Wandering Musings

So it starts: throat feeling a bit bleh, nose somewhat stuffy, left eyelid tediously twitchy. Okay, so the eye has been going for a few weeks now and isn’t related to the other symptoms, but all the same, it isn’t helping!! Oh, and my lips are chapped. But that’s just because I’m too lazy to get up and put some chapstick on.

Our brains are wired to create a sense of self, which ultimately leads to everything that is not self to be perceived as other. Obviously the person in the mirror is only the most superficial portion of yourself, yet this is usually what people think of as me. (Okay, enough with the italics, they’re annoying me, and when I say me, yes, I’m thinking of that redhead in the mirror.) But there’s so much more to self than meets the eye. Literally. We aren’t even aware of the various parts acting in unison to keep the self, well, functioning. Take your autonomic nervous system. Sure, you can control your breathing if you think about it, but can you consciously control your heart rate or body temperature? Okay, yes you can if you’re a monk in Tibet. But for those of you who AREN’T Tibetan monks, keep reading, I am going somewhere with this.

The self is not a single entity – you’re made up of anywhere between 10-100 TRILLION (million million) cells! And that doesn’t even include the billions of bacterial cells that keep you alive as well. And all these individual cells recognize self or the whole…. unless you have some sort of autoimmune disease like lupus. (I watch a lot of House.) I think that’s pretty impressive. We’ve got this great system that keeps the ‘other’ out, or at least in check, without our even being aware of it. Like now, I’ve got this war raging beneath my epidermis (okay fine, my skin… I’ll stop trying to sound smart). I can try to give my troops the advantage with lots of nutrients and rest, but I can’t meddle at all, or assert any sort of somatic control. Maybe somatic isn’t the right word, but it’s what came to mind so I’m sticking with it.

I titled this blog Wandering Musings for a reason. Though maybe I should have opted for Rambling, but that just brought to mind Ramblin’ Rod (unless you’re from Oregon or southern Washington you’ll have no idea who he is, sorry), which isn’t quite the image I wanted.

So the battle within continues. Wish me luck.

Does fate exist? I wonder how many thousands of blog entries exist with this line popping up somewhere. Well, add one more to the list. It’s such a loaded little word. And why does it drag with it a negative connotation while its almost-identical twin destiny gets the good? I love language. Maybe that has something to do with why I’m teaching English… although the philosophical discussions are somewhat… nonexistent at my school. Baby steps. Learn the language first, then let’s talk.

So to answer the question: no. Good night!

Right. Why did I bring it up? It started very simply: a sip from a cup. (That could be a great metaphor – many meanings – but in this case it’s quite literal.) Once I started thinking about this pinprick moment in time, it all exploded into a tangled web of related and trailing questions and observations. Everything starts with biology. Yes, I’m biased, and also well-aware of the argument for astronomy or, more generally, physics. But I’m sticking with biology. FATE doesn’t exist, but patterns of life do. Behavioral patterns, hormonal patterns, genetic patterns and so on. Philosophy is all about fun with language, in my opinion – spirals of discussion that never end. You could say we are all fated to die, but that doesn’t mean fate is some thing that exists. People use the word fate when they feel things are out of their control. A quote just popped into my head, and it fits, somewhat. “No one binds you so there is no need to be set free.” No idea who said it. But maybe those of you reading this don’t believe in fate anyway, and my spirally discussion is going nowhere. I tend to get sidetracked easily.

Back to the sip! My coworker is sick. Really bad cold – nothing serious, but certainly nothing pleasant. Forgetting this, I took a – well, it wasn’t a sip, it was more of a swig – from her drink on Saturday. Immediately, I realized what I’d done. With one simple action I’d ‘fated’ myself. That’s not to say it’s set in stone. Maybe my immune system is stronger than hers, or maybe she wasn’t contagious at the time, or maybe whatever illness I get was transmitted through a completely different vector! But see, it’s not fate, it’s biology. All the same, now I understand why those who knew their fate drove themselves mad in all those Greek tragedies. If it were possible, would you choose to know the exact time of your death? Now I’m counting the days. Not to my death! No, to the sickness. I’ve been eating well, drinking lots and getting plenty of sleep, so we’ll see. How long will it take the virus to incubate and build up enough forces to overwhelm my system? Or will my helper T’s annihilate the enemy before it gets a chance? The clock is ticking. We’ll see.

In other, completely off-topic, news, I posted another album to my shutterfly site. If you’d like to see pictures from some of Akita’s winter festivals, click the lovely picture below.

Today was a loooong day. I’ve got an early start tomorrow (so many winter festivals in Akita, so little time), but if I don’t write this now, it’ll never get posted.

So after work today, several coworkers and I caught a train to Kariwano, a small city about 40 minutes from Akita City. Today was the Ootsunahiki (spelling varies, depending on the source) tug-of-war festival. It started about 500 years ago, involving a riot against the government, the god Ichigami, and demonstrations of power. It’s now one of the world’s largest tug-of-war competitions (according to locals) and in 1984 was designated Important Intangible Folk Culture Asset.

Basically the tug-of-war is a contest between uptown and downtown Kariwa. The rope consists of two pieces: the female rope (about 50 meters long) is prepared downtown while uptown prepares the male rope (about 60 meters long). This monster is unlike any rope you’ve ever seen. During the festival, the two ‘pieces’ are joined and the resulting rope is about 100 meters long, 70 cm in diameter (that’s over 2 feet thick) and weighs over 2 TONS! Thousands of people participate in this tug-of-war. I’ve felt like a definite outsider ever since arriving in Japan, but at no time have I felt more distinctly foreign than tonight. My Australian coworker and I were the only Westerners in a seemingly neverending sea of Japanese. It’s difficult to explain the thrill of being utterly foreign. I guess it makes you feel very big (intrusive and obvious) and very small (ignorant and insignificant) at the same time. But overall people seemed genuinely pleased to see us. Yes, we did participate in the tug-of-war. It was insane. I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in something so massive. My side was winning the first minute or so, but it was all downhill from there. While we managed to hold our ground for a while (chanting “Jouyasanou” with each pull – except for me, who in my head heard “ja sugoi!”), eventually we were quite literally dragged down the slushy street. The tug-of-war lasted about half an hour. I’m exhausted!

Afterwards I treated myself to a chocolate-covered banana. Not because I particularly like them (in fact, this was the first one I’d ever tried), but because it reminded me of the awesome show Arrested Development and the frozen banana stand. (Actually, it didn’t taste all that great…) If you’d like to see some pictures of the Ootsunahiki (not mine, I didn’t bring my camera) click here or here.

It’s official: I LOVE snowboarding. I went for the second time last weekend and had a blast. The picture below was taken my first time in December. I may look happy, and I was, in the beginning, but come the end of the day I was pretty cranky – after all, I was basically on my butt (or face!) all day. I fell SO many times. Last weekend was much better. Fewer spills, more thrills. I’m getting the hang of it, how to shift your weight, angle your body, etc, but I need a lot more practice. I love the feeling – rushing down the side of a mountain, the air stinging your face, even that lurch in your gut as you topple forward, somersaulting several times before coming to a jarring stop. Unfortunately, this winter is the mildest Akita has seen for decades. While there is snow in the mountains, I don’t know how much longer it’ll last. I’m going to TRY to go every weekend this month, but it’s difficult arranging weekend excursions, especially when you have to rely on others (students with cars). Plus, there are other things going on – lots of winter festivals. Next Sunday I’m going to the famous Namahage festival in Oga (peninsula north of Akita City), and possibly a candy festival as well. Yum!

In other news, it’s counseling week right now, which means fewer regular classes, but lots of ’special’ lessons to keep us teachers busy. Today I taught a cooking class. ME. While I love snowboarding I decided this morning while frantically making a mess out of my kitchen that I hate cooking. Something always goes wrong! Luckily, my stuffed potatoes were palatable. Barely. My next class will feature salmon pasta, I’ve decided. I mean, how can you mess up pasta? But now that I’ve said that, I’ll find a way I’m sure. Ah well. At least it was fun to eat the food the students brought.