Shimane
OK, so like I mentioned last night I went to Shimane this weekend. There I undertook a homestay.
Though; let’s not get ahead of ourselves now. First we had to fly there. You see, shimane is the “achterhoek” of Japan. That is to say: they have the most agriculture of all of Japan. It’s Prefectural Capital only has 200.000 people living there(Tokyo has 12.5 million). And if they speak local dialect . . . well: 2 month of Learning to speak AB-Japanese really won’t help you. And it really is quite some way from Tokyo.
The Japanese like things neat: One of those observations you make being here is that they segregate Smokers quite severely. hehe
Anyway: on to shimane. First on the schedule is a visit to Izumo Oyashiro/Izumo Taisha. The current structure is impressive in itself. Being the oldest standing shrine in Japan. But what got me was the one that stood there before the current incarnation. We participated in a cleansing ritual of which we were not allowed to take pictures. The building was slightly more impressive than the ritual, but it was fun to do anyway. Though I’m sure many peoples legs were glad to see the end of it as we had to sit in Japanese reverent position.
After a short visit to the accompanying museum we went to meet our host families.
The Japanese are very big on ceremony, so there were a lot of “arigatos” passing around, and as a bonus we got to prepare small things to prepare the people of our europeanness of us. It started with a little speach from the Fair Maiden and a little performance led by me followed. Luckily for you there’s no videos of the “Frere Jacques”-thing. As it was thought up and excecuted by me my camera was blissfully unattended. In essence it came down to singing “Frere Jacques” in 8 different languages. Of which the most amuzing were Finnish and Japanese. It intended to show to the Japanese that while we are very different. In some ways we’re really similar. Music for one.
See: http://demonsaumonde.free.fr/frere.jacques/index.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translations_of_Fr%C3%A8re_Jacques
And of course someone gave the Italians a microphone . . . . well, ‘nuff said really
After that small interlure we got to see real performances. The pictures should give you a clear idea of what we saw. We got a pamhplet with accompanying storyline. Of another play. But visually it was great. Though some people thought that it could use some work.
Then there was the leaving with host families, knowing that we would not see each other again for . . . well, a day-and-a-half . Or so we thought anyway.
My host family consisted of a Host-mother, Host-father and Host-sister. As I believe that is the correct way to refer to them. Trying my best to converse in Japanese I feared I would soon run out of things to say however. My Japanese is still rather limited to text book examples. But my confidence was bolstered when the friend of my host-mother started the conversation with: “I think the Dutch approach to Cocaine is too lax”. Funnily enough she went from dissaproving to admiring our way of handling it. I had to check with someone else, but it was related to me that what I said regarding Holland’s drug policy was pretty close to what I’d meant to say. I was impressed and it managed to grant me enough confidence to really go for some Japanese conversation during the weekend.
Sunday would be spent with our host-families seeing the local culture. My family was double booked however so I was deposited with some colleages of my host mother: Some kindergarden teachers. While this may seem a bit funny, talking with children is one of the better ways to learn and children are very honest in their appreasal of you. So I ended up having a really good time. After I convinced them I wasn’t there to eat them anyway. A simple rub on their part of my head had that covered soon enough.
This being a backwater’ish provence there was really only one thing to see, and consequently all the programs members met up at Matsui Castle. It gave the host families something to talk about in any case 
. And of course making fun of your friends to their host families in what must have been horrible Japanese was funny. With the castle came the boatride in the moat and some of the canals in the town. We had a geniuine Gondolier on our boat as he sang throughout the boatride. The top had to come down a couple of times to fit underneath bridges. It was great fun
Then there was the picnick in the park. This consisted of me running after/being chased by/carrying the different kids of the kindergarden.
oh, and there was food. And raptors. It’s just great to see these beautifull birds fly freely in such great numbers.
Close to the Castle is an old samurai district. And close to that was the house of a famous Japanese writer. Well, he wrote in japanese, but with a name like “Lafcadio Hearn” I doubt that is his true ethnicity. As a writer he had nothing at all to do with beer . . . sooooo they named a beer after him. And comming to the memorial house, the first thing we did was buy a beer. This in itself is no strange thing. Except this was a store. For the next 15 minutes I roamed the store with a stout in my hand. Good times, but euhm . . . ちょっとへん. And of course my Host sister wasn’t allowed alcohol yet (ah yes, we’d met up halfway the afternoon) we had to make due. That evening we had dinner as a sushi-ya. A popular kind of sushi shop where they put the food on a conveyer belt and have it pass in front of your eyes
All was good with the world. I’d seen stuff, pretended to walk kids on my back into Japanese-sized doorways. Eated my fill. Talked Japanese (all day, my god that’s hard work). Got chased by small children. And the bed actually fit me. I’ll leave out the bit where I was murdered in Go.
The next day I had to say goodbye to my host family. But in April they’ll be moving to Hiroshima (probably) and I have instructions to come and visit them there. I just might do that. They were a great host family, and by that time I may actually be able to remember the proper way of pronouncing words, thereby bypassing a bunch of certainly (on retrospect) humerous moments.
The next day we visited a company which makes Industrial ice makers/fridges/freezers and dishwashers. Next to that they spend quite a bit of effort on a bird sanctuary and a marine conservation research park. Not exactly a direct link there, but nice to see companies take ecological responsibility.
After the flight back the Fair Maiden and myself took one of the tourist must-sees. Where I met the third lady liberty I’ve seen so far. Is there a breeding program somewhere I should be aware of?
And then there was sleep. Weekends like that surely wear you out.
Edit: I’ve also decided to let my hair grow again. I decided upon this for 3 reasons. 1: It’s getting pretty chilly here, 2: It just takes too bloody long to shave, 3: I need more protection for my precious brain.
========================================================================
Quote of the day:
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past
If that’s true, then wisdom is knowing you will be an idiot in the future
And common sense is knowing you’re an idiot now
I guess you don’t happen to have a video of us singing the Jacques thing? Or at least a photo?