End of First Week of Teaching

As you can probably tell by the unimaginative title, it's the end of my first week of teaching. It was pretty awesome, overall. I went to the fourth school today, and it was great. The kids were all really into it, even the 6th graders, who had been kind of apathetic at the last school. The 2nd graders in particular thought everything I did was funny. They kept asking me questions, which is great, because it is pretty easy and means I don't have to really lead the class or just do pronunciation, and I kept responding by imitating their crazy flailing to get attention and saying things in the crazy Japanese voices I can manage. My Japanese is just good enough to answer most of their questions, which usually range from, "what food do you like?" to "what bugs do you like?" The little kids are especially fun, and generally the kids will shout what little English they know as they run past in the school and try to get me to play with them at recess.

I also went to a special ed. class today, which was actually alright. They were all supposed to say "Hello, my name is ___," which is pretty standard for Japanese English classes. Most of them managed to do it, which was surprising. They also had to shake my hand. I am going to be crawling with diseases, so I make sure to wash my hands whenever I get a chance. One kid in this class held both my hands and kept talking to me in incomprehensible mumbled Japanese, but he was obviously interested in me, and the teachers thought it was hilarious. He didn't stop until they interrupted him.

I played basketball with some kids at recess, and they were amazed that I could almost dunk on what was probably an 8 foot hoop. A note about Japanese elementary schools: they are very weird.

Elementary schools are actually very organized, and the amount of English that the students are capable of is pretty surprising, but you wouldn't know it from first glance. The kids are given a lot of leeway and spend a lot of their time running around the school, essentially unsupervised. They clean the schools and serve the lunches, which I will probably explain further in a later post. A lot of their time seems to be spent doing things that have no apparent educational value, but they manage to learn all sorts of team-building skills in the process.

So, basically, I am completely tired today. I remembered that I had a camera in this computer, though, so I looked around a bit and figured out how to take pictures using it. So, I'll post my first picture from Japan, of a new beer that I found tonight from Asahi, which turned out to be pretty good.



That stuff in the plate by it is dried squid, which is really very good, but generally kind of expensive as snack food goes, so I don't eat it much. But, this was on sale, so I bought it to ease into the weekend.

Internets

I just got internet access at my apartment. When I got home earlier today, there was a non-delivery notice in my mailbox because I wasn't at home when they came by to deliver the modem/router thing, I don't know what it is. So, I expected somebody to come by tonight and drop it off because delivery service is just that good here. It happened to me earlier with a package from home. If only America were that cool.

No complaints with setup or anything. There was a CD that came with the thing for setting up the connection for Vista, I think, but the Mac just figured out that it was an ethernet connection and did it when I opened the right menu. So, that's cool. Now, if only I can get used to having the apostrophe in the right place again.

Anyway, I've been going to schools this week, and haven't had internet access until now, so I didn't update, obviously. School is very awesome. Most of my job is playing with kids, who generally think that I am the bees' knees and are fascinated with my foreign ability to grow a beard. They spend tons of time touching my beard and then saying cute Japanese things that describe the sound/feel of a beard. They also hold my hands and pull me all over to look at the various bugs, fish, hamsters, rabbits, and chickens that they raise as part of their classes. Japanese elementary school is surreal.

The little kids are surprisingly good at English, too. They can't actually speak it, or read it, or write it, but they do know some phrases, like "I like" and they generally have down colors or numbers or animals or some combination of them. Generally nobody in a grade lower than, say, fifth, can find America on a world map, though. The teachers have all been super helpful and friendly. Mostly they do all the setup, and I just have to introduce myself with pictures and stuff, and then play games and pronounce stuff, which is particularly difficult for Japanese learners of English, but the kids are actually pretty good at distinguishing l's and r's and all that because their brains haven't been entirely molded yet.

That's all for now, I have eikaiwa soon.

Some Minor Complaints

My thumb hurts.

The printer here is only black and white, which could be bad for self-introduction pictures.

The JUNTENDO does not have flash drives, so I had to buy floppy disks.

Other than that, life is pretty good.

Another Weekend

I start teaching tomorrow and the printer here, which just today decided to let me print, only prints in black and white, which is kind of crappy because little kids like color pictures and I don't have any big enough for decent introductions. I'll try to get a flash drive from JUNTENDO, the only store here that isn't for selling food or agricultural products only, and save pictures onto that. Hopefully, at least one of the schools will have a color printer. According to orientations, they generally all do, but I've learned that what people tell you is often not nearly as absolute as they'd like to believe, or simply a lie.

Anyway, I had a good weekend. On Saturday night, I went to Nichinan in Tottori prefecture for a sort of barbecue party. Sally, who was hosting the party, sang some opera while a coworker of hers played the piano for everyone's enjoyment. I got to play on the piano later, which was nice, as I haven't gotten to since leaving the States. Also, I got a bunch of eggplant and green peppers that were left over, so I will be making some mapponazu, Chinese style Eggplant stuff, for dinner.

On Sunday, I drove with Karen up to Matsue and went to her tiny Japanese church, where these two Irish ladies whom we'd met at Sally's were. There were four Japanese people in the congregation, and I had to stand up and introduce myself after the service, which mostly I didn't understand but wasn't concerned with. One Japanese lady was translating for the foreigners, but I wasn't paying attention.

After that, Karen and I went to an Okonomiyaki place for lunch. Okonomiyaki is usually translated as Japanese-style pancakes, but that is fairly misleading. They are made with cabbage as the base, with other vegetables and meat and whatever else mixed in. They're very good, and they make them in front of you at a big flat-top grill.

After that, we drove (I drove) to Hirata, a city on the west/south end of lake Shinji, the opposite side of the lake from Matsue, basically. Shinji is pretty large, and not so clean, from what I hear, but famous for some kind of clam (?) that people eat in miso soup. In Hirata, there was a festival, which was very small and held in a parking lot. One of the JETs there, Ivy (?) is in a taiko, Japanese drum, group, that performed. There was also some kind of performance, which I think was telling the story of why they had this particular festival, but I didn't really catch what was going on other than "three months" and "summer." Also, it rained through most of that and the mics were messing up. After the performance but before the drumming, a girl from the local tv station (I think) was walking around with a cameraman. They came to the other side of the table where we were sitting and interviewed a little girl. I think this was pretense to then interview one of us. The other JETS (two others had joined us) I think also figured that out and made a point of watching the stage intently. So, I got to be the subject.

Here's pretty much a transcript of the interview, translated by me:

Her: Is Japanese ok?
Me: Slow is ok.
Her: Where are you from.
Me: I'm from America.
Her: Why are you in Hirata?
Me: I will watch the festival.
Her: What do you think about the (I have idea)?
Me: It was enjoyable.
Her: What do you think about women playing taiko (maybe)?
Me: I don't know (also I didn't understand, really).
Her: Have you ever (something something about taiko)?
Me: No, I haven't.
Her: Ah, thank you! Please have fun (or something)!

They also interviewed Ivy after the drumming, and she did pretty well, for knowing even less Japanese than I do. So, anyway, I'm going to be on TV again, I think. Last time it was just me eating cake, I guess, but I never saw it.

Alright, well, that's it.

Unten

Now having a car, I used this weekend as an opportunity to find some of the schools I'm supposed to be going to starting tomorrow. A couple of them are way out in the country, and I almost got hit head on by another car going around a curve in a tiny road on the way to one. Fortunately, the accident was avoided, but here's a list of hazards to watch out for in Japan while driving:

Construction - there is basically construction going on on every road in Japan every day. I'm not sure why this is, but I'm not even exaggerating this point. There are always tiny little purple/green construction vehicles on the side of the road, usually with stickers of animals and stuff on them. They're always building new roads, probably in an attempt to make the already confusing Japanese highway system into a completely non-navigable labyrinth.

Schoolkids - Most walk at least a while to get to school, probably from a train station, and walk back at night. They eschew sidewalks in favor of making you crash into oncoming traffic or hit them.

Little Old Men in Little White Trucks - All old men drive little white trucks. I think there is a law here saying that if you are 80 years or older, and you are driving a little white truck, traffic laws no longer apply to you and you always have the right of way, regardless of which direction traffic is going in the lane that you are currently flying in and out of at three times the speed limit.

Little Old Women on Scooters - There is another law protecting these, sort of like Title IX.

Falling Rocks - I've never actually seen any, but there are signs all over the place warning about them. It's like some kind of videogame.

People Backing Up - People back into parking spaces all the time here. It is the norm, but not required by law or anything. People are so tied to this idea, though, that they will spend 15 minutes of moving their cars in drive, then reverse, then drive, then reverse, etc. rather than just parking the normal way. Also, they don't look to see if there are any people or objects behind them while backing up.

The Road - Yes, the road itself is a hazard. It is required by law that no Japanese road be bigger than 1.5 times the size of a car here, I think. All roads are tiny. The two lane roads are about as big as a one lane road in America. It's actually not that bad, but there is really no margin of error. There is generally no shoulder on the roads, except isolated spots which are intended for people who are pulling over to talk on cell phones or let faster cars by. There is generally just a vertical drop off the side of the road, either into a rice paddy or off the side of a mountain. This doesn't seem to bother Japanese drivers, though, who ignore the speed limit. It is ok because the police ignore speeding. Sometimes the roads actually drop to one lane, but still allow traffic in two directions. This is how I almost got hit, because the people coming the other way didn't bother to look at the mirrors at the corner to see if someone was coming from my direction and just kept flying down the road. Fortunately, there was just enough space on the side of the road before the sign pointlessly warning drivers to slow down on the curve for me to pull over. I actually had to reverse before going forward again because I was so close to the sign. Ah, well.

Really it isn't as bad as I'm making it sound, just kind of ridiculous. The traffic is generally non-existant, and the drivers, while a little crazy, aren't nearly as stupid as those in Chicago, so I'm happy about that. The really frustrating thing is that the turn signal is on the wrong side. This may sound like cultural bias, but it is just on the WRONG side. I'm tired of hitting the windshield wiper controls whenever I want to turn.

Weekend

Ok, so I had kind of a big weekend, etc.

On Friday, I participated in a matsuri, or festival, on the other side of town. The people at the BOE set it up for me so that I could be part of the group carrying the omikoshi, or portable shrine. I was told that it would hurt my shoulders, but I found that not the case. First, we had to get dressed in some festival clothes for the occasion, which consisted of shorts, a jacket-type thing, a shirt-type thing, tabi (Japanese toed cloth shoes), and a headband. A guy helped me put it on, and I met some people, including a guy who works in the same building as the BOE, but does taxes, or something. He spoke some rudimentary (actually pretty good) English, so he mostly talked to me in English. He was also very tall, which is kind of weird. I don't remember his name because I met so many people that I didn't even try to remember it.

I also met some girls who said they were 19. I believe it because at the beginning when they gave us a little sake, the girls turned it down, which I have never known Japanese people to do, excepting the few unfortunate allergic ones. Drinking age here is 20, by the way. One of the guys from the BOE (I don't remember the name) was also doing the omikoshi, and he said something I didn't understand when he saw me talking to the girls, which I think was a joke. I have a legitimate reason for talking to them, though, and that is they are the most comprehensible Japanese people. Men here tend to mutter everything, which makes understanding very hard. Old people have their own way of talking, so they are essentially completely incomprehensible, but younger women speak clearly and ask simple questions, so I get what they are saying.

So, we carried around the shrine, chanting "soya sa," meaning "I have no idea what this means," stopping every few minutes to change places. There were so many people that most of the time, I wasn't even carrying the shrine, just walking alongside, chanting. It was fun, though, and little kids along the way are always fascinated to see someone who is not Japanese. The only bad thing was that because I was doing that the whole time, I didn't get to enjoy the rest of the festival, which involved some kind of dance-type performances and a rock band. There were fireworks, though, which I got to see. I also met some crazy 20-year olds who seemed to be having the time of their lives. I had a conversation with one of the guys who seemed to be in charge (he was in a different all-white outfit) and some of the 20-year olds about the omikoshi and Japanese baseball. Apparently, the Chuunichi Dragons are rivals of the Hanshin Tigers. These two teams seem to be very popular here. The team I like, the Hiroshima Carp, are terrible.

On Saturday, I was waiting for the dealer to bring me my car, but they ended up calling at 4:56 pm to tell me it wouldn't be ready until the 28th or 29th. It was no big deal, but I didn't go with Karen to some stuff because I had to wait. Karen and I were invited to a potluck with other JETs, but she was tired, so we didn't go. Instead, we went to dinner that night at a local place that has Italian (kind of) food. It was pretty good, but what happened after was awesome.

We were walking back (we live within a couple minutes of each other), when we saw some little kids in an alley, playing with fireworks. It was kind of late, so I was curious, and we went over to see them, as they may have been some of my future students. It turns out there was a party for the kids and their parents (?) because the kids had finished their work of collecting cans. A guy whom neither Karen or I had ever met asked me if I drank beer. I should have remembered that that question means "I'm going to give you beer" in Japan, but I didn't think about it, and so he brought me beer. Karen doesn't like beer, so he gave her juice, and we ended up sitting around a little table, talking to the adults and eating yakisoba, fried noodles, and various other stuff. They were very curious about us, and we kept talking about America and how it is different from Japan and what we eat and all sorts of stuff.

Karen doesn't speak Japanese all that much, so when they asked if we were a couple, I told them we were fusai, husband and wife, and she didn't get it until I told her. Japanese people don't generally understand sarcasm, so they believed it at first until she tried frantically to explain. Once they got it, they thought the "American joke" was very funny. Anyway, we got invited to go eat dinner at this guy's house next month, though neither of us know his name. I'm not sure how he's going to find us, but I'm quite certain he will. It shouldn't be hard in a town where there are 5 non-Japanese, and three of those work at the schools here.

This post is already long, so I won't get into the orientation in Matsue. That's all for now.

Kuruma

Hey, hey, sorry to all my loyal readers for not updating sooner, but I don't have internet access over the weekends and I spent the last two days in Matsue at orientation, so I couldn't update. I'll get to that later, though.

I got a car! While I was visiting one of the elementary schools, my car got delivered to the BOE, so now I have a car. I haven't paid for it yet, which works out because I don't have the cash to pay for it right now, as I have not been paid. I can drive around now, though, which is cool. My first trip will be around the town to see if I can find all the schools. That's it for now.