Something is already here, and more is coming.

-Annie Dillard “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”

My second month here feels quite a bit longer than a month looking back now on this rainy night. I have had some fruitful experiences and I feel like I am in a very different place from one month ago. Perhaps the most outward expression of that change would be that I am no longer sweating every moment of everyday. Autumn blew in unexpectedly exactly the day of the fall equinox. That day literally began with sweltering heat and after a rain storm I have been wearing a sweater ever since. I don’t know whether to chalk it up to coincidence or be lead to believe that the Japanese are controlling their weather and that I live in a bubble unknowingly. One row of trees at my school has begun to change color to a now vibrant red and I am told that soon many more will follow. I welcome autumn and all the changes that she brings.

One big experience was that I got to go and see was a sumo tournament. The French language teacher here had some friends visiting from France and I used my mind control to get her to invite me along with them. The tournament is held in a very large square stadium surrounded by Japanese bars and restaurants. Matches go on all day long, starting in the morning and ending at around seven in the evening. We arrived in the morning and watched some lower level matches before going to lunch. Sumo matches contain a great deal of ceremony leading up to a normally very quick battle in which one participant can be defeated by being pushed out of the ring (much smaller than I imagined and covered with dirt) or by touching any part of his body to the ground. They stretch out facing the audience and then assume the battle stance facing each other and then stand up and stretch again and face each other again and stand up and stretch and get some water given to them out of a bamboo ladle then throw some salt or chalk into the air and then finally fight. If the description sounds like it takes a while, it is because it does, but at the same time it builds an incredible amount of anticipation before each bout. The most exciting matches are of course the ones where something unexpected happens; a little guy winning over a big guy, two really heavy guys facing each other, or when they both fall at the same time and are forced to rematch. Also, some wrestlers are very arrogant and make a big fuss about throwing their salt in the air and doing their stretching and a good number of them lost, which the crowd loved. People sit very close to the ring also and on quite a few occasions the wrestlers fell out of the ring onto spectators which was thrilling for everyone indeed. The Sumo wrestlers have to leave through the same doors as everyone else so you can see them walking around afterwards. I took the opportunity to size them up. I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I think that any breakfast on the farm visit in Wisconsin would provide one with a more dramatic display of raw human girth and height. I did very much enjoy the event and I think there is another tournament in January that we will be attending, and this time with closer seats.

I recently visited a farm which is called the Asian Rural Institute. I had heard about this farm and it was a large factor in me deciding to come to Japan. Every year around 40 community leaders from all over Africa and Asia are selected to take part in a nine month training at this farm in Japan. I met people from East Timor, Malaysia, India, Malawi, Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, Liberia, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Cameroon, the Philippines, Indonesia, D.R. Congo, Uganda and Brazil. Their training is paid for by churches, businesses and individuals. At the farm they learn and practice organic and sustainable agriculture. Their motto is learning by doing and they really practice this. After a couple of months of rotating through every position on the farm, they begin to specialize in one area; crops and vegetables, pigs or chickens. Most have worked in agriculture in one way or another in the past but are learning how to plan organically. The center is also almost completely self sufficient for food and only rely on the outside world for sugar/ coffee and tea. People rotate through kitchen duty so although the ingredients are mostly the same for every meal, because they are using seasonal vegetables, everyone is from different countries so very interesting food is produced. While I was there I sang in a gospel choir, helped to harvest rice and sunflowers, husked rice, fed some chickens, learned how to mix organic chicken feed, cleaned eggs, cooked a meal and had such a wonderful time talking with all this year’s participants. It is really one of the few places in the world to be able to talk to so many people from such distinct backgrounds in such a peaceful atmosphere. It was so renewing to be there surrounded by fields or crops, trees and hills talking with such caring people.

One last event I would like to mention is Sports day which apparently all schools partake in at varied dates. The entire school is divided into four teams, including the entire teaching staff; blue, red, green, yellow. Then the entire day is devoted to random competitions. They include but are not limited to, 30 person at a time jump rope, two teams running towards big bamboo sticks lying on the ground then trying to drag them back to your side while the other teams tries to rip it from your hands, multiple relay races, many of which include costumes and good old fashion 80 person rope tug o war. I was able to participate in the teacher relay race and could barely walk the next day after sprinting only 50 yards, and I also had a horribly stupid looking sunburn on my face, excluding a stripe on my forehead where I wore my red headband which was left pasty white.

Apart from these big writable moments I have had many that are dear to my heart whose combination is perhaps more powerful to me than these, but certainly not too exciting to read about. I am trying to find things to involve myself in and have gone twice to a bouldering gym and I was finally able to climb a mountain and be in the wilderness leaping from rock to rock along a mountain stream. I’ve attended a Japanese theater performance and a sake tasting convention and had lots of conversations with new teachers and dug up peanuts from time to time. I’ve discovered that my school has a pottery studio and sewing machines and have yet been unable to convey that I would like to use them in Japanese. Last time I tried I was shown a bicycle and a kiln. This is my life.

-James