Japan still...

Friday morning the delegation and I took a street car to Sujenji Park, the place for tea and worship for the Japanese Lords. The street cars run on rails down the center of the main streets in Kumamoto which limits an already crowded street but is very nice for public transportation. The park was breathtaking and very peaceful. Walking through with the Montana delegation I attracted a lot of attention from Japanese tourists. I would see Japanese ladies in traditional Kimonos and want a picture with them but they would want a picture with a girl in traditional western wear!

Meanwhile, I was still adjusting to the Japanese every day way-of-life. I found myself constantly ducking when going into places to eat or to shop to avoid hitting my head on the ceilings and I was still trying to get in on the wrong side of the car. The toilets fascinated me for the entire 10 days I was there. A Japanese style toilet is basically a porcelain whole in the floor and the Western style toilets were the opposite – very high tech! Some of them would make a waterfall sound when you sat on them and others would have heated seats.

After the park I was whisked away for another TV interview. This was by far the most interesting of all my interviews. The reporter interviewing me was dressed up as a clown and wanted me to rope him. The interesting thing was not only that I had to rope this strangely dressed clown but the language barrier seemed to grow with this certain reporter. I am not sure if that is possible but he was very dramatic with his movements and talked so loud he was almost yelling. I kept thinking he was saying something very urgent because he was shouting but I couldn’t ever respond for several minutes because of the translation. Anyway, it was an interesting interview to say the least but I am proud to say that I roped him successfully in 2 rehearsals and on live TV!

I was very excited for Friday night. The delegation and I attended a private concert at Good Time Charlie’s bar in downtown Kumamoto. All of the bands that would be performing at Country Gold gave us a taste of what we would be hearing on Sunday. Charlie Nagatani is the owner of the bar and the creator of Country Gold. He is a Japanese country singing legend! It was really neat being in his bar and seeing pictures of him at the Grand ‘Ol Opry, with the President, and huge country singers like Garth Brooks and George Strait. He did his own rendition of country classics like “Tiger by the Tail”. I couldn’t believe how talented Charlie and the Cannonballs were. The last band to perform that night was headliner Mark Chesnutt. I sang along as he played his hits. He was going to quit before playing “Bubba Shot the Jukebox” but I requested it before he left the stage and he willingly sang it, just for me! After the bands were done playing we stayed awhile to chat and get to know them all. What an amazing experience to be that close to country superstars like Mark Chesnutt!

Saturday was the last day in Kumamoto before everyone headed to Mount Aso for Country Gold. My last TV interview was that morning and Myuki, my translator, and I were somewhat relieved to be on the last leg of interviews. The afternoon was spent shopping and commuting about 2 hours to Mount Aso. The entire delegation was anxiously awaiting the arrival at our Traditional Japanese hotel because we had heard so much about it. We all knew we would be experiencing some very new and different customs in the next two days.

The drive to the mountain was breathtaking. I would compare it to Western Montana landscape in some ways. It is very mountainous and green even in October. We passed small fields of rice but rarely saw a ranch with cattle or horses. The hotel was tucked away on the side of the mountain and because of the size everyone would be sharing rooms. I shared a room with Kristi Pettis from the Northern Ag Network. We had a great time experiencing the Japanese traditional style of living together! We were briefed on the way there the proper way to bathe and eat. Walking into the bedroom I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The bedroom had no beds; we were to sleep on Japanese style “sleeping bags” on the floor. The room was lacking a shower, or so we thought. Going out the back door you would find a handheld shower head and a stool to sit on while cleansing yourself before taking a bath in the natural hot springs bathtub. It was by far the coolest thing in Japan! Each room had their own personal hot spring bathtub or you could go to the community hot springs down the hall. I stuck with my personal one and never felt so clean and relaxed.

Dinner was a major production. We sat on the floor to eat all seven of our courses. I found that if you aren’t a small Asian you get pretty stiff sitting on the floor regardless of how young you are! Once again I was hesitant in trying anything because it all looked so raw, and it was. Because I didn’t want to offend the chef, I forced myself to try as much as I could. Thank goodness I had snacks back in the room accompanied with a Sprite to settle my stomach later. On the menu among other things was: raw horse meat, raw beef, and sea weed in many forms. They brought in the horse meat for the special occasion of us being there; horse meat is a rare delicacy. Special entertainment was also provided during dinner. Traditional Japanese dancers who usually only perform in Shrines came in to dance just for us. I love to see different styles of dance so that was pretty neat for me to see and hear. The next morning would be Country Gold. I couldn’t wait!