JET Program CIR Report
CIR Report from Kanazawa (6)
January 2008By Sophie Bocklandt
(Coordinator for International Relations)A happy new year to all of you in Belgium!! I just received a positive feedback on my re-contracting, so I will stay a third year in Kanazawa! This year will even be busier than the previous one with the 150th anniversary of the Japanese-French friendship, the 35th anniversary of the Kanazawa-Nancy sistercityship and a visit of the mayor of Ghent to Kanazawa! All interesting projects in which I will be able to participate! The new year has started well for me!!
Not that I have many complaints about last year! For starters I had my Japanese film debut! Nothing big, I only played an extra in the Japanese movie “Noto no hanayome” (The Bride of Noto). But it was the first time on a professional film set for me and I was surprised how big of an organization movie making actually is. Lots of waiting, although time goes by fast because of all the hustle and bustle. Dozens of people walking around with cameras, microphones, lights, people that help with clothing, hair and make-up, providing the necessary attributes; sets are built up and torn down fast, people are positioned quickly and get only a brief explanation of their part, shots don’t take too long but have to be redone several times. In fact you can say it was one well organized chaos! For my role they actually gave me the Japanese name Yaguchi Hitomi, a nice touch, although I will be surprised if you can even see my face in the back, pretending to be a client of a travel agency. But I will definitely go check it out in theater next summer!
At the end of November I had another CIR orientation at the Keio Plaza hotel in Tokyo, learning more about appropriate Japanese business manners, successful presentations and translations, checking my Japanese level (I am still waiting for the results of my JLPT Japanese test), meeting up with other Dutch speaking JETs (I am the only Belgian JET, but there are some JETs from the Netherlands). I took the opportunity to visit a Japanese family that I met during the Aichi Expo. I don’t visit families in Japan that often, mostly friends living on their own, so eating a delicious all-ingredients-in-one-pot nabe together with the family was a heart-warming experience for me.
Since I was already in Tokyo and I had some days off, I decided to take a plane and enjoy a little holiday…in China!! I figured now is the time for me to visit some of Asia, since I have the money and the time for it and especially since it is closeby. During my Asian studies at Ghent University I had a lot of China-related courses, so I was really curious to visit the country and see for myself. I decided to go to Beijing, not only because it is the capital and in August the Olympics will be held there, but also because a Belgian friend of mine lives there. Together with 3 other JETs I went on my Chinese adventure. And what an adventure it turned out to be! Beijing is really huge, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall are breathtaking, monumental, Beijing opera is really entertaining, Chinese food is good (Beijing duck, hmm), shopping is cheap and we made a good traveling team, lots of laughter. But on the other hand we had many Chinese communication problems, the Chinese people were not too friendly, bargaining is really energy-consuming, hygiene is not what I am used to and there hangs a huge cloud of pollution over the city. I was happy I finally visited China and could talk in Dutch with my friend, but in fact it made me appreciate Japan even more! I was happy to be back in my beautiful Kanazawa!!
Japan is known for its distinctive seasons, therefore I could enjoy another fall with gorgeous maple leaves scenery. Once again I went to gaze at them in Kyoto, where a local friend accompanied us to Arashiyama and its famous bridge and afterward guided us around the well-known Kyoto University and some beautiful back alleys. Once more I fell in love with this traditional Japanese city!
For the Christmas holiday I traveled some more, again to San Francisco, where I enjoyed the American Christmas atmosphere; self-made stuffed turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy and pumpkin pie; a visit to the Alcatraz prison; and most of all, the company of my boyfriend. After my two weeks in America, he spent another two weeks with me in wintery Kanazawa. This year we made it to the Kaga Firefighters New Year’s Event, in which the firemen of the Kaga district display their acrobatic capacities on huge ladders and end the performance by opening their fire-hoses wetting everything and everyone around! Furthermore we finally went to the so-called Ninja temple behind my house, being amazed by the many secret staircases, corridors, rooms and traps in that old temple building. And it was a lot of fun to be reunited in Nagoya with some friends of Aichi Expo!
After the Christmas holiday it has gotten noticeably colder in Kanazawa and snow has started to fall regularly. The average temperature inside my house dropped to about 5 degrees. To keep warm without central heating (non-existing in Japanese houses and probably what I miss the most from home right now), I have a heater working on kerosene, a hot air-conditioning system, hand-warmers (sachets with minuscule chemicals in them. As soon as you take the sachets out of the plastic, they heat up and stay warm for about 24 hours. Ideal to put in your pockets or keep in your hand), lots and lots of blankets, thermal underwear (they have quite a huge collection over here!) and a donko or Japanese indoor vest.
When winter comes around, eating becomes more important, if only it were to keep warm. Therefore any occasion is good to invite friends over. The past months I organized a brunch for the French club, a cheese fondue for the girls at the office, I cooked some Belgian dishes and was rewarded with a traditional beans and meat Brazilian dish, I ate nabe at several friends’ houses and we organized another nabe dinner as a surprise for my Korean colleague’s birthday. In fact my second Korean colleague returned home, so the farewell dinner was again an occasion to go out eating and drinking and catch up with my colleagues. Unfortunately I wasn’t around this year to enjoy the bonenkai with them (“bonenkai” literally means “the forgetting-the-past-year dinner party”; depending on the budget followed a few weeks later by the “shinnenkai” or “new year’s dinner party”).
Since November I am going to salsa class, that is to say shape-up salsa. It is based on the familiar salsa steps, but you dance on a higher tempo so it looks more like a workout. Again ideal to keep warm during the cold and snowy days. Before deciding on taking this class, I went for a try-out of capoeira or Brazilian street-fight dance. That’s an even more intensive workout and kicking around is a hell of a stress-relief! But people that have seen me at gym-class, know that I am not good at standing on my arms, which is basic in capoeira. Therefore I chose the feet based only salsa class!
But as always I am here to work as well and believe me, those holidays were welcome since I have been very busy. One of the highlights of my work the past months was the Saint-Nicolas event that I organized for Japanese kids. Everyone here knows about Santa Claus, but Saint-Nicolas is a stranger in Japan. Although I think I drove my colleagues nearly crazy with my Saint-Nicolas story, so they might never forget! In fact I had been wanting to do this Saint-Nicolas event since last year, so I was delighted I could finally go for it. After explaining about Saint-Nicolas day and making the Japanese kids jealous about the double presents Belgian children receive in December, we put on our aprons and had lots of fun preparing marzipan potatoes and cinnamon cookie drops. After that we each made our own nicely decorated Saint-Nicolas hat and a little box for the cookies. But before finally eating those, we prepared traditional hot chocolate milk to go along. It was a wonderful experience for me to see Japanese kids having fun with a tradition that is strange to their own!
I had the same warm feeling when I visited a school for children with disabilities. During my presentation of Belgium they were not reluctant of showing their true feelings, mostly laughter and surprise. And during the games and songs we did together, they really went for it, they were enthusiastic, a wonderful feeling when you are up there on your own!
By now I am used to presentations at school level, but presenting Belgium to an adult audience was a first time. Again I noticed that my smile and my energetic gestures while explaining, charm a lot of Japanese, which make them forgive me my Japanese mistakes. And of course they appreciate the effort of speaking their language! When I faced my first big interpretation job for the mayor and 12 members of the French-Japanese Association from Nancy, I had a similar feeling. I was nervous as hell, I made a lot of mistakes, but I kept smiling and focusing, so eventually I was able to pass the message. How clumsy I may have felt at the moment, I am happy I had this experience; it will surely come in handy the coming months!
Furthermore I promoted Belgium at the Ishikawa International Festival. Being the only Belgian, I was totally free in my approach of the Belgian booth, so I put up a big map of our tiny country, several pictures of our beautiful cities and our delicious food and drinks and some personal images; I made up a quiz and handed out Travel Guides to all the participants; I played Belgian films and music on my laptop and I offered typical sweets like cinnamon biscuits and gingerbread. It was nice to see that so many Japanese are sincerely interested in that little country of ours!
And last but not least, I participated in a demonstration of the Ishikawa prefecture police to promote the 110 emergency phone number! I had to make an actual phone call pretending my handbag had been stolen, a conversation that was broadcast on all local tv channels and printed in the newspapers!
Best wishes to everyone in Belgium!! Until my next report!!
Sophie Bocklandt(Photos by Sophie Bocklandt)