The K Experience

Japan - First Impressions - Part II

Past - Japan

Saturday, 19 January 2008

Takaoka, 高岡, the land of mountains, rivers, rice fields, tasty water, fish, beatiful parks, great music, random festivals, and not forgetting, lovely Japanese ladies.

I have already written of the first part of my first impressions, based mainly on the Shinjuku orientation in Tokyo. This part is about arriving in the sticks of Takaoka, well, semi sticks anyway.

So I land in Toyama airport with the other JET participants, and make my way to the exit, where there seems to be small groups of welcoming committees, some consisting of young Japanese secondary school girls. "Hmm interesting" I say to myself. "So which is my lot?". Slowly but surely, my collegues find their groups of students, where they surround them screaming their little high pitched Japanese screams of joy and excitement (which never seem to change pitch during their whole lifetime). In the background I notice a middle aged man, holding a sign, and looking quite suspect. He seems to be scanning the group of recent arrivals looking for someone. "Well I guess he's here to pick up a collegue" I thought. After all, there were Japanese people on the plane also. I payed little attention to him, and continued scanning to see which group of lively students would get the grand prize, me. Very quickly, the crowd of JET participants begins to disipate, as do the group of welcoming committees, leaving just me, and the old man, who I just noticed was carrying a sign with my name written on it. Great.

Nakajima sensei, one of the my school teachers, had been sent to pick me up from the airport. He wasn't to be my JTE, or Japanese teacher of English, the person who I would assist in class, and who would generally look after me in the school context. He was one of the deputy head teachers, the 教頭先生, kyoto sensei. My JTE was on holiday, and wouldn't be back for the next few days. Nakajima sensei seemed a nice man, who used an interesting version of the English Language. He took me out to this traditional Japanese restaurant, where I had my first taste of some very bizarre rubbery food, that just wouldn't give, however many times I chewed and chewed. It turned out to be eel in the end. Being a vegetarian (I eat some fish, but definitely not eel) I wasn't too impressed. Nonetheless, I was greatful for the food, which he paid for. Next stop was the school.

Takaoka, 高岡 the second biggest city in Toyama Prefecture, is absolutely beautiful. Above (left) is the view from my school. 二上工業高校, Futagami Technical High School. Futagami meaning "twin peaks" was the name chosen for the school because of the mountain to the left of the picture, Mount Futagami, which indeed had two peaks, as well as some rather vicious biting mosquito type things, which I later found out. The picture on the right is of my school buildings.

Being my first day at work, I sat at the school staff room for a while, doing nothing in particular. It was still the summer holidays so the school was empty bar a few teachers getting ready for the beginning of term. I introduced myself to them in the best Japanese I knew, which looking back was really crap. ”こんにちは、クワベナです、ケイと読んでくでさい。よろしく。新しい先生です。” Translated as "Hello, My name is Kwabena, please call me K, nice to meet you. I am the new teacher." Of course I probably didn't say it like that then. Whoever I said that to, would have probably continued by saying somethings which I couldn't understand, followed by me nodding my head pretending to understand. Little did I know that my year would be filled with moments like this. Well, I should have known, living in Japan.

I was driven home after that, and showed my apartment, a tiny little place, just big enough to swing a small rodent without leaving any blood marks on the walls, (The large building in the picture on the left, and where the black car is in the picture on the right). The two teachers that brought me there, Nakajima Sensei included, decided to arrange my furnature the way they saw fit, which was sweet of them. After they left, I moved it round again. My first night in my Sunpark Tokan apartment was bizarre. I switched on the tele to hear the strange ramblings of a Japanese gameshow host, then switched it off again. The only CD's I had brought with me were Eva Cassidy, I tried playing those, but they were too depressing. I was here now. In Japan, after waiting so long, but I wasn't as excited as I thought I would be. Actually, I was a little bit depressed, and lonely. At first I didn't know why, but then I realized. In the last few weeks, I had finished my final university exam, said goodbye to friends and family, and jumped on a plane to the other side of the world. It had only been a week since my actual graduation ceremony, and during the whole time, I hadn't had time to stop and think. I hadn't had time to take it all in. Now was the first time I had paused in months, and I guess it all came to me at once. I unpacked, chilled for a while, taking in my new digs, and then went to bed.

The usual practice is that you give a bit of cash to your predecessor (the JET who you replaced, who had your job, your stuff, your friends and pretty much your life, in my case I was the new Marisa, sweet.) in exchange for the stuff they bought during their time in Japan, and among that stuff was this bike. This beauty would be my mode of transport for the year, and a worthy piece of kit it was. Fit with bell, basket and bike stand, and inbuilt rear wheel lock too. I called her Jolene, the blue bandit. Actually I didn't.

During the first few weeks, the JET's were taken on an outing to Mount Tateyama, one of the three most sacred mountains in Japan (including Fuji). We also went to a bonfire night, where the bonfires lasted hours. HOURS I tell you. It was easily 2 and a half hours. It totally beat the fireworks back in England, which lasted about 15min MAX. I was also invited to an introduction English workshop at Kamichi Highschool with a few other Assistant Language Teachers.

By far the highlight of my first few weeks was the music festival in Fukuno called "Sukiyaki Meets the World" named after a famous Japanese song. It was pretty cool. It was there, that I met my first real authentic Japanese friends. Natsu Chan and Yama Chan (chan not being their names, but just a thing you call friends, kind of). We stayed friends the whole year which was really nice, we met up a few times with other friends and just chilled. Not that often, but it was nice. Just before I left Natsuko, the one on the right, got herself married and moved to Yokohama.

So, the first few weeks in Japan were pretty strange. I hadn't started teaching yet, but that was another whole experience which will be left for another entry. Japan was fun, strange, interesting, and a whole lot of different. But I liked it.

For more pictures check out the gallery.

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