Culture Festival

Junior high schools in Japan have two big festivals every year, Sports Festival and Culture Festival (sometimes “festival” is translated as “day”). My school also has an additional festival which occurred yesterday called Music Festival in which homerooms compete with each other in choral performances.

Today was Culture Festival at my school, and a variety of interesting things happened.

1. The day began with music performances by the brass band and selected music groups in the gymnasium. Yesterday at Music Festival, I happened to tell one of the teachers that her homeroom had done the best performance of that day.

As we watched today’s performances, she came up to me and said that she had told her students that I had said this, and that it made them very happy. She had told her students that “music has no country.” She said this all in fairly advanced English, which surprised me because she is still shy to carry on conversation with me even after one year.

2.

I purchased yakisoba (fried noodles with pork and cabbage) and shoyu dango (soy sauce dumpling) at 10:30 a.m. and ate them promptly after. I was the first teacher to do so in the lounge area and 7 teachers followed suit like this:

Teacher enters lounge area. Exclaims “Oh! You’re eating it already? Well…we might as well haven’t we…while it’s hot….” Other teachers chime in with “Well you know, we ought to eat it while it’s hot” in utmost seriousness. Packages are gleefully opened and devoured.

I can’t emphasize enough how much they seemed to enjoy this. Whenever it becomes socially acceptable to do something out of the norm, particularly if it involves indulging, the excitement from Japanese people is palpable.

Yesterday, when they accidentally ordered the staff lunch, chirashizushi (sashimi on a rice bowl) from two different places, resulting in twice as much food, people were laughing and twittering like idiots until the second delivery arrived.

“I wonder when it’s going to come…” Two minutes elapse. “Wow, it’s still not here yet, oh man I don’t think I can eat all of that…” Secretary announces to the staff room that the delivery man just called and the food is on its way. Teachers laugh heartily. Second order arrives. I took my ELOO that morning, so I’m the only person who eats the fish on top, reserving the rice in the fridge for my dinner that night. Nearby teachers all eat the entire second portion.

3. I attended one of two tea ceremonies performed by the sadou-bu. Matcha was delicious as always, although the glorified Twinkie-like sweet they served with it was unusual and unwelcome, in my opinion. I prefer small flower-shaped pressed sugar like I’ve usually had at tea ceremonies. (I can’t help being a snob, I’ve had it too good…)

It was very relaxing and I enjoyed watching a couple next to me take photographs of their young daughter being served the tea by students. I had fantasies of escaping to a secluded life as a maiko in Kyoto, learning the ways of traditional tea ceremony and shamisen performance. Somewhere in there was a lesson on natural dyes and shibori dying method.

I woke up and I was 24 years old in a school library in Japan. I’m turning 25 in a few days.

I’ll still be in Japan.