Last Friday, I went and explored the dam that is above my
house. It was a beautiful day to go!
I walked up the road to it and walked out
on it. From there, I could see my house, the entire lake, and this giant slug
that was drying out.
It was gorgeous! The road across the dam is only for
pedestrians as well as most of the road that the dam leads to. It was a
beautiful stroll through the woods and it actually felt like I was in a city
park. Most parks in Japan are extremely small and don’t have grass. This one
had grass on both sides of the path as well as in the little alcoves that had
benches and tables. There were even sculptures! There were also very few people
when I went. I would guess this is because it was a weekday and also because
Takihata is a 20 minute drive from Kawachinagano (a long distance in Japan).
Later
that day, Mama Akane and I went to a little museum about the history of the
Kawachinagano area. They had a lot of cool artifacts on display. The museum has
a cool activity where you can carve shapes from stone. Mama Akane decided to
make a stone knife that was traditionally used for cutting rice from the stalk.
I made a small stone necklace.
It was really fun creating something out of a
solid block of stone with nothing but files to work with. After we carved our
stone, we looked around a little. There were tons of artifacts that had been
found in the Kawachinagano area including a pair of swords and some VERY large
ceramic pots! It was fun to see how people lived way long ago in Japan.
After that, we returned to Takihata and went to a
traditional Japanese house that’s in the center of Takihata.
It was super cool
to see it! Houses were usually home to more than one family, so there were many
rooms and sliding doors to give privacy when it was needed. I think that the
roof is the coolest part of these traditional houses. It is made entirely from
Susuki grass and weighs many tons.
The grass comes from Mount Iwawaki just a
couple kilometers away. You can actually see the top of it from the house, so
it’s a great place to have the house.
The house’s floor is all tatami mats and
the doors are both wooden and traditional paper. The cooking area was super
interesting. There was a large concrete area with holes in the top of it for
pots to fit in. There were also holes in the side to insert wood into for the
fire. There was a rice cooker, a steamer, and a soup pot.
Next to the house
there was a little museum about the building of traditional houses. It
explained the cutting of the Susuki grass, the drying, and the installation. I
wish I had paid a little more attention because I don’t remember the specifics!
It also showed another kind of traditional roof that used tree bark. Both
methods are still used for temples, shrines, and traditional houses.
Last Saturday, Pap Kazuhiro and I drove to Wakayama to go
surfing. It was a beautiful day, but unfortunately there were not many waves.
There were tons of other people there surfing though! I was able to surf on my
stomach a little bit. It was my first time, so standing up would have been very
improbable, especially considering the state of the waves. It was a ton of fun
though! I was surprised by the amount of debris on the beach. There was trash absolutely
everywhere. It was pretty gross! There was also a large number of dead animals
on the beach which included a bird, a stingray, tons of squid, and a sea turtle.
It was sad to see them. I wonder if all beaches in Japan are like this?
Last Saturday was the first day of Kawachinagano’s Danjiri
Matsuri festival.
The festival goes for two days and each day starts at 6 AM
and goes until 10 PM with only a short break for lunch. I found out a little
more information about the festival since I last wrote about the Kishiwada
Danjiri Festival that I went to. Danjiri are wooden shrines that are pulled
around on large, wooden wheels. The idea is to spread luck around the
neighborhood that they are in. The Danjiri weigh about 2-4 tons and are pulled
solely by man-power. I went to the night part with Mama Akane, Mitsuki, and
Nanako.
We met up with Nanako’s friend, Kana, and her mother and walked around.
Each neighborhood in the city had their own festival. We were in the Takou
neighborhood of Kawachinagano which has three Danjiri. All three of them wound
through the streets making a huge ruckus! On board were two drummers and a bell
ringer as well as dancers and some people egging on those pulling and pushing
the cart. The drummers and bell ringer sit there and drum/ring the entire time
the Danjiri is moving. I don’t think they switch people either, even between
the two days. At night, the Danjiri become lit up with lanterns that advertise
what part of the neighborhood they are from. At various times of the evening,
the Danjiri all meet at intersections and go through a routine of spinning the
Danjiri in the center of the intersection. It’s a wild scene! The Danjiri are
first rolled to the middle of the intersection, then everyone on board helps to
lever the Danjiri up onto two wheels. Finally, they all start pushing and
pulling the Danjiri so that it spins in a circle at a very high speed. It’s
incredible that they can do it since it weighs to much! It was a very
impressive showing!
The Danjiri go absolutely everywhere in the city. They have
set courses, but there are more than just a couple routes that they take. The
streets vary from tiny crevices between houses to large, two lane roads. It
doesn’t matter where they are, though, because all traffic has to stop for
them. I think the general rule is that if you are driving anywhere during the
festival, you are responsible for avoiding any Danjiri. There are no signs or
detours, just a giant crowd of people that mark where you can’t drive for the
next 10-30 minutes.
Everywhere the carts go, they leave marks on the street from
their wooden wheels. It’s really fun to be walking down an extremely skinny
street and realize that a Danjiri managed to squeeze through there!
Last Sunday I went to Universal Studios Japan (USJ) with
Rotary students and Rotex. I met up with Jaimee (Australia) at Kawachinagano
Station and from there we went to Tennoji where we met up with all the other
students. In total, there were fourteen people; seven Rotary students and seven
Rotex. We all rode to USJ together and I’m sure we look absolutely crazy since
we were just a huge clump of foreigners speaking a mixture of English,
Japanese, and, occacionally, Spanish or German. It was a really fun day! I don’t
really know what to say about it other than that USJ is a huge theme park that
attracts more people than the Minnesota State Fair. There were so many people
that we only had time for two rides in a little over six hours. We waited in
line for the Jurassic Park ride for two and a half hours and the Back to the
Future ride for an hour and a half. The lines were worth it, though. The rides
were incredible and we all had a lot of fun. The one downside of the day
(although it was completely worth it) was that during the next couple days I
had a sore throat from talking so much. For those that are curious, there was
both English and Japanese spoken, so the day was a complete drain on my
Japanese.
That night, I went to the closing ceremony for the Danjiri
festival. It was just as crazy with more spinning and streamers and throwing
people in the air. It was very entertaining. I made a short video about the
Kawachinagano Danjiri festival for those that would like to actually see what
it was like. I added a little bit of during it so it’s not just a complete
waste of time. Oh, and sorry for the “vertical video”, dad.
This week was relatively normal. On Tuesday I had a Japanese
test in school to make sure I’m actually learning stuff. The unfortunate part
was that there was quite a bit that I had never seen before and wasn’t in the
study packet I had been given. I’m not exactly sure why this is. I wonder if
most tests given in school have a bit of new material to see if the kids can
infer using what they learned for the test.
On Thursday after Japanese class, I went to Morishita-san’s
restaurant for dinner. Morishita-san is the exchange student organizer for the
Kawachinagano Rotary Club. Dinner was delicious and the conversation was
incredible! Her son works at the restaurant and he went to school in New York
state. It’s really fun talking to them. I think that dinner there will become a
regular thing for me after Japanese class. I’m greatly looking forward to it.
It’s great to use the Japanese that I’ve just been studying in the real world.
Everyday I come home completely exhausted. I’m totally fine
with it because it means that I’ve actually been doing something during the
day. Attempting to listen and understand everything that anyone says is so
difficult and tiring that sometimes I zone out. It’s so hard not to sometimes
because the conversation has new vocabulary, but if I really try, I can get the
generally idea of what is being talked about.
School is great. I’ve started talking to classmates more and
they are extremely willing to help me understand something if I don’t get it.
They ask me all sorts of questions, too, about life in the US and what I did
the last weekend. It’s great and I love my class.
Thursday marked the two month mark for me. It’s incredible
to think that it’s been two months already! Time absolutely flies! It’s so
crazy. Thursday also marked the one month that I left with the Tani family. It’s
sad that I will be leaving, but I am excited to experience a different
lifestyle! It will be a little bit of a shock and almost like starting over. My
host grandfather did inform me that my room here will be kept available if I
ever need it. He also mentioned that I should come back on some weekends to see
them. It was a fantastic invitation!
Here's what the view looks like when it's beautiful and rainy!
I love my family so much! I just spent a good 20 minutes with them teaching them the chicken dance. It was so much fun! I think my little brother might have a new favorite song now.
Thanks for reading! I’m hoping to not let my blog sit this
long again. Although it didn’t feel like it, 10 days is a long time!
ありがとうございます！またね！
Wes
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