Hands On

Here you are, thousands of miles from hearth and home, and you spend your free time doing what, exactly? If “going drinking” is your common response to the query “What are you doing this weekend?” it may be time for a change.

Consider all of the grand and wonderful things you could be doing between the time you clock out to start the weekend and the time you punch back in. Why not put your hands together and learn something new? The fees are cheap (even free, sometimes), the people are friendly and the entries are painless (except for sumo, maybe). It's the weekend; go out there and Get Experienced.

HELPING HANDS

A sometimes-severe amount of disengagement has earned Japan black marks as far as a reputation in benevolence goes. Accusations fly that the nation as a whole simply does not care — about the homeless, the mentally ill, the environment, the poor etc. However, numerous homeless advocacy groups, such as the Kamagasaki Community Regeneration Forum, exist all over Japan, and a number of community groups and neighborhood programs take it upon themselves to clean up Kansai's often-dramatically dirty parks and riversides.

Another small example is an NPO that helps out the smallest of the area's down-and-out residents. Animal Rescue Kansai, begun by animal activist Elizabeth Oliver nearly 20 years ago, offers shelter and vaccinations for injured and aban-doned dogs and cats. There are plenty of animals at ARK (“Right now, we've got 300 hundred dogs and 200 cats,” Oliver notes), and there is plenty of need for volunteers.
Any day is okay to volunteer, Oliver explains, though “It's important for people to come regularly if they can. “There is a lot about ARK to explain,” she continues. “It's much easier if people can just come in the morning and jump right in, rather than having to get a long explanation.”

There are a number of jobs at the reserve for volunteers — everything from “socialization” practice to dog walks in the surrounding woodlands to, yes, cleaning the cages. The hours are long — a typical volunteer shift runs from 8am to 6pm — and the pay, of course, is nonexistent.

Still, Oliver proudly notes that the place is full of volunteers. (In addition to the one-day shifts, longer stays at ARK are available. Please contact ARK for dormitory information; the accommodations are free, but a reservation is required.)

“I think, for the volunteers, it's an interesting job,” Oliver says.
“I think a lot of people are just looking for contact with animals, too — [some of my volunteers] have their favorites, the dogs they'll come and see and play with every week. I think that's something that makes a lot of people happy.”

PIOUS HANDS

Never mind the crafty foreigners who score online seminary degrees for the purpose of “performing” wedding ceremonies for Japanese couples; there are plenty of people who really do come to Japan to find spiritual salvation. Though the common refrain is that the national religion is no religion whatsoever, monks, temples and lives of piety are still held in rather high esteem.

It's not as hard as it seems to get started either, as many, many local Buddhist temples offer learners free training and accommodation. (“Free,” however, is often accentuated by a donation for the people hosting.)

The venerable Koyasan Temple, for example, offers an intensive living course for training and practice as a Buddhist monk. Guests are welcome to stay anywhere from one to 10 days (or perhaps forever, if you find you really enjoy it).
In Kyoto, searchers are beckoned to a 10-day Vippasanna Medita-tion course in which guests are forbidden to speak. The Buddhist meditation courses start at 4:30am (again, am) and absolutely no meat is served; you won't come out the same way you came in (and probably not the same weight you came in, either).

PUSHING HANDS

Hawaiian-born Akebono gained fame in the early '90s as a foreign yokozuna (title given the highest-ranked wrestlers) in the then-decidedly unforeign world of Japanese sumo; today, Mongolian yokozuna Asashoryu and Bulgarian wrestler Kotooshu get the lions' share of attention. Sumo and foreigners has come a long way, though the question still arises: how exactly do these people get started? “To tell the truth, I don't think many foreigners — or many Japanese, for that matter — know about it,” says English teacher Mike Morrison, who recently gave the sport a whirl at a sumo stable in Nagai Park.

“Sumo schools are becoming fewer and fewer in number, though, so they're always happy to get new people.”
A friend at his judo dojo — Morrison's been taking judo for over three years, and has a black belt in the sport — tipped him off to the stable; one Saturday afternoon later, and the enthusiast said he found himself in Nagai Park trying to fit himself in a mowashi, the tradition sumo wrestlers' loincloth. (“That was an experience in itself,” Morrison laughs.)

“We're shown the etiquette first — there is lots of etiquette,” says Morrison. “Then we do warm-ups — lifting your legs in the air as high as you can go over and over. There's a proper way of doing that, too. Then, we practice one basic move over and over: legs akimbo, we push forward across the room like a crab.

“Afterwards, we have to bend down and scoop up the dirt into a cone in the middle of the room,” he says. “It's all ceremonial, even down to the way you hold the broom.”

As sumo and judo remain, as of this writing, two of England's less-popular sports, Morrison is pragmatic about the notion of being involved in these particular Japanese martial arts back in his hometown.

"Sumo, definitely not,” Morrison laughs. “Judo — even though my brother had me interested in martial arts — probably not. But I am glad to have done it. It made my stay here complete. I mean, I've done many “Japanese” things — the trips, the tea ceremonies, what have you. But until [judo], I hadn't been a part of a group on a regular basis; I'd never been with a group of people who, really, have become my friends.”

MOLDING HANDS

There's organic farming, of course, and charcoal — and green tea-making opportunities, as well as ikebana — flower arrangement — classes, for something a bit more glamorous. For those looking for something a little less organic, however, pottery may be the thing.

“The saying in Japanese is, 'People will buy from you three times,'” says local ceramics maker Dave Pike. “It's getting beyond that, getting to people to buy from you after those initial three times; that's the key to becoming established in ceramics.”

Pike, of course, knows something about the world of pottery in Japan; he's been hard at work casting and throwing for 10 years now, and has survived the country's confidence-rattling art scene intact and unscathed. (“Your foreignness doesn't go very far,” Pike laughs. “Being a foreigner may get you in the door initially, but after that, it's really up to your talent.”)

Pike has received acclaim not only for his success in ceramics-making, but also for his willingness to show others how it's done; the artist offers guided instruction at his hand-built kiln in Nara for visitors with an itch for pottery-making. Daunting startup costs — about ¥2,000,000 for all the equipment — and heavy-handed apprenticeships (“I don't recommend them”) are big discouragers for wannabe professionals, though Pike is highly encouraging to new artists, or to curious types simply willing to give it a try. All that's needed for a spot at Pike's kiln is a reservation ahead of time.

“I have people [at my studio] all the time,” Pike says. “I'm always up for showing people how things work.”

Think of it this way: when will you ever get the chance to make charcoal, or try a sumo kata, or practice meditation high in the Kyoto mountainside? Live a new experience, while gaining some for yourself. If you don't like it, of course, you can always go drinking later.

For more information, please contact:
• Kamagasaki Community Regeneration Forum
www.kamagasaki-forum.com/en/index.html
• Animal Refuge Kansai
Tel: 0727-37-0712 • Fax: 0727-37-1886 • www.arkbark.net
• Koyasan Temple
Tel: 0736-56-2011 • www.koyasan.or.jp
• Vippasanna Meditation at Dhammabhanu Aza Hatta
Tel: 0771-86-0765 • Email: jvipa@mbox.kyoto-inet.or.jp Fax: 0771-86-0765 • www.buddhanet.net/asia_dir/2abc_j.htm
• Nagai Park Sumo Dojo
Tel: 06-6698-8582
• The Daishin Judo Club
Tel: 06-6761-5088 • www.daishin-judo.com/index1.htm
• WWOOF (Weekend Workers on Organic Farms) Japan www.wwoofjapan.com/index_e.html
• TYA Culture Salon Ikebana Class:
Tel: 06-6355-2324 • www.hbs.ne.jp/home/suzuki/16osaka.htm
• Dave Pike:
Tel: 0743-86-0111 • Email: davepike@kcn.ne.jp