The first two days were right off the bat of being in Tokyo. I hadn’t slept much in the last 48 hours and it was incredibly difficult to accept the reality of where I was. I went to Akita Airport via plane instead of the bullet train due to price (which was surprising as I thought I would be somewhat linked to larger cities via that train.) Upon meeting the staff who were in charge of the bus we drove an incredibly short drive to the University. I would come to know that the views of rice paddies and farms were in the opposite direction of where I came from, so the only thing I could see during that drive was dense vegetation.
The campus’s size was unclear at this time. But after reaching my dorm it was clear that I was on the edge of it. Directly across the street was a huge community garden, filled with many unrecognizable plants. Even the smell of dead plants that fills the air in most rural areas was incredibly different. The first “landmark” that I would say I recognized outside the school was the garden itself, but specifically the garden shed. The shed seemed to be an old bunker, overgrown on the sides with vegetation, and also had spaces for plants and a bridge built into its sloped side. I will link the picture I took of it, as I believe it is the first picture I took in Akita.
The second day I woke up at around 5:30am. My Roomate turned out to be from England, and the degree seeking students would not arrive for another week or so. I had yet to meet any locals, and the place had not yet been properly humanized for me. At around 7am I went for another walk past the garden, further this time to the corner of my street, which is AIU on one half and residential on the other. There I found the konbini. Upon glaring at the katakana for too much time I realized its name was Banafe. I interpreted this to be shorthand for Bananafish, because the logo on the sign was a fish in a banana peel. I still have yet to truly decipher the meaning of that. The moment that would follow is one that I think shocked almost every Japanese learner that walked into the store that day.
I had used Japanese in Tokyo to order food and to ask for directions, so I was confident in communication within Banafu. It is owned by an older married couple, who spoke in what I have since learned is a heavy dose of the Akita Dialect. I knew that the dialect was present here before I came, but I had projected more of a sense of rareness on people actually using it. I couldn’t understand a word that he said past good morning. I did learn that their dog's name is Ku-chan though. I am aware that this essay is sparse in content discussing the map making process, but with so very few landmarks so far the first two days established my center of the world for the next few weeks. That being Banafu, specifically the vending machines and picnic table outside of it, which would hastily become a very social area.
Days 5-7
The next week would have my map expanding from just the campus, and this is where it started to get a little complicated. I went to the local mall this week, as our school's bus stop has a direct link to it. I went to buy cooking materials and things of that sort. I wasn’t quite sure if the area the mall was in (which was a ten minute bus ride away) was considered to be in Akita City itself. I would learn that it isn’t quite there yet. Passing rice paddies and a river, newer buildings and residential areas began to present themselves. Upon checking the bus schedule for the mall me and the kids I was with realized that it would be another 3 hours before the next one back, so we decided to walk it. The walk began as a sort of side of the highway affair. It wasn’t an attractive scene at first, the area where the mall sits is strip mall filled and on a busy road.
We passed gigantic old factory buildings and tangled electrical plants. We soon got back into the countryside, passing the sparse towns throughout the walk, which you could walk through 10 minutes a piece. It darkened and started to rain halfway through the 2 hour walk. So my mind's geography of that direct path is hazy. It seemed like we were deep within the woods and hopelessly far from anything, until the light at the end of the tunnel named Banafu suddenly popped up on the left. That weekend I also passed the local shrine which was deep within the forest between the school and the airport. I found signs for it by trying to find a secluded parking lot to skateboard in, and followed it for about 45 minutes.
12-14 days:
By this point I had been to a big new landmark, as well as the City itself. Both of which were way farther than I expected. The landmark in question is the beach that was recommended to me and other internationals. It was a 45 minute ordeal to get there by train and bus. On the way we stopped in Akita City Station, but didn’t go into the city just yet. To get to the first train you need to take a bus from right outside our cafeteria to the closest town I walked through on my way back from the mall. The town is called Wada, and that is where the closest train access is. The bus ride to Wada is less than ten minutes. On the train we traveled about 7 and half miles to the city, passing more Paddies and different little towns at each spot. The surrounding hills and mountains bowl this area in, their peaks are sharper than the more rounded out hills of the Massachusetts mountains that I’m used to. The train was also significantly more crowded than I thought it would be. At the station we transferred trains and rode another 15 minutes to the town that was next to the beach.
This town was the first time I experienced sights that were familiar to me. Most buildings were abandoned and most windows were boarded up. There were houses made of sheet metal, and very few people around. The town itself consisted of different buildings built along right on the beach before the sand started. There were a few people surfing and the only person I saw outside the water was a carpenter. The beach itself was covered in plastic. Beach toys, bottles, and other assorted plastics peppered the beach. It was saddening, but it was also an important moment to me for reasons I still have difficulty describing.
Ever since I have been here, I have been amazed at the cleanliness of the countryside. Even though I knew cities here were relatively free of street trash, I still hadn’t seen any litter the whole time I had been here. This perplexed me due to the sheer amount of vending machine drinks being consumed by everyone in my close proximity. Everyone sits and consumes them at the banafe, and still the area stays clean. The beach (although it was saddening for us) grounded me in a way. In my head I almost exclaimed “Oh! So this is where all that trash is.” In a messed up way I felt more at home after I saw this. Along with the more impoverished area we were in, this trip assisted me and looked at Akita as a more real place than I had been, and also helped me relate it to the place I call home.
We also went to the city itself a few days after the beach. It was bigger than I thought it would be based on AIU’s landscape. After exiting the station there was an arms race protest as well as a festival featuring Kanto (a local sport that consists of balancing many lanterns on a pole.) None of the kids I was with had sims yet, so we walked around the city hoping to see the castle in the center park. The park was closed so sadly I have yet to experience that, but we could see it poking out of the park as we walked around. The only thing we knew about was a second hand store called Hard Off.
There were surely buses in the city that we could have utilized to get to the store faster, but we were all too overwhelmed and phoneless to utilize them, and so we walked. It took hours to find, and on our way back the sun had began to set. This is when I encountered a new problem. Akita City was pretty barren at night. On our way back to the station we noticed a street we hadn't seen before. It was full of Izakaya and music, and the familiar pop culture fantasy neon signs. Upon further investigation this part of the city was a sort of red-light district. Even though the area had earned itself that title it was still well known to the Japanese kids I met later that it had a fun and busy night scene. I also learned this area only opens up at 9, which is right when the last bus is. Leaving the area we saw many kids our age rushing out of the station we were walking into. It was really nice to see so many people, and feel the rush of population again. Hopefully I can figure out a way to explore the city at night.
