I hope not too many people have been checking this in recent days and wondering if I’d abandoned the idea entirely. No, I’m here! Busy as hell, but now I finally have some time (and a ‘net connection I can pillage) so some of what I’ve written can be immortalized on teh interwebs.
First, a quick introduction, to set the scene. At the end of July this year, I moved to Kosaka, Japan, to participate in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. I live in a teeny mountain town (~7,000 people, and that’s really small for Japan) that doesn’t see a single rail of Japan’s much-lauded mass transit, and until I get a car in a few weeks, I ain’t goin’ far. I will be teaching English at Kosaka Junior High (this is grades 7, 8, and 9 over here), and occasionally visiting Nanataki, Towadako, and Kosaka Elementary Schools to assist with introductory lessons to foreign cultures.
This is a complete and utter departure from the sort of life this city-boy is used to, and I think it will be great for me.
When everyone on the program (1500 or so people) arrived, we spend the first few days getting wined and dined (ok, more so the latter than the former) at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo while we suffered through endless ceremonies and seminars, and bonded over way more beer than can possibly be healthy. None of that is too exciting when reproduced in text, though, so I’ll fast-forward to my actual home, now that I’m here.
Kosaka’s biggest draw is its natural beauty, which it has in abundance. I eagerly await getting my bike here so I can properly explore a little more of it. Within a few days of my arrival was the Tanabata Festival, a yearly event in which different districts of the town build and push around these huge floats with drums mounted in them, and have a sort of drum-off whenever they run into each other. We were the Shin-Hana district, and we had a ton of people in our group, including 5 (count ‘em, 5!) foreigners. Not too shabby, considering that I’m one of two who actually live in Kosaka. The other guys were former participants of the JET Program (henceforth abbreviated to JETs) who used to live in Kosaka, and came all the way from Tokyo for this. As a picture’s still worth a thousand words, I’ll stop typing and refer you to the electronically captured image above...
2 comments:
Great photo man :D The Hapi coats are a nice touch.. did you ever get to go to any of the festivals in or around Aichi while you were there?
Yeah, I went to a few when I first arrived, before I had a damn clue what was going on. I remember them shoving alcohol at me and carrying around this great big wooden structure, and occasionally setting off fireworks in the middle of the street...
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