Yesterday was Gantan (New Year's Day). I came down to breakfast with my new host family. First in Japan I was living in the mountains of Kochi with tanuki (raccoon dogs/Japanese badgers), inoshishi (razorback bigs), and lots of skinny, feral cats at a private high school known for sports such as baseball built over wildlife protection areas. Then I find myself in a completely different inaka (severe countryside -- i.e. inconvenience), of the industrial sort in Niihama. No shoreline at all, everything is concrete and polluted, my hair thinned and started to resemble one of my students'. Not a thriving community. Tokyo is nicer, but way more people, as I will find when they come back after the break.
So, for the first three days of the year we eat red beans and mochi (glutinous rice mashed into sweet, sticky cakes). We also had long noodles for long life on the eve. Many people had arrows they bought from various shrines to symbolically capture good fortune for themselves. I found the iemoto (family head) of the Kasui-ryuh (a style name) of traditional flower arranging closeby after seeing an arrangement displayed at the local subway station. I walked by Tohdai (Tokyo University -- the most famous in Japan), surprised by how close it is.
I got only two cards this year, one from a keen student, the other from my iaidoh (the art of sword-drawing) sensei (honorific for teacher). I've got to find something useful to do but am not good at making contacts or friends. I did meet an architectural student from the university whose name translates as "friend above the well", reminding me of Isaac from Genesis. I amuse myself with the thought he must have been sent from the side of the family that became stone masons in the U.S.
So what's a Japanophile Canadian mid-continental black-Irish twit to do in Tokyo?
Hah,
Sean G. P. Fogarty
Sea/n O/'Fo/gartaigh
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