Hanami-Ho!

When I came to Japan, I think I was caught somewhere in a paradoxical state of knowledge about the real-life modern Japan and the fictions of life we construct for other people. I knew a lot about different traditional activities, foods, and attitudes, but I hadn't really reconciled in my conception of the place the time demands of reality with how "culture" fits into the modern Japanese consumer lifestyle.

Imagine my surprise when life here was pretty much the same kind of getting by, human experience as living in Canada. Anyway, in Canada, we do the Christmas/Easter/Thanksgiving dinner thing... here, they do several similarly historic things the most recent of which I've experienced being Hanami.

In Japan, the end of the school year is in March. Everyone wraps up their year in early to mid-March, with final tests, graduation ceremonies and the like taking every second day out of your teaching regimen. Anyway, one of my classes from last year were pretty extraordinary kids. They were in the "math and science" class here at Kita and so were pretty book smart kids. What really set them apart though was their energy and enthusiasm for learning. They participated in every class as if it was the most fun thing they could possibly be doing. Their interest translated into some pretty huge gains in English competence and by the end of their first year at high-school, there were few things that I could say to them that they didn't understand. Those things that they didn't understand, they could identify immediately. These kids were always surprising me with phrases like "Hirose cut the cheese". Teaching them was always a bright spot in my week. I miss them now that we don't have Oral Communication class anymore, however, they invited me to go with them to Tamayu, a little town just on the edge of the now enlarged Matsue City. It's famous for two things, its onsens and it's sakura river. In the spring, when the cherry-blossoms are blooming away in their brief affair with our senses, the entire river that runs through Tamayu is flanked by a startling display of pink and white.

We took the train from Matsue station and then walked from Tamayu station along some quiet backroads, past people's gardens and yet unplanted rice-fields. Once we got there, we held the obligatory photo session as everyone captured the moment for their box of memories. As you can see, I was among those covetous souls. I have two blades of grass in my mouth like fangs... but you can't see them very well, so I just look silly... er, right, yes, because... you can't see the grass... blades...


Me and many of my favourite (yes, I know I'm not supposed to have favourites) students.

Anyway, we had a super time having a bit of a picnic on the banks of that placid stream, surrounded by countless cherry blossoms, the fresh spring grass that always looks greener than it should and bustling old folks, starting their gardens for the year. Amazingly relaxing really.


Tamayu-cho's blossomed creek be dammed, yar.

I'm gradually getting used to having infrastructure as part of the scenery. Not all of it's an eyesore, though the wires everywhere really give your aesthetic sense a real run for it's money.