Posted by cav on August 07, 2004 at 22:18:59:
Hello from Japan. This town is really tiny and very steep...I think I may have to buy a car. Last night (it's Sunday morning a the time of this posting) I sucessfully navigated the rural train system to Matsumoto for a summer festival. It was an experience. There were thousands of people doing this special dance in the streets. Each group (from schools, stores, neighborhoods, etc.) had their own style. It was fun. It's really wierd to see the styles here. There were many girls in kimonos but they were all fleourescent and wildly patterned, and they had crazy colored hair and stuff. It was like raver geisha! I saw hip-hoppers, punks, ravers, business men, mother's groups, traditional festival clothes. I wish I could speak better, but I'm doing ok. The trick is to dodge the other foreigners.
There's a waterfall beside my house, and all kinds of shrines and stuff. I was warned not to put the trash out early because the monkeys or bears may get it. That sounds REALLY funny to hear in "Japanglish" by the way.
The town is so small that everyone knows everyone. My advisor is the local lawyer, surveyor, and town council memeber. His nephew is the gas company man, his sister works down the street (the only one) his neighbor owns the only internet service provider and the lady who runs the electric company office works with her baby on her hip. My neighbor is a young man whose driveway is the same as mine. He keeps trying to look at me when he passes. I've been making a point to always be looking back and smiling when he does it (I find it perversely funny to catch people doing what they think is subtle and unnoticed), but I think it may be freaking him out, so I may quit or he'll be too afraid to talk to me ever. It's funny, most people are pretty literally scared of me as a foreigner in this town. It will take time for them to realize I'm just like them. Kail will help alot because they'll feel at ease talking to him, and I can talk to their kids (who aren't scared) without looking like a pervert.