Weekend

Ok, so I had kind of a big weekend, etc.

On Friday, I participated in a matsuri, or festival, on the other side of town. The people at the BOE set it up for me so that I could be part of the group carrying the omikoshi, or portable shrine. I was told that it would hurt my shoulders, but I found that not the case. First, we had to get dressed in some festival clothes for the occasion, which consisted of shorts, a jacket-type thing, a shirt-type thing, tabi (Japanese toed cloth shoes), and a headband. A guy helped me put it on, and I met some people, including a guy who works in the same building as the BOE, but does taxes, or something. He spoke some rudimentary (actually pretty good) English, so he mostly talked to me in English. He was also very tall, which is kind of weird. I don't remember his name because I met so many people that I didn't even try to remember it.

I also met some girls who said they were 19. I believe it because at the beginning when they gave us a little sake, the girls turned it down, which I have never known Japanese people to do, excepting the few unfortunate allergic ones. Drinking age here is 20, by the way. One of the guys from the BOE (I don't remember the name) was also doing the omikoshi, and he said something I didn't understand when he saw me talking to the girls, which I think was a joke. I have a legitimate reason for talking to them, though, and that is they are the most comprehensible Japanese people. Men here tend to mutter everything, which makes understanding very hard. Old people have their own way of talking, so they are essentially completely incomprehensible, but younger women speak clearly and ask simple questions, so I get what they are saying.

So, we carried around the shrine, chanting "soya sa," meaning "I have no idea what this means," stopping every few minutes to change places. There were so many people that most of the time, I wasn't even carrying the shrine, just walking alongside, chanting. It was fun, though, and little kids along the way are always fascinated to see someone who is not Japanese. The only bad thing was that because I was doing that the whole time, I didn't get to enjoy the rest of the festival, which involved some kind of dance-type performances and a rock band. There were fireworks, though, which I got to see. I also met some crazy 20-year olds who seemed to be having the time of their lives. I had a conversation with one of the guys who seemed to be in charge (he was in a different all-white outfit) and some of the 20-year olds about the omikoshi and Japanese baseball. Apparently, the Chuunichi Dragons are rivals of the Hanshin Tigers. These two teams seem to be very popular here. The team I like, the Hiroshima Carp, are terrible.

On Saturday, I was waiting for the dealer to bring me my car, but they ended up calling at 4:56 pm to tell me it wouldn't be ready until the 28th or 29th. It was no big deal, but I didn't go with Karen to some stuff because I had to wait. Karen and I were invited to a potluck with other JETs, but she was tired, so we didn't go. Instead, we went to dinner that night at a local place that has Italian (kind of) food. It was pretty good, but what happened after was awesome.

We were walking back (we live within a couple minutes of each other), when we saw some little kids in an alley, playing with fireworks. It was kind of late, so I was curious, and we went over to see them, as they may have been some of my future students. It turns out there was a party for the kids and their parents (?) because the kids had finished their work of collecting cans. A guy whom neither Karen or I had ever met asked me if I drank beer. I should have remembered that that question means "I'm going to give you beer" in Japan, but I didn't think about it, and so he brought me beer. Karen doesn't like beer, so he gave her juice, and we ended up sitting around a little table, talking to the adults and eating yakisoba, fried noodles, and various other stuff. They were very curious about us, and we kept talking about America and how it is different from Japan and what we eat and all sorts of stuff.

Karen doesn't speak Japanese all that much, so when they asked if we were a couple, I told them we were fusai, husband and wife, and she didn't get it until I told her. Japanese people don't generally understand sarcasm, so they believed it at first until she tried frantically to explain. Once they got it, they thought the "American joke" was very funny. Anyway, we got invited to go eat dinner at this guy's house next month, though neither of us know his name. I'm not sure how he's going to find us, but I'm quite certain he will. It shouldn't be hard in a town where there are 5 non-Japanese, and three of those work at the schools here.

This post is already long, so I won't get into the orientation in Matsue. That's all for now.