The new semester got off to a busy start with the revelation that our homework load has just about tripled for the duration of the upcoming month. We have readings from our Spirited Away text every night with related grammar and content worksheets, and in addition we have a kanji and grammar quiz every day of the week. Although the work itself is not particularly challenging, the quantity of assignments keeps me at Rifare for a lot longer than I’d like in the afternoons. Returning home with Ai-san at 5:00 is often out of the question, particularly if I attend a cultural activity after class.
The weight of the professors’ expectations stands in sharp contrast to their recommendation that we try to get out and explore the city of Kanazawa and strengthen our relationships with our host families, which are not the easiest things to do when we have so much work every night. This past week I was at Rifare most days until around 6:00, at which time I returned home by train, ate dinner, relaxed for maybe 15 minutes after eating, then commenced with my studies once more. I found the cultural activities I attended this week (tea ceremony and Japanese drum) very fun and enriching, but at the same time I had a niggling sensation throughout the duration of the activities, a little voice in my head that kept saying, “After this, I’ve got to go home and study some more. I still haven’t quite memorized that one kanji…and I still have to finish that grammar homework.” I’m beginning to feel a little frustrated with PII’s apparent identity crisis. PII wants to uphold its reputation as a very challenging and rigorous summer course while simultaneously promoting cultural education and fun extracurricular activities, but it’s pretty difficult to have the best of both worlds in that regard. I would like nothing more than to take long walks around the city after class, chat with Ai-san after dinner, and immerse myself in every cultural activity PII offers its students, but I would need to sacrifice my good grades in order to do so. It’s even rougher on the Princeton students, who can’t take PII courses pass/fail and are therefore always struggling to uphold their good grades. I understand that PII has to fit a lot of material into only 8 weeks, and that the pace of education is therefore quite rapid and taxing on both professors and students, yet I wonder whether it’s really necessary to be tested on EVERYTHING we learn or whether we need to answer quite so many questions on our content worksheets. I’m thinking that PII could still have a lot to offer as a very academic-oriented, competitive program even without the homework loads we have now. With the superb cultural activities offered and excellent staff, PII has the potential to be a great program, but right now it feels like students’ and teachers’ plates alike are heaped with too much food and we’ve all bitten off more than we can chew.
I’ve discussed this topic at length with other students, who are all in agreement with me that the homework load seems to contradict PII’s request that we act as grassroots ambassadors, explore Japan, and try to learn as much as we can outside the classroom. Since we all seem to share this opinion, I would expect that we’ll all express our discontent in the end-of-the-semester program evaluation. However, according to one of my friends who worked previously for Princeton in Beijing, a similar yet much larger Princeton study abroad program, even if the program receives a lot of criticism regarding certain aspects of the students’ experience, it is unlikely that Princeton will make any changes in policy because “they’ve just been doing it that way for so long.” PII celebrates its 20th anniversary this Friday, and if this program has been the same for two decades, I’m inclined to believe my friend that things won’t change, as disappointing as that may be.
Moving on from this sobering topic, on Tuesday I had the opportunity to watch and participate in tea ceremony for the second time since I’ve come to Kanazawa. The first time was at Kenrokuen Garden, where we were served tea and sweets in a very brief gathering that did not include a demonstration and actually wasn’t much of a ceremony at all. This time, at Gyokuseen Garden, we actually got to watch the preparation process as one does during a true tea gathering, participating in a large group ceremony; make our own tea and serve one another; and tour the small and lovely garden. I really enjoyed watching the demonstration, as the practitioners at Gyokuseen study a different style of chanoyu than I do at Whitman. It was interesting to note the nuances and differences of this new style versus those of the Yabunouchi school of tea. For instance, the way in which the practitioner methodically folds the cloth napkin used for wiping the tea instruments differs from school to school, and I was able to witness a new method on Tuesday afternoon.
On Wednesday a group of about 20 students traveled by bus to the Asano Daiko school for a lesson in playing the taiko, or traditional Japanese drum. Taiko drums are often quite large and make a loud, thunderous booming noise when struck that you can truly feel in your body as it reverberates in the air around you. You often see large taiko at temples or during festivals, as the authoritative and resounding beat of the drum lends power to any gathering or ceremony. On my very first day in Kanazawa, while watching the festivities at the Hyakumangoku celebration, I received quite a shock when a group of students suddenly began drumming on taiko in unison, creating an impressive and festive rhythm. At Asano Daiko we learned some basic beats from a very energetic young female instructor who had callouses on her hands from years of practice, and by the end of the one-hour lesson we could passably drum out a simple 3-3-7 beat in unison. My arms were quite sore afterward, but I felt great after taking out some frustration on a sturdy drum.
Much of my scarce free time this week was devoted to making plans for my last week in Japan, after PII has ended. As it transpires, I have been given the green light to go stay with my friend Mao in Kagoshima after all (once she realized I wasn’t staying for a month and a half, I think she figured that a week was pretty doable by comparison). I have been in contact with her throughout the week, asking about interesting places I might visit and drawing up a schedule including my dates and times of arrival and departure. I am very relieved that I’ll be able to go visit Mao after all, as I had been struggling to come up with a backup plan for the suddenly free 8 days between the end of PII and my return to the States. (Note: Although Kagoshima is about as far away from Kanazawa as Los Angeles is from San Francisco, whenever I mention my upcoming trip to the southern city I still receive shocked exclamations of “Kagoshima?! But that’s so far!” Japan is a pretty small country, so I guess the journey is a relatively long one from a Japanese perspective, but still. You’d think I was going to the moon, the way people respond!). I plan to purchase my train tickets sometime this upcoming week. I can’t believe how quickly this semester is passing. Only just this morning in the car Ai-san reminded me that I only have a few weeks left here in Kanazawa. I’m hoping to make them some of the best possible.
The weekend got off to a rather dull start on Friday afternoon, as the PII students and staff assembled at the ANA Crowne Plaza Hotel for a very long conference celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Ishikawa Japanese Studies Program and discussing the future of the institution. Although the conference was entirely conducted in Japanese and we students were not expected to directly participate, we still had to attend the 3-hour long meeting and sit in uncomfortable chairs while listening to a nearly unintelligible discussion as a symbolic gesture. There’s a lot of bureaucracy involved in Japanese cultural exchange with other countries (indeed, in Japanese business in general), and it can get a little tedious. Thankfully, the students’ responsibilities usually end at “showing up, looking good, and making polite conversation when necessary.” We were given packets with brief outlines in English, but the various guest speakers seemed to be saying a lot more than was printed in the outline. I felt like Bill Murray’s character in Lost in Translation when the incredibly long-winded Japanese instructions given while shooting a commercial were translated to English simply as “Ummm…he want you to turn, looking at camera.”
“That’s all he said?”
After the conference we were treated to a very nice buffet-style dinner that, to many students’ delight, included complimentary alcoholic beverages. I made sure to eat as much fruit as I could, as it’s pretty expensive here and not something I’m likely to go out and purchase often with my own money. I tried dragonfruit for the first time, which, despite its exotic name and appearance, doesn’t have that impressive of a taste.
I walked home late that evening from Nishi Kanazawa Station only to be drenched in the most torrential downpour I have ever experienced. I had just disembarked from the train and was making my way down one of Kanazawa’s side streets when the sky seemed to break open and dump down rain in solid sheets. There was thunder and lightning, too! Clutching my umbrella and trying to protect the valuables in my backpack by wearing it backwards, pregnant-woman style, I sloshed home, at one point getting sprayed by a car’s wheels rolling through a puddle just like in a cliché rom-com. Ai-san was waiting with a towel and some hot tea when I got home, bless her!
On Saturday morning I went to the International Lounge for a small party celebrating Tanabata, a Japanese star festival. The festival commemorates the meetings of the stars Vega and Altair, which represent two lovers separated by a great river (the Milky Way). On this day, Japanese people decorate bamboo trees with paper decorations and wishes written on strips of paper. After adorning our trees with wishes, paper chains, and stars (and in my case, very poorly folded origami cranes), we ate soumen (thin white noodles) for lunch.
Sunday turned out to be the silver lining to my busy week. Since the boys were at their dad’s house for the day, Ai-san and I had a girls’ day out, shopping at various second-hand stores in downtown Kanazawa. We ate lunch at a cute little café specializing in onigiri (rice balls), after which we drove for about an hour out to Kaga, a small town to the south of Kanazawa. In Kaga, we were able to soak our feet for free in a small onsen that was so hot, it made it look as though I were wearing red socks on my legs where I had immersed them in the water. On our way home, we made a short detour at the Kaga Daibutsu, a huge gold-colored statue even bigger than the Great Buddha at Kamakura. I was so glad to have the opportunity to spend the day with Ai-san, as with all the studying I’ve had to do lately I feel that I haven’t been getting to know her as well as I could or should. I made sure to thank her for the wonderful day, and I’m hoping for more days like this one in the near future.
