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Getting up at 5 was a beast, but I really didn’t want to be late so I sucked it up. I’ve been late for these people often enough. I put on some clothes that I thought would be warm enough for a Muro autumn morning (wrong!), and raced my bike off to the 7-11 to be picked up. It was only about a 5 minute walk from my house, but I guess that shows how much those extra minutes mattered to me. As it turned out, I waited for about 10 minutes before a solitary woman in a car showed up, flagging me down. I figured since this was Japan and nobody else knew my plans at 6 AM, she was probably not an assassin or abductor. I asked her her name and made a big show about meeting her for the first time and didn’t really understand what she was trying to express to me until I realized it was Megu, the woman who’s birthday I’d helped celebrate at the end of August >,< I was so embarrassed! Still, I didn’t feel like it was too much my fault, since the last time I’d seen her she had been really tired and quiet, wearing glasses, and being otherwise mousey in every way, whereas today she was very beautiful and relatively chatty.
As it turned out, The Actress had been running late, so it threw us all out of whack (I was supposed to be picked up last but instead was picked up first, and late at that), so then we picked up Mochi, and then we went back for The Actress. So much for me feeling bad about ever being late - at least when I was late I wasn’t an inconvenience, I was mostly late on account of work, and I arrived within 10 minutes of the time I was supposed to be there. She was rockin’ closer to a half an hour and she definitely wasn’t coming home from work at 6 AM. Not to say my lateness is ok, but comparatively…y’know.
Turns out Mochi lives in the next neighborhood from mine, one I’d discovered on my bike ride the day before. Together the four of us drove to a Lawson’s and picked up the 2nd in command from the jazz cruise, a dweeby dude who is really nice but whose name I don’t think I ever learned. We went to the shrine in old downtown so that we could get our samurai garb on >:D Walking in, it was the coolest shit I’ve ever seen and I really think the family in charge lives there, which sets of fantasies of shrine life in my mind. So much beauty and style in one building! A tatami and shouji dream!
Admittedly there was some awkwardness for me in the dressing process, since I was always only about 3/4 of the way informed on account of the language gap. This was most awkward when the old man at the shrine kept implying that I needed to change some of my clothes to put on the samurai outfit, and I wasn’t sure if he meant now, later, here, in another room, and what parts. As it turns out, I did had understood everything he was saying, the only problem was that I was hesitant because I hadn’t known that he was the one dressing us (kind of important, perspective-wise!). Also, as I remarked in earlier entries, in Japan it’s okay for high school kids to strip down to their skivvies in front of each other, including the opposite sex, but the same is also true for adults. Nobody expected me to strip down in front of the dudes, being all foreign and everything, but it did throw me off a little.
In the end, I worked out a sweater/leggings combination out of the clothes I’d been wearing and I’m old enough and comfortable enough with myself that most of my awkwardness didn’t come from being indecently exposed, but from worries about whether or not I’d make a faux pas by doing it surrounded by the wrong people, since I didn’t know the culture.
Anyway, everything was fine, just culturally amusing, and in the end I got to wear the Taisho (captain) uniform while my three friends wore more brightly colored, less authentic looking ones. Mochi and me had a little too much leg showing on the bottom on account of our heights, The Actress had a little too much on the floor, but Megu’s was just right. We also got to carry real katanas (though not sharpened) and that was pretty effin’ sweet. I guess it’s fairly common for shrines to have stocks of period costumes in their closets. Cool.
So the four of us, completely dressed as samurai, piled into a car and drove across the big famous bridge in my city that I hadn’t been on yet. The port was gorgeous, seeing as it’s all wonderful ocean lined with soft blue mountains along the entire horizon across the bay. We also stopped at a 7-11 and bought some breakfast, which I thought was a hilarious thing to do dressed head to toe like samurai, but oddly enough no one in the store, working or otherwise, seemed surprised in the slightest. Perhaps the ridiculous stereotype Westerners have isn’t so far off, maybe samurai and geisha really do stroll around modern Japan every day.
We couldn’t have asked for better weather, though it was a little cold to be dressed as a warrior, even with all the extra layers of folded and tied shirts and such. When the foreigners started coming off the boat, many of them didn’t inherently notice, “Hey, that woman isn’t Japanese,” though if I’d talk to them they’d stop, look thoughtful for a moment, and say, “I didn’t think you looked Japanese.” So here we were, my friends trying to use as much English as possible and me trying to use as little as possible, all to keep up appearances and make the guests comfortable. I took a lot a lot a lot of pictures with tourists, but very few for myself.
Almost everyone I knew in Japan was out in the city working at some point, foreigner residents included, though I didn’t get to talk to any of them because we were all so busy. I think overall the passengers were very impressed by the energy of the city, as they should be because everyone tried damn hard, was damn friendly, and it was all volunteer! The City by the Sea can really snap into action. And let’s be honest, here they were training ordinary folk to use the right English to accommodate the passengers and setting up all sorts of special parties and cheap rates, when if this were to happen in the States nobody would even consider learning more than a greeting in another language or taking the guests beyond tourist spots. It’s kind of amazing.
Mochi and I separated from the girls and went to a quiet, more-industrial, part of town. It was kind of sad because there weren’t many people around and the Japanese hosts were a little disheartened. I stuck around making conversation, helping people haggle on both sides of the language spectrum and coercing the passengers to try the food. I had some great conversation with the obasans and ojisans in the food tent and they showered me with yummy yummy foods while I was there and even sent me home with a cob of roasted corn and two onigiri. My favorite though, was the mushroom miso soup, which was awesome beyond awesome. I made some good conversation with the ship passengers too, offering as much insight to Japanese culture as I could and smoothing the gap between everyone. I’m glad I was there because most of the passengers didn’t know the parking lot of antique and food tents existed, let alone had the guts to ask for something they wanted. When Mochi came back to pick me up, I bought a wall scroll from the antique dude and a cute little hanky from the obasans. It was a good day :) Though unfortunately I sensed a bit of a cold coming on, and you know damn well that while you might be mistaken about any other thing in your life, you never have a false positive when you feel a cold coming.
Mochi and I puttered around a little in a busier district, hob-knobbing with our other friends, and then we headed back to the shrine to dawn our regular clothes. My only regret was not buying my own set of tabi socks and kimono while they had them in Western sizes set out for the passengers. I always hesitate when it comes to shopping!
At the shrine I got to look around the rooms a little and we had to go to the kitchen and rinse our mouths with alcohol because we were in such a special place. I was glad to get out of my tabi socks, since I’d been wearing a 27 and am really at 27.5. That half a centimeter really makes a difference, believe it or not. Also, I think the geta I wore them with only went about halfway across my heel. Many expressions of thanks and good work were exchanged and we headed down to the port again to see the passengers off. Of course all the people I’d met no longer recognized me, but I did get to hear some stories about how some people thought I was from the boat, and I made some jokes about getting my Japanese friends on the boat by pretending to be a passenger. Note to self: take a cruise, that shit is bananas! 6 ports in different countries, spend all day getting fawned upon on land, and the travel time in between playing games and eating at a buffet? Sounds like a recipe for fun (and disaster).
We waved goodbye with glowsticks and yosakoi dancers from ages 5-15, and us hard workers downed some tako-yaki and some mascot-shaped waffles filled with bean paste (my favorite!). Fifteen hours after we’d started in the morning, we were dismissed, frozen to the bone and ready for dinner at 10 PM. My crew and I went for heaping bowls of the most beautiful ramen I’d ever seen at a Beatles-themed place in the district I’d been working that afternoon. I think I made friends with the cook, though I’m sure he’ll remember me more easily than I’ll remember him.
The Actress, Mochi, and I walked home together since our respective chou’s are so close. I really enjoyed the time I spent with my Japanese friends today, considering I’m getting comfortable enough with Japanese to take risks and after our English lessons they all felt comfortable enough too that we can all start to express ourselves in ways we couldn’t before. Then I came home and died on account of my lack of sleep and presence of cold (though I wasn’t the only one who died, my computer did too). Gotta get that fixed…
Now the difficult thing will be deciding whether to go to a meeting in two weeks to get to know some JET friends better, or to stay here in the City by the Sea and hang out with my Japanese friends. I’ll miss out either way and I’ll have great fun either way, so I guess I’ll just have to make a decision and not look back.
As it turned out, The Actress had been running late, so it threw us all out of whack (I was supposed to be picked up last but instead was picked up first, and late at that), so then we picked up Mochi, and then we went back for The Actress. So much for me feeling bad about ever being late - at least when I was late I wasn’t an inconvenience, I was mostly late on account of work, and I arrived within 10 minutes of the time I was supposed to be there. She was rockin’ closer to a half an hour and she definitely wasn’t coming home from work at 6 AM. Not to say my lateness is ok, but comparatively…y’know.
Turns out Mochi lives in the next neighborhood from mine, one I’d discovered on my bike ride the day before. Together the four of us drove to a Lawson’s and picked up the 2nd in command from the jazz cruise, a dweeby dude who is really nice but whose name I don’t think I ever learned. We went to the shrine in old downtown so that we could get our samurai garb on >:D Walking in, it was the coolest shit I’ve ever seen and I really think the family in charge lives there, which sets of fantasies of shrine life in my mind. So much beauty and style in one building! A tatami and shouji dream!
Admittedly there was some awkwardness for me in the dressing process, since I was always only about 3/4 of the way informed on account of the language gap. This was most awkward when the old man at the shrine kept implying that I needed to change some of my clothes to put on the samurai outfit, and I wasn’t sure if he meant now, later, here, in another room, and what parts. As it turns out, I did had understood everything he was saying, the only problem was that I was hesitant because I hadn’t known that he was the one dressing us (kind of important, perspective-wise!). Also, as I remarked in earlier entries, in Japan it’s okay for high school kids to strip down to their skivvies in front of each other, including the opposite sex, but the same is also true for adults. Nobody expected me to strip down in front of the dudes, being all foreign and everything, but it did throw me off a little.
In the end, I worked out a sweater/leggings combination out of the clothes I’d been wearing and I’m old enough and comfortable enough with myself that most of my awkwardness didn’t come from being indecently exposed, but from worries about whether or not I’d make a faux pas by doing it surrounded by the wrong people, since I didn’t know the culture.
Anyway, everything was fine, just culturally amusing, and in the end I got to wear the Taisho (captain) uniform while my three friends wore more brightly colored, less authentic looking ones. Mochi and me had a little too much leg showing on the bottom on account of our heights, The Actress had a little too much on the floor, but Megu’s was just right. We also got to carry real katanas (though not sharpened) and that was pretty effin’ sweet. I guess it’s fairly common for shrines to have stocks of period costumes in their closets. Cool.
So the four of us, completely dressed as samurai, piled into a car and drove across the big famous bridge in my city that I hadn’t been on yet. The port was gorgeous, seeing as it’s all wonderful ocean lined with soft blue mountains along the entire horizon across the bay. We also stopped at a 7-11 and bought some breakfast, which I thought was a hilarious thing to do dressed head to toe like samurai, but oddly enough no one in the store, working or otherwise, seemed surprised in the slightest. Perhaps the ridiculous stereotype Westerners have isn’t so far off, maybe samurai and geisha really do stroll around modern Japan every day.
We couldn’t have asked for better weather, though it was a little cold to be dressed as a warrior, even with all the extra layers of folded and tied shirts and such. When the foreigners started coming off the boat, many of them didn’t inherently notice, “Hey, that woman isn’t Japanese,” though if I’d talk to them they’d stop, look thoughtful for a moment, and say, “I didn’t think you looked Japanese.” So here we were, my friends trying to use as much English as possible and me trying to use as little as possible, all to keep up appearances and make the guests comfortable. I took a lot a lot a lot of pictures with tourists, but very few for myself.
Almost everyone I knew in Japan was out in the city working at some point, foreigner residents included, though I didn’t get to talk to any of them because we were all so busy. I think overall the passengers were very impressed by the energy of the city, as they should be because everyone tried damn hard, was damn friendly, and it was all volunteer! The City by the Sea can really snap into action. And let’s be honest, here they were training ordinary folk to use the right English to accommodate the passengers and setting up all sorts of special parties and cheap rates, when if this were to happen in the States nobody would even consider learning more than a greeting in another language or taking the guests beyond tourist spots. It’s kind of amazing.
Mochi and I separated from the girls and went to a quiet, more-industrial, part of town. It was kind of sad because there weren’t many people around and the Japanese hosts were a little disheartened. I stuck around making conversation, helping people haggle on both sides of the language spectrum and coercing the passengers to try the food. I had some great conversation with the obasans and ojisans in the food tent and they showered me with yummy yummy foods while I was there and even sent me home with a cob of roasted corn and two onigiri. My favorite though, was the mushroom miso soup, which was awesome beyond awesome. I made some good conversation with the ship passengers too, offering as much insight to Japanese culture as I could and smoothing the gap between everyone. I’m glad I was there because most of the passengers didn’t know the parking lot of antique and food tents existed, let alone had the guts to ask for something they wanted. When Mochi came back to pick me up, I bought a wall scroll from the antique dude and a cute little hanky from the obasans. It was a good day :) Though unfortunately I sensed a bit of a cold coming on, and you know damn well that while you might be mistaken about any other thing in your life, you never have a false positive when you feel a cold coming.
Mochi and I puttered around a little in a busier district, hob-knobbing with our other friends, and then we headed back to the shrine to dawn our regular clothes. My only regret was not buying my own set of tabi socks and kimono while they had them in Western sizes set out for the passengers. I always hesitate when it comes to shopping!
At the shrine I got to look around the rooms a little and we had to go to the kitchen and rinse our mouths with alcohol because we were in such a special place. I was glad to get out of my tabi socks, since I’d been wearing a 27 and am really at 27.5. That half a centimeter really makes a difference, believe it or not. Also, I think the geta I wore them with only went about halfway across my heel. Many expressions of thanks and good work were exchanged and we headed down to the port again to see the passengers off. Of course all the people I’d met no longer recognized me, but I did get to hear some stories about how some people thought I was from the boat, and I made some jokes about getting my Japanese friends on the boat by pretending to be a passenger. Note to self: take a cruise, that shit is bananas! 6 ports in different countries, spend all day getting fawned upon on land, and the travel time in between playing games and eating at a buffet? Sounds like a recipe for fun (and disaster).
We waved goodbye with glowsticks and yosakoi dancers from ages 5-15, and us hard workers downed some tako-yaki and some mascot-shaped waffles filled with bean paste (my favorite!). Fifteen hours after we’d started in the morning, we were dismissed, frozen to the bone and ready for dinner at 10 PM. My crew and I went for heaping bowls of the most beautiful ramen I’d ever seen at a Beatles-themed place in the district I’d been working that afternoon. I think I made friends with the cook, though I’m sure he’ll remember me more easily than I’ll remember him.
The Actress, Mochi, and I walked home together since our respective chou’s are so close. I really enjoyed the time I spent with my Japanese friends today, considering I’m getting comfortable enough with Japanese to take risks and after our English lessons they all felt comfortable enough too that we can all start to express ourselves in ways we couldn’t before. Then I came home and died on account of my lack of sleep and presence of cold (though I wasn’t the only one who died, my computer did too). Gotta get that fixed…
Now the difficult thing will be deciding whether to go to a meeting in two weeks to get to know some JET friends better, or to stay here in the City by the Sea and hang out with my Japanese friends. I’ll miss out either way and I’ll have great fun either way, so I guess I’ll just have to make a decision and not look back.