Hyogo Life

My time in Hyogo is coming to a close. It's nearly been a year already, somehow.

So...

Has the time lived up to my expectations? Has living in Japan been as good as I thought it would be?

Well, working in Japan in many ways has not been what I had expected. But this does not mean it has not lived up to my expectations. In many ways it has been just as good or even better than I thought. But it definitely has been different.

First of all, I've never spent much time in any parts of Japan except the touristic areas. So, moving to a super quiet suburban area was not exactly what I expected. When I found out I was moving to Japan, I thought I would be living in an area similar to all the areas I had seen, surrounded by restaurants and cafes. I knew in theory that Japan was not all busy cities, but even knowing this, my image of what a smaller suburban town was something like central Takayama or Himeji, where the streets are still filled with restaurants and the like. I had never really seen an area unlike this.

So when Jason and I arrived, we were so excited to walk around our neighborhood, discovering what we imagined would be an infinite amount of hole-in-the-wall tiny restaurants, and traditional Japanese bars. With this expectation, of course, we were pretty disappointed when, upon a long walk around our neighborhood, we came across only a few restaurants.

Of course, Akashi city has lots of restaurants and is only 20 minutes away by train. So we aren't exactly in the middle of nowhere. But sometimes you just can't be bothered with public transport, you know, and so we had to slightly alter our ideas of regularly going out to restaurants and bars.

The work itself was also an adjustment. Working at an Australian school for 5 years, you get used to the workload and expectations. So being told that I was going to be working at a Japanese school, I was worried about the increased expectations and hours that I knew plagued Japanese teachers. I remember emailing my new Japanese boss while I was still in Australia, asking what classes I would be taking and requesting a copy of the curriculum so I could start planning my lessons. I was simply told that I did not need to. No advance planning?!? This in itself, had me even more worried about the work. Was I going to have to plan all my lessons when I arrived? Would I need to make the lessons as I went, spending hours working late in order to have my lessons prepared for the next day?!

Short answer: No. I did not have to do that.

I arrived at school and was pleasantly surprised at the fact that they expected me to prepare for exactly 0 classes in advance. When teachers wanted me to join a class, they usually approached me on the day, and simply told me what they'd like me to do, or teach, or assist with. Unlike in Australian schools, where I needed to plan for behaviour management, and throttle my brain trying to come up with engaging, original lessons so that the kids wouldn't run amok, here, I just simply had to teach the content. Just teach the content! Can you even imagine?! I doubt any Australian teachers can...

Not only were lessons very simple and relaxed, but my timetable was also extremely chill. On average, I taught 2 lessons per day. Quite often less. Every Thursday I only participated in one lesson. The rest of the time was desk time. Free time. Although I was sometimes given a little marking to do, I had little to no lesson planning needed, and so usually had between 5 and 7 hours of free time at work per day. During this time I would study Japanese, do preparation and lesson planning for my Australian school, go to the school gym, and of course, waste time. There has to be some time wasting in those long, free hours.

My work at the Board of Education was just two times a week and again, I was quite apprehensive about the work. I am by no means fluent in Japanese and was quite worried about what the work was to entail. I was told that it had elements of translating, and event planning for educational camps and the like. In my head, I imagined the planning to be similar to what was done for the Japan Tour at my Australian school and I was worried about how I would be able to plan an event in another country with little knowledge of the facilities and resources available. But it was not like that at all.

The staff at the BOE eased me into the event planning. The first project was an event that had already been partially planned by my predecessor. The expectations for me on this project were very low, and yet when the event was finished, I was heaped in praise and told that the entire event had been a success because of me, despite my contributions at that point being very small. The responsibilities increased gradually as I became more familiar with the expectations, although there was definitely ongoing confusion in regards to some events.

Because events were planned in groups, and each event was new to me, I had to rely on other people to fill me in on what was needed and what was supposed to happen, and what the event was supposed to look like in the end. When this didn't happen or people were too busy to help me, it meant periods of time when I had no idea what else needed to be done. At times I was waiting on parts of events to be completed by others so that I could move on with my parts, or parts that needed to be checked by people too busy to check them, before I could progress. Sometimes this has meant parts of days, or even full days without any real work. Bureaucracy... What can you do?

My other expectation was that I would quickly become completely fluent in Japanese, living in an environment where people were speaking Japanese around me. This is not the case. The reality of the situation is, language learning as an adult is a very gradual process. And although language you use every day is easy to acquire, fluency is not. There are an infinite amount of topics that you will not hear regularly enough to become fluent in the vocabulary. Just infinite. Japanese study is a long and painful process of learning words in books that you then forget because you don't often use them. So you relearn them again. Despite this, you do become more fluent in small ways that you barely notice. You pick up kanji for every day things that you realize you had no idea about before. Like the symbols for wheat and train suspension. You don't notice these things, and the small bits of conversational phrases you pick up unless you reflect really hard. It's just easy to focus on the fact that there's still so much you don't know.

Despite this, in many other ways, living in Japan has surpassed my expectations, or impressed me in ways where previously I had had no expectations. The students were so amazing. The teachers were so kind. The food was so varied. The seasons so vibrant and all-encompassing. The nature so wild. The animals so plentiful.

The nature and wildlife especially were a shock to me. When I arrived in Winter, the land was barren and gray. Shortly after, Spring arrived, followed by the wet season, and I had never seen such lush, dense, wild nature as I have in Japan. Vines overflowed from every possible place. Jungles greener than your eyes could have imagined covered any free space. Everyone always talks about Australia being rich in animals and birds. People don't often think in Japan in the same way. But outside of the big cities, Japan rivals Australia in this respect.  I saw more snakes, more eagles, more rabbits, in just one year in Japan, than my whole life in Australia. This is a side that most tourists don't get to see in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.

The seasons as well were a surprise. Again, Australia prides itself on being a hot country, and that's true, but I've never suffered more in Summer than in Japan, The extremes of this country are huge. AT the moment we have just entered Winter, and already the days are freezing, just a few months after I was getting sunburnt.

I've visited over 20 prefectures in my time here, and made so many amazing, incredible memories. Memories that I'm proud of, memories that make me cringe, memories that make my heart swell.

Knowing that our time here was limited, we tried to make the most of every weekend. Every holiday period. We tried to appreciate every day, knowing that soon we wouldn't be able to see this view, eat at this restaurant, or talk with these people. And so this trip has left me with a desire to travel even more. Making the most of each day should not be relegated to a year. It should be how we live our lives.

Takeda Floating Castle

Takeda Floating Castle, sometimes called the Machu Pichu of Japan,  had been something I wanted to see since before I arrived in Japan. So why has it taken me 10 months to see it? I've been waiting patiently. According to the internet, the best time to see Takeda Castle is in Autumn in the early morning just after dawn. During this time, you have the best chance of seeing the "Sea of Clouds" that surrounds Takeda Castle and makes it seem as if its ruins are floating in the air.

And so I've waited.

It's been on my calendar for 10 months. And the day had finally arrived.

I tried to lower the expectations of my fellow travellers the night before. Even though we've waited for the perfect time of the year, there was still only a 1 in 3 chance that there would be a sea of clouds surrounding the castle. The weather conditions have to be perfect.

They assured me they were fine with trying our best, knowing we might be disappointed.

So the next day we woke up bright and early. Scratch that. We woke up early. It was not bright at all. In fact, it was pitch black when we left, at 4am. We ate pre-packed Japanese sandwiches in the car on the 1.5 hour drive, trying to wake ourselves up.

Our intention was to drive up to the highest point our car would take us, and then hike to the actual castle ruins. When we got to the mountain however, we were told that we could not hike to the ruins, as the paths were closed as a result of landslides. We were disappointed, but we did not give up. We instead drove to a neighboring mountain, and climbed up the summit next to the mountain on which Takeda Castle was perched.

We drove as far as we could, and then hiked for around 45 minutes to the summit of the mountain. From here, we were blessed with a breathtaking view of the Takeda Castle ruins, completely surrounded by the sea of clouds!


We sat at the top of the mountain and watched the rolling clouds in the morning light. They rose, and eventually completely covered the castle ruins! All things considered, if we had been able to go to the castle site, we would not have been able to view the castle floating on the clouds in the way that we could now. So it was actually a very lucky turn of events, that landslide!


After we had taken in the views for a good while, we decided to continue hiking on the other side of the mountain. We found our first beautiful autumn leaves, a bright blue lake, and we found a peaceful, thick expanse of forest around us. We pointed out flora and fauna to eachother, especially the large golden orb spiders that haunted the sides of the paths, before eventually heading back down to our car.

If you want to see Takeda Castle ruins, I strongly suggest renting a car the night before, and aiming to get there between 5:30-6:00am in October or November. I'd reccommend first going to the neighboring mountain carpark (Ritsuunkyo) and hiking to the top of that mountain first to see the sea of clouds surrounding the castle in the early morning. Then, after that, if the paths are safe, you can take a leisurely hike to the actual ruins themselves. The car park near the Takeda Castle ruins are manned so if there's something wrong with the paths, someone will be there to inform you.

The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Musem

The other weekend, Jason and I visited the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Museum. The Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred on January 17, 1995, at 5:46 am in Kobe and the Hanshin area.

While most people were sleeping, the sudden earthquake collapsed roofs, threw vehicles, and reduced major bridges and buildings to rubble. Over 6000 people died. 400 000 buildings, and 120 of Kobe's 150 quays were destroyed. One in five buildings were completely uninhabitable. The Earthquake was a 7.2 on the Richter scale, which is not the largest earthquake Japan has seen, but this one was different to others, and much more dangerous because of the severe amount of ground motion and its proximity to urban areas. The velocity and displacement of the ground motion were extremely high compared to the records from other earthquakes, making this the second most deadly earthquake in all of Japan's history.

The first thing that we say when we entered the museum was a simulation of the earthquake, showing video demonstrations of the events that occurred during the Earthquake. We saw building collapse on sleeping families, cars crossing bridges which promptly crumbled into the sea, and earth jutted up and down, with water pouring out of the ground from liquefaction.

After this loud simulation, we were shepherded into a theater, where we watched a video that depicted the true story of a young girl who was sleeping at the time of the earthquake. Her sister and herself were trapped under the rubble. People were able to pull out the girl in the story, but her sister unfortunately didn't make it. We saw footage of the houses everywhere on fire. As gas lines broke, the whole of Kobe erupted into flames. In some of the real footage, we grown men screaming and crying, being pulled from the rubble or searching for their loved ones. I will admit, it was quite shocking, and I cried.

After this video we made our way out into the main area, where we saw live demonstrations of how liquefaction works, and how Japan has now reinforced their houses and buildings so that this devastation does not happen again. They've implemented structures within high buildings that prevent them from swaying in an earthquake, stopping them from collapsing on the buildings nearby, and they've strengthened the ground floor of shorter buildings, the reinforcement in the ground floor stabilizing the rest of the building and helping to prevent the collapse that was so commonly seen in the Hanshin Earthquake.

After the Hanshin Earthquake, so many people were displaced. The reconstruction of the city started immediately. A year after the earthquake, imports and exports through the Kobe ports were back up to pre-earthuake levels, and within 15 months manufacturing was back to 98% of it's pre-earthquake level.

Since so many had to suffer through darkness in 1995 as a result of infrastructure damage from the earthquake, in 1996 Kobe started the Kobe Illuminarie, a Winter illumination of the city in memory of the victims of the earthquake and a symbol of hope, renewal and repair.

Tottori Prefecture

I woke up on my thin futon on the floor, and slid open the delicate Japanese paper doors. I gasped as outside, the most breathtaking, whimsical view faced me. The mountains directly in front of the window were coated in licks of clouds right outside our door. I opened the sections of huge, glass wall that made up the entirety of the front of the house (essentially floor to roof windows that also function as doors), and breathed in the crisp mountain air as I watched the clouds move in front of me.

Leaving the glass wall open, I crept back into the room to wake Jason. Together we walked outside in our jammies, the wet grass on our feet. We cuddled and watched as the clouds twisted around the mountains, and the sun slowly peaked out amongst them.

So... this is Tottori.

We had arrived the night before to a spacious traditional Japanese house we had booked through airbnb. The rooms were entirely tatami rooms, with a low table, cushions, and tatami beds. The furniture and paper walls were all delicately detailed.


After eating a small breakfast, we couldn't resist heading out into the lush scenery around us, so we went for a walk. Around us were rice paddies, turning yellow at the end of their season, lush, thick green vines, dawdling rives, and... spiders. Lots and LOTS of spiders. Everywhere. Any two things close enough to have a web between them, did. And in this web was anywhere from one to five huge golden orb spiders. We got into the habit of Jason walking first, because no matter where we walked, we were bound to run into one of their webs at some point. If I had to walk somewhere outside by myself, I had to walk with my arm waving out in front of me to make sure I didn't walk face first into a gigantic disgusting spider.

After our beautiful but spider-filled walk, we headed out to Tottori city. We were staying in Misasa, a small onsen town part of Tottori Prefecture, about an hour from the actual Tottori city, and the beach that Tottori is so famous for. When we booked the holiday, the weather forecast had looked promising. Temperatures of 31 degrees. What a wonderful way to spend the last warm weekend of the year, I had thought... But alas, the closer we got to the holiday, the more the weather forecast changed, and now, it was cool and raining, with the next day predicted for thunderstorms!

In Tottori, we explored the site of the Rabbit of Imabari Shrine, where legend has it, a rabbit was stuck on a small nearby island, and tricked a group of sharks into lining up so that he could cross over their backs to get back to Japan. He told the sharks what he had done, and subsequently a shark bit him. A bunch of other stuff happened, and long story short, he bathed in the nearby clear water, and was healed! There was a shrine covered in rabbit statues and tiny white rocks, and the island that supposedly the rabbit was trapped on held a small Torii gate.

Next stop was the Tottori sandunes. Sanddunes are not really something you'd expect to see in Japan, but here we were, surrounded by large rolling sand dunes, and even camels! They were not as impressive as Lancelin in WA though!

We had wanted to see the beautiful Uradome Coast, but after getting drenched on the sand dunes, we decided to call it a day. The rain was pouring, and the wind was getting crisp.

The next day, I woke early and opened the paper doors again, peering out the glass wall to see my morning clouds. I was disappointed to find that today only the whispiest of clouds could be seen finding among the mountains.

As the weather for today was so crappy, we decided to go into Misasa Onsen and have a steaming hot onsen (hot spring bath). Misasa is famous for having some of the world's highest radon water. By bathing in its onsens you can breath in the radon, which, they tell you, can help with healing. That sounds great! So we entered a private hotel onsen that had rotenburo (outdoor onsen) and went through to our seperate areas (boys through one side, girls to the other).

As is usual wih onsen, I entered the women's changing room, got naked, and put all of my gear into a locker. I then entered the first room, a shower room, and washed myself in the showers. I then walked through to the outdoors area. I tell you, there's something very freeing about walking out a door to an outside area while being naked. There were other people in the onsen, but my care factor was zero. Their care factory is zero. Bathing naked with others is a natural part of Japanese life and one needs to embrace their body and their nakedness and walk proudly through the outdoors areas, tits out, to the onsens.

This onsen area had a beautiful outdoors area. I walked over a large decking that had a radon steam room, into a garden area, which contained a large rotenburo spa. Part of the rotenburo had jets for massaging, and other parts were still. Waterfalls spilled into the spa on both sides. When I left this onsen, I walked further, walking naked up an outdoors staircase to find a walking foot spa alleyway where you walked through the spa, to get to another secret spa, which was perched in a small hut above the other spa I had been in previously. Here there was no one else (thank god, as it was quite a small spa) and I could relax by myself in the silence.

Jason and I met up an hour later, after we'd both inhaled enough radon fumes to be beneficial. I then used the wifi to google radon, out of interest, wondering what the science was behind this "healing effect". I soon found out that radon was a carcinogen. The largest cause of lung cancer in the US after cigarettes... So... the healing effect is cancer?! That's great... But at least we will die relaxed, I guess.

Our afternoon stop was Enchoen, a chinese garden. The grounds and building were just beautiful, and overlooked a large lake. The pictures say it all.

I had never thought of going to Tottori before, but honestly, it was one of the most picturesque places I have ever been to in Japan! Definitely one of the most underrated prefectures!

Japanese Sports Day

Last week I participated in my first school Sports day, or in Japanese, Taiiku no Hi.

As with many things, Sports Day in Japan is a big ceremonial affair, carried out with precision and full of rituals. All lessons were cancelled on the day before Sports Day, as the whole day was devoted entirely to rehearsal.

The day started off with all of the school factions, or "blocks" marching around the oval in a procession, carrying their block flags. These flags are completely different each year, designed painted by the students from that block. The student band played the marching song as the blocks slowly made their way around the oval and stood in front of the podium.

Next, came groups of student representatives marching around the oval holding 3 flags- the flag of Japan, the flag of Hyogo, our prefecture, and the school flag. Once the flags arrived at the front of the oval, the band continued playing as the students raised the three flags to the top of the flag poles.

Next, the principal and a variety of people gave speeches, and we watched the blocks (who had been standing in their organised teams in front of the podium) run around the oval to their designated areas. And finally, the games began...

The first competitions were relays. A whole bunch of different relays. My favourite relay was a relay where instead of individual runners, each turn consisted of a team of 5 runners, bound together. The first team was bound in a front to back line, with each student bound to the person in front of them by the legs. When they completed their run, they had to tag the next group in the team, who were bound left to right, with each person's ankles bound to the people on the left and right of them. When they returned, they had to tag the next team, which was another front to back team, and so on. There were lots of spills, and it made for a damn entertaining watch!

The next game was tug-of-war, done in large teams of 20 or so , followed by a skipping challenge .

Before lunch, we got to my favourite part of the day, the cheering competition. For this, each block had to create a dance. The students choreographed, made music mixes,  and practiced this themselves. The students were completely responsible for the running of this event. Which is incredible, if you think of how this would go in an Australian school (or perhaps I'm just jaded).

Have a look and tell me if you can imagine every kid in an Australian school putting in the time and effort to learn these dances, and then actually perform it.

Australian foods I miss

1. The brand name chocolate- Mars bars, cadbury dairy milk. The sweet chocolates.
2. Blocks of cheese! There's no damn blocks of cheddar cheese here! It's killing me! All the cheese is fake, processed cheese. Or small bags of pre-grated cheese. Want a slice of real cheese in your sandwich? There's no such thing here! You can only have a plastic slice of cheese...
3. Meat pies. I'd kill for a gravy-filled meat pie right now...
4. Sausage rolls
5. Low fat beef mince. There appears to be no such thing in Japan. I really miss making low fat beef mince meals... The beef mince here has so much fat, and well over double the calories!
6. Dip. This is such a weird thing for a country not to have in my opinion! And I miss it dearly!
7. Roast lamb with gravy and roast potatoes
8. Polony. Again, there's no such thing here... :(


Getting so hungry thinking about these things!

All you can eat, all you can drink!

Recently, Jason and I have been to some events that have been both all you can eat AND all you can drink.

I understand why these sorts of places are not really a thing in Australia. I do. Australians would bankrupt the places. I get it. But they're soooooo good!

The first place we went to was an all you can eat, all you can drink Chinese restaurant. It cost 3200 yen for women ($35) and 3500 yen for men (around $37). As soon as we sat down, we ordered our first round, being able to choose anything on the drinks list. I ordered whiskey and everyone else ordered beers. We did our first kanpai, and started ordering food. A lot of food!

The great thing about these sorts of restaurants is that you can try A LOT of dishes, without having to pay a huge amount. You can try risky dishes that you normally wouldn't order, and you can try things that you don't know what they are!

Over the time we were there, we ordered vinegar pork, century eggs, crunchy noodles, pot-stickers, dimsims, soup pumplings,  tempura pork, chilli shrimp, pepper beef, garlic vegetables, fried rice, raamen noodles, french fries, and a whole bunch of stuff that I'm not sure what it was. Basically, everyone just orders anything they want off the menu, and then we put it all on the table and eat together, dish after dish. So I got to eat dishes ordered by my Japanese and Chinese friends, and they got to eat my more reserved favourites.

The second place we went to was a beer garden in Himeji called Coconuts. It was up on the roof of a building, decorated with fake palm trees, and sun umbrellas. This one was similar to the buffets we had in Australia, like Sizzlers, but with one key difference- The booze was also buffet style!

For 3200 yen each we were able to serve ourselves as much booze and food as we liked, until the place closed!

On one side of the roof they had the food buffet, with asian dishes, western dishes, and desserts. On the other, they had post-mix machines that allowed you to press the button and pour out whiskey, dispensers of wine, liqueurs, and beers. You simply took your cup and refilled it yourself with your choice of liquor! Cocktails were also available and one simply has to ask the staff for one, and they will make it.

Again, this gives people the chance to try cocktails they wouldn't otherwise have wanted to pay for.

Australia, step up your restaurant game!

Japanese food

I've been in Japan 9 months now, and there are a lot of foods that I've grown to love. Foods that are not necessarily popular in Australia.

Edamame

The first of those things is Edamame, green soy beans. I liked these a little when I came to Japan, but now I have a deep love of their salty, umami flavour! In Australia, we pretty much only get edamame if we go to a fancy Japanese restaurant, given to us in a little complimentary bowl. That was the extent of my experience with edamame. In Japan however, not only are edamame a common bar snack, but they're also a deeply appreciated flavour. You can buy edamame chips, snacks, and my favourite thing, edamame cheese bread. This is a soft, sweet white bread, with cooked edamame and cheese tossed through the dough before cooking. The beans are slightly chewy, and add a certain meatiness to the bread, in contrast to the sharp cheese. It's delicious with butter!
Every time I go to a festival or picnic, I always want to bring a tub of salted edamame from the grocery store near my house. They are always fresh, with super salty outsides, and soft,delicately flavoured insides.

Red Beans
Red beans are of course, very important to Japanese people. A sweet filling in mochi, pastries, pancakes, and sandwiches, and a savoury addition to rice, red beans are versatile. I had already been acquainted with red beans before, loving red bean paste (adzuki) dando (mochi balls on a stick) and daifuku (red bean and strawbery stuffed mochi. But again, when you live in Japan, there are so many more ways to eat red beans.  First of all, you learn that there's different types of  bean paste. Anko is the generic word for bean paste. Tsubuan means that there are whole beans in the paste, tsubushian means that the beans are smashed, leaving bits of beans in the paste, and koshian which is a smooth bean paste, passed through a sieve, with no bits of beans remaining. These pastes are all used in a variety of products, most commonly desserts. They're even found in pre-packaged icecreams! But my favourite red bean product is something from the small bakery near my house. It's a fresh, chewy french bread stuffed with red bean paste and salty butter!　And it's amazing!


Condensed milk
Condensed milk... What child didn't love that sweet, sweet syrup? I remember being in grade 7 and going on camp... My mum packed me a tube of condensed milk in my bag! It was great! But condensed milk is not REALLY an eating item in Australia... It's more an ingredient... People don't usually eat it by itself, or even on things. Only inside delicious slices to lend sweetness.
But here in Japan, condensed milk is a big part of Summer! It's put on stawberries and fruit as a sweet, cold dessert, it's used as a topping for kakigoori (shaved ice), and it's put inside and on top of icecreams! And I'm loving it! I love biting into an icecream, to hit a well of condensed milk! I don't understand how, when every child's guilty pleasure is licking the can of the condensed milk, we still don't make the most of its deliciousness!



Tea
Britain is famous for its love of tea. But I don't think they have anything on Japan. Most of the items in vending machines in Japan are unsweetened coffees and teas. Green tea, black tea, jasmine tea. All completely unsweetened, cold tea. In Australia, if you want tea, you have to either make yourself a cup, or buy a bottle of hugely sweetened, flavoured tea that tastes like cordial. You can't really buy any simple, healthy tea.  My shopping center has a whole row full of different bottles of cold tea. So many more types of tea than I'd ever known existed, to be honest, and nearly all of them with zero calories. There's rice tea, wheat tea, something called 16 tea (made with a large variety of things), red tea, health tea, macha tea, and soooo many more. Honestly I don't know what some of the names even mean...

So being in Japan, I've just gotten used to drinking cold green tea while at my desk, bought from a vending machine at the train station, or my local convenience store. It fills you up, and has lots of good health benefits, as well as a little caffeine boost. I'm going to be so sad when we return to Aus as to continue drinking my cold tea, I'm going to have to brew big batches of tea and then leave it overnight to cool. It's so inconvenient compared to Japan.


Japan's love affair with tea doesn't stop there though. They have tea flavoured puddings, tea flavoured breads, cakes, and icecreams! I even see tea flavoured chocolates, and biscuits!

These things have become a big part of my life since being in Japan, and I'm going to miss them and lots more! Although I AM starting to miss Aussie foods now...

Summertime in Japan

Whenever the seasons change, I feel that we, as humans, begin to forget the way the opposite season felt. In the cold of Winter, we tend to forget what the heat of Summer really felt like. We start to romanticize it. "How nice it would be to be warm!" We forget the burning seatbelts, the inability to wear jeans, and the urge to lay naked on your couch at all times. 

But I will never forget my first Japanese Summer. 

Never. 

Japanese Summer comes in stages. 

Summer starts in June, but at this point, it's still pleasantly cool on a lot of days.

By the end of June, we entered THE WET SEASON. At first, it was pleasant. It became so warm that the rainy days became steamy and fragrant. You could literally feel the rain turning to steam as it fell on the pavement. The rice had started growing, and everything smelt perpetually like hot wet grass. It was beautiful. It kept raining. And...  raining. It was common for it to be raining all day. It got so bad, that at one point, the rain didn't stop for days. Schools closed, people were evacuated, as rivers flooded, dams burst, and mountains slid across the wet terrain. West Japan was declared in a state of emergency, as the rain poured on, uncaring.  Over 200 people died that week and 5 million people were evacuated. 

The temperature continued to rise, and it went from warm to disgusting very quickly. By July, the temperature and humidity were close to unbearable. The weather forecasts often include the phrase "33 degrees but feels like 40 degrees". And this was so true. The Australian temperatures are technically hotter than Japan. But with the temperature combined with the crazy  humidity, never have I suffered from the heat as much as I have in Japan. 

As soon as you leave the house, even at 5am, your body becomes fairly instantly covered in sweat. We have aircon in 2 rooms in our house. We have to leave the aircon in the room that connects to our bedroom on all night, with the door linking the two rooms open so we can benefit from it. But this means that in the morning, when we open the bedroom door to go into the kitchen, we are smacked in the face with a thick wall of steaming hot air. The air is so hot you can feel its weight. 

At this point, we started developing daily headaches, despite trying our best to keep hydrating in the constant sweat-producing heat. We soon found out that this is common, and the reason was that even if you drink 4 litres of water a day, you won't stop your body from feeling dehydrated in this heat unless you eat/drink extra salt and/or ions. Because you were losing so much of them from sweat every hour. Luckily, all shops had displays of the necessary salted and ionised sachets that you need to add to water to avoid this.  

To make matters worse, both the school and the office don't turn the aircon on until a certain time, despite the fact that it's hot enough to warrant it at 5am in the morning. Getting changed was a tricky matter, with clothes sticking to your body. Working out was an even more disastrous affair, with rivers of sweat running down our limbs and pooling on the gym floor from even easy workouts. 

After the rainy season stopped, we then entered typhoon season, which is currently still going.  During this time, the weather became thankfully less humid, although the dry stretches are interspersed with days of heavy rain and crazy winds. At the moment we have typhoon 21 hitting tomorrow, and all train systems will likely be suspended. Which is greeeeat because I'll be working in Kobe, so I can only hope they'll be running again by the time I need to go home. I usually enjoy looking at the seasonal products in the shops, but the current seasonal display is canned food that people can stock in their cellars and cupboards with in case of emergency. That's the fun seasonal display... Yay, emergency rations!

I'll never complain about winter again after this Summer. I swear. 

Summer in Wakayama

We had the most amazing weekend staying in Wakayama.

Wakayama is highly highly underrated in my opinion. Just an hour or so from Osaka, in the Summer, Wakayama is a lush, wild, green oasis.

We stayed in a beautiful, big house next to the river in Kinokawa, Wakayama. The house was a 2 story traditional Japanese house filled with rich-smelling cedar and open spaces. One side of the house completely overlooked the river, where koi,  cranes, and the occasional turtle passed.

The house is only 7 minutes from Kishi Station, a station famous for the Station Master cat, Tama. So after arriving in the area, we headed for Kishi station to see Tama 2, the original station master cat's replacement, after Tama passed away. When we got to the station we say a lazy, fluffy kitty, sleeping in a glass panelled cat run at the station. Apparently the original station master, Tama, saved Kishi station with his presence, attracting tourists and Japanese people alike who wanted to see the adorable fellow. Unfortunately when we visited, Tama wasn't wearing his station master hat. But he was still pretty cute.

We then checked into our lovely house and went swimming and canoeing in the river. The water was warm and deep, and we were able to spot fish swimming and splashing past us. We canoed down the river, bringing with us a few cans of cheap Japanese liquor, and a huge bottle of sake. After canoeing for a while, the water started to become shallower and shallower, our boats starting to graze the bottom of the shore. So we stopped our boats, linked our oars, and had a little "oar-ganisation" at this interlude in the river, where we sat listening to music, and drinking our cheap booze in the afternoon sun.

After we had finished our drinks, we started paddling back up the river, out of the shallows. At this point, once we were in the deeper water, with no real shores, Jason decided to flip  his canoe. When he tried to upright his canoe, he instead scooped up a whole heap of water, which resulted in his canoe completely sinking....

With no real shore in sight, we had to drag his completely submerged canoe to a bunch of slippery and jutting rocks, drag it onto some of the rocks and attempt to drain it. The weight of a completely full canoe is very very heavy so heaving it up onto the rocks was exceedingly difficult. After a lot of struggle, and we eventually got it up onto the rocks, only to find out that it was the wrong way around for draining! The hole where the water could drain was now on the high side! So we then had to try to turn the canoe around without letting it slip back into the river! During the process, I fell over onto the ricks, cutting up my thighs and bruising my legs and butt. We became covered in sweat and mud. Eventually we got it turned around and the thing slowly started to drain.

After the long process of draining Jason's canoe, our short two hour paddle had turned into a 3 hour ordeal and we wanted to get back home as quickly as possible.So we got Jason back in his canoe, paddled straight back to our river home, and heaved the canoes up the stairs to our house. That night we feasted, having earnt our weight in calories.

The next day we set off for Mt Koya. Based on what I'd read, I expected it to be a foret filled mountain with temples at random intervals. I expected to be hiking through forest for most of the journey from temple to temple. This is not the case. There is a whole, big town on mt Koya and real roads and shops line the path between temples. The drive to Mt Koya was spectacular, filled with rolling mountains and lush green valleys. We started our Mt Koya pilgrimage at the Daimon (big gate) and walked down to the Tokugawa Mausoleum, where the Tokugawa clan, who united Japan were buried.

After that we walked to Okunoin, Japan's largest grave yard, where 200 000 people were buried among the moss-filled graves. Okunoin was magical. The main path through the graveyard was paved, but you could also walk off into the surrounding forest, finding creepy areas and grave sites. It looked as if wood spirits would come out of the moss at any moment. If I had to do this again, I would have skipped the Tokugawa mausoleu,m, which was surprisingly underwhelming, and gone straight to Okunoin. We were already a bit tired when we reached Okunoin, unfortunately, so couldn't spend as much time wandering through the 2km long stretch of creepiness as we would have liked.

True Mindfulness in Japan

When you think of mindfulness, what do you think of?

If you're like most people in Western countries, you may conjure up images of meditation, deep breathing, and yoga. Zen-like ideas of mindfulness. 

In Japan, mindfulness more than an activity that you set time aside for. It's more than pausing what you're doing to take a moment to breathe. Mindfulness is an awareness of your present, a huge part of Japanese daily life, and it starts with the seasons. 

I came to Japan during the Winter. The dark, cold, gray Winter. There were no flowers, no grass. I dreaded leaving my apartment because it was so cold. But I am extremely grateful that I came over at that time.

It meant that I got to be there for the change of the season. And let me tell you, the change from Winter to Spring in Japan is one of the most wonderful things I've ever experienced. 

The change of the seasons is very quick in Japan, and very concrete. In Australia you'll often hear comments like "This is supposed to be Spring?!" "Can you believe it's Summer right now?!". But in Japan, the change of the seasons hits everyone solidly.

I was shocked by the fact that one week I was rugged up in my full winter jacket and scarf, and the next I was outdoors in a mere cardigan, reveling in my new-found freedom, the sun on my face and the cool breeze licking my collarbones. Lush green grass was suddenly springing up from places where there had previously just been brown sludge. 

Everyone in Japan is hyper aware of this change. The first part of Spring is cherry blossom season. All sorts of products are brought out celebrating the cherry blossoms.  Bakeries sell cherry blossom themes cakes, Pocky and Macdonalds and all the major food companies in Japan bring out their limted edition cherry blossom items. Trains roll out cherry blossom motifs, and you can see advertisements and reminders of Spring as Japanese people all over the country exhale a deep breath and grow lighter in the presence of this bright new season. 

The cherry blossoms are so fleeting. They last only a week. So during this time, Japanese people all take time to go out and simply be underneath them. They designate time to go and appreciate the blossoms, reminding themselves that they will soon be gone, as so many moments in our life are. They pass this time under the cherry blossoms with friends and family, aware that in doing so, they will be making memories for themselves to look back on for years to come. 

After cherry blossom season, came wisteria season, followed by hydrangea season.   I had no idea there was a wisteria or hydrangea season. I have never in my life known when these flowers bloom. But in Japan, I am acutely aware of them. I see posters, signs, and themed cakes depicting the flowers (currently hydrangea) and this makes me take special notice of the hydrangeas I can now see blooming on the sides of some streets. Every time I see them I am reminded that they soon will be gone, along with the products depicting them,  and I feel both sad and prematurely nostalgic, knowing that I will look back on this time fondly in just a couple of weeks or months once the season has changed.  I would have never thought about this in Australia. If I had seen a hygrangea I would have thought something so simple like  "nice hydrangeas"... 

 Transience is beauty in Japan. This idea of transience is constantly being reinforced by the multitude of themed seasonal products which are here for just a short time, encouraging people to buy as many as they can while they're here while also encouraging them to appreciate the ongoing march of time. By being reminded constantly of the change of the seasons and passing of time, living in Japan makes you very mindful of the present.

Every season has it's own traditions- Spring is enjoying the fleeting flowers with hanami (flower viewing parties or picnics), Summer (Rainy season) has traditions of building teru teru bozu (rain charms) and hot yukata-filled festivals, Autumn has moon-viewing traditions, autumn leaf viewing events (similar to hanami but specifically to see the autumn leaves changing), and Winter is filled with illuminations, and New Year's preparations and rituals. Each season has it's own flavours and special foods eaten only in those seasons so that people can feel both nostalgic and present when they eat these foods. 

Japanese cities always have gardens, as a haven away from the bustle. These places usually have a variety of seasonal plants and Japanese people often visit gardens or nature spots to simply be in the moment, appreciate the current season and  connect with themselves and nature. Zen rock gardens are of course the epitomy of Japanese mindful stillness, designed to aid with meditation and the contemplation about life. But even simple moss is appreciated in Japanese culture, with a gardens dedicated to moss, and a growing number of people going on outings simply to see, feel, and appreciate the beauty of moss. 

But of course, being mindful of the seasons and nature is far from the only way Japanese people are mindful. Mindfulness is a huge part of many Japanese traditional and practices. 

Before classes in Japan, students stand, bow and greet their teacher. They are also often asked to focus their energy. They are reminded to make the most of the present, this lesson. Before meals, Japanese people take a moment to be still say thank you for the food.

 When you receive a business card from a worker (a common practice any time you meet someone new in Japan) you must receive it with two hands, and then once the cards are exchanged, each person takes a moment to study and appreciate each other's business card before putting it away. This step is a crucial respectful step in Japan, and a way they be mindful. One would never carelessly and quickly stash a business card in their pocket the way we might in Australia. 

The Japanese tea ceremony is centered around mindfulness.  Each movement is slow and mindful, a form of meditation nearly, and when the tea is served, the receiver must take a moment to turn the cup slowly within their hands and notice and appreciate the artwork on the cup. It is these short, still moments that are truly the essence of Japanese mindfulness. 

The same can be said about many Japanese forms of sport and art. Kendo and karate both practice mindfulness techniques and have a calmness about them when they are being practiced, despite both being intense physical contact sports. Kendo even has a concept of zanshin, which is the mindfulness you must achieve after making a strike. It is a fluidity as you pass by your opponent, as well as a tight awareness and on-edge-ness in case you didn't make the point, in which case your opponent could issue a counter attack. 

Even bathing is an act of mindfulness in Japan. Most Japanese people usually have baths. A Japanese person even told me that he believes that the Japanese tradition of taking baths (and bathing in onsen hot springs) is one of the reasons Japanese people live so long. Japanese people have a shower first, and then soak in the tub as part of their daily ritual. This time in the tub is used as a nightly decompression. A time to take pause after the busy day and be present. As a foreigner my very first time in Japan at age 15, I did not really "get" this concept. I had my shower, did what needs to be done, and I hopped out. My host mother looked at me very strangely. "Did you take a bath?", she asked me, worriedly. When I responded that I didn't, she told me that I should. So the next day, I took a quick bath after my shower, feeling a little bored, my brain searching for some kind of entertainment. Again, my host mother was worried about the brevity of my time in the bathroom. "Was your bath long enough? You should relax!". So the next day, I tried to relax. I let my mind become slower with the growing, clinging steam. I let my face become red and my fingers become pruned as my thoughts slid away like the fat beads of water on the walls. I gave in to languor.  It was refreshing. Replenishing. I had let myself simply be. It's a hard thing for many to do, myself included, especially now that I'm an adult, and there are more pressing matters than maths tests and wondering if a boy likes you. 

So how can we, in this modern, fast-moving world where constant digital distractions are now a fixed part of our lives, be more mindful of our moment-to-moment present? It's a tricky one. Communities in Australia are not as hyper aware of the seasons or nature as people in Japan, and commercialism in Australia is just commercialism, rather than also reminding us of the brevity of each moment. Our traditions and culture are not built on moments of quiet thought. Perhaps all we can do is build our own rich seasonal traditions within our own families, and make a conscious effort to notice the small things, purposefully paying attention to and appreciating the ordinary. By doing this, we can elevate the ordinary to a thing of beauty. 

Rabbit Island (Okunishima)

During Golden Week, Jason and I decided to stop in at Rabbit Island on our way home from Kyuushuu.

I was fascinatred by the history of this deserted island, once a place where Japan illegally created poisonous gases that they tested on Chinese people. This island is the how Japan became the only country in WW2 to use poisonous substances (against the geneva convention that they had signed).

On the island, Japan used high school boys to help work on the gas. At first they chose students with an aptitude for science. But of course, towards the end of the war this soon became whichever students were available. The students worked in ineffective protective gear, and accidents were common. If this happended, the students would mosty likely die, as there were no doctors on the island, and they were not allowed to seek medical attention from the mainland.

The secret of this island was of the utmost importance. The island was erased off of maps, and trains going past the island would have their blinds pulled down so that no one on the train could see the island. 

To get to the island, you need to catch a ferry from Tadanoumi station. By bus, it took us well over 2 hours to get to Tadanoumi station, but if you have a JR pass you can catch a shinkansen part of the way. Jason and I, as Japanese residents, can not get a JR pass, and so we were not willing to pay 60 dollars for the shinkansen fee. This was a mistake.

We lined up for our 8:25 bus. When the bus arrived, we were told that there was not enough room for us on this bus. We needed to wait an hour for the next bus! So we waited an hour, and caught the next bus. The bus moved horribly slowly in the Golden Week traffic, and took us over 2 hours, only to then tell us that this bus, unlike the last bus, does NOT go to Tadanoumi, it only goes part of the way! The bus before (that we were not allowed to get on) went all the way, but not this one! The bus driver had forsaken us! And now we were at the end of this bus line, with very little idea of where we were.

So we got off  the bus and caught a local train, waiting another half an hour for this train.  By the time we got to Tadanoumi, it was after 11 o clock, having left our house around 7.

When we got to Tadanoumi, we were not impressed by the site that met us. A line of people that stretched around the corner was waiting for tickets to go to Rabbit island. Now, this is probably not always the case, as it was a public holiday when we went, and a GOLDEN WEEK public holiday no less! So the Japanese people were out in full force to make the most of this sunny spring day. So I don't know how busy it gets on regaular days, but I would reccommend coming on a weekday, as the ferries sometimes only come once an hour, and if you cannot fit on one ferry, you have to wait for the next. Or the next. Or the next, as we did....

You buy your tickets from the ferry port just to the side of Tadanoumi station (there are signs directing you from the station) but the tickets are not assigned to a boat. So after that, you then have to wait in line to catch the ferry. So we waited in line for nearly 3 hours! We watched multiple ferries come, fill up, and leave, while we inched forward slowly in the line... You can't leave the line, otherwise you'd have to go to the back. It is a horrible system that definitely was not suitable for the amount of people that were trying to travel to Rabbit island on that day.

We FINALLY left for rabbit island on the ferry after 2pm! By this time, we were tired from standing and waiting for SO DAMN LONG, and we were sad that so much of the day had gone when we had woken up so early to make sure we could have as much time as possible on the island.

The ferry trip is short, just 10-15 mins, and we disembarked on the island slightly renewed by the sight of bunnies resting around the coastal area. The bunnies were lounging in the sand, running accross the slopes, and eating carrots and cabbages that tourists had brought with them. You can also buy rabbit food from the ferry port for just 100 yen a bag, which is what we did.


At first, you want to just pat and feed every rabbit you see, but at some point you realise you're not going to get anywhere if this continues! So we took a left, and walked past a camping area, following signs to different areas of the island. The signs were mostly in Japanese, so I would reccommend trying to find a tourist map, or using the google translate photo option. Google maps was also helpful for working out how to get to cool sites on the island. But if you can't use those and can't find a tourist map, you can easily just walk in a circle around the island, following different paths as you come upon them. Most tracks seemed to be circular, or come back to a main circle path. That being said, with the limited time that we had, we only got to explore perhaps half of the island. I would have loved to explore more.

As you get further away from the main areas, the rabbits get fewer (less food in these areas) but you still see bunnies on the sides of the path very regularly. These ones often approach you as they see you coming, eager for your food.

The ruins of old war buildings were exciting to explore. They do have low fences keeping tourists out, but my husband and I disregarded these and went all the way into the old bildings, being careful with the shattered glass and debris. It was an amazing site to see rabbits scurrying though abandoned buildings and hopping over rubble.

There's also a poisonous gas museum on the island, but Jason and I weren't able to find it in the time that we had. I did hear though that most of the examples of poinsonous gas are from a different war (Vietnam war perhaps?) rather than being from World War 2, when this island was actually used to produce the poisonous gas.

After exploring as much as we could in the short time that we had, we decided to join the massive line of people returning to the mainland. Again, we waited in line for at least 1 and a half hours, while boats became filled and left.

Overall, the trip was wonderful and I want to go back and finish hiking the island, but on a weekday. I can't imagine how peaceful the island would be without hoards of people.

My First Enkai

The person next to me alternated between suddenly bouts of liveliness and hilarity and slumping unsteadily in his seat. People at my table poured beer into my half-full glass, and those of the people around me, telling me to "drink up" and "enjoy it". Teachers around me were clapping eachother on the back, elbowing eachother jokingly, crying and stumbling. Chaos abounded.


So this was the famed ENKAI.


Enkai means party, or banquet, and the term is usually used to mean a work party. These are all-you-can-drink work parties inwhich the famously reserved Japanese people let down their well-styled hair and get crazy.


The night started with everyone being poured a beer ("would you like a beer" was not asked). We toasted the start of the night, and from then on, everyone drank steadily. Waiters and waitresses continually brought large bottloes of beer to each table, and refilled glasses of wine if they were nearly empty. If drinking beer, the people at your table were expected to refill it whenever they could, and people would go to visit people who had helped them throughout the year, and refill their drink as an expression of and gratitude and respect.


Within half an hour, with the Japanese tolerance for alcohol (or lack thereof) the effect of endless beers had already become visible.


Soon after the first course had been served, speeches started. New teachers and treachers who had changed schools or retired gave speeches to thank people (mostly) for their time at the school. As the night became later, speeches became messier. There was shouting. There was crying. A lot of crying.


The enkai ended suddenly, as soon as the last speeches were given. I was shocked to see my full glass of wine (my 10th, but hey, who's counting) being taken away from my table by a waitress. I was outraged at the lack of warning. I quickly grabbed someone else's abandoned beer from the table in front of me and downed it, thinking that this was the sudden end of the drinking (you've got to get value, am I right?).


Everyone poured out of the fancy venue. I asked what was going on. It seemed the night had not finished, just the venue. So, with little idea of where people were going, or what was happening, I followed the crowd of people to the closest trainstation, got on a train with them, and went to the next place, a Japanese izakaya (traditional bar) with an upstairs room.


During the train ride, we had a drunk and rowdy sports teacher tell us he loved to do bongs, and how he wanted to use a bong again. He then spent the rest of the trip switching between calling us "dudes" in an American accents and pretending to be our tour guides, in his politest Japanese English accents ("This way please! Follow me!").


At the next bar, we sat upstairs in a private area with 2 long low tables. We were brought drinks and small dishes of food. Apparently we had another hour of all-you-can-drink at this establishment. "So drink up!"


By 11 o clock, we realised that the last train home wasn't far off (curse you, Japanese train system!) and so everyone had to leave and catch their seperate trains. The next work day, nothing was spoken of the Enkai or anything said or done.


What happens at enkai stays at Enkai.