Mt. Tsurumi Dake

Last week, Japan had three national holidays. Monday, May 4th was Greenary Day, Tuesday May 5th was Children's Day and Wednesday May 6th was Substitute Holiday. Thursday and Friday were not official holidays, but many people in Japan take those days off from work , so that they have an entire week of vacation.


I spent most of my time off taking care of random tasks and cleaning and organizing my apartment.



Last Tuesday, however, I did take a day trip to Beppu to climb Mt. Tsurumi with Adam, another teacher. We took a short train ride from Oita City to Beppu and then took a bus to the base of Mt. Tsurumi Dake. The bus ride normally takes 20-25 minutes, but with the holiday resulting in crowded roads and a very packed bus, the trip took about an hour. The road to Mt. Tsurumi Dake winds up the mountain side and on this day there was a long traffic jam. Adam and I left the seats open for the elderly and young children, but we soon realized that standing for this trip would be very uncomfortable. The only way to combat this uneasiness was with a combination of the beautiful scenery outside and of course a 20 minute Tweezer Jam, Palace '97.


Fortunately we arrived at our stop without vomiting, forcing an elderly person out of their seat or peeing ourselves. We made a quick stop at the facilities and starting hiking to the top of Mt. Tsurumi Dake. The woman at the travel information booth in Oita City told me that it took around 2-3 hours to climb to the top. The sign at the trail entrance stated that the climb was 3.5 kilometers and so we figured we could do it in 2 hours.



We started from the trail head and we soon realized that we would be hiking rather sharp inclines for the entire 3.5 kilometers. The lack of heavy backpacks and the scenery among us, however, made the climb enjoyable.


The first kilometer of the trail wound around the base of the mountain and we soon came upon a clearing where we could overlook our bus drop-off point, the city of Beppu and the ocean.








Towards the end of the first meter, we came upon a long set of cement stairs sandwiched between two very large trees. It seemed strange that after hiking a kilometer into the wilderness we would come upon a strange set of stairs.


Within a moments notice, the clear skies became cloudy, fog surrounded us and rain drops began to fall. We contemplated turning back as we had not prepared for rain and feared we would get soaked. Nevertheless, we decided to press on up the stairs.





Halfway up the stairs thoughts that we had ventured off trail crossed my mind. On both sides of stairs we noticed small wooden shelters that I thought at first were overnight sleeping cabins. Looking closer, they appeared to be little temples for mediation. Again, we questioned whether or not we should retreat down the stairs. Adam seemed less concerned than I was. As we neared the top of the stairs, I noticed several grave stones and what appeared to be a small wooden temple.





The temple and surrounding area were uninhabited and seemed rundown. We explored around the site, examined some frightening wooden carvings in the back corner of the temple and looked for the trail.














Suddenly, the front doors of the temple blew open, a small naked man waving a large sword appeared at the entrance and yelled at us in Japanese. Had we encroached on s0me0nes property? Was this some kind of nuthouse? Was this man going to kill us? The man stood still in the doorway, became silent and closed his eyes. I looked at Adam and we both exchanged signs of bewilderment. We slowly backed away from the temple and I noticed a trail head sign to our left. We moved quickly in that direction and starting jogging towards the top Mt. Tsurumi Dake.


About another half a kilometer up the mountain, we started to pass small groups of people coming down the mountain. They weren't breathing nearly as hard as we were and they lacked our intense diaphoresis. They encouraged us, "Ganbatte!" We passed many more groups of people coming down the mountain on our way up. Many people looked surprised to see us. Maybe they were amazed we had survived passing the naked man's temple, or maybe people in Japan only hike down mountains. I didn't know.


The remaining kilometers passed by with more sweating, intermittent heavy breathing, "Konichiwa," "Ganbatte!" and comical conversation about gym pick-up lines. As we neared the top, the trees became smaller and smaller until eventually we reached a grass clearing overlooking our climb, the entire city of Beppu, the ocean and loud music ?!?!














To our left stood a large and slender white building producing music over loud speakers. From the building outstretched a thick wire line which supporter a Gondola between our current location and the place of our bus arrival.





After potato chips and Coca-Cola we took the gondola back down the mountain, returned to Beppu, ate a late lunch, and waited to board the train back to Oita City.




















While waiting, a Japanese man traded hats with a Adam for a short period.








Overall, a great trip!


Much Peace and Love


Jeremy


P.S. Just kidding about the naked man.

I am still Alive!

Luckily, the swine flu has not over taken peoples daily lives here in Japan. After reading the initial US news reports online it seemed as though armageddon would soon be upon us. I feel for those of you working at Reg-ER and hope the apparant hysteria has not increased the normal spring -> summer census dip.

My life here in Oita City, Japan has continued to be exciting and rewarding. Since my last post I started teaching at three junior high schools. During my initial visit to each class I have been giving a personal introduction to the students. I tell them about myself, where I am from (I tell them Athens, Georgia as it is more exciting than most places I have lived 'sorry Hattan and GRAPS'), my family, my hobbies, my work history and of course why I came to Japan. During the presentation I show a lot of pictures.

For the older students, I came up with a Jeopardy style introduction where I have six categories (Jeremy, Family, Famous People, Animals, Food and Sports). The classes get into groups and I ask them questions within each category. They don't get as much information about me and where I am from, but they have a lot more fun, they interact with me and they read, listen to and speak English rather than just listening to a presentation.

I typically keep the presentation for the younger kids much shorter and then let them ask questions. Some classes have asked me questions for 30 minutes which was surprising at first, but it makes sense when considering I maybe the first foreigner they have ever met! Most questions are straight forward (what do you think of Japan, what was the first thing you noticed in Japan, what kind of food do you like), some are personal (are you married, do you have a girlfriend) and some are I find a little strange (what is your favorite flower, how many different kinds of bears are there in America).

Per my contract I am required to teach no more than four classes per day. The school year in Japan began a few weeks ago, so the students have been busy with many beginning of the year activities and requirements. With that in mind, most days I haven't been teaching four classes a day. Which has left me with a lot of free time to study Japanese and talk with the students in between classes.

Primarily, my job as an ALT is to provide international awareness for the students and to engage them in English conversation. Secondly, I am a teacher. So, I guess it is not surprising that I often do not teach four classes a day. I have been focusing my energy on interacting with the students outside of class as much as possible. At my main junior high school, I have joined the basketball team for practice several times. Most students here join a club which they participate in after school. Students are only able to join one club and they participate in that club year round. Which I find unfortunate that they can't be active in up to three sports like I could in high school (fall, winter, spring). Nevertheless, they do become very skilled in one sport as opposed to mediocre in three separate sports.

About two weeks ago, many schools went on an excursion. The students and several teachers hike from their school to a field where they play team games, give presentations (I can't understand Japanese, so any time someone gets up in front of a group of people with a megaphone, I just assume it is some kind of presentation) and eat a picnic lunch. The following pictures are of an excursion I went on with Hetsugi Junior High School.

Outside of work I have been having fun and taking care of business. I have been busy buying things for my apartment (desk, desk chair, bookshelf), going to the grocery store, getting my clothes dry cleaned, taking care of financial stuff. I guess the same kind of stuff I would be doing back in the states.

There are several bar districts here in Oita City, so I have been out a few times on the weekends. Since the school year just started, schools have been having their beginning of the year parties (en-kie). The teachers and administrators meet up downtown and go to an all you can eat and drink celebration to kick off the new school year. I have been to two and they are a lot of fun. All you drink really opens the teachers/administrators up to engaging in English conversation.

Other than that I have spending time going out to eat with the other English teachers. I will soon post pictures and info on some of favorite places to eat in Oita.

I hope this post finds you all in good health and good spirits.

I must send out a Special Congratulations! to my Mom and David, who are getting married this weekend. I love you both and wish you the very best.

Much Peace and Love.

Jeremy

The Layer

The following pictures and videos detail my living quarters.

My living takes place on the far right, top level.





A view in the opposite direction.




Here the bicycles await use.



After I park my bike I look up at the at my apartment windows and check for intruders.

Up to the Apartment!

Morning Life

In we go.....

Out it comes......

If you don't want MRSA, make sure you wash.

This is the room where I iron.

Tiene proteinas, tiene vitaminas, para crecer!

I need a desk and a bookshelf.

I love siestas, they don't have them in Japan.

The sun works better than the dryer at 169 Riverdale.

Beppu Nights!

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

This past weekend, I and my new, wise and beautiful Jamaican friend Shauna took the 25 minute train ride from Oita City to Beppu. Our plan was to eat at one Shauna's most favorable restaurants, "Korean's that Serve Whole Chickens" followed by live music at a nearby club.

While waiting for Shauna at the Oita City train station, I perused the station's amateur photography exhibit. Oita City is currently constructing elevated train tracks throughout the City and the photos were taken of the project. The overall amount, variety and convolutedness of public transportation in Oita City is quite amazing. The Buses go everywhere! The trains are actually cheaper than the buses and they are much faster, but they do not travel to as many specific places.

One of the schools (Saganoseki) where I will teach is in a very rural fishing town, 30 miles east of Oita City, but I can take a train 3/4ths of the way there in 20 minutes and then get on a bus right next to the station which will take me directly to the school in another 20-30 minutes.

Although the public transportation options are convenient and environmentally beneficial, the system can be quite confusing and so I owe many thanks to the veteran teachers here who have instructed me on how to get around. In fact, the system can be so confusing I will often see local Japanese people staring at the station time tables trying their hardest to figure out what bus they need to get on and what time that bus will show up. So, you can imagine how hard it is for a foreigner that doesn't speak or read much Japanese to figure it out.

There is also a massive amount of people that ride bicycles here in Oita City. I never thought I would see young women wearing short skirts and heels peddling a bicycle to work at 7:30 in the morning. Men in business suits ride bicycles everywhere. Senior Citizens ride bicycles with large baskets mounted above the front and rear tires that are full of groceries. In most of the places I have lived in the US there are much larger distances between home, work and commercial centers. Nevertheless, I think if people from the US saw how easy it is for people here of varying ages, genders and economic status to bike easily to multiple destinations they might reconsider paying 60 dollars weekly to fill up an SUV. Biking to multiple places everyday, I have lost close to 15 pounds since I have been here. There are still many people here that drive cars, but most are all small and fuel efficient.

Anyway back to my Saturday night adventure with Shauna. After we met at the station, she showed me which ticket I needed to purchase, she asked a train schedule specialist where we could board our train to Beppu and we headed in that direction.



We arrived in Beppu and Shauna pointed out a small hot spring bath right outside the station. A drunk man encouraged me to place my hands deep inside the bath, but I wasn't about to fall for his 'lets trick the foreigner schenanigans,' so we left the drunk man displeased and headed towards our dinning establishment.

Unfortunately, the 'Korean Whole Chickens Restaurant' was closed (see the picture below which shows Shauna's extreme disappointment). We headed to a all-you-can-eat and cook-your-own-meat restaurant instead.

This place reminded me of BD's Mongolian Barbecue except that the patrons do the cooking at a grill in the middle of the table. In the buffet area of the restaurant, customers may pile multiple raw meats, raw seafoods and uncooked veggies onto plates, take the plates back to their tables and then cook the food on a personal table-top grill. They also had all-you-can eat ramon noodles, sushi, salad, drinks, desert and fruit.

Having been a customer before, Shauna showed-off her expert grille skills. Whenever she left the table, I failed miserably at attempting to keep the food from becoming overdone. Another great thing about eating across the table from Shauna is that she has a perfect smile, one that makes you feel happy to be alive and that has made me feel like I made the right decision in coming to Japan.

After dinner, we bought a lemon for Shauna's friend Pernais, who would be performing at the club. We arrived at the club, met Pernais and checked out the scene. The left side of the club was lined with couches and chairs and on the right side a bar and DJ booth. At the far end, opposite the entrance was a small floor space for performers.

The first group of musicians was composed of three performers, a young woman that played a small set of hand drums, a man that alternated between a large set of hand drums and a small xylophone and a another man that played a sitar, an acoustic guitar and very long horn. During some of their entirely instrumental songs, the man that played the sitar would make these alms sounds. An Australian man sitting next to me later explained that the alms he was producing were Mongolian in origin and took years of study and practice to perfect. He described how the performer has to split their vocal chords, a very difficult technique, in order to produce the sounds.

The next act involved a group dressed as native Japanese drummers and singers. There were three male drummers and two female dancers. The dancers danced around the small circular space in between the drummers and the audience. Two of the drummers told ancient stories in between songs which of course I did not comprehend, but nevertheless seemed interesting. Towards the end of their performance they encouraged the audience to dance in the same rhythmic style as the female group members.

Shauna's friend Pernais (on vocals), a drummer and an acoustic guitarist made up the third and final act. Pernais, a young woman from Jamaica sang a few Bob Marley songs, a few originals and several other covers from performers with which I was not familiar. The first few lines from her first song, Natural Mystic, brought a sudden ahhhhh from the audience. The timing was perfect and the guitarist, who at times seemed aloof, played well. Overall, Pernais's singing came out inspired and soulful. This was best night I have had in Japan so far.

After the music performances ended, Shauna, Javi (another teacher living in Oita, originally from Texas) and I took the 0100 train back to Oita City.

One Saturday night last week I headed downtown to take pictures. The pictures follow, hope you enjoy.