Hanami BBQ

April 3, 2017

Dear Virtual Diary,
Spring has arrived and nature on the island is becoming more beautiful as each day. I still have not gotten used to how beautiful the island gets on clear sunny days.

I recently got together with some island locals and enjoyed a barbeque. There were supposed to be sakura, but as a result of the longer than usual winter they hadn’t bloom as of yet. We had the BBQ right near the banks of the inner sea. There were around 30 to 40 people there along with children from one of the schools I teach at. This was all hosted at a house right on the inner sea. At the back of the house were long sets of levees. The house itself looked like it was used for hosting local community events.

Kurahashi-cho is such a fishing town that the levees were draped in seaweed that had been placed out to dry. Most of the people that attended this bbq worked locally on the island, some owned and /or are working at gas stations, schools, fish/butcher shops or made their living off of the inland sea.

One of the locals here on the island works at the butcher’s shop and handled all the business in procuring the meat. While I will admit that I am not the expert when it comes to meat quality I have to guess that the meat we used was of high quality, because it tasted like heaven and was as soft as clouds.  Our butcher also created some delectable dipping sauces for our pieces of meat. I got him to teach me some of the ingredients used in some of the food he was cooking…I had to take notes. Of course, the culture of this BBQ differed from the ones in Canada, more than that though, most of the time I meet Japanese people they are quite introverted, even though they may be someone who is extremely extraverted. When first meeting a Japanese person, they seem pretty much the same, even though we all know that is not the case. In a country where most of the time people show more awareness towards foreigners than Japanese it was interesting and slightly refreshing to see all of us laughing and having a good time and having even the shyest folks come out of their shell to enjoy a day of mirth and other pleasantries.

Also, Japan has easily turned me into what I would call an alcoholic. I went to work the next day and just wanted to be put out of my misery. It felt like my brain was trying to escape being in my head by breaking through my skull.

Japanese Studying Japanese

March 23, 2017

Dear Virtual Diary,

Thought that I should take some time and talk about my latest findings with my work in studying Japanese.

In regards to speaking…

I have certainly improved over the last seven months and no matter how much I beat myself up about having to know more I know it will just take time and effort to learn more. I think the most difficult task right now is building the muscle memory in my mouth. Often times, when speaking Japanese, I stop or stutter suddenly because my brain has to process what type of pronunciation my mouth must do. Simple way of overcoming this challenge is more practice in speaking Japanese and practicing pronounciation.

In regards to listening…

This is probably the one area that I have improved and made the most headway. It helps that when I leave my house, Japanese is all I hear. Lately, when I hear Japanese I can piece together the topic of discussion. The lack of vocabulary is probably my biggest weakness but I know enough to catch certain phrases here and there and piece them and conjecture some kind of judgement on what is being said.

In regards to writing…

Hiragana and Katakana are all easy to write with no trouble. I plan on attacking Kanji very soon. We will see how that goes. I have been also meaning to pick up a book for practicing Japanese writing. This will help ensure that my current writing skills does not decay.

In regards to reading…

Reading hiragana and katakana are easy enough but the Kanji remains to be the most difficult challenge in the language. My constant reading of Japanese is no doubt helping. I think writing the Kanji out will also help with reading as well. I heard a Japanese teach once say, in regards to studying Kanji, that it was better to learn Kanji by learning vocabulary rather than solely focusing on each Kanji’s On yomi Kun yomi. When reading Shinya Tokkyu I write out any Kanji I do not understand, which is probably 90% of them and this helps with my memorization of Kanji. Many of the Kanjis I write down are often seen multiple times.

Reading Material Lately:

I have been reading a lot about Donald Keene. He is an American author who is mostly know for translating many of Matsuo Basho’s poetry into English. Matsuo Basho is probably the Shakespeare of Japan only instead of plays it’s  Haiku poetry. Keene basically devoted his life to Japanese studies, whether it be the language, literature or history. He has been an inspiration for me as of late as if I can even accomplish a fraction of what he has, before I leave this earth, then I shall leave in peace.

Iga, Mie Prefecture

[Written on March 21, 2017]

Dear Virtual Diary,

Mie-Ken was enjoyable and I feel like I understand the father of the haiku, Matsuo Basho, a little more.

I stayed in the small city of Uenoshi in Iga, Mie. The bus and train, from Kurahashi, took around 5½ hours. In total I had to transfer trains five times.

After taking the bus I departed by train, from Kure station, then went on to Hiroshima stn, then took the bullet train to Kyoto.

I should mention that Kyoto has somehow lost a little of its essence with me. This may come off as a bit hipsterish but I find that the tourists make it difficult to appreciate the history there. It could be because after staying on a pretty remote island for the last 7 months I have been tainted with the bias of seclusion as I am able to enjoy life peacefully here. Also, it got me thinking that if America’s problem is the globalization of its fast food industry such as the McDonalds and Burger Kings, which in many opinion’s swallow up its essence, then an interesting contrast to that argument is Japan’s commodification of its illustrious history. I feel like the all mighty dollar is swallowing up essence as well. At the end of every temple or shrine tour some kind of food or generic picture is shoved in my face. Nothing seems to be one of a kind either in Kyoto. You see on souvenir you are liable to see at numerous different sites as well. I get it though….

”dollar dollar doller bills ya’ll”

Continuing on my journey…

After Kyoto, I took a train to Katsuya, then from there to Tsuge and finally Iga Ueno from there it was a small two car train to Uenoshi. The city of Uenoshi has to be one of the smallest cities I have ever stayed in, in Japan. There were barely any places to eat and I didn’t see one grocery story during my entire stay (3 days). It is also one of the quietest cities I have every visited by far. You could hear a pin drop no matter the time of the day. There was also an eerie atmosphere there. I can’t place my finger on it, but that makes perfect sense because Mie-Ken is the place of birth of the Ninja. That could explain the “something is off” feeling I had all weekend. Maybe ninjas were watching me.

Some photos…

A man from one of the greatest cities in the world —- OSAKA!

 

 

Iga Castle

 

Me and my Ninjas

 

Holding up a tour while trying to use a trap door in a house

 

Found poutine in Iseshi…It wasn’t poutine.