Immersed in a different culture by traveling to the countryside of Japan

The trip to Izumo with 9 students and the other teacher Sanna Siltanen has been such a wonderful experience. Four of the students had been to Izumo once. The other two girls’ older sister attended the same trip many years ago. Everyone in the group is very independent and gets along with their host families, therefore, Sanna and I had more time to experience the countryside of Japan during its special harvest season.

Izumo located in Shimane prefecture (orange colored)

Sanna grew up with Miyazaki movies and holds a profound vocabulary of food categories, religion practice, trees and marine organism in nature even before she traveled to the new place. Whereas, I learn after I see, smell and touch the new things. During the trip, she often felt that she went back to her childhood. I often had the feeling that: wow, this is so interesting! Why do they do this?  

I picked up 20 pictures to review this trip. I intended to use Pechakucha but I have failed 5 times after trying to upload them. So here I am.

Welcome meeting at Kirara cottage

I have been impressed by the details of the welcome sign made by the host family for Katri and Rinna, especially the grandfather in the picture. He was so attentive to many of our gather-up meetings and tried to follow all the speeches with his pen and paper.

After the welcome meeting, one of the host mothers came to speak Chinese with me and I felt thrilled. :)

Kirara Taki and Kirara cottage (very nordic style buildings) signify the close tie between Taki town (which merged into Izumo city in 2005) and Kalajoki.

Izumo Taisha in light rain

Izumo Taisha is one of the most ancient and important Shinto shrines in Japan. This is the good start point to get to know Shinto, Shinto festival, history of Izumo etc. In October of the lunar calendar, a festival is held to welcome all the gods to Izumo Grand Shrine. The huge straw rope hanging in front of the Taisha is made of dried rice straws (click the link if you want to know about it).

Hananba (花馬)　多伎藝神社祭礼　10月19日

Hananba is an annual festival praying for the safety of the village and the fertility of the grain. The Hananba has been carried abour 10 km until they arrived Taki Shirine (click this link if you want to know more about it).

Kagura (神楽 (かぐら), "God-Entertainment") 

Kagura is a specific type of Shinto theatrical dance. It is a living tradition, with rituals tied to the rhythms of the agricultural calendar, thriving primarily in parts of Shimane prefecture. All the performers are primary school or middle school students. Local people came with abundant seasonal food. We were invited to join one of the family's dinner table.

Both Hananba and Kagura have their preservation associations. Local people make their contribution to keep traditional rituals surviving. I wonder why.

Matsue Matsuri (松江祭)　鼕行列 2019年10月20日 

Matsue is the capital of Shimane prefecture. It's about 2 hours drive from Taki. We visited Matsue Castle and enjoyed the sightseeing boat tour before stopping in front of the Matsuri Taiko (Drum) show. I was impressed by a young girl shouting in front of the audience: "一生懸命 頑張ります (I will do ALL my best...)" ! For more information, you may click this link. There you will see how magnificent it was.

Happy gem mining

Gem mining is an experiential learning opportunity. We paid for 30 mins time to dig out as many gems as we can from the sand. If we found letter E and L, we would receive special gifts. It at first sounded very childish but we couldn't stop but digging more and more until the last second! I couldn't been more focused than that 30 mins. I also realized how appreciable I was towards all the gems dug by my own hands.

Japanese-Finnish Community Dinner

The community dinner was prepared by members from Finnish-Japanese association. All the students and teachers who traveled to Kalajoki last August came with their families and all the hosting families during this trip were also there. Students and teachers gave reports of their previous trip to all the attendees. Combing with the Quiz of Finland and performances, "ice" was broken and everyone felt like being at home in the end.

Visiting Taki Elementary School

Visiting local Fig Factory

Fig is a special local product of Izumo. We visited a fig factory in Taki. We were very surprised to see all the products are packed into single plastic bag. In addition, all kinds of snacks are packed in single plastic bags. We asked how much sustainable development goals have been mentioned and implemented in their education and economic development. Tanja, Finnish people who has been working in Izumo for 4 years, explained to us that: because of the climate and the humidity in the air, processed food has to be packed like this.

Izumo is also famous for persimmon and plum. They normally hang the persimmons inside their yard. They steam the plums and immerse them in the salty wind coming from Sea of Japan. If local people burn the rice straw, the plum will also taste like smoked food.

Visiting local kindergarten

Travel in densha (tram)

One of the best part of this trip was taking Densha with Sanna and exploring Izumo with brave hearts.

Handcrafting

Trying flower arrangement in Taki middle school

When students were doing origami, bembukorento, kalligrafia, we entered into the flower arrangement classroom, where Tanja, Sanna and I attended Japanese ikebana. It was very soothing and delicate moment.

Tea ceremony in Izumo-Nishi high school

Attending the tea ceremony with both Finnish students and Japanese students has been a very special experience. Tanja again, played a very important and unique role there. In different circumstances, we have been told that she is more "Japanese" than many Japanese people; she invests heavily on Kimono; she takes part in her tea ceremony class every Sunday. However, I didn't really get that point until we spent the time in tea room. Not mention that none of the Japanese high school students in the tea room had been to tea ceremony before. Tanja gave clear explanations about the tea room settings which reflect the changes of different seasons, the manners, the arts.

As one of the local teacher said: it created such a special space and time for all the students.

In summer kimono (yukata)

We wore Yukata for the tea ceremony while Japanese students were in their school uniforms.

Sanna's Karelian Pie classroom in Izumo middle school

When we visited Izumo Middle School, Sanna taught Japanese school to make Karelian Pie. It is my first time to make Karelian Pie as well. I did it in Japan. :)

Home party: Nabemono

Home parties have been one of the top memories during this trip. We have been invited to 2 members' house. I feel "overwhelmed" by their hospitality. On the tables, we got to know each other more. It was stunning to know their ages and to watch how active they are in their local community. We met many members who have been within Izumo Japanese-Finnish Association nearly 20 years and it is admirable to think how much effort they have been put into obtaining the sister city relationship between Izumo and Kalajoki.

Home party II: oden and sushi

Pick up shell and fossil

Walking on the beach and picking up shells and stones is another highlight in this trip. Great thanks to Sanna for her idea and accompany.

It is such a great pleasure to travel into the countryside of Japan. It is a piece of land I probably wouldn't touch if I travel by myself. In addition to the great food, refreshing view, rich cultural events, we learned that public school teachers have to rotate every two years inside their prefecture. We also got to meet some people from The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme and I was somehow surprised by local students' English language level in spite of this 33-year-old project. More surprisingly, I learned more about Brazil and Japanese Brazilians during this trip. I will use the sentence which I have been used in the whole trip to summarize this report: Thanks to Finnish and Japanese society, I encountered such a great experience!