Tristan Marquis – Blog 2: がんばっています！ (Doing My Best!)

Wow, can’t believe it has already been almost a month! It feels hard to believe that I am already 1/3^rd of the way through my internship when there is so much left for me to look forward to. These first few weeks have been a whirlwind of new places, new faces, and new challenges. From my first steps in Matsuyama to the business trip up to Hokkaido, I have been balancing moments of excitement with plenty of nerves and stress. And of course, my Japanese language skills have been put to the test as well.

First Impressions of Matsuyama

After getting settled into my new home, I was finally able to explore Matsuyama. My first impressions of the city are that it’s peaceful. The city is surrounded by lush mountains, fish swim in the canals near the house, and around every corner is a handful of bicyclists (definitely didn’t almost get hit). The typical noises and hustle of big Japanese cities are replaced with the whirrs of cicadas during the day and the chirps of crickets at night. The thin sliding door in my bedroom means I can hear the tranquil roar of heavy rain as clearly as if I were standing right outside.

The intense summer heat lingering into September meant that I spent many of my early days exploring the city in the evening and at night when it was cooler. While it meant that many areas and stores were already closed, there was still a lot to see. Izakayas were beginning to open, Okaido and Gintengai were always lit, and the trams would still be running. There was a small shop that seemed to be working on a Mikoshi (portable shrine/palanquin) only after the sun went down, signifying that a festival was around the corner. As the weeks went on, more and more decorations would pop up around the city in preparation for what I soon found out to be the Matsuyama Autumn Festival (松山秋祭り – Matsuyama Akimatsuri). While it hasn’t happened yet, I am really excited to be talking about it in my next blog post!

After my week of getting acclimated to Matsuyama, it was time to truly begin my internship! I learned that a lot of my work during my placement is going to revolve around presenting what I have learned about disaster preparedness in Japan and applying that to my knowledge of Canadian disaster preparedness initiatives. This entails joining Shiba-san for conferences, listening in on and participating in lectures, and synthesizing this information to adapt it into a presentation. Along the way, I will be working with Shiba-san and other professors at Ehime University, as well as collaborating with students within the faculty. Yet by the end of my first day of work, it was already time to prepare to leave Matsuyama!

Hokkaido: A familiar breeze, a Conference, and a Mongolian Lamb

We stayed not too far from Odori Park, a vast green space that cuts right through the center of Sapporo City, overlooked by Sapporo TV Tower and filled with fountains and sculptures nestled among the park’s greenery and flowers. At the time, the city was also hosting the Sapporo Autumn Fest (さっぽろオータムフェスト), a big celebration that spanned across every section of the park and was filled with food stalls that highlight the best regional specialties that Hokkaido has to offer. While we didn’t go to the festival till one of the last days in Hokkaido, I sadly did not get to try as many foods as I would’ve liked, as everything was so expensive! I still had an amazing time, and the food that I did try was phenomenal!

Speaking of food in Hokkaido, my goodness, they have so many regional specialties! On the first night in Sapporo, Shiba-san took me and Kakegawa-san out for yakiniku and ramen. However, it wasn’t just any yakiniku that we were trying. We HAD to get Jingisukan (ジンギスカン). The dish is fundamentally just Japanese grilled mutton/lamb that is only really found in Hokkaido, but has recently started to gain more popularity in other parts of Japan. However, what I found so interesting about this dish is its name. Jingisukan is the Japanese transliteration of Genghis Khan, and the only explanation I can find for this name is that it was often believed that the inventor of the dish was inspired by grilled mutton dishes of Mongolian cuisine and brought the practice over to Hokkaido. Thus, leading to the dish becoming associated with the former Khagan of the Mongol Empire.

After what felt like an insane amount of food, the professor still wanted to get more! We ended up in an alley filled with amazing neon lights, lanterns, and dozens of tiny ramen shops, all filled with the sounds of drunken laughter and slurping. While I don’t remember too much of how the ramen tasted, the atmosphere of that entire alleyway was fun, energetic, a bit chaotic, and unforgettable.

After a night of amazing food, shining lights, and lively alleys, it was time for the conference. Its primary focus is on natural disaster prevention, and the various ways that research, technology, science, and regional studies wrap around this topic. From here, the conference was split into two major lecture categories: lectures being presented in Japanese and lectures being presented in English. As English is my first language, I was asked to sit in and take notes on the latter of the two. A vast majority of the presentations I sat in on were coming from South Korean university students, professors, and engineers, and focused on the material science behind disaster prevention measures, disaster trends analysis, and impacts on rural communities in South Korea. Despite some of them being way above my understanding, I still learned so much about this field of research. However, one presentation stood out to me by Atalyan Tatul, an Armenian student from Ehime University (the school I’m interning for!), researching international student education and preparedness for natural disasters. He spoke about the importance of disaster education and the various barriers in Japan that prevent international students from feeling prepared in the case of an emergency. Parts of this come from the limited knowledge and awareness of disaster tools, low participation in disaster drills, and language/communication barriers. I feel like this presentation stood out to me primarily because of my experiences so far in Japan. After being here for about a month, I only learned yesterday where to go in the case of a disaster (it’s a building on campus). In addition, I feel that living in Canada, our knowledge of what to do during a natural disaster is rather low. We have fire and earthquake drills in grade school, learn about the science behind earthquakes, and that’s about it. At least for me, not many of my friends or family back in Canada have or even know what to put in an earthquake kit or where they should go in the case of a disaster. So, when an international student comes to Japan, a country where natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis can be frequent, I can empathize with how many can feel ill-prepared or lost, and why Tatul would feel so passionate about this subject. Especially when it comes to communication barriers.

Breakfast, Nerves, and Nihongo in the Spotlight

One of the most common questions I have been asked by friends and family is “how is the language barrier?” and my usual answer is “it’s been ok… but getting better!” As mentioned previously, I was under the impression that Matsuyama was going to be a very English-free part of Japan. However, it is not to that extreme. I am far from fluent in the language, but I know enough to get by on basic conversations and understand the gist of what others are saying around me. With that said, the first couple of days were a bit tough.

I really don’t like to be bothersome to others, and I have a fear of failure. This translated into me not wanting to bother others with my Japanese, as I was afraid my pronunciation or lack of vocabulary would become problematic when communicating. It led me to avoid the language where I could, such as only eating food from places with self-serve kiosks or konbini’s. I knew this was only going to make things worse the longer I delayed, but on about the fourth day, I snapped. I wanted a good breakfast for once! So, I finally mustered up the courage and went to a proper diner. No self-serve kiosk, no screen, and absolutely no English. Funnily enough, the place that I found was fully decorated as an old-fashioned English train car and had many vintage posters in English, but none of the workers spoke English, and none of the menus were in English. I was able to fully reserve a table, order, and check out in Japanese without needing to point at an item. While I am sure that I made some mistakes and know it wasn’t a huge victory or anything, I was very proud of myself for finally taking the first step! I’ve since used Japanese every day and been trying to learn as many words and phrases as I can. Some days are tougher than others when it comes to language, with the hardest day so far being when I met Shiba-san’s high school students, but regardless, the only thing I can do is try to improve and put in my best effort.

In my first week in Matsuyama, I was introduced to the Thai engineering students! They’re also here for an internship, although theirs seems to be more for general engineering work experience. They even arrived in Matsuyama on the same day as me and are leaving in December as well! When I initially met them, I was honestly thrown off. Many of the people I had met in Japan up to this point were reserved, kind, asked small questions, and overall seemed to like to keep to themselves. The Thai students, on the other hand, while also incredibly kind, were way more blunt and more personable! They were quick to ask questions about what Canada was like, what shows I liked to watch, offered snacks to me, asked for my Instagram, and wanted to include me in all their group photos. It was a refreshing change of pace from the typical day-to-day in Japan that I wasn’t ready for! However, while I was able to speak English with most of them, only about half of them knew Japanese. What this meant was that their class would need to start with the basics.

I was offered to join in on the Thai students’ first Japanese class, and wow, what an interesting day it was! About halfway through the class, with very little warning, the teacher mentioned that the NHK was going to be coming in to do some recording of our class. All the students, including myself, were shocked by this! What could be so special about an introductory course on Japanese?! Moments later, the camera crew came barging in with their giant cameras and fuzzy microphones, recording us playing little games where we practiced introducing ourselves in Japanese. It was such a fun but strange class to be a part of, as I had never been on TV before. I had to pretend there wasn’t a giant camera in my face or a microphone dangling above my head as I say “hajimemashite, watashi wa「Tristan」desu” as clearly and slowly as I could. The other students also seemed just as confused by this, but played along. What started as broken Japanese quickly shifted to laughs and random stories about our experience in Matsuyama so far. Overall, it was a successful day and one that I won’t forget.

Ganbarimasu! My new favorite phrase

Despite not every day being perfect while living in Matsuyama, my toughest battle has been with my self-confidence. Or oftentimes lack thereof. I mentioned it in the previous section, but my fear of failure and lack of confidence in my ability to succeed led me to avoid things that I have a chance of failing at. Meaning I can cause myself to miss out on many opportunities. However, having this opportunity to work in Japan, to be a part of this CAPI crew of students, has already been an amazing experience. I am proud that I was able to take the risk. However, there is still so much left for me to see, do, and experience. I am learning to be more open to making mistakes, trying new things, and experiencing things that I might not have done before! I know I am not normally the most adventurous type, as I like to stick to things that I know, but I am still trying my best to branch out. It might not be as much as other students, but I am still trying my best.

From the title of this blog and the title of this section, I have a new favorite phrase in Japanese. Ganbarimasu (頑張ります) is a polite Japanese phrase meaning “I will do my best” or “I will work hard,” and is often used to express a commitment to putting in maximum effort and a strong determination to succeed or face a challenge. It represents the fundamental value of perseverance, putting in great effort, and not giving up when faced with difficulties. I like this phrase as it is a mindset that I would like to strive for. If I can find happiness in knowing that I put in my best effort into a task, that I was determined enough to face the challenge, then that is something to be proud of. It doesn’t matter if I succeed; it matters more that I know I did my best and know that I still have room to improve. I’ve been trying to become more ok with the idea of failure and making mistakes by understanding that if I know I put in my best effort, then I can find confidence in that. Japan has taught me this by presenting challenging situations that I truly haven’t mastered yet. I am not fluent in Japanese, I am not a PHD student in disaster preparedness, and I don’t know the correct thing to do most of the time. But that’s ok! It is better for me to learn and fail than not try at all.

There is so much coming up in my placement that I am looking forward to experiencing and sharing with everyone! While I hope that all of them are successful stories, I also want to be ok with them not. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog. I know it is quite long, but I look forward to sharing more in the future!