I fought a bear!

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I had heard buzz around the dorms the previous week that this retreat was excruciatingly boring and painful. After initially believing the rumors, I made little attempt to turn in my permission slip to attend. However, while "routinely" visiting the Humanities office, Sean and I were corned into signing up. We were trapped. As each day passed, we dreaded the retreat more and more...eventually Saturday came..

[End Flashback Sequence]

After Thursday’s night of burgers and shenanigans, I woke up Friday morning went to class and just loafed around. Later that night, I stuffed my suitcase full of the essentials needed for the international retreat the following morning. I woke up Saturday very tired with only 30 minutes to spare. I hopped in the shower, lathered up, rinsed off, and got dressed liked a madman with 20 minutes to spare. After collecting my thoughts and belongings, I took a deep breath and made my way to the meeting place.

Everybody checked in by 9:45 a.m. and we shuffled onto the bus. This bus was quite different, however. Forgoing all fire and safety codes, we sat two to a seat with another person sitting in the aisle. The Japanese apparently with their ingenious efficiency figured out a way to cut transportation in half by placing an individual in a handy little fold out seat within the aisle. Thankfully, I got there early enough to stake out the prime seating located in the back.

After about an hour we arrived to the hostel in Takuchi. We first checked in then proceeded to go into a lecture hall where we carefully learned how to make a Japanese style bed using a scale model of a futon; I kid you not. After 30 or so odd minutes of lectures, we were whisked off to our sleeping quarters which actually turned out to not be quite so bad. We then headed to lunch...

As soon as lunch was over we went back to the lecture hall, where we sat listening to about 4 hours of lectures on how to live in Yamaguchi, how to recycle, and, my personal favorite, how to follow traffice rules. During the first third of the lectures, we learned about how to register as aliens, how to open a bank account, and how to apply for health insurance. All topics that would have been useful the first week, not the fourth week. It was rather silly.

After the introductions, the next round of lectures consisted of how to comply with Japan's unnecessarily complex recycling program. For example, in order to recycle milk cartons there are six steps.

Guidelines for recycling in Japan (Part one)

First, wash out the carton using hot water.

Secondly, cut one side of the carton so that the milk carton is one long sheet.

Third, hang the cartons outside by clothespin to dry.

Fourth, bundle up the flattened cartons.

Fifth, tie them together with twine.

Sixth, place into corresponding trash receptacle.

There were plenty more where that came from, but that was one of my favorites. Following the 30 minute lecture on recycling, we were treated to the traffic presentation complete with workers in crisp blue uniforms. The rules were obvious, but different from the US. Apparently in the US, we drive on the wrong side of the road. Mental note taken...

The best part of the traffic demonstration following me being volunteered to walk a straight line in beer goggles was the traffic accident. What, you ask? Well, after the PowerPoint presentation, we were treated to a "shocking" display of what it looks like to be hit by a car. One of the workers held a dummy by a string, while the other proceeded to drive and hit the dummy full speed dead on. The dummy was launched a good 40 feet. And at the risk of sounding morbid, I laughed my ass off. I wish I could show you the video I took of how silly it was. Maybe I have a warped since of humor or maybe you just had to be here.

The rest of the day was filled with a group Frisbee golf match among other things. Folks, not to brag, but I won America the gold. I went -3 on six holes and kicked my group's, made of up Japanese, Chinese, and Bangladesh, collective ass. Go me!

We finished our game a little earlier than the other groups, so my group's leader took us exploring a little bit. We went away from the camp a little bit to this spot where week could see a local lake. The scenery was breathtaking. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me at the time. This is where I think I really started to enjoy myself. The finality of me being in Japan sunk in a little more and I smiled as we headed back up the mountain to dinner.

After dinner, we went to the international cultural night where we were treated to an aikido demonstration, a magic show, and various dances and songs from the representing countries. The retreat was turning out to not be such a bad thing after all and it got better as time went on.
Next, most everybody cleaned up and "went to bed" like we were supposed to. But a good chunk of us actually just walked around and had a party. We stayed up drinking and talking for a few hours and went back to bed. There was about 10-15 of us. It was actually pretty fun, talking to other international students. Everyone was pretty cool. By 12:30 or so the party had ended and people staggered home, I included, to our respective dorms and futons to wake up early the next morning.

Seven o'clock came way too quickly. I got up took a freezing cold shower because I didn't realize that the camp showers were also heated by gas. I just thought something was wrong with the shower. Silly me. Next, I got dressed and headed back to the lecture hall for the closing ceremonies and panel discussion. It was during the panel discussion that I got inspiration to keep going.

An African man, from Cameroon, who has been here for two years, spoke about his troubles when he first arrived in Japan. He spoke about the language barriers and his ability to overcome a lot of them with determination and patience. I know it sounds rather simple, but it really struck home with me. The finality of me being here for 9 more months really sunk in. I decided that I'm going to live in the now, take everything in that I can, and cherish it all. But most importantly to take what I have learned and grow from it.

After the panel discussions, we closed everything up, ate lunch and headed to a nearby national park. The scenery, again, was gorgeous and breathtaking. We explored the park for about an hour and a half then packed up and headed home.

Looking back on the experience, I was pleasantly surprised that everything turned out the way it did. I came into the event with low expectations, and, while, some of those were met it was a good experience. I’m glad I went.

If you were wondering about the title of the post; before we went we were warned numerous times about the rampant bears running amok. We were told not to stray to far from the group unless we wanted to be mauled. I, however, saw this as a challenge.

But to make things clear, I fought no bear of any sort. In fact, I did not drop kick, judo chop, or roundhouse any mammalian creature of any kind. But trust me, if I had the opportunity I would have. You have my word.

Check out the freshly posted pics...