Naked Man

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2011

Today was exams day at Nishi. I came to school to grade exams, but am now completely done with that. I graded about 160 exams, so I think that's pretty impressive. The students actually did better than I'd expected, so I was excited, as the dialogue section was harder than I'd thought it would be and I was worried. But, no, they did well. There were still low grades, of course, but there were also still several students who got full points.

Tamora asks that I come stand in the room when the cassette is played. I am okay with doing this, but it's awkward listening to yourself on cassette. I also dislike reminding the students when they're taking the test exactly who it was that wrote the thing, in case it's not going to well.

I talked with Tamora about the schedule for the next month. I'll be here next week, I can stay at koko in two weeks instead, then I wave two lessons the following two weeks to plan for. These aren't lessons that have tests, so it can be anything, but it should be fun and relaxing because students aren't going to want to do anything at the end of the school year AFTER FINAL EXAMS. (I can't blame them!) I'm thinking of doing a Saint Patrick's Day lesson and then something else. Or something with a movie, though I don't know which movie. Perhaps something Harry Potter, as I remember Madame doing a Harry Potter two-day unit (inspired by yours truly) in French after Christmas. Perhaps we can watch a clip of the movie. I just wish their level were a little bit higher.

Had a nice chat with Tamora about random stuff afterward. I ended up explaining the Pledge of Allegiance, and she couldn't believe that we say that in school. I talked a bit about the controversy surrounding it (and Wisconsin who banned it in schools for the “under God” line inconveniently RIGHT before September 11, 2001, which didn't go over well with the rest of the country.)

Tamora's last day is at the end of this month. She's apparently a long-term substitute for a JTE out on maternity leave (go figure!) so that JTE will be returning next school year (April.) Seth is a part-time teacher (which explains why he's always leaving before me!) and he'll also be gone. So I'll either work with a current Nishi JTE or get a new part-time one. Either way, big changes at Nishi!

I was gone all last weekend. I'd been planning for weeks to go to The Naked Man festival in Okayama, and I went with Monique. I ended up leaving before her, because I had to stop off in Osaka first at my kimono school's sale. My teacher desperately wanted to introduce me to the president, so that happened, with me apologizing and bowing a lot.

My mere presence was shocking and all of the ladies in kimono were tittering as sensei escorted me around. Many came up to chat and I heard my name thrown around a lot along with the fact that I'm an intern, which gets surprised appreciative murmurs. I ended up buying a nagajuban (underkimono) that was very reasonably priced at $5.

I also bought zori, traditional formal shoes for kimono. They are the inspiration for flip flops, though they are CERTAINLY more expensive than flip flops. We're not going to think too much on the price (bless Japan and it's monopoly money) but they are my most expensive shoes ever. They're pretty awesome though because they are custom made for me by a zori master, so measured my feet for them, so they should actually fit. I then got to choose the color for the base and the pattern for the straps. My straps have light pink sakura on them. Sakura is everywhere, but it's on everything I buy, it seems, as a coincidence. My hanko case and wallet both have sakura on them. Let me tell you, the sakura better be impressive this spring!

The sale didn't take me that long (I did not have thousands to blow on a new kimono) so I was out of there pretty quickly. I ended up catching a train and meeting up with Monique on it and we rode together. It was hard getting my tickets, actually. The trip took us 3.5 hours (or 4.5 because transfers on the way there REALLY didn't work out.) which it seems most people in Japan would shinkansen. We didn't, because that's twice as expensive. But when I tried to ask where Okayama was on the map to buy my ticket they tried to direct me to express trains and I had to do it all on my own (which worked out fine.) Monique and I shared Pocky, chocolate dipped cookie sticks.

Monique and I got in, walked to her hotel, then walked around a bit and grabbed some dinner. Then, we bussed out to the festival on a classy coach bus complete with red fringed curtains and a chandelier. My rowing team never had buses like this. We hiked from the parking lot down some small streets to the festival on temple grounds. We sadly missed the fireworks. On the way, we started encountering groups of men, clad in just tabi (split toed white socks) and loin cloths tied like a wedgie in the butt. The entire ensemble left very little to the imagination.

We got a bit twisted around on our way to the temple and ended up asking a man working at one of the tents for directions. He took out group under wing and guided us, counting to make sure we all stayed together. When we got to the changing tent, he insisted that it was worth seeing and insisted that we go in. So, our group, considering us three girls, awkwardly walked in (an announcement was made to the CHANGING MEN that girls were coming in.) I'm not sure what we were supposed to get out of the experience except the real Naked Men of the Naked Men festival, most of which had their loincloths on, although a few were clutching them over the holy stick, if you know what I mean.

At the temple, we found the reserved standing section that came with our tickets and prepared for a two our standing wait on a cold, clear night. The moon was full or near full. Groups of men in loincloths kept running laps around the temple, whooping. I think they were warmer than we were. Eventually, they started packing in, with more and more groups. It eventually reached 9,000 or so. The guys were packed so closely together that they had to hold their hands above their heads. The temple itself had a raised platform, which the men stood on, but surrounding it were stairs so if the group swayed too much, a side of the group (all drunken, of course) would tumble down the steps and everyone in the watching crowd would gasp.

The Law of Diminishing returns does apply to views of loinclothed men.

At 10pm, the lights of the temple started strobe lighting, and this is apparently when the monks threw the holy sticks. Then the lights came back on and we watched the crowd sway and groups tumble off the platform (like we'd done for the past two hours) and then, that was all. So, from a viewing perspective, the actual ceremony part (which only lasts about 10 minutes) is a bit of a let-down. There wasn't much to see.

On our way out, I pointed to a guy and commented on how beaten up he was. Then he turned around and we realised it was Jacob, our lone Shiga male representive in the festival. So we piled into the medical tent to chat with him. He'd apparently caught a stick during the flashing of the lights, but once they came back on, people noticed and he was tackled and fell down the stairs, fell underfoot, screamed for help as loud as he could, was ignored, and trampled and terrified that he was going to die, lost the stick and eventually managed to crawl his way out under the legs of other men. He was pretty scratched up. He said it was fun until the actually ceremony part, when he was scared for his life. This may be why no men who did it in Shiga last year would repeat the experience. Some cited “Shell-shock” and another talked about it being like 'Nam.

Apparently there's a lot more going on in this festival than can be seen from the spectator stands. Had Jacob kept the stick, he would have gotten a modest cash prize and good luck for the rest of the year. Though he cites touching it with saving his life.

Lest you worry, the festival is perfectly safe. In fact, it's a holy ceremony. Nothing to worry about. No one's died in four years.

So, we took Jacob back with us, who wanted nothing more than a shower and a bed. We wandered around a while looking for a cheap hotel. Hotels here don't let you rent by the room, it's by the person. We wanted to get one hotel room and put us five in it, but they insisted that we'd need two doubles and a single room. A couple can't even get a single room, you'd need a double, even if you'd only want a single bed. We even went to one hotel that had a “family” room, but a family is defined as three people. No wonder the Japanese population is in crisis. We even looked briefly at a love hotel (which are not nearly as sketchy, I hear, in Japan as in America) but they were completely filled. We eventually ended up getting a double room and a family room.

Unfortunately, I got very little sleep after my shower, because I was meeting Monique at the station at 8:30 to go to the castle. It was an early morning, but I managed. We walked down the street (Okayama really is charming) and over to the castle. It's been reconstructed, of course, but still looks impressive. The inside is completely modern with stairs and an elevator and serves as a museum. There was one place where a worker would actually dress you up in traditional Japanese gear. That was pretty spectacular and, in itself, worth the $3 entrance fee.

I was dressed up as an empress in old-style kimono robes (think Heian.) As she was strapping me into this kimono (complete with convenient velcro – it was a costume rather than historically accurate) the woman asked me if this was my first time wearing a kimono. I exclaimed that it wasn't – I was a kimono student and actually had a nagajuban in my bag over there. She was kind of stunned with shock. She also probably figured out at that moment that while I may enjoy being dressed up all pretty, I was perfectly clear that this hardly counted as a “kimono.” The pictures are incredible, though.

After the castle, we went to the garden, which is said to be one of the prettiest three in all of Japan. It was winter, but still nice. It was more like a park than a garden, actually, with wide fields and many crossing paths. The plum blossoms were beginning to just bud and we got a few pictures. Plum blossoms are definitely obsessed over here, but not with the ferocity that sakura are. From there, we walked back to the station, and caught a train back home. This time, our transfers worked out and it was only 3.5 hours home. I slept much of the way.

Hachiman koko has been doing speeches. I've talked with several JTEs about a possible cultural difference between Japan and America. The first time a student got stuck and said “give up” I was flabbergasted. My American culture says that if you “give up,” you don't care and you're basically saying you won't even bother to try or exert any effort. It's not seen as shameful in Japan. It's exclusively boys who give up after not having memorized their speeches.

I had students stand in front of the class, by the board when doing their speeches. Class presentations are very rare, even in Japanese, so this is particularly terrifying for the students. They haven't learned how to present themselves when speaking or projecting their voices. Many were very quiet. The students are particularly horrified when I tell them that they have to put their speeches away and listen to their classmates present. The first groups definitely banked on having that time to practice. I explained that it's not fair for them to have more time and it's rude to their classmate. I also told (and followed through) on taking away any papers that I saw students peaking at during class. This was actually fun for me because, to be honest, I was even more bored than the students, as I did this class TWELVE times. I also didn't choose the speech topics, which is why they were boring. We've talked about choosing something more interesting next year that students might care about more than “The Japanese Economy” or “Japan's National Symbols.”

It was amazing how few students could actually recite the whole passage.

Students got clever about trying to cheat. Several students listened to presentations and wrote the speech out in very small print on their desks or grading rubrics. My favorite was a boy who, after I took his paper away for peaking, negotiated with a classmate next to him for that boy to loan his paper over. The girl in front of these two kept looking back and forth between the two boys and me watching this exchange with an amused and delighted expression on her face. And, it was no surprise to her that, as soon as the boy acquired his new paper, I swooped in and took that one, too. I think I made her day with that.

The weather has been getting warmer, but as I've been well-trained after a miserably cold winter, I've still been wearing my heaviest winter gear. Apparently it'll probably get cold again next week.

Late last night, I called up my endocrinologist back in America to ask about my continued treatment while I live in Japan. Because my levels have been steady enough, they're renewing my current prescription and are forwarding lab paperwork so I can get blood drawn in Japan and forward it to them next summer. But, it's amazing how good attention you can get when calling internationally. The secretary usually would have had the nurse call me back, but when I said I was in Japan, she put me on hold (the hold music was actually pretty good) and went and tracked her down. The nurse later tracked down the doctor (he says the Japanese health care is good) and got our questions instantly answered. It was rather efficient and nice and I thanked everyone profusely. But, really, when you politely explain that your number is a Japanese cell phone that will be ungodly expensive (over 8 cents a minute on Skype!) they are quite willing to not have to go down that path (or figure out how to dial it internationally, which I've never had anyone successfully do.)

I've been done grading exams for hours, but Seth's still going next to me. I like that.