"famous"

I've started to realize that the term "famous" has a completely different meaning in Japan. Only a handful of places in Japan are famous like the Grand Canyon or Eiffle Tower are famous. There's Mt Fuji, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, and several temples that you could all probably recognize in a picture because they are truly famous. But now I'm starting to realize that famous should really be described in three different categories: locally famous, nationally famous, and globally famous. I now think that most things, symbols, and places that I'm told are famous in Japan, are really just locally famous. Some of the people I teach with seem to think everywhere is famous for something, since that's how Japan works. Once one of the teachers asked me what my hometown, Germantown, was famous for and I honestly couldn't think of anything but fake German architecture (which it isn't actually famous for)! Wisconsin is famous for cheese, and Milwaukee is famous for beer, but not every individual town in Wisconsin is famous for something like every town in Japan seems to be famous for something.

Anyways, I've come to realize this about Japan because of omiyage. An omiyage is a gift that is traditionally given to co-workers and family after one returns from a trip. Whenever I travel I always bring something back for the office of the school that I teach at the first day that I'm back. I was told at orientation to do so because I may offend the office if I don't. Just before I leave another prefecture I always pick up one of the "famous" treats of that prefecture, but after I hand it out nobody can guess where I was, based on what I brought back. If that prefecture was actually famous for that treat on the national level, people would recognize that right away right? Plus, I have received odd omiyage from other people and I seriously hope that Tokyo is famous for something other than a banana-shaped cake filled with red bean paste, which I have received from a couple different people. Sometimes I think all these places are famous for things just so that people have a convenient omiyage to bring back to everyone in the office. It's not just little keychains and magnets either. It's like miniaturized versions of the locally famous equivalent of the Boston cream pie in a 9, 12, or 16 pack.

Once a teacher had me verbally conduct a true/false quiz about the differences between US and Japanese traditions. She had written it, and one of the statements was "Americans give omiyage." Yes omiyage, not gift, the English word for omiyage. She had it marked as false. But I changed the answer because Americans usually DO bring their families and friends gifts from vacations. It's just not as expected as it in Japan, especially in the office.

Last weekend Christine, Erin, and I went on a mini-roadtrip to Matsuyama (on the other side of Shikoku). The expressways on Shikoku are really expensive. They really do save you a lot of time, but we were on the road for about 1.5 hours in Christine's little lawnmower-engine car and the toll was $25! We stayed in the same capsule hotel that I stayed in in October. We went to two onsens while we were there. We went to the jungle onsen (locally famous), and the Dogo Onsen (nationally famous because it is the oldest onsen in Japan and was mentioned in a famous Japanese book). Both onsen were made of sulfer baths from the same natural hot spring. Both were super cheap at $4! The jungle onsen had several different baths: regular hot, medicinal, orange (four oranges were submerged in the tub which was a little weird), cold, and a hot one outdoors. They were all in a big warehouse, but you only noticed that part if you looked at the ceiling because there were palm trees and other plants surrounding most of the baths. The Dogo onsen was really small and had only one bath. It was really old and traditional, which was nice too. You can pay to do the tea ceremony after your bath, which is unusual for most onsen. Here we are outside the Dogo onsen. The Jungle onsen wasn't as nice looking.




In other news...

It's suppose to snow tomorrow. All the 9th graders are worried because they have to go take their entrance exams at their chosen high school tomorrow. The news said that the high tomorrow is 7C and the low is 2C, so I'm guessing nothing will accumulate even if anything falls in the first place. But snow is rare here so just the possibility of it falling is a big deal. As for the entrance exams into high school, one kid was so stressed out today that he ran away from home! His homeroom teacher left school to go find him. It turns out, the kid was sitting next to the ocean.

The birthday deal with Japan Airlines is ending Aprils 1st, so we can't go to Hokkaido for cheap anymore. Plus we, and everyone else in Japan, cannot book domestic flights any earlier than two months before the departure date. So the Hokkaido trip still might happen, but it's really up in the air.