Quiet Weekend

A bit of down time was in order. I’d been getting ready for my first classes, studying this new language and I needed to prepare for my introduction speech to the school on Monday, which was to be in Japanese. This weekend I would only be making an appearance at a local festival where some new friends would be performing with their Taiko drumming group. Afterwards there was to be some kind of party with food which I had already committed to. Other than that, I had two days to myself. Two days where I would hole up in my apartment and just relax and get a bit of last minute work done. A nice, comfortable, quiet weekend.


Saturday

A text from my supervisor invited me to a barbecue he’d be having with his son. It was supposed to have happened the day before, but an earthquake shut down the trains. A Magnitude 6 off the East coast resulted in a 3 on the Japanese Seismic Intensity Scale here in Tsuruoka. What’s that? My school swayed gently for a few seconds. Seriously, swayed gently. Like a lullaby. And then it was done. Literally nothing to write home about. The only tangible effect it had on my life was that I would now be grilling pork strips and shiitake mushrooms outside on Saturday evening instead of Friday. No problem, I'd still have the whole day to chill out.

Knock knock. Who’s there? My Aussie neighbour came up from his apartment directly below mine to tell me that we’re going shopping for his chair. And a new fan. Seeing as brief contact with his old fan had resulted in its mangled, now useless form being tossed into the concrete storage unit out front. Okay, no problem. We’d shop, we’d come back, I’d chill. Except before I left, I found a note from the post office saying I had missed the arrival of my new ATM card for the second time.

*Sigh*

Still, no problem. I just needed to go to the post office after furniture shopping. How hard could it be to find? I mean, it’s the main post office for Tsuruoka city. It’s bound to be highlighted in bold on any map. Right?

On the plus side, I now know my way around the city blindfolded.

Two tiny post offices (which were on the map) and almost one hour later, I had found the main branch and retireved my card. What with me not having eaten anything at this point, I now had to go shopping before I could go home. Oh, and I needed to pick up a few bits and pieces for the apartment. By the time I got home and got my place in order, it was almost time to jump back on the bike and ride to the barbecue.

My awesome supervisor, his equally awesome wife and their clearly genetically-engineered-to-be-awesome son were cooking up a storm by the time I arrived. All three are English teachers and all three have a knack for making people feel welcome. Too soon, I had to say my goodbyes and head over to the festival. Just something small, I was sure. In summer here, tiny local festivals spring up like weeds. You can’t walk to the shops for all the festivals you’d bump into.

As I approached however, music grew louder. Crowds grew bigger. And flags grew... larger? I had unwittingly stumbled upon this.

I don’t know much, but I do know that that was the best Last-Man-Standing-Extreme-Electro-Rock-Giant-Flag-Swinging-Athon that I have ever seen. Street dancing and shrine spinning followed, but I had put the camera away at that point.

“Okay, now let’s go to the party!”

Neither I nor my companions were entirely prepared for what the evening had in store for us. Walking into the venue, a vaguely Hawaiian theme greeted us, complete with quiet jungle noises playing over the speakers. Random highlights of the evening included.

 - Being warmly greeted by a guy that I had briefly spoken to while climbing Haguro-san, who promptly introduced me to all of his friends.

 - Cheering on the BMX riders as they stunt jumped over 3 volunteers, one of whom was my friend.

 - Getting up on stage and being given a cookie for having been born in August.

 - Talking to a Japanese guy who “grew up in this here place, a’ight”, but had learned English in New York City.

 - Turning around after getting a drink from the bar to find that the entire room was playing Rock-Paper-Scissors.

 - Watching in amazement as Johnny Depp walked out on stage to challenge the champion.

Yes people. Johnny. Freakin’. Depp. In the flesh.

It was clear that after this the night could only go downhill, so the party wrapped up and I headed home. Saturday was over, but I still had Sunday to recuperate and prepare for my introduction ceremony on Monday. Things would be fine.

Sunday

Another text. This time it’s my neighbour, wondering if I’ll be coming with him and a few of the other guys to Sakata, the city north of Tsuruoka. A Japanese Imperial Battleship was supposed to be pulling in to port. Realising that this was something a certain friend of mine back home would be interested in, I decided I would see it on his behalf. The show was to take place at noon, so I was assured that I could get back home before long. Alright, no problem.

Of course, we’d all get lunch together after too. Fine, no problem. I would have had to eat anyway. Except...

“I think we’d better eat before the show. This restaurant is really good, but when they sell out, they sell out. There won’t be any left if we leave it too late”.  Well, this actually sounds like a good thing. I mean, we might miss the grand arrival of the ship, but we’d actually be finished earlier. But this wasn’t the problem. The problem was, this is a really good restaurant we’re talking about here. And half of Sakata knows it. And they also know that when it sells out, it sells out.

The queue stretched through the restaurant, down the stairs, out the hall and behind the building. Which is great if you want confirmation that you’re going to the best sashimi joint in town, but no so great if you plan on making the 12 o’ clock boat show. Or even if you just plan on finishing anytime before half 1...

The place was amazingly worth it though. Customers who had arrived before us were treating themselves to large wooden bowls filled with sticky rice and a veritable mountain of raw fish, including what appeared to be a whole sea bream. By the time we’d finished gorging ourselves, it was clear that we’d missed whatever had been happening down by the harbour. At this point it was suggested that we make use of someone’s connections in the local tourism board and head into the town proper to visit a geisha training house. With the next boat display happening at 4 o’ clock, we had a few hours to kill. I fleetingly thought about the work I still needed to get done... Oh well.

Up narrow, sloped streets with a mismatch of different building styles, we came upon the traditionally modelled house in which the maiko, geisha in training, spend their days. Geisha were intended to be the pinnacle of great company. They were beautiful, educated, polite, skilled dancers and captivating singers. As you can imagine, demand for this position has slightly waned in recent years... Still, three maiko are currently learning their trade in Sakata, which has essentially become a highly niche tourism degree. Dressed impeccably, painted faces fixed with a soft smile, they guided us upstairs where we were treated to a dance performance.

I did warn you that the photos would be incredibly amateur...

This was followed by a self guided tour of the inside of the building. I have never been a massive fan of super formal traditional dancing styles, but exploring the rooms was a different matter. Serenity permeated the entire house. A sense of peacefulness and contentment filled me as I padded along cherry-dyed tatami mats past old and slightly warped glass windows looking out onto compact zen gardens and paper sliding doors leading to rooms dedicated to tea ceremonies...

Well, at any rate, I only hit my head once.

Exiting the building with still an hour before the battleship was due to return for the second display, someone suggested stopping by another building, also preserved, but for a very different reason. Near the top of the hill stood a fairly unremarkable sight. A small office or apartment building with a grubby blue and white facade. Outside, it’s nothing. Inside however, the set of the Academy Award winning Japanese film Okuribito ("Departures" in English territories) lives on. This film gets a serious thumbs up from me. Watch it if you can. Walking around the sets where the majority of the film’s indoor scenes took place was very cool, mostly because of just how small the whole place was. Much respect for the director.

Walking back down the hill, the time was now right to view the glorious spectacle that is an imperial battleship. This is what the day had been building towards. I was getting myself ready to take it all in. Imposingly massive and blindingly grey. More rivets used in it’s construction than there are cells in the human body. A bow so large it would split the Red Sea. Enough artillery to sink an island.

A curved lump of wood bobbed slowly up and down on the water in front of us. I never did think to ask which era this particular battleship was from, what with the Japanese Empire being really quiet old indeed...

Still, hanging out on the boardwalk while neither the ship nor our group did anything in particular was a nice way to wrap up the day before we finally made our way back home. When I eventually did get in the door, happy but exhausted, I found my laptop sitting on my desk. Looking accusingly at me.

I tried. I really did try. But sometimes... life happens.



                             *                       *                       *                      *                      



This all happened 3 weeks ago now. My last few blog posts were all written in advance and then drip fed one at a time, the better to feel less ashamed about not updating. This is the first time I have gotten to write anything since. It’s a bit of an inelegant wall of text, sorry about that, but I felt it wasn’t a bad way to truly convey just how busy I am at the moment. Good busy! But still busy.

Please bear with my silences.