Memory problems

For the last two days I have had something very important I wanted to blog about as soon as I got the chance, and now I am sitting in front of a computer I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Please forgive me if I just natter for a bit and hope it comes back to me.

Over the last week I have been very busy with Yosakoi. There was a festival in Kisakata last Saturday, so last Thursday I was practicing for three hours until ten o'clock at night. On Friday I had to go to the kindergarten. When my schedule for this year was made up, my kindergarten visit was forgotten about. The only free time I have in the morning is third period Friday. But it takes about twenty minutes to walk to the kindergarten. I have to try and fit both the kindergarten lesson and the travel time into a one hour period, because I have classes at the Jr. High in second and fourth period. Kyoto-sensei (the Vice-Principal) said he would drive me, but he is on bereavement leave at the moment, so he couldn't. Everyone else was busy so I hurried to the kindergarten (or rather hobbled as fast as I could because I was still sore from the previous evening's dancing). I did a quick introductory lesson lasting about fifteen minutes, and then the office lady of the kindergarten drove me back to Konoura Jr. High because there was no way I could have got back in time for the fourth period class by myself. I have a feeling this is going to happen a lot because Kyoto-sensei, even when he is not on bereavement leave, is a busy man.

That afternoon I had to get money out of the bank to pay for my upcoming trip to Sapporo. So I walked for fifteen minutes through the rain to the bank, to find that the cash machine was in the middle of being serviced and would continued to be serviced for another half hour. What am I supposed to do, walk home and then turn around and come straight back? I thought. There was no where else I needed to go. Indeed there is no where else in Konoura to go. So I went home. It started raining heavier and heavier. I thought, I'll go back when it stops raining. But it didn't. Banks here close at about three o'clock in the afternoon and after that, one needs to pay an after hours fee to use the cash machine. So I ended up having to walk back to the bank in the pouring rain and fading light to go to the bank (again) and pay money to get money out.

On Saturday morning was the elementary school's sports day. I went to see that until lunch time, and then I had to leave because I had a Yosakoi practice from 1.30pm. The practice was for Saihoku Repputai, the Hokkaido team. Two people from Hokkaido had come to check whether we were dancing correctly, so I couldn't skip the practice. The lesson lasted three hours and was very hard. Now I know why the Hokkaido team are so much better at dancing than the Akita/Yamagata people.

I had aching muscles even before I went to Kisakata to perform with the Kafumai Yosakoi team. I was very tired afterwards. It was a small festival, so we were the only team there. We had to dance many different dances.

On Sunday morning we had another practice session with the people from Hokkaido. It was not so difficult a practice, but it lasted for four hours. Sunday afternoon I rested. On Monday I skipped Kafumai practice because I was too sore.

On Tuesday the rainy season started. It happens like that, here in Japan. The rain on Friday was normal rain, but the rain on Tuesday was rainy season rain. It sounds crazy I know, but it is true. The rain on Tuesday felt different. It's only my second spring in Japan, but even I could tell the difference.

Crazy bear hunter guy drove me to Kamagadai again. I learn so much from this guy. When he first picked me up from Konoura Jr. High, he told me that a bear had been seen near Kamagadai. I thought Guess he's exaggerating. Right? On the way up the hill, he was explaining to me about the two different varieties of bamboo in the area; the big normal one and the small one that only grows to two metres tall. Spring is the time for collecting 'take no ko' - literally bamboo babies. I asked him why the take no ko in the supermarkets are huge and the ones I ate at my friends house were small. Hence the discussion of bamboo varieties. He also stopped the car along the side of the road to point out the different varieties, and seedlings, of bamboo.

This led us back to the topic of bears because as one would expect, bears eat take no ko. (I say 'as one would expect' because, in case you didn't know, bear and human diets are very similar). Crazy hunter guy (maybe I should start calling him 'forest lore guy') was telling me about how careful you have to be when collecting take no ko, because you may find yourself reaching for a shoot that a bear is also reaching for. We crossed the hills and entered the valley where Kamagadai is situated. It was here that I found out that forest-lore guy had not been joking about the bears. He pointed out three old women at the side of the road at the edge of a forest area who were foraging for take no ko. "That's dangerous," he said. He drove another 30 metres down the road and stopped the car again (this is no problem because there are very few cars on those roads) and pointed down a track leading into the forest. "Can you see that?" he asks. "The bear trap." There was indeed a bear trap there, a big metal cage. And the old ladies were unconcernedly foraging for vegetables a minutes walk (or three minutes hobble) away. We soon got to Kamagadai. On the way back I learned a bit more about bears. We stopped again by the trap to see if it had caught a bear yet. Forest-lore guy pointed out to me the stream that was near the trap and explained that was the reason the trap was there. He said that during spring the bears follow the streams down to the feeding areas, so the streams are like bear roads. He also mentioned that the bears meet up later in the year at the lakes to the south east of Kamagadai, and hibernate to the east of Mount Chokai (which I already knew in a general sort of way). Apparently last year was a good feeding and therefore breeding season for the bears, so this spring most female bears have a cub with them. Which makes them very dangerous. Forest lore guy spent the whole way back over the hills scanning the forests with his hunter eyes looking for bears. I told him we don't have bears in New Zealand, and so now he really wants to show me one.

Yesterday was very cold (a sign of the rainy season), but it was only spitting. I went to the elementary school, and then in the evening I taught my English conversation class. Two more people came, women from Kisakata who look like they are in their fifties. So that is four new students I have picked up (the older woman with no English skills who came to the cooking class never came back). All we did was talk, because I made everyone do a self introduction and then made everyone talk about what they did over the previous week, and that took an hour and a half. It's hard to keep control of that many middle-aged (and older) strong independent Akita women (weak-willed women don't have the guts to go to an English class), but I have a new hepler. The man who has started coming to my class has decided to help me out by refusing to answer questions directed to him in Japanese. I have a lot of trouble getting everyone to speak English rather than Japanese, but now there are two people saying "I'm not going to answer you until you ask me in English," it is a wee bit easier. I am also glad that Toshikatsu's English is so good. I asked someone a question about what they said, but she could not understand my question. I rephrased it several times, but she still did not understand. It was a little difficult, I'll admit: "If you hadn't changed jobs, would you still . . .?" I've only just learnt the Japanese form of that grammar point ("Moshi shigoto o kawaranakattara . . .") I was starting to think What do I do? No one understands, when Toshikatsu said "Shall I explain?" and then put my question into Japanese perfectly. Very handy.

After my English class I read Sandman comics. I have decided to collect the Sandman graphic novels while I am in Japan because once I return to New Zealand I will no doubt have difficulty affording them. So far I have bought 'Preludes and Nocturnes' (which I lent to Atsuko last night), 'The Doll's House' which I am half way through reading and 'Dream Country.' I read Dream Country before The Doll's House because it arrived in the post (I ordered them on the internet) earlier. Since Dream Country is a collection of stand-alone Sandman stories, I thought it would be okay. Although I found out last night that it wasn't because 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' had been foreshadowed in The Doll's House.

Today the sky is clear, but it still feels like the rainy season. It is cool, and the wind is wet. It is the right wind, but there were no rain clouds for it to bring with it.

Well, I never did remember what I was so eager to blog about. But I have written about everything that happened to me over the last week at great length, so whatever it was I am sure I covered it. It must not seem as important to me today as it did yesterday, so I thought I had forgotten it but really I remembered it all along. I wonder which particular thing it was?