A Rhinovirus Requiem: Haiku Round 3

I took a couple days off work and spent a long weekend in Hokkaido, the northern island, to see the Snow Festival and a few other things. I'll begin posting about that later in the week after I've organized my photographs.

In Hokkaido there is snow for, on average, half a year. The snow, however, differs from the snow in Fukui which is usually wet and slushy. Hokkaido is cold, but it's a drier cold than Fukui, so it's easier to handle (at least it seemed so while I was there). After spending a weekend wandering outdoors in Hokkaido and returning to the wet muck of Fukui and a flat with no central heating, it was inevitable that some kind of virus would at least attempt to disrupt my senses. While walking around a classroom this morning feeling as disorientated as a fish in the desert I thought of a few words to describe my physical status.

Cold chest, fever mind
Internal antipodes
Of water and flame

Supernova flare
Fades into icy blackness
Soon to burst again

Setsubun & Central Heating

Around this time of year is the Japanese tradition of 節分 (Setsubun), "the turning point of the seasons". Based on the old Japanese calendar, this is when winter became spring. At some point people realized that it was still snowing heavily and decided to adopt the more accurate Western calendar. Anyway, during the last day of spring the tradition has been to throw roasted soybeans around the house and outside the house while saying, 「鬼は外！福は内！」 (Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!). This means, "demons out! blessings in!" It's a fun event for families with small children to celebrate the purging of bad luck and hopeful arrival of new spring happiness. I think it's a bit like Easter egg hunts in the States in that people remember doing it every year when they were really little but tend to stop once they get older.

Central Heating for all practical purposes is non-existant in this country. At school each room has its own kerosone furnace called the "stove" (word taken from English). My desk is close to "the stove" in the teachers' room. The computer I use is right next to it. Often teachers who don't even use this room will pass through and stand next to it to warm themselves. They don't do anything but stand, and since it's right next to me I always feel like I'm being watched. Really creepy, actually. I'll just be minding my own business reading the news or preparing a Spanish lesson for this girl I've been coaching in Spanish lately and, all of a sudden, one or two people will be standing right over me. Then a conversation begins and one or two becomes two or three and two or three becomes three or four. I've reached a point now when I realize that every time a Japanese person laughs it's not necessarily about how silly I appear, but I still feel on edge whenever they whisper.

Winter Holiday 7: 金沢 (Kanazawa)

This is the final post regarding my winter holiday wanderings.
After returning to Fukui, I still had one or two more free days before work started, so a friend and I decided to venture a bit north to the Ishikawa prefecture and explore "Little Kyoto" (Kanazawa).
Kanazawa has several nice areas for walking around and/or shopping. This is an old geisha district. A couple friends once came here in the fall to try to find a geisha house, but they failed.
We, however, did not fail! The first excursion of the new year was a glaring success. We found everything we wanted to find - a stark departure from excursions of 2007.

There weren't any geishas inside the house, but we were allowed to wander around and admire the Edo period (17-19 century) style design.
Kanazawa features gardens deemed the 3rd most beautiful in Japan (they like making lists about such things here). Normally such places would be very crowded, but in early January most people seem to prefer staying indoors.
Other than the geisha district, there is also a samurai district with traditional Japanese architecture. Nice place to walk.

Winter Holiday 6: 名古屋 (Nagoya)

The internet has returned, and, now that I'm paying for it, the connection is actually stable!
So, without further ado, photographs from Winter Holiday continue:

I flew from Bangkok to Chubu International Airport in Nagoya and spent a couple nights with a friend from my Japan overseas study experience and his former host family. After that I spent a couple nights with my old host family. I discovered a karaoke parlor with all-you-can-eat ice cream and took a chance to wander aimlessly through the city - something I didn't do much when I had the chance a couple years ago. Dragons abound!
The baseball team here, by the way, is The Dragons. They won the Japan Series last year.

Anyway, coming back to Nagoya reminded me of just how much I really can enjoy living in Japan. I didn't do anything exciting or out of the ordinary while there, but most everything I did required a basic understanding of Japanese. Meeting with old friends and their new boyfriends (O_o), watching silly dramas with my old host family (I highly recommend Nodame), listening to an older woman telling stories her sons and husband have heard too often to notice anymore, etc, etc, etc.
Also, I probably can't go without mentioning "Meijo". Meijo is a bit of clever wordplay that, depending on the characters used to write it, could either mean "Nagoya Castle" （名城）or "Nagoya Girls"（名女）. Meijo (the girls) have a reputation for fashion and fancy hair styles that is either negative or positive (usually positive for the Meijo but synonymous with snobbery for outsiders). To be honest, I wasn't really amazed by the girls in Nagoya when I lived there, but, after living the "inaka" (countryside) for a while, well...
Nagoya, as it turns out, is sister cities with LA. There's even a small walk of fame.

Winter Holiday: a Change of Plans & a Change of Pants

So, I've been dropping hints that things didn't go as planned. While on the island Infectious Laughter seemed to be getting sick, and, on our last day there, decided to go to the clinic. Turns out that Infectious Laughter had developed Infectious Disease!


He died shortly thereafter.OK, so maybe he didn't die, and maybe it wasn't really an infectious disease. Anyway, food poisoning* led to diarrhea which led to dehydration which led to two nights in a Thai hospital and a complete suction of all his funds. After this, I didn't quite have enough time for worthwhile travel into Cambodia, and Infectious Laughter only had enough money and energy to change his flight to an early departure from Bangkok back to Japan. Thus, only German Speaker continued as planned and I returned to Bangkok to see the poor boy off and explore the capital of Thailand.


The ironic thing about it all is that Infectious Laughter was really worried about getting sick while were planning the trip. He even packed a sackful of medication for head and stomach ailments. On their first night in the country (before I arrived) German Speaker also apparently wouldn't let him eat from street vendors.
I, by contrast, frequently nibbled on such delights as these grubs which I purchased from some guy on the island. Also worthy to mention is the fact that grubs like these are the high princess' favorite type of insect snack. I have something in common with royalty!



*the food poisoning, we later discovered, was from something he ate in Japan on the night before leaving. 4 of the teachers who were at the same end of year party as him also developed similar symptoms.