Okayama: A Place to Belong, Part Two

This morning, I got up at 6:30, as usual. But the futon was pretty comfy, so I stayed in bed for a while. At 7:00 some sort of van went by outside, announcing something or other over its loudspeakers. Finally, at 7:30, Rika gave the wake up call, so I went downstairs to eat breakfast. We had scrambled eggs, wieners, and bread. It was really good! After getting ready to go, Ayumu and I went with Satsuki to the crop harvesting event. The plant in question is called makomotake. In my dictionary, it’s labeled as wild rice, but it’s actually very similar to bamboo shoots. We rode over to the field, where Enishi Akiyoshi, a famous Okayama comedian, was talking to all the kids who came out to participate. They gave some safety instructions (don’t run with the hand scythe), and then passed out gloves to put on. As a side note, Satsuki is some sort of local politician, and she knows pretty much everyone. Think of the granny in Summer Wars. That’s a good representation of how awesome she is. At the event, she introduced me to a tea ceremony teacher, who I would be meeting again later. She also introduced me to Enishi, the comedian. We talked a bit - he seems pretty nice. Then we went down into the field, where we learned how to harvest the makomo. It was pretty easy - you just grab the one that you want, and cut it from below with the sickle. We each got to harvest three. The news cameras filmed both Enishi and me while we were at work – the video should be available online at some point. They took some group pictures, and then sent us back to the main reception area where we ate tonjiru; a miso, pork, and makomo soup. The mayor made a speech, and Satsuki introduced me to a number of her friends. After a while, Ayumu and I decided to head home. We walked, which only took about ten minutes. It’s actually kind of interesting – the house is in an area called “Green Crest”. We can’t seem to figure out why they decided to give it an English name. When we got home, Rina was getting ready to leave. She plays Spanish guitar, and I guess she was hired to play at a wedding. I said my goodbyes, and Rika went with her to the station. She asked me and Ayumu had to look after Yuna, the baby. Everything went fine for about five minutes, and then Yuna started to cry. Having no experience with babies, I wasn’t really sure what to do. Ayumu told to to pick her up while he called Rika. I rocked her and tried to calm her down, but she just wasn't happy. The strange thing is, the moment Rika came home, Yuna stopped crying. She’s really a mama’s girl.

For lunch, Ringo made me a bowl of home-made ramen. He used to be a chef, and eating his cooking, I can tell. It was among the best bowls of noodles I have ever eaten. When I finished, he took me up into the mountains to see the sights. It was super pretty up there – a great view of the city, plus a golden statue of the Buddha, meant to watch over Satosho. However, I managed to walk face first into a spider web, which covered my glasses, blinding me. Ringo grabbed a stick and waved it around, trying to clear out any remaining cobwebs.

Having returned to the car, we drove over to Kuriyama (Chestnut Mountain) to pick…chestnuts! Apparently, my family is the caretaker of the mountain, and so they’re allowed to pick the nuts there. We went around, opening up the spiky coating and extracting the nuts using tongs. Those shells are SHARP – they pricked me once or twice. There weren’t all that many nuts, as the season has come to a close. Still, it was a good experience, and I got to bring home the nuts I collected.

I met up with Satsuki, who took me over to the tea sensei’s house (I told you, she knows EVERYONE). As we were driving up, I felt a migraine start up. We entered the tea house, which was a tiny structure compared to the massive main house. We were welcomed in by the sensei and one of her students, and we entered the tea room. Another man, the son of the student, was present, and he spoke some English (of course, I speak Japanese). So it worked out in terms of translating. Now, at this point, I was worried I would have to sit through my first actual tea ceremony with a pounding headache. Miraculously, as we began, the migraine just melted away. I learned the proper etiquette for eating the tea sweets, and for drinking the tea. I received a little round cake thing as my wagashi. When I finally drank my first bowl of tea, it was fantastic. Really frothy and creamy. It wasn’t even all that bitter. Apparently, the objective of the practitioner is to mix the water and tea just right so that small bubbles form creates the ideal texture and taste. When we had finished, the sensei brought out another student, who taught me how to perform the ceremony (rudimentarily, anyway). The sweets this time around were senbei crackers and sugar candies shaped like bells. My tea wasn’t so good, as it was kind of bitter and grainy. I got to partake in one last round of tea, this time made by my teacher. I was served sugar candies shaped like Noh masks, and a wafer filled with red bean paste. This tea was as good as the first, very flavorful yet not overwhelming. I also got to examine the tea bowls – each of them bore a motif that captured the Fall essence. We had to duck out at this point, but I was able to get a really rich Tea experience.

We drove to an elementary school, where KCJS students were supposed to take a karate lesson. I was about 15 minutes late when I walked in. The lady there handed me a uniform and told me to change. When I finished, they threw me right into the action. I would have been lost, had I not been rescued by this Japanese girl, who told me to imitate her. It turns out, she’s the daughter of the karate teacher! No wonder she was so good at it! We learned what I think was a basic kata, but I only got about 2/3 of it. It was like learning a new dance routine, but harder because I didn’t know any of the basic steps. Still, we made it through with only minor embarrassment. At the end, we all did a big round of jump rope, where two teams had to jump simultaneously over this extra-long rope. We were there for about two hours, and by the time we left, my host mother had run off on some errands. I proceeded to the next location with Brendan and his host mom.

The next location was a shrine, where they were setting up for matsuri. I had never been to a matsuri, so I was really excited. But what was really shocking was that the guys (no girls allowed!) would be participating in omikoshi, carrying around the portable shrine. We gathered together, and waited near the shrine. Japanese men came, and drank some beer (painkiller before the main event). For a while, we were just waiting, but finally, we got some beer as well. Apparently, the swaying of the portable shrine is supposed to be partially due to the inebriation of the participants. But I think it’s just because it’s damn heavy. We finally hoisted the thing onto our (30+ men strong) shoulders. It felt like a tree. I mean, it’s a wooden shrine, with three kids inside drumming on a big taiko. They didn’t explain much before we started. In fact, the only clear instructions I got were “You are not allowed to fall over, or run away.” Way to inspire confidence. We carried it to the shrine, where we ran back and forth, sometimes hoisting it into the air along with the rhythm of the taiko and our collective chanting. I definitely got bonked on the head by it at least once. After what had to be an hour, we took a short break, at which point Satsuki bought me some ikayaki (grilled squid). I was starving, so it was a welcome treat. After halftime, we ran around for another half hour, before we left the matsuri grounds, and left the shrine with the men. They ran it around until 11pm, I hear. While carrying the shrine, I saw the karate girl again, and waved hello. It’s a nice feeling that, in such a small town, you run into familiar faces everywhere.

Having arrived home, I got the first look at myself after omikoshi. My shoes, once black, were dust-brown. My glasses didn’t fare much better. And my poor, poor shoulders; they were sore as all hell, and were bright red. That’s what you get, carrying a damn shrine around for near to two hours. The sight that awaited me at home, though, was fantastic: a table covered with piping hot, crispy tempura, and a bowl of udon noodles. Risa had worked her magic again. I ate and ate and ate, not only because I was starving, but also because it was just so very tasty. When I finshed up, I paid my complements to the chef, and hopped into the bath. The hot water was JUST what I needed after the day’s hustle and bustle.

We stayed up a bit to chat, and Rika asked me a bunch of questions about English slang. She wants to be able to help foreigners, so she’s doing her best to learn the language. And she’s pretty damn good at it too. We talked about acronyms like “LOL” and “JK”, and she asked me about the difference between “I’ll” and “I will”. Tough stuff there, but definitely high-level questions. Even I couldn’t explain it very well, and I’ve been speaking English for almost 21 years. Meanwhile, Satsuki switched the TV to the local news station. First, there was a report on the morning’s makomotake festival, in which I made a surprise appearance. There was definitely a better video of me harvesting the things; I’ll try to dig it up later. But even more surprising was that the interview from the day before was scheduled to air. I was really embarrassed because, as mentioned above, I pretty much made a fool out of myself. Luckily, they cut out the embarrassing part, and so the interview came off pretty well. Having enjoyed the evening with the family, I decided to turn in early.