The Grapevine

This is where I will try to keep people at least a little up to date on the goings on in the SICE program (or at least as they relate to me, since the Official SICE 2002 Page should cover the rest). Since I didn't start this until nearly halfway into the program, it's not going to be terribly complete. However, I think it will be good to have, regardless. The newest entries are towards the top so it will be easier to tell if I've actually added updates or not. If this is your first visit, you might want to scroll down first to make sure there aren't any earlier entries you might be missing.

10/15/02

It's been one helluva weekend. mid-semester break was all I could've hoped for in a weekend getaway, with the exception of actually getting rested. I think I came back more tired than when I left, but it was well worth it.

We all took the train out to Funakoshi, a small tourist village just off the Pacific coast on Thursday after school. Thus began a weekend of hiking, swimming, laughing, meeting new people, and several other adventures. Our cabin was absolutely wonderful. It was well equipped with a kitchen and bath, allowing us to live in comfort while enjoying the beautiful countryside. The cabin sat on top of a hill overlooking the bay and the mountains on the opposite side. One could hardly ask for a more spectacular view.

We stayed in Funakoshi until Sunday, when we reluctantly packed up our things and made the trip home. Mac, Brian, Keely, and Nathan decided to take the bus which came through Funakoshi on its way to Morioka. However, Sian, Derek, Jacob, and I decided we would attempt hitch-hiking home, as we had been told by our Japanese teacher, Kikuchi-sensei, that it was a safe, cheap, and easy way to travel in Japan. I had just read On the Road this summer and had been itching to try hitch-hiking, but it just didn't seem like a good idea in the States. I couldn't afford to pass up this opportunity.

We divided into pairs, with Jacob and Derek traveling together and Sian and I doing the same. After buying some snacks for the road, Sian and I put up our sign on which we had written the characters for "Morioka" and stuck out our thumbs next to a little tourist stop.

After waiting about half an hour without success, we decided to move a little further down the highway, past an intersection in hopes we might catch more traffic there. We also wrote the characters for "Miyako" on the other side of our sign, since Miyako is the largest city between Funakoshi and Morioka. Within five minutes of putting up our new sign in our new location, we had a ride from a wonderful middle-aged couple on their way home to Miyako from Funakoshi.

Sian and I were given the opportunity to practice our Japanese as we talked with the couple during the ride. They gave us each a can of Qoo, a popular soft drink here almost the instant we sat down in the car. When we finally reached Miyako, they dropped us off at a gas station along the highway leading to Morioka, though not before they checked with the other cars at the station to see if anyone was going to Morioka and could give us a ride. I am continually amazed at the generosity of the people I meet here.

No one at the station was heading our way, so we gave our thanks and said our goodbyes to the couple and put up our sign again. Within fifteen minutes, we had another ride with a young couple returning to Sendai from Miyako. They said they could give us a ride for about 50 kilometers, half the way to Morioka. The husband had been taking English classes at night for about two years and was excited to be able to practice with native speakers, but Sian and I were also able to practice our Japanese as well. The husband was in such a good mood about learning English, the weather, and making new friends, that he and his wife decided to give us a ride all the way back to Morioka even though it was significantly out of their way.

We ended up making it back to Morioka in no more time than it probably would've taken on the bus, if not sooner. Plus, we had saved ourselves about $20 and made some new friends with whom we might be meeting again later this month. It was truly an amazing weekend.

10/8/02

Pretty soon we will be reaching the one-and-a-half month mark here in Japan, meaning our semester is about half over. It's kind of a strange thing to think about. In some ways it seems like I just got here, while in others it seems like I've been here forever.

Things have reached about as much of a sense of routine here as I think they ever will. While each week tends to bring something new, my daily schedule is pretty much set. I'm getting more and more involved in classes at Josei. Last Saturday parents of the students were invited to observe classes. We normally don't have school on Saturday, but this was a special case to allow parents who might not be able to come during the week due to work to watch classes. I was asked to prepare some dialogues involving American conversational gestures, such as shrugging and "thumbs up" for the third year classes. While I'm not teaching classes by any means (I still don't think I'm quite ready for it), I have been doing more recently than my usual recitation of vocabulary and grammar and having students repeat after me.

The school culture festival is coming up soon, and I've been asked to assist with the school play. Most people here at school know that I'm studying theatre, as I mentioned it in my introductory speech on my first day.. I've already participated in the auditioning process, and the first rehearsal will be held tonight. I'm really excited to be helping, though since rehearsals are during normal club time, I won't be able to keep up with Kendo for a while.

As for my own classes, things are still pretty interesting. We just finished up our midterm exam and project for Japanese class. I'm currently in the most advanced of the three classes being taught to Earlham students, but I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't bee in the middle level class. I think I did all right on the exam, but generally in class I'm struggling to understand directions, as the class is taught in Japanese and my listening comprehension has much to be desired.

The final project was a SICE Newsletter put together by all the SICE participants as a group. My particular contribution was an article about the SICE webpages that have been set up by Derek and myself, though I tried to focus more on Derek's since his is aimed more towards the general SICE experience. Plus, part of his page is in Japanese for those whose English is not so good.

We're currently reading about and discussing Zen Buddhism in our religion class. While I really enjoyed learning about Shinto (the popular religion native to Japan) and Japanese Shamanism (similar, but not commonly practiced), I'm finding the current topic more personally rewarding. My interest in Zen has been growing over the past few years, and the book we happen to be discussing is more of a "How-to" guide to Zen, unlike most books which are based more around philosophical and intellectual discussion. There is talk about a trip to a local Zen temple for those of us who are interested, though no plans have been set.

Mid-semester break is coming up this weekend, and not a moment too soon. We shall be making our first significant excursion out of Morioka since arriving here in August. All eight of the SICE students are renting a cabin outside of Miyako, a Pacific coast city. We hope to spend our weekend doing little more than relaxing and enjoying each others' company, though I'm sure we'll do some exploring of some sort. We'll be out there from Thursday the tenth until Monday the 14th, which will hopefully be just enough time to stretch out and enjoy ourselves, without being so long as to get us too far out of the mind set required by this program. And of course, I plan to take lots of photos which I will post here when possible.

 

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