Niigata Reflections
As I’m sitting in the steamy outdoor section of the Oosado onsen hotel on Sado Island, Niigata, I’m struck by the vast beauty of the Japan Sea and the snow-covered garden that serves as the only barrier between the hotel and the coast. The scenic view engulfs me in a calm serenity despite the frigid temperature. It’s a crisp minus four degrees, and the hot, bubbling onsen water feels like a warm blanket that heats me up to the neck, but not beyond. The wind is blowing in my face and head as I peak just far enough above the water to allow me to breathe; a wispy tickle rather than a forceful shove, but freezing nonetheless.
Where is Niigata and why am I here you ask? Not the typical winter vacation spot for someone from Himeji, it’s true. In fact, many of my fellow foreigner friends and neighbors have never even heard of Niigata. I certainly hadn’t before, and I’ve been in Japan for almost 3 years. After all, there are hundreds of other destinations in Japan that would be just as attractive, exciting, enjoyable, and more accessible, such as Kyoto, Mt. Rokkou, Lake Biwa, Nagano, Beppu, or even Tokyo. So why am I in Niigata? Simple– my wife won the AEON MaxValu lottery. A little over a year ago, AEON ran a contest to promote the use of the WAON card at their MaxValu stores. For every 10,000 yen spent using the WAON card, the shopper got one entry into the lottery. My wife spent enough for 3 entries, and, as the Japanese know so well, the third time is bingo (sandome no shojiki). I knew this phrase previously from my two failed attempts to pass the driving test to get my Japanese license (a respectable number considering some of the horror stories I’ve heard), but this time it had a little different meaning for me.
We received a notification in the mail in late November informing us that we had won an all-expenses-paid overnight vacation package to Niigata. It sounded nice enough, but I wasn’t really too excited until I checked out the link for the hotel. The Oosado Hotel is perched on the cliff of Kasuga Cape overlooking the Japan Sea. It’s a traditional Japanese ryokan featuring an outdoor onsen with a spectacular view. Our prize package included round-trip airfare for two, tour bus around Niigata for sightseeing, overnight stay at the Oosado Hotel, a tour of the historical Sado Island gold mine, a visit to a magnificent shrine in the Niigata countryside, and two scrumptious crab meals (dinner at the hotel and lunch at the fish market). An added bonus was that we were allowed to take our one-year-old son Thatcher with us for no extra charge. The only part we were responsible for was getting to and from Itami Airport and any souvenirs or drinks we wanted to buy.
So that’s how I got here. Now I’m relaxing in the outdoor onsen with no one else around. It feels nice to be by myself for a brief moment. That doesn’t happen too often these days with Thatcher and everything else going on. As I contemplate the exquisite view and the soothing warmth of the friendly onsen water, my Literature nature creeps to the surface and I suddenly recall The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, a short story that I used to teach to my high school students back in Arizona. It’s a charming little tale about family values, community cohesiveness, crops…and rocks. The interloping thought sends me on a tangent of comparison; my life as a full-time high school and part-time college teacher in Arizona, and my life now as a teacher in Japan at Himeji High School and Shogai University adult learning center. The contrasts are stark, but there are some similarities too.
America is a country of individuals where people strive to excel and ‘be the best you can be’ as the slogan goes, whereas Japan is community-oriented, much like the little rural village that serves as the setting for The Lottery. In my Arizona teaching job I had my own room with a desk, computer, and television– my office if you will. In Japan I sit in a large room where my desk is just one of the many teacher desks crammed together like small plants in a potting soil block. America is the land of the free, where you have certain birthrights or entitlements; Japan is the land of the rising sun where people are reverent towards nature and strive to be at one with their surroundings. In America if you don’t like something you can protest, sue, or raise support and awareness; in Japan if you don’t like something or you are wronged in some way, you try not to say anything, accept the situation, and move on with whatever you were doing before.
My American roots start to intercede in my thoughts and lead to the idea of destiny or fate. Why should I win this amazing vacation? Did I deserve this when so many people are still suffering from the triple disaster in March of last year? Could I be doing something more instead of enjoying this blessing? Am I taking advantage of the situation as a foreigner? I’m suddenly taken back to The Lottery; the concept of belief systems and social constructs come into focus. Many Americans take for granted the quality of life they are born into simply because they don’t know anything different. I was just as guilty of this as the next person until I came to Japan and realized that some cultures have value systems that don’t focus on the achievement of wealth, fame, and status. Like a flash of lightning I understand. Then my eyes refocus on the Japan Sea, the snow, and the clouds rolling softly across the vast blue sky. I sit upright against the faux rocks and breathe deeply, filling my lungs with fresh sea air. I feel peace and contentment as I settle on the most important realization; the lottery I have won isn’t a vacation package to Niigata, it isn’t coming to Japan and experiencing a wonderfully unique and vibrant culture, and it isn’t being an American and growing up in the richest country in the world for the time period I inhabit. The lottery is life–the most precious gift anyone can receive.
