Shimakawa Sensei and a Life Changing Moment

After the snow started I was sad and thought I'd have to wait until spring until my next adventure with him.  Around October he starts talking about hockey constantly.  Having never played myself and having no equipment, I didn't think I'd have much of a chance to play.  I didn't want to spend the hundreds of dollars on equipment and league fees only to embarrass myself and Minnesotans alike by getting schooled by old ladies in hockey so I spent most of October resisting his constant invitations to go play hockey.  I guess I was still a little too stuck in American-Tom's way of thinking at the time and used the excuse that hockey equipment was too expensive.

 After I told him that I didn't want to play because the gear would be too expensive, he did something that has changed my life.  It was a turning point for me.  Before I tell you what he did, I think it's important to know how much of a greedy person I was.

 While in America I was greedy. My first thought whenever am opportunity came up was "how much is this going to cost?"  When I would eat dinner with my friends (most of whom already make much more money than I ever will make)  I would be like "What the heck why aren't you paying you are making twice as much as me?"  Wilbur and I went hiking at Old Rag maybe 5 times and I drove once.  I would wake up on my birthday morning and expect people to buy me things.  I would get angry when people did not say "happy birthday" or buy my things.  I might occasionally buy lunch for Andy or Wilbur or a friend, but only rarely and I'd never do it for anyone unless I thought they'd return the favor later.  Heather would go out for dinner with friends and I'd be an idiot overbearing boyfriend and be like "now did you really need to go out to eat, you don't need that drink, you could have saved 10 dollars by staying home tonight."  I have no idea how she still liked me, that just shows you how nice she is.  But anyhoo, I mean, I don't have kids, mama and papa were very generous in helping out with college expenses and my only expenses in Maryland were rent, car payment, and food.  I had plenty of money absolutely no reason to be greedy.

 So back to the story.  The day after I said that I didn't want to play hockey because the equipment would be too expensive, he comes to school with a 300 dollar barely-used hockey stick and says "Hey, Tomasu, present."  That was it.

This is a guy who I had done absolutely nothing for.  He found wild plants and gave them to me.  He always packed the lunch for the treks in the mountains and I would eat all his food for lunch.  Then he would cook up the plants for dinner and I ate all his food for dinner and kept all the leftovers.  I had literally never done anything for him up until this point other than eat his food.  He has a pretty big house and 3 kids.  He's not making much more money than I am, and since I don't have a car or 3 kids or a house payment, I guarantee I had more personal spending money every month than he does, yet he hands me a 300 dollar hockey stick as if it's a jolly rancher.

After that I realized how stupid I was for not wanting to spend a couple hundred dollars on hockey equipment.  I can't really describe what went through my mind for about the next day.  Lots of thinking and regretting all the times that I turned down invitations just so that I could save a few bucks.  When I die, I guarantee that I will have more than 300 dollars in my bank account, and I will never be able to come back to Japan to play in a hockey league.  Who cares if I'm busy or have less spending money, I will have experiences that I will remember a lifetime.  It is so clear to me now how stupid I was for ever using money as an excuse to miss out on an opportunity.

Plus, I have learned that being generous is a fantastic way to find out how people truly are.  If you are nice to someone and buy them dinner and they are very thankful and return the kindness later on, then you know they're a nice person.  If you buy someone dinner and they barely muster up a "thanks" and don't repay the favor, then you know not they're probably not the type of person worth spending time and money with. 

This blog entry probably is a bit difficult to follow and hard to understand but I strongly urge any of you that are putting off that trip or experience "because it costs too much" to stop being like American-Tom and start being like Shimakawa-sensei and start experiencing this world.  Who cares if you die with a million dollars or zero dollars.  You'll be happier with zero dollars and a lifetime of experiences than with a million dollars and never leaving the comfort of a sheltered world.  I know mama you always talk about visiting national parks.  When I come back to the states, we are taking several weekend road trips to national parks.  Who cares if it costs a lot of money or we're sleep deprived, after we're done with the trip we'll have the memory that will last a lifetime.  One thing that I will never take for granted again is America's awesome interstate system.  Driving from Aomori to Tokyo costs well over 100 dollars in tolls and gas is pushing 10 dollars a gallon.  In America interstates are free and gas is cheap, no reason to ever complain about money or let it get in the way of experiencing the world.  We're going to national parks.

So for all of the food, presents and experiences that he has given me, the thing I am most indebted to Shimakawa sensei for is changing my outlook on life and freeing me from being a slave to money.

Shimakawa Sensei and Edible Plant Hunting

Shimakawa sensei is awesome.  My relationship with him is something that I will dearly miss when I return to the states.  Why I haven't been blogging more about our adventures I will never know, and I have already forgotten many of the things we have done, but luckily I have many taken several pictures of our journeys.  I will devote the rest of the day today and my day until 6:00pm tomorrow going through the thousands of pictures and trying to remember the stories that go along with them.  And the reason that I am only going to blog on this until 6 tomorrow is because that's when he's picking me up in his camper and we are going to the tallest mountain in the Ken with arguably the best powder skiing/snowboarding in the world, according to This Website.  We're spending the night in his camper, skiing all day Sunday, then going to this onsen afterwords. Some of the stories will just best be told on a comment on a Facebook picture, but some of the stories will too awesome for a comment so I'll make a couple blog entries.  I've already started posting a few pictures on Facebook and you can see the pics here:

FACEBOOK PICS  - For those curious, the title of the album is 嶋川先生と大冒険, or "Shimakawa sensei and Big Adventures"

Our relationship began rather slowly.  We had worked together already for a year, but with my inability to speak Japanese and my yet-developed-ear for hearing English with a Japanese accent, we really didn't speak much for a good year.  As my Japanese improved I noticed him try to speak to me a little more.  One day at basketball club (he's the assistant adviser for basketball club) during a water break, he starts talking to me about eating plants, which just so happens to be one of my favorite pastimes.  However, all of my plant eating always is preceded by a trip to a grocery store.  He starts telling me about some random plants and mushrooms and how delicious they are.  I had no idea what he was talking about but it was pretty obvious that he was inviting me to do something with plants at Mt. Eboshi (big mountain in Noheji).  And so with no idea what I he was talking about, I obviously agreed to be picked up that Saturday to go do something with plants in Mt. Eboshi.

The stories of our edible plant hunting are explained pretty thoroughly in the Facebook album.  We ended up going out maybe 5 times and during fall of last year I literally didn't have to buy any vegetables from the supermarket, and I usually spend lots of money on vegetables.  Not only are wild plants healthier and more delicious, but they're free :)

Now that alone would make for a great friendship but that's where the story only begins.

Vacation

One of the things that is crazy about Japan is that all teachers have 20 days of vacation per year so they are pretty much given vacation like a regular salary man company job.  They can take random hours off of work if they need to leave for an hour or two.  Teachers in Japan have to come to school every day.  No students?  Go to school.  A national holiday was on a weekend?  Too bad, you have to come to school on the Monday.  School ends at 3?  Too bad you can't leave school until 4:40.  Business trip that ends at 3:00pm and you get back to Noheji train station at 4:20pm?  Can't drive home, gotta drive to good ol Noheji Ko-ko and sit in your desk for  5 minutes.

During my time at Maryland, in contrast, we were given two personal days a year, but I mean with summer vacation and all, you can't really complain about the 10 hour work days (14 hours during baseball season if you included my commute).  But anyhow I digress.

So, no students at school for most of the day (except for club activities for maybe 3 hours or so).  What do you think the teachers do during this time of no classes?  Well, basically my office takes turns seeing who can wear the most outrageous outfit or buy the biggest spread of food for the office and then Shimakawa sensei and I head to the gym and play some hockey.

I almost hesitate in posting this picture since it doesn't come close to doing it justice.  But this teacher's outfit was incredible.  It literally sparkled in the sun and seemed to be made of polished silver.  The picture is awful, but this guy wins the award for best outfit.

  

Some examples of the food teachers have brought in:

A deer leg.  This was cut up and put in a pot of boiling water with some veggies to make what is called 鹿鍋 or basically "deer stew"

One teacher went to Hirosaki (famous for corn) and brought back a super super delicious ear of corn for everyone.

Another teacher brought pokemon chocolates!

My attempt to get everyone fat went pretty well with the help of Heather's birthday package and a mix of Warheads, Kisses, wild rice and Reesce's Peanut Butter Cups.

 

And when we are finished with all the goodies, we work off the calories with some good hockey practice.

We put the big green mat in the middle of the handball goal to play goalie.  So.  Much.  Fun.

 Another tough day at the office.    Not gonna lie, it's more fun than a day off :)

Alcohol and Tobacco

I know this is a taboo subject in the USA, and I am likely going to get in trouble when I return to the states because of it, but I find this topic very interesting.


First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I was very anti-alcohol for most of my life and didn't have my first drink until I was like 23, I don't even remember exactly, it might have been 22 or 24.   Most of the people I was around in college would drink and become very stupid and do stupid things and I always thought alcohol made people do stupid stuff, so why drink it?  But after realizing that stupid people do stupid things when drunk and it's the person that is to blame, not the alcohol, then I eased up a little bit on my opinion on alcohol.  But anyhow, I remember being asked "do you drink" by students in the USA and my answer to them was always without hesitation "no." 

Now fast forward to Japan.  It's basically treated the same as pop in the states.  It's very common for students and teachers to say, upon first meeting me.  "Oh hello Thomas...where are you from?  Oh America?  What beer do you like better, American or Japanese?  Do you like Japanese Sake?" etc etc etc.  Teachers, although it's frowned upon, drink (and smoke) at school.  It's such a different world in Japan.  For proof, here is a teacher's desk.

What is that bottle to the left of the teacher's computer?

Oh just a bottle of brandy.

Once a teacher went to Sapporo on vacation and brought back a case of special Sapporo beer that you can only buy in Hokkaido and just had it sitting in the teachers room for a couple days for anyone to take one.

Another thing to note is that in the USA, when you smell tobacco at school, you know that a student went into the bathroom and smoked.  In Japan, the chances are greater that a teacher went into the bathroom to smoke.  Smoking was only banned at Noheji high school around the year 2000, so the teachers who are on the older side still think you should be able to smoke wherever you want.

The most common way people greet me on the streets is by saying "Tomasu!  Have you been drinking lately?  We should go drinking!"  During the first year or so in Japan I thought everyone was an alcoholic, but it's just their way of getting together.  It would be the same for someone in America to say "let's hang out" but with sake such a part of Japan's culture, "let's drink sake" is a manly way of saying "why don't you come over for tea?"

And lastly, with the abundance of alcoholic drinks and cigarettes in vending machines everywhere, they really don't seem to mind if kids under the drinking and smoking age have easy access to it.

Hunting

Not a whole lot to post other than I want to remember that I went hunting with Shimakawa sensei.  Here's the facebook album with about 40 pictures or so,

FACEBOOK PICS

It was a good time.  When I get back to the states I think I'm going to try out this whole hunting thing.  I love the idea of dining on wild animals, but I don't love the idea of waiting around for 6 hours in the cold.

Work Parties

Probably the thing I'll miss most about Japan is the abundance of enkais, or work banquets.  They are fantastic.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, gets together at the end of each trimester (and some random other times if a teacher leaves/comes/retires/sports team does well/graduation/etc)  But the way everyone just relaxes and enjoys themselves is so great.  Here's a quick rundown of the work party from the end of 2nd trimester (December)

We were greeted by the sign reading "Welcome Dear Noheji High School."

Principal in a bath robe giving the intro speech.

One thing I love about Japan is that nobody eats or drinks anything until everyone has their food/drinks.  When the last person gets their drink poured, we all start together.

After the copious amounts of fish, veggies, meat, and whale sperm, there is always a second party that has crazy snacks.  These little guys have some crazy flavors, from left to right is chicken curry, pork kimchi, shrimp and mayonnaise, teriyaki burger, fish eggs, and vegetable salad.  Bottom left is fried pork and bottom right is corn portage.  Bottom middle is just a dried fish in a bag.

And of course it's Japan so when we go to the third party at about 2am, and everyone has already eaten and drank all they possibly can, they still bring out massive amounts of food and drinks.  For an idea of how much these parties end up costing, this is the 3rd party, and each of those cans of beer are about 3 dollars.  They really spare no expense for the enkais.

Breakfast the next morning was probably the best breakfast of my life, next to mama's egg mc muffins.  Here is raw egg/natto/soy sauce over rice.  Indescribably delicious.

Add a plate of veggies and other goodies.

Throw in some of Noheji's famous scallops that were swimming in the ocean about 2 hours before this picture was taken.

Bunch of different choices.  Bottom right of this picture shows 5 different varieties of Noheji's famous scallops.

And an awesome fruit selection to cap it all off.  Amazing breakfast.

Whale Sperm

 During the end of the year parties last December, I finally mustered up the courage to eat whale sperm.  It's the stuff of the right in the following picture;

 My mother would love this soup.  The stuff on the left is pregnant fish.  The picture below shows a nice view of the delicious eggs.

Click the picture for a larger view of the yummyness

Here's a picture of Val and I eating it....

What did I just do....?

Please don't throw up Please don't throw up Please don't throw up

No, actually it wasn't too bad.  If I didn't know it was whale sperm, I would have probably really liked it.  I guess it was just a little bit...too....creamy...

Don't you understand Japanese?

A quick background: different areas in Japan speak very, very different languages.  To the point where people from Tokyo literally can't understand people from the western side of Aomori.  Take like the thickest Boston/Texas accent and mix them with a Snoop Dog vocabulary and you can imagine how different Japanese dialects can be.

Anyhoo, one of our office workers is from the west side of Aomori and he speaks a pretty thick Tsugaru-ben (crazy dialect).  He starts talking to a random teacher this morning and the conversation went like this.

Tsugaru-dialect speaking teacher: "blahblahblahcantunderstandblahthickdialectblah"

Toki sensei: "what?"

Tsugaru-dialect speaking teacher: "blahblahblahcantunderstandblahthickdialectblah"

Toki sensei: "what?"

Tsugaru-dialect speaking teacher: "BLAHBLAHBLAHCANTUNDERSTANDBLAHTHICKDIALECTBLAH"

Toki sensei: "what?"

Tsugaru-dialect speaking teacher:"Don't you understand Japanese?"

Toki sensei: "I understand about as much as Tomasu."


Boo yea! Toki sensei was the happy recipient of a small piece of chocolate this morning.  :)