Textbooks and Temples

In psychology, there is a phenomenon known as the Holiday Paradox. When we have new experiences, the passage of time feels fast in the moment but slow in retrospect. This is partly because we form richer memories when we encounter novelty, and maybe it explains the way we're feeling as we begin to write this post.

How could it possibly be nearly a month since we last made an entry? On one hand it seems like every day has passed in the blink of an eye, and yet, it feels as though we have been in Japan for years.

Actually, we were counting on this.

As strange as it may sound, this phenomenon of perceived time dilation is among the many reasons why we moved here. We were very settled and comfortable in our home in Canada, but with each passing year the number of new experiences we encountered in that familiar territory grew fewer and fewer. 

Time began racing by. We glanced briefly in the rearview mirror at our 20's as they shrank into the distance, and when we turned our eyes back to the road, our 40's had materialized a few short metres ahead.

Coming to Japan was - in part - a way for us to pump the breaks a bit on the speed of life. We knew we needed new experiences and challenges in order to begin forming more and richer memories, so that our 40's would not pass with the velocity of our 30's. 

If the past few weeks are any indication, then we've struck existential gold. 

Our morning session at Japanese school (photo taken by our Sensei)

School itself has been a formidable but very interesting challenge. Our classes run from 9:00am to 1:30pm every weekday, and they are intense. 

The school uses full Japanese immersion, and so those teachers who can speak English rarely do. The class begins, the teacher starts speaking Japanese, and we simply have to figure it out and keep up. Though frustratingly difficult at times, it is proving to be highly effective. 

We students are also strongly encouraged to speak only Japanese amongst ourselves, which makes sense given that Japanese is the only common language between many of us. After all, our cohort hails from Brazil, China, Nepal, USA, Mexico, Thailand, The Philippines, Canada, and Italy.   

As our sensei put it: "In this room, your first language is Japanese". 

The format of the lessons themselves varies considerably throughout the day, and shifts between a focus on listening, speaking, reading, writing and conversation. 

The teachers themselves have been awesome. In fact, we can both say that the quality of instruction here surpasses even that of our professors in university. Not only are they very competent, but they obviously care about our progress and they always find a way to get the class laughing and feeling relaxed.

The school's administration has been Incredible, too. They work tirelessly not just to make sure we're having a good experience in school, but also to do what they can to help with our life in Japan more generally. 

For instance, student services recently went to bat for us, putting up a fight to make sure that our landlord installed a modern Japanese washlet in our bathroom. Speaking of which, behold...

Mission control. AKA, the toilet. Heated seat + warm water, self-cleaning bidet. Heaven on Earth. 

We typically spend another 2-4 hours studying at home after class, and also around 6-10 hours each weekend. All in all, we're spending about 50 hours each week learning the language, and that doesn't account for all the practice and immersion we get out in the world when we aren't studying.

Our language abilities seem to be improving quickly which feels great. For instance, we can now write in full paragraphs:

まいにち 9じから 1じはんまで がっこうで にほんご お べんきょします。 それから 1じはん に うちにかえります。 うちで もっと べんきょします。 にほんご は むずかし ですが おもしろい です。

*For those of you who may not feel like translating this, we've just summarized our study schedule using hiragana, which is the simplest of the three alphabets. 

We're just getting started with learning kanji, which is the much larger alphabet with about 2,000 distinct characters in common usage. An example of that same paragraph using kanji would be: 

毎日 9時から 1時半まで 学校で 日本語を 勉強します。 それから 1時半に 家に帰ります。 家で もっと 勉強します。 日本語は 難しい ですが 面白い です。

*For that one, we needed Google Sensei's help, since we know just a few kanji for now. 

Our spoken Japanese is getting better too, and it has been especially fun to see curious eyes widening in our direction while we're practice out in public.

Outside of our studies, we've been filling our days with adventures big and small.

Mountains make up about 70% of Japan's landscape, which means it's Shangri La for hiking junkies like us. In our spare time, we've been trying out the many trails found in the mountains to the East of Okazaki. 

It takes us about 40 minutes on the city bus, using the bus stop right outside our apartment, to get out of the city and into the mountains. The buses are unwaveringly timely, immaculately clean, and fellow passengers are reliably courteous and quiet. The drivers even warn everybody each time they are about to start accelerating so that nobody is caught off guard by the movement.  

A weekend bus ride out into the mountains.

As you can see, there's one or two mountains nearby.

One of our favourite weekend adventures has been seeking out good day-hike picnic spots on summits or observation decks. Nothing else feels quite like a good meal in the sunshine after a few hours hiking in the mountains. 

A picnic on the Mt.Kuwagai observation deck. 

A rolled omelet, some inari sushi, rice balls with sour plum filling, some salami, an egg salad sandwich and cookies for desert. A hearty breakfast/lunch for a day in the mountains!

The view from the Mt.Kuwagai observation deck.

The hiking culture here has also been great. Fellow pathfinders are especially courteous and friendly, and are quite often eager to chat and learn about where we come from and how we find ourselves in the mountains of Japan. Whereas がいこくじん (gaikokujin, foreigners) are somewhat common in major cities, we seem to be a bit of a surprise to many people in the wilderness. 

As with most things, nearly everyone here adheres courteously to trail etiquette. 

In Ontario, we found that it started getting somewhat difficult to have a peaceful hiking experience. The population of loud, obnoxious and inconsiderate people on the trails there seemed to grow steadily over the past few years. 

In contrast, here you often won't even realize that somebody is behind you or around a bend on the trail until you clap eyes on them. Quite often too, there are little rest stations with benches, shelter, some basic emergency items like a tarp, and even twig brooms. Those stations and the trails themselves are maintained with care as a communal effort between hikers. 

Trails will also usually have small shrines to Jizo (called Jizo-do), a beloved figure in Japanese Buddhism who represents love and compassion and is said to watch over travelers. 

 

A small Jizo shrine along one of our favourite trails

As we pass these on the trails we always take the opportunity to pause and offer gratitude for the incredible gift that is being alive.

Speaking of reflection and gratitude, spirituality in the Buddhist tradition has become a growing part of our lives since we moved here. What does that mean exactly? Are we Buddhist now? We have no idea. Our relationship with the universe and existence is as complicated as any other sentient.

What we can say for sure is that meditation, mindfulness, and participation in Japanese Buddhist traditions is becoming increasingly important to us, and our mental health and happiness has improved as a result. 

In our apartment, we have a Jizo-do (photo below) which we use for meditation and gratefulness practice. Yes we realize that sounds hippy dippy, but we don't know how else to describe it.

Our Jizo-do, with a statue of Jizo Bosatsu and Kōbō Daishi

In addition to our meditation space at home we also spend time at Kakushoji, a temple in our neighborhood. Less than a hundred metres away from our front door, this remarkable space has become part of our routine. 

The outside of Kakushoji

The temple bell.

We'll see if it's ok to get photos from the inside, but for now we're assuming it isn't until we're told otherwise. That said, its Hondo (main hall) is absolutely beautiful. 

When we first sheepishly approached the building, a caretaker spotted us and warmly ushered us inside before leaving us in privacy. Since then, the head monk has encouraged us to come when we like, and we stop in for quiet meditation as a matter of daily life. What does that experience look like? 

• We walk up the front stone steps,
• Before we enter, we remove our shoes and leave them outside,
• After sliding the doors open, we step in and close the doors behind us,
• We step in onto the tatami flooring, and take a seat on one of the low chairs,
• We are often the only people in the Hondo, so it's extremely quiet other than the occasional sound of shuffling feet from other, unseen rooms,
• In front of us is a series of incredible and probably ancient statues, illuminated only by the natural light that pours into the temple
• The smell of incense, cypress and cedar is in the air,
• We quietly meditate for as long as we like, then,
• Before we leave, we bow to the statues out of respect and gratitude, then head home.

If that sounds awesome, that's because it is. 

We've also started participating in Japanese cultural traditions. For instance, we recently attended our first Setsubun festival at a temple in the nearby mountains.

The Setsubun festival at Takisan Temple

After making our way by bus to Takisanji (Takisan temple) in the Eastern mountains, we found a line of people steadily filtering into the main hall. Woodsmoke and laughter was in the air as we loitered in the background trying to observe the appropriate sequence of events for participating. 

Eventually, a smiling volunteer about our age approached us and - with surprisingly good English - he offered to walk us through the experience. 

Under the guidance of the kind volunteer, we were offered a variety of charms for the ceremony and selected ones for our families' health. Then, we were put in line to enter the temple. 

After entering the temple we were ushered into the back where monks sat in a room full of incense and woodsmoke. We sat by the monks who were dimly visible in the firelight, and they chanted prayers according to the charms we selected. As we sat in the room in wide-eyed disbelief, sneaking glances around us at the priceless and stunning artifacts, we realized that the monks were addressing us and chanting our names.

Besides being an utterly surreal moment, it was also very endearing to hear the monks struggle a bit through the pronunciation of our names. 

After leaving that room, we were lined up with local attendees in the main temple hall. We were given a box full of dried beans, and taught how to participate in the Mamemaki (bean throwing!). 

With our box of beans, guided by the volunteer and some monks, we first threw handfulls of beans into the temple shouting "fuku wa uchi!" (in with good fortune), then we turned to face the waiting crowd outside and threw more beans outside of the temple shouting "oni wa soto!" (demons go outside). 

Everyone was smiling and there was a strong spirit of joyousness and lighthearted comradery in the air. 

Afterwards, we were shown to various booths where we got warm sake and snacks before we wobbled off home buzzing with contentment.

The volunteer who walked us through the celebration!

Not only was our first Setsubun a great one, but we also made a new friend in the volunteer, as the next weekend we were treated to an incredible dinner at a local izakaya by him and his wife. It feels wonderful to have already made Japanese friends here in Okazaki!

The lovely couple who treated us to dinner

Speaking of comradery and friendship, we've been very lucky to end up with a group of interesting, energetic and jovial classmates, who we've started spending time outside of the classroom with. Drinks may have been had.

There is much more to report, but that will have to be all for now dear friends and family. 

We're sending you love and hoping that you're well.

Andrea and Evan