A Look into the Future: Becoming a Hikonebito

This week's post will be yet another suspended of my tales from Iida to talk about another of my favorite cities in Japan - Hikone, located along the shores of Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. My time there began Sept. 3, 2012. It was a rainy Monday and a long drive with my koto instructor, Genda-sensei, who graciously offered to drive me to Hikone as it was on the way to Kyoto where she and her daughter were heading for a trip.

I would be spending the next academic year on the northern edge of the city, doing intensive Japanese language study at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities. In their website's own words, JCMU is "a study abroad program, a product of the strong  sister-state relationship between the State of Michigan and Shiga Prefecture." Life at JCMU did nothing but further prove that my time in Japan was the best of my life. That being said, the word "intensive" is a bit of an understatement. The study demands of the JCMU regimen made it seem as if my summer studies in Iida were a walk in the park. OK, maybe at times they were a literal walk through the park, but the studies at JCMU were rigorous, but rewarding in that you really learn the language.

This post was actually inspired by a recent video that came across my Facebook newsfeed. It's a promotional video created by students and staff at JCMU featuring current Resident Director Ben McCracken, who was also director during my time. If the video below doesn't play, it can also be found here.




The video, done completely in Japanese, opens with a few students at JCMU asking Director McCracken a few questions about Hikone. What kind of place is it? What sort of delicious food is there? To better explain the city, McCracken transforms himself into Hikonyan, the official mascot for Hikone. Hikonyan is a white cat who wears a samurai helmet fashioned in a similar style to the former samurai serving the Ii family, a daimyo family under the Tokugawa shogunate and the city's namesake. As Hikonyan, McCracken gives us a shotgun tour of some of the popular attractions the city has to offer, in character of course.

This video is great for me not only because I get to see Director McCracken dress and act like a huge cat samurai, but also because as I went through the video, I got to see a lot of familiar places. Hikone Castle, perhaps the most iconic historical spot in the city and the best place to watch cherry blossoms bloom. Shiga University, where I joined the ultimate frisbee team and met a ton of great people. And Castle Road, which not only served as the path home on a couple tipsy bike rides, but was also filled with shops with delicious food for a good price.

For most of the people I've been able to keep in contact with after my time in Japan, the longing is omnipresent. I may have left Japan, but I doubt Japan will ever leave me. I think about it nearly every day; the nostalgia never really goes away. All it takes is a three-minute video and I'm right back in the streets of Hikone, spending spring and summer nights on the shore of Lake Biwa and enjoying a cup of warm sake during the winter. I'd give just about anything to go back to that rainy Monday in September and do it all over again.