My poems are always unfinished: for,
written at the peak of a fancy,
all the love dies—
and I have no energy to chronicle
the endings,
Sad little half-polished stones, they lie in my closet;
just as well incomplete,
for the imagined beauty beneath
the roughness
is better than the truth of
the faults
-Hunter Heath III

I awoke this morning at six with a strong desire to write that I did not plan or prophesize, but I am following my instinct and sitting down to chronicle a bit of my past month here in Japan. I apologize for not writing a journal entry in July but this momentum was building in my life here that I just couldn’t stop by putting it into words. Summer has certainly come though, with its sweltering heat and air filled with incense and I feel much fulfilled.

I came to Japan on year ago, landing at Narita Airport at 12:10PM on Aug. 8th Japan time. That puts the current “James in Japan clock” at one year, 5 days, 18 hours and 5 minutes. I am very pleased so far with my decision to stay at least one more year in Japan and couldn’t imagine my life anywhere but here for now. It feels great knowing that I have time to go slowly and that I can devote myself to projects that take an enormous amount of time without hearing that constant clicking clock of my departure. I feel like I have learned one percent of the Japanese language at best and love knowing that I still have time to devote to studying and listening and learning.

July was mostly spent sewing. Ben and I decided to take a trip to the northernmost island of Japan from July 20th to July 28th in an attempt to escape the heat of these more southern islands and to see a very different part of Japan. Hokkaido is the agriculture mega center of Japan where they produce lots of wheat and corn and rice, but also famous melon and dairy products. If you were take Wisconsin and diversify our corn production a bit more with other crops, and add huge mountains and teach everyone Japanese, you could have a pretty good imitation Hokkaido. You would also have to make it into an island, just to clarify. We planned on camping and cycling about 100km a day so I needed to devote much time into preparing my bicycle for such an adventure. As most of you probably know I love to sew and have devoted large portions of my life to sewing exploits. This turned into one of those craft adventures and I August, 14, 2013 soon found myself everyday either searching for fabric or a buckle or straight sewing for 8 or 9 hours. I live a 40 minute train ride away from Japan’s largest fabric store cluster and this was a great time to explore a new part of Tokyo searching for and finding incredibly cheap, and what appears to be high quality fabric. The result of all my labors are 2 new side pannier bags, a handlebar bag, a saddle bag and a lightweight bag my entire bike fits in while we take trains or airplanes. It was a great experience and I am very proud of the results and now I know some new techniques in bag making and designing which can only be counted as a positive thing.

Our actual trip in Hokkaido was remarkable. Right from the start we noticed a big difference in how people responded to and interacted with us. People were much more open there to approach us and like all Japanese they were incredibly generous and oh so helpful. Before leaving, the weather forecast said rain everyday which is always disheartening when you are planning on being on a bike for 12 hours every day but luckily it only rained at very opportune times and at times the rain was the perfect addition which only enhanced the adventure. At times it sucked. We were also very lucky in that we arrived in Hokkaido at the peak of festival season so almost every night we were able to enjoy a nice small town festival which also made it very easy to make new friends and have nice conversations. I don’t think right now is the right time for a full account of the trip so I will only jot down a few of the flashes that come to my mind now when I think of the trip. I apologize if this is a confusing literary device.

 Airplane staff at the airport was so helpful and we were able to take our non- folding bikes on the plane almost fully assembled for only a 2000 yen, or about 20 dollar extra charge.

 We camped in the strangest places which included right next to the train station, behind an unused train in a city park, next to a boat landing, in a farmer’s field after being chased out of the city by the police who knew we were trying to sleep in a city park, at the top of a mountain where we saw our only bear sighting (from a telescope where the bear appeared eating berries on the neighboring mountain)

 Our longest day biking was about 120km and our shortest was maybe 50km. This included almost every day, climbing uphill for 10 km straight multiple times and then racing down at probably fairly dangerous and exceptionally exciting speeds. Some days the biking also included an amazingly strong head wind or rain or gravel roads or carrying our bikes over entirely washed out roads.

 Hokkaido is also known for its hot springs which we enjoyed every day. I think both of our favorite was one that was built right into the side of a lake that was completely outside with now fence or anything obstructing the view. At night after a long day of biking, it was the perfect place to just sit and contemplate our journey.

 Our trip back was on a ship which they call a ferry but is more a ship than I have ever been on. It was mainly used to transport huge cargo boxes and it was quite the adventure being led down into the belly of the beast by men with light up wands and hardhats just like we were a semi truck. The actual travel took over 20 hours but we slept for most of it. We were surprised to find a quite impressive public bath aboard the vessel as well. It is replete with many Japanese mafia members as well.

I have had a couple super star moments in past month that I would also like to touch on briefly. One was during our school’s “culture fest”. I help out with the English club at my school and apparently it is a tradition now for our club to start off the fest with a dancing and singing number to help rev up the crowd. This year the students kindly picked one of my favorite songs, “it’s on” from Disney’s camp rock. I was awarded the rap and dance section of the piece

“there there there is no competition, that’s why we’re in the number one position, your crew can’t hang with us, man we too dangerous, ain’t got the style or the stamina, just doing my thing, get hooked on my swing, rocking the bass all over the place, making all the girls sing, yeah we make the bells ring’’

So when the time came I juked and jived on stage and did a very impressive air kick and basked in the screams of 900 screaming Japanese youth.

My second super start moment came while I was at an outdoor hot spring enjoying a silent introspective moment in a natural environment when I heard the voices of 20 or 30 ten year olds invading the shower area and jumping into the bath inside. I of course, as fate would have it, did not bring a towel and was planning on just air drying in the changing room. Therefore when I left the bath and proceeded to the changing room in my very naked body I was surrounded by 20 or 30 naked ten year old who quickly began by asking the simple “where are you from, what do you do here, how old are you” questions, which them transformed into asking for signatures. So there I was, one year into my Japan stay, naked and signing pieces of paper for naked ten year olds whose mom’s kept peeking in as well to see what all the commotion was about. It’s a great and mysterious life we lead.

The next few events cannot be hold without first mentioning that I have a girlfriend here who has been a big part of my experience for the past months. Her name is Chika Aizawa 相澤 知佳. We met at her family’s coffee shop which she manages and that establishment has also been a big part of my social life in Japan as well. I go there at least once a week and have dinner with her mother and her and have spent many other times there as well where I have cooked or sang and played the guitar. Her whole family has been incredibly generous with me and so have many of the regulars at the shop. Any Japanese that I know can very likely be traced back to those relationships.

Summer, like I mentioned before, is festival time in Japan. Chika’s mother got us invited to a somewhat special one which took place a Japanese self-defense base. Think Japan’s army which is not allowed to invade other countries. So we put on our summer festival gear which is called a yukkata and got our picture taken and were off to the festival. Somehow somebody knew somebody and we were privately escorted by army members to a special roped off section of the festival where we had chairs and tables and where army GI’s brought us free beer and food. Next came fireworks and the normal oooo’s and ahhhh’s which accompany those worldwide. The Japanese have also added “tamaya” to what they see at the big blasts. It’s a fun world to say in and of itself, but especially when you are watching fireworks. It was such an odd and exciting feeling sitting there in my yukkata speaking in Japanese surrounded by hundreds of others doing the same with all the sights and sounds and smells that accompany a festival. I felt like I had been transported back in time somehow and was enjoying someone’s life that was far different from my own.

The next and probably last little episode I would like to share is very quick but very sweet. On my one year anniversary of me being here in Japan I was planning on going to Chika’s restaurant as normal but was told to come a bit later than normal. When I arrived by bike I was greeted at the door by Chika’s mother, Miyuki, as normal, but soon heard the pops of little fireworks coming from inside, and kazoos and quickly realized that this was a party for me. Chika had organized a dinner with all the regulars of the restaurant to celebrate my being here for one year. There was food and lots of wine and even a sign that said “1 year conglaturations James!”. I felt so loved and a part of something during those moments.

Just a few quick rap up events. I found a library close to my house that has thousands of books in English and is air-conditioned and the perfect place to relax during these hot summer days and to study and read and reflect. School is out of session right now so I only have to go half days which is so enjoyable and the perfect time to recharge and dedicate hours to studying.

It’s time to be off to school now and I send all of you my thoughts as the sun comes up on this American boy living a Japanese adventure,

-james