I originally thought I would keep this blog really informative and not to personal. Well after a couple post, ummm it is kinda boring. I'm not boring, I don't have a boring life, and Japan is usually not boring. I'm still gonna have the informative stuff of course, but I think you need to see the hard side too.
Living overseas is not easy. SURPRISE! Okay, even if you haven't done the expat thing, you probably can understand that facing a world you are not used to, in a language you do not know, with customs you can't get right no matter how much you try, is going to be hard.
So things are going to get a little more personal and hopefully a little more interesting.
Dosojin Fire Festival
In a little town 90 minutes north of mine, there is an annual event that is a site to behold. On January 15th every year, in rain, sleet or snow, hundreds of tourist flood the town as they hold the Dosojin Fire Festival. It dates back to 1863 and is held as a prayer for good luck, health, and plentiful harvest.Two days before the festival all the men in the village who are 25 and 42 construct an 18 meter tall shrine from birch wood. Twenty-five and 42 are thought to be unlucky ages in this town. Then the priest blesses it. On the evening of the 15th the sake starts flowing as the tourist pour into the town. As my friends and I drove the narrow streets scanning for a parking spot, we could see the festivities had already started. A small fire is started up in the center of town and the villagers, followed by tourist, make their way to the shrine which is in an open field at the bottom of a hill.
Left: Men of the village in charge of giving out free sake to anyone who will drink it.
Right: My friends Nina and Charlie who joined me on the journey. We are wearing about 4 layers each!
We parked just below this hill and arrived to the shrine before the procession had. Free sake was being passed out in jugs by the locals, and clearly the 42 year old men had already had their fair share. Granted they were seated on top of this enormous shrine which later was to be set afire. It would take a lot of sake for me to get up there too. Some HUGE poles with lots of decoration were being erected and we spent the first 20 minutes trying to avoid being in their way, and running from village person who was swinging a giant torch into the audience.
Left: Hundreds of papers filled with kanji fly in the cold wind over the spectators.
Right: Raising the shrines. The guy with the torch is in the background.
Around 8:30 my feet had started the first stage of frostbite, I had located all of my foreign friends who had made the journey and the fun really got started. As if on cue the crowd became a mob pushing to be closest to the rope line which was the only protection we had from the fire. At the top of this small hill was a huge fire used to light the bundled bamboo torches on fire. At the bottom, the shrine. Men dressed as police were on one side of the rope, and the spectators on the other. Then CHAOS! The villagers lite their torches and began charging the shrine. In front of the shrine, under the drunk signing men who were perched on top, were the 25 year olds who, in their drunken state, were given the duty of protecting the shrine with their own torches. There was a fierce battle.
Left: The 25 year old men face the first onslaught of torches
Right: The 42 year old men enjoying the view
The charging villagers dramatically waved their lit torches over the audience as they headed back for battle. Sometimes they were kind enough to stop and shake it over us, sending embers and small flames into the mosh pit. At one point three people had to extinguish all the fire on my jacket. When a torch came into the audience, everyone pushed and pulled to get out of harms way. Two old ladies fell at my feet, practically being trampled. Australians were shouting for more fire and sake. All of this lasted about 1 hour.
The villagers and their torches marching into battle.
I was exhausted and ready to see the end of the festival. Eventually the shrine does catch on fire, the men on top stop singing, take a bow, and get down as fast as possible. The defenders wander off with their soot covered bodies and the giant shrines erected earlier go into the bonfire. The shrine collapsed after about 15 minutes, which sent the crowd scrambling to get out of harms way. If only I had some marshmallows.
The bonfire at the end. The platform that the 42 year olds were sitting on eventually collapses.
Left: Men of the village in charge of giving out free sake to anyone who will drink it.Right: My friends Nina and Charlie who joined me on the journey. We are wearing about 4 layers each!
We parked just below this hill and arrived to the shrine before the procession had. Free sake was being passed out in jugs by the locals, and clearly the 42 year old men had already had their fair share. Granted they were seated on top of this enormous shrine which later was to be set afire. It would take a lot of sake for me to get up there too. Some HUGE poles with lots of decoration were being erected and we spent the first 20 minutes trying to avoid being in their way, and running from village person who was swinging a giant torch into the audience.
Left: Hundreds of papers filled with kanji fly in the cold wind over the spectators.
Right: Raising the shrines. The guy with the torch is in the background.
Around 8:30 my feet had started the first stage of frostbite, I had located all of my foreign friends who had made the journey and the fun really got started. As if on cue the crowd became a mob pushing to be closest to the rope line which was the only protection we had from the fire. At the top of this small hill was a huge fire used to light the bundled bamboo torches on fire. At the bottom, the shrine. Men dressed as police were on one side of the rope, and the spectators on the other. Then CHAOS! The villagers lite their torches and began charging the shrine. In front of the shrine, under the drunk signing men who were perched on top, were the 25 year olds who, in their drunken state, were given the duty of protecting the shrine with their own torches. There was a fierce battle.
Left: The 25 year old men face the first onslaught of torches
Right: The 42 year old men enjoying the view
The charging villagers dramatically waved their lit torches over the audience as they headed back for battle. Sometimes they were kind enough to stop and shake it over us, sending embers and small flames into the mosh pit. At one point three people had to extinguish all the fire on my jacket. When a torch came into the audience, everyone pushed and pulled to get out of harms way. Two old ladies fell at my feet, practically being trampled. Australians were shouting for more fire and sake. All of this lasted about 1 hour.
The villagers and their torches marching into battle. I was exhausted and ready to see the end of the festival. Eventually the shrine does catch on fire, the men on top stop singing, take a bow, and get down as fast as possible. The defenders wander off with their soot covered bodies and the giant shrines erected earlier go into the bonfire. The shrine collapsed after about 15 minutes, which sent the crowd scrambling to get out of harms way. If only I had some marshmallows.
The bonfire at the end. The platform that the 42 year olds were sitting on eventually collapses. My Toy Car
I received a question from students at my cousins school in Georgia (USA)! They are interested in my car. So here it is. This is my car! 
It's very typical for Japan and especially for native English teachers.
It measures 127 inches long, 55 inches high, and 51 inches wide.
Needless to say, it is tiny. I have the ability to sit in the front seat
and reach things in the trunk. I have fit 7 people in this car once.
I do not recommend it and in fact, it is illegal in Japan to have
more than 4 people in my car because it is a yellow license plate
car. See the license plate is yellow. That means it has a small
engine. It is beneficial to to have a yellow plate in Japan where
toll roads can be costly. Yellow plate cars pay less. If you don't
have a yellow plate car, then you have a white plate car. You pay
more taxes and tolls, but you have a bigger engine and a more
spacious car.
Not all cars are this small in Japan, most are a bit bigger to full size Toyota Camrys and so on. The roads can get pretty small in Japan though, and these little toy cars are great for that. It is not uncommon for me to approach another car going in the opposite direction, on a small road and we both must slow down to a turtle crawl and inch past each other until we have safely passed. If you get good enough, you don't slow down and just learn to say a small prayer. On top of this, almost all roads in Japan have small ditches, about a tire's width, on either side of the road for water drainage. Rarely is there a grate or cover over them. Soooo if you scoot to far off the side of the road trying to avoid a car passing, you could find yourself lifting your car out of a ditch. Another perk to having the little cars.
I once asked why the roads were so small here. The answer: "In Japan we only used horses for travel before cars. So the roads were narrow. When cars came, we paved over the same roads and did not widen them." Here is a great example of a residential road. It is a 2 way road. How would you pass an oncoming car? The light pole in the street makes it that much more fun.
The great thing about cars in Japan is the price. CHEAP! A new yellow plate car may only run you about $10'000 - $14'000. I paid $2'000 for my car and it had low miles, great condition, and fairly new. Plus a set of winter tires, a must in Japan, was included. Gasoline is higher priced that in the USA, I currently am paying $4.35 a gallon of gas. And that is a great price right now!!!! My car holds about 6.5 gallons and that will last me about 1 to 1.5 weeks.
So that is the low down on Japanese cars. Any questions, just ask!
Spending New Years With the Mafia
New Years in Japan is a bit different than what I am used to in the USA. First it is a time for people to go back to their hometown and spend time with family. Starting around December 27 everyone goes on vacation and the entire country seems to close down. This lasts until January 3rd. Doors are adorned with large grass ornaments covered in sparkly bits of paper, knots and the new animal which represents the incoming year. This year the cow is center stage. Everyone works to give their home a thorough cleaning for days. Then on the 31st family and friends visit each others homes and bring small gifts of food or money and hang out for a while. There are traditional foods eaten, and later that night people go to their local shrine to give their first prayers of the year. While their people pick up their traditional daruma doll. The storey is that this doll is sleeping, hence you see no eyes. You make a wish and color in one eye of the doll. Later, when that wish comes true you color in the other eye. Then the doll is awake and has seen the wish. You can burn the doll when you are through.
A couple friends of mine came over for an American style New Years party. I wanted to pick up some of these daruma dolls and so we set off for my local shrine at about 8:30 PM, WAY before anybody would be there. While browsing over the doll stand a local vendor came over to talk to us. He invited us to a makeshift reception room. This was a tent open to the shrine street heated by a kerosene heater. Since it's walls were susceptible to the wind, it was still rather chilly, and his offer of warm sake took the chill off. So we chatted for awhile and I noticed other people sitting in this tent seemed to stand out from your typical Japanese look. One man had a pencil thin mustached and wore an all white outfit complete with a white hat. The flashy jewelry made him look pimp-like. Another rather large gentleman wore an all silver jumpsuit, sported a cane and large gold pinky ring. He simply clapped to times and a woman who was serving us was at his beckon call.
Soon the silver man left and our host for the past hour spoke to us in a hushed tone. He was explaining that the silver man was "boss". Boss in Japan refers to a yakuza or mafia boss. I thought this man must surely be pulling our leg. Soon the silver man rejoined our small party and decided to join the conversation. He asked which of us foreigners was the teacher at a local high school. One of my friends raised his hand and the gentleman pulled out a picture of his grand daughter. My friend being a very smart man quickly acknowledged that he recognized the girl and proclaimed she was a great student! Then the "boss" started to tell us that he was INDEED a mafia boss. To prove it he pulled off his glove and said "Do you understand?" while waving his hand in our face. The pinky was missing the first 2 digits. A sign of dedication for the yakuza. All of our eyes widened and I stuttered "yes, I understand, you are a boss of the yakuza". He seemed satisfied, chuckled a bit and then told us he was like Al Capone.
After a few more words, i chugged down my sake, did my clapping ritual at the temple, bought some daruma dolls and we headed back to my apartment. What a way to ring in the New Year!
In the beginning...skip to 2.5 years later
I arrived in Japan on July 27th, 2006 on a hot night, wearing a three piece suit, and carrying my world in a couple suitcases. I had about 5 Japanese words perfected and practiced my bow till I was dizzy. I had very little knowledge of the culture and from that day on I was immersed into a world like any other. Or so I thought...
Turns out Japan is like most other countries, just with a little twist.
I have always intended on having some sort of blog to keep my friends and family updated. I tried a couple out, lost interest, blah blah blah, and now I'm here. I get a lot of questions about what life is like here. I also talk to a lot of people who have some strange ideas about what Japan must be like. Many seem to think I'm in a kind of 3rd world country, teaching under bamboo trees in a rice paddy field. It's not like that.
So if you have questions, comments, or queries ASK! That is what this is here for. I'll post the question with answer as soon as possible.
While I wait for the questions to come pouring in I'll amuse you with stories of the far east...
Me modeling traditional Japanese bridal attire
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