School is probably the greatest
thing that has happened so far. I know that a year ago I definitely would not
have said that, as I would be gearing up for my senior year at Northfield High School.
However, now that my grades do not matter and I can learn at my leisure (or as
I understand), I am thoroughly enjoying school. Yes, it does get boring sitting
in a classroom for a couple hours without doing anything besides studying
Japanese by listening, but the end of school makes it worth it. Since we have
shorter days due to the hot summers, school finishes at 12:45 PM. Most of my
class eats lunch in the classroom and then goes to their various club
activities if they do any. This has provided me with the chance to get to know
them. The last few days I have walked down to the 7-11 convenience store that is
adjacent to school and bought some items for lunch. I then return to eat with
my class.
Walking anywhere is strange
because everyone stares at you. As a white male that grew up in Minnesota, I’ve
never experienced being a minority. Now I can say I have. Walking down the
street, I never see anyone that is not of Asian ethnicity. The only place I see
outsiders is at school or the surrounding streets. Even then, there are only five
of us. There are so few you can count us! It’s quite an experience. Fortunately,
I have not had any negative experiences because of this. One thing I have
noticed, though, is that everyone from Nagano High School recognizes me and
says “hello” in English. It’s very cool! I feel so welcomed to the school.
I feel like I am being well taken
care of. The students keep on eye on me in the case that I make a mistake or
don’t know where to go. They are all willing to help. My first full day some of
my classmates walked me to the room I was supposed to be in. Many times my
homeroom teacher has checked on me just to make sure I am doing well. She has
also helped me find the correct people to talk to about joining clubs.
On Thursday, I went to soft
tennis club. I think that it is only a Japanese sport because I’ve seen any
mention of it before anywhere else. It is exactly like normal tennis except the
ball is very rubbery. It is the same size as a ball used for racket-ball, but
it is the consistency of a stress-ball. I followed a student from my class
named Kei and he helped me out with it. I also met a third-year named Maho. She
was actually the one that invited me to come the day before. She is apparently
interested in teaching Japanese in foreign countries. Soft Tennis was fun and I
think I will go to it on some days after school.
On Friday, I went to the Nagano Wind
Orchestra’s rehearsal. It was incredible! The group is made up of about 30-40
students and is conducted by a third-year. As far as I can tell, the only
direction is given by a Nagano High School alum that hung around this year to
help out with music. For rehearsal, they leant me tuba and I got to play with
the two other tuba players for an hour. Then, I was given a trombone and I
practiced with the trombones and euphonium player. They are very, very, very,
very good. At the end of the rehearsal, I was given a private concert of their
main piece, a jazz medley that included “Sing, Sing, Sing”. Ever note was precisely
where it should be and (for a group this size this was very impressive) completely
balanced with one another. When they were finished, they had me critique them.
That was very difficult to do in both English and Japanese! I gave up on my
Japanese and gave them my praise in English.
I suppose it would interesting
for people to know that there are very few boys in some club activities. For
example, both soft tennis and the orchestra have only one boy in them (well,
now two). Both are very good at what they do and have no problem with being the
only male in their clubs.
I went to aikidou last night with Nanako and Mitsuki. It was a lot of fun! It's really hard work, though.
The Kawachinagano Rotary Club puts out a newsletter every week. I was in it along with the speech I gave and a biography of Northfield.
So I guess that when I said fall
was on it’s way, I might have been a little early. These last couple days have
had more wind and clouds than usual. This is because of a typhoon (hurricane)
that has been working it’s way up the coast of east Asia. We may not have
school next week! Yay! While it is a hurricane (yes, that IS rather scary),
there should be no issue and it should blow itself out before reaching Osaka,
therefore there should be no hastily written emails or worrying. I do hope that
Zoe Webb in Taiwan, Logan Regnier in South Japan, and Wren Kruse in Hiroshima
are not too affected by it.
じゃない！
Wes
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