The Road Less Traveled

Asuke, Part 6: Asuke Village & Finale

Friday, March 13th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Continuation; 3rd post today. If you haven’t read the other two, please go back and read them first… unless you don’t want to!

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February 27th, 2009: Day 7 of Asuke
Today was a fun day. We stared off eating breakfast with the Kuratas, after which we headed to the Tourism Assc. From there we went to Asuke Yashiki, where we spent most of the day. We made sandals out of hay. which turned out rather well, and then I made some more postcards. We left there around 3pm (I think…) and went to the blacksmith, which Adam had requested to visit. He got to help make the head of a kama, which was pretty cool. Me, Thompson-sensei, Mike, James, and Daniel (again, I think…) went to the bookstore/cafe we’d visited before and had a nice, long conversation. Thompson-sensei described the Business Japanese class to us, which made me want to take it quite a bit.
From there, we headed over to Asuke Village where we’d be staying the night. It’s really cool; the buildings are like what a small family home would’ve been like. We ate dinner barbecue-style — it was awesome — and had a lot of fun.
I got to play Suzuki-san in Go finally. It turns out he’s a 3 dan. He pretty much destroyed me — really bad — with a 3 stone handicap. We were able to play again later with a 4 stone handicap, and it ended up at B54-W73. Still a loss, but not a horrible one. All in all, a great night.

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February 28th, 2009: Day 8 of Asuke
Well it’s the end of our next-to-last real day here. Everybody is tired and starting to get irritable, but it was a good day despite that.
We started off the day with a late breakfast — I (and apparently everyone else) forgot to set an alarm. Then we went to the bus at 9am and went to Kaji-san’s place to open the kiln and see the charcoal. After that we made bamboo dishes and ate lunch with them. It was sweet. After that we went up to a shrine in the middle of the mountains. It was really cool. We went back after a while and utilized the ashi-buro [Note: a hot-spring type bath for your feet].
When we finally returned home I played two games of Go with Suzuki-san. I lost both, but they were close, and I was very happy about the outcome. Result #1: B73-W79. Result #2: B81-W88. He complimented me afterward and encouraged me to keep playing, saying that I could reach shodan [Note: 1 dan] by August if I tried. He also invited me to come stay at his house sometime. I wonder, was he serious? [Note: it turns out, he was, as he invited me several more times after this entry, and mentioned it to several other people as well]. To Do: find a place in Kasugai to play Go. [Note: More or less done. Today I went with Mark to the Japanese Go Association in Nagoya... it was a lot of fun, but expensive. There are a couple closer places I've found since then, too.]

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March 1st, 2009: 9th (final) day of Asuke
Well, our last full day in Asuke has come and gone, and it has left me wanting more — but in a good way. The slow pace of life in Asuke compared with the bigger cities is rather refreshing. The skeptic inside me wonders just how much of it was put together specifically for our visit, however.
I learned a lot, I think, and it was a great experience. Hopefully as the days go on, what exactly I learned will become more clear.
Oh yeah, I played Suzuki-san in Go again after the farewell party. We were both exhausted. I resigned about 30 moves into the game. [Note: it was that bad.]

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Well, that’s all for Asuke. Later on I might post the reflective essay I wrote about the trip, but for now, it’s 4am and I need to sleep — my mom gets here in 7 hours! Good night!

Asuke, Part 5: The Kurata Family

Friday, March 13th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

This is the second post so far today; if you didn’t see the previous one, make sure to read it first! Anyway, continuing where we left off…

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February 25th, 2009: Day 5 of Asuke
Today we started the day off with a nice breakfast at Fujitani-sensei’s house. They liked our gifts, which was good. Fujitani-sensei took us to the Tourism Assc. and we said goodbye. Our first activity of the day was sumiyaki [Note: making charcoal]. We went and saw the kiln and then helped load it up. After that we went to Asuke Yashiki and I got umemitsu [Note: some kind of plum] juice. It was really good. Once Thompson-sensei came in, we had a lot of awesome conversation about Japanese ambiguity, relational structures, and other stuff. I loved it and wish I could do it more often. Seriously. Dinner at our new house was nice. It was Dad, Mom, daughter [Note: probably in her 30s], 5 friends, and us. The conversation was like watching a Japanese comedy show.

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February 26th, 2009: Day 6 of Asuke
Today we ate breakfast, didn’t talk much, and went over to the Tourism Assc. with Kurata-san. First we went to the middle school and participated in an English class with the first graders [Note: middle school first graders, so the equivalent of American seventh graders]. It was relatively fun. The kids knew a surprising amount of English, but my group was a bit shy. After the school, we went to Hyakunenso [Note: a very nice hotel in Asuke, pretty much run by the Tourism Assc.] and had a very good lunch and finally an interesting tour of the place. At last we went back to the Tourism Assc. until Kurata-san came to pick us up. We went back to the house and had dinner, this time with 5 gusts again. They seem to entertain quite a bit. One of the guests was an elementary schooler that didn’t say one word to us the entire time she was there — unless you count shouting “Goodbye!” after she was already outside with the door shut behind her. Te conversation tonight got more and more difficult as the night went on — as the guests got more and more drunk. I was able to learn a bit more about Mikawa-ben [Note: the local dialect of Japanese]. Now me and Mark are in our beds, but they’re still just out there talking loudly (it’s next door, too) [Note: paper doors. they keep sound out well. this is sarcasm.]

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More coming in a moment, woo!

Asuke, Part 4: The Fujitanis

Friday, March 13th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Finally, the continuation of the Asuke story. I plan on posting the rest of it up tonight, so stay tuned.

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February 23rd, 2009: Day 3 of Asuke
Today we went to two elementary schools. Okura and Mikura if I remember correctly. They were very small. At the first one there were only 23 students. We split up into groups and did different things. My group played fruits basket [Note: a Japanese childrens game] and then jumped rope. [Note: Amazingly exciting isn't it?] My team got 2nd place. At the second school there were about 60-something students. Me and Leneskie were with the 7 4th graders, and participated in class with them. They were having Japanese class, and discussing a story called Gon-gitsune [Note: Gon the Fox]. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. After the schools, we went to Heishouji Temple and learned about, then practiced, Zazen. It was very interesting. The bell they use and the beginning and end [Note: of meditation] probably causes brainwave entrainment. After that we finally returned to the Tourism Assc. and were picked up by our 2nd host, Fujitani-sensei. His house in in the mountains completely separate from everything. We practiced gold and table tennis, then had temaki-zushi for dinner [Note: self-rolled sushi]. It was all very nice. After dinner, he gave us shodo [Note: calligraphy] lessons. It was frustrating because I suck (a lot) at it.

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February 24th, 2009: Day 4 of Asuke
Today me and Mark woke to a traditional Japanese breakfast — much better than the ones we get at the dorm. From there, we went to the Tourism Assc. We had a meeting about Japan’s forest and stuff that I 70% understood, but even understanding, it was pretty boring. But I was able to hold out and managed to stay awake — so did everybody else except one person. After that ordeal, we went into the forest to cut down trees. I was okay — it’s not like I haven’t cut trees down before. It was pretty fun, though. Being able to see your accomplishments like that is nice. We then went back to the place where the meeting earlier had been held. (Before this, I managed to procure two lengths of bamboo for walking stiks while my mom is here). We talked for a while until we went back to the Tourism Assc. We went home with Fujitani-sensei, and he informed us that we’d be going to an onsen [Note: hot spring] after a brief stop at the house. We did that, and I had my first experience with a Japanese public bath. It went surprisingly well. The place we went was called Sasayuri no Yu [Note: Literally "Hot water of the Lily"]. It was pretty nice, and very relaxing. After that, we went home and ate dinner. Fujitani-sensei let us know that he wouldn’t be at the farewell party, so we offered to sing the song we’d be singing at the party. We did so, and it turned out relatively well. Now we’re going to bed. Good night!

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Another post to follow shortly.