Wake Me Up When September Ends

Japanese Word of the Day:
English: Please wait a moment
Japanese:  Chotto matte kudasai  (ちょっとまってください)

Earlier in my time in Ujitawara I was invited to my second festival which was held by one of my elementary schools. The principal himself came by the BoE to deliver tickets to Allen, Inaho-sensei, and myself. The way these events seem to work is the students sell tickets in advance that you use to get food and play games at the actual event. My ticket informed me through pictures and the few words I could discern that the event would have cotton candy, popcorn, hot dogs, yakisoba, and yakionigiri as well as a few games. I was quite excited since I had enjoyed the previous festival with Becky and Andrew. Sadly, Allen would not be able to go so it would be just me and Inaho-sensei.

The event was Saturday afternoon so I met Inaho-sensei at the BoE office where we drove over to the neighborhood community center holding the event. After arriving we hovered by some important looking dudes in suits one of whom was the principal who had invited us. After a few minutes of awkward hovering the principal retrieved a microphone to give an introductory speech and it occurred to me that I might be asked to say something. Instantly I started trying to form a coherent introduction in my head as right on cue Inaho-sensei leaned over and asked me to give a short speech. At least I had a few moments of preparation based on my developing time-to-give-a-speech senses.

The principal's speech went on quite a while despite no one seeming to listen so I actually had plenty of time to cobble an introduction. When I spoke everyone seemed to stop and listen, either from the novelty of me or just my poor Japanese. Once I finished I hastily retreated behind Inaho-sensei and was spared any further public speaking. After the festivities had kicked off proper I was hovering near a few of the games and was invited to give them a try by the kind ladies manning them. There were two games which seem to be festival standards so lend me your imagination a moment. Both involved plastic kiddie pools filled with water but one has an assortment of small, brightly colored plastic bouncy balls while the other had small inflated balloons. The plastic balls game was simple; you were given a round spatula type device with a layer of paper in the middle. Using this you tried to scoop as many of the plastic balls as possible before the weight and water caused the paper to tear. The lady who handed me the scoop had said something about “three” so I opted to scoop 3 little balls and surrender my scoop back after that. Of my haul I had 2 bright normal balls and one yellow plastic piece in the shape of a poop. If you think I am exaggerating, no I am not, it was literally a poop.

Yup, that's a poop.

The other game was more interesting in my opinion. The balloons were small rounded types that had been painted with streaks of color. They were partially inflated by air with just a little water in the bottom to give them weight. The ends were tied and a rubber band had been tied to the ends in a loop. A child was given a paper “string” with a paperclip on the end and the object was to use the paperclip (dangled from the paper thread) to scoop the balloon’s band and then pull it out of the water before the paper broke from being wet. I never actually saw a child succeed at this but once they failed they were given the balloon of choice anyways. The balloons could then be used as colorful yoyos as they bounced on the rubber band from the weight of the water in them.

Not my picture, I take no credit. Just wanted to show what they look like!

I opted not to play the yoyo game as I didn’t want to take a yoyo that a child could enjoy (though I secretly craved one dearly). Instead I let Inaho-sensi lead me to a new area where a massive pipe of bamboo had been set up. When I say “massive pipe” I mean that a hollow piece  of bamboo with maybe a 6” diameter had been cut in half and laid in a gentle slope that was probably 50’ long. At the top end of the tube a hose had been set up to run water down the bamboo to where it ended at a storm drain. I was deeply curious what purpose this fixture served when Inaho-sensei asked me if I liked soba noodles. I told him I knew of them but had never had them and he told me to “please try some”. Well ok, sure, but first can we figure out what this slide is for?

…

You say it’s for the noodles?

…

You say they take noodles, stick them in at the top of the slide and people standing along the slide reach in with chopsticks, grab out the noodles, but them in a cup of broth and then eat them?

…

What?

It’s funny, my immediate first thought was “that would so not slide in America what with sticking chopsticks in your mouth then in the same water and noodles as other people”. The idea behind this was that the water cools the noodles (which are served cold) and dilutes the broth a bit. Also it’s fun for the kids! It’s also incredibly wasteful as noodles sometimes get dropped or flopped over the side and any that reach the end of the line were tossed as well. Despite how it may sound it was actually rather challenging to scoop noodles out of moving water with chopsticks. Inaho-sensei showed me the trick was to the plant your chopsticks so you could catch a lump and pull it out all at once. He ate a fair few chunks but I rationed myself noting all the other food present. In particular I was eyeing the yakisoba and yakionigiri though the line for that seemed to be quite long. I decided I would wait a while before trying it.

A while passed and I awkwardly stood around as Inaho-sensei asked me what I’d like to try. Eventually I confessed a desire to try to yakisoba and yakionigiri and he encouraged me to get in line. By this point the line was even longer but I figured it couldn’t be that bad. How wrong I was.

I was in that line two hours. I am not kidding. It seems that at festival events kids will give their tickets to their mothers who patiently wait in line and then bring the children back the food. This meant for each person in front of me there were roughly 4-5 orders to fill., and there were still a lot of people in front of me. After about an hour I realized what a mess I’d gotten myself into and considered ducking out. I spotted Inaho-sensei in the distance keeping a watchful eye on me and decided I didn’t know how to explain to him that I changed my mind. I especially didn’t want him to feel disappointed or sad on my behalf so I decided to stick it out. Over the next hour of waiting I noticed how while he moved around he was never out of eyesight and frequently checked on my position. I swear that man is like the Japanese grandfather I never had but lied about having as a child*.

The view from the back of the line, 30 minutes into waiting, That's the soba slide!
Also I really hate blurring my pictures but it's that or no pictures. :(

From my mostly stationary position I had an excellent chance to people watch. One of my favorite parts of summer festivals is the clothes people wear, especially the kids. Since this was a festival for the children they were the ones dressed up in tiny yukata with bright oversized bows. With their festival food and balloon yoyos they were the perfect picture of children at a Japanese festival, which of course I cannot show you pictures of. If you’re new to the party or just forgot I cannot show any pictures of my students for privacy reasons. Yeah, that rule kind of sucks but it’s for a good reason and I’m not bending on it.

As darkness fell I crept closer in the line and eventually was close enough to see inside the tent where the food was being made. Two exhausted looking cooks were preparing massive batches of yakisoba as they sweat slaving over a hot grill while another few cooked the onigiri on smaller grills to the side. Even more cooks were around helping divvy the food into containers and supply them to the waiting masses. It was a reasonably warm day and having to work at a hot grill for hours while preparing enormous amounts of food must have been seriously exhausting. I have tons of respect for those people.

The real MVPs of the night. That's yakionigiri on the left!

As I got a few people in line from the front Inaho-sensei appeared at my side as if summoned. I hastily apologized to him for how long the line had been as I wondered if I had kept him here when he wanted to leave. Oh God, what if he has a wife at home sitting wondering where her husband is? What if I’m keeping him from his family?! I am the worst import American ever!

Despite the conflict of what degree of terrible I might be I at long last collected my food and followed Inaho-sensei away from the line that had consumed my afternoon. He told me to wait while he moved his car and so I did while snacking on an onigiri. When he returned I had only munched on a few onigiri (they gave each person several which is another reason it took a while) thinking that he wanted to leave and I could eat my food at home. Instead he stood by me and encouraged me to eat and told me the raffle was starting. Well ok, maybe I overreacted and I didn’t deprive him of family time. I hungrily ate my food while mentally reciting the Japanese words for my raffle number as the raffle occurred. It started with basic items like paper towel rolls, tissues, and… mayonnaise? Well I guess that is a staple in Japan. After a while it got to the more serious items; large bags of rice, a coffee maker, and some kind of automatic trashcan. For the last item, the number was called but no one came up to claim it leading to another number being called and then a third. Apparently the 2^nd person called was indeed there but did not reach the front until the 3^rd person had been called and so two people appeared to collect one prize. So the problem was settled in the Japanese way; they played janken for it! Janken is the Japanese name for rock paper scissors and it decides everything in Japan. Everything.

After the raffle was finished things were moved out of the way and Inaho-sensei told me it was time for the fireworks. I quickly realized that they had to move the raffle tables immediately because the fireworks were being launched from the top of the stairs where the raffle had just been taking place. This put Inaho-sensei and myself maybe 40’ from where the fireworks were shooting off. That may seem like a lot but…it’s not. Bits of dust and smoke kept invading my eyes and some mysterious falling object smacked my ear on its decent to earth (though I can confirm it was not fire).

The fireworks were pretty though!

The show also differed from traditional American fanfare in that it was relatively short, maybe a minute or two tops. According to Inaho-sensei fireworks are much more common in Japan than our couple of times a year in America so I can understand the shorter show.

After the show I heard a bit of yelling and quickly moved as a man rushed by with a tank on his back of water that he was using to extinguish any sparks left over. Running by he looks a bit like a Ghostbuster which caused me a bit of a chuckle.

With the fireworks done the festival was officially. By now it was about 8:00 so I returned with Inaho-sensei to his car where I made the mistake of teaching him an idiom in the form of “speak of the devil”. Inaho-sensei had remarked it was good the rain had stayed away during the festival and immediately after his proclamation fat raindrops began falling on the car, prompting me to say “speak of the devil”. I explained the idea behind the idiom and he chuckled and drove me home. He’s such a good surrogate Japanese grandfather.

                                                                                                                                       

As you may have noticed entries are probably going to come out a bit less often now. School is in full swing and when I get home I have a tendency to want to do anything but spend several hours typing, editing, and going through pictures. On Thursdays in particular I have nonstop action from elementary kids from 8:50-4:00 and then I have to bicycle home so I’m usually pretty wiped. But in case you’re worried I’m thoroughly enjoying my kids and classes (especially the Thursday Elementary school despite how exhausting it is) and there will be entries devoted to them soon. For now, time to go to bed at 10PM on a Friday night because I am an old person now.

*True story: As a child I tried to convince a teacher I had that I had a Chinese grandfather and 2 twin Chinese sisters. Apparently I was a pretty good liar back then.