The Road Less Traveled

Asuke, Part 3: Ochiai-san’s House

Sunday, March 8th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

In case you didn’t notice, right before this I posted another entry, Part 2 in this Asuke series. So if you didn’t see it, make sure you check it out before this one. Moving on, the first two parts each covered 3 days each, but from here on out they’ll be covering two days each, because a) my entries got longer as time went on in the trip, and b) each different homestay was 2 nights, and it’s convenient if each part goes along with a different homestay.

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Saturday, February 21st, 2009: Arrival, Day 1 of Asuke
Well, we got to Asuke today. It was a lot closer than I thought it was — which isn’t to say it was close. We walked around the town, and I bought some maccha [Note: green tea powder] that was really good. Later on we went to the welcoming ceremony. The fish they had was… odd. I didn’t really like it. [Note: It was a small fish called Aya, salted and grilled (whole) on a spit. Most of the people there ate everything but the bones, and some ate those too.] Other than that, everything was pretty good. Our first homestay is with Ochiai-san (at least, I think that’s right) [Note: It is.] We think he really wanted to drink with us, so it’s unfortunate that he goe me… Noticed something interesting: Ochiai-san empties the hot water from the bath between people. Maybe he’s just doing it because we’re here? [Note: In a Japanese-style bath, you wash yourself and then get in the bath; the bath isn't for washing, just relaxing. As such, it is normal for an entire family to use the same bath water, one right after the other, because refilling it takes time and is wasteful.]

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Sunday, February 22nd, 2009: Day 2 of Asuke
Today was our first full day in Asuke. We got to the Tourism Association around 8:45, but had to wait a while before everyone got there. Oh yeah, and our breakfast was really good. First we made [Note: painted] postcard, which turned out surprisingly well. Then we made Mochibana. [Note: Colored mochi (gummy rice paste) stuck onto little tree branches... maybe I can post pictures later; this is apparently something even most Japanese people don't know of] After that we went to Asuke Castle, which was cool. Even though I passed the 2kyu JLPT, I’m glad Thompson-sensei is around, because I understood very little of what the guy at the castle told us — maybe 20%. After that we had lunch, sukiyaki, which was very good. Then we did a tea ceremony, and finally had free time from 3 to 4:30. Me and Mike ended up following Big Mountain [Note: an employee of the Tourism Assc. named Oyama (which literally means 'Big Mountain') who I'm now friends with. The name 'Big Mountain' was given to him by the head of the Tourism Assc.] around anyway — which turned out to be rather interesting. Finally we went to a cafe hidden away in a back alley and had a good conversation with Thompson-sensei, whom we’d met up with, before returning to the Tourism Association. We met up with Ochiai-san and he took us out to eat sushi in Toyota with his family — his son, his son’s wife, their two kids; his daughter, her husband, and their two kids. The meal was really good, but probably really expensive, maybe over 30,000yen [Note: $300]. I played Go with Ochiai-san. He said he hadn’t played in 23 years, and I beat him pretty easily with a 9 stone handicap, but he made a lot of surprisingly insightful moves.

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And that’s the end of Part 3. Stay tuned in the near future for Part 4: Fujitani-sensei’s House.

Asuke, Part 2: Prior to Departure (B-side)

Sunday, March 8th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

So, sorry it took me so long to get this up… I think I’m going to type up the rest of the Asuke trip here tonight, if I have time. Anyway, on to the main event…!

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Wednesday, February 18th, 2009: 3 days prior to departure
Well, Thompson-sensei will be here later tonight. Tomorrow is the first day of orientation. It still seems like just another class explaining just another trip, though. I don’t think I’ll really get the difference until I get there. Today, though, I held a conversation with the parents of some children at the English school where I’ve been helping out this week for a full hour. It really made me a lot more confident in my Japanese ability. And oh yeah — I passed the 2kyu JLPT!!! That definitely helps my self-confidence, too — something which is going to be necessary on this trip, I think. I’m looking forward to ending the wait and just going.

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Thursday, February 19th, 2009: 2 days prior to departure
Well, we had our first day of orientation today. We took some quizzes on the readings and I blanked out on quite a bit of it… But I don’t think I did too poorly. We also handed in the summaries we had to write, which I think went pretty well. Hopefully, all in all, it comes out to be a good grade… Nothing extraordinary has dawned on me yet, and I’m still feeling not a whole lot of anything special about this trip.

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Thursday, February 20th, 2009: 1 day prior to departure
Second day of orientation is over. It’s nearly midnight now and I just realized that I forgot to write this. I also just realized, as I’m writing this, that I haven’t packed yet… I really need to get on that. Other than that, today was a pretty normal day. Hung out, watched anime, didn’t really do much of anything special. The next ten days are going to be so packed, probably, that I won’t have the time (or, really, the means) to do anything “normal” that happens in my day.

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That’s all for the pre-Asuke entries. Following soon will be the first set of actual Asuke entries.

Sorry…!

Sunday, March 8th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

I know I promised more posts, and you’ll get them! I’ll post a lot tomorrow! In the meantime, here’s some food for thought that I’ve been mulling over…

Is the saying “It’s better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all” really true?
What about “Aim for the moon; even if you miss, you’ll end up among the stars.”
And finally, what about my horrible chimera of the two “It’s better to have tried something harder and failed than to have tried something easier and succeeded.”

Please post thoughts in the comments. Greatly appreciated.

More tomorrow!