Speech about international relations with a few wee anecdotes

Below is a speech which I had to write about cultural relations and cultural differences between Japan and my home country. It's a mixture of new thoughts and recycled parts of old blog posts, but it's generally a good breakdown of the major cultural differences and some anecdotes about my time in Japan so far.

My name is Hannah and I was chosen to be an ALT as part of the JET Programme, a programme funded by the Japanese government to help introduce Japanese students to foreign culture and create international relations. As a girl who had never travelled outside of the West before and who only speaks a little Japanese, I think that I am definitely bringing Western culture, or more specifically, British and Scottish culture, to Ehime.

However, this exchange of cultures is definitely not one-sided, as every day is a learning experience for me. Throughout my time in Ehime, I have come across some rather surprising cultural differences. For me, the biggest difference is definitely school life in Japan. A typical school day at a Japanese junior high school is certainly very different from high school back in Scotland. 

Probably one of the biggest differences is  cleaning time or soji, when the kids and the teachers clean the school themselves. In Scotland the students and teachers never clean the school, we have professional cleaners who do this after school is finished. I think that back home, many parents would be very unhappy for their children to be down on the floor scrubbing it! The first time I experienced soji, I couldn’t believe it! The kids were working so hard at cleaning, barely even talking to one another due to their complete concentration to the task at hand. At first it was very strange for me to think that children as young as 6 and 7 had to clean the school, but now I realise that it means everyone has more respect for the school because they have to clean any mess they leave behind. It’s definitely not like this in Scottish schools. In fact, sometimes after lunch, it looks like there has been a food fight! 

Another huge difference in school life for me is the school lunch or kyuushoku. Back in Scotland, we do have school lunch, but kids can also choose to bring their own lunch from home or go to a shop outside school to buy lunch. Kyushokuu differs greatly from typical Western school lunch in that everything is the same. Everyone gets the same food, and even more of a shock to me, everyone must finish ALL of their food! This was definitely difficult for me at first because I was not used to much Japanese food apart from things like sushi and ramen. 

The biggest challenge for me in kyuushoku was when I had to eat shishamo. Back in Scotland, it is not usual for us to eat a whole fish with the head and tail, so it was a huge shock when not only was I given a whole fish to eat, but it was also a pregnant fish! The first time I was given shishamo I gave it to a hungry student, but the second time no one wanted it. So I had no choice but to eat it. This was difficult because I felt like the eyes were staring at me. But to my surprise, it really wasn’t that bad when I ate it! This was definitely a big deal for me because I used to be too scared even to eat shrimp. 

Many things in Japan have been a challenge for me, but now I realise that challenging yourself is one of the main aspects of Japanese culture. I was shocked when I was first told that the 2nd year students at two of my junior high schools would have to walk 40km along the Melody Line from Misaki to Yawatahama. It sounded impossible to me! However, only 2 weeks after I thought that sounded impossible, I actually found myself doing the Melody Line walk with my 2nd year students at one of my schools. My legs and feet have never hurt so much, but I am so glad I completed the challenge and I think I will do it again next year.

While I knew about some Japanese customs before coming to Japan, such as bowing and taking your shoes off before entering someones home, there were a few small things that confused me at first. One example was when I was in class and my JTE told me to come here using a gesture, which in the UK we would use to mean "go away", so I was a bit confused and wandered away from the teacher to the other side of the class. The whole class burst out laughing and explained to me that it means “come here” in Japan once they had figured out what happened.

Another different gesture is the gesture to say “no”. In Scotland shaking your head means no, but in Japan, the gesture of waving your hand in front of your nose, that we would use to say "bad smell", means no.

However, despite all these cultural differences, I have come to realise that people all over the world are really the same. This is definitely apparent in Yawatahama, especially because it is a small town. I have always lived in a city until now, so it is nice for me to experience the small town kindness that isn’t so common in cities. Once thing that struck me was how generous everyone is, and how concerned they are about introducing me to Japanese culture and making sure that I am becoming accustomed to Japanese culture. During my time of only 6 months in Yawatahama I have been welcomed into cooking classes, tea ceremony, ikebana and I have even joined a shorinji kempo class. Some Japanese people even joke that I am more Japanese than them.

I have been lucky enough to be invited to go mikan picking on 2 occasions, and now I eat about 3 mikans every day. This is because the people of Yawatahama are so kind that I am given new mikans almost every week by someone. In fact, I am given mikans so often that I have to eat them very fast to make sure that they don’t go bad. For example, last week I was on the train and a woman who I have never spoken to before came up to me and gave me a bag of mikans! Some of my friends say that maybe I could cure the common cold.

One of my favourite memories of living in Yawatahama so far is the night of the Teya Teya Festival in October. Not only was I invited to dance the Teya Teya, but at one point I was actually put into a mikoshi and thrown up in the air. It was definitely the first time that has ever happened and it was both scary and exciting! This is something that would never happen back in Scotland, so I felt blessed to be given the opportunity to experience being part of the local Yawatahama community. 

Since there are so few foreigners here, my presence here definitely gets noticed. Almost every time I am at school my students or other teachers comment on how they saw me at Fuji at the weekend. I do my best to follow Japanese customs when I am here, but at the same time I also hope that my students and those around me are able to learn something about Scottish and British culture, even if they have not had the chance to travel. I am going to stay in Yawatahama for at least another year, so I hope to continue getting involved in the community and hopefully make a difference.

Christmas time ventures: Fukuoka, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Kobe

So this blog is going to be all about the travelling I did around Christmas time! And very British it all was too, complete with many British pubs, lots of Strong Zero and definite alcoholism!

On the long weekend before Christmas, I ventured across to the island of Kyushu to visit the city of Fukuoka and one of my Scottish ALT friends who lives in that prefecture. I have to say that coming from the inaka (the Japanese country) then finding myself in Hakata station, the main train station of Fukuoka city, was quite a shock to the system. Train stations in Japan tend to be a city unto themselves, so I ended up extremely lost and accidentally buying the same train ticket twice... After that distressing venture it was a relief to find myself in my friend's town, which is much more similar to my own town in terms of inakaness. Of course, after dropping my stuff off and eating lunch, we headed back into the city for our Scottish alcohol-fuelled all-nighter on the town.

However, before the heavy drinking commenced we had a look round Canal City, a shopping mall which has a canal running through it and also had a very amazing Christmas light display. There was also a One Direction shop, which might also be considered by some to be an attraction in itself. Surprisingly, One Direction is huge in Japan and my students are constantly asking me who my favourite is (If I had to pick, I suppose it would be Zane...)

After meeting some of the other Fukuoka ALTs and eating dinner, it was time to hit the British pub! My friend and I actually planned to stay out all night until about 5am, as there was nowhere to stay in the city and the trains to his town wouldn't start running again until about 5am. But to my amazement, we never actually got home until nearly 8am. And to think I thought I was too old to stay out past 3... I'm not actually sure where the whole night went, but we ended up at a club in which we were the only foreigners and surrounded by Japanese girls wearing extremely sexy Santa outfits.

Somehow, as per tradition, I managed to lose my coat. In the end I just left the club without it, and got on the train in a horrible sleep-deprived and still-drunk state, giggling at the school kids when they got on the train. Though why they were going to school on a Sunday morning was beyond me. It's just how life in Japan is. 

The next day, still in a hungover state, I was shown more of Fukuoka city. It is possibly my favourite city that I've visited in Japan so far. The people are extremely fashionable, the girls are gorgeous, the people are friendly and overall, the city has a very young and great vibe. 

Me in a rather hungover state at a Ghibli exhibition

One such example of this friendliness, is that expecting to have a quick and quiet dinner in a tapas bar, my friend and I ended up being wined and dined by friends of the staff, actually being bought whole bottles of some pretty good wine. We also ended up playing bingo for someones birthday and I won a giant box of Kirin brand fruit juices, which I had to leave with my friend since it was too big to take back to my prefecture. 

My final day in Fukuoka, I had a lovely afternoon meeting my Japanese friend who is an English teacher that I originally met in Italy over 3 years ago. I remember 3 years ago she showed me a picture of Canal City, to which I replied "I really want to go there!". But I never actually dreamed I would someday be meeting her in her own city and be shown around by her! It's times like this when life feels so surreal. However, I fully believe that life is what you make it and you have the power to do anything or live anywhere.

My Japanese friend and I in a nice park in Fukuoka

So that was Fukuoka! A pretty awesome place and an awesome weekend if I say so myself. And the real trip hasn't even begun yet!

After Christmas, which I will get back to in another blog, otherwise this will end up being far too long, I headed out to Kansai on an overnight bus to meet another British JET, this time from London.

The first place we visited was Kyoto. I met my friend bright and early at about 8am, straight after having spent the night on that overnight bus. Despite feeling a bit grungy, we delved right into tourist mode and visited two different shrines/temples that first day. 

The first place we visited was Ginkakuji. Despite the fact that it translates to Silver Pavilion, there wasn't actually any silver to be seen anywhere. Instead they had this rather odd sand cone, that was painstakingly shaped by the staff. Not sure what they do when it pours. Set up an umbrella over it?

Ginkakuji itself - not very silver

Next we visited a big red shrine. The name escapes me, but the gardens that surrounded it were absolutely beautiful. I felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland as I wandered around gazing at everything, particularly when I stumbled across this rather peculiar yet charming abandoned tram car. We also came across some stepping stones, which made for some great photo ops, despite the fact I was certain that one of us would fall in. Interestingly, I later found out that Scarlett Johansson walked across these very same stepping stones in Lost In Translation!

The misplaced tram

Clearly quite worried that I might fall in

Our first night we headed out to A-Bar, as recommended by a friend from my prefecture. It was a very international type place, with the inside decor being like that of a log cabin. Perhaps the drinks were strong there, as my friend and I got carried away with playing a game called "gaijin-punch". Basically it's like Yellow Car, but the aim is to punch your friend whenever you see a foreigner that you don't know. In my prefecture this game is practically redundant as you hardly ever see foreigners, but in Kyoto both our arms were aching after only about half an hour.

That being said, despite the abundance of foreigners, Kyoto can be quite hostile towards them. One thing that really shocked me was when my friend and I tried to go to a ramen shop, but were turned away. This would be fine, apart from the fact that a group of 4 Japanese who were in the queue behind us were welcomed with open arms and didn't even have a reservation. I won't even delve into the awful racism of this since it's such a huge topic, but I certainly was very shocked as I am generally seen as a bit of a novelty in my prefecture, for lack of better words, since I am part of a tiny minority that is well under 1%.

Putting that unsavoury moment behind us, we headed to Arashiyama the next day. This is a very famous bamboo forest on the outskirts of Kyoto. Whilst it certainly photographs well, the atmosphere was ruined slightly by the huge fences separating us from the actual forest.

My hands down favourite place, not only in Kyoto but also the whole trip, was Kiyomizu Temple. The various parts of the temple just seemed to go on and on, and the scene was set perfectly with girls wandering around in beautiful kimonos, as it is traditional for the Japanese to visit shrines and temples around the New Year period. Photographs don't do justice to this temple, as there is just something so mystical about standing at the railing and gazing out at the surrounding hillside. I particularly loved this view with the red shrine in the distance, but unfortunately it never came out that well in the pictures. Perhaps Kyoto is worth it even just for this temple, and I will certainly be returning in spring or autumn to see either the blossoms or the beautifully vivid autumn colours.

I also have to mention the fact that we visited Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion. This is probably the most famous temple in Japan because of the fact that it's covered in gold leaf. While I can still admire the lake and the temple itself, it seemed rather overrated and even paled in comparison to Kiyomizu.

Our final stop in Kyoto was Fushimi Inari, a set of 1000 red toris, or gates, going up the hillside to a temple. Whilst we never did the hike to the top, which I was later told takes a couple of hours and the temple at the top is a bit disappointing anyway, the part that I did see was certainly very beautiful and atmospheric, ruined only by the New Year crowds who had come to visit the shrine.

Whilst in Kyoto, I also met with another couple of Japanese friends that I originally met 3 years ago in Italy. However, these friends don't speak a lot of English, so I had to get back into Italian-speaking mode, which was incredibly confusing given the fact that I've been trying to study Japanese these past few months. Initially all my sentences came out in a garbled mixture of Italian, Japanese and English, but after an hour or so I was able to pull myself together and communicate a bit better.

Next on the agenda was Osaka. My initial impression of Osaka wasn't a very great one as I was incredibly tired and felt completely overwhelmed by the amount of people and the immense scale of everything. It probably didn't help that my first stop was also the Pokemon Centre which basically translated to being pushed around by some extremely hyper little Japanese children. However, looking back I can appreciate the scale and modernity of Osaka a bit more, particularly the curious-looking Umeda Sky Building.

Osaka is definitely not your typical Japanese city though. The city was dirty and rough around the edges, particularly in the area near to our hostel. I think it would be fair to say that it's probably just like any other city in Europe in this sense, but since I have become accustomed to the security and polished finish of all the other Japanese cities, it probably felt more sketchy and dirty than it actually was.

The most famous area of Osaka is probably the Dotombori/Namba area, complete with bustling arcade shopping areas, scalding hot takoyaki (fried doughy octopus, and yes I actually did burn my mouth pretty badly) and epilepsy-inducing neon signs. This Glico sign is probably the most famous neon sign in all of Japan, along with this neon advert for Asahi beer.

This also happened to be New Years Eve, or Hogmanay as we call it in Scotland, so I'm ashamed to say that we headed to the British pub basically as soon as it opened. We never actually made any kind of plan for New Years Eve, so it was a combination of drinking Strong Zero in the street and then hastily making our way to another British pub before midnight struck. I suppose you could say it suited Osaka because our plan was also rough around the edges.

It was that night that I realised the hidden jewel of Osaka: the people! They are much more forthcoming and friendly than people in the rest of Japan tend to be. We were even spontaneously invited to a New Year's party in Kobe by a couple of randoms in the train station, but turned it down since it seemed maybe a little rash. It was very easy to make friends and talk to people in the pub that we ended up that, though I'll be damned if I can actually remember any of those conversations.

New Years Day was a little eery as almost everything was closed and all the Japanese people flock to shrines. Since my friend was stuck in bed with a New Years hangover, I decided to wander the streets of downtown Osaka solo, which were mainly empty apart from a few keen people who were out to hit the sales in the few shops that were open. I ended up in Den Den town, the electronics district, which had a bit of a seedy air to it. Feeling uneasy, I quickly got a few snaps of Osaka Tower and got the subway uptown to see the year's first sunset over Osaka castle.

Kyoto Tower

Osaka Castle

The next day my friend and I decided to visit Nara Park, which is famous for its many deer that just wander around casually amongst all the tourists. The deers are so domesticated that they barely blink an eye when little children paw at their fur. In fact, they seemed a bit sick of the treats that all the tourists kept trying to give them. Nevertheless, here are a couple of obligatory deer pics.

Finally, the last place on the agenda was Kobe! I had grown tired of all the crowds and maze-like train stations in Osaka, so Kobe was like a breath of fresh air to me. While Kyoto was arguably my favourite of the three cities in terms of touristy things to do and see, Kobe felt revitalising and extremely liveable. Whilst I would have liked to explore Kobe a bit further, I was very tired by this point so I stuck to the main attractions. But I think I will probably return to Kobe at some point!

The best part of Kobe was Harborland, which is basically a cool looking shopping area by the sea. I managed to see this area in both the daylight from the top of a ferris wheel, and even better, at night when it was all lit up!

My friend also ate a rather interesting Japanese/Italian fusion, which consisted of ramen in a tomato-based Italian style broth. I wasn't convinced since I'm a bit of a puritan when it comes to Italian food, but my friend claimed that it was delicious. It was also my 23rd birthday on our last full day in Kobe, so in keeping with the running theme of our trip, we headed to the nearest British pub for some celebratory drinks!

The next day we dragged our weary feet to the train station, said our goodbyes and got on shinkansens back to our respective prefectures. And that was Kansai! An extremely tiring, but an amazing and eye-opening trip!

Fame and giant tunafish

Christmas is nearly upon us and this will be my last update before then. I've noticed that the Japanese either seem to ignore Christmas altogether or pick the parts that they think are cute and go overboard. One example being the epilepsy-inducing Christmas light displays on some houses. They also believe that in the west we eat chicken and a white cream Christmas cake on the 25th. Though honestly, the Japanese Christmas cake is definitely tastier than the stodgy traditional Christmas pudding that we have in the UK. Some of the kids blew me away when they met my mention of Jesus with completely blank stares and hadn't even heard of him. But then, I'm the worst "Catholic" ever, so I'm not going to judge.

The Japanese Christmas cake that I tried

Despite the lack of emphasis on Christmas here, I have been getting somewhat into the Christmas spirit. I have been dressing up in a little Santa dress and hat for my Christmas lessons at school. Usually the kids just yell "Santa-san!" at me and try and steal my hat, but I think they appreciate the effort. Ironically, I felt most Christmassy at the ALTs' Thanksgiving party last month. I donned my kilt for the occasion, since we had the dinner on the 30th, which also happens to be St Andrews day, the patron saint of Scotland. It's safe to say that this is multicultural exchange as it's best: wearing a kilt for a Thanksgiving dinner in Japan. The dinner itself was amazing! The girl hosting it was lucky enough to be one of the few people to own an oven in Japan, so we had a turkey, enough potato to feed an army and more pies than a pie shop, as well as all the other dishes that people brought. Pretty sure I've never been as full in my life as I was that night. We ended the night with a giant sleepover!

Whilst I haven't done any travelling to other prefectures in the past month, I have spent a fair bit of Matsuyama, the biggest city in Ehime.

Dogo Onsen, the inspiration for the onsen in Spirited Away

As above

A chairlift up to Matsuyama castle

View of Matsuyama

After that visit I went back again for the ALT skills conference. The evening of the first day, most of the ALTs had a giant enkai. Shots of sake were done out of giant soup spoons, and to make a long story short, I woke up the next day still drunk, feeling like I would rather not exist and trying not to remember the embarrassing fragments of the night before. To make matters worse, I still had another day of the skills conference to go. But I'm of the opinion that a hangover is self-inflicted so I don't have the right to whine about it that much.

That evening, pure chance would have it that me and my friends get bombarded by a TV camera crew whilst sitting in a sushi restaurant because they had brought in a giant tuna fish and wanted to film it being cut up and turned into sushi. Of course, being a table full of foreigners, they simply had to film us eating it and going "Mmm oishii!" in unison. This is clearly the beginning of a brilliant film career for me.

And if that wasn't enough fame for me, I was also recently made to pose in a mikan farm for a New Year's edition of the local magazine, whilst they asked the usual Japanese questions of "What type of man do you like?" That's right, you better start forming a queue for my autograph.

My next visit to Matsuyama was actually a visit to an orphanage organised by the local ALTs. Although I signed up to the event too late to actually be able to buy a present for a kid, I did get to dress up in my Mrs Claus outfit again and give out sweets to the kids, whilst helping with the Christmas activities that had been set up. And my most recent visit to Matsuyama involved a giant buffet, making friends with both foreigners and Japanese at the local gaijin bar and the typical giant sleepover that seems to be a common part of social events in the JET community.

Life is pretty damn cold here. It's around the same temperature as Scotland right now, but it feels so much colder because you can never fully escape the cold. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in the 50s, as central heating is basically an unheard of concept, insulation in buildings is non-existent and the girls in my junior high schools are not allowed to wear tights under their skirts. I feel awful for them whenever I see them shivering in the hallways. In the evenings I'm either hiding in my bed with my glorious electric blanket or hugging my space heater. I find it difficult to believe that this is the same country as 3 months ago, when it was nearly 40 degrees and so much humidity that clothing just became a nuisance.

But alas, I'm not going to complain about that because I feel like I have been really starting to find my feet this past month. I definitely feel more of a connection with my students these days and last week I felt like even the JTE (Japanese teacher) who I usually consider to be quite frosty towards me was starting to warm up. The only sad part is that I won't see much of my junior high 3rd years after Christmas because they will be on exam leave and then heading off to high school in April.

I feel more like a part of the local community as I'm being invited out to more things by Japanese people. I think a big part of this is the shorinji class (a type of martial art) that I take. Despite the fact that I'm pretty damn terrible at it, lots of the members have been making an effort to invite me out to things and get to know me. One of the kids who is only about 4 or 5 years old started wanting to learn English after I joined and has since been shouting out random English vocab at me whenever he sees me. Ridiculously cute and very impressive considering his age.

At my shorinji enkai I was made to do karaoke for the first time, much to my reluctance. I have attended karaoke before, but always managed to get away with never singing. Singing in front of a roomful of people is as appealing to me as going to the dentist, but they still cheered appreciatively even after I butchered Twist and Shout. This was then followed up with "Challenge! Challenge!" as they thrust cups full of sake at me and gawped in amazement as I downed them. The woman who worked in the karaoke bar then followed this up by giving me a palm reading in which she claimed I will be happy in May, but very unhappy in August and that I must fight through it. Hmm... I don't tend to believe these things but I can't help but feel a little nervous.

All in all, after a bit of a rough start and not quite being used to living in a small town, I feel like it's all starting to fall into place. My Japanese is still terrible but gradually getting better. I recently cycled out by myself a few miles to the end of the peninsula. The beauty and peace I have encountered and continue to encounter every week in Ehime has given me a new appreciation for living closer to nature.

 

The end of the peninsula

And just because it's Ehime, here's a giant mikan made out of mikans

It's clear from all the stares I get that Shikoku may not be the most obvious of Japan's four islands for a foreigner to be, but this is part of the Shikoku charm. I really feel like I am living in authentic Japan. My presence here definitely gets noticed, and I hope that perhaps it makes a difference to the people around me too, particularly my students.

That's it for now, but over Christmas and New Year I will be doing a great deal of travelling, so you can be sure that I'll have way more stories to tell then.

The so-called "Stage 2", naked Japanese men and too much alcohol

Dum dum dum.... The Dreaded "Stage 2" of "Culture Shock"!

It's very nearly been 4 months now, and needless to say there have been ups and downs. It was drilled into us at orientation time and time again "You will experience culture shock!", "Many people arrive at their apartment and swiftly burst into tears at the thought of being along in a foreign country". Now I can definitely say that the second thing did not happen to me, and it's hard to pinpoint whether or not the first thing did happen to me. I never thought at any point "Oh, wow this is just so different I don't know how I'm going to cope!", but there have been many times when I have simply rolled my eyes and thought "Well this is extremely Japanese and kind of frustrating...".

We were told there is Stage 1 of culture shock which involves basically being a hyperactive child and being amazed at everything new around you. This is followed by the dreaded Stage 2, when you begin to criticise everything about the new culture and even resent a lot of things. If you manage to pull through Stage 2, then there is Stage 3 where you become adjusted and stop acting like a hormonal teenager. And if you're lucky there is Stage 4, when you become some zenlike God and balance the best aspects of both cultures.

Honestly, I can't say I went through a distinct Stage 1, which maybe is kind of depressing since surely everyone wants to live in a bubble of amazement for a little while. I definitely didn't dive straight into Stage 2 though, I just think I'm quite a realistic person and maybe I think too much. I think (the irony) this goes with the territory of being a Scot with a good dose of sarcasm.

However, I can pinpoint a time when I went through Stage 2. Perhaps it was around October when the season rapidly changed from sweltering heat to a normal temperature. But to me this sudden change made the normal temperature feel like the dead of winter, and I went through a bout of always having a cold, thus making me feel miserable and resent the Japanese to a certain extent when I wasn't able to understand why on earth they insist on doing certain things. I'm certain that this feeling will never go away entirely (why don't you shut the windows at school when it's freezing cold??), but at least it has and will continue to lessen over time.

For those of you who know me even a bit, I am sure you must be well aware of the fact that I did a year abroad in Italy from my constant "Well, this one time in Italy..." . The same thing happened in Italy! It got cold and I got depressed. I even got upset and ran back home on the spur of the moment one time, but this is definitely not an option now that I'm in Japan.

Now let's talk about how I probably have an alcohol problem :)

Anyway, let me tell you about my fun and alcohol-fuelled past weekends, the things that made me pull through all this so-called Stage 2 stuff. The weekend that really made me lighten up and go through a temporary delirium of "OMGJAPANISSOCOOLPIKACHUETC" was when I went mikan picking (the fruit that Ehime is famous for, basically a mandarin) and to put it delicately, got absolutely shitfaced (not from the mikans just to clear that up...).

How it all came about was rather strange, as it involved a chance encounter in the street, with a Japanese woman who now lives in America, but comes back every year to help out her family during mikan season. There was a big group of us gaijin in the street in Yawatahama after a meal, which is an EXTREMELY rare occurence here, so she was obviously curious and came up to speak to us since her English is really good. It turned out that her brother is a teacher at one of the primary schools I teach at once a month, and so the other Yawatahama ALTs and I were invited to pick mikans on their mikan farm.

Now, I was somewhat hungover and tired after a late night in Ozu with some ALTs the night before, but being taken up to their mikan farm was somehow life changing for me. We were riding in the open back of a truck, which is definitely a first for me since I'm a city girl. We were going up higher and higher into the mountains with this amazing view of the sea right behind us, and I think it just hit me how in love with Japan I am. I was literally bouncing around like I was 5 years old, but I had never felt happier.

After picking some mikans on their very high up mikan farm, we were taken to this gigantic dome thing on the top of the mountain. We had to climb up a very high ladder, a bit dubious considering the lack of ropes or anything to stop us falling, but once we were up there it was literally like being on top of the world. I don't think any picture will do it justice.

Then we dug up sweet potatoes and then went fishing. That is probably the most farm girl day of my life that I've ever had... And when we were fishing, as the sun was setting it turned into this huge bright red disk like the flag of Japan, the same way it did that time I did a roadtrip to the shimanami kaido bridges. Again, this photo is like some crappy shadow of the real thing. But that was it, I was hooked and I was in love with Japan.

After that we went back to the house of the family and had the most traditional Japanese meal I think I have ever seen on a fireplace that the family built themselves. You can see it here:

The whole family was so warm and hospitable, and even though I couldn't communicate properly with anyone in the family apart from the woman, I had a really great time. I was sitting next to the grandfather, who is seen as somewhat of a legendary Crocodile Dundee figure by everyone in Yawatahama. Apparently he is completely crazy and will do absolutely any challenge that anyone sets for him. Even though he was aware that I didn't understand much, he was quite content to babble away to me in Japanese and smile and laugh and do sake shots with me. I don't think I have ever felt that much warmth from someone who is practically a stranger to me and doesn't speak the same language. And I was really blown away by the generosity of that family, as we each came away with around 50 mikans and a bag of sweet potatoes, as well as all the amazing food and alcohol that we had that night.

The next day, surprisingly hangover free, I went on a trip with another Japanese person who speaks a little bit of English. We managed to converse to some extent with my limited Japanese and her limited English. She took me up to the mountains to the most staggeringly beautiful place, where the leaves were turning bright red. Japan is very well known for its beautiful autumn colours and this place was no exception. There was this one bridge in particular crossing a river that had no proper rails, just a small bit of wire on one side that was slightly terrifying to cross, but had one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen.

The bridge, which is actually really scary when you're crossing it

The weekend after that I went on a girl's trip to Beppu, famous for its many onsen (aka. where you get naked in a hot pool with strangers). We decided to go an onsen that had a mudbath. Onsen are divided by gender, and this was true for this onsen, but only to a certain extent! Even walking into the onsen, we were all very much aware of the fact that in the distance we could see naked Japanese men walking around, even if they were covering themselves with the tiny towel they give you at onsen.

It was bizarre... the girls mudbath was outside, but obviously the water was so murky from mud that you couldn't actually see anything when someone was submerged in the water. Meanwhile, the mens part of the onsen seemed to have a path that literally went right past the female mudbath. Some of them sheepishly ran past clutching their towel, while some of the more brave ones actually gave us a "Hello!". There was even a mixed part of the onsen which was advertised as having a waterfall, but in actual fact was essentially a leaky pipe. False advertising to lure in the foreign girls methinks..? I ventured into this part for maybe a minute or two, but with my towel round me. Lots of the other girls in my group were in this section, but the Japanese men seemed so split between curiosity and fear that the atmosphere was just uncomfortable and I left, even if I somehow managed to accidentally flash my ass to a couple of Japanese guys in the process. Oh well, I doubt I'll ever see them again.

That night we went to a Japanese Elvis night with a huge buffet and unlimited booze. The other girls said that the staff were rather racist towards us lovely gaijin, but if I'm honest, I was so drunk that I have no recollection of the night. I just remember throwing up in the sink of the hostel we were staying in, which is a pretty big deal for me since I broke my 5 year no throwing up streak! Ugh...

The next morning, in my severely dehydrated state, unable to even comprehend the notion of going to a hot onsen, we decided to hit the "hells" of Beppu: basically lots of different types of geysers. Some were pools of mud, some were beautiful blue pools able to boil eggs and some had crocodiles in them. Nothing really surprises me in Japan anymore.

So that's it, my last few weeks in Japan in a nutshell plus a bit of whining at the beginning :)