Spring Break 08

Spring Break

Sure, I had a spring break. My spring break didn't include any beaches, tans, or any vacation whatsoever, but it did include three weeks of no lessons. That's precisely the reason I've been able to get up to date on my blogging. For the last two weeks, there haven't been any official classes, though students still come for pseudo-optional supplemental classes. While there's been no need for me to come to work, I'd still have to take vacation days to do something. That's fine with me; it lets me stay in the loop. A couple of the other JETs on the island have been on standby mode: their schools don't require them to come in, and they stay at home in a sort of on-call capacity, but they have to take vacation days if they want to leave the island.

The two JETs in the middle, though, apparently were told they didn't have to report at all for two weeks, and they took this opportunity to go to Korea. No vacation days necessary; they just took off. I think it's awesome that they beat the system, and I've learned from them all the details on how to get there. The ferry to Korea apparently only costs $50 each way, which means it costs half as much to go to Korea as it does to go to the nearest city in Japan.

I used my abundant spare time to brainstorm lessons for next year, update this blog, upload my pictures, and study. I've also been able to play piano for the first time in months, since it's finally warm enough for me to feel my fingers in the music room.

One day last week, one of the English teachers came to me and asked if I was busy. When I told him no, he said he was going to help the archery club, and invited me to come along. So I did. I pass by the archery range every day on my walk home, but I've never seen them actually practicing. There are about fifteen students in the club (that's since the third-years left), and they, like every other student in a club, practice every day, including weekends.

Wikipedia gives a pretty thorough description of it here, but I'll still describe what I saw. The bow is about 2 meters tall (about 6 1/2 feet, for you non-metric users), which makes it taller than the archer. The arrows are about three feet long, and are made out of aluminum. The archer wears traditional garb called hakama, and wears a special glove on the drawing hand.

Firing an arrow involves a pretty intricate series of movements. The article describes them better than I can. I have no other martial arts experience, so the only thing I can compare it to is golf. I don't mean to cheapen the substance of archery--I just mean the only other sport I've seen with such attention to detail in style is golf. Every part of the draw has a set form, through the stance, raising the bow, drawing it back a little, the full draw, and the release.

I did a lot of watching before the teacher offered to show me how. The students are practicing for an upcoming match, so I couldn't use the actual range, but he took me outside and taught me the basic movements. He also brought a training bow, which is basically a plastic grip with a thick rubber band attached. You hold the plastic in your left hand and draw the rubber band with your right. After practicing for about twenty minutes, I was apparently doing much better, though my hands got tired pretty fast. Later on, he taught me how exactly to grip the bow with my left hand (which again reminded me of golf), which ends up putting all the resistance on that web of skin between your thumb and the rest of your hand. My arms, chest, and back didn't really get fatigued yet, but that part of my left hand was bruised at the end of practice.

I like learning the technique, and watching the group practice. Just like with golf, though, taking practice swings is only fun for so long--I really want to try firing. I should probably stop comparing it to golf. The teacher told me that, when the incoming freshmen get in and start learning, I can join in with them if I want to. He told me the students have to pay for their arrows, glove, and hakama, which all totals about $500. He mentioned later that if I really want to learn, I can invest in the materials, but otherwise I can practice with someone else's glove. I'd consider putting the money into it if I had the time or desire to practice that much, but I neither can nor want to do it more than a couple of days a week. At first, I couldn't put my finger on exactly why, but I think I've figured it out: with the weather being so pretty now, I just want to go out and play golf. When I get my car, I'm gonna find the rumored six-hole course on the island. Until then, it's fun to learn archery.