My Shimane Photo Essay

By Tori Baney

The day after we arrived, my host mother, host brother, and youngest host sister took me on a walk near their house. About five minutes from the house was the elementary school and kindergarten that my host siblings go to. In this picture, you can see the bridge that I crossed everyday to get to the place we met everyday before heading off to a school together. The feel of Daito was so different than Tokyo, and reminded me of the rural area where I go to college. However, the mountains and landscape, as well as the people gave the area its own atmosphere.

 (Daito Shougakkou) was the first elementary school we visited. I was amazed by the childrens eagerness and energy. After the class, they all asked for our autographs, which ended up happening at all the schools we visited. It was hard for me to be outgoing in front of the kids at first, but it became easier as we visited more schools.

The smallest school we visited had only 16 students, but I felt that we had the most intimate experience for that reason. The amount of preparation and attentiveness they gave us was really touching. They even had a goodbye ceremony for us and each of the students and faculty wrote individualized notes to us as well as gave us a picture of us with the students. Everyone at the school was so excited for us to come, even the faculty, and it made the experience that much more rewarding and memorable.

 The mochi-making event was my first time making mochi traditionally as well as the first time I could see lots of people from the community come together. Entire families and various generations came together as they have for years, and I really felt a sense of community. The mochi was delicious too of course!

Of course, we not only taught the children, but played with them as well. I was never much an active child but playing with the children in Unnan-shi taught me how to play and run around again. I had to re-learn how to jump-rope (which I apparently had done wrong all along), and learned new ball games (which was difficult considering excited Japanese children were trying to explain the rules to me). But I really enjoyed myself, even if I was exhausted by the end of the day.

 Getting to the point where we could play and freely communicate with the children didnt take as long as I expected. I learned how the childrens ages changed how they perceived the world and language, and this helped me interact with them.

A few times during our stay, I was able to observe a kagura dance, which is a Shinto theatrical dance that is especially famous in Shimane. In the opening ceremony, the local middle schools kagura club performed for us. We were also able to see a story-telling kagura at a local performance. I was able to learn various interesting things about Shinto during our stay, and see ceremonial dances that one would normally only see on TV.

 My host family and I went on a boat tour around the river-moat that surrounds Matsue Castle. Ive never been on a river tour like this one, the boat even had a kotatsu! I was able to learn about Matsues history and see the castle district of the city.

 We had the opportunity to learn how to make soba from scratch. We took turns kneading the dough, cutting it into noodles, washing and boiling the noodles, then adding the broth and whatever toppings we wanted! I kept mine simple. Ive never made any kind of noodles from scratch, so I had no idea it took so much work!

I also was able to learn a bit about life in a Buddhist temple and how to meditate. Even though we only meditated for 20 minutes, it was very difficult. It wasnt so much as that the physical position was uncomfortable, as much as clearing my mind. I was surprised that the head monk would smack the people who were meditating on the shoulder if they appeared to be falling asleep!

 After we learned about the Shinto myth of the god Susano-o saving a young woman and her family from the eightheaded snake Yamatano-orochi, we visited Japans first Shrine, Suga Jinja. We were able to take part in a Shinto ceremony, drink sacred sake, and learn about Shinto tradition and the history of the shrine. I have learned much more about Shimanes importance in Japanese history, especially spiritualwise.

 On our last day, before the ending ceremony, we planted a cherry blossom tree to mark our year of home-stay students. I wonder if our tree will be ready to put out blossoms this year. I saw a tree planted some years before, and although not much bigger than ours, it was already starting to bloom. I hope our own tree will be like that soon!