28th August 2004

After finishing my diary yesterday, I went downstairs to the lobby to deposit my key and that’s where I met Junko. My landlord and landlady told me that she was staying here too and suggested that we go to the bon-odori together. ‘Let’s go together?’ she asked me in good English and of course I had no objections to that. With a few other guests of the Sawanoya ryokan we went outside where we already could hear the music of the bon-odori playing.

Bon-odori in the neighbourhood

Just round the corner then we saw a big crowd, food stalls and at the other end of the street a small stage with ‘Bon-odori taikai’ (‘Bon dance festival’) written on it. Junko introduced me to an older Japanese gentleman, who I bowed to instantly and said a friendly-formal ‘Hajimemashite!’ (‘Nice to meet you!’) He looked at me cheerfully, made a few praising comments about my Japanese skills and insisted that I join in the dances afterwards. And because I’m always eager to make new experiences, I agreed to him and to myself to do so. Junko asked us: ‘Do you want a drink?’ and brought cups filled with a delicious fruity drink and a lot of ice cubes. Just what I’d needed!

On the stage they demonstrate the dance...

After I had watched the dancers then for a while Junko invited us to join in. Yet I was the only one who followed that invitation, all the other people of my group were too shy. First I couldn’t quite get the steps and I think that I looked quite ridiculous trying but eventually I came to understand that you had to imitate the steps the dancers on the stage were demonstrating. While dancing you circled around the stage, made certain steps and hand movements and clapped from time to time. Although I wasn’t nearly as deft as the Japanese dancers, I kind of got the knack of it. And it was great fun!

...and people dance around it, here Junko

So I danced and danced until, after some time, I met the old Japanese gentleman Junko had introduced me to again. We started chatting in Japanese, we exchanged business cards, I understood that his name was Itsuo and after the dances had come to an end he invited me to go to a nomiya-san (a Japanese bar) nearby. I agreed in the twinkling of an eye and went back to the Sawanoya to get the access key for the night. Then Junko, Istuo, his wife Elizabeth who had come from the states, a few other guests of the minshuku and I went over to the nomiya-san. Arrived there we took off our shoes and lowered ourselves on the zabuton cushions on the tatami floor.

Lively party at the nomiya

I took the free place at the side of Junko and first sat in the seiza (the ‘correct’ way to sit in Japan) for about five to ten minutes, but then my legs began to hurt and I changed into the agura (crossing one’s legs what is restricted to men in Japan). What a relief! We ordered snacks and drinks then and chatted away cheerfully. With Itsuo I had a long talk about my future plans of coming to live in Japan someday and what the best way to accomplish that goal would be. Itsuo, who had already lived in Europe for a few years, opined, that it would be best to save enough money to be able to live in Japan for about one or two years without working first. That way I could learn the language best and could eventually start to look for work. Of course I would have to give up my previous job in order to do so what would make the whole thing a risky operation but it’s the only way to do it. And somehow he’s right: People often accomplish so little in their lives because they always try to have as much security as possible. And to preserve that security no matter at what cost. I’m also like that. But it would really be better to change myself. Anyway, after a few ‘kanpai’ (‘cheers’) and some delicious snacks we had a photo taken of us and then we returned to our accommodation. Here I gave my business cards to everyone and also got loads in return. They really come in handy, those cards! Tired as I was, I fell into my bed soon. Today I got up already at six, checked my emails and packed everything for the day. Then I set off for the Tokyo-Eki where I found myself a café to settle in for two hours and write some postcards to friends and relatives (altogether I wrote sixteen!!).

Sumo-wrestler at the Tokyo-Eki (the hefty man in the background)

Then, at twenty past ten I got on a train of the Soubu line, bound for the city of Chiba. I arrived at about quarter to twelve and followed the precise instructions that I had gotten yesterday from my friend Tomoyan: I went down the stairs on the right hand of the nishi-guchi exit and got to the ‘basutei no takusan aru tokoro’ (the place with a lot of bus stops). I waited there for some fifteen minutes and then, shortly after twelve (I was already asking myself whether I had gone to the wrong place again…) Mari and Tomoyan’s car pulled over in front of the station. I waved, they waved back and then they picked me up. It was the first time for me to ride in a Japanese motor car with right-hand steering! Woo!! How much I wanted to drive myself… First we went to Mari’s place where we sat around the table (it was a really large specimen of house!!) and had a nice little chat. Then I slipped out of the room for a second to get my Austrian souvenirs out of my rucksack and gave them to my two friends. We went on chatting (most of the time it was the two of them chatting but I tried to make conversation in Japanese too) and after some forty minutes the delivery man bringing our lunch rang the doorbell. We ate it with relish and from time to time I asked about Japanese table manners and how you ate certain kinds of food the right way. After lunch they showed me around in the house a bit and then we set out again. First thing we went to the seaside. Unfortunately it was a quite cloudy day with some drizzle every now and then but still I was very happy to see the sea. Tomoyan told me then that the water was quite dirty here because it was the water of the heavily industrialised Tokyo-Wan bay but that the water on the other side of Chiba prefecture would be cleaner.

Seaside of Chiba – unfortunately on a rainy day

Next thing we drove on to Makuhari, a business district of Chiba city, where Mari is working at NTT and Tomiyan attending a school for nursery. Here we walked around for a while and then went to a shopping mall where they also had a little gaming arcade with purikura machines. Purikura is a cult in Japan: you enter this phonebox-sized apparatus and get little passport photo-sized pictures taken of you which you can edit afterwards, adorn with little graphics of flowers and so on… So we went into one of those purikura machines and now I’m richer one purikura photograph with two beautiful Japanese girls...^^ Following our little photo shooting we bought some drinks and then back to the car. After some time of driving around we stopped in fron of a restaurant where we went to have some supper. First okonomiyaki and then something the name of which I hadn’t known before and which I have already forgotten again. I’ll have to ask Mari for it. Both dishes were prepared on the hot teppan iron plate at the table and tasted great! We decided on warikan (shared the bill) and then back to the car. The two of them brought me back to Chiba station where they had picked me up before and we thanked each other for the nice day. Then I took the Soubu line back to Tokyo-Eki where I met two other gaijin who asked me if I spoke Japanese. In response to my ‘yeah, a little bit’ they asked me how they could go to Shinjuku from here. I remembered the time as I had just arrived here, explained the way to them and showed them to the ticket machines. Then I told them which platform they had to go to and how much the ride would cost. Also the ticket machines I explained to them. Then I took the Marunouchi line and the Chiyoda line back to Nezu. After going to the minshuku to get changed I went out to the bon-odori again. There I met a Japanese guy of about the same age who talked to me in English because he told me that he wanted to improve his conversational skills. Unluckily I didn’t have the chance to ask him for his email address. I also met Junko again but we didn’t talk much this evening because she had found yet other travellers who she was chatting to in English. That’s really one strange thing: Sometimes it seems to me that it’s easier to find Japanese friends in Japan as a gaijin when you don’t speak Japanese because a gaijin who speaks Japanese might just be uninteresting to Japanese people. The reason for this is simple: For speaking Japanese there are enough fellow Japanese in Japan, who speak Japanese a lot better than any gaijin. Gaijin are here for communicating in English because they know English better than any Japanese. Still I refuse to talk only in English and exercise my right to speak in Japanese as much as possible. I want to get some practice too! First, there”ll also be bon-odori tomorrow and second, Junko and I will be in the same minshuku until 1^st September. So we’ll still have plenty of chances to talk to each other. I mean, I do have her mail address so I can’t complain but talking is still a lot better than writing. And I definitely want to have a chat with her again and give her some souvenirs.
Ok, I’ll go to the ofuro now and then to bed. Oyasuminasai!