Woops!

I bicycle up to school this morning wearing just a thin dry exercise outfit, on this warm February day. Warm? Today, it is so warm that I hear not one utterance of "samui" (cold).

As I ride along, I note that life itself feels different in each of the (percieved) four seasons in Japan. Everything from the food they offer in the bakeries to ornamentation of homes directly reflects the seasons. In Summer, when it is 30 degrees C, they complain about the heat, in Fall, Winter, and Spring, they wear clothing that keeps them 40 degrees C inside, and complain about the cold in slightly different ways in each season. Along the way, I note a few things.

The neighbors oranges (or some kind of related citrus) are almost as big as grapefruits now. The city is a grayer shade of green, but hardly a leaf has fallen since summer. The heavens are overcast, with the sun barely visible through the clouds. I am reminded somehow of life in Sprague when I was three years old, and of looking out the back window from our small table in the kitchen on the south side of the green house we lived in for several months. It is peaceful, and I imagine I will go this entire Japanese winter without seeing any naturally-formed ice.

It seems so strange to me that this culture that is normally at such peace could ever be brought to war, but I cannot deny their violent history of brutal warfare. It is amazing just how far a person can be pulled in a collectivist culture. In an individualist culture, people generally go mad and end up with split personalities like so many men of Nazi Germany had to in order to maintain some semblance of sanity partitioned away every night when the go home to their families. Today the Japanese are some of the most gracious and kind people, and with the right leadership they could be back to the wars of Manchuria in no time, or the rape of Nanking. It's a rather spooky thought.

When I get to school, Ms. Kawada has an early St. Valentines gift for me: My gas bill! I thank her profusely and tell her that I will try to find a comparable gift to return to her on White Day--

In Japan, girls give gifts to their crushes on Valentine's Day, and on White Day, a month later after a guy has had time to react, he returns gifts to (hopefully) each and every girl, showing his intentions toward each of them. It is possibly the most painfully long month for popular guys, yet it is all too short for the most popular! Generally speaking, most guys get nothing on a given year. On the other hand, the Band SMAP (very popular) once recieved 8 metric TONS of candies several years back, and was of course unable to send return gifts to match such.

In context, Kawada's "gift" is thus very funny, and she seems to think my report on my plan of repayment is quite humorous as well.

After the "Valantainzu puresanto" I ask her when the university closes on Saturdays, since I sometimes come in to get some work done into the evening.

Kawada: "About 1 o'clock."

Adam: "!!"

I had been working well past sunset, until around 7pm or sometimes even 8pm! Woops! I guess I wasn't actually supposed to be there during those times, and only a select few maintenance people were all those times before! I guess this means I'll be working especially hard all next week to get stuff done before Sean's arrival on the 17th of February.

Rakugo

"Rakugo" is basically Japanese stand up comedy. But, they are sitting down when they do it. I got to see some today! IN ENGLISH! It was great! Only one actor describes the entire scene. They use facing, slightly (but not greatly) changed voices, and two props: a fan, and a small square of a towel. They do an amazing job with just this!

One story that was told was about a student (John) studying culture in Japan. A friend invites him to go eat Fuku (blowfish, poisonous if prepared wrong). They go into the restaurant and each asks the other to eat first. It comes out of the work that his Japanese friend was using him as a poison tester, and wanted to see if it was really safe! They debate and debate over who should eat first, and even try to eat at the same time. Nothing works. Then, a homeless man comes to the restaurant. They see this as their opportunity, so they prepare some little napkin full of the fish and give it to the waiter to give to the man. John follows the man, sees him go into a cardboard box, hears eating, and then snoring. He returns to the restaurant, and they talk about it, and then try to eat again. Finally, they take bites at the same time, and think it is the best thing ever. The homeless man came BACK to the restaurant and asks if the other two feel okay. Turns out, the homeless man didn't eat his fish, because he wanted to go back to see if the two that gave it to him DIED.

~fin

It was well done, and showed traditional Japanese humor, style, and gave me something I could understand well! A good day, all in all.