Toyama trams, Local alms and Educational qualms

Hope all is well comrades.

Some vague apparitions from the east coming to you live from an educational staffroom which I have somehow managed to infiltrate through a combination of blind ignorance, lack of consideration and curiosity. While I may look from the outside to be incredibly busy and a hard worker I am in fact internally rolling with laughter - who hired this conman to teach young minds. My work today consists of creating a presentation of myself, helping a young lad prepare for a speech contest and appearing incredibly busy. I have an english language book tactically open beside me which i stare at periodically to signal that i am incredibly busy while i eavesdrop on the colleagues here (none of whom speak english). The school english teacher was kind enough to give me a lift to the workplace this morning. Unfortunately found out that the fire mentioned in a joking fashion previously actually claimed the lives of two people which puts a bit of a downer on the morning. Close to verbatim transcript:

''big fire!

oh yeah, that was a lot of commotion, do you know what happened?

oh no... fire... two people died!

oh jaysis, sorry to hear that, did you know them?

no *nervous laughter*.. dead now

jaysis''

Leads to a discussion of the death ritual in japan - they burn the bodies and bury the bones. Resist the urge to make a poorly timed 'tus maith, leath na hoibre!' joke:/

Had the fortune to visit a small village called gujo where they do a traditional dance through the summer. They go from 8pm-4am some evenings. It is a geriatric event with a handful of tourists thrown in to add a bit of energy. The dance takes the form of well ordered lines moving clockwise up and down 4 intersecting streets with some sort of traditional band on a float in the centre banging out some calming chants/songs. Copy the old people to get into the rhythm and it turns out to be oddly calming, with the dances changing every few verses, all very slow and deliberate with some clapping and stamping to give the song a beat. A bit trancey and a bit culty also, seeing everyone in the main line moving in pretty much perfect harmony, dressed in the komonos and singing along in the ancient japanese. Also saw a castle at this place.

Went to another city (larger town) called Toyama on a whim, 2 hours on a bus (including a confused interaction with driver 'why you go here? you go to toyama?'), hunting for bass thumping equipment to play other peoples music on. Unfortunately, was not successful in the hunt but instead found the most uninspiring concrete hellscape one could ever dream up. A town that seemingly exists solely for the purpose of perpetuating itself. Imagine Summerhill (no offense), except bigger and with seemingly less cultural significance. A core of grey concrete middling height block apartments and commercial buildings, split by what was actually a beautiful (relatively) public transport hub and the entire core surrounded by industrial estates, motorways and houses. It has a fairly intricate set of canals and locks for flooding i assume, since its coastal, which are impressive and give a good guide for walking around. I was impacted by the weather i imagine, which was grey cloud and rain for the entirety of the two days.

I walked solidly for the two days, finding nothing of interest or practical use. As always people made the situation better and i was invited by a nice japanese fellow from the hostel for a sushi dinner in a so called izakaya. Given that my latest dining out experience prior to this was a hail mary finger pointed at an item on a laminated menu (resulting in 8 deep fried baby octopi served with soysauce, startling yet delicious), some local company was welcome. Seat ourselves and dine on a selection of unidentifiable fish, sauces and soups, communicating via a google translate handheld device thingy which did not understand my accent but sufficiently got the messages across.

Go look for some nightlife and get presented with quite literally nothing except some weird hello kitty themed smoothie(?) bar/hangout spot. Do not enter for mortal fear of the mascots walkiing around in furry suits inside. Return, sleep and start heading back into the hills. Board a rickety tram which drags itself and ots passengers up through tunnels and ravines, absolutely gorgeous scenery, mountains and forests and big gushing rivers with nothing but the rail line cut into the edge of the cliffs between the small settlements. Do not get many photos here but rather stare as the clouds break and the sky clears (pathetic fallacy as the grey of Toyama recedes). See an interesting monument at one of the stops, a bronze cast statue of an imperial era japanese infantryman, the first acknowledgement of the war seen since arriving here.

This plants a seed in the brain, go check 'toyama history' on a lovely ai tool called perplexity. Read that Toyama was originally one of the first 30 cities of japan, a trading hub early on in the 15/1600s and later renowned for its hydroelectrc capacities, chemical and steel/aluminum production. Entire city flattened August 1-3, 1945. 1430 tonnes of incendiaries were dropped, completely annihilating the place, 99% of the infrastructure eliminated. It made a lot more sense now, the grey, dour nature of the place, like a place that never really recovered in spirit. It is odd to imagine how different that city might have looked today if the bombs were scheduled to fall literally a week later, the city would have been spared post surrender.

A lot of talk of fiery death this week it seems, on a lighter note, did some further scouting of the hills around me and found some cool paths that lead up to the back of the shrine and lots of little cemeteries and all that. Was pursued upon the descent by some big fucker of a hornet/moth thing that i disutrbed, its wings sounded like a fucking bird flapping behind me and i sprinted the last part to civilisation like a routed monk being chased by a viking. Visited the shrine also and pulled a fortune, which informed me that god is on my shoulder, i should trust doctors, maintain prices and that i have luck. Always nice to hear.

Pictures and more context to follow soon. If you read this far, find something better to do with yourselves.