu

I'm writing from my apartment in Kitakyushu, enjoying my first weekend back in Japan after taking a month break in Oregon and California. My summer vacation was more than I could have asked for. Spending lots of time with family and friends, plenty of time outdoors in Oregon, eating steak and delicous tacos, drinking beer that tastes beautiful, watching a buddy from grade school get married, taking a road trip to the coast with my parents and older bro, speaking lots of English - these are just a few highlights. But, it's also good to be back in Japan.

I had work this week, Monday through Friday. So far I'm actually feeling comfortable and more or less 'in the swing of things' again. It helped being welcomed back by a few friends, opening my apartment door to a (mostly) clean room, and going back to work and seeing lots of cheery, nice teachers and happy, bright-eyed students.

On Tuesday, all the students returned to Takasu Jr. High and were scheduled to have an opening ceremony for their last term of the school year. To my surprise, the formal ceremony wasn't held in the gym as planned but rather conducted through the P.A. system, as all the students sat at their desks in their respective classrooms. During the lunch break I asked a student why everyone didn't go to the gym. He replied that the teachers were concerned about influenza. He also told me that he didn't know of any student so far affected by influenza.

Two days later one of the English teachers told me that a few students had been affected by the virus. In addition she said one of the local elementary schools had been closed for a little while because of the flu. And, she said that if any teacher came down with the sickness they would have to stay home for a week. I'm still pretty unclear how serious the flu thing is around here, having not read up on local news for a while and only going off of what I hear. It does seem to be a hot topic at my school, because I've received a few handouts having something to do with it (but really hard to decipher) and I keep hearing the word 'in-fu-ren-za' spoken at the morning meetings.

With the school being as large as it is, 2 students being infected out of 800+ doesn't seem all that bad. Also, if the school policy for an infected teacher is just to stay home for a week, the virus itself doesn't sound all that scary (for adults, anyway). And everything else at the school is back to normal - classes, lunch, after school clubs, etc. Aside from curious happenings with influenza, the rhythm of daily life feels the same and it feels good not having to greatly adjust myself.

Summer Vacation (Natsu Yasumi)

The school year in Japan has a summer vacation during the last week of July and entire month of August, with the new term beginning September 1st. I'm really excited about summer vacation because I've been in Japan for about a year now and I get to spend a month with family and friends in Oregon and California. Just reflecting on this past year, I really feel blessed to have had so many varied, enriching experiences in Japan. But, I'm also looking forward to experiencing some of the great things I love about where I'm from. Here are a few reasons why I am happy to go back, in no particular order: I can eat food that has, for the most part, ingredients I can identify with - everyday the lunchbox (bento) I order at school has 6 or so small compartments of food, and I can usually only understand 3 or 4 of them; I can drive my Toyota 4-Runner again, on my own schedule; I can drink quality tasting beer with friends (there are about 3 major beer companies here, which make up the bulk of what you can buy in cans or on tap, and the beer they make all taste hobo-cheap); I can speak English at my normal pace, using a rich and slangy vocabulary, and not have to slow down my pronunciation or repeat myself; I can get and eat good and spicy Mexican food (of the Mexican-American style); I can play my guitar, which I miss a lot; I can walk around the house, barefoot, and not have my feet stick to the floor because of rich humidity of the air; I can enjoy watching people outside walk their large-sized dogs, not just their really little ones; I can avoid the curious, and often too long stare-downs of strangers in public; I can be around enough friends to get a game of pick-up basketball going on a whim; I can instinctively, half-awakenly cross the street and understand that people drive on the right side of the road; I can eat with my hands - fried chicken, shrimp, big, thick slices of pizza; I can enjoy again the wonder of cheese in all its forms; I can be openly sarcastic most of the time and be totally understood (one bullet I dodged was not using sarcasm or jokes during my self-introductions at my schools); I can go to a local church service in English, and understand the songs, sermon, and prayers (though I do particularly like the Japanese word for our father - watashitachi no chi-chi); I can go swimming in backyard pools; I can lay around on couches; I can check out parts of Oregon I've never seen; I can go back to places in Oregon I miss...

P.S. I finally edited my settings so now anyone can comment on my posts, something I should have done last year. Anyway happy summer to everyone!

A Few Pics from Spring and Summer

A few spring and summertime pictures in Japan and Korea:

A field in Iizuka, around March.

My distant cousin Koki (grandma's cousin's son - ?) and I posing as sumo wrestlers in Tokyo. Koki and his wife Kazue took me to an awesome museum on modern Japanese history (in the background) - which happens to be in the part of town famous for sumo shows.

Cherry blossoms (sakura) in a park in Iizuka. The park is really beautiful, and its unfortunate I only checked it out during my last month or so living in Iizuka. It's quite a contrast to the rest of the city, which I wasn't super keen on taking photos of.

A garden at one of my current schools, Takasu Chuu. The English teacher there said this garden won some kind of award for being the best garden among middle schools in Japan. This picture doesn't do it much justice but now the flowers are in bloom and the grass is bright green and real pretty.

'Banana Man,' a statue in Mojiko, a port town near Kitakyushu.

A fish market in Karato, a ferry ride from Mojiko. My mom and I walked through this place and saw people scrambling around to get fresh sushi at low prices.

The famous 'Peace Statue' in Nagasaki. I came here in early May (Golden Week) with Elizabeth.

A famous Catholic church in Nagasaki, near the site where the A-bomb was dropped. We were suprised to find out that the Christian population killed by the bomb was disproportionately affected because of where it was dropped. I was also surprised when I first saw the church from farther away - as a prominent Christian building it stood out to me in Japan, but it's also set on top of a hill.

I checked out a 'sake tasting' convention with a few friends. It was held inside the Yahoo dome, where the Fukuoka pro baseball team (Softbank Hawks) play. I preferred the Japanese whiskey over Japanese sake (nihon shu, rice wine) and Shochu, a sort of Japanese vodka.


Outside the 'War Memorial Museum' in Seoul, which shows the history of warfare in Korea. The crowd of people are going to see a rock concert in a venue next to the museum.

From Orio station, near one of my schools. This is where I board a train back to Yahata, where I live, sometime around 5 pm. on the weekdays.

Nationalism, History and Violence

This afternoon one the English teachers I work with, Imamura sensei, invited me to watch a movie with the 8th grade students. She told me the movie was about Okinawa - the southernmost island of Japan - and that it was a sad movie. After having four classes in a row this morning, I was up for taking a break and checking it out.

The movie, though dramatic with a good story, turned out to be pretty violent. And it was all about Okinawa, but set during World War II, right after the Pearl Harbor attack. The war scenes had a lot of bloodshed and there were plenty of violent close-ups. What made me feel ok about the movie was the story, and how it depicted the American soldiers and Japanese soldiers. It didn't come off as biased because, though it did show lots of bombing, shooting and killing coming from the American side, it also showed the cruelty and mercilessness of Japanese commanders. One scene in particular I thought was telling: after showing bombings and firings from American tanks on villages in Okinawa, the following scene showed a Japanese commander shoot one of his own men because he refused to kill a wounded American they came upon in the jungle.

The reason I bring this is up is because I think telling this history is a real sensitive topic, and if it's going to be taught in Japanese schools it should be done with care. There were a few times when I was sitting in that room where the movie was being shown, genuinely hoping for a more or less unbiased account of what happened, lest my country be given a bad name because the film was taken out of historical context, or I get loads of stare downs from the students when the film finished. It was at one of these moments I remember thinking back to when Elizabeth and I visited the 'Peace Museum' in Nagasaki. The first exhibit there shows footage of the atomic bomb being dropped on Nagasaki (in slow motion, on several different screens) and I remember hearing a small Japanese boy say to his dad, while looking at this big mushroom cloud, 'America warui' (America is bad). And after recently reading a biography on the Japanese emperor at this time, Hirohito, and learning about all the wicked things that he and some Japanese leaders had done leading up to the war, I wanted to scream 'Look kid, you don't understand!' He was only about 5, so I let it go.

Though I disagree with showing a film with so much violence to these junior high kids (it would be classified as a drama but would have to be rated R given the scenes depicting violence), I think the film was balanced and empathetic. I couldn't understand a lot, it being all in Japanese, but I really think if there were some overtly racist or otherwise scenes I would have caught on. That kind of bend didn't fit this director's style.

Another reason I bring up this film is because I recently saw a public presentation of history that went beyond violence and promoted nationalistic, racist views. While in Seoul, Elizabeth and I went to a place called 'Seodaemun Prison.' This place was built around 1912 and run by Japan during its occupation of Korea (1910-45). When we walked down to check out the cell holding area, we immediately heard recorded screams being repeated and smelled a musty funk that made me light-headed. Inside the cells were manikins of Korean victims and Japanese guards, showing multiple still-lives of water torture, sexual torture and beatings. There was a lot of fake blood used in the displays and one of the Korean manikin women had her shirt torn open in the front. All the while endless recorded screams and a stale odor permeated the air. Being there was almost like hanging out in a nightmare.

Opting to leave rather than see the rest, we forewent the footage and photos of prison life they also had on display. On the ticket stubs we received they read 'A living education site for Korean history where visitors can pay a high tribute to the patriotic ancestors who valiantly fought against the Japanese invasion for sovereign independence, and renew the determination of the spirit of independence.' This is the thesis and narrative of the site. Elizabeth pointed this out - Does it make sense to talk about 'the colonizers' as if they are, monolithically, the same groups of people that existed in the first half of the 20th century and now? We both agreed that if you were a kid and went and visited that place (and to our disappointment we saw middle school aged girls and parents with kids that looked about 7) you could easily grow up hating the Japanese. And this is not to downplay the brutality of the Japanese occupation, but just to point out the Japanese today, though descendants, are a different generation than they were 60+ years ago, as were the Koreans, and should be treated as such. Let's just say, at Seodaemun Prison, the torture chambers had way more nuance than the introductory signs.

I think part of what made the Peace Museum in Nagasaki so well done was how it showed some aspects of 'gruesomeness' without going overboard with it. That's also why I think the Holocaust museum in D.C. is well done, because you get a sense of the awful experience of the Holocaust without having to, in a sense, experience it yourself. The film shown today and the prison site in Seoul are both historical expressions in public places. I think those kids I sat with today would have been better off with a film that didn't use so much gore to make a point, and the displays at that prison site in Seoul are not only too distasteful to be put on public display but also promote a dangerous mix of nationalism and racism.

The entrance to Seodaemun Prison.

Beppu and the Family Visit

Beppu is a small town in Oita prefecture on Kyushu island. It's one of the most famous spots in Japan for hot springs. It's both a resort town and a college town with an international university. I went to Beppu in April when my family came to visit me. It's only about an hour and a half by train from East Yahata, where I live now in Kitakyushu City.

The crew that went to Beppu included me, my aunt, mom, dad, and grandma. Though we stayed just for the weekend, it was a nice getaway and we saw some great sights. The hot springs there are for bathing as well as viewing. The hotel we stayed at, set a ways up on a hill overlooking the city and the ocean, was particular for providing guests with hot springs for bathing (onsen). I really enjoyed seeing my dad wearing a sort of yukata, or informal kimono worn before and after taking baths. Also the weather that weekend was amazing, not rainy but cloudy, with a cool breeze blowing into our Japanese style rooms. Lastly the outdoor cedar wood bathtub that linked with our room, accompanied with a wooden bucket and handle made me feel a little like royalty. Short as it was, we all were able to relax in Beppu.

Another highlight for me was hearing my grandma speak Japanese for the first time. I'd never heard her speak a word of it all my life, and in Beppu I was able to hear her have short conversations with cab drivers, hotel workers, and even strangers. Her manners were very polite, and it was more than touching to hear and see her sincerity in conversing in her native tongue. My friend Jay, who's been living in Japan for 6 years and was able to meet Yoshiko for a dinner with the family, said he was very impressed with her sincerity. He mentioned that he's seen many older people in Japan speaking quite insincerely; not because of the words they choose to use but rather because there's no feeling behind them. So it was refreshing to hear my grandma say in her native language 'Excuse me, thank you' when she received food from a chef, and actually mean it. Also, after having spent my first seven months in a pretty rural area on Kyushu, it was good to hear my grandma using words that could never be described as 'dirty Japanese.'

My mom and her mom, inside our Japanese style (Ryokan) hotel room.

Nice scenery outside some famous hot springs for viewing in Beppu.

One of the famous natural hot spring sites in Beppu.

My aunt, dad, grandma, mom and me - actually in Karato, across the water from Kyushu on the main island, Honshu. We took a day trip to Mojiko, a famous port town near Kitakyushu, then rode a ferry here. This day was very enjoyable.

Korea and the DMZ

I have internet! Thank heavens for it, my life feels so much more full than it did yesterday, when I could only use the computers at school (really not for recreational purposes).

I have a little catching up to do because I want to share some of the recent adventures I've had in Korea and Japan. I'll start with Korea, where I visited last month for another short weekend trip. I went to Korea the weekend of April 16-18 to visit Elizabeth. We decided before we left that we were gonna see the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) or go bust. The tour we originally wanted to take would have given us a chance to see and crawl through tunnels that North Koreans had dug beneath the DMZ, discovered in the 1970's. Though this tour was booked, we caught a later one that took us into Panmunjom and other DMZ hotspots. Our tour itinerary can be found here: http://www.tourdmz.com/english/07guid/tour1_1.php?tag=Image1_1

It was interesting learning about the current situation in North Korea, as told to us by our tour guide, a South Korean lady. On our drive up to the DMZ from Seoul, about an hour and a half via bus, she pointed out a few bare mountains on the North Korean side that could be seen from the bus windows. "The mountains are bare because the North Koreans have used all the trees for firewood," she explained. She also told us that all of the media families in North Korea have access to is only government propaganda. She said we can now understand some things about living conditions in North Korea because of the smuggling of a few cellphones to North Korean families, who have since told a few people their stories over the telephone.

It was also interesting for me to check out the DMZ because my grandfather had fought in the Korean War in the early 1950's. Though I didn't know it at the time, the hills and land I saw on the tour was terrain he more than likely lived on and knew intimately; a place where he and his fellow US Marines sacrificed everything they had to prevent Chinese occupation. I'm currently reading a book he wrote about his experiences and the history of US Marines who fought in the latter part of the war, from 1952-53. It's interesting to read this book after seeing with my eyes the kind of place and terrain he was living on during the war. The book is called "The Outpost War," and is the first of two books he wrote, the other being "The Final Crucible" - by Lee Ballenger. I'm certain more of the historical significance of my visit to the DMZ will unfold as I turn the pages to a book my own grandpa wrote! I really didn't realize that he was stationed right there so close to Panmunjom, defending hills I probably just gave a passing gaze to but which were to him, 56 years ago, truly his old 'stomping grounds.'

I wish I had better anecdotes from the trip, but it was what it was. I can only offer two nerdy facts that everyone should know: the Korean DMZ, 2 and a half miles wide, is the most heavily fortified border in the world, and has some amazingly well preserved landscape but due to the amount of landmines present (and other issues, I'll bet) has not been studied for environmental purposes.

I didn't take many pictures, but I think if I collaborate with Elizabeth I can score some of hers to put up on the site. Here's what I have so far:


A snapshot of the landscape of the DMZ and the Imjin river. In the middle right of the photo, you can see the 'Freedom Bridge,' (the smaller one with people on it) - famous for being a location for POW exchange. It was also used by Korean refugees coming from the North.

The entrance to the Freedom Bridge from the South.

A South Korean soldier standing guard in a room within the Joint Security Area (JSA), the only place where diplomatic negotiations can and have taken place between North and South Korea. Our guide told us that North Korean soldiers are sometimes present in this room, but we didn't see any on this particular day.

A view of South Korean soldiers among the blue JSA buildings and a large, important looking building in the background.