Sakura Season and Japanese Baseball!
Trip Start
Jun 27, 2009
1
25
47
Trip End
Jun 25, 2011
Nachikatsuura, Kozagawa, Hongu, Kobe,
Japan
Friday, April 20, 2007
However violence can't escape even the safest countries- as yesterday the mayor of Nagasaki was shot twice point blank and killed by a member of the Japanese mafia (the Yakuza)
01 bento box before the game, YUMMY
. This is big news in Japan as handguns are strictly banned and only five politicians are known to have been killed since World War II. The headline reads "Nagasaki mayor dies after being shot by gangster." The assassin had lodged a complaint against the Nagasaki Government after his car was damaged several years ago when it got stuck in a hole on a section of road under construction. Seems pretty silly huh? All this violence for what...There seems to be something evil in the air this week. On a brighter note last weekend started out really well with a enkai (or party) with the members from our Board of Education office. There are usually a few of these parties throughout the year but this is the first one Lily and I could attend. This was the "welcome-new-employees-and-say-goodbye-to-the-ones-who-left" party. Why did people leave? Because it's that time of year-the annual Japanese work shuffle! Every 3-5 years, government employees are 'shuffled' to a different job. Why? I don't know why. How can anyone ever be good at what they do if they are constantly changing? How does one have training for such drastically different occupations? For example, my supervisor Shima-san, started out working for the bank, then was transferred to Social Work at the City Hall (where he collected the bodies of those who had commit suicide), and now he is the supervisor of the English Teachers, and sometimes leaves the office to go fix a light bulb or clock at a local school
02 Lily, Me and Tristan before the game
. Anyways, the party consisted of dinner/drinking at a local restaurant, actually a 30 second run (lily and i were late) from our apartment. We walked in, took off our shoes and sat down, first thing I noticed was that all the women were sitting together. Hello 1950! Lily and I were seated with the tea lady's and the librarians - sweet. The dinner was good, lots of sashimi, interesting mollusks, clam type things, sushi, sake and beer. After a few minutes of drinking, the normally quiet office men came out of their shells and began mingling throughout the tables-some even came to talk to us!! It was nice and we found out that a lot more of them speak English than we knew (SHOCKER!). Japanese events are known for starting right on time and ending at the exact time stated - and sure enough 8:00pm rolls around and the closing speech is made, everyone said goodbye and headed home. No lingering around! That was it! Business was done, time to go home to your families whether you like it or not.
After the enkai, Lily and I headed up to Shirahama to stay the night at Tristan's. We caught the early bus to Osaka the next morning bound for Koshien Stadium (outside Kobe city)-home of the Hanshin Tigers Baseball Team!! Last year one of my students moms traveled to Tokyo on business and came back telling me about how crazy the baseball games were, and how they ate sushi instead of hot dogs during the game
03 this little girl had a pink Tigers dress on
! At the time I laughed because that seemed so strange, but now it seems totally normal. In fact Lily, Tristan and I enjoyed delicious bento's (premade lunch) outside the stadium while waiting for everyone. When Koshien Stadium was built in 1924 it was the largest stadium in Asia, seating 55,000. It was originally built to house the National Highschool Tournament, which is a huge deal in Japan, and modeled after Wrigley Field (ivy and all). It's in major need of a facelift though as the seating area leaves little room for your legs, and there are no box seating or large jumbo-tron screens for close-up views of the players.
However, the buzz around Koshien was unlike anything at RFK or Camden Yards! The fans bring new meaning to the word intense. Never before have I seen so much gear produced to support a sports team. They have thought of everything! Cell phone charms, tissue boxes, water bottles, noise makers (which are a prerequisite pretty much to enter-everyone has them), tiger ear headbands, sweat towels (the Japanese love those), jerseys, and much much more. We had a great time at the game even though the Tigers lost. The constant organized cheers, huge flag waving, 7th inning stretch balloon tradition, team song, Japanese squid snacks, and noise makers galore made for a really fun day. It was also so nice to be outside in the sun.
Afterwards we all headed to the hotel to change and head to a Brazilian restaurant in downtown Kobe. It was a beautiful area on the water called Harborland - I loved it! We walked around the city the next day and I loved how international it is. The reason it's more international than other Japanese cities is because it was the first port city to open for trade with the West in 1868
04 outside Koshien
. Ever since there the small foreign population has flourished in Kobe and there are around 45,000 foreigners from over 100 countries living there. Kobe was Japan's busiest port and one of the busiest in Asia until the great Hanshin earthquake in 1995, which measured at 7.3 on the Richter Scale. 6,434 people were killed and 300,000 were made homeless. Large parts of the port facilities and other parts of the city were destroyed. It was one of the most costly natural disasters in modern history. The earthquake notably destroyed the Hanshin Expressway, an elevated freeway which dramatically toppled over. Despite this disaster the city has recovered well, and 10 years later is again thriving and remains one of Japan's top 3 ports.Also this month was SAKURA time! Sakura is Japanese for cherry blossoms, and they are one of the most well-known symbols of Japan. Hanami means 'flower viewing' and is a tradition that dates back centuries ago. Because people believe in the god's existence inside the trees they used to make offerings at the roots of the sakura. They made offerings to hope for a good harvest season. Afterwards they enjoyed sake. Many years later an Emperor adopted a similar practice, and held flower-viewing parties with lots of food and sake, many people came to Kyoto (the old capitol city) to enjoy these picnics underneath the sakura trees. The Japanese see the trees as a metaphor for life, "luminous and beautiful yet fleeting and ephemeral"
05
. We had just arrived home from Hong Kong during the height of the trees blooming, so we weren't able to view the sakura in some of the 'famous' spots near my town until the following weekend. We drove to Katherine's town, Kozagawa, about 20 minutes away and then drove about 40 minutes into the mountains along the Koza River where there are 100 year old sakura trees lining the banks of the river. Even though it was drizzling it was still beautiful! Don't worry the rain didn't stop the 'hanami' picnics. People opened up tailgates of their cars, took off their shoes and sat in the back enjoying their bento boxes underneath the trees.
This weekend also happened to be Easter weekend, which I had actually forgot about until Katherine said her mom had sent her an easter egg dying kit. So Lily, Katherine and I drove out to Hongu where our friend Dave lives to "celebrate" Easter (by dying eggs), eat a special Puerto Rican dinner he made (he's from there), and watch a movie. It was a lot of fun dying the eggs especially since it's been a few years since I've done it. Dave made a delicious meal of fried plantains, and rice and beans.
April is also the beginning of the Japanese school year
06 packed stands
. Every school holds a special opening ceremony where the new 1st grade classes are inducted into the school. The older kids sing the school song, the principal speaks and there are class pictures taken. The best part is that the little 6 year olds wear these adorable 3 piece suits! Check out the pictures, they're really cute. Thought I would end this entry with some funny quotes from school/my supervisor:
-when we told him we were going camping he said, "Why! It is like ARMY!" (the Japanese love to be comfortable in everything they do so they can't fathom why we would want to sleep on the ground in a tent)
-new first grader to me in Japanese: "If you don't understand Japanese then what DO you understand?" Me: "Eigo (English)" 1st grader: "What's that?"
-after the first ever meeting with a teacher concerning the 'English Curriculum': "Ohh Katherine-sensei, you make my brain hurt. I am very confused!" (said in English)
OK time to pack for camping, a bunch of us are headed into the mountains this weekend to camp along the river. Will try to write again next week :)
