Admittedly it has been a fair while since I last updated this blog, but rather a lot has happened: The Hiroshima sake festival, the Yawatahama Teya Teya festival, the Halloween party in my town and my school Culture Festival.
So starting with Hiroshima, let me just begin by saying that Japanese people do not hold their alcohol well. Not at all. This is reflected in the early ending time of the festival, as to my surprise it ended at 8pm. I initially thought such an early closing time was insane, but by the time 7pm rolled around, Japanese people were completely red in the face, rolling around on the ground, getting into fights and *gasp*, speaking English to me. Despite the fact that 99% of Japanese people will adamantly state that they do not speak English, get a few beers in them and the truth comes out. I myself was a nice level of drunkenness, with no embarrassing antics occurring. The whole premise of the festival is that you pay a set amount to enter, are given a small sake cup (think shot glass size) and get to wander up to every sake booth and have a shot of any sake you choose until they run out. Such a thing would most likely be banned in the UK, since we are all alcoholics after all, but it was definitely fun. My alcohol tolerance has admittedly gone down, as I definitely drink less here than I do back in Scotland, home to Braveheart and drunks. There isn't a whole lot to say other than Japanese men definitely lose their inhibitions when drunk, actually to the point of outright hitting on me (Japanese men are usually far too shy for this). The one thing that surprised me at the sake festival and Hiroshima in general was the huge amount of foreigners I saw. Being in a small town, I hardly ever see any foreigners apart from us ALTs, so I was practically awestruck at the amount of foreigners wandering around. Perhaps this is a sign I'm turning Japanese?
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| Me with a couple of drunk Japanese guys... haha! |
Since it finished so early, we all headed out to a "gaijin bar", which was full of American marines. This was actually my first time dancing since being in Japan, so it was definitely nice to let loose. One highlight was when one not-so-intelligent marine said to me "So you're from Scotland… does that mean you speak Latin?". Nope, I didn't mishear, he actually said that. Well, he certainly wasn't doing anything to prove the "Americans are stupid" stereotype wrong. Though if it makes what he said any better, I panicked that a member of the yakuza was hitting on me since a Japanese guy with a tattoo was trying to dance with me (and badly at that). It turns out that you don't have to be yakuza in Japan to have a tattoo. Though who knows...
The next day in Hiroshima was spent doing all the must-see touristy things. The first thing we did was hit the Hiroshima Peace Park and museum. It was definitely powerful to say the least. I left the museum feeling depressed and like I was somehow guilty for the atomic bombing. However, it is something that you absolutely must do if you are ever in Hiroshima. This is the peace park:
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| The Genbaku Dome - still as it was the day the bomb fell |
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| The children's memorial |
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| The flame (although you can't see it here) that will never be extinguished until all nuclear weapons have been destroyed. |
In need of a good cheer up, we headed out to Miyajima, a beautiful red gate or shrine type thing that is actually in the sea, so that it appears to almost be floating. This illusion was even greater since we took heed of the advice in the guidebook and went around sunset. Needless to say, it was beautiful. The scene felt rather surreal, added to by the fact that I was still shocked by the amount of foreign people strolling around and also by the deer casually strolling in and out the crowds, trying to steal food from tourists and licking small children. Some people say that Miyajima is Japan's most iconic view. I haven't seen enough of Japan to make a judgement on that, but it was certainly iconic.
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| Miyajima Shrine |
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| 2 deer in a loving embrace |
After an exhausting day of sightseeing we headed back into the city and went out for the famous Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is essentially a savoury Japanese pancake with layers of cabbage, egg, squid, meat and basically whatever you want to throw in. Hiroshima style is different from the more typical Osaka style as it also has noodles in it. A truly scrumptious calorific meal! We went to Okonomimura, which is a building with 4 floors consisting of only okonomiyaki vendors. The choice was overwhelming, and quite frankly we had no idea how to choose, but we eventually settled on a place and sat watching the veteran okonomiyaki chefs do their thing. The way they made the okonomiyaki so effortlessly was almost like a work of art. It's the same feeling as watching an extremely talented cocktail mixer make a cocktail. They threw around the ingredients with perfect ease, making it look so easy when I really knew that it would all go balls up if I tried.
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| The okonomiyaki stall where I ate and the beginnings of my meal |
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| The layers |
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| The finished deal |
So that was the main gist of Hiroshima. A very spacious and open city and somewhere that I have to return to at some point.
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| Hiroshima by night |
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| Just a curious looking building |
Next on the agenda is the Yawatahama Teya Teya festival. What exactly it is that we were celebrating, I'm not sure, but it was fun so who cares! I was part of the City Office dancing troupe (troupe? I'm not sure what to call it, we just kind of danced in a group). In very Japanese fashion, they had several practices for a dance that was just 3 very simple moves repeated over and over until we grew sick to death of it. On the night we got to wear a traditional Japanese happi and were treated to lots of beer and food before the actual event. We even got to meet Hamapon, our city's mascot! Everyone was already merry and drunk by 6pm before we even set off.
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| Me in a happi holding the mikan mascot of the prefecture |
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| Hamapon! |
Unfortunately it was raining, so the little sock things I had to dance in got soaked within 2 minutes, but it was all in the name of good fun and a truly Japanese experience. In front of our dance troupe the men carried a mikoshi, which is an extremely heavy portable shrine. Though to me it more looked like a boat with lots of tinsel and sparkles on it. We danced for 45 minutes, gradually making our way around the town centre. My students and other people waved at me excitedly, probably in awe at seeing a white girl in a traditional Japanese get up. I don't know how many strangers have pictures of me, but I'm sure that it must be a significant number. I even "won" a medal for my "excellent dancing". By that I mean that they gave me a medal because I'm foreign. Yep seriously, this is Japan. Whilst the downside is people may stare a lot, the perk is that 95% of the time you get given first class treatment.
We also did a second revolution round the town, and this time I got grabbed, put into the mikoshi that was being hoisted up on the shoulders of about 20 men and bounced around in it for a few minutes. I'm pretty sure being bounced around in a shrine is one of those once in a lifetime things that can only happen in Japan. I definitely felt blessed to be given the opportunity to experience being at the centre of a Japanese community. Whilst I may be a city person at heart, there is something special about living in a small place because it is so much easier to get right into the heart of the community and experience the real Japan.
The night was rounded off with a party at the city office which involved a lot of beer and some very drunk Japanese men. One man who I have never talked to in my life actually stopped dead in the corridor and hugged me. Believe me when I say that this is an extremely rare thing for a Japanese person to do, so it's safe to say that he was probably hammered beyond belief. Eventually we all ended up at a snack bar, where everyone drank more and I saw to my complete awe, a Japanese woman eating ice cream with chopsticks. Yes, that's right! And no one else was blinking an eye at her. It was as if she was a living caricature of a Japanese stereotype that I had never actually seriously thought to be true.
I'm afraid that this is getting quite long, but there is a lot less to say about Halloween (which I am aware has not actually occurred yet, but this happened to be when the party was) and the Culture Festival. For Halloween, I finally found myself at an actual bar in Yawatahama. And it was full of foreigners! I am aware of the fact that this was a special event just for Halloween and many of them live in a different town, but I never realised that so many people from the Phillipines live in Yawatahama. It was great to dance, drink cocktails and talk to strangers in English! I dressed up as a witch from MacBeth for the occasion, the MacBeth part being that I was wearing a tartan kilt I found in a second hand shop. I'm probably now going to be all keen and force my friendship on these people simply because they speak English. But such is the way of life in the Japanese inaka.
The next day was my school Culture Festival. I have to admit that I was feeling rather rough, but this was more due to an actual cold rather than alcohol consumption. To my relief I wasn't actually expected to do anything other than sit and watch. The kids put on some pretty amusing plays (that I couldn't understand, but they seemed funny) and sang some songs together as a class. But the best part was the dances that the kids came up with themselves. My particular favourite was a boy dressed as a girl seducing all these dancing old men (14 year old boys with bald caps, don't worry), and then the girl whipped off her (his?) wig and it turned out he was actually an old man in disguise (also with a bald cap, don't worry). It was a great day, and I really do wish I had had more energy, but c'est la vie.
I've certainly nattered on enough so I am going to leave you here. Till next time!
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