Invisible Bicycle Riders

As promised, here's the second catch-up post since my emergence from blog-hibernation. The first thing to relate is my adventures during Golden Week, but before that there is a certain piece of information without which it would probably not make very much sense. Allow me to skip ahead in time a little bit to explain.

Starting this May, I've now started doing lessons at the elementary school in Tomari in addition to my regular duties at the junior high school. I was looking forward to it for a long time; the junior high kids are great, but elementary kids are young enough to enjoy learning English without thinking about it as work. It's often easier for me to just channel the younger kids' energy than to try and create energy among the junior high school students.

I can't take pictures at school for obvious reasons, so here's a shot of the mountain range near Iwanai instead.

The first lesson I did at the elementary school, in mid-May, included a section where I got to introduce myself, my country, and my hometown. Unfortunately Elvis Presley means nothing to kids these days (outside of providing the soundtrack to Lilo and Stitch), so I have to just say that Memphis is famous for music and barbecue. After my introduction, I like to leave a space for the kids to ask whatever questions they want.

There are always a few cute questions (Q: Can you speak Canadian? A: No, I can't, but I know a guy who's fluent in both English and French dialects.) There are always a few about my appearance (height 184cm, weight 70kg, shoe size 28. No, not all foreigners have such big noses.) And there is always the question, "Do you have a girlfriend?" Despite the personal nature of the question, I have gotten in the habit of just saying "No" right off the bat, as it is the only sure way to head off further interrogation. But this time around, I got to roll out today's Best Japanese Word Ever instead.

Sunset. Seriously we have some good ones here.

Best Japanese Word Ever
さあ。 Saa.

Saa. In English, 'well now,' 'it's a mystery,' or 'who knows' would be the closest available translations I can think of. In response to a simple yes/no question as above, it provides a conveniently vague non-answer, but one which the listener is expected to accept as final. Saa is best delivered with a shrug and a knowing smile, to take the edge off.

While saa may have worked on my easily distracted elementary students, I know I cannot hope for as much from you all. Her name is Arijan, and she is a fellow English teacher here in Hokkaido. She is from Washington State near Seattle, majored in Japanese, and consequently can speak rather better than me. Our first date back in March was to go play Dance Dance Revolution at an arcade, thus making all those hours I spent back home looking stupid on a dance mat worth something after all.

Hokkaido gets cherry blossoms later than anywhere else in Japan, and they're usually particularly winter-hardy strains different from the delicate things cultivated down in Honshu, but cherry blossoms are cherry blossoms, I say.

Which brings us back to May and Golden Week. Arijan and I ended up putting together plans to visit south-central Hokkaido together, stopping at friends' houses along the way. This is another cool thing about being in the JET Program: almost everywhere you would think to go, there's another JET teacher there already who may let you stay for free if you ask nicely. Our travels were all over the place, but would probably make more sense if categorized by area.

So, first is 室蘭 Muroran, the largest city in the area. It's famous for its grilled pork, its many refineries, and its JET teacher Jameela (also the music director of the musical.) We had the grilled pork-- delicious as advertised-- climbed some hills to get a nice view of the city and its gleaming refineries, and enjoyed a local beach despite the trash. We even went to watch the sunrise at 地球岬 Chikyū Misaki Cape Earth, but as luck would have it, it was a cold and cloudy morning, so we ended up just huddling on the lookout point watching the dark sky turn gradually lighter shades of gray.

A view of Muroran, looking back from Cape Earth. The famous view is supposed to be in the other direction, of the sun rising out over the sea, but that didn't really work out for us.

The second general area is 登別 Noboribetsu, just northwest of Muroran. The main natural attraction in Noboribetsu is 地獄谷 Jigoku-dani Hell Valley, where stinky sulfurous steam from the bowels of the earth burbles up through a jumble of discolored rocks. It's a beautiful image I know, but it has the advantage of creating some of the best natural 温泉 onsen hot spring baths in all of Japan. We went to a particular hotel onsen which had as its selling point 11 different baths of varying composition and temperature, both indoor and outdoor, with waterfalls, wading walkways, etc., etc. As might be expected, neither one of us actually finished within our goal time of 60 minutes in the baths.

Attribution: I stole this picture from a blog about Hell Valley. The sulfurous hot springs are in the foreground, and the hotel onsen is the white building on the right.

Besides Hell Valley, the main non-natural attraction in Noboribetsu is 登別伊達時代村 Noboribetsu Date Jidai Mura, which is usually translated in English as "The Theme Park That Has Ninjas In It." The minute I first mentioned this to Arijan, it was already decided that we had to go. So we did, and there were definitely a few fake ninjas hanging around-- real ones are of course invisible, but we had a feeling they might have been around too. There was a trick maze, a few stage shows, and a few walk-through attractions that probably haven't been refurbished since the park opened decades ago. But the real treat was to watch about a dozen kids who volunteered to train as ninjas, as they worked their way through a set of "tests" with predictably cute aplomb.

One young ninja-in-training readies himself for the historic test of unerring aim, passed down through the ages: throwing a plastic shuriken at a brightly colored balloon.

The third general area is 洞爺湖 Tōya-ko Lake Toya. Lake Toya is the home of local JET Megan, is famous for hosting the relatively uneventful 2008 G8 Summit, and has a set of active volcanoes that erupt and destroy parts of the surrounding villages every decade or so. And you thought New Orleans was built in a dangerous location. We walked around the lake, ate at a kitschy cafe that called itself Canadian, and watched the fireworks at night. Nearby there was a ropeway that takes people halfway up one of the older volcanoes, so we enjoyed clambering around in a light fog, composed of both cloud vapor from above and steam emerging from the rocks below.

It turns out this otherwise pointless and bone-dry channel is meant to direct lava flows around the town and into the lake in the event of an eruption from the volcanoes in the background. I will repeat, this is a channel for lava. Suddenly living next to a nuclear power plant seems quite boring.

Since Golden Week, the other major development has been my long quest to obtain a Japanese driver's license so that I wouldn't suddenly become an illegal driver come August. I have an International Driver's Permit, but that's only valid for one year and can't be renewed. So, I had to get my American license translated, take driving classes, pass a written test and eye exam, and take a so-called "practical" driving test in order to get a real Japanese license. (For anyone who might be looking for information on the subject, this guide to Driving in Japan and Passing the Driver's Test has been indispensable.)

I can't bring myself to write "practical" without the quotes, for reasons that I hope will be very clear with a taste of how the test runs. For instance, when beginning to drive for the test, one must hold down the brake, turn on the car, switch the gear to 'drive,' look back over the left shoulder, look up at the rearview mirror, look right at the wing mirror, look back over the right shoulder, turn on the right-turn signal, look right at the wing mirror again, look back over the right shoulder again, and only then begin to slowly roll forward out onto the driving course. In that order. And despite the fact that it is 100% guaranteed that there are no other vehicles on the entire testing course.

Fortunately, I practiced the arcane rituals of the "practical" test in advance, and wrote down such helpful notes as "watch out for invisible bicycle riders here" or "pump the brakes exactly 3 times to slow down here," so the only complaint my tester had was that I didn't turn on the turn signals quite as early as he might have liked, but he supposed it would be all right if he passed me anyway. So now I have this:

Maybe it's not a good idea to post pictures of one's driver's license online, but the vast majority of people reading this wouldn't know what's what anyway, and I think I've eliminated the worst of the personal info. I bite my thumb at you, identity theft!

And finally, in other news (and a partial excuse for why I was not able to post this update sooner), my father visited Hokkaido for a week about two weeks ago. The story of his adventures I will leave to him, but if you'd like to see some pictures, I am happy to oblige with the ones I pinched from his camera.

One thing I will say: the Sapporo Yosakoi Soran festival was absolutely amazing. Every year, teams of ordinary people from across Hokkaido come to dance in parades and on stages, in a style that dates back more than a hundred years, but which has somehow managed to be flexible with the times as well. For a taste, here's a TV broadcast of the final performance from the winners of this year's Yosakoi Soran (make sure to watch in full HD if you can.) And we got to sit not more than a few meters away from where these very folks paraded down the street.