Culture & Education

"Seeing the Many Facets of Japan" - Aaron Elbel (ALT, Fukui Prefecture, 2016-2019)
 

‘Aaron, you have blue eyes! Cooool! Is it normal for people in Ireland to have blue eyes?’

I’ve lived in Japan since 2016, and at the time of writing this document, we’re slap bang in the season where, every year without fail, the students notice my eye colour. I don’t know what it is, maybe the angle of the sun shining through the windows? In any case, this is concurrently the time of year I have to convince a bunch of kids that no, I’m not secretly breaking the rules and wearing colour contact lenses, this is just legitimately how I’m built. Not all the students believe me, hence the secret to my inadvertent ‘Aaron is a badass’ reputation.

Questions and comments about my body have not been so unusual, working as I do in a Junior High School, and several Elementary Schools. My blue eyes obviously get a lot of attention, as does the hair on my arms, my beard, and my height (I’m far from the tallest person in the school, but get bonus points for being tall AND foreign). I also suffer from some chronic gastric issues, which can occasionally lead to me having quite a distended stomach. This was once noticed by some first year students, who approached me in an uncertain huddle. They paused in front of me for a moment, before a spokesperson was decided upon.

‘Aaron…’ he asked, solemn and sincere, ‘Can we… rub your stomach?’

I looked at them. I looked at them some more. There wasn’t a flicker of mischief in their earnest faces. I sighed.

‘Look, I have to ask – WHY?’

The conferred for a moment.

‘For luck. Your stomach is like the Buddha’s. And we rub the Buddha’s stomach for luck.’

Well, I couldn’t argue with logic like that.

The most valuable thing I took with me from Ireland when I moved to tiny, inaka, Fukui Prefecture (aside from my Lactose Intolerance pills and my Kindle), was my willingness to go with the flow. As a participant on the JET programme, I moved over knowing that I was a member of an organization with numerous options to support me, with a long history in Japan and a large array of resources that I could draw on. The reality of JET is however, that for as much as we are supported, we must also all find our own little niche, and have the capacity to thrive wherever we are placed.

Specifically, I found myself placed in Tsuruga city, and after a whirlwind orientation in Tokyo, that’s where I found myself based for the next few years. Although initially uncertain, the concrete sprawl of my host city turned out to

host many hidden gems. Five minutes’ walk from my house is a beach that I pretty much have to myself most of the year. If I want, I can take my kayak out into the bay and meditate next to a large stone carving of the Buddha, which gazes in an eroded sort of way out to sea. The Buddha is my secret friend out there, not many of the non-seagoing locals even know he exists, never mind what person in the distant past decided to carve him. Further out, a short paddle brings me to a pair of Shinto-religion ‘married rocks’, and beyond that lies Mizushima, an island with golden sand and crystal clear waters, nicknamed the ‘Hawaii of Hokuriku’ where I’ve snorkelled and discovered all sorts of fun creatures, form octopi to highly poisonous sea-urchins.

Coming, as Irish JETs do, to Japan form the other side of the planet, means that travelling here is never a disappointing experience. Keep an open mind, and adventurous spirit, and you’ll make friends and find fascinating things wherever you go. I’ve learned a little Okinawan dialect over drinks with the locals (well, alright, I learned how to say karii! and I’ll leave you to speculate what that means). I’ve discussed the evils of nuclear power with an elderly monk who’s travelled all over the world to protest against it, and participated in a Za-Zen meditation session. Just this weekend I even found a mini replica of Newgrange and a beehive hut in an Osaka park. As you do.

I’ve learned to blow glass, to ski, surf, and snowboard, bathed in natural hot springs in the bottom of mountain gorges; watched snow monkeys enjoying the hot springs themselves. I’ve seen the sky lit up at night by a million thunderous sparks during fireworks festivals, and carried an (intentionally) flaming tree during an ancient fire festival. I’ve attended a techno-Buddhist ceremony (words don’t do it justice). I’ve failed to hit the high notes at karaoke, and successfully hit myself in the face with the ball of a kendama. I’ve met the bowing deer of Nara, and subsequently been bit on the ass by them. I’ve been told by multiple random Japanese people that I look like the actor and model Hiroshi Abe, and developed a head swollen by three years’ worth of students reminding me of how handsome I am on a regular basis.

I’ve made origami, and lifelong friends (not out of the origami, I should clarify). For all the travelling and exploration, it is the everyday experiences and people I’ve met that made Fukui feel like home. I came over with next to no Japanese, and it was definitely a challenge. However, while I got up to speed, my supervisor and the other staff at school were amazingly helpful, and I have to say, their patience and friendliness smoothed over the transition a considerable degree. A lot of people speak a little English, and all you really need is a rough grasp of the spoken language, and you can have some great conversations. It all adds up to transforming a landscape that once seemed alien and totally unknown, to just a normal part of your life.

I can’t tell you when that transition will happen, for everyone it’s different, but I can tell you that the thrill of this environment has not died for me. ‘Normal’ simply means that the extraordinary has become overlain with fond memories, and familiarity has simply revealed significance and beauty that a passing glance can never hope to uncover. Over the course of three years, my new normal became one of monthly volunteer visits to the local orphanage, weekend snowboarding trips, BBQs by the ocean, drinking home-made tea with my elderly Japanese friends, and cursing my way through sudden summer rain while cycling to school.

On a professional level, I used my time here as an opportunity to get involved with the JET community as well, having been a member of the Fukui JET Council for the last two years, and volunteering for the AJET Peer Support Group: an anonymous listening and referral service run by JETs for JETs. I also was given the opportunity to give talks on mental health development during the 2017 and 2018 Fukui Skills Development Conferences. At the moment, I’m deep in the middle of organizing Kar Rally, a fancy-dress, scavenger-hunt, wacky races, teambuilding event that takes place across the entire southern half of Fukui Prefecture. Keep an open mind, drink a lot of coffee, and you will find it more than easy to keep busy here!

Although historically insular, living in Japan doesn’t mean that you’ll be cut off from the world. Japan is home to a multitude of people and cultures, and even simply in meeting fellow JET participants, I made friends from as far afield as the US, Canada, the Philippines, and South Africa. Fascinatingly, St Patricks Day is also a festival that’s slowly taking hold here. Over the month of March, you can feasibly visit a different Irish Festival every weekend. I know, because I’ve done it!

I have also been incredibly lucky to have been a member of the core staff of the Fukui Patricks Day festival, since its inception in 2017. The festival was the brainchild of Irishman Rob Hennesy and local Yamashita Yoshida. It’s been a massive success every year (I even got the opportunity to make a dinosaur balloon animal for the Irish Ambassador the first year!), partly through the authentic Irish involvement of all five of us living in Fukui, but mostly through the overwhelming support of the local community. I’m still a little speechless at just how enthusiastic and welcoming the Japanese have been to the festival, and I have memories I’ll treasure for a lifetime. If you ever get the chance, I strongly encourage you to visit!

As involved as I have been here, I feel like after three years, my time in Japan is complete. This country, and its people, have forever got a place in my heart. I’ve had my struggles, my triumphs, and explored a rich and fascinating culture, along with discovering more about my own depths and capabilities.

The incredible part of this journey is that as rich as my life has been in Japan, mine is just one story among many. The people I came here with, and those that I’ve gotten to know along the way, all have their own stories to tell, their own varied and fascinating experiences and interests. No matter how you choose to spend your time, with a little proactivity I believe you’ll find a space for yourself here.

I suppose it is a little early for nostalgia, but every step I take along familiar paths feels tinged with reflection. I’ve already begun to say goodbye to people and places that captured my heart. Although Ireland calls me home, the fact that I had the opportunity to experience them in the first place makes me happy. Loss is simply testament to the good life that we have lived, proof of how lucky we have been. Or at least that’s what I’ll tell myself so I don’t cry in front of the whole school during my goodbye speech.

Whether I succeed, remains to be seen.