This weekend was the Annual Cherry Blossom Street Festival/ Sakura Matsuri in Washington, DC. This is the largest Japanese festival in the USA. It featured Japanese and Asian cuisine; a Japanese beer garden; exhibits of Japanese arts and crafts; Japanese and Asian products; the new “J-POP Land” highlighting Japan’s modern youthful society; martial arts demonstrations; and live performances of both traditional and popular Japanese culture. What started as a rainy day, with threats of storms, turned out to be a pretty cool day to be out and about. This was my birthday present to myself and I enjoyed it. I could not find any one to go with me to the event but did not miss the company really.
I got there just in time to see the second staging of the acts and they were great. The Imajin Taiko Drummers, an act from Okinawa could be heard far down Pennsylvania Ave. and people moved quickly, but orderly, to the stage. I jumped up on a street side planter and got some good pictures before the cop came and told me to get down. Those guys had attitude and charm. I like Japanese boys and always think they are cute. Those guys were no exception. The Imajin Nix Hamaya Karate Daiko groups which perform martial arts with the Taiko were too tired from their earlier from performances to do the afternoon show. I was disappointed. Other acts in the dance and drum vein followed and were entertaining. Happy Fun Smile, a group of performers from New York that includes a couple of white guys, a Brazilian and Japanese girls were very good. They gave a performance of traditional Japanese street music and Japanese rock. I loved their costumes and believe their name is really appropriate. The last act Mitsumassyu was exceptionally cute. The lead singer had a good voice and I think I got the gist of her songs despite not speaking any Japanese. These two groups had the audience rocking.
Unfortunately, because of my hesitation to go out in the bad weather I missed a lot of the activities including the Cos play fashion show. That would easily have been the highlight of my day. At day’s end I bought myself a family crane origami piece. It expressed the sentiments of my birthday wish: family, love, success and peace.
As for my trip to Japan the latest is that I was not placed for May as the company had promised. I was disappointed but still I am still hopeful that an August date is possible. Om March 31, I received an email addressed to Adam about a placement in Yokohama for the end of May. I wrote back, trying to confirm if this was meant for me. At the same time, I became distracted by a family situation and lost focus. I did not follow up, even as I waited on the response and none came. Yesterday, 15 days later, I realized I had not checked my junk mail for a while. This shocked me because I had made a habit of doing so but I guess I just slacked off. There on April 1 was the response from my recruiter that the email was meant for me and I had a placement for May. What?!! After emails back and forth I learned the placement is no longer available but we will still be working for August.
This brings me to Jamaica and my dream job there. I was bitterly disappointed in March when I was looking forward to going home for the interview to be told casually by the same HR person that the interviews were conducted in December and people were already placed. WTF! I was mad, bitter, hurt and disappointed. My friends and family warned me of my folly and now said “see I told you so, so you shouldn’t be surprised”. They all thought that this woman had her own agenda and people who she wanted to get this job because she thought, me as a foreigner wouldn’t be interested in the small pay and life in Jamaica. It hurt because I had agonized over my choices and decided I was willing to take the small pay and make the sacrifices as part of my goal of serving my country through the civil service. I decided this despite the advice of friends of family, save a very few. It hurt because this HR person made unfounded judgments about me and my intentions. It hurt because once again the system of cronyism and inefficiency in Jamaica had beaten me. I know that if I was well connected enough she would have moved mountains and cleared paths to make it possible. I know this because I worked with this Ministry and was one of those bottom dwellers who moved mountains and cleared paths for the well connected. I asked her why she never told me about the interviews and she said she that didn’t think I could make it to the interview. She never asked me, despite the fact that in each email and call, of which there were several, I reiterated my interest in the post and availability for the interview. After going through the grieving it really makes me wonder what I am fighting for. Life can be easier elsewhere and with encouragement from people like her it’s no wonder people choose the easier way. If I do get to go Japan, it won’t be my dream job, but I won’t have to deal with this from my own people.
Here are some videos from the festival:
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