Fruition

Today was the annual Arao Bean-Throwing Festival. No joke. It's called the Bean-Throwing Festival, but actually, it's peanuts that are thrown, not beans.

This morning(Sunday) I woke up knowing I had several things to do before the day could begin. I had to eat breakfast, take a shower, prepare my notes for my speech, and practice violin. None of this came to fruition. My friend, who would also be giving a speech today has a bit of a hard time getting organized. Knowing this was the case, I took care to call her the night before to make sure she was set to come to Arao in the morning. She said she was, so I was surprised when she called out of the blue this morning asking for a ride. It was 40 minutes out of the way and it cut out my entire plan to prepare for the day. So I picked her up, feeling a little cranky. After a few minutes chatting away in my American (square) English and her Jamaican (uh, round?) English, I forgot about the morning's inconvenience and we headed towards the big Buddhist temple of Arao, which rests on a hill somewhere between Midori Gaoka Elementary School and Arao Junior High School #3.
There were already a couple hundred people at the temple when we arrived, also joined by my tutor, Etsuko. In the car, on the way, we waved to two of my English students from #3, one being the shining star from the Taiko concert. Once inside, we watched a little hip-hop dance performance put on by the teens, which seems to be standard procedure to entertain the younger generation at festivals. Then, we went inside the temple itself, and as usual, I became quickly absorbed in the chanting and ritual at the head. There was a fire burning, some monks chanting, a drum being struck, and the air smelled of cedar incense. I understood nothing, and it was over as quickly as that. Everyone stood up and the people in front started throwing little white packages into the shrine area. I was confused because I had heard that we would be catching beans that were thrown at us. With a plunk on my head, the confusion ceased, and chaos took its place. Everyone scrambled to pick up small white packages that were thrown back at us. The ceremony went so quickly and we were ushered out of the temple's shrine room empty-handed. We headed down the stairs and an older lady handed me a plastic bag. The real throwing was about to begin.
Hundreds of Japanese stood eagerly with arms held high and plastic bags held open. The mayor, several very old people, two people dressed in rooster costumes(it's now the year of the rooster), two costumed superheros from 'Ultraman Land', the kiddie amusement park in town, and some priests and monks were escorted onto the roof of the exterior part of the temple. They carried huge white bags, their texture showing thousands of small packages inside.
After the blow of a horn, and some high-pitched shouting by the priest, showers of white packages fell onto us. Everyone dashed in every direction to grab them. The old(--did I say 'old'? I meant 'ancient'--) woman behind me had the fastest package-grabbing hands imaginable. I bet she'd done this about 111 times by now, so she had a good reason to be so much quicker than me. I turned out to be a much poorer package-grabber than most, and by the time the throwing and grabbing mania had ceased(more than 5 minutes!), I looked up to see two more boys, both my old English students, standing in front of me offering me handfuls of packages. When my bag was as full as theirs, they left to rejoin their other friends. My tutor, my Jamaican friend and I surveyed our loot, and sat down on our haunches to begin the second phase of the festival--the tearing open of small packages. And so it was that I discovered the 'beans' were peanuts, wrapped in a piece of tissue paper. A lucky few would find a stamp on the inside of the paper, indicating that they should report to the 'prize tent' and exchange it for the designated prize. I had about 50 packages in all, but no prize. My friend won a fancy instant ramen dinner. : )
On the way to the prize center, I ran into another handful of my students, who greeted me with a smile and said, "It was fun!! See you!".
Leaving the parking lot, a group of six or seven of my students waved goodbye. We headed towards the city mall for lunch, and after that, to give speeches.

A long time back, my tutor, then just an acquaintance, had requested me and my friend to give a speech to the Ariake International Society in town. She said to prepare at least twenty minutes' worth of material, so I spent all of yesterday putting on the final touches. My speech, to my surprise, was forty minutes, and it was video taped. I talked about what I thought were five major cultural differences between Japan and America. (If you are interested, they were: 1. Social Harmony and Individual Thinking, 2. Indirect and Direct Speech, 3. Politeness and Rudeness, 4. Shyness and Assertiveness, and 5. Women's Roles) By request, I finished with some short violin pieces. My friend talked about Jamaica and focused her speech on her culture's history and politics. We were both well-received.
That being behind us, we decided to make the one-block trip back to the city mall for a little Taiko Drumming Arcade Game Bonanza. I was proud to be the first to offer her a taste of this blissful experience. ; ) And there, we ran into student after student of mine, smiling at us, waving with excitement. Two girls from the fourth grade class at #4 Elementary joined us in Taiko. One from #3 Junior High, looking quite trendy in his starter jacket and head-wrap, unselfconsciously waved to us as he walked by with his 'girlfriend'. Four boys stood outside the arcade, watching me as I 'ghost-drummed' behind the fourth grade girls. I turned to see them looking and became shy because they didn't look at all familiar to me. One boy held up four fingers. I relaxed. I stepped outside the door to yell "Raishu! (Next week!)". I'd spoken to their student body of 407 on Friday, my first day at #4 Junior High School. They were telling me they knew me; they were telling me their school's number!

In a rare occurance, satisfaction seaped through my body today. Somehow, I became a witness to my own impact. Nearly a hundred smallish, familiar faces, just a fraction of the students I've 'taught', speaking ENGLISH!
Myself having been defeated weeks ago, I barely know what to do with this success. I suppose a peaceful night's sleep will do me good. Good night all.