The Japan Experience

This is probably going to be my last journal entry.  I'll try and fill you in on what I've been up to recently, but I've got a feeling the 'you' I'm referring to here is a pretty limited audience (especially because I haven't written anything for probably months at this point).  Anyhow.

This past month has been particularly busy, even though I've moved on from my project in many ways.  I've been playing nightly in my teacher's bar and spending a lot of time hanging out with him and his other American student.  My spare time is mostly spent practicing samisen in the bar's garage, and I've recently increased the size of my repertoire by about three or four songs in about as many weeks (in addition to increasing the size of the lump on the little finger of my right hand...I consider it a war wound).

In addition I've been dividing my time between soubetukai (going away parties) and packing up to move to Chicago.  The soubetukai (among other things) have completely rendered my schedule from any conventional shape, and until recently I've been staying up until 2-3 AM and waking up around 10.  This all started back at the beginning of the month with the Neputa festival, which cranked up performance opportunities (ie, playing mornings in the train station) and reduced sleep, followed immediately by about a week of o-bon, which meant the bar was busy and we had a ton of outside performances (I got paid $30 and a nice lunch to perform once, too).

I don't want to talk about packing up and moving, because it's a drain--both energetically and monetarily.  I've spent about $500 shipping stuff to the US and am kind of irritated with the post office at this point (for a number of reasons), so I'll just skip ahead to the next section.

I leave for Tokyo on Friday, then spend about two weeks doing...what?

1) 3-day trip to Shikoku to visit a friend and go canoeing on Japan's prettiest river
2) Visit friends from ICU Brass
3) possibly appear on the national TV program "Waratte ii tomo"
4) See a friend put on a concert with his 'performance band' Kotobuki
5) hole up in my hotel room writing a paper for a UCLA conference in October--to which I need to submit a draft by the day I leave Japan.

That's what things are like here.  I have no idea what Chicago--the school or the city--will be like, but it's pretty much already been decided that I'm coming back here the first chance that I get.  So we'll see what happens.  Till then...

Gallery Link

I'm still waiting to hear from Chicago about my apartment, schedule, and lots of other stuff, but, alas, nothing of that ilk comes in the mail or in my new mail account : ( On the other hand, I've been getting a steady stream of e-mails from Campus Safety concerning robberies and shootings in the neighborhood!

Anyhow, this week I've been training about two hours a day, on the Neputa-hue. Neputa is the big Tsugaru autumn festival, and I've been learning the hue (transverse bamboo flute, pronounced "fuu-A") part of the hayasi (literally, "encouragement/prodding": the accompanying music/troupe made up of flautists and drummers). There's a kind of drill camp going on in the Hirosaki tourism building where an acquaintance of mine (from a different flute practice) is apprenticed (?) to the teacher. Anyhow, I got invited, and it's basically a big room with maybe 80 people playing flute and I'm the only foreigner.

Which is fine, of course. But the ojiisan (old guy) who teaches the music is a spritely old soul with a good sense of humor. He often goes off on tangents telling funny little anecdotes, invariably falling into his thick accent. When he finishes the story he always turns to me and says "Wagaru? Iina, maina?," which is Tugaru-ben for "You understand? OK? No?"

He's not really picking on me, so I don't mind--it's just kind of funny. I guess that story would only be good if you were there. I'll see about taking some pictures tomorrow.

Anyhow, Neputa (Nebuta in Aomori) originates in the Bon festival ("all souls day") where people make paper lanterns and float them down the river. Well, the origin stories are varied here, but for whatever reason the Tugaru lanterns have gotten huge--like 8 meters tall--and have become pretty cool works of art. The Neputa of Hirosaki are all the same shape--that of a folding fan--and have huge scenes from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Water Marshall, and period Japanese stories painted on them. There are some really popular scenes that you see over and over, and some that are originals, but basically when they starting this painting style people took novels that were popular at the time (mostly Chinese historical war novels) and copied the pictures from them. When they get lit up they become amazingly vibrant, violent, and sometimes sexually suggestive works of art that have so much dirt under their fingernails I don't even have to mention Bakhtin for you to see the Carnival in it. Very cool.

The Aomori Nebuta are called "Doll Nebuta" because they're all shaped like massive sculptures of paper and wooden frames. They're pretty impressive to see in person, though of course, I really prefer the Hirosaki Neputa.

There's also Tati-Neb(p?)uta from the surrounding towns, which are skinny but even taller than the ones here. I've never seen one, so I can't really say much about them.

The festival takes place in early August, and I really want to see both Hirosaki and Aomori's fairs, so I'll have to split my time between the two. In addition, I'm going to want to play at least one day (the festival is something like six nights), though I haven't figured out a group yet. We'll see how things go.

Also, I've decided it's time to introduce you to Jero:




The Snow that falls into the sea
From the frozen sky
Is swallowed up by the waves
No trace is left behind

Hey, even if I loved
Ah, if it didn't reach you
Hey, shouldn't I
Just throw myself in?

Come after me, to Izumo Cliff
The Japan Sea of sadness
Lost sight of love, at the top of the cliff
The falling tears
are just like the
snow that disappears

If I hold out my open palm
A cold mirage
of me ripped away from this world
I believed it was destiny

Hey, even if I loved you
Ah, while it never comes true
Hey, why don't you just
Kill me, please

All alone on the Izumo Cliff
Without an umbrella, waiting for tomorrow
My wet hair, frozen to the roots
Even words of resentment
disappear on the water's surface
just like the disappearing snow

Hey, even if I loved you
Ah, if it didn't reach you
Hey, shouldn't I
Just throw myself in?

Gallery Link

...and here I thought that band's name was "Relational Theory." Actually, I though the band's name was "Teacher from Hell," but apparently that's the song title. Anyhow, I've gotten myself into a pot over this one.

For the first time in a while I was listening to some Siina Ringo (that's Shena Ringo to you) and I clicked on a youtube link for this band, Theory of Relativity. Because my music consumption on youtube is half an experiment in multimedia consumption, I have to say I was drawn in by the AV combination and the ironic vocal style/lyrical content. Then I said, hey, why don't I put this on my journal?

There's nothing wrong with the song, as far as I'm concerned, but I'm just warning you beforehand that the lyrical content seems, ah, immature. How you interpret it is up to you (unless, apparently, if you're Chinese, in which case Reader Response/ie Postmodern thought still apparently hasn't gotten a hold of the public consciousness).

Anyhow.

The composite product is really what I'm selling here. Take it or leave it.




Teacher from Hell (Theory of Relativity)

Auditing class, premonitions of love
A visit to my home was the gates of hell
After the closing bell, in the schoolyard
I learned 'extra-curricular' love

Feeling like I'm going to bomb the test
or that my weak heart is about to break
In the homeroom classroom
Rumors of boy-girl relationships flew

Teacher, I want to know things I don't know!
I want to see what I can't see, show me teach me
Hey Teacher, lately I haven't been sleeping well
I feel paralyzed [as if held in place or possessed]
Why, Teacher, why?

Sailor suits are battle gear
for a Death-match against class
Determined for disaster prevention
When the chime that almost never sounds, rang

Teacher, I have something to say, but I can't
It's so pathetic I'm mortified, Teacher
(speaking of Teacher, Teacher)
Oh, Teacher, don't use my full name
Just call my given name
Please, oh please, Teacher

Teacher, I still have something to ask
It can't be someone younger?
Answer, answer, please, Teacher
Teacher, the graduation ceremony's coming up
Don't even say goodbye, I'd hate it
I still want to be a highschool girl!



Oh, and I just found this video by the same band. It's pretty entertaining...huhu

Gallery Link

'Hate' is a strong word, so I'm really only using it here for emotional effect. But, I really really hate iTunes.

To be fair, it's a combination of Windows Media Player, Vista, and iTunes, but really it's iTunes fault. I just want to go back to Winamp and forget the whole ordeal, but I can't, because now I'm left with irrevocable damage. Let me explain.

Keeping music organized on my computer is a big deal--you could even call it part of my job. That's where Vista comes in to screw with me. Instead of just leaving my files as they are, it goes through this complex organizational process that splits albums up, creates necessary folders, and makes it so that I can't find what I'm looking for. When I manually fix things on that end, the file locations get misplaced in iTunes, and I wind up with garbage labels and unusable playlists. Of course, (to the best of my knowledge) iTunes doesn't have a "remove duplicates/remove invalid files from library" function like good ol' Winamp does. iTunes also has a handy automatic feature that alters file information on your hard drive without asking--which is why I have such a mass of songs with ???????? for a name instead of the Japanese that I manually typed in (instead of leaving it to WMP, which messes up the conversion anyways). It's frustrating. It really is.

So there I was, I think it was on Friday, trying for probably over 2 hours straight to get some level of basic organization to my folders. I even moved everything into that stupid "iTunes" folder, which just adds something like three levels of unnecessary complexity to my files. Long story short, in the process of doing this whole business, I wound up with two copies of my entire music collection, which is not a particularly harmful thing. But then, when trying to clear out my library (mind you, the library in iTunes, not my files on my computer) in iTunes to start fresh, iTunes DELETED MY ENTIRE MUSIC COLLECTION. BOTH COPIES. I am soured by this.

Of course, I have a recycle bin, thank goodness. I have a recycle bin that's capped at 16.6 gigabytes, which should be large enough to handle just about anything coming its way. Unless, you know, some vigilante code decides to delete two copies of someone's entire music collection. I don't know exactly what I lost, now, to be fair, but I can tell you that I've lost EVERY music recording I've taken this year. EVERY SINGLE ONE. Those are irreplaceable, and that's why I'm peeved.

I have some partial backups, but they're in reduced quality, and they are far, far from complete. Now that I have an external hard drive (just purchased yesterday) I'll back everything up on that, but that doesn't make up for the loss.

As you can tell, I'm rather put out right now. I hate iTunes, I think, a lot.

Gallery Link

Sorry for the gratuitous entry.

Gallery Link

The three Google Books pages open on my computer now are "Irish Culture: image, culture and identity/'the Cracked Pint of the Servant': the Irish Pub, Irish Identity, and the Tourist Eye," (actually, that's only half true~RIGHT now it's open to the book's introduction, but that's the article I'm using), "Cultural Tourism: Global and Local Perspectives/Cultural Tourism: Between Authenticity and Globalization," and, my personal favorite (for reasons actually exceeding the title) "The Tourist as a Metaphor for the Social World/The Home and the World: (Post)touristic Spaces of (in)Authenticity?"

I'm working...ish...on a paper proposal for a conference at UCLA in October. I have another two weeks to finish the abstract, which is awful, because I'm way in over my head as far as tourism research goes. The thing is, the conference is about "Mapping Space" in Japan, and I want to use this as a chance to make use of my recent plethora of Min'you Sakaba experience. There's a lot of stuff I can say about identity construction (my favorite quote, possibly of all time, is by a researcher called Jennifer Roberson, who says something like "hurusato[the notion of hometown] is a constructed and discursive space of reflexive identity making"...and I'm experiencing that right now! In the hurusato itself! Oh, it's just crazy...), which is easily enough connected with the paper topic, but coming up with a thesis that's a little more sophisticated than "hey, look over here! Look what I found! It's...it's...an example of the obvious!" (re practically all of the lame case studies I've read thus far in tourism research) is what's messing with me.

I'm also kind of [I don't know the right word] about Gerald McGoldrick, a Canadian who studies samisen and who wrote a really nice detailed masters thesis a few years back on Tsugaru-jamisen. I have no idea how to express the complicated emotions I'm feeling about his research, but they're taking up a significant amount of my mental energies as of late (as well as table space on my kotatu). I wonder what'll happen if he googles his name and this entry shows up? If you're reading this, leave a comment. We have lots to discuss : )

I was going to leave off with a complex question about intoxication and Japanese etiquette, but let's just say that I'm lucky it's not too too hard to say nothing in a bunch of words in Japanese...and, by definition, be extremely polite about it. Huh?

Gallery Link

Hanabi, literally "fire flowers," should not be confused with o-hanami, which is flower viewing (the 'bi' and 'mi' sounds are close-ish, so I always get them mixed up).

On Friday I had my samisen lesson, after which I was invited by my teacher to play at the hanabi taikai the following day. Hanabi taikai is when you get a whole bunch of different companies/sponsors and firework artists together, and have fireworks for fireworks sake. It's a summer thing, and they're supposed to be really impressive in Japan.

Because I can't play the ensemble songs in my school, I just played the second stage we did and played the intro and outtro, which was my kind of bastardized version of 'Ringo Busi.' The reason I put it that way is because I've figured out how to play about half of my school's version, but the latter half I play the University's club version. What was cool is that we played while the fireworks were going off--timed with them--with te odori youth dancers in front of us and a singer for one song.

The funny thing is, though, there were about 20,000 audience members, so only those who paid top dollar to sit in the A section could even see the stage. I had two groups of friends in the B section, and when I visited you couldn't even hear the attractions. Which is fine, because hanabi is really about the fireworks.

There was another spot of awkwardness, though, because the University circle's teacher had a bunch of the students join him and play with him on stage. I would have done the same if, you know, it wasn't for the whole thing about me being banned from performance with him or at events associated with his school. So what was awkward is that I would be hanging out in front of "our" tent, and "they" would walk by. The students in the circle don't care one way or the other, so they stopped and talked with me, and even took a picture with me. But the fact that they were wearing the one uniform and I was wearing the other, I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure nobody was noticing the inter-school interaction. Not that it would have been a big deal, but it would have been a little uncomfortable. Maybe.

The upshot is that this time, unlike at the All Japan Competition, the school Sensei actually recognized me and gave me a head nod in passing. That'll almost give me enough confidence that he doesn't hate me...enough maybe for me to finally go to his place and ask for an interview...?

Speaking of which, I should be getting busy with other stuff. I have another interview today, and I want to, I don't know, do some more work. Till soon.

Gallery Link

I'm just finishing up my little trip to Tokyo and, since I'm free until 5:00 I thought I might write a bit while I still have the internet. Here's a brief sweep of what I've done:

I got sick, missed out on the conference that I came to Tokyo specifically to see, hung out with the other Fellows mostly in a blur off to the side with a raspy and painful voice, visited friends during the healing process, visited some more friends, healed almost completely for a really cool interview (actually, the interview was pretty unremarkable, but I went out with the guy afterwards for a few hours of casual discussion in a local Hokkaido-themed bar that plays his music, and that was pretty fun), and, well, then today.

Just so you know, I typically get (really) sick only once a year, and it's usually very short term. This time it was weird because I lost my voice almost completely just in time for three interviews enroute to Tokyo. I took the overnight bus from Sendai (2 interviews there) to Tokyo, and it was pretty horrible. I couldn't sleep at all and spent the whole night turning over and coughing. Fortunately the kid sitting next to me was a heavy sleeper (also a nice guy, apparently studying abroad in Colorado now). The sickness slowly progressed (with off and on fever) to something of a drip/raspy voice combination, but never really blossomed into anything too crazy.

Maybe that's because I slept the better part of the day of the conference in a hotel room (Fulbright's 'ogori', Fulbright's treat) that's larger that my apartment back home. Actually, the bed itself was about the size of my entire bathroom. But in exchange for that (not that I REALLY care) I missed out on seeing Aso's brother and the Crown Prince, both of which attended the conference. So it was a big deal. The conference itself, however, was all about soft power, so the topics, although generally interesting, were all political and probably kind of boring.

Anyhow, with regards to the post title, I've been treated to a great hotel room (for two nights...now I'm checking out of an economy hotel on the eastern edge of the city) and transportation to and from Tokyo by Fulbright. That's all well and good, but I've also been treated as a 'guest' by friends and even my interview subject (I'll probably be on his blog soon, too: http://masahiror2.exblog.jp/) to some nice meals. I always feel bad when, especially people my age, pay for things, but I guess that's part of the culture. Anyhow, there's also an understanding that if anyone visits Hirosaki (or, later, Chicago) that I'll pay for the meal. Also, by the way, whenever I go out with my professor, he typically pays for the meal, but I guess I've just gotten used to that.

Speaking of which, my advisor from Ursinus will be visiting Japan for the first time in years, and since he'll be stopping by Akita it looks like he'll be able to spend a night in Hirosaki listening to some samisen with me.

Oh, it's all fun and games until I have to hand in my final project...(more on that later--it's very exciting stuff)

Gallery Link

I just found out that an alternative kanzi for "koraeru" is written as a "long" (time-wise) "heart," which makes sense to me. Does it make sense to you, or is that sensibility just the biproduct of my contact with the language here? I mean, like how I now just kind of understand, gut-wise, why the word for "foothills" is written "mouth-mountain."

That's beside the point. I'm in the library (as usual) using the internet, and there are these two girls sitting on the other side of the room watching Youtube videos or something. I don't know exactly what's going on, but it's apparently pretty funny, because they keep talking and laughing. I'm putting up with it, because I'm leaving for class in an hour or so and I've actually had a relatively productive morning, so there's no reason to say anything. But it's an opportunity to share a short cultural tidbit:

Did you know that when Japanese people laugh at something they think is funny (like, *really funny*) the clap their hands? Do people do that in the west? I can't remember. I guess it's like thigh-slapping, but it's perfectly normal.

Also, (this is a little more of an archetypal image than something you see on a regular basis) when Japanese come up with a good idea or solve a problem, they'll smack their open palm with a fist, kind of like they're splatting an insect they're holding.

A common one is this--when referring to one's self, the appropriate gesticulation is an index finger pointed toward one's nose, not one's chest.

Something that's really uncommon, though, is when a Japanese person touches something hot (like a boiling kettle) and burns their fingertips, what do you think they do? They don't lick their fingers, rather they grab the bottom of their earlobe, which is supposed to be the coolest part of the body.

What else? Japanese people cover their mouths a lot, especially women. Girls will often cover their mouths when laughing (I guess there's that stereotype in the west as well, though), and in public people will cover their mouths while applying chapstick or using a toothpick (tumayouzi, in case you're wondering).

Last, but not least (for today) is the Asian squat. I'm pretty sure this goes beyond Japan, but here when you squat down you can't call it "sitting on one's heels" because you literally don't~you sit behind your heels so your knees go straight up to your chest. You have to lean forward to keep from falling backwards or sitting on the ground. It seems rather awkward, but I guarantee it's a lot...erm...'safer'...way of squatting when using a Japanese-style toilet. If you're wondering, feel free to google it yourself.

Gallery Link

I'm finishing up my plans for visiting Tokyo (June 10-16), including a one-day stop over at Sendai to interview perhaps the greatest samisen player in Japan today. Perhaps.

Anyhow, as if I didn't need any kind of reassurance of my limited grasp on reality, I just checked, for the fun of it, the distance between my economy hotel (I'm moving from the ANA Intercontinental fancy rich persons' hotel after the conference that I'm ostensibly visiting Tokyo for ends) and the place where I'm meeting my friends from ICU for a joint "Joshua's in town and Otiai-san is leaving town" party. Of course, the party is in the vicinity of ICU, which isn't really "in" Tokyo, but my hotel just happens to be on the opposite end of the map, putting me about an hour away, not counting the probably 20 minute walk to the station. Well, I guess I've got to fill my time somehow.

I'm going to buy my train tickets today, so I'll give you the rundown of what I'm planning on doing. On the 10th I'm visiting Sendai (unfortunately right after the Sendai-dwelling Fellow is kicking off to Tokyo) to interview (hopefully) this performer. Then I'm most likely staying overnight in a 24-hour restaurant (there were some planning issues~I'm sure this'll get worked out sometime today) to leave bright and early for Tokyo the next day. I get to Tokyo, hang out with the Fellows for a half day, and then spend the next day at a JUSEC/CULCO cosponsored conference. The conference has very little to do with me, other than the fact that it's a reason for Fulbright to pay for a round-trip ticket to the capital and two nights in a posh hotel, though I'm sure I'll be able to find value in the event itself.

Once that's done, I ride out to God's country and check in (hopefully) to my new hotel, go back out to Kitizyouzi, near ICU, and meet with my old friends for a while. Two days later I should be meeting with another performer who's an incredible player and is actively working on some international projects that should make for some interesting dialogue. I leave for Hirosaki on the last train out on the 16th.

That gives me a little bit of free time to hopefully visit with friends from Ursinus and another top-knotch samisen player that I met up here who moved back to the Tokyo area. So I'll be busy, I'm hoping, and not just kind of hanging out in the hotel room waiting for the next thing to happen.

Now, back to my *real* work...