Still quite crazy here in Japan

Not long ago I had commented on how, in Japan, one gets involved in all sorts of strange activities. Now please note, I'm really not the adventurous type. But here in countryside Japan, it would seem, there are third parties who will decide on one's interest, and willingness to participate, in just about anything. Yes indeed, and so one gets 'volunteered' into strange activities that teeter precariously between fun, on the one hand, and pure unadulterated insanity, on the other.

Ok, now I accept that I'm

'the only gaijin in the village'. 

People are bound to think about me, and wish to involve me, in whatever is happening locally. Even if my mind is elsewhere, pondering topics quite unworldly, like blogging, or particle physics, but not, definitely not, what had just transpired.

This time? Well, I became a thespian! Or maybe in keeping with my 'Little England' theme, might that be 'a Thesbian'?

Once again it's that old chestnut 'community', rearing its Gorgon like head! Community, to which I have previously conferred great benefits, and maybe now even more so, potential personal suffering. You will recall my close shave with Kendo!

Well this thesbian conversion began quite unbeknownst to me. Invited to a very local community group. One almost within spitting, but luckily just out of cursing, distance. I was told I MUST get involved in a play that my neighbours were planning. Play! Moi? But with no initial hints as to where it would all lead. Hey, I didn't speak Japanese after all, what could really be expected of me? It's just a little harmless fun I thought, with my neighbours, drinking beer, and sake, and bonding. Right?

Well the practice meetings started a month or so ago. Initially as boozy gatherings, where I wondered what was going on, due to the aforementioned Japanese and lack thereof, but it all did seem like quite harmless fun. Sure.

Then my lines grew in number. Props started appearing. Practices became more regular. But it wasn't until the last week beforehand, that I came to understand that the whole community would attend. Yes, a school theatre / sports complex full of them! Then wifey says, in final days before, 'oh, you're a, if not the, most crucial character'. "WHAAAAAT!".

So, if you wish to force feed some Japanese vocabulary and grammar into your noggin, then the fear of looking like a complete plonker in front of a whole community, it's one approach to acquiring that language!

I had some English lines which, really, could have been anything. No one would have known if I'd talked about my running buck naked through the paddy fields. But no, I said enough to please foreign ears, if do very little for their minds.

My Japanese lines I record here for posterity. A Japanese speaking part when one does not yet speak Japanese, is quite difficult if not nigh on impossible. Somehow, I got through. Apparently the audience understood me. The Japanese part at least.

ぼくわ にほんの いなかが すきです。

しぜんが たくさん あり、

ふるくて　れきし　の　ある
すばらしい　ばしょう　が　いっぱい　あります。

にほんの　よい　ところ　が　いっぱい　まなべます。

ぶろぐで　くにさきお　しょうかい　しています。

I hate to admit it, but it was fun. I even received an ovation for simply saying "Good morning" to the audience, as I worked my English lines! The Japanese lines, well I won't translate, I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader, so you can only guess at how difficult this all was. For the poor old mute, and all but illiterate, cycling guyjin of Kunisaki.

[TODAY Sat Mar 3 2012 8:30pm : OMG I'm on cable TV! Yes, even a camera crew were out that night. Oh, when will it all end ;-)  ]