So everyone around here was all up in a tizzy about this Typhoon. It was said to be “the biggest storm on planet earth………. Since last November”. Last weekend we had another typhoon come through. I wasn’t too impressed by it, but I figured this weekend’s storm would give me something to write about. It was definitely a good storm. A lot of rain and a lot of wind, but I don’t think I experienced anything that was at all scary.
On Saturday at work, I was feeling a bit apprehensive about my weekend plans. A lot of my students and coworkers cautioned me about going to Kyushu (Japan’s southernmost “main” island) for the weekend. We had made plans a few weeks ago to go to a concert on Mt. Aso (one of Japan’s active volcanos) so we were pretty determined to follow through. We had already bought tickets to and from, so we decided we were going regardless.
As soon as I got off work on Saturday, I went home and changed, then headed to Osaka to catch the bullet train. I met Koichi at the Shin-Osaka station and we got some food and drinks before boarding the bullet train and beginning our 4 hour voyage to meet friends in Oita.
We arrived at Oita station a little after midnight, and waited for about a half hour before our friends picked us up and drove the rest of the way to the concert.
The car ride to the concert was a little more than 2 hours, so we finally arrived around 3 am. We set up our tents and then walked around the venue a bit to check things out. There weren’t a lot of people, but it seemed like the place had the potential to host a really awesome party when there wasn’t a typhoon. There was a DJ playing some trance type music, which is not really my style, at one “stage” but there were only a handful of people there listening. There were some cool statues and teepees that looked pretty cool though.
One of the small teepees
After exploring for a bit we decided to head back up to our tent area and have a beer with the group that was at the campfire. First I headed over to chat with them by myself, and everyone was asking me a lot of questions in Japanese. It was nice to have a chance to practice without anyone helping me. I don’t think we all fully understood what was said, but I could communicate most things. I find that I get the most motivated and am able to learn the best when I am in a situation without any help. So far in Japan, I have seldom been in a social situation without someone who can help translate. I hope to put myself in more of those situations over the next few months though.
I finally have some plans to hang out with some of my students, one of the students whom I always talk baseball with invited me to dinner at his house, and if the Hanshin Tigers (the local favorites) make it far enough to have a home playoff game we are hoping to go there too. Another student just invited me to a pro basketball game as well. He is an older guy, but his company sponsors the team from Nara so he gets free tickets to home games. Also, I don’t have any plans for this weekend, so hopefully I can link up with my buddy Zenki, from the boxing gym. I am looking forward to making new friends, and being forced to improve my Japanese.
Back to the concert though. It was originally described to me as a “Rave” but I feel like it was quite far from that. Maybe the weather had something to do with it, but the only artists I saw were traditional kind of bands, with actual instruments. I was glad for that. I prefer real bands and human sounds over electronic in almost every situation.
Even under the assumption that most of the music would be electronic, I was still looking forward to the weekend. Electronic music always makes for a fun party, and we were camping in a really cool place, so my only apprehension was concerning the weather. We didn’t go to see any music until around noon the next day. When we woke up we sat around outside for a bit and enjoyed the scenery, our tents were set up in an area with a nice view of the mountain’s summit and the clouds stayed pretty high in the sky until later in the day, so we got a nice view. It was a bit windy though.
Eventually, we decided to go and try to find some food. It wasn’t very good, but it was edible. I was pretty hungry, and had plans to party for most of the day, soooooo…I needed something in my stomach.
The first few artists were more electronic trance type, so we just chilled out and walked around for a while for a few hours. It started to rain a few drops here and there around 12 or 1 so we went to a big cabin like building which had a band playing within. Eventually the one room cabin was packed with people, but it was so Japanese to me how everyone took their shoes off before stepping in the door. It was a huge dance party with loud music and people drinking, but everyone was in their socks. I am not complaining in the least bit, but it was definitely another one of those moments where I just nod to myself and think “Yup, I am definitely in Japan right now”.
My toes got away pretty much unscathed too. I was pretty shocked by that. Even when I am wearing shoes at a concert or club, I always have my feet stepped on several times.
The bands were pretty good though. Most of the lyrics were sang in Japanese so I didn’t understand much, but their were a few verses sang in English. Some of the guitar players were really great, and the singers sang well enough to make it sound good. It really reminded me of some concerts and festivals I have been to back in the US. It was pretty cool. I felt somewhat at home at this concert. My iPod usually is the main thing that makes me feel at home in the rare time I am feeling at all homesick but this live music seemed even more familiar, even though I didn’t know any of the bands at all.
Another teepee plus and tent outside of the “big cabin”
It was just cool that everyone was having a good time at this concert in the woods on the side of a volcano in the middle of this super typhoon. Other than the whole no shoe thing, this felt very non-Japanese to me. Most of the places I have been in this country people have been fairly reserved and very conscious of how they are perceived by others. Here at this music festival no one seemed to care. Everyone was having a ball, dancing, introducing themselves to me, sharing food and beer and everything else. People elsewhere in Japan have definitely been hospitable without a doubt, but it was a different last weekend. Things were much more open and care free. I really enjoyed the music and everything but I think the overall attitude of the people was the best part of the weekend.
We made a few trips back to the tent throughout the day to relax and have a beer, but we spent most of our time down the hill, at the music. Even after the big cabin closed down, I went to this massive teepee I visited earlier to see what was going on. Earlier in the evening there were just a handful of people in the teepee hanging out around the fire hiding from the weather, but it seemed like it would be the spot for the late night things. Koichi was the only other one in our group who was still awake so he came too. When we walked into the teepee there was still a nice fire going, but there were a lot more people. There was also a guitar player playing solo on a makeshift stage. He was also pretty good. He didn’t sing, which was just as well for me, but eventually he had some other people come up and accompany him with some vocals. by the time they finished up, there were probably around 50-60 people sitting in the tent. I waited around for a bit to see who would come on next, but it ended up just being some of the artist who had played, coming in for interviews -which of course I couldn’t understand- so I went back to the tent for the night.
Inside of the massive teepee with the campfire
It was about 3am when I got back, so I checked on my phone to see how the Ravens were doing. They were already up a touchdown. I turned on the radio broadcast and listened to us score another two touchdowns -which took about 15 minutes- before I fell asleep.
In the morning, I woke up around 9 to pouring down rain. It was dumping buckets and buckets of rain. I wanted to stay in my sleeping bag and take advantage of the weather by sleeping the rest of the day away, but everyone else was already up getting things ready to pack into the car. All of our things and ourselves got soaked while taking the tents down and loading them into the car. It was a pretty miserable ride back to our friends apartment. We made it back there around noon and did a whole lot of nothing for the rest of the day. Mayu -one of the friends who lived there- cooked up the meat we had brought to the mountain to BBQ and we had a nice meal. Much later in the night, around 11pm when the rain had stopped for the most part, we found the energy to go for some ramen at the shop down the street. It was really good ramen, and the perfect food for the crappy weather. A great end to the weekend. We went to sleep almost immediately after getting back.
The next morning Koichi and I got up at 5am to start making our way back home. I had to work at 1 so I had my fingers crossed our flight wouldn’t get delayed because of the storm causing problems back north. We had a two and a half hour bus trip to the airport. When we got there we were happy to see our flight was still scheduled to leave on time. Unfortunately when we boarded, we ended up waiting on the tarmac for almost 45 minutes before taking off. I was a bit stressed about being late to work. The lack of sleep and extremely cramped seating on the low cost airline we took only added to my frustration.
We eventually, landed at Kansai Airport, in Osaka around 10:20. I scrambled to catch the train home, and Koichi generously volunteered to wait at the baggage claim for the one bag we checked. I made it on time, and was able to shower, but I had no time for anything else. I was very glad I was able to get the first hour of the day off and come in at 1 instead of 12. The day started off pretty rough, but ended up not being so bad.
This week I have all of my kids student’s parents coming in to observe classes and meet with me about how things are going. It is a bit more stressful than normal, but two days are already behind me and things are going fairly well so far. I am looking forward to getting all these parent teacher meetings and class observations over with though. It just adds more stress to the office, which makes things much less enjoyable.
I don’t have much planned for this coming weekend. I will get dinner with one of my students on Saturday after work, and then maybe go to a food festival in Osaka on Sunday if the weather is nice. Hopefully I will motivate myself to study some Japanese too. We will see.
Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well back home. I got a letter from my Aunt thanking me for showing her around when she was here. She mentioned that she was getting together with the family over crabs this weekend to show off her pictures from her trip. I am extremely jealous of that. I love Japanese seafood, but nothing beats steamed Maryland blue crabs. Thanks for reading everyone.