The Summer and Japan

It has been awhile since I've written anything down. That's really a shame because I'll probably forget a lot of things from the last 4 months. I've had a hell of a lot go on in the last quarter year. Said good bye to a co teacher, Park Yeon Min, a man whom I had written about in a few earlier blogs. He didn't like the way the school was run and all the extra work he had to do. So he left at the end of the Spring semester. For five glorious weeks we had our summer vacation. I had to work for three of those weeks working only about 3 1/2 hours a day and teaching a special course in Theatre and Drama, which I authored and instructed alone.

What was really wonderful about that class is that it was so small (only 14 girls) when I'm used to teaching 40 plus students at a time. Because of the small size I was able to get very close to several of them, and they really enjoyed my class. They told my co teacher Kate that what they really loved was the closeness to me and the atmosphere I created in the classroom. It was close, friendly, kind, and fun, which their classes with Korean teachers as a general rule are not. That meant a lot. On the last day of Summer Class all of the girls moaned and groaned about how they didn't want the class to end, all of them fighting each other to hug me goodbye and a few clinging on for dear life. One girl, Kyoung Suh, told me she felt empty. She has become one of my favorite students and she hugs me every time she sees me. Several of them have become email buddies of mine.

The Summer Class was one of the most rewarding teaching experiences I've ever had, both because I was able to teach something I loved and because I was able to grow much closer to my students. And, I admit, it was really fun to perform a bit of Shakespeare for them, even though they didn't understand a word I said. But I told them beforehand what the speech was about and they understood the emotion well enough to enjoy it. I was so proud of them when they finished their final project, which was to act out a movie monologue of their choice. Kyoung Suh, playing Edward Cullen, was voted the best actress and best speaker and she certainly deserved it!! They were so scared to speak in English in front of everybody (not to mention try to act!) but they did their best, and I strictly forbade anyone to make fun of a fellow student. If there's one thing I cannot tolerate it's bullying. But they were great about keeping to my rule.

Summer also brought on two weeks of vacation! At first I had seriously considered going to India with my friend Christine. I was really excited about that since for years I've been wanting to go to India. And going with a good friend of mine was an even nicer draw! However, because our schedules didn't coincide, India was a no go. So I figured I'd just stay in Korea and bum around here a bit, until my friend Nick suggested we go to Japan together. I jumped at the chance!

Unfortunately, before jumping I didn't consider the landing. Nick and I divided up the booking responsibilities: I'd book the ferry, he'd book the hostels. Due to some credit card problems, Nick was unable to do any booking and he left it all to me. We briefly talked about what nights we wanted to stay in what cities, but he left the planning mostly up to me. When I wanted to make a change in nights, I called Nick to check if it was ok and he said, "I don't care. I like to go with the flow. Just do whatever you want". That should have been my first clue...

We traveled around Japan for 7 days, seeing Hiroshima, Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka, before heading back to Fukuoka to take the ferry back to Busan.

Hiroshima was an emotionally draining experience. It's not something that can be described or even prepared for. It just hits you and you can't help but be numbed by it. I remember when we crossed the bridge over to the Peace Park and I saw the A-bomb Dome for the first time. I had seen it in countless pictures in countless books. I had studied the history of the dropping of the bomb. I had heard stories from my grandfather about the war in the Pacific. This was one of the places I had set aside in my mind to see before I die.

And there it was...skeletal and broken against a picture perfect skyline of modern Hiroshima, a monument to monstrous chaos. My first thought was indescribable. I simply caught my breath and kept silent. My second thought was of my grandfather, how he would have loved to have seen such an important piece of history, a history he had been a part of. I remembered his face when I had told him of Normandy and all the things I saw from D-Day on Omaha Beach, putting a stone from that sacred place into his trembling hands, crying excited tears. To my regret, I would never be able to share this with him, and his memory haunted me throughout my day in Hiroshima.

Kyoto was an amazing city with tons to see; temples, shrines, lovely parks, palaces,etc. It's a city that alone requires at least a week to explore and we got a great experience out of it. Nick and I really enjoyed the gorgeous bamboo forest in the northwestern part of the city, and the garden up above it in the hills. The Golden Pavilion was a bit of a let down, but still worth seeing. It's just not worth spending all that much time there. We got to see the Fushimi Inari Shrine that was featured briefly in a memorable scene from the film "Memoirs of a Geisha". And we took a brief and ill timed trip to Gion, the Geisha district. The brief stop over to Nara was great and totally worth it!! Got to see the world's biggest wooden building which housed the world's biggest enclosed Buddha statue. The statue itself dated back 800 years or so. And I got to see Nick get chased by deer...

Osaka was boring, but in fairness to the city we only got there in time to experience a bit of the nightlife, which for me was not all that interesting anyway. Since Nick was in the mood to party I let him go off on his own. I figured he'd have no problem with that, since he wouldn't have a female trailing after him for Japanese women to mistake as his girlfriend. Even though our hostel was only two subway stops away, I was still nervous about getting back. I had trouble navigating the Japanese rail system, and since only a few things were written in English, that just made it worse. I waited for about30 minutes for a train and nearly took the wrong one several times. I did a lot of hopping on and off until I finally figured it out. I made it back to the hostel no problem and spent the night sleeping uneasily among a group of people from Portugal, I think...

Got confused on the Jrail lines trying to get back to Fukuoka (Hakata Station), but eventually got the right train. Going back between Osaka to Kyoto and back to Osaka was involved, as well as a mad dash to catch our train within the five minute allotment we were given...How we did that I still don't know. I found myself sitting next to another Canadian and had a very nice chat with him until he got off at Hiroshima. It was nice to bitch about the state of American politics to someone. HA!

Nick and I were supposed to go to Nagano as well, but due to a fuck up with our Jrail passes we were unable to. So we headed back to Fukuoka a day early. We had no reservations so at my suggestion and Nick's delight we decided to camp out on a nearby island. That turned out to be a disaster involving us hiking 1 1/2-2 kilometers up a mountainside with night falling, unable to find the beach. Plus, we were hungry, tired, and I was sick with a dreadful cold I'd caught in Kyoto. After assessing our situation we went back to the mainland and found a hotel near Hakata Station. The next day after doing some fruitless shopping, Nick and I decided we had had enough of Japan and just wanted to go home. We took an early ferry and went home.

A lot of things happened on the trip that were unsatisfactory to me, but I will not list them here. For me, Japan was a mixed bag. I'm glad I went, but I don't plan on EVER going back again.