Breaking The Silence, Spring Is Sprung(ish) And The School Corridors Echo No More
Well now, the first post in a very looooooooong time indeed. Why the gap? Well, the simple lack of anything really interesting to write about – the actual definition of ‘interesting’ here, being entirely relative of course.
Truth be told, all that my life has really revolved around lately has been sorting out various exam bits and pieces in time for the end of the Japanese school year and plugging away at my increasingly ill-suited and badly completed Japanese correspondence course.
That notwithstanding, other events of note have included the ‘city hi-jinks’ that I was looking forward to during my affliction failing to materialize, having to make do instead with a very messy alcoholic evening in a small bar in Iwade with Gemma and Sarah which, while lacking the sense of lawlessly chaotic unpredictability of the average Osaka all-nighter, was jolly good fun nonetheless..
The third years at Wakayama High also graduated, amid a ceremony characterized by a bizarre cross between militaristic formality and saccharine sentimentality. Example- during the two hour rehearsal for the main shindig held the day before, all students are assembled together in a hall roughly the size of an aircraft hanger but even less insulated. They are then ordered to practice standing, bowing and sitting in perfect unison before the third years take to the stage to collect their certificates to the strains of Lennon’s Imagine. And this was only the practice, the whole event was actually held twice. Most curious thing about it all as far as I was concerned was the amount of 17-year-old graduating boys blubbing as they filed out of the hall at the end. I expected tears from plenty of the girls after witnessing last year’s ceremony, but these reconstituted new-man emotional types really caught me by surprise. More power to ‘em I say, it was rather sweet in its own way. Now with that over and several weeks of end-of-term exams pretty much done, school is winding down for a few weeks, causing Wakayama High’s draughty concrete corridors to fall eerily silent.
Anything else? Well, pretty much every JET in the Naga-Gun area (I refuse to recognize Kinokawa Shi as a geographic and administrative entity) turned up to see an enormous Taiko concert given by the group Sean goes along to every week which included some of the biggest drums I’ve ever seen in my life and some of the densest rhythms ever to pound my ears. Sadly my efforts at making a bootleg recording on my trusty iRiver which I could then share with the world (after obtaining permission from the performers of course) completely failed after my inaccurately-set recording levels made the end result sound as though the venue’s walls were caving in. Never mind, eh? Photographic evidence is courtesy of Mercedes.
Other than that, I witnessed once again the sheer unbridled joy demonstrated by the average Japanese club DJ who either leaps around behind the DJ booth to J-Punk like a six year old on a sugar rush or else gets, like, totally into it maaan by adopting a Christ-like pose and dramatically throwing his head back to Progressive House while out with Jared and Sean at Wakayama’s Club Gate last weekend.
Oh, and it’s been getting warmer too. Iwai Sensei, my special needs school supervisor, emailed me a couple of pics of the plum blossom starting to grow in southern Wakayama that you can see up there. The Japanese go absolutely nuts over their Spring blossom and given how I’ve finally experienced a properly hardcore winter, I can’t say I blame them really. Unfortunately, most of the trees around here have yet to burst into vibrant life. Indeed, the last couple of days have seen intermittent bouts of snow of all things, and in mid-March!
However, by the time school starts again in early April and the corridors once again ring to the students’ cries of “Kusai!”, “Kawaii,” and “Bye bye!” the Sakura will be well on its way, the weather conditions will be about as good as it gets in Japan for a Brit like me and I’ll be enjoying a few of sake-fuelled hanabe with friends and colleagues. Here’s to hoping, anyway…
Truth be told, all that my life has really revolved around lately has been sorting out various exam bits and pieces in time for the end of the Japanese school year and plugging away at my increasingly ill-suited and badly completed Japanese correspondence course.
That notwithstanding, other events of note have included the ‘city hi-jinks’ that I was looking forward to during my affliction failing to materialize, having to make do instead with a very messy alcoholic evening in a small bar in Iwade with Gemma and Sarah which, while lacking the sense of lawlessly chaotic unpredictability of the average Osaka all-nighter, was jolly good fun nonetheless..
The third years at Wakayama High also graduated, amid a ceremony characterized by a bizarre cross between militaristic formality and saccharine sentimentality. Example- during the two hour rehearsal for the main shindig held the day before, all students are assembled together in a hall roughly the size of an aircraft hanger but even less insulated. They are then ordered to practice standing, bowing and sitting in perfect unison before the third years take to the stage to collect their certificates to the strains of Lennon’s Imagine. And this was only the practice, the whole event was actually held twice. Most curious thing about it all as far as I was concerned was the amount of 17-year-old graduating boys blubbing as they filed out of the hall at the end. I expected tears from plenty of the girls after witnessing last year’s ceremony, but these reconstituted new-man emotional types really caught me by surprise. More power to ‘em I say, it was rather sweet in its own way. Now with that over and several weeks of end-of-term exams pretty much done, school is winding down for a few weeks, causing Wakayama High’s draughty concrete corridors to fall eerily silent.
Anything else? Well, pretty much every JET in the Naga-Gun area (I refuse to recognize Kinokawa Shi as a geographic and administrative entity) turned up to see an enormous Taiko concert given by the group Sean goes along to every week which included some of the biggest drums I’ve ever seen in my life and some of the densest rhythms ever to pound my ears. Sadly my efforts at making a bootleg recording on my trusty iRiver which I could then share with the world (after obtaining permission from the performers of course) completely failed after my inaccurately-set recording levels made the end result sound as though the venue’s walls were caving in. Never mind, eh? Photographic evidence is courtesy of Mercedes.
Other than that, I witnessed once again the sheer unbridled joy demonstrated by the average Japanese club DJ who either leaps around behind the DJ booth to J-Punk like a six year old on a sugar rush or else gets, like, totally into it maaan by adopting a Christ-like pose and dramatically throwing his head back to Progressive House while out with Jared and Sean at Wakayama’s Club Gate last weekend.
Oh, and it’s been getting warmer too. Iwai Sensei, my special needs school supervisor, emailed me a couple of pics of the plum blossom starting to grow in southern Wakayama that you can see up there. The Japanese go absolutely nuts over their Spring blossom and given how I’ve finally experienced a properly hardcore winter, I can’t say I blame them really. Unfortunately, most of the trees around here have yet to burst into vibrant life. Indeed, the last couple of days have seen intermittent bouts of snow of all things, and in mid-March!
However, by the time school starts again in early April and the corridors once again ring to the students’ cries of “Kusai!”, “Kawaii,” and “Bye bye!” the Sakura will be well on its way, the weather conditions will be about as good as it gets in Japan for a Brit like me and I’ll be enjoying a few of sake-fuelled hanabe with friends and colleagues. Here’s to hoping, anyway…
posted by Callum | 2:22 PM
|
0 comments
