Okayama

Due to a bad wifi connection I haven’t been able to blog about my trip to Okayama. It was sort of a weird “Japanese teacher knows some people who are filming a DVD and happen to be looking for foreigners” connection. So I thought “Why not? This is the closest I’ll ever get to being on a real piece of media.” However, when I got the schedule it turned out I had to get up at six, which almost made me want to quit. But by that time I had already agreed, so…

We did two events. In the morning it was going to a shrine and getting a prayer for safety, and in the afternoon it was doing bizen pottery. The prayer was the weirdest thing ever because the ceremony was so elaborate. I had to follow this priest down to a special room where they burned incense and sang a prayer.

I had the most fun doing the pottery, even though it was really difficult. There are some funny pictures of me trying to make a bowl or coffee mug while the teacher is looking on critically! 

Initially I thought there would be other foreigners but it turned out they were on different days and at different locations. So in the end it was just me and the three Japanese dudes who were the film crew. Which was kind of awkward because they didn't speak much English, but I've gotten surprisingly chill about speaking Japanese lately.

For some reason the top bar of the "chi" in my last name disappeared and they at first wrote my name as "Sutefani Ghana" instead of "Gatchi." The sad part is that probably sounds better than the correct version...