Oh the Japanese autumn... the last weeks have been
brilliant! I would even go as far as to say this might turn out to be
the happiest time for me here in Japan. Right after the Jazz Street
weekend in Kanazawa - which was great, by the way; lot's of great
music and a short trip to the city's old Geisha quarter as well – a
taifun from the south touched on Toyama-prefecture as well, and after
that the heat of summer finally broke for good. In the last three
weeks
the temperatures have been always around 20 to 25 degrees,
sometimes a little colder and rainy, sometimes a little warmer, but
always just exactly right for feeling perfectly comfortable. Haven't
used my air conditioner for three weeks and could sleep with my
window open.
The sound of the cicadas has stopped almost completely
and with just a few crickets the night seems almost ominously quite.
The trees are turning red and some few golden, the persimmon trees in
Senshinen's yard carry hard but wonderfully sweet, yellow-orange
fruits. The rice is harvested and the fields lie bare for only the
wind to roll over them, not moving a green ocean anymore. Most fields
have been singed to keep the rice from springing up again as it's
still warm, others lie with a fresh green sheen over them as if they
were ready to bear another crop still this year.
On the vending machines, faithfully at every corner, the
tree frogs cling, searching the light, their wide-fingered
silhouettes blotching out parts of the names of the drinks offered.
'kaki'(persimmon) in my backyard
stubble fields
Lovely, wonderful Aki – autumn. With the start of
October school started again, too, and last week I chose my courses
for the next half year. I will be only attending 2 courses per week,
since there was nothing else on the schedule that would have been
interesting or helpful for me. Now a mother-of-pearl inlay course for
urushi and a jewelry course, in which I will also use Urushi as
material, and then in the last 2 months before my return home a more
artsy urushi course (making some kind of object/sculpture using
urushi) and a silk screen printing course. I do have a lot of own
projects to finish though, so I am at school every day for about 10
hours anyway. But I like being there. I love my class – especially
the 4th year students – and I think that room and it's
people are more home to me than Senshinen is, which is alright, since
I spend most of my time there anyways.
I have got a fellow lodger in Senshinen now, though. He
is an exchange student from Inner Mongolia (the part that is under
control of China), 27 and a bit shy because he speaks neither English
nor Japanese very well. But he is friendly enough so at least until
now there have been no problems and I don't think there will be any.
Generally I'm not sure at all if I'll still do a homestay as I
originally planned to try. Now that school has started again it's
just so damn convenient to live in 3 minutes walking distance from
it. Also, starting next week I'll go to Yosakoi training again, too,
since at the end of October there's the big school festival here on
which I will dance for the last time. Also there's friends from
Finland studying in Tokio for three months now and they will come
visit me and see the school festival, so I think I really need to get
back into a better shape again...
As for Yosakoi otherwise, Mugiya, the official 'last'
for the 3rd year students was on 17th of
September. We made 3rd place out of 36 teams! The weather
was pretty bad though. The first parade was the only one we danced
dry, in the second parade we got soaked through and then had to wait
another three hours for our stage performance which we pulled through
in hard rain. Still it seemed we were good enough, and the day was
very important. Even our loud-mouthed, always fun-making announcer
sounded close to tears when he told the audience that this was the
official last time of the seniors of the group in their roles as the
leaders of the team, that from now on the 2nd year
students would continue.
Afterwards, when we had got the price, when the rain had
stopped and the festival was over, we assembled all together on a
nearby parking lot and then the oldest were officially 'graduating'
from the team. All the oldest members of the team, including myself,
got a certificate telling about our achievements, so to say, in the
team, a small wooden tag with a kanji to describe the kind of person
we were to the team, a small folder with pictures and informations
about the three past years of TNC, and a flower.
My kanji is 奮,
pronounced 'fun' or 'furuu', and is translated as being alive, being
vigorous, or as used in words like 'rousing' or 'giving one's best'.
I guess it's not hard to imagine me being pretty happy and honoured
by that assessment. What exactly is written on my certificate I still
don't actually exactly know, same with all of the comments that were
left for me in my folder of pictures and TNC memories. Me being from
the Western world and Japanese generally seem to having a fascination
for non-Asian features, and me behaving definitely more
self-confidently than the usual Japanese woman, I have gotten
somewhat more attention here than I am used to in Finland. It feels
kind of embarrassing, really, and so I intentionally haven't sat down
to translate it. Maybe some time later, maybe at Soukisai, the
school's festival, when it will eventually really be the last time to
dance with TNC.
And so I still haven't told about the wonderful holiday
I spent with my mum, when she visited me here from 22nd of
August until September 12th. I am looking through all the
photographs right now though, and will try to add a few more 'picture
book' entries soon. Generally I can just say now that it was an
almost perfect trip. Apart from a few hindrances because of a taifun
the rests of which followed us up north to Hokkaido it couldn't have
been better. It was the first time I think, that only we two were
travelling alone and I would do it anytime gladly again. It was so
great in fact, that when I brought her to the airport again in the
end I got extremely homesick, almost wanting to follow her. But
fortunately now that autumn has come I feel great again.
I'm sure and happy and confident about my being here.
Sure about wanting to enjoy the remaining four months of my stay as
intensely as I can and then, eventually, return
home.
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