CONNECT Magazine Japan #114 May 2022

18 | Minature Masterpieces: Minature Life Exhibition 2ーTatsuya Tanaka's World 26 | Welcome to an Evening of Kagura 48 | Ningyo-joruri: Interview with a Japanese Puppet Master 106 | Blooming Views: Spring Flowers at all Corners

Arts & Culture, Lifestyle, Language, Travel & Community

AJET

Issue No. 114

May 2022

LETTER FROM THE

EDITOR

G

reetings lovely readers, and welcome to the magnificent May issue of CONNECT!

Here we are, in the last month of spring!

Golden Week is behind us, humidity is on the rise, and bugs are slowly beginning to reappear, but there’s plenty still to look forward to just around the corner! Summer festivals are finally making a comeback after years of coronavirus cancellations, and firefly season is almost upon us! Moreover, CONNECT magazine is hot off the press with fantastic new articles to keep you up to date on all the great travel, entertainment, and interesting opportunities awaiting you around Japan this upcoming season.

Here are a few highlights to get you started!

First, though cherry blossoms may be behind us, there's plenty of phenomenal flowers to be seen throughout the spring and summer all around Japan! Let the Travel Section’s Blooming Views be your guide to the best hidden spots to enjoy Hydrangea, Tulips, and more.

In the Art Section, Miniature Masterpieces takes us inside the itty-bitty whimsical world of artist Tatsuya Tanaka and his utterly charming exhibition.

Finally, Entertainment and Culture sections both put spotlights on Japan’s traditional theater forms this month and I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Photo: Arno Smit | Unsplash.com

Over in Culture you can read Ningyo-joruri: Interview with a Japanese Puppet Master to learn all about how these incredible puppets are made, the teamwork and dedication it takes to maneuver them, and what the community of Awaji island is doing to keep their traditional art form alive.

The Entertainment section’s Welcome to An Evening of Kagura takes a look at the thrilling masked dances of Hiroshima prefecture, and recent efforts to make these wonderful performances accessible to a global audience.

Next month CONNECT is excited to present our annual Art Issue, where we exhibit the wonderful art, music, poetry, and other creative work of the international residents of Japan. I’m so proud of the amazing creativity and talent of our community and can't wait to share it with you all!

Cheers,

Rachel Spain Fagundes __________________ Head Editor

HEAD EDITOR

Samantha Marks

connect.editor@ajet.net

connect.generaleditor2@ajet.net

Rachel Fagundes

“Men need no reason to cause mischief, only an excuse!” — Helene Wecker, The Golem and the Jinni

“Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” — Roald Dahl, The Minpins

Samantha Stauch connect.generaleditor3@ajet.net

ASSISTANT HEAD EDITOR connect.assistanteditor@ajet.net

Monica Hand

“If you would serve your brother, because it is fit for you to serve him, do not take back your words when you find that prudent people do not commend you.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson, On Heroism

“Blossom by blossom, spring begins.”

—Algernon Charles Swinburne

HEAD WEBSITE EDITOR HEAD DESIGNER

connect.homepage@ajet.net

visualmedia.connect@ajet.net

Rhema Baquero Lloyd Cruickshank “Dawg no hol ef im ha bone.” (The dog does not howl if he has a bone.)

Meaning: People do not become upset or agitated if they are comfortable. — Unknown

"I'm not letting anybody in the Senate steal my joy...Don't worry, my sister. Don't worry. God has got you. How do I know that? Because you're here and I know what it's taken for you to sit in that seat."

—Sen. Cory Booker to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

ASSISTANT HEAD DESIGNER emilygriffith99@outlook.com

ASSISTANT WEBSITE EDITOR connect.assistanthomepage@ajet.net

Emily Griffith “It’s fine. Luckily we’re all English so no-one’s going to ask any questions. Thank you, centuries of emotional repression!” — Mark Corrigan, Peep Show

Senie Calalang “‘Learn everything. Fill your mind with knowledge— it’s the only kind of power no one can take away from you.’ Hansu never told him to study, but rather to learn, and it occurred to Noa that there was a marked difference. Learning was like playing, not labor.” ― Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

GENERAL SECTION EDITORS connect.generaleditor1@ajet.net

Ryon Morrin "Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.

You must travel it by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach." ― Walt Whitman

SOCIAL MEDIA connect.socialmedia@ajet.net

Katherine Wang “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take — Wayne Gretzky — Michael Scott” — The Office

CREDITS CONTENT HEAD EDITOR Rachel Fagundes ASSITANT EDITOR Monica Hand SECTION EDITORS Sarah Baughn Sierra Nelson Marco Oliveros Samantha Stauch Dahlia Lemelin Fergus Gregg Kimberly Matsuno Jessica Craven CONTRIBUTORS Sophie McCarthy Rachel Fagundes Toshie Ogura Yukiko Moriuchi Jessica Craven Kimberly Matsuno Jennifer Madden Julia Macpherson Roxann Mousseau Tyler Nakashima Samantha Stauch Ailsa Van Eeghen Dahlia Lemelin

Marco Oliveros Tony Stewart Fergus Gregg Mona Tadayon Marco Cian Sierra Nelson-Liner Rachel Nicholson Tokuya Okitsu

HEAD WEB EDITOR Rhema Baquero

HEAD OF DESIGN & LAYOUT Lloyd Cruickshank

TABLE OF CONTENTS PHOTO JR Harris

ASSISTANT HEAD DESIGNER Emily Griffith

ART & PHOTOGRAPHY Rena S. Tsuchiya Jessica Craven Arno Smit JR Harris Dahlia Lemelin Tony Stewart Alisa Van Eeghen Yukiko Moriuchi Sophie McCarthy Rachel Fagundes Roxann Mousseau Yan Liu Denys Nevozhai Victor Lu Kimberly Matsuno

ASSISTANT DESIGNERS Phoebe Jin Muriah Ellis Katherine Wang COPY EDITORS Natalie Andrews Day Bulger Dianne Yett Jon Solmundson GENERAL SECTION EDITORS Ryon Morrin Sami Marks Samantha Stauch

SOCIAL MEDIA Katherine Wang COVER PHOTO S. Tsuchiya

This magazine contains original photos used with permission, as well as free-use images. All included photos are property of the author unless otherwise specified. If you are the owner of an image featured in this publication believed to be used without permission, please contact the Head of Graphic Design and Layout, Lloyd Cruickshank, at visualmedia.connect@ajet.net. This edition, and all past editions of AJET CONNECT, can be found online at http://ajet.net/ajet-connect/magazine-issues/ or on our website. Read CONNECT online and follow us on ISSUU.

Photo: JR Harris | Unsplash.com

CONNECT | Art 8 Kintsugi: The Art of Repairing Broken Pottery with Gold Lacquer 18 Miniature Masterpieces: Minature Life Exhibition 2ーTatsuya Tanaka's World CONNECT | Entertainment 26 Welcome to an Evening of Kagura 34 May Reviews & Recommendations 40 May Releases CONNECT | Culture 42 Discovering the Historical, Mythical, and, Whimsical Side of Gifu 48 Ningyo-joruri: Interview with a Japanese Puppet Master

CONNECT | Sport 58 Your Sign to Join a Japanese Climbing Gym 62 Access Granted, Empathy Denied: Players Under Scrutiny CONNECT | Wellness 66 Fight the Frizz 72 Spring Flavors: Luscious Loquat 82 COVID Update 84 Mental Health Support

CONNECT | Language 88 Language Borrowed: A Deeper Look at Loanwords in Japanese 95 Monthly Language Corner

CONNECT | Travel 98 One week, a Car and No Plan: An Awe Inspiring Roadtrip Through Yamaguchi and Shimane 106 Blooming Views: Spring Flowers at all Corners CONNECT | Community 116 The Season of the Graduate 120 Bringing the Sea to the Mountain Top

ARTS AND CULTURE ART EDITOR connect.arts@ajet.net

ART DESIGNER

Jessica Craven

Katherine Wang

connect.socialmedia@ajet.net

“Animation is not the art of drawings that move but the art of movements that are drawn.” ーNorman McLaren

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take — Wayne Gretzky — Michael Scott” — The Office

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR connect.entertainment@ajet.net

ENTERTAINMENT DESIGNER

Fergus Gregg

Lloyd Cruickshank

“The darker the night, the brighter the stars.

The deeper the grief, the closer is God!” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

visualmedia.connect@ajet.net

“Dawg no hol ef im ha bone.” (The dog does not howl if he has a bone.)

Meaning: People do not become upset or agitated if they are comfortable. — Unknown

CULTURE EDITOR connect.culture@ajet.net

CULTURE DESIGNER

Marco Oliveros

Muriah Ellis

“The bravest people are the ones who don’t mind looking like cowards.” — T.H. White, The Once and Future King

COPY EDITOR connect.copy1@ajet.net Natalie Andrews “The entitled assholes of the world are sustained by girls who forgive too easily.”

— Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao

Photo: Rena | Unsplash.com

“Everyone should believe in something. I believe I will have another coffee.”

— Unknown

CONNECT ART

Kintsugi The Art of Repairing Broken Pottery with Gold Lacquer Yukiko Moriuchi (Okayama) interviewed by Jessica Craven (Saitama), interpreted by Toshie Ogura (Okayama)

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Kintsugi literally translates as “to connect with gold” and is the art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold lacquer. The technique is at least 400 years old and was born out of the idea of making an object even more beautiful and valuable by embracing its imperfections. The “scars” of the piece become the defining feature of the finished work, resulting in a one-of-a-kind design borne out of mistakes.

You only have to take a good look around Pinterest to realize how much some people from Western countries

“In Japan, broken objects are often repaired with gold. The flaw is seen as a unique piece of the object’s history, which adds to its beauty. Consider this when you feel broken.” ーAnonymous

are inspired by the philosophy behind kintsugi. A viral quote about kintsugi that circulates the internet every so often goes something like this: “In Japan, broken objects are often repaired with gold. The flaw is seen as a unique piece of the object’s history, which adds to its beauty. Consider this when you feel broken.”ーAnonymous Yukiko Moriuchi, a kintsugi teacher in Okayama, helps her students make this idea a way of life and improve their confidence through the art of kintsugi.

I was able to talk with her and one of her current students, Toshie Ogura, to learn more about the process of kintsugi and how students embark on a personal journey through studying it.

J: WHAT iS THE HiSTORY BEHiND KiNTSUGi? Y: The Japanese lacquer needed for the kintsugi process has been used since the Jomon period (around 7000 BC). This lacquer is made from the sap of the native urushi tree. However, kintsugi flourished in the Muromachi period, likely due to the popularity of tea ceremony during this time. Kintsugi was developed as a way to repair a valuable teacup or another similar object so that it could still be used and be transformed into something even more valuable and beautiful than before. |9

J: HOW DiD YOU BECOME iNTERESTED iN KiNTSUGi AND HOW DiD YOU LEARN ABOUT iT? Y: I have always loved making things, and I tried to learn about different art forms little by little. I wanted to connect this hobby to my work. Originally, I had only heard of kintsugi in passing but didn’t know much about it. I thought it was charming because it involves the use of traditional Japanese lacquer.

I started practicing kintsugi because I broke a rice bowl that my husband cherished. I consulted with the artist who made the bowl about if it would be possible to repair it with the kintsugi process, and he said that I could do it. He was kind enough to show me the first step of the processーsticking the broken pieces together with lacquer and flour. I was drawn to kintsugi because you can use everyday materials such as wheat or flour to repair a ceramic pieceーthe only special material you need is lacquer. I continued to study the kintsugi process through the Internet, and I taught myself how to repair my husband’s bowl.

It took about six months to repair it, but when I saw the fragments of the shattered bowl pieced back together, I thought it was beautiful, and I was proud to be able to do this process myself. At this moment, I thought that what was once the ugly “scar” or damage to the bowl became what led me to spend a lot of time with the piece and rediscover its beauty. The piece’s final form is like a beautiful tangible memory of all the time I spent working on the piece and everything I experienced during that period of my life . . . In this way, it was like “proof” of the days that I spent while I was working on the piece. I want to convey this excitement that I feel, so I now run a classroom for students of kintsugi.

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Reattaching the broken pieces.

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J: COULD YOU EXPLAiN THE PROCESS FOR OUR READERS?

KiNTSUGi

Y: The process can be divided into three general phases: 1. Make a mixture of flour and lacquer to make a kind of glue paste (natural adhesive) and use it to attach the broken pieces back together. Also, if you mix a stone or sand material with the lacquer, it can be used as a putty to fill in any gaps. The texture of the mixture is like putty when working with it, but when it dries, it forms a hard surface.

2. Apply the lacquer to the damaged area of the broken object using a brush. Let this application dry and repeat the process many times until you have filled in the cracked completely. I always build up a careful surface with the lacquer through many applications and think of it as similar to applying makeup foundation. I consider the beauty of the particular crack as I fill it in to make a beautiful result.

3. Paint a red lacquer over the surface you have built up. Then, apply the gold over that using a brush.

The entire process takes about 3 months to completeーit takes a long time for the lacquer to completely dry.

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J: IS THERE ANYTHiNG YOU NEED TO BE CAREFUL OF WHEN DOiNG THiS PROCESS? Y: When working with lacquer, you have to take special care to avoid getting it on your skinーotherwise, it’s like superglue and is very difficult to get off. Also, it may cause a rash and make your skin very itchy.

J: ONCE YOU REPAiR A PiECE, HOW LONG CAN YOU CONTiNUE TO USE iT? Y: It depends on how you use the dish, but a piece repaired with the kintsugi process could last forever. However, if you leave the dish standing in water for a long time, put it in the microwave, or put it in the dishwasher, it will ruin the lacquer. The gold powder falls off little by little from use, but you can apply more later to make the piece look “younger.” Although some people allow the applied gold to fade more because they think there is beauty in this aging process.

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“Ms. Moriuchi has a way of teaching that helps her students have their own experience of growth through learning the kintsugi process. It is a subjective journey, but it is important for us.” ーToshie Ogura (current student)

J: WHAT iS YOUR iNSPiRATiON FOR YOUR WORK? Y: I hope to help my students to discover new ways of thinking through the process of kintsugi.

Everyone makes mistakes in their everyday lives, yet many people are highly critical of themselves, especially in Japan. It seems that many people worry that their entire reputation will be ruined within a company or school if they make even one mistake. Sensitive people especially feel pressure from this and maybe even worry they will bear the scars of these mistakes for the rest of their lives.

However, after repairing my husband’s cup through kintsugi, I realized that you can recover even after making a mistake. I’d like to think that you can even transform yourself after making a mistake.

So for me, kintsugi is a way to rediscover myself.

I want to remind my students that they also can recover from any failure and re-create themselves anytime, using the things they already have.

“Ms. Moriuchi has a way of teaching that helps her students have their own experience of growth through learning the kintsugi process. It is a subjective journey, but it is important for us.”ー Toshie Ogura (current student)

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J: I HEARD THAT YOU TEACH SOME FOREiGN STUDENTS ABOUT KiNTSUGi. WHY DO YOU THiNK KiNTSUGi iS iNTERESTiNG FOR THEM? Y: At first, I was surprised by some foreigners’ way of thinking about kintsugi. For me, the value of kintsugi is to repair something that you treasure if you accidentally break it. I also find healing through this process. However, some foreigners intentionally break their cups to participate in the kintsugi class. They seem confident that they can make the cup more beautiful than before through kintsugi . . . (although I was concerned that they would hurt their self-esteem if they broke things on purpose). I think they may be attracted to the fact that you can transform a piece into a new artwork, and the cracked marks are a beautiful organic pattern that you can’t plan or wouldn’t be able to make otherwise.

You can also see this cultural difference if you compare kintsugi to the pottery repair processes in Western countries. In Western countries, the goal of the process is to hide the break, but in Japanese culture, we emphasize the break to show the beauty of an imperfect thing and its history.

Although Ms. Moriuchi teaches the traditional art form of kintsugi, she does so as a means of teaching self-healing or another type of personal growth in contemporary times. As people around the world are still recovering from the pandemic and feel various pressures in work, school, or their personal lives, kintsugi seems to be an art form and process with universal appeal.

Ms. Moriuchi’s classes are held in Tsuyama City, Okayama Prefecture, every Wednesday and Thursday from 10:00 to 12:30, and in Mimasaka City, Okayama Prefecture on the 3rd Saturday of every month from 10:30 to 1:00 and 2:00 to 4:30.

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Toshie Ogura is an English teacher for a language school. She also has many creative hobbiesーsuch as kintsugi and tea ceremonyーand is interested in using her language skills to connect with people around the world and discuss Japanese culture. She also records the Medetai Japan podcast, an English podcast taking a unique spin on topics related to Japanese culture, with her American cohost, Ada.

Yukiko Moriuchi is a kintsugi teacher in Okayama Prefecture. She encourages her students to discover new ways of thinking through the art of kintsugi.

Back to Contents

Jessica Craven is a fifth-year American JET living in Saitama. On weekends, she enjoys hiking in remote areas of Saitama or taking day trips to Tokyo. When not adventuring, she can be found reading or creating her own artwork, which can be seen on her Instagram. | 17

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Miniature Masterpieces MINIATURE LIFE Exhibition 2—Tatsuya Tanaka’s World Kimberly Matsuno (Niigata)

When I think back to dinner time with my family as a child, I mostly remember lukewarm soups and halfeaten sandwiches. It’s not because my mother was a poor cook. In fact, it was quite the opposite. But what my mother saw as well-balanced meals, my brother and I saw as construction sites, forests, and painting canvases.

We would spend more time playing with our food than eating it—turning mounds of mashed potatoes into canyons featuring rivers of gravy, and

constructing bridges out of boiled carrots for little pea-people to cross.

Maybe you were also a potatoPiccasso as a child, or maybe you imagined laundry baskets as fighter jets or turned your father’s socks into puppets—holes and all. No matter the medium of choice, there is no doubt that children’s imaginations are crazy yet beautiful tools capable of turning everyday objects into creations of fantasy and whimsy.

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Science has proven that creativity and imagination are inherent human abilities but only grow under proper environmental conditions (1). Adults often stifle children's imaginations by pressuring them to return to reality and adapt to social norms.

But this is something that Japanese photographer Tatsuya Tanaka wants to resist. Tanaka is someone who still sees broccoli florets as trees and ice cream cones as mountains.

Using his art, he wants to “make you see a little more fun from the objects around you.”

Born in Kumamoto prefecture in 1981, Tanaka’s hobby of creating dioramas and collecting miniature figures quickly became his career shortly after he graduated from university. While he worked as an art director at a design firm, he began taking pictures of the scenes he created out of everyday items.

Since 2011, he has been uploading these images daily and has quickly gathered a large following—3.5 million and counting on Instagram alone (myself included).

Over 1.5 million of these fans have attended his exhibits throughout Japan and abroad. I had the opportunity to see his art in person when one of his exhibits opened in Niigata. The exhibit, titled MINIATURE LIFE Exhibition 2 Tatsuya Tanaka World, features over 130 pieces—some of which are photographs, while others are dioramas.

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Part of the exhibit giving a peek into Tanaka’s photo studio set-up. | 21

A miniature version of the “button cherry blossom tree”.

The entire exhibit allows for photography, and some works are interactive. Situated at the entrance to the first gallery, a giant tree with pink buttons representing cherry blossoms allows visitors to feel like miniatures themselves and sets the tone that this exhibit is one in which to have fun. And having fun is not hard to do when looking at pirate ships sporting fried chicken sails and tiny Draculas popping out of chocolate bars.

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While Tanaka designs his art to be easily understood, he is also thoughtful and kind enough to provide English translations for all of the titles and descriptions throughout the exhibit. Which is a good thing as the titles of his works are as creative as the images themselves—with nearly every title featuring a play on words. Though, to be honest, the puns are much better in Japanese as the English translations often fall flat or lack puns entirely.

intended humor. For example, an image of cafe customers seated around a magnet was entitled “Customer Attraction.”

When attending one of Tanaka’s exhibits, I recommend you not only pay attention to the works and punny titles but to the frames which house the photographs as well. Many of the frames contain small miniatures in the corners, which build playfully off of the image and add to the whimsy of the exhibit.

Many of the Japanese visitors chuckled At titles such as “ケーキの良いデパート” (“Keiki no Yoi Depato”) while I stood there confused, wondering what was funny about the English version of the title, “Urban Confectioner.” For those who also don’t understand the Japanese pun, “ケーキ” (keiki) means “cake” but it can also mean “a profitable business”—or so I’m told.

While Tanaka’s works are whimsical in nature, he’s not afraid to shy away from serious topics. Some of his recent works have included a Tokyo 2020 Olympics series featuring masks—providing commentary on how the ever-present concerns of COVID deeply impacted the sporting event.

He also posted a powerful image on his Instagram account denouncing the war in Ukraine. Another exhibit of Tanaka’s in To Tanaka’s (or the translator’s) credit, Dubai showcases global issues—ranging some of the English titles do convey the from the melting of polar ice caps to the growing collection of junk in space.

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But whether humorous or serious in tone, Tanaka hopes that his works convey the idea that “with a little change of view, you might recognize that the world is filled with interesting things." I think that his exhibit certainly accomplishes that. Or, at the very least, it has me looking at my mashed potatoes differently again.

In the future, Tanaka hopes to have exhibits outside of Asia and even have his works in public parks and places people can visit easily.

In the meantime, you can purchase Tanaka’s works, including his books “Miniature Trip in Japan” and “Miniature Life at Home,” on his website, and you can view his images posted daily on Instagram.

Sources: Journal of Education and Learning

Upcoming Exhibition Schedule: MINIATURE LIFE Exhibition 2 Tatsuya Tanaka's World (9/16-10/30 Nagano-Ueda City Museum of Art) MINIATURE LIFE Exhibition Tatsuya Tanaka's World (4/23-5/30 Tottori-Yonago City Museum of Art) MINIATURE LIFE SEOUL in BUSAN (4/1-6/6 Busan-Shinsegae Centum City) MINIATURE LIFE Exhibition 2 Tatsuya Tanaka World (3/19-5/15 Niigata, Niitsu Art Museum)

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Kimberly Matsuno is in her third year in Japan and has loved every minute of it. She enjoys hiking and exploring everything Japan has to offer. When not planning her next trip or trying to recreate that one thing she ate at that one restaurant, you can find her spending way too much money on stationery at her local LOFT.

Back to Contents

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CONNECT ENTERTAINMENT

Please tell us about kagura. What is it?

An

Evening of

Kagura Interview

Rachel Nicholson (Hiroshima) interviewed

by Rachel Fagundes (Okayama)

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Kagura is, as the legend goes, the oldest form of entertainment in Japan.

The kanji that make up kagura (神楽) literally mean “gods” and “entertainment”— “entertaining the gods.”

One of the oldest legends in Japan is the story of the Sun Goddess closing herself off from the world in a rock cave (essentially, the modern equivalent of locking yourself in your room) after her brother does some truly awful stuff.

To lure her out of the cave and save the world from complete darkness, the Goddess Ame-no-Uzumeno-Mikoto starts to perform a lively dance, which becomes the first kagura performance. Ame-noUzume-no-Mikoto is still worshiped today as a goddess of entertainment and the arts! (Check out the kagura play based off of this legend, Ama-no-Iwato).

What makes it different from kabuki or noh?

What makes it different from kabuki and noh is that it has religious roots, whereas the other two do not. Kagura tells stories from Japanese mythology and was originally performed only at shrines or festivals as a way to give thanks to the gods for a bountiful harvest. As Shintoism spread throughout Japan, so too did kagura.

Kagura is also much shorter than noh or kabuki performances, usually about 45 minutes per play.

While they do share some of the more dramatic qualities of kabuki (the elaborate costumes), kagura isn’t considered a high art form—it’s more of a grassroots art form. The music is also unique: each play is accompanied by live music and singing (perhaps “chanting” is a little closer) by four musicians playing the kagura flute, hand cymbals, small taiko drum, and large taiko drum.

What makes Hiroshima’s style of kagura different from other styles around Japan?

There are actually many different styles of kagura within Hiroshima, which is understandable since there are over 200 troupes in Hiroshima today! The most popular style is Geihoku Kagura.

The biggest difference is that most other styles of kagura around Japan are still quite traditional and

closer to their Shinto roots. However, Hiroshima Kagura (or Geihoku Kagura) took a different approach by embracing the use of elaborate costumes, smoke machines, masks for demons that shoot actual sparks and flames, paper streamers to represent magic or blood, and the use of “modern” (ish) stories that come from kabuki or noh (like the Oeyama Trilogy, which you can find here (Part 1), here (Part 2), and here (Part 3)).

The shift towards becoming a popular performing art is largely due to the Nakakawado Kagura Troupe’s performance of Itabukino-Miya (Itabuki Palace) at the 44th Annual Geiseki Kagura Competition in 1992. The performance included an unforgettable and impressive prop of a severed head that flew around the stage shooting flames and sparks that delighted and amazed the audience. While it received incredible cheers from the crowd, the judges panel refused to accept it. Spurred by

their frustration at the judges panel, the Nakakawado Troupe held their own self-funded kagura performance at Aster Plaza in Hiroshima City. Their performance titled “Super Kagura, the Songs of the Gods from the Nakakawado Troupe” was a huge success, and crowds packed the performance hall, leaving many watching from standing room only. Word began to spread about how incredible and entertaining kagura was.

This landmark performance also marked when Geihoku Kagura began to be called Hiroshima Kagura.

You can learn more in The History of Hiroshima Kagura, which is a great resource.

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Please tell us more about the performers.

Who performs kagura?

Are they able to perform kagura full time or is this more of a hobby?

Kagura is a very community-based artform, so the performers aren’t dedicated actors by trade.

You’ll see middle schoolers, high schoolers, those in their 20s all the way to their 60s or even later working either on stage or behind the scenes. They even have kids’ kagura troupes and women’s kagura troupes as well. Everyone who participates does so after school or work, usually meeting a few times during the week to practice.

They can get paid to perform at shrines and other venues (if they’re a well-known kagura troupe), but it’s more of a hobby than a side-gig.

Can you tell us about the masks and costumes?

The masks are used for characters like demons, gods, and the elderly. They are made from lightweight washi paper and some have little tricks in them, like a piece that juts out from the inside that actors bite down on to hold the mask in place when doing quick mask changes. A lot of the hair that you see on the masks is actually horse hair.

The costumes are all handembroidered and one-of-akind pieces made by professional kagura costume makers. They have little mirrors or 28 |

reflective surfaces sewn into them that catch the light.

There are distinctive patterns on them that are unique to the troupe. You can find traditional symbols of good fortune, like turtles, or traditional Japanese flowers embroidered into them as well. Since they use a lot of metallic thread and heavy fabrics, the costumes for demons (often with the most intricate 3D designs) can weigh up to 20 or 30 kilograms!

Another characteristic of the costumes is the reveal. During the big fight scene at the end, you’ll usually have a scene where two good guys face two bad guys before getting the final boss. They twirl around one another to mimic the fighting, and then, halfway through, the costumes will appear to change into a new costume halfway through the intense spinning.

Hiroshima-style kagura makes wonderful use of a lot of stage effects, like smoke machines. Can you tell us more about that?

Smoke usually indicates that something magical (good or bad) is about to happen. So, for example, when the innocent-looking maid begins her slow transformation into a demon during Tsuchigumo, you’ll see her first free her hair from being tied back, and then smoke will slowly start to creep out from the curtains to signify this maid is not all she seems. Smoke filling the stage before a character comes out from the curtains can indicate a demon, or sometimes, a god. So when you see smoke, it’s a cue to pay attention because something important is going to happen.

Costumes are extremely expensive and are not something that is purchased frequently.

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When is the traditional kagura season?

As kagura was originally a ritual to offer thanks for a bountiful fall harvest, the season usually begins in the fall and goes through the wintertime.

Please tell us about An Evening of Kagura. How did that get started and how did you get involved?

An Evening of Kagura began in Hiroshima City in 2017 with the goal of introducing Hiroshima’s traditional performing art of kagura to international tourists. Different kagura troupes from around the prefecture would come to the city and perform one of their popular plays with English translations projected alongside them.

These live shows continued until the end of 2019, when COVID-19 decided to show up.

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Early on I was contacted by the chairwoman of the Hiroshima Interpreter and Guide Association, who asked me if I would translate kagura plays for an as-of-yet-unnamed performance for tourists.

That’s right! I’m the one who named it An Evening of Kagura!

At that point, I had only seen kagura once at a local festival. I was absolutely entranced, captivated by the lavish costumes, the music, the dancing—and also at how everyone had gathered in the parking lot of this tiny shrine, huddled together on blankets and tarps on the ground, staring up at the performance in wonder.

So when asked to be a part of that, I, of course, accepted.

How has An Evening of Kagura adapted during the pandemic?

The pandemic meant that live performances were a no-go, and also that tourists were barred from entering the country. So, RCCBC (the RCC Cultural Center, or, RCC Bunka Center, in Japanese) decided to go digital and began offering An Evening of Kagura Online in the fall of 2020. These videos were a mix of prerecorded performances and livestreams featuring an intro by the MC, performance (subtitled), and a live Q&A where we took questions submitted in real-time and interpreted them for the troupe and audience.

The great thing about the online version is we had a much larger reach

globally. Some of the livestreams and even prerecorded videos had 600 people or more watching at once! The prepandemic shows maybe had an audience of 40 if we were lucky— sometimes only 10 people or even less showed up!

We even had a three-day Winter Kagura Festival online in December 2020 with lots of people joining us in the chat, asking questions about kagura and having a good time.

We also produced some explanatory content, such as the history of kagura video linked above, as well as videos introducing some of kagura’s best known plays, like Yamatano-Orochi (The EightHeaded Snake Demon) and Momiji-gari (The Maple Leaf Viewing Party).

Our 2021 season featured videos of past performances with English subtitles, and included eight never-before-translated plays.

Kagura dialogue uses an older form of Japanese, comparable to Chaucerian English, that even modern Japanese audiences don’t understand. What is it like translating these scripts?

When I first got the scripts to translate, they were in classical Japanese with a modern Japanese translation below them.

I had zero experience with classical Japanese, so at first, I largely ignored it and just looked at the modern translations.

However, as I was watching more of these plays, I started to decode what they were saying, and I realized that the original translator (who put the classical Japanese into modern Japanese) had left quite a few details out! So I started looking more at the classical Japanese when I was tweaking the translations. Since I saw many of the same plays over and over again, I began to get pretty familiar with what they were saying and soon found I didn’t really need the modern Japanese as much.

If I'm stuck on a word or phrase, I usually end up asking the coordinator (who is a kagura expert in his own right) if I have the meaning or nuance right. It’s been a real test of my own understanding, but also a great way to deepen my understanding of Japanese.

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What has been your favorite story or performance that you’ve seen so far?

How can foreign people experience and learn more about kagura?

Hands down Ushi-gozen, or as I dubbed it, The Tragic Tale of Ushi-gozen.

It’s got everything: the fragile egos of men in power, babies born with horns, mental anguish over being ordered to kill your half-sister, not to mention incredible makeup, costumes, and dramatic acting that will leave you in tears. It’s one of the few shin-mai plays that is less about good vs. evil and more about moral corruption, family, and what it means to be a military family.

Well, it’s a little more difficult to do so at the moment with COVID-19, but international residents can watch online performances with English subtitles on RCCBC Kagura YouTube Channel. There are also some videos about kagura history there, too. If things calm down in the fall, you can catch live kagura performances at certain shrines (last year, Sorasaya Shrine in downtown Hiroshima hosted an outdoor night kagura performance) but they’re not super heavily advertised. There are also kagura competitions held in places like KitaHiroshima-cho and Akitakata City. Speaking of, they have a Kagura Dome (dedicated space for kagura performances) at Monzen Tōji-mura where you can catch special performances, high school kagura competitions, and more (in Japanese only).

You can also follow An Evening of Kagura on Instagram and Facebook, or read about it on GetHiroshima!

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What can we do to support An Evening of Kagura?

RCCBC has added a way for viewers to donate via the Thanks button on their YouTube videos. You can see more details about that on our Instagram (“Donate” story highlight).

Even just watching the livestreams or video premieres helps, as does sharing posts, liking posts, or even just subscribing to the YouTube channel!

Is there anything else that you want people to know about Kagura?

It’s such a gem of local culture that truly is unique to Hiroshima. If you’ve never seen it, I encourage you to just watch one of the videos (preferably Ushi-gozen or Yamata-noOrochi, maybe Takiyashahime)—they’re not that long and they are super entertaining!

Rachel Fagundes is a fifth-year JET in Okayama and the Head Editor of CONNECT. She loves traditional Japanese theater, Mexican food, science fiction, and cats.

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Originally from Maryland in the United States, Rachel Nicholson has been living and working in Hiroshima for almost 15 years. From translating for Hiroshima University to owning her own restaurant, working at a bakery, and then at a dentist office, she finally landed herself a job translating for Hiroshima City Hall. She also does freelance translation and narration, and sometimes finds herself on camera introducing Hiroshima and its incredible food culture. You can find her on Instagram, where she is known as the Hiroshima Food Snob.

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Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee were known for their whirlwind romance, ugly divorce, and infamous sex-tape. Thanks to the then-burgeoning internet it became an international scandal, and while Pam & Tommy never gives a definite answer on the matter, you can’t help but wonder if things could have turned out better for its titular couple, if not for this violation of their privacy. In the show, they may be a pair of weird, washed-up has-beens, but they’re weird in a way that complements each other, and you can see a real passion shine through even as the scandal surrounding their tape brings that passion to a boiling point, and twists their relationship into something ugly.

SERIES REVIEW

Pam & Tommy is expertly made. The script is clever, with plenty of humor and warmth to alleviate the pain and tragedy.

The miniseries format allows the showrunners to make you hate a character in one episode, then sympathize with them in another (or viceversa), as you see the situation from different angles in different episodes. And while the social commentary remains biting, never bitter, it very pointedly takes to task the unwanted voyeurs that turned this theft into a nightmare for the real-life Pam and Tommy.

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Of course, this raises a dilemma for the show. While Pam & Tommy is a good story, it’s still fiction. Tommy Lee and the sex-tape thief Rand Gauthier have given their approval of the work, but insist the plot is largely fictionalized. More than that though, Pamela Anderson has publicly stated multiple times that the theft of her tape was a deeply traumatizing and

Pam& T

Marco Cian (Hyogo)

violating incident, the worst thing that ever happened in her life. While the show takes great pains to illustrate this fact, it makes you wonder if the showrunners have the right to make Pamela relive this trauma, even if it’s to criticize how the press and public contributed to it. Did this show need to be made?

That’s a difficult question, and one with no easy answer. But in interviews with the cast and crew, it’s clear they were passionate about this project changing the public narrative. Pam and Tommy’s sex tape is a story everyone thinks they know. I thought I knew it. But the show presents Pamela not as a scheming jezebel, but a normal, decent person who is thrust into a horrible situation beyond her control. So while the show’s value will vary depending on the viewer, I think if people are able to recognize Pamela’s trauma, then some good will have come out of it. There are rumors that Pamela Anderson has gotten a documentary deal with Netflix to tell her undramatized side of the story. I wish her nothing but the best of luck, and I hope that the success of Pam & Tommy allows her to be heard this time.

Marco Cian is a first-year ALT in Toyooka, Hyogo. He still hasn’t seen that other dark Hulu project starring Sebastian Stan, but he’ll get round to it eventually. In the meantime, he’d like to watch something a little happier. He reads a lot, and you can find him on his YouTube channel, È quasi milione, where he talks about fantasy works.

&Tommy Back to Contents

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RECOMMENDED ANIME 36 |

OUSAMA RANKING MARCO OLIVEROS (TOKUSHIMA)

King Bosse is dead. Long live King Bojji! . . . or so he believes, but everyone else thinks otherwise, and they crown someone else king.

From a glance, who can blame them? Prince Bojji is small, weak, deaf, and naive. The son of giants, and yet diminutive in size and strength to even to normal humans, how can he speak for a kingdom when he can’t even properly speak? But like many things in this anime, there’s more to Bojji than meets the eye, and over the course of the show, he’s ranked better once people give him a chance to prove himself in other ways.

Ousama Ranking “King Ranking” in English) is a story that loves to reference fairytales and loves to subvert expectations, those two passions often going hand in hand. The story, in fact, begins as a reference to (and then a subversion of) The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Anderson.

Bojji is a good-hearted but lonely boy born in a kingdom that isn’t really innocent as its merry old fairytale veneer might have audiences believe. That false impression isn’t really helped by how its characters are designed— curved black lines and

sparse facial details making the show look less like a modern anime and more something from a children’s book. And yet the kingdom is swept with intrigue soon after the previous king passes on, the scheming presaged by a literal, towering demon emerging out of the old king’s mouth at the king’s passing. It points at Bojji, laughs at him, then leaves, onlookers horrified by what transpired.

Throughout his life, Bojji has been looked down on for his weakness and naivety, head high past snickering crowds after giving up his best clothes to a swindler. However, the deaf Bojji knows how people see him and endures it without losing his heart, and it's this underrated strength and kindness that makes swindlers and others into friends.

Ousama Ranking is the anime adaptation of a manga of the same name

by Toka Sosuke. It was animated by Wit Studio of Attack on Titan and Ancient Magus’ Bride fame, and directed by Hatta Yosuke and Fuchigami Makoto.

While fitting with its inspiration and subversion, Ousama Ranking generic fairytale aesthetic is not

especially engaging to watch still. It’s the animation style that causesOusama Ranking to stand out. The show’s simply designed characters lend themselves to fluid and dynamic action. Bojji might not have the physical strength of his giant father, but he has unmatched agility and perception in fights that the animation and direction excels at illustrating.

The first half of Ousama Ranking is tightly written and grippingly paced, the narrative's penchant for backstory and subversion adds remarkable depth to characters, beyond what audiences who are familiar with fairy tales might

assume. The second half, unfortunately, is less so.

Story developments become over-explained, the fight scenes are overwrought, and an obsession with providing backstories to almost every character causes the show to suffer.

As dark as Ousama Ranking gets, it’s also determined to rehabilitate as many of its villains as it can. The story suggests that heinous criminals should be forgiven, if they’re remorseful and if they’ve had a tragic past.

That’s a bold idea that I don’t think the show makes a persuasive enough case on, given how easily and . . . strangely it absolves certain characters.

Regardless of its faults, Ousama Ranking is an interesting take on classic fairy tale tropes and underdog story beats. An unassuming boy proves himself with comrades his kindness and unorthodox strengths, in the process rewriting what it takes to be a good king.

Marco Oliveros is a fourthyear ALT and the current Culture Section for CONNECT. He likes history.

He’s also a freelance writer who writes about anime a lot. You can find a list of his published work here.

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ELDEN RING PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, XBox One, XBox Series X & S Fergus Gregg (Kobe)

No mana left, out of all potions, on half health and limping through a castle filled with enemies I’m far too underleveled for. I breathe a sigh of relief, instead of a boss room, a much needed Site of Grace.

I visibly relax as I realise that I won’t have to run that gauntlet ever again and grin in extreme anticipation for the next torturously difficult fight. Oh yeah, this is a Fromsoftware game.

Welcome to Elden Ring, the latest entry into Fromsoftwares library of challenging video games. If you’re familiar with the Dark Souls series, you’ll be immediately familiar with Elden Ring’s basic

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elements of gameplay. If not, allow me to enlighten you. You’ll be thrown into a world, allowed to pick a class that does little more than determine your starting stats, a starting item to help you and then. . .

That’s it. You have to find your own way, cryptic NPCs will give you vague directions towards objectives, but outside of that there’s no hand holding. This has led to some players claiming that Elden Ring is in dire need of an easy mode. However, Elden Ring is easily the most accessible Fromsoftware title in years.

While difficult early bosses such as Margit or Godrick can cause frustration,

players are given all the tools they need to succeed.

The first of these is a summonable horse which opens up the world, allowing players to explore, level and find equipment with relative ease. Once players feel ready to take on a boss fight, they’re assisted again by a new addition to the gameplay formulae: Ashes of War. Ashes of War are a new feature to the series, they allow you to summon minions to help you fight in boss battles or in certain other areas. While in other games by Fromsoftware, you’ve been able to summon NPCs to help in boss battles at the cost of a

valuable resource like Dark Soul’s Humanity, in Elden Ring you’re able to summon these Ashes in exchange for a set amount of mana.

These alleviate the stress of boss fights by taking damage causing status effects or even creating a duplicate of the player's character, depending on which Ash you use.

Combat and customisation are the best they’ve ever been in any souls game.

Power Stances are back, so players who dual wield can unleash awesomely cinematic moves. Magic is outstanding and versatile, permitting players to consider different strategies and approaches even with ranged combat builds. Like

Dark Souls, Elden Ring doesn’t impose any playstyle onto gamers, your class simply determines your starting stats. In Elden Ring, the path you pick is entirely your own. However, it can be difficult to find weapons and items in the beginning of the game. I personally found it difficult to find appropriate weapons that could defeat regular enemies, let alone the tough early bosses. Elden Ring does have a steep learning curve and the lack of early and accessible equipment exacerbates this.

While boss combat and customisation is satisfying, where Elden Ring really stands out is in its

exploration. The world of Elden Ring is vast, diverse and filled with interesting NPCs and side stories.

Whether you’re playing it on next generation consoles or old ones, you’ll be in awe of how beautiful the world of Elden Ring can be. Areas like the Eternal City of Nokron or the boss area of Starscourge Radahn are so rich with atmosphere and details that players definitively get immersed.

This is in no part due to collective efforts of Tsukasa Saitoh, Shoi Miyazawa,Tai Tomisawa, Yuka Kitamura and Yoshimi Kudo’s in creating a magnificently epic score to match the games scale.

To conclude, Elden Ring is a culmination of all of Fromsoftwares’ previous games. A natural combination of elements from Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro, which offers the world of Zelda: Breath of the Wild paired with the gameplay of Dark Souls. If you’re interested in games that challenge your problem solving, pattern recognition and imagination, this title will enthrall you.

Fergus is a youthful firstyear JET who has stepped into Japan bright-eyed and looking for adventure.

When not obsessing over horror films and literature, he can be found exploring Hyogo in search of mystery.

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MAY

RELEASES Fergus Gregg (Kobe)

May 4 • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) May 6 • Chernobyl: Abyss (2019) • My Salinger Year (2020) • Audrey (2020) • My Small Land (2022) • Suzi Q (2019) • Hava, Maryam, Ayesha (2019) • Lesson in Murder (2022) • Warm Hug (2020) May 7 • My Identity (2019) • Yonaguni (2021) May 13 • Bubble (2022) • Shin Ultraman (2022) • The Wandering Moon (2022) • Ice (2018)

May 20 • The Forever Purge (2021) • Military Wives (2019) • a-ha: The Movie (2021) • A Good Woman Is Hard to Find (2019) • The Quintessential Quintuplets Movie (2022) • Hagane no Renkinjutsushi: Kanketsu-hen - Fukushusha Scar (2022) • Creature Designers - The Frankenstein Complex (2015) • Haken Anime! (2022) May 22 • Dreams of Darkness (2022) May 27 • Top Gun: Maverick (2022) • WarHunt (2022) • Hatachi no Soru (2022) May 28 • Inu-oh (2021) May 31 • Privacidade Invadida 2 (2021)

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May 4 • Wildcat Gun Machine (PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch) May 5 • Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters (PC) • Line War (PC) • Citizen Sleeper (PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch) • Trek to Yomi (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S) May 6 • Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit (PC) May 10 • We Were Here Forever (PC) • Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch) • Songs of Conquest - Steam Early Access (PC) • Salt and Sacrifice (PC, PS4, PS5) May 11 • Brigandine The Legend of Runersia (PC) • Source of Madness (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch)

May 12 • Cantata - Steam Early Access (PC) • The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch) May 13 • Evil Dead: The Game (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch) May 19 • Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch) May 20 • Dolmen (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S) May 24 • Touken Ranbu Warriors (Switch) • Hardspace: Shipbreaker (PC) May 26 • Sniper Elite 5 (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S) • My Time at Sandrock - Steam Early Access (PC) Sources: https://www.imdb.com/calendar/ ?region=jp https://www.vg247.com/2021/01/22/ video-game-release-dates-2021/

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CONNECT CULTURE

Discovering the Historical, Mythical, and, Whimsical Side of Gifu Sophie McCarthy (Hyogo)

W

hen I first arrived in Japan, Gifu Prefecture was never a place that high on my travel bucket list. I hadn’t heard much about it other than Shirakawa-go. However, as I learned more about Japanese history and culture, I ended up finding an abundance of interesting and enriching places there. I have now been to Gifu twice, and each time I visit, I grow to love it—its landscape, its unique history, its kind locals— more and more. Below are some places in Gifu that I highly recommend for those wanting to truly experience a different side of Japan.

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岐阜 “Gifu”

Gifu Castle While not one of the 12 original castles of Japan, Gifu Castle is a National Historic Site. Perched peacefully on the top of the mountain overlooking the town, a cable car can take you up to this small but elegant castle.

Gifu Castle

The castle was originally built between 1201-1204 and was previously named Inabayama Castle.

However, in 1567, during the Sengoku Period, the castle underwent many renovations and received its current name when it was taken over by Oda Nobunaga. Oda Nobunaga is considered one of the three great unifiers of Japan’s Sengoku Period, along with Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Within Gifu Castle is extensive information (available in English) about the life and legacy of Oda Nobunaga, the Oda Clan, and this pivotal period in Japanese history. The top floor outdoor walkway of the castle is also open to the public and offers a sweeping, panoramic view of Gifu and Aichi Prefecture, with even Nagoya City in Aichi being visible in the distance. It is especially striking at sunset.

Top of Gifu Castle Nagara River—Cormorant Fishing Beneath Gifu Castle, the Nagara River flows and offers a chance to witness a Japanese tradition dating back to over a thousand years. Between May and October at dusk, tourists have the opportunity to board small boats and experience [[i]]ukai[[i]], or cormorant fishing. Cormorant fishing takes place in 12 other cities in Japan besides the Nagara River, but it’s most famous on the Nagara River.

Skilled fishermen train cormorant birds to catch fish from the river by boat. Illuminated by the lanterns off their boats’ bows, the fishermen tie a loose rope around the birds’ neck and train the birds to catch the fish in their mouths. They then have the commorants release the fish back in the boat.

Nighttime Comorant Fishing

Partly due to Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu creating official positions and titles for the fishermen and giving them their patronage, cormorant fishing has continued uninterrupted for 1300 years in Gifu. | 43

Yoro Falls About an hour southwest of Gifu City is Yoro Park, and within the park is a beautiful walking trail that leads up to one of the Top 100 Waterfalls of Japan, Yoro Falls. With a height of 32 meters and a width of four meters, Yoro Falls is mentioned often in classic Japanese literature and art. These falls’ reputation is closely intertwined with the Japanese folktale, The Legend of Filial Piety.

Appearing in the Kokon Chomonju, one of Japan's three major narrative collections, this folktale tells the story of Takako Yoro, a poor lumberjack who couldn’t afford to buy sake for his aging father, who enjoyed drinking. One day when he was walking deep in the mountains, he encountered Yoro Falls and longingly wished that it gushed sake instead of water. When he later scooped up the water to taste it, it tasted like sweet sake. He excitedly took some of the special water to his old father to drink.

As soon as his father drank it, his white hair turned black, his face unwrinkled, and he became youthful once again.

Yoro Falls

The Legend of Filial Piety spread, and in the early eighth century, the Japanese Empress Gensho visited Yoro Falls and declared it a “fountain of youth,” capable of curing diseases, purifying the skin, and restoring eyesight. Since then, people from all over Japan travel to Yoro Park to visit the falls and drink from its sacred springs. The water is even bottled and sold as Yoro Cider. This legend is also connected to the origin of the national Japanese holiday, Respect for the Aged Day.

Site of Reversible Destiny Also nestled within Yoro Park is one of the most unique contemporary art installations in Japan, the Site of Reversible Destiny.

Opened in 1995, this site is a perplexing interactive art park that encourages a childlike sense of discovery across its pavilions, undulating planes, shifting colors, and disorienting spaces. Hours can be spent wandering through the park, finding different hidden rooms and crevices.

Site of Reversible Destiny 44 |

Art Installation on Site of Reversible Destiny The Site of Reversible Destiny was created by the Reversible Destiny Foundation, an artist-architectpoet group formed by Madeline Gins and Arakawa Shusaku. In 1963, Arakawa and Gins started to collaborate and produce boundary-defying art and architecture that challenges viewers to rethink their perception of the universe and their physical and spiritual orientation within it.

City of Gero Onsen

Gero Onsen About an hour north of Gifu City, nestled in the mountains, is one of Japan's top three onsen, or hot springs, Gero Onsen. Gero Onsen has been mentioned in literature as far back as the Nara Period (710-794), with many notable visitors over its vast history, from Japanese emperors to Charlie Chaplin.

The town experienced a devastating blow in 1265 when a strong earthquake caused the water sources for the onsen to dry up. Over the next few months, the townsfolk noticed a strange white heron coming to sit at the same spot in the riverbed every day. Eventually, the townsfolk investigated the spot and discovered a new hot spring source bubbling to the surface.

The heron then flew off into the mountains and rested in a tall pine tree. Believing that the heron was actually Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of healing, the grateful townsfolk built Onsenji Temple in the mountains to honor the Buddha and his aid. Now, Gero Onsen is more popular than ever, with over 50 traditional ryokan inns, multiple public bath houses, and free foot baths spread throughout the town.

Osenji Temple in Gero Onsen | 45

Shirakawa-go in Winter Fun fact: “Gero Gero” is the sound frogs make in Japanese, so frogs have become the unofficial mascot of Gero Onsen. You will see frog drawings, a frog shrine, frog manholes, and frog memorabilia and omiyage everywhere you look.

Roof of Gassh residents, but according the Shirakawa Village website, in 2019, nearly 2.15 million tourists visited from all over the world.

Honorable Mention: Takayama— Showa Museum

Shirakawa-go As it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Shirakawa-go is one of the most popular attractions in all of Japan. The village is filled with gassho-zukuri houses, which are constructed with steep rafter roof tops and are a unique Japanese architectural style. The houses were built this way to prevent the weight of the snow causing the collapse of the roofs in winter, as the area gets about 35 feet of snow every year.

Due to the difficult access and around 95% percent of the surrounding area being a forest zone with steep mountains, this region was mostly isolated from the outside world until the 1950s. Due to this same isolation though, its unique culture and traditions have been well preserved.

Many of the gassho-zukuri houses have been in families for generations and are still lived in today. This small rural community itself only has around 1,600 46 |

Takayama is a quaint little city that is a popular stopover on the way to and from Shirakawa-go. It has a beautifully preserved old town and is a great “off the beaten path” experience. Takayama also has one of the best Showa Era (1926–1989) museums in Japan. The museum is stuffed to the brim with Showa memorabilia you can interact with.

You can even learn to play Showa Era pachinko and old video game consoles.

Like any prefecture in Japan, there is always more than meets the eye. By actually living in Japan instead of just visiting it as a tourist, I have had so many opportunities to spend more time in locations and visit more than just the top attractions. Gifu has been one prefecture I have been able to find these more local and often underrated experiences, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the amazing sites and culture it has to offer.

Ticket to Sho

Sophie is a fourth-year JET in Kobe, Hyogo. In her free time, she enjoys reading classic Japanese literature, visiting coffee shops, and practicing film photography.

Check out her photos on Instagram: @sophie.pdf

ho-zukuri House

Showa Museum

owa Museum Back to Contents

Showa Museum in Takayama

Cluster of Snowed-in Gassho-zukuri Houses | 47

Tokuya Okitsu (Hyogo) interviewed by Rachel Fagundes (Okayama) and translated by Toshie Ogura (Okayama)

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*This interview was originally conducted in Japanese. It has been translated into English and edited for clarity and concision.

Most people think of kabuki or maybe even noh when it comes to traditional Japanese theater, but what about puppetry? Lavishly designed and dressed puppets move and pose on stage—the dramas put on in ningyojoruri, Japanese puppet theater, are said to be so engaging that audiences forget there are human puppeteers in the background dressed in all black. In this article, Rachel Fagundes interviews Mr. Okitsu, who specializes in the Awaji style of ningyo-joruri.

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Please tell our readers, what is ningyo-joruri? What makes it different from other forms of Japanese theater?

Ningyo-joruri is one of the five traditional forms of Japanese theater (the other four being kagura, kyogen, noh, and kabuki).

Ningyo-joruri started as a religious art form to ask the gods such as Ebisu for blessings of a good harvest or plentiful fish and so forth. It later became a form of popular entertainment. Ningyo-joruri developed alongside kabuki around the same time, and tells many of the same stories that kabuki tells, except that kabuki uses human actors to play the characters, while ningyo-joruri uses puppets.

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It’s also commonly known as bunraku, though that’s not exactly the correct label. Bunraku actually refers to Osakastyle ningyo-joruri, and is named after a particular theater in Osaka that popularized the artform; “ningyo-joruri” is the more general term for it, and includes both Osaka bunraku and the Awaji style that I perform.

How long have you been involved with ningyo-joruri?

What do you do?

I have been a puppeteer for 32 years.

Before that, I was a ningyo-joruri storyteller, or tayu.

How many people does it take to move a puppet? How do they work together?

It was just one person long ago when stories for ningyo-joruri were simpler, but as plays became more complex, puppets required more complex movement; nowadays, it takes three people to move one puppet. The lead puppeteer is called the omo-zukai, and they maneuver the head and the right hand and arm of the puppet. The second performer is called the hidari-zukai, and they move the puppet’s left hand and arm, and add props like fans. The third performer is called the ashi-zukai, and they move the puppet’s feet.

A puppeteer starts by training to maneuver the feet as an ashi-zukai, which takes seven years to master, then another seven or eight years as a hidarizukai to master the left arm. It takes a lifetime to master the role of the lead puppeteer. The omo-zukai guides the actions of the other two puppeteers so that they all move together as one unit.

They have secret signs between them so that the omo-zukai can guide the other two, and tell the puppet to walk, or tell the left hand to do something.

For example, the omo-zukai (lead puppeteer) will make eye contact with the hidari-zukai (left hand puppeteer) to tell them to take action.

The puppeteers all learn specific poses and movements called kata that convey emotions. For example, there are many different ways to move the puppets to indicate crying, depending on the age and gender of the character.

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How are the puppets made?

The puppets are carved by a special craftsman and made from Hinoki cypress wood.

The face of the doll is always carved to have a neutral expression, and show no emotion. This allows the puppeteer to create emotions by tilting the head or moving the doll in specific ways. For example, tilting the head up makes the puppet look happy, while tilting it down makes it look sad.

The skin of the doll is first painted bright, shiny white. The paint is made from oyster shells. The oyster shells are burned, and then ground into a fine powder. Then, the powder is mixed with a sort of glue or gel made from boiled animal skin, to produce a white paint. This paint is layered onto the doll 30 times, and each layer is polished before applying another layer. That is why the skin is so smooth and shines brilliantly, like porcelain. Any color to the skin is applied after this white, 30-layer base. Female characters’ faces tend to remain white, while male ones are more likely to have additional color added.

For more refined characters, the doll maker will use real human hair.

The properties of human hair allow for easier styling with a hot iron, creating refined hairstyles for elegant characters.

For rough, or stubborn, characters, the doll maker will use wavy thick hair from the tail of a yak.

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The female puppets can blink their eyes. Male puppets can turn their eyes left and right, move their eyebrows, and open and shut their mouths to create different expressions. These motions are all controlled by the omo-zukai puppeteers by pulling levers inside the puppet’s neck that control the delicate mechanisms inside the puppet. The face movements are attached to strings made from whale baleen (the bristle-like feeding filters that whales have instead of teeth).

The puppeteers don’t speak, right? There is a narrator who speaks as the characters and a shamisen player. You also mentioned earlier that you were a narrator before you were a puppeteer. Please tell us more.

The puppeteers are silent. There is, instead, a storyteller, or tayu, who has two roles. One is to narrate the play, and two is to voice-act the lines of all the characters. There is just one tayu for every play.

In addition to the 2-3 years it takes for someone to become a tayu officially, it can take one year for a tayu to memorize a single play. They must learn breathing techniques like an opera singer to project their voice.

They also have to convey the voice and emotions of all the different characters.

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When they are starting out, these storytellers might know a short play with few characters, but as they grow in mastery, they will learn more complicated plays with more characters.

The tayu are accompanied by one shamisen player. The shamisen player not only creates background music for a scene, but also adds sound effects into the play, like the sound of a door opening or snow falling. They also use their instruments to add emotions into the play.

The tayu and the shamisen player work closely together, like a husband and wife. The tayu is the husband and the shamisen player is the wife. If the tayu starts growing tired during the performance, the shamisen player can support them with music. They have this kind of relationship.

The scripts of the ningyo-joruri play are often written in ancient Japanese, like kabuki plays, so the dialogue may be difficult to understand. But if all the players are working together, the audience will understand the story and the emotions.

How is this art form being passed down to the next generation?

On Awaji Island, there is a lot of community outreach to try to teach the younger generation about this art form. For example, there are school clubs dedicated to practicing ningyojoruri. I visit schools once a month to teach the students about it.

Awaji Minami City has even made ningyo-joruri an official part of the elementary through junior high school curriculum. This theater focusedprogram is only three years old and was started when a new mayor was elected who decided to try to promote ningyo-joruri more in the community.

Each year, the students have a different project to learn about ningyo-joruri.

For example, the junior high school third years’ assignment is to use social media to promote ningyo-joruri online to a wider audience.

What makes the Awaji style of ningyo-joruri special?

The Awaji style uses larger puppets than the style found in Osaka or other parts of Japan. This makes the performances really dynamic. What really makes the Awaji Style unique is the skill and mastery of the performers.

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How can foreign people see ningyo-joruri puppetry?

How can they support it?

They can visit the Awaji Puppet Theater. Normally, the theater hosts performances every day (although during the COVID state of emergency, the performance schedule has been reduced to weekends only). They show different plays every month, bringing in performers from all over the island.

Foreign people can read summaries of the play beforehand in English, Chinese, Korean, and modern Japanese.

Is there anything else you want foreign people to know about ningyo-joruri?

It’s really great! Please come see and support us at our theater.

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LINKS: Japan Visitor: Awaji Puppet Theater

Tokuya Okitsu is a puppeteer at the Awaji Puppet Theater. He likes cooking, eating, and solo-camping. He’s excited to get to share the charm of ningyojoruri with the world.

Toshie Ogura is an English elementary school teacher by day, and an ECC teacher by night. She loves doing both!

For fun she enjoys traveling, growing tree peonies and roses, and practicing the art of tea brewing. She also has a podcast with her friend where they rave about their favorite things in Japan!

Rachel Fagundes is a 5th year JET in Okayama and the Head Editor of CONNECT. She loves traditional Japanese theater, Mexican food, science fiction, and cats.

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LIFESTYLE WELLNESS EDITOR connect.wellness@ajet.net

WELLNESS DESIGNER Emily Griffith

Kimberly Matsuno “I have an inferiority complex, but not a very good one.”— Kimberly Matsuno

SPORT EDITOR connect.sports@ajet.net

“It’s fine. Luckily we’re all English so no-one’s going to ask any questions. Thank you, centuries of emotional repression!”

— Mark Corrigan, Peep Show

SPORT DESIGNER Muriah Ellis

Samantha Stauch “If you would serve your brother, because it is fit for you to serve him, do not take back your words when you find that prudent people do not commend you.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson, On Heroism

“Everyone should believe in something. I believe I will have another coffee.”

— Unknown

COPY EDITOR connect.copy4@ajet.net Jon Solmundson “. . . good at making puzzles for other people, but not solving the ones she didn’t make herself. I think she thinks—I don’t know—side-wise.” —Gene Wolf, Shadow of the Torturer

Photo: Yan Liu | Unsplash.com

CONNECT SPORT

H

ave you ever jealously watched children climbing the jungle-gym at your local park and wished you could hop on without getting the police called on you?

Do you like exercise but find lifting weights boring? Trying to make more friends in Japan?

Want to gain a little more muscle definition before the hot, humid Japanese summer weather arrives? Lucky for you, rock climbing gyms will (possibly) solve all these problems and many more!

In this article, I will be explaining the unique benefits of climbing as a hobby, what one can expect when entering a Japanese climbing gym, as well as some of the Japanese words and phrases you can

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expect to hear Japanese climbers say.

(For experienced climbers who just want to know about Japanese gyms, feel free to skip ahead to the “What to Expect . . .” section.)

fortify one’s physical, mental, and social health.

The goal of rock climbing is extremely simple. Simply start at the bottom, and go up.

However, in climbing gyms, employees place If you don’t climb, you’re “routes” that limit the wrong. Here’s why: amount of holds and features on the wall that First, to the uninitiated, you can use while going please allow me to sell up. The most basic you on the sport of rock routes are as easy as climbing, because it's climbing a ladder, but pretty awesome. I find as the difficulty of the that when young adults routes increases, rock leave high school or climbing can become college, they often adopt much more complex. the predisposition that Many beginner climbers the only way to integrate have the tendency to exercise into their week rely on just their arms, is by joining a weighttreating the climbing lifting gym or going for wall like a vertical set of a jog. While those can monkey-bars, but more be fun, many forget that complex routes require recreational sports can climbers to engage be a fantastic way to practically every major muscle group. Climbing

is a fanta build stro functiona as well as sense of body awa guarante even feel because.

The succ to the top can be ju satisfying monkey-p brain tha when we heavy, bu of climbin mentally any mach find in a 2 Sometim gravity re imaginat out how y contort y get throu part of a just as ch the physi required

astic way to ong, toned, and al muscles, s a better balance and areness, but I ee that it won’t l like exercise ...

cess of getting p of a route ust as viscerally g to the parts of our at feel pleasure e lift something ut the process ng is far more engaging than hine you would 24 Hour Fitness. mes, defying equires some tion. Figuring you need to your body to ugh the hardest route can be hallenging as ical strength to execute it.

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Think of climbing like a singleplayer puzzle game where your body is the controller.

Fear not, however, because you will likely not be tackling this challenge alone.

Climbing might be an individual competition between you and the wall, but it has a habit of bringing people together in the spirit of cooperation and support.

Compared to other types of gyms, there is a lot of standing around and chatting in climbing gyms. Rock climbing is particularly taxing on your fingers and forearms, and frequent breaks in between attempts at more challenging routes are practically a requirement. In addition to that, the puzzle-like nature of the sport has created a culture where sharing information with fellow climbers is the norm. Most climbers are more approachable than your average, headphone-wearing gym rat who has occupied the only squat rack for the last 30 minutes.

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In review, climbing will make you stronger, smarter, and more popular. Now that you have surely decided to begin climbing, I will now describe what you can expect when you visit your local gym.

What to Expect in a Japanese Climbing Gym The sport of climbing has exploded in popularity in recent years, and many professional climbers recognize Japan as one of the strongest regions in the sport. As such, it is very likely that you have a climbing gym somewhere near you with some skilled climbers inside of it. If it is your first time visiting a gym, just wear some comfortable workout clothes and a thin, tight pair of socks (required for rental climbing shoes).

The pricing structure for the climbing gyms I have been to in Japan have been pretty standard. Daily passes are

normally around ¥2500. One unfo trend I have not many gyms cha 録料 (shokaitou a first-time regis which can add a to your first time gym. This sucks disincentivizes f multiple gyms in but so be it. Ma discounts and c periods where p be lowered sign may be worth gi asking about it. you like the gym fee varies from ¥ ¥140,000 depen the location and you commit to b member. Most g are strictly bould (a discipline of c where you don’t a harness), but i interested in top climbing, taller g

For those with c experience, lots terminology in J

d ¥1500 to ortunate ticed is that arge a 初回登 uroku-ryou), or stration fee, around ¥1500 e visiting a new s because it from visiting n your area, any gyms offer campaign prices might nificantly, so it iving a call and If you decide m, the monthly ¥80,000 to nding on d how long becoming a gyms in Japan dering gyms climbing t need to wear if you are p-rop or leadgyms do exist.

climbing s of climbing Japan is

the same as the English terminology. For example, a “heel hook” is a ヘールフック and a “chalk bag” is a チョー クバッグ. However, regardless of prior knowledge of climbing or Japanese, climbing can still be a fantastic way to practice the Japanese language. Along with day-to-day conversations with your gym buddies, discussing climbing routes will help you get extremely familiar with the Japanese words for colors, body-parts, movement, and spatial-orientation.

To get you started, here are a few key phrases for participating in the culture of Japanese climbing gyms: ガンバ (ganba) a climbingspecific shortening for the phrase 頑張って (ganbatte).

Try shouting “ganba” to anybody who could use a little encouragement on the wall.

You will surely get some back when it is your turn. 惜しい (oshii) means “you were close.” Often used to comfort a climber when they fail a route/ move.

足自由 / 足限定 (ashijiyuu/ ashigente) - ashi means leg. jiyuu means free. gentei means limit or limited.

Beginner routes at gyms will often limit the hand holds you can use to get to the top but allow you to freely use any holds or features for your feet and will marked 足自由 (ashijiyuu). Intermediate to advanced routes will all raise the difficulty by limiting the foot holds as well as the hand holds, making them 足限定 (ashigentei).

In conclusion, climbing is dope. Joining a climbing gym in Japan can be rather expensive, but honestly so is every other type of gym. If you are going to be spending a chunk of change to physically torture yourself for fun, you might as well learn a cool skill in the company of a bunch of friendly, outdoorsy, adventurous people while you are at it.

Have fun and ガンバ!

Tyler is part of an experimental program that places extremely intelligent chimpanzees in positions of responsibility within human society. Due to his talents in making noises and gestures that somewhat approximate the human language, he has been assigned to attempt to teach English to high school students in the Ibaraki prefecture, and he has been doing so since late 2021. One can only speculate the profound impact he will have on the generations of students lucky (or unlucky) enough to find themselves under his tutelage in this grand experiment.

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T

he public eye is tough.

It is demanding of those in its sights, and it is unforgiving when public figures fail to meet expectations. Over the last two decades of the internet age, the already thin curtain between the stars and regular people has dwindled little by little. More than television interviews or performances, a variety of new media platforms have allowed a sea of otherwise invisible, everyday people to get up close and personal with celebrities they love, admire, dislike, or even hate. Access to the internet means access to celebrities. The result of 62 |

such unlimited access has been the rise of parasocial relationships between viewer and performer. Parasocial relationships are described as “one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other's existence. Parasocial relationships are most common with celebrities, organizations (such as sports teams) or television stars.”

(1) From the outside looking in, this relationship can be beneficial for both sides: entertainment for the fan and profit for the celebrity. Being in

the limelight is profitable, but what is the true cost of digital and in-person access when such a one-sided relationship turns parasitical?

For sports fans, we know all too well the animosity that media can bring to any athlete: purposefully incendiary thinkpieces from commentators, burned jerseys caught on video, team and sponsor boycotts, trending topics, hateful tweets from nextto-anonymous users, and boos and jeers that resound in any stadium. The last few years have provided many notable examples of athletes facing more uphill battles

off the court than on. In 2016, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, raised hellfire from liberal and conservative commentators alike for kneeling during the American national anthem. (2) In 2018, star basketball player Lebron James was told to “shut up and dribble” by Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham after James openly criticized former U.S. President Donald Trump. (3) In the same year, U.S. tennis great Serena Williams received backlash for verbally fighting back against a referee over a violation at the US Open. (4) Online and on the television screen, there is a continuing conversation about whether or not top athletes should share their controversial opinions or personal struggles due to the nature of their jobs.

Having a job as an athlete means working under a public pressure cooker. You have to

perform exceptionally and consistently in order to satisfy the appetites of yourself, your coaches, your teammates, and your fans. There will be times when you are “off your game,” but for professional athletes, those times must be very few and very far between. You are expected to play and not go outside of that role. Participation in any sort of advocacy must be well-aligned with a cause that matches public opinion. If you are unable to play, injuries are excusable, but depression or anxiety will not always be given such a benevolent pass.

Discussions of mental health are new to the sports world and, by extension, the world at large. Mental health has always been a “don’t ask, don’t tell” taboo subject and has remained that way, deep and locked away in many people’s hearts. But there is much more at stake for the individual who bottles everything up

while the mob mentality rages online and offline.

Some of you may remember the name Hana Kimura.

Kimura was cast on the 20192020 season of the once uber popular Netflix reality television show, Terrace House. She was a young professional wrestler living with five other socialites of various professions and “looking for love,” as the show promotes. Disaster struck when Kimura had a fight with a fellow male cast member for allegedly shrinking one of her wrestling uniforms while doing laundry. In the days to follow, public opinion online would slam Hana for her argument. She later tragically took her own life in May 2020 as a result of the relentless cyberbullying she had been receiving. In December 2020, a man was arrested for his connection to Kimura’s passing as it was revealed that he was connected to

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over 200 accounts that left over 300 “hateful messages” on Kimura’s social media.

The man posted comments such as “Hey, when are you going to die?” and “Is there any value to your life?” (5) Kimura’s passing sparked much conversation in Japan and around the world about cyberbullying and the extent to which some people will go to harass someone they don’t know.

Most recently, during the 2020 Olympics, there were a handful of events that called spotlight to the athletes outside of their physical performances. Japanese gymnast Mai Murakami received negative comments online despite winning a bronze medal in the women’s floor exercise. Japanese table tennis player and mixed doubles gold medal winner Jun Mizutani also shed light on the online abuse he was receiving by uploading a video of comments he received including one that said “Go die.” Singaporean swimmer Joseph Schooling unfortunately came up short in his performance and didn’t make it to the semi-finals.

Despite winning gold at Rio 2016, he received a torrent of negativity that prompted the president to step in and ask his fellow countrymen to support him rather than send him hate. Famous U.S. gymnast Simone Biles ended up cutting her time at the Olympics short, citing mental health reasons and bowing out of her major events to the disgruntlement of her American fans. (6) 64 |

Stigma around mental health in sports is slowly being pushed back against by players like Simone Biles and, also quite notably, Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka. The four-time Grand Slam singles champion has been fairly open about her struggles, and the reception has not always been warm.

Before the 2021 French Open, Osaka stated that she would not be doing any post-match interviews as her “mental health was severely impacted by certain lines of questioning.”

Osaka “ultimately withdrew from the tournament and Wimbledon over the issue after backlash and threats of fines or suspensions.” (7) Osaka is certainly not the first athlete to not want to do press conferences with reporters. American football

player Marshawn Lynch was threatened with a $500,000 fine if he refused to speak to reporters on Super Bowl Media Day in 2015. This prompted Lynch to repeat the phrase “I’m only here so I don’t get fined” about 29 times during the duration of the conference. (8) (9) As athletes become more transparent about how they feel and the things they are willing to do, the curtain slowly rises on the celebrity, and we begin to recognize them more closely as regular people. In 2022, Naomi shared with Good Morning America a mental health tip that “gives her clarity.”

Shockingly, her tip was sharing her struggles with the public by using her platform. In an Instagram post dated June 1, 2022, she revealed that she had been struggling with “bouts of

depression” since the 2018 US Open.

She told Good Morning America that "Just saying out loud that I'll take a break and I'll come back when I am truly in love with the sport and I know what I want to do here; it gave me time to reset myself."

Naomi’s strength in being publicly vulnerable is a new and promising development for athletes around the world. (10) The New York Times lists swimmer Michael Phelps, gymnast Aly Raisman, NFL football player Brandon Marshall, basketball players A’ja Wilson, DeMar DeRozan, and Kevin Love as athletes who have come forward to the public about their struggles with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, and so on. The conversation has begun to change for the better, with athletes and non-athletes alike finding unity in sharing their stories. Former USC volleyball player Victoria Garrick did something familiar to most of us and took to the internet to search for help a few years ago. She, too,

was feeling the pressure to be perfect on the court. “I remember Googling and not being able to find anyone or athletes who made me feel less alone.” The New York Times agrees: “That frustrating and largely fruitless search seems almost unfathomable now.” (11) Things are still not perfect, of course.

Osaka experienced heckling at the Indian Wells tournament held in March of this year where a random spectator felt compelled to tell Osaka that she “sucks.”

(12) And while heckling may not ever truly go away, I am hopeful of a future where athletes are able to be open and honest about their mental health in the same way that they are about their physical health. Athletes don’t need to “tough it out” anymore and spectators and online posters need to begin to hold each other accountable for the things we say and do.

We have a responsibility to each other. In order to have access to the sports we all know and love, we should also extend our empathy and support to the players that make it all possible.

Samantha is a first-year JET in Gunma who practices revolutionary optimism. One day we will all be free!

SOURCES: 1. Parasocial Relationships 2. Colin Kaepernick 3. Shut Up and Dribble 4. Serena Williams 5. Hana Kimura 6. Cyberbullying and Athletes 7. Naomi Osaka Press Conference 8. Marshawn Lynch 500K Fine 9. Marshawn Lynch Comment 10. Osaka GMA Interview 11. Athletes Discuss Mental Health 12. Osaka Indian Wells Tournament Etching vector created by rawpixel

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CONNECT WELLNESS

Sophie McCarty (Hyogo)

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When you ask expats what they dislike most about summer in Japan, one of the most common answers is the unabashed humidity. With Tokyo’s average humidity levels last July being a whopping 83%, Japan’s humidity is much higher than many Western expats are used to. For reference, summer humidity levels in Los Angeles last year were around 69%, while Sydney and London averaged 74% and 73% respectively. This presents a major frizzy situation for those who do not know how to properly treat their hair for humid weather.

However, there are solutions to help tame the manes! Keep reading for some methods and products to keep hair looking its best throughout the blistering, sticky months.

While it doesn’t seem like it can do much, a haircut can greatly affect overall frizz levels. Having a blunt, non-layered cut will help to keep weight at the bottom of your hair, preventing it from frizzing up. Additionally, split ends can actually travel up the hair strands, resulting in more fraying and frizz. Salons recommend a trim every six to eight weeks to stop this.

A trip to the salon is also a great opportunity to talk with your stylist and see what cuts, products, and methods they recommend for frizzy hair. In Japan, the best-kept secret is the straight perm. A straight perm is a chemical treatment that straightens natural curls. While expensive, it can result in less day-to-day maintenance and usually lasts between six months to a year.

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Frizz prevention can also be done in the shower. Frizz is usually caused by dry hair. So adding moisture and using moisturizing products in the shower can prevent frizz later.

Look for hydrating, moisture-based shampoos and conditioners with ingredients like glycerin (グリセリン).

Hair masks are also a great solution that can be used once or twice a week to really lock in moisture. Hair masks are deep conditioning treatments that can be made at home or bought at a local drug store. They sit in the hair for anywhere from 20 minutes to several hours depending on the treatment.

Another tip is to not wash your hair every day, as this can actually increase dryness. Most hairstylists say two or three times a week is sufficient. If you do wash your hair every day, try to not use shampoo every wash. Alternate with shampoo and conditioner one day, and then just a rinse and conditioner the next day. While there are hydrating shampoos, shampoo’s main purpose is to clean—which can strip away your hair’s natural oils and moisturizers.

Finally, at the end of your shower routine, giving your hair a cold water rinse can also help to prevent hot water damage and close your hair cuticles—possibly resulting in shinier, less frizzy hair.

Women from the JET Ladies + Facebook group have recommended Shea Moisture Manuka Honey or Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil.

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When getting out of the shower, reducing the amount of heat and friction your hair encounters is key to stopping frizz. Aggressively using a terry cloth towel to dry your hair will open or fray hair cuticles. Towel turbans or microfiber towels can be used in lieu of the standard bath towel.

Many stylists also recommend using a wide-toothed comb to brush your hair, as they have less bristles than a standard brush.

After lightly drying, adding a serum will help to realign hair fibers and create a smooth look.

Sophie and the ladies of JET Ladies + recommend Tsubaki Oil Perfection Hair Oil. In addition to working well to smooth hair, it smells amazing. Sophie has also used and liked Soapbox Argan Oil available on iHerb, if you prefer a sulfate and paraben-free option.

Letting your hair air dry is recommended as the best course of action for controlling frizz. Regular hair dryers use hot air which will cause damage and dry out hair over time. If you do prefer to dry your hair right away however, opt for an ionic hair dryer. Ionic dryers use a magnet to separate the water molecules and hair. If you can afford and/or find one, the Dyson Airwrap is also a highly rated tool for styling damp hair with minimal damage. If you still wish to use a regular hair dryer, curling iron, or hair straightener, consider using a heat thermal protection spray before. In Japan, they can be labeled as a “style keep mist”.

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Daily styling and product choice will mostly come down to trial and error or personal preference. Almost every haircare brand has styling gels, oils, balms, and creams. If you’re not sure where to start, look for products containing Moroccan/ Argan oil. Argan oil is a natural plant oil produced from the argan tree that is native to Morocco. Just like the natural oils in your hair, Argan oil will moisturize your hair and scalp and protect your hair from everyday damage.

Sophie recommends Lush Revive (Formerly R&B), Lush Sea Salt Spray, and Garnier Fructis Moroccan Sleek. Other JETs from JET Ladies + recommend Cantu Coconut Curling Cream and Moroccan Oil Hairspray.

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In order to protect hair while sleeping, consider changing to a silk pillowcase that won’t snag hairs like a regular cotton one. For those with long hair, sleeping with your hair tied back in a loose bun can also lessen friction and prevent tangles. Another option is to sleep in braids, which will also add waves and volume to your hair the next day.

Discovering what works best for you can certainly be a process of trial and error. But implementing any of the suggestions above and developing a proper hair care routine will help you keep your hair healthy and fight the summer frizz.

Sophie is a fourth-year JET in Kobe, Hyogo. In her free time, she enjoys reading, visiting coffee shops, and practicing film photography. Check out her photos on Instagram: @sophie.pdf

JET Ladies + Facebook group Japan Humidity Report Humidity around the world

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Photo by: Fotter on Pixabay

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KIMBERLY MATSUNO (NIIGATA) A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but would a plum by any other name still be a plum?

For those of us living in Japan, when we hear “Japanese plum” we immediately think of “plum blossoms, umeboshi, and umeshu, all of which come from the Prunus mume tree. But for many other people around the world, the word “Japanese plum” equates to Eriobotrya japonica—commonly known as “loquat” (or “biwa” in Japanese).

Oblong in shape, the yellow-orange fruits are typically one to two inches (2.5-5 cm) long and have three to five brown seeds. Juicy and refreshing with a slightly sweet finish, loquats are often compared to apricots in terms of texture and flavor. The fruits are commonly found in jams but can be used in many other applications, including wine and tea.

Cultivated in Japan from as early as 1180, loquats have long been revered for their medicinal properties. Traditional medicine used loquat extracts to treat coughs and inflammation. While modern science has proven that these extracts may also be beneficial in the treatment of diabetes.

Loquat rounds out the spring fruit season with harvest taking place from late May to early June. So as you are perusing your local farmers market this month, consider picking up a bag of the “other Japanese plum,” the loquat. Keep reading for three awesome recipes using loquats, including two delicious desserts—one of which you can make in your rice cooker!

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Loquat UpsideDown Cake JULIA MACPHERSON (NIIGATA)

Moving to a new country is an exciting new adventure, but there are always some things that take a bit of getting used to. For me, one adjustment about living in Japan was the lack of an oven in my small apartment. As an avid baker, I turned to an appliance that did fit in my apartment: a rice cooker. I have continued baking with a rice cooker for several years now, and this recipe for a dense, rich, and extremely moist upside-down cake is a new favorite of mine.

Note: This recipe is for a (5.5 cup) rice cooker. You may have to adjust quantities for rice cookers of different sizes.

I NGREDIENTS For the Cake • 2/3 cup (150 grams) butter, softened • 2/3 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar • 2 eggs • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract • 1/2 cup Greek yogurt • 1 cup (225 grams) all purpose flour • 1½ teaspoons baking powder • 1 teaspoon baking soda

For the Topping • 4 tablespoons butter • 1/2 cup (100 grams) brown sugar • 10-12 (200 grams) loquats (canned or fresh)

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Photo by: Kimberly Matsuno

I NSTRUCTIONS Cake Batter

Topping

1. Lightly grease the inside of the bowl of your rice cooker.

1. Slice your loquats in half or into wedges.

Choose which shape is more pleasing for you and you would like to see on the top.

If you are using fresh loquats, peeling the loquats is optional, but please be sure to remove the seeds. Spread the cut loquat in a single layer covering the bottom of the rice cooker bowl.

2. In a large bowl, cream together room temperature butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. I recommend using a hand mixer for this step, but if you do not have one, you can whisk it by hand.

3. Add the eggs, vanilla, and Greek yogurt, and mix thoroughly.

4. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

5. Add the dry ingredients to wet, and mix until completely incorporated — no dry spots should remain.

2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and then add brown sugar.

Cook for about 1 minute, stirring rapidly, until mixture thickens and begins to bubble.

3. Carefully pour the caramel sauce into the bowl of the rice cooker over the loquat slices.

6. Set aside cake batter until topping is completed. | 75

Bake 1. Pour the batter over the loquat-caramel topping and gently spread the batter to cover all of the fruit.

2. Insert the bowl back into the rice cooker and set the rice cooker to the “Cake” (ケーキ) setting. If your rice cooker does not have a cake setting, then you can use the “Rinse-Free” (すすぎ/無 料, susugi) setting. Both settings should cook for about 45 minutes depending on the manufacturer. If your rice cooker does not have either of these settings, use the standard rice setting, but be sure to check your cake after it has been cooking for 45 minutes. Close the lid and press start.

3. After one full cook cycle, test the cake for doneness using a toothpick—if a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, the cake is finished baking. If your cake is not finished after one cook cycle, you can begin another “Cake/Rinse-Free” cycle but check your cake for doneness every five to ten minutes.

4. Allow the cake to cool completely before removing it from the rice cooker.

Julia is a former ALT who participated in the JET Programme from 2019-2020. She now lives in Canada and works as a high school music and mathematics teacher.

In her free time, she enjoys baking (with and without a rice cooker), playing music, swimming, and playing board games with friends and family. She looks forward to visiting Japan again in the future.

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5. Once the cake and rice cooker bowl are both completely cool, place a plate upside down on top of the bowl. Then, invert the plate and bowl together so that the cake ends up on the plate, topping side up. You may need to leave the bowl and plate upside down for a while to give the cake time to release from the bowl.

If the cake is sticking, you can pat the bottom of the bowl, or gently shake it to loosen the cake. Do not shake or pat too vigorously, as this can result in the cake breaking.

6. Slice and serve—enjoy!

Photo by: Kimberly Matsuno

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Photo by: Didi Miam on Unsplash

Loquat-Apple Crumble JENNIFER MADDEN (HYOGO)

When life gives you lemons, they say make lemonade. But what about when your school gives you loquats? Before coming to Japan, I had never heard of this fruit before. But once the harvest from the school’s trees appeared in the staff room, I knew I needed to figure it out. After some searching, I found an easy recipe, courtesy of Peter’s Food Adventures, that I altered a bit to make work in my small kitchen.

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I NGREDIENTS • 2 cups (12-14) loquats deseeded and quartered (can peel or leave skin as desired)

Jennifer is a 5 year Hyogo JET alumni who likes to bake and try new (easy) recipes when she has time. Her favorite recipes are banana bread and homemade applesauce.

• 2 cups (1-2) apples peeled and sliced • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla • 1 tablespoon lemon juice • 1/2 cup (68 grams) all-purpose flour • 1/2 cup (115 grams) cold butter • 1 cup (200 grams) brown sugar • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Photo by: Sarah Brown on Unsplash

I NSTRUCTIONS 1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius.

ingredients together by hand than by trying to use a fork or spoon.

2. Grease a baking pan or pie pan with butter or vegetable oil

7. Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the top of the fruit mix in the baking dish. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the topping is lightly browned.

3. Wash and deseed/core the apples and loquats. It is up to you whether or not you wish to peel the fruits. The peels will only affect the texture, not the overall flavor.

4. Quarter the loquats and cut the apples into bite-size pieces.

5. Toss together the fruit, lemon juice, and vanilla in a bowl until coated, and then spread evenly in the baking pan.

6. In a separate bowl, mix the spices, flour, and sugar together, and then gradually add the butter a little at a time (cut with a fork). Mix until it forms a crumbly mixture.

It may be easier to do this by rubbing the

8. Cool slightly before serving.

To top it off, I’d recommend buying a tube of condensed milk (練乳, ren’nyū) to drizzle over the top or pick up some vanilla ice cream for the side. If you have oats (courtesy of Costco or an import store), you can add 1/2 cup to the dry mixture to sprinkle over the top in step 6. The baking time may vary slightly; I’ve found that with Japanese microwave ovens, it sometimes takes a little longer than expected so I would check on it regularly. In the end, the recipe was a big hit with my coworkers so I hope it will be a hit for you too! | 79

Biwa Beef ROXANN MOUSSEAU (NAGASAKI)

This recipe utilizes both the leaf and the fruit of the loquat. It is a perfect sweet-and-savory dish to wow with during the summer. I find that beef pairs well with the mildly sweet fruit and the earthy tea flavors of the biwa leaves, but feel free to sub it out for your preferred protein. If loquats are hard to come by in your area, you can also use apricots in place of the loquat fruit. This recipe yields two servings.

So, the measurements can be adjusted to suit your needs.

This recipe features two methods for marinating the beef—an overnight method and a quick steeping version. It’s not necessary to do both the overnight marinade as well as the quick steeping marinade, so feel free to choose whichever one fits your cooking style and skip the other marinating step.

I NGREDIENTS • 6 grams loose loquat tea leaves (or 4 tea bags) • 4 cups plus one tablespoon water • 1/2 medium yellow onion (chopped) • 260 grams (9.2 ounces) beef (diced) • A pinch of salt • A pinch of pepper • 1/4 teaspoon oregano • 1/8 teaspoon cardamom* • 10-12 (200 grams) loquats • 1 yellow bell pepper (sliced) • 1/4 teaspoon turmeric • 1 medium lemon (juiced)

*Note: I personally like cardamom quite a bit, but if it’s not your favorite you can reduce the measurement to just a pinch.

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I NSTRUCTIONS 1. Optional Overnight Marinade: Boil one cup of water. Add in two servings (three grams or two tea bags) of loquat tea. We’re going to make the marinade stronger than if you were drinking the tea, so that’s why it’s twice your tea’s recommended brewing amount. While waiting for the tea to cool, cut the beef into bite-sized cubes and place them in a sealable container.

Once the tea has cooled completely, pour it over the beef and leave it in the fridge to marinate overnight. After about 10-12 hours, drain the beef from the marinade and dispose of the residual marinade.

2. Add three cups of water to a pot along with your chopped onions, salt, pepper, and oregano. Bring to a boil then add the remaining three grams of tea along with your diced beef. I put my tea in a reusable tea bag. Make sure if you have loose tea not just throw it in the mixture.

3. Lower heat to a low medium simmer and cook the meat until tender, approximately 10 minutes. Cooking times will depend on the thickness of your beef cuts.

4. Optional Quick-Steep Marinade: Once cooked, remove the pot from the heat and let it steep off to the side for 20 minutes.

5. Strain the boiled onions and beef through a sifter. You can keep the stock and use it to cook your rice in.

6. Cut the loquat in half and remove the seeds. You can remove the skins if you wish, but it is not necessary. Add the loquats to a blender with a tablespoon of water, lemon juice and cardamom. Puree the mixture until smooth.

7. In a saucepan on medium-high heat, saute the bell peppers until halfway cooked, then add in the puree. Cook it down until the puree thickens to a compote consistency and the peppers are fully cooked. The goal is to reduce the liquid through cooking until you are left with a sticky sauce. Add in the turmeric, then stir and remove the pan from the heat.

8. Fold in the beef and onions to the puree mixture until the beef is fully incorporated.

Optionally, you can add a dash of more black pepper if you feel it is needed.

9. Plate and serve! Enjoy!

Roxann is a first-year JET who lives in Nagasaki prefecture. Roxann loves all food and is always excited to try out new recipes.

Photo by: Roxann Mousseau Back to Contents

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States of Emergency* There are currently no prefectures under a State of Emergency or exercising Priority Preventative Measures.

Local authorities may still impose restrictions, especially on dining and entertainment establishments. Please check with your local authority regarding specific restrictions in your region. *All information is accurate as of April 4.

For an up-to-date list of all prefectures under States of Emergency, please refer to the Cabinet Secretariat Office’s Website.

The following recommendations remain in effect.

• Please avoid the “3 C’s” (closed places, crowded places, and close-contact settings).

• Wear a mask in public places.

• Keep social gatherings small and short.

• Exercise proper social distancing.

• Clean and disinfect common facilities, thoroughly wash hands, and disinfect with alcohol.

Recommendations for Prefectures exercising Preventive Measures Including all of the above, please ensure to:

• Refrain from visiting food and drinking establishments after 8:00 p.m.

• Please refrain from visiting establishments with karaoke.

• Residents are to refrain from traveling to prefectures under states of emergency.

• Do not drink alcohol in groups on the streets or in parks.

• Businesses are to reduce the number of employees commuting to work by 70%.

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Vaccinations The Japanese government recommends that all people over the age of 12 get vaccinated.

COVID-19 vaccinations are available to everyone, including foreign residents, free of charge.

After a second dose, vaccines provide significant protection against contracting COVID-19 and greatly reduce the risk of developing severe symptoms in those who do contract the virus.

Getting fully vaccinated remains the best protection against severe illness, hospitalization, and death.

For information regarding how to get vaccinated or how to receive your vaccination certificate for overseas travel, please visit the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare’s website.

PCR Testing PCR tests are covered by medical insurance (as of March 6, 2021).

If you believe you may have contracted the COVID-19 virus, please contact your prefecture’s COVID call center to find the testing facility nearest you. Do not go to the hospital. For information on your prefecture’s call center and other COVID resources, please visit the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare’s website.

Resources • For medically accurate, up-to-date information, check: World Health Organization • For medical resources in your community, check the JNTO Medical Institution Guide • For up-to-date news about COVID in Japan, check: NHK WORLD • For information regarding international travel, check: Immigration Services of Japan

Questions?

Japan Visitor Hotline: 050-3816-2787

Omicron Variant

The Japan Visitor Hotline, operated by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), is available 24 hours a day to answer COVID-related questions or direct you to appropriate mental health resources in English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

The Japanese government has opened a call center for inquiries about the COVID-19 Omicron variant. The call center is open every day from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. English language support is available by calling 0570-550-571.

Booster Shots Vaccine booster shots (a third shot) for COVID-19 have become available as of December 1, 2021. For information regarding how to receive your booster shot and for further details, please see the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare’s guide.

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Mental Health Support English counselling services TELL is a not-for-profit organization that provides support and counselling services to Japan’s international community through their in-person offices in Tokyo and Okinawa, as well as online services.

They have professionally licensed neuropsychologists on staff to provide testing and assessment to individuals (children or adults).

TELL does not prescribe medicine, but they can refer you to psychiatrists and places to receive a prescription if needed.

TELL also runs LifeLine, a free and anonymous support communication system for English speakers in Japan. For anyone wanting to talk to someone, no matter what the issue, please call the number below or see the website for more information.

TELL Lifeline (every day, 9:00 to 23:00): 03-5774-0992 (regular phone call charges apply) TELL Chat (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 22:30 to 2:00)

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Additional support for JET Programme participants With the aim of enhancing mental health support for JET Programme participants, CLAIR offers the JET Programme Mental Health Counselling Assistance Programme.

This programme provides a partial subsidy (50%, up to 30,000 yen per year) for counselling costs not covered by health insurance.

As of April 2021, you can use this subsidy to pay for mental health services in Japan or those received online from providers in your home country. If you wish to use a service overseas, please consult with your contracting organisation supervisor for more information. If you wish to apply for the subsidy, you must do so through your contracting organisation.

CLAIR offers a toll-free telephone counselling service which does not require any advance reservation to use.

The service generally operates twice per month, on the 10th and 20th (counselling days which would fall on a Sunday or holiday are instead held on the Saturday prior to that day). Operating times are from 17:30-21:00 on weekdays and 13:0016:30 on Saturdays.

Counselling via Telephone* Phone number: 0120-810-803 (No advance reservation required. Calls are free of charge.)

In addition to the telephone service, CLAIR also offers free Web-Mail and Skype counselling.

Web-Mail Counselling Login Password: jet2021mental Skype Counselling Login password: jet2021mental

*Limited to one call per person per day (no annual limit) *CLAIR has prepared three telephone lines for this service; however, there may be times when the lines become congested.

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LANGUAGE LANGUAGE EDITOR connect.language@ajet.net

LANGUAGE DESIGNER Phoebe Jin

Sarah Baughn “All things considered, being shot is not as bad as I always thought it might be, as long as you can keep the fear from your mind. But I guess you could say that about most anything in life: It's not so bad as long as you can keep the fear from your mind.” — Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks

“私は綺麗にオシャレしてる私が大好き だ。強くあろうとする私が大好き。” (I love it when I am dressed up and looking beautiful. I love myself trying to stay strong) —Kugisaki Nobara, Jujutsu Kaisen

COPY EDITOR connect.copy2@ajet.net Day Bulger “Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” — Suzy Kassem

Photo: Denys Nevozhai | Unsplash.com

CONNECT LANGUAGE

Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Daiki Hashimoto, an assistant professor at Joetsu University of Education in Niigata, Japan.

He earned his PhD from the University of Canterbury Department of Linguistics, where he wrote his dissertation on English phonetics (1).

We had a conversation about a particularly fascinating aspect of the Japanese language: loanwords. In our interview, we unpacked the origins of loanwords, public perception of their use, their effect on the language, and much more.

I was originally interested in grammar. When I studied for the university entrance exam, I found English sentence structure to be interesting.

I was surprised to learn that English speakers process verbs after subjects, as Japanese speakers process verbs at the end of sentences.

After I enrolled in university, I found that English pronunciations are also interesting. English has a larger number of vowels than Japanese has, and some consonants are produced in an unusual way. Luckily, I had an opportunity to do my PhD at the University of Canterbury, and studying there increased my interest in English pronunciation.

It is always fascinating to see that different varieties of English have different vowel systems. (I would say that I love New Zealand English pronunciations best!)

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Loanwords in Japanese can be classified into two types: Sino-Japanese loanwords and others. Japan has a long history with China, and we borrow lots of words from them along with Chinese characters (kanji). Many words written with kanji are Sino-Japanese words, such as and . Some people may be surprised about which words come from China. For example, (rakuda) and (zou) are not native words, but actually Sino-Japanese words. In fact, the sound structures of these words suggest that these are not native Japanese words. There aren’t any native Japanese words that begin with r-sounds ( ragyouon)) or voiced sounds ( (gazadabagyouon)).Many people in Japan do not regard Sino-Japanese words as loanwords. They believe they are actually Japanese words.

Let’s go back to the question about the percentage of loanwords in Japanese vocabulary.According to Yamazaki, about 40% of daily use words are native Japanese words, 50% of daily use words are SinoJapanese, and 10% are other loanwords as of 1994 (2). Loanwords come from a variety of languages, but most come from English.

One reason for this is the emphasis on English education in Japanese public schools. Additionally, English is a dominant language around the globe. There is also a public awareness of English loanwords.

They’re in katakana, so they’re easy to identify. I’m not sure how many people know aboutthehistoryofwordsthatwereadopted from Chinese.

It is not easy to define when loanwords become “legitimate,” because the likelihood of a loanword being integrated in the borrowing language varies from word to word and from speaker to speaker.

Then, we may have to address another question: what determines the token frequency of a loanword?

In what follows, I would like to refer to words which are widely used in our society as “legitimate”. Calude et al. (2017) point out that there are several factors which determine the borrowability of a loanword (3).

The first factor is part of speech. Nouns are more likely to be incorporated than verbs. In fact, almost all of the loanwords in Japanese are nouns. Second, word frequency plays an important role in the borrowability of a word. If a word is used frequently in daily speech, the word is incorporated into the host language easily.

This may be complicated as there are numerous factors determining which words we use in speech. If a loanword relates to a concept in which we are interested in, we may use the word frequently. If a loanword refers to things which we use frequently, we will likely use it frequently. Furthermore, a loanword may be used frequently if the host language does not have an equivalent.

Japanese has the word (kame). It does not have the correspondent word “turtle.”

Japanese has no word equivalent to “toaster.” Hence, “turtle” is not borrowed into Japanese, while toaster is successfully borrowed.

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Do you mean

(waseieigo)?

refers to a phrase created by Japanese speakers which is comprised of loanwords (4). As the compound words are made in Japan, the whole word actually does not come from foreign languages.

One famous example might be (noutopasokon). It consists of two loanwords, (nouto) and (pasokon). Both are derived from English, but have been combined into one word originating from Japan. Just to note, is used to refer to a “laptop”.

For example, (kagaku) was translated from “science,” and (tetsugaku)was translated from “philosophy” (5).

In addition, during World War 2, Japanese people avoided using western loanwords (6). For example, (gorufu) was referred to as (dakyuu) and (biiru) was referred to as (bakushu).

It’s likely people living during those periods were strongly nationalistic, and they did not want to introduce foreign words into the Japanese language. On the other hand, our current society is largely globalized; we don’t hesitate to use loanwords.

As I wrote this answer, I realized that English speakers do not say “note” to refer to a notebook. It might be the fact that notebook was borrowed as in In fact, using loanwords may have an the beginning, and then the loanword was advantage in message transmission. truncated into .

Loanwords have different sound Additional examples of include structures and they are unlikely to be (bijinesuhoteru) which homophonous or similar to other words. refers to a business hotel and This means they can be easily identified in (shaapupenshiru) which refers to a speech. mechanical pencil.

For example, and are clearly Some words are borrowed because distinctive from other words. This is there isn’t a word to express a certain because their sound structure is unusual, concept in the language. Why aren’t new as they begin with voiced consonants and words created in the language as opposed include long vowels. to being borrowed? This is an interesting question.

On the other hand, their translated versions( and ) are not so distinct.

In fact, during the Meiji period (1868There are homophonous or similar words 1912), Japanese people tried to translate like (dakkyuu) and (mugicha). foreign words using Sino-Japanese words.

The education system in Japan made an For political and communicative reasons, effort to use Japanese words for all subjects Japanese people may adopt and use and attempted to translate them into Sino- loanwords more frequently.

Japanese words.

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I feel like Japanese people find English to cooler or more intelligent. These loanwords be a prestigious language. and their Japanese counterparts carry the identical meaning and are completely This observation may be supported by interchangeable, and yet some people opt the fact that English phrases are printed to use the loanword. I guess that using on many T-shirts and many signboards in these loanwords in conversation elevates Japan, and many English phrases can be the perception of their own intelligence by found in Japanese songs. I think this is why others. using a loanword sometimes feels “cool” or “smart” in Japan. For example, some I am wondering whether English people may say (topikku) instead speakers have these kinds of feelings of (wadai) and (ebidensu) towards French. instead of (shouko)in order to sound

Some longer loanwords are truncated that we often eat and . these days.

On the other hand, we don’t eat For example, (asuparagasu) and very often. is truncated into (asupara), and (chokoreito)is truncated into It is well-known that languages evolve (choko). to maximize the efficiency of message transmission. It may be a universal On the other hand, some loanwords ( phenomenon that a high frequency (foagura) and word or phrase is shortened in speech. (painappuru)) are not truncated.

For example, in English, high frequency phrases like “by the way” are simplified as I am pretty sure that word frequency BTW, and “as soon as possible” is ASAP. causes this phenomenon. High frequency If it’s shorter, it’s easier to pronounce and words are likely to be truncated. It may be more efficient.

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We know where some words come from.

For example, (doggufuudo) and (kamera) come from English. This is because we start learning English at primary schools and are likely to encounter the source words in English. However, we are not always sure where a loanword comes from. In fact, we are sometimes surprised to see that some words are actually loanwords. For example, when I was a child, I thought that (kappa) (rain coat) was truly a Japanese word, because Japanese has the homophonous word (kappa) meaning an imaginary mythical creature.

I was really surprised to hear that it comes from Portuguese.

It was also surprising to find that Russian.

comes from Spanish and

comes from

Sociolinguists say that we express our social status by choosing a linguistic variant.

The word-final /n/ can be pronounced in two ways like picking and pickin’.

Campbell-Kibler points out that producing a velar variant (picking) expresses “formality” and “intelligence.” I am sure that choosing a word against another is also this kind of social language use. Younger people sometimes express their “youth” to keep away from older people by using (wakamonokotoba) (young words). For instance, young people say (pien) or ( (katan)), but mature adults don’t use these words. By employing these words, younger people express their solidarity and social status.

Employing loanwords may also express some social messages.

For example, younger people say (keitai).

(sumaho), while older people say

Medical professionals use (ope) (operation) instead of (shujutsu).

Additionally, some business people say (kuraianto) instead of (okyakusama). It is common for jargon to primarily consist of loanwords, and using these loanwords conveys a message of group membership.

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I searched for this, but there is no systematic research I found.

number of people. If we define “adopt” as “used by the majority of Japanese people,” I am sure that many medical loanwords It may be difficult to define “adopt.” Some were adopted in recent years. loanwords are used by a limited social group.

I had never seen the word (parusuokishimeitaa) (pulse For example, phoneticians may say oximeter) before the COVID outbreak, but (forumanto) (formant) in daily the word is widely used now due to COVID. speech, but this word is seldom used I guess that many medical loanwords have outside of our field of work. been “adopted” over the last two years.

Probably many words were borrowed last year, but they are only used by a limited

As a phonetician, I would like to point out that sound systems of Japanese have been changing due to loanwords. If you’re familiar with Japanese hiragana, you may have heard the phrase, ” ” (tachitsuteto). You may have noticed that the t-sounds before the high vowels i and u are produced differently before a, e, and o. (chi) and (tsu) have sounds like S and s after air release, while (ta), (te), and (to) have breathy sounds after air release.

Traditionally, Japanese has this kind of rule governing sound sequences (which is called phonotactics).

However, some loanwords violate this rule, and their adoption and use are contributing to the erasure of this rule.

For example, we have loanwords like (tiishatsu) and (turii), which violate the sound distribution rules.

The sounds /ti/ and /tu/ traditionally did not exist in Japanese, although /tSi/ and /tsu/ are allowed. This leads to a situation in which older people pronounce words differently than younger people. My grandmother cannot say well.

Instead, she says (teishaatsu).

On the other hand, my mother and I say . I also hear some people say (kaadegan) instead of (kaadigan). This may also be because /di/ does not exist in japanese traditionally.

EmployingloanwordsmaychangeJapanese sound systems further in the future.

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Ryon Morrin is a 3rd year ALT based in Shintotsukawa, Hokkaido. In his free time, he enjoys discovering new music, hiking in the mountains, and playing rhythm games at the arcade.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

https://researchmap.jp/daiki_hashimoto?lang=en https://www.anlp.jp/proceedings/annual_meeting/2004/pdf_dir/P6-3.pdf https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/cllt-2017-0010/html?lang=en https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%92%8C%E8%A3%BD%E8%8B%B1%E8%AA%9E https://kotobaken.jp/qa/yokuaru/qa-96/ https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%95%B5%E6%80%A7%E8%AA%9E

Illustration: | soco-st.com Photo: Porapak Apichodilok | pexels.com 94 |

Illustration: Irasutoya | irasutoya.com

(nashi wa nashi da.)

(hoshi ga hoshii.)

Welcome to the final monthly language corner!! I appreciate you all coming on this journey of monthly language learning with me. Did you learn anything? Maybe some bad jokes at least?

I’ll leave you with two easy but fun puns! If you know of any other dajare, please send them my way.

final

saigo

pear

nashi

star

hoshi

Golden Week

goorudenwiiku

“long consecutive holiday” i.e., Golden Week

oogatarenkyuu

Constitution Day i.e., May 3

kenpoukinenbi

Greenery Day i.e., May 4

midorinohi

Children’s Day i.e., May 5

kodomonohi

carp flags

koinobori

traffic jam (which is to be expected with the large amount of travelers!)

jyuutai

Back to Contents Photo: Evgeny Tchebotarev | pexels.com

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TRAVEL AND COMMUNIT TRAVEL EDITOR connect.travel@ajet.net

TRAVEL DESIGNER connect.socialmedia@ajet.net

Dahlia Lemelin

Katherine Wang

“If they do not need you, it’s okay. You do not live for other people.” — Tooru Nishimura.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take — Wayne Gretzky — Michael Scott” — The Office

COMMUNITY EDITOR

COMMUNITY DESIGNER

connect.community@ajet.net Phoebe Jin Sierra Nelson-Liner “Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.”―Mary Oliver

“私は綺麗にオシャレしてる私が大好きだ。 強くあろうとする私が大好き。”(I love it when I am dressed up and looking beautiful.

I love myself trying to stay strong) ― Kugisaki Nobara, Jujutsu Kaisen

COPY EDITOR connect.copy3@ajet.net Dianne Yett “Monday for me is like waking up and stumbling very quickly down a flight of stairs only to land perfectly on your feet at the bottom and wondering how in the actual hell you managed that.” — Self

Photo: Atul Vinayak | Unsplash.com

TY

CONNECT TRAVEL

One week, a Car, and No Plan AN AWE-iNSPiRiNG ROAD TRiP THROUGH YAMAGUCHi AND SHiMANE Ailsa van Eeghen (Kagoshima)

We had about one week, a car, no desire to plan a trip, but plenty of desire to go somewhere. Anywhere.

These were the requirements we had to meet as we stared at my Google map of Japan and all of the little stars on it, pinpointing the places we wanted to visit. Each week in the countdown to spring break we came back to it, all the while procrastinating planning anything. Then arrived the week of our trip and a decision had to be made. “Yamaguchi Prefecture. Let’s go there. The rest we’ll figure out from there.” And so with that half-baked plan in the bag it was time to head off.

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DAY 1 We packed up the car, my trusty camera chucked on the back seat, and headed north to Yamaguchi. The drive from Kagoshima to Yamaguchi was largely uneventful. However, I couldn’t help but get excited as I crossed over the Kanmon straits, signalling our exit from Kyushu.

We arrived at our first destination in Shimonoseki as dusk was settling in. Soft bird calls and the rustle of animals deep in the woods

accompanied us as we walked up a stone path leading into the mountain.

Nestled among the ancient pines and conifers, Kurusonzanshuzen Temple had an aura of mysticism. I walked around it wide-eyed and in awe. How did we find somewhere so special? Huge cedar trees towered above us as we explored this mountain top temple for as long as the darkening sky allowed. “Wow” was all I could say as we got back in the car and looked for a place to park for the night. This was going to be a good trip.

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DAY 2 On day two, we left the mountains and headed up the coast, hitting as many shrines and temples as we could along the way. First up was Futoku Inari Shrine, a brilliant red shrine with commanding views over the Sea of Japan. I have always liked how rather than houses and hotels, shrines and temples occupy prime real estate in this country.

Heading north, we crossed over onto Tsushima Island to try the famous kaisen-don of fresh fish at Ohama restaurant. The bridge to the island is actually more famous than the place itself. At 1,780 m

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long, Tsushima Bridge is the second longest bridge in Japan. I never thought I’d be excited about driving over a bridge but this was something special. With brilliant turquoise blue water stretching out all around me, this felt like an experience in itself.

Our journey continued up the coast to Motonosumi Inari Shrine. Built on the edge of a low hanging cliff, the red torii gates of this shrine snake down the mountain finishing at the cliff's edge as if enticing you into the ocean. After attempting to throw a coin into the offertory box which was peculiarly attached to the top of a huge torii gate, we turned our attention to finding a place to camp for the night.

DAY 3 Our third day took us to Hagi, an exquisitely preserved former castle town famous for its pottery. We spent the morning exploring the old town area with its white-washed stone walls and traditional townhouses.

For lunch, we had kawara soba, a Yamaguchi speciality. Beef, thinly sliced fried eggs, radish, and chilli are arranged on a bed of delicate green tea soba noodles and served atop a heated rooftop tile (kawara).

Our meal was a delight not only for the tongue but also for the eyes as it sizzled on the table before us.

In the afternoon, we crossed over the border of Yamaguchi into Shimane.

Located deep in the mountains of Shimane Prefecture, Tsuwano is an idyllic village nestled in a valley.

Known as a “little Kyoto,” Tsuwano was incredibly picturesque. Whitewashed stone buildings lined the streets, and colourful koi fish swam in the canals as we walked through the historical district. Huge barrels of sake stood tall outside the many breweries around town. I felt like I had stepped back in time to Edo Period Japan. Our day ended with a visit to Taiko-dani Inari Shrine, which was perched high up on the hillside and featured sweeping views across the valley. This place truly was gorgeous, and yet again, I was amazed at how such beautiful places exist.

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DAY 4 We left the mountains and headed back to the coast. In need of a rest day, we pulled into Yunotsu, a quaint but rustic little hot spring resort located in the World Heritage area of Iwami Ginzan Mine. During the day we soaked in Yakushi-yu, a public bath house, where the bathtub is stained a dark red and orange from the iron-rich water bubbling up from the ground.

Then at night, it was time for the show. I had read about Shimane being famous for Kagura, a traditional type of Japanese dance.

We followed a small procession of

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people to one of the local shrines.

All of us looked a bit confused, not really sure what we were in for.

The show was like nothing I had ever seen. Kagura, literally meaning “God entertainment,” is a historical Shinto ceremonial dance.

Traditional Japanese music filled the shrine as Gods, serpents, spirits, and warriors danced and spun across the stage, acting out ancient stories before me. As I sat in the shrine, watching this incredible dance taking place before my eyes, the rest of the world just melted away. Stepping out in the crisp spring air when the show had ended, I had been reminded yet again why I love this country.

DAY 5 Hoping to have another little Kyoto experience, we spent the day exploring the vast Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine grounds, in particular Omori Ginzan Village. Omori was a charming little place, nestled amongst the mountains. Despite being a World Heritage Site, the place was largely empty, and we felt like we had the whole town to ourselves. We meandered through the streets taking photos of the old Japanese houses until the 5 p.m. bell told us it was time to head back.

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DAY 6 It was time to get cultured. The Adachi Museum of Art is home to a wide collection of Japanese modern art and pottery. But its biggest draw is the incredible Japanese garden which surrounds the buildings. The gardens at Adachi were constructed based on the philosophy that “the garden is also a picture,” and thus Adachi’s gardens are said to be a “living Japanese painting.” As I walked through the museum I felt my gaze constantly drawn out the window unable to properly take in the art. We sat there for a long time, enjoying the peace and stillness.

Ailsa van Eeghen is originally from Australia but has been living in Kagoshima Prefecture since 2015. She usually spends her weekends with her camera driving around the Japanese countryside, hanging out in cafes, and hiking up mountains. You can find more of her pictures on Instagram at @daysofailsa where she writes about her life in Japan.

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DAY 7 Our last day in Shimane was spent at Izumo Taisha, or Izumo Grand Shrine. Considered to be one of Japan’s most ancient and important shrines, the deity enshrined at Izumo Taisha is said to be the one who cultivated and built Japan.

As we walked through the pine grove at the entrance of the shrine, the trees gently swayed above us, the buzz of the city drifted away and our conversations became whispered murmurs.

As we arrived, the sun was just starting to hit the buildings, steam rising off of the rooftops in the crisp spring morning. The sheer size and scale of the buildings was completely different to anything else I had seen in Japan. I felt dwarfed as I walked beneath the huge shimenawa–a sacred rope Back to Contents

made of twisted straw. I think the only two words which came out my mouth that morning were “woah” and “wow” as I tried to comprehend the sheer size and grandeur of what I was seeing.

Considering we started the trip with no plan and no real idea what Yamaguchi and Shimane offered, our time in these prefectures was full of awe and wonder. Coming off of this trip, I felt even more motivated to dabble in the mysterious and ancient world of traditional Japan.

Confusion is intriguing, and this trip left me hungry for that feeling of getting lost. From mountain temples, to glistening sea-side shrines, to ancient performing arts and breathtaking examples of architecture and design–Yamaguchi and Shimane are the perfect places to take it slow and embrace getting lost in Japan. | 105

Blooming Views Spring Flowers at all corners

Kasukabe Wisteria Festival Jessica Craven (Saitama)

From late April to early May each year, a two-kilometer-long avenue of wisteria trellises burst into bloom like purple fireworks dazzling overhead. They don’t last long, but they are a radiant sight to see in the otherwise quiet suburb town of Kasukabe.

On the last weekend of April, traditional performers parade down this avenue named Fujidori (Wisteria Street), as if reawakened from a former era. The yosakoi dancers, marching bands, Edo Period style entertainers, and wadaiko drummers seem to float down the street and be swept away with the same breeze that scatters the last of the year’s wisteria petals.

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If passing through Kasukabe during this brief season, you also shouldn’t miss the famous wisteria of Ushijima at Tokaen. This park is a modest walk from the main avenue but contains a giant, majestic wisteria tree over 1,200 years oldーone of Japan’s designated national treasures. This time-weathered tree also has the longest flower clusters of any wisteria, with some reaching 2 m long! While the park is relatively small, it features a pristine garden design and several other types of flowers that bloom during this season.

Jessica Craven is a fifth-year American JET working in Kasukabe, Saitama.

On weekends, she enjoys hiking in remote areas of Saitama or taking day trips to Tokyo. When not adventuring, she can be found reading or creating her own artwork, which can be seen on her Instagram. [writer’s note: the festival has been cancelled for the last two years due to coronavirus prevention measures, but Tokaen has been open]

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Blue fields to the sky Dahlia Lemelin (Gunma)

You’ve probably seen the small baby blue flower fields stretching under a bright blue sky on social media popping up in the spring. This specific instagrammable location is situated on the oceanfront at Hitachinaka Seaside Park, in Ibaraki.

The park is wide and offers various activities like bike rental, has a small attraction park, accepts dogs, and is perfect for a picnic.

The Nemophila Festival, usually at its peak during Golden Week, from mid-April to early May, is extremely popular with all ages, but mostly with photographers and social media frenzy people wanting to get that special shot of the blue hill growing up to the blue sky. But be ready to wake up early, as the line for the parking can be a few kilometers long even before opening, and many

seasoned visitors will gate very early to run people-free shots be pour in. The most pop sunny cloudless days fo picture, but overcast d hours of the day will be

The park is easily acce off the Hitachinaka Se the highway, and the parking available, but i You can also ride the Tokai or Katsuta station available. Some buses and Utsunomiya statio right at the park’s gate be blue with envy seein

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Hitachinaka Seaside Park Their schedule changes depending on events and they sometimes open exceptionally early, or even offer free admission days, so check their calendar.

Parking information is usually updated day by day on Twitter during events.

Nemophila blooming information.

Dahlia is a spontaneous traveler that goes on sudden discovery trips on her days off. A fourth-year JET and editor of [[CONNECT]], she likes to irresponsibly spend money on trinkets she finds.

be standing at the and get a couple efore the crowds pular days are the or that perfect blue days and the later e quieter.

essible by car, just easide Park IC of ey have wide paid it’s often crowded. e JR Joban Line to ns where buses are s even leave Tokyo ons and drop you e! Your friends will ng your pictures.

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Tulip festival

Sarah Baughn (prefecture) The Tonami Tulip Festival in Toyama takes place in April, around peak tulip blooming season. It’s a great way to see a huge field of tulips arranged in a variety of ways, but the venue is a bit old and in need of maintenance. I really enjoyed the variety of Toyama local foods and tulip-themed goods, as well as a live band performance when I visited in 2021. They have many local performers throughout the duration of the festival. It’s a very cute event that seems to be popular with families and couples.

There’s a large tower looming over the tulips on display that you can climb to the top of to see how the tulips are arranged in a large array. It was pretty crowded the day I went, so keep that in mind if you want to take pictures with the flowers. I would recommend stopping by if you’re near Toyama, but it’s not worth going extremely out of your way unless you’re an extreme tulip enthusiast.

Sarah was an Ishikawa JET in Suzu City. She loves a good hanami, playing koto, and appreciating nature when her allergies aren’t acting up.

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A Hydrangea-filled Hike Kimberly Matsuno (Niigata) Walking through the hydrangea park at the summit of Gomandoyama in Niigata Prefecture is like stepping straight into a fairy tale. Covered in over 30,000 hydrangeas, the 274 m mountain offers stunning views of Echigo’s plains and is a perfect outing for those looking for an outdoor adventure.

The hike up Gomandoyama is roughly four kilometers and takes 45 minutes one way.

The trails are well maintained, suitable for families with children, and have plenty of signs and maps so you won’t lose your way. Along with the expansive hydrangea garden, there is also a tea house offering green tea, oden, and sweets at the summit of Gomandoyama.

The best time to see the hydrangeas is from late June to early July. There is typically a Hydrangea Festival during this time with food vendors, a tea party, and taiko performances.

For those arriving by train, the trailhead is located about a 15-minute walk from Tagami Station on JR’s Shinetsu Line.

There is a parking lot with restrooms and vending machines, though the parking lot gets full quite early during peak hydrangea season. After your hydrangea-filled hike, consider relaxing in one of the many nearby onsens, or continue your flower adventure at Mitsuke English Garden or the Niigata Prefectural Botanical Gardens.

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Address: Gomadoyama Trailhead 〒959-1502新潟県南蒲原郡田上 町 田上乙1588 959-1502 1588 Tagamiotsu, Tagami machi, Minami Kanbaragun, Niigata

Kimberly Matsuno is in her third year in Japan and has loved every minute of it. She enjoys hiking and exploring everything Japan has to offer. When not planning her next trip or trying to recreate that one thing she ate at that one restaurant, you can find her spending way too much money on stationery at her local LOFT.

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Lavender Hills Tony Stewart (Gunma)

After a long winter of snowy ski slopes, the hills of Tambara Park change color during the spring to welcome fragrant fields of lavender in the summer months. The park also has different varieties of other flower arrangements that make their wide park change colors over the course of the spring, but their most famous ones are the few types of lavender that peak in bloom at different times during late spring and summer to ensure a long season of beautiful purple hills.

I visited the park in late July with friends by riding their car up the mountains of North Gunma on a sunny day. The bright color of the flowers is great against the blue sky for good pictures.

The park is easy for pedestrians to go up the hills but also has a lift you can use for part of the ride up. Surprisingly, at their restaurant, I had one of the best sauce katsu-don I ever had in Japan, which I was surprised to find in such a remote random location. The park also has some lavender ice cream and even lavender soba, the noodles a weird purple color that didn’t attract me too

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much but that my friends dared to try.

You can also buy lavender tea and dried lavender for cooking, as well as various health products including the flower at their gift shop.

The best way to get there is by car, passing the winding mountain roads up to the park, 1,300 m up. You can also take shuttles or local buses from Numata Station, on the JR Joetsu Line. It’s worth making the detour up there on a hot summer day, since the elevation will usually offer cooler winds and a more endurable temperature. A great way to freshen up bathed in the aroma of lavender fields.

Tambara Lavender Park 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Admission: 800 to 1000 yen depending on blooming status Blooming mid-July to mid-August

Tony is a third-year ALT from Ohio, now living in Southern Gunma. He doesn’t like chocolate but will ride the train anywhere for a good burger.

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CONNECT COMMUNITY

Mona Tadayon (Shizuoka)

The shift of another season brings a new energy into the air, and spring in Japan is no exception. The sakura are blooming, the breeze is warming, and the local train station is filled with the comings and goings of old friends, new friends, and everything in between. It is a time of endings and new beginnings.

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As spring blossoms into 2022, students and teachers alike can feel the seasonal shift take place. In Japanese education, spring adds a rather bittersweet energy to the end of the school year. From my experience as a student and teacher back in Canada, I can confidently say that I have taken part in my fair share of graduation ceremonies, but I think there is something particularly special about graduation in Japan. Graduation is a disciplined procedure, which is preceded by weeks of rehearsals and attention to fine detail. While the ceremony itself is quite mundane in its general proceedings there is one part that stood out to me, a part that I have never experienced as either a teacher or student, it’s a part that I would simply call: gratitude. It would seem that this final part of the ceremony is unique to Hamamatsu: a famous city in the Shizuoka prefecture where I currently live and work.

At the end of the junior high school ceremony, the Maruzuka class of 2022 all walked on stage in their bright indigo uniforms and faced their focal audience: six senior-year senseis sitting at the center of the students’ chairs, and all their parents sitting just behind them in a large separate audience – all of whom looked up at the display of vibrant youth with proud faces. To the score of a lovely piano composition played by one of the senior students, the young pupils shared their gratitude with their senseis - class by class, one sensei at a time, before all thanking their parents in unison. While giving their thanks, the students allowed themselves to be free in their display of emotion. In this moment, not a single tear or sense of pride seemed to be shy of showing itself. As the students got emotional, so did the teachers, the parents, and me – the ALT with just ちょっと chotto (a little) Japanese comprehension.

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Eri Ikuma, who is a passionate educator and sensei at Maruzuka JHS (Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka), had this to say regarding the importance of the school uniform on this special day:

Uniformity brings harmony.

I know we are all different. I know that, and I want to respect everyone’s character. Some people might think that uniforms kill their identity, but I think everyone wears the same uniform so that I can see their personality and character more clearly. I know everyone is different, even if they wear the same clothes. I can see who they are.

With Eri’s perspective in mind and the falling of the spring petals, I realize that the uniform stands for so much more than just a formality. The uniform represents Maruzuka as a sakura tree. While the sakura tree blossoms every spring, the petals are unique every season. Just as the students who are wearing the Maruzuka uniform today, are not the students who will be wearing it tomorrow.

As I looked around the gymnasium at the faces of those in the audience—wishing desperatelythatIhadbroughtahandkerchief with me—I saw that the majority of faces were also shedding tears behind their facemasks in a display of sincere gratitude.

Honestly, it would have been difficult not to get emotional—the display felt like an act of letting go, letting go of something that meant a great deal. Letting go is a challenge that transcends culture and language. It’s hard to let go, even if it means moving towards growth. The entire energy of the room was palpably moved by the overwhelming show of gratitude—by the undeniable growth, by the end of another beautiful season. As a teacher, I thought back to my first classroom of graduating students, and how difficult it was to say goodbye to them at the end of 118 |

the year. If my class had shown me such a powerful display of gratitude, I would have transformed into a puddle on the gym floor: embarrassed, overwhelmed, full of pride, and admittedly a small sense of grief. As a teacher, you put a great deal of yourself into your work and I see that dedication in all the educators I have had the pleasure to observe and work alongside as an ALT in Japan. I have seen the hours they put in, the early Saturday mornings when they come for club activities and the level of responsibility they take for their students. I see it, and I understand the loyalty and dedication that goes into their work. I believe that raising a child is a group effort—and I think Japanese educators understand that, as people raised in a school system based in a culture of tradition and homogeneity.

Being a teacher is a form of guardianship and at times, it can even feel like parenthood.

However, as a teacher, you also know that you will have to say goodbye soon. Students must continue walking down the path of their lives. They must continue through the many seasons they will endure. In the end, as a teacher you must make the most of the few seasons you have with your students and realize that you are only one part of their lives. Hopefully, a good part—one that deserves such an endearing display of gratitude. While it is not needed, I think it is a great way to let go of something, to process such a pivotal point in their young lives; a season that will only occur once.

While the cherry blossoms will bloom again, the petals will never quite be the same. But, as the end of the season approaches, we can see new branches bud on the sakura trees. In time, those branches will bloom and blossom as they did the year before, and every year before that.

Mona Tadayon is a passionate educator and writer from Toronto, Canada. She has been living in Hamamatsu City since the

Mona Tadayon is a passionate educator and writer from Toronto, Canada. She has been living in Hamamatsu City since the fall of 2021 and has come to Japan with a curiosity for its culture. She is particularly interested in how Japanese culture influences education. In her spare time, she enjoys eating chicken katsu, singing karaoke, swimming in the ocean, and exploring!

Sakura Illustration: Back to Contents

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Sierra Nelson-Liner (Shizuoka)

A hundred red pinwheels met our eyes as we drove past the pockets of towns nestled in the mountains of Shizuoka. They matched the bright red kayak strapped to the roof of Suzuki’s car. The pinwheels trailed up the road leading us to an old private house at the Roadside Station in the Tenryu ward of Hamamatsu. For the weekend, one of the many old traditional homes next to the station became a gathering space for locals, artists, and travelers to experience the beauty of Japan through an installation connecting traditions from the mountains to the sea.

the viewers to experience the old house and traditional garden. To have them feel nature both big and small. And to have them see nature within themselves.

The installation was an immersive experience of contemporary art where the viewer sees, hears, feels, and even smells the space. The featured art was created by Mariko Naito. She is a professional ikebana artist, tea ceremony master, and lecturer who is originally from Tottori prefecture.

Outside, in the garden, was where the mountains met the sea. Guest speaker Katsuaki Suzuki had brought his dugout cedar canoe to put on display. Ms. Naito placed a large branch of paperbrush on top of it. The pinwheels twirled in the wind.

Inspired by local history, daily life, and regional characteristics of Japan, she breathes new life into traditions that are sometimes overlooked. At this installation, she wanted 120 |

Her art flowed perfectly with the house itself. The sliding doors were open to allow the various hanging seeds and plants to float in the breeze. She had hand crafted small camellia flowers from paper and placed them between wires and wooden structures. One was blue and yellow in an act to bring awareness and support to Ukraine.

Last April I was fortunate enough to attend the roadside event as well as interview Katsuaki Suzuki, an ocean explorer and guest speaker at the event, which linked his and Ms. Naito’s expertise together.

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Katsuaki Suzuki is a marine explorer and friend to many. He has experience paddling several huge rivers and oceans around the globe. A lover of coastlines and beach plants; he offers both kayak and dugout canoe tours throughout Japan. You can hopefully travel with Suzuki by contacting him through his website 浜名湖パドル カヤックツア ー(Hamanako Paddle Tours).

One seemingly casual question you can ask him is; “How long does it take to travel around Japan?” To which he will reply; “About 4 years.” He speaks from experience. His longest voyage has been a roughly 4 year trip of 1200 days circumnavigating Japan. He did so by rowing his bright red sea kayak to and from Bentenjima, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka prefecture.

What inspired him to travel around Japan by kayak? “It was an impulse,” he said. He had previously traveled in Thailand, India, and Hawaii, so he was also motivated to learn more about “water communities” in his home country.

Japan has a lot of “old coastal communities that are rich in culture.” On his journey he was in search of people who depend on, experience, or live 122 |

and interact with the sea. He wanted to know more deeply about their “ocean culture”. To do this Suzuki talked to many fishermen and “mermaids”—as he put it with a smile. He investigated these places’ history, daily life, construction techniques, and of course local foods and beach plants. He learned from many ama divers along the coastline. They are women who are taught to dive without breathing equipment. They are wellknown in Mie prefecture for diving in search of pearls. He also learned from the native Ainu people in the north.

When recollecting the trip most of his responses were filled with the gratitude towards the interactions with nature one does not usually experience. Emerging from the nearby volcanic mountain, Sakurajima, on Kyushu Island, he paddled while watching the magnificent volcanic plumes. He also describes the Shiritoko peninsula in Hokkaido. There, he was no longer in the human community, but the bear community. He paddled while watching brown bears and whales.

Sometimes he was even chased by sharks. Living in the wild for about four years sounds very exciting. After the trip he noticed that he came to like Japan, and its amazing coastline, even more.

The trip definitely connected him deeper to his home country.

He has also participated in an international maritime community project sponsored by Tokyo’s National Museum of Nature and Science. Together with a small team he successfully completed a 225-kilometer voyage from Taiwan to Yonaguni Island, Okinawa Prefecture, in a wooden boat, using star navigation.

Following that adventure Suzuki organized gatherings for the next two years, teaching children and locals how to construct a dugout canoe of their Back to Contents

own. That same boat, completed in 2021, was the one on display at the event with Mariko Naito.

Suzuki finally remarked that he wants everyone who reads this to remember that “from the highest mountains to the far reaches of the ocean we truly are connected.” He also wants us to have fun and be inspired to experience kayaking in different places around Japan, so his recommended Kayaking spots are outlined for you below.

Sanriku Rias coastline (Tohoku) Shiretoko (Hokkaido) Lake Hamana (Shizuoka) Sakurajima (Kagoshima) South Sea of Japan (Yamaguchi Prefecture) Izu Peninsula (Shizuoka) Owase (Mie Prefecture) Seto Inland Sea

Sierra Nelson-Liner is an ALT who is the Community Editor for CONNECT Magazine. She is always chasing flowers. She hopes to learn more about cultural exchange through farming.

You can follow her farming experiences on her @satoyama_stories instagram. | 123

CONTRIBUTING TO CONNECT is a magazine for the community in Japan, by the community in Japan. Everyone is welcome to write, no matter your experience or style! If you have an idea you want to see in these pages, reach out to our Head Editor, or any of our awesome section editors. We’ll work with you to make it the best it can be and share it with our audience of thousands. Not every article needs to be an essay! We feature interviews, infographics, top-ten lists, recipes, photo spreads, travelogues, and more.

Contact the Head Editor of CONNECT, Rachel Fagundes, at connect.editor@ajet.net with your submissions, comments, and questions.

ARTICLES Write about something you’re doing. Write about something you love. Tell us a story.

SPOTLIGHT Tell us about someone in your community who’s doing something neat and noteworthy.

Cooks, collectors, calligraphers — we want to hear about the inspiring people around you.

COMMENTS Let us know what you think.

Interact with us on Facebook, Twitter, and issuu.com.

CONTRIBUTORS PAGE Have an article you want to share? Join our Contributors Page on Facebook to stay connected with our team so you can share your adventures whenever story strikes!

PHOTOS Members of the JET community contributed to the photos you see in this issue. If you’re an aspiring photographer and want your work published, please get in contact with the lead designer, Lloyd Cruickshank, at visualmedia.connect@ajet.net .

CONNECT WITH US Interested in contributing to CONNECT? Want to stay up-to-date on interview opportunities, photo requests, and CONNECT announcements? Get involved with CONNECT by contacting our current CONNECT staff and reading about the possible positions here.

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