Back in the City

After a year of teaching English in Japan, two weeks of traveling with my parents, and another two weeks of (insert cricket chirps here) absolutely nothing, I'm back to work and back to life in the city. I'll be working part-time at an international nonprofit and part-time at a locally famous coffee and doughnut shop. I can't say that I'm excited about waking-up at 5:30am on weekends, but income is income and I'll need it to survive graduate school. Those late-night coffees don't come cheap, you know. Well, if you work at a local coffee shop they do, but you get my gist.

Lots and lots of old stuff.

Yesterday, my parents and I traveled to a place called Yoshinogari, north of Nagasaki. The area is a huge archaeological sight that was discovered in the 1920's. The sight dates from the Yayoi Era (300 BC - 300 ACE) and the Japanese government has recreated the city as they think it was at the time. There were pit-dwellings, storehouses on stilts, temples, shrines, and military barracks. In addition to the recreations, there was lots and lots of old stuff. Archaeologists excavated the sight and found metal tools, foodstuffs, clothes, wooden utensils, and burial urns - with bodies inside, of course - most of which were on display. I was seriously impressed by the seeming organization of the society at the time. Growing up in the US, I never learned about Japanese history, so it was all new to me and I was fascinated. What were my ancestors doing 2000 years ago? Probably shivering under a sheepskin and foraging for roots in the British isles. Because that's what people did back then, right? Okay, maybe my European history isn't what it should be either . . .

Temples, nuns, and typhoons.

After five hours of train travel, my parents and I have finally made it to Nagasaki on the south-eastern tip of Japan. For several hundred years, Nagasaki was the stronghold of the Christian daimyos (regional lords) and, despite being terrorized by various shoguns over the years, there's still a noticeable Christian presence here. Yesterday in Tsuwano, I visited one of the top five Inari shrines in Japan and watched temple priests perform chants in their traditional garb. This afternoon on the train to Nagasaki, I saw a Japanese nun. This country is filled with contradictions.

I'm interested in Nagasaki because it's where foreign and Japanese cultures have been mixing for centuries. In a country as insular as Japan, cultural fusion is fairly rare. Nagasaki is famous for the atomic bomb, but also for its 'castella cakes,' Dutch-style houses, Chinese food, and cathedrals. I'm curious to see what has been absorbed into the local culture and what stands out as noticeably Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, or Korean. Obviously, the Iberian regard for arriving late never caught on - our train pulled in to Nagasaki station right on time.

Tomorrow I want to see all the sights within the city so that, on Saturday, I can head out to Aso-san and peer into the world's largest active caldera. I want to take a big whiff of the sulfurous air that oozes straight from the earth's core. Unfortunately, a typhoon with estimated 100 mph winds is expected to hit Kyushu tonight. Sightseeing in a hurricane has never really topped my list of favorite things, so I may find a shrine and rattle the bell, appealing to the gods to hear my weather-related prayers. Or, better yet, I'll find a cathedral and light a candle.

Maybe both would be more effective.