Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!)

Personally, ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Editor’ finds the summers in Japan a wonderful opportunity to rediscover the Miracle of Air Conditioning… However, that does not always mean I spent all my time indoors during August! Our beloved Social Committee, Jenny, Lonnie and Zuri, planned a grand party at Shizunami Beach and I felt strangely compelled to go, down a few and have a general good time.

The day started interestingly enough at the supermarket of all places. The social committee decided that it was wisest to maximize the use of the F.I.A. party–allotted budget (Hey! If you don’t spend it all, you’ll get less next year…), to the point that the various spontaneous purchases actually broke the cash register when it tried to tally it all up! The blame was placed squarely on Lonnie and his extra jelly purchases.

There was some concern that we may have bought too much food, though that worry faded quickly since we got quite a nice turnout. In addition to myself, Jenny, Lonnie and Zuri, our presence was also graced by Brian and Tracy as well as several F.I.A. members (I’ll give a shout out to my former member Osuke who represented!).
The weather even held out against the rain, giving mostly sunny skies, allowing for a fair amount of eating, drinking and swimming.

Kudos to the social committee for throwing a great bash!

Remember my fellow trainers, the newsletter lives and dies on your submissions.

by Michael D.

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Susono City's Awa-Odori

Folks living in Susono have surely heard an occasional drum or flute on recent summer evenings; this might have been practice for the town’s biggest event, the Awa-Odori. This year’s festival was held August 22nd, and the practicing certainly was evident as the troupes danced and played with precision!

It is said that the Awa-Odori form of Bon dancing originated in Tokushima, then followed workers from there to Tokyo’s Koenji, and then from Koenji to Susono (with some influence by our own Kaneko family!).

The troupe with the closest attachment to F.I.A. is Furyuren (風流連) seen in the picture.

In addition to the dancing, flutes, drums, and shamisen, the dancers sing the traditional lyrics:

踊る阿呆に見る阿呆
同じ阿呆なら
踊らな損、損

Translation to English:

Odoru ahou ni The dancers are fools
Miru ahou The watchers are fools
Onaji ahou nara Both are fools alike so
Odorana son, son Why not dance?

Surrounding the choreographed performances, the festival atmosphere brings out the local populace (in their most comfortable attire!) in a remarkable demonstration of community.

A great time to see neighbors, cool down with beer, and celebrate summer!

By Brian B.

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2014 No Longer a Space Odyssey

2014 – sounds a long way off doesn’t it? But let us stop for a moment to consider it is only a short 5 years away and worth considering now where we will all be then. No doubt some of us will still be in Japan, some will have returned to our home countries and some will have continued on their global adventure. However, one thing for sure is that the world, even in 5 years, will not be one we recognise today, no more so than in the expectations of our future employers.

Most of us living and working in Japan have been here for a number of years. If we self-reflect on ourselves from our early days in Japan to the hardened trainers we have become, how much time, can we say, we have set aside to prepare ourselves for our futures? Living in Japan, it must be said, has given us an enviable opportunity to learn and enjoy its culture and language as well as augmenting our personal experience and development. While these are valued intangible traits in the vein of personal development, is it sufficient to secure the jobs we desire in the future…?

While current methods such as recording lessons, peer observation, attending JALT and/or JALT chapters etc., are valuable ways to improve our teaching, we yet again return to the sphere of intangibles. Although these developed competencies are certainly positive assets, employers in any field now, and increasingly so, will be looking for rounded candidates who possess these subtle skills alongside more tangible proficiencies. Such proficiencies could through furthering our Nihongo skills by means of the Japanese shiken/kanji tests, undertaking part-time/distance-learning or online courses (TESOL, Masters, other professional certified courses), network through membership of professional organisations / institutions, or even returning to full-time education as a future option. Wherever we all may be on our career paths it is never too late to ramp up our professional development efforts alongside our personal development.

While professional development can take shape in many forms, prior to undertaking any course of action there are some simple considerations to maximise our efforts:

*　Will this development be a step towards my own professional goals?
*　How would a future employer value the development I have undertaken?
*　Is the development transferrable?
*　Will I enjoy it?

This short brief is to help us all consider our futures and how the efforts we can make now could aid in achieving our professional ambitions.

by Dan

奥飛騨温泉 Okuhida Onsen

Tracy and I had heard that the villages of Okuhida, on the Kansai side of the Northern Alps, was a delightfully rustic area offering an abundance of natural onsens and crisp mountain air. We had just tested our touring limits by motorcycling in Izu (50km/day) and Yamanashi (100km/day), with plenty of drenching rain, twisty mountains, high speeds and toll roads thrown in, so it seemed that Okuhida (220km) would be a reachable Summer Holiday destination.

We headed out under hot, humid sunshine, which was ideal for biking, and wound our way toward Matsumoto, in Nagano, stopping for fuel and meals along the way under pleasant conditions. The pass through to Gifu from Nagano was a series of frequent and loooong tunnels (some up to 4 km!), and the conditions abruptly became cold, wet, and with fog, rain, limited visibility and slippery surfaces, and lots of traffic. Whew(!), we were relieved to finally pass through the final toll gate on the Gifu side still alive.

The final descent into Okuhida was a mere 15km, and despite the dark and rain, we found our minshuku with no trouble. They welcomed us warmly with hot baths and a great meal, and even gave us a few cans of beer over some delightful conversation (although largely in a Kansai/mountain/Gifu dialect, which confounded us)!
The next few days featured crisp air, blue skies, hot baths (some free, some not), and more great meals featuring the famous hidagyu. What a great place to relax!

The journey home was expected to be just a fun ride, retracing our original path but under better weather. We decided to catch the views by riding over the mountain pass instead of the tunnel system, and there we discovered that Tracy’s bike had altitude sickness… It wouldn’t idle well, and couldn’t start once stopped. After disassembling and cleaning the carb, and troubleshooting / readjusting everything else, the bike would only run when push-started, and couldn’t keep running at less than half throttle. This condition remained for the rest of the journey, meaning that forward progress was only possible at full speed ahead; slow speed was dangerously difficult, and stopping out of the question. We took the freeway where possible, and screamed along the shoulders past the holiday gridlock, and were relieved by the lack of traffic on the mountain roads we did take. It was an exhausting ride, with no rest stops and plenty of scares. WHEW! Getting home alive this time was an even better feeling!

Okuhida definitely has a different character than many more popular hot spring towns (Kusatsu, Shibu Onsen), with a very inaka feeling. Also, many baths are mixed men and women (konyoku), a cultural facet that has largely disappeared from the touristy towns! Located just above Takayama, a city worth visiting in its own right, so a worthwhile daytrip if that is on your itinerary!

By Brian B.

Music and the Memories

 

As Dave noted in his touching farewell tribute, one of the things I enjoy most is taking friends to musical events and showing off my latest obsessions. I should note that these bands are often somewhat ‘underground’, maybe even somewhat ‘below underground’ Japanese artists. Here are some of my favorite memories of these events.

Taking Dan to see the 5678’s (the Kill Bill 1 girl band) at Shelter, though we weren’t close enough to get free beers from the guitarist. Bands that hand out beer are my kind of bands. Taking Brian to see an ear bleeding totally psychedelic Keiji Haino at SuperDeluxe. Taking Andrew to see Oshiripenpenzu (Butt Slap Slap) at the UFO Club. Their singer’s antics include…..well, some of you might be squeamish, so I won’t go into details (ask Jenny, I told her), but he is quite entertaining in a grotesque kind of way.

Taking Tony and Lorna to see Keiji Haino work his percussion magic at Plan B, a bunker-like gallery in Nakano. I never did find anyone brave enough to go and see The Incapacitants, one of whom once tried to incapacitate me. And, of course, taking many, many people to see Shibusashirazu Orchestra, a collective of sorts with 50 or so musicians (not all at once though), go-go dancers, butoh dancers and on occasion samba dancers.

Perhaps the most notable Shibusa event was the one that gave rise to ‘The Naked Woman Incident’, as it was known in Atsugi. I organized a gang of Atsugi members and FIA trainers to see them one Golden Week. After overindulging during the afternoon festivities, I mistakenly sat us behind the band in the hall, which was interesting for me, but not the ideal spot for first timers. There was, however, one advantage: one of the female butohs was placed on a cube about 10 feet directly in front of us, dressed, or undressed rather, in the usual butoh attire: body painted entirely white, a miniscule white thong and a strategically placed fur boa, and nothing more. The general comment and point of discussion in class for some time afterwards was: ‘But she was NAKED!’

I should note that Soncho and Mrs. Kaneko will be enjoying (hopefully) their Shibusashirazu initiation on October 1.

Anyway, there were some good times, and good friends, and, for me anyway, some good music!

By Phil