3 Things About Bathrooms in Japan

1. Good Idea:
Fresh flowers, everywhere. In the bathroom, at the corner of desks, on wall mountings, at entrance ways, anywhere. My schools constantly have fresh flowers out. I love it. I don’t know if it comes from educating generations of girls in the art of ikebana, or a “let’s enjoying nature” mentality, but it’s a lovely touch to have fresh flowers looking at you while you wash your hands

2. Bad Idea:
99% of bathroom taps don’t have hot water options. Hot water helps kill germs Japan, it’s true. Also, in the winter when your fingers feel like they might fall off from the cold, because the room you’re in doesn’t have an actual heating system, there is no hot water available to warm them up to regain feeling.

3. Interesting idea:
Toilet slippers. You take off your own shoes and slide on a pair of (in my case) usually too small plastic slippers. You go to the bathroom, you change your shoes back, you leave. It’s a dilemma. On one hand—wearing your own shoes puts you at risk to both peeing on your own shoes and standing in someone else’s pee (when using a squat, not everyone has great aim). On the other hand, you have to put on slippers that someone else may have peed on. In the summer, that means putting your bare feet in these slippers.



The bathroom slippers at Kanzaki Junior High. Teachers, girls, and boy's bathrooms from left to right. Note that girls and boys are colour coded.

Gossip

My (male) friend Sami came to visit last night, to check out what it’s like to live in the countryside. (I think he mostly just realized that living in the countryside means longer train times.) Anyway, this morning we went to the train station together so he could get back to civilization.

On our way, a woman from my Board of Education (BoE) drives up behind us. I gesture for her to pass us, thinking that she's stopping because we are in the way. As she slowly passes us she says one thing. What was it? Was it "ohayogozaimasu" (good morning) or "hello”? No. It was "boyfurendo?". That’s all. She just wanted to see if the male foreigner I was with was my boyfriend. I responded with "Iie, tomodachi" (no, friend) and she finally drove away.

I understand that a person’s relationship status is interesting, but in Japan there is this strange rule, that while this woman, who likely knows the rules of politeness inside and out and is in her mid-late 50s, can call out into the street to see if I’m with my boyfriend. This would NEVER happen to a Japanese person. I have staff members that I’ve known for a year and see weekly, but don’t know if they are married and would never consider asking if they were because it’s considered rude. From my teenage students, this wouldn’t bother me as much, but this woman should know better.

Seeking out a juicy piece of gossip about the foreigner breaks all the rules of politeness. In the words of the ALT on the other side of my town “I’m beginning to think it IS all that matters, what with my girls telling me that I am OBVIOUSLY lying and OBVIOUSLY I have a boyfriend (why this I have no idea) and Mr Yamada’s repeated attempts to convince me that Sakai is a perfectly eligible man at ONLY 18 years my senior. …but in the meantime you can rest assured news of your “friend” will probably be spread through the BoE like wildfire.”

Sigh. Japan, you're great, but you drive me crazy.

Fuji-san thoughts:

On the way to Fuji-san: 9:30pm Friday/2pm Saturday
/Why am I taking a night bus, which I can’t sleep on, to go climb a mountain?/I’m tough, I don’t need to buy oxygen/Wahoo! I’m going to climb Mount Fuji!/Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?



Beginning the climb: 2pm-5pm
Hey, this isn’t so bad/Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?/We’re already half way up, look at us go! /Wahoo! I’m climbing Mount Fuji... along with quite a few others...


Rest period: 5pm-10:30pm
Ok, time for a nap to rest up for the climb that takes us to the summit at sunrise/Why can’t I sleep? I haven’t slept more than 2 hours since Thursday night, I need to sleep. Oh well, I’m a machine, I can make it./Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?/ This sunset above the clouds is beautiful/Wahoo, Mount Fuji sunrise at the summit, here I come!



The beginning of the dark time: 10:30pm Saturday- 2am Sunday
I can’t believe there are so many climbers…/If one more person with a walking stick almost hits me in the face, that walking stick is going over the edge of this mountain/I think this is the 8th station?/Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?/Yes, I will pay twice as much as usual for that chocolate bar and 400Yen for poorly mixed hot chocolate. /I’m liking this cool breeze.

The dark time: 2am-4am
This is worse than the bank or a theme park. I’m in a line to get to the top of a mountain, and I can’t figure out why on earth I’m taking a step, waiting a minute. Taking a step, waiting a minute. /Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?/I’m trapped in an Escher painting of Mount Fuji, walking in an never ending loop/This wind is evil/Where did my friends go?/Gahhh! Get out of my way! I just want to sit down at the summit!


Sunrise: 4am-6am
Hey, that sunrise is pretty beautiful/Sophie! Yea! Someone I know!!/Ahh! Have to pee, will pay 200Yen to pee!/Wait, there is more than 1 vending machine?/This place is a zoo/ There is no way I’m walking anywhere uphill from here/Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?/Holy crap, I’m on top of Mount Fuji.


Preparing for the way down: 6am-8am
Time to mail my letters from the top of Mount Fuji/Must. Write. Faster. Can’t. Feel. Fingers/holy crap, I’m cold in Japan and it’s July!/Where is Myrie? I hope she’s not dead, I haven’t seen her in hours…/Wait, there’s Myrie, she’s not dead! /Oh no, have to pee again, another line, another 200Yen…/Have either of my sisters had their babies yet? /There better not be a line going down the mountain…


Going down: 8am-10:30am
Sweet, no line /Volcanic mountains are desolate/Hmm, maybe I’ll try running…/This is so much fun/Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?/It’s warming up, time to take some layers off my body and add them to my backpack/I can’t believe my body is still functioning, let alone running down a mountain/I’m running down a mountain! /is this the end of the world? Am I trapped in another Escher painting? We’ve been walking in this cloud for ages…



Recovery: 10:30am Sunday/ Monday 5am
Onsen, food, karaoke, a perfect way to end this trip/I keep falling asleep when I blink for too long/Back on the bus.. ugh/One of my sister's had her baby!/Ok, so the trick to sleeping on an overnight bus is to not sleep for a night, climb a mountain and not sleep another night, got it/I climbed Mount Fuji. I actually did it. I didn’t need oxygen! Yatta!

(most photo credit goes to Myrie, my climbing buddy and photographer extraordinare)

In other news...

I'm newly aunted! My sister Joanne is now the happy mom to Margot Jane Feddes DeZoete. Born on Sunday morning, Margot is my first niece and I'm excited to meet her in a week. Congratulations Jo and Matt.

My pending journey

This weekend I am climbing a mountain.
I am going with a group of 40 other JETs. I know of another JET group of 40 people, and 20 people outside those groups who are also going. It is a long weekend, so many Japanese people will also be there. There will be hordes of people. There will most likely be lines going up the mountain: a slow one and a fast one. The hike is broken into distances between stations.
5th station to 6th station: 1.5km
6th to 7th: 1.2km
7th to 8th: 1.2km
8th-8.5th: 0.7km
8.5th to top: 0.9km
I have heard there is a vending machine at the top.



Mount Fuji, you seemed so much more glamorous before I knew the details, but I'm still excited to climb you.

How to pretend you're not in Japan for a weekend:

Head to the annual San-in beach party in Tottori-ken. It's about a 3 hour train ride away from where I live. Arrive on a Friday night, in the dark, and set up your tent on the beach amongst a maze of others. Only hear English being spoken. Head up to the main area where there are djs spinning, couscous, pizza, tacos and curry for sale. Dance dance dance dance dance. Wake with the intense heat of your tent at 7am. From here you have 2 options-- stay on the beach in luxury and really believe you aren't in Japan, or venture out and maybe risk running into Japanese people and shattering the illusion.


I chose the venturing out. We went on a random hike, which lead to a beautiful inlet. Rocky cliffs, clear cool water, perfect. Well, perfect minus the random tour boats that went by, which we dutifully waved to. I can't quite decide if we made the photos better or worse for the tourists. Note and appreciate the beauty of you're surroundings, and the lack of concrete barriers.


After the the hike, catch the bus to the Tottori sand dunes. I had visited before in the winter-- but this was my first time in the summer. The views were amazing, but it felt more impressive in the winter. This time there were footprints everywhere and there was little to no breeze- compared to the windstorm and desolation of winter. The experience could have been made complete with camel rides from money hungry camel owners (to just take a picture cost 100Yen/1$). Here you run the chance of meeting Japanese people, but as they have largely come on group tours, you can maintain the illusion you are not in Japan.

Then, return to the beach, dance dance dance, wake up to music still going, laze on beach, etc. Illusion is shattered when separating garbage in complicated ways, and everyone does along with utter lack of garbage cans. Return home, shower and stand in your own mini-beach from all the sand that has collected. Remind self you are still in Japan, and you should not wear that sleeveless shirt in public... unless you're a man. But that's a different post.

Rainy Season

I remember hearing about rainy season, and fearing it. When considering that I am made of sugar and melt in the rain, the prospect of a month (or 2) of rain was reasonably daunting. Added to the trouble is that I live a 10 minute bike ride to the train station, so if I wanted to leave my lovely town, I'd face a likely melting. While I love my town, an extended lack of face to face contact with the English speaking world would damage my ability to speak English at a regular pace and with multisyllabic words, something that could potentially damage my ability to function in an English speaking world when I one day returned to it.

However.

Rainy season seemed to only be a week long. Granted it was a very wet week, with slow drying laundry and 48 hours of rain followed by occasional storms, and I did skip Japanese class to avoid the melting issue, but that was it. And by that was it, I mean, that week felt like a month. No sunshine, high humidity and near constant rain left me with no energy and no motivation. After 5 days of it, I decided I had to move for fear of adopting a shape identical to that of my desk chair. So on a rainy Friday afternoon, I took my chances and went for a bike ride to a temple in my town I had just heard about. It was uphill (gah, on a bike with only 1 gear) but very beautiful. I also got a shot of Awaga-- one of my elementary schools, with the mist in the background, which makes it look a little less "40-year old poured concrete jail" which is how it tends to look on a regular day. This was followed by a trip to the Himeji yukata (summer kimono) festival. Which is mostly just a made up festival (invented tradition anyone?) based on the fact that people wanted to wear their yukata. It was VERY rainy, and I only narrowly avoided melting. The photo is of me with Suzie, the other ALT in my town, with Himeji castle in the background.














On another note-- Japan insists that one of it's amazing and unique features is that there are 4 distinct seasons, and I openly disagree with this. Firstly because 4 seasons isn't so crazy and secondly because rainy season, while it is short, is not spring and not summer.