The Whole Erk Catalogue Tales of a Geek Abroad

Boy, am I tired. Happy, but tired. Jen and I haven't had a real break since the end of February, when her Dad and Matthew came to visit. We had a great time with them, checking out all of our favourite sights in Natori and area and even a few new ones.

Besides the old favourites like Matsushima, Shiroishi Castle, and the yuriage morning market, we had a chance to go up and see the old site of Aoba Castle in Sendai - a bit of a letdown on its own, but the view was great and on the walk up we got to see the rather nice associated museum. We also finally made it to Yamadera Temple in Yamagata prefecture nextdoor. Even though it was early March, the snow was still very deep; we hiked up some 1000 stairs to the temple itself. Unfortunately, the ancient buildings of the temple complex were shielded with plastic and bamboo sheeting to protect them from falling snow, an unfortunate but understandable concern, so we couldn't look at the buildings too much. We did get to appreciate the view, which was more than worth it on its own. I will try to upload some pictures.

An odd facet of Yamadera is that despite being an ancient national treasure, the renovating crews have made no effort to hide the dangling power cords and telephone wires coming up to the temple compound. That was probably the single largest upset to the natural beauty of the place; one would think that for one of the most valuable temples in Northern Japan they'd find a way to keep them concealed, but such is just not the way here. Ah well. The place itself was still so amazing that the few little problems hardly mattered.

Towards the end of Matt and Mike's stay, we dropped into Tokyo for a little more than a day. Despite the fact that we'd biked and walked probably fifty thousand kilometers around the Natori/Sendai area, I think it was Tokyo that really left me tired; I am just NOT a city guy. Jen and I both limped home and spent the next two days watching TV and recovering from the frenzy; at the end of two days our next batch of busy started up.

On Sunday, I had a practice for the majet Pantomime play that's coming up tomorrow. I was dressed in drag and with makeup; the practice was about an hour train ride away from natori and ended at 2. Thus, at 2 I frantically washed off my makeup and changed into men's clothing, boarded a train, rushed home, got changed into formal clothes, and rushed to Sapporo Beer Garden to greet the exchange students from Sooke, on Vancouver Island. They had just arrived in Natori a few hours before and stayed until this morning. Jen and I have been helping a lot with this exchange, me since December of last year. It was a great experience for everyone, including us, but like all fun things it is another part of why we're so damned exhausted now.

On Monday, the exchange students from Sooke came to school, and I had a great time feeling like a vital part of the day. They were initially semi-abandoned in the principal's office to fend for themselves with their homestays while the teachers had their morning meeting. Having no place in the morning meeting, I slipped out to help translate between the homestays and the Sooke students, which was a fair bit of fun. One student was late to school: apparently her host family is all younger students, none of whom have gone to Nichu, so the host mother didn't know where to take her. A reasonable mistake, and she still arrived safely with time to spare; I gave her my warning that I'd given everyone, to expect the English teachers to use them as ALTs that day, and off we went.

Unfortunately, the late girl came down with a bad stomachache after first period. We assumed it was stress and jet lag, and plunked her down in the sick room with some of my English books, and called her teachers and host mom. Her stress is no big mystery: it turns out her host mom got a lot of flak for bringing her in late, and if I know the senior staff at nichu (which I believe I do) I am not in the least surprised that they chewed out her host mom right in front of her. Everyone on the exchange committee, english and japanese, is aware of this behaviour, and I am going to be sure to pass it around the rumourmill in fine Japanese tradition. Typically these things find their way to the board of education that way. I am a little disgusted.

On the evening of the school visit day, Jen and I went to the welcome dinner. Jen arrived earlier than me, as she was hanging out with the Canadian teachers beforehand, and dropped me a line just as I was pulling up to the building to warn me that the usual interpreter was away and so was the backup, and could I do the interpreting. So, because I am a pushover and an attention whore, I wound up interpreting for the speeches at the welcome party. Thankfully, the usual intepreter (Sakato Sensei) and I had actually prewritten the translations ourselves some time earlier, so I only had to do a little bit realtime. We got to see the Suzume Odori, the Sparrow Dance that Jen and I have seen several times before; this time we heard the history behind it, which I will reprint in due time should I remember. The Canadian students performed a folk dance, something that took a few cojones in my opinion, and then answered questions from everyone else there with me interpreting questions and answers both. Questions ranged from "Do you have a girlfriend or boyfriend?" to "What differences have you noticed between Japanese and Canadian school systems?"

We're only caught up to the end of Monday, and it is Friday now. I'll try to write more after I'm safely at school.