Nagato…Fukuoka…

Because I’m running out of fresh material, and since I don’t wish to develop multiple threads of heated political debates on this blog, this entry is more of a pictorial summary of what most weekends are like outside of my town. There is much more to do besides drink beer and sing karaoke, for those of you who find that sort of night uninteresting. To those people I say, you have no idea what it’s like to be in this crazy place. I’ll only be here for a year, but when I get back I’ll highly consider signing up for American Idol when the tour bus comes to town, because I’ll have had more than enough practice to perfect my technique.

As a preface to the next section, allow me to first retract any insinuations I may have made about my town being small and relatively placid. After seeing some of the living conditions of my colleagues, I thank God every day I was assigned in Hagi. Towns like Nagato make Hagi seem like Tokyo. Even worse, towns like Mutsumi—where senior citizens comprise about 70-90% of the population—make Nagato seem like Hagi. Yet still, across the countryside, its gets worse. I shudder to think while driving through vast acres of rice fields and ghost towns, that I could’ve been placed there amongst the crows and stray cats that outnumber humans. Regardless, Nagato does have karaoke so now I will recap the event.

James, another English Language mercenary, was filming a Christmas rendition of Enrique Iglesias’ "hit" single, Hero. For obvious reasons, I chose to opt out of the cast, but I was more than enthusiastic to do a marvelous job as cameraman.














This is a shot of the cast from week one’s production. Since they were lacking in the real music video, I’m not really sure why we decided to use fake guns in the shoot, but no one could think of a good reason not to, so we included them.














Here is the crew at dinner.




The schedule of events for any night in a small town is as follows.




1. Various shopping
2. Dinner with tabehodai & nomihodai (all you can eat/drink for a set price)
3. Karaoke
4. Bar/Club
5. Late-night diner-esque food
6. Recover



Shak wasn’t too happy when I told him to give me the rest of his yakitori (chicken on a stick), or else…















One week later, with pretty much the same handful of people, we trekked about two hours South of Nagato on another island of Japan, Kyushu, in order to go out in a big town for a change.

A shot of downtown Fukuoka, considerably busier than any street in Nagato. Likewise, the karaoke place here made the one in Nagato look like the torture room from Hostel.






















Friends outside on the street. James on the far right looking like the angry German that he is.
















This nice gentleman and I shared a few drinks together. We were discussing why he was having such a hard time trying to make friendly conversations with the girls present. I suggested that maybe he should imitate the pose I was making in order to break the ice and make them feel more comfortable.
















Standing at the bridge in Kyushu looking at Yamaguchi prefecture while on the way back to Hagi, my place of residence.

Hagi Culture Festival

In my town, opportunities to explore the intrigue and mystery of Japanese culture are always available. This weekend I attended the annual city-wide culture festival held at city hall. I'll attach pictures in order to enhance my recap of the event.

As with most festivals here, there is always plenty of food. Here you see me standing next to an array of ika (squid) that have been hung up to dry.
They are cut into thin strips and eaten in a similar fashion as one would eat beef jerky. These unfortunate cephalopods are also batterred in a delicious marinade, slow-cooked over a grill, and served in a plastic take-out tray where one can enjoy a fanstastic lunch.

Once you manage overcome its unfamiliar texture and transform it into a nice paste inside your mouth, all that's left is to get past the thought that this poor creature was alive probably 10 minutes before, and you're well on your way to assimilating into this culture.




Besides food, there is also live entertainment. This crew comprised of several strange-looking characters was performing for groups of children that had collectively formed an audience.
The song they played was a jazz version of "When the Saints go Marching In," immediately calling to mind a James Bond movie entitled Live and Let Die. The scene I was reminded of featured James attempting to elude his pursuers through a Mardi Gras procession in the French Quarter district in New Orleans. I'm not even sure if the song was the same but it was reminiscent nonetheless.


As a side note, sometimes you see Japanese people wearing certain items of clothing, all the while completely oblvious to just how funny the whole situation is. The chances are slim that this guy knows what FUBU stands for, and I was lucky to snap this decent picture since he was walking away from me rather briskly.















I live right above an arcade that stretches a quarter of a mile, and its lined with various shops and markets from which one can buy a variety of consumer goods. On Sunday morning the festival continued, as I was snatched from a dream by screams that sounded something like battle cries (for the record, I've never been in a battle).

When I came down investigate the source, after turning the corner to enter the arcade I was immediately flabbergasted as I saw a procession of Samurai headed towards me.






Likewise, the young boy in the photo seemed to be affected in the same way. See how he runs away in pure terror as the Samurai approach.

I thought about delivering a morning welcome to this man, but the stern expression on his face and the kitana at his side seemed to have a quieting effect on me.

The Artist Formerly Known As Hajime

I knew as soon as I saw this kid he was going to be one of my favorite students. He was standing in front of the boy's bathroom mirror, fixing his Japanese-style bouffant hair-do. From far away I wondered why he had the face of a geisha, and it was only until I got closer that I realized he was wearing make up, which gave his face an ivory sheen, and his lips this pale pinkish hue--an odd combination for a teenage boy in my opinion.

On the first day of school while being shown around the building by my supervisor, the guys, as is our nature, wanted to play it cool by shaking hands and exchanging high five's. The girls however would run into the classrooms screaming as if I was the hearthrob frontman of a popular teenage boy band group, and I just happened to be visiting their school after some girl won a radio contest. Hajime was assoiciated with the latter half. I almost lost myself when he leaned his head out of one of the classrooms and said with more flamboyance I'd ever imagined Japanese people were capable of, "Hellooooo...", while the o's trailed off with a steadily increasing inflection that ended up at a high-pitched whimper.

In the past few weeks I've seen him around the halls chatting it up with his army of girl friends. One day I told him of his uncanny resemblence to one of my favorite entertainers of all time. I brought a picture of said entertainer I thought Hajime would appreciate, and in return he gave me this pose which I thought was priceless. I was glad I had my camera with me to capture this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Before I snapped the photo he screamed, "Totte! (Take it [the picture]!)," and his voice rose once more into that strange abyss of femininity most heterosexual guys are either unfamiliar with, or irrationally afraid of.


I consider myself successful if those of you reading this enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed being able to experience it.