Speak, Crash and Burn...Then Dance: Some Updates

Wow, its been an entire week since my trip to Kyushu. Time flies, I meant to write about that days ago (sorry about that). So here it goes...

I spent a fabulous weekend with my dear friends Toshiko, Yukiko, and Toshiko's sister. We left Shikoku island at 8am, bringing our car onto the ferry and making a two-hour journey to Kyushu. Our specific destination was Kumamoto prefecture, home of the famous "Kurokawa Onsen". For those of you who haven't yet experienced Japanese onsen, I highly recommend you go. Here is a brief explanation from wikipedia:

Ideally, they should be outdoors (though many are indoors), use naturally hot water directly extracted from a natural volcanic spring, and they are often embellished with (or, in the cheaper varieties, replaced by) a wide variety of extravagant spa baths, artificial waterfalls and saunas. The essential difference between an onsen and a sento (communal bath house) is that the water in an onsen must be volcanic spring in origin, even if reheated, whereas a sento may use ordinary heated water. Onsen water is often thought to have healing powers according to its mineral properties and onsens often have several different baths, each augmented by the addition of different minerals or the composition of the tub.

The most important features of the onsen by far are the water and the bathing facilities, which is why many bathers simply come for an hour or so to soak in the waters even if they do not stay. Probably the next most important issue for Japanese guests is the food; a good onsen inn (or ryokan) will offer what it claims is something special in the way of the evening meal. Because ryokan tend to gently pressure people towards eating their evening meal at set times (e.g. 6pm) the baths are often deserted around this hour of the day; this is a good time to hit the tub. While massage and other services are often offered, they are peripheral.

People often travel to onsen with work colleagues, as the relaxed and open atmosphere helps to break down some of the hierarchical stiffness inherent to Japanese work life. However, most visitors to onsen are not work groups but friends, couples and families. It is not unusual to see a father or mother introducing a small child to the onsen for the first time. Very small children of either sex up to about 8 years old can often be seen in both male and female baths. Mixed-sex bathing is a tradition that persists at onsen in the more rural areas of Japan, although these days there is usually a separate women-only bath in addition to the mixed bath.

You can read more about onsen at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onsen

After maintaining an intense schedule for a prolonged period of time it was lovely (that one's for you Claud!) to take things slowly. Several hours spent visiting onsen after onsen washed away all the tension from my neck and shoulders. Here is a photo of my favorite onsen in Kurokawa:

Pretty, huh?

Now I just want to clarify this point for any family members who may be reading this back home...yes, you leave your inhibitions - and your clothes! - at the door. The onsen is a bath, not a swimming pool. And if you visit me in Japan, I will try to make you visit one. Its the most relaxing thing ever. For those of you with a little extra time, please visit this link to the Kurokawa website. The information is in Japanese but the pictures are worth looking at. http://www.kurokawaonsen.or.jp/

In short, the trip was awesome...punctuated by only one embarassing moment (which is a surprisingly small amount for me). We stayed in a cute bed-and-breakfast in Kumomoto-ken, deep in the wilderness somewhere. I'm not kidding, we were surrounded entirely by trees and strange animal sounds (the atmosphere is important to the story). So during the evening, while kicking back in the lounge, I happened to see a tiny spider crawling on the wall near my friend's shoulder. Wanting to warn her I pointed in her direction and, interrupting the silence, shouted "Kuma!" Only, I should have said "Kumo!" which means spider. What I said instead ("kuma") means "BEAR!" My poor friend jumped right out of her skin, I must have taken ten years off her life. Oops.

After returning to Ikata, things picked up again quickly. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I practiced dancing with a bunch of obachans. We were preparing for the bon-odori dance. Thursday I got my sushi on during a trip to Uwa with friends, there's a really great kaiten zushi place there. Aaron, the new CIR in my town, Junko and I went out for lunch on Saturday, followed by dessert at a delicious patisserie in Ozu and a quick jaunt to Uniqlo where I bought the coolest hat ever . Sunday I visited Yukiko's family in Misaki Town for a few hours and then had dinner at the Shimauchi's place.

Which brings me to today. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it on this blog but I've been paralyzed for much of my life by two incredibly irrational fears which I hoped to overcome in Japan. I'm really proud to say that I've actually conquered one - my fear of driving (although after a brief terrifying encounter on a narrow road with a bus there may be three gentlemen in Yawatahama/Ikata who have developed a fear of driving with me). But, after making yet another attempt to conquer my #2 - fear of public speaking - by giving what amounted to the most discombobulated 7 minute speech on Ehime AJET EVER (how unprofessional), I'm sorry to report that the fear persists. Basically, whenever I stand up before a crowd I'm overwhelmed by the sound of thunder (or perhaps thats just the rapid beating of my heart?) and I find it nearly impossible to focus my thoughts. I have to really, really concentrate hard on what I am saying or I'll forget everything and babble. And if something changes during the speech/presentation then I lose everything. Its terrible. I'm going to have to join toastmasters or something when I return home. In the meantime, I'll continue to crash and burn in front of my peers in Ehime. Its kind of like practice for my future real job I guess.

I left the Matsuyama meeting today around 2-ish and almost missed my train. I barely made it back to Ikata in enough time to grab my yukata and head on over to Toshiko's house for a quick dinner. I then proceeded to extrapolate both feet out of mouth (where they were steadfastly residing since my speech) and put on my dancing shoes for the O-Bon Odori Dance. Once again I'll borrow a brief explanation from Wikipedia:

O-bon (お盆, O-bon^?) or only Bon (盆, Bon^?) is a Japanese Buddhist holiday to honor the departed spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist festival has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people from the big cities return to their home towns and visit and clean their ancestors' graves. Traditionally including a dance festival, it has existed in Japan for more than 500 years. It is held from July 13 (August 13 according to the lunar calendar still observed in many regions) to the 15th ("Welcoming Obon" and "Farewell Obon" respectively) in the eastern part of Japan (Kanto), and in August in the western part. In recent years, however, most parts of Tokyo, and by extension, the media, hold Obon in August to coincide with the summer holiday period. Obon shares some similarities with the predominantly Mexican observance of el Día de los Muertos.

This constitutes only the second time ALL YEAR I've done something well in front of my townspeople (the other was during a visit to an ice-skating rink in which I was the only person in our group who could actually ice skate, thereby eliciting lots of praise and compliments...but I'm not really sure I'm proud of that). It was great, I remembered all the steps including a very difficult one using a baton. Awesome! And now I'm off to bed for some much-needed rest. O-yasumi!