in my eyes

There are moments when I wish there was a machine that could transport what I see through my eyes in this country to people back home. I wish I could open my eyes at any random time and have other people see the strange things I see, especially people who have never experienced Japan. I think they wouldn't know what to think.

There were several of those moments this weekend, a classic inaka countryside Tokamachi weekend.

I open my eyes on Friday night and I'm in Akiyamago way up in the mountains with the old fishing club guys. We are renting a cottage up in the cold, drinking beer that is cooled in the snowpack and sitting around a campfire. It's 10 guys who are feeling lucky for the chance to be away from their jobs and social and family pressures. We are full of chirashi sushi and grilled mochi. Our bodies are warmed because we just snuck into the rotenburo outdoor bath which is sitting on the edge of a cliff. As we stumble through the snow, I spill my sake all over myself and the guys laugh at me. We jump in the steaming baths, and looking at the stars someone mentions it's the first time they've seen Orion this year. Another mentions how calming it was to see the first snowfall. These guys love the outdoors as much as I do. I close my eyes.



I open my eyes the next day and I'm hiking through the woods. I'm with Kanazaki-san and he's teaching me how to hunt for edible mushrooms to cook in miso soup. We are only finding every kind of mushroom that will kill us, but finally find some tasty nameko mushrooms growing on a fallen log. There are only about 20 but it's a nice crop. They are slimy and look like slugs' asses but I pick them anyway. I close my eyes.

I open my eyes the next day and it's 8 a.m. A guy I don't know is offering me a beer backstage at a local traditional music concert that I´m volunteering for. I accept because there is no other choice (though I rudely refuse the cigarette), and it marks the first time this year that I've had dried squid and Asahi Super Dry for breakfast. As I enjoy breakfast, I close my eyes.

I open my eyes and there is fake dry ice fog pouring around my ankles. I am holding on to a pine tree prop. A bunch of screaming men in feudal style kimono are running around in front of me, swinging swords. One of them whizzes by my ear. At stage left are a dozen old women with their faces painted white, wearing colorful kimono and strange hats. They wave at me. On stage right are a couple of my students waiting to do their dragon dance. I close my eyes.

I open my eyes and I'm standing surprised on stage with a spotlight in my face in front of hundreds of people and a microphone in my face. Unbeknownst to be, I'm suddenly interviewed by the event's MC in some kind of difficult Japanese. I came to volunteer backstage but because I'm the foreigner there, I'm automatically the special guest, even though the mayor and some famous musicians are in attendance. I answer in one word sentences, not quite sure what the question was. Some people are silent and some people laugh. Not a very good sign. I still don't know what's happening and they push me off stage. I close my eyes.

I open my eyes at the after party and I've just finished playing percussion with a group onstage. A very elderly woman in a kimono is saying something to me, about 2 inches from my face. She is speaking with vigor and she nearly spits in my mouth. I have to focus and keep nodding and accepting the beer she is pouring in one glass as my other hand accepts sake poured by an old man wearing a leopard print headband on my left. He is saying something too, about how I should find a wife because I'm getting old, and he makes me chug the sake before I can put the cup down, which is immediately refilled anyway. These are my new friends. The mayor is now doing karaoke on stage and everyone claps. A guy who looks like the Japanese Harry Caray is eating some fish.

The weekend's done and I'm going to bed, I'll close my eyes hoping to dream of something slightly ordinary.