Gaijin Life in Aomori Fall
So I've been writing a lot about life as an ALT. In fact, all of my correspondence over the last 3 months (with the sole exception of my Elizabethan Insults insert :) has been a "Life on the JET Program" testament, which is all well and good...except there are, of course, other things going on over here. I've decided, then, that I should branch out to a different subject which I know at least some of you are wondering about.
So here we go--a post with no teachers, no students, no curriculums or classes involved.
______________________________
I woke up Monday morning and glanced out the window before heading to the bus stop--good thing I did, 'cause WE GOT OUR FIRST SNOW! :D
Apparently, it snowed the previous night, but on account of the fact that it was...well...night, I missed it. *sadness* ;_; BUT! I did get to wear my swishy Ireland coat that day, which filled me with much happy. ^_^
So as Fall has most definitely arrived...and is nearly over, so I'd better get this posted quick. ^^;
Up north here in Aomori, the trees are mostly pine, so there isn't the brilliant array of oranges, yellows, and reds I experienced in Kyoto with the momiji. Patches of the mountains have turned from green to reddish brown (not much in between), and the contents of the many little veggie gardens about my house have been altered considerably--the pumpkin patches have disappeared and rows of giant daikon can be seen draping the fences everywhere (I'm not sure exactly what they're doing there). In their place are rows of bright yellow chrysanthemums (which they eat here) and berry bushes. I have switched up my wardrobe of short sleeved t-shirts and tank tops for sweaters and jackets, packing the summer wear away in the suitcase that, up until about two weeks ago, was stuffed with the winter wear. And, of course, it seems to have been a well-timed transition.
COLD:
I no longer open the window in my bathroom, the ever-reliable gateway for a reasonable breeze blowing down from the mountains nearby that will shoot right through every room of my house if I make use of it. My fan (my best friend for many weeks after my arrival) sits neglected and forgotten in the back corner of one of my immense closets. Thrice have I used my "Toiyu stove" (aka, my heater) for a period of more than 5 hours at a time, usually in the late afternoon/evening in an attempt to still my shivering body and thaw out my fingers struggling to use chopsticks without sticking to them. Every night I glance stubbornly at my closet and resist the urge to make use of the space heater left by my predecessor for one more day. Every morning, I have to give myself a pep talk to get out of bed, knowing all too well that the frozen air above my two layers of cozy blankets will hit and stick like sewer sludge the moment I stand up, and that it will take at least a very long 5 minutes for my selected clothing to climb to meet body temperature.
But I am adapting. Now I decide what I'm wearing before I pull myself out of bed, and I brush my teeth at the kitchen sink every morning, which has the option of warm water so's I don't freeze my teeth. ^w^
HOUSE COMFORTS:
I'm loving my new sofa. About a month into my placement here, I decided the wicker piece of creaky crap sitting in my living room that jutted up into my back when I sat on it was not going to soften with time. The thing had to go. So I headed into Aomori with Yamamoto-san and selected a white leather beauty both long enough to stretch out on and soft enough to fall asleep on...as I suspect there may be a night or two in the coming winter when I'll be void of the motivation to crawl back into my chilly bedroom. At the time of purchase, I selected a cover for the sofa that would help combat the inevitable spills and smudges for which white leather is especially known to attract (the cover, of course, is off white...because I'm not nearly clever enough to decide on something dark enough to hide the stains altogether). The couch has been in my house now for about a month, and though we hardly know each other, I think I'm in love. -_-
RICE CULTURE:
We're come to the end of the rice harvest here. Out in the inaka (countryside), the rice fields stretch out long between the towns. When I arrived in Aomori, they were that bright spring green color most people imagine all rice fields are all the time. Then, as the temperature dropped, they turned a very pretty yellow gold, until finally, the fields of flowing leaves disappeared and were replaced by thick wooden beams suck in the ground, on which the bales of harvested stalks were stacked, neat and uniform, to stand out for just long enough for me to get my head in order and remember to bring my camera to snap a picture of them. I finally remembered on my way home from one of the school festivals. Two days later, the bales and the posts were gone.
Behold my mad picture-taking skillz!
Neat, huh? :)
Burning massive piles of harvested grain is also somehow related to this harvest time. Driving along the highway, these fires (which are more smoke than flame), can be seen all over. It is that same strong mountain wind that pushes the smoke, and it's really incredible to see that both smell and smoke trail away from the source in a surprisingly well-behaved line downwind, straying neither upward to the sky, nor outward to cover wider ground. Some have trails of smoke so long and thick that they make a billowing white cloud stretching from the base of the mountains to the sea, which means a brief moment of virtually no visibility when the cloud crosses the road. The mounds of grain are left burning for days (I know this, because I passed one last Mondayish on my way to work, and it was still there on Thursday).
I have since learned that the farmers aren't actually supposed to light fires for safety reasons...but everyone does it 'cause we're all out in the inaka and no one cares enough to enforce that particular law.*
*Slight digression--> Indeed, the policemen here seem to like speed traps best, and if we did speed traps back home the way they did them here, I might rethink my career choice. In the US, speed traps involve cops watching the road, radar gun in hand, from their cars, cleverly concealed by trees, bushes, or a viciously blind turn. In Japan (perhaps I should say, "in Aomori"), a speed trap involves a sunny day, a wide open road, and a lawn chair. Motorists know where the cops hide, because they are always hiding in the same places and never sit anywhere but in plain sight, so the norm is to drive fast where no cops are ever seen, and then slow down for where there are always "pato-car"s waiting. The cops get a lazy day and the drivers avoid ticket fees--the system works. :)
Now...where was I?
Ah.
A final note on the rice harvest is the awesome machine they use to actually cut the stalks down. It looks like a squished white box on wheels (complete with chibi smokestack), with a seat at the front for the driver that is sometimes covered with a plate of glass to make it look...ever so slightly more car-ish. But it is not so much the shape of this little tractor that is worthy of a spot in my story. Rather, it is the fact that the whole contraption moves over a raw field of rice at a steady, reasonable pace, cuts down the stalks, and then spits them out the back stripped of grain and bundled into bales--in the space of about 3 seconds. Maybe I'm just farm-deprived, but I thought it was really cool. ^_^
THE BIRDS:
There are three kinds of birds in Aomori worth talking about.
First, the big black birds.
I love crows. Ever since my first trip to Tokyo, I've been in love with the crows in Japan, which have taken the place of pigeons in the cities and rule the inaka like a fleet of mini-godzillas. They are the size of cats themselves out here and eat extremely well--these birds can get at anything they set their mind to in a garden, from a tomato to an ear of corn to a pumpkin (I know this because my front yard seems to be considered an acceptable outdoor dining area). It may be the farming nature of my Japanese acquaintances here that makes me the point of weird looks when I say I like these big black menaces...then again, it could be that I am genuinely strange. :)
I keep waiting for the day that I get annoyed at one of my early CAWCAWCAAAAAAAW wake up calls. So far, they mostly make me laugh.
I have at least one crow living on top of my house. He (admittedly, could be a she) likes to poke his (or her) head out defiantly from my roof when I come home, as if challenging me to try and make him (her) move. These are warrior crows, mind you--I'm very likely the only person in the prefecture that doesn't chase them off every time I see them. Probably all for the better that he doesn't trust me then. He (we're gonna go with "he") also likes to land on a pipe I have poking out of the wall of my kitchen, quite possibly because he knows it always gets me up from whatever I'm doing to locate the source of the scratchy, clangy noise of claw on metal...my goal is to get a picture of him doing this before he finally figures out that it's just too slippery for him to stand there. ;)
Second, the big brown birds.
These hawks, too, are surprisingly plentiful. Even in Florida, when one sees a hawk, it's a thing to make you stop and look up for a minute. In Aomori, there is a large brown hawk for every five crows. They're big birds with little whistling calls, and I expect they will be quite beautiful sitting against the coming snow. Hopefully, I'll get a good look, as it seems one of them is considering the realestate of a tree near my house...though I have yet to figure out exactly which tree...
Third, the big white birds.
We have swans in Aomori! Big ol' flocks of swans! They come to the harvested rice fields and eat...something. I assume it's the leftover grain or whatever--they were too far for me to get that close of a look. But on the half hour-ish trip to Aomori, I caught sight of at least 4 flocks (gaggles? What are groups of swans called?) of them pecking away at the dirt, about 7-10 birds each!
It was awesome. I don't know if I've ever seen wild swans before. :)
Most of the animals in Aomori I've seen so far have been birds. Aside from crows, hawks, and swans, we have MASSIVELY HUGE seagulls, little brown birds (chick-a-dees, I think?...if that's how you spell it), and ducks. Otherwise, I've heard there are monkeys in the mountains that sometimes come down to grab a pumpkin or other veggie treat, and across the prefecture there are bears and even wild horses in one area. Sounds like I've got some safariing to do. ^^
____________
Well, that's probably enough for this post. Winter is setting in soon, so I hope to get another seasonal update like this out...doubtless I will have little choice, snowed in by the feet upon feet of snow pressing in on my door. We'll see, though. I'm having more and more "do you ski? NO? I'LL TEACH YOU!" conversations with my coworkers by the day, so I can't really say where I'll be in the coming months. :)
Fin.
So here we go--a post with no teachers, no students, no curriculums or classes involved.
______________________________
I woke up Monday morning and glanced out the window before heading to the bus stop--good thing I did, 'cause WE GOT OUR FIRST SNOW! :D
Apparently, it snowed the previous night, but on account of the fact that it was...well...night, I missed it. *sadness* ;_; BUT! I did get to wear my swishy Ireland coat that day, which filled me with much happy. ^_^
So as Fall has most definitely arrived...and is nearly over, so I'd better get this posted quick. ^^;
Up north here in Aomori, the trees are mostly pine, so there isn't the brilliant array of oranges, yellows, and reds I experienced in Kyoto with the momiji. Patches of the mountains have turned from green to reddish brown (not much in between), and the contents of the many little veggie gardens about my house have been altered considerably--the pumpkin patches have disappeared and rows of giant daikon can be seen draping the fences everywhere (I'm not sure exactly what they're doing there). In their place are rows of bright yellow chrysanthemums (which they eat here) and berry bushes. I have switched up my wardrobe of short sleeved t-shirts and tank tops for sweaters and jackets, packing the summer wear away in the suitcase that, up until about two weeks ago, was stuffed with the winter wear. And, of course, it seems to have been a well-timed transition.
COLD:
I no longer open the window in my bathroom, the ever-reliable gateway for a reasonable breeze blowing down from the mountains nearby that will shoot right through every room of my house if I make use of it. My fan (my best friend for many weeks after my arrival) sits neglected and forgotten in the back corner of one of my immense closets. Thrice have I used my "Toiyu stove" (aka, my heater) for a period of more than 5 hours at a time, usually in the late afternoon/evening in an attempt to still my shivering body and thaw out my fingers struggling to use chopsticks without sticking to them. Every night I glance stubbornly at my closet and resist the urge to make use of the space heater left by my predecessor for one more day. Every morning, I have to give myself a pep talk to get out of bed, knowing all too well that the frozen air above my two layers of cozy blankets will hit and stick like sewer sludge the moment I stand up, and that it will take at least a very long 5 minutes for my selected clothing to climb to meet body temperature.
But I am adapting. Now I decide what I'm wearing before I pull myself out of bed, and I brush my teeth at the kitchen sink every morning, which has the option of warm water so's I don't freeze my teeth. ^w^
HOUSE COMFORTS:
I'm loving my new sofa. About a month into my placement here, I decided the wicker piece of creaky crap sitting in my living room that jutted up into my back when I sat on it was not going to soften with time. The thing had to go. So I headed into Aomori with Yamamoto-san and selected a white leather beauty both long enough to stretch out on and soft enough to fall asleep on...as I suspect there may be a night or two in the coming winter when I'll be void of the motivation to crawl back into my chilly bedroom. At the time of purchase, I selected a cover for the sofa that would help combat the inevitable spills and smudges for which white leather is especially known to attract (the cover, of course, is off white...because I'm not nearly clever enough to decide on something dark enough to hide the stains altogether). The couch has been in my house now for about a month, and though we hardly know each other, I think I'm in love. -_-
RICE CULTURE:
We're come to the end of the rice harvest here. Out in the inaka (countryside), the rice fields stretch out long between the towns. When I arrived in Aomori, they were that bright spring green color most people imagine all rice fields are all the time. Then, as the temperature dropped, they turned a very pretty yellow gold, until finally, the fields of flowing leaves disappeared and were replaced by thick wooden beams suck in the ground, on which the bales of harvested stalks were stacked, neat and uniform, to stand out for just long enough for me to get my head in order and remember to bring my camera to snap a picture of them. I finally remembered on my way home from one of the school festivals. Two days later, the bales and the posts were gone.
Behold my mad picture-taking skillz!
Neat, huh? :)
Burning massive piles of harvested grain is also somehow related to this harvest time. Driving along the highway, these fires (which are more smoke than flame), can be seen all over. It is that same strong mountain wind that pushes the smoke, and it's really incredible to see that both smell and smoke trail away from the source in a surprisingly well-behaved line downwind, straying neither upward to the sky, nor outward to cover wider ground. Some have trails of smoke so long and thick that they make a billowing white cloud stretching from the base of the mountains to the sea, which means a brief moment of virtually no visibility when the cloud crosses the road. The mounds of grain are left burning for days (I know this, because I passed one last Mondayish on my way to work, and it was still there on Thursday).
I have since learned that the farmers aren't actually supposed to light fires for safety reasons...but everyone does it 'cause we're all out in the inaka and no one cares enough to enforce that particular law.*
*Slight digression--> Indeed, the policemen here seem to like speed traps best, and if we did speed traps back home the way they did them here, I might rethink my career choice. In the US, speed traps involve cops watching the road, radar gun in hand, from their cars, cleverly concealed by trees, bushes, or a viciously blind turn. In Japan (perhaps I should say, "in Aomori"), a speed trap involves a sunny day, a wide open road, and a lawn chair. Motorists know where the cops hide, because they are always hiding in the same places and never sit anywhere but in plain sight, so the norm is to drive fast where no cops are ever seen, and then slow down for where there are always "pato-car"s waiting. The cops get a lazy day and the drivers avoid ticket fees--the system works. :)
Now...where was I?
Ah.
A final note on the rice harvest is the awesome machine they use to actually cut the stalks down. It looks like a squished white box on wheels (complete with chibi smokestack), with a seat at the front for the driver that is sometimes covered with a plate of glass to make it look...ever so slightly more car-ish. But it is not so much the shape of this little tractor that is worthy of a spot in my story. Rather, it is the fact that the whole contraption moves over a raw field of rice at a steady, reasonable pace, cuts down the stalks, and then spits them out the back stripped of grain and bundled into bales--in the space of about 3 seconds. Maybe I'm just farm-deprived, but I thought it was really cool. ^_^
THE BIRDS:
There are three kinds of birds in Aomori worth talking about.
First, the big black birds.
I love crows. Ever since my first trip to Tokyo, I've been in love with the crows in Japan, which have taken the place of pigeons in the cities and rule the inaka like a fleet of mini-godzillas. They are the size of cats themselves out here and eat extremely well--these birds can get at anything they set their mind to in a garden, from a tomato to an ear of corn to a pumpkin (I know this because my front yard seems to be considered an acceptable outdoor dining area). It may be the farming nature of my Japanese acquaintances here that makes me the point of weird looks when I say I like these big black menaces...then again, it could be that I am genuinely strange. :)
I keep waiting for the day that I get annoyed at one of my early CAWCAWCAAAAAAAW wake up calls. So far, they mostly make me laugh.
I have at least one crow living on top of my house. He (admittedly, could be a she) likes to poke his (or her) head out defiantly from my roof when I come home, as if challenging me to try and make him (her) move. These are warrior crows, mind you--I'm very likely the only person in the prefecture that doesn't chase them off every time I see them. Probably all for the better that he doesn't trust me then. He (we're gonna go with "he") also likes to land on a pipe I have poking out of the wall of my kitchen, quite possibly because he knows it always gets me up from whatever I'm doing to locate the source of the scratchy, clangy noise of claw on metal...my goal is to get a picture of him doing this before he finally figures out that it's just too slippery for him to stand there. ;)
Second, the big brown birds.
These hawks, too, are surprisingly plentiful. Even in Florida, when one sees a hawk, it's a thing to make you stop and look up for a minute. In Aomori, there is a large brown hawk for every five crows. They're big birds with little whistling calls, and I expect they will be quite beautiful sitting against the coming snow. Hopefully, I'll get a good look, as it seems one of them is considering the realestate of a tree near my house...though I have yet to figure out exactly which tree...
Third, the big white birds.
We have swans in Aomori! Big ol' flocks of swans! They come to the harvested rice fields and eat...something. I assume it's the leftover grain or whatever--they were too far for me to get that close of a look. But on the half hour-ish trip to Aomori, I caught sight of at least 4 flocks (gaggles? What are groups of swans called?) of them pecking away at the dirt, about 7-10 birds each!
It was awesome. I don't know if I've ever seen wild swans before. :)
Most of the animals in Aomori I've seen so far have been birds. Aside from crows, hawks, and swans, we have MASSIVELY HUGE seagulls, little brown birds (chick-a-dees, I think?...if that's how you spell it), and ducks. Otherwise, I've heard there are monkeys in the mountains that sometimes come down to grab a pumpkin or other veggie treat, and across the prefecture there are bears and even wild horses in one area. Sounds like I've got some safariing to do. ^^
____________
Well, that's probably enough for this post. Winter is setting in soon, so I hope to get another seasonal update like this out...doubtless I will have little choice, snowed in by the feet upon feet of snow pressing in on my door. We'll see, though. I'm having more and more "do you ski? NO? I'LL TEACH YOU!" conversations with my coworkers by the day, so I can't really say where I'll be in the coming months. :)
Fin.