This weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to two very rural places in the north of Japan, the region called Hokuriku 北陸, Ishikawa 石川 prefecture. The agency that sponsors my fellowship here, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), every so often sponsors high schools around the country to invite a JSPS fellow to teach a class at their school. This weekend, my boss (Professor Yamazaki) and I were invited to Nanao 七尾 high school, which is regionally known for its good science program. We decided to teach the students about global warming and its effect on the ocean, as this topic is a good mix of my engineering knowledge and Prof. Yamazaki's knowledge of science. I wrote the talk in English, and lectured in primarily Japanese (I'm still at grade-school level Japanese language ability however), though translated the main points into English, as the class was attended by about 10 Singaporean high school students as well, who were visiting for a short time on a school exchange trip. At times when my Japanese language ability wasn't up to par for the technical explanations necessary, Prof. Yamazaki translated for the Japanese students. In all, it was a great experience for me to teach in such an international environment, and to see how the Japanese and Singaporean students helped each other and cooperated during the following laboratory section of the class. The cooperation between the two nationalities was especially heartwarming in light of the fact that the Japanese students spoke little English, and the Singaporean students spoke little Japanese; despite their language barrier, they were helping each other as much as possible, and their teachers did very well at facilitating mixing between the two groups.
In addition to the kindness the students showed to each other, I was impressed with the care they took of their school. Unlike US schools which are cleaned by janitorial staff, Japanese schools are cleaned by their students. Maybe when students know they need to clean up their own messes, they are less likely to make a mess in the first place? There was no graffiti or writing on the bathroom walls or outside walls here.
After the class ended, the teachers and students invited Prof. Yamazaki and I to attend a tea ceremony, put on by their Japanese culture club. Here we were fed daifuku 大福, a Japanese sweet, before each receiving a cup of Japanese tea 抹茶. The tea is very bitter, which makes the preceeding sweet important, as only by preceeding the bitter tea by a very sweet candy is the tea enjoyable (at least for a sweet tooth like me), and the contrast between the sweet and bitter is what makes the experience special. There is also ceremony involved in receiving the tea, at the server gives you the cup with the front facing her. Before drinking, you turn the cup 180 degrees, so the front faces you. Then, before returning the cup to the server, you turn it back 180 degrees so that the front faces here again. All this is accompanied by repeated bowing, the timing of which I think I'm getting the hang of in everyday life here.
After the class at the high school, Prof. Yamazaki invited me to his inlaws' home in Suzu 珠洲, in the very rural north, where there aren't even any railroads anymore. It's a beautiful peninsula of rugged, natural coastline, low mountains, and diverse forests all showing red and yellow in their autumn splendor. The region holds many old fishing and farming villages that date back hundreds of years to the Edo period, as it seems one of the least seismically active areas in the country, so structures are not subject to frequent earthquakes.
Despite its beauty, the area, like so many rural areas in Japan, is experiencing severe population decline as young folks flock to big cities (mostly Tokyo) for work. The only population remaining are the elderly and the young folks who choose careers as fishermen or farmers. I was told that in the last 20 years, the population of Suzu dropped from 40,000 to 10,000. Along with the population drop, railroad service to the region was discontinued because it wasn't profitable, and this has likely caused yet more population drop because the region is much less accessible than it used to be; buses run, but infrequently, so private automobile is the main means of transport, and this leaves all the elderly inhabitants of the region stranded and dependent on helpers (elder-care is a newly booming industry in Japan).
Suzu shows an unexpected combination of natural beauty and economic depression. Towns still cluster around old railways stations, which are now closed and in decay, reminding me to some extent of so many rural towns in the US. Despite the area's economic depression, its inhabitants are extremely friendly and warm. Prof. Yamazaki's family welcomed me into their home with great hospitality and went out of their way to cook delicious vegetarian food and to show me the sights of the area. The local temple was also having a festival, and, at the request of Prof. Yamazaki's mother-in-law, offered me savory vegetarian temple food 精進料理 upon which I stuffed myself. This was followed by another tea ceremony. This time, the tea was boiled the old-fashioned was, in a fire pit under the tatami of the temple floor. Before electric water heaters, even before gas or wood-burning stoves became common, the way to boil water was in a charcoal fire pit (shown below) sunk below the floor. An iron kettle was hung above the fire pit for boiling water. Here, however, the kettle is sitting on a rail, instead of hanging in the more traditional way. Suzu is the only place in Japan where I've seen this traditional fire pit. Elsewhere in Japan I've seen only gas or electric stoves. I worried here about indoor air pollution, as burning charcoal of course produces much smoke. However, traditional Japanese building are built with paper-thin walls and are so well ventilated that the indoor air quality did not suffer.
Suzu is also nationally famous for its traditional Japanese sweets 和菓子, which are delicous morsels made from rice, azuki beans, wheat, sugar, salt, and various flavorings. We stopped by many Japanese sweets shops, and I sampled much good stuff. If I lived in an area with such good sweets I'd be fatter than I am!
So it's sad to see the economic depression and population decline in Suzu, but it's also heartwarming to meet such kind inhabitants who help each other out when needed.
