Sometimes it’s the little things that amaze me. Anyone who lives in a cold climate knows what a nuisance glasses are in the winter. Every time you come in from the cold, they fog up. Yesterday, I had the opposite experience. I walked out of a cool air conditioned building into the steamy heat of Japan in August and my glasses fogged up! How weird!

I also discovered what warm rain feels like. Since Richard and I are both teaching at the school closest to home this week, we’ve been riding our bikes to school. On the way home yesterday, the sky looked dark and ominous. We had some things with us that we didn’t want to get wet so Richard headed for home while I stopped to pick up a few groceries. Sure enough, he got home before the sky opened but I rode home in the rain. I haven’t mastered the Japanese art of riding a bike while carrying an umbrella so I got totally drenched but it felt amazing. The rain was actually warm!

When I was teaching school in Alberta, August 1 meant that the long awaited summer break was already half over and soon the countdown to another school year would begin. When I turned the calendar page this morning, however, it was with great anticipation.  I’ve really been looking forward to August!

First of all, this month means a change in routine. We have no regular classes next week.  All MIL teachers will work Monday to Friday, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with a scheduled one hour break each day.  Like Spring Week, back at the end of March, Summer Week involves teaching three day children’s courses which are marketed as “English Intensive” and are meant to give our regular students a chance to practice their English and prospective students a chance to see what our teachers and classes are like.  The other two days are “Fun Days” with age appropriate activities for children and summer tea parties with light conversation for adults.  One of the main purposes of Summer Week is student recruitment so there will also be trial lessons to teach.  When we aren’t teaching, we’re expected to be working on projects which may include anything from creating flashcards and other teaching resources to cleaning.

On August 9, summer vacation begins and we’re off to Korea!  We’re flying to Seoul and spending three days there then traveling by train to Pusan where we’ll spend another three days before flying back to Japan on August 17.

Hopefully, our return flight from Korea isn’t delayed because about two hours after landing back in Japan, we’re supposed to meet Matt and Robin’s plane!  How exciting!  Three years ago, we visited them in Japan and now they’ll visit us.  We have to teach the first two days of their visit but then we’re using days off and yukyu (personal leave days) to get away for an overnight trip to the Fuji Five Lakes area where I’ve booked us rooms in an inn on the shore of Lake Yamanaka with spectacular views of Mt. Fuji just across the lake.  After that, Matt and Robin are off to travel to other parts of Japan including Osaka, where they lived for two years.  They’ll be back to see us again before leaving Japan though.

Late August will also mark the halfway point in our year here in Japan!  In some ways, the time is going quickly.  On the other hand, we’ve seen and done so much in the first five months that it seems as if we’ve been here for a long time already.

The giving of gifts is a big part of Japanese culture.  For example, whenever a person goes somewhere, even for a few days, it is expected that they will return with gifts for friends and coworkers.  These gifts are usually sweets of some kind.  Consequently, wherever you go, stores are filled with boxes of individually wrapped sweets sold specifically for this purpose.   As teachers, we are often the recipients of these gifts when our adult students have been somewhere.  As a result, we’ve had the opportunity to sample a wide variety of Japanese sweets!

Gifts are also a way of showing appreciation.  For example, at church yesterday we were given two fresh mangoes by Mrs. Sunaga.  This was her way of saying thank you for our prayers and concern on behalf of her husband who is in hospital recovering from a heart attack.  We’ve also enjoyed a jar of her homemade jam given to us as a welcome gift shortly after we started attending the church.

At church yesterday, we learned about another aspect of gift giving.  When our friend, Seiko, gave birth to her wee son, Ayumu, we bought a baby gift.  Knowing that baby showers are not held in Japan, we took the gift to church and gave it to her husband, Atsuo.  We noticed that many other people did the same thing.  Yesterday, Atsuo and Seiko arrived at church with a huge box of gifts to give to all those who had given gifts to Ayumu!  We were presented with a nicely wrapped tin box of very tasty sweets.   The box itself is lovely and will be a treasured keepsake.  More important to me, however, was the handwritten note that accompanied it thanking us for the gift as well as for our prayers and encouragement during Seiko’s pregnancy.

Since we don’t know any engaged couples, it isn’t likely that we’ll have the opportunity to attend a wedding while we’re in Japan but it’s my understanding that they are very costly affairs because the bride and groom are expected to give gifts to all their guests!  They also receive gifts, usually money, but my impression is that the gifts that they give are often quite elaborate.  Adult students have told me about giving not only food, but also dinnerware and other household items.

Several weeks ago I noticed that colourful posters had appeared on fences around our neighbourhood but, of course, they were in Japanese so I had no idea what they were advertising. They were all the same and the drawings included strings of lanterns and little characters in traditional dress who appeared to be dancing. I was able to determine that something was happening on July 26 and 27 and when I considered where the posters were located, I wondered if whatever they were advertising might be occurring at the nearby elementary school.

A little while after the posters appeared, we received a photocopied flier in our mailbox with the same drawings on it. I took it to one of the ladies meetings at the church and asked my friend, Yoko, to translate it for me. She told me that there would be a summer festival in our neighbourhood this weekend and confirmed that it would be happening on the school grounds. The flier included a coupon for a free gift and also promised the first 300 people a free insect, a popular pet amongst Japanese children! It also explained that anyone who wanted an insect would be required to bring an appropriate container to take it home in. The flier also included the information that traditional dancers were needed for the festival and gave a deadline for registering. We immediately decided that the event was something we’d want to check out when the time came and marked it on the calendar.

As I walked home from work early yesterday evening, it was clear that the festival was underway. I could hear the music and when I looked down the street that leads to the school, I could see brightly lit lanterns strung above the entrance to the school ground. We decided to head over there before making supper to see what was going on.

It was definitely a happening place. Crowds of people were milling around, many dressed in yukata (summer kimono). The grounds were brightly lit by strings of lanterns and a stage had been set up in the centre. On the stage and in a circle in front of it, dancers moved to the rhythmic music and the throb of the drums which were located both on a platform high above the stage and on the ground in front of it. Groups of dancers in matching costumes clearly knew the precise steps of the dances while young children joined those on the ground and did their best to imitate them.

Around the perimeter of the school ground, booths had been set up to sell various snacks as well as glow in the dark toys to appeal to the children. We enjoyed some tasty pork pieces grilled on wooden skewers. The people who sold them to us were clearly delighted by the presence of Eigo (English) customers and called out “good bye” and “good night” as we moved on.

After we returned from church this afternoon, we decided to head down to the school ground again to see it in daylight. Though the recorded music was playing, the drumming and dancing hadn’t started yet. There were lots of people, however, and we milled around amongst them enjoying a few more snacks. It was oppressively hot and humid and we weren’t surprised when thunder began to roll and lightning flashed. Suddenly the skies opened! Rain began to pour down and everyone ran for shelter. Our first summer storm in Japan! We took cover with many other people near the entrance to the school and waited for the rain to subside a bit before heading for home. Though we only had a few blocks to go, the skies opened again and we were drenched to the skin before we arrived!

Fortunately, the storm blew on by and awhile ago I could hear the drums throbbing in the distance so the festival was clearly underway again. I’m glad as people had obviously gone to a lot of work to set it up and it would have been such a disappointment if the weather had shut it down early.

Just in case you’re wondering… no, we didn’t come home with an insect. We did turn in our coupon though and our prize was a package of garbage bags!

There’s been a lot of earthquake activity this week.  In fact, we’ve felt the ground move beneath us three times since Saturday!

At about 11:40 a.m. on Saturday, I was in teaching a playgroup when the building began to sway.  The children, amongst our youngest students, were in the midst of an action song and didn’t notice anything amiss but the parents who attend class with them were clearly aware of what was going on.  I later learned that an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 had occurred off the east coast of the island of Honshu about 300 km northeast of Tokyo.

On Monday evening, I was at home and Richard was still at school when things began to rock again.  It was another earthquake off the east coast, this time about 270 km northeast of Tokyo.  It had a magnitude of 6.0.

Shortly after midnight last night, as we were falling asleep, we felt some fairly significant movement.  We wondered if we ought to get out of bed and open the apartment door as we’ve been told that this is a precaution that we should take in the case of a serious quake.  Apparently, when a building shifts due to an earthquake it’s sometimes impossible to open the doors and escape afterward.  Last night’s shaking didn’t last long enough for us to feel that that was necessary, however, but we did learn this morning that a quake with a magnitude of 6.8 had hit causing numerous injuries and some damage to buildings in and around the city of Hachinohe which is located near the north end of Honshu.  Again, the epicenter was beneath the ocean floor off the coast.  I’m not sure why this one felt so much bumpier to us as it was actually further away than the other two but it certainly was enough to cause us to sit up and take notice.

I can’t believe that I blogged about climbing Mt. Fuji and forgot to include the Japanese proverb that says he who climbs Mt. Fuji once is a wise man but he who climbs it twice is a fool! Fuji has been considered a sacred mountain since ancient times and women were actually forbidden to climb it until the Meiji Era, hence the proverb’s somewhat chauvinistic wording.

Two days after the fact, we’re looking back on the experience with a deep sense of satisfaction but we both agree that we wouldn’t be foolish enough to tackle the mountain a second time! We’re also quite proud of the fact that, though we’re still feeling the effects of the climb and a night without sleep, our bodies are recovering remarkably well. I really expected to be much stiffer!

In answer to tokyo5’s question about walking sticks, we decided not to purchase them and I’m actually glad that we didn’t as I much preferred having my hands free for the rocky part of the climb. The octagonal wooden sticks sell for about 1200 yen at the 5th station gift shops.  They come adorned with bells and Japanese flags.  Most climbers remove the flags to keep them from becoming torn and dirty and the bells because they’re annoying.  I do have one of the bells because I found it on the trail on our way down.

At each station along the ascending trail, climbers can pay an additional 200 or 300 yen to have a brand burned into their stick marking their progress toward the top.  They make a nice souvenir but we didn’t want to deal with the difficulty of figuring out how to transport them back to Canada.  Instead, Richard bought a souvenir T-shirt and I bought a leather and metal keychain/luggage tag to hang on my backpack.  Both have pictures of the mountain as well as it’s name and height.  There’s space on the back of my tag to put my name and telephone number but I’m also going to record the date of our climb on it.