Adventures in the Looking Glass

Here you are:

Ina

In my previous post I put up a clip of Yoshio Kojima, whose morning workout is having absolutely no effect, save for improving my ability to stomp and amuse small children. When we go canvassing for new students in Ina, however, we rely on the Hard Gay technique:



So the news I posted about on Sunday, or whenever, is that I will be going to Cairns, Australia next week for a training trip. This is the end of the six month Big Jump training and for some unknown reason I was selected to go on it (clearly this has nothing to do with business results). I have to give a presentation on teaching vocabulary, which was mightily interesting in the researching, so I hope it goes well. I am sugoiexcited about going, but held off telling anyone until I got my new passport and had all my visa-stuff sorted out, which I did on Monday. Six hours on a train with a low fever is not fun. It's only a short trip though - we fly out on Sunday and back on Wednesday, but it will be my first time in Australia!

In other job news, I've been offered a transfer to Yokohama. The school is huge - twice the size of Ina, and very busy, with loads of staff. I was talking yesterday to the Area Leader there, well aware that he could persuade me that a hot poker up the bum is just what I needed. So I've got to think think think. It would be the total opposite of everything in Ina (they have carpet for one thing).
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I'm starting to settle-in in Ina, but here is the main problem. I like Ina, I like the local people I've met, and it's near the mountains so I can go break my arm in the forthcoming winter when I go snowboarding again. But, it's isolated and the school gets me down sometimes. My ridiculous schedule, the plague of spiders, the lack of a manager, and any notion that anyone remembers we're here. There's no cinema, which used to really annoy me until I found Tsutaya and got re-addicted to the X-Files.

I like the fact that everyone knows me here - yes, I revel in my Gaijin fame - so the anonymity in Yokohama would be something to adapt to, but that was what I enjoyed when I was in London. There are also tonnes of Gaijin, which has its pros and cons. I have liked being away from other English speakers here, but have recently found a group of ALTs in the area, which spices things up a bit.

In Yokhama there will be bookshops, where I can indulge my reignited poetry craving (yeah, yeah, I know it's on the internet but I hate reading from computer screens). There will be Japanese schools, and there will be people my age! But, it means moving all my stuff, reclocating to a new City (much as it pretends to be, Ina isn't a city), making new friends (but meeting up with old ones), and getting used to new students. I will also have big shoes to fill, though I hope that's why I was asked to replace him. Being told you're a great teacher (as I was yesterday) for me is hard to take. I enjoy the flattery but I can't help distrusting it.

Ramble ramble ramble. Any thoughts you have would be appreciated.

Yesterday was a rather lovely day, so to escape the stifling heat in my apartment I slapped on the SPF 50 and went out on my bike. I had planned to see how far along the river I could go by following the small road that runs along my side of the confluence, but after city hall it became a smaller road and ended up circling round some sort of stone works and then up along a main tributary to the Tenryu river which I had cycled along before. Knowing where I was I decided to cycle up this way and see how close to Takato I could get.

Takato is a nearby town well known in Japan for its cherry blossom in spring and people come from far away to view it. I was taken there once for a soba lunch, but that was the extent of my trip. I mentioned trying to cycle there to someone once. They sucked air through their teeth and told me it was too far. I've come to understand that the local version of "too far" involves any distance further than 10 minutes walk, as a lot of people here rely on their cars to get around. Admittedly, a lack of a "gas pig" makes getting about extremely dangerous in places as large trucks and bikes don't mix.

So I cycled up the small road and eventually hit the path that follows the river.



It's a raised path, which means you have a great view of the river and surrounding rice paddies as you go. It was also empty. I met no one until I bumped into a group of boys who'd parked their motorbikes and scooters right across the path. I had to jump off my bike to get round and one them at least apologised "Gomen nasai," he said, then, "Sorry."

" Daijobu," I replied, hopping bike on my bike and rolling away. I carried on, passing the spot I had reached on my previous journey this way at the 4.5km mark. Just after here the path runs along the main road and up ahead I could see the road bridge turning for Takato. However, I realised that journey was probably not right for a late afternoon jaunt and so took the cycle path on the other side of the river instead. Here the trees close in above you and the screaming of cicadas, normally just background noise, became deafening. I cycled on, hearing amongst the high-pitched screech the snap and crackle of "generator bugs". They sound like electric power lines. *



Coming out from the trees I passed close to the river and then by some "allotments" where I saw rows of what I think were peanut plants growing. On and on I cycled, enjoying the view, though beginning to feel the sun on my face a little too much. The 10km cycle path finishes at a picnic and mini-golf site where I was tempted to stop and read Harry Potter, having brought it with me, but I carried on, and headed back home via City Hall, which has a nice garden with a stream running through it.



I had a quiet sit down, noticing that my left knee was aching, but hopped up when I realised large ants were running all over me. I think one of them bit my leg too.

So back on the bike and home again. I think yesterday's ride clocked in at about 14km, possibly more, which makes me feel quite pleased with myself. My knee and hips ache slightly this morning though.

I spent the rest of yesterday reading Harry Potter. I'm up to Chapter 23, but am making myself wait until this afternoon before reading the rest as I need a bath, and then have to do my Japanese homework, and then go to my Japanese lesson.

Today is the start of Obon, a Buddhist ancestor festival. And last night, I missed the meteor showers. Maybe there'll be a few tonight...

* For an idea of what this sounds like check out (-)Ions on Tool's "Aenima" album.

”I wish they were not so beautiful; if they were not so beautiful and so inaccessible to me, then I should feel less lonely, although, after all, I came here in order to be lonely.”

The Smile of Winter, Angela Carter

( 1730 words )
” Simplicity! Simplicity! Simplicity! I say let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand,; instead of a million count half a dozen… Simplify, simplify.”

Walden, Thoreau

Here's my write-up of my first week in Japan. It's 2000 words long so make sure you're sitting comfortably. Links to pictures included.

( Here you go... )