A Birthday in Japan

Monday was a fairly normal day, and I didn't actively seek to do anything special. But a lot of people knew it was my birthday, so I got a few pleasant surprises from Sunday to Tuesday. These included:

• "Happy Birthday" karaoke
• A small cheesecake
• A bag of chocolate candy (advertised as my favorite food for all those Q&A sessions with students)
• Students sang happy birthday to me in class (a cheeky one guessed I was 55 years old)
• 3 gorgeous handmade birthday cards with origami decorations
• Bath salts
• A framed print of the four seasons in Japan
• A last minute invitation to go see a live performance of a band from Okinawa

It was kind of amazing to get all these little surprises. I've felt really happy and cheered by the people around me for the last few days, and I think this is the best way to spend one's birthday. Not to mention the emails, cards, packages, and facebook messages that poured in from home. I feel loved :D

Speech Contest Success!

Woo hoo! My junior high school second graders just took home first prize at the local speech contest! Among all the competitors, they were the only ones that everyone I talked to unanimously agreed should win first place. They blew away the competition! This is an extremely gratifying moment for me as a new teacher. Unfortunately, neither the 3rd or 1st graders placed at the competition, but I do not envy the judges' jobs: lots of groups were good, and after a few minutes, they all start to sound the same. At any rate, they all had fun, and now the 2nd graders will be practicing for the regional contest. Woot!

A Feel Good Moment

One of my elementary school students is hard of hearing, and actually has a translator who helps her in class. The translator speaks some English, and acts almost as a third teacher in that class. While I was reviewing next week's lesson plan with her, she told me that the deaf girl, Marina, is enjoying the class so far. I couldn't understand entirely, but it sounded like Marina was interacting with more girls in the class and generally having a good time. It was a really encouraging thing to hear :)

Rebeca's First Boyfriend

I'll bet that this title caught your attention. I kid you not, this is the title of one of the books in the fourth grade classroom (Rebeka no hajimete boifurendo). I can't read Japanese, though, so I can't tell you any more about the story, except that the few pictures in it all depict someone looking depressed or angry or crying. And the "boifurendo" has a pretty bad white boy's fro going on.

Kids can ask some strange questions. I got the strangest question today. It wasn't translated too clearly, but it amounted to something like, "What is your favorite clothing pattern?" As in stripes, plaid, leopard print or polka dots. Turns out the boy who asked the question is fond of leopard print.

And in an immature twist of Halloween vocabulary, the Haunted House became the Panty House the other night during my hectic kids' evening conversation class. Those kids will always remember the Panty House as part of Halloween tradition. Oh well.

Even more random: Zuma only seems to drink water while he's outside and only eat food when he's inside. Strange dog.

Now some good stuff! Yesterday was a fun and exciting day. In the morning I went to another kendo tournament - this one ended at early 1 pm, so I was back home by 2. I spent a lot of time entertaining a rambunctious and adorable two-year-old named Dai. I found out that his kid has an arm flab fettish. He would come up to me frequently just to pinch my arm fat. Sometimes, after being scolded by his mom  not to do that, he would try kissing the arm flab. Sometimes he grew bored of the arm flab and would shout "oppai!" with a huge smile and, while I was sitting, run at me with his hands out in front of him. "Oppai", by the way, means breasts. His mom then would say things like, "No! Dai, here, come play with Mommy's breasts. Leave Rebeca's alone!"

After the kendo tournament, I decided I had time to give Zuma a bath and maybe head to Yatsushiro city to see the much-talked-about Yatsushiro Fireworks. I thought it would only take about 1.5 hours to get there, and that I had plenty of gas. Turns out I sorely underestimated the number of people who would be at this thing. 1.5 hours turned into 2.5 hours and plenty of gas turned into just enough gas. I had a hard time finding a place to park, and eventually turned into a small lot about a 10 minute walk from the viewing area where it looked like other cars had parked. Completely unsure of myself, I asked if it would be ok for me to park there, how much it cost, and proceeded to take the last parking space.

The lot was for a small mechanics garage. There were people inside it having a small barbecue party. It took three of them to clarify what I was asking ("Where/Whom do I pay?" except I don't know the word for "pay") and after some embarrassment on both sides, the lady who helped translate invited me to come join their party after watching the fireworks. Well, after watching the fireworks, meeting a few other JETs and talking briefly with them, I took the group up on their offer.

The garage was a motorcycle garage, where several members of the group worked. Most of the men had motorcycles, or at least really liked them. They had a small mixed shiba dog named after a famous motorcyclist (I only caught "Roshi", which was her nickname). They were really nice, and offered me some coffee/tea (I got both handed to me) and sushi and mini hotdogs. Two of them spoke really good English. An unlikely pair they were: Ara is a college student who doesn't like English and Toshie is a middle-aged woman who did not study English in college but simply listens to English radio talk shows and reads some English books. Both of them spoke incredibly well considering their experience (neither had traveled to an English-speaking country) and they were much more willing to try to speak English than about 98% of Japanese people. So while I waited for the traffic out of the city to actually start moving before trying to drive, I made some new friends. We exchanged phone numbers and they may invite me to future barbecue events.

And now here are some pictures from yesterday's trip and this morning's walk with Zuma.

I took the scenic route to Yatsushiro. This was probably the most scenic part.

The route I took narrowed at some parts to become a one lane road.

A really pretty house I passed on the way.

A rather pretty sunset, which I took the time to take a picture of while I was stuck in traffic on the bridge.

Fireworks! A sea of people were seated on the grass along the river, many with blankets, shawls, sleeping bags and picnic dinners. There were plenty of food stands, as well.

Beautiful! There were several displays accompanied by music - creating an effect a little like the dancing fountains at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. This one was to the tune of "Under the Sea"

The following pictures were all taken while I took Zuma for a walk. There are some really pretty houses and scenery within a 15 minute walk from my house, so I thought I'd showcase a few.

This is just around the corner from where I live.

Here I turned off the main road and went down a street into a neighborhood that I think has some really pretty houses.

This one seems to have solar panels!

Few houses have garages as we conceive them. This is a more commonly used car covering.

This is another popular garage style.

These are the windmills that are both a great landmark and fairly well-known in these parts.

The post office. Closed because it's Sunday.

The mailbox. Orange is the color of the Japan Post.

This is the main entrance to the "yakuba", or Village Office, where I work when I'm not at school.

The yakuba parking lot.

Another view of the yakuba.

The library/community center building is nearing completion, right next door to the yakuba.

My car, parked in the yakuba parking lot.

The street where I live. On the right is the recreational building where kendo practice takes place. On the left is my house.

The recreational building. On the right are the construction cones from the library building.

My house

Left view from my backyard.

Right view from my backyard, which is my neighbor's house (remember the neighbor who petted me?).

My backyard

Where I hang my clothes to dry. That's Zuma's towel.

My ingenious and resourceful method of keeping Zuma from escaping the backyard.

Zuma looking confused because he can't get out.

My mailbox. It happens to be right next to my front door, which means the mailman would have to go through my obstacle course to get to it. This makes the Zuma solution a temporary one for the weekends mostly.

Bliss...

Is chicken soup with lime juice and avocado in it. If you've never had it, I suggest you try it. You'll never go back. At least if you like lime and avocado as much as I do :)

Zuma seems to be doing well, my cold is getting better, and the students prepping for the speech contest are doing pretty well. The second graders I am especially impressed with. Two of them I believe have the best pronunciation (one) and intonation (the other) in the entire school. But the girl with great intonation has some pronunciation difficulty, and the boy with great pronunciation is pretty monotone (maybe from the three years he spent in Russia).

Halloween is coming up! I think that means I'm supposed to do something, like emphasize it as a fun cultural aspect of American life. But it's hard to tell where/when/how exactly I should do this. Candy isn't allowed in any of the schools, so that takes away from the true experience. I'll see the 1st-4th graders once this month, so they'll get a Halloween lesson at random times. Does this mean I should dress up 4 times? The 5th and 6th graders have to learn important grammar points that they will forget one month from now.

And what about the middle school? They got Halloween lessons in elementary school, I'm told. Should I go campy or creepy? Vampire or witch? Or Martha Stewart Jellyfish? Or just a mask of a sumo wrestler or something? I don't know. So far I'm just telling the students my birthday is within a week of Halloween so I expect them to bring me presents.

Zuma

His name is Zuma, short for Moctezuma. The name came to me in a dream, almost like the dog himself. I figure, he's some sort of chihuahua, chihuahuas are from Mexico, and Moctezuma was king of the Aztecs. It makes as much sense as the rest of this story.

He tries to pee on everything. Thankfully, he's small, so they're not so much puddles as droplets. I don't have a completely enclosed backyard, so I'm not sure about letting him outside on his own yet. He can climb the stairs to get out of the yard, but he's too scared to go down them, so he can run away but he can't come back.

The weather has turned cold and so that's what I have: a cold. Not the best timing on Zuma's part. Although this does mean I'm taking a sick day (so as not to sneeze all over the kiddies), so I guess Zuma's lucky in that sense. Meanwhile, it's chicken soup for me, dog food for Zuma, and leftovers for the roaches.

A Dog

Today I was handed a dog at kendo practice.

Now I have a dog.

Wow.

I was sitting in at kendo practice, minding my own business, and in races a little dog. One of the moms chased him down and then beckoned to me. She handed me the dog and explained to me in Japanese that I should take him. It took a few moms gesturing and translating as best they could to make it clear that they didn't know what to do with him, and that I should take him if I could.

So now there's a dog running around in the house. He's some sort of chihuahua, I think. I dunno, here's a picture.

And here's a another one:

He's adorable, nameless, and un-neutered.

While I was incredibly surprised ("Am I really being handed a dog?"), I don't mind much. I mean, I was thinking of getting a pet anyway. He's small and cute, and I like dogs.

At any rate, for the time being, I'm keeping him off the tatami, to make sure he's potty trained and generally well-behaved. Tomorrow I'll have to get dog food, a collar and leash, and some dog shampoo. I also need to think of a name for him.

Oh, Japan!

In a much lighter note from my previous post, I'm starting a Post Series entitled "Oh, Japan!" for all those moments when Japan shows it's truly wacky colors.

This gem showed up on my desk at school one morning. During the morning meeting, we were shown a demonstration video. Despite my ardently whispered wishes, there was no actual demonstration.

The latest in Japanese self-defense technology. The device loos like an unwieldy flashlight.

 

 

 

 

 

First Offense

I didn't think it would happen, but I have been seriously offended/hurt by the culturally influenced actions of Japanese people. It's not a big deal, really, but it did hurt.

There's an English recitation contest coming up in late October for the middle school students. My understanding is that, as the neighborhood native English speaker, I'm supposed to help the students practice for it. No problem. As long as I know when they're going to practice.

This is where the offended part comes in. The two English teachers met with the students and discussed with each other when they should practice. They decided on after school and during recess. They then discussed whether or not to tell me about the practice. There's a Japanese word that approximately means "shy in regards to imposing on someone's time". Basically, they chose not to tell me about the practice because they thought I would be too busy to help.

AAAAAAHRRRRGH!@)(UTWHih  Let me just say, that I am definitely not too busy. Maybe they've failed to notice my habit of doing origami at school, a general result of boredom from not knowing what to do. Both teachers are always so busy, and it's my job to help them, but even when I ask them, they only give me small pieces of information about what they're doing or what I can help with. Because I don't speak Japanese yet, I'm almost entirely dependent on what they tell me.

Secondly, I was really looking forward to helping the students with the speech contest. I had been thinking of verbal warm-ups, pronunciation quirks, and general fun ways to make speaking English a little more entertaining. I even asked Yanase sensei when they would be practicing, and only managed to get unintelligible non-answers from her.

So for them to deliberately not tell me when practice would be really hurt me. It's basically the one project/activity where I have the highest authority. I even feel a little bit possessive about this. I want the kids to do well and have fun while they do it. And to find out that the teachers weren't even going to give me the chance to help out.... OMFG!!!! It hurts! It feels like they're preventing me from doing a good job, preventing me from doing something that I want to do and that I'm supposed to do. At least give me a chance! I felt so helpless and useless and offended and unnecessary and unwanted.

How did I find out about all of this? I accidentally walked in on one of the practice sessions. That felt like betrayal. Like a weird English class love affair. It was during recess, too. I could've been told about this! I don't have anything to do during recess (and I refuse to sit in the office - that's boring)!

This whole incident made me really sad. It's the first time I've felt so sharply the effects of not speaking the language. It hit home how truly helpless I am. Maybe I just need to get up in people's faces a little more, but that's not really me nor is it very Japanese. I think for now I will settle with making it abundantly clear to the teachers how I feel about this.