POLESTAR HOKKAIDO
MAY 2018
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TABLE OF CONTENTS • EDITOR’S NOTE • PRESIDENT’S CORNER • LETTER FROM THE FIRST YEAR REP • WILD EDIBLES WITH DAVE DILLING • STRAP ON: THE HIGH SCHOOL ALL-GIRL ROCK BAND THAT YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF.
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A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: The long grueling winter has finally ended; and what seemingly was spring, is coming to an end as well. Living in Hokkaido, this seasonal ephermality is something I have come to terms with. I do think that because the subjectively good weather comes and goes quickly, we can enjoy these moments more fervently. With only a few months left before August, we will be losing some great members of our small community. But with the departure of some, many new faces will arrive as well! Let’s be sure to welcome everyone with warmth and inclusion! I’m sure we have another great lot of people coming! In other words, Please continue to support Polestar with submissions! This month, I received many submissions, and wouldn’t have been able to create this without everyone’s support! Once again, send me your articles, photos, life stories, etc. I promise that I will try to find a spot for it! -Alex
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President’s Corner Devan Hawkins Hello good people of HAJET! Welcome back to another edition of Polestar and another instance of my rambling (also known as the President’s Corner). Where I left off, the boy had left his old classmates and neighborhood behind and was on to bigger and better things. But what did “bigger and better things” actually look like? Well, let’s ask the boy. High school is weird. All of it. For various reasons, the beginning is especially strange. The beginning is where you’re confronted with loads of new information; things that you thought would look different. Things that you were warned about and things that you never knew existed. The list goes on and on. For the boy, he quickly learned how unacclimated he was to it all. He had spent his whole life up until that point with his head down, pushing through the days until he could go somewhere better. But, he never thought of what ‘better’ looked like. Apparently it looked liked confusion-- in the form of skinny jeans and drinking alcohol out of paper bags. Although there were many things that seemed similar before, things in high school were definitely an improvement. People were more mature (even if not by much) and talked about futures that didn’t revolve around being screwed over by life. This was the kind of environment the boy wanted.”
The boy met other students who knew vast amounts of information about: YouTube videos and celebrities, drugs and politics, sex and video games, and other kid stuff. He had a lot to learn, and beginnings are the time to. Beginnings are that moment when you walk into a new room and you look around at everything for the first time, taking it all in. So the boy asked questions and listened to answers, even if he didn’t agree with them. He let his world grow ever so slightly, but he never forgot how he got there and why he wanted to be there. He kept away from all the “bad stuff” and “bad students” and did his work; until one day in high school, he made a new friend. I’ll end it there for now, leaving you with questions about this new figure and why they’re important. Suspense isn’t the reason I stopped there; it was to remind you that you too have a story just like this with your JET experience. Everyone had a first day here on the island and I’m sure the feelings of disorientation and wonder were just as prominent for you too. The coming of spring is a time of beginnings and a great time to reflect on your own journey here on JET. And for anyone brand new to the island, remember: it’s how you proceed from now that’ll truly form your experience. Until next time,
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A Letter from the First Year Rep
Nivedh Sreejit Hello HAJET!
It feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve written for the Polestar, but I’m slowly
thawing from the winter and getting back in the swing of things. I thought I’d share a bit of my Golden Week with you guys and hope to hear your stories in return when we next talk. With Golden Week behind us, I hope the lot of you got to travel and/or experience something outside of your respective placements, as I find Hokkaido has so much to offer in that regard. I spent the first quarter of my Golden Week travelling through Kitami onto Akan with a few of my pals. Akan, is home to the largest Ainu settlement (Kotan) in Hokkaido, and it is here that we got to experience interesting new cuisine and interact with vendors selling Ainu crafts. I also enjoyed walking around Lake Akan, having an impromptu foot-bath and being hypnotized by the steady grumbling of the Bokke mud pools in the area. My visit to Akan concluded perfectly, as some of us elected to go to a Onsen at one of the resorts overlooking the lake. The entry fee was exorbitant, but the view was incredible and I left Akan feeling thoroughly satisfied. If you haven’t visited yet, word on the corner is that HAJET will be planning a major event in that area in the fall, so keep your ears peeled for that.
Arriving back in Monbetsu, I switched gears in a major way by prepping for a
military-style Kendo camp in Monbetsu. Held by the local community center, children from Kitami, Shimakawa, Nayoro, Monbetsu and other towns, would be travelling to Monbetsu to train Kendo for a period of 3 nights and 4 days. 6 a.m. runs and an unrelenting schedule of kendo practice (keiko) with meals in between, left the majority of us limping and bandaged by the end. But participating in the event with many local kids and senseis from all around Hokkaido was an extraordinarily rewarding experience. I hope that me being an English speaking foreigner in this environment, added a sense of diversity to the event.
I had kids from all over the island speaking to me in English and including me in activities. Through the strong efforts made by both senseis and students to exchange culture (through explaining various norms and kendo form) and through the attitude of group motivation as we pushed each other through our grueling schedule, I also appreciated this communal and welcoming attitude of the Budo (the martial way) practitioners. The latter point was made apparent to me on Friday morning, as the junior high school students (and I) were told to start our day with a 14km run; which amounted to the group of us who had just survived day 1, struggling to finish the second leg without breaks. The elementary students were asked to run about 7kms and all of us were sweating and yelling “ganba!” as we passed one another. I left camp exhausted enough to sleep for days, but with a renewed sense of community belonging and a lot of improvement in my kendo. I also realized that keeping a consistent physical activity regime has its benefits on my mental health and motivation out here in the inaka. This experience has renewed my motivation to keep to my workout schedule.With that in mind, while I was in Kitami, I took the opportunity to have my bike repaired (with the help of my generous and dear friend) and tuned up for the upcoming season of cycling. I’m psyched to get back out on the road again, do some exploring of the surrounding areas on my bike, and start training for the upcoming HEC Bike Relay! We’re about a month away from the start date at the point of me writing this. With all the regional event reps on board, there’s an exciting hum of activity as the routes and logistics are being planned. I am really looking forward to getting on a bike and riding with some of you rowdy Northern ALT’s at the Northern relay, and I hope you join us at your local event. Let’s raise some money for HEC and explore Hokkaido with HAJET! Ciao for now, Nivedh Sreejit HAJET First Year Rep. / Secretary
Facebook links for 2018 Bike Relay Events North East
Southwest Central Sapporo
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山菜(さんさい):
In Search of Wild Edibles
Dave Dilling
No matter where I have found myself in the world, I`ve always loved searching for wild edibles. Whether it was hunting sassafras roots and ramps in Appalachia; cloudberries and blueberries in Finland; or King Boletes in the Rocky Mountains; foraging has helped connect me to Nature on a deep level. Going to the forest has always felt like going home. So, when I first arrived five years ago in Hokkaido, it was only natural for me to continue my passion here. In Japan, wild vegetables are called “Sansai” or mountain vegetables. One of my favorite sansai in Hokkaido is known as Gyojyaninniku. Here is a little info about it:
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Strapon: The High School All-Girl Rock Band That You’ve Never Heard Of.
Max Alec I’m partial to telling wiggly, windy, colorful and often clumsy stories. Going from A to B without recounting all the emotional turmoil in the middle, is a bit beige and every good story includes one or two tangents. So here is a true account about how I came to know “Strapon”. It was my second or third week in Japan and my first visit to a new High School. Bright faced and bushy tailed, I skipped up the entrance steps and let myself in. That’s a complete lie; I was probably sweating profusely by this point and still not adjusting to time difference. Finding myself in the staff room, I was greeted by a Laurel and Hardy duo of JTEs. The taller had a small mole above his lip, which I couldn’t keep my wandering eyes off of, and the younger immediately asked me if I wanted to go to the convenience store so he could chain smoke in his car. We were onto a winning start indeed. The school has about 70 students in all. Two students in the soccer club and three in the basketball. It’s one of those schools.Something more popular, I was told after taking my seat next to the music teacher, was the new soundproofed recording studio that had been built. Soundproofed enough that we couldn’t hear the singers or guitars of the school bands, but it later became clear, that is wasn’t enough to muffle the drums. At least I had a rhythm to mark to. After my 3 classes of the day were done and dusted, I slinked away from the staff room with the music teacher, who guided me to the source of the banging of snares and toms. He’s a young guy, with black rimmed Ray Bans and slicked back hair. He’s slim, but seemingly lives on a diet of full fat coke and Haribos. He and 11-year-old me would probably get on like a house on fire.
Inside the booth were four 1st years, jamming to KANA-BOON’s “ない ものねだり”. I gingerly poked my head around the booth window, trying my utmost not to interrupt. The lead singer wore a pair of small round glasses and was jumping around in her white socks, with a turquoise fender in hand. The bass player had her hair in a tight bun and was humming harmonies, whilst the drummer I had heard from my desk, was releasing her frustration one beat at a time. The lead guitarist began a deafening solo, before everything halted. They had spotted my massive gammon head in the window. “Maksu... wassaaap!” the lead singer shouted. “Sorry” I shouted. “I don’t want to stop you!” Instead I was dragged into the room and given a precarious little chair to sit on in the corner. I listened to the band practice for the next half an hour, and promised myself to watch them the next time they play a live gig. The audience of one excitedly clapped after every rendition, as they practiced their set for an upcoming event in Sapporo. Every so often, the music teacher would pick up the sticks or a guitar and correct their form. This seemed like serious business. When the music teacher and I got back to the office, I found that the English teachers had been dragged into a meeting. Instead of waiting, I asked the music teacher with limited English, and my non existent Japanese, what the band was called. “Tasukigake”, he replied. “What does that mean?!” I asked with my face skewed in confusion. After a lot of humming and ahhing, head scratching and chin stroking, the teacher grabbed my backpack. “This”, he said, pointing at the shoulder strap. “But not here...here”, this time pointing to his chest and shoulder. “Not here, here.” “This?”, I double checked, grabbing the bag. “Yes, but not off... On” “Strap?” “Yes yes yes! Strap!” “Strap...on?” “Hai hai”, he replied, pointing at me and nodding. “No it’s fucking not”, I chuckled in disbelief. “Strapon?!”
Strapon: The High School All-Girl Rock Band That You’ve Never Heard Of.
continued “Strap...on.”, he said, emphasizing each syllable. “That’s literally the most rock and roll name for a High School rock band I’ve ever heard. Do you know what ‘Strapon’ is in English?” That was met with another face of confusion. “It’s…”, I started, knowing that I was delving deep into unchartered language barrier territory. “It’s a big plastic penis that people wear”, I explained, with some unholy gestures I’m not proud of. “Big plastic...penisu?”, he said as his eyes widened. I began to laugh hysterically as a tear or two ran from my eyes. “Strapon? Google it”, I said through giggles, “but delete your history before your wife or girlfriend sees”. “Oooohhhh”, he started giggling too, passing the phone to the young and similarly humored P.E. teacher beside us, displaying a really unsavory photo from what looked like an online sex shop. “Plastic penisu!”, the PE teacher shouted at the phone. The music teacher then pointed towards the PE teacher. “He is pornstar”, he said flippantly. At this point I was in fits. Bent double. Hands on knees and struggling to breathe. And then the JTEs came in asking what the hullabaloo was all about. “Please explain. What does Tasukigake mean?” “It’s like a strap that runs around your body to hold up your kimono sleeves”, the older teacher replied, nonchalantly. “They used to be worn during martial arts or doing art, but now kids tie jumpers around their shoulders and call it Tasukigake” “I’ve just been told it meant ‘Strapon’” I said while wiping the tears from my cheeks. “What’s a strapon?” He asked.
今月の俳句
かげろふや 猫にのまるる 水たまり
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