Day 48: Last Practice

Today is Saturday, but I was still at school by 8:00am. We had our last formal swimming practice for the long distance swim camp in the Pacific Ocean. I was not sure what to expect, but I was happy to find that many of the parents I know were there as volunteers for the camp. It is nice to run into people who you actually know; when I first arrived I did not know anyone in Kyoto. I have been training for swimming, but I quickly found that the training may have been unnecessary. When I practice swimming I swim at a fairly quick pace and really push myself to the limit, but swimming with the kids is quite slow. I was surprised to find the biggest challenge in merely staying afloat swimming at such a slow pace. I am assigned to swim with three of the four groups of students, and each group swam separately today, just as they will at the swimming camp called Enei Gaashuku.

While one part of each group was swimming, the other students sat along side the pool and kept the pace with a drum and a chant, “enya kora.” I am not sure of the spelling, but this is what is sounded like. I asked Sister Beatrice what the meaning of the phrase is, but it turns out that it really doesn’t mean anything. The saying is just something that is often associated with sailors and traveling at sea. After discussing it with Sister Beatrice and Mr. Yukita, I found that it may be most closely related to the phrase, “heave hoe.” Despite the distance of the swim in the sea, I think it is an amazing experience for the students as well as for me.

After the swimming practice, I was picked up by Yoko Arai and we drove to here jewelry store closer to downtown Kyoto. Yoko runs the building and the second floor is a nail salon. We had lunch on the second floor with Misato, Misaki, and one of the employees, Mary. The jewelry store is very nice and the Arai’s must be very organized to be able to handle such large scale businesses. Mr. Arai runs some restaurants and Pachinko parlors around Kyoto. In fact, the Pachinko parlor where my brothers and I quickly lost 1000 yen is one of the parlors run by him! Yoko, Misato, Misaki, and I went to the Takashiyama department store to shop for a yukata (simple summer-style kimono) for Miyuki to wear during the Gion Matsuri. First, I bought a pair of swimming goggles, but then we went to look at yukatas. While Yoko picked out some things for Miyuki, I wandered around the store. I checked out the kimono section and was shocked to see the prices of the kimono pieces. The belt-like band of cloth which ties in the back of the kimono is called an obi. Obi are very elegant, hand-woven, beautiful pieces of cloth. Some are even woven with some gold thread! Most of them were a few thousand dollars, but I found some as much as $10,000!!!!

We went grocery shopping and then headed home. Mary, the woman who works for Yoko, came over to eat dinner with us. She seems to speak some English and her and I spoke a bit. After dinner, we started watching one of the movies we rented yesterday, the March of the Penguins. It was only Misaki and I, and I found out immediately that the movie was in French! Still, it was interesting to watch, and the movie doesn’t always shave dialogue anyway. It is a fascinating movie, and it makes me wonder how they got such amazing footage of the penguins. Misaki soon fell asleep, so Miyuki came in and changed the movie to Terminator 3. We watched the whole movie together, and then I carried Misaki up to her bed. Children that young are so cute and their joy and excitement seems to spread to everyone around them.