Last Weekend Before School

This week my cold has been getting worse and worse. I’m a sniffly, snuffly tissue bag and when I say I’m coming down with man-flu nobody seems to understand that expression. I guess I just need to educate these Americans and Canadians!

It was so bad that tonight I actually missed the BOE Welcome Party. I have never missed a BOE party before and actually felt really sad.

On a happy note I also found out my school placements for this year. I will be working at Rikigo JHS, Nagamine ES, Tatsuda ES and Ikenoue ES. I guess I’ll have to get used to snot if I’m going to be playing with the little ones!

Youtube Fun!

Just found this on Youtube and I cannot get it out of my head!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4

Snape…Snape…Severus Snape…..

Beer Tram!

To welcome the new ALT’s to the city we decided to book the Beer Tram for a party. You can hire out one of the city trams, bring your own food and drink and party away for 2 hours as it rides around the city. I have wanted to do this for a couple of years so I was really happy. A great night was had by all!

Under The Sea

Back to work and summer activities.

Bad day! Having to sit in a meeting for 4 hours making English tests. We spent 30 minutes of this time debating the size of a baseball cap! Why?!?!

Good day! Doing an “Under the Sea” theme animal class. We played a bingo game and instead of asking the usual ‘Do you like….’, we changed it for our Japanese audience. After teaching them the words for shrimp, squid, jellyfish etc we asked the question ‘Do you eat…..’

The First Test

Arrive home feeling happy, refreshed and ready for a long sleep.

Plant falling over plus broken vacuum cleaner broken = ARGH!

No,no this is the new me!

Avoid freakout – think of Shikoku and leave it til the morning.

Goodnight!

Shikoku - Conclusion

Slow Down & Be Kind

There just aren’t enough words to sum up how completely amazing this trip has been but that won’t stop me trying. On the last day we ended where we began at temple 43. The scene could not be more different. Two weeks ago it was cold, grey and rainy; today it is bright, warm and sunny. I know it may sound a little cliché but I think that contrast reflects my feelings well. When we first started I was thinking a lot about work and feeling down and stressed out. Now, I feel great, refreshed and ready for another year.

It has been great to take some time out and just slow down. To enjoy things that I never really think about from day to day; tress, bugs, clouds. I have spent hours taking pictures and enjoying what’s all around instead of worrying about stupid insignificant things. At times when we tried to rush the trip, we were reminded of this. One day we were rushing to try and see an extra temple and we just couldn’t find it. It was behind us the entire time if we’d taken the time to drive slowly we would have seen it. On another day we tried to push ourselves and ended up having huge fight and getting nowhere. It was as if someone was trying to remind us that it wasn’t a race and we should slow down. Applying that to our lives in general seems a good idea too.

Finally, be kind. This is such a simple thing to do an yet in this messed up world of ours we seem to have forgotten how to do it. The kindness of the people we have met in Shikoku has been overwhelming and I hope we were kind to them. The simple idea of karma, giving and receiving, we actually saw it on a daily basis and it just seemed to make the world a nicer place. I know, I know cliché and corny but it’s true. Meeting an exhausted pilgrim halfway up a mountain and giving him some fresh fruit and water and telling him Gambatte seems such a small thing but they really appreciated it. In return, we appreciated the simple gestures of kindness made towards us. On orange from one priest, a bookmark from another, help with finding onsens, restaurants; such small things but it made all the difference.

Thank you Shikoku, I will remember you always!

Shikoku - The Best Story

When we arrived at Temple 1 it seemed like a bit of an anti-climax. Maybe because it was 7am and raining or maybe because the temple itself was quite small but I always thought the first temple would be a big, bustling one and it wasn’t. Like many things in Japan however, appearances can be deceptive. After completing our usual rituals at the temple we headed to the temple shop. Seeing as it is the first temple you can buy everything here including the traditional ohenro clothes and numerous books and maps.

The first thing I noticed was that one of the bald-headed priests was actually a lady. She was obviously just as surprised to see a foreigner and so we got talking. She assumed that we were just starting out but we explained that because we lived in Kyushu we had started at Temple 43. She then asked why we weren’t wearing our pilgrim uniform. At this point I wasn’t quite sure if we were being scolded. I tried my best to explain that we were interested in seeing Shikoku and the temples and took the pilgrimage seriously but we didn’t feel right wearing the uniform as we weren’t sure about the correct things to do and didn’t want to offend anybody.

She smiled at this and then came around the counter to greet us. After making us sign our names in a guest book, she took two henro jackets from the shelf and gave them to us. I reached for our wallets but she would not let us pay. She told us that we were “ohenro-san” and that should enjoy our time left on our journey.

With many thanks and bows we left the shop and the first thing I did was burst into tears. I was so touched. It didn’t matter to her that we weren’t Buddhist or that we were foreigners. We were accepted; not because of who we were but for what we were doing. That was a great feeling and we wore our jackets every day after that!

Shikoku - Extra Sights

So many memories come from the temples but we also had time to do a little extra sight-seeing and discover some local treasures. Here’s a brief list of things that made this trip great other than the amazing pilgrimage.

* Visiting Dogo onsen, the oldest onsen in Japan said to be over 3000 years old.

* Visiting the second largest cave in Japan. I have been to the largest and 3rd largest so it seemed nice to complete the set.

* Seeing the Naruto whirlpools.

* Finding a ひごまる sticker stuck on a toilet door. Higo-maru is the character version of Kumamoto Castle and it was nice to find a little reminder of Kumamoto along our way.

* Finding guava juice at a supermarket – memories of Hawaii!

* Staying at a 100-year old school house that had been converted into a hostel.

* The bell-stone

Shikoku - An Average Day

6am - wake up and wash/shower. Luckily for us Japanese disabled toilets are usually equipped with shower heads and are super clean which helped get us going in the morning.

7am – Get to the first temple when they open. Stop along the way to get breakfast.

7am – 5pm NON-STOP TEMPLES!!

5pm – After visiting the last temple of the day we had to consult our maps to figure out where we could find food, an onsen, a launderette and a place to sleep.

We tried to sleep as close to the next temple as we could or at the nearest 道の駅 which literally means road-station. Failing that we would sleep in the car park at 24hr convenience stores. I know that sounds crazy and at home I would never even consider it, but here in Japan people do it all the time.

9pm – Plan the route for the next day and write diary entries for the day.

10pm – sleep!

Shikoku - Prayers

I have never been religious. I was christened when I was a baby and spent 9 years in the Girl’s Brigade (imagine the scouts and add a church) when I was younger but it just never stuck with me. I sometimes went to church at Christmas and Easter but it was never really about God; I was just simply remembering that those particular days are special and not just about presents and chocolate.

Since moving to Japan I have had two very close friends with very strong faith. To say that I’m envious is perhaps a little too strong but their faith does amaze me and I sometimes wonder if I am missing something. I have a bible that was given to me when I was christened and I’ve been thinking about it while on this trip. I don’t know what made me bring it to Japan when I moved here but the idea of leaving it behind seemed wrong somehow. For something that is so important to me, it seems odd I’ve never actually read it. Maybe I’ll get around to changing that someday…..

Back to Shikoku….Not being Buddhist myself I questioned whether I should even do the pilgrimage in the first place. I wanted to see Shikoku and the temples but did it matter that I wasn’t a follower, or that I didn’t say the prayers as I am supposed to?

In the end I decided that the fact that I was worrying about these things meant I respected them and in some ways that is enough. As it turned out Dawn and I often spent much more time at each temple than many Japanese people who seemed to arrive, pray and leave in about two minutes. We also observed basic temple rituals such as washing our hands and mouth before entering and offering money. As for prayers I decided to simply take a few minutes at each temple and let my mind think about all the wonderful things we had seen and done as well as the important things such as family and friends. In such an amazing place as Shikoku, inspiration is never far away.