Niigata Highway Adventure

Here I am with my free rental umbrella at the top of a mountain overlooking the ski resort town of Yuzawa, which is between Urasa and Takasaki.  I got here my ropeway, and I got to the ropeway by car, and that car was driven by Yoshimi, a friend of mine and Jenevieve's from over 10 years ago.  She had the day off from her work, her husband, and her dog, so she decided to spend it on the roads and highways of Niigata prefecture with me.

It started at 8:30am at the entrance of my university.  We exchanged gifts, Gunma snacks and American macaroni-and-cheese-in-a-box, before we headed out to our first destination: Okutadami Lake, which is up in the high mountains near Urasa.  Unfortunately this region suffered from 3 days of heavy rains.  Many mountain roads were washed out with debris, including the road to the lake.

Plan B was to head for the Hakkai-san ropeway.  Last weekend, Adam received a discount ticket from a friendly young monk at the Hakkai-san shrine but couldn't use it because of his terrible fall.  Yoshimi called to check if the ropeway was open.  Indeed it was, however the road leading to the ropeway was closed.

Plan C was to head for another ropeway in Yuzawa, and you can tell from my introduction that we made it there without a problem.  Unfortunately, as we were about to get on the ropeway, it started pouring out.  By the time we got to the top of the mountain, the pouring rain changed to steady rain.  About 10 minutes later, it turned to a drizzle and then a mist.  Finally after 30 minutes, the rain cleared and the temperature shot up by at least 10 degrees.

Here's a very short video of the mist rising from the quickly heating mountains:

And here is the view towards Urasa, which is nearly as far you can see the valley.  The university is behind one of the smaller mountains or foothills on the right.  Beyond the mountains in the background and to the left is the city of Nagaoka, where one of Japan's largest fireworks will be held this Tuesday and Wednesday.

After we got back down to Yuzawa town, we decided to go get some fresh sushi...by the sea.  So we took to the expressway and headed for the East Sea (or Nihonkai).  Half of the trip was surrounded by these tall mountains, and the other half was either flat rice fields or the seaside.  It was my first time seeing the East Sea since Jenevieve and I visited Sokcho during our last romantic autumn vacation in Korea to Seoraksan.

Actually the seaside tourist spots of Niigata felt very similar to the seaside restaurant area of Sokcho.  Here is a picture of the resort area where we spent most of our time eating and shopping:

In Korea, the restaurants were closer to the sea.  So image the sea or bay is where this parking lot is.  I had some uni, or sea urchin, which I haven't eaten for over 10 years.  I didn't really miss it, and I got to remember why.  It's not the best tasting sushi out there.

Heading back to Urasa, we got a quick deluge of rain...again.  But finally we got to see this for the first time.  It actually got a little bigger then this after I snapped the photo.

Getting Back to Business

After the excitement of last weekend, I found myself getting behind in my research and my job.  Fortunately for me, I have caught up with my job's tasks this morning, so I have been able to relax a little bit.  Yesterday, I exhausted myself by waking up at 6am to score 11 final drafts of essays before lunch.  After lunch, I taught until 4:15 and then I prepared the next day's activities until 7pm when my brain could no longer function.  That was 13 hours of work!  Although lunch could be considered not work, it sort of is because we are urged to socialize with the students.  Already being exhausted by lunchtime, forcing a friendly conversation feels like work.

This morning I got enough sleep and paced myself well in and outside the class.  I think one affective factor to my exhaustion is feeling sympathy for my exhausted students.  We're hitting the midpoint of the summer program soon, and I can virtually see the workload on their shoulders.  I feel that my improved mood now contrasts with my students' moods, but it's not rubbing off on them.  In fact, they may have envied my cheerful attitude today.

By Friday, I should cleared enough time to get cracking on catching up on my research.  I'm currently reading through the least relevant part of a very relevant book, but I need to finish the book and read at least 2 other articles to get caught up.  I would also like to start interviewing some of my colleagues for practice.  I'd say that I haven't had this "can do" spirit for about a week, so it's good to feel motivated and I hope it lasts through the weekend.

In other news, thunderstorms have been rolling through Urasa last night and this afternoon.  A powerful storm last night cut the power from our campus for a few minutes.  The power returned at exactly 9pm when I make my daily Skype call to Jenevieve and Autumn.  Autumn seemed like she wanted to spend more time with me than usual, and that made me miss her even more.

For lunch today, the cafeteria surprised us all by serving bibimbap, a Korean dish.  Because the portions were big, I got my fill.  However, it induced my appetite and I've been hungrier than I have ever been since I arrived.  I got back to my dorm and finished off a package of cookies.  Before then, the bibimbap inspired conversations about Korea at the lunch table.  I had many enjoyable conversations about Korea, Korean food, and Seoul.  And then I felt very nostalgic about Korea.  I often had felt nostalgic about Japan when I was in Korea, but this was the first time that I felt that I preferred to be in Korea.  This feeling surprised me, however I am enjoying my time here.

Strangely, I had two separate conversations where religion became the topic.  Both were raised by students.  One conversation was about Shinto, Buddhism, animism, and atheism.  Another was about Mormons as one student is an ex-Mormon.

For me, today was a very satisfactory day.  A great complement to the very exhausting day yesterday.  I felt that I had accomplished an equal amount of work in both days.  Here's to the days ahead!

Below is a view from my office hallway looking towards the east side of campus.  The mountain in the background is Hakkai-san, which sounds like "Hawkeye" san.

Adventures with Adam

Immediately after Friday's class, I got ready for my first trip outside of Niigata since I arrived.  At the same time, the students and faculty were preparing for their hike to see the snow bridge in the Mizunashi Gorge.  Fifteen minutes after they left campus, I also left campus for the train station to take the shinkansen to Kumagaya, where I used to teach conversational English from 1998 to 2001.

Here is a picture of where my school used to be.  It was on the fourth floor of the building with the signs on the windows.  It closed down in 2007 amid scandals and bankruptcy.

At the Kumagaya train station, I met Masumi, who is one of my ex-students at that school.  She's currently living with her parents while she is looking for a job.  We also met my friend Adam, who I met as a co-worker at the same school.  The special occasion besides our reunion was the Kumagaya uchiwa matsuri, which is the city's special summer festival with the theme of the hand-held paper fan.

On our way to see the main event, we stopped at various street vendors to eat some festival food.  Adam and I got Yokosuka takoyaki, which is a special kind of battered octopus ball in that each ball also contained a quail's egg.  It was definitely more filling than your average takoyaki.

As the sun was setting we came to the main event, the drum competition.  Many of the floats in the videos below were going up and down the many streets around this area of Kumagaya.  Finally they all ended up in the same location to compete for the best drumming.  Please enjoy the 1 minute video below:

After that we wanted to find a quieter place to sit and talk.  We found a coffee shop, but it was closing in 10 minutes.  So were left without ideas and spent about an hour wandering around and finally standing in the train station talking about old times and old friends.  Masumi didn't want to talk about the present time because it was too depressing. 

So Adam and I took the shinkansen to return to Urasa and the International University of Japan.  We wanted to talk about a lot of things when we got back, but it was midnight and I needed my sleep.  The next morning we got on our bicycles and rode to the Hakkai-san shrine, temple, and lake.  I knew there were a few trails around the lake, so we took them but they were quite short and disappointing.

Most mountain hikes on sacred mountains like Hakkai-san start at temples, so we went there and asked directions.  We found two different trails.  The first one took us to a sacred area where we found the tombs of several kami or gods.  That area was quite mystical and beautiful as it was surrounded by lush greenery, waterfalls, and moss covered rocks.

The second trail took us up the mountain, but it wasn't well trodden.  The plants and grass on the trail were knee high, which worried me because I've already spotted 3 venomous mamushi snakes, and I didn't want to get bitten, especially in such an isolating trail.  I headed back down, but Adam followed me about 5 minutes later as the trail got even more difficult to follow.

We ran into a monk who directed us back to the first trail, but we tried to explain to him that we already went there.   Our unsuccessful communication brought out a younger monk who explained in his best English that the trail up Hakkai-san was quite treacherous for the first 3 hours, and that it's not uncommon for people to die on it.  We were in no way prepared for such a hike.  On the upside, he gave us a discounted ticket for the rope-way which gets you past the 3 hours of poor hiking conditions in 15 minutes.

Adam and I took a fast downhill ride towards IUJ, but we stopped at a watermelon shop on the way.  Urasa is famous for it's yairo watermelon, which official comes into season today, July 25th.  We got to my dorm, and chowed down on half of it while we watched YouTube videos, including Conan O'Brien's commencement speech at Dartmouth, where Adam read poetry as the Robert Frost poet of the year about 1 week less than a year ago.

The second half of our Saturday was a 20-minute bike ride to Urasa station, a 45-minute local train ride from Urasa to the bigger city of Nagaoka, and a 10-minute bus ride to the Apita mall where we would eventually watch the final installment of Harry Potter films.  We had about 2 hours before the movie started, so we ate lunch and met up with two of my colleagues at IUJ.  Later, we bumped into about 10 of our students who watched the previous showing of the same film.

We watched Harry Potter: The End, and got a ride back to Urasa with my colleagues.  Before they dropped us off to get our bikes from the station, we stopped for a late dinner at the local Italian restaurant and had pasta and pizza.  The service there was fantastic, and the food was average.  So we biked back until it was too dark to see where we were going, and walked our bikes back to the university.  By then, it was nearly 11pm, so we went to bed.

Sunday's plan was for Adam to leave early in the morning, so I could do all my grading for this week and do some research.  He planned to bike to the hiking trail at the Mizunashi Gorge, and about 30-45 minutes later he came back with a bruised and bloody face.  He had a terrible bike accident as he was making a fast descent on a gravel path with a turn and too much pressure on the front brakes.  He needed medical attention.  My home has no first aid kit, and I discovered just then that I had no phone service.  Adam let me use his cellphone to call my supervisors, and they helped us get him to the local hospital.

After about 3 hours, he was cleaned up, stitched up, and thoroughly examined with a CT scanner and x-rays.  The diagnosis was no internal injuries, but he may have scarring on his nose, which bore the brunt of his fall.  As we were checking out, his wife arrived from Ageo to help him get changed into clean clothes and to get back home.  By 3pm, our adventures ended for the better.

The Urasa Bus Tour

Last Sunday, some students and faculty went on a bus tour of the local area.  We visited 3 spots, the Hakkai mountain shrine and Buddhist temple, the winery and produce market, and Bishamondo, the old shrine downtown.

Here are all the bus passengers as we got out at our first stop near Hakkai-san.

I am the only person not pictured.

The entrance to the shrine

Getting closer to the shrine

Prayer tiles

View from the shrine to the valley below

Adjacent to the Hakkai-san shrine was a lake created by damming a mountain river

A hiking trail along the lake

Down on the pier, you can see Richard and some students feeding the hungry carp.

Now we are the entrance of the Bishamondo shrine in downtown Urasa.

In the bottom right corner were our tour guides, two high school students.

Bishamondo shrine is approximately 1200 years old.

This is the "dunk tank" where the main event of the Naked Man Festival takes place.
Here's another video of IUJ students participating in the 2009 festival.

Water pours from the dragon's mouth.

Apparently there are a lot of dragon's mouths in this area where clean water springs forth.

Although we got to see some great places, it was the hottest and most humid day of the year to date.  So most of us were not in the best of moods.  Luckily nobody got into arguments.  The coolest part of the trip was not captured on camera, but it was the basement level of the winery where the wine was cooled by snow captured from the winter.  No air conditioning needed.

Weekend Solo

This will be the last weekend where I don't have much planned for the next month.  Next weekend, I will be going down to Kumagaya, where I first taught English as a Second Language.  Coming back with me will be a friend and fellow colleague who worked with me in Kumagaya, and we will do some hiking around Niigata.  The following weekend, a Japanese friend of mine from Takasaki now Isesaki, Gunma will visit me and we will explore the local festivals in the area.  The weekend after that I will be heading to Takasaki, where I used to live with Jenevieve for 2 years.  I hope to stop by all our old haunts.

Last night I played some volleyball with many students while many of my colleagues watched.  I was fortunate to be on the winning team twice.  It was great to be playing volleyball again, since I haven't played for such a long time.  The last time was the summer before Autumn was born in La Crosse, but we were playing 4 against 4 with a beach ball.  I think the last time I played a real game of volleyball was when we were intramural champions at Beloit College way back in 1997.

This morning, I took a quick and breezy downhill bike ride downtown.  There wasn't much to do.  I didn't need to take the train of go grocery shopping.  I just had breakfast, so there was no need to eat.  Because I felt the temperature rising, I decided to bike back home.  It took twice as long as it was uphill and didn't have as nice as a breeze.  Perhaps I'll take the free shuttle downtown next time.  My mountain bike is meant for rural sightseeing I guess.

Once I got into the daily routine of teaching classes and planning lessons, I began to enjoy life here much more.  I feel like I have returned to my element, and that's what I thought when I returned to being a student.  There isn't much I can get out of being a student in my discipline any more, but I'm not saying there's nothing to learn any more.  I can learn just as much teaching in environments like the one I am in now.  It's definitely not a repeat of my previous teaching experience in Japan.

Perhaps I'm feeling a bit escapist, but it's nice to get away from the turmoil of American politics and the American economy.  There's nothing but bad news, but I guess I could say the same for Japanese politics and its economy.  I don't feel like an escapist from my family because I miss them very much, but I get to see them nearly every day.  Coming here makes me rethink where to settle down.  It's probably going to be in the United States, but when I have enjoyable times like this week, I feel like I wouldn't mind living and working in a relatively stable country like Japan.  Watching the news, it seems like most of the securities of living in the United States are on the chopping block.

First Class

I just got back from teaching my first ESL class since I left the ESL Institute at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse.  For a first day, it went well and very fast.  If I had paced the classes as I had intended, both would have gone over by 10 minutes.  I guess I should explain my classes first.

I teach the same students in the same room for two classes under the umbrella name of Text Skills.  Except for the first two days, the first class (essay writing) starts at 1:30pm and ends at 2:45pm, and the second class (reading, vocabulary, and grammar) starts at 3:00pm and ends at 4:15pm.  Perhaps these classes feel rushed because I'm used to 60 or 90 minute classes as opposed to 75 minutes.

For the first 2 weeks, I'll have 11 students in my classes and then I'll have 12 throughout the rest of the 6-week program.  Of the 12, I have 6 Japanese men, 2 Thai women, 1 Chinese woman, 1 Cambodian woman, 1 Bengali man, and 1 Uzbek man.  For the most part, the students seemed to be getting along quite well.  The biggest challenge for me seems to be understanding the accents I'm not used to hearing.  From my teaching experience, my first impression is most similar to my UWL classes, especially the essay writing classes.

These students differ from most of my UWL students in that they are older and thus more mature.  Most of my mature students at UWL were the MBA students, and many students here are business or economics students as well.  Their level of understanding the EAP (English for Academic Purposes) classroom culture is considerably higher than my UWL students, and most of them are able to follow my sense of humor.  I've kept my humor quite light as this is a very serious program.

I feel as if I have established a good rapport with about half the class, which is quite good for the first day.  It usually takes the first week or two to get to that level.  I have already noticed a student or two that I may have to work on for better rapport.  For now, I just assume they are serious and concentrating students.  To give you a hint of who they are, they are from a culture I'm not familiar teaching in.

My classroom is one of the nicer classrooms that I have taught in.  It has more than enough room for 12 students and me.  It's equipped with a computer and an overhead project, but neither are built into the room.  For now, there seems to be plenty of writing utensils for both chalkboard and whiteboard.  I won't be using them too much myself as I'm continuing the University of Iowa College of Education's paperless program.  All my handouts are online for the students to access.  And I made my lesson plans accessible to the students once the class is completed, so they can refer to them as notes.

The worst thing about the classroom is the temperature.  You can feel a slight cool breeze from the air conditioning, but it's not enough to halt a sweat.  Because of the nuclear reactor crisis at Fukushima, the whole country is conserving its energy, so this is how IUJ helps in the effort.  Although I was mildly sweating in the class, once I stepped out into the hall, it turned into a medium sweat.  The pores completely flushed when I stepped outside.  I haven't been in this type of environment since Korea, but Korea's only this bad for a few weeks.  It's like this for months in Japan.

Interesting Video

I definitely do not observe this type of Japan here in rural Niigata, but most of my Japanese students have written about their concerns and worries about the future of their country.  I sense a lot more apprehension than I did 10 years ago.

First Week of Adjustment

The first two days had the greatest mixture of excitement and anxiety, and after that it somewhat tapered off.  Although I'm nearly a week into my brief stay in Urasa, I haven't started teaching yet.  Only then will I become more accustomed to life here.  The real routine has yet to begin.

So far, I've gotten to know most of my fellow teachers.  As a collective, we are an easy going and laid back group with similar interests.  I keep forgetting how much I fit in with many ESL/EFL programs.  We all have a fascination for new languages and cultures.  There's also a great appreciation for nature that nearly everyone shares.  And everyone has some type of interest in the arts, whether it is music or literature, "high culture" if you will.  So it is very easy to get along with everyone.

Yesterday was the first time I got to meet a good number of the 80-81 students.  I will be assigned to a group of 11-12 tomorrow, so I should get to know them very well.  Most of the students are younger than me, but not too much younger than me.  Like the teachers, they are highly interested in international affairs.  We are at an international university, mind you.  Most of the students are Japanese, but there's a good number from Southeast Asia and Central Asia.

I probably felt the most relaxed after a good "meet and greet" session followed by some badminton with several students.  It was also the first day that I wasn't bothered by being drenched in my own sweat for a good portion of the whole day.  That said, it's not too hard to feel isolated as the location is quite isolating and many people keep busy.

I've realized that a big contributor to some anxiety is comparing my current experience with my first experience coming to Japan.  Even though I don't expect much of it to be the same, there's a little part that does.  But I haven't found much in common at all.  Firstly, I'm much more mature than I was then.  Secondly, I'm familiar with Japan and ESL education.  Thirdly, I'm much more respected because of my experience and the prestige of this summer program.  Bluntly, I'm not making as many stupid mistakes and nobody's acting like a jerk.  Put that way, I feel much better.

I get a little melancholy because those naive and foolish/fun days are long gone.  I'm also distant from a lot of the Japanese culture I was used to--urban Kanto life.  Rural Niigata life is almost like a different country that speaks the same language.  I guess it sometimes feel like your best friend lives next store, but you can't visit him right now and you've heard that he's changed a lot, so you may be disappointed in a reunion.

Information and communication technology has also made it more difficult to immerse myself into the culture.  Before I was excited to jump into Japanese, Korean, and Russian life.  I also had the security of having my fiancee/wife with me.  This time I am alone and I am in a rural environment.  I guess one could say that I am having my first rural expatriate experience.  I have been to rural areas in Japan before, but I was just visiting.  This is definitely new.  I have to learn how to create a lifestyle in rural Japan, but the technology tempts me away from adjusting to this lifestyle.

My previous lifestyle was dominated by research, PhD courses, and child-rearing, which called for me to stay at home or work in the office and not much else.  I should take a break from that, but I still need to do some research.  I have some course work here of course, but most importantly, the internet provides the feeling of connectedness.  Is this connectedness helping or hurting my adjustment to the new lifestyle?

My need to take in Japanese media is almost non-existent.  However, Japanese media helped me to improve my understanding of the language and culture.  If I were to stay here for longer than 6 weeks, I would consider it.  Anyway, it's nearly as accessible as American media online anyway.  Because I'm in Japan, nearly all the advertisements I get online are Japanese, so the media is getting to me in some way. I feel a bit disrespectful in that I prefer to take in American media over Japanese as it is less relevant to my context however it is more relevant to me.  I believe that if I were to stay here longer that American media would be an obstacle to my adjustment to Japanese life.  I'm strongly considering to look into this aspect of intercultural adjustment in my research.

Then there is media that is more or less international like Facebook and YouTube.  Although I use these sites in English, they recognize that my server is in Japan.  YouTube has especially changed in that nearly all of its recommendations are popular Japanese videos.  Perhaps I should look into this to help with my adjustment.  I wonder how many new expatriates learn about their host culture in this way.

Videos of the Mizunashi Gorge

And here are the videos that provide a better context and the sensation of sound to the blog experience.  I took a lot of videos of waterfalls for my father, who's an avid waterfall-catcher...on film.

Here is some evidence of last winter's landslide.

There were many small waterfalls like this one along our hike.

Here's a dramatic waterfall on the mountainside.

Last Friday, the water was shooting up a bit.

Here is a medium-sized waterfall that was big enough to supply some cool air as we hiked past it.

Another small waterfall

Here the rapids look like glacial ice melt.

This is the large waterfall that supplied the very comfortable cool breeze.

This is where that big waterfall met the icy blue water of the gorge.

Behind the greenery is a man-made waterfall.

Yes, this is snow.

But that is someone else's truck with a key left inside.

Take another look at the waterfall and the snow.

Here is the pile of packed snow as solid as ice stacked up next to my colleagues.

We were lucky that what remained of the arch did not fall on us.

Yes, that's evaporating mist coming out from under the snow.

It's difficult to capture the size of the mountain in my little tiny camera.

After seeing the great snow bridge, we turned around to take another look at what used to be a smaller snow bridge.

Near the end of our walk, we followed a trail down to the river gorge.

There's another waterfall from the other side of the gorge making its way to the river.

Two of our group took the plunge while I was filming this.

To maintain their privacy, I filmed in the opposite direction.

Staring at the rapids can sometimes be quite mesmerizing.

Photos of the Mizunashi Gorge

Today I had the opportunity to visit the Mizunashi Gorge again, so this posting will be photos followed by some short descriptions.

The road ended here, so we parked our car.  It's the one in the back with the trunk open.  I'm facing towards the direction of our university and the small town of Urasa.

Here are my fellow summer IEP instructors walking up the trail.

This is a dragonfly.

A dramatic waterfall lies ahead.

This is a grasshopper.

This is me in front of a waterfall that brought down the temperature by at least 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

Our hiking group hung out here for a while to enjoy the sight, the sound, and the feel.

That waterfall ends here.

The best stuff is still ahead.

What's this?  

The videos in the next posting will provide a better idea.

A branch emerges out of packed snow.

Underneath the packed snow, new life is budding from the ground.  

Evaporating mist wafts out air much cooler than that waterfall.

The netting failed to contain the mountain.

Nature wins again!

The side of this mountain makes for good desktop wallpaper.

The famous snow bridge!

It was about 88 degrees Fahrenheit at the start of the trail.

It's closer to 80 degrees here.

But it's July!

The snow bridge in its mountainous context.

Walking over a little snow hill to get a closer look of the snow bridge.

Can we trust this man-made tunnel to walk under the snow bridge?

We enter.

From one of the tunnel's windows, I grab this shot of the snow bridge.

But one of my colleagues discovers that, in the darkness, the tunnel's left wall has fallen apart.

So we exit.

The snow bridge has another tunnel.

This is a butterfly.

The other side of its wings are a beautiful cerulean blue.

When it flutters around it keeps that blue color, but when it lands on stones, it disappears in its camouflage.

I get a chance to dip my feet in the glacial icy blue water.

It was about as cold as Autumn's wading pool.

This should last a little longer than my footprints.

Flowers

Can you spot the snake?

It's a mamushi--a poisonous snake that isn't afraid to attack.

You will need to spend a week in the hospital if bitten.

All in all, this isn't bad for the first weekend back in Japan.

Meetings and Hiking

The most exciting part of the day actually happened in the early evening, so I'd like to share that first.  I went hiking with one of my colleagues through a mountain valley nearby after he suggested it during our meetings.  When I'm free, I'm always up for a hike, so I tagged along.

Firstly, I wished I had brought my camera because the views were spectacular.  (Secondly, I wished I had worn my hiking shoes because my socks got a little wet.)  I haven't seen mountains this tall since my trip to New Hampshire last summer.  And I haven't seen so many waterfalls since my trip to Oregon after coming back from Japan in 2001.

We passed by a couple of large waterfalls that provided a strong cool breeze, a natural air conditioning.  Because we're at the end of the Japanese rainy season, the dominant sound of the area was rushing water from the various waterfalls and the mighty river running down the center of the valley.  As we continued our slow ascent, we noticed that a lot of snow in the upper crags of the mountains.

Even more noticeable was a giant pile of snow that used to arch over a little stream from a waterfall further into the mountains.  The center of the arch had collapsed, but both sides of this "bridge" towered over our heads.  We were fortunate that one large overhang did not collapse on us as we passed under it. I got the opportunity to touch the snow and it was nearly ice because it was packed so well and melting.

More impressive was about 10 minutes further up the hiking trail.  A massive bridge of snow covered a portion of the roaring river down below.  Out from under this bridge came the mist of evaporating snow like the breath of a snow dragon living inside.  From my perspective, it looked like a painting of the garden of eden.  One of the nearby mountains is one of the most famous sacred mountains for Shinto monks.  It is called Hakkai-san or Mt. Hakkai.  Hakkai sounds a bit like Hawkeye, and so maybe that's what drew me here.

Before this hike, we had a long day of meetings mostly concerning the general overview of the course I will be teaching.  Most of that time involved "norming" to make sure all the instructors agreed on the same grading level.  I found myself to be on the stricter/lower end of scoring essays and quizzes, so I have to learn to lighten up a bit.

I also gained a lot of information regarding my research interest from the interactions I had with various instructors, but I will save that for the next posting.

Today I also got the chance to visit my office and try out my office computer.  Nothing too exciting to report about this, except that my office is lined with shelves on the two side walls from ceiling to floor.  And I have a nice view outside, except that it's too hot to keep the blinds open for a long period of time.

Orientation

Because I love puns, I'm always more aware of the word "orientation" when I'm in the East.  When expatriates come to the West, should we call it "occidentation?"  Sorry.  However, I just looked up the word origins at http://www.etymonline.com/index.php and found that the noun "orient" is a much older word than the verb "oriented."  If I had the time, I'd do a deeper analysis.

On July 7 (Tanabata), I woke up after 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep around 5:30am, but stayed in bed until 6am.  I had the morning free until 1:30pm, so I unpacked and organized all my belongings.  It seems that the only redundant thing I packed was my alarm clock, which seems to be nearing its expiration anyway.  This will be the second electronic device that I have purchased in Japan that has decided to end its "life" when I return.  I bought this clock either in summer 2003 or spring 2005 when I visited Japan from Korea. The first device to go kaput was my CD walkman which I bought when I lived in Japan in 1999 and it stopped working when I was riding the shinkansen on my visit in the summer of 2003.

After unpacking and showering, I decided to write yesterday's blog entry offline as I didn't get an internet connection until last night.  That took nearly one hour because I had the luxury of time.  This morning, I only have about an hour to write before I have to head off to more orientations.  After writing the blog posting, I took a short walk outside around half the campus and about one block off campus.  It is indeed a rural area.  The town of Urasa is about a 30-45 minute walk from campus or a 10 minute bike ride.  I have yet to attempt this easy trek.

Here is one photo I took just up the road one block from campus.  I'm facing northeast whereas the town of Urasa is northwest.  As you can see, it was a little hazy outside and a little muggy.  The humidity was more of a problem than the heat.  One special treat outside, however, were the multitudes of tiny tree frogs that are everywhere.

After my walk, it was near lunchtime as the cafeteria opens at 11:30am.  I walked through campus again and found the cafeteria nearly empty.  I found one of my fellow teachers there, so I introduced myself and she introduced herself as Gretchen.  I ate some soba and spicy tofu as we talked about ourselves.  I found out that she got her MFA in electronic music, a genre that I am very fond of.

At 1:30, our meeting began and I met all the teachers of the Intensive English Program plus a few others.  It's been a while since I was introduced to a new group of fellow teachers, but I found this group to be overall pleasant.  Because my research is on the experience of expatriate teachers, I was paying extra attention to our interactions.  I also kept in mind that my jet lag was about to hit its hardest in the afternoon, so I couldn't completely trust my judgments.  Perhaps most of us were jet lagged, which for me made some of our introductions and discussions a little awkward but very polite.  I am trying my best to keep my biases at bay when comparing this experience to those of Korea.  I feel that my biases are making me jump to conclusions, which I will refrain from making here as I may discover soon that these conclusions were foolish.

Most of the orientation was a general glossing over of the summer program as a whole.  The most interesting topic of discussion was the "English only environment," which is a bit controversial in the literature addressing world Englishes and Engish as a lingua franca.  The downside to an English only environment is that it can establish a hierarchy of languages with English on top as it is most desired.  Of course the purpose of the program is to learn English, but I'm only summarizing a very complex debate here.

After our meetings and filling out a bunch of legal forms, we picked out our bicycles.  I chose mountain bike number 5 because in Japanese 5 is "go."  I only rode on it for a bit because most of us were going on a caravan tour to the biggest shopping district in the area, which wasn't much compared to my previous shopping experiences in Japan.  I'd compare this experience to people from Westby, WI going to the Wal-Mart at La Crosse, WI for shopping.  The Wal-Mart of the Minami-uonuma urban area is Aeon, although everyone still calls it by its former name Jusco.   I only needed to buy a week's worth of breakfast and some basic cleaning supplies.  Most others bought much more as a lot of them wanted to do some home cooking.  Although I did some home cooking in Japan, it wasn't more spectacular than the cafeteria food I can get here for a reasonable price.

Apparently only two of us were hungry for dinner after the shopping spree, so Alex and I went to the nearby Sukiya for some gyudon.  Like me, Alex is new to the summer intensive English program and also like me, he lived in Takasaki for a few years.  So we talked about Takasaki and our lives after Takasaki.  It doesn't seem that we had much more in common after that.  He currently lives in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.  The closest I've been to that area is Ocean City, Maryland, which is a bit further north.

We got home around 8pm, so I had time to set up my new internet connection and to post yesterday's blog.  Then I got the exciting opportunity, to talk with my wife and daughter who are visiting her folks in Maryland.  Later, I will write how this new interconnectivity has changed my perceptions of living in Japan.  I find this phenomenon quite interesting.

The Arrival

I arrived without any problems. The happiest surprise for me was to see the nonexistence of a line to get through immigration. This was the first time that I did not have to stand in this line for at least 30 minutes in Japan. I remember that my first experience here I had to wait for nearly an hour. The entire process from leaving the airplane to entering the public area of the airport took about 20 minutes total. That’s faster than most of my experiences at Incheon International Airport in Korea, which is always relied on for the fastest entry process.

The obligatory politeness was my first reacquaintance with Japanese culture. The immigration and customs officer were very friendly and cheerful for jobs that require intimidation. I got eye contact and broad smiles from both men, making me feel quite welcome to Japan.

I expected the most stressful part of getting to my destination was making my rail connections and contacting my employers about my estimated time of arrival at their train station, Urasa. Making these connections proved nearly effortless. The biggest disadvantage I had was carrying 3 pieces of luggage, but fortunately for me none of them were too heavy. Contacting my employers wasn’t too difficult either, although I didn’t have the time to call them as soon as I got my tickets. I only had 5 minutes to catch the Narita Express into Tokyo. Fortunately, I had an hour stopover at the hectic Tokyo Station.

When I arrived at Tokyo Station, my first goal was to get change for the telephone call. I needed 100 yen, but I only had a 10 yen coin. The phones don’t take bills. So I bought myself a bottle of water and got plenty of change. I soon found out that I really needed that water because Tokyo Station was hot and stuffy. The station information map did not include telephones on its key, so I had to search around this massive station without bumping into anyone with my 3 pieces of luggage. I searched around the central area and found nothing, not even signs directing me to telephones.

I gave up on looking around the station, so I could narrow my search to the platform. I passed through the ticket gates and sat in the waiting room for a few minutes to rest. Within that time, I started sweating as no air was passing through this heat trap, so I left. I expected telephones to be in or around the waiting room as it seemed logical to me, but to no avail. So I went up to the platform where I knew air would be flowing freely. It did prove somewhat breezy up there, so I was a bit refreshed. I slowly made my way past several kiosks until I found hidden behind one of them a row of telephones, so I made the call and completed the task.

After the call, I calmly waited in the breeze with my cool bottle of water and 3 pieces of luggage at the standing area for the entrance to the shinkansen, the bullet train. Here I had time to become reacquainted with Tokyo train travelers, most of whom were salarymen and women. The men were especially uniform in their dress, white shirts and black suits, with their black briefcases. There were several young hipsters that made the platform a bit more colorful. However nothing seemed to different from the last time I was here over 6 years ago, except for the fact that most of the younger generation seemed bigger in stature, getting closer to the average Korean stature that I remember.

When I got on the train, I encountered my first cultural pet peeve. It’s a slight one and I am sure it is mutual. I had a reserved seat next to a woman who probably didn’t want to sit next to me. She made this known with a subtle unhappy face but a noticeable sigh. For the first few minutes, she sighed a lot. I remember certain Japanese people who did not want to have to sit or stand near me would often sigh to signal their discomfort or anxiety. I was overly sensitive to this signal when I lived in Japan, and tried to find my way out of the situation as quickly as possible. About 15 minutes into the ride, the conductor provided me this opportunity as he indicated that I was in the wrong seat. I was in the next train car in front. I was so tired that I looked at my Narita Express ticket for the seat number.

Nearly there, I calculated that the trip from door-to-door was 28 hours. Over six of these hours were spent at the stopover in Minneapolis. I was fortunate enough to get about 90 minutes worth of sleep on the flight. One of my fellow passengers sitting nearby was more fortunate; he got at least 9 hours of sleep! Now here I was nearing my stop and feeling that if I shut my eyes for more than 2 seconds I would pass out and miss my stop.

I stayed awake and made my stop. I was greeted by slightly cooler but slightly more humid air with the fresh scent of mountain pine. I couldn’t be more relaxed and I felt compelled to fall asleep. When I cleared the ticket gates, I met the supervisor for the English program who greeted me and escorted me to my dorm. Also with us was the president of the university who happened to be on the same train and me. I tried to be genki and maintain a conversation on the short trip to the university.

Before going to sleep, we had to make a stop at the office so I could pick up my orientation packet. The director also wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t get lost so he showed me where all the important places were. And then we made it to the most important place that mattered to me most at the time, my bedroom. I said goodbye, unpacked enough to get into a change of clothes, and fell asleep for 7 uninterrupted hours.

As I was falling asleep, I became reacquainted with the thoughts that race through my sleep-deprived jet-lagged mind of the first night abroad. I was asking myself if it was worth all this effort to come this way followed by fears of failure. When I first came to Japan without any real teaching experience, I remember thinking many times during the first weeks that I have at least 2 months in Japan. If they find out I am a crappy teacher, I will be shipped home. This anxiety was unrealistic in two ways. First, I wasn’t as crappy as I feared so I was never threatened with termination. Second, I’ve observed new teachers who were definitely not cut out for the job stay for at least one year. Usually the reasonable teachers who find out that they cannot adjust to their new work or lifestyle willingly leave within a month or two, sometimes against the wishes of their supervisors who have a greater hope or confidence in them. I have witnessed one unreasonable teacher who consistently exhibited poor behavior in or outside the classroom (usually in the form of crying) stay at our school for 2 months before she was transferred to another school. The rumor had it that that school specialized in teachers with issues. Those familiar with the rumor sympathized with the students who had to learn from them and with the colleagues who had to tolerate their behavior.

Introduction

I thought of blogging again because I will be in a unique situation for the next 6 weeks. 

• I will be living and working in Japan for the first time since March 2001.  
• I will also be the furthest away I've ever been from my wife and daughter. 
• I will be teaching English as a Second Language for the first time in 2 years.
• I will be doing a lot of preliminary research for my dissertation.
• I will be reflecting on my marriage since we just celebrated our 10th anniversary.

I predict a great deal of this blog will be about my readjustment to Japan.  I won't be too far from where I lived and worked, just on the other side of Tanigawa-dake, 10 years ago.  Since this topic is similar to my dissertation, it will be good practice to write thick descriptions of my own experience.

I'm starting this blog at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where I departed for Japan for the first time in October 1998, from the same gate actually.  This gate is also the same where my sister arrived from South Korea when she was adopted by my parents.  My emotional state is similar to October 1998 in that I was somewhat reflective on my past however my level of excitement this time is greatly dampened by the sadness of not seeing my wife and daughter for 6 weeks.  I can't imagine how much my daughter will grow; she has grown so much within the last 6 weeks.

In October 1998, I was incredibly excited to go abroad for my first full-time job.  I was about to enter a new country and a new profession.  I was leaving behind my childhood and my immediate family, which was on the verge of a major crisis.  Now I have a family of my own and have become established in the career I started when I last left.  There is a good chance that this job will be the last one I have before my comprehensive exams, when I transition from PhD student to PhD candidate.  In fact, my next non-leisure trip abroad may be for the purpose of data collection and analysis for my dissertation.

Although I'm feeling quite retrospective, introspective, and reflective, I don't feel very articulate.  That's because I didn't sleep well last night and I had to wake up at 4:45am to catch the 6:45am flight from Eastern Iowa Airport to MSP.  I'm stopped over here for 6 hours before I get on an 11-hour flight to Narita.  Then it's another 2 hours on train to get to my destination, the International University of Japan.