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Cold
Weather and Warm Hearts
June 1st, 2005
By Chris Abeyta
Nippon Kan Student
Nippon-Kan is more than a martial arts dojo. When I began my practice,
I never would have guessed I would learn so much off the mat. As
a participant in Nippon-Kan’s cross cultural exchange program,
I spent three months in a Japanese village called Higashi Naruse.
For the first time in my life I traveled alone. Dr. Marc Volkel,
an alum of this program, gave me some good language material to
study, and some valuable advice on do’s, don’ts and
generally what to expect. The day before I left, Homma Sensei gave
me detailed instructions about where to catch which trains and
at what times “…and after that, just good luck!” Indeed
as luck would have it, while standing in line to check in at the
airport, I ran into an old friend of Homma Sensei’s who was
in Denver for Keiko Hajime, which was held just a couple days before.
He was taking the same flight! He was a tremendous help to me in
finding my way through Narita Airport and getting my train tickets
out to the village.
When I arrived in Jumonji, the closest train station to Higashi
Naruse, I was met there by my new boss, and an old friend of Homma
Sensei’s, Hideki Sugawara. Hideki San speaks pretty good
English, and welcomed me very warmly. He took me to a ryokan to
spend the first several days of my stay in the village. He introduced
me to the Gotou family, who were to become my best friends over
the course of the next three months. In fact, so nice were they
that I did not at first know I was staying at an Inn. I only found
that out about four days later. They put me up in a room that was
like something out of a samurai movie; tatami mats, shoji doors,
and beautiful Japanese artwork everywhere I looked. I was much
honored to be made so comfortable. That afternoon and the next
day, Kazuki, Gotoya San’s son, kept me company. He spoke
very little English, but we are able to communicate. He brought
out his computer, and we used an Internet translation program.
I had been warned that the snowfall would be impressive. The day
I got in, there was only about 2 feet of snow on the ground. The
weather turned bad on the second day. We had planned to go to a
local Onsen or hot spring, but driving would be dangerous. Instead
we walked around the village a little. He took me to The Yakuba,
and to Higashi Naruse Junior High School. They have amazing ways
of dealing with the snow. The road to the school is rather steep
and winding, which makes shoveling or plowing very difficult. To
get around this problem, they have an ingenious solution. Along
the sides and down the middle of the road they have water sprinklers.
When the snow starts to fall, they turn this on and the water runs
down the road. The water is always moving, and as a result does
not freeze. It also melts the snow as it falls. It runs downhill
into the creek, running along side the main road, and out to the
river. Snow from the front of buildings is also dumped into the
creek, to prevent a massive buildup of shoveled snow. I was amazed.
When Tuesday came, I went to work. I was given a desk and a computer
with Internet in the Education Department office at the Yakuba.
They took me around the building and introduced me to everyone
there. I met the Mayor, and all the different department heads.
I also went to the Elementary and Junior High schools to meet the
Principals. This was the first time I had gone to the Principal’s
office as a guest, rather than an offender. For the rest of the
week I went to the office at 8:00 and studied Japanese on-line.
I also kept in touch with family and friends via e-mail. Hideki
San told me I would be assisting the English teachers at The Junior
High School. I would begin my new job on Monday.
On Thursday, I attended the Junior High school’s opening
ceremonies for the last semester. I was asked to make a short speech
to introduce myself. I spoke English and Matsue Sensei, the English
teacher translated what I said. They took a picture of me giving
my speech, and they put it in the school newspaper. Matsue Sensei
told me basically how the classes would go. She would give me a
daily briefing on the upcoming lessons, and how I could help her.
As she progressed through the textbook, at each new lesson I would
read through the material as a sort of model. This way the students
were able to hear English as spoken by a native.
After ten days, I was moved to Iwaikawa, into a house lent to me
by a local family. The Education office provided me with a couple
of space heaters, a futon and some blankets. In anticipation of
the move I went shopping and bought some foods I could easily prepare
myself. When I first moved the boiler was broken so there was no
hot water. Folks from the office would drop me off at Junesse ski
area so I could take a shower and soak in the onsen. After a few
days, they got the boiler fixed so I was able to shower at home.
As I was living alone I was expected to keep the entry clear of
snow. I would get home after work and before even putting my things
away, I would start shoveling. Every home had either a creek running
by or a grate in the street out front with water flowing underneath.
This way the snow could be carried out to the river without having
huge piles for the big plows to move. I would lift the grate and
shovel all the snow from the front of my house down into the pit.
I joked that I now have a black belt in snow removal. Almost every
night would see more snowfall. In the mornings someone (I never
found out who) would come and snow-blow the front of my house.
I was never able to get up in time to see who it was. They must
have been out there before 5 am, because I got up once to leave
at that time, and it was already done. I will never forget that
lesson: Help your neighbors, even if there is no recognition. It's
just a nice thing to do.
Hideki San asked me if I wanted to join the Local Taiko Drumming
club. Another former participant told me that if I got the chance
I should try it out. He said the people were about my age and very
nice, so I agreed. The group met to practice every Monday, and
Thursday. The next practice time, I would join them. I had never
before done anything remotely musical, so I sort of joined in whatever
they were doing and tried to keep as close to the rhythm as possible
so as not to distract them. They were all very tolerant. I found
out later that this was serious stuff. They are the village’s
Taiko players who perform on stage at village festivals and gatherings.
They practice to play, not to play. Tsutomu San, the group leader
started teaching me what I thought was just sort of fundamental
learning phrases. I was wrong. I found out later that he was teaching
me a piece that we would play as a group in the upcoming snow festival.
Over the course of the next month, a different person taught me
every week. They would have me practice a few phrases, then add
that to what I had already learned previously. As I mentioned earlier,
I have no musical experience, and I cannot read music, so I had
to learn by memorization.
Taiko drumming is not only about getting the notes correct, it
is also about beauty. Each note is played by a certain hand, with
correct form, so that in a performance all the players are synchronized
and the result is quite lovely to watch. I had just enough time
to learn the song. By the time the Yukimatsuri came along, I was
not a total embarrassment. We played Kurikoma Oroshi, to open the
festival. I made a few mistakes, but the crowd was very nice. The
Master of Ceremonies announced me and told the audience that I
had only been practicing for one month. They were very generous
with their applause. Many of them came up to me afterward and offered
compliments and congratulations.
The uniforms we wore were traditional; very beautiful, but also
very thin and sleeveless. Our stage was outside, and made of snow.
We very quickly set up the drums, got into position and began playing.
After finishing, we all got to enjoy the festival. At the conclusion
of the festival, I helped tear down the tents and return them to
the Yakuba. I also caught a slight cold.
By this time my days and weeks got into a routine. Either Hirokatsu
San or Kaori San would go and pick me up in the morning and take
me to the Junior High School. I would attend the English classes,
and have a school lunch with the students. In the afternoon, I
would either go back to the Yakuba, or stay for any further classes
scheduled for that day. At the Yakuba I would study Japanese and
write e-mails. On Taiko nights, I would go home and do a little
solo practice before being picked up by Tsutomu San to attend regular
practice. On non-Taiko night I would frequently go to Gotou Ryokan
for dinner and conversation.
Some of the best Japanese practice I had was on these nights. Neither
Shokou San nor Gotou San spoke any English at all, so I would take
my homemade flash cards to aid in our communication. Shokou San
would look at my flash cards and study the English. Sometimes she
would come across a flash card look at me sideways and say, “I
don’t understand you’re Japanese.” She would
try and understand what I was trying to say and help me with the
correct words. I think we both learned a great deal. We also used
the Internet to translate some of our more complex conversations
that were beyond my capabilities in Japanese. I grew very fond
of those folks. At the end of the evening, Shokou San would drive
me home and give me some food for later.
Kaori San the wife and daughter of the two local Buddhist Priests
lives in the House right behind mine that was connected to the
Temple. She speaks excellent English, and was a great friend to
me. In February, she and her family took me to Oga City. We stayed
at a very nice Bed and Breakfast right on the shore of the Sea
of Japan. For dinner we ate dishes that are famous in Oga. The
main soup was seafood and vegetables cooked with hot rocks. They
put the fish, crab, clams, etc. in a large wooden tub. On top of
this they add a bunch of pre-heated rocks that very quickly boil
the water and cook the dish. In addition to this, they had trays
prepared with three to four layers of cuisine. The trays were laden
with assorted sashimi, crab, sea cucumber and some things I was
unable to identify. I had never before had such a large amount
of food spread out in front of me.
The next day, we went to the Namahage museum in Oga. I saw Namahage
Taiko play there and also watched a reenactment of the Namahage
New Years Eve visit. Though I couldn’t understand what was
being said, I enjoyed the experience. The reenactment took place
in an antique house, with the audience seated to one side. After
the performance Namahage San walked around to scare the children
in attendance. After that we went to Gao Aquarium. Gao is a beautiful
modern building right on the rocky shore of the Sea of Japan. The
huge glass wall looks out on the shore right above where the waves
break on the rocks. Before I went, this is what I pictured an Asian
shoreline to look like; ragged black rock jutting out of the pristine
blue water with foam lapping at the base. Gorgeous. All the fish
tanks had both Japanese and English explanations so there was no
problem understanding there.
The next week, Shokou San and Gotou San took me sightseeing. We
drove out to Morioka and visited Tezukuri Mura. We walked around
and watched the various artisans make their wares and even did
one ourselves. I made a Sembei cracker, which I have kept wrapped
as a souvenir. We watched metal workers casting teapots and weavers
making bamboo baskets. There was also an antique house to tour
there. It was a really great window into how farmers lived in earlier
eras. Every point of interest had a speaker with a button to push
for a recorded explanation. As in Oga, there were both English
and Japanese options.
From Morioka, we went to Kakunodate. Kakunodate is famous for “Shi
Kyoto” which is a street preserved from medieval times. We
visited the local samurai headquarters, the lord’s house,
and beautiful gardens. In one of the gift shops, Shokou San pointed
out a lovely picture of the street resplendent with huge cherry
trees in full bloom. At this point a joke was born. Thereafter,
when I would be shown a picture of flowers or tree blossoms Shokou
San would say “May is beautiful.” This was funny because
I would be leaving in April.
On February 20th, in Iwaikawa we had a community festival. Along
with traditional dancing and singing, foods prepared by the Junior
High School students, and plenty of sake, the children’s
group played Taiko. I gave a short speech introducing myself and
thanking Homma Sensei and the folks at the Education department
for the opportunity to travel to and stay in Higashi Naruse. We
played Kurikoma Oroshi, to a very nice crowd in the Community Center.
After all the scheduled events, it was time to drink sake. More
food was brought in, along with a generous supply of various kinds
of alcohol and we all sat and talked. I talked to and drank with
the Mayor and even did karaoke for the first time. I sang Yesterday
by the Beatles and was gustily cheered along. Everyone was very
tolerant with my broken Japanese. There was also an eighty-five
year old man who sang an old samurai song and danced along with
some cool sword-work.
A few days before I came home I had my last Taiko performance.
In the Manga-Kan, there was an all Akita-Ken Taiko festival. All
the various groups from different towns came and played. It was
an all day event. Among the more famous groups was Namahage Taiko.
Each group had a different style of traditional dress, from Kimonos
to demon masks, to pants and no shirts. In this venue, I played
two songs. I played Kurikoma Oroshi with the children again and
also Sakae with the adult group. This was the first time I played
in practice or on stage, without making any mistakes. It’s
a good thing too because I was in the front row of drummers and
any mistake would be very visible. I had a few tense moments as
our turn began, because with all the music being played that day,
I had a hard time keeping our tune in my head. Luckily, it only
took a small reminder to get me back on track. I still sometimes
find myself tapping out this tune at various quiet moments.
The week before I left the school was on spring break. Not having
to go to the school to help teach, I spent my days at the Education
Department. In the afternoons, a group of kids would come to the
Yakuba for a craft-making class. I joined in and made them as well.
We made pressed flower post cards, string climbing puppets and
a Tea Ceremony. There was also a local storyteller who came but
I did not understand one word. Arihara Sensei asked me afterward
if I could follow what was being said. I said I couldn’t,
and he said not to worry, He didn’t understand a lot of it
either. The village language is different entirely from standard
Japanese. There were times, when I got to feel pretty confident
I could make myself understood, that I would talk to an older person
who grew up in the village, and I was back to square one. One time,
I was talking to an older person, and learned the word ‘daibuki’ which
means blizzard. I later used this word and got a bunch of raised
eyebrows. “Where did you learn that,” they asked me.
They understood, but to hear an American use the word clearly surprised
them.
On my last morning in the village, many of the friends I had made
over the course of my stay went to see me off at the train station.
I was laden with food and drink and wished well. I spent the whole
day in transit, and was very grateful for the food. Toward the
end of the train ride to Narita, I asked the man sitting next to
me in Japanese if I should ride to the first or second terminal
stop. He shocked me by answering in English that he did not know.
It was then that I stopped thinking about what I wanted to say,
and then translating it into Japanese. That was the moment it hit
me: time to go home. I made friends in Higashi Naruse that I will
never forget. I was treated as an honored guest and given every
courtesy the whole time. I will go to Higashi Naruse again on vacation.
It’s just too cool a place not to visit.
Playing taiko drums in the Snow Festival. |
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Throwing mochi (rice cakes) to the children
after playing the taiko drums. |
Cooking gyoza with the wives in Higashi
Naruse. |
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The cold of Japanese winters. |
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