The Summer vacation ended on Sept. 1st with the beginning of the new school semester. Let me be clear on a few facts I learned when I came back.
- I already knew that the school year actually starts in March, so the kids have one semester of classes then summer vacation starts at the end of July.
- What I didn't know was that during summer vacation the students are given "homework," which is actually material to study for the TEST they take the day after school started Sept 1st.
Here's a shot of a few of the 3rd years during the opening ceremony on Sept 1st.
School starts..heads bowed in defeat..summer is over.
That's right their whole summer vacation had the specter of a test looming on the horizon, and tests in Japan (at least for school) are not taken lightly. You fail the wrong test and you might as well find a quiet place to spill your life on the ground since you've just wrecked any chances for a successful life. Sad but seems to be the status quo. Not to mention the fact that teachers have to attend school club activities every day during "vacation," what the crap is that? I thumbed my nose mostly at this busy work. My usual summer day consited of me coming to school at the regular time (all the rest of the teachers are late during summer vacation) staying for about 1 hr reading the paper then going to Kendo practice for about 2.5 hrs then that's it, I'd go home from there. I figured after the first day of watching teachers sleep at their desks or play online Japanese chess that there wasn't much point to my being around.
These kids are from Miyama, it's a mountain village inland about 40 minutes from where I live. I met them on the train home from my 2 week summer stay in Shingu. While I was in Shingu I trained aikido everyday and I had Japanese lessons. I also was introduced to a kendo master and helped him and his family harvest rice for 2 days. It was light work other than the heat rash I go from wearing completely the wrong cloths. I could hardly walk my legs were SO chaffed the 2nd day.
Miyama kids
This next photo is from my trip up to Kokawa-cho for my ikkyu test in iaido. I came back from Shingu and the very next day I had to go in the other direction for this test. I have been studying iai now for perhaps 6-7 months. I have gotten used to this idea that testing is a formality really in Japan and doesn't mean doodly. I am not disappointed (I think that would imply fault is w/ Japan and Japan is Japan, I can't blame the country if it isn't as cool as my expectations thought it would be-I have not yet seen a single ninja), but I I felt it would be different and frankly other than some of the really strange stuff (believe me there's a lot of that) This country isn't all that different than America, in many regards it is less efficient, dirtier and a great deal less friendly than any where in American I have visited or lived.
Tabuchi sensei and his wife
Sensei is one of the oldest (and most famous) kendo teachers in this area. He is a great deal older than the sensei I met down near Shingu whose families rice I helped harvest. I heard that he fought in WWII, but to what extent and where I have never asked. He is a quiet but sincere old man who even in his advanced years has managed more than once to frighten me while holding a sword. He also frightened me once by driving me home but that's a different story.
The elephant/boar-head guardian at Toshogu in Wakayama
This is a picture of the waves crashing into the beach near my house. This summer has been a good one for typhoons, but sadly they don't hold a candle to the ones that hit Florida and have nothing on a good old fashioned thunderstorm. This is the 16th this year (as of this writing number 18 is making its way over Okinawa at the moment) and I'm still not impressed. Later this week number 18 should arrive, its considered a big one. I'm not going to hold my breath.
Typhoon 16 just down the street
Just before I decided to do this instead of studying Japanese tonight (I did read aloud to practice my horrible speaking ability though) I went for a walk for about 1 hr. I like walking in the country since I always see something strange when I'm out. Tonight was no different. I was looking for a trail over the mountains to a village called Hii. I was lost in my thoughts about kendo and swordsmanship when I looked up and was greeted with a human head on a stake, 3 actually.
Creepy heads in the garden.
They were at knee level and after getting over the creepatuity of it (Yes it's word, I just made it up). I wondered if they were artistic or intended as scare crows. Either way it was getting dark, I snapped some pictures and headed home. This is the worst time of year to wander in the jungles on the trails since the monstrous spiders always make their webs across the trails. I have seen some pretty big spiders and even bigger webs and NOTHING is worse than walking face first into a spider web. NOTHING.
the end.
PS. How could I forget, a level 5 (Japan's scale is up to 7 so it was pretty big) hit south of the coast of Wakayama/Mie while I was writing this. a .5m tsunami his the coastal areas. I wasn't in danger but the quake lasted almost a minute, pretty small but it was strange to feel the room wobble like that.