The Kaga Non-Adventure

     Hey faithful readers! Jorden here. Thanks for keeping up with us! While Daniel's in Egypt (blog post to come, I'm sure), I've been trying to busy myself with some minor adventures here. I took this past week off work to enjoy some "cultural furlough," which mainly involved baking American desserts, watching American movies, and visiting with my American friends (don't tell my boss). Hey, in my defense, they never specified which culture "cultural furlough" applies to. Anyway.
     I did make my way down to Kaga, a quaint hot springs town about an hour south of Kanazawa by train. I had heard stories of numerous spas and artisan shops; in fact, one of my JTEs showed me an online map of one of the local villages which featured shops for pottery, lacquer ware, gold leaf, textiles, and I think there was even a snow cone stand in there somewhere. It looked exquisite, so I stuffed a book and my iPod into my bag and hopped on the train for a relaxing day trip.

The Hokuriku region. Do YOU see KAGA? (Dora the Explorer voice)

     Well. It wasn't exactly as I had imagined. You know, when I saw that I'd be getting off at "Kaga Hot Spring Station," I kinda figured there'd be hot springs galore. Like, employees from competing hot spring spas would be dressed in bubble costumes waving signs and greeting me as a walked off the train. "50% OFF TODAY ONLY" and "ALL-YOU-CAN-DUNK FOR 999円!" their signs would boast. I'd pick the dreamiest-looking onsen and they'd whisk me away to a steaming bath full of rose hips.

Something like this would suffice.

     No, it wasn't like that at all. What I found instead was a lonely train station, about a tenth the size of Kanazawa's, with two bored ticket attendants and a broken vending machine. The bathrooms didn't even have toilet paper. I walked about a half mile to the left of the station, and found a building with the kanji for "hot spring" on the side. I tried the door. Rats. Looks like they don't open 'til...(converting from military time in my head)...5PM? Am I reading that right? Okay, 5PM I guess. And they close at...3 in the morning? What kind of hot spring is this? All right, I'll keep walking. Across the street, I see another promising candidate. There's a billboard with a lady sitting in a bath. She looks nice and relaxed. I approach the door, and realize just in the nick of time that it's a yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant. Weird advertisement, but okay. I walk a little further in the same direction, but there's only a drug store, a blue jeans outlet, and some commercial-looking buildings. I circle back to the station and walk in the other direction. But there's even less in this direction than the first. I find a sweet temple and take some pictures. Realize there's not a soul around. (Wait...have I even seen a single person since I left the station? Err...yeah, I guess there was that one guy.) I finish walking the temple grounds, then decide to try my luck behind the station. I cross the tracks, trying to push that scene from Fried Green Tomatoes out of my mind (my shoes, however, were lace-less) and make my way up a hill toward a slightly overgrown--yet somehow charming--neighborhood.

BUDDY!

I pass a group of kids racing bicycles down the hill, and they look at me with wide, unabashed stares. I hear one whisper gaikokujin ("foreigner") to his friend. I smile and try not to notice them watching me as a snake up the hill and out of sight.

The look is something like this.

      Finally, I find it. This, ladies and gentlemen, is THE hot spring that everyone talks about in Kaga, Japan. This must be the MGM of Japanese hot springs. It may as well have been glowing on the hilltop. I see the mega-sized characters for "Kaga Hot Spring" on the light-up sign atop the fancy hotel, and a jumbo (we're talking a couple dozen stories) Buddha statue too. This place is ritzy. I mean, it might be out of my price range. I might have to reconsider. Well, I walk through the bushy neighborhood, noticing all the cracks in the uneven pavement along the way, until I find an entrance into this place. It's not the main entrance, to be sure; looks like they're doing construction and this is the workers' way in. Am I allowed to go through here? Maybe I'll just ask some...there's no one around. But I can't find the main entrance, so I help myself through the gravelled driveway, and loop around to find a COMPLETELY DESERTED, EMPTY, HAUNTED, SPOOKY-AS-ALL-GETOUT, ONCE-WAS HOT SPRING HOTEL. There are broken windows. It's pitch black inside. Not a single car in what must be the largest parking lot I've seen in all of Japan. The grand stairway leads up into an archway of total darkness; I literally can't see anything beyond the twelfth or so step. I look behind me and there's a crater-like hole in the pavement with rusted iron jutting out. Does something like that even exist outside of horror movies? I pass an abandoned shed that's been overtaken with what looks like Devil's Snare. (Remember how it hates sunlight? Well, yeah.)  I manage to snap a few pictures on my phone just before I get totally creeped out, then book it out of there.
     I stopped by MegaBuddha on the way back; there was actually another temple--much larger than the first--with the gargantuan golden statue as its magnum opus. When I stood directly below it, my eyes kept playing that trick where the thing looked like it was falling towards me. You know? So I didn't stay for long. Also, I was once again the ONLY person in the whole temple. I walked past the attendant booth and, no joke, the guy was asleep. This place was really giving me the heebie-jeebs, so I headed back towards the station (not without passing the open-mouthed younglings again, of course) and hit up the shopping center next to it. No wonder there were no people anywhere else in the town; they were all in here shopping.

Here she is, a view from the station

And up close. See the little black dots? Those are windows.

      Now, it should be mentioned that normally, since Kanazawa is a large enough city to see its fair share of white people, I can make it through a day without being stared at shamelessly. But in a city like Kaga, whose largest attraction is Lady Kaga, the locals just aren't used to seeing someone like me. So I spent the afternoon trying to dodge gasps and stares (mildly unsuccessful) and find a dang pair of shoes big enough for my western feet (totally unsuccessful). I caught the 3PM train home to Kanazawa, and it really did feel like coming home, which I guess made the whole day worth it. I had only been gone for the day, but somehow it was so refreshing to roll into my home station, to ride my bicycle through familiar streets, to come back to our quaint little apartment. It really does feel quite homey sometimes.
     Lesson learned: next time, I'll do my research. Apparently, Kaga does have some truly glorious onsens, but you have to take a bus from the station to get to them, and you have to know what you're doing in advance. Fair enough. I'm sure I'll make it back to Kaga again soon, and next time I'll take my copilot with me. In the mean time, the non-adventure is worth a laugh. See ya again, Lady Kaga!

Junior High School Bingo

Graduation at my junior high school is next week on Tuesday.  The third-year students have been practicing every day so as to perform perfectly when the time comes to stand up in front of their friends and family and officially end their junior high school days.  Since I'm at a (relatively) small school, each student will be called to the stage to receive their certificate, just like it would be done in the States.  I peeked into the gym during fourth period today and watched for about 15 minutes as a teacher called over the microphone for the students to stand, sit, walk, stop, and of course bow.

The third-year students, equivalent in age to American high school freshmen, have been writing essay after essay reflecting back on their time in junior high school, thanking those who have supported and helped them through this time.  As a final assignment for their English class, they had a "speaking test" with me, which sounds way more intimidating that it was.  The students would come in one by one to sit down and talk with me about a subject of their choosing..  I chatted with my students about everything from "I'll tell you about the cutest Japanese pop music stars" to "I'll tell you why I want to be a doctor.  My grandfather died of cancer two years ago and I couldn't do anything to help."

It was, far and away, my favorite task so far as an ALT.  I learned so much about my students that I filled up three separate notebook pages with scribbled notes such as "listen to song 'Let's Be Friends'" and "check out shorinji kenpo."  I walked away from each class feeling like I'd learned not just about my students but also about Japan in general.

This week I had my last third-year classes.  As as a final activity, I decided on the somewhat lackluster Bingo game.  Of course, I doctored it up and added modifications.  In each square, I wrote a sentence like "stayed up all night studying" or "was scolded by a teacher."  The students had to walk around interview their fellow classmates.  "Have you ever stayed up all night studying?  Have you ever been scolded by a teacher?"  If their partner answered yes, they'd collect their signature and move on.  The first one to get a Bingo won, and then I made it more difficult by requiring a triple Bingo or a blackout.

When we first gave it a go on Tuesday morning, it more or less flopped.  Although seemingly straight-forward, it took way longer than expected to explain the rules and flow of the game.  My JTEs had to jump in every other sentence and clarify things in Japanese.  The students eventually got it and had fun playing, but I left feeling a little dissatisfied.

Wednesday's class went a little better.  I was able to head off some questions by writing examples on the board and having students repeat after me when I said "Have you ever ___________ in junior high school?"  This helped them see how the game worked, though we still had several awkward moments and translation errors.

As things usually go, however, my third class was like a well-oiled machine.  I always feel bad for the first class I teach a lesson to, because it's always rough.  The last class, however, gets the benefit of trial and error.  Today during lunch I went in and wrote out examples and instructions in simple English on the board, arranged the room a bit, and then waited for the bell.  I wanted it to be good, because my last class was class 3B.  3B became my favorite even before Christmas break.  They have all the All-Star English students -- the captain and co-captain of the English Club, the girl who went to a national English speech contest, and even the boys who MC'ed the English portion of the presentation day last week.  They're the first class I have on Monday morning, and they always make it great.  Today was no disappointment.

We started off and I hit the ground running.  The comprehension of this class is off the charts, so I spoke at an almost-normal pace.  They laughed at the jokes (which, I can't stress enough, is exceedingly rare... humor is one of the hardest parts of English to translate), they nodded when they understood, and they gave a hilarious unenthusiastic but unified "yaaaaaaay" when I told them we were playing Bingo.  We started the game and finished exactly on time, 15 minutes later.  This gave us ten minutes of class time left, so Mrs. Tedoriya had each student, from number 1 in the front row to number 40 in the back corner, stand and say one thing they did in junior high school, using the Bingo squares as an example.

"I stayed up all night studying in junior high school."
"I made many good friends in junior high school."
"I won a sports competition in junior high school"
"I forgot my lunch in junior high school."
"I got influenza in junior high school."

Once we finished all 40 students, it was time for the teachers to give our final comments.  Since we usually split the class into alpha level and beta level to better accommodate faster and slower learners, there were two JTEs and myself present.  When it as my turn, I smiled at them all and told them how much I'd miss them.  "You're my favorite class," I told them, "so thank you for a great first seven months in Japan.  I know you'll all do well in high school, and I hope you have a fun and relaxing spring break before you start.  Thank you very much."

Japan is really big into official beginnings and endings.  Every morning we start our staff meeting with everyone saying "good morning!" in Japanese.  We begin each school assembly with a bow and a "welcome!"  English classes are no different.  We begin by saying "hello class!" and end by saying "see you next time, class!"  Today when the ending bell rang, Mrs. Tedoriya had all the students stand up, and then she bowed and said, "so long, everyone."

This is the end for them, but it's only the beginning for Jorden and I.  We'll see one more end of the school year here in Japan, and maybe more than that.  It's been a great first experience with life and school in Japan, and we'll see what the spring and the new school year holds.  It'll be a great time.  And I'll have to find my new favorite class.


Thanks for listening.


-The Adventurers