STUDY ABROAD:WEEK 36

MAY 5

We had another day off from school today, so it was technically a free day for me. However, I was invited to join the employees who work down in Gamagori for a lunch outing. We met in Gamagori around 11am and I was surprised to see so many of the part-time workers there.

(Shrimp and crab appetizer)

(Dessert: ice cream, a slice of kiwi, pineapple, and a bit of anko!)

To be honest, the rest of the day was a pleasant surprise. From Gamagori we all headed down to Toyokawa by car, well cars. Our lunch was set at a traditional themed restaurant; the food came out in courses of soup, rice, fish, shrimp, and finally ending with a small dessert. Part of the lunch was dedicated to congratulating the graduated members of the part-time workers. To my surprise, not only was I included, but I received a gift that also doubled as an early birthday present: it was a rucksack. This was actually a very timely gift because the current bag I was using to go to school, and sometimes brought with me to training, was worn out. It was the same bag I bought in Kyoto almost three years ago, so now it seemed an appropriate time to retire it.

Lunch lasted a couple hours and then we drove back up to Gamagori by 3pm. At this time, we were free to go home if we wanted, or else we could all go hang out somewhere. The two options seemed to be karaoke and bowling; we opted for bowling, which soon became a decision between Toyohashi and Okazaki. I guess the bowling places in Gamagori were just too boring. In any case, we settled to go to Toyohashi, which for the record is right next to Toyokawa, meaning we were back-tracking for a second time today.

It was my first trip to the Round1 in Toyohashi, but it was bigger than I expected. We only went to the bowling section, but I noticed there were plenty of other floors of activity at this location. Too bad you can only get there by car. The bowling option we chose was pretty much all-you-can-throw in a period of 3-6 hours. I can’t remember the time frame because we bowled until our arms wouldn’t throw anymore, about six games. We maintained a sort of competition for the first four games, and I somehow managed to stay in the top 4 throughout. The guys also taught me how to spin the ball, but that wasn’t until the last few games when we didn’t care about the scores. I got one strike on a curve, but from there it just went downhill.

Night came. Our groups split up as we made our way home. To think, I tried to make dinner plans in Nagoya tonight. Today was so much fun; it only makes me want to work with these people more!

MAY 6

Should of, could of been another work day, but as my last day of the short vacation, I decided to take the break. I took a walk in the morning, returned to my room to watch a movie, and then in realizing I had no groceries I went back out for a grocery run.

On the way home from buying groceries, I saw a slightly older man just fall off his bike suddenly. He looked like he had passed out. I was approaching him as I crossed the intersection, but in that time, three or four older men came out of nowhere and surrounded him. They tried to wake him up and see what was wrong. I waited for a few moments to see if the man was okay, and when he finally came to, in a delirious sort of state, I proceeded to come home. Had those other men not shown up, what would I have done? What could I have done? I’m not sure I have the language skills to deal with someone in that state, nor the medical knowledge. I kind of felt helpless.

MAY 7

Last night after I got home I went to bed really early. I thought it was a good idea because we had school today, starting from first period. On the contrary, sleeping so early, around 8pm or so, caused me to wake up at 3am craving juice of all things.

I decided I would go to MaxValu, since it was open 24 hours a day, only I wouldn’t go until dawn broke at 4:30am. I bought bread for the first time since I came to Japan; granted I have bought sandwiches and bread-related items before, but not actually slices of bread. The reason I bought it was because I already had some avocados I bought yesterday from the cheap grocer. They were starting to go bad, so today was the last day I could eat them. I made some avocado sandwiches, one for lunch and one for breakfast. Ate my breakfast, along with some juice, and then it was 6am. There was no need to leave for school until 8am, so I took a nap for a couple hours.

As for school itself, it was just a regular day, but it felt awesome for no reason. I only missed one question on the listening test in Business Japanese, which is always a reason to celebrate. I call it ‘otsukare-choco’, or ‘Good work today. Here, have some chocolate’ time. Training also went smoothly, so even when I got back home around 11pm I was awake and in a good mood.

Then I checked my e-mail.

A couple days ago I tried to send a money transfer from my bank account. In order to do that, I had to set up the online transfer account, which wasn’t so hard. The test transfer went through, now I had to send the real bulk. As I was about to send the money, my account becomes locked. I’ve mentioned before that I do not fool around when it comes to money matters, so my great day quickly went into lock-down mode. Luckily, even though it was midnight here in Japan, it was around noon back in the States. I had no other choice but to call the bank center to settle the situation. That meant I had to use my pre-paid phone.

I needed to call them in order to send the transfer, but I had no minutes. I used them up talking to my parents last month, and the few remaining minutes I had just expired on Sunday. So, at midnight, I headed back out and down the street to Sunkus to buy 3000 yen worth of minutes. Thankfully, convenience stores are always open 24 hours, too. Finally, I had my minutes and I called the bank center. It took quite a bit of hoop jumping, especially regarding the fact that they needed to verify my ID at my local branch. That was impossible for obvious reasons, but thankfully I got through by answering my security questions. Apparently, the whole cause of this trouble was that when I registered for the online transfer account I was supposed to verify it, but I had not received the verification e-mail until today… after I tried the transfer.

That was a first for me. I’ve never had to handle such a delicate situation, on the phone, with my ‘adult skills’. I’m an adult. I wasn’t an adult when I turned 18, no, not until today have I truly felt that I was an adult. Or at least that I could be an adult, if I needed to be. No need to rush into things.

MAY 8

We just had a normal grammar class in the morning. Returned home and napped, didn’t go out to dance because I decided to work on my manga again.

MAY 9

Our culture class was moved to tomorrow so that we could go experience the traditional art of kamon, family crests. So, big surprise, I slept in and worked on manga again. The weather’s been a bit damp recently, not exactly rainy, but cool and threatening to rain. These days always make me sleepy. It doesn’t help that my free time is being spent in front of a computer screen all day either. But, it has to be done. Just a little more… well, not really a little, there is still quite a bit to do, but I am making progress!

MAY 10

For our kamon experience today we all met at the subway station to go to Sengen-cho. There we stood, waiting outside the ticketing gate, waiting for our professor. We arrived a bit early, she arrived a bit late. Time wasn’t much of a problem though because the location was literally a few blocks away from the station. As many small business, this place too was connected to someone’s living quarters. They were actually tie-dye artists, so it made sense that they had their studio where they lived too.

We were first led up to the second floor and then split into two groups. Initially, we were told that we would be making our own mon, our own crest designs, but that would have taken too much time. In the end, we all had to choose between the crest of Oda Nobunaga, Toyokawa Ieyasu, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. All three famous feudal lords were born in Nagoya, so their likenesses frequently appear around the city. Their crests were already printed on white handkerchiefs for us.

The first group, which I was a part of, headed down to the ground floor where two large tubs of water awaited us; next to them, several small bottles of ink were lined up as well. Our traditional experience quickly transformed into the modern art of tie-dying. As “practice” we each put in a drop of ink. The ink sat at the water’s surface like a deco-modern polka design. Then, our host laid down a white handkerchief over the water, waited a few seconds, and then raised it to show that the design on the water was now imprinted.

With an understanding of the process, we were all excited to try, but no one wanted to go first. In these cases, I am usually the first volunteer. My image was that of wings, black wings over an orange and blue background. To create the wings, I drew out the ink with a stick, as our host suggested. I guess I must have been moving the stick too quickly because the lines thinned out and soon my wings looked like a great tree. Earth over Wind I suppose. As I watched the others, I wanted a second chance to try new techniques, to create a new design, but it would have cost 800 yen and I had barely 1000 yen on my person at the time. I missed the chance then, but if I could find the inks somewhere, I could easily replicate the process.

(Placing the handkerchief into the water with the ink design.)

Once the first group completed their handkerchiefs, we switched places with the second group to watch Mr. Ida at work.

 Mr. Ida was delicately creating a crest design. We watched him work on the intricate design as he told us the brief history of family crests and their designs in Japan. Mr. Ida is the only professional crest artist in Nagoya, probably Aichi at this point. Just watching him work was an eye-opening experience to the intricacy and precision of creating a good crest. If we all started from scratch, it would have taken us far too long to simply create the design, much less print it.

To tie up the day, we all received our dry handkerchiefs and took a group picture. Jason, who is twenty years old now, was dressed up in a very expensive, crested kimono, one that would be worn at a coming-of-age ceremony. It was appropriate for him, because that ceremony took place when one turned twenty in Japan. The afternoon persisted with pictures as slowly our group began to return on their own time. I couldn’t help but think that once I complete this current project of mine, I will be free to dabble in other art forms again.