so so sad

The good old days

Podcasts, the return of 30s style radio shows. I'm loving it.

We have 1 radio station in English, and it's pretty terrible. So I've expanded my mp3 player beyond my music collection and am experimenting with different podcasts. I can get news and politics unfiltered by what the military chooses to bring us. Or I can be entertained with stories and use my imagination unlike the drivel (albeit, entertaining drivel) of reality TV. I used to have a picture in my head of the extended family surrounding the radio during the 30s and think how boring that would be. But, I think I get it now.

How ironic, that the technology and widespread reach of the internet can return us in a small degree to an era that preceded even my parents' generation.

Chaos vs order

That's my theme for school this week. It's a subtle something I've been noticing about life here. There are millions of people in Tokyo, but it's the most ordered chaos I've ever seen. Take for instance, the crossing at Shibuya station. This seething horde of people all cross at the same time, but no one seems to run into each other. I'm amazed.
So, how does this relate to school? The classrooms are pure chaos. I was expecting regimented little Japanese children, all polite and quiet. No, they scream, yell, run around (admittedly, the running around is during games and is sanctioned), and in general give me a huge headache. I like my quiet. But, then, they'll all stand together and answer questions in perfect unison, military drill style. They had an assembly, and all the students stood in perfect lines at military attention. The dichotomy is intriguing.

More disjointed thoughts on school.

There's a song about the rainbow. Is it evil that I can't help but laugh when the kids sing the chorus "I can see a lainbow, see a lainbow, see a lainbow now"? It just cracks me up. On rainbows, do you think it matters to know the colors in order? They know them by the song which orders them red, yellow, pink, blue, purple, orange, green. They must think I'm a big idiot b/c I can never remember the "right order."

I saw a box labeled "home making course" on a teacher's desk. I'm dying to know what the lessons are. Unfortunately, that's probably the only English in the whole box.

I'm a giant. I've said that before, but I realized again how huge I am when the top of the sink hit my kneecap. The sinks in the hallway (one whole side of the hallway is sinks, not sure what for) are even lower.

I left to go home for lunch. I get 2 hours because that's when the students clean the school. Let me repeat that. The students clean the school. I literally stepped over a kid who was on his knees cleaning the floor with a sponge. What a great idea. The built in cleaning crew is a good idea to have children afterall.

The bells signaling the end of classes are another example of quiet and polite Japanese society. They're little tinkling musical things. No abrupt clanging bell like I had in school. Really, does it need to be all that loud and obnoxious?

Back to the colors. The Japanese color for red is akai. However, it's also reh-to which is an approximation of the English word. On top of that they're learning "red" in my class which they keep confusing with reh-to. It just amuses me that they're basically learning 3 languages. Their Japanese-ized version of English is pretty much incomprehensible to me even though it technically is my native language. Yeah, they think, again, that I'm a big idiot when I don't understand them using English words.

Those are all the observations for this week.

You're all dogs

Have you ever noticed the uncanny ability that dogs have to recognize each other from far away? For instance, I can be in my car with my dog, going 50 mph, and she'll whip her head around to stare at the dog being walked on the sidewalk 3 lanes over.

Well, I think we people have that same ability. I'll call it the gaijin sense. In this town, the only non-Japanese people, with the exception of 2 Mormon missionaries, 3 JET instructors, and a tiny fraction of ex-pats, are all somehow associated with the base. So, chances are, if you run into a non-Japanese, they're in a way related to you and what you're doing here. Of course, this can be kind of awkward because it's not like you know most of the people you run into.

9 times out of 10, I'm the only foreigner (gaijin) in the grocery. On that rare time I'm not, I can always spot the other person. We're like dogs. We make eye contact, sort of do the nod and acknowledge thing, but we have no idea who the other is. It's a little non verbal exchange of "You gaijin? I'm gaijin, too. Good day" and we're on our way. It's not like we'd wave across the store because, hey, we don't know each other. And, I'm already cautious about drawing even more attention to my ginormous self. So, it's a last minute thing, a small, choreographed, surreptitious acknowledgment that we're in this thing together. It really kind of cracks me up. Nowhere else would I have that kind of exchange with a complete stranger, and I've noticed that everyone does it.

Hirosaki

Last weekend we went to Hirosaki, our friendly neighborhood castle town (and by nearby, I mean, only a 2 hour drive and only $15 in tolls each way), for the last weekend of the hanami, or cherry blossom viewing party. Unfortunately, the cherry trees had mostly finished, but it was still a beautiful festival day with other types of blooming trees.

When we got to the town, we couldn't find parking anywhere. Eventually, we found a little lot whose attendants said it was for the garden. So, as long as we paid admission to the garden, we could park there for free and see the castle. 600 yen for admission for 2 to the garden vs 1000 yen to park in a castle lot. Sold! I love how accommodating everyone is. They easily could have told us that parking was for the garden only. And, what a lovely garden it was.

While there wasn't a whole lot to see at the castle, it was in full festival mode with food stalls everywhere. Now, the Japanese don't really eat food while walking. They do make exceptions now for ice cream and mochi on a stick, but that's a relatively new relaxation of that etiquette. There was some weird (to Westerners) stuff being sold. Like whole mini octopuses to pop into your noodles.
(Please excuse my formatting issues with the pictures. If anyone knows how I can do the formatting on my own without using the blogspot editor, please let me know).


There were people everywhere having picnics underneath huge, blossoming trees (no, I don't know what kind). Just like everyone takes off their shoes to go inside a home, people take off their shoes to sit on their tarps. I've even seen homeless people with shoes lined up outside their makeshift homes. In Kyoto, I saw a woman sweeping her 2x2 ft home of cardboard. It was really kind of surreal.

On our way home, we decided to stop on Aomori for dinner. Even though it's only an hour away, we don't get there very often. While we were parking, we heard the drums that told us we'd stumbled on yet another festival. Now, Aomori is known for their huge float festival in August (the Nebuta festival). We arrived at the end of their weekend of the cherry blossom festival, but they still had one of these massive and lit floats. In addition to the floats which are unique (to the best of my knowledge) to Aomori and Hirosaki, every festival we've been to has dance troops (traditional and something that's like a traditional/Japanese hip hop blend), joined by people of all ages from 3 year olds to 80 year olds. They also all seem to have fresh grilled mollusks. I really wish I liked scallops b/c I have a feeling they'd be the best here, grilled in their shells fresh from the ocean.

I'm so excited that it's finally spring/summer since that means just about every weekend, no matter where we go, we're bound to stumble on a festival. Most aren't all that interesting to be perfectly honest, but we still like going where we're usually the only gaijin. If we're lucky, we even get invited to play sake drinking games which makes everything more enjoyable!

First Day of School

Yesterday, I had my first day of teaching English. It's a once a week job at a local elementary school (or "elementally" as we saw on a sign a few days ago), and I'm an assistant teacher. Basically, I'm just there to say things with a native speaker's accent. The other teachers barely speak English, but through pointing and Engrish, we managed to get through the day yesterday. They point to me, and I say the word printed on the card they're holding up. Pretty easy gig.

So, here are my most thoughts on the day, not necessarily in any particular order.

The difference between and American and Japanese school is immediately apparent. When you get in the door, you switch from your outside shoes to inside shows. When I went to meet the students 2 weeks ago, I'd not been warned, so I wore the plastic slippers available to visitors. Too bad I didn't match my socks that day (for those who don't know me will, this is not a new phenomenon.) Yesterday, prepared, I did bring my inside shoes AND I matched my socks. I wonder if the Japanese know that we Americajins often have fuzzy character slippers for inside shoes. Wouldn't that impress the kids?! They already think I'm a freak of nature (read on below), so I'm guessing they wouldn't be surprised by me wearing tweetie bird slippers or something like that.

Another difference: apparently I am a giant. I am only 5'6", pretty average for an American, and as a kid I was one of the shortest in the class. However, I nearly hit my head on the door when I walk into the classroom. All the kids were openly in awe of my height. It was pretty funny. I tower over all the teachers, and in some classes, the kids sit on the floor, so I definitely tower over them. All throughout the classes, they were gesturing to my height, and, according to the teachers who occasionally translated for me, they were making regular comments on it. When I tried to explain that I'm on the short side of normal and that my husband is quite a bit taller (most of this was through sign language and my minimal Japanese and their minimal English), there was an incredulous unison chorus of "ehhhhhhhhh????" Actually, that chorus happened a lot, like when I said I'm from Florida, like Disney, and it was apparently the first they heard that there was another Disney than the one in Tokyo.

My monstrosity is really only an issue when using the restroom. I teach grades 1-6, so everything is sized for them. Let's just say that a stall is too small if, while squatting, your knees touch the door, and your back touches the wall, at the same time. Thankfully, they do have one western style rather than the squatters that are still the norm in this region.

Overall it was a lot of fun. There were some odd moments, though. Between the 1st and 2nd class, the kids all go outside to run laps and do calisthenics. It was a beautiful day, so I took a book out and sat in the back of my car. Hatchbacks are great for creating an instant shady bench, by the way. Eventually, about 6 girls, around age 10, came and stood in a semi circle around me. Staring. They just stood there! I had no idea what they wanted, but I tried chatting with them a bit in my broken Japanese. They seemed to be curious about what I was reading. Eventually, I stood up, and they literally gasped at my height. So weird! I also thought if they were gesturingly asking if my husband had a beer belly, but I think they were asking if I had kids. Yes, beer comes to mind before babies.

Another humorous thing: the regimented responses. I'm supposed to start every class by saying Hellohowareyou? And they respond by saying I'mfinethankyouandyou. I get such a kick out of that. I think I messed them up, though, when I responded that I was great rather than fine on time. I don't think I'm supposed to ad lib. Ooops. For someone who's used to teaching without notes, this might take some time for me to adjust to. Of course, my curriculum literally is half a page long for each class, most of that page taken up by the opening and closing dialogues. The rest says things like "color song" or "introduction." So, I guess I'm not really ad libbing if those are my instructions, right?

They also are learning how to shake hands. I wish I had a picture of this because I don't think words can adequately explain. The kids stand a few feet apart, stiffly. There is much more space between than in an American meeting. Then they extend their arms perpendicular to their body, grab the other person's hand, and bow at the waist. This is, apparently, a Western style handshake.

I think that's all for now. Every teacher took pictures during class, so I'm sure I'll have some to post later.