Epic trilogy

I've decided to split my life into three events since the last time I wrote. As indicated by the title of this piece, they were of epic proportions.

1. Volleyball day. Sports Days at schools in Japan are pretty common apparently, and my schools variation on this theme last week was having almost all of the 550 or so students play volleyball for about three hours. Some of the older guys played basketball, but almost everyone...volleyball...three hours. I practiced with them for a bit, and my forearms were sort and imbedded with dirt for the rest of the day. As you can see from the following pictures, my sunglasses were a big hit.

This is one of the teachers I work with. Shes crazy. Her boyfriends include: Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch), me, and some guy in Yamanashi

A field of Japanese early teens with their (my) school in the background
After bowing, the team is ready for battle

2. I climbed Mt. Myogi this past Saturday. Its a fairly high mountain in Gunma prefecture, which itself is half in and half out of the Japanese Alps. While maybe not actually the most physically difficult hike I've done, I think it was the scariest. I'm not used to clinging onto chains on vertical cliff faces, assured by the knowledge that if I lose my grip, I'll never have to worry about anything ever again. We went to view the beautiful 紅葉 (kouyou, seasonal changing of the leaves), though we were perhaps a week early, and while pretty, wasn't quite stunning. But the mountain was still beautiful. The following day I got up early to make pottery at a local museum. A little random, but the woman who has become my defacto supervisor here invited me along and I would agree to do almost anything for this person who takes time out of her day to make sure Aaron is 日本の生活をだんだん慣れています。After that I biked to the next city over (for the manyth time) and played ultimate frisbee for a while, tiring out my already slightly worn legs. But it felt good all the same. I can't prove the frisbee part, but here's the rest:

This actually isn't me, but it is epic nonetheless

This is my foot hanging off of an edge. It's a long way to the bottom.
About as intimidating as it gets. The top of the mountain!
In case you didn't think I made it to the top too.
Little Chau. Big mountain. One of those death defying chain climbs I mentioned.
A view from the top.
Call me vain, but I like this picture.
The crappy piece of pottery I made

3. The last part of my story goes through today. This afternoon was the culmination of a week or so of preparation that involved me staying late at work most days, and past 7:30 last night in particular. This was all for the "team teaching demonstration" that i performed with two other teachers in front of the 36 students we normally teach, as well as most of the other teachers at our school, a few from some other schools, and a dozen or so administrators from the area, including my supervisor. We were also filmed for some kind of review, and everyone was taking notes the whole time. I wasn't really nervous about this presentation until right before and during the first few minutes, when I saw all the serious and staring people, and watched my co-teachers lose all their confidence and anxiously bounce around in fear. It of course went fine, after all there was tons of preparation for something that's not particularly complicated. But the teacher did take over a number of my parts, i guess out of anxiety to move along as quick and as smoothly as possible. And we did go slightly over time. But I thought it went fine, and maybe even good, though perhaps not spectacular.
I got a hearty round of otsukuresamadeshita's (you're a hard working person!/good job!) afterward, but when i walked into the meeting room for teachers and administrators afterwards, everyone looked really grim and super serious. I was immediately dismissed as my teacher told me that they would discuss many serious things, and I should wait in the teachers office. I wouldn't have understood anything anyway, so no prob.
So i waited, mostly by myself, in the teachers office for about 3ish hours. I asked another teacher i work with how she thought it went, and she seemed to think not very well. She said that there was a time at the end that they finished the last activity and had nothing to do, and should've had an activity. I estimate that indeed SOME of the students had perhaps 30 seconds to a minute at the end of the class with no exact specific activity thrown at them. I guess this was enough for my co-teacher to tell me that the huge thing i had been working on with other teachers for weeks didn't go so well. I appreciate the honesty...?
It was past 530 (im scheduled to work to 4 or 430) and I had been wating for hours with noone around and nothing to do so i packed up to leave, though the teachers got out at the same time I was attempting to escape. My co-teachers seemed a little surprised I was leaving early, and said we still needed to talk about tomorrows lessons. So i told them all the ideas I had, and said I can come early tomorrow morning. I asked if that was ok. She asked if I had typed and printed an exact lesson plan out. I said no. She said "of course." Doubt she meant that sarcastic twist that the phrase "of course" can mean, but she was giving off some passive-aggressive vibes. And slightly after that awkward moment I left work at about 6 o clock.
So in celebration of this utterly confusing day I walked around the brand new mega-mall that opened up just down the road from my house with my friend Ross. It's three stories tall, houses a huge department store, a cinema complex, and maybe a hundred or more other various shops and restaurants. It's bright, garrish, expensive, and very clean. But my dream of becoming a mallrat in Japan is now able to come true, as its only a 10 minute walk from my house! All my hard-earned (maybe not all of it so hard) yen can now be entirely blown at my convenience.
Oh Japan. Oh Gunma. Oh Minami Chugakkou. Oh Ishimatsu-sensei.

I now remember my favorite English conversation at school, which will make me happy for the rest of my days here. Two weeks ago the principal's assistant (who is also a teacher... i think?) came up to me, and in very careful English said:
"Aaron. Your job..."
Me: "yes?"
[pointing at noisy kids and chaos in the hallway] "Destroy Japanese education."

そうします。

生活

Nothing like a small city festival to remind me that I am, in fact, in Japan. I suppose in some ways the festivals here are not so different from festivals back home (i'm thinking luzerne country fair mostly, because that's what I know) in that people cram around one area with their family, eat tons of fried, sugar, and chocolate coated foods that are probably not prepared in a sanitary manner. Both countries even revel in playing silly games that end up with kids winning little fishes or animals that will probably die in about 3 days. Of course in America there's a lot less squid on a stick, huge octopus tentacles pouring out of baskets, or groups of a few dozen men and women hoisting "mikoshis" (the shriney things in the pictures below) while drunkenly shouting and chanting.
One of my favorite parts of wandering around aimlessly at this festival was the elementary school marching bands, for two reasons. 1. It was one of the cutest things i've ever seen. 2. I was just so blown away that dozens, maybe hundreds of these kids (8-11 yrs old i guess) seemed perfectly organized and incredibly competent in their respective instruments as they marched through an incredibly crowded city square numerous times. They also seemed to do this with apparently no supervision or direction. Both me and amber, my wandering partner, agreed that this would be impossible among American or Australian children, and would inevitably turn into anarchic cacophony. Still difficult to wrap my mind around...
Of course this led me to think about other silly differences and similarities, though I know that's a ridiculous and pointless diversion for the most part. But, well, I have a lot of time. One thing especially struck me from the festival, and in general. Before I came and maybe now still a little, I sort of imagined the "Takasaki - Maebashi area" as the "Wilkes-Barre - Scranton area" of Japan. By this I mean more or less two functional cities that in the end are only that, and not that much else. Both sets of cities are a tiny bit out of the way, but still relatively convenient to major cities, and are not exactly considered major hubs of creativity or industry. Lots of people live in suburbs (including me) and almost everyone gets around by driving. But the differences outweigh the similarities. I can't imagine Wilkes Barre or Scranton lighting up for 2 nights in a year, where 100,000 or more people cram into the center city area, and happily march, sing, drink, play music, picnic, and celebrate the culture of the surrounding area (even if maybe a little superficially, though how else can "culture" be "celebrated" I suppose). It would be impossible. Right off the bat, where would everyone park? Who would provide all the security (youd need a lot)? How bout the preparation and cleannup? Maybe i'm being cynical, but I imagine many problems with a giant center city Wilkes Barre festival.
But the festival in maebashi (and in Takasaki about two months ago) seemed to go off without even the slightest of issues, and both were flawlessly cleaned up by the next morning without incident. I'd be embarrassed to show a native Takasaki-ite either Wilkes Barre or Scranton after making my comparisons, because those American cities have such massive problems compared to the cities I now live between. Large parts of Wilkes Barre are disgusting, not to mention massively poor and somewhat dangerous. Same kind of idea in Scranton, but to a lesser extent. The urban residents seem mostly stuck in a city that provides few public services, and almost all middle or upper class families have escaped to the suburbs where their white kids get bored, do drugs, drive around, and eventually move out.
Takasaki and Maebashi might not be thriving centers of creativity and innovation, but they don't have these problems, and I'm not sure any place in Japan does. I'm a little out of my element here because I still understand so little of my surroundings. I'm just an outside observer, and barely even that seeing as how I don't really understand their language.
Doesn't mean I can't enjoy myself and look at the pretty colors though:

Bright shiny mikoshi

look at the stare that girl is giving me...

Tell me that's not cute

Oh if only I could've won that beetle

everyone loves having their picture taken. And having their name pronounced with a thick American accent. Especially Amber.

I have no idea why they're dressed like maids. Just to be cute and little I guess?
a quiet covered street near the festival. To me the biggest mystery of Japan: no garbage cans, but also no garbage.

Aaron Gitlin, Japanese bugologist

bonus points if you can guess which one isn't a bug, but rather a snack that came with my school lunch.

And a good yontif

So there go the high holy days in Japan, in a pretty quick flash. It was a little difficult to even remain aware of them seeing as how I'm the only Jew I know here, and home is 13 hours in the past. But I did my best. Ganbarimashita.
Another thing I wasn't aware of until my parents let me know a month after the fact is that someone at my college was shot during a robbery. Somehow even another teacher at my school became aware of this, asking me if I knew a college in Lancaster PA. Indeed I do. The next day a student told me he heard of a bad incident in Pennsylvania, something about a school and a murder was all i caught, but i assumed he too somehow just found out about the college thing (though noone died in that fortunately). My bad though, because in fact just down the road from my college, apparently some random local otherwise known to be normal walked into a small amish farming elementary school, shot 5 young girls dead, and then killed himself. There seems to be no exact motivation, only some vague plan involving sexual molestation that wasn't carried out. What's going on Pennsylvania? Specifically central Pennsylvania? I think a teacher at my school was trying to explain that in America many people have guns, but noone in Japan does? It was in Japanese so I'm only making an educated guess... But that does seem to be what they think about when they ask if I heard about what happened.
Before I heard about these incidents, another English teacher at my school I guess saw me put skim milk and a touch of sugar in my coffee, and commented that she always imagined Americans would put tons of cream and sugar in their coffee. Maybe... but she then continued that she also imagined that Americans were mostly big and very fat. Great. She again continued to note that I am in fact short and skinny, like a Japanese person. I told her that in fact the clothing stores here are much better in terms of sizes than in America for me. Actually i think my frame and belly may even be a touch on the big side for Japanese clothes. Regardless, what I wanted to tell her was that maybe she wouldn't be so sickly if she weighed more that 80 pounds. I may not talk favorably about America so much these days (a friend told me I was really negative actually, and a bad ambassador for the States). But for some reason it still pissed me off to have this little tiny Japanese woman tell me "boy americans sure are fat aren't they." Another friend told me that indeed his coworkers too appear to have trouble differentiating between the kind of things you think about, and the things you say out loud. At least when speaking English.
On a funnier note, today my school had a festival, which mostly revolved around musical performances. This included me singing a song in Japanese with all of the other teachers. So if you want to laugh at an image in your head, imagine Aaron on stage with about 30 other Japanese adults, in front of maybe 7-800 Japanese children and adults, singing a song in Japanese. And if you need more, you can picture the principal coming on stage, saying something, and then handing me the mic. Thankfully i had vaguely prepared for such an occurence, based on the sudden nature of the previous times i've had public speaking (in japanese!) thrust upon me.
Ok, you can stop laughing now.