New shoots

Well I’ve been here in Japan for 5 months, the last 2 of which have been trying to sustain myself over the summer both financially and spiritually. And on both counts, I think it’s time to call it a day. I’ve decided to head back to the UK, temporarily, but depending on a few things, possibly for longer.

On reflection, at times, this has felt like a retreat, giving me space and perspective on the maelstrom of thoughts that filled my world (at other times, it’s been quite the opposite!). But now, I feel like Rabbit has finally stopped talking and I’m beginning to hear those 12 pots of Hunny calling me.

I can no longer hide from the little nagging voice in my head that speaks of our interconnectedness and moral imperatives. As a good friend once said “I’ve stepped in my conscience and I can’t seem to shake it off”. I want to contribute, play my part in what is an exciting time for the world. And now I feel ready to return to more direct efforts to make this world a better place, armed with a clearer sense of direction – I’m ready to channel my energy and experience into something bigger than myself.

I still yearn to live in the mountains and continue to grow as a snowboarder, but I’m confident that will resurface in future, probably in a different form. I’ve spent the last 5 years juggling two worlds, and perhaps now is the time to keep my eye on the other ball.

So, where in the world does this put me? Well, I came here seeking a better quality of life and found it in some ways. But I miss my friends, my family, my community. They’re all part of a well-balanced life and contribute to a sense of belonging, of meaning. I love meeting new people and discovering new places, but I miss some of the mundane, routine things that made up my life in London and I miss hanging out with old friends. So that points to being back in the UK again, but at the same time I’m still not ready to fix myself in the UK and there’s a world of opportunities out there. So time will tell as to where I end up (no surprises there then!).

Douzo

Some may see this decision as turning back, giving up. Or as indecision, caught between two worlds. Perhaps it is, and maybe I’m trying to create grander purpose behind my decisions or explain myself somehow, but it feels different to me.  To me it feels like a new phase of my life, moving forward, evolving, beginning.

Chris showing how to put a drysuit on

It’s 8am as I hop on my bike and cycle the 5 minutes to the riverbase on flat tires and with no front brake. I greet everyone with ohayou gozaimasu! (おはようございます – good morning) as I ride past and drop my bike next to the rickety prefab hut that reminds me of my old school huts.

Quick change into wetsuit (and drysuit if it’s cold), grab my helmet, life jacket, throwbag and paddle before heading back to the main shed (and it is a shed) to clock in with a good ol’ fashion punch card. Today’s guides gather for a short briefing given by the TL (team leader) – we’re told which groups we’re in, given a number and a list of customers. The meeting is entirely in Japanese with the occassional allowance for gaijin (外人 – foreigners) if we’re lucky enough to have one of the Nepalese guides as TL. We disappear off to grab drysuits and boots for our guests – it’s a bit of a scramble as we never have enough of the right sizes.

Safety talk at the start point

As the buses arrive, someone yells basu kita (バス来た – bus has arrived) and we scurry outside to stand in a neat line in numerical order. 2 or 3 perfectly neat, matching buses rock up, and a (usually) attractive young woman in a short skirt and inappropriate shoes hops off and beckons the bus into a parking space with her white cloth gloves.

Bus talk guides hop on and brief the school kids, who then descend en masse, dressed in matching school tracksuits. Youkoso, watashi wa kyou guido suru – rafting hajimete? (ようこそ、私は今日ガーイドする。ラフチーング初めて？- Welcome, I’m your guide today – is this the first time you’ve been rafting?). Once we’ve gathered our crew, we cram into the shed and frantically try to dress our kids in awkward drysuits. Then it’s outside for lifejackets and helmets before ushering them back on the bus. The buses are all immaculately clean and each one has a small map of Hokkaido at the front showing Niseko and the route they’ve just taken.

First eddy

The start point is about 20 minutes away so there’s time for the nominated guide to give a safety talk, complete with raku-chan (sea otter) demonstration (it’s the position you need to take if you fall in – otherwise known as the swiftwater float position).

We arrive at the start point and scramble off the bus. The guides dash to the pre-prepared rafts and run through a quick check – all inflated, no tears, outside/inside lines intact, enough paddles. We gather our group and then begin our 10 minute safety talk. In Japanese. Eek.

Hopefully our kids understand and are excited – it’s then a short walk to carry the rafts to the river. The kids generally fall into two camps – dead shy or super-genki. But they are all polite (well, compared to British or American schoolkids!) and generally quite weak at paddling. A brief paduro agete (パヅロ上げて – paddle clap), kamera mite (カメラ見て – look at the camera) and we’re off.

カメラ見て！

We usually gather at the first big eddy and then peel off in two or three groups. The combination of reading the river, paddling and trying to entertain kids in a totally alien language is quite a challenge for me, but an enjoyable one. We play river games and the more excitable kids throw themselves in for a swim. The thing the kids love most is catching up to another boat and splashing them before paddling off again. When the sun’s out it’s hard to beat!

やばい！

Camera points are strategically placed along the river and on overhead bridges, so we try to get the kids into entertaining poses for them

About an hour and a half later, we’ve reached the goal point (about 7km downstream) and hop out. We drag the rafts up and the kids jump back on the bus. The guides then speedily haul the rafts onto the awaiting trucks and trailers. They’re usually stacked 5 rafts high, so it’s quite an operation!

Coming out of a rapid

Then it’s back on the buses – a small tray of water to rinse our boots and then finding a seat nicely covered by a NOASC-branded plastic sheet. The bus talk guide gives a wrap-up and talks about what else NOASC does. Most kids are usually falling asleep by this point!

We get back and organised chaos ensues as we collect lifejackets, return helmets and try to get kids out of drysuits. It’s a very labour intensive process that I’m sure could be more efficient, but that’s the way we do it, so there’s no questioning (another trait I’ve noticed amongst my Japanese co-workers – there’s a system, and that’s the way we do it).

Yotei from the river

The kids sip hot tea before piling back on the the buses. We all stop re-arranging drysuits and scurry back outside again to line up and shout otsukare sama deshita (お疲れ様です – hard to translate but sort of means thanks for your hard work, a fairly stock expression at the end of the day in the Japanese workplace), wave goodbye and bow. There’s usually a few kids who go a bit nuts, particularly those who’ve had the novelty of a gaijin guide!

Then it’s back inside for us guides to check drysuits and hang them up to dry. A debrief to run through any incidents and comments – again all in Japanese – very hierarchical, generally reinforcing the fact that we are first-year guides and they are all seasoned guides (not necessarily reflected in ability though ). Back to the prefab, strip off, dry and change before clocking out and wearily cycling home – unless we’ve got a PM trip too!

Fresh bread - is there anything better?

It was my friend Ai’s birthday (お誕生日 – o-tanjoubi) today. I had an early morning start cos I didn’t have any money for a present, so baked some bread instead! Then headed over to Ai’s for a slap-up pancake breakfast – all quite spontaneous, but ended up making some yummy banana pancakes (American style fat ones with bananas mushed into the batter!) and splurging out on chocolate sauce and raspberry compote.

Then it was off for a spot of sansai collecting around Niseko Higashiyama. Hokkaido is well known for its wild vegetables and the Japanese love to spend sunny days gathering them.

Yatta!

On the way, Shiori abruptly veered off the road and headed down a dusty track before stopping in front of a beautiful cherry tree in the middle of a field. We were a little too early so it wasn’t in full bloom yet, but perfectly placed with Mt Yotei providing a bit of background balance. Spring throughout Japan is sakura season, where everyone celebrates the fleeting nature of cherry blossoms and the analogy with life… by getting horrendously drunk at hanami (花見 – flower viewing) parties. Just another example of how Japanese culture isn’t always as Zen as people would have you believe

Udo

We moved on to Niseko Village itself, which is one of the 3 main ski areas here in the winter. Last time I saw it, there was a good 3m of snow covering everything, so the verdant, agricultural landscape was quite a surprise. Shiori led us off into what turned out to be the golf course and we were soon ferreting around in the sassa grass (a type of bamboo). I had no idea what I was looking for but kept pointing at things that looked like they might be tasty – we mostly found takenoko (bamboo shoots), but also taranome (an asparagus like thing on a spiky plant – great as tempura) and udo (bitter tasting, wasn’t that keen on it – not to be confused with udon noodles. Now that would be great sansai!).

Back at Ai’s place, I discovered just how much effort it takes to prepare bamboo shoots. First we trimmed it, then boiled it and finally peeled back the fibrous layers to uncover the light green and yellow shoots (it no longer surprises me that pandas are nearly extinct). Well worth it though as they were delightfully tender and tasty with a trace of bitterness. Quite a contrast to the chewy, yellow stuff that I’m used to finding in tins! Delicious alongside taranome tempura and yakiniku (meat and veg communally fried on a teppan - hotplate) with a nice bottle of wine and the company of friends – おいしいそう！！！

Takenoko - Pick them...

...boil them...

...peel them...

...ready to eat!

.

Niseko course

So here I am, still in Niseko. I decided to stay out for the summer (cue Dodgy – great video!) working as a rafting guide for NOASC (Niseko Outdoor Adventure Sports Company).

We’re running two sections of 尻別川 (shiribetsu kawa – kawa means river and Shiribetsu is its name. Although bizarrely shiri means arse and betsu means separate or different!!! I digress…) – the easier summer (or Kutchan) course and the spring (or Niseko) course further downstrem.

It’s been interesting to learn something new and having only rafted once before (in Switzerland), was definitely a challenge! The first few weeks of training were pretty cold, trudging through snow to reach the river – but it also meant that we got to slide down the banks on the rafts!

Our first milestone was the River Association of Japan (RAJ) exam – where we were tested on basic raft control skills (forward/back paddle, front/back sweep, sculling, drawstroke), flip recovery (climb onto, re-right and climb back onto an overturned raft in less than a minute) and throwbag (hit a 2m-wide target from 12m away with a rescue rope). It turned out to be a pretty easy exam and we all passed it.

So now we’re in the final stages of our training where we need approval to raft on the two separate courses that we run. Here’s where we begin to run into some difficulties.

Splash!

Firstly ‘approval’ is a pretty ill defined goal, essentially being a totally subjective evaluation from one of the senior guides. There are specific requirements, but even though I’ve fulfilled them, I still haven’t passed.

Secondly, not being an approved commercial guide means that despite the fact that we are essentially guiding, we’re only being paid a daily training allowance of 1000 yen which we can only collect at the end of the season. Hmm. Seems a bit of a rip off.

Funnily enough, this has not been a motivating factor for me and as a result I’ve not really rafted much since the RAJ exam. There does appear to be light at the end of the tunnel in the shape of paid work on the 11th May, but the long term prospects seem a little grim. I’ve been trying to plug the gaps by making myself useful to the wider company and am working on a few ideas, plus I’m now part-managing the Australian Alpine Club so am paying less rent, but overall, things are pretty tight. We shall see what the future holds…

Koi-noburi flying

I’ve always loved the Japanese carp flags (koi-noburi) and their futile yet graceful struggle against the wind, but until today I never knew why they were flown.

We’re coming to the end of Golden Week, a fantastic week for Japanese with 4 national holidays falling within a seven-day stretch. Midori no hi (みどりの日, Greenery Day, April 29), kenpou kinenbi (憲法記念日, Constitutional Memorial Day, May 3), kokumin no kyuujitsu (国民の休日, Citizen’s Holiday, May 4) and finally kodomo no hi (こどもの日, Children’s Day) – today.

Until 1948, the 5th day of the 5th month was known as tango no sekku (端午の節句). Tan means edge or ‘start of’ and go represents the 7th sign of the zodiac, which corresponds to the month of May. Sekku means seasonal festival. So it translates as a start of season (spring) festival and in ancient times was a celebration of new beginnings. But tango no sekku has come to mean Boy’s Festival – an auspicious day when parents pray for the health and success of their sons.

The carp was chosen as it is seen as the most spirited of fish, able to power its way up fast-flowing streams. It stands for courage and success in the face of adversity and is a symbol of manliness and the overcoming of life’s difficulties.

PS It’s interesting that although it’s been redesignated as Children’s Day, it still remains dominated by the tango no sekku traditions. There is a separate girls’ day, but it doesn’t have anywhere near as cool flags

So it got me thinking about how I could use one – I’d love to get one or something similar. Then thought about getting the lens for my digital cam and found a few pages on Digital Holga. Definitely one for the future, but then I thought I’d try using Photoshop to create a similar effect.

The beauty and appeal of shooting with Holgas is that the effects aren’t uniform, adding an element of chance – serendipitous photography. Anyway, that got me thinking and there’s a deep and meaningful spiritual commentary about the nature of photography, mixing modernity with zen and serendipity not being mutually exclusive of technology, but at the end of the day, I made some pretty pictures, so here’s my Holga-nised take on some of my Japan photos!

Sapporo Subway

M in Sapporo snow

Hanazono 308 Building - I overlayed another photo to simulate a double exposure

After my addition to my fifteen minutes of fame, I came back to Unitas and found a few of the boys setting up a little jib outside one of the houses, so I spent the afternoon shooting and am pretty pleased with the results!