Live at Sowa Taiikuken

So the Japanese lessons that I go to every week are kind of an International friendship effort, with a bunch of Japanese people trying to make life easier and more enjoyable for gaijin in the area. There are about 20 - 25 students that go to these classes, with various countries of origin, Indonesians, Chinese, Taiwanese, Filipinos. I'm the only American except for a couple mormons who grace us occasionally. The lessons help a lot with my Japanese progression and they also tell us of different happenings around town, cool cultural stuff to see, festivals and the like. They're great.

A couple weeks ago they spoke of a festival in Sowa, right across the street from the school that I teach at and about a 5 minute bike ride away from my apartment. They were speaking of performances. I took a big gulp and said I could play guitar if they wanted. Right after uttering those words, I wished I hadn't. They pounced on me, asking for three songs: 1-"If you're happy and you know it clap your hands;" 2 - the Star Spangled Banner; and 3 - one American song of my choice (the only name that really came to mind was Bob Dylan and I picked the shortest song of his that I know - All Along the Watchtower). It was a two day festival and I was playing on Sunday, but they got me to promise I'd go Saturday too. It's hard to say no sometimes.

It was packed Saturday, tons of my students all over the place, couldn't walk 10 feet with out getting yelled at. They had this huge stage set up with all this AV and crap. The Indonesians have a band of their own - really legit - and they played a few songs to a good crowd.



I couldn't eat for the rest of the day I was so nervous. I've never played on a stage or to a crowd before and they're tossing me up there, in front of all of them? I'll get eaten alive. The whole week prior I practiced the crap out of these songs, that I'd pretty much known how to play for a while and aren't very difficult at all. Alone in my apartment, standing up, picturing a blank faced, unsympathetic and confused crowd of Japanese, politely waiting for me to get off the stage - sweating. The practice really was just a nervous reaction and probably had very little effect on the performance. The only way to prepare for playing in front of people is to play in front of people.

Sunday came around and I went to the festival with a few supportive Japanese friends and a hangover. We got there and they had a little tent area set up with speakers and mics - this was going to be my stage - I got to feeling better very quickly. Baby steps. I was on about 15 minutes after I arrived and it was over pretty quick. I played Dylan first, then the Star Spangled Banner. About an hour later I played while we all sang If you're happy and you know it clap your hands and then my Indonesian back up singers showed up, so we sang the Star Spangled Banner again. No footage of this performance, but it was probably the funniest of all of them.

There was some other footage though:








I don't know if they have a direct translation in Japanese for words like "grace," "captivating," "stage presence" , and "Dylanesque" but if they do, they must've been spoken on this day. If not then, friends, sometimes, you don't need a common ground language to send/receive a message and you know, this might've been one of those times. After I was done, they gave me a coke and an envelope with 1000 yen in it, telling me thank you for playing. Best 1000 yen I ever made.


More images from the festival:

Oze

Oze is a national park about four hours away from Koga, by car. A family that I've befriended (pictured below) invited me to go. It was actually the grandma that invited me. I met the mom teaching at an elementary school. I go to a different elementary school to teach about every week for a day. When I go, since I can't speak japanese, they have a supporter that goes with me to help interpret and make sure I don't bring shame on my company.

So, the mom, Kunitate, was a supporter at one elementary school. She'd visited Utah a long time ago, and everyone was nice to her there, so she wanted to pay it forward and invited me to their house for dinner. I've probably been there 6 or 7 times since that first time. Her husband speaks english too and they have a PRECIOUS little girl, maybe 1 or 2 years old named Kanna. They're really nice and always tell me about Japanese happenings/suggestions/trivia/stuff that I would've never found on my own or from any of the other gaijin. So, we were talking about places to go in Japan, sites to see, and I mentioned that I like hiking (here, you tend to like everything), and it turns out that the grandma goes hiking about once a month with a group of friends. I didn't think much of it, and then I get an email inviting me to go to Oze with the grandma and her friends. This came out of nowhere since she never really spoke to me at dinners and was kind of neither seen nor heard around the house. But, what the hell, I accepted.

Kunitate responded by saying that I didn't have to go if I didn't want to and that her friends are old and don't speak english - kind of downplaying it all. I said, "Awwww, dai-jobu desu, it sounds fun, of course I want to go." They kind of said, "Allright, if you really think so." About a month later after carefully packing the necessities (given to me in list form and great detail from them two weeks in advance) I headed over to their house to begin our trip to Oze.

I was supposed to be their at 3:40am and I got there at 3:40am (10 minutes late here) and grandma was waiting outside, all decked out in her hiking gear, and two bags stuffed to the brim. It was raining a little and we walked to the main street where we waited to be picked up by her friends. I was also informed earlier that week some "great news" about our trip from Kunitate. Her younger cousins (so, grandma's sister's daughters) were going to go on this trip. "They're about 28 years old and nurses and speak a little english, so if you get hurt you'll be ok." Jackpot.

The car ride there was pretty painful since I was tired and didn't feel like pushing a conversation or being "genki" on an hour of sleep. We talked for a couple hours and slept for the last two. Everyone was nice, and dumbed down their japanese for me to keep up. The girls were funny and friendly. One of em lives in Koga and the other lives in a city about an hour away. Good people; the day's looking up. We woke up, parked the car and then took a bus for half an hour through the mountains to the starting line. Beautiful drive, and we started out on foot at about 8am.

Beautiful scenery, easy hiking/walking, good conversation. Half way through it started raining though. It didn't bring us down or ruin it by any means, but if it was nicer out, we would've gone longer, been able to see more and wouldn't have been as wet and cold. Once it started raining, it didn't stop for the rest of the day. We got halfway around the big lake and then turned back. The trails/wooden walk-ways were getting slippery and we were cold.

Took much longer getting back (seemed that way anyways - as it usually does), but we made it. We were all tired, but everyone was still having a good time. Never a complaint or fight among anyone - it's kind of like that everywhere in japan. No bad moods, you just keep going. We got back to Koga after stopping for a dip in an onsen and dinner at about 7 or so. There was talk of another trip next month, hopefully I'll get the memo as promised.

Grandma, Kunitate, Kanna, Shinji, Bengali

From right to left: Funny dude construction worker - homeboy of grandma's friend, grandma's friend, grandma's sister, grandma's friend, grandma, nurses up front

Just a wonderful shot from our first resting spot.

on the road to the lake


dorkus del mundo






Grandma at lunchtime - turns out it was a ton of food that was stuffed in her bags - she ate practically none of it, while I was kindly force-fed almost everything.


When it started raining, we were ready.


the lake

a stream in a town just outside of Oze

post onsen, pre-long ride home