I learned something important last week. Although it is tempting to buy cute notebooks to use: DON’T do it. Most likely you will end up with the same notebooks the students turn into the teachers for homework. They will probably have shopped at the same dollar store as you. Also important, DON’T leave your cute notebook on the desk when other notebooks are being graded. Most likely, your notebook will end up in the pile of student notebooks and be distributed to a class. Which, unfortunately, is exactly what happened to me. My Japanese practice notebook with crazy looking kids on it happened to look exactly like one of my student’s notebooks, and because I left it on my desk it got swept up in the frantic grading and redistribution of notebooks. So, everyone got to see exactly what phrases I was writing down in my notebook.
Here is what happened:
I was sitting at my desk minding my own business, when my teacher turns to me and says, “Oh, Adriene what does your notebook look like?” She wasn’t wondering what my notebook looked like, by the way, she knew and was introducing the story to follow.
Me: “Well, sensei my notebook looks like the student’s notebooks and has children with party hats on it.”
Sensei: “Oh, really, I think that your notebook got mixed up in the students notebooks.”
Me: “What? Really, but my notebook has been here on my desk the whole time.”
Sensei: “Well, your notebook got mixed up in the second year notebooks last week….”
Me: “Oh?”
Sensei: “And the second year teacher kept trying to figure out which student’s notebook it was. He kept asking, ‘Is this yours, is this yours?’ So he finally opened up the notebook to read what was inside….”
Oh, no heart pounding at this point trying to remember exactly what I had written. WHAT HAD I WRITTEN???
Sensei: “The sentences were very strange and he realized it was your notebook. And you wrote some things that I have never heard in Japanese.”
OH NO!
Sensei: “I was very surprised by the phrases. You wrote, ‘Sensei ga unko wo fumu.’”
Dang it! Now I have to turn my example, “The teacher steps in poop,” into a positive. How to do this, and highlight a difference between ‘fumu’ (to step on/in) in English in Japanese?
Me: “Hahahaha. I am so sorry, but can remember grammar better when it is strange or funny.”
Sensei: “I have never heard that said phrase in Japanese before. This is the first time. And when the second year teacher saw it he laughed a lot, and then he shared it with all of us in the staff room and we all laughed. No one had heard this before.” (she laughed, don’t worry she thought this was hilarious)
Grrrreat. ONE WEEK AGO! ONE WEEK AGO the entire staff room laughed about my ridiculous examples in the notebook and then silently put the notebook back on my desk like nothing had happened. Then waited to tell me the story!
Me: “I am sure that they haven’t! I chose the strange example to remember the grammar for ‘fumu’. In English, you step ‘in’ soft or mushy things but step ‘on’ hard things. So in English we say ‘Step in poop,’ but Japanese always is ‘wo’ not ‘ni’. If I use a funny phrase like, ‘Sensei ga unko wo fumu,’ is easy to remember.”
And the conversation went on for a while. But, oh-my-goodness gracious was I embarrassed! So, I learned not to write things you might be embarrassed about people reading, write your name on your notebook in extremely big letters (my wasn’t on my notebook), DON’T buy a notebook a student has, and most of all DON’T leave your notebook on your desk. I still can’t believe that they put it on my desk and didn’t tell me about it! And when I confronted the second year teacher who had read my notebook to the staff room, he denied it at first. Then, after he saw I thought it was funny he suddenly remembered that he had read, “The teacher steps in poo.”
*Okay, so addendum to the story. Apparently it was read aloud to the kids too. I wasn’t told this but when I went to lunch today a kid taunted me!!!! He kept saying, “Unko, unko, unko.” Meaning “poop, poop, poop.” Great. Just great. Now the second years (the loudest and most misbehaved year) will say poop to me. Granted, the kid who taunted me is a part of the table tennis team (ping pong), and those kids tend to be at the bottom of the social ladder so I doubt he will ignite a “poop” greeting among the second years. If it is him alone, I think I will be able to handle it.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
My best friend
Winter puts everything on hold. I felt like I couldn’t even wash a dish without tremendous effort, or maybe I didn’t think it was worth climbing out from under my kotatsu. So, you ask, what exactly is a kotatsu? It is a heated table. A heated table (coffee table size) that allows you to remove the top panel lay down a blanket, to prevent heat escaping, put the top panel back, and voila! You have a heated excuse for not getting up to do any chores around the house. Laundry, forget it! Dust, I can live with a little. No groceries, do I really need to eat? Garden, weeds make things more green and naturalistic. So with my house reaching subzero temperatures (no heating, no insulation) my kotatsu was my best friend. Subzero temperatures (no heating, no insulation) forced me to fabricate a more intimate relationship with my kotatsu. My kotatsu was my best friend. Shivering and miserable from relentless cold in the teachers room, classrooms with open windows, outside, in my house, in the gym, everywhere, the kotatsu welcomed me every day with a warm and comforting embrace. An offering of relief. My toes began to have feeling, then my legs, and finally my fingers. And with every visible steamy breath I exhaled, my dependence on my kotatsu grew so strong I would abstain from sleeping in my bed where my toes were forever frozen. Finally, I cheated on my kotatsu. I gave in and bought an electric blanket.
In the end, metaphorically creating friends from heating devices I admit sounds a bit farfetched. So I have to apologize. But, IT GETS SO COLD HERE. I think it is being on an island that makes it this way. We get lots of wind and lots of exposure to the elements. A drafty day in Nagasaki means that we are getting hit with forceful winds that rattle the windows and fling my scooter around like a play thing. I wish I were exaggerating about the cold. Really I do. And if you were to compare the data (temperatures, humidity, and wind speed) it might even look warmer than some cold places in America. But there is a key difference. American houses and buildings use central heat and the houses are often insulated preventing inside temperatures from being the same as the outside. Japanese houses and schools (from what I have experienced) do not use central heating and generally do not have insulation. Furthermore, schools tend to open windows in the dead of winter (ironically for the children’s health, because lowering immunity help prevent colds?) which forces everyone to wear several layers a thick winter jacket. Funny enough, people then will talk about how cold it is. “Samu ne?” “Hai, Samui desu yo” “It’s cold right?” “Yeah, it’s definitely cold”. Okay, stop talking and do something about it! And it took the official start of winter to put gas heaters in the staff rooms. God forbid that any heaters are used before the official start of winter even if the temperature dances around freezing.
Spring is just around the corner, and I cannot wait! Spring will be short lived for sure, I mean, there wasn’t really a “fall” to speak of. “Fall” was a weekend. Literally, just a weekend (and, unfortunately I was in America for this) where the leaves turned golden and only light sweaters had to be worn. Then, winter. Cold, harsh, relentless, horrible, debilitating winter set in. So, I hope, spring doesn’t repeat the same pattern. I want a warm temperate spring that transitions into summer. I do not want a sharp jump up to extreme humidity and scorching temperatures. But, I do welcome hot because it means that I can start going to the beach again.
Recently I have been keen on exploring Arikawa (my home town) a little more, and have found some really cool things. But, first a side note about living in Arikawa. I joined a volleyball group that meets once a week, and the women are very cheerful and like to laugh a lot. Sometimes, the laughing ends up being about me. For example, someone asked me, “Doko no hito?” Which means roughly, “Where do you come from?” And I took it to mean “where did you come from.” And I made a big mistake in responding with, “Arikawa.”Everyone erupted in laughter immediately. I thought they meant here in Japan where do you live. But, since I am foreign the implied message was “what are you origins/ original place of birth?” It is so funny because there is no way I could have come from Arikawa. I have to admit I was a bit offended because I didn’t really answer the question incorrectly, but I missed a key implied note. Implicitly (and very obviously too) I am not Japanese, so I have to answer, “America.” It is outrageous to imagine that I could have come from Arikawa. Anyways, I expect things like this to happen, but I don’t usually join in on the laughter. I don’t because I want them to see that they should treat me like they would treat anyone else. I am not a play thing to be laughed at, poked at, prodded at, or played with. Contrary to some Japanese people’s beliefs, I am real, not so different in feelings (they think we like everything black and white) and I am not always happy. The other day a woman running the Aokata pool asked me the standard question, “Have you gotten used to Japanese culture?” The answer I give to most people is, “Yes.” But, in the case of this lady who was actually curious as to my acclimation, I told her that although I am used to the culture, I am not used to how people treat me sometimes. I feel like it is easy to prepare for extremes. You go in expecting crazy differences, and so the strangeness of some foods, art, dance, social customs (arenas that usually define a culture) isn’t a shock. But what you can’t prepare yourself for how people react to you. Sometimes it is “GOOD MORNING!” followed by a laugh, sometimes it is long stares and no response after you greet them in Japanese, sometimes it is blatantly saying in front of you, “Oh she doesn’t understand” when I do, but most of all it is being ostracized because they don’t see me as real and they think that because I am happy all the time they don’t need to reach out. And that is what I told this lady. It is easy to get used to “cultural” oddities, but not being included, forgotten, or treated like a subhuman plaything makes it difficult. Just once in a while I share my honest feelings about how I feel. Because no one has anything better to do on this island, I am relying on the power of gossip (if they run into me, I am sure they talk) to spread my feelings. Not everyone will understand, some people might not care, but I feel like I am here to expand people’s minds and foster cultural acceptance. If I didn’t say anything, I don’t think I would be doing my job.
In the end, metaphorically creating friends from heating devices I admit sounds a bit farfetched. So I have to apologize. But, IT GETS SO COLD HERE. I think it is being on an island that makes it this way. We get lots of wind and lots of exposure to the elements. A drafty day in Nagasaki means that we are getting hit with forceful winds that rattle the windows and fling my scooter around like a play thing. I wish I were exaggerating about the cold. Really I do. And if you were to compare the data (temperatures, humidity, and wind speed) it might even look warmer than some cold places in America. But there is a key difference. American houses and buildings use central heat and the houses are often insulated preventing inside temperatures from being the same as the outside. Japanese houses and schools (from what I have experienced) do not use central heating and generally do not have insulation. Furthermore, schools tend to open windows in the dead of winter (ironically for the children’s health, because lowering immunity help prevent colds?) which forces everyone to wear several layers a thick winter jacket. Funny enough, people then will talk about how cold it is. “Samu ne?” “Hai, Samui desu yo” “It’s cold right?” “Yeah, it’s definitely cold”. Okay, stop talking and do something about it! And it took the official start of winter to put gas heaters in the staff rooms. God forbid that any heaters are used before the official start of winter even if the temperature dances around freezing.
Spring is just around the corner, and I cannot wait! Spring will be short lived for sure, I mean, there wasn’t really a “fall” to speak of. “Fall” was a weekend. Literally, just a weekend (and, unfortunately I was in America for this) where the leaves turned golden and only light sweaters had to be worn. Then, winter. Cold, harsh, relentless, horrible, debilitating winter set in. So, I hope, spring doesn’t repeat the same pattern. I want a warm temperate spring that transitions into summer. I do not want a sharp jump up to extreme humidity and scorching temperatures. But, I do welcome hot because it means that I can start going to the beach again.
Recently I have been keen on exploring Arikawa (my home town) a little more, and have found some really cool things. But, first a side note about living in Arikawa. I joined a volleyball group that meets once a week, and the women are very cheerful and like to laugh a lot. Sometimes, the laughing ends up being about me. For example, someone asked me, “Doko no hito?” Which means roughly, “Where do you come from?” And I took it to mean “where did you come from.” And I made a big mistake in responding with, “Arikawa.”Everyone erupted in laughter immediately. I thought they meant here in Japan where do you live. But, since I am foreign the implied message was “what are you origins/ original place of birth?” It is so funny because there is no way I could have come from Arikawa. I have to admit I was a bit offended because I didn’t really answer the question incorrectly, but I missed a key implied note. Implicitly (and very obviously too) I am not Japanese, so I have to answer, “America.” It is outrageous to imagine that I could have come from Arikawa. Anyways, I expect things like this to happen, but I don’t usually join in on the laughter. I don’t because I want them to see that they should treat me like they would treat anyone else. I am not a play thing to be laughed at, poked at, prodded at, or played with. Contrary to some Japanese people’s beliefs, I am real, not so different in feelings (they think we like everything black and white) and I am not always happy. The other day a woman running the Aokata pool asked me the standard question, “Have you gotten used to Japanese culture?” The answer I give to most people is, “Yes.” But, in the case of this lady who was actually curious as to my acclimation, I told her that although I am used to the culture, I am not used to how people treat me sometimes. I feel like it is easy to prepare for extremes. You go in expecting crazy differences, and so the strangeness of some foods, art, dance, social customs (arenas that usually define a culture) isn’t a shock. But what you can’t prepare yourself for how people react to you. Sometimes it is “GOOD MORNING!” followed by a laugh, sometimes it is long stares and no response after you greet them in Japanese, sometimes it is blatantly saying in front of you, “Oh she doesn’t understand” when I do, but most of all it is being ostracized because they don’t see me as real and they think that because I am happy all the time they don’t need to reach out. And that is what I told this lady. It is easy to get used to “cultural” oddities, but not being included, forgotten, or treated like a subhuman plaything makes it difficult. Just once in a while I share my honest feelings about how I feel. Because no one has anything better to do on this island, I am relying on the power of gossip (if they run into me, I am sure they talk) to spread my feelings. Not everyone will understand, some people might not care, but I feel like I am here to expand people’s minds and foster cultural acceptance. If I didn’t say anything, I don’t think I would be doing my job.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
What do you want for Christmas?
I absolutely love creating my own lessons. And, although there have been some rough patches, my lessons are beginning to run smoothly.
But....first I must talk about aisatsu. there is always an aisatsu (or introduction). Awkward. Very awkward. The students are called to attention, bow, and say class is starting. Seems redundant, but it is necessary for the beginning of any class. They require the knowledge of a very specific and rehearsed dialog. This lack of crucial information leads to awkward silences, patient waiting until I start the class. And I try, I really do try. But, I guess sometimes my "good mornings" and "hellos" and "alrighties" and "um....so...." and "are we starting's?" don't always signal the beginning of class. What is the secret word? Please, please, let's start class. At least, for the beginning of class you can somewhat skip past the awkwardness when students don't repeat good morning or anything of that sort. "OK! Let's start!"
If possible, the end of class can be even worse. It took me for-freaking-ever to figure out that all I need to say is "Thank you, bye bye, see you!" This makes everyone happy. When I change the dialog slightly every falls into the dreaded awkward silence. Silence, waiting, the correct signal, the right words. And with my array of teachers accompanied by different teaching styles mean I can be directly told to do aisatsu, or I have to guess by the awkward silence it is my time to say "thank you! bye bye, see you!"
I say "see you" so much now that I can't even remember if I said it back home. Did I? Well, I do now. And I am afraid I am getting a Japanese twang "shii iyu".
Well, to get to the point of my post. I wanted to share something that happened in class. Something sad, but maybe mistranslated.
For Christmas I spared the usual, "This is what Christmas is about" speech (which they have heard from all other ALTs and instead I am focusing on Santa Claus in America. Something the students don't usually know is Santa strategically visits malls all across America in order to fulfill little children's Christmas wishes. They get super jealous that Santa comes to our malls, but not to worry! I am not trying to upset them, I tell them that not all kids visit Santa and the alternative is a letter. A clever way to get them to write English. They love writing letters to Santa, and I focus on the target "I want _____". For 4th grade and below they just have to fill in what they want in English or Japanese, but they have to write their name in the "from, _____" slot making them write some English characters (they usually can write their name and if not it is on their name cards). They love this and today the kids were so into it! They asked Santa for the most ridiculously creative things: submarines, islands, puppies, erasers, fighter jets, toys, helicopters, etc. So to finish the letter writing they give a presentation about what they want. And we went down the line, "I want a helicopter" "I want a DS!" and finally, "I want a father." "I want a father." I was so surprised, and sad. I didn't know how to respond but compliment her English. Nanoka-chan. She is such a darling, so spunky (she wears her hair in half a pony tail on the top of her head, making her hair stick straight up) and always smiling. It reminds me that these kids go through so much more outside of class that I don't see and that I don't understand. I wish that I could promise that Santa would bring her a father.
But....first I must talk about aisatsu. there is always an aisatsu (or introduction). Awkward. Very awkward. The students are called to attention, bow, and say class is starting. Seems redundant, but it is necessary for the beginning of any class. They require the knowledge of a very specific and rehearsed dialog. This lack of crucial information leads to awkward silences, patient waiting until I start the class. And I try, I really do try. But, I guess sometimes my "good mornings" and "hellos" and "alrighties" and "um....so...." and "are we starting's?" don't always signal the beginning of class. What is the secret word? Please, please, let's start class. At least, for the beginning of class you can somewhat skip past the awkwardness when students don't repeat good morning or anything of that sort. "OK! Let's start!"
If possible, the end of class can be even worse. It took me for-freaking-ever to figure out that all I need to say is "Thank you, bye bye, see you!" This makes everyone happy. When I change the dialog slightly every falls into the dreaded awkward silence. Silence, waiting, the correct signal, the right words. And with my array of teachers accompanied by different teaching styles mean I can be directly told to do aisatsu, or I have to guess by the awkward silence it is my time to say "thank you! bye bye, see you!"
I say "see you" so much now that I can't even remember if I said it back home. Did I? Well, I do now. And I am afraid I am getting a Japanese twang "shii iyu".
Well, to get to the point of my post. I wanted to share something that happened in class. Something sad, but maybe mistranslated.
For Christmas I spared the usual, "This is what Christmas is about" speech (which they have heard from all other ALTs and instead I am focusing on Santa Claus in America. Something the students don't usually know is Santa strategically visits malls all across America in order to fulfill little children's Christmas wishes. They get super jealous that Santa comes to our malls, but not to worry! I am not trying to upset them, I tell them that not all kids visit Santa and the alternative is a letter. A clever way to get them to write English. They love writing letters to Santa, and I focus on the target "I want _____". For 4th grade and below they just have to fill in what they want in English or Japanese, but they have to write their name in the "from, _____" slot making them write some English characters (they usually can write their name and if not it is on their name cards). They love this and today the kids were so into it! They asked Santa for the most ridiculously creative things: submarines, islands, puppies, erasers, fighter jets, toys, helicopters, etc. So to finish the letter writing they give a presentation about what they want. And we went down the line, "I want a helicopter" "I want a DS!" and finally, "I want a father." "I want a father." I was so surprised, and sad. I didn't know how to respond but compliment her English. Nanoka-chan. She is such a darling, so spunky (she wears her hair in half a pony tail on the top of her head, making her hair stick straight up) and always smiling. It reminds me that these kids go through so much more outside of class that I don't see and that I don't understand. I wish that I could promise that Santa would bring her a father.
Teaching
What does an ALT do? Everything imaginable. Working at 9 different schools with…let’s see here… 7, 6, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2 for a total of 31 teachers, really shakes things up a bit. Not to mention that my classes range from 3 to 50 students. I would say, forming a routine has not exactly been an easy task. But, slowly I think that the cloud of chaos is settling into a comfortable state of continued confusion. I never know exactly what they expect, how good the kids are (they are really good at repeating, but not so good at producing random speech). Seriously, what is there motivation to learn English? And as a teacher I have gained a whole new perspective about being a pre-high school student.
I slept, talked loudly, passed notes, wrote on desks, didn’t try on my homework. Class was boring, notes fostered tighter friendship bonds, desks called out as huge creative spaces with limitless opportunities to complain or make someone laugh (and better yet they took a neat 3-dimensional twist once someone started to trace the same etch over and over), and homework was an after though completed only in the mornings or between commercial breaks. Of course, I didn’t always act out, there were some teachers I legitimately worked hard for, but it didn’t always mean my behavior was 100%. But, now I have crossed over to the other side. The teacher side, the side that has to put up with continually disrespect. And, I have to remind myself that students participating in “in-class recreation” aren’t directing it towards me. Now that I have crossed over I want a time machine. I want a time machine to go back and slap my silly disrespecting self. No teacher deserves disrespect even if they are horrible. I didn’t realize how easy it is to tell what everyone in the class is doing. On the student side it seems like your desk, the people in front of you, and the teachers attention will not be drawn to your distractions.
As a parrot for this lesson about travel, I took it upon myself to walk around the room when the teacher was explaining the grammar (so much for team teaching!).When I walked up to a student yesterday at Higashiura Elementary, I noticed (well I noticed before I walked to the desk) that she had masterfully drawn on a piece of paper a rendition of Japanese poop (it looks like the top of a soft serve ice cream cone). Right away when I walked up to her she covered it with her hand. I feel like I crossed the sacred boundary/shield students sitting toward the back of the room feel they are entitled to. She gave me a look like I violated her space. But, I didn’t take it away or tell the 6th grade teacher that she had been writing a note. My instinct to get angry at this girl mixed with sympathy. I remember in Spanish class when I innocently passed a note which the wide eyed Castellan teacher ripped from my desk (the last person that you want to read your letter). Her rage seemed out of control, it was just a note. Even worse, she threatened to read it in front of the class. She had violated my personal desk shield that my three rows back had entitled me. She even wanted to read the slander in the note to everyone in the class. The worst part out of it all was that my misplaced anger of her violation (nothing was my fault back then) rapidly deteriorated my own interest in Spanish. I took it personally.
Strangely I now understand her side. I felt the same passionate urge to take the poop note and ask if she liked poop in front of the class. I wanted to make her feel belittled so she wouldn’t do it again. Hypocritical. I feel like to be good teacher (assistant teacher), and one that the kids want to work for and respect, I cannot forget my own feelings as a student. As an assistant do I have more leeway to acknowledge that she was even writing a note? Did this make her upset that I saw her deviancy? Out of respect for possible controversy of notes, I let her keep it. As a warning I gave her a look to tell her not to let me catch her again. Maybe it is good that she learns to be more careful if she wants to step out of line. I want to teach these kids something that they will remember!
They are bored. So bored with English. Bored because the government makes the 5th and 6th graders use an English Notebook (eigo- nooto). Everything is chanting, presentation activities, and activities that foster bad English. The book teaches bad English. The philosophy is that some things in English are too hard for the kids to pick up, so we will teach them a Japanified version that they will understand.
I slept, talked loudly, passed notes, wrote on desks, didn’t try on my homework. Class was boring, notes fostered tighter friendship bonds, desks called out as huge creative spaces with limitless opportunities to complain or make someone laugh (and better yet they took a neat 3-dimensional twist once someone started to trace the same etch over and over), and homework was an after though completed only in the mornings or between commercial breaks. Of course, I didn’t always act out, there were some teachers I legitimately worked hard for, but it didn’t always mean my behavior was 100%. But, now I have crossed over to the other side. The teacher side, the side that has to put up with continually disrespect. And, I have to remind myself that students participating in “in-class recreation” aren’t directing it towards me. Now that I have crossed over I want a time machine. I want a time machine to go back and slap my silly disrespecting self. No teacher deserves disrespect even if they are horrible. I didn’t realize how easy it is to tell what everyone in the class is doing. On the student side it seems like your desk, the people in front of you, and the teachers attention will not be drawn to your distractions.
As a parrot for this lesson about travel, I took it upon myself to walk around the room when the teacher was explaining the grammar (so much for team teaching!).When I walked up to a student yesterday at Higashiura Elementary, I noticed (well I noticed before I walked to the desk) that she had masterfully drawn on a piece of paper a rendition of Japanese poop (it looks like the top of a soft serve ice cream cone). Right away when I walked up to her she covered it with her hand. I feel like I crossed the sacred boundary/shield students sitting toward the back of the room feel they are entitled to. She gave me a look like I violated her space. But, I didn’t take it away or tell the 6th grade teacher that she had been writing a note. My instinct to get angry at this girl mixed with sympathy. I remember in Spanish class when I innocently passed a note which the wide eyed Castellan teacher ripped from my desk (the last person that you want to read your letter). Her rage seemed out of control, it was just a note. Even worse, she threatened to read it in front of the class. She had violated my personal desk shield that my three rows back had entitled me. She even wanted to read the slander in the note to everyone in the class. The worst part out of it all was that my misplaced anger of her violation (nothing was my fault back then) rapidly deteriorated my own interest in Spanish. I took it personally.
Strangely I now understand her side. I felt the same passionate urge to take the poop note and ask if she liked poop in front of the class. I wanted to make her feel belittled so she wouldn’t do it again. Hypocritical. I feel like to be good teacher (assistant teacher), and one that the kids want to work for and respect, I cannot forget my own feelings as a student. As an assistant do I have more leeway to acknowledge that she was even writing a note? Did this make her upset that I saw her deviancy? Out of respect for possible controversy of notes, I let her keep it. As a warning I gave her a look to tell her not to let me catch her again. Maybe it is good that she learns to be more careful if she wants to step out of line. I want to teach these kids something that they will remember!
They are bored. So bored with English. Bored because the government makes the 5th and 6th graders use an English Notebook (eigo- nooto). Everything is chanting, presentation activities, and activities that foster bad English. The book teaches bad English. The philosophy is that some things in English are too hard for the kids to pick up, so we will teach them a Japanified version that they will understand.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Size Medium or Small for your gleen hoot?
Today, as I rushed to get ready for my kindergarten class (so adorable!), the volleyball coach approached my about "night volley" -pronounced naito bolee. As he mentioned before, I need to buy the uniform, of course, to join the team. Not a problem I don't mind TOO much that I end up dishing out lots of money for "optional" office events - such as enkais - and shirts. But what I DO mind that I HAVE to get used to, is giving me two choices when the correct answer, when they expect a premeditated response. Tabata sensei present a choice of sizes, "EEETO, Eidorian-sesei ne...EEETO, naito bolee ne..." (the "ne"s are like conversational glue such as "like", and in this case he was probably trying to figure out how to achieve a desirable answer from me). "Hai." (yes I am listening) "Eto ne, naito bolee no uniformu ne nani saizu ga iin desu ka ne?" (um so, what size is good for night volley?) "Sa, saizu ga otouko no hito no saizu desu ka?" (Well, is it a men's size?) "Un" (Yes) "Okay, sumaru saizu onegaishimasu" (Okay, a small size please) ........Pause....... (This means no!) "Emu ga iin ja nai n desu ka?" (Is Medium not a good size?) I caught on!!! He had never wanted me to say I wanted a small size. Everyone here wears super baggy shirts, but I want mine to be wearable outside of sports. Then not only Tabata sensei, but Kochou sensei (my principle) went into a lengthy explanation about how "in American women wear tighter shirts..." Awkward. I never really wear shirts any tighter or any lower than any of the other females in the office. But, I was running late and I didn't want to fight it. I asked what all the other women bought, and they had bought mediums. Since I am paying a lot for the shirt, I should have battled for a good fitting size because I know from buying a small for sport's day that it is loose fitting. A medium will no doubt be too big and I won't ever want to wear it outside of the several weeks of night volley. So the whole point of my telling this really insignificant and two minute conversation was to point out that I had no choice in the matter, which happens a lot. I am sometimes asked to choose, but the unspoken rule is that everyone should know what to say ahead of time. Before I didn't know the script. So, I wonder why they even ask everyone sizes when they know everyone will say medium? My speculation is that scripted conversation acts as a ceremonial reminder that I will pay for night volley. Maybe it asking for my size is a last minute chance to change your mind and say, "Oh no I don't want a shirt because I am too busy for night volley." Size didn't actually seem to be what Tabata sensei asked me. Oh I have yet to mature my infantile social pragmatics.
Success at kindergarten. Only three kindergarteners at Sakiura Kindergarten. I told the best story ever to the kids. My job: translate the story into English. Easy, and I embellished a bit and the moral was: If kids stay up having fun past midnight they will be taken away to the ghost land and be turned into a ghost forever. Cute as buttons they all looked like they were going to cry and quickly explained how they all go to bed around 9 o'clock. Poor kids, but I had fun telling the story.
Obviously, they could imitate my English almost perfectly, but the kindergarten teachers I think retarded their pronunciation advancements. I would pronounce something like, "green" and they would over-articulate and assume that the "r" I said was actually "l" because they assume it is "l" if they are unsure. So they kept saying, "GLLLEEEEN." And I have to admit this frustrates me a bit. I try so incredibly hard to get the kids to acquire a good pronunciation before katakana English (Japanified English pronunciation: ai laiku apuruzu (i like apples) ). Alas, the kids instead of watching my mouth would watch the two teachers who (in my opinion) had some of the worst accents I have encountered. The poor kids got so confused with green, but I explained to the adults that you don't use your tongue for green. That helped. But, the poor kids when we learned "foot" at first did a great job, but started to pronounce it "hoot" because the two teachers used the Japanese "fu" which is more like "hu" because they don't actually use teeth when pronouncing "fu". So I am ashamed to say that my kids would walk around saying, "gleen hoot" and think they have a perfect accent. I wish teachers would stop trying to pronounce things to the kids, it just screws them up. This happens in other classes. I just need to correct the adult language or tell them not to speak after me, just the kids.
Success at kindergarten. Only three kindergarteners at Sakiura Kindergarten. I told the best story ever to the kids. My job: translate the story into English. Easy, and I embellished a bit and the moral was: If kids stay up having fun past midnight they will be taken away to the ghost land and be turned into a ghost forever. Cute as buttons they all looked like they were going to cry and quickly explained how they all go to bed around 9 o'clock. Poor kids, but I had fun telling the story.
Obviously, they could imitate my English almost perfectly, but the kindergarten teachers I think retarded their pronunciation advancements. I would pronounce something like, "green" and they would over-articulate and assume that the "r" I said was actually "l" because they assume it is "l" if they are unsure. So they kept saying, "GLLLEEEEN." And I have to admit this frustrates me a bit. I try so incredibly hard to get the kids to acquire a good pronunciation before katakana English (Japanified English pronunciation: ai laiku apuruzu (i like apples) ). Alas, the kids instead of watching my mouth would watch the two teachers who (in my opinion) had some of the worst accents I have encountered. The poor kids got so confused with green, but I explained to the adults that you don't use your tongue for green. That helped. But, the poor kids when we learned "foot" at first did a great job, but started to pronounce it "hoot" because the two teachers used the Japanese "fu" which is more like "hu" because they don't actually use teeth when pronouncing "fu". So I am ashamed to say that my kids would walk around saying, "gleen hoot" and think they have a perfect accent. I wish teachers would stop trying to pronounce things to the kids, it just screws them up. This happens in other classes. I just need to correct the adult language or tell them not to speak after me, just the kids.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Back and here to stay
Since I haven't posted in so long, I feel intimidated to start again. I have the long and daunting task of updates. I will try and keep them shot and sweet to encourage people to start reading my blog again.
Already have:
1. made a girl cry in class
2. been told I look fat
3. been open water scuba diving
4. caught lots of fish (inspiration from the new blog name came from Robin, thnx)
5. done a sports day
6. gone to a dutch theme park in Japan
7. gone to 7 out of 9 schools so far
8. eaten whale!!
9. learned how to cut sashimi by myself
10. started to play the taiko drums
11. started adult conversation classes
12. gone camping on an abandoned island
I will expand on more as the days go by! I haven't posted for a whole month...bad Adriene.
My new idea, lets see if it is possible, is to spend as little money on food at the store as possible and fish most of my meals. I made it last week only spending 20 dollars at the grocery store (go Adriene!). This week I only want to spend 15 and see if I can get away with it. If I buy cabbage, some cucumbers, eggs, apples, and bananas it is definitely doable. Wish me luck with my budgeting. If I am successful, it will save me around 230 dollars (which is about two days of scuba diving!)
Already have:
1. made a girl cry in class
2. been told I look fat
3. been open water scuba diving
4. caught lots of fish (inspiration from the new blog name came from Robin, thnx)
5. done a sports day
6. gone to a dutch theme park in Japan
7. gone to 7 out of 9 schools so far
8. eaten whale!!
9. learned how to cut sashimi by myself
10. started to play the taiko drums
11. started adult conversation classes
12. gone camping on an abandoned island
I will expand on more as the days go by! I haven't posted for a whole month...bad Adriene.
My new idea, lets see if it is possible, is to spend as little money on food at the store as possible and fish most of my meals. I made it last week only spending 20 dollars at the grocery store (go Adriene!). This week I only want to spend 15 and see if I can get away with it. If I buy cabbage, some cucumbers, eggs, apples, and bananas it is definitely doable. Wish me luck with my budgeting. If I am successful, it will save me around 230 dollars (which is about two days of scuba diving!)
Monday, August 31, 2009
Nagasaki Pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/adriene.giese/8_28_09NagasakiOrientation?authkey=Gv1sRgCLmVlN2l48C0Qg&feat=directlink
My photos from Nagasaki. I will write everything later.
My photos from Nagasaki. I will write everything later.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
booze and kindergarten
I guess I haven’t talked about my junior high school’s enkai, or welcome party. It happened last Friday. And of course, I completely messed up the time it started. Well I showed up slightly late, not too bad. But still, I strolled in a good fifteen minutes late for the party that they threw for me. Even though it was my welcome party, I still had to pay them 3000 yen ($30) for the meal. Everyone has to pay. And everyone has to pay every time that the teachers have a party. So I have to budget for one more thing because enkais are mandatory optional events. By mandatory I mean that if I want to foster good ongoing relationships with my office people I need to drink with them. Bottom line I need to booze it up. Don’t worry. I have learned how to look like I am drinking without actually drinking a lot, which requires skill.
If you are not careful at an enkai, your glass will keep refilling magically. As soon as you take a sip five people rush to grab the closest drink and fill your cup up to the brim, whether your cup is full beer or hard liquor. This brings me to rule number one: stick to beer. Drinking beer ensures that your blood alcohol levels are lower than if you drink nihon-shuu (what we refer to as sake) or sho-yuu (Japanese potato wine). With the first rule in mind, it is possible to avoid disaster because if you are like me, you keep drinking anything that is in front of you. As a habit I will drink anything put in front of my at a restaurant. This started with water, but I absent mindedly sip my drinks until they empty. Why? I have no idea, but even with water this because a problem because my bladder fills up quickly and then I have to make innumerable trips to the bathroom. I treat alcohol in a glass like water not because I want to get drunk, but because I don’t realize I am doing this. So, my dangerous habit combined with everyone refilling my drink I get into a vicious cycle that never ends. I can’t stop drinking, but I don’t realize that I am doing it. Solution (and second rule) have either a cup of water or cup of soda along with your beer cup. I can satisfy my constant drinking habit with the soda and not drink too much alcohol. Rule one: ask for beer and rule two: have a non alcoholic drink.
If you have to break rule one (only beer) then you can still maintain sobriety by leaving some sake in your glass. VERY IMPORTANT to leave at least a little. When your Japanese friend sees it empty your glass will be refilled before you can refuse. I think their refilling system kind of works like meerkats. A sentry, “or booze master” also looks out for empty glasses, and this duty seems to shift throughout the night. I am making this up to explain how dangerous drinking with Japanese can be. You are never safely able to finish a glass. BEWARE. I escaped booze disaster my enkai night, but I am lucky that I have played their game before. Making mistakes previously (and bad headaches) enlightened me, and I am now very careful.
The food was absolutely amazing. There was sashimi, tempura, yakiniku, fried fish, edamame, and soup. So, I started with the sashimi of course. I surprised everyone that I could eat everything, and that I like Japanese food. Every time I have mentioned that I like sashimi Japanese people look very impressed. They actually don’t realize that people consume sashimi regularly outside of Japan (which goes to show how egocentric they are). I can tell they don’t believe me when I tell them lots of people eat sashimi in the states. So strange that they can’t imagine foreigners eating Japanese food. Because in my opinion raw fish isn’t that big of a deal. Europeans have traditionally had the smoked salmon, and that is basically raw. Their amazement just reflects the thought that foreigners can’t do or understand Japanese things: food included. So when I used my chopsticks I kept getting, “Oh you are so good with chopstick.” Yes, people in America can use chopsticks. Yes, people in America know about manga and anime. We have heard about some parts of Japanese culture. But, almost everyone knows stereotypical cultural tidbits.
They made a list of questions for me which was by far the most awkward part of the enkai. Some questions asked about my birthday or about what I like about Arikawa. But then they asked me to guess the ages of the male workers. What? The worst part about this was I had forgotten my glasses. My vision significantly hindered my decision making abilities. So this tiny exercise turned into a horrible mistake. There are only five of men in the office and most look around the same age. Since they asked me to do this I didn’t think it was a big deal (after two beers why worry?) and I started selecting. For certain I knew the youngest and the oldest so fill in the rest. But what to do? I had to judge but I couldn’t base my decision on sight because I couldn’t tell easily with visual cues (I was blind after all). I guessed that the vice principal was second oldest because of the age-related hierarchy in business. However, I couldn’t decide for two men how old they were. I guessed the secretary was second youngest and that the assistant director was as old as the principle. ERRRRRR, wrong. The assistant director actually was second youngest. Oops He looks old! Nakamura sensei turned to me and said, “Be careful.” TOO LATE. I had already blundered and I couldn’t take it back. I felt so bad but everyone else thought it was funny. So two huge errors on the night of my enkai: I was late and I made someone (second youngest!) feel really old.
Look through my captions on picasa to see how my weekend went http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/adriene.giese/8_23_09SumoAndNarao?authkey=Gv1sRgCLuwhczj0ObGfg&feat=directlink . I went to an elementary sumo-wrestling tournament and to Narao on the southside of the island to visit Shinju.
Monday, oh joy, a day with none other than my most favorite person on the island! Yup, Toki. Oh my what a day it was. I had great plans for Monday: 8:30-9:30 read linguistic papers on vowels, 9:30-10:30 organize bills and finances, 10:30 – 11:30 continue lesson plans, 11:30- 12:00 blog, 12:00 -12:30 lunch, 12:30- 2:30 med school essays, 2:30- 3:30 study Japanese, 3:30 – 4:15 english board. But my lofty goals suddenly came crashing down when I realized that Monday I had the last half of the day with Toki going to the different elementary schools.
When he showed up he looked flustered. I think, like me, he doesn’t look forward of our time together. In my defense, I really don’t ask him to do very much and he doesn’t tell me anything. I think that he wants to save face, and so he doesn’t enjoy time together because he feels like his English should be better. And it should be in his position. He can’t articulate anything in English to me at all. When he does he often misleads me. So, he just avoids telling me anything at all. For example, he failed inform me that I am also working at kindergartens once a week. But, I had to figure this out for myself and here is how.
We went to the first elementary school Sakiura. At this point I was in a bad mood because I was sitting the car with Toki who smelled like BO and he was making weird breathing noises. It was right after lunch (my down time) and my natural demeanor after lunch tends to fall into the category of sluggish and moody which has nothing to do with Toki. I lack my usual zest. So post-lunch Toki time drags me deeper into a bad state of mind.
At Sakiura he pulled out a schedule to give to the principle, vice principle, and JTE. (WGO) On it, I noticed that new kanji (Japanese characters) appeared at the top of the schedule. He began discussing the schedule while pointing to various circles placed in sections of the spread sheet. I also noticed that new dates appeared that were never on the school schedule I was given. With some consideration I started to realize this new schedule meant I had more dates at these elementary schools and less dates at Arikawa junior high school. Strange. Strange because I have already laid out my schedule (not in stone). So like a responsible employee I asked what the new schedule had to do with me. Oh, I didn’t know? I was going to be working mandatorily with kindergartens. Wait what? Toki hadn’t mentioned anything about three kindergartens before this. Not only that but I am supposed to go to a different kindergarten every Monday and go to the corresponding elementary school that afternoon. I tried to not be upset but I told him in front of the Sakiura people that he hadn’t informed me of this beforehand. Sakiura people looked sympathetic and tried to explain to me my schedule because Toki had failed to do so.
On that day I was furious. I couldn’t believe that he was trying to take advantage of me as an ALT and spread my duties thin. Well, re-read my contract and I do have to work at kindergartens. Also, there is a clause stating that my supervisor can assign me duties that the board of education deems necessary. I don’t think that they will really try and have me do too much, but it is somewhat disconcerting to know that they can make me do whatever they want me to. My understand is the have to make me do extra things during work hours, but in my description they told me I have adult conversation classes. I keep asking Toki when they start and he told me that the adult classes didn’t fit into his job description. Yes they do. His job is to make sure that we are comfortable and taken care of during our time here. Since I have no idea who to contact, wouldn’t it be a good idea for him to call? We figured it out without him, but I am starting to resent his inability to be useful.
On a happy note, the rest of the elementary school visits went well. Everyone boosted my confidence in Japanese (because I could actually understand them unlike Toki) and I got tea at every place. Drinking so much tea nearly made my bladed explode but I love getting refreshments everywhere I go.
One last thing, I have decided that I will do the iron man triathlon next summer here in Shinkamigoto. If I can do it I will feel pretty bad ass.
If you are not careful at an enkai, your glass will keep refilling magically. As soon as you take a sip five people rush to grab the closest drink and fill your cup up to the brim, whether your cup is full beer or hard liquor. This brings me to rule number one: stick to beer. Drinking beer ensures that your blood alcohol levels are lower than if you drink nihon-shuu (what we refer to as sake) or sho-yuu (Japanese potato wine). With the first rule in mind, it is possible to avoid disaster because if you are like me, you keep drinking anything that is in front of you. As a habit I will drink anything put in front of my at a restaurant. This started with water, but I absent mindedly sip my drinks until they empty. Why? I have no idea, but even with water this because a problem because my bladder fills up quickly and then I have to make innumerable trips to the bathroom. I treat alcohol in a glass like water not because I want to get drunk, but because I don’t realize I am doing this. So, my dangerous habit combined with everyone refilling my drink I get into a vicious cycle that never ends. I can’t stop drinking, but I don’t realize that I am doing it. Solution (and second rule) have either a cup of water or cup of soda along with your beer cup. I can satisfy my constant drinking habit with the soda and not drink too much alcohol. Rule one: ask for beer and rule two: have a non alcoholic drink.
If you have to break rule one (only beer) then you can still maintain sobriety by leaving some sake in your glass. VERY IMPORTANT to leave at least a little. When your Japanese friend sees it empty your glass will be refilled before you can refuse. I think their refilling system kind of works like meerkats. A sentry, “or booze master” also looks out for empty glasses, and this duty seems to shift throughout the night. I am making this up to explain how dangerous drinking with Japanese can be. You are never safely able to finish a glass. BEWARE. I escaped booze disaster my enkai night, but I am lucky that I have played their game before. Making mistakes previously (and bad headaches) enlightened me, and I am now very careful.
The food was absolutely amazing. There was sashimi, tempura, yakiniku, fried fish, edamame, and soup. So, I started with the sashimi of course. I surprised everyone that I could eat everything, and that I like Japanese food. Every time I have mentioned that I like sashimi Japanese people look very impressed. They actually don’t realize that people consume sashimi regularly outside of Japan (which goes to show how egocentric they are). I can tell they don’t believe me when I tell them lots of people eat sashimi in the states. So strange that they can’t imagine foreigners eating Japanese food. Because in my opinion raw fish isn’t that big of a deal. Europeans have traditionally had the smoked salmon, and that is basically raw. Their amazement just reflects the thought that foreigners can’t do or understand Japanese things: food included. So when I used my chopsticks I kept getting, “Oh you are so good with chopstick.” Yes, people in America can use chopsticks. Yes, people in America know about manga and anime. We have heard about some parts of Japanese culture. But, almost everyone knows stereotypical cultural tidbits.
They made a list of questions for me which was by far the most awkward part of the enkai. Some questions asked about my birthday or about what I like about Arikawa. But then they asked me to guess the ages of the male workers. What? The worst part about this was I had forgotten my glasses. My vision significantly hindered my decision making abilities. So this tiny exercise turned into a horrible mistake. There are only five of men in the office and most look around the same age. Since they asked me to do this I didn’t think it was a big deal (after two beers why worry?) and I started selecting. For certain I knew the youngest and the oldest so fill in the rest. But what to do? I had to judge but I couldn’t base my decision on sight because I couldn’t tell easily with visual cues (I was blind after all). I guessed that the vice principal was second oldest because of the age-related hierarchy in business. However, I couldn’t decide for two men how old they were. I guessed the secretary was second youngest and that the assistant director was as old as the principle. ERRRRRR, wrong. The assistant director actually was second youngest. Oops He looks old! Nakamura sensei turned to me and said, “Be careful.” TOO LATE. I had already blundered and I couldn’t take it back. I felt so bad but everyone else thought it was funny. So two huge errors on the night of my enkai: I was late and I made someone (second youngest!) feel really old.
Look through my captions on picasa to see how my weekend went http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/adriene.giese/8_23_09SumoAndNarao?authkey=Gv1sRgCLuwhczj0ObGfg&feat=directlink . I went to an elementary sumo-wrestling tournament and to Narao on the southside of the island to visit Shinju.
Monday, oh joy, a day with none other than my most favorite person on the island! Yup, Toki. Oh my what a day it was. I had great plans for Monday: 8:30-9:30 read linguistic papers on vowels, 9:30-10:30 organize bills and finances, 10:30 – 11:30 continue lesson plans, 11:30- 12:00 blog, 12:00 -12:30 lunch, 12:30- 2:30 med school essays, 2:30- 3:30 study Japanese, 3:30 – 4:15 english board. But my lofty goals suddenly came crashing down when I realized that Monday I had the last half of the day with Toki going to the different elementary schools.
When he showed up he looked flustered. I think, like me, he doesn’t look forward of our time together. In my defense, I really don’t ask him to do very much and he doesn’t tell me anything. I think that he wants to save face, and so he doesn’t enjoy time together because he feels like his English should be better. And it should be in his position. He can’t articulate anything in English to me at all. When he does he often misleads me. So, he just avoids telling me anything at all. For example, he failed inform me that I am also working at kindergartens once a week. But, I had to figure this out for myself and here is how.
We went to the first elementary school Sakiura. At this point I was in a bad mood because I was sitting the car with Toki who smelled like BO and he was making weird breathing noises. It was right after lunch (my down time) and my natural demeanor after lunch tends to fall into the category of sluggish and moody which has nothing to do with Toki. I lack my usual zest. So post-lunch Toki time drags me deeper into a bad state of mind.
At Sakiura he pulled out a schedule to give to the principle, vice principle, and JTE. (WGO) On it, I noticed that new kanji (Japanese characters) appeared at the top of the schedule. He began discussing the schedule while pointing to various circles placed in sections of the spread sheet. I also noticed that new dates appeared that were never on the school schedule I was given. With some consideration I started to realize this new schedule meant I had more dates at these elementary schools and less dates at Arikawa junior high school. Strange. Strange because I have already laid out my schedule (not in stone). So like a responsible employee I asked what the new schedule had to do with me. Oh, I didn’t know? I was going to be working mandatorily with kindergartens. Wait what? Toki hadn’t mentioned anything about three kindergartens before this. Not only that but I am supposed to go to a different kindergarten every Monday and go to the corresponding elementary school that afternoon. I tried to not be upset but I told him in front of the Sakiura people that he hadn’t informed me of this beforehand. Sakiura people looked sympathetic and tried to explain to me my schedule because Toki had failed to do so.
On that day I was furious. I couldn’t believe that he was trying to take advantage of me as an ALT and spread my duties thin. Well, re-read my contract and I do have to work at kindergartens. Also, there is a clause stating that my supervisor can assign me duties that the board of education deems necessary. I don’t think that they will really try and have me do too much, but it is somewhat disconcerting to know that they can make me do whatever they want me to. My understand is the have to make me do extra things during work hours, but in my description they told me I have adult conversation classes. I keep asking Toki when they start and he told me that the adult classes didn’t fit into his job description. Yes they do. His job is to make sure that we are comfortable and taken care of during our time here. Since I have no idea who to contact, wouldn’t it be a good idea for him to call? We figured it out without him, but I am starting to resent his inability to be useful.
On a happy note, the rest of the elementary school visits went well. Everyone boosted my confidence in Japanese (because I could actually understand them unlike Toki) and I got tea at every place. Drinking so much tea nearly made my bladed explode but I love getting refreshments everywhere I go.
One last thing, I have decided that I will do the iron man triathlon next summer here in Shinkamigoto. If I can do it I will feel pretty bad ass.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
WGO's
I don’t want anyone to think that I am complaining all the time. However, what stands out to me usually has some type of culture shock value. The more I am here the more I realize how American I am.
For instance, a Japanese person will complain about the heat while wearing long gloves that go up to their elbows. But they sacrifice temperature to make sure they don’t tan. So different from America where most people try to take advantage of any sun available. I remember this summer I tried so hard to get tan (with little result), but in Japan women want to be paler. Women in particular apply bleach creams and wear sleeves in order to look sexier for member of the opposite sex. From my point of view I think it is crazy because I associate pale with sickly, but they associate pale with beauty. Well I guess many Japanese men will find me sexy because I can’t get tan even if I want to. One point on the Japanese attractiveness scale for Adriene, but many points deducted for not being petite. Don’t worry I am not calling myself “fat” but honestly even the bigger Japanese girls are smaller than me.
So about this week. Well, how should I put it…I feel like a blind person being led by a group of mutes who point to things but forget about my condition: I can’t see the direction they’re pointing. I don’t understand what happens most of the time and no one really takes time to fill me in. One mute, not hard to guess, is Toki-san, and the others are my colleagues at school. Toki-san (god bless his soul) still hasn’t been able to fully inform me about events. Either he forgets or assumes I know, but none-the-less there’s lots of miscommunication. For instance, he failed to tell me about a meeting I had yesterday. So, I had made plans to take a day of summer vacation and scuba dive. But, he called on Wednesday to “remind” me. Well Nakamura-sensei tried to help and asked to cancel it, but apparently it couldn’t be. Something something about my elementary school teachers? They would come to my school? And Nakamura sensei was also surprised I didn’t know and thought that she had told me. Furthermore they tried to blame it on me by saying that it said “clearly” (in complicated Japanese characters) on a sheet that I had an appointment. How was I supposed to figure that out? Toki-san, seriously, inform me! In the end Nakamura sensei apologized and told me that I should have been told in advance. So I rescheduled with Nice Buddy for next week, but I still felt horrible about cancelling so suddenly.
Yesterday when I expected to be greeted by the principles at my school, a BOE (board of education) member came to pick me up. Huh, what? And when I got to the BOE Kelly, Shinju, and Robin were all waiting. They had the same questions as me, “What are we doing here? Where are the principles?” Soon we found out it was literally a five minute meeting. The “meeting” of the elementary school principles ended being an introduction in front of all the principles of not just my school but all of the others as well. So no meeting. It looked like a UN conference the way the tables were set up in this gym. Individual tables were lined up in three columns and each table had a name plate of the school. Arikawa elementary school principle happened to be seated right in front of where I was told to stand. We all stood in a line (the four of us ALTs) and each stepped forward to give our introduction. My day of scuba cancelled for, “Hello, My name is Adriene, I like sports, I studied linguistics in college, thank you very much.” But, Japanese are very much into ceremony so it makes sense why this was so important. To me, it seemed unnecessary, but I have a lot to learn about the importance of self introductions. I have given but each time Toki-san reads our information first so why do we have to repeat everything?
The same thing happened when meeting the board of education and the mayor. The BOE meetings basically reflected the principle meeting (but the BOE meeting happened first). Like I described earlier, when all of us ALTs gather we couldn’t predict what to expect. Toki-san never told us to prepare a self-introduction. Metaphorically, my blindness prevented the sight to see his mute gesturing. Toki-san might have told me beforehand, but when he gets nervous he starts speaking in really fast Japanese. Fast complicated Japanese that I just don’t understand yet. Funny enough he even does this to Kelly even though he knows that she can’t understand any Japanese.
I am going to title my unknowing moments as WGO’s (what’s going on?). Well another WGO just happened sitting at my desk writing my blog. All of a sudden students flooded in an all the teachers told me to clean. Cleaning time! What? And this morning when I walked into another WGO when all the teachers rushed out of the teacher’s lounge and they told me there was a school assembly. Why can’t I get a schedule? I am so confused. Yesterday I was getting ready to leave when all the teachers walked outside and told me it was time to pick grass on the brick driveway in front of the school. WGO? Mind you, I had dressed nicely that day in preparation of my meeting the principles and so my outfit was hardly suited for gardening. They gave me a bent thick wire and set me to work using this wire to dig weeds out of the cracks. Any heard of weed killer? I guess not. During this weed hooking I almost got bit by a mukade! Dangerous and poisonous, mukades are the Japanese centipede.
No gloves and without regard, I reached for a small weed. As soon as I touched a leaf a mukade about four inches long furiously scurried out from its hiding place! I screamed, and everyone of course turned towards me. I yelled, “MUKADE!” And several teachers ran over asking if I had been bitten. Luckily I escaped the poisonous bite. My brave JTE Takase sensei crushed the mukade with her foot. But that thing wouldn’t die. She had to step on it at least five times with powerful blows before it stopped moving. My life had flashed before my eyes and my heart started beating out of my chest. I wish I could explain how much I fear the mukade. Even though that was the first time I saw one, I don’t want to be bitten. I live in fear of them and as such I shake out my shoes every morning and I shake out my sheets. Better safe than sorry. But, I had not expected the mukade to come charging from under a small weed. I have to be even more careful than I thought. I live in fear.
Meeting the mayor was formal, but relaxed. He had us sit down, gave us delicious tea and presents. Cute little whale key chains and his card. Each card had a different place on the island with Catholic significance. I think he told us that he would take us by boat to a place called Saint Maria cave on the island. Missing my opportunity to ask about where I can go to church, I hope he does take us by boat so I can ask him again.
One more WGO. Preface- toki-san told us all to dress formally for the day’s events. After the two meetings on Wednesday we had our enkai (party). Usually this takes place at a restaurant, so we didn’t feel the need to change out of our clothes. Toki drove us to a place I am calling nowhere. At this nowhere we got out of the car and he handed us things from his trunk. OH, a BBQ! Finally we understood why we drove away from civilization, our enkai was a BBQ not at a restaurant. So at nowhere we climbed a steep staircase and ended up on the most beautiful hill and the perfect time of day when the sun cast a beautiful warm glow over everything. Dragon flies darted around our heads and we could see all the way to the neighboring island Ojika. Beautiful, but wrong. Are you surprised that Toki-san couldn’t get us to the right place? Soon he herded us back down the mountain and this time made it to the BBQ area.
Soon all the other BOE people showed up. And they all wore casual clothes and jeans. It was a BBQ of course. Oh Toki-san. Outside in formal wear was not my idea of a good time. I didn’t want to ruin my pants! Well I guess we couldn’t have changed if we wanted to because Toki-san didn’t tell us to bring an extra change of clothes.
My life continues to be one big WGO right now, constantly. Maybe I’ll catch on, but I feel like things will continually happen that I don’t expect. Either people don’t bother explaining because they feel like we won’t understand or they assume that our American social pragmatics match Japanese ones.
For instance, a Japanese person will complain about the heat while wearing long gloves that go up to their elbows. But they sacrifice temperature to make sure they don’t tan. So different from America where most people try to take advantage of any sun available. I remember this summer I tried so hard to get tan (with little result), but in Japan women want to be paler. Women in particular apply bleach creams and wear sleeves in order to look sexier for member of the opposite sex. From my point of view I think it is crazy because I associate pale with sickly, but they associate pale with beauty. Well I guess many Japanese men will find me sexy because I can’t get tan even if I want to. One point on the Japanese attractiveness scale for Adriene, but many points deducted for not being petite. Don’t worry I am not calling myself “fat” but honestly even the bigger Japanese girls are smaller than me.
So about this week. Well, how should I put it…I feel like a blind person being led by a group of mutes who point to things but forget about my condition: I can’t see the direction they’re pointing. I don’t understand what happens most of the time and no one really takes time to fill me in. One mute, not hard to guess, is Toki-san, and the others are my colleagues at school. Toki-san (god bless his soul) still hasn’t been able to fully inform me about events. Either he forgets or assumes I know, but none-the-less there’s lots of miscommunication. For instance, he failed to tell me about a meeting I had yesterday. So, I had made plans to take a day of summer vacation and scuba dive. But, he called on Wednesday to “remind” me. Well Nakamura-sensei tried to help and asked to cancel it, but apparently it couldn’t be. Something something about my elementary school teachers? They would come to my school? And Nakamura sensei was also surprised I didn’t know and thought that she had told me. Furthermore they tried to blame it on me by saying that it said “clearly” (in complicated Japanese characters) on a sheet that I had an appointment. How was I supposed to figure that out? Toki-san, seriously, inform me! In the end Nakamura sensei apologized and told me that I should have been told in advance. So I rescheduled with Nice Buddy for next week, but I still felt horrible about cancelling so suddenly.
Yesterday when I expected to be greeted by the principles at my school, a BOE (board of education) member came to pick me up. Huh, what? And when I got to the BOE Kelly, Shinju, and Robin were all waiting. They had the same questions as me, “What are we doing here? Where are the principles?” Soon we found out it was literally a five minute meeting. The “meeting” of the elementary school principles ended being an introduction in front of all the principles of not just my school but all of the others as well. So no meeting. It looked like a UN conference the way the tables were set up in this gym. Individual tables were lined up in three columns and each table had a name plate of the school. Arikawa elementary school principle happened to be seated right in front of where I was told to stand. We all stood in a line (the four of us ALTs) and each stepped forward to give our introduction. My day of scuba cancelled for, “Hello, My name is Adriene, I like sports, I studied linguistics in college, thank you very much.” But, Japanese are very much into ceremony so it makes sense why this was so important. To me, it seemed unnecessary, but I have a lot to learn about the importance of self introductions. I have given but each time Toki-san reads our information first so why do we have to repeat everything?
The same thing happened when meeting the board of education and the mayor. The BOE meetings basically reflected the principle meeting (but the BOE meeting happened first). Like I described earlier, when all of us ALTs gather we couldn’t predict what to expect. Toki-san never told us to prepare a self-introduction. Metaphorically, my blindness prevented the sight to see his mute gesturing. Toki-san might have told me beforehand, but when he gets nervous he starts speaking in really fast Japanese. Fast complicated Japanese that I just don’t understand yet. Funny enough he even does this to Kelly even though he knows that she can’t understand any Japanese.
I am going to title my unknowing moments as WGO’s (what’s going on?). Well another WGO just happened sitting at my desk writing my blog. All of a sudden students flooded in an all the teachers told me to clean. Cleaning time! What? And this morning when I walked into another WGO when all the teachers rushed out of the teacher’s lounge and they told me there was a school assembly. Why can’t I get a schedule? I am so confused. Yesterday I was getting ready to leave when all the teachers walked outside and told me it was time to pick grass on the brick driveway in front of the school. WGO? Mind you, I had dressed nicely that day in preparation of my meeting the principles and so my outfit was hardly suited for gardening. They gave me a bent thick wire and set me to work using this wire to dig weeds out of the cracks. Any heard of weed killer? I guess not. During this weed hooking I almost got bit by a mukade! Dangerous and poisonous, mukades are the Japanese centipede.
No gloves and without regard, I reached for a small weed. As soon as I touched a leaf a mukade about four inches long furiously scurried out from its hiding place! I screamed, and everyone of course turned towards me. I yelled, “MUKADE!” And several teachers ran over asking if I had been bitten. Luckily I escaped the poisonous bite. My brave JTE Takase sensei crushed the mukade with her foot. But that thing wouldn’t die. She had to step on it at least five times with powerful blows before it stopped moving. My life had flashed before my eyes and my heart started beating out of my chest. I wish I could explain how much I fear the mukade. Even though that was the first time I saw one, I don’t want to be bitten. I live in fear of them and as such I shake out my shoes every morning and I shake out my sheets. Better safe than sorry. But, I had not expected the mukade to come charging from under a small weed. I have to be even more careful than I thought. I live in fear.
Meeting the mayor was formal, but relaxed. He had us sit down, gave us delicious tea and presents. Cute little whale key chains and his card. Each card had a different place on the island with Catholic significance. I think he told us that he would take us by boat to a place called Saint Maria cave on the island. Missing my opportunity to ask about where I can go to church, I hope he does take us by boat so I can ask him again.
One more WGO. Preface- toki-san told us all to dress formally for the day’s events. After the two meetings on Wednesday we had our enkai (party). Usually this takes place at a restaurant, so we didn’t feel the need to change out of our clothes. Toki drove us to a place I am calling nowhere. At this nowhere we got out of the car and he handed us things from his trunk. OH, a BBQ! Finally we understood why we drove away from civilization, our enkai was a BBQ not at a restaurant. So at nowhere we climbed a steep staircase and ended up on the most beautiful hill and the perfect time of day when the sun cast a beautiful warm glow over everything. Dragon flies darted around our heads and we could see all the way to the neighboring island Ojika. Beautiful, but wrong. Are you surprised that Toki-san couldn’t get us to the right place? Soon he herded us back down the mountain and this time made it to the BBQ area.
Soon all the other BOE people showed up. And they all wore casual clothes and jeans. It was a BBQ of course. Oh Toki-san. Outside in formal wear was not my idea of a good time. I didn’t want to ruin my pants! Well I guess we couldn’t have changed if we wanted to because Toki-san didn’t tell us to bring an extra change of clothes.
My life continues to be one big WGO right now, constantly. Maybe I’ll catch on, but I feel like things will continually happen that I don’t expect. Either people don’t bother explaining because they feel like we won’t understand or they assume that our American social pragmatics match Japanese ones.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
obon festival
All of Japan celebrates Obon because the festival has deep Buddhism roots now engrained in mainstream culture. During Obon people visit graves and remember their ancestors by lighting incense, pouring sake on the graves (this is because the people liked sake in life), and giving freshly cut flowers. Most places in Japan make Obon a subdued and personal event including only members of the family. But Nagasaki does things a bit bigger. Obon happens to be the biggest festival in Nagasaki only second to New Years. People parade huge boat looking carts lit with lanterns through the street. Each boat carries the ancestors and recently passed family members and friends. Communities spend months preparing their floats to parade through the streets of Nagasaki. And each time the boat stops, a handful of very loud fireworks are dropped onto the ground. These fireworks are the type that make loud noises but not much light. Believe me, the noise rose to such unbearable decibels that we all had to wear earplugs. I’ll go into more detail about this later.
Careful planning ensured that I could make it to Nagasaki last weekend. And, I just barely made it. I had to go the long way through Sasebo. I chose this route because the Sasebo ferry is walk distance from my house, and because it is one of the cheaper routes to Nagasaki. On the downside, this route takes forever, but on the upside I get to see the beautiful country side. And it was a perfect day for taking the long scenic route. Finally the sun had come out – it has been pretty cloudy most of the time here – and made all the colors intense and vibrant. Reminding me of my high school Coaster days, I loved seeing the sea from my window of the train. It was a good relaxing break before all of the excitement in Nagasaki.
Before I get ahead of myself I should describe the ferry. There were no seats. When I walked inside there were only four sections of carpet elevated from the main aisle. Since I am in Japan, everyone took off their shoes before stepping up onto the carpet. I should have foreseen this event – removal of the shoes – but alas I did not. I had sprinkled a hefty amount of Gold Bond into my shoes in preparation of the hot humid Nagasaki weather. At first I had just sprinkled it in the shoes, but upon further consideration I felt that a bigger more ample amount would prevent foot odor. And those of you who have used Gold Bond know that it is very fine white powder, and in this instance completely covered my feet. Although a great idea to prevent foot odor, it wasn’t such a great idea when confronted with taking off my shoes. I nearly had a panic attack when I saw I had to remove my shoes because they would leave a white powder trail. So I devised a plan. First I pulled out the Japanese hand towel I carry with me at all times and then I stepped out of my shoes but stayed standing on them. My next move was pretty brilliant. I fumbled with my purse and “accidently” dropped it on my feet – oopsies - giving me enough time to quickly whisk away my powered feet. Crisis averted. I managed to avoid a foot power trail onto the burgundy carpeting.
Oddly reminiscent of pictures I have seen of immigrants coming to America, everyone picked a spot on the floor, picked up a complementary blanket and either went to sleep or watched TV. So I followed suit and wedged my way between two Japanese teenagers that had already fallen asleep (we had literally just bored the ferry). Japanese people can fall asleep anywhere! Last time I came to Japan I had the problem of people falling asleep on me riding home on the train. I would have to elbow them, or their head would be resting in my lap. Surprisingly they always woke up right before their stop. Japanese magic. But, to go back to the ferry. The teenagers were asleep next to me and I had barely enough room to spread out my feet while leaning on the wall. Luckily I got a wall spot, however, my feet dangerously were situated next to the head of a mother and son sleeping in the middle section of the carpet. The mother kept looking up at my feet, and I expected that something was wrong with them. So, I checked my feet: fine. Even though there were no traces of white powder she kept looking uncomfortable. So I have no idea if my feet were ugly, if I was in her space, or if it was the fact that I am a foreigner. None the less this made me really uncomfortable. Lesson learned from my ferry experience: don’t put on gold bond, wear socks instead, and be the first one to board the ferry so you can claim territory instead of invading other people’s. Besides my turmoil, we sailed smoothly to Sasebo.
The plan in Nagasaki was to meet up with ALTs from the Nagasaki prefecture and enjoy the Obon festival. Thankfully, Emily – a friend I met at orientation – so kindly allowed me to stay at her place for the night. She boarded so many ALTs for the weekend at her place that we all joked that she was running a mini hostel. Although Emily technically resides in Nagasaki city, her place is more of a suburb. Let me tell you, her area is nice and is without a doubt more affluent than my area in Arikawa. Drum roll…she even has a dryer in her apartment. Surprising, I know, that I am worked up about a dryer, but hardly anyone own a dryer in Japan. Basically, owning a dryer is unheard of, and Emily is the only ALT I know that owns one. Lucky! On the bright side, I am saving electricity. From what I understand her predecessor had a Japanese girl friend who elevated the apartment to a Japanese cleanliness and organizational standard. So, Emily doesn’t really have to do much in terms of cleaning or re-decorating, except for the shower. The shower works and is nice, but it is odd. Cranking a handle is the only way to generate heat. I am not sure how this works, but I do know that it is loud and more complicated that just turning on the faucet. Some areas in Japanese technology are first rate…while other sectors of technology seem to fail to catch up (air-conditioners!).
In total, five guests stayed at her apartment for the two nights I stayed there. It was crowded, but I got to sleep on a futon, and can fall asleep almost anywhere (like a Japanese person) so I was fine.
Walking to school today (10 mins) was so much hotter than usually. All I wanted was to get into the air conditioned teachers room, collapse and complain to other teachers how hot it is. Even though it is hot every day, without fail everyone says, “Atsui ne?,” meaning, “It’s hot right?” To which everyone responds, “hai sugoku atsui yo,” roughly translated, “Yeah, so freakin hot.” Today I expected the same circumstances because usually at school when I walk in through the door I only see maybe five – at most – teachers sitting in their desks. But today EVERYONE was there. Strange. I walked into a meeting, of which I had not been informed of that had clearly been going on since before my start time. I guess they figure I lack the language skills to understand the meeting. True, however, being employed by the school I want to know when teacher events are taking place. My goal is to slowly inform the teachers that I want to be included in these meetings. Nakamura sensei gave me a piece of paper and explained that there are meetings all day, and that I should just use my computer.
Back to Nagasaki. I bought a yukatta which looks like a kimono, but instead of silk it is made of cotton and commonly worn at festivals. Picking one out proved to be difficult! The patterns and the colors are important because the way I see it, a yukatta is a reflection of your personality. Because my yukatta has bright colors and a bold pattern I would say that my yukatta reflects my outgoing and fun nature. Without realizing it, I picked a very islandy looking one and I heightened that aspect by wearing a flower right above one of my ears. So cute, right?
I bought a yukatta – it’s always good to have one living in Japan – mostly because all the ALTs planned to wear yukatta the night of the 15th (the big day of the festival). Traditionally Japanese wear yukatta for festivals, and so we felt that Obon festival gave us an excuse to wear our yukatta and fit in at the festival.
Yeah, we did look cute but we were far from fitting in. Where were the yukattas? As soon as we boarded the bus we realized that no one wore a yukatta. At first I thought that people during Obon – a somber event – don’t wear yukatta. We later learned many people didn’t wear yukatta because they were afraid that it would rain and ruin the cloth. But, we didn’t learn this until the next day. Can’t you imagine how we looked at Obon? Not only were there the six ALTs staying at Emily’s house, but three more girls met up with us so that we could all help each other put on the yukatta. In total, we had a group composed of all foreigners: eight girls all in bright colored yukattas and one guy in a traditional jinbe.
We stood out like a sore thumb. Some of the people couldn’t stop staring, and people started taking pictures of us. Immediately I thought since Obon festival remembers departed souls, we somehow dressed inappropriately. And I felt like I had worn a bright yellow sun dress to a funeral. Like, a good gainjin I decided to roll with the punches and play into the stupid foreigner card. Although people usually wear yukatta at Bon, as I have mentioned the weather played into the decision for most people not to wear a yukatta on this day. Japanese pay very close attention to weather related events and seasons. For instance, if it is winter everyone wears a jacket; temperature is irrelevant to the clothing choice. But, in the case of rain – if there is a slight chance – people don’t want to ruin yukatta so no one wears one. Essentially we stood out because we – like unknowing gaijin – decided to wear our yukatta anyway. What I am trying to explain is that if it had been clear weather we wouldn’t have stood out, but since there was a chance of rain all the Japanese people couldn’t believe we risked wearing our yukatta. But, I am glad we did because I had so much fun!
The boat floats were everywhere. Even throughout the day people began walking their boats through every part of the city on the way toward the downtown area. You couldn’t miss the boats at any time during the day. At every stop people lit the firework, altering everyone in the surrounding area of their presence. During my visit to the Peace Park (the hypocenter of the A-bomb) I couldn’t miss the loud popping noises in the distance, and I caught my first glimpse of the group of matching men in jinbe surrounding the float. Along with the fireworks kids led the procession by banging on a gong. Everyone had a role in each group. A couple people lit fireworks in front and behind the float, some people banged on the gong, and depending on the size of the float an equal amount of men (usually men) lined either side of the float and push the cart forward.
Before I get to ahead of myself, I should talk a bit about the Peace Park and museum. As an American, I feel a certain draw to understand the history (even if it is dark) between Japan and America. Even though I feel a certain personal magnetic pull to visit both A-bomb sites, at the same time I feel a cultural push and expectation to visit the hypocenter of the bomb. I can’t explain my reasoning for this, but I know that other Americans feel the same way. If I ignored the A-bomb site and museum, it is almost like scoffing at and ignoring the horrible events that took place on August 9th at 11:02 A.M. in Nagasaki. When I visit (especially during Obon) I feel like I am giving my respects to all of the lives lost as a result of the A-bomb (around 130,000 people died). But maybe more importantly, by visiting I want to show that I am an advocate of peace, and that I am not afraid to acknowledge the destruction and learn from the personal experiences of bomb survivors.
Unlike Hiroshima, Nagasaki attempted an objective approach. Of course it is almost impossible to achieve this when your city is only one of two in the world destroyed by an atomic bomb, but they were objective considering their fate. Hiroshima tried to question why the bomb had to be dropped on a city, why there had to be a second bomb dropped, why did they drop it against the scientists of the Manhattan project’s wills, why did they choose these specific targets, why weren’t the cities warned prior to the drops,etc. Interestingly Hiroshima made a good point that the choice had personal ties. For instance, one general refused to have a bomb dropped on Kyoto since he spent his honeymoon there. But, Nagasaki left out information like this because arguably that story might not be as concretely true as Hiroshima insists. Instead, Nagasaki focused on personal stories and events, and talked specifically about the stages of the bomb. That is, how hot temperatures rose at certain distances from the hypocenter and how powerful the blast was. Many bottles, roof tiles, and trees showed the bubbling caused by the intense heat. Many stories and personal items filled the museum. Some sections informed museum goers about stages of radiation and showed graphic pictures of skin burned off and keloid scars.
All the pictures of the burn victims almost brought me to tears. Even now when thinking about how many people suffered, upsets me. Perhaps the item that stood out to me the most was a lunch box of a school girl. Displayed under the picture of the girl, this lunch box still had all of the food items intact, but was completely charred. Essentially the lunch box had been preserved like a time capsule and even individual grains of rice could still be seen. Right now I am having a hard time describing how it affected me so deeply. Maybe because I started to think about how unknowingly this school girl sat at her desk thinking about her regular day and how soon (around 11 o’clock) she would finally get some lunch. Of course made this up in my head, but I started thinking about how so many people had no idea what would happen, and how instantaneously some many lives disintegrated. They hadn’t been able to find this girl; the only thing that remained of her on that day was her lunch box with her name engraved on the bottom. It was a piece of her on that day almost perfectly preserved, and a memory that her life had been unknowingly swept away. I hope that explains my jumble of thoughts. I find it so difficult to describe, and so I encourage anyone who gets a chance to visit the Nagasaki A-bomb museum to truly make an effort to understand that peace is necessary so that no A-bomb will be dropped again.
On a lighter note, Obon exceeded my expectations. The atmosphere and excitement truly affected everyone around the festival. All the roads downtown had been shut down for the parade of boats, and in some spots the only lights came from the lanterns on the boats themselves. Tons of people lined the street on both sides and tons of fireworks exploded in the middle of the street. I have never seen as much litter in Japan until the night of Obon. Since people discarded firework box where ever the street was barely visible under the mounds of trash. So strange to see in Japan, but it made it all the more exciting and different than any other Japan experience I have had. Instead of me explaining forever what the floats looked like, look at the pictures for youself (the link is on an older post). Experiencing Obon in Nagasaki was worth it, even though it was expensive!
Planning my trip back didn’t go too well. I had just enough, again, to make it back to Shinkamigoto on the fast boat. Bad decision. Unfortunately the fast boat is not only expensive, but pretty far from my house. I had the idea that I could catch a bus from Taonora (where the boat lands in Shinkamigoto) regardless of the fact that I didn’t look up the schedule. Also, I wore jeans that day – really bad decision in this heat – because someone told me I would need jeans to protect myself from the ground fireworks at Obon. To my disadvantage on this exceptionally hot day, they were my only set of clean clothes. Since I thought I could take a bus back home, wearing jeans didn’t seem too stupid. But, it was. Let me tell you, skinny jeans in humid heat makes for a miserable 1.5 mile hike while carrying duffle bags.
Upon arriving in Taonora I was informed that the last bus of the day just departed ten minutes ago. What to do? Not having enough money for a taxi, I opted to walk in my jeans on this hot hot day all the way back to my house. Carrying my bags I set off in the direction – I hoped – was Arikawa. Thankfully it was, but it took me a good hour and ten minutes to finally reach my destination! And, another problem I faced was figuring out how to get to Nice Buddy later that night for a BBQ they invited me to. I didn’t have anyone’s number from Nice Buddy because I had just gotten my phone on Thursday. But fate was on my side! Thankfully after all my misfortunes of the day, I ran into Natsun – one of the owner of Nice Buddy – on the walk home. If I hadn’t I think I would have collapsed on my bed and not been able to make it all the way to the BBQ. After exchanging numbers and explaining my situation she offered a ride later in the day. Halleluiah!
I won’t go into details of the BBQ, but instead focus on what’s interesting. I ate sheep, goat, sea snail, and beef. Funny, but true, goat kinda tastes like how they smell. Taste wise, I haven’t made up my mind whether I actually liked it or not. And raw goat meat tasted better than when cooked. At first I thought they were playing a trick on my and trying to get me to eat a raw meat that I shouldn’t. So I had them eat the raw goat first. They did, so I did. And it was delicious! Raw goat is tasty, but raw sea snail not so much. I happened to eat some raw sea snail sashimi in Nagasaki. It looked like the multicolored gizzards of a chicken with boogers all over it, and I think it tasted pretty much how it looked. And it was so incredibly slimly I had a hard time handling it with my chopstick. Instead of gracefully placing it in my mouth, I had to scoop it in. In my mouth the booger sack burst open and a flood of extremely mushy cream of wheat textured goo poured out. Delicious. Joking, because seriously it was nasty. Cooked sea snail actually tastes good, but it is just one of those things that shouldn’t be eaten raw. So adding goat and sea snail onto the list of sashimi, I have also added cooked sheep (I have eaten lamb, but full grown is different) onto my new foods list. I really like.
*Hahaha, there is a break between meetings and people started taking about how hot it is, and when the heat will end.
Sheep in Japanese is pronounced jingesukan, which sounds an awful lot like Ghengis Khan the Mongol conqueror. So they kept talking about how we were going to eat Ghengis Khan, and I didn’t understand. And I kept asking why they said we were eating a Mongol. It took forever to explain what I meant, but towards the end of the night everyone started calling the sheep monguru-jin (Mongolian person).
I really like the whole Nice Buddy family! Techan and Natsun have three kids: two girls and one boy. And the girls are interested in talking to Robin and me. I think they want to learn English from us, and I figure that my free English lessons are in exchange for the extra benefits (like dinner) that Nice Buddy has given me. The little boy (8 years old) keeps showing me all the bugs he catches. Here in Japan little boys catch a certain type of beetle. The more you have the cooler you are. Techan keeps calling his soon “hero” because he has so many bugs, and explained that he is a really manly cool little boy for catching these beetles (they are not dangerous) and so they call him a hero for it. I think that they look really nasty, but I am not a huge fan of bugs in general. But, every time I go to Nice Buddy the little boy shows me his beetle collection because he keeps them in a tank like pets. Last time he showed me almost all of the bugs in one of the terrariums had died, and he didn’t seem too upset. I told him all had died, but he assured me that there were live ones at the bottom of the sod. So he dug through the layers of dead beetles and moist sod to prove that in fact live beetles did escape death. Gross.
After my dive on Monday night, Nastun served me dinner at Nice Buddy. I sat there for a good while trying to explain the pronunciation difference between frog and flag. When it comes to pronunciation my linguistic training comes as an advantage.
*Best time ever at work. I went out of the teacher’s lounge to go to the bathroom, and what do I hear but Thriller playing the background. So I went over to investigate and almost all of the third year students were practicing the dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller video! So cool to see all of the students doing this dance. They told me that they are practicing for sports day where they are all going to perform the dance together. Some taught me some of the moves, and I started to join in and practice with them. So much fun!
I’ll write about meeting the mayor tomorrow. I have already written so much!
Careful planning ensured that I could make it to Nagasaki last weekend. And, I just barely made it. I had to go the long way through Sasebo. I chose this route because the Sasebo ferry is walk distance from my house, and because it is one of the cheaper routes to Nagasaki. On the downside, this route takes forever, but on the upside I get to see the beautiful country side. And it was a perfect day for taking the long scenic route. Finally the sun had come out – it has been pretty cloudy most of the time here – and made all the colors intense and vibrant. Reminding me of my high school Coaster days, I loved seeing the sea from my window of the train. It was a good relaxing break before all of the excitement in Nagasaki.
Before I get ahead of myself I should describe the ferry. There were no seats. When I walked inside there were only four sections of carpet elevated from the main aisle. Since I am in Japan, everyone took off their shoes before stepping up onto the carpet. I should have foreseen this event – removal of the shoes – but alas I did not. I had sprinkled a hefty amount of Gold Bond into my shoes in preparation of the hot humid Nagasaki weather. At first I had just sprinkled it in the shoes, but upon further consideration I felt that a bigger more ample amount would prevent foot odor. And those of you who have used Gold Bond know that it is very fine white powder, and in this instance completely covered my feet. Although a great idea to prevent foot odor, it wasn’t such a great idea when confronted with taking off my shoes. I nearly had a panic attack when I saw I had to remove my shoes because they would leave a white powder trail. So I devised a plan. First I pulled out the Japanese hand towel I carry with me at all times and then I stepped out of my shoes but stayed standing on them. My next move was pretty brilliant. I fumbled with my purse and “accidently” dropped it on my feet – oopsies - giving me enough time to quickly whisk away my powered feet. Crisis averted. I managed to avoid a foot power trail onto the burgundy carpeting.
Oddly reminiscent of pictures I have seen of immigrants coming to America, everyone picked a spot on the floor, picked up a complementary blanket and either went to sleep or watched TV. So I followed suit and wedged my way between two Japanese teenagers that had already fallen asleep (we had literally just bored the ferry). Japanese people can fall asleep anywhere! Last time I came to Japan I had the problem of people falling asleep on me riding home on the train. I would have to elbow them, or their head would be resting in my lap. Surprisingly they always woke up right before their stop. Japanese magic. But, to go back to the ferry. The teenagers were asleep next to me and I had barely enough room to spread out my feet while leaning on the wall. Luckily I got a wall spot, however, my feet dangerously were situated next to the head of a mother and son sleeping in the middle section of the carpet. The mother kept looking up at my feet, and I expected that something was wrong with them. So, I checked my feet: fine. Even though there were no traces of white powder she kept looking uncomfortable. So I have no idea if my feet were ugly, if I was in her space, or if it was the fact that I am a foreigner. None the less this made me really uncomfortable. Lesson learned from my ferry experience: don’t put on gold bond, wear socks instead, and be the first one to board the ferry so you can claim territory instead of invading other people’s. Besides my turmoil, we sailed smoothly to Sasebo.
The plan in Nagasaki was to meet up with ALTs from the Nagasaki prefecture and enjoy the Obon festival. Thankfully, Emily – a friend I met at orientation – so kindly allowed me to stay at her place for the night. She boarded so many ALTs for the weekend at her place that we all joked that she was running a mini hostel. Although Emily technically resides in Nagasaki city, her place is more of a suburb. Let me tell you, her area is nice and is without a doubt more affluent than my area in Arikawa. Drum roll…she even has a dryer in her apartment. Surprising, I know, that I am worked up about a dryer, but hardly anyone own a dryer in Japan. Basically, owning a dryer is unheard of, and Emily is the only ALT I know that owns one. Lucky! On the bright side, I am saving electricity. From what I understand her predecessor had a Japanese girl friend who elevated the apartment to a Japanese cleanliness and organizational standard. So, Emily doesn’t really have to do much in terms of cleaning or re-decorating, except for the shower. The shower works and is nice, but it is odd. Cranking a handle is the only way to generate heat. I am not sure how this works, but I do know that it is loud and more complicated that just turning on the faucet. Some areas in Japanese technology are first rate…while other sectors of technology seem to fail to catch up (air-conditioners!).
In total, five guests stayed at her apartment for the two nights I stayed there. It was crowded, but I got to sleep on a futon, and can fall asleep almost anywhere (like a Japanese person) so I was fine.
Walking to school today (10 mins) was so much hotter than usually. All I wanted was to get into the air conditioned teachers room, collapse and complain to other teachers how hot it is. Even though it is hot every day, without fail everyone says, “Atsui ne?,” meaning, “It’s hot right?” To which everyone responds, “hai sugoku atsui yo,” roughly translated, “Yeah, so freakin hot.” Today I expected the same circumstances because usually at school when I walk in through the door I only see maybe five – at most – teachers sitting in their desks. But today EVERYONE was there. Strange. I walked into a meeting, of which I had not been informed of that had clearly been going on since before my start time. I guess they figure I lack the language skills to understand the meeting. True, however, being employed by the school I want to know when teacher events are taking place. My goal is to slowly inform the teachers that I want to be included in these meetings. Nakamura sensei gave me a piece of paper and explained that there are meetings all day, and that I should just use my computer.
Back to Nagasaki. I bought a yukatta which looks like a kimono, but instead of silk it is made of cotton and commonly worn at festivals. Picking one out proved to be difficult! The patterns and the colors are important because the way I see it, a yukatta is a reflection of your personality. Because my yukatta has bright colors and a bold pattern I would say that my yukatta reflects my outgoing and fun nature. Without realizing it, I picked a very islandy looking one and I heightened that aspect by wearing a flower right above one of my ears. So cute, right?
I bought a yukatta – it’s always good to have one living in Japan – mostly because all the ALTs planned to wear yukatta the night of the 15th (the big day of the festival). Traditionally Japanese wear yukatta for festivals, and so we felt that Obon festival gave us an excuse to wear our yukatta and fit in at the festival.
Yeah, we did look cute but we were far from fitting in. Where were the yukattas? As soon as we boarded the bus we realized that no one wore a yukatta. At first I thought that people during Obon – a somber event – don’t wear yukatta. We later learned many people didn’t wear yukatta because they were afraid that it would rain and ruin the cloth. But, we didn’t learn this until the next day. Can’t you imagine how we looked at Obon? Not only were there the six ALTs staying at Emily’s house, but three more girls met up with us so that we could all help each other put on the yukatta. In total, we had a group composed of all foreigners: eight girls all in bright colored yukattas and one guy in a traditional jinbe.
We stood out like a sore thumb. Some of the people couldn’t stop staring, and people started taking pictures of us. Immediately I thought since Obon festival remembers departed souls, we somehow dressed inappropriately. And I felt like I had worn a bright yellow sun dress to a funeral. Like, a good gainjin I decided to roll with the punches and play into the stupid foreigner card. Although people usually wear yukatta at Bon, as I have mentioned the weather played into the decision for most people not to wear a yukatta on this day. Japanese pay very close attention to weather related events and seasons. For instance, if it is winter everyone wears a jacket; temperature is irrelevant to the clothing choice. But, in the case of rain – if there is a slight chance – people don’t want to ruin yukatta so no one wears one. Essentially we stood out because we – like unknowing gaijin – decided to wear our yukatta anyway. What I am trying to explain is that if it had been clear weather we wouldn’t have stood out, but since there was a chance of rain all the Japanese people couldn’t believe we risked wearing our yukatta. But, I am glad we did because I had so much fun!
The boat floats were everywhere. Even throughout the day people began walking their boats through every part of the city on the way toward the downtown area. You couldn’t miss the boats at any time during the day. At every stop people lit the firework, altering everyone in the surrounding area of their presence. During my visit to the Peace Park (the hypocenter of the A-bomb) I couldn’t miss the loud popping noises in the distance, and I caught my first glimpse of the group of matching men in jinbe surrounding the float. Along with the fireworks kids led the procession by banging on a gong. Everyone had a role in each group. A couple people lit fireworks in front and behind the float, some people banged on the gong, and depending on the size of the float an equal amount of men (usually men) lined either side of the float and push the cart forward.
Before I get to ahead of myself, I should talk a bit about the Peace Park and museum. As an American, I feel a certain draw to understand the history (even if it is dark) between Japan and America. Even though I feel a certain personal magnetic pull to visit both A-bomb sites, at the same time I feel a cultural push and expectation to visit the hypocenter of the bomb. I can’t explain my reasoning for this, but I know that other Americans feel the same way. If I ignored the A-bomb site and museum, it is almost like scoffing at and ignoring the horrible events that took place on August 9th at 11:02 A.M. in Nagasaki. When I visit (especially during Obon) I feel like I am giving my respects to all of the lives lost as a result of the A-bomb (around 130,000 people died). But maybe more importantly, by visiting I want to show that I am an advocate of peace, and that I am not afraid to acknowledge the destruction and learn from the personal experiences of bomb survivors.
Unlike Hiroshima, Nagasaki attempted an objective approach. Of course it is almost impossible to achieve this when your city is only one of two in the world destroyed by an atomic bomb, but they were objective considering their fate. Hiroshima tried to question why the bomb had to be dropped on a city, why there had to be a second bomb dropped, why did they drop it against the scientists of the Manhattan project’s wills, why did they choose these specific targets, why weren’t the cities warned prior to the drops,etc. Interestingly Hiroshima made a good point that the choice had personal ties. For instance, one general refused to have a bomb dropped on Kyoto since he spent his honeymoon there. But, Nagasaki left out information like this because arguably that story might not be as concretely true as Hiroshima insists. Instead, Nagasaki focused on personal stories and events, and talked specifically about the stages of the bomb. That is, how hot temperatures rose at certain distances from the hypocenter and how powerful the blast was. Many bottles, roof tiles, and trees showed the bubbling caused by the intense heat. Many stories and personal items filled the museum. Some sections informed museum goers about stages of radiation and showed graphic pictures of skin burned off and keloid scars.
All the pictures of the burn victims almost brought me to tears. Even now when thinking about how many people suffered, upsets me. Perhaps the item that stood out to me the most was a lunch box of a school girl. Displayed under the picture of the girl, this lunch box still had all of the food items intact, but was completely charred. Essentially the lunch box had been preserved like a time capsule and even individual grains of rice could still be seen. Right now I am having a hard time describing how it affected me so deeply. Maybe because I started to think about how unknowingly this school girl sat at her desk thinking about her regular day and how soon (around 11 o’clock) she would finally get some lunch. Of course made this up in my head, but I started thinking about how so many people had no idea what would happen, and how instantaneously some many lives disintegrated. They hadn’t been able to find this girl; the only thing that remained of her on that day was her lunch box with her name engraved on the bottom. It was a piece of her on that day almost perfectly preserved, and a memory that her life had been unknowingly swept away. I hope that explains my jumble of thoughts. I find it so difficult to describe, and so I encourage anyone who gets a chance to visit the Nagasaki A-bomb museum to truly make an effort to understand that peace is necessary so that no A-bomb will be dropped again.
On a lighter note, Obon exceeded my expectations. The atmosphere and excitement truly affected everyone around the festival. All the roads downtown had been shut down for the parade of boats, and in some spots the only lights came from the lanterns on the boats themselves. Tons of people lined the street on both sides and tons of fireworks exploded in the middle of the street. I have never seen as much litter in Japan until the night of Obon. Since people discarded firework box where ever the street was barely visible under the mounds of trash. So strange to see in Japan, but it made it all the more exciting and different than any other Japan experience I have had. Instead of me explaining forever what the floats looked like, look at the pictures for youself (the link is on an older post). Experiencing Obon in Nagasaki was worth it, even though it was expensive!
Planning my trip back didn’t go too well. I had just enough, again, to make it back to Shinkamigoto on the fast boat. Bad decision. Unfortunately the fast boat is not only expensive, but pretty far from my house. I had the idea that I could catch a bus from Taonora (where the boat lands in Shinkamigoto) regardless of the fact that I didn’t look up the schedule. Also, I wore jeans that day – really bad decision in this heat – because someone told me I would need jeans to protect myself from the ground fireworks at Obon. To my disadvantage on this exceptionally hot day, they were my only set of clean clothes. Since I thought I could take a bus back home, wearing jeans didn’t seem too stupid. But, it was. Let me tell you, skinny jeans in humid heat makes for a miserable 1.5 mile hike while carrying duffle bags.
Upon arriving in Taonora I was informed that the last bus of the day just departed ten minutes ago. What to do? Not having enough money for a taxi, I opted to walk in my jeans on this hot hot day all the way back to my house. Carrying my bags I set off in the direction – I hoped – was Arikawa. Thankfully it was, but it took me a good hour and ten minutes to finally reach my destination! And, another problem I faced was figuring out how to get to Nice Buddy later that night for a BBQ they invited me to. I didn’t have anyone’s number from Nice Buddy because I had just gotten my phone on Thursday. But fate was on my side! Thankfully after all my misfortunes of the day, I ran into Natsun – one of the owner of Nice Buddy – on the walk home. If I hadn’t I think I would have collapsed on my bed and not been able to make it all the way to the BBQ. After exchanging numbers and explaining my situation she offered a ride later in the day. Halleluiah!
I won’t go into details of the BBQ, but instead focus on what’s interesting. I ate sheep, goat, sea snail, and beef. Funny, but true, goat kinda tastes like how they smell. Taste wise, I haven’t made up my mind whether I actually liked it or not. And raw goat meat tasted better than when cooked. At first I thought they were playing a trick on my and trying to get me to eat a raw meat that I shouldn’t. So I had them eat the raw goat first. They did, so I did. And it was delicious! Raw goat is tasty, but raw sea snail not so much. I happened to eat some raw sea snail sashimi in Nagasaki. It looked like the multicolored gizzards of a chicken with boogers all over it, and I think it tasted pretty much how it looked. And it was so incredibly slimly I had a hard time handling it with my chopstick. Instead of gracefully placing it in my mouth, I had to scoop it in. In my mouth the booger sack burst open and a flood of extremely mushy cream of wheat textured goo poured out. Delicious. Joking, because seriously it was nasty. Cooked sea snail actually tastes good, but it is just one of those things that shouldn’t be eaten raw. So adding goat and sea snail onto the list of sashimi, I have also added cooked sheep (I have eaten lamb, but full grown is different) onto my new foods list. I really like.
*Hahaha, there is a break between meetings and people started taking about how hot it is, and when the heat will end.
Sheep in Japanese is pronounced jingesukan, which sounds an awful lot like Ghengis Khan the Mongol conqueror. So they kept talking about how we were going to eat Ghengis Khan, and I didn’t understand. And I kept asking why they said we were eating a Mongol. It took forever to explain what I meant, but towards the end of the night everyone started calling the sheep monguru-jin (Mongolian person).
I really like the whole Nice Buddy family! Techan and Natsun have three kids: two girls and one boy. And the girls are interested in talking to Robin and me. I think they want to learn English from us, and I figure that my free English lessons are in exchange for the extra benefits (like dinner) that Nice Buddy has given me. The little boy (8 years old) keeps showing me all the bugs he catches. Here in Japan little boys catch a certain type of beetle. The more you have the cooler you are. Techan keeps calling his soon “hero” because he has so many bugs, and explained that he is a really manly cool little boy for catching these beetles (they are not dangerous) and so they call him a hero for it. I think that they look really nasty, but I am not a huge fan of bugs in general. But, every time I go to Nice Buddy the little boy shows me his beetle collection because he keeps them in a tank like pets. Last time he showed me almost all of the bugs in one of the terrariums had died, and he didn’t seem too upset. I told him all had died, but he assured me that there were live ones at the bottom of the sod. So he dug through the layers of dead beetles and moist sod to prove that in fact live beetles did escape death. Gross.
After my dive on Monday night, Nastun served me dinner at Nice Buddy. I sat there for a good while trying to explain the pronunciation difference between frog and flag. When it comes to pronunciation my linguistic training comes as an advantage.
*Best time ever at work. I went out of the teacher’s lounge to go to the bathroom, and what do I hear but Thriller playing the background. So I went over to investigate and almost all of the third year students were practicing the dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller video! So cool to see all of the students doing this dance. They told me that they are practicing for sports day where they are all going to perform the dance together. Some taught me some of the moves, and I started to join in and practice with them. So much fun!
I’ll write about meeting the mayor tomorrow. I have already written so much!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Kurapu Kurapu
I won't be able to blog about the weekend until tomorrow :( I am so exhausted from everything!! There seems to be no time in the day anymore.
I wanted to post something before I went to sleep. It's more like my time to vent than talking about events.
No, I am not going to talk badly about Japanese people, but instead I am going to complain about my toilet situation. At first I was overjoyed to know that I had a western style toilet. "Thank you, there is a god," I thought as I peered inside and walked away. - side note: traditional Japanese toilets are squat toilets and you can't exactly relax with a magazine - To give you an idea of the bathroom (or maybe just toilet room is better): it is a closet sized space which includes the western appearing toilet and a small strange sink. I noticed something else that was very strange, a gun looking water sprayer hung next to the toilet. From my experience with the highly technologically advanced toilets in Tokyo, I though maybe it was a bidet. I was so wrong.
So, overwhelmed by my sense of good fortune I missed the horrible smell even though I examined the strange gun. But, I sure noticed it the first time I went into the bathroom. I had to hurry to finish my business and bolt out of there. When I flushed the familiar swirl and rush of water were replaced by the opening of a flap in the bottom of the bowl and a stream of water. Interesting, maybe the toilets flush differently here in Arikawa? No.
My toilet as I have come to realize is just a glorified outhouse attached to my house. The flap separates the septic tank sitting just below my bathroom from the rest of the house. Even though my predecessor told me I had a septic tank bill I didn't think that it would be a flap away from my house.
The most startling aspect of the flap happens to be the sounds it makes: the clap. If you happen to have good aim you can measure your craps in claps. By this I mean, the flap can't hold much weight. What you do hits the flap, the flap opens, flaps back up and makes a clapping noise. The first time this happened I was really surprised and was afraid that something was crawling through the flap. Not so, just my own doing. I am so sorry that I am being so graphic, but I just need to vent about my kurapu kurapu.
Kurapu kurapu you ask? Well sound it out. Ku-ra-pu. Huh, kinda like "crap". But if you were Japanese it would also sound like "clap" - Japanese can't make the /r/ /l/ distinction. Hence: kurapu kurapu. A play on words in Japanese to mean both crap and clap, and since you can measure your craps in claps, this is the new name of my toilet.
Basically I have an outhouse for a toilet, which explains why I can't kill the smell. And don't get my started about the really hot humid days here. No matter how much I try to make it smell like lavender it doesn't work. I have two general air fresheners, and toilet attachment, a freshener to put in the sink, and the spray. Nothing works for more than an hour! It's best just to avoid the bathroom during the lunch hours. In the beginning I blamed the smell on Joe, but now I understand that nothing can be done.
And I figured out the purpose of the spray gun. The bowl doesn't fill up with water after flushing. Adding to this problem, is the fact that the water pressure when flushing doesn't do very much. Every time that you can't aim directly on the flap, the gun assists in removing anything you don't want stinking up your bathroom. So this makes a separate problem. Spraying away unwanted visuals means that you have to be careful. Sprayer beware because you might splash some of what you clean onto your legs. Gross.
I think I would prefer an outhouse to the kurapu kurapu. Venting complete.
I wanted to post something before I went to sleep. It's more like my time to vent than talking about events.
No, I am not going to talk badly about Japanese people, but instead I am going to complain about my toilet situation. At first I was overjoyed to know that I had a western style toilet. "Thank you, there is a god," I thought as I peered inside and walked away. - side note: traditional Japanese toilets are squat toilets and you can't exactly relax with a magazine - To give you an idea of the bathroom (or maybe just toilet room is better): it is a closet sized space which includes the western appearing toilet and a small strange sink. I noticed something else that was very strange, a gun looking water sprayer hung next to the toilet. From my experience with the highly technologically advanced toilets in Tokyo, I though maybe it was a bidet. I was so wrong.
So, overwhelmed by my sense of good fortune I missed the horrible smell even though I examined the strange gun. But, I sure noticed it the first time I went into the bathroom. I had to hurry to finish my business and bolt out of there. When I flushed the familiar swirl and rush of water were replaced by the opening of a flap in the bottom of the bowl and a stream of water. Interesting, maybe the toilets flush differently here in Arikawa? No.
My toilet as I have come to realize is just a glorified outhouse attached to my house. The flap separates the septic tank sitting just below my bathroom from the rest of the house. Even though my predecessor told me I had a septic tank bill I didn't think that it would be a flap away from my house.
The most startling aspect of the flap happens to be the sounds it makes: the clap. If you happen to have good aim you can measure your craps in claps. By this I mean, the flap can't hold much weight. What you do hits the flap, the flap opens, flaps back up and makes a clapping noise. The first time this happened I was really surprised and was afraid that something was crawling through the flap. Not so, just my own doing. I am so sorry that I am being so graphic, but I just need to vent about my kurapu kurapu.
Kurapu kurapu you ask? Well sound it out. Ku-ra-pu. Huh, kinda like "crap". But if you were Japanese it would also sound like "clap" - Japanese can't make the /r/ /l/ distinction. Hence: kurapu kurapu. A play on words in Japanese to mean both crap and clap, and since you can measure your craps in claps, this is the new name of my toilet.
Basically I have an outhouse for a toilet, which explains why I can't kill the smell. And don't get my started about the really hot humid days here. No matter how much I try to make it smell like lavender it doesn't work. I have two general air fresheners, and toilet attachment, a freshener to put in the sink, and the spray. Nothing works for more than an hour! It's best just to avoid the bathroom during the lunch hours. In the beginning I blamed the smell on Joe, but now I understand that nothing can be done.
And I figured out the purpose of the spray gun. The bowl doesn't fill up with water after flushing. Adding to this problem, is the fact that the water pressure when flushing doesn't do very much. Every time that you can't aim directly on the flap, the gun assists in removing anything you don't want stinking up your bathroom. So this makes a separate problem. Spraying away unwanted visuals means that you have to be careful. Sprayer beware because you might splash some of what you clean onto your legs. Gross.
I think I would prefer an outhouse to the kurapu kurapu. Venting complete.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Pictures
Finally got the internet up at my house!!!! Crazy, it almost doesn't feel right anymore. Well, I hate to say it, but I am so tired I can't find the strength to write anything. Don't worry I have a lot to say. But...in the mean time, pictures!! I am posting links to picasa and you can view them there. I only made some comments on the pictures from this last weekend, but I will go through all of the pictures in time!
Obon Festival (this weekend)
shinkamigoto
more shinkamigoto
house cleaning (don't judge me, this was when I first got there)
Arrival to Shinkamigoto
Orientation
New ALTs
Peace Day Assembly
Office
Obon Festival (this weekend)
shinkamigoto
more shinkamigoto
house cleaning (don't judge me, this was when I first got there)
Arrival to Shinkamigoto
Orientation
New ALTs
Peace Day Assembly
Office
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
bioluminescent flagellates
Where to begin?!? Making Japanese friends at Nice Buddy has already heightened my experience here in Shinkamigoto. We went on a boat to a festival in a neighboring island (Wakamatsu) to eat yummy food and have a good time.
So far it really hasn’t rained much…until yesterday! Talk about bad timing. All day it constantly rained, but not too hard until we headed down to Nice Buddy, where the rain really started to pour. But, I came prepared with my awesome rain boots (which saved my life yesterday, thank you mom), a rain coat (thank you Jamie), and an umbrella. I decked myself out in rain gear because after living in Houston I know how to deal with the down pours.
At Nice Buddy we (11 people) piled onto the scuba boat and head toward Wakamatsu. And it was a much faster and more direct trip to Wakamatsu by boat than by car. In a car you have to not only scale mountains, but you have to go over a bridge and then wait in traffic and find a place to park. On a boat, you can head straight there (the quickest way from point A to point B is a straight line), park right on the dock without waiting, have a place to eat, and most importantly you have the best view of the fireworks. All in all, I attribute my amazing experience to the people at Nice Buddy and the boat.
Maybe I was over-prepared, but I didn’t regret my decision to wear the boots after we got to the festival. We had to walk through sticky brown mud to buy some BBQ food (they brought their own sushi –BYOS for short – ). Everyone else had flip flops on, which meant they had to carefully look around at the ground where they walked while I walked through the mud without a care in the world (and dry, mud free feet). Looking around, I felt so bad for all of the girls that had gotten ready with their yukata (light cotton Kimono-ish garment). Some girls had just a tiny towel over their heads to protect them from the rain. But the saddest sight was the entertainer on the big stage. Unfortunately his act included juggling and twirling fire. Only several dedicated audience members huddle near the front of the stage and watched as people with umbrellas tried to keep him and his spinning fire baton dry. And their very dedicated attempts at keeping the show alive could not sustain any audience interest. Poor fire thrower.
We left the main festival mud pit to rejoin the nice buddies, where we ate, drank, joked, and laughed while exchanging cultural tid bits. Japanese people have a very hard time pronouncing many English sounds like [f] [b] [v] [l] [r], stops [p,t,k,b] at the end of a word, the [si] combination in words like [sit]. There are many more, but it was funny to hear Natsun-san say “flip flop” because it sounded more like [rep rop] than any close to “flip flop”. And they can’t pronounce “corn dog” very well (especially because they call a corn dog “America dog”) so corn dog either sounds like [coin dog] or [co dog]. Obviously I want to make our friendship deeper than just saying things in English, but at first it is a good way to break the ice and make everyone laugh. Another really good way to impress Japanese people is knowing bits of J-pop (Japanese pop culture). Such words like KY (kuuki yomenai, can’t read the air, hence “awkward”) and maji de ( oh really???) come in handy because they will usually make someone laugh. Knowing about yumei na hito (famous people) and cartoons like oshiri kajiri mushi (butt biting bug) go a long way to make little kids think that you are cool. And then it opens up the conversation to talk about slang in English.
Enough about language, this was my first festival after all so I might as well talk about it. Especially because some weird things happened that I didn’t expect. I didn’t mention it before, but Robin came along. I asked Nishimura-sensei and then they invited her to come along. So, together we walked back to the festival –it had stopped raining – to see why everyone gathered around the stage. We both didn’t have to strain to see the stage (because everyone is so short) so we were immediately surprised to see…Power Rangers??? NO! GOTO RANGERS! On the stage stood several bad guys surrounded by the “puddy” things (if you haven’t seen Power Rangers they are the lowest ranking and easiest to kill henchmen). One puddy was not child appropriate. He stuffed something bigger than a sock down his costume to give an enlarging effect (although funny because so strange) did not seem okay considering the amount of little kids. Sometimes overtly sexual things in Japan are accepted by the mainstream public.
Enough about “big puddy”. I have to say they did a pretty good job reenacting the whole cheesy Power Ranger getup and choreography. Apparently there are only two Goto Rangers, red and blue, but they kicked some monster butt!! Even when Godzilla showed up in the crowd (who awkwardly lumbered around with escorts, and had to be lifted onto the stage), they were able to defeat him and keep the Goto Islands safe. There was lighting and fog effects that make it seem so real! Not really, but it was entertaining!! Alas, the show couldn’t last forever, and so we walked around the festival.
Commonly at the festivals there are fish catching games. You kneel and a trough filled with fish and in one hand you hold a bowl and in the other you have a small net. The goal is to herd a gold fish into the bowl with the net and scoop it up. Breaking super easily, the net isn’t meant to have any weight put on it. Rather you herd a fish slowly until you can quickly scoop with the bowl. Since I have been wanting a fish, I decided this was a perfectly acceptable way of acquire one. After breaking my first two nets, I caught a fish!! The man also gave me a pity fish that really wasn’t that pretty. Mine –the one I caught – is way cuter. So I named my big gold fish Goto Ranger and the little one Busu-chan (it means ugly thing in Japanese). Now I have to make sure I can keep the fishies alive!
Both Robin and I ran into our students from our respective high schools. So we posed in our most Japanese way and took a picture. Running into them was fantastic because I want them to know I get out and around and I am interested in the community events. The only drawback was that they tried to take advantage of me! One student asked for me to pay for their ice cream. I told them I didn’t have any money – which is true – so they asked Nishimura sensei instead. To my surprise Nishimura sensei gave into their request! Maybe this is a common thing for a sensei to buy the students food or something, but I feel weird doing that. They should be bribing me, not the other way around.
By the time I made it back to the boat –Goto Ranger in tow – the fireworks started. The view from the boat was spectacular. I don’t ever remember fireworks being so loud, so it must have been topographical features amplifying the sound. They went on forever. I thought that since it was a small festival the fireworks wouldn’t be very grand, but Japanese take fireworks very seriously and the display truly was beautiful.
But better than the fireworks was the ride back on the boat where probably thousands of the bioluminescent flagellates (Wikipedia it) illuminated the crests of the waves and the surface of the water. I have never seen anything like it. The water had an eerie turquoise glow anywhere the microscopic organisms had been perturbed. So the wake behind the boat glowed. And I can’t even begin to describe the stars (I just have been able to see them clearly again with glasses) because there were millions and millions that we could see. Without the harsh city light I am used to, the sky looked as clear as I can remember it. The night sparkled above and below me in the boat. And to add to the romantic nature of the night, I saw a falling star. I wish I could find the appropriate words to describe just how beautiful the night was. I can only look forward to more beauty in events to come, especially since Natsun told me that you can see the bioluminescent flagellates (plankton) night diving!!
The biggest congregation of the plankton itself was around the dock of Nice Buddy, and so when we got off of the boat we spent a good ten minutes throwing things into the water to make it glow. I can see how sailors must have thought that spirits lurked in the water. Even though I know the explanation, I still couldn’t help feeling that what we saw was not natural and other worldly. I don’t know how long the bioluminescence lasts in these waters, but I am so glad I got to see it!
First festival: success!
Here is a google map of all the places I've been talking about.
So far it really hasn’t rained much…until yesterday! Talk about bad timing. All day it constantly rained, but not too hard until we headed down to Nice Buddy, where the rain really started to pour. But, I came prepared with my awesome rain boots (which saved my life yesterday, thank you mom), a rain coat (thank you Jamie), and an umbrella. I decked myself out in rain gear because after living in Houston I know how to deal with the down pours.
At Nice Buddy we (11 people) piled onto the scuba boat and head toward Wakamatsu. And it was a much faster and more direct trip to Wakamatsu by boat than by car. In a car you have to not only scale mountains, but you have to go over a bridge and then wait in traffic and find a place to park. On a boat, you can head straight there (the quickest way from point A to point B is a straight line), park right on the dock without waiting, have a place to eat, and most importantly you have the best view of the fireworks. All in all, I attribute my amazing experience to the people at Nice Buddy and the boat.
Maybe I was over-prepared, but I didn’t regret my decision to wear the boots after we got to the festival. We had to walk through sticky brown mud to buy some BBQ food (they brought their own sushi –BYOS for short – ). Everyone else had flip flops on, which meant they had to carefully look around at the ground where they walked while I walked through the mud without a care in the world (and dry, mud free feet). Looking around, I felt so bad for all of the girls that had gotten ready with their yukata (light cotton Kimono-ish garment). Some girls had just a tiny towel over their heads to protect them from the rain. But the saddest sight was the entertainer on the big stage. Unfortunately his act included juggling and twirling fire. Only several dedicated audience members huddle near the front of the stage and watched as people with umbrellas tried to keep him and his spinning fire baton dry. And their very dedicated attempts at keeping the show alive could not sustain any audience interest. Poor fire thrower.
We left the main festival mud pit to rejoin the nice buddies, where we ate, drank, joked, and laughed while exchanging cultural tid bits. Japanese people have a very hard time pronouncing many English sounds like [f] [b] [v] [l] [r], stops [p,t,k,b] at the end of a word, the [si] combination in words like [sit]. There are many more, but it was funny to hear Natsun-san say “flip flop” because it sounded more like [rep rop] than any close to “flip flop”. And they can’t pronounce “corn dog” very well (especially because they call a corn dog “America dog”) so corn dog either sounds like [coin dog] or [co dog]. Obviously I want to make our friendship deeper than just saying things in English, but at first it is a good way to break the ice and make everyone laugh. Another really good way to impress Japanese people is knowing bits of J-pop (Japanese pop culture). Such words like KY (kuuki yomenai, can’t read the air, hence “awkward”) and maji de ( oh really???) come in handy because they will usually make someone laugh. Knowing about yumei na hito (famous people) and cartoons like oshiri kajiri mushi (butt biting bug) go a long way to make little kids think that you are cool. And then it opens up the conversation to talk about slang in English.
Enough about language, this was my first festival after all so I might as well talk about it. Especially because some weird things happened that I didn’t expect. I didn’t mention it before, but Robin came along. I asked Nishimura-sensei and then they invited her to come along. So, together we walked back to the festival –it had stopped raining – to see why everyone gathered around the stage. We both didn’t have to strain to see the stage (because everyone is so short) so we were immediately surprised to see…Power Rangers??? NO! GOTO RANGERS! On the stage stood several bad guys surrounded by the “puddy” things (if you haven’t seen Power Rangers they are the lowest ranking and easiest to kill henchmen). One puddy was not child appropriate. He stuffed something bigger than a sock down his costume to give an enlarging effect (although funny because so strange) did not seem okay considering the amount of little kids. Sometimes overtly sexual things in Japan are accepted by the mainstream public.
Enough about “big puddy”. I have to say they did a pretty good job reenacting the whole cheesy Power Ranger getup and choreography. Apparently there are only two Goto Rangers, red and blue, but they kicked some monster butt!! Even when Godzilla showed up in the crowd (who awkwardly lumbered around with escorts, and had to be lifted onto the stage), they were able to defeat him and keep the Goto Islands safe. There was lighting and fog effects that make it seem so real! Not really, but it was entertaining!! Alas, the show couldn’t last forever, and so we walked around the festival.
Commonly at the festivals there are fish catching games. You kneel and a trough filled with fish and in one hand you hold a bowl and in the other you have a small net. The goal is to herd a gold fish into the bowl with the net and scoop it up. Breaking super easily, the net isn’t meant to have any weight put on it. Rather you herd a fish slowly until you can quickly scoop with the bowl. Since I have been wanting a fish, I decided this was a perfectly acceptable way of acquire one. After breaking my first two nets, I caught a fish!! The man also gave me a pity fish that really wasn’t that pretty. Mine –the one I caught – is way cuter. So I named my big gold fish Goto Ranger and the little one Busu-chan (it means ugly thing in Japanese). Now I have to make sure I can keep the fishies alive!
Both Robin and I ran into our students from our respective high schools. So we posed in our most Japanese way and took a picture. Running into them was fantastic because I want them to know I get out and around and I am interested in the community events. The only drawback was that they tried to take advantage of me! One student asked for me to pay for their ice cream. I told them I didn’t have any money – which is true – so they asked Nishimura sensei instead. To my surprise Nishimura sensei gave into their request! Maybe this is a common thing for a sensei to buy the students food or something, but I feel weird doing that. They should be bribing me, not the other way around.
By the time I made it back to the boat –Goto Ranger in tow – the fireworks started. The view from the boat was spectacular. I don’t ever remember fireworks being so loud, so it must have been topographical features amplifying the sound. They went on forever. I thought that since it was a small festival the fireworks wouldn’t be very grand, but Japanese take fireworks very seriously and the display truly was beautiful.
But better than the fireworks was the ride back on the boat where probably thousands of the bioluminescent flagellates (Wikipedia it) illuminated the crests of the waves and the surface of the water. I have never seen anything like it. The water had an eerie turquoise glow anywhere the microscopic organisms had been perturbed. So the wake behind the boat glowed. And I can’t even begin to describe the stars (I just have been able to see them clearly again with glasses) because there were millions and millions that we could see. Without the harsh city light I am used to, the sky looked as clear as I can remember it. The night sparkled above and below me in the boat. And to add to the romantic nature of the night, I saw a falling star. I wish I could find the appropriate words to describe just how beautiful the night was. I can only look forward to more beauty in events to come, especially since Natsun told me that you can see the bioluminescent flagellates (plankton) night diving!!
The biggest congregation of the plankton itself was around the dock of Nice Buddy, and so when we got off of the boat we spent a good ten minutes throwing things into the water to make it glow. I can see how sailors must have thought that spirits lurked in the water. Even though I know the explanation, I still couldn’t help feeling that what we saw was not natural and other worldly. I don’t know how long the bioluminescence lasts in these waters, but I am so glad I got to see it!
First festival: success!
Here is a google map of all the places I've been talking about.
my first dive!
I had no clue what to expect from my first dive, but it was fantastic! They completely suited me up from head to toe in scuba gear. Thankfully, the wetsuit fit –just barely - because I am definitely not Japanese sized. So I had a wetsuit, boots, gloves, the mask, flippers, weights, and the tank. Everything on felt so strange, and it definitely wasn’t my most attractive moment.
Techan (the guy giving me the lesson) doesn’t really speak English, so my first lesson was in broken Japanese. There are two main things he taught me: 1. When water gets in your mask push on the top and blow as hard as you can with your nose to expel the water, and 2. When your oxygen mask gets yanked out in the water blow really hard on it before breathing in again. Simple enough. And after making sure I could do both of those things, we jumped off of the side of the dock and into the water. Breathing from the tank felt like I was sucking air through a straw. And my mouth got surprisingly dry toward the end of my twenty minute dive.
Don’t worry, Techan made sure to hold my hand and watch me closely to make sure I had my balance (which is surprisingly difficult). If he left me he indicated to grab hold of a rock or pole while he pointed something out. Since we stayed at the dock I thought that I wouldn’t see any interesting sea life, but there was so much to see right there! Clownfish, seahorses, colorful shrimp, schools of small silver fish, and an occasional big fish (foot long). Well I can’t say that I had a favorite part to my dive, but I got to hold a seahorse!
Techan brought one over to me and placed it in my hands, and it grabbed onto my finger with its tail. Very strange creatures, but so fascinating! And to gather more fish, Techan pounded on a rock with a silver rod which attracted about twenty fishes. Afterwards he told me the pounding breaks off food particles that the fish feed on. Techan had me swirl my finger through sea anemones which would gently recoil and move away from my hand, and the clownfish would get in on the fun and follow our hands through the anemone. Overall I had such a great time even though we didn’t go anywhere. And just before the end of the dive, we picked up oysters from the sea floor to take up with us.
I had a slight inclination of the oyster’s contents, but it was confirmed when Techan shucked them open and had me dig for the contents inside of the oyster’s body. So I reached with my thumb and index finger slowly dipping them into the doughy texture of the first oyster and pulled out a perfectly shaped off-white colored pearl. So beautiful. I couldn’t believe that he not only let me have the pearl from the first oyster, but from the second one as well. And although the second has black raised areas of imperfection, it is equally as beautiful as the first. Both mean so much to me because I have a physical memory not only of my first dive, but of Shinkamigoto for as long as I don’t lose them. My plan is to make them into a necklace or into earrings.
I can’t imagine all the other amazing things that I will encounter. As the diving manual (in Japanese) reads, “If it is your first time scuba diving under the water, you will surely become hooked.” I have to agree. And I wish that I could translate more of this manual which I am supposed to have read, but it so difficult to translate. They are going to give me the English manual that one of the last JETs ordered so that I am able to read and study the basics of scuba diving. But for now the book has been helpful for practicing my Japanese.
Tonight I am off to go on a cruise around a bay with the members of Nice Buddy where we will eat lots of sushi and drink beer and watch the fireworks. I have to say that sushi is my favorite food here on the island!
Techan (the guy giving me the lesson) doesn’t really speak English, so my first lesson was in broken Japanese. There are two main things he taught me: 1. When water gets in your mask push on the top and blow as hard as you can with your nose to expel the water, and 2. When your oxygen mask gets yanked out in the water blow really hard on it before breathing in again. Simple enough. And after making sure I could do both of those things, we jumped off of the side of the dock and into the water. Breathing from the tank felt like I was sucking air through a straw. And my mouth got surprisingly dry toward the end of my twenty minute dive.
Don’t worry, Techan made sure to hold my hand and watch me closely to make sure I had my balance (which is surprisingly difficult). If he left me he indicated to grab hold of a rock or pole while he pointed something out. Since we stayed at the dock I thought that I wouldn’t see any interesting sea life, but there was so much to see right there! Clownfish, seahorses, colorful shrimp, schools of small silver fish, and an occasional big fish (foot long). Well I can’t say that I had a favorite part to my dive, but I got to hold a seahorse!
Techan brought one over to me and placed it in my hands, and it grabbed onto my finger with its tail. Very strange creatures, but so fascinating! And to gather more fish, Techan pounded on a rock with a silver rod which attracted about twenty fishes. Afterwards he told me the pounding breaks off food particles that the fish feed on. Techan had me swirl my finger through sea anemones which would gently recoil and move away from my hand, and the clownfish would get in on the fun and follow our hands through the anemone. Overall I had such a great time even though we didn’t go anywhere. And just before the end of the dive, we picked up oysters from the sea floor to take up with us.
I had a slight inclination of the oyster’s contents, but it was confirmed when Techan shucked them open and had me dig for the contents inside of the oyster’s body. So I reached with my thumb and index finger slowly dipping them into the doughy texture of the first oyster and pulled out a perfectly shaped off-white colored pearl. So beautiful. I couldn’t believe that he not only let me have the pearl from the first oyster, but from the second one as well. And although the second has black raised areas of imperfection, it is equally as beautiful as the first. Both mean so much to me because I have a physical memory not only of my first dive, but of Shinkamigoto for as long as I don’t lose them. My plan is to make them into a necklace or into earrings.
I can’t imagine all the other amazing things that I will encounter. As the diving manual (in Japanese) reads, “If it is your first time scuba diving under the water, you will surely become hooked.” I have to agree. And I wish that I could translate more of this manual which I am supposed to have read, but it so difficult to translate. They are going to give me the English manual that one of the last JETs ordered so that I am able to read and study the basics of scuba diving. But for now the book has been helpful for practicing my Japanese.
Tonight I am off to go on a cruise around a bay with the members of Nice Buddy where we will eat lots of sushi and drink beer and watch the fireworks. I have to say that sushi is my favorite food here on the island!
Monday, August 10, 2009
monkey poses with nice buddies
I am in pain! My calves, my arms, my abs, everything. Everyday I am doing something involving physical exertion. Even at home, I am constantly cleaning the dishes, hanging my laundry, cooking, making lunch, and folding my laundry. And all of that seems like a break compared to the bike ride I’ve made a total of four times in the past 6 days.
Excuse my explanation of my journey because it will seem rather archaic, but I have no other options. Luckily my bike is a mountain bike, or else I think it might be impossible to climb the intense hills. I start at my house and make a left at a bright sky blue building, and proceed down the main road (there are only two main roads on the island, so the chance of getting lost is slim) past a fire station, baseball field, tennis courts, the hotel I stayed in, then past the beach until I reach a tunnel. Before I go in the tunnel I turn on my little bike flash (I can choose blinking or solid light) and have to push through an uphill battle until I can sail down the other side. The coast always stays on my right, so if you are inept at directions that means I head south the entire ways. Past the tunnel I think I am still in Arikawa, but I am not too sure. Yesterday I got to see junior high kids as well as elementary school kids practicing for a boat race. Their form of boating is between crew and canoeing, because they are fatter looking canoes with flat bottoms but they have a teacher directing them (like crew) and they each have an oar like crew. However, there are pairs sitting side by side, so maybe they actually reflect a Viking boat more than anything. Unfortunately my school doesn’t participate in this event, which takes place this weekend.
Anyhow, to get back to my trek, I bike past the boating area for a small ways and bike up another incline through a second tunnel, which is much shorter than the first. For certain I know when I break through the second tunnel I arrive in the town of Uonome, where Deborah lives. Uonome has a much more urban touch than Arikawa. So, to go to karaoke and many restaurants I have to bike through the two tunnels. I have found this bike ride seems easy compared to going all the way to Aokata (the next town over). Uonome gives me some rest, because it is so flat, before I have to bike up the steep never ending hill to Aokata. I think it might be a five minute uphill battle. Very long, and very tiring. At first I gave up after biking half way up the hill. It is disheartening when you have been biking so hard and make it around the corner of the hill and see that you are only half way there. It tricks you into thinking it is only half as big with the curve. But (sound trumpets) I FINALLY DID IT! For the past two times I made it up the hill without stopping. I have to shift to the very lowest gear in order to make it up all the way, but the point is that I did it (DEKITA!). Bragging, I feel, is warranted in this situation because it was one early goal I accomplished. So, in a way, it makes me feel like I can reach any goal that I set. Metaphorically my hill climb represented to me the uphill trek I have to make with everything I do, but once I finally can make it to the top (even though it is really really hard) the rest is an easy downhill descent that requires little if any effort. And not only did I make it up one side of the hill, but both sides on the same day. When I had to go back home, I didn’t stop all the way from Aokata to my house.
Once again, this Monday, I attended TaiChi class. Talk about an uphill battle for me, TaiChi makes me sweat more than biking. I thought the second time I could understand more, but I think that I ended up making more mistakes! When I looked in the mirror I got confused and realized that I turned my movements into the actual mirror image of what everyone was doing. We (the gaijin, Robin Deborah and me) have no clue about the correct order of the movements. TaiChi, like other martial arts, relies on stances and focusing your energy. Being the only one with experience, Deborah explained to Robin and me a little bit of what the heck we were doing. Excuse me if I am mistaken, but from what I understand TaiChi relies on focusing your Chi –or your energy- and you breathe in not a set rhythm, but with your own movement in the steps. When you place your foot down, you breathe into your leg so that all of the energy is focused on one solid leg while the other is free to kick or attack. But, as many of you know, Tai Chi movements are very controlled and fluid. What I didn’t know was that many of the arm sweeps represent batting a kick away, grabbing a foot and redirecting momentum, or attacking. I think the basic purpose of Tai Chi is to understand the flow and energy of your body and using that energy defensively and aggressively against an attacker.
Let me tell you, I felt embarrassed that these fifty year old women were kicking my twenty two year old ass. They were flexible, fluid, and strong. I, on the other hand, looked rigid, clumsy, and weak. So, I have a lot to learn, and I have to work hard. Some lady showed me a manual of the steps that was in English and Japanese, and I realized that they had been memorizing the steps at home. At first I thought that everyone had just remembered from class, but now I know that I am not hopeless forever. I have a chance to not be half a second off of the steps. Right now, the new students stand in the middle of the class while the more experience students stand on the corners of the room. Because we just follow the moves of everyone else we need constantly watch what everyone else is doing. This way we can see someone who knows what the heck comes next, but it makes the movements look awkward because we constantly have to be looking to someone. Sometimes it seems like the blind leading the blind. Occasionally I will watch someone doesn’t really know what to do next, and so I get screwed up. Eventually I will learn the moves and know who to follow so that I don’t look completely ridiculous.
Yesterday I was so busy that I almost didn’t make it to “Adriene- looks-ridiculous-doing-the-monkey-pose time” also know as Tai Chi. I, as my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) tells me, “Very active.” Before monkey-posing I went to a scuba diving information session at Nice Buddy!! Isn’t the name so Japanese? Japanese are talented at taking two directly translated words, smashing them together, and synthesizing a truly unique phrase, such as “Nice Buddy”. Meeting the other divers was so exciting! I have wanted to scuba dive, since as long as I can remember, and the opportunity here presented itself. So now it is full throttle on the diving goal until I have my license. Luckily a co-worker (Nishimura-sensei) dives all the time, and she is the person that really got things moving for me. Once you mention you are interested in something, right away the wheels start turning. I know how to get what I want.
Even though I had been introduced to Megumi-san, a Japanese girl my age interested in diving, and she offered to take me sometime, but I had a sense she was busy and I wanted to start right away. And as luck would have it sitting in the desk across from me sat Nishimura sensei with a Nice Buddy T-shirt on. I got really excited because I knew if I mentioned anything about diving she would start to help me right away. It is the Japanese way (at least as I have experienced) to help out foreigners as much as possible, and take anything you mention into action (example: the blue bunny shoes). So slyly, using this knowledge to my advantage, I mentioned to Nakamura sensei that I want to go diving while I am here. Right away she looked surprised and said, “Oh, Nishimura-sensei dives too. I will talk to her.” And she did, and before I knew it Nishimura-sensei called Nice Buddy, came over to me and asked when I had a free day, and offered to take me there herself. Everyone is very generous here, and don’t assume I plan on taking advantage of this all the time, but I really really want to dive! It would have been very difficult setting things up on my own.
Yesterday afternoon – between school and Tai Chi – ended up being the perfect time to meet the crew of Nice Buddy. Unfortunately for me, Nice Buddy might be a little too far to bike since it takes twenty minutes by car to get there (and there is a hill twice as large as the one between Uonome and Aokata!). Nishimura-sensei drove me, and the views were absolutely breath taking. I am so lucky to be in such a beautiful location with very steep mountains completely covered in bright green foliage and crystal blue water. So, I will have to take the bus or get really strong in order to have the physical capacity to bike all the way. For now, I accept the free rides they offered me!
Everyone at Nice Buddy, as the name says, is nice - they will be my new nice buddies from Nice Buddy. And in Japanese custom they offered Nishimura-sensei and me delicious homemade pudding with strawberry jelly on top. I could have eaten about twenty bowls of pudding and have had room for more. Then came in Natsun-chan (woman) and Techa-kun (man) both extremely tan, fit and relatively young. Fortunately for me I understood a good bit of their Japanese. So I am either getting used to hearing Japanese or they know the type of Japanese to use with foreigners. Immediately they began filling up my schedule with dives, classes to get my license, and parties! They invited me to two Nice Buddy parties: a BBQ on the 12th and another on the 16th. Instant friends! On the 12th we’re on a boat (yes, think of the Lonely Island song, and if you don’t know it look it up on youtube) that will cruise the bay around a smaller island Wakamatsu where there will be fireworks (hanabi) after a small festival. My wish is that everything is free, because I don’t have much money left. Maybe I have enough set aside.
Right now, I am reaching the end of my cash supply. I should have exchanged all of my money in Tokyo, but didn’t get a chance since the hotel wouldn’t accept everything in one day. My money has to be saved for my new pink ketai (cell phone) and my trip to Nagasaki where I can exchange currency. Nowhere on the island offers currency exchange because, really, how often would they need to here. So, I need enough to make it to Nagasaki and enough to pay for my cell phone which means I cannot spend any more money on food. The stock of food in my fridge keeps shrinking, but luckily I have enough rice to last me a while. I have been very resourceful with making new combinations of food. Like today (a salad I am very proud of) I combined half a cob of corn – I cut the kernels off – with deli ham slices – which I further sliced into rectangles – and I added miso sauce and sesame seed oil, stirred: instant corn and ham salad. I impressed myself with my salad because it actually is something I’d make even if I had a fridge full of food. Corn and ham salad plus a rice ball (filled with chicken and wrapped with seaweed) was lunch. I haven’t gotten sick of onigiri (rice ball) yet, but I feel like the time may come soon. Since food is low, I made an onigiri filled with tiny chicken bits from Saturday’s BBQ for each lunch this week. So my lunch will be corn ham salad and onigiri everyday this week. Rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Rice, rice, and more rice! Thankfully, on Friday I’ll be in Nagaski by 3:30 I can exchange money and have some real food, maybe I’ll indulge in some champon (look it up)…yummy Nagasaki cuisine.
And, to add to my cash surplus on Friday, comes my first pay check!! I was unaware of the fact that orientation counted as work, but I am happy about it. So the 14th I get my pay check for the month of July. Extra money than I was expecting! So far since I exchanged only a bit of my money, I actually am way under my budgeted spending (yay for Adriene). But, my diving expenses will eat up the rest of what I have not spent so far.
Off topic, but funny, is the subject of typhoons (commonly known as hurricane). Typhoons regularly graze the Goto islands, but are hardly ever destructive. Now, we are in typhoon season so Nakamura-sensei tried to explain the typhoon procedure. I use the term procedure loosely, mostly because, there isn’t one. The procedure as far as I know means that the teachers either risk their lives coming to school (even if the kids don’t have to) or you have to take a day of paid leave. I kept asking, “What if no one can get to school?” And the response I kept getting, “Oh, no I think there is still school. You have to come.” To which I asked, “Even if the students don’t have to come.” “Hmmm, yes, I think so.” And from what I learned there is no real safe place to be, but inside your house. I feel a bit uncomfortable about this. I am trying to reconcile safety plans between the other JETs and me in case there is a big typhoon. The chances are slim, but better safe than dead.
*Students have felt more and more like they can come and talk with me. I am probably going to start an English board and newsletter at my school. If anyone has any ideas for me, or wants to ask a question, go ahead and leave a comment!
Excuse my explanation of my journey because it will seem rather archaic, but I have no other options. Luckily my bike is a mountain bike, or else I think it might be impossible to climb the intense hills. I start at my house and make a left at a bright sky blue building, and proceed down the main road (there are only two main roads on the island, so the chance of getting lost is slim) past a fire station, baseball field, tennis courts, the hotel I stayed in, then past the beach until I reach a tunnel. Before I go in the tunnel I turn on my little bike flash (I can choose blinking or solid light) and have to push through an uphill battle until I can sail down the other side. The coast always stays on my right, so if you are inept at directions that means I head south the entire ways. Past the tunnel I think I am still in Arikawa, but I am not too sure. Yesterday I got to see junior high kids as well as elementary school kids practicing for a boat race. Their form of boating is between crew and canoeing, because they are fatter looking canoes with flat bottoms but they have a teacher directing them (like crew) and they each have an oar like crew. However, there are pairs sitting side by side, so maybe they actually reflect a Viking boat more than anything. Unfortunately my school doesn’t participate in this event, which takes place this weekend.
Anyhow, to get back to my trek, I bike past the boating area for a small ways and bike up another incline through a second tunnel, which is much shorter than the first. For certain I know when I break through the second tunnel I arrive in the town of Uonome, where Deborah lives. Uonome has a much more urban touch than Arikawa. So, to go to karaoke and many restaurants I have to bike through the two tunnels. I have found this bike ride seems easy compared to going all the way to Aokata (the next town over). Uonome gives me some rest, because it is so flat, before I have to bike up the steep never ending hill to Aokata. I think it might be a five minute uphill battle. Very long, and very tiring. At first I gave up after biking half way up the hill. It is disheartening when you have been biking so hard and make it around the corner of the hill and see that you are only half way there. It tricks you into thinking it is only half as big with the curve. But (sound trumpets) I FINALLY DID IT! For the past two times I made it up the hill without stopping. I have to shift to the very lowest gear in order to make it up all the way, but the point is that I did it (DEKITA!). Bragging, I feel, is warranted in this situation because it was one early goal I accomplished. So, in a way, it makes me feel like I can reach any goal that I set. Metaphorically my hill climb represented to me the uphill trek I have to make with everything I do, but once I finally can make it to the top (even though it is really really hard) the rest is an easy downhill descent that requires little if any effort. And not only did I make it up one side of the hill, but both sides on the same day. When I had to go back home, I didn’t stop all the way from Aokata to my house.
Once again, this Monday, I attended TaiChi class. Talk about an uphill battle for me, TaiChi makes me sweat more than biking. I thought the second time I could understand more, but I think that I ended up making more mistakes! When I looked in the mirror I got confused and realized that I turned my movements into the actual mirror image of what everyone was doing. We (the gaijin, Robin Deborah and me) have no clue about the correct order of the movements. TaiChi, like other martial arts, relies on stances and focusing your energy. Being the only one with experience, Deborah explained to Robin and me a little bit of what the heck we were doing. Excuse me if I am mistaken, but from what I understand TaiChi relies on focusing your Chi –or your energy- and you breathe in not a set rhythm, but with your own movement in the steps. When you place your foot down, you breathe into your leg so that all of the energy is focused on one solid leg while the other is free to kick or attack. But, as many of you know, Tai Chi movements are very controlled and fluid. What I didn’t know was that many of the arm sweeps represent batting a kick away, grabbing a foot and redirecting momentum, or attacking. I think the basic purpose of Tai Chi is to understand the flow and energy of your body and using that energy defensively and aggressively against an attacker.
Let me tell you, I felt embarrassed that these fifty year old women were kicking my twenty two year old ass. They were flexible, fluid, and strong. I, on the other hand, looked rigid, clumsy, and weak. So, I have a lot to learn, and I have to work hard. Some lady showed me a manual of the steps that was in English and Japanese, and I realized that they had been memorizing the steps at home. At first I thought that everyone had just remembered from class, but now I know that I am not hopeless forever. I have a chance to not be half a second off of the steps. Right now, the new students stand in the middle of the class while the more experience students stand on the corners of the room. Because we just follow the moves of everyone else we need constantly watch what everyone else is doing. This way we can see someone who knows what the heck comes next, but it makes the movements look awkward because we constantly have to be looking to someone. Sometimes it seems like the blind leading the blind. Occasionally I will watch someone doesn’t really know what to do next, and so I get screwed up. Eventually I will learn the moves and know who to follow so that I don’t look completely ridiculous.
Yesterday I was so busy that I almost didn’t make it to “Adriene- looks-ridiculous-doing-the-monkey-pose time” also know as Tai Chi. I, as my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) tells me, “Very active.” Before monkey-posing I went to a scuba diving information session at Nice Buddy!! Isn’t the name so Japanese? Japanese are talented at taking two directly translated words, smashing them together, and synthesizing a truly unique phrase, such as “Nice Buddy”. Meeting the other divers was so exciting! I have wanted to scuba dive, since as long as I can remember, and the opportunity here presented itself. So now it is full throttle on the diving goal until I have my license. Luckily a co-worker (Nishimura-sensei) dives all the time, and she is the person that really got things moving for me. Once you mention you are interested in something, right away the wheels start turning. I know how to get what I want.
Even though I had been introduced to Megumi-san, a Japanese girl my age interested in diving, and she offered to take me sometime, but I had a sense she was busy and I wanted to start right away. And as luck would have it sitting in the desk across from me sat Nishimura sensei with a Nice Buddy T-shirt on. I got really excited because I knew if I mentioned anything about diving she would start to help me right away. It is the Japanese way (at least as I have experienced) to help out foreigners as much as possible, and take anything you mention into action (example: the blue bunny shoes). So slyly, using this knowledge to my advantage, I mentioned to Nakamura sensei that I want to go diving while I am here. Right away she looked surprised and said, “Oh, Nishimura-sensei dives too. I will talk to her.” And she did, and before I knew it Nishimura-sensei called Nice Buddy, came over to me and asked when I had a free day, and offered to take me there herself. Everyone is very generous here, and don’t assume I plan on taking advantage of this all the time, but I really really want to dive! It would have been very difficult setting things up on my own.
Yesterday afternoon – between school and Tai Chi – ended up being the perfect time to meet the crew of Nice Buddy. Unfortunately for me, Nice Buddy might be a little too far to bike since it takes twenty minutes by car to get there (and there is a hill twice as large as the one between Uonome and Aokata!). Nishimura-sensei drove me, and the views were absolutely breath taking. I am so lucky to be in such a beautiful location with very steep mountains completely covered in bright green foliage and crystal blue water. So, I will have to take the bus or get really strong in order to have the physical capacity to bike all the way. For now, I accept the free rides they offered me!
Everyone at Nice Buddy, as the name says, is nice - they will be my new nice buddies from Nice Buddy. And in Japanese custom they offered Nishimura-sensei and me delicious homemade pudding with strawberry jelly on top. I could have eaten about twenty bowls of pudding and have had room for more. Then came in Natsun-chan (woman) and Techa-kun (man) both extremely tan, fit and relatively young. Fortunately for me I understood a good bit of their Japanese. So I am either getting used to hearing Japanese or they know the type of Japanese to use with foreigners. Immediately they began filling up my schedule with dives, classes to get my license, and parties! They invited me to two Nice Buddy parties: a BBQ on the 12th and another on the 16th. Instant friends! On the 12th we’re on a boat (yes, think of the Lonely Island song, and if you don’t know it look it up on youtube) that will cruise the bay around a smaller island Wakamatsu where there will be fireworks (hanabi) after a small festival. My wish is that everything is free, because I don’t have much money left. Maybe I have enough set aside.
Right now, I am reaching the end of my cash supply. I should have exchanged all of my money in Tokyo, but didn’t get a chance since the hotel wouldn’t accept everything in one day. My money has to be saved for my new pink ketai (cell phone) and my trip to Nagasaki where I can exchange currency. Nowhere on the island offers currency exchange because, really, how often would they need to here. So, I need enough to make it to Nagasaki and enough to pay for my cell phone which means I cannot spend any more money on food. The stock of food in my fridge keeps shrinking, but luckily I have enough rice to last me a while. I have been very resourceful with making new combinations of food. Like today (a salad I am very proud of) I combined half a cob of corn – I cut the kernels off – with deli ham slices – which I further sliced into rectangles – and I added miso sauce and sesame seed oil, stirred: instant corn and ham salad. I impressed myself with my salad because it actually is something I’d make even if I had a fridge full of food. Corn and ham salad plus a rice ball (filled with chicken and wrapped with seaweed) was lunch. I haven’t gotten sick of onigiri (rice ball) yet, but I feel like the time may come soon. Since food is low, I made an onigiri filled with tiny chicken bits from Saturday’s BBQ for each lunch this week. So my lunch will be corn ham salad and onigiri everyday this week. Rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Rice, rice, and more rice! Thankfully, on Friday I’ll be in Nagaski by 3:30 I can exchange money and have some real food, maybe I’ll indulge in some champon (look it up)…yummy Nagasaki cuisine.
And, to add to my cash surplus on Friday, comes my first pay check!! I was unaware of the fact that orientation counted as work, but I am happy about it. So the 14th I get my pay check for the month of July. Extra money than I was expecting! So far since I exchanged only a bit of my money, I actually am way under my budgeted spending (yay for Adriene). But, my diving expenses will eat up the rest of what I have not spent so far.
Off topic, but funny, is the subject of typhoons (commonly known as hurricane). Typhoons regularly graze the Goto islands, but are hardly ever destructive. Now, we are in typhoon season so Nakamura-sensei tried to explain the typhoon procedure. I use the term procedure loosely, mostly because, there isn’t one. The procedure as far as I know means that the teachers either risk their lives coming to school (even if the kids don’t have to) or you have to take a day of paid leave. I kept asking, “What if no one can get to school?” And the response I kept getting, “Oh, no I think there is still school. You have to come.” To which I asked, “Even if the students don’t have to come.” “Hmmm, yes, I think so.” And from what I learned there is no real safe place to be, but inside your house. I feel a bit uncomfortable about this. I am trying to reconcile safety plans between the other JETs and me in case there is a big typhoon. The chances are slim, but better safe than dead.
*Students have felt more and more like they can come and talk with me. I am probably going to start an English board and newsletter at my school. If anyone has any ideas for me, or wants to ask a question, go ahead and leave a comment!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
peace and jellyfish
I woke up on Saturday morning to a weed whacker. As thoughtful as it was for Kyoto-sensei to cut my grass, I would have liked to take advantage of sleeping in. Instead tons of tiny rocks hitting my bedroom window. Not fun. Maybe he was making sure to make noise to get revenge for my overgrown lawn. I highly doubt it, but I considered it.
So on my one day off this week to sleep, I cannot. Yes, only one weekend day. Annually the school meets for a peace assembly in recognition of the A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Since the day landed on a Sunday this year, everyone has to come into school. For me, the school assembly meant I had to give a self introduction in front of the entire school. I learned this on Friday that I would not only give my English introduction to the school, but also a Japanese one. Panic! Granted, the school is not very big, but I hate public speaking. And as a new teacher I wanted to look in control, calm, and poised. I think I managed. First the kochou-sensei (principle) introduced me in Japanese, and then I took over the podium overlooking all of the students who were VERY closely watching my every move. Thankfully they had me give my speech in English first, “Hello, and good morning. It is very nice to meet all of you. My name is Adriene. I came from California, which is in America. I like to play sports and paint. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to teach at your school. I look forward to teaching English. Let’s have fun and work hard.” I know that my speech was choppy, but remember that I have to make things simple. Also, I would never have constructed a self-introduction like this in America, but the Japanese expect a certain format and certain information such as: where you are from and your hobbies. So in Japanese it sounds somewhat better (hopefully!), “ Hajimemashite, watashi ha Adriene desu. America no California-shu kara kimashita. Sports to e wo kaku koto ga suki desu. Minasan to issho ni eigo no jyugyo no toki ha tanoshi mitai ganbarimashou.” Translation “Humbly, I am Adriene. I came from America’s California –state. I like sports and painting. I want all of you together in class time to try and have fun and work hard.” Not very deep, but my speech got the job done. I didn’t screw up, sweat profusely, or faint! Successful, for sure. I wonder how the other new ALT’s fared because for all the rest of them it was also their first day. For them it might be a little more nerve wracking than my experience.
We sat on the hard wood gym floor the whole time! Not good on my knees at all. I would have to keep shifting positions the whole time, but for someone not used to sitting for about two hours straight on the floor, it is not a comfortable experience. Surely I thought they would have brought in chairs to the assembly, but to my detriment the chairs never appeared. The students seem to be used to it because they didn’t have to change position every five minutes like I did! Moving around so much made things seem so much longer. Since I didn’t understand anything the time dragged on. I know the assembly talked about peace, and I know that they talked about the actual bomb, but sometimes they would say the word “America”. It made me uncomfortable to not understand because I would really have liked to know what they said about us. Possibly they were saying that we can learn from this horrible tragedy and will never repeat the event. Or it could have been a speech about inevitable and future revenge upon America. But of course I’m joking. I actually find significance being introduced to the school on Peace Day, especially because I am an American. Only around sixty years from the event a school in Nagasaki prefecture can welcome with open arms a teacher from a country that decimated not only one, but two cities. In the span of history, this is such a short time for forgiveness. Some animosity towards Americans exists (we wrote their constitution and won’t move our base from Okinawa), but the general attitudes towards Americans (especially the younger generations) are positive. Giving my introduction today gives me the feelings that we are working towards peace. Hopefully my presence at the assembly will mean something special to the students: Japanese and Americans working together to enhance the education and lives of the students.
On a lighter note, a jellyfish stung me yesterday. Don’t worry though, it really isn’t too bad. Yay for jellyfish breeding season. All through August the jelly fish take over and breed here off of the coast. All of us ALTs got together around my place (Arikawa) yesterday, and we decided to go to the beach. While, although beautiful, has several problems. For one, trash covers a good part of the beach, which I didn’t expect in Japan. But from what I gather many beaches have trash in Japan. What’s more, a lot of cockroach looking things crawl on the rocks and all over the trash piles. Thankfully they don’t come near the swimming areas. The beach, apart from the trash, rivals the looks of many California beaches and the water is warm enough to wade in and not feel cold (high 80’s). But, near the water the sand retains so much moisture that our towels became completely soaked by the time that we got back to them from the water and a thick layer of sand stuck to the towel that we couldn’t shake off. Robin and I decided our old towels we found in the house weren’t worth dragging back to the house. So, we snuck to a trashcan and while no one was looking we threw away our towels. And here I am saying I’m worried about the trash on the beach and I throw a towel away at the beach. Oh well, I dumped it in the correct receptacle. The final problem of the day were jelly fish. Even though there is a netted in swimming area, I managed to get stung. Before I went in I knew it was breeding season, but I figured the net would stop them. Not so, I am pretty sure a bit of jellyfish leg made it through the net and landed on my inner arm above the elbow. At first it started to sting and tingle so I wasn’t sure, but quickly I realized what had happened. But I wanted to stay in the water anyway. However when I felt a sting brush across my leg, I knew that it was time to book it to the shore. Slowly but surely a raised rash formed on the site of the sting. I am okay, I got some cream on it, and it sometimes stings even today, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
So on my one day off this week to sleep, I cannot. Yes, only one weekend day. Annually the school meets for a peace assembly in recognition of the A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Since the day landed on a Sunday this year, everyone has to come into school. For me, the school assembly meant I had to give a self introduction in front of the entire school. I learned this on Friday that I would not only give my English introduction to the school, but also a Japanese one. Panic! Granted, the school is not very big, but I hate public speaking. And as a new teacher I wanted to look in control, calm, and poised. I think I managed. First the kochou-sensei (principle) introduced me in Japanese, and then I took over the podium overlooking all of the students who were VERY closely watching my every move. Thankfully they had me give my speech in English first, “Hello, and good morning. It is very nice to meet all of you. My name is Adriene. I came from California, which is in America. I like to play sports and paint. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to teach at your school. I look forward to teaching English. Let’s have fun and work hard.” I know that my speech was choppy, but remember that I have to make things simple. Also, I would never have constructed a self-introduction like this in America, but the Japanese expect a certain format and certain information such as: where you are from and your hobbies. So in Japanese it sounds somewhat better (hopefully!), “ Hajimemashite, watashi ha Adriene desu. America no California-shu kara kimashita. Sports to e wo kaku koto ga suki desu. Minasan to issho ni eigo no jyugyo no toki ha tanoshi mitai ganbarimashou.” Translation “Humbly, I am Adriene. I came from America’s California –state. I like sports and painting. I want all of you together in class time to try and have fun and work hard.” Not very deep, but my speech got the job done. I didn’t screw up, sweat profusely, or faint! Successful, for sure. I wonder how the other new ALT’s fared because for all the rest of them it was also their first day. For them it might be a little more nerve wracking than my experience.
We sat on the hard wood gym floor the whole time! Not good on my knees at all. I would have to keep shifting positions the whole time, but for someone not used to sitting for about two hours straight on the floor, it is not a comfortable experience. Surely I thought they would have brought in chairs to the assembly, but to my detriment the chairs never appeared. The students seem to be used to it because they didn’t have to change position every five minutes like I did! Moving around so much made things seem so much longer. Since I didn’t understand anything the time dragged on. I know the assembly talked about peace, and I know that they talked about the actual bomb, but sometimes they would say the word “America”. It made me uncomfortable to not understand because I would really have liked to know what they said about us. Possibly they were saying that we can learn from this horrible tragedy and will never repeat the event. Or it could have been a speech about inevitable and future revenge upon America. But of course I’m joking. I actually find significance being introduced to the school on Peace Day, especially because I am an American. Only around sixty years from the event a school in Nagasaki prefecture can welcome with open arms a teacher from a country that decimated not only one, but two cities. In the span of history, this is such a short time for forgiveness. Some animosity towards Americans exists (we wrote their constitution and won’t move our base from Okinawa), but the general attitudes towards Americans (especially the younger generations) are positive. Giving my introduction today gives me the feelings that we are working towards peace. Hopefully my presence at the assembly will mean something special to the students: Japanese and Americans working together to enhance the education and lives of the students.
On a lighter note, a jellyfish stung me yesterday. Don’t worry though, it really isn’t too bad. Yay for jellyfish breeding season. All through August the jelly fish take over and breed here off of the coast. All of us ALTs got together around my place (Arikawa) yesterday, and we decided to go to the beach. While, although beautiful, has several problems. For one, trash covers a good part of the beach, which I didn’t expect in Japan. But from what I gather many beaches have trash in Japan. What’s more, a lot of cockroach looking things crawl on the rocks and all over the trash piles. Thankfully they don’t come near the swimming areas. The beach, apart from the trash, rivals the looks of many California beaches and the water is warm enough to wade in and not feel cold (high 80’s). But, near the water the sand retains so much moisture that our towels became completely soaked by the time that we got back to them from the water and a thick layer of sand stuck to the towel that we couldn’t shake off. Robin and I decided our old towels we found in the house weren’t worth dragging back to the house. So, we snuck to a trashcan and while no one was looking we threw away our towels. And here I am saying I’m worried about the trash on the beach and I throw a towel away at the beach. Oh well, I dumped it in the correct receptacle. The final problem of the day were jelly fish. Even though there is a netted in swimming area, I managed to get stung. Before I went in I knew it was breeding season, but I figured the net would stop them. Not so, I am pretty sure a bit of jellyfish leg made it through the net and landed on my inner arm above the elbow. At first it started to sting and tingle so I wasn’t sure, but quickly I realized what had happened. But I wanted to stay in the water anyway. However when I felt a sting brush across my leg, I knew that it was time to book it to the shore. Slowly but surely a raised rash formed on the site of the sting. I am okay, I got some cream on it, and it sometimes stings even today, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
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